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TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s government endorsed a plan Wednesday to move the last remaining captive whales from a shuttered theme park in Ontario to aquariums in the United States and Spain — a plan that could save them from mass euthanasia if the deal goes through.

There are 30 belugas and four dolphins left in the Marineland park and zoo in Niagara Falls, Ontario, which announced in early 2023 that it was for sale and closed to the public in late summer 2024. No sale has yet been announced.

The former tourist attraction has since worked to move the park’s remaining animals and sell the sprawling property near Horseshoe Falls.

In 2024, Marineland was found guilty under Ontario’s animal cruelty laws in a case related to its care of three black bears.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has issued the first batch of permits to move the whales and is set to issue different permits closer to the move, expected to take place in the next few months. It recently issued permits for the whales and dolphins under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, otherwise known as CITES permits.

“I think this is a positive step forward,” Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson said. “There’s still more work to be done, but it’s a step forward.”

Twenty whales — 19 belugas and one killer whale — have died at Marineland since 2019, according to provincial government data obtained through freedom-of-information laws and official statements.

Thompson’s office said the ministry is coordinating with the Canada Border Services Agency, Health Canada and other ministries to “ensure all requirements are met for a safe and timely transfer.”

Marineland said it is “fully committed to the safe and timely relocation of our beluga whales, and we want to be clear: this is our top priority.”

“Relocating these animals is an extraordinarily complex undertaking,” the park said in a statement.

The Canadian government has not decided whether it will provide taxpayer dollars to help move the whales.

The belugas and dolphins are set to head to five marine parks: Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, SeaWorld locations in San Antonio and San Diego, and Oceanografic Valencia.

Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, where Marineland sent five belugas to in 2021, will also help with the move, the American consortium said.

Marineland’s founder, John Holer, died in 2018. His wife, Marie Holer, took over operations of the park and put it up for sale in 2023, before she died in 2024.

The estate has been working since to dismantle the park, which features roller-coasters and other rides.

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HAVANA (AP) — Spanish hotel chain Meliá has joined a growing list of companies with a long-standing presence in Cuba that are withdrawing or limiting their operations on the island after the U.S. announced new sanctions while upholding an oil embargo.

Meliá will cease operations at 15 of the 34 hotels it manages on the island, according to state website Cubadebate, dealing a blow to Cuba’s vital tourism sector, which has plummeted since its 2018 peak.

The report on Wednesday stated that Meliá’s decision was based on “a sense of corporate responsibility and external factors that have significantly affected the operation, legality and security of these establishments.”

The decision was announced May 26, just weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding sanctions against the island. Most of the sanctions targeted Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., a business conglomerate operated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, with the U.S. asserting it was a threat to its national security.

Meliá did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The executive order freezes the assets of foreign companies, seizes their accounts in the United States and prohibits travel by their shareholders, investors and employees— virtually eliminating their activity in the U.S. financial system.

GAESA, a Cuban conglomerate created in the 1990s, owns a wide range of businesses, from car rentals and retail stores to transportation companies. It is Meliá’s partner in hotel management through one of its subsidiaries, Gaviota.

Meliá is one of Cuba’s most important partners in its vital tourism sector. Until its partial withdrawal, it operated some 14,000 rooms.

Spanish and Canadian firms are the biggest investors in Cuba’s hotel sector, noted Lee Schlenker, a research associate at the Quincy Institute’s Global South program, a Washington think tank.

“With the lack of international tourism, the fuel shortages, and just the broader decline since COVID…I’m sure that these companies will be rethinking their operations in Cuba with major implications for the people of Cuba, not just GAESA,” he said. “There are thousands of Cubans who work in these hotels.”

Several of the hotels that Meliá abandoned in idyllic destinations like the resorts of Varadero, Cayo Santa María and Jardines del Rey “were already closed and inactive due to energy problems and the drop in demand in Cuba,” according to Cubadebate.

Cuba’s government has blamed the U.S. energy blockade for prolonged blackouts, water shortages, supply problems, deficiencies in the healthcare system and disruptions in all aspects of daily life.

Those who work in Cuba’s crumbling tourism sector lamented Meliá’s announcement.

“It’s going to affect us, our families, and everyone involved in tourism. Our pay and income depend on this,” said Erich López, a driver of a green 1950s Dodge who has been driving for two decades to support his family.

For Carlos Luis Carbonel, a 62-year-old parking attendant who works in front of the giant Meliá Cohiba hotel in Havana, the situation “is going to be a blow.”

