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A Chinese government spokesperson says China and the U.S. hope to reach an agreement on lowering import taxes soon

South Korea’s spy agency says it is trying to determine if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has a son

Dow Jones convicted of one count of deterring Selina Cheng from role at Hong Kong Journalist Association but cleared of second chargeA Hong Kong court has convicted the publisher of the Wall Street Journal of deterring a reporter from taking up a trade union role, in a case that raised concerns about press freedom in the city.The newspaper dismissed Selina Cheng just weeks after she was appointed chair of the Hong Kong Journalist Association (HKJA) in 2024. She was told at the time her termination was officially due to restructuring. Continue reading...

Multiple search and rescue vessels deployed after blaze off Palawan island leaves at least five dead, says coast guardA large-scale ⁠search and rescue operation ​is under way off the western Philippine island of Palawan on Thursday after a passenger ferry caught fire, killing five people and leaving ⁠scores of passengers missing.The Philippine coast guard said multiple vessels and other assets were searching for survivors as rescue teams used drift-modelling tools ⁠to identify areas where people may have been carried by currents. Continue reading...

Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba announces decision to pull out in post on X, citing tensions over ‘Harry-Meghan nonsense’Uganda is withdrawing from the Duke of Sussex’s Invictus Games, the country’s military chief has said, out of respect for King Charles amid division over the “Harry-Meghan nonsense”.Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of the Ugandan president, made the surprise announcement in a post on X on Wednesday. Continue reading...

A year after the first batch of Jeffrey Epstein investigative files was released, law enforcement agencies in at least five countries say the Justice Department still has not responded to their formal requests for help.Officials in Poland, Norway, Latvia, the United Kingdom and Germany told the Washington Post that requests for mutual legal assistance — the formal process that allows foreign investigators to obtain evidence, information and testimony from the U.S. — have gone unanswered.No charges have resulted from the files' release in the United States, but the documents exposed Epstein's relationships with influential figures worldwide, including President Donald Trump, and the revelations have prompted international investigations of the late sex offender's networks.The Justice Department disputed any suggestion it is stonewalling. "The Department of Justice has not refused to assist any jurisdiction investigating potential criminal conduct related to Jeffrey Epstein," a DOJ spokesperson told the Telegraph last month, adding that the department "remains committed to cooperating with all jurisdictions pursuing potential crimes."However, officials from those five European nations say their requests to the Trump administration have been met with silence.Poland's National Prosecutor's Office said the Justice Department has not responded to an April request.In Norway, state prosecutor Marianne Bender said her office remains in communication with DOJ officials but "they have not at this time approved the request." Latvia's state police said they have sent "several requests" and "no responses have yet been received." Britain's formal request followed informal talks that DOJ had already failed to advance, according to the Times of London, and German federal police say they remain in contact with the FBI without resolution.The stakes are highest in Norway, where three prominent figures — former diplomats Terje Rød-Larsen and Mona Juul, and former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland — face corruption charges connected to their relationships with Epstein. All deny wrongdoing. Rød-Larsen's attorney said Norwegian prosecutors have specifically sought additional records from DOJ and investigative steps involving the International Peace Institute in New York, where his client previously served as president. Bender called the lack of a U.S. response "very unfortunate for the Norwegian investigation."The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs, which processes such requests, has faced documented operational problems for years.A 2021 inspector general report found it plagued by high staff turnover, outdated technology and oversized caseloads, and a former DOJ attorney who worked in the office said such requests are "inherently complex," particularly when they involve voluminous records or contested redactions.Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers continue pressing DOJ for more transparency domestically, saying Epstein-related documents remain missing or unnecessarily redacted, even after Congress voted overwhelmingly last November to compel their release.

The prediction that this season’s El Nino will be stronger than normal has alarmed the Ecuadorian scientific community

President Donald Trump's two lead envoys for the world's toughest conflicts — Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff — are consistently misreading the wars they're sent to end by treating them like real estate negotiations, with consequences a foreign affairs expert says have already proven costly.Financial Times columnist Edward Luce argued Wednesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has largely stayed out of the Russia-Ukraine, Iran and Gaza negotiations shows he "can sense a losing bet." Trump instead favors Kushner and Witkoff, both billionaires with real estate backgrounds, whom Luce says pitch adversaries on postwar investment booms rather than addressing what those adversaries actually want."The core Kushner-Witkoff tactic is to seduce their interlocutors with the lure of postwar bonanzas," Luce writes. "Why should Ukrainians and Russians keep killing each other when they could be partnering with the U.S. to dig up critical minerals and build AI data centers?"That approach, Luce writes, fundamentally misreads the parties involved. Vladimir Putin's goal is territorial reabsorption of Ukraine, not economic partnership, while Volodymyr Zelenskyy's priority is national survival, the columnist argued. Luce pointed to the envoys' recent shuttle diplomacy, in which they visited Moscow before Kyiv and then presented Zelenskyy with tougher terms than he had already rejected, as evidence the pair's proposals have effectively echoed Kremlin positions.Luce also cited last November's 28-point peace plan, which reportedly proposed the U.S. mediate NATO-Russia disputes despite America's own NATO membership, as proof that subject-matter experts are largely absent from these negotiations.Luce's most serious claim ties the envoys' approach to the U.S. strike on Iran. Citing the Geneva nuclear talks in February, Luce argued that Witkoff and Kushner dismissed an Iranian offer they might have taken if only American nuclear experts had been present. That miscalculation contributed to Trump's decision to launch a military strike days later, Luce argued."If Trump could get today what Iran was offering earlier this year — diluting most of its fissile material under supervision — he would leap at it," Luce writes. "Which is another way of saying that Kushner and Witkoff are not giving him much value for money."On Gaza, the columnist noted that Kushner has described the territory as potentially "very valuable" real estate and suggested displacing its population in phases during reconstruction, framing a humanitarian crisis in developer's terms.Luce closed by raising conflict-of-interest concerns despite both men serving without pay, pointing to Kushner's Albania luxury villa project, which sparked protests adopting the flamingo as a symbol of resistance, and a scrapped Trump Tower deal in Serbia."'Albania is not for sale,' says the normally pro-American Albanian street," Luce concludes. "If Trump’s envoys would listen, other parts of the world are trying to tell them the same thing."