Rusty Hicks ist besorgt, dass sich Democrats im „open“-System gegenseitig verdrängen und Republicans den Sieg zuspielen könnten. Der Vorsitzende der California Democratic Party sagt, er wolle die idiosynkratische „open primary“ des Bundesstaates abschaffen; er nennt sie einen Fehlschlag, der riskiert, ein überfülltes Feld von Democratic-Kandidaten so gegeneinander auszuspielen, dass ein Republican zum Governor eines der „bluest states“ in den US gewählt werden könnte. „Das aktuelle System, das wir haben, funktioniert nicht“, sagte Rusty Hicks in einem Interview. „Es muss überarbeitet oder aufgehoben werden.“ Weiterlesen...
• Anwälten zufolge wurde Narges Mohammadi trotz einer starken Verschlechterung ihres Gesundheitszustands und eines drastischen Gewichtsverlusts der medizinische Urlaub aus dem Gefängnis verweigert.
• Die Familie der inhaftierten iranischen Nobelpreisträgerin Narges Mohammadi gibt an, dass sie nach einer rapiden Verschlechterung ihres Zustands, einem vermuteten Herzinfarkt und einem Gewichtsverlust von fast 20 kg um ihr Leben fürchtet.
• Die 54-jährige Menschenrechtsaktivistin, die den Friedensnobelpreis 2023 während ihrer Haft erhielt, war 2024 aus gesundheitlichen Gründen entlassen worden.
Die Europäische Kommission erklärt, dass das Technologieunternehmen keine wirksamen Maßnahmen hat, um Kindern unter 13 Jahren den Zugang zu Facebook und Instagram zu untersagen. Das Technologieunternehmen Meta wurde festgestellt, gegen EU-Recht zu verstoßen, da es versäumt hat zu verhindern, dass Kinder unter 13 Jahren seine Plattformen Facebook und Instagram nutzen. In den vorläufigen Ergebnissen einer fast zweijährigen Untersuchung erklärte die Europäische Kommission am Mittwoch, dass Meta keine wirksamen Maßnahmen implementiert habe, um den Zugriff von unter 13-Jährigen auf seine Dienste zu stoppen. Weiterlesen...
Massachusetts woman jailed for six months after court heard she admitted to freeing bees on sheriff’s deputiesA beekeeper has been jailed for six months after she set swarms of her insects on sheriff’s deputies attempting to carry out an eviction at a friend’s house.Rebecca Woods insisted she only released her truckload of hives to allow the bees to enjoy the “lovely, flowering landscape” near the home of an elderly friend and cancer patient. Continue reading...
Film sequel reveals how luxury brands have turned the tables on once-dominant magazine editorsThe National Gallery was the grand setting for the party that followed The Devil Wears Prada 2’s London premiere this week. Donatella Versace held court in a roped-off area beneath Paul Delaroche’s The Execution of Lady Jane Grey.Meryl Streep, reprising her role as Miranda Priestly – Anna Wintour’s fictional alter ego – wore a red satin Prada coat as a nod to the film’s title and black sunglasses as a wink to Wintour. Glossy magazine editors from Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, flown in for the night, nibbled on fried chicken served with caviar and dishes of mac and cheese presented theatrically under silver cloches. Continue reading...
Proposal at heart of offer made during a 30-country two-day meeting jointly organised by FranceMiddle East crisis – live updatesBritain is prepared to deploy a squadron of RAF Typhoons based in Qatar to patrol over the strait of Hormuz as part of a multinational mission to keep open the strategic waterway once the Iran war comes to an end.The UK military also offered to deploy mine-hunting drones and specialist divers to help clear the strait mined by Iran – but no decision has been made on whether HMS Dragon or another warship would also be deployed. Continue reading...
Legally questionable confidentiality clause adopted almost word for word from demands of Microsoft and trade groupsMicrosoft and other US tech companies successfully lobbied the EU to hide the environmental toll of their datacentres, an investigation has found, with demands to block a database of green metrics from public view written almost word for word into EU rules.The secrecy provision, which the European Commission added to its proposal almost verbatim after industry lobbying in 2024, hinders scrutiny of the pollution that individual datacentres emit. It leaves researchers with just national-level summaries of their energy footprints. Continue reading...
US government reverses course on removing LGBTQ+ Pride flag from New York monument after efforts from advocatesThe Trump administration agreed Monday to keep flying a rainbow Pride flag at the Stonewall national monument, reversing course after removing the banner in February.The government revealed the decision as it seeks to settle a lawsuit filed by LGBTQ+ and historic preservation groups who had sought to block the removal. A judge must still approve the agreement. Continue reading...
Lafarge fined more than €1m and its former boss jailed for paying nearly €5.6m to groups including Islamic State A French court has fined the cement group Lafarge more than €1m (£870,000) and sentenced its former boss to six years in prison for paying protection money to Islamic State and other terror groups to maintain its business in war-torn Syria from 2013 to 2014.The ruling follows a 2022 case in the United States in which the French firm pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to US-designated “terrorist” organisations and agreed to pay a $778m fine (£580m) – the first time a company had faced the charge. Continue reading...
