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Andrew Tate, a right-wing influencer facing charges of human trafficking and rape in Romania, left for the United States on Thursday, the first time he has been out of the eastern European country since his 2022 arrest.Romanian prosecutors allege that former kickboxer Tate, 38, his brother Tristan, 36, and two women set up a criminal organisation in Romania and Britain in early 2021 and sexually exploited several victims.Ioan Gilga, their lawyer, told CNN the brothers, who have British and American nationality and have been under judicial supervision in Romania, were headed to Florida together on a private jet.Justice Minister Radu Marinescu said the brothers need to return to Romania for their next court appearance on March 24 and could be subject to “preventive arrest” if they fail to appear.Four British women, who have accused Tate of rape and coercive control in a separate case, voiced concern last week that the US government might push Romania to ease the Tates’ travel restrictions and let them escape.Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu has said Richard Grenell, special envoy for President Donald Trump, raised the case with him at the Munich Security Conference earlier in February.But Marinescu, the justice minister, told AFP on Thursday that he was “not aware of any pressure from anyone” and had “not received any kind of request from the US authorities.”A Trump administration official said they “have no insight right now on anything related to the Tate brothers” when asked by reporters if there had been any involvement in their departure.A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office declined to comment on the situation or whether the UK wanted to see Tate extradited to Britain.”But more widely, the prime minister has been clear that human trafficking should be viewed as a global security threat, similar to terrorism,” the spokesperson added.A Romanian court has already granted a British request to extradite the Tates, but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.- ‘Retraumatised’ -In a joint statement on Thursday, the four British women said they “feel retraumatised by the news that the Romanian authorities have given into pressure from the Trump administration to allow Andrew Tate to travel.” The women are bringing a civil case in the UK against Tate, accusing him of rape and coercive control between 2013 and 2016.Matthew Jury, the lawyer for the four women, said Starmer should raise the issue “on behalf of the many British women who Tate is alleged to have raped and sexually assaulted who may now be denied justice.”Starmer is currently visiting the United States for a meeting with Trump.On Thursday, a Romanian court granted the Tate brothers’ appeal to lift the seizure of their assets — properties, vehicles, bank accounts, and company shares, their PR team said.Andrew Tate moved to Romania years ago after first starting a webcam business in the UK.He leapt to fame in 2016 when he appeared on the UK’s “Big Brother” reality television show, but was removed after a video emerged showing him attacking a woman.He then turned to social media platforms to promote his often misogynistic and divisive views on how to be successful.Banned from Instagram and TikTok for his views, Tate is followed by more than 10 million people on X watching his homophobic and racist posts.Last year, the Tates were sentenced in a tax fraud case in Britain.

Pop star Katy Perry is set to “shoot across the sky” this spring when she lifts off as part of a six-member, all-female crew on Blue Origin’s next space flight, the company announced Thursday.As if answering the call of her hit song “E.T.,” Perry will embark on a star-studded journey alongside journalist Lauren Sanchez, who is Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos’s fiancee, and CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King.Blue Origin began launching wealthy tourists and celebrities into space in 2021 aboard its New Shepard rocket, named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space.To date, the company has flown 52 people to suborbital space across 10 crewed missions.New Shepard missions launch from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas.Flights typically last just 10 or 11 minutes from liftoff to landing, with passengers experiencing a few minutes of microgravity as their capsule soars beyond the Karman line — the internationally recognized boundary of space, 100 kilometers (62 miles) above sea level.The rocket booster makes an upright vertical landing, while the capsule deploys parachutes for a gentle touchdown in the Texas desert.Also on board will be research scientist Amanda Nguyen, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.Past luminaries aboard New Shepard include Star Trek legend William Shatner, as well as Bezos himself, who flew on