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Canadian men’s football coach Jesse Marsch decried US President Donald Trump’s “ridiculous rhetoric about Canada being the 51st state,” calling it insulting to a loyal ally.Marsch, a 51-year-old American who took over as Canada coach in 2024, spoke to reporters on Wednesday at a media day for the CONCACAF Nations League finals next month, and said Trump’s animosity toward Canada had only invigorated his team.”If I have one message to our president, it’s lay off the ridiculous rhetoric about Canada being the 51st state,” Marsch said. “As an American, I’m ashamed of the arrogance and disregard that we’ve shown one of our historically oldest, strongest and most loyal allies.”Marsch said that he had developed a deep appreciation for Canadian culture and society since taking his current job.”Canada is a strong, independent nation that is deep-rooted in decency,” he said. “And it’s a place that values high ethics and respect, unlike the polarized, disrespectful and often now hateful climate that is in the US.”It’s a place that I’ve learned as the national team coach where people really believe that their differences make them stronger.”Marsch said his team includes a wealth of first- and second-generation Canadians who are “uniquely and incredibly proud to be Canadian and to represent their country”.Marsch, who guided Canada to a fourth-placed finish at the Copa America last year, said that amid Trump’s goading comments — and his stated plans to implement tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico — “these international tournaments for Canada mean something different now”.- Canadian character -Tensions were evident last week when Canada beat the United States 3-2 in overtime to win the Four Nations Face-Off ice hockey tournament in a hard-hitting final that was a rematch of a round-robin clash that produced three fights in nine seconds and saw the US national anthem booed before the game.”One thing is for sure,” Marsch said, “when I look forward to a month from now I know that this will fuel our team, the mentality and will that we have to play for our country, the desire to go after this tournament in every way and to show on and off the pitch exactly what Canadian character is.”Marsch was joined by Mexico coach Javier Aguirre and Panama coach Thomas Christiansen at the press event at SoFi Stadium, where the Nations League finals will be held March 20-23.The United States was represented by USA Soccer vice president Oguchi Onyewu, who declined to be drawn into any political conversation.Aguirre also said he preferred to “focus on the sporting issue,” although he admitted that he couldn’t go along with Trump’s decree that the Gulf of Mexico be called the Gulf of America.”For me, it’s the Gulf of Mexico, obviously,” he said.Aguirre said that as the son of immigrants he identified with Mexicans who had moved north in search of “the American dream”.”It is not easy to leave your country in search of a better life for your own,” he said.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was revoking permission for oil giant Chevron to operate in Venezuela, a major blow to the wobbly economy run by leftist adversary Nicolas Maduro.Trump accused Maduro of failing to live up to promises to take back deported Venezuelans as pledged to a US envoy, whose visit to Caracas had initially been seen as a sign the new US administration would focus on pragmatic engagement rather than upping pressure.Former president Joe Biden in 2022 eased sanctions and gave Chevron permission to operate in Venezuela in return for a promise by Maduro to allow fair elections.Biden reimposed most sanctions as it became clear that Maduro was sidelining the opposition but maintained the concession to Chevon, in part out of concern of causing a spike in oil prices in the United States before elections.”We are hereby reversing the concessions that Crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicolas Maduro,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.Trump, who rarely faults authoritarian leaders over democracy, said that the election conditions had not been met by Maduro, who was sworn in to a third term last month despite wide accusations of vote rigging.”Additionally, the regime has not been transporting the violent criminals that they sent into our Country (the Good Ole’ U.S.A.) back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to,” Trump wrote.Chevron, which had previously stopped production of oil in Venezuela in 2018 due to earlier Trump sanctions, has helped revive the country’s oil sector which has declined precipitously since the 1990s.The US company pumps around 240,000 barrels a day from Venezuela, or nearly one quarter of the country’s total output.Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez called the Trump administration’s decision “damaging and inexplicable” and warned of the effect on migration — the key priority for Trump.”In its attempt to harm the Venezuelan people, it is in fact hurting the United States, its population and its companies, and also calling into question the legal security of the US’s international investment regime,” she wrote on Telegram.”Venezuela emphasizes that these kinds of failed decisions prompted the migration from 2017 to 2021 with the widely known consequences.”Chevron spokesman Bill Turenne said that the company was aware of the decision and “considering its implications.””Chevron conducts its business in Venezuela in compliance with all laws and regulations, including the sanctions framework provided by US government,” he said.

