Category: News

Donald Trump has told “useless” Nato to stay away from the Strait of Hormuz after the UK and France announced they would work to protect shipping “as soon as conditions allow”.
In another explosive rant, the US president, who has been heavily critical of the key alliance, once again accused it of being “useless when needed” and dubbed it a “paper tiger”.
The criticism came after Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron vowed to lead a “multinational mission” aimed at protecting ships passing through the vital waterway, which Iran has now agreed to reopen for the duration of its ceasefire with the US.
“This will be strictly peaceful and defensive, as a mission to reassure commercial shipping and support mine clearance,” the prime minister said at a gathering of world leaders in Paris on Friday.
“We invite all nations with an interest in the free flow of global trade to join us. Some have already indicated their readiness to contribute. We will take this forward with a military planning conf..

Fidel Castro’s grand-nephew tried to deliver a secret letter to Donald Trump warning that Cuba was preparing for a possible US incursion, according to a report.
Raúl Rodríguez Castro, the grandson and aide of Cuba’s former leader Raul Castro, gave a letter to a businessman in Havana in the hope that it would reach the White House, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a US official.
The letter was formatted like a diplomatic note and was emblazoned with an official Cuban seal. It proposed economic and investment agreements as well as sanctions relief for Cuba.
Roberto Carlos Chamizo González, 37, a Cuban businessman involved in private, high-end auto rentals and luxury tourism who was tasked with delivering the letter, was sent back to Havana by an agent of Miami’s Customs and Border Protection, who obtained the letter.
open image in galleryUS President Donald Trump gestures during a roundtable focused on tax cuts in Las Vegas, Nevada (Reuters)The letter followed a series of rem..

Former Virginia Lieutenant Gov. Justin Fairfax and his wife were found dead at their home in a murder-suicide Thursday morning amid going through a “messy divorce,” police said.
The 47-year-old Democrat, who served from 2018 to 2022, shot and killed his wife, Cerina Fairfax, before he shot himself shortly after midnight Thursday, Fairfax County police said at a press conference.
The couple had been “in an ongoing domestic dispute surrounding what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce,” said county police chief Kevin Davis.
“From what I understand at this early stage, [Justin Fairfax] was recently served some paperwork associated with an upcoming court proceeding. That apparently led to this incident last night,” Davis said.
Their two teenage children were at the family’s Annandale home at the time of the shootings and their son called 911, Davis added.
open image in galleryJustin Fairfax, the former lieutenant governor of Virginia, shot and killed his wife, Cerina Fairfax, at th..

Europe only has around six weeks of jet fuel supply left, an energy chief has warned, in what he fears could be “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced”.
Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, added flight cancellations will begin “soon” if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed amid the Iran war, potentially plunging summer holidays into chaos.
It comes as easyJet announced it expected a headline loss of between £540 million and £560 million before tax for the six months to the end of March, with the airline having spent an extra £25 million on jet fuel last month.
US president Donald Trump’s ongoing blockade of the strategic shipping route has held up much of the world’s oil supply in the Gulf and sent fuel prices soaring.
It has prompted fears of flight delays and cancellations for Britons as they prepare to travel for the half-term school break.
Speaking from Paris on Thursday, Mr Birol said: “In the past there was a group called ‘Dire Straits’. It’s a dire s..

Hungary’s election victor, Peter Magyar, has announced that the country’s president has confirmed his new government could assume power in the first week of May. This accelerated timeline signals a swift end to Viktor Orban’s 16-year tenure.
Following his centre-right Tisza party’s overwhelming triumph in Sunday’s election, securing a two-thirds parliamentary majority, Mr Magyar has been advocating for the transfer of power to occur as quickly as possible.
Hungarian law mandates that the inaugural session of the new parliament, responsible for electing a new prime minister, must convene no later than 12 May.
Following a private consultation with President Tamas Sulyok on Wednesday, Mr Magyar told reporters outside the presidential palace in Budapest that Mr Sulyok had assured him that Mr Magyar would be his nominee for the next prime minister, and that the inaugural session would likely be scheduled for 6 or 7 May.
“(The president) thinks, and I think everyone thinks, that it’s in the ..

