International

A top US university has canceled its plans for a graduation speech by a Muslim student over what it says are safety concerns, after pro-Israel groups criticised her selection.The decision by the University of Southern California is the latest controversy to roil American higher education since the conflict between Israel and Hamas erupted in October.Asna Tabassum, who has been attacked online for "antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric," had been selected as class valedictorian.USC's valedictorian is chosen by college officials from among scores of applicants with high academic grades.They represent the graduating class and deliver a speech at graduation in front of up to 65,000 people.But on Monday the university's provost, Andrew Guzman, announced the May 10 ceremony would go ahead without the speech."Unfortunately, over the past several days, discussion relating to the selection of our valedictorian has taken on an alarming tenor," Guzman said in a statement."The intensity of feelings, fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, has grown to include many voices outside of USC and has escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security."Guzman's statement gave no specifics, but the Los Angeles Times quoted Erroll Southers, the university's associate senior vice president for safety and risk assurance, as saying the institution had received threats by email, phone and letter.Individuals "say they will come to the campus," he said.Tabassum criticised the decision, which she said was the result of the university "succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice.""Although this should have been a time of celebration for my family, friends, professors and classmates, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian voices have subjected me to a campaign of racist hatred because of my uncompromising belief in human rights for all," she said in a statement.The fallout from the Israel-Hamas conflict has been felt around the world, and is particularly intense on US college campuses, where both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups say they are being victimised and silenced.On Wednesday the president of the prestigious Columbia University in New York will become the latest campus leader to face questions from US lawmakers about whether her institution is doing enough to combat anti-Semitism in the student body.

One of the traits that helped make the dinosaurs such an evolutionary success story - thriving for 165 million years - was their fast growth rate, from massive meat-eaters like Tyrannosaurus to immense plant-eaters like Argentinosaurus.But when did this characteristic first appear? A new study indicates it was present in the earliest dinosaurs, as revealed by microscopic features in bone fossils from Argentina that showed that they exhibited growth rates on par with those of today's mammals and birds.Rapid growth offers numerous advantages."Growing quickly allows organisms to escape the risky business of being small for a long part of their life history. It also allows them more time to reproduce throughout their lifespan, which imparts a measure of evolutionary fitness, generation by generation," said paleontologist Kristi Curry Rogers of Macalester College in Minnesota, lead author of the study published this month in the journal PLOS ONE.The researchers examined patterns preserved within the bones of dinosaurs and some of their cousins that inhabited northwestern Argentina between about 231 and 229 million years ago."The organization of minute bone mineral crystals and proteins, along with blood vessels and cellular organization, all reflect relative speed of growth," Curry Rogers said. "Of course, all these soft squishy parts have long since decayed, millions of years ago, when these bones were becoming fossils. But all the hard parts that persist through time record the spaces where these soft parts once were. This allows us to reconstruct and compare growth patterns among animals."The researchers studied five early dinosaurs - all bipedal, fleet-footed, and with clawed, grasping hands and sharp teeth.Three were meat-eaters, forerunners of massive predators such as T. rex and Giganotosaurus. Herrerasaurus and Sanjuansaurus were around 3-4.5 meters long, while Eodromaeus was about the size of a turkey.The other two - similarly turkey-sized Eoraptor and Chromogisaurus - were forerunners of long-necked, four-legged giants such as Argentinosaurus and Dreadnoughtus.All five showed signs of exceptionally fast growth.But the researchers also got a bit of a surprise when they discovered that some of the non-dinosaur reptiles in these ancient Argentine ecosystems were keeping pace, having their own speedy growth rates."Dinosaurs arose from humble origins, starting off as small, bipedal carnivores, who were themselves dominated by a diverse array of other ruling reptiles," Curry Rogers said.Quick growth was detected in fearsome four-legged crocodile-like Saurosuchus, the dominant terrestrial predator of its time at about 7 meters long, as well as crocodile relatives Proterochampsa and Trialestes.Other animals including tusked plant-eating reptile Hyperodapedon and mammal-like reptile Exaeretodon also grew quickly, but regularly paused their growth throughout life - a pattern distinctive from the continuous fast growth of dinosaurs.The first dinosaurs and these other animals evolved during the Triassic Period. This was in the aftermath of Earth's worst mass extinction 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian Period. About 95% of species were lost amid severe climate change apparently caused by massive Siberian volcanic activity."Since these dinosaurs shared their fast growth rates with a number of other animals that are distant relatives, it seems that growing fast was good for everyone in a turbulent world," Curry Rogers said. "Fast growth, combined with so many other unique aspects of dinosaur physiology, biology and behavior likely gave dinosaurs a leg up. But it was this unique combination - not the single feature of growing up quickly - that gave dinosaurs their evolutionary jump start."Another mass extinction at the end of the Triassic about 201 million years ago doomed many of the early competitors to the dinosaurs, allowing the dinosaurs to assert true dominance."As time would continue to unroll, the dinosaurs would hold onto these elevated growth rates, while their non-dinosaur compatriots would slow things down," Curry Rogers said. "These changes accompany major shifts in diversity through this time. As dinosaurs become more disparate, their crocodile-cousins get canalized into a much narrower range of growth patterns and lifestyle."