“This is terrible for everyone: for tour guides, for parking attendants, for hotel workers, for everyone,” he said.

Other major hotel chains including Canadian-owned Royalton and Spain’s Iberostar have limited or suspended operations in Cuba in the past week.

Tourism in Cuba, which reached a peak of 4.3 million visitors in 2019, saw a significant drop in the number of tourists arriving in the first quarter of this year, 48% lower than in the same period in 2025.

Only 298,000 tourists arrived in Cuba in January, February and March, compared to 573,300 international visitors during the same period last year, according to government data.

On Wednesday, the enormous and iconic sign of the Royalton Paseo del Prado hotel at the entrance of Old Havana was removed, as confirmed by The Associated Press during a visit. Meanwhile, the 500-room Iberostar Selection — also known as Tower K — the most modern and luxurious of the hotels slated to open in 2025, standing over 150 meters (490 feet) tall, has remained closed for days.

Airlines including World2Fly, Air France and Iberia have canceled flights to and from Cuba.

Also on Wednesday, Cuba’s Central Bank announced that Visa and MasterCard operations on the island would be suspended following the termination of relationships between foreign entities and FINCIMEX S.A., a Cuba-based agency affiliated with GAESA.

Last month, Canadian miner Sherritt International Corp. signed a non-binding agreement with Gillon Capital LLC, a family office linked to a former Trump adviser, to sell its stake in a mining business in Cuba.

In late January, Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba, as his administration pressures for a change in its political system and government. The move has deepened a crisis caused by seven decades of U.S. sanctions.

While U.S. and Cuban officials held talks earlier this year, tensions have risen. In late May, former President Raúl Castro was charged in a U.S. indictment for his alleged role in the downing of two civilian aircraft operated by Miami-based exiles in 1996 in Cuban waters.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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June 3 (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon plans to discuss the upcoming initial public offering of SpaceX with thousands of the bank’s high-net-worth clients this week, according to a report by Bloomberg News on Wednesday.

Dimon is set to host a “live interactive discussion” from the bank’s headquarters alongside Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of JPMorgan Chase’s asset and wealth management division, the report said.

The discussion will also be joined by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and CFO Bret Johnsen, it added.

The event will be simulcast to approximately 90 JPMorgan locations across 26 states, with more than 2,500 of the bank’s clients expected to attend, the report said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

SpaceX on Wednesday set an IPO price of $135 per share, a move that bypasses traditional Wall Street price-discovery mechanisms and highlights CEO Elon Musk’s strategy of setting his own terms for capital raises.

The company is aiming to raise $75 billion, the most ever for an IPO, in a deal that would value it at $1.75 trillion, immediately placing it among the top 10 most valuable U.S.-listed firms.

Major international banks, including Mizuho, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Barclays, have been urged to focus on lining up wealthy individual buyers in their home countries.

Banks often host road show events for investors ahead of an IPO. The road show is where companies and their bankers typically sound out investors in order to arrive at a price range for their share sale.

Investors have scrambled to secure a position in the deal, drawn by Elon Musk’s track record and the potential for the offering to generate millions of dollars in fees for Wall Street firms.

JPMorgan is one of the vast syndicate of banks working on the SpaceX IPO.

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)

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June 3 (Reuters) – Ford Motor will recall 419,967 vehicles in the U.S. as seat belts that do not retract or extend properly can fail to restrain occupants as intended, increasing the risk of injury in a crash, the U.S. auto regulator said on Wednesday.

The recall affects certain 2018-2022 Expedition and Lincoln Navigator vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said. 

The seat belt pretensioner in the driver and front passenger seat, or one of them, may inadvertently lock the belt, preventing it from retracting or extending, the NHTSA added, increasing the risk of injury in a crash.

As part of the remedy, the regulator said that dealers will inspect the seat belt retractors and replace them if necessary at no cost.

(Reporting by Mihika Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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BRUSSELS, June 3 (Reuters) – Any new U.S. tariffs on European Union goods on top of the rates agreed last year would be unacceptable, senior EU lawmaker said on Wednesday, rejecting U.S. claims the EU was not curbing trade in forced labour goods as “utterly absurd”.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office on Tuesday proposed imposing additional duties of 10% or 12.5% on imports from 60 economies, including the European Union, saying investigations showed they failed to curb trade in goods made with forced labour.

“Even though this was to be expected, the investigation and its findings are utterly absurd,” Bernd Lange, who chairs of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, said.

