“Barbie” is cruising atop the box office

By Dave Sherwood HAVANA The European Union will send a special human rights envoy to Cuba this year

President Joe Biden is facing criticism for slipping up when outlining a new railroad project, mistakenly saying it would be built across the Indian Ocean. Mr Biden was speaking to the League of Conservation Voters in Washington DC on Wednesday night, saying, “We have plans to build a railroad from the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean”. “We have plans to build in Angola one of the largest solar plants in the world,” Mr Biden added. “I can go on, but I’m not. I’m going off-script. I’m going to get in trouble.” There’s no proposal to build a railroad covering the third largest ocean on the planet, and conservatives were quick to capitalise on the slip-up, with the Twitter account RNC Research sharing the clip on Wednesday night. Last week, during a visit from UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Mr Biden made a similar mistake, before correcting himself, saying that “We’re talking about building — and I had my team putting together with other countries as well — to build a railroad from the Pacific Ocean — from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Indian Ocean”. Africa is surrounded by the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Arabian Sea, but not the Pacific. Before fumbling his words, Mr Biden spoke about how the US is planning on helping developing countries combat the climate crisis. “We’ve mobilised the world’s leading emitters to help poorer countries deal with the impacts of climate change. They called it, at the G7, the Build Back Biden — Build Back Better. And we realized that got confusing,” the president said to laughter in the room. “Here’s the bottom line – We’re the ones that caused the problem, the United States. We cleared all our land. We did all the things that make things more easy for us to make money. Not a bad thing at the time. No one really fully understood,” he added. “But we, the major emitters in the world, have an obligation to help those countries.” “Soon, Africa will have one billion people. China has their Belt and Road Initiative. It turned out to be their debt and destruction initiative. No, I’m serious. Not a joke. Well, we’re going to win, and we’re going to help,” Mr Biden said, seemingly arguing that the US will take on China in their soft power push to help poorer nations with infrastructure projects, which critics have claimed are exploitative, with some calling it a “debt trap”. Mr Biden was mocked by Twitter users for his railroad slip, with conservative columnist Ian Haworth tweeting: “Who’s going to run that train, SpongeBob?” Former Utah Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz tweeted: “Bold initiative, Mr. President.” The communications director for Republican Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, Abigail Marone, wrote: “Put grandpa to bed.” The DeSantis War Room simply tweeted: “Ambitious.” Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro made a dig about Mr Biden’s age, writing, “He does remember Pangea so.” “I for one am booking a seat on the first ever rail trip to the Indian Ocean. You laugh but the beverage car is gonna be sick,” Philadelphia talk radio host Rich Zeoli wrote. Mr Biden’s reelection effort was endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, NextGen PAC, and the Sierra Club on Wednesday evening, the New York Post noted. Read More Fox News producer behind chyron calling Biden a ‘wannabe dictator’ parts ways with network How was a 21-year-old gamer able to leak a mountain of major Pentagon secrets? Tucker Carlson asks ‘why the hysteria’ over Fox’s Biden ‘wannabe dictator’ chyron US company signs agreement to enter retail fuel market in crisis-hit Sri Lanka US defense secretary discusses upgrading ties with India to counter China Trump gloats as he scores rare legal win in New York golf club tax probe – live

South Korean internet leader Naver Corp. won a contract to build and operate a cloud platform for Saudi

Maui County has sued Hawaiian Electric Company over the fires that devastated Lahaina, saying the utility negligently failed to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions

The Dutch government says a fire that had been burning on board a cargo ship carrying thousands of new cars appears to have burnt itself out after nearly a week

Kevin Turen known for 'Euphoria' was driving his Tesla when a medical emergency caused his death

By Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Johann M Cherian (Reuters) -Wall Street was set to open lower on Tuesday as investors

By John Kruzel and Andrew Chung WASHINGTON Senate Democrats are expected on Thursday to vote on authorizing subpoenas

Scientists have found that visiting friends and family at least once a month can help you live longer. According to a recent study published by the University of Glasgow in BioMed Central Medicine, researchers discovered that there was a correlation between how often a person was visited by their family and friends with their life expectancy. Those who were never visited by their family reportedly had a higher risk of dying. Amid the ongoing loneliness epidemic, social isolation has previously been linked by researchers to a shorter life expectancy. This latest study sought to understand the effect that different types of social interaction have on our quality of life, with visits from friends and family, participating in a weekly group activity, and not living alone reportedly making the biggest difference among a group of 458,146 participants in the United Kingdom. Participants were between the ages of 37 and 73, with the average age being 56 years old, and data was collected between 2006 and 2010. Researchers asked the participants questions about the five different forms of social interaction: how often they were able to confide in someone close to them, how often they felt lonely, how often friends and family visited, how often they participated in a weekly group activity, and whether or not they lived alone. “We also tried to take into account lots of other factors that could explain the findings — like how old people were, their gender, their socioeconomic status, whether they were a smoker and more,” Dr Hamish Foster, a clinical research fellow at the University of Glasgow and the lead study author, explained to Insider. “And even after removing those factors from the equation it still showed that these social connections were important for risk of death.” Depending on when the participants were recruited, researchers would revisit the questions with the participants an estimated 12.6 years later to follow up. They reportedly found that, within those years, 33,135 or 7.2 per cent of participants died, with 5112 or 1.1 per cent passing from cardiovascular-related deaths. Strikingly, the study also found that “regardless of weekly group activity or functional components,” those who never had friends or family visit while also living alone were 77 per cent more likely to have a higher risk of death. However, Dr Foster cautions that the study is unable to take into account both the complexity and the quality of human social interactions. “Humans are really complicated and so are our connections and our measures in this study are pretty crude compared with what humans are capable of, but this study is still very detailed and is starting to drill down into how different types of connection are important,” Foster said to the outlet. He added that the study cannot prove that less socialisation causes death, but it does prove that loneliness and isolation can lead to not only poorer mental health but also poorer physical health. “We need to see more society-level interventions and support that make social connections easier, more likely, and of higher quality,” Foster added. “For example, community centers, parks, places, and activities that make it easy for people to meet and connect for high-quality relationships.” Dr Foster and his team of researchers aren’t the first to connect the dots between longer life spans and active social lives, with Netflix recently shining the spotlight on the famed blue zones - places with notably high populations of centenarians - in the docuseries, Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue. Within blue zones like Ikaria, Greece, or Okinawa, Japan, social interaction is prioritised within the community rather than being left on the backburner in favour of economic or individualistic pursuits. As the digital age and the pandemic have brought on an increase in social isolation, Dr Foster stressed that it’s important for young people to nurture their social lives and participate in their communities. Read More Blake Shelton opens up about parenting style with Gwen Stefani To shave or not to shave: How women can participate in No-Shave November Game of Thrones actor announces ‘unbearable loss’ of baby after stillbirth

