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May 11 (UPI) — The Qatari Royal Family has planned to gift a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet to President Donald Trump to be used for Air Force One and for his own private use when his presidency ends, reports said Sunday.

News of the major gift was first reported by ABC News, citing anonymous sources, and later confirmed by The New York Times and NBC News. United Press International has reached out to Qatar’s Government Communications Office for confirmation.

The gift is expected to be formally announced when Trump visits Qatar next week, according to the reports. Trump toured the plane when it was parked at the West Palm Beach International Airport in February.

A Qatari representative, however, told Axios that while reports of Trump being gifted a jet were “inaccurate,” Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense are discussing the possible temporary use of an aircraft as Air Force One.

If it is gifted, the jet could become the most valuable gift ever from a foreign government to the United States, ABC News reported. Its $400 million estimated price tag surpasses the estimated $250,000 cost of constructing the Statue of Liberty — which was gifted to the United States from France.

But the expected acceptance of the gift by Trump raises questions of its legality, raising the possibility that the president could face scrutiny for bribery or violating the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The Emoluments Clause prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts, payments or other benefits from foreign governments without the consent of Congress but there is debate as to whether it applies to elected officials. According to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, the interpretation of the clause has never been litigated before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lawyers for the White House reportedly expect accepting the gift to draw scrutiny and have drafted an analysis for U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which concludes that it is legal for the U.S. Defense Department to accept the gift and then to later hand it over to Trump’s presidential library for his private use when he leaves office.

The Trump administration is looking to the precedent set by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in handling the ethical considerations of accepting a retired presidential aircraft.

The Reagan Library boasts a 90,000-square-foot exhibit hangar that permanently displays a Boeing VC-137C aircraft with the tail letters SAM 27000, which entered service as Air Force One under President Richard Nixon.

Though the plane was used by each president until George W. Bush, it is best known in relation to Reagan and was gifted to his library when it was decommissioned in 2001. Reagan died in 2004.

The difference between the use of the two gifts that could pose a challenge for Trump is that the Reagan Library immediately installed it for permanent display while Trump is reported to be planning to continue using it for personal travel.

Trump currently owns a Boeing 757 that dates to the early 1990s. The jet was originally operated by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen before Trump purchased it in 2011.

Two new Air Force One planes have been in the works since at least 2018 when the Air Force awarded a $3.9 billion contract for two modified Boeing 747-8 planes that were expected for delivery by 2024.

Trump told ABC News in 2019 that he wanted to change up the traditional baby blue and white pattern chosen by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the 1960s to a new color scheme that resembled that of his private jet.

Boeing started modifying the first of the two aircraft in February 2020 and the second in June 2020. According to a 2022 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the company had completed major structural modifications on the first aircraft and is now preparing it for wiring installations.

However, at the time, Boeing struggled to find workers to complete the modifications because of a “competitive labor market” and “lower-than-planned security clearance approval rates.” The Air Force later lowered security clearance standards to make it easier to find workers.

Last week, Defense One reported that Boeing has told the Air Force it can deliver the new jets by 2027 if the government loosens some requirements.

May 11 (UPI) — One person was killed and dozens more were injured Sunday in a collision between a tour bus and a stalled SUV on a Los Angeles County freeway, police said.

The tour bus was carrying 63 passengers when it collided with a disabled Nissan Pathfinder on State Route 60 near Hacienda Heights, an unincorporated area east of Los Angeles, according to a statement from the California Highway Patrol.

The Nissan erupted into flames after it was hit by the bus shortly after 5 a.m. EDT Sunday. The driver died at the scene, police said.

“As a result of the impact, the Nissan Pathfinder became fully engulfed in flames, trapping the occupant,” the CHP statement said.

The CHP statement said the bus was heading to Koreatown in downtown Los Angeles from Morongo Valley, about 110 miles east of the city when the collision occurred. The driver of the bus was identified as Sui Sheng Du.

Following the collision, the bus careened across multiple lanes of the freeway and crashed into a raised metal and wood guardrail on the shoulder of the highway.

Local media showed images and video of the crash. CHP said neither alcohol or drugs appeared to be a factor in the crash.

Leo XIV, the first American pope, voted in past Republican primaries but is not formally registered with any party.

Hours after Robert Prevost became the first United States-born pontiff on May 8, social media discussions in the US speculated whether Pope Leo XIV, as he is known after the election, was a “registered Republican”.

“SCOOP: Our Turning Point Action team pulled the voting history for Pope Leo XIV,” conservative influencer Charlie Kirk wrote on social media platform X on May 8. “He’s a registered Republican who has voted in Republican primaries when not living abroad. Our data shows he’s a strong Republican, and he’s pro-life.”

Many other X posts called Prevost a “registered Republican”.

Prevost, 69, is a registered voter in Will County, Illinois, and has cast ballots there over the past 13 years. In Illinois, voters do not register by party affiliation. But they declare a party when voting in a primary, according to an April video by the Illinois State Board of Elections.

“However, you are not tied down or formally registered to this party and are free to vote for another party at a subsequent election,” the video says.

The Illinois voter registration application does not ask people to provide a party affiliation.

The Will County clerk’s office sent PolitiFact Prevost’s voter information, which lists his party affiliation as “undeclared”. It shows that he voted in the 2012, 2014 and 2016 Republican primaries. He voted absentee in the 2024 general election, with an undeclared party affiliation.

The viral screenshots Kirk and others shared on X are from L2, a paywalled database that aggregates consumer and voter data. L2’s profile of Prevost lists “Republican” in its “party” field.

🚨 🚨 🚨 New Pope is a registered REPUBLICAN! pic.twitter.com/bj8MH8H2Qs

— Jared Small 💁🏼‍♀️ (@jaredsmall) May 8, 2025

It is unclear how L2 determines a party affiliation for people who live in states such as Illinois, where this information is not included in voter registration. L2 did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment.

Born in 1955, Prevost grew up in Dolton, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. He was ordained as a priest in 1982, then moved to Peru, where he lived from 1988 through 1998. In 1999, he returned to Chicago to serve as the prior provincial of the Augustinian province of “Mother of Good Counsel”, which covers the Midwest and Canada.

Prevost’s voter file lists his address to a house owned by his brother, John Prevost. We were unable to determine Robert Prevost’s address or where he was registered to vote before 2012. In 2014, he returned to Peru and served as the bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. He then moved to Rome, where he has lived since.

US citizens who live overseas and meet certain criteria can vote absentee while abroad.

