International
Man found guilty for sending teenage son to kill rapper PnB Rock

Man found guilty for sending teenage son to kill rapper PnB Rock
A man was found guilty by a Los Angeles jury on Wednesday of sending his 17-year-old son to kill rapper PnB Rock.
Freddie Trone, 42, was found guilty of multiple charges, including murder, two counts of second-degree robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery, after the Philadelphia hip-hop star was shot dead in September 2022.
The rapper was eating at a Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles restaurant in Los Angeles with his girlfriend, who is the mother of his four-year-old child, when the teen – wearing a ski mask – walked into the restaurant, demanded the artist’s jewellery and opened fire.
Police said the teen removed items from the victim then fled in a waiting getaway car, which Trone was accused of driving, according to local media.
PnB suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at a local hospital less than an hour later.
Prosecutors during the trial argued the teen was acting on his father’s orders while Trone’s defence team said he was only an accessory after the crimes.
The teen, who is now 19 years old, was also arrested on murder and robbery charges in the case but, according to local media, he has not been found competent to stand trial yet.
A third man, Tremont Jones, was charged in the case and found guilty on two counts of second-degree robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit a robbery.
Both Jones and Trone are scheduled to be sentenced on 27 August.
During Trone’s trial, Deputy District Attorney Timothy Richardson told jurors Trone drove his son in a “coordinated act” to steal expensive jewellery, arguing the motive was about a “half a million dollars worth of jewellery,” according to Fox 11 in Los Angeles.
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Prosecutors outlined that Jones had seen the rapper at the restaurant and passed along information to Trone as to what jewellery the artist was wearing, the outlet reported.
Trone’s defence team argued he wasn’t there and never told his son or anyone to do anything. His attorney claimed prosecutors had zeroed in on the wrong person and said race played a part in his conviction, Fox 11 reported.
“Justice has been served for Mr Allen and his family who have endured unimaginable pain losing a loved one to such senseless violence,” District Attorney Gascón said Wednesday after the convictions.
“Let this serve as a clear message to anyone who threatens the safety and well-being of our community: our office will relentlessly pursue charges and work tirelessly to bring offenders to justice.”
The rapper’s girlfriend, Stephanie Sibounheuang, said PnB saved her life in the incident, writing on Instagram after the attack: “I’m not supposed to be here but [because] of him. I am”.
She described the traumatic aftermath of the shooting, not being able to ride with him in an ambulance and being forced out of the restaurant as police investigated.
“I feel so empty,” she wrote after the attack. “My world is dark now. My heart is broken for the kids.”
PnB, whose real name is Rakim Hasheem Allen, rose to fame with the release of his 2016 hit Selfish and had collaborated with artists including Ed Sheeran.
Tributes flooded in for PnB after his death, from artists including Drake, who posted a photo of the two together on his Instagram story.
Rapper Offset posted a Twitter tribute urging followers to pray for PnB’s two children, with Nicki Minaj calling him “a pleasure to work with”.
PnB Rock was born in Philadelphia in 1991, going on to record two studio albums, Catch These Vibes and Trapstar Turnt PopStar.
He released his final song, Luv Me Again, just two days before the shooting.
Man found guilty for sending teenage son to kill rapper PnB Rock
BBC
International
Trump slams Nigeria with high tariff in shocking trade crackdown

Trump slams Nigeria with high tariff in shocking trade crackdown
President Donald Trump has ignited a global trade firestorm, imposing sweeping tariffs on imports into the United States, with Nigeria among the hardest hit.
Declaring a “national economic emergency,” Trump announced an across-the-board 10% tariff on all foreign goods, while 60 countries deemed “the worst offenders” by his administration will face even steeper levies.
Nigeria has been slapped with a 27% tariff, while South Africa faces a staggering 60% levy on exports to the U.S. The measures, set to take effect on April 5, mark a dramatic shift in global trade dynamics.
Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, Trump declared “Liberation Day” for American industry, calling the moment the beginning of America’s “economic rebirth.”
“Today marks the day America was made wealthy again,” he proclaimed to thunderous applause. “For too long, we have been taken advantage of. Now, it’s our turn to prosper.”
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Trump vowed to bring jobs and manufacturing “roaring back” to the U.S., promising to “pry open foreign markets” while ensuring foreign goods no longer flood American stores unchecked.
As part of his sweeping measures, Trump announced a 25% tariff on all foreign-made vehicles, effective midnight, targeting countries like Japan, South Korea, and Germany. He lambasted nations that limit U.S. exports while dominating the American market.
“We take their cars, they refuse ours. That ends today,” he declared, citing statistics that over 80% of South Korean cars are sold domestically, while U.S. automakers struggle to penetrate foreign markets.
Trump slams Nigeria with high tariff in shocking trade crackdown
International
Deadly strikes in Gaza as Netanyahu says Israel will seize new military corridor

