Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate head to US after travel ban is lifted in Romania

A travel ban was lifted on influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are both charged with human trafficking in Romania, and they are headed to the United States, officials said Thursday. (AFP/File)
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Updated 27 February 2025
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Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate head to US after travel ban is lifted in Romania

  • The brothers are avid supporters of President Donald Trump
  • The case hasn’t been closed, and there is also a separate legal case against the brothers in Romania

FLORIDA: A travel ban was lifted on influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are both charged with human trafficking in Romania, and they are headed to the United States, officials said Thursday.
The brothers are avid supporters of President Donald Trump and have millions of online followers. It wasn’t clear under what conditions the Tates were allowed to leave Romania, or where in the United States they were headed.
Andrew Tate, 38, and Tristan Tate, 36 are dual US-British citizens.
Andrew Tate is a former professional kickboxer and self-described misogynist who has amassed more than 10 million followers on X. He also runs an online academy where he says he teaches young men how to get rich and attract women. Tristan Tate is also a former kickboxer.
The Tates are avid supporters of President Donald Trump.
What are they charged with in Romania?
The Tate brothers and two Romanian women were arrested in Bucharest in late 2022.
The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism alleged the four defendants formed a criminal group in 2021 “in order to commit the crime of human trafficking” in Romania as well as the United States and Britain.
They were initially formally indicted last year. In April, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that a trial could start but didn’t set a date.
In December, a court in Bucharest ruled that the case against the Tates and the two Romanian women couldn’t go to trial because of multiple legal and procedural irregularities on the part of the prosecutors.
The case hasn’t been closed, and there is also a separate legal case against the brothers in Romania.
Andrew Tate has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. But they were charged with forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, among other charges.
What led to the travel ban being lifted?
DIICOT, Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, said in a statement Thursday that prosecutors approved a “request to modify the obligation preventing the defendants from leaving Romania,” but that judicial control measures remained in place. The agency didn’t say who had made the request.
The control measures include the requirement to “appear before judicial authorities whenever summoned,” the statement read.
The agency said the Tates were “warned that deliberately violating these obligations may result in judicial control being replaced with a stricter deprivation of liberty measure.”
Their departure came after Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu said this month that a US official in the current Trump administration had expressed interest in the brothers’ legal case in Romania at the Munich Security Conference. The minister insisted it didn’t amount to pressure.


Trump unveils first $5 million ‘gold card’ visa

Updated 22 sec ago
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Trump unveils first $5 million ‘gold card’ visa

  • Republican president tells reporters that the special visa would probably be available ‘in less than two weeks’
  • Trump said that sales of the new visa would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the US deficit
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump unveiled the first “gold card,” a residency permit sold for $5 million each, aboard Air Force One on Thursday.
Holding a prototype that bore his face and an inscription “The Trump Card,” the Republican president told reporters that the special visa would probably be available “in less than two weeks.”
“I’m the first buyer,” he said. “Pretty exciting, huh?”
Trump previously said that sales of the new visa, a high-price version of the traditional green card, would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the US national deficit.
The billionaire former real estate tycoon, who has made the deportation of millions of undocumented migrants a priority for his second term, said the new card would be a route to highly prized US citizenship.
He said in February that his administration hoped to sell “maybe a million” of the cards and did not rule out that Russian oligarchs may be eligible.

Trump is looking forward to Azerbaijan and Armenia signing a peace treaty, US diplomat says

Updated 27 min 37 sec ago
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Trump is looking forward to Azerbaijan and Armenia signing a peace treaty, US diplomat says

  • Armenia and Azerbaijan said last month that they had agreed the text of a peace agreement to end almost four decades of conflict
  • Fighting over Karabakh, which is part of mostly Muslim Azerbaijan but had until 2023 a heavily Armenian Christian population, broke out in the late 1980s

BAKU: US President Donald Trump is looking forward to Azerbaijan and Armenia signing a long-awaited peace treaty, Eric Jacobs, a senior adviser of the State Bureau of Energy Resources of the US Department of State, said on Friday.
Speaking at an energy event in Baku, Jacobs said the peace treaty would usher in “a new era of security and prosperity” for the South Caucasus region.
Armenia and Azerbaijan said last month that they had agreed the text of a peace agreement to end almost four decades of conflict between the two countries over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Fighting over Karabakh, which is part of mostly Muslim Azerbaijan but had until 2023 a heavily Armenian Christian population, broke out in the late 1980s, when both countries were part of the collapsing Soviet Union.
The territory gained de facto independence from Azerbaijan with Armenian support through a series of wars, but was ultimately retaken by Azerbaijan in September 2023, in a military offensive that prompted almost all of its 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee.
Since then, the two countries have both said they want a peace deal, but talks have been fitful and progress slow until a sudden breakthrough last month.
The peace deal is still not expected to be signed quickly though as Azerbaijan is demanding that Armenia first change its constitution to remove what Baku says are references to Karabakh independence.
Since the draft deal was agreed, both Armenia and Azerbaijan have also accused each other of firing on positions along the two countries’ closed and heavily militarized border. No casualties have been reported in the incidents.


