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Donald Trump Winter Olympics visit set after USA hockey win and local police warning

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Daily Mirror

The USA’s ice hockey team dominated Slovakia and are now set to have Donald Trump in attendance for their gold medal match against Canada on Sunday in Italy

Donald Trump is set to attend the Winter Olympics in Italy after the USA ice hockey team dominated Slovakia to earn a place in the final. The US will meet Canada to fight for a gold medal after sweeping their opponents aside 6-2.

Trump’s presence is set to see local police ramp up security measures for the president attending one of the most anticipated events of the Games, according to Corriere Della Dea. Trump’s journey to Italy was said to be contingent on the US making the final, which takes place on Sunday.

It is said to be a whistlestop tour, however. It has been suggested that Trump will go straight from Air Force One to the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. he will appear at the closing ceremony later that day before immediately departing Italy.

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The IOC has not confirmed the rumours, with spokesman Mark Adams referring the matter to the White House. He said: “You wouldn’t expect me to comment on the movements of heads of state, and I’m not going to disappoint you.

“If you have a question on that one, I think you probably have to pose it to the White House. But certainly at this stage, we won’t comment on the movements of any head of state.”

READ MORE: Winter Olympics star suffers horror face injury in shocking speed skating accidentREAD MORE: Lindsay Vonn makes heartbreaking admission after undergoing FIFTH surgery

Trump’s anticipated presence at the closing ceremony comes after Vice President JD Vance was booed at the opening ceremony. Vance, who led the US delegation, was caught on camera and received a hostile reception as the US team made their entrance in an uncomfortable moment in Italy.

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Protests took place in Milan when it was confirmed that staff from ICE, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement department, were involved in American security planning before the Games.

Amid some outspoken comments from US athletes about current events in their nation, Vance hit back. He said: “Yes, you’re going to have some Olympic athletes who pop off about politics.

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“I feel like that happens every Olympics. My advice to them would be to try to bring the country together, and when you’re representing the country, you’re representing Democrats and Republicans.

“You’re there to play a sport, and you’re there to represent your country and hopefully win a medal. You’re not there to pop off about politics.”

Trump, meanwhile, is no stranger to being booed at sporting events. He picked up a negative reception when attending the men’s final at the US Open in New York last year. The match was delayed by half an hour to accommodate heightened security checks.

The US president also received jeers at a Washington Commanders NFL game and heard boos in an appearance at last year’s Club World Cup.

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Ireland rally to take well-deserved win over England in U20 Six Nations

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Ireland rally to take well-deserved win over England in U20 Six Nations

Hello and welcome to our coverage of England u20s vs Ireland u20s in the Junior Six Nations. England, unlike their senior counterparts, are still on the hunt for a Grand Slam following victories against Wales and Scotland. Ireland’s form, however, is much more aligned to Andy Farrell’s setup, having lost heavily to an ominously good-looking France before scraping past Italy by 30-27.

The Irish similarities don’t end there, they suffered a drop in form last year (earning them a wooden spoon), after first and second placed finishes in the years prior. They’ll be desperate to prove that Ireland’s existential concerns around player development are reactionary but in England face an opponent with an equal desire to prove a point. After their grand slam win in 2021 the English youth setup, masterminded by Mark Mapletoft and now Andy Titterrell, has excelled with consistently high Six Nations finishes (a grand slam denied dramatically by Wales in 2024) and a World Cup win in 2024. Most notable about their success, however, has been the steady line of Premiership, and in some cases, international ready players. That seems to be no different this year.

Noah Calouri, the 19-year-old winger who trained with England seniors in the Autumn, played in England’s 19-16 comeback win vs Wales in the opening round but has been rested since by Titterell as a result of the high volume of minutes he’s picking up for Saracens. In his place is Tyler Offiah, son of rugby league international Martin, with Leicester Tigers’ George Pearson on the other wing – he scored a superb individual try against Stormers in the Champions Cup this season.

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Charles Bronson vows to ‘expose his unlawful treatment’ ahead of parole hearing

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Daily Record

Bronson, initially jailed in 1974 for armed robbery, has earned notoriety as Britain’s most dangerous lag.

