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Khaleej Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
Watch: Donald Trump wishes 104-year-old WW2 veteran on birthday after viral video
US President Donald Trump surprised a 104-year-old war veteran on his birthday by fulfilling his dream. In March this year, Ohio resident Denver Moore went viral on Tiktok for inviting Trump to his birthday which falls in May. The video amassed over 890,000 views. The World War 2 veteran, a Trump supporter, said in his video, "I got to vote for you again and I hope I can vote for you some more.' To Moore's surprise, on Thursday, May 15, he received a video from the President through his congressman, Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio. Seated in the iconic Oval Office, Trump wished Moore on his birthday. "Hi Denver. I want to wish you a very happy one hundred and fourth birthday from all your all-time favourite President, that's me, Donald Trump." Trump then went on to apologise for not being able to make it to his birthday party which took place in Denver's hometown of Canal Fulton. His reason? "I'm working on Russia, Ukraine, China and all sorts of other places that I know you want to us to do well," explained Trump. He then went on to thanks Denver for his "incredible service" to the nation and for his "support for making America great again". According to a local media outlet, Moore reacted to the video by saying it "couldn't happened to a nicer guy". As per the outlet, since the video went viral, fans from across the country sent Denver birthday wishes, with some even coming from Africa. Moore, who has supported the President, said while speaking to another US-based outlet, "He may make a mistake or two, but he's doing almost everything right." According to media reports, the veteran soldier worked in the US Army Air Corps during WW2 before working for the US Postal Service. He had three children with his late wife Thelma Lee, who he was married to for 75 years before she died in 2022 at the age of 95. US President Trump was recently on a trip to the Middle East, his first international trip during the second term of his presidency. The leader visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, where each country signed their respective deals with the American nation.
Boston Globe
08-05-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
A V-E Day love story
World War II and the global fight against fascism offered them the opportunity — for education, adventure, danger, and the chance to serve their country. Through the wartime ordeal, they discovered who they were and what America stood for at a moment of global peril. They also discovered each other. Mary Anderson left West Virginia to train as a psychiatric nurse at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and, when the war started, enlisted in the Army Nursing Corps. By 1944, she was a lieutenant stationed in England to prepare for the mental trauma that soldiers fighting in D-Day and the allied invasion of Europe were sure to face. George Dorval as a flight school student in 1943; Mary Anderson in England in 1944. Christopher Dorval Advertisement In October of that same year, Lieutenant George Dorval, a US Army Air Corps P-47 fighter pilot, was shot down in Italy while flying his 45th combat mission. He had already participated in a number of battles on the island of Elba and the Italian mainland, and the invasion of Southern France. George was flying low to the ground to attack the Nazi-controlled airport at Bergamo, in Northern Italy, when German gunners opened fire with an 88-caliber cannon and hit his P-47 Thunderbolt. With his cockpit on fire and his hands severely burned, he struggled to release his safety straps. But he managed to eject before his plane crashed. His fellow pilots, engaged in fierce air combat, didn't see him bail out. He was presumed dead. Advertisement But he survived, landing in an empty field. In shock and deep pain, his clothes charred, his hands and legs badly burned, George was quickly captured by Italian fascists and turned over to the Germans. He was hospitalized, then shipped by cattle car first to a POW camp in Austria, and finally to Stalag Luft 1 in Barth, Germany. The winter of 1945 was harsh. German civilians and POWs alike were starving. Not only did no Red Cross parcels reach him, but none of George's letters from the camp ever made it to Waltham. A Boston Globe article from February 1945, four months after he was shot down, recounted how his parents learned that he was still alive: from a chance encounter with the family of a Waltham friend of George's who had seen him in the Austria POW camp. On the last day of April, as the Russian troops advanced west, the Germans abandoned the POW camp and left the prisoners in charge. A few days later George was liberated by the Russians. On May 12, 1945, the allies airlifted 9,000 POWS, almost all of them from the Air Corps, to Camp Lucky Strike in France, one of the massive staging areas for returning POWs and soldiers from the entire European theater. Desperate for normality, George maneuvered to get two-week passes to London in late May 1945 for himself and a buddy. On his first night in town, George — 45 pounds lighter than when he was shot down — went straight to the officer's club at the Piccadilly Hotel on Piccadilly Circus. Within minutes he spotted Mary, who was on weekend leave, and asked her to dance. She accepted and, as they say, the rest is history. Advertisement George and Mary were my parents. They are gone now, resting together in Arlington National Cemetery. I'm still learning and applying what they taught me. They saw the world with all its good and bad and taught me and my siblings to engage with it and never retreat. They taught us to make a difference. I know that they did. I am confident of few things, but of this I am sure: They would be ashamed at the way our government today is dismantling the world they fought for 80 years ago. For both George and Mary, World War II was a life-changing experience. They saw death, destruction, suffering, and cruelty alongside kindness, friendship, and inspiration. They volunteered and proudly served their country and their country returned the favor: George went to Boston University on the GI Bill; Mary was one of the first women in Massachusetts to secure a GI loan to buy a home. They experienced more than the hollers of West Virginia or the depression of Waltham could have ever provided. They were young and unworldly when they left. They returned from war older and wiser — just 22, with long lives still ahead.