US federal agencies have been directed to prepare sweeping workforce reduction plans as part of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative, according to a memo issued Wednesday by top administration officials.The document, signed by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and seen by AFP, outlines a two-phase approach for implementing “large-scale reductions in force” across the federal government as ordered by Trump.”The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt,” Vought said in the memo.”Tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hardworking American citizens.”The memo directed agencies to “collaborate with their Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE) team leads within the agency.”These are the representatives of the Elon Musk-run department that has been given unfettered authority by Trump to find ways to slash spending and overhaul government.Musk, the world’s richest person, has repeatedly warned that the United States would go “bankrupt” without cuts.For now, most of Trump administration’s job cuts have targeted probationary staff — the term used for freshly hired or promoted civil servants who had fewer protections than rank-and-file civil servants.Employees were also given an offer, now elapsed, to leave with eight months’ pay or risk being fired in future culls.The White House said more than 65,000 federal employees have signed on to the buyout offer from the Office of Personnel Management.The memo from Vought, a hard-right nationalist who sees federal public servants as political operators beholden to Democrats, begins the formal process of expanding the cuts to the more than two million federal workers.According to the memo, federal agencies must submit initial reduction plans by March 13, followed by more comprehensive reorganization proposals by April 14.The directive implements Trump’s February 11 executive order that called for a “critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy.”Agencies were told to consolidate duplicative organizational units, reduce management layers, close or merge regional offices, and decrease reliance on contractors.Among the suggested methods for cutting employees was looking at “positions not typically designated as essential” during government shutdowns caused by the failure to pass budgets in Congress.Law enforcement, national security, military and postal service roles are exempt, as are all political appointees and the White House.

Intuitive Machines made history last year as the first private company to put a robot on the Moon, although the triumph was marred by the lander tipping onto its side.Now, the Houston-based firm is gearing up for a second attempt, determined to achieve a perfect touchdown.Intuitive Machines’ hexagonal-shaped lander, Athena, is set to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 7:16 pm Wednesday (0016 GMT Thursday) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the weather forecast is favorable.If all goes well, it will touch down around March 6 at the vast Mons Mouton plateau, a site closer to the lunar south pole than any previously targeted.Athena carries scientific instruments, including a drill to search for ice beneath the surface and a unique hopping drone named Grace after a famous computer scientist, Grace Hopper. It is designed to traverse the Moon’s rugged inclines, boulders, and craters — a valuable capability to support future crewed missions.Also aboard is a small rover, which will test a lunar cellular network provided by Nokia Bell Labs by relaying commands, images, and video between the lander, rover, and hopper.Intuitive Machines CEO Trent Martin spoke excitedly about the hopper, emphasizing that such drones could complement rovers in future missions going “down into extreme environments where you can’t drive.”Until recently, soft lunar landings were achieved only by a handful of well-funded national space agencies.Now, the US is working to make private missions routine through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, a public-private collaboration aimed at delivering NASA hardware to the surface at a fraction of the cost of traditional missions.”I’m very excited to see the science that our tech demonstrations deliver as we prepare for humanity’s return to the Moon and the journey to Mars,” NASA’s Nicky Fox, told reporters, referencing the Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade. – Nailing the landing -First however, Intuitive Machines will want to achieve an upright landing — a feat the company fell short of with its first lander, Odysseus, which went to space in February 2024. It caught a foot on the surface and tipped over, coming to rest at a 30-degree angle — limiting its solar power and preventing it from completing NASA experiments under a $118 million contract.This time, the price tag is $62.5 million.Landing on the Moon is challenging due to the absence of an atmosphere, which rules out the use of