AFP USA

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to expand US deep-sea mining for rare earth minerals in domestic and international waters, despite warnings by environmental groups.White House aides say the initiative could see US operations scoop up more than a billion metric tons of deep-sea nodules and pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the American economy.The fast-tracking also flies in the face of a decade-long international effort to set ground rules for the burgeoning deep-sea industry.Commercial deep-sea mining remains in its infancy, but with a global race underway for rare earth minerals — and the industry dominated by China — Washington appears set on expanding its collection capacity to benefit its defense, advanced manufacturing and energy industries.Under the order, the secretary of commerce has 60 days to “expedite the process for reviewing and issuing seabed mineral exploration licenses and commercial recovery permits in areas beyond national jurisdiction.”The boosted deep-sea mining policy is aimed in part at “strengthening partnerships with allies and industry to counter China’s growing influence over seabed mineral resources,” it said.- ‘Environmental disaster’ -The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is scrambling to devise a rulebook for deep-sea mining, balancing its economic potential against warnings of irreversible environmental damage.The United States is not a member of the UN-affiliated body.Last week the American firm Impossible Metals said it had asked US officials to “commence a leasing process” in a parcel of the Pacific Ocean surrounding far-flung US territory American Samoa.The bid circumvents the ISA by mining within US jurisdiction, rather than international waters.Key seabed resources include polymetallic nodules, potato-sized pebbles found at depths of 13,000 to 20,000 feet (4,000 to 6,000 meters) that contain manganese, iron, cobalt, copper and nickel.A senior administration official told reporters shortly before the signing that the US could retrieve more than a billion metric tons of material, and the process could create some 100,000 jobs and generate $300 billion in domestic GDP over 10 years.Several countries are scrambling to increase capacity for deep-sea mining, seen as a potential boon for industries and the green energy transition.But environmental groups warn the process can cause major ecological damage.”Fast-tracking deep-sea mining is an environmental disaster in the making,” Emily Jeffers, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.”Trump is trying to open one of Earth’s most fragile and least understood ecosystems to reckless industrial exploitation.”Canada-based deep-sea mining frontrunner The Metals Company recently stunned industry observers with an attempt to sideline the ISA.After years of pushing the authority to adopt rules for industrial-scale mining, The Metals Company abruptly announced earlier this year it would seek US approval instead.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday steered clear of describing the Ottoman Empire’s World War I-era mass killings of Armenians as “genocide,” a reversal from his predecessor Joe Biden.Turkey, whose leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has forged close ties with Trump, has long denied genocide and angrily sought to block any international use of the term.In an annual message issued by presidents on the tragedy’s anniversary, Trump said that the American people “honor the memories of those wonderful souls who suffered in one of the worst disasters of the 20th century.”Biden in 2021 became the first president to recognize the genocide, writing: “The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today.”Biden, who throughout his political career had a tight relationship with Armenian Americans, used similar formulations throughout his presidency and directly told Erdogan that he would use the term genocide.Armenian American activists voiced outrage at Trump’s language and noted that he had promised to support Armenians, who are overwhelmingly Christian, after Turkish-aligned Azerbaijan seized the Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway enclave dominated by the community in 2023.”President Trump’s retreat from US recognition of the Armenian genocide represents a disgraceful surrender to Turkish threats,” said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America.”President Trump’s omission is not a diplomatic oversight — but rather a deliberate retreat from truth and a dangerous signal of US tolerance for ongoing anti-Armenian violence,” he said in a statement.”It mirrors his first administration’s shameful record of silence and complicity.”Asked why Trump did not use the term genocide, National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said: “These horrific events were one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. “That is why the US government acknowledges that 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were deported, massacred or marched to their deaths in the final days of the Ottoman Empire,” he said.