‘Worst day of my life’: Mother’s fight to appeal daughter’s ‘low’ ******* sentence
‘Worst day of my life’: Mother’s fight to appeal daughter’s ‘low’ ******* sentence
The mother of murdered woman Mackenzie Anderson has urged for her daughter’s ********* to be kept behind bars for longer after claiming his sentence was too “low”.
Tyrone Thompson, 25, pleaded guilty to stabbing his former partner Ms Anderson, 21, 78 times in her NSW unit on March 25, 2022.
Her toddler son witnessed the attack.
At the time of the *******, Thompson breached his apprehended violence order (AVO) to find Ms Anderson and had been released on parole for 16 days for previous domestic violence offences against the Newcastle woman.
Camera IconMackenzie Anderson was murdered by her former partner in 2022. Instagram Credit: Supplied
Thompson was sentenced to 22 years and six months in jail for the *******, but with time already served behind bars and a non-parole ******* of 15 years and six months, he could be released before he turns 40.
Ms Anderson’s mother, Tabitha Acret, called for an appeal against the sentence, urging prosecutors to keep him behind bars for longer.
“I think that the worst day of my life was the day that I found out my daughter died, and the second worst day of my life was actually that sentencing day,” she told Today.
She recalled feeling “shocked and overwhelmed” by the judge’s sentence and said she “never expected something so low”.
“My daughter’s son was nearly two years old when this happened. He unfortunately witnessed it and was there, and he won’t even be 18 by the time this non-parole ******* is (over),” Ms Acret said.
Camera IconThe 21-year-old was stabbed nearly 80 times by her former partner, who breached his AVO. Instagram Credit: News Corp Australia
She has now been told the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling SC will appeal the sentence.
Ms Acret said she hoped the appeal would produce a “better outcome with the sentence”.
A NSW ODPP spokesman told NewsWire the “ODPP directed that it would appeal the sentence imposed on Tyrone Thompson”.
“The ODPP anticipates filing the appeal this morning,” they said.
Camera IconThe Newcastle woman’s mother’s plea for an appeal has been answered. Instagram Credit: News Corp Australia
Ms Acret has advocated for more to be done to protect women and girls from domestic violence, demanding heftier sentences to be laid on the offenders.
“I’m hopeful that this is starting a conversation across Australia about domestic violence, about sentencing … because sentencing is one piece of the puzzle, and it’s a small piece of the puzzle,” she said.
“(I think) we need to have some sort of mandatory sentencing that comes with breaches of AVOs to certain levels.”
Domestic violence: Where to get help
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Crypto Options and Market Evolution With GSR CIO
Crypto Options and Market Evolution With GSR CIO
GSR Chief Investment Officer Jon Loflin joins CoinDesk live at Consensus 2025 with insights into the current trends in crypto options. Plus, differences between options markets in digital assets and traditional finance. This content should not be construed or relied upon as investment advice. It is for entertainment and general information purposes.
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CoreWeave Stock: What to Expect From Earnings – Barron's
CoreWeave Stock: What to Expect From Earnings – Barron's
CoreWeave Stock: What to Expect From Earnings Barron’sNvidia-backed CoreWeave stock jumps on Q1 revenue beat as CEO cites ‘robust’ AI demand Yahoo FinanceCoreWeave beats on revenue, reports more than 400% growth in first earnings after IPO CNBCCoreWeave Q1 Revenue Beats. Stock Reverses Down Amid 2025 Capital Spending, Revenue Outlook. Investor’s Business DailyCoreWeave Reports Strong First Quarter 2025 Results PR Newswire
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Israel issues major evacuation order for Palestinians sheltering in Gaza City
Israel issues major evacuation order for Palestinians sheltering in Gaza City
Israel has issued one of the most sweeping evacuation orders for civilians in Gaza yet seen in this war.
Large swathes of Gaza City, a conurbation already partially destroyed by bombing, have been declared unsafe, the residents taking shelter there told to leave for their own safety ahead of “intense strikes” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Among the buildings highlighted by Israel are the Islamic University, Al-Shifa Hospital and three former schools.
While Israel alleges that the buildings are being used by ****** as “command and control centres”, local authorities and aid agencies say there are thousands of civilians sheltering there.
Evacuating these areas would require time, they say, and there could be huge numbers of casualties.
It’s an ominous sign of Israel’s threat to significantly expand its military campaign in Gaza.
The former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has been one of very few senior Israelis so far to speak out against expanding the military campaign in Gaza.
In an interview with the BBC, Olmert said: “Most Israelis are against what is happening, large numbers of the [army’s] commanders are against expanding the military operation and want to end the war right now.”
Olmert is a frequent and increasingly vocal critic of Israel’s current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his views reflect growing concern about the impact of the 20-month-long war on the country’s morale, economy and international standing.
Olmert was also outspoken on the humanitarian impact of the war on the residents of Gaza.
“It’s totally intolerable, unacceptable and unforgivable, it needs to be stopped right away,” said the former top official, who has been accused by pro-government outlets of “lobbying for Palestinians”.
He added: “We have to provide all of the humanitarian needs of the population. We can’t allow morally the beginning of famine in Gaza. That has to stop.”
Such opinions are rarely reflected in the Israeli media or in public opinion polls but they’ve been urgently repeated in passionate speeches in recent days by UN organisations, aid agencies and by some of Israel’s allies abroad – French President Emmanuel Macron called Israel’s actions in Gaza “shameful”. Netanyahu accused him of “standing with ******”.
There’s growing evidence of profound suffering across Gaza after a 10-week blockade, during which Israel has prevented the entry of any food, medicines or fuel into the ************ enclave.
A UN-backed assessment has said that Gaza’s population of around 2.1 million Palestinians is at “critical risk” of famine and faces “extreme levels of food insecurity”. The World Health Organisation says without enough nutritious food, clean water and access to health care, an entire generation will be permanently affected.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer insisted to the BBC that “Israel is certainly not starving Gaza”.
“I don’t dispute that there is hunger in Gaza, but we believe that it is hunger caused by ******. There is food in Gaza, that’s our information. There is no famine,” he said.
Israel also resumed its aerial bombardment of Gaza on 18 March and its attacks have killed 2,799 since then, according to the territory’s ******-run health ministry, including 80 people on Wednesday.
There are faint hopes that an updated US-sponsored ceasefire proposal could still be accepted by Israel and ******. It reportedly would see the release of some remaining hostages in exchange for an unspecified ******* of calm.
However Netanyahu has said Israel will expand its military offensive in Gaza and that nothing will stop the war. ****** meanwhile has refused to release the remaining hostages unless Israel agrees to a permanent ceasefire and withdraws from Gaza.
On Wednesday evening 67 former hostages signed a letter urging Netanyahu to reach a “comprehensive deal” for the return of all captives still being held by ******.
“The majority of Israeli society wants the hostages home – even at the cost of halting military operations,” the letter said.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the letter was written to build on the “historic momentum” after ***** Alexander’s release. ****** said it freed the 21-year-old as a goodwill gesture to Donald Trump, who is visiting the region.
The ex-hostages’ letter appealed to Trump not to “let this historic momentum stop”.
A poll for Israel’s Channel 12 at the end of April suggested that 68% of respondents supported signing a hostage deal with ****** even if it meant ending the war, while just 22% supported continued fighting in Gaza.
So far Netanyahu remains unmoved.
“Despite American determination, there is no change in the PM’s position – we will not allow an end to the war,” an official in Mr Netanyahu’s entourage said, according to diplomatic sources.