We contacted the clerk’s office in Cook County, Illinois, where Chicago is located, to ask whether Prevost has a voter file in the county. The clerk’s office directed us to submit a Freedom of Information Act request for that information; we did so, but did not receive an immediate response.

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, chair of religious studies and political science professor at Northwestern University in the Chicago suburbs, said Prevost’s voting history does not tell the public “much about his views or positions other than that in that particular primary he was inclined toward one or more of the Republican candidates”.

Our ruling

X posts said Prevost is a “registered Republican”.

Prevost is registered to vote in Illinois, where voters do not register with a party affiliation. However, they declare a party affiliation when voting in a primary. County records show Prevost voted in three Republican primaries from 2012 through 2016, the most recent records we obtained.

Still, the Illinois State Board of Elections says when voters participate in primaries, they are not formally registered to a party.

No one is registered by party affiliation in Illinois, and evidence is scant about Prevost’s voting history over his lifetime.

The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts. We rate it Mostly False.

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact-check.

Port Sudan, el-Fasher, West Kordofan and West Darfur have all seen heavy fighting.

Multiple attacks by Sudan’s armed forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have struck various locations across the country now in its third year of a civil war.

At least nine civilians, including four children, were killed and seven injured in attacks on Sunday by the RSF in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state in western Sudan, according to the Sudanese army.

During a sweep of the city, the SAF killed six RSF members and destroyed three combat vehicles, according to the statement. There was no immediate comment from the RSF on the army report.

El-Fasher is the last major city held by SAF in Darfur. For over a year, the RSF has sought to wrest control it, located more than 800km (500 miles) southwest of the capital, Khartoum, from the SAF, launching regular attacks on the city and two major famine-hit camps for displaced people on its outskirts.

In the meantime, Sudan’s civil defence forces announced on Sunday that they have full control over fires that erupted at the main fuel depot and other strategic sites in Port Sudan, the seat of the army-backed government, which has come under daily drone attacks blamed on the RSF over the past week.

The fires caused by a drone strike on the fuel depot on Monday had spread across “warehouses filled with fuel”, the Sudanese army-aligned authorities said, warning of a “potential disaster in the area”.

The Red Sea port city had been seen as a safe haven from the devastating two-year conflict between the SAF and RSF before the drone strikes began on May 4.

The attacks have damaged several key facilities, including the country’s sole international civilian airport, its largest working fuel depot and the city’s main power station.

On Tuesday, Sudanese authorities accused the RSF of being behind the drone strikes. The RSF has not commented on the allegations.

Port Sudan is the main entry point for humanitarian aid into Sudan. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the attacks “threaten to increase humanitarian needs and further complicate aid operations in the country”, his spokesman said.

Sudan’s army launched air strikes on the RSF in el-Khuwei in West Kordofan state and the state of West Darfur late on Saturday. El-Khuwei was captured by the RSF last week.

Activists and Sudanese accounts shared a video clip on social media showing the Sudanese army and their allied forces announcing that they had regained control over el-Khuwei after battles with the RSF on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency.

Witnesses also reported drone strikes on Sunday, targeting the airport in Atbara, a city in the northern state of River Nile.

The RSF has been battling the SAF for control of Sudan since April 2023. The civil war has killed more than 20,000 people, uprooted 15 million and created what the UN considers the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Kylian Mbappe scores all Real Madrid’s goals in a 4-3 defeat as Barcelona place one hand on the LaLiga title.

Barcelona have overcome a two-goal deficit and a Kylian Mbappe hat-trick for Real Madrid to claim a 4-3 win in El Clasico, edging them closer to the LaLiga title.

Brazilian forward Raphinha scored twice for Barca on Sunday in response to a flying start by the visitors – which saw them storm to a two-goal lead after 14 minutes – at the Catalan club’s temporary home at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium.

The victory extends Barcelona’s lead at the top of the standings to seven points over second-placed Real – the defending champions – and with three matches remaining, one more victory will clinch a 28th Spanish league title for the Catalans.

Barca earned a fourth consecutive victory over Real in all competitions this season and their second in less than a month in a chaotic match in which both sides showed their usual defensive weaknesses.

However, Barca seemed a much stronger and well organised team overall, dominating possession and creating several chances that were denied by inspired goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who prevented Real’s loss from being by a larger margin.

Barcelona could secure the LaLiga title as early as Wednesday should Real Madrid fail to win at Mallorca. Regardless of Real’s result, a Barcelona victory in their city derby against Espanyol on Thursday would guarantee the championship for the Catalans.

Mbappe opened the scoring from the penalty spot after he was fouled inside the box by keeper Wojciech Szczesny in the fifth minute, and he extended their lead with a quick counter nine minutes later from an assist by Vinicius Jr.

However, Barcelona responded swiftly with Eric Garcia, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha all finding the net within 15 minutes to overturn the deficit.

Garcia headed home from a corner in the 19th minute while Yamal scored the equaliser in the 32nd with another brilliant display of technique as he curled a superb shot from the right corner of the box just outside Courtois’s reach and inside the far post.

Two minutes later, a mistake by Mbappe in the midfield gifted Barca the ball, and Raphinha launched a quick counter, giving his side the lead with a tidy finish past a helpless Courtois.

Real thought they had earned a second penalty in the 43rd minute, but it was overturned due to an offside in the build-up. And one minute later, a costly error by captain Lucas Vazquez gifted Raphinha the goal that extended Barca’s lead.

Barcelona came back strongly in the second half and had several chances denied by a string of stunning saves by Courtois.

They were shocked, however, when Mbappe reduced the deficit in the 70th minute after a quick counterattack by Vinicius, who ran up the right side and put it on a plate for the France forward to complete his hat-trick.

Yet last year’s champions could not recover, leaving them on the brink of a season without silverware.

“It was obviously very important to win today. It’s great to have this game after the Champions League. I think it’s already forgotten,” Yamal told Movistar Plus after Barca were knocked out of the European club competition in the semifinals in a heartbreaking midweek loss to Inter Milan.

“Suffering is what makes you strong and what teaches you to correct the mistakes you make. They didn’t create any clear-cut chances other than the goals.

“It was very important to win today to get closer to the league title. We are delighted.”

Real manager Carlo Ancelotti, meanwhile, is set to come under increased pressure with rumours the former Real midfielder Xabi Alonso will replace him at the end of the season.

The Italian-born coach was in a pragmatic mood, however, about the result and his side’s performance.

“It was an evenly played match, competitive and fought until the last second,” he told reporters.

“We could have scored the equaliser, but it is what it is. It was a great game between two great teams, so I have nothing to reproach my team for in terms of attitude and commitment. It didn’t go well, but we competed.”

