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  • Why is Melania Trump speaking out about Epstein now?

    Why is Melania Trump speaking out about Epstein now?

    In a surprising turn of events that has captured Washington’s attention, former first lady Melania Trump has publicly broken her long silence surrounding allegations of ties between herself and the deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, issuing a clear and firm denial of any association. The rare on-the-record statement to reporters marks one of the few instances in recent years that Melania has directly addressed a high-profile, controversial conspiracy theory that has circulated in political circles and tabloid media for years.

    Epstein, a wealthy financier, was convicted of sex offenses in 2008 and was facing new federal charges of sex trafficking involving underage girls when he died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019. His death, and his extensive network of high-profile political and business connections, spawned countless unsubstantiated rumors and wild speculation, with a number of baseless claims attempting to draw connections between Epstein and members of the Trump family.

    During her recent interaction with the press, Melania Trump pushed back firmly against these lingering allegations, stating bluntly that all claims that seek to link her to the late offender have no basis in fact and must stop immediately. Political analysts note that the timing of this statement has sparked questions across the political spectrum, as it comes amid a renewed wave of attention on Epstein’s connections amid new legal developments linked to his co-conspirators, and as former President Donald Trump ramps up his 2024 presidential campaign. Some political observers speculate that the former first lady chose to speak out now to preempt any renewed attacks on the Trump family ahead of what is expected to be a tightly contested election cycle, while others note that the recent resurfacing of old rumors on social media may have prompted her to address the claims directly to clear her name.

    So far, no credible evidence has ever emerged to support any claims of a professional or personal connection between Melania Trump and Jeffrey Epstein beyond the few documented social encounters that have long been a matter of public record involving other members of the Trump organization. The former first lady’s statement is a rare direct intervention into a political controversy, and it has successfully drawn a line under the lingering speculation for many observers, though it is expected to keep the topic of Epstein’s connections in the public eye in the coming months.

  • OpenAI boss Sam Altman’s home targeted with Molotov cocktail

    OpenAI boss Sam Altman’s home targeted with Molotov cocktail

    A violent, targeted incident has rocked the San Francisco Bay Area tech community, after a 20-year-old man was taken into custody following a Molotov cocktail attack on the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, one of the most high-profile leaders in the global artificial intelligence space. The attack left a perimeter gate at Altman’s property engulfed in flames, according to law enforcement reports.

    The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) confirmed that first responders were dispatched to a disturbance call in the city’s upscale North Beach neighborhood in the early hours of Friday. While department officials initially declined to name the target of the attack or the suspect, an OpenAI spokesperson later verified that the targeted residence belonged to Altman, who serves as chief executive of the ChatGPT-developing AI firm. The spokesperson added that the same suspect was linked to a separate incident: threatening actions carried out at OpenAI’s main San Francisco headquarters.

    Thankfully, the incident did not result in any injuries to people at either location. “We deeply appreciate how quickly SFPD responded and the support from the city in helping keep our employees safe,” the OpenAI spokesperson said in an official statement Friday.

    Police records show that the suspect had fled the scene outside Altman’s residence before officers arrived. Roughly 60 minutes after the initial attack, however, the man reappeared outside an OpenAI office building, where he reportedly threatened to “burn down the building.” Law enforcement officers took the 20-year-old into custody at the site immediately after the threat.

    As of Friday afternoon, SFPD representatives declined to share additional details about the suspect’s custody status or potential upcoming criminal charges, noting that the investigation remains active and ongoing. No motive for the attack has been released to the public as of yet.

    Altman, a billionaire tech entrepreneur, holds multiple properties across the United States, but his primary place of residence is San Francisco, the city where OpenAI was founded and where its main operations are still based. As the most visible public face of the modern AI boom, Altman rose to global prominence after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022. The launch of the generative AI chatbot sparked an unprecedented global AI race, triggering hundreds of billions of dollars in annual corporate investment into AI research and product development across the technology industry.

