The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals said in its seven-page ruling Thursday that the Trump administration's assertions in the case “should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.” The unanimous ruling was written by Judge Harvie Wilkinson, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan. “The Judiciary will lose much from the constant intimations of its illegitimacy, to which by dent of custom and detachment we can only sparingly reply,” Wilkinson wrote. “The Executive will lose much from a public perception of its lawlessness and all of its attendant contagions. The Executive may succeed for a time in weakening the courts, but over time history will script the tragic gap between what was and all that might have been, and law in time will sign its epitaph.” “Too often today this has not been the case, as calls for impeachment of judges for decisions the Executive disfavors and exhortations to disregard court orders sadly illustrate.” What to know about the judge in the case of a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador The order, nonetheless, ended with a note of optimism. “It is, as we have noted, all too possible to see in this case an incipient crisis, but it may present an opportunity as well,” the 4th Circuit said. This story is breaking and will be updated.

Following a Supreme Court ruling that the US must “facilitate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia's return, Xinis, a New York native who has sat on the federal bench in Maryland for nearly a decade, must now contend with a government whose officials insist it's an issue for the president of El Salvador to decide. “Our only job legally was to facilitate it if, according to the Supreme Court, President Bukele wanted him to come back to our country and he does not want him back and we do not want him back in our country,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday on Fox News. Since ordering Abrego Garcia's return earlier this month, Xinis has gone toe-to-toe with Justice Department attorneys in her courtroom, appearing confident that the Supreme Court largely endorsed her decision to order the administration to bring Abrego Garcia back. “We're not going to slow walk this,” Xinis told the government last week. “So you will have a full and fair opportunity to be heard, but we're not relitigating what the Supreme Court has already put to bed.” Earlier this week, she allowed for expedited fact finding to see whether the Trump administration is complying with her order. “It is a fact now of this record that every day Mr. Garcia is detained in CECOT is a day of irreparable harm,” she said, referencing the high-security mega prison where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside. “There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding,” she declared to attorneys when the status conference began. She has allowed for “two weeks of intense discovery,” including depositions taken by Abrego Garcia's attorneys of the administration officials who have been submitting the daily sworn statements. “I'm usually pretty good about things like that in my courtroom, but not this time. Like Judge Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge who notably presided over President Donald Trump's criminal case in Washington, DC, Xinis previously served as a public defender. Xinis spent more than a decade as an assistant federal public defender in Maryland, from 1998 to 2011. Before then, she was a law clerk for Judge Diana Gribbon Motz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1997 to 1998. In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Motz described Xinis as an “extraordinarily able young lawyer” who was “totally forthright” and “easy to work with.” Xinis was confirmed by the Senate in 2016 in a 53 - 34 vote, more than a year after she was nominated by President Barack Obama. Former Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont later defended Xinis before her final confirmation vote on the Senate floor, pointing towards one case where she provided legal counsel to a Baltimore police officer unfairly accused of criminal wrongdoing. In 2011, Xinis joined the Baltimore law firm, Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, where she handled civil matters and acted as a lead and co-chair trial attorney on federal civil rights violations, according to a questionnaire she provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee when she was nominated by Barack Obama in 2015. CNN's Devan Cole and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.

