If you’re looking to become a star baker à la The Great British Bake Off, you’re going to need the right kitchen tools to do so. If you’re going to start anywhere, it should probably be with a durable, high-quality stand mixer to assist you in whipping together your favorite from-scratch masterpieces with ease.
For today only, Hamilton Beach stand mixers are $60 off on Amazon — and this one device is going to change the entire makeup of your kitchen in the best way possible.
Hamilton Beach’s planetary mixing action rotates the beaters around and ensures complete bowl coverage every single time. It comes stocked with 12 different speed settings, ranging from a slow stir to a fast whip. And don't take Hamilton Beach's low prices as a sign of poor quality — in our experience, their products stay in great shape even with a lot of use, and this stand mixer is built to last. Its 400-watt motor is likely to stay kicking for years, and the included stainless steel mixing bowl can really take a beating as well. The full package also comes with some fun accessories, including a flat beater, a dough hook, a whisk, and a pouring guard to control all the mess. Read more...
It's something most of you probably want to avoid, but every now and then you are going to be forced to reconsider your broadband contract. This is usually because your contract is up or you think there's a better deal out there somewhere. What we're saying is that hunting for a new broadband deal isn't necessarily something you would do out of choice. Read more...
After getting approved for commercial air delivery in Australia earlier this month, Alphabet's Wing drone delivery service has now received the green light from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to allow it to start air dropping packages to customers in the U.S.
The FAA's certification of Wing, which was signed on Friday and Monday, essentially classifies the drone company as a small-sized air carrier, according to Bloomberg. Wing says it'll begin commercial drone deliveries in Blacksburg and Christiansburg, two rural towns in Virginia "within months."
There are a ton of earbuds available on Amazon, so many that it might be overwhelming to decide on a pair that suits you. Luckily, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you and rounded up the best earbuds on Amazon.
Though they are small, these earbuds deliver booming bass and use neodymium magnetic technology to create powerful, equal sound in each ear. Wired headphones normally come with the hassle of tangles, but the Y-type flat cord of the Sony Extra Bass earbuds reduces tangling. Read more...
Consider for a second that Westeros in Game of Thrones is a software company. Sansa would be the Operations department, and Daenerys would be in charge of Development. Meanwhile, Jon Snow is the DevOps Engineer whose primary role is to diffuse the palpable tension between the two so that Winterfell and the rest of Westeros can finally know peace.
See, as the head of development, Daenerys' goal is to introduce new features and continuously improve the product. On the other hand, Sansa's operations team is more concerned about the stability of the product. They're aware that any big changes could potentially topple the system, so they try to defer them as much as they can. Read more...
The world can be very strange and confusing for a simple creature whose only responsibilities are eating, sleeping, and being a vessel of pure goodness.
It's clear that dogs have a lot of love in their hearts, but don't always have a lot going on up in the ol' brain department. Take for example, Tucker, and his fierce battle with the vicious beast — a head massager.
"Tucker has been sniffing and trying to play with these head massagers ever since we got them so we decided to see his reaction if we let him play with them. His reactions to new toys are always hilarious," Tucker's owner wrote on YouTube. Read more...
You might be one of the millions of Apple fans out there. If you are, then you will know that it's not cheap keeping up to speed with all the latest devices. There are things you can do to reduce your spending and still invest in Apple, though.
KRCS is a premium reseller of Apple products and accessories. You can pick up a wide range of devices from KRCS, including iMacs, iMac Pros, MacBooks, MacBook Pros, iPads, iPhones, and Apple Watches. Rather than going directly to Apple and paying full price, you can visit KRCS and get a discounted item.
There are savings available across the full range of the KRCS stock. There is 6 percent off all MacBooks, 5 percent off Apple TVs, 2 percent off selected iPads, 2 percent off Apple Watches, and 1 percent off iPhones. You might be an Apple fan but there is no need to let your passion empty your pockets. Read more...
A portable speaker can sometimes let you down when it comes to the deeper notes. There's a load of factors to consider when selecting a speaker, and it's important not to forget the bass. Just ask a certain Meghan Trainor.
The Sony SRS-XB10 wireless speaker solves the problem of finding a portable option with strong bass by using a passive radiator with the monaural speaker to provide a real boost at the lower end of the scale. Despite its compact nature, this Bluetooth speaker can bring dance music to life with extra bass that gets noticed.
You can now pick up the SRS-XB10 for just £34, down from £60. That's a significant saving of £26 and is the lowest price we have seen on this device. It's easy to move around, has a long battery life, and has a water-resistant surface, meaning this speaker can go wherever you go. Read more...
The bank holiday is over and that's pretty upsetting stuff. Back to normality, back to work, and back to cloudy skies.
The four-day break felt like some kind of fever dream. Did it really not rain once? Was it really that hot? Yes, it was all real, and now it's gone. Try not to wallow too much though. There are still plenty of reasons to be cheerful, such as the great deals out there, ready to be snapped up.
We have lined up the best deals on speakers, headphones, laptops, tablets, and more, including devices from top brands like Sony, Logitech, Microsoft, Acer, and Ultimate Ears.
These are the best deals from across the internet for April 23. Read more...
There’s a reason Steve Rogers became Captain America. Even before he was injected with the supersoldier serum that enhanced his body and capabilities, Steve demonstrated the true heart and qualities of a hero. In his time as the Captain, Steve has been a symbol of American excellence, a spokesman for higher ideals, and an ass-kicking superhero determined to protect the world he loves.
Allow me to pause and clarify that there is nothing wrong with being a virgin. Sex is merely one of the interesting and valuable human activities that add up to any given life experience; I’m just pointing out that Steve Rogers has never done it once, not even a little bit, not even on his birthday and that is OK. Read more...
There's no word on what the new OnePlus will be like, though the addition of the "Pro" moniker indicates that there will also be a regular, less powerful variant of the phone.
OnePlus CEO Pete Lau did confirm to The Verge that the Pro variant will have a "significant display upgrade" over the regular variant, as well as a 5G option. Read more...
Maybe it's your sound system that needs an upgrade. The Klipsch Reference R-112SW Subwoofer offers balanced, non-punchy bass that keeps up with the reference material you are watching. Deep subwoofer bass allows you to feel the impact from movies or TV shows for a more immersive experience — just imagine this with Game of Thrones. Read more...
There's one relatively new royal family tradition that I can definitely get behind. That's the birthday photos.
Each year, when the royal children celebrate their birthdays, Kensington Palace releases never-before-seen pictures taken by the Duchess of Cambridge. And they never fail to make us swoon over their cuteness.
Tesla is betting big on autonomous driving, and to support its claims — which include launching an army of robo-taxis as early as next year — the company released a new video, demonstrating Tesla Model 3's self-driving capabilities.
The video shows a Model 3 drive itself without any interaction from the "driver," if you don't count him choosing a destination on the car's navigation system.
We already know that Tesla cars can more or less drive autonomously on a highway. But in this video, the Model 3 is driving on all sorts of roads, making turns and stopping at traffic lights — all by itself. The entire length of the ride, which according to this Redditorstarts and ends at Tesla's headquarters in Palo Alto, is about 12 miles, and it takes about 18 minutes to complete (the video is sped up, so that time is compressed into less than two minutes). Read more...
