Police released security footage showing the explosion that rocked Nashville on Dec. 25. Authorities said they believe 63-year-old Anthony Warner, who died in the blast, was responsible for the bombing. Photo: Metro Nashville PD via Storyful
NATO on Friday launched one of its biggest naval deployments since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with French aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle under the command of the alliance for the first time. The carrier and its accompanying vessels, known as a carrier strike group, are the centrepiece of Neptune Strike, a series of drills that NATO says will help its members learn to work more seamlessly together and deter its enemies. Placing the Charles de Gaulle under NATO operational control for the first time is highly symbolic, not least because the warship is named after the former president who took France out of the alliance’s U.S.-led command structure in 1966.
Online fast-fashion retailer Shein must face the European Union's strictest level of digital regulations, the bloc said on Friday as it added the company to its list of big platforms that need extra scrutiny. The EU's Executive Commission said it formally classed Shein as a “very large online platform” under the 27-nation bloc's Digital Services Act, an expansive rulebook designed to clean up online platforms and keep internet users safe. Shein is a low-cost online retailer that was founded in China but is now based in Singapore.
Angry at their government agreeing to cede territory to arch-foe Azerbaijan, dozens of Armenian protesters have blocked major highways and vowed to fight the transfer of land they say is rightfully theirs."We are fighting specifically for our land and our water, we want our land to stay as it is," said driver Eghish Maghsudyan from Voskepar, a village the locals say will be cut off by the land transfer.
Stellar earnings from the 'Magnificent Seven' duo have reignited optimism for a rally, but the PCE inflation print could put a spoke in the wheel.
The group argues that Trump should be consulted on rate decisions and would have the authority to remove Jerome Powell as Fed Chair before his term ends in 2026, the report added. Trump had picked Powell in 2017 to lead the U.S. central bank but turned against him soon after.
A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia. Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday told top US diplomat Antony Blinken that the world's biggest economies should be "partners, not rivals" as the two sides pressed for headway on a range of concerns. "The two countries should be partners, not rivals," Xi said.
Scotland's leader cancelled a speech Friday as he fights for his political life in the wake of his decision to pull the plug on a three-year power-sharing agreement, a move that has exposed the government to peril. First Minister Humza Yousaf of the Scottish National Party was due to deliver a major speech on Scotland's independence from the U.K., but that has been cancelled following the furor surrounding his decision to tear up the power-sharing deal with the much smaller Greens on Thursday. Without the support of the Greens, the SNP is two seats shy of a majority of lawmakers in the Scottish Parliament, meaning it can only get legislation and its budget through with the support of other parties.
House Republicans’ majority could tighten by another vote after Tuesday’s special congressional election in Buffalo — at least, temporarily. Voters are choosing a replacement for Democrat Brian Higgins, a longtime House member who cited the “slow and frustrating” pace of Congress before resigning in February. Democrats have a long record of success in the 26th Congressional District, and their nominee is highly favored to win on Tuesday.
A court on Friday sentenced a Syrian woman to life in prison for a deadly explosion on a busy shopping district in Istanbul in 2022, Turkey's state-run news agency reported. Alham Albashir was given seven consecutive life sentences after being convicted on terrorism charges. The blast on Nov. 13, 2022 tore through Istiklal Avenue, a thoroughfare in Istanbul lined with shops and restaurants, killing six people, including two children, and wounding 99 others.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping said the US and China should be “partners rather than adversaries” as he met with top American diplomat Antony Blinken in Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People on Friday.
The head of Vietnam’s parliament has resigned, according to state media, making him the latest senior member of government to leave office amid an ongoing anti-corruption campaign that's shaken the country's political and business elites. The resignation of National Assembly Chair Vuong Dinh Hue adds to growing instability in the country. President Vo Van Thuong resigned in March — just over a year after the previous president, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, resigned to take political responsibility for corruption scandals during the pandemic.
Students at a prestigious university in Paris resumed pro-Palestinian protests on Friday, inspired by Gaza solidarity encampments at campuses around the United States, two days after French police broke up another demonstration. About 40 people remained in a building overnight in defiance of administrators who students say called the police on their peers two days earlier.
Exxon Mobil's profit declined in its first quarter as natural gas prices fell and industry refining margins dropped. The energy company earned $8.22 billion, or $2.06 per share, for the three months ended March 31. The results didn't meet Wall Street expectations, but Exxon does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as assets sales.
(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer's gene therapy for hemophilia B on Friday, the second such therapy for the rare bleeding disorder that typically requires regular infusions of a blood-clotting protein. People with hemophilia have a fault in a gene that regulates production of proteins called clotting factors, which can cause spontaneous as well as severe bleeding following injuries or surgery.
London's stock market fired its way to another record peak on Friday, with investors gripped by a series of eye-catching takeovers this week for listed UK companies.We've had new record highs, yet more takeover action, and everyone is talking about UK stocks in a positive way," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
The European Union on Friday added Chinese-founded online retailer Shein to its list of digital companies that are large enough to come under stricter safety curbs.The company joins Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube in a list of 23 "very large online platforms", which have more than 45 million monthly active users in the European Union.
Sweden should increase its military budget by nearly 54 billion kronor ($5 billion) until 2030 to strengthen its air defenses and beef up the number of conscripts, a Swedish parliamentary committee recommended Friday. The report by the Defense Committee which is made up of representatives of the eight political parties sitting in the Swedish parliament, said that NATO membership and the serious security situation require higher ambitions. “An armed attack against Sweden or our allies cannot be ruled out,” the commission said in its report entitled “Strong defense capability, Sweden as an ally.”
The vast amount of rubble including unexploded ordnance left by Israel's devastating war in the Gaza Strip could take about 14 years to remove, a United Nations official said on Friday. Israel's military campaign against Gaza's ruling Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has reduced much of the narrow, coastal territory of 2.3 million people to a wasteland with most civilians homeless, hungry and at risk of disease. Pehr Lodhammar, senior officer at the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), told a briefing in Geneva that the war had left an estimated 37 million tons of debris in the widely urbanised, densely populated territory.
The U.S. government's auto safety agency is investigating whether last year's recall of Tesla's Autopilot driving system did enough to make sure drivers pay attention to the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents posted on its website Friday that Tesla has reported additional crashes involving Autopilot since the recall, raising concerns at the agency about the effectiveness of the remedy. The recall involved more than 2 million vehicles, nearly all the vehicles that Tesla had sold at the time.
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