Alonso told reporters on Friday that he would be leaving his role as Bayer Leverkusen coach at the end of the season while Ancelotti complimented the former Spanish international, saying the “the doors are open” for him to now move to a big club.

May 11 (UPI) — Operations are returning to normal after a unrelated equipment issues prompted ground stops at Newark Liberty and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airports Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced.

“Technicians are working to address the problem,” the FAA said of the Newark issue.

“The FAA briefly slowed aircraft in and out of the airport while we ensured redundancies were working as designed,” the agency said on X. “Operations have returned to normal.”

As of Sunday afternoon, at least 150 flights to and from Newark were delayed and 80 were canceled. The FAA issued the ground stop Sunday morning and later downgraded the directive to a slowdown.

Separately, a “runway equipment issue” caused hundreds of flights in Atlanta to be delayed by a ground stop, and the a two-hour ground delay, which a Delta Airlines spokesperson told reporters was delayed an outage at the airport and weather.

Ongoing Newark issues

The Mother’s Day air traffic snarl at Newark appeared to originate with a communications system in Philadelphia where flights in and out of Newark are directed.

It’s the second outage of the TRACON system less than two weeks. On April 28th, the system malfunctioned which created major air traffic delays in Newark.

During last month’s TRACON outage, air traffic controllers lost contact with planes traveling to and from Newark, rendering the controllers unable to see, hear, or talk to the pilots.

Sunday’s ground stop came while Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced plans to reduce the traffic load at Newark by installing a new communications line between the busy New Jersey airport and the Philadelphia TRACON system.

“And if we don’t actually accomplish the mission that we’re announcing today, you will see Newark’s — not just in Newark — you’ll see Newarks in other parts of the country,” Duffy said during an interview on NBC News’ Meet the Press.

Duffy stressed on Sunday that it is still safe to fly in the United States and stressed that when incidents such as the one that happened in Newark Sunday do happen, air traffic controllers and pilots have backup systems and procedures in place to ensure the safety of flight crews and passengers.

“It is not ideal, by any stretch, but they — they do implement those procedures, and they stay away from each other, and they — and we vacate the airspace,” Duffy added.

Duffy said the new communications line is scheduled to be completed by the end of the summer.

May 11 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is willing to meet face to face with Russian President Vladimir Putin following a demand by the Trump administration for the two leaders to meet in an effort to end the war between the two nations.

“There is no point in prolonging the killings,” Zelensky wrote on X. “And I will be waiting for Putin in Turkiye on Thursday. Personally.”

Should the meeting occur, it would be the first time that the two leaders have talked face-to-face since Russia invaded Ukraine in the port city of Mariupol more than three years ago.

President Donald Trump called for an unconditional 30-day cease-fire between the warring nations and threatened sanctions if the directive is “not respected.”

Zelensky spoke with Trump and leaders of several NATO nations Saturday, a call and meeting during which the Ukrainian leader said he is ready to begin a cease-fire on Monday, and added that he is ready to begin direct talks with Putin if the cease-fire goes into effect.

Putin responded that he is ready to begin direct talks with Ukraine on Thursday, although the Russian leader did not indicate being ready to accept terms of the cease-fire proposal.

Zelensky has said he will be in Turkey Thursday regardless of whether Russia enters the cease-fire on Monday.

Since returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump has touted corporate and foreign US investment announcements as proof he is ushering in “the golden age of America”.

On January 21, Trump said that before he’d finished the “first full business day” of his second term, the United States had “already secured nearly $3 trillion of new investments”.

On April 2, he said, “It looks like we’re going to have about $6 trillion of investments”. Six days later, Trump told National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner attendees that the investment total was “now revised up to about $7 (trillion)”.

During an April 30 NewsNation town hall, Trump speculated that “it could be more than $8 trillion”.

On May 4, Trump told Kristen Welker, the host of the NBC News programme Meet the Press, “I think we probably have close to $9 trillion of investments coming into this country.”

On May 6, Trump told reporters, “I think the real number could be $9 or $10 trillion.”

Finally, on May 8, Trump said, “We have now close to $10 trillion — think of that, $10 trillion” in investments. “We’re talking about essentially two months.”

That’s far beyond the figures the White House has released publicly.

We tallied the White House’s public lists of investments; they amount to $2.1 trillion in corporate investments, or at most $5.1 trillion when including promised investments from other countries. Experts cautioned that the promised corporate investments are not guaranteed to materialise in full, or during Trump’s presidency, and some of them would have occurred regardless of who was president.

Trump isn’t the first to overstate new investments on his watch. Outgoing US President Joe Biden said in 2024 that his bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act had attracted $640bn in private investments; economists told PolitiFact that Biden’s numbers were based on what companies had announced, which is not the same as dollars already spent.

Roman V Yampolskiy, a University of Louisville professor and a specialist in artificial intelligence, which dominates the promised investments Trump cited, said, “Historically, large-scale investment announcements often overpromise and underdeliver. There is a performative element to them, especially in politically charged contexts. They function as political theatre as much as economic commitment.”

White House lists do not match Trump’s words

Since Trump’s inauguration, the White House has publicised investment announcements from three countries and roughly 60 companies on its website, including in a “non-comprehensive running list”. Many of the highest-dollar corporate announcements were in March and April.

Corporate announcements in the White House’s lists total approximately $2.1 trillion worth of US investment.

The White House separately has cited commitments from the United Arab Emirates to invest $1.4 trillion over the next 10 years; from Japan to “boost” its investment in the US to $1 trillion; and from Saudi Arabia to invest $600bn in the US during Trump’s presidency. Combined with the corporate announcements, these bring the total to about $5.1 trillion, $4.9 trillion short of Trump’s figure.

But the $5.1 trillion total has caveats. For example, the White House said “Japan announced a $1 trillion investment in the US”, but the article it linked said in 2023, Japan’s US investment was $783.3bn and Japan would “boost” that to $1 trillion. That’s an increase of $216.7bn rather than a new $1 trillion investment. That would put the total value of newly pledged US investment at about $4.3 trillion.

Trump’s second-term White House tally of US investments 

The White House figures can’t easily be used for apples-to-apples comparisons. Some of the investments are planned over Trump’s four-year term, others over five years or a decade. In one case – ADQ and Energy Capital Partners’ planned $25bn investment — it isn’t limited to US-based projects.

The White House declined to detail additional investments. A spokesperson pointed to federal Bureau of Economic Analysis data that shows a 22 percent increase in business investment in the first quarter of 2025, calling it a historic increase.