The battle plans are drawn, dragonglass weapons forged, and the dead's arrival at last signaled by three horn blasts in the dark night.
But something is missing. Or rather someone — horned, blue-eyed, and winged.
Ever since fans first got wind of a massive Battle in Winterfell, they've been questioning the seeming inevitability of an epic fight with the Night King. Now what began as pure speculation has crystallized into the most popular and logical twist for next week's Episode 3 of Season 8.
The White Walkers about to punk Winterfell
Image: hbo
The Night King won't be at the Battle of Winterfell. Instead of doing what everyone expects of him, his army will take down Winterfell as a distraction as he focuses on the other target, King's Landing. Read more...
Pink, like many celebrities — and, in fairness, like most of the world — is active on social media.
But recently she's decided to change her posting habits.
After being trolled for an Instagram photo she posted which showed her youngest child without his diaper on, Pink hit back at the "keyboard warriors" who had attacked her. And now she's decided to stop sharing photos of her children altogether.
"I'm prouder of my kids than anything I've ever done and I just won't share them anymore," she told Ellen. "I won't do it, I'm not posting pictures of them anymore.
"And I understand people saying 'You need to be more careful because you are in the public eye and you should have thought of that,' and they're right. But there's a nice way to say that. There's a kind way to be online." Read more...
Dell's Small Business division might be aimed at professionals looking to manage and grow a small business, but that doesn't mean that everyone can't bag a great deal in the store.
The Small Business division is dedicated to creating products and services that can boost any business. Dell design PCs, and other devices, for small businesses to help promote growth, and while that should be music to the ears of any professional out there, anyone can profit from the available deals.
Dell's Small Business division not only showcases the best technology, but also lists some great offers on laptops and desktops. The Dell Small Business 72-hour sale is now running until April 25, and you can save 12 percent with the code WORK12. That includes discounted Inspiron and XPS devices. Read more...
LOS ANGELES — Combine a graduation, an anniversary, a funeral, a family reunion, and the hottest party in Hollywood with a literal fight for the fate of the universe, and you've got the world premiere of Avengers: Endgame.
Monday night at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the highly-anticipated final chapter in Marvel's Infinity Saga debuted to a massive audience of cast, crew, press, and fans, who showed up eager and dressed in their best "snappy casual." (Oh, yeah. We saw what you did there, Marvel.)
Outside the building, excited MCU devotees and Avengers cosplayers screamed for their heroes as cast member after cast member floated from chauffeured rides into the secretive depths of the Endgame. Pictures were taken. Tears were shed. Dreams came true. Read more...
We all occasionally struggle with a case of scatter-brain — but for a lot of us, it can feel incredibly difficult to get back on track with a project or even a train of thought in an email once you've already been distracted. Since most of us don't have a personal assistant to keep us a little more accountable (and on-topic), tools like this 2Do Task Manager can be a productivity lifesaver, keeping you on task even if you did just have that ad-hoc meeting or last-minute assignment thrown your way.
This helpful tool is all about speed and productivity: you can quickly jot down multiple tasks in seconds so you don't forget them with the quick entry feature, and color-code them for organizational purposes. You can also manage projects with ease, keeping related projects and tasks together with an exhaustive set of functions to help you find what you need to get things done, including sort, focus, tag, location, and date range filters. Read more...
Specifically, he had some feedback from a storytelling perspective.
GoT: As a long-time storyteller, I'm in awe of how perfectly the minds behind this show brought all the major characters together at Winterfell. They made it look easy. Constant Readers, it is not.
This time around, they've come together for a superhero-themed version of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire."
It's more a look back at the Marvel characters we've come to know and love over the years, and also comes with a perfect tribute to Stan Lee, which you'll catch right at the end. Read more...
The world premiere of Avengers: Endgame took place on Monday evening, with critics and industry peeps getting a look at the much-hyped film before it hits cinemas.
Based on the first reactions on social media, the epic, three-hour long Endgame is a satisfying conclusion to a series which began 21 films ago, with most reviewers leaving positive comments about the film.
As Mashable's Angie Han and Ali Foreman noted, Endgame is quite the send off.
#AvengerEndgame is an immensely satisfying payoff, not just to Infinity War but to all the films that came before. This is why the MCU. (And I say this as someone who was not especially enamored of Infinity War, FWIW.) ♥️💙💜
Mother figures are the backbone of the world. Yours may be your biological mother, or maybe she's your mother-in-law, your best friend's mom, or simply someone whose motherly instinct has helped you through hard times.
Moms teach you the adulting necessities, give advice even if the problem is your fault, and above all, they put up with your shit and (almost) never complain.
The game plan here isn't just to snag the last bouquet at CVS just so you're not the kid who forgot Mother's Day (but definitely also get flowers). And you don't even need to spend a lot of money. (Peep our list of Mother's Day gifts that cost less than $50 here. Want even more cheap gift ideas? Go here.) Read more...
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is set to expand the use of facial recognition tech to identify just about every person leaving the United States on a commercial flight.
As Quartz reports, the CBP already uses facial recognition technology at 15 U.S. airports. The system works by capturing a photo of a passenger as they approach their airport departure gate. The image is then compared to visa and passport applications for a possible match so as to create an "exit record." No match flags the individual for closer inspection by the CBP.
In the Fiscal Tear 2018 Entry/Exit Overtstay Report released by Homeland Security, it's stated (on page 11) that CBP intends to expand the use of this so-called biometric exit over the next four years to, "97 percent of departing commercial air travelers from the United States." The reason? The technology is highly reliable and therefore very good at detecting individuals who are classed as overstays on a visa. Read more...
As Elon Musk made clear Monday, the technology most of his competitors in the self-driving car space use to help vehicles detect what's around them is lame.
And his option is way better.
"LiDAR is a fool's errand," he quipped about the laser-emitting tool that, in the simplest terms, acts as eyes for autonomous cars. "Anyone who is relying on LiDAR is doomed."
That's pretty much most of the businesses testing self-driving cars, including Waymo and Uber who went to court over LiDAR technology last year.
Musk let his strong opinions about LiDAR fly at Tesla's Autonomy Day, an event that gave investors at the company's Palo Alto headquarters and 50,000-plus livestream viewers an inside look at self-driving tech. Read more...
If you've ever had the misfortune of swiping on men on Tinder, you can probably relate to this video.
A skit by writers Jon Foor and Luke Strickler poked fun at the overplayed trend of everyone on Tinder having exactly two personality traits: Liking The Office and loving dogs.
"Where'd you grow up?" Strickler asks his hypothetical match, jabbing at the repetitive, surface-level conversations people on the app have before either meeting up or ghosting each other entirely. "Real though, if you're racist, sexist, homophobic, or not hot, this will not work out."
But when confronted with the fact that women have multi-dimensional personalities and even worse, opinions, things take a turn. Read more...
Look out, Uber. Tesla CEO Elon Musk plans to turn the electric car company's fleet of vehicles into a massive autonomous ride-hailing network.
Musk laid out his vision for the self-driving Tesla network — which he expects to be in operation as early as next year — at a Monday investor event focused on autonomous driving. It's not the first time he's floated the idea; he tweeted about Tesla robotaxis earlier this month.
