Aid flotilla arrives in Cuba as US oil blockade bites

The Oscars will leave Hollywood after celebrating their centenary, organizers said Thursday, as they announced a long-term deal to hold the gala in downtown Los Angeles.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said the ceremony, the most important night of the year for the global film industry, would leave the Dolby Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after 2028.

The 2029 edition will instead be held at The Peacock Theater, part of the vast LA LIVE complex, next to the Crypto.com Arena, home to the Los Angeles Lakers.

"For the 101st Oscars and beyond, the Academy looks forward to closely collaborating with (owners) AEG to make LA LIVE the perfect backdrop for our global celebration of cinema, both for our live in-theater audience and for film fans around the world," Academy CEO Bill Kramer and President Lynette Howell Taylor said.

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Nigeria's Lagos state has taken out a $7.5 million flood insurance policy to cover millions of people, the Insurance Development Forum said Thursday, as the country's economic capital faces rising sea levels and floods linked to climate change.

The coastal mega-city of Lagos and its estimated more than 22 million inhabitants are among those facing the brunt of climate change in coastal west Africa, where oceans are rising, rainfall is becoming erratic and urban populations are booming.

In a statement, Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu warned that inaction on climate change could cost the wider state government around $40 billion by 2050, "with severe consequences for our people, infrastructure and economy".

"Our wetlands and biodiversity are also under threat. These realities demand urgent action," he said.

The policy's premium was financed to the tune of 90 percent by InsuResilience Solutions Fund -- which is itself financed by Germany -- with Lagos state covering the remainder. 

It covers up to four million people across seven local government areas in the state, including for government disaster relief as well as direct cash transfers to affected communities.

The Lagos-funded portion is set to increase in the second and third year of the policy.

The scheme is a form of parametric flood insurance, which pays out under certain conditions -- such as a specific amount of rainfall, captured via satellite image -- instead of at a certain level of damage, which can take time to assess.

It wasn't immediately clear what the payout trigger would be, but the Insurance Development Forum -- a body affiliated with the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank Group -- said the insurance was "a major milestone" in a state where 80 percent of households are low-income and "insurance penetration is below 0.5 percent".

Lagos, the most populous city in Africa's most populous country, is sinking, and is threatened by floods linked to climate change as well as poor management of waterways and expanding industry that eats up shorelines and wetlands.

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(The Center Square) – Five years into Texas’ border security mission, Operation Lone Star, law enforcement officials argue continued funding is critical for ongoing operations and they can’t do their jobs without it. But funding for jail expenses and transportation is drying up.

Although illegal border crossings have dropped by 95% in the first year of the Trump administration, OLS 2.0 is ongoing, with OLS officers targeting transnational crime. 

While OLS officers have made a record number of arrests, the most challenging part lies ahead: finding the criminal foreign nationals in the United States and in Texas, dismantling transnational criminal operations, and prosecutions the offenders.

“Just because the bodies quit coming, we still have this massive cleanup to do,” Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe told The Center Square. “We still need funding for jail facilities and transportation.”

For state lawmakers who think “the border crisis is over,” Coe says, “they did not consider the cleanup. The governor’s grant office has said there’s no more funding for housing and transportation costs for OLS apprehensions. I had to let three OLS deputies go and take their salaries to pay the jail costs that the state isn’t paying for.” 

OLS funding for both has dried up and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice stopped housing OLS prisoners, he said. TDCJ is also not participating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program. 

Because of bond reform being implemented in counties statewide, “all of the jails are starting to fill up,” Coe said. Kinney County doesn’t have a fulltime jail; not all counties have jails or they are very small. As a result, county sheriffs reach agreements to share housing prisoners. Kinney County would need $1 million to transport and pay other county jails to house everyone with outstanding warrants to prosecute them, Coe says.

“We’re in a rock and a hard place,” Coe said. “We still have to take illegal aliens to be processed, which shows that we're still doing the job. It’s been a headache and a nightmare.”

Since 2021, when OLS started, Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith’s office has prosecuted roughly 5,000 people for criminal trespass and evading arrest, achieving a 90% conviction rate. 

