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The California desert was buzzing Friday as the premier music festival Coachella got underway, with Lady Gaga and Missy Elliott set to helm day one’s main stage.Thousands of music fans traversed the sprawling grounds whipping paper fans and wielding parasols, as temperatures cracked the 100-degree Fahrenheit mark (37.8 degrees Celsius).That made sunscreen dispensers and water refill stations some of the hottest destinations on the poorly shaded grounds as the afternoon sun blazed and camping attendees popped their tents.The desert weekend marks the unofficial start of music festival season, which Lady Gaga is priming to kick off with a bang. Fresh off the release of her latest album “Mayhem,” the pop superstar has vowed “a massive night of chaos.””Can’t wait to hear you all singalong and dance dance DANCE till we drop,” she posted when the lineup was announced.Other Friday features include Australian electropop band Parcels, and a rare stateside appearance from British punk ravers The Prodigy.South African star Tyla brought out a massive crowd as she gyrated alongside her troupe of dancers and a giant Tiger statue on Friday, one year after an injury forced her to pull out of the 2024 festival.And Blackpink’s Lisa — fresh off a role in HBO’s hit show “White Lotus” — took the stage solo Friday night, having twice performed at Coachella with her bandmates.Later in the weekend Charli XCX is expected to turn the grounds her signature “brat” green, after a blockbuster year that saw her latest album propel her to new echelons of fame.Travis Scott will play a special guest slot following Green Day’s Saturday set, years after the hip-hop performer was slated to headline the 2020 festival, which was ultimately scrapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic.- Rock revival -Legendary all-women rock band The Go-Gos donned glittering, metallic get-ups as they reunited at Coachella, bringing rock back to the desert as they performed their hits including “Vacation” and “We Got The Beat.”They also invited Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong onstage for a rendition of “Head Over Heels.”And pop star of the moment Benson Boone took the main stage ahead of the much-touted performances by Elliott and Gaga.The exuberant costumed dancers of the kids’ television musical show Yo Gabba Gabba! made starring appearances on the grounds Friday afternoon, delighting revelers young and old who scrambled to take selfies with the characters.The show first released in 2007 has a cult following and is slated to perform a full set on Saturday, a performance that promises to feature a number of celebrity guest stars.”So many ‘kids’ attending the festival, grew up watching the show,” said show co-creator Christian Jacobs in a backstage interview with AFP. “That’s exciting.”Fresh off a Grammy win, Venezuelan band Rawayana is also primed to play a top slot on Saturday.And celebrity conductor Gustavo Dudamel notably will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a sunset concert. There have been orchestral performances at Coachella before — film composers Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer were showcased over the past decade — but Saturday’s performance will be the first time a major professional orchestra has played there.Hip-hop superstar Megan Thee Stallion will helm the main stage Sunday ahead of Post Malone’s headlining performance, with Ty Dolla $ign also set to perform.Also on Sunday, French duo Polo & Pan will bring their tropicalia-infused electro set back to the Coachella Valley.German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk are another top-billed draw.And while Coachella has leaned decidedly pop over the past decade, the 2025 edition is getting back to the festival’s rock roots. Along with The Go-Gos and Green Day, rock acts including the original Misfits, Jimmy Eat World, and cult punk legends the Circle Jerks are slated to play.”In this world gone sideways we know one thing for certain — rock ‘n’ roll is forever, and its spirit is needed now more than ever,” said Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong earlier this year in Billboard.Coachella 2025 takes place on April 11-13 and 18-20.

