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A South Carolina man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat is to be put to death by firing squad Friday in the first such execution in the United States in 15 years.Brad Sigmon, 67, faces execution at a prison in the state’s capital Columbia for the 2001 murders of David and Gladys Larke.Sigmon, who confessed to the murders and admitted his guilt at trial, has filed a last-minute appeal for a stay of execution with the Supreme Court but the nation’s highest court rarely intervenes in death penalty cases.He has also sought clemency from South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, but the Republican state chief executive has declined previous such requests.The murder convict had a choice between lethal injection, the firing squad or the electric chair as his manner of execution.Gerald “Bo” King, one of his lawyers, said Sigmon had chosen the firing squad after being placed in an “impossible” position, forced to make an “abjectly cruel” decision about how he would die.”Unless he elected lethal injection or the firing squad, he would die in South Carolina’s ancient electric chair, which would burn and cook him alive,” King said.”But the alternative is just as monstrous,” he said. “If he chose lethal injection, he risked the prolonged death suffered by all three of the men South Carolina has executed since September.”The last firing squad execution in the United States was in Utah in 2010. Two others have also been carried out by firing squad in the western state — in 1996 and in 1977.The 1977 execution of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was the basis for the 1979 book “The Executioner’s Song” by Norman Mailer.The vast majority of US executions have been done by lethal injection since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.Alabama has carried out four executions recently using nitrogen gas, which has been denounced by UN experts as cruel and inhumane. The execution is performed by pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.Three other states — Idaho, Mississippi and Oklahoma — have joined South Carolina and Utah in authorizing the use of firing squads.- Death chamber renovated -According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC), the prison death chamber where Sigmon is to be executed has been renovated to accommodate a firing squad.Bullet-resistant glass has been placed between the witness room and execution chamber.Sigmon will be restrained in a metal chair with a hood over his head 15 feet (five meters) away from a wall with a rectangular opening.A three-person firing squad of SCDC volunteers will shoot through the opening.All three rifles will have live ammunition, and an “aim point” will be placed above Sigmon’s heart.There have been five executions in the United States this year, following 25 last year.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.Arizona, Ohio and Tennessee had paused executions but recently announced plans to resume them.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

President Donald Trump said Friday South African farmers were welcome to settle in the United States after repeating his accusations that the government was “confiscating” land from white people as he announced an end to federal funding.Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that “any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States of America with a rapid pathway to Citizenship.”He said the process would begin immediately, calling the country a “bad place to be right now” as he announced a halt to all US aid to Pretoria.Trump and Pretoria are locked in a diplomatic row over a land expropriation act that the Republican leader says will lead to the takeover of white-owned farms.The South African presidency swiftly responded, saying in a statement that it would not engage in “counterproductive megaphone diplomacy.”Trump, whose close aide Elon Musk was born in South Africa, said in February that a law signed the previous month would “enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”The law stipulates that the government may, in certain circumstances, offer “nil compensation” for property it decides to expropriate in the public interest.English and Afrikaner colonists ruled South Africa until 1994 under a brutal system in which the black majority were deprived of political and economic rights.The new law is intended to address historic inequalities in land ownership, with the minority white population still owning most farmland three decades after the end of apartheid.But Trump accused the country of “being terrible, plus, to long time Farmers in the country.”South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has said he wants to find agreement with the new US government on diplomatic, trade and other issues.Ramaphosa announced in February that Pretoria plans to send a delegation to Washington to settle a host of issues.”We would like to go to the United States to do a deal,” he said in a discussion with Goldman Sachs vice chairman Richard Gnodde. “We don’t want to go and explain ourselves, we want to go and do a meaningful deal with the United States on a whole range of issues,” he said.Ramaphosa said he had a “wonderful” call with Trump soon after the US leader took office in January. But relations later “seemed to go a little bit off the rails”, he said.Many of Trump’s high-profile supporters took to social media to praise his leadership, although far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who accompanied Trump to events during his campaign, voiced concerns over adding to migration in the United States.”Let’s hope we can increase the number of mass deportations first. Immigration won’t get better if more people come in while deportation numbers remain extremely low,” she posted on X.

