MicroWave

Practice of using apartments to store relatives’ ashes has risen as rapid urbanisation and ageing population increases competition for cemetery plots

China is introducing a law to stop people storing the ashes of their dead relatives in empty high-rise flats rather than paying steep costs for increasingly scarce cemetery plots.

China’s new funeral management legislation will prohibit the use of “residential housing specifically for the purpose of storing cremated remains” and the burial of corpses or construction of tombs in “areas other than public cemeteries”.

The law will come into force on Tuesday ahead of Sunday’s Qingming grave-sweeping festival – a traditional Chinese celebration in which people clean their ancestors’ tombs and make ritual offerings.

National average hit $4.02, according to AAA data, capping an extraordinary rise from $2.98 just a month ago

Average US fuel prices have crossed $4 a gallon for the first time in four years, piling pressure on drivers as Donald Trump’s war on Iran continues to boost oil markets.

The nationwide average climbed to almost $4.02 on Tuesday, according to AAA data, capping an extraordinary rise from $2.98 just a month ago. The fuel price last reached this high in August 2022.

On the west coast, many drivers filling up cars and trucks are grappling with prices far higher than the US average. In California, the average is $5.89 a gallon; in Washington state, the average is $5.35.

Tehran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Tuesday, despite a threat by Donald Trump ​that the U.S. will obliterate Iran's energy plants if it does not agree to a peace deal and open the Strait of Hormuz.

Authorities in Dubai said the fire on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi had ‌been brought under control following a drone attack, with no oil leak and no injuries to the crew. Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the ship's owner, said the vessel's hull was damaged.

The attack was the latest on merchant vessels in the strait, a vital waterway, since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

He couldn’t name a Democrat he actually voted for but insists he’s a lifelong Democrat… who opposes abortion, racial equality, “cultural Marxism”….

Democrats in Nebraska are calling out a primary candidate as a Republican plant, saying that he is only running to divide the liberal vote in the state.

Conservative pastor William Forbes filed to run in the U.S. Senate race, which Democrats had worked to clear. The state party is supporting independent candidate Dan Osborn, who they believe will have a better chance of beating incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) if he runs as an independent.

CNN looked into Forbes’ background. He posted several sermons to Facebook, where he railed against “cultural Marxism” (an antisemitic dog whistle), “radical feminism,” and the “left-wing media.” He attacked Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street protestors and praised Republicans for restricting abortion. He also referred to former President Joe Biden as “Dementia Joe.”

Congressman Joaquin Castro calls for release of boy, Kaleth, and mother from much-criticized detention Dilley facility

A two-year-old detained in a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, is sick and not getting adequate help, said Joaquin Castro, a Democratic congressman from San Antonio. The boy, Kaleth, has a fever and is not eating the food served at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, which Castro said detainees have complained of having mold and worms.

“When his mother asked for help, the staff said it was all ‘mental’,” Castro wrote in a post on X. “A vulnerable child at the Dilley trailer prison was suffering and ICE denied their reality and their needs. It’s shameful and must stop.”

Dilley has been criticized for not providing adequate care and food for families. In February, the detention center reported two measles cases. It’s the same facility where five-year-old asylum seeker Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were kept for a week after being detained in Minneapolis.

Cable signed by Marco Rubio and seen by Guardian suggests staff work with Pentagon psychological operations unit

The United States has directed every American embassy and consulate across the world to launch coordinated campaigns against foreign propaganda and endorses Elon Musk’s X as an “innovative” tool to help do it.

The cable, signed by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Monday and obtained by the Guardian, also suggests embassies and consulates work alongside the US military’s psychological operations unit to address the problem of rampant disinformation.

It lays out a sweeping set of instructions for how embassy staff should push back against what it describes as coordinated foreign efforts to undermine American interests abroad.

Palm Beach International Airport, which Donald Trump flies in and out of when heading to his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, is likely set to be renamed in his honor.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday, renaming it the President Donald J. Trump International Airport.

According to a release from DeSantis' office, the governor signed a bill from the legislature related to "Commercial Service Airports." That bill, which passed the Florida House and Senate in February, includes the provision that "'Palm Beach International Airport,' shall be renamed as the 'President Donald J. Trump International Airport,' subject to approval of the Federal Aviation Administration" and, per the bill, rights agreements.

Verified pictures show a US command and control aircraft has been destroyed at an air base in Saudi Arabia.

The pictures appear to have been first shared by a Facebook page carrying US military news. They show the E-3 Sentry aircraft appears to have been split in two.

We've confirmed the photos were taken at the Prince Sultan air base about 100km (62 miles) south-east of the Saudi capital Riyadh. Features seen in the pictures, including pylons, storage units and markings on paved areas, matched with satellite imagery.

There are plenty of reasons to believe that Democrats are headed toward a blue wave. Democrats are turning out in record numbers in primary contests even in “safe” races. They continue to over-perform in special elections, even flipping the state legislative seat that includes Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Added to that, the war in Iran is already causing Trump to crater with groups of voters that had boosted him to reelection such as Latino voters. And most major pollsters show that voters would overwhelmingly vote for a generic Democrat for Congress compared to a generic Republican.

But one of the biggest indicators of an impending Democratic win come November is the number of Republicans in the House of Representatives not running for reelection.

Judge seems skeptical of Pentagon’s restrictive protocol but did not rule on forcing compliance with an earlier order

Federal judge Paul Friedman seemed skeptical of the new press policy implemented by the Pentagon last week, calling aspects of it “weird” and Kafkaesque.

Friedman struck down key aspects of the previously implemented Pentagon media policy on 20 March, but at the latest hearing on Monday stopped short of ruling on a motion filed by the New York Times to force compliance of his decision.

Friedman was particularly skeptical about the ways in which press space was being provided to the seven New York Times reporters, whom he previously ruled should have their press access badges returned.

The Times, along with dozens of other news organizations, chose not to sign the new restrictions implemented by the Pentagon last fall and returned their long-held passes. The Times sued the Trump administration over the policy.

Images geolocated by NBC News showed a command and control E-3 Sentry jet heavily damaged after the Iranian strike that also wounded soldiers.

The destruction by Iran of a warning and control system aircraft on an American base in Saudi Arabia on Friday could affect the U.S. military’s ability to monitor threats — and raises questions around its preparedness for a “longer war,” experts say.

Images verified by NBC News after they surfaced online appear to show much of the back end of the E-3 Sentry jet was destroyed at the Prince Sultan Air Base, the tail lying at an angle on the ground surrounded by debris.

Several American service members were injured in Friday's strike on the facility, which sits around 80 miles southeast of the kingdom's capital, Riyadh. At least one aircraft was also damaged in the strike, two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed to NBC News.

Donald Trump is interested in calling on Arab countries to pay for the cost ‌of the Iran war, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday, adding talks with Tehran to end the conflict are progressing well.

Leavitt, asked at a news briefing whether Arab countries would step up to help pay for the war, said she would not get ahead ​of the Republican president but that it was an idea that Trump had.

"I think it's something the President ​would be quite interested in calling them to do," Leavitt said.