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President Ferdinand Marcos said Thursday his government will remove a US missile system from the Philippines if Beijing ends its “aggressive and coercive behaviour” in the contested South China Sea and ceases claiming Filipino territory.The US military deployed the Typhon missile system in the northern Philippines last year as part of an annual joint exercise, and Filipino troops have been training with it, with plans to acquire the system as a means to protect Manila’s maritime interests.Beijing’s forces have engaged in several confrontations with Philippine vessels in recent months over disputed reefs and waters in the strategically located South China Sea.The US mid-range weapon system’s presence on Philippine soil has angered China, which has warned Manila was “inciting geopolitical confrontation and an arms race” in the region.”I don’t understand the comments on the Typhon missiles. We don’t make any comments on their missile systems, and their missile systems are a thousand times more powerful than what we have,” Marcos told reporters Thursday during a visit to the central city of Cebu.”Let’s make a deal with China: Stop claiming our territory, stop harassing our fishermen and let them have a living, stop ramming our boats, stop water-cannoning our people, stop firing lasers at us, and stop your aggressive and coercive behaviour,” Marcos said.”If they stop doing all these things, I will return” the Typhon system to the United States, he added.Manila and Washington are bound by a mutual defence pact, and the recent South China Sea clashes have sparked fears the US military could be drawn into a war with China.The Philippine military said this week another of its platoons would be trained on using the Typhon system in February, ahead of annual joint drills with key ally the United States.

A US passenger jet carrying 64 people crashed into Washington’s Potomac River Wednesday after colliding midair with a military helicopter on a night training exercise, prompting a desperate search for survivors in the dark, near-freezing water.The plane was approaching Reagan National Airport at around 9:00 pm (0200 GMT) after flying from Wichita, Kansas, when the collision happened.American Airlines, whose subsidiary PSA Airlines operated the Bombardier regional jet, said “there were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the aircraft.”A US Army official said the helicopter involved was a Black Hawk carrying three soldiers — their status currently unknown. They had been on a “training flight,” a separate military spokesperson said in a statement.Washington police said “there is no confirmed information on casualties at this time.”However, a massive search and rescue operation was in progress, with divers visible in the glare of powerful lights as they plunged into the snow-lined Potomac to scour the wreckage of both aircraft.”We’re going to be out there as long as it takes, and we’re obviously trying to get to people as soon as possible, but we are going to recover our fellow citizens,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters.Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly said at a press briefing that emergency crews, totaling about 300 people, were working in “extremely rough” conditions and gave little indication they expected to find anyone alive.”We will re-evaluate where we are with the rescue operation in the morning, when we get a better sense of it,” Donnelly said.”But we are still out there working, and we’re going to continue that throughout the night.”Witness Ari Schulman was driving home when he saw what he described as “a stream of sparks” overhead.”Initially I saw the plane and it looked fine, normal. It was right about to head over land,” he told CNN.”Three seconds later, and at that point it was banked all the way to the right… I could see the underside of it, it was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it,” Schulman added.”It looked like a Roman candle.”- Trump criticizes traffic control -President Donald Trump said in an official statement that he had been “fully briefed” and said of any victims, “may God bless their souls.” But less than four hours after the disaster — and while other officials stressed they were waiting for investigations to unfold — he returned to social media to critique air traffic control.”The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.”Why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of all planes at Reagan National and the airport was not due to reopen until 11:00 am (1600 GMT) Thursday.American Airlines’ chief executive issued a video statement in which he expressed “deep sorrow”, while US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas called the collision “nothing short of a nightmare.”- Crowded airspace -Questions were expected to focus on how a passenger plane with modern collision-avoidance technology and nearby traffic controllers could collide with a military aircraft over the nation’s capital.The airspace around Washington is often crowded, with planes coming in low over the city to land at Reagan airport and helicopters — military, civilian and carrying senior politicians or officials — buzzing about both day and night.The same airport was the scene of a deadly crash in January 1982 when Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737, took off but quickly plummeted, hitting the 14th Street bridge and crashing through the ice into the Potomac River. Seventy-eight people died.Investigators concluded the pilot had failed to activate sufficient de-icing procedures.The last major fatal US air accident was in 2009, when Continental Flight 3407 from New Jersey to Buffalo, New York crashed and killed all 49 people aboard.

