United News of Bangladesh

President Donald Trump is in “exceptional health,” his physician said Friday following a checkup at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that included lab tests and preventive assessments. Trump spent about three hours at the Bethesda, Maryland, hospital for a “scheduled follow-up evaluation” as part of his ongoing health maintenance, according to Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella. During the visit, Trump also received his annual flu shot and a COVID-19 booster. In a one-page memo released by the White House, Barbabella said Trump shows strong cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, and physical performance. The evaluation, which included advanced imaging and lab testing, was partly in preparation for the president’s upcoming trips to the Middle East this weekend and Asia later this month. The physician noted that Trump’s cardiac age was approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age of 79. Trump, the oldest U.S. president at his inauguration, previously had his annual physical in April, which found him “fully fit” to serve and documented a 20-pound weight loss since 2020. Earlier in July, Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a condition common in older adults where blood pools in the veins, after noticing mild swelling in his lower legs. Trump also passed a cognitive screening test at his April physical. White House officials said they are releasing details of the checkup to dispel rumors about Trump’s health, which he has frequently highlighted politically while questioning the fitness of his predecessor, President Joe Biden.

President Donald Trump visited Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Friday for a medical checkup ahead of a planned trip to the Middle East, the White House said. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described it as a “routine yearly checkup,” though Trump had his annual physical in April. White House aides have not explained why he is having another exam. Trump told reporters he feels “in great shape” and plans to return to the White House after the visit. Separately, the White House criticized the Nobel Committee after Trump was passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize. A spokesman said the committee “placed politics over peace,” noting Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado received the award for promoting democratic rights. Trump has previously claimed credit for ending global conflicts and sought the prize, though many of his nominations arrived after the deadline. Meanwhile, National Guard troops are expected to patrol Memphis following a federal judge’s decision to block deployments in the Chicago area for at least two weeks. The Trump administration cites rising crime as justification, with Tennessee Governor Bill Lee supporting the deployments.

President Donald Trump was passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday despite jockeying from his fellow Republicans, various world leaders and — most vocally — himself. Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was honoring her “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” Trump, who has long coveted the prestigious prize, has been outspoken about his desire for the honor during both of his presidential terms, particularly lately as he takes credit for ending conflicts around the world. He has expressed doubts that the Nobel committee would ever grant him the award. “They’ll have to do what they do. Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for that. I did it because I saved a lot of lives,” Trump said Thursday. The Hostages Families Forum in Israel issued a statement Friday continuing to support Trump. “President Trump’s unprecedented achievements in peacemaking this past year speak for themselves, and no award or lack thereof can diminish the profound impact he has had on our families and on global peace,” they said. Although Trump received a number of nominations for the prize, many of them occurred after the Feb. 1 deadline for the 2025 award, which fell just a week and a half into his second term. His name was, however, put forward in December by Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York, her office said in a statement, for his brokering of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states in 2020. Nevertheless, Trump and his supporters are likely to view the decision to pass him over for the award as a deliberate affront to the U.S. leader, particularly after the president's involvement in getting Israel and Hamas to initiate the first phase of ending their devastating two-year-old war. A long history of lobbying for the prize Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, said the committee has seen various campaigns in its long history of awarding the peace prize. “We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what for them leads to peace,” he said. “This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates, and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So we base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.” The peace prize, first awarded in 1901, was created partly to encourage ongoing peace efforts. Alfred Nobel stipulated in his will that the prize should go to someone “who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Three sitting U.S. presidents have won the Nobel Peace Prize: Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Barack Obama in 2009. Jimmy Carter won the prize in 2002, a full two decades after leaving office. Former Vice President Al Gore received the prize in 2007. Obama, who was a focus of Trump's attacks well before the Republican was elected, won the prize early in his tenure as president. “He got the prize for doing nothing,” Trump said of Obama on Thursday. “They gave it to Obama for doing absolutely nothing but destroying our country.” Wars in Gaza and elsewhere As one of his reasons for deserving the award, Trump often says he has ended seven wars, though some of the conflicts the president claims to have resolved were merely tensions and his role in easing them is disputed. But while there is hope for the end to Israel and Hamas’ war, with Israel saying a ceasefire agreement with Hamas came into effect Friday, much remains uncertain about the aspects of the broader plan, including whether and how Hamas will disarm and who will govern Gaza. And little progress seems to have been made on the war between Russia and Ukraine, a conflict Trump claimed during the 2024 campaign that he could end in one day — he later said he made that remark in jest. Trump invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Alaska in August — but not Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — for a summit aimed at reaching peace, but he left empty-handed, and the war started by Russia's invasion in 2022 has since raged on. As Trump pushes for peaceful resolutions to conflicts abroad, the country he governs remains deeply divided and politically fraught. Trump has kicked off what he hopes to be the largest deportation program in American history to remove immigrants in the U.S. illegally. He is using the levers of government, including the Justice Department, to go after his perceived political enemies. He has sent the military into U.S. cities over local opposition to stop crime and crack down on immigration enforcement. He withdrew the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming. He touched off global trade wars with his on-again, off-again tariffs, which he wields as a threat to bend other countries and companies to his will. He asserted presidential war powers by declaring cartels to be unlawful combatants and launching lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean that he alleged were carrying drugs. The full list of people nominated is secret, but anyone who submits a nomination is free to talk about it. Trump's detractors say supporters, foreign leaders and others are submitting Trump's name for nomination for the prize — and, specifically, announcing it publicly — not because he deserves it but because they see it as a way to manipulate him and stay in his good graces. Others who formally submitted a nomination for Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — but after this year's deadline — include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Pakistan's government, all citing his work in helping end conflicts in their regions.  

