Pakistan says holding talks with Afghan govt in China

(The Center Square) - Analysts and trade experts are calling for the United States to move away from wide-ranging tariffs and embrace strategic trade relationships to counter global adversaries.

The analysts spoke at the American Institute for Economic Research in Washington, D.C., one year after President Donald Trump instituted his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the president’s authority to institute broad tariffs against other nations in February.

Speakers at the conference said allowing private companies to develop in a free market will advance opportunities for those industries. They argued the Trump administration's broad tariff policies do not enable a competitive, free market.

“When you allow industry to develop in a free market, you get the best processes, the best ideas,” said Donald Boudreaux, an economics professor at George Mason University. “Those cutting-edge ideas, those cutting-edge technologies are almost certainly going to be handy in the event of military hostilities.”

Boudreaux pointed to the U.S. conflict in Iran. He said the U.S. will not be able to achieve its goals in Iran by sheer force of will or trading capabilities.

Boudreaux was joined by Erik Gartzke, a professor of political science at the University of San Diego. The two argued that China has exploited the United States’ openness and free market system of trade.

They criticized President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs and said it was not a viable strategy to optimize strategic competition against China. Gartzke said the use of wide-ranging tariffs could sacrifice the United States’ relationships with other allies who could help defend against Chinese threats.

“We’ve stumbled badly by losing sight of the ball and losing an initiative in the game,” Gartzke said. “Now the Chinese can point to the fact that we put tariffs on everything.”

While embracing a free trade mindset that avoids tariffs on allied nations, some analysts warned against threats to national security that could come from trading too freely with adversaries. Theresa Campobasso, senior vice president of Supply Chain Security at Aardwolf Global Solutions, said the United States needs to scrutinize what it trades with adversarial nations, like China.

She said ideal supply chain regulation limits trade when absolutely necessary for national security and takes a very targeted approach.

“A serious framework requires a documented threat mechanism that’s scoped assessment of exposure, a defined intervention matched appropriately to that scope, and then the measurable definition of success," Campobasso said.

However, Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, cautioned against overregulation for the sake of protecting national security. She said the private sector should be trusted to engage in proper security controls among foreign nations.

“It seems that actually any impediment to the private sector and to the American economy is treated as a national security threat and that’s just problematic,” de Rugy said.

The analysts called on developing a national framework to approach security across the country.

“We can come up with a very sound way to define a framework for national security that will be required to decide whether policy is truly worth the cost to trade,” de Rugy said.

The analysts warned against continued tariff costs. Boudreaux said America would become less wealthy and more vulnerable to foreign threats if it does not engage in trade with its allies.

“By misallocating resources over time, the economy becomes less efficient,” Boudreaux said. “There is unquestionably a positive connection between the wealth of the nation and the ability of that nation’s government to supply adequate national defense.”

Heavy rain and storms have killed at least 121 people over two weeks across Afghanistan and Pakistan, disaster officials in both countries said Saturday. 

Stormy weather has brought rain sweeping across Afghanistan since late March, causing floods, landslides, and hitting homes and crops. 

"Since March 26 till today, 77 people have been killed and 137 wounded across the country because of the floods and rains," Afghanistan's disaster management authority (ANDMA) spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Hammad told AFP on Saturday.

The spokesman added that 26 people were killed and 48 were wounded across the country in the past 48 hours due to rains, floods, landslides and lightning.  

Across the border in Pakistan, 44 people were killed following heavy rains in the last weeks, officials said. 

At least 32 people died in the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since March 25 and 12 in southwestern Balochistan since March 20, the provincial disaster management authorities told AFP. 

Afghanistan's latest casualties include a child who drowned in a flash flood in southeastern Ghazni on Saturday morning while he was busy playing with other children, provincial police said.

Two more children also drowned in different districts of the same province. 

That came hours after three people died in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, when the roof of their house collapsed due to rains, the provincial disaster management authority said.  

- Damage -

ANDMA spokesman Hammad said rainfall since the start of spring "can strengthen the underground sources of water and give growth to the agriculture sector".

