Israel’s military says it has fully disabled Yemen’s main airport with airstrikes

• May 6, 2025

By ELENA BECATOROS and JON GAMBRELL

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military said Tuesday it launched airstrikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen that fully disabled the country’s international airport in the capital, Sanaa.

The strikes came after Israel launched similar attacks on Monday in retaliation for a Houthi missile strike the previous day on Israel’s international airport.

The Houthis’ satellite news channel al-Masirah reported the strikes, confirming the airport had been hit. Several power plants were also struck, Israel’s military said.

Footage aired on Israeli television showed thick black plumes of smoke rising above the skyline of Sanaa. Social media video purported to show multiple strikes around Sanaa, with black smoke rising as the thumps of the blast echoed against the surrounding mountains.

There was no immediate information on any casualties.

The strike came shortly after the military issued a warning on social media for people to evacuate the area of Yemen’s international airport.

“We urge you to immediately evacuate the area of the airport and to warn anyone nearby to distance themselves immediately,” spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on social media Tuesday, attaching a map of Sanaa International Airport. “Failure to evacuate the area endangers your lives.”

Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said the strike should be seen as a warning to the “head of the Iranian octopus,” which he said bears direct responsibility for attacks by the Houthis against Israel.

On Monday, Israel targeted Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen’s Red Sea province of Hodeida, killing at least one person and wounding 35. The rebels’ media office said at least six strikes hit the crucial Hodeida port, while others hit a cement factory in the district of Bajil, 55 kilometers (34 miles) northeast of Hodeida. The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the strikes killed at least four people and wounded 39 others.

The Houthis on Sunday launched a missile that struck an access road near Israel’s main airport near Tel Aviv, briefly halting flights and commuter traffic. Four people were slightly injured. It was the first time a missile struck the grounds of Ben Gurion airport since the October 2023 start of the war in Gaza. While most missiles launched by the Houthis have been intercepted, some have penetrated Israel’s missile defense systems, causing damage.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said the strikes carried out on Israel and Yemen’s airport marked a “grave escalation in an already fragile and volatile regional context.” He urged the parties to show restraint.

The Houthis have targeted Israel throughout the war in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, raising their profile as the last member of Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” capable of launching regular attacks on Israel.

The U.S. military under President Donald Trump has launched an intensified campaign of airstrikes targeting the Houthis since March 15.

Israel has repeatedly struck against the rebels in Yemen. It struck Hodeida and its oil infrastructure in July after a Houthi drone attack killed one person and wounded 10 in Tel Aviv.

In September, Israel struck Hodeida again, killing at least four people after a missile targeted Ben Gurion airport as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was returning to the country. In December, Israeli strikes killed at least nine people in Hodeida.

Gambrell contributed from Dubai. Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Irvine’s Great Park ‘whooshing’ into new era of construction

• May 6, 2025

It’s not yesterday’s Great Park.

That’s part of the message Great Park Chairman Mike Carroll plans to deliver on Tuesday evening, May 6, during a State of the Park address in front of an expected crowd of more than 2,000 people.

For years, the park has been defined by acres of sports fields and its signature big orange balloon that gives passengers an aerial view of Orange County.

But many more signature amenities are coming to the park in the years ahead — about $1 billion worth, in fact — and Carroll wants to tell you about them.

“Tuesday’s the day we let everyone know we’re a lot more than a balloon and some sports fields,” Carroll said, “We’re a major metropolitan park on the build.”

“Behind these fences,” he said during an interview at the park Monday, pointing to a large construction zone by the Wild Rivers water park, “is a world-class park taking shape.”

Irvine calls that area under construction the “Heart of the Park,” meaning that if you’ve been to the Great Park at all, you haven’t seen anything like what it could become.

In all, the Great Park — at the site of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Irvine — will be more than 1,300 acres.

It’ll be bigger than San Diego’s Balboa Park, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and New York City’s Central Park.

Yet, visits to the Great Park probably haven’t felt that significant. That’s because only a fraction of the park has been developed.

Carroll acknowledged in an interview Monday that building the Great Park got off to a “bumpy first couple of years” and that Tuesday’s event is a “bit of a reboot.”

