AFP USA

US President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned Rod Blagojevich, a former Illinois governor whose jail sentence for corruption he commuted five years ago during his first term.Democrat Blagojevich was removed from his governor’s post in 2009 and later convicted of essentially selling the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama when he won the US presidency in 2008.”It was sort of a terrible injustice. They just went after him, they go after a lot of people. These are bad people on the other side,” Trump told reporters as he signed the pardon in the Oval Office. “I think he’s a very fine person, and this shouldn’t have happened.”Asked whether he was considering Blagojevich to be US ambassador to Serbia, as US media had reported, Trump said: “No, but I would. He’s now cleaner than anybody in this room.”Back in 2020, Trump was vague about his reasoning for freeing Blagojevich, who was sentenced to 14 years.The president noted that he’d once performed with Blagojevich during the TV reality show “The Apprentice” and said he “seemed like a very nice person,” but added: “I don’t know him very well.””He served eight years in jail. He has a long time to go. Many people disagree with the sentence,” Trump told reporters.Trump has already exercised the US president’s wide-ranging powers to issue pardons on a number of occasions since he returned to the White House on January 20.On the evening of his inauguration, he pardoned some 1,500 people accused of involvement in the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack by supporters trying to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden.He has also pardoned two dozen anti-abortion protesters and Ross Ulbricht, the man behind the “Silk Road” online marketplace that facilitated millions of dollars of drug sales.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday pushing for a return to plastic drinking straws, saying their impact on marine life was limited and that paper ones favored by environmentalists “explode.” Republican Trump’s order reverses a target set by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden to eliminate single-use plastic utensils like straws across government agencies by 2035.”We’re going back to plastic straws,” Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office.”These things don’t work, I’ve had them many times, and on occasion, they break, they explode. If something’s hot, they don’t last very long, like a matter of minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds. It’s a ridiculous situation,” Trump said.Environmentalists have long campaigned for an end to the use of plastic straws and other utensils, saying they pollute marine environments in particular.But Trump — who has long appeared vexed by paper straws — rejected their concerns.”I don’t think that plastic is going to affect a shark as they’re eating, as they’re munching their way through the ocean,” said Trump.Presenting the document for Trump to sign, White House staff secretary Will Scharf said the environmental impact was “entirely debatable” and that American consumers were “wildly dissatisfied with their straws.”Trump, who has called climate change a “scam,” has issued a series of orders on the environment since returning to the White House for a second term.He pulled out of the Paris climate change agreement soon after his inauguration on January 20 and has pledged to “drill, baby, drill” for oil.

US President Donald Trump on Monday made good on a promise to slap 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, stepping up a long-promised trade war despite warnings from Europe and China.The Republican president had unveiled the policy on Sunday aboard Air Force One while flying to the Super Bowl in Louisiana.Before he signed executive orders imposing the measures, global stock markets rose as traders with “tariff fatigue” appeared to shrug off Trump’s plans.”Today I’m simplifying our tariffs on steel and aluminum,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “It’s 25 percent without exceptions or exemptions.”He also signaled that he would look at imposing additional tariffs on automobiles, pharmaceuticals and computer chips.Canada and Mexico — which Trump has already threatened with tariffs — are the biggest steel importers to the United States, according to US trade data. Brazil and South Korea are also major steel providers.”President Trump has made it clear that an important part of an America First Golden Age is steel production,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC.The US leader said he was considering an exemption for Australia from the steel tariffs, confirming comments made by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.”We have a (trade) surplus to Australia, one of the few. And the reason is they buy a lot of airplanes. They are rather far away and need lots of airplanes,” he said.Trump has also promised an announcement on Tuesday or Wednesday on broader “reciprocal tariffs” to match the levies other governments charge on US products.He imposed sweeping tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency to protect US industries, which he believed faced unfair competition from Asian and European countries. – ‘Losers’ -Canadian steelmakers warned of “massive” disruption, while the European Commission said it would “react to protect the interests of European businesses, workers and consumers from unjustified measures.”French President Emmanuel Macron vowed in an interview aired Sunday to go head-to-head with Trump over his wider tariff threats against the European Union, though he said the United States should focus its efforts on China.German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said a tariff conflict “only has losers.”Around 25 percent of European steel exports go to the United States, according to consultancy Roland Berger.Britain’s steel industry body called the tariff plan a “devastating blow.”Trump has already shown his fondness for weaponizing the United States’ power as the world’s largest economy, ordering tariffs on key trade partners China, Mexico and Canada soon after he took office.He paused 25 percent levies against Canada and Mexico for a month after both countries vowed to step up measures to counter flows of the drug fentanyl and the crossing of undocumented migrants into the United States.- ‘Tariff fatigue’ -But Trump went ahead with tariffs on China, the world’s second biggest economy, with products entering the United States facing an additional 10 percent levy.Chinese retaliatory tariffs targeting US coal and liquified natural gas come into play on Monday. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Monday that “there is no winner in a trade war and tariff war.”Trump also focused on steel during a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba last week. The American leader said he had secured an agreement for Japan’s Nippon Steel to make a major investment in US Steel, instead of seeking to take over the troubled firm.Trump, who has promised a “new golden age” for the United States, insists the impact of any tariffs would be borne by foreign exporters without being passed on to US consumers, despite most experts saying the contrary.But he did acknowledge this month that Americans might initially feel economic “pain” from the levies.Wall Street’s main indices finished up Monday despite the tariff threat. London and Frankfurt set fresh records, while Hong Kong and Shanghai stocks also rose.”The fact that global equity indices are higher at the start of the week could be a sign of tariff fatigue,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB.The dollar also rose against the Canadian dollar, the Mexican peso and South Korean won on Monday.burs-dk/sst/md

Elon Musk is leading an investment group offering $97.4 billion for the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, marking a new front in his war with the ChatGPT-maker, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.Musk attorney Marc Toberoff said he submitted the bid to OpenAI’s board of directors, according to the Journal.”No thank you, but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” OpenAI chief Sam Altman wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, apparently responding to the offer.Musk, who bought X under its former moniker for $44 billion in 2022, replied to the post by simply writing: “Swindler.”Musk’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Tesla boss and close ally of US President Donald Trump has been mired in an ongoing feud with Altman, with Musk filing repeated lawsuits against the San Francisco-based OpenAI.Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, with the company becoming the world’s leading AI startup since he left in 2018. He launched his own generative AI startup, xAI, in 2023.”We created a bespoke structure: a for-profit, controlled by the non-profit, with a capped profit share for investors and employees,” OpenAI said in a December blog post that outlined a plan to become a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation.The shift would require the company to balance the interests of shareholders, stakeholders, and the public in a tilt away from non-profit, according to the post.Musk established xAI in early 2023 to have a foothold in the technology expected to disrupt how people live and work.OpenAI is one of the world’s highest valued startups, but loses money on the high costs of turning out its expensive technology.Trump in January announced a major investment to build infrastructure for AI led by Japanese giant Softbank, cloud giant Oracle and OpenAI.The venture, called Stargate, “will invest $500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States,” Trump said in remarks at the White House.OpenAI co-founder and boss Altman, SoftBank’s chief Masayoshi Son and Oracle founder Larry Ellison attended the announcement.But Musk was quick to cast doubt on the project, saying the money promised for the investment actually was not there.The comments marked a rare instance of a split between the world’s richest man and Trump, with Musk playing a key role in the new US administration after spending $270 million on the Republican’s election campaign.

