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JOE TOURIST OUTDOOR ADVENTURES: All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)

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Meet the Cast Making a Splash on Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise (Exclusive)

The new reality series 'Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise' airs Tuesdays on Freeform and streams on Hulu

Disney/Jeff Daly

Drama hits different on the island. 

On the new Freeform reality series Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise , the sunny beaches of the Caribbean hotspot serve as the backdrop for high stakes and confrontation. That, and lively parties, of course. 

The cast of locals and expats, including Elizabeth Chambers and Selita Ebanks, welcomed PEOPLE to the scenic island ahead of the April 9 premiere, teasing exactly what juicy secrets come to light in this paradise during season 1. 

Read on for what to know about the stars of Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise , which airs new episodes Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET on Freeform and streams the next day on Hulu.

Elizabeth Chambers

Chambers , 41, takes her BIRD Bakery international while on the show, opening a location on the island in collaboration with the restaurant Mykonos Steak Club. Her history with ex-husband Armie Hammer and his scandals , though, becomes a point of contention with her costars .

With a journalism background, Chambers admits of joining the reality series, "This is absolutely the antithesis of everything I've ever done, professionally speaking."

Still, she says she's "grateful" for the opportunity and for establishing a home for her family (including daughter Harper, 9, and son Ford, 7) on Grand Cayman. "Maybe this is something I never anticipated doing, but why not?"

How will she shake things up on the show? "What you see is exactly what you get," says Chambers, who confesses to having "no filter" on the show. "I always have a point of view."

Selita Ebanks

A former Victoria’s Secret Angel, Ebanks leans back into her Caymanian roots on the show and wears multiple hats in her career. There’s modeling, fashion show–planning, sommelier training and more avenues filling her busy schedule. Still, she finds time to let loose with her costars. 

Ebanks, whose famous exes include Nick Cannon and Kanye West , jokes she "wasn't prepared for the tequila intake" filming with the cast.

"I tried really hard not to be Mama Selita," says Ebanks, 41, "because I didn't want to be Debbie Downer. I wanted everybody to have a good time — just responsibly."

Before signing on, the supermodel says she was "going through a lot of insecurities about being on the show." She was "nitpicking" herself, says Ebanks, until she was able to "accept and love myself enough" to participate.

Courtney McTaggart

McTaggart , 34, was born and raised on the island, and she "developed a thick skin" because of the "small-town" feel. Therefore, she won’t back down from a fight, especially when her name is brought into a narrative she wants no part in.

The star, who denies those Armie Hammer rumors brought up on the show, describes herself as being "very up-front."

"It's actually not because I like drama, it's the opposite. I don't like it," she says. "But I'm also very to-the-point. If there's an elephant in the room, the best thing to do in such a small place like Cayman is to discuss it, to have a mature conversation."

Adds McTaggart, "I've never had a problem with being that person. Sometimes there's good results and sometimes there's bad ones." Still, "at least there's honesty," she says.

Chelsea Flynn

Mom-of-three Flynn learned a lot about herself while filming season 1, which starts with her trying to make a relationship work as she defends her boyfriend, Tyson, to her friends and mother.

"I discovered that I'm more resilient than I thought,” says Flynn, who's originally from the U.K. "I was able to show up every day despite what was going on behind the scenes as well as on the scenes, and I'm really proud of that." (More on that as the season unravels.)

As for other drama on camera, Flynn says there's "nothing worse than being lukewarm." She adds, "Don't sit on the fence. Say how you feel, and act accordingly."

Cass Lacelle

Now the owner of a marketing agency, Lacelle , 32, grew up in Vancouver, Canada, and later lived in Australia and New Zealand — before moving to the wealthy Grand Cayman with barely $100 to her name.

"I stayed on a couch almost a full month until I started earning some money," she recalls. "I eventually started saving up money, and now here I am. It was crazy."

Lacelle, who says the cast consists of "big personalities," admits, "I actually love the drama — but hate being in it."

Craig Jervis

Nicknamed Craigyboo, Jervis is the life of the party on the island, and happily so. But what does the 32 year old, who has both Jamaican and Caymanian roots, do to unwind when he needs? "Phone on do-not-disturb," he says.

