April 9 (Asia Today) — Drones have emerged as a game changer that is reshaping modern warfare, from the Russia-Ukraine war to the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran in the Middle East.

Scenes of suicide drones costing only a few thousand dollars knocking out tanks worth millions have sent shockwaves through defense officials around the world. As South Korea’s defense industry sweeps global markets with tanks and self-propelled howitzers, a pressing question is coming into focus: How competitive is the country’s drone technology, and is it ready for the next war?

South Korea strong in hardware, weak in software

According to defense experts and military officials, South Korea’s drone platform design capability has already reached a world-class level. Large unmanned aircraft developed by Hanwha Aerospace and Korean Air, including medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles, have demonstrated strong global competitiveness.

But the picture looks very different beneath the surface.

Among smaller drone manufacturers, the localization rate for flight controllers and core software – the brains of the drone – remains low. In many cases, companies still modify and use Chinese-made Pixhawk systems despite persistent security concerns. In the supply chain as well, South Korea has been slow to reduce dependence on China for critical parts such as motors, gearboxes and communication modules, raising red flags over supply chain security.

Industry officials say government regulation remains another major obstacle. Complaints that “the technology exists, but there is no market” continue to spread through the sector. Strict testing requirements and rigid procurement procedures have created bottlenecks that keep civilian innovation from quickly turning into military capability.

A defense industry expert said drones that are domestic in name only could remain fully exposed to data theft or remote disablement in wartime. The expert said the localization of core components directly tied to security must be the top priority for South Korea’s drone industry.

South Korea’s drone sector is often described as having a strong information technology foundation, but facing an urgent need to localize critical parts and secure battlefield readiness. Experts say the next decisive turning points will be whether the country can localize motors and transmission systems and take the lead in standards for artificial intelligence-based autonomous flight.

North Korea’s asymmetric drone threat evolves with AI and swarming

While South Korea struggles to close those gaps, North Korea’s drone threat is rapidly evolving beyond simple surveillance.

Analysts say the unmanned aircraft recently unveiled by Pyongyang are advancing toward suicide attack capabilities and AI-based autonomous flight. One military expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned that North Korea is trying to overcome its weakness in hardware through three forms of low-cost, high-volume drone warfare backed by AI technology.

The first is the suicide drone, or kamikaze drone, which poses a severe threat in cost-effectiveness because a cheap drone can destroy military assets worth vastly more. The second is the swarm drone tactic, in which dozens of drones attack at the same time to overload radar and air defense networks. The third is the AI-equipped autonomous drone, which can ignore GPS jamming, recognize terrain on its own and press toward its target.

North Korea has also unveiled drones modeled after U.S. systems such as the Global Hawk and Reaper, emerging as a new source of threat. In peacetime, such aircraft could be used for surveillance of the Seoul metropolitan area and frontline units near the Demilitarized Zone. In wartime, they could become a serious asymmetric threat capable of striking mechanized ground forces through low-altitude penetration, even if South Korea and the United States secure control of the skies.

Unhappily for South Korea, the military’s shield against such threats remains in its infancy. Laser-based air defense weapons are being fielded, but experts say they are still not enough to completely stop ultra-small, low-flying drones.

Defense specialists and drone manufacturers say that if South Korea wants to rise as a true drone power, it must now place its bet on AI-based manned-unmanned teaming systems and anti-drone technology.

Modern warfare, they say, is now an age of evolutionary acquisition. Rather than waiting for a weapon to become 100% perfect, militaries must field systems that are 80% ready, learn from feedback and build them into something stronger. If enemy drones are using AI overhead to choose targets while South Korea remains tied down by regulation and dependence on Chinese-made parts, the outcome could become painfully clear.

Experts say the government and military must recognize that drone sovereignty is survival. They argue that a fast track must be opened so civilian innovation can cross immediately into military service before the gap becomes a battlefield liability.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260409010002881

Jonny Clayton came from 5-2 down to beat Michael van Gerwen 6-5 and claim his third nightly win to move top of the Premier League.

Van Gerwen missed four match darts in total as the Welshman reeled off four straight legs to take the win in Brighton.

Victory takes Clayton, who began the evening in third, three points above Luke Littler after the world champion was beaten by Stephen Bunting in the quarter-finals and failed to add to his points tally.

While Van Gerwen had the edge both in terms of average and checkout percentage in the final, Clayton produced when it mattered as he made the seven-time champion pay for failing to wrap up the match at 5-2 and 5-4 and forced a decider.

Clayton then finished it in style, hitting two 180s in the leg before sealing it on double 16.

“I thought the game was over at 5-2 up for Michael,” Clayton told Sky Sports.

“He missed, he gave me a chance. You’ve got to take chances. That last leg was probably my best of the game.

“I’m back on top of the table, Luke Littler can start chasing me again.”

Despite falling just short of a first nightly win since the opening week in Newcastle, Van Gerwen’s run to the final helped him shore up his play-off place and open up a four-point gap to fellow Dutchman Gian van Veen in fifth.

NICOLE Kidman commandos attention by going undies-free in a sheer-sided dress.

The actress, 58, wore the striking monochrome frock to the premiere of her Apple TV series Margo’s Got Money Troubles.

She also cuddled co-star Elle Fanning in New York.

Elle, meanwhile, blew out candles on a cake for her 28th birthday yesterday.

Nicole is planning a holiday with her teen daughters after her split last year from their country singer dad Keith Urban, 58.

She said: “I have teenage girls, and we want to have our whole summer (together).

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“We’re going to go have some summer fun.”

Nicole is growing close to a fellow Aussie actor after her divorce from country singer husband Keith.

The twice-married Hollywood A-lister was snapped clasping hands with Simon Baker, 56.

He plays her husband in Prime Video series Scarpetta in which she is a forensic pathologist investigating a series of murders.

The pair were seen cosying up at a screening of the series earlier this month in New York and stuck together at the after-party.

A source said: “Nicole and Simon’s closeness is definitely the talk of the town right now.

“They’re incredible together on screen and when you see them together in real life, that chemistry clearly wasn’t faked.

“At the after-party they stayed close all night and were deep in conversation.”

WASHINGTON — Pivotal negotiations in Pakistan this weekend between the United States and Iran could hinge on developments in Lebanon, where ongoing Israeli strikes Thursday risked derailing a wider regional ceasefire.

Tensions only deepened amid reports of limited Iranian drone attacks across the region, and as Arab states warned that the Strait of Hormuz — a vital global shipping route — had only partially reopened despite President Trump’s assurances that Tehran had guaranteed full access.

Yet tests of the ceasefire have not deterred Iranian and American officials from their plans to travel to Pakistan on Saturday for the highest-level talks between the two nations, aimed at a final agreement to end the war, now in its sixth week.

The stakes are high for Iran, which has been pummeled by U.S. attacks, and for Trump, whose pursuit of the war has been domestically unpopular. The plan appeared precarious early Thursday, amid ongoing disagreement over whether the ceasefire included Lebanon.

Iran warned that continued Israeli attacks targeting the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon could jeopardize the two-day-old truce. Hours later, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would open direct negotiations with Lebanon — but subsequently declared he would not cease strikes there.

His move to negotiate with the Lebanese came the day after President Trump asked Netanyahu to slow operations in Lebanon ahead of the Pakistan talks, a source familiar with the matter told The Times. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, told reporters Thursday that the talks starting would be “contingent” upon hostilities ceasing in Lebanon.

As Israel’s posture on Lebanon injected uncertainty into the situation Thursday, the Strait of Hormuz — which Iran agreed to reopen in the ceasefire deal — remained closed, according to Sultan Al Jaber, a government minister in the United Arab Emirates. Traffic through the strait was below 10% of its usual volume Thursday, with only seven ships passing through in a 24-hour period, Reuters reported.

Trump, however, projected optimism Thursday about the weekend negotiations in Islamabad — even as the U.S. position appeared to weaken.

“I spoke with Bibi and he’s going to low-key it. I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News. He said he was “very optimistic” that a deal with Iran was in reach.

A White House official said Vice President JD Vance will lead the U.S. delegation, which will also include special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. They would be the highest-level talks between the United States and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

An Israeli official said the separate talks with Lebanon, to be conducted by the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to Washington, would start next week at the State Department. A State Department official confirmed the agency would host the talks.

Israel is not a direct party to the weekend negotiations in Pakistan between the U.S. and Iran. But “the United States knows our red lines in terms of nuclear disarmament, proxies, ballistic missile production,” the Israeli official said. “We believe we’re on the same page here.”

The Tuesday night ceasefire deal between the United States and Iran came after 39 days of conflict in the region, set off by Trump’s Feb. 28 attack on Iran. The full terms have not been publicly disclosed, and much remains uncertain about the agreement.