the inaugural crewed flight.Ticket prices remain undisclosed, though celebrities are often given complimentary seats.This mission will mark the first all-female spaceflight crew since Valentina Tereshkova’s historic solo flight in 1963.Like Elon Musk — the only person wealthier than him — Jeff Bezos has an enduring passion for space.But while Musk dreams of colonizing Mars, Bezos envisions shifting heavy industry off-planet onto floating space platforms to preserve Earth, “humanity’s blue origin.”In January, the company successfully launched its giant New Glenn rocket for the first time — a crucial step in its expansion into the lucrative commercial launch sector.Blue Origin already holds a NASA contract to build a lunar lander for one of the upcoming Artemis missions, which will return Americans to the Moon.New Glenn will also support the deployment of Project Kuiper, a satellite internet constellation designed to rival Musk’s Starlink.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets Donald Trump Thursday to plead for a US “backstop” to any Ukraine ceasefire, insisting it would be the only way to deter Russia’s Vladimir Putin from invading again.Starmer’s trip to the White House builds on a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, amid growing concerns in Europe that the US leader is about to sell Kyiv short in negotiations with Putin.London and Paris are spearheading proposals to send a European peacekeeping force to Ukraine if Trump’s shock decision to pursue talks directly with Russia’s president brings a deal to end the war.But they are calling for US security guarantees in return, amid spiraling concerns in Europe that Trump is taking Russia’s side and will sever the decades-old transatlantic alliance.”The security guarantee has to be sufficient to deter Putin,” Starmer told reporters on the plane to Washington.”If there is a ceasefire without a backstop, it will simply give him the opportunity to wait and to come again, because his ambition in relation to Ukraine is pretty obvious.” The Europeans are seeking possible US contributions like air cover, intelligence and logistics to support any troops sent to monitor a ceasefire.- ‘Trade-off’ -Trump has appeared cool on providing US security, with the president having long pushed for European nations to take more of the burden for supporting Ukraine.”Well I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We’re going to have Europe do that,” Trump told reporters as he held the first cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday.A senior Trump administration official said the backstop was “obviously very high on our European allies’ agenda” but said securing a proper ceasefire first was more important.”The type of force depends very much on the political settlement that is made to end the war. And I think that trade-off is part of what the leaders today are going to be discussing,” the official told reporters.The Oval Office meeting promises to be a clash of styles between the mild-mannered Labour leader, a former human rights lawyer, and the brash Republican tycoon.Starmer, who will hold a joint press conference with the US president, has pitched himself as a “bridge” between Trump and Europe on Ukraine.The British premier also comes bearing a gift for Trump.His announcement Tuesday that UK defense spending will rise to 2.5 percent by 2027 was particularly aimed at the American leader, who has regularly badgered European countries to pay more towards NATO.”We are very pleased with Prime Minister Starmer’s announcement,” the senior US official said.- ‘Nice guy’ -Starmer will meanwhile hope to avoid sweeping tariffs that Trump has promised to slap on the European Union.Trade “will certainly be part of the conversation,” added the US official.But like Macron on Monday, he will have his work cut out to persuade Trump on Ukraine.Last week Trump called Starmer a “very nice guy” — but complained that he and Macron had done “nothing” to end the war in Ukraine.The US president stunned allies when he began negotiations with Russia, without including Ukraine or its European allies.Concerns deepened when Trump attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator” and echoed Moscow talking points blaming Kyiv for Russia’s February 2022 invasion.Despite that, there have been growing signs of movement in recent days on a deal to end more than three years of bloody fighting.Zelensky is due at the White House on Friday to sign a deal giving Washington access to Ukraine’s rare minerals, which Trump has demanded as payback for US military aid.The Ukrainian president is hoping the deal will provide a guarantee of future US support.Starmer is then hosting Zelensky, Macron and other European leaders in Britain on Sunday as momentum grows.In Moscow, Putin on Thursday said that initial Russia-US talks “give some hope” of resolving “problems” like the Ukraine conflict.

