The Republicans’ race to the White House was dissolving into chaos on Saturday under the weight of the controversies over race and immigration aroused by Donald Trump’s seemingly unstoppable campaign.
The party's front-runner cancelled a rally over security concerns in Chicago, Illinois, one of four states whose primaries on Tuesday now hold the key to the nomination. The decision was taken after fist-fights between supporters and opponents of Mr Trump.
Opponents claimed that the violence was a consequence of the deteriorating tone of the election campaign, and its highly charged rhetoric over race.
Mr Trump though immediately exploited the cancellation to argue that he was the victim of unconstitutional attacks on America’s fundamental freedoms.
A Trump protester is escorted from the stage after Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump had to cancel his rally in Chicago Photo: Barcroft Media
“It’s sad when you can’t have a rally," Mr Trump complained live on television as the fighting in Chicago unfolded. “Whatever happened to freedom of speech?”
He added that he had cancelled the rally because he “didn’t want to see anyone get hurt”.
But American social media has been awash with scenes of incipient violence at previous rallies, where protesters - many from black and other ethnic minorities - have been assaulted or frog-marched out as they tried to criticise the real estate billionaire's anti-immigrant and “strong America” message from the floor.
Mr Trump had been due to speak on Friday night at the rally at the University of Illinois. Unlike his rallies in conservative, particularly southern, states dominated by adherents of his populist, anti-liberal establishment message, the Chicago hall was packed with both supporters and opponents, amounting to about 10,000 people in all.
Many of the latter showed their hostility openly, wearing pro-minority tee-shirts such as those of the campaign against police violence, Black Lives Matter. Another held a sign saying “We are not rapists” - a reference to Mr Trump’s characterisation of Mexican immigrants as rapists last year.
Opinion polls suggest that Mrs Clinton, the presumed Democratic candidate, would beat Mr Trump easily, but not before further rifts in both the party and American society at large had been dangerously exposed.
Protestors shout down a rally scheduled for businessman and Republican presidential candidate in Chicago on Friday Photo: EPA
The grandees are hoping that Marco Rubio, the Florida senator regarded as the most successful mainstream candidate left in the Republican race, can somehow overhaul Mr Trump’s lead in the delegate count for the nomination.
Mr Rubio echoed Mr Kasich’s message that Mr Trump was the ultimate author of events in Chicago. He recalled a rally earlier this month in which the real-estate mogul encouraged his supporters to “knock the crap” out of a number of protesters.
"When you have a presidential candidate going into rallies and basically telling his followers, 'You know, in the good ol' days people who interrupted left on stretchers’, I think he should own up to that and take some responsibility," Mr Rubio said.
But political operatives loyal to Mr Rubio in Florida feared that, rather than damage Mr Trump, the clashes might only strengthen the fervour of the supporters around him.
The sentiment showed a growing if belated awareness of the resilience of Mr Trump’s campaign after eight months of electioneering which has seen reality divorce from all prediction.
Mr Cruz, as a Texas senator, is part of the political establishment so loathed by the Republicans’ Tea Party wing, but has also managed to alienate many of his “insider” colleagues with his bellicose evangelical rhetoric.
He also blamed the violence in Chicago on Mr Trump. "When you have a campaign that affirmatively encourages violence, you create an environment that only encourages this sort of nasty discourse,” he said.
Mr Trump, whose campaign was initially treated by commentators as a source of early election season amusement, has solidified into the overwhelming favourite, despite or because of his refusal to follow the rules of “politics as normal”. He has won 15 of the 24 primaries and caucuses so far.
The primaries in Florida, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri on so-called "Mega Tuesday" are key. With 459 delegates already won, Mr Trump is almost half way to reaching the threshold to becoming nominee.
Florida and Ohio are the first “winner-takes-all” states, in which 99 and 69 delegates respectively are at stake. Those 168 delegates represent the last best chance for the Republican establishment to derail Mr Trump’s runaway train.