    In recent weeks, Altman and OpenAI have become leading voices in the conversation around AI regulation and social impact. The company has openly acknowledged that widespread AI adoption could bring massive social and economic shifts, including widespread workforce displacement as AI systems grow more advanced and become capable of performing tasks across nearly every industry. Earlier this week, OpenAI released a set of policy proposals for governments around the world to mitigate the negative impacts of AI and prioritize human well-being, including expanded job training programs, workforce upskilling for AI-related roles, and higher tax rates for corporations and capital gains to offset shifting labor markets.

  • Trump’s blunt attack on former allies exposes splintered MAGA coalition

    Trump’s blunt attack on former allies exposes splintered MAGA coalition

    A major public rift has opened at the highest levels of U.S. conservatism, as former and current President Donald Trump launched a scathing verbal attack on four prominent right-wing commentators who have broken with him over his administration’s joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran. In a lengthy Thursday post on his Truth Social platform, Trump dismissed the critics, all past supporters who helped power his 2024 election victory, as “stupid people” that “nobody cares about” — an odd line of attack that came alongside a 372-word takedown that dedicated individual criticism to each figure. The targets included two ex-Fox News primetime hosts, Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, plus far-right media personalities Alex Jones and Candace Owens. All four were key parts of Trump’s outreach strategy to right-wing podcasters and social media influencers during his 2024 presidential run, and all previously backed his political career openly. But in his post, Trump insisted their current views have drifted so far from his “Make America Great Again” movement that they no longer belong in the coalition. “They’re not MAGA, they’re losers,” he wrote, adding that he could win their support at any time if he chose, but refuses to return their calls because he is occupied with pressing domestic and global policy matters. Tucker Carlson, the highest-rated cable news host in the U.S. before his 2023 exit from Fox News, has built a massive new audience on X (formerly Twitter) since leaving the network, where he has pushed a populist conservative agenda that has increasingly diverged from Trump’s. A vocal opponent of the Iran war from its earliest days, Carlson escalated his criticism recently, calling a profanity-laced Easter Sunday message Trump sent to Iran “vile on every level” and labeling Trump’s open threats to strike Iranian civilian energy and transportation infrastructure a clear war crime. Responding to Trump’s attack, Carlson said he still held affection for the president but felt deep sympathy for his current state. He also echoed a growing narrative among anti-war conservatives that Trump’s decision to launch the conflict stemmed from outsized influence from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming “The Israelis have him in a hammerlock.” Candace Owens, another of the targeted commentators who recently made unsubstantiated claims that conservative figure Charlie Kirk was assassinated last year over his anti-Israel positions, offered an even more blunt rebuke of Trump. “It may be time to put Grandpa up in a home,” she wrote on social media. Former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was referenced in passing in Trump’s post, also hit back publicly, echoing the growing split within conservative ranks. “President Trump has gone mad as he wages war against Iran, a broken campaign promise,” she wrote on X, adding “I fought alongside Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens and Alex Jones to help get Trump elected. We never changed. Trump did.” Greene, who dramatically split with Trump last year over what she called his failure to disclose details of government files connected to the late Jeffrey Epstein, resigned her congressional seat in January and has since ramped up her public criticism of the administration. The public break between Trump and these high-profile conservatives lays bare growing fissures in the president’s conservative base that have emerged since the launch of the Iran conflict. The split comes at a critical moment for the administration: a fragile two-week ceasefire is currently in place between U.S. forces and Iran, and Vice President JD Vance is set to lead a U.S. delegation to Pakistan for direct, face-to-face negotiations with Iranian representatives this Saturday. Despite the ongoing ceasefire, Trump told the New York Post on Friday that the U.S. military is currently rearming and resupplying to prepare for a resumption of hostilities if negotiations fail. Should talks collapse and conflict resume, political analysts expect internal opposition to the war within Trump’s own party will grow, with more conservative figures likely to join the open criticism already led by Carlson, Greene and the other targeted commentators.

  • Colorado officials trying to identify woman struck by lightning

    Colorado officials trying to identify woman struck by lightning

    A public appeal has been launched by law enforcement in Colorado to identify an unidentified young woman who was left critically injured after being struck by lightning on a suburban walking trail earlier this week. The incident unfolded in Superior, a small community located roughly 32 kilometers northwest of Denver, on Thursday evening.