BBC News
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Masters of the Air actors step back in time to visit WW2 airbase
More than 40 years ago, a village decided to make sure the lives of young Americans who arrived during the war would never be forgotten. One year ago, a production company continued that legacy by bringing the stories of these men to the big screen. Stepping out of the television set, how did the actors who portrayed them feel telling their stories? Masters of the Air follows the story of the 100th Bomb Group, which became known as the "Bloody Hundredth" following raids across Europe between 1943 and 1945. During that time, 732 airmen and 177 planes were group flew out of Thorpe Abbotts airfield near Diss, Norfolk, which has been captured in time and turned into a museum. Jonas Moore: 'They need to be remembered' Jonas Moore said he wished he had been able to visit Thorpe Abbotts and "soak it in" before taking on the role of Capt Frank Murphy enlisted in the US Army Air Corps after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was assigned as a B-17 navigator with the 100th Bomb get into character for the television drama, Mr Moore read Capt Murphy's autobiography four times to learn as much about the airman as he could."I feel like I know it better than any book I have ever read in my life," he said."Frank Murphy, in an interview, said the men in World War Two fought and died for our privilege to forget the past. It's tyranny and tyrannical rulers that force you to remember things. They died so we can move on with our lives and we can forget."That's why they need to be remembered... it gives us the privilege of moving on." Jordan Coulson: 'It brings you back' Although the series was not shot in Norfolk, Jordan Coulson, who plays Lt Howard Hamilton, said visiting the museum felt familiar."It brings you back to four years ago when we filmed Masters of the Air. It brings back all those memories and all those times we had," he said."To be able to go back in time to a place that was so real for them where they built friendships and bonds, it's great."Lt Hamilton was the bombardier in the B-17, also named "Mademoiselle Zig Zag", which was said to have been the lead plane in the formation of the 100th Bomb Group."To see what these men went through and going in those planes and it potentially being their last trip every single time... What sort of mental state do you have to be in for that? It's very important." Adam Long: 'It feels like we've been here before' It felt "oddly familiar" for actor Adam Long to visit Thorpe Abbotts, where the 100th Bomb Group took off for their last mission on 20 April 1945."It's like we've been here before. That is testament to the set designers and how their attention to detail was just incredible," he build his character, based on Capt Benny DeMarco, he had only photographs to go off. But Capt DeMarco is referenced in Donald L Miller's Masters of the Air book as being the "most competent pilot" one of the group's members had ever worked was the little details which Mr Long said helped build the character."Stories and history... can feel a bit abstract but I think it's important to tell their personal stories and make sure that they are remembered as people and the sacrifices they made," he said. Reg Wilson: 'We have been overrun' Chair of trustees Reg Wilson said the museum had had a "phenomenal" year since the series aired in 2024."In East Anglia there was something like 40 American airbases, and [from] those air bases there were 26,000 young men that were killed," he said."We are very aware of the history of the place – the Americans being here but also what the guys... did when they took what was essentially an abandoned building and converted it into the museum we have today." He said the show had enabled the history of the base to reach a younger audience, and the museum had seen a doubling in the number of visitors."Sometimes we were almost overrun," he said. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
From Ray-Bans to wigs, US buyers may see unexpected price hikes
