Daily SumUp

Korean actor Kim Soo Hyun and luxury brand Prada reportedly parted ways after three months of association. A SpotvNews report states that Prada released a statement on Friday that Soo Hyun’s contract has been terminated by ‘mutual agreement’. Here’s what they said. (Also Read: Kim Sae-ron's mother ‘furious’ by Kim Soo Hyun's agency statement on daughter; preps for rebuttal) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

US President Donald Trump has praised talks held with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the US-proposed ceasefire deal in Ukraine as "good and productive".This comes after Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff met in Moscow on Thursday evening, after which the Kremlin said it shared the US's "cautious optimism" over a peace process.Trump said in a Truth Social post that the talks provided "a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end".Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, accused Putin of trying to drag out talks to continue the war, while Sir Keir Starmer said the Russian president could not be allowed to "play games" with ceasefire proposals. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

South Korea's trade minister has asked his U.S. counterpart to exempt the country from reciprocal tariffs if they go into effect in April, the trade ministry said on Saturday.During his visit to Washington this week, Trade Minister Cheong In-kyo met U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and stressed that South Korea should not get unfavourable treatment, the ministry said in a statement.U.S. President Donald Trump has announced reciprocal tariffs on all U.S. trading partners from April 2. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Montana-based hunting influencer flies out of Australia on Friday after home affairs minister said he couldn’t ‘wait to see the back of this individual’ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A circus elephant showed deeply touching grief as her long time performing partner suddenly collapsed and died earlier this week. The pair Jenny and Magda had been inseparable for more than a quarter of a century in Russia.The Indian elephants were retired four years ago and recently entertained crowds as they roamed at the Taigan Safari Park in Russian-occupied Crimea. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russia is using cryptocurrencies in its oil trade with China and India to dodge Western sanctions, Reuters reported Friday, citing four sources with direct knowledge of the matter.Russia passed crypto mining legislation in August 2024, ending years of regulatory limbo. The country has reportedly tested cross-border crypto payments as it seeks an alternative to the U.S. dollar to settle international trade deals.After initially rejecting the idea of cryptocurrencies, the famously conservative Russian Central Bank eventually softened its stance on the potential use of cryptocurrency as a recognized means of payment.This month, the Central Bank launched an experimental legal framework that would allow “highly qualified” investors to trade cryptocurrencies but stopped short of recognizing cryptocurrency as legal tender. Reuters’ report is the first to suggest that Russia is using crypto for oil trade. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A group of high-profile johns who frequented posh brothels in Massachusetts were finally named in court Friday during a hearing that laid out sordid details, including that at least one of the men paid to have unprotected sex.Mark Zhu, 28, was one of the alleged johns to be identified during the hearing in a Cambridge, Massachusetts, courtroom where it was revealed he allegedly paid $840 for two hours of unsafe sex with a prostitute – in a service referred to as “bb,” the Daily Mail reported.Also revealed were the identities of other alleged johns including, Kerry Wu, John J. Doran, David LaCava, Boya Zhou, Peter H. MacGillivray, Yihong Zou, Pablo Domingo Maceira, Jonathan P. Lanfear, Pinhao Chao, Patrick Walsh and radiologist Jason Han. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he supported the general idea of a U.S.-backed ceasefire with Ukraine, but he listed a number of conditions that would need to be met."We agree with the proposals to halt the fighting, but we proceed from the assumption that the ceasefire should lead to lasting peace and remove the root causes of the crisis," he said in a news conference.Putin made the comments as President Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited Moscow to discuss a ceasefire plan — more than three years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It was two days after the U.S. and Ukrainian officials held talks in Saudi Arabia, in which Ukraine agreed "to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered federal agencies to rehire tens of thousands of probationary employees who were fired amid President Donald Trump’s turbulent effort to drastically shrink the federal bureaucracy.U.S. District Judge William Alsup described the mass firings as a “sham” strategy by the government’s central human resources office to sidestep legal requirements for reducing the federal workforce. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow restrictions on birthright citizenship to partly take effect while legal fights play out.In emergency applications filed at the high court on Thursday, the administration asked the justices to narrow court orders entered by district judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington that blocked the order President Donald Trump signed shortly after beginning his second term.The order currently is blocked nationwide. Three federal appeals courts have rejected the administration’s pleas, including one in Massachusetts on Tuesday.The order would deny citizenship to those born after Feb. 19 whose parents are in the country illegally. It also forbids U.S. agencies from issuing any document or accepting any state document recognizing citizenship for such children. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Turkey’s top diplomat, defense minister and intelligence chief paid a sudden visit to Damascus on Thursday, days after Syria’s interim government reached a deal to integrate a U.S backed Kurdish-led armed group into the country’s army.The agreement to integrate the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, into the Syrian government followed fierce clashes that erupted last week between government security forces and gunmen loyal to ousted leader Bashar Assad.Monitoring groups said hundreds of civilians were killed in the violence in Syria’s coastal communities, primarily targeting members of the Alawite religious minority to which Assad belongs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trump questions Denmark’s claim to Greenland, says more US troops could be headed there Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NHS England, the administrative body that runs the national health service, will be abolished in a bid to slash red tape, Sir Keir Starmer has announced.The prime minister said he was axing the "arms-length body" to bring management of the NHS "back into democratic control" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Türkiye on Thursday welcomed the border demarcation agreement signed between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.In a written statement, the Foreign Ministry said: “This agreement, concluded as a result of the close dialogue between the two countries at the highest level, will contribute to peace, stability and cooperation in the region.”Earlier in the day, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon signed an agreement on the state border in Bishkek, resolving a long-standing dispute that had been a source of conflict in recent years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greenland's outgoing Prime Minister Mute Egede on Thursday said he would convene a meeting of party leaders to jointly reject US President Donald Trump's vow to take over the island, warning that "Enough is enough.""This time we need to toughen our rejection of Trump. People cannot continue to disrespect us," Egede wrote on Facebook, after Trump earlier reiterated his desire to annex the autonomous Danish territory.Egede continues to lead Greenland while awaiting the formation of a new government following his party's defeat in elections on Tuesday."The American president has once again evoked the idea of annexing us. I absolutely cannot accept that," he wrote. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gold prices raced to a record high within touching distance of the key milestone of $3,000 per ounce on Thursday, with momentum driven by elevated tariff uncertainty and bets on monetary policy easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve.Spot gold climbed 1.6% to $2,979.76 an ounce, as of 13:55 ET (1755 GMT), after hitting its twelfth record peak this year earlier in the session. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Former Australian Test cricketer Stuart MacGill has been found guilty of taking part in the supply of cocaine in Sydney.He had pleaded not guilty to a single charge of participating in the supply of a prohibited drug. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reiterated the need for a new constitution, stating that previous constitutional changes lacked legitimacy.The European Parliament held a plenary session yesterday to discuss a resolution addressing the trials of Armenian prisoners illegally detained in Baku.Armenia’s foreign trade faces growing decline as key re-export routes fade. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brown bear which had life-saving brain surgery last October has emerged from semi-hibernation "looking happy and healthy", his keepers have said.Boki underwent the procedure at Wildwood Trust, near Canterbury, after an MRI scan revealed he had hydrocephalus, a build-up of fluid in the brain, which had been causing seizures.The operation took nearly six hours, with surgeons fitting a stent between his brain and abdomen to help him pass the excess fluid.Jon Forde, head of bears at Wildwood, said although Boki had made a "remarkable recovery it was "still early days". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In what he called the “most consequential day of deregulation in American history,” the head of the Environmental Protection Agency announced a series of actions Wednesday to roll back landmark environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants, climate change and electric vehicles.“We are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age,’' EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in an essay in The Wall Street Journal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The BiVACOR, pictured, is a total heart replacement made of titanium.Credit: Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via GettyAn Australian man in his forties has become the first person in the world to leave hospital with an artificial heart made of titanium. The device is used as a stopgap for people with heart failure who are waiting for a donor heart, and previous recipients of this type of artificial heart had remained in US hospitals while it was in place.The man lived with the device for more than three months until he underwent surgery to receive a donated human heart. The man is recovering well, according to a statement from St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Australia, where the operations were conducted.The Australian is the sixth person globally to receive the device, known as BiVACOR, but the first to live with it for more than a month.