A Change in the Garden: Rick Pitino and St. John's now rule the Big East as UConn slides off the mountaintop – CBS Sports
A Change in the Garden: Rick Pitino and St. John's now rule the Big East as UConn slides off the mountaintop – CBS Sports
A Change in the Garden: Rick Pitino and St. John’s now rule the Big East as UConn slides off the mountaintop CBS SportsAiling Kadary Richmond leads St. John’s to win over UConn ESPNSt. John’s One Step Closer to First Outright Big East Title in 40 Years Sports IllustratedTarris Reed Jr. throws down two-handed slam, trimming UConn’s deficit vs. St. John’s FOX SportsSt. John’s destroys UConn for first season sweep in 25 years to inch closer to Big East crown New York Post
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Germany’s Friedrich Merz signals seismic shift in Europe-US relations
Germany’s Friedrich Merz signals seismic shift in Europe-US relations
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Friedrich Merz says he is eager to re-engage with international partners
Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, didn’t wait for the final results of his country’s election on Sunday to herald a new era in Europe.
Declaring the US indifferent to this continent’s fate, Friedrich Merz questioned the future of Nato and demanded Europe boost its own defences. Quickly.
This tone from the close US ally – and from Friedrich Merz who is known to be a passionate Atlanticist – would have been unimaginable even a couple of months ago.
It’s a seismic shift. That may read like hyperbole, but what we are now experiencing in terms of transatlantic relations is unprecedented in the 80 years since the end of World War Two.
Big European powers have been shocked to the core by the Trump administration, which suggests it could revoke the security guarantees to Europe in place since 1945.
On Sunday night, Friedrich Merz put Donald Trump’s America on a par with Russia – widely viewed here as a security threat to Europe more broadly. He said Europe was now being squeezed by the two nations, which is why it had to take urgent action.
The *** prime minister heads to Washington on Thursday, following the visit there on Monday by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Friedrich Merz admits, indirectly, to a sense of Fomo – fear of missing out. By rights Germany should be there, too, this week, he says. Berlin, is one of Europe’s Big Three powers, alongside France and the ***.
And with the US and Russia now pow-wowing bilaterally, about, but not with, Ukraine, it feels like a global return to big-power politics.
But Germany has been MIA [missing in action] for a good while now on the European and the world stage. The outgoing government here was weakened and distracted by vicious internal bickering. This infuriated ******* voters – who wanted urgent focus on the economy and migration – and European allies, demanding action on Russia, security and defence.
Merz says a top priority for Germany is to re-engage internationally.
The country is already the second-biggest donor of military aid to Ukraine, after the US.
Merz wants to continue that support, but, unlike France and the ***, he’s been reticent about the idea of sending soldiers to Ukraine, to back up an eventual ceasefire there.
Based on Germany’s track record though – it dragged its heels at every stage of Ukraine support, and despite that, ended up delivering more aid than any of its European neighbours – a ‘No’ now, doesn’t mean a ‘No’ forever to committing troops or participating in whatever form a European “reassurance force” in Ukraine may take.
For now, the soldiers Germans most worry about are the 35,000 American ones, stationed in their country, that make them feel safe.
It’s highly unusual for foreign policy to be a top voter concern at election time. But in Germany this weekend, alongside the economy and migration, voter after voter said they worried about peace in Europe and felt very insecure.
Back in November, Germany’s interior ministry said it was drawing up a list of bunkers that could provide emergency shelter for civilians.
Ukraine may be far away, but Germans feel at great risk from Russia for two reasons.
Firstly, the amount of military equipment their country has sent Ukraine. The far right, Alternative for Germany (AfD), with its “Germany First” slogan, campaigned for Berlin to disengage from Kyiv and to re-establish relations with Russia. A strategy not unlike Donald Trump’s, as the party is fond of pointing out.
Secondly, many in Germany think that if Russia wanted to really destabilise Europe, it might be tempted to strike one of the Big Three with a long-range missile.
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******* voters worry about security in Europe – including the future of the 35,000 American soldiers stationed in Germany
France and the *** are nuclear powers. Germany is not. Even its conventional military is woefully understaffed and underequipped (to the immense irritation of European partners), so Germany fears it’s a soft target.
All the more so if President Trump withdraws his active servicemen and women from Germany.
He has pledged to significantly reduce US troop presence in Europe as a whole.
The ******* sense of deep domestic insecurity prompted Friedrich Merz to suggest last week that he’d look to France and Britain to form a European nuclear umbrella, to replace US nuclear guarantees.
It’s an idea that’s easy to bring up on the campaign trail, but that in reality is hugely complex – involving questions of capabilities, commitment and control.
The reality check: Friedrich Merz will need a lot of money for his plans to secure Germany and Europe, and Germany’s economy is depressed.
He also has to reach agreement with the coalition partner, or partners, with whom he’ll form the next ******* government – as well as with other European countries, like the ***.
And they may not want to strike such a strident tone against the US.
This election may herald stronger leadership from Germany. But is the rest of Europe ready?
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Is it better to trade in my car or sell it privately?
Is it better to trade in my car or sell it privately?
There are two main ways you can get rid of your current car, and both carry their own sets of pros and cons.
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******** street racer kills woman walking on L.A. roadway, police say
******** street racer kills woman walking on L.A. roadway, police say
A woman became the latest victim of ******** street racers in Los Angeles after she was struck down in a roadway Saturday by one of two speeding drivers, L.A. police said.
The fatal hit-and-run is one in a long string of injuries and deaths related to street racing and street takeovers in Los Angeles.
The incident happened Saturday around 10 p.m. during a race between a gray Dodge Charger and a dark-colored Chevrolet Tahoe, both traveling south on Normandy Avenue at 66th Street, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The victim was walking outside of an unmarked crosswalk on Normandy and was struck by the Dodge.
The driver failed to stop and render aid after striking the victim and fled the scene. The woman was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Police are asking for help from witnesses or those who have tips that could help in identifying those involved in the alleged street race. Those with information can call (213) 458-3471 during business hours. For anonymous tips, call (800) 222-8477 or visit the LACrimeStoppers website.
Street racing and street takeovers — when participants commandeer bridges or intersections and perform dangerous car stunts in front of a crowd — hit a peak in 2020 with 912 reported incidents in Los Angeles. In 2019, there were 319 incidents, and in 2023, there were 482, police said at a public hearing last February.
In April 2023, a woman was killed in a street-racing ****** in Pomona, police said, one among numerous deaths and injuries related to street racing and street takeovers in L.A. (KTLA-TV)
Street racing and takeovers have a long and deadly local history. Southern California has long been an epicenter of high-speed car culture.