The United States has imposed sanctions on Serbia’s main oil supplier, which is majority-owned by Russia, prompting concerns of possible energy shortages as winter approaches. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic warned the move could have “unforeseeable” consequences for the Balkan nation. Serbia remains heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas, which are primarily transported through pipelines crossing Croatia and neighboring countries. The Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), which distributes the energy supplies domestically, is largely owned by Russia’s state oil giant Gazprom Neft. Vucic said the sanctions could bring “extremely dire consequences” across multiple sectors and affect “every citizen.” Despite the challenges, he urged calm, assuring that the government is taking steps to manage the situation. “Trust your state. We will go through this together,” he said. Gazprom Neft also controls Serbia’s only oil refinery. NIS confirmed on Thursday that it had been unable to secure another extension of a U.S. Treasury license allowing its continued operations. Without it, long-term oil and gas imports could be disrupted. “The special license from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which enables unhindered operational business, has not yet been extended,” NIS said in a statement. The company added it has sufficient reserves to sustain customers for some time. However, it warned that payment issues might arise at its gasoline stations for those using foreign bank cards, while cash transactions would continue without interruption. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control first sanctioned Russia’s oil sector on January 10, setting a deadline for Gazprom Neft to divest from NIS — a condition that has not been met. American officials have yet to comment on the latest developments. Although Serbia has been formally pursuing membership in the European Union, it has resisted aligning with Western sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, largely due to its reliance on Russian energy supplies. Vucic, seen as a pro-Russian populist, now faces one of the most serious challenges to his more than decade-long rule, amid months of anti-government protests. Demonstrations led by students and civil groups have continued since last year’s collapse of a railway station canopy in northern Serbia, which killed 16 people. Many Serbians blame corruption and negligence linked to state officials and Chinese contractors for the deadly incident.