    According to local law enforcement officials, a group of bystanders who heard a loud thunderclap connected to the lightning strike went outside to investigate, where they discovered the unresponsive woman. The Good Samaritans immediately initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and continued life-saving efforts until emergency response teams could arrive at the scene. First responders were dispatched to the location at approximately 17:39 local time.

    When first responders arrived, the woman had no detectable pulse and was not breathing. After sustained resuscitation work, she eventually regained a weak pulse and began breathing independently, though she remained unconscious. She was quickly airlifted to a major trauma center in Denver for urgent medical care.

    As of mid-morning Friday, the patient has stabilized slightly, with a regular heart rate and continued independent breathing, but she remains in critical condition, per an update from the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office shared on Facebook. Officials have not been able to confirm her identity, as she was carrying no form of identification when found, and her mobile phone was completely destroyed by the lightning strike. Her fingerprints also do not match any records on file in law enforcement databases.

    Law enforcement has released a detailed description of the victim to aid in identification. She is believed to be between 20 and 30 years old, a white woman standing 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing roughly 54 kilograms, with distinctive red or auburn hair. She has three butterfly tattoos on her upper right arm, and was wearing a green running top, black running shorts with white trim, white or pink running shoes, and a grey or black windbreaker jacket at the time of the strike. No photo of the woman is being released to the public at this time, officials confirmed, as she has sustained significant facial trauma from the strike and does not resemble her typical appearance.

    Authorities have already cross-referenced the description with active missing person reports across the region, but have not yet found a matching case. The primary goal of the public appeal is to connect the injured woman with her family members, who can be with her at the hospital as she receives care.

    “Obviously, we want to connect her with her loved ones and family, so they can be there at the hospital with her,” said Carrie Haverfield, public information officer for the sheriff’s office, in an interview with the BBC. “So we’re asking the community if they have anyone fitting the description put out, a loved one, family member, who they’ve been unable to get ahold of.”

    Haverfield noted that while Superior sits on Colorado’s Front Range, an area of prairie and foothills rather than the high elevation mountain terrain where lightning strikes are more commonly reported, the state as a whole experiences a high volume of lightning activity annually. National Weather Service data estimates that roughly 500,000 lightning strikes hit the ground across Colorado each year. Between 2006 and 2024, the Lightning Safety Council ranks Colorado third in the United States for total lightning-related fatalities, only behind Florida and Texas which claim the top two spots. Nationwide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that around 40 million lightning strikes hit U.S. ground every year, though the annual odds of an individual being struck remain less than one in a million.

    Anyone with information that could help identify the victim is asked to contact the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office immediately.

  • Great at gaming? US air traffic control wants you to apply

    Great at gaming? US air traffic control wants you to apply

    Facing a years-long staffing crisis that has already contributed to high-profile aviation disasters, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is launching an unconventional new recruitment drive: targeting skilled video game players to fill thousands of vacant air traffic controller roles. The agency’s hiring window opens next week, and the new marketing campaign builds on similar outreach efforts launched during the Biden administration to attract a new generation of qualified candidates.

    The campaign’s core pitch leans into an intuitive alignment between gaming expertise and the demands of air traffic control. The opening of the campaign’s promotional video spotlights the Xbox logo before cutting to a dynamic montage, alternating between clips of gamers competing in online matches and working air traffic controllers monitoring flight data on their screens. The tagline cuts straight to the point: “You’ve been training for this.” In addition to leaning into the transferable skills gamers already hold, the ad also highlights the role’s lucrative compensation, noting that controllers can earn up to $155,000 annually after just three years on the job.

    U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy emphasized that the outreach strategy is a necessary adaptation to connect with younger workers who already possess the core competencies the role requires. “This new strategy taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller,” Duffy explained in an official statement. This approach is not entirely new: it echoes the Biden administration’s 2021 “Level Up” recruitment campaign, which used popular gaming terminology to draw experienced players into applicant pools for open controller roles.