A Los Angeles Times analysis conducted in 2018 of coroner’s records, police reports and media accounts from 2000 to 2017 found that at least 179 people had died in Los Angeles County during that ******* as a result of suspected street racing.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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Tech investor Prosus to buy Just Eat Takeaway.com for $4.3 billion
Tech investor Prosus to buy Just Eat Takeaway.com for $4.3 billion
Just Eat Takeaway said it was delisting its shares from the London Stock Exchange due to the “low liquidity and trading volumes” of its shares on the exchange.
Mike Kemp | In Pictures | Getty Images
European food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com is poised to be acquired by Dutch technology investor Prosus in an all-cash deal worth roughly 4.1 billion euros ($4.3 billion).
The offer values Just Eat’s shares at 20.3 euros each, representing a premium of 63% when compared to the firm’s closing price on Friday.
Stock Chart IconStock chart icon
Just Eat
“We are very excited for Just Eat Takeaway.com to join the Prosus group and the opportunity to create a European tech champion,” Fabricio Bloisi, CEO of Prosus and Naspers group, said in a statement.
“We believe that combining Prosus’ strong technical and investment capabilities with Just Eat Takeaway.com’s leading brand position in key European markets will create significant value for our customers, drivers, partners, and shareholders,” Bloisi said.
This is a developing news story and will be updated shortly.
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MTV Star Tony Raines Arrested For Operating Vehicle While Intoxicated – TMZ
MTV Star Tony Raines Arrested For Operating Vehicle While Intoxicated – TMZ
MTV Star Tony Raines Arrested For Operating Vehicle While Intoxicated TMZ
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Vehicle convoy with Russian flags and pro-Putin ‘Z’ symbols hits Bondi Beach
Vehicle convoy with Russian flags and pro-Putin ‘Z’ symbols hits Bondi Beach
A convoy of vehicles sporting Russian flags and pro-war symbolism has paraded through Sydney’s Bondi Beach, with one witness describing the scene as “surreal”.
The parade, under ******* from the NSW Police, marked Defender of the Fatherland Day, a Russian celebration that honours the country’s military and veteran community.
It happened on Sunday, the eve of the three-year anniversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Video of the parade posted to the Kremlin-backed RT media channel show many of the vehicles sporting the ‘Z’ symbol, which signifies support for the brutal land war in eastern Europe that has killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians.
Alongside the SUV with large Russian flags billowing in the wind, a military-esque vehicle painted in fatigue colours also rolls through the suburb.
A beachgoer posting to social media called the scenes “surreal”.
“Surreal scenes at Bondi Beach yesterday while I was parking my car,” the person wrote.
Camera IconThe convoy featured Russian flags and a military-style vehicle. X Credit: XCamera IconSome of the vehicles sported the ‘Z’ symbol, a marker of support for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. X Credit: X
“At first, I wondered if it was a promo for *******’s Deli up the road, but then I saw the police *******.”
The Z marking is not a prohibited symbol in NSW.
A NSW Police spokesman said the organisers of the convoy had submitted a notice of intention to hold a public assembly to the Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command.
“A vehicle convoy of six vehicles drove from outside the Russian Consulate to Bondi Beach with Highway Patrol Police escorting the convey to ensure compliance with road legislation and community safety during the convoy,” the spokesman said.
“The convoy returned to the consulate at approximately 2pm and dispersed from the location at 3pm.
“At all times the public assembly remained peaceful with no arrests being made or adverse interactions.”
The parade coincided with the three-year anniversary of the Ukraine War, which President Putin launched on February 24, 2022.
On Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia would continue to stand with the embattled European democracy in a joint statement.
“For three years, Ukraine has bravely resisted Russia’s ******** and immoral war of aggression,” the statement reads.
“Australia mourns the loss of life of Ukraine’s citizens and defenders and the generational toll of Russia’s brutality.”
The government also confirmed new sanctions targeting individuals propping up Russia’s administration of seized territory in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, including “‘ministers’, judges and prosecutors and individuals responsible for conflict-related ******* violence and the forced deportation of Ukrainian children”.
“The sanctions also target persons and entities involved in deepening military co-operation between Russia and North Korea, including the deployment of North Korean troops to the battlefield,” the statement reads.
“Deepening Russia-North Korea military co-operation is a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war, with serious consequences for European and Indo-Pacific security.
“Targets in Russia’s defence, transport and finance sectors and those spreading disinformation to undermine Ukraine and governments around the world, have also been sanctioned.”
The government also said it was tightening trade restrictions on Russia to stop Australians from “inadvertently” fuelling Russia’s war economy.
“Today we have further tightened trade bans on Russia by prohibiting the supply of commercial drones and components, including the provision of related services,” the statement reads.
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S&P 500 Forcefully Pulled Back to Range: 10 Charts Explaining Last Week’s Action
S&P 500 Forcefully Pulled Back to Range: 10 Charts Explaining Last Week’s Action
This week: back in the range, bad news, bad noise, souring sentiment, soaring leverage, divergences, imbalances, better investments, margin debt risk flag.
Learnings and conclusions from this week’s charts:
The range trade continues (+breadth shows regime shift).
Markets have been underperforming around the weekend.
Bad news/noise is damaging investor sentiment.
2020 marked a multi-pronged shift in market behavior.
Growth stocks are more concentrated, Value more diversified.
Overall, the range trade continues — upside pushes are being limited as sentiment shifts to a more lukewarm-bearish tone under the onslaught of ongoing bad news/noise. And that’s set against a backdrop of a very concentrated and overvalued stock market. I don’t think it gets any easier from here.
1. Back in the Range
To misquote that famous line, “just when I thought I was out (of the range trade), they pull me back in”. Just when everyone thought it was back to new all-time highs and onwards and upwards, Friday slammed us back into the range trade. And looking at the 200-day moving average breadth indicator in the chart below you can see that late-last year there was a regime shift from relatively strong unbothered uptrend to now much weaker, wishy-washy, and ranging. Not a sign of strength.Source: MarketCharts
2. Bad News
You might call this one a visual representation of the Trump trade.
The frenzied pace of action by the new admin — especially over the weekends, has meant a lot of de-risking into the end of the week (no one wants to hold when any number of pronouncements can happen, not to mention tense geopolitics).