Saudi Minister of Defense Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz received a telephone call Sunday from US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.During the call, they reviewed the strategic partnership between the two countries in the military and defense fields and ways to strengthen them.They also discussed the recent military escalation in the region, the danger of its repercussions, and the efforts being exerted to contain these developments to safeguard international peace and security.

Leaders of the G7 nations condemned Iran's attack on Israel and said on Sunday they would work to try to prevent an "uncontrollable regional escalation" in the Middle East.Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the G7, had called a meeting of G7 heads after US President Joe Biden pledged a coordinated diplomatic response to the unprecedented drone and missile attack launched overnight by Iran."With its actions, Iran has further stepped toward the destabilization of the region and risks provoking an uncontrollable regional escalation. This must be avoided," a statement issued by Italy said.The G7 leaders, who spoke for just under an hour on a video conference, called for Iran to exercise restraint."In this spirit, we demand that Iran and its proxies cease their attacks, and we stand ready to take further measures now and in response to further destabilizing initiatives," it said.President Biden has warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the US will not take part in a counter-offensive against Iran if Israel decides to retaliate.Iran launched the attack in response to a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Syria on April 1 that killed top Revolutionary Guards commanders and followed months of clashes between Israel and Iran's regional allies, triggered by the war in Gaza.The G7 statement also pledged to work "towards an immediate and sustainable ceasefire" in Gaza after more than six months of fighting.The G7 groups the United States, Canada, Italy, Britain, France, Germany and Japan, as well as the European Union. Its foreign ministers are scheduled to meet over April 17-19 on the Italian island of Capri.

The International Monetary Fund's executive board on Friday selected Bulgarian economist Kristalina Georgieva to serve as managing director for a second five-year term, starting on Oct. 1 this year, the global lender said."The Board commended Ms. Georgieva's strong and agile leadership during her term, navigating a series of major global shocks," it said in a statement. Georgieva had been the only candidate for the job.European Union finance ministers last month endorsed Georgieva for a second term at the helm of the lender of last resort, virtually assuring her approval. Traditionally, European countries recommend the managing director of the IMF and the United States recommends the head of the World Bank.Georgieva said she was grateful to the board and honored to be selected for a second term, and said she looked forward to continuing to working with the IMF's "exceptional" staff."In recent years, the IMF has helped our member countries to navigate successive shocks, including the pandemic, war and conflicts, and a cost-of-living crisis," she said. "We also stepped up our work on climate change, fragility and conflict, and the digital transition, in line with their increased significance for macroeconomic and financial stability, growth and employment."Georgieva is the second woman to head the IMF and the first person from an emerging market economy. She is the IMF's 12th managing director since its founding in 1944.A self-described "eternal optimist", Georgieva has led the lender through huge shocks to the global economy, from the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic just months after she took office to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022.She drew criticism inside and outside the IMF early on for her push to include climate change as a factor in surveillance reports on member countries' economies and her focus on emerging market and developing economies.She has been instrumental in securing large loans for Ukraine, overseen a revamp of Argentina's massive loan program and worked steadily to help China embrace sovereign debt restructurings.She also survived a personal challenge in 2021 when the IMF's executive board expressed its full confidence in her after reviewing allegations that she pressured staff to alter data to favour China while working at the World Bank.

