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The United States is increasing the number of aircraft carriers deployed in the Middle East to two, keeping one that is already there and sending another from the Indo-Pacific, the Pentagon said Tuesday.The announcement comes as US forces hammer Yemen’s Huthi rebels with near-daily air strikes in a campaign aimed at ending the threat they pose to civilian shipping and military vessels in the region.The Carl Vinson will join the Harry S. Truman in the Middle East “to continue promoting regional stability, deter aggression, and protect the free flow of commerce in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.”To complement the CENTCOM maritime posture, the secretary also ordered the deployment of additional squadrons and other air assets that will further reinforce our defensive air-support capabilities,” Parnell said, referring to the US military command responsible for the region.”The United States and its partners remain committed to regional security in the CENTCOM (area of responsibility) and are prepared to respond to any state or non-state actor seeking to broaden or escalate conflict in the region,” he added.The Huthis began targeting shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the start of the Gaza war in 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.Huthi attacks have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal, a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic. Ongoing attacks are forcing many companies into a costly detour around the tip of southern Africa.- ‘Real pain’ -A day before the carrier announcement, US President Donald Trump vowed that strikes on Yemen’s Huthis would continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping.”The choice for the Huthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Huthis and their sponsors in Iran,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.Trump added that the Huthis had been “decimated” by “relentless” strikes since March 15, saying that US forces “hit them every day and night — Harder and harder.”On Wednesday, the Huthis accused the United States of killing four people in fresh air strikes on Hodeida province.The US president has also ramped up rhetoric towards Tehran, threatening that “there will be bombing” if Iran does not reach a deal on its nuclear program.Satellite images seen by AFP showed that Washington had between March 26 and Wednesday doubled the number of B-2 bombers at a US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, from three to six.The photos from imaging company Planet Labs PBC also showed the presence of six Stratotanker in-flight refuelling aircraft at the Diego Garcia base, within range of Iran.Trump’s threats come as his administration battles a scandal over the accidental leak of a secret group chat by senior security officials on the Yemen strikes.The Atlantic magazine revealed last week that its editor — a well-known US journalist — was inadvertently included in a chat on the commercially available Signal app where top officials were discussing the strikes.The officials, including Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussed details of air strike timings and intelligence — unaware that the highly sensitive information was being simultaneously read by a member of the media.

Donald Trump’s second presidency was dealt a spinning blow by voters in Wisconsin Tuesday as they elected a liberal judge to the state’s Supreme Court, despite his billionaire advisor Elon Musk pouring millions into the race to sway the polls.Liberal judge Susan Crawford soundly defeated Trump-backed Brad Schimel with more than 95 percent of the vote tallied, according to US media.”Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price,” Crawford said in her victory speech after the most expensive judicial contest in US history. Republicans had pursued an all-out effort to flip the Wisconsin state Supreme Court — which rules on things like voting district boundaries — with Musk pouring $25 million into the race and traveling to Wisconsin.”The long con of the left is corruption of the judiciary,” Musk posted on his social media platform as results poured in. Trump appeared to ignore the outcome on social media, highlighting a separate Wisconsin ballot initiative requiring voters to present photo identification to cast a ballot.”Voter I.D. just approved in Wisconsin election…this is a big win for Republicans, maybe the biggest win of the night,” he posted on TruthSocial late Tuesday.And he celebrated a pair of House races in Florida on the same day, where two deeply conservative districts stayed in Republican hands, even if the margins were narrower than in 2024.- ‘Fate of civilization’ -Musk, who has spearheaded Trump’s attempts to gut much of the US government in a right-wing cost-cutting drive, had personally campaigned for Schimel.The highlight of his weekend visit to the upper Midwestern state reprised a tactic seen during his efforts to help Trump defeat Democrat Kamala Harris in November — handing out money to anyone who signed a petition against so-called “activist judges.”Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders told voters on X they had “the power to REJECT Musk and the oligarchy buying our elections.”After Crawford’s win, he said Wisconsin “defeated the wealthiest person on earth.”In Florida, two seats in the US House of Representatives were up for grabs to fill vacancies in Republican strongholds, left by Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and failed nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz.On Tuesday evening, US media called the race for Florida’s sixth district in favor of Republican Randy Fine, with Trump tweeting: “Congratulations Randy, a great WIN against a massive CASH AVALANCHE.”Shortly after, media outlets also called the special election in Florida’s first district for Trump-backed Republican Jimmy Patronis.Democrats, adrift since losing the presidency to Trump and both chambers of Congress in November, had hoped a decent showing in Florida and a win in Wisconsin could spark a comeback.But in Florida, they were defeated by double-digit percentage margins in both special elections.Trump took credit for his party’s victory in both deep red districts, posting on social media that “the Trump endorsement, as always, proved far greater than the Democrats forces of evil.”But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries offered an optimistic view, telling broadcaster MSNBC that the smaller margins in districts won handily by Trump “should have my Republican colleagues quaking in their boots.”- Big stakes, bigger money -Illustrating the stakes of the contest in Wisconsin, the race set a spending record — much of that in advertising and attempts, particularly by Musk, to drive turnout.Musk, who spent roughly $277 million on Trump’s 2024 election campaign, presented checks of $1 million to two voters and $100 each to other voters who signed his petition.According to the Brennan Center for Justice, more than $53.3 million has been spent by Schimel and his backers, including $12.2 million from Musk’s America PAC.Crawford’s campaign and those backing her have spent an estimated $45.1 million.The spending has made the Wisconsin race the most expensive in US judicial history, the center said.”Wisconsin beat the billionaire,” said Minnesota Governor and former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.Billionaire Musk’s Green Bay rally on the weekend drew an enthusiastic crowd, but the South African-born oligarch’s role in Wisconsin elections provoked as much resistance as support.At a pro-Crawford rally, 65-year-old retired electrical engineer Rob Patterson held up a sign showing Musk giving a straight-armed salute.”Our Supreme Court is not for sale,” the sign read.

Val Kilmer, one of the biggest Hollywood actors of the 1990s who shot to fame playing Iceman in the original “Top Gun”, has died aged 65 after a career of memorable hits and on-set bust ups.The cause of death was pneumonia, his daughter Mercedes Kilmer told the New York Times on Tuesday, which was the first publication to announce the news. He battled throat cancer after being diagnosed in 2014 and appeared in the “Top Gun” sequel and a 2021 documentary appearing physically diminished and with a raspy voice. His film credits include blockbusters such as Oliver Stone’s “The Doors,” in which he played Jim Morrison, as well as a short-lived stint as Batman in “Batman Forever” in 1995 opposite Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones.”Once you’re a star, you’re always a star. It’s just ‘what level?'” he told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview in 2012.”And I was in some big, wonderful movies and enjoyed a lot of success, but I didn’t sort of secure that position.”- Tributes-A versatile character actor who also cultivated a theatre career, he toggled between big-budget successes, commercial flops and smaller independent films after his breakout role in “Top Gun” opposite Tom Cruise. Kilmer was superbly cast playing the cocky, square-jawed and mostly silent fighter pilot-in-training Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in the 1986 box office smash hit. After a cameo in Quentin Tarantino-written “True Romance,” Kilmer also went on to star alongside Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in “Heat”.But he developed a reputation as a difficult actor who sometimes clashed with directors and co-stars. A 1996 Entertainment Weekly cover story dubbed Kilmer “The Man Hollywood Loves to Hate,” depicting him as a sometimes surly eccentric with exasperating work habits.”Hollywood and our business, it’s a very social business, and I never tried to be involved in the community of it,” he conceded in a 2012 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Tributes flowed in on Tuesday from