Italy’s Berlusconi combative after hospital stays

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi waves as he leaves the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan on September 14, 2020 after he tested positive for COVID-19 (coronavirus) and was hospitalized since September 3. (File/AFP)
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Updated 20 June 2021
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Italy’s Berlusconi combative after hospital stays

  • Berlusconi’s four hospital stays this year were prompted by complications from his coronavirus infection in 2020

ROME: Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said Sunday that he was doing better after repeated hospital stays in recent months and would remain active in politics.

“Fortunately I’m doing better, but the doctors won’t let me take part in public events yet. Nevertheless, I promise to be with you soon,” the 84-year-old told a meeting of his Forza Italia party by phone, according to media reports.

Berlusconi’s four hospital stays this year — most recently in May — were prompted by complications from his coronavirus infection in 2020.

He spent several days in a Monaco hospital in January for a heart arrythmia, while in September he was treated for a lung infection linked to Covid-19.

But the billionaire media mogul insisted that “we are still moved by the love and civic passion for our country that we brought into politics 27 years ago, and with which we still look to the future.”

“I’m still in the game.. you know me, I’ve never let myself be discouraged by any kind of obstacle,” he added.

Berlusconi offered a slew of political proposals, including a merger between Forza Italia, the League led by Matteo Salvini and the Brothers of Italy (FDI) led by Giorgia Meloni into a single right-wing force at the next parliamentary elections.

While some observers have seen his grip on the party slackening given his age and health problems, he said that “whatever Forza Italia’s decision, it’s me that will take it in concert with our leadership.”


Trump calls to probe Kamala Harris celebrity endorsements

Updated 6 sec ago
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Trump calls to probe Kamala Harris celebrity endorsements

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Monday he would launch a “major investigation” into his 2024 election rival Kamala Harris over celebrities who backed her failed run for the White House.
“Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
“I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter.”
Harris sought to harness star power from celebrities such as Beyonce and Oprah Winfrey in the election race.
Winfrey defended a $1 million payment to her production company from the Harris campaign to covers costs associated with the talk show legend hosting the presidential candidate.
Harris’s team, meanwhile, denied rumors that she paid pop megastar Beyonce $10 million to appear at a rally.
The Harris campaign listed one endorsement-related expenditure for $75 in its financial reports to an environmental advocacy group.
Trump, who won the election comfortably, received scant support from the entertainment industry at large but tapped into a targeted subset of well-known, hypermasculine influencers including podcast host Joe Rogan.
The president on Monday took aim at Beyonce, Winfrey and Bruce Springsteen, accusing Harris of paying the legendary rock star to perform at a rally in Georgia weeks before the election.
“How much did Kamala Harris pay Bruce Springsteen for his poor performance during her campaign for president?” he wrote.
“Why did he accept that money if he is such a fan of hers?“
Trump last week took to Truth Social to feud with Springsteen after the star told a British concert audience that his homeland is now ruled by a “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”
In return, the 78-year-old Republican said the star, nicknamed “the Boss,” is “Highly Overrated.”
Springsteen is an outspoken liberal critic of Trump and turned out for Harris after she replaced Democratic president Joe Biden in his abandoned reelection bid.


Iran summons British envoy after arrest of nationals

Updated 19 May 2025
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Iran summons British envoy after arrest of nationals

TEHRAN: Iran has summoned a British envoy in Tehran to protest the arrest of several of its nationals on charges of spying, state media reported Monday.
“Following the unjustified arrest of a number of Iranian nationals in the UK... the British charge d’affaires in Tehran was summoned on Sunday,” the IRNA news agency said, describing the arrests as “politically motivated.”
Three Iranian men appeared in a London court on Saturday charged with spying for the Islamic republic.
They were arrested on May 3 and identified as Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, all living in London.
The British Home Office said they were irregular migrants who arrived by small boat or other means, such as hidden in a vehicle, between 2016 and 2022.
The alleged spying took place from August 2024 to February 2025, according to UK police.
A fourth man was arrested on May 9 as part of the investigation, but has now been released without charge, the police said in a statement.
Five Iranians were also arrested on May 3 in a separate investigation.
Four of the men — who had been held on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act — had been released, although the investigation “remains active and is ongoing,” police said.
The fifth was earlier bailed to an unspecified date in May.


Indonesia searches for 19 people after landslide at gold mine in Papua

Updated 19 May 2025
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Indonesia searches for 19 people after landslide at gold mine in Papua

JAKARTA: Indonesian rescue teams were searching for 19 people missing after heavy rain caused a landslide at a gold mine in its easternmost region of Papua, officials said on Monday.
Torrential rain triggered a landslide late on Friday in a small-scale mine run by local residents in the Arfak mountains in West Papua province, said Abdul Muhari, the spokesperson of Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency.
The landslide hit temporary shelters used by the miners and killed at least one person and injured four with 19 others still missing, he added.
At least 40 rescuers with police and military personnel had been deployed to search for the missing, officials said.
Small-scale and illegal mining has often led to accidents in Indonesia, where mineral resources are located in remote areas in conditions difficult for authorities to regulate.
The rescuers started the search operation only on Sunday because it took at least 12 hours for teams to travel to the site, Yefri Sabaruddin, the head of the local rescue team, told Reuters on Monday.
"The damaged roads and mountainous tracks as well as bad weather hampered the rescue efforts," Yefri said.
The number of casualties could rise, he added.
At least 15 people died in the collapse of an illegal gold mine in West Sumatra province September last year after a landslide caused by heavy rains.
Another landslide in a gold mine on Sulawesi island killed at least 23 people in July last year. 