Eclipse mania gripped North America Monday as a breathtaking celestial spectacle set to be witnessed by tens of millions of people offered a rare convergence of commercial and scientific opportunities – and an excuse to party.The first total solar eclipse to grace North America in seven years made landfall in Mexico Monday for the start of a celestial display at least partially visible, weather permitting, across most of the continent.The Mexican beachside resort town of Mazatlan was the first major viewing spot along the "path of totality" in North America.Thousands of people gathered along the coastal promenade, setting themselves up in deck chairs with solar-safe eyewear as an orchestra played the *Star Wars movie theme.The crowds burst into cheers and applause and the eclipse reached totality.Where clear skies prevail, observers along the direct path of the eclipse were being treated to the rare spectacle of the moon appearing as a dark orb creeping in front of the sun, briefly blocking out all but a brilliant halo of light, or corona, around, the sun's outer edge.The period of totality, lasting up to 4.5 minutes depending the observer's location, was ushered in by a number of other eerie eclipse effects.A partial eclipse, in which the moon obscures only a portion of the sun, was unfolding across most of the continental United States.The moon's shadow plunged the Pacific coast of Mexico into total darkness at 11.07am local time (1807 GMT) and was sweeping across the United States, before returning to the ocean over Canada's Atlantic coast just under an hour-and-a-half after landfall.Festivals, viewing parties, and even mass weddings were planned along the eclipse's "path of totality", where the moon could be seen completely obscuring the sun for up to a few minutes – weather permitting. Cloud cover was forecast over Texas and northeastern US states.Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador visited Sinaloa to witness firsthand eclipse from the resort of Mazatlan, describing the event as a "very beautiful, unforgettable day”.Thousands gathered in Mexico City, just outside the path of totality."These are opportunities given by Earth and nature that we must seize," 29-year-old artist Mariana Juarez told AFP.This year's path of totality is 115 miles (185km) wide and home to nearly 32mn Americans, with an additional 150mn living less than 200 miles from the strip.The next total solar eclipse that can be seen from a large part of North America won't come around until 2044.At Mazatlan, Lourdes Corro, 43, traveled 10 hours by car to get there."The last one I saw was when I was 9," Corro said. "There are a few clouds but we can still see the sun."In upstate New York, at the Frontier Town campground in North Hudson, children ran around wearing eclipse T-shirts, while parents set up tables, chairs and coolers.Connecticut residents Bob and Teresa Love were stretched out in the cargo bed of their pickup truck, eating pastries and hoping the forecasted clouds hold off long enough to not obscure the spectacle."I'm trying not to get too excited because of weather, just trying to keep expectations real," said Teresa, 49. "Some people say it's life-changing. I don't know if it's going to be life-changing, but I think it's going to be cool to see."At up to four minutes and 28 seconds, the total eclipse of 2024 surpasses the duration of the one that traversed the United States from coast to coast in 2017.That one clocked in at up to two minutes and 42 seconds.According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), total eclipses can last anywhere from 10 seconds to about 7.5 minutes.Some other cities along the path of totality include: San Antonio, Austin and Dallas, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Cleveland, Ohio; Erie, Pennsylvania; both Niagara Falls, New York, and Niagara Falls, Ontario, site of the famed waterfall, and Montreal, Quebec.About 32mn people in the United States live within the path of totality, with federal officials predicting another 5mn people will travel to be there.Countless eclipse-watching events were being convened at stadiums, fairgrounds and parks along the path of totality.Businesses capitalised on the excitement with special events, while hotels and short-term rentals in prime viewing locations were booked solid for months in advance.Delta airlines has planned two special flights along the path, while many schools in the zone shut for the day.Research firm Perryman Group estimates direct and indirect economic impacts of this year's eclipse could reach $6bn.Small rural towns bustled, such as Advance, Missouri, home to just over 1,300 people, where Tim and Gwen Wurst had driven from their Kansas City home after checking weather forecasts.They had been thrilled to witness a partial eclipse in 2017 and were excited for totality."It's been on the calendar for years," said Tim Wurst, 62. "It was very dusky and dim the last eclipse, but this one should be just all-out dark."Experts urge the use of protective solar glasses to prevent eye damage that would otherwise occur from starting directly at the sun.Only during the few minutes of totality can the sun can be safely viewed without such eyewear, they said.Overcast skies are among an eclipse-chaser's worst fears.The US National Weather Services forecast as of morning Monday was for "a rapid untimely increase of clouds" in Southern Texas; less worrying "high thin clouds" for a swathe from Arkansas to the Midwest; and the clearest skies in northern New England.It will take about 80 minutes from the moment the moon first begins to cover the sun to the moment of totality, then another 80 minutes to complete the process in reverse.Eclipse veterans have described the 15 minutes before totality as foreboding, with shadows becoming oddly crisp and sunshine assuming an eerie quality.In the seconds before totality, a phenomenon called "shadow bands" may appear – shimmering shadows on the ground, like those seen on the bottom of a swimming pool.Some stars will also appear in midday sky as dusk abruptly descends, sending temperatures dipping. Birds and other wildlife, reacting to the sudden darkness, often fall silent and still.The last remaining bit of brilliant sunlight before totality creates a "diamond ring effect" in which a single bright spot appears along the lunar edge even as the sun's corona leaves a ring of light around the moon.Former president Donald Trump, who notoriously gazed directly at the sun during the 2017 eclipse, attempted to capitalise on the phenomenon by releasing a new campaign ad featuring his larger-than-life head blocking out our star.Health professionals have stressed however not to follow his example, urging people to use certified eclipse glasses to prevent potentially permanent retinal injury. President Joe Biden made fun of Trump with a social media post saying: "Don't be silly, folks."

World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres on Sunday called for an independent probe into the Israeli strike that killed seven of his staff in Gaza, and warned that the conflict had become a "war against humanity itself."Speaking about his firsthand experience working in war-torn Ukraine, where "entire towns" have been destroyed, the head of the US-based charity also compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Russian President Vladimir Putin."This investigation and many others should be done right, should be done in an independent way," Andres said in an emotional interview with ABC's "This Week.""This doesn't seem like a war against terror. This doesn't seem anymore like a war about defending Israel," he said. "It really, at this point, seems like a war against humanity itself."Andres is a celebrity chef in the United States, and the White House has called the killing of the aid workers from his charity a "catalyst" for sterner calls by US President Joe Biden for Israel to curtail the killing of civilians and aid workers, and improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.Andres called the new aid routes a "first step" and said he supports Israel's right to defend itself, but questioned why the United States was supplying weapons to a country that is "killing American citizens who are humanitarians."The Israeli Defense Forces have insisted that their killing on Monday of the World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza was a "tragic mistake."Three Britons, a US-Canadian dual national, a Pole, an Australian and a Palestinian were killed when the WCK convoy, whose route was cleared with the IDF, was repeatedly struck.In its investigation, the Israeli military said an armed man climbed on the roof of one of the trucks and "started firing his weapon," leading to suspicions that the "convoy had been hijacked by Hamas."When asked about the Israeli report's findings, Andres questioned the narrative, and charged that Israel was targeting anything that "seems" to move, and has been doing so "for too long.""I want to thank, obviously, the IDF, for doing such a quick investigation," Andres said, adding that it didn't go deep enough."We need more information. We need to see better quality videos," he said. "What were the conversations, the radio conversations, between the different officers and soldiers in charge?""The perpetrator cannot be investigating himself," he added.Calling the killings "unforgivable," Andres also compared the destruction in Gaza to that in Ukraine."I've seen firsthand what has been happening in Ukraine, entire towns and cities being wiped out by Russia and by Putin. What Prime Minister Netanyahu is doing is exactly the same," he said.

Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Saturday ordered suspending diplomatic ties with Ecuador after the Ecuadorian police forcibly broke into the Mexican embassy in Quito to detain former Ecuadorian vice-president Jorge Glas, deepening a diplomatic rift between the two countries.On his official X account,Obrador said he had been informed that "police from Ecuador forcibly entered" the Mexican embassy and took Glas who "was a refugee and processing asylum because of the persecution and harassment he faces."A statement released by Ecuador's government on X also confirmed the arrest. (QNA)

Colombia has asked the International Court of Justice to allow the country to intervene in South Africa's case accusing Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip, the court said Friday.In its application, Colombia called on the court to ensure "the safety and, indeed, the very existence of the Palestinian people".The ICJ, the highest UN court, can allow states to intervene and give their views. Several states have said they would also seek to intervene in the case but so far only Colombia and Nicaragua have filed a public request.Last week ICJ judges ordered Israel to take all necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay to Palestinians in Gaza.In January the ICJ, also known as the World Court, ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the genocide convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza.

The largest crane on the US Eastern Seaboard readied Friday to begin salvage work to clear Baltimore harbor after a cargo ship crashed into a major bridge causing it to collapse.Vessel traffic through the busy Port of Baltimore has been suspended indefinitely since the accident brought down the Francis Scott Key Bridge in stunning speed, claiming the lives of six men working on a pothole repair team.Road traffic has also been impacted, with thousands of motorists each day being diverted to an already congested tunnel under the city.The work of clearing tons of steel debris from the deep waters of the Patapsco River is expected to be difficult and dangerous, made more delicate by the fact that the bodies of four workers have yet to be recovered.But the arrival of the huge floating crane -- able to lift a 1,000-ton load -- will allow the work to begin.The four missing workers are believed to have been killed when the Singapore-flagged, 300-meter container ship Dali lost power and careened into a bridge support column early Tuesday.Officials said that as the crane begins work, with two more smaller floating cranes en route, an early challenge will be to cut the twisted bridge wreckage into pieces the cranes can handle.The federal administration has approved $60 million in emergency funding for the complex cleanup and recovery operation, while the cost of building a new bridge could ultimately hit $1 billion.The operation will likely take place in three phases: trusses from the bridge removed to allow one-way traffic into and out of the port; bridge segments on the ship lifted so the ship can be moved; and then steel and concrete debris from the river bed cleared.The project will likely take months, though one analyst told the US Naval Institute that the channel could be reopened for limited traffic in as little as a month.The Army Corps of Engineers, which is leading the effort, said it has activated an emergency plan to deploy more than 1,100 engineering, construction, contracting and operations specialists.The Corps is also sending remotely operated vehicles and sonar equipment; several ships to help in debris removal; and dive safety experts.The accident had an immediate impact on cargo shipping -- and on the jobs of an estimated 15,000 people employed directly at the major port -- with auto, coal and sugar shippers immediately affected.Baltimore is the biggest vehicle-handling port in the country, according to US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.Cruise lines were also hit. Royal Caribbean, one of four cruise lines to use the Baltimore terminal, said it had rerouted a returning liner, the Vision of the Seas, to Norfolk, Virginia.Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of the Association for Supply Chain Management, told CNN that the country's supply chains were more resilient today thanks to work done after the Covid-19 pandemic caused huge shipping delays.