some of his past directors, however.Francis Ford Coppola, who worked with him for “Twixt”, wrote that Kilmer “was a wonderful person to work with and a joy to know”, while “Heat” director Michael Mann also praised his range and “brilliant variability.””After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news,” Mann wrote on Instagram.The official “Top Gun” account on X posted a picture of Kilmer as Iceman, saying he had left an “indelible cinematic mark”. – ‘ Magical life’ -Born Val Edward Kilmer on New Year’s Eve 1959, he began acting in commercials as a child.Kilmer was the youngest person ever accepted to the drama department at New York’s fabled Juilliard school, and made his Broadway debut in 1983 alongside Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon.Having fallen out of favor after the turn of the century, he was mounting a comeback in the 2010s with a successful stage show about Mark Twain that he hoped to turn into a film when he was struck by cancer. “Val,” an intimate documentary about Kilmer’s stratospheric rise and later fall in Hollywood, premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2021 and showed him struggling for air after a tracheotomy. It also hinted at his frustration at signing autographs at conventions which, as he put it, was like “selling his old self.” Kilmer “has the aura of a man who was dealt his cosmic comeuppance and came through it,” US publication Variety wrote of the film. “He fell from stardom, maybe from grace, but he did it his way.”When he reprised his role as “Iceman” in the long-awaited sequel “Top Gun: Maverick,” Kilmer’s real-life health issues, and rasp of voice, were written into the character.”Instead of treating Kilmer — and, indeed, the entire notion of Top Gun — as a throwaway nostalgia object, he’s given a celluloid swan song that’ll stand the test of time,” GQ wrote.On his website, Kilmer had described himself as leading a “magical life.””For more than half a century, I have been honing my art, no matter the medium. Be it literature, movies, poetry, painting, music, or tracking exotic and beautiful wildlife,” he wrote.According to the Times, he is survived by two children, Mercedes and Jack Kilmer. 

Virginia Giuffre, who accused disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein and Britain’s Prince Andrew of sexual abuse, is in a stable condition after a reported car crash in Australia, the hospital treating her said Wednesday.Giuffre, a US and Australian citizen, was injured on March 24 in a crash between her car and a school bus in Western Australia, according to her agent Dini von Mueffling.She is now “stable” and being treated at the Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, a hospital spokesperson told AFP, declining to give further details.Her agent earlier said Giuffre was “banged up and bruised” after a school bus hit her car but that police were unavailable to attend and she initially went home.An Instagram post in Giuffre’s name this week included a photo of her apparently lying in a hospital bed with bruises and grazing around her left eye, forehead and nose.”I think it important to note that when a school bus driver comes at you driving 110 km (70 miles per hour) as we were slowing for a turn that no matter what your car is made of it might as well be a tin can,” she wrote.”I’ve gone into kidney renal failure, they’ve given me four days to live, transferring me to a specialist hospital in urology. I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time.”Addressing the comments, Giuffre’s agent said only that “Virginia thought that she had posted on her private Facebook page.”Western Australia police said there was a “minor crash” between a school bus carrying 29 children and another vehicle in the farming area of Neergabby north of Perth on March 24.”There were no injuries reported to us,” the state’s road police commander Mike Bell told reporters Wednesday.Police could not confirm they had received any calls about the collision, he said, adding that they were not required to go to road accidents without injuries.- Police investigating -“We did not attend that crash, which does not surprise me because it was reported the following day by the bus driver. So we did not know about it at the time,” Bell said.Police had called people involved in the “low-level crash” and were investigating further, he said.The accident caused no damage to the bus and about Aus$2,000 (US$1,300) to the car, “which is not a lot these days because of the cost of repairing cars,” the police commander said.Asked if the bus was travelling 110 kilometres per hour, he said the damage was “minor” and “the report that has been filed has no suggestion of travelling anywhere near that speed”.Giuffre accused the late US billionaire Epstein of using her as a sex slave. Prince Andrew repeatedly denied her allegation of sexual assault when she was 17 and avoided trial by paying a multimillion-dollar settlement.