Britain’s most notorious and longest-serving prisoners Charles Bronson has vowed to “expose” his “unlawful sentence and treatment” ahead of an oral parole hearing.

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The 73-year-old has called his treatment a “total joke” ahead of his next parole hearing in the coming months. In a letter to Sky News, Bronson wrote: “I am 23 years over my tariff. I am forever denied progress.

“I am forever kept in solitary. They won’t even take me off Cat A.” He added: “I have to expose this unlawful sentence and treatment. It’s now gone on for far to (sic) long its become a total joke.”

The Parole Board has confirmed Bronson’s next hearing will be an oral one, meaning they will hear his plea for freedom, according to reports.

Once one of Britain’s most violent offenders, Bronson has spent most of the past five decades behind bars – apart from two brief periods during which he reoffended – for a string of thefts and firearms and violent offences.

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These included 11 hostage-taking incidents in nine different sieges. Victims included prison governors, doctors, staff and, on one occasion, his own solicitor.

Bronson, who changed his surname to Salvador in 2014 after the artist Salvador Dali, was handed a discretionary life sentence with a minimum term of four years in 2000 for taking a prison teacher at HMP Hull hostage for 44 hours.

Since then, the Parole Board has repeatedly refused to direct his release. His last parole review in 2023 was his eighth.

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It comes after a former lag revealed Bronson’s true nature when an inmate began weeping. Noel ‘Razor’ Smith clocked up three decades in various jails after more than 200 robberies.

Noel walked free from prison in 2010 but while recounting predictable tales of Bronson wreaking havoc within the prison system, Noel revealed to podcaster Dodge Woodall that there was another aspect to his character.

He said: “He’s a kind-hearted geezer. I will give you an example. I was in a block… and Charlie was there on the lie down and there was a kid who was next door to us.

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“He was about 20 and he was crying all the time – his first time in prison. So Charlie went, ‘Why don’t you turn the f***ing radio on or something or read a book?’ He said, ‘I ain’t got a radio.’

“So the next morning… there’s a cleaner in the block who’s a prisoner… He’s out mopping and his radio is on the table. Charlie walks over, picks his radio up and goes, ‘I’m lending this to that kid. You’ll get it back when he’s gone.’”

Noel revealed Charlie then requested prison guards unlock the young man’s cell before presenting him with the radio for companionship.

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DVLA tells drivers how to save money when renewing driving licence

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Daily Mirror

The DVLA has issued a reminder to drivers about the cheapest method to renew a driving licence – and it could save you money

Millions of motorists are being urged to check how they renew their driving licence – as doing it the wrong way could cost you extra cash. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has taken to social media to remind drivers that renewing online is the cheapest option. In a post on X, it said: “Due to renew your driving licence? Do it online at http://gov.uk/renewdrivinglicence

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The £7.50 difference that could catch drivers out

Renewing your photocard driving licence online via GOV.UK costs £14. But head to a Post Office counter and the price jumps to £21.50 – £7.50 more for exactly the same renewal.

Apply by post and the fee is £17. With around 50 million driving licence holders in Britain, that difference could add up to a sizeable sum for households already feeling the squeeze.

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When do you need to renew?

Drivers must renew a photocard licence every 10 years. The DVLA says you will receive a reminder before your current licence expires.

To renew online you must:

  • Be a resident of Great Britain (there’s a different service in Northern Ireland)
  • Not be disqualified from driving
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If you cannot use the online service, you can apply at a Post Office or by post instead.

Who cannot renew online?

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There are some important exceptions that could trip drivers up. You cannot renew online or at a Post Office if your name or title has changed. In that case, you must apply by post and include supporting identity documents.

There are also different processes for:

  • Drivers aged 70 or over
  • Those renewing a 5-year bus or lorry licence
  • Anyone with a short-term medical driving licence

There is no fee if you are over 70 or renewing a medical short period licence.

How long does it take?

If you apply online, your new licence should arrive within a week. Applications made at a Post Office or by post can take up to three weeks – and potentially longer if medical or personal details need to be checked.

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Importantly, your new licence will be valid from the date your application is approved – not from the expiry date of your current licence. Drivers must also send their old photocard back to DVLA once the new one arrives.