“Many people overlook the fact that successful prosecutions are more important than arrest numbers in achieving justice and creating a deterrence for those who commit crimes,” Smith told The Center Square. “The underlying reason why millions of illegal aliens invaded our country during the Biden administration is quite simple: people do not follow laws unless they are enforced.

“The only reason most people obey the law is the deterrence of punishment that results when it is violated. This is the fundamental basis of our legal system,” he said. “Governor Greg Abbott recognized the importance of this deterrence, which allowed Kinney County to beef up our criminal justice system with Operation Lone Star grant funding. This deterrence was successfully established in the county during the invasion we were subjected to.”

Kinney County was the first of 60 counties to issue a disaster declaration citing the border crisis. It was one of three counties that first declared an invasion. Over time, 55 counties declared an invasion, The Center Square exclusively reported.

“In 2021, thousands of illegal aliens chose to use privately owned ranches in Kinney County as a travel corridor after unlawfully entering the United States, resulting in 2,034 arrests. By aggressively prosecuting those individuals who chose to commit their crime in Kinney County, the arrest numbers began to plummet, with only 253 arrests in 2024,” Smith said. “State and federal law enforcement confirmed that human smugglers began actively avoiding Kinney County, opting to take much longer routes to avoid prosecution.”

The county’s OLS mission continues with 1,600 active warrants still pending prosecution.

Prosecutions are important for law and order and border security but “it's really about bringing justice to the landowners who want to see this through,” Coe said. “Landowners pay property taxes. They’ve suffered damages to their property and been the victims of other crimes and the perpetrators need to be prosecuted.”

OLS officers in Kinney County have arrested thousands of noncitizens and U.S. citizens coming from multiple states. Those with misdemeanor charges are released and ordered to return to their court date. If they don’t return, the county can’t pay to pick them up. County taxpayers are responsible for transportation and jail costs. 

Normally, they’d “bring people in to face these charges and now we can't. If they're out of state, they're pretty much free to go,” Coe said. “That's because we don't have the money for jail housing and transportation.” 

Warrants are also geographically limited, stating in-county or in-state only. Meaning, the county doesn’t have the funds to transport wanted criminals in Houston, San Antonio or Dallas let alone another state. If someone is arrested in Texas, Kinney County’s misdemeanor warrants will show up but “there's nothing they can do about it” because there’s no funding to pick them up, Coe said. 

If someone is arrested in another state with a felony warrant out of Kinney County, it will show up in the NCIC with a note stating in-state pickup only, not extraditable. Limited funds exist for felony warrants, depending on the location and severity of the crime, he said.

Without TDCJ support or additional OLS funds, “We're going to have to make cuts across the board,” Coe said, and sustained interdiction efforts won’t be possible.

Peruvian presidential hopefuls are touting cash bounties for killing criminals and jungle prisons encircled by Amazonian vipers as they look to tap widespread public anger over rising violence ahead of the April 12 election.

Extreme ideas are shaping a campaign which features a record 35 candidates, as Peru confronts soaring extortion and a homicide rate that has more than doubled since 2018.

Public frustration is high: "Even the police are corrupt," says Karen Santiago, a 29-year-old engineer in Lima's San Isidro district, echoing the sense of impunity driving support for hardline promises.

In an effort to stand out and make it through to a June runoff, many candidates are amping up the rhetoric.

Frontrunner Rafael "Porky" Lopez Aliaga recently toured one poor district where he was greeted by a giant stuffed snake.

The ultraconservative says criminals "must be flown by helicopter to the deepest jungle to build prison colonies" ringed by the world's largest vipers he said. 

"They will take care of security," he said smiling. 

The would-be ally of US President Donald Trump also proposes allowing the United States to arrest foreign criminals wanted by Washington on Peruvian soil. 

Extortion and violence have become commonplace in Peru as transnational crime groups exploit corrupt and undertrained police forces.

Even schools have been targeted by gangs demanding protection money. 

In the face of such a crisis, leftwing candidates are also offering populist policies as possible solutions.