Deadly strikes in Gaza as Netanyahu says Israel will seize new military corridor
Israel’s prime minister has said it is expanding its Gaza offensive and establishing a new military corridor to put pressure on Hamas, as deadly Israeli strikes were reported across the Palestinian territory.
Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces were “seizing the Morag Corridor” – a reference to a former Jewish settlement once located between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.
Earlier, his defence minister said troops would seize large areas for “security zones”.
Meanwhile, 19 Palestinians, including nine children, were killed in an air strike on a UN clinic-turned-shelter in the northern town of Jabalia, a local hospital said. Israel’s military said it targeted “Hamas terrorists”.
Strikes across Gaza on Tuesday night killed at least 20 people, according to hospitals.
The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said its first responders recovered the bodies of 12 people, including women and children, from a home in Khan Younis.
Rida al-Jabbour said a neighbour and her three-month-old baby were among the dead.
“From the moment the strike occurred we have not been able to sit or sleep or anything,” she told Reuters news agency.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
There were also reports of extensive bombardment along the border with Egypt overnight.
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The Civil Defence said the strike in Jabalia on Wednesday morning hit two rooms in a clinic run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) which was being used as a shelter.
Video verified by the BBC showed dozens of people and ambulances rushing to the building. Smoke was seen billowing from a wing where two floors appeared to have collapsed.
Unrwa’s commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, wrote on X that the building was previously a health centre that it had been heavily damaged earlier in the war.
“Initial reports indicate the facility was sheltering over 700 people when it was hit,” he said, adding that a two-week-old baby was reportedly among the dead. “Displaced families stayed at the shelter after it was hit because they have nowhere else to go.”
Lazzarini said too many Unrwa premises had reportedly been used for fighting purposes by Palestinian armed groups or Israeli forces, and warned that the “total disregard of UN staff, premises or operations is a profound defiance of international law”.
The Israeli military said that it targeted Hamas operatives who were “hiding inside a command and control centre that was being used for co-ordinating terrorist activity and served as a central meeting point”.
It said “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of aerial surveillance and additional intelligence”.
Hamas denied that its fighters had been using the building.
Fadel Ashour said he had been at the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City when some of those wounded by the Jabalia strike were brought there for treatment.
“This shelter is home to many people, and every time the Israeli army bombs it, everyone inside is harmed,” he told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Lifeline programme.
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On Wednesday evening, Israel’s prime minister said in a video statement that the IDF had “switched gears” overnight and was “seizing territory, striking the terrorists and destroying the infrastructure”.
“We are also doing something else: We are seizing the Morag Corridor. This will be the second Philadelphi, an additional Philadelphi Corridor,” Netanyahu added, referring to a strip of territory running along the Egyptian border that the Israeli military seized last May.
Dividing Gaza, he said, would increase pressure on Hamas “step by step” and force the group to hand over the 59 hostages it is still holding in Gaza, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.
“As long as they do not give them to us, the pressure will increase until they do.”
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had announced earlier that the military would be expanding its offensive to clear and “seize large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel”, without saying where they would be. He added that it would require a “large-scale” evacuation of Palestinians.
Katz also urged Gazans to act to remove Hamas and free remaining Israeli hostages, without suggesting how they should do so.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel, which represents many hostages’ relatives, said they were “horrified to wake up” to the news of the expanded military operation. It urged the Israeli government to prioritise securing the release of all the hostages.
This week, Israel’s military has ordered an estimated 140,000 people in Rafah to leave their homes and issued new evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza.
Israel has already significantly expanded a buffer zone around the edge of Gaza over the course of the war, and seized control of a corridor of land cutting through its centre, known as the Netzarim Corridor.
Israel launched its renewed Gaza offensive on 18 March, blaming Hamas for rejecting a new US proposal to extend the ceasefire and free the remaining hostages. Hamas, in turn, accused Israel of violating the original deal they had agreed to in January.
The humanitarian situation across Gaza has dramatically worsened in recent weeks, with Israel refusing to allow aid into the Gaza Strip since 2 March – the longest aid blockage since the war began.
Last month, the UN announced it was reducing its operations in Gaza, one day after eight Palestinian medics, six Civil Defence first responders and a UN staff member were killed by Israeli forces in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
At least 50,423 people have been killed in Gaza during the ensuing war, including 1,066 over the past two weeks, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Additional reporting by Rachel Hagan in London
Deadly strikes in Gaza as Netanyahu says Israel will seize new military corridor
BBC
International
Democrats drag Trump to court over election overhaul order

Democrats drag Trump to court over election overhaul order
The Democratic Party has sued the Trump administration over an attempt to impose sweeping changes on the election systems, including requiring citizenship proof to register to vote and limiting mail-in ballot counting.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, the Democratic Party asked a federal court to block the executive order, which prevents states from counting mail-in ballots that arrive after election day. The president’s directive also requires proof of citizenship to be presented — through documents such as a passport — when registering to vote.
“The President does not get to dictate the rules of our elections,” said the lawsuit filed in Washington by the Democratic National Committee, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and others.
“The Executive Order seeks to impose radical changes on how Americans register to vote, cast a ballot, and participate in our democracy—all of which threaten to disenfranchise lawful voters and none of which is legal,” it added.
After signing the March 25 order, called “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections”, US President Donald Trump described it as “the farthest-reaching executive action taken” to secure US elections.
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Trump, who does not acknowledge his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, has long questioned the integrity of the US electoral system. He has repeatedly and baselessly amplified conspiracy theories about massive election fraud in the United States, particularly involving absentee voting.
Legal scholars swiftly denounced Trump’s election order as an abuse of presidential power that could prevent millions of eligible voters from casting ballots.
Advocacy groups led by the Campaign Legal Center and State Democracy Defenders Fund filed a separate lawsuit on Monday against the same executive order.
“The president’s executive order is an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans,” Danielle Lang of the Campaign Legal Center said in a statement.
“It is simply not within the president’s authority to set election rules by executive decree, especially when they would restrict access to voting in this way.”
Democrats drag Trump to court over election overhaul order
AFP
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