Month: April 2025

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Beijing has warned of retaliatory measures against countries that reach trade agreements with the United States at the expense of China’s interests, as other nations are dragged into the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

In its latest response to the steeply increased US tariffs, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that Beijing “respects all parties’ efforts to resolve their trade disputes with the US through equal consultation.” However, China will not accept any US-led trade deals that harm its interests and will “respond resolutely and reciprocally with countermeasures” to safeguard its rights and interests.

In the statement, China described the US tariffs as “unilateral bullying” in international trade, adding that “if international trade regresses to the law of the jungle where the strong prey on the weak, all countries will become victims.”

Last week, the Trump administration was reportedly planning to pressure US trading partners to limit deals with China in ongoing tariff negotiations. Countries with close trade ties to China may face so-called secondary tariffs.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi last week visited major trade partners in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia, on his first overseas trip of the year. The visit signalled “China’s renewed push to reinforce regional stability and prosperity, and its determined support for regional economic integration as global protectionism and unilateralism continue to mount,” the state news agency Xinhua reported.

Non-tariff trade tensions

The tariff war appears to have reached a peak between the US and China, as both sides have indicated no further hikes. Thus far, the US has imposed a total of 145% duties on Chinese goods, while pausing reciprocal tariffs on other nations. China responded with 125% tariffs on US goods and has said it will “ignore” any further increases, calling them a “meaningless numbers game.” Trump has also signalled that no further tariff hikes are likely, citing concerns that additional measures would stall trade between the two countries.

However, the two sides have intensified their trade tensions through non-tariff means. China recently imposed export restrictions on a wide range of critical minerals, particularly targeting the US. A few days later, Trump signed an executive order to investigate imports of critical minerals, stating: “Critical minerals, including rare earth elements, in the form of processed minerals, are essential raw materials and critical production inputs required for economic and national security.”

Adding to the escalation, the Trump administration announced fees on Chinese-built vessels docking at US ports last Friday. The decision, revealed by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), follows a one-year investigation originally launched under the Biden administration.

While President Trump has repeatedly indicated that China will approach the US to make a trade deal, there is no clear indication from Beijing that an agreement is imminent.

Euro and gold soar as haven demand surges

Trade tensions between the US and China continued to unsettle global markets during Monday’s Asian session. While most Western stock exchanges remained closed for the Easter holiday, risk aversion again dominated market sentiment. Haven assets, such as gold and the euro, soared; meanwhile, the US dollar weakened further, and US stock futures extended losses.

As of 5:50 am CEST, gold futures at COMEX had surged 1.8% to $3,389 per ounce, while spot gold rose 1.4% to $3,376 per ounce—both marking new record highs. The EUR/USD pair surpassed 1.50 for the first time since November 2021. Other haven currencies, including the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc, also strengthened significantly against the dollar.

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Douglas H. Ginsburg, it seems, was a puzzle wrapped in a paradox inside a surprise.

On Oct. 29, when President Reagan put forward his name, the 41-year old federal appeals judge was a man about whom almost nothing was known. Then, as details of his life came to light, some proved to be startlingly unexpected.

Paradoxically, the more that was learned about him, the more elusive Ginsburg became. He emerged a man whose life and record were not all of one piece. Instead, they formed a patchwork–all too human, perhaps–of actions, styles and values that did not fit smoothly together.

What eventually proved fatal to his hopes was the fact that some elements of Ginsburg’s background–particularly his use of marijuana several times while a member of the Harvard Law School faculty–seemed incompatible with his assigned role as a representative of strict traditional values, stern regard for law-and-order, anti-permissiveness and other tenets of the Reagan Administration’s credo.

Not a Darling of Left

And, if he proved to be someone outside the rigid stereotype of conservative morality, Ginsburg also turned out to be no one the liberal left could love. When the November winds of controversy began to blow, he was a man standing alone–still a figure somehow out of focus.

Who is the justice-who-might-have-been?

Warm, witty, tolerant and sympathetic, some friends call him, a man remembered for gently shepherding a friend who had been raped through the painful necessities of medical treatment, and for spending weekend after weekend reading to his young daughter when his first marriage failed.

“Soft-spoken and a little shy,” a Cambridge, Mass., neighbor remembers. “Not the kind of person who makes enemies at all,” recalls another.

Not so, insist some who remember Ginsburg bitterly from his days as head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division. To those colleagues, he is an arrogant, aloof bureaucrat–a cold ideologue so lost in abstract theories and out of touch with reality that he once suggested that his effort to slash government regulation of business was a pro bono effort on behalf of the poor and disadvantaged.

‘Brittleness to Him’

A former colleague on the Harvard Law School faculty who knew him well contends he is “a very self-constructed personality, and he skates pretty close to the line. There’s a brittleness to him that verges on phoniness.”

Similarly incongruous:

Ginsburg was portrayed by classmates as a brilliant but bookish scholar who toiled in the library at the University of Chicago Law School when others went out for beer, as someone who developed a passion for the intricate theories developed by “the Chicago school” about the economic dimensions of legal and social issues.

“During my entire career in the law,” Ginsburg said when he was being considered for a seat on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, “my principal activities have been in the service of the public interest, as opposed to personal advantage”

Yet if all that suggests an ivory-tower scholar and public servant with little interest in worldly goods, Ginsburg’s life is also marked by plunges into business ventures–leaving college to found a nationwide computer dating service, taking time from his duties on the Harvard Law School faculty to launch a bank consulting service, parlaying the modest salaries of a professor and government official into real estate and other holdings now worth more than $800,000.

Ran Afoul of Restrictions

So vigorously did Ginsburg and his partner, fellow-professor Hal Scott, pursue their bank consulting business in Cambridge during the early 1980s that they ran afoul of Harvard’s restrictions on such outside dealings and were required to stop.

There are other paradoxes:

Although he grew up and went through college and joined the Harvard faculty in the 1960s and 1970s–an era of student revolt that shook the nation–Ginsburg wore suits and ties to class and appeared totally untouched by the social and moral issues that wracked his generation–civil rights, the Vietnam War, Watergate, radical politics and the environmental movement.

So far as many of his friends can recall, he almost never discussed such matters. “The remarkable thing was that he was extremely uninvolved in all those things,” says Martha Field, a colleague on the Harvard Law School faculty.

But in the details of his personal life, Ginsburg seemed to reflect elements of that period–its unconventional, even iconoclastic attitudes, its impulse to set aside time-honored customs and ways of living.

He dabbled with marijuana, not only as a college student but much later as a teacher. He married, separated, lived for a time with the woman who would become his second wife, a medical student who–Ginsburg’s conservative supporters learned with dismay–performed several abortions during her residency at a Boston hospital.

There was also a time during his first marriage to Barbara M. deSecundy when, by her own account, she experienced a kind of identity crisis and pronounced herself dissatisfied with everything about herself.

‘I Shall Call You Claudia’

“Then I shall call you Claudia,” she says Ginsburg declared, conferring on her a name she later adopted legally. It was a gesture from the Age of Aquarius, suggesting a poignant impulse to believe that the gritty problems of life could be swept away with a romantic flourish.

If the lives of most people are a similar patchwork of impulses, styles and values, most people are not candidates for the Supreme Court, and not under the singularly demanding conditions that prevailed for Ginsburg.

Douglas Howard Ginsburg was born in Chicago on May 25, 1946, the third and last child of Maurice and Katherine Goodmont Ginsburg. His father was “a self-educated man” who “would read the encyclopedia from A to Z and then start again,” according to the nominee’s sister, Sandra Stein, but he prospered as founder of a small loan company and a mortgage firm.

The family lived in a high-rise apartment on North Lake Shore Drive, and Douglas attended private schools, graduating as valedictorian of the select Chicago Latin School.

“The funny thing about Doug Ginsburg is that no one remembers what he thought,” says Mary Ann MacFarlane, longtime secretary at Latin. “I remember a lot of kids from his class and could tell you about them, but not Ginsburg.”

Ginsburg enrolled at Cornell, in Ithaca, N. Y. “I remember him pretty well,” said Dean Rink, who lived in Ginsburg’s dormitory during his freshman year. “In comparison to him, I felt like a country boy. . . . I was always amazed at his sophistication. He was very articulate, cultured and interested in a wide variety of subjects–not just politics, but art and literature, too.”

After barely a year at Cornell, Ginsburg suddenly quit and–unsure what he wanted to do with his life–joined three Harvard undergraduates in a new computer dating venture, one of the first of its kind in the nation. Operation Match took off, grossing nearly $300,000 in its first nine months. The firm opened offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and Ginsburg moved to New York.

It was there–at an economics class at Hunter College–that he met Barbara.

Ginsburg later returned to Cornell, finished his undergraduate degree and entered the University of Chicago Law School.

If he was still a bookworm, Ginsburg by now could be intellectually aggressive, even brash, in the classroom. In an antitrust class taught by law school dean Philip Neal, Ginsburg and a classmate boldly strode to the front of the room one day to draw a graph on the blackboard and tutor the dean on law and economics.