Police rescued boy after neighbour reported sounds of a child coming from vehicle in Hagenbach in eastern FranceA malnourished nine-year-old boy was rescued after being locked in his father’s van since 2024 in eastern France, a prosecutor said.A neighbour alerted police to “sounds of a child” coming from a vehicle in the village of Hagenbach, near the borders of Switzerland and Germany. Continue reading...
Politicians warn party’s pledge to ‘punish’ countries seeking justice for slavery will harm and isolate BritainCommonwealth politicians say they will not back down from seeking reparations as UK public figures, including a former Reform insider, warn the rightwing party’s pledge to “punish” countries seeking justice for slavery would harm and isolate Britain.This week, Reform UK said they would halt visas for nationals of countries formally demanding reparations from Britain if they took power. Continue reading...
• US State Department endorsed on April 4, 2026, a Kenyan-led multinational force of 2,500 troops to deploy to Haiti within 60 days to combat gang control in Port-au-Prince.
• Gangs control 85% of the capital, with 4,000 homicides reported in 2025; US provides $150 million in logistics and training support.
• The mission addresses a humanitarian crisis displacing 700,000 Haitians, as highlighted by UN envoy William O'Neill: 'State collapse is imminent without intervention.'
Riccione’s leftwing mayor, Daniela Angelini, says public purchase is victory for town and ‘act of love and vision’An Italian council has bought a villa where Benito Mussolini spent his summer holidays, partly to avoid the property falling into the hands of “fascist nostalgics”.Daniela Angelini, the leftwing mayor of Riccione, a town close to Rimini along Italy’s Adriatic coast, said the acquisition of Villa Mussolini through an auction was “an act of love and vision” and that bringing it back into public hands was a victory for the entire town. Continue reading...
‘Ukraine has expertise concerning sea waterways, and the defence and reopening of maritime traffic,’ says president. What we know on day 1,500Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered on Thursday to provide Ukraine’s expertise in dealing with freedom of navigation in the Black Sea to those countries considering how to keep the strait of Hormuz open amid the conflict in the Middle East. The Ukraine president, speaking in his nightly video address, said the foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, had taken part in a virtual meeting devoted to reopening the strait of Hormuz, attended by about 40 countries. “Ukraine has relevant expertise concerning sea waterways, and the defence and reopening of maritime traffic,” he said. “If [our] partners are ready to act, we will consider how we can strengthen them, how we can apply our expertise, knowledge and technological potential.”Russia’s army recorded no territorial gains on the frontline in Ukraine in March, for the first time in two and half years, AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed. The Russian army’s advances have been slowing since late 2025 due to Kyiv’s localised breakthroughs in the south-east, and losing ground in March and February on the southern section of the frontline, between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, the analysis showed. Across the entire frontline, Ukrainian forces managed to recapture 9 sq km in March.North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, gave “field guidance” at the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations, which is under construction , state media KCNA said. The museum in Pyongyang will be a place to commemorate the fallen soldiers sent to support the Russian army in the war in Ukraine. The construction of the museum is almost complete and Kim said the opening ceremony would be held in mid-April, marking the first anniversary of the deployment of the North Korean soldiers.Six Ukrainian children will be returned from Russia to their families in Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday, citing efforts by Melania Trump to expedite their return. A seventh Ukrainian child will also be returned to their family later this month, the first lady’s office said in a statement. Ukraine says almost 20,000 children have been illegally sent to Russia and Belarus, where they are sometimes subject to military training and forced to fight against their own country’s troops.Russian strikes across Ukraine on Thursday killed at least two people and wounded dozens, officials said, as Moscow stepped up its attacks amid stalled peace talks. In the south-eastern Kherson region, Russia attacked “with artillery, mortars and UAVs”, the regional prosecutor’s office said on social media. A 42-year-old man was killed when a drone hit a civilian car, and 16 others – including a teenage boy and three police officers – were wounded in air attacks and artillery shelling, it added. In the Chernihiv region, north of the capital Kyiv, Russia attacked with a ballistic missile, the head of Chernihiv’s military administration, Dmytro Bryzhynsky, said on Telegram.Russian forces maintained a daylong barrage of drone strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, on Thursday, injuring at least two people, local officials said. Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, posted reports on Telegram throughout the day and well into the evening, noting strikes in four city districts. One city official said there had been at least 20 drone strikes. He said some had triggered fires and two people had been injured in an evening attack, including an eight-year-old girl.Russian forces carried out 129 attacks on Ukrainian gas and heating facilities during the recent 151-day heating season, the state oil and gas firm Naftogaz said on Thursday. “The Russians hit pipelines, gas production, underground storage facilities, heating systems – everything that Ukrainians depend on for heat and gas,” it said in a statement. Continue reading...