In his home state of Florida, Mr Rubio has been fighting back, after days in which rumours began to spread that he was on the verge of pulling out. He has so far hauled back a humiliating 20 percentage-point deficit in his home state to Mr Trump to just seven points, according to a poll released last week - just about small enough for him still to be regarded as in with a chance.
Mr Trump’s pitchfork populism has tapped into an angry and disillusioned – predominantly white and less educated – vein of the American electorate, who after years of feeling unrepresented in the political process, believe they have found in him a leader.
Chicago police start to clear the crowd after a rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was cancelled Photo: AP
On top of that has been added the worldwide focus on migration, especially from the Middle East, torn apart by autocracy, war and the fight against Islamist militant groups. Mr Trump has capitalised on America’s fear of Muslim extremism by suggesting a ban on Muslim immigration, condemned from across the spectrum.
European politicians have waded in, a rare venture into American domestic politics. "Trump belongs to these people that we also have here in Europe, who have a scapegoat for all issues but never have a concrete solution,” Martin Schulz, the president of the European parliament, told French television.
The race divide was all too visible in the fighting in Chicago, where blacks and hispanics were strongly featured among the anti-Trump protesters, with the pro-Trump side being overwhelmingly white.
In the city’s well-known Latin America café – informally known as the “Cuban Starbucks” - clients speak passionately in Spanish of their support for Mr Rubio, and of their fear of Mr Trump.
“That man is the devil,” said one man, overhearing a conversation about Mr Trump.
The Rubio campaign and affiliated groups have launched a multi-million dollar negative advert campaign against Mr Trump in the state.
A separate Super PAC – an independent funding group – has been established to focus specifically on Mr Rubio’s “ground game”.
The group is “buying up” anyone they can find in the states’ counties who wields local influence, and paying them to rally support for Mr Rubio.
An activist is removed by police in Chicago where a Trump rally was cancelled Photo: Getty Images
But further north across the state, in West Palm Beach, where Mr Trump has his opulent Mar-a-Lago resort, the predominantly white voter population have largely promised to turn out for the business mogul.
In order to stand a chance of winning, one Rubio operative said, the campaign needed to secure 50 per cent of the Hispanic vote in Miami Dade County – Mr Rubio’s home area.
On Saturday there were fears for the next rallies, many in Ohio, Mr Kasich’s home state and also home to a liberal base likely to be fiercely hostile to Mr Trump’s message. His campaign denied reports that a rally due to take place on Sunday in Cincinatti had also been cancelled.
Mr Trump for his part said the clashes and prospect of further violence was only inspiring his followers.
North Korea submarine 'goes missing' during US and South Korea drills
North Korea says its military is ready to pre-emptively attack and 'liberate' the South if it sees signs that American and South Korean troops involved in annual joint military drills are attempting to invade the North
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un aboard one of his country's submarines in this 2014 file photoPhoto: EPA/Rodong Sinmun
By AFP
10:40AM GMT 12 Mar 2016
A North Korean submarine is missing, reports said on Saturday, as the reclusive state issued a fresh threat of retaliation against US and South Korean forces involved in joint military drills.
A South Korean defence ministry told AFP Seoul was investigating the reports. Pentagon officials declined to comment on the matter.
The US military had been observing the submarine off the North's eastern coast, CNN said, citing three US officials familiar with the incident.
U.S. Marines, left, and South Korean Marines, wearing blue headbands on their helmets, take positions after landing on the beach during the joint military combined amphibious exercise Photo: Kim Jun-bum/AP
American spy satellites, aircraft and ships have been watching as the North Korean navy searched for the missing sub, the report added.
The US is unsure if the missing vessel is adrift or whether it has sunk, CNN reported, but officials believe it suffered a failure during an exercise.
The US Naval Institute (USNI) News said the submarine was presumed sunk.