The European Central Bank (ECB) cut interest rates yesterday for the seventh time to counter worries about economic growth fueled by US President Donald Trump's tariff onslaught. ECB President Christine Lagarde said at a post-decision news conference that “the major escalation in global trade tensions and the associated uncertainty will likely lower euro area growth by dampening exports.” The bank's rate-setting council decided at a meeting in Frankfurt to lower its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.25 percent. Now that inflation has fallen, growth worries have taken center stage. The cut was widely expected by analysts given the sudden shadow cast over the eurozone's growth outlook by Trump's April 2 announcement of unexpectedly high tariffs on goods from other countries starting at 10 percent and ranging as high as 49 percent. Earlier yesterday, the Bank of Korea (BOK) held its interest rate steady at 2.75 percent, its third straight decision to keep rates unchanged after a 0.25 percentage point cut in February. BOK Governor Rhee Chang-yong said the decision was driven by tariff-related “uncertainty” going forward, which has grown to an “unprecedented level.” “The intensity of US tariff policies and the swift shifts in responses from major economies are evolving so rapidly that it is currently difficult to even establish a baseline scenario for forecasts,” he said at a press conference in Seoul. “This year's annual growth rate is now expected to fall short of the 1.5 percent forecast made in February,” Rhee said. A Taiwanese cookware firm in Vietnam urged customers to assess inventory or place orders early so shipments can reach the US while tariffs are paused Taiwanese businesses in Vietnam are exploring alternatives after the White House imposed a 46 percent import duty on Vietnamese goods, following US President Donald Trump's announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on the US' trading partners. Lo Shih-liang (羅世良), chairman of Brico Industry Co (裕茂工業), a Taiwanese company that manufactures cast iron cookware and stove components in Vietnam, said that more than 40 percent of his business was tied to the US market, describing the constant US policy shifts as an emotional roller coaster. Six years ago, LVMH's billionaire CEO Bernard Arnault and US President Donald Trump cut the blue ribbon on a factory in rural Texas that would make designer handbags for Louis Vuitton, one of the world's best-known luxury brands. The site has consistently ranked among the worst-performing for Louis Vuitton globally, “significantly” underperforming other facilities, said three former Louis Vuitton workers and a senior industry source, who cited internal rankings shared with staff. Innolux activated a stringent supply chain management mechanism, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure optimal inventory levels for customers Flat-panel display makers AUO Corp (友達) and Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that about 12 to 20 percent of their display business is at risk of potential US tariffs and that they would relocate production or shipment destinations to mitigate the levies' effects. US tariffs would have a direct impact of US$200 million on AUO's revenue, company chairman Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told reporters on the sidelines of the Touch Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday. That would make up about 12 percent of the company's overall revenue. The chipmaker cited global uncertainty from US tariffs and a weakening economic outlook, but said its Singapore expansion remains on track Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進), a foundry service provider specializing in producing power management and display driver chips, yesterday withdrew its full-year revenue projection of moderate growth for this year, as escalating US tariff tensions raised uncertainty and concern about a potential economic recession. The Hsinchu-based chipmaker in February said revenues this year would grow mildly from last year based on improving supply chain inventory levels and market demand. At the time, it also anticipated gradual quarter revenue growth.

French weekly published pictures of Pelicot with a man, described as her ‘companion', walking in the street Gisèle Pelicot, who survived nearly a decade of rapes by dozens of men, will sue Paris Match magazine for invasion of privacy, her lawyers said on Thursday. In its latest edition, Paris Match published seven pictures of Pelicot accompanied by a man described as her companion walking in the streets in her new home town. Pelicot received international acclaim for waiving her right to anonymity in the trial last year of her ex-husband and other defendants. “It's not us who should feel shame, but them,” she said of the perpetrators. Dominique Pelicot, who admitted the charges, kept hundreds of videos of the attacks on his computer in a file entitled “abuse”. “Every time the intimacy of our client's personal life is violated, we will react and seek a court decision,” the lawyer Antoine Camus said on Thursday. Camus said it was “shocking” and “disappointing” that Paris Match would secretly take pictures of Pelicot, “whose ordeal was the subject of 3,000 pictures and videos”. Contacted by Agence France-Presse, Paris Match had no comment. Pelicot was included in Time magazine's list published on Wednesday of the world's most influential people in 2025.

Ukrainian forces have liberated approximately 16 square kilometers of territory near Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast in recent weeks, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi said on April 17. There has been a notable slowdown in Russia's offensive operations after months of steady territorial gains across eastern Ukraine. According to battlefield monitoring group DeepState, Russian troops have captured just 133 square kilometers in March, the lowest monthly total since June 2024. The recently recaptured territory by Ukrainian troops includes areas near the settlements of Udachne, Kotlyne, and Shevchenko, according to Syrskyi. According to Syrskyi, Ukrainian forces are halting around 30 Russian assaults daily in the Pokrovsk sector in Donetsk Oblast, inflicting significant losses on Russian troops. During his visit, Syrskyi met with commanders at front-line command posts and reviewed operational plans with Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of the operational-tactical group. He said that on-site problems related to logistics, ammunition supply, and combat organization were being addressed. Despite continued Russian efforts to push Ukrainian troops out of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and reach the administrative borders of these regions, Syrskyi said those objectives remain unfulfilled. "We continue our defensive operation, carry out counteroffensive actions, and are achieving certain successes," Syrskyi said. Moscow does not fully control any of the four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson – that it illegally claimed to annex in 2022.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with government officials in Tehran, Iran, on April 15.Office of the Iranian Supreme Le/Reuters Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sent his foreign minister to Moscow on Thursday with a letter for President Vladimir Putin to brief the Kremlin about nuclear negotiations with the U.S., which has threatened to bomb the Islamic Republic. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran with bombing and to extend tariffs to third countries that buy Iranian oil if Tehran does not come to an agreement with Washington over its disputed nuclear program. Ahead of a second round of talks set to take place in Rome this weekend, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that Iran's right to enrich uranium is not negotiable. “Regarding the nuclear issue, we always had close consultations with our friends China and Russia. Now it is a good opportunity to do so with Russian officials,” Araqchi told Iranian state TV. Western powers say Iran is refining uranium to a high degree of fissile purity beyond what is justifiable for a civilian nuclear energy programme and close to the level suitable for an atomic bomb. Moscow has bought weapons from Iran for the war in Ukraine and signed a 20-year strategic partnership deal with Tehran earlier this year, although it did not include a mutual defence clause. “We intend to further expand mutually beneficial relations with Iran in the interests of regional stability and international security,” the ministry said. Putin has kept on good terms with Khamenei as both Russia and Iran are cast as enemies by the West, but Moscow is keen not to trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Russia has said that any military strike against Iran would be illegal and unacceptable. On Tuesday, the Kremlin declined to comment when asked if Russia was ready to take control of Iran's stocks of enriched uranium as part of a possible future nuclear deal between Iran and the United States. Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