Government keen to avoid panic as oil price surges, but perhaps households need advice on reducing consumptionLabour ministers sent out in recent days to respond to the looming energy crisis sparked by the Iran war have essentially stuck to that reassuring wartime slogan: keep calm and carry on.“I think people should go about their lives as normal, knowing that the government is taking action to bring energy bills down,” James Murray, the chief secretary to the Treasury, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday. Continue reading...
The factories, which buy cheap crude and turn it into fuel, are struggling as higher oil prices threaten their razor-sharp margins The towns that are the bulwark of China’s energy security can, at a moment of global crisis, appear deceptively quiet. Trucks carrying oil trundle along wide-open highways that have little traffic, while a few boarded-up shops in crumbling low-rise buildings hint at a long-forgotten local buzz.A ramshackle noodle shop serving hand-pulled ribbons of dough was empty at lunchtime, save for a few construction workers and a teacher watching videos on Douyin, the social media platform, with his meal. Continue reading...
Fossil-fuel burning at Ohio facility could burn longer, leaving Middletown residents to face environmental risksSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxIt was just a few months after moving from Louisville to Middletown, Ohio, four years ago that Vivian Adams’s six-year-old daughter’s asthma problem worsened.“My daughter was born prematurely so she already had lung issues,” she says, “[but] it’s gotten worse. She stays sick and coughing and can’t breathe. She’s had to go on everyday medication for her asthma, plus she has a rescue inhaler.” Continue reading...
Mohammed bin Salman said to consider war a ‘historic opportunity’ to remake Middle East. Plus, Senate passes funding package for Homeland Security that excludes ICEGood morning.Saudi Arabia has urged Washington to intensify attacks on Iran, a Saudi intelligence source has confirmed, while it considers whether to join the war directly.Have there been reports of active Saudi military involvement? Not so far. But a Saudi analyst said the kingdom was likely to intervene if peace efforts led by Pakistan failed. Mohammed Alhamed said: “If [Iran] rejects the conditions and continues its attacks, the threshold for Saudi action will be crossed.”What is the latest on the strait of Hormuz? On Tuesday, Tehran said it would permit “non-hostile vessels” to pass: here is a visual guide.For the latest updates, follow our live blog.Why has there been no DHS funding? Democrats have blocked it as they demand changes to its immigration crackdown, particularly after agents in Minneapolis killed the US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Continue reading...
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said to view US-Israeli war as ‘historic opportunity’ to remake Middle EastMiddle East crisis – live updatesSaudi Arabia has urged the US to ramp up attacks on Iran, a Saudi intelligence source has confirmed, while it is weighing a decision on whether to join the fight directly.The Saudi source confirmed reporting in the New York Times, which said the kingdom’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has urged Donald Trump not to cut short his war against Iran, and that the US-Israeli campaign represented a “historic opportunity” to remake the Middle East. Continue reading...
• Elon Musk stated Tesla and SpaceX AI will continue large Nvidia chip purchases even as Tesla advances its AI5 chip, optimized for edge compute in Optimus and Robotaxi.
• Tesla's Terafab AI chip manufacturing facility is set to launch within seven days from March 14, potentially by March 21.
• Musk praised Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, noting AI5's efficiency in half-reticle format could halve fab needs, with AI6 potentially matching dual AI5.
Banking lobby group says lenders are holding off changes as there is no widespread consumer demand for nowExplainer: What will happen when the £100 limit is scrapped?Shoppers will not be able to splash unlimited amounts on contactless cards despite the lifting of a £100 cap on payments as Britain’s banks held off on making changes.The official limit on individual contactless transactions on credit and debit cards has been scrapped but the UK’s biggest high street and challenger banks have kept the £100 ceiling in place. Continue reading...
Beijing seeks to decipher effect of Iran war on US midterms and best way to apply pressure when Trump meets XiThe White House said on Wednesday that China had agreed to postpone Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing, as war in the Middle East rages on, complicating the US president’s position at home and abroad.China has not yet commented on the delay to the highly anticipated trip, in which Trump and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will meet in person for the first time since October. Trump previously said he hoped to delay the trip, originally scheduled to run from 31 March to 2 April, for “five or six weeks”. Continue reading...
Head of world’s energy watchdog says it will take time for markets to recover from ongoing crisis in strait of HormuzThe world’s energy watchdog will consider releasing further emergency crude stocks into the global market to cool rising oil prices after warning that it will take time for markets to recover from the ongoing crisis in the strait of Hormuz.Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, said its members continued to hold large reserves of emergency oil stocks even after agreeing to the biggest release of government crude in the history of the market, meaning more emergency oil reserves could still be released “as and if needed”. Continue reading...
US president urges nations to deploy vessels to keep key oil shipping route open amid conflict with IranDonald Trump has said the UK should send warships to help keep the strait of Hormuz open.In a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, the US president urged the UK and other countries to deploy vessels to the strait amid the conflict with Iran. Continue reading...
