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Trump suggests Tesla vandals be jailed in El Salvador

Trump suggests Tesla vandals be jailed in El Salvador
Several Tesla dealerships around the country have been vandalized in recent weeks and the company’s stock price has plummeted over the past month. (Getty Images North America/AFP)
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Updated 21 March 2025
AFP
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Trump suggests Tesla vandals be jailed in El Salvador

Trump suggests Tesla vandals be jailed in El Salvador
  • ‘I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla’
  • ‘Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!’
Updated 21 March 2025
AFP
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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump suggested Friday that people who vandalize Tesla property – the car brand owned by his billionaire ally Elon Musk – could be deported to prisons in El Salvador.
“I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!” he added, referencing the Central American nation known for its harsh treatment of criminals.
Trump’s remarks mark a further consolidation of his administration’s support for key adviser Musk, who has divided Americans as an unelected tycoon who has led a ruthless cost-cutting drive at the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Several Tesla dealerships around the country have been vandalized in recent weeks and the company’s stock price has plummeted over the past month.
Attorney General Pam Bondi this week branded vandalism against property owned by Tesla as “domestic terrorism” in a public show of support for Musk.
On Thursday she announced that unspecified charges were being brought against three people accused of targeting Tesla cars, carrying between five and 20 years in prison.
The three defendants, who were not identified, “will face the full force of the law” for using Molotov cocktails to set fire to Tesla vehicles and charging stations in Oregon, Colorado and South Carolina, the Justice Department said.
Trump, in an unprecedented product endorsement by a sitting president, sought to boost Tesla sales earlier this month, briefly turning the White House into a showroom and announcing he was buying one of the electric cars.
His suggestion of jailing Tesla vandals in El Salvador is particularly pointed after US officials last weekend flew more than 200 alleged gang members to be jailed in the country.
The move caused uproar as it apparently defied a US court order halting the flights – though the Trump administration insists it was legal.

Topics: Trump Returns Donald Trump Tesla Elon Musk El Salvador

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Six killed in NY helicopter crash: mayor

Six killed in NY helicopter crash: mayor
Updated 17 sec ago
AFP
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Six killed in NY helicopter crash: mayor

Six killed in NY helicopter crash: mayor
Updated 17 sec ago
AFP

NEW YORK: Three adults and three children were killed when their helicopter crashed into New York’s Hudson River on Thursday, the city’s mayor said.
“At this time, all six victims have been removed from the water. And sadly, all six victims have been pronounced deceased,” he told a briefing.

US national intelligence head says MLK and RFK assassination records will soon be public

US national intelligence head says MLK and RFK assassination records will soon be public
Updated 35 min 30 sec ago
AP
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US national intelligence head says MLK and RFK assassination records will soon be public

US national intelligence head says MLK and RFK assassination records will soon be public
Updated 35 min 30 sec ago
AP

WASHINGTON: Documents related to the 1968 assassinations of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy will soon be made public as more than 100 people have been working “around the clock” to scan them, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said during a Cabinet meeting Thursday.
The documents had been in boxes in storage for decades, Gabbard said.
“I’ve had over 100 people working around the clock to scan the paper around Sen. Robert F Kennedy’s assassination, as well as Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination ... They have never been scanned or seen before,” she said. “We’ll have those ready to release here within the next few days.”
When Kennedy’s son, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who also was at the meeting, was asked by President Donald Trump about the impending release of the documents, he said, “I’m very grateful to you Mr. President.”
Trump asked Gabbard if the health secretary had any concerns about releasing the documents.
“His response is, ‘Put it out. The world needs to know the truth,’” Gabbard said.
Searches were also being done of storage lockers at the FBI, CIA and other agencies to see if other documents can be found, Gabbard said.
“We want to get it all out,” Trump said.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to questions seeking information about the effort to identify records about the MLK or RFK assassinations.
Trump had signed an executive order in January after taking office calling for the release of governmental documents related to the assassinations.
King and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated within two months of each other in 1968.
King was outside a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, when shots rang out. The civil rights leader, who had been in town to support striking sanitation workers, was set to lead marches and other nonviolent protests there.
James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating King. He later though renounced that plea and maintained his innocence up until his death.
Robert F. Kennedy, then a New York senator, was fatally shot on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after giving his victory speech for winning California’s Democratic presidential primary. His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving life in prison.
Earlier this week Gabbard announced the creation of a task force that will consider whether the government should declassify material about several other issues of public interest, including the origins of COVID-19, federal efforts to influence online speech and investigations into mysterious health symptoms reported by some US diplomats and government employees that were once dubbed ” Havana syndrome.” Gabbard’s office did not specify how the task force would be appointed or when it expects to submit its recommendations.