“Following the setback at the Supreme Court, the US government is desperately seeking a new legal basis for its tariff policy. It appears that every conceivable pretext is now being used to justify existing tariffs or prepare new ones,” he said.

“The impression is increasingly emerging that a tariff measure is sought first, and only then is a suitable legal justification found. The approach here is: if it doesn’t fit, make it fit,” he said.

Lange said that at the end of 2024, the European Union adopted the world’s strictest legislation against products made using forced labour and that companies were already preparing for the new requirements to make supply chains more transparent, identify risks and demonstrate that countermeasures are in place.

The European Commission was working on the final implementation guidelines for authorities and businesses, he said.

“The claim that the EU is not taking sufficient action against forced labour does not stand up to serious scrutiny. Anyone who examines the facts knows that the European Union is setting global standards in this area,” he said.

“The key question will therefore be whether the proposed additional tariff of ten per cent will exceed the Turnberry agreements,” he said referring to an agreement from July 2025 in which the EU agreed to remove tariffs on US goods and Washington agreed to a maximum tariff on most EU goods of 15%.

“For us, it is clear: anything above that is unacceptable,” Lange said.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski)

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Ukrainian long-range drones struck an oil terminal in St. Petersburg and set it ablaze, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday, as the Russian city hosted an annual international economic forum promoted by President Vladimir Putin.

The drones flew more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to hit the terminal, Zelenskyy said on social media. Clouds of black smoke rose over the city’s port after the attack.

Russian authorities said only that the Ukrainian drone strike targeted the city’s infrastructure, without providing further details. The airport of St. Petersburg briefly suspended flights overnight because of the attack. Authorities also cut off mobile internet services.

Putin is set to speak Friday at the economic forum in St. Petersburg that the Kremlin views as a prestige event, although major Western investors and officials have stayed away since Russia invaded Ukraine more than four years ago. Saudi Arabia is a special guest country this year and is due to send a large business delegation.

The strikes are an embarrassment for Putin, weeks after he had to prune back an annual Victory Day parade in Moscow due to fears of Ukrainian drone attacks.

The strikes came a day after Russian forces launched a massive drone and missile attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, killing at least 22 civilians and wounding 138, as Moscow followed through with its threat of escalating its regular barrages.

With the front line changing little as swarms of drones hinder battlefield movement, both sides have sought an edge by increasingly launching long-range strikes. The war that followed Russia’s invasion of its neighbor has now stretched into its fifth year, with no end in sight.

Ukraine’s attacks are aimed at diminishing Russia’s oil production, which is a key source of funding for Moscow, and disrupting weapon production.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted oil facilities at the port of St. Petersburg and nearby ports.

Ukrainian drone attacks overnight also hit the Kronstadt naval base, an old base for Russia’s Baltic Fleet, and a manufacturing plant involved in weapon production in Russia’s Tambov region, 600 kilometers (370 miles) from Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 354 Ukrainian drones overnight.

In the Russia-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, a Ukrainian strike hit a bus that was traveling from Moscow to Crimea, killing seven and injuring 11, according to the Kremlin-appointed head of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin.

In the Smolensk region, two firefighters were killed by a Ukrainian drone attack, according to the regional governor, Vasily Anokhin. He said two other firefighters and a local resident were injured.

Meanwhile, Russia fired 198 long-range drones at Ukraine last night, according to Ukraine’s air force, with air defenses neutralizing 189.

Authorities in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region said that over the previous 24 hours one civilian was killed and 15 more were injured, including three children, by Russian strikes.

In the southern Kherson, Russian overnight shelling and drone strikes killed an 86-year-old woman and wounded five other people, according to regional authorities.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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By Dimitri Rhodes

TOKYO/GDANSK, June 3 (Reuters) – Nippon Paint and Sherwin-Williams said on Wednesday they had decided to terminate their efforts to jointly acquire rival paint maker AkzoNobel.

Shares of the Dulux paint maker fell more than 20% in early trade after being halted initially, and were set for their worst-ever trading day if the losses hold.

“A lot of people may have thought that another offer from Sherwin-Williams and Nippon Paint would be forthcoming,” Berenberg analyst Sebastian Bray said.

The companies’ decision followed AkzoNobel’s rejection of their €12.5 billion ($14.5 billion) cash takeover offer last week, which had sent the Dutch company’s shares 20% higher.

AkzoNobel said in a press release on Wednesday that both its boards unanimously continued to recommend its planned merger with U.S. coatings maker Axalta.

“Ultimately the Axalta merger now appears the most likely outcome,” Bray said.