Once he's recharged, though, it's back to living it up on an "epic" scale, drama and all.

"You put together personalities like this friend group and [drama] is inevitable. As a matter of fact, I would suggest that we have cameras 24/7, 365. That would be some great content."

Aaron Bernardo

Bernardo , who moved to Cayman in 1991, turns 40 later this year, and he says "one hell of a party" will happen to celebrate the milestone. What's the secret to Bernardo (who is also dad to two kids, 19 and 13) maintaining his youthful outlook?

"Moisturize and a good life, bro," he says with a laugh. "I try not to stress, man. I'm just easygoing. Whatever happens, if it's gonna be, it's gonna be. I sleep good at night no matter what."

About his newfound reality TV stardom, the tattooed entrepreneur says, "I was born for this. It just came naturally."

Julian Foster

Foster , 33, was born and raised in the Cayman Islands, where he got his start in marketing at the family-run local supermarket chain, Foster's. Now, he co-owns Heights The Agency.

On the show, he says he "leaned very much into" his "authentic self," all while balancing conflicts between friends.

"I didn't think I'd ever be prepared to watch myself on camera," says Foster. But, after the experience, "I think you just kind of have a new appreciation for who you are."

Victoria Coleman

Coleman moved to Grand Cayman in 2017 after growing up in Ontario, Canada, seeking a life change after earning a nursing degree. "Everything is so close-knit here," she says of the island and its "zen" lifestyle. "Everyone knows each other and hears all the stories."

Over the course of filming, she says she "learned to let go and just be myself."

Today, the star, 30, is married to costar Trevor, though this season showcases the ups and downs of the couple's engagement before their nuptials. "Our love and willingness to fight for each other" helped them keep their bond strong, she says.

Trevor Coleman

"The grapevine is very strong on this island," says Coleman , 34. Originally from Southern California, he moved to Grand Cayman to be closer to his parents. (His mom appears on the show.)

Coleman is now married to costar Victoria, with whom he's launching the activewear company VIVE Collection alongside her designer sister.

He says the unique experience of starring on a reality show inspired him to work on himself. "It was a very eye-opening and positive experience," he says, "but going through it was tough, to be honest."

"You're literally holding a mirror up to yourself; it's just a mirror that everyone else is looking through too," says Coleman. "I saw parts of me that I liked and other parts of me that I decided I needed to work on."

Connor Bunney

A DJ who goes by the stage name Decades of Perfume , Bunney, 31, is single but says finding romance on the island can be complicated.

"It's so hard here," says the artist, who grew up in Essex, England, before making the move to Caymn in 2018. "Who doesn't want to find romance? Who doesn't want to be loved and love? [But] the dating pool is very small, and that has it's natural issues."

Bunney says "we're all being ourselves" on the series, and "you can never regret being yourself" in the moment.

Teri Bilewitch

Bilewitch made the leap from Canada to Cayman in 2006, and soon enough, the star, who has held jobs as a waitress and high school teacher, eventually became a recognizable voice on the island as a radio personality on Z99 Grand Cayman.

Here on this reality show, she's alongside husband Dillon. Their marriage was "solid going in and solid coming out," she says.

"If things had been rocky, there's no way we would've ever done a show like this," says Bilewitch. "Because you know that they're gonna put your relationship to a test. They're going to try to challenge you, to shake things up."

She adds, "And there's literally nothing that could rock our relationship. We were like, 'Bring it on.' "

Dillon Claassens

Claassens , 45, works in realty (he previously appeared on House Hunters International: Cozy in the Cayman Islands ) and costars on this show with wife Teri. "We had each other as a support system throughout," he says.

Based on their "stable" marriage, Claassens says he was able to offer relationship "wisdom" to some of his cast mates when "red flags" popped up.

"You can only speak if you have the experience," he says. "If you've gone through your trials and tribulations and you are at a certain point in your life, you can give the advice. If our friends want to take it, then great."

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Taylor Swift Addresses Doing ‘Eras Tour’ Amid Joe Alwyn Heartbreak on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’

Taylor Swift made it look easy continuing with her Eras Tour performances after her split from Joe Alwyn made headlines in April 2023 — but that doesn’t mean it was.