    Air traffic control is one of the most safety-critical roles in commercial aviation. Controllers are responsible for monitoring all aircraft moving through airport airspace, on taxiways, and on runways, directing movements to prevent mid-air collisions, ground incidents, and other safety hazards. Industry guidance for the role notes that it demands rapid, calm decision-making under high pressure, sharp spatial awareness, and advanced technical proficiency – skills that many experienced video game players develop through hours of interactive gameplay.

    Yet despite the critical nature of the role, persistent staffing shortages have plagued the industry for years, and the problem is projected to worsen over the coming decade, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last year, the FAA reported it needed 14,663 active controllers to operate at full capacity, but was already short at least 3,000 workers. The agency also projected that twice that number – roughly 6,000 current controllers – will retire or leave the profession by 2028. While Duffy noted Friday that current staffing levels are the highest they have been in six years, he did not release updated specific numbers to confirm the improvement.

    Labor leaders who represent working controllers have expressed support for the innovative approach, so long as strict safety and qualification standards remain in place. Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union that represents U.S. air traffic controllers, said the organization backs efforts to expand the candidate pool by targeting groups with existing relevant skills. “Our union welcomes innovative approaches to expanding the candidate pool, including outreach to individuals with high-level aptitude skills such as gamers, so long as all pathways maintain the rigorous standards required of this safety-critical profession,” Daniels said.

    The new recruitment push comes in the wake of two deadly high-profile aviation incidents linked to air traffic control operations in recent years. In early 2025, a mid-air collision between an army helicopter and a commercial passenger jet near Washington DC’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport killed 67 people. Earlier this year, an Air Canada passenger jet collided with an airport fire truck on the ground at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing two commercial pilots. These incidents have amplified public pressure on the FAA to resolve its persistent staffing shortfall and strengthen aviation safety across the U.S. national airspace system.

  • The five big sticking points in US-Iran talks

    The five big sticking points in US-Iran talks

    Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, is fully prepped and waiting this week to host what may be the most consequential diplomatic negotiations of 2026: direct talks between the United States and Iran. Local crews have repainted road curbs in high-visibility yellow and black, security teams have deployed to their posts across the venue zone, and authorities have even declared a two-day public holiday for the capital to clear the way for the high-profile gathering. As the host nation, Pakistani officials have struck an optimistic tone, noting that they hold rare mutual trust with both Washington and Tehran – a fragile balance that made this breakthrough meeting possible in the first place.

    Leading the US delegation to the talks is Vice President JD Vance, who has signaled cautious openness while issuing a clear warning to Iranian negotiators ahead of his departure from Washington. “If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand,” Vance said. But he added a sharp caveat: “If they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive.” On the Iranian side, reports indicate Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will serve as co-leader of Tehran’s negotiation team.

    Despite the carefully laid groundwork, a cascade of interconnected challenges threatens to derail the talks before formal negotiations even begin. The most immediate flashpoint is Israel’s ongoing military campaign against Hezbollah, Iran’s powerful Lebanese ally and key member of Tehran’s regional “Axis of Resistance”. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has issued a blunt warning that continued Israeli military action renders the entire negotiation process meaningless. “Our fingers remain on the trigger. Iran will never abandon its Lebanese sisters and brothers,” Pezeshkian wrote in a post on X.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remained firm, stating there will be “no ceasefire” in the campaign against Hezbollah, though repeated evacuation warnings for Beirut’s southern suburbs have not yet been followed by a full-scale ground incursion. Former US President Donald Trump, who remains a central figure in shaping US policy in the region, has said he expects Israeli operations in Lebanon to shift to “a little more low key” in the coming days. The US State Department has also announced that direct Israeli-Lebanese negotiations will begin in Washington next week, a move designed to de-escalate tensions ahead of the US-Iran talks. Even so, it remains unclear whether the scaled-back operations will be enough to satisfy Tehran and keep the Islamabad talks on track.

