Tourism plummets in US-blockaded Cuba

A proposed emergency tax on California billionaires to help fund the state's cash-strapped healthcare system has gathered enough signatures to trigger a referendum in November, the union behind the measure announced.

The proposal gathered 1.5 million signatures -- nearly twice the number required to get on the ballot.

"Most Californians and most billionaires recognize how reasonable and necessary this proposal is -- both to keep emergency rooms open and to save California businesses from closing," Suzanne Jimenez of the Services Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), the measure's lead sponsor, said late Sunday.

Under the California Billionaire Tax Act, the state's wealthiest residents would be hit with a one-time tax of five percent of their net worth.

Some 90 percent of the tens of billions of dollars in expected revenue would be used to fund the state healthcare system for five years to offset the massive federal cuts imposed by President Donald Trump's budget law.

While the tax would be a one-off, the proposal has sparked controversy in the most populous state and across the nation.

Opponents fear it will scare off Silicon Valley and trigger an exodus of the ultra-wealthy, which would hurt tax revenue. California is home to more than 250 billionaires, more than any other US state.

The American left has been divided on the issue. Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is considered a potential 2028 presidential hopeful, opposes it, while progressive Senator Bernie Sanders is its chief supporter in Congress.

High-profile entrepreneurs are against it. According to US media, Google co-founder Larry Page, Oracle's Larry Ellison, and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel have all taken steps to reduce their footprint in California.

And the cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence communities are funding ad campaigns against it.

Jimenez, the union leader, described the measure's wealthy opponents as "a very small group of the most controversial billionaires on the planet."

"Healthcare workers and our allies won't quit until we fully protect our patients from the looming healthcare disaster that will be caused by $100 billion in cuts to California healthcare," she added.

In the face of growing wealth inequality worldwide, taxation of the ultra-rich has become a flashpoint of debate in recent years.

Brazil put the idea of a billionaire tax on the G20 agenda when it hosted the forum's annual leaders' summit in 2024.

Last year France's parliament rejected the proposed 'Zucman tax,' a measure that would have taxed the ultra-wealthy at an annual rate of two percent.

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(The Center Square) – Virginia Supreme Court justices zeroed in Monday on one question: Did lawmakers follow the rules when they put a redistricting amendment on the ballot?

The case is not about how people voted. Rather, according to justices, it is about whether the process used to get the amendment there met the requirements in Virginia’s constitution.

That process is laid out in Article XII. Lawmakers must pass an amendment, wait for an election, pass it again, and then send it to voters.

Justices spent much of the hearing asking whether that sequence happened the way the constitution requires.

One issue is what counts as the required “intervening election.” Attorneys disagreed on whether that means Election Day itself or the broader voting period.

Another issue is the special session lawmakers used. Republican challengers say that session was called for budget work, not redistricting.

They told the court there is no clear example of lawmakers using a special session that way.

Justices pushed on that point, asking whether the Legislature can expand the scope of a session once it starts.

A justice pressed attorneys on whether lawmakers followed the rules for expanding the special session, at one point asking whether it was “irrelevant” if those requirements were not followed.

Attorneys for the commonwealth said the process was valid and warned against overturning a vote after it already happened.

Virginia Solicitor General Tillman J. Breckenridge told the court it would be “patently unfair” to throw out the result based on process questions after voters had already weighed in.

Justices also examined the purpose behind those rules, including giving voters time to understand proposals and allowing accountability between legislative approvals.

They questioned whether technical issues, like timing or publication rules, should outweigh the outcome of a statewide vote.

Some justices raised concerns about setting a precedent where procedural missteps could undo election results.

Others questioned whether courts should step in at all when it comes to the Legislature’s internal rules.

The case is one of several legal fights tied to the new maps.

Breckenridge told the court there are at least two other separate lawsuits still moving. One focuses on whether the districts meet constitutional compactness standards.

A Circuit Court ruled Sunday against a Republican effort to block the maps on those grounds, though that decision is expected to be appealed.

The state is also trying to move parts of the case faster through the courts.

The court had not issued a ruling as of publication. Candidate filing for Virginia’s August congressional primaries closes in late May, creating urgency for campaigns and election officials who need to know which district lines will apply.

Throughout the hearing, justices did not signal how they will rule, but their questions stayed focused on whether lawmakers followed the constitution step by step.

The outcome will determine whether the amendment stands or whether the process has to start over.

The US Supreme Court heard a bid on Monday by German agrichemical giant Bayer to put an end to a wave of lawsuits over the weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer has spent more than $10 billion settling litigation linked to Roundup since it acquired its producer, the US agrochemical group Monsanto, in 2018.

The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) considers glyphosate, one of Roundup's ingredients, a probable human carcinogen, but Bayer says scientific studies and regulatory approvals show the widely used weedkiller is safe.

The top US court agreed to hear Bayer's appeal of a $1.25 million Missouri jury award to a man, John Durnell, who claimed Roundup was responsible for his cancer -- one of thousands of similar "failure-to-warn" lawsuits facing the company.

Bayer is arguing that it should be shielded from state lawsuits since the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the sale of Roundup to consumers and farmers without any warnings.

"Every agency around the globe -- New Zealand, Japan, Australia, the European Union, Canada -- they've looked at glyphosate," Paul Clement, an attorney for Bayer, told the justices.

"It's probably the most like studied herbicide in the history of man and they've all reached the conclusion based on more data and the kind of expert analysis they can do that there isn't a risk here," Clement said. "You shouldn't let a single Missouri jury second-guess that judgment."

The Trump administration has backed Bayer's stance that a federal statute on pesticide labels preempts state laws requiring warnings on products that may be carcinogenic.

It's not feasible to have 50 different states coming out with their own determinations, Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris said.

"Iowa says maybe this causes cancer. California says absolutely causes cancer. Some other state says this doesn't cause cancer at all, so put that on your label too," Harris said. "It completely undermines the uniformity of the labeling."

Clement, the Bayer lawyer, also stressed a need for maintaining uniformity.

Failure to do so would "open the door for crippling liability and undermine the interest of farmers who depend on federally registered pesticides for their livelihood," he said.

Ashley Keller, a lawyer representing Durnell, who blames his non-Hodgkin lymphoma on exposure to Roundup, said the EPA's analysis of the weedkiller should not be the final word.  

"I think there are a lot of conscientious people working at that agency," Keller told the court. "I think we should also all agree that things slip through the cracks with that agency."

The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling in the case by June or early July.

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Unprecedented attacks in Mali by Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists and Tuareg separatists who killed the defence minister and seized a key town are the dramatic result of a new alliance the two groups forged a year ago.

The separatists and the jihadists have divergent interests, but are united against a common enemy, experts say: the military junta that has ruled the west African country since 2020 and its Russian paramilitary backers.

Militants from Al-Qaeda's branch in the African Sahel region, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), claimed responsibility on Saturday for a series of brazen attacks carried out with the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), an ethnic Tuareg separatist movement.

Attacking strategic positions held by Mali's ruling junta in several major towns and on the outskirts of the capital, Bamako, the militants took control of the northern town of Kidal and killed Defence Minister Sadio Camara.

JNIM attributed its "victory" to "hard work" and the "active participation of our brothers in the Azawad Liberation Front".

This predominantly Tuareg separatist group, created in 2024, wants independence for the territory of Azawad in northern Mali.

On Saturday, the rebels and jihadists launched a joint assault on Kidal, which they now control again after losing it in November 2023 to the Malian army and allied fighters from the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary force now largely replaced by Moscow's Africa Corps paramilitary group.

Security sources said the JNIM and FLA also fought together in the northern town of Gao on Saturday. They were pushed back by the Malian army, but remain deployed in the area.

The attacks are reminiscent of a crisis that rocked Mali in 2012, when Tuareg rebels allied with jihadists to capture strategic hubs in the country's vast, remote north.

That was before the alliance disintegrated, the two erstwhile allies turned on each other and the jihadists drove the Tuareg separatists out.

- Different agendas -

Relations between the two were fraught for years, leading to direct clashes in April 2024 on the Mauritanian border.

But they forged a fresh alliance in 2025, according to Wassim Nasr, a researcher at the Soufan Center think tank who specialises in jihadist movements.

The Tuaregs, a historically nomadic people present across Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso, have for decades taken up arms to protest at being marginalised, particularly around Kidal.

The new deal between the FLA and JNIM says the Tuareg rebels will accept the application of sharia law, that judges need to be accepted by both movements before they can be appointed, and that the two will share military expertise.

It also stipulates, Nasr said, that if towns are captured, the urban centres will be administered primarily by the FLA, while rural zones will be the purview of the jihadists.

The decision to cooperate, Nasr said, has been aided by the Islamists' willingness to share their expertise in the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and mortars -- capabilities the FLA had previously struggled to master.

Saturday's coordinated attacks mark "the first time we have truly seen the terms of the agreement put into practice", he said.

A distinctive feature of this new alliance is that it unites two organisations with different agendas, said Jean-Herve Jezequel, the head of the Sahel project at the International Crisis Group.

"JNIM pursues a political-religious agenda, centred on the establishment of sharia law and the rejection of foreign forces, whilst the FLA champions a territorial and autonomist agenda, centred on Azawad," he said.

"This convergence is based above all on the existence of common adversaries, namely the Malian authorities and their Russian partners."

- 'Hasten the junta's fall' -

Nasr said the alliance's strategic goal was not to seize power in Bamako from the ruling junta, but to retake the northern regions.

"They pinned down the army in the centre, dealt a blow to the government in Bamako -- which paralysed the military response -- and achieved their aims in the north," he said of the capture of Kidal.

"They may subsequently try to press their advantage in the centre of the country... to hasten the fall of the junta and/or elicit regime change in Bamako," he said.

Junta leader Assimi Goita has not spoken or been seen publicly since the attacks began, and the head of the intelligence services, Modibo Kone, has been wounded by gunfire.

The groups' strategy "is to weaken and delegitimise the Malian authorities by increasing security pressure in the hope that the regime will collapse, rather than directly seizing power, which appears more complicated in the short term", Jezequel said.

Unlike the alliances of the early 2010s, which quickly fell apart, Jezequel said, the current cooperation deal could last longer, even if its medium-term future might be uncertain.

Nasr said the real test will be how cities such as Kidal are managed -- a phase that has not yet begun.

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King Charles III arrives in Washington Monday for a high-stakes state visit aimed at salvaging Britain's frayed ties with Donald Trump, amid extra-tight security following an attack on a gala dinner attended by the US president.

Tensions over the Iran war have rocked the so-called "special relationship" ahead of a trip that was meant to mark the United States' 250th anniversary of independence from the British monarch's ancestors.

Charles and Queen Camilla will now be using their four-day visit -- their first time on American soil since he became king in 2022 -- to mount a diplomatic charm offensive targeting the royalty-obsessed Trump.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday the visit would "honor the long-standing and special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom."

Trump and his wife Melania will greet the British royals at the White House on Monday before hosting them for tea and a tour of a new beehive installed by the First Lady.

On Tuesday, the Trumps will meet Charles and Camilla in the Oval Office and hold a state dinner. Charles will also become the first British monarch to address Congress since his mother, the late queen Elizabeth II, in 1991. 

The royals will visit New York on Wednesday, touring the 9/11 memorial, before departing Thursday for Bermuda for his first visit to a British overseas territory as monarch.

- 'No Churchill' -

Buckingham Palace said the US visit would take place despite the shooting at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner attended by Trump in Washington on Saturday.

Charles was "greatly relieved" that Trump and other guests were unharmed, the palace added.

Christian Turner, Britain's ambassador to the US, told a briefing in Washington late Sunday that after extensive discussions, "we are all very confident that all appropriate security measures are in place" for the state visit.

But as the US leader's war with Iran drives a rare wedge between London and Washington, the visit has generated considerable controversy.

Trump has repeatedly lambasted British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his war opposition, alongside his government's immigration and energy policies.

The US president has branded Starmer "no Churchill" -- referring to wartime premier Winston Churchill, who coined the phrase the "special relationship." 

The pair however spoke by phone Sunday, with Labour leader Starmer extending "his best wishes" following "shocking scenes" at the gala the night before. 

Starmer has publicly criticized the war, but defended the state visit. An early April YouGov poll found 48 percent of Britons support cancelling it.

- 'Elephant in room' -

Trump has said King Charles's visit could help repair transatlantic relations.

"He's a friend of mine for a long time, so he's coming, and we're going to have a great time, and he represents his nation like nobody else can do it," Trump told Fox News on Sunday.