House Democrats are expected to file five impeachment articles against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, including accusations of “abusing the powers of his office,” and “reckless handling of sensitive information.”
The five articles, which have a slim chance of passing this Congress, are expected to be filed Wednesday as Democrats target Hegseth after the ousting of Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary and Pam Bondi as Attorney General, Axios reports.
In the impeachment resolution obtained by the outlet, Democrats are focusing on Hegseth’s role in the war in Iran and the Signalgate scandal that embroiled the first few months of the Trump administration.
Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari, the first Iranian-American Democrat elected to Congress, is introducing the resolution, co-sponsored by eight others, including Reps. Sarah McBride of Delaware, Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Steve Cohen of Tennessee.
The Pentagon dismissed the move by Democrats and said they were merely “trying to ..

A 65-year-old woman has been charged in the decades-old “Baby Rebecca” case from April 1981.
The case was first opened when a deceased infant was discovered in a wooded area on the Valley City State College campus in North Dakota.
The girl, who would later become known as Rebecca, was found with a plastic covering over her face and her umbilical cord still attached, according to a declaration of probable cause from the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation. ​
Barnes County State’s Attorney Tonya Duffy confirmed during a press conference on April 13 that Nancy Jean Trottier had been charged in connection with the case.
According to Duffy, Trottier, from Sun Lakes, Arizona, has been handed a Class AA felony murder charge.
open image in galleryNancy Jean Trottier has been charged with murder in connection with the infamous 'Baby Rebecca' case (Stutsman County Correctional Center)Trottier had previously been interviewed in connection with the case in 2021, according to c..

Former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has been forced to answer for previously comparing President Donald Trump to Jesus during an interview with CNN.
On Monday, CNN host Kaitlan Collins asked the Georgia Republican for her thoughts on one of Trump’s latest social media posts: an AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus healing a sick man. The post drew condemnation from prominent Christian commentators and voices across the political spectrum. Trump later said he thought the image portrayed him as a doctor, not as Jesus.
Greene, who stepped down from Congress in January, unleashed sharp criticism.
“I thought that was blasphemy, and as a Christian, I was very offended,” she said. “That picture had him in a robe as Jesus is often portrayed with light coming out of his hands…I think he should apologize.”
open image in galleryFormer Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was forced to answer for previously comparing President Donald Trump to Jesus during an interview with CNN (CNN..

The US has begun a blockade of all ships entering and exiting Iranian ports after warning “all vessels” were at risk of diversion and capture.
Shortly after the blockade began at 2pm UTC, US president Donald Trump said on Truth Social: “If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED.”
US ⁠Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Monday it would enforce a blockade in the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea east of the Strait of Hormuz that would apply to all vessels, regardless of flag.
In a note to seafarers, they said that any vessel entering or departing the blockaded area without authorisation would be “subject to interception, diversion and capture”.
“The blockade will not impede neutral transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz to ⁠or from non-Iranian destinations,” it said.
They added that the blockade would encompass “the entirety of the Iranian coastline to include but not limited to ports and oil terminals”.
open image in galleryIran ha..

People poring over the crushing defeat of Viktor Orban’s government in Hungary – the most right wing in Europe – will draw the conclusions that his antipathy to the EU, closeness to Vladimir Putin, failure to address younger voters and a sense of political corruption were at the heart of his downfall.
Yet while this may be the case, all these factors were also true about Orban when he won an equally crushing victory in the 2022 election, a result which seemed to leave him untouchable.
In fact, he was arguably in a politically stronger position this time than he was in 2022, with his friend Donald Trump in the White House rather than a political enemy in Joe Biden.
He even had the US vice president JD Vance doing a last-minute cheerleading act at a rally on the eve of the poll, although polls suggest this may have hurt rather than helped.
What changed in the four years since that win, which left the opposition to his Fidesz party almost wiped out?
The truth is that the unravelling beg..