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The U.S. government needs to “delete entire agencies” in a cost and efficiency drive, tech billionaire and Tesla
co-founder and CEO Elon Musk said Thursday when asked about whether the changes he is implementing as part of President Donald Trump’s administration will last beyond Trump’s term.

“I think we do need to delete entire agencies, as opposed to leave part of them behind. … It’s kind of like leaving a weed,” Musk said. “If you don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back. But if you remove the roots of the weed — it doesn’t stop weeds from ever going back, but it makes it harder.”

Musk, who also founded SpaceX and owns social media platform X, made the comments while speaking via video link to an audience at Dubai’s annual World Governments Summit, as part of a conversation hosted by the UAE’s artificial intelligence minister, Omar Sultan Al Olama.

“So we have to really delete entire agencies, many of them,” Musk said. “And that’s not to say there won’t be an increase over time of bureaucracy in some new administration, but it will be from a much lower baseline. So certainly it’s a step in the right direction.”

“Nothing’s forever,” he added, “but I think we can strengthen the foundations of the United States substantially.”

Trump appointed the South African-born engineer and tech entrepreneur as a “special government employee” and the head of a new advisory body called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, under the administration. Musk has been vocal about his aims to improve government efficiency and reduce bureaucracy and regulations, and on Thursday said that such efforts could amount to a $1 trillion reduction in the federal deficit by 2026.

Source : https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/13/elon-musk-calls-for-the-us-government-to-delete-entire-agencies-remove-the-roots-of-the-weed.html

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after meeting US President Donald Trump at the White House, shared his vision of ‘Make India Great Again’. PM Modi said that the joint vision of MAGA and MIGA will become a mega partnership.
MIGA is a phrase inspired by Donald Trump’s famous slogan ‘Make America Great Again’. “In the language of America, it’s Make India Great Again – MIGA. When America and India work together, this MAGA plus MIGA becomes a ‘mega partnership for prosperity’ and it is this mega spirit that gives new scale and scope to our objectives,” said PM Modi while addressing a joint press conference alongside Trump.

“The people of America are well aware of President Trump’s motto ‘MAGA – Make America Great Again.’ The people of India too are focusing on heritage and development as they move forward at a fast pace and with a firm resolve towards the goal of Viksit Bharat 2047,” he added.

Sharing a glimpse from Modi-Trump joint press conference, Union Minister Piyush Goyal wrote on X, “Make America Great Again (MAGA) + Make India Great Again (MIGA) = MEGA Partnership for Prosperity.”

India and the US have decided to take a big leap in broad-basing their strategic ties in several critical areas, with President Trump announcing after talks with PM Modi that Washington is paving the way to provide New Delhi with F-35 fighter jets as part of increasing military supplies by billions of dollars.
After holding wide-ranging talks with PM Modi, Trump said there is a “special bond” between the world’s oldest and largest democracies and both sides decided to shore up cooperation in diverse areas such as energy, critical technologies and connectivity.

PM Modi is the fourth foreign leader to visit Trump in the weeks after the American leader’s inauguration as the 47th President of the US.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/india/maga-miga-mega-pm-modi-sets-new-manta-for-india-us-ties-after-meeting-with-donald-trump-article-118232223

Programmes to tackle HIV, polio, mpox and bird flu have been affected by the freeze on tens of billions of dollars of overseas aid from the US, says the head of the World Health Organization (WHO).

US President Donald Trump has taken steps to close the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), arguing that its spending is “totally unexplainable”.

However, WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has urged the Trump administration to consider resuming aid funding until other solutions can be found.

HIV treatments and other services have been disrupted in 50 countries, he said at a briefing on Wednesday.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the freeze on US aid funding, at a virtual press conference in Geneva, Dr Tedros said: “There are actions that the US government is taking… which we’re concerned are having a serious impact on global health.”

In particular he pointed to the suspension of PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, which he said had halted HIV treatment, testing and prevention services in 50 countries.

He added that a reprieve for life-saving services had not stopped the disruption.

“Clinics are shuttered and health workers have been put on leave,” Dr Tedros said.

Experts in global health have warned of the spread of disease, as well as delays to the development of vaccines and new treatments as a result of the cuts.

Trump has argued that USAID is “incompetent and corrupt”.

He recently announced huge cuts to the agency’s 10,000-strong workforce and the immediate suspension of almost all of its aid programmes.

The agency spends about $40bn (£32bn) – about 0.6% of total US yearly government spending – on humanitarian aid, much of which goes towards health programmes.

The vast majority of USAID money is spent in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, where it is primarily used for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who is working on the White House’s effort to shrink the size of the federal government, has previously claimed that the aid agency is “a criminal organisation”.

Neither Trump nor Musk have provided clear evidence to support their claims.

As well as the freeze on USAID, President Trump has taken steps to withdraw the United States from the WHO.

Under the Biden administration the US was the largest funder of the UN’s health agency and in 2023 it contributed almost one-fifth of the agency’s budget.

Dr Tedros said Trump’s decision was affecting collaboration between countries on global health threats. He also said the US had reduced its reporting of bird flu cases in humans.

The WHO says it has employed emergency measures similar to those used during the Covid pandemic to fill the gaps where there are shortages – in life-saving antiretroviral medication, for example, which is used to treat people living with HIV.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czj3z290ngyo

Google has removed cultural events like Black History Month honoring African Americans as well as Pride Month from being listed as default holidays or national observances on Google Calendar.

Several other events and holidays like Women’s History Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, National Hispanic Heritage Month and Indigenous People Month were also removed from Calendar.

Google has yet to list out the cultural events that it has removed. A spokesperson for the tech giant told the Associated Press agency that it first made the changes in the middle of 2024.

“Maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable,” Google said in its statement to AP, adding: “So in mid-2024 we returned to showing only public holidays and national observances from timeanddate.com globally, while allowing users to manually add other important moments.”

It is not clear why the changes are being noticed now, but they come as tech companies publicly pull away from their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office, terminating “illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/google-calendar-removes-black-history-month-and-pride-month/a-71580642

Google Maps has changed the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the Gulf of America for people using the app in the US.

Explaining the move, Google said it was making the change as part of “a longstanding practice” of following name changes when updated by official government sources.

It said the Gulf – which is bordered by the US, Cuba and Mexico – would not be changed for people using the app in Mexico, and users elsewhere in the world will see the label: “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)”.

It comes after President Donald Trump ordered the body of water to be renamed in US government documents after he returned to office last month.

Mexico had decried the move, arguing that the US had no legal right to change the Gulf’s name.

The change was made by Google on Monday after the Geographic Names Information System, a US government database run by the Interior Department, listed an update to the Gulf’s name.

The listing reads: “The Gulf of America, formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico, with an average depth 5300 ft is a major body of water bordered and nearly landlocked by North America with the Gulf’s eastern, northern, and northwestern shores in the U.S. and its southwestern and southern shores in Mexico.”

It said the change was made in accordance with Trump’s executive order to “restore names that honor American Greatness”.

Following the signing of the order, President Trump proclaimed 9 February as “Gulf of America Day”.

“I call upon public officials and all the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities,” a White House statement said.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum had asked Google to reconsider its decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

She argued the US could not legally change the Gulf’s name because the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea dictates that an individual country’s sovereign territory only extends up to 12 nautical miles out from the coastline.

The Associated Press, a global media organisation, said that it would not change the name of the Gulf of Mexico in its style guide – which is used by most US media outlets.

Because of the style guide decision, the White House said it was barring an AP reporter from covering an executive order signing in the Oval Office.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp820m733p3o

Fifteen measles cases — mostly in school-aged children — have been confirmed in a small county in West Texas with one of the highest rates of vaccine exemptions in the state.

South Plains Public Health District Director Zach Holbrooks said Monday that his department was first notified in late January about the first two cases in Gaines County, which he said were “two children who had seen a physician in Lubbock.”

