Category: United States

WASHINGTON — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation must make sweeping changes to address widespread sexual harassment and other misconduct, according to an independent report released on Tuesday that raises questions about the future of the banking regulator’s leadership. The report, prompted by a Wall Street Journal investigation, cited accounts from more than 500 people, including some who alleged FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg had engaged in bullying and verbal abuse. Overall, the report by law firm Cleary Gottlieb paints a picture of an agency at which sexual harassment, racial discrimination and bullying were pervasive at every level and tolerated by senior leaders for years, while complaints about misconduct were met with retaliation. “For far too many employees and for far too long, the FDIC has failed to provide a workplace safe from sexual harassment, discrimination, and other interpersonal misconduct,” the report said, adding that those accused of misconduct were frequently reassigned new roles. Underscoring the agency’s toxic culture, officials tasked with addressing the problems exposed by the WSJ reports were themselves the subject of misconduct claims, the Cleary Gottlieb report found. The findings sparked renewed calls for the ouster of Gruenberg, a Democrat who has been a senior leader at the agency for nearly two decades. Representative Patrick McHenry, a Republican who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, called for Gruenberg’s resignation following the report, saying it made clear the agency needs new leadership. “The FDIC needs to be fixed. The women and men who work there deserve better,” Sherrod Brown, chair of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “Chair Gruenberg must accept responsibility and must immediately work to make fundamental changes to the agency and its culture.” Some employees described Gruenberg as “harsh” and “aggressive,” as well as prone to losing his temper, the report said. In speaking with investigators, Gruenberg said he never recalled acting inappropriately. The report said some employees reported positive interactions with him and saw his nature as more “prosecutorial.” In a statement to staff, Gruenberg said the report was “sobering” and he vowed to implement its recommendations. He said he was ultimately responsible for everything that happened at the agency and apologized for any shortcomings. “I again want to express how very sorry I am,” he added. The report recommends the appointment of new officials devoted to changing the FDIC’s culture and hiring an independent third party to assist in … “US inquiry finds widespread sexual misconduct at FDIC” →

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has been holding up certain Boeing-made arms shipments to Israel, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, in what two of them said was an apparent political message to the close U.S. ally. The shipments, which have been delayed for at least two weeks, involved Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which convert dumb bombs into precision-guided ones, as well as Small Diameter Bombs. The sources did not elaborate further, including on the political nature of the holdups. But they come at a time when Washington is publicly pressuring Israel to postpone its planned offensive in Rafah until after it has taken steps to avert civilian casualties. The White House and Pentagon declined comment. The news of a delayed arms shipment was first reported by Axios over the weekend and Politico first reported on the types of arms delayed and the reasoning on Tuesday. Without addressing whether there had been a holdup in arms shipments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reaffirmed that Washington’s commitment to Israel’s security was “ironclad.” Still, when asked about the reports on the arms holdups, she added: “Two things could be true, in the sense of having those conversations, tough, direct conversations with our counterparts in Israel … in making sure citizens lives are protected … and getting that commitment.” The Pentagon said on Monday that there had not been a policy decision to withhold arms from Israel, America’s closest Middle East ally. Still, the delays appeared to be the first since Biden’s administration offered its full support to Israel following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 others were abducted. About 133 of them are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas has led to a seven-month-long military campaign that has killed a total of 34,789 Palestinians, most of them civilians, the Gaza Health Ministry said. The conflict has also left many of Gaza’s 2.3 million people on the brink of starvation and sparked protests in the U.S. demanding that universities and Biden withdraw support for Israel – including the provision of weaponry. A senior Israeli official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, did not confirm any specific holdup in arms supplies but appeared to take the reports in stride: “As the prime minister has already said, if we have to … “US holds up some arms to Israel, sources say” →