The agreement got off to a shaky start Wednesday: The strait remained restricted as the Iranians accused Americans of violating the agreement and it emerged that the U.S. and Israel were at odds with Iran over whether Lebanon was part of the ceasefire.

Trump threatened late Wednesday on his social media website that if Iran did not comply with the ceasefire, “then the ‘Shootin’ Starts,’ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before.”

The deal’s status became even more fragile as Thursday dawned and Iran said Israeli strikes in Lebanon overnight violated the agreement. European leaders and the prime minister of Pakistan, which is brokering U.S.-Iran talks, warned that the operations could be putting the truce at risk.

“This is a dangerous sign of deception and lack of commitment to potential agreements,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Thursday. “The continuation of these actions will render negotiations meaningless.”

The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned of “explicit costs” for any moves Iran views as violations of the ceasefire, saying Lebanon was an “inseparable part” of the deal.

Israel and the U.S. have said that Lebanon, where Israel says it is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, was not part of the ceasefire agreement. Netanyahu said in a Thursday evening statement that he was pursuing negotiations at the request of the Lebanese government.

“There is no ceasefire in Lebanon. We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force, and we will not stop until we restore your security,” he said.

Also Thursday, House Republicans rebuffed an attempt by Democrats to vote on restricting Trump’s war powers. Democratic leaders — who have raised concerns about Trump’s Easter Sunday threat to wipe out Iranian civilization and said his statement amounted to threatening war crimes — afterward called on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to bring Congress back to session.

Meanwhile, Trump railed on his social media website against conservative figures who have criticized his approach to the war, including former Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, calling them “stupid people” and proclaiming that the United States “IS NOW THE ‘HOTTEST’ COUNTRY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!”

He also continued to attack NATO members for not living up to his expectations in helping him with the war in Iran. In a post earlier Thursday, the president said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been “very disappointing” and suggested the United States needs to pressure allies in order for them to respond to its needs.

That followed a meeting Wednesday afternoon with NATO Secretary Mark Rutte at the White House, after which Trump asserted online that “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN.”

In an interview with CNN, Rutte said Trump had made his disappointment with NATO allies clear. Rutte said he had emphasized to Trump that a large majority of European nations have given the U.S. some logistical military help, such as allowing American warplanes to land at their bases and fly over their territories.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israel’s surprise barrage of airstrikes on Wednesday killed 303 people and wounded about 1,150 others, in a preliminary toll. It added that the numbers were likely to rise while search efforts for bodies and DNA testing continue.

If direct negotiations with Israel do take place, they would break a long-standing political taboo for Lebanon. Successive governments have dealt with Israeli diplomats only as far as allowing technical discussions with Lebanese military officials via the United Nations.

The prospect of direct negotiations is likely to kick up fierce opposition from Hezbollah and its political ally, the Lebanese Shiite party Amal.

Both parties — which together form the so-called Shiite Duo, are part of a voting bloc in parliament and hold important portfolios in Lebanon’s Cabinet — are already in a war of wills with the Lebanese government, which recently declared the Iranian ambassador-designate persona non grata and ordered his departure.

Amal and Hezbollah officials told the ambassador-designate to remain in Lebanon and exhorted the government to reverse its decision. He remains at the embassy in Beirut.

McDaniel and Wilner reported from Washington and Bulos from Amman, Jordan. Times staff writer Ana Ceballos in Washington contributed to this report.

One player who will carry Brazil’s World Cup hopes on his shoulders is Vinicius Jr.

The forward has eight goals in 47 appearances for Brazil and has been influential for Real Madrid again this campaign with 11 goals in La Liga and five more in the Champions League.

“Vinicius is a football star because of his talent,” Ancelotti said.

“He’s one of the most talented players in the world, so he carries this weight because everyone expects him to win the game alone and the expectations on him are higher than any other player – maybe only Kylian Mbappe right now.”

The 25-year-old has also had to deal with discrimination since moving to Spain, where he has faced 20 incidents of alleged abuse in eight years.

The latest incident came in Real Madrid’s Champions League knockout phase play-off tie at Benfica in February, following which the Brazilian winger said “racists are cowards”.

“Having a manager like my father is really good – in being close to the stars,” the Brazil assistant said.

“We just focused on what he [Vinicius] could improve and he has room for improvement. Even if he’s one of the best, maybe personal opinion, the best player in the world, but everyone has room for improvement.

“So we focus on that because we have a manager who is a specialist in making stars not feel alone and he always did that with stars like Didier Drogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski.”

Ancelotti, 36, held discussions to take charge of Scottish side Rangers last season before taking up his first managerial role at Brazilian side Botafago – only to be sacked five months later in December 2025.

The Italian, however, has continued to work with his father, who was named Brazil boss in May 2025 after four years at Real Madrid, where he won three Champions League titles and two La Liga titles over two spells.

Five-time World Cup winners Brazil have not lifted the trophy since their last triumph in 2002 but Ancelotti believes the Selecao “will be ready for the World Cup”.

“It will be difficult because it will be after a really long season,” said Ancelotti.

“There are players that will reach the World Cup with more than 60 games and this is not good. It will be not good for the show or the people that are watching.

“So we will take care of the players physically. It will be important because the weather will be so hot. It will be a competition that will be decided by small details.

“But I can say that we have a really competitive team that can play football that could be efficient in a competition like that. So we are positive.”

Brazil will face Morocco in their World Cup opener on 13 June in New Jersey before taking on Scotland and Haiti in Group C.

First Lady Melania Trump denied any relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, calling the allegations “false” in a rare White House address. She said she only had casual contact with Ghislaine Maxwell and urged US Congress to hold public hearings for Epstein’s victims.

MODEL Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is awash with glamour as she poses under an outdoor shower in a cut-out swimsuit.

The British beauty, 38, was snapped for her latest fashion venture.

Former Victoria’s Secret Angel Rosie — who has two children with her tough guy actor fiancé Jason Statham, 58 — has teamed up with Brazilian brand ViX Paula Hermanny as a designer and global ambassador.

She and Jason have been together since 2010 and have kids Jack, eight, and Isabella, three.

Last month Rosie worked flat out for a sexy new photoshoot.

She stretched back in a Valentino sheer dress — and struck a similar pose on top of a Sydney skyscraper.

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She also told the April edition of Vogue Australia, out on Monday, of her love for Oasis, having seen them play live on tour last year.

She said: “It gets everybody to the dance floor or singing their hearts out.”

Action film star partner Jason Statham, 57, popped the question in 2016, but she later said getting married was “not a priority”.

A source said: “Jason might be 20 years older than Rosie, but they are on the same page with each other in so many aspects of their lives.

“Their love for each other, and their children, is incredibly reassuring and something their friends look up to.”

The couple recently teamed up for their first photoshoot together.

RALEIGH, N.C. — An Army veteran has been charged with sharing classified information about an elite commando unit with a journalist, which one official said put the country, members of the U.S. military and the nation’s allies at risk.

Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, N.C., is accused of violating federal law, as well as multiple nondisclosure agreements, by sharing details of her work with a “special military unit” at Fort Bragg, N.C.

“Anyone divulging information they vowed to protect to a reporter for publication is reckless, self-serving and damages our nation’s security,” Reid Davis, the FBI special agent in charge in North Carolina, said in a U.S. Justice Department news release.

Williams “swore an oath to safeguard our nation’s secrets as an employee supporting a Special Military Unit of the Army, but she allegedly betrayed that oath by sharing classified information with a media outlet and putting our nation, our warfighters, and our allies at risk,” Roman Rozhavsky, an assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, said in the statement.

Williams, who is specifically charged with violating a provision of the Espionage Act, appeared Wednesday in Raleigh federal court, where a magistrate judge unsealed the case against her, initially filed late last week, according to online court records. She was ordered held by the U.S. Marshals Service pending hearings set for early next week.

Court records didn’t immediately name Williams’ lawyer. A man who answered a phone and identified himself as a family member of Williams declined to comment on the charges Wednesday.

Although the reporter and unit are not named in the court filings, dates and details match an article and book about the Army’s secretive Delta Force written by Seth Harp.

Williams was the focus of a 2025 Politico article with the headline: “My Life Became a Living Hell: One Woman’s Career in Delta Force, the Army’s Most Elite Unit.” It coincided with the release of Harp’s book, “The Fort Bragg Cartel,” which alleges sexual harassment and discrimination.

In a statement published by WRAL-TV, Harp called Williams “a brave whistleblower and truth-teller.”

“Former Delta Force operators disclose `national defense information’ on podcasts and YouTube shows every day, but the government is going after Courtney for the sole reason that she exposed sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the unit,” Harp’s statement read. “This is a vindictive act of retaliation, plain and simple.”