President Donald Trump insisted Friday that his tariff policy was “doing really well” despite China hiking levies on US goods to 125 percent in the spiraling trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.Investors dumped US government bonds, the dollar tumbled and stocks seesawed after Beijing’s retaliation against Trump deepened concerns on already traumatized global markets.Trump sent financial markets into a tailspin by announcing sweeping import taxes on dozens of trade partners last week, only to abruptly roll them back to 10 percent on Wednesday for 90 days — while raising levies on goods from China.”We are doing really well on our tariff policy,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network after China announced its latest hike.”Very exciting for America, and the World!!! It is moving along quickly,” he wrote.The White House said later that Trump remained “optimistic” about a deal with China, and added that 15 other countries have offers “on the table” during his 90-day pause in their tariffs.But Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt added that “the president made it very clear, when the United States is punched he will punch back harder.”The US and Beijing have been trading salvos of increasingly harsh tariffs since last week.Chinese President Xi Jinping gave his first major comments on the tensions on Friday, with state media quoting him as saying his country was “not afraid.”Xi also said the European Union and China should “jointly resist unilateral bullying practices” during talks with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.- ‘Numbers game’ -Beijing announced after Xi’s comments that new tariffs of 125 percent on US goods would take effect Saturday — almost matching the staggering 145 percent level imposed on Chinese goods coming into America.A Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson said the United States bore full responsibility, deriding Trump’s tariffs as a “numbers game” that “will become a joke.”But China’s finance ministry said tariffs would not go any higher in an acknowledgement that almost no imports are possible at the new level.Trump had reiterated on Thursday that he was looking to do a deal with Xi despite the mounting tensions.”He’s been a friend of mine for a long period of time. I think that we’ll end up working out something that’s very good for both countries,” he told reporters.But American officials have made it clear they expect Xi to reach out first.Pressure was growing on Trump, however, as markets continued to fret.As investors fled the dollar, which is typically considered a key haven currency, Trump attempted to squelch fears on Friday.”We’re the currency of choice. We’re always going to be… I think the dollar is tremendous,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, after the dollar plunged to its lowest level against the euro in more than three years.Meanwhile yields on crucial US government bonds, which are normally seen as a financial refuge, were up again Friday, indicating weaker demand as investors take fright.The White House said however that it had no evidence to support speculation by traders that China was offloading some of its vast holdings — which would increase the cost of borrowing for the US government — in retaliation.Wall Street stocks finished higher Friday, concluding a rollercoaster week on a positive note amid hopes that the market has absorbed the worst headlines about trade conflicts.Policymakers at the US Federal Reserve meanwhile warned of higher inflation and slower growth ahead due to Trump’s tariff policy.- ‘Countermeasures’ -Economists warn that the disruption in trade between the tightly integrated US and Chinese economies will increase prices for consumers and could spark a global recession.Ipek Ozkardeskaya, an analyst at Swissquote bank, told AFP the tariff figures were “so high that they don’t make sense anymore,” but said China was “now ready to go as far as needed.”The rest of the world is still calibrating its response.Trump on Thursday described the European Union — which was originally hit with 20 percent tariffs by Trump — as “very smart” for refraining from retaliatory levies.EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic will hold talks in Washington on Monday.But the 27-nation bloc’s chief Ursula von der Leyen told the Financial Times it remained armed with a “wide range of countermeasures” including a possible hit on digital services that would strike US tech firms.

Donald Trump said he felt “in very good shape” Friday after his first annual medical checkup since returning to the US presidency, an exam that puts the focus on the fitness of the oldest man ever elected to the White House.Republican Trump, 78, has repeatedly boasted about his own vigor since starting a second term, while mocking his 82-year-old Democratic predecessor Joe Biden as decrepit and mentally unfit for office.But now it is Trump, who will also be 82 at the end of his presidency, under the stethoscope.”I felt I was in very good shape. Good heart,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that “I took a cognitive test. I don’t know what to tell you other than I got every answer right.”The billionaire arrived at the Walter Reed military hospital in the Washington suburbs earlier in the day — after a delay due to talks on tariffs.”I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Trump said on Truth Social earlier this week.Trump has repeatedly been accused of a lack of openness about his health despite huge interest in the wellbeing of America’s commander-in-chief.Stating that he underwent both cardio and cognitive tests, Trump said a report would be released by his doctor on Sunday.The White House said previously that presidential physician Sean Barbabella would give a readout of the physical and that “of course” it would provide the full report.”I can confirm the president is in very good shape, as you see on a near daily basis,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier.She said Trump would not be having a general anesthetic — which is normally used for procedures such as colonoscopies — but added there is “a lot that goes into it to make sure the president is accomplishing all of his goals.”Trump is a prolific golfer who abstains from alcohol and cigarettes.But he is also known to indulge in fast food and famously enjoys well-done steaks, although he appears noticeably thinner than during his first term.- ‘Healthiest individual’ -Trump’s personal and White House doctors have at times made outlandish claims about his health.In 2015, during Trump’s first presidential run, his doctor Harold Bornstein released a letter saying the tycoon “unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”Bornstein later told CNN that Trump himself “dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter.”The White House doctor in his first term, Ronny Jackson, said in 2018 that with a healthier diet Trump could “live to be 200 years old.”Jackson’s report then suggested Trump should aim to lose 10 to 15 pounds but said he was generally in “excellent health,” adding that there were no signs of “any cognitive issues.”A year later, an exam found the 6-foot-3 (1.9 meter) Trump weighed 243 pounds (110 kilograms), up seven pounds since shortly before taking office, making him technically obese. It said he was taking medication to treat high cholesterol.In 2020, Trump told Fox News he aced a test for cognitive impairment by repeating the phrase “person, woman, man, camera, TV.” Age became a major issue in the 2024 election when Trump and Biden faced off as the oldest major party candidates in history.Biden was forced to drop out of the race after a stumbling performance in a TV debate against Trump in June that put concerns over his cognitive health to the top of the agenda.Since returning to office Trump has repeatedly compared his own vigor to Biden’s, while the White House has accused the previous administration of covering up what it says was the Democrat’s decline.