parachutes.Instead, spacecraft must rely on precisely controlled thruster burns to slow their descent while navigating treacherous terrain.Martin said the company had made key improvements — including better cabling for the laser altimeter, an instrument that provides altitude and velocity readings and helps select a safe landing site.Another issue the IM-1 mission faced was accurately determining its position en route to the Moon. To improve this, Intuitive Machines has enhanced coordination with NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) for more precise navigation.Athena’s arrival at the Moon is set to be preceded on March 2 by another private US lander, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost, which launched on a more circuitous journey back in January, sharing a ride with Tokyo-based ispace’s Resilience lander.Also hitching a ride on this rocket will be NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer probe, which will enter orbit after a four-month journey and begin a two-year mission to study the distribution of different forms of water on the Moon.These missions come at a delicate time for NASA, amid speculation that it may scale back or cancel its astronaut program to the Moon in favor of Mars — a key goal of both President Donald Trump and his close advisor Elon Musk, SpaceX tycoon.

Michelle Trachtenberg, the actor known for roles in series including “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Gossip Girl,” has died, according to US media outlets. She was 39 years old.Police said officers responded to an emergency call just after 8:00 am local time (1300 GMT) on Wednesday, The New York Times said, where they found her in her Manhattan apartment unconscious and unresponsive.Emergency medical workers pronounced her dead without giving a cause. Police said foul play was not suspected.Citing anonymous sources, ABC News reported that the actor recently underwent a liver transplant, and was perhaps experiencing complications.New York native Trachtenberg began her career as a child star, with roles including the titular character in the 1996 film “Harriet The Spy,” which she played alongside Rosie O’Donnell.She also had credits on the Nickelodeon kids network, including on the television series “The Adventure of Pete & Pete.”Her big break came on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” where she played Dawn, the younger sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s leading character.She acted on that show from 2000 to 2003.Trachtenberg later starred as the socialite villain Georgina Sparks on the hit show “Gossip Girl” from 2008 to 2012, with co-stars including Blake Lively, Penn Badgley and Leighton Meester.Her other film roles included “EuroTrip,” “17 Again” and “The Scribbler.”Trachtenberg made a number of cameos on television shows including “Weeds” and “Mercy,” appearing in the Gossip Girl reboot in 2022, what’s listed as her final acting credit.

Elon Musk starred at Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting Wednesday, with the US president insisting his team was “thrilled” with the extraordinary power given to his billionaire advisor despite reported tensions over his sweeping government cuts.Trump asked tech tycoon Musk, who was wearing a black “Make America Great Again” baseball cap, to stand up and talk about the controversial program of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.”If we don’t do this, America will go bankrupt,” the world’s richest man told cabinet members at the White House, adding that he was “taking a lot of flak, and getting a lot of death threats by the way.” The SpaceX and Tesla tycoon at one point said his job was “humble technical support” for Trump’s government — before opening his overcoat to reveal a black t-shirt saying “Tech Support” in large white letters.Dismissing US media reports that some cabinet members had expressed frustration over DOGE emails sent to all federal employees asking them to justify their jobs or be sacked, Musk said it was the “best cabinet ever” and thanked them for their “support”.Republican Trump, 78, also turned to the top team gathered around a huge wooden table for the first meeting of his second term, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.