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Distressed riders who were stranded for hours say Apollo Go customer service agents offered ‘useless platitudes’A “system malfunction” has caused several self-driving robotaxis to stall in the middle of the road in China, police have confirmed, after distressed riders were stranded for hours.Local authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan said they began receiving calls “one after another” on Tuesday night from riders reporting that autonomous vehicles operated by the Chinese internet company Baidu had frozen. Continue reading...

Donald Trump's administration may be ready to form an exit plan explanation for the Iran war, but it will fail to convince a key group, according to a political analyst. Strikes on Iran last month affected crude oil prices, putting pressure on the United States' economy. Further explanations from the president's team left much to be desired, and, according to CNN analyst Stephen Collinson, the economic experts and markets are unlikely to be moved by an exit plan proposal. Collinson wrote, "Walking away might leave turmoil. But it would be consistent with Trump’s methodology, which in practice has been more effective in destroying status quos than building new systems. "It would also extend the America First principle that the country should act at all times within the confines of its exclusive national interests. And it would indulge Trump’s anger at NATO allies he regards as leeching off American security guarantees."But America doesn’t exist in a vacuum defined by Trump’s rhetoric. He’d struggle to outrun the economic and political reverberations of keeping the strait under the control of a reinvigorated Iran. Trump may be able to create political spin to explain his exit — but the markets are unlikely to be as easy to convince."Collinson went on to warn that a sudden exit from Iran while the Strait of Hormuz remains closed could trigger a global economic crisis and even threaten global relations between the US and NATO allies. "That economic blow threatens to set off a global recession that would crash onto US shores — possibly months before the midterm elections, in which Democrats hope to score a big win that will help them rein in Trump’s second-term power," Collinson wrote. "More broadly, the fallout of the Iran war now threatens another consequence: an even deeper fracture in the transatlantic alliance. This would only underscore the need for European allies — and those Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney calls ''middle powers' — to invest more in their own militaries with the understanding that America’s post-World War II security umbrella has become unreliable."

A road accident involving at least eight vehicles in central Colombia has killed at least two people and injured 19 others

An anti-Donald Trump protest has taken place outside the US Embassy in London, England today (April 1).Protestors from the campaign group Fossil Free London gathered outside the embassy to host a demonstration against the president and his administration. Campaigners on the ground say the protest has been carried out over the Trump admin's actions in Iran and the subsequent impact on crude oil prices. A gathering outside of the US Embassy started around 8:15am British Summer Time (3:15am EST), where attendees painted their faces and posed next to a mock-up of a gas station pump. Fake oil was also poured on the heads of some protestors. Two protestors speaking with The Mirror explained the aims of the protest. One, who gave their name as Rainbow, said, "We're here because we're protesting that we're locked into a really damaging and dangerous fossil fuels industry. We need to break away from these.""We need to have a just position to renewables. Oil is essentially killing us - it's killing the planet. We're just really trying to make a symbolic protest at how damaging it is. We're hurtling towards energy catastrophe and we're locked into systems that are damaging for people and energy bills."Fellow activist Rosie added, "We're outside the US Embassy because Trump's illegal war on Iran has led to massive spikes in the cost of our energy here in the UK. "As oil bosses profit massively, BP and Shell alone are set to make five billion dollars from the war in Iran and worse still Trump and Nigel Farage are using this crisis that they fueled and started as an excuse to drill for more fossil fuels.""It means that we should harness the power of the wind all around us on this island, the waves and the sun, because we don't fight imperial violent wars to get energy from the sun. It's all around us.""You look at what has happened since the war in Iran started - a massive spike in our energy prices and with more to come if this war doesn't stop soon."Campaigners from Fossil Free London held up signs saying “Stop Trump tying us into fossil fuels,” “Break free from climate crisis” and “Break free from big oil."

President Donald Trump has signaled he is likely to retreat from the ongoing Iran war, a former White House insider said on Tuesday. Bill Kristol, conservative analyst and editor-at-large for The Bulwark, shared what he thinks Trump and his administration will do next as the war now reaches the fifth week. "Where he’s heading is toward the exits," Kristol wrote. Kristol also suggested that Trump could be backing off on his demand to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, citing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's vague comment with reporters on Monday that the administration was "working toward" establishing operations again in the crucial waterway. He also referenced a Wall Street Journal report early Tuesday that indicated the end could be near. "President Trump told aides he’s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed. . . . He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade," The Journal reported. "If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said."It's unclear what Trump will do next, but the signs have pointed to withdrawing, Kristol wrote."And if that wasn’t enough of a tell, Trump seemed to all but confirm the reporting this morning when he posted that other countries were going to have to figure out how to get oil through the strait themselves. '[T]he U.S.A won’t be there to help you anymore,' he added," Kristol explained. "All in all, it seems more likely than not that Trump plans on walking away rather than escalating," Kristol added. "I think this would be a less bad outcome of this reckless and feckless 'excursion' than introducing ground troops. But it will still be a bad outcome for the United States and the world. And I’m afraid it won’t be the last bad outcome we’ll experience from having an unbelievably irresponsible individual as our president."

According to Financial Times columnist Ed Luce, Donald Trump spent an inordinate amount of time during their Monday interview grasping for clues on how to bring his war on Iran to a close.Calling into MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” Luce elaborated on more details from his chat with the embattled president who reportedly jumped from topic to topic. Speaking with the hosts, Luce recalled, “He was toggling between what I call the ‘armageddon TACO [Trump Always Chickens Out] shuffle’ in that he was, you know, talking about taking Iran’s oil and how easy it would be to seize Kharg island, referring to the Venezuela model of regime change by taking out the head and doing business, including oil business, with the remains of it. Then shifting to saying that, that he was having great talks with the Iranian regime.”Asked about Trump’s oil problems with the Strait of Hormuz closed and no easy answers to getting it open for tankers again, Luce claimed Trump told him, “It was slightly in tension with what he was saying about, well, now they’re letting 20 tankers through, I believe these are Pakistan-flagged tankers. ‘But the Iranians have given me an even bigger gift and even bigger present, 20 tankers.’““And of course, you know that that in a way, it’s a little bit awkward because that in a way demonstrates Iran’s ability to control who goes in and who goes out,” Luce observed before commenting, “I sensed a little bit of sort of thrashing around for ideas because, you know, other than this stress on the indirect talks and these 20 ships that have been permitted to go through the strait, it didn’t sound like he had a whole lot of ideas as to how to get out of this situation.” - YouTube youtu.be

Reports, based on X post from unofficial account, follow JD Vance’s accusations and threats of finding ‘legal remedies’Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxSeveral news outlets have falsely reported that Somaliland’s government called for the extradition of Ilhan Omar, basing their stories on a post from an X account that does not represent the state despite its claims to the contrary.Fox News, the New York Post, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s the National News Desk and the Independent ran stories on the US representative. The reports centred on a post by @RepOfSomaliland in reaction to claims by JD Vance that Omar had committed immigration fraud, which echoed prior allegations against the Somali-born Minnesota Democrat that she has vehemently denied. Continue reading...

Football federation president on the run with wife and sonConviction in absentia of wide-ranging corruption chargesAuthorities in Congo-Brazzaville have applied to Interpol for an international arrest warrant against Jean-Guy Blaise Mayolas, the president of the country’s football federation, Fecofoot, after he was convicted of embezzling $1.1m in Fifa funds.Mayolas is on the run with his wife and son after they were all sentenced to life imprisonment this month for embezzling funds provided by world football’s governing body as part of its Covid-19 relief plan in February 2021. As the Guardian revealed last year, that included almost $500,000 earmarked for the Congo women’s team. Continue reading...