Author: Gulf News Week

NEW YORK (news agencies) — THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. news agencies’s earlier story follows below.Wall Street was mixed in quiet trading early Tuesday as markets appeared to shrug off new tariff deadlines for U.S. trading partners.Futures for the S&P 500 added 0.1% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.1%. Nasdaq futures rose 0.2%.Markets tumbled Monday after President Donald Trump set a 25% tax on goods imported from Japan and South Korea and new tariff rates on a dozen other nations scheduled to go into effect on Aug. 1.The S&P slid 0.8% on…

NEW YORK (news agencies) — Oprah Winfrey has chosen a novel with a timely theme for her latest book club pick. Bruce Holsinger’s “Culpability” is a family drama that probes the morals and ethics of AI.“I appreciated the prescience of this story,” Winfrey said in a statement Tuesday, the day of the novel’s publication. “It’s where we are right now in our appreciation and dilemmas surrounding Artificial Intelligence, centered around an American family we can relate to. I was riveted until the very last shocking sentence!”Holsinger, a professor of English at the University of Virginia, is the author of four…

MOSCOW (news agencies) — The apparent suicide of Russia’s transportation minister brought expressions of shock and sorrow Tuesday from the Kremlin but no new clues as to why Roman Starovoit might have taken his own life amid media speculation that he potentially was facing corruption charges.Starovoit, who served in his post for little over a year, was found dead from a gunshot wound — news that broke hours after a decree was issued Monday by President Vladimir Putin that dismissed the 53-year-old Cabinet member.Starovoit’s body was found in the Odintsovo district just west of the capital that is home to…

U.S. President Donald Trump has been nominated again for the Nobel Peace Prize. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Trump on Monday that he recommended him for the prestigious award, handing the American leader the letter he said he sent the Nobel committee.Trump has been nominated several times by people within the U.S. as well as politicians abroad — but that’s only one small step in the secretive process.Trump’s nominators have included a group of U.S. House Republicans and two Norwegian lawmakers. The groups separately nominated him in 2018 for his work to ease nuclear tensions with North Korea. One…

President Donald Trump sent letters to 14 countries Monday outlining higher tariffs they’ll face if they don’t make trade deals with the U.S. by Aug. 1.In the letters, which were posted on Truth Social, Trump warned countries that they would face even higher tariffs if they retaliated by increasing their own import taxes.Here’s a look at the countries that got tariff letters Monday:Tariff rate: 40%Key exports to the U.S.: Clothing, leather goods, seafoodTariff rate: 40%Key exports to the U.S.: Shoes with textile uppers, wood furniture, electronic components, optical fiberTariff rate: 36%Key exports to the U.S.: Textiles, clothing, shoes, bicyclesTariff rate:…

WASHINGTON (news agencies) — While the Trump administration explores ways to encourage Americans to have more babies and reverse the United States’ falling birth rate, a new poll finds that relatively few U.S. adults see this as a priority or share the White House’s concerns.Instead, Americans are more likely to want the government to focus on the high cost of child care and improving health outcomes for pregnant women, according to the survey from media-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.Pronatalism, or the promotion of childbearing, has gained traction as a movement within the tech world and among some religious conservatives.…

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (news agencies) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels continued an hourslong attack Tuesday targeting a Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea, authorities said, after the group claimed to have sunk another vessel in an assault that threatens to renew combat across the vital waterway. The Greek-owned Eternity C remains “surrounded by small craft and is under continuous attack,” the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center warned Tuesday. At least two people on board the ship were reported to be hurt and two others missing. The bulk carrier had been heading north toward the Suez Canal when it…

The Lebanese presidency handed a reply to US Special Envoy Tom Barrack on Monday over Hezbollah’s disarmament.Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun received American diplomat Thomas Barrack in Beirut on Monday and gave him the Lebanese state’s reply to a proposal from the United States about disarming Hezbollah. Barrack, ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria, said Lebanon’s response was “something spectacular” and that he was “unbelievably satisfied” by the reply, which has not been made public as of yet. The visit comes amid continued Israeli attacks on alleged Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, which have killed civilians, since a ceasefire went…

Five years after the true crime documentary “Tiger King” captivated a country shut down by COVID-19, the final legal troubles for one of its main characters will be resolved Tuesday in a courtroom in South Carolina.Bhagavan “Doc” Antle faces up to 10 years in prison for trafficking in exotic animals and money laundering after pleading guilty in November 2023.Exactly what punishment prosecutors are asking for and any arguments for leniency from Antle’s attorneys were kept from the public before Tuesday morning’s hearing in federal court in Charleston.Three others who pleaded guilty in his investigation received either probation or a four-month…

LONDON (news agencies) — French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Britain on Tuesday for a state visit mixing royal pageantry with thorny political talks about stopping migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats.Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also try to advance plans for a post-ceasefire security force for Ukraine, despite apparent U.S. indifference to the idea and Russia’s refusal to halt the onslaught on its neighbor.Macron’s three-day visit, at the invitation of King Charles III, is the first state visit to the U.K. by a European Union head of state since Brexit, and a symbol of…