Orange County voters approved the idea for a central park, nature preserve and multi-use development at the site of the former air base back in 2002. That plan won out over an idea to convert the base into an international airport much larger than John Wayne Airport.

Over two decades, private developers have built up thousands of units of housing around the park, but the city has been slower to bring amenities into the park itself.

Carroll, who in 2019 joined the Irvine City Council, which oversees the park, said the dissolution of redevelopment agencies in California in 2012 caused financing issues, which in turn caused delays.

Then, after the city recovered from that to develop the sports complex and related amenities, including the 5,000-seat soccer stadium home to the OC Soccer Club, the coronavirus pandemic “really put everything on hold for a bit,” he said.

Nevertheless, Carroll believes the park’s doldrums are behind it, and a golden age of construction lies ahead.

“Each and every major metropolitan park in America took decades to come to life,” Carroll said. “I’m excited that it’s officially go time for the Great Park.”

Financing for the park comes from community and redevelopment-related funds, city bonds and a community facilities district tax levied on residents near the Great Park in the Altair, Cadence Park and Novel Park neighborhoods.

Currently, the city of Irvine is building out 800 additional acres of the park, adding 22 acres of cascading lakes with waterfalls, islands and a shorefront restaurant to which diners will be able to boat up to or paddle up to in canoes.

Nearby will be a 10,000-person-capacity amphitheater, set to open in 2028, which will replace the temporary Great Park Live venue that opened last year and will become a sort of “Irvine Meadows 2.0,” Carroll said.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to have many of our citywide events and graduations here,” he added as staffers explained how the dug-in nature of the amphitheater and the placement of buildings will help insulate the sound from nearby neighborhoods.

On the other side of the lakes, the city plans to add an arboretum and botanical garden, a veterans memorial, a retail center and, eventually, a central library.

“Every great city needs to have a great library,” Carroll said.

A part of the park known as the cultural terrace, which broke ground last year, will become home to the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, the Pretend City Children’s Museum, the Orange County Music & Dance school and a forthcoming Asian American history museum.

These spaces will open over the next few years, with the city working to launch many of the venues by the time the Olympics come to Southern California in 2028, Assistant City Manager Sean Crumby said.

“It’s such a diversity — museums, parks, retail, sports — it’s tremendous,” Carroll said. “I think this can be the finest metropolitan park in America.”

Tuesday’s event — at Great Park Live — will showcase all these attributes in virtual reality, but the biggest tech draw is something else entirely. It’s the chance to step inside a Whoosh cable car, the centerpiece of what could become the park’s futuristic transportation system.

In April, the City Council approved entering into negotiations with Swyft Cities to build an autonomous elevated cable transit network that could ferry visitors around the park.

Dubbed the “Whoosh” system, cars in the battery-powered aerial transit system can reach up to 30 mph and could eventually take people from the nearby Metrolink station across the 4-mile-square park in a matter of minutes.

The Whoosh system has not been built anywhere else in the world, but another pilot project is underway in Queenstown, New Zealand.

While Irvine has only just begun to negotiate with Swyft Cities, both parties have expressed interest in a deal where Swyft Cities would front the cost for the initial segment of the park’s Whoosh system in exchange for naming it as “the transportation module for the Great Park.”

The initial segment would connect the park’s visitor center to The Canopy retail area, a stretch estimated to cost almost $10 million and that could move nearly 3,000 people per hour, co-founder Clay Griggs said.

Griggs said the Great Park system could eventually include 12 stations and move up to 10,000 people per hour around the entire park.

The city would need to spend an estimated $40 million more to make that happen.

At an April council meeting, Crumby said the city has looked at other transportation options for the park, such as trams, people movers and bus circulators. The Whoosh system, in early estimates, would be cheaper and less disruptive to existing ground infrastructure, according to city staffers.

Representatives from the company, as well as from the forthcoming Great Park museums and the Anaheim Ducks (due to their connection with Great Park Ice), will all be at Tuesday’s family friendly showcase.

