World

Ireland will take on Scotland and Canada in Tests in early August as part of their preparations for the Women’s World Cup which will begin later that month.

Scott Bemand’s Ireland side will face Scotland in the opening World Cup warm-up game at Virgin Media Park in Cork on 2 August before a contest against Canada at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast on 9 August.

Canada, who defeated Ireland at last autumn’s WXV 1 tournament in Vancouver a week after the Irish had shocked world champions New Zealand, are second in World Rugby’s rankings behind England.

Ireland will open their World Cup campaign by facing Japan in Northampton on 24 August before further group games against Spain and New Zealand on 31 August and 7 September.

Bemand’s Ireland squad will link up in June to begin an extended training stint.

“We are delighted to confirm our two warm-up fixtures against quality opposition in the build up to Women’s Rugby World Cup,” said the Ireland head coach.

“Our pre-season block that will run throughout June and July in Dublin will be designed to test and prepare the extended squad, ensuring we are in the best possible shape for the tournament ahead and getting the opportunity for valuable match minutes and exposure is vitally important.”

SEOUL, April 10 (UPI) — South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung said Thursday he would run for president in the June snap election triggered by the removal of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol from office.

Lee, who resigned as chairman of the Democratic Party on Wednesday ahead of the announcement, is the strong frontrunner in most opinion polls. In a survey released last week by Realmeter Korea, 49.5% of respondents found Lee the most suitable candidate for president and he won by decisive margins in various hypothetical head-to-head matchups.

In an 11-minute video message announcing his candidacy, Lee said addressing income inequality and promoting economic growth would be his top goals when taking office.

“Our economy is in dire straits,” Lee said. “The government’s role is important, but for the past three years, the government has neglected the economy.”

He vowed to invest in science and technology at the government level, saying it had become prohibitively expensive for small businesses to keep pace with industrial development.

“Investment in advanced science and technology is important, but the problem is that the level of science and technology has become so advanced that individual companies cannot afford it,” Lee said.

On the foreign policy front, Lee stressed a pragmatic approach to international relationships. He said that Seoul’s alliance with the United States and the trilateral partnership with Japan — which Yoon championed — were important, but pledged to prioritize South Korea’s interests.

“The consistent principle is ‘the national interest of the Republic of Korea comes first,'” Lee said. “We will compete in areas where we compete, cooperate in areas where we cooperate and properly coordinate areas of conflict.”

Lee also praised the resilience of South Korea’s democracy, which faced its most serious test in decades when Yoon briefly declared martial law and was impeached in December.

A drawn-out deliberation process by the Constitutional Court sparked massive rallies on both sides of the deeply divisive issue. The court voted unanimously to uphold the impeachment on Friday, removing Yoon from office and prompting the snap election, which will be held on June 3.

“The greatness of South Korea’s democracy does not lie in the constitution itself, but in the greatness of the people who live within the system,” Lee said. “When oppressed, we do not submit, but rather overcome, and this time we resisted as well.”

Lee, who lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election by a razor-thin margin, is facing legal troubles of his own. Last month, a court overturned his conviction on an election law violation, but he is still facing criminal trials on charges including bribery and corruption.

The 61-year-old rose to national fame as a progressive firebrand, first as the mayor of Seongnam, a satellite city of Seoul, and then as governor of Gyeonggi Province, building a reputation as a hard-charging populist who was able to implement some of the country’s most ambitious social welfare programs.

In Gyeonggi, South Korea’s largest province, Lee launched a pilot basic income program for young adults that he was able to expand to all citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yoon’s ruling People Power Party said Wednesday it would hold a national convention on May 3 to choose a candidate, with potential contenders including Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo, Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon.

While popular with his base of supporters, Lee remains politically polarizing and had taken to wearing a bulletproof vest in public appearances leading up to Yoon’s impeachment verdict. In early 2024, he was stabbed in the neck during an appearance in Busan and underwent emergency surgery.

Militarized water sources. Robot farmworkers. Commercialized memories. Everything is for sale in Alex Rivera’s 2008 sci-fi feature “Sleep Dealer,” in which young, expendable workers from the Global South plug into machines that power the international economy.

Although 17 years have passed since the Latin American cyberpunk film debuted at Sundance — where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and the Alfred P. Sloan Prize — its political relevance has not waned. In “Sleep Dealer,” the international borders are closed, but U.S. corporations continue to privatize natural resources and exploit workers in Mexico, where we find our protagonist, a Tijuana robot operator named Memo Cruz. In an America where immigrants are heavily relied upon for labor, yet increasingly surveilled, targeted and deported expeditiously without due process, the dystopian realm of “Sleep Dealer” feels closer to our current reality than ever before.

“There’s a sadness in the reason the film is surviving, because its warnings and its insights about the strangeness of techno-capitalism are becoming more relevant over time,” says Rivera. “But I’m also happy that the film is standing the test of time and being used and spoken about.”

As a Peruvian American filmmaker born in New York City, Rivera derived his fictional world-building from his real-life experience documenting the harrowing stories of migrants in the United States. Since the 2008 release of his feature film, Rivera has stayed busy: winning a MacArthur Genius Grant and cultivating the next generation of Latino filmmakers by launching Borderland Studios at the Sidney Poitier New American Film School. And all the while, Rivera said, the audience for “Sleep Dealer” has continued to grow year after year. The movie recently screened in 35mm to a packed house at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, as part of its “Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema” series.

When Rivera and I connected via Zoom call, it felt like we were living our own dystopian reality in Los Angeles; I had just finished reporting on the Los Angeles wildfires and Rivera had returned to his home in Pasadena after evacuating from the Eaton fire. In our latest interview, Rivera discusses the lasting relevance of his film and what he hopes to inspire in viewers today.

(Courtesy of Futuro Films)

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

I’m not Mexican American, but I was deeply touched as someone who exists as a part of a diaspora. What was your intention behind making this film primarily in Spanish?

At the beginning of this process, there was this aspiration to make something that had this pop culture pulse, but post-colonial politics … A lot of the pleasure and the point of “Sleep Dealer” was to invert preconceptions about the future. And one of those is the idea that the future is English, and that the English-speaking world is where the future is being built and written. That is not true. We see it more every year now … the future is going to be multi-lingual. And so the idea of doing science fiction in Spanish was very exciting, to say that this language is not something of the past, but it’s a component of the future.

Alex Rivera is a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient examining the future of work and workers.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

In your film, people no longer do physical labor, but they mechanically operate a lot of what we see in the world. In “Sleep Dealer,” the main character, Memo Cruz, operates this robot remotely from Tijuana to construct a building in San Diego. How do you think that added layer of technology in “Sleep Dealer” exemplifies the dehumanization of migrant labor in today’s economic workforce? The argument from both liberals and conservatives around immigrant labor is that we should legalize this group of people because they provide labor to our country.

I start with the basic notion of the alienation of labor that surrounds us every day. The labor that goes into producing food that we consume, clothes that we wear and the buildings that we live in — it’s rendered invisible.

The idea of a worker in another region, in another country, remotely controlling a machine that’s acting and doing things here is an exaggeration or a heightening of that basic dynamic that surrounds us. The systems of technology that are now connecting the planet allow for these extraordinarily extreme and heightened forms of transmission and capture. There’s always a ghost in the machine, no matter what a corporation wants to present their product as a transcendental object.

I want to touch on the idea of technology as a form of connection and disconnection. We see Memo trying to get the nodes in his skin so that he can be connected to this global economy. Installing technology under our skin isn’t commonplace (yet), but I see a lot of parallels between how Memo experiences digital apartheid in his world and ours. Just like if you don’t have internet in your town, then you are shut out of this global economy. There are ways that technology can exacerbate existing inequalities.

Memo’s family is from Oaxaca, where a huge corporation has militarized a dam upstream. All of the natural resources are being guarded heavily because of climate-induced scarcity. As you were making this film, how were you thinking about climate change?

