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Rude Viral Texas Judge Faced Money Issues Year Before Infamous Vid Published April 2, 2026 2:17 PM PDT The Texas judge going viral for being super rude to an IT worker looks like he was
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Passengers stand on a platform waiting to board the metro at a train station in Lahore yesterday. (AFP) State-run public transport in Pakistan's capital and most populous province will be free for the coming month, officials said yesterday, after the government drastically raised fuel prices due to spiking global energy prices caused by the Iran war.The announcement follows a late-night decision to impose a 42.7-percent rise in the price of petrol and 54.9% on diesel, which prompted several street protests.Long queues of motorbikes were also seen at fuel stations."All public transport in Islamabad will be made free of cost for the general public for the next 30 days, starting tomorrow (Saturday)," interior minister Mohsin Naqvi wrote on X.The government will bear a burden of 350mn rupees (around $1.25mn), he added.The chief minister of Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab, also lifted the cost of travel for state-run public transport, and announced "targeted subsidies" for trucks and buses.Maryam Nawaz Sharif urged operators not to pass on increased costs to passengers and consumers, and added: "We promise to relieve the public of economic burden as soon as conditions improve."In Sindh, the provincial government in Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, announced similar subsidies for motorcyclists and small farmers.The US-Israel war on Iran, launched on February 28, has plunged the Middle East into conflict, with Iranian retaliatory strikes hitting targets across the Gulf and virtually freezing shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.The key waterway normally sees about a fifth of the world's energy supplies pass through it, much of it bound for Asia.The government has unveiled a raft of austerity measures designed to save fuel, including moving many government offices to a four-day work week, extending school holidays and moving some classes online.Pakistan is classified as a lower-middle-income country, with roughly 25% of its 240mn population living in poverty, as per World Bank data.The government hiked fuel prices by 20% in early March but has spent weeks resisting any further hike, and insisted that it could absorb higher prices and not pass them on.Yesterday, dozens participated in a protest in the Punjab capital, Lahore, calling on ministers to reverse the decision."The government, overnight, has dropped a 'petrol bomb' on its people," Naveed Ahmed, a 39-year-old protestor, told AFP."Our nation cannot bear this situation right now. This storm of inflation must be stopped, and relief should be provided to the public," he added.Several Asian countries have hiked fuel prices or implemented other measures to address the crisis sparked by the war with Iran.On Thursday, Bangladesh hiked prices of liquefied petroleum gas used for cooking and compressed natural gas used in some cars by 29%.Earlier this week, the International Monetary Fund warned that vulnerable economies, such as Pakistan, did not just face pressure from higher energy prices, but from supply chain snarls as well.The IMF announced on March 28 that had reached an initial agreement with Pakistan to unlock a new $1.2-billion package as part of its support programmes for the country."The rise we are seeing is not due to the (Iran) war, but to pressure from the IMF, pressure that must be resisted," said another protester in Lahore, Hafiz Abdul Rauf."For God's sake, step back from these demands and show some compassion for the people."
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The Trump administration has fired army chief of staff General Randy George and two other senior figures, officials said Friday, in a surprise shake-up just as US forces are locked in a major war against Iran.Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's ouster of George, the top US Army general, meant the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the military since President Donald Trump returned to power a year ago.There was little in the way of a public explanation for sacking George, a highly decorated veteran who oversaw the army at a time when the United States is more than a month into a punishing bombing campaign against Iran that Trump says will continue several weeks more.Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted a statement on X late Thursday that George "will be retiring from his position... effective immediately."During a nearly four-decade military career, George deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan multiple times and also served in positions including vice chief of staff of the army and senior military assistant to then-defense secretary Lloyd Austin during Joe Biden's term as president.The army's vice chief of staff General Christopher LaNeve will take over as acting chief of staff, CBS reported.Hegseth previously said LaNeve is "a battle-tested leader with decades of operational experience."