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Dozens of giant beetles hidden inside a shipment of Japanese snacks were uncovered at a US airport, customs officials said Wednesday.The live creepy crawlies, which were up to five inches (13 centimeters) long, were concealed among potato chips, chocolate and other goodies at Los Angeles International Airport last month.The 37 creatures were likely destined for collectors of exotic insects, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said, estimating they were worth around $1,500.”They may look harmless but in reality, smuggled beetles pose a significant threat to our vital agriculture resources,” said Cheryl Davies of the CBP in Los Angeles. “Beetles can become a serious pest by eating plants, leaves and roots and by laying eggs on tree bark which damages our forests.”The specimens, which included scarab beetles, stag beetles and darkling beetles, will likely find their way to local zoos that have permits for such creatures, the CBP said.Alongside its traditional cuisine, Japan has in recent years nurtured a reputation for innovative snacks, which include KitKat chocolates flavored with cherry blossom or wasabi.But while locusts, grasshoppers and crickets do find their way onto the Japanese dinner table, especially in rural areas, beetles are not commonly consumed. 

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday seeking to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports, in his latest move targeting transgender people since returning to office.”With this executive order the war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said before he signed the order at the White House, surrounded by dozens of children and female athletes.Top Republicans including US House Speaker Mike Johnson and firebrand Congresswoman Marjorie Green were among those in the audience to watch the signing ceremony.”We will defend the proud tradition of female athletes, and we will not allow men to beat up, injure and cheat our women and our girls. From now on, women sports will be only for women,” Trump added to applause.The order gives government agencies authority to deny federal funds to schools that allow transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams.”It is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy,” the executive order said. Trump also said he would be pushing the International Olympic Committee to change its rules on transgender athletes before the Games return to American soil in 2028 in Los Angeles.He said he had ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “make it clear” to the IOC that “we want them to change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject.”Trump added that he had directed Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem to deny visa applications “made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes to try and get into the Games.”- Culture war -Republican Trump has repeatedly targeted gender non-conforming people in a blitz of orders pushing his radical right-wing agenda since his inauguration for a second term on January 20.Trump signed an order to rid the military of what he called “transgender ideology” and effectively ban transgender troops. He also issued an order to restrict gender transition procedures for people under age 19.The slew of actions comes despite the fact that transgender people make up only a small minority of the US population.During the 2024 election campaign he repeatedly hammered Democrats on the divisive issue of transgender rights during the 2024 election campaign, capitalizing on a broader culture war over the topic.One of Trump’s most successful attack lines against his election rival Kamala Harris — “Kamala Harris is for they/them. President Trump his for you” — targeted her support for trans rights.Trump also targeted her one-time support for gender reassignment operations for prisoners.His executive order on Wednesday comes after the Republican-led House of Representatives in January passed a bill severely restricting transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.As transgender people have become a more visible presence in the United States, sparking questions around gender norms and fairness, many conservatives have rallied around women’s sports.

The US State Department said Wednesday that a former Donald Trump aide named to a top job despite having ties to white supremacists and spreading conspiracy theories about the 2021 Capitol insurrection will hold the post only temporarily.Darren Beattie, an influential figure in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement and founder of the right-wing “Revolver News” site, has been named acting under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.The role is responsible for developing the public image of American diplomacy around the world.Revolver News has repeatedly pushed the idea that the FBI spurred on the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol by Trump’s supporters.Beattie will hold the State Department job only in an acting capacity, Rubio said Wednesday during a visit to Central America.”We have a nominee for that position who will be the permanent person who runs that division,” Rubio told reporters.Beattie worked as a speechwriter for Trump during his first term, but left the administration in 2018 after US media revealed he had attended a conference two years earlier where white supremacists were present.Reports of his latest appointment have sparked outrage among many, particularly over an October 4, 2024 post on X, in which he wrote: “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work.”Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.”America’s top diplomat said Beattie has been hired for now because he is committed to ending what Rubio called anti-US censorship programs being operated out of the State Department.Rubio said “elements in the State Department are being used to censor American voices.”