But he said it can also cause human suffering and financial loss.

In western Herat province, farmer Abdul Rahim Taimori said: "We don't remember such a flood happening before. It has caused us a lot of damage. 

"It has destroyed the crops of people, their homes. If it continues like this then we would have to leave our homes," the 45-year-old told AFP. 

But relocating is unaffordable for many. 

"Where shall we go? We are forced to stay," said Majal Niazi, a 45-year-old farmer who lives in a one-room house with his family. 

The rain has also led to several road closures, with Kabul police reporting the partial closure Friday of the road between the capital and the city of Jalalabad.

Afghanistan's disaster management authority renewed its warning to people to stay away from "rivers and flooded streams, and follow the weather forecast seriously".

The latest casualties follow more than 60 people being killed in snow and heavy rain that hit Afghanistan in January. 

Afghanistan frequently experiences deadly floods, landslides and storms, particularly in remote areas with fragile infrastructure. 

Among the poorest countries in the world after decades of war, Afghanistan is particularly exposed to the effects of climate change, which scientists say is spurring extreme weather.

"It was drought before and now we have these rains, both are a danger," said Abdul Sattar, a 40-year-old farmer in Herat. 

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A Russian drone hit a covered market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol on Saturday, killing five people and wounding 19, officials said, as Moscow pressed on with intensified daytime attacks. 

The market, in Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region, was hit at 9:50 am (0650 GMT), the local prosecutor's office said.

Regional governor, Oleksandr Ganja, said in a Telegram post that three women and two men were killed. 

He added that a 14-year-old girl was among 19 wounded and was in a "critical condition".

Five people were also injured on Saturday morning in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, near the front line, regional police said.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 286 drones overnight, of which 260 were intercepted.

In the northern Sumy region, 11 people were wounded in strikes on residential areas and civilian infrastructure overnight, police said.

Images released by Ukrainian emergency services showed a building whose upper floors were engulfed in flames.

Three people were wounded in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, including a baby aged five months and a six-year-old boy, Ganja said earlier on Telegram. 

In Russia, a missile and drone attack on the southern Rostov region bordering Ukraine, left one person dead and four seriously wounded in the city of Taganrog, regional governor Yuri Slyussar said. 

He said three local residents and a foreigner were all in critical condition but did not specify the origin of the attacks.

On the Sea of Azov, a foreign cargo ship was damaged by falling drone debris and caught fire, he added.

- Stalled talks -

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile arrived in Ankara on Saturday for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. on security cooperation, a Ukrainian official told AFP.

Zelensky this week signalled he was ready for a truce over the Easter holidays, but the Kremlin said it had not received "clearly formulated" proposals.

Ukraine has accused Russia of prolonging the war to capture more territory, and says Moscow is not interested in peace.

Talks between the two warring parties, mediated by the United States, have been stalled by the war in the Middle East.

In comments to reporters, including AFP, published on Friday, Zelensky said he had invited an American delegation to Ukraine to relaunch negotiations with Moscow.

"The delegation will do everything possible in the current conditions -- during the war with Iran -- to come to Kyiv," Zelensky said.

"The American group can come to us and, after us, go to Moscow. If it does not work out with three parties, let's do it this way," he added.

Amid the Middle East war, Ukraine has sought to leverage its expertise in fighting off Russian drones similar to those Iran has been using in retaliatory attacks across Gulf nations.

Last week, Zelensky visited several Middle Eastern countries and signed defence agreements with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

He also suggested Ukraine could help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, whose effective closure by Iran has rattled the global economy.

He did not specify how Ukraine could contribute, but cited Kyiv's experience in restoring passage through the Black Sea, which Russia had blocked at the beginning of its invasion.

burs-ach/rmb 

Artemis 2 astronaut Jeremy Hansen felt like he was "falling out of the sky" as his spacecraft followed its complex flight path to the Moon, the Canadian said in a Saturday video call.