How to pay

Online renewals can be paid for by MasterCard, Visa, Electron or Delta debit or credit card. Postal applications require a cheque or postal order made payable to DVLA and sent to: DVLA, Swansea, SA99 1DH

Motorists are allowed to continue driving while waiting for their new licence to arrive, provided they meet the usual legal conditions.

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Puberty blockers trial paused after MHRA raises safety concerns

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Puberty blockers trial paused after MHRA raises safety concerns

“Since potentially significant and, as yet, unquantified risk of long-term biological harms is present to participants and biological safety has not been definitively demonstrated in this proposed cohort, at the very least, there should be a graded/stepwise approach starting with those aged 14 as the lower limit of eligibility,” it reads.

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Another American citizen was shot dead by ICE months before deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, records show

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Another American citizen was shot dead by ICE months before deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, records show

An American citizen was shot dead by Immigration and Customs Enforcement months before the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minnesota, records have shown.

Ruben Ray Martinez was killed during a traffic stop on South Padre Island in Texas last March, several outlets, citing documents obtained by nonprofit watchdog American Oversight, reported.

Martinez had just turned 23, and he and his best friend were driving from San Antonio to South Padre Island to celebrate, his mother, Rachel Reyes, told the Associated Press.

Shortly after midnight on March 15, 2025, a driver, confirmed by family to be Martinez, and a passenger in a blue Ford were passing through an intersection where Homeland Security Investigations officers had been helping South Padre Island police redirect traffic after an accident, according to an internal ICE incident report included in the new release of documents.

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Reyes confirmed to the Associated Press that the victim in the report was her son, and Charles Stam, a lawyer for Martinez’s family, also confirmed Martinez was the one killed to The New York Times.

U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was shot dead by Immigration and Customs Enforcement months before the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, records have shown

U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was shot dead by Immigration and Customs Enforcement months before the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, records have shown (Rachel Reyes via AP)

Agents surrounded Martinez’s car and ordered him and the passenger to get out, according to the report. Martinez “accelerated forward” and hit an HSI special agent, “who wound up on the hood of the vehicle,” the report said.

An HSI supervisory special agent then fired multiple times through the open driver’s side window, according to the report.

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Martinez was taken to a hospital and later died, the report said. The HSI agent hit by the car was treated for a knee injury, according to the report.

Martinez was killed during a traffic stop on South Padre Island in Texas last March, according to the records

Martinez was killed during a traffic stop on South Padre Island in Texas last March, according to the records (Henrique Campos/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)

“It was his first time getting to go out of town,” Reyes said of her son. “He was a nice guy, humble guy. And he wasn’t a violent person at all.”

It’s unclear why Martinez was stopped in the first place.

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Without confirming the identity of the victim, the Department of Homeland Security said a federal agent had fatally shot a man that day in March to “protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public.”

“A driver of a blue Ford intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigation special agent resulting in him being on the hood of the vehicle. Upon witnessing this, another agent fired defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public,” a DHS spokesperson told The Independent. “This incident is under active investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety Ranger Division.”

The Trump administration sparked nationwide backlash over the deaths of Good, a mom of three, and Pretti, an ICU nurse

The Trump administration sparked nationwide backlash over the deaths of Good, a mom of three, and Pretti, an ICU nurse (Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images)

According to the Associated Press, Martinez’s death is one of at least six fatal shootings by federal immigration agents since the start of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has grown increasingly unpopular.

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The Trump administration sparked nationwide backlash over the deaths of Good, a mom of three, and Pretti, an ICU nurse. Both were gunned down by federal agents in the streets of Minneapolis last month. Both were 37-year-old U.S. citizens.

Both shootings have been framed by the Trump administration as self-defense, a claim that has been scrutinized.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 55 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration, while just 38 percent approve, the lowest level since the president returned to the White House.

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Where can you fly to from Teesside Airport for February half-term?

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Where can you fly to from Teesside Airport for February half-term?

Teesside Airport fly to a range of destinations over February half-term, whether it is sun, a city break or a chance to see the Northern Lights your after.

In December, the managing director of Teesside Airport, Phil Forster said the airport hit record passenger numbers for 16 years.

2025 also saw the expansion of several routes at the airport following growing public demand. Alicante, operated by Ryanair, has grown from two flights a week in the summer to four. It also operates all year-round.