The Trump administration was on a collision course with the US courts Monday, with federal judges questioning the legality of the White House’s cost-cutting onslaught of government and Vice President J.D Vance warning the judiciary to back off. In his first three weeks in office, President Donald Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders aimed at slashing federal spending, appointing SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead efforts that critics widely denounce as unconstitutional.Trump’s sweeping plans, which have effectively shuttered some federal agencies and sent staff home, have sparked legal battles across the country. Multiple lawsuits seek to halt what opponents characterize as an illegal power grab.Musk’s team has moved aggressively through federal agencies, freezing aid programs and pushing workforce reductions through controversial buyout offers and termination threats.Democrats, unions, and activists, after initially struggling to respond, are now pursuing legal action and their numerous cases challenging Trump’s plans have drawn sharp criticism from the White House.In a social media post Sunday, Vance argued that judges lack authority to “control the executive’s legitimate power,” comparing judicial intervention to a judge dictating military strategy to a general.”Judicial tyranny is grossly improper!” Musk said, echoing the White House pushback.Their comments followed a judge’s emergency order early Saturday blocking Musk’s government reform team from accessing millions of Americans’ personal and financial data stored at the Treasury Department.Democratic attorneys general from 19 states filed that case Friday against the Republican president, the Treasury Department and the man who leads it, Scott Bessent.Separately, a federal judge in Rhode Island on Monday said the Trump administration had violated a previous order lifting a sweeping federal funding freeze.”The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country,” the order stated.It was the first time since Trump took office and unfurled his “shock and awe” reform campaign that a federal judge accused his administration of defying a court order.- ‘Unprecedented’ -In Boston, another federal judge ruled Monday that the government must extend the deadline for a controversial federal worker buyout offer that legal experts consider vague and potentially illegal.The plan, announced January 28 in an email to federal employees titled “Fork in the road” — echoing Musk’s 2022 message to Twitter employees when he acquired and renamed the platform to X — offered workers eight months’ pay in exchange for resigning, or risk future termination.While the US Office of Personnel Management, now run by Musk associates, extended the original Thursday deadline to Monday at 11:59 pm (0459 GMT), Judge George O’Toole ordered a further delay pending his decision. Civil service unions had filed for a preliminary injunction to pause the offer until courts could resolve the matter.”This is an unprecedented action taken on an unprecedented timeline that is causing irreparable harm,” attorney Elena Goldstein told the federal judge, according to WHDH-TV news.US media reported that at least 65,000 federal workers had accepted the so-called deferred resignation program as of last week.Despite the legal challenges, the Trump administration continued its cost-cutting campaign Monday, effectively closing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency long criticized by Republicans as engaging in overreach.Acting CFPB director Russell Vought informed staff that the agency’s Washington office would close this week and directed employees not to report to work.

The union representing staff at the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued the acting head of the agency, as the Trump administration ordered all work at the watchdog to cease on Monday.CFPB staff were told that the agency’s Washington headquarters would be shuttered and that they should not show up for work.The National Treasury Employees Union brought two court cases against acting CFPB director Russell Vought, accusing him of trying to shut down the agency — which was created by Congress — and of giving the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to employees’ personal information. Vought’s actions reflected “an unlawful attempt to thwart Congress’s decision to create the CFPB to protect American consumers,” they argued in one of the suits. The CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, and serves as a watchdog over a variety of US consumer issues ranging from mortgages to credit cards to debt collection.Republicans have long accused the independent agency of overreach, with some of Trump’s most ardent supporters — including tech billionaire Musk — calling for its closure.In an email to staff on Monday, a copy of which was shared with AFP, Vought said the agency’s Washington office would be closed this week, and told employees not to show up.”Please do not perform any work tasks,” said Vought, the new director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and a key architect of the conservative plan known as Project 2025 to reform the federal government.Vought added that staff would need to seek written permission from him before doing any urgent work going forward, and should otherwise “stand down from performing any work task.”- ‘Weaponization’ -The CFPB says it has saved consumers more than $21 billion, with its enforcement actions against businesses bringing in most of that money. The White House, however, accused it of unfair conduct.The CFPB “has long functioned as another woke, weaponized arm of the bureaucracy that leverages its power against certain industries and individuals disfavored by so-called ‘elites,'” the White House said in a statement published Monday.”Under the administration of President Donald J. Trump, the weaponization ends right now,” it added. The decision to pause all work at CFPB and close down its offices appears to be an attempt to curtail its oversight powers without shuttering it entirely — something that would require congressional approval.”Congress built the CFPB, and no one other than Congress — not the president, not Musk, not Vought — can shut it down,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who helped create the agency, said in a video message.In a separate statement, Democrats including Warren announced plans for a protest outside the CFPB’s Washington offices for Monday, to “sound the alarm” against Musk and Vought’s “attempt to kill” the agency. 