In 2024, Switzerland formally charged him with war crimes. He left Syria for Europe in 1984 after a failed coup against his brother. Inquiries by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism have established that Mark Bridges, also known as the third Baron Bridges, served as a trustee on at least five trusts holding assets in France and Spain on behalf of Rifaat al-Assad or his relatives between 1999 and 2008. There is no suggestion of any regulatory wrongdoing by Bridges, who was knighted for his services to the queen in 2019. His firm, Farrer & Co, said the trusts were established on the advice of another leading law firm, that Bridges's work for Rifaat al-Assad was in complete compliance with regulatory requirements in effect at the time and that Bridges had been presented with evidence contradicting the allegations made against him. His acquisitions, which he claimed were part-funded by cheques worth millions of dollars from the king of Saudi Arabia, included Witanhurst in London's Highgate – the second-largest private residence in the capital after Buckingham Palace – and a seven-storey mansion near Paris's Arc de Triomphe. One trust was registered in the Bahamas, while some of the purchases used shell companies in Gibraltar, a British overseas territory, before transfer to Spanish and later Maltese companies. Bridges had ceased acting as a trustee for Rifaat in 2008, his lawyers said, but continued to provide “limited and ad-hoc” legal advice until 2015 “in circumstances whereby the regulatory requirements imposed on the firm were met”. Two of the trusts that Bridges had managed were said to own the Spanish portion of Rifaat al-Assad's real estate empire, including a deluxe villa with swathes of land near Marbella. In 2020, a French court convicted Rifaat al-Assad of tax fraud and laundering embezzled public money – primarily about $200m (£151m) stolen from Syrian state funds and $100m in fraudulent loan agreements from Libya. He fled to Syria in 2021 while his conviction was under appeal. In addition to his services to the queen, he led the private client team at Farrer, an elite law firm with a reputation forged through serving British royals and aristocrats as far back as 1769. There is no evidence Bridges knew or suspected that Rifaat al-Assad's money was stolen. Assad claimed his wealth came from benefactors, including the Saudi royal family, and in 2018 the Gibraltar supreme court concluded that it had been reasonable for Rifaat's trustees to believe this story. The question of Rifaat al-Assad's status as an alleged war criminal, however, is more complicated. An Amnesty International report published in 1983 found that while “it is difficult to establish for certain what happened”, allegations against Syrian regime forces included “collective execution of 70 people outside the municipal hospital” and “cyanide gas containers … alleged to have been brought into the city, connected by rubber pipes to the entrances of buildings believed to house insurgents, and turned on, killing all the buildings' occupants”. It is estimated that 10,000 to 40,000 people may have been unlawfully tortured and executed. As head of the paramilitaries, Rifaat al-Assad was believed to have taken a leading role in the carnage. In a 1989 book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, the journalist Thomas Friedman described how, after initial skirmishes, “Rifaat's tactic shifted from trying to ferret out nests of Muslim Brotherhood men to simply bringing whole neighbourhoods down on their heads and burying the Brotherhood and anyone else in the way.” Allegations of atrocities against Rifaat al-Assad were widely known by the point Bridges began working as a trustee for his offshore wealth in 1999. Farrer said Assad's trustees, including Bridges, “were provided with credible information, when they were appointed and at different junctures thereafter, which fundamentally contradicted the claims being made in the media about Mr al-Assad”. The firm added that it and Bridges were restricted by a duty of client confidentiality from revealing what this evidence was, or commenting on whether it was appropriate for the queen's solicitor to also have represented Assad. However, it did share 11 French defamation judgments, dating from the late 1980s and early 1990s, that found in Assad's favour. The majority related to allegations made in various news outlets that Rifaat al-Assad's wealth was sourced from organised crime. Public attitudes towards British lawyers acting for foreign politicians with questionable reputations have hardened in recent years. This month, a taskforce of senior lawyers and civil society experts said law firms must request more “credible explanations” from their clients as to the source of their wealth, and that it was unsustainable to disregard reputational risks to the legal profession. “Whether the same decision [to act for Assad] would be made today, in the light of further information now available and, arguably, the more stringent demands of the regulatory environment, is a point on which one might speculate,” Farrer said in its response.