Some of the cases appear to be connected to private religious schools in the district, said Holbrooks, who cautioned that the investigation is ongoing.

“I wouldn’t say they’re all connected, but our teams are looking into exposure sites and the background of those cases,” he said.

Local health officials set up a drive-through vaccination clinic last week and are offering screening services to residents.

The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60. This month, health officials in metro Atlanta are working to contain a measles case that spread to two unvaccinated family members.

Texas law allows children to get an exemption from school vaccines for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs. The percentage of kids with exemptions has risen over the last decade from .76% in 2014 to 2.32% last year, according to Texas Department of State Health Services data.

Gaines County has one of the highest rates in Texas of school-aged children who opt out of at least one required vaccine: Nearly 14% of children from kindergarten through grade 12 had an exemption in the 2023-24 school year, which is more than five times the state average of 2.32% and beyond the national rate of 3.3%.

But the number of unvaccinated kids in the county is likely significantly higher, DSHS spokeswoman Lara Anton said, because Gaines County has many children who are homeschooled and whose data would not be reported.

The measles, mumps and rubella vaccines is a two-shot series: The first is recommended at 12 to 15 months old and second between 4 to 6 years old. The vaccine is required to attend most public schools in the U.S.

But vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic and most states are below the 95% vaccination threshold for kindergartners — the level needed to protect communities against measles outbreaks. Lawmakers across the country have proposed various vaccine requirement changes at a time when anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is awaiting confirmation as the secretary of Health and Human Services.

One of the early Gaines County cases traveled to neighboring New Mexico while they were still infectious, Anton said, but there were no immediate reports of infection. New Mexico Department of Health spokesman Robert Nott said the agency has been in communication with Texas officials but there was no known exposure to measles in his state.

“We’re going to watch this very closely,” Nott said.

Two cases of measles were reported in early January in the Houston area, but Holbrooks said the West Texas cases don’t appear to be connected.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/measles-outbreak-gaines-county-texas-religious-exemptions-cacdae1843fa918964a1b8e01fe757f5

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is preparing additional tariff cuts ahead of his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump that could boost American exports to India and avoid a potential trade war, government officials said.
Modi’s trip to the U.S. on Wednesday and Thursday comes as Trump plans to announce reciprocal tariffs on many countries, a move aimed at reshaping global trade relationships in favour of the United States.

Trump has not specified which countries would be hit but has previously called India a “very big abuser” on trade and stressed that India should buy more American-made security equipment to move toward a fair bilateral trading relationship.
India is considering tariff reductions in at least a dozen sectors, including electronic, medical and surgical equipment, along with some chemicals, to raise U.S. exports. These reductions align with New Delhi’s domestic production plans, three government officials said.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that concessions are being considered for items that India primarily sources from the U.S. or has potential to buy more of, such as dish antennas and wood pulp. Modi is expected to discuss tariffs with Trump next week and India is open to discussing a possible mini trade deal.
The early visit hopes to avoid a “trade war-like situation that is happening between U.S. and China,” a third official said. Trump imposed sweeping 10% tariffs on Chinese imports, prompting Beijing to respond with duties on American energy.

The officials did not wish to be identified as they are not authorised to speak to media. India’s trade ministry, foreign affairs ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to requests for comment e-mailed outside official work days.
The discussions on tariff concessions follow a reduction in India’s average import tariff rates to 11% from 13% on several items in the country’s annual budget, and a cut in taxes on high-end bikes and luxury cars.

India is also reviewing surcharges levied on more than 30 items, including luxury cars and solar cells.
The upcoming meeting between Modi and Trump will focus on trade, defense cooperation and technology, but has been overshadowed by the recent deportation of Indians from the U.S.
One of the three officials said the meeting will help offer political direction to ties between the two countries and detailed talks on tariffs will follow the trip.
Despite Trump’s criticism of India’s trade practices, the U.S. president has called Modi “fantastic”.
The U.S. is India’s largest trading partner and two-way trade surpassed $118 billion in 2023/24, with India posting a surplus of $32 billion.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/indias-modi-meet-trump-with-planned-tariff-concessions-2025-02-10/

There’s a new race in space, but it’s not where you might think. It’s happening close to home – in the nearest bit of space, right on the edge of Earth’s atmosphere.

High in the skies of Earth, a new space race is underway. Here, just above the boundary where space begins, companies are trying to create a new class of daring satellites. Not quite high-altitude planes and not quite low-orbiting satellites, these sky skimmers are designed to race around our planet in an untapped region, with potentially huge benefits on offer.

Roughly 10,000 satellites are orbiting our planet right now, at speeds of up to 17,000mph (27,000km/h). Every one of these delicate contraptions is in constant free-fall and would drop straight back down to Earth were it not for the blistering speeds at which they travel. It’s their considerable sideways momentum, perfectly stabilised against the Earth’s gravitational pull downwards, that keeps satellites in orbit.

A new class of satellites are aiming to push the limits of this balancing act and plough a much more precarious, lower orbit that would skim the top of Earth’s atmosphere. Known as Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), spacecraft at these altitudes have to battle against the significantly greater drag from the air in the upper reaches of the atmosphere than their loftier cousins, lest they get pushed out of the sky. Should they manage it, however, such satellites might achieve something even more jaw-dropping – they could potentially fly forever.

“When you start describing it to people, it starts to sound like a perpetual motion machine,” says Spence Wise, senior vice-president at Redwire, an aerospace firm in Florida. A perpetual motion machine is not meant to be possible. But it almost is, in this instance.

A handful of pioneering companies have begun work on designs for satellites that may be able to orbit the planet at these unusually low altitudes while simultaneously harvesting air and using it to make propellant – literally on the fly. This new generation of orbiters could enable ultra-high-definition surveillance of activities on the ground, or superfast satellite-based communications.

If you want to send something into orbit, you have to decide how high your satellite is going to fly. Earth orbits are generally described in terms of altitude and are categorised into different sections. The highest, at some 22,000 miles (36,000km) and above is called High Earth orbit. Here, satellites enter a geostationary position, meaning they are always above the same location on Earth below. This is useful for telecommunications and weather monitoring, for example. Next is Medium Earth orbit, which spans from roughly 22,000 miles (36,000km) down to 1,200 miles (2,000km) above the planet’s surface. Below this is Low Earth orbit, which stretches down to altitudes of 250 miles (400km), where the International Space Station (ISS) is found.

Even further below this lies VLEO, loosely defined as anything below the ISS and down to an altitude of about 60 miles (100km). Operating here is difficult because of the influence of Earth’s atmosphere. “The atmosphere will increase exponentially as you come down,” says Hugh Lewis, a professor of astronautics and a space debris expert at the University of Southampton in the UK.

That creates more drag on your satellite, which can spell doom. As molecules in the atmosphere smash into the satellite, they rob the vehicle of its momentum, causing the tug of our planet’s gravity to drag it towards the ground.

A satellite left in medium Earth orbit or above would carry on circling our planet for millennia. In VLEO, however, it would last barely months, weeks, or even days depending on its speed, shape and mass, dictating the amount of drag it produces and thus its lifetime. Once a satellite dips to an altitude of about 60 miles (100km), the end is imminent. The intense friction created by the thicker atmosphere subjects the satellite to temperatures of thousands of degrees, ultimately tearing it apart.

All satellites pass through VLEO on their way up or down, but not many have purposefully tried to stay there. One such spacecraft, however, was the European Space Agency’s Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite. Launched in 2009, it orbited at an altitude of around 155 miles (250km), using an ion propulsion system to fire out charged particles behind the spacecraft. This gave it a constant level of thrust that could counteract the drag of the atmosphere.

GOCE was intended to measure Earth’s gravitational field with extreme precision, which it achieved. But it also demonstrated the design choices that were necessary for operating in VLEO. It had a sleek, elongated form that helped it to overcome atmospheric drag. “It looked like a dart,” says Lewis. GOCE ultimately ran out of fuel and burned up in the atmosphere on re-entry in 2013.

