politics

Trump's war with the US media

BY ANUJ CHOPRA

  • "The new administration seems to be ramping up a multifaceted effort to punish the media," Roy Gutterman, a Syracuse University professor, told AFP. "We are moving beyond mere threats." - $10 billion lawsuit - In an unprecedented move, Trump's administration announced that eight media organizations including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC and NPR must vacate their dedicated office spaces in the Pentagon.
  • Armed with multimillion-dollar lawsuits and regulatory threats, Donald Trump is taking his long-standing battle with the US media to a new level –- targeting the finances of organizations already struggling in an increasingly tough commercial climate.
  • "The new administration seems to be ramping up a multifaceted effort to punish the media," Roy Gutterman, a Syracuse University professor, told AFP. "We are moving beyond mere threats." - $10 billion lawsuit - In an unprecedented move, Trump's administration announced that eight media organizations including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC and NPR must vacate their dedicated office spaces in the Pentagon.
Armed with multimillion-dollar lawsuits and regulatory threats, Donald Trump is taking his long-standing battle with the US media to a new level –- targeting the finances of organizations already struggling in an increasingly tough commercial climate.
The president has long had an antagonistic relationship with mainstream news outlets, deriding them as the "enemy of the people." A notable exception is the powerful conservative broadcaster Fox News, some of whose hosts have taken on major roles in his administration and where his daughter in law Lara Trump is set to start as a primetime host.
Trump now appears to be doubling down on his anti-media rhetoric in his first month in office, focusing on cutting government agencies' news subscriptions in what observers call a case of manufactured outrage.
News outlet Politico was at the center of a social media storm, with Trump supporters including Elon Musk posting screenshots that falsely purported to show more than $8 million was funneled from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to the site.
The humanitarian agency has been the target of a sweeping cost-cutting campaign by billionaire Musk, a key Trump advisor, with the president calling for its closure.
Records on USAspending.gov, an online tracker of government payments, showed that federal agencies paid about $8 million to Politico for subscriptions, including to its Politico Pro service.
Payments from USAID were a small fraction of that total, the records showed.
But the facts did not stop Trump from falsely claiming that billions of dollars from USAID and other agencies had improperly gone to the "fake news media as a 'payoff' for creating good stories about the Democrats."
"We have never received any government funding -- no subsidies, no grants, no handouts," Goli Sheikholeslami, Politico's chief executive, and John Harris, its editor-in-chief, wrote in a note to readers.
"Government agencies that subscribe do so through standard public procurement processes -- just like any other tool they buy to work smarter and be more efficient. This is not funding. It is a transaction."

 'Punish the media'

The White House has said it will cancel its Politico subscriptions.
Other media outlets also risk losing millions of dollars if the government drops more subscriptions, a lever for the Trump administration to undermine a press that is already facing financial strain, observers say.
"The upshot of all of this nonsense is that the (Make America Great Again) base has new lore they can use to explain away any unfavorable coverage for Trump," said Matt Gertz, from the left-leaning think tank Media Matters, referring to the president's key "MAGA" political slogan.
In another kind of pressure, Brendan Carr, Trump's new head of the Federal Communications Commission, has ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS, a move that some worry is aimed at unraveling federal funding for public broadcasters.
"The new administration seems to be ramping up a multifaceted effort to punish the media," Roy Gutterman, a Syracuse University professor, told AFP.
"We are moving beyond mere threats."

 $10 billion lawsuit

In an unprecedented move, Trump's administration announced that eight media organizations including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC and NPR must vacate their dedicated office spaces in the Pentagon.
It cited the need to create room for other outlets including the conservative New York Post and Breitbart.
And in December, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump which contended the network's star anchor George Stephanopoulos had defamed him.
The settlement was seen as a major concession by a large media organization to Trump, whose previous efforts to sue news outlets have often ended in defeat.
"The spectacle of powerful media organizations debasing themselves before Trump has become so familiar that it is beginning to feel like scheduled programming," Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, wrote in a New York Times column.
CBS News, a broadcaster at the center of another FCC probe and a $10 billion lawsuit from Trump, recently complied with an FCC request to hand over the raw footage from an interview last year with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, with the president accusing it of deceitful editing.
Paramount, CBS's parent company, is now considering settling the lawsuit, media reports say, at a time when it needs Trump's support for its proposed merger with Skydance.
bur-ac/nro

USAID

Trump revokes Biden's security clearance, escalates foreign aid crackdown

BY SARAH TITTERTON

  • "There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information," Trump said on his Truth Social network, adding that he was "immediately" revoking the Democrat's security clearances and ending his daily intelligence briefings. 
  • President Donald Trump on Friday revoked his predecessor Joe Biden's security clearance in a blizzard of new orders, while escalating his campaign to dismantle the US humanitarian agency charged with helping the world's poorest and extending American influence around the globe. 
  • "There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information," Trump said on his Truth Social network, adding that he was "immediately" revoking the Democrat's security clearances and ending his daily intelligence briefings. 
President Donald Trump on Friday revoked his predecessor Joe Biden's security clearance in a blizzard of new orders, while escalating his campaign to dismantle the US humanitarian agency charged with helping the world's poorest and extending American influence around the globe. 
In a new series of rapid-fire power plays, the 78-year-old billionaire also froze aid to South Africa, where his top donor Elon Musk was born, and named himself head of one of the country's premier cultural venues, the Kennedy Center. 
"There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information," Trump said on his Truth Social network, adding that he was "immediately" revoking the Democrat's security clearances and ending his daily intelligence briefings. 
US presidents are traditionally given the right to receive intelligence briefings even after they step down. 
Trump also stepped up his assault on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which distributes humanitarian aid globally.
"THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!" he wrote on his Truth Social app about USAID, without offering evidence.
USAID has received the most concentrated fire since Trump launched a crusade led by Musk -- the world's richest person -- to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government. 
On Friday, Musk -- who along with Trump has spread blatantly false information about USAID's finances -- reposted photos of the agency's signage being removed from its Washington headquarters.
The Trump administration has frozen foreign aid, ordered thousands of internationally-based staff to return to the United States, and begun slashing the USAID headcount of 10,000 employees to around only 300.
Labor unions are challenging the legality of the onslaught. A federal judge on Friday ordered a pause to the administration's plan to put 2,200 USAID workers on paid leave by the weekend.
Democrats say it would be unconstitutional for Trump to shut down government agencies without the legislature's green light.

Soft power

The United States' current budget allocates about $70 billion for international assistance, a tiny fraction of overall spending.
But it gets a big bang for its buck. USAID alone runs health and emergency programs in around 120 countries, including in the world's poorest regions, boosting Washington's battle for influence against rivals such as China.
"We are witnessing one of the worst and most costly foreign policy blunders in US history," Samantha Power, the USAID chief under former president Joe Biden, wrote in a scathing New York Times opinion piece.
Hard-right Republicans and libertarians have long questioned the need for USAID and criticized what they say is wasteful spending abroad.
Also Friday, Trump named himself as chairman of the Kennedy Center, suggesting that the stately white marble entertainment complex overlooking the Potomac River did not reflect his own values.
"Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth -- THIS WILL STOP," he wrote on Truth Social, without explaining what show he was referring to. 
Trump has repeatedly attacked gender-nonconforming people.
He also followed up Friday on a promise to freeze US aid to South Africa, citing a law in the country that he alleges allows farmland to be seized from white farmers, despite Johannesburg's denials.
Musk has frequently criticized the South African government.