The United States said Tuesday it has approved the possible sale of $5.58 billion in F-16 fighter jets to the Philippines, as Washington backs its ally in rising tensions over China.The State Department said it was green-lighting a sale that includes 20 F-16 jets and related equipment to the Philippines, a treaty-bound ally of the United States.The sale would “improve the security of a strategic partner that continues to be an important force for political stability, peace and economic progress in Southeast Asia,” a State Department statement said.It would also boost “the Philippine Air Force’s ability to conduct maritime domain awareness” and “enhance its suppression of enemy air defenses,” the statement said.The news follows months of increasing confrontations between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit.A State Department spokesperson said Wednesday that the deal would be final only after “a signed Letter of Offer and Acceptance” was received from the “purchasing partner”. Philippine defense department spokesman Arsenio Andolong told AFP he had “not received any official notice of such a decision.”But China warned Manila against the purchase, saying the Philippines was “threatening” regional peace.”The Philippines’ defense and security cooperation with other countries should not target any third party or harm the interests of a third party. Nor should it threaten regional peace and security or exacerbate regional tensions,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.Manila and Washington have deepened their defense cooperation since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022 and began pushing back on Beijing’s sweeping South China Sea claims.In December, the Philippines angered China when it said it planned to acquire the US mid-range Typhon missile system in a push to secure its maritime interests.Beijing warned such a purchase could spark a regional “arms race”.- ‘Inevitably’ involved -President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to redirect US military efforts to Asia to face a rising China, especially as tensions rise over Taiwan, and to lessen involvement in Europe despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.On Tuesday, as Chinese ships and warplanes surrounded Taiwan in a simulated blockade, Philippines military chief General Romeo Brawner said his country would “inevitably” be involved should the self-ruled island be invaded.”Start planning for actions in case there is an invasion of Taiwan,” he told troops in northern Luzon island, without naming the potential invader.”Because if something happens to Taiwan, inevitably we will be involved.”He also said that the bulk of this month’s joint military exercises would be conducted in northern Luzon, the part of the Philippines nearest Taiwan. “These are the areas where we perceive the possibility of an attack. I do not want to sound alarmist, but we have to prepare,” he added.Asked about Brawner’s comments, Beijing foreign ministry spokesman Guo said resolving “the Taiwan issue is a matter for the Chinese people.” “We advise certain individuals in the Philippines not to play with fire or make provocations on the Taiwan issue — those who play with fire will only get burned,” he said.On a visit to Manila last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to “reestablish deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region” in light of “threats from the Communist Chinese.”Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also reiterated US defense commitments to the Philippines, a contrast to the Trump administration’s frequent talk of “freeloading” off the United States by allies in Europe.

El Salvador’s pugilistic president has become a key partner for US President Donald Trump’s in-your-face campaign to deport migrants, with both men hoping to reap the political benefits.Through a rollout of slickly produced videos featuring chained and tattooed men roughly escorted off planes, Nayib Bukele has won the US president’s attention and admiration.”Thank you President Bukele, of El Salvador, for taking the criminals that were so stupidly allowed, by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, to enter our country, and giving them such a wonderful place to live!” Trump posted on Monday on his TruthSocial platform.His comments were accompanied by the latest video posted by Bukele featuring heavily staged, militaristic and confrontational clips of migrants arriving in the Central American nation. Trump’s appreciation was quickly reciprocated: “Grateful for your words, President Trump. Onward together!” Bukele posted. To cement the relationship, the pair will meet at the White House this month, with Bukele promising to bring “several cans of Diet Coke” for his famously soda-thirsty host. But behind the hardman camaraderie lies raw politics.For Bukele, accepting hundreds of deportees from the United States “consolidates his image as the leader who transformed security in El Salvador” said Migration Policy Institute analyst Diego Chaves-Gonzalez. – Gang crackdown -Since coming to power in 2019, Bukele has subdued his once gang-plagued nation of about six million people. Dispensing with warrants and due process, he jailed almost two percent of the population and brought the murder rate down from more than 6,500 a year to just 114, according to official figures. Security remains central to the “iron fist” political brand that makes Bukele one of the most popular politicians on the planet — with a domestic approval rating hovering above 85 percent.  