The U.S. is expressing optimism that a cease-fire agreement in Gaza is within reach, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a proposed deal that Hamas said it had accepted. Israeli forces went ahead with a limited operation in eastern Rafah, prompting Hamas to warn there will be no cease-fire if that military action continues. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has the latest. …

state department — The United States’ and China’s new climate envoys are holding their first in-person talks on Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, leading a bilateral working group discussion to accelerate concrete climate action. Some analysts caution that political and economic tensions between the world’s two largest emitters of carbon dioxide, or CO2, could hamper progress on the climate front. This week’s talks will take place against the backdrop of the Biden administration’s probe into Chinese-made electric vehicles, or EVs, and calls to increase tariffs on the import of solar panels from China to protect domestic producers. John Podesta, senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden for international climate policy, and Liu Zhenmin, the People’s Republic of China’s special envoy for climate change, along with relevant officials from both countries, will convene this week’s working-group talks. “The meeting will focus on areas identified in the Sunnylands Statement, including energy transition, methane and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases, circular economy and resource efficiency, low-carbon and sustainable provinces/states and cities, and deforestation, among others,” according to the State Department. Sunnylands statement In November 2023, John Kerry, then-U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, and Xie Zhenhua, China’s former special envoy for climate change, met in Sunnylands, California, to reaffirm their commitments to jointly address the climate crisis. The agreement focuses on many less competitive areas, according to analysts. “For example, in a first, both sides agreed to include methane in their 2035 climate goals and the agreement highlighted a target of promoting at least five large-scale cooperative projects in carbon capture, utilization and storage, or CCUS,” said Jennifer Turner, the director of the Washington-based Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum. CCUS is a process that captures carbon dioxide emissions from sources like coal-fired power plants and either reuses or stores it so it will not enter the atmosphere. In the Sunnylands statement, the U.S. and China also said they are determined to end plastic pollution. “The two countries have been meeting at the table for the Global Plastic Treaty but neither has made plastic a part of the bilateral talks. As is true in energy, we are also plastic waste superpowers and what actions we take in this space could also be game changing,” Turner told VOA on Tuesday. Digitally connected vehicles and solar panels However, the climate envoys are likely to steer clear of electric vehicles as an area for climate cooperation because they have … “New US-China climate envoys to hold their first in-person talks in Washington” →

washington — The U.S. military has finished construction of its Gaza aid pier, but weather conditions are making it unsafe to move the two-part facility into place, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.  The pier, which the U.S. military started building last month and which will cost at least $320 million, is aimed at boosting deliveries of desperately needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza, which has been ravaged by seven months of Israeli operations against Hamas.  “As of today, the construction of the two portions of the JLOTS — the floating pier and the Trident pier — are complete and awaiting final movement offshore,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists, using an acronym for Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, the official name for the pier capability.  “Today there are still forecasted high winds and high sea swells, which are causing unsafe conditions for the JLOTS components to be moved. So the pier sections and military vessels involved in its construction are still positioned at the port of Ashdod,” in Israel, Singh said.  U.S. Central Command “stands by to move the pier into position in the near future,” she added.  The vessels and the under-construction pier were moved to the port because of bad weather last week. Once the weather clears, the pier will be anchored to the Gaza shore by Israeli soldiers, keeping U.S. troops off the ground.  Aid will then be transported via commercial vessels to a floating platform off the Gaza coast, where it will be transferred to smaller vessels, brought to the pier, and taken to land by truck for distribution.  Plans for the pier were first announced by U.S. President Joe Biden in early March as Israel held up deliveries of assistance by ground, and U.S. Army troops and vessels soon set out on a lengthy trip to the Mediterranean to build the pier.  Some two months later, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire. The United Nations said Tuesday that Israel had denied it access to the Rafah crossing, the key entry point for aid into the territory.  …

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BEIRUT — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday. The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child — the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children — was also brought with them. As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said. Although the pace of repatriations has picked up — neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens — many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children. The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria. Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected Islamic State members are housed. “The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement. …