Israel launched a military campaign to destroy ****** in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 52,928 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the health ministry says.
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Oscar winner out to emulate Senna’s four-in-a-row
Oscar winner out to emulate Senna’s four-in-a-row
Oscar Piastri’s extraordinary 2025 surge from McLaren support act to Formula One’s leading man could take him into rarefied air this weekend at the storied Imola circuit in Italy.
After three successive victories in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Miami, the next aim for the soaring Victorian is to make it four-in-a-row at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday, a run that only 15 of the sport’s greatest drivers, world champions all, have ever achieved or surpassed.
And of that illustrious list, only one – the late, great Ayrton Senna – ever achieved the feat for the McLaren team that the 24-year-old Aussie is currently spearheading.
Senna, the 31st anniversary of whose death at Imola will doubtless be marked there as emotionally as ever this weekend, achieved four straight for McLaren on two occasions, the last in 1991 when he opened the season with wins at the US GP, his home Brazilian GP, then at Imola in the San Marino GP and, finally, at Monaco.
Senna went on to comfortably win the title that year, just as he triumphed in 1988 when he he won the British, *******, Hungarian, and Belgian GPs in succession.
No driver has achieved a quartet of wins on the bounce since world champion Max Verstappen’s nine-straight, which straddled the end of the 2023 season and early last year.
And four in a row has only ever been achieved by one *********** driver – the great Jack Brabham, who achieved the feat in 1966 but who’d actually gone one better than that when winning his second world title in 1960, taking victory in five successive races.
THE DRIVERS WHO’VE WON FOUR OR MORE F1 GRANDS PRIX IN A ROW:
* Max Verstappen – 10 in a row (2023) – (Also runs of 9 and 5)
* Sebastian Vettel – 9 (2013) – (also two runs of 4)
* Alberto Ascari – 7 (1952-53)
* Michael Schumacher – 7 (2004) – (also runs of 6, 5 and two 4s)
* Nico Rosberg – 7 (2015-16)
* Jack Brabham – 5 (1960) – (Also run of 4)
* Lewis Hamilton – 5 (2014 and in 2020) – (Also five runs of 4)
* Jim Clark – 5 (1965) – (Also one run of 4)
* Nigel Mansell – 5 (1992)
* Jochen Rindt – 4 (1970)
* Ayrton Senna – 4 (1988 and 1991)
* Alain Prost – 4 (1993)
* Damon Hill – 4 (1995-96)
* Fernando Alonso – 4 (2006)
* Jenson Button – 4 (2009)
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Former Guardsman arrested for alleged mass shooting plot at Army site
Former Guardsman arrested for alleged mass shooting plot at Army site
DETROIT — A 19-year-old man was arrested after spending months planning an attack against a U.S. Army site in suburban Detroit on behalf of the Islamic State group, authorities said Wednesday.
Ammar Said was planning to have another person commit a mass shooting at the Army’s Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command in Warren, but he didn’t know that two supposed allies were undercover FBI employees keeping track of every step, the government said.
Investigators recorded audio and video images of their meetings with Said, including handwritten diagrams of the site, which is known as TACOM and the Detroit Arsenal.
Said, a recent member of the Michigan Army National Guard, was arrested Tuesday shortly after launching a drone for a final look before an attack, the FBI said in a court filing.
“Helping ISIS or any other terrorist organization prepare or carry out acts of violence is not only a reprehensible crime — it is a threat to our entire nation and way of life,” U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. said.
The FBI said Said planned to send one of the undercover agents into TACOM with Molotov cocktails and assault-style weapons.
The other undercover operative told Said that he would “be on the first plane to Syria” after an attack.
“That makes two of us,” Said responded, according to the FBI.
Said, a Detroit-area resident, appeared in court Wednesday on charges of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and distributing information related to a destructive device. He agreed to remain in custody without bond.
Senad Ramovic, a lawyer who represented Said during the brief appearance, declined to comment.
TACOM employs thousands of people and manages the Army’s ground equipment supply chain. It says it is the only active duty Army installation in Michigan.
Said was under investigation about a year ago when he told an undercover FBI employee about a “longstanding desire to engage in violent ******,” or war, either overseas or in the U.S., the FBI said.
Authorities last July performed a secret search of his phone, which he had turned over to National Guard personnel before boarding a military aircraft. The FBI said it found references to ****** and images of Islamic State flags.
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Amazon lays off about 100 employees in devices and services unit
Amazon lays off about 100 employees in devices and services unit
An Amazon device is displayed at an Amazon Devices launch event in New York City, U.S., Feb. 26, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Amazon is laying off roughly 100 employees in its devices and services division, the company confirmed on Wednesday.
The devices and services unit includes a wide range of businesses, such as the Alexa voice assistant, Echo hardware, Ring video doorbells and Zoox robotaxis.
“As part of our ongoing work to make our teams and programs operate more efficiently, and to better align with our product roadmap, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles,” Amazon spokesperson Kristy Schmidt said in a statement. “We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we’re committed to supporting affected employees through their transitions.”
The company declined to say which units within the organization were impacted by the cuts, which were earlier reported by Reuters. Amazon said it continues to hire within the devices and services division.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been on a mission to trim costs across the company, laying off 27,000 employees since the beginning of 2022. Job reductions have continued this year, though at a smaller scale than in preceding years. The devices and services organization experienced layoffs in 2022 and 2023.
Last year, as part of its return-to-office push, Amazon moved to simplify its corporate structure by having fewer managers in order to “remove layers and flatten organizations.” Jassy set a goal to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of the first quarter of this year.
Other major technology companies have also continued to trim their workforces. Microsoft on Tuesday said it would lay off roughly 6,000 employees, as it looks to reduce layers of management.
WATCH: Amazon Prime Video’s Mike Hopkins on streaming wars
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Thanedar opts against forcing impeachment vote amid backlash – Politico
Thanedar opts against forcing impeachment vote amid backlash – Politico
Thanedar opts against forcing impeachment vote amid backlash PoliticoTop House Dems say they’ll join GOP to quash Trump impeachment effort Fox NewsHouse Democrat launches impeachment proceedings against Trump The IndependentLone Democrat’s Trump impeachment push blindsides party CNNScoop: Trump impeachment criticized as “idiotic” in House Democratic meeting Axios
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes pausing immigrant health care coverage expansion
California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes pausing immigrant health care coverage expansion
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed a pause to the enrollment of more low-income immigrants without legal status for state-funded health care benefits in 2026 as the state faces economic uncertainty.
Newsom outlined his nearly $332 billion state spending plan on Wednesday, revealing that California is facing a $12 billion budget deficit.
“California is under assault,” Newsom said. “We have a president that’s been reckless in terms of assaulting those growth engines.”
The Democratic governor noted that the freeze does not mean California is backing away from its support for immigrants.
“No state has done more than the state of California, no state will continue to do more than the state of California by a long shot. And that’s a point of pride,” Newsom said.
The decision, the details for which were revealed before Wednesday’s budget revision presentation, is driven by a higher-than-expected price tag on the program and economic uncertainty from federal tariff policies, Newsom said. It also comes as Newsom faces his final years in the governor’s office, with speculation continuing to mount about his future political prospects.
California’s push to offer free health care benefits to all low-income adults, regardless of their immigration status, was announced in late 2023. Newsom touted the planned expansion as “a transformative step towards strengthening the health care system for all Californians.”