Several companies are now trying to do something even more impressive. They are developing technology to harvest molecules from the thin layer of air that is present in VLEO in order to actually propel satellites here. Such a system, called Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP), has been made possible by advancements in electric and ion propulsion in recent years. In essence, it involves fixing a large bucket or opening to the front of the satellite, into which gas molecules from the atmosphere flow before they are ionised to create plasma that generates thrust.

“The idea is to use the same air slowing down your satellite as a propellant,” says Francesco Romano, a scientist at the Swiss Plasma Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, who has previously studied this technology. Using electric and magnetic fields, the engine would ionise gas from the atmosphere, taking away one electron from each molecule, to produce a free electron and an ion. Then, using magnets, the electrons and ions are pushed out the back of the spacecraft, producing thrust. “Theoretically, if you can generate a thrust that is the same as your drag, you stay at this altitude for an infinite amount of time,” says Romano.

To date, an assortment of experimental ABEP systems have been able to produce relatively small amounts of thrust at ground level, but their feasibility in orbit has yet to be properly tested.

One company investigating the potential of ABEP is Stellar Advanced Concepts in London. Together with another firm in the Netherlands and the University of Manchester, the company received a grant of £390,000 ($510,000) from the British government towards their efforts in July 2024. They hope to launch a demonstration of the technology into space by 2027. “That would be a small satellite with a small payload, maybe an Earth observation camera of some kind, as a proof of principle,” says Newsam.

A start-up called Kreios Space, based in Igualada, Spain, is also working on an ABEP prototype it aims to fly by 2026. In Kreios’s case, this would be a small satellite “that allows us to do all the testing in orbit in different altitudes,” says Adrián Senar Tejedor, the company’s CEO and co-founder. The optimal altitude for thrust and drag balancing is expected to be between 125 to 155 miles (200 to 250km). “That’s the sweet spot,” says Senar Tejedor.

But he points out that significant contracts for developing this technology are emerging on the other side of the Atlantic.

The US Department of Defense’s Otter program has already committed more than $20m (£16m) to help several companies develop air-breathing VLEO satellites. One of them, Redwire is designing a sleek “orbital drone” called SabreSat that could potentially achieve endless VLEO orbits. “That is the intent,” says Wise.

Redwire has a design for a satellite with solar panels facing edge-on to its motion, like the fins of a fish, in order to reduce drag on the spacecraft. The build would be modular, so that different versions of the satellite could fly with different instruments on board. “You can think of it like a ship,” says Wise. “It has bulkheads, and we’re able to add additional bulkheads to increase the length.”

The European arm of Redwire is concurrently developing its own VLEO satellite, called Phantom, as part of a European Space Agency (Esa) project called Skimsat. “We’re currently in the middle of the design stage, and the team is working towards a launch in 2027 or 2028,” says Juan Pablo Ramos, business development manager for Redwire in Antwerp, Belgium.

Phantom will not use air-breathing technology, however. Instead, it will rely on a specific blend of undisclosed materials on the satellite to reduce drag and an aerodynamic cone-shaped front. “The cone is designed to improve drag and protect the instruments,” says Ramos.

Getting to orbit soon is important. “I expect it to become increasingly popular,” says Newsam. “I do think it’s important to have first-mover advantage. Whoever gains the credibility of being able to produce an ABEP system, they would win the orders. But there should end up being a reasonably big market.”

There are some very good reasons for operating a satellite in VLEO. The first is Earth imaging – the closer you are to Earth, the higher resolution your images can be. “You could either have smaller cameras and gain the same quality of data, or the same camera and get a higher resolution,” adds Newsam.

That might be useful for the military, but also for civilian purposes too. “There are lots of applications in maritime, agriculture, wildfire monitoring,” says Senar Tejedor. And there could be scientific benefits from studying the atmosphere in VLEO. Putting sensors on satellites operating here “would be a dream”, says Sean Elvidge, an assistant professor of space environment at the University of Birmingham in the UK. “It would tell us an awful lot about the environment.”

The other major application of being in VLEO is that you are closer to the ground for communications. That is particularly useful for space internet services, like SpaceX’s Starlink network, which currently beams the internet to receivers on the ground from higher orbits. By using lower satellites in VLEO, the antennas can act like mobile phone towers and beam the internet straight to your phone. “Going direct to a cell phone is a challenging task to do from space,” says Tim Farrar, a satellite communications expert in California. “These lower [orbits] could enable a direct-to-cell constellation.”

The overall global market for VLEO satellite services could be vast. “We expect it to be around $15bn (£11.5bn) in 2032,” says Senar Tejedor.

An oft-touted benefit of VLEO, aside from the various novel applications, is that this kind of orbit is self-cleaning. Generally, defunct or dead satellites in VLEO will eventually fall back into the deeper atmosphere and break up, limiting the volume of space junk that would otherwise be left orbiting Earth.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250207-sky-skimmers-the-race-to-send-satellites-into-very-low-earth-orbits

More than 200,000 protesters rallied in Munich, Germany, on Saturday against far-right extremism ahead of the country’s general election.

The far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is in second place in recent polls and has prompted widespread protests across the country before voters cast their ballots on Feb. 23.

The protest at Munich’s Theresienwiese — where Oktoberfest takes place each year — brought a significantly larger crowd than expected, according to the German dpa news agency. The event’s organizer estimated the crowd could be up to 320,000 people, many of whom carried signs against the AfD with slogans like, “Racism and hatred is not an alternative.”

The protest was supported by activist groups as well as the Munich Film Festival, churches and Munich soccer clubs FC Bayern and TSV 1860, among others. Police told dpa that the demonstration was peaceful.

Similar protests attracted large crowds on Saturday in Hanover, Rostock, and elsewhere in Germany, mirroring other demonstrations that have occurred across the country in recent weeks.

Last month, at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, a huge crowd blew whistles, sang anti-fascist songs and carried banners denouncing AfD. Activists said they hoped the rally also would draw attention to other far-right parties in Europe and the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Demonstrators have recently also opposed Friedrich Merz, the center-right leader and front-runner in the upcoming election, and his Christian Democrats for last month sending to parliament proposals for tough new migration rules that received AfD’s backing.

The protesters say Merz and his party broke Germany’s unwritten post-Nazi promise by all democratic parties to never pass any rule or resolution in parliament with the support of far-right, nationalist parties like the AfD. Merz insists his position is unchanged and that he didn’t and won’t work with the party.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/germany-munich-election-afd-protests-29cdd1441e670a9f13394d2a44f035a5

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un criticised trilateral military cooperation among the United States, Japan and South Korea for raising tensions in the region and vowed countermeasures, including the further development of nuclear forces.
Kim said U.S. deployments of nuclear strategic assets, war exercises and military cooperation with Japan and South Korea were inviting military imbalance in the region and raising a grave challenge to the security environment, state media KCNA reported on Sunday.

“The DPRK does not want unnecessary tension of the regional situation but will take sustained countermeasures to ensure the regional military balance,” Kim said during a visit to the defence ministry on Saturday to commemorate the founding day of its Army.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
U.S. President Donald Trump, after a meeting on Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, said he would have relations with North Korea, as they expressed concern over its nuclear program.

But during the visit, Kim “clarified once again the unshakable policy of more highly developing the nuclear forces,” according to the report.
On Russia’s war with Ukraine, Kim said: “The army and people of the DPRK will invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security and territorial integrity in keeping with the spirit of the treaty on the comprehensive strategic partnership between the DPRK and Russia.”

Last month, South Korea said it suspected North Korea of preparing to send more troops to Russia, in addition to about 11,000 soldiers who had been dispatched for the three-year-long war.
In a separate commentary released later on Sunday, North Korea’s KCNA again criticised South Korea’s military activity with the United States this year and warned that aggressive actions would be met by undesired consequences.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-korean-leader-kim-jong-un-vows-further-develop-nuclear-forces-2025-02-08/

Blood-red waters that filled a winding waterway near the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, raised a stink as images circulated on social media on Friday.