At least five US citizens remain in detention in Venezuela since the liberation last week of six others who flew back home with President Donald Trump’s special envoy, a local rights group said Wednesday.Along with the five, there were also two people with other nationalities but who maintain permanent residency in the United States, non-governmental organization Foro Penal said in a statement.They were among 54 foreigners in total held in Venezuela, including 11 people from Spain, nine from Italy, and one French-American, it added.Special envoy Richard Grenell has said there were “at least six” US citizens left in Venezuela after another six were freed following his talks with President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas last week.They were “in essence hostages” held on “really lame charges,” Grenell told “The Megyn Kelly Show” this week.”It’s Nicolas Maduro’s position that some of these individuals were arrested because of terrorism charges or individuals that were trying to kill the president of Venezuela or the vice president,” Grenell said. “Our information doesn’t say that.”Grenell noted that two of the six freed last week were last-minute replacements for two other US prisoners who had refused their jailers’ orders to get ready to depart, not believing their liberation was real.The other four had recounted that “We were released into this room, and we had the other two guys with us, and they asked us to shave and to get ready, get cleaned up. And two of the individuals said: ‘We’re not doing this again. We’ve done this four or five times. This is fake’,” Grenell said.”We only learned later… that the Venezuelan government found two other Americans to replace them.”The envoy said work continues for the liberation of the last prisoners, adding: “We will absolutely go back.”Trump said over the weekend that Venezuela had agreed to accept illegal migrants deported from the United States following the Grenell meeting.The president has pledged to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history, vowing to expel millions of undocumented immigrants, many from Latin American nations.Grenell travelled to Caracas despite the United States not recognizing Maduro’s claim of victory in July elections that the opposition and much of the international community say he stole.After the meeting, Maduro called for a “new beginning” in bilateral ties.

The UN chief warned Wednesday against ethnic cleansing in Gaza as he rejected US President Donald Trump’s bombshell proposal for the United States to take control of the Palestinian territory and displace all its people.Trump, in a White House news conference on Tuesday alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stunningly proposed “long-term ownership” of Gaza by the United States, triggering an international uproar.The remarks came after he has repeatedly called in recent days for the war-ravaged territory’s residents to move to Jordan or Egypt.”At its essence, the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people is about the right of Palestinians to simply live as human beings in their own land,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a speech to a UN committee that deals with the rights of Palestinians.But, he added, “we have seen the realization of those rights steadily slip farther out of reach.””We have seen a chilling, systematic dehumanization and demonization of an entire people,” Guterres said.Guterres said nothing justified the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza but “the catalogue of destruction and unspeakable horrors” that came as Israel attacked Gaza relentlessly in reprisal could not be justified either.UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, asked specifically about the Trump proposal, said “any forced displacement of people is tantamount to ethnic cleansing.””It is vital that we stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing.”After an international outcry, Trump administration officials tried Wednesday to walk back the Trump proposal, saying any displacement of the Palestinians of Gaza would be temporary while the largely destroyed territory is rebuilt. Trump had also not committed to deploying US troops to carry out his plan, they said.Guterres insisted on the idea of a two-state solution with Israel and the Palestinians living side by side in peace.”Any durable peace will require tangible, irreversible and permanent progress toward the two-State solution, an end to the occupation, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, with Gaza as an integral part,’ he said.To that end, Palestinian envoy to the UN Riyad Mansour called for a “successful” international conference at the United Nations to discuss the issue, scheduled for June and co-chaired by Saudia Arabia and France. Even with large parts of Gaza’s north in ruins, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned since late January, under a fragile truce that has halted more than 15 months of war.Gaza’s north, which includes Gaza City, has been devastated by Israel’s military offensive launched after Hamas’s 2023 attack, with homes, hospitals, schools and almost all civil infrastructure flattened.Mansour reiterated Palestinians’ rejection of Trump’s plan to take over Gaza.”We are not going to leave Gaza,” he said. “It is part of our homeland, and we don’t have a homeland other than the State of Palestine.”He added that Palestinians would be “delighted” to return to their homes in present-day Israel from where they were “kicked from.”

Ten “high-threat” migrants have arrived at Guantanamo and are being held at the notorious American base in Cuba, the Pentagon said Wednesday, with the White House later identifying them as members of a powerful gang.President Donald Trump last week ordered the preparation of a 30,000-person “migrant facility” at the base, which is primarily known as a detention center for suspects accused of terrorism-related offenses, but which also has a history of holding migrants.”These 10 high-threat individuals are currently being housed in vacant detention facilities,” the Pentagon said in a statement, referring to them as “illegal aliens.””US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is taking this measure to ensure the safe and secure detention of these individuals until they can be transported to their country of origin or other appropriate destination,” it said.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later said the flight carrying the migrants had arrived the previous day and that they were “10 members of the transnational gang Tren de Aragua.”The Trump administration has launched what it has cast as a major effort to combat illegal migration that has also included immigration raids, arrests and deportations on military aircraft.The president has made the issue a priority on the international stage as well, threatening Colombia with sanctions and massive tariffs for turning back two planeloads of deportees.The Guantanamo prison was opened in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks and has been used to indefinitely hold detainees seized during the wars and other operations that followed. Conditions there have prompted outcry from rights groups, and UN experts have condemned it as a site of “unparalleled notoriety.”

