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Jordan: Queen Rania Presents Merkel with Golden Victoria Honorary Award

Queen Rania of Jordan takes part in a plenary session on empowering girls and women during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York September 21, 2010. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Queen Rania of Jordan takes part in a plenary session on empowering girls and women during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York September 21, 2010. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
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Jordan: Queen Rania Presents Merkel with Golden Victoria Honorary Award

Queen Rania of Jordan takes part in a plenary session on empowering girls and women during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York September 21, 2010. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Queen Rania of Jordan takes part in a plenary session on empowering girls and women during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York September 21, 2010. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Queen Rania of Jordan presented on Monday German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a Golden Victoria Honorary Award for Political Leadership, introduced by the Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ) in Berlin.

VDZ, which represents approximately 500 German publishing houses comprising more than 6,000 brands, chose to award Merkel with this award in recognition of her successful management of the financial crisis, leadership, and promotion of Germany's economic strength and democracy.

During her speech at the event organized by the association, Queen Rania hailed the chancellor's moral courage and steadfast commitment to delivering stability, prosperity, liberty and peace, along with her leadership style, highlighting her many contributions to addressing global challenges, including the refugee crisis, financial turmoil, terrorist attacks and violent conflicts.

The chancellor's 'calm resilience and resolve have enabled Germany not just to chart a safe course but to help guide the global community through the storm, the Queen said.

Her Majesty also hailed the chancellor for rallying Germany to welcome more than a million refugees in 2015 and said: "We too, in Jordan, have opened our neighborhoods, our hearts, and our means to those in needs. Today, one out of every seven people in my country is a refugee. We could not shoulder this duty without Germany's solidarity and support, and our country is proud of this friendship."

Her Majesty called on an audience of 800 journalists, politicians, diplomats and public figures in attendance to imagine how different the global landscape might look if the chancellor's moral compass was the norm. During her speech, Queen Rania thanked the association's journalists and members of the press for giving voice to the voiceless, highlighting the importance of their role in the modern age.

Bigotry and hatred are not new ideas, but they have gained new momentum and reach in our digital age, where outrage sells and is amplified and spread with every click, she added.

Since 2006, VDZ has annually presented Golden Victoria awards in three categories: Press Freedom, Entrepreneurship and Lifetime Achievement/Leadership. Other honorees this year included Nestle CEO, Béatrice Guillaume-Grabisch, as well as the late Daphne Caruana Galizia and Ján Kuciak, two European journalists who recently lost their lives.

Her Majesty and Chancellor Merkel also met ahead of the award ceremony.

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Varieties

Trump's Triumphal Arch Gets Official Name

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shows off an artist's rendering of President Donald Trump's planned Triumphal Arch. Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shows off an artist's rendering of President Donald Trump's planned Triumphal Arch. Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP
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Trump's Triumphal Arch Gets Official Name

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shows off an artist's rendering of President Donald Trump's planned Triumphal Arch. Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shows off an artist's rendering of President Donald Trump's planned Triumphal Arch. Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP

It's been dubbed the "Arc de Trump." But now President Donald Trump's latest building project has an official name -- the "United States Triumphal Arch."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed the formal title on Wednesday, saying the giant structure was being built to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence, AFP reported.

"In honor of this historic occasion, President Trump and the Department of Interior will submit plans for the United States Triumphal Arch," Leavitt told reporters.

Showing off a picture that she initially held upside down, Leavitt said the "monumental" arch would stand 250 feet (76.2 meters) tall "in honor of 250 years."

Its colossal height, including a huge golden Lady Liberty statue on top, means it will dwarf perhaps its most famous predecessor, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which stands at 164 feet.

In fact it is set to be the largest structure of its kind in the world, pipping Mexico City's Monument to the Revolution and knocking Pyongyang's Arch of Triumph to third place.

Plans for the arch were first revealed in October when AFP journalists spotted a model on Trump's desk in the Oval Office, after which it was quickly dubbed the "Arc de Trump" by US media.

Trump revealed the first full renderings for the structure last Friday.

The arch is one of several architectural projects -- including the construction of a gigantic White House ballroom and renovations to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts -- that Trump has undertaken to leave a mark on Washington in his second term.

Critics say the gold-accented arch, which will tower over the 99-foot-tall Lincoln Memorial, is a monument to the 79-year-old Trump's vanity.

The arch will partly be funded by US taxpayers, getting $2 million in special funds from the US National Endowment for the Humanities, with up to $13 million in funds to match any donations, ABC News reported.

But Leavitt said it was aimed at celebrating US national pride.

"Long after everyone in this room is gone, our children and grandchildren will remain inspired by this national monument," she told reporters.

Varieties

Much-hyped Alzheimer's Drugs Do Not Help Patients, Review Finds

New research has cast doubt on Alzheimer's drugs once hailed as a gamechanger. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP/File
New research has cast doubt on Alzheimer's drugs once hailed as a gamechanger. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP/File
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Much-hyped Alzheimer's Drugs Do Not Help Patients, Review Finds

New research has cast doubt on Alzheimer's drugs once hailed as a gamechanger. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP/File
New research has cast doubt on Alzheimer's drugs once hailed as a gamechanger. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP/File

Drugs once hailed as a breakthrough in the fight against Alzheimer's disease do not meaningfully help patients, a major review found Thursday, however some experts criticized the research.