A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year.Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier.According to a statement from the prison, “the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT),” with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.”Tonight, the state of South Carolina executed him by firing squad — a horrifying act that belongs in the darkest chapters of history, not in a civilized society,” defense lawyer David Weiss said in a statement. “Mikal died in full view of a system that failed him at every turn — from childhood to his final breath.”Myers found Mahdi hiding in a garden shed at his home before Mahdi killed him and set the body on fire. Mahdi also pleaded guilty to murdering a convenience store clerk three days before he killed Myers.South Carolina gives its death row inmates a choice between lethal injection, the electric chair and the firing squad. Mahdi chose the firing squad.The first execution by firing squad in the United States in 15 years was carried out in South Carolina on March 7, when a man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents was put to death.A three-person squad of Department of Corrections volunteers opens fire on the condemned man, who is restrained in a chair with a hood over his head 15 feet (five meters) away.Mahdi had requested clemency from Governor Henry McMaster but South Carolina’s Republican chief executive did not grant it, or any previous clemency petitions.Mahdi’s lawyers had argued that he had suffered his entire life. He was four when his mother fled her abusive husband, leaving the boy to be raised by his volatile mentally ill father, they said.”Between the ages of 14 and 21, Mikal spent over 80 percent of his life in prison and lived through 8,000 hours in solitary confinement,” his lawyers said.They described Mahdi as “deeply remorseful and a dramatically different person from the confused, angry and abused youth who committed the capital crimes.”Mahdi’s execution was the 12th in the  United States this year. There were 25 last year.The vast majority of US executions since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 have been performed using lethal injection.Alabama has carried out four executions using nitrogen gas, a method that has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.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.”Attorney General Pam Bondi announced last week that federal prosecutors would seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, charged with the high-profile December 4 murder in New York of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The Trump administration, pursuing its deeply skeptical approach to climate change, wants to severely cut back the research arm of a government agency that plays a pivotal role in global climate science, US media reported Friday.The administration plans to ask Congress, which sets the budgets for federal agencies, to cut funding for research labs and offices overseeing climate studies in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), according to an internal White House document consulted by CNN and the journal Science.”Trump’s budget plan for NOAA is both outrageous and dangerous,” said Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, the ranking Democrat on the House science committee, warning that the administration is “wholly destroying” essential services in a statement.About 75 percent of funding for NOAA’s research branch could be eliminated from the 2026 budget — drastic cuts to the prestigious agency that could be implemented starting this year. The administration wants to eliminate the jobs of hundreds of federal and academic scientists who study human-driven global warming, Science reported.The cuts would be on top of at least 1,000 NOAA jobs eliminated last month under the drastic downsizing overseen by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).Scientists say the further cuts could have enormous consequences, given NOAA’s crucial role both nationally and globally in weather forecasting, climate studies and fisheries conservation. Researchers and labs around the world rely on data and mathematical models from NOAA, so an end to its research programs could have a drastic impact, scientists say.It could also affect the US economy, given the heavy dependence of the agricultural sector and fishing industry on NOAA weather predictions and data.”This administration’s hostility towards research and rejection of climate science will have the consequence of eviscerating the weather forecasting capabilities that this plan claims to preserve,” Lofgren wrote.”What NOAA does is crucial to the life-saving weather research and services that it provides to the American people.”Some conservatives see NOAA as a chief purveyor of what they call “climate alarmism.” The Trump administration has launched a concerted assault on the government’s climate-related resources, ordering massive layoffs and deleting websites with data on the weather and climate. The White House also wants to make budget cuts to a branch of NASA that is tasked with using satellites to study and monitor the effects of climate change, according to media reports.