However, the cost has exceeded the state’s initial $6.4 billion estimate by more than $2 billion.
Still, as late as March of this year, Newsom suggested to reporters he was not considering rolling back health benefits for low-income people living in the country illegally — even with California grappling with a $6.2 billion Medicaid shortfall. He also repeatedly defended the expansion, saying it saves the state money in the long run. The program is state-funded and does not use federal dollars.
Under Newsom’s plan, low-income adults without legal status will no longer be eligible to apply for Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, starting in 2026. Those who are already enrolled won’t be kicked off their plans because of the enrollment freeze, and the changes won’t impact children. Newsom’s office didn’t say how long the freeze would last.
Starting in 2027, adults with “unsatisfactory immigration status” on Medi-Cal, including those without legal status and those who have legal status but aren’t eligible for federally funded Medicaid, will also have to pay a $100 monthly premium. The governor’s office said that is in line with the average cost paid by those who are on subsidized heath plans through California’s own marketplace. There’s no premium for most people currently on Medi-Cal.
“We believe that people should have some skin in the game as it relates to contributions,” Newsom said.
In total, Newsom’s office estimated the changes will save the state $5.4 billion by 2028-2029.
The Medi-Cal expansion, combined with other factors such as rising pharmacy costs and larger enrollment by older people, has forced California to borrow and authorize new funding to plug the multibillion-dollar hole earlier this year. California provides free health care to more than a third of its 39 million people.
The proposals come ahead of Newsom’s scheduled presentation on the updated budget. Recovery from the Los Angeles wildfires, changing federal tariff policies, and the expensive health care expansion are putting a strain on California’s massive state budget. Lawmakers are expecting a multibillion-dollar shortfall this year, and more deficits are projected for several years ahead.
Newsom blamed President Donald Trump’s tariff policies for the shortfalls, estimating that the polices have cost the state $16 billion in tax revenues. California is also bracing for major budget hits if Republicans in Congress follow through with a plan to slash billions of dollars in Medicaid and penalize states for providing health care to immigrants without legal status.
Newsom now opens budget negotiations with lawmakers and it’s unclear how Democrats who control the Legislature will react to his plan to freeze new Medi-Cal enrollment for some immigrants. A final budget proposal must be signed by June. California’s budget is by far the largest among states.
“This is going to be a very challenging budget,” Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, who chairs the budget committee, said before Newsom’s proposals were announced. “We’re going to have to make some tough decisions.”
The budget proposals presented this week will build on some of the impacts of federal policies, but many unknowns remain.
The governor already said he’s planning to scale back on baseline spending this year. Analysts and economists also warn that California will face ******* deficits in the tens of billions of dollars in the coming years due to economic sluggishness and stock market volatility brought on by the tariff war.
The budget Newsom first proposed in January included little new spending. But it allows the state to fully implement the country’s first universal transitional kindergarten program and increase the state’s film and TV tax credit to $750 million annually to bring back Hollywood jobs that have gone to New York and Georgia. He recently called on Trump to pass a $7.5 billion film tax credit at the federal level.
Last year, Newsom and the Legislature agreed to dip into the state’s rainy day fund, slash spending — including a nearly 10% cut for nearly all state departments — and temporarily raise taxes on some businesses to close an estimated $46.8 billion budget deficit.
More from CBS News
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Trump joined by dozens of CEOs during his Middle East trip
Trump joined by dozens of CEOs during his Middle East trip
U.S. President Donald Trump and Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg attend a signing ceremony with Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (not pictured), in Doha, Qatar, May 14, 2025.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
More than 30 business leaders representing America’s top companies joined President Donald Trump on Tuesday for a lunch in Saudi Arabia during the president’s high-stakes Middle East tour.
A list provided by the White House includes executives from big banks, AI companies, defense contractors and retail giants. It also paints a larger picture of executives and companies that have cultivated ties with the second Trump administration.
The impetus to be there is simple: Invitations to attend U.S. presidential events overseas are among the most prestigious in politics and in business. They offer executives a chance to network with Saudi investors, build relationships and show patriotic support for American industry.
In some ways, the stakes are higher this year than they might have been in the past. Many of the companies are facing challenges and uncertainty caused by Trump’s tariff and trade policies.
Many corporate leaders are taking every available chance to further joint goals and interests with famously transactional president.
The lunch was part of a packed schedule for the president, who is currently touring the Middle East. In a speech on Tuesday, Trump praised Saudi Arabia after the White House announced it had secured $600 billion in investments from the kingdom.
The lunch was hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Saudi royal court in Riyadh. Many of the companies represented also contributed to Trump’s inauguration fund, which raised a record-breaking $239 million, much of which is expected to be spent on Trump’s presidential library project.
Some of the executives in attendance have already announced deals secured during the trip.
Here are some of the notable attendees.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX
Tesla CEO Elon Musk reacts ahead of a state dinner hosted by Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani during a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump, at Lusail Palace in Lusail, Qatar, May 14, 2025.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has worked hand-in-glove with Trump throughout his second term, overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that has reduced the federal workforce by tens of thousands. Since Trump entered office, regulatory problems at Musk’s companies have also started to fade. The Justice Department dropped a case against SpaceX in February, and Trump fired a Department of Agriculture inspector general in January who had launched an investigation into another Musk company, Neuralink.
During the investment forum on Tuesday, Musk announced that Saudi Arabia has approved Starlink satellites, made by SpaceX, for aviation and maritime use in the region.
Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir
Shares of the defense-heavy AI company Palantir have soared 45% this year, while many of its tech counterparts have been sinking. The pop is due in part to Trump’s federal department overhauls, which have created opportunities for the company’s AI tools to fill in the gaps at agencies that now have fewer employees.
Karp also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
Kelly Ortberg, CEO of Boeing
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg and Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani ahead of a state dinner at Lusail Palace in Lusail, Qatar, May 14, 2025.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Boeing‘s Ortberg attended the Tuesday lunch a day before White House announced that the company secured its “largest-ever” aircraft deal with Qatar Airways.
Boeing is attempting to make a comeback after a rocky past year, announcing Wednesday that its deliveries nearly doubled in April.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia
Nvidia‘s Huang announced Tuesday that Nvidia will sell more than 18,000 of its latest artificial intelligence chips to the Saudi company Humain.
“It is an incredible vision, indeed, that Saudi Arabia should build the AI infrastructure of your nation so that you could participate and help shape the future of this incredibly transformative technology,” Huang said. Like several other companies whose executives traveled to the region this week, Nvidia gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
OpenAI’s Altman donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration fund and in January, he posted on X, “watching @potus more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him.”
Altman is now working on the Stargate Project, a collaboration with the government to build artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon
Amazon‘s Jassy has previously spoken about the impact of Trump’s tariffs on the retail sector and consumers more broadly, telling CNBC in April that the company was still digesting the impact of the tariffs and sellers may have to “pass that cost on” to consumers.
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock
BlackRock‘s Fink was seen greeting the Saudi Crown Prince alongside Trump on Tuesday. BlackRock donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. But the company gained real favor with the White House in March, when it agreed to acquire ports on either end of the Panama Canal from a Hong Kong-based company. That deal is currently on ice amid global trade tensions.
Ruth Porat, president and CIO of Alphabet
Google was represented at the lunch by Porat. The tech giant was part of the White House-Saudi deal announced Tuesday, with Google contributing to a total of $80 billion to invest in both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
Like several other attendees, Google gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM
IBM has been focused on boosting its American jobs and production, with Krishna announcing two weeks ago that the company is investing $150 billion in the U.S. over the next five years. The new investment followed Trump’s massive tariff announcements last month. IBM gave $750,000 to Trump’s inauguration fund.
