Corax

Corax

Donald Trump continues to flirt with the idea of ​​a third term and starts selling hats with text Trump 2028, has previously said that he is seriously considering running in the next presidential election and that many have asked him to do so

World

Donald Trump says Volodymyr Zelensky harms peace negotiations by saying Ukraine would not recognise Russian control of Crimea, writes on Truth Social that a deal to end the war was very close but that Zelensky's refusal will do nothing but prolong the conflict
World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab steps down from the board after 54 years, 80-year-old Austrian Vice Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe unanimously appointed as chairman ad interim and a search committee has been established for the selection of a future chair
Pope Francis dead at 88 on Easter Monday, was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia in February and spent 38 days in hospital before he returned to his Vatican residence
China raises its levies on US goods to 125% from 84%, US tariff rate on Chinese imports now at 145%, China reiterates it will continue to resolutely counter-attack and fight to the end, Chinese President Xi Jinping says in a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez that there is no winner in a tariff war
Donald Trump announces a complete three-month pause on all reciprocal tariffs except on China where they will be increased to 125%, says the decision is based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World's markets and that the country will realize that the days of ripping off the US and other countries is no longer sustainable or acceptable
EU offers the US a zero-for-zero tariff scheme for industrial goods to avoid a trade war, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says Europe is always ready for a good deal but adds that they are also prepared to respond through countermeasures
China imposes 34% retaliatory tariff on all goods imported from the US following Washington's decision to impose 34% of additional reciprocal levies on China, implements export controls on seven types of rare earth-related items and files a formal complaint against the US with the World Trade Organization, Donald Trump comments on Truth Social that China has played it wrong and panicked
Donald Trump says US will 100% annex Greenland, adds that there is good possibility that they can do it without military force but that he doesn't take anything off the table, comments that he doesn't think about what message the annexation will send to for instance Russia as Greenland is a very separate and different subject concerning international peace and security
The Trump administration warns European companies that DEI programs are banned if they want to keep their US government contracts, sends out questionnaire ordering the companies to certify their compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws
Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff says Ukraine has agreed to organize presidential elections, adds that a peace deal would include Ukraine not being able to be a NATO member but that it is open for discussion to add the country to security guarantees similar to the alliance's Article 5 collective defense clause

Miscellaneous

Poland's digital affairs ministry says it will rename a recently launched government service as its acronym KURDE spells a commonly used euphemism for the swearword "kurwa", the petitioner writes that the phrase even officially appears in the PWN Dictionary of the Polish Language
Colossal squid filmed in the ocean for the first time since the species was discovered 100 years ago, the 30cm-long juvenile was caught on camera at 600m depth near the South Sandwich Islands in the south Atlantic Ocean by a team of scientists, experts believe the colossal squid can grow up to 7m in length and weigh up to 500kg which makes them the heaviest invertebrate on the planet
Transsexual Harriet Haynes beats transsexual Lucy Smith in the final of the Ultimate Pool Women's Pro Series Event 2 in Wigan, former US college swimmer Riley Gaines who has long debated the topic comments that it is a real life South Park episode and congratulates Mr. Haynes as the better cheat
USA Fencing disqualifies Stephanie Turner for removing her mask and taking a knee instead of competing against transgender Redmond Sullivan, the organization comments that they will always err on the side of inclusion, Turner comments that as a woman fencing in a women's tournament she does not believe she should be facing men and that she was not aware Mr Sullivan was registered until the night before the tournament
Boxing legend George Foreman dead at 76, won an Olympic gold medal in 1968 and was a two-time heavyweight champion, lost the historic Rumble in the Jungle bout with Muhammad Ali in 1974 in Zaire but became the oldest champion ever in 1994 at 45 years and 299 days of age when he knocked out Michael Moorer, was also known for his grill which sold more than 100 million units worldwide and to which he sold the commercial rights in 1999 for USD 138 million
American fast-food chain Steak 'n Shake announces that they will RFK their fries by frying them in beef tallow, says the fries are so much better that no one will be going back after trying them, Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has been a vocal beef tallow advocate and has repeatedly argued against seed oils stating that they contribute to rising obesity rates
Australian James Harrison dead at 88, was known as the man with the golden arm as his blood plasma containing the rare antibody Anti-D saved the lives of 2.4 million babies, donated plasma between 18 and 81 years of age and held the world record for most blood plasma donated between 2005 and 2022
US Fish and Wildlife Service publishes list of five invasive creatures to hunt and eat as a way to protect native species, nutria tops the list before northern snakehead fish, green iguana, several species of invasive carp and feral hogs, comments that some of the biggest ecological nightmares are critters that don't belong here
Gene Hackman dead at 95, won Best Actor Oscars for The French Connection and Unforgiven, was found dead in his New Mexico home along with his dead wife Betsy Arakawa and their dead dog, foul play not expected, leaves behind three children
Father in Nebraska struggling to correct his daughter Caroline's name and get her social security number, the 2-year-old girl who spent more than a year in foster care as her mother was deemed unfit has the term "for government use only" on her birth certificate which keeps him from getting her insurance and is registered under the name Unakite Thirteen Hotel which the father says is a computer-generated name from the state