But his timeline, and much of the other details about the service, should be taken with huge helpings of salt. Competitors that have been testing self-driving taxis for awhile couldn't pull off what Musk is suggesting in the same timeframe. Read more...
For better or worse — okay, probably worse — you're not up-to-speed on US pop culture unless you keep up with "SNL" and the MCU. This spec script dances on the line between loving homage and cutting parody for both.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks won their first playoff series victory since 2001 last night, thanks in part to plays like this from the Greek Freak.
Trust & Will has made it easy to literally create an entire estate plan over a glass of wine on your couch. You can do it after you watch GOT on your couch, and they will even mail you the documents for free.
The man in the bunny suit, real name Antoine Edwards, told Orlando authorities and media that he broke up a scrap between a man and a woman — and then laid into the man.
A glimpse into the morning after the disaster — illustrated with photos of life in Pripyat before the accident — as civic leaders and others begin to realize the gravity of the situation.
In the '90s, John F. Kennedy Jr. founded and edited a revolutionary magazine called George, which covered politics like it was pop culture. Was it folly — or a glimpse of the Trumpian future?
The latest entry in one of our favorite genres of internet video: guys blowing stuff up with tannerite and not thinking through the potential ramifications.
As a teen, he was brutally bullied for his autism. He couldn't connect with people, couldn't find a job, even the army didn't want him. That's when he snapped, mowing down 26 people in broad daylight. The untold story of Alek Minassian, a year after the deadliest mass murder in Toronto history.
We've all seen his profile: he likes "The Office." He's in town for a few days and would like someone to show him around. Oh, and follow him on his IG.
As much as you love Spotify, it can be annoying to carry around your smartphone just to enjoy it — this Mighty Vibe Spotify Offline Player lets you listen in without a smartphone or Wi-Fi connection. It has a 1,000+ song storage, is ultra-durable and supports most wired and Bluetooth headphones.
Rescue and repair efforts are underway after a 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit the island of Luzon near Manila in the Philippines. At least five people were reportedly killed in the earthquake.
The mission was to clandestinely make his way into French Sudan, locate the ostriches, and secure a flock for South Africa, before the Americans or local French officials, who had tried and failed to develop their own ostrich farms in Algeria, caught on.
Trust & Will has helped thousands with a design-first approach to the archaic estate planning industry. It's insane that in 2019 people pay a lawyer to create an estate plan when it only takes 15 minutes online.
It was always a quipfest, and it always had great CG. But between 2008 and 2019 both of those aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe got a lot more... super?
We are in the midst of a student-debt crisis: cumulatively, nearly 45 million people owe $1.5 trillion in student loans. If nothing changes, the problem will only get worse. Those living with debt say they struggle on a daily basis with paying bills, getting approved for apartments and simply breathing.
The US is threatening to veto a United Nations resolution on combatting the use of rape as a weapon of war because of its language on reproductive and sexual health. This is the latest example of the Trump administration's hardline abortion stance.
The behemoth retailer wants to come for your closet like it came for the bookstore. But rather than dazzle you with designs, the site is catering to your most basic desires.
Unsurprisingly, the FTC isn't actively monitoring individual influencers. And the short life of stories on Instagram and Snapchat means it's even easier for covert #ads to simply disappear.
With nearly all ballots counted in the run-off vote, Volodymyr Zelensky had taken more than 73% with incumbent Petro Poroshenko trailing far behind on 24%.
Tesla has "dispatched a team" to investigate after a video appeared on social media showing a Tesla Model S smoking and then exploding into flames in China.
According to a statistical study of passwords that have been publicized in various data breaches, "blink182″ is among the most commonly used passwords, and thus most easily guessed by hackers.
The most loyal squire in Westeros talks about Season Eight, his touching song in Episode Two, and why his sexually gifted character became so beloved by fans.
* Research and procurement increases by $22 billion: cost office * Six decades of operations and support grows by $73 billion
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 jet, the world's costliest weapons program, just got even costlier.
The estimated total price for research and procurement has increased by $22 billion in current dollars adjusted for inflation, according to the Pentagon's latest annual cost assessment of major projects. The estimate for operating and supporting the fleet of fighters over more than six decades grew by almost $73 billion to $1.196 trillion.
The increase to $428.4 billion from $406.2 billion in acquisition costs, about a 5.5 percent increase, isn't due to poor performance, delays or excessive costs for labor or materials, according to the Defense Department's latest Selected Acquisition Report sent to Congress last week and obtained by Bloomberg News.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump look on during the extended bilateral meeting in the Metropole hotel during the second North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 28, 2019.
SEOUL — North Korea has directed a wave of criticism at top White House officials, as talks with the United States have stalled. But one person Pyongyang hasn't criticized: Donald Trump.
The pattern reflects North Korea's apparent preference to continue negotiating directly with Trump, who has taken a more conciliatory approach to the nuclear talks than many of his deputies.
It also appears to be a carefully calibrated effort by North Korea to increase negotiating pressure on the U.S. without completely derailing the talks.
"They're good at drawing the line," says David Kim, who specializes in East Asia security policy at the Washington-based Stimson Center. "As long as they don't bash Trump, we'll be OK."
North Korea has bashed plenty of other U.S. officials in recent weeks.
A combination of file photos shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending a wreath laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam March 2, 2019 and Russia's President Vladimir Putin looking on during a joint news conference with South African President Jacob Zuma after their meeting at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Krasnodar region, Russia, May 16, 2013. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/Pool/Maxim Shipenkov/Pool
On the neighbouring mound to Mansu hill, where giant statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il look out over North Korea's capital, stands the Liberation Tower.
The star-topped stone obelisk has a bronze Soviet Union flag at its base and and a panel showing Soviet and Korean troops going into battle together against the Japanese.
The ties between Pyongyang and Moscow, once its most important ally, go back decades. And after years of abeyance, current leader Kim Jong Un -- the son and grandson of the chiefs immortalised on Mansu hill -- is looking to revive links with nuclear negotiations with Washington deadlocked and as he seeks a counterbalance to China.
Kim is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok this week, reportedly on Wednesday and Thursday.
The UN said last month 100 civilians were either killed or wounded every week in Yemen in 2018, with children accounting for a fifth of all casualties [File: Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu]
A database tracking violence in Yemen says more than 10,000 people were killed in the last five months alone.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in Yemen's civil war since January 2016, according to a database tracking violence in the country.
The figure, released by the Armed Conflict and Location Event Data Project (ACLED) on Thursday, included 10,000 people who were killed in the past five months alone.
"Lethal fighting continues across the country and has intensified in key governorates like Taiz and Hajjah," the group said in a statement. But overall fatalities have trended downward this year because of a United Nations-backed peace process, it added.
Former CIA director and now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has long accused WikiLeaks of being a "non-state hostile intelligence agency", usually manipulated by Russia. Since Pompeo first made this claim as CIA Director in April 2017, countless major US news sources from NPR to CNN to the Washington Post have uncritically repeated the line, smearing Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as "Russian agents," and more broadly using the narrative to stifle independent journalism and government whistleblowers.
A gas flare on an oil production platform in the Soroush oil fields is seen alongside an Iranian flag in the Gulf July 25, 2005. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi/File Photo
Iran says because US sanctions are 'principally illegal ... it does not attach any value' to the sanctions waivers.