The four Artemis astronauts have passed the halfway point between Earth and the Moon on Saturday morning -- more than 150,000 miles (241,000 kilometers) from home -- as they zipped toward the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half a century.

Hansen, a 50-year-old former fighter pilot on his maiden voyage into space, said he saw "some extraordinary things" during the first hours aboard the Orion.

"By the time we had a bit of a nap and got up, the Earth was just so far away," Hansen, flanked by American crewmates Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, told a question-and-answer session hosted by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

- 'Like falling out of the sky' -

Hansen then described the translunar injection burn -- a maneuver that brought Orion within 200 kilometers of Earth before swinging around onto a new course for the Moon.

"It just felt like we were falling out of the sky back to Earth, and I said to Reid, 'It feels like we're gonna hit it,'" Hansen said.

"It's amazing that we're actually gonna go around and miss this thing. It was just so close and so to take all of that in was really phenomenal."

Hansen, who joined the CSA in 2009 following his career as a fighter pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force, will be the first non-American to fly around the Moon.

Orion's next milestone, set to take place on day five of the 10-day mission, is to enter the lunar sphere of influence, where the Moon's gravitational pull exceeds that of the Earth, according to NASA.

Hansen said he was looking forward to an up-close view of the far side of the Moon and seeing "an eclipse of the Sun behind the Moon, which will be pretty neat."

Hansen once cited a childhood encounter with a photograph of Neil Armstrong on the Moon as the seed of his passion for space exploration.

Asked about advice for children, the father of three urged youngsters to "follow your passions, but also share your passions with other people."

"To get big things done like we're doing in this capsule, to travel to the moon, to fly around the moon, you need a big team behind you. And that's true for all of us in our lives."

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The price of diesel fuel has rocketed by more than 30 percent across Europe since the start of the Middle East war highlighting the continent's dependence on imported energy and the lingering prominence of  diesel on the car market.

The Easter holiday weekend across Europe is expected to see a surge in demand with queues at petrol stations.

Diesel has been worse hit than other fuels, and was already under pressure before the war. Experts say its cost will rise further -- with a knock-on effect on inflation -- as long as trade through the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked.

The per-barrel price of diesel rose above $200 in Europe on Thursday, the highest since March 2022 when Russia's invasion of Ukraine shook markets.

Diesel is ubiquitous in Europe. While electric cars are making inroads in new sales, diesel is still the most widely used fuel. Trucks, farm tractors, buses, building site machinery and even shipping depend on it.

Diesel accounted for 86 percent of transport fuel sales in Latvia in 2024, 73 percent in France and 66 percent in Germany, according to FuelsEurope, a trade body which represents the refining industry.

The international supply-and-demand balance for diesel "was much tighter than the gasoline balance going into the war and the subsequent market response has been one of strong gasoil (diesel) price escalation while gasoline’s price response has been somewhat muted," Susan Bell, a commodity markets specialist at Rystad Energy, a consultancy, told AFP.

- Russia dilemma -

In Britain, France and other countries, the price of diesel has risen more than 30 percent since the first US-Israeli air strikes on Iran and resulting choking of the Strait of Hormuz.

In France, the price of regular petrol has gone up by just 17 percent, according to government statistics consulted by AFP.

The Netherlands has the most expensive diesel in Europe at more than $2.80 a litre, according to research by the RAC, a British motoring organisation. That is about 20 percent more than Italy, the cheapest country surveyed by the RAC.

Diesel was for a long time cheaper than petrol. At the end of the 20th century, governments and car firms encouraged drivers to buy diesel-engine cars. But not enough refineries were built to keep up with demand for the fuel and in recent years governments have imposed higher taxes on it.

The European Union is now a net exporter of petrol, mainly to the United States and Africa, but an importer of diesel.

Russia was Europe's main source of diesel until Moscow's all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 set off international sanctions. 

Now EU nations look to India, Turkey, the United States and Saudi Arabia for supplies.

Middle East states provided more than half of Europe's diesel in 2025 (554,000 barrels a day out of 1.06 million), according to Rystad Energy. About one third of this passed through the Strait Hormuz.