Welcoming Trump deportees to El Salvador’s mega jail CECOT has not just made Bukele a friend in the White House, but also allowed the 43-year-old president to put the signature 40,000-prisoner jail on full display. The sprawling facility’s austere concrete walls and army of masked guards have featured prominently in videos produced by Bukele’s government.  Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem even visited CECOT, posing in front of a cell overflowing with seemingly dead-eyed and heavily tattooed men. – ‘Propaganda’ -Both Bukele and Trump have enthusiastically shared pictures of prisoners shackled, shorn and manhandled while simultaneously highlighting and rejecting objections from judges and opponents.In that sense, Trump appears to be echoing Bukele’s political imagery to appeal to his own base of US voters. “It is a sign that Trump is interested in ‘iron fist’ propaganda and disobeying judicial rulings,” said Salvadoran political analyst Napoleon Campos.That heavy-handed approach has its risks. The White House was forced into an embarrassing admission on Tuesday that an “administrative error” had seen a Salvadoran man living in the United States under protected legal status swept up in the hurried deportation process and sent to Bukele’s prison.Even so, a recent CBS poll showed 53 percent of voters, and an overwhelming majority of Republicans, approve of Trump’s handling of immigration — a higher approval rating than he receives on the economy. Aside from political benefits for both men, there is a potential security and economic boon for Bukele.His government received six million dollars for taking deportees, a fee that Bukele described as “a very low fee for them, but a high one for us.” He also received more than 20 allegedly high-ranking members of El Salvador’s most notorious gang MS-13, who were being held in the United States. Bukele claimed that would help “finalize intelligence gathering and go after the last remnants of MS-13, including its former and new members, money, weapons, drugs, hideouts, collaborators, and sponsors.” And there is the promise of US investment in El Salvador, a country which still has a per capita income comparable to Iraq or war-ravaged Ukraine.When he heads to the White House this month, Bukele will be hoping for more than warm words and a few cans of Diet Coke as payback for his support. 

Prolific American actor Val Kilmer, who was propelled to fame with “Top Gun” and went on to starring roles as Batman and Jim Morrison, has died at age 65, the New York Times reported Tuesday.The cause of death was pneumonia, his daughter Mercedes Kilmer told the Times. He had battled throat cancer following a 2014 diagnosis, but later recovered, she said.AFP has reached out to his representatives for comment.Originally a stage actor, Kilmer burst onto the big screen full of charisma, cast as a rock star in Cold War spoof “Top Secret!” in 1984.Two years later, he gained fame as the cocky, if mostly silent fighter pilot in training Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in box office smash hit “Top Gun,” playing a rival to Tom Cruise’s “Maverick.”A versatile character actor whose career spanned decades, Kilmer toggled between blockbusters and smaller-budget independent films. He got a shot at leading man status in Oliver Stone’s “The Doors,” depicting Jim Morrison’s journey from a psychedelics-loving LA film student to 60s rock frontman.After a cameo in Quentin Tarantino-written “True Romance,” Kilmer went on to star alongside Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in “Heat” and took a turn as the masked Gotham vigilante in “Batman Forever,” between the Bruce Wayne portrayals by Michael Keaton and George Clooney.A 1996 Entertainment Weekly cover story dubbed Kilmer “The Man Hollywood Loves to Hate,” depicting him as a sometimes surly eccentric with exasperating work habits.A New York Times interviewer in 2002 said Kilmer “hardly lives up to that reputation” and found the actor instead “friendly, buoyant and so open that he often volunteers personal details about his life and is quick to laugh at himself.””You have to learn to speak Val,” director D. J. Caruso told the newspaper.