Racist social posts

Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have rampaged through agencies that most Americans have for decades taken for granted.
While Democrats have struggled to find footing to halt the budget-slashing moves, court challenges are slowly taking shape.
An attempt by Trump to overturn the constitutional guarantee to birthright citizenship has been blocked by a judge, and on Thursday another judge paused an attempt to offer mass buyouts to federal workers, pending arguments on Monday.
Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, ran into controversy last week with reports he and his team were accessing sensitive Treasury Department data and systems.
An internal assessment from the Treasury called the DOGE team's access to federal payment systems "the single biggest insider threat the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced," US media reported.
Adding to the drama, one member of the DOGE team resigned after it emerged that he had advocated racism and eugenics on social media.
On Friday, following backing for the sacked 25-year-old from Trump, Musk said he would reinstate the staffer.
Vice President JD Vance weighed in Friday saying he did not think "stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life," while criticizing the reporter who unearthed the posts for trying to "destroy people."
sms/nro/bgs/acb/st/nro

Trump

Alaska lawmakers push back on Trump's mountain name change

  • The resolution by the state legislature appeared unlikely to change Trump's mind, but was notable as a rare display of disobedience from members of his largely quiescent Republican Party. hg/nro
  • Donald Trump's order to change the name of the highest mountain in the United States faced pushback Friday from members of his own party.
  • The resolution by the state legislature appeared unlikely to change Trump's mind, but was notable as a rare display of disobedience from members of his largely quiescent Republican Party. hg/nro
Donald Trump's order to change the name of the highest mountain in the United States faced pushback Friday from members of his own party.
Alaska's Republican-dominated senate voted overwhelmingly against his plan to ditch the Indigenous name Denali for the huge peak, which Trump has rechristened Mount McKinley.
The president has unleashed a flood of executive orders in his first few days in the White House as he attempts to remake the US government.
Orders have included mass pardons for pro-Trump rioters, a federal hiring freeze and an attempt to overturn the constitutionally mandated practice of granting birthright citizenship.
But his order to rename the 20,300-foot (6,200-meter) Denali drew the ire of Alaska's state legislators.
A resolution passed unanimously by the Alaska state senate on Friday urged Trump to rethink his plan.
"The name Denali is deeply ingrained in the state's culture and identity," the motion said.
"Residents of the state believe that the names of the geographic features in the state should be determined by state residents and representatives."
The motion, which earlier cleared the lower chamber by a sizable majority, notes that state lawmakers called for the mountain to be known by its Indigenous name as far back as 1975.
Four decades later, then-president Barack Obama officially recognized that push and dropped the moniker Mount McKinley, which had been the peak's official name since 1917.
It was coined in honor of Republican president William McKinley who served in the Oval Office from 1897 until his assassination in 1901.
The resolution by the state legislature appeared unlikely to change Trump's mind, but was notable as a rare display of disobedience from members of his largely quiescent Republican Party.
hg/nro

Trump

Trump to make himself head of top Washington cultural venue

  • We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!"
  • US President Donald Trump announced Friday he will name himself to be chairman of the Kennedy Center, putting his aggressive rightwing stamp on Washington's premier cultural venue.
  • We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!"
US President Donald Trump announced Friday he will name himself to be chairman of the Kennedy Center, putting his aggressive rightwing stamp on Washington's premier cultural venue.
Trump broke the news in a post on his social media platform as he engages in a blizzard of policy changes upending the city and the country, attacking people, causes and policies he says are dangerously left wing.
In a way, this appointment is another form of retribution, which Trump is seeking in his second term as he goes after perceived enemies: in his first term, from 2017 to 2021, the Republican regularly skipped the center's yearly gala event because people in line to receive awards criticized him and said they would not show up if he did.
In his post, Trump suggested that the Kennedy Center, the stately white marble entertainment complex overlooking the Potomac River and named for the late president John F Kennedy, offered entertainment that did not reflect his own values.
Several members of the board will be replaced, including the current chairman, the billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, Trump wrote.
"I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture. We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!" the president said  on Truth Social.
"Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth -- THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!" Trump said.
Trump did not say what show he was referring to.
In December, the center hosted concerts by a band called Bertha that featured some of its musicians dressed in drag.
The Kennedy Center is the home of the National Symphony Orchestra and also offers theatre, opera, comedy and other productions.
Rubenstein served as an advisor to the late president Jimmy Carter and also has ties to former president Joe Biden, who regularly attended the venue's top gala, the Kennedy Center Honors, every year.
dw/nro

Trump

Trump says he's revoking Biden's security clearance

  • "Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden's Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings."
  • US President Donald Trump said Friday he was revoking Joe Biden's security clearance, ending his predecessor's right to receive intelligence briefings after leaving office.
  • "Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden's Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings."
US President Donald Trump said Friday he was revoking Joe Biden's security clearance, ending his predecessor's right to receive intelligence briefings after leaving office.
"There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information," Trump said on his Truth Social network.
"Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden's Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings."
In a reference to the catchphrase of his former reality TV show "The Apprentice,"  Trump added in capitals: "JOE, YOU'RE FIRED."
US presidents are traditionally given the right to receive intelligence briefings even after they step down. 
Trump said he was making the move because Democrat Biden had removed his own security clearance after winning the 2020 election.
Biden at the time cited Trump's "erratic behavior" both before and after the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by protesters trying to overturn Trump's election loss. 
In his post on Friday, Trump claimed that Biden "could not be trusted" with intelligence briefings because a special counsel's report into classified documents found at the Democrat's home found that Biden, 82, suffered from "poor memory."
Trump was also prosecuted for mishandling classified documents but the Justice Department ended the case after the Republican won the 2024 election.
dk/acb

diplomacy

Trump says Nippon Steel to 'invest' in US Steel, not buy it

  • Trump, referring to the Japanese car company Nissan but apparently meaning Nippon Steel, said "they'll be looking at an investment rather than a purchase."
  • US President Donald Trump said Friday that Japan's Nippon Steel will make a major investment in US Steel, but will no longer attempt to take over the troubled company.
  • Trump, referring to the Japanese car company Nissan but apparently meaning Nippon Steel, said "they'll be looking at an investment rather than a purchase."
US President Donald Trump said Friday that Japan's Nippon Steel will make a major investment in US Steel, but will no longer attempt to take over the troubled company.
Trump, referring to the Japanese car company Nissan but apparently meaning Nippon Steel, said "they'll be looking at an investment rather than a purchase."
Spokespeople for Nippon Steel and US Steel did not respond to a request for comment. 
US Steel's shares closed down 5.8 percent on the news.
The announcement marks a shift in tone from Trump, who heavily criticized Nippon's $14.9 billion takeover offer during the 2024 presidential election campaign. 
Former US president Joe Biden blocked the deal shortly before he left office last month on national security grounds, sparking a joint lawsuit from the two firms -- and condemnation from Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
In the suit filed on January 6, Nippon Steel and US Steel said Biden had improperly used his influence and blocked the deal "for purely political reasons" to gain favor with workers' unions.
In response, the US authorities announced they had extended the deadline for the Japanese firm to abandon its acquisition of US Steel until June 18, extending an initial 30-day deadline.
Trump's remarks suggest his administration is open to Nippon Steel's investment in the US steel giant so long as it does not assume overall control -- a step that could in theory ensure it remains in American hands. 
"Our concerns regarding Nippon's continued interest in US Steel remain unchanged," United Steelworkers international president David McCall said in a statement. 
"Nippon has proven itself to be a serial trade cheater with a history of dumping its products into our markets," he said, adding that the US steelworkers' union had not been in contact with either company or the Trump administration about Nippon's proposed investment.  
"While we await the details of the proposed investment, we encourage President Trump to continue safeguarding the long-term future of the domestic steel industry by instead seeking American alternatives," he added.
sms-da-bys/acb

