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Donald Trump stood before the White House press room cameras on Thursday to perform a traditional presidential duty – consoler-in-chief during a time of tragedy. He said the country was in mourning, shared his condolences during "an hour of anguish" and paid tribute to first responders and the victims. Then he sharply pivoted - providing yet another reminder of how his new presidency is going to be very different. It will be combative. It will be unscripted. And it will be quick to point the finger of blame. We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas," he said. He then speculated, without giving evidence, that lowered standards of hiring for air traffic controllers in the Federal Aviation Administration during the Joe Biden and Barack Obama presidencies may have been a factor in the disaster. Trump and his fellow Republicans have regularly attacked "diversity, equity and inclusion" programmes in the federal governme...

  processed by the Department of Justice. She added: “If Google will voluntarily comply with the data request, then typically the process is quick. If Google needs to be compelled, through a court order, it will take longer. A ccording to Google, one way of accessing the data is applying via the UK courts for a so-called overseas production order, under the US-UK Cloud Act agreement. Another expert said the process of obtaining data from abroad could be slow due to potential conflicts in national laws. However, the Cloud agreement is designed to speed up that process. The US-UK Cloud Act agreement is intended to provide a quicker route for police to access electronic evidence from US-based technology companies in cases of serious and violent crimes, while providing appropriate safeguards,” said Monica Horten, a technology policy adviser. A Merseyside police spokesperson said: “We have submitted requests through the correct channels for a criminal investigation.” In the year to J...

  Immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers hoping for a safe haven to build a life in the United States awoke to a blistering reality on Tuesday, after Donald Trump’s barrage of policy changes shortly after taking office effectively slammed the door shut on many would-be newcomers – and cast a spectre over many already living stateside. First came the news that, as Trump was being sworn in as the 47th president, the federal government had disabled its CBP one phone app,s appointment system, where prospective migrants and asylum seekers could schedule an appointment with the US authorities and legally enter the country. Not only was the pathway suddenly gone for the roughly 270,000 people trying to apply, but some 30,000 individuals had their existing appointments cancelled. Those affected, many of whom had waited months in dangerous conditions in Mexico in order to enter legally, sobbed as they were turned away at the border. Then, on Monday evening, Trump signed a slew of executive...

  The long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has finally come into effect, behind schedule by almost three hours, during which Israeli forces continued to strike Gaza, blaming the militant group’s failure to release the names of the hostages due to be released on Sunday. The ceasefire finally started at 9.15am GMT, after Hamas posted the names of the three hostages on its social media channels. The Hamas-run civil defence agency said eight people had been killed in the Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip during the hours after the ceasefire was supposed to take effect. Three Palestinians were killed in eastern Gaza City by Israeli drones, medics in the territory said on Sunday. The Israeli military said that it had struck. Hamas named the three female hostages as Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31. They will be released through the Red Cross, in return for 30 Palestinian prisoners each. The ceasefire opens the way to a possible end to a 15-month war...

TikTok stopped working in the US late on Saturday, shortly before a federal ban on the Chinese-owned short-video app was due to take effect. The app was no longer available on Apple’s iOS App Store or Google’s Play Store. The US Congress passed a law in April mandating that parent company ByteDance either sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or face a total shutdown. It chose the latter. TikTok said that divestment “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally”. The company held that line until the very end. The app’s disappearance has been five years in the making. Donald Trump first proposed a ban on TikTok in mid-2020 via executive order, which did not succeed. Various members of Congress proposed measures that would do the same, only one passed. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act became law, mandating TikTok be sold or be banned. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t...

Pakistan’s annual death toll from smoking is the highest in South Asia and higher than the global average, according to Gallup Pakistan’s analysis  of the Global Burden of Disease 2024  report . According to the Global Burden of Disease 2024, Pakistan reported an annual death rate from smoking of 91.1 per 100,000 people, notably higher than the averages for South Asia (78.1) and the rest of the world (72.6), according to Gallup Pakistan, which is not affiliated with Gallup, the multinational analytics and advisory firm based in Washington DC. “Between 1990 and 2021, Pakistan experienced a 35 per cent relative decrease in smoking-related death rates, which is lower than the reductions achieved by India (37pc), South Asia (38pc), and the global average (42pc),” Gallup Pakistan said in a report published on Tuesday. According to the World Health Organisation, purchasing 100 packs of the most-sold cigarette brand in Pakistan requires 3.7pc of the GDP per capita. This figure is con...

The federal government on Wednesday hiked the petrol price by Rs3.47 per litre and that of high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs2.61 per litre for the next fortnight. The new petrol price is Rs256.13 per litre and that of HSD is Rs260.95. “Ogra has worked out the consumer prices of petroleum products in view of fluctuations in international market in the last fortnight,” said a press release from the Finance Division. It did not mention changes in the prices of kerosene and light diesel oil. Informed sources had earlier said the ex-depot petrol price was estimated to go up by Rs5-6 per litre depending on the final calculation. Kerosene and diesel prices were expected to rise by about Rs3 and 2 per litre, respectively. The estimates for higher prices of petroleum products stemmed after bulls retur­ned to the international market last week following US President-elect Donald Tru­m­p’s threats of strict sanctions on Russian oil and energy exports. The Brent prices have risen by...