- ‘Throw them out’ -“Is anybody unhappy with Elon? If they are we’ll throw them out of here,” Trump said, to laughter and applause from the cabinet members.”Some disagree a little bit, but I will tell you for the most part I think everyone’s not only happy, they’re thrilled.” The DOGE emails have caused confusion across Washington, with government departments on Monday largely telling told staff to either ignore them or downplayed the risks of not answering it. Trump insisted however that employees who didn’t reply were “on the bubble” and risked losing their positions.The star role given to Musk, who is officially an advisor not a cabinet member, underscored his status as the most powerful person in Trump’s inner circle.Trump had earlier downplayed reports of tensions over his dominance, posting on his social media platform Truth Social: “ALL CABINET MEMBERS ARE EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH ELON.”The meeting — and an hour-long question and answer session with media brought in under new White House rules controlling which reporters get access to Trump — was more broadly a chance for him to tout a dramatic start to his second term.Trump proclaimed progress on negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was set to visit the White House on Friday to sign a deal giving Washington access to Kyiv’s rare minerals.Trump has alarmed allies by starting direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.He also revealed that he was set to impose 25 percent tariffs on many imports from key ally Europe — and proclaimed that the “European Union was created to screw the United States.” – Controversial aides -During the meeting Trump was flanked by aides openly chosen in many cases for their lavish declarations of loyalty — and for their commitment to bring in the Musk-led cuts, along with Trump’s crackdown on diversity.Many of these top figures were successfully confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate despite unusually extensive questions over their experience or behavior.Among the most contentious are Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has a history of backing Kremlin talking points, and Hegseth, a former Fox News host who has faced allegations of sexual assault.And in a situation with no real parallel in modern US history, all of these powerful officials are overshadowed by Musk, who helped bankroll Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign to the tune of a quarter of a billion dollars.While classified as a mere “special government employee” and “senior adviser to the president,” the South African-born magnate is seen more often at Trump’s side than Vice President JD Vance or even First Lady Melania Trump.As owner of the X social media platform and a key leader in the US space program, his influence percolates through almost every corner of current Washington politics.

The Washington Post will no longer run views opposed to “personal liberties and free markets” on its opinion pages, owner Jeff Bezos announced Wednesday, the billionaire’s latest intervention in the major US paper’s editorial operations.The move, a major break from the norm at the Post and at most credible news media organizations worldwide, comes as US media face increasing threats to their freedom and accusations of bias from President Donald Trump.”We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” wrote Bezos on social media platform X.”We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”Bezos said the US capital’s premier daily did not have to provide opposing views because “the internet does that job.””If this was a regular news environment we might just raise our eyebrows at this, but this is happening at a time of unprecedented pressures for journalists working in the United States,” said Katherine Jacobsen of rights watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). In October, Bezos sparked controversy by blocking the Post’s planned endorsement of Democratic vice president Kamala Harris for the 2024 presidential election, triggering newsroom protests and subscriber cancellations.And in January, an award-winning political cartoonist for the newspaper announced her resignation after a cartoon depicting Bezos groveling before Trump was rejected.At the time, editorial page editor David Shipley defended the decision, saying it was made to avoid repeated coverage on the same topic.On Wednesday, Bezos announced Shipley would be leaving his post because he had not signed on to the new opinion pages policy.”I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t ‘hell yes,’ then it had to be ‘no,'” said Bezos.Other Post staffers also expressed their concern.”Massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section today — makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there,” Jeff Stein, the paper’s chief economics correspondent, wrote on X.Stein added that he had “not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side of coverage, but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately.”Amazon owner and world’s third-richest man Bezos, along with other US tech moguls, have appeared increasingly close to Trump since his election last year.Bezos was among a group of tech billionaires who were given prime positions at Trump’s inauguration, and he visited the Republican at his Mar-a-Lago estate during the transition period.CPJ has documented “how ownership of media companies in countries such as Hungary and Russia has really had an impact on press freedom,” the committee’s Jacobsen cautioned.”We would do well in the US to look at countries like that to see what happens when perhaps too much interest is given to owner interest versus serving the public good.”