Those ideas all came from a simple thesis: that capitalism is amoral and will gobble up anything it’s allowed to gobble up. In this world, capitalism has run wild, captured everything, even the water, and packaged it to sell it back to people from whom it was taken. But then that kind of thinking rolled out and applied to things like our memories. Could our memories be bottled like water and sold? What about our friendships? Our relationships, our time, etc. So this kind of logic of capture, enclosure and commodification is the rationale that binds together all of the world-building of “Sleep Dealer.”

We also see Rudy Ramirez, a fighter drone pilot, rebelling against his directives. He is Mexican American, but he is also an arm of the violence on people who look like him. How do you make sense of that as we consider the limitations of identity politics today?

I find identity politics broadly to be the only way to make sense of American history. You can’t really understand the United States, its past and its present, without looking at the way that race has been structured and formed in this country and deployed to create friction and competition among the working class.

It is true that Black and brown people get swept up in the imperial core and become the enforcers of the regime that perpetuates their exclusion and inequality. Rudy is depicted as an agent of the empire, but there’s a fault line in his being.

We see that in our own families of color, who join the police and the armed forces of color and are often dispatched to lands that have suffered violence. So the Latino family uprooted because of the U.S. and CIA-backed civil war in El Salvador, coming here, giving birth to a son or a daughter, who then joins the armed forces and is dispatched back to the Global South. These kinds of circles, we see them in our families. It’s a reality that’s rich and complicated, because identity is not abstract.

In the movie you have “coyoteks,” a futuristic version of coyotes who smuggle people across the border to become migrant laborers in the U.S. These coyoteks are also facilitating a transfer of labor by illegally implanting these nodes under their skin. Can you talk a little bit more about your inspiration?

[Melvin Kranzberg] once said, “Technology is not good. Technology is not bad. It’s also not neutral.”

Technology is a shape or a form that enables certain things and disables others, and there’s room to navigate, but there are also constraints. That was the philosophy of “Sleep Dealer.” These technologies, when released into capitalism, are immediately deployed to create forms of alienation, extraction and hyper-profit to create conditions in which corporations and capitalists can move with ease and accelerate their work.

But those forces aren’t the only ones that surround these technologies. Other impulses surround them: the impulse to not be alone, to hear a loved one’s voice, to connect with other people who share your identity group and political commonalities.

When I was developing “Sleep Dealer,” I was very aware of how the Pentagon and corporations were using technology … but also how the Zapatistas used it, how the World Social Forum used it and how I was using it every day in my life. So the depiction of technology in the film is meant to be one of technology as a kind of battlefield with a powerful tendency towards alienation and extraction.

But the story is not over. There is space in which to hack, to struggle and to create alternatives and strip these technologies out of the capitalist cradle where they were born, to use them for other things.

WASHINGTON — President Trump partially backed down Wednesday on his plan to hike tariffs on countries around the world, with the exception of China, a dramatic reversal after days of market turmoil that led to a surge of relief on Wall Street.

Trump said he would pause a universal, 10% tariff rate on most countries that went into effect a week ago, while lowering country-specific rates on trading partners facing higher rates with a new baseline of 10%.

China, meanwhile, will be hit by yet another increase in duties, with imports from Beijing now facing a 125% tariff rate, after China matched Trump’s last two rate hikes over the past week.

Markets responded with their biggest rally in five years, a turn of fortunes after news of the president’s policies last week wiped $7 trillion in value over just three days of trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average surged over 2,600 points, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 increased over 7%. The Nasdaq was up 10% within an hour of the announcement.

“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately. At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, leading markets to soar minutes later.

“Conversely, and based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called… to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States,” Trump continued, “I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at the White House that Trump’s decision to issue a pause was the result of most countries around the world refraining from issuing retaliatory measures, and instead approaching the administration with offers to negotiate.

“President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” Bessent said. “The ones that we have lowered went into effect a week ago, and we have just been overwhelmed — overwhelmed — by the responses from, mostly, our allies, who want to come and negotiate in good faith.”

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, pushed back against questions from the media over the president backing down in the face of market pressures, as well as assessments from the country’s major banking institutions, such as JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, that his new trade policy would push the country into recession.

“Many of you in the media clearly missed the art of the deal,” Leavitt said. “You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

April 9 (UPI) — Prince Harry was back in a London court Wednesday for the second day of his two-day security appeal hearing against the British government.

On Tuesday during the first day of the appeal, Harry’s lawyer argued that the prince was subject to a “bespoke process” which allegedly saw him “singled-out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment.”

Harry’s security when in Britain is currently decided on a case-by-case basis as with any other high-profile visitors.

Sir James Eadie the prince’s lawyer, said Wednesday in the partially closed hearing that the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, otherwise known as Ravec which is the agency that oversees the level of security, was governed by “royal prerogative”

Britain’s Home Office is opposing the appeal on the government’s behalf.

Last year in February, the youngest son of King Charles III lost a challenge in Britain’s High Court claiming that a downgrade to his security status was unlawful, which the court said was a “legally sound” act.

“His presence here and throughout this appeal is a potent illustration, were one needed, of how much this appeal means to him and his family,” Harry’s other attorney, Shaheed Fatima, told the court.

Meanwhile, the Duke of Sussex reportedly arrived Sunday to his native country just hours before the king and Queen Camilla left for a state visit to Italy.

Harry, 40, stepped down as a full-time member of the royal family and had his security downgraded in February 2020 when he moved to the United States with his wife, actress Meghan Markle, 43.

His legal team says that decision was in a “category of its own” and Ravec was correct to consider this case on its merit.

For security reasons, the details of his own security apparatus and the degree to which he would like to see it expanded have not been discussed publicly or in court as more sensitive information was discussed Wednesday.

The primary objective of Ravec, Eadie continued, was “to make nuanced judgments about security protection bringing all of their expertise to bear including making decisions about unusual cases and what process should most appropriately be followed.”

His legal team contended that Ravec had “terms of reference” for deciding security practices and there was “nothing to suggest they were designed to operate rigidly and not flexibly.”

It’s one of no less than six lawsuits involving the former working royal.

“If you’re members of the press, then you’re the reason he’s not in England,” a woman in the court room shouted at the media after Wednesday’s hearing.

A written decision by the three-judge panel, meanwhile, will be issued at a later date.

April 9 (UPI) — The European Union cleared retaliatory tariffs against the United States, while China imposed its own levies as President Donald Trump‘s “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries around the world took effect.

In a press release, the European Commission announced Tuesday its members have voted to “introduce trade countermeasures against” the United States, “in response to the March decision by the U.S. to impose tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from the EU.”

“The EU considers U.S. tariffs unjustified and damaging, causing economic harm to both sides, as well as the global economy,” the statement said. “Duties will start being collected as of [April 15].”

The commission added that the “countermeasures can be suspended at any time, should the U.S. agree to a fair and balanced negotiated outcome.”

The EU can also apply more than $24 billion in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products like orange juice, soybeans and motorcycles and after the union’s 27 countries agreed to the measures Wednesday, with only Hungary opposed.

Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó posted to X Wednesday that counter-tariffs “would cause further damage to European economy and citizens by raising prices,” and that “The only way forward is negotiations, not retaliation.”

China has also responded to the tariffs levied against it. Trump’s tariffs included a 104% rate of import duty on Chinese goods, which came into force Wednesday. China has since responded with tariffs applied to U.S. goods raised from 50% to 84%.

The new rate is set to take effect Thursday in place of the 34% announced last week, China’s Office of the Tariff Commission of the State Council said in an announcement shortly after Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian accused the United States of exerting unacceptable levels of pressure on China and vowing it would never cave into such “bullying.”

“If the United States is bent on waging a tariff war or trade war, China is ready to fight till the end,” Lin said.

Spokesperson Lin made the remarks Wednesday at a daily news briefing in response to a request for comments on the U.S. announcement that it would impose a 104% tariff on Chinese goods.

Lin noted that the Chinese people’s legitimate right to development cannot be deprived, and China’s sovereignty, security and development interests are inviolable. China will continue to take resolute and forceful measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.

“If the U.S. really seeks to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation, it should demonstrate an attitude of equality, respect and reciprocity,” Lin added.

Many of America’s billionaires and millionaires thought they knew how they would profit from a second Trump term: There would be tax cuts and deregulation and an end to bothersome government investigations.