(Bloomberg) — When US President Donald Trump slapped bigger-than-expected tariffs on imports from around the world, Americans lamented pending prices hikes for Champagne, Parmesan and Ferraris. But the impact on pockets goes far beyond things like luxury cars and specialist foods. As the new levies take effect – starting Saturday for the 10% base rate – manufacturers and suppliers of everything from daily supermarket goods to shoes, from beauty products to sex toys, have to figure out how much of this extra cost to pass on to customers. During Trump's first term when he imposed much more limited tariffs on China, many companies reported they lacked pricing power to pass on costs to consumers. Here are some of the under-the-radar imports that could now get more expensive. Joe Biden's Ray-Ban Aviators were an integral part of his look. The iconic sunglasses, first commissioned by the US Army Air Corps in the 1930s and later worn by Tom Cruise in the Top Gun movies, helped the former president craft his All-American image. Yet most aviators are actually produced in a tiny mountain village on the Italian Dolomites before they're shipped all across the world, including to America. That's because Ray-Ban, along with other popular brands including Oakley, Oliver Peoples and Vogue Eyewear, is owned by the French-Italian eye-wear giant EssilorLuxottica SA, the biggest company in the sector with a market cap exceeding €100 billion ($110 billion). In 2024, its sales to North America amounted to almost €12 billion. With the European Union now facing a 20% rate — once the reciprocal tariffs kick in on April 9 — accessorizing like Cruise's Maverick character could get a lot more expensive. Nestle SA's (NSRGY) Nespresso coffee capsules may be sold worldwide — about 14 billion of them a year, according to estimates — but every one is still made in just three factories in Switzerland. Imports from Switzerland to the US are facing a tariff of 31% (much higher than the neighboring EU). Nespresso global sales amounted to 6.4 billion Swiss francs ($7.5 billion) in 2024, Nestle figures show. China is the world's largest producer and exporter of wigs, with its exports reaching approximately $3 billion in 2022. It accounts for around 80% of the global hair accessories market, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency, and the US has long been the primary destination. It also accounts for approximately 70% of worldwide production of false eyelashes as well as 70% of sex toys. The US market for sex toys amounted to $10.6 billion in 2024, according to Grand View Research, with China and India among the top sources. They have been slapped with tariffs of 34% and 26%, respectively. Americans eyeing cosmetic beauty treatments may have to eventually fork out more for their anti-wrinkle injections. While specific levies on pharmaceuticals haven't been announced yet, there's concern that the escape may prove temporary. AbbVie Inc., the company behind Botox, makes almost of all of the product in the town of Westport on Ireland's west coast. Production takes place in a highly-secure plant given Botox is made from one of the world's most toxic substances, botulinum toxin. Any price increases from tariffs will hit US consumers as Botox for aesthetic purposes isn't covered by insurance. AbbVie reported almost $1.7 billion of Botox cosmetic sales in 2024 (plus another $2.7 billion for therapeutic purposes). For the health conscious, Oura smart rings are likely to ding higher at the cash register. The tiny devices can track sleep, activity and heart rate just as a smartwatch would, but are popular with consumers who prefer not to wear a bulky gadget on their wrist. The brand is owned by Finnish technology company Oura Health Oy. It unveiled its latest device about six months ago, the Oura Ring 4, which has a starting price of $349. A major supplier of high-tech hospital beds is Linet Group in the Czech Republic. (One of its branded beds even featured in Netflix's House of Cards after an assassination attempt on lead character Frank Underwood.) The company said that for future contracts with US clients, it will have to raise prices and focus more on higher-end products with higher price tags and profit margins. That could have implications for health providers in a country where there is already huge controversy over healthcare costs. According to Chief Executive Officer Tomas Kolar, exports to the US account for about 20% of its €370 million in annual sales. Some companies have already given hints as to how they may respond to tariffs, and how all the price pain may not necessarily fall on American shoppers. On a recent earnings call, executives at Birkenstock (BIRK) said the German company 'historically had the ability to take pricing action globally' to offset pressures like tariffs. That suggests it may try to cover US levies by spreading out any price increases. Like other firms, it also said that it looks at costs and efficiencies as a way to protect margins. Most manufacturing is done at sites in Germany, but the Americas is the sandal maker's biggest market, with almost €950 million in annual revenue. —With assistance from Viktoria Dendrinou, Kati Pohjanpalo, Joao Lima, Tim Loh, Lisa Pham, Tommaso Ebhardt, Levin Stamm, Haze Fan, Krystof Chamonikolas, Henrique Almeida and Brendan Murray. ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
