Trump mulls closure of US embassies in Africa

The Trump administration is reportedly considering shutting down nearly 30 embassies and consulates worldwide—including several in Africa—as part of a broader plan to streamline America’s diplomatic presence abroad.

This is according to an internal document from the US State Department, obtained by CNN.

Among the proposed closures are American embassies in Lesotho, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan.

Titanic: Found ladies watch for auction at £50,000

A lady’s pocket watch discovered among the belongings of one of the passengers who drowned on the Titanic’s doomed maiden voyage could fetch up to 50,000 euros (66,000 dollars) at auction.

Hans Christensen Givard, a 27-year-old Danish second-class passenger, was one of 1,500 people killed when the ship collided with an iceberg in 1912.

Givard was heading to the United States with two other companions who died in the catastrophe.

The watch was discovered when Givard’s body was recovered from the North Atlantic, and he was buried in Halifax, Canada.

The pockets contained a savings book, keys, some cash in a wallet, a silver watch, a compass, and a passport.

The gold ladies’ pocket watch, which showed signs of saltwater corrosion, was also retrieved.

All of his goods were restored to his brother in Denmark, and his relatives are now selling the watch.

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The tragic incident of Givard led curator Jesper Hjermind and his niece, journalist and U.S. resident Mette Hjermind McCall, to publish the book Titanic, De Danske Fortaellinger (Titanic, The Danish Stories), which mentions the pocket watch.

Claes Goran Wetterholm, the world’s greatest specialist on the Scandinavian aspect of the Titanic tale, also showed it in Copenhagen in 2012.

The watch will be auctioned on April 26 by Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, Wiltshire.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said, “This piece is documented in the official list of Hans’s effects compiled by the authorities in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the weeks after the Titanic disaster and has remained in his family ever since.

“It was one of the centrepieces of the display of Titanic memorabilia in the Tivoli in Copenhagen in 2012, which illustrates its importance.

“The watch’s movement is frozen in time at the moment the cold North Atlantic waters consumed not only its owner but the most famous ocean liner of all time, Titanic, on April 15, 1912,” he added.

US judge stops Trump move to revoke 500,000 immigrants’ legal status

A federal judge on Monday blocked US President Donald Trump’s administration from quickly revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti.

The ruling by District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston is the latest order against Trump’s rapid push to carry out mass deportations, particularly targeting Latin Americans.

In March, the administration said it was moving to revoke the legal status of some 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who came to the United States under a “parole” program initially launched by former president Joe Biden in October 2022.