An unvaccinated child in Texas has died from measles, authorities said Wednesday, marking the first US fatality from the highly contagious disease in nearly a decade as health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplayed a growing outbreak.The death comes as immunization rates decline nationwide, with the latest cases concentrated in a Mennonite religious community that has historically shown vaccine hesitancy.It arrives at a delicate moment for US public health as Kennedy, who has long spread falsehoods about the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, begins his tenure leading the Department of Health and Human Services.”The school-aged child who was not vaccinated was hospitalized in Lubbock last week and tested positive for measles,” the state health department said in a statement, with city officials adding the child died “within the last 24 hours.”This year more than 130 measles cases already have been reported in west Texas and neighboring New Mexico, the vast majority in unvaccinated children.Around 20 have been hospitalized in Texas, and officials warn the outbreak is likely to grow.During a meeting of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, Kennedy downplayed the situation, stating, “It’s not unusual. You have measles outbreaks every year.”He also stated the death toll as two — but neither the Texas nor New Mexico health departments said they knew of any additional fatality.The confirmed death “should serve as a reminder that there was a reason that the vaccine was developed and that the vaccine is a value to individuals,” infectious disease physician Amesh Adalja of Johns Hopkins University told AFP.Lara Johnson, chief medical officer at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas where the child was treated, told reporters that when she graduated from medical school in 2002, “I was confident I would never see a measles outbreak unless I chose to work internationally.”- Religious exemptions -The outbreak’s epicenter is Gaines County, home to a large Mennonite community, a Christian sect related to the Amish.Texas law allows vaccine exemptions for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a 95 percent vaccination rate to maintain “herd immunity.”However, coverage among kindergartners has dropped from 95.2 percent in the 2019–2020 school year to 92.7 percent in 2023–2024, leaving some 280,000 children vulnerable.The last US measles-related death was in 2015, when a woman in Washington state died from pneumonia caused by the virus. She had been vaccinated but was taking immunosuppressive medication. Before that, the previous recorded measles death was in 2003.- Airborne threat -Measles is a highly contagious respiratory virus spread through droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes or simply breathes.Known for its characteristic rash, it poses a serious risk to unvaccinated individuals, including infants under 12 months who aren’t ordinarily eligible for vaccination, and those with weakened immune systems.During outbreaks, about one in five infected individuals requires hospitalization, and one in 20 develops pneumonia. In rare cases, measles leads to brain swelling and can be fatal.The good news is vaccination is exceedingly effective at conferring lifetime immunity — with one dose estimated to be 93 percent effective, and two doses 97 percent.Before the measles vaccine’s introduction in 1963, it is thought that millions of Americans contracted the disease annually, and several hundred died. While measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, outbreaks persist each year.The United States reported 285 measles cases in 2024, according to the CDC. The largest recent outbreak was in 2019, with 1,274 cases, primarily in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York and New Jersey, the highest national total in decades.RFK Jr. has repeatedly and falsely linked the MMR vaccine to autism, a claim thoroughly debunked by scientific research.In one of his first actions as health secretary, the federal health department postponed a routine meeting of an independent advisory panel that makes vaccine recommendations to the CDC.

The United States has slashed its multi-year aid contracts by 92 percent, as it sought around $60 billion in savings in development and overseas humanitarian programs, the State Department said Wednesday.President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office, demanding a 90-day freeze on all US foreign aid to give his administration time to review overseas spending, with an eye to gutting programs not aligned with his “America First” agenda.A federal judge had given the Trump administration on Tuesday less than two days to unfreeze all aid after a previous court order issued nearly two weeks earlier went ignored.But the Trump administration filed an emergency petition to the US Supreme Court, which issued an administrative stay late Wednesday, pausing the lower court’s order.”At the conclusion of a process led by USAID leadership, including tranches personally reviewed by Secretary (Marco) Rubio, nearly 5,800 awards with $54 billion in value remaining were identified for elimination as part of the America First agenda — a 92 percent reduction,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.The administration’s review in part targeted multi-year foreign assistance contracts awarded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), with the vast majority eliminated during its course.It also looked at more than 9,100 grants involving foreign assistance, valued at more than $15.9 billion. Following the review, 4,100 grants worth almost $4.4 billion were targeted to be eliminated, a 28 percent reduction. “These commonsense eliminations will allow the bureaus, along with their contracting and grants officers, to focus on remaining programs, find additional efficiencies and tailor subsequent programs more closely to the Administration’s America First priorities,” the State Department statement said.USAID distributes US humanitarian aid around the world, with health and emergency programs in around 120 countries.Programs that were not cut included food assistance, life-saving medical treatments for diseases like HIV and malaria, and support for countries including Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and Lebanon, among others, the State Department spokesperson said.Late Wednesday, US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued the administrative stay, which grants the Trump administration temporary reprieve from having to unfreeze around $2 billion in payments for overdue foreign aid.The decision also gives the court more time to consider the matter.