You also often see reactions to the latest weekend news at the start of the week, and only back to just-keep-buying mid-week. The upside? maybe this calms down later if you take the view Trump and team are front-loading their work programSource: @RyanDetrick
3. Bad Noise
Here’s another angle on it I’d previously chucked this file into my archives folder as I thought it was a barely useful chart, but I think the latest readings illustrate things quite well. This indicator combines the signal from the economic surprise index and policy uncertainty index (inverted) — basically the lower it is the more economic policy uncertainty there is and/or the worse economic data is vs forecast. This bad noise appears to be weighing on markets.Source: Topdown Charts
4. Sentiment Souring
And it’s certainly showing up in sentiment with the slump in bullishness and surge in bearishness. The optimistic take is that this is good because it’s like a stealth correction and healthy reset. The pessimistic take is that this is one of those turning points that happens slowly at first and then all of a sudden.Source: Topdown Charts Professional
5. Lighter Leveraged Trading
Another sign of shifting sentiment is the steady decline in the prevalence of trading in leveraged long vs short ETFs. While people aren’t rushing to place bearish bets yet, you can clearly see waning enthusiasm for making new large leveraged bullish bets.Source: Topdown Charts
6. But Still Heavy Leverage
That’s the flow, here’s the stock — even with that tapering of bullishness, the extant leveraged long positioning is historic, and bear funds are barely holding on (contrarians take note).Source: Topdown Charts Professional
7. The 2020 Effect
Another divergence —I thought this one interesting because yeah there’s an obvious bearish warning element to it, but also it appears as though 2020 was this paradigmatic peripeteia (on many fronts!).
That divergence marked a tipping point acceleration in the rise of tech; culminating in the more recent AI-hype bull, but also marked a new phase in experimental monetary policy with the unprecedented large-scale global stimulus measures of 2020/21, and associated awakening the spirit of speculative greed (crypto, NFTs, SPACs, and so-on) which still seems to be alive and well.Source: @ISABELNET_SA
8. Market Cap Mismatch
To echo those points, you can also kind of see this playing out here with US equities global market cap share weighting surging from 2020 —meanwhile its earnings share/weighting did rise too, but not nearly as much. This also indirectly highlights the risk in US equities (and opportunity in Global ex-US as valuation imbalances reach historic extremes).
Source: @MikeZaccardi
9. Rare Growth
Another interesting angle on US markets is how undiversified things are becoming, especially on the growth side — the chart below shows the Russell 1000 growth index down to a record low 394 names mid last year, while the Value index at a record high 871 (much more diversified).
As for concentration within that, “the top 10 weights of the Russell 1000 Growth Index comprise 61.0% of the index, compared to the Russell 1000 Value Index at 17.2%.” Stark stuff.Source: SnippetFinance Glenmede IM
10. Always Something Better
Lastly, I thought this was an interesting way of looking at things — basically you can always find an asset that will outperform your portfolio at once both a reminder to have a process to try and find those assets, but also not to get too swept up in FOMO as there will always be a better-missed opportunity to your best-found ones (so don’t let it rob your equanimity).
Source: Matteo Lombardo Mr. Market Miscalculates
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A secretive U.S. spaceplane just snapped a stunning view of Earth
A secretive U.S. spaceplane just snapped a stunning view of Earth
From time to time, the U.S. military shows glimpses of its X-37B spaceplane, which can travel to space for years at a time.
We just got another glimpse. The U.S. Space Force — which took the reins from the Air Force’s expansive military operations in space in 2019 — has released a view the robotic craft took from Earth’s orbit. You can see a portion of the X-37B and an outstretched panel above a view of a partially shadowed Earth.
“An X-37B onboard camera, used to ensure the health and safety of the vehicle, captures an image of Earth while conducting experiments in [highly elliptical orbit] in 2024,” the Space Force posted on X. “The X-37B executed a series of first-of-kind maneuvers, called aerobraking, to safely change its orbit using minimal fuel.”
SEE ALSO: A dramatic total lunar eclipse is coming. You don’t want to miss it.
This is the seventh mission of the X-37B, which orbits 150 to 500 miles above Earth to explore reusable space vehicle technologies and conduct long-term space experiments. The plane was originally built by Boeing for NASA, but the project transferred to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, in 2004. At nearly 30 feet long, it’s one-fourth the size of NASA’s retired Space Shuttle.
An image of Earth captured by the U.S. Space Force’s X-37B spaceplane.
An image of Earth captured by the U.S. Space Force’s X-37B spaceplane. Credit: U.S. Space Force
The X-37B’s “aerobraking” maneuver mentioned above involves using close passes by Earth’s atmosphere to produce drag, ultimately allowing it to switch orbits without burning too much of its finite fuel.
“This novel and efficient series of maneuvers demonstrates the Space Force’s commitment to achieving groundbreaking innovation as it conducts national security missions in space,” former secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall explained in 2024.
But the spaceplane, which most recently launched in Dec. 2023, isn’t coming back home just yet. The mission is “now continuing its test and experimentation objectives,” the Space Force said. After that, the craft will plummet through our planet’s atmosphere and land on a runway — an event the U.S. military has released images of in the past.
The military clearly wants to promote the X-37B’s successes — without revealing too much about its outer space exploits.
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Tech investor Prosus to buy Just Eat Takeaway.com for $4.3 billion
Tech investor Prosus to buy Just Eat Takeaway.com for $4.3 billion
Just Eat Takeaway said it was delisting its shares from the London Stock Exchange due to the “low liquidity and trading volumes” of its shares on the exchange.
Mike Kemp | In Pictures | Getty Images
European food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com is poised to be acquired by Dutch technology investor Prosus in an all-cash deal worth roughly 4.1 billion euros ($4.3 billion).
“Acquiring Just Eat Takeaway.com provides a unique opportunity for Prosus to build a European food delivery champion and strengthen Prosus’ position in a key growth sector, complementing its existing food delivery footprint outside of Europe,” the companies said in a joint statement Monday.
This is a developing news story and will be updated shortly.
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Jane Fonda Calls for Actors to “Resist” and “Project an Inspiring View of the Future” Amid Current Political Climate – Hollywood Reporter
Jane Fonda Calls for Actors to “Resist” and “Project an Inspiring View of the Future” Amid Current Political Climate – Hollywood Reporter
Jane Fonda Calls for Actors to “Resist” and “Project an Inspiring View of the Future” Amid Current Political Climate Hollywood ReporterView Full Coverage on Google News
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‘If I didn’t get out, everyone was going to die’
‘If I didn’t get out, everyone was going to die’
Judith Moritz & Jonathan Coffey
BBC Panorama
Leanne Lucas describes desperately helping children despite being stabbed five times
A yoga teacher who almost died in the Southport attack has described for the first time the desperate moments when she helped several children run to safety, despite having been stabbed five times.
Leanne Lucas told BBC Panorama how she called 999 as the attacker chased after them. “I just knew that if I didn’t get out, everyone was going to die,” she said.
A 13-year-old helping to run the class, whom we are calling Sarah, also told the BBC that attacker Axel Rudakubana looked “possessed” as he stabbed her.
Leanne and Sarah are the first survivors who escaped the room to speak publicly. Ten people were injured and three children were killed in the attack last July.
Warning: This article contains descriptions of distressing scenes and injuries
Sarah – who is now 14 and whose identity is protected by a court order – was seriously wounded but managed to lead several other children, including her younger sister, to safety.