In other words, a White House sedulously attuned to their interests.

What they didn’t count on, however, was a chaotic and nonsensical tariff policy that threatens to plunge their investment holdings into a bear market — or in some cases, has already done so — and to unravel the global economy in which they made all their money.

Now, many of his erstwhile supporters among America’s plutocrats are screaming for mercy. In interviews and social media postings, and in one case even via a federal lawsuit, they’ve been calling on him to roll back his tariff plans or at least to pause them for several months.

Is he listening? So far, he hasn’t indicated a change in strategy. Whether Trump is open to persuasion or his White House sits behind a figurative barrier against criticism, like the Coulomb barrier that repels protons from an atomic nucleus until they reach a high energy level, isn’t known.

Criticism of the tariffs by Trump’s wealthier supporters has emerged as the investment markets continue to reel over Trump’s tariff plans and his apparent resistance to moderating the levies or his anti-free-trade rhetoric.

One can’t pretend that Trump’s backers haven’t been speaking clearly. Let’s listen in on the backlash from billionaires and the billionaire-adjacent.

Among the most vociferous is Ken Langone, the co-founder of Home Depot. Langone, whose net worth is estimated at about $9.5 billion by Forbes, is a Trump backer whose political contributions have gone mostly to Republicans, including a $500,000 donation last year to the GOP’s Senate Leadership Fund.

In an interview with the Financial Times published Monday, Langone decried Trump’s tariffs as too large, imposed too hastily, and based on an incoherent mathematical formula.

Langone told the FT that he thought Trump was “poorly advised.” He questioned the math used by the White House to calculate the “reciprocal tariffs” Trump announced on April 2. “I don’t understand the goddamn formula,” he said. “I believe he’s been poorly advised by his advisors about this trade situation — and the formula they’re applying.”

Focusing on how the formula produced a 42% tariff on goods from Vietnam, he called that figure “bulls—. … Forty-six percent on Vietnam? Come on! You might as well tell them, ‘Don’t even bother calling.’” He also called the 34% tariff on China “too aggressive, too soon.” He spoke before Trump threatened to add another 50% to tariffs on goods from China if it pursued plans to retaliate with higher tariffs on U.S. goods.

Langone is not alone in questioning the April 2 formula. Because of a definitional error, according to economists Kevin Corinth and Stan Veuger of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, the formula yielded tariffs that are roughly four times too high. The proper rate for Vietnam, they calculated, should be 12.2%, not 46%.

“The formula the administration relied on has no foundation in either economic theory or trade law,” Corinth and Veuger wrote. “But if we are going to pretend that it is a sound basis for US trade policy, we should at least be allowed to expect that the relevant White House officials do their calculations carefully.”

Among others weighing in on the tariffs was Stanley Druckenmiller, a revered investment manager who once worked for progressive philanthropist George Soros, and was once the mentor and boss of Scott Bessant, Trump’s treasury secretary. In the 2020 election, Druckenmiller contributed $250,000 to the GOP’s Senate Leadership Fund.

In an interview Sunday with CNBC that he later cited in a tweet on X, Druckenmiller said tariffs shouldn’t exceed 10% to avoid triggering retaliatory tariffs by targeted countries. Trump’s tariffs start at 10% and go higher from there.

“What Trump unveiled Wednesday,” tweeted billionaire investment manager Ken Fisher, who has contributed to Republicans and Democrats, “is stupid, wrong, arrogantly extreme, ignorant trade-wise and addressing a non-problem with misguided tools. … On tariffs Trump is beyond the pale by a long shot.”

Fisher called the tariff formula “ridiculous” and predicted that “if GOP congress members don’t get Trump’s tariffs reigned in pretty quickly, the midterms … will be a blood bath for them big time.”

Among the most vociferous critics of the tariffs has been billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who was one of Trump’s most steadfast supporters during the presidential campaign and since the election. But he drew the line at the tariff announcement.

Referring to the plan to begin imposing reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, Ackman tweeted that if “on April 9th we launch economic nuclear war on every country in the world, business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocket books, and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate.”

He added, “What CEO and what board of directors will be comfortable making large, long-term, economic commitments in our country in the middle of an economic nuclear war? I don’t know of one who will do so.” He urged Trump to “call a time out.”

Business leaders have also begun speaking out. As I reported earlier, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who earlier this year counseled Americans that Trump’s plans for relatively modest tariff increases were no big deal — “Get over it,” he advised — changed his tune in a his annual letter to JPM shareholders published Monday. There he observed that “the recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession.”

Wilbur Ross, an investment banker who served as Commerce Secretary during Trump’s first term, indicated that he was unnerved by the magnitude of the planned tariff hike.

“It’s more severe than I would have expected,” he told the Financial Times. “Particularly the way it is impacting Vietnam, China and Cambodia is more extreme than I would have thought.” He added, “It’s hard to deal with uncertainty. Fear of the unknown is the worst for people and we are in a period of extreme fear of the unknown.”

Trump’s tariff policy has exposed a serious rift within his inner circle, with conflict between his advisor Elon Musk and Peter Navarro, Trump’s hard-line trade counselor, breaking into the open.

Speaking on CNBC Monday — after Musk called for “a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free-trade zone between Europe and North America” — the opposite of Trump’s approach — Navarro called Musk “not a car manufacturer” but a “car assembler,” referring to Tesla, the electric vehicle maker Musk controls. Navarro’s goal was to imply that Tesla is dependent on imported parts that would be subject to the new tariffs.

Musk responded with tweets in which he called Navarro “truly a moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks.” The assertion that Tesla relies on imported parts, he wrote, is “demonstrably false.”

The Trump White House downplayed the conflict as a minor spat. “Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

Another path of attack on Trump’s tariffs was opened last week by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a conservative legal group that has been funded by right-wing sources including the Koch network, the Linde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the Sarah Scaife Foundation.

The Alliance filed a lawsuit last week asserting that the law Trump cited as giving him power to set tariffs — a power the constitution reserves for Congress — does not, in fact, provide that authority.

SEOUL, April 9 (UPI) — Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, on Wednesday reaffirmed Pyongyang’s self-proclaimed status as a nuclear state and slammed U.S. calls to eliminate its arsenal as “nonsensical” and a “daydream.”

“If anyone openly talks about dismantlement of nuclear weapons before us or seeks to revive the dead concept of ‘denuclearization’ under various pretexts, it just constitutes the most hostile act of denying the sovereignty of the DPRK,” Kim said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

Kim’s remarks came in response to a joint statement issued Thursday by the top diplomats of the United States, South Korea and Japan, who reaffirmed their “resolute commitment to the complete denuclearization” of North Korea.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi met on the margins of a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels and discussed trilateral cooperation against the North Korean threat.

The allies “emphasized the need to address together the DPRK’s nuclear and missile programs and to maintain and strengthen the sanctions regime against the DPRK,” the statement said, referring to the U.N. Security Council resolutions in place against Pyongyang.

Kim claimed the joint pledge exposed the “uneasiness” of the three countries in addressing North Korea’s denuclearization, saying they know it is only “a daydream that can never come true.”

“If they frantically cry out for ‘denuclearization,’ really believing in it, they must be termed nonsensical,” she said.

“The position of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a nuclear weapons state … is permanently fixed in its supreme and basic state law,” she added.

In September 2022, the North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state and giving it the right to conduct a preemptive nuclear strike to protect itself. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called the decision “irreversible” and later amended the country’s constitution to enshrine the permanent growth of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.

North Korea has maintained a belligerent tone toward the United States despite ongoing speculation that U.S. President Donald Trump may look to revive nuclear negotiations with Kim.

During Trump’s first term, the two leaders held a pair of high-profile summits and met briefly a third time at the DMZ. The diplomatic outreach failed to result in a nuclear deal, however, and Pyongyang has accelerated the development of its weapons programs in the intervening years.

Last week, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that there has been communication with North Korea and that the two sides would “probably do something at some point.”

“I have a very good relationship with [Kim],” Trump said. “I think it’s very important. He’s a big nuclear nation and he’s a very smart guy.”

