White House aides feared Trump could be forced from office in wake of the Jan. 6 attack.
Anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders is on the verge of brokering a four-party coalition in the Netherlands six months after coming in first in national elections, opening the prospect that yet another European Union nation will veer toward the hard right weeks ahead of EU-wide elections. Wilders has said he does not expect to become prime minister himself, because he remains too extreme for his coalition partners, but his Party for Freedom would be the driving force in a four-party coalition. With hard right and populist parties now part of or leading a half dozen governments in the 27-nation bloc, they appear positioned to make gains in the June 6-9 EU polls.
Palestinians are marking 76 years of dispossession on Wednesday, commemorating their mass expulsion from what is today Israel, as a potentially even larger catastrophe unfolds in Gaza, where more than half a million of people have been displaced in recent days by fighting. Israel has been pressing its military operations in Rafah, a city along Gaza's southern border with Egypt, and in northern Gaza, where Hamas has regrouped. Around 450,000 Palestinians have been driven out of Rafah over the past week, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday.
Russia's Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 10 U.S.-supplied Ukrainian missiles targeting Crimea early Wednesday just as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Kyiv. The ministry said 10 U.S.-supplied Ukrainian ATACMS missiles were destroyed over the Black Sea over Crimea. Sevastopol Gov. Mikhail Razvozhayev said air defenses shot down several Ukrainian missiles over the Black Sea and near the Belbek air base.
Japan welcomed more than 3 million visitors for a second straight month in April, official data showed on Wednesday, setting the stage for a potential record year for tourism. The number of foreign visitors for business and leisure was 3.04 million last month, edging down from the monthly record of 3.08 million achieved in March, data from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) showed. Visitors from France, Italy, and the Middle East rose to record levels in April for any single month.
LOS ANGELES — The Beverly Hills-based charity founded by Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, was considered “in good standing” by the state of California on Tuesday and no longer “delinquent” on a past due payment, the attorney general’s office said.
The Philippines has sent three coast guard vessels to ensure the safety of a civilian flotilla sailing to a shoal in the South China Sea, where Manila and Beijing have been embroiled in heated stand-offs over competing claims. The three-day mission to hand out provisions for fishermen anchored at the contested Scarborough Shoal is being led by a group called Atin Ito (This is Ours), along with five commercial fishing vessels, organisers said. Around 100 smaller fishing boats will also join the initial part of the trip.
Death of activist Netiporn “Bung” Sanesangkhom following her prolonged hunger strike prompts outpouring of grief and renewed calls for justice reform in Thailand.
Asian markets wobbled Wednesday ahead of key US inflation data later in the day, with traders struggling to pick up the baton after a record performance on Wall Street.A sense of optimism on Wall Street pushed all three main indexes higher, with the Nasdaq hitting a new record and the S&P 500 coming within a whisker of its own all-time peak.
More than half of Zimbabwe's population will need food aid this year following a devastating drought that led to widespread crop failure as humanitarian organisations seek funding to save many from hunger, the country's cabinet heard late on Tuesday. About 6 million people in rural areas and 1.7 million in urban areas will require assistance, according to the Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZIMLAC). Zimbabwe is among the worst hit countries by the El Nino induced drought in Southern Africa, with Zambia and Malawi also facing food shortages this year.
As Israel keeps up its campaign against Hamas, Arab leaders are mapping out ways to support post-war Gaza, placing one major condition on their involvement: a pathway to Palestinian statehood.But with the Israel-Hamas war hobbling regional economies and spilling over into neighbouring countries, there is both urgency and opportunity.
An Air Force instructor pilot died Tuesday after the ejection seat of the plane he was in activated while the aircraft was on the ground, Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas said.
Asian stocks were mostly higher on Wednesday after a rally on Wall Street that took the Nasdaq composite index to a record high. A report Tuesday showed that prices remain stubbornly high at the wholesale level in the United States, before many price changes are passed along to consumers, with the producer price index reading for April reaching 0.5%, higher than forecast. The rate of inflation has been ticking higher in 2024, raising concerns that the Federal Reserve could have a hard time taming inflation to its goal of 2%.
New Zealand's food safety regulator on Wednesday said it is investigating possible contamination in spice products of top Indian brands MDH and Everest after they faced scrutiny in other countries. The United States and Australia have been looking into contamination after Hong Kong last month suspended sales of three spice blends of MDH and one of Everest, saying they contained high levels of a cancer-causing pesticide, ethylene oxide. In a statement to Reuters, the regulator, New Zealand Food Safety, said it is aware of the overseas recalls.
Singapore's Lawrence Wong, who becomes on Wednesday the wealthy city-state's first new prime minister in 20 years, took to Tiktok in the years before to engage with citizens, singing, playing guitar and posting on issues such as mental health. Wong is "quite conservative" and "prefers incremental over radical change", said Donald Low, a former colleague who is now a public policy specialist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. "In that sense, Lawrence as PM probably wouldn't be all that different ... the emphasis would be on continuity, rather than radical change," said Low, adding that did not expect major changes with Wong at the helm.
China's military has sailed and flown closer to Taiwan in recent weeks than it has before, and staged mock attacks on foreign vessels ahead of the inauguration of the island's next president on Monday, according to Taiwanese government reports. Taiwan will inaugurate its new president, Lai Ching-te, as Beijing ramps up military and political pressure to assert its sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan - a claim Taipei strongly rejects. Since late April an increasing number of Chinese military planes and vessels have staged drills that have alarmed Taiwan, including close approaches to the island's contiguous zone, which is 24 nautical miles (44 km) off its coast, according to two Taiwan officials and internal reports reviewed by Reuters.
Indonesian authorities seeded clouds on Wednesday, trying to prevent further rain and flash floods after deluges that hit the country's Sumatra Island over the weekend left at least 58 people dead and another 35 missing. Monsoon rains triggered a landslide of mud and cold lava from Mount Marapi, eventually causing rivers to breach their banks. The deluge tore through mountainside villages in four districts in West Sumatra province just before midnight on Saturday.
More than 100 wildfires tearing across Canada are choking the air with smoke and forcing thousands to evacuate as flames encroach on communities, including a city still haunted by a catastrophic 2016 fire dubbed “The Beast.”
It would be no surprise if the jury in Donald Trump’s first criminal trial now sees his former fixer, Michael Cohen, as a profane social media troll and vengeful liar who dreams of seeing the boss he once worshipped behind bars.
Building a Hindu temple where a violent mob razed a mosque. For India's 200 million Muslims, they highlight their waning political power in the world's largest democracy. Tensions between Hindus and Muslims in India are not new, but they have gotten worse under Modi, whose ruling Bharatiya Janata Party touts a Hindu-nationalist ideology.
Novo Holdings, the controlling shareholder of Danish obesity drugmaker Novo Nordisk, said on Wednesday it would buy a controlling stake of about 60% in Single Use Support, an Austria-based life science tools company. Novo Holdings is the investment arm of the Novo Nordisk Foundation and has 77% of voting shares in Novo Nordisk, which produces blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic. Novo Holdings CEO Kasim Kutay told Reuters in October that the huge Wegovy windfall would increase the size of deals it would do in healthcare, particularly for well-established life-science companies.
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