The State of the Great Park runs from 4 to 7 p.m. Live music and refreshments will be provided.

​ Orange County Register 

The world marks the 80th anniversary of V-E Day with parades and memorials. Here’s what to know

• May 6, 2025

By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Cities from London to Moscow will be awash with parades, flyovers and memorials this week as the world marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day — the day Nazi Germany surrendered to Allied forces.

The surrender didn’t end World War II because the war against Japan continued in the Far East. However, it was a moment of celebration for the servicemen and women who battled Adolf Hitler’s armies, as well as civilians across Europe who had been bombed, invaded and subjugated since the invasion of Poland in 1938.

When the surrender was announced, people poured into the streets of London, New York and Paris to celebrate in what the BBC described as a “mood of thanksgiving.”

Here’s a look at the events leading up to V-E Day and its significance.

When is V-E Day?

While most Western countries celebrate the anniversary on May 8, that’s not an easy question to answer.

Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe, actually accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany at 2:41 a.m. local time on May 7, in a ceremony at Reims, France. Although the news had leaked out by that evening, the official announcement was delayed until the following day. The U.S., Britain and France were trying to work out differences with the Soviet Union, which felt the surrender didn’t recognize the sacrifices its troops had made in securing victory.

A second surrender document was signed around midnight on May 8 in Berlin, satisfying Soviet concerns. Russia celebrates what it calls Victory Day on May 9.

The path to victory

By the time France fell to the Nazi “Blitzkrieg” on June 25, 1940, Hitler’s forces controlled most of Europe and were threatening to invade Britain.

But the war in Europe began to turn in early 1942, when the Soviet Red Army defeated German forces attempting to take Moscow. Hitler suffered another crushing defeat in February 1943, when German forces surrendered in the Battle of Stalingrad.

Invading the Soviet Union was “probably not Hitler’s best idea,” said Rob Citino, a retired senior historian at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

“They were counterpunched in front of Moscow, and in a war that the Germans had taken very few casualties up to now they suddenly had added a million and they never recovered from it.”

Then in 1944 the Western Allies and the Soviet Union launched twin offensives that forced Nazi Germany to fight for survival on two fronts. The Allies began their march across Europe with the D-Day landings in northern France on June 6, 1944. Two weeks later, the Soviets began their push toward Berlin.

As 1944 turned to 1945, “victory is all but certain,” Citino said. “But something else is certain: There’s still a lot of soldiers, a lot of military personnel, on both sides who are going to die.’’

The Red Army alone lost about 3 million soldiers in 1945, or about 70,000 a day, he estimated.

The fall of Berlin

Soviet forces began their assault on Berlin on April 16, 1945, while the Allies were still fighting their way across western Germany.

With the city in ruins and the Red Army advancing street by street, Hitler retreated to his bunker under the Reich Chancellery, where he committed suicide on April 30. The last defenders finally surrendered on May 2.

Rolling surrenders

V-E-Day came after a series of surrenders.

The first came on April 29 at the Palace of Caserta, outside Naples, Italy where British Field Marshal Harold Alexander accepted the surrender of German and Italian forces in Italy and western Austria. Five days later, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery accepted the surrender of German forces in northwestern Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands at Luneberg Heath, south of Hamburg.

Finally, there was the unconditional surrender of all Nazi forces in Europe that was signed first at Reims and again in Berlin.

A bittersweet moment

V-E Day was a time of reflection as well as celebration.

While many people lit bonfires and threw back the blackout curtains, others thought about what they had lost. The world also had to reckon with the Holocaust after the advancing armies uncovered the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps where millions of Jews were slaughtered.

“It was just a big letting off (of) steam and a massive relief for so many people,’’ said Dan Ellin, a historian at the University of Lincoln in the U.K. “But then, of course, for others, there wasn’t an awful lot to celebrate. For thousands of people, the victory was tinged with a sadness because for them, their loved ones were not going to come home.”

And V-E Day wasn’t actually the end of the war. The Japanese were still fighting ferociously to defend their home against any invasion, and many Allied soldiers expected that they would be deployed to the Far East as soon as the war in Europe ended.