China’s foreign minister on Friday vowed Beijing would “firmly counter” US pressure, after Donald Trump heaped tariffs on Chinese goods and torched off a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.Trump imposed more blanket tariffs on Chinese imports this week, following a similar move last month — levies expected to hit hundreds of billions of dollars in total trade.The mercurial magnate has overturned the international order since returning to office in January, from pushing Ukraine to seek a peace deal with Russia to floating a widely condemned plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza.At a press conference on the sidelines of a key political meeting, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi framed Beijing as a bulwark of stability in an unstable world.He warned the “law of the jungle” could take hold if nations were to pursue purely their own interests.Wang touted Beijing’s cooperation with the United States in the fight against the fentanyl epidemic, in which Washington has accused China of being complicit in justifying its tariffs.Washington should not “repay kindness with resentment, let alone impose tariffs without reason”, he said.”There are around 190 countries in the world,” Wang said.”Imagine if every country emphasised their own priority and believed in strength and status, the world would fall back into the law of the jungle.”He said the policy currently implemented by Washington was “not how a responsible major country behaves”.The Chinese top diplomat was speaking on the sidelines of the “Two Sessions” political meetings in Beijing, so far clouded by a new administration in the United States that is overturning the international order.He told the attending press that good China-US economic and trade ties benefitted all parties.”If you choose to cooperate, you can achieve mutually beneficial and win-win results,” he added.”If you use only pressure, China will firmly counter.””China and the United States will both exist on this planet for a long time, so they must coexist peacefully,” Wang stressed.- ‘No winners’ in war -The veteran diplomat, however, appeared to side with Trump’s push for peace talks to end the conflict in Ukraine.He also called for negotiations between all parties — warning “conflict has no winners, and peace has no losers”.Beijing, he stressed, “welcomes and supports all efforts dedicated to peace”.And he urged all parties to seek a “comprehensive and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and increase humanitarian assistance”.Beijing has vowed to fight a trade war with the United States “to the end” as tariffs from Washington buffeted the global economy and threatened to hit Beijing’s lagging growth.The country’s leaders set an ambitious annual growth target of around five percent this week, vowing to make domestic demand its main economic driver as the escalating trade confrontation with the United States hit exports.They also raised the country’s military budget by 7.2 percent as Beijing’s armed forces undergo rapid modernisation and eye deepening strategic competition with the United States.- Taiwan, South China Sea -Among key flashpoints in the past year have been the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims.Wang on Friday said the island’s return to Beijing’s control remained the “shared hope of all Chinese people, the general trend of the time, and a righteous cause”.”Using Taiwan to control China is just like trying to stop a car with the arm of a mantis,” he said.And he touched on another key flashpoint, the South China Sea — which Beijing claims almost in its entirety despite an international arbitration ruling that declared its stance baseless.Wang accused the Philippines, with which Chinese ships have repeatedly clashed in the disputed waters, of provoking confrontation. “For every Philippine maritime operation, it is the forces outside of the region that write the script and the Western media that undertake the live broadcast,” he said.”The same old theatre is being used to discredit China,” he said.

After winning rave reviews for her turn in the film “The Last Showgirl”, Pamela Anderson is now dreaming of doing theatre as the 1990s glamour model seeks to reinvent herself again. The 57-year-old one-time Playboy pin-up, who shot to global fame as lifeguard CJ Parker in “Baywatch”, told AFP that playing a fading showgirl in Gia Coppola’s recently released film had made her feel like a real actress for the first time.”This (role) came to me as a surprise, when I thought it was the end of my career as an actress,” she said during a trip to Paris. “Now I feel like an actress. But I didn’t really know if I was before. I was just doing the best I could.”The New York Times said Anderson was “dazzling” in the role, while Britain’s The Guardian said it had “single-handedly rewritten the way she is viewed as an actor”.Coppola, granddaughter of “Godfather” director Francis Ford Coppola, pursued Anderson for the role in “The Last Showgirl” after watching a Netflix documentary about her life, “Pamela: A Love Story”.Anderson’s late-career bloom echoes the success of another 1990s icon, Demi Moore, who also challenged the entertainment industry’s treatment of older women with her brilliant performance in Oscar-nominated “The Substance” last year.The public endorsements of Anderson’s showgirl portrayal — including a Golden Globe nomination — have given her the confidence to reveal new ambitions and challenge the perceptions forged by her early career in a swimsuit. “I think being part of pop culture can be a little bit of a curse because you become famous for one thing,” Anderson said.”But I’ve always loved cinema. I’ve always loved theatre. I hope to do a Tennessee Williams play one day. I would love that. Why can’t you imagine it? You’ve just gotta keep surprising people. That’s my goal,” she added.