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and prospective Chancellor Friedrich Merz should realize that any attack on Russian facilities using Taurus missiles would mean Germany joining the conflict to fight for Kiev, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing. "You know, I think the CDU leader should realize one thing. <…> Launching these missiles on any critical Russian transport infrastructure <…> would be considered as direct involvement of Germany in the hostilities on the side of the Kiev regime," she warned. Meanwhile, the Kiev regime has been "a tool of this Western manipulation," Zakharova argued.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has vehemently rejected the Franco-British proposal to send a "multinational peacekeeping contingent" to Ukraine, labeling it as utterly insane. "Despite their persistent efforts, Paris and London have failed to secure unanimous backing for their reckless plan to deploy what they term a 'multinational peacekeeping contingent' consisting of troops from several NATO member states," Zakharova stated at a news briefing. "I am referring, of course, to the regimes. The countries and their peoples are often unaware that their leaders act on orders from outside," Zakharova explained. "Judging by the current discussions, Washington still has no intention of becoming involved in such an adventure. It seems to be realistically assessing where all this could lead," she added. Zakharova highlighted that 21 billion euros had been pledged for the needs of the Ukrainian military, a figure that had previously been mentioned in NATO statements. Zakharova observed that Berlin is attempting to keep pace with London. "An additional 30 missiles for Patriot launchers have already been shipped to Ukraine, but, as you know, Berlin cannot provide the American systems. Germany is prepared to allocate four more IRIS-T anti-aircraft missile systems and supply combat vehicles, tanks, ammunition, and other equipment," she emphasized. "In total, Germany plans to allocate approximately 3 billion euros for these purposes.

The Power Within: The Kyiv Independent's first-ever magazine. Be among the first to get it. The U.K. transferred 752 million pounds ($990 million) to Ukraine on April 14 under a G7 loan covered by Russian assets to buy air defense and artillery, the British government announced. The U.K. has pledged to lend Ukraine 2.26 billion pounds ($2.9 billion) in three equal installments as part of the G7's Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration scheme, worth $50 billion in total. This installment is the second one. Ukraine received the first part of the loan from the U.K. on March 6, 2025. The final part will be paid in 2026. "The world is changing before our eyes, reshaped by global instability, including Russian aggression in Ukraine," British Finance Minister Rachel Reeves said. At the onset of the full-scale war in 2022, the G7 countries immobilized some $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets. The $50 billion loan, shouldered mainly by the U.S. and the EU, will be funneled to Ukraine's defense needs and recovery and repaid by proceeds from the frozen assets.

Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL), formed by Rosoboronexport and the Kalashnikov Concern along with two state-owned Indian firms – Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited and Munitions India Limited – started manufacturing the rifles in India in 2023. AK-203 rifles are manufactured using Russian technology and certified equipment. “The capacities of the Korwa Ordnance Factory make it possible to equip the personnel of the Ministry of Defense and other law enforcement agencies of India with AK-203 assault rifles, which, due to their high adaptability, are suitable for various operators,” Rosoboronexport CEO Aleksandr Mikheev said in a statement. Manufacturing of AK-203 rifles has progressed rapidly since 2019, when Modi visited the Amethi district where the Korwa ordnance factory is located, reports said. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a statement in 2019 that “the new joint venture will manufacture world famous Kalashnikov assault rifles of the newest 200 series and eventually will reach full localization of production. Since then, more than 35,000 Kalashnikovs have been delivered to the Indian Army by the joint venture, Srihari Pratap Shahi, additional CEO of UP Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), told RT. He added that further manufacturing of nearly 600,000 AK-203 rifles will be spread over ten years. UPEIDA is part of the Uttar Pradesh state government, tasked with establishing ‘defense industrial corridors' in the northern part of India. Earlier this year, India proposed exporting the AK-203 rifle to Nepal, potentially replacing the outdated INSAS platform, as part of a broader effort to standardize modern assault rifles, according to a report in media outlet ThePrint. Read RT Privacy policy to find out more.