“This is certainly an important development in the field,” says Julian Smith, a cardiac surgeon at the Victorian Heart Institute at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Carney, who was recently elected as the leader of the Liberal Party, will take oath as Canada's 24th Prime Minister along with his cabinet on Friday, CTV News reported.He will be taking the reins from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after securing a win in the Liberal leadership on the first ballot held on Sunday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing a new travel rule that could force Canadians planning to stay in the country for more than 30 days to register their information with the US government and submit to fingerprinting.The draft rule, which is set to take effect April 11, expands requirements for registration and fingerprinting of foreign nationals who cross the US-Canada land border and stay in the US longer for more than a month. Affected people would have to create an account with US Citizenship and Immigration Services and schedule an appointment for fingerprinting as part of a background check. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 Prominent Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil will remain in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana for now following a procedural hearing in New York, days after he was arrested by federal officials at his Columbia University residence in an attempt by the Trump administration to deport him.Khalil was arrested and detained on Saturday over his role in protests against the Israel-Hamas war at Columbia University last spring. His green card was revoked by the Trump administration, his lawyer said, but New York federal Judge Jesse Furman blocked any immediate effort to deport Khalil until his attorneys and the federal government appear in court. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2024, opium prices reached $750 per kilogramme, a tenfold growth from $75 per kilogram in 2022 when the Taliban government banned poppy growing, the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a statement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Russian government issued its strongest statement yet Wednesday against a provisional cease-fire agreed by the US and Ukraine a day earlier following marathon talks in Saudi Arabia.“Nobody is talking to us,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with pro-Kremlin US bloggers.“They keep saying, ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,’ but they do everything about Russia without Russia.”Lavrov also reiterated that Russia would not accept peacekeeping troops from any NATO country on Ukrainian territory “under any conditions,” a direct rebuke to a proposal floated by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Outbreak Updates on X: "Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the United States’ offer to hold talks on its nuclear programme is an attempt to deceive global public opinion, as a letter arrived from US President Donald Trump urging negotiations.Trump said last week that he had sent a letter to the Iranian leadership seeking negotiations over a new deal with Tehran to restrain its rapidly advancing nuclear programme. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Japan said on Wednesday it was "regrettable" that the country had not been granted an exemption from US President Donald Trump's steel and aluminium tariffs of 25 percent.Asked if Japan was considering retaliatory measures, top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said the two nations would continue to discuss details of the duties, which came into force at midnight US time (0400 GMT Wednesday)."Widespread measures to limit trade risk having a significant impact on the Japan-US economic relationship as well as the world economy and multilateral trade system," Hayashi told reporters."That Japan was not excluded from the imposition of additional tariffs is regrettable," he said.Japan exported 31.4 million tons of steel in 2024, of which 1.1 million went to the United States -- around four percent of the country's steel imports, according to Washington. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Moscow,: The heads of US and Russian spy agencies have have spoken by phone and agreed to keep up regular contacts to lower the temperature in US-Russia relations, news reports said on Wednesday.In the first such contact in several years, CIA chief John Ratcliffe and the head of Russia's external intelligence agency SVR Sergei Naryshkin spoke by phone on Tuesday, the state TASS agency said. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amazon Rainforest massive chunk destroyed... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

President Donald Trump expressed optimism Wednesday that US negotiators headed to Moscow could secure a ceasefire in the Ukraine war, with officials saying the United States wants Russia to agree to an unconditional halt to hostilities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald Trump says he thinks he will talk to Vladimir Putin this week, but warned "it takes two to tango", with regards to Russia agreeing to a ceasefire in Ukraine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