According to an FBI affidavit attached to the complaint, Williams was cleared as a defense contractor in April 2010 and became a Department of Defense employee in November 2010.

She performed duties within the special military unit as an operational support technician responsible for “Tactics, Techniques and Procedures” used in preparation for and during “sensitive missions,” Special Agent Jocelyn Fox wrote in the affidavit.

According to Fox, Williams’ access to classified information was suspended “based on an internal investigation.” Fox said Williams was debriefed in September 2015 and signed a nondisclosure agreement.

The government alleges that Williams had been in contact with the unnamed journalist between 2022 and 2025.

“During this period, Williams and the Journalist had over 10 hours of telephone calls and exchanged more than 180 messages,” the news release said.

Fox cited a text between the two she said occurred on or about the day the book and article were published.

“Other than a few factual errors, I would definitely have been concerned with the amount of classified information being disclosed,” Williams’ text read, according to the affidavit. “I thought things I was telling you so you could have a better general understanding of how the (SMU) was set up or operated would not be published and it feels like an entire TTP (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures) was sent out in my name giving them a chance to legally persecute me.”

Fox also cited an alleged exchange between Williams and her mother.

”`I might actually get arrested, and I don’t even get a free copy of the book,’” the affidavit read. “When her mother asked why she may be arrested, Williams responded `for disclosing classified information.’”

Fox wrote that the investigation so far has identified at least 10 batches of documents gathered that Williams intended to provide to the journalist.

Breed and Robertson write for the Associated Press. AP writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

The Dept. of Justice is investigating the NFL’s media deals with streaming companies as more of its games go behind subscription pay walls.

The investigation first reported by the Wall Street Journal centers on the financial impact of live sports streaming on consumers and whether the league’s traditional broadcast partners are getting fair treatment.

The Justice Dept. did not respond to a request for comment. A government official told NBC News the DOJ’s investigation into the NFL is “about affordability for consumers and creating an even playing field for providers.”

Early last month, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah requested the investigation in a letter to the DOJ, and issued a statement Thursday on X saying he was glad to see it move forward.

The Sports Broadcasting Act passed by Congress in 1961 allowed professional football teams to collectively license the TV rights of their games to national broadcast networks without running afoul of anti-trust laws. Lee noted that courts have recognized the act refers to broadcasts “financed through advertising and made available free to the public.”

Lee said sports packages that go behind subscription paywalls “no longer align” with the intention of the act which was passed when the public only had access to three TV networks.

The NFL has not received a letter from the DOJ saying it is under investigation, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment. But the league issued a statement asserting that fans can see every NFL game played by the teams in their markets for free on broadcast TV unlike every other major sport.

“The NFL’s media distribution model is the most fan and broadcaster-friendly in the entire sports and entertainment industry,” the league said. “The NFL has for decades put our fans front and center in how we distribute our content.”

The NFL said 87% its games can be watched on free TV. The other 13% on streaming and cable platforms are made available on the local TV stations of the teams involved in those contests.

The sports rights landscape has shifted dramatically in the last 10 years as deep pocketed tech companies such as Amazon, Google and Netflix have provided the NFL with significant leverage in its negotiations with its longtime TV partners NBC, CBS, Fox and ESPN.

While streaming companies initially eschewed live sports because of the high cost of rights fees, they have found them to be an effective way to bring a massive number of viewers to their platforms.

Amazon Prime Video is paying $1.5 billion a year for the rights to “Thursday Night Football,” a package that was a money loser when carried by the broadcast networks. Netflix has picked up the rights to games on Christmas Day, while Google’s YouTube became the home of the Sunday Ticket package that gives subscribers access to out-of-market games.

The pressure from the newer competitors comes at a time when companies with traditional TV networks depend on the NFL more than ever as it provides the highest rated programming by a wide margin. The NFL packages also give TV station groups with leverage in negotiating carriage deal fees with cable and satellite companies.

Tensions over the rising rights fees are growing as the NFL has the right to open up the deal with Paramount, because the company underwent an ownership change last year when acquired by Skydance Media. The league is reportedly looking for another $1 billion annually from Paramount which is already paying $2.1 billion a year for its package of games on CBS.

The league has also made it clear it plans to exercise its option in 2029 to open the current 10-year media rights contract that runs through the 2032-33 season.

Fox Corporation — home of the Trump-friendly Fox News Channel — heavily depends on the NFL for programming on its TV stations — has already raised concerns about the renegotiation.

Executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch has said he believes the $2.5 billion a year Fox pays the NFL is “fair market value.” But he has also told Wall Street analysts the company may have to re-examine its other sports deals in preparation to pay more to the NFL going forward.

Last week, Fox and station group owner Sinclair Broadcasting filed a statement with the FCC asserting that the NFL’s antitrust exemption does not apply to streaming platforms that require paid subscriptions.

“Congress provided a valuable exemption from the antitrust laws for leagues that bargain collectively for sports broadcasting,” wrote Joseph Di Scipio, Fox Corp.’s senior VP, legal and FCC compliance. “But on its face, the statute does not exempt negotiations that the leagues may have with streaming services.”

In a statement read out on television, Mojtaba Khamenei said Tehran will ‘demand compensation’ for damages due to the war.

Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has claimed a “final victory” in the war with Israel and the United States, as a fragile ceasefire continues to be threatened by Israel’s continuing offensive on Lebanon.

Marking 40 days since his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a US-Israeli attack on the first day of the war, Khamenei said in a statement on Thursday that, over the course of the war, Iran had “astonished the world”.

Khamenei, 58, who has not been seen or heard from since the war began, said in a statement read out on television that Tehran was not seeking war but was fighting for its legitimate rights.

“We will certainly not leave the criminal aggressors who attacked our country unpunished,” he said, adding that Iran will “demand compensation for all damages, as well as the blood of the martyrs and the wounded”.

Regarding the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively blockaded since the war broke out on February 28 and has become a key sticking point in US-Iran proposals to end the war, Khamenei said that his country will move towards a “new phase” without elaborating.

On Wednesday, the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire in a deal mediated by Pakistan to allow for negotiations to take place, after attacks on Gulf nations and the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz had caused fears of a longer conflict whose impact would be felt long after it ended.

As part of the ceasefire, Iran agreed to allow shipping to pass through the important waterway, with reports that Tehran would impose a toll on ships transiting the strait to fund the country’s reconstruction efforts.

Yet, Khamenei warned that Iran was ready to respond if attacks were to end the pause in hostilities.

“Our hands are on the trigger,” he said.

However, a devastating wave of Israeli air strikes across Lebanon on Wednesday killed more than 300 people, threatening the US-Iran truce amid disagreement on whether Beirut was part of the agreement.

While Iran and Pakistan state that Lebanon was part of the deal, the US and Israel have said that it was not. World leaders have also called for Lebanon to be part of the agreement, urging for peace in the region.

Still, Khamenei said that while they did not start the war, they will not “renounce our legitimate rights under any circumstances, and in this respect, we consider the entire resistance front as a whole,” an apparent reference to Lebanon.

On Saturday, delegations from Iran and the US are expected in Pakistan to hold talks on ending the war.

America’s long-range kamikaze drone, a reverse-engineered clone of the Iranian-designed Shahed-136, was used in combat for the first time during Operation Epic Fury. Before the Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) was known to exist,The War Zone made a detailed case for the Pentagon to mass produced this exact aircraft. Now the U.S. military says LUCAS is a huge success – with CENTCOM’s top officer calling it “indispensable,” – and wants many more of them, we wanted to know more about how these weapons were first developed. One former Pentagon official who pushed for their creation, a drive that began under the Biden administration and came to fruition under Trump, gave us unique insights into LUCAS and its genesis.

Michael C. Horowitz served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for Force Development and Emerging Capabilities and Director of the Emerging Capabilities Policy Office in the Pentagon between 2022 and 2024 under the Biden administration. Now a senior fellow for technology and innovation at the Council on Foreign Relations and director of Perry World House and Richard Perry professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Horowitz spoke to us Wednesday. He provided unique insights into why it took so long for the U.S. to fully embrace the use of a weapon that has proved devastating in Ukraine and now across the Middle East, and how it could be used in the future against China.

Some of the questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

Q: When did the U.S. first obtain a Shahed from Ukraine and what were your thoughts?

A: It was early 2024 essentially. One of the things my office did was look at what were the emerging capabilities that may be in the services and where there might be a lot of potential, but for whatever reason, weren’t getting the support that they needed. And in May 2024, the question of a potential for this came across my desk.

Q: How did Russia’s experience in Ukraine inform your decision about pursuing such a weapon at the time?