- 110-year anniversary -According to Armenia and most mainstream Western historians, up to 1.5 million people died between 1915 and 1916 when the Ottoman authorities, struggling on the battlefield, repressed the Armenian minority which it saw as traitors in league with Russia.They were either killed or sent on deadly marches into the Syrian desert, deprived of food and water.Turkey denies that the killings were systematic or genocide. It estimates Armenian deaths at 300,000 to 500,000 and claims that as many Turks died in civil strife after many Armenians sided with invading Russian forces. Both houses of the US Congress in 2019 nearly unanimously declared that the United States recognizes an Armenian genocide, leading Trump’s State Department to issue a statement that the administration’s stance “has not changed” against using the term.Other major countries that recognize an Armenian genocide inlcude France and Russia, which both have close ties with Armenia, and Germany, which has long been sensitive to the issue due to its Nazi past.Trump administration officials have often accused Biden of jeopardizing US interests by focusing on human rights, instead suggesting to only raise the issue as a cudgel against US adversaries. At the end of Trump’s first term, the State Department declared that China was committing genocide against its mostly Muslim Uyghur minority due to mass incarceration camps, charges strongly denied by Beijing.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday bashed Harvard as an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institution,” as the prestigious university battles his administration’s funding freeze in court.The latest outburst from Trump comes as his administration cracks down on US universities on several fronts, alleging widespread anti-Semitism, anti-white bias, and the promotion of “gender ideology” by protecting trans students.The administration has threatened several top-tier universities with funding freezes and other punishments, prompting concerns over declining academic freedom.It has also moved to revoke visas and deport foreign students involved in the protests, accusing them of supporting Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel provoked the war.Harvard, which has seen billions in federal funding frozen after it rejected wide-ranging government oversight, filed suit against the Trump administration on Monday.”The place is a Liberal mess,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, also complaining that the university has admitted students “from all over the World that want to rip our Country apart.”His broadside came a day after he issued an executive order targeting higher education, upending how federal authorities decide which universities and colleges can access billions of dollars from certain grants and student loans.The executive order seeks to clamp down on what Trump brands “unlawful discrimination” — that is any measures that seek to promote the representation of “racial and ethnic minority individuals.”On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that Trump could not withhold funds from public schools that operate equality and diversity policies which have been a particular target of the president.The ruling issued in New Hampshire does not apply across the board but instead to the largest US teacher union, the National Education Association (NEA), and the Center for Black Educator Development (CBED) non-profit which promotes the recruitment of Black teachers. The ruling will apply in schools employing members of the NEA, or contracting with the CBED.- Anti-Semitism claims -Trump and his White House team have publicly justified their campaign against universities as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled anti-Semitism and a need to reverse diversity programs aimed at addressing historical oppression of minorities.The administration claims that protests against Israel’s war in Gaza that swept across US college campuses last year were rife with anti-Semitism.Several Jewish lawmakers accused Trump on Thursday of weaponizing anti-Semitism to attack universities for his own ends.”We reject any policies or actions that foment or take advantage of anti-Semitism and pit communities against one another; and we unequivocally condemn the exploitation of our community’s real concerns about anti-Semitism to undermine democratic norms and rights,” the Democratic senators, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, wrote in a joint letter.Many US universities, including Harvard, cracked down on the protests over the allegations at the time, with the Cambridge-based institution placing 23 students on probation and denying degrees to 12 others, according to protest organizers.Trump’s claims about diversity tap into long-standing conservative complaints that US university campuses are too liberal, shutting out right-wing voices and favoring minorities.In the case of Harvard, the White House is seeking unprecedented levels of government control over the inner workings of the country’s oldest and wealthiest university — and one of the most respected educational and research institutions in the world.Professor Kirsten Weld, president of the Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), told AFP “this is an increasingly autocratic, authoritarian government that is trying to dismantle not just our universities, but the higher education sector as a whole.”