The area is home to tanneries and other industries that process animal hides into leather using chemicals, but along part of its banks are numerous homes and an ecological reserve.

Photos and footage raised fears that industrial chemicals had been dumped into the Sarandi Stream, which flows into the Plate River on the city’s southern outskirts.

Officials in the Avellaneda municipality, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) south of the Argentine capital, said they suspected the presence of aniline, a toxic substance used in medicines and dyes.

‘The smell woke us up’

The river looks like “a river of blood,” resident Maraa Ducomls told the AFP news agency. “The smell woke us up. In the daytime, when we looked at this side of the river, it was completely red, all stained.”

The Environment Ministry for Buenos Aires province said it had taken samples from the river to determine which substance caused the water to turn red. The ministry said the coloration could have been caused by “organic” substances.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/argentina-alarm-as-river-runs-blood-red/a-71544607

Surgery is scary at the best of times, but what if your surgeon was controlling the scalpel from halfway across the world?

This could be the new reality within a matter of years as technology companies look roll out 6G networks worldwide, according to a senior figure involved in its development.

6G’s nanosecond fast speed could now make ‘online surgeries’ possible for the first time.

What will make 6G unlike any other previous mobile networks is its latency, which is the time it takes for data to travel from a device to the network.

‘6G is a game-changer,’ said Greg Flak, a senior manager in networking and planning at tech company AWTG.

AWTG were instrumental in the implementation of 5G across parts the UK and are working alongside universities in the testing of 6G.

Flak added: ‘6G will be ten times faster than 5G and have fifty times lower latency.’

6G will be as close to ‘real time’ you could get, as the latency will be nanoseconds, compared to the 10 milliseconds it is with 5G.

‘It would not be detectable for the user, that is a massive amount of time for equipment,’ Flak told Metro at TechEx Global Technology Conference in London.

The results could be revolutionary for the health industry, argues Flak, and could even lead to the very first ‘online surgeries’.

‘The doctor is remote somewhere in India, and doing the surgery in the US with a robot’

‘This requires no delay. A surgeon will have to react in real time, every single millisecond from machine to machine counts. That is why it is possible with 6G.’

The latency of 6G could also make automated, or self-driving cars, ‘way safer’ because it allows for faster decision making and environment analysis.

Flak says that 6G could hit our devices by as soon as 2026, or 2027, even though the technology ‘is not ready yet.’

In order to transmit larger amounts of data, the frequency at which the data travels will have to be higher.

The equipment needed to transmit this higher frequency is yet to be manufactured.

Flak said: ‘For a ten times higher frequency for 6G,the antennas will start to be really microscopic.

‘It’s very hard to manufacture the transmitters that will be generating those kinds of frequencies.

‘Consumer equipment still needs to be manufactured and tested.

‘There is no 6G network already populated in the world. There are only test networks in the lab.’

The higher frequency will also mean a shorter range 6G can reach, limiting how effective the coverage can be.

‘‘I don’t think that we should expect 6G to be widely populated, because of the higher frequency,’ added Flak.

‘It will first only be used in small areas where there is high demand.’

An equally ambitious vision of care in England was channeled by Jake Parkinson, Intelligent Automation Lead at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Source : https://metro.co.uk/2025/02/07/surgeons-soon-operating-a-different-country-22510702/

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino on Thursday denied the U.S. State Department’s claim that his country had reached a deal allowing U.S. warships to transit the Panama Canal for free.

Mulino said he had told U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Wednesday that he could neither set the fees to transit the canal nor exempt anyone from them and that he was surprised by the U.S. State Department’s statement suggesting otherwise late Wednesday.

“I completely reject that statement yesterday,” Mulino said during his weekly press conference, adding that he had asked Panama’s ambassador in Washington to dispute the State Department’s statement. He was scheduled to speak with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday.

On Wednesday evening, the U.S. State Department said via X that “U.S. government vessels can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the U.S. government millions of dollars a year.”

The Panama Canal Authority put out its own terse statement later Wednesday night saying it had “not made any adjustments” to the fees.

Mulino said the U.S. statement “really surprises me because they’re making an important, institutional statement from the entity that governs United States foreign policy under the president of the United States based on a falsity. And that’s intolerable.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who met with Mulino and canal administrators and visited the critical trade route earlier this week, said on Thursday from the Dominican Republic that he had no confusion about his discussions with Panama, but “I respect very much the fact that Panama has a process of laws and procedures that they need to follow.”

“The United States has a treaty obligation to protect the Panama Canal if it comes under attack,” Rubio said. “That treaty obligation would have to be enforced by the armed forces of the United States, particularly the U.S. Navy. I find it absurd that we would have to pay fees to transit a zone that we are obligated to protect in a time of conflict.”

Rubio had carried a message from Trump that China’s influence at the canal was unacceptable.

Rubio had told Mulino that Trump believed that China’s presence in the canal area may violate a treaty that led the United States to turn the waterway over to Panama in 1999. That treaty calls for the permanent neutrality of the American-built canal.

Canal administrators said they were open to discussing giving U.S. warships priority in crossing the canal, but did not say they had considered waiving fees.

Mulino said via X that he was scheduled to speak to Trump on Friday.

Since 1998, U.S. warships, including submarines, have transited the Panama Canal 994 times. They accounted for just 0.3% of the canal’s traffic during that period. The canal received $25.4 million in total fees for those crossings, according to data from the canal authority.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/panama-canal-trump-rubio-hegseth-b623a51ac94ef2a738195e8b894e2a8b

German voters are overwhelmingly concerned about foreign election interference according to a new poll published by the Brussels-based digital industry association Bitkom.

Overall, the poll found that 88% of those questioned — the survey polled just over 1,000 eligible voters — expressed fear that outside forces, whether governments, groups or individuals, would actively attempt to sway the vote through social media campaigns.

Ranked highest among those suspected of nefarious activity was Russia (45%), followed by the US (42%) and China (26%). There was also concern voiced over East European actors (8%).

Those voters polled also provided insight into how they form their political opinions, with 82% citing conversations with friends and family, 76% television and 69% the internet.

Some 80% of respondents felt the next government should address the problem of potential internet and social media misinformation by prioritizing digital policy.

Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst picked up on a trend in which 71% of respondents called for a new independent ministry to be created to address the issue, saying, “The new digital ministry must be equipped with all the necessary rights and resources, needs its own budget and a digital proviso for new laws and projects.”

German voters already seeing disinformation

One-third of those voters who say they use the internet as a source of news and information told Bitkom that they had already seen misinformation online.

The biggest concerns expressed by voters overwhelmingly had to do with the threat of so-called deepfakes — or realistic but entirely fake videos, photos or audio — and targeted disinformation. Some 56% of respondents said German democracy was ill-prepared to counter such threats.

Another 30% of respondents said they had already run into misinformation about the coming election online.

“Voter awareness for disinformation is increasing,” said Bitkom’s Wintergerst. “That is an important first step against Fake News. Disinformation can dramatically influence Germany’s federal elections by generally skewing public opinion and defaming candidates or parties.”

Wintergerst called elections the “heart of or democracy,” but warned that “disinformation undermines trust in the democratic process.” On a positive note, he added that “an informed society is the best protection against digital manipulation.”

German voters suspicious of Russian, US meddling

Among those countries with a reputation for foreign election interference, Russia has earned a top spot. Its well-documented troll farms, its use of bots and its efforts in past US and European elections provide ample evidence thereof.

Russia also has an antagonistic relationship with most European countries, is interested in driving EU disunity and has plenty of axes to grind with all but the most extreme populist parties on the continent — both left and right.

One glaringly obvious source of active US interference is Elon Musk.

