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Avery Wilson Trump Got Boos ... I'm Getting Coups!!! Back for NBA Game 4 Anthem Published June 9, 2026 2:39 PM PDT Play video content Avery Wilson has no issue with President Trump being mercilessly
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Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation President Abdulrahman bin Abdullatif al-Mannai with Team Qatar drivers Abdulla al-Khelaifi, Julian Hanses and Frenchman Giuliano Alesi and Iron Lynx Team Principal and CEO Andrea Piccini. Team Qatar will make their Le Mans 24 Hours endurance debut this weekend in a significant step for a small country with big motorsport ambitions. The team have linked up with Italy-based Iron Lynx to field an LMGT3 Mercedes-AMG entry at the French Circuit de la Sarthe with Qatari driver Abdulla al-Khelaifi partnering German Julian Hanses and Frenchman Giuliano Alesi, son of former Formula One racer Jean. Qatar’s Le Mans entry is part of a plan to grow its local involvement in the sport. The country already hosts MotoGP, Formula One and the World Endurance Championship (WEC) rounds, is a stakeholder in the Audi F1 team via Qatar Investment Authority and is home to Dakar Rally champion Nasser al-Attiyah. “The vision for us...is to have Qatari drivers competing at the highest level of motorsports, whether it’s Le Mans or even Formula One,” Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation President Abdulrahman bin Abdullatif al-Mannai told Reuters. “Qatari drivers picked up by teams and factories - this is what we’d like to see at the end of it. We started very, very small in our national championships and now our regional, continental and now we’re pushing to the worldwide stage.” Qatari driver Abdulla
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President Donald Trump speaks at the White House Wednesday. (Reuters) President Donald Trump Wednesday said the United States would strike Iran again if no peace deal is secured, threatening further escalation following one of the most significant exchanges of hostilities in two months. "We're going to be attacking them, attacking them very hard," Trump told reporters at the White House, saying the strikes were coming.The US and Iran have traded fire several times since a tentative ceasefire took hold in early April, even as negotiators have sought an end to the three-month-old war. Trump has repeatedly said a deal is close, though there has been no sign of a breakthrough. In the latest such incident, the US military targeted air defenses and radar sites around the Strait of Hormuz after a US attack helicopter was downed near the strategic waterway. Iran responded with missile and drone attacks on US bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain. A US official said there was no significant damage.Iran said the US had violated international law by striking reservoirs that supplied drinking water to 10 villages. "This is not collateral damage — it is a calculated war crime and a flagrant violation of human rights," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghei said.Trump, who has threatened before to destroy Iran's civilian infrastructure, did not say whether the coming strikes would target power plants and bridges.The head of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, Ebrahim Azizi, warned in response that the "war won't be limited to the region."Despite the belligerent language from both sides, there were signs of continuing diplomatic efforts.A delegation from Qatar, which has been mediating between the US and Iran, landed in Tehran Wednesday to hold talks on the latest developments, Iranian media reported.The war has killed thousands and disrupted roughly one-fifth of the world's supply of oil and natural gas, sending prices sharply higher. Iran has blocked traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, while the US has maintained its own blockade on Iranian ports.Oil prices rose nearly $3 following Trump's threat of escalation, to $94 per barrel. Trump said vessels carrying 100mn barrels of oil have defied Iran to travel through the strait as part of a secret military mission. He said oil prices would be much higher without the effort.Separately, the US military said it disabled an oil tanker transporting Iranian crude in the Gulf of Oman on Tuesday for a second consecutive day.Fighting in a parallel war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has continued. Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed at least 13 people Wednesday, Lebanese security sources said, while Hezbollah claimed fresh attacks against Israeli forces. Tehran's demands include an end to Israel's attacks in Lebanon, the lifting of sanctions on Iran, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets, and recognition of its control of the strait.Trump says Iran must end its restrictions on shipping through Hormuz. He also says any peace deal must ensure Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon.Iran denies any such ambition. The UN nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a US-backed resolution Wednesday telling Iran to declare its remaining enriched uranium stocks and let inspectors verify them. Iran branded the resolution as "political". Related Story