- ‘Bankrupt’ without cuts -USAID, created after a bill passed by Congress in 1961, had a workforce of more than 10,000 employees before the freeze, which sparked shock and dismay among personnel.During his election campaign, Trump promised to slash federal government spending and bureaucracy, a task he bestowed upon his top donor and close advisor Elon Musk, as part of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).Trump has said USAID was “run by radical lunatics” while Musk has described it as a “criminal organization” needing to be put “through the woodchipper.”The agency announced on February 23 that it was laying off 1,600 of its employees in the United States and placing most of the remaining staff on administrative leave.Musk, the world’s richest person, spoke about the controversial DOGE program at Trump’s first cabinet meeting Wednesday. “If we don’t do this, America will go bankrupt,” the tech tycoon told cabinet members, adding that he was “taking a lot of flak, and getting a lot of death threats.” One-third of his DOGE staff resigned in protest on Tuesday after he engineered a mass email to the federal government’s two million workers, ordering them to justify their work or risk being fired.US media reported that some cabinet members had expressed frustration over the DOGE emails, but Trump insisted at the cabinet meeting that his team was “thrilled” with Musk.Trump also signed an executive order on Wednesday broadening DOGE’s power to review federal spending on contracts, grants and loans.The order said it “commences a transformation in Federal spending” and called for a number of changes, including a “credit card freeze.””To the maximum extent permitted by law, all credit cards held by agency employees shall be treated as frozen for 30 days from the date of this order.”The freeze does not extend to staff in critical services such as “disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits.”

Oscar-winning US actor Gene Hackman and his long-time wife Betsy Arakawa have been found dead inside their home in New Mexico, media outlets reported on Thursday.Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said the couple was found dead on Wednesday afternoon, adding that there was no immediate indication of foul play, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican and Sky News. Mendoza did not provide a cause of death.The media reports said the couple, who were married since 1991, died along with their dog. Hackman, who had turned 95 late last month, was once voted as likely to flop in showbiz but instead went on to win two Oscar awards. Arakawa was a 63-year-old classical pianist.Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola on Thursday mourned the loss of Hackman.”The loss of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity,” Coppola wrote in a post on Instagram. “I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution.”Hackman is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the tough and vulgar New York cop Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in the 1971 crime thriller “The French Connection” — for which he won an Oscar for best actor.He won another golden statuette two decades later for best supporting actor for his portrayal of the brutal small-town sheriff “Little Bill” Daggett in the 1992 western “Unforgiven.”Throughout his acting career, Hackman drew on his talents and versatility, taking on a series of gritty roles and delivering thoughtful, intelligent performances.”It really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on screen,” the actor once said. “I think of myself, and feel like I’m quite young, and then I look at this old man with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and all that.”- Unlikely star -Born in Illinois during the Great Depression, Hackman came from a broken family.His father left when he was 13, waving enigmatically as he drove away one day, and his mother later died in a fire.Hackman later used his personal turmoil as fuel to flesh out his characters.He was an unlikely star, coming to acting relatively late in life after dabbling in a series of jobs, and only attracting attention in his 30s.According to Hollywood legend, after his enrollment at the Pasadena Playhouse in California in the late 1950s, he and a fellow student, one Dustin Hoffman, were voted the “least likely to succeed.”Upon graduation, Hackman earned work off-Broadway and began to turn heads.He earned his first Oscar nomination for best supporting actor in “Bonnie and Clyde.” That landmark 1967 film, in which Hackman played Clyde’s brother Buck Barrow, put him firmly on track for stardom. Hackman notched up dozens of film credits in his career, working well into his 60s and 70s although he stayed out of the limelight, instead writing and painting.Into the 21st century, he starred in “The Heist” and “The Royal Tenenbaums” in 2001, the latter winning him his third competitive Golden Globe, before announcing his retirement in 2008.