North Korea has also continued to conduct weapons tests since Trump returned to office in January, including test-firing a new anti-aircraft missile system last month as South Korea and the United States wrapped up a major joint military exercise.

Tensions flared at the inter-Korean border on Tuesday evening when a group of around ten armed North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the military demarcation line inside the DMZ.

The soldiers quickly returned across the border after the South’s military fired warning shots, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters.

April 9 (UPI) — An American academic has been arrested in Thailand on accusations of insulting the monarchy, prompting the United States late Tuesday to express alarm and to urge authorities to respect freedom of expression.

Dr. Paul Chambers, a Thai studies scholar and lecturer at Thailand’s Naresuan University, turned himself in to authorities at Mueang Phitsanulok Police Station at 9 a.m. local time Tuesday on a court-issued warrant and was taken into pre-trial detention, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.

Representatives from the group of human rights lawyers and social activists, staff from the U.S. Embassy in Thailand, six professors from his university and an interpreter were present when Chambers surrendered to authorities at the central Thailand police station, the group said.

He was arrested under a Feb. 27 charge sheet citing Section 112 of the lese-majeste Criminal Code, which states: “Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent shall be punished with imprisonment of three to 15 years.” He has also been charged under Thailand’s Computer Crime Act.

Chambers has been denied bail, the court citing him as a potential flight risk and pointing to the severity of the penalty he faces.

According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, the charges stem from an Oct. 11 English-language post published on the website of Singaporean’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

The post appears to have been a brief introduction or advertisement for an academic webinar on Thai studies, in which Chambers gave a talk on the Thai military.

“The allegedly offensive content appears to have been part of an event description introducing the seminar’s topic and speakers — not an authored article by Dr. Paul himself,” the group said.

Chambers denies posting the blurb or being associated with the website. He also denies knowing the person who created the website but acknowledged that he is aware of its existence and that it is well known in the academic field of Southeast Asian studies, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said.

Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokesperson, in a statement Tuesday night, said they are “closely monitoring the situation.”

“The United States is alarmed by the arrest of U.S. citizen Paul Chambers in Thailand on lese majeste charges and the Computer Crimes Act,” she said. “We are in communication with Thai authorities regarding this case.”

According to Human Rights Watch, Chambers has been a target of royalist and untraconsevative groups for years who have spread disinformation about him online and have led a campaign to see him arrested.

“The baseless prosecution of Paul Chambers poses a serious threat to academic freedom and free speech in Thailand,” Elaine Pearson, Asia director at HRW, said in a statement.

Thailand’s lese-majeste laws have attracted condemnation for years over their use in detaining activists, human rights defenders and critics of the monarchy.

Bruce said Chambers’ arrest reinforces the State Department’s “longstanding concerns” about the lese majeste laws and that they continue to urge Thai authorities to respect freedom of expression and ensure that laws are not used to stifle permitted expression.”

“As a treaty ally of Thailand, we will closely monitor this issue and advocate for the fair treatment of Paul Chambers,” she said.

In late January, a group of United Nations experts condemned Thailand’s continued use of the law, stating that it consistently finds the detention of individuals under Section 112 to be “arbitrary when it resulted from the exercise of the freedom of expression.”

Since 2020, more than 270 people have been detained, prosecuted and punished under the lese-majeste laws, according to the U.N. said.

“Lese-majeste laws have no place in a democratic country,” the U.N. experts said in a statement.

“The widespread use of [the] law to punish human rights defenders, members of the political opposition, social activists, journalists and ordinary citizens who are merely expressing their views peacefully creates a chilling effect, silencing legitimate political expression.”

WASHINGTON — Canada will begin imposing 25% tariffs on select U.S. car imports Wednesday, ratcheting up tensions between Washington and Ottawa as the rest of the world grapples with President Trump’s ongoing assault on the global economic order.

Canada’s move came hours after Beijing vowed that China would “fight to the end” over the Trump administration’s tariff policy, which it characterized as an attempt to “blackmail” the world. As of Wednesday, all products imported from China to the United States would face a duty of 104%.

The steps from two of America’s largest trading partners — one friend, one foe — exemplified the challenges ahead for the Trump administration, which said that its sweeping global tariffs policy on nearly every country on Earth would remain in place. Only direct negotiations with trading partners, on an individual basis, could potentially result in new trade agreements that would lift or ease some restrictions, officials said.

The news led to yet another day of market turmoil, with the Dow Jones industrial average, Standard & Poor’s 500 and Nasdaq all beginning the day with promising rallies that disappeared by the closing bell.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that Canada’s new tariffs will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on noncompliant vehicles from the United States, and on contents of CUSMA-compliant vehicles not from Canada or Mexico. CUSMA, called USMCA in the United States, refers to a trade agreement negotiated among Canada, the United States and Mexico during the first Trump administration.

The trade war is already reverberating through the auto industry, with Jaguar, Land Rover and Audi halting exports to the United States, and U.S.-based Stellantis — which produces brands including Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep — announcing an initial round of 900 temporary layoffs at five U.S. plants.

“President Trump caused this trade crisis,” Carney said in a statement posted on X. “Canada is responding with purpose and with force.”

Trump told reporters Tuesday that he was “doing very well in making tailored deals” with countries around the world, and said that over 70 nations had reached out to the White House to start negotiations. He added that the U.S. is “taking in almost $2 billion a day in tariffs.”

But Trump has said he is waiting, in particular, for talks to begin with China, the third-largest U.S. trading partner after Canada and Mexico. On Wednesday, the administration will push forward with Trump’s threat to pile on additional 50% tariffs if China does not remove its 34% tariffs against the United States.

Trump first announced 20% tariffs against China soon after taking office, complaining that the Asian nation had forced fentanyl to flood into the country. Last Wednesday, as part of his sweeping tariffs measure he dubbed “Liberation Day,” Trump enacted an additional 34% tariff against the country.

White House officials continued to champion tariffs as the ultimate leverage, forcing other countries to line up to negotiate with the president. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated Tuesday that “the phones are ringing off the hook” from global leaders, hoping to negotiate an end to the crippling taxes.

“It’s because the world knows that they need the United States of America. They need our markets. They need our consumers,” Leavitt said. “The president has a lot of leverage on his side.”

Not only is China the world’s largest trading partner, it is the provider of many goods Americans rely on — from iPhone components to cheap clothing. Already, members of Trump’s inner circle — and the broader Republican Party — are questioning the president’s tactics.

Elon Musk, the president’s close advisor and the world’s richest man, who has several businesses with interests in China, complained in recent days on X, which he owns, about tariffs. He called Trump’s trade advisor, Peter Navarro, “dumber than a sack of bricks” over his guidance to the president.

“Navarro is truly a moron,” Musk posted. “What he says here is demonstrably false.”

Several Republican lawmakers, including prominent GOP senators, initially responded to the policy change with draft legislation that would reassert congressional control over tariff policy. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota threw cold water on the bill’s prospects Monday.

“I don’t think that has a future,” Thune said. “The president’s indicated he would veto it. I don’t see how they get it on the floor in the House, so I think at this point we’re kind of waiting to see what’s going to happen next.”

The lack of congressional action leaves countries around the world with little choice but to directly negotiate with the Trump administration. Yet it is unclear what Trump will consider adequate for success in any bilateral agreement, much less whether a common standard will emerge for countries entering talks.

Sitting in the Oval Office on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to the president, “We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States.” Israel has been hit with a 17% tariff rate by the Trump administration, ostensibly over the country’s trade deficit with Washington.

“We intend to do it very quickly — we think it’s the right thing to do — and we’re going to also eliminate trade barriers,” Netanyahu said. “I think Israel could serve as a model for many countries who ought to do the same.”

And yet, in response to a reporter’s question moments later, Trump would not commit to lifting the new tariff rate on Israel even if Netanyahu were to fulfill his promise. “Maybe not,” Trump said.

“Don’t forget, we help Israel a lot,” Trump added. “We give Israel $4 billion a year, that’s a lot.”