Iran denounced US sanctions on its oil sector as "illegal" on Monday after the United States announced it will no longer grant sanctions exemptions to Iran's oil customers.
"Since the sanctions in question are principally illegal, the Islamic Republic of Iran did not and does not attach any value or credibility to the waivers given to the sanctions," the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement issued on its official website.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday demanded that all buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May 1 or face sanctions, a move to choke off Tehran's oil revenues which sent crude prices to six-month highs on fears of a potential supply crunch.
The Trump administration's move on Monday not to renew exemptions granted last year to major buyers of Iranian oil was a more stringent outcome than some nations had expected. Several importers had hoped to continue buying Iranian oil without facing U.S. sanctions, according to sources familiar with discussions between the United States and other nations as late as last week.
As many challenges await as for leader he played on TV but with no certainty of a happy ending
After a campaign of stunts, japes and viral videos, things now get serious for Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The 41-year-old actor and comedian won an overwhelming victory in Ukraine's presidential election on Sunday. By Monday lunchtime, with almost all the ballots counted, he had garnered 73.2% of the vote, compared with 24.5% for the incumbent, Petro Poroshenko. Zelenskiy will take over after his inauguration in early June.
Once in office, he will face just as many challenges as the fictional Ukrainian president he played in the television comedy Servant of the People, and this time without a team of scriptwriters to make sure he comes out on top in the end.
* Russia said new president had a chance of forging better relations with Moscow * Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev talked of ' improving cooperation' * Comedian Zelenskiy trounced incumbent Petro Poroshenko, exit polls showed * Poroshenko lost to the 41-year-old TV star across all regions of the country * The incumbent conceded defeat on Sunday and said he had been defeated * Zelenskiy's unorthodox campaign made up of Instagram posts and comedy gigs
Moscow sees the victory of Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelensky in yesterday's presidential election as a chance to forge a closer relationship with its rival neighbour.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the two countries have a chance to improve ties under the leadership of Zelensky, who triumphed over President Petro Poroshenko in a landslide victory.
In the first reaction by a senior Russian official since Sunday's win for the comedian-turned politician with no previous experience, Medvedev said 'there is a chance for improving cooperation with our country'.
WNU Editor: The Kremlin/Russian reaction on the election of Volodymyr Zelensky for President can be summed up like this .... he can't be worse than President Poroshenko. As to what is my reaction. I am relieved.
More News On The Kremlin's Reaction To The Election Of Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky As President
KIEV, Ukraine — The comedian Volodymyr Zelensky won a landslide victory in Ukraine's presidential election, according to official results with nearly all of the votes counted, making a comic actor with no experience in government or the military the commander in chief of a country that has been at war with Russian proxies for over five years.
With more than 95 percent of ballots cast on Sunday counted, Mr. Zelensky had won 73.17 percent of the vote, compared with just 24.5 percent for Petro O. Poroshenko, Ukraine's incumbent president. Mr. Zelensky triumphed in every region, except for the area around the city of Lviv, a center of Ukrainian culture and nationalism in the west of the country.
Ukraine's central election commission said that final official results might not be ready until April 30 because of the upcoming Orthodox Easter holidays.
Mr. Zelensky's victory will give Ukraine its first Jewish leader and deliver a stinging rebuke to a political and business establishment represented by Mr. Poroshenko, a billionaire candy tycoon who campaigned on the nationalist slogan "Army, language, faith."
COLOMBO (Reuters) - With its capital under curfew following devastating Easter Sunday bomb attacks on churches and upmarket hotels, Sri Lanka is filled with fear, horror and grief and tourists who have been flocking to the Indian Ocean island could cancel in droves.
A tweet posted on the travel booking website First Choice captured the trepidation among holidaymakers, while some airlines and travel agents said they would waive cancellation charges for people scheduled to travel imminently.
"What are you doing about the holidays you have booked to that country?" tourist Judith Ann Clayton asked on the social media site.
"Clearly it is unsafe for anyone to go there."
Others set to travel said they would not to be cowed into cancelling.
* Zahran Hashim named as suicide bomber in unconfirmed local media reports * Authorities believe National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) was behind Sri Lanka attack * Its secretary Abdul Razik was previously arrested for inciting religious unrest * Group known for little more than being linked to vandalising Buddhist statues
This is the face of the mastermind behind the Sri Lanka terrorist attacks on Easter Sunday, unconfirmed reports in local media have claimed.
Zahran Hashim, a radical Islamic cleric known for posting incendiary videos on YouTube, was allegedly one of the suicide bombers who targeted the Shangri La hotel in Colombo.
Earlier indicators suggest those behind the devastating blasts which killed 290 people and wounded around 500 more were inspired by ISIS, a US official told CNN.
More than 20 suspects arrested as death toll from Easter Sunday bombings rises to 290.
The Sri Lankan authorities received warnings two weeks before the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks that killed at least 290 people, a cabinet spokesman admitted on Monday.
"Fourteen days before these incidents occurred, we had been informed about these incidents," Rajitha Senaratne told a press conference in the capital, Colombo, a day after the bombings, which also injured at least 500 people.
Senaratne, Sri Lanka's health minister, also said the names of some of the suspects had been given to authorities earlier this month.
* At least 207 people were killed and 450 wounded after eight explosions rocked hotels and churches * The blasts, mostly around Colombo, have killed at least 35 foreigners including Britons and Americans * Three British nationals, and two holding dual UK-US nationality, are among the dead, Sri Lankan officials said * This evening it was reported a further explosive was found and disposed of at the country's main airport * Seven suspects have been arrested after Sri Lanka's worst violence since the end of its civil war in 2009 * A curfew has now been imposed in the country and a social media ban is in force to stop false information * Eight separate explosions occurred - an initial six in three churches and hotels, followed by a further two later * One hotel manager said a suicide bomber had queued for a breakfast buffet before blowing himself up today * A warning was issued about a possible Islamist attack on churches last week, but no-one has claimed attack
A bomb was found and safely destroyed at Sri Lanka's main airport this evening just hours after co-ordinated attacks killed 207 people in explosions at churches and five-star hotels on Easter Sunday.
Eight blasts ripped through landmarks around the capital Colombo, and on Sri Lanka's east coast, targeting Christians, hotel guests and foreign tourists.
More than 450 people were wounded and five British citizens were among the dead.
A a six-foot pipe bomb was later found by air force personal on a routine patrol at the country's main airport Bandaranaike International, also known as Katunayake Airport or Colombo International.
CHINA is flexing its increasingly well-developed military muscles with a spectacular naval display featuring the country's brand new warships and submarines.
BALI has been rocked by a volcano eruption from the active Mount Agung, spewing a massive ash plume two kilometres into the sky. Is it safe to travel to Bali? Here are the latest warnings and alerts near Mount Agung.
A HEARTBROKEN father spoke last night of instantly losing his entire family in the Sri Lankan terror attacks as they sat down together for breakfast. Ben Nicholson confirmed that wife Anita, 42, son Alex, 14, and daughter Annabel, 11, were among at least 291 people killed in co-ordinated suicide bombings by a radical Islamist group in churches and hotels on Easter Sunday.