James Quincey, CEO of Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola‘s Quincey represents one of the most consumer-facing companies on the front lines of Trump’s tariff wars. On a February company earnings call, Quincey said Coca-Cola was considering shifting more of its packaging from aluminum to plastic bottles due to Trump’s aluminum tariffs. Coca-Cola donated $250,000 to Trump’s inaugural fund, as well as donating some beverages.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber
Uber‘s Khosrowshahi donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Despite economic uncertainty, the company reported strong first quarter earnings that beat Wall Street expectations.
William Oplinger, CEO of Alcoa
Alcoa‘s Oplinger joined other top executives at the lunch. The aluminum company is among the top hardest hit by Trump’s aluminum tariffs, projecting a $90 million tariff hit in the second quarter.
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Nottingham Forest: Taiwo Awoniyi out of induced coma after surgery
Nottingham Forest: Taiwo Awoniyi out of induced coma after surgery
Speaking to BBC Sport, consultant colorectal surgeon Professor Gillian Tierney said injuries similar to the one suffered by Awoniyi can be fatal.
“The injury is really serious. It is potentially life-threatening,” said Tierney.
“It is very easy to miss at the point of contact and can take hours to diagnose.
“In a hospital setting we would send a patient for a CT scan which could take up to 10 hours.
“If it occurred to an athlete who was super fit, very muscular and was running on adrenaline then I think it would be extremely understandable to miss it. Fluid leaking from the intestine would not be easy to diagnose straight away.
“Surgery is usually required and the stomach would be opened up. The mortality stat is 9%. So if an athlete – who went through the procedure – was really fit, they would stand a good chance of being OK.
“It would be different if the operation occurred for an 80-year-old, who has other health issues.”
Mr Harpaul Flora, consultant vascular and general surgeon at The London Clinic, said ruptured intestines are “a pretty rare injury”.
He added: “It’s either a compression of the abdominal wall which has led to tearing and liquid seeping out – or the tear of an artery.
“Neither of those would be able to be diagnosed without a scan, there may have been bruising.
“It can be life-threatening. If it wasn’t treated by a hospital it can give you an infection. It could then lead to sepsis, which is a life-threatening consequence.”
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Amazon lays off about 100 employees in devices and services unit
Amazon lays off about 100 employees in devices and services unit
An Amazon device is displayed at an Amazon Devices launch event in New York City, U.S., Feb. 26, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Amazon is laying off roughly 100 employees in its devices and services division, the company confirmed on Wednesday.
The devices and services unit includes a wide range of businesses, such as the Alexa voice assistant, Echo hardware, Ring video doorbells and Zoox robotaxis.
“As part of our ongoing work to make our teams and programs operate more efficiently, and to better align with our product roadmap, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles,” Amazon spokesperson Kristy Schmidt said in a statement. “We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we’re committed to supporting affected employees through their transitions.”
The company declined to say which units within the organization were impacted by the cuts, which were earlier reported by Reuters. Amazon said it continues to hire within the devices and services division.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been on a mission to trim costs across the company, laying off 27,000 employees since the beginning of 2022. Job reductions have continued this year, though at a smaller scale than in preceding years. The devices and services organization experienced layoffs in 2022 and 2023.
Last year, as part of its return-to-office push, Amazon moved to simplify its corporate structure by having fewer managers in order to “remove layers and flatten organizations.” Jassy set a goal to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of the first quarter of this year.
Other major technology companies have also continued to trim their workforces. Microsoft on Tuesday said it would lay off roughly 6,000 employees, as it looks to reduce layers of management.
WATCH: Amazon Prime Video’s Mike Hopkins on streaming wars
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Vladimir Putin’s name not on Kremlin list of Russian officials attending Ukraine peace talks in Turkey
Vladimir Putin’s name not on Kremlin list of Russian officials attending Ukraine peace talks in Turkey
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name is not on the Kremlin’s list of officials joining Ukraine peace talks in Turkey, throwing doubt on the latest move to secure peace in the troubled region.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously indicated he would not attend talks if Mr Putin was not attending himself.
Mr Putin on Sunday proposed direct negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday “without any preconditions”. However, he did not say who would be attending from Moscow’s side and his spokesman was initially unable to give further details on the matter.
Now, the official list has been released, with Mr Putin not included.
Instead, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky will lead Moscow’s involvement.
US President Donald Trump earlier this week urged Ukraine to attend the talks and Mr Zelensky quickly said he would be there, but only if Mr Putin showed up, setting up a diplomatic standoff as part of an apparent contest to show Mr Trump who wants peace more.
Mr Trump on Wednesday said he himself was still considering whether to attend the talks in Turkey but at the time did not know whether Mr Putin would go, something that Mr Zelensky has challenged the Kremlin leader to do “if he’s not afraid”.
“(Putin) would like me to be there, and that’s a possibility … I don’t know that he would be there if I’m not there. We’re going to find out,” Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Qatar.
Mr Trump wants the two sides to sign up to a 30-day ceasefire in what is Europe’s biggest land war since World War II, and a Russian lawmaker on Wednesday said there could also be discussions about a huge prisoner of war exchange.
Mr Zelensky backs an immediate 30-day ceasefire, but Mr Putin has said he first wants to start talks at which the details of such a ceasefire could be discussed.
Mr Trump, who is growing increasingly frustrated with both Russia and Ukraine as he tries to push them towards a peace settlement, said he was “always considering” secondary sanctions against Moscow if he thought it was blocking the process.
US officials have spoken about possible financial sanctions as well as potential secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian oil.
– With Reuters
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The Godzilla Minus One Novelization Will Include New Scenes Not Seen In the Movie
The Godzilla Minus One Novelization Will Include New Scenes Not Seen In the Movie
Godzilla Minus One is one of the overgrown atomic lizard’s best movies, and it might also be one of the better Godzilla stories to read as well–and soon fans can get their hands on the official English translation of the Godzilla Minus One novelization written by the film’s director, Takashi Yamazaki. Like other film novelizations, this new English paperback edition will offer a deeper dive into the feelings and motivations of the main cast, plus extended scenes and new material that the movie didn’t include. The English edition of the Godzilla Minus One novelization launches September 2 for $16, and preorders are available now at Amazon.
$16 | Releases September 2
Just like the movie it’s based on, Godzilla Minus One is set in post-World War II Japan. The films follows Koichi Shikishima, burdened by survivor’s guilt from a failed Kamikaze mission, who attempts to heal himself and his destroyed home town. However, Godzilla soon appears and threatens to destroy Japan, and it’s up to Shikishima and other survivors from the war to find a way to destroy the unstoppable creature.
The film version of Godzilla Minus One was a smash hit when it stomped into theaters back in 2023, and even won the Oscar for best special effects at the 2024 Academy Awards. Compared to Legendary’s Monsterverse take on Godzilla, this version of the Kaiju king was presented as an almost unstoppable force of nature, calling to mind the original 1954 film. If you want to see it for yourself, you can grab the film on 4K Blu-ray for $24.56 at Amazon or the standard Blu-ray version for $18.
