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France to summon US ambassador over comments on slain far-right activist

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France to summon US ambassador over comments on slain far-right activist


US Ambassador to France Charles Kushner delivers a speech for the official launch of America 250, to celebrate the 250th birthday of the US in 2026.— AFP/File

The French foreign ministry will summon the US ambassador to Paris over comments made by the Trump administration about the killing of a French far-right activist blamed on the hard left, France’s top diplomat said on Sunday.

The death of Quentin Deranque has put France on edge, igniting tensions between the left and right ahead of a 2027 presidential vote.

It has also provoked international reactions, with US President Donald Trump’s right-wing administration on Friday denouncing what it called “terrorism” in France.

“We are going to summon the United States ambassador to France, since the US embassy in France commented on this tragedy … which concerns the national community,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told French media outlets Le Monde, France Inter and France Info.

“We reject any attempt to use this tragedy … for political purposes,” he added.

The foreign ministry did not say when ambassador Charles Kushner — the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — would be summoned.

Deranque, 23, died from head injuries following clashes between radical-left and far-right supporters on the sidelines of a February 12 demonstration against a politician from the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party in Lyon.

More than 3,000 people marched in Lyon on Saturday in tribute to Deranque, with authorities deploying heavy security fearing further clashes.

On Friday, Sarah Rogers, the State Department under secretary for public diplomacy, said Deranque’s killing showed “why we treat political violence — terrorism — so harshly”.

“Once you decide to kill people for their opinions instead of persuade them, you’ve opted out of civilisation,” she wrote on X.

The State Department’s bureau of counter-terrorism separately posted: “Violent radical leftism is on the rise and its role in Quentin Deranque’s death demonstrates the threat it poses to public safety”— a post shared in French by the US embassy account.

Deranque’s killing has also caused a diplomatic feud between France and Italy, whose right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has warm ties with Trump.

She called the killing of Deranque “a wound for all of Europe,” prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to criticise her for speaking out on French domestic affairs.

Six men suspected of involvement in the fatal assault have been charged over the killing, while a parliamentary assistant to a radical left-wing MP has also been charged with complicity.





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Demi Lovato with husband Jutes suffer heartbreak on first anniversary

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Demi Lovato with husband Jutes suffer heartbreak on first anniversary


Demi Lovato with husband Jutes suffer heartbreak on first anniversary

Love is strong… but tour schedules? Brutal.

Demi Lovato and husband Jordan Lutes (aka Jutes) are about to hit a relationship milestone – their first wedding anniversary – and unfortunately, they will be celebrating it miles apart.

Jutes, gearing up for his European tour in May and North American run in August, admitted the timing could not be worse.

“It’s one of those things where we get sad when we talk about it,” he shared. “So we’re like, ‘We won’t think about it yet.’ It’s gonna be tough, there’s no way around that.”

Romantic? Yes. Ideal? Not even close.

Still, he is not letting distance win. “We’re just gonna pretend,” he joked. “As soon as tour is over and we’re together, we’re gonna celebrate and that’ll be awesome. It’s part of the job and we’ll just have to FaceTime a ton and figure it out. We’ll get through it.”

Between shows, Jutes is riding high on his new single Disassociate and prepping what he calls his “biggest” tour yet – funded largely by fans. 

“People coming to the show is by far the most important thing to me,” he said. “Nothing is going to replace showing up and a bunch of fans being there singing your songs.”

And Demi? Still his biggest fan.

“She believes in me more than I believe in myself,” he said. “We love to see each other win—seeing her win makes me feel better than seeing myself win.”

As for marriage rumours being “hard”? Jutes is no buying it: “Should we pretend to fight or something?” 





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Diddy fights against ‘unfair’ trial with twisted arguments

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Diddy fights against ‘unfair’ trial with twisted arguments


Sean Diddy Combs was convicted for two charges in trial after September 2024 arrest

Sean Diddy Combs filed a new appeal in the court for his immediate release with a new argument against his allegedly unfair trial.

The 56-year-old disgraced music mogul presented the argument through his legal team Alexandra Shapiro and Nicole Westmoreland in New York on Thursday, April 9.

They claimed that the Bad Boy Records founder ought to be freed under the First Amendment, according to the details obtained by Page Six.