Ronald Atencio, has promised something resembling police death squads, although he insists they would avoid extrajudicial killings.

Paul Jaimes, a low-polling contender, goes further, offering $29,000 and a promotion to any police officer who captures or kills a criminal. 

"We don't care about criminals' human rights," he told Caretas magazine. 

TV comedian Carlos Alvarez, polling between fourth and fifth, demands that Peru leave international rights conventions so the country can apply the death penalty to hitmen. 

"Those miserable people don't deserve to live," he told AFP during a tour of Callao.

Some voters embrace the rhetoric. "I agree that all criminals should serve their sentences in the jungle," says 54-year-old vendor Lili Luna. 

Others remain skeptical. "It's easier to sell those solutions than long-term plans," says 20-year-old student Samuel Cossio. 

– Forced labor – 

Right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori, who leads recent surveys, used this week's presidential debate to propose reinstating faceless courts -- secret tribunals where judges' identities are hidden behind screens.

The system, created during her father Alberto Fujimori's term in office, was widely criticized for unfair trials that later forced the state to pardon hundreds of prisoners.

"To fight crime, if we have to withdraw from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, we will do so to bring back faceless judges," she said, promising a "mano dura" (iron fist).

Sociologist Jorge Nieto, fourth in polls, said laws backed by Fujimori's party weakened criminal-investigation tools, according to prosecutors. 

Fujimori also wants to make inmates earn their meals. "We will force prisoners to work for their food, for their protein," she told reporters. 

Security experts warn the proposals will not work. 

"Punitive proposals like these are not effective against organized or transnational crime," said criminologist Erika Solis of the Catholic University of Peru. 

Javier Llaque, former head of the National Penitentiary Institute, said Peru already has some of Latin America's harshest sentences. 

"We don't need more laws or higher penalties. Just action, but tactical action," he said. Insecurity "must be addressed, but technically, not emotionally."

"Candidates should not try to be the meanest sheriff."

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Ilia Malinin pulled off a stunning short programme on Thursday, a month after his Winter Olympics collapse, to boost his hopes of a third consecutive world figure skating title.

The 21-year-old American slumped to an eighth-place finish at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, having led after the short programme in Italy.

But in his first competition since, Malinin hit a quadruple flip, triple Axel and quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination to score a personal best 111.29 points for his skate to a medley from "The Lost Crown" video game.

Malinin, who finished his routine with a beaming smile on his face, takes a 9.44-point lead over France's Adam Siao Him Fa into Saturday's free skate. Estonia's Aleksandr Selevko is in third place.

Japan's Yuma Kagiyama, the silver medallist at the last two Olympics, is sitting sixth after falling on the takeoff of a planned triple Axel.

The world championships in Prague are taking place just a month after the Olympics where Malinin had been the overwhelming favourite.

The undefeated star of skating for over two years had been leading after the short programme before crumbling under the pressure in the free skate.

"A lot of the times, I'll try to find anything positive in whatever outcome or whatever situation happens," said Malinin. 

"So, also realising that it's done.

"There's nothing I could have done to change it. I don't have a time machine to go back.

"Maybe in a few years we'll have one, who knows. But, a lot of the time, I just look at it, it's done. I just have to move on and keep going."

- Germans poised for pairs gold -

Siao Him Fa had a similar experience in Italy after a perfectly executed short programme that placed him third before the free skate relegated the Frenchman to seventh.

Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov went on to win the Olympic gold ahead of Kagiyama and Shun Sato. 

Shaidorov is not competing in Prague.

On Thursday, Siao Him Fa also appeared relaxed and smiling after his performance, a tribute to Leonardo da Vinci.

"When it works best is when I stop thinking and leave my brain at the sidelines," said the Frenchman, who said he had learned valuable lessons from his Olympic experience.

"The Games helped me a lot to realise that in a competition, you really have to adapt to what's happening on the day.

"I can feel good, not good, or even be sick. I don't know what might happen, but you have to do the job in the moment."

Japan's Sato is fourth after the short programme.

Meanwhile Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin are leading going into the pairs free skate later on Thursday, as they bid for their first world gold.

