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Catholic cardinals agreed on Monday to begin a conclave on May 7 to elect a new pope, and highlighted clerical sexual abuse as one of the key challenges facing Pope Francis’s successor.So-called “Princes of the Church” under the age of 80 will meet in the Sistine Chapel to choose a new religious leader for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.The date was decided at a meeting of cardinals of all ages early on Monday, two days after the funeral of Francis, who died on April 21 aged 88.The cardinals outlined the most pressing Church challenges including “evangelisation, the relationship with other faiths (and) the issue of abuse”, the Vatican said.”There was talk of the qualities that the new pontiff must possess to respond effectively to these challenges,” it added.The Church’s 252 cardinals were recalled to Rome after the Argentine’s death, although only 135 are eligible to vote in the conclave.They hail from all corners of the globe and many of them do not know each other.But they already had four meetings last week, so-called “general congregations”, where they began to become better acquainted.Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, 83, a former head of the Italian bishops’ conference, said there was a “beautiful fraternal atmosphere”.”Of course, there may be some difficulties because the voters have never been so numerous and not everyone knows each other,” he told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper. On Monday, the Vatican closed the Sistine Chapel, where voting will take place under Michelangelo’s 16th-century ceiling frescoes, to begin preparations.So far there are few clues as to who the cardinals might choose.”I believe that if Francis has been the pope of surprises, this conclave will be too, as it is not at all predictable,” Spanish Cardinal Jose Cobo told El Pais in an interview published on Sunday.Francis was laid to rest on Saturday with a funeral and burial ceremony that drew 400,000 people to St Peter’s Square and beyond, including royalty, world leaders and ordinary pilgrims.On Sunday, about 70,000 mourners filed past his marble tomb in the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome, after the “pope of the poor” opted to be buried outside the Vatican’s walls.- Abuse -With conflicts and diplomatic crises raging around the world, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin is for many the favourite to succeed him.Parolin was secretary of state under Francis — the pope’s number two.British bookmakers William Hill put him slightly ahead of Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, the Metropolitan Archbishop emeritus of Manila, followed by Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson.Next in their odds come Matteo Zuppi, the Archbishop of Bologna; Guinea’s Cardinal Robert Sarah; and Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. The cardinals have put the Catholic Church’s global sex abuse crisis on their list of pressing issues the new pope will have to tackle.Francis introduced a series of measures to combat clerical sexual abuse.But victims associations say he did not do enough and the issue remains a major challenge for the Church, with the scandals showing no sign of abating.The challenge is significant. In many African and Asian countries, the subject remains taboo. Even in Europe, Italy has yet to launch an independent investigation into abuse allegations.While Francis’s efforts to create a more compassionate Church earned him widespread affection and respect, some of his reforms angered the Church’s conservative wing, particularly in the United States and Africa.Roberto Regoli, a professor of Church history and culture at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, told AFP that the cardinals would be looking “to find someone who knows how to forge greater unity”.”We are in a period in which Catholicism is experiencing various polarisations, so I don’t imagine it will be a very, very quick conclave,” he said.Bassetti, who is too old to participate, said that he thought it “will not be long”.Some 80 percent of the cardinal electors were appointed by Francis — although that is no guarantee they will pick a successor in his mould.Most are relatively young, and for many it is their first conclave.- ‘We need a courageous leader’ -The vote is highly secretive and follows strict rules and ceremonial procedures. The process could take several days or potentially longer.There are four votes per day — two each in the morning and afternoon — until one candidate secures a two-thirds majority.Fewer than half of those eligible to vote are European.”The future pope must have a universal heart (and) love all the continents. We must not look at colour, at origin, but at what is proposed,” Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga from the Central African Republic told the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.”We need a courageous leader, a bold one, capable of speaking forcefully, of holding the helm of the Church steady even in storms… offering stability in an era of great uncertainty.”Patrizia Spotti, a 68-year-old Italian visiting Rome for the 2025 Jubilee holy year, told AFP on Monday that she hoped the new pontiff “will be a pope like Francis”.It was a difficult time for Catholicism, she said.”Churches are empty and the Church itself has made mistakes — all the scandals with the children,” she said, referring to the widespread revelations of clerical sex abuse.

