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President Donald Trump proclaimed a decisive break with decades of US interventionism during his Middle East tour, promising a new American foreign policy based instead on his beloved art of the deal.Trump vowed during his swing through Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that there would be no more “lectures on how to live”, saying the region had achieved a “modern miracle the Arabian way.”In an extraordinary rupture with his predecessors, Trump then lambasted what he called the “neo-cons” that oversaw bloody US military interventions in the region and beyond.”In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built,” Trump told an investment forum in Riyadh, the first stop on his tour of the Gulf.”Far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use US policy to dispense justice for their sins.”Trump did not name them but the targets were clear. His Democratic predecessor Joe Biden tried to tie US support to the promotion of human rights and the maintenance of the international order. And Republican George W. Bush in the early 2000s launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.- ‘Consequential shift’ -“Trump’s Riyadh speech marked a clear and consequential shift in US policy toward the Middle East,” said Sina Toossi, from the Center for International Policy. “By rejecting the legacy of military intervention and nation-building, he signaled a move toward realism and restraint. This shift resonates deeply in a region exhausted by war and foreign meddling.”But for Trump, that also means ignoring democracy and human rights issues and embracing the leaders of oil-rich monarchies with often autocratic tendencies.His Saudi host, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was for example found by US intelligence to have ordered the gruesome murder in 2018 of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi. But there was no mention of that in Riyadh.Instead, Trump preached the same brand of gold-plated, transactional politics that he does at home.Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates showed him the money, signing a host of huge business and investment deals with the United States during his trip.In return they got the glitz of Trump’s first major foreign trip and praise as being examples of what the region could become.Conversely, Trump’s visit also shook one of the longest-standing pillars of US policy in the Middle East — its support for Israel.The US president not only bypassed Israel on the trip but appeared to sideline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on key issues including Iran’s nuclear program, Israel’s war in Gaza, and Yemen’s Huthi rebels.This showed mounting tensions behind the scenes, particularly on Iran, with Israel far keener than Trump on a military option.- ‘American power’ -But Trump’s deal-making approach to foreign policy could soon have its limits tested.He has shown willingness to seek a deal with Iran over its nuclear program — saying that Tehran’s case “I have never believed in having permanent enemies.”But at the same time Trump has threatened military action against Iran if it does not reach an accord.Trump also left the Middle East with no progress towards a deal to end the war in Gaza despite his pledges to end the conflict — although he made a rare reference to the fact that people were now “starving” in the besieged enclave.Further afield, Trump tried to coax Russia’s Vladimir Putin to talks in Istanbul during his trip to discuss an end to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but his efforts came to nothing.Trump’s “peace through strength” doctrine also has its contradictions. On a visit to a huge US air base in Qatar he said that “my priority is to end conflicts, not start them.” But then he immediately added: “I will never hesitate to wield American power if it’s necessary to defend the United States of America or our partners.”

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering taking part in a reality TV show in which immigrants would compete for American citizenship, the department confirmed on Friday.Asked about the reported idea, DHS responded with a statement that said the pitch “has not received approval or rejection by staff,” and that “each proposal undergoes a thorough vetting process prior to denial or approval.””We need to revive patriotism and civic duty in this country, and we’re happy to review out-of-the-box pitches,” Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in the statement.The Wall Street Journal reported that the proposed show — which was pitched by a Canadian American named Rob Worsoff — would see contestants face off to prove they are the most American.”This isn’t ‘The Hunger Games’ for immigrants,” the newspaper quoted Worsoff as saying — a reference to a dystopian novel and subsequent movie about children forced to kill each other in a televised competition for survival.”This is not, ‘Hey, if you lose, we are shipping you out on a boat out of the country,'” he said.The Journal reviewed a 36-page slide deck from Worsoff’s team about the proposed program, which would see contestants compete in one-hour episodes.This could include a gold rush competition to see who can retrieve the most precious metal from a mine, or one in which contestants would work in teams to assemble the chassis of a Model T car, according to the newspaper.The show would start with an arrival at Ellis Island — the traditional entrance point for immigrants to the United States — and would see one contestant eliminated per episode.The news comes as former reality show star President Donald Trump’s administration has moved to end temporary protected status (TPS) for various groups of immigrants it had shielded them from deportation.Federal law permits the government to grant TPS to foreign citizens who cannot safely return home because of war, natural disasters or other “extraordinary” conditions.Since taking office, Trump has sought to strip TPS protections from citizens of countries including Afghanistan, Haiti and Venezuela as part of his broader crackdown on immigration.That crackdown — led by DHS — has included immigration raids, arrests and deportations.

