US President Donald Trump has left detailed instructions for Vice President JD Vance in case of an assassination attempt or other emergency during his second term, a senior White House official has claimed.Sebastian Gorka, who serves as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Counterterrorism, made the comments during an interview on the “Pod Force One” podcast hosted by Miranda Devine.According to the New York Post report, Gorka said, “There’s a letter in the Resolute desk drawer that’s addressed to the Vice President, in case anything happens to him.”“We have protocols, trust me. I can’t discuss them, but we have protocols,” he said.Gorka talked about succession arrangements while discussing security concerns surrounding Trump’s ongoing trip to China.

This comment has come during Trump’s visit to China

Trump is currently in Beijing for high-level talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping focusing on trade relations, artificial intelligence and broader geopolitical tensions.Gorka dismissed fears that foreign powers might attempt to target Trump during the visit, despite calling the president an “existential threat to China.”“He alone stands between them and world domination, so they have every reason in the world to take him out,” Gorka said, before adding that he did not believe such an attack would occur.“I have no fear at all of him doing anything,” he said. “The president is very safe in my estimation.”Gorka also praised Trump’s global influence and said, “Everyone wants recognition from this guy. This is the most powerful man we’ve seen since guys like Eisenhower.”

Trump has survived several assassination attempts

The comments follow several assassination attempts targeting Trump in recent years.Trump survived an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, when gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks shot and killed the president in the ear before being shot by Secret Service personnel.Another suspect, Ryan Routh, was later arrested for hiding with a rifle near Trump’s Florida golf course. He was charged and later sentenced to life imprisonment, the report said.More recently, another incident occurred during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington in April, when a suspect identified as Cole Thomas Allen breached a security checkpoint and opened fire before being apprehended by security personnel.Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and JD Vance were evacuated safely.Under the US Constitution, the Vice President is first in line to assume the presidency. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 further outlines the order of succession after the Vice President.

New Delhi: The newly elected BJP government in West Bengal has issued an amended public notice under the West Bengal Animal Slaughter Control Act, 1950, to strictly enforce cattle slaughter rules, reiterating that no cattle or buffalo can be slaughtered without mandatory official certification declaring the animal fit for slaughter.The notice also clarifies that no slaughter can take place in open public places, animals are allowed to be slaughtered only at municipal slaughterhouses or specially designated facilities by the local administration.Under the rules, a fitness certificate will be issued only when the Chairman of the Municipality or the Chairman of the Panchayat Samiti, jointly with the Government Veterinary Officer, certifies in writing that the animal is either above 14 years of age and no longer fit for work or breeding, or has become permanently disabled due to old age, injury, deformity or any incurable disease.If an application for certification is rejected, the applicant may appeal to the State Government within 15 days of receiving the rejection.Violation of the West Bengal Control of Slaughter of Animals Act, 1950 is punishable with imprisonment up to six months, fine up to Rs 1,000, or both.The move cites provisions of the 1950 law as well as a 2018 Calcutta High Court order, effectively strengthening existing legal restrictions rather than introducing an entirely new law.The development comes days after the BJP’s landslide victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections, marking the end of Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule. Mamata Banerjee. The BJP won 206 seats in the 294-member assembly, much higher than its previous tally of 77, while the TMC was reduced to 80 seats.The revised notice is one of the first major administrative measures announced by the new government under Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.

Amazon has announced another round of job cuts, this time affecting its Selling Partner Services division, after cutting nearly 30,000 jobs in the last six months. The division works closely with millions of third-party merchants on onboarding, logistics and account support. According to a report by Business Insider, a company spokesperson confirmed that the layoffs involve a “small number” of employees. The company’s move will lead to about 30,000 layoffs in October and January, as well as smaller cuts at its robotics division in March.

amazon layoffs: The company said this

“We regularly review our organizations to ensure we are best prepared to achieve our goals,” the spokesperson said. “Following a recent review, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate a relatively small number of roles in our Selling Partner Services team. We do not make decisions like this lightly, and we are committed to supporting affected employees with transitional health care, severance payments and outsourced job placement services.“The latest round of job cuts at Amazon underscores how the e-commerce major is working to reshape its vast retail organization under CEO Andy Jassy, ​​who has emphasized efficiency and cost discipline over the past two years. While the first layoffs were framed as a response to pandemic-era overexpansion, the continued cuts show that Amazon is still fine-tuning the workforce across many businesses.

AI investment and workforce concerns

On one hand, while jobs are being cut, on the other hand, Amazon is also aggressively expanding its AI investments. The company is investing heavily in AI in retail, logistics and advertising. Amazon executives have also asked teams to adopt AI tools to automate routine tasks and streamline operations. Some employees are worried this could lead to further role cuts, a concern Jassie himself acknowledged last year when he said AI could help “reduce” the company’s workforce over time.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy tells investors not to be afraid of AI spending

Recently, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that investors should not worry about Amazon’s heavy spending on AI, arguing that it will drive long-term growth. Speaking recently on “Mad Money,” Andy Jassy said the company’s big investment in AI infrastructure is necessary and that’s why investors will be rewarded over time. Jesse described AI as a major turning point in technology. “We believe AI is the biggest technology change in our lifetime,” he said. “It’s going to reshape every customer experience we know and completely new experiences we never even imagined.” Andy Jassy said the scale of Amazon’s investment reflects the size of the opportunity.Amazon said earlier this year that it planned to invest $200 billion in capital spending, primarily focused on AI infrastructure such as data centers. The announcement initially caused concern in the market, with shares falling following the company’s earnings report. However, the stock later recovered and has since hit new highs. Jassi said that when the opportunity is big then such expenditure is necessary. “When you have such a significant shift … you want to bet big,” he said.