However, experts cautioned this increase was shaped by businesses stocking up on inventory before Trump’s tariffs take effect and said the increase is unlikely to be sustained.

Many of the announcements are aspirational, experts say

Experts told PolitiFact that each of the five biggest investments on Trump’s list warrants some caution, because they might not reach Trump’s cited dollar amounts or were not solely prompted by Trump’s policies.

“Many of these announcements, particularly those in the AI and semiconductor sectors, appear to be, at least in part, aspirational in nature,” Yampolskiy said. “They serve a signalling function: to attract investor attention, shape policy discourse, and secure favourable regulatory or funding environments.”

The five largest company investments collectively account for 82 percent of the dollar value on the White House’s corporate list.

Five companies accounting for the majority of new investment promises are:

Stargate

The Stargate Project is an artificial intelligence collaboration among OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, announced during a January 21 White House event. The White House values the investment at $500bn.

The company’s official announcement says $100bn will be invested “immediately” and that it “intends to invest” a total of $500bn over the next four years, a goal repeated by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son at the White House event.

“Whether that much will ultimately get spent remains to be seen,” wrote John Higgins, chief economist at Capital Economics, an international consulting firm.

Enrique Dans, who studies technology and policy at Madrid’s IE Business School, said the $500bn figure is “astronomical – roughly 2 percent of US gross domestic product – and lacks clear documentation”.

At the White House event, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “We wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr President.” But Altman had been discussing plans for a $100bn investment 10 months before Trump won his second term, The Washington Post reported, including an Abilene, Texas, data centre that began construction in summer 2024.

“AI investments have been on a global trajectory driven by technological maturity and competitive pressure, especially from China,” Dans said. “Any US president would have seen a surge.”

Nvidia

Nvidia Corp, another AI company, said it plans to invest up to $500bn in US infrastructure over the next four years. Previously, Nvidia manufactured most of its chips in Taiwan.

“It is unlikely Nvidia would have moved any production to the US if it was not for pressure from the Trump administration,” Gil Luria, an analyst with the financial services firm D.A. Davidson, told Reuters. However, Luria added, “The half a trillion number is likely hyperbole.”

Dans said that although tax cuts from Trump’s first term have benefited the company’s focus on US-based efforts, “the core growth likely would have occurred anyway”, regardless of the president.

Apple

On February 24, days after Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, met with Trump, the consumer electronics giant announced it plans to spend “more than $500bn in the US over the next four years.”

Analysts have expressed scepticism that this represents new investment. Dans called the investment “simply more of what [Apple] already does,” from “day-to-day activities with thousands of suppliers in all 50 states to the operation of its domestic data centres, as well as its investments in Apple TV+ and other projects already manufactured in the country.”

In a note to investors, David Vogt, an analyst with the Swiss-based bank UBS, wrote, “Call us a sceptic. … We believe [the figure] lacks substance.”

IBM

IBM announced April 28 plans to invest $150bn in the US, including more than $30bn in research and development on US-based manufacturing of mainframe and quantum computers.

This is “not clearly Trump-related,” Dans said. “IBM’s strategy pivots have been under way since the 2010s.”

Luria said, “While we believe IBM will continue to invest in the emerging area of quantum technology, the bombastic figure is more likely a gesture towards the US administration,” Reuters reported.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, which makes semiconductors for computing and electronics, has pledged to spend $100bn in the US. Analysts said this number is the most well-supported among the investments that Trump cites. Although bringing semiconductor production back to the US began during Trump’s first term, it was “greatly accelerated by” Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, which prompted years of investment before Trump’s second term, Dans said.

Over the past five years, the company has spent at least $65bn on fabrication facilities near Phoenix, Arizona, funded in part by $6.6bn from the CHIPS and Science Act.

Overall, Dans said, “Trump might deserve some partial credit for setting a more aggressive tone on economic nationalism and supply chain reshoring, and for lowering the corporate tax reform, which did affect repatriation and some investment decisions. But most of these trends — the AI boom, the semiconductor reshoring, the cloud computing infrastructure — are long-term structural shifts that predate Trump and will continue regardless of who is in office.”

Our ruling

Trump said, “We have now close to $10 trillion, think of that, $10 trillion” in investments. “We’re talking about essentially two months.”

The White House has pointed to investment announcements totalling $5.1 trillion, including $2.1 trillion from companies and the rest from countries.

That’s at least $4.9 trillion short of Trump’s figure, and these announcements represent future spending, some of which is planned over four years, five years or a decade.

Experts said many of the dollar amounts are aspirational and that the investments announced might never be fully reached. They also said some of this investment would have occurred regardless of who was president.

We rate the statement false.

May 11 (UPI) — U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Sunday that the administration of President Donald Trump would keep the 10% baseline tariffs on global imports for the “foreseeable future.”

“We do expect a 10 percent baseline tariff to be in place for the foreseeable future,” Lutnick told CNN’s Dana Bash during an interview on “State of the Union.”

Bash interviewed Lutnick as the second day of trade talks between the United States and China was happening in Geneva, which Trump said Saturday marked a “total reset” in relations.

“The team is in Switzerland meeting with their counterparts from China, and they are hard at it. There’s a lot to accomplish,” Lutnick said of the negotiations. “There’s both a lot to take care of and get off the table, and they’re working hard at it. At the end of the day, they felt good, the president felt good, and I’m going to leave it to them.”

Lutnick noted the success of the Trump administration’s negotiations with Britain, which finalized a long-in-the-works trade deal with the United States. When asked whether the framework of that deal, with Britain keeping 10% tariffs, would be expected to continue, Lutnick said the U.S. will not be negotiating lower than 10% for any country.

“The Chinese and our representatives are meeting now. So, let’s just leave what’s possible with China to what happens on Monday, Tuesday, and next week,” Lutnick said.

“But the rest of the world is open for business, right? Remember, we have a low tariff on the rest of the world while we negotiate. But our expectation is that these countries are going to open their markets, their tariffs are going to come down, the ability for us to export and grow our economy is going to be better than ever before.”

Bash also asked Lutnick about remarks from Trump last week that the decline of imports caused by his tariffs is a good thing for Americans. Lutnick insisted that Americans “are the consumers of the world” and so imports would continue.

“Don’t buy the silly arguments that the U.S. consumer pays,” he said. “Businesses, their job is to try to sell to the American consumer. And domestically produced products are not going to have that tariff. So, the foreigners are going to finally have to compete.”