Shapiro and Westmoreland argued that Diddy was wrongfully convicted under the Mann Act, while he was involved in the creation of independent adult tapes, which is legal under US laws for freedom of speech.

The Last Night rapper’s legal team claimed that the Judge Arun Subramanian who was in-charge of the case, used the wrong allegations against Combs to sentence him strongly.

“We made it abundantly clear. The District Court should not consider the acquitted conduct,” Shapiro said, adding that Combs’ sentence is the “highest sentence ever imposed on a Mann Act defendant under the same-based defence level.”

The attorneys demanded immediate acquittal and release of the music mogul or at least his freedom and resentencing to lesser time.

However, Assistant US Attorney Christy Slavik called the whole argument “meritless” marking the distinction between Diddy and adult filmmakers.

He also doubled down on Judge Subramanian’s “correctly applied” ruling given the “aggravated manner in which [Combs] committed his Mann Act offenses.”

Combs was was convicted of transportation for prostitution in July 2025 after his arrest in September 2024. 





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NASA drops Artemis II moon mission playlist. These are the astronauts’ wake-up songs.

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NASA drops Artemis II moon mission playlist. These are the astronauts’ wake-up songs.


As the Artemis II mission crew heads back toward Earth following a history-making trip around the moon this week, NASA dropped the astronauts‘ highly anticipated morning playlist.

“You asked for it. Here it is,” NASA wrote Wednesday on social media, sharing the list via Spotify. “Each track was selected by the Moon crew, continuing a tradition that started more than 50 years ago. Stay tuned to find out which songs they’ll choose next.”

The list includes:

  • “Sleepyhead” by Young & Sick
  • “Green Light (feat. André 3000)” by John Legend and André 3000
  • “In a Daydream” by Freddy Jones Band
  • “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan
  • “Working Class Heroes (Work)” by CeeLo Green
  • “Good Morning” by Mandisa and TobyMac
  • “Tokyo Drifting” by Glass Animals and Denzel Curry
  • “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie
  • “Lonesome Drifter” by Charley Crockett

Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen were launched into space on April 1 for their 10-day moon mission. Earlier this week, they completed a lunar flyby, becoming the first astronauts to loop around the moon in more than half a century. The crew captured stunning photos of Earth, the far side of the moon and an eclipse in space.

Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window on April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon.

NASA


The astronauts are the first humans to have seen with their own eyes large swaths of the far side of the moon in daylight, and they traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history, reaching a maximum distance from Earth of 252,756 miles.

The crew has woken up to music each day — “Under Pressure” played Wednesday and “Lonesome Drifter” on Thursday — which is a tradition held over from previous Apollo missions.  

Why does NASA use music for wake-up calls?

In 2015, Colin Fries of the NASA History Division compiled a chronology of wake-up calls. 

“There have always been inquiries about flown items and mission events as we all know, and those about wakeup calls and music played in space encompassed a steady stream (no pun intended)!” he wrote.

In his chronology, Fries referenced a letter from Lynn W. Heninger, then NASA’s acting assistant administrator for congressional relations, to a lawmaker in 1990 in which Heninger wrote: “Use of music to awaken astronauts on space missions dates back at least to the Apollo Program, when astronauts returning from the Moon were serenaded by their colleagues in mission control with lyrics from popular songs that seemed appropriate to the occasion.”

“The common element of all these selections is that they promote a sense of camaraderie and esprit de corps among the astronauts and ground support personnel. That, in fact, is the sole reason for having wake-up music; and it is the reason that NASA management has neither attempted to dictate its content nor allowed outside interests to influence the process,” Heninger wrote to Illinois Rep. Robert H. Michel.

What are past crews’ wake-up songs?

The Apollo 10 mission crew’s wake-up songs in 1969 included “The Best Is Yet To Come” by Tony Bennett and “It’s Nice to Go Trav’ling” by Frank Sinatra, and “Come Fly With Me” when Apollo 10 woke up Mission Control. 

The Apollo 15 mission in 1971 had a sense of humor, selecting the theme song from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

What song will the Artemis II crew wake up to on their final day in space?

NASA hasn’t said just yet, but in the past, several crews have woken up on their final day in space to Dean Martin’s popular song “Going Back to Houston.”

The Artemis II crew’s final day in space is Friday, when the Orion capsule is expected to splash down off the California coast near San Diego.



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