US President Donald Trump hit out Monday at “fake polls” showing dismal approval ratings for the Republican less than 100 days after returning to the White House.A Washington Post-ABC News survey last week revealed just 39 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s job performance, while a New York Times poll put that figure at 42 percent.More than 40 percent of Americans “disapprove strongly” of Trump, The Post found.”Great Pollster John McLaughlin, one of the most highly respected in the industry, has just stated that The Failing New York Times Poll, and the ABC/Washington Post Poll…are FAKE POLLS FROM FAKE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.McLaughlin is a close supporter of the president and a Republican researcher who has consistently published survey results favorable to Trump.The president, who has long seen the mainstream press as an enemy, accused pollsters and news organizations of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.””These people should be investigated for ELECTION FRAUD, and add in the FoxNews Pollster while you’re at it,” he said.With the exception of Bill Clinton and now Trump, US presidents dating back to Ronald Reagan have had an approval rating topping 50 percent after their first 100 days in office, according to the Pew Research Center.Trump has come racing out of the gates in his second term in office, slashing government agencies, launching trade wars with friends and foes alike and even taking on the judiciary over his immigration crackdown.While the opinion polls reflect a growing mistrust of White House economic policy, the pessimism appears yet to reach Trump’s core base of supporters, whose adulation of the president largely has remained strong through thick and thin.Polls have pointed out that the low ratings for Trump, ever the divider who plays to his strengths, are essentially on par with those in 2017, at the same time in his first term.In today’s hyper-divided political America, 70 percent of Republican voters and Republican-leaning independents still support Trump’s tariff hikes, while 90 percent of Democrats oppose them, according to Pew.

Kim Kardashian is due to testify in the Paris trial that begins Monday of the “grandpa robbers” accused of stealing $10 million worth of jewellery from the billionaire high priestess of social media.The ageing French underworld figures accused of tying her up and threatening her with a gun in the heist during Paris Fashion Week in 2016 reportedly did not know who she really was.Yet few under 50 on the planet with a smartphone could have escaped the rise of one of the world’s most famous influencers over the last two decades.Kardashian has been a constant presence in popular culture, an uber-celebrity whose every move commands attention, yet who never seems to be anything other than in complete control.While lesser stars have been consumed by fame, Kardashian remains at the height of her powers, defying criticism that she is really only famous for being famous.It is thought Kardashian’s frequent posts about her wealth, personal life and whereabouts may have helped put the robbers on her trail.When they burst into her exclusive Paris suite they shouted that they wanted the $4-million (3.5-million euro) diamond engagement her now ex-husband, US rapper Kayne West, gave her, and that she had shown off on social media.- Fame -Los Angeles-born Kardashian, 44, spent her childhood on the periphery of fame.Her mother Kris married the 1976 Olympic decathlon winner then known as Bruce Jenner, who has since transitioned to life as Caitlyn, after divorcing her late father Robert Kardashian.He was one of the high-flying lawyers who defended American football legend OJ Simpson in his 1995 murder trial. As a teenage friend of Los Angeles socialites Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton, Kardashian garnered the first inklings of her own fame, being photographed with them at popular nightspots and appearing in their reality show “The Simple Life.”But it was in 2007 that she was catapulted into popular consciousness when an explicit four-year-old home movie she had made with her then-boyfriend singer Ray J was posted online.Cynics noted the tape appeared as Kardashian and her family were readying to promote “Keeping up with the Kardashians,” a fly-on-the-wall reality TV look at the family’s life of wealth, luxury, unbelievable cattiness — and startling mundanity.Planted or not, the footage burned Kardashian onto the public’s collective retina.”Keeping up with the Kardashians,” which followed the personal and professional trials of sisters Kim, Kourtney and Khloe and their half-sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner, was one of television’s longest-running reality shows.For some, it was must-see entertainment offering an insight into celebrity through the prism of a unique family.For others, as The Washington Times once wrote, it was vapid chaff that “illustrates our nation’s moral, spiritual and cultural decay.”Either way, the show was very, very good for business.A series of enterprises including KKW Beauty and KKW Fragrance established Kardashian as a serious player in the fashion and lifestyle sector, propelled by the rise of social media, where she regularly posted titillating thirst traps to build her brand.But it was the apparel label Skims that really brought in the big bucks.The firm unapologetically celebrates the female form, boasting “technically constructed shapewear that enhances your curves.”A 2023 investment round valued the company at $4 billion, and Forbes estimates Kardashian’s personal net worth is now $1.7 billion.