EU leaders hold their first summit with Central Asian states

Updated 41 min 44 sec ago
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EU leaders hold their first summit with Central Asian states

  • The EU strategy on Central Asia emphasizes Central Asia’s growing strategic importance and aims to foster a stronger partnership

The leaders of the European Union and five Central Asian countries held their first summit on Friday to discuss ways to boost trade and other ties.
The summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan is attended by European Council President António Costa, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Costa declared that “the European Union is eager to build a mutually beneficial partnership with Central Asia, one that goes beyond expectations.”
Von der Leyen said that the summit is set to “deepen trade ties and expand cooperation in transport, critical raw materials, digital connectivity, water and energy.”
The EU strategy on Central Asia emphasizes Central Asia’s growing strategic importance and aims to foster a stronger partnership with the countries of the region.
Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that during the past seven years trade between Central Asian and EU countries has increased to 54 billion euros ($60 billion), adding that the summit “should become the starting point of a new stage in the development of multi-faceted relations.”


Danish leader tells the US ‘you cannot annex another country’ as she visits Greenland

Updated 43 min 31 sec ago
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Danish leader tells the US ‘you cannot annex another country’ as she visits Greenland

  • Danish leader: ‘If we let ourselves be divided as allies, then we do our foes a favor. And I will do everything that I can to prevent that from happening’
  • ‘This is about the world order that we have built together across the Atlantic over generations: you cannot annex another country, not even with an argument about international security’

NUUK, Greenland: Denmark’s prime minister is wrapping up a three-day visit to Greenland on Friday after telling the US “you cannot annex another country,” even with the argument that international security is at stake.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen traveled to the strategically critical Arctic island as US President Donald Trump seeks control of Greenland. He argues that Greenland, a semiautonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark, is critical to US security.
A week ago, Vice President JD Vance visited a remote US military base in Greenland and accused Denmark of underinvesting in the territory.
Frederiksen pushed back against the US criticism as she spoke on Thursday alongside Greenland’s incoming and outgoing leaders. She argued that Denmark, a NATO ally, has been a reliable friend.
Speaking in English, she said that “if we let ourselves be divided as allies, then we do our foes a favor. And I will do everything that I can to prevent that from happening.”
“When you ask our businesses to invest in the US, they do. When you ask us to spend more on our defense, we do; and when you ask of us to strengthen security in the Arctic, we are on the same page,” she said.
“But when you demand to take over a part of the Kingdom of Denmark’s territory, when we are met by pressure and by threats from our closest ally, what are we to believe in about the country that we have admired for so many years?”
“This is about the world order that we have built together across the Atlantic over generations: you cannot annex another country, not even with an argument about international security,” Frederiksen said.
The Danish leader said that, if the US wants to strengthen security in the Arctic, “let us do so together.”
Political parties in Greenland, which has been leaning toward eventual independence from Denmark for years, last week agreed to form a broad-based new coalition government in the face of Trump’s designs on the territory. Those have angered many in Greenland and Denmark.
In an interview with Newsmax on Thursday, Vance repeated the accusation that Denmark has “really underinvested in the infrastructure and security of Greenland.”
He said Trump’s point is that “this matters to our security, this matters to our missile defense, and we’re going to protect America’s interests come hell or high water.”


Russia accused by Britain and France of delaying ceasefire talks, say Putin 'owes' the US an answer

Updated 04 April 2025
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Russia accused by Britain and France of delaying ceasefire talks, say Putin 'owes' the US an answer

  • Britain and France are helping to lead a multinational effort known as the “coalition of the willing” to set up a force to police any future peace in Ukraine

BRUSSELS: Britain and France on Friday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks to bring a halt to fighting in Ukraine and ramped up pressure on Moscow by insisting that he owes the United States an immediate answer.
Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting after a Kremlin official said on Monday that Moscow views efforts to end its three-year war with Ukraine as “a drawn-out process.”
“Our judgment is that Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet,” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told reporters at NATO headquarters, standing alongside his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot in a symbolic show of unity.
Britain and France are helping to lead a multinational effort known as the “coalition of the willing” to set up a force to police any future peace in Ukraine.
Lammy said that while Putin should be accepting a ceasefire, “he continues to bombard Ukraine. It’s civilian population. It’s energy supplies. We see you, Vladimir Putin. We know what you are doing.”
Barrot said that Ukraine had accepted ceasefire terms three weeks ago, and that Russia now “owes an answer to the United States.” US President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky after he promised last year to bring the war to a swift conclusion.
“Russia has been flip-flopping, continuing its strikes on energy infrastructure, continuing its war crimes,” Barrot said. “It has to be ‘yes.’ It has to be ‘no.’ It has to be a quick answer.”
He said that Russia shows no intention of halting its military campaign, noting that Putin on Monday ordered a call-up intended to draft 160,000 conscripts for a one-year tour of compulsory military service.
The two foreign ministers pledged to continue helping to build up Ukraine’s armed forces – the country’s best security guarantee since the US took any prospect of NATO membership off the table.
Coalition army chiefs were due to meet in Kyiv on Friday. Defense ministers from the group will meet at NATO headquarters next Thursday.