Media

Former British PM Liz Truss announces she will launch an uncensored social media platform, warns that the deep state and mainstream media are stifling freedom of expression like in the Soviet Union and that a grassroots movement that is actually really demanding change is needed
Voice of America which delivers news from an American perspective to foreign countries terminates its contracts with The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse, VOA director Kari Lake says the contracts were expensive and unnecessary, adds that they should produce their own news using their billion-dollar budget and that the American taxpayer should demand to know why if that would turn out not to be possible
The White House comments CNN:s fact check on Donald Trump's quote that the Biden administration spent USD 8 million on making mice transgender, writes that "The Fake News losers at CNN immediately tried to fact check it, but President Trump was right (as usual)", lists the six projects that sum up to USD 8.29 million
The Israeli army launches a Turkish-language X account with a cover photo featuring Israeli soldiers saluting the flags of both Turkey and Israel, the account creation follows Israel lobbying the US to ensure Syria remains weak including allowing Russia to retain its military bases there in an effort to counter Turkey's growing influence in the region
BBC apologizes and admits unacceptable flaws in the documentary Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone about children's life in Gaza after it emerged that the 13-year-old narrator is the son of Hamas's deputy minister of agriculture, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy says it is critical for trust in the BBC that a comprehensive and rigorous review happens quickly and that appropriate action is taken
Jeff Bezos says Washington Post's opinion section will focus on personal liberties and free markets, adds that they will of course also cover other topics but that but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others, Opinion Editor David Shipley steps away from the newspaper
Brazil orders ban of right-leaning video platform Rumble, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes says the platform has repeatedly and willingly not complied and for instance refused to take down Brazilian conservative Florida-based journalist Allan dos Santos' channel, Rumble which earlier this week along with Trump Media & Technology Group sued Moraes for infringing on the free speech protections of the First Amendment of the US constitution comments that the Brazilian censorship is unprecedented
AP sues three Trump administration citing freedom of speech regarding losing access to presidential events for not using the term Gulf of America, AP comments that the press and all people in the US have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says they will see them in court
The White House posts video on X showing illegal immigrants being deported and jingling handcuffs titling it "ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight", mixed reception for the post that got six million interaction and 6,000 retweets within two hours, Elon Musk retweets the post writing "Haha Wow"
TikTok shuts down in the US after the Supreme Court upheld a law passed in April preventing American companies from hosting or serving TikTok content unless it sells itself to a buyer from the US or one of its allies, the company says that Donald Trump has indicated working on a solution and Trump has also said he will most likely delay the ban for 90 days, the TikTok app has been used by 170 million Americans