A: Given that we were in the era of precision mass and that the U.S. arsenal has been entirely made up of these exquisite, expensive, difficult to produce capabilities, there was interest in finding lower-cost alternatives – more attritable, more autonomous kinds of systems. And at that point, the world was now familiar with the capabilities of the Shaheds from the thousands that Russia had been launching against Ukraine. And Russia was starting to work on the capability that we now call the Geran-2, their version of the Shahed. The idea was that these should be a complement to the more exquisite, expensive, difficult-to-produce weapons. That this country should be producing these lower-end, precise mass systems for itself. The LUCAS, in some ways, was emblematic of that category, but not necessarily the only plausible example.

Q: What was your argument for using these weapons and what was the pushback, if any, and if so, from who?

A: I don’t think that there was pushback. Nobody looked at this and said ‘Oh, that’s a terrible idea.’ But this is just not something that the United States had done before. We were starting to see growing interest in this kind of thing, conceptually, through something like the Replicator initiative, which my office had also promoted. We were trying to push for funding and capabilities, but it was just a very different kind of thing. It wasn’t a ‘let’s produce the best version of something.’ It was ‘let’s invest in a very much lower-cost capability where the idea is that the quantity has quality of its own.’

Q: What did you think when you first saw the LUCAS concept?

A: I thought that this was exactly the kind of system that we had been looking for in a world where defense procurement needed to become more risk-acceptant and not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, given all of the well-known munitions shortages. Even the idea of reverse-engineering a Shahed seemed like an obviously good idea, in some ways, Iran had already perfected. What could we do?

Q: The Wall Street Journal reported that the LUCAS was a mock-up at the time it was selected over other more mature systems. Can you say why?

A: I don’t know the answer to that. As the DASD for Force Development and Emerging Capabilities, my job was to try to figure out, given the different strategies, what were capabilities that we should be pursuing. So something like the LUCAS was right in the wheelhouse that my office was looking for and trying to move money toward, but the specifics of the vendor and how all that was chosen, is a question for Research and Engineering (R&E).

Q: Who did you have to try to convince to pursue this?

A: The amount of money involved was really small given the scale of the Pentagon budget. But because it wasn’t anything that anybody had planned to spend money on, it involved having to go to [Pentagon] elements like R&E and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), and going to the military services, and making the case that this was an important capability that the joint force needed, and that could potentially be developed very quickly.

Q: How much money are you talking about? Millions? Tens of millions? Hundreds?

A: To the best of my recollection, it was tens of millions.

Q: Who in the Pentagon made the decision to push this forward while you were there?

A: Eventually, we successfully persuaded then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks that, especially at the price point, this was a risk worth taking.

By the way, just to be clear about one thing, [Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Prototyping and Experimentation] Alex Lovett is really the hero of this story in many ways. He both discovered the concept and moved it forward even after all of the original team that supported the LUCAS had left the government. He did incredible work in R&E in making the LUCAS a reality. The people who really deserve the credit are Alex, the CENTCOM team that accelerated it and Arizona-based SpektreWorks, the company that made it.

Q: When the Biden administration left office, where was the LUCAS program?

A: It was moving forward, but not yet a fielded capability. The Trump team deserves credit for seeing the potential and moving this forward and getting it done.

Q: Why has the U.S. been so slow to adopt these types of weapons?

A: Because I think that the American military since the end of the Cold War was built on having the best capabilities. And the idea was that even if we have small numbers of systems, our systems are so good that it doesn’t matter. And it took a while to get the services out of that [mindset] and for people to embrace the idea that second-best military capabilities might have real value. Especially given the very real risk of major conflict.

Q: How could weapons like LUCAS fill in the U.S. magazine depth?

A: I think the math would suggest that building 400 Tomahawks would give you 46,000 LUCAS rounds. And so if you think about this range of capabilities that includes something like LUCAS and like other really super low-cost systems – up through the like family of affordable mass missiles that the Air Force is working on – you’re just talking about like a whole new level of depth in the magazine for the American military.

This is absolutely necessary for the U.S. to continue to compete successfully in the Indo-Pacific in particular, but also in general, as we’re seeing in the Iran context. But the system had been designed for so long to only procure small numbers of the best systems, and it was challenging to [change that]. There’s now a lot of momentum behind that, but it was challenging to get things moving in the other direction.

Q: What was your reaction when CENTCOM first announced that it stood up a LUCAS drone unit and again, when they were first used in combat during Epic Fury.

A: CENTCOM has been on the leading edge of experimentation for years. I saw that firsthand when I was in the Pentagon and so I was not surprised that CENTCOM was leading the way in experimenting with and figuring out what the concepts for use would be for something like the LUCAS and I was not surprised to see CENTCOM figuring out how to apply it successfully in Epic Fury.

Q: What were your thoughts when they were first used in combat?

A: It was a great illustration of how the Pentagon can move fast in developing and fielding emerging military capabilities when it chooses to, but the incentives just haven’t been aligned to do it that way for decades.

Q:  CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper told me LUCAS drones were indispensable. How much do you know about how they were used in Epic Fury, and what are some of the target sets that you think they should be used against?

A: I genuinely don’t know the answer to that. I think someone inside the conflict would be in a better position to answer that.

Q: What would your recommendation be about how they should be used and against what kinds of targets?

A: These weapons are accurate. They’re just pretty easy to shoot down. So in some ways, you could either imagine using these against military targets in large volumes to try to overwhelm defenses, or you could use them in combination with more exquisite weapons to try to trick adversarial defenses and clear the path, in some ways, for more exquisite weapons.

Q: The Russians are doing that in Ukraine, both to overwhelm systems, but they’ve been a very effective strike weapon. If you were still at the Pentagon, how would you recommend they be used in a campaign like Epic Fury and across the military as a whole. And how widely should they be fielded, and what would be ideal numbers? 

A:  It would not be for somebody like me to decide given my role. But these are essentially inexpensive precision weapons, so any target you would be comfortable using a precision weapon against, in theory, you could use LUCAS against. What’s important is that any weapon has been through the testing and evaluation cycle so you can prove that it works effectively and reliably.

Q: Images released by CENTCOM show what appears to be a gimbaled camera system mounted on its nose and, most importantly, a miniature beyond-line-of-sight satellite datalink mounted on the spine of some LUCAS drones. Being able to be controlled dynamically after launch at great distances, do you see these as a strike weapon to hit moving targets, targets of opportunity and operate in swarms?

A: The missions you could use a weapon like LUCAS for is a software question as much as a hardware question. There’s no reason in principle it couldn’t be used to hit moving targets, or in coordination.

Q: How widely should they be fielded by the U.S. military? What are ideal numbers?

A: I think incredibly widely. This is whether it is LUCAS specifically, or related precision systems. I think if you are looking for the trade space to increase defense production short term – over a couple of years period, as opposed to a decade – are in these lower-cost capabilities that you can scale through more commercial manufacturing. So I would think that there’s an opportunity to have tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of these kinds of systems to complement exquisite capabilities like Tomahawk.

Q: With a far smaller warhead, they wouldn’t replace Tomahawk, though, right?

A: The LUCAS is a much smaller weapon than the Tomahawk, among other things. It’s not a replacement. What we need is a high-low mix with both types of systems.

Q: How would they be helpful in a fight against China?

A:  If you think about the potential range that LUCAS variants could get to – if you look at the max range of the Geran-2 or the Shahed – and then we could do better. I think that means that you now have new attack vectors and the ability to flood the space with munitions in a way that could substantially complicate Chinese defenses.

Q: The LUCAS drone used by CENTCOM was developed by SpektreWorks in cooperation with the U.S. military. Did you ever work with them?

A: No.

Q: SpektreWorks received a $30 million contract in Fiscal Year 2025 from the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) program to provide procurement funding for innovative projects that have completed development and are ready to transition into operational use. Is APFIT helpful in speeding up the procurement process for LUCAS-type drones?

A: APFIT is a bridge to production for capabilities that are ready to start scaling but not yet programs of record. So APFIT funding is a starting point not the end point.

Q: What are the bottlenecks for the production of LUCAS drones?

A: I think the supply chain issues for the LUCAS and other precise mass systems are different than those facing AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASM) OR AGM-158 Joint Air-To-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM). That you can make them with modified commercial manufacturing means that the constraints are simply lower from a production perspective.

Q: What can the government do to speed up the process of  procuring LUCAS-type drones?

A:  The government should speed up the process by pursuing a Liberty Ship model. Since the government owns the IP, you can have lots of vendors produce the Lucas simultaneously and then increase orders with the vendors who excel the most.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

The popular detective series first aired back in 2024 and features David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin

There’s brilliant news for fans of the hit detective series Ludwig, as it looks as though it’ll be back for a third series.