The Israeli military has killed at least 13 Palestinians, including several children and women, in Gaza as it continues to starve the besieged enclave.

Among the victims since dawn on Sunday were three Palestinians killed in a drone strike on a vehicle and two killed in a bombing near residential towers located west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Another two people were killed in artillery shelling of a home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north while the body of a man was recovered near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza after Israeli warplanes bombed the area a day earlier.

The Israeli military also attacked the Islamic University building in Khan Younis.

فيديو يوثق لحظة قصف الاحتلال الجامعة الإسلامية في منطقة معن شرقي خانيونس جنوبي قطاع غزة. pic.twitter.com/1G8rFhF7Ch

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) May 11, 2025

The latest killings in the daily Israeli bombardment of Gaza came as the enclave has seen no food, water, medicine or fuel enter the territory for 70 days due to Israel’s blockade.

The 2.3 million residents of Gaza are surviving on fast-dwindling supplies and charity kitchens, which have been gradually forced to shut down as they run out of food and hunger spreads.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned on Sunday that the longer the blockade continues, the more irreversible harm is being done to Palestinians.

“UNRWA has thousands of trucks ready to enter and our teams in Gaza are ready to scale up the delivery,” the organisation said.

Hamas said in a statement on Sunday that Israel is committing a “complex crime”.

Israel’s security cabinet this month approved a plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip and force another mass displacement of Palestinians.

Israel has also proposed taking over any future humanitarian aid distribution, which would, it said, involve creating designated military zones.

The Humanitarian Country Team, a forum that includes UN agencies, warned that the plan is dangerous and would “contravene fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Sunday that the country would accept a new US mechanism that would start delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.

A group of American security contractors, former military officers and humanitarian aid officials is proposing to take over the distribution of food and other supplies in Gaza based on plans similar to those designed by Israel.

The plan has been criticised for bypassing the UN and aid groups with expertise in aid delivery and creating only four distribution points that would force a large number of Palestinians to travel to southern Gaza.

According to the latest figures by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Sunday, at least 52,829 Palestinians have been confirmed killed and 119,554 wounded by Israeli military attacks since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people and resulted in more than 200 people taken captive into Gaza.

Pope Leo XIV called for an immediate ceasefire, entry of humanitarian aid and release of all those held in Gaza during his first Sunday blessing since his election as pontiff.

Israel to pay soldiers more before Gaza expansion

The Israeli military planned to intensify its ground occupation of Gaza on Sunday, pulling the Paratroopers Brigade back from its incursions into Syria to be redeployed to Gaza.

The paratroopers have been operating in the occupied Golan Heights and inside Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Israel withdrew the Nahal Brigade from the occupied West Bank – which has also been under assault for months – in its intended and self-proclaimed push to “conquer” Gaza.

But thousands of Israeli reservists and other members of the Israeli military and security agencies, along with thousands of Israelis demonstrating in the streets, have been calling for an end to the war to bring back all captives.

To address the growing dissatisfaction among soldiers, the Israeli government on Sunday approved a “comprehensive benefit plan” for reservists worth about 3 billion shekels ($838m) that is slated to include a series of economic and social benefits.

The army welcomed the plan approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying in a statement that it is a reflection of soldiers’ “exceptional contribution” to Israeli society.

This comes as United States President Donald Trump, who has reportedly had some differences with Netanyahu in recent weeks over the Gaza war and how to engage with Iran, will launch a tour of the Middle East this week.

May 11 (UPI) — High-level trade talks between the United States and China are continuing Sunday in Geneva, marking the second day of negotiations between the two countries in the hope of ending President Donald Trump‘s trade war.

“A very good meeting today with China, in Switzerland. Many things discussed, much agreed to. A total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform after Saturday’s negotiations.

“We want to see, for the good of both China and the U.S., an opening up of China to American business. GREAT PROGRESS MADE!!!”

The U.S.-China trade war ignited earlier this year when Trump returned to office and imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese imports, citing national security concerns linked to the American fentanyl crisis.

Tensions escalated rapidly and, by April, tariffs surged to 145% on Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to retaliate with 125% duties on U.S. exports. The tit-for-tat measures have disrupted global supply chains and fueled fears of a global economic slowdown.

China’s Xinhua state news agency published an op-ed Sunday that welcomed the high-level talks but affirmed China’s determination to safeguard its economic interests, whether through “fighting” back with reciprocal tariffs or through negotiations.

“In this context, it is of positive significance for the two sides to sit down and talk, which is a necessary way to resolve differences and avoid escalation of conflicts,” reporter Fan Yu wrote for Xinhua.

“However, the effectiveness of the dialogue depends on the sincerity and efforts of both sides, especially whether the United States can truly be rational and pragmatic. China has always believed that any dialogue and negotiation must be carried out on the premise of mutual respect, equal consultation, mutual benefit and mutual benefit.”

In a separate editorial Saturday, edited by Zhao Yang, Xinhua also criticized the Trump administration for provoking the trade war “without sufficient planning and careful consideration” and asserted that if the two countries were to decouple, the U.S. economy would become poorer, citing data from the Oxford Economics Institute.

“Any US action will trigger a Chinese response. Take technology as an example. Although the US has restricted China’s access to cutting-edge chips, is this effective?” the editorial reads.

“In the fields of chip manufacturing and artificial intelligence, Chinese companies such as Huawei and DeepSeek seem to be able to produce close to cutting-edge technological achievements at a much lower cost than the United States.”

China’s Ministry of Commerce has separately been seeking to strengthen trade with Switzerland, a move also underway by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. It said in a statement that Swiss Vice President Guy Parmelin expressed support for “multilateralism and free trade.”

Switzerland, known for its significant role in international finance and trade, could serve as a pivotal partner in diversifying trade relationships and mitigating the impacts of the U.S.-China trade tensions.

“Very productive meetings alongside U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer yesterday with President Keller Sutter and Vice President Guy Parmelin of the Swiss Confederation,” Bessent said in a statement on social media.

“I am glad that we have agreed on accelerated trade talks, and we expect that a detailed Swiss proposal will be submitted to Ambassador Greer by next week.”

Bessent expressed optimism around Swiss negotiations on the heels of Trump’s recent trade agreement with Britain.

Data shows that about 80 percent of all toys and 90 percent of Christmas goods sold in the US are manufactured in China.

Whether you are gift-wrapping a toy car or hanging Christmas ornaments, there is a strong chance you are handling products made in a Chinese factory.

The day after President Donald Trump spoke in an interview about his tariff policies that girls in the United States do not need to “have 30 dolls”, some political commentators discussed China’s influence over the US toy market. The US currently has a 145 percent tariff on goods from China.