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The leaders of North Korea and China adopted a "far-reaching blueprint" for bilateral ties during Xi Jinping's recent visit to Pyongyang, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Wednesday.China's president made a rare visit to diplomatically isolated North Korea on Monday after hosting a series of world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, in Beijing.The trip also came at a time of unusually warm relations between North Korea and Russia, where Pyongyang has sent soldiers and munitions to assist Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.Kim and Xi "expressed satisfaction and deep emotion over the fact that they provided a far-reaching blueprint for the development of the relations", KCNA reported.During the two-day trip, "the countries further deepened the revolutionary friendship and close comradely relationship and affirmed their steadfast will to develop the traditional DPRK-China friendly ties into a model of the most powerful and strategic relations", it added.Xi and Kim toured the Central Cadres Training School of the Workers' Party, where they discussed the training of party officials and planted a commemorative tree, before visiting the Friendship Tower memorial honouring Chinese soldiers who fought in the Korean War.Xi was afforded a lavish welcome on the trip, which he took with his wife and other senior officials.Afterwards, he thanked Kim in a letter, saying the leaders had "made an in-depth exchange of views on the issues of mutual interest and achieved a series of important common understanding", according to KCNA.The talks "showed the firm determination of both sides to add lustre to the traditional friendship, promote development and prosperity together and defend peace and stability in the region and the rest of the world", Xi reportedly wrote.On Tuesday, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Xi as saying he had reached "an important consensus with Kim on developing China-DPRK relations in the new era", using North Korea's official acronym.Xi pushed to strengthen diplomatic, law enforcement and military ties, according to Beijing's state media.By sharing information in the military sector, China appears to want to "directly assess technological changes within the North Korean military and the status of Russian technology transfer", said Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.China may also hope to "collect intelligence for the purpose of monitoring trends in pro-Russian and pro-Chinese human networks within the North Korean military", he added.Nuclear silenceXi's trip came after last month's talks with Trump, during which the White House said the leaders "confirmed their shared goal to denuclearise North Korea".But official media reports from both China and North Korea made no mention of denuclearisation in their coverage of the Xi-Kim summit.Analysts said that suggested Beijing was tacitly accepting Pyongyang's status as a nuclear-armed state.Kim has repeatedly vowed never to give up his nuclear arsenal, and his powerful sister said before Xi's visit that the programme was Pyongyang's "line of no retreat".Despite being historically highly reliant on political and economic support from China, Kim has drawn North Korea closer to Russia in recent years.He has boosted an alliance with Putin by sending troops to fight alongside Russian forces against Ukraine.Still, Beijing remains an economic anchor for North Korea, whose economy has been hobbled for years by international sanctions over its nuclear programme.China accounted for $2.6bn of North Korea's foreign trade — nearly 98% of the total — in 2024, according to Republic of Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance. Related Story
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North Korea and China both walked away claiming major wins from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit this week to the isolated state, which helped elevate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s global stature and pulled Pyongyang more tightly into China’s orbit. The two countries each lavished the other with praise and spoke of deeper co-operation during the two-day trip, which saw Kim greet Xi with a 21-gun salute as well as a performance of Chinese and North Korean songs and avoided discussion of thornier issues such as denuclearisation and the United States. Kim “has often talked about how North Korea is now a pivotal player in reshaping the global order, and its partnership with Russia has been a major catalyst in validating that assertion,” said Jenny Town, director of the Korea program at the Washington-based Stimson Center. “Having Xi now take his first trip out of country this year to visit Pyongyang on an agenda that didn’t include North Korea’s nuclear programme, was a big win for Kim.” The lack of discussion around denuclearisation, which had in the past strained China’s relationship with North Korea, is a significant change. On the eve of Xi’s visit, Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s sister, slammed the US as spreading false information, after Washington in May said that Xi and US President Donald Trump had confirmed a shared goal to denuclearise North Korea during talks in Beijing. “Beijing has very clearly moved on from that issue and now tacitly accepts North Korea as a nuclear state, which likely puts China on an equal footing with Russia in Pyongyang’s eyes,” said Jeremy Chan, a China & Northeast Asia analyst at Eurasia Group. “I think China achieved its primary goal of this trip, which was drawing North Korea closer and counterbalancing Russia’s growing influence in North Korea.” Asked about whether Kim and Xi discussed denuclearisation on Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry told a regular briefing that China’s position and policy on the peninsula remained consistent and stable. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment if the lack of mention meant an implicit acceptance of North Korea as a nuclear state. Still, analysts noted there were distinct differences in the two sides’ accounts of the leaders’ talks, with N Korea more focused on the pageantry of the event and positioning itself as an equal to Beijing, while China spoke of hoped-for outcomes around trade, tourism and law enforcement. Town said it indicated there were limits to how far the North was willing to go to improve the relationship with China, after moving closer to Russia in recent years by sending military support for the Ukraine war and receiving economic help in return.