The BBC crime drama initially premiered in 2024 and featured David Mitchell portraying twin brothers John Taylor and DCI James Taylor.

When John visited his sister-in-law, Lucy Betts-Taylor (Anna Maxwell Martin), events took a dramatic turn as he discovered his brother had vanished from their Cambridge residence.

As she revealed that James had been behaving oddly while working on a case, Lucy informed John that her husband had instructed her to escape with their son after he failed to return home one evening.

Nevertheless, she defied his instructions and enlisted his twin brother to assume John’s identity and pose as a member of the police force in a bid to uncover the truth, reports Cambridgeshire Live.

Despite his early reservations, he ultimately consented as his puzzle-solving abilities enabled him to recognise that the letter his brother left contained hidden messages.

Following a series packed with twists and turns, John eventually confessed that he wasn’t his twin brother. Yet, they received an unexpected voicemail from the real James.

Acknowledging he disappeared, James instructs his twin to carry on investigating the corruption in Cambridge.

While the second series is scheduled to broadcast later this year, it appears there could be additional episodes in the pipeline as TVZone reports that a third instalment has been commissioned.

The BBC declined to comment when contacted by Cambridge News. Discussing the second series, David Mitchell said: “I’m delighted that John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor has failed to escape the clutches of the Cambridge police and will have to continue to face up to the city’s alarming conundrum-based crime wave.”

Alongside David and Anna reprising their roles in Ludwig, audiences can also expect to see Dipo Ola (DCI Russell Carter), Dylan Hughes (Henry Betts-Taylor), Dorothy Atkinson (DCS Carol Shaw), Ralph Ineson (Chief Constable Ziegler) and Karl Pilkington (DI Matt Neville) all return to the screen.

The series has garnered widespread acclaim from viewers since its debut, with one fan declaring: “#Ludwig on BBC is amazing!” Another enthused: “Oh my goodness @BBCiPlayer – #Ludwig was absolutely incredible! When is series 2 out??!!”

A further viewer remarked: “Clever, witty and perfectly casted! Back to classic entertainment! Just what we need these days, and we need more of it.”

While another enthusiastic fan shared: “A WONDERFUL ENTERTAINING MURDER MYSTERY, EVOCATIVE OF MISS MARPLE HERSELF. Ludwig from the BBC, is a beautiful written mini series.”

The first series of Ludwig is available to watch in full on BBC iPlayer.

U.S. abortion opponents are increasingly frustrated with the lack of action by President Trump’s administration to stem the flow of abortion pills prescribed online that they view as undermining state abortion bans.

A court ruling this week in a lawsuit the Louisiana attorney general brought against Trump’s Food and Drug Administration cast a spotlight on the simmering tension. The judge said the state has a strong case while declining to block telehealth prescriptions to the pill mifepristone for now.

Anti-abortion groups are pushing the FDA to move faster with a review that they hope will result in restrictions on the abortion pill, including blocking its prescribing via telehealth platforms. The administration says the work takes time.

The groups have focused mostly on the health agency and not the Republican president whose three U.S. Supreme Court appointees were instrumental in the 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed the state bans in the first place. But the administration’s requests in the Louisiana lawsuit and similar ones elsewhere to delay rulings until it finishes a review have sparked anger for some activists.

“The stall tactics are beyond frustrating,” Kristi Hamrick, a spokesperson for Students for Life of America, said in an interview. Hamrick said the administration could also block the pills from being mailed by changing its interpretation of a 19th century law and enforcing it.

A judge opened the door to pushing the administration

U.S. District Judge David Joseph, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, gave a mixed ruling Tuesday in a case brought by Louisiana Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill and a woman who says her boyfriend coerced her into taking mifepristone to end a pregnancy.

Their overall aim is to roll back FDA rules that have made the pills more accessible. Murrill, like officials in other states that have filed similar lawsuits, contends that the availability of the pills via online providers takes the teeth out of the bans in the 13 states that bar abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions.

Surveys of abortion providers have suggested that its availability through telehealth is a reason the number of abortions in the U.S. has not dropped since the overturn of Roe. While state abortion bans include prohibitions on abortion using the pills, some Democratic-controlled states have adopted laws that seek to protect medical providers who prescribe them over telehealth and mail the pills to states with bans. Those so-called shield laws are being tested through civil and criminal cases.

In the Louisiana case, Joseph declined to grant Murrill’s request to block telehealth prescriptions to the pills while the case moves through the courts. But he said he could do that eventually and the plaintiffs in the case are likely to succeed on the merits of their arguments because the state has demonstrated it’s suffered “irreparable harm.”

He also ordered the FDA to report to him within six months on the status of its review of the drug.

On Wednesday, Murrill filed a notice that she’s taking the case to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in hopes of forcing faster action.

The politics aren’t simple

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, an influential conservative voice who is also a former Louisiana lawmaker, applauded Murrill’s step.

He said people he meets are often shocked to learn that the number of abortions has not dropped since the 2022 Supreme Court ruling.

“Bewilderment sets in,” he said. “We’re already seeing an enthusiasm gap between the parties. What the Republicans do not need is a dampening of enthusiasm in their base.”

He’s hoping the administration will restrict abortion pills rather than risk losing support from conservative, anti-abortion voters in November’s midterm elections.

Other groups are being more cautions.

Madison LaClare, director of federal government affairs at National Right to Life, said her group trusts the administration to review mifepristone. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, avoided harsh words for the president: “The Trump-Vance administration has an important opportunity right now to prioritize women’s safety,” she said in a statement.

Still, recent electoral results suggest that voters seeking to keep abortion available have the political momentum. Since Roe was overturned, abortion has been on the ballot directly in 17 states. Voters have sided with the abortion-rights side in 14 of those questions.

“There seems to be an emerging consensus in the country that people don’t want to ban abortion,” said Rachel Rebouche, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law who studies abortion.

The FDA says it’s working on it

In a statement Wednesday in response to questions from the Associated Press, the FDA said it’s reviewing the safety of mifepristone, “including the collection of robust and timely data, evaluation of data integrity, and implementation of the analyses, validation, and peer-review.”

After that, the agency said, it will decide whether to make changes to the rules about how the drug can be prescribed.

It said this kind of study can take a year or more to complete by academics but the agency is trying to move faster than that. A spokesperson did not answer questions about when the work began.

Mifepristone has been a political priority for anti-abortion activists and their allies in Congress since Trump returned to office last year. In his January 2025 confirmation hearing, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was repeatedly asked about the drug by Republican lawmakers and said the president had requested a safety review.

Frustration over signs that the FDA isn’t prioritizing curbing abortions flared last fall when the FDA approved an additional generic version of mifepristone.

The drug is most often used for abortion in combination with another drug, misoprostol.

Mifepristone was approved in 2000 as a safe and effective way to end early pregnancies.

Because of rare cases of excessive bleeding, the FDA initially imposed strict limits on who could prescribe and distribute the pill — only specially certified physicians and only after an in-person appointment where the person would receive the pill.

Both those requirements were dropped during the COVID years. At the time, FDA officials said that after more than 20 years of monitoring mifepristone use, and reviewing dozens of studies involving thousands of women, it was clear that women could safely use the pill without direct supervision.

Mulvihill and Perrone write for the Associated Press.