A US passenger plane carrying 64 people crashed into Washington’s chilly Potomac River on Wednesday after colliding mid-air with a military helicopter near Reagan National Airport, prompting a major emergency response and the grounding of all flights.The plane had been about to land after flying from Kansas.American Airlines, whose subsidiary operated the flight, said “there were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the aircraft.”A US Army official said the helicopter was a Black Hawk model carrying three soldiers — their status currently unknown.Washington police said “there is no confirmed information on casualties at this time,” although a massive search and rescue operation was in progress. The Washington Post quoted unnamed sources saying police had started to pull multiple bodies from the Potomac.Witness Ari Schulman described “a stream of sparks” and what looked like a large firework when the nighttime collision erupted overhead as he drove home.”Initially I saw the plane and it looked fine, normal. It was right about to head over land,” he told CNN. “Three seconds later, and at that point it was banked all the way to the right… I could see the underside of it, it was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it,” Schulman added. “It looked like a Roman candle.”President Donald Trump said he had been “fully briefed” on the accident and said of any victims, “may God bless their souls.” – Dark, near-freezing river -The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of all planes at Reagan National, and Washington’s police said on X that “multiple agencies” were responding to the crash site in the Potomac.Kristi Noem, the country’s new secretary of homeland security, posted on X that she was “deploying every available US Coast Guard resource for search and rescue efforts in this horrific incident at DCA.”Police said fireboats had joined the operation on the river, where any work was complicated by the fact it was dark and close to freezing. Dozens of fire trucks headed toward the airport and divers could be seen going off boats into the Potomac.The FAA said a Bombardier regional jet operated by American Airlines subsidiary PSA Airlines “collided in midair” with a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter as it approached for landing at Reagan at around 9:00 pm (0200 GMT). The plane had left from Wichita, Kansas.US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas said the collision was “nothing short of a nightmare.””I ask the world to join me in praying for Kansas this evening, the first responders, rescue crews, and all those involved in this horrific accident,” he wrote on X. “I have been in contact with local and national authorities asking for answers and will continue to demand more information on how this unfolded.”

Donald Trump’s opponents have spent the days since his inauguration playing political whack-a-mole over a torrent of orders specifically calibrated to overwhelm and bewilder, say analysts, as the new president gets to work on his radical policy agenda.A chaotic first week saw him sign scores of divisive executive orders, as well as pardons or commutations for nearly everyone convicted of crimes — including serious violence — in the 2021 US Capitol insurrection.And then there were the new president’s freewheeling media appearances, the feuds with perceived enemies, dust-ups with the clergy, stripping of security details for critics, the launch of a meme crypto coin, and one headline-grabbing social media post after another.”He doesn’t just flood the zone, he drowns it,” said Evan Nierman, the founder and CEO of global crisis PR agency Red Banyan.”It’s a classic PR strategy: overwhelm, distract and control the narrative before anyone else can. Flooding the zone is his way of making sure no single controversy sticks because there’s always a new one incoming.”Longstanding Trump cheerleader Steve Bannon explained the shock-and-awe strategy in 2018, when he argued that the real opposition to the Republican billionaire was not the Democrats but the media. “And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit,” he said.”Flooding the zone” is a phrase with roots in sports lingo, originally used to describe the tactic in US football of saturating the opposition’s defense until a weak spot opens.- Assault on Congress -But Bannon was also echoing a widespread authoritarian move, premised on the notion that politicians can avoid scrutiny over any individual outrage by bombarding and overwhelming the public’s attention span.The blizzard of headlines is disorienting, and it is supposed to be, say analysts. The point isn’t to persuade anyone of anything, it’s simply to ensure that critics don’t mobilize around a coherent narrative and that no one has control over the flow of information.”By throwing out an overwhelming number of policy changes and provocations, Trump has presented his opponents with giant game of whack-a-mole stacked very much in his favor,” political scientist Michael Montgomery, of the University of Michigan-Dearborn, told AFP.In his first week Trump dived headlong into America’s culture wars, ending all federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.There was a stay of execution for Chinese-owned app TikTok, a back-to-the-office demand for federal workers, a hiring freeze, renamings of the Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali and a likely unconstitutional order to end birthright citizenship.This week Trump — whose approval rating is at its highest ever — sowed chaos across government agencies with a pause on most federal grants, launching a frontal assault on Congress’s constitutional role as controller of the budget.He was forced into something of a climbdown amid a ferocious backlash. But nearly forgotten in the furor were other extraordinary measures, including his firing — widely considered to be illegal — of 18 inspectors general, who are independent watchdogs of the federal government.The firing of multiple officials who had previously worked on the federal criminal investigations into Trump was likewise overlooked. – ‘Yesterday’s outrage’ -Katherine Cartwright, a co-founder of media buying agency Criterion Global, sees Trump as a vector of “Disaster Attention Deficit Disorder” — leaving those deluged by demands on their attention paralyzed, like the proverbial rabbit in the headlights Another attention tactic in which Trumpworld excels, she says, is the “Friday drop” — ensuring the most unwelcome headlines arrive late in the week and burn out quickly as people lose interest though the weekend. Trump’s new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — a TV host with no relevant management experience and serious questions over his character — was confirmed on a Friday and “washed from the news by Monday morning,” Cartwright said.Nierman, the crisis PR expert, sees the president’s unpredictability as both strategy and reflex. “Trump thrives in the churn, where the public’s attention shifts too fast for any one scandal to stick,” he said.”While everyone else scrambles to process yesterday’s outrage, he’s already on to the next, ensuring his version of events dominates both the day’s headlines and social media conversation.”But the long-term risk of flooding the zone, says Nierman, is the kind of Trump fatigue that caused voters to vote him out of office after his first term. “Even loyal supporters can grow tired of constant turmoil,” he told AFP. “And swing voters may ultimately crave stability over spectacle.”