The review by the Cochrane organization -- which is considered the gold standard for analyzing existing evidence -- looked at drugs that target a plaque called amyloids which builds up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

Researchers have long sought a way to eliminate this plaque, believing it could be the cause of the most common form of dementia which affects millions of elderly people every year, said AFP.

After decades of costly yet unsuccessful research, two anti-amyloid drugs called lecanemab and donanemab were initially hailed as gamechangers that finally offered a way to slow the progress of the debilitating disease.

Both drugs were approved by the United States and European Union over the last few years.

However concerns about their effectiveness, cost and side effects including an increased risk of brain swelling and bleeding have since prompted caution. State-run health services in the UK and France have refused to cover the drugs.

The new Cochrane review combined data from 17 clinical trials that included a total of more than 20,000 people with mild cognitive impairment or early dementia.

The trials, which took place over roughly 18 months, studied seven different anti-amyloid drugs.

Only one of the trials examined donanemab -- sold under the name Kisunla by US pharma giant Eli Lilly -- while one studied lecanemab, sold as Leqembi by Biogen and Eisai.

While early trials suggested these drugs made a statistically significant difference, this did not translate into "something clinically meaningful for patients," lead study author Francesco Nonino of Italy's IRCCS institute told a press conference.

Brain scans showed that the drugs successfully removed amyloids, the researchers emphasized.

This means "the idea that removing amyloids will benefit patients was refuted by our results," said study co-author Edo Richard of Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

- 'Not delivering on promise' -

Richard, who has previously expressed skepticism about anti-amyloid drugs, said he hopes efforts targeting other mechanisms that potentially cause Alzheimer's lead to more effective drugs in the future.

British biologist John Hardy, who first developed the amyloid hypothesis in the 1990s, criticized the review for lumping together data about lecanemab and donanemab along with drugs that are known to be ineffective, therefore dragging down the overall average.

"This is a silly paper which should not have been published," Hardy told AFP, disclosing that he has consulted for Eli Lilly, Biogen and Eisai.

In response to such questions, Richard said that while the drugs included in the study may work in different ways, they all have the same target: amyloid beta proteins.

Australian neuroscientist Bryce Vissel, who was not involved in the research, said it "does not prove amyloid has no role in Alzheimer's, and it does not rule out future amyloid-directed therapies that may yet help patients".

"But it does show that the current generation of anti-amyloid drugs is not delivering the promise that has surrounded it."

Varieties

Indonesia Police Arrest Six for Komodo Dragon Smuggling

A komodo dragon is displayed by nature and conservation agency officials and police officers after being seized from suspects attempting to smuggle it into Thailand, during a press conference at the regional police headquarters in Surabaya on April 15, 2026. (Photo by JUNI KRISWANTO / AFP)
A komodo dragon is displayed by nature and conservation agency officials and police officers after being seized from suspects attempting to smuggle it into Thailand, during a press conference at the regional police headquarters in Surabaya on April 15, 2026. (Photo by JUNI KRISWANTO / AFP)
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Indonesia Police Arrest Six for Komodo Dragon Smuggling

A komodo dragon is displayed by nature and conservation agency officials and police officers after being seized from suspects attempting to smuggle it into Thailand, during a press conference at the regional police headquarters in Surabaya on April 15, 2026. (Photo by JUNI KRISWANTO / AFP)
A komodo dragon is displayed by nature and conservation agency officials and police officers after being seized from suspects attempting to smuggle it into Thailand, during a press conference at the regional police headquarters in Surabaya on April 15, 2026. (Photo by JUNI KRISWANTO / AFP)

Indonesian authorities said Wednesday they have arrested six people allegedly involved in smuggling endangered Komodo dragons native to the archipelago and destined for Thailand.

Two suspects were arrested in February in the port city of Surabaya on the east coast of Java island as they got off a ship with three live Komodo dragons -- the world's largest living lizard.

Further investigation led to four more arrests in the weeks that followed, AFP reported.

Police said the animals had been obtained from "suppliers or hunters" in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province, where they are native to a handful of small islands.

The suspects are accused of buying the dragons for 5.5 million rupiah (about $320) apiece and selling them for six times the price, apparently to be shipped to clients in Thailand.

According to East Java police, the suspects have smuggled and traded at least 20 Komodo dragons since January last year, and pocketed some $33,000.

They face up to five years in prison and a fine.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the Komodo dragon as endangered, with a global population of about 3,400, including juveniles.

The fearsome reptiles, which can grow to three meters (10 feet) in length and weigh up to 90 kilograms (200 pounds), are threatened by human activity and by climate change destroying their habitat.

Poachers collect them to be sold as pets or display animals.

Komodo dragons in the wild are found only in Indonesia's World Heritage-listed Komodo National Park and on neighboring Flores island.

Police said Wednesday they had also arrested two suspects for smuggling 140 kilograms of pangolin scales from the northwestern province of Riau to Surabaya.

Pangolins are among the world's most endangered species, and their scales are prized in countries like China and Vietnam, where they are used in traditional remedies even though they provide no scientifically proven medicinal benefit.