Trump

Trump's 'God squad' holds increasing sway at White House

BY DANNY KEMP

  • "I believed in God, but I feel much more strongly about it."
  • Donald Trump said at his inauguration that he had been "saved by God."
  • "I believed in God, but I feel much more strongly about it."
Donald Trump said at his inauguration that he had been "saved by God." Now he appears to be returning the favor with an increasingly conservative, religious focus in his second term as US president.
The three-times-married billionaire signed an executive order on Friday to open a "Faith Office" at the White House, led by the televangelist Paula White, Trump's so-called spiritual advisor.
A day earlier Trump had unveiled a task force under new Attorney General Pam Bondi to root out what he called the "persecution" of Christians in the United States.
The Republican has also appointed several cabinet members with links to Christian nationalists, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
All of this comes despite the fact that Trump has long had an ambiguous relationship with religion. 
Unlike his predecessor Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, Trump rarely appears in Church. He was confirmed into the Presbyterian church but said he was "non-denominational."
Then there are the sexual scandals -- and a criminal conviction for in a porn star hush money case -- and the selling of $60 Trump-branded Bibles on the campaign trail.
Yet evangelical Christians continued to back him in the 2024 election, just as they did in 2016.

'Changed something'

During his first term Trump certainly dabbled with religion. 
He posed with a Bible outside a church near the White House after security forces cleared out "Black Lives Matter" protesters, and had prayer meetings in the Oval Office with evangelicals.
But now Trump claimed to have had what amounts to a religious awakening.
The 78-year-old said that he had become more religious since he narrowly escaped death when a gunman's bullet hit him in the ear at an election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last year.
"It changed something in me," Trump told a prayer breakfast at the US Capitol on Thursday. 
"I believed in God, but I feel much more strongly about it."
Not that this stopped Trump lashing out at the bishop who gave the sermon at his inauguration service, Mariann Budde, after she called on him to show "mercy" to immigrants and LGBTQ people.
But the people Trump has chosen to surround himself in the White House are also telling.
A number have ties to the New Apostolic Reformation church -- a Christian nationalist movement that calls for the levers of government and society to come under Christian control.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has been linked to the movement, as has Paula White, who will head up his new Faith Office.
White hit the headlines in 2020 when she led a marathon -- and widely mocked -- prayer session to call for Trump to win the US election against Joe Biden.
Vance converted to Catholicism in his 30s and appeared at a town hall hosted by a leading figure in the New Apostolic Reformation Church.

'Bring religion back'

Former Fox contributor and military veteran Hegseth, meanwhile, belongs to a church affiliated to the right-wing Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), a Christian nationalist group.
The movement wants to reestablish Biblical law, with some of its adherents calling for the repeal of women's right to vote, US media reported.
While Trump has not expressed support for such views, he has increasingly adopted positions that have delighted America's religious right.
He repeatedly boasted that the Supreme Court justices he picked in his first term helped lead to the 2022 overturning of the nationwide right to abortion.
Since his inauguration he has sent a video message to a huge anti-abortion march attended by far-right groups and signed a series of executive orders tackling liberal causes, from diversity to transgender rights and abortion.
His prayer breakfast speech at the US Capitol this week was unusually explicit in its call for an increased role for religion.
"We have to bring religion back," said Trump. "Let's bring God back into our lives."
dk/st

migration

Handcuffs and beach clean-ups: a Cuban migrant's seven months in Guantanamo Bay

BY LETICIA PINEDA

  • Torres was picked up at sea by the US Coast Guard while fleeing Cuba in mid-2022 and held for seven months at Guantanamo Bay before being transferred to the United States, where she was eventually granted asylum.
  • Yeilis Torres, a 38-year-old Cuban woman, knows all too well the loneliness and anguish facing the migrants flown by the United States this week to its notorious military base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
  • Torres was picked up at sea by the US Coast Guard while fleeing Cuba in mid-2022 and held for seven months at Guantanamo Bay before being transferred to the United States, where she was eventually granted asylum.
Yeilis Torres, a 38-year-old Cuban woman, knows all too well the loneliness and anguish facing the migrants flown by the United States this week to its notorious military base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Torres was picked up at sea by the US Coast Guard while fleeing Cuba in mid-2022 and held for seven months at Guantanamo Bay before being transferred to the United States, where she was eventually granted asylum.
In a rare firsthand account of life at the base, Torres, who now lives in Miami, told AFP: "The hardest part...is the uncertainty and the wait for the long process" of seeking asylum.
For the past two decades Guantanamo Bay naval base, leased by Washington from Havana under a 1903 treaty, has been synonymous with the Pentagon prison, where the United States kept hundreds of people it suspected of being "terrorists" for years after the September 11, 2001 attacks by Al-Qaeda.
Some suffered waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other forms of torture. Fifteen people, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are still imprisoned there.
President Donald Trump's plans to detain up to 30,000 migrants at a separate center on the base has caused an outcry, with rights groups fearing they could be kept there indefinitely, far from public scrutiny.
The NGO Human Rights Watch warned that prolonged detention without proper oversight "violates human rights and may amount to torture."

No legal aid

During her seven months at Guantanamo Bay, surrounded by the sea on one side and a mined buffer zone separating the base from communist Cuba on the other three, Torres claims she was never given access to a lawyer.
She was allowed calls of just "five or six minutes every three days" with her two young children, who stayed behind with her parents in Havana.
She was part of a group of 17 Cubans that set sail across the Gulf of Mexico on a makeshift raft in mid-2022, fleeing Cuba's economic meltdown or, in her case, persecution by the authorities.
The group's raft had been adrift for days when they were picked up by a Coast Guard ship.
She was the only member of the group to be brought to Guantanamo Bay, which has for decades been used to hold Caribbean migrants intercepted at sea.

Handcuffs and black goggles

The other migrants were returned directly to Cuba -- a fate she avoided by pleading she was in danger in her homeland, where she was jailed on charges of assaulting a Communist Party grandee.
On arrival at Guantanamo Bay, she said migrants were handcuffed and forced to wear black goggles "so that we couldn't see anything" while being transferred around the site.
They were kept in isolation while waiting to be interviewed by State Department officials -- in her case for three days but "some people were confined to their rooms for around three, four months."
Of the 21 migrants who were held alongside her, 18 were Cubans, two were Haitian and one from the Dominican Republic. There were two families with children and one pregnant woman.
The children faced especially harsh conditions, Torres said, with no schooling provided for them and no interaction allowed with the children of US troops stationed at the base. 

