Reuters
April 14 (Reuters) - The suspect in a weekend arson attack on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's official residence said he "harbored hatred" against the Democrat and would have beaten him with a hammer if he had encountered the governor inside the mansion.
After turning himself into the state police, the 38-year-old suspect, Cody Balmer, said that he used homemade Molotov cocktails to set the mansion on fire on Sunday.
The attack took place while the governor and his family were asleep at the residence in the state capital of Harrisburg, according to a summary of a police interview with him filed in court.
It was the latest episode of political violence directed at a U.S. elected official, and bore similarities with the
October 2022 home invasion at the San Francisco residence of Nancy Pelosi, then the Democratic speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. In that incident, a man beat her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer.
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BBC
El Salvador will not return Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran national who the US government mistakenly deported to his home country where he is being held in a notorious mega-prison.
President Nayib Bukele made the comments during a meeting on Monday at the White House with Donald Trump, with whom he shares a strong relationship.
The US Supreme Court ruled last week that the Trump administration must "facilitate" the return of Mr Ábrego García, who lives in Maryland with his family and was granted protection from deportation by a court in 2019.
The Trump administration argues it cannot bring him home, and Attorney General Pam Bondi said it is "up to El Salvador if they want to return him".
BBC
Donald Trump says Chinese-made smartphones and other electronics will not be exempt from tariffs - adding they are simply moving into a different levy "bucket".
European stock markets bounced up on Monday morning after Friday's official announcement that some of these products would escape levies of up to 145%.
China has called on Donald Trump to "completely cancel" his tariffs regime, and "return to the right path of mutual respect".
However US officials said on Sunday that products would be subject to a "semiconductor tariff" instead, with Trump expected to reveal more details later.
NPR
MIAMI — For five years and counting, a continuous livestream on YouTubehas shown daily life in a community few people get a chance to visit — a coral reef in Biscayne Bay.
The Coral City Camera shows endangered corals that are thriving and remarkably resilient in the heart of Miami's busy port. The live feed has helped scientists gain a new understanding of the value and beauty of something they call "urban corals."
The underwater camera is the brainchild of Colin Foord. He's a marine biologist who, while he was still in high school, became intrigued by corals. They're the tiny marine animals that build large, stony colonies, creating diverse and colorful underwater ecosystems.
Al Jazeera
The United States and China are in a trade war face-off.
The US exported $143bn worth of goods to China in 2024 and has a trade deficit of $295bn.
To curb that, President Donald Trump has ratcheted tariffs up to a never-before heard of 145 percent on China, which has retaliated with 125 percent taxes on US goods.
While Trump has paused tariffs on most countries for 90 days, China is not on that list, escalating tensions between the two countries.
Earlier this week, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it is willing to “fight to the end” and has accused the US of violating the rules of the World Trade Organization.
For his part, Trump has said the tariffs are bringing in $2bn a day. According to Treasury Department data, the tariffs have brought in $200m a day.
Al Jazeera
Egypt and Qatar, the leading intermediaries in talks to end the war on the Gaza Strip, have expressed “grave concern” over the escalation of violence and deaths in the Israeli-besieged and -bombarded Palestinian territory, stressing continuing efforts to achieve a ceasefire.
In a joint statement released on Monday during a visit by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to Qatar, Cairo and Doha reiterated their support for the Arab-backed Gaza reconstruction plan.
The assertion comes in the face of calls by the United States and Israel for depopulating the territory, which critics and rights groups have called ethnic cleansing.
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The U.S. is paying El Salvador $6 million to house hundreds of immigrants deported from the United States in an immense and brutal prison there. Experts are questioning the legality of this payment amid alleged gross human rights violations. buff.ly/gcMhb6R
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— Ohio Capital Journal (@ohiocapitaljournal.com) April 14, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Deutsche Welle
Greek police have said they are investigating a previously unknown group that claimed responsibility for a recent bomb blast targeting the offices of Greece's railway company.
Greek anti-terrorism investigators said Monday they were looking into a previously unknown extremist group that claimed responsibility for a bomb blast outside the offices of railway company Hellenic Train last week.
No one was injured in the blast last Friday evening, but the office building's facade sustained significant damage. The perpetrators had called two media organizations warning of the planned blast ahead of time.
The group, calling itself "Revolutionary Class Struggle," claimed responsibility for the blast Sunday in a post on the "Athens Indymedia" website.
The group also claimed a 2024 attack on the Labor Ministry in Athens, which also caused no injuries as the group gave a warning, allowing police to evacuate the area.
Deutsche Welle
The United Nations has reported that fighting in Darfur has forced hundreds of thousands to flee the region's largest displacement camp. An upcoming international aide conference hopes to open the door for more support.
Some 400,000 people have been forced to flee the largest displacement camp in Sudan's Darfur region after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control, the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday.
"Between 60,000 and 80,000 households were displaced from Zamzam [Internally displaced persons] camp due to heightened insecurity," the IOM said in a statement.
The RSF attack on the camp left hundreds dead or wounded, the government and aid groups said.
The paramilitary group has stepped up attacks in the western region of Darfur as it attempts to take the last state capital, el-Fasher, which is not yet under its control.
The Guardian
A legal advocacy group on Monday asked the US court of international trade to block Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on foreign trading partners, arguing that the president overstepped his authority.
The lawsuit was filed by the Liberty Justice Center, a legal advocacy group, on behalf of five US businesses that import goods from countries targeted by the tariffs.