The Trump administration rejected a federal judge’s order to provide by Friday a status update on a wrongly deported Salvadoran migrant’s return to the United States, calling the deadline “impracticable”. “Foreign affairs cannot operate on judicial timelines, in part because it involves sensitive country-specific considerations wholly inappropriate for judicial review,” Trump administration attorneys wrote in a filing.Lawyers for Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, in their own filing, expressed outrage for the “arrogance and cruelty” of the Trump administration, accusing it of continuing to “delay, obfuscate and flout court orders while a man’s life and safety is at risk.”After a Friday hearing that lasted barely half an hour, district judge Paula Xinis said the government had “failed to comply”.The administration would have to file a declaration on Abrego Garcia’s status “each day… until further order”, starting on Saturday.She further scheduled a new in-person hearing for April 15.Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran living in the eastern state of Maryland and married to a US citizen, was arrested March 12 by immigration police. He was among more than 200 people deported on March 15 to a notorious prison in El Salvador as part of Donald Trump’s migration crackdown.Abrego Garcia’s family has continued to proclaim his innocence, and a Trump administration lawyer has acknowledged that his expulsion followed an “administrative error.” – Supreme Court battle -A federal court had ruled in 2019 that he could not be expelled to El Salvador, where his life could be in danger.The administration has said it is powerless to secure Abrego Garcia’s return and insisted he was part of MS-13, a Salvadoran gang the United States classified as terrorist in February.Last week, judge Xinis said she had seen no evidence Abrego Garcia was a gang member and ordered the government to “effectuate” his return to the United States by April 7 at the latest.The conservative-dominated Supreme Court later held that the administration was indeed required to “facilitate” Garcia’s return and to ensure that he be treated as if he had never been wrongly deported. But the justices also directed Xinis to clarify her order — saying she may have exceeded her authority and needed to reflect “due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”She subsequently amended her wording to say the government must take “all available steps to facilitate” his return “as soon as possible”.At that point, Xinis also directed the administration to provide an update on Abrego Garcia’s current location and detention status, and to explain by Friday the legal grounds on which he was detained.- Test of power -At the hearing Friday, the Trump administration said it needed more time, requesting an April 15 date for response to the judge’s questions and a postponement of the hearing to April 16.Xinis refused, maintaining Friday’s hearing and extending the deadline to provide an update within hours.The Trump administration wrote that it was “unable to provide the information… on the impracticable deadline set by the Court.”Most of those expelled along with Abrego Garcia were accused by the administration of belonging to a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, which Washington has labeled a terrorist organization.The case represents the only time the administration has acknowledged wrongly deporting anyone, though the Justice Department subsequently suspended the lawyer who made that concession, saying he had failed to vigorously defend the government position. The administration has described the case as a key test of the president’s power to conduct sensitive national security-related operations.