Sitting alongside her parents, she told us how another “incredible” girl, who appeared to be only about 10 years old, was keeping other children calm, telling them: “Don’t worry, your parents are going to be here, everything’s going to be OK.”
The two survivors of the attack, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga workshop, recounted how they had helped others escape the terrifying violence and how neighbours had rushed to their aid.
They also revealed how misinformation spread following the attack, including messages on social media blaming Leanne for the deaths. Leanne and Sarah both expressed shock at how authorities had missed warning signs about the attacker.
“It’s so shocking how much evidence they had on him, how he slipped through the net,” said Leanne.
“You see the best and the worst at the same time,” said Sarah, who described seeing “the evil side of people” in Rudakubana’s violence and “all the good of all the community coming together as well to help everyone”.
14-year-old Southport attack survivor says telling her story to counter ‘false information’
With the mammoth Eras tour reaching the ***, the summer of 2024 was Taylor Swift’s summer. So when children’s yoga instructor Leanne Lucas and her friend, dance teacher Heidi Liddle, organised a workshop themed around the singer, it sold out within a week.
Twenty-five little girls, the youngest five years old, signed up for a morning of dancing, yoga, and making friendship bracelets at the Hart Space studio on 29 July. Sarah offered to help the two teachers and took photos at the event.
As the session was drawing to a close, Leanne gathered all of the children together. “We went round the circle and they said how they were feeling and one of the little girls said: ‘This is the best day of my life’,” Leanne said.
The girl, nine-year-old Alice Aguiar, died later that night. Seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and six-year-old Bebe King were also killed in the attack.
Rudakubana, the killer, had arrived by taxi, wearing a bright green hoodie and a medical face mask that covered his mouth. Dashcam footage shows him trying a locked door at the Hart Space before walking through an open doorway and heading up the stairs.
Leanne saw the attacker briefly through the window, but she had no idea who he was – or that he posed a threat. The next thing she knew, he was in the room.
“He opened the door and grabbed a child. I don’t know what he was doing. I didn’t see anything. He then grabbed the next child, and the next child. And then I shout: ‘Who is that?'”
Sarah was one of the first to be attacked. “I saw him stab a child in front of me. And then I saw the knife coming towards me and him coming towards me,” she said.
“And that’s when I saw it go into my arm. And that’s when I turned and he must have got my back, but I didn’t feel it at the time, because of the adrenaline.”
Family handouts
Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King and Alice Aguiar died
The attacker made his way through the room, before reaching their teacher.
“He moves through the girls by the table and moves next to me,” Leanne told us, reliving the scene in her mind. “I just felt something go in my back and my brain just said – he got me.”
Leanne suffered five stab wounds – to her spine, her head, her ribs, her lung, and her shoulder blade. Despite this, she managed to get herself and several of the girls out of the room and call the police.
“I just knew that if I didn’t get out everyone was going to die,” she told us, wiping tears from her eyes.
“He was ******* than me. And I just thought: I need to get some help. So we all run towards the door. We were shouting: ‘Run!’ I called 999 on the landing and I asked for the police.”
She said she then saw a flash of green – the attacker’s hoodie – “and I go into panic mode and he’s chasing us”.
It’s clear that more children would have died if the teachers and Sarah hadn’t taken the action they did.
At Rudakubana’s sentencing, the judge said Leanne “tried to save as many children as she could” while being attacked, and that “she did all she could before escaping”.
Leanne says: “The police said we’d all be dead if me and Heidi hadn’t done what we’d done and that gives nothing for the children who did die… that doesn’t take that away.”
But like many of those who saved lives that day, she still torments herself.
Sarah was left with life-threatening injuries and fractures to two of her spinal vertebrae.
“I remember seeing the girls all like huddling around the stairs,” she told us calmly. “So I remember shouting for them to get down and get out. So I was physically pushing them down the stairs to get everyone out.
“I thought that he wasn’t going to stop until he killed everyone. I thought that he wanted to kill us all.”
Getty Images
The attack took place at the Hart Space studio in Southport
Despite her injuries, Sarah managed to lead several other children out of the Hart Space, up the driveway and across the street, where local resident Steve was fixing his garden wall.
Sarah told him she had been stabbed and thought she was dying, but Steve reassured her and led the children into his house. “Everyone was in a blind panic,” Sarah told us.
Steve describes Sarah as “a hero”. “She led all them kids away.”
He and his wife began taking care of the children. One of the girls who had been stabbed was “tiny”, Steve recalled, and he could see others were injured too.
Meanwhile, James Dixon had heard the screams while working at the garage next door to the Hart Space.
“As a parent, you can tell the difference between a scream of play and a scream of terror,” he said. “And this was – nightmares, pain. They were terrified.”
Steve said Sarah was “a hero” for leading children to safety at his house
A parent was in her car, calling the police, with five or six children in the back. One appeared to be seriously injured. James ran over to another child who had collapsed.
“She asked me: ‘Am I going to die?’ Which just breaks your heart, but I told her no,” he said. She was so badly injured he was afraid his reassurance might not be true. “I focused everything on her to make sure to keep her alive.”
James saved the seven-year-old girl’s life.
Two more workers from the garage, Colin Parry and Julian Medlock, had rushed over to help. They saw Leanne, leaning against a car, “completely in shock”, said Colin.
He asked her if she needed help, but she told him: “Just look after the girls. Just look after the girls.”
“My brain is going 100 miles an hour but my body won’t do anything,” Leanne recalled. “And there are people asking me questions and I am saying: ‘Go and get the children.’
“I just don’t know what else I could have done,” she said.
Garage workers Julian Medlock, James Dixon and Colin Parry rushed to help the injured girls
At the same time, window cleaner Joel Verite had spotted Leanne as he was driving past on his round. He screeched to a halt and saw her point up to the studio, saying that a man was stabbing children up there.
Businessman Jon Hayes, who had been working in an adjoining office, had also been stabbed after confronting the attacker.
Joel raced inside, shouting as he climbed the stairs. He saw Rudakubana standing at the top of the staircase.
“We locked eyes for a brief second. He’s got a knife,” Joel said. “My life flashed before my eyes. Who else is with him? Who is going to come behind me?”
Steve had run over from his house, armed with hammers. He met Joel, who had stepped back from the staircase after facing off with the knifeman. “We had a little chat to ourselves and said, right, are we going to go in and do him or what?” Steve said.
But at that moment, the police arrived. They entered the studio with a Taser, subdued Rudakubana and arrested him.
Steve said he saw the police knocking on the locked door of one of the toilets. Inside was Heidi Liddle, Leanne’s friend. After helping some of the children escape, she had found an eight-year-old girl hiding in a toilet and had saved her by locking them both inside.
It was now noon – the time when the workshop had been due to end – and the street had filled with distraught parents looking for their children.
Sarah’s dad arrived and saw Joel carrying a child. “My initial thought was, God – and I just ran for the building,” he told us. But Steve was telling parents that many of the children were sheltering at his house.
