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Africa’s electric vehicle (EV) market is accelerating. But so far, one particular group of potential users — rural women — has largely been left behind, with investors favoring electric motorbike start-ups that serve a predominantly urban and male clientele. One company thinks it has the answer: electric tricycles.

“The boys with the two-wheelers get all the money,” said Shantha Bloemen, founder of Mobility for Africa, a Zimbabwean start-up with a 77% female customer base and one of a handful of EV companies in Africa operating solely in rural areas. Bloemen exclusively supplies tricycles, generally preferred by female riders in rural areas due to their non-straddling seat and greater stability on uneven roads. “Three-wheelers mean you’re inclusive of women,” she said.

Bloemen sees tricycles as the key to unlocking for rural women the potential of Africa’s EV market, which is expected to grow to $28.3 billion by 2030, according to data from Mordor Intelligence. She wants the continent to follow in the footsteps of Asia-Pacific, where tricycles are popular. “I want to be everywhere,” she said, “I want to be the queen of tricycles.”

For her customers, the vehicles, designed to cope with the unsurfaced roads, are transformative. “It has changed (our) way of life,” said Beauty Simango, 33, resident of the Zimbabwean village of Hauna and, since May last year, one of more than 300 people to lease or buy an electric tricycle from Mobility for Africa.

Simango no longer spends hours each day walking to fetch water or deliver crops to the market. By transporting goods and running a taxi service, her weekly income has increased from $30 to $150, although she now pays $65 towards her lease and regular battery swapping. Within 12 months, she will have paid off the price of the vehicle ($2,340). With her weekly profit, Simango pays her children’s school fees and funds farming projects. “It has helped our self-esteem as women,” she added.

But Mobility for Africa has struggled with a lack of investment. While Bloemen has raised a total of $6 million since 2019, half of which is from grants, including $380,000 from the Toyota Mobility Foundation, companies selling motorbikes in cities have been far more successful. Ampersand in Rwanda, whose clientele is, according to CEO Josh Whale, “overwhelmingly” male, raised over $21 million in a single year ending in August 2024. Spiro, the giant of the sector, has tens of millions of dollars in financing.

Most EV companies are focused on urban areas due to greater population density, said Tom Courtright, research director at the Africa E-Mobility Alliance think tank. Currently, most electric bikes and trikes must regularly swap their batteries at purpose-built facilities (Mobility for Africa currently has six such facilities) — but the cost of building and running these facilities can deter investors in areas with low populations. Currently, Courtright said, “urban areas are a better bet.”

For now, women in rural Africa must wait for the EV revolution to reach them. “Things are definitely moving in that direction,” said Ampersand’s Whale, “it’s just that the low hanging fruit is in the cities.”

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Ecuador has been requesting foreign military support for months, saying that its fight against gangs is a “transnational war” that requires the contribution of multiple countries.

Noboa said that while his administration “would love to have” US forces in Ecuador, he insisted that they would not be out patrolling the streets. Instead, they would play a supportive role in Ecuador’s security operations.

“We would like to cooperate with US forces, and I think there are many ways that we can do that, especially in monitoring illegal operations that move out of Ecuador, but the control of the operations will be in the hands of our military and our police,” he said.

The US has previously carried out operations in that area. From 1999 to 2009, it ran surveillance flights targeting drug routes in the eastern Pacific at the now-defunct Manta Air Base.

He said the US had been waiting until the outcome of Sunday’s election to resume talks. Noboa won the vote decisively against leftist lawyer Luisa González, having campaigned on a promise to restore security with a hardline approach and revitalize the economy.

Noboa, who was born and educated in the United States, has been trying to boost cooperation with Washington on various issues – from trade to migration. On the latter issue, he says he wants to improve living conditions at home to incentivize Ecuadorians to remain in the country, instead of migrating to the US.

Asked whether his relationship with US President Donald Trump is comparable to the one Trump has cultivated with El Salvador’s strongman President Nayib Bukele – who has agreed to take in deported migrants from the US accused of violent crimes – Noboa said his situation is different.

“My case is different than El Salvador’s case. And we both respect each other. We both support each other, but at the same at the same time, different realities. And we need to view things according to each country and each country,” he said, noting that he has invited both Trump and Bukele to his inauguration on May 24.

Asked whether another meeting with US officials was on the horizon, he replied, “Yes, I think sooner (rather) than later.”

The national police says the start to the year has been the most violent in the country’s history, with more than 2,500 homicides. Data from organized crime research center InSight Crime suggests Ecuador now has the highest homicide rate in Latin America, with nearly twice as many killings as Mexico. The surge has been fueled by drug trafficking routes, turf wars and alliances between local gangs and foreign cartels.