“China makes 80 percent of all toys sold in this country and 90 percent of all Christmas goods sold in this country,” former New York Times columnist Charles Blow said during a May 5 appearance on CNN’s News Night with Abby Phillip. “We have a lot of leverage with China. The Christmas and the doll industry is not one of them.”

Blow told PolitiFact his source was an April 29 report in The New York Times. It said, “Factories in China produce nearly 80 percent of all toys and 90 percent of Christmas goods sold in America.”

Data shows those figures are rounded up, but not far off.

Blow’s statement is “directionally accurate but slightly overstated on toys”, said Gilberto Garcia-Vazquez, chief economist at Datawheel, which operates an online economic data platform called the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

He said out of $41bn worth of imports in toys, games and sports equipment in 2024 by the US, $30bn, or about 73 percent, was manufactured in China.

“If you include domestic production – small but non-negligible – China likely supplies closer to 72 percent of toys actually sold in the US, not 80 percent,” Garcia-Vazquez said. The Observatory of Economic Complexity uses data sources from “statistical offices, open data portals or custom union websites”.

Claire Huber, spokesperson for the US International Trade Commission (USITC), provided PolitiFact with an analysis of 2024 data that showed 78.3 percent of toy imports and 85 percent of Christmas-related imports, such as lights, trees and decorations, are manufactured in China. The toy category includes dolls, wheeled toys and scale models.

The data was compiled using the USITC’s DataWeb, which cites statistics published by the US Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau, accessed on May 9.

Garcia-Vazquez also analysed 2024 data for Christmas goods and said 90 percent of US imports in that category came from China.

He said Christmas lights are an exception because “Cambodia has recently overtaken China as the top source”.

The New York Times published an April 27 report that showed 76 percent of “toys and puzzles” and 87 percent of “Christmas decorations” come from China. Bloomberg, citing the trade organisation Toy Association, said “roughly 80 percent of toys sold in the US are made in China”.

Data shows 73 to 78 percent of toy imports and 85 to 90 percent of Christmas-related imports in 2024 came from China, supporting Blow’s point that the vast majority of these goods come from China. We rate his statement True.

The race for rare earths is heating up as the world pushes for clean energy and tech advancements. But behind the push for wind turbines and electric vehicles lies a complex web of geopolitics, environmental challenges, and human costs.

New Delhi, India – Mukeet Shah had not slept for days, doomscrolling on his mobile phone as he remained hooked to news updates on the spiralling India-Pakistan conflict.

A phone call from his mother, Tanveera Bano, on Saturday made it worse. “Please, come back [home]. Why be apart when we can at least die together?” she urged her younger son, who studies at a university in New Delhi, the national capital.

Shah, 23, said her appeal shattered him. An hour or so later, another news flash popped up on his phone: “US President Donald Trump says India and Pakistan have agreed to a ‘full and immediate’ ceasefire.” Moments later, the South Asian rivals confirmed the ceasefire, mediated by dozens of countries besides the United States.

“It was such a relief,” Shah recalled. Happily, he called home. “Both countries have agreed to peace. We will spend more time soon, don’t be afraid, mother,” he told 48-year-old Bano, who asked him to focus on his studies and return home only after his annual exams.

However, barely three hours after that phone call, the sense of relief was blown away. A barrage of drones had hit Srinagar, the main city in Indian-administered Kashmir, forcing another electricity blackout. Similar reports of firings and drone sightings came from other cities in the region, including Jammu, Anantnag, as well as the border districts of Rajasthan and Gujarat states.

On the Pakistan side as well, several villages along the Line of Control (LoC) – the de facto border that divides Kashmir – reported alleged ceasefire violations by the Indian forces. As Pakistan and India denied each other’s allegations and reaffirmed their commitment to the ceasefire, questions were raised on whether the fragile agreement between the nuclear-powered neighbours would hold.

Bano called her son again, crying.

“In her intermittent pauses, I could hear sounds of blasts behind her as she broke down. The jets were loud as well,” Shah told Al Jazeera on Saturday night, sitting in a huddle with his Kashmiri friends in a New Delhi neighbourhood, 800km (about 500 miles) away from home.

Eighteen days after gunmen killed 26 civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir’s resort town of Pahalgam, nearly 1.6 billion people on either side of the border reeled under the fears of another India-Pakistan war over Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region claimed in full by both the nations that rule over parts of it.

An armed rebellion against New Delhi’s rule erupted on the Indian side in 1989. Since then, tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of backing the rebellion, but Pakistan denies the allegation and claims to provide only diplomatic support to the Kashmiris’ struggle for an independent state or a likely merger with Pakistan.

‘Kashmiris stuck in the middle’

Abbas, a Srinagar resident who requested to be identified by his last name only, told Al Jazeera the loud explosions his family heard on Saturday night were terrifying.

“Each blast came out of nowhere and left us scared and confused. As a Kashmiri, I have lived through tough times before, but this [current conflict] feels different,” he said.

Abbas said he had been waking up to toddlers crying amid explosions at night.

“It feels like a psychological war has been waged on us. The fear isn’t just from the blasts; it is from the uncertainty and a lack of transparency,” he said. “Kashmiris are once again stuck in the middle, with no refuge, no escape.”

Yet, the ceasefire announcement on Saturday evening was met with jubilation in several frontier districts on the Indian side, especially among thousands of displaced residents since the cross-border tensions mounted earlier this month.

Deepak Singh, a 40-year-old resident of Poonch, one of the most affected border districts in Indian-administered Kashmir, said in a brief phone interview that his family of four looked forward to leaving their shelter and being home.

“We have known a life that gets disturbed by the border clashes, but I am hopeful to return to my home soon,” Singh told Al Jazeera.

But that was before the explosions were reported from Srinagar. As both sides accused each other of breaching the truce, Singh said he felt devastated.

“Not again,” he later said. “Till how long are we supposed to sleep in this shelter? Will this ceasefire hold at all?”

More than 1,000km (620 miles) away, Pradyot Verma was having similar feelings.

A resident of Jodhpur, a border town in India’s western state of Rajasthan, Verma said their joy and relief were short-lived as they witnessed another round of blackouts and siren alerts on Saturday night, keeping the residents in an anxious loop.

“The ceasefire announcement was met with cheers here,” said the 26-year-old law student as he sat in darkness in his rented room. “Indian defence system keeps on intercepting [Pakistan-origin missiles] and we are hoping that they keep doing it.”