- Marriage to Kanye… and divorce -Her forays into the fashion and beauty worlds were supercharged by her relationship with West, her third husband.Their marriage in 2014 — the year of that “Break the Internet” photoshoot involving her shapely bare buttocks and lots of champagne — was a “historic blizzard of celebrity,” according to The New York Times.They flew to France for a pre-wedding rehearsal at the Palace of Versailles, where they arrived in a gold-plated carriage before flying on to Italy to tie the knot.Four children later, the couple’s relationship ran into difficulties, as West’s behavior became increasingly erratic. His bizarre but truncated 2020 bid for the US presidency degenerated into rambling self-confession.Kardashian appealed for empathy for her husband, who at one time spoke of living with bipolar disorder, but by 2021 was filing for divorce.Kardashian said she has tried to protect the couple’s children from the inevitable hurt of their parents’ split.”You want to be sensitive because they’re just kids, and it’s hard to go through no matter what age,” she told GQ in 2023.”Ultimately what matters is that kids feel loved and heard.”They are certainly seen: Kardashian’s 357 million Instagram followers are given regular updates on the children.Since her split with West, Kardashian had a high-profile romance with comedian Pete Davidson, and was linked to NFL player Odell Beckham Jr.Amid the parenting, the television shows, the endless red carpets and the multi-billion-dollar business, Kardashian has also found time to launch a legal career.After embarking on an apprenticeship with a prison reform group, she successfully petitioned US President Donald Trump to pardon a grandmother serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense — and then visited him at the White House.In 2021 and on her fourth attempt, she passed California’s “baby bar” exam, a seven-hour slog for first-year law students with a pass rate of only around 20 percent.Her late father, she mused, “would be so proud.””He would actually be so shocked to know that this is my path now.”

Flag football, a non-contact version of American football, is spreading like wildfire among US girls drawn by the prospect of its inclusion in the 2028 Olympics, its popularity even sparking plans for a professional league.”It’s the youth version of pickleball, the fastest growing adult sport,” says Michael Colt, comparing flag football to the racquet sport that’s all the rage among the over-30s. “It’s crazy.” Colt, 44, coaches the Staten Island Giants, last year’s under-18 US champions.Since he co-founded the club in 2019, its youth teams have earned a host of national titles and sent several players to the national team.Colt said it had been “a struggle” early on to gain recognition and find backing.”We fought for everything,” he said. “We were kind of always pushed to the side, like this wasn’t serious.”And I see that about the sport to this day, when you’re asking the difference in the sport. In the beginning, nobody really wanted to coach girls.”The Giants’ trajectory mirrors that of the sport as a whole. Developed as an alternative to collision prone tackle football, girls’ and women’s flag was relatively unknown six years ago.Yet particpation reached close to 270,000 girls aged six to 17 in 2024, according to the USA Football, which oversees US teams in tackle and flag football — and Colt’s Giants club has the financial backing of the NFL’s New York Giants.Even as the NFL throws its impressive weight behind the game, the scope of flag football can still come as a surprise to the uninitiated, especially the opportunity it provides for gridiron-loving girls.When 14-year-old Brielle Caetano talks about flag, which she has been playing since kindergarten, people “are very in shock”.”And (then) I tell them you can get a (university) scholarship from that,” Caetano added. “They’re definitely in shock.””Football has always been considered a boy’s sport,” noted 16-year-old Annie Falcone of the familiar high-contact game whose pinnacle is the NFL. “But flag football has grown so much for women of all ages.”In flag football, most often played in a five-on-five format, an offensive player is “tackled” by pulling one of two “flags” worn on a belt around the hips.No blocking is allowed, further reducing the risk of injury in a game that focuses on running and throwing skills.”It’s just incredible to me how fast flag overall is growing, but really led by girls and women,” said Scott Hallenbeck, USA Football’s chief executive officer.”In my probably 30-plus years of being involved in sports, I’ve never seen a discipline of a sport scale (up) as fast as we’re seeing flag.”Hallenbeck said a lot of credit for that growth goes to the NFL, which is pushing to develop the game.That includes at the youth level, with the NFL organizing its own national flag tournament for boys and girls in July this year, with sponsors and a TV broadcasting contract.