Train engineers seeking higher pay went on strike Friday in New Jersey, triggering travel misery for New York-area commuters in America’s biggest metropolitan corridor.New Jersey’s first state-wide transit strike in decades began a minute after midnight when contract talks fell apart, so many people showed up at stations unaware that trains were not running.Commuters scrambled to find alternative ways to get across the Hudson River into New York and elsewhere, looking at much higher fares to go by Uber or Amtrak, a national rail system. A ticket to Manhattan with the latter can cost $98.Laura Pejo, 68, stood at a rail station in the city of Hoboken after finishing her work day and pondered a complex multi-stop bus trip to get home.”So it will take about three hours, when my usual commute is 35-40 minutes,” she told AFP.The strike is also bad news for people headed to MetLife Stadium in the town of East Rutherford for a Shakira concert Friday night and a series of Beyonce shows over the next two weeks. Now there is no train service to the arena.”I’m going to there early and then, depending on when the concert is over, I guess I’m going to have to schedule in advance an Uber and just hope I don’t pay more than I paid for the concert ticket,” said Matthew Samuels, 25.NJ Transit, the third-largest transit system in the United States, said 350,000 customers rely on its services each day. Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) union picketed outside rail stations.Many waved signs that accused NJ Transit executives of treating themselves to expensive perks while train drivers’ wages lagged behind those of colleagues in other areas of America.The union said it has been locked in a years-long dispute with NJ Transit, with its members going five years without a raise. The union is seeking new contracts for around 450 engineers with hourly wages matching those of the neighboring Long Island Rail Road.Contract negotiations are due to resume Sunday. – ‘We’ll get there’ -NJ Transit officials have said the wage hike requested by the union would end up costing the company and taxpayers millions.Governor Phil Murphy said the talks ended on a conciliatory note. “The fact that we’re not agreeing doesn’t mean that we’re throwing chairs at each other. To the contrary, we just are at an impasse,” he told a news conference Friday morning.NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri said the two sides are close to an agreement. “We are 95 percent there,” he told the news conference. “We’ll get there.”The transportation company expects the strike to predominantly affect daily commutes for about 70,000 New York-bound passengers, while also disrupting the travel of many thousands more along its extensive network. The last statewide transit strike occurred in 1983 and lasted 34 days.

Russia and Ukraine agreed a large-scale prisoner exchange, said they would trade ideas on a possible ceasefire and discussed a potential meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin in their first direct talks in over three years on Friday.But coming out of the highly anticipated talks in Istanbul, which lasted just over 90 minutes, there were few signs of more significant progress toward ending the three-year war.Kyiv was seeking an “unconditional ceasefire” to pause a conflict that has destroyed large swathes of Ukraine and displaced millions of people.Moscow has consistently rebuffed those calls and the only concrete agreement appeared to be a deal to exchange 1,000 prisoners each.The two sides said they would “present their vision of a possible future ceasefire”, according to Russia’s top negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky.They did not agree any suspension of the fighting.”Overall, we are satisfied with the results and ready to continue contacts,” Medinsky said.Ukraine’s top negotiator, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, said the “next step” would be a meeting between the two presidents. Russia said it took note of the request.”We understand that if we want to make progress, we need to have this meeting of leaders,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy said later, praising the prisoner swap as a “great result”.- Zelensky says Putin ‘afraid’ -Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who presided over the meeting, said the sides had “agreed in principle to meet again” and would present ceasefire ideas “in writing”.Fidan sat at the head of a table in front of Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian flags at Istanbul’s Dolmabahce Palace for the talks — with Russian and Ukrainian delegations facing each other, footage from the room showed.But progress on more fundamental issues appeared minimal.Tykhy said Russia had raised a number of “unacceptable demands”, with a source telling AFP that Russia had demanded Kyiv give up more territory — a strategy it said was designed to derail the negotiations.Nevertheless, the fact the meeting took place at all was a sign of movement, with both sides having come under steady pressure from Washington to open talks.Putin declined to travel to Turkey for the meeting, sending a second-tier team instead.Zelensky said Putin was “afraid” of meeting and accused Russia