'Opportunity to work'

Despite the grim conditions, Torres opposes calls to close the migrant center, fearing that without it, Caribbean migrants would never get a chance to make their case for asylum.
"They gave us the opportunity to work," she added, describing how she earned money by taking part in beach clean-ups.
After seven months at the base, Torres was transferred to a migrant detention center in Broward County, Florida where she was held for a further four months before being granted asylum.
The trained manicurist, who now works in a Florida cotton factory, was one of the few of the 21 migrants from her group in Guantanamo to gain entry to the United States, where she hopes to be reunited with her family.
The other migrants accepted asylum offers from third countries such as Canada and Australia.
lp/cb/st

SuperBowl

Sport and politics entwine as Trump makes historic Super Bowl visit

BY THOMAS URBAIN

  • A day later, the White House confirmed that Trump would become the first US president to attend the Super Bowl in person, joining around 74,000 other fans at Sunday's showpiece between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
  • Donald Trump will make history on Sunday when he becomes the first sitting US President to attend the Super Bowl, writing a new chapter in an often-strained relationship with the NFL that has been marked by decades of animosity.
  • A day later, the White House confirmed that Trump would become the first US president to attend the Super Bowl in person, joining around 74,000 other fans at Sunday's showpiece between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
Donald Trump will make history on Sunday when he becomes the first sitting US President to attend the Super Bowl, writing a new chapter in an often-strained relationship with the NFL that has been marked by decades of animosity.
A keen sports fan, Trump's links to America's most popular sport stretch back to the early 1980s, when he first sought to join the exclusive club of NFL team owners by attempting to purchase the Baltimore Colts.
Thwarted on that occasion, he went on to buy a team in the United States Football League (USFL), set up as a spring-summer alternative to the autumn-winter NFL. 
Trump was subsequently the driving force behind an acrimonious lawsuit filed by the USFL which accused the NFL of operating a monopoly, with the goal of forcing a USFL-NFL merger.
Although a jury found in favor of Trump's USFL, the league was awarded only $3 in damages, effectively leading to the league's decision to close in 1986 amid multi-million dollar losses.
Trump's first presidential term, meanwhile, witnessed a series of running battles against the NFL and its players, most notably following Colin Kaepernick's decision to kneel during the playing of the US national anthem in protest at racial injustice.
"Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. He's fired!'" Trump roared at a September 2017 rally in Alabama.
That led to a wave of player protests across the NFL, with more than 200 players kneeling during the national anthem in solidarity with Kaepernick and in defiance of Trump's rhetoric.
"Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in response to Trump's remarks.
Several teams from the NFL and other sports opted to skip the traditional White House reception offered to championship-winning teams in a snub to Trump. 
The Philadelphia Eagles, Super Bowl winners in the 2017-2018 season, were disinvited by the White House after several players said they would not attend. 

Sporting foothold

Yet just like the expansion of his electoral base during the presidential campaign, Trump has gradually found a foothold in sport over the past year.
On Monday he welcomed the Florida Panthers ice hockey team to the White House in recognition of their National Hockey League championship victory last season.
A day later, the White House confirmed that Trump would become the first US president to attend the Super Bowl in person, joining around 74,000 other fans at Sunday's showpiece between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
Amy Bass, a professor of sports studies at Manhattanville University in New York, says Trump's decision to attend the Super Bowl is "political."
"Even if he is going because he loves football ... it is a political move because he is the president of the United States and everything he does is political," Bass told AFP.
Some have interpreted the NFL's decision to remove the words "End Racism" from the end zone at this weekend's Super Bowl as a concession to the "anti-woke" stance of the new Trump administration.
However NFL chief Goodell insisted on Monday that the league remained firmly committed to diversity programs, despite the Trump administration's calls for similar initiatives in government and elsewhere to be scrapped.
"We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League ... we've proven to ourselves that it does make the NFL better," Goodell said.
Players at Sunday's Super Bowl have reacted positively to Trump's attendance, with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce calling it a "great honor."
That could potentially lead to some awkwardness between Kelce and his pop icon girlfriend, Taylor Swift. Swift endorsed Trump's election rival Kamala Harris last year, prompting Trump to write on social media: "I hate Taylor Swift."
The Super Bowl's high-profile halftime concert on Sunday could also be an opportunity for anti-Trump sentiment, with rapper Kendrick Lamar, who has been critical of the president in the past, headlining the show.  
Bass wonders how fans at the Superdome might respond on Sunday, given the Eagles' recent history with Trump following the 2018 row.
"Here's the thing about using a stadium or a ball park as a political arena: you have absolutely no idea what the crowd is going to do, because you, the politician, are not why anyone is there," Bass said.
"You'd be hard pressed to find a city that hates Donald Trump more than Philadelphia, so....might they be disrespectful? Yes. And that's a shame. Because the office of the president deserves respect.
"But Donald Trump changed the rules on respect, so all's fair."
tu/rcw/bb

racism

Musk vows to rehire deputy who quit over racist posts

  • Elez's resignation came after a court ruled that he and another DOGE worker could continue to access the personal information of millions of Americans kept in Treasury payment systems.
  • US tech billionaire Elon Musk said Friday he was reinstating a deputy who quit a job giving him access to the sensitive personal data of millions of Americans after the staffer was linked to a racist social media account.
  • Elez's resignation came after a court ruled that he and another DOGE worker could continue to access the personal information of millions of Americans kept in Treasury payment systems.
US tech billionaire Elon Musk said Friday he was reinstating a deputy who quit a job giving him access to the sensitive personal data of millions of Americans after the staffer was linked to a racist social media account.
Marko Elez, 25, resigned from Musk's self-styled Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Thursday when The Wall Street Journal uncovered a welter of offensive posts on the account, including a boast from last July that "I was racist before it was cool." 
Musk -- US President Donald Trump's close confidante and point man on spending cuts -- asked his 216 million X followers if he should reinstate "@DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym." 
More than three-quarters of the 385,000 respondents voted "yes," prompting Musk to announce: "He will be brought back. To err is human, to forgive divine."
X relaxed its enforcement of offensive rhetoric -- reinstating many banned far-right figures -- after it was acquired in 2022 by Musk, whose infamous raised-arm salute during Trump's inauguration drew comparisons to a Nazi salute.
The world's richest man has drawn criticism at home and in Europe for his vocal support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and repeatedly insulting the US ally's political leaders.
"Normalize Indian hate," the account associated with Elez posted in September, as Musk was facing a barrage of criticism from the Trumpist far right for his support for hiring skilled foreign workers in the tech sector.
In another post, it reportedly said it "would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth."
Elez's resignation came after a court ruled that he and another DOGE worker could continue to access the personal information of millions of Americans kept in Treasury payment systems.
His prospects for redemption quickly improved as Vice President JD Vance -- whose wife and children have Indian heritage -- wrote a post blaming the media for the disgraced official's downfall.
"Here's my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez's posts, but I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life," said Vance. 
"We shouldn't reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he's a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that."
Trump -- who has embarked on an aggressive purge of initiatives to counter discrimination in government -- later told reporters in the White House he supported Vance's stance.
ft/md

diplomacy

Japan PM, Trump play nice despite tariff threat

BY DANNY KEMP

  • So far the US president has slapped tariffs on China and ordered them on Mexico and Canada before halting them for a month.
  • Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and US President Donald Trump struck a warm tone at their first meeting on Friday, with Tokyo avoiding tariffs that Trump has slapped on other allies -- for now.
  • So far the US president has slapped tariffs on China and ordered them on Mexico and Canada before halting them for a month.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and US President Donald Trump struck a warm tone at their first meeting on Friday, with Tokyo avoiding tariffs that Trump has slapped on other allies -- for now.
Heaping praise on each other at the White House, the two leaders pledged to stand together against Chinese "aggression" and said they found a solution for a blocked deal for troubled US Steel.
Trump however pressed Ishiba to cut the US trade deficit with Japan to zero, and warned that Tokyo could still face tariffs on exported goods if it fails to do so.
Ishiba, an avowed "geek" and model warship fan, has been under pressure to replicate Trump's close relationship with former premier and golf buddy Shinzo Abe. 
Both leaders insisted they had struck up a rapport during what was only the second visit by a foreign leader of Trump's new term.