In March, Noboa also announced a “strategic alliance” to fight organized crime with Erik Prince, the founder of the controversial private defense contractor formerly known as Blackwater.

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Peru’s former First Lady Nadine Heredia requested asylum at the Brazilian Embassy in Lima on Tuesday, the same day she and her husband, former President Ollanta Humala, were sentenced to 15 years in prison on money laundering charges.

The embassy informed Peru that Heredia had arrived Tuesday morning, according to a statement from the Peruvian Foreign Ministry. It’s unclear if she entered the facility before or after the sentence was announced by the Peruvian Judiciary.

The trial relates to alleged illicit contributions to Humala’s election campaigns in 2006 and 2011.

Prosecutors had alleged that Humala’s Nationalist Party received illicit contributions from the Venezuelan government and the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht to finance his campaigns.

Humala and his wife had previously denied any wrongdoing.

Humala was in attendance as a judge read out the verdict on Tuesday, three years after the trial began. Heredia did not attend.

Moments after the ruling was announced, the judiciary ordered Humala to start serving his sentence immediately and be sent to prison.

“The panel has said that the illegality of the crimes can be verified along the way – that is inadmissible. Here, in oral trial and in sentencing, affirmations must be made, no longer presumptions,” he argued.

Prosecutors were seeking 20 years in prison for the former president and 26 years for the former first lady.

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An Israeli fighter jet dropped a bomb near an Israeli community on the Gaza border on Tuesday night as a result of what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) called a “technical malfunction.”

The bomb fell near the Nir Yithzak kibbutz adjacent to southern Gaza, which sits approximately two miles from the border.

“A short while ago, a munition fell from an IDF fighter jet that was on its way to a mission in the Gaza Strip. The munition landed in an open area near Nir Yitzhak due to a technical malfunction,” the Israeli military said in a short statement.

The IDF did not say what type of bomb it was.

There are no injuries as a result of the bomb falling, the military said, and the incident is now under review.

A spokesman for Nir Yitzhak said the bomb landed in the village’s farm area.

The kibbutz is in contact with military officials and expects a thorough investigation, the spokesman said.

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, Nir Yitzhak has a population of approximately 550 people.

It was one of the villages that came under attack in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.

According to an interview in Israel’s YNet news in February, about half of the kibbutz has returned to live in the community.

The incident is extraordinarily rare, but not entirely unprecedented.

Last May, an Israeli fighter jet accidentally dropped a bomb on the community of Yated, which neighbors Nir Yitzhak.

The munition did not explode and was collected by Israeli forces.

One month later, an Israeli tank shell fired in southern Gaza deviated from its target and impacted near the border fence, according to the IDF.

Shrapnel damaged a car in southern Israel as a result of the impact.

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told rally attendees not to let Republicans ‘trick’ them into thinking they ‘can be separated’ by race or into stoking ‘deep divisions along race, identity and culture,’ despite President Donald Trump’s recent efforts to rid identity politics from public and private spaces.

The progressive ‘Squad’ lawmaker’s comments came at a ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ rally Monday night in Idaho alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. It was the pair’s latest stop in a tour of appearances across the country. 

‘The only chance they have to get away with such an unpopular and hurtful agenda is to stoke deep divisions along race, identity and culture to keep us fighting and distracted. It’s not going to work anymore,’ AOC told rally goers. ‘Don’t let them trick us into thinking we are enemies. Don’t let them trick us into being weak and being into thinking we can be separated into rural and urban, black and white and Latino.’

The rally with AOC and Sanders was largely centered around criticizing ‘billionaire’ oligarchs like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and President Donald Trump, who, as president, has been leading an anti-DEI push that is aimed at ridding identity politics from public and private spaces.

In fact, per political analyst and regular MSNBC contributor Eddie Glaude, identity politics was ‘at the heart’ of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ election loss to Trump. 

‘The only thing that was woke or representational about [Kamala Harris’] campaign was her, her body, the fact that she was a woman of color. So I think that the concern, the so-called backlash, to tending to the diversity of the nation actually proves the point,’ Glaude said in an interview with NPR shortly after Republican’s November election victories. 

Meanwhile, since being inaugurated, Trump has implemented executive actions explicitly targeting ‘identity politics.’