- Fandom, opportunities -While the NFL is the most-watched pro league in the United States, it has struggled to expand the game outside US borders.The NBA has become a global phenomenon, and elite basketball leagues prosper outside the USA. But tackle football has found a foothold in just a few other countries such as Germany and Mexico.Hallenbeck said flag football could be an international game-changer.”(They are) really pushing flag to help grow fandom and opportunities around the world and then obviously putting a lot of emphasis around it here in this country,” he said.Gaining inclusion at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is a key part of that campaign, and is already having an effect.”It’s a source of motivation for me and for the girls right now,” Falcone said.The NFL is already looking beyond the Games, and is “exploring very aggressively now an opportunity to create a professional flag league for both men and women, obviously two different leagues,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in February.”They’re trying to gather sponsors,” said Colt. “I definitely think it’s going to be a professional sport by 2032.”

US President Donald Trump said he believed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was ready to concede Crimea to Russia as part of any ceasefire deal, as talks on a truce entered what Washington called a critical week on Monday.Trump also stepped up pressure on Vladimir Putin, saying the Russian president should “stop shooting” and sign an agreement to end the grinding war that started with Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.Trump’s comments came a day after he met Zelensky during the funeral of Pope Francis, breaking the ice after a major row between the US and Ukrainian leaders at the White House in February.”Oh, I think so,” Trump told reporters in Bedminster, New Jersey, when asked whether he thought Zelensky was ready to “give up” Crimea — despite the Ukrainian president repeatedly saying he never would.Trump added that during their talks in the Vatican they had “briefly” discussed the fate of the Black Sea peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.The 78-year-old US president, who boasted before his inauguration that he could halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine within one day, launched a diplomatic offensive to stop the fighting after taking office in January.Kyiv and western allies have feared that Trump was pivoting towards Moscow’s position.But the US leader has appeared increasingly impatient with Putin in recent days.Russia launched drone and missile attacks the night after the Vatican talks, killing four people in regions across eastern Ukraine and wounding more than a dozen.- ‘Stop shooting’ -“I want him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal,” Trump said Sunday when asked what he wanted from Putin. “We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it.”The White House has said that without rapid progress, it could walk away from its role as a broker. Trump indicated that he would give the process “two weeks.”US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier Sunday stressed the importance of the week ahead.”We’re close, but we’re not close enough” to a deal to halt the fighting, Rubio told broadcaster NBC. “I think this is going to be a very critical week.”But there is still US frustration with both sides, as the war, which has devastated swaths of eastern Ukraine and killed tens of thousands of people, drags on.Ukraine launched a “massive” drone attack on Russia’s Bryansk region on Sunday, killing one civilian and injuring another, the regional governor said.Washington has not revealed details of its peace plan, but has suggested freezing the front line and accepting Russian control of Crimea in exchange for an end to hostilities.Russia claims to have annexed four eastern and southern territories of war-battered Ukraine since its full-scale invasion three years ago, despite not having full military control over them.Russia holds about 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea. – ‘Territorial concessions’ -But Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Sunday that Ukraine should not agree to all the steps reportedly set out in the deal proposed by Trump.Kyiv knew a ceasefire “may involve territorial