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From the Earth trembling as two of its biggest alpha males fall out to Korean leaders doing battle with toilet brushes, your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.- ‘Sad, so sad’ -It has been a bruising week for the world’s richest man and his former friend, the world’s most powerful one.First Elon Musk turned up in the Oval Office with a black eye he said he got from “horsing around with lil’ X” — his five-year-old son whose full name is X Æ A-Xii.”I said, ‘Go ahead punch me in the face,'” and the boy duly obliged, the 53-year-old tech billionaire told reporters when asked how he got the shiner as President Donald Trump thanked his “friend” for his “great work” for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).Six days later the two were at each other’s throats, with Musk saying that the president should be impeached, that “without me Trump would have lost the election”, and mocking the US leader’s connections to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying the president is “in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.”Trump took time out from welcoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to the White House — telling him D-Day “was not a pleasant day for you” — to hit back hard.”I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot,” he said, before taking to his own social network to call Musk “crazy”, saying that he had sacked him and that he could save “billions and billions” by cancelling Musk’s government contracts and subsidies.The falling out — sparked by Musk criticising Trump’s “big, beautiful” spending bill as an “abomination” — sent markets into a spin with Musk’s Tesla electric car marker losing $100 billion in share value in a few hours.Trump, however, appears to have made a new friend from the spat, Ashley St Clair, the mother of Musk’s 14th child, who is suing him for child support.”Let me know if u need any breakup advice,” said the rightwing writer, reaching out to the president on her ex’s X social network.- Trust the Dutch -With friends falling out, the world needs love — though possibly not of the kind depicted on an early prophylactic which has gone on display in the venerable Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.The 19th-century condom made from a sheep’s appendix is adorned with an erotic scene involving a nun and three gentlemen of the cloth displaying parts of their person better kept under their cassocks.The very rare printed piece from around 1830 “embodies both the lighter and darker sides of sexual health”, said the museum, whose curators believe it was a souvenir from a brothel.- Lavatorial politics -To South Korea, where broadcasters outdid themselves on election night with wacky graphics to illustrate the battle for votes between the liberal challenger Lee Jae-myung and conservative Kim Moon-soo.Eye-catching CGI that channelled hit TV show “Squid Game” also included the pair battling to unblock a WC with a toilet brush. In the end it was Lee who mounted the throne after winning a thumping election victory.”Can we go this far with people who might become the president?” wondered journalist Son Hyoung-an from broadcaster SBS, which is famous for its cheeky graphics. Too late now…burs-fg/jxb

Elon Musk is “very welcome” in Europe, a spokesperson for the European Commission quipped Friday, following the tech billionaire’s spectacular public falling-out with US President Donald Trump.The Trump-Musk political marriage blew up on Thursday as the president declared himself “very disappointed” in criticisms from his former aide and top donor — before the pair hurled insults at each other on social media.At the commission’s daily briefing, spokesperson Paula Pinho was asked whether Musk had reached out to the European Union with a view to relocating his businesses, or setting up new ones.”He’s very welcome,” she replied with a smile.The commission’s spokesperson for tech matters, Thomas Regnier, followed up by stressing — straight-faced — that “everyone is very welcome indeed to start and to scale in the EU”.”That is precisely the objective of Choose Europe,” he said, referencing an EU initiative in favour of start-ups and expanding businesses.Musk has been a frequent critic of the 27-nation EU — attacking its digital laws as censorship and berating its leaders, while cheering on the ascendant far-right in Germany and elsewhere.The tycoon’s row with Trump saw the president threaten to strip him of government contracts estimated at $18 billion — with Musk vowing in response to end a critical US spaceship programme.Explaining the rift, Trump said Musk had gone “crazy” about a plan to end electric vehicle subsidies in the new US spending bill — as the bust-up sent shares in Musk’s Tesla car company plunging.

