Belgium disrupted by nationwide strike over austerity cuts
A 24-hour nationwide strike crippled Belgium’s airports, transit networks and public services on Monday, as unions walked out to protest government austerity cuts to welfare and pensions.
The White House denied access to an Associated Press photographer and three reporters from Reuters, HuffPost and Der Tagesspiegel.
The White House on Wednesday barred reporters from Reuters and several other news organizations from attending President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting, granting access instead to select media outlets.
TV crews from ABC and Newsmax, along with correspondents from Axios, The Blaze, Bloomberg News, and NPR, were allowed to cover the event.
A day earlier, the Trump administration announced that it would take control of determining which media outlets can cover the president in smaller spaces such as the Oval Office— a process traditionally managed by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA). Reuters, a longtime participant in the presidential press pool, has been part of this system for decades.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that while major news organizations would still have daily access to Trump, the administration plans to reshape press participation in more limited settings. The WHCA’s long-standing pool system has allowed select journalists from television, radio, wire services, and print to cover events and share their reporting with the wider media landscape.
In response to the new policy, three major wire services— the Associated Press, Bloomberg, and Reuters— issued a joint statement emphasizing the importance of press access.
“These services have long worked to ensure that accurate, fair, and timely information about the presidency is communicated to a broad audience of all political persuasions, both in the United States and globally. Much of the White House coverage seen in local news outlets worldwide comes from the wires,” the statement read. “It is essential in a democracy for the public to have access to news about their government from an independent, free press.”
HuffPost condemned the decision, calling it “a violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of the press.”
The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The WHCA also released a statement on Tuesday, protesting the administration’s decision.
The move follows the White House’s recent decision to bar the Associated Press from the press pool after the agency refused to adopt Trump’s preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico— the “Gulf of America”— in its reporting or update its widely used style guide to reflect the change.
Despite the new policy, Leavitt confirmed that the five major cable and broadcast networks would retain their rotating seats in the press pool. Print reporters and radio journalists would also continue to be included, though the White House plans to expand access to additional outlets, including streaming services and new radio hosts.
Tensions flare in the India-France Rafale deal as France refuses to share the fighter jet’s source code, limiting India’s ability to integrate indigenous weapons and reducing its combat autonomy.
France has rejected India’s request to share source codes needed to integrate indigenous weapons into Rafale fighter jets. Despite repeated appeals, French manufacturer Dassault Aviation has refused to compromise on the issue
AnewZ and Kazakhstan’s Jibek Joly/Silk Way TV channel co-hosted a special AnewZ Talks in Astana at Maqsut Narikbayev University (MNU), uniting global experts and young leaders at Silk Road Media Group’s journalism school to explore the growing intersection of media and diplomacy.
Anton Kobyakov, adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, claimed at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum that the USSR’s dissolution was legally invalid and that the Soviet Union still exists under constitutional law, framing the Ukraine war as an “internal process.”
The Tehran Dialogue Forum 2025, scheduled for May 18–19, will host 200 international guests, including 40 current and former European officials.
Meta has signed another major solar energy agreement, acquiring 650 megawatts (MW) of clean power capacity across Kansas and Texas to support the rapid expansion of its AI-driven data centers, the company confirmed Thursday.
Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Thursday that tariffs were a key point of discussion during the G7 finance ministers’ meeting, despite the issue being omitted from the final communique.
Northern France sees major farmer protests as key agricultural reforms face parliamentary review, sparking road blockades and rising tensions.
The Trump administration is moving toward lifting sanctions on Syria, but officials caution that coordinating between government agencies means the process will take longer than initially expected.
A rare naval misstep has shaken North Korea’s tightly choreographed military image, prompting an urgent internal probe and public scolding from Kim Jong Un.
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