The remarks suggested that case-by-case talks with trading partners would involve topics well beyond tariffs, and even beyond trade deficits, to possibly include foreign aid, military assistance and other matters unrelated to economic policy — a series of negotiations that could take months, if not years, to complete.

Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council under Trump, said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday that the administration is “managing a massive amount of requests for negotiations.”

“It’s actually, logistically, quite challenging,” he added.

Trump announced a baseline tariff rate of 10% for nearly all countries last week. For countries with higher, customized tariff rates — assigned based on the president’s belief that they have treated the United States unfairly — the new import duties are scheduled to go into effect on Wednesday morning. Russia was not included on the list.

April 8 (UPI) — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned of China’s military expansion while aiming to improve economic ties with Japan during a two-day visit on Tuesday and Wednesday.

China’s emphasis on military development, support of Russia and ties to Iran and North Korea make China a serious concern, Rutte said while meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani on Tuesday at the Yokosuka Naval Base.

“China is building up its armed forces, including its navy, at a rapid pace,” Rutte told media in Yokosuka. “We cannot be naïve, and we really have to work together [and] assess what is happening.”

Japanese officials view China as a threat to regional peace and recently increased Japan’s military growth, including the future deployment of long-range cruise missiles capable of defensive strikes against aggressor nations.

During his meeting with Nakatani earlier Tuesday, Rutte said NATO and Japan share common concerns as China, North Korea and Russia increase their mutual military cooperation while undermining global stability.

“We know that they help and support the Russians’ warfare through war effort, through sanction circumvention [and] through the delivery of dual-use goods,” Rutte told media.

“So they are an integral part of the war effort,” he said. “Now North Korea is sending its soldiers to Europe to fight a war.”

Rutte said Russia is repaying North Korea with technology, as well as money, which poses a threat to the “whole of NATO territory and to the Indo-Pacific” as well as the United States.

Rutte also is scheduled to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoji Muto, members of Japan’s Diet and Japanese industry representatives on Wednesday.

The visit to Japan comes after China’s People’s Liberation Army recently conducted large military drills near Taiwan, which China has declared as its sovereign territory and seeks to annex.

Officials in the United States, the United Kingdom and other G7 nations condemned China’s actions.

“Beijing’s behavior threatens world peace and global economic stability,” Luke De Pulford of the U.K. Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China told the Daily Mail.

“The democratic world isn’t even close to meaningful deterrence,” De Pulford said. “The U.K. is further behind than most.”

Rutte is visiting Japan after meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in March.

Rutte and Trump discussed the war in Ukraine and Trump’s demands that NATO member states contribute funding equal to at least 5% of their respective gross domestic products to support NATO.

April 8 (UPI) — Prince Harry was back in court Tuesday to appeal the British government’s decision to strip his publicly-funded security.

Harry, 40, stepped down as a full-time member of the royal family and had his security downgraded in February 2020 when he moved to the United States with his wife, actress Meghan Markle, 43.

It meant he was only provided a security detail by the state on a case-by-case basis.

The case, meanwhile, is set to run through Wednesday as legal representatives of the Duke of Sussex argue that the agency responsible for royal security had not been following its own policies, further claiming that he and his family were under special threats which he says may be racially motivated.

Last year in February, the youngest son of King Charles III lost a challenge in Britain’s High Court claiming that a downgrade to his security status was unlawful, which the court said was a “legally sound” act.

An unnamed legal representative said previously that the younger brother of the prince of Wales and future king “inherited a security risk at birth, for life.”

“He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi extremist threats,” the representative said.

It’s one of no less than six lawsuits involving the former working royal.

On Tuesday, an attorney for Harry said he was “singled out” for what was called “different unjustified and inferior treatment.”

Britain’s Home Office suggested the prince is comparing his status to that of the royal family, explaining that the young son of the late Princess Diana has not had his security completely removed, but rather is simply not “on the same basis” as senior royals.

“We are in territory in which there are no right or wrong answers, there are matters of judgement against broad, soft-edged criteria,” Sir James Eadie KC, a British government lawyer, said in court.

At the end of March, the now California resident resigned from Sentebale, the African charity he co-founded in 2006 in honor of the late princes of Wales to help HIV and Aids patients in southern Africa.

Meanwhile, a written judgment in Harry’s case will be issued at a later date.

Perhaps no one is more excited about the reunited Go-Go’s upcoming slate of high-profile gigs than Gina Schock. The 67-year-old drummer missed the band’s last big Los Angeles shows — in 2022 at the Crypto.com Arena and a three-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl in 2018 — due to health issues that required surgery on her thumb and to fuse three vertebrae together in her neck, respectively.

Now, however, Schock is healthy and looking forward to powering the band through a club set at one of their old haunts, the Roxy, on April 9, and then April 11 and April 18 at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. After playing dates in San Francisco and Las Vegas, they’ll wrap it up at the Cruel World festival in Pasadena on May 17, making the Go-Go’s one of the few bands to play the larger, more eclectic and current Indio, Calif., festival and the ’80s-leaning Pasadena fest in the same calendar year.

Their Coachella dates are headlined by Lady Gaga, while Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds top the bill at Cruel World. It all seems to make sense since the Go-Go’s bridge the gap between the pop leanings of Gaga and the L.A. punk scene that shared similar sensibilities with Cave’s early work with the Birthday Party.

Four-fifths of the band reunited for a rehearsal in Los Angeles in mid-February that left Schock pumped up. “I was very excited to be playing because I’ve been practicing for months. I haven’t played with the band for eight years,” she says via Zoom from San Francisco, her home since 2005.

Over the years, the Go-Go’s have reunited from time to time. In 2016, they staged what was billed as a farewell tour, leaving the door open to occasional future live dates, but no more full tours.

The last time they played a festival comparable to Coachella was in January 1985 at Rock in Rio in Brazil, when the band was on their last legs after their incredibly successful first run. They exploded out of the Los Angeles club scene, scored a record deal with the then-fledgling IRS Records and topped the album chart in 1982 with their debut album, “Beauty and the Beat,” which blended their punk energy with pop sensibilities in the hits “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat.” Incredibly, it remains the only album by an all-female band that plays their own instruments to top the Billboard album chart.

Yet by 1985, after two other successful albums, 1982’s “Vacation” and 1984’s “Talk Show,” the band was falling apart due to jealousy over songwriting credits, compensation, substance abuse and mismanagement.

Wiedlin, who had a hit collaboration with Sparks on the song “Cool Places” in 1983, left in October 1984, so Valentine slid over to guitar and the band recruited Paula Jean Brown to play bass for their two sets at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil, which drew more than 250,000 people each day. After those shows, the rest of the band flew home, but guitarist-songwriter Charlotte Caffey stayed in Brazil for a week, attempting to work through her drug addiction. “It was such a weird feeling that whole week,” Caffey says of that time in Rio. “I got home, and I dropped my own self off at a drug and alcohol hospital in South Pasadena,” she recalls.

Four decades later, she’s still sober. “That’s the most important thing ever that I did in my life,” she says. “All the people that worked there took bets on who would go out first,” she says of the staff at the rehab facility. “Of course, I was No. 1, and I’m the only one that stayed sober.”

The most private Go-Go, Caffey isn’t on social media like her bandmates. “The worst possible thought in my mind is having people following me,” she says in a Zoom interview from her Los Angeles home that she started with her camera off.

“I always loved writing the songs and performing,” she adds, “but I didn’t love all the stuff, like the fame. I’m not that public person. I love looking at what the other girls are doing. I find out when we’re not working together. I look at their socials and I’m like, ‘Oh, that looks really fun.’ I’m just more private.”

The Go Go’s are gearing up to perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival as well as Cruel World.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

It’s not surprising that the Go-Go’s use social media to keep up with each other these days. Caffey, who penned the band’s 1982 No. 2 hit “We Got the Beat,” is the only band member still in L.A., where she lives with her husband since 1993, Redd Kross guitarist Jeff McDonald. Singer Belinda Carlisle, 66, has lived with her husband Morgan Mason, a former political advisor and entertainment executive, in Mexico City for four years and outside the U.S. since 1994. Valentine recently relocated to St. Alban, England, near London, while Wiedlin was living on the big island in Hawaii but recently relocated to Berkeley in search of better treatment for the long COVID that has been dogging her for more than a year.