The US has long been considered a financial safe haven. The sell-off of the dollar, stocks and Treasury bonds in a spree sparked by panic at President Donald Trump’s trade war is starting to raise questions about if that’s still true.- What happened this week to US assets? -US equities and the greenback have been under pressure for weeks. This week, the volatility spread to the US Treasury market, long considered by global investors to be a refuge.On Wednesday morning before Trump announced he was pausing many of his most onerous tariffs for 90 days, yields on both the 10-year and 30-year US Treasury bonds spiked suddenly. Trump’s pivot — which sparked a mammoth equity market rally Wednesday afternoon — also provided temporary relief to the US Treasury market. But yields began rising again on Thursday.”There’s clearly a flight from US bonds,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers. “That money is flowing out of the US bond market and doing so very quickly.”JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon rejected the notion that US Treasuries were no longer a haven, but acknowledged an impact from recent market volatility.”It does change the nature a little bit from the certainty point of view,” Dimon said Friday, while adding that the United States still stands out as safe “in this turbulent world.”  – Why are investors fleeing US bonds? -The most obvious reason is that the near-term outlook on the US economy has deteriorated, with more economists betting on a recession due to tariff-related inflation and a slowdown in business investment amid policy uncertainty.That’s a big shift from just 80 days ago at the World Economic Forum where “everyone talked about US supremacy,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said Friday.Analysts also see the reaction as stemming from Trump’s policies such as his “America First” agenda that frays ties with other countries and his proposed tax cuts that could mean bigger US deficits.”Unconventional policies that gamble with a country’s public finances and/or its growth outlook can cause bond investors to question the assumption that government debt is risk free,” said a note from Berenberg Economics.”The breakdown in the relationship between US Treasury yields and the dollar highlights the concerns of investors about Donald Trump’s policy agenda,” Berenberg said.Analysts have said some of the selling in US Treasuries is likely from equity investors who need to raise cash quickly. There has also been speculation that the Chinese government could liquidate US Treasury holdings in the US-China trade war, although such a move would also badly hit Beijing.- What will happen next? -The safe nature of US Treasury bonds is connected to the reserve currency status of the dollar, a feature that allows the United States to operate with much larger fiscal deficits than other countries.Since Trump’s inauguration, the euro has risen 10 percent against the greenback. Still there is very little talk of a shift in the dollar’s status anytime soon. The greenback is the currency in which oil and other global commodities trade. Central banks around the world will continue to hold assets in dollars and US Treasuries.”There will be scarring impacts from this, but I don’t think it’s going to dislocate the dollar as the de facto global currency,” said Will Compernolle of FHN Financial. “I just don’t see any other alternative for now.”BlackRock’s Fink remains bullish on the United States long-term, noting planned investments in artificial intelligence and infrastructure that will fuel growth.Trump policies such as tax cuts and deregulation will “unlock an amazing amount of private capital,” predicted Fink, who believes this upbeat future has  been “obscured” by tariffs.Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said corporate deals could soon pick up, viewing Trump’s proposed tax cuts and deregulation as catalysts that may allow clients to say “we will go forward.”

A group of US senators on Friday urged the government’s markets watchdog to investigate whether President Donald Trump or his allies broke securities laws ahead of his dramatic reversal on global tariffs.The six senior Democrats noted in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Trump had posted on his website Truth Social early Wednesday that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” as stocks were tanking.A few hours later, Trump announced a 90-day suspension of additional tariffs against dozens of countries, triggering a historic markets rebound and the best day for the S&P 500 index since the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.Trump was seen later in the day, in a video circulated by the White House itself, boasting about his already rich associates making a killing on the surge.”We urge the SEC to investigate whether the tariff announcements… enriched administration insiders and friends at the expense of the American public,” the senators told the SEC.Their letter — spearheaded by Massachusetts progressive Elizabeth Warren — asked the SEC to probe whether “any insiders, including the president’s family, had prior knowledge of the tariff pause that they abused to make stock trades ahead of the president’s announcement.”Trump signed his Truth Social post with the letters “DJT” — both his initials and the stock market abbreviation for his media company, Trump Media & Technology Group.The company’s shares closed up 21.67 percent on Wednesday.The senators called on the SEC to investigate whether the president, his donors or other insiders had engaged in market manipulation, insider trading or other violations of securities laws. White House communications aide Margo Martin posted a video on X Wednesday showing Trump bragging about how much money his billionaire associates had made on the stock market after his reversal.- Trump ‘on sale’ -“This is Charles Schwab,” Trump said, introducing the 87-year-old investor and founder of Charles Schwab Corporation at an Oval Office event for champion motor racing drivers.”He’s not just a company, he’s actually an individual! And he made 2.5 billion today.”Trump then pointed to another attendee whose face was obscured, identified by The Independent newspaper as NASCAR team owner Roger Penske, and said: “And he made 900 million. That’s not bad.”SEC chairman Paul Atkins has a history with Warren, the top Democrat on the banking committee, who has accused him of having conflicts of interest over his ties to the financial services industry.He is not obliged to do what the senators ask, but four members of the group followed up with a second letter to the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) asking for state-level investigations.”Corruption and lawlessness have become a calling card of the Trump administration,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who signed both letters.The demand for action came amid concern over the growing number of avenues through which Trump and his family can monetize the power of the presidency, although no evidence of corruption has emerged.Days before his inauguration, Trump released a “memecoin” — a digital cryptocurrency token with no inherent value — opening the door for secret donations from foreign buyers.”Now anyone in world can essentially deposit money into bank account of President of USA with a couple clicks,” his former aide Anthony Scaramucci posted on social media after the launch. “Every favor — geopolitical, corporate or personal — is now on sale, right out in the open.”The White House told The Washington Post that Trump’s Truth Social post sought only to “reassure” the public and that he had a responsibility to “reassure markets and Americans about their economic security.”