They’re Cut Short

Amused, Neal nonetheless cut them short, saying: “If the professors of economics will return to their seats, the professor of law can continue.”

In 1975, Ginsburg joined the Harvard Law School faculty. A lanky, ascetic-looking assistant professor with a thick black beard and a curly halo of prematurely graying hair, he looked like a radical poet but was actually a retiring grind whose only diversion seemed to be going to movies in Harvard Square.

“We were in the mood of ‘let’s diversify the faculty, let’s stop being such a homogeneous place,’ ” says Richard Parker, a law professor, who was friendly with Ginsburg.

When he moved to Cambridge, Ginsburg separated from his wife; she and their 5-year-old daughter, Jessica deSecundy, lived in Washington.

Jessica–her name at birth was Jennifer Julianne Early Ginsburg but her parents renamed her soon afterward–would spend weekends with him. He doted on his daughter. Neighbors remember the two taking walks along the river and Ginsburg reading aloud to her on the roof deck of his building.

Gradually, Parker and other friends say, Ginsburg seemed to become dissatisfied at the Law School. “He was more conservative than the rest of the faculty, and he found it uncomfortable in the last several years,” said law professor Robert Clark, a friend and neighbor. He was also embittered when he was initially denied tenure, in 1979, because he was judged not to have published enough scholarly articles. He wrote a 200-page monograph on interstate banking and was awarded tenure in 1980.

Remarried in 1981

During this period, Ginsburg and deSecundy were divorced, and he became involved with his current wife, Hallee Perkins Morgan, whom he married in May, 1981. They have a daughter, Hallee.

Ginsburg left Harvard in July, 1983, to become a deputy assistant attorney general in the antitrust division of the Justice Department. He was primarily an administrator, personally appearing in court on only one case.

After a year at Justice, he moved to the Office of Management and Budget to run the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs–a stint that provoked bitter controversy and led to a congressional investigation.

The most contentious case involved the Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to eliminate new products containing cancer-causing asbestos. Ginsburg and his aides blocked the move.

What OMB analysts did was assign a value of $1 million to a life saved, then “discounted” that amount because a person exposed to asbestos would not die of cancer for 20 to 30 years. In one calculation, OMB concluded that the net value of human life should be figured at $22,500.

“He was a proponent of the most callous regulatory approach imaginable,” charges David Vladeck, who battled OMB as a lawyer at the Public Citizen Litigation Group.

Ginsburg and his staff also derailed a scheduled EPA regulation on toxic chemical leaks from underground storage tanks, a decision that was angrily overturned by a federal judge. And without any publicity, his office squelched a planned Public Health Service study of the impact of federal budget cuts on infant mortality.

Admired for Ability

The Douglas Ginsburg who joined the Justice Department from Harvard in 1983 was admired both for his ability and for his deft manner during a time when the new Reagan philosophy of unfettering business was producing drastic changes in the antitrust division.

But in September, 1985, when he returned to the antitrust division from OMB not as junior executive but as chief executive of the entire division, Ginsburg by many accounts–although by no means all–was a changed man.

The top-heavy division needed pruning, but there is enormous bitterness over the way Ginsburg got rid of senior career officials: by surprise, in his first week, without staff advice or consent.

“The fact is, he had to make some very tough calls. . . . Doug is one of the most civil human beings I’ve ever known,” says Charles F. Rule, his successor in the post.

Ginsburg’s detractors, however, accuse him of having “had a vision of himself in a black robe;” of having “had one agenda, and that was Doug Ginsburg.”

The Rockets, seeded second in the play-offs, endured a disappointing end to the regular season with three successive defeats and have lost back-to-back games at home.

Ime Udoka’s side are featuring in the play-offs for the first time since 2019-20, when they lost against the Los Angeles Lakers in the semi-finals.

“I wouldn’t say the moment, I would say the physicality at times, going after guys, and just play-off basketball,” Udoka said when asked if a lack of experience cost his side.

“It’s not really about the moment. Going into the lane, trying to shoot over too many and not finding your outlets is a big thing and a big key for us all year.”

Elsewhere, the Cleveland Cavaliers sealed a 121-100 win against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference play-offs.

Donovan Mitchell scored 30 points with Ty Jerome adding 28 points and Darius Garland scoring 27.

Jerome, who picked up 16 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter, was making his play-off debut.

These are the key events on day 1,152 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Monday, 21 April:

Fighting

• At least three blasts were heard in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine amid an Easter ceasefire declared by Moscow, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing local “operative services.”
• Ukraine’s forces reported nearly 3,000 violations of Russia’s own ceasefire pledge, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv’s forces were instructed to mirror the Russian Army’s actions.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said Ukraine had broken the Easter ceasefire declared by the Kremlin more than a thousand times, claiming that Ukrainian forces shot at Russian positions 444 times. The ministry also said Kremlin forces encountered more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks during this time.

• The ministry also said Moscow took control of the village of Novomykhailivka, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, before the Easter ceasefire. Ukraine’s authorities are yet to comment on this claim.

Oil and gas

• Ukraine may need to import up to 6.3 billion cubic metres of gas for the 2025-26 winter season due to record low levels of reserves because of war-related damage to some facilities, said Sergiy Makogon, the former head of Kyiv’s gas transit operator.

Ceasefire

• Zelenskyy said the Russian Army made attempts to “advance and inflict losses” on Kyiv’s army overnight despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of an Easter ceasefire. “Either Putin does not have full control over his army or the situation in Russia is that they have no intention of making a genuine move towards ending the war,” Zelenskyy said.
• The United States Department of State said it would welcome the extension of the Easter ceasefire. However, the Kremlin said earlier there was no order for an extension.
• Zelenskyy proposed suspending drone, cruise missile and rocket attacks on civilian targets for at least 30 days, after Russia revealed there were no orders to extend the ceasefire.

NO matter where you turn these days, it seems you can’t help but be blinded by dazzlingly white ‘Turkey teeth’. 

Lured by the promise of a perfect Hollywood smile at a fraction of UK prices, thousands of Brits flock to Turkey each year for cut-price pegs – but there can be gross side effects. 

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The booming cosmetic dental industry in Turkey is worth a hefty £600million annually and plays a key role in the country’s thriving medical tourism sector.

And it’s clear to see the appeal.

Here, patients can save up to 80 per cent compared to UK prices – a full set of veneers or crowns typically costs between £3,000 and £6,000 in Turkey, compared to £8,000 to £16,000 for private treatment in the UK.

Even stars such as Katie Price, Love Island‘s Jack Fincham and TOWIE’s Dan Osborne have flown overseas for the bargain dental work.

Last month, former glamour model Katie, 46, hit back at trolls complaining about her gnashers being “too big for her mouth”.

She insisted: “The best thing is I’m happy and that’s all that matters.”

Meanwhile, Jack previously shocked fans sharing pictures of what his teeth looked like after they were filed down for his veneers.

“I absolutely love my pearly whites,” he boasted in his Love Island VT.

However, while many fly home happy with their new gleaming pegs, a growing number of patients face serious complications from poorly-performed procedures. 

This has placed a significant burden on the NHS, which reportedly spends around £5million a year correcting botched dental work done abroad. 

It can cost around £9000-£15,000 to fix dodgy ‘Turkey teeth‘, but some clinicians won’t take on the job as it can have a huge liability.

Issues range from infections and nerve damage to ill-fitting crowns and excessive tooth filing, often leaving patients in pain and in need of corrective treatment.

While composite veneers involve sculpting and layering white filling material directly onto your natural teeth to improve shape and colour, ‘Turkey Teeth’, on the other hand, often means shaving down your teeth, sometimes quite dramatically, to fit lab-made ceramic crowns or veneers over the top. 

Both procedures can offer amazing results, but it’s important to consider the potential side effects, especially when they’re rushed or done by someone without the right training. 

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According to Dr. Jad Elbenni, Specialist in Prosthodontics at The Tooth Club, seven gross issues you should be aware of include…

1. Food Trapping

Adding extra material to your teeth means creating new edges and surfaces, which means perfect hiding spots for food. 

If the work isn’t polished properly (with composites) or if the crowns don’t sit perfectly (with Turkey Teeth), you can end up with food getting stuck around the edges. 

Not only is that annoying, but it’s also a fast track to decay and gum issues.

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2. Bad Breath

This is a big one! Bacteria can sneak in and settle under the surface if veneers or crowns aren’t sealed properly. 

It’s not just the smell; this can also lead to decay or even infections beneath the restorations.

3. Gum Disease

Where food and bacteria go, gum inflammation usually follows. 

Swollen, bleeding gums can become a long-term issue if the new smile isn’t designed to be gentle on your gumline. 

Regular hygiene appointments can help, but they can’t fix poor fitting work.