of not taking the talks “seriously”.At a European summit in Albania, the Ukrainian leader urged a “strong reaction” from the world if the talks failed, including new sanctions.Both Moscow and Washington have also talked up the need for a meeting between Putin and US President Donald Trump on the conflict.The leaders of Ukraine, France, Germany, Britain and Poland held a phone call with Trump on Friday, Zelensky’s spokesperson said, without elaborating.French President Emmanuel Macron said European nations were coordinating with the United States on additional sanctions against Russia should Moscow continue to refuse an “unconditional ceasefire”.Trump has said “nothing’s going to happen” on the conflict until he meets Putin face-to-face although Macron suggested “telephone contacts” could take place in the first instance.- ‘Unacceptable demands’ -Ahead of the talks, Ukrainian officials in Istanbul held meetings with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg and the national security advisors of Britain, France and Germany.Rubio urged a “peaceful” end to the war and said “the killing needs to stop”, according to State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.During the talks, a Ukrainian source told AFP that Russia was advancing hardline territorial demands.Moscow claims annexation of five Ukrainian regions — four since its 2022 invasion, and Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.”Russian representatives are putting forward unacceptable demands… such as for Ukraine to withdraw forces from large parts of Ukrainian territory it controls in order for a ceasefire to begin,” the source said.They accused Moscow of seeking to “throw non-starters” so the talks end “without any results”.Another source familiar with the talks said Russia had threatened to capture Ukraine’s Sumy and Kharkiv regions.Both regions border Russia and were invaded by Moscow’s army at the start of the conflict, though Russia has not previously made formal territorial claims over them.Russia has repeatedly said it will not discuss giving up any territory that its forces occupy.Putin last year called for Kyiv to withdraw from parts of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions that it still controls.burs-cad/jc/rmb/phz/rlp

Republican fiscal hawks on Friday sunk a key vote on advancing the mega-bill that is the centerpiece of Donald Trump’s domestic agenda, in a significant setback for the US president’s tax and spending policies.Trump is pushing to usher into law his so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill” pairing an extension of his first-term tax cuts with savings that will see millions of the poorest Americans lose their health care coverage.But a congressional Republican Party riven with divisions and competing in its rank-and-file has complicated the process, raising serious doubts that the sprawling package can pass a vote of the full House of Representatives next week.Despite a social media post by Trump calling holdouts in his party “grandstanders,” five conservatives in the Republican-led House Budget Committee joined Democrats on Friday to reject the legislation.”This bill falls profoundly short. It does not do what we say it does with respect to the deficit. We are writing checks we cannot cash and our children are going to pay the price,” said Texas conservative Chip Roy.  The panel was tasked with bundling together the 11 different bills Republicans have approved over recent weeks through their policy committees — typically a perfunctory, if necessary, step on the way to the House floor.The budget committee’s no vote is not the final word on the package, which will be reworked and sent back to the panel for more debate starting 10:00 pm on Sunday (0200 GMT Monday), and a fresh vote.But it laid bare disagreements that have so far proved intractable between the party’s coastal moderates and its right flank that could still spin the president’s agenda off the rails.The Energy and Commerce Committee has passed cuts totalling more than $880 billion over a decade from health care, mostly from the Medicaid insurance program that covers 70 million low-income Americans.The Congressional Budget Office found that the panel’s work would mean 8.6 million additional people losing health insurance — stoking concerns among Republican moderates. But conservatives are furious that the package does not go further in cutting spending — pointing specifically to work requirements for Medicaid entitlement that do not kick in until the end of Trump’s term. The so-called SALT Republicans — a faction demanding bigger deductions in state and local taxes — are also at loggerheads with the leadership. House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to spend the weekend seeking compromise with his party’s rebels.But it will be a fraught balancing act, as any concession he makes to the debt hawks could cause a chain reaction of defections from the moderates.Republican senators meanwhile have made no secret of their intention to make major changes when the package reaches the upper chamber.”We’ve been talking with the House and there’s a lot of things we agree on… But there’ll be changes in a number of areas,” John Hoeven of North Dakota told NBC.