US Marines and sailors of the third Marine Expeditionary Brigade are participating in Exercise Ssang Yong in South Korea together with the Republic of Korea Marine Corps and Navy, and Australian Army forces Photo: EPA/JEON HEON-KYUN
The official KCNA news agency, citing a statement from military chiefs, warned of a "pre-emptive retaliatory strike at the enemy groups" involved in the joint US-South Korean drill.
Pyongyang added it planned to respond to the drills with an "operation to liberate the whole of South Korea including Seoul" with an "ultra-precision blitzkrieg".
Responding to the statement, South Korea's defence ministry urged Pyongyang to stop making threats or further provocations, according to Yonhap news agency.
North Korea's navy operates a fleet of some 70 submarines, most of them being rusting diesel submarines that are capable of little more than coastal defence and limited offensive capabilities.
But the old, low-tech submarines still pose substantial threats to South Korean vessels.
In 2010, a South Korean corvette was reportedly torpedoed by a North Korean submarine near their sea border.
In August last year, Seoul said said 70 percent of the North's total submarine fleet - or around 50 vessels - had left their bases and disappeared from South's military radar, sparking alarm.
Man attacked in violent carjacking outside his own home
Shocking CCTV captures the moment a man is beaten with an iron bar in a violent carjacking outside his home in Castle Bromwich, Birmingham
By Telegraph Video, video source SWNS
11:13AM GMT 11 Mar 2016
Shocking CCTV has emerged showing a man subjected to a violent assault before his car was stolen from his own driveway.
Vince Cappelli, 57, was kissing wife Jennifer, 47, goodbye before leaving for work just after 9am on February 25 when the attack happened.
Mr Cappelli was beaten to the ground and hit with an iron bar by two men.
One of the men strikes Mr Cappelli with an iron bar (Photo: SWNS)
One of the men then made off with Mr Cappelli's £54,000 Audi Q7, despite his wife trying to stop them by chasing them in her own car.
The father-of-two, who also has two grandchildren, added: "We need to catch these men before they strike again.
"The car was only one year old and was worth £54,000.
"Apparently this isn't the first time this has happened round here and somebody saw these guys waiting outside my house with masks on from 7.45 that morning.
"Why they didn't call the police I have no idea.
"These people are scum. At the end of the day you work hard for your stuff and you can't buy stuff you want because it's being stolen.
"I had lacerations in my back, legs and stomach and bleeding in my left eye socket.
"Nothing was broken though, thank God."
A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said: "A 57-year-old man was stood on his driveway with his wife when a white Ford Kuga pulled up.
"Two masked men armed with metal bars jumped out and demanded the victim hand over keys to an Audi Q7.
"When he refused, one of the men hit him several times with a metal bar.
"In the midst of the assault, the man successfully managed to snatch the car keys and then both suspects made a dash for the vehicles.
Anyone with information is urged to contact DC Jon Rankin at Solihull police station on 101 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
The world's largest cruise ships sets sail on first sea trial
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Harmony of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, embarked on its first sea trial off the coast of Saint-Nazaire, France, yesterday, two months ahead of its scheduled delivery.
The behemoth, built for Royal Caribbean International at a cost of around £770m, measures 1,188 feet from bow to stern, a foot more than the current record holders – Allure of the Seas and Oasis of the Seas – and tips the scales at a record-breaking 227,000 GT.
It will have 2,747 cabins on its 16 decks, with room for 5,479 guests at double occupancy, also a record.
Shipbuilders STX France began construction in September 2013
Shipbuilders STX France began construction in September 2013 and for months tourists have been allowed on board to see inside.
Three pilots, who have trained on a simulator in nearby Nantes for the past year, helped the captain with the tricky manoeuvres needed to guide the hulking ship out of the Saint-Nazaire estuary while thousands of people gathered at the dock to watch.
Some 500 people, mostly crew as well as officials from the owners and engineers and suppliers, were on board for the first trial, which will continue until Sunday. The next trials will take place before the end of April, with delivery set for May 12.