Like a sporty Jacques Derrida, Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri operates in terms of text vs. subtext. This is why some of his former players and coaches leave unhappy. There isn't much to discuss in either sense about the Raptors season just ended. At first the team was bad, but not in a fun way. Then they were better, but that wasn't much fun either. They made a notable trade for Brandon Ingram, but he showed up hurt and never got better. On Wednesday, Ujiri was the last man to speak on behalf of the team before their break begins. These confabs are enjoyable because Ujiri wears the armour of a championship. That gives him a lifetime exemption from the usual mode of Toronto sports talk – dissembling, with a side plate of begging. Sadly, no one offered him Luka Doncic in exchange for a bag of magic beans. Not so long ago, this league was the resistance HQ to Trump presidency 1.0. If there is any opposition this time around, it's gone underground. The likes of LeBron James, once so anxious to talk politics, are sticking to game talk in their old age. That puts Ujiri, one of sports' pre-eminent immigrants, in a weird position. Unlike others, his position has been consistent in that regard. So what does “unique” mean to you in this sentence, after a question about Canadian-American relations? “The NBA is going to Europe, no? We're going to be at the forefront of what basketball is,” Ujiri said. He leaned really hard into the word “incredibly.” Europe doesn't really belong in that thought, but he foregrounded it. Europe isn't just the counterpoint to that policy. Is it unimaginable that at some point, the current U.S. regime might start banning athletes from countries it dislikes (which seems to be all of them, minus Russia) or ones who say the wrong thing? I would call it well within the realm of possibility. What happens in a world where everybody wants to play in the NBA, but not everybody can get into America, or wants to? Asked to focus in on that idea, Ujiri grew more gnomish. “I think the unique flow of players, the pool of players, is going to be more widespread,” Ujiri said. “I think streaming and media opportunities are going to be even bigger in terms of how people view the game, and really see the game. “I think the international stage is just going to be bigger.” But when Ujiri talks, he isn't just stringing clichés together. The NHL and MLB each feature players from fewer than 20 different countries. Who would stay home if they could move abroad and get rich studying? American athletes famously resent keeping track of their passports. Someone like Doncic – a guy who turned pro when most kids are in Grade 11 – speaks four languages. If Ujiri's right, and the NBA expands to Europe, one could imagine a bifurcated league in every sense. It allows the world access to a global game, and lets America play with itself. The players won't get hassled because they're players, but they all have relatives who might find themselves on the wrong end of a random ID check. Wouldn't it be nice to get a piece of the American pie, but not have to run any of those risks while living in a country that doesn't view every outsider as a potential thief? I wouldn't bet the future of a multibillion-dollar sports business on any of this coming to pass. But in terms of potential, I would call it a unique opportunity. Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following. © Copyright 2025 The Globe and Mail Inc. All rights reserved.