In her song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” which is track No. 13 on The Tortured Poets Department , Swift, 34, admits that she was only pretending to be happy while reeling from the breakup.

“Cause I’m a real tough kid, I can handle my s—t / They said, ‘Baby, gotta fake it till you make it,’ and I did / Lights, camera, bitch, smile, even when you wanna die / He said he’d love me all his life,” Swift sings over the upbeat, synth-driven track.

The Grammy winner goes on to say she was “shattered while the crowd was chanting, ‘More.’”

Related: Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn's Relationship Timeline: The Way They Were

The song serves as a peak behind the polished facade that Swift maintained on stage after she and Alwyn, 33, ended their six-year relationship .

“I was grinning like I’m winning, I was hitting my marks, cause I can do it with a broken heart / I’m so depressed I act like it’s my birthday every day,” Swift sings. “I’m so obsessed with him but he avoids me like the plague / I cry a lot but I am so productive, it’s an art.”

The tune stands in stark contrast to a statement that Swift made during a May 2023 Eras Tour show in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

“I don’t know, I’ve just never been this happy in my life — in all aspects of my life — ever before,” she told the crowd. “And I just want to thank you for being a part of that. I don’t know. It’s not just the tour. My life finally feels like it makes sense.”

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Related: Breaking Down Taylor Swift's Denial Playlist

The comment came amid Swift’s brief romance with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy , which Us Weekly confirmed came to an end in June 2023 after less than two months. It’s possible that “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” speaks to Swift’s feelings about ending things with Healy, 35, although the lyrics point to a long-term relationship as Swift sings about promises to “love me for all time” and “finding his things in drawers.”

Swift taking pride in putting on a great show for her fans, despite what’s going on in her personal life, is something she has spoken about before. During her December 2023 Time profile, the musician said, “I know I’m going on that stage whether I’m sick, injured, heartbroken, uncomfortable or stressed.”

She added, “That’s part of my identity as a human being now.”

In this article

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Green Bay, Brown County optimistic about chances coal piles will move as White House official tours site

GREEN BAY - The Port of Green Bay applied for a $25 million federal grant to cover higher-than-expected costs to build a new port facility, a project key to ongoing community efforts to relocate the coal piles out of the central city.

The port in February applied for a U.S. Department of Transportation RAISE Discretionary Grant to close a budget gap in a plan to develop a new multipurpose port facility on the former Pulliam Power Plant site at the mouth of the Fox River. Cost estimates last fall showed improvements and infrastructure work on the site would cost about $48.7 million , about $19 million more than originally expected.

The RAISE grant program has about $1.5 billion to award in 2024.

Port Director Dean Haen said the community's application included letters of support from 40 businesses, legislators and Gov. Tony Evers that "make our case why it's very important to Green Bay." He said the grant is necessary to ensure construction starts in 2025 on the new port facility along the west shore at the mouth of the Fox River.

Senior aide to President Joe Biden tours Green Bay coal piles site

The port won't find out until summer whether it receives the grant, but a senior White House official toured the coal piles site during a visit to Green Bay on Thursday , giving local officials the opportunity to drive the point home that the city, county, and C. Reiss Coal Co. are "all aligned," said Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich.

The tour, as much as the guest of honor, carried some import in itself — It was the first time C. Reiss Coal Co. representatives joined city of Green Bay and Brown County officials to tour the site and publicly discuss the relocation since the community first identified an opportunity to relocate the coal yard in 2021.

Keith Haselhoff, CEO of C. Reiss Coal Co. , met with senior adviser to President Joe Biden and Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Tom Perez, Genrich, Haen and other city and county officials. Perez also toured City East Center , a city- and state-funded affordable housing development and new home of the Brown County United Way .

Perez said the collaborative work of the city, county, business community, and C. Reiss Coal is often a key to securing grants, though he personally does not judge any applications.

"I see potential, remarkable potential," Perez said after touring the C. Reiss site. "There's obviously leadership here."