Americans considered the consequences Friday of the spectacular split between Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump, who threatened to strip the world’s richest man of his huge government contracts.Trump and Musk’s unlikely political marriage exploded in a fiery public divorce Thursday.The president said in a televised Oval Office diatribe that he was “very disappointed” after his former aide and top donor criticized his “big, beautiful” spending bill before Congress.The pair then hurled insults at each other on social media — with Musk even posting, without proof, that Trump was referenced in government documents on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.The row could have major political and economic fallout, as shares in Musk’s Tesla car company plunged and the South African-born tech tycoon vowed that he would end a critical US spaceship program.But Trump played down the feud during an interview with Politico on Thursday, saying: “Oh it’s okay. It’s going very well, never done better.”A call with Musk has been scheduled by the White House on Friday in the hope of diffusing the situation, according to the outlet.Speculation had long swirled that a relationship between the world’s richest person and its most powerful could not last long — but the speed of the meltdown took Washington by surprise.”I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz looked on silently.”Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore.”A hurt-sounding Trump, 78, said it had been only a week since he hosted a grand farewell for Musk as he left the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).Trump later insisted he had asked the tycoon to leave because he was “wearing thin.”- ‘Ingratitude’ -Musk, who was Trump’s biggest campaign donor to the tune of $300 million, slammed the president for “ingratitude” and said the Republican would not have won the 2024 election without him.As the spat got increasingly vindictive, Musk also posted that Trump “is in the Epstein files,” referring to US government documents on the sex offender who killed himself while awaiting trial.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told AFP that Musk’s Epstein tweet “is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ because it does not include the policies he wanted.”Musk, on his X social media platform, replied “yes” to a post suggesting the president should be impeached, and blasted Trump’s global tariffs for risking a recession.Trump finally suggested hitting the “crazy” entrepreneur where it hurts, threatening Musk’s multibillion-dollar government contracts including for launching rockets and for the use of the Starlink satellite service.”The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump said on Truth Social.Again Musk fired back, with the SpaceX chief saying he would begin “decommissioning” his company’s Dragon spacecraft which is vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station.He later appeared to walk that back, replying to a user on X: “OK, we won’t decommission Dragon.”- ‘Abomination’ -When the crossfire finally relented after several astonishing hours, Tesla had seen more than $100 billion wiped off the company’s value.Trump and Musk’s whirlwind relationship had initially blossomed, with the president backing DOGE’s cost-cutting rampage through the US government and the tycoon sleeping over at the White House and traveling on Air Force One.But the 53-year-old ultimately lasted just four months on the job, becoming increasingly disillusioned with the slow pace of change and clashing with some of Trump’s cabinet members.The two men had however kept tensions over Trump’s tax and spending mega-bill relatively civil — until Musk described the plan, the centerpiece of Trump’s domestic policy agenda for his second term, as an “abomination” because he says it will increase the US deficit.Washington will now intently watch the fallout from the row.Musk posted a poll on whether he should form a new political party — a seismic threat from a man who has signaled he is ready to use his wealth to unseat Republican lawmakers who disagree with him.Trump ally Steve Bannon — a vocal opponent of Musk — meanwhile called for the tycoon to be deported, the New York Times reported.

Mehria had been losing hope of getting a visa to emigrate to the United States but her spirits were crushed when President Donald Trump raised yet another hurdle by banning travel for Afghans.Trump had already disrupted refugee pathways after he returned to power in January but a sweeping new travel ban on 12 countries, including Afghanistan, will go into effect on Monday.The ban changes little for most Afghans who already faced steep barriers to travel abroad, but many who had hung their hopes on a new life in the United States felt it was yet another betrayal.”Trump’s recent decisions have trapped not only me but thousands of families in uncertainty, hopelessness and thousands of other disasters,” Mehria, a 23-year-old woman who gave only one name, said from Pakistan, where she has been waiting since applying for a US refugee visa in 2022.”We gave up thousands of hopes and our entire lives and came here on a promise from America, but today we are suffering one hell after another,” she told AFP.The United States has not had a working embassy in Afghanistan since the Taliban ousted the foreign-backed government in 2021, forcing Afghans to apply for visas in third countries.The Taliban’s return followed the drawdown of US and NATO troops who had ousted them two decades earlier in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks.The Taliban government has since imposed a strict view of Islamic law and severe restrictions on women, including bans on some education and work.Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have applied for visas to settle in the United States, either as refugees or under the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programme reserved for those who aided the US government during its war against the Taliban.Afghans with SIV visas and asylum cases will not be affected by Trump’s new order but family reunification pathways are threatened, the Afghan-American Foundation said in a statement condemning the ban.Some 12,000 people are awaiting reunification with family members already living in the United States, according to Shawn VanDiver, the president of the AfghanEvac non-profit group.”These are not ‘border issues’. These are legal, vetted, documented reunifications,” he wrote on social media platform X. “Without exemptions, families are stranded.” – ‘Abandoned’ -Refugee pathways and relocation processes for resettling Afghans had already been upset by previous Trump orders, suddenly leaving many Afghans primed to travel to the United States in limbo.The Trump administration