- ‘ Magical life’ -Born Val Edward Kilmer on New Year’s Eve 1959, he began acting in commercials as a child.Kilmer was the youngest person ever accepted to the drama department at New York’s fabled Juilliard school, and made his Broadway debut in 1983 alongside Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon.In Hollywood, the Los Angeles native longed to make serious films, but found himself in a series of schlocky blockbusters and expensive flops in the early 2000s.Chastened by a decade or more of low-budget movies, he was mounting a comeback in the 2010s with a successful stage show about Mark Twain that he hoped to turn into a film when he was struck by cancer. “Val,” an intimate documentary about Kilmer’s stratospheric rise and later fall in Hollywood, premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2021 and showed him struggling for air after a tracheotomy. Kilmer “has the aura of a man who was dealt his cosmic comeuppance and came through it,” US publication Variety wrote of the film. “He fell from stardom, maybe from grace, but he did it his way.”When he reprised his role as “Iceman” in the long-awaited sequel “Top Gun: Maverick,” Kilmer’s real-life health issues, and rasp of voice, were written into the character.”Instead of treating Kilmer — and, indeed, the entire notion of Top Gun — as a throwaway nostalgia object, he’s given a celluloid swan song that’ll stand the test of time,” GQ wrote.On his website, Kilmer said he had led a “magical life.””For more than half a century, I have been honing my art, no matter the medium. Be it literature, movies, poetry, painting, music, or tracking exotic and beautiful wildlife,” he wrote.According to the Times, he is survived by two children, Mercedes and Jack Kilmer. 

Nervous US allies at NATO are scrambling to keep President Donald Trump engaged by upping defence spending, vowing to take the reins on Ukraine and queueing for face time at the White House.But as his administration savages Europe, undercuts Kyiv and warms to Russia, Western diplomats fret that even if the alliance is salvaged it runs the risk of being hollowed out.”We know the direction: less US in the alliance,” said one NATO diplomat, talking like others on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive subjects. “Our interest is to keep the maximum US in the alliance.”So far, US officials have insisted that Washington remains committed to an alliance that has seen American military might underpin Western security for over seven decades.That’s at least some reassurance after Trump reportedly threatened to pull the United States out entirely during his first term.Still, the warning signs are flashing red.Those range from the deep contempt for Europe voiced by Trump’s team, to territorial threats against Greenland and Canada, and the president’s threats to only protect allies spending enough that strike at the heart of NATO’s mutual defence pledge. Meanwhile, as Washington makes clear it could shift forces away from Europe to focus on other challenges, Trump’s outreach to Russia has unleashed fears he could end up siding with number one nemesis Moscow.”The level of optimism is certainly dropping,” a second NATO diplomat told AFP. “The US still hasn’t taken any concrete decisions, but every day seems to bring another hit against the foundations of the alliance.” – Withdrawing from Europe? – US defence chief Pete Hegseth fired the first shots in February, warning European allies in a fiery debut at NATO that they would have to “take ownership of conventional security on the continent”, with Washington “prioritising deterring war with China in the Pacific”.Trump’s is not the first US administration to float pulling back from Europe: Barack Obama vowed a “pivot to Asia” in 2011. “We always knew that the moment would come when America would sort of step back and Europe would have to do more — and that’s not a bad thing,” said Jamie Shea, a former NATO official now with the Chatham House think tank.”The idea is to try to keep as much American engagement as you possibly can, and if they do start withdrawing, at least trying to make sure that they withdraw the less important stuff and the door is always open for them to ramp up again.”Diplomats and officials insist that if the United States is planning to scale down its presence in Europe then it needs to lay out a clear timeline so as not to leave gaps in the continent’s defence. Europe is ramping up its expenditure and weapons production to be ready, spurred on by Trump’s demand to more than double NATO’s spending target to five percent of GDP.Even then, officials concede that replacing key assets like US nuclear capabilities will prove almost impossible.”The Americans have got to be honest with the Europeans about what they’re going to take away and what they’re going to leave — because at the moment, the problem for Europe is it has no idea,” Shea said.”With Trump’s performative politics, strategic thinking and long-term planning come much behind short-term punitive measures and headlines, and that means all this could be severely bungled.”