The leader of Spain’s conservatives is trying to win the endorsement of the nation’s Parliament to form a new government

Security has ramped up in Washington DC as Donald Trump prepares to return to the alleged scene of the crime to face charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the events leading up to the January 6 Capitol riot. The former president is scheduled to appear for his arraignment at 4pm ET on Thursday afternoon at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington DC – just a few blocks away from the US Capitol where a mob of his supporters staged a violent insurrection to try to overthrow democracy back on 6 January 2021. Metal barricades were seen being erected outside the courthouse on Wednesday night while the Secret Service confirmed that it is working with multiple law enforcement agencies to “ensure the highest levels of safety and security”. “While the Secret Service does not comment on specific protective means or methods, we have the utmost confidence in the dedication and commitment to security shared by all of our law enforcement and government partners,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the US Secret Service, said in a statement. “We are working closely with the Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Park Police, U.S. Capitol Police and the Federal Protective Service to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for the former president, while minimizing disruptions to the normal court process.” The agency warned Washington DC residents that they could face “short-term traffic implications” in the centre of the capital on Thursday. Mr Trump is expected to surrender to authorities at the DC courthouse at 4pm ET where he will be formally arrested on the charges, have his fingerprints taken and be processed. He will then appear for his arraignment before Magistrate Judge Moxila A Upadhyaya where he is expected to plead not guilty to the charges. The former president does have the option of appearing virtually – instead of in-person – but is expected to travel to the hearing. The hearing will see Mr Trump return to the centre of his alleged attempts to upturn American democracy to face criminal charges over the plot. The courthouse is just a stone’s throw from the US Capitol – the scene of one of America’s darkest day 31 months ago when hundreds of Mr Trump supporters stormed the building to try to stop the certification of the election for President Joe Biden. Since then, hundreds have been charged and convicted over their role that day. This historic day marks the first time that their leader Mr Trump has been held to account. Mr Trump and his attorneys are already demanding that his “fake” criminal case be moved out of Washington DC to “unbiased” West Virginia, claiming he cannot get a fair trial in the capital. The former president is accused of conspiring with his allies to overturn the 2020 election, in a bid to sabotage the vote of the American people. A grand jury, which has spent months hearing evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, returned a federal indictment on Tuesday hitting him with four federal charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The Justice Department alleges that Mr Trump and his circle of co-conspirators knew that he had lost the election but launched a multi-prong conspiracy to do everything they could to enable him to cling onto power. This included spreading “knowingly false claims of election fraud to get state legislators and election officials to subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes for the Defendant’s opponent, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., to electoral votes for the Defendant”, the indictment states. Mr Trump and his allies also allegedly plotted to send slates of fake electors to seven “targeted states” of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin which President Joe Biden had won – to get them to falsely certify the election for Mr Trump. The indictment also alleges Mr Trump tried to use the DOJ to “conduct sham election crime investigations”, sending letters to the seven states claiming that “significant concerns” had been found in the elections in those states. As well as the false claims about the election being stolen from Mr Trump, the scheme also involved pushing false claims that Vice President Mike Pence had the power to alter the results – and pushing Mr Pence to “fraudulently alter the election results”. When Mr Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol in a violent attack that ended with five deaths, Mr Trump and his co-conspirators “exploited” the incident by “redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims,” the indictment claims. At a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Smith placed the blame for the January 6 attack on the US Capitol firmly on Mr Trump’s shoulders. “The attack on our nation’s capitol on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” he said. “As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies. Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government – the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.” The indictment marks Mr Trump’s second federal indictment, his third criminal indictment overall – and potentially his most serious. While the former president is the only person charged in the case, the indictment also refers to six co-conspirators who worked with him to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The six individuals – four attorneys, one Justice Department official and one political consultant – have not been named in the charging documents because they have not yet been charged with any crimes. However, based on the details in the indictment and records already known about the events leading up to the Capitol riot, the identities are apparent as Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, Kenneth Chesebro and Boris Epshteyn. Read More Trump arraignment – live: Trump to appear in court today as he demands ‘fake’ Jan 6 case be moved out of DC Who are Trump’s six alleged co-conspirators in the 2020 election probe case? When is Donald Trump’s arraignment? Tanya Chutkan: Who is the judge overseeing Trump’s 2020 election probe case? Watch live: View of Capitol ahead of Donald Trump’s court appearance Who are Trump’s six alleged co-conspirators in the 2020 election probe case?