Topics: Martin Luther King Jr Robert F. Kennedy

China, North Korea and Russia military cooperation raises threats in the Pacific, US official warns

China, North Korea and Russia military cooperation raises threats in the Pacific, US official warns
Updated 37 min 48 sec ago
AP
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China, North Korea and Russia military cooperation raises threats in the Pacific, US official warns

China, North Korea and Russia military cooperation raises threats in the Pacific, US official warns
  • China is providing extensive assistance to Russia to help Moscow “rebuild its war machine”, US Indo-Pacific Command chief tells Senate military committee
  • Senator likewise warned that Trump's plan to shrink US troop presence in Korea and Japan will sow “seeds of doubt” about America’s stability and trustworthiness
Updated 37 min 48 sec ago
AP

WASHINGTON: The top US commander in the Pacific warned senators Thursday that the military support China and North Korea are giving Russia in its war on Ukraine is creating a security risk in his region as Moscow provides critical military assistance to both in return.
Admiral Samuel Paparo, head of US Indo-Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that China has provided 70 percent of the machine tools and 90 percent of the legacy chips to Russia to help Moscow “rebuild its war machine.”
In exchange, he said, China is potentially getting help in technologies to make its submarines move more quietly, along with other assistance.
Senators pressed Paparo and Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of US Forces Korea, on China’s advances in the region, including threats to Taiwan. And they also questioned both on the US military presence in South Korea, and whether it should be shielded from personnel cuts..
Both said the current US force there and across the Indo-Pacific is critical for both diplomacy in the region and America’s national security, as ties between Russia and China grow. The US has 28,500 forces in South Korea.
Paparo said North Korea is sending “thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of artillery shells” and hundreds of short-range missiles to Russia. The expectation, he said, is that Pyongyang will get air defense and surface-to-air missile support.
“It’s a transactional symbiosis where each state fulfills the other state’s weakness to mutual benefit of each state,” Paparo said.
In his opening comments, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican committee chairman, said the greater alignment of Russia, China and North Korea “should be of great concern to all in the West. This concern should then lead to action. If we are to maintain global peace and stability, we must continue taking steps now to rebuild our military and reestablish deterrence.”
Brunson said North Korea has shown the ability to send munitions and troops to Russia while advancing development of its own military capabilities, including hypersonics. Pyongyang, he said, “boasts a Russian-equipped, augmented, modernized military force of over 1.3 million personnel.”
North Korea’s efforts to develop advanced nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles ”pose a direct threat to our homeland and our allies,” Paparo added.
North Korea also has sent thousands of soldiers to fight with the Russians against Ukraine. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that Russia is actively recruiting Chinese citizens to fight alongside its forces in the Ukraine war. He said more than 150 such mercenaries are already active in the battle with Beijing’s knowledge.
China has called the accusation “irresponsible.”
In other comments, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the panel, said observers fear that President Donald Trump will “shrink the US troop presence in Korea and Japan, reduce our military exercises with both nations, and scale back plans for our Joint Force Headquarters in Japan.” Any such actions, he said, will sow “seeds of doubt” about America’s stability and trustworthiness.
He also questioned whether recent moves by the Pentagon to shift an aircraft carrier and Patriot missile battalion from the Pacific region to the Middle East have hurt military readiness in the Indo-Pacific command.
Paparo said he owes the defense chief and the president “constant vigilance” on that matter, including a persistent awareness on whether those forces could get back to the Pacific if there is suddenly a “higher priority threat” in his region.

Topics: US-China tensions Admiral Samuel Paparo

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Russia strikes kill at least two in Ukraine

Russia strikes kill at least two in Ukraine
Updated 11 April 2025
AFP
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Russia strikes kill at least two in Ukraine

Russia strikes kill at least two in Ukraine
  • Ukrainian officials said a Russian drone strike on a residential building in the city of Zhytomyr — west of Kyiv — killed one person, while a Russian missile attack on the central city of Dnipro killed another
Updated 11 April 2025
AFP