“Everybody knows there’s a big show left and the big show is going to be gigantic and it’s going to be bloody … ,’’ Citino said. “And I bet you every single Allied soldier in Europe, after toasting victory in Europe, they sat down and said, ‘I’m going to Japan. This isn’t over yet.’”

Most were spared another fight when Japan surrendered on Aug. 2, after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The veterans have their own thoughts on V-E Day

Dorothea Barron, now 100, who served as a signaler in the Wrens, the Women’s Royal Naval Service, remembers the sense of camaraderie as everyone banded together to defeat a common enemy.

“Well, naturally, it’s something worth celebrating, because we had finally stopped the Germans from trying to get into England,” she said. “Because we were absolutely determined they weren’t going to set foot in our country, absolutely, and we would have resisted, man, woman and child.”

Mervyn Kersh, also 100, said V-E Day should be a reminder to today’s leaders that they must stand up to bullies and despots, wherever they may be.

“You can’t have peace without strength,” he said. ”It’s no good just remembering. You’ve got to do something.”

​ Orange County Register 

World shares mostly slip after Wall St breaks its winning streak

• May 6, 2025

By ELAINE KURTENBACH, Associated Press Business Writer

Shares opened mostly lower in Europe on Tuesday after a mixed session in Asia, where Chinese markets advanced as they reopened after “Golden Week” holidays.

Germany’s DAX fell 1.2% to 23,076.96, while the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.6% to 7,682.91. Britain’s FTSE 100 was unchanged at 8,596.40.

The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.7% and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.5% lower as investors watched to see what U.S. President Donald Trump does with his tariff policies.

When asked at a routine briefing about comments Trump’s comments on the NBC TV network that he won’t cancel tariffs on China to pave the way for trade talks, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson reiterated Beijing’s stance that the U.S. side “should stop threatening and pressuring and engage in dialogue with China on the basis of equality, respect, and mutual benefit.”

“If they want to fight, we will fight to the end; if they want to talk, the door is open,” Lin Jian said.

Late last week, China’s Commerce Ministry said it was evaluating various U.S. missives about holding talks.

Still, Chinese markets advanced after reopening from “Golden Week” holidays. The Shanghai Composite index added 1% to 3,311.89, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was up 0.7% at 22,651.65.

A monthly survey measuring future activity in China’s services sector fell to its lowest level ever, excluding the pandemic, in a further sign the escalation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war is hitting the world’s second-largest economy.

A drastic increase in tariffs on U.S. imports of Chinese products, to 145%, has caused a sharp drop in shipping and other logistics.

“Overall optimism among Chinese firms weakened to the lowest level since this series began in April 2012, resulting in further job cuts in April,” said the report by Caixin, a financial media group.

However, reports showed a sharp increase in tourism revenues during the holidays that ended Monday, suggesting robust domestic demand, economists said.

Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.2% to 8,148.40.

India’s Sensex fell 0.2%, while Taiwan’s Taiex slipped less than 0.1%. In Indonesia, the JSX was up 1%.

Oil prices gained more than $1 early Tuesday, bouncing back from a 4-year low following a decision by the OPEC+ group of oil producing nations to raise their output by 411,000 barrels per day as of June 1.

U.S. benchmark crude oil picked up $1.10 to $58.23 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, surged $1.15 to $61.38 per barrel.

On Monday, the S&P 500 fell 0.6% to 5,650.38, ending a nine-day winning streak, its longest since 2004. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.2% and the Nasdaq composite shed 0.7%.

Berkshire Hathaway fell 5.1% after legendary investor Warren Buffett announced he would step down as its CEO by the end of the year after six decades at the helm. Buffett will still be its board chairman.

Markets have been absorbing the shock of tariffs and the growing trade war, which has reignited concerns about inflation.

Such issues will overshadow the Federal Reserve’s meeting on Wednesday, when it is expected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady. The Fed cut the rate three times in 2024 before taking a breather to watch what happens with inflation, which has been hovering just above the Fed’s target rate of 2%.

While still resilient, the U.S. economy shrank 0.3% in the first quarter, the first drop in three years.