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Mr Forster previously thanked Ryanair for its vote of confidence and talked about the success of the flights it operates.

He said: “Alicante has doubled in capacity and is now year-round and we were able to get Malaga, which I was delighted about as there was a lot of clamour for that. That is also a year-round service, so you can really start to see the growth that we’re starting to get on those routes.”

Flights to Malaga also operate all year-round, with there also being flights to Amsterdam three times a day.

However, despite news last year KLM had scrapped one flight a day in the summer, Mr Forster was insistent the airline is not going anywhere.

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He said: “KLM are going nowhere. They are a huge, valued client of Teesside Airport, they’ve been here for 25/30 years.”

He also confirmed the airport is looking at every opportunity to expand and add more routes.

He said the airport speaks to Jet2 on a regular basis and is in active discussions with the airline.

If you are looking to get away this half-term here is the full list of destinations you can fly to from Teesside Airport:

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  • Alicante – Monday and Friday, Ryanair
  • Amsterdam – Three flights a day, KLM
  • Enontekiö – Sunday, Transun
  • Malaga – Wednesday and Saturday, Ryanair

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Trump announces global tariff after Supreme Court rebuke | World News

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Trump announces global tariff after Supreme Court rebuke | World News

Donald Trump has announced a global tariff after the US Supreme Court ruled that his previously imposed duties are illegal.

The new 10% import duty will apply to all countries and be effective “almost immediately”, the US president said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The White House announced the levy would take effect on 24 February, although it could face legal challenges.

The law Mr Trump has used to impose the tariff caps it at 150 days, but he brushed off a question about the limit by saying “we have a right to do pretty much what we want to do”.

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Supreme Court rules against Trump’s tariffs

It comes after six of the Supreme Court‘s nine judges voted to overturn Mr Trump’s signature economic policy, handing him a significant loss.

The judgment was in response to an application brought by businesses affected ‌by the tariffs from 12 mostly Democrat-run states.

The applicants challenged the way the US president imposed the sweeping country-specific taxes.

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Traditionally, tax-raising measures like tariffs are taken through Congress but the president wished to bypass that process.

But the majority judgment found the US Constitution “very clearly” gives Congress that power.

“The framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the executive branch,” US Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

The case is the first challenge to a major part of Mr Trump’s agenda to be ruled on by the Supreme Court.

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Foreign countries ‘are dancing in the streets’

Trump ‘ashamed’ of judges who ruled against him

Responding to the decision, Mr Trump described it as a “disgrace”.

He said he was “ashamed” of the six Supreme Court judges who ruled against him for not “having the courage to do what’s right” for the US, describing them as “fools and lapdogs” who are “very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution”.

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Three of the six judges who ruled his tariffs illegal are Republicans. They include Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, who were appointed during Mr Trump’s first term in office.

Mr Trump thanked the three justices who voted in his favour, before claiming that foreign countries “who have been ripping us off for years” were now “dancing in the streets”.

Read more: Trump’s trade war is not over


Trump hits out at court over tariffs ruling

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Mr Trump’s administration had argued that a 1977 law allowing the president to regulate importation during emergencies also allowed him to set tariffs.

Other presidents have used the law to impose sanctions before, but Mr Trump was the first president to invoke it for import taxes.

Following the Supreme Court ruling, he said: “Today I will sign an order to impose a 10% global tariff under section 122 over and above our normal tariffs already being charged.”

Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act allows the president to institute a “temporary import surcharge” of up to 15% for a maximum of 150 days if he finds there are “large and serious” balance-of-payments deficits to prevent an “imminent” and “significant” depreciation of the US dollar in foreign exchange markets.

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What has been the British response?

The UK government said it expected its “privileged trading position” with the US to continue.

A spokesperson said Britain would work with the US to understand “how the ruling will affect tariffs for the UK and the rest of the world”.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the decision did little to “clear the murky waters for business”.

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William Bain, head of trade policy at the BCC, said Mr Trump could use other legislation to reimpose tariffs – which is exactly what he’s planning.

What are tariffs?

From 2 April last year, a day described by Mr Trump as “Liberation Day”, countries across the world were hit with taxes on their exports.