A California fire captain led a group of motorists in an extraordinary roadside rescue after a medical helicopter crashed on a Sacramento highway Monday evening, trapping a paramedic beneath the wreckage. Sacramento Fire Capt. Peter Vandersluis said he quickly organized about 15 bystanders to help lift the downed aircraft after hearing a faint groan from the trapped medic. “When I yelled ‘lift,’ they lifted. When I said ‘hold,’ they held,” Vandersluis told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “Out of pure instinct — they didn’t hesitate and followed every command. We lifted it with ease.” The paramedic, along with a nurse and pilot on board, were rescued and taken to local hospitals in critical condition. The helicopter had just departed a hospital after dropping off a patient when it experienced an “in-air emergency” and crashed on State Route 50, east of downtown Sacramento, around 7 p.m. Vandersluis, who was leading the first fire engine crew to reach the scene, realized additional rescuers would take too long to arrive. “Once I heard the woman groan, I decided to call out for bystanders to help lift the helicopter off her,” he said. A firefighter crawled under the wreckage, cut the paramedic’s seatbelt, and pulled her free as the group held the aircraft aloft for roughly 30 seconds. Within a minute, she was safely extracted, and the group gently lowered the helicopter back down. Vandersluis, a nearly 20-year firefighting veteran, said it was the first time he had led civilians in such an emergency. “My training told me exactly what needed to be done,” he said. His engine crew had been responding to a nearby motorcycle accident when the helicopter went down, arriving within minutes by driving against traffic. Several motorists were already out of their vehicles trying to assist when firefighters arrived. Among them was Aimee Braddock, who told KCRA-TV she joined the effort without hesitation. “As soon as I saw people pushing the helicopter to help the responders, I just ran over and joined in,” she said. “We held it for several minutes until they got the person out.” Firefighters said the helicopter did not catch fire, although white smoke was seen billowing from it — later identified as gas released by its onboard fire suppression system. No motorists were injured, which Capt. Justin Sylvia of the Sacramento Fire Department called “mind-blowing,” given that the helicopter crashed in the center of a busy highway. “Witnesses said they saw the helicopter descending fast, and traffic slowed down just in time,” Sylvia said. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are investigating the crash of the Airbus EC-130 T2 helicopter. The aircraft belonged to REACH Air Medical Services, which said in a statement it was working to determine the cause of the crash and the condition of its crew. “We are keeping all those impacted in our thoughts and prayers,” the company said. Sacramento City Councilwoman Lisa Kaplan, who was accompanying law enforcement officers at the time, described seeing plumes of white smoke at the scene. “It’s humbling and sobering,” she said. “Seeing what these medical pilots and first responders risk every day really makes you grateful for them — and for every day we have.” Source: AP

President Donald Trump is preparing a major aid package to help American soybean farmers struggling under China’s ongoing boycott of U.S. beans, even as he continues efforts to secure a trade deal with Beijing. U.S. soybean growers, who once relied on China as their biggest customer, fear that time is running out for an agreement that could save this year’s harvest. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that the administration would soon announce “substantial support for our farmers, especially the soybean farmers,” possibly by Tuesday. While details remain unclear, the package is expected to draw from tariff revenues as relief for farmers hit hard by the trade standoff. “The soybean farmers of our country are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, adding that he would discuss the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting later this month in South Korea. Soybeans are the top U.S. agricultural export, accounting for about 14% of farm goods shipped abroad. China previously bought about a quarter of all American soybeans, but it has not purchased any for the current harvest season, turning instead to Brazil and Argentina. Farmers say they are being caught in the middle of a trade war not of their making. “It’s just unfortunate that we’re being used as a bargaining chip,” said Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Association. “Many of us may not survive another year without action.” With China imposing a 20% tariff on U.S. soybeans in retaliation for Trump’s import taxes on Chinese goods, analysts say the U.S. crop has become uncompetitive. Still, some observers believe a soybean deal could be the “lowest-hanging fruit” for both governments as they seek to stabilize relations. Meanwhile, frustration among U.S. farmers is growing after China recently bought nearly two million tons of Argentine soybeans following a U.S.-backed support package for Argentina’s economy. Despite possible federal relief, farmers say they prefer trade over aid. “We’d rather make it with our own two hands than have it handed to us,” said Iowa farmer Robb Ewoldt. Others, like Ryan Mackenthun of Minnesota, are cutting costs to stay afloat. “It’s definitely time to tighten the belt and stretch what we have to survive,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated bids for the Nobel Peace Prize have drawn media attention, but experts say his chances remain slim. Trump has been nominated multiple times since 2018, including by U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney for his role in brokering the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states. He has publicly boasted of ending “seven wars” and hinted at resolving an eighth if Israel and Hamas accept his peace plan for Gaza. However, Nobel Committee veterans emphasize that the award typically recognizes sustained, multilateral efforts that promote lasting peace and international cooperation. Theo Zenou, a historian, said Trump’s approach lacks long-term impact and noted his dismissive stance on climate change is inconsistent with the committee’s priorities. Trump signs order pledging US defense of Qatar after Israeli strike The Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member panel appointed by parliament, meets privately and resists political pressure. Past controversies, including awarding the prize to Barack Obama in 2009 early in his first term, illustrate the committee’s caution. “Nobody’s ever done that,” Trump told military leaders at Quantico, referring to his peace initiatives. But Nina Græger of the Peace Research Institute Oslo said his rhetoric does not reflect a peaceful perspective, making this year’s prize a “long shot.” Nobel announcements for other categories begin Monday, with the Peace Prize scheduled for Friday. Source: AP