There, the door was open and his youngest daughter came out. “I just gripped tight, ever so hard. She goes, ‘I’m fine. I’m fine’.”
Still outside the Hart Space studio, Sarah’s mum saw “blood everywhere”. “There were bloody hands on cars,” she said. “When I looked up, I just saw my husband at the end of the street. He was waving me over and I just ran towards him. I just tried not to look at anything or anyone.”
Leanne and eight children – including Sarah – were treated for life-threatening injuries.
“I asked someone if I was going to die,” Leanne said. “And she didn’t say no. She’s just said ‘you’re in the best place’.” Leanne said she heard someone discuss possible paralysis and something about her lungs.
Sarah was taken to the same hospital, where her father was told they had had to operate on her lung, which had collapsed from a puncture wound.
While Leanne recovered from life-saving surgery, rioting began, first in Southport, then spreading across the ***, following false rumours that the attacker was a ******* asylum seeker. She said she was targeted on social media by people who blamed her for the children’s deaths.
“I just was scared of everybody. And still thinking it was all my fault. If I hadn’t arranged the day, if I had never advertised in certain places, if I hadn’t used that studio,” she said.
She saw videos of riots taking place on her own street. “I was like, are they trying to get me?”
Sarah told us “disinformation” on social media was one of the reasons she wanted to tell her story – “to get my voice and the truth out there to everyone”.
Others who acted bravely on that day share Leanne’s sense of disbelief and turmoil. “Those screams haunt me,” says James, who saved a seven-year-old girl’s life. “I’d think to myself, if I ran a little bit quicker, a little bit braver, took a weapon…”
PA Media
The attacks led to outpourings of grief and anger in the streets
We first met Leanne in January. She had endured six months of waiting for her attacker to be tried. But on the day his trial was due to begin, Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to three charges of ******* and 10 of attempted *******. For Leanne, this was another act of malice.
“I found out he pleaded guilty on the news,” Leanne recalled. “I felt so angry. We knew he did it. He knew he did it. Every single person knew he did it. And he waited until the day of trial to say guilty and put every single family, victim, witness – everyone in that position.”
For many witnesses in the case, Rudakubana’s last-minute guilty plea – however manipulative in its timing – was a relief. Many were dreading the prospect of sitting in a courtroom with their attacker while lawyers pored over the details of the injuries he had inflicted.
Sarah, however, wanted her day in court, saying she’d had all the “stress and anxiety” without the “closure”.
Rudakubana was sentenced to 52 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed because he was 17 years old when he carried out the attack.
Leanne said she wanted to speak out now because, even after the court proceedings, she still did not feel the “absolute trauma” of that day had been understood. “I just feel like I am able to be the voice of people you can’t hear who are involved in the story,” she said.
On the day her attacker was sentenced, Leanne spoke about the survivor’s guilt she lives with. “I cannot give myself compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died,” she told the court. She said she was struggling to trust others and trying to see the goodness in the world. “For Alice, Elsie, Bebe, Heidi and the surviving girls, I’m surviving for you,” she said.
She told us about treasured moments with each of the girls who died. She described Bebe’s “pure excitement” at holding a puppy during a puppy yoga session. The day of the attack was the first time Leanne had met Alice, and the “beautiful smile” of this “confident ballerina” left an impression. And she recalled Elsie’s enthusiasm for the weekly reading and writing lessons they had together.
It is clear that their memory is what keeps her going.
“These children represent goodness, I think. Just pure goodness,” she told us. “Happiness. How genuine they were. Positive. The love of life and just making the best out of every single moment. That’s how I remember them.”
A list of organisations offering support and information with some of the issues in this story is available at BBC Action Line
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Ampol: Retailer and refiner’s profits squeezed despite record fuel demand
Ampol: Retailer and refiner’s profits squeezed despite record fuel demand
Petrol retailer and refiner Ampol’s profits have been smashed but the company reckons fuel demand will stay strong until the 2030s amid a slow energy transition.
The Sydney-based company’s profit sunk almost 80 per cent to $123 million for 2024 as a tough refining market hit the company hard. Revenue fell 8 per cent due to falling oil and fuel prices.
“*********** transport fuel demand is at an all time high despite the country’s efforts to transition away from fossil fuels,” chief executive Matt Halliday told investors on Monday.
“We expect fuel demand to be robust well into the 2030s.”
He said transition options were looking to be further in the future as the “complexity and cost of this challenge becomes even clearer”.
Electric vehicle uptake in Australia was flat, Mr Halliday said.
“EVs remain a very small proportion of the total fleet,” he said.
“The roll-out of charging infrastructure has also been slow, highlighting the constraints in the system, including around grid connectivity.”
Ampol ‘s share of the Aussie petrol market is about 25 per cent. But retail sales fell 3.5 per cent through the year.
UBS analyst Tom Allen zeroed in on a “weaker” performance at Z Energy, Ampol’s New Zealand arm.
“Ampol historically has good form on the consistency of its capital framework but a weaker (dividend) payout will disappoint some,” he said.
Shares fell 3 per cent to $27.15.
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iOS 18.4 Beta 1 Update for iPhone Brings Priority Notifications, New Style in Image Playground: What’s New
iOS 18.4 Beta 1 Update for iPhone Brings Priority Notifications, New Style in Image Playground: What’s New
Apple on Friday rolled out the iOS 18.4 Beta 1 update for iPhone, bringing new features including those powered by Apple Intelligence — the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) suite. The update introduces Priority Notifications, a feature which Apple previewed at WWDC 2024 in June while introducing iOS 18 but was yet to be released. As the name suggests, it analyses notifications to single out the ones it considers important and displays them in a separate section on the iPhone’s lock screen.
iOS 18.4 Beta 1 Update: What’s New
As per Apple, Priority Notifications on iPhone uses on-device AI processing to analyse the contents of the notifications. The company emphasises that this method helps determine their importance while maintaining privacy. While only prioritised notifications are displayed when it is in action, users can swipe up to view all notifications.
This feature is turned off by default and can be toggled by navigating to Settings > Notifications > Prioritise Notifications.
iOS 18.4 Beta 1 Update for iPhone is Now Available for Download
Another change as part of the iOS 18.4 Beta 1 update is a new Ambient Music option in the Control Centre. It plays a random selection of sounds from four different categories — Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing. Its functionality is said to be limited as users cannot choose which tracks are played although they can still see what’s currently being played and skip them through the music player embedded in the Dynamic Island.
The company says it has added a new style to the Image Playground app dubbed Sketch, which joins the existing Animation and Illustration styles. The same was previously available in Image Wand but has now been introduced to Image Playground too, enabling users to choose between three different styles.
As expected, the update expands support for Apple Intelligence to more languages and locales. It now includes support for ******** (Simplified), English (India, Singapore), French, *******, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish languages.