revoked legal protections temporarily shielding Afghans from deportation in May, citing an improved security situation in Afghanistan.”We feel abandoned by the United States, with whom we once worked and cooperated,” said Zainab Haidari, another Afghan woman who has been waiting in Pakistan for a refugee visa. “Despite promises of protection and refuge we are now caught in a hopeless situation, between the risk of death from the Taliban and the pressure and threat of deportation in Pakistan,” said Haidari, 27, who worked with the United States in Kabul during the war but applied for a refugee visa.Afghans fled in droves during decades of conflict, but the chaotic withdrawal of US-led troops from Kabul saw a new wave clamouring to escape Taliban government curbs and fears of reprisal for working with Washington.Pakistan and Iran have meanwhile ramped up deportation campaigns to expel Afghans who have crossed their borders.The Taliban authorities have not responded to multiple requests for comment on the new travel ban but have said they are keen to have good relations with every country now that they are in power — including the United States. Visa options for Afghans are already severely limited by carrying the weakest passport globally, according to the Henley Passport Index.However, travel to the United States is far from the minds of many Afghans who struggle to make ends meet in one of the world’s poorest countries, where food insecurity is rife. “We don’t even have bread, why are you asking me about travelling to America?” said one Afghan man in Kabul.Sahar, a 29-year-old economics graduate who has struggled to find work amid sky-high unemployment, said the new rules will not have any impact on most Afghans.”When there are thousands of serious issues in Afghanistan, this won’t change anything,” she told AFP.”Those who could afford to travel and apply for the visa will find another way or to go somewhere else instead of the US.”

The largest and most complex World Cup in history kicks off in just over a year’s time, with the United States, Canada and Mexico co-hosting the football extravaganza against a backdrop of political tension triggered by Donald Trump.Forty-eight teams and millions of fans are set to descend on North America for the first ever World Cup shared by three nations, with the tournament getting under way on June 11 next year.In theory, the 23rd edition of the most popular sporting spectacle on the planet has all the makings of a successful tournament.An array of venues ranging from Mexico’s iconic Estadio Azteca to the glittering $5 billion SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles will play host to 104 games spread over nearly six weeks.The United States will host the bulk of those fixtures — 78 — with Canada and Mexico staging 13 each.All games from the quarter-finals onwards will be held in the United States, with the tournament culminating in the final at New Jersey’s 82,500-seater MetLife Stadium on July 19, 2026.- ‘Like 104 Super Bowls’ -American officials believe the return of the World Cup to the country — 32 years after the United States hosted the 1994 finals — could represent a watershed moment for football in the country.”The World Cup is going to raise the attention of the sport in ways that nobody ever dreamed of,” said Don Garber, the commissioner of Major League Soccer.FIFA’s President Gianni Infantino meanwhile has been hyping next year’s finals as the equivalent of “104 Super Bowls”, contrasting the World Cup’s estimated six billion viewers to the 120 million or so who tune in for the climax of the NFL season.There are historical precedents which suggest the hype might be justified. The 1994 World Cup in the United States remains the best attended World Cup in history, with an average of 68,600 fans flocking to each game.Yet while organisers eagerly anticipate a commercial success, with one FIFA estimate suggesting it could generate a mammoth $11 billion in revenues, questions over other aspects of the tournament remain.The 48 teams — up from 32 in 2022 — will be spread into 12 groups of four, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the knockout rounds, and the eight best third-placed teams joining them to make up a last 32.That expansion is likely to reduce the sense of jeopardy in the first round, a problem seen in other major championships which have increased in size in recent years.- Visa backlog -There is also the question of how the polarising policies of US President Trump may impact the tournament.Since taking office, Trump has launched a global trade war, repeatedly threatened to annex World Cup co-host Canada and launched an immigration crackdown at US borders which has seen overseas visitors from countries like France, Britain, Germany and Australia either detained or denied entry in recent months.Trump this week signed a travel ban on 12 countries including Iran, who have qualified for the World Cup, but the ban will not apply to players taking part in the tournament.Trump, who is chairman of a White House task force overseeing preparations for the World Cup, says overseas fans travelling to the tournament have nothing to fear.”Every part of the US government will be working to ensure that these events are safe and successful, and those traveling to America to watch the competition have a seamless experience during every part of their visit,” Trump said last month.FIFA chief Infantino, who has forged a close relationship with Trump, echoed that point, insisting that America was ready to “welcome the world.””Everyone who wants to come here to enjoy, to have fun, to celebrate the game will be able to do that,” Infantino said.With one year to go however, it is by no means clear that Infantino’s pledge will hold up.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that some embassy staff may be required to work double-shifts to expedite visa processing, citing the example of Colombia, where US visa wait times are currently 15 months.”If you haven’t applied for a visa from Colombia already, you probably won’t get here in time for the World Cup unless we go to double shifts,” Rubio told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.Those fans who do make the trip to North America may also find themselves having to fork out a small fortune due to FIFA’s reported decision to use dynamic pricing to determine ticket prices.That system, where prices on ticketing websites fluctuate according to demand, may well force fans to shell out thousands of dollars to obtain tickets for the highest profile games.”Dynamic pricing does not belong in football because it is an exploitation of fans’ loyalty,” Ronan Evain, the executive director of the Football Supporters Europe fan group told The Times. “It would be a fiasco for FIFA to use it for the World Cup.”