Guatemala’s leader promised Wednesday to allow a surge of deportation flights from the United States as he won a show of support from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a boost after simmering tensions in the Central American country.President Bernardo Arevalo, who has been undermined by an elite that has connections to US conservatives, promised to allow a 40 percent increase in flights repatriating Guatemalans and others from third countries, addressing a key priority for President Donald Trump.”We’re not just neighbors. We’re allies — we’re friends — and I think that will be evidenced by the work that we’ve done here,” Rubio told a joint news conference with Arevalo.He also said the US Army Corps of Engineers would visit Guatemala to help develop plans for a more modern port.Rubio, a Cuban-American and fierce opponent of Latin American leftists, has quickly sought in his new role as the top US diplomat to bolster ties with the region’s conservatives.Arevalo is no ideological soulmate but he has been eager to avoid friction with the new Trump administration.He told Rubio he was committed to work “comprehensively and jointly to guarantee regional stability, the dignity of our peoples and the security of our countries.”Arevalo specified Wednesday his country — a major source of migration — would accept both “returning nationals, and foreigners” who will be sent on to their respective countries.The approach is a stark contrast to Colombia, whose leftist leader demanded “dignified” treatment for deportees and sent planes to repatriate migrants after refusing US military flights with shackled people on board — sparking a brief tariff tussle with Trump.- Praise for Guatemalan democracy -Arevalo is the son of a former president and pulled off a surprise victory in 2023 on a platform of reform and rooting out corruption in one of the region’s poorest countries.He immediately faced pushback from Guatemala’s entrenched conservative elite which sought to prevent him from taking office.Right-wing parties made allegations of electoral fraud, without providing evidence, and found support in Washington from elements of Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement that refused to acknowledge his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden.Rubio, however, offered full backing to Arevalo and said they discussed the value of democracy over a dinner Tuesday in Guatemala City’s old town.”I would like to commend you for your commitment to democracy and to institutions,” Rubio said.Guatemala also appeals to the Trump administration as it is the most populous country that still recognizes Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by China.Rubio, a longtime hawk on China, said the United States will “do all we can to facilitate more Taiwanese investment in the economy of Guatemala.”- Root causes -Guatemala is one of the largest origins of migration to the United States after decades of poverty, violence and political instability.According to the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry, some 3.2 million Guatemalans live in the United States — hundreds of thousands of them undocumented.Last year, the country received 508 flights from the United States with 61,680 deportees.The United States under previous administrations sought to address the root causes of migration through on-the-ground support.However, the Trump administration said Tuesday it was sending home nearly all officers around the world from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which contributed some $178 million to projects in Guatemala in 2023.Rubio defended the decision, despite a furor from anti-poverty advocates who say that people will die, and Democratic lawmakers in Washington who say the United States is ceding leadership to China.Rubio said the Trump administration would maintain foreign assistance but have a review “from the bottom up” to see which programs meet the US national interest.He will head late Wednesday to the Dominican Republic, whose president, Luis Abinader, has championed a Trump-style hard line on chronically unstable and impoverished Haiti, including by starting work on a wall and ramping up deportations. 

A US Marine veteran who was acquitted in the chokehold death of a homeless man on the New York subway — a high-profile case highlighting the divisive issue of race in America — has been hired by a major Silicon Valley firm allied with Donald Trump.California-based Andreessen Horowitz said Daniel Penny would join the company’s American Dynamism wing that supports the “national interest,” including aerospace, defense and public safety, according to the firm’s website on Wednesday.Penny, who is white, was found not guilty in December of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old Black homeless man.Neely’s May 1, 2023, death on a New York subway train was caught on video by onlookers, and the footage was shared widely on social media.According to witnesses, Neely, before being restrained by Penny, had been screaming at passengers for food and drink and saying he was willing to die.The video showed Penny pinning Neely, who had a history of mental illness, in a chokehold on the floor of the train for several minutes.Besides the racial element, the case brought into focus two issues in New York: mental illness among the city’s homeless population and safety on public transit.Protests erupted in New York after Neely’s death, resulting in several arrests, as some decried Penny’s actions as an example of white “vigilantism.”Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of the Silicon Valley firm, is a staunch backer of Trump and played a role behind the scenes in setting up the incoming tech-focused White House.Andreessen Horowitz has backed major tech companies including Twitter (now known as X), Airbnb and Coinbase, and he is one of the longest-serving members on Meta’s board alongside Mark Zuckerberg.Andreessen, who co-founded Netscape in the 1990s, fights against any restrictions on technological development, whether from government regulation or social concerns, believing they are fundamentally detrimental to human progress.