Other minor changes include new text for Genmoji in the emoji keyboard, option to set preferred language in Apple Maps, new Library and Shows widgets for the home screen, and an option to set a default Translation app.
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Trump moves with light speed and brute force in shaking the core of what America has been
Trump moves with light speed and brute force in shaking the core of what America has been
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is moving with light speed and brute force to break the existing order and reshape America at home and abroad. He likes the ring of calling himself king.
No one can absorb it all. By the time you try to process one big thing — he covets Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal and the Gaza Strip; he turns away from historic alliancesand Ukraine; fires many thousands of federal workers, then brings some right back; raises doubts whether he will obey laws he doesn’t like; orders an about-face in the missions of department after department; declares there are only two genders; announces heavy tariffs, suspends them, then imposes some — three more big things have happened.
Trump’s core supporters are thrilled. Those who don’t like him watch in horror. The nation is far from any consensus on what makes America great and what may make it sink.
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What’s undeniable is that Trump has ushered in the sharpest change of direction for the country at least since Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Great Depression. But the long-term implications of his national reset, and by extension Trump’s own legacy, cannot yet be determined.
“Make American Great Again” figure Steve Bannon calls all this action “muzzle velocity” — firing every way at once to confuse the enemy. The barrage has left a variety of foreign leaders and many public servants picking figurative buckshot out of their backsides.
Paul Light, an expert on the workings of government, reaches for another analogy: “It’s the never-ending volcano. It just doesn’t stop, and it’s hot.”
Says Max Stier of the Partnership for Public Service: “We’re essentially playing Russian roulette and they just added a bunch more bullets to the chamber.”
Or is it instead a “controlled burn,” as Kevin Roberts, an architect of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, puts it? “A controlled burn destroys the dangerous deadwood so that the whole forest can flourish,” he asserts.
Trump’s political opponents are mulling which fights are worth fighting, out of so many to choose from. “Democrats,” said one of them, Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, “are not going to engage in the outrage Olympics.”
Polls suggest slightly less than half of U.S. adults like the Republican’s handling of his job, a tick better than Democrat Joe Biden’s approval when he left the White House in January.
In his first month, Trump performed a pirouette in foreign policy, disavowing the age-old commitment to defend fellow NATO members if they are attacked, reaching out to Russia and suspending most U.S. foreign aid. Washington, Ukraine’s steadfast supporter for three years, has suddenly become its scold.
At home, Trump’s explosion of executive orders and marching orders reaches beyond the workings of government and into the culture.
Corporate boardrooms as well as government itself are shedding their diversity, equity and inclusion programs in alignment with the nascent new order, though a judge on Friday largely blocked Trump’s mandate. Institutions are also being pressed to abandon any recognition of or accommodations for transgender people, at risk of losing federal money if they don’t.
How much all of this sticks will largely depend on courts. The Republican-controlled Congress has been compliant as Trump pursues his ends by executive action instead of legislation.
Longtime Republican articles of faith such as support for free trade and strong U.S.-led security guarantees against foreign adversaries have been lost in the din.
Republicans have also historically preached the virtues of letting state and local governments make decisions about their communities without dictates from Washington. But the Trump administration did just that this past week, halting New York City’s new commuter tolls.
Trump was quick to take credit. “Long live the king,” he posted in all-caps, meaning himself.
In the civil service upheaval, a blanket staff reduction has been combined with the targeted firing of senior officials deemed disloyal to Trump or otherwise an impediment. Multitudes of nonpolitical public servants, normally left in place when new presidents come in, are out.
Senior officials responsible for keeping agencies honest and accountable were among those purged. Nearly 20 departmental inspectors general were fired without the legally required 30 days notice. Trump also terminated a dozen federal career prosecutors who had worked on criminal cases brought against him, striking at the heart of what he calls the “deep state.”
Congress, which holds the power of the purse, is letting the president exercise it instead, so far leaving federal judges to decide when to rein him in. The early result has been massive cuts or freezes in grants and other spending that Congress approved in law, but Trump is stopping solo if courts let him.
“The last month has been entirely distinctive in American history,” said Cal Jillson, a constitutional and presidential scholar at Southern Methodist University. “We have never had an American president who moved this decisively in the face of the law and the Constitution. We are in a dangerous place.”
To Trump and Elon Musk, though, a challenge to democracy comes not from them but from the unelected officials who resist the agenda of a duly elected president.
“There’s a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the the president and the Cabinet,” said Musk, the titan leading Trump’s scouring of the civil service. “If the will of the president is not implemented and the president is representative of the people, that means the will of the people is not being implemented. “And that means we don’t live in a democracy.”
Some polls this month carry warning signs for Trump as he pursues his extraordinary course. More than half of adults in a Washington Post/Ipsos survey (57%) said he has exceeded his authority since taking office. More than half in a CNN/SSRS poll (55%) said he hasn’t paid attention to the most pressing problems.
In essence, though, this is a half-and-half country that Trump is responsible for leading the whole of. For vast numbers of Americans, he can do no wrong, or no right, depending which side you are on.
___
Associated Press polling editor Amelia Thomson DeVeaux contributed to this report.
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Friedrich Merz Is Set to Be Germany’s Next Chancellor
Friedrich Merz Is Set to Be Germany’s Next Chancellor
The leader of the conservative Christian Democrats celebrated as exit polls indicated they had won Sunday’s election, which had the highest voter turnout in decades.
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Watch These Nvidia Stock Price Levels With Earnings Report Set for Release Wednesday – Investopedia
Watch These Nvidia Stock Price Levels With Earnings Report Set for Release Wednesday – Investopedia
Watch These Nvidia Stock Price Levels With Earnings Report Set for Release Wednesday InvestopediaThe ‘next important test for AI bulls’ happens this week with Nvidia’s earnings MarketWatchHow Nvidia’s stock responds will be huge for the S&P 500 this week TheStreetOne ridiculous chart on Nvidia ahead of earnings Yahoo FinanceNvidia To Surge 20% With Earnings? Forbes
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Leanne Lucas describes desperately helping children despite being stabbed five times
Leanne Lucas describes desperately helping children despite being stabbed five times
A yoga teacher who was stabbed five times during the Southport attack has told the BBC how she feared “everyone was going to die” as she desperately tried to protect the young children.
On 29 July, Axel Rudakubana moved through the sold-out Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop – organised by Leanne Lucas – and stabbed young girls who had been making friendship bracelets and singing along to music. Three of the girls died.
Ms Lucas spoke to BBC Panorama about the day of the attack, her efforts to help children to safety, and the riots that followed.
She described how she called 999 as the attacker chased after her and several children.
She also revealed how misinformation spread following the attack, including social media messages blaming her for the deaths, and expressed shock at how authorities had missed warning signs about the attacker.