'Frightening'

"I was so excited to see such a celebrity on television in person," Ishiba told their joint press conference -- while saying he was not trying to "suck up." 
"On television he is frightening and has a very strong personality. But when I met with him actually he was very sincere and very powerful."
As they exchanged photographs, Trump praised the 68-year-old Japanese premier as "good looking" -- typically one of the former reality TV star's highest orders of praise.
And the US president laughed and said "that's a very good answer" when Ishiba said he could not respond to a "theoretical question" about whether he would retaliate to any US tariffs.
Trump meanwhile said that Japan's Nippon Steel will make a major investment in US Steel, but not take over the troubled company as previously negotiated.
Trump said "they'll be looking at an investment rather than a purchase." His predecessor Joe Biden had blocked the deal.
The two leaders also doubled down on decades-old US ties in security and trade -- despite fears that Trump could turn on Tokyo as he has with other US allies.

 Chinese 'aggression'

Trump said they had agreed to fight "Chinese economic aggression" and in a joint statement they condemned Beijing for "provocative activities" in the contested South China Sea.
They also called for a denuclearized North Korea, although Trump -- who met its leader Kim Jong-un during his first term -- said he wanted to have "relations" with Pyongyang.
Behind Trump's expressions of support were Japan's promises of a 1 trillion dollar investment in the United States and to boost Japanese purchases of US defense equipment. 
Ishiba said his country was the biggest investor in the United States and would step up its spending.
The soft-spoken, cigarette-smoking Ishiba had rushed to Washington hoping to blunt the edge of Trump's "America First" policies.
Under Abe, Japan was shielded from some of Trump's more punishing tendencies, such as sudden trade wars and pressure to increase financial contributions towards hosting US soldiers.
Days after Trump's first election victory, Abe rushed to deliver to him a gold-plated golf club. Trump also hosted Abe's widow Akie for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this past December.
So far the US president has slapped tariffs on China and ordered them on Mexico and Canada before halting them for a month.
He has also pledged tariffs on the European Union and said Friday that he would announce unspecified "reciprocal tariffs" next week.
dk/bgs

conflict

International ire over Trump sanctions against ICC

  • Court president Tomoko Akane said: "Such threats and coercive measures constitute serious attacks against the court's states parties, the rule of law based international order and millions of victims."
  • The International Criminal Court and dozens of countries on Friday condemned sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump over probes targeting America and Israel as a threat to "law based international order".
  • Court president Tomoko Akane said: "Such threats and coercive measures constitute serious attacks against the court's states parties, the rule of law based international order and millions of victims."
The International Criminal Court and dozens of countries on Friday condemned sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump over probes targeting America and Israel as a threat to "law based international order".
The United Nations and the European Union urged Trump to reverse the asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their families and anyone deemed to have helped ICC investigations.
US allies, including Britain, France and Canada, were among 79 of the 125 ICC member states who said the US action "could jeopardize" the safety of victims, witnesses and court officials. 
Trump on Thursday signed an executive order saying that the court, which was founded in 2002 to investiate genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, had "abused its power" by issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held talks with the US president on Tuesday.
The ICC, which is based in The Hague, said the sanctions sought to "harm its independent and impartial judicial work". It vowed to stand "firmly" with staff "providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world".
Court president Tomoko Akane said: "Such threats and coercive measures constitute serious attacks against the court's states parties, the rule of law based international order and millions of victims."

'Undermines' justice system

The United Nations urged Trump to reverse the move.
"The court should be fully able to undertake its independent work," OHCHR UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in an email statement.
"The rule of law remains essential to our collective peace and security. Seeking accountability globally makes the world a safer place for everyone."
Antonio Costa, who heads the European Council representing the EU's 27 member states, wrote on X that the move "undermines the international criminal justice system".
The European Commission expressed "regret" and stressed the ICC's "key importance in upholding international criminal justice and the fight against impunity".
The 79 ICC member countries said Trump's sanctions increased the "risk of impunity" for serious crimes and "threaten to erode the international rule of law".
That statement was led by Slovenia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Sierra Leone and Vanuatu but Brazil, Britain, Canada, France and Germany were among the signatories.
The court has pursued investigations in several conflict zones and Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy was quick to express concern over the sanctions.
"We hope that they will not affect the court's ability to achieve justice for the victims of Russian aggression," he said. The Kremlin only reaffirmed that it does not recognise the ICC.

 ICC 'illegitimate': Trump

The names of individuals affected by sanctions were not immediately released, but previous US sanctions under Trump targeted the court's prosecutor.
Trump's order said that the tribunal had engaged in "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel", referring to ICC probes into alleged war crimes by US service members in Afghanistan and Israeli troops in Gaza.
Israel's foreign minister Gideon Saar strongly applauded Trump and called the court's actions against Israel "immoral" and without "legal basis".
Neither the United States nor Israel are members of the court.
Following a request by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, judges issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas's military chief Mohammed Deif, who was killed last year.
The court said it had found "reasonable grounds" to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation in Gaza, as well as crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
Netanyahu accused the court of anti-Semitism.
During his first term, Trump imposed financial sanctions and a visa ban on the ICC's then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, and other senior officials in 2020. 
His administration acted after Bensouda launched an investigation into allegations of war crimes against US soldiers in Afghanistan. She opened a probe into events in the Palestinian territories in 2019.
Current prosecutor Khan later effectively dropped the US from the Afghan investigation and focused on the Taliban instead.  
President Joe Biden lifted the US sanctions after taking office in 2021.
burs-tw/bc

Israel

'Red line': Arab-Americans oppose Trump's Gaza takeover plan

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • Bahbah chairs the group formerly known as "Arab Americans for Trump," recently renamed "Arab Americans for Peace" -- a change he says reflects the post-election shift rather than any reaction to Trump's policies.
  • In America's largest Arab enclave, where frustration with President Joe Biden's Gaza policy led many to back Donald Trump, anger is now growing over the president's explosive proposal to take control of the Palestinian territory.
  • Bahbah chairs the group formerly known as "Arab Americans for Trump," recently renamed "Arab Americans for Peace" -- a change he says reflects the post-election shift rather than any reaction to Trump's policies.
In America's largest Arab enclave, where frustration with President Joe Biden's Gaza policy led many to back Donald Trump, anger is now growing over the president's explosive proposal to take control of the Palestinian territory.
But Dearborn voters say their only viable option in 2024 was to punish Democrats, leveraging their influence as a minority community on their core issue.
"I do not regret my vote," said Samra'a Luqman, a political activist in this Detroit suburb of 110,000, where most residents have Middle Eastern or North African heritage.
Previously a Democratic stronghold, Dearborn saw Trump win 42.5 percent of the vote in November, followed by Kamala Harris at 36.3 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 18.3 percent.
Some Democratic critics claim the community helped deliver Michigan to Trump, despite his decisive 80,000-vote margin -- a gap too large to be attributed solely to shifts within the relatively small Arab and Muslim electorate. Moreover, Trump carried all seven swing states.
"We've seen the great march of return, emotions I can't even describe," said 42-year-old Luqman, describing the overwhelming joy of displaced Palestinians finally returning home despite the devastation. She credited Trump for making the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas possible.

Trump's promises

Yet Luqman and other Trump voters insist they strongly oppose the Republican's idea of displacing the nearly two million Gazans from their homeland and remain committed to holding both US political parties accountable in future elections.
"That's not something we will stand for," said Faye Nemer, 39, a prominent businesswoman who lost relatives in Israel's recent attacks on Lebanon. "Palestine is a red line for the community."
Nemer said the community met with high-level Democrats and Republicans before deciding whom to support.
Trump visited Dearborn, while Harris did not, touring the state instead with Liz Cheney, who many Americans consider a war hawk.
Nemer, who helped organize a lunch for Trump at a local restaurant, said he pledged support for peace and a two-state solution -- an assurance that swayed many voters. She remains "very optimistic" he will ultimately deliver.
Bishara Bahbah, a prominent Trump supporter celebrating in Dearborn on election night, is also confident in Trump's broader vision for Middle East diplomacy.
"The president wants to see peace in the Middle East that satisfies all parties," he told AFP, insisting Trump was speaking "hypothetically rather than realistically" about displacing Gazans.
Bahbah chairs the group formerly known as "Arab Americans for Trump," recently renamed "Arab Americans for Peace" -- a change he says reflects the post-election shift rather than any reaction to Trump's policies.