‘Prior to harmful changes introduced by the Obama and Biden administrations, the United States military offered equality of opportunity to every American capable of and interested in serving their country. Yet these two administrations exploited the military in favor of identity politics—harming our national defense, undermining the non-political nature of our military, and eroding morale and recruitment,’ Trump wrote in one of his first Executive Orders after being sworn in. ‘Due to this ‘woke’ assault, the Services together logged their lowest recruiting records since 1940 with a 41,000-troop shortfall in 2023.’

Trump has also taken steps to rid DEI from universities, the federal government and even the private sector. 

According to Trump, it was Democrat President Joe Biden who implemented ‘illegal and immoral discrimination programs,’ which often tied individual success to immutable factors like race, sex and ethnicity. 

‘President Trump is restoring fairness and accountability in federal hiring, and terminating DEI across the federal government,’ reads a March fact sheet from the White House.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) vaccine advisory committee will meet on Tuesday for a two-day session to lay out new recommendations, including a proposal to scale back current COVID-19 vaccine guidelines.

Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos of the CDC is expected to present guidance on COVID-19 vaccine use for 2025–2026 and suggest the department adopt a ‘narrow’ recommendation for it, ‘and only maintain this series for certain populations within these groups who we determine should be vaccinated.’

When polled on April 3, a majority of advisors – 76% – expressed support for a risk-based, rather than universal, COVID-19 vaccination recommendation for the 2025–2026 schedule, up 10% higher from February polling.

The 70-page presentation outlines three possible policy options for COVID-19 vaccines, including a shift away from recommending annual shots for everyone over 6 months old.

Currently, annual COVID-19 shots are recommended for ages 6 months and older. One proposed policy option would continue the current universal policy, while another would recommend vaccines only for people at higher risk of severe illness, such as older adults, those with underlying health conditions, pregnant women and healthcare workers. 

A third option would blend the two, keeping universal recommendations for people 65 and older but limiting shots for younger groups to those at higher risk.

‘When initially presented with 2025–2026 COVID-19 vaccine policy options in November 2024, the Work Group appreciated pros and cons of both risk-based and universal vaccine recommendations,’ Panagiotakopoulos wrote. ‘At that time, there was not yet a consensus on what the recommendation for the 2025–2026 COVID-19 vaccine should be. The Work Group requested additional information to help inform the decision-making process on risk-factors for severe COVID-19, transmission and immunity, vaccine implementation and access, and cost-effectiveness.’

The presentation will also propose how to define ‘increased risk,’ looking at both health factors and increased exposure, like living in long-term care facilities or working in high-contact jobs.

The two-day meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will examine information for members to vote on as official recommendations, which will then be passed on to the CDC for consideration in June.

The end of the presentation will include discussion questions about the pros and cons of a universal vs. risk-based COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for 2025 to 2026. Key discussion points include whether any groups should be excluded from vaccination, what data is still needed to guide decisions, and whether a risk-based approach makes sense if most people are already considered ‘at risk.’

According to the CDC, the vaccine committee’s agenda will also include a session about the measles outbreak and an update ‘on literature related to reduced number of doses for HPV vaccine.’

Members of the committee will vote on Wednesday on recommendations for the Meningococcal Vaccines, Meningococcal Vaccines VFC, RSV Adult and the Chikungunya Vaccines.

The meeting comes as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is overseeing a major reorganization of the CDC. Plans include transferring non-infectious disease-related divisions to the Administration for a Healthy America to focus on chronic disease management. This move follows significant downsizing under President Donald Trump’s directive, which has already reduced the CDC workforce by roughly 4,000 people.

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The chairman of the largest House GOP caucus is using Tax Day to send a warning about the financial strain American families could face next year if Republicans fail in their plans for a massive conservative policy overhaul.

Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital that millions of Americans could see their taxes increase by as much as one-fifth if Congress does not pass a budget reconciliation bill extending President Donald Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

‘If Democrats get their way and let these tax cuts expire, Americans will be crushed by the largest tax hike in history – a 22% increase hitting 40 million families and 26 million small businesses,’ Pfluger said. 

‘It’s time to lock in these historic tax cuts permanently to boost job creation, fuel America’s economic engine, and protect family budgets from the Left’s tax-and-spend agenda.’

The RSC acts as the House GOP’s de facto conservative think tank and has more than 175 members. Pfluger reiterated that the group is ‘fighting to make President Trump’s historic Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, so families can keep more of their hard-earned money instead of sending it to the IRS.’

Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, chair of the RSC budget task force, said extending the TCJA and enacting Trump’s other tax policy initiatives would help the U.S. become ‘the most advantageous country in which to invest, relocate, or expand a business’ as well as helping families and businesses domestically.