Godzilla Minus One Blu-rays
For the US version of Godzilla, you can grab several Monsterverse Blu-rays on ***** right now. All five films are available individually, but you can also grab them all in a single collection with the Godzilla x Kong MonsterVerse Five-Film Bundle for $70 (was $100). The bundle includes all five movies from this new cinematic universe released so far, and they come packaged in a cool slipcase cover. You’ll also get digital streaming codes in this collection, and there are quite a few special features included as well. If you prefer to buy them individually, you can snag Godzilla 2014, Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire all on 4K Blu-ray.
For fans of the classic Godzilla movies, you can also grab a new Criterion Collection version of Godzilla vs. Biollante or the original 1954 Godzilla movie. The entire Showa-era of Godzilla is available in a Blu-ray bundle as well, and it comes with a lot of physical extras as well.
More Godzilla Blu-ray deals
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Ruling in North Dakota case erases path for people in 7 states to sue under the Voting Rights Act
Ruling in North Dakota case erases path for people in 7 states to sue under the Voting Rights Act
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal appeals court that already has said private individuals and groups cannot sue under a key part of the federal Voting Rights Act went even further Wednesday toward blocking lawsuits over alleged racial bias in voting in seven Midwest states.
But its decisions may not be the last word, because another appeals court has ruled differently, and the U.S. Supreme Court would have to resolve the conflict. The latest ruling reversed a legal victory for two tribal nations in North Dakota that challenged a legislative redistricting plan.
The ruling shuts off a route to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act through a federal civil rights law known as Section 1983, which allows people to sue state officials to vindicate their federal or constitutional rights, said Jonathan Topaz, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project. Section 1983 provides a legal vehicle to bring a lawsuit, he said.
Private individuals in past decades brought lawsuits under Section 2, but a 2023 8th Circuit ruling in an Arkansas redistricting case held that Section 2 doesn’t allow for private claims. That ruling and Wednesday’s only apply to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which encompasses Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
“These decisions together at the moment mean that no one can sue under the Voting Rights Act in the seven states that comprise the 8th Circuit, other than the U.S. Attorney General,” said Mark Gaber, senior director for redistricting at Campaign Legal Center and an attorney for the Spirit Lake Tribe and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.
The majority opinion Wednesday said that in order to use Section 1983 to file lawsuits over voting rights, including how redistricting affects them, a private person or group must “unambiguously” have the right to sue under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Appeals Judge Raymond Gruender, appointed by George W. Bush and writing for the majority, said that while the tribes “are within the general zone of interest” of the Voting Rights Act, it is “without the statute having unambiguously conferred an individual right.”
In a dissent, Circuit Chief Judge Steven Colloton, another Bush appointee, said Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act does confer a right to sue and he would have upheld the tribes’ legal victory on redistricting.
Wednesday’s decision and the Arkansas ruling “create circuit splits” on the Section 2 and Section 1983 issues because the 8th Circuit is the only court to rule in such a way in both instances, Gaber said. The tribes and their attorneys are discussing and considering appeal options, he said.
The 2-1 ruling is a reversal for the two tribes, who had successfully challenged North Dakota’s 2021 redistricting map, alleging it dilutes their voting strength.
The tribes wanted to share a single legislative district, electing a state senator and two House members, making it more likely that all three would be Native American. The 2021 plan split them into different districts. The court-ordered plan gave the tribes what they wanted.
Spirit Lake, Turtle Mountain and several tribal citizens alleged that the 2021 map drew the lines so that while Turtle Mountain members still could elect a House member, the Spirit Lake members could not.
In late 2023, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Peter Welte ruled after a trial, saying the Legislature’s map “prevents Native American voters from having an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice” in violation of the Voting Rights Act’s Section 2.
In early 2024, the judge ordered a new map into place with a joint district for the two tribes. Their reservations near the ********* border and in northeastern North Dakota, respectively, are about 60 miles (97 kilometers) apart. Later that year, voters elected three Native Americans, all Democrats, to the district’s seats.
Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue said the 2021 boundaries the Legislature drew “will be the boundaries.” Somehow officials will have to address the seats of incumbents affected by the boundaries at question, potentially by special election, he said.
“I think the Legislature was very comfortable with the fairness of the boundaries that they drew in 2021, and I think we should endeavor to uphold those boundaries,” Hogue said.
In a statement, Secretary of State Michael Howe’s office said it will now work with the 2021 map in place for the 2026 elections, “pending any further actions.”
Republicans control North Dakota’s Legislature by 83-11 in the House and 42-5 in the Senate. The state’s biennial legislative session concluded earlier this month.
___
Associated Press reporter John Hanna contributed from Topeka, Kansas.
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Amazon Is Selling The Retired Lego NES For $60 Above MSRP
Amazon Is Selling The Retired Lego NES For $60 Above MSRP
The Lego Nintendo Entertainment System was officially retired near the end of 2024, though the 2,646-piece set had remained available to buy at multiple retailers up until the last few weeks. As of May 14, the only major retailer with stock is Amazon, and at first glance, it’d be easy to mistake it for a reseller listing. That’s because the NES has become one of the rare Lego sets Amazon is selling for above MSRP.
Amazon has increased the price of the Lego NES from $270 to $330. The current price is actually a “deal” compared to the $355 price Amazon had last week. If Amazon doesn’t run out of units first, it’s possible the price will return to $270. Over the past few months, the retailer has temporarily raised the price to as high as $360, but none of those spikes held for this long. It’s worth noting that Target’s sold-out listing also shows $330, so it’s possible Amazon was price-matching a competitor.
As shown above, the Lego NES is sold and shipped by Amazon.
Though rare, this isn’t the first instance of Amazon going above MSRP after a Lego set has been retired. We previously saw this with the Horizon Forbidden West Tallneck, which increased from $90 to $105 last year before selling out for good (it’s ~$150 from resellers). Just like with the NES, Amazon was the only major retailer with the Tallneck in stock.
The Lego NES was part of the first batch of Lego Nintendo releases in 2020, so it had a longer lifespan than most kits. It originally sold for $230, but it was in the group of sets that received official price increases a few years back. So if you bought the Lego NES from Amazon today, you would be charged $100 more than its original cost.
It’s difficult to predict the future going rate for a sealed Lego NES, but given its historical significance as the first Lego Nintendo display model for adults, it’s very possible that $330 is viewed as a deal on the reseller market in the coming years. That might even happen before the end of 2025, as the upcoming release of Lego’s Game Boy will likely create renewed interest in what could be viewed as a complementary build.
Pricing shenanigans aside, the Lego NES is awesome. You can take a closer look at the retired set below. We’ve also included details on Lego Nintendo sets that are retiring soon as well as the Super Mario- and Zelda-themed building sets for adults that you can still buy for retail price.
$330 | Previously $270 | Retired Product
At 2,646 pieces, this is a highly detailed Lego set that’ll keep you busy for a few lengthy building sessions. It took us around 10 hours to piece together the two main builds. Along with the scaled model of the NES console, you’ll piece construct a CRT TV with a display stand, wired NES controller, and Super Mario Bros. cartridge. The console even has a control deck for the cartridge as well as a very cool Easter Egg that should delight longtime fans of the series.
Better yet, there’s a handle on the side of the TV that moves an 8-bit Mario character across a side-scrolling level. If you happen to own one of the Interactive Figures from the Adventures with Lego Super Mario starter courses, there’s even more functionality for you to enjoy–Mario can be perched on top of the TV to react to the on-screen action.
The Lego NES is a great build to put together alongside a fellow fan. It includes two thick instruction books, so one builder can focus on the console while the other builds the CRT. A digital copy of the instructions can be pulled up on the Lego Builder app.