US prosecutors have accused a man of concealing his role in the Rwandan genocide to move to the United States and attempt to become a citizen, they said Thursday.Faustin Nsabumukunzi, 65, allegedly had a leadership role whereby he oversaw killings of Tutsi civilians in the 1994 genocide in which the United Nations said some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered.”As alleged in the indictment, Nsabumukunzi used his leadership position to oversee the violence and killings of Tutsis in his local area and directed groups of armed Hutus to kill Tutsis,” federal prosecutors said in a statement Thursday, following the unsealing of an indictment issued Tuesday. “He is alleged to have set up roadblocks during the genocide to detain and kill Tutsis and to have participated in killings. According to court filings, Nsabumukunzi was subsequently convicted in absentia by a Rwandan court for genocide.”He is charged with immigration fraud for neglecting to mention his alleged roles in the bloodshed on his application for permanent residency and his subsequent citizenship paperwork.Nsabumukunzi, who entered a not guilty plea and was released on $250,000 bail according to a court source, faces up to 30 years imprisonment if convicted.His bond was put up by a private equity executive on Long Island who employed Nsabumukunzi as a gardener, the source added.Nsabumukunzi was profiled in a 2006 article by The New York Times which highlighted his plight moving between refugee camps for a decade before seeking political asylum with his family in 2004.It also highlighted his experiences as a beekeeper and how he came into contact with a honey producer in the exclusive Hamptons community on Long Island, New York.The article reports that he lost 200 relatives to the violence that devastated the African nation.”The depraved conduct of which the defendant is accused represent the worst of humanity,” said acting special agent in charge Darren McCormack.

The European Union and United States are far from reaching a deal on tariffs, France’s economy minister said Thursday, as the bloc seeks a way out from trade tensions with Washington.US President Donald Trump has slapped new 10 percent tariffs on most trading partners since returning to the White House in January, and imposed sharp levies on imports of steel, aluminum and autos.The EU has not been spared and a 90-day pause on even higher rates, including for goods from the bloc, is due to expire in early July.”We’re not going to hide the fact that we’re still a long way from an agreement,” said French economy minister Eric Lombard in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s spring meetings in Washington.But at an IMF event Thursday, German Finance Minister Joerg Kukies said he was hopeful both sides could reach a deal before the 90-day window closed.”We’re optimistic that it will work, the sooner, the better,” he said.France’s Lombard maintained that talks with US officials were warm.He said he met this week with director of the White House National Economic Council Kevin Hassett, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.Lombard noted a desire from his counterparts to “move forward as quickly as possible,” adding that Europeans have been described as friends and allies in the context of these talks.He said both sides are looking for areas where they can make progress, adding that “workstreams” have been opened up to remove obstacles to exchanges.Adding that Trump’s new tariffs weigh on the US economy, Lombard said he hopes these effects “will push the administration to propose adjustments.””We want tariffs to return to previous levels, and even lower if possible,” he said, adding that he expects “ups and downs” in negotiations.Earlier this year, Trump accused the 27-nation bloc of being created to “screw” the United States.The White House has also said Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” were focused on countries that had been “ripping off” the world’s biggest economy.

US President Donald Trump’s promises of securing trade deals with major partners took another blow Thursday, with a French minister saying an agreement with the EU was “a long way” off and China insisting talks had not even started.Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has imposed 10 percent tariffs on most trading partners, including the European Union, as a means of pressuring them to negotiate trade agreements more favorable to the United States.He has also slapped tariffs on sector-specific imports, adding to strained ties with partners.But he saved his toughest blows for China, slapping an additional 145 percent tariff on goods from the world’s second biggest economy this year — drawing strong retaliation.Even though top US officials have touted 18 proposals brought to the trade team and said Washington was setting the stage for a deal with China, Beijing has called claims of ongoing trade talks “groundless.”Separately, France’s economy minister Eric Lombard said Thursday in Washington that the EU and United States are far from reaching a deal on tariffs.- ‘Meeting with China’ -Asked about the state of negotiations with Beijing, Trump maintained on Thursday: “We’ve been meeting with China.”He did not give details on who was taking part in these discussions.Yet, hours earlier, Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong told reporters: “I would like to emphasize that there are currently no economic and trade negotiations between China and the United States.”China’s foreign ministry also called reports of ongoing talks “false.”On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that Washington and Beijing were “not yet” speaking on lowering tariffs.He added that staggeringly high tariff levels would have to come down before trade talks can happen, and stressed that Trump has not made any unilateral offer to slash duties on Chinese products.In response to Trump’s most recent tariffs on Chinese imports, Beijing hit back with fresh 125 percent levies on American goods this year.Trump’s on-again, off-again approach to rolling out tariffs has roiled financial markets, as Washington unveiled steep duties before making carveouts in recent months.Most recently, the Trump administration temporarily excluded tech products like smartphones from his “reciprocal tariffs,” which include a 125 percent rate on imports from China.On Thursday, a White House official told AFP the Trump administration was looking at “streamlining overlap” between tariffs on automobiles, steel and aluminum, as well as those imposed over illicit fentanyl.But no final decision has been made on any amendments to tariffs on auto imports and parts, the White House added.- Mixed progress -The picture appears mixed for other trading partners, with Trump unveiling — then halting — even steeper levies on many of them.A 90-day pause on these higher levels of “reciprocal tariffs” on dozens of countries is set to expire in early July.France’s Lombard told reporters that the EU is “still a long way from an agreement” with the United States, on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s spring meetings in Washington.But he maintained that talks with the US side were warm, after engaging with officials including Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.Lombard noted a desire from his counterparts to “move forward as quickly as possible.”On Wednesday, Bessent added that the United States was “very close” when it came to trade talks with India, while it is also “proceeding with the other trading partners.”Bessent added Thursday that Washington had a “very successful bilateral meeting” with South Korean representatives.”We will be talking technical terms as early as next week,” he said. “They came with their A game, and we will see if they follow through on that.”