Politics

Donald Trump continues to flirt with the idea of ​​a third term and starts selling hats with text Trump 2028, has previously said that he is seriously considering running in the next presidential election and that many have asked him to do so
World Economic Forum launches investigation into Klaus Schwab after whistleblower accuses him of using the organization's resources for personal affairs, Schwab who the day before resigned as chairman denies the allegations and intends to file a lawsuit against the anonymous whistleblower and anybody who spreads the allegations
Canada's Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre says that voters shouldn't think that just because of Mark Carney's banker's haircut and blue socks that he is any different from Justin Trudeau, adds that Carney is not a businessman but a political grifter, Carney, who is leading in the polls, responds that Poilievre doesn't have any experience in crisis management
Polish team lead by billionaire Rafał Brzoska tasked by Prime Minister Donald Tusk submits its first 111 proposals on how to cut bureaucracy, the suggestions which were chosen among over 13,000 ideas and public voting are planned to start being implemented within 100 days
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defends Vice President JD Vance's speech at the Munich Security Conference, says Europe has been sacrificed on the altar of wokeness, bureaucracy and mercantilism and adds that Vance discussed deeper issues such as identity and freedom of speech, adds that we would live in a stronger Europe if those who were outraged had showed the same pride when Europe lost its strategic autonomy, tying its economy to autocratic regimes, or when European borders and our way of life were threatened by mass illegal migration
Friedrich Merz declares victory in the German snap election where his CDU/CSU finished first with a projected 29%, right-wing Alternative for Germany in second place with 20% ahead of center-left SPD with 16% which is the party's worst performance since it adopted its current name in 1890, AfD's chancellor candidate Alice Weidel calls the result a historic success and adds that she is open to participating in a coalition government with CDU/CSU although Merz has ruled that out
83-year-old Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell says he will not seek reelection, was first elected in 1986 and was the Senate's top Republican leader for 18 years, says representing the Kentuckian commonwealth seven times has been the honor of a lifetime but that he will not seek the honor an eighth time
Young voters drive the rise of Germany's right-wing AfD party which is expected to be the second largest party in Sunday's election, hundreds of young people line up in the eastern city of Suhl to listen to the party's extremist-designated Thuringia section leader Björn Höcke, 26-year-old Dante Reidel who says he idolizes Höcke and that his ideology represents Prussian virtues like diligence and discipline as well as cardinal virtues from antiquity
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius criticizes US Vice President JD Vance's claim that freedom of speech is in retreat in Europe, says it is not acceptable to accuse Germany or Europe of not being real democrats and adds that he's deeply convinced that the democracies are even more stable than ever before and that everybody is allowed to say his opinion wherever and whenever he wants
The EU Parliament's third largest political group Patriots for Europe holds summit under the slogan "Make Europe Great Again", calls EU corrupt and anachronistic and says that sovereignty is making a strong comeback, that the excessive bureaucracy is a cage that limits national control, that irregular migration drains Europe's finances and that the EU's environmental policies are suicidal for industry – Viktor Orbán, Marine Le Pen och Geert Wilders among the participants at the summit which sent a clear message of optimism for Donald Trump's return

Opinion

Hungary passes amendment to the constitution with 140 votes for and 21 against that allows the government to ban public events by LGBTQ communities, the amendment declares that children's rights to moral, physical and spiritual development supersede the right to peacefully assemble, opposition politicians attempted to blockade the entrance to a parliament parking garage and used air horns to disrupt the vote
Bronze Age Pervert: The CIA supported more leftist regimes than it overthrew, played into the hands of Soviet Union and primarily sought to subvert European rule in Africa, first article out of three in series on US role in the decolonization of Africa
Nathan Halberstadt: The big three management consulting companies BCG, McKinsey and Bain all at the forefront of pushing DEI and similar left wing projects as it's been a major source of income as well as a way to appear morally superior, they must be pressured by the new administration to change course since they will never do so voluntarily, at the same time young ambitious Americans should stop lending their minds to the rotten legacy insitutions of the master class, wasting their lives creating yet another KPI-dashboard, instead they should strive to build a new future
Jayant Bhandari: India is about to return to its original state of corrupt, power-hungry sadism, the last remaining pieces of civilisation built by missionaries and the English will soon wither away, what's left is only a cargo-cult like adherence to Western values which still seems to fool many Westerners
William L. Anderson: Austrian economics explains WNBA's hostility towards white heterosexual star player Caitlin Clark – as the league constantly loses money and survives on subsidies, the loss from driving her out of the league would not cost much in compensation
Robert McGreevy: According to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability's report, the US federal government sent nearly USD 200 billion in Covid-19 relief programs to potentially fraudulent actors and allowed criminal networks to submit fraudulent claims and launder illicit funds with minimal oversight, resulted in the single largest transfer of money to criminal groups in our history where transnational criminal organizations in for instance China, Russia, Nigeria and Romania systematically exploited the benefits
EU's health ministers agree on recommending bans on smoking and vaping in many outdoor areas including cafe patios and beaches, all countries voted in favour apart from Germany and Greece which abstained, EU Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi comments that the agreement is a crucial step towards the goal of a tobacco-free generation in Europe
Peter Thiel: Humanity stands on the brink of apocalypse when modern technologies such as AI and nuclear weapons risk leading to a real Armageddon and pave way for the Antichrist in the form of a global state whose rule is justified by a need to control technology [video]
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy: Recent Supreme Court decisions make clear that numerous regulations are unconstitutional because they were not enacted by Congress, we will help Donald Trump identify such regulations so that he can immediately repeal them, this will also cause severe cuts to agencies and major cost savings
Jeff Bezos: Media fails to be seen as credible and is considered by most to be biased, it would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing decline in credibility but victim mentality does not help and I will not allow the Washington Post fade into irrelevance so changes are now needed for us to win this fight