Mercedes Yamarte’s three sons fled Venezuela for a better life in the United States. Now one languishes in a Salvadoran jail, another “self-deported” to Mexico, and a third lives in hiding — terrified US agents will crash the door at any moment.At her zinc-roofed home in a poor Maracaibo neighborhood, 46-year-old Mercedes blinks back tears as she thinks about her family split asunder by US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.”I wish I could go to sleep, wake up, and this never happened,” she says, as rain drums down and lightning flashes overhead.In their homeland, her boys were held back by decades of political and economic tumult that have already prompted an estimated eight million Venezuelans to emigrate.But in leaving, all three brothers became ensnared by politics once more, and by a US president determined to bolt the door of a nation once proud of its migrant roots. For years, her eldest son, 30-year-old Mervin had lived in America, providing for his wife and six-year-old daughter, working Texas construction sites and at a tortilla factory.On March 13, he was arrested by US immigration agents and summarily deported to a Salvadoran mega jail, where he is still being held incommunicado.The Trump administration linked Mervin and 251 other men to the Tren de Aragua — a Venezuelan gang it classifies as a terrorist group.Washington has cited tattoos as evidence of gang affiliation, something fiercely contested by experts, who say that, unlike other Latin American gangs, Tren de Aragua members do not commonly sport gang markings.Mervin has tattoos of his mother and daughter’s names, the phrase “strong like mom” in Spanish and the number “99” — a reference to his soccer jersey not any gang affiliation, according to his family.- The journey north -Mervin arrived in the United States in 2023 with his 21-year-old brother Jonferson. Both hoped to work and to send some money back home.They had slogged through the Darien Gap — a forbidding chunk of jungle between Colombia and Panama that is one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes.They had trekked north through Mexico, and were followed a year later by sister Francis, aged 19, who turned around before reaching the United States and brother Juan, aged 28, who continued on. When the brothers entered the United States, they registered with border officials and requested political asylum.They were told they could remain legally until a judge decided their fate.Then US voters voted, and with a change of administration, at dawn on March 13, US immigration agents pounded the door of an apartment in Irving, Texas where the trio were living with friends from back home.Immigration agents were serving an arrest warrant when they saw Mervin and said: “You are coming with us too for an investigation,” Juan recalled.When the agents said they had an arrest warrant for Mervin too, he tried to show his asylum papers. “But they already had him handcuffed to take him away,” Juan said.He was transferred to a detention center, where he managed to call Jonferson to say he was being deported somewhere. He did not know where.Three days later, Jonferson saw his brother among scores of shorn and shackled men arriving at CECOT, a prison built by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele to house alleged gang members.Jonferson saw his handcuffed brother kneeling on the floor staring off into space. He broke down crying and called his mother. She had also seen Mervin in the images. “My son was kneeling and looked up as if to say: ‘Where am I and what have I done to end up here?'” said Mercedes.”I have never seen my son look more terrified” she said.- The journey south -After his brother’s arrest, Jonferson had nightmares. The fear became so great that he fled to Mexico — what some euphemistically describe as “self-deportation”.There, he waited a month to board a Venezuelan humanitarian flight to return home. “It has been a nightmare,” he told AFP as he rode a bus to the airport and from there, onward home. Juan, meanwhile, has decided to remain in the United States. He lives under the radar, working construction jobs and moving frequently to dodge arrest.”I am always hiding. When I go to the grocery store I look all around, fearful, as if someone were chasing me,” he told AFP asking that his face and his whereabouts remain undisclosed.As the only brother who can now send money home, he is determined not to go back to Venezuela empty-handed. He also has a wife and seven-year-old son depending on him.But he is tormented by the thought of his brother Mervin being held in El Salvador and by the toll it has taken on the family.”My mother is a wreck. There are days she cannot sleep,” Juan said.”My sister-in-law cries every day. She is suffering.”- The journey home -Jonferson has since returned to Maracaibo, where he was greeted by strings of blue, yellow, and red balloons and a grateful but still forlorn mother.”I would like to be happy, as I should. But my other son is in El Salvador, in what conditions I do not know,” Mercedes said.But her face lights up for a second as she hugs her son, holding him tight as if never wanting to let him go.”I never thought the absence of my sons would hit me so hard,” she said. “I never knew I could feel such pain.”For now, the brothers are only together in a screen grab she has on her phone, taken during a video call last Christmas.