The world’s richest man, Donald Trump’s biggest single donor and the owner of the social media platform X, Musk has been brazen in his insults of German leaders and his backing of the far-right and in part extreme Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, calling it the country’s only hope.

In early January, Musk, who has 216 million followers on X, sat down with AfD leader Alice Weidel for a rambling one-hour live discussion on the platform. He has also made a name for himself by pushing far-right extremists in the UK, using his outsized media presence — and lack of accountability — to push for government change.

US social media companies have generally abdicated responsibility for keeping disinformation in check, arguing consumers need to be aware of what they read and shirking any gatekeeping responsibility for the masses of disinformation generated and distributed on their sites.

It remains an open question as to whether the EU, which generally has tougher Code of Practice on Disinformation standards than the US (as seen in the EU’S Digital Services Act, or DSA), is up to the task of holding those sites responsible.

Domestic threats cannot be ignored — social media and the far-right

China was the third entity mentioned in the study and is known for actively engaging in malign cyber activities. Beyond its digital acts, the country has also found its way into Germany’s political system by infiltrating political parties.

Specifically, questions have been raised about Chinese influence within the far-right AfD as well as an unholy Chinese-Russian alliance that has plagued the party.

Beyond party boss Weidel’s long and unclear relationship with China, the Kremlin-friendly AfD was most famously embroiled in a Chinese spy scandal when the party’s top EU candidate, Maximilian Krah, was found to have a Chinese spy working in his office.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/germany-nearly-90-of-voters-fear-foreign-manipulation/a-71528481

Thousands of protesters set fire to the home of Bangladesh’s founding leader, as his daughter, ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina delivered a fiery social media speech calling on her supporters to stand against the interim government.
Witnesses said several thousand protesters, some armed with sticks, hammers, and other tools, gathered around the historic house and independence monument, while others brought a crane and excavator to demolish the building.

The rally was organised alongside a broader call, dubbed “Bulldozer Procession”, to disrupt Hasina’s scheduled 9 p.m. online address on Wednesday.
Protesters, many aligned with the “Students Against Discrimination” group, had expressed their fury over Hasina’s speech, which they viewed as a challenge to the newly formed interim government.
Tensions have been escalating in Bangladesh since August 2024, when mass protests forced Hasina to flee to neighbouring India.

The interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has struggled to maintain control as protests and unrest have continued. Demonstrators have attacked symbols of Hasina’s government, including the house of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which was first set ablaze in August.
A symbol of the country’s establishment, the house is where Bangabandhu (friend of Bengal), as he is popularly known, declared Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1971.

A few years later it became the site of a national tragedy. Mujibur Rahman and most of his family were assassinated at the house in 1975. Hasina, who survived the attack, later transformed the building into a museum dedicated to her father’s legacy.
“They can demolish a building, but not the history. History takes its revenge,” Hasina said in her speech on Wednesday.
She urged the people of Bangladesh to stand against the interim government, accusing them of seizing power in an unconstitutional manner.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/bangladesh-protesters-torch-ousted-pm-hasinas-fathers-home-2025-02-06/

Indian opposition lawmakers questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and demanded a discussion in parliament on Thursday over what they said was ill-treatment of 104 Indian immigrants deported by the U.S.
A U.S. military plane carrying the immigrants landed on Wednesday in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in Punjab state, part of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. The deportation came a week before Trump is expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington.

All immigrants, barring children, were handcuffed during the flight, The Times of India and the Indian Express newspapers reported, quoting unnamed officials in Punjab who said they had spoken to the deportees.
The deportees underwent hours of scrutiny at Amritsar airport before police escorted them out in small groups in police vehicles. Reuters was unable to speak to the immigrants.
Some of them were flown on a regular flight to Ahmedabad in Gujarat state on Thursday, closer to their homes, said a police official, who did not want to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

They were escorted out of the Ahmedabad airport by security personnel, according to a Reuters witness. Most of the others are from Punjab or the neighbouring state of Haryana, police have said.
“Reports have surfaced of these individuals being shackled and treated in a degrading manner during their deportation process, raising serious concerns about their human dignity and rights,” opposition Congress party lawmaker Gaurav Gogoi said in a notice to the secretary general of the lower house of parliament.

In a separate notice by another Congress party lawmaker, Manickam Tagore urged Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to make an immediate statement in parliament clarifying the Modi government’s stand and steps taken to address the issue.
The Indian foreign ministry and the U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Both houses of parliament were adjourned on Thursday as opposition lawmakers shouted slogans demanding a government response.

Migration has been among the key issues discussed by India and the U.S. since Trump assumed office last month, and is also expected to come up during Trump’s talks with Modi.
Although Indian immigrants have been deported by previous U.S. administrations, it was the first time Washington used a military aircraft to do so. It was also the farthest destination for such flights using a military aircraft.
The Trump administration has increasingly turned to the military to help carry out its immigration agenda, using military aircraft to deport migrants and opening military bases to house them.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-opposition-questions-modi-reported-us-mistreatment-deportees-2025-02-06/

PRESIDENT Donald Trump has vowed to take over the devastated Gaza Strip and “level” the site before looking to redevelop it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the Republican’s clear plan to help rebuild the war-torn strip saying it will “change history”.

Trump said America “will do a job with it” if they own the Gaza Strip and take full responsibility to dismantle it safely after years of torment for the people of Palestine.

He added it is a “very dangerous place to be” at the moment and requires America’s help to rebuild completely.

Trumps Middle East envoy said they plan on creating a three to five-year timeline for the reconstruction of Gaza.

Detailed plans are yet to be revealed over the potential demolition plot but the newly-inaugurated President said it will involve a complete reconstruction.

He said they would destroy all of the buildings in the war zone before beginning to “create an economic development”.

This would create “unlimited numbers of jobs and housing”, he added.

Trump then urged as many countries as possible to take in the displaced Palestinians so the upheaval of Gaza could be completed peacefully.

The remarks were made in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from The White House.

A smiling Netanyahu described Trump as the “greatest friend Israel has ever had”.

Trump added he has spoken to dozens of people who “love the idea” of the US taking over the strip.

Last week, Trump revealed radical plans to “clean out” the strip after he described Gaza as a “demolition site”.

He said: “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.

“Almost everything is demolished and people are dying there.”

At the end of January, Trump called on neighbouring Arab nations to take in more Palestinians.

He echoed these thoughts again today and said places like Egypt and Jordan should offer to take in as many people as possible.

Gaza’s two million inhabitants should instead “go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts”, he said.

The move “could be temporary” or “long-term”, he said.

Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority condemned Trump’s proposal last month.

Trump’s plans would also be a stark change from the US’s previous policy which promoted a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine.

The pre-war population of Gaza was over two million people and over 45,000 people have been killed since October 7, 2023, according to the United Nations.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13455818/trump-gaza-strip-plan-netanyahu/

Hundreds of people left Santorini on ferries and planes on Tuesday to reach safety in Athens as a series of quakes kept shaking the famous Greek tourist island.
Hundreds of quakes have been registered every few minutes in the sea between the volcanic islands of Santorini and Amorgos, in the Aegean Sea, in recent days, prompting authorities to shut schools in Santorini and the small nearby islands of Ios, Amorgos and Anafi until Friday.

A tremor with a magnitude of 4.9 was recorded by the Athens Geodynamic Institute at 0246 GMT on the island, most of whose popular white and blue villages cling to steep cliffs over the sea.
Hundreds of permanent residents and workers rushed to a port early on Tuesday to embark for the Greek capital.
Flights out of Santorini to Athens were full, Greek air carrier Aegean Airlines said on Tuesday. A total of 2,500 to 2,700 people were expected to have flown out since Monday by the end of the day, it added.

“We are going to leave because I am afraid, there are constantly earthquakes, we have to leave for the kids, so the kids can calm down,” said Beni Ouklala, 38, who has temporary work on the island.