The Spanish family killed when a New York sightseeing helicopter plunged into the Hudson River, leaving no survivors, were celebrating a birthday, a local official said Friday as divers scoured for wreckage.A senior business executive, his wife and three children died along with the pilot when the helicopter malfunctioned, disintegrating in mid-air before plunging into the cold water.The family were on a pleasure flight Thursday over Manhattan, described by the operator as the “ultimate sightseeing tour of New York City.””They were celebrating the mom’s 40th birthday with the tourist helicopter flight yesterday. The kids were all 11 years old and younger,” said Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop.A family member was flying in to recover their remains and officials were seeking to expedite the release of the bodies to be repatriated to Spain.Police divers searched for parts of the helicopter that had yet to be recovered including the main rotor.Fulop said working theories of the cause were a drone collision, a bird strike or mechanical failure.- ‘I heard a noise’ -The crash has once again shone a light on US aviation safety in the wake of deadly incidents including the collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet in Washington in January that claimed 67 lives.A light aircraft crashed after departing Boca Raton airport in Florida on Friday, with local media reporting three people had been killed after the plane developed a mechanical issue.There have been around 30 helicopter crashes in New York since 1980, Brooklyn Borough president Mark Levine told reporters, calling for tighter restrictions.The cockpit of the passenger helicopter was lifted from the river by a barge crane overnight.Swiss tourist Arafa Cherif, 47, told AFP “I heard a noise, but I thought it was a bomb or something.””I was scared and so were the people next to me. Then I saw lots of police and firemen.”Police and fire service divers raced to the wreckage and rushed two of those rescued to hospital, but doctors were unable to save them.Mayor Eric Adams said it was a “heartbreaking and tragic crash.”Video of the incident has emerged showing the cockpit apparently becoming detached from the rotor.”It appears that the main rotor struck the body of the helicopter, cutting off the tail of the helicopter, which created an unrecoverable event,” said former military aviator and attorney Jim Brauchle of Motley Rice.”The two main causes of this phenomenon are mechanical failure or excessive maneuvering.”

Lawyers for Luigi Mangione, who allegedly gunned down an American health care CEO in a brazen attack, have pushed back against the Trump administration’s pursuit of the death penalty in the case, court filings showed Friday.Attorney General Pam Bondi asked federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty earlier this month in the case of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which brought to the surface deep public frustration with the lucrative US commercial health care system.”Defendant Luigi Mangione seeks Court intervention now not merely because the Government has failed to follow (internal and external death penalty) procedures — but because it has abandoned them,” Mangione’s lawyers said in a filing to the Manhattan federal court.”He seeks Court intervention because the Attorney General has explicitly stated that she has ordered the death penalty to ‘carry out President (Donald) Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”Bondi called the murder “an act of political violence” that “may have posed grave risk of death to additional persons.”Many social media users have painted Mangione as a hero.”The Attorney General’s decision is explicitly and unapologetically political,” Friday’s defence filing added.”This Court should not presume good faith by the Attorney General,” it added accusing Bondi of prejudicing proceedings and demanding all communication on the death penalty issue be supplied to defense counsel.Mangione has been charged in both New York state and US federal court. In the state case, Mangione has pleaded not guilty and could face life imprisonment with no parole if convicted.Early on December 4, Mangione allegedly tracked Thompson in New York, walked up behind him and fired several gunshots from a pistol with a silencer, federal prosecutors said. He had traveled to the city by bus from Atlanta about 10 days before the crime.Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on December 9 following a tip from staff at a McDonald’s restaurant, after a days-long manhunt.