‘Back from the brink of war’

After four days of military escalation, during which Indian and Pakistani forces attacked each other’s military installations, they agreed on a ceasefire, which Trump said was reached after “a long night of talks” mediated by the US and other countries. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the two nations have also agreed to “start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site”.

However, geopolitical and military experts argue the ceasefire is fragile and does not promise much.

“The Indian government has already signalled rebutting Rubio’s assertion that India and Pakistan have agreed to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site,” Sumantra Bose, a political scientist, told Al Jazeera. “It is something [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi’s government just can’t do, given its commitment to unilateralism on Kashmir and rejection of diplomatic engagement with Pakistan.”

Bose said the ceasefire was merely a “band-aid slapped on a profusely bleeding wound that was threatening to turn gangrenous if not fatal”.

While the escalation might have stopped due to intervention by foreign governments, “the problem is all the other parameters and vectors of the India-Pakistan relationship and the Kashmir conflict remain as before”, Bose said, adding, “in an even more bitter and toxic form than was the case earlier”.

However, Michael Kugelman, an expert on South Asia politics, stressed that the subcontinent was “back from the brink of war”.

“This ceasefire, so long as it holds, even with some violations, does bring an end to what had been the biggest regional security threat by far in decades,” he told Al Jazeera.

“This is going to be a very difficult ceasefire to uphold. It was very quickly put together at a moment when India-Pakistan tensions were soaring [and] this is also a ceasefire that appears to have been interpreted differently by India,” added Kugelman, referring to India’s historic position on Kashmir, which has been a consistent rejection of any attempt by Pakistan at internationalising the issue.

But for the people living along the tense borders between the South Asian rivals, a cautious optimism is their only recourse.

“We are holding this ceasefire very dear to us,” said a Kashmiri political analyst, who requested anonymity, fearing reprisal from the Indian authorities.

“Be it anyone’s war, India or Pakistan, people on the border, Kashmiris and Punjabis, have been losing their lives for generations. I hope this madness stops here.”

United States President Donald Trump has offered to work with India and Pakistan to achieve a “solution” for the long-disputed Kashmir region, days after his administration brokered a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

“I will work with you, both to see if, after a ‘thousand years,’ a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday.

The US president doubled down on a historically inaccurate assertion that India and Pakistan have been fighting for “a thousand years” or more.

The Muslim-majority territory has been contested since the partition of British India in 1947 into India and Pakistan. The two countries have fought three wars over the region. They both stake a claim over Kashmir as a whole but control parts of it.

India-administered Kashmir has seen decades of armed rebellion either for independence or a merger with Pakistan. New Delhi has deployed more than 700,000 soldiers to quash the rebellion.

The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far remained committed to a decades-old policy of refusing international mediation to find a solution to the Kashmir issue. In 2019, Modi’s government stripped India-administered Kashmir’s semiautonomy, further alienating the Kashmiris.

In its response, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Sunday that it appreciates Trump’s willingness to resolve the Kashmir issue, which has implications for peace and security in South Asia and beyond.

“Pakistan reaffirms that any just and lasting settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute must be in accordance with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and must ensure the realization of the fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people, including their inalienable right to self-determination,” it said.

India’s leaders have not directly commented, but Indian media quoted unnamed government sources as saying no decision has yet been made to engage in talks on anything beyond the ceasefire.

India and Pakistan agreed to halt all fighting on Saturday, but Trump was the first person to announce the deal on his online platform.

In his post on Sunday, Trump took credit for the ceasefire.

“I am proud that the USA was able to help you arrive at this historic and heroic decision,” he wrote.

“While not even discussed, I am going to increase trade, substantially, with both of these great nations.”

The latest fighting between the two neighbours started when India attacked Pakistan in the aftermath of a shooting attack in India-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 civilians at a tourist location.

New Delhi again accused Pakistan of backing the “terrorist” groups that have launched many deadly attacks in India-administered Kashmir for decades.

Pakistan strongly denies the charges, maintaining that India has supported “terrorism” in its territory for many years and the Pahalgam attack was a false-flag operation to start a war.

The missile, drone and artillery attacks signified the most serious fighting between the two countries since they became nuclear-armed powers decades ago.

‘Neutral’ site for talks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that in addition to the ceasefire, the two countries agreed to conduct broad talks over a host of issues at a “neutral” site soon.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said his country believes in the path of peaceful negotiations to resolve problems around distribution of water resources and “all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir”.

But India has for decades refused to hold negotiations over the contested region as it has tried to strengthen its hold over it.

Mohmad Waseem Malla, a research fellow at the International Centre for Peace Studies in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera that Trump’s statement, though not entirely surprising, was “striking both in tone and substance” and likely to raise concerns in New Delhi.

“Any suggestion of third-party involvement, even in passing, crosses a red line for New Delhi – especially under the current government, which has redefined the country’s foreign policy and its emphasis on territorial sovereignty.”

He added that while Trump’s mention of boosting trade and promoting peace may seem conciliatory internationally, India’s domestic political climate and strategic priorities make it difficult to entertain such offers right now.

“The key will be how New Delhi calibrates its response given current sensitivities.”

The two countries also have yet to resolve their differences over water distribution as India’s suspension of its participation in the Indus Waters Treaty remains in place.

In response to the Pahalgam attack, India also expelled Pakistani diplomats, military advisers and visa holders; closed its main land border crossing and suspended trade; and launched a manhunt for the perpetrators.

Pakistan responded by kicking out Indian officials and citizens, closing its airspace to Indian flights and threatening to pull out of the Simla Agreement, which underpins the Line of Control in Kashmir.

Turkish PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk has been released six weeks after plainclothes ICE agents bundled her into a van and held her in an immigration detention centre in Louisiana. The Trump administration had revoked her student visa over an article she co-authored criticising Tufts University’s ties to Israel.

Anthony Edwards poured in a game-high 36 points, Julius Randle had 24 as part of a triple-double, and the Minnesota Timberwolves wrested back home-court advantage in their second-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors with a 102-97 triumph in San Francisco, California.

Game 4 in the Western Conference best-of-seven series is scheduled for Monday night in San Francisco, with the sixth-seeded Timberwolves leading 2-1.

Jimmy Butler III had a team-high 33 points on Saturday for seventh-seeded Golden State, which played without star guard Stephen Curry, out with a strained left hamstring.

The tightly contested game saw the Warriors clinging within 84-82 before two game-disqualifying fouls on defensive ace Draymond Green within 18 seconds inside the final five minutes.