Ford Motor Co. said Monday it expects to take a $1.5 billion hit to its operating profit from tariffs this year. Its shares fell 2.5% in after hours trading.

The latest salvo in the trade war from Trump came Sunday night in a post on his Truth Social platform. He said he has authorized a 100% tariff on movies that are produced outside of the U.S. The impact is unclear, as it is common for films to include production at multiple locations around the world.

Also early Tuesday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.36% from 4.35% late Monday.

The dollar fell to 142.96 Japanese yen from 143.70 yen. The euro was at $1.1339, up from $1.1317.

​ Orange County Register 

The federal Bureau of Prisons has lots of problems. Reopening Alcatraz is now one of them

• May 6, 2025

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and MICHAEL BALSAMO, Associated Press

Eleven inmate deaths in less than two months. More than 4,000 staff vacancies. A $3 billion repair backlog.

And now, a stunning directive from President Donald Trump for the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons to “REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!” — the notorious penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay that last held inmates more than 60 years ago.

Even as the Bureau of Prisons struggles with short staffing, chronic violence and crumbling infrastructure at its current facilities, Trump is counting on the agency to fulfill his vision of rebooting the infamously inescapable prison known in movies and pop culture as “The Rock.”

Trump declared in a social media post Sunday that a “substantially enlarged and rebuilt” Alcatraz will house the nation’s “most ruthless and violent Offenders.” It will “serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Newly appointed Bureau of Prisons Director William K. Marshall III said Monday that the agency “will vigorously pursue all avenues to support and implement the President’s agenda” and that he has ordered “an immediate assessment to determine our needs and the next steps.”

“USP Alcatraz has a rich history. We look forward to restoring this powerful symbol of law, order, and justice,” Marshall said in a statement, echoing Trump’s post. “We will be actively working with our law enforcement and other federal partners to reinstate this very important mission.”

Alcatraz was once an exemplar

Alcatraz, a 22-acre islet with views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline, was once the crown jewel of the federal prison system and home to some of the nation’s most notorious criminals, including gangsters Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.

But skyrocketing repair and supply costs compelled the Justice Department to close the prison in 1963, just 29 years after it opened, and the Bureau of Prisons has long since replaced Alcatraz with modern penitentiaries, including a maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado.

The former and perhaps future penitentiary is now a popular tourist attraction and a national historic landmark. It’s controlled by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, meaning the Bureau of Prisons could be in for an interagency tug of war if it tries to wrest away control of the island.

Trump’s Alcatraz directive is yet another challenge for the Bureau of Prisons as it struggles to fix lingering problems while responding to the president’s priorities on incarceration and immigrant detention. The agency’s mission, as redefined under Trump, includes taking in thousands of immigration detainees under an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security.

The problems at the Bureau of Prisons transcend administrations and facilities.

An ongoing Associated Press investigation has uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons over the last few years, including widespread criminal activity by employees, dozens of escapes, the free flow of guns, drugs and other contraband, and severe understaffing that has hampered responses to emergencies.

Last year, then-President Joe Biden signed a law strengthening oversight of the agency. It remains the Justice Department’s largest agency, with more than 30,000 employees, 155,000 inmates and an annual budget of about $8 billion, but the Trump administration’s cost-cutting measures have eliminated some pay bonuses that were credited with retaining and attracting new staff.

That has resulted in long overtime shifts for some workers and the continued use of a policy known as augmentation, where prison nurses, cooks, teachers and other workers are pressed into duty to guard inmates.

Infrastructure is buckling, too. A Bureau of Prisons official told Congress at a hearing in February that more than 4,000 beds within the system — the equivalent of at least two full prisons — are unusable because of dangerous conditions like leaking or failing roofs, mold, asbestos or lead.

Deaths have plagued the federal prison system

Since mid-March, 11 federal prison inmates have died. They include David Knezevich, a 37-year-old Florida businessman who was found dead April 28 in a suspected suicide at a federal jail in Miami. He was awaiting trial on charges he kidnapped and killed his estranged wife in Spain.

