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It is doubtful there has been a more popular winner of a Formula One race in recent years than McLaren’s Lando Norris, who was celebrated by everyone from Max Verstappen to Donald Trump after his victory at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday.
It was a long overdue triumph for Norris, who held the record for most podiums without a win (15), including an agonising eight runner-up finishes, in 110 grands prix, making the likable Briton easy to root for. Even Verstappen, Red Bull’s triple world champion who hates to lose and was denied a hat-trick of Miami wins by the McLaren driver, was among the first to congratulate Norris, who was mobbed by his team, crowd surfed along pit land and drenched in a shower of champagne. “It was a long time coming, and I’m very happy to be beaten by Lando today,” smiled a genuinely pleased Verstappen. “He definitely deserved it. “It’s great winning your first race. It’s always quite emotional. It brings you back to all the days that you worked towards your dream of being on the podium.” Former US president Donald Trump, who visited the McLaren garage before the race, was delighted to back a winner, telling Norris later he was his lucky charm. “He saw me after, and he came to congratulate me,” said Norris, who had told his grandmother before coming to Miami that he was going to win a race. “He [Trump] said he was my lucky charm because it was my win, but I don’t know if he’s going to come to more races.” Norris’ mother and father were ecstatic, though they were not in Miami to witness the moment. “The cider’s flowing in Somerset! A big celebration,” Adam Norris told Sky Sports. “I was working out, it’s probably about 900 races I’ve been to over the last 16 years. “It’s interesting knowing as a parent how many hours you put in, supporting them. “I counted out 350 weekends away and all the races on different weekends. “It’s brilliant. So happy for him.” Anthony Hamilton, another father instrumental in the success of his son — seven-times world champion Lewis — also texted Norris with congratulations. While Norris was long overdue for a maiden win his wait was not the longest. World champions Jenson Button needed 113 races before his first win and Nico Rosberg 111. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez holds the record of 190 races before his visit to the top of the podium and it took Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz 150 and Mark Webber 130. Norris was still finalising plans on how he was going to celebrate his maiden victory, but he was already thinking about a second win. “This only happens once when you take your first win. Tonight is going to be a good night,” said Norris, confirming team boss Zak Brown had delayed the flight home until Monday so there would be a proper celebration. “I would like to say it's the start, and now we’re really hungry for more. We'll keep our heads down and keep pushing.” The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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US voters warming up to Trump4/29/2024 The former president has widened his lead over incumbent Joe Biden, and is viewed more favourably than when he left office. Americans appear to be looking more positively at former US President Donald Trump as this year’s election draws closer, increasingly favouring him over incumbent Joe Biden and viewing his term in office as a success, a new CNN poll has shown. The poll released on Sunday found that US voters favour Trump by a 49%-43% margin in a hypothetical one-on-one matchup with Biden. That compares with the Republican’s 49%-45% over the incumbent Democrat in January. Trump has a wider lead when the full field of contenders is included, as will be the case when voters go to the polls in November, the survey showed. He has a 42%-33% margin over Biden, followed by 15% for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The remaining 10% support third-party candidates or are undecided. Two-thirds of US voters do not understand how anyone could support Biden, while 52% say there is no chance they would vote for the incumbent under any circumstance. By comparison, 63% of respondents cannot see how anyone could support Trump, and 47% say there is no chance they would vote for him. Only 47% of voters are satisfied with the candidates they have to choose from, including 44% of Democrats and 63% of Republicans, CNN said. Biden is viewed negatively by 58% of voters, while 53% have a negative opinion of Trump. Only 65% of respondents believe Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election, unchanged from when the same question was asked after the January 2021 US Capitol riot. Opinions of Trump’s term as president have improved since he left office. Looking back on his performance, 55% of Americans believe Trump’s presidency was a “success,” up from 45% when voters were polled after the riot. By comparison, 39% of respondents believe Biden’s term has been a success, the survey showed. Similarly, six in ten Americans disapprove of Biden’s performance as president. He gets low marks for his handling of several issues of top concern for voters, including 66% disapproval on the economy, 71% disapproval on inflation and 71% disapproval on the Israel-Hamas war. Only about four in ten Americans believe the US “has a responsibility” to be involved in Middle East conflicts.
Trump has accused Biden and the incumbent’s allies of trying to derail his candidacy through the court system. The ex-president faces 91 criminal charges in four separate indictments. A CNN poll released on Thursday showed that just 13% of Americans believe Trump is being treated the same as other criminal defendants. Only 44% are confident that the jury chosen in the first Trump case that has gone to trial – now underway in New York City – will deliver a fair verdict. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appeared to have secured Chinese support for the Ukraine peace summit when he was in Beijing this week, though it is still not clear if Xi Jinping will attend.