- Military purge -An official also confirmed that General David Hodne and Major General William Green Jr. were removed alongside George.Hodne led the Army's Transformation and Training Command while Green was in charge of the Army's Chaplain Corps.Trump has overseen a purge of top military officers, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, general Charles "CQ" Brown, whom he fired without explanation in February 2025, shortly after taking office.Other senior officers dismissed include the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to NATO, and three top military lawyers.The chief of staff of the Air Force also announced his retirement without explanation just two years into a four-year term, while the head of US Southern Command retired a year into his tenure.Hegseth has insisted the president is simply choosing the leaders he wants, but Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential politicization of the traditionally neutral US military.Last year, the Pentagon chief additionally ordered at least a 20 percent cut in the number of active-duty four-star generals and admirals in the US military, as well as a 10 percent cut in the overall number of general and flag officers.wd/mjf/hol/sms* Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rapidly reshaping Pentagon leadership, firing top officials* No official reason given for George's removal amid US military buildup in Middle East* General Christopher LaNeve to serve as acting Army chief (Updates April 2 story with comment from joint staff in paragraphs 9-10)By Idrees Ali and Phil StewartWASHINGTON, April 2 (Reuters) - U.S. Army Chief of Staff Randy George was fired on Thursday by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, three U.S. defense officials told Reuters, a major staffing change that comes as the U.S. military fights a major war in the Middle East.Even as Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has moved quickly to reshape the department, firing the head of a military branch during wartime is extremely rare.The Pentagon confirmed that George, who had more than a year left in his term, "will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately."Two of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Hegseth has also fired General David Hodne, who leads the Army's Transformation and Training Command, and Major General William Green, head of the Army's Chaplain Corps.George's removal adds to recent upheaval at all levels of leadership at the Pentagon, including the firing last year of the previous chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, as well as the chief of naval operations and Air Force vice chief of staff.The department did not give a reason for George's departure, which comes as the U.S. military builds up its forces in the Middle East while carrying out operations against Iran.The U.S. strikes in the region are largely being carried out by the Navy and Air Force, although U.S. Army soldiers have been dispatched to the Middle East for air defense systems. The Army is the largest branch of the U.S. military, with about 450,000 active-duty soldiers.Thousands of soldiers from the U.S. Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division have also started arriving in the Middle East, potentially for ground operations in Iran.In a statement, the Pentagon's Joint Staff thanked George for his service."Since 1988, General George and his family have consistently answered the nation’s call with honor and dedication,” the Joint Staff said.LATEST UPHEAVAL AT PENTAGONThere had been no public signs of friction between Hegseth and George, even as Hegseth pursued controversial moves such as firing the Army's top lawyer and arranging a massive military parade to celebrate the Army's 250th birthday, which coincided with Trump's birthday.Earlier this week, Hegseth also reversed an Army decision to investigate Army pilots who were flying attack helicopters near singer Kid Rock's house, in an apparent show of support for the vocal Trump backer.CBS News, which first reported the dismissal, said it was not related to the Kid Rock incident.One of the officials said Hegseth's former military aide and Army vice chief of staff, General Christopher LaNeve, will take over George's role in an acting capacity.Another of the officials added that senior Army leadership learned about George's firing at the same time as it was made public.George, an infantry officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was confirmed to the top Army post in 2023. Terms in that role usually run for four years.Prior to holding the top job, George was the vice chief of the Army and, before that, the senior military adviser to then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.He was considered close to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. The two worked together to take on large defense companies, in the Army's drive to speed up weapons development and drive down costs.The office for George did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart, Jasper Ward and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Edmund Klamann, Don Durfee and Andrea Ricci)
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An MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter, assigned to Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 37, takes off from the flight deck of Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney for a mission supporting Operation Epic Fury during the Iran
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The US economy posted unexpectedly strong job gains in March, data showed yesterday, in a development hailed as a win by US President Donald Trump’s administration but seen with caution by analysts. The world’s largest economy gained 178,000 jobs in March, after losing 133,000 in February, and the unemployment rate dropped by 0.1 percentage-points to 4.3%, the Labor Department said. Friday’s data significantly beat analyst expectations, with economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal expecting an increase of 59,000 jobs. The data was stronger than forecast, “but vastly overstates the sustainable pace of job growth,” said Oxford Economics lead US economist Nancy Vanden Houten. “The end of a strike, seasonal quirks and a rebound after harsh winter weather likely boosted job growth in some sectors,” she said. The White House, however, touted the numbers as a major success. “Americans can rest assured that after the short-term disruptions of Operation Epic Fury are behind us, America’s economic resurgence is set to only accelerate,” said spokesperson Kush Desai, referring to the US-Israel war on Iran. Much of March’s recovery was fuelled by health care jobs, which have remained resilient even as labour demand has dropped in other sectors. Health care added 76,000 jobs in March, after having lost jobs the month before, in part due to strike actions. Employment