“No one person should have the power to impose taxes that have such vast global economic consequences,” Jeffrey Schwab, Liberty Justice Center’s senior counsel, said in a
statement. “The Constitution gives the power to set tax rates – including tariffs – to Congress, not the President.”
The Liberty Justice Center is the litigation arm of the Illinois Policy Institute, a free market thinktank. It was instrumental in the supreme court case Janus v AFSCME in which it successfully fought to weaken public labor unions collective bargaining power.
The Guardian
Alerts rang out as residents felt large earthquake in areas around San Diego, with epicenter in rural town of Julian
Southern Californians were rattled on Monday morning when a strong earthquake shook the areas around San Diego just after 10am local time.
Initial measurements from the United States Geological Survey rated the temblor as a magnitude 5.2, with an epicenter in Julian, a mountain town in San Diego county with roughly 2,000 residents known for its apple pie, located roughly 35 miles north-east of San Diego and 120 miles south of Los Angeles.
There was a low likelihood of damage or injuries from the quake, according to the USGS, which reported that “overall, the population in this region resides in structures that are resistant to earthquake shaking”. There are some vulnerabilities though, and earthquakes in this area have led to other dangers, including landslides and liquefaction.
The Guardian
Republican supporters of Ukraine are using the Kremlin’s deadly missile strikes as their latest evidence to convince Donald Trump that he must increase pressure on Vladimir Putin if he wants to reach a ceasefire deal.
Pro-Ukraine lawmakers and aides in the Republican party have carefully navigated Trump’s apparent affinity for Putin and avoided direct intervention in their efforts to shift his support toward Kyiv. But following the Russian strikes during Palm Sunday celebrations in the city of Sumy, advisers and allies have been highly vocal in condemning the attack using language meant to resonate with the US president’s conservative, religious base.
“Putin and peace apparently do not fit in the same sentence,” wrote Lindsey Graham, the Trump-allied senator who has sought to balance his support for Ukraine with his desire to remain on Trump’s good side. “Russia’s barbaric Palm Sunday attack on Christian worshippers in Ukraine seems to be Putin’s answer to efforts to achieve a ceasefire and peace,” he wrote.
The Guardian
The first item Opus Dei gave 12-year-old Andrea Martínez was a pink dress. The second was a schedule that detailed every task for every minute of her day. Then, when she was 16, she was given a cilice – a spiked metal chain to wear around her thigh – and a whip.
In the late 1980s, Opus Dei, a secretive and ultra-conservative Catholic organisation, promised Martínez an escape from a life of poverty in rural Argentina. By attending one of their schools, they said, she would receive an education and opportunities.
“They told me I would study and progress. I thought with an education that later I would be able to help my family,” says Martínez, 50.
“But I became like a slave. They treated me like a slave, without any capacity to think or act or do.”
Opus Dei (Latin for \"Work of God\") is an influential organisation within the Catholic church, made up of several thousand priests and about 90,000 lay members in 90 countries, roughly a third of whom are celibate.
Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) - As U.S.
President Donald Trump's administration cracks down on immigration, its officials have repeatedly publicly identified detainees as gang leaders or even terrorists, without attempting to back those inflammatory claims up in court.
After an FBI SWAT team on March 27 raided the home of a 24-year-old Salvadoran man living illegally in Virginia, Attorney General Pam Bondi, standing alongside FBI Director Kash Patel in a morning press conference, alleged the man was one of the top three U.S. leaders of the violent MS-13 street gang and called him a terrorist.
Less than two weeks later, the Justice Department moved to
drop the only charge it had brought against him -- illegal possession of a firearm by an alien -- and Bondi said he would face deportation instead.
In another arrest two weeks earlier, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers pulled over a Salvadoran man in Maryland and handcuffed him while his 5-year-old son, who is autistic and non-verbal, sat in the backseat, according to a legal complaint. ICE called the man's wife and told her she had 10 minutes to pick up her son before they contacted child protective services, she said in a court filing.
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Most companies say high costs will keep them from moving manufacturing back to the U.S., according to a new CNBC Supply Chain survey, and if they do, 81% expect automation to be favored over workers.
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— CNBC (@cnbc.com) April 14, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - President
Donald Trump said on Monday he wants to deport some violent criminals who are U.S. citizens to Salvadoran prisons, a move that experts said would violate U.S. law.
Trump said he would only go through with the idea if his administration determined it was legal. It was not clear what level of due process an American would receive before being deported to a country Washington has previously accused of serious human rights abuses, including harsh and arbitrary detentions.
"We always have to obey the laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they're not looking, that are absolute monsters," Trump told reporters during Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's visit to the White House.
Trump's comments marked the clearest signal yet that the U.S. president is serious about deporting naturalized and U.S.-born citizens, a proposal that has alarmed civil rights advocates and is viewed by many legal scholars as unconstitutional.
USA Today
WASHINGTON − President Donald Trump's administration wants to halve the State Department budget, cutting more than $30 billion, in fiscal 2026, four U.S. officials familiar with the plan said on Monday - a massive reduction that could see nearly 30 U.S. missions shut and foreign aid slashed by nearly 75%.
The sources said the cuts are outlined in a response by the White House budget office – the Office of Management and Budget – to funding requests submitted by the State Department for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins on October 1.
As part of the plan - which is yet to be finalized - the administration is considering a recommendation to shut down at least 27 missions largely in Africa and in Europe, according to a separate internal memo seen by Reuters. Ten of those missions are embassies and the rest are consulates.
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, FarWestGirl, doomandgloom, Besame, and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to), Rise above the swamp, Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man (RIP), wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw
