Close Trump Allies Sponsored the Military Parade, Raising Ethical Concerns
© Doug Mills/The New York Times
© Doug Mills/The New York Times
The manhunt for a suspect in deadly attacks on Minnesota lawmakers continued into its second day on Sunday, as police extended the search over state lines to nearby South Dakota.
Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed in their home early Saturday morning .
Another lawmaker, state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also shot multiple times and injured.
Police are searching for Vance Luther Boelter, a 57-year-old who they say impersonated a police officer while carrying out the attacks. Federal authorities announced a $50,000 reward for information.
Both lawmakers belonged to Minnesota's Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, which is affiliated with the national Democratic Party.
Senator Hoffman and his wife underwent surgery on Saturday, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said he was "cautiously optimistic they will survive this assassination attempt."
"Clearly, this is politically motivated," US Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat who represents Minnesota, told NBC News' Meet the Press on Sunday morning.
Authorities said they recovered a target list from a vehicle used by the suspect that reportedly contained the names of several Democratic politicians who supported abortion rights, as well as abortion providers. The office of Tina Smith, Minnesota's other US Senator, confirmed to BBC News she was on the list.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) added Boelter to their most wanted list, and issued a $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
"It is really not about any of us, it is this incredible woman that we lost, Melissa Hortman," Klobuchar said. "We think about her family today."
"I just wish everyone in the world political world knew this woman like we know her in Minnesota. Loved by Democrats and Republicans," Klobuchar said.
President Donald Trump is aware of the situation, but it was not clear if he would reach out to the state's leadership about the attack.
Governor Walz, a Democrat, was presidential candidate Kamala Harris' running mate in the 2024 election.
Despite the frantic search under way across the region, the city of Brooklyn Park, where Rep. Hortman lived, was still and silent on Sunday morning as the neighbourhood came to terms with the deadly attack.
A police car stood guard outside the Hortman's house, and bright yellow caution tape surrounded the home, now an active crime scene.
Taha Abuisnaineh, who lives across the street, said he and his wife had known the Hortmans for more than 20 years.
"They were very nice neighbours in a very quiet neighbourhood," he told the BBC. "You don't see police activity in this neighbourhood. We are very shocked."
Two other nearby residents who did not want to be named said this suburban community was reeling as news spread of the attack.
"My next-door neighbour heard the shots," said one. "We've all been texting back and forth."
She and her husband described how they received an annual Christmas card from the Hortmans - and recounted how Representative Hortman got along with local Republican politicians.
"What a big loss for Minnesota," she said.
Doctors in India say 270 bodies have been recovered from the site of Thursday's plane crash in Ahmedabad.
The London-bound aircraft crashed into a residential area shortly after take-off killing all but one of the 242 passengers, a 40-year-old British man.
Officials have been trying to establish how many people were killed on the ground and have been continuing the slow process of matching DNA samples to confirm the victims' identities.
Vigils honouring the dead have taken place across India and the UK.
The company building the HS2 rail line between London and Birmingham has reported one of its subcontractors to the tax authorities over possible fraud.
Whistleblowers made allegations over the way pay was handled for some construction staff on the high-speed line.
HS2 Ltd said last month it was conducting its own investigation, looking into two firms who supplied it with workers. The company has now also referred the matter to HMRC.
The firms in question were providing workers to Balfour Beatty Vinci (BBV), a contractor for HS2.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is expected to raise the issue in Parliament this week. It is the latest difficulty to beset the troubled giant rail infrastructure project.
HS2 has faced myriad challenges and spiralling costs since it was first announced in 2009.
It was originally designed to boost capacity on the railways between the north and south of England but the last, Conservative, government decided to scrap the second phase of the project, which included building lines to Manchester and Leeds.
Earlier this year whistleblowers flagged concerns over the way some subcontracted staff were being paid. They said self-employed workers had been falsely declared as salaried staff, with "fake" payslips submitted at a higher payrate. The allegations were first published in the i newspaper in May.
One of the labour suppliers is understood to remain suspended from new contracts while inquiries continue.
An HS2 spokesperson said: "We treat all whistleblower allegations seriously and are continuing to conduct our own investigation."
The firm said it encouraged anyone with relevant information to report it via confidential internal channels.
The Department for Transport said last month it had "a zero-tolerance attitude towards fraud, bribery, and corruption" and would ensure any claims of wrongdoing were thoroughly investigated.
Large asylum seeker sites like Wethersfield air base in Essex are set to be expanded under plans to end the use of asylum hotels, the BBC can reveal.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged to stop using taxpayer-funded hotels by 2029 in her Spending Review, saying this would save £1bn.
One of the ways the Home Office hopes to achieve this is by moving asylum seekers from hotels into cheaper alternative forms of accommodation.
Sir Keir Starmer pledged to close the Wethersfield asylum facility during last year's election campaign, but the BBC understands that site and another in Huddersfield are among those under consideration for extensions.
A Home Office spokesperson said the government was "making strong strides to deliver a more sustainable and cost-effective asylum accommodation system".
"This includes ending the use of hotels, testing new locally-led models, and working closely with local authorities and other departments to ensure a fairer, more efficient approach," they added.
"Our use of any property or Home Office-owned site will be used in line with the permissions set by planning permissions."
The taxpayer cost of asylum hotels has rocketed in recent years, with total accommodation contracts now set to be worth £15.3bn over a 10-year period.
But while extending large sites might be cheaper, the move is likely to anger local residents and refugee rights groups.
In April last year, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Wethersfield site couldn't be "seen as either a sustainable solution for housing asylum seekers nor value for money for the taxpayer".
Conservative MP Sir James Cleverly, whose Braintree constituency includes Wethersfield, said the existing cap on the number of people living at the facility "was there to protect the safety and security" of constituents, and "those working at and living on the site".
Sir James, who became home secretary shortly after the first asylum seekers moved into Wethersfield, said the government plan to potentially expand the site was "disgraceful and shows just how out of touch they are with the concerns of local communities".
In March, the High Court found the previous Conservative government's use of Wethersfield to house asylum seekers was unlawful, after three men argued they were living in "prison-like" conditions.
The former RAF base has been housing asylum seekers since 2023. It has a current capacity of 800, but is thought to house closer to 500 people at present.
The Home Office contract for the base is held by Clearsprings, whose founder Graham King recently became a billionaire, according to the Sunday Times rich list.
The Helen Bamber Foundation, a human rights groups, has previously said that accommodating people at the base causes harm to their physical and mental health.
Kamena Dorling, the group's director of policy, told the BBC that Wethersfield "should be closed immediately, not extended".
She said: "Housing people, including survivors of torture and trafficking, in an isolated, overcrowded camp reminiscent of an open-air prison, with inadequate healthcare and legal services, is an inhumane way to treat those seeking protection."
A pair of former student accommodation blocks in Huddersfield, acquired by the Home Office last year, could also be extended.
The buildings, constructed in 2019, have a current capacity of 650 but have never been occupied because of safety concerns.
Any extensions to asylum seeker accommodation would be paid for using money earmarked for investment from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, meaning it could be borrowed without falling foul of the chancellor's strict spending rules.
Home Office figures released last month show that as of March, there were about 100,000 asylum seekers in government-funded accommodation, with about 32,000 of those in hotels.
Cooper hopes to end the use of hotels by reducing small boat crossings, speeding up the asylum application process and moving people into alternative accommodation.
Following the chancellor's Spending Review, there had been some confusion over what that alternative accommodation might be.
Chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones told BBC Newsnight the government would be "upgrading current facilities, which will include some extensions".
But on Thursday, the prime minister's official spokesman refused to comment on whether new accommodation would be built.
A senior Home Office source has now confirmed to the BBC that while there were no plans for entirely new accommodation blocks, extensions of current facilities will be built and other existing accommodation such as unused student blocks will be rented.
The £1bn saving which the chancellor said would come from reducing hotel use has already been taken out of the Home Office budget.
The Home Office has a new target for how much additional asylum accommodation needs to be created to help achieve the saving, but that exact figure is unknown.
The BBC understands that moving around 14,000 asylum seekers from hotels into other forms of accommodation would likely achieve a saving of £1bn.
A senior Home Office source said they were "confident" they could save the required money, but acknowledged that failing to hit the target would force the department to ask Reeves for more funding to avoid having to make cuts elsewhere.
The number of asylum seekers in hotels is far lower than the record figure in 2023, but has increased since Labour came to power last year.
The latest statistics go up to March and therefore don't take into account the knock-on effect of increased small boat crossings in the months since.
Tatjana Maria completed an incredible run from qualifying to the title as she beat Amanda Anisimova to become the first women's champion at Queen's for 52 years.
The 37-year-old German confounded the American world number 15 in a 6-3 6-4 victory.
It capped an astonishing week for the mother-of-two, who dropped just one set across seven matches in nine days.
She has beaten four top-15 players over the past five days, including reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys.
Such is Maria's longevity that she made her professional debut just a few days before the 23-year-old Anisimova was born.
Maria threw her arms into the air in disbelief as a wide Anisimova forehand confirmed her victory before the two shared a warm hug at the net.
She then darted over to celebrate with Charles, her husband and coach, and her two children - although youngest daughter Cecilia appeared to have slept through the match in her pram.
© Morgan Hornsby for The New York Times
© Tim Gruber for The New York Times
For Mistry Jignesh, 72 hours feel like an eternity.
Since Thursday evening, Mr Jignesh and his family have been doing the rounds of the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, trying to find details of his 22-year-old niece - one of the 242 passengers that died in an Air India plane crash earlier that day.
Authorities had been telling him they would return his niece's body in the 72 hours normally required to complete DNA matching - which end on Sunday.
But on Saturday, he was told that it might take longer as officials are still searching for bodies from the site of the crash, he claimed.
"When people are still missing, how can they possibly complete the DNA process by tomorrow? What if my niece's remains have not even been found? The wait is killing us," he said.
Officials have refused to comment on Mr Jignesh's claim, but a fire department officer and a police official told the BBC on the condition of anonymity that a search for remains of the passengers is still under way.
Rajnish Patel, additional superintendent of the Civil Hospital, said on Saturday that 11 victims had been identified so far based on their DNA samples, adding that their families had been informed.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which was on its way to London's Gatwick Airport, erupted in a fireball merely seconds after it took off from Ahmedabad's main airport, in what has been India's worst aviation disaster.
Only one of the 242 passengers and crew on board survived. At least eight others were killed as the plane struck the hostel of a medical college when it came down on a densely populated residential area near the airport.
Things have moved swiftly since.
The Indian government has ordered a high-level investigation into the incident and has ordered all Boeing 787s operated by local carriers to be inspected.
While the reason of the crash remains unknown, the country's aviation authority has said it is looking into all possible causes for the accident, also bringing in foreign aviation experts to assist with the inquiry.
Back at the hospital, doctors are racing to complete the DNA sampling of the victims so that they can start returning bodies to their families.
But for families like Mr Jignesh's, time passes in dragging lulls.
Officials have talked about how the process of identifying bodies has been extremely challenging - and is being carried out in small batches - as most of the remains have been charred beyond recognition.
"There is no scope for mistakes here - we have to ensure that every family receives the right body," said HP Sanghvi, the director of Directorate of Forensic Sciences in Gandhinagar city. "But DNA identification is a time-consuming process. Besides, given the scale of the disaster, there is also a possibility that the DNA of several passengers was damaged due to the extremely high temperature of the blast."
Jaishankar Pillai, a forensic dentist at the hospital, told reporters that his team has been trying to collect dental records from charred bodies, as that might be the only source of DNA left.
The wait has been beyond agonising for the families, many of whom refused to speak to the media, saying they just want to go back home with "whatever is left of their loved ones".
"We are in no condition to say anything. Words fail us right now," a woman, who was waiting with three members of her family outside the autopsy room, told the BBC impatiently, as she quickly slipped into her car.
Meanwhile, officials at the BJ Medical College have started to vacate several wards of the hostel, near which the plane struck. So far, four wards - including the hostel canteen, the site of the crash - have been completely emptied out.
But students living in other nearby wings of the hostel have also begun to leave.
"In one of the wards, there are just three people left - everyone else has gone back to their homes for now. They will leave soon too, but until then, they are sitting there, all alone, haunted by the memory of what has happened," their friend, who is also a student at the college and wanted to stay anonymous, said.
But between the college and hospital - in the vast expanse of this city of more than seven million people - there are many others who also are reeling from the tragedy.
The last Kartik Kalawadia heard of his brother Mahesh was on Thursday, some 30 minutes before the crash.
It was a phone call Mahesh made to his wife: "I am coming home," he said to her.
She never heard from him again.
A music producer in the Gujarati film industry, Mahesh had been on his way back home from work that day and was crossing the area when the plane hurtled down and crashed into the buildings.
Mr Kalawadia told the BBC that his brother's last location before his phone became unreachable was just a few hundred metres away from BJ Medical college.
The family has since filed a police complaint and has made countless visits to the Civil Hospital. They have found nothing so far.
"The hospital told us they have no record of my brother. We also tried tracing his scooter, but nothing came of that either," Mr Kalawadia said.
"It's like he vanished into thin air."
At a press conference on Saturday, Civil Aviation Secretary SK Sinha admitted that the last two days had been "very hard", but assured the investigation was proceeding smoothly and in the right direction.
But Mr Kalawadia wondered if any of these inquires - into the plane crash, the victims and beyond - would help him find his brother, dead or alive.
"We don't know the answer, but we can hope it's a positive one, I guess," he said.
Back at the Civil Hospital, the wait continues to haunt families.
When the BBC last met Imtiyaz Ali Sayed over Thursday night, he was still in denial that his family - his brother Javed along with his wife and two children - could have died in the crash.
But on Saturday, he seemed closer to "accepting the truth".
"With just a few hours left, we are now trying to decide what will it be: will we bury him here, or in the UK, where his wife's family lives," he said.
"To me, it makes no difference you know?" he continued, "because he's gone, from ashes to dust and back to God."
© Doug Mills/The New York Times
© Damon Winter/The New York Times
© Joseph Eid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
© Kenny Holston/The New York Times
© Atul Loke for The New York Times
The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has advised against all travel to Israel amid an escalation in the country's military activity with Iran.
The advice, which covers Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, means travel insurance could be invalidated if individuals do not follow it.
It comes as missiles have been launched by both countries in recent days with Israeli airspace remaining closed.
"The situation has the potential to deteriorate further, quickly and without warning," the FCDO said.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves says the government will do "everything in [its] power" to protect people in the UK from the knock-on economic effects of the conflict between Iran and Israel.
She would not "take anything off the table" in response to the threat of rising energy costs, she told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
The global oil price rose sharply on Friday following the initial attacks by Israel and Iran's subsequent response.
A rise in the cost of oil pushes up petrol and diesel prices and can fuel inflation more broadly.
Following Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, oil prices spiked to nearly $130 a barrel, contributing to higher prices for UK shoppers on everything from transport to food.
However the cost of a barrel of oil, currently around $75, is still lower than it was in January.
"There is no complacency from myself or the Treasury," Reeves told the BBC.
In 2022, following the start of the Ukraine war, the Conservative government responded to higher energy prices by stepping in to help households with their bills.
"We are not anywhere near that stage at the moment," the chancellor said.
Household energy bills respond slowly to rising wholesale energy prices, and average bills, as set by the price cap, are due to come down in July.
If the conflict continues, and in particular if there is disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway off the south coast of Iran, the price of oil and gas could rise further.
However, oil market experts say there is currently less upward pressure on the price of oil than there was three years ago.
Reeves said the situation in the Middle East was part of the reason that she had raised spending on both defence and energy security, in her announcement last week, which outlined the government's budgets for the rest of the parliament.
"A lack of investment in our own domestic energy production has left us exposed," she said.
"The investment [announced in the Spending Review] in nuclear energy, in offshore wind, in onshore wind, in carbon capture and storage, is all about ensuring we are more self-sufficient as a nation," she said.
Many of those investments will take several years to complete, but some of the government's planned investments could have an impact "in the shorter term" such as investment in home insulation, she added.
Lord John Browne, former chief executive of the energy giant BP, said he also believed it was time to "push very hard" on energy security, and on the transition away from fossil fuels.
Lord Browne, who now chairs BeyondNetZero, a fund investing in carbon transition technologies, told Laura Kuenssberg some of the government's plans were "too bullish" and would take more time than planned.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said the implications of the latest conflict for "oil prices, equity prices... trading and inflation and therefore interest rates and the general state of the world economy" were very important.
He said the UK economy needed to be "much stronger" to cope with the challenges it is now facing, adding that the government had made the wrong choices by increasing taxes on business.
Plans for borrowing and spending had kept inflation higher, he said.
Rachel Reeves has insisted ministers "never dismissed the concerns of victims" of grooming gangs, as she defended the decision to launch a national inquiry after months of pressure.
The chancellor said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was focused on victims "and not grandstanding".
Sir Keir has faced criticism for resisting calls for such an inquiry, with the Conservatives claiming they forced him into a U-turn.
Former detective Maggie Oliver, who resigned from Greater Manchester Police over the way grooming cases were handled in Rochdale, said the Conservatives and Labour had both been "dragged kicking and screaming to this point".
The prime minister said on Saturday he had read an independent report into child sexual exploitation by Baroness Louise Casey and would accept her recommendation for an inquiry, covering England and Wales.
The report is expected to be published on Monday and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to address the findings of the review in Parliament.
At the start of the year, the government dismissed calls for a national inquiry.
Sir Keir and other ministers argued the issue had already been examined in a seven-year inquiry led by Professor Alexis Jay.
Appearing on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Reeves was asked whether the prime minister had been wrong to initially resist the idea.
She replied: "We've never dismissed the concerns of victims. These are the most important people in those discussions."
Reeves said the government had been focused on implementing the recommendations of Professor Jay's review.
"But the prime minister wanted to assure himself he was doing everything that was necessary, which is why he asked Baroness Casey to do this rapid review," she added.
When asked if Sir Keir had changed his mind on the need for a national inquiry, Reeves replied: "Our prime minister has always been really focused on the victims, and not grandstanding but actually doing the practical things to ensure something like this never happens again."
Ms Oliver said the inquiry was "an important step on the journey to change" and that Baroness Casey's report would "lift the lid on what has been going on".
But she said Labour and the Conservatives had "equally failed" to confront the issue of grooming gangs, so "won't get a single bit of thanks" from her.
"For me, I can only look at them with contempt, because I see on the ground the suffering that their neglect has caused," she added.
Appearing on the same programme, shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said the decision to launch the inquiry should have happened "far, far earlier".
He said the Conservatives had been "calling for this for many, many months" and accused Sir Keir of dismissing their concerns as "some kind of far-right bandwagon".
"That was the wrong response," Stride said. "This is just another example of the prime minister being pressurised by us into U-turning."
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said it was pleased the prime minister accepted the recommendations of Baroness Casey's report.
But the charity's chief executive Chris Sherwood said "a national inquiry into abuse by organised networks must not delay urgent action on child sexual abuse that is long overdue".
He said survivors had already waited more than two years for the recommendations from Professor Jay's report to be implemented.
Professor Jay's inquiry found institutional failings, with tens of thousands of victims across England and Wales.
The seven-year investigation concluded child sexual abuse was "epidemic" across the two nations and made 20 recommendations in the final report published in 2022.
The grooming gangs issue was thrust into the spotlight at the start of this year, fuelled partly by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who criticised Sir Keir for not calling a national inquiry.
A row between the two centred on high-profile cases where groups of men, mainly of Pakistani descent, were convicted of sexually abusing and raping predominantly young white girls in towns such as Rotherham and Rochdale.
In January, the government stopped short of launching a statutory national inquiry into grooming gangs, despite the idea receiving support from some Labour MPs.
The statutory inquiry now backed by the prime minister will be able to compel witnesses to provide evidence.
The government has already announced plans for five local inquiries, to be held in Oldham and four other areas yet to be named.
A senior government source said the national inquiry would "co-ordinate a series of targeted local investigations".
(德国之声中文网)尽管多方呼吁克制缓和局势,但以色列和伊朗之间的袭击与轰炸仍在继续。伊朗取消了与美国原定周日在阿曼的第六轮核谈判,称在以色列炮火下谈判“毫无意义”。
以色列:对伊朗的袭击将继续
周六至周日,以色列方面对伊朗进行了一系列轰炸,袭击了一座国防设施和多个燃料库。以色列军方表示,其空军在周六夜间袭击了德黑兰“80多个”据点。
伊朗方面表示,以色列在过去数小时袭击了其储油设施,引发火灾,并袭击伊朗国防部。伊朗半官方的塔斯尼姆通讯社(Tasnim)称,以色列的袭击于周六引发火灾后,伊朗已经部分暂停了南帕尔斯气田(South Pars)的生产。该气田是世界最大天然气田。
延伸阅读——油价飙升之后:以色列袭击伊朗震动全球经济
一位以色列官员表示,以色列在伊朗仍有大量目标,并拒绝透露此次袭击将持续多久。
以色列军方已经警告居住在军事设施附近的伊朗人撤离。
特朗普:“我们可以轻易结束这场冲突”
特朗普赞扬了以色列攻势,同时否认了伊朗有关美国参与其中的指控。伊朗外长阿拉格奇(Abbas Araqchi)此前称,以色列的袭击得到了美国的支持和协助。
这位美国总统还警告德黑兰,不要将报复范围扩大到美国设施、美国利益。
“如果我们受到伊朗任何形式的攻击,美国武装部队将以前所未有的规模对你们进行全力打击,”特朗普在其社媒“真相社交”(Truth Social)上写道。“他还表示,“不过,我们可以轻易地在伊朗和以色列之间达成协议,结束这场血腥冲突!!!”
周日晚些时候,特朗普再次发帖称,伊朗和以色列“很快”将实现和平,表示很多会谈正在进行,两国“需要达成协议,也一定会达成协议”。
美国一直在与伊朗谈判,试图要求德黑兰承诺严格限制其核计划。伊朗则称其核计划纯属民用。而以色列认为伊朗核计划具有作为武器的潜力,构成了生存威胁。
以色列方面又有十人丧生
在以色列,伊朗最新一波袭击始于周六晚11点后不久,当时耶路撒冷和海法拉响了空袭警报,约百万人躲进防空设施。周日凌晨,导弹划破长空,爆炸声在特拉维夫和耶路撒冷回荡。伊朗军方周日表示,袭击了以色列战机的加油站,以报复以色列此前的袭击。
与伊朗结盟的胡塞武装也表示,已向特拉维夫附近的雅法(Jaffa)发射弹道导弹。这是首次有伊朗盟友声称加入战斗。
以色列当局表示,在周六夜间、周日凌晨至少10人在伊朗袭击中丧生,其中也包括3名儿童,另有超过140人受伤。自伊朗发动报复性袭击以来,以色列方面有至少13人丧生,超过350人受伤。
担忧长期冲突
在数十年的敌对和代理人冲突之后伊朗、以色列这两个宿敌重新直接激烈交火,引发了人们对可能席卷整个中东地区的长期冲突的担忧。
以色列总理内塔尼亚胡誓言要打击“哈梅内伊政权的每一个目标”,而伊朗方面则警告称将采取“更猛烈、更强有力的反击”。
国际原子能机构周四宣布伊朗违反了《不扩散核武器条约》。以色列表示,其目标是阻止伊朗发展核武器,并消除其弹道导弹能力。
德国总理梅尔茨(Friedrich Merz,又译作“默茨”)周日透过其发言人表示,伊朗“绝不能拥有核武器”。德国政府发言人科内柳斯(Stefan Kornelius)在一份声明中表示,默茨是在与阿曼苏丹的通话中发表上述言论的。两位领导人一致认为,有必要“防止冲突蔓延”。
塞浦路斯:伊朗要求我们向以色列传达信息
塞浦路斯总统赫里斯托杜里迪斯(Nikos Christodoulides)周日表示,伊朗已要求塞浦路斯向以色列传达“一些信息”,但没有透露其详细内容。其总统办公室表示,赫里斯托杜里迪斯在周日与内塔尼亚胡进行了交谈,还与埃及、阿联酋和希腊领导人进行了交谈。此前,塞浦路斯外交部长已于周五晚间与伊朗外长对话。
赫里斯托杜里迪斯还表示,他对欧盟对中东危机的迟缓反应感到不满。他说,塞浦路斯是欧盟成员国中距离中东最近的国家,周五和周六晚,在塞浦路斯各地都能看到伊朗发射的袭击以色列的导弹。塞浦路斯已经要求召开欧盟外交事务理事会特别会议。
塞浦路斯已主动提出协助从该地区撤离第三方国民,并呼吁各方避免采取可能加剧冲突的行动。
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© 2025年德国之声版权声明:本文所有内容受到著作权法保护,如无德国之声特别授权,不得擅自使用。任何不当行为都将导致追偿,并受到刑事追究。
© Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times
(德国之声中文网)《商报》发表评论称,尽管美国总统特朗普高调宣布同中国“达成了交易”,但在地缘政治博弈不断加剧的当下,这场看似“突破性”的交易,更像是一场短暂的停火,而非长久的和平。这篇题为《不要高兴的太早,总统先生》的评论写道:
“为了给美中在伦敦达成的、内容尚模糊不清的谈判结果‘骨架上添肉’,美国总统特朗普显得有些急不可耐。他在自己名下的社媒平台‘Truth Social’上写道,中国将会恢复提供稀土和磁铁,作为交换,中国则将获得‘一些已经达成协议的东西’,此时总统又变得有些语焉不详了。他只是说,中国学生将重新获得在美国大学学习的机会,就好像这是中国最为关心的问题似的。
不,这其实就是特朗普总统站在美国的立场上宣布的所谓突破,也完全符合其支持者们对这位自称的‘交易高手’所抱持的期望。至于西方,其中或许也包括特朗普时代的美国,过去多年来如何一步步将自己置于经济依赖的困境,这里却只字未提。对特朗普来说,当务之急是把同宿敌中国的谈判成果归功于自己,他并不想反思过去。他要传达的信息是:美国赢了,特朗普赢了。
然而事情却并非如此简单。不出意料的是,同以往一样,中国政府的表态仍是非常审慎,非常简短。至于在高科技领域都有哪些让步,目前并无官方说法。中国官方通讯社新华社在周三晚间就相关谈判进行了大篇幅报道,但同特朗普措辞直截了当的贴文相比,实质性内容却相当匮乏。
其中只有一句话令人印象深刻。新华社文章援引中方谈判代表、副总理何立峰的话报道称,贸易战没有赢家,中国虽不愿战,‘但必要情况下,绝不畏战’。换句话说,中方此前三番五次发出的威胁依然有效,即必要情况下,仍会叫停对美国和西方的稀土供应。特朗普此时却在大书特书‘美中关系非常之好’,可惜现实绝非如此。”
“永久的和平还遥遥无期”
《商报》评论认为,中美在伦敦达成的协议只是双方的又一次‘停火’,永久的和平还遥遥无期。评论最后写道:
“因此,即便不是悲观主义者也能预见,全球两大经济体之间的紧张关系很快就将再度升级。两国正逐步走向一种更深程度的阵营对立与相互隔离。双方正在相互脱钩,而非相互和解。在这一点上,中国政府的立场已经非常明确。
周二,也就是中美谈判的第二天,《人民日报》发文写道,中国将会坚持‘管理本国资源的正当权利’。子弹上膛的‘稀土武器’已经被中国人摆在了谈判桌上,下一次威胁只是时间问题。”
“中美之间仍有巨大的分歧”
对于中美谈判代表本周在伦敦达成的框架性协议,《南德意志报》评论道:
”尽管双方在伦敦达成了协议,但中美贸易争端中的一个核心问题仍然悬而未决。5月中旬,美中官员曾在日内瓦就为关税战暂时降温达成共识,双方也分别下调了关税,美国对中国产品征收30%的关税,而中方则对美国进口商品征收10%的关税。不过这一‘休战’协议只有90天的有效期。此后如果不能达成新的协议,高额关税将重新生效。至于特朗普是否希望抢先一步,他所提的55%关税是否只是谈判基础,以及今后双方是否还将举行进一步的贸易谈判,这一切目前都不清楚。
中美之间依然存在着巨大的分歧。特朗普及其顾问对美国接近3000亿美元的巨额贸易逆差提出强烈批评。事实上,同中国之间的许多争议话题由来已久,特朗普入主白宫之前就已存在。其中包括,美国指责中国以受到政府补贴的廉价商品冲击美国市场。对特朗普及其内阁中的关税强硬派来说,对华强硬也是他们政治资本的一部分。许多支持者希望特朗普能够和中国抗争到底直到取胜。在这些支持者看来,制造业的衰退是美国的耻辱,而中国则是这一切的罪魁祸首。
但与此同时,中美两国的经济却有着千丝万缕的联系。关税战升级以来,今年五月,中国对美出口同比下降了35%,跌幅相当于新冠疫情期间。如果中国国家主席习近平也批准伦敦协议,该协议将立即生效。
摘编自其他媒体的内容,不代表德国之声的立场或观点。
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© 2025年德国之声版权声明:本文所有内容受到著作权法保护,如无德国之声特别授权,不得擅自使用。任何不当行为都将导致追偿,并受到刑事追究
(德国之声中文网)波尔(Timo Boll)算是德国体坛的一位传奇人物。他征战德国乒乓球甲级联赛29年,20次入围世界锦标赛,20次获得欧洲锦标赛单打、双打及团体冠军,四次排名世界第一。波尔在体育上的成就堪比德国网球“金童”鲍里斯·贝克尔、“车王”迈克尔·舒马赫以及篮球明星、波尔的挚友德克·诺维茨基。在德国,提起乒乓球,人们首先想到的就是波尔这个名字。
6月15日是波尔的告别之战。德国乒乓球甲级联赛季后赛决赛在杜塞尔多夫俱乐部和德国杯冠军奥克森豪森之间进行,这是波尔漫长职业生涯的最后一场比赛。
现年44岁的波尔坦诚地说:“我从三四岁就开始打乒乓球,十五六岁就开始打职业比赛了。当你不熟悉任何其他生活方式时,你自然会害怕‘一切都结束了’的那一刻。”
同时他也说,“这是一场与自己内心的斗争。作为一个完美主义者,我感觉自己再也无法达到最高水平了”,这越来越让他感到难受。他表示,他之前将巴黎奥运会看作是一个重要的目标和节点,如今退役感觉已经算圆满了。
未来有何规划?
在经历了二十多年奔波于世界各地、参加各种乒乓球赛事之后,波尔会做什么?
他有很多选择。他的好友、国家队队友帕特里克·弗朗西斯卡(Patrick Franziska)邀请他当其教练。他也在与自己最喜欢的足球俱乐部多特蒙德讨论各种可能:让波尔成为多特蒙德在乒乓球圣地中国打开大门的敲门砖;或者让波尔在多特蒙德实习,以便学习企业架构和体育管理。“一切都还没有最终敲定,”他在体育流媒体平台Dyn的媒体圆桌会议上谈到其纪录片《蒂莫·波尔——最后一次发球》时说道。
然而,最有可能的情况是,波尔暂时什么都不做,而是去和家人度假,享受近年来少有的陪伴妻女的时光。
低调的体育明星
作为乒坛常青树,波尔一直都很受欢迎。这也和他低调的性格有关,他不爱张扬,更不爱吹牛。他形容自己是“低调的人”。
2005年,他作为夺冠热门飞往上海参加世锦赛,并最终登上领奖台。然而,波尔并没有拿到奖牌,而是获得了公平竞赛奖。在16强比赛中,他对阵中国的刘国正,在最后一局拿到赛点时,裁判判定刘国正的球打出界、波尔获胜。
但波尔向裁判指出,这是一个擦边球,这一分应该属于中国选手刘国正。而场内其他人都没有注意到。最终刘国正扳回比赛,波尔被淘汰出局。
这是波尔与鲍里斯·贝克尔、迈克尔·舒马赫的区别:虽然波尔的体育成就可以与另外两位比肩,但乒乓球在德国仍然很小众,这位乒坛传奇也太低调,因此无法引起巨大轰动。
在法兰克福、柏林,波尔可以不受打扰地随意走在街上。不过在北京、上海,这是不可能的,乒乓球是中国最主流、最热门的体育项目。而波尔是过去多年里中国人最熟悉的德国乒乓球名宿。
“我会想念他的处事不惊”
“他现在退役,感觉就像我身体的一部分也退役了,”德国乒乓球名将迪米特里·奥恰洛夫(Dimitrij Ovtcharov)说道。现年36岁的奥恰洛夫也曾世界排名第一,拿过世乒赛冠军、两次欧洲锦标赛冠军,而且与波尔不同的是,奥恰洛夫还获得过两枚奥运单打奖牌。
然而,奥恰洛夫在某种程度上一直活在波尔的阴影下,这与网球方面“德国金童”贝克尔与其队友迈克尔·施蒂希的情况有点类似,但不同的是,这两位乒乓球明星从一开始就是密友。
“我会想念他的处事不惊,”奥恰洛夫说,“在奥运会或者世锦赛上,他只是坐在那里,散发着平静的气息,泡着他的咖啡。我已经非常习惯这一切。少了他的前几场比赛我明显感觉到压力更大。”
周日,波尔完成最后一场比赛。尽管不敌对手,德国媒体纷纷撰文,纪念这位即将离场的乒坛巨星。
(德新社)
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(德国之声中文网)两名消息人士向路透社表示,中美在伦敦达成的贸易休战中,有一个核心的出口限制领域并未触及,那就是:北京并未承诺对美出口战斗机和导弹系统使用的特种稀土磁铁。
上周伦敦的谈判中,中方似乎把取消军用稀土磁铁限制与美国尖端人工智能芯片对华出口管制的议题挂钩。
一名消息人士表示,在伦敦谈判中,中国承诺在现有的数万份稀土出口申请中,建立快速通道审批美国非军方制造商的申请。审批后颁发的许可证有效期为六个月。北京还提出,为可信赖的美国公司开辟“绿色通道”加速审批。
初步信号是积极的:周三,中国稀土磁铁制造商金力永磁表示,获得包括对美国的出口许可。中国商务部则证实批准了一些出口许可的“合规申请”。
但两名消息人士向路透社表示,中国在特种稀土方面并未让步,包括军事应用的钐。这些特种稀土不在伦敦达成一致的快速通道范围之内。汽车和其它工业制造商所需要的主要是其它稀土磁铁,包括镝和铽。
(路透社)
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