Europe

Keir Starmer's official spokesman says that the prime minister does not believe transgender women are women, follows the UK Supreme Court ruling last week that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law and differs from his quote in 2022 that it was not just his view but law that transwomen are women
40-year-old German palliative care doctor Johannes M accused of killing at least 15 of his patients in Berlin, 390 cases reviewed and apart from the 15 indictments another 75 cases are still being examined, allegedly dosed his patients with an anesthetic in combination with a muscle relaxer to spark paralysis of their respiratory systems and is also accused of in some instances starting fires in the patients' homes to cover up the murders
Vladimir Putin on Saturday declares Easter truce in the Ukraine war, says they assume that the Ukrainian side will follow the example but that the troops are ready to repel provocations and aggressive actions, Volodymyr Zelensky writes on X that the drones in the Ukrainian skies reveal Putin's true attitude
Muslim students account for 41.2% of all pupils in Vienna's primary and secondary schools up from 39.4% last year, Christian pupils account for 34.5% and 23% declare no religious affiliation, Vienna's City Councillor for Education Bettina Emmerling proposes compulsory primary school subject Living in a Democracy to counter the trend where young Muslims in the city are not only more religious but also more critical of Jews as well as LGBTQ and gender equality
The UK supreme court issues a definite ruling that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act refer only to a biological woman and to biological sex, the judgment can have far-reaching ramifications and lead to greater restrictions on the access for trans women to services and spaces reserved for women, the case was brought to the supreme court by the JK Rowling-backed gender-critical campaign group For Women Scotland
Several French prisons attacked during the night to Tuesday, vehicles torched and one instance of automatic fire, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin links the attacks to the French intensified anti-drug gang strategy
UK takes control of Chinese-owned British Steel after emergency legislation was rushed through Parliament in a single day after the first Saturday sitting in over 40 years, Prime Minister Keir Starmer hails the legislation for turning the page on a decade of decline, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds says the measures were proportionate and necessary to protect UK's primary steelmaking capacity and 3,500 jobs as Jingye had failed to negotiate in good faith and adds that full nationalization is a likely option for the future
Finland announces it pulls out of the Ottawa Convention global landmine treaty, follows similar decisions from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia lately, also plans to ramp up the percent of GDP spent on defense from the current 2.4% to 3% by 2029
French right-wing politician Eric Zemmour fined EUR 10,000 for contesting crimes against humanity by saying during a TV debate in 2019 that World War II leader Philippe Pétain had saved French Jews, Zemmour who was knocked out in the first round of the 2022 presidential elections and has several hate speech convictions was cleared in lower courts as Pétain was never convicted of crimes against humanity but the top appeals court overturned his acquittal and ruled that the alleged remarks might still constitute an offense
Marine Le Pen banned from running in the next French presidential election after being convicted of embezzlement, case concerns EUR 4 million paid by the European Parliament to the party's employed assistants