Silence from mayors

Trump also secured endorsements from Arab American mayors Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights and Amer Ghalib of Hamtramck, although neither responded to requests for comment. 
Bazzi did speak to AFP on election night, celebrating Trump's win.
For local news publisher Osama Siblani, 70, their silence may stem from embarrassment.
"They have nothing to say, but they have to answer to their constituents," he said, noting that both mayors face re-election in 2025.
"Trump came here and he lied. He said, 'I'm going to spread peace and love in the region and in the world.' And as soon as he got in, he wants to take Canada, he wants to take Greenland, he wants to take Panama, he wants to take Gaza."
Still, Siblani believes Democrats are to blame for their losses, pointing out that his newspaper, The Arab American News, endorsed neither candidate.
"We are not responsible for this outcome; our price was low," said comedian and lawyer Amer Zahr, 47, who voted for Stein.
Zahr argued that Harris could have secured Arab American support simply by signaling openness to an arms embargo on Israel.
Instead, Democrats' condemnation of Trump's proposals and newfound willingness to talk about "ethnic cleansing" only "validates" the community's choices by proving the party can be nudged in the right direction with the right incentives, he said.
Luqman, who leans strongly left on issues like the environment and abortion, acknowledged the difficult choice many faced.
"A lot of people held their nose and voted who did not want to vote Republican but did it anyway, and are now open to either party," she said.
ia/dw

trade

Trudeau says Trump's Canada annexation threat 'a real thing'

BY BEN SIMON

  • Asked about Trudeau's comments on the sidelines of the summit, and whether Ottawa was concerned Trump's annexation threat was genuine, Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told AFP "no one can question the sovereignty of Canada."
  • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told an economic summit Friday that President Donald Trump is serious about annexing Canada to access its natural resources, as his government vowed the country's sovereignty was non-negotiable.
  • Asked about Trudeau's comments on the sidelines of the summit, and whether Ottawa was concerned Trump's annexation threat was genuine, Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told AFP "no one can question the sovereignty of Canada."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told an economic summit Friday that President Donald Trump is serious about annexing Canada to access its natural resources, as his government vowed the country's sovereignty was non-negotiable.
Trudeau called the summit of business and labor leaders to coordinate a response to Trump's looming threat of a 25 percent tariff on all Canadian imports, a penalty that could cripple Canada's economy.  
In closed-door remarks, Trudeau told a group of executives that for Trump, "absorbing Canada" is "a real thing," according to multiple Canadian media reports. 
"I suggest that not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state," he said. 
The comments, made after media left the room, were audible on a speaker outside the hall and heard by the Toronto Star and public broadcaster CBC.
"They’re very aware of our resources, of what we have and they very much want to be able to benefit from those," he further said. 
"But Mr Trump has it in mind that one of the easiest ways of doing that is absorbing our country. And it is a real thing."
Asked about Trudeau's comments on the sidelines of the summit, and whether Ottawa was concerned Trump's annexation threat was genuine, Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told AFP "no one can question the sovereignty of Canada."
"Our American friends understand that they need Canada for their economic security, they need Canada for their energy security and they need Canada for their national security," he said. 
Responding to reporters questions about Trudeau's comments, Trade Minister Anita Anand said Canada was resolved to resist any US expansionism. 
"There will be no messing with the 49th parallel, period," she said, referring to the US-Canadian border. 
Trump has mocked Canadian sovereignty repeatedly since winning the November election. 
He regularly refers to Canada as the "51st state," and has demeaned Trudeau by calling him "governor," instead of prime minister. 
Trump has also characterized billions of dollars in daily bilateral trade as a US subsidy and claimed without evidence that Canada would not be "a viable country" without it.
His tariffs were set to come into force on Tuesday, but Trump granted Canada a 30 day reprieve for further negotiations. 
He has said tariffs are necessary to force Canadian action on the flow of the drug fentanyl and migrants -- neither of which are in fact prominent issues on the border -- but has also complained about trade deficits. 
In opening remarks at the summit, Trudeau said Ottawa would continue to work to address Trump's concerns about fentanyl and migrants, even if Canada was not a significant contributor to either problem in the United States. 
But beyond the immediate tariff threat, Trudeau said Canada should be prepared for "what may be a more challenging long-term political situation with the United States."
bs/amc/sms

environment

Trump slams paper straws, vows 'back to plastic'

  • Trump pledged action against paper straws, which are unpopular with many consumers but create less plastic pollution.
  • President Donald Trump on Friday raged against eco-friendly paper straws promoted by his predecessor Joe Biden, and pledged that the United States would return to plastic ones.
  • Trump pledged action against paper straws, which are unpopular with many consumers but create less plastic pollution.
President Donald Trump on Friday raged against eco-friendly paper straws promoted by his predecessor Joe Biden, and pledged that the United States would return to plastic ones.
The move is his latest on green issues since returning to power, after pulling out of the Paris climate change agreement and ordering deregulations as part of a "drill, baby, drill" agenda.
On Thursday, the Republican's administration also sought to block funding for a network of electric-vehicle charging stations across the country, sparking fury from environmentalists.
Trump pledged action against paper straws, which are unpopular with many consumers but create less plastic pollution.
"I will be signing an Executive Order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don't work. BACK TO PLASTIC!" he said on social media.
Democrat Biden had announced a target to eliminate single-use plastic utensils like drinking straws by 2035 across government agencies.
The trend for paper drinking straws has long irritated Trump.
"They want to ban straws. Has anyone tried those paper straws? They're not working too good," he said during a campaign rally in the 2020 election against Biden.
"It disintegrates as you drink it, and if you have a nice tie like this tie, you've got no choice."
Trump's campaign team previously sold branded plastic straws with the slogan: "Liberal paper straws don't work."
The president, who calls climate change a scam, has also often targeted electric vehicles despite his close alliance with Tesla chief Elon Musk.
Halting rollout of the $5 billion national EV charging network would be a major setback to efforts to cut climate-changing emissions, according to green campaigners.
"His administration's move to block funding for a bipartisan effort to build out our national EV charging network is a blatant, illegal power grab," the Evergreen Action group said.
"This program is delivering real benefits to all 50 states -- creating jobs, boosting economic opportunities, and cutting pollution."
aue-dk-bgs/des

diplomacy

India PM Modi to meet Trump in US visit next week: foreign ministry

  • But New Delhi's foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday pointed out that  the "process of deportation is not a new one", and that the United States had expelled more than 15,000 Indians since 2009, almost half of them between 2019-2024.
  • Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet President Donald Trump during a trip to the United States next week, the foreign ministry in New Delhi said on Friday.
  • But New Delhi's foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday pointed out that  the "process of deportation is not a new one", and that the United States had expelled more than 15,000 Indians since 2009, almost half of them between 2019-2024.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet President Donald Trump during a trip to the United States next week, the foreign ministry in New Delhi said on Friday.
Modi, who will visit Washington from February 12-13, will be "among the first few world leaders to visit the United States following the inauguration of President Trump", India's top career diplomat, Vikram Misri, told reporters.
Misri said there had been a "very close rapport" between the leaders, although their ties have so far failed to bring a breakthrough on a long-sought US-India trade deal.
"The visit will be a valuable opportunity to engage the new administration on all areas of mutual interest", he said, adding that Modi would hold a bilateral meeting with Trump.
"This has been one of our strongest international partnerships in recent years and the prime minister's visit is in line with our steady engagement with the new administration," Misri said.
Modi was among the first to congratulate his "dear friend" Trump on his inauguration last month, saying he wanted New Delhi and Washington to work closely together.
"I look forward to working closely together once again, to benefit both our countries, and to shape a better future for the world", Modi wrote on X in January.

