U.S. federal judge blocks Kennedy Center board's effort to restore Trump's name to building
A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday blocked an effort by the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to restore U.S. President Donald Trump's name to the building's exterior, arguing that such a move would violate his previous order barring the board from renaming the center after Trump.
"Simply put, defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress's blessing," Judge Christopher Cooper said.
Qatar warns against disruption of Bab al-Mandeb amid Hormuz Strait closure
Qatar warned on Tuesday that disruption of navigation through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, on top of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, could have "catastrophic" consequences, stressing that blocking international waterways must not become "the new normal."
"Blocking the waterway and international water corridors cannot be the new normal. And this cannot be acceptable either to Qatar or the international community," Director of the Media and Communication Department at Qatar's Foreign Ministry Ibrahim bin Sultan Al-Hashmi said during the ministry's weekly briefing.
WTO warns weakened trade rules could leave global GDP up to 10 pct lower
The World Trade Organization (WTO) warned Tuesday that failure to modernize the global trading system could leave global GDP as much as 10 percent lower than under a strengthened multilateral system, as trade policy faces its most serious and sustained disruption in decades.
The warning came in the WTO's annual flagship publication, World Trade Report 2026: A Critical Juncture for the World Trading System, which examines the achievements of the multilateral trading system over the past 80 years and the challenges it now faces.
Russia ready for Ukraine talks, but firm on NATO: Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia is ready to seek compromises on Ukraine but has never changed its position on preventing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) presence on its borders.
"We are ready, within this position, to seek reasonable compromises, but fundamentally we have not changed our objectives -- to ensure our security, to prevent NATO's presence on our borders," Lavrov said during an ambassadorial roundtable discussion on the Ukrainian settlement.■