CCTV FOOTAGE has emerged of the moment a suspected suicide bomber entered St Sebastian's church in Sri Lanka, moments before a deadly explosion in a series of attacks on Easter Sunday.
EUROPEAN Commission presidential candidate Manfred Weber will launch an EU FBI in a bid to fight terrorism and bolster the bloc's security if he wins the role.
OPINION polls have suggested Spain could be on course for political deadlock after the April 28 election, with neither of the alliances of left or right wing parties likely to be able to build a parliamentary majority.
EGYPTIAN Pharaohs' theory on the afterlife and how the soul can live on forever has been revealed thanks to a stunning discovery made in the ancient capital, a documentary has shown.
(LONDON) — The Northern Ireland Police Service says they have arrested a woman under the Terrorism Act in the slaying of journalist Lyra McKee.
The 57-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday under the terrorism act.
An Irish Republican Army splinter group earlier admitted that one of its “volunteers” killed McKee, who was shot dead while reporting on rioting in Londonderry.
In a statement issued Tuesday to the Irish News, the New IRA offered “full and sincere” apologies to McKee’s family and friends.
The group said the 29-year-old journalist was killed during Thursday night’s unrest “while standing beside enemy forces” — a reference to the police.
The IRA and most other militant groups have disarmed since Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord. The New IRA has been formed from splinter groups opposed to the peace process.
(NEW DELHI) — Indians are voting Tuesday in the third phase of the general elections with campaigning by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party and the opposition marred by bitter accusations and acrimony.
People lined up outside voting station at several places even before the polling started at 7 a.m.
The voting for 117 parliamentary seats in 13 states and two Union Territories on Tuesday means polls are half done for 543 seats in the lower house of Parliament. The voting over seven phases ends May 19, with counting scheduled for May 23.
The election is seen as a referendum on Modi’s five-year rule. He has adopted a nationalist pitch trying to win the majority Hindu votes by projecting a tough stance against Islamic neighbor Pakistan.
The opposition is challenging him for a high unemployment rate of 6.1% and farmers’ distress aggravated by low crop prices.
Modi is scheduled to vote on Tuesday in his western home state of Gujarat, though he is contesting for a parliamentary seat from Varanasi, a city in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
The voting also is taking place in Wayanad constituency in southern Kerala state, one of the two seats from where opposition Congress party president, Rahul Gandhi, is contesting. His home bastion, Amethi, in Uttar Pradesh state will have polling on May 6. He will give up one seat if he wins from both places.
The voting is staggered to facilitate movement of security forces to oversee an orderly election and avoid vote fraud.
India’s autonomous Election Commission intervened last week to block hate speeches by imposing a temporary ban on campaigning by some top politicians across political parties.
Uttar Pradesh state chief minister Yogi Adityanath of Modi’s BJP was barred from campaigning, in the form of public meetings, road shows or media interviews, for three days for making anti-Muslim speeches. He said a Hindu god will ensure the BJP victory in elections, while the opposition was betting on Muslim votes.
Mayawati, a leader of Bahujan Samaj Party, was punished for 48 hours for appealing to Muslims to vote only for her party. India’s top court ordered strict action against politicians for religion and caste-based remarks.
Hindus comprise 80% and Muslims 16% of India’s 1.3 billion people. The opposition accuses the BJP of trying to polarize the Hindu votes in its favor.
Meenakshi Lekhi, a BJP leader, filed a contempt of court petition against Rahul Gandhi in the Supreme Court for misrepresenting a court order while accusing Modi of corruption in a deal to buy 36 French Rafale fighter aircraft. Modi denies the charge.
Modi has used Kashmir to pivot away from his economic record, playing up the threat of rival Pakistan, especially after the suicide bombing of a paramilitary convoy on Feb. 14 that killed 40 soldiers, in a bid to appear a strong, uncompromising leader on national security. The bombing brought nuclear rivals India and Pakistan close to the brink of war.
Opposition parties have consistently said that Modi and his party leaders are digressing from the main issues such as youth employment and farmers’ suicides.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety. Rebels have been fighting Indian control since 1989. Most Kashmiris support the rebels’ demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control.
(PORAC, Philippines) — Rescuers found more bodies overnight in the rubble of a supermarket that crashed down in a powerful earthquake that damaged buildings and an airport in the northern Philippines, raising the death toll to 11, officials said Tuesday.
The bodies of four victims were pulled from Chuzon Supermarket and three other villagers died due to collapsed house walls, said Mayor Condralito dela Cruz of Porac town in Pampanga province, north of Manila.
An Associated Press photographer saw seven people, including at least one dead, being pulled out by rescuers from the pile of concrete, twisted metal and wood overnight. Red Cross volunteers, army troops, police and villagers used four cranes, crow bars and sniffer dogs to look for the missing, some of whom were still yelling for help Monday night.
Authorities inserted a large orange tube into the rubble to blow in oxygen in the hope of helping people still pinned there to breathe. On Tuesday morning, rescuers pulled out a man alive, sparking cheers and applause.
“We’re all very happy, many clapped their hands in relief because we’re still finding survivors after several hours,” Porac Councilor Maynard Lapid told The Associated Press by telephone from the scene, adding another victim was expected to be pulled out alive soon.
Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda said at least 10 people died in her province, including those who perished in hard-hit Porac town. The 6.1-magnitude quake damaged many houses, concrete roads, bridges, Roman Catholic churches and an international airport terminal at Clark Freeport, a former American air base, in Pampanga. Another child died in nearby Zambales province, officials said.
At least 24 people remained missing in the rice-growing agricultural region, mostly in the rubble of the collapsed supermarket in Porac, while 81 others were injured, according to the government’s disaster-response agency.
The four-story building housing the supermarket crashed down when the quake shook Pampanga as well as several other provinces and the capital, Manila, on the main northern island of Luzon. The quake was caused by movement in a local fault at a depth of 12 kilometers (8 miles) near the northwestern town of Castillejos in Zambales province, said Renato Solidum, who heads the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
More than 400 aftershocks have been recorded, mostly unfelt.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s preliminary estimate is that more than 49 million people were exposed to some shaking from the earthquake, with more than 14 million people likely to feel moderate shaking or more.
Clark airport was closed temporarily because of damaged check-in counters, ceilings and parts of the departure area, airport official Jaime Melo said, adding that seven people were slightly injured and more than 100 flights were canceled.
In Manila, thousands of office workers dashed out of buildings in panic, some wearing hard hats, and residents ran out of houses as the ground shook. Many described the ground movement like sea waves.
One of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, the Philippines has frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because it lies on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a seismically active arc of volcanos and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.
A magnitude 7.7 quake killed nearly 2,000 people in the northern Philippines in 1990.
(NAYPYITAW, Myanmar) — Myanmar’s Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the final appeal of two Reuters journalists and upheld seven-year prison sentences for their reporting on the military’s brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo earlier this month shared with their colleagues the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, one of journalism’s highest honors.
The court did not given a reason for its decision. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who are being held in a prison in Yangon, were not present for the ruling, but their wives were. Kyaw Soe Oo’s wife broke down in tears when the ruling was read.
The reporters were arrested in December 2017 and sentenced last September after being accused of illegally possessing official documents, a violation of a colonial-era law.