BASEBALL

CITY SECTION

Bravo 4, LA Wilson 2

Chavez 7, Arleta 2

El Camino Real 9, Cleveland 3

Granada Hills 12, Chatsworth 1

LA Marshall 10, Lincoln 0

LA Roosevelt 11, Huntington Park 4

Maya 12, Los Angeles 2

Northridge Academy 15, Panorama 3

Palisades 3, LACES 1

Roybal 18, RFK Community 1

San Pedro 13, Wilmington Banning 5

SOCES 7, Fulton 0

South Gate 7, Bell 3

Van Nuys 15, VAAS 3

Westchester 19, Fairfax 9

SOUTHERN SECTION

Arliington 3, Moreno Valley 2

Bellflower 7, Cerritos 4

Bonita 5, Diamond Bar 2

Cajon 7, Beaumont 0

California 6, El Rancho 3

Cantwell-Sacred Heart 2, Channel Islands 1

Charter Oak 15, Rowland 13

Chino Hills 5, Upland 3

Corona 3, Arcadia 2

Cypress 14, La Habra 3

Damien 2, Rancho Cucamonga 0

Desert Mirage 16, Packinghouse Christian 2

Eastside 11, Antelope Valley 7

El Modena 7, Brea OlInda 1

Etiwanda 1, Bishop Amat 0

Estancia 12, Santa Ana 2

Esperanza 6, Troy 2

Garden Grove 3, St. Monica 2

Glenn 6, Firebaugh 5

Godinez 3, Saddleback 1

Hemet 11, Vista del Lago 1

Hesperia 9, Apple Valley 6

Hoover 12, Burbank Providence 10

Huntington Beach 4, St. John Bosco 2

Indian Springs 10, San Bernardino 3

Irvine 8, Portola 2

Laguna Beach 6, Northwood 0

La Serna 10, Santa Fe 7

La Sierra 17, Jurupa Valley 9

Long Beach Cabrillo 11, Artesia 6

Long Beach Jordan 7, San Jacinto 3

Miller 39, Entrepreneur 0

Mira Costa 9, Capistrano Valley 6

Newbury Park 12, Crespi 2

Newport Harbor 2, Corona Centennial 0

Norco 14, Los Osos 0

Northview 6, Laguna Hills 5

Orange County Pacifica Christian 15, Nipomo 5

Orange Lutheran 2, Gahr 1

Orange Vista 1, Citrus Hill 0

Oxnard 10, Fillmore 4

Palmdale 4, Knight 3

Paramount 9, Mary Star of the Sea 5

Patriot 10, Rubidoux 1

Ramona 18, Norte Vista 0

Rancho Christian 10, Lakeside 0

Rancho Verde 2, Canyon Springs 1

Ridgecrest Burroughs 10, Oak Hills 5

Righetti 10, Bishop Montgomery 1

Riverside North 2, Perris 1

Riverside Poly 9, Liberty 8

Riverside Prep 23, Big Bear 4

Royal 8, Moorpark 7

San Marcos 11, Lakewood 1

Sierra Canyon 13, Warren 0

Simi Valley 10, Oak Park 1

St. Francis 4, Santa Maria St. Joseph 2

St. Paul 5, Buena Park 2

Sultana 10, Serrano 3

Sunny Hills 7, Cerritos Valley Christian 6

Torrance 12, Gardena Serra 4

Valley View 14, Hillcrest 8

Vasquez 5, Canyon Country Canyon 1

Villa Park 8, El Dorado 4

West Covina 8, Schurr 1

West Torrance 5, North Torrance 4

Whittier 14, St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy 7

Woodbridge 17, Irvine University 4

Yorba Linda 5, Sonora 4

INTERSECTIONAL

Alemany 12, Bakersfield Centennial 2

Atascadero 6, Terra Nova 3

Canoga Park 11, Reseda 10

Dublin 12, Marina 4

Eastvale Roosevelt 15, Central 0

El Capitan 5, Placentia Valencia 1

Ganesha 2, San Ramon Valley 2

Heritage 12, Paloma Valley 7

La Palma Kennedy 16, Golden Sierra 6

Lompoc 13, Piedmont 11

Morro Bay 6, Village Christian 3

Paraclete 7, Central Valley 2

Patrick Henry 10, Fountain Valley 5

Pioneer Valley 6, University Prep 6

St. Bernard 16, Venice 2

Walnut 8, Bear River 4

SOFTBALL

CITY SECTION

Chavez 9, Arleta 0

Diego Rivera 14, Angelou 9

Granada Hills Kennedy 4, Verdugo Hills 1

Hawkins 34, Crenshaw 13

LA Jordan 14, Washington Prep 13

Marquez 14, Sotomayor 0

Maywood Academy 22, Torres 4

Maywood CES 32, Elizabeth 2

Narbonne 15, South East 7

San Fernando 14, Sun Valley Poly 0

Santee 24, West Adams 20

SOCES 32, Fulton 0

Sylmar 14, North Hollywood 3

Triumph Charter 28, Valley Oaks CES 0

University 17, Palisades 2

Van Nuys 21, Monroe 4

Venice 22, LACES 1

SOUTHERN SECTION

Anaheim 16, Loara 2

Anza Hamilton 11, Yucca Valley 4

Apple Valley 21, Ridgecrest Burroughs 1

Azusa 17, Nogales 15

Bolsa Grande 29, Estancia 0

Bonita 10, Corona Santiago 9

Charter Oak 12, Rowland 1

CSDR 27, Sherman Indian 5

Eastvale Roosevelt 15, Corona Centennial 4

Foothill Tech 11, Hueneme 0

Fullerton 10, Garden Grove 0

Glendora 3, Burbank Burroughs 1

Heritage 11, Citrus Valley 1

Highland 11, Palmdale 0

Jurupa Valley 12, La Sierra 1

La Canada 14, Alemany 7

Lakeside 24, Vista del Lago 1

Magnolia 16, Saddleback 12

Norco 4, Riverside King 3

Oak Hills 23, Serrano 2

Orange 10, Western 0

Pasadena Poly 5, Harvard-Westlake 3

Patriot 14, Rubidoux 4

Ramona 18, Norte Vista 0

Rancho Mirage 12, Silverado 3

Rancho Verde 11, Moreno Valley 0

Riverside North 7, Arlington 4

Riverside Poly 5, Valley View 0

Riverside Prep 19, AAE 7

San Bernardino 15, Indian Springs 5

San Marcos 14, Fillmore 1

Santa Ana Foothill 4, Beckman 3

Santa Fe 8, Sonora 5

Savanna 21, Century 6

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 7, Royal 1

Sierra Canyon 7, Moorpark 3

Sultana 15, Hesperia 10

Ventura 13, Faith Baptist 1

West Torrance 11, South Torrance 6

INTERSECTIONAL

Paloma Valley 2, Hillcrest 1

Palo Verde Valley 7, Artesia 3

Quartz Hill 19, Immanuel Christian 5

Rancho Christian 10, Perris 0

Righetti 2, Sutter 0

Washington, DC – Preliminary data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found that international development aid from its members dropped by about 23 percent from 2024 to 2025.

Much of that decline was attributed to a major shortfall in funding from the United States.

The forum, which includes many of the the largest economies across Europe and the Americas, said on Thursday that the US saw a nearly 57 percent drop in foreign aid in 2025.

The OECD’s four other top contributors — Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and France — also saw declines in their foreign aid assistance.

The report marked the first time foreign development assistance from all five of the OECD’s top donors simultaneously declined. The total assistance for 2025 totaled only $174.3bn, down from $214.6bn the year before, representing the largest annual drop since the OECD began recording the data.

OECD officials warned the dramatic decrease comes at a time when global economic and food security has been cast into doubt amid the stresses of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

“It’s deeply concerning to see this huge drop in [development funding] in 2025, due to dramatic cuts among the very top donors,” OECD official Carsten Staur said in a statement.

Thursday’s preliminary data shows that only eight member countries met or exceeded their funding from 2024.

“We are in a time of increasing humanitarian needs,” Staur added, citing growing global uncertainty and extreme poverty. “I can only plead that DAC donors reverse this negative trend and start to increase their [assistance].”

The data covers the 34 members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), which provide the vast majority of global foreign assistance.

But the numbers offer an incomplete picture of global development aid, as it fails to include influential non-DAC members including Turkiye, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and China.

The data tracked by the OECD distinguishes official development assistance from other forms of aid, including military funds.

US drives ‘three-quarters of the decline’

In its preliminary assessment, the OECD noted that the US “alone drove three-quarters of the decline” in 2025, the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Trump has overseen widespread cuts to the US’s aid infrastructure, including dissolving the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a wider effort to shrink government spending.

The US contributed about $63bn in official development assistance in 2024, which was cleaved to just short of $29bn in 2025, according to OECD.

Research this year from the University of Sydney has suggested that cuts to US funding over the past year have corresponded with an increase in armed conflict in Africa, as state resources grow more scarce.

Other experts have noted that the slashed assistance is likely to prompt upticks in cases of HIV-AIDS, malaria and polio.

Analysts at the Center for Global Development have projected that the US cuts were linked to between 500,000 and 1,000,000 deaths globally in 2025 alone. A recent article published in the medical journal The Lancet found that a “continuation of current downward trends” in development funding could lead to over 9.4 million new deaths by 2030.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has maintained it is transforming, not eschewing, the US aid model.

In recent months, it has struck a handful of bilateral assistance agreements with African countries that it says are in line with its “America First” agenda.

But while the details of such deals have not been made public, critics note that some negotiations appear to have involved requests for African countries to share mineral access or health data.

‘Turning their backs’

Oxfam, a confederation of several non-governmental aid organisations, was among those calling on wealthy countries to change course following Thursday’s report.

“Wealthy governments are turning their backs on the lives of millions of women, men and children in the Global South with these severe aid cuts,” Oxfam’s Development Finance Lead Didier Jacobs said in a statement.

Jacobs added that governments are “cutting life-saving aid budgets while financing conflict and militarisation”.