Influencer Andrew Tate, facing charges of human trafficking and rape in Romania, left for the United States on Thursday, airport sources told AFP.Romanian prosecutors allege that former kickboxer Tate, 38, his brother Tristan, 36, and two women set up a criminal organisation in Romania and Britain in early 2021 and sexually exploited several victims.The brothers, who have a British and American nationality, insist they are innocent.The Romanian organised crime squad DIICOT said the two brothers, who left for the US together, remained “under judicial supervision” and had to  “appear before the judicial authorities at every summons”.”Violation in bad faith of the obligations incumbent on them may lead to the replacement of judicial control with a higher custodial measure,” DIICOT said.Romanian aviation news media BoardingPass said “a Gulfstream G550 private jet took off from Bucharest, Romania, bound for Fort Lauderdale” just after 6:00 am (0400 GMT).”The flight… will be operated non-stop and will last 12 hours,” it added.Four British women who have accused Andrew Tate of rape voiced concern last week that the US government might push Romania to ease their travel restrictions.The Financial Times has said US President Donald Trump’s administration brought up Tate’s case with Romanian authorities earlier this month, calling for Bucharest to return the brothers’ passports.- ‘Gaslighting’ -Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu said Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell raised the case with him at the Munich Security Conference earlier in February.The four women, who are bringing a civil case against Tate at the High Court in the UK accusing him of rape and coercive control between 2013 and 2016, urged Washington not to get involved.”These are women who are the victims of the most horrible and horrific alleged crimes,” the victims’ UK lawyer Matthew Jury told BBC Newsnight.”And to see the most powerful man in the world support their alleged abuser is incredibly traumatising. It’s retraumatising for them. It’s gaslighting of a sort,” he added.Andrew Tate moved to Romania years ago after first starting a webcam business in the UK.He leapt to fame in 2016 when he first appeared on the UK’s “Big Brother” reality television show, but was removed after a video emerged showing him attacking a woman.He then turned to social media platforms to promote his often misogynistic and divisive views on how to be successful.Banned from Instagram and TikTok for his views, Tate is followed by more than 10 million people on X watching his homophobic and racist posts.A Romanian court has granted a British request to extradite the Tates to Britain, but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.Last year, the Tates were sentenced in a tax fraud case in Britain.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday accused North Korea of being behind the theft of $1.5 billion worth of digital assets last week, the largest crypto heist in history.Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit reported last week that it had been robbed of 400,000 in cryptocurrency Ethereum.According to the company, attackers exploited security protocols during a transaction, enabling them to transfer the assets to an unidentified address.On Wednesday, the US government pointed the finger at Pyongyang.”(North Korea) was responsible for the theft of approximately $1.5 billion USD in virtual assets from cryptocurrency exchange, Bybit,” the FBI said in a public service announcement.The bureau said a group called TraderTraitor, also known as the Lazarus Group, was behind the theft. It said they were “proceeding rapidly and have converted some of the stolen assets to Bitcoin and other virtual assets dispersed across thousands of addresses on multiple blockchains”.”It is expected these assets will be further laundered and eventually converted to fiat currency,” the FBI added.Lazarus Group gained notoriety a decade ago when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures as revenge for “The Interview,” a film that mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.It was also allegedly behind the 2022 $620 million heist of Ethereum and USD Coin from the Ronin Network in 2022, previously the biggest crypto theft in history.And in December, the United States and Japan blamed it for the theft of cryptocurrency worth over $300 million from the Japan-based exchange DMM Bitcoin.North Korea’s cyber-warfare program dates back to at least the mid-1990s, and the country has been dubbed “the world’s most prolific cyber-thief” by a cybersecurity firm.Pyongyang’s program has grown to a 6,000-strong cyber-warfare unit known as Bureau 121 that operates from several countries, according to a 2020 US military report.A United Nations panel on North Korea’s evasion of sanctions last year estimated the nation has stolen more than $3 billion in cryptocurrency since 2017.Much of the hacking activity is reportedly directed by Pyongyang’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, its primary foreign intelligence agency.Money stolen helps to fund the country’s nuclear weapons program, the panel said.