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4. Sensitivity

If you’ve had your teeth trimmed down for crowns (as is often the case with Turkey Teeth), you’re exposing the inner, more sensitive layer of the tooth. 

This can lead to long-term or even permanent sensitivity. 

With composite veneers, the sensitivity is usually temporary, caused by how the material shrinks slightly when cured.

5. Chips and Cracks

Despite how sturdy they may seem, both composite and porcelain can break under pressure, especially if you’re the type to crunch ice, bite your nails, or tear open packets with your teeth (please stop doing that). 

The repairs or replacements can be costly.

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6. Ongoing Maintenance Costs

Composite veneers are cheaper to start with, but they’re also more prone to staining and chipping, so you may find yourself replacing them more often. 

Turkey Teeth may seem like a bargain abroad, but fixing or maintaining them back in the UK can cost a small fortune, and that’s if you can even find a dentist willing to take the job on.

7. Lifespan and Longevity

Nothing lasts forever. Composite veneers usually last around 5–7 years, while porcelain or crowns can stretch to 10–15 but only if they’re done well. 

But trimming teeth for crowns can weaken them long-term, and in some cases, lead to nerve damage or root canals, shortening the lifespan of the tooth underneath.

I paid £20K for £3K Turkey Teeth and they’ve ruined my life

STARING at the bill that had been presented to her, Vicky Robinson couldn’t believe the figure she was staring at.

Having been told her dental bill would be £3,000 she was horrified to see an additional £7,000 tagged on to the end of it.

The mum-of-three now says that her “nightmare” £10,000 makeover in Turkey is the worst thing she’s ever done as she’s been left in “agony” for six months and has spent an estimated £10,000 extra trying to fix it.

Vicky jetted there to get a full set of crowns in October.

The 47-year-old claims the procedure was supposed to set her back £3,000.

When she sat in the operating chair, Vicky claims that the surgeon carried out procedures that she hadn’t asked for including two sinus lifts, and removing and replacing seven of her teeth with implants.

She alleges she was left in shock when she was handed a bill for £10,000.

Vicky says she was sent home three days later but was in agony because the screws in her implants had come loose.

Vicky claims she flew back to Turkey last month to have her crowns and implants removed and refitted at the same surgery.

She says that this time, the surgeon didn’t coat the crowns properly leaving holes visible in her teeth.

Vicky adds: “I can’t live without antibiotics because there are holes in my crowns and food gets stuck in them causing an infection.

Vicky plans to fly back out to Turkey next week to have the holes filled in and get a £500 refund for two implants that have fallen out.

She fears she’ll never be happy with her smile.

Vicky is sharing her story to encourage other people to have surgery in the UK rather than going abroad.

She adds: “I feel like standing outside with a picket telling people not to do it.

“It’s a nightmare. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever done. I wish someone had called me before I went to tell me not to do it.”

WASHINGTON — The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighboring Caucasus nations at war for nearly a month, pleaded their cases Friday to the Trump administration but emerged with no sign of having found common ground.

It was the first public effort by the U.S. to intervene in the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Negotiations led thus far by Russia have failed to halt the bloodshed in a conflict that could swiftly engulf much of the region.

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, saying he wanted to “hear what they’re seeing on the ground,” met separately with the two senior diplomats for about 40 to 50 minutes apiece.

In Friday’s meetings, Pompeo “stressed the importance of the sides entering substantive negotiations” and called for the conflict to be resolved “based on the Helsinki Final Act principles of the nonuse or threat of force, territorial integrity and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.

President Trump in recent months has stepped up his administration’s attempts at international diplomacy after largely avoiding it for much of his term. In addition to Armenia and Azerbaijan, his administration has sought to improve ties between rival Balkan nations Serbia and Kosovo, and shepherded the diplomatic openings between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

On Friday, Trump added Sudan to that list, announcing at the White House that Israel and the North African nation have agreed to open diplomatic ties. Earlier this week, Trump told Sudan it would be removed from the U.S. list of “terrorism-sponsoring” nations if it agreed to compensate American victims of Al Qaeda attacks.

After the meeting with Pompeo, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov issued a statement saying that his country wanted peace but that “the illegal Armenian occupation” had to end and Azerbaijan’s “territorial integrity restored.”

“Armenia must stop avoiding meaningful negotiations and choose lasting peace,” he said.

The Armenian foreign minister, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, said later at a speaking engagement that an immediate and enduring cease-fire was essential “to stop the appalling situation” in Nagorno-Karabakh and that Pompeo seemed “optimistic” it could be established.

Both he and his Azerbaijani counterpart, however, accused each other’s nation of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” and other brutal violations in the conflict.

Trump has shown little interest in getting involved in the messy conflict, which has also drawn in NATO ally Turkey in support of Azerbaijan. Armenia has a defense alliance with Russia — which is often at odds with Turkey internationally — and is backed by an enormous Armenian diaspora in the United States.

Trump’s indifference has been criticized by his election rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, who accused the president of ceding leadership to Moscow and failing to defend civilians in the region, including a sizable population of Armenian Christians.

“Inexplicably, the Trump administration has been largely passive and disengaged … even as the region goes up in flames,” Biden said in a statement last week.

Foreshadowing how a Biden government would handle the crisis, Biden called on the U.S. to hold robust talks aimed at a political settlement between the two countries. Biden said it is important to make clear that a military solution is not tenable, to stop “coddling” Turkey, and to warn Turkey and Iran to stay out. Iran borders both Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Mediation over Nagorno-Karabakh seems unlikely to produce an enduring resolution.

Ahead of Friday’s meetings, Pompeo did not offer concrete proposals for what the administration might envision as a solution to the conflict, which dates back decades, if not centuries. U.S. officials demanded neighboring powers halt any transfer of weapons or mercenaries into the battle zone but have not publicized any diplomatic plan.

Even before Friday’s meetings, Pompeo seemed to tip the U.S. hand in favor of Armenia, a majority Christian nation, against largely Muslim Azerbaijan.

“We’re hopeful that the Armenians will be able to defend against what the Azerbaijanis are doing, and that they will all, before that takes place, get the cease-fire right, and then sit down at the table and try and sort through … what is a truly historic and complicated problem set,” Pompeo told a radio interviewer Oct. 15 in Atlanta.

Asked whether Azerbaijan thought Pompeo and the U.S. were showing bias in favor of Armenia, the Azerbaijani ambassador, Elin Suleymanov, told reporters the secretary of State assured Bayramov of U.S. impartiality and interest in serving as an honest broker.

Analysts say Russia might actually be interested in prolonging the conflict as a way to remind countries of their dependence on Russian-controlled supply lines of oil and gas.

“Until now the United States has taken a back seat,” said Margarita Assenova, senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank that specializes in Eurasia. “More U.S. action would provoke Russian action. The United States could end up with a very hot potato.”

The fighting that erupted in late September has claimed the lives of scores of civilians and military fighters, according to both Armenia and Azerbaijan, and is considered some of the deadliest in years. The conflict dates to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nagorno-Karabakh is a large region within what are today’s borders of Azerbaijan but with an ethnic Armenian population of roughly 150,000.

“Our view remains, as does the view of nearly every European country, that the right path forward is to cease the conflict, tell them to deescalate — that every country should stay out, provide no fuel for this conflict, no weapons systems, no support,” Pompeo said.

Most negotiations over Nagorno-Karabakh have been led by the so-called Minsk Group, a diplomatic effort formed in 1992 and co-chaired by the U.S., Russia and France. But it has failed to provide a resolution or even a durable cease-fire, diplomats said.

College football’s highest-profile transfer is coming home.

After a falling out with Tennessee, Nico Iamaleava has agreed to play for UCLA next season in a move that will generate significant buzz for the Bruins after they added a quarterback who took his previous team to the College Football Playoff.

But the nature of Iamaleava’s departure, which reportedly involved a desire for more name, image and likeness money from the Volunteers at a time when most teams had lined up a starting quarterback for next season, could make Iamaleava a polarizing figure before he sets foot on his new campus.

Iamaleava announced his commitment to the Bruins on his Instagram account Sunday, ending more than a week of speculation about his future.

“My journey at UT has come to an end,” Iamaleava’s post read. “This decision was incredibly difficult, and truthfully, not something I expected to make this soon. But I trust God’s timing, and I believe He’s leading me where I need to be.

“Even though, this chapter is ending, a new chapter has begun and I am committed to UCLA!”

It was not immediately clear how much Iamaleava, a Long Beach native whose initial college deal reportedly was set to pay him more than $2 million to pay for Tennessee next season, agreed to accept from the Bruins as part of his move back to Southern California. An unnamed friend of Iamaleava’s family told Front Office Sports that the dissatisfaction with the Volunteers centered on the need to bolster the offensive line and receiving corps, not a demand for additional compensation.

UCLA appeared to have substantial leverage in negotiations given that most teams had committed to a starting quarterback for next season, significantly reducing demand for a high-priced transfer. Further limiting Iamaleava’s options, he couldn’t have gone to another Southeastern Conference school without sitting out a season as part of conference rules associated with entering the transfer portal in the spring.