As an example, he pointed to the US, where the Trump administration is expected to request between $80bn and $200bn for the US-Israeli war with Iran, which has currently been paused amid a tenuous ceasefire.

The administration has separately requested a historic $1.5 trillion for the US military for fiscal year 2027.

“Governments must restore their aid budgets and shore up the global humanitarian system that faces its most serious crisis in decades,” Jacobs said. 

Caracas, April 9, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez announced a series of upcoming reforms concerning Venezuela’s labor, tax, and pension frameworks during a press conference on Wednesday, April 8. 

Addressing her cabinet at Miraflores Presidential Palace, Rodríguez unveiled the creation of a commission made up of representatives from the state, business sector, active workers, and pensioners to “review labor conditions, address precariousness, and strengthen the social security system.”

Rodríguez acknowledged deficiencies in areas such as working hours, vacation benefits, and pensions, arguing that the present social security system is not sustainable due to insufficient contributions from active workers and the private sector.

The acting president disclosed an upcoming increase to workers’ incomes on May 1, but did not specify if it would come in the form of an adjusted minimum wage or non-wage bonuses. Rodríguez warned that salary adjustments must be “responsible” so that they do not trigger inflation.

Venezuelan authorities have discussed the prospect of reforming the 2012 Labor Law for several months, installing several dialogue commissions and public debates.

The existing labor law, approved by former President Hugo Chávez, prohibits unfair dismissal and outsourcing, enshrines the world’s third-longest maternity leave, guarantees the right to work for both women and people with disabilities, and extends retirement pensions to all workers, including full-time mothers and the self-employed. However, trade unions have pointed out that state institutions and the Labor Ministry have reduced their enforcement of the law in recent years.

Rodríguez’s public broadcast came hours before workers and unions staged a mobilization in Caracas demanding higher wages, improved working conditions, and the repeal of statutes that suspended several collective bargaining rights. In recent protests, workers have called for an end to the government’s bonus-based wage policy and the restoration of collective bargaining agreements.

Venezuela’s minimum wage has remained unchanged since March 2022 at 130 bolívares per month—equivalent at the time to around US $30 but presently worth approximately $0.27 at the official exchange rate.

With the economy heavily constrained by US sanctions, the Venezuelan government relied on non-wage bonuses—paid in bolívares but pegged at a fixed US dollar amount. A recent increase took the so-called Economic War Bonus, paid to public sector employees, to $150 a month. Coupled to a $40 food bonus, it brought the floor income to $190.

Public sector retirees and pensioners receive $130 and $60 Economic War bonuses, and do not access the food bonus.

For their part, business sector representatives have demanded changes to the labor law that reduce costs for employers before any adjustment to the minimum wage. Amid ongoing discussions with the International Labour Organization (ILO), private sector organizations proposed modifying Article 122 of the Labor Law, which establishes that severance payments are calculated based on the last salary earned by the worker.

Tax reform and state asset review

Rodríguez also announced the immediate convening of a National Economic Council tasked with designing a more “efficient” tax model aimed at making Venezuela “more competitive.”

“I hope that this council can produce a new tax model that can generate consensus among the different economic sectors in the country,” the Venezuelan leader stressed. 

She further enacted the Law on Streamlining and Optimization of Administrative Procedures, previously approved by the National Assembly, which seeks to modernize public administration by reducing bureaucracy and incorporating digital tools. According to Rodríguez, the law grants the executive authority to eliminate procedures, shorten timelines, and improve coordination between institutions.

In addition, she ordered the creation of a mixed commission to evaluate which state-owned assets have “strategic” importance, potentially opening some to private investment. However, she clarified that the hydrocarbons sector will remain under state control. The Cisneros group, one of Venezuela’s largest conglomerates, recently announced plans to raise funds ahead of an “expected wave of privatizations.”

The Venezuelan acting administration’s wholesale reform plans follow a recent pro-business overhaul of the Hydrocarbon Law in late January. The South American country’s National Assembly is likewise close to approving a new Mining Law with the goal of attracting foreign investment for extractive activities.

On Wednesday, Rodríguez additionally called for reforms to the country’s housing laws, claiming that there are half a million “frozen” properties presently that could be incorporated into the real estate market.

The acting president’s final announcement was a nationwide “pilgrimage” scheduled from April 19, Venezuela’s Independence Day, to May 1 to demand the lifting of US unilateral coercive measures against the Caribbean nation. While the Trump administration has issued selective and restrictive licenses to favor the participation of Western companies in the Venezuelan oil and mining sectors, wide-reaching sanctions remain in place.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

No actor in a movie this month is enjoying themselves more than Ian McKellen as an egomaniac painter in Steven Soderbergh’s slender pleasure “The Christophers.” Once, his Julian Sklar was the bisexual provocateur of the London art scene commanding millions for a single piece. Now he’s better known as the villain of “Art Fight,” a reality competition show where he took cruel pleasure destroying amateurs’ hopes.

Equally dismissive of his own output, Julian hasn’t wielded a paintbrush in decades. And so his adult children Barnaby and Sallie (James Corden and Jessica Gunning of “Baby Reindeer”) — two money-grubbing, untalented brats — hire a broke art restorer, Lori (Michaela Coel), to finish a stack of half-sketched portraits Julian made of his male ex-lover that were left abandoned in the attic. Don’t think of it as forgery, Barnaby assures Lori, “more like forging through them until they are completed.”

That’s a great line, and “The Christophers” has a dozen more almost as good. Nearly all get delivered by McKellen’s Julian, waving a champagne coupe while monologuing about humidifiers, cancel culture and a doctor who smells like radishes. He seems to imagine acolytes — or at least, television audiences — eagerly soaking up his bon mots. Meanwhile, Lori, a young Black woman hired under false pretenses as an assistant, stares mutely. If their first meeting as boss and employee were freeze-framed into a painting, it would be called “A Study in Contrasts.”

The script is by Ed Solomon, who also collaborated with Soderbergh on the more action-packed 2021 gangster movie “No Sudden Move.” This plot doodles along, rarely going where we expect. Mostly, Julian and Lori take turns thwarting his obnoxious kids and threatening to quit. I chuckled every time Corden and Gunning showed up for more abuse, including from Soderbergh, who shoots them like a wall of stupidity, blocking doorways as they stand side-by-side like Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

The inequalities of the art world are gestured to as fact. Lori, who might be every bit as technically gifted as Julian, ekes out a living serving egg rolls in a food truck while sharing a walk-up loft with three other struggling painters. Julian lords over not one but two swanky adjoining townhouses stuffed with antiques. Once, to flip off the establishment, he sold a work worth 2 million British pounds for the price of a used car. His version of disdain is her idea of a fortune.

One stick figure by Julian would be worth more than anything Lori’s ever done, which makes it extra maddening that he chooses instead to earn a little extra pocket money recording video messages for fans who only care about him as that mean guy on TV. In the glow of a ring light, he tosses off glib advice that might itself be worthless. Quit art school, he tells one, and “happy birthday, blah, blah, blah.” (Even imagining a popular TV show about art is, in itself, culturally aspirational for those of us who enjoy reruns of Bob Ross.)

Why is there such disparity between the value of Julian and Lori’s work? The reasons are so obvious that, to the film, they’re barely worth mentioning: age, gender, era, fame and skill. Julian would dismiss the first two, claiming that wokeness gives an old, white male like him the handicap. But it’s frustrating that the film doesn’t dig very deep into the rest, either. I especially wanted a scene where Julian must reckon with a no-name interloper’s ability to copy his genius, but comparing whether Lori is Julian’s equal would call the film’s bluff and force it to actually show us their art. The handheld camera prefers to lurk on the wooden side of the easel.

Really, I’m not sure Soderbergh even has an opinion on their clash. He just wants to be an eavesdropper in the room, standing back against the dusty brick-a-brack. Of course, if you squint, you can see what interests Soderbergh in this set-up. Like Julian, he’s been threatening to retire for years. He knows how irritated people are when an artist claims they don’t want to bother anymore. And like the neglected paintings in the attic — the Christophers of the title — every filmmaker has their own unfinished projects taking up mental space overhead, treasured ideas that will never emerge to their satisfaction.

Still, I suspect that even if Soderbergh personally identifies with the premise (even though he continues to release more movies in one year than his peers do in five), he still finds Julian’s paralysis a bit pathetic. Julian just needs paint, a brush and the will to create. Filmmakers, now those poor bastards need rich patrons.

Even so, Soderbergh likes to make movies as resourcefully as he can, doing his own editing and cinematography and, above all, prioritizing the act of invention. He can’t be copied because his own work is so eclectic. Have you ever heard of any director being called the next Soderbergh? You sense that, to him, forgery is as creatively dull as a factory-issued franchise sequel. (Except, of course, his “Magic Mike” and “Ocean’s” series, which are, at their best, closer to wacky Warhols.)