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NEW YORK — Pro-Palestinian protesters who had been blocked by police from accessing an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Monday broke through fencing, linked arms and encircled tents that remained there, as Columbia University canceled its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests. Sam Ihns, a graduate student at MIT studying mechanical engineering and a member of MIT Jews for a Ceasefire, said the group has been at the encampment for the past two weeks and that they were calling for an end to the killing of thousands of people in Gaza. “Specifically, our encampment is protesting MIT’s direct research ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense,” he said. Protesters also sat in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue, blocking the street during rush hour in the Boston area. The demonstrations at Columbia have roiled its campus and officials said Monday that while it won’t hold it’s main ceremony, students will be able to celebrate at a series of smaller, school-based ceremonies this week and next. The decision comes as universities around the country wrangle with how to handle commencements for students whose high school graduations were derailed by COVID-19 in 2020. Another campus shaken by protests, Emory University, announced Monday that it would move its commencement from its Atlanta campus to a suburban arena. Others, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Northeastern, have pulled off ceremonies with few disruptions. Columbia’s decision to cancel its main ceremonies scheduled for May 15 saves its president, Minouche Shafik, from having to deliver a commencement address in the same part of campus where police dismantled a protest encampment last week. The Ivy League school in upper Manhattan said it made the decision after discussions with students. “Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,” officials said. Most of the ceremonies that had been scheduled for the south lawn of the main campus, where encampments were taken down last week, will take place about 8 kilometers (5 miles) north at Columbia’s sports complex, officials said. Speakers at some of Columbia’s still-scheduled graduation ceremonies include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames and Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health. Columbia had already canceled in-person classes. More than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia’s green or occupied an academic building were arrested in recent weeks. Similar encampments sprouted up … “Pro-Palestinian protesters break through barricades to retake MIT encampment” →

New York — It’s Met Gala time and the fashion parade of A-listers Monday included a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet surrounded by foliage. Jennifer Lopez went for silver leaves in a second-skin goddess gown and Zendaya was all vamp and fantasy. Both are co-chairs of the annual fundraiser at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. And both received cheers from the crowd of fashion enthusiasts packed behind barriers outside. Flowers were everywhere, in line with this year’s theme: “The Garden of Time.” Lopez (in Schiaparelli) was all va-va-voom in a near-naked gown that hugged like a second skin. She’s got the Meta Gala down: It’s her 14th. This year’s theme is inspired by J.G. Ballard’s 1962 short story of the same name. Zendaya put on her fashion face in hues of blue and green, with a head piece to match and leaf accents. It’s been five years since Zendaya last attended the Met Gala. Her look, in peacock colors, was by Maison Margiela. Lopez went with Tiffany & Co. diamonds, including a stunning bird motif necklace with a diamond of over 20 carats at its center. Mindy Kaling is sure to make the best-dressed lists in sand-colored swirls that towered over her head at the back. No worries about dinner. The back was removable. Her look was by Indian couturier Gaurav Gupta. Fashion kings and queens … and a good witch Gigi Hadid brought the drama in a look by the drama king himself, Thom Browne. her white look was adorned with 2.8 million microbeads with yellow flowers and green thorns. She was high glam in a wavy bob and crimson lips. If there’s a queen of the Met Gala besides the evening’s mastermind, Anna Wintour, it’s Sarah Jessica Parker. The long-time attendee takes each year’s theme seriously, researching every detail. This year she was in an Alice in Wonderland dress with a lavender overlay and a Philip Treacy topper on her head. The dress was by Richard Quinn. Her long hair tumbled behind her back in beachy waves, a look that built into a beauty trend of the evening. Serena Williams took metallic gold to another level in a shining one-shoulder statement look. Ariana Grande was all Glinda the Good Witch, making the most of her pale-colored strapless look with 3D eyelashes at the side of each eye. She arrived with her “Wicked” co-star Cynthia … “Met Gala in full bloom with Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Mindy Kaling among stars” →