'We're optimistic this can be a success'

Haselhoff said C. Reiss continues to take its cues from the city and county as they pursue the money necessary to pull off the port expansion, relocation of C. Reiss and redevelopment of the coal yard site. But he said the company is optimistic at this point and continues to discuss its operational needs with the community partners.

"We're optimistic this can be a success," Haselhoff said. "New beginnings are always exciting."

The company has not said much publicly, but that does not mean it hasn't been closely involved, Genrich said. He called the company a "constructive partner" since the county and city got serious.

"They've never said, 'No, we're not interested,'" Genrich said. "They've been at the table figuring out how to make it work for themselves and the community."

Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach said the community and company efforts to date have positioned the region to, after 25 years of talks, "reimagine what the next 100 years will look like" for the riverfront site.

After 4 years of work, Green Bay, Brown County, C. Reiss have community close to plan to relocate coal piles

Brown County in 2021 paid $2.7 million to Wisconsin Public Service Corp. for the former J.P. Pulliam power plant site. WPS generated electricity on the 43.7-acre site from 1927 until 2018 when WPS shut down the two coal-fired power plants and began demolishing them.

The county saw the property as an opportunity to expand port operations in an industrial area of Green Bay on a site with room to relocate the coal piles, a goal community leaders have pursued for decades now. The riverfront site has been a coal yard since 1900, C. Reiss officials said.

Genrich has called the relocation a "once-in-a-city's-lifetime" transformation of the community's waterfront.

But first, the port expansion site needs a lot of costly work and port officials have so far secured about $30.8 million in funding:

• $15 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars via Gov. Tony Evers .
• $10.1 million federal Port Infrastructure Development Program Grant .
• $500,000 Idle Sites Grant  from Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to help buy the property.
• $3.2 million in Brown County American Rescue Plan Act dollars.
• $2.1 million in WisDOT Harbor Assistance Grants.

The funding and engineering work to design the port expansion enabled the community to accelerate discussions with C. Reiss Coal Co. about relocating the coal piles.

In Depth: A port, a power plant and partnerships: How Green Bay and Brown County could finally relocate the coal piles

What's the Port of Green Bay expansion project?

The site needs improvements and upgrades on land and in the Fox River in order to potentially facilitate a variety of maritime deliveries and pickups. This site would be publicly owned in contrast to the 14 current port terminals that are privately owned and operated. The new port facility on its own could bolster the port's economic impact by as much as $87 million.

A major component of the project would involve dredging along the site and installation of a steel dock wall to enable ships to dock at the site. Construction plans include:

• Dredge the Fox River along the site and install a steel dock wall to enable ships to access the site.
• Construct a rail spur.
• Fill in the docking slip on the Pulliam site.
• Build a stormwater detention basin.
• Add mooring facilities and crane pads for port operations.
• Repair the sea wall.

While some road and infrastructure construction could start still this year, Haen said the community needs to win a RAISE Grant if it wants to start construction on the port-specific improvements in 2025.

Coal piles site could become housing, port site and ... Green Bay's Amtrak station?

City and county officials envision a port/industrial operation, housing and, possibly, an Amtrak station on the coal piles current site. The overall goal would be to activate the riverfront and develop a mix of uses that complements the Shipyard Redevelopment Area housing and recreational amenities coming together just north of the Mason Street bridge.

The northern 10 acres of the site, closest to Mason Street, would be marketed to housing developers.

The southern 20-plus acres would be used to create a new port site to facilitate some industrial uses in order to further bolster the port's current $217 million economic impact .

And with northeastern Wisconsin being awarded $500,000 to study passenger rail expansion from Milwaukee north to Green Bay , Genrich also pitched the coal piles site as a potential location for a new Amtrak terminal. He touted the site as well-located between downtown Green Bay and the rapidly developing Lambeau Field stadium and entertainment district.

"(A train station) can a lot of times be a pretty catalytic presence. We'd love to have a station located here as well," Genrich said.

Contact Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter at @JeffBollier .

President Joe Biden plans Syracuse trip to announce historic Micron deal

• Updated: Apr. 18, 2024, 11:34 a.m. |
• Published: Apr. 18, 2024, 10:02 a.m.