Prosecutors in the trial of the man accused of attacking Salman Rushdie told jurors Monday that the author came “dangerously close” to dying in a frenzied assault that left him blind in one eye.Hadi Matar, a 27-year-old Lebanese-American who said “free Palestine” as he entered court, is charged with attempted murder and assault over the August 12, 2022 attack at an arts event in western New York state.Matar is accused of stabbing Rushdie about 10 times with a knife, leaving him in grave condition and without sight in his right eye, and also slashing another speaker at the gathering.Prosecutor District Attorney Jason Schmidt told how Rushdie, who has faced death threats since the release of his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses,” had just taken his seat in the amphitheater in front of about 1,000 people.”A young medium-build man wearing a dark colored facemask… appeared from the rear of the theater,” Schmidt said. “Once on the stage, he rapidly accelerated into a full-out run.””(Matar) forcefully and efficiently and with speed plunged the knife into Mr Rushdie over and over and over again… swinging, slashing into Mr Rushdie’s head, neck, abdomen, upper thigh.”Schmidt said Rushdie, an Indian-born British and American citizen, raised his hands to defend himself but remained seated after several blows landed.- Blood, screaming -“The Satanic Verses” was declared blasphemous by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who issued a fatwa, or religious edict, in 1989 calling on Muslims anywhere in the world to kill Rushdie.Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant organization Hezbollah endorsed the fatwa, the FBI has said, and Matar faces a separate prosecution in federal court on terrorism charges.Matar, who wore a blue shirt and frequently conferred with his five-strong legal team in the ornate courtroom Monday, previously told the New York Post that he had only read two pages of Rushdie’s novel but believed the author had “attacked Islam.”New York-based Rushdie, now 77, suffered multiple stab wounds before bystanders subdued the attacker, later identified by police as Matar.Venue employee Deborah Moore Kushmaul said she picked up the discarded knife, which she indicated had a six-inch blade, and gave it to police.”I could see blood, I could see (bystanders) piling on. Our audience, many of whom were elderly, were screaming,” she said.  “My main concern was seeing all the bags that there might be a bomb, that there might be another attacker.” Matar came “dangerously close” to killing Rushdie, Schmidt said, reporting that the author was stabbed through the right eye with such ferocity that it severed the optical nerve.Rushdie’s Adam’s apple was also partially lacerated, and his liver and small bowel penetrated.”His blood pressure was low — he lost so much blood,” said the prosecutor.Rushdie was not in court Monday but is expected to testify at the trial.- Life under fatwa -One of Matar’s lawyers, Lynn Schaffer, said in an opening argument punctuated with Super Bowl references and bouts of coughing that prosecutors would seek to present the case as “straightforward — open and shut.””Pay attention to the assumptions that the police witnesses make… how does that color the way they investigate this case?” she said. “They assume things about Mr Matar that affect the way they investigate.”A large media presence has gathered in the small lakefront resort town of Mayville near the Canadian border to follow the trial.Matar’s defense team sought a delay in the case as his primary lawyer has been hospitalized, but judge David Foley denied the request.Matar’s side also sought to have the trial moved from Mayville, near where Rushdie was attacked, arguing a fair trial with local jurors was impossible.Rushdie lived in seclusion in London for a decade after the fatwa, but for the past 20 years — until the attack — he lived relatively normally in New York.Last year, he published a memoir called “Knife” in which he recounted the near-death experience.”Why didn’t I fight? Why didn’t I run? I just stood there,” Rushdie wrote.Iran has denied any link to the attacker — but said only Rushdie was to blame for the incident.The case continues Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump plans to slap 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports Monday, stepping up his long-promised trade war despite warnings from Europe and China.Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while flying to the Super Bowl on Sunday that the metals levies would be applied to “everybody.”But global stock markets rose as traders with “tariff fatigue” appeared to shrug off the Republican president’s latest threats.Trump said the tariffs would be formally announced on Monday. The White House said he would sign a number of executive orders in the Oval Office on Monday but it was not clear if any of them covered the promised tariffs.Canada and Mexico — which Trump has already threatened with tariffs — are the biggest steel importers to the United States, according to US trade data. Brazil and South Korea are also major steel providers.”President Trump has made it clear that an important part of an America First Golden Age is steel production,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC.Trump has also promised an announcement on Tuesday or Wednesday on broader “reciprocal tariffs” to match the levies other governments charge on US products.He imposed sweeping tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency to protect US