    A second major point of friction ahead of the talks centers on the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic oil shipping chokepoint that connects the Persian Gulf to global markets. Since a preliminary ceasefire between the US and Iran took effect, only a tiny trickle of commercial vessels have been allowed to pass through the strait, leaving hundreds of ships and an estimated 20,000 seafarers stranded inside the Gulf. Trump has publicly slammed Iran for failing to honor an apparent agreement to open the waterway, calling Tehran’s performance “very poor” and accusing the country of acting dishonourably in a Truth Social post. “This is not the agreement we have!” he declared.

    Tehran has moved to formalize its control over the strait, claiming the waterway as sovereign Iranian territory and announcing plans to implement a new regulatory regime for transiting vessels. Last week, it unveiled new transit routes north of the existing two-way shipping lanes, justifying the change as a necessary measure to avoid anti-ship mines laid in the main traffic corridor – a statement that has stoked existing anxiety among global shipping companies. Adding to tensions, widespread reports suggest Iran has been charging passing tankers a $2 million toll for transit, a move Trump has warned Tehran against continuing.

    By far the most intractable and long-standing dispute on the negotiating table is Iran’s nuclear program. Trump launched Operation Epic Fury earlier this year with the explicit goal of ensuring Iran “can never have a nuclear weapon”. Iran has repeatedly denied seeking to build a nuclear bomb, a claim most Western governments view with deep skepticism, but maintains that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it retains the legal right to enrich uranium for peaceful civilian purposes.

    Tehran has put forward a 10-point negotiation framework that Trump has acknowledged is “a workable basis on which to negotiate”, with one of its core demands being international recognition of Iran’s sovereign right to uranium enrichment. By contrast, Trump’s reported 15-point counter-plan requires Iran to end all uranium enrichment activities on its own territory. When asked about this stark demand earlier this week, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth would only confirm that the US position remains that Iran will “never have a nuclear weapon or the capability to get a path to one”. It took global negotiators more than a decade to hammer out the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the landmark deal that addressed the nuclear issue in exhaustive detail, leaving many observers skeptical that a new comprehensive agreement can be reached quickly.

    Another core sticking point is Iran’s network of regional allies and proxy groups, which extend from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza to the Houthis in Yemen and pro-Iran militias in Iraq. This network, which Tehran calls the Axis of Resistance, has given Iran substantial regional influence, allowing it to maintain a forward defense posture in its decades-long rivalry with the US and Israel. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, the entire network has come under sustained attack, with one key pillar – the regime of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad – falling completely. Israel views the network, which it calls part of an “Axis of Evil”, as an existential threat that must be fully eradicated.

    Domestically, Iran’s economy is reeling under decades of crippling international sanctions, and many Iranian citizens have called on their government to redirect spending away from regional military engagements and toward improving domestic living standards. Even so, there has been little public indication that Tehran is willing to abandon its regional allies as part of any deal with the US.

    Sanctions and frozen assets represent another immediate hurdle to even getting negotiations off the ground. Iran is demanding the full lifting of all US and international sanctions as a core condition of any final agreement. Last week, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf stated that the estimated $120 billion in frozen Iranian assets held abroad must be released before formal talks can begin. Qalibaf claimed this release was one of two pre-negotiation agreements reached between the parties, alongside a ceasefire in Lebanon. But the April 7 ceasefire announcement by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made no mention of asset releases, and it remains unclear what prior agreement Qalibaf was referencing. Most analysts agree the Trump administration is highly unlikely to make such a major concession simply to open the talks, leaving another major rift to bridge before substantive discussions can even begin.

    As the delegations prepare to sit down in Islamabad, the entire world is watching: a breakthrough could dramatically reshape Middle East security and global energy markets, while a collapse could trigger a new wave of regional escalation.

  • Charges filed after fire destroys Kimberly-Clark toilet paper warehouse

    Charges filed after fire destroys Kimberly-Clark toilet paper warehouse

    A devastating fire has swept through a large Kimberly-Clark warehouse dedicated to storing toilet paper and paper towels, leaving the facility and its inventory completely destroyed in the wake of the blaze. Emergency response teams quickly rushed to the scene to contain the spread of the fire, and in a stroke of good fortune, no individuals suffered injuries during the incident, according to official updates.

