Author: Press Room

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After pouring in 19 points for Coastal Carolina in a first-round loss to Southern Miss in the Sun Belt Conference tournament on March 4, Colin Granger went back to the team hotel in Pensacola, Fla., to have dinner with his parents and discuss his future.In football.Granger had told Chanticleers coach Justin Gray that if Coastal went on an unexpected run in the conference tourney, it would be his sign that he would continue his basketball career overseas, where he had multiple offers from professional teams.If not, Granger would become the first client of George Fant, the 10-year…

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has defended a decision by President Donald Trump’s administration to apply a 10 per cent tariff on Australia despite a free trade agreement, citing the country’s ban on imports of US beef and pork.”We should be running up the score in Australia,” Greer told a Senate Finance Committee hearing in reply to a question from Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia.”Despite the agreement, they ban our beef, they ban our pork.”Australia has restricted entry of US beef due to mad cow disease concerns for more than two decades, stopping almost all shipments.Greer also told senators…

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian soldiers had captured two Chinese citizens fighting alongside Russian forces, adding that Kyiv would demand an explanation from Beijing and a reaction from its allies. Moscow and Beijing have in recent years boasted of their “no limits” partnership and deepened political, military and economic cooperation since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. “Our military captured two Chinese citizens who fought in the Russian army. This happened on the territory of Ukraine – in the Donetsk region,” Zelenskyy said in a post on social media on Tuesday. “We have the documents of these prisoners,…

Elbridge Colby will now assume the Pentagon’s number three post after a contentious Senate battle ended in a vote to confirm him to the role.The Senate voted 51 to 45 to confirm the national security strategist as Defense Department undersecretary for policy, with three Democrats joining most Republicans in voting in his favor. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was the lone Republican no vote. Colby successfully overcame skepticism from GOP hawks like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who worried over his previous statements on Iran, even as he lost the former Senate majority leader. “Elbridge Colby’s long public record suggests a willingness to discount…

The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a ruling from a federal judge in California that had ordered the Trump administration to rehire thousands of fired federal workers who had been on probationary status.The court’s brief order said the nonprofit groups that had sued to challenge the dismissals had not suffered the sort of injury that gave them standing to sue.The practical consequences of the ruling may be limited, as another trial judge’s ruling requiring the reinstatement of many of the same workers remains in place.Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, but she gave no reasons. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the court…

Canada’s tariff war with the U.S. has many homegrown companies hoping customers remember there’s more to them than their names. Despite branding themselves with nods to the U.S., Boston Pizza, New York Fries, Montana’s, California Sandwiches and The Great American Backrub are all Canadian and have been working to ensure the public doesn’t forget.“Not going to lie, we’ve had to do a little bit of pivoting,” said Alyssa Berenstein, senior director of marketing at Vaughan, Ont.-headquartered New York Fries.“We’ve had to do a little bit of answering questions to consumers who may or may not understand the fact that we…

Households would be given a modest seven per cent fall in their gas bills and three per cent cut to their electricity bills, under the coalition’s plan to pump the market with gas to drive down energy costs.The coalition released the promised modelling into its national gas plan on Tuesday night, that would make companies keep gas in the Australian market.Industrial customers are being promised a 15 per cent reduction in retail gas bills, with a forecast eight per cent decrease in wholesale electricity prices.Opposition Leader Peter Dutton revealed his gas reservation policy in his budget reply speech last month,…

PANAM CITY: The Hong Kong firm in charge of two key Panama Canal ports has flouted the terms of its contract, according to a Panamanian audit released on Monday (Apr 7), as US and Chinese firms fight for business on the waterway after President Donald Trump threatened to seize it. The audit found “many breaches” of the concession awarded to a subsidiary of logistics giant CK Hutchison to operate the two ports, and concluded that Panama did not receive US$1.2 billion it was owed under the contract. The subsidiary, called Panama Ports, benefited from many tax exemptions and also had irregularities…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in the past listed the three main threats facing Israel as “Iran, Iran and Iran.” He has largely staked his career on being Israel’s protector against Iranian nuclear ambitions, has openly confronted Tehran in recent months and is at war with Iran-backed militias around the region.Many Israelis were therefore surprised when President Trump, with Mr. Netanyahu sitting beside him, announced on Monday that the United States would engage in “direct” negotiations with Iran on Saturday in a last-ditch effort to rein in the country’s nuclear program.Mr. Trump’s statement was splashed over the front pages of…

Washington — The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to halt a lower court order that required six federal agencies to rehire more than 16,000 probationary workers who had been fired.The high court granted a request for emergency relief from the Trump administration, which sought to move forward with its efforts to drastically scale back the size of the federal government as legal proceedings continue. In an unsigned order, the Supreme Court said the injunction issued by the district court in mid-March “was based solely on the allegations of the nine non-profit-organization plaintiffs in this case. But under established law, those…