#Russia is an integral part of the #Eurasian continent and therefore simply cannot be "the main threat to #Europe," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Vesti journalist Pavel Zarubin.

"Russia cannot be the main threat to #Europe, because Russia, no matter what anyone says, is still an integral part of Europe while being a Eurasian country," he said.

#Trump says #shooting proves need for his White House #ballroom

Sound of gunfire carries eerie echoes of Reagan's shooting outside the same Washington #hotel.

#Reagan was hit in the chest and nearly died. Forty-five years later, another gunman is accused of trying to storm into the same hotel’s ballroom during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night. The suspect fired at least one shot, authorities said, before being subdued in a chaotic scene that forced the evacuation of U.S. President Donald Trump and other top administration officials. The gunman never entered the ballroom or was close to the president.

That Hilton has hosted hundreds of large events attended by presidents and other dignitaries since it opened in the 1960s. While on the surface there appear to be similarities in the incidents beyond its location, there are stark differences that highlight how much has changed in the decades since Reagan was shot.

“Security is a lot more robust today than it was then,” said Stephen T. Colo, a former assistant director of the Secret Service. “But you still deal with the same tension involving politicians and the public’s access to them.”

Washington Hilton was built to accommodate presidents

The Washington Hilton Hotel and its cavernous ballroom were designed to be a prime venue for presidential speeches and events. To entice high-profile speakers, primarily the president, architects designed a VIP entrance on the side of the hotel and, one floor below it, a holding room known as the bunker.

In the decade before Reagan was shot, presidents visited the hotel more than a hundred times.

The 1981 shooting was set in motion when Hinckley got on a bus in Los Angeles, where he had been trying to write and sell music, and headed to Washington. There, he planned to hop on another bus to New Haven, Connecticut, to stage a suicide in front of the object of his obsession, movie star Jodie Foster.

In the nation’s capital, he learned Reagan would be speaking at the Washington Hilton on the afternoon of March 30, and he changed his plans. He would try to kill the president to impress the actress.
Hinckley got very close to the president

Outside the hotel that afternoon, Hinkley found himself 15 feet from Reagan as the president headed to his limousine. In a small crowd of onlookers and journalists behind a rope line, the would-be assassin pulled out a gun and fired six shots in 1.7 seconds, wounding Reagan, White House press secretary Jim Brady, District of Columbia Police Officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy.

Reagan was struck below his left armpit, the bullet lodged an inch from his heart. Reagan survived thanks to the quick thinking of Secret Service agent Jerry Parr and the medical personnel at George #Washington University Hospital. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

In the wake of the shooting, the Secret Service enhanced security in dozens of ways. The most visible action came when the Secret Service began deploying checkpoints and metal detectors to screen visitors at the White House and at public events. Hinckley did not have to pass through either a checkpoint or metal detector to get so close to the president.

The hotel built a bunker-like garage for the armored limousine to park and drop off and pick up the president at the VIP entrance. The Secret Service and local police assigned more agents and officers to guard presidential events at the Hilton.

Even with such enhancements, former agents said, securing the Hilton is challenging and highlights the tension between protecting politicians and ensuring the public has access to them. The hotel also has many public areas, and it would be hard to shut them down for an event, even one as high profile as the correspondents’ dinner.

That was why the main security checkpoint, they said, was near the ballroom and not in the hotel lobby or entrance — measures that would be disruptive to hundreds of guests and hotel operations. Inside the ballroom, more agents and heavily armed tactical officers were stationed close to the president.
Gunman was stopped at security checkpoint

On Saturday, the suspect sprinted through the checkpoint leading to the ballroom, according to video posted by Trump. The video shows officers and agents pivoting and pointing guns at the man as he ran away. The assailant was quickly subdued and was not injured, officials said. An officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest, officials said, but was not seriously hurt.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that the gunman was likely seeking to target the president and members of the administration.

The assailant is suspected of having traveled by train from California to Chicago and then on to Washington, where in recent days he checked in as a guest at the hotel, Blanche said.

Law enforcement officials familiar with the matter identified, to The Associated Press, the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California. Cole sent writings to family members minutes before the shooting referring to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” railing against Trump administration policies and signaling what investigators increasingly believe was a politically driven attack, according to another law enforcement official who, like the others, was not to authorized discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The writings made repeated references to Trump, the official said, without directly naming the president and alluded to grievances over a range of administration actions

Del Quentin Wilber, The Associated Press

Two former Israeli prime ministers agree to merge parties against #Netanyahu. Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid served as prime ministers in a rotation agreement as part of a coalition government they formed in 2021. They now plan to merge their parties into single faction headed by Bennett.