concessions,” Pistorius told broadcaster ARD. “But these will certainly not go… as far as they do in the latest proposal from the US president.”Europe has pushed for a bigger role in the Ukraine talks, with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joining Trump and Zelensky briefly for the meeting in Saint Peter’s Basilica.Rubio meanwhile had a phone call Sunday with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the foreign ministry in Moscow said.The pair said there were “emerging prerequisites” for starting negotiations towards a long term peace, a statement said.Russia insists on keeping the territory it has taken and demands the demilitarization of Kyiv, plus an end to western support.In a sign of the war’s global dimensions, North Korea on Monday confirmed for the first time that it had deployed troops to Russia’s Kursk region and said its soldiers had helped Moscow reclaim territory there.Moscow over the weekend claimed the “liberation” of Kursk, where Kyiv launched a shock cross-border offensive in August 2024, hoping to use land there as a bargaining chip in any peace talks.But Zelensky said Sunday that Ukraine’s army was “maintaining our presence on Russian territory.” burs-dk/jgc

Ten suspects go on trial in Paris on Monday over the 2016 robbery of the US celebrity Kim Kardashian, which saw some $10 million worth of jewellery stolen from the reality TV star and influencer.Kardashian, now 44 — who left Paris traumatised hours after the robbery on the night of October 2-3, 2016 — is due to testify at the trial on May 13 in a court appearance that will be a major event in itself.Those on trial are mainly men in their 60s and 70s with previous criminal records and underworld nicknames like “Old Omar” and “Blue Eyes” that recall the old-school French bandits of 1960s and 1970s film noirs.Kardashian, then 35, was threatened with a gun to the head and tied up with her mouth taped up. The theft was the biggest against a private individual in France in the past 20 years.The trial will also go into how the perpetrators received the information as to where Kardashian was staying during Paris Fashion Week, and picked the very moment when her bodyguard was absent, accompanying her sister Kourtney to a night club.It is thought Kardashian’s frequent posts about her wealth, personal life and whereabouts may have facilitated the perpetrators’ actions. The trial gets under way from 1230 GMT.- Haul never recovered -The star was staying at an exclusive hotel in central Paris favoured by celebrities when two armed and masked men stormed into her room at around 3:00 am after arriving at the establishment by bicycle.They shouted that they wanted the diamond engagement ring from her now ex-husband, the US rapper Kayne West.Kardashian had been showing it off on her social media channels — it alone was valued at $4 million (3.5 million euros).They made off with the ring among $10 million worth of jewels.The only item recovered was a diamond necklace dropped in the street while the thieves escaped.It all lasted just 10 minutes, with Kardashian’s bodyguard arriving to rescue his client after he was alerted.The suspects were arrested three months after the robbery, through DNA evidence.But the gold seized was apparently melted down and investigators, who took hundreds of thousands of euros from the suspects when they were arrested, believe that much of the stolen haul was sold in Belgium.- ‘Easy’ heist -Twelve suspects were charged, with 10 going on trial from Monday. One died in March this year and another is to be tried separately for health reasons.”It wasn’t a major armed robbery” but an “easy” heist, said the main suspect, Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, known as “Old Omar”. His DNA from the scene helped investigators find him and the co-defendants.He admitted tying up Kardashian, but disputes investigators’ claims that he was the mastermind behind the robbery.He says he was approached by an unnamed “sponsor” who suggested the scheme on behalf of an “informant” very close to the star, who then gave them the green light.According to his lawyer, Khedache now has severe hearing and speaking problems and can only express himself in writing.Another key suspect is Didier Dubreucq, 69, known as “Blue Eyes”, accused of being the second person who stormed into Kardashian’s room. He denies the charges.Yunice Abbas, 71, meanwhile stayed in the lobby while the two other men went up to her room, it is alleged.He controversially sought to capitalise on the crime by writing a book titled: “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian”.Others on trial are accused of being facilitators and informants, including Gary Madar, the brother of Kardashian’s long-serving Paris driver.He is accused of supplying information about her movements, which he denies.Despite the “media hype”, the trial “must allow for calm debates”, warned one of the defence lawyers, Margot Pugliese.The trial is due to last until May 23.