North America

Canada's Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre promises to scrap the federal government's ban on single-use plastics and bring back plastic straws and disposable grocery bags, the ban was introduced in 2022 but overturned in 2023 by the Federal Court which called it unreasonable and unconstitutional before the Federal Court of Appeal in 2024 allowed the ban to continue while the government continues its appeal
The US education department freezes USD 2.3 billion in federal funds to Harvard University after it rejects the White House's demands to crack down on antisemitism and shut down DEI programs, University President Alan Garber comments that the government's demands are a political ploy, Barack Obama writes that Harvard has set an example rejecting an attempt to stifle academic freedom and hopes other institutions follow suit
US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr tasks HHS to launch a massive testing and research effort regarding why autism diagnoses have increased from 1 in 150 children in 2000 to 1 in 36 children in 2020, promises results by September
DOGE updates its taxpayer savings to USD 150 billion representing about USD 1,000 per taxpayer, has uploaded receipts for 30% of total savings on the website and is working to upload all of them, most savings generated by the Department of Health and Human Services
7,180 apprehensions of illegal border crossers entering the US from Mexico in March down from historic low 8,327 in February and 95% down from March 2024, US Customs and Border Protection comments that the message is clear regarding that the border is closed to illegal crossings and those still willing to test the resolve will be prosecuted and deported
Growing number of illegal immigrants being smuggled out ot US by coyotes, legal deportation entails detention and a 10 year entry ban as well as lost possessions which the migrants hope to avoid
Utah becomes the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water with similar measures being considered in Florida, Ohio and South Carolina, the move follows water fluoridation skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr being sworn in as health secretary and debate regarding possible risk to the intellectual development of children, the American Dental Association criticizes the law as being based on distorted pseudoscience and says the policy of adding fluoride is a proven public health policy which exists for the greater good of an entire community’s oral health
59-year-old Mark Carney sworn in as Canada's new prime minister, was formerly head of the Bank of Canada as well as the Bank of England but has no former party political experience, says protecting Canadian workers and their families in the face of unjustified trade actions and growing the economy will be his top priorities
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that some 5,200 of USAID's 6,200 programs have been eliminated and that the review officially ends, says that tens of billions of dollars were spent in ways that did not serve and in some cases harmed the US core national interests, adds that the State Department will administer the remaining programs
Washington DC renames Black Lives Matter Plaza and paints over the yellow text covering the street, the decision follows a bill from Republican Andrew Clyde that would force a renaming and the text to be covered, Mayor Muriel Bowser says the mural inspired millions of people and helped the city through a very painful period but that focus must now be on economic growth and public safety

Latin America

Brazil raises the legal age for transgender people to receive hormone therapy from 16 to 18 years, also raises the minimum age for sexual reassignment surgery that involves a potentially sterilising effect from 18 to 21 years and bans the prescription of puberty blockers for children or adolescents with gender dysphoria
Brazil builds 13-kilometer four-lane highway through the protected Amazon rainforest to ease traffic for the expected 50,000 COP30 climate summit attendees, the state describes the project as a sustainable highway with bike lanes and solar lighting, other developments for the summit include airport expansion and port redevelopment
Cuban government offices in the city of Caibarién only service people who bring their own power generators due to the constant blackouts, employee at the state-owned BPA bank says the measure is duly consulted and authorized by the higher authorities
Cuba's population decreases by 307,436 people during 2024 to 9,748,532 inhabitants after the lowest birthrate recorded in the country in the past six decades, Cuba has been unable to achieve a 2.1 fertility rate since 1977 and more than a quarter are 60 years old or older, more than 90% of the population is estimated to be living in extreme poverty
Argentina's president Javier Milei orders the country's withdrawal from the World Health Organization, spokesperson Manuel Adorni says the decision is based on profound differences in health management especially during the Covid-19 pandemic and that the country will not allow an international organization to intervene in its sovereignty and much less in its health
Argentina's President Javier Milei doubles down on statements made at the WEF Forum in Davos against feminism and the LGBTQIA+ community, tells them to not get in the way and calls extreme gender ideologues pedophiles, writes on X that the world elites' ideology under the guise of good intentions and well-crafted rhetoric aims to impose an agenda whose only consequence is the infinite expansion of the state and the death of freedom
Colombia walks back decision to ban US military flights carrying deported migrants from landing in the country after being threatened with punitive tariffs, President Gustavo Petro who at first was threatening Colombian tariffs on US goods says they have agreed to accept migrants without limitation or delay
Chile's President Gabriel Boric visits Antarctica along with his defense minister to reaffirm his country's claim to sovereignty in the area, is the first Latin American leader to visit the south pole, the US state department says seven countries maintain territorial claims in the area but that US and most other countries instead recognize the Antarctic Treaty
Guatemalan and Salvadoran security forces arrive in Haiti to join fight against the rampant gang violence, will reinforce the US- and UN-backed initiative Multinational Security Support where they work with the Haitian police helmed by Kenyan police officers
Venezuela's government announces USD 100,000 reward for information on the whereabouts of opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González, González in Spanish exile after the election where the opposition claim election fraud and has shown that tally sheets from the voting machines show they won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro, González' campaign announces international tour starting with meeting President Javier Milei in Argentina

