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President Donald Trump on Friday threatened the European Union with a sweeping 50% tariff, posting that trade talks with the region are “going nowhere.”

In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that he was “recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025.”

Trump’s post immediately sent European stock markets lower with stock indexes in Germany and France sharply dropping 2%. Shares in the U.K. dropped more than 1%. Dow futures slid more than 500 points and S&P futures dropped 1%.

The 27-nation bloc is the United States’ second-biggest trading partner behind China. The United States exported more than $350 billion of goods exported to the E.U. in recent years, and imported $550 billion worth of goods.

Maros Šefčovič, the European Commission’s trade chief, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were set to speak Friday. The European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Louisiana State Police arrested a 59-year-old woman for allegedly helping 10 inmates break out of Orleans Parish Jail last week, the third woman arrested in connection with assisting the escape.

Connie Weeden, a 59-year-old from Slidell, was arrested and charged with one count of being an accessory after the fact for allegedly “assisting the fugitives” in the May 16 incident, Louisiana State Police said in a Thursday night statement.

She was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center, and it is unclear whether she has retained a lawyer.

So far, five of the escapees have been found and arrested while five remain “unaccounted for,” police said.

Two other women, Cortnie Harris and Corvanntay Baptiste, were arrested and charged on Wednesday for allegedly being accessories after the fact in assisting the jailbreak.

A maintenance worker, Sterling Williams, was arrested and charged on Tuesday for allegedly cutting a prison cell’s water supply so the inmates could remove a toilet and escape through a hole behind it.

Police said their investigation found that Weeden was in phone contact with one of the still-missing fugitives, Jermaine Donald, both before and after the escape.

“Furthermore, investigators determined that after the escape, Weeden provided cash to Donald via a cell phone app,” police said.

The three women each face up to five years in prison if convicted.

Police said that officers from local, state and federal agencies “will continue to pursue every lead until the remaining fugitives are located,” as the search for the missing men could stretch into its second week.

“Those who choose to assist or conceal these individuals are violating the law and will be held accountable,” the police statement added.

Anyone with information about the fugitives’ whereabouts is urged to contact the FBI, Crimestoppers, or the Louisiana State Police. For information that leads to arrests, there are combined rewards of $20,000.

The alleged “grandpa robbers” accused of stealing millions of dollars of Kim Kardashian’s jewelry could receive a verdict Friday at the end of their month-long trial, with French prosecutors asking for up to 10 years’ jailtime.

Nine men and one woman are accused of planning and carrying out the armed robbery at Paris Fashion Week in 2016. Years of French bureaucracy delayed the trial by almost a decade, despite the defendants being arrested just months later after police found DNA at the scene.

The three judges and six jurors have now retired and could give their verdict as soon as Friday evening (Paris is six hours ahead of ET). The panel will need to reach a majority decision.

Presiding Judge David de Pas has summoned all parties back to the court for 7 p.m. local time (1 p.m. ET) although he said this would not necessarily be the time of the verdict.

Most of the defendants are in their 60s and 70s, arriving at court wearing orthopedic shoes and wielding canes. Some have illnesses that include cancer and Parkinson’s disease and could not have contrasted more with Kardashian, 44, the billionaire influencer and business doyenne whose testimony marked a moment of high drama.

“I absolutely did think I was going to die,” she told the court last week. “I have babies. I have to make it home. They can take everything. I just have to make it home,” she recalled thinking.

That was in the early hours of Oct. 3, 2016, when two of the men allegedly broke into her high-end private apartment, binding her ankles while she wore just a bathrobe. With one pointing a gun at her, they stole $9 million of her jewelry, including a 20-carat diamond ring gifted by her then husband, Kanye West, now known as Ye, prosecutors said.

They escaped on bike and on foot, prosecutors say, only to be arrested months later. Aside from a large cross dropped during the escape, none of the jewels have been recovered.

Eight of the defendants proclaim their innocence. Two have admitted they played some role, though say this has been overstated by the prosecution. One of them, Yunice Abbas, now 72, wrote a book about it entitled “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian.”

In a final statement to the court Friday, Abbas said, “I have nothing but regrets to offer you and will take my responsibilities.”

Prosecutors say the mastermind was Aomar Ait Khedache, 69, an alleged veteran of the Paris underworld known as “Old Omar.” He admitted he was involved but claims he was only a foot soldier. He says the real leader was someone called “X” or “Ben” — who prosecutors assert does not exist.