    In the aftermath of the destructive event, legal authorities have formally filed charges against parties connected to the fire, though specific details about the identity of the accused or the exact nature of the charges have not yet been fully released to the public. Investigations are still ongoing to determine the root cause of the ignition, whether it was accidental, negligent, or the result of intentional action.

    The warehouse played a key role in regional supply chains for Kimberly-Clark’s popular paper products, and while the destruction has raised temporary concerns about inventory distribution, the company has not yet announced major disruptions to consumer availability. Local officials continue to urge patience as the probe into the fire moves forward, with the legal process already underway to address any wrongdoing linked to the incident.

  • Dancer with ALS uses brainwaves to perform again through avatar

    Dancer with ALS uses brainwaves to perform again through avatar

    For decades, Breanna Olson, a mother of three from Tacoma, Washington, has dedicated her life to dance, training in ballet, contemporary, and jazz styles since early childhood. That identity was shattered two and a half years ago, when she received a devastating diagnosis: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common form of motor neurone disease (MND), a progressive, incurable condition that gradually weakens muscles, erodes control over movement, speech, swallowing, and eventually breathing. For Olson, the diagnosis meant losing the ability to do what she loved most — stepping onto a stage to dance.

    That changed last December, when Olson made history at Amsterdam’s OBA Theatre, taking part in what organizers call the first live performance of its kind. Through a breakthrough collaboration between Japanese technology firm Dentsu Lab and data company NTT, Olson used a lightweight electroencephalogram (EEG) headset to translate her brain activity into real-time movement for a mixed-reality avatar, allowing her to return to the stage she thought she’d left forever.

    The custom-built brain-computer interface developed for the project, called Waves of Will, works by capturing electrical signals from Olson’s brain as she imagines specific dance movements. The system processes these neural patterns and converts them into digital instructions, which control the avatar’s choreography live in front of an audience. After the performance, which earned a standing ovation from the crowd, Olson described the experience as nothing short of transformative.

    “It was exhilarating, magical,” Olson told BBC News in an interview following the performance. “I never dreamed that I would be able to dance on stage again. It was just a beautiful and memorable moment I will remember for the rest of my life.”

    Olson acknowledged that mastering the technology came with unique challenges. Users must learn to block out external sensory noise, isolate muscle interference, and focus deeply inward to generate clear neural signals for the system to read. But despite the learning curve, the performance allowed Olson to reconnect with the sense of creative expression that her illness had stolen.

    “This is a new way of expression,” she said. “To be able to move in a new way and a different way is just freeing.”

    Olson’s groundbreaking performance is part of a rapidly growing field of assistive technology development, where researchers and innovators are exploring how neural interfaces and artificial intelligence can restore autonomy, identity, and creative expression for people living with degenerative conditions. Earlier this year, Noland Arbaugh, the first person to receive a brain chip implant from Elon Musk’s Neuralink, reported that the device had allowed him to play chess again after losing motor control. Most recently, 58-year-old Yvonne Johnson, another person living with MND, shared how AI voice reconstruction tools helped her regain her personal voice after losing the ability to speak.

    For the Waves of Will team, the project was born out of a gap in existing neural technology research. “There are many brainwave technologies and research all over the world, but most of them are very expensive and not accessible to everyone,” Naoki Tanaka, chief creative officer of Dentsu Lab, told reporters. “This is exactly why we started Waves of Will — to make a new, more accessible brainwave interface.”

    Mariko Nakamura of NTT added that the core technology developed for the dance performance could be adapted for far wider uses beyond creative expression, including controlling assistive devices like powered wheelchairs and home remote controls for people with limited mobility.

    For Olson, the performance is about more than just her own personal return to dance. She hopes her story will shift public perceptions of people living with disabilities, pushing back against harmful narratives that frame disabled people only through the lens of illness. “I hope people will view us less as sick people or that something is wrong with us, but more like we have value and talents and wisdom,” she said. Looking forward, she wants to use her experience to give other people diagnosed with ALS hope, demonstrating that the human mind is far more capable than many assume. “We can do more than we think we can,” she noted.