‘These vital, pro-growth tax reforms will work alongside our efforts to slash federal regulations and bureaucracy to empower economic expansion and financial security for the American people and our job creators,’ she said.

Tax reform is a cornerstone of Republicans’ efforts on reconciliation, a mechanism that allows the party controlling the major levers of government to enact sweeping fiscal and budgetary changes. It does so by lowering the Senate’s threshold for advancing legislation from 60 votes to 51, provided the matters in the bill deal with taxes, spending and the national debt.

In addition to extending the TCJA tax cuts, Trump also wants Republicans to eliminate taxes on tipped and overtime wages, as well as on Social Security benefits for retirees.

House Republicans passed a framework last week to sync up with the Senate on its budget reconciliation bill, which now allows the relevant congressional committees to begin work filling out that framework with policy.

But congressional Republicans have a long road ahead to get a bill passed in both the House and Senate, where their majorities are currently three seats each. The House version calls for at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, while the Senate’s baseline is $4 billion – though Republicans there vowed to strive for more.

Extending TCJA alone would decrease federal revenues by $4.5 trillion, according to the Tax Foundation, and House conservatives are leading the charge in demanding steep government funding cuts to offset that.

The RSC steering group, the group’s leadership arm, released an official position earlier this year calling for reconciliation legislation to be deficit-neutral. 

At the same time, however, failing to extend Trump’s tax cuts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections could have politically devastating consequences, while stoking fears of an economic downturn when compounded with the added cost of Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

‘If the tax cuts expire, the median family would lose about $1,000,’ Kimberly Clausing, nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Fox News Digital earlier this month, citing a model from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. 

And if the recently unveiled tariffs continued unabated at the time, ‘that would generate an average per household consumer loss of $3,800,’ she added, pointing to the Yale Budget Lab’s estimate. Trump has since walked back much of his reciprocal tariff policy. 

The House Ways and Means Committee, the House’s tax-writing panel, released a memo late last year with a similar warning to Pfluger’s on a potential tax hike if TCJA is not extended.

‘Congress needs to act swiftly to take this threat of a tax hike off the table and give the American people assurances that the relief they have been demanding has arrived,’ the December memo said.

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A top advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was escorted out of the Pentagon on Tuesday and placed on administrative leave, according to a Defense Department official. 

Reuters first reported Caldwell had been placed on leave for an ‘unauthorized disclosure’ of information amid an investigation into Pentagon leaks. An official confirmed to Fox News Digital that Reuters’ reporting is accurate but declined to comment on an ongoing investigation. 

Caldwell previously worked at restraint-minded think tank Defense Priorities and Concerned Veterans for America, a group formerly led by Hegseth. A foreign policy realist, he has argued that the U.S. should dramatically reduce its footprint in Europe and pull out forces in Iraq and Syria. 

Last month, the Defense Department announced a probe into ‘recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information’ and said it planned to use polygraphs to determine the source of leaks. 

‘The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy,’ DOD Chief of Staff Joe Kasper wrote in a memo. ‘This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense.’

He wrote that ‘information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure’ would be referred for criminal prosecution.

Caldwell did not immediately reply to a request for comment. 

Caldwell’s closeness to the defense secretary was underscored in the unintentionally leaked Signal chat on Houthi strikes, where Hegseth named him as the Pentagon point of contact for the offensive campaign. 

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A new White House memo highlighting the top 10 Supreme Court rulings federal agencies must follow has legal experts optimistic about reining in the administrative state, while some litigators remain skeptical the directive will be enforced.

‘Any administration that really cares about making sure that they were following the law should be reviewing regulations,’ Carrie Severino, president of Judicial Crisis Network, told Fox News Digital. ‘We want a government that isn’t just taking every bit of power that it can get away with, but one that wants to make sure the constitutional limits are guarded as well, which is why this memorandum is refreshing and novel in a good way.’

The administration issued a memorandum on April 9 requiring agencies to rescind regulations not in line with 10 recent Supreme Court opinions on proper administrative agency functions. 

The memo, titled, ‘President Donald J. Trump Directs Repeal of Regulations That Are Unlawful Under 10 Recent Supreme Court Decisions,’ says it is in line with a February executive order seeking to rein in the administrative state. 

The memo lists various Supreme Court cases aligned with Trump’s deregulatory agenda as well as the administration’s efforts to get rid of DEI initiatives. Among the cases listed are Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, West Virginia vs. EPA, and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College. 

Both Loper Bright and West Virginia notably narrowed executive agencies’ authority in issuing rules and regulations affecting the American public. Likewise, Students for Fair Admissions rejected the use of affirmative action in university admissions. 