Palestinians, Arab governments and world leaders rejected on Wednesday US President Donald Trump’s shock proposal to take over the Gaza Strip and resettle its people, even as he insisted that “everybody loves” the idea.Trump made his initial announcement of the plan to audible gasps during a White House press conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.In a proposal that lacked details on how the United States could move out more than two million Palestinians or control Gaza, Trump said he would make the territory “unbelievable” by redeveloping it after removing unexploded bombs and rubble.”The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it,” he said, adding that there was support from the “highest leadership” in the Middle East.But hours later, Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates hit back, as have China, Britain, France, Germany and the United Nations.Netanyahu, however, welcomed the idea, saying it could “change history” and was worth “paying attention to”.Suggesting “long-term ownership” by the United States, Trump said his idea would make it “the Riviera of the Middle East. This could be something that could be so magnificent.”Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, rejected the proposal, branding it “racist”.The group said the proposal to “occupy” the territory was “aggressive to our people and cause, won’t serve stability in the region and will only put oil on the fire”.Asked about the widespread criticism of his plan, Trump told reporters in the White House on Wednesday that “everybody loves it.”Much of Gaza was levelled in a 15-month war triggered by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, and Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for sealing a ceasefire agreement that took effect last month.- ‘Miserable existence’ -While Netanyahu’s US visit was billed to focus on a second phase of the truce, it quickly turned into the revelation of a proposal that would, if implemented, completely transform the Middle East.Trump, who also floated travelling to Gaza, appeared to suggest it would not be rebuilt for Palestinians.”It should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have… lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there,” he said.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas rejected the proposal, saying “legitimate Palestinian rights are not negotiable” and that it would constitute a “serious violation” of international law.A spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was “essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing”, while UN human rights chief Volker Turk said deporting people from occupied territory was “strictly prohibited” under international law.It is not the first time that Trump has suggested Palestinians should move from Gaza. In recent days, he has cited Egypt and Jordan as possible destinations, but people from the territory have said they want to stay.”They can do whatever they want, but we will remain steadfast in our homeland,” said 41-year-old Gazan Ahmed Halasa.For Palestinians, any attempts to force them out of Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba”, or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.Israelis in Jerusalem welcomed Trump’s proposal, though some did not believe it could be achieved.”I really like what he said, but in my wildest dreams… it’s hard for me to believe it will happen, but who knows,” said Refael, a 65-year-old massage therapist.Trump was vague on the details, but hinted it could require US boots on the ground “if necessary”.Egypt and Jordan have rejected any resettlement from Gaza, with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty calling for a swift reconstruction “without the Palestinians leaving”.Jordan’s King Abdullah II, in a meeting with Abbas, rejected “any attempts” to take control of Palestinian territories and displace people.- ‘Moral stain’ -In Washington, Netanyahu hailed Trump as Israel’s “greatest friend” and praised his “willingness to think outside the box”.The Israeli premier would not rule out a return to hostilities with Hamas, or with its other foes in the region including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran.”We will end the war by winning the war,” Netanyahu said, while vowing to secure the return of all hostages held in Gaza.He voiced confidence a deal with Saudi Arabia to normalise relations was “going to happen”.But Riyadh said it would not formalise ties with Israel without a Palestinian state, while rejecting any “attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land”.Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also lashed out, saying relocating Palestinians was something “neither we nor the region can accept”.The UAE rejected “any attempts of displacement”, saying “regional stability can only be attained through the two-state solution”.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Gazans “must be allowed home. They must be allowed to rebuild.”German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Gaza “belongs to the Palestinians”, while Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said: “We are opposed to the forced transfer of the residents of Gaza.”The Arab League said Trump’s proposal was a “recipe for instability”.Israeli human rights group B’Tselem described Trump’s plan as “deranged and reprehensible” and a “moral stain on all involved”.The Gaza war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory response has killed at least 47,518 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.burs-ser/ysm/ami