'Very close rapport'

However, Trump pressed Modi for "fair" trading ties in a telephone call later that month, the White House said, as Trump pushed his hardline trade agenda with world leaders.
Trump and Modi also discussed strengthening the so-called Quad grouping with Australia and Japan, which is widely seen as a counterweight to China.
India is due to host the bloc's leaders later this year.
The Indian and US leaders, both of whom critics accuse of authoritarian tendencies, enjoyed warm relations when Trump was in the White House from 2017 to 2021.
Modi visited Trump in office in 2017 and 2019.
He also hosted Trump at a huge rally in his home state of Gujarat, while Trump returned the favour with a similar event in Houston, Texas.
"There is an obvious convergence of interests between the two countries," Misri said, which included "trade, investment, technology, defence cooperation, counter-terrorism (and) the security of the Indo-Pacific".
The meeting will come days after a US military airplane flew back 104 Indian migrants, part of Trump's overhaul of immigration.
India's foreign ministry said it was "firmly opposed to illegal migration, especially as it is linked to other forms of organised crime".
But New Delhi's foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday pointed out that  the "process of deportation is not a new one", and that the United States had expelled more than 15,000 Indians since 2009, almost half of them between 2019-2024.
India is the world's fifth-largest economy and enjoys world-beating GDP growth, but hundreds of thousands of its citizens still leave the country each year seeking better opportunities abroad.
bb-pjm/dhw

conflict

Trump sanctions ICC for 'illegitimate' Israel, US probes

BY DANNY KEMP

  • "The Court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world," it said in a statement. 
  • US President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on the International Criminal Court for probes targeting America and its ally Israel, but the ICC on Friday vowed to continue providing "justice and hope" around the world.
  • "The Court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world," it said in a statement. 
US President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on the International Criminal Court for probes targeting America and its ally Israel, but the ICC on Friday vowed to continue providing "justice and hope" around the world.
Trump signed an executive order Thursday saying the court in The Hague had "abused its power" by issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held talks with the US president on Tuesday.
He ordered asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their family members, along with anyone deemed to have helped the court's investigations.
The ICC on Friday condemned the move, which it said sought to "harm its independent and impartial judicial work".
"The Court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world," it said in a statement. 
The names of the individuals affected by the sanctions were not immediately released, but previous US sanctions under Trump had targeted the court's prosecutor.
Trump's order said the tribunal had engaged in "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel," referring to ICC probes into alleged war crimes by US service members in Afghanistan and Israeli troops in Gaza.
Israel's foreign minister applauded Trump on Friday over the sanctions, calling the court's actions against Israel illegitimate.
"I strongly commend @POTUS President Trump's executive order imposing sanctions on the so-called 'international criminal court'," Gideon Saar wrote on X, adding that the ICC's actions were "immoral and have no legal basis".
Neither the United States nor Israel are members of the court.
The EU warned the move was a threat to its independence.
"Sanctioning the ICC threatens the Court's independence and undermines the international criminal justice system as a whole," Antonio Costa, who heads the European Council representing the EU's 27 member states, wrote on X. 
The sanctions are a show of support after Netanyahu's visit to the White House, during which Trump unveiled a plan for the United States to "take over" Gaza and move Palestinians to other Middle Eastern countries.
The UN and legal experts have said Trump's plan would be illegal under international law. Forcible displacement is also a crime under the ICC's governing Rome Statute.

 'Criminal responsibility'

Following a request by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, judges issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas's military chief Mohammed Deif -- whom Israel says is dead.
The court said it had found "reasonable grounds" to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare during the Gaza war, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
Netanyahu has accused the court of anti-Semitism.
During his first term, Trump imposed financial sanctions and a visa ban on the ICC's then-prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and other senior officials and staff in 2020. 
Describing it as a "kangaroo court," his then-administration made the move after Gambian-born Bensouda launched an investigation into allegations of war crimes against US soldiers in Afghanistan.
While his order at the time did not name Israel, Trump administration officials said they were also angered by Bensouda's opening of a probe into the situation in the Palestinian territories in 2019.
President Joe Biden lifted the sanctions soon after taking office in 2021.
Prosecutor Khan later effectively dropped the United States from the Afghan investigation and focused on the Taliban instead.  
Biden strongly condemned the "outrageous" warrant against Netanyahu in November.
The US House passed a bill last month to sanction the ICC, but Senate Democrats blocked it last week, saying the bill could backfire on US allies and firms.
But Democrats have also expressed anger at the sanctions on Netanyahu.
dk/jgc/dhw/aph/sn 

US

Hong Kong to file complaint with WTO over US tariffs

  • A spokesperson for the financial hub said Friday the Hong Kong government "will formally launch procedures in accordance with the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism against the US' unreasonable measures to defend our legitimate rights".
  • Hong Kong will file a complaint with the World Trade Organization in response to heightened US tariffs on its goods, a government spokesperson said Friday, days after Beijing announced a similar move.
  • A spokesperson for the financial hub said Friday the Hong Kong government "will formally launch procedures in accordance with the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism against the US' unreasonable measures to defend our legitimate rights".
Hong Kong will file a complaint with the World Trade Organization in response to heightened US tariffs on its goods, a government spokesperson said Friday, days after Beijing announced a similar move.
US President Donald Trump over the weekend launched the opening salvo in an escalating trade war with China, imposing a 10 percent tariff hike on goods coming from mainland Chinese and Hong Kong.
A spokesperson for the financial hub said Friday the Hong Kong government "will formally launch procedures in accordance with the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism against the US' unreasonable measures to defend our legitimate rights".
The US tariffs are "grossly inconsistent with the relevant WTO rules and ignore our status as a separate customs territory", the spokesperson said, adding that the government "strongly opposes" the measures.
Mainland China also filed a complaint with the WTO to defend its "legitimate rights and interests", its commerce ministry said.
After reverting to Chinese rule in 1997, Hong Kong has been run as a special administrative region and is classed as a separate customs territory.
It has been a WTO member for three decades.
Hong Kong's secretary for commerce and economic development Algernon Yau said Thursday that the tariffs "are not expected to have a large impact".
Goods exported from Hong Kong to the United States in 2023 were valued at around HK$6.1 billion ($780 million) and made up only 0.1 percent of the city's total exports, Yau added.
City officials have for years tread a fine line by insisting Hong Kong is a separate entity in international trade, but politically an "inalienable part" of China.
The United States removed Hong Kong's special trading privileges in 2020 after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the former British colony to curb dissent.
Trump at the time said in an executive order that Hong Kong was "no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify differential treatment in relation to (China)".
hol/oho/dhw