President Donald Trump shared his intent to purchase a Tesla on Tuesday to support Elon Musk as the electric vehicle maker’s sales and share price face pressure from the CEO’s foray into global politics, most notably as head of Trump’s cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency.“I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American,” Trump wrote in a post published early Tuesday morning on Truth Social. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As USAID clears out, official directs employees to use shredders, burn bags on documents... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ukraine says it is ready to accept a US proposal for an initial 30-day ceasefire on the land, sea and sky with Russia, following talks in Saudi Arabia Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Entire families including women and children have been killed in Syria’s coastal region as part of recent a series of sectarian killings by rival groups, the UN human rights office said.The wave of violence broke out last Thursday, when armed groups loyal to deposed former President Bashar al-Assad ambushed security forces in the province of Latakia, killing at least 16 members of the security forces, according to the Ministry of Defence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ukraine has said it is ready to accept an immediate 30-day ceasefire with Russia proposed by the US, after a day of US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would present the offer to Russia and that "the ball is in their court".Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelensky said it was now up to the US to convince Russia to agree to the "positive" proposal.Tuesday's talks in Jeddah were the first official meeting between the two countries since the extraordinary clash between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pope Francis is not considered to be in imminent danger from the infection he arrived to the hospital with, a Vatican source said on Monday.Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital in mid-February and has been battling pneumonia in both of his lungs.For the first time since his hospitalization, the Vatican said doctors have decided to lift the prognosis, citing improvements in his clinical situation.But the pope’s clinical condition is still “complex” and he is not entirely out of danger, the source said. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What ACTUALLY HAPPENED at Paris Fashion Week Fall 2025 Men Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

North Korea fired several ballistic missiles into the sea Monday, South Korea’s military said, hours after South Korean and U.S. troops kicked off their large annual combined drills, which the North views as an invasion rehearsal.South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile firings, North Korea’s fifth missile launch event this year, were detected from the North’s southwestern Hwanghae province. It called the weapons close-range but didn’t say how far they flew. The military said South Korea bolstered its surveillance posture and is closely coordinating with the United States. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NASA is eliminating its chief scientist and other roles as part of efforts by the Trump administration to pare back staff at the agency's Washington headquarters. The cuts affect about 20 employees at NASA, including Katherine Calvin, the chief scientist and a climate science expert. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The White House on Tuesday asserted President Trump would not cut Social Security or Medicare after tech billionaire Elon Musk’s comments about the need to examine entitlement spending gained traction.Musk, a top Trump adviser leading the effort to overhaul the federal workforce through the Department of Government Efficiency, appeared on Fox Business Network on Monday for a rare television interview, where he noted that most government spending is on entitlements.“So, the waste and fraud in entitlement spending, which is all of the — which is most of the federal spending is entitlements. So, that’s, like, the big one to eliminate,” Musk told former Trump official Larry Kudlow, suggesting it could amount to more than $500 billion in annual savings. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff landed in Qatar on Tuesday to join indirect talks between Israel and Hamas aimed at extending the current, fragile ceasefire in Gaza, Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 Gene Hackman didn’t want to slow down, according to friends in the Santa Fe community he spent almost 40 years in with his wife, Betsy Arakawa Hackman, by his side.Stephen Marshall, a retired FBI agent who trained them through a community outreach program, recalled the Oscar-winner was "bothered" by aging. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The US Education Department said it is cutting nearly 50% of its workforce, according to senior agency officials, as President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating the agency altogether.Hundreds will be laid off starting Tuesday evening, in addition to those who took voluntary “buyouts.” Those actions would cut the department’s workforce of about 4,100 in half. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Militants kill 10 people after hijacking passenger train, taking hostages in western Pakistan, officials say Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Dalai Lama’s successor will be born outside China, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism says in a new book, raising the stakes in a dispute with Beijing over control of the Himalayan region he fled more than six decades ago.Tibetans worldwide want the institution of the Dalai Lama to continue after the 89-year-old’s death, he writes in “Voice for the Voiceless”, which was reviewed by Reuters and is being released on Tuesday.He had previously said the line of spiritual leaders might end with him. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AN EXTREME eater and TikTok star known for sharing videos of himself over-eating has died after struggling to breathe or stand.Efecan Kultur, 24, had over 155,000 followers on TikTok and was well known as a mukbang streamer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A simple change in direction on an afternoon walk around a Surprise neighborhood led Joanna Buesen to be at the right place at the right time to witness something so wrong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.