Cargo ship loses power and slams into Baltimore bridgeBiden pledges federal help, promises to visitGovernment will reopen port as soon as possible, Biden saysA massive cargo ship smashed into a bridge while sailing out of Baltimore early on Tuesday, sending cars and people into the river below and closing one of the busiest ports on the US Eastern Seaboard.Rescuers pulled out two survivors, one of whom was hospitalized, and searched for more in the Patapsco River after huge metal spans of the 2.57km Francis Scott Key Bridge crumpled into the icy water around 1:30am (0530 GMT).The ship reported a power issue before impact, which enabled officials to stop traffic on the bridge before the collapse."By being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes. They saved lives last night," Maryland Governor Wes Moore said at a briefing. The bridge was up to code and there were no known structural issues, Moore said.There was no evidence of foul play, officials said.Work crews had been repairing potholes on the bridge at the time of the collapse and sonar detected vehicles under the water, which was about 50 feet deep at that point, said Paul Wiedefeld, Maryland Secretary of Transportation.Eight people were on the bridge at the time and six remained unaccounted for, the state's transportation secretary said hours after the collision, which closed one of the busiest ports in the United States.The 288.95m vessel, as long as three football fields placed end to end, had experienced a momentary loss of propulsion and dropped anchors as part of emergency procedures before impact, its management company, Synergy Marine Pte Ltd reported, according to the Singapore Port Authority.The Dali, owned by Grace Ocean Pte Ltd, collided with one of the pillars of the bridge, according to manager Synergy. All 22 crew members aboard the Singapore-flagged vessel were accounted for, it said.Ship traffic was suspended at the Port of Baltimore until further notice. It is the busiest US port for car shipments, handling more than 750,000 vehicles in 2022, according to port data.The closure of one of the US East Coast's major ports threatens to disrupt supplies of goods from cars, to coal and other commodities like sugar. It could create bottlenecks and increase delays and costs on the Eastern seaboard, experts say. The port handles the most car imports and is among the largest for coal exports.President Joe Biden said the US Coast Guard responded quickly to the mayday call and commended the fast action of Maryland transportation officials who shut the bridge before it was struck and "undoubtedly saved lives."The primary focus continues to be the search and rescue operation, Biden said at the White House. He promised to visit Baltimore, 64km away, as soon as possible and said he wanted the federal government to pay to rebuild the bridge."I'm directing my team to move heaven and Earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible," Biden said. The bridge, named for the author of the Star-Spangled Banner, opened in 1977.The US Coast Guard reported the collapse at 1:27am (0527 GMT) and it deployed crews for an active search and rescue mission after the Singapore-flagged container ship forced the trellis-like bridge up into a mangled mass of metal.Jayme Krause, 32, was working a night shift on shore when the cart of packages in front of her shook violently at around 2am in what sounded like an intense thunderstorm.A coworker at an Amazon logistics facility told her the bridge had collapsed and she ran out to look."I went over there, and sure as anything, it was gone, the whole bridge was just like, there was nothing there," she told Reuters. "It was a shocking sight to see."She did not see anyone in the water, nor hear any cries for help from where she stood at the bay.The Francis Scott Key bridge was the main thoroughfare for drivers between New York and Washington who sought to avoid downtown Baltimore. It was one of three ways to cross the Baltimore Harbor, with a traffic volume of 31,000 cars per day or 11.3 million vehicles a year.Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott described a scene of twisted metal shooting into the sky. "It was something out of an action movie. It was something you never thought you'd see," he said.A live video posted on YouTube showed the ship ploughing into the bridge in darkness. The headlights of vehicles could be seen on the bridge as it crashed into the water and the ship caught fire.The same ship was involved in an accident in the port of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016, when it hit a quay as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal.A later inspection in June 2023 carried out in San Antonio in Chile found the vessel had "propulsion and auxiliary machinery" deficiencies, according to data on the public Equasis website, which provides information on ships.Tuesday's disaster may be the worst US bridge collapse since 2007 when the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people.The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team to investigate.Moore, the governor, declared a state of emergency to quickly deploy federal resources to deal with the emergency. The FBI in Baltimore said on X its personnel were on the scene.The Dali was chartered by shipping company Maersk at the time of the incident, the Danish company said in a statement."We are horrified by what has happened in Baltimore, and our thoughts are with all of those affected," Maersk said.Baltimore port's private and public terminals handled 847,158 autos and light trucks in 2023, the most of any US port. The port also handles farm and construction machinery, sugar, gypsum and coal, according to a Maryland government website.The port handles imports and exports for major automakers including Nissan, Toyota, General Motors, Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover and the Volkswagen group - including luxury models for Audi, Lamborghini and Bentley.General Motors and Ford Motor will reroute affected shipments, but the companies said the impact will be minimal.More than 40 ships remained inside Baltimore port including small cargo ships, tug boats and pleasure craft, data from ship tracking and maritime analytics provider MarineTraffic showed. At least 30 other ships had signalled their destination was Baltimore, the data showed.

Former US president Donald Trump warned Israel in an interview published Monday that it was losing support over the war in Gaza, reiterating his call to "finish it up".The comments from Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee to take on President Joe Biden in November's US election, came as Washington abstained at a UN Security Council vote calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war."You have to finish up your war. To finish it up. You gotta get it done," Trump told the Israel Hayom newspaper in an interview the right-wing freesheet said had been recorded over the weekend."And I will say, Israel has to be very careful, because you're losing a lot of the world, you're losing a lot of support, you have to finish up, you have to get the job done."Trump frequently touts himself as a devoted ally of Israel, pointing to his decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and his administration's role in brokering the 2020 Abraham Accords which saw Arab countries including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalise ties with Israel.The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Israel's retaliatory military campaign to destroy Hamas has killed 32,333 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.Trump told Israel Hayom he would have responded to Hamas's attack "very much the same way" Israel did, but expressed concern about the optics of a war in which Israeli strikes have left much of Gaza in ruins.