You’ll also get an illustrated booklet discussing the creation of the NES and iconic NES games.
For a Lego Nintendo display model that’s significantly kinder on the wallet, take a look at the 540-piece Super Mario Piranha Plant, which is on ***** for $48 (was $60).
Lego’s latest Nintendo display model for adults, Mario & Standard Kart, releases this week for $170. It joins the growing Lego Mario Kart lineup that debuted at the beginning of the year. Two other exciting Nintendo-themed builds launched last fall: Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi and The Great Deku Tree, the first Lego set based on The Legend of Zelda.
At 2,807 pieces, Mighty Bowser is the largest Lego Super Mario set. Released in 2022, Mighty Bowser is still available for its $270 retail price, but it seems likely that King Koopa is next in line for retirement. The Super Mario 64 Question Block, which launched in 2021, retired last summer. Though nothing has been confirmed, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Bowser disappear from store shelves before the end of 2025.
All Lego Nintendo Display Models for Adults
Mario Kart: Mario & Standard Kart at Lego Store (1,972 pieces) — $170
Releases May 15
Exclusive to Lego Store at launch
Super Mario: Piranha Plant (540 pieces) — $48 ($60)
Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi (1,215 pieces) — $130
Super Mario: Mighty Bowser (2,807 pieces) — $270
The Legend of Zelda: The Great Deku Tree 2-in-1 (2,500 pieces) — $300
Lego NES at Amazon (2,646 pieces) — Retired, MSRP was $270
Super Mario 64: Question Block (2,064 pieces) — Retired, MSRP was $200
More Super Mario Lego sets retire soon
Bowser’s Muscle Car / Soda Jungle Maker Set / Goombas’ Playground
While it’s disappointing to see a price increase for a retired Lego set at a major retailer, it’s worth emphasizing that often times Lego sets are discounted in the lead-up to their retirement. For instance, there are three Lego Super Mario sets currently on the verge of retirement, and you can get nice deals on all three of them. The awesome Bowser’s Muscle Car (458 pieces) is on ***** for $24 (was $30) at Amazon, and the Soda Jungle Maker Set (598 pieces) is nearly $20 off at Walmart. Amazon also had this deal last week before selling out, so you’ll want to be quick. Lastly, the small-scale Goombas’ Playground is up for grabs for $9.39 (was $15).
All of the Mario-themed sets mentioned in this story interact with the electronic figures from the Lego Super Mario starter kits. There are three starter courses to choose from, and Amazon has deals on the Mario, Luigi, and Peach editions.
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YouTube Gemini AI feature will target ads when viewers most engaged
YouTube Gemini AI feature will target ads when viewers most engaged
People walk by a YouTube logo as Google celebrates the 20th anniversary of the first video uploaded to YouTube, at the company’s corporate headquarters in San Bruno, California, on April 23, 2025.
Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images
YouTube on Wednesday announced a new tool that will allow advertisers to use Google’s Gemini AI model to target ads to viewers when they are most engaged with a video.
The artificial intelligence feature, called “Peak Points,” identifies times when videos receive elevated levels of viewer attention and packages ads to be placed after those moments. Peak Points has the potential to enable more impressions and a higher click-through rate on YouTube, a primary metric that determines how creators earn money on the video platform.
Peak Points uses Google’s Gemini AI to find the most engaged moment to place an ad.
YouTube
YouTube said the AI model is trained by analyzing video elements such as frames and transcripts. Peak Points is currently in a pilot program and will be rolling out over the rest of the year.
The video service announced Peak Points at its YouTube Brandcast event in New York. Besides Peak Points, YouTube made other announcements geared toward advertisers. With Peak Points, Google is taking another step in monetizing AI at a time when many in Silicon Valley are prioritizing products over safety.
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How to think about options trade coming off market turbulence
How to think about options trade coming off market turbulence
00:00 Speaker A
With the uncertainty of market direction has investors doing a double take at the options market, US options exchanges have seen record daily volumes with one strategy that’s been gaining interest among traders, Mu Mu Mu Mu Do I have that right, Neil? Did I do that? Neil McDonald joins us now for the Options Pit sponsored by Tasty Trade Neil. Maybe start big picture. Viewers, they’re listening at home right now. They’re thinking, you know, what are the smart options strategies as as indices now approach these new all time highs? What would you tell them?
00:46 Neil McDonald
Yeah, I mean, it’s been a obviously a very volatile month. I think when you see the VIX hit 60, um, it attracts for us. It attracts lots of our active traders, you know, you have SMP being 10% high to low intraday. That really brings um, our active, more professional traders. Um, it kind of may have scared off that kind of volatility scares off some of our more, uh, tactical traders. We saw lots of, um, calendar selling, which is selling the front month, by the the the the second month. But as that’s normalized, and I said, I was here three months ago and the S&P is exactly where it was three months ago. So as if nothing happened in the middle guys. Um, so as as the skew has normalized, as we fix down at 18 and the S&P being up on the year, given the uncertainty going forward, we’ve seen what’s happened in the past month, both the huge rally after the inauguration, the sell off from a from Feb, the rally back, the sell off from from Liberation Day. Um, if you’re looking to protect your portfolio, given skew has normalized, given vol has come down so far from its peak back on the 18th of of April, it’s probably a good time to think about, um, protecting your portfolio with some three, six, 12 month puts.
02:53 Speaker B
Talk to me then about the year to date snapback and just the record break. I think it was the snap fastest snapback since 1982. Uh, it feels like this moment is the Super Bowl for options traders because of the volatility. But how should investors be thinking about risk in this moment as well?
03:26 Neil McDonald
Sure. I mean, it’s certainly been the Super Bowl for options exchanges. Obviously, uh, make money just on volume. Um, I think short gamma was a big that the the the huge intraday move you saw, I think one of the largest S&P moves last month, uh, intraday, uh, almost at 10 plus percent. Um, I think a lot of the market makers were short volatility. That’s a lot of clients trading these short dated, zero DTA options. And, uh, if you get taken out of gamma in a one day option, there’s not a lot there’s not a lot of place you can go to cover that as a market maker. And so I think they’ve made money by being short, the zero DTAs most of the year. I think they got caught and they exacerbated the moves to the upside and then they moved to the downside.
04:48 Speaker A
Neil VIX under 20 here. Where where do you think we head to next? Going back to low teens? What do you think?
04:58 Neil McDonald
Yeah, I think I think resistance or support is 15 and a half. Um, I think momentum is, you know, obviously is sometimes the opposite of volley. So we may overshoot to the downside, but the risks are still there. These aren’t trade deals that trade negotiations. Uh, it seems that, um, not just intraday news, but, um, post market news, you get lots of opening market gaps, which we haven’t seen for a while. Um, so it it’s I think the market’s still volatile. I think buying options to certainly to protect, um, at this level is, uh, is sensible and certainly economically makes sense more so than it did two, three weeks ago when when the front month was really, really elevated. So
06:16 Speaker B
Yeah. And you mentioned something I want to follow up on, you talked about how market makers sometimes when they are caught offside, they can exacerbate moves both to the downside and to the upside. And something I think we all want to know right now is whether or not there are any hedges going on in this market that are exacerbating the moves to the upside. What are you looking at to suss out how real this current rally is?