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Burnt-out cars and homes are pictured after demonstrations turned violent the night before, in eastern Belfast, Northern Ireland, Wednesday. (AFP) Burnt-out cars and smashed windows littered Belfast streets Wednesday as a Sudanese man appeared in court over a brutal knife attack that triggered "terrifying" violence against immigrants in Northern Ireland.Authorities accused far-right activists — including US tech billionaire Elon Musk — of stoking divisions as rioters in Belfast torched vehicles and buildings late Tuesday, forcing families to flee their homes.The disorder comes with tensions already high in the United Kingdom following skirmishes in southern England last week over the police handling of the murder of a white student by a British Sikh man.Anselme Shima, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and who has lived in Northern Ireland since 2013, called the situation "terrifying"."I have two children at home and this morning I am wondering, 'Can I send them to school?'" the 48-year-old told AFP Wednesday.Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher told BBC radio: "Last night we rescued so many families.""Taking families — a baby as young as two months — out of their address to safety, taking them to police stations."Thirty-year-old Hadi Alodid, a refugee originally from Sudan, made a brief appearance at Belfast Magistrates' Court charged with the attempted murder of a man in his 40s on Monday.The hearing heard that the victim lost an eye during the attack.Alodid, also charged with possession of a bladed article in public and threats to kill, was denied bail by a judge, who adjourned the case to July 8.Footage of the attack — which showed several people intervening, one wielding a hurling stick — sparked widespread condemnation.It went viral on social media, with appeals for calm from police and lawmakers going unheeded in some areas of Northern Ireland. Calls for more protests from 1:00pm (1200 GMT) were already circulating Wednesday.'Bad faith actors'Hundreds of protesters, many masked, gathered at several locations across Belfast, AFP journalists witnessed. A bus and several cars were set alight, while a building caught fire and its residents had to be evacuated.UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on X that the violence was "shocking and completely unacceptable", adding that "people were targeted last night because of their background and I will not tolerate it".Northern Irish political leaders and the police had urged people not to share the video, noting its "graphic nature would only serve to retraumatise those involved".But numerous social media accounts linked to so-called "patriots" shared the footage, urging people to "protest against mass immigration into their communities".The chairwoman of Britain's ruling Labour party, Anna Turley, said online platforms were "playing a role in driving" the unrest and suggested X owner Musk was one of the "bad faith actors" inflaming tensions.Musk had retweeted a post by anti-immigration activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — also known as Tommy Robinson — adding: "Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!".He also retweeted a post by Rupert Lowe, leader of Restore Britain, a fringe hard-right party, saying "millions must go".Musk "has a responsibility, everyone in public and civil life has a responsibility to call for calm and not to stoke grievance or hatred... that puts vulnerable people and our communities at risk," Turley said.'Boom' Alodid is a Sudanese refugee with a residence permit valid until 2028, according to the UK interior ministry.Boutcher said he had arrived in the UK in 2023 via Paris and Dublin and "was not known" to police.Wednesday morning, resident Jamie Corry surveyed the wreckage of his house which went up in flames during the disorder."As soon as that car exploded, boom, it all caught fire," he told AFP."All that stuff is going to be replaced, but the sentimental stuff can't."Immigration is a hot-button issue in Britain, and has helped fuel the rise of the hard-right Reform UK party, led by Nigel Farage.The country frequently sees anti-immigration protests. Demonstrators clashed with police in Southampton on June 2 amid outrage over the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in December.He was handcuffed by police as he lay dying after his murderer Vickrum Digwa falsely accused Nowak of racially abusing him. Related Story
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Indonesian military personnel Sami Lakka, Nandala Dwi Prasetya, Budhi Hariyanto Widhi Cahyono, and Edi Sudarko, charged over an acid attack on human rights activist Andrie Yunus, a deputy co-ordinator with the rights group KontraS, arrive
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Korean protesters wave the national flags outside a vote-counting centre in Seoul Wednesday, to call for a rerun of the local elections due to a shortage of ballot papers. (AFP) University students across Republic of Korea staged protests Wednesday as anger grew over ballot paper shortages at recent local elections.Dozens of polling stations nationwide were short of around 7,000 ballot papers on June 3 election day, official data showed.The supplies were eventually replenished on voting day, but the mishap fuelled fury in a nation where unfounded claims of vote tampering have found a growing audience.The local election was the first nationwide vote since President Lee Jae-myung took office following conservative Yoon Suk-yeol's ouster over his brief martial law declaration in late 2024.Lee's ruling liberal Democratic Party won most races in the vote for mayors, local government officials and assembly members, but failed to flip the critical Seoul mayoral seat.The head of the election watchdog has resigned over the ballot paper row, but authorities have not offered to hold a new vote, sparking huge protests at the weekend.Student unions at 18 universities said they will hold new demonstrations from 6pm Wednesday."We are determined to protest because people are universally outraged regardless of political affiliation," Hwang In-seo of Yonsei University's student council, told AFP.Analysts say the National Election Commission, a constitutional body with limited external oversight, has long faced gaps in internal discipline and review mechanisms.A Seoul court this week ordered evidence from an affected polling station in the capital be preserved for investigation, while local media reported prosecutors and police had agreed to set up a joint investigation team.The evidence includes ballot boxes and CCTV footage, a representative of the Seoul Eastern District Court told AFP. Related Story