Others were unfazed. “We will stay here, why should we leave? If something happens it happens,” said Eftichis Diamantopouulos, 63, a tourist boat captain.
Santorini throngs with hundreds of thousands of tourists in the summer. It is much quieter at this time of the year, but with seismologists estimating that the intense seismic activity could take days or weeks to abate, local authorities have drafted an emergency accommodation plan.

“We have (planned for) places for shelters for the population without structures and on level surfaces, there are eight places that can accommodate people,” said Santorini Mayor Nikos Zorzos.
Emergency rescue crews were also on the ground, while people were advised to stay out of coastal areas due to the risk of landslides and avoid indoor gatherings.
Some hotels started emptying their pools as they were told that the water load made buildings vulnerable and construction activities have ceased.
Greece is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in Europe as it sits at the boundary of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates whose constant interaction prompts frequent quakes.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hundreds-flee-santorini-quakes-disrupt-life-2025-02-04/

A total of 205 Indian nationals, who had illegally entered the US, have been deported on a US military aircraft that took off from Texas about six hours back, sources have told NDTV. The sources said each deported Indian national is verified, indicating New Delhi’s involvement in the deportation process. This is likely the first of many such flights that will bring illegal Indian immigrants in the US back.

A C-17 US military aircraft is bringing the Indian nationals back home. Here is a trivia — unless fitted with an air-transportable galley, the US Air Force C-17 has a single toilet onboard for 205 passengers.

The deportation of illegal migrants is in line with US President Donald Trump’s hardline stand against illegal immigrants in the US. Earlier, US military aircraft flew illegal immigrants deported to Guatemala, Peru and Honduras.

The first round of deportation of illegal Indian nationals has taken amid reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would fly to the US next week. This will be his first visit after Trump took over as US President for the second time. External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar had earlier said New Delhi is open to the “legitimate return” of Indian nationals living ‘illegally’ abroad, including in the US.

“For the first time in history, we are locating and loading illegal aliens into military aircraft and flying them back to the places from which they came,” Trump told reporters last month.

The US President has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him that India “will do what’s right” when it comes to taking back illegal Indian immigrants. According to a Bloomberg News report, India and the US have identified 18,000-odd Indian migrants who entered the US illegally.

The Ministry of External Affairs has said India is against illegal immigration because it is linked to several forms of organised crime.

“For Indians not just in the United States, but anywhere in the world, if they are Indian nationals and they are overstaying, or they are in a particular country without proper documentation, we will take them back, provided documents are shared with us so that we can verify their nationality and that they are indeed Indians. If that happens to be the case, we will take things forward and facilitate their return to India,” ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a press briefing.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/205-indians-on-us-military-flight-carrying-deported-immigrants-from-texas-7629252

A car explosion in northern Syria on Monday has killed at least 20 people, the Syrian presidency said, vowing to hold those responsible “for this criminal act” to account.

The blast took place on a main road on the outskirts of Syria’s northern city Manbij, the civil defense said. Fourteen women and one man were killed, and fifteen other women were injured.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) put the death toll at 18 civilians, including 14 women.

Since the lightning rebellion which toppled the rule of Bashar Assad in December, Manbij has been the scene of fighting between the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish-backed fighters.

Spate of car bomb attacks in Manbij

Most of those killed were women farm workers who were being transported in a vehicle next to the exploding car, state news agency SANA reported, citing the civil defense, also known as the White Helmets. It added that the death toll was likely to climb.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The explosion is the second in three days. On Saturday, four civilians were killed and nine more were injured in another car bomb attack in Manbij.

Munir Mustafa, the deputy director of the White Helmets, said Monday’s car bomb explosion was the seventh in Manbij in just over a month.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/syria-car-bomb-explosion-kills-at-least-20/a-71489683

CANADA and Mexico breathed a sigh of relief after President Donald Trump shelved his punishing tariff plans for 30 days in a last-gasp deal.

The Republican was left celebrating after he managed to secure a stronger border with his two neighbors through a $1.3billion plan and 10,000 troops.

Trump dramatically stopped entering a potential trade war with Canada and Mexico by pausing sweeping 25 per cent tax increases just hours before it was scheduled to be implemented.

Stock markets had gone into a tailspin on Monday as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held last-minute calls with Trump.

The duo were left making a desperate bid to end any threat and halt a damaging world trade war.

Trump confirmed he’d decided to pause his plans for a month after both Mexico and Canada promised to keep 10,000 frontline personnel along their American borders.

The aim is to protect the US from illegal immigration and an influx of deadly drugs entering the country.

Trump praised his own negotiating skills by posting on Truth Social after his last call with Trudeau: “As President, it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of ALL Americans, and I am doing just that.

“I am very pleased with this initial outcome.”

He also said Canada will implement their $1.3billion border plan and reinforce it with new helicopters, technology and personnel.

Trump added that the next 30 days will determine if he goes ahead with the tariffs or if a “final economic deal with Canada can be structured”.

Justin Trudeau later confirmed these changes in alignment with Trump’s wishes.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also announced her administration and Trump had reached a series of similar agreements.

Sheinbaum said at a news conference she had a “long conversation” with Trump on the phone on Monday.

Among the series of agreements includes Mexico’s immediate action to reinforce the northern border with 10,000 members of the country’s National Guard.

The bolstered security presence will be tasked with preventing drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, particularly fentanyl.

The United States said it would also commit to working to prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons into Mexico, the Mexican president said.

“Our teams will begin working today on two fronts: security and trade,” Sheinbaum added.

Trump also gave Sheinbaum 30 days to “achieve a deal” between the two countries.

Thousands of people protested in Berlin on Sunday against plans to limit immigration proposed by opposition conservatives and supported by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Friedrich Merz, the conservatives’ leader who is tipped to become Germany’s next chancellor after a national election set for Feb. 23, sponsored a draft bill with AfD support, breaking a taboo against cooperating with the far-right party.

Around 160,000 gathered at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, next to the Bundestag lower house, according to the Berlin police. The protesters held banners reading “We are the firewall, no cooperation with the AfD” and “Merz, go home, shame on you!”.
Merz, the CDU/CSU’s candidate for chancellor, on Friday tried to push the immigration bill in the lower house but failed to secure a majority as some of the deputies from his own party refused to support it.

Their failure to endorse his draft dealt a blow to the authority of Merz, who had pushed for the law despite warnings from party colleagues that he risked being tarnished with the charge of voting alongside the far-right.
Mainstream German parties had previously joined forces to prevent the AfD, which is under surveillance by Germany’s security services, from achieving legislative power, something they call a firewall against the far-right.

The draft law would have restricted family reunifications for some refugees and called for more people to be refused at the border. Two-thirds of the public support stronger immigration rules, according to a recent poll.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/tens-thousands-protest-berlin-against-proposed-german-immigration-crackdown-2025-02-02/

President Donald Trump on Saturday signed an order to impose stiff tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China, drawing swift retaliation and an undeniable sense of betrayal from the country’s North American neighbors as a trade war erupted among the longtime allies.

The Republican president posted on social media that the tariffs were necessary “to protect Americans,” pressing the three nations to do more to curb the manufacture and export of illicit fentanyl and for Canada and Mexico to reduce illegal immigration into the U.S.

The tariffs, if sustained, could cause inflation to significantly worsen, threatening the trust that many voters placed in Trump to lower the prices of groceries, gasoline, housing, autos and other goods as he promised. They also risked throwing the global economy and Trump’s political mandate into turmoil just two weeks into his second term.

Trump declared an economic emergency in order to place duties of 10% on all imports from China and 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada. Energy imported from Canada, including oil, natural gas and electricity, would be taxed at a 10% rate. Trump’s order includes a mechanism to escalate the rates charged by the U.S. against retaliation by the other countries, raising the specter of an even more severe economic disruption.