Europe is now struggling to find alternatives. 

Slovakia last month ordered a 30-day restriction on diesel sales while foreigners have to pay more for the fuel there. Ireland and Spain have temporarily cut the taxes they charge on the fuel.

"Refineries are working at full capacity," said an expert at French energy giant TotalEnergies which has six refineries across Europe. 

"Even with maximum adjustment to our settings, the room for manoeuvre remains minimal" for TotalEnergies, he added.

Bell said that if there is a shortage of regular petrol then Europe can cut its exports. But that doesn't work for diesel.

"The most efficient and economical solution for Europe would be to source its diesel from Russia," said Bell. 

The EU will not be lifting its sanctions anytime soon however.

Postponing refinery maintenance, using strategic reserves, and reducing consumption appear to be the only other ways to partially address the imbalance, she said.

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Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Iran petrochemical hub hit -

Iranian media said a US-Israeli attack hit a petrochemical zone in the southwestern port city of Mahshahr, hitting several companies there. The Tasnim news agency said the extent of the damage not yet known.

- Turkish ship transit -

A second Turkish-flagged ship has crossed the Strait of Hormuz, Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said.

"At the time the war broke out, there were 15 ships belonging to Turkish shipowners... Two of these 15 made the crossing," he said.

- Iran executions -

Iran executed two men convicted of membership in a banned opposition group and carrying out disruptive actions aimed at overthrowing the Islamic republic.

The executions were the latest in a series targeting members of the banned People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), after four other convicted members of the group were executed earlier in the week. 

- Four injured in Bahrain -

Shrapnel from intercepted drones injured four people in Bahrain, authorities said, as Iran pressed its attacks on its Gulf neighbours.

Separately, two buildings in Dubai were hit by debris, including one housing the US cloud computing firm Oracle, authorities in the United Arab Emirates said.

- Blasts in Tehran -

Several blasts shook northern Tehran, an AFP journalist heard, as the Middle East war neared its sixth week.

The blasts occurred at about 7:30 am (0400 GMT) and were accompanied by a loud sound from above as if coming from a drone, said AFP's correspondent in the Iranian capital

- Israel strikes Beirut -

The Israeli military said it had begun striking "Hezbollah infrastructure sites" in Lebanon's capital Beirut.

An AFP journalist heard two loud explosions in the capital within a half-hour period early Saturday and saw smoke billowing from one of them.

Local media reported two airstrikes on the southern suburbs.

- Indonesian peacekeepers wounded -

Three United Nations peacekeepers wounded in a blast in southern Lebanon on Friday were from Indonesia, UN officials said, just days after three other Indonesians were killed in separate explosions.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said the blast occurred inside a UN facility near El Adeisse.

- Missiles fired at Israel -

The Israeli army said its air defences responded to missiles fired from Iran, which medics reported wounded one person.

Israel's Magen David Adom emergency services said a 45‑year‑old man was treated for minor injuries from glass shrapnel in the central city of Bnei Brak and taken to hospital.

- Iran says second US plane downed -

Iran's military says it has downed a second US military jet in the Gulf, according to state media.

There was no immediate confirmation or denial from Washington. US media said the pilot was rescued.

- Man killed in Syria -

State media in Syria said Israeli fire killed a man in Quneitra province in the country's south near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The SANA agency said the man had been killed in an attack by "an Israeli tank", while state television said a car was targeted.

burs-ach/rmb

As Belgium grapples with chronic prison overcrowding, a local charity in Brussels has found an immersive way to highlight the problem -- giving educational tours of a recently abandoned jail.

Until it was officially shuttered in 2022, the dilapidated Forest prison housed inmates in cramped cells behind its red brick walls in the Belgian capital.

Leading a group of AFP journalists along the empty corridors now spattered with pigeon droppings, Manuel Lambert, head of a charity called 9-square-metres, laid bare the issues.

His organisation takes its name from the standard cell size in Belgium, usually meant for two detainees but where three often have to squeeze together day and night.

Lambert says that as the system has been stretched to breaking point, conditions have worsened and efforts to reintegrate prisoners into society have been neglected.

"These questions are being ignored," he warned.

"It was essential for us to have a place to address them, to make this former prison an educational tool," explained Lambert, who has a list of around 3,000 people waiting to make a visit.

Belgium is among a number of European countries facing endemic prison overcrowding.

For months, there have been more than 13,000 inmates in Belgium's 39 prisons, which have a capacity of approximately 11,000 places.

To ease pressures, the government proposed a series of emergency measures in March, including using electronic tags for those given sentences of fewer than 18 months. Those measures still need to go before parliament. 

- 'Complete mess' -

Opened in 1910, Forest prison was built with four wings splayed out in a star around a central watchtower, meant to echo the "Panopticon" style promoted by English 18th-century philosopher Jeremy Bentham.

By the end of its use, it had become a symbol of the crumbling facilities that saw Belgium condemned repeatedly at the European Court of Human Rights for "inhuman or degrading treatment". 

In 2017, an inmate at the prison was awarded damages by the court after lodging a complaint that he was forced to share his cell with two others and only had access to showers twice a week. 

As he led the tour, Lambert recounted how detainees in some cells that lacked proper toilets would have to empty out their buckets of waste at a "dump" each morning. 

Joining the visit was a former detainee, there to film an educational video, who gave his name as Johnny T. 

He had spent seven years behind bars, including in Forest, and remembered the daily "ritual" of carrying out the buckets.

"That's how it was here as recently as 2022, and other prisons in Belgium face the same problem," said the man in his 30s. 

"Prison is frankly a complete mess! I say to the younger generation -- don't listen to the older lot who want to steer you down this path."

Currently, due to overcrowding across the prison system, 663 inmates in Belgium are sleeping on mattresses on the floor, the prison service says. 

Of these, 156 are in the new Brussels prison in Haren.

The state-of-the-art facility, to which the inmates of Forest were transferred three and a half years ago ands which was supposed, in theory, to accommodate them in far better conditions. 

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Iranian and American forces raced each other Saturday to recover a crew member of the first US fighter jet to go down inside Iran since the start of the war.

Tehran said it had shot down the F-15 warplane, while US media reported United States special forces had rescued one of its two crew members, with the other still missing.

Iran's military also said it downed a US A-10 ground attack aircraft in the Gulf, with US media saying the pilot was rescued.

The war erupted more than a month ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei, triggering retaliation that spread the conflict throughout the Middle East, convulsing the global economy and impacting millions of people worldwide.

US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the loss of the F-15, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: "The president has been briefed."

President Donald Trump told NBC the F-15 loss would not affect negotiations with Iran, saying: "No, not at all. No, it's war."

- 'Valuable reward' -

A spokesperson for the Iranian military's central operational command said "an American hostile fighter jet in central Iranian airspace was struck and destroyed by the IRGC Aerospace Force's advanced air defence system".

"The jet was completely obliterated, and further searches are ongoing."

An Iranian television reporter on a local official channel said anyone who captured a crew member alive would "receive a valuable reward".

The US military has announced the loss of several aircraft during Iran operations, including a tanker that crashed in Iraq and three F-15s shot down by Kuwaiti friendly fire.

Retired US brigadier general Houston Cantwell, who has 400 hours of combat flight experience, said a pilot's training would likely kick in before he or she parachutes to the ground.

"My priority would be, first of all, concealment, because I don't want to be captured," he told AFP.

Mohammad Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament, mocked the Trump administration.

He wrote on X: "After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from 'regime change' to 'Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?'

"Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses."

- Fresh strikes -

Fresh strikes were aimed at Israel, Iran and Lebanon.

On Saturday several blasts were heard coming from Tehran's north, an AFP journalist said.

Strikes by all sides have increasingly targeted economic and industrial sites, raising fears of wider disruption to global energy supplies.

In the area around a bridge west of Tehran that was targeted by the United States, an AFP reporter saw a villa and residential buildings with blown-out windows, but no military installations.

