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A cryptocurrency group has said it organized a spate of “stunts” in which sex toys were tossed on courts at WNBA games, US media reported on Thursday.USA Today first reported that an unnamed spokesman for a group behind a meme coin called Green Dildo Coin had orchestrated at least some of the incidents, which angered WNBA players and led to at least two arrests.”We didn’t do this because, like, we dislike women’s sports or, like, some of the narratives that are trending right now are ridiculous,” the unnamed source told USA Today.”We knew that in order to get a voice in the space … we had to go out and do some viral stunts to save us from having to pay that influencer cabal, sacrifice our souls and the fate of the project.”On July 29, a sex toy landed on the court as the Atlanta Dream hosted the Golden State Valkyries.In the week since, similar objects have been thrown onto the court or into the stands at several other games, including another game in Atlanta.The WNBA confirmed that one person had been arrested in connection with one of the incidents in Atlanta and on Wednesday an 18-year-old man was arrested for throwing a sex toy at a Phoenix Mercury game which hit another fan — who was at the game with his young neice.USA Today reported that the meme coin group spokesman said that Delbert Carter, who was arrested for allegedly throwing a green sex toy on the court at the end of Atlanta’s home game against Phoenix, was not part of the cryptocurrency group.Nor was Kaden Lopez, who was arrested in Phoenix. According to the statement from the Phoenix Police Department, Lopez said he saw the trend on social media and bought his own sex toy to throw.”Moving forward, we have a lot more pranks, but they’re a lot lighter. They’re a lot more tasteful,” the unnamed source told USA Today.The WNBA said in a statement on Thursday it was working with arena personnel to identify culprits and “ensure appropriate action is taken.”The WNBA did not immediately comment on the reports of the cryptocurrency group connection.

The United States doubled its bounty on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro — who faces federal drug trafficking charges — to $50 million on Thursday, a move Caracas described as “pathetic” and “ridiculous”.Washington, which does not recognize Maduro’s past two election victories, accuses the South American country’s leader of leading a cocaine trafficking gang.”Today, the Department of Justice and State Department are announcing a historic $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Nicolas Maduro,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a video on social media. “He is one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world and a threat to our national security.”The previous bounty was set in January at $25 million.Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said Bondi’s “pathetic” bounty was “the most ridiculous smokescreen we have ever seen.””The dignity of our homeland is not for sale. We reject this crude political propaganda operation,” Gil said on Telegram.In 2020, during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials were indicted in federal court in New York on several charges including participating in a “narco-terrorism” conspiracy.- ‘Cartel of the Suns’ -The Justice Department accused Maduro of leading a cocaine trafficking gang called “The Cartel of the Suns” that shipped hundreds of tons of narcotics into the United States over two decades, earning hundreds of millions of dollars.Investigators say the cartel worked hand-in-hand with the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which the United States has labeled a terrorist organization.Bondi said Maduro also had worked with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) “has seized 30 tons of cocaine linked to Maduro and his associates, with nearly seven tons linked to Maduro himself,” Bondi said.The US government has also seized more than $700 million in Maduro-linked assets, including two Venezuelan government aircraft, since September last year, according to Bondi.”Yet Maduro’s reign of terror continues,” she said. “Under President Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes.”The 62-year-old Maduro, a former bus driver and trade unionist, faces up to life in prison if he can be tried and is convicted.At the time of the indictment, Maduro slammed what he called “spurious, false” accusations.In June, Venezuela’s former intelligence chief Hugo Armando Carvajal pleaded guilty to US drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges. The Miami Herald, citing sources familiar with the case, said Carvajal had offered to provide US authorities with documents and testimony implicating Maduro.- ‘Deeply flawed’ -Relations between Washington and Caracas have been deteriorating for years.The US government has not recognized Maduro, who first took office in 2013, as the duly elected president of Venezuela since what the State Department has called a “deeply flawed 2018 presidential election.””In the July 28, 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, Maduro fraudulently declared himself the victor despite evidence to the contrary,” the State Department said in an announcement of the earlier bounty in January.”The United States joined many other countries in refusing to recognize Maduro as the legitimate winner of the July 2024 presidential election.”Washington has placed an array of economic sanctions on Maduro’s government.For its part, Maduro’s government has long denounced US interference in Venezuela.On Thursday, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello announced that security services had thwarted a bomb attack in a commercial area of the capital Caracas. As Venezuelan authorities often do in such cases, Cabello accused the US and the Venezuelan opposition of instigating the thwarted attack.