The United Nations Security Council on Monday demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages after the United States abstained from the vote..text-box { float:right; width:450px; padding:10px; border:1pt solid black; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 20px;}@media only screen and (max-width: 767px) {.text-box {width: 65%;}}Hamas welcomesSecurity Council resolutionHamas issued a statement on Monday welcoming a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, saying it 'affirms readiness to engage in immediate prisoner swaps on both sides'.The remaining 14 council members voted for the resolution, which was proposed by the 10 elected members of the body."The Palestinian people has suffered greatly. This bloodbath has continued for far too long. It is our obligation to put an end to this bloodbath, before it is too late," Algeria's UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama told the council after the vote.Israeli army radio reported shortly before the council meeting started that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would cancel a planned delegation to Washington if the US did not veto the resolution.Washington had been averse to the word ceasefire earlier in the nearly six-month-old war in the Gaza Strip and had used its veto power shield US ally Israel as it retaliated against Hamas for an Oct. 7 attack that Israel says killed 1,200 people.But amid growing global pressure for a truce in the war that has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, the US abstained from the vote on Monday to allow the Security Council to demand an immediate ceasefire for the month of Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends in two weeks..text-box { float:right; width:450px; padding:10px; border:1pt solid black; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 20px;}@media only screen and (max-width: 767px) {.text-box {width: 65%;}}Netanyahu cancelsdelegation to WashingtonIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he would not send a delegation as planned to Washington after the United States did not veto a UN Security Council proposal calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.Netanyahu, according to a statement from his office, said that Washington's failure to veto the proposal was a "clear retreat" from its previous position, and would hurt war efforts against Hamas in Gaza as well as efforts to release over 130 hostages."In light of the change in the American position, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided the delegation would not leave," his office said.The high-level delegation was due to travel to Washington to discuss a planned Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.The resolution also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. Israel says Hamas took 253 hostages during its Oct. 7 attack."The United States support for these objectives is not simply rhetorical. We're working around the clock to make them real on the ground through diplomacy, because we know that it is only through diplomacy that we can push this agenda forward," said US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield."A ceasefire can begin immediately with the release of the first hostage and so we must put pressure on Hamas to do just that," she said.Thomas-Greenfield said the US abstained from the vote because it did not agree with everything in the resolution and the text did not include a condemnation of Hamas.The Security Council resolution also "emphasises the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip and reiterates its demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale."The US has vetoed three draft council resolutions on the war in Gaza. It has also previously abstained twice, allowing the council to adopt resolutions that aimed to boost aid to Gaza and called for extended pauses in fighting.Russia and China have also vetoed two US drafted resolutions on the conflict - in October and on Friday.

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will step down by year-end in a broad management shakeup brought on by the planemaker's sprawling safety crisis exacerbated by a January mid-air panel blowout on a 737 MAX plane.In addition, board chair Larry Kellner and Stan Deal, head of the company's commercial planes business, are also leaving as Boeing's board tries to get control of the myriad issues that have shaken confidence in the iconic planemaker over the last several weeks.Boeing shares have lost roughly a quarter of their value since the incident. They were up 0.8% in early trading Monday, off earlier highs.The January incident was only the most recent in a series of safety crises that have shaken the industry's confidence in the planemaker and hampered its ability to increase production. Calhoun, 66, was brought in as CEO following a pair of crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed nearly 350 people.Some investors expressed concern that this shake-up would not be enough to address these issues."When the ship has been running into icebergs not just once but multiple (times), then it's time to replace the captain of the ship," said Russell Hackmann, president of Hackmann Wealth Partners.The company is facing heavy regulatory scrutiny and US authorities curbed production while it attempts to fix its safety and quality problems. The company is in talks to buy its former subsidiary Spirit AeroSystems to try to get more control over its supply chain.Steve Mollenkopf, former CEO of tech company Qualcomm , has been appointed new chair of the board and is leading the search for the next CEO.Scott Hamilton, managing director at aviation consulting firm Leeham Company, said in a note that the changes "speak to the depth of the crisis at the company following Jan. 5's accident ... But it also speaks to the thin bench for executive ranks."Initially after the Jan. 5 panel blowout, several airline executives expressed support for Calhoun's leadership, saying he was the right person to fix the company's problems. But regulatory scrutiny surfaced additional troubling issues.A US National Transportation Safety Board report of the Alaska Air incident found that the panel blowout was caused in part because several bolts meant to hold the plug in place were removed and not replaced - and there was no paperwork detailing what happened to those bolts.The head of the NTSB told lawmakers in early March that the company had not provided records the agency had requested.Following the incident, the FAA curbed Boeing production to a rate of 38 jets per month, but CFO Brian West said last week it had not even reached that figure. He added that the planemaker has been burning more cash than expected in this quarter than expected, saying it would likely fall short of cash flow targets for 2025 and 2026."For years, we prioritized the movement of the airplane through the factory over getting it done right, and that's got to change," West said last week.Last week, a group of US airline CEOs sought meetings with Boeing directors without Calhoun to express frustration over the Alaska Airlines accident and management.Analysts and investors called the shakeup positive for Boeing, but stressed that much depends on Calhoun's successor and changing the company's culture from the top."We think it will require someone with pedigree and patience, as fixing Boeing is probably a multi-year non-linear journey," said Vertical Research Partners aerospace analyst Robert Stallard, in a note to clients.Some suggested Spirit AeroSystems CEO Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive and US government official, now tasked with a complex tie-up deal with the US planemaker, as a possible successor to Calhoun.Shanahan's "sole priority remains building a culture of safety" at Spirit, company spokesperson Joe Buccino said on Monday.

