Category: East Asia

President Donald Trump's administration is actively impeding the growth of offshore wind projects across the United States, precisely as the industry stood on the brink of substantial expansion.
This clean energy source holds considerable promise for delivering vast amounts of power to U.S. coastlines.
Currently, three offshore wind farms are operational, with an additional three already supplying power as they complete construction or final testing phases. Despite more than 40 federal offshore wind leases being in place, the administration is reportedly repurchasing some, offering financial incentives for energy companies to abandon their offshore wind endeavors.
Trump has also implemented various other obstacles for the sector, while simultaneously prioritizing fossil fuel development.
Trump has also implemented various other obstacles for the sector, while simultaneously prioritizing fossil fuel development (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)His stance runs counter to many other coun..

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday proposed a revised budget proposal without a deficit for his last year of office and the next, laying out a $350 billion spending plan that includes little new spending but also avoids major cuts.
Newsom is eager to safeguard programs that have defined his tenure as the leader of the nation’s most populous state and one of the world’s largest economies. As he gears up for a possible presidential run in 2028, Newsom is promoting the budget as fiscally responsible because it protects California's progressive programs but also builds up the state's rainy day funds, a pointed rebuke to critics who say the state spends more than it has. The state’s spending has grown more than $100 billion since 2020, according to the legislative budget analysts.
“We’re cutting deficits. But we’re not cutting corners,” Newsom said.
Newsom can’t seek a third term and will leave office in January.
Revenues, driven mostly by the booming stock market and artifi..

Brigitte Macron shoved French president Emmanuel Macron in the face as they disembarked a plane in Vietnam last year after she allegedly discovered texts he had sent to an Iranian actress, according to a new book.
The incident went viral last year prompting speculation of a rift and subsequent denials by the couple who insisted that they were just “joking”.
However a new account suggests that the real reason behind the altercation is that the first lady was angry after she saw a text by Emmanuel to exiled Iranian-French actress Golshifteh Farahani, says Florian Tardif in Un Couple (Presque) Parfait — An (Almost) Perfect Couple.
Tardif, a political correspondent at Paris Match magazine, alleges that Mrs Macron, 73, was fearful that her husband, 48, may leave her for the actress after seeing the exchange.
open image in gallery(AFP/Getty)Farahani, 42, has denied rumours that the pair were having an affair when questioned by journalists and has said that their connection was “platonic”..

The Trump administration is suspending a requirement that foreign visitors from certain countries pay as much as $15,000 in bonds if they are confirmed World Cup ticket holders, the State Department confirmed on Wednesday.
The move offers a rare easing of immigration restrictions for fans traveling to the tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, which begins on June 11.
The bond requirement, implemented last year, targeted countries with high rates of visa overstays and other security concerns, forming part of the administration’s broader crackdown on immigration.
Travelers from 50 nations were subject to the new bond, with five of those countries – Algeria, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Tunisia – having qualified for the World Cup.
Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar stated: “The United States is excited to organize the biggest and best Fifa World Cup in history. We are waiving visa bonds for qualified fans who bought World Cu..

Hegseth won’t say if he advised Trump to attack Iran during heated hearingDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth is testifying before the House and Senate subcommittees Tuesday morning to justify President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion budget request for the U.S. military.
While the testimony is focused on the massive investment in the Defense Department, the ongoing war with Iran is likely to become a major topic. Lawmakers may also question Hegseth about drawing down the number of U.S. troops in Europe, as well as about support for the war in Ukraine.
General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is joining Hegseth.
During opening remarks, Hegseth called the budget “historic” but contended it was “fiscally responsible.”
The budget testimony comes a month after Hegseth gave a combative testimony to the House and Senate Armed Services Committee in which he accused congressional lawmakers of being “the biggest adversary.”
Ahead of Hegseth’s opening remarks, Rep. Betty McCollum ..

Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse returned to West Palm Beach to demand prosecutions from Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, steps away from where Florida prosecutors brokered the dead sex offender’s infamous “sweetheart” deal nearly 20 years ago.
An unofficial hearing with Democrats on the House Oversight Committee — only a few miles from the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate, where many survivors were introduced to Epstein — heard testimony from five women who recounted their abuse and years of failures from state and federal officials to investigate their claims or the alleged network of powerful figures connected to him.
Dani Hannah Bensky said Epstein abused her in 2004 and 2005, eight years after Maria Farmer first reported him to the FBI. When she was first subpoenaed in 2008 at age 20, no one told her she was entitled to a victims’ rights advocate or a lawyer, she told the panel on Tuesday.
“For many parts of my interview, it felt like an interrogation,” she said.
“Our entren..

Is opposition to President Donald Trump’s policies a sincere political stance or the sign of a mental health problem? He seems to believe it’s the latter.
During an Oval Office event focusing on new maternal health initiatives on Monday, the president accused Democrats who voted against his partisan spending package last year of doing so because of “Trump Derangement” and claimed the opposition “can’t even see straight” because of their alleged symptoms.
“They've got serious Trump Derangement, which actually is a disease. I'm hearing it is actually a disease. It's an honor,” Trump insisted.
The president was referring to a fake condition coined by MAGA-aligned media figures who accuse Democrats of opposing him because of what they call “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Moments afterwards, the White House official X account posted an ersatz prescription for the non-existent condition advising treatment by “trusting in Trump,” listening to the U.S. national anthem, limiting co..

President Donald Trump announced Monday his plan to reduce the 18-cent federal gas tax for an unspecified period, citing soaring U.S. fuel prices due to the Iran war.
Waiving the tax requires Congressional legislation, a body currently controlled by Trump's fellow Republicans.
“Yeah, I'm going to reduce,” Trump told reporters when asked about suspending the tax. Pressed on the duration, he stated, “till it's appropriate.”
Separately, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said on X that he is introducing legislation Monday to suspend the gas tax.
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley said on X that he is introducing legislation Monday to suspend the gas tax (AP)In March, some Democrats including Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona first proposed suspending the tax, which generates about $2.5 billion per month in road funding, until October. Since 2008, more than $275 billion – including $118 billion from the 2021 infrastructure law – has been shifted from the general fund to pa..

The acting head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has attempted to soothe public concern over the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship — which has seen 17 Americans evacuated from the vessel and seven others return to five states — saying: “This is not Covid.”
Three people died and five others have fallen ill in the outbreak which originated on the MV Hondius ocean vessel last month. Travelers were evacuated from the ship in Spain’s Canary Islands Sunday.
None of the 140 passengers who remained on board have virus symptoms, global health officials said. Hantavirus is spread when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings.
The 17Americans from the boat will be taken to the National Quarantine Unit, a secured facility on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus in Omaha. They will be “interviewed and assessed for risk,” Acting CDC Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told CNN Sunday.
“This is not Covid and we don’t want to treat it like Covid,” he said…

Twenty two British passengers on board a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak have been evacuated from the vessel off Tenerife, with most of them now flying back to the UK.
A chartered Titan Airways flight departed from the Canary Island’s south airport on Sunday evening, with the Airbus A320’s passengers to be taken from Manchester Airport to isolate at the UK’s initial Covid quarantine site.
It comes after the MV Hondius arrived in Tenerife in the early hours of Sunday, triggering an evacuation operation with passengers ferried to a port by small boat, not before medics in full PPE checked all remained asymptomatic.
Some 22 British nationals were taken to shore – with 20 getting on the repatriation flight and two dual-nationals heading elsewhere.
While they were being bussed from the port at Granadilla de Abona to Tenerife South Airport, some British passengers, clad in blue PPE, waved and gave thumbs up as they passed watching media.
For updates on the evacuation – visit our ..