Prosecutors want 10 years’ jailtime for Khedache and Abbas, as well as co-defendants Didier Dubreucq and Marc-Alexander Boyer. They have asked for: an eight-year term to be given to Khedache’s son and alleged getaway driver, Harminy Ait Khedache; seven years for alleged informants Fleurus Heroui and Gary Madar; and six years for Khedache’s girlfriend and suspected accomplice Christiane Glotin.

Khedache, who is deaf and mute and has a condition requiring him to go to the bathroom every hour, was among the defendants to give a note of apology to Kardashian while she took the stand.

“The past cannot be undone, but I hope that this letter will enable you to gradually forget the trauma you have experienced through my fault,” the letter said.

She responded, “I forgive you for what had taken place but it doesn’t change the emotions, the feeling and the trauma and the fact that my life has forever changed.”

However one of the defense lawyers, Henri de Beauregard, warned during the trial not to be taken in by this image of “kind old men” or the “myth of friendly, Robin Hood-style pensioners.”

JOHANNESBURG — President Donald Trump showed a screenshot of Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of what he falsely presented on Wednesday as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans.

“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” said Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by the picture during a contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

In fact, the video, published by Reuters on Feb. 3 and subsequently verified by the news agency’s fact check team, showed humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot following deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

The blog post showed to Ramaphosa by Trump during the White House meeting was published by American Thinker, a conservative online magazine, about conflict and racial tensions in South Africa and Congo.

The post did not caption the image but identified it as a “YouTube screen grab” with a link to a video news report about Congo on YouTube, which credited Reuters.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Andrea Widburg, managing editor at American Thinker and the author of the post in question, wrote in reply to a Reuters query that Trump had “misidentified the image.”

She added, however, that the post, which referred to what it called Ramaphosa’s “dysfunctional, race-obsessed Marxist government,” had “pointed out the increasing pressure placed on white South Africans.”

The footage from which the picture was taken shows a mass burial following an M23 assault on Goma, filmed by Reuters video journalist Djaffar Al Katanty.

“That day, it was extremely difficult for journalists to get in … I had to negotiate directly with M23 and coordinate with the ICRC to be allowed to film,” Al Katanty said. “Only Reuters has video.”

Al Katanty said seeing Trump holding the article with the screengrab of his video came as a shock.

“In view of all the world, President Trump used my image, used what I filmed in DRC to try to convince President Ramaphosa that in his country, white people are being killed by Black people,” Al Katanty said.

Ramaphosa visited Washington this week to try to mend ties with the United States after persistent criticism from Trump in recent months over South Africa’s land laws, foreign policy and alleged bad treatment of its white minority, which South Africa denies.

Trump interrupted the televised meeting with Ramaphosa to play a video, which he said showed evidence of genocide of white farmers in South Africa. This conspiracy theory, which has circulated in far-right chat rooms for years, is based on false claims.

Trump then proceeded to flip through printed copies of articles that he said detailed murders of white South Africans, saying “death, death, death, horrible death.”

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Kermit the Frog knows it’s not easy being green — or graduating from college and entering the real world, especially during a time of economic uncertainty and political turmoil.

Members of the University of Maryland’s class of 2025 received their diplomas Thursday evening with sage advice from the amphibious Muppet ringing in their ears.

“As you prepare to take this big leap into real life, here’s a little advice — if you’re willing to listen to a frog,” the beloved Muppet said. “Rather than jumping over someone to get what you want, consider reaching out your hand and taking the leap side by side, because life is better when we leap together.”

The university announced in March that Kermit, who was created in 1955 and became the centerpiece of the Muppets franchise, would be this year’s commencement speaker. He is also no stranger to the school.

Muppets creator Jim Henson graduated from Maryland in 1960. A home economics major, he fashioned the original frog puppet from one of his mother’s coats and a Ping-Pong ball cut in half, according to a statement from the university. Henson died in 1990.

A bronze statue of Henson and Kermit sitting on a bench is a well-known feature of the College Park campus.

In a video announcing the speaker pick, Kermit is described as an environmental advocate, a bestselling author, an international superstar and a champion of creativity, kindness and believing in the impossible.

His speaker bio calls him “a star of stage, screen and swamp” whose simple mission is to “sing and dance and make people happy.”

“I am thrilled that our graduates and their families will experience the optimism and insight of the world-renowned Kermit the Frog at such a meaningful time in their lives,” university President Darryll J. Pines said in a statement.

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