"Oppenheimer," the blockbuster biopic about the race to build the first atomic bomb, claimed seven Academy Awards including the prestigious best picture trophy on Sunday as Hollywood celebrated a triumphant year in film.Irish actor Cillian Murphy won best actor for playing theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, leader of the U.S. effort in the 1940s to create a weapon that ended World War Two. "Oppenheimer" director Christopher Nolan took home the directing Oscar."We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb, and for better or worse we are living in Oppenheimer's world," Murphy said as he held his trophy on stage. "So I would really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere."A three-hour historical drama about science and politics, "Oppenheimer" became an unlikely box office hit and grossed $953.8 million, in addition to widespread critical praise.It was the first of Nolan's films to win best picture. The director has previously won acclaim for "The Dark Knight" Batman trilogy, "Inception," "Memento" and other movies.As he accepted his gold statuette, Nolan noted that the movie business was a century old and still evolving."To know you think I'm a meaningful part of this means the world to me," he said.Emma Stone wins best actressEmma Stone was named best actress for playing a woman revived from the dead in the dark and wacky comedy "Poor Things." It was the second Academy Award for Stone, who landed the best actress honor for 2016 musical "La La Land.""This is really overwhelming," she said on stage.The best actress race had been considered one of the tightest competitions with Lily Gladstone nominated for "Killers of the Flower Moon." Had she prevailed, Gladstone would have been the first Native American to win an acting Oscar.In supporting actor categories, Robert Downey Jr. of "Oppenheimer" and "The Holdovers" star Da'Vine Joy Randolph claimed their first Academy Awards.Downey, who was nominated for an Oscar in 1993 before his career was derailed by drug use, won his honor on Sunday for playing Oppenheimer's professional nemesis, Lewis Strauss."I'd like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order," Downey joked before he saluted his wife Susan, who he said found him as a "snarly rescue pet" and "loved him back to life."Randolph received the best supporting actress trophy for playing a grieving mother and cafeteria worker in the comedy set in a New England boarding school."For so long, I always wanted to be different, and now I realize I just need to be myself," she said. "I thank you for seeing me."Winners were chosen by the roughly 10,500 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.After 2023 was marred by labor strikes by actors and writers, the Oscars gave Hollywood a chance to celebrate two blockbusters, "Oppenheimer" and "Barbie," which brought in a combined $2.4 billion at theaters and made movies the center of pop culture last summer."Barbie" ended the night with one Oscar.Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell landed best original song for the ballad "What Was I Made For?" The pair had performed the song on stage earlier with Eilish singing at a microphone next to O'Connell, her brother and co-writer, on piano.Ryan Gosling donned a hot pink suit, gloves and a cowboy hat to belt out rock ballad "I'm Just Ken," surrounded by male dancers dressed in black.Amid the upbeat moments, international conflicts were on the minds of attendees, winners and protesters outside the theater.Israel-Gaza conflict plays a roleWhen Holocaust drama "The Zone of Interest" was named best international feature, director Jonathan Glazer addressed the Israel-Gaza conflict in his acceptance speech."Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza. All the victims of this dehumanisation. How do we resist?" he said to cheers and applause.A handful of celebrities, including Eilish, Mahershala Ali and Mark Ruffalo, wore red pins calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.Outside, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters angered by the Israel-Gaza conflict shouted and slowed traffic in the streets surrounding the Dolby Theatre. "While you're watching, bombs are dropping," one sign read."The Oscars are happening down the road while people are being murdered, killed, bombed," said 38-year-old business owner Zinab Nassrou.On the red carpet, stars strutted in strong silhouettes, sparkles and a splash of Barbie-inspired pink.Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, hosting the show for the fourth time, opened the ceremony by complimenting, and taking jabs at, many of the nominees and their films.The comedian praised "Barbie," the pink-drenched doll adventure, for remaking a "plastic doll nobody even liked anymore" into a feminist icon.Before the film, there was "a better chance of getting my wife to buy our daughter a pack of Marlboro Reds" than a Barbie, Kimmel said on the broadcast, which was shown live on the US ABC network.Kimmel said many of this year's movies were too long, particularly Martin Scorsese's 3-1/2-hour epic "Killer of the Flower Moon" about the murders of members of the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma."In the time it takes you to watch it, you could drive to Oklahoma and solve the murders," Kimmel joked.Late in the show, Kimmel read aloud from a scathing online review of his performance as host, disclosing at the end that it was written by former US President Donald Trump.Kimmel jokingly asked the audience to guess which former president had written the post and then quipped: "Thank you, President Trump. Isn't it past your jail time?"