The tariffs were brought in via executive order from Mr Trump, who invoked ‍the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to do so.

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The Act is a 1977 law intended to be used during national emergencies, which Mr Trump invoked, saying the country was in a national emergency because of US trade deficits.

It was also this law that was used to apply levies on Canadian, Chinese and Mexican goods and services entering the US, although Mr Trump’s national emergency rationale was the trafficking of the drug fentanyl into the US.

Donald Trump responding to the Supreme Court's decision. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Donald Trump responding to the Supreme Court’s decision. Pic: Reuters

What does it mean for the economy?

What happens next, and whether roughly $175bn in import taxes will be refunded, remains to be seen.

The decision immediately lowers the effective tariff rate sharply, from 12.8% to 8.3%, according to Michael Pearce, the chief US economist at Oxford Economics.

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Many companies, including wholesale chain Costco, have already gone to court seeking tariff refunds.

Read more from Sky News:
Trump: Release files on ‘alien and extraterrestrial life’
Board of Peace pledges billions of dollars to Gaza

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Justice Kavanaugh wrote in the dissent: “The court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers.

“But that process is likely to be a ‘mess’, as was acknowledged at oral argument.”

That uncertainty is likely to remain, potentially eliminating any economic benefit from tariff removal.

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Woman suffers serious injuries after crash along residential road

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Cambridgeshire Live

Emergency services are at the scene of the crash this afternoon (Friday, February 20)

A woman has suffered serious injuries after a crash along a residential street. Emergency services were called to West Street in Wisbech just after 1pm today (Friday, February 20).

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The crash involved a car and a woman. Cambridgeshire Police are at the scene with paramedics.

The woman is believed to have suffered serious, but not life-threatening injuries. A police spokesperson said: “We were called at 1.03pm to reports of a collision between a car and a pedestrian on West Street, Wisbech.

“Officers are at the scene together with paramedics and the pedestrian, a woman, is thought to have suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries.”

The East of England Ambulance Service has been contacted for more information.

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These shy, scaly anteaters are the most trafficked mammals in the world

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These shy, scaly anteaters are the most trafficked mammals in the world

They are hunted for their unique scales, and the demand makes them the most trafficked mammal in the world.

Wildlife conservationists are again raising the plight of pangolins, the shy, scaly anteaters found in parts of Africa and Asia, on World Pangolin Day on Saturday.

Pangolins or pangolin products outstrip any other mammal when it comes to wildlife smuggling, with more than half a million pangolins seized in anti-trafficking operations between 2016 and 2024, according to a report last year by CITES, the global authority on the trading of endangered plant and animal species.

The World Wildlife Fund estimates that over a million pangolins were taken from the wild over the last decade, including those that were never intercepted.

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Pangolins meat is a delicacy in places, but the driving force behind the illegal trade is their scales, which are made of keratin, the protein also found in human hair and fingernails. The scales are in high demand in China and other parts of Asia due to the unproven belief that they cure a range of ailments when made into traditional medicine.

There are eight pangolin species, four in Africa and four in Asia. All of them face a high, very high or extremely high risk of extinction.

While they’re sometimes known as scaly anteaters, pangolins are not related in any way to anteaters or armadillos.

They are unique in that they are the only mammals covered completely in keratin scales, which overlap and have sharp edges. They are the perfect defense mechanism, allowing a pangolin to roll up into an armored ball that even lions struggle to get to grip with, leaving the nocturnal ant and termite eaters with few natural predators.

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But they have no real defense against human hunters. And in conservation terms, they don’t resonate in the way that elephants, rhinos or tigers do despite their fascinating intricacies — like their sticky insect-nabbing tongues being almost as long as their bodies.

While some reports indicate a downward trend in pangolin trafficking since the COVID-19 pandemic, they are still being poached at an alarming rate across parts of Africa, according to conservationists.

Nigeria is one of the global hot spots. There, Dr. Mark Ofua, a wildlife veterinarian and the West Africa representative for the Wild Africa conservation group, has rescued pangolins for more than a decade, which started with him scouring bushmeat markets for animals he could buy and save. He runs an animal rescue center and a pangolin orphanage in Lagos.