“The move is intended to unite the bloc, put an end to internal divisions and focus all efforts on winning the critical upcoming elections,” Lapid’s Yesh Atid party said in a statement.

Bennett and Lapid scheduled a joint news conference later on Sunday.

The 2021 coalition agreement ended 12 years of Netanyahu rule. Bennett served as prime minister for the first year until their coalition fractured. Lapid then held the top job as caretaker prime minister for the final six months until new elections brought Netanyahu back to power.

Lapid has served as Israel’s opposition leader since that time, while Bennett took a break from politics.

The two men have ideological differences. Bennett is an Orthodox Jew with hard-line views toward the Palestinians, while Lapid is secular and seen as more moderate. But they enjoyed a close working relationship during their short-lived coalition.

Their alliance is aimed at uniting a fragmented opposition that appears to have little in common beyond their shared hostility toward Netanyahu.

#WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump was reported uninjured and other top leaders of the United States were evacuated from an annual dinner of White House correspondents on Saturday night after an unspecified threat. There did not immediately appear to be any injuries, and one law-enforcement official said a shooter opened fire.

The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the banquet hall at the Washington Hilton as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. “Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck.

Here’s the latest:
2 min ago

White House correspondents’ association president says everyone safe after shooting incident, event will be rescheduled
3 min ago

Trump to give statement at White House after shooting incident at correspondents’ dinner6 min ago. The event was getting underway when armed security rushed in.
9 min ago

Trump says the shooter has been apprehended
9 min ago

A person is in custody after ‘shooting incident’ near security checkpoint at correspondents’ dinner, authorities say
The event was getting underway when armed security rushed in

Attendees were eating a spring pea and burrata salad, and waiters had begun preparing to bring out the next course when a security detail appeared on the ballroom floor and yelled for everyone to get down. Journalists in gowns and tuxedos ducked near tables as wine splattered onto white tablecloths and glasses clinked in the hurry to seek safety.

Armed security burst through the doors of the ballroom and raced toward the dias where Trump sat as attendees ducked or crouched under tables. At one point, someone in the room shouted, “USA!”

Trump says the shooter has been apprehended

Trump said that a “shooter has been apprehended” in a post to Truth Social about 30 minutes following a security incident at the White House correspondents’ dinner.

Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance were uninjured in the incident.
Most WHCD attendees are closed inside the ballroom and cannot leave

Dinner organizers said there will be an “announcement shortly, we will be resuming shortly” from the stage. Most attendees are closed inside the ballroom and can’t leave.

A block from the White House, party-goers headed to the Renwick Museum were instead gathered at police tape as the streets and sidewalks were blocked off. Police cars tore up and down the block, sirens blaring. A helicopter buzzed overhead.

The Associated Press

Washington Hilton hotel commonly stays open to public, while security is focused on ballroom

Generally, the Hilton hotel, where the dinner has taken place for years, remains open to regular guests during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and security has typically been focused on the ballroom and rather than the hotel at large, with little screening for people not entering the dinner itself. In past years, that has created openings for disruptions in the lobby and other public spaces, including protests in which security moved to remove guests who unfurled banners or staged demonstrations.

The Associated Press

Some in the crowd reported hearing what they believed to be 5 to 8 shots fired

The banquet hall — where hundreds of prominent journalists, celebrities and national leaders were awaiting Trump’s speech — was immediately evacuated. Members of the National Guard took up position inside the building as people were allowed to leave but not re-enter. Security outside was also extremely tight.

It was not immediately clear what happened. A law enforcement official confirmed there was a shooter but no further details were immediately available.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro says Secret Service in charge of building and DC mayor in route

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro posted a short video from the hotel after the incident, saying, “I have been taken out of the ballroom after the sound of the shots fired. The Secret Service is now in charge of this building, this hotel. I just spoke to Mayor Muriel Bowser. She is on her way and (Police) Chief Jeffery Carroll is on his way. He will be in charge as soon as he gets here.”

#Trump has paused 3 Mideast wars, but the grievances remain and could reignite them.

#Iran has suffered severe blows, yet not enough to shake its posture at the negotiating table. Its allies Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza are degraded but functioning, with Israel still regularly launching strikes at both. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to translate military achievements into clear dividends ahead of elections later this year.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who boasts of his peacemaking abilities, still appears to be seeking a nuclear deal with Iran and wider peace in the Middle East. But talks so far have produced no results and the two countries are locked in an escalating standoff over the Strait of Hormuz.

