Category: World

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 ..