US President Donald Trump said Thursday he was applying pressure on Russia to end the Ukraine war, insisting that Moscow agreeing not to take over the entire country was a “big concession.”Trump issued a rare rebuke of Russian leader Vladimir Putin after Moscow fired a barrage of missiles and drones at Kyiv, killing at least 12 in the deadliest attack on the Ukrainian capital in months.”We’re putting a lot of pressure on Russia, and Russia knows that,” said Trump, who has been accused of favoring Russia in the push to halt the war.Asked what concessions Russia had offered, Trump said “stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country. Pretty big concession.”In response to the attack on Kyiv, he said: “I didn’t like last night. I wasn’t happy with it. And we’re in the midst of talking peace, and missiles were fired.”

Tens of thousands of mourners flocked Thursday to catch a last glimpse of Pope Francis’s body on the second day of public tributes as Italian authorities stepped up security arrangements ahead of his funeral.Some 90,000 people had filed past the late Catholic leader’s red-lined wooden coffin in the first day and a half that it lay in state at St Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican said.Vatican and Italian authorities have placed the area around St Peter’s under tight security ahead of Saturday’s ceremony in front of the basilica that is expected to draw huge crowds as well as world leaders including US President Donald Trump.Such was the demand to see the pope that Vatican authorities extended visiting hours on Wednesday from midnight until 5:30 am.After a break of just 90 minutes, the doors reopened, with authorities saying the window would be extended on Thursday night if necessary.On Thursday, the queue quickly stretched far past the two entry points to St Peter’s Square, where spirits were high despite the long wait.”It’s true that it feels oppressive but at the same time you all feel united, everyone happy,” French woman Laure Du Moulin who visited with her family, told AFP.”Everyone seems enthusiastic, fraternal, like a big community.”Florencia Soria and Ana Sofia Alicata, both 26 and — like Francis — from Argentina, came prepared for a long wait with coffees and wondered whether the light rain might work in their favour.”We’re here and we hope it will go as well as possible, with people leaving because of the rain,” joked Soria, although the sun soon returned.- World leaders expected -Francis died on Monday aged 88, after 12 years as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.Condolences have flooded in from around the world for the Jesuit, an energetic reformer who championed the most vulnerable in society.Lined in red silk, the pope’s wooden coffin has been set before St Peter’s altar, with Francis dressed in his papal vestments — a red chasuble, white mitre and black shoes — with a rosary in his hands.Mourners were ushered past the casket in just seconds, while authorities on Thursday banned the use of smartphones inside the Basilica.”It was a brief but intense moment next to his body,” Italian Massimo Palo, 63, told AFP.”He was a pope amongst his flock, amongst his people, and I hope the next papacies will be a bit like his,” he added.Italian football coach Claudio Ranieri and several players form his top flight Roma side were amongst the visitors on Thursday.The coffin is to be sealed on Friday at 8:00 pm in a special ceremony presided over by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo who is running the Vatican’s day-to-day affairs until a new pope is elected.- Massive security operation -Francis, who suffered a stroke, died at his residence in the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican less than a month after he was released from five weeks in hospital with double pneumonia.The Vatican said on Thursday that 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs will attend the funeral. Alongside Trump, they include Argentina’s President Javier Milei and Britain’s Prince William.At least 130 foreign delegations have confirmed their attendance, the Vatican said.Authorities have put fighter jets on standby, deployed electromagnetic devices to prevent drones from flying over the city and will have snipers stationed on rooftops.Further check-points will be activated on Friday night, police said.Italy’s civil protection agency estimates that “several hundred thousand” people will descend on Rome.