They denied the allegation and contended they were framed by police. International rights groups, media freedom organizations, U.N experts and several governments have condemned their conviction as an injustice and an attack on freedom of the press.
“Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo did not commit any crime, nor was there any proof that they did,” Gail Gove, Reuters chief counsel, said in a statement after the ruling. “Instead, they were victims of a police setup to silence their truthful reporting. We will continue to do all we can to free them as soon as possible.”
Their appeal in January to a lower court was rejected on the ground that the lawyers for Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, failed to submit enough evidence to prove they were innocent.
Khin Maung Zaw, a lawyer for the two, had said the latest appeal argued that lower court rulings involved errors in judicial procedure.
The Myanmar army’s brutal counterinsurgency campaign in the western state of Rakhine in response to attacks on security personnel in 2017 drove 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee to Bangladesh.
Reporting on the crackdown is sensitive in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar because of worldwide condemnation of the military’s human rights abuses, which it denies.
The two reporters had worked on an investigation of the killing of 10 Rohingya villagers in Inn Din village, for which the government last year said seven soldiers were sentenced to up 10 years in prison with hard labor.
Investigators working for the U.N.’s top human rights body said last year that genocide charges should be brought against senior Myanmar military officers, while other critics accused the army of ethnic cleansing.
Contributor—AFP/Getty ImagesSupporters of detained Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo march during a rally in Yangon, Myanmar demanding their release on Sept. 1, 2018.
(PIJIJIAPAN, Mexico) — Mexican police and immigration agents detained hundreds of Central American migrants Monday in the largest single raid on a migrant caravan since the groups started moving through the country last year.
Police targeted isolated groups at the tail end of a caravan of about 3,000 migrants who were making their way through the southern state of Chiapas with hopes of reaching the U.S. border.
As migrants gathered under spots of shade in the burning heat outside the city of Pijijiapan, federal police and agents passed by in patrol trucks and vans and forcibly wrestled women, men and children into the vehicles.
The migrants were driven to buses, presumably for subsequent transportation to an immigration station for deportation processing. As many as 500 migrants might have been picked up in the raid, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene.
Some of the women and children wailed and screamed during the detentions on the roadside. Clothes, shoes, suitcases and strollers littered the scene after they were taken away.
Kevin Escobar, a 27-year-old from Honduras, was one of about 500 migrants who fled onto private property to avoid immigration agents. Sitting on the property, he yelled to them: “Why do you want to arrest me?”
Escobar vowed that he will never return to his hometown of San Pedro Sula, saying “the gangs are kidnapping everyone back there.”
Agents had encouraged groups of migrants that separated from the bulk of the caravan to rest after some seven hours on the road, including about half of that under a broiling sun. When the migrants regrouped to continue, they were detained.
Agents positioned themselves at the head of the group and at the back. Some people in civilian clothing appeared to be participating in the detentions.
After seeing what happened, some migrants began walking in dense groupings and picked up stones and sticks.
Officials from the National Human Rights Commission observed the action from a distance.
“We are documenting what is happening,” said Jesús Salvador Quintana, a commission official. “We cannot tell authorities in charge what to do, but yes, we are documenting and we will investigate.”
Mexico welcomed the first caravans last year, but the reception has gotten colder since tens of thousands of migrants overwhelmed U.S. border crossings, causing delays at the border and anger among Mexican residents.
Last Friday, local media reported a series of detentions of migrants in nearby Mapastepec, where thousands were awaiting normalization of their migratory status.
Mexico’s National Migration Institute did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The National Human Rights Commission said it had interviewed more than 200 people who were detained in Mapastepec and transferred to an immigration center in Tapachula, across the border from Guatemala.
The detentions came as the U.S. has ramped up public pressure on Mexico to do more to stop the flow of migrants. President Donald Trump railed against the government of his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and threatened to shut the entire border down, but then quickly congratulated Mexico for migrant arrests just a few weeks ago.
Mexico already allows the United States to return some asylum seekers to Mexico as their cases play out. And government officials said in March they would try to contain migrants heading north at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the narrowest part of the country’s south and easiest to control. Pijijiapan and Mapastepec are not far from the isthmus’ narrowest point, which comes in neighboring Oaxaca state.
In recent months Mexican authorities have deported thousands of migrants, while also issuing more than 15,000 humanitarian visas allowing migrants to remain in the country and work.
A group of about 10 prominent social organizations recently warned that detentions of migrants and violations of their human rights have risen, blaming immigration agents and federal, state and local police. The groups also said the increased detentions have overwhelmed capacity at the immigration center in Tapachula. The National Human Rights Commission also said the facility is overcrowded.
In its most recent statement from last week, the Migration Institute said 5,336 migrants were in shelters or immigration centers in Chiapas, and over 1,500 of them were “awaiting deportation.”
The Rights Commission said Sunday that more than 7,500 migrants were in detention, at shelters or on the road in the southern state. It urged authorities to carry out a proper census of the migrants and attend to their needs, particularly children.
Most of the migrants who have arrived in groups to southern Mexico in recent weeks originated in Honduras. There they joined previous groups of migrants from other Central American countries along with some Cubans and Africans.
(COLOMBO, Sri Lanka) — Sri Lanka’s president gave the military sweeping police powers starting Tuesday in the wake of the Easter bombings that killed nearly 300 people, while officials disclosed that intelligence agencies had warned weeks ago of the possibility of an attack by the radical Muslim group blamed for the bloodshed.
The suicide bombings struck three churches and three luxury hotels Sunday in the island nation’s deadliest violence since a devastating civil war ended in 2009. The government shut down some social media, armed security forces patrolled the largely deserted, central streets in the capital of Colombo, and a curfew went into effect.
The military was given a wider berth to detain and arrest suspects — powers that were used during the civil war but withdrawn when it ended.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared the massacre could unleash instability and he vowed to “vest all necessary powers with the defense forces” to act against those responsible.
Adding to the tension, three unexploded bombs blew up Monday inside a van parked near one of the stricken churches as police were trying to defuse them, sending pedestrians fleeing in panic. No injuries were reported. Dozens of detonators were discovered near Colombo’s main bus depot, but officials declined to say whether they were linked to the attacks.
The government blocked access to Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram after the blasts, creating confusion and doing little to reassure residents and visitors that the danger had passed.
A nationwide state of emergency was scheduled to begin at midnight Monday (0630 GMT; 2:30 p.m. EDT) the president’s office said, following the attacks that killed at least 290 people, with more than 500 wounded, according to police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara. The three stricken hotels and one of the churches, St. Anthony’s Shrine, are frequented by tourists, and dozens of foreigners were among the dead.
Tourism Minister John Amaratunga said 39 foreigners were killed, although the foreign ministry put out a different figure, saying the number of dead was 31.
The U.S. State Department confirmed that at least four Americans were among the dead and several others were seriously wounded, but it did not release any identities. The Sri Lankan government said other foreigners killed were from the U.K., Bangladesh, China, India, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey and Australia.
A national day of mourning was declared for Tuesday.
International intelligence agencies had warned that the little-known group, National Thowfeek Jamaath, was planning attacks, but word apparently didn’t reach the prime minister’s office until after the massacre, exposing the continuing political turmoil in the highest levels of the Sri Lankan government.
Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said the intelligence agencies began issuing the warnings on April 4; the defense ministry wrote to the police chief with information that included the group’s name; and police wrote April 11 to the heads of security of the judiciary and diplomatic security division.
President Maithripala Sirisena, who was out of the country Sunday, had ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in October and dissolved the Cabinet. The Supreme Court later reversed his actions, but the prime minister has not been allowed into meetings of the Security Council since October, which meant he and his government were in the dark about the intelligence.
It was not immediately clear what action, if any, was taken after the threats. Authorities said they knew where the group trained and had safe houses, but did not identify any of the suicide bombers, whose bodies were recovered, or the two dozen other suspects taken into custody.
All the bombers were Sri Lankans, but authorities said they strongly suspected foreign links, Senaratne said.
Also unclear was a motive. The history of Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka, a country of 21 million including large Hindu, Muslim and Christian minorities, is rife with ethnic and sectarian conflict.
In the civil war, the Tamil Tigers, a powerful rebel army known for using suicide bombers, was crushed by the government and had little history of targeting Christians. While anti-Muslim bigotry fed by Buddhist nationalists has swept the country recently, there is no history of Islamic militancy. Its small Christian community has seen only scattered incidents of harassment.
Two other government ministers also alluded to advance knowledge. Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando tweeted: “Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. Serious action needs to be taken as to why this warning was ignored.” He said his father had heard of a possible attack as well and had warned him not to enter popular churches.
Mano Ganeshan, the minister for national integration, said his security officers had been warned by their division about the possibility that two suicide bombers would target politicians.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, said the attacks could have been thwarted.
“We placed our hands on our heads when we came to know that these deaths could have been avoided. Why this was not prevented?” he said.
The coordinated blasts took place in the morning at St. Anthony’s and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels in Colombo, as well as the two churches outside Colombo. They collapsed ceilings and blew out windows, killing worshippers and hotel guests, and leaving behind scenes of smoke, soot, blood, broken glass, screams and wailing alarms.
A few hours later, two more blasts occurred just outside Colombo, one at a guesthouse where two people were killed, the other near an overpass, said Brig. Sumith Atapattu, a military spokesman.
Also, three police officers were killed while searching a suspected safe house on the outskirts of Colombo when its occupants apparently detonated explosives to prevent arrest, authorities said.
A pipe bomb with 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of explosives was found and defused late Sunday on a road to the international airport, said air force Group Capt. Gihan Seneviratne. It was powerful enough to have caused damage in a 400-meter (400-yard) radius, he said.
A morgue worker in Negombo, outside Colombo, where St. Sebastian’s Church was targeted, said many bodies were hard to identify because of the blasts. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Nilantha Lakmal, a 41-year-old businessman who took his family to St. Sebastian’s for Mass, said they all escaped unharmed, but he remained haunted by images of bodies being taken from the sanctuary.
At the Shangri-La Hotel, one witness said “people were being dragged out” after the blast.
“There was blood everywhere,” said Bhanuka Harischandra, 24, of Colombo, a founder of a tech marketing company who was going to the hotel for a meeting. “People didn’t know what was going on. It was panic mode.”
The scale of the violence recalled the worst days of the civil war, when the Tamil Tigers, from the ethnic Tamil minority, sought independence from the Sinhalese-dominated country. The Sinhalese are largely Buddhist. The Tamils are Hindu, Muslim and Christian. Sri Lanka, off the southern tip of India, is about 70% Buddhist. In recent years, tensions have soared between hard-line Buddhist monks and Muslims.
Two Muslim groups in Sri Lanka condemned the church attacks, and Pope Francis expressed condolences at the end of his traditional Easter blessing in Rome. The United Nations’ most powerful body, the Security Council, also denounced the “heinous and cowardly terrorist attacks.”
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in Washington that he spoke to the prime minister and offered assistance. Later, the FBI said it was helping with the investigation.
“This is America’s fight, too,” he said. “We also stand with millions of Sri Lankans who support the freedom of their fellow citizens to worship as they please. We take confidence in knowing that not even atrocities like this one will deter them from respecting religious freedom.”
Among the hundreds of people killed in the explosions that rocked Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday were a Danish billionaire’s three children and a fifth-grade boy who studied at the same U.S. school that former President Barack Obama’s daughters attended.
At least 290 people died and 500 others were injured when multiple bombs exploded in churches and hotels in and around Colombo, the capital of the South Asian island country, officials said. The terrorist attack, believed to be carried out by an Islamist militant group, was the deadliest violence to hit Sri Lanka since the civil war ended a decade ago, according to the Associated Press.
At least four Americans were among the dead, a State Department spokesperson told TIME on Monday. Officials have identified about 30 other victims who hailed from other nations, including India, China and Denmark, according to the AP.
These are some of the victims of the attacks:
Kieran Shafritz de Zoysa
Kieran Shafritz de Zoysa, a fifth-grade boy who loved learning, was killed in the Sri Lanka bombings, according to the New York Times and the Washington Post. He was a student at Sidwell Friends—an elite private school in Washington D.C.—but was on a leave of absence and living in Sri Lanka, the news outlets reported, citing a letter the school sent to parents.
“Kieran was passionate about learning, he adored his friends and he was incredibly excited about returning to Sidwell Friends,” the letter said, according to the Times. “We are beyond sorry not to get the opportunity to welcome Kieran to the Middle School.”
Malia and Sasha Obama both graduated from Sidwell.
Dieter Kowalski
Dieter Kowalski, a 40-year-old Wisconsin native, was in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for a work trip when he was killed in one of the explosions, according to his family and his employer.
Kowalski’s mother, Inge Kowalski, told the Times her son was excited to arrive in Sri Lanka, where he was “looking forward to the food.” “He was a happy guy,” she said. “We are all in shock.”
Kowalski—who was a senior leader for the education publishing company, Pearson—died moments after arriving at his hotel, Pearson CEO John Fallon said in a statement.
Fallon described Kowalski as a positive team player who was happy to jump in and solve problems within the company.
“Colleagues who knew Dieter well talk about how much fun he was to be around, how big-hearted and full-spirited he was,” Fallon said. “Dieter, they tell me, was never happier than cheerleading for our customers and our company and inspiring people in the best way he knew how – by helping them to fix things and doing it with joy, happiness and grace.”
Three children of Anders Holch Povlsen
Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen lost three children in the Sri Lanka bombings, according to multiple media reports. The children’s names and ages are still unclear.
Bestseller spokesman Jesper Stubkier confirmed the deaths in a statement to CNN but did not identify the three children. Povlsen and his wife reportedly have four children, according to Danish media reports.
Holch Povlsen is the owner of the Bestseller clothing company and the largest shareholder of the international fashion retailer ASOS, according to The Guardian.
Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter
Shantha Mayadunne, a local celebrity chef in Sri Lanka with her own television cooking show, and her daughter, Nisanga Mayadunne, were killed in the deadly bombings in Sri Lanka, according to the Guardian and CNN. The mother and daughter were reportedly at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo when a bomb went off.
Scientists have long predicted that warmer temperatures caused by climate change will have the biggest impact on the world’s poorest, most vulnerable people. New research now indicates that’s already happened over the last several decades.