in construction also grew by 26,000 in March, although the Labour Department flagged that it had changed little over its level from a year ago. Federal government employment continued to decline, down 11.8% since October 2024. Trump has taken a hatchet to the sector in a drive aimed at cost-cutting and reducing the size of government. The new data reflected a revision in the figures for January and February, showing employment for those two months combined was 7,000 lower than previously reported. The US-Israel war on Iran has engulfed the Middle East, sent oil prices surging and snarled supply chains, leading to fears of a global economic slowdown. Analysts signalled caution as the economic impact of the war begins to hit Americans. Nationwide Chief Economist Kathy Bostjancic said the March report showed the labour market was in “good standing,” with “broad-based gains in the private sector.” Oxford Economics’ Houten, however, said the report “doesn’t change our assessment that the downside risks to the labour market have increased” due to the war. “As the labour market softens due to the fallout from the war, we expect the unemployment rate to edge up,” she said. High energy prices tend to drive up production costs, curbing economic activity, with analysts expecting the current “low-hire, low-fire” trend to continue. “If you look through the noise you have, you know that same picture that we’ve been looking at, which is a labour market that’s holding up, but that has become more fragile, and that remains stuck in this low-hire, low-fire type of environment,” EY-Parthenon Senior Economist Lydia Boussour told AFP. Uncertainty about the war’s economic shock has so far led policymakers at the Federal Reserve to adopt a wait-and-see approach on interest rate moves, as they balance curbing stubbornly high inflation with managing unemployment. Unemployment rates have remained relatively steady in the United States — but the figure has hidden churn under the surface, analysts warn, as weak jobs growth has been matched by a drop in labour supply. That drop in supply is largely attributed to Trump’s crackdown on migrants. For Fed policymakers, however, inflation currently appears to be a bigger risk than unemployment. “We are getting mixed signals, with some key indicators showing signs of steadying while others are suggesting a weakening labour market,” said New York Fed President John Williams on Monday. EY-Parthenon’s Boussour said Friday’s report will provide “a little bit of reassurance and a little bit of breathing room for the Fed to focus on the inflation side of their mandate in the coming months.”
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Inside a hangar on an industrial estate near a motorway and a port, sleek glass fibre hulls shaped like oversized canoes spray-painted naval grey await the fitting of nearby packaged engines and other high-tech systems. From Ukraine, similar unmanned attack boats - most initially built by Ukraine special forces and security services specifically for that task - have largely driven the Russian Black Sea Fleet out of nearby waters. If war widens in the Middle East from the current face-off between Israel and the US on one hand and Iran on the other, some of these newer British boats might go into action. Such craft are increasingly seen as the future of naval warfare, alongside a host of other “dirty, dull and dangerous” offshore roles such as search and rescue. VENTURE CAPITAL DELIVERS FAST, NIMBLE FIRMSThe manufacturing facility in a discreet location belongs to the fast-growing British defence firm Kraken, which this year signed a deal to supply a first tranche of 20 small attack boats for Britain’s Royal Navy as well as further deals for US Special Operations Command and the wider US Navy. Fuelled by venture capital, similar firms are springing up around the world, delivering not just autonomous attack craft - seen as critical in stopping any Chinese invasion of Taiwan or winning any Nato fight with Russia in the Baltic - but also a host of other uncrewed systems. The Kraken team, like others across the sector, say that recent headlines about the success of drone attacks in the Gulf help provide a sense of mission - a feeling that Western democracies must both be prepared to fight and find ways to minimise their casualties if they are to stop wars from happening. Kraken now offers a range of drones, with the 8.5-m Scout Medium currently arguably the most popular and easiest to mass-produce - but it will not say if any of its craft have so far seen action in the Middle East or the Black Sea. The US military says it has deployed similar vessels, including, specifically, the Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) from the Maryland firm BlackSea in recent operations near the Gulf. US Central Command, which oversees US Middle East operations, has been trialling such unmanned vessels for much of the current decade. European nations have honed their own technology and skills with Nato’s Task Force X-Baltic, not least in tracking Russian and other vessels they suspect might interfere with underwater cables and other infrastructure. Whether operated entirely autonomously or by a helmsman based elsewhere connected via Starlink or similar satellite communication system, such vessels can carry a range of weapons and other payloads, including surveillance cameras, machineguns or enough on-board explosive to sink a large ship. Iran appears to have used at least two such vessels in its attacks on commercial vessels, a sign of just how fast naval warfare is now changing. DRONES CAN OPERATE WITH OR WITHOUT HUMAN CONTROLHeavy jamming in both Ukraine and the Gulf has led to a constant battle to keep remote human-piloted systems operational - and put the focus on building autonomous ones that can dispense with a communication link. But this is a substantially more challenging task; Reuters and other media outlets reported several problems in tests last year with efforts to make such craft operate without human control - although insiders say this is