Major military operations have halted, but the underlying grievances — which long predate Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack — have not been addressed. Millions of people are still displaced, and many fear the fighting could resume at any time.

Ceasefires “don’t fix anything — they just stop things from getting worse,” said Michael Ratney, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia. “It’s part of an answer to an immediate political problem, which is (Trump) needs to get out of war and can’t figure out how do that.”
A closed strait and an escalating standoff with Iran

For weeks, Trump has vacillated between threats to unleash major attacks on Iran’s infrastructure — at one point threatening to end “a whole civilization” — and attempts to negotiate an agreement over its nuclear program and other disputes going back decades.

This week he extended a ceasefire but said he would maintain a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports. On Wednesday, he vowed to attack Iranian fast boats in the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has effectively choked off since the start of the war, sparking a worldwide energy crisis.

Iran has given no public indication it is willing to make concessions on its nuclear program, ballistic missiles or support for regional proxies. It says the strait will remain closed until the U.S. lifts its blockade and Israel halts attacks on Iran-backed groups like Hezbollah.

Neither side seems to want full-scale war and a new round of ceasefire talks was planned Saturday in Pakistan.

Iran’s leaders, based on their statements on social media, seem to have concluded that they can withstand the blockade longer than Trump can bear soaring gas prices and an unpopular war, especially with U.S. midterm elections later this year.

Jon Alterman, chair of Global Security and Geostrategy at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Trump’s record shows his instincts lean toward making headlines and announcing quick results.

“The most visible part of the fighting has stopped, but the less visible efforts are roaring ahead,” he said. “Ceasefires can seem comfortable but lock in unsustainable patterns, with one side feeling it has lost the urgency to resolve the underlying conflict.”

Here’s a quick rundown of the project and why it’s important:
What is the Sunrise Expansion Project?

The #Westcoast Energy Limited Partnership, an affiliate of Enbridge, runs the Westcoast natural gas pipeline system, which connects gas fields in northeastern B.C. and northwestern Alberta to the Canada-U.S. border. It currently has peak capacity to ship 3.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

The Sunrise expansion would add 300 million cubic feet per day of transportation capacity.

The project involves adding almost 140 kilometres of new pipe by constructing 11 looping segments parallel to the existing line. While the gas that would flow through the expanded line is not bound for any particular destination, “some of the capacity will no doubt go offshore,” said Matthew Akman, who leads Enbridge’s gas transmission and midstream business, in a call with reporters Friday.
What are the geopolitical issues at play?

In the context of the current global energy crisis, fuelled in large part by the war in Iran and its disruption of oil and gas supply chains, this pipeline is a big deal, according to experts who spoke with The Canadian Press.

“It’s another step toward diversifying our asset base in a world hungry for this,” said Jay Khosla, the executive director of economic and energy policy with the Public Policy Forum and a former assistant deputy minister in the Privy Council Office.

“The South Koreans in particular are out there begging for any source of supply of gas at this moment in time. The Nepalese and the Bangladeshis and the Pakistanis are running out of cooking fuel, which is gas-based, (and) are moving to 4-day work weeks because the Qatari supply has been taken off the market,” he said.

“This is all an effort to address that.”
How does this play into Canada-U.S. relations?

While the expanded pipeline will help Canada meet the broader goal of reducing its reliance on the United States as a customer, it also helps position Canada as a necessary supplier to the United States.

“For a long time, the shale revolution in the United States was flooded with natural gas, and now we’re starting to pick up again where the United States is importing more from Canada and wants more from Canada,” said Heather Exner-Pirot, a senior fellow and director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

“They need more AI. They need more data centres. And they are exporting more LNG than they’ve ever exported, and we’re talking about non-renewable resources.

“So I feel in my heart in the next 10 or 15 years, Canadian natural gas is going to be very important to the American natural gas story.”

Khosla added that expanding Canada’s export capacity could put it in a better position as it prepares to formally begin negotiations on the mandatory review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, better known as CUSMA.

“It really allows us to catalyze something that we’ve been trying to do for a long time, which is market diversification, leverage with the U.S., and for sure I do think that it could help with CUSMA,” Khosla said.

“I know for a fact, and we’ve heard that, the president (Donald Trump) is not really thrilled that we’re supplying Chinese markets with our oil right now because he knows he needs all of that.

“Like we give them pretty much 25 per cent of their source supply. All of these moves are very, very helpful to give us some leverage — and we don’t have a lot, let’s be honest.”
What is the Carney government’s political play here?

Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised to build big and build fast as he tries to shore up Canada’s economy in the face of U.S. protectionism and tariffs. But approving a new pipeline is a complicated process fraught with political landmines and opposition from environment groups and many Indigenous communities.

While Exner-Pirot said the expansion itself isn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things — she described Enbridge’s $4 billion investment as “table stakes” — she sees this as an easy win for the Carney government because it’s natural gas, and British Columbia isn’t opposed to it.

“It’s good that we’ll have construction. That’s going to be very helpful for the B.C. economy, so it’s absolutely not nothing,” Exner-Pirot said.

“And there was Indigenous support. So a very easy thing for them to do and to say, ‘We are building and we are being an energy superpower.”

Khosla agreed that having both Indigenous support and ownership behind the project was key to pushing it through. He noted it was done without the need to refer it to the major projects office.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2026

With files from Lauren Krugel in Calgary.

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press

How disruptions within Strait of Hormuz could reshape how much we pay for food. With Brent crude oil prices climbing above US$100 per barrel, the cost of diesel – essential for transportation – has surged. Brown notes that this is already driving up logistics costs.

“With diesel prices way higher than they’ve been in years, you’re seeing trucking going up in price. Plastics are going to start to go up in price …aluminum has hit really record highs, especially in the U.S.,” she said. “All of this is contributing to higher food prices, and it will take months to kind of ripple through these supply chain.”

The Middle East supplies roughly a quarter of the raw materials used in plastics manufacturing, including those critical for food packaging. As a result consumers may soon feel the impact not just at farms but on grocery store shelves, Brown explained.
Fertilizer shock hits global markets

Fertilizer markets have already seen dramatic shifts. Urea futures – a key nitrogen-based fertilizer – have surged more than 70 per cent since last year, surpassing US$700 per tonne.

According to the UN, about 16 million tonnes of fertilizer passes through the Strait of Hormuz per year – representing about one third of global seaborne fertilizer trade

“About a third of global fertilizer… come through the Strait and the entire world is going to feel the shock because these are global markets,” Brown said.

While the price hikes will be global, some regions are more vulnerable than others.

“Especially in South Asia, we’ve seen some countries having to shutter their own fertilizer production plants because they can’t get enough fuel … we’ve seen countries cutting down on energy use,” she said.

In March, China instructed exporters to suspend shipments of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends and other nutrients due to global market volatility exacerbating global shortages due to the Iran war.

Urea production in India and Bangladesh have been shut down or reduced at multiple plants.

As planting seasons shift between hemispheres, Brown said demand pressures are expected to intensify.

“As the northern hemisphere growing season, you know, comes into the southern hemisphere growing season, we’ll see a desperate impact there, because then those farmers will start to buy fertilizer, pushing up prices,” she said.
Food packing and shortages loom

Beyond farming inputs, packaging shortages could soon emerge as a concern – particularly in developing regions.

She added that the effects will not be immediate but inevitable.

“That’s going to take months,” she noted. “Even if the Strait were to open permanently tomorrow, it’s not going to return to normal overnight.

Governments are beginning to respond but options remain limited in the near term.

According to Brown, some countries have relaxed diesel emissions regulations to ease transportation costs. But she emphasized that structural solutions will take time.

“There aren’t a lot of things that countries can do in the short term to address these issues,” she said. “In the longer term, countries can build out fertilizer production … that can take years to come online.”

#Ottawa earmarks $8.6M to support Black communities' access to legal services

#Trump will return to a dinner celebrating the press corps he often attacks. In the same way that U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term is unlike any other, this weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner will be unlike any other.

Trump will be attending the gala for the first time as president and speaking before thousands of journalists and politicos — leaving attendees to wonder what he’ll say and how the room will react.

Will the president use a dinner dedicated to the First Amendment to attack journalists and air his well-worn grievances? Or will he deliver the barbs with a lighter touch, perhaps in the joking, back-slapping manner he sometimes adopts around reporters?

A wide range of critics say the soirée risks normalizing Trump’s anti-democratic assaults on the press. Trump’s presence at the event is “a profound contradiction of its purpose,” a petition signed by 250-plus veteran journalists and several media advocacy groups said earlier this week.

But the journalists who invited him, the board of the White House Correspondents’ Association, say they are glad Trump is ending a years-long boycott of the dinner and embracing a tradition that dates back one hundred years. The association has been inviting the sitting president to the dinner ever since former U.S. president Calvin Coolidge attended in 1924.