UNITED STATES
Fox settles defamation case
Fox News has reached a settlement with Venezuelan businessman Majed Khalil, the network said on Sunday, ending a defamation case in which Khalil said he was falsely accused on air of helping to rig the 2020 US presidential election against former US president Donald Trump. Khalil had filed a defamation suit against the news outlet and former host Lou Dobbs, arguing in filings that they had fabricated claims that he and other Venezuelans were involved in “orchestrating a non-existent scheme to rig or fix the election” against the former Republican president. A short letter sent to US District Judge Louis Stanton in Manhattan on Saturday said the parties had reached a “confidential agreement to resolve this matter” and expected to file a joint stipulation of dismissal next week.
UNITED STATES
Puppy survives police chase
A puppy that was thrown out of a moving pickup truck in Los Angeles during a high-speed police chase “miraculously” survived, authorities said. The Los Angeles police department on Saturday said that on April 7, just after midnight in a southeast part of the city, officers chased a suspect who was wanted in connection to an attempted murder and carjacking that occurred the previous month. The pursuit crossed through multiple cities across Los Angeles county, including Inglewood and Westchester, when a puppy was placed in a brown Michael Kors designer bag and then “tossed from the suspect’s moving vehicle,” police said. The puppy, an eight-week-old beige mixed breed, “miraculously emerged unharmed and was rescued by responding officers,” the police department said. The puppy is reportedly in the care of South Los Angeles Animal Services.
UNITED STATES
Senior resumes bank heists
A 78-year-old woman with two past bank robbery convictions faces new charges after authorities alleged she handed a teller a polite note demanding cash during a recent Missouri heist. Bonnie Gooch has been jailed on a US$25,000 bond after she was charged with one count of stealing or attempting to steal from a bank in the holdup on Wednesday in Pleasant Hill, local media reported. She was convicted of robbing a California bank in 1977 and one in a Kansas City suburb in 2020. Her probation in the second heist ended in November 2021. Court documents filed in Cass County in the latest case said the robbery note demanded “13,000 small bills,” adding: “Thank you sorry I didn’t mean to scare you.” Surveillance video also recorded her banging on the counter, asking the teller to hurry, prosecutors said. She smelled strongly of alcohol when officers stopped her less than 3.2km away, with cash scattered on the vehicle’s floorboard, they added. “It’s just sad,” Pleasant Hill Police Chief Tommy Wright said.
UNITED STATES
Hawaii surfer bitten by shark
A surfer was in serious condition after being bitten in the leg by a shark on Sunday morning off Honolulu, authorities said. The 58-year-old man was attacked shortly before 7am near Kewalo Basin, Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said. Paramedics responded and “administered life-saving treatment to a patient who was surfing and suffered shark bite to right leg.” it said in a statement. “Honolulu Ocean Safety will continue to patrol the waters off of Kewalo Basin and Ala Moana after this morning’s shark bite. Lifeguards posted signs in the area,” EMS spokesperson Shayne Enright said.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
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