A court on Thursday put a temporary stay on Donald Trump’s latest effort to stop foreign students from enrolling at Harvard, as the US president’s battle with one of the world’s most prestigious universities intensified.A proclamation issued by the White House late Wednesday sought to bar most new international students at Harvard from entering the country, and said existing foreign enrollees risked having their visas terminated.”Harvard’s conduct has rendered it an unsuitable destination for foreign students and researchers,” the order said.Harvard quickly amended an existing complaint filed in federal court, saying: “This is not the Administration’s first attempt to sever Harvard from its international students.””(It) is part of a concerted and escalating campaign of retaliation by the government in clear retribution for Harvard’s exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students.”US District Judge Allison Burroughs on Thursday ruled the government cannot enforce Trump’s proclamation.Harvard had showed, she said, that without a temporary restraining order, it risked sustaining “immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties.”The same judge had already blocked Trump’s earlier effort to bar international students from enrolling at the storied university.- ‘Government vendetta’ -The government already cut around $3.2 billion of federal grants and contracts benefiting Harvard and pledged to exclude the Cambridge, Massachusetts, institution from any future federal funding.Harvard has been at the forefront of Trump’s campaign against top universities after it defied his calls to submit to oversight of its curriculum, staffing, student recruitment and “viewpoint diversity.” Trump has also singled out international students at Harvard, who accounted for 27 percent of total enrollment in the 2024-2025 academic year and are a major source of income.In its filing, Harvard acknowledged that Trump had the authority to bar an entire class of aliens if it was deemed to be in the public interest, but stressed that was not the case in this action.”The President’s actions thus are not undertaken to protect the ‘interests of the United States’ but instead to pursue a government vendetta against Harvard,” it said.Since returning to office Trump has targeted elite US universities which he and his allies accuse of being hotbeds of anti-Semitism, liberal bias and “woke” ideology.Trump’s education secretary also threatened on Wednesday to strip Columbia University of its accreditation.The Republican has targeted the New York Ivy League institution for allegedly ignoring harassment of Jewish students, throwing all of its federal funding into doubt.Unlike Harvard, several top institutions — including Columbia — have already bowed to far-reaching demands from the Trump administration.

The suspect in a Molotov cocktail attack on a Jewish protest march in Colorado appeared in court Thursday facing more than 100 charges over an incident that injured 15 people.Mohamed Sabry Soliman is alleged to have thrown firebombs and sprayed burning gasoline at a group of people who had gathered Sunday in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.Prosecutors now say 15 people — eight women and seven men — were hurt in the attack in the city of Boulder. Three are still hospitalized.The oldest victim was 88 years old.Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian who federal authorities said was in the country illegally after overstaying a tourist visa, faces 28 attempted murder charges, as well as a bevvy of other counts relating to his alleged use of violence.He also faces a count of animal cruelty for a dog that was hurt, bringing to 118 the total number of criminal counts.Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told reporters that he could face a centuries-long prison term if convicted.”The defendant is charged with attempted murder in the first degree as to 14 different victims,” he said.”If the defendant is convicted and those sentences run consecutively, that would be 48 years in state prison for each of the 14 victims, which comes to 672 years.”Two of the Soliman’s alleged victims — along with the dog — were at the court on Thursday.Soliman is also expected to be charged with federal hate crime offenses.Soliman’s immigration status has been at the center of President Donald Trump’s administration’s response to the attack.This week his wife and five children were detained by immigration agents as the White House took to social media to taunt them about an impending deportation.”Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids,” the official account posted on X.”Final Boarding Call Coming Soon.” But on Wednesday a judge imposed a temporary restraining order that bars any attempt to remove them from the country.Police who rushed to the scene of Sunday’s attack found 16 unused Molotov cocktails and a backpack weed sprayer containing gasoline that investigators say Soliman had intended to use as a makeshift flamethrower.In bystander videos, the attacker can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “Killers!” Sunday’s incident came less than two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect, who shouted “Free Palestine,” was arrested.