And on April 24, inmate Ramadhan Jaabir Justice was killed in a fight at the federal penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana, where he was serving a nearly 11-year sentence for a conviction related to an armed robbery.

As Trump was ordering Alcatraz’s reopening Sunday, correctional officers at the same Miami jail were fighting to curb the spread of tuberculosis and COVID-19, isolating inmates after they tested positive for the diseases. Last month, immigration detainees at the facility ripped out a fire sprinkler and flooded a holding cell during a lengthy intake process.

Meanwhile, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Alcatraz, the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, has sat idle for more than a year after the Bureau of Prisons cleared it of inmates in the wake of rampant sexual abuse by employees, including the warden.

In December, the agency made the closure permanent and idled six prison camps across the country to address “significant challenges, including a critical staffing shortage, crumbling infrastructure and limited budgetary resources.”

While Trump hails Alcatraz as a paragon of the federal prison system’s cherished past, other facilities stand as reminders of its recent troubles.

They include the federal jail in Manhattan, which remains idle after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide there in 2019 exposed deep flaws in its operations, and a troubled federal lockup in Brooklyn, where 23 inmates have been charged in recent months with crimes ranging from smuggling weapons in a Doritos bag to the stabbing last month of a man convicted in the killing of hip-hop legend Jam Master Jay.

​ Orange County Register 

Canadian Prime Minister Carney arrives in Washington for a high-stakes meeting with President Trump

• May 6, 2025

By ROB GILLIES and JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, won the job with a promise to confront the increased aggression shown by President Donald Trump — and he’ll have the opportunity to do that in a face-to-face Oval Office meeting on Tuesday.

Trump has shattered a decades-old alliance by saying he wants to make Canada the 51st U.S. state and levying steep tariffs against an essential partner in the manufacturing of autos and the supply of oil, electricity and other goods. The outrage provoked by Trump enabled Carney’s Liberal Party to score a stunning comeback victory last month as the ongoing trade war and attacks on Canadian sovereignty have outraged voters.

The Republican president has repeatedly threatened that he intends to make Canada the “51st state.” He said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday that the border is an “artificial line” that prevents the two territories from forming a “beautiful country.”

Trump’s openly adversarial approach has raised questions for Carney and other world leaders on how to manage relations with the U.S. Some world leaders, such as the United Kingdom’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, engaged in a charm offensive. Others, such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, were met by Trump with anger for not being sufficiently deferential.

Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto, said Carney shouldn’t meet with Trump.

“We’ve seen what he does. We saw what he did with Zelenskyy,” Bothwell said. “And he would sure as hell try to do the same with Carney. It’s not in Carney’s interest. It’s not in Canada’s interest.”

Trump and Carney will meet in the Oval Office and have lunch. Carney has stressed that he was elected to specifically “stand up” to the U.S. president and that Canada is “in a once-in-a-lifetime crisis.” Carney said he expects “difficult” but “constructive” conversations with his U.S. counterpart.

Trump told reporters on Monday that he wasn’t quite sure why Carney was visiting.

“I’m not sure what he wants to see me about,” Trump said. “But I guess he wants to make a deal.”

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick further stoked doubts about their interest in repairing the relationship with Canada in a Monday interview on Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow” show.

Asked if the U.S. could make a deal with Canada, Lutnick called the country a “socialist regime” that has been “basically feeding off America.” Lutnick said Tuesday’s meeting would be “fascinating.”

Carney, at a Friday news conference ahead of his trip, said the talks would focus on immediate trade pressures and the broader economic and national security relationships. He said his “government would fight to get the best deal for Canada” and “take all the time necessary” to do so, even as Canada pursues a parallel set of talks to deepen relations with other allies and lessen its commitments with the U.S.

Trump has maintained that the U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada. He is actively going after a Canadian auto sector built largely by U.S. companies, saying, “They’re stopping work in Mexico, and they’re stopping work in Canada, and they’re all moving here.” He also said the U.S. doesn’t need Canada’s energy — though nearly one-fourth of the oil that the U.S. consumes daily comes from the province of Alberta.