Click here to hear a 14-year-old survivor’s of the attack also spoke to the BBC about her story.
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Excavation digs into one Australia's biggest cold cases
Excavation digs into one Australia's biggest cold cases
Excavators have begun carefully removing topsoil at an old industrial site in the hunt for clues to the fate of three children who went missing in the 1960s.
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French, *** leaders rush to Washington at a historic turning point for the West
French, *** leaders rush to Washington at a historic turning point for the West
An existential week is ahead for Ukraine and the West.
The leaders of Europe’s two nuclear powers are rushing to the White House to try to reclaim a central role for themselves and for Ukraine after they were cut out of US-Russia talks on ending the war.
President Donald Trump sent shock waves through the transatlantic alliance last week and played into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hands while attacking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trashing the truth about how the war started.
French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Trump on Monday — the third anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign democracy, which has killed tens of thousands of civilians and left Putin and his forces accused of war crimes.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will follow on Thursday, in the most treacherous moment yet of his young premiership, with large gaps opening between Washington and London on the reality of Ukraine’s plight.
Britain and France are drawing up plans for a European “reassurance force,” perhaps including up to 30,000 troops that could deploy to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal. The idea, however, faces massive barriers — not least that a deal that both Zelensky and Putin could agree to sign seems highly unlikely. And Starmer has already warned that the force couldn’t work without a US “backstop,” which could potentially include security guarantees, American intelligence cooperation, air support and heavy lift transport. A key takeaway this week will be whether Trump has any interest given Russia’s opposition to NATO troops in Ukraine under any flag.
As Trump leads the US in a new direction on Ukraine, historic schisms are opening that threaten the transatlantic alliance and the post-World War II order. Trump treats America’s longtime friends — who have failed to deliver on calls by successive presidents to spend more on defense — as adversaries. And the new administration has already shattered years of European assumptions about America’s security guarantees to the West.
A Ukrainian soldier prepares to fire a howitzer toward Russian positions on the front line near Chasiv Yar, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, on February 7. – Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade/AP
The president’s siding with Putin over Zelensky — and his bid to extract a punitive deal to export Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as a payback for past US aid — shocked transatlantic allies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s warning in Brussels this month that Europe must take primary responsibility for its own security called into question NATO’s creed of mutual defense. And Vice President JD Vance’s slam of European governments and values in a speech in Munich was seen in Europe as an attempt to destabilize continental leaders on behalf of far-right populists who take ideological inspiration from the MAGA movement.
In an extraordinary comment that captured the historic times, the likely next leader of Germany Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union that won Sunday’s general election, according to exit polls, set out the new government’s program.
“My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,” Merz said at a televised roundtable after the exit polls also showed huge gains for the extreme-right AfD party.
“I would never have believed that I would have to say something like that on television. But at the very least, after Donald Trump’s statements last week, it is clear that the Americans — at least this part of the Americans in this administration — are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe,” Merz said.
‘We came very, very close to signing something’
Trump appears to be aiming for a lightning-fast peace agreement — similar to the velocity of his domestic transformation a month after his return to the White House.
His Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who has a leading role in the Ukraine talks, on Sunday raised the prospect of a swift breakthrough following the meeting between US and Russian officials last week. “We came very, very close to signing something. And I think we will be using that framework as a guidepost to get a peace deal done between Ukraine and Russia,” Witkoff told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
He added: “The president understands how to get deals done. Deals only work when they’re good for all the parties. And that’s the pathway that we’re on here.”
Hegseth implied Sunday that Trump’s depiction of Zelensky as a “dictator” last week was meant to avoid annoying Putin in order to get concessions at the negotiating table. “Standing here and saying, ‘you’re good, you’re bad, you’re a dictator, you’re not a dictator, you invaded, you didn’t’ — it’s not useful. It’s not productive,” Hegseth said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Delegations from the United States, left, and Russia, right, meet in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 18. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is seen second from left, between Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, far left, and national security adviser Mike Waltz. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is seen on the far right, next to foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov. – Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
But Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, accused Trump of “surrendering” to Putin. “This is not a statesman or a diplomat. This is just someone who admires Putin, does not believe in the struggle of the Ukrainians, and is committed to cozying up to an autocrat.” The Rhode Island Democrat added on ABC’s “This Week”: “Putin will not stop in Ukraine. He will begin in a campaign, both clandestine and in many cases overt, to undermine the other governments in Eastern Europe and it’ll create chaos.”
Trump’s turn against Ukraine and his rush to embrace Putin ahead of a potential summit in the coming weeks has Ukrainians and Europeans fearing that he simply plans to seal a deal with Russia and then impose it on Kyiv. That’s why Macron and Starmer will try to convince the president he will look bad if he fails to drive a hard bargain with Putin.
“What I am going to do is that I am going to tell him basically, you cannot be weak in the face of President Putin. It’s not you, it’s not your trademark,” Macron said, paraphrasing his message to Trump in a social media Q&A on Thursday.
An Elysée Palace official said that Macron shared Trump’s goal of ending Russia’s war of aggression and was bringing proposals that were reaffirmed in his talks with European leaders, particularly with the British. “He is traveling to Washington with this goal in mind, sharing this desire to end the conflict while making every effort to maintain our support for Ukraine, strengthen European security and ensure that Ukraine is fully involved in these efforts, and to ensure that Ukraine’s interests — which are ours as well — are fully taken into account.”
Starmer on Sunday laid out a tough pro-Zelensky approach, which conflicted with Trump’s position, a day after talking to the Ukrainian leader on the phone. “Nobody wants the bloodshed to continue. Nobody, least of all the Ukrainians,” Starmer said at the Scottish Labour Party conference in Glasgow. “But after everything that they have suffered, after everything that they have fought for, there could be no discussion about Ukraine without Ukraine, and the people of Ukraine must have a long-term secure future.”
Visitors stand next to a makeshift memorial paying tribute to Ukrainian and foreign fighters at Independence Square in Kyiv ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. – Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images
The phrase “no discussion about Ukraine without Ukraine” encapsulated the principles of the Biden administration’s tight coordination with Europe and Kyiv over the war. But that consensus has been buckled by Trump. And Starmer will risk further angering the president before he arrives. Bridget Phillipson, a British Cabinet minister, told Sky News on Sunday that the *** government would unveil a new set of sanctions against Russia on Monday.
Trump says that Zelensky — a hero in the west for leading Ukraine’s resistance to Russia — didn’t deserve to be at the talks. “I’ve been watching for years, and I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards. And you get sick of it,” Trump said on Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show” Friday.
Trump also criticized his visitors. “You know, they haven’t done anything,” he told Kilmeade. “You know, Macron’s a friend of mine, and I met with the prime minister, and you know, he’s a very nice guy, but nobody’s done anything,” Trump said.