Reports of possible progress on a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas are happening against the backdrop of Israel’s plan for a military incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah. In Washington, President Joe Biden lunched with Jordan’s king and spoke to Israel’s leader by phone in an apparent effort to soothe tensions. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House. …

new york — The prestigious Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism was awarded Monday to ProPublica for its “groundbreaking” reporting that revealed how billionaires wooed Supreme Court justices with gifts and travel, and The Associated Press was honored in the feature photography category for its coverage of immigration to the U.S. through Latin America. The public service award honored the work of ProPublica’s Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Alex Mierjeski and Kirsten Berg. AP’s photos were taken across Latin America and along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas and California in a year when immigration was one of the biggest stories in the world. The award honored 15 photos by AP staffers Greg Bull, Eric Gay, Fernando Llano, Marco Ugarte and Eduardo Verdugo, and longtime AP freelancers Christian Chavez, Felix Marquez and Ivan Valencia. Reuters won the Pulitzer for breaking news photography tor its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Along with honoring winners and finalists in 15 journalism categories, the Pulitzer Board also recognizes distinguished work in areas including books, music and theater. The prizes, established in the will of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, are administered by Columbia University in New York. Columbia University has been in the news for student demonstrations against the war in Gaza. The Pulitzer board met away from Columbia this past weekend to deliberate on its winners. The board issued a statement Thursday saluting student journalists at Columbia and other universities across the country for their work covering the campus demonstrations. For the first time, the Pulitzers opened eligibility to broadcast and audio companies that also operate digital news sites, such as CNN, NPR and the broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC. The work must be primarily in digital journalism, however. The Columbia Journalism School also administers the duPont-Columbia Awards, which recognize audio and visual journalism and are presented in the winter. The Pulitzers give out cash awards and a medal for its prestigious public service prize, won last year by The Associated Press for its coverage of the Russian siege of Mariupol in Ukraine. Reuters contributed to this report. …

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New York — Columbia University is canceling its large university-wide commencement ceremony amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests but will hold smaller school-based ceremonies this week and next, the university announced Monday. “Based on feedback from our students, we have decided to focus attention on our Class Days and school-level graduation ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, and to forego the university-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15,” Columbia officials said in a statement. The protests stem from the conflict that started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants. The University of Southern California earlier canceled its main graduation ceremony while allowing other commencement activities to continue. …

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Mexico City — Thieves killed two Australians and an American on a surfing trip to Mexico to steal their truck, particularly because they wanted the tires, authorities said Sunday. Baja California state prosecutors released grisly details of the slayings but have not yet officially confirmed the identity of the bodies. They said family members of the victims are viewing the bodies to see if they can be identified by sight. The corpses were decomposing after the thieves dumped them into a remote, 15-meter deep well. If relatives can’t identify them, further tests will be conducted. The well also contained a fourth cadaver that had been there much longer. “The probability that it’s them is very high,” said chief state prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez, noting the corpses still appeared to be identifiable by sight. The three men went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, posting idyllic photos on social media of waves and isolated beaches along a stretch of coast south of the city of Ensenada. But Andrade Ramirez described the moments of terror that ended the trip for brothers Jake and Callum Robinson from Australia and American Jack Carter Rhoad. She said the killers drove by and saw the foreigners’ pickup truck and tents, and wanted to steal their tires. “Surely, they resisted,” she said of the victims, and the thieves shot them to death. The thieves then went to what she called “a site that is extremely hard to get to” and dumped their bodies into a well they apparently were familiar with. She said investigators were not ruling out the possibility the same suspects also dumped the first, earlier body in the well as part of their thefts. “They may have been looking for trucks in this area,” Andrade Ramirez said. The site where the bodies were discovered near the township of Santo Tomas was near the remote seaside area where the missing men’s tents and truck were found Thursday along the coast. From their last photo posts, the trip looked perfect. But even experienced local expats are questioning whether it is safe to camp along the largely deserted coast anymore. The moderator of the local Talk Baja internet forum, who has lived in the area for almost two decades, wrote in an editorial Saturday that “the reality is, the dangers of traveling to and camping in remote areas are outweighing the benefits anymore.” Baja … “Mexican authorities: Thieves killed American, 2 Australians to steal their truck” →