The Timberwolves took control from there, getting a triple from Jaden McDaniels and a three-point play from Rudy Gobert, the latter creating a six-point cushion for the visitors with 2:05 to play.

“We’re making some shots, for sure,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “We’re getting stops. We were getting stops throughout the regular season. We’re just winning the possession battle in clutch time now. We’re just not — we’re not giving the ball back on cheap turnovers. We’re not giving up as many or any second-chance opportunities.”

A 3-pointer by Edwards, his fifth of the game, all but clinched Minnesota’s second consecutive win with 1:19 to go.

Edwards’s 36 points were his second-most this postseason, topped only by a 43-point explosion in Game 4 against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round. He hit 13 of his 28 shots on Saturday.

“The team defence was really good,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Held them to 102. That’s a pretty good number. But Randle and Edwards really both got going in the second half, and that was the key. We couldn’t quite contain them, especially in the fourth, and that was the difference.”

Randle complemented his 24 points with 10 rebounds, a game-high 12 assists and three steals for the Timberwolves, who outshot the hosts 43.9 percent to 43.2 percent in a defensive struggle.

“He’s playing with so much force and determination,” Finch said of Randle. “He’s going out there early and aggressive, and he’s exerting a tonne of energy on the defensive end with his body and his rebounding. He’s playing a complete game for us, no doubt.”

McDaniels added 15 points and Gobert had a game-high 13 rebounds for Minnesota, which went 2-1 on the road in its 4-1 first-round series win against the Lakers.

Butler’s 33 points on 12-for-26 shooting were his most since he had 35 for the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals at Boston in 2023. He also found time for seven rebounds and a team-high seven assists.

“Man, Jimmy was incredible,” Kerr said. “He really controlled the game for us and put us in a position to win, and we just couldn’t close it out. But he was brilliant all night.”

Jonathan Kuminga, pressed into increased playing time as the Warriors looked to fill the void of Curry’s regular scoring, backed Butler with a postseason career-high 30 points. He had totalled just 43 in Golden State’s first nine playoff games.

“JK [Jonathan Kuminga] played one of the best games of his life,” Kerr said. “It was fantastic to see. You can see how necessary he is in this matchup, especially without Steph [Curry].”

Buddy Hield shot 4-for-8 on 3-pointers to account for a majority of his 14 points for the Warriors, while Brandin Podziemski collected a team-high eight rebounds on a night when he shot 1-for-10.

Celtics bury Knicks in Game 3

In an earlier playoff game on Saturday, Jayson Tatum finished with 22 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, and the Boston Celtics pulled away for a 115-93 win over the host New York Knicks in Game 3 of their second-round Eastern Conference series.

Payton Pritchard scored a team-high 23 points off the bench for Boston, which cut the Knicks’ lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. Jaylen Brown added 19 points, and Derrick White had 17.

Jalen Brunson scored 27 points on 9-for-21 shooting to lead the Knicks. Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 21 points and 15 rebounds.

After struggling to score in the first two games of the series, the Celtics found their rhythm on offence. Boston shot 48.2 percent (40 of 83) overall and 50 percent (20 of 40) from 3-point range, and New York shot 40 percent (32 of 80) from the field and 20 percent (5 of 25) from beyond the arc.

“They got some clean looks early, and they see it go in; that gives them confidence. Then it’s hard to shut them off,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. “We have to have greater awareness. We can’t allow missed shots to take away from [our] defensive tenacity. We’ve got to bounce back.”

Tatum made a basket to put Boston on top 112-89 with 2:40 remaining. He assisted on a 3-pointer by Al Horford on the next possession, and Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla rested his starters for the remainder of the game with the score out of reach.

“This is the fun part. You don’t get into the journey for it to be easy,” said Mazzulla. “It’s been dark, but in a good way. You’ve just got to tap into your darkness, and that’s it.”

Game 4 in the best-of-seven series will be played in New York on Monday.

May 10 (UPI) — A 4.1-magnitude earthquake shook eastern Tennessee near Knoxville on Saturday morning and was felt as far away as Asheville, N.C., and Atlanta, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake occurred at 9:04 a.m. EDT and was centered 13 miles from Greenback, which is 30 miles southwest of Knoxville, USGS reported.

The earthquake, originally reported at a 3.5 magnitude, was about 15 miles below ground, which the agency called shallow, but was felt 208 miles away in Asheville and 213 miles away in Atlanta.

According to WVLT-TV, the Tennessee Department of Transportation will be inspecting bridges throughout the next few weeks as a precaution, although Knoxville police and fire departments did not receive any reports of damage, officials told the television station and the Knoxville News Sentinel.

The Knoxville television station did, however, publish Ring camera video showing shaking indoors and two frightened dogs.

Knoxville is in the East Tennessee Seismic Zone, which is one of the most active earthquake areas in the Southeast United States. In the past 30 days, Tennessee has recorded 21 earthquakes of lesser magnitudes and last year had three of magnitude 3.0 or stronger, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.

Since 1900, there have been just seven earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or stronger to hit Tennessee, with Saturday’s rumbler the first since a 4.4 magnitude quake in Decatur in 2018.

The East Tennessee Seismic zone includes part of Tennessee, northwestern Georgia and northeastern Alabama, although no major earthquakes have occurred there.

Earthquake magnitudes are calculated using data from seismograms, which record ground motion. Whole numbers represent a tenfold increase in intensity. So an earthquake measured as 6.0 magnitude is 100 times as strong as and earthquake that is 4.0.

May 10 (UPI) — The United States and China are carrying out high-level diplomatic talks in Geneva, Chinese state-run media reported from the Swiss capital on Saturday.

The meeting’s agenda is focussing on “economic and trade affairs,” the Xinhua News Agency said in a brief story.

Vice Premier He Lifeng is representing China at the talks, while U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the top American diplomat, China’s state-run broadcaster CCTV reported.

American officials earlier this week confirmed the meeting would take place.

Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met Thursday with Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter. Greer is also meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Geneva Saturday.

U.S. President Donald Trump previously announced tariffs of 145% on China, leading to retaliatory 125% levies from Beijing. Trump at the time also announced similar tariffs on over a dozen other countries.

Saturday’s meeting marks the first official trade talks between the two countries since Trump first announced the tariffs.

The president on Thursday suggested an amended 80% tariff ahead of the talks.

“80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B,” Trump wrote on Truth social, referencing Bessent.

He at the time did not specify if the 80% figure represented a goal or opening negotiating stance.

Trump also urged China to “open up its market,” in a separate social media post.

On Wednesday Trump told reporters at a news conference he would not consider relenting on the 145% tariffs on China.