This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content, and analyzing our website traffic. By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies. The Republican president attended the meeting alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, top economic advisers with a central role in his trade and tariff policies. “Hopefully something can be worked out which is good (GREAT!) Afterward, he posted: “A Great Honor to have just met with the Japanese Delegation on Trade. It's an open test of Trump's reputation as a dealmaker as countries around the world seek to limit the potential damage unleashed by his import taxes. The pause temporarily spared Japan from 24% across-the-board tariffs, but there continues to be a 10% baseline tariff and a 25% tax on imported cars, auto parts, steel and aluminum exports. With Japan charging an average tax rate of 1.9% on other countries' goods and having a longstanding alliance with the U.S., the talks on Wednesday are a crucial indicator of whether the Trump administration can achieve a meaningful deal that reassures the markets, American voters and foreign allies. U.S. economic rival China, meanwhile, is trying to capitalize on the turmoil around Trump's announcements, with its leader, President Xi Jinping, touring nations of Southeast Asia and promoting his country as a more reliable trade partner. Israel and Vietnam have offered to zero out their tariff rates, but Trump has been noncommittal as to whether that would be sufficient. On Thursday, Trump is scheduled to meet with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who will likely be carrying messages on behalf of the European Union about how to resolve the tariffs Trump placed on the 27-state group. Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit Wednesday that argues that Trump overstepped his authority by declaring an economic emergency to levy his tariffs, with the Democrat saying in a statement that the tariffs have caused economic chaos. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that Trump's tariff policies would hurt the U.S. economy, a direct warning to a White House trying to sell the import taxes as a long-term positive for the country. It has set up a special task force to assess the impact of the tariffs and offer loans to anxious companies. Although Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has been working hard to coax exemptions out of Trump, the government has said little officially on what concessions it might offer during these talks. Nor has the administration been transparent about its asks. “Japan is coming in today to negotiate Tariffs, the cost of military support, and ‘TRADE FAIRNESS,'” Trump posted on Wednesday. U.S. officials met in Washington with Japan's chief trade negotiator, Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa. “I am prepared for the talks,” Akazawa told reporters at Tokyo's Haneda Airport before boarding his flight. “I will negotiate in order to firmly protect our national interest.” “I believe we can have good talks toward a win-win relationship that will serve national interest for both Japan and the United States,” he said. Xi, meanwhile, stopped in Malaysia on Wednesday and told its leader that China will be a collaborative partner and stand with its Southeast Asian neighbors after the global economic shocks. Xi is touring Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia this week on a trip that likely was planned before the tariffs' uncertainty but that he's also using to promote Beijing as a source of stability in the region and shore up relationships in that part of the world as he looks for ways to mitigate the 145% tariffs that Trump is keeping on China. “In the face of shocks to global order and economic globalization, China and Malaysia will stand with countries in the region to combat the undercurrents of geopolitical … confrontation, as well as the counter-currents of unilateralism and protectionism,” Xi said in remarks at a dinner with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. “Together, we will safeguard the bright prospects of our Asian family,” he added. Xi has promised Malaysia and Vietnam greater access to Chinese markets on his visits, although few details were shared. Trump's demand for more defense spending concerns the Japanese government. Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Tuesday that the military budget for this year is about 1.8% of Japan's GDP. Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting, readable fomat.

Trump administration officials claim Kilmar Abrego Garcia had history of violence Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported by Donald Trump's administration in error, had a history of violence and was handed a restraining order against his wife Jennifer Vasquez in 2021, the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday. Ms Vasquez, who is campaigning for Mr Garcia's return and has described him as an “excellent father”, previously told law enforcement he punched, scratched and ripped off her shirt, according to court documents published on Tuesday. In a statement to Newsweek, Ms Vasquez described her husband's deportation as an abduction and said she had sought the restraining order “out of caution” because of her previous experience with domestic violence. “After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar by seeking a civil protective order in case things escalated,” Ms Vasquez said. Our marriage only grew stronger in the years that followed.” That is not a justification for ICE's action of abducting him and deporting him to a country where he was supposed to be protected from deportation. However it has maintained that Mr Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 criminal gang. There is never going to be a world in which this is an individual who is going to live a peaceful life in Maryland,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Tuesday. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland senator, said authorities in El Salvador had denied him access to Mr Abrego Garcia while on a visit to the country. The Democrat arrived in the Central American nation on Wednesday and said he would seek to meet with senior Salvadoran officials to secure Mr Abrego Garcia's release. He later said Felix Ulloa, the country's vice president, told him he could not authorise a visit or a call with Mr Abrego Garcia. Mr Van Hollen, who is a member of the US Senate foreign relations committee, said Mr Ulloa told him Mr Abrego Garcia would not be released because the US was paying El Salvador to keep him incarcerated. In a meeting with Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's president, said he had no plans to return Mr Abrego Garcia. Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel was killed in 2023 by an illegal immigrant while exercising on a popular hiking trail north-east of Baltimore, criticised Mr Van Hollen for trying to visit Mr Abrego Garcia. “To have a senator from Maryland who didn't even acknowledge, or barely acknowledged my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother, and now a grandbaby without a grandmother... so that he can use my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that's not even an American citizen,” Ms Morin said on Wednesday. Mr Trump's administration has deported hundreds of people who it claims are gang members to El Salvador. On Wednesday, a federal judge said officials in the administration could face criminal prosecution for contempt of court for violating his order halting deportations of Venezuelan migrants under a wartime law evoked by the president. Mr Abrego Garcia left El Salvador at age 16 to escape gang-related violence before entering the US illegally, his lawyers have claimed. He had been raising three children with disabilities before his deportation, according to court records. Mr Abrego Garcia has never been charged with or convicted of any crime, his lawyers say. Trump administration officials said the 29-year-old was deported last month based on a 2019 accusation from local police in Maryland that he was an MS-13 gang member. Later in 2019, an immigration judge shielded Mr Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs that had terrorised his family.