industries, which he believed faced unfair competition from Asian and European countries. – ‘Losers’ -But his latest threats are still causing disquiet. Canadian steelmakers warned of “massive” disruption.Targeting Canadian steel and aluminum is “completely baseless and unwarranted, we must retaliate immediately,” Catherine Cobden, president of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, said in a statement.The European Commission said it would “react to protect the interests of European businesses, workers and consumers from unjustified measures.”French President Emmanuel Macron vowed in an interview aired Sunday to go head-to-head with Trump over his wider tariff threats against the EU, though he said the United States should focus its efforts on China.German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said a tariff conflict “only has losers” but that Europe would respond in a “united and determined manner.” Around 25 percent of European steel exports go to the United States, according to consultancy Roland Berger.Britain’s steel industry body called the tariff plan a “devastating blow.”Trump has already shown his fondness for weaponizing the United States’ power as the world’s largest economy, ordering tariffs on key trade partners China, Mexico and Canada soon after he took office.He paused 25 percent levies against Canada and Mexico for a month after both countries vowed to step up measures to counter flows of the drug fentanyl and the crossing of undocumented migrants into the United States.- ‘Tariff fatigue’ -But he went ahead with tariffs on China, the world’s second biggest economy, with products entering the United States facing an additional 10 percent levy.Chinese retaliatory tariffs targeting US coal and liquified natural gas come into play on Monday. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Monday that “there is no winner in a trade war and tariff war.”Trump also focused on steel during a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba last week. The American leader said he had secured an agreement for Japan’s Nippon Steel to make a major investment in US Steel, instead of seeking to take over the troubled firm.Trump, who has promised a “new golden age” for the United States, insists the impact of any tariffs would be borne by foreign exporters without being passed on to US consumers, despite most experts saying the contrary.But he did acknowledge this month that Americans might initially feel economic “pain” from the levies.Wall Street’s main indices moved higher on Monday despite the tariff threat. London and Frankfurt set fresh records, while Hong Kong and Shanghai stocks also rose.”The fact that global equity indices are higher at the start of the week could be a sign of tariff fatigue,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB.The dollar also rose against the Canadian dollar, the Mexican peso and South Korean won on Monday.burs-dk/mlm

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet US Vice President JD Vance on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, where they are set to discuss Washington’s push for an end to the three-year war with Russia.US President Donald Trump will also despatch his special envoy Keith Kellogg, who is tasked with drawing up a proposal to halt the fighting, to Ukraine a week later, a source in the Ukrainian presidency told AFP.Trump is pushing for a swift end to the nearly three-year war, while Zelensky is calling for tough security guarantees from Washington as part of any deal with Russia.Kyiv fears that any settlement that does not include hard military commitments — such as NATO membership or the deployment of peacekeeping troops — will just allow the Kremlin time to regroup and rearm for a fresh attack.Zelensky’s spokesman Sergiy Nikiforov told AFP the meeting with Vance would take place Friday on the sidelines of the Munich conference.Meanwhile a source in the Ukrainian president’s office said Kellogg would arrive in Ukraine on February 20.They did not say where in the country Kellogg would visit.His trip would come just days before the three-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion on February 24.Zelensky called Monday for “real peace and effective security guarantees” for Ukraine.”Security of people, security of our state, security of economic relations and, of course, our resource sustainability: not only for Ukraine, but for the entire free world,” he said in an evening video address published on social media.”All of this is being decided now.”- Trump meetings -Trump has said he wants to broker an end to the war but has not outlined a detailed proposal to bring the two sides to the negotiating table.Both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin have previously ruled out direct talks with each other, and there appears to be little ground where the two could strike a deal.Putin is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from swathes of its south and east that Kyiv still has control over, and considers closer ties between Ukraine and NATO inadmissable.Zelensky has meanwhile rejected any territorial concessions to Moscow, though he has acknowledged that Ukraine might have to rely on diplomatic means to secure the return of some territory.Russia says it has annexed five regions of Ukraine — Crimea in 2014 and then Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia in 2022 — though it does not have full control over them.Zelensky said Monday that a meeting with Trump was also being arranged, but that a date had not yet been fixed.Trump said last week that he would “probably” meet Zelensky in the coming days, but ruled out personally travelling to Kyiv.The New York Post reported Saturday that Trump told the publication he had spoken on the phone to Putin to discuss bringing an end to the conflict in Ukraine, saying that Putin had told him he “wants to see people stop dying”.