The ships features include three multi-storey waterslides (one of which, "Ultimate Abyss", is the highest at sea), robot bartenders (as can be found one of its latest ships, Quantum of the Seas), and a “handcrafted” carousel.
Guests on board can expect robot bartenders
Culinary venues will include two new “concepts” – Izumi Hibachi & Sushi and the Sabor Modern Mexican – and a branch of Starbucks. It will also have the fastest internet connection at sea, the cruise line claims.
Like the two other ships in its class, Harmony will be divided into seven “neighbourhoods”: Central Park, the Royal Promenade, Boardwalk, the Pool and Sports Zone, Vitality (spa and fitness), Entertainment Place and Youth Zone. It is expected to share other features common to its sister ships, such as a surfing simulator and a zip line.
There will be water slides and zip lines to keep passengers occupied
Harmony will complete two mini-cruises from Southampton in May before relocating to Barcelona for a summer in the Mediterranean, during which time the musical Grease will be playing in its theatre. There is still availability, with three-night cruises from £379pp and one-week sailings from £695pp. l
Royal Caribbean has several other ships in the pipeline, including Ovation of the Seas, which will also debut in May 2016. The new vessels will increase the size of the company’s fleet to nearly 30. The majority of its ships are based in Florida.
Future ships could be called Apex of the Seas, Emblem of the Seas or Joy of the Seas. The website cruisemapper.com reported that Royal Caribbean recently renewed the trademark for each of these names.
This bull has been bred for its enormous muscles. But watch when he turns to walk
This is the Belgian Blue, a cattle breed which was created in the early 20th century.
They were bred for the unique trait of muscular hypertrophy, aka double muscling. The amount of meat it produces is a huge plus for breeders, and the meat nets a high price. These cattle are mainly big in Europe and Australia, though they have been introduced into the U.S. as of late, with the USDA stating that the Belgian Blue’s meat was excellent and “on line for the new standards.”
They are certainly a sight to behold. Massively muscular and apparently no performance enhancing drug assistance either! This seems to be a freak trait that these guys have, and cattle breeders are no doubt going to continue breeding these guys, especially if they can get more bang for a higher buck. But it certainly looks questionable on what kind of quality of life these guys have being so permanently jacked up and quite possibly limited in movement as well as potentially having breathing and respiratory issues.
Make sure to Like Us on facebook to see more amazing stories like this.
In perhaps what's one of the weirder stories you're likely to read this week, Leonardo DiCaprio's brother is apparently a fugitive, currently on the run from US police. Oh, how their lives differ.
While Leo is in the midst of living his best life, having finally been awarded the 'Best Actor' Academy Award he had coveted for so long, his step-brother doesn't seem to be having quite such a top time.
If reports are to be believed, Leo's step-brother, Adam Farrar (a former actor himself) didn't turn up to court for charges of petty theft, and as a result, police have now got a warrant for his arrest.
But he's allegedly not stuck around to see-through his fate, having made a quick getaway from his sticky situation.
GETTY
According to a family source, "Adam continues to run away from responsibilities and it's going to land him in jail again.
"He's struggled before with drugs and although he makes promises to get clean, he gets caught up in something else."
And it seems Leo has given up trying to help his troubled brother, with the same family source revealing that the Oscar-winning actor "got fed up with Adam asking to borrow money and not paying it back."
Oh dear, oh dear.
Adam is related to Leonardo after the famous actor's father, George, moved in with Adam's mother, Peggy, when the boys were young.
The house where Leo and Adam grew up as children
GETTY
But Adam's life took a very different path, and his most recent arrest - following the theft of less than £700 worth of goods along with his girlfriend, Charity Moore - appears to have landed him in real trouble.
Here's hoping Adam faces up to his wrongdoings soon, because let's face it: life on the run can't be fun. We all watched that Channel 4 series, Hunted.
One of the men strikes Mr Cappelli with an iron bar (Photo: SWNS)