His mission is to raise awareness of pangolins in Nigeria through a wildlife show for kids and a tactic of convincing entertainers, musicians and other celebrities with millions of social media followers to be involved in conservation campaigns — or just be seen with a pangolin.

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Nigeria is home to three of the four African pangolin species, but they are not well known among the country’s 240 million people.

Ofua’s drive for pangolin publicity stems from an encounter with a group of well-dressed young men while he was once transporting pangolins he had rescued in a cage. The men pointed at them and asked him what they were, Ofua said.

“Oh, those are baby dragons,” he joked. But it got him thinking.

“There is a dark side to that admission,” Ofua said. “If people do not even know what a pangolin looks like, how do you protect them?”

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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Trump warns he’s considering limited strikes on Iran

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Trump warns he's considering limited strikes on Iran

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump warned on Friday that limited strikes against Iran are possible even as the country’s top diplomat said Tehran expects to have a proposed deal ready in the next few days following nuclear talks with the United States.

In response to a reporter’s question on whether the U.S. could take limited military action as the countries negotiate, Trump said, “I guess I can say I am considering that.” A few hours later, he told reporters that Iran “better negotiate a fair deal.”

Earlier Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a TV interview that his country was planning to finalize a draft deal in “the next two to three days” to send to Washington.

“I don’t think it takes long, perhaps, in a matter of a week or so, we can start real, serious negotiations on the text and come to a conclusion,” Araghchi said on MSNOW’s “Morning Joe” show.

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The tensions between the longtime adversaries have ramped up as the Trump administration pushes for concessions from Iran and has built up the largest U.S. military presence in the Middle East in decades, with more warships and aircraft on the way.

On Friday, the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea after being sent by Trump from the Caribbean, according to images of the ship by maritime photographers posted to social media.

Both Iran and the U.S. have signaled that they are prepared for war if talks on Tehran’s nuclear program fizzle out. “We are prepared for diplomacy, and we are prepared for negotiation as much as we are prepared for war,” Araghchi said Friday.

Ali Vaez, an Iran expert at the International Crisis Group, said Iran “would treat any kinetic action as an existential threat.”

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Vaez said he doesn’t think Iran’s leaders are bluffing when they say they would retaliate, while they likely believe they could maintain their hold on power despite any U.S. airstrikes.

What Iran and the US are negotiating

Trump said a day earlier that he believes 10 to 15 days is “enough time” for Iran to reach a deal following recent rounds of indirect negotiations, including this week in Geneva, that made little visible progress. But the talks have been deadlocked for years after Trump’s decision in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Since then, Iran has refused to discuss wider U.S. and Israeli demands that it scale back its missile program and sever ties to armed groups.

Araghchi also said Friday that his American counterparts have not asked for zero enrichment of uranium as part of the latest round of talks, which is not what U.S. officials have said publicly.

“What we are now talking about is how to make sure that Iran’s nuclear program, including enrichment, is peaceful and will remain peaceful forever,” he said.

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He added that in return, Iran will implement some confidence-building measures in exchange for relief on economic sanctions.

In response to Araghchi’s claim, a White House official said Trump has been clear that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons or the capacity to build them and that it cannot enrich uranium. The official wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Tehran has long insisted that any negotiations should only focus on its nuclear program and that it hasn’t been enriching uranium since U.S. and Israeli strikes last June on Iranian nuclear sites. Trump said at the time that the strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites, but the exact damage is unknown as Tehran has barred international inspectors.

Although Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, the U.S. and others suspect it is aimed at eventually developing weapons.

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What Congress has to say

Trump’s comments have faced pushback from some lawmakers who say the president should get Congress’ approval before any strike.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said Friday that he has filed a war powers resolution that would require that step. Though it has no chance of becoming law — in part because Trump himself would have to sign it — some bipartisan consensus has arisen recently among senators who forced votes on previous resolutions on military action in Venezuela.

None of those resolutions passed, but they were successful in showing how lawmakers are troubled by some of Trump’s aggressive foreign policy maneuvers.

“If some of my colleagues support war, then they should have the guts to vote for the war, and to be held accountable by their constituents, rather than hiding under their desks,” Kaine said in a statement.

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Amiri reported from New York. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price, Ben Finley, Stephen Groves and Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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