The Go-Go with the most successful solo career with hits “Heaven Is a Place on Earth,” “I Get Weak” and “Mad About You,” Carlisle recently announced live dates in Germany, Belgium and the U.K. for fall, after playing in Australia and England last year. Yet, she acknowledges she owes it all to the Go-Go’s.

“If it wasn’t for the Go-Go’s, I wouldn’t have a solo career. That’s just a fact and I know that,” she says in a Zoom interview from Mexico City. “The whole story of it even happening is something that I think is extraordinary,” she says of the band she co-founded in 1978 with Wiedlin and original bassist Margot Olavarria and drummer Elissa Bello. “I’m really proud of that because we really worked hard. The band happened against all odds.”

Perhaps nothing sums that up better than the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. Foo Fighters, which include guitarist Pat Smear, another refugee from the L.A. punk scene, were also inducted that year. Before Carlilse joined the Go-Go’s, she had a brief stint as the singer of the Germs with Smear on guitar. “I have a picture of me, Jane, Pat Smear and Belinda standing there,” Caffey says, “And we were looking at each other like, ‘You realize this was never a thought in our minds back then.’”

Caffey then flashes back to a memory with Smear and his bandmate, frontman Bobby Pin, who had not yet adopted the new moniker Darby Crash. They asked her how old she was. She can’t recall her answer but remembers Smear’s response back in 1978: “You’re too old to be a punk.”

At 71, Caffey is the oldest Go-Go, but when she does turn on her Zoom camera, she has a youthfulness that belies her age. Like many, she says the COVID “lockdown messed with my mind” and she stopped focusing on music for a stretch. Yet playing the Go-Go’s songs in her downstairs home studio “has opened up this whole creative thing for me now. I feel like I’m ready to create again,” she says.

Over in the U.K., Valentine, 66, is also going through a creative renaissance. The songwriter-bassist-guitarist who brought the Go-Go’s the top 10 hit “Vacation,” is performing as a solo artist. She’s also started a new all-star, all-female band with Baseball Project drummer Linda Pitmon, singer-guitarist Brix Smith of the Fall and Pogues bassist-singer Cáit O’Riordan called Psycher, and is getting ready to start writing a sequel to her acclaimed 2020 book “All I Ever Wanted: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir.” “I feel like I’m 16 and I’m gonna make it in the music biz,” she says during a Zoom interview.

She’s also come to recognize the full impact of the Go-Go’s legacy after a recent trip to Vienna to visit Lenny Kravitz and his guitarist and her former roommate Craig Ross.  “Lenny was introducing me to a younger person just going off about the Go-Go’s. ‘No, you don’t understand. They were the biggest band in the world!’ And I’m like, ‘No, we weren’t.’ And he goes, ‘Yes, you were the biggest band in the world!’ I’m just kind of always still surprised at the cultural reach of the Go-Go’s.”

Reached by phone in San Francisco, Wiedlin, 66, is also pleasantly surprised by the renewed interest and activity surrounding the band over the last decade, including the 2018 Broadway musical “Head Over Heels” featuring their songs and the 2020 debut of the documentary “The Go-Go’s” at the Sundance Film Festival, which led to the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. “And now Coachella and Cruel World, which I never thought we’d be asked to do,” she says.

Since she’s undergoing treatment for the lingering effects of long COVID, Wiedlin was unable to make it to the band’s L.A. rehearsal in late February, but has been getting together to play with fellow Bay Area resident Schock and plans to reunite with the band for rehearsals before the Roxy gig.

She, like other members of the band, is pleased to see new acts like fellow L.A.-based all-female rockers the Linda Lindas carry the torch, and hopes that others arise to keep rock ‘n’ roll alive.

“You have the whole phenomenon of groups that don’t write and don’t play instruments, and it’s more about dancing and looking good,” she says. “That’s fine, but being an older person, I really appreciate rock ‘n’ roll, loud guitars and people playing instruments. That’s something I love, and I would hate for that to go away entirely.”

“I’m very proud of our band,” she adds. “We’ve never used backing tracks or anything. We’re very raw live and we’re very real.”

April 8 (UPI) — Beijing will retaliate if President Donald Trump makes good on his threat to impose a further 50% tariff on Chinese exports, the Asian nation’s commerce ministry said Tuesday.

“If the United States upgrades tariff measures, China will resolutely take countermeasures to protect its rights and interests,” the ministry said in a statement.

Trump has thrice imposed import tariffs on China since returning to the White House in January, starting with 10% tariffs that took effect Feb. 4, which were increased to 20% the next month. Trump last week then announced an additional 34% tariff as he hit dozens of countries with tariffs.

China retaliated Friday with a 34% increase in tariffs against U.S. imports, prompting the American president on Monday to announce that an additional 50% tariff would go into effect against China on Wednesday — attracting the ire of Beijing.

In its Tuesday statement, China’s Commerce Ministry described the so-called reciprocal tariffs Trump announced last week as “groundless” and “a typical unilateral bullying practice.”

It also defended its 34% countermeasures as needed to protect “its sovereignty, security and development interests,” while “maintaining the normal order of international trade.”

Trump’s threat to impose an additional 50% tariff on China “is a mistake on top of a mistake and once again exposes the coercive nature of U.S. policy,” it said.

“China urges the U.S. to immediately correct its wrongful actions, cancel all unilateral tariff measures against China, stop suppressing China in economic and trade matters and resolve differences through equal dialogue based on mutual respect,” the commerce ministry said.

Trump has used tariffs as both a negotiating tactic to secure more favorable agreements from other countries and a way to try to even out trade deficiencies with trading partners.

The American president announced the latest round of tariffs on China as he hit some 180 countries with what he called “reciprocal” tariffs.

The move has strained relations with allies, deepened competition with adversaries, sparked fears of a global recession, exasperated inflation and led to a decline in U.S. markets.

On Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned Trump’s tariffs will cause inflation to grow and growth to slow.

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IRVINE, Calif., April 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zadara, the sovereign AI edge cloud leader, today announced that it is proud to support Israel’s own ORBIT 1690 as it prepares to compete at the FIRST^® Championship to be held in Houston, Texas, April 16-19, 2025. Physical AI is a key pillar of the next wave of Artificial Intelligence, with robotics at its core. Zadara invests in the future of robotics and intelligent systems, starting with the innovators of tomorrow. ORBIT 1690 secured first place in the 2024 FIRST Robotics World Championship.

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Founded in 2005, ORBIT 1690 has risen to become one of the world’s top 10 robotics teams. Every season begins with a new global challenge, and the team has just six weeks to design, build, and program a competitive robot—relying on teamwork, innovation, and relentless dedication. ORBIT 1690 has competed in 12 Israeli regionals, 2 regionals in the United States, 6 Israel District Championships, and has competed in the World Championship 10 times, with 2 Einstein Finals appearances.

Zadara’s sponsorship of ORBIT 1690 helps fund the team’s robotics development, travel, and global competition participation, empowering students with hands-on experience in building the intelligent systems of the future.

“Robots change, spirit remains” – ORBIT 1690’s motto perfectly captures its drive to adapt, lead, and inspire. “As a sovereign AI edge cloud provider, we see robotics as a natural and critical frontier for AI,” said Ofir Amir, Cloud Group Manager and Architect at Zadara. “ORBIT 1690 is not only building robots – it is building the next generation of thinkers and doers who will define how AI interacts with the real world.”

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Follow ORBIT 1690:
1690orbit.com
[email protected]
Watch the robot in action

About Zadara

Zadara (https://www.zadara.com/) is a leading provider of sovereign AI edge clouds offering a revolutionary distributed cloud platform that simplifies operational complexity and enables seamless multi-tenancy through automated end-to-end provisioning of compute, storage, and networking.

With over 500 edge cloud locations worldwide and with the ability to deploy a cloud in any location, Zadara’s clouds are uniquely positioned to meet the unique demands of various cloud-based use cases, including sovereign cloud and AI inference at the edge for service providers and the modern enterprise. Zadara clouds are AWS compatible and feature consumption-based pricing with zero data egress fees. 