SpaceX chief Elon Musk said Thursday he would begin “decommissioning” his company’s Dragon spacecraft — vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station — after US President Donald Trump threatened to terminate his government contracts.”In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk wrote on X.The comments — which the mercurial billionaire later appeared to walk back — came after Trump and Musk’s nearly year-long political alliance imploded in spectacular fashion, with the two trading public insults on social media.SpaceX’s Crew Dragon — a gumdrop-shaped capsule that flies atop a Falcon 9 rocket and splashes down in the ocean — is currently the only US spacecraft certified to carry crew to the ISS under a contract worth more than $4.9 billion. A variant, Cargo Dragon, delivers supplies, as the name suggests.Following Musk’s announcement, NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said on X that the government space agency would “continue to execute upon the President’s vision for the future of space.””We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the President’s objectives in space are met,” she said.NASA had hoped to certify Boeing’s Starliner for crewed missions, but that program has faced severe delays. Its most recent test flight last year ended in failure after the spacecraft experienced propulsion issues en route to the orbital lab with its first astronaut crew.The Starliner ultimately returned to Earth empty, while the two astronauts were brought home by SpaceX earlier this year.Crew Dragon’s certification in 2020 ended nearly a decade of US reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets to transport astronauts following the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.American astronauts still fly aboard Soyuz rockets, while Russian cosmonauts ride on Crew Dragons under a longstanding seat-swap agreement.In addition to NASA missions, Crew Dragon also flies private missions — most recently Fram2, which carried tourists over the Earth’s poles.The next scheduled crew launch is Tuesday’s Axiom-4 mission, which will see a Crew Dragon transport astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary to the ISS.

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court including over an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as it ramped up pressure to neuter the court of last resort.The four judges in The Hague, all women, will be barred entry to the United States and any property or other interests in the world’s largest economy will be blocked — measures more often taken against policymakers from US adversaries than against judicial officials.”The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other US ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.”I call on the countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices, to fight this disgraceful attack on our nation and Israel,” Rubio said.The court swiftly hit back, saying in a statement: “These measures are a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all corners of the globe.”Israel’s Netanyahu welcomed the move, thanking US President Donald Trump’s administration in a social media post.”Thank you President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio for imposing sanctions against the politicised judges of the ICC. You have justly stood up for the right of Israel,” he wrote on Friday.- War crimes -Human Rights Watch urged other nations to speak out and reaffirm the independence of the ICC, set up in 2002 to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s gravest crimes when countries are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.The sanctions “aim to deter the ICC from seeking accountability amid grave crimes committed in Israel and Palestine and as Israeli atrocities mount in Gaza, including with US complicity,” said the rights group’s international justice director, Liz Evenson.Two of the targeted judges, Beti Hohler of Slovenia and Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin, took part in proceedings that led to an arrest warrant issued last November for Netanyahu.The court found “reasonable grounds” of criminal responsibility by Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant for actions that include the war crime of starvation as a method of war in the massive offensive in Gaza following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.Israel, alleging bias, has angrily rejected charges of war crimes as well as a separate allegation of genocide led by South Africa before the International Court of Justice.The two other judges, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru and Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, were part of the court proceedings that led to the authorization of an investigation into allegations that US forces committed war crimes during the war in Afghanistan.- Return to hard line -Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court. But almost all Western allies of the United States as well as Japan and South Korea, the vast majority of Latin America and much of Africa are parties to the statute and in theory are required to arrest suspects when they land on their soil.Trump in his first term already imposed sanctions on the then ICC chief prosecutor over the Afghanistan investigation. After Trump’s defeat in 2020, then president Joe Biden took a more conciliatory approach to the court with case-by-case cooperation. Rubio’s predecessor Antony Blinken rescinded the sanctions and, while critical of its stance on Israel, worked with the court in its investigation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ICC judges in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the alleged mass abduction of Ukrainian children during the war. Both Putin and Netanyahu have voiced defiance over the ICC pressure but have also looked to minimize time in countries that are party to the court. The ICC arrest warrants have been especially sensitive in Britain, a close US ally whose Prime Minister Keir Starmer is a former human rights lawyer. Downing Street has said that Britain will fulfil its “legal obligations” without explicitly saying if Netanyahu would be arrested if he visits.Hungary, led by Trump ally Viktor Orban, has parted ways with the rest of the European Union by moving to exit the international court. Orban thumbed his nose at the court by welcoming Netanyahu to visit in April.