Meta suffered a highly unusual outage of all its social media platforms on Tuesday with users of Facebook, Instagram and Threads locked out of their accounts."We're aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now," Meta spokesman Andy Stone said in a post on X.At about 12:00 US east coast time (1700 GMT), the sites seemed to be returning to normal, about two hours after the outage reports first emerged.According to the DownDetector website, reports that Facebook was down peaked at around 500,000 at 1530 GMT. Instagram peaked at about 70,000 reports at the same time.Threads, the rival to Twitter that was launched in 2023, also suffered reports of outages, though WhatsApp, Meta's messaging service, seemed spared.Facebook suffered a similar outage in October 2021 which was attributed to technical issues, not a security hack as originally feared.At the height of the problem on Tuesday, Facebook's status page, intended for advertisers, said the site was suffering "major disruptions" and that "engineering teams are actively looking to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."Users trying to access Facebook were asked to log in but were unable to sign in using the correct password.On Instagram, mobile users were seeing their feeds not refreshed.Reports said that Meta's virtual reality headsets were also suffering problems, with the device's Horizon World platform not allowing users to sign in.Facebook is the world's largest social media platform, with three billion active monthly users.Instagram has about 1.35 billion users, according to the latest data.X, formerly Twitter, saw a spike in online activity as users were locked out of the Meta sites."Testing, testing... affirmative, everything is functioning smoothly here," wrote X CEO Linda Yaccarino, taking a dig at its rival.US media focused on the fact that the outage took place on Super Tuesday, the day that millions of people were voting in primaries in 15 states and one territory.

A US airman has died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington at the weekend in protest over the war in Gaza, the Air Force said Monday.The shocking act was an escalation of recent protests across the United States against Israel's actions in Gaza, where with US support it is waging a war.Emergency responders on Sunday had rushed to the scene in response to a "call for person on fire outside the Israeli Embassy," the capital city's fire department.The unnamed man had filmed himself shouting "Free Palestine" as he lit himself on fire, according to footage shared on social media.He was transported to hospital with "critical life-threatening injuries," the fire department said, and an Air Force spokeswoman said Monday morning he had died Sunday night.A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy said no staff were injured.In the video, the man wearing military fatigues and declaring he will "not be complicit in genocide" before dousing himself in liquid, lighting himself on fire and yelling "Free Palestine!" until he collapses.The video was reportedly first shared in a livestream on the social platform Twitch.With the death toll in Gaza nearing 30,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there, international pressure has been increasing on the United States to rein in ally Israel and call for a ceasefire.Washington last week blocked a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, its third such use of its veto on the matter.Some voters in Joe Biden's Democratic Party are attempting to press the president on the issue, with groups of Arab American voters in Michigan pledging to vote "uncommitted" or write in "Free Palestine" on their ballots in the state's primary Tuesday.The White House has tried to assuage Arab and Muslim voters' concerns in part by portraying the president as frustrated with Benjamin Netanyahu's government.But US weapons have flowed to Israel since October 7, while Washington's efforts to broker a second pause in fighting have so far failed.In an update on ongoing multinational talks Sunday, the United States said an "understanding" had emerged on a possible deal for Hamas to release hostages and for a new ceasefire in the Gaza war.Domestic demonstrations have typically involved peaceful street protests, though in December a person outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta also set herself on fire.

The collapse of an illegal gold mine in the South of Venezuela left 16 people dead Saturday.Rescuers managed to evacuate 200 people. Authorities said that landslides led to the collapse of the mine located in the Bolivar region. The region is famous for having large reserves of gold, diamond, irone, quartz, among other materials. (QNA)

Forest fires raging in central Chile have killed at least 46 people, President Gabriel Boric said, warning that the death toll is likely to keep rising.Black smoke billowed into the sky over many parts of the Valparaiso region, home to nearly one million inhabitants in central Chile, while firefighters using helicopters and trucks struggled to quell the flames.Areas around the coastal tourist city of Vina del Mar have been some of the hardest hit and rescue teams were struggling to reach all the affected areas, Chilean authorities said in a press conference.Throughout the country there were 92 active fires, leaving more than 43,000 hectares affected by the incident, Interior Minister Carolina Toha said.The fires broke out as Chile faces a heat wave that has affected other Latin American countries as well.Wildfires are not uncommon in Chile. In February 2023, fires in the country swept through more than 400,000 hectares and killed more than 22 people. (QNA)

The US military targeted 85 military sites in seven locations in Iraq and Syria through precise airstrikes.The US Central Command, via its social media platform, revealed that these airstrikes were carried out using more than 125 precision munitions. It clarified that the targets included command and control centers, intelligence facilities, as well as missile and drone storage facilities belonging to armed factions that facilitated attacks on US and coalition forces in Iraq (3 locations) and Syria (4 locations).In a related context, US President Joe Biden stated that he has ordered military strikes on facilities in Iraq and Syria affiliated with factions that attacked US forces. He added that the response will continue at times and places determined by Washington. (QNA)