The German duo hold a slim lead over Georgians Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava.

The two pairs, bronze and silver medallists respectively in Milan, are the clear favourites in the absence of the Olympic champions, Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, who skipped the event.

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Jannik Sinner dominated Frances Tiafoe for a 6-2, 6-2 victory on Thursday to reach the semi-finals of the ATP and WTA Miami Open.

The world number two from Italy, a four-time Grand Slam champion, cruised over the 19th-seeded American in one hour and 11 minutes at Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL's Miami Dolphins.

Sinner, hoping to complete a "Sunshine Double" with March titles at Miami and Indian Wells, stretched his ATP Masters 1000 set win streak to 30, having not dropped a set at the level since last October in Shanghai.

Sinner advanced to a semi-final against the winner of a later match between world number four Alexander Zverev of Germany and 19th-ranked Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina.

Tiafoe netted a backhand to surrender a break to Sinner in the opening game of the match and the American swatted a forehand long in the fifth game to hand Sinner a 4-1 edge. The Italian held twice to take the set in 31 minutes, Sinner losing only four points on his serve in the set.

In the second set, Tiafoe saved a break point and held serve in the opening game but Sinner broke in the third for a 2-1 lead when the American netted a forehand.

Sinner broke again, this time at love for a 5-2 lead when Tiafoe smacked a forehand wide, and held to take the match, improving to 5-1 all-time against Tiafoe.

Sinner fired 33 winners against 15 unforced errors.

In later women's semi-finals, world number one Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus faces second-ranked Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and US fourth seed Coco Gauff meets Czech 13th seed Carolina Muchova.

Rybakina beat Sabalenka in January's Australian Open final and their rematch will be the first time outside the WTA Finals that the world's two top-ranked players meet before a final since Martina Hingis and Jana Novotna in the 1998 US Open semifinals.

Defending champion Sabalenka hopes to complete the "Sunshine Double" with March titles at Miami and Indian Wells, where she defeated Rybakina in the final.

Sabalenka leads Rybakina 9-7 in their all-time rivalry.

Rybakina, who seeks her 100th match victory at the Masters 1000 level, was the Miami runner-up in 2023 and 2024 but has yet to lift the trophy.

Gauff is 5-0 in career meetings with Muchova, most recently winning in the round of 16 at the Australian Open.

Gauff, the reigning French Open champion and 2023 US Open winner, seeks her sixth WTA Masters 1000 final and at 22 would be the third-youngest to achieve the feat behind Caroline Wozniacki and Iga Swiatek.

Muchova, the 2023 French Open runner-up, seeks her eighth career WTA final and third title after 2019 in Seoul and last month in Qatar.

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(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump says a Loyola University student would still be alive if Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker asked his administration to help stop crime.

The president spoke at a Cabinet meeting Thursday morning.

“It would be great if people like the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois would say, ‘Please come in and stop the crime,’” Trump said.

Trump referred to 18-year-old Loyola student Sheridan Gorman, who was allegedly shot and killed by a Venezuelan migrant Thursday.

“This young lady would be around today if we were around, because we have nobody coming through our border,” Trump said.

The president said crime is down 75% in Memphis, five months after the National Guard reported to the city.

“It’s a young lady whose life would be saved if we did what we did, as an example, in Washington D.C. which is now a safe city,” Trump said.

When asked for comment by The Center Square, the governor’s office pointed to a recent statement from a spokesperson.

“The family of Sheridan Gorman remains in Gov. Pritzker’s thoughts as they grieve and navigate the unimaginable loss of their daughter. He believes the person responsible for their daughter’s death needs to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” the statement said.

The governor said at Ag Day in Springfield on Monday that President Trump failed to follow his own edict to go after the worst of the worst.

Greg Bishop contributed to this story.

Ghanaians in the streets of the capital Accra were full of pride -- and already looking toward future "justice" -- Thursday after the United Nations recognised the transatlantic slave trade as "the gravest crime against humanity."

The day prior, the resolution -- pushed for by Ghanaian President John Mahama, who travelled to New York for the vote -- was adopted to applause by a 123 in favor.