- ‘Wasn’t boring’ -Anderson’s personal life has had as many turns as her career, but she said she is now at peace with her “messy” trajectory.She has been married at least six times — twice to the same man — and one union, with movie mogul Jon Peters, lasted just 12 days.”I have appreciation for my wild and messy life because I have so much to draw from,” she told AFP. “And it definitely wasn’t boring. Hard at times, and silly at times, ridiculous at times. “But that’s the way you’re supposed to live.”She is back living on Vancouver Island in her native Canada, where she grew up, making pickles and working on recipes for her new sideline as a plant-based cooking guru.She has her own TV cooking show “Pamela’s Cooking with Love” and released a cookbook last year. As well as animal rights activism, she released an autobiography in 2023, insisting publicly that she wrote it herself after rejecting advice from her literary agent that she should employ a ghostwriter. “I can write, you stupid shit, give me some credit” was her reaction, she told The Times newspaper afterwards.”And so I wrote it.”It revealed her tumultuous upbringing with volatile parents, as well as childhood sexual abuse.”I don’t really know what’s next. There’s a lot of opportunity out there, but I’m okay with living in the mystery of what’s next,” she told AFP.

President Donald Trump said Japan is not required to protect the United States militarily and makes “a fortune” from it economically, as he fired off an impromptu broadside at a key ally.It came as Japan’s trade minister is arranging a trip to Washington during which he will reportedly demand an exemption from imminent US tariffs on steel and aluminum.”We have a great relationship with Japan. But we have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don’t have to protect us,” Trump said Thursday.”And by the way, they make a fortune with us economically,” he said. “I actually ask, who makes these deals?”In response, government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said Friday that Japan trusts Washington to keep its obligation to the two countries’ security treaty.Around 54,000 US military personnel are stationed in Japan, mostly in the Okinawa region east of Taiwan.Meanwhile Tokyo’s economy, trade and industry minister Yoji Muto told reporters that he hoped his US trip would “be a win-win for both Japanese and US national interests.”He said the visit was being coordinated and did not confirm the March 9-13 dates given by Japanese media or reports that he will push US officials to exempt Japan from levies.Trump has said 25-percent steel and aluminum tariffs will be imposed on Wednesday of next week, without exceptions.”It is important to closely study the specific content of these (tariff) measures and their impact,” Muto said Friday.He also poured cold water on Trump’s announcement that Japan was among the countries looking to invest trillions of dollars in a “gigantic” natural gas pipeline in Alaska.”This is an issue that the government and the private sector need to study, in terms of profitability and when supply will begin,” Muto said.”I hope to hear more details on this project” from US officials, he added.Trump has also threatened to impose tariffs of around 25 percent on auto imports. Vehicles represented nearly a third of all Japan’s exports to the United States last year.Without referring to Muto’s planned visit, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told parliament on Wednesday that Japan’s “contribution to the US economy is significant.””So we want to appeal resolutely, with emotion and logic,” to Washington on the tariffs, he said.Muto and Japan’s foreign minister will hold economic security talks with their British counterparts in Tokyo Friday, touted as a chance to promote free trade and boost business ties.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday delayed some tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico, leading Ottawa to halt an upcoming wave of countermeasures — offering a reprieve to companies and consumers after blowback on financial markets.Stock markets tumbled after Trump’s duties of up to 25 percent took effect Tuesday, as economists warned that blanket levies could weigh on US growth and raise inflation.Trump signed orders Thursday to hit pause on the fresh tariffs for Canadian and Mexican imports covered by a North American trade agreement, though he dismissed suggestions that his decisions were linked to market turmoil.The halt — which will last until April 2 — offers relief to automakers.In the auto sector, parts cross North American borders multiple times during production.Following talks with the “Big Three” US automakers — Stellantis, Ford and General Motors — Washington initially announced a one-month exemption on autos coming through the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).A White House official told reporters that about 62 percent of Canadian imports will still face the new tariffs, although much of these are energy products hit by a lower rate of 10 percent.About half of Mexican imports come through the USMCA.The latest moves make conditions “much more favorable for our American car manufacturers,” Trump said Thursday.Shortly after Trump’s decision, Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc wrote on X that his country “will not proceed with the second wave of tariffs on $125B of US products until April 2nd, while we continue to work for the removal of all tariffs.”Trump said more tariffs would come on April 2, adding they will be “reciprocal in nature.” He had earlier vowed reciprocal levies to remedy practices Washington deems unfair.At that point, Canadian and Mexican goods could still face levies.The US president also said he would not modify broad tariffs for steel and aluminum imports, which are due to take effect next week.US stock markets slumped again Thursday despite the new measures.