Asia

Japan imports rice from South Korea for the first time since 1999, rice prices roughly doubled since last year in the country and has increased 15 weeks in a row, the government released 230,000 tons from its rice reserves in March of which only 0.3% reached stores by the end of the month which the agriculture ministry explains with a shortage of delivery vehicles and the time needed to prepare the grain for sale
At least 26 killed and several injured after terrorist attack against tourists in Indian Pahalgam during Tuesday afternoon, offshoot of the Pakistan-based Salafist terror group Laskhar-e-Taiba claims responsibility for the attack where picknicking and pony-riding tourists in an area nicknamed Mini-Switzerland were shot and Hindu men were forced to recite an Islamic call to prayer before they were killed
Hong Kong's oldest and largest pro-democracy political party The Democratic Party disbands after 30 years following warnings from Chinese government officials, the party is widely seen as moderates willing to work with Beijing and analysts say the move shows the Chinese unwillingness to allow even the mildest of dissenting voices to be heard in Hong Kong
Japan's Supreme Court overturns verdict and rules that a 58-year-old bus driver in Kyoto losing his USD 84,000 pension due to being fired for stealing USD 7 from passengers' fares is not excessive, states that the man's conduct could undermine public trust in the system and the sound operation of the bus service
Japan's population drops for the fourteenth year running, the non-foreign population dropped by record 898,000 and the population including foreigners fell by 550,000 people to 123.8 million, Tokyo and neighboring Saitama the only of 47 prefectures with population increases
Chinese authorities urges residents weighing less than 50kg to stay home to avoid being blown away in orange-level storm alert with winds up to 150 kph, gusts reaching level 13 out of 17 in northern part of the country, uprooting trees and damaging vehicles
At least 16 Maoist rebels killed by Indian security forces in Chhattisgarh in escalating action against the decadeslong Naxalite rebellion where more than 10,000 people have been killed, Home Minister Amit Shah writes on X that they have recovered a massive cache of automatic weapons and vows to eradicate Naxalism before the 31st of March 2026
Two killed and several injured in Kathmandu as monarchy activists clash with police, Nepal officially abolished the monarchy in 2008 two years after King Gyanendra Shah was ousted due to his coup d'état but there has been a growing demand in recent months for him to be reinstated as king and Hinduism to be brought back as a state religion
At least 154 dead and the death toll is expected to rise in Myanmar and Thailand after 7.7 magnitude earthquake with epicenter near Myanmar's second-largest city Mandalay and aftershocks of up to 6.4 magnitude
Increased debate regarding independence on the Micronesian Chuuk islands in response to the Trump administration's geopolitics, the islands are strategically important as they allow for vast control of the Pacific and they get million of dollars each year from allied US, former Chuuk State attorney general Sabino Asor says he thinks the islands are too dependent on the US and that it is ony a matter of of time before the US special relationship is unceremoniously axed, adds that being clustered in Micronesia has its advantages but that the islands do not always share the same priorities

MIDDLE EAST

Africa

54 Benin soldiers killed in attack by al-Qaeda-linked Jnim near the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger during last week, several jihadist groups operating in the Sahel region where the governments struggle to contain the insurgency which is also spreading to Benin and Togo to the south
The Sudanese army seizes control of the presidential palace in Khartoum that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized in April 2023, has long been on the back foot but has recently made gains and retaken territory in the centre of the country, RSF says it has seized a key base from the army in the western North Darfur region where they have consolidated control and sets up a parallell government, the army says they are moving forward along all fighting axes until victory is complete by cleansing every inch of the country from the filth of this militia
The M23 rebels capture the strategic Congolese town of Walikale and say the Democratic Republic of Congo's and Rwanda's call for an immediate ceasefire does not concern them, the rebels are now within 400 km of Congo's fourth-biggest city Kisangani and repeat an earlier vow to march to Kinshasa
The Congo River Alliance including the M23 rebels pull out of peace talks, say EU sanctions earlier in the day against Rwandan officials and M23 undermine talks, were to meet the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Angola for direct negotiations
70 Christians kidnapped and beheaded in a Protestant church in the Democratic Republic of Congo town of Kasanga, IS-linked Ugandan group Allied Democratic Forces suspected to have beheaded the victims with machetes
Uganda military chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba says during Saturday that Uganda will attack the town of Bunia in neighbouring eastern Congo unless all forces there surrender their arms within 24 hours, said earlier during the day that the Bahima ethnic group is being killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and that no one on this earth can kill his people and not suffer for it, UN experts say Uganda has backed the Tutsi-led M23 rebels and Kainerugaba has referred to them as brothers
Rwandan-backed M23 rebels seize key DRC airport in Kavumu after a rapid southern advance in recent days, the airport was the last last military obstacle to the rebels before South Kivu province capital Bukavu 27 km to the south
Donald Trump signs executive order to cut financial assistance to South Africa due to the country's unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners and offers the group asylum, adds that South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the US and its allies including accusing Israel rather than Hamas of genocide, South Africa comments that it is a campaign of misinformation and propaganda
Weeklong Puntland offensive against the Islamic State results in 250 square kilometres captured including 50 bases since December 31 and at least 85 IS terrorist killed in battles over the past two days, Puntland's Information Minister Mohammed Aided says there was no coordination on the operations with the federal government in Mogadishu and calls for foreign support in the international war on terror
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa contacts Elon Musk hoping to calm a row regarding Donald Trump threatening to cut all future funding to South Africa over new land law which Trump says is confiscating land and "treating certain classes of people very badly", Musk also asked on X why Ramaphosa has "openly racist ownership laws",