President Joe Biden speaks at Onondaga Community College Thursday, October 27, 2022 to celebrate Micron's agreement to build a complex of computer chip plants in Syracuse's suburbs N. Scott Trimble | [email protected]

• Mark Weiner | [email protected]

Washington – President Joe Biden plans to visit Syracuse next week to celebrate the deal to provide Micron Technology with $6.1 billion in federal aid for a massive complex of computer chip plants in Clay.

Biden’s White House is scouting locations for a possible event April 25 in Syracuse, according to two sources briefed on the early plans.

Read more about Micron Technology in Clay

• Micron wins $6.1 billion CHIPS grant for Central NY and Idaho projects, Schumer says
• Public forum will tackle how Central NY should handle Micron-fueled growth
• Why doesn’t Micron put solar panels on fab roofs to offset its enormous energy use?
• Micron is hiring: See the salary ranges for about 2 dozen positions for Clay plant
• Samsung wins $6.4 billion CHIPS grant for Texas project. Is Micron next?

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JOE TOURIST OUTDOOR ADVENTURES (George Town) - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go

Biden visits his childhood Scranton home and plays up working-class roots in first day of Pa. tour

P resident Joe Biden described his childhood hometown of Scranton as a place that “climbs into your heart and never leaves,” as he launched a three-day long tour of Pennsylvania meant to appeal to working-class voters.

Biden has often returned to Scranton when he needs a boost or a political reset. Beneath a banner that read “Tax Fairness for All Americans,” Biden aimed to contrast his working-class roots in the city with former President Donald Trump’s more privileged background.

“When I look at the economy, I don’t see it through the eyes of Mar-a-Lago. I see it through the eyes of Scranton,” Biden told the crowd at the downtown Cultural Center.

The president, who will also visit Pittsburgh and Philadelphia this week, has increasingly fixated on his native state as being essential to his political survival. The visit comes one week before Pennsylvania’s primary election, a contest that will be an early test of the breadth of both candidates’ support in a critical swing state.

The president came to Scranton to call for higher taxes on the rich and to reinforce his candidacy as a fight for the middle class, as Trump spends the week in a Manhattan courtroom for his first criminal trial.

“People like Donald Trump learned very different lessons,” Biden said. “He learned the best way to get rich was inherit it. Not a bad way. He learned that paying taxes was something people who work for a living did, not him. He learned that telling people you’re fired was something to laugh about.”

It’s a tactic that Biden used in the 2020 campaign, which he often framed as Scranton vs. Park Avenue. His Tuesday remarks were sprinkled with a mix of personal anecdotes about growing up in the state’s sixth largest city and jabs at his opponent, whom he called “Donald Herbert Hoover Trump” in reference to the president who oversaw the beginning of the Great Depression.

“Now Trump is running again on the same failed trickle-down policies,” Biden said. “Nothing has changed. Just a few months ago — at a closed-door event in Mar-a-Lago — he told his billionaire donors, ‘You’re rich as hell. We’re going to give you tax cuts.’”

After his remarks, Biden stopped at his old house in the Green Ridge neighborhood of Scranton, a place he has visited many times, including during the 2020 campaign, when he signed the wall “from this house to the White House by the grace of God.”

Trump — and many of his supporters — have long scoffed at Biden’s claims to the Electric City, given that he spent only a fraction of his 77 years living there. During rallies in Pennsylvania, Trump has made a point of saying Biden had “abandoned” Scranton.

The theme across the tour this week will be the economy, a key issue for voters and one that Biden has struggled to connect on after severe inflation for much of his presidency.

“Joe Biden’s campaign stops in Pennsylvania this week ought to serve as a sobering reminder of the failures his administration’s policies have had for the Keystone State,” Pennsylvania GOP chairman Lawrence Tabas said in a release.

“This past year alone, inflation within the state has surged. … Families cannot afford to go grocery shopping and home prices have skyrocketed. Voters will remember all of President Biden’s failures when they cast their vote this November.”

A contrast in tax policies

Inflation spiked last week to its highest level in six months and polls consistently show that voters trust Trump more on the economy and consider it a vital issue.

In Tuesday’s remarks, Biden focused on taxes to reframe the conversation around the economy, which has dogged his reelection campaign. He told the crowd in Scranton that the wealthy should pay more in taxes to reduce the federal deficit and help fund programs for the poor and middle class.