($1 = €0.8610)

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya in Tokyo and Dimitri Rhodes in Gdansk; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian investigators searched the National Nutrition Agency’s offices Wednesday a day after the president fired the head of the agency responsible for his troubled free meals program.

It wasn’t clear whether the search by agents of the Attorney General’s Office was tied to a criminal investigation.

The program delivered on a campaign promise of President Prabowo Subianto and aimed to fight malnutrition by feeding nearly 90 million children and pregnant women. But it has come under steep criticism due to high costs and cases of food poisoning among schoolchildren who ate the meals.

Prabowo fired the agency’s chief Dadan Hindayana on Tuesday evening and replaced him with Nanik S. Deyang, who was the deputy of the chief.

“Some issues relate to discipline in following standard operating procedures, while others relate to discipline in implementing governance, including discipline in maintaining food quality as stipulated by the National Nutrition Agency,” Minister of the State Secretariat Prasetyo Hadi said.

He emphasized the government was committed to the free meals program despite the leadership transition. “Services to the public must not be disrupted in any way,” Hadi told reporters Tuesday after the firing.

The investigators from the Attorney General’s Office searched the agency’s office building through the day Wednesday, locking out its employees.

“We are still in the process of searching at the National Nutrition Agency,” said Mochamad Jeffry, the office’s acting spokesperson. He did not disclose what case was being investigated in connection with the search.

The meals program is expected to cost $28 billion through 2029. Prabowo aimed to fight malnutrition and help farmers by purchasing their harvests, but critics had questioned whether the program was affordable and logistically possible in a vast archipelago of more than 282 million people.

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June 3 (Reuters) – E-commerce giant Amazon.com said on Wednesday it has launched its paid Prime service in South Africa, offering faster deliveries and media content for 59 South African rand ($3.61) a month or 399 rand a year.

Here are some details:

• Amazon Prime is already available in 26 other countries, with Prime Day, one of Amazon’s biggest sales events, scheduled for June 23-29 in South Africa.

• South Africa has seen a boom in online retail over the past few years, with local players such as Shoprite launching on-demand delivery services.

• Amazon was launched in South Africa only two years ago.

• The company said South African users will be able to avail a 30-day free trial of Prime.

($1 = 16.3249 rand)

(Reporting by Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)

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NEW YORK (AP) — And now, Take Two: The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner has been rescheduled — with President Donald Trump apparently in attendance.

The dinner, cut short in April by a gunman who prosecutors say was trying to assassinate Trump, will now take place on July 24. It will be a more intimate gathering with “significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures,” said Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

Jiang did not say where the dinner would be held. But Trump, on his Truth Social platform, revealed it would be at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue — former site of the Trump International Hotel.

The president said he’d been invited to return and speak, and had accepted the invitation. He called the rescheduling “a sign of Strength and Fortitude.”

“This announcement is a very good thing in that we cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life, or even its scheduling,” Trump wrote.

He added he hadn’t decided on whether to give his originally intended speech, in which he was widely expected to attack the press. “I don’t know whether or not I will give the same rather nasty statements, at least as it concerns certain people, but we will soon find out,” he wrote. “In any event, it will be a ‘HOT’ ticket!”

Jiang, in her announcement, noted that “rescheduling was not automatic,” and had involved much consideration and input from board members.

She emphasized the dinner’s stated purpose: “a celebration of a free press and the vital role of journalism in our democracy for over a century.”

“We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for,” Jiang said.

It was not clear how large the rescheduled dinner would be, or whether it would be a full-scale dinner at all. Jiang made reference to a “more intimate gathering” than the original event, attended by close to 3,000 people at the Washington Hilton, but did not give details, saying they’d be shared directly with attendees.

Her remarks were in line with recent speculation that a rescheduled event would have to be pared down, a nod to financial as well as security concerns.

Jiang also made note of the Secret Service officer who was shot in April and has been recovering. “Our thoughts remain with the officer who was injured and with everyone who experienced that evening,” she said. “We are indebted to the US Secret Service, law enforcement and the hotel staff whose swift response protected our guests and our staff.”

Though Jiang always insisted the dinner should be rescheduled, not everyone felt the same way.

Some critics said they felt it would be a good idea to scuttle the whole event permanently — not only for security reasons, but for what they saw as an unseemly enterprise of journalists hobnobbing in formal wear with the subjects of their reporting.

“It undermines the public faith in how the press does its work, and it makes it look like we are pals with the people we cover,” Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, said in May.

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