06:51 Neil McDonald
So so look at the open interest and around this level, you see a real dampened activity in the last four or five trading days where, um, we have a huge 25 million person community at Momo. And, uh, it’s very active. So I look at the SPY1 every day, and everyone’s putting up their trading ideas. A lot of our shorter term traders, um, express frustration that it hasn’t moved, that we we’ve hit a a section of the market where the market makes a long gamma. So the the past two expirations, it’s been pinned into into one strike and very little movement. We had a decent sell off yesterday. Um, but I think there’s been an equalization in in the gamma profiles between the the the the retail owners of the very short term zero DTEs and the market makers.
08:12 Speaker A
Neil, always great to see you, especially on set. Thank you, sir.
08:17 Neil McDonald
Thank you very much, guys. My pleasure.
08:20 Speaker A
And coming up Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong joins the program to discuss what’s next for potential stable coin legislation. Stick around much more market domination still to come.
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Trump meets Syrian leader, tossing previous foreign policy taboos – The Washington Post
Trump meets Syrian leader, tossing previous foreign policy taboos – The Washington Post
Trump meets Syrian leader, tossing previous foreign policy taboos The Washington PostLive updates: Trump’s meeting with Syria’s new president could mark a turning point for the ******** AP NewsTrump’s big Syria announcement surprised his own sanctions officials ReutersTrump shocks and delights Syrians by lifting sanctions after 45 years. Now what? NBC NewsTrump Met With Syria’s President The New York Times
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Putin, Trump still ‘maybes’ for Ukraine peace talks
Putin, Trump still ‘maybes’ for Ukraine peace talks
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are still “maybes” for what could be the first direct peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv in years, after the Kremlin held off disclosing who would represent Russia.
Putin on Sunday proposed direct negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday “without any preconditions”. But he did not say who would be attending from Moscow’s side and his spokesman was unable to give further details on the matter on Wednesday.
Trump earlier this week urged Ukraine to attend the talks and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy quickly said he would be there, but only if Putin showed up, setting up a diplomatic standoff as part of an apparent contest to show Trump who wants peace more.
Trump on Wednesday said he himself was still considering whether to attend the talks in Turkey but did not know whether Putin would go, something that Zelenskiy has challenged the Kremlin leader to do “if he’s not afraid”.
“(Putin) would like me to be there, and that’s a possibility … I don’t know that he would be there if I’m not there. We’re going to find out,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Qatar.
Trump wants the two sides to sign up to a 30-day ceasefire in what is Europe’s biggest land war since World War II, and a Russian lawmaker on Wednesday said there could also be discussions about a huge prisoner of war exchange.
Zelenskiy backs an immediate 30-day ceasefire, but Putin has said he first wants to start talks at which the details of such a ceasefire could be discussed.
Trump, who is growing increasingly frustrated with both Russia and Ukraine as he tries to push them towards a peace settlement, said he was “always considering” secondary sanctions against Moscow if he thought it was blocking the process.
US officials have spoken about possible financial sanctions as well as potential secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian oil.
A Ukrainian diplomatic source told Reuters on Wednesday that Ukraine’s leadership would decide on its next steps for peace talks in Turkey once there was clarity on Putin’s participation.
“Everything will depend on whether Putin is scared of coming to Istanbul or not. Based on his response, the Ukrainian leadership will decide on the next steps,” the source said.
If Putin agrees to join, it would be the first meeting between the leaders of the two warring countries since December 2019. Direct talks between negotiators from Ukraine and Russia last took place in Istanbul in March 2022, a month after Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.
Some unconfirmed Russian and US media reports had said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide, would be in Istanbul and ready to meet their Ukrainian counterparts.
But Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, which is regarded as having good sources in the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Kremlin, said on Wednesday evening that Lavrov would not attend.
Asked earlier by reporters during a daily briefing if the Kremlin could reveal the make-up of the Russian delegation, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We will do that when we get an instruction to do so from the president.”
“The Russian delegation will be waiting for the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul on May 15.”
Trump has said he will send Secretary of State Marco Rubio and senior envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg to Turkey, while also offering to attend himself.
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Olympic wrestler Kyle Snyder addresses arrest in prostitution sting: ‘Not conclusion of my journey’
Olympic wrestler Kyle Snyder addresses arrest in prostitution sting: ‘Not conclusion of my journey’
Olympic wrestler Kyle Snyder addressed his recent arrest in an Ohio prostitution sting for the first time on Wednesday.
The three-time world champion posted a message Wednesday morning on X thanking his supporters and indicating he doesn’t plan to let the arrest end his career, adding on a ****** quote to the end. He did not apologize or provide any defense for what transpired.
That ****** passage reads:
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
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Snyder, who is married with a son, was arrested in Columbus, where he wrestled for Ohio State from 2015-18. Authorities allege he responded to an online ad posted by Columbus police advertising ******* services. The 29-year-old allegedly paid an undercover officer $160 in cash for a sex act in a hotel room and was immediately arrested at the scene on Friday.
Body camera footage of the arrest was released Tuesday and shows several officers storming into the room while Snyder still has his pants down.
The police are shown treating Snyder congenially as they ******* him out of the hotel in handcuffs. At one point, Snyder responds to a question about his occupation by saying, “I’m a wrestler for Team USA.” One officer asks if he knows Sammy Sasso, an Ohio State wrestler who survived a shooting in 2023, and says she worked on his case.
Snyder was one of 16 men arrested in the sting and has a court date scheduled for Monday, per the Columbus Dispatch.
Kyle Snyder addressed his arrest on Wednesday. (Photo by PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images)
(PUNIT PARANJPE via Getty Images)
Snyder remains one of the most accomplished wrestlers in NCAA history, winning three straight heavyweight titles at 285 pounds and entering the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2024. In his senior career at 97 kg, he won a gold medal at the 2016 Olympics, a silver medal at the 2020 Olympics, world titles in 2015, 2017 and 2022 and three more titles at the Pan American Games.
Following a fourth-place finish in Paris, Snyder told the Columbus Dispatch that he still plans to compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
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Thursday Briefing: Trump Meets Syria’s New Leader
Thursday Briefing: Trump Meets Syria’s New Leader
Hope in Syria as Trump met with new leader
Syrians yesterday celebrated President Trump’s promise to lift sanctions, hopeful that life would improve there after more than a decade of war. Salaries could go up, the cost of bread would come down and gasoline would become cheaper.
Trump met yesterday with President Ahmed al-Shara, another milestone in Syria’s bid to break out of its isolation. It was the first time in 25 years that the leaders of the two countries had met.
During the 30-minute meeting, held during Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Trump told al-Shara, who once led a branch of Al Qaeda, that he had the “opportunity to do something historic in his country,” a White House summary said. Aboard Air Force One on his way to Qatar, Trump described al-Shara as a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”
On the second day of his visit to the Gulf region, Trump was welcomed in the capital, Doha, by the emir of Qatar, and rode in his motorcade past men on camelback.
South Africa’s leader criticized Afrikaners going to the U.S.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the white South Africans who left for the U.S. were “cowardly.” Dozens of white South Africans landed in the U.S. this week, and over 8,000 more have expressed interest in resettling in the U.S.
“They are running away” from a duty to help South Africa solve its problems, Ramaphosa said on Tuesday. He added, “When you run away, you are a coward.”
The government strongly rejected the Trump administration’s assertion that the Afrikaners, members of a white ********* that ruled during apartheid Africa, should be eligible for refugee status.
Context: Trump has long spread conspiracy theories about the mistreatment of white South Africans. His close adviser Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, has shared similar views on X. Each has argued that the lives of white farmers are in jeopardy, a claim that the evidence does not support.
