Trump soigne la sortie de son allié Musk

Donald Trump a soigné vendredi la sortie d’Elon Musk, qui a assuré vouloir rester “l’ami et le conseiller” du président américain”, tout en balayant de récentes révélations sur sa consommation de drogue.Leur conférence de presse commune dans le Bureau ovale, marquant la fin de la mission gouvernementale du multimilliardaire, a pris d’emblée une tournure curieuse, puisque le patron de SpaceX, Tesla et du réseau X est apparu avec un oeil au beurre noir, selon lui causé par son petit garçon.Donald Trump a salué la mission de réduction de la dépense publique menée par l’homme le plus riche du monde, saluant un “changement colossal”. Le président américain a condamné “les scandaleuses attaques, les calomnies et les mensonges” ayant selon lui visé Elon Musk.Lequel s’est bien gardé de répéter ses récentes critiques sur les orientations budgétaires de Donald Trump, après avoir confié dans une interview être “déçu” par une grande loi économique actuellement examinée au Congrès.Donald Trump a offert à son allié, premier contributeur de sa campagne électorale, une clé en or, ce métal qu’il aime tant. Comme pour signifier que les portes de la Maison Blanche lui restaient ouvertes, alors que les rumeurs vont bon train sur un froid entre les deux hommes. Elon Musk a par ailleurs balayé les révélations du New York Times vendredi sur sa consommation importante de drogues, sans y répondre sur le fond.Il a plutôt accusé le grand quotidien d’avoir propagé des “mensonges” sur les relations entre Donald Trump et la Russie: “C’est de ce New York Times dont on parle? Passons à autre chose.”- Kétamine, ecstasy, champignons -Le journal affirme que pendant la campagne électorale, l’entrepreneur consommait à la fois de la kétamine, de l’ecstasy et des champignons hallucinogènes.Elon Musk, souvent décrit comme très instable, avait dit dans une interview en mars 2024 qu’il consommait “une petite dose (de kétamine) une fois toutes les deux semaines à peu près”, ajoutant qu’elle lui était prescrite pour “sortir d’un état d’esprit négatif”.Tout de noir vêtu et casquette sur la tête comme à son habitude, il a été interrogé sur son ecchymose à l’oeil droit.Le multimilliardaire, dont les relations avec certains ministres et conseillers de Donald Trump ont été extrêmement tendues, a assuré qu’il avait reçu un coup de son fils X. Le petit garçon âgé de cinq ans, que l’on avait vu se curant le nez en février dernier aux côtés de son père dans le Bureau ovale, ne l’accompagnait pas vendredi. “Je m’amusais avec le petit X et je lui ai dit de me frapper au visage. Et il l’a fait”, a raconté Elon Musk.”Je n’étais pas du tout à proximité de la France”, a-t-il plaisanté, faisant allusion à une récente vidéo dans laquelle on voit Brigitte Macron tendre vivement les mains vers le visage de son mari, le président Emmanuel Macron, à la sortie d’un avion.- Conseil conjugal -Entre des questions sur Gaza, la Chine ou le budget, Donald Trump a été interrogé sur cette scène devenue virale.Le président américain, amusé, a lancé en guise de conseil conjugal: “Il faut s’assurer que la porte est bien fermée”. Avant d’ajouter: “Je lui ai parlé, et il va bien, ils vont bien”.Sous la houlette d’Elon Musk, une commission spéciale appelée “Doge” a initié des coupes massives dans l’aide internationale, des fermetures d’agences fédérales entières et des milliers de licenciements de fonctionnaires.Le multimilliardaire a répété vendredi qu’à terme, cette cellule critiquée pour ses méthodes brutales et opaques arriverait à réduire de “1.000 milliards de dollars” le “gaspillage” dans la dépense publique, un chiffre jugé irréaliste par tous les experts.Un site indépendant, le “Doge Tracker”, arrive à un total de seulement 12 milliards de dollars économisés jusqu’ici.L’action d’Elon Musk au gouvernement l’a rendu très impopulaire aux Etats-Unis, tandis qu’en Europe, sa défense des idées et partis de l’extrême-droite a suscité l’indignation dans plusieurs pays.

UN condemns ‘armed individuals’ for looting medical supplies in Gaza

The United Nations condemned Friday a group of “armed individuals” for raiding warehouses in the Palestinian territory of Gaza and looting large amounts of medical supplies.The group “stormed the warehouses at a field hospital in Deir al-Balah, looting large quantities of medical equipment, supplies, medicines, nutritional supplements that was intended for malnourished children,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.The stolen aid had been brought into war-ravaged Gaza just a day earlier, he said.”As conditions on the ground further deteriorate and public order and safety breaks down, looting incidents continue to be reported,” he said.But Dujarric highlighted the difference between Friday’s event and the looting two days earlier of a UN World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse by “starving” Palestinians, desperate for aid.”This appeared to be much more organized and much different from the looting we’d seen… in the past days,” he said.”This was an organized operation with armed men.” Since the beginning of last week, Israel has begun to allow a trickle of aid into the Palestinian territory, after a total blockade imposed on March 2.The UN has warned that the aid allowed through so far was “a drop in the ocean” of the towering needs in Gaza, after the blockade created dramatic shortages of food and medicine.The UN humanitarian agency warned Friday that “100 percent of the population (are) at risk of famine.”Gaza has been decimated by Israel’s punishing military offensive on the territory, which has killed at least 54,321 people, mostly civilians, according to health ministry figures the UN considers reliable.It has also reduced much of the territory to rubble, destroying hospitals, schools, residential areas and basic road and sewage infrastructure.Israel launched its offensive in response to an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.- Only five trucks -On Thursday, “we and our humanitarian partners only managed to collect five truckloads of cargo from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing,” Dujarric said.”Another 60 trucks had to return to the crossing due to intense hostilities in the area.”He rejected Israeli allegations that the UN was not collecting available aid.”It was no longer safe to use that road,” which Israel’s military had asked aid organizations to use, he said, stressing that there are “a lot of armed gangs” operating there.The five trucks that did make it through on Thursday were carrying medical supplies for the Deir al-Balah field hospital.And most of those supplies “were looted today, very sadly and tragically,” Dujarric said.