“I’m just asking for basic fairness,” he said, later arguing that “no billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher.”

Trump’s 2017 tax cuts slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and reduced rates for most individual taxpayers, including the wealthiest Americans. Many of those cuts will sunset in 2025, which raises the stakes of the issue in the presidential race.

Biden and Trump both say they would keep cuts in place for households making under $400,000 a year but they differ when it comes to the highest earners.

Trump has called for extending tax cuts, which would deliver an average $175,000 cut for the top 0.1%. He points to economic growth from 2018 and 2019 after tax cuts were in place.

Biden has said he wants to raise $4.9 trillion in revenue over 10 years with higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations. His platform includes a “billionaire’s tax,” which would set a minimum rate of 25% on the income of the richest Americans. He’s also said he would like to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.

All in on Pennsylvania

Biden was introduced by a Scrantonian who lives down the street from his former home and ended his address by saying he thinks a lot about a statue in downtown Scranton dedicated to soldiers who fought in World War II.

He then blasted Trump for disparaging comments the former president reportedly made about wounded soldiers in 2018 and implored the audience to listen to what Trump says and believe him.

Biden exited the stage to a standing ovation from his hometown crowd and then headed to the Washington Avenue home where he lived in as a child. Neighbors lined up as the motorcade wound by on a sunny day, some holding Biden signs and waving American flags.

As the motorcade parked and Biden walked up to the three-story Colonial, a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered about 100 yards away and chanted, accusing Biden of being “complicit with genocide.”

Their voices competed with shouts from neighbors on nearby neatly trimmed lawns chanting “We Want Joe!” And “Four more years!”

When Biden left the house about an hour and 45 minutes later, he walked out holding hands with several kids wearing uniforms for St. Clare/St. Paul School and greeted some neighbors gathered on the lawn.

”Take him down, Joe,” one man said as Biden smiled. “Anything we can do to help,” another said.

Biden’s campaign has already opened 14 offices in Pennsylvania and hired dozens of staff, a contrast with Trump, who polls closely with Biden in Pennsylvania despite having no staff or offices assigned here.

Trump, who narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2016 and lost it in 2020, was in Bucks County for a fundraiser and in the Lehigh Valley for a rally on Saturday , further highlighting what the next seven months of presidential politicking may look like in the state.

Trump’s New York trial will likely restrict his ability to campaign in Pennsylvania during weekdays in the final lead-up to the April 23 primary. While the former president sat in a courtroom, his surrogates sought to hammer Biden on inflation.

“It’s no wonder why Pennsylvanians will vote to make America affordable again and elect President Trump in November,” Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley said in a statement.

On the same day he visited Scranton, Biden released a digital ad featuring interviews with his cousin, a grade school classmate, and a local business owner, arguing that he’s the best pick for the middle class.

Sarah Cruz, who appeared in the digital ad that Biden’s team released, also attended Biden’s event Tuesday. The 37-year-old told The Inquirer she moved to the city when she was 10 and has served on its school board. Cruz’s father’s family is from Puerto Rico and her mother is from Honduras.

“Joe Biden’s history began in Scranton and so he has those hometown roots and that feel,” Cruz said. “But he doesn’t just limit that sense of belonging to people who look like him or who are born and raised in Scranton. He embraces people who may not be from the area, but who came to the United States and to Scranton for a better life or for better opportunities.”

©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Iranian attack on Israel expected ‘sooner rather than later’, says Joe Biden

President said US are ‘devoted to the defence of Israel’ as he urged Tehran to show restraint

Joe Biden has said he expects an Iranian attack on Israel “sooner rather than later” and issued a last-ditch message to Tehran: “Don’t.”

“We are devoted to the defence of Israel . We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” Biden told reporters on Friday.

Earlier the White House national security spokesperson John Kirby warned that the threat of a significant Iranian attack on Israel remains “viable” despite Washington-led efforts, including calls to Tehran from the UK and Germany, to deter a serious escalation in the conflict in the Middle East.