- Siding with Russia? -While US involvement inside the alliance may be one issue, NATO members in Europe are also fretting about potentially more fundamental threats.NATO is essentially based on an act of faith — article five of its founding treaty that declares an attack on one ally “shall be considered an attack against them all”.That provides succour to allies, and wards off adversaries, provided everyone believes it. But Trump has cast doubt on the US commitment, suggesting he would only protect countries spending enough. “Article five is about psychology — and in this sense he did question it,” admitted one diplomat. Beyond that, there is another looming unthinkable haunting the alliance. As he reaches out to Russia on Ukraine and sidelines Europe, could Trump genuinely be willing to draw close to their prime enemy Russian President Vladimir Putin?For now the hope is that Trump’s courting of Moscow is part of his negotiating strategy to try to secure a deal to end the war.”It can be a bitter medicine to swallow but, if it’s just tactical, of course it could be acceptable,” a fourth diplomat said. “If it is a strategic shift, then of course it’s a big problem.”

Embattled Hollywood studio Warner Bros on Tuesday unveiled footage from its make-or-break “Superman” reboot and a lavish new Leonardo DiCaprio film at the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas.Warner, which has suffered several recent costly flops like “Joker: Folie a Deux,” brought stars including DiCaprio on stage to promote its latest high-budget efforts to movie theater owners at the annual summit.”Superman,” hitting US theaters in July, is the studio’s attempt to totally relaunch its line of superhero movies, which are based on the popular DC comics but have long been overshadowed by Disney’s rival Marvel films.Director James Gunn said he was determined to reinvigorate a character “who’s perceived as old fashioned by many” for modern audiences.Superman will be played by actor David Corenswet, but a key ingredient in the film appears to be the superhero’s dog Krypto, who played a starring role in much of the new footage.Based on Gunn’s own badly-behaved rescue pooch, Krypto frequently nips at Superman’s heels and destroys his Fortress of Solitude base, rather than helping his master.The footage indicated a lighter, more humorous approach, in contrast with many of Warner’s previous “Superman” movies which earned poor reviews and relatively disappointing box office returns with their ultra-serious tones.”This is a movie that celebrates kindness and human love,” promised Gunn.Variety’s Brent Lang dubbed the film Warner’s “last, best chance to make a movie that rivals Marvel.”- ‘Fried my brain’ -The launch comes as the studio attempts to shrug off multiple reports that it is considering parting ways with its movie chiefs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca.The pair have approved a number of high-budget, original films from award-winning filmmakers, including last month’s flop sci-fi “Mickey 17” from “Parasite” director Bong Joon-ho.All eyes are now on Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” starring DiCaprio.Loosely based on post-modern novelist Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland,” the film cost more than $140 million to produce — meaning Warner is banking heavily on DiCaprio’s star power to lure audiences.DiCaprio, who has been one of Hollywood’s top A-listers for decades, said he had been wanting to work with “There Will Be Blood” director Anderson for “almost 20 years now.”Extensive yet cryptic new footage showed DiCaprio playing Bob — a man who was once a “revolutionary” but has “fried my brain” by having abused drugs and alcohol for decades — struggling to remember a secret passcode that will help him locate his daughter. The original novel is set in California during the conservative 1980s backlash to the previous decades’ hippie movements.”I think with this film, he’s tapped into something politically and culturally that is brewing beneath our psyche,” said DiCaprio.”But at the same time, it’s an incredibly epic movie and has such scope and scale.”- ‘Baseline’ -Also on Tuesday, Warner and Apple presented footage from “F1,” a new racing drama starring Brad Pitt from the director of “Top Gun: Maverick,” out in July.Lionsgate flew in singer The Weeknd for a surprise musical set to delight movie theater owners and promote “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” a new psychological thriller film based on his latest album. The film is set to be released in May.The day began with US movie theaters’ trade organization calling for new films to play exclusively on their big screens for at least 45 days before becoming available on streaming.Cinema owners say box office profits have been undercut by shorter theatrical-only “windows” brought in during the pandemic, in part as audiences now assume — sometimes correctly — that they can watch new movies at home within weeks.”There must be a baseline,” said Cinema United president Michael O’Leary, calling for “a clear, consistent period of exclusivity” of at least 45 days.