    As the field of assistive neural technology continues to advance, projects like Waves of Will highlight how innovation can not only restore function for people living with disability, but also reopen doors to creative expression, connection, and participation in community life that many thought were lost forever.

  • US inflation jumps to highest level in almost two years

    US inflation jumps to highest level in almost two years

    The United States saw inflation accelerate sharply in March, reaching its highest pace in almost two years, as rising energy costs spurred by Middle East geopolitical tensions began to ripple through the broader national economy, according to the latest official data.

    The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday that the consumer price index (CPI), a key benchmark for inflation, rose 3.3% year-over-year last month, up from a 2.4% annual gain recorded in February. This abrupt jump, which economists had largely anticipated, represents one of the most significant single-month shifts in inflation since 2022, when the global economy grappled with a historic energy shock following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    The report pins March’s unexpected inflation acceleration on a dramatic spike in fuel prices, driven by disruptions to oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz linked to the ongoing US-Israel conflict with Iran. From February to March, gasoline prices surged by 21.2% — the steepest one-month increase recorded since the federal government began tracking this metric in 1967. Fuel oil prices saw an even more dramatic jump, climbing more than 30% month-over-month to mark the largest surge since February 2000.

    The burden of these soaring energy costs has fallen disproportionately on regions that already faced elevated fuel prices, such as the state of California. Data from the American Automobile Association (AAA) released Thursday puts the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in California at $5.93, far above the current national average of $4.16.

    For everyday commuters and workers who rely on personal vehicles to make a living, the price jump has upended monthly household budgets. Annel Villegas, a 23-year-old truck driver, described the current cost of fuel as “terrible”, emphasizing her frustration with strong language. “I drive a truck, so I fill it up every half tank, and now it’s like, $70 (£52), $80,” Villegas explained. She said she has already cut back on non-essential driving to offset costs, but acknowledged that many trips are unavoidable. “I have to do what I have to do to live …. I’m just dealing with whatever it brings to me – so, paying more,” she added.

    This new inflation data complicates the outlook for U.S. monetary policy, which has focused on taming price growth over the past three years. The geopolitical origins of this current inflation surge also signal ongoing global economic uncertainty, as energy market disruptions continue to drive cost-of-living increases for households across the country.

  • Melania Trump refutes claims linking her to Epstein

    Melania Trump refutes claims linking her to Epstein

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a rare, high-stakes public address from the White House Cross Hall on April 9, 2026, U.S. First Lady Melania Trump forcefully pushed back against unsubstantiated claims that have connected her to disgraced late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, calling years of circulating rumors completely fabricated.

    Standing before reporters ahead of the formal statement, the First Lady laid out a clear, categorical denial of any association with Epstein and his criminal activities. “I am not Epstein’s victim,” Melania Trump stated definitively, adding, “Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump.” She went on to reject any implication of involvement in Epstein’s crimes, emphasizing: “I have never had any knowledge of Epstein’s abuse of his victims. I was never involved in any capacity. I was not a participant.”

    The First Lady’s public rebuttal comes after years of unregulated misinformation spreading across social media platforms, where manipulated visuals and false narratives claiming a connection between her and Epstein have circulated widely. “Fake images and statements about Epstein and me have been circulating on social media for years now,” she said, confirming that every one of these claims is entirely untrue.

    Melania Trump’s address arrives months after the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed millions of pages of court documents tied to the federal investigation into Epstein. The financier was first taken into federal custody in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking, but died in a New York jail cell one month later, in August 2019, before he could stand trial.

    The publicly released documents include passing references to a number of high-profile global and American figures: former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, current U.S. President Donald Trump, and multiple members of the president’s inner circle. Multiple U.S. media outlets have reported that Donald Trump’s name is mentioned more than 1,000 times across the unsealed files, creating a new wave of political scrutiny months ahead of a pivotal political cycle, and prompting the First Lady’s unprecedented public response to personal allegations.