According to the martyrs foundation of Alborz province, cited by the official IRNA agency, the attack killed 13 civilians and wounded dozens.

Writing in the US journal Foreign Affairs, Iran's former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said Tehran should make a deal with Washington to end the war by offering to curb its nuclear programme and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief.

Iran has virtually blocked the key waterway since the war began, where one-fifth of the world's oil and natural gas normally passes.

Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari warned that Iran would increase its own attacks on energy sites in the region in response to threats from Trump of attacks on infrastructure.

A drone attack on a refinery owned by Kuwait's national oil company on Friday sparked fires, while a separate Iranian attack damaged a power and desalination complex.

Gulf states once seen as safe havens are now under threat, accused by Iran of serving as launchpads for US strikes.

Dubai's media office said authorities there responded to "a minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception" that fell on a building around the marina area.

No injuries were reported, it said.

- Beirut explosions -

The Israeli military said Friday it had struck more than 3,500 targets across Lebanon in the month since fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah began.

It added that it would attack two bridges in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa region "in order to prevent the transfer of reinforcements and military equipment".

Lebanese state media later reported that Israel destroyed one bridge in the region, and local media said that a second bridge was also hit.

The Israeli military said it had begun striking "Hezbollah infrastructure" in Beirut.

An AFP journalist heard two loud explosions in the capital within half an hour early Saturday and saw smoke billowing from one of them.

Lebanon's health ministry said Thursday that 1,345 people had been killed -- and 4,040 wounded -- since the start of the war.

Hezbollah has not announced its losses.

bur-pst/abs

Jaylen Brown scored 26 points and Jayson Tatum added 23 as the Boston Celtics thrashed the Milwaukee Bucks 133-101 on Friday to maintain their grip on third place in the NBA Eastern Conference.

Tatum added 11 rebounds, nine assists and three steals before he and Brown sat out the fourth quarter with the game in hand against the reeling Bucks.

Two nights after their 53-point first quarter against Miami, the Celtics got off to another hot start.

Eight of their 17 three-pointers came in their 43-point first period and they led 75-55 by half-time.

The Celtics, who have won five of their last six games, maintained their two-and-a-half game lead over the New York Knicks for second place in the East.

The Knicks, who have struggled of late against quality teams, had no problem in a 136-96 thrashing of the Chicago Bulls, who have been eliminated from playoff contention.

OG Anunoby scored a game-high 31 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Jalen Brunson and Mitchell Robinson added 17 points apiece, Brunson chipping in 11 rebounds as well.

Anunoby connected on nine of 15 shots from the field, including seven of 10 from three-point range. Robinson, starting in place of injured center Karl-Anthony Towns, made all seven of his shots.

The Atlanta Hawks, fifth in the East, cruised past the Brooklyn Nets 141-107 and the Philadelphia 76ers maintained their hold on sixth place in the East -- and the final direct entry berth to the playoffs -- with a 115-103 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Paul George scored 23 points, Tyrese Maxey chipped in 21 and Joel Embiid returned from a one-game absence due to illness and scored 19 points with 13 rebounds and seven assists.

- Flagg scores 51 -

With five games left in the regular season the Sixers remained a fraction ahead of the seventh-placed Toronto Raptors, who beat the Memphis Grizzlies 128-96 to stay atop the tightly bunched group jockeying for play-in position.

The eighth-placed Charlotte Hornets beat the Indiana Pacers 129-108, and the Orlando Magic, half a game back and clinging to ninth place ahead of the Miami Heat, withstood a spectacular 51-point performance from Dallas rookie Cooper Flagg in a 138-127 victory over the Mavericks.

Flagg, 19, became the first teenager to record a 50-point game in the NBA. He joined Michael Jordan as the only rookies to post multiple games of 45 or more points in their rookie seasons.

"He should be Rookie of the Year," Mavs coach Jason Kidd said of Flagg, who scored 24 points in the fourth quarter.

Dallas trailed by 19 entering the final frame and were down by 21 when Kidd was ejected minutes into the period for arguing a non-call when he thought Flagg had been fouled.