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the FBI, faces a potentially fiery Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday amid staunch Democratic opposition to his nomination to head the top US law enforcement agency.Patel, 44, has drawn fire for his promotion of conspiracy theories, his defense of pro-Trump rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and his vow to root out members of the so-called “Deep State” who oppose the Republican president.Republicans have a 12-10 majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the panel is likely to approve the nomination of the former Trump advisor and Pentagon official, sending it to the full Senate where his prospects are less certain.Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate but three Republican senators voted against Trump’s inexperienced nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, forcing Vice President JD Vance to cast the tie-breaking vote.If confirmed, Patel, who holds a law degree from Pace University and worked as a federal prosecutor, would replace Christopher Wray as director of the 38,000-strong Federal Bureau of Investigation.Wray was named by Trump to head the FBI but their relations became strained. Wray had three more years remaining in his 10-year term but resigned after Trump won November’s presidential election.A son of Indian immigrants, the New York-born Patel served in several high-level posts during Trump’s first administration including as senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council and as chief of staff to the acting defense secretary.Patel has a reputation of being a fierce defender of the president and supports the Republican hardliner notion of a “Deep State” of allegedly biased government bureaucrats working to stifle Trump from behind the scenes, even having written a book on the subject.His nomination has been denounced by Democrats and opposed by some Republicans, including more than 20 Republican former law enforcement officials who reportedly sent a letter to Republican senators urging them not to confirm Patel.According to The Hill, which obtained a copy of the letter, the Republicans said Patel lacks the “record and temperament for FBI leadership” and is “motivated by revenge.”- ‘Grave concerns’ -Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said following a recent meeting with Patel that he has “grave concerns about his fitness for the role of FBI director.””He is a staunch political loyalist who has repeatedly peddled false conspiracy theories and threatened to retaliate against those who have slighted him personally and politically,” Durbin said. “He’s even published an enemies list of 60 people who he calls ‘government gangsters.'”The senator said Patel’s “political grievances make him a favorite of the MAGA world but they have not prepared him to work night and day to keep America safe from violent crime, drug trafficking, terrorism, and other threats.”Trump has defended his choice, saying in a Truth Social post that Patel “is the most qualified Nominee to lead the FBI in the Agency’s History and is committed to helping ensure that Law, Order, and Justice will be brought back to our Country again, and soon.”Patel also got a vote of confidence from Trump’s pick to be attorney general, Pam Bondi, who said during her Senate confirmation hearing that “Kash is the right person at this time for this job.””Mr Patel would fall under me and the Department of Justice and I will ensure that all laws are followed and so will he,” Bondi added.According to US media reports, Trump sought to name Patel deputy director of the CIA or the FBI in the waning months of his first term in the White House but dropped the plan after then-CIA director Gina Haspel and then-attorney general Bill Barr threatened to resign in protest.