“The actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a somber tone as he announced that his country would put matching 25% tariffs on up to $155 billion in U.S. imports, including alcohol and fruit.

He channeled the betrayal that many Canadians are feeling, reminding Americans that Canadian troops fought alongside them in Afghanistan and helped respond to myriad crises from wildfires in California to Hurricane Katrina.

“We were always there standing with you, grieving with you, the American people,” he said.

Mexico’s president also ordered retaliatory tariffs.

“We categorically reject the White House’s slander that the Mexican government has alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any intention of meddling in our territory,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote in a post on X while saying she had instructed her economy secretary to implement a response that includes retaliatory tariffs and other measures in defense of Mexico’s interests.

“If the United States government and its agencies wanted to address the serious fentanyl consumption in their country, they could fight the sale of drugs on the streets of their major cities, which they don’t do and the laundering of money that this illegal activity generates that has done so much harm to its population.”

The premier of the Canadian province of British Columbia, David Eby, specifically called on residents to stop buying liquor from U.S. “red” states and said it was removing American alcohol brands from government store shelves as a response to the tariffs.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country’s government “firmly deplores and opposes this move and will take necessary countermeasures to defend its legitimate rights and interests.”

China began regulating fentanyl-related drugs as a class of controlled substances in 2019 and conducted “counternarcotics cooperation with the U.S.,” the ministry said, calling on the U.S. government to correct what it considers wrongful actions.

The Ministry of Commerce in China said it would file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization for the “wrongful practices of the U.S.” and take measures to safeguard its rights and interests.

The tariffs will go into effect on Tuesday, setting up a showdown in North America that could potentially sabotage economic growth. A new analysis by the Budget Lab at Yale laid out the possible damage to the U.S. economy, saying the average household would lose the equivalent of $1,170 in income from the taxes. Economic growth would slow and inflation would worsen, and the situation could be even worse with retaliation from other countries.

Democrats were quick to warn that any inflation going forward was the result of Trump’s actions.

“You’re worried about grocery prices. Don’s raising prices with his tariffs,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York wrote in a series of posts on X. “You’re worried about tomato prices. Wait till Trump’s Mexico tariffs raise your tomato prices,” read another. “You’re worried about car prices. Wait till Trump’s Canada tariffs raise your car prices,” read another.

A senior U.S. administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to brief reporters, said the lower rate on energy reflected a desire to minimize disruptive increases on the price of gasoline or utilities. That’s a sign White House officials understand the gamble they’re taking on inflation. Price spikes under former President Joe Biden led to voter frustration that helped return Trump to the White House.

The order signed by Trump contained no mechanism for granting exceptions, the official said, a possible blow to homebuilders who rely on Canadian lumber as well as farmers, automakers and other industries.

The official did not provide specific benchmarks that could be met to lift the new tariffs, saying only that the best measure would be fewer Americans dying from fentanyl addiction.

The order would also allow for tariffs on Canadian imports of less than $800. Imports below that sum are currently able to cross into the United States without customs and duties.

“It doesn’t make much economic sense,’’ said William Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former U.S. trade official. “Historically, most of our tariffs on raw materials have been low because we want to get cheaper materials so our manufacturers will be competitive … Now, what’s he talking about? He’s talking about tariffs on raw materials. I don’t get the economics of it.’’

With the tariffs, Trump is honoring promises that are at the core of his economic and national security philosophy. But the announcement showed his seriousness around the issue as some Trump allies had played down the threat of higher import taxes as mere negotiating tactics.

The president is preparing more import taxes in a sign that tariffs will be an ongoing part of his second term. On Friday, he mentioned imported computer chips, steel, oil and natural gas, as well as copper, pharmaceutical drugs and imports from the European Union — moves that could essentially pit the U.S. against much of the global economy.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-trade-china-mexico-canada-inflation-753a09d56cd318f2eb1d2efe3c43b7d4

The British government is intentionally “replacing the British nation with hostile, violent, aggressive migrants” who will vote for them, according to right-wing extremist Tommy Robinson, who also believes that Islam is “a mental health issue rather than a religion of peace.”

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has been in a British jail cell since October for contempt of court as well as spreading false claims about an underage Syrian refugee in a video titled, “Silenced.”

He was also convicted of several prior crimes, including assault and fraud. He was formerly a member of the British National Party, a fascist UK political party; as well as the leader of the far-right, anti-Islamist, English Defense League.

But Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and US President Donald Trump’s biggest supporter, regularly uses his account on his social media platform X as a soapbox to call for Robinson’s release from prison, ostensibly in the name of free speech. Robinson, Musk has said, is behind bars for telling the “truth.”

According to British media outlets, Musk is also helping Robinson financially. In a statement on X, Robinson’s team thanked Musk and his X team for their “unexpected and generous assistance” in two legal cases. Among other things, these involve a new court case in which Robinson has been accused of violating anti-terrorism laws. A DW request for comment from X’s press department went unanswered.

Musk elevating Robinson’s profile

But what’s behind Musk’s generosity? Robinson is unpopular in the UK. A recent poll by the research institute More in Common found that only 12% of respondents had a favorable view of the right-wing agitator, while 46% held a negative opinion. Musk hasn’t helped his popularity with his efforts either: A majority of Britons surveyed said they wanted the tech billionaire to stay out of politics and concentrate on ridding his social media platform of hate speech instead.

But Musk doesn’t appear to be interested in that — quite the opposite. He has helped elevate Robinson’s profile by restoring his Twitter account — which had been blocked by the company in 2018 — after he bought the platform in October 2022. Now Robinson, who has more than 1 million followers, can once again spread his message.

Robinson’s message got a further boost last summer when three young girls were killed in a knife attack in the northern English city of Southport. Robinson incited his followers to take to the streets; race riots ensued. Musk also got involved, criticizing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for his response and saying that “civil war is inevitable.” Since then, Musk has gone further, accusing Starmer of turning the UK into a police state and calling for his resignation.

Is Musk intentionally spreading misinformation?

Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nongovernmental organization, said the X owner is intentionally spreading misinformation, giving extremist voices a platform to garner more clicks and thus increase his profits. Musk, as Ahmed told DW, has transformed X into a platform that accelerates the spread of hate and disinformation in British society.

Tim Bale, a political scientist at Queen Mary University of London, goes a step further. He thinks Musk is trying to undermine trust in the UK government because its politicians are attempting to rein in the power of the US tech giant with new laws.

The Online Safety Act, passed in October 2023, is indeed something that affects online platforms like X. The law requires them to remove all illegal or harmful content or face fines equivalent to up to 10% of their revenue.

Musk campaigning for Germany’s AfD

Is the European establishment a thorn in Musk’s side for the same reason? The EU wants to use its Digital Services Act to limit the spread of false information on social media platforms, and has placed the burden for ensuring this happens on the tech behemoths themselves — casting a particularly stern eye at Musk and X.

Many EU parliamentarians have called for immediate measures, even more so since Musk began openly championing Germany’s far-right AfD — which has in part been labeled extremist. In early January, Musk described AfD co-leader Alice Weidel as “Germany’s most popular chancellor candidate,” and spent more than an hour chatting with her live on X. A few days later, he made an appearance at the AfD’s party conference via video.

Musk regularly insults German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, referring to him as “Oaf Schitz.” And Vera Jourova, the former EU commissioner for values and transparency, was forced to sit by as he railed against her as “the epitome of banal bureaucratic evil.”

Parth Patel from the progressive think tank IPPR is concerned that conspiracy theories could eventually enter the British mainstream thanks to Musk’s efforts. “It’s plausible that he will be successful in indoctrinating people to that point of view, and if he does, it will be very dangerous,” he said.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/is-elon-musk-aiding-a-british-right-wing-extremist/a-71440001

A person in a car was the seventh fatal victim of the fiery crash of an air ambulance onto a busy Philadelphia street, authorities said Saturday, as investigators sifted through burned cars, damaged homes and charred debris for clues to determine why the aircraft plummeted shortly after takeoff.