The redshirt sophomore will have three seasons of remaining eligibility, though he could declare for the NFL draft as soon as next year. Moving from a CFP participant to a team that hasn’t won a conference championship in more than a quarter of a century presents some risk for Iamaleava in his bid to win at the highest level of college football before moving on to the NFL. He’ll have to learn a new offense relatively quickly after presumably missing the rest of spring practice and joining the team upon his enrollment this summer.

Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava, left, is tackled by Florida edge rusher George Gumbs Jr., bottom, and linebacker Jaden Robinson during an NCAA college football game in October.

(Wade Payne / Associated Press)

Iamaleava, who wore No. 8 at Tennessee, will also have to change numbers unless he receives permission to use the same number that was retired to honor former Bruins quarterback Troy Aikman.

The addition of Iamaleava leaves in doubt the future of Joey Aguilar, who spent the first three weeks of spring practice as UCLA’s presumed starting quarterback next season after putting up prolific numbers at Appalachian State. Iamaleava’s arrival could nudge Aguilar back into the transfer portal considering he only has one more season of eligibility left.

Aguilar did not let speculation about Iamaleava immediately alter his plans; he participated in the Bruins’ “Friday Night Lights” event as if nothing had changed about his preparation for next season.

The Bruins nearly added Nico’s younger brother, Madden, to their roster on signing day in December before the Long Beach Poly High quarterback and teammate Jace Brown backed out of their verbal commitments and signed with Arkansas. Nico’s decision to join the Bruins signals that whatever hard feelings emerged from his brother’s situation have been smoothed over between the team and the Iamaleava family.

UCLA had one strong ally in its pursuit of Nico Iamaleava because Stacey Ford, the team’s director of player personnel, was on the coaching staff at Warren High when the quarterback emerged as a star during the 2021 season. Iamaleava later reportedly signed a four-year, $8-million name, image and likeness contract with Spyre Sports Group, Tennessee’s name, image and likeness collective, with a six-figure payment while he was still in high school.

After playing sparingly in his first college season, the 6-foot-6, 215-pounder starred during a 2024 season in which he led the Volunteers to the playoff before they lost to eventual national champion Ohio State in the first round. Iamaleava completed 63.8% of his passes for 2,616 yards with 19 touchdowns and five interceptions, though critics pointed out that eight of those touchdowns came against lightly regarded Texas El Paso and Vanderbilt.

As part of a messy split with Tennessee that angered Volunteers fans, Iamaleava left before the team’s spring game. Acknowledging that he was moving on, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel told reporters that “there’s nobody bigger than the ‘Power T.”

Iamaleava’s chance to win over a new fan base starts in several months. UCLA will open the season against Utah on Aug. 30 at the Rose Bowl, its quarterback vying to become the local hero the Bruins have long needed to reclaim long-lost glory.

UCLA quickly capitalized on the arrival of its new star, sending an email to fans featuring a graphic of the quarterback in a Bruins jersey and a link to season ticket deposits for next season.

“Now is your chance,” the email said, “to be part of this electric new era of UCLA football.”

Golden State Warriors upset third seeded Houston to steal home court advantage from Rockets in opening game of their Western Conference playoff series.

Stephen Curry scored a game-high 31 points and Jimmy Butler III added 25 as the Golden State Warriors held off the Houston Rockets 95-85 in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round series.

Curry, who shot 1-for-10 and scored three points in a home loss to the Rockets on April 6, was brilliant on Sunday. He finished 12-for-19 overall, drilled five three-pointers and grabbed six rebounds. Butler added seven rebounds and six assists to his ledger as the visiting Warriors grabbed a 1-0 series lead with Game 2 set for Wednesday in Houston.

Houston reduced a 23-point deficit to 76-73 on an Amen Thompson floater with 6 minutes and 49 seconds left to play. But Curry extended that advantage back to 82-75 with a three-pointer with 5 minutes and 11 seconds remaining. Butler and Brandin Podziemski (14 points, eight rebounds, five assists) kept the Rockets at bay in the closing stages.

The Rockets shot just 39.1 percent and committed 17 turnovers that the Warriors converted into 25 points. Alperen Sengun posted 26 points and nine rebounds, but Jabari Smith Jr was the first teammate to join him in double figures with 11 points, doing so via a corner three-pointer with 7:34 minutes left.

Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet shot a combined 7-for-34 and totalled 17 points for Houston.

The Rockets were energised early behind Sengun, who had eight points and six rebounds in the first quarter. Houston led 19-12 when Tari Eason converted a steal into a fast-break dunk with 3:20 minutes left, but Curry engineered a brief run to close that gap.

Curry followed his assist to Butler with a pair of drives that pulled the Warriors to within 21-18 entering the second quarter. Butler then supplied the Warriors with their first lead at 24-23 with a free throw at the 9:16 mark of the second quarter, and Golden State later seized its first double-digit advantage with an 11-0 run capped by a Curry reverse layup with 6:08 minutes remaining in the first half.

The Rockets briefly stemmed the tide and pulled to within four points, only for the Warriors to close the half with a 9-0 burst that featured two Curry three-pointers and three points from Butler. Meanwhile, the Rockets missed their final five shots and committed two turnovers during that stretch, entering the intermission trailing 47-34 after shooting 6-of-18 in the second period.

In earlier first-round matches played on Sunday, the Oklahoma City Thunder destroyed the Memphis Grizzlies 131-80 in the most lopsided Game 1 win in NBA playoff history.

In the Eastern Conference, NBA reigning champions Boston, fuelled by 30 points from Derrick White, defeated Orlando Magic 103-86, and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who beat out the Celtics for top seed in the Eastern Conference, downed Miami Heat 121-100.

JOHN Higgins is the second best snooker player to hail from Scotland, following in the footsteps of his great friend and foe Stephen Hendry.

Here we get to know the Wizard of Wishaw’s wife Denise, who will be cheering him on at the World Snooker Championship 2025.

2

Who is John Higgins’ wife Denise?

Denise Higgins is the wife of John Higgins, one of the most celebrated and decorated snooker players in the history of the game.

John married Denise, whom he has known since his adolescent years at Wishaw High School, in 2010. 

Denise is known for supporting John throughout his illustrious career, which has seen him win multiple world championships and establish himself as one of the sport‘s legends.

But things don’t always work out, for example, when John won ranking title number 32 in March 2025 at the World Open.

He told Metro: “It’s just a shame, my missus is coming to Hong Kong and she’s going to be flying tomorrow while I’ll be playing the final. 

“We didn’t work that out right, she’s getting on a flight today to Hong Kong, so hopefully when she lands I’ll have a chance of winning the title.”

While Denise tends to keep a low profile and stay clear of the limelight, her unwavering support has been instrumental in helping him maintain focus on his career while balancing family life.

She has also played an important role in encouraging him to stay committed to his practice, especially during periods when he struggled with motivation.

Children

John and Denise share three children together: two sons, Pierce and Oliver, and a daughter named Claudia.

The Higgins family is known for being close-knit, with John often speaking fondly about his role as a father.

But they prefer to keep their private information out of the public domain, so details about their dates of birth, etc, have not been reported.

Despite the demands of his career, which involves extensive travel and long hours of practice, John has always prioritised spending quality time with his family.

The couple’s children have occasionally accompanied their father to snooker events, particularly during major tournaments where John has achieved significant victories.

For example, after winning the World Snooker Championship, John has been photographed celebrating with Denise and their kids, highlighting the importance of family in his life.

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Last week, a prominent Saudi Sheikh, Mohammed Al-Issa, visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its liberation, which signalled the end of the Nazi Holocaust. Although dozens of Muslim scholars have visited the site, where about one million Jews were killed during World War Two, according to the Auschwitz Memorial Centre’s press office, Al-Issa is the most senior Muslim religious leader to do so.

Visiting Auschwitz is not a problem for a Muslim; Islam orders Muslims to reject unjustified killing of any human being, no matter what their faith is. Al-Issa is a senior ally of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), who apparently cares little for the sanctity of human life, though, and the visit to Auschwitz has very definite political connotations beyond any Islamic context.

By sending Al-Issa to the camp, Bin Salman wanted to show his support for Israel, which exploits the Holocaust for geopolitical colonial purposes. “The Israeli government decided that it alone was permitted to mark the 75th anniversary of the Allied liberation of Auschwitz [in modern day Poland] in 1945,” wrote journalist Richard Silverstein recently when he commented on the gathering of world leaders in Jerusalem for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Holocaust event.

READ: Next up, a Saudi embassy in Jerusalem 

Bin Salman uses Al Issa for such purposes, as if to demonstrate his own Zionist credentials. For example, the head of the Makkah-based Muslim World League is leading rapprochement efforts with Evangelical Christians who are, in the US at least, firm Zionists in their backing for the state of Israel. Al-Issa has called for a Muslim-Christian-Jewish interfaith delegation to travel to Jerusalem in what would, in effect, be a Zionist troika.