The president has also disparaged Canada’s military commitments despite a partnership that ranges from the beaches of Normandy in World War II to remote stretches of Afghanistan.

Trump has said that Canada spends “less money on military than practically any nation in the world.”

“They pay NATO less than any nation,” he said. “They think we are subsidizing. They think we are going to protect them, and, really, we are. But the truth is, they don’t carry their full share, and it’s unfair to the United States and our taxpayers.”

Bothwell noted that Carney might be under little pressure to reach a quick deal as Trump has at times reversed, delayed or defanged his tariffs, such that over time Trump might be in a weaker position if talks are prolonged.

“It may not matter as much in the summer as it does today because every time he’s made one of these announcements, next week it’s, ‘Oh, I had my fingers crossed. I didn’t mean it,’” he said of Trump.

Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University, said Carney needed the quickly scheduled meeting with Trump to address the trade war started by the U.S. Trump has imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum and tariffs on other products outside the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, in some cases ostensibly to address relatively low volumes of fentanyl intercepted at the border between the two countries.

“Carney wants to show that he’s doing everything he can, including taking political risks to protect Canadian jobs in areas such as the auto industry,” Béland said. ”If he had postponed his first meeting with President Trump for months and months, opposition parties and commentators could have accused him of being overly shy and doing a disservice to Canada because of that.”

Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada.

Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security. Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and 77% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S.

​ Orange County Register 

US imposes sanctions on Myanmar ethnic militia for ‘facilitating cyber scams’

• May 6, 2025

BANGKOK (AP) — An ethnic militia in southeastern Myanmar that has been sanctioned by the United States for alleged involvement in human trafficking and online scams on Tuesday denied the accusations.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday announced sanctions against the Karen National Army, or KNA, as well as its leader Col. Saw Chit Thu and his sons, Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit. They are accused of “facilitating cyber scams that harm U.S. citizens, human trafficking, and cross-border smuggling,” according to a Treasury Department statement.

“Cyber scam operations, such as those run by the KNA, generate billions in revenue for criminal kingpins and their associates, while depriving victims of their hard-earned savings and sense of security,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender. “Treasury is committed to using all available tools to disrupt these networks and hold accountable those who seek to profit from these criminal schemes.”

Those who are hired to carry out the scams have often been tricked into taking the jobs under false pretences and find themselves trapped in virtual slavery.

The sanctions block the targeted individuals and their companies from accessing money and assets under U.S. control, and prohibit U.S. citizens from providing financial services to them.

Saw Chit Thu has already been sanctioned by the European Union and the U.K. for profiting from scam compounds and human trafficking.

Lt. Col. Naing Maung Zaw, a spokesperson for the KNA — which operates as the Karen ethnic minority’s official Border Guard Force affiliated with Myanmar’s military government — said the group’s activities are aimed at regional development and not related to cyber scams.

He described the U.S. sanctions as a deliberate act of abasement by a powerful country over a weaker one.

“They are doing it because they can,” he told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Local militias in several border regions have de facto control in areas where their minority groups are dominant. The KNA controls Shwe Kokko and some areas in Myawaddy, on the border with Thailand in the state of Kayin, also known as Karen state.

Shwe Kokko and Myawaddy are known havens for criminal syndicates that have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia and elsewhere into helping run online scams, including romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes. Critics have accused the KNA of being involved in the criminal activities, at least to the extent of providing protection to the scam centers.

Naing Maung Zaw said scam operations were carried out not only in areas controlled by the KNA but also in other places in Myawaddy.

He acknowledged that his group rented land to some businesses holding the property where scam centers were located and said the KNA would continue with its mass repatriation of the foreigners working in scam centers, which it carries out in cooperation with the military government.

He said 7,454 of 8,575 foreign scam workers have been repatriated through Thailand following a crackdown on the scam centers by Thailand, Myanmar and China in February.

Naing Maung Zaw said more than 10,000 people remain to be identified in the KNA-controlled areas, and the group will continue to work toward the elimination of scam activities.