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday he would meet with Vladimir Putin for upcoming talks on the Ukraine war even if the Russian leader had not sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.The statement, which contradicted earlier reports that a Putin-Zelensky meeting was a prerequisite for the summit, came after Trump gave Moscow until Friday to reach a ceasefire or face fresh sanctions. But asked by reporters in the Oval Office if that deadline still held, Trump did not answer clearly.”It’s going to be up to (Putin),” Trump said. “We’re going to see what he has to say.”Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has been pressuring Moscow to end Russia’s military assault on Ukraine.The Kremlin said Thursday that Putin was set to attend a summit with Trump in the “coming days,” but the Russian leader essentially ruled out including Zelensky.Zelensky meanwhile insisted that he had to be involved in any talks.When Trump was asked if Putin was required to meet Zelensky before a summit, the US president said simply: “No, he doesn’t.”Putin has named the United Arab Emirates as a potential location for the summit, but this was not confirmed by Washington.- Next week? -The summit would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.Three rounds of direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul have failed to yield any progress towards a ceasefire. The two sides remain far apart on the conditions they have set to end the more than three-year-long conflict.Trump and Putin last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump’s first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since January.Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said that “next week has been set as a target date,” adding that both sides have agreed the venue “in principle,” without naming it.However, Washington later denied that a venue or date had been set.”No location has been determined,” a White House official said, while agreeing that the meeting “could occur as early as next week.” Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its military offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.Russian bombardments have forced millions of people to flee their homes and have destroyed swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.Putin has resisted multiple calls from the United States, Europe and Kyiv for a ceasefire.At talks in Istanbul, Russian negotiators outlined hardline territorial demands for halting its advance — calling for Kyiv to withdraw from some territory it still controls and to renounce Western military support.Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged Trump to “finally get tough on the Kremlin” and use his leverage to end the war. “Face-to-face dialogue is important, but Putin cannot be allowed yet another opportunity to delay or water down President Trump’s promise of harsh sanctions taking effect tomorrow,” she said in a statement late Thursday. – ‘Only fair’ Ukraine involved -Reports of the possible summit came after US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin in Moscow on Wednesday.Witkoff proposed a trilateral meeting with Zelensky, but Putin appeared to rule out direct talks with the Ukrainian leader.”Certain conditions must be created for this,” Putin told reporters. “Unfortunately, we are still far from creating such conditions.”The former KGB agent, who has ruled Russia for over 25 years, said in June that he was ready to meet Zelensky, but only during a “final phase” of negotiations on ending the conflict.In his regular evening address on Thursday, Zelensky said “it is only fair that Ukraine should be a participant in the negotiations.”The Ukrainian leader spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as he called for the continent to be included in any potential peace talks.”Ukraine is an integral part of Europe — we are already in negotiations on EU accession. Therefore, Europe must be a participant in the relevant processes,” Zelensky said on social media.

President Donald Trump’s steeper global tariffs came into effect Thursday, leaving dozens of US partners scrambling to secure relief from soaring levies that are rewriting global trade practice.Shortly before the new rates kicked in, Washington also announced it would double India tariffs to 50 percent and hit many semiconductor imports with a 100-percent duty.Trump’s trade policy is a demonstration of economic power that he hopes will revive domestic manufacturing, but many economists fear it could fuel inflation and lower growth.In his latest move, the president raised import duties from 10 percent to levels between 15 percent and 41 percent for various trading partners.Many products from the European Union, Japan and South Korea now face a 15-percent tariff, even with deals struck with Washington to avert steeper threatened levies.But questions remain surrounding the implementation of these agreements.Others like India face a 25-percent duty — to be doubled in three weeks — while Syria, Myanmar and Laos face levels of 40 or 41 percent.Switzerland’s government, which failed to convince Trump not to impose a 39-percent tariff, said after an extraordinary meeting Thursday that it remains committed to talks aimed at lowering levies.Trump’s latest wave of “reciprocal” duties — a response to trade practices Washington deems unfair — broadens measures imposed since he returned to the presidency.Wall Street’s major indexes mostly dipped, while global markets largely shrugged off the higher tariffs Thursday.- ‘No charge’ -The steeper duties maintain exemptions on sectors that Trump separately targeted, like steel and autos.Categories that could be hit later, like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, are also spared for now.Trump said Wednesday that he plans an “approximately 100-percent tariff” on semiconductor imports, but with no charge for companies investing in his country or committed to doing so.Companies and industry groups warn Trump’s new levies will severely hurt smaller American businesses.But providing some reprieve from the “reciprocal” tariff hike is a clause saying that goods already en route to the United States before Thursday — and arriving before October 5 — will not face the new rates.With the dust settling, at least temporarily, Georgetown University professor Marc Busch expects US businesses to “pass along more of the tariff bill” to consumers.Inventories are depleting and it is unlikely firms will absorb costs indefinitely, he told AFP.Trump is using tariffs to pursue a variety of goals — such as doubling planned duties on India due to its purchase of Russian oil, a key revenue source in Moscow’s war in Ukraine.The order threatened penalties on countries that “directly or indirectly” import Russian oil too.The Federation of Indian Export Organisations called the move a “severe setback” impacting nearly 55 percent of shipments to the United States.