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Facebook Tweet Email Link Warsaw Reuters — Karol Nawrocki, a conservative historian and supporter of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, was sworn in as Poland’s president on Wednesday, setting the stage for conflict with the centrist government and potentially cooler relations with Ukraine. Nawrocki took the presidential oath in a ceremony in the Polish parliament. The election victory of Nawrocki, who was backed by the nationalist opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), dealt a blow to Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s hopes of cementing the pro-European Union course he has set for the bloc’s largest eastern member and left his government floundering…
Facebook Tweet Email Link The Dalles, Oregon — The cherries are rotting on the trees in Ian Chandler’s orchards. Branch after branch hang heavy with fruit the Oregon farmer calls “mummified” — dark, shriveled and unappetizing. They should have been picked a couple of weeks ago to tempt shoppers at markets and stores, or processed to garnish Shirley Temple mocktails, shiny and fat, promising bursts of sweetness. The lost harvest has hit almost a quarter of Chandler’s 125 acres of cherry trees — not because of bad weather, disease or blight, just because there was no one to pick the…
Facebook Tweet Email Link Tourists and business travelers from Zambia and Malawi must pay a deposit of up to $15,000 when seeking a US visa, the State Department has announced, in a move likened to a visa ban for the African nations, which rank among the world’s poorest. Payment of the visa bond, which aims to rein in visa overstays, “does not guarantee visa issuance,” the notice posted on Tuesday warned, stating that the fee would be reimbursed if certain conditions are met. “The bond will be canceled and the bond money will be automatically returned in the following circumstances:…
Facebook Tweet Email Link Baseball umpire Jen Pawol will make history this week as the first woman to work as an umpire in a Major League Baseball regular season game, crossing a historic gender barrier. Pawol has worked MLB games during spring training but her work on Saturday, when she will be in the crew for a doubleheader between the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins at Truist Park, will be her first time in the big leagues. The doubleheader required a fifth umpire to be added to the crew, according to a report on MLB.com. It’ll be the latest history-making…
Facebook Tweet Email Link For years, Republicans and MAGA influencers have been keen to rip the lid off a supposed government conspiracy to cover up information related to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and alleged associates. Many key figures who now serve in the Trump administration pledged to do exactly that. The administration’s failures to live up to those promises and its bizarre handling of the situation now have it scrambling. On Wednesday night, that will take the form of top officials strategizing at Vice President JD Vance’s residence, CNN is now reporting. But their task is only getting harder. And that’s…
Facebook Tweet Email Link Israel’s military chief warned against a full takeover of Gaza, according to three Israeli sources familiar with the discussions, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considers ordering the “conquest’ of the besieged territory. In a meeting with top officials on Tuesday evening, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir cautioned that fully conquering Gaza would trap the military within the enclave and put the remaining hostages at risk, the sources said. Such a move, Zamir said, would also increase the burden on Israeli forces when the military is already suffering from attrition and…
Facebook Tweet Email Link Ghana’s defense and environment ministers are among eight people killed after a military helicopter crashed in the southern Ashanti region on Wednesday, according to the chief of staff to the Ghanian president. Defense Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed were among the five passengers on board the helicopter, as well as three crew members. Ghana’s Armed Forces said earlier on Wednesday that it had lost contact with a Z9 helicopter that was en route from the capital of Accra to Obuasi, a mining town in southern Ghana. Julius Debrah, the chief of…
Facebook Tweet Email Link A dinner scheduled Wednesday night at Vice President JD Vance’s residence was seen as an opportunity for Trump administration officials to realign amid the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein scandal, according to four people familiar with the situation. That would include a potential chance for Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, who had been at odds over the response, to clear the air. As of Wednesday afternoon, administration officials familiar with the meeting said the dinner was now in flux, given its intense coverage, and it was unclear whether it would ultimately be called off,…
Facebook Tweet Email Link London — The Royal Ballet and Opera (RBO), one of Britain’s most prestigious arts institutions, has canceled its planned production of “Tosca” in Israel after a widespread staff backlash. In a recent open letter, 182 members of staff said they “reject” holding current or future performances in Israel because of its war in Gaza. The RBO had planned to stage the three-act opera, which dramatizes the “devastation of war,” in collaboration with the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv next year. But the signatories accused the RBO of having “chosen to actively support the Israeli state” while…
Facebook Tweet Email Link President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced sweeping and substantial tariffs on India, one of America’s most important trading partners. In addition to a 25% tariff that is set to go into effect Thursday, Trump also announced an additional 25% tariff on India that will go into effect later this month as punishment for importing Russian oil and gas. Those combined penalties would bring the total tariff on goods imported from the world’s fifth-largest economy to a whopping 50% – among the highest the US charges. The latest executive order, according to a document posted on the…