The White House comments came as several countries, including India, France , Poland and Russia, warned their citizens against travel to the region and Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said his country was “prepared to defend [itself] on the ground and in the air, in close cooperation with our partners”.

Later CBS, quoting two unnamed US officials, reported that a substantial missile and drone attack could be launched as early as Friday evening, as a number of countries urgently warned their nationals of the risk of escalating violence in the region, and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, convened a security assessment.

Appearing to underline that report, Javad Karimi-Ghodousi, a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, said: “After punishing the Zionist regime in the coming hours, this villain will understand that henceforth, wherever in the world it attempts to assassinate figures of the resistance front, it will again be punished with Iranian missiles.”

German airline Lufthansa said on Friday its planes would no longer use Iranian airspace and extended its suspension of flights to and from Tehran until Thursday.

Qantas has paused its non-stop flights from Perth to London because the 17-and-a-half-hour flight is possible only by using Iranian airspace.

Iran has threatened reprisals against Israel for a strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria on 1 April, in which seven members of the Revolutionary Guards including two generals were killed, sparking fears that an already volatile climate in the Middle East could quickly spiral further.

Tehran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said on Thursday that Iran felt it had no choice but to respond to the deadly attack on its diplomatic mission after the UN security council failed to take action.

Speaking to reporters, Kirby said the prospect of an Iranian attack on Israel was “still a viable threat” despite concerted efforts by Israel and the US in recent days to deter it .

“We are in constant communication with our Israeli counterparts about making sure that they can defend themselves against those kinds of attacks,” Kirby said. He confirmed that the head of US Central Command, Gen Erik Kurilla, was in Israel talking with defence officials about how Israel could be best prepared.

Israel has said it is strengthening air defences and has paused leave for combat units.

On Friday, France ordered the evacuation of diplomats’ families and warned nationals in several other countries, including Israel and Lebanon, and alerts were issued by Canada and Australia. The US also restricted travel within Israel for US diplomats and their families.

In its strong warning on Friday, the French foreign ministry advised citizens against travelling to Iran, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories and said French civil servants were banned from conducting any missions there.

The advisories followed a number of media reports that Israel was preparing for the prospect of an attack from Iran, possibly as soon as this weekend.

A US official told the Wall Street Journal that American intelligence reports indicated an Iranian retaliatory strike “possibly on Israeli soil” as opposed to against Israeli interests elsewhere, adding that the strike could come within 24 to 48 hours.

The same report, however, also reported an individual briefed by the Iranian leadership as saying no final decision had been taken by Tehran.

The newspaper reported US officials as saying that the US Navy had repositioned two destroyers in the region in order to protect US and Israeli forces.

While analysts had initially speculated that Iran may not rush into a response, concern has grown in the last two days over the potential for direct conflict between Iran and Israel after years of proxy conflict between the two enemies.

More recently experts have suggested that Iran now feels it is required to act militarily to restore its balance of deterrence with Israel.

On Wednesday, Joe Biden said Iran was threatening a “significant attack” against Israel and that Washington would do all it could to protect Israel’s security.

The US president’s comments in turn followed a televised speech by Iran’s leader saying the attack in Damascus was equivalent to an attack on Iran itself. “When they attacked our consulate area, it was like they attacked our territory,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said. “The evil regime must be punished, and it will be punished.”

The Israeli military said it was fully prepared for any strike. Israel was “on alert and highly prepared for various scenarios, and we are constantly assessing the situation,” the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, R Adm Daniel Hagari, said at a press conference. “We are ready for attack and defence using a variety of capabilities that the IDF has, and also ready with our strategic partners.”

According to reports in the Israeli media, the IDF believes that Iran or one of its proxies are most likely to attempt to strike a military target rather than civilian centres, although some sites such as the Kirya, Israel’s defence headquarters in Tel Aviv, are located in city centres next to shopping malls, offices and restaurants.

Concern over a significant escalation in the Middle East conflict, which has already drawn in Hezbollah in Lebanon, pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Yemen’s Houthis, came as Israeli forces continued to fight Palestinian militants in the north and centre of the Gaza Strip.