Zadara’s fully-managed clouds are designed to accommodate any workload, anywhere – whether on-premises, hybrid, multi-cloud or at the edge. Zadara operates worldwide with a highly skilled team that provides 24/7 follow-the-sun support and services. Zadara is headquartered in Irvine, California.

Media Contacts:
Joanne Hogue
Smart Connections PR for Zadara
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+1 (410) 658-8246

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SEOUL, April 8 (UPI) — South Korea will vote for a new president in a snap election on June 3, its acting president announced Tuesday, as the country works to recover from a martial law crisis that led to the impeachment of ex-leader Yoon Suk Yeol.

Yoon’s impeachment was upheld by the Constitutional Court on Friday over his short-lived declaration of martial law in December. Under South Korean law, an election must be held within 60 days of a leader’s removal from office.

The June 3 date reflects the maximum allotted time in order to enable “the smooth execution of legal affairs necessary for election management and the preparation period of each political party,” acting President Han Duck-soo said at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Han apologized to the South Korean public for their “confusion and concern” over the four-month struggle of Yoon’s impeachment process, and praised their restrained reaction to the court’s decision.

“Fortunately, the majority of wise citizens have accepted the results of the constitutional order and have demonstrated their mature democratic capabilities,” Han said. “Now, we must heal the wounds and aftereffects as soon as possible and gather national energy to help the Republic of Korea rise again and leap forward.”

Yoon, a 64-year-old former prosecutor, was impeached on Dec. 14 by the National Assembly over his shocking declaration of martial law earlier in the month.

After the Constitutional Court heard final arguments of a lengthy trial at the end of February, a drawn-out deliberation process sparked massive rallies on both sides of the deeply divisive issue.

Police were at their highest alert level ahead of the court’s decision Friday, completely sealing off a 500-foot radius around the courthouse, while nearby schools and tourist attractions closed for the day.

However, fears of public unrest were eased as crowds dispersed quickly after the verdict was announced. A survey by pollster Realmeter released on Monday found that 76.9% of respondents said they accepted the court’s ruling.

Candidates for the election must register by May 11 and the official campaign period will kick off one day later, news agency Yonhap reported.

Opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung is the strong frontrunner, with 49.5% of respondents calling him the most suitable candidate for president in a poll released last week by Realmeter.

Lee, who lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election by a razor-thin margin, is facing legal troubles of his own. Last month, a court overturned his conviction on an election law violation, but he is still facing criminal trials on charges including bribery and corruption.

Yoon’s ruling People Power Party will hold a primary to field a candidate, with potential contenders including Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo, Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon.

Han will remain in office as acting president until the election, which comes amid major domestic and international challenges including the 25% “reciprocal” tariffs on South Korean goods announced by U.S. President Donald Trump last week.

Seoul aims to negotiate with the United States to minimize the impact of tariffs on key export industries including steel and automobiles, Trade Minister Cheong In-kyo said Tuesday as he headed to Washington for talks.

April 7 (UPI) — General Motors has opened a new advanced global design studio in Britain to “demonstrate its commitment to Europe,” the automaker announced Monday as it showcased images of its next-generation, EV-powered Chevrolet Corvette concept car.

The new studio, located in Royal Leamington Spa near Birmingham, is part of GM’s plan to launch Corvette and Cadillac electric vehicle sales across Great Britain and mainland Europe. GM said its goal is to provide “fresh perspectives” into its global network. The company also has design studios in Detroit, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Seoul.

“Our advanced design team’s mandate extends well beyond creating production vehicles,” said Michael Simcoe, senior vice president of global design.

“While they collaborate within our global design network on production and concept vehicle programs, these teams are primarily tasked with imagining what mobility could look like in five, 10 and even 20 years into the future and driving innovation for GM,” Simcoe added.

The Corvette concept car, which was a collaboration of multiple studios, maintains its muscle car vibe and iconic “split window,” but with gull wing doors and a “futuristic aesthetic” drawn from aviation.

“One of the most unusual and significant aspects of our concept’s design is a feature known as Apex Vision,” said Julian Thomson, the lead automotive designer at the 24,584-square-foot studio in Britain. “A nod to Corvette’s centerline focus, and inspired by the iconic ‘split window’ 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray, this feature emphasizes a singular vertical central spine that is also a structural element, providing a panoramic view of the road and surroundings.”

The new Corvette also includes EV battery technology and aerodynamics that channel air “without the need for wings or spoilers.”

While GM said it wanted its design studios to “push the boundaries of automotive design,” it also wanted to respect the history of Corvette as well as its iconic image.

“It was important that they all pay homage to Corvette’s historic DNA, but each studio brought their own unique creative interpretation to the project,” Simcoe said. “That is exactly what our advanced design studio network is intended to do — push the envelope, challenge convention and imagine what could be.”

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that the U.S. will hold direct talks with Iran about its nuclear program, while warning Tehran it would be in “great danger” if the talks aren’t successful.

The president, in comments to reporters after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the talks will start Saturday. He insisted Tehran can’t get nuclear weapons.

“We’re dealing with them directly and maybe a deal is going to be made,” Trump said. He added that “doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious.”

Asked if he would commit to military action against Iran should his negotiators be unable to come to terms with Tehran, Trump responded that “Iran is going to be in great danger, and I hate to say it.”

“If the talks aren’t successful, I think it’s going to be a very bad day for Iran,” Trump said.

Trump during his first White House term withdrew the U.S. from the landmark nuclear accord with Iran negotiated by President Obama’s administration.

Netanyahu says he supports Trump’s diplomatic efforts to reach a settlement with Iran, adding that Israel and the U.S. share the same goal of ensuring that Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon.

The Israeli leader, known for his hawkish views on Iran and past calls for military pressure, said he would welcome a diplomatic agreement along the lines of Libya’s deal with the international community in 2003.

“I think that would be a good thing,” he said. “But whatever happens, we have to make sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons.”

Trump said the talks would happen “at almost the highest level” but declined to say where the negotiations would take place or who he was dispatching for the sensitive diplomacy.

He announced plans for the surprise engagement as Netanyahu made a hastily arranged visit to the White House — his second in just over two months — to discuss the tariffs Trump has unleashed on countries around the world, Iran’s nuclear program and the Israel-Hamas war.

In withdrawing the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Trump declared he was making the world safer, but he also deepened his isolation on the world stage and revived doubts about American credibility.

The agreement, which also included Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, had lifted most U.S. and international economic sanctions against Iran.

“I think it’ll be, different and maybe a lot stronger,” Trump said on how a new deal might be different from the one negotiated by Obama officials.

Trump and Netanyahu said they also discussed tensions with Iran, Israel-Turkey ties and the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant against the Israeli leader last year. Trump in February signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC over its investigations of Israel.

Before his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump held a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. All three leaders have been key interlocutors in efforts to tamp down tensions in the Middle East and bring an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

The prime minister soon after arriving in Washington on Sunday evening met with two senior Trump administration officials, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer, to discuss the tariffs. And Netanyahu met on Monday with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, ahead of his sit-down with the president.

On tariffs, Netanyahu said he assured Trump that his government would move to erase its United States trade deficit.

“We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States,” Netanyahu said “We intend to do it very quickly.”

Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations, said he expected Trump to use the tariffs as leverage to force concessions from Netanyahu.

In Israel’s case, those concessions might not be economic. Trump may pressure Netanyahu to move toward ending the war in Gaza — at the very least through some interim truce with Hamas that would pause the fighting and free more hostages.

Gilboa said Trump is hoping to return from his first overseas trip — expected next month to Saudi Arabia — with some movement on a deal to normalize relations with Israel, which would probably require significant Israeli concessions on Gaza.

If he does manage to move toward bolstering ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, that would act as a regional diplomatic counterweight to pressure Iran, against which Trump has threatened new sanctions and suggested military action over its nuclear program.

In a preemptive move last week, Israel announced that it was removing all tariffs on goods from the U.S., mostly on imported food and agricultural products, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.