Trump to hold call with Putin in push for Ukraine ceasefire

Updated 19 May 2025
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Trump to hold call with Putin in push for Ukraine ceasefire

  • Says he would also speak to Ukraine's President Zelensky and NATO officials
  • Trump has repeatedly stressed that he wants to see an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will hold a phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday as part of his long-running effort to end the war set off by Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Trump had vowed during the US election campaign to halt the conflict within a day of taking office, but his diplomatic efforts have so far yielded little progress.
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine held direct negotiations in Istanbul last week for the first time in almost three years, but the talks ended without a commitment to a ceasefire.
Both sides traded insults, with Ukraine accusing Moscow of sending a “dummy” delegation of low-ranking officials.
After the negotiations, Trump announced that he would speak by phone with the Russian president in a bid to end the “bloodbath” in Ukraine, which has destroyed large swathes of the country and displaced millions of people.
Trump also said he would speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO officials, expressing hope that a “ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war... will end.”
Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly stressed that he wants to see an end to the conflict, and has recently backed calls for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.
So far, he has mainly focused on upping the pressure on Ukraine and abstained from criticizing Putin.
Both Moscow and Washington have previously stressed the need for a meeting on the conflict between Putin and Trump.
The US president has also argued that “nothing’s going to happen” on the conflict until he meets Putin face-to-face.

At the talks in Istanbul, which were also attended by US officials, Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each and trade ideas on a possible truce, but with no concrete commitment.
Ukraine’s top negotiator, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, said that the “next step” would be a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.
Russia said it had taken note of the request.
“We consider it possible, but only as a result of the work and upon achieving certain results in the form of an agreement between the two sides,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson said.
Ukraine’s western allies have since accused Putin of deliberately ignoring calls for a ceasefire and pushed for fresh sanctions against Russia.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy held a phone call with Trump on Sunday.
“Looking ahead to President Trump’s call with President Putin tomorrow, the leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and for President Putin to take peace talks seriously,” said a spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“They also discussed the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and peace talks,” the spokesman said.
Zelensky also discussed possible sanctions with US Vice President JD Vance when they met after Pope Leo’s inaugural mass at the Vatican on Sunday.
“We discussed the talks in Istanbul, where the Russians sent a low-level delegation with no decision-making powers,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram following the meeting.
“We also touched on the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defense cooperation, the situation on the battlefield and the future exchange of prisoners.”
A senior Ukrainian official from the president’s office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that they had also discussed preparations for Monday’s telephone conversation between Trump and Putin.

It was the first meeting between Zelensky and Vance since their heated White House exchange in February.
In the Oval Office, Vance publicly accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” toward Trump, who told the Ukrainian leader he should be more grateful and that he had no “cards” to play in negotiations with Russia.
Ukraine on Sunday said that Russia had launched a record number of drones at the country overnight, targeting various regions, including the capital Kyiv, where a woman was killed.
Another man was killed in the southeastern Kherson region, where a railway station and private houses and cars were hit.
In an interview with Russian state TV published on Sunday, Putin said that Moscow’s aim was to “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security,” without elaborating further.
Russia’s references to the “root causes” of the conflict typically refer to grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the invasion in February 2022.
They include pledges to “de-Nazify” and demilitarise Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country’s east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine’s westward geopolitical drift.
However, Kyiv and the West say that Russia’s invasion is an imperial-style land grab.


Trump to carry out tariff threats if nations don’t negotiate in ‘good faith,’ US treasury chief warns

Updated 19 May 2025
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Trump to carry out tariff threats if nations don’t negotiate in ‘good faith,’ US treasury chief warns

  • Bessent: Notified countries likely to see April 2 rates return
  • Says Trump administration was focused on its 18 most important trading relationships

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will impose tariffs at the rate he threatened last month on trading partners that do not negotiate in “good faith” on deals, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in television interviews on Sunday.
He did not say what would constitute “good faith” negotiations or clarify the timing to announce any decisions to return a country to the various rates Trump initially imposed on April 2.
Trump has repeatedly reversed course since then, notably on April 9, when he lowered his tariff rates on most imported goods to 10 percent for 90 days to give negotiators time to hash out deals with other countries. He separately lowered the rate for Chinese goods to 30 percent. On Friday, he reiterated that his administration would send letters telling nations what their rates would be.
On Sunday, Bessent said the administration was focused on its 18 most important trading relationships and that the timing of any deals would also depend on whether countries were negotiating in good faith, with letters going out to those that did not.
“This means that they’re not negotiating in good faith. They are going to get a letter saying, ‘Here is the rate.’ So I would expect that everyone would come and negotiate in good faith,” he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
He added that those countries that are notified would likely see their rates return to the levels set on April 2.
Asked when any trade deals could be announced, Bessent separately told CNN’s “State of the Union” program: “Again, it will depend on whether they’re negotiating in good faith.”
“My other sense is that we will do a lot of regional deals -this is the rate for Central America. This is the rate for this part of Africa,” he added.
Trump’s ongoing trade wars have severely disrupted global trade flows and roiled financial markets as investors grapple with what Bessent has called the Republican president’s “strategic uncertainty,” in his drive to reshape economic relationships in the US’ favor
Companies of all sizes have been whipsawed by Trump’s swift imposition of tariffs and sudden reversals as they seek to manage supply chains, production, staffing and prices. Congress is also grappling with the tariffs as it weighs revenues and tax cuts in its spending bill.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, last week said it would have to start raising prices later in May due to the high costs of tariffs, prompting Trump to slam the company for blaming the increases on his trade policies.
“Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING,” Trump posted online on Saturday.
Bessent said he had spoken to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on Saturday and that the company would absorb some tariffs. Representatives for the retailer declined to comment.
“Walmart is, in fact, going to ... eat some of the tariffs,” Bessent told NBC. “I didn’t apply any pressure.”