Defense lawyers for music mogul Sean Combs on Friday cross-examined his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura for a second day at his sex trafficking trial, seeking to poke holes in her testimony and portray her as erratic. Combs is facing federal charges of sex trafficking and leading an illegal sex ring that enforced its power with crimes including arson, kidnapping and bribery. Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, is the prosecution’s star witness: she has told jurors in Manhattan federal court that Combs raped, beat and forced her into drug-fueled sex parties during their more than 10 years together.But the defense is attempting to damage her credibility by emphasizing the length of the relationship, her decision to stay with him despite her testimony that he repeatedly abused her, and her own at times questionable behavior.”I will kill you,” Ventura was heard angrily saying in an audio recording to a man she believed had a video of one of the so-called “freak-offs” — choreographed sex sessions that involved Combs, Ventura and male escorts, lasting for hours, even days.”I will cut you,” she said. ” I will put you in the ground.”Ventura, who is heavily pregnant with her third child, did not contest the contents of the recording aired Friday for jurors, and continued to reply in a calm manner, on day four of her marathon testimony. She often rubbed her belly while on the stand.On Thursday, defense lawyer Anna Estevao meticulously highlighted loving moments between the couple, as well as implying that drug addiction played a key role in Combs’s rage that Ventura has testified left her systematically battered.Much of it has focused on a ream of text exchanges between the couple — some were loving, others sexually graphic.”I’m always ready to freak off lolol,” read one of the messages from Ventura to Combs — dated August 5, 2009, when she was 22 and Combs was 39.Ventura said she and Combs both suffered from addiction to opioid drugs, and the defense implied that withdrawal symptoms and “bad” batches of party drugs could have resulted in erratic behavior.Ventura emphasized the subtext, saying that messages that might seem benign or even pleasant to outsiders contained pressures or other meanings that were clear to her.She also suggested on Thursday that Estevao might be cherry-picking elements that cast Combs in the best light.”This isn’t about what I feel is relevant, right? Because there’s a lot that we skipped over,” Ventura said of the voluminous text records she was given to read.- Domestic abuse or sex trafficking? -Combs, 55, was once one of the most powerful figures in the music industry, and is often credited with helping to bring hip-hop into the mainstream.His “white parties” filled with A-list celebrity guests — all of them wearing white — were the stuff of showbiz lore.But the one-time rap producer and global superstar now appears visibly aged after months in prison, his hair now gray.He has pleaded not guilty to all charges but could go to prison for life if convicted.Ventura spent two days on the stand giving vivid accounts of the coercive sex parties demanded by Combs — she participated in hundreds, she testified — and his routine brutal beatings of her.Jurors were shown a surveillance video from 2016 showing Combs beating, kicking and dragging Ventura in a hotel corridor.But the defense contends that while Ventura’s relationship with Combs was complicated and included domestic abuse, it did not amount to sex trafficking and that she behaved erratically and even violently herself.Judge Arun Subramanian has urged the defense to wrap up cross-examination of Ventura by Friday given her late-stage pregnancy, and attorneys said they would attempt to comply.Prosecutors indicated Dawn Richard — a singer who found fame on MTV’s reality show “Making the Band,” which Combs produced — will be among the next witnesses.Richard sued Combs last year on allegations including sexual assault and battery. She said in the court documents she had witnessed Combs physically abuse Ventura.