Flagg himself had received a technical for appealing for a call and teammate Naji Marshall was ejected moments later, Flagg seeming only more determined after their departures.

"The things that he's done, he's in rare air," Kidd said of Flagg's standout first season amid the Mavs' disappointing results.

Despite Flagg's fireworks, the Magic's balanced attack was enough to carry the day. Wendell Carter Jr. scored 28 points and Desmond Bane added 27 as six Orlando players scored in double figures.

"It was fun," Flagg said. "It's always fun getting into that type of mode. The basket feels big and your teammates are looking out for you, helping you out.

"But I love to win. That was my main focus and it's hard for me to fully enjoy myself when we're down by 20, down 10, down 15 for the majority of the game."

bb/pst

Sri Lanka is struggling to prevent a repeat of its spectacular economic collapse four years ago, as the prolonged Middle East war compounds the fallout from a deadly

in November.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has rationed fuel, raised its price by a third and increased electricity costs by up to 40 percent since the war began disrupting global energy supplies.

Panic buying fuel in Sri Lanka has brought back memories of 2022, when the economy tanked, with inflation hitting 70 percent after Colombo defaulted on its $46 billion external debt.

The accompanying protests toppled the once-powerful president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was accused of mismanagement and corruption.

But the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) that led the "Aragalaya", or struggle, that ousted Rajapaksa has warned that Dissanayake's administration may be facing an implosion.

"We believe that a response to this economic crisis will come politically," FSP politburo member Duminda Nagamuwa told AFP.

"Because of the strength of the (government's) mandate, this economic shock is still being absorbed by the people without exploding politically," he said.

Dissanayake's leftist JVP, or the People's Liberation Front, won a two-thirds majority at the November 2024 parliamentary elections after his own victory two months earlier in the presidential poll.

-- 'Into an abyss' --

A vendor at Colombo's Pettah night market, Wasantha Jayalath, 55, said he voted for Dissanayake in 2024 hoping for better times, but felt the situation was getting worse.

"We voted... thinking that a good, self-sufficient era would dawn for our country," Jayalath told AFP. "There is no such situation; instead, what we realise is that the country is going further into an abyss."

A trader at the capital's main wholesale market, Priyantha Sudharshana Silva, 53, is not blaming the administration for the crisis.

"Protesting won't help because the country is already in a difficult position," Silva told AFP. "We believe that moving forward, even with these difficulties, is a significant achievement."

-- State of emergency --

Human rights lawyer Bhavani Fonseka said protests have been subdued because people are preoccupied with the day-to-day challenge of securing supplies.

Fuel rationing has shortened queues, but on Thursday, the government began limiting water supply hours to conserve reserves and save pumping costs.

"Compared to what we had in 2022... you're not seeing that level of protest," Fonseka told AFP. "Sri Lanka was just coming out of another disaster -- Cyclone Ditwah -- and the government imposed a state of emergency to deal with that."

Fonseka said the wide powers that emergency laws give the authorities to arrest and detain suspects could be used to stifle any popular protests, raising serious concerns for rights activists.

"We are in a situation where... laws that are in place, and the way they are being used, raise the question of whether rights could be further eroded in the coming weeks and months," she said. 

-- Deadly cyclone --

Cyclone Ditwah, the worst disaster since the 2004 Asian tsunami, killed 641 people and affected almost the entire country late last year. 

The cyclone, which triggered floods and mudslides, caused an estimated $4.1 billion in damage, according to the World Bank.

The money will be used to rebuild devastated homes, roads, bridges and railways, as well as for cash handouts to help people regain lost livelihoods.

Colombo also secured $206 million in emergency financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in December to deal with the aftermath of the disaster.

An IMF delegation is currently in Sri Lanka to review its four-year $2.9 billion bailout loan before releasing a $700 million instalment.

Sri Lankan authorities have said they may ask the IMF to modify the loan's austerity conditions, given the country's worsening economic circumstances due to external factors.

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