"It's not just a historic moment for us as a country, but it also validates the suffering of our ancestors and opens the door for justice," said Abigail Selikem Teye, a casually dressed student with a handbag slung over her shoulder.

The excitement was also evident in nearby Benin, which, like Ghana, has leaned into its painful past to encourage tourism and offer citizenship for descendants of slavery.

West and central Africa were devastated by the transatlantic slave trade, which from the 16th to 19th century saw millions of men, women and children shipped to the Americas to work in brutal -- and often deadly -- conditions.

In many of those same countries, black people continue to face discrimination and poverty today.

"This vote allows us to name things without fear of reprisals. The next step will, I hope, be an uninhibited call for reparations," said Ousmane Aledji, a Beninese writer in Cotonou, who told AFP he followed the vote "with much interest."

Others in the country's economic capital, like art historian Lylly Houngnihin, were "disturbed by the abstention of certain countries -- those which were the most enriched by the crime".

- 'Africa has suffered' -

Despite being non-binding the vote at the General Assembly headquarters in New York was contentious.

The United States, Israel and Argentina opposed the measure, while 52 member states abstained.

Critics including France said the resolution's designation of the transatlantic slave trade as "the gravest" crime "risks pitting historical tragedies against each other". 

It also comes, however, as countries like the United States have been criticised for restricting education on slavery and black history.

The resolution did not mention other slave routes in Africa, including across the Sahara Desert or Indian Ocean.

But it singled out the transatlantic trade's duration, brutality of the "racialised chattel enslavement of Africans" -- as well as present-day consequences including "the persistence of racial discrimination and neo-colonialism".

It did not explicitly demand reparations, though it "encourages member states to support initiatives aimed at reparatory justice".

Many argue Africa is still living with the slave trade's dire consequences.

"Who will pay for all the problems this caused? Africa has unfortunately suffered the two greatest scourges in history: slavery and colonization," said Franck Ogou, director of a pan-African heritage preservation programme in Porto Novo.

Larissa Adjivon, a 42-year-old Beninese entrepreneur, told AFP: "Recognition is good, but concrete actions should follow."

"We talk about reparations or restitution, but for me, the question is, what does this change for Africa today?"

- 'Return' to Ghana, Benin -

For Obadele Bakari Kambon, if "enslavement in totality is the wound," then the "healing part of it comes through repatriation."

The African American professor became a Ghanaian citizen in 2016, part of a wave of black people from the United States and elsewhere that Ghana has pushed to "return" to the country.

In recent years, more than 1,000 people have reclaimed citizenship as the country has also encouraged tourism as a way for people to learn about slavery -- and for some, their direct family heritage.

At the end of last year, Benin also launched a citizenship programme for members of the African diaspora.

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San Diego FC's billionaire owner Mohamed Mansour on Thursday said his Egyptian compatriot Mohamed Salah would be an "asset," as speculation builds over the Liverpool forward's next club. 

Superstar Salah announced this week he will leave Anfield at the end of the season after a glittering nine-year spell at Liverpool, where he has scored 255 goals and stands alongside the all-time greats.

While Saudi Arabia is thought to be the most likely destination, Salah could choose to follow the likes of Lionel Messi, Son Heung-min and Antoine Griezmann to the United States' burgeoning Major League Soccer.

If he does, recent MLS expansion club San Diego FC -- which reached the playoff semi-finals in its debut season last year -- has been heavily linked with Salah, not least due to deep-pocketed British-Egyptian owner Mansour.

"He's probably one of the great players today. And any team that will get him, or any country that will get him, he will definitely be an asset," Mansour told AFP Thursday, on the sidelines of the Business of Soccer summit in Atlanta.

Mansour declined to answer whether he is actively trying to recruit Salah or has previously sounded out a move for the striker.

But he added: "Of course Mo Salah is somebody that, as an Egyptian, my origin, I'm very proud of. He is somebody that reached the world stage as one of the great players."

"And I think he will, if he does decide... wherever he will go, he will add a lot to that league and to that country and to that team for sure. So he's somebody I'm very proud of."