The United States will remove transgender troops from the military unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis, the Pentagon said in a Wednesday memo.The memo became public as part of a court filing in a case challenging President Donald Trump’s late January executive order that was aimed at barring military service by transgender personnel.”Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service,” the memo said.These troops may be “considered for a waiver on a case-by-case basis, provided there is a compelling government interest in retaining the service member that directly supports warfighting capabilities,” it said.To obtain such a waiver, troops must show that they have never attempted to transition, as well as demonstrate “36 consecutive months of stability in the service member’s sex without clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.”Another Pentagon memo issued earlier this month barred transgender people from joining the military and halted gender transition treatment for others who are already in uniform.The latest memo also states that “applicants for military service… who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are disqualified for military service,” as are those with “a history of cross-sex hormone therapy or sex reassignment or genital reconstruction surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria.”- Shifting US policies -Disqualified applicants can also obtain a waiver if there is a “compelling government interest” in them joining the military and they are “willing and able to adhere to all applicable standards, including the standards associated with the applicant’s sex.”Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly, while Trump has repeatedly sought to keep them out of the ranks.The US military lifted a ban on transgender troops in 2016, during Democrat Barack Obama’s second term as president.Under that policy, trans troops already serving were permitted to do so openly, and transgender recruits were set to start being accepted by July 1, 2017.But the first Trump administration postponed that date to 2018 before deciding to reverse the policy entirely.Trump’s controversial restrictions on transgender military service — which underwent changes in response to various court challenges — eventually came into force in April 2019 following a protracted legal battle that went all the way to the nation’s top court.Trump’s Democratic successor Joe Biden moved to reverse the restrictions just days after he took office in 2021, saying all Americans qualified to serve should be able to do so.After returning to office in January, Trump issued an executive order executive order that again took aim at transgender troops, saying: “Expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”Transgender issues have roiled US politics in recent years, as states controlled by Democrats and Republicans have moved in opposite directions on policies ranging from medical treatment to what books on the topic are allowed in public or school libraries.

A leading domestic violence charity severed ties Thursday with Australia’s National Rugby League after it invited US President Donald Trump to its season-opening games in Las Vegas this weekend.White Ribbon Australia, part of a global social movement working to end men’s violence against women, called the NRL’s decision “disappointing and frankly, tone deaf”.”Sporting organisations like the NRL have a vital role to play in promoting a culture of safety and respect for women,” it said in a statement.”We believe the fans and participants of the NRL — almost half of whom are female — deserve better. “After the NRL’s decision to associate with known perpetrators, White Ribbon Australia contacted the NRL to insist they remove any reference to us on their promotional material. “The NRL has since complied with this request.”White Ribbon, which has had a relationship with the NRL since the mid-2000s, did not specifically name Trump.But national broadcaster ABC and other media said he was the focus of their protest, along with Ultimate Fighting Championship boss Dana White who also received an invite.It followed Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’Landys appearing on US TV programme Fox and Friends carrying a match ball emblazoned with the word “TRUMP” to invite the president to the season-opening games.The Australian Rugby League Commission is the sport’s administrator and controls the NRL.Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and later defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in 2023, with the verdict upheld by a federal appeals court last year.White was caught on camera in New Year’s Eve in 2022 slapping his wife in a nightclub. He publically apologised and faced no charges.NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo defended the decision to invite Trump.”We are playing this match in America. We’re being hosted by America,” the Sydney Morning Herald cited him as saying at a function overnight in Las Vegas.”Last year we invited Joe Biden, this year we invited Donald Trump. We invited the sitting president of the country in which we visit.”It’s not an unusual practice to do this. “It’s not to say we have any political affiliation with any party. We’re a sport. We’re about bringing people together no matter what your political beliefs, no matter what your background.”Trump has attended several high-profile sporting events recently, including the Daytona 500 and the Super Bowl.The NRL made its first foray to America last year with a double-header at the 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, which it is repeating this year.It has long wanted to stage games in the United States as a way to grow the sport outside Australia, where it is hugely popular.