- ‘Tremendous progress’ -Trump told reporters Thursday in the Oval Office that he had a “very good conversation” with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.He claimed “tremendous progress” on both illegal immigration and drugs coming into the United States — both reasons that Washington cited in imposing levies on Mexico, Canada and China.His remarks stood in sharp contrast to simmering tensions with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.Trudeau said Thursday that Ottawa will remain in a trade war with Washington for “the foreseeable future” even if there are “breaks for certain sectors.””Our goal remains to get these tariffs, all tariffs removed,” Trudeau added.Canada contributes less than one percent of fentanyl to the illicit US supply, according to Canadian and US government data.China, meanwhile, has pushed back on US allegations of its role in the fentanyl supply chain, and instead touted its cooperation with Washington on the issue.”The United States should not repay kindness with resentment, let alone impose tariffs without reason,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing.”China-US economic and trade ties are mutual. If you choose to cooperate, you can achieve mutually beneficial and win-win results. If you use only pressure, China will firmly counter.”- ‘Economic reality’ -For Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute, Trump’s easing of tariffs was “a recognition of economic reality” — that tariffs disrupt supply chains and the burden falls mainly on Americans.”The market doesn’t like them and certainly doesn’t like the uncertainty surrounding them,” Lincicome told AFP.Since taking office for his second term in January, Trump has made tariff threats on allies and adversaries alike.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that he was not concerned Trump’s tariffs would be inflationary, adding that any impact on prices would likely be temporary.Trump has referred to tariffs as a source of US government revenue and a way to remedy trade imbalances.The US trade deficit surged to a new record in January, ballooning 34 percent to $131.4 billion as imports rose.Analysts say the deficit was likely bolstered by gold imports, but that data suggests businesses were also trying to get ahead of tariffs.

China’s foreign minister on Friday vowed Beijing would “firmly counter” US pressure, after Donald Trump heaped  tariffs on Chinese goods and torched off a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of a key political meeting, Wang Yi warned the “law of the jungle” could take hold in the world if nations were to pursue purely their own interests.Touting Beijing’s cooperation in the fight against the fentanyl epidemic in the United States, Wang said Washington should not “repay kindness with resentment, let alone impose tariffs without reason”.”There are around 190 countries in the world,” Wang said.”Imagine if every country emphasised their own priority and believed in strength and status, the world would fall back into the law of the jungle,” he added.Washington’s current policy, Wang said, was “not how a responsible major country behaves”.”China-US economic and trade ties are mutual,” the veteran diplomat said.”If you choose to cooperate, you can achieve mutually beneficial and win-win results. If you use only pressure, China will firmly counter,” he added.Wang also called for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, warning “conflict has no winners, and peace has no losers”.”China welcomes and supports all efforts dedicated to peace,” he stressed.And he urged all parties to seek a “comprehensive and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and increase humanitarian assistance”.The Chinese top diplomat was speaking on the sidelines of the “Two Sessions” political meetings in Beijing, so far clouded by a new administration in the United States that is overturning the international order.Beijing has vowed to fight a trade war with the United States “to the end” as tariffs from Washington buffeted the global economy and threatened to hit Beijing’s lagging growth.The country’s leaders set an ambitious annual growth target of around five percent this week, vowing to make domestic demand its main economic driver as the escalating trade confrontation with the United States hit exports.US President Donald Trump imposed more blanket tariffs on Chinese imports this week, following a similar move last month — levies expected to hit hundreds of billions of dollars in total trade between the world’s two largest economies.