- Discrepancies -Lingering questions remain for partners who have negotiated deals with Trump.Tokyo and Washington appear at odds over the terms of their pact, such as when levies on Japanese cars will be lowered from an existing 25 percent on US auto imports.Both countries also seem to differ on whether the new 15-percent toll on Japanese goods would be added to existing levies or — like the EU — be capped at that level for many products.Japan’s tariffs envoy Ryosei Akazawa told reporters Thursday that Washington is expected to revise its order such that the new toll does not stack uniformly on existing ones. It would also lower vehicle tariffs on Japanese autos.Washington and Beijing meanwhile have a temporary truce in their tariff standoff expiring August 12. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox Business it is likely this will be extended another 90 days.Trump has separately targeted Brazil over the trial of his right-wing ally, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of planning a coup.US tariffs on various Brazilian goods surged to 50 percent Wednesday with broad exemptions.Lutnick expects Trump’s duties could bring in $50 billion in monthly revenue.burs-bys/mlm

From Uncle Sam to Superman, the US government is deploying patriotic icons and increasingly warlike rhetoric to recruit Americans into enforcing Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.Job ads promising $50,000 signing bonuses to new “Deportation Officers” have flooded social media over the past week, accompanied by jingoistic rallying slogans that declare “America Needs You.”White House officials have shared World War I-style posters, including one with Uncle Sam donning an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) baseball cap, while a former Superman actor has pledged he will “be sworn in as an ICE agent ASAP.””So many patriots have stepped up, and I’m proud to be among them,” Dean Cain, who starred as the Man of Steel in 1990s TV series “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” told FOX News.ICE, the agency chiefly responsible for the recent, divisive masked raids on farms, factories and Home Depot parking lots across the nation, is pulling out all the stops to hire new officers at a staggering rate. Flush with $75 billion in extra funding — making it the highest-funded US law enforcement agency, ahead of even the FBI — ICE has been tasked by Trump with deporting one million undocumented immigrants per year.To do so, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has pledged to hire 10,000 new officers, in a process that would swell ICE’s ranks by a whopping 50 percent.On Wednesday, Noem scrapped pre-existing age caps that prevented over-40s from becoming deportation officers.Student debt forgiveness, generous overtime pay and enhanced retirement benefits are all being flouted — alongside language about the opportunity to “Fulfill your destiny” and “Defend the Homeland.””Your nation needs you to step into the breach. For our country, for our culture, for our way of life. Will you answer the call?” read one post on Department of Homeland Security social media accounts.- ‘All-hands-on-deck’ -DHS officials say they have received 80,000 applications since the recruitment campaign began less than a week ago.But critics have quickly highlighted evidence that the aggressive drive may not be working as effectively as officials claim.Dozens of officials at FEMA — a separate agency that deals with emergency disaster response — have been reassigned to ICE and threatened with losing their jobs if they do not move, the Washington Post reported.DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Post the move was part of “an all-hands-on-deck strategy to recruit 10,000 new ICE agents.”An ICE pilot program offering agents additional cash bonuses for deporting people quickly was scrapped less than four hours after it was announced, when its existence was leaked to the New York Times.And some local law enforcement agencies that have cooperated with the federal immigration crackdown have complained that they are now seeing their own officers poached.”ICE actively trying to use our partnership to recruit our personnel is wrong,” a Florida sheriff’s office spokesperson told CNN.-‘Kryptonite’ -Perhaps the highest profile and most scathing response has come from “South Park,” the popular animated TV satire that is becoming a thorn in the Trump administration’s side.In a recent episode, hapless school counselor Mr Mackey is offered an ICE job after a seven-second-long interview, immediately handed a gun and sent on a raid of a children’s concert.”If you’re crazy, or fat and lazy, we don’t care at all,” says a fictional ICE job advert.”Remember, only detain the brown ones. If it’s brown, it goes down,” orders Noem’s character during a satirical sequence set during an immigration raid in heaven.ICE raids have been accused using racial profiling by rights groups.Meanwhile, the recruitment drive has been hailed by conservative outlets.Fox News celebrated the news that Superman actor Cain had enlisted with the headline banner “Illegals, meet your Kryptonite.”Supportive comments on the channel’s Facebook page included “Now that’s a REAL Superman.” Several others pointed out that Superman, a beloved comic book hero who is closely associated with American patriotism, is “quite literally an alien immigrant.”