Death toll in central Nigeria flooding rises to 115Fri, 30 May 2025 19:19:17 GMT

Flash floods that ripped through parts of central Nigeria have killed at least 115 people, an emergency services official said on Friday, with the toll expected to rise further.Teams of rescuers continued to search for missing residents after torrential rains late on Wednesday through early Thursday washed away and submerged dozens of homes in and …

Death toll in central Nigeria flooding rises to 115Fri, 30 May 2025 19:19:17 GMT Read More »

Black eye? That’s just from my son, says Musk

Billionaire Elon Musk sparked fevered speculation when he turned up with a black eye for his Oval Office farewell with US President Donald Trump on Friday.But the South African-born tech magnate said he had a simple explanation: his son had punched him in the face.”I was just horsing around with lil’ X, and I said, ‘go ahead punch me in the face,'” 53-year-old Musk told reporters when asked how he got the shiner.”And he did. Turns out even a five-year-old punching you in the face actually is…” he added, before tailing off.”I didn’t really feel much at the time but I guess it bruises up.”Trump hosted the press conference with Musk to mark the Tesla boss’s last day at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk had expressed increasing disillusionment with the job but said he would remain a “friend and advisor.”Musk’s appearance was overshadowed by allegations in the New York Times that he had engaged in heavy drug use while on the campaign trail for Trump in 2024.Trump said he “didn’t notice” the purple bruise next to Musk’s right eye, but added: “X could do it, if you knew X.”Musk’s son X — full name X Æ A-Xii — made frequent appearances in the White House when his father was running DOGE’s cost-cutting rampage through the federal government.He even sat on Musk’s shoulders during the SpaceX magnate’s first Oval appearance back in February, and was seen picking his nose next to Trump’s “Resolute” Desk.Musk took the chance to joke at French President Emmanuel Macron’s expense when it came to his black eye.After Trump was asked for his reaction to a video of Macron’s wife apparently shoving the French leader’s face, Musk laughed and said: “I’ve got a little shiner here.”Musk, wearing a DOGE baseball cap and a T-shirt saying “The Dogefather,” joked about it again when he was asked how he got the injury.”I wasn’t anywhere near France,” he said.

Google makes case for keeping Chrome browser

Google on Friday urged a US judge to reject the notion of making it spin off its Chrome browser to weaken its dominance in online search.Rival attorneys made their final arguments before US District Court Judge Amit Mehta, who is considering “remedies” to impose after making a landmark decision last year that Google maintained an illegal monopoly in search.US government attorneys have called on Mehta to order Google divest itself of Chrome browser, contending that artificial intelligence is poised to ramp up the tech giant’s dominance as the go-to window into the internet.They also want Google barred from agreements with partners such as Apple and Samsung to distribute its search tools, which was the focus of the suit against the Silicon Valley internet giant.Three weeks of testimony ended early in May, with Friday devoted to rival sides parsing points of law and making their arguments before Mehta in a courtroom in Washington.John Schmidtlein, an attorney for Google, told Mehta that there was no evidence presented showing people would have opted for a different search engine if no exclusivity deals had been in place.Schmidtlein noted that Verizon installed Chrome on smartphones even though the US telecom titan owned Yahoo! search engine and was not bound by a contract with Google.Of the 100 or so witnesses heard at trial, not one said “if I had more flexibility, I would have installed Bing” search engine from Microsoft, the Google attorney told the judge.- ‘More flexibility’ -Department of Justice (DoJ) attorney David Dahlquist countered that Apple, which was paid billions of dollars to make Chrome the default browser on iPhones, “repeatedly asked for more flexibility” but was denied by Google.Google contends that the United States has gone way beyond the scope of the suit by recommending a spinoff of Chrome, and holding open the option to force a sale of its Android mobile operating system.”Forcing the sale of Chrome or banning default agreements wouldn’t foster competition,” said Cato Institute senior fellow in technology policy Jennifer Huddleston.”It would hobble innovation, hurt smaller players, and leave users with worse products.”The potential of Chrome being weakened or spun off comes as rivals such as Microsoft, ChatGPT and Perplexity put generative artificial intelligence (AI) to work fetching information from the internet in response to user queries.The online search antitrust suit was filed against Google some five years ago, before ChatGPT made its debut, triggering AI fervor.Google is among the tech companies investing heavily to be a leader in AI, and is weaving the technology into search and other online offerings.- Kneecap Google? -Testimony at trial included Apple vice president of services Eddy Cue revealing that Google’s search traffic on Apple devices declined in April for the first time in over two decades.Cue testified that Google was losing ground to AI alternatives like ChatGPT and Perplexity.Mehta pressed rival attorneys regarding the potential for Google to share data as proposed by the DoJ in its recommended remedies.”We’re not looking to kneecap Google,” DoJ attorney Adam Severt told the judge.”But, we are looking to make sure someone can compete with Google.”Schmidtlein contended that the data Google is being asked to share contains much more than just information about people’s online searches, saying it would be tantamount to handing over the fruit of investments made over the course of decades.”There are countless algorithms that Google engineers have invented that have nothing to do with click and query data,” Schmidtlein said.”Their remedy says we want to be on par with all of your ingenuity, and, respectfully your honor, that is not proportional to the conduct of this case.”