- No conclave date yet -After the funeral, Francis’s coffin will be taken to his favourite church, Rome’s papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.A group of “poor and needy” will be at the basilica to welcome the coffin, the Vatican said.He will be interred in the ground, his simple tomb marked with just one word: Franciscus. People will be able to visit it from Sunday, the Vatican announced.Following that, all eyes will turn to the process to choose Francis’s successor.Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was Francois’s number two, is the favourite with British bookmakers William Hill, ahead of Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, the Metropolitan Archbishop emeritus of Manila.Cardinals from around the world are returning to Rome for the conclave, which must begin no fewer than 15 days and no more than 20 days after a pope’s death.Only those under the age of 80 — currently some 135 cardinals — are eligible to vote. They have already held meetings to discuss preparations for the funeral and looming conclave.Cardinals have agreed that the traditional nine days of mourning for the pope, the so-called “novemdiales”, will begin on Saturday and conclude on May 4.However, the Vatican brushed aside hopes of an announcement of the conclave date, insisting the focus is on the funeral.At the time of his death, Francis was under doctors’ orders to rest for two months but had continued to make public appearances right up until Easter Sunday.

Donald Trump’s administration must facilitate the return of a second man wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador, a federal judge has ruled, deepening a standoff between the courts and White House over the president’s radical immigration policies.District Judge Stephanie Gallagher said Wednesday the 20-year-old Venezuelan, along with multiple other migrants, was protected by a 2024 class action settlement prohibiting the deportation of migrants who arrived as unaccompanied minors until their asylum claims are fully adjudicated.His case comes amid a mounting political row over the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran returned to his native country and still imprisoned there, despite the US Supreme Court ordering the government to facilitate his return.The United States has paid El Salvador millions of dollars to lock up scores of migrants it says are criminals and gang members, in a maximum security prison with a history of alleged human rights violations.Abrego Garcia, who has not been charged with any crime, was detained in Maryland last month and expelled to El Salvador along with 238 Venezuelans and 22 fellow Salvadorans who were deported shortly after Trump invoked a rarely used wartime authority.The Trump administration has claimed that it doesn’t have the power to bring him back, raising fears that its defiance of the Supreme Court was placing the country on the cusp of a constitutional crisis.Gallagher, a Maryland-based Trump appointee, said she concurred with the ruling in Abrego Garcia’s case that “facilitation” meant taking concrete steps to bring wrongly deported migrants back to the United States.The Venezuelan man — identified in court papers as “Cristian” — came to the United States as an unaccompanied minor and sought asylum in December 2022. His case was still pending when he was deported in March.”Standing by and taking no action is not facilitation. In prior cases involving wrongfully removed individuals, courts have ordered, and the government has taken, affirmative steps toward facilitating return,” Gallagher said.

Authorities charged a teenager with aggravated arson, prosecutors said Thursday, after a forest fire scorched 15,000 acres of land in New Jersey, in the northeastern United States, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.The fires spreading in Ocean County, the coastal region of New Jersey, south of New York, are only half contained, according to the latest update from firefighters posted on Facebook.The fire, which has so far destroyed a commercial building, could become the largest in New Jersey for 20 years.Prosecutors said that on Wednesday they charged a 19-year-old man from the region with aggravated arson following what they allege was an improperly extinguished bonfire.Since Tuesday, images have shown thick smoke in the sky above the region. New York health authorities warned Thursday morning that air quality would be degraded, recommending vulnerable communities limit their outdoor activities.The blaze erupted in the pine forests of New Jersey, one of the largest protected areas on the East Coast. The state was put under drought alert in March.