A study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science found that in most poor countries, higher temperatures are more than 90% likely to have resulted in decreased economic output, compared to a world without global warming. Meanwhile, the effect has been less dramatic in wealthier nations—with some even potentially benefiting from higher temperatures.
“We’re not arguing that global warming created inequality,” says Noah S. Diffenbaugh, the author of the study and a professor at Stanford University who studies climate change. But “global warming has put a drag on improvement.” The countries most likely to have lost out economically as a result of warmer temperatures have done the least to contribute to the problem, he adds.
The new study builds on past research. A 2015 study in the journal Nature projected that the average income in the poorest countries will decline 75% by 2100 compared to a world without warming, while some of the richest countries could experience gains in income. And a landmark report released last fall from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN’s climate science body, showed that if global temperatures rise more than 1.5°C by the end of the century, poor countries will likely face critical challenges, including the destruction of entire communities and millions of premature deaths.
“They will suffer the most, they will suffer disproportionately, as they are already,” said Mary Robinson, a former U.N. Special Envoy on Climate Change and a previous president of Ireland, told TIME after the launch of the IPCC report.
Even before any of that research was published, climate policymakers have tried to address the problem of the poorest countries facing the worst effects of rising temperatures—for which they are least responsible. Early attempts at addressing global warming on the international stage included different expectations for emissions reduction based on each country’s level of development. Poorest countries received more leeway while the richest bore extra responsibility.
But in some ways, that approach backfired in the U.S., and by extension the rest of the world, as it helped feed the popular conservative narrative that Washington is overpaying for climate change mitigation, while poorer countries are getting away with doing less. That Republican talking point has had real effects. Hardline distinctions between requirements for rich and poor countries have been softened in recent years, in favor of a lighter version of what climate change policymakers refer to as “common but differentiated responsibilities.” That principle, embedded in climate agreements dating back to 1992, including the landmark Paris Agreement, suggests that richer countries should bear a greater burden in addressing climate change, but remains vague about what that means for concrete policy.
Many of the world’s developing countries have called foul. “This problem is created somewhere else,” Abdur Rouf Talukder, Bangladesh’s Finance Secretary, told TIME earlier this month. “We are spending more on adaptation because we have to live.”
Bangladesh’s GDP per capita was 12% lower due to global warming than it would have been otherwise in the two decades preceding 2010, according to the study published Monday. The effect is more dramatic elsewhere, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries including Sudan, Burkina Faso and Niger, where climate change has driven GDP per capita more than 20% lower that it would have been absent climate change.
Higher temperatures affect economic output in a variety of ways. For example, labor productivity decreases with extreme heat, crops produce lower yields and cognitive functioning declines. “There are a number of pathways by which temperature affects building blocks of economic activity,” says Diffenbaugh. What’s clear is that, for poor countries, the news is all bad.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering suspending or limiting U.S. entry for individuals from countries with high rates of short-term visa overstays.
That’s according to a memo signed Monday by President Donald Trump that directs his administration to examine ways to minimize overstays as part of a larger focus on immigration.
The memo directs the secretaries of state and homeland security to find effective ways to combat what the administration says is a rampant number of overstays. They are supposed to make recommendations within 120 days.
The nonpartisan Center for Migration Studies says that visa overstays exceed illegal border crossings.
(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea confirmed Tuesday that leader Kim Jong Un will soon visit Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin in a summit that comes at a crucial moment for tenuous diplomacy meant to rid the North of its nuclear arsenal.
North Korea has so far not gotten what it wants most from the recent flurry of high-level summitry between Kim and various world leaders — namely, relief from crushing international sanctions. There are fears that a recent North Korean weapon test and a series of jibes at Washington over deadlocked nuclear negotiations mean that Pyongyang may again return to the nuclear and long-range missile tests that had many in Asia fearing war in 2017.The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency released a terse, two-sentence statement saying Kim “will soon pay a visit to the Russian Federation,” and that he and Putin “will have talks.” A date for the meeting was not released, and it wasn’t clear if Kim would fly or take his armored train. There are some indications the meeting will be held this week in the far-eastern port of Vladivostok, not too far from Russia’s border with the North.
The Kremlin said in a brief statement last week that Kim will visit Russia “in the second half of April,” but gave no further details.
It’s not clear how — or even if — Putin will push the stalled nuclear talks along, and the visit may have more to do with each nation’s economic interests. Russia is interested in gaining broader access to North Korea’s mineral resources, including rare metals. Pyongyang, for its part, covets Russia’s electricity supplies and wants to attract Russian investment to modernize its dilapidated industrial plants, railways and other infrastructure.
Kim and President Donald Trump have had two summits, but the latest, in Vietnam in February, collapsed because North Korea wanted more sanctions relief than Washington was willing to give for the amount of disarmament offered by Pyongyang.
For a leader often perceived by foreign media as isolated, Kim has had a remarkable string of summits, meeting with the leaders and other senior officials of South Korea, China, Vietnam and Singapore. He has also sent his deputies to Washington and received Trump’s lieutenants in Pyongyang as part of nuclear talks.
But Kim’s patience appears to be wearing thin. The North last week announced that it had tested what it called a new type of “tactical guided weapon.” While unlikely to be a prohibited test of a medium- or long-range ballistic missile that could scuttle the negotiations, the announcement signaled the North’s growing disappointment with the diplomatic breakdown.
The North also demanded that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be removed from the talks, and on Saturday criticized White House national security adviser John Bolton for calling on North Korea to show more evidence of its disarmament commitment before a possible third leaders’ summit.
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A host of high-profile companies such as ACC, Bharat Seats, Coromandel International, Indiabulls Real Estate, Indiabulls Integrated Services, ICICI Se Source: BHT
Vodafone Idea has evinced interest in providing in-flight connectivity services, and is believed to have approached the Department of Telecommunicatio Source: BHT
The southern States and Maharashtra have much reason to be aggrieved with the formula for transferring of funds from the Centre's divisible pool of ta Source: BHT
e-Aadhaar download: Don't worry about losing your Aadhaar card! Follow these step-by-step guidelines This version of Aadhaar card is available online and can be accessed at all times. Also, individuals using the e-Aadhaar don't have to worry about losing their card as it is virtual and cannot be misplaced.
Essel Propack deal: Here's what Blackstone is getting for Rs 2,157 crore Blackstone will look to harness operational synergies from the deal, as it has a very strong global network in the consumer sector. We take a closer look.
ICICI Bank-Videocon loan case: ED summons Chanda Kochhar, husband Deepak Kochhar at Delhi The ED has summoned former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar next week here in connection with a money laundering case related to a bank loan fraud, officials said.
Mumbai local passengers cheer! Special arrangements being made for smooth run of trains during monsoon Maharashtra receives a huge amount of rainfall every monsoon. In order to avoid significant impact on railway traffic, the WR zone will be taking the following steps to ensure that passenger services for trains are not disrupted.
Sunny Deol joins BJP, says India needs a leader like Narendra Modi Sunny Deol, 62, had a brief meeting BJP president Amit Shah at Pune airport lounge last week triggering speculations that he was joining politics.
Petrol, diesel prices remain stable despite soaring global oil prices, thanks to Elections Despite the surge in global oil prices, state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) have kept the retail prices of petrol and diesel stable across major cities on Tuesday