US President Donald Trump has come racing out of the gates in his second term in office, slashing government agencies, launching trade wars with friends and foes alike and even taking on the judiciary over his immigration crackdown.The Republican’s approval rating has sunk since returning to the White House — but his supporters could not care less. Here are five Americans who voted for Trump telling AFP in their own words why, despite the tumultuous first 100 days of his reign, they continue to support the unconventional billionaire.Frank Tuoti feels the economy ‘will work out'”So far, I’m very satisfied with the job he’s doing,” said Frank Tuoti, a 72-year-old retired machinist from New Hampshire. “I’m a little concerned about the economy with his tariff, his new tariff policies, but I’m hoping that it will work out,” he added, noting that his retirement investments have lost money due to stock market volatility. Tuoti is likely in the minority here, with a recent Fox News poll finding 56 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s economic policies. “I think it will work out in the end,” Tuoti continued.”He’s negotiating with a lot of different countries… and one thing he does know about is money, and making money.”Jane Sisk sees Trump having a ‘hard time’ on UkraineA retired mother of six, Jane Sisk also told AFP she had not checked her 401k retirement account recently “because I don’t want to get upset.” “I loved everything that he’s doing,” the 63-year-old Virginia resident said. Nevertheless, she recognized Trump has had trouble with landing his promised end to the war in Ukraine: “I think we got two very stubborn leaders that don’t want to give up on anything to, you know, let the war end. And I think, I think Trump and JD Vance both have done just about everything they can.””Trump is the art of the deal,” she continued. “But he’s having a hard time making a deal on that one, I will say!”Karen Miner, unbothered about tariffsAcross the country, Karen Miner owns a wine store in Reno, Nevada. Her merchandise is mostly imported and could be impacted by Trump’s escalating trade war — though she seems unconcerned at the moment. “You can’t do numbers yet, because essentially, we don’t know what those tariffs are going to be, because it’s still in negotiations,” Miner, 57, said. “They can always buy wines from the United States,” she added. Only nine percent of Trump voters currently disapprove of his actions, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll. “I mean, the guy is very brilliant, he knows what he’s doing,” Miner said.Christy Edwards applauds Trump’s immigration iron fist Christy Edwards, a retired teacher in North Carolina, said she supports Trump across the board — especially immigration, where the US leader’s mass deportations of illegal immigrants have faced challenges in the courts. “Those are the kind of people we don’t need in the United States,” the 54-year-old said. “He’s not deporting people who have not caused any problems. He’s deporting the criminals,” Edwards continued. Edwards also firmly rejected the use of public funds for immigrants: “We can’t support that right on, especially as working people, we’re the ones paying for all that.”Zack Kline wonders ‘how it’s going to change’A 22-year-old resident of York, Pennsylvania, Zach Kline noted Trump’s return to office has already caused some changes, such as a lower number of crossings at the southern US border, calling it “very refreshing to see.” “But a lot of things haven’t changed too much as of right now, so I’m just anxious to see how it’s going to change,” Kline said. He expressed excitement for certain promises Trump has made, such as allowing fracking and “cutting down on a lot of the waste that we have in our government.” “It’s kind of a wait-and-see because it’s only been 100 days,” he said.vid-arb-rfo-ube/bpe/jgc/aha

The United States has hit more than 800 targets in Yemen since mid-March, killing hundreds of Huthi rebel fighters, including members of the group’s leadership, the US military said Sunday.Washington’s forces have hammered the Huthis with near-daily air strikes since March 15 in an operation dubbed “Rough Rider,” seeking to end the threat they pose to vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and reestablish US regional “deterrence.””Since the start of Operation Rough Rider, USCENTCOM has struck over 800 targets. These strikes have killed hundreds of Huthi fighters and numerous Huthi leaders,” the military command responsible for the Middle East said in a statement that provided its most detailed accounting of the operation so far.”The strikes have destroyed multiple command-and-control facilities, air defense systems, advanced weapons manufacturing facilities, and advanced weapons storage locations,” CENTCOM said.Despite the strikes, the Huthis — who control large swaths of Yemen and have been at war with a Saudi-led coalition backing the internationally recognized government since 2015 — have continued to claim attacks against both US vessels and Israel.CENTCOM said that “while the Huthis have continued to attack our vessels, our operations have degraded the pace and effectiveness of their attacks. Ballistic missile launches have dropped by 69 percent. Additionally, attacks from one-way attack drones have decreased by 55 percent.””Iran undoubtedly continues to provide support to the Huthis. The Huthis can only continue to attack our forces with the backing of the Iranian regime,” the military command said.”We will continue to ratchet up the pressure until the objective is met, which remains the restoration of freedom of navigation and American deterrence in the region,” it added.