crypto

'Lottery ticket': Crypto investors brace for bumpy ride under Trump

BY LUCIE LEQUIER

  • The value of Bitcoin, by far the most important crypto which has broken record after record and gained around 50 percent since Trump's election, dropped six percent at the height of the crash.
  • Nick was enjoying his Saturday off work in Pennsylvania when he received an unexpected and alarming message: cryptocurrencies, buoyed since Donald Trump's November 5 election win, were in freefall. 
  • The value of Bitcoin, by far the most important crypto which has broken record after record and gained around 50 percent since Trump's election, dropped six percent at the height of the crash.
Nick was enjoying his Saturday off work in Pennsylvania when he received an unexpected and alarming message: cryptocurrencies, buoyed since Donald Trump's November 5 election win, were in freefall. 
The crash immediately wiped out tens of thousands of dollars from his savings. 
"I clicked on it and watched it for like a minute just drop straight down," the 28-year-old American construction worker, who asked for anonymity because of sensitivities around investing in crypto assets, told AFP. 
"I was like, 'Well, I guess I should stop looking at it now'," he added with a laugh.
Crypto investors like Nick are being buffeted by Trump's vow to make the United States the "crypto capital of the planet" while at the same time upending trade and other policy areas with a raft of executive orders and announcements.
Digital currencies are now seeing sudden fluctuations that are impacting legions of both small and large investors. 
Last weekend, cryptos suffered a meltdown after Trump announced impending trade tariffs on US imports from Canada, China and Mexico, prompting investors to turn to safer assets. 
The value of Bitcoin, by far the most important crypto which has broken record after record and gained around 50 percent since Trump's election, dropped six percent at the height of the crash.
Ether, another blockchain currency considered credible, fell around a quarter. 
The falls have been more dramatic for so-called "meme coins" -- cheap and highly volatile cryptos with little or no economic use, themed around a celebrity or viral internet phenomenon. 
In the space of a few hours, Nick lost around $60,000 from the $150,000 he had accumulated over five years in his virtual wallets.
Most of his holdings were in Dogecoin -- a meme coin backed by billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk. 
But Nick remains undeterred and convinced that these highly volatile assets will rebound, just as they did in 2021 when their popularity surged. 
"I try to talk about it with my co-workers, but they don't believe in it like I do," he confided. 

'Rollercoaster ride'

Larisa Yarovaya of the Southampton Business School in southern England said Bitcoin's record rises were "definitely driven by investment optimism surrounding political endorsements".
She warned that could be "characterised as a bubble", at risk of bursting and spreading beyond crypto, given they are "increasingly interconnected with traditional assets in today's financial landscape".
Yarovaya also called the growing influence of "political personalities" on the sector "significant and highly concerning". 
"Powerful individuals can easily exploit the trust of their followers for personal gain, leading to serious conflicts of interest," she warned.
The day before his inauguration, Trump launched his own meme coin -- the "Trump" -- posing serious ethical questions given his administration will undoubtedly exert a big influence on crypto during his four-year term.
"When Musk speaks or tweets, immediately the price of crypto can jump, because people are afraid of missing the opportunity," explained Stan, a 28-year-old Paris-based public affairs consultant and crypto investor. He also asked for anonymity.
For Stan, investing in meme coins is like "buying a lottery ticket".
Savva, a 26-year-old research assistant in London, has personal experience of crypto's rollercoaster ride, recalling how his first foray into meme coin investing made him $700 within minutes.
"That's kind of what hooked me," he told AFP, also declining to give his last name.
The tech enthusiast, who developed his own short-lived meme coin-trading robot, found his experience with crypto highly stressful.
"A lot of the times I couldn't hold conversations because I was worried that my assets were doing poorly or that I was going to lose all my money," he noted. 
Although Savva still believes in the philosophy of cryptos, which allow investing outside of traditional financial institutions' controls, he has retreated after losing the $5,000 he invested. 
"It took a huge toll on me physically and mentally and I was just like 'I need to stop'," he said, adding: "It's always too late when you realise."
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government

Judge pauses Musk plan for mass cull of US govt workers

BY SEBASTIAN SMITH

  • The federal judge in Massachusetts ordered a temporary injunction on the plan's deadline -- midnight Thursday -- given by Musk for the country's more than two million government employees.
  • A judge on Thursday suspended a scheme masterminded by billionaire Elon Musk to slash the size of the US government by encouraging federal workers to quit through a mass buyout.
  • The federal judge in Massachusetts ordered a temporary injunction on the plan's deadline -- midnight Thursday -- given by Musk for the country's more than two million government employees.
A judge on Thursday suspended a scheme masterminded by billionaire Elon Musk to slash the size of the US government by encouraging federal workers to quit through a mass buyout.
The federal judge in Massachusetts ordered a temporary injunction on the plan's deadline -- midnight Thursday -- given by Musk for the country's more than two million government employees. The offer was to quit with eight months' pay or risk being fired in future culls.
The deadline is now extended to Monday, when US District Judge George O'Toole will hold a hearing on the merits of the case brought by labor unions, US media reported.
Musk, the world's richest person and President Donald Trump's biggest donor, is in charge of a free-ranging entity called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that aims to gut the government.
According to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, more than 40,000 staff have so far accepted the buyout deal -- a relatively small number.
Unions representing some 800,000 civil servants and Democratic members of Congress are resisting the scheme and have challenged the legality of threats to fire civil servants.
But the broader budget cutting campaign -- fanned by anti-government-worker invective from Trump and his aides -- has already severely disrupted the huge departments and agencies that for decades have run everything from education to national intelligence.
USAID, the government's humanitarian aid agency, has been crippled, with foreign-based staff ordered home and the organization's programs lambasted daily -- and often inaccurately -- as wasteful by the White House and right-wing media.
A union official confirmed reports that the agency's global workforce would be slashed from over 10,000 to just under 300.
"Eventually we will have to stop food distribution, because we won't have bodies in the field to make sure the food is actually being distributed," Randy Chester, vice president of the American Foreign Service Association, told reporters.
Robin Thurston, of Democracy Forward, which has sued the Trump administration over the mass layoffs at USAID, slammed the "unlawful seizure of this agency by the Trump-Vance administration, in a plain violation of basic constitutional principles about separation of power."
Trump has also repeatedly said he wants to shut down the Department of Education. The inducements to resign have further been extended to the CIA.
An official with the agency that manages government property said the real estate portfolio, barring Department of Defense buildings, should be cut by "at least 50 percent."
Leavitt told reporters that federal workers should "accept the very generous offer" of a deferred resignation.
She said "competent" replacements would be found for those who "want to rip the American people off."
Among the controversies swirling around the Musk plan is how much access the South African-born tycoon is getting to secret government data, including the Treasury's entire payment system.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg TV on Thursday that there was "a lot of misinformation" and that access to such data was only given to two Treasury employees who are working with Musk.
Bessent said those employees had "read-only" access, meaning they couldn't change the data.
One of those two resigned, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, after it emerged that he had advocated racism and eugenics on social media.

'Chill' or big 'con'?

Questions are rife over the buyout, including over whether Trump has the legal right to make the offer and whether the conditions will be honored.
The plan was first announced in an email sent across most of the vast federal government and titled "Fork in the road" -- the same phrasing as the note Musk sent to employees at Twitter when he bought the social media platform in 2022 and renamed it X.
Musk says the paid departures are a chance to "take the vacation you always wanted, or just watch movies and chill, while receiving your full government pay and benefits."
Unions warn that without Congress signing off on the use of federally budgeted money, the agreements may be worthless. 
"Federal employees shouldn't be misled by slick talk from unelected billionaires and their lackeys," said Everett Kelley, president of the large American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
An employee in the US Office of Personnel Management, where Musk has put his own staff in key positions, said the plan was to encourage resignations through "panic."
"We're trying to instill a panic so that people just walk out the door and leave government in a crippled state, which is partly their objective," the employee told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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