Cassie testified about physical abuse by Sean Combs
For the second consecutive day, Casandra Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, testified in the trial of Sean Combs, her former boyfriend and label boss, about living in fear of going against his wishes. She said that Combs was frequently physically abusive and blackmailed her by threatening to release explicit videos that would have damaged her career.
José “Pepe” Mujica, who died on Tuesday, didn’t much like Uruguay’s opulent presidential residence with its chandeliers and marble. So when he was elected, he chose to commute from his own home, a three-room shack.
The choice was a political masterstroke that showed the value of world leaders who live like their constituents.
Lives lived: Nahid Rachlin, a novelist whose debut work “Foreigner” provided insight into pre-revolutionary Iran, died at 85.
CONVERSATION STARTERS An author’s return from upheaval
Jeanine Cummins’s 2020 novel, “American Dirt,” was a colossal success by most measures, selling more than four million copies in nearly 40 languages. It also ignited a backlash over her portrayal of ******** migrants that nearly ended her career and her desire to write.
Five years later, Cummins has just published a new novel, “Speak to Me of Home,” which draws from her family’s history in Puerto Rico and the Midwest. She spoke to us about the ******* of soul-searching that led her to write it. Read more.
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Can Eurovision Avoid Politics in Neutral Switzerland?
Can Eurovision Avoid Politics in Neutral Switzerland?
At the Eurovision Song Contest, one rule stands above all others: no politics.
That order is enforced by the competition’s organizer, the European Broadcasting Union, an opaque federation of nearly 70 public service broadcasters, based in Geneva. It scrutinizes performers’ lyrics, their outfits and even their stage props in hopes of bringing some Swiss neutrality to the contest and avoiding anything controversial that could spoil the fun.
Yet when the Eurovision final takes place this Saturday on the European Broadcasting Union’s home turf in Basel, Switzerland, politics will still be bubbling in the background, even if the organizers manage to keep such topics off the stage.
At a time when the effects of Israel’s war in Gaza are still rippling through cultural life, and Russia and Belarus are pariahs because of the invasion of Ukraine, the question of who gets to compete in Eurovision brings politics to the *****. And the question of what is actually political can be, slippery, and one for which the European Broadcasting Union sometimes lacks a consistent answer.
In recent weeks, broadcasters in Spain, Ireland and Slovenia have called for a debate on Israel’s participation, rehashing a furor that threatened to overshadow last year’s competition. Before the last final, in Malmo, Sweden, some Eurovision performers signed petitions and made statements calling for Israel’s exclusion because of its actions in Gaza. Some crowd members booed Israel’s singer during the final, though others cheered.
Eurovision officials responded with a line that the competition has clung to at previous moments of tension: Eurovision, it said, is a contest between broadcasters, not nations. That means a government’s actions should have no bearing on the contest.
This year, the European Broadcasting Union issued a code of conduct requiring all performers and their teams to refrain from “making political statements or causing controversies.” It also appointed Martin Green, a British events producer who worked on the ceremonies at the 2012 London Olympics, to oversee the competition and act as a spokesman if trouble arises.
“Mistakes were made last year, and we’ve all learned from them,” Green said in an interview, adding that Eurovision now had a “fine line to tread.” But ultimately, he said, it was “a prime-time family TV show” whose viewers would be turned off by politics.
The European Broadcasting Union’s activities are wider than just Eurovision: It has about 500 staff members who lobby governments on behalf of its broadcasters and advise broadcasters on the impact of new technologies, like A.I. Its board and general assembly, neither of which publish minutes of their meetings, oversee those activities, as well as Eurovision.
Because the public broadcasters of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain pay the most toward funding Eurovision, those “big five” nations automatically qualify for the competition final.
Sarah Yuen, Eurovision’s executive supervisor for the 2003 contest, said that, backstage, Eurovision was like “the United Nations of television,” and was never free of diplomatic disputes or patriotic peacocking.
Onstage “every country in the contest is always trying to show it’s more important than the next one,” Yuen said. Some national delegations also jockey behind the scenes for the best conditions for their acts, she added.
In the competition’s early decades, after it was founded in 1956, politics weren’t such an issue onstage, but often colored the voting to choose the winner. In addition to a public telephone vote, juries representing each nation allocate points, often trading top scores with friendly, diplomatically aligned nations.
That could sometimes make the count feel like a proxy for foreign affairs, but it was only in recent decades that geopolitical conflicts began threatening to spill over onto the stage. In 2009, for instance, the European Broadcasting Union demanded that Georgia alter its entry — a disco song called “We Don’t Wanna Put In” — because it sounded like a reference to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, just months after Georgia and Russia had fought a brief war. (Georgia refused, and pulled out of that year’s competition.)
Last year, the union asked Israel to change the title and some lyrics of its entry, “October Rain,” because it appeared to be about grief over the ****** attacks of Oct. 7. The song was retitled “Hurricane,” and some of its verses were altered.
During the recent interview, Green struggled to explain how the organization decides whether lyrics are political. “It’s very hard to be ******-and-white,” he said, after a long pause, then added that the test was whether an act seemed like they were trying to “instrumentalize the contest.”
The challenge of keeping politics at bay moved well beyond lyrics in 2021, when Belarus began a clampdown on antigovernment protests. The European Broadcasting Union’s board decided to suspend Belarus’s state broadcaster — meaning it could no longer compete in Eurovision — over what it called “exceptional” government interference in the broadcaster’s operations.
Then, in 2022, Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The union initially stuck to its line that Eurovision is “a nonpolitical cultural event” between broadcasters, not nations. But this split the organization’s membership, according to interviews with 11 current and former members of the union’s Eurovision committees.
Sietse Bakker, a television producer who was a delegate for the Dutch public broadcaster, said that most members wanted Russia thrown out of Eurovision. But a ********* insisted that doing so would politicize the contest and could lead to debates about other broadcasters’ participation.
Sebastian Sergei Parker, a former Russian TV executive who sat on the union’s board, recalled a senior European Broadcasting Union official saying that expelling Russia would “open a Pandora’s box.”
After initially saying Russia could stay in, the union changed tack and barred it from Eurovision, suspending all its members, too. Bakker said that he believed this should not be seen as a political decision, because war was a humanitarian issue that went beyond politics. Yet ever since, activists who want Israel out of Eurovision cite Russia’s exclusion as a precedent.
Other countries have left Eurovision of their own accord, for reasons that could also be viewed as political. Turkey has not participated since 2013, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the show undermines family values by featuring gay, transgender and nonbinary performers. Hungary, whose government has also cracked down on L.B.G.T. rights, including by banning pride events, has not taken part since 2019.
Green said that Eurovision did not consider featuring gay or trans performers as a political act, and that the competition was a place for performers to celebrate their identity onstage, whatever their race, gender or ******* orientation.
For countries that don’t share those values, there may soon be an alternative. According to the Tass state news agency in Russia, Putin signed a decree in February promising to revive a rival Cold War-era song contest called Intervision that would now also include artists from India, China and Brazil. Russia’s culture ministry did not respond to a request for further details on the competition, but the existence of two ideologically distinct pop contests would only increase perceptions of Eurovision as a political event.
Green said that the competition’s online audience was growing, which showed that the European Broadcasting Union’s apolitical stance was the right one. Viewers wanted to enjoy Eurovision “for what it is,” he said: a fun singing contest between “37 countries.” Then, he corrected himself: Eurovision was a contest between “37 broadcasters,” not nations, he said. Sometimes even those who work for the union can forget.
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