The US visit represents a personal test for Charles, 77, who has been battling cancer in recent years. 

But the king showcased his diplomatic skills during 79-year-old Trump's state visit to Britain last September, with Royal Holloway University of London monarchy expert Craig Prescott noting he is "generally very good" at navigating such occasions. 

Prescott added that Charles would likely address the war -- the "very big elephant in the room" -- in a coded way in his speech Tuesday to the US Congress.

Meanwhile, the scandal around late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein threatens to encroach on the highly choreographed tour.

Charles has faced a major crisis over the friendship his brother, the former prince Andrew, had with the late billionaire, who died in prison in 2019.

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(The Center Square) - The man accused of storming the White House Correspondents' Associations Dinner has been charged with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump. 

Cole Tomas Allen appeared in federal court on Monday in Washington, D.C., after being take into custody on Saturday following the shooting. Allen faced three charges including attempted assassination, transporting firearms across state lines and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. 

Allen, a resident of Torrance, California, appeared in court Monday. He did not enter a plea during the brief hearing. He is beleived to have traveled by train from California to Chicago and then onto Washington, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. 

(The Center Square) – In light of the Saturday shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, congressional Republicans are calling for an end to the Department of Homeland Security shutdown and new funding for construction of the White House ballroom.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the incident – which occurred Saturday in the banquet hall of the Washington, D.C. Hilton., less than two miles from the White House – proves a presidential ballroom “is a national security necessity.”

Graham will introduce legislation Monday to authorize funding to fully fund construction of a White House ballroom, “which over time will provide adequate security for this president and future presidents for events like the White House Correspondents Dinner.”

President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and members of Trump's cabinet were at the event and were rushed out. A Secret Service agent suffered injuries and the shooter is in custody. Trump spoke to the agent who was shot and said he was doing OK.

Graham argues that the Secret Service “will be one of the largest beneficiaries of the ballroom because they will have immense control over the security environment of future events with a very hardened facility.”

On that note, Graham and others called for Senate Democrats to reopen all of DHS, which houses the Secret Service and has remained shut down for a staggering 73 days.

“Secret Service agents risked their lives to stop an attack on President Trump and senior members of our government this weekend. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are holding their paychecks and the entire Department of Homeland Security HOSTAGE,” Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., said Monday on social media. “The Senate must FULLY fund DHS immediately.”

Republicans’ shutdown demands, however, are almost certainly moot. Shutdown negotiations between Republicans and Democrats have completely fallen apart, with Republicans pursuing a party-line budget reconciliation bill as a last resort.

Senate Democrats have repeatedly refused to support a full Homeland Security annual funding bill unless it includes dramatic reforms to federal immigration enforcement operations.

As a result, Republican leaders split off annual ICE and Border Patrol funding from the bill and plan to pass it through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process.

Despite party leaders’ desire to keep the bill narrowed on ICE and CBP funding only, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, now wants to tag ballroom funding onto the bill as well, rather than risk a stand-alone bill like Graham’s.

The House Rules Committee is preparing the Senate-passed budget resolution, the blueprint for the budget reconciliation bill, for a floor vote Wednesday. Roy, a member of the committee, has not yet proposed an amendment to the bill as of Monday afternoon.

Tourist trips to Cuba almost halved since the beginning of the year, Havana's statistics office said Monday, as a US fuel blockade pummels the island and international flights remain suspended.

Cuba has weathered severe economic difficulties since the imposition of a US trade embargo in 1962, but President Donald Trump's fuel blockade of the island nation since January marks a new economic low, with regular blackouts now part of daily life.

The harsh measures have not spared Cuba's tourism sector, usually its second-biggest source of foreign currency and an employer of over 300,000 people.

Between January and March, the island received 298,057 foreign visitors -- 48 percent fewer than the same period in 2025, figures published by the national statistics office ONEI showed.

March saw a record-breaking drop, when just 35,561 foreign tourists visited Cuba.

The decline affected markets across the board, with 54.2 percent fewer visits from Canada and 37.5 percent fewer Russian tourists.

Tourists from the Cuban community living abroad, mostly based in the United States, meanwhile fell by 42.8 percent.

Tourism in Cuba previously flourished somewhat thanks to a diplomatic rapprochement between Havana's communist government and former US president Barack Obama.