The US federal government has shut down after lawmakers from both parties failed to reach a budget agreement, threatening widespread disruptions across the country. The impasse affects federal funding through October and could place about 40% of the workforce — roughly 800,000 employees — on unpaid leave. Air travel disruptionTravelers may face long security lines and flight delays as some unpaid air traffic controllers may choose to stay home, although essential staff at airports, including TSA agents, are required to work. Passport processing could also slow down, affecting Americans planning to travel abroad. Federal employees and contractorsNon-essential federal workers will be furloughed, while essential employees will work without pay until the shutdown ends. Agencies like the CDC and NIH may halt ongoing research due to staff shortages. Contractors, who are not government employees, typically receive no backpay during shutdowns. National parks and federal landsNational Parks and forests may close to visitors during the shutdown, as rangers and other staff are furloughed. Leaving parks open without staff, as happened in past shutdowns, has led to vandalism and littering. Former park officials have urged the government to fully close parks in such situations. Museums and zoosWashington’s Smithsonian museums will remain open until at least Oct 6 using prior funding, and animals at the National Zoo will continue to be cared for. However, non-essential services, like zoo webcams, will be suspended. Health and food programsPrograms such as Medicare and Medicaid will continue, though staffing shortages could disrupt some services. Disaster relief is mostly unaffected initially, but extended shutdowns may strain FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund. Food assistance programs like WIC are at risk of running out of funds quickly, while SNAP could continue longer but remains vulnerable. The shutdown underscores the potential impact of political deadlock on everyday life, affecting jobs, travel, health care, and access to public lands.   Source: BBC

The U.S. government is on the verge of its first shutdown in almost seven years as Democrats and Republicans remain deadlocked over spending and health care, raising concerns over furloughs for thousands of federal workers. The government is set to close at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday unless the Senate approves a House-passed bill extending federal funding for seven weeks while Congress finalizes annual spending legislation. Senate Democrats have refused to back the measure without including an extension of expiring health care subsidies, while President Donald Trump and Republican leaders insist on passing a “clean” funding bill without additional conditions. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Monday the outcome depends on Trump, urging him to convince Republican lawmakers to meet Democratic demands. Vice President JD Vance, however, warned that a shutdown is likely because Democrats “won’t do the right thing.” The standoff comes as Republicans hold a narrow 53-47 Senate majority and will likely need support from at least eight Democrats to overcome a filibuster and secure passage. Senator Rand Paul is expected to oppose the measure, complicating efforts further. Democrats are pushing to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, which provide health insurance relief to millions, set to expire at year-end. Republicans argue the issue should be debated separately and have proposed limits on the credits. House and Senate leaders met with Trump Monday, but no breakthrough was reported. During the meeting, Trump expressed reluctance to negotiate and later posted a doctored video mocking Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. Federal agencies are preparing contingency plans, detailing which offices would remain open and which employees could be furloughed. White House Budget Director Russ Vought said a shutdown could be avoided if Democrats accept the House bill, but called any holdout tactic “hostage-taking.” The standoff highlights the high-stakes political battle between Trump and congressional Democrats, with health care, government funding, and party leverage at the center of the dispute.

Lufthansa Group announced Monday that it plans to cut 4,000 jobs by 2030 through greater use of artificial intelligence, digitalization and streamlined operations across its airlines — even as it continues to benefit from robust air travel demand and forecasts higher profits in the coming years. The German airline group said most of the job cuts will take place in Germany and will largely target administrative positions rather than frontline operational roles. Lufthansa is working to strengthen integration among its carriers — Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and ITA Airways — by eliminating overlapping functions. “Profound changes brought about by digitalization and artificial intelligence will significantly improve efficiency across business areas,” the company noted in a statement. Unveiling its strategy to investors and analysts in Munich, the group said it was enjoying strong passenger demand, supported by limited flight capacity due to supply chain issues for aircraft and engines — a situation keeping planes full and driving up revenue. Looking ahead, Lufthansa expects “substantially higher profitability” by the end of the decade and is preparing for the largest fleet renewal in its history. More than 230 new aircraft, including 100 long-haul planes, will join the fleet by 2030. Lufthansa Group, which operates globally with network carriers, low-cost airline Eurowings and service businesses, employed over 101,000 people in 2024 and recorded revenue of €37.6 billion ($44 billion).