US President Donald Trump on Thursday alleged that jobs data had been “purposely” altered by the government’s commissioner of labor statistics to bolster his predecessor Joe Biden, presenting different figures in the wake of her firing.In the Oval Office, where journalists were convened for a “major” announcement, Trump and economist Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, displayed charts with what they said was the real data.”This shows that over the last two years of the Biden administration, the BLS overestimated job creation by 1.5 million jobs. Mr. President, that’s a gigantic error,” Moore said.Trump “did the right thing in calling for a new head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” added the economist, a longtime advisor to the Republican president.”It might not have been an error, that’s the bad part,” Trump said. “I don’t think it’s an error, I think they did it purposely.”According to what Moore called “unpublished census data,” in the first five months of Trump’s new term, the “average median household income adjusted for inflation for the average family in America is already up $1,174.”Trump called that result “incredible.”The Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly revises employment data after its initial publication — both up and down, and sometimes significantly.In early August, it sharply revised down employment growth for May and June — to the tune of 258,000 fewer jobs created.The revision infuriated Trump, who sacked commissioner of labor statistics Erika McEntarfer, who was confirmed in that role in January 2024.”We had no confidence. I mean the numbers were ridiculous,” Trump told reporters Sunday.In his first term, Trump had wanted to name Moore to the board of the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, but he opted against doing that in the face of criticism of Moore’s qualifications and allegedly sexist comments the economist had made in the past.

President Donald Trump issued an order Thursday demanding that US universities supply enrollment data as evidence they are not considering an applicant’s race when awarding admission.The Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that affirmative action by universities on the basis of race was unlawful, but said that they could use statements about the racial experiences of candidates when deciding on places.”The persistent lack of available data — paired with the rampant use of ‘diversity statements’ and other overt and hidden racial proxies — continues to raise concerns about whether race is actually used in practice,” Trump wrote in a memorandum.Since returning to the presidency, Trump has waged a campaign against US universities, accusing them of being hotbeds of anti-conservative ideology, anti-Semitism and “wokery.”He has also issued executive actions curtailing diversity, equity and inclusion programs in government, which had been intended to redress historic injustices.He accused the so-called “DEI” policies of discriminating against white people.”Greater transparency is essential to exposing unlawful practices and ultimately ridding society of shameful, dangerous racial hierarchies,” Trump wrote.The order requires that universities expand their reporting into the National Center for Education Statistics to “provide adequate transparency into admissions.”The details of the enhanced requirements would follow at a later date, the memorandum said.As part of his wider push to bring higher education to heel, Trump has wielded federal funds as a negotiating tool for universities that he says are too liberal, insisting that they submit to curriculum, enrollment and other changes.The Republican’s administration has also decreased or placed holds on spending for university research as part of wider budget cuts since taking office in January. Columbia University was the first to be targeted in Trump’s war against elite universities, for what the US president claimed was its failure to tackle anti-Semitism on campus in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests.It was stripped of hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding and lost its ability to apply for new research grants. Labs saw vital funding frozen, and dozens of researchers were laid off.But Columbia last month agreed to pay the government $200 million, and an additional $21 million to settle an investigation into anti-Semitism.Columbia, along with Brown, reportedly already agreed to disclose admissions data including race and test scores to the government as part of their settlements with the administration over alleged breaches of anti-discrimination laws.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday moved to kill a $7 billion program designed to bring rooftop solar to low-income and disadvantaged communities across the United States.The Solar For All grant program was created under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, former president Joe Biden’s landmark climate legislation.Sixty recipients — a mix of state agencies and nonprofits — had already been selected across both Democratic-led and Republican-led states. The initiative aimed to help more than 900,000 households slash their electricity bills by hundreds of dollars a year.In a video posted to X, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said last month’s “Big Beautiful Act” repealed the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, under which Solar For All was housed. He said he was now obligated to follow the law.Zeldin alleged — without elaboration — that the program’s funds were being siphoned off by the administrative costs of “middlemen,” calling the setup a “grift.” He also criticized its exemption from requirements to buy American goods, claiming it amounted to “great news for China.”Of the $7 billion obligated so far, just $53 million has been spent, according to an analysis by research firm Atlas Public Policy.Tom Taylor, a senior policy analyst at Atlas, told AFP there had been a general understanding that once contracts were signed, obligated funds couldn’t be clawed back. “But the Trump administration is now testing that theory,” he said.Environmental groups erupted in anger.”President Trump pledged to cut energy bills in half, but once again his administration is trying to make it more expensive to keep your home cool or the lights on,” said Adam Kent, director of green finance at the Natural Resources Defense Council.Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders accused Trump of acting to protect fossil fuel interests. “Donald Trump wants to illegally kill this program to protect the obscene profits of his friends in the oil and gas industry,” he said in a statement, vowing to “fight back to preserve this enormously important program.”The administration has already worked with Congress to repeal tax credits for wind and solar, tightened restrictions on federal leases for renewable energy projects, and rescinded designated offshore wind areas.It has also proposed ending regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and vehicles — and released a report suggesting climate change could be beneficial.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has agreed to carry Italian experiments on its Starship megarocket during planned future missions to Mars, according to a new deal announced on Thursday.”Italy is going to Mars!” Italian Space Agency president Teodoro Valente said on X, adding that the scientific experiments would fly on the first Starship trips to the red planet that have customers.Musk dreams of colonizing Mars using Starship, however the massive rocket has suffered several setbacks after recent tests ended in spectacular explosions.Still, the world’s richest man — who is known for his aggressively optimistic timelines — maintains that the first Starship launches will take place next year.SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell also announced the “first-of-its-kind” deal with the Italian Space Agency, saying that there was “more to come.””Get on board! We are going to Mars! SpaceX is now offering Starship services to the red planet,” she posted on X, formerly Twitter.Musk — the world’s richest man and a former close advisor to US President Donald Trump — has cultivated close ties with Italy’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.A proposed cybersecurity deal between the Italian government and Musk’s satellite company Starlink was heavily criticized by opposition parties in Italy earlier this year.In June, a SpaceX Starship rocket exploded during a routine ground test, resulting in the complete loss of the vessel.Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall, Starship is the world’s largest and most powerful rocket and is billed as a fully reusable rocket with a payload capacity of up to 150 metric tons.

A US federal judge ordered a temporary pause on Thursday to further construction of the migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” in a case filed by conservation groups.District Judge Kathleen Williams issued the temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity.The detention center, built on the site of an abandoned airfield in the Big Cypress National Preserve, can continue to house immigration detainees, but the Miami-based judge ordered an immediate two-week halt to new construction while the suit proceeds.Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity are arguing that the detention center threatens the sensitive Everglades ecosystem and was hastily built without conducting the required environmental impact studies.President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the center last month, boasting about the harsh conditions and joking that the reptilian predators will serve as guards. The name “Alligator Alcatraz” is a reference to Alcatraz Island, the former prison on an island in San Franciso Bay that Trump recently said he wanted to reopen.The conservation groups that filed the lawsuit welcomed the judge’s ruling.”We’re pleased that the judge saw the urgent need to put a pause on additional construction, and we look forward to advancing our ultimate goal of protecting the unique and imperiled Everglades ecosystem from further damage caused by this mass detention facility,” Eve Samples, executive director at Friends of the Everglades, said in a statement.Elise Bennett, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said it was a “relief that the court has stepped in to protect the Everglades’ sensitive waters, starry skies and vulnerable creatures from further harm while we continue our case.””We’re ready to press forward and put a stop to this despicable plan for good,” Bennett said.The ruling was also welcomed by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, which joined the case.”The detention facility threatens land that is not only environmentally sensitive but sacred to our people,” tribal chairman Talbert Cypress said. “While this order is temporary, it is an important step in asserting our rights and protecting our homeland.”The detention center is also the subject of a lawsuit filed in another federal court claiming that detainees are not being given access to attorneys and are being held without charges.