Economy

Apple airlifted 600 tons of iPhones from India to US in three days during the final week of March to avoid the Trump administration's announced tariffs, the company is analyzing how different tariff structures across manufacturing locations affect the supply chain
Arla Foods and DMK Group announce intention to merge under the Arla name to create the strongest dairy cooperative in Europe with more than 12,000 farmers and a combined pro forma revenue of EUR 19 billion, Arla Foods CEO Peder Tuborgh comments that the joint market presence ensures stable food production in Europe, the merger is subject to approval from the Board of Representatives in the cooperatives as well as regulatory approval
White House says tariffs on China will rise to at least 104% on Wednesday on top of tariffs that were in place prior to Trump's second term, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says China made a mistake by choosing to retaliate and try to double down on their mistreatment of American workers and that President Trump has a spine of steel and will not break
Volvo Cars CEO Jim Rowan leaves the company effective immediately, 74-year-old Håkan Samuelsson who served as CEO of the company between 2012 and 2022 will serve a two-year term while the group prepares to appoint a long-term successor, the move follows a statement from the company that 2025 will be a tumultuous and competitive year during which it might struggle to match its 2024 sales performance and profitability
Elon Musk says xAI merges with X in a transaction that values the AI company at USD 80 billion and the social media company at USD 33 billion, says the merger will unlock immense potential by blending xAI's advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach
Ben & Jerry's sues parent company Unilever after the CEO David Stever was removed without consulting an advisory committee from the Ben & Jerry's board, says Unilever has repeatedly threatened personnel including Stever for political activism
Cryptocurrency industry leaders meet with Donald Trump in the White House after Thursday's executive order creating a strategic reserve of cryptocurrency for the US following his vision of making the country the crypto capital of the world, Trump comments that there are high-IQ individuals around the table and that they feel like pioneers
European defence stocks soar during Monday, British BAE Systems rose 15%, German Rheinmetall 14% and French Thales as well as Italian Leonardo gained 16%, shares in aerospace companies with significant defence revenues such as Airbus and Safran also rose while Rolls-Royce gained 4% to a record high
BP announces it will cut its renewable energy investments and instead focus on increasing oil and gas production, the move comes as rivals Shell and Equinor also scale back plans to invest in green energy, CEO Murray Auchincloss says the transition away from fossil fuels has gone too far and too fast and adds that the faith in green energy has been misplaced
Apple invest USD 500 billion in the US over four years, says the investment will create 20,000 jobs, Donald Trump who recently held a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook attributes the investment to his tariffs and says a lot of chip makers and a lot of automakers are also returning to the US