Residents of al-Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza said dozens were dead or wounded after Israeli bombardment from air, land and sea that had followed a surprise ground assault on Thursday, and that houses and two mosques had been destroyed.

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President Biden rips 'Mar-a-Lago values' on trail in Pennsylvania with Trump in court

WASHINGTON ― With Donald Trump stuck in a New York courtroom, President Joe Biden took his campaign Tuesday to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he hammered the former president over his tax policies in an appeal to working-class voters .

Biden began a three-day swing through Pennsylvania, the biggest battleground of the 2024 election, blasting Trump's 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans while calling for the rich to pay their "fair share."

Biden, in a campaign speech, leaned into his modest upbringing in Scranton − "where honesty and decency matter," he said − and compared it to Trump's background of wealth and inheritance.

"People like Donald Trump learned very different lessons," Biden told supporters at the Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple. "He learned the best way to get rich is inherit it. He learned that paying taxes is something that people who work for a living did, not him. He learned that telling people they're fired was something to laugh about."

The Scranton stop − designed to make an economic case for Biden's reelection while inflation remains stubbornly high − fell one day after Tax Day, the April 15 deadline for people to file their federal tax returns. Biden released his tax returns Monday , while Trump did not, following a practice of not publicizing his returns that Trump maintained in the White House.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

"When I look at the economy, I don't see it through the eyes of Mar-a-Lago, I see it through the eyes of Scranton − and that's not hyperbole," Biden said, adding that Trump "and his rich friends" embrace the "failed trickled-down policies" of the past 40 years.

"Scranton values or Mar-a-Lago values: These are the competing visions for our economy that raise fundamental questions of fairness at the heart of this campaign," Biden said.

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The visit came as Trump attended day two of his criminal trial  in New York involving alleged hush-money payments he made to a porn star during the 2016 campaign.

Ahead of the November election, Biden is looking to improve Democratic performance with white working-class voters who lack college degrees, who have increasingly moved to the Republican camp in the Trump era.

In his State of the Union address last month, Biden revived a proposal to reverse the corporate tax rate cut that Trump and congressional Republicans passed in 2017 by raising the rate from 21% to 28%. The rate was previously set at 35% prior to the Trump-era cuts.

Biden has proposed increasing a new minimum on the largest billion-dollar corporations − which he signed into law in 2022 − from 15% to 21% and creating a new 25% minimum tax on Americans with more than $100 million in wealth, the 0.01% wealthiest Americans. He has vowed not to raise taxes on any American making more than $400,00 a year.

"No billionaire should be paying a lower tax rate than a teacher, or a nurse or a sanitation worker," Biden said, later taking a jab at the tumbling stock of Truth Social, Trump's social media company. "You know, I have to say: If Trump's stock in Truth Social, his company, drops any lower, he might do better under my tax plan than his."

In a statement, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump "proudly passed the largest tax cuts in history" and accused Biden of backing the largest tax hike in history.

"When President Trump is back in the White House, he will advocate for more tax cuts for all Americans and reinvigorate America's energy industry to bring down inflation, lower the cost of living, and pay down our debt," Leavitt said.

A proposal put forward last month by the House Republican Study Committee would make permanent the Trump-era tax cuts on individuals and businesses, which are set to expire at the end of 2025, along with making other new tax cuts.

Brian Deese, former director of the National Economic Council in the Biden White House, told reporters the Republican plan would add $5 trillion to the deficit and would deliver billionaires a $3.5 million tax cut on average.

"Donald Trump is going to have to stand up in front of the American people and defend why the richest people in the country get a tax cut that is seven times greater than the income of a typical middle class family," Deese said during a Biden campaign call.

Pennsylvania, with its 19 electoral votes, is one of the most fiercely contested battleground states of the election. Biden carried Pennsylvania by just 1.2 percentage points in 2020. Pennsylvania also features a critical Senate race between incumbent Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and expected Republican challenger David McCormick.

Trump held a campaign rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania on Saturday. Biden plans to visit the Pittsburgh area on Wednesday and Philadelphia on Thursday in a push to tout an economy recovery that's gone unnoticed for many Americans while inflation remains high.

The trip to Scranton marked the eighth time either Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris have visited Pennsylvania in 2024.

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

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