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to confirm or deny the call.Organisers of the closely followed Munich Security Conference had confirmed earlier Monday that Zelensky would attend the Feb 14-16 summit.The US delegation is set to include Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as Kellogg and Vance, MSC chair Christoph Heusgen told a Berlin press conference.There will be no representatives of the Russian government present, Heusgen said.The meeting comes with Russia advancing across Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where it has captured several settlements — mostly completely flattened by months of Russian bombardments — over the past year.burs-vl-jc/js

Kendrick Lamar commanded one of the world’s most high-profile stages Sunday as the Super Bowl’s halftime headliner, yet another feather in the cap of the rap laureate who has ascended to new heights of pop stardom.Lamar performed a string of his classics while toying with his audience who had one major question: would he perform “Not Like Us,” the searing diss track that served as the knockout blow in his eyebrow-raising rap battle with Drake?In a word? Yes.The wildly infectious hit released in May 2024 hears the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lamar — the first solo rap artist to helm a halftime show at the Super Bowl, which this year saw the Philadelphia Eagles pummel the Kansas City Chiefs — use his punchlines to accuse Drake of pedophilia.”I wanna perform their favorite song,” he said at one point during the 13-minute set — the Grammy-winning track’s ubiquitous, instantly recognizable bass line resounding — “but you know they love to sue.”He offered his classics like “Humble” and “DNA” as well as tracks from his most recent album “GNX” — he began the set atop the Buick Grand National it’s named for — including “Squabble Up” before sending fans into a frenzy in delivering the goods, a knife-twisting rendition of “Not Like Us.”Lamar cut the profanity and the word “pedophile” but didn’t stop short of the money line, rapping “tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-minoooooor” on live television in front of tens of thousands of spectators and an estimated 100 million viewers.In delivering the lyric “say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young,” Lamar stared right into the camera, dancing on the Canadian rapper’s rap-battle grave while sporting a chain with a massive pendant — a lower-case a.The performance is all but sure to kick off more legal wrangling: Drake, the reigning highest-grossing rapper, recently filed a bombshell defamation suit against his own record label Universal Music Group, which also represents Lamar.Drake is notably suing UMG and not Lamar himself, but questions abounded leading into the Super Bowl set over whether performing the song on one of the top global stages could open the door to further litigation.- Uncle Sam, surprise protestor -“Not Like Us” dominated the set but it was also a performance that paid homage to the 37-year-old rapper’s expansive oeuvre.Born in Compton, California, the artist is renowned as one of contemporary music’s most impactful writers, with his verses offering personal insights that take on systemic issues such as race relations and structural poverty.His poignant lyricism soundtracked the Black Lives Matter movement and compelled many to call him the voice of a generation.Lamar brought some of that energy to the Super Bowl stage, which included set narrator, the actor Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam, a character emblematic of American patriotism that has frequently appeared in military propaganda.Lamar didn’t make any direct references to Donald Trump — who several weeks into his second go at the presidency attended the game — but rather used the platform to offer a more symbolic critique of the marginalized treatment of both hip hop and Black Americans at large.”No, no, no, no, noooo. Too loud, too reckless, too ghetto. Mr Lamar, do you really know how to play the game? Then tighten up,” the costumed Jackson jeered at one point.Troupes of dancers dressed in red, white and blue at one point coalesced into an American flag formation.Before his climactic delivery of “Not Like Us” — which just one week ago scored Lamar five Grammys — the artist brought SZA, who he’s due to tour with, onstage.Their duet included a performance of “All the Stars,” their hit off the “Black Panther” soundtrack.Another notable cameo came from Serena Williams, the tennis legend who also hails from Compton — and who is thought to have briefly dated Drake.The set was also punctuated by a protestor who unfurled a flag in support of Gaza and Sudan during the performance, a moment production company Roc Nation told AFP was not rehearsed.”The individual hid the item on his person and unveiled it late in the show,” said the NFL, who added the protestor was part of the 400-member field cast.The protestor was seen in AFP photos standing atop Lamar’s centerpiece car, wielding the flag emblazoned with images of heart and a fist as well as the words “Gaza” and “Sudan.”The person was later tackled and escorted out by security.