- Strikes on Sanaa -As the United States announced details on the latest round of its campaign against the Huthis, the rebel-controlled Al-Masirah TV reported that US strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa had killed at least eight people and wounded others.Al-Masirah TV also broadcast footage of the rubble of destroyed homes and cars, as well as blood stains on the ground, while rescuers collected what appeared to be human remains in white cloth.Earlier Sunday, Huthi media said overnight strikes on Sanaa had killed two people and wounded several more.The latest strikes brings the death toll since March 15 to 228, according to an AFP tally based on Huthi announcements.The Huthi rebels began targeting shipping in late 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by a military campaign launched by Israel after a shock Hamas attack in October of that year.Huthi attacks have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal — a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of the world’s shipping traffic — forcing many companies into a costly detour around the tip of southern Africa.The United States first began conducting strikes against the Huthis under the Biden administration, and President Donald Trump has vowed that military action against the rebels will continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping.The Trump administration has been forced onto the political defensive during the Yemen campaign by scandals stemming from senior officials’ use of commercial messaging app Signal to discuss strikes that took place on March 15.Last month, The Atlantic magazine revealed that its editor-in-chief was mistakenly included in a Signal chat in which officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, discussed the strikes.US media outlets then reported earlier this month that Hegseth had shared information on the same strikes in a second Signal group chat with various people who would not normally be involved in such discussions, including his wife.

US President Donald Trump said Sunday he wanted Russia’s Vladimir Putin to “stop shooting” in Ukraine and sign a peace deal, one day after the US leader met Ukraine’s president at the Vatican.Trump, who boasted before his inauguration that he could halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine within one day, has launched a diplomatic offensive since taking office to halt the fighting.Those efforts have so far failed to yield any results.”Well, I want him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal,” Trump said in response to a question on what he wanted from Putin.Trump was speaking on the tarmac at Morristown airport before boarding Air Force One bound for Washington, having attended the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome on Saturday.”We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it,” Trump added, likely referring to a US-proposed peace plan for the more-than-three-year-long conflict in Ukraine.Trump had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the funeral, where the two leaders spoke face-to-face for the first time since a disastrous televised meeting in the White House in February.After their brief talk in St Peter’s Basilica, Trump cast doubt over whether Putin wanted an end to the war, which has devastated swaths of eastern Ukraine and killed tens of thousands of people.Trump also said on Sunday that he thought Zelensky was ready to give up Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula captured by Russia in 2014, as part of efforts to agree a peace deal.”Oh, I think so,” said Trump in response to a question on whether he thought Zelensky was ready to “give up” the territory.Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, claimed to have annexed four eastern and southern territories of the war-battered country despite not having full military control over them.

Ryan Coogler’s 1930s vampire thriller “Sinners” sunk its teeth into another huge weekend at the North American box office, taking in $45 million, industry estimates showed Sunday. Michael B. Jordan (“Black Panther,” “Creed”) stars as twins in Coogler’s supernatural horror flick set in Mississippi, which has a near-perfect 98 percent fresh rating on movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.Hailee Steinfeld and Delroy Lindo also star in the music-driven Warner Bros film, which has a cumulative domestic take of $122.5 million.In second place was the 20th anniversary re-release of Disney’s “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” with a whopping $25.2 million, according to data from Exhibitor Relations.The result, one of the best ever for a re-release, “clearly demonstrates the audience and fan passion for this beloved franchise,” said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.Ben Affleck’s “The Accountant 2” debuted in third place at $24.5 million. The Amazon MGM Studios film stars Affleck as a neurodivergent math genius with ties to the criminal underworld and Jon Bernthal as his hit man brother.Video game adaptation “A Minecraft Movie” from Warner Bros., starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, finished in fourth place with $22.7 million. It has so far grossed $380 million in North America — the top release so far this year — and another $436 million internationally, putting it on track to rake in a billion dollars. In fifth place was new Sony horror film “Until Dawn” at $8 million.Rounding out the top 10 were:”The King of Kings” ($4 million)”The Amateur” ($3.8 million)”Warfare” ($2.7 million)”The Legend of Ochi” ($1.4 million)”Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii” ($1.3 million)