Salah won two Premier League titles along with a Champions League and other silverware with Liverpool, as well as a record-equaling four Golden Boot awards.

He was the poster boy of Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool revolution at Anfield, propelling the team back to the summit of English and European football, and is undoubtedly the greatest ever player to emerge from Egypt, or arguably Africa.

Mansour told a panel discussion that the whole of Egypt comes to a halt whenever Salah plays, and named the forward as his favorite footballer of all time.

Salah has endured an uncharacteristically difficult season at Liverpool, scoring just five league goals, and telling reporters in December that he had been "thrown under the bus" by the club after a dramatic dip in form meant he was benched.

- 'Opportunity' -

While effusive in his praise for Salah, Mansour insisted that footballing recruitment decisions are left to San Diego FC's sports director and coach.

"I let the people in charge" decide, he told AFP.

"I just say, 'I got this opportunity. My belief is so. You guys make the decision. Come back to me.' If you say, 'No, he's not (a) fit,' whoever it is, in whichever sector, then that's it."

That philosophy has paid dividends so far.

San Diego FC became MLS's 30th club last season, after Mansour partnered with the Native American Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation to pay a $500 million expansion fee.

In the franchise's first season, it broke the record for the most points by an expansion team, with 60, and currently sits fourth and undefeated in the Western Conference.

One of the youngest squads in the MLS, San Diego FC draws from the Right to Dream global academy network run by Mansour, which has operations in Ghana, Egypt and Denmark.

Tottenham and Ghana winger Mohammed Kudus is among the network's alumni.

"What I like about our style of play is it's a team effort, it's resilience, it's energy, it's the winning spirit," said Mansour.

"Soccer, football, is a team sport. It's not a 'one person.'"

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For the first time more than half of Parmesan cheese was exported, as Italy's population declines and consumers watch their spending, producers said Thursday.

Exports of the flavourful hard cheese produced around Parma in northern Italy rose by 2.7 percent to nearly 75,000 tonnes last year, the industry's trade association said.

Shipments of Parmesan Reggiano -- its full name -- even rose by 2.3 percent to the United States despite tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.

The tariffs, which currently stand at 25 percent, have slowed down orders in Parmesan's top export market, however.

Imports were down 16 percent year-on-year in January.

"The big problem in the United States is uncertainty," said the head of the Parmesan Reggiano Consortium, Nicola Bertinelli.

But she said the challenge was not insurmountable.

"We're not sitting around crying about it; we're ramping up our investments," Bertinelli said.

Parmesan has notably sponsored the Utah Jazz basketball team and the ATP tennis tournament in Miami at great expense.

- Cheap competition -

Parmesan producers plan to make further dents in the American market by increasing their visibility, particularly on supermarket shelves but also in restaurants, in order to differentiate themselves from local cheese labelled as "Parmesan" and sold at half the price.

Italy's Parmesan Reggiano carries the DOP certification to indicate "Protected Designation of Origin", but the name Parmesan is also used by lower-quality competitors abroad.

Back home in Italy, Parmesan sales are declining as the population declines.

Some 80 percent of Italians still consume it, but they are buying it less often and in smaller quantities, accounting for a 10-percent drop in sales by volume last year.

Bertinelli also acknowledged that Parmesan faced competition as Italians watch their spending.

"If you just need to grate some cheese over pasta, there are alternatives," she said.

Ranked among the kings of Italian cheese, with its cows fed on hay and grass, Parmesan has risen in price by three euros in a year to reach an average of 23.5 euros ($27.10) per kilo in Italy's supermarkets.

This widens the gap with Grana Padano, a competitor with less stringent production rules, as well as other cheeses meant for grating.

To stay competitive, Parmesan plans to position itself more as an appetiser cheese.

Producers also want to strengthen their tourism offerings for food enthusiasts, as Piedmont and Tuscany have already done for wine.

France, the second-largest export market, remained stable in 2025 as did Germany, the third-largest market.

In the longer term, Parmesan also plans to expand marketing in Northern European countries and Latin America, followed by Southeast Asia.

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