An outbreak of gastrointestinal illness in Bordeaux, France, led French authorities to order 1,700 passengers and crew to stay on board as people passed by the British cruise ship Ambition.

French authorities eased restrictions on passengers aboard the British cruise ship Ambition on Wednesday after tests confirmed a gastrointestinal virus, likely norovirus and not hantavirus, was behind the outbreak that sickened dozens of people on the ship.The ship, operated by Ambassador Cruise Line, was earlier placed under a temporary lockdown in the port city of Bordeaux after concerns emerged over a possible link to the deadly hantavirus outbreak on the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius.However, French officials said there was “no reason” to link the two incidents.

What happened on board?

About 80 people on the Ambition have developed symptoms associated with an acute digestive infection since Monday, officials said.At least 48 passengers and one crew member were showing gastrointestinal symptoms as of Wednesday morning, according to news agency AP.The ship was carrying 1,233 passengers, mostly from Britain and Ireland, along with 514 crew members.French officials said testing confirmed the outbreak was a “gastro-intestinal infection of viral origin”. No serious cases were reported and asymptomatic passengers were later allowed to disembark.Passengers who remained ill were asked to isolate in their cabin.The ship departed from the Shetland Islands on 6 May and stopped in Belfast and Liverpool before arriving in Bordeaux. It was scheduled to proceed to Spain before returning to Liverpool on 22 May.

Passenger dies during journey

Concerns initially intensified after a 92-year-old British passenger died on the plane.But health officials later said the man had suffered a heart attack and his death was not linked to a gastrointestinal outbreak.“At this stage, no link with the gastroenteritis episode has been established,” officials said, according to news agency AFP.Officials said the passenger’s body was kept on board the ship in accordance with international maritime traditions.

Passengers describe conditions on board

Officials said the restrictions were imposed “out of an abundance of caution” amid global concern over the separate hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius.Seos Guillaidhe, a passenger from Belfast, told AFP via Facebook that life on the ship was continuing relatively normally despite increased hygiene measures.“We are on the ship with extra hygiene guidelines in place. It’s not as bad as it was during Covid. People are functioning normally,” he said while “playing bingo” on the ship.He later said: “We are allowed to disembark, restrictions have been lifted.”Others described more difficult circumstances. “It’s a challenge for the two of us to live in a cabin with bugs,” one infected passenger wrote on Facebook, according to AFP.

Why were the officials alert?

The recent hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius led to additional investigation into this outbreak, prompting an international health response.The World Health Organization confirmed eight laboratory cases of Andes virus, the only hantavirus strain known to spread between humans on the Honduras. Three passengers linked to that outbreak died.Health officials stressed that there is currently no evidence linking the Ambition outbreak to hantavirus cases.Cruise ships regularly suffer gastrointestinal outbreaks, often linked to norovirus.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 23 such outbreaks on cruise ships last year.Gastroenteritis is commonly known as stomach flu. Its primary symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea. The disease spreads easily but does not usually have serious consequences, although it can sometimes lead to more serious problems such as dehydration.This is very different from hantavirus, which has a high mortality rate but spreads only in rare cases and requires close contact.

KOLKATA: Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari was sworn in as Bhawanipur MLA on Wednesday but stressed that he has “not forgotten” Nandigram, the other constituency that sent him to the assembly in the recent elections.Officer who defeated former CM Mamata Banerjee “Nandigram will elect someone else as MLA (in the by-election). I will not let the people there feel the loss in the next five years. I will fulfill all the development promises made to the people of Nandigram along with the rest of the state,” he told reporters at the assembly complex in Bhawanipur.The chief minister, who is a voter from the constituency in East Midnapore district, said, “I have not forgotten Nandigram.”Referring to Firoza Bibi’s tenure as Trinamool Congress MLA from Nandigram from 2009 to 2016, when Adhikari was a prominent leader of that party, he said, “I had provided full support to Firoza Bibi, the mother of a martyr killed in police firing in Nandigram in 2008… I will play a similar role this time too.”Nandigram voters resolved to retain the seat for Suvendu’s candidate.Nandigram: It’s been five decades since a CM has represented the Midnapore constituency, and the people of Nandigram are a little disappointed with CM Suvendu Adhikari choosing Bhawanipur over his old bastion. However, among the people of the constituency, who saw the defeat of then Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the hands of Adhikari in the 2021 elections, there is full confidence in the son of the soil. He has pledged that he will keep the seat for anyone nominated by the officer to represent Nandigram.Adhikari has been Nandigram MLA since 2016. He was the MP of Tamluk in 2009 and 2014. Nandigram is part of the Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency.Raju Mandal, a resident of Boyal in Nandigram, said, “It would have been good if he represented us. But now he is the face of our state. Whatever decision he takes, we are with him. We will keep Nandigram for Dada.”Local BJP leaders said they were sure that the people of Nandigram would bless the representative sent by the officer. Meghnath Pal, Adhikari’s closest aide in Nandigram, said, “We are already prepared for the upcoming elections. There has been change in the state under the leadership of Suvendu Adhikari. He is now the administrative head of the state, the CM. He has responsibilities. We are not at all concerned that he has chosen Bhawanipur constituency instead of Nandigram for his legislative post. Instead, we feel proud as residents of Nandigram.” Many believe that Pal may get the BJP nomination from Nandigram.The officer had promised to build the Haldia-Nandigram bridge. He also promised to build a modern residential English medium school in Gokulnagar. It was also proposed to set up an ITI at Sonachura. On May 6, during his visit after winning the elections, Adhikari had told Nandigram voters, “I will develop Nandigram hospital in such a way that no referral is needed. In six months, I will connect every house with water, which Mamata (Banerjee) did not allow.”