“Manifest Destiny” is back, with Donald Trump as its champion.In the 19th century, the phrase was used to invoke the divine justification for the United States to expand its territory westward all the way to the Pacific — in bloody campaigns that saw the conquering of Mexican and Native American lands.Trump’s second term as president, not even two weeks old, is already mixing religious fervor, nationalism and territorial expansion.The Republican has vowed to acquire Greenland — and declined to rule out the use of military force to do so. And he’s targeted the Panama Canal, insisting on taking back the key waterway from Panamanian control.Canada, meanwhile, would be better off as America’s 51st state, according to Trump.Though key to Trump’s aggressive foreign policy, threats of territorial expansion more akin to the 19th century have rattled Washington’s modern diplomatic relationships.Manifest Destiny was “a belief on the part of some Americans, in a particular moment in American history, that God intended this country to expand from one coast to the other,” historian Alan Kraut, of American University, told AFP.”That was sort of the American conception of itself: this was a country that had been somehow blessed by God with great resources… (and) vast amounts of land, and now it was being filled with people from various other parts of the world who were coming here in ever greater numbers.”- Tarnished president honored -If Manifest Destiny entwined religion and nationalism, Trump himself hasn’t shied away from those themes either.After two assassination attempts on the campaign trail, he said at his inauguration on January 20 that he was “saved by God to make America great again.”His own Manifest Destiny also includes 21st century twists.”We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars,” Trump said during his inauguration speech.US westward expansion in the 1800s was a particularly violent era in American history, with a war against Mexico and the dispossession of Native Americans.One of the grimmer chapters was the so-called “Trail of Tears,” where thousands of Native Americans were forced out of the US southeast.A portrait of president Andrew Jackson (1829-37), whose Indian Removal Act spurred what modern historians have in retrospect called the ethnic cleansing or genocide of the tribes, now hangs in the Oval Office at Trump’s request.Manifest Destiny was also key in the acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines and Hawaii under William McKinley, in office from 1897-1901.The tallest peak in North America used to bear his name before president Barack Obama renamed the Alaskan mountain to Denali, the name used by Alaska Natives.One of Trump’s first acts of office was to rename it Mount McKinley.- Outdated? -Reviving 19th-century style imperialist expansion won’t come without a fight, however.Canada, Greenland and Panama have all pushed back on Trump’s rhetoric, which is itself a callback to a young American nation teeming with immigrants and a booming population — a far cry from the president’s isolationist vision today.”Manifest Destiny of the old fashioned kind, of the 19th century kind, is gone, right?” said the historian Kraut.”There are other countries in the world that are powerful, there’s an interdependence among countries, whether Mr Trump realizes it or not.”

Latin American leaders have canceled a summit to discuss Donald Trump’s migrant crackdown, as the region weighs the risks of openly confronting the firebrand US president.Honduras had called an urgent meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to discuss migration after the blazing row between Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro over the weekend.But Honduras was forced to cancel the meeting after no prominent regional leaders apart from Petro confirmed their attendance.The dispute saw Trump rapidly move to enact tariffs and other sanctions on Colombia after Petro blocked the arrival of US military aircraft carrying deported migrants.Within hours, the White House said Bogota had folded to its demands.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum denied Wednesday that she and other leaders were afraid of invoking Trump’s ire.”Our link with Latin America exists, and will continue to exist,” she insisted.Yet the fate suffered by Petro appears to have given other leaders cause for reflection.Sandra Borda, professor of political science at the University of the Andes in Bogota, blamed what she described as Petro’s ham-fisted diplomacy for the lack of regional unity.- Defying diktats -“The way President Petro launched the conversation with Washington destroyed any possibility of consensus,” she said.”Everyone is scared because Washington has bared its teeth and we know what happens when we do not follow the diktats.”In a sign of the shift, Honduran President Xiomara Castro, who had threatened to close US military bases if Trump carried out mass deportations, struck a less defiant tone this week.Castro said she was considering chartering flights to bring home Honduran migrants in an “orderly” fashion and called for “dialogue.”In Brazil, meanwhile, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was silent on the treatment meted out to a group of migrants who arrived home by plane to his country in handcuffs.Brazil’s government summoned the top US envoy to Latin America’s biggest economy to explain the “flagrant disregard” for the migrants’ rights but crucially did not lay down any condition for accepting more deportation flights.Michael Shifter, senior fellow at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue think tank, said Latin American leaders were walking a tightrope in the Trump 2.0 era.”On the one hand leaders feel they have to accommodate Trump to some extent. But complete capitulation… without at least taking a stand and drawing some lines is also not good (domestic) politics.”- ‘Give and take’ -Petro’s swashbuckling approach to Trump — in a rambling late-night post on X the former left-wing guerrilla vowed not to bow to “slave drivers” — contrasted sharply with the measured