KYIV: Russian strikes killed at least two people in Ukraine on Thursday and wounded over two dozen, Kyiv said, as Moscow claimed to have captured another village in the northwestern Sumy region.
Ukrainian officials said a Russian drone strike on a residential building in the city of Zhytomyr — west of Kyiv — killed one person, while a Russian missile attack on the central city of Dnipro killed another.
The attacks came despite the US pushing for an end of the conflict and holding separate talks with both Moscow and Kyiv — and as US President Donald Trump this week said he was unhappy with Russia for “bombing like crazy.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had attacked Dnipro with a ballistic missile after a day of attacking several regions, saying it showed Russia “ignores diplomacy.”
Zelensky said in his evening address rescuers were still working at the site in Dnipro and that: “Unfortunately, one person was killed.”
The regional governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region Sergiy Lysak said the victim was a 42 year-old man and that eight people were also wounded in the attack.
Lysak also said shelling that lasted “all day” on the district of Nikopol, wounding 13 people. He published photographs of houses on fire.
Later on Thursday, the governor of the Zhytomyr region Vitaliy Bunechko said a drone strike on a “high rise building” killed one person.
“Five people are known to be wounded, including a child born in 2011,” Bunechko said, publishing a video of a residential building with a blackened wall and damaged balcony.
Zhytomyr lies some 140 kilometers (86 miles) west of Kyiv.
The attacks on Dnipro, Nikopol and Zhytomyr came after one dozen people were wounded in overnight Russian attacks on Kyiv and the southern Black Sea region of Mykolaiv.
AFP journalists in the capital heard air raid sirens and explosions ring out over the city during the attack.
“And all of this is happening almost a month after the United States proposed a complete ceasefire,” he said, adding that Russia “ignores diplomacy” and calling for a “tactic of pressure” on Moscow.
Kyiv air force said Thursday that Moscow launched 145 Iranian-made Shahed drones on Ukraine overnight, and that 85 of them were shot down by air defense.
Moscow said Kyiv had launched 42 drones into Russia at night, mostly on its border regions, but also on some regions near Moscow.
Russia also said it had captured another village in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy, where Moscow is advancing since pushing Ukrainian troops out of most of its western Kursk region.
In a statement on social media, Russia’s defense ministry said its troops had “liberated” the village of Zhuravka, just over the Ukrainian border.
The claimed Russian advances in Sumy point to the broader difficulties of the Ukrainian army that has steadily lost ground in Russia’s Kursk region after launching their surprise incursion last August.
Zelensky said Thursday that the Sumy region is “subject to constant attacks by guided aerial bombs.”
Ukraine’s most senior military official Oleksandr Syrsky warned earlier this week that Russian forces had launched an offensive in Sumy and the neighboring region of Kharkiv.
Moscow and Kyiv have stepped up their aerial attacks despite recent attempts by the United States to bring both sides to talks to secure a halt to more than three years of fighting.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Britain’s Prince Harry meets war victims in unannounced visit to Ukraine

Britain’s Prince Harry meets war victims in unannounced visit to Ukraine

Britain’s Prince Harry meets war victims in unannounced visit to Ukraine
Updated 10 April 2025
AP
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Britain’s Prince Harry meets war victims in unannounced visit to Ukraine

Britain’s Prince Harry meets war victims in unannounced visit to Ukraine
  • Prince Harry visited an orthopedic clinic in Lviv that treats and rehabilitates wounded military personnel and civilians
  • He served 10 years in the British Army and made helping injured soldiers one of his most prominent causes
Updated 10 April 2025
AP

LONDON: Prince Harry met with war victims on Thursday in an unannounced visit to Ukraine as part of his ongoing work with wounded veterans, a spokesperson said.
Harry visited the Superhumans Center, an orthopedic clinic in Lviv that treats and rehabilitates wounded military personnel and civilians, to see top-notch services provided in a country in the midst of war. The center provides prosthetics, reconstructive surgery and psychological help free of charge.
The Duke of Sussex, who served 10 years in the British Army, has made helping injured soldiers one of his most prominent causes. He founded the Invictus Games in 2014 to offer wounded veterans the challenge of competing in sports events similar to the Paralympics.
Harry was accompanied by a contingent from the Invictus Games Foundation, including four veterans who have been through similar rehabilitation experiences.
The visit to the area in western Ukraine that has frequently been targeted with Russian missiles was not announced until after he was out of the country.
He traveled to Ukraine after spending two days in a London court where he is appealing the British government’s decision to strip him of his government-funded protection after he quit working as a member of the royal family in 2020 and moved his family to California.
The prince is no stranger to war, having served two tours in Afghanistan, where he flew missions as an Apache helicopter copilot gunner.
Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles III, is the second member of the royal family to visit Ukraine. His aunt, Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, became the first British royal to travel to the country since Russia’s 2022 invasion when she made an unannounced visit to Kyiv last year.
The royal family has been outspoken in their support for Ukraine. King Charles warmly greeted President Volodymyr Zelensky in a show of support at his estate on the North Sea coast just two days after his extraordinary dressing down by US President Donald Trump at the White House.
Harry’s older brother, Prince William, met with Ukrainian refugees during a two day visit to Estonia last month.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Prince Harry

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