Zionism is not a religion, and there are many non-Jewish Zionists who desire or support the establishment of a Jewish state in occupied Palestine. The definition of Zionism does not mention the religion of its supporters, and Israeli writer Sheri Oz, is just one author who insists that non-Jews can be Zionists.

Mohammad Bin Salman and Netanyahu – Cartoon [Tasnimnews.com/Wikipedia]

We should not be shocked, therefore, to see a Zionist Muslim leader in these trying times. It is reasonable to say that Bin Salman’s grandfather and father were Zionists, as close friends of Zionist leaders. Logic suggests that Bin Salman comes from a Zionist dynasty.

This has been evident from his close relationship with Zionists and positive approaches to the Israeli occupation and establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, calling it “[the Jews’] ancestral homeland”. This means that he has no issue with the ethnic cleansing of almost 800,000 Palestinians in 1948, during which thousands were killed and their homes demolished in order to establish the Zionist state of Israel.

“The ‘Jewish state’ claim is how Zionism has tried to mask its intrinsic Apartheid, under the veil of a supposed ‘self-determination of the Jewish people’,” wrote Israeli blogger Jonathan Ofir in Mondoweiss in 2018, “and for the Palestinians it has meant their dispossession.”

As the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Bin Salman has imprisoned dozens of Palestinians, including representatives of Hamas. In doing so he is serving Israel’s interests. Moreover, he has blamed the Palestinians for not making peace with the occupation state. Bin Salman “excoriated the Palestinians for missing key opportunities,” wrote Danial Benjamin in Moment magazine. He pointed out that the prince’s father, King Salman, has played the role of counterweight by saying that Saudi Arabia “permanently stands by Palestine and its people’s right to an independent state with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.”

UN expert: Saudi crown prince behind hack on Amazon CEO 

Israeli journalist Barak Ravid of Israel’s Channel 13 News reported Bin Salman as saying: “In the last several decades the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after the other and rejected all the peace proposals it was given. It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.” This is reminiscent of the words of the late Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, one of the Zionist founders of Israel, that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

Bin Salman’s Zionism is also very clear in his bold support for US President Donald Trump’s deal of the century, which achieves Zionist goals in Palestine at the expense of Palestinian rights. He participated in the Bahrain conference, the forum where the economic side of the US deal was announced, where he gave “cover to several other Arab countries to attend the event and infuriated the Palestinians.”

US President Donald Trump looks over at Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud as they line up for the family photo during the opening day of Argentina G20 Leaders’ Summit 2018 at Costa Salguero on 30 November 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina [Daniel Jayo/Getty Images]

While discussing the issue of the current Saudi support for Israeli policies and practices in Palestine with a credible Palestinian official last week, he told me that the Palestinians had contacted the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to ask him not to relocate his country’s embassy to Jerusalem. “The Saudis have been putting pressure on us in order to relocate our embassy to Jerusalem,” replied the Brazilian leader. What more evidence of Mohammad Bin Salman’s Zionism do we need?

The founder of Friends of Zion Museum is American Evangelical Christian Mike Evans. He said, after visiting a number of the Gulf States, that, “The leaders [there] are more pro-Israel than a lot of Jews.” This was a specific reference to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, and his counterpart in the UAE, Mohammed Bin Zayed.

“All versions of Zionism lead to the same reactionary end of unbridled expansionism and continued settler colonial genocide of [the] Palestinian people,” Israeli-American writer and photographer Yoav Litvin wrote for Al Jazeera. We may well see an Israeli Embassy opened in Riyadh in the near future, and a Saudi Embassy in Tel Aviv or, more likely, Jerusalem. Is Mohammad Bin Salman a Zionist? There’s no doubt about it.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

This story is all about that big spoiler from “The Last of Us” Season 2 Episode 2. If you’ve yet to see the episode, consider reading this review or interview instead.

(Taps mic.) Is this on? (Feedback screeches.) Yep, it’s on, can we turn it down actually? (Words are drowned out by general sobbing and strangled noises of outrage.) OK, maybe not. Right, let’s just get started. Welcome to “The Last of Us” grief recovery group. Tissues and various support animals are available in the back. Please remember that Kaitlyn Dever is an actor playing the murderously vengeful Abby and that anyone who has been following the coverage of the show at least suspected that our beloved Joel (Pedro Pascal) had to die. The second part of the video game from which this series has been adapted is based on events following his death, and series creator Craig Mazin has said, publicly and repeatedly, that the second season of the show, like the first, would remain true to the game.

So as terrible as it was to witness Joel’s brutal death at the hands of Abby while Ellie (Bella Ramsey) watches in heartbreak and horror, it was not surprising. The question was never “if” but “when.” And, as audiences just discovered, the answer is in the episode on Sunday night.

Can someone help that young person over there? They appear to be hyperventilating. If it’s any consolation (and not too much of a spoiler), Pascal’s name remains on the credits for the remainder of the series, and there were loads of flashbacks in the game so … but perhaps it’s too soon to do anything but sit with our collective trauma.

Joel is dead and Ellie has vowed vengeance, setting the stage for the remainder of the season.

Other things happened during Sunday night’s episode, some small — the discovery of Eugene’s abandoned pot farm, Ellie’s accidental revelation to Jesse (Young Mazino) that she and Dina (Isabella Merced) kissed — and some very big. Including and especially a “Game of Thrones”-like attack on Jackson by an army of the infected (woken by Abby — thanks for everything!), who now appear to be capable of tactical thinking. The brief lull of semi-normality presented in Episode 1 has been shattered. Thanks to Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and Maria (Rutina Wesley), Jackson was armed for the onslaught, but even for those aware of Joel’s fate, nothing could quite prepare fans for the reality of his death.

To help move us through the five stages of grief, The Times’ “Last of Us” viewers and players Mary McNamara, Tracy Brown and Todd Martens take on the pivotal second episode.

Ellie (Bella Ramsey) has grown distant from Joel in “The Last of Us” Season 2.

(Liane Hentscher / HBO)

McNamara: Having just attempted to write a second-season review while hemmed in with embargo rules, I confess I am relieved to have this not-very-secret development out in the open — if nothing else, I do not like lying to my daughters, even through omission, as they pelted me with questions about Pascal’s, I mean, Joel’s fate. Whether the youngest follows through on her vow to stop watching the show if he died in the second episode remains to be seen. Certainly Joel’s death divided the gaming community when “The Last of Us Part II” debuted five years ago, but as it became a best-seller anyway, I don’t think HBO has too much to worry about.

That said, it is hard to imagine the show without Pascal. Joel’s journey from the hardened warrior who agreed to transport Ellie across country in exchange for a car battery to a man who will do anything to protect the surrogate daughter he has come to love has been the emotional through-line of the story. Now, one supposes, it’s Ellie’s turn to prove her love, although I’m not sure following one act of revenge with another is the best way. Which may, of course, be the whole point.

The attack on Jackson is unique to the series (i.e. not in the game, which I have never played) and while it feels like a necessary reminder of this world’s dangers (not to mention a nod to HBO’s last big action hit), it also occurs in parallel to Joel’s capture and murder by Abby and the now-defunct fireflies. Was that a way to heighten or distract from the answer to the question that was on everyone’s minds as they tuned in to Season 2?

Brown: Yes, we don’t ever see any infected breach Jackson’s walls in the game, but the possibility is why they have all those patrols. I don’t know that it was intentional, but for me the attack on Jackson was more than just distracting; it was a heavy-handed metaphor. As you mentioned, Mary, it’s a good reminder of just how dangerous the world of the show is. It also seems like a response to complaints some viewers had about the lack of action in Season 1. And, for those familiar with the game, it offers a reason for why Dina was out patrolling with Joel instead of Tommy — which potentially sets up a different payoff later — while giving Tommy a moment to shine.

But it was also very unsubtle. Jackson, a peaceful safe haven and home to a close-knit community, is destroyed by infected monsters while Joel, the only safe space and home Ellie has ever known, is killed by human monsters. Was either tragedy more devastating than the other? Was either perpetrator more monstrous than the other? By juxtaposing these two events, it feels like the show is putting its thematic cards out on the table pretty early.

Now, I’m not one of the people who thought the show needed more action. For me, one of the fascinating parts of the game is how much it allows you to sit in quiet discomfort, crouched behind some cover for far too long while you try to figure out your next move. Maybe that says more about my play style than anything else, but it also means that I like having to overthink things — including unsettling moral dilemmas, which leads me to Abby and her revenge tour. Unlike with the TV show, Joel’s death was an actual surprise for “The Last of Us Part II” game. Todd, what do you remember about the response back then? Not that it was that long ago …

Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) is on the hunt for revenge in “The Last of Us” Season 2.