Kayin state, which is dominated by the Karen ethnic minority, has seen intense armed conflict since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

The U.S. has previously imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s military leaders, their suppliers and state-owned banks in connection with alleged human rights abuses

​ Orange County Register 

CIF-SS swimming and diving: State diving qualifier highlights Day 1

• May 6, 2025

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Here is the schedule for this week’s CIF-SS swimming and diving championships at Mt. SAC in Walnut:

TUESDAY

Swimming: Division 4 prelims, 9 a.m.

Diving: CIF State qualifier, 2 p.m.

O.C. girls diving entries: (Girls listed by section score) Corinna Ruffini (Newport Harbor, Jr.) 526.40; Violet Carone (Newport Harbor, Jr.) 482.30; Allison McNichols (Edison, So.) 464.30; Nikka Asgarian (Newport Harbor, Jr.) 462.80; Makenna Milne (Orange Lutheran, Sr.) 443.50

O.C. boys diving entries: (listed by section score): Grant Schneider (Capistrano Valley Christian, Sr.) 600.35; Chase Shipp (Laguna Beach, Sr.) 565.80; Braeden Valenzuela (San Juan Hills); 555.10; Valentino Nieto (Santa Margarita, Sr.) 506.70; Johnathon Reidel (Capistrano Valley, Sr.) 408.70; Ian Dien (Edison, Sr.) 401.75; Matthew Strychaz (Aliso Niguel, Fr.) 397.65; Ethan Mak (University) 351.50

WEDNESDAY

Swimming: Division 3 prelims, 9 a.m.

Swimming: Division 2 prelims, 4 p.m.

THURSDAY

Swimming: Division 1 prelims, 9 a.m.

Swimming: Division 4 finals, 4 p.m.

FRIDAY

Swimming: Division 3 finals, 10 a.m.

Swimming: Division 4 finals, 4 p.m.

SATURDAY

Swimming: Division 1 finals, noon

O.C. SWIMMING RECORD AND LEADING TIMES

BOYS

(O.C. record) O.C. leading time this season

200-yard medley relay (O.C. record 1:29.01 SM 2023) — Woodbridge 1:32.79

200 free (O.C. record 1:33.26 Shoults 2016) — Maksymowski (Nor) 1:35.81

200 IM (O.C. record 1:45.42 Okubo) — Vu (FV) 1:48.43

50 free (O.C. record 19.69 Cavic) —  Ohl (NH) 19.79

100 butterfly (O.C. record 46.47 Schmitt) — Arie (NH) 48.28; Hitchens (Nor) 48.29

100 free (O.C. record 43.85 Buyukuncu) — Hitchens (Nor) 44.50

500 free (O.C. record 4:12.87 Shoults) — Maksymowski (Nor) 4:25.28

200 free relay (O.C. record 1:22.08 SM) — Northwood 1:22.55

100 back (O.C. record 47.36 Najera) — Hitchens (Nor) 48.47

100 breast (O.C. record 53.40 Pellini) — Vu (FV) 54.62

400 free relay (O.C. record 2:58.04 Nor) — Northwood 2:59.69

GIRLS

(O.C. record) O.C. leading time this season

200 medley relay (O.C. record 1:39.04) — SM 1:42.36

200 free (O.C. record 1:42.98 O’Dell) —  O’Dell 1:42.98

200 IM (O.C. record 1:53.38 O’Dell) — Nguyen (FV) 1:59.76

50 free (O.C. record 24.40 O’Dell) — O’Dell (SM) 22.59r

100 butterfly (O.C. record 51.53 McLaughlin) — O’Dell (SM) 52.17

100 free (O.C. record 48.37 O’Dell) — O’Dell (SM) 49.15

500 free (O.C. record 4:37.30 Evans) — de Fabrique (SC) 4:51.45

200 free relay (O.C. record 1:29.61 SM) — SM 1:31.88

100 back (O.C. record 50.96 O’Dell) — O’Dell (SM) 53.67

100 breast (O.C. record 59.73 O’Dell) — Nwaizu (CC) 1:00.63

400 free relay (O.C. record 3.14.80 SM) — SM 3:26.87

​ Orange County Register