Technology

The UK government is developing a programme which it hopes can use personal data to identify the people most likely to become killers, the government comments that only data about people with at least one criminal conviction has been used and that the project at this stage is for research only
Commercial company Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lunar lands on the moon, comments that the lander is in an upright and stable position which makes it the first commercial company in history to achieve a fully successful moon landing as Intuitive Machines' IM-1 lander tipped over during its landing in February 2024, landed near Mons Latreille in Mare Crisium which was chosen to avoid magnetic anomalies and avoid rocks
Microsoft retires Skype in favor of Teams from May, the number of Skype users decreased from 150 million monthly active users when Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 to 23 million in 2020 while Teams currently has about 320 million monthly active users, Skype users will be able to log into Teams for free using existing credentials and chats as well as contacts will be migrated automatically
Apple promises bug fix during the day as the iPhone voice-to-text for the word "racist" writes "Trump" before correcting it, says the bug has been erroneously suggesting "Trump" in response to several words that include an "r"
Apple removes its end-to-end encryption data security tool ADP from British customers after the government demanded access to user data, the company says it's gravely disappointed but that they have said many times they never built a backdoor or master key to any of its products and never will
UK demands access to Apple users' end-to-end encrypted cloud data, the data currently only available for the account holder and not even the company can view it, both Apple and the Home Office decline to comment but the company has previously said that it rather pulls the encryption services than builds back doors
Burkina Faso debuts its first 100% indigenous EV ITAOUA, is said to go 330 kilometres after 30 minutes of charging, the production plant is located in Ouaga 2000 and Burkinabe engineers are in charge of both design and manufacturing
American Boom Supersonic's XB-1 breaks the sound barrier with a speed of Mach 1.1 which is 1,358 km/h as the first independently developed jet to do so, the jet which has completed 12 successful test flights since March 2024 is the precursor to the development of the company's supersonic commercial airliner Overture, the flight was performed in Mojave where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time in 1947
Technology for lab-grown eggs or sperm on could be a reality within a decade according to UK's fertility watchdog HFEA, the board says solo parenting where the egg and the sperm are created from the same individual should be banned as a complete extreme of incest but that multiplex parenting where for instance two couples produce two embryos and cells from these embryos are used to derive eggs and sperm to create a final embryo could be allowed as it has a social precedent in the form of blended families or those who maintain a relationship with non-anonymous donors, the risks of higher-risk pregnancies in older mothers as well as someone creating huge numbers of embryos are also debated
AI tools created to automatically appeal AI-automated insurance coverage denials, ongoing class-action lawsuits in the US where Cigna is said to have denied more than 300,000 claims in a two-month period and the nH Predict algorithm used by UnitedHealth Group is said to have 9 out of 10 denials reversed upon appeal

Science

Swedish-Chinese group of scientists breeds new rice variety that reduces methane emissions by 70%, says the rice yields 8.96 tons/hectare to be compared to the world average 4.71, Swedish microbiologist Anna Schürrer who contributed to the study says rice fields cause 13% of the humanly caused methane emissions and adds that rice growers while awaiting regulatory approvals can reduce methane emissions by 60% by using intestinal parasitic worms drug oxantel on the soil
Rising scurvy incidence in France since 2015 with a 34.5% increase in hospital admissions since March 2020, largest increase among children aged 4 to 10 from low-income families, the study that was published in Lancet connects the increase to the rising food prices driven by Covid-19 as some of the children had not eaten for several days
WHO notes that five years have passed since the Covid-19 outbreak, asks China to share data regarding the virus origins as transparency is imperative both morally and scientifically
Ground squirrels observed hunting and eating vole in California, could be driven by an explosion in vole numbers with roughly seven times more voles than the 10-year average reported, squirrels are in general flexible regarding food and eat insects as well as hatchling birds but have never been seen hunting adult mammals before
Russia announces mRNA vaccine against cancer will be available to patients from early 2025, interviewed scientists say they are sceptical as there is no clinical data and there are multiple cancers
This year's Ig Nobel Prize, which is given to unusual scientific achievements, is awarded to studies that concluded that mammals can breathe through the anus, that drunk worms are slower than sober ones, that hair curls on people in the northern hemisphere generally curl in the same direction as hair curls on people from the southern hemisphere and scaring a cow every ten seconds affects its milk but having a cat on its back does not
Aging increases at the ages of 44 and 60 according to a Stanford study published in Nature Aging that examined 108 people between the ages of 25 and 75 of various races for up to seven years by taking blood samples 2-4 times a year
With moderate confidence there is link between fluoride in drinking water and children's IQ according to US government report, the addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has, according to the article, long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century as the chemical element is good for dental health
Reservoirs of liquid water 11 to 20 kilometers beneath the surface of Mars may have been found by scientists, who have analyzed four years of data collected by NASA's Mars InSight lander, if extracted to the surface the amount of liquid water found could cover the planet in a 1-2km deep ocean
The European Space Agency is creating Lego pieces of space dust from a meteorite in northwest Africa using 3D printers, the phenomenon of so-called in situ resource utilization (ISRU) is the main focus of the organization's office in Cologne, Germany and teamleader Aidan Cowley says we have to figure out how to build structures on the moon since we can't bring any materials there