‘The President is right: agencies must repeal regulations that the Supreme Court has deemed unlawful. The President continues to deliver on his promises to roll back regulations and government overreach crippling American enterprise,’ White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

Several of the cases listed are not retroactive, meaning regulations issued prior to these decisions being handed down will not be disturbed as a result of the opinions. However, experts say agencies can re-evaluate previous rules and regulations under the new standards imposed by the Supreme Court opinions.

‘I think that that is good fodder, a good basis for a lot of agencies to go back and look, ‘Where have we created massive regulatory compliance burdens and structures that massively impact the economy or society on the basis of a very thin thread and where can we undo it?” Daniel Huff, senior legal fellow at the American Path Initiative, told Fox News Digital. ‘And we can point to these elephants in mouse holes and when it’s reviewed in the future, they will say ‘Yes, that is a good rationale’ and it will be upheld.’

Kara Rollins is a lawyer for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, the nonprofit organization that argued Relentless Inc. v. Dept. of Commerce in front of the high court – Loper’s companion case that sought to scale back the reach of the administrative state. Rollins told Fox News Digital the ‘retrospective look’ these agencies will take toward previous regulations is not ‘misplaced.’ 

However, Rollins raised concerns about the administration’s enforcement of the directive, noting that several related cases were already underway before the Supreme Court issued its rulings.

‘What happens to these cases that are currently active where DOJ or the agency is just taking the wrong position?’ Rollins said. ‘Who’s looking at that? Who’s clearing out those cases and saying, in light of this memorandum, we’ve looked at our litigation position and we can no longer sustain it? And that’s the real sort of open question, particularly for litigators right now.’

Rollins said that, as a litigator, her concern is agencies have yet to change positions when it comes to these Supreme Court opinions: ‘That sort of signals that there is a problem between what the president is saying he wants to have happen and what’s being effectuated on the ground.’

In the memo, Trump directs agencies to employ the Administrative Procedure Act’s ‘good cause’ exception ‘where appropriate,’ which allows agencies to do away with the usual notice-and-comment rulemaking process in the interest of the public. The usual process requires time for public input on the proposed rule. 

Huff said there is ‘less of a need’ to impose the regular notice-and-comment rulemaking process given that agencies will likely be reviewing previous rules rather than passing new ones. 

‘They’re not adding new burdens. This isn’t new to people,’ Huff said. ‘People already sort of know what’s there and it was there before. And we’re just turning back the clock. We’re putting it back to the way it was. We’re restoring the original status quo.’

Severino said there could be litigation over the use of the exception despite the fact that the language is ‘very broad.’ 

‘But I do think there are strong arguments for it because the laws must keep with the constitutional limits on government, and, of course, be in the public interest.’

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. called on the head of President Donald Trump’s Social Security Administration to resign on Tuesday.

Schumer declared a ‘Social Security Day of Action’ during a press conference in New York on Tuesday, accusing Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) of cutting Americans’ social security. Schumer called on acting SSA Administrator Leland Dudek to resign.

‘Dudek is bad medicine for our seniors,’ Schumer said from the podium.

‘Donald Trump and Elon Musk have a hatchet man in Leland Dudek, an acting Commissioner with an emphasis on the ‘acting,’ because his real role is to dismantle the very office he is supposed to lead, make better, and protect,’ he continued. ‘We have seen his audition and his work on the stage, and it is clear: Dudek is incapable of doing this job in the way it needs to be done. He won’t protect seniors. He will hurt them. Leland Dudek should resign.’

‘Republicans are trying to kill Social Security from the inside – it is a cut by another name – and we won’t let that happen,’ Schumer said in another statement.

The press conference comes after Schumer feuded with Musk on social media. The Tesla founder reacted to Schumer’s criticism of DOGE by suggesting the lawmaker was ‘getting a piece of the action with the government fraud.’

‘Another Elon lie. He wants you to think anyone who dares to stand up to him is committing fraud, meanwhile he’s taking tens of billions from the government,’ Schumer declared in a post last week.

Musk also fired off a response to a post in which Schumer suggested that Musk is slashing Social Security benefits.

‘Make no mistake: What Elon Musk is doing at Social Security is cutting benefits,’ Schumer said.

‘The intern running Schumer’s social media account is lying,’ Musk shot back.

During a Senate speech, Schumer claimed that ‘Elon Musk is cutting Social Security benefits.’

‘When offices close down, when websites crash, when phone lines shut off, that’s no different than cutting benefits,’ Schumer said.

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