This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters hereGood morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter: The latest South China Sea stand-off Trump’s trade war hits US ports and air freightInside Interpol’s Singapore innovation labWe start today with China’s move to proclaim sovereignty over a disputed reef in the South China Sea, which has triggered a new stand-off with the Philippines. Here’s what you need to know about the row over…
Author: Team_Benjamin Franklin Institute
Credit: (Screenshot), CBS Mornings, via YouTubeCredit: (Screenshot), CBS Mornings, via YouTube A plurality of Americans feel the country’s immigration policies have improved since President Donald Trump took office, according to a new poll. The Center Square Voter’s Voice poll released Thursday showed that 47% of those surveyed say federal policy on immigration and border security has “gotten better,” compared to 32% who say it has “gotten worse.” The poll found that 13% say there has been no change, and 8% are unsure. The same poll found that 42% of registered voters say Trump’s border policies are “just right,” while 8% say…
A fellow sex trafficking survivor, Annie Farmer, has claimed that Virginia Giuffre was dealing with “enormous pressure” before taking her own life.Farmer said that the pressure came from the backlash Giuffre received over her case against the Duke of York, Prince Andrew.In 2021, Virginia Giuffre filed a lawsuit against the Duke of York, accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was a minor after she was trafficked to him by the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.Article continues below advertisementAnnie Farmer Says People Were ‘Vicious Towards’ Virginia GiuffreInstagram | Virginia GiuffreIn an interview with The Telegraph, Annie Farmer, one of…
Egypt’s Suez Canal, a key waterway linking Europe and Asia, accounted for about 10 per cent of global maritime trade before attacks by Yemen’s Huthi rebels on shipping routes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The Iran-backed rebels began targeting vessels after the start of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with Palestinians, forcing ships to take a long and costly detour around the southern tip of Africa. Egypt said last year its canal revenues had plunged 60 per cent, a loss of US$7 billion. The US military has been attacking Huthi positions since January 2024, but those assaults…
Ukraine dismisses report of Kursk loss as a ‘propaganda ‘trick’.Russia said its forces have completely recaptured the embattled Kursk region, eight months after Ukraine’s military stormed into the Russian territory in a surprise counteroffensive, but Ukrainian officials quickly rejected the claim. Russia’s military Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov made the declaration during a video conference with President Vladimir Putin Saturday, saying Russian troops had “liberated” the last village in Kursk under Ukrainian control: Gornal. “The Kyiv regime’s adventure has completely failed,” Putin told Gerasimov. Ukraine’s military immediately disputed the claim, saying its soldiers are still operating in parts of Kursk.…
In place since 1936, the NFL draft has produced countless gems selected toward the end of those events. Here is the best one each team has selected. With the draft dropping from 30 rounds to seven, teams had more time to locate late-round talent during previous eras. For the purposes of this offering, we only considered players drafted beyond Round 5 to be late-round choices under the modern draft format. 1 of 32 Arizona/St. Louis Cardinals: Pat Fischer (1961) NFL Photos/Getty Images Hall of Famers Larry Wilson and Roger Wehrli’s Cardinals careers overlapped for a few seasons. Unfortunately, this…
My daughter hasn’t spoken in five years. She never had many words, but they all disappeared just before she turned 2. She used to clap her hands along to music, respond to her name and once tried to feed her baby doll Cheerios. Those skills vanished quickly — it felt like trying to keep water cupped in your hands. Several months later, in October 2020, we received a diagnosis: Level 3 autism, the most severe form. I asked the child psychiatrist, who was very kind, if she knew why regressions like this happen. She said that she didn’t, but that…
Coachella, the music festival that occurred across two weekends this month, drew crowds of 125,000-plus attendees each day.A report published by Billboard last week shows that most of the crowd, about 60%, used Coachella’s payment plan system to pay for their $600-and-up tickets. The plan allows attendees access to Coachella with an upfront cost of as little as $49.99.Tickets started at $649 for the first weekend of Coachella from April 10 through 12 and $600 for the second weekend from April 17 through 19. People reported that tickets used to cost $429 per weekend in 2020. When Coachella started in…
Bone collector caterpillars from the Waianae mountain range in Oahu, HawaiiDaniel Rubinoff et al. 2025 The newly described “bone collector” caterpillar species disguises itself with the body parts of dead insects so that it can live among spiders and poach their prey. This is the only caterpillar known to use such grisly camouflage or have spiders as roommates – and it’s a carnivore and a cannibal to boot. Daniel Rubinoff at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and his colleagues discovered the caterpillar while hiking the Waianae mountains in Oahu more than two decades ago. They were searching for other…
Victims of the Omagh bombing on August 15 1998, (left to right, top row) James Barker, Esther Gibson, Sean McGrath, Gareth Conway, Elizabeth Rush, Veda Short, Alan Radford, Ann McCombe, and Olive Hawkes, (middle row, left to right) Lorraine Wilson, Geraldine Breslin, Oran Doherty, Aiden Gallagher, Fred and Bryan White, Rocio Abad Ramos, Debra-Anne Cartwright, and Brenda Logue, and (bottom left to right) Shaun McLaughlin, Jolene Marlow, Avril Monaghan, Maura Monaghan, Brian McCrory, Samantha McFarland, Mary Grimes, Julia Hughes, and Philomena Skelton. Issue date (Family/PA)PA Media Source link