(Liane Hentscher / HBO)

Martens: I think it’s important to note that when the game came out in 2020, it was released amid some of the most stressful days of the pandemic. Games were something of a salve, as many players had just spent months welcoming folks to our virtual islands in “Animal Crossing: New Horizons.” And “The Last of Us Part II” had become arguably the most anticipated pop-culture event of the summer, so anticipated that leaks before its release allowed fans to collectively freak out at the direction the game appeared to be heading. We were all largely confined to our homes, and here was a work that was to explore the worst of humanity during a crisis that made the game feel too close for comfort. Times were tense.

And, to be sure, we saw some of the worst of humanity in the early response to the game, as a toxic segment of the gaming community couldn’t come to grips with the centering of LGBTQ+ characters while leaving less significant roles to some of the popular characters from the first part. Those who worked at the game’s studio, Naughty Dog, were subject to horrific harassment. But those bad actors failed. “The Last of Us Part II” had us enthralled, even if it could frustrate.

Neil Druckmann, the primary architect of the game franchise and co-writer of the second game with Halley Gross, made it very clear that nothing would be treated as sacred as they sought to explore the after-effects of PTSD and how we could lose our humanity in our trauma. We knew before the game even made its way to our PlayStation consoles, it asked us to reassess who is good, who is evil and if anyone can, or should be, saved. “The Last of Us Part II” would, in a way, give many fans what that they most desired — the chance to play primarily as Ellie. It ended up being kind of a devil’s bargain, as Joel — a character we had steered to for hours and who finally found something to love in a hellscape of a world — was gone, and the character we couldn’t wait to see grow up was now overtaken with an all-consuming rage. It was a test. How do we inhabit the roles of virtual characters who are constantly making choices we disagree with? Love or hate the direction of the story, it displayed grueling confidence in leading players — who in a game have the illusion of directing the story — into places of discomfort. It worked, because playing as Ellie ultimately aligned us with her. We were searching for some form of resilience.

I’ll be curious if TV viewers feel the same? I do sometimes worry it’s a story better suited for interactivity. The reaction that Mary mentions, of someone abandoning the show in the wake of Joel’s death, is one I wonder if many will feel.

McNamara: Oh I doubt it. My daughter’s devotion to Pascal aside, we’ve grown used to television shows killing off beloved characters, and Ellie, Tommy and now Dina, as well as the world of “The Last of Us,” remain far too compelling to abandon. Joel’s death actually makes the series as interactive as television can be — for many viewers, he felt indispensable and yet we must all now soldier on without him, just like Ellie.

As for Abby, we no longer require our main characters to be old-school likable, as long as we are given some sort of access to their motivations. Though Abby killing Joel so horrifically right after he saved her life seemed impossible to justify in the moment, we did get a brief glimpse of her own tragic backstory, both in this episode and the last. Neither Joel nor Ellie are the only people to experience deep, sustaining love for one particular human. Abby lost her lodestar — her father — to what she believes was a random act of extreme violence. (If we’re being honest, Joel could have just shot the doc in the leg or punched him in the face and still rescued Ellie.)

Whether or not Abby knew her father was about to kill Ellie to potentially save humanity — she has denounced the stories of Joel also snatching a girl — is beside the point. This is, as Todd adroitly points out, a story of PTSD. As history has repeatedly proved, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, no one emerges unscathed from a mass traumatic event. That people will splinter into hostile groups when common sense would lead them to unite is what fuels “The Last of Us,” as a game and a series, and lifts it into classical epic territory.

As a young queer woman, Ellie is an epic-hero breakthrough. As a surly, teenage combination of self-aggrandizement and self-doubt, she is the instantly recognizable character that makes the rest of the world believable.

Dina (Isabela Merced) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) in “The Last of Us.”

(Liane Hentscher / HBO)

Brown: Speaking of Ellie, I have to admit that it’s been a relief to see that navigating your (complicated) feelings for your best friend is a queer rite of passage even in a world ravaged by a fungal zombie apocalypse — and she’s experienced it twice! Though I was not as thrilled to see that some people in the community still think a queer teen romance as not family-friendly. But I digress.

Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, I am curious to see how audiences will respond to Ellie’s decisions and actions because we are engaging with her story in a completely different way on TV. There is no real analogue to the way a player instantly connects with a character that they essentially become, and experience the world through, in order to win a game, which is something that came up when Todd and I discussed Season 1. It’ll be interesting to see how that affects how people see both Ellie and Abby moving forward and how our ideas around heroes and villains can be subverted through their trauma and rage.

But TV has its own strengths. The attack on Jackson, for example, is something that’s possible because TV is not locked into the perspective of the player character. How the attack affects the community will also likely shape how the story progresses in some way. OK, maybe I am coming around to thinking about that attack as more than just a distraction. For now, though, the only thing that seems inevitable is a showdown between Ellie and Abby, and I can’t wait.

Martens: What I do love about the game and now the show are the patient steps taken to world building. I think that emotional attachment you both speak of is due, in part, to the time and care given to let us live in its universe, to let its towns feel fully lived in.

And that brings me to Ellie, Dina and, yes, that inevitable showdown with Abby that Tracy teases. Ellie fears little. Little, that is, except true attachment. In a world of horrors, she finds comfort in grief, trauma and violence. It’s what, after all, she knows best.

She’s given purpose in avenging Joel’s death. The comfort of Dina is, at times, awfully confusing to her. As difficult as we may think of its narrative — the infected, the dystopia, the terrorizing factions — the second episode of this season sets up a core theme of “The Last of Us Part II.” This is a story of heartbreak, and that’s why I couldn’t put my controller down and why now I can’t look away.

El Salvador president says he is willing to repatriate deportees in exchange for release of ‘political prisoners.’

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has proposed a prisoner swap that would see Venezuelans deported from the United States to his country exchanged for “political prisoners” in Venezuela.

In pointed remarks directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday, Bukele suggested the countries reach a “humanitarian agreement” amid Caracas’s demands for the repatriation of Venezuelan deportees.

Bukele said he would be willing to repatriate 252 Venezuelans being held in a Salvadoran maximum security prison in exchange for “an identical number of the thousands of political prisoners that you hold”.

“Unlike our detainees, many of whom have committed murder, others have committed rape, and some have even been arrested multiple times before being deported, your political prisoners have committed no crime. The only reason they are imprisoned is because they opposed you and your electoral fraud,” Bukele said on X.

Bukele went on to list a number of people being held in Venezuelan prisons, including Rafael Tudares, the son-in-law of exiled former Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González, and Corina Parisca, the mother of opposition leader María Corina Machado.

Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab described Bukele’s proposal as “cynical” and called on his government to provide a complete list of the “hostages” along with “proof of life and a medical report” for each detainee.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has paid about $6m to Bukele’s government to detain accused Venezuelan gang members in El Salvador’s maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center.

The Trump administration has deported at least 261 migrants accused of belonging to Tren de Aragua and other gangs by controversially invoking the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law that grants the president authority to detain or deport citizens of enemy nations.

US officials have released little evidence to support their claims that the deportees are members of criminal gangs, and media reports based on publicly available information have indicated that only a small minority have criminal records.

Maduro has accused Bukele of being an accomplice to “kidnapping” and called for the deportees to be repatriated to Venezuela.

On Saturday, the US Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt to the deportations of migrants being held in Texas “until further order of this court”.

The 7-2 ruling came after the American Civil Liberties Union filed an emergency petition asking the court to stop the Trump administration from proceeding with what it said were imminent plans to restart deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.

The Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the Trump administration could not continue the deportations without giving migrants a chance to challenge their removal in court.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth created another Signal messaging chat that included his wife and brother in which he shared similar details of a March military airstrike against Yemen’s Houthi militants that were sent in another chain with top Trump administration leaders, the New York Times reported.

A person familiar with the contents and those who received the messages, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, confirmed the second chat to the Associated Press.

The second chat on Signal — a commercially available app not authorized to be used to communicate sensitive or classified national defense information — included 13 people, the person said. They also confirmed the chat was dubbed “Defense Team Huddle.”

The New York Times reported that the group included Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer; and his brother Phil Hegseth, who was hired at the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior advisor. Both have traveled with the Defense secretary and attended high-level meetings.

The White House late Sunday dismissed the report as a “non-story,” suggesting that disgruntled former Pentagon employees were spreading false claims.

“No matter how many times the legacy media tries to resurrect the same non-story, they can’t change the fact that no classified information was shared,” Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary, said in a statement. “Recently-fired ‘leakers’ are continuing to misrepresent the truth to soothe their shattered egos and undermine the President’s agenda, but the administration will continue to hold them accountable.”

The revelation of the additional chat group brought fresh criticism against Hegseth and President Trump’s wider administration after it has failed to take action so far against the top national security officials who discussed plans for the military strike on Signal.

“The details keep coming out. We keep learning how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk. But Trump is still too weak to fire him,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York posted on X. “Pete Hegseth must be fired.”

The first chat, set up by national security advisor Mike Waltz, included a number of Cabinet members and came to light because Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of the Atlantic, was added to the group.