Macron may try to correct Trump on that point, one person familiar with the matter said. But the French president is most intent on managing the way forward, providing his view on how Europe can help assure Ukraine’s security, as long as it is incorporated into talks to end the war.
Starmer: The US is ‘right’ to complain about European defense spending
The French and British leaders will also arrive in Washington as Trump demands steep hikes in defense spending by NATO members, which would mean excruciating fiscal choices for governments saddled by constricted public finances. Both Macron and Starmer have spoken of the need for European nations to do more to protect the continent, but their capacity to act is likely to fall far short of the American president’s expectations.
Despite Starmer saying Sunday that Trump was “right” in calling for Europe to step up, Phillipson declined to say, for instance, whether her boss would tell Trump a target date for his government to raise defense spending to 2.5% of GDP. The US president has demanded 5%.
Both Macron and Starmer, who spoke by telephone Sunday, are expected to argue that Washington’s continued presence in Europe and security guarantees are critical to peace in the west, despite the Trump administration’s desire to pivot to the challenge posed by China.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during Day 3 of the Scottish Labour Party conference on Sunday in Glasgow. – Peter Summers/Getty Images
The European message is going to be a tough sell to a transactional president who doesn’t appreciate alliances as a force multiplier for American power and who seems to prefer the company of autocrats to that of his fellow democratic leaders.
Macron has already tried to shape Trump’s thinking on Ukraine, arranging a three-way meeting with the then-US president-elect and Zelensky in Paris last December. Trump was respectful and “in listening mode” during the meeting, one official said, as Zelensky laid out the necessity of security guarantees for Ukraine once the war ends. Macron tried to impress on Trump that Putin had changed since he was last in office and warned that if Ukraine was defeated, the US could look weak to its other rivals — namely China.
But two months later, the talks do not appear to have left a lasting impression on Trump, given his comments of the last week. And European officials acknowledge it will be impossible to persuade Trump to abandon his erroneous views of the war, including that it was provoked by Ukraine or that the United States was conned into supporting a man he claims is a dictator.
Instead, they say, it will be more useful to look ahead, as Trump prepares to sit down soon with Putin and the contours of a possible peace agreement emerge.
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Xiaomi 15 Ultra Launch Set for February 27; Design Officially Revealed
Xiaomi 15 Ultra Launch Set for February 27; Design Officially Revealed
Xiaomi has finally announced the launch date for the Xiaomi 15 Ultra smartphone in China. It will be introduced alongside the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra electric car in the company’s home market. The brand has also posted official images revealing the design of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. The handset is confirmed to ship with Leica-branded cameras and HyperOS interface. Meanwhile, the tech brand is also gearing up to globally unveil its camera flagship at MWC 2025.
The launch of Xiaomi 15 Ultra will take place in China on February 27 at 7:00pm local time (4:30pm IST). The Xiaomi SU7 Ultra EV, RedmiBook 16 Pro 2025, and Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro earbuds are scheduled to go official at the same event. Xiaomi is teasing the design of the phone via its Weibo handle and its China website.
Xiaomi is currently taking pre-orders for the Xiaomi 15 Ultra through Mi Mall in China. The official renders show the phone with a dual-tone finish. It has a circular rear camera unit, resembling the camera modules of previous Xiaomi Ultra series flagships. The camera setup includes four sensors and an LED flash strip. It looks like Xiaomi has combined glass and vegan leather paying homage to classic Leica cameras. The rear panel boasts an italicised ‘Ultra’ branding in the top-right corner.
The successor to last year’s Xiaomi 14 Ultra is confirmed to debut in global markets at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on March 2.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra Specifications
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra had earlier surfaced on the Geekbench AI database with Android 15 operating system, 16GB of RAM, and an octa-core Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. It is said to feature a quad rear camera unit comprising a 50-megapixel 1-inch type Sony LYT-900 sensor, a 50-megapixel Samsung ISOCELL JN5 ultra wide-angle camera, a 50-megapixel Sony IMX858 telephoto sensor, and a 200-megapixel Samsung ISOCELL HP9 sensor with 4.3x optical zoom. The handset is likely to offer IP68 + IP69 standards.
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Samsung Galaxy M16 5G, Galaxy M06 5G India Launch Confirmed; Design Teased
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Three years on, Ukraine's extinction nightmare has returned – BBC.com
Three years on, Ukraine's extinction nightmare has returned – BBC.com
Three years on, Ukraine’s extinction nightmare has returned BBC.comCarnegie church remembers lives lost as Ukrainian war with Russia hits 3-year mark CBS NewsOn the third anniversary of Russian invasion, Ukraine supporters march through Detroit Detroit Free PressElla Baron on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – cartoon The GuardianDozens rally in Pack Square to support Ukraine on eve of invasion anniversary WLOS
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NZ minister resigns for placing hand on staff’s arm
NZ minister resigns for placing hand on staff’s arm
New Zealand’s commerce minister Andrew Bayly has resigned after he “placed a hand” on a staff member’s upper arm last week, in what he described as “overbearing” behaviour.
Bayly said on Monday that he was “deeply sorry” about the incident, which he described as not an argument but an “animated discussion”.
While Bayly has left his ministerial posts, he remains a member of parliament.
His resignation on Monday comes after he was criticised last October for calling a winery worker a “loser”- including putting his fingers in an ‘L’ shape on his forehead – and allegedly using an expletive directed at them.
“As many of you know, I have been impatient to drive change in my ministerial portfolios,” Bayly said in a statement.
“Last week I had an animated discussion with a staff member about work. I took the discussion too far, and I placed a hand on their upper arm, which was inappropriate.”
Bayly resigned last Friday, said New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, adding that the incident happened last Tuesday.
Luxon said the government’s handling the issue within a week was “pretty quick” and “pretty impressive”.
However, Labour leader Chris Hipkins criticised Luxon as “incredibly weak” over his handling of the issue, saying that it should not have been dragged over the weekend.
“Christopher Luxon has once again set the bar for ministerial behaviour so low, that it would be almost impossible to get over it,” he told reporters on Monday.
Bayly himself said that he had to talk to his family and “would have had difficulty” speaking to the media earlier.
Bayly was first elected to the New Zealand Parliament in 2014. Before joining politics, Bayly worked in the finance industry.
Bayly is the first minister to resign of his own accord under PM Luxon, whose favourability has dipped to a record low, according to a poll. The 1News-Verian poll also showed his National-led coalition government is losing support among voters.
The government has recently come under fire for some policies that were seen by some as anti-Māori, including the introduction of a bill that many argued undermined Māori rights and the dissolution of the Māori Health Authority – which was set up under the last Labour government to try and create greater health equality.
Scott Simpson, the ruling National Party’s senior whip, will be taking over Bayly as the Minister for ACC – the national accidental injury compensation scheme – and the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
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Pelican News
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