Albuquerque, New Mexico — It was a frigid winter morning when authorities found a Native American man dead on a remote gravel road in western New Mexico. He was lying on his side, with only one sock on, his clothes gone and his shoes tossed in the snow. There were trails of blood on both sides of his body and it appeared he had been struck in the head. Investigators retraced the man’s steps, gathering security camera footage that showed him walking near a convenience store miles away in Gallup, an economic hub in an otherwise rural area bordered on one side by the Navajo Nation and Zuni Pueblo on the other. Court records said the footage and cell phone records showed the victim — a Navajo man identified only as John Doe — was “on a collision course” with the man who would ultimately be accused of killing him. A grand jury has indicted a man from Zuni Pueblo on a charge of second-degree murder in the Jan. 18 death, and prosecutors say more charges are likely as he is the prime suspect in a series of crimes targeting Native American men in Gallup, Zuni and Albuquerque. Investigators found several wallets, cell phones and clothing belonging to other men when searching his vehicle and two residences. As people gathered around the nation on Sunday to spotlight the troubling number of disappearances and killings in Indian Country, authorities say the New Mexico case represents the kind of work the U.S. Department of Justice had aspired to when establishing its Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons outreach program last summer. Special teams of assistant U.S. attorneys and coordinators have been tasked with focusing on MMIP cases. Their goal: Improve communication and coordination across federal, tribal, state and local jurisdictions in hopes of bridging the gaps that have made solving violent crimes in Indian Country a generational challenge. Some of the new federal prosecutors were participating in MMIP Awareness Day events. From the Arizona state capitol to a cultural center in Albuquerque and the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina, marches, symposiums, art exhibitions and candlelight vigils were planned for May 5, which is the birthday of Hanna Harris, who was only 21 when she was killed on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana in 2013. It was an emotional day in Albuquerque, where family members and advocates participated in a prayer walk. They … “As US spotlights those missing or dead in Native communities, prosecutors work to solve their cases” →

Houston, Texas — More storms were moving through the already saturated Houston area on Sunday, where flooding from heavy rains has led to the rescue of hundreds of people from homes, rooftops and roads. “It’s going to be raining through the day and some of the storms could be producing the heavier downpours,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Hayley Adams. Over the last week, areas near Lake Livingston, located northeast of Houston, have gotten upwards of 50 centimeters of rain, she said, while there has been as much as 30 centimeters of rain in that period in areas of northeastern Harris County, the nation’s third-largest county that includes Houston. Adams said the storms coming through Sunday were expected to bring up to 8 centimeters of rainfall, with up to 20 centimeters possible in some areas. “It’s going to keep rising this way,” said Miguel Flores Jr., who lives in the northeast Houston neighborhood of Kingwood. “We don’t know how much more. We’re just preparing for the worst.” Houston authorities have not reported any deaths or injuries as a wide region from Houston to rural East Texas has been swamped. Flooding forces evacuations Most weekends Flores’ father, Miguel Flores Sr., is mowing his huge backyard on a 1-hectare lot behind his home in Kingwood. But on Saturday, he and his family loaded several vehicles with clothes, small appliances and other items. Water from the San Jacinto River already had swallowed his backyard and was continuing to rise, from about 30 centimeters high in the yard Friday to about 1.2 meters the following day. As storms forced numerous high-water rescues, including some from the rooftops of flooded homes, officials redoubled urgent instructions for residents in low-lying areas to evacuate, warning the worst was still to come. Greg Moss, 68, stood late Saturday afternoon by a golf cart as he eyed the several centimeters of water covering the road that leads to his home in Channelview, a community in eastern Harris County near the San Jacinto River.   Moss had managed to pack up many of his belongings and leave before the road flooded Saturday. “I would be stuck for four days,” Moss said. “So now at least I can go get something to eat.” He moved his belongings and vehicle to a neighbor’s home, where he will stay until the waters recede. Moss said he is not worried his home will flood because … “More storms move through Houston area; hundreds already rescued from floodwaters” →