hardly a surprise, particularly in contested waters like the Black Sea or the Baltic. At time of writing, UK media reported that the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel Lyme Bay, an amphibious supply ship, was due to load a cargo of drones for potential mine clearance in the Gulf - but only once the conflict concludes and the environment for such craft becomes less hostile. If that mission goes ahead, it will be seen as a sign both of how few working warships remain in Britain’s cash-strapped navy and of how technology is changing. For now, no one expects vessels such as those built by Kraken to replace traditional warships entirely; Trump’s “armada” including aircraft carriers and marine assault vessels has been a reminder of the potent combat power of such a force, even if US commanders have kept such vessels far from the battle zone to minimise their risk. The speed with which a firm like Kraken can turn out newer, cheaper vessels, however, is dramatic, as is the scale of its ambition. Kraken says it can deliver as many as 500 remote-controlled vessels in the current year and twice that in 2027, in part through deals with shipyards in places including Germany and the Pacific rim. Speaking from his office full of models from his previous lives in Formula One racing and high-performance offshore powerboats, Kraken founder Mal Crease outlines how he has used his experience to build what he hopes will be a dominant maritime offshore systems manufacturer. Learning lessons from Ukraine has been part of that process, as has been working out how to mass-produce such boats in a much less conflict-ridden setting. “Obviously there are challenges to delivering and building a quality scalable product in a conflict zone,” he said. MODULAR CONSTRUCTION THAT CAN BE SCALED UP FASTWhat the Kraken team are able to do now, he says, is build a growing range of vessels from increasingly mass-producible modular components, then put them together rapidly by hand “like a supercar”. The beauty of that system, he says, is that it can be scaled up fast. Particularly in Britain, huge questions remain about the future shape of military spending. A long-promised Defence Investment Plan remains unpublished, with UK media reporting for months on differences between the prime minister and the Treasury over how much money is needed - and available. Whatever happens in London, the wider picture is increasingly apparent. And while most firms will go out of their way to promise their national governments that some technology remains “sovereign” and restricted to their country, they are also striking deals to build abroad. The firms being born are very different from established “defence primes” such as America’s Lockheed Martin, Britain’s BAE Systems or the Italian giant Leonardo, all renowned for the long lead times and enormous cost overruns of giant multibillion-dollar weapons systems. Newer firms like Britain’s Kraken and Cambridge Aerospace, the US-based attack drone company Neros or Germany’s similarly-focused Helsing are often small and founded in the last two years or so. They are much less established even than the only slightly older “defence tech” giants such as Palantir and Anduril, both growing US players in analysis and targeting. While newer firms that focus entirely on artificial intelligence and analysis might arguably be at risk of being outpaced by publicly available AI products, those who build actual weapons systems - particularly rapidly and cheaply — increasingly believe they can find buyers. Watching Kraken’s locally hired staff work on their uncrewed speedboats as new components line up by the doorways brings the realisation that such scenes have been rare in peacetime Britain since the late 1930s and the last desperate years before the start of World War II. For now, the scale is far smaller, but that might swiftly change. Many of the former military personnel who now work at these companies are spending considerable time alongside clients in a range of countries including Ukraine - which is buying as well as manufacturing. In some cases, they are finding their own countries looking unprepared. Reports since the start of the US campaign against Iran suggest more expensive missiles such as the Tomahawk cruise missile and Patriot air defence projectiles are running very short. Drone providers talk of being able to deliver hundreds of thousands or even millions of individual systems every year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no nation has appeared to understand that new reality as fast as Ukraine. Last week, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy toured the Middle East offering expertise in drone attack and defence systems to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Western nations out of the firing line have been slower to respond, but they may not have much time — and some firms on their soil are already moving fast regardless.
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Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell Tell Me Why Cops Think I Was In NSYNC!!! Major Shade in Body Cam Published April 2, 2026 1:29 PM PDT Play video content Backstreet's back ... perhaps in a beef
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'The Bachelorette Australia' Konrad Bien-Stephen Dead at 35 Published April 2, 2026 12:17 PM PDT Konrad Bien-Stephen -- a contestant on season 7 of "The Bachelorette Australia" -- has died. He reportedly passed Monday night
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Defending champions Arsenal withstood a late Chelsea onslaught to book their place in the women’s Champions League semi-finals despite a 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday to progress 3-2 on aggregate.The damage for the
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Manny Pacquiao’s planned September fight with Floyd Mayweather will not be an exhibition, the Philippine boxing legend said Thursday, days after his fellow hall of famer said their bout would be strictly entertainment.Netflix last month