Posting for provocation’s sake has long been the province of internet antagonists and the alt-right, but these days, even the official White House X account is embracing the communications strategy that often celebrates others’ suffering.Recently, the account posted about the arrest of a weeping, handcuffed alleged felon before her deportation by depicting her likeness in the AI-generated Ghibli style that has flooded the internet, giving the image of her sobbing an animated aesthetic.Not long prior, the account posted a video of shackled deportees set to the tune of “Closing Time,” the 90’s-era Semisonic hit.”I think it sums up our immigration policy pretty well: ‘You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here,'” said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, quoting the lyrics with a smile as she defended the message, which Semisonic immediately denounced.And then there was the Valentine’s Day post: “Roses are Red / Violets are Blue / Come Here Illegally / And We’ll Deport You” read a card featuring the floating heads of President Donald Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan.For Marcus Maloney, a sociology professor at Coventry University, it is a social media strategy that speaks to “the 4Chanification of American politics.”An image-based online forum that has become a hub of disinformation, 4Chan was an early home of “shitposting,” a brand of internet communication intended to shock, offend or muddle discourse with absurdity.And if Trump 1.0 embraced the 2016-era alt-right “shitposters” who bolstered his candidacy, Trump 2.0 is incorporating their methods into official communication channels.It is a new tactic on an account that not long ago, even in the Republican president’s first term, featured a stream of press releases and relatively innocuous statements.Responding to online outrage over the Ghibli portrayal of a deportation arrest, White House communications official Kaelan Dorr re-posted the image, vowing that “the arrests will continue. The memes will continue.””They’re leaning pretty heavily into meme culture and to chronically online individuals,” said Jacob Neiheisel, a political science professor at the University of Buffalo.”That’s where a lot of the energy in the MAGA movement is.”- Offensive ‘outsider’ -Trump presented himself as the iconoclastic opposite of the more polished Democrats when he won his first term. By the time he won his second, “the gloves were really off in terms of his communication style — and people really responded to that,” Maloney said, adding that the offensiveness can actually come off as more “authentic.””That offensiveness signals a kind of outsider status,” he continued, “even though we’re talking about a guy who’s a billionaire.”The trolling now adopted by the White House is meant to simultaneously shock and be brushed off as a joke, the genre of “locker room talk” that has been a through-line of Trump’s non-consecutive presidencies.The former reality TV star has brought that genre’s energy to governing, firing off frenetic statements that often denigrate his opponents and apply crass labels to them.This style appeals to people already fluent in trolling, particularly younger males, Neiheisel said: “It’s funny for them. It’s entertainment.”- Demeaning and trivializing -Another of the White House’s infamous posts likened images and sounds of shackled people boarding a deportation plane to ASMR, the auditory-sensory phenomenon that sees people find relaxation or pleasure in certain sounds.The flippant language “hurts, ultimately, the gravitas of the presidency — the world’s most powerful office — and it hurts the perception of it not only domestically but internationally,” said Mark Hass, a digital marketing expert and strategic communication professor at Arizona State University.”It trivializes” important issues like immigration and demeans people, Hass said.And it can represent an insidious reflection of the Trump administration’s political aims, Maloney said. That callousness can open the door to policies that dehumanize or render vulnerable minority groups, he added.”It’s a nihilism in respect specifically to how things are communicated,” he said. “In terms of what they’re actually doing,” he said, it’s “a mainstreaming of far-right dream policies.”