But the tactic failed, and with a 17% rate, Israel was just one of dozens of countries that were slapped with tariffs on Trump’s so-called Liberation Day last week.

Although Israel is a tiny market for U.S. products, the United States is a key trade partner of Israel. Much of that trade is for high-tech services, which are not directly affected by the tariffs, but key Israeli industries could be affected.

The Manufacturers Assn. of Israel estimates that the tariffs will cost Israel about $3 billion in exports each year and lead to the loss of 26,000 jobs in industries that include biotechnology, chemicals, plastics and electronics. The World Bank says Israel’s gross domestic product, a measure of economic output, is over $500 billion a year.

“The damage won’t stop at exports,” said Ron Tomer, the group’s president. “It will scare investors, encourage companies to leave Israel and undermine our image as a global center of innovation.” He called on the government to work urgently to protect the economy.

Madhani, Goldenberg and Miller write for the Associated Press. Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv. AP writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — With portraits of George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt adorning the walls, and grand golden chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, the Dodgers received a champion’s welcome in the East Room of the White House on Monday morning, applauded by a packed crowd awaiting their arrival for their 2024 World Series celebration.

Then, once they were all in place on a stage at the front of the room, President Trump entered to personally congratulate them on what he called a “legendary season.”

“That is a very good-looking group of people,” Trump said, with Dodgers players, coaches, executives and members of ownership, including chairman Mark Walter, standing around him.

“Over the course of this amazing season, the members of this team gave us some of the most incredible performances ever seen on the baseball diamond.”

When the Dodgers announced last month they would visit Trump’s White House this week, while in town for a road series against the Washington Nationals, it triggered an avalanche of reactions from fans and others around the baseball world.

Three months into his second term in office, Trump remains a polarizing figure — especially in Los Angeles, where Kamala Harris received more than twice as many votes as he did among L.A. County voters in the 2024 election.

But the Dodgers cited the trip as nothing more than upholding tradition, despite pressure from some factions of their fan base to decline the invitation.

President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw during a ceremony to honor the team at the White House on Monday.

(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)

“We’re very pleased,” Walter said Monday, “to participate in the tradition of bringing champions to the White House.”

Every returning member of the 2024 team on this week’s trip participated in the visit; including manager Dave Roberts (who said in 2019 he wouldn’t visit the White House if the Dodgers won a World Series during Trump’s first term) and shortstop Mookie Betts (who declined to visit the White House with the Boston Red Sox while Trump was first in office in 2019).

The only notable absence was first baseman Freddie Freeman, who remained in Los Angeles this week to nurse an ankle injury that landed him on the injured list.

Over a 15-minute speech, Trump lauded the Dodgers’ 2024 accomplishments; which, he noted, included knocking off the New York native’s “home teams” in the Mets and Yankees en route to their championship.

“You did a big number,” Trump said. “Really amazing how it all came out, and how it all ended.”

Of a potential Dodgers-Yankees rematch in the World Series, Trump added, “maybe we’ll see the same thing over again.”

The praise started with Roberts, who was once the target of social media criticisms from Trump during the 2018 World Series, but was told by the President on Monday that he is “one of the greatest managers, really, ever to wear the Dodger blue.”

“I think he would have lasted even with George Steinbrenner,” Trump deadpanned, in a reference to the former Yankees owner who was notorious for churning through managers.

“Great job, Dave,” he added after shaking Roberts’ hand.

Trump then turned his attention to Shohei Ohtani, listing off several of the accomplishments from the slugger’s unprecedented 50-homer, 50-steal performance last season before shaking his hand and joking that the reigning National League MVP “looks like a movie star.”

“Is he good?” Trump playfully asked Roberts.

“He’s only getting better,” Roberts responded.

“That’s scary for a lot of people, huh?” Trump said.

Then, Trump listed off several of Ohtani’s accomplishments from his unprecedented 50-homer, 50-steal performance last season, before joking that the reigning National League MVP “looks like a movie star.”

Trump also highlighted the contributions of Betts, Freeman, Max Muncy, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tommy Edman, Kiké Hernández, Teoscar Hernández and Clayton Kershaw — who also took the mic to give remarks, and presented Trump with a custom Dodgers jersey bearing his name.

“This is an incredible honor for me to stand here today representing the Los Angeles Dodgers and this group of staff and players standing behind me today,” said Kershaw, who is the club’s longest-tenured player but was injured during last year’s postseason run.

“As a spectator for our championship run last year, I was in awe of this group. Their unwavering confidence, coupled with the selfless pursuit for team excellence, was an inspiration. That is why I am so grateful to get to speak today on their behalf, as I know none of them would say this about themselves. Moving forward, I hope the 2024 Dodgers can serve as an inspiration to many like they were to me — not just in sports but in life, remembering to put others before ourselves.”

The visit concluded with Trump taking the Dodgers back for a tour of the Oval Office — but not before he offered a prediction about their chances of repeating as champions in 2025.

“After seeing how successful you’ve begun this season,” Trump said, referencing the Dodgers’ 9-2 record this season entering Monday, “I can tell you that you can plan on being back here. I hope you’re going to be back here next year.”

April 7 (UPI) — South Korea’s government on Monday said it will provide up to $68.12 billion in emergency liquidity and other market stabilization measures for local companies hit by U.S. tariffs and amid tumbling stocks.

Last week, President Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on South Korean goods. A 10% baseline tariff on 180 trading partners took effect Saturday, and the reciprocal duties for the so-called “worst” offenders will be imposed Wednesday.

Kim Byoung-hwan, chief of the Financial Services Commission, told the heads of the top five financial holding firms about the plans in Seoul, Yonhap News Agency reported.

“Uncertainties are running high across the domestic economy, industries and financial markets due to the tariff policy,” Kim said. “Financial holding companies and policy finance institutions should take the lead in stabilizing the market and play a more active role in providing financial support to businesses and other sectors.”

They include companies that manufacture semiconductors, secondary batteries, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics, the Korean Times reported.

Also, he said FCS will make “all-out” efforts to smoothly implement market stabilization measures to inject liquidity any time.

Since Trump’s tariffs announcement Wednesday, worldwide stock markets have plunged.

That includes a 5.5% decline by the Korean Composite Stock Price Index to 2,328.20, the fourth day in a row of losses. The market was halted for five minutes in a circuit-breaker procedure during the opening after heavy drops.

The index is at the lowest level since October 2023.

Losing companies outnumbered winners 862-68.

“Volatility in the Korean stock markets heightened on the Trump administration’s stronger-than-expected tariff policies,” Park Seok-joong, an analyst at Shinhan Securities, said.

“None of the Korean export industries will be able to evade the influence of the U.S. tariff scheme.”

Many large-cap stocks were at their lows for the year.

Big declines were seen at companies that export to the United States.

Hyundai Motor, the top automaker in South Korea, sank 6.62%.

Hanwha Aerospace, a major defense firm, skidded 8.55%.

Samsung Electronics lost 5.17% and its biotech division dropped 5.71%.

Steel giant POSCO Holdings slumped 6.59%.

Among shipbuilders, Hanwha Ocean declined 9.81% and HD Hyundai Heavy went down 8.17%.

“Especially in times like these, the financial sector must fulfill its core function – ensuring stable markets and uninterrupted financial intermediation,” Kim said. “We expect financial holding companies and policy institutions to take the lead in supporting both market stability and capital access for businesses.”

South Korea’s currency dropped 2.3% to 1,467.8 won against the U.S. dollar, its biggest single-day decline, 2.3%, against U.S. currency since March 19, 2020, at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

South Korean Trade Minister Cheong In-kyo plans to visit Washington on Tuesday for tariff negotiations with U.S. administration officials, Seoul’s trade ministry said.

“We are in a severe situation where Korean companies exporting to or operating in the U.S. are expected to suffer difficulties due to the reciprocal tariffs announced on April 2, as well as duties on steel, aluminum, cars and auto parts,” Cheong said in a press release.

“The government will put in all-out efforts in negotiations with the U.S. to minimize the impact of Washington’s trade policies on Korean businesses and industries,” he added.