An American-Lebanese man was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday for trying to kill novelist Salman Rushdie with a knife at a New York cultural center in 2022.Hadi Matar, 27, was convicted in February of attempted murder and assault for the stabbing, which left Rushdie blind in one eye.Matar received the maximum sentence of 25 years in Chautauqua County Court for the attack on Rushdie and seven years for assault on the moderator of the speaking event, who was also on stage.Judge David Foley ordered the sentences to run concurrently.The British-American author did not attend the sentencing but submitted a victim impact statement.Matar also faces separate federal terrorism charges that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.Video of the attack was played during the trial and showed Matar rushing the stage and plunging a knife into Rushdie.  “It was a stab wound in my eye, intensely painful, after that I was screaming because of the pain,” Rushdie told jurors, adding that he was left in a “lake of blood.”Matar — who shouted pro-Palestinian slogans on several occasions during the trial — stabbed Rushdie about 10 times with a six-inch blade.He previously told media he had only read two pages of Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses,” but believed the author had “attacked Islam.”Matar’s lawyers had sought to prevent witnesses from characterizing Rushdie as a victim of persecution following Iran’s 1989 fatwa calling for his murder over supposed blasphemy in the novel.Iran has denied any link to the attacker and said only Rushdie was to blame for the incident.- Life-threatening injuries -The optical nerve of Rushdie’s right eye was severed in the attack.His Adam’s apple was lacerated, his liver and small bowel penetrated, and he became paralyzed in one hand after suffering severe nerve damage to his arm.Rushdie was rescued from Matar by bystanders. Last year, he published a memoir called “Knife” in which he recounted the near-death experience.His publisher announced in March that “The Eleventh Hour,” a collection of short stories examining themes and places of interest to Rushdie, will be released on November 4, 2025.Rushdie, who was born in Mumbai but moved to England as a boy, was propelled into the spotlight with his second novel “Midnight’s Children” (1981), which won Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize for its portrayal of post-independence India.But “The Satanic Verses” brought him far greater, mostly unwelcome, attention.Rushdie became the center of a fierce tug-of-war between free speech advocates and those who insisted that insulting religion, particularly Islam, was unacceptable under any circumstance.Books and bookshops were torched, his Japanese translator was murdered and his Norwegian publisher was shot several times.Rushdie lived in seclusion in London for a decade after the 1989 fatwa, but for the past 20 years — until the attack — he lived relatively normally in New York.

Lawyers for 252 Venezuelans deported by US President Donald Trump’s administration and imprisoned in El Salvador for two months alleged Friday that the migrants are victims of physical and emotional “torture.”A law firm hired by the Venezuelan government said that it had been unable to visit the migrants in the mega-prison where they are locked up.The lawyers are seeking “proof of life,” but say they have come up against a wall of silence from President Nayib Bukele’s administration and the Central American nation’s justice system.Grupo Ortega filed a habeas corpus petition with the Supreme Court on March 24 seeking an end to what it calls the “illegal detention” of the Venezuelans, but is still waiting for a ruling.”They are treating them like common criminals,” lawyer Salvador Rios said, after the migrants were shown dressed in prison clothing, shackled and with shaved heads.”This is torture,” both physical and psychological, Rios said in an interview with AFP.The lawyers delivered a letter in early May to Bukele, a key ally of Trump, requesting authorization to visit the Venezuelans, but so far without success.AFP sought a comment from the Salvadoran presidency about the case and the lawyers’ efforts, but has not received a response.Salvadoran Vice President Felix Ulloa told French media outlet Le Grand Continent that his government merely provides a “service that we could call prison accommodation.”- Psychological damage -Trump’s administration has paid Bukele’s government millions of dollars to lock up migrants it says are criminals and gang members.Trump invoked rarely used wartime legislation in March to fly migrants to El Salvador without any court hearing, alleging they belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, a charge that their families and lawyers deny.The Venezuelans, as well as 36 deported Salvadoran migrants, are being held in a maximum security prison built by Bukele to house thousands of suspects arrested during his sweeping crackdown on street gangs.Images of the Venezuelans entering the CECOT mega-prison in shackles illustrate the brutality, Rios said.”The damage is not only physical, but also psychological,” Rios said.In their letter to Bukele, the lawyers sought permission to interview the prisoners, either in person or virtually, which could serve as “proof of life.”They asked Bukele to release the list of the 252 Venezuelans, something that Washington has not done either.One Salvadoran migrant who was initially incarcerated in CECOT — but in April was moved to a prison farm — is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a US resident deported due to what the United States itself admitted was an administrative error.A Venezuelan identified in US court documents as “Cristian” was also mistakenly expelled.In both cases, US judges unsuccessfully asked the Trump administration to facilitate their return to the United States.