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Thursday once again lost the upper stage of its massive Starship rocket in a fiery explosion, even as the booster was successfully caught in its latest orbital test — a near replay of the previous attempt.Minutes after liftoff and booster separation, a live video feed showed the upper stage tumbling uncontrollably before the signal abruptly cut out. Dramatic footage circulating online captured red-hot debris raining down over the Bahamas.”Can confirm we did lose contact with the ship. Unfortunately, this happened last time, too,” SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot said, referring to January’s flight, which also ended with the upper stage disintegrating over the Caribbean.The fallout was felt immediately in US airspace. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly activated a “debris response area,” delaying flights from airports stretching from Newark and Philadelphia to Miami. The agency confirmed SpaceX will be required to conduct a mishap investigation before it can fly again.Despite the setback, SpaceX’s “fail fast, learn fast” approach has helped it become the world’s dominant launch services provider. But Musk’s status as one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisors and his influence over federal regulators are raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest.- Eighth Starship Test – Starship — the world’s largest and most powerful rocket — lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, shortly after 5:30 pm (2330 GMT). It marked its eighth uncrewed orbital test, after earlier launch attempts were scrubbed on Monday and Wednesday.While the upper stage was lost for a second consecutive flight, SpaceX successfully recovered the Super Heavy booster, catching it with the launch tower’s mechanical “chopstick” arms for the third time — an impressive feat of engineering.About 40 minutes after launch, SpaceX ended its livestream without providing further details.Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall — about 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty — Starship is designed to eventually be fully reusable and is key to Musk’s long-term vision of colonizing Mars.NASA is also awaiting a modified version of Starship as a lunar lander for its Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon this decade. But before SpaceX can carry out those missions, it must prove the vehicle is reliable, safe for crew, and capable of complex in-orbit refueling — critical for deep space missions.The FAA previously grounded Starship after its January 16 flight ended in an upper-stage explosion. Last Friday, the agency allowed SpaceX to proceed with this latest test before finalizing its investigation into that mishap.- Conflicts -During Joe Biden’s presidency, Musk frequently clashed with the FAA, accusing it of over-regulating SpaceX over safety and environmental concerns.Now, as Trump’s chief advisor on cost-cutting initiatives, Musk faces scrutiny over his influence on federal agencies overseeing his companies.According to Bloomberg News, a SpaceX engineer recently visited FAA headquarters, warning employees their jobs were at risk if they did not begin work on a program to deploy thousands of the company’s Starlink satellite terminals in support of the national airspace system.Telecom giant Verizon currently holds a contract to upgrade the FAA’s infrastructure, but that deal could be in jeopardy, Bloomberg reported. SpaceX has denied the allegations, stating “recent media reports about SpaceX and the FAA are false.”

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” forcefully endorsing a currency once shunned as a tool for money launderers.The government stockpile, which backers liken to a “digital Fort Knox,” will be composed of digital currency seized in US criminal proceedings, said David Sacks, the White House’s crypto “czar,” emphasizing in a social media post that Thursday’s move made good on a Trump campaign promise.The use of these assets “means it will not cost taxpayers a dime,” Sacks said in a post on X. “The purpose of the Stockpile is responsible stewardship of the government’s digital assets under the Treasury Department.”The policy also allows the secretaries of Commerce and Treasury to develop “budget-neutral strategies” for adding to the reserve, he said.Bitcoin prices fell as much as five percent following the announcement, apparently out of disappointment the program involves no immediate bitcoin purchases.The move comes on the eve of a White House summit Friday with major crypto figures, who were significant donors to Trump’s successful campaign to regain the presidency. Cryptocurrency supporters organized heavily in the 2024 election in response to the skepticism of Joe Biden’s administration to digital currency, also helping to propel Republicans to victory in key Senate races.For believers, cryptocurrencies represent a financial revolution that reduces dependence on centralized authorities while offering individuals freedom from traditional banking systems.Trump has waded into the space personally, partnering with exchange platform World Liberty Financial and launching his own “Trump” memecoin in January as his wife Melania did the same — moves that have prompted conflict of interest accusations.Trump critics such as Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut have characterized Trump’s cryptocurrency venture as a conduit to potential corruption on a massive scale. “It’s as if Trump is posting his Venmo or his Cash App handle and inviting corporations and foreign governments to just send him cash in secret,” said Murphy in a video posted to X in which he called Trump’s crypto venture “a pure grift.”