Tasked to play the foil to McKellen’s clown, Coel comes off stiff. She has the spine to hold her own against him, but it’s hard to play withholding, particularly when the film needs her character to be both the voice of reason and a politically correct scold. Only her carved cheekbones give off an impression of Lori’s hungry ambition. Still, when she does deign to speak, there’s a dynamite scene where she dresses down Julian critically and psychologically. Whether or not she’s the second coming of him as an artist, she’s more insightful than he ever was insulting watercolors of kittens on TV.

Really, we’re just watching McKellen give a bravura, scene-gobbling performance that doesn’t hold back one iota. My favorite detail he pulls off comes when he greets Lori at the front door undressed and, when she insists he wear clothes, ties on a trench coat that somehow makes him look even more pervy and naked in how McKellen wears it, leaving one bare shoulder roguishly exposed.

The film has plenty of funny little asides like that which make it worth your while. Angelenos will chuckle at a scene in which two characters verbally commit to a meet-up both know won’t happen — or, as we say here, let’s do lunch. Out of magnanimity, I’ll liken this trifle to a Rothko. The more I think about “The Christophers,” the more I imagine it has interesting layers. But I won’t fault anyone who just sees a simple square.

WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump is denying ties to Jeffrey Epstein and knowledge of his crimes, saying Thursday that the “stories are completely false” and calling online accusations that she was somehow involved “smears about me.”

“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today. The individuals lying about me are devoid of ethical standards, humility and respect. I do not object to their ignorance, but rather I reject their mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation,” she said.

Reading an extraordinary statement at the White House, she denied any association with Epstein and said, “My attorneys and I have fought these unfounded and baseless lies with success.”

The first lady also called on Congress to hold a public hearing centered on survivors of Epstein’s crimes, with a chance to testify before lawmakers and have their stories entered into the congressional record.

“Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public if she wishes,” she said. “Then, and only then, we will have the truth.”

Her out-of-the-blue message came just as her husband, President Donald Trump, and his administration had finally appeared successful in moving beyond the Epstein controversy, which had sent shockwaves through the nation’s politics for months.

The case had begun to be overshadowed by the war in Iran and other major issues — but the first lady’s comments might push it back into the political spotlight.

The first lady said she was not friends with Epstein or Maxwell but was in overlapping social circles in New York and Florida. She described an email reply she sent to Maxwell as “casual correspondence” without elaborating.

“My polite reply to her email doesn’t amount to anything more than a trifle,” she said.

Binkley writes for the Associated Press.

Barely a week ago, a charmed Lakers season screamed three words.

Deep playoff run.

Today, a jinxed Lakers season soberly whispers three very different words.

Shut it down.

With less than a month of games remaining, the Lakers season is done, finished, kaput.

Twisted and torn by the sudden same-day injuries to their two best players, the Lakers are broken beyond repair.

They can’t win without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, and neither is coming back at full strength in time to save them.

They were wholly embarrassed in their first two shorthanded games and will wind up falling to a fourth or fifth seed with a first-round matchup looming against Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets.

They can’t beat the Rockets, they won’t beat the Rockets, and the season will officially and quickly and sadly end. It might end in something more palatable than a sweep — maybe they win a game? — but it’s going to end, and soon, and the Lakers need to reinforce their priorities before it does.

Shut it down.

Tell Doncic to stay in Spain for as long as it takes for that magic medicine to cure his strained hamstring. Tell Doncic his MVP-worthy season is DOA. Tell Doncic to begin getting ready for September.

The Lakers don’t need him showing up in three weeks trying to save this season on a limp and a prayer. They don’t need him risking a reinjuring of the hamstring that could affect his summer workouts and bleed into next season.

Lakers star Luka Doncic reacts to a play during a blowout loss to the Thunder in Oklahoma City last week.

(Cooper Neill / Getty Images)

Most experts agree it would be a miracle if Doncic would return at 100% in time to carry them through the first round of the playoffs, which start April 18. The Lakers don’t need him to be a miracle. They need him to be the cornerstone of a franchise that is being rebuilt in his image.

They don’t need him now, when he’s not going to save them anyway. They need him six months from now, to be healthy and in shape to lead them into their next era.

Shut it down.

The Lakers need to say the same thing to Reaves, who they’re going to give a boatload of money this summer to be their No. 2 star for the indefinite future.

They don’t need him to try to play with an injured oblique and make things worse. They don’t need him to gut it out. They need him to sit it out.

The fans aren’t going to like reading this. And the players aren’t going to like hearing it.

Just listen to Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee Bucks star who has been shut down since March 15 because the Bucks didn’t want his nagging injuries to worsen and affect either his trade value or his 2026-27 season.

“Like a slap in my face,” he told reporters recently. “I’m available to play today. Right now. I’m available. Do I look like I’m not available? … I don’t know what game is being played right here, I just don’t wanna be a part of it.”

There is no game with the Lakers. Their new Dodger ownership group doesn’t play games. Their goal is to build a franchise that has sustainable success. Pushing all their chips into the middle for a team that doesn’t have a chance in hell is not building sustainable success.

You’ve seen how the Dodgers rest their players for six months to prepare themselves for the postseason, right. Shutting down the Lakers now is sort of this, in reverse. They’re punting in the playoffs to prepare themselves for next season.

Certainly, Doncic would take the news of a shutdown about as well as Antetokounmpo.

“I think he’s, in my conversations with him, he’s motivated to do everything possible,” said coach JJ Redick to reporters. “And I know for him, it’s hard for him not to be on a basketball court. That’s his happy place. And he’s one of the handful of guys that really plays year round. And it’s not just international competition. But he likes to be in the gym. He likes to be working on his craft. And I think it’s hard for him. He wants to get back on the court.”

Lakers forward LeBron James reacts to a play during a win over the Kings last month at Crypto.com Arena.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

And no, LeBron James is not going to be happy either, trying to carry a team that seemingly isn’t trying. So what? Do you really believe he is going to take remarkably less money to stay on the Lakers next season? Do you really believe the Lakers want him back when they will have the cap space to trade for a player like, um, Antetokounmpo?

To leave James alone on a first-round island might be unfair, but the Lakers have kowtowed to him plenty in his eight years here. He’s just going to have to take one for the team, however briefly that team may be playing.

“It was a shot to the heart and the chest and the mainframe with Luka,” James told reporters. “I woke up from my nap and saw that [Reaves] news and was like, ‘S—.’”

You know who else wouldn’t easily accept the news of a shutdown? That would be Redick, who, barely one week after being lauded as the first Laker coach since Phil Jackson to manage consecutive 50-win seasons, now finds himself again fighting for credibility.

Remember last year when Redick took heat for playing his starters the entire second half of a playoff loss to Minnesota?

He’s taking heat again this spring for playing both Doncic and Reaves in the second half of a blowout loss to Oklahoma City that sent both players to the injured list.

Lakers coach JJ Redick directs players during a blowout loss to the Thunder on Tuesday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

When Doncic was hurt the Lakers trailed by 32 and he had already looked injured after grabbing his leg in the second quarter. Reaves, meanwhile, spent much of the first quarter grabbing at his back.

Redick said both players were medically cleared and that they both insisted on challenging the league-leading Thunder in the second half.

“The group wanted to go for it in the second half,” Redick told reporters. “There was nothing leading into that game that would suggest either those guys were ‘running hot.’’’

This was just the beginning of Redick’s bad week.

Jarred Vanderbilt was certainly running hot Tuesday night in a rematch against Oklahoma City after he was benched in the first moments of the second quarter. Vanderbilt accosted Redick on the court and had to be restrained. Redick ultimately responded by benching Vanderbilt the rest of the game and then not-so-subtly ripping him afterward.

“I think for all of us, you know, being undermanned, we’ve got to scrap and claw, we’ve got to all be on the same page, we got to be great teammates, we got to all play hard,” Redick told reporters. “Called a timeout to get him out of the game. And he reacted.”

One has to wonder about Redick’s connectivity with his players if one of them is unafraid to confront him on the court during the middle of a game.

One has to also wonder, again, about Redick’s big-game management style if he would allow his two best players to risk their health during a blowout.

Redick, who signed an extension in September that will keep him under contract until 2030, is not on the hot seat, not yet. But another spring meltdown will not endear himself to new owners who expect their coaches to be the calm face of the organization.

Then again, for everyone involved, there must be some grace granted in the wake of the incredible tension surrounding a team whose dream season just became a nightmare.

End the nightmare now. For the sake of the future of the franchise, shut it down.