- ‘Complete powerlessness’ -UN human rights chief Volker Turk said this week that the situation “raises serious concerns regarding a wide array of rights that are fundamental to both US and international law.””Families we have spoken to have expressed a sense of complete powerlessness in the face of what has happened and their pain at seeing their relatives labelled and handled as violent criminals, even terrorists, without any court judgment as to validity of what is claimed against them,” he said in a statement.Isael Guerrero, another lawyer with Grupo Ortega, described the detentions as “completely illegal” because the Venezuelans “are not being legally prosecuted in any court” in El Salvador. The firm’s head, Jaime Ortega, said they are “100 percent migrants.””Not a single one of them is being prosecuted” in the United States for their alleged membership of the Tren de Aragua gang, he said.The fate of the Venezuelans now depends entirely on Bukele, as “the expulsion completely nullifies US jurisdiction,” Ortega said.In April, Bukele offered to trade the 252 Venezuelans for an equal number of political prisoners held by President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

President Donald Trump used his down time on Air Force One Friday to insult “obnoxious JERK” Bruce Springsteen and declare Taylor Swift “no longer HOT” in social media blasts against the music giants.Trump — returning from a whirlwind Middle East diplomatic trip — took to his Truth Social platform to feud with Springsteen, who this week 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 legendary rocker, nicknamed “the Boss,” is “Highly Overrated.””Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,” Trump wrote in the lengthy tirade.”This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just “standard fare.” Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”Springsteen is an outspoken liberal critic of Trump and campaigned for Democratic president Joe Biden’s ultimately abandoned reelection run last year.While in Manchester on his “Land of Hope & Dreams” tour Wednesday, he told fans that “my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years” is in danger.”Raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring,” Springsteen said.Trump also had strong words for Swift, who endorsed Biden’s replacement as the Democratic candidate in 2024, Kamala Harris.In a separate post, which provided no context, the US president said: “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?'”He appeared to be referencing a post in September last year when he declared “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”Swift, 35, is the wealthiest female musician on the planet, with an estimated personal wealth of $1.6 billion, 14 Grammys and 30 MTV Video Music awards.

American R&B singer Chris Brown, former boyfriend of superstar Rihanna, was Friday remanded in custody until June 13 by a UK court, charged with assault over a 2023 incident.The judge’s decision to reject his bail request throws into doubt the start of Brown’s next tour, with shows already sold-out in the Netherlands on June 8 and Germany on June 11.Brown, a two-time Grammy winner who has sold tens of millions of records worldwide, was arrested in the early hours of Thursday at a Manchester hotel and charged over the alleged assault at a London nightclub in 2023, police said.The 36-year-old appeared at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Friday, where District Judge Joanne Hirst remanded him in custody until a plea and trial preparation hearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court on June 13.Brown is due to play in Germany that day, and has a series of shows planned in the UK and Europe during June and July, before heading to the United States.Wearing a black T-shirt, Brown spoke to confirm his name, age and the address of the hotel where he was staying.The singer is known for mid-2000s hits such as “Kiss, Kiss”, as well as a litany of legal troubles including a felony conviction for assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009.He has also faced criminal accusations including sexual assault and domestic violence.- Hotel arrest -Brown was charged with “grievous bodily harm with intent” in relation to “an assault” that allegedly took place at a venue in Hanover Square in London on February 19, 2023, police said.Prosecutor Hannah Nicholls told the court the alleged victim was at the bar in the Tape nightclub in central London when he was struck several times with a bottle in an “unprovoked” attack.”The defendant then pursued him to a separate area of the nightclub where the victim was punched and kicked repeatedly by him and another,” she added.Brown was touring the UK at the time of the alleged assault.He reportedly flew into Manchester airport by private jet on Wednesday afternoon.Police detained him at the five-star Lowry Hotel in Manchester, according to media reports.Brown rose from a local church choir in Virginia to sudden fame with his rich R&B voice and later rap, but his reputation has been tarnished by allegations of domestic violence and other abuse.He was convicted of having beaten Rihanna before the 2009 Grammy Awards, forcing the pop star to miss the annual gala.In 2012, Brown was involved in an altercation at a New York nightclub with members of hip hop star Drake’s entourage, during which French basketball star Tony Parker suffered an eye injury after being hit by a thrown glass bottle.Two years later, Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting a fan in Washington.Brown was also arrested in 2016 after a woman alleged he pointed a gun at her.