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Beijing said yesterday it “firmly opposed” the US blacklisting of Chinese companies, after Washington added tech giants Alibaba and Baidu to a list of firms it says are aiding the Chinese military.The Pentagon update on Monday came months after it released, and then quickly withdrew, an earlier version of the list without explanation. “China has consistently and firmly opposed the United States’ generalisation of the concept of national security... and its unreasonable suppression of Chinese companies,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a news briefing. Lin urged Washington to “correct its erroneous practices”, warning that Beijing may “take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies”. The new list includes 80 companies and their subsidiaries, and is largely similar to the version momentarily published in February, although two memory chipmakers were reinstated after having been removed at the time. The re-added companies are ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies.The Pentagon’s release marks the latest test of relations between the world’s two top economies, whose leaders met in Beijing last month for a highly anticipated summit. That meeting saw US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping seek to stabilise bilateral relations. Trump has invited Xi to pay a reciprocal visit to Washington in September.The companies targeted in the US Defense Department’s latest list include some of China’s top tech giants involved in artificial intelligence, including Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent. Tencent had already been designated in the blacklist.Alibaba called its inclusion “a mistake”, while Baidu said on social media “there is no credible justification” for adding it to the list. Electric vehicle giant BYD, which was also added, reacted by saying in a statement posted yesterday to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange website that the US decision had “no justification”. The determinations have few immediate legal implications for many of the companies, although it is seen as a move that could precede more punitive measures.Other companies on the list include pharmaceutical firm WuXi AppTec and start-up Unitree, which makes humanoid robots. A spokesperson for WuXi AppTec told AFP that its inclusion was “clearly a mistake”, adding that it is “not owned or controlled by or affiliated with any” Chinese military or government entity, nor does it “provide services” to the military.
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX is poised to have the largest stock-market debut in history when it holds its initial public offering on Friday. SpaceX is aiming to raise as much as $75bn in the listing, more than twice the previous record holder, at a valuation of at least $1.8tn, according to a Bloomberg report. The IPO is expected to be a market spectacle as investors get a chance to buy into Musk’s vision to create a combined space and AI powerhouse. His long list of growth plans — including putting data centers in space — are hugely ambitious but also come with high costs, significant risks and could take many years to come to fruition. Even though SpaceX generates significant cash flow, largely from Starlink, its satellite-based internet broadband service, the company requires a lot more money to fund its biggest ambitions. The public filing unveiled on May 20 stated that IPO proceeds will be used, among other things, to expand the company’s AI computing infrastructure, enhance its space infrastructure and rockets and boost its satellite constellations. SpaceX could have opted to continue raising capital in private markets rather than going public. But the company’s funding needs appear to have risen substantially with the acquisition in February of xAI, which is burning through around $1bn of cash per month to cover the cost of computing infrastructure including training its AI models, according to people briefed on the company’s financials. In addition to its rocket launch business, SpaceX owns Starlink, which has become the company’s main cash flow generator. Following the all-stock acquisition in February of xAI, SpaceX also owns Grok, a money-burning operation whose flagship product is an AI assistant. X, the microblogging site previously known as Twitter, rounds out its portfolio of businesses. A listing for SpaceX to raise as much as $75bn would shatter the previous record set by Saudi Aramco’s $29.4bn IPO in 2019. The big question is whether a valuation as large as $1.8tn can be sustained in public markets. Analysts value companies based on their future earnings and growth, as well as industry competition and profit margins. But valuation isn’t a pure science. Especially in bullish market conditions, investors are sometimes prepared to pay up for a company’s shares based on something other than fundamentals. For SpaceX, the downside of having an IPO is that the company will have to publicly report its financials every quarter and answer to Wall Street analysts and public investors. Its plans also could be disrupted if its stock price is volatile or falls sharply in reaction to bad news. The public filing has confirmed that Musk tightly controls SpaceX, with 85.1% voting control, mainly because he owns most of the company’s super-voting Class B shares. The filing also revealed a super-voting share plan that would allow Musk, the Tesla Inc co-founder and world’s richest person, to keep SpaceX under his control. Investors enthralled by SpaceX’s potential and Musk’s track record likely aren’t bothered by this, but it could present problems if something went wrong and investors wanted a change at the helm. SpaceX’s market debut on Friday could also prove to be a hurdle for US stocks as investors worry about possible overexuberance among high-growth technology stocks. ChatGPT maker OpenAI on Monday confidentially filed for a US initial public offering, joining rival Anthropic in a push toward public markets.