Carrying six people from Mexico, including a child who spent months in treatment at a hospital, the Learjet 55 went down just after departing from the Northeast Philadelphia Airport, creating what witnesses described as a massive fireball, shaking houses and leaving a chaotic street scene.

Authorities couldn’t yet say why the jet crashed, and Adam Thiel, the city’s managing director, said it could be days — or longer — until officials are able to fully count the number of dead and injured across a sprawling impact area in a densely populated residential area.

The plane took off, reached about 1,500 feet of altitude and then plummeted in a steep descent, crashing less than a minute after takeoff in what National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy called a “high-impact crash” that left the plane “highly fragmented.”

As of Saturday morning, officials said, there were seven dead — six on the jet and the person in the car — and 19 injured. Most of the injured had been treated and released, hospitals said.

There are “a lot of unknowns about who was where on the streets” when the plane crashed, and it is possible that the casualty figures will grow, Thiel said.

The crash scene was at least four to six blocks, and authorities were working to assess the damage, including going house to house to inspect the dwellings, Thiel said.

Homendy said her agency’s staff was working to collect debris from the plane, which could take days or weeks, and haul it away to a secure location to begin evaluating it.

Air traffic controllers didn’t hear anything concerning before the crash, and her agency was still looking for the cockpit voice recorder, a helpful piece of evidence in the investigation, Homendy said.

It is likely damaged and possibly fragmented because of the impact, although her agency’s researchers and engineers have significant expertise in repairing them, she said.

The plane hit the ground just after 6 p.m., during a busy Friday evening dinner hour less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the airport.

“All of sudden I heard like a ‘boom,’ and I thought it was a thunderstorm,” said Selkuc Koc, a waiter at the Four Seasons Diner on Cottman Avenue. “And I get up and look at the smoke and the fire, it was like a balloon. I thought it was a gas station that blew up.”

One diner patron was hit and injured by a small but heavy metal object that flew through the window, Koc said.

Child patient had just finished treatment for life-threatening condition

Of the six people on board the medical transport jet, one was a child who had just completed treatment at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia hospital, one was her mother and four were crew members, officials said.

A hospital spokesperson said the girl spent four months there receiving life-saving treatment for a condition not easily treated in Mexico. Shriners officials said they couldn’t give details about the girl or her family because of patient privacy rules.

“Her journey was one of hope and of aspiration,” spokesperson Mel Bower told The Philadelphia Inquirer. The relationships that the girl formed with staff “were true and were dear,” and she’ll be missed greatly by them, he said.

Forty-one bodies had been pulled from the Potomac River as of Friday afternoon, including 28 that had been positively identified.

The name of one of the three soldiers killed in the plane crash in Washington is not being released.

The army identified two of the soldiers killed when an American Airlines jet and a military helicopter collided mid-air as Staff Sergeant Ryan Austin O’Hara and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves.

However, it made the unusual decision, at the request of the family, not to release the name of the third soldier.

Meanwhile, investigators announced the black box from the Black Hawk helicopter has been recovered.

They are reviewing the flight data recorder along with two from the plane as they probe the cause of the devastating crash.

Forty-one bodies had been pulled from the river as of Friday afternoon, including 28 that had been positively identified, Washington DC fire chief John Donnelly Sr said at a news conference.

He said next of kin notifications had been made to 18 families, and that he expects that all 67 of the bodies of the dead will eventually be recovered.

“It’s been a tough response for a lot of our people,” Mr Donnelly said, noting that more than 300 responders were taking part in the effort at any one time.

Investigators have already recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the American Airlines plane, which struck the helicopter as the plane was coming in for a landing at the airport next to Washington.

Officials are scrutinising a range of factors in what National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy has called an “all-hands-on-deck event”.

Investigators are examining the actions of the military pilot as well as air traffic control, after the helicopter apparently flew into the jet’s path.

Air crash investigations normally take 12-18 months, and investigators told reporters on Thursday that they would not speculate on the cause.

It has been suggested the helicopter exceeded an altitude limit.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/army-withholding-name-of-female-soldier-killed-in-crash-as-helicopter-black-box-recovered-13300599

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he would impose hefty new tariffs of 25% on goods from Mexico and Canada and 10% on imports from China, and nothing could be done by the three countries to forestall them.
Trump did, however, reference a potential carve out for oil from Canada, saying that rate would be 10% versus the 25% planned for other goods from the United States’ northern neighbor. But he indicated wider tariffs on oil and natural gas would be coming in mid-February, remarks that sent oil prices higher.

Trump has been threatening the tariffs for weeks, saying they would be imposed on Feb. 1 and remain in place until the countries did more to stem the flow of both migrants and fentanyl over the U.S. border.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office as he was signing executive orders, Trump said he understood the duties could result in higher costs being passed on to consumers and acknowledged his actions may cause disruptions in the short term. Most economists estimate such sweeping import taxes, and the likely retaliation, would disrupt economic activity around the globe.

Asked if there was any opportunity at this stage for the three top U.S. trading partners to win a delay, Trump said: “No, no. Not right now, no.”
He brushed away the notion his threats for levies have been a bargaining tool. “No, it’s not … we have big (trade) deficits with, as you know, with all three of them.”
“It’s something we’re doing, and we’ll possibly very substantially increase it, or not, we’ll see how it is,” Trump said. “But it’s a lot of money coming to the United States.”

And more tariffs are on the way, the Republican president said, saying import taxes were being considered on European goods as well as on steel, aluminum and copper, and on drugs and semiconductors.
“We’re going to be putting tariffs on steel and aluminum, and ultimately copper. Copper will take a little longer,” he said.
Financial markets have been whipsawed by the rapid-fire but still not fully clear developments on Trump’s tariff plans, with currency trading showing particular volatility. The Canadian dollar and Mexican peso both weakened while Treasury bond yields rose, and stocks ended the day lower.
Still, he said he was not concerned about the reaction of financial markets to his plans to impose tariffs.
“The President will be implementing tomorrow 25% tariffs on Mexico, 25% tariffs on Canada, and a 10% tariff on China for the illegal fentanyl that they have sourced and allowed to distribute into our country, which has killed tens of millions of Americans,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told a press briefing.
Leavitt said details of the tariffs will be released sometime on Saturday.

When Trump imposed punitive duties on Chinese goods in 2018 and 2019, there was typically a lag of two to three weeks for Customs and Border Protection to begin collecting tariffs, due to computer system updates and notices required for importers.
Trump traveled late on Friday to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, saying he would work all weekend there. He was joined on the flight by his commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, who Trump has designated as his trade policy chief.
MAJOR DISRUPTION
Economists and business executives have warned the tariffs would spark increases in the prices of imports such as aluminum and lumber from Canada, as well as fruits, vegetables, beer and electronics from Mexico and motor vehicles from both countries.
Trump again spoke of collecting hundreds of billions of dollars in revenues from other countries, but economists generally say tariffs are paid by firms that import goods and pass the costs on to consumers or accept lower profits.
“President Trump’s tariffs will tax America first,” said Matthew Holmes, public policy chief at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. “From higher costs at the pumps, grocery stores and online checkout, tariffs cascade through the economy and end up hurting consumers and businesses on both sides of the border.”
Trump’s move is expected to draw retaliatory tariffs, potentially disrupting more than $2.1 trillion in annual two-way U.S. trade with the three trading partners.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday said Canada would immediately respond with forceful countermeasures, adding Canadians could be “facing difficult times in the coming days and weeks.”
Canada has drawn up detailed targets for immediate tariff retaliation, including duties on Florida orange juice, a source familiar with the plan said. Canada has a broader list of targets that could reach C$150 billion ($105 billion) worth of U.S. imports, but would hold public consultations before acting, the source said.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/north-america-braces-new-trump-tariffs-saturday-deadline-nears-2025-01-31/