Despite the fact that many of their encampments at university campuses have been dismantled, pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the United States are standing their ground. If the protests continue, some analysts say they could have an impact on the 2024 presidential election. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias explains. …

Can immigrants vote in U.S. elections? The answer is — not until they become naturalized citizens. Naturalization is a lengthy process that begins with obtaining a green card, also known as a permanent resident card. VOA’s Aline Barros explains the process. …

New York — “The Fall Guy,” the Ryan Gosling-led, action-comedy ode to stunt performers, opened below expectations with $28.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, providing a lukewarm start to a summer movie season that’s very much to be determined for Hollywood. The Universal Pictures release opened on a weekend that Marvel has regularly dominated with $100 million-plus launches. (In 2023, that was “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” with a $118 million debut.) But last year’s strikes jumbled this year’s movie calendar; “Deadpool & Wolverine,” originally slated to open this weekend, is now debuting in July. So in place of a superhero kickoff, the summer launch went to a movie about the stunt performers who anonymously sacrifice their bodies for the kind of action sequences blockbusters are built on. Going into the weekend, forecasts had the film opening $30 million to $40 million. “The Fall Guy,” directed by former stuntman and “Deadpool 2” helmer David Leitch, rode into the weekend with the momentum of glowing reviews and the buzz of a SXSW premiere. But it will need sustained interest to merit its $130 million production budget. It added $25.4 million in overseas markets. Working in its favor for a long run: strong audience scores (an “A-” CinemaScore) and good reviews (83% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). Jim Orr, distribution chief for Universal, believes things line up well for “The Fall Guy” in the coming weeks. “We had a very solid opening,” said Orr. “We’re looking forward to a very long, very robust, very successful run throughout the domestic box office for literally weeks if not months to come.” But the modest start for “The Fall Guy” hints at larger concerns for the film industry. Superhero films haven’t been quite the box-office behemoth they once were, leading studios to search for fresher alternatives. “The Fall Guy” seemed to check all the boxes, with extravagant action sequences, one of the hottest stars in the business, a director with a track-record for crowd pleasers and very good reviews. But instead, the opening for “The Fall Guy,” loosely based on the 1980s TV series, only emphasized that the movie business is likely to struggle to rekindle the fervor of last year’s “Barbenheimer” summer. “The Fall Guy” stars one from each: Gosling, in his first post-Ken role, and Emily Blunt, of “Oppenheimer.” Both were Oscar nominated. “It’s going to be a very interesting, nontraditional summer this … “‘The Fall Guy’ gives Hollywood a muted kickoff with $28.5M   “ →

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Washington — A driver died after crashing a car into the exterior gate of the White House late Saturday, the US Secret Service said.    “Shortly before 10:30pm a vehicle traveling at a high speed collided with an outer perimeter gate on the White House complex,” the service said in a statement on social media platform X, adding there was “no threat” to the White House itself.    Officers arriving at the scene “attempted to render aid to the driver who was discovered deceased,” the statement said.    The Secret Service, along with the police and fire departments of the District of Columbia, have launched an investigation into the fatal crash, according to Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.    He added there was “no threat or public safety implications”.    In January, authorities detained another person who crashed a vehicle into the exterior gate of the same complex.    The White House has seen a string of high-profile trespassing incidents in recent years, prompting the construction of a higher, tougher metal fence around the iconic mansion’s perimeter in 2020. …