China is among more than 100 nations invited to Switzerland for the conference in June to discuss how to end the war, which has dragged on for more than two years. While China has yet to confirm its attendance, it has been pushing for Russia to take part, with special envoy Li Hui lobbying in European capitals last month.Observers say Li’s trip achieved little, but that China – aiming to be a peace broker – has seen an opportunity to push for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, with the Swiss summit the first step. Björn Alexander Düben, an international relations lecturer at Jilin University in northeast China, said Li was sent to Europe because Beijing saw an “opportune moment” to sway Kyiv and Brussels to make concessions amid “shaky” Western support and Ukraine’s recent setbacks on the battlefields. Russia is expanding gains in eastern Ukraine after it took control of Avdiivka, in Donetsk Oblast, in February, and is now trying to seize the strategic city of Chasiv Yar. Ukraine, meanwhile, is running out of soldiers and ammunition amid stalled support from the US. Düben said China’s efforts in Europe could also be seen as “signalling” to the Global South that it is a responsible power. “The most cynical interpretation might be, China just wants to be seen as a peacemaker … when the US is perceived by more people around the world as not so much of a responsible actor in the context of what’s happening in Gaza,” he said. China has sought to expand its influence in the Global South amid an intensifying rivalry with the United States. It also wants to be a global peacemaker, brokering a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran last year and calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The US is meanwhile under pressure over the military funding and support it provides to Israel. In Europe, special envoy Li would have stressed the urgency of negotiations on the Ukraine war given the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House, according to Victor Gao, vice-president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, a think tank in Beijing. Trump has reportedly said he will cut off US aid to Ukraine if he is re-elected in November and has threatened to end the war “in 24 hours” – unsettling many European Union countries including France and Germany, which have made more long-term security commitments to Ukraine. “Now the West or Nato, led by the United States, does not have a unified and consistent position” on support for Ukraine, said Gao, also a chair professor at Soochow University in eastern China. He said Li would have tried to leverage this during his talks in Europe. Li was also on a mission to prevent further “spillover” of the conflict – especially after French President Emmanuel Macron floated the possibility of involving Nato troops, according to Wang Yiwei, a European affairs specialist at Renmin University in Beijing. Germany and Nato rejected Macron’s idea, and US President Joe Biden said he would not involve American troops. Back in Beijing, Li said the “large gap” between the involved parties had made mediation difficult, but they had agreed that the conflict would ultimately be resolved through peace talks. Moscow has said it is open to talks with Kyiv, but Ukraine insists it will not start negotiations until Russian troops are withdrawn from its territory – a condition Moscow does not accept. Li’s trip was met with scepticism in Europe, with some officials in Brussels saying he was just repeating “Moscow’s talking points”. Li had told EU officials no discussion on Ukraine’s territorial integrity would take place until the violence stops, the Post reported earlier, citing people familiar with the talks. He said that could only happen when the EU stopped sending weapons to Ukraine. Beijing claims to be neutral in the conflict, but has drawn criticism for providing economic support to Moscow amid international sanctions. It has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nor called on Moscow to withdraw its troops. China’s push for immediate peace talks without calling for Russian troops to withdraw is also “highly unpopular” in Ukraine, according to Iliya Kusa, an international relations expert at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future in Kyiv. “I would say that there are no high expectations from China’s role and that people tend to think that China will not do anything real to pressure Russia to help Ukraine,” he said. Chinese analysts say the West has overestimated Beijing’s influence on Moscow, which will not withdraw its troops when it appears to have gained the upper hand in the war. Russia now occupies nearly one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea and parts of the four provinces in the east. Gao from the Beijing think tank said China’s peace proposal was “realistic”. He also defended China’s neutrality in the conflict, saying it has never recognised Crimea and the four eastern Ukrainian states as parts of Russia, and has stressed that the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all countries are protected by the UN Charter. China called for the charter to be upheld in a 12-point position paper on Ukraine released last February, which also says legitimate security concerns should be properly handled.“China’s logic is very pragmatic,” Gao said. “First to have a truce, then draw a line of actual control and cease hostility along that, to gain time to solve these [territorial] problems.”. Russia has justified its invasion of Ukraine as a response to the eastward expansion of Nato, which Kyiv wants to join, and President Vladimir Putin has said that “Russia will fight for its interests to the end”. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Donald Trump has dropped off the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on the back of dismal stock market performance by Trump Media, the parent company behind the US Republican presidential candidate’s online platform, Truth Social.
The share price for Trump Media, which has been steadily declining over the past week, was down 8.57% at $34.26 per share at the close of trading on Wednesday. That figure is well below the $70.90 mark that the stock opened at on March 26, its first day as a publicly traded company. The nosedive put Trump Media’s market value at around $4.7 billion. As a result, Trump’s net worth has dropped below $5.8 billion, sending him off the Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the world’s 500 richest people. However, the former president still ranks as the planet’s 652nd wealthiest person, according to Investing.com. Forbes currently pegs Trump’s total wealth at $4.8 billion, making him the world’s 697th richest person on the outlet’s list. In late March, Trump Media & Technology Group merged with the shell company Digital World Acquisition Corporation. It began trading under the ticker DJT on March 26. Trump, who holds around 60% of Trump Media with 78.75 million shares, saw the value of his stake reach as much as $6 billion shortly after the company went public, earning the businessman a spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. As of Wednesday, Trump’s stake was valued at less than $3 billion. The presidential candidate cannot offload his shares until September without approval from the company’s board. Trump Media, which owns the Truth Social app, reported revenue of just $4.1 million for 2023, and a net loss of $58 million for the year. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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