The contents of that chat, which the Atlantic published, shows that Hegseth listed weapons systems and a timeline for the attack on the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen last month.

The National Security Council and a Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment about the additional chat group.

Hegseth has previously contended that no classified information or war plans were shared in the chat with the journalist.

The Times reported Sunday that the second chat had the same warplane launch times that the first chat included. Multiple former and current officials have said sharing those operational details before a strike would have certainly been classified and their release could have put pilots in danger.

Hegseth’s use of Signal and the sharing of such plans are under investigation by the Defense Department’s acting inspector general. It came at the request of the leadership of the Senate Armed Services Committee — Republican Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi and ranking Democratic member Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

Reed urged the inspector general late Sunday to probe the reported second Signal chat as well, saying that Hegseth “must immediately explain why he reportedly texted classified information that could endanger American service members’ lives.”

“I have grave concerns about Secretary Hegseth’s ability to maintain the trust and confidence of U.S. service members and the commander in chief,” he added.

The new revelations come amid further turmoil at the Pentagon. Four officials in Hegseth’s inner circle departed last week as the Pentagon conducts a widespread investigation for information leaks.

Dan Caldwell, a Hegseth aide; Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg; and Darin Selnick, Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff; were escorted out of the Pentagon.

Though the three initially had been placed on leave pending the investigation, a joint statement shared by Caldwell on X on Saturday said the three “still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of ‘leaks’ to begin with.”

Caldwell was the staff member designated as Hegseth’s point person in the Signal chat with Trump Cabinet members.

Former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot also announced he was resigning last week, unrelated to the leaks. The Pentagon said that Ullyot was asked to resign.

Copp writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

Ex-Wales international Ashley Williams analyses how Liverpool’s full-backs set the tempo and provided width to find a way past Leicester City before Trent Alexander-Arnold’s “unbelievable” left foot half-volley.

READ MORE: ‘Iconic moment in a special Liverpool career – but was it a farewell?’

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April 21 (UPI) — Ukraine and Russia traded accusations Sunday of violating a one-day Easter truce, which was by Moscow only a day prior and has since expired.

President Vladimir Putin declared the 30-hour Easter Truce on Saturday, stating it would run through Sunday night.

However, as Sunday ended, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine accused Russia on social media of violating the truce nearly 3,000 times.

Early Sunday, he announced that Kyiv was documenting “every Russian violation of its self-declared commitment to a full cease-fire” while accusing Moscow of only pursuing a halt to the fighting for public relations reasons.

“In practice, either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia, they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war, and are only interested in favorable PR coverage,” he said.

He later added that Ukraine’s actions would remain “symmetrical.”

“Cease-fire will be met with cease-fire and Russian strikes will be met with our own in defense,” he said early Monday.

“Actions always speak louder than words.”

Russia — which began the war in February 2022 with a full-scale invasion of its neighbor — also accused Ukraine of violating the cease-fire.

Its Ministry of Defense stated on Telegram that its forces were “strictly observing the state of cease-fire” since it began Saturday evening, but that during the night, Ukraine violated the halt in fighting more than 1,000 times.

“As a result, enemy attacks caused deaths and injuries among the civilian population,” the ministry said in a post.

The accusations were traded as Zelensky pushes for the cease-fire to be extended for 30 days or, at least, to end long-range drones and missile strikes on civilian infrastructure for that period of time.

“If Russia does not agree to such a step, it will be proof that it intends to continue doing only those things which destroy human lives and prolong the war,” Zelensky said.

Diu, India – Boxes of sweets are being passed around as cheers and joy surround Rajeshwari Rama’s brick house, insulated with tin sheets, in the Vanakbara village of Diu, a federally-controlled island along the India-Pakistan coastline near Gujarat state in western India.

Rama’s relatives and friends are talking at the top of their voices as they celebrate the release of her husband, fisherman Mahesh Rama, from the Landhi jail in neighbouring Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi, in February this year.

Among the attendees is Laxmiben Solanki, 36, standing quietly in one corner. She does not taste the sweets. She is only marking her presence there, but remains preoccupied with thoughts of her husband, Premji Solanki.

Premji, 40, has also been in Pakistan’s Landhi jail since December 2022, along with several other Indian fishermen. Their crime: crossing a disputed border in the Arabian Sea, which divides the South Asian nuclear powers and sworn enemies, for fishing.

In February, Pakistan released 22 Indian fishermen who had been imprisoned by Pakistan’s Maritime Security Agency between April 2021 and December 2022, while they were fishing off the coast of Gujarat – also the home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Three of those released are from Diu, 18 from Gujarat, and the remaining one person from the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Though India and Pakistan share a heavily militarised land border, their International Maritime Boundary Line in the Arabian Sea is also largely disputed, especially in a zone called Sir Creek, a 96km (60-mile) tidal estuary that separates India’s Gujarat and Pakistan’s Sindh provinces.

It is in this patch that fishermen from both India and Pakistan wander into deeper waters, often without realising they have entered foreign territory. Due to the terrain of the disputed territory, there is no border fencing, with a marshland acting as a natural boundary between the two nations.

Several years and rounds of diplomatic talks between India and Pakistan have not been able to resolve the dispute, which has even seen military tensions between them. In 1999, India shot down a Pakistani aircraft carrying 16 naval officers over the alleged violation of Indian airspace near their maritime border. The incident occurred just a month after the two countries fought a war in Kargil, a snowy district in Indian-administered Kashmir.

On March 17, India’s Ministry of External Affairs revealed that out of 194 Indian fishermen currently imprisoned in Pakistan, 123 are from Gujarat. According to the Indian government, it has 81 Pakistani fishermen in its custody. Families on both sides say their loved ones have been jailed for a crime they committed “unknowingly” – because they did not know they had ventured inside waters claimed by another country.

Trapped in debt

Pakistan released Mauji Nathubhai Bamaniya, 55, in February because his osteoporosis had gotten worse. “I still can’t believe that I am sitting in my house, in my country, with my family. My decaying bones brought me back to my homeland,” Bamaniya tells Al Jazeera in Vanakbar village.

Another fisherman, Ashok Kumar Solanki, is also back at home in Ghoghla village in Diu. He has hearing and speaking impairments and was among the 22 fishermen released on health grounds.

But it is the families of those still imprisoned in Pakistan that find themselves caught in a cycle of recurring debt and debilitating anxiety.

In another house, hidden amid palm trees in Vanakbara, Kantaben Chunilal, 60, looks with tired eyes at the dusty path leading to her home. She has been waiting for her son, Jashvant, since December 2022.

Jashvant was barely 17 when he was arrested by Pakistani forces. He was the family’s sole breadwinner.

Kantaben says she feels too ashamed to ask her relatives for more loans to fill the empty grain jars in her kitchen. She has borrowed nearly 500,000 rupees ($5,855) from several relatives for sustenance. “The government offers us a financial aid of $3 per day. It is not even half of what our men would earn,” she tells Al Jazeera.

Out of desperation, Kantaben says she sometimes randomly visits relatives during mealtimes, hoping they will accommodate her as a guest and she may save some money that day.

In the same village, Aratiben Chavda married fisherman Alpesh Chavda in 2020. Less than a year later, Alpesh was arrested by Pakistani forces while he was out fishing in the Sir Creek area.

Aratiben tells Al Jazeera their 3-year-old son Kriansh, born about four months after Alpesh’s arrest, has never seen his father. “We make him see his father’s photos, so that one day, when Alpesh comes back, my child can recognise him,” she says, sobbing.

Aratiben’s house is shaded by palm and coconut trees, insulating her and her son from India’s scorching heat. But there is no escaping the poverty that has gripped the household. Selling the refrigerator her parents had given her as a wedding gift supported her for about two months during the winter of 2023.

Aratiben and her mother-in-law, Jayaben, also sell vegetables at the local market, making about $5 to $7 on good days. But she says there are too many days in between when they are unable to afford two meals.

Indian activists and fishermen’s unions have been campaigning for the release of all the fishermen imprisoned by Pakistan.

Chhaganbhai Bamania, a social worker in Diu, points out that under Pakistani law, fishermen who stray into that country’s waters should not be sentenced for more than six months.

“But due to the hostility between India and Pakistan, citizens are caught in a crossfire for no fault of theirs. Their jail time is increased without them knowing or understanding it,” he says, adding that some Indian fishermen end up spending years behind bars.

Bamania says families of jailed fishermen have been writing to top Indian officials to plead for their release, but accuses the government of moving at a “snail’s pace” to try and address their concerns.

‘As if we were terrorists’

This pattern of arrests followed by a long wait for release is not new. Some, like 50-year-old Shyamjibhai Ramji, are repeat visitors to Pakistani jails.

Ramji was arrested three times between 2000 and 2014. When he was released for a third time from a Karachi jail, his son made him swear he would never venture into the sea, “not even in his dreams or rather, nightmares”.