But the Covid-19 pandemic hampered growth, with Cuba's tourism revenues declining by 70 percent between 2019 and 2025. 

Tougher US sanctions under Trump followed, and even before the ongoing fuel blockade was imposed, tourism had fallen by 17.8 percent.

Fuel shortages have pushed several international airlines to temporarily halt flights to the island.

The island's medical services, nickel and tobacco exports have also suffered severely under the US fuel blockade.

Havana has been bracing for a possible attack following repeated warnings from Trump that Cuba is "next" on his list after the ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

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Taylor Swift has filed applications with the US intellectual property office to trademark her voice, a move similar to one made by actor Matthew McConaughey, as AI-generated content surges.

The singer submitted two sound recordings to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Each begins with "Hey, it's Taylor" and announces the release of her latest album, "The Life of a Showgirl," which was released in early October.

Another document submitted to the USPTO on Friday was a photo of the artist on stage. The submissions were first spotted by intellectual property attorney Josh Gerben.

The filings give no further details about the submission.

Contacted by AFP, Taylor Swift's publicist did not immediately respond.

McConaughey has in recent years pursued an application with the USPTO, framed as protection against the unauthorized use of his voice by AI models.

They include audio of him saying "Alright, alright, alright!" -- his memorable line from the 1993 film "Dazed and Confused" -- along with audio of him saying "Just keep livin', right?" followed by additional short phrases.

Advances in AI models now make it possible to synthesize a voice in seconds from a short clip, whereas just a few years ago the process required lengthy recordings and several days.

Many artists are increasingly concerned about the unchecked use of their image and voice by AI platforms.

Several US states have passed laws prohibiting such use, though many apply primarily to malicious or commercial exploitation.

Only a few -- notably the ELVIS Act passed by Tennessee's state legislature in 2024 -- offer broader protections.

Few performers have turned to the courts to assert their rights. 

The most notable example is Scarlett Johansson, who sued the app Lisa AI in 2023 for creating, without her consent, an AI avatar in her likeness for use in an advertisement.

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Two trains collided outside the Indonesian capital Jakarta late Monday, killing at least four people, injuring dozens, and prompting a mass evacuation effort, officials said.

There were chaotic scenes at the Bekasi Timur station some 25 kilometres (15 miles) from Jakarta, with rescue workers shouting for oxygen tanks as ambulances stood by in a snaking queue, lights flashing.

An AFP reporter at the scene witnessed people being carried out of the wreckage on gurneys and loaded into waiting ambulances as hundreds of bystanders looked on, some seemingly in shock.

Spokeswoman Anne Purba of the state-owned KAI rail company told reporters at least four people had died and more than 30 were hospitalised.

And deputy house speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said the toll could rise.

"Judging from the evacuation process that is still under way, it is possible that the number of victims may continue to rise," he told reporters.

Another KAI spokesman Franoto Wibowo told Kompas TV victims were being evacuated from the wreckage with assistance from the military, fire brigade, the national search and rescue agency and the Red Cross.

- Passengers trapped -

Jakarta police chief Asep Edi Suheri said a long-distance train had crashed into the last, women-only, carriage of a commuter train.

All victims were in the commuter train, and rescuers were  working to free people still trapped inside.

The crash caused "significant damage to several train carriages", the Jakarta search and rescue agency said in a statement.

"The incident caused a number of passengers to suffer injuries, and several victims were reported to be trapped inside the carriages due to the force of the impact," it added.

The agency said rescuers were "carrying out the evacuation process for the trapped victims using extrication equipment to free them from the wrecked train structures".

According to Franoto, a taxi had apparently clipped the commuter train on a level crossing, causing it to come to a standstill on the tracks, where it was hit.

"We are still in the process of collecting data and evidence... The detailed chronology of the cause will be delivered later by the authorised authorities," he added.

All 240 people on board the long-distance train had been evacuated safely, according to Purba.

The last major train crash in the Southeast Asian country killed four crew members and injured about two dozen people elsewhere in West Java province in January 2024.

Transport accidents are not uncommon in Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation where buses, trains and even planes are often old and poorly maintained.

Sixteen people were killed when a commuter train crashed into a minibus on a level crossing in Jakarta in 2015.

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