The US Supreme Court appeared likely to rule in favor on Wednesday of an Ohio woman who claims she was the victim of “reverse discrimination” because she was passed over twice for jobs for candidates who were gay.Marlean Ames, 60, an employee of the Ohio Department of Youth Services, is asking the court to revive a lawsuit she filed under the 1964 Civil Rights Act which bars discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex or sexual orientation.The case comes at a time when President Donald Trump and a number of major corporations are rolling back diversity and inclusion programs intended to combat systemic inequalities faced by minorities.America First Legal Foundation, a group founded by Stephen Miller, who is now the White House deputy chief of staff, filed a brief with the court in support of Ames, a straight white woman.Ames, a heterosexual woman, is arguing against lower court decisions that rejected her discrimination suit on the basis of precedent that members of majority groups must meet a higher bar for proving workplace bias than minorities.In its ruling, the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said Ames had not established “background circumstances” showing that the state agency is “that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority.”The requirement that she present “background circumstances” is unconstitutional and being unfairly applied only to members of majority groups bringing job discrimination cases, Ames said.A majority of the justices on the Supreme Court, both conservatives and liberals, appeared sympathetic to the arguments made by Ames’s lawyer, Xiao Wang.”We’re in radical agreement today,” quipped Justice Neil Gorsuch, one of the six conservatives on the bench.- ‘Equal justice under law’ -Addressing Wang, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative, said: “So all you want for this case is a really short opinion that says discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, whether it’s because you’re gay or because you’re straight, is prohibited?” “That’s right, your honor,” said Wang.Ames was simply seeking “four words on the side of this building — equal justice under law,” he said.”At bottom, all Ms Ames is asking for is equal justice under law, not more justice, but certainly not less, and certainly not less because of the color of her skin or because of her sex or because of her religion,” Wang added.Elliot Gaiser, the solicitor general of Ohio, arguing on behalf of the midwestern state, rejected Ames’s claims that she failed to get promotions because she was heterosexual.”She could not establish that anybody was motivated by sexual orientation or even knew her sexual orientation,” Gaiser said, or that they knew the sexual orientation of the people who obtained the jobs she was seeking.Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the three liberals on the nine-member court, said there was “something suspicious” about the hirings that can “give rise to an inference of discrimination.””She was a 20-year employee, great reviews, and then all of a sudden, she’s not hired, and someone’s hired who’s gay, doesn’t have her level of college experience, and didn’t even want the job,” Sotomayor said.The Supreme Court is expected to deliver its ruling in the case this summer.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration aims to cut around 65 percent of staff at the Environmental Protection Agency, a key regulatory body that works on a range of areas, including climate change.”I spoke with Lee Zeldin and he thinks he’s going to be cutting 65 or so percent of the people from environmental,” he said, referring to the EPA administrator. The agency currently employs more than 17,000 people, of the roughly two million total US federal workforce.Trump has made slashing the size of the federal government a key priority in his first days in office, tasking Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, with aiding that effort as well as cutting government spending.The Republican ran on a platform that promised to curb environmental protection regulations, specifically those related to climate change, in order to increase economic growth.He has called climate change a “scam,” and pulled Washington out of the landmark Paris Agreement for a second time on his first day back in office.Since then, he has declared a “national energy emergency” to expand domestic oil drilling, and signed executive orders to slow the transition to electric vehicles and halt offshore wind farm projects.Zeldin, a former US congressman from New York, has committed to delivering Trump’s campaign promises, although he acknowledged last month that man-made climate change was “real.”He has said he would prioritize the EPA’s role in ensuring clean water and air, but appears set to roll back a host of other environmental regulations.”The EPA is going to aggressively pursue an agenda powering the Great American Comeback… that’s our purpose,” he said earlier this month.The new EPA administrator has appeared to embrace Musk’s government spending cut efforts, announcing on Tuesday that the agency had slashed $60 million in grants that were funding “wasteful DEI and environmental justice programs,” referring to diversity, equity and inclusion.Most scientists agree that climate change currently underway differs from natural cycles of the past. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says it is indisputably attributable to human activity, and in particular to the burning of fossil fuels, especially since the end of the 19th century.