“Catching fish is all I know,” he says. “We follow the stars’ movements while casting nets into the sea at night. Once, I wandered away from Okha Port, once from Porbandar Port. There are many like me who have been jailed more than once,” he tells Al Jazeera, referring to two prominent seaports in Gujarat.

Ramji says he now prefers looking at the sea from a distance to avoid revisiting the “horrors” he faced in Pakistani custody. “They would keep us separately, away from Pakistani prisoners, and kept asking us the same questions, as if we were terrorists or like we were hiding something. When we said we are vegetarians, they gave us grass and boiled water for food. It was a nightmare every day,” he says.

Shekhar Sinha, a retired Indian Navy officer, says the “greed of a larger catch drives fishermen to go beyond that imaginary line on water, often losing track of their exact position”.

“Even Pakistani fishermen are arrested in similar circumstances. Generally, they are exchanged, except for those who fail during interrogations and are unable to answer questions properly,” he tells Al Jazeera.

As efforts to free civilians on both sides of the border continue, women like Laxmiben hold onto hope, making a new promise to their children every day. Her eyes glisten with tears as she and her three teenage children – a son aged 18 and daughters who are 14 and 13 – await Premji’s release.

“I keep telling my children that, ‘Your father will return tomorrow’. But that tomorrow has not happened for four years now. My tongue is tired of lying,” she says as she holds the hands of her elder daughter, Jigna, both looking at the waves hitting the Diu port.

Beyond the waters lies Pakistan. And Premji.

During Monday night’s instalment of Celebrity Big Brother, Daley Thompson’s warning about game players in the house was revealed as Ella Rae Wise took aim at Chris Hughes.

Tensions are simmering in the Celebrity Big Brother house after Danny Beard spilled the beans on Daley Thompson’s parting words of caution, which hinted at strategic game players among them.

Before his departure, Daley voiced his concerns to Ella Eae Wise and Angellica Bell about certain individuals manipulating the dynamics within the house.

Later, Ella filled in Danny and Donna Preston on Daley’s words of warning during a chat in the garden: “Daley just basically said that you’ve got to be careful. There are two reality stars in here that do reality every single day.

“He said they know what they’re doing, if they pair up, they’re going to take a lot of air time from people. And it’s going to be very fixated on them both. And just to be mindful.”

While undertaking a task, Danny chose to reveal Daley’s warning to the whole house. Chris Hughes suggested the warning must have been aimed at his close friendship with JoJo Siwa, reports OK!

Unphased, he added: “I’m fine with that. I know that mine and JoJo’s friendship is genuine. I’m fine with other people looking at it from that perspective. When you’ve been somewhere for two weeks, naturally you’re going to gravitate towards people. That’s just life.”

Ella responded without hesitation, urging caution as she commented: “What we’ve got to take into consideration is that there’s people in here that have caring sides, and there’s people in here who wouldn’t want you to be used for your platform.

“That’s why I feel it struck a chord in Daley because he felt for you – he doesn’t want anyone to use you as a stepping stone.”

Viewers immediately turned to Twitter to voice their opinions on Ella’s comment towards Chris, with a handful expressing scepticism about any gameplaying between the two.

Echoing support, one Twitter user expressed: “Still don’t think Chris and JoJo are playing a game re their friendship, if I’m wrong I’m wrong.”

Another insisted on the authenticity of their bond, saying: “You can tell they are genuine friends? I think if Chris was game playing he would’ve had the romance with Ella she so desperately wants.”

Criticisms of perceptions on Chris and JoJo were also voiced, with a tweet stating: “These fools have a problem with Chris and JoJo for being themselves #CBBUK.”

During the programme, ITV’s audiences watched as the celebrities took on a quirky shopping task, assuming the roles within an unconventional family unit. Jack P. Shepherd slipped into the role of dad, alongside Danny Beard who was decked out as the mum.

Grandparents were brought to life by JoJo Siwa and Donna Preston, while Patsy Palmer, Chesney Hawkes, and Angellica Bell found themselves reliving teenhood. Acting as the household’s toddlers were none other than Ella Rae Wise and Chris Hughes.

Together, they must convincingly enact a harmonious family life, but with the atmosphere charged with growing tension, will they be able to clinch success in this week’s shopping challenge?

Celebrity Big Brother is available to watch on ITVX.

Ingrid Lindblad grew up figure skating. The dynamic sport of balance and precision tested her limits before she ultimately surrendered the ice for the green full-time.

The individuality, besting yourself rather than an opponent to achieve your goals, drove the Swedish golfer as a young athlete — and to top amateur status at Louisiana State. As one of two LPGA rookies atop the JM Eagle LA Championship leaderboard Sunday afternoon, Lindblad needed to channel her success, which propelled her to becoming the 2024 Honda Award winner for golf, the same under-pressure skillset that helped her qualify for the LPGA tour in the first place.

Lindblad, 25, converted six birdies Sunday, enough to weather the field and win the LA Championship at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana — her first LPGA victory in her third career tour start. Lindblad, who missed out on the top 10 in her first two starts, charged into the conversation Friday with a career-low nine-under 63 to tie the tournament scoring record. She bookended the second round with four-under performances in the first and third rounds.

Lindblad was unaware of her first victory until cameras swarmed her as she nervously snacked in front of the clubhouse. Her shocked expression turned to glee as her mother, Cecilia, and peers celebrated her milestone moment.

Sunday’s finale wasn’t in her hands. Fellow rookie Akie Iwai missed a 13-foot putt on the 18th hole that would have forced a playoff after tying the score at 21-under with a 16th-hole birdie.

“You expect your opponent to make, make the chip, make the putt,” Lindblad said. “She played really well this week too. I was expecting her to make it.”

Iwai, who played alongside her identical twin sister, Chisato, on Saturday, curved a last-chance shot from behind a tree to try and cut into the lead to set up her birdie putt.

“I saw Ingrid [was ahead],” said Akie Iwai, who finished 20-under as the runner-up. “I must catch up… so I will give it a try. It was a really good shot.”

Earlier in the round, Iwai, who entered Sunday tied with Lindblad and tour veteran Lauren Coughlin at 17-under, stalled after her sixth-hole bogey.

Lindblad also lost steam, settling for par on every hole after the 11th. But she found a lucky touch to maintain her lead. On the eighth hole, after driving the ball into the rough — a sand patch near a fan viewing zone — Lindblad skipped a ball about 50 yards onto the green to create a short putt opportunity.

She sank the birdie, her fifth of the day, to place her at 20 under and a two-stroke lead with 10 holes remaining.

Even when her drives left plenty to be desired, struggling to find the fairway on multiple holes, Lindblad would save par to keep distance between second place. Lindblad sliced a ball on the 13th hole that sailed far wide and off a tree.

“I was not always friends with my driver,” Lindblad said.

The ball, however, ricocheted off the tree and toward the fairway rather than out of bounds. Lindblad eventually made par.

The 10th hole — a par four — appeared to be a potential bogey after Lindblad left the ball short of the putting green and into a bunker on her second shot. But after a nifty chip, she was able to keep par with a 15-foot putt.

It was shots such as her 10th-hole sand save that was proof that it may be Lindblad’s day in Tarzana.

“I know my sand saves aren’t the greatest percentage this year so far,” Lindblad said. “Making that up and down on both [the second hole] from the bunker and on 10 from the bunker, I was just happy to make par.”

Lindblad outpaced attempts to cut into her lead from the top-two ranked women’s golfers. Nelly Korda, No. 1 in the world, began the day tied for third and finished at 14 under. Just below Korda in the rankings, Jeeno Thitikul made a run toward the top of the standings by birdieing her first four holes, but ultimately settled in a tie for ninth place going 16 under.

Australian Hannah Green, who won the last two LA Championships, finished ninth as well. She donated $1,000 per eagle and $500 per birdie for Los Angeles fire relief efforts. Green will donate $10,500 after she added six birdies to her tally Sunday.

“I did a little bit of a tally last night,” Green said of her donations. “I was hoping that it was going to be a course where we make a ton [of eagles and birdies], and obviously it has been. … I’m grateful that I did make the amount that I did.”

Coughlin, who was part of the first-place tie to start Sunday, ended the LA Championship tied for third at 19 under with Esther Henseleit and Miyu Yamashita.

The LA Championship, which is usually held at Wilshire Country Club, moved to El Caballero in 2025 because of course renovations at Wilshire. The LPGA tour plans to return to Wilshire next season.

With the the Chevron Championship — the first LPGA major of the year — coming next week, Lindblad said it may be time to reassess her rookie-season goals after her first tour win. And with the $562,500 in prize money now to her name, she quipped only one thing was on her mind.

“I said, if I win, I’m gonna bump myself up to first class tomorrow,” Lindblad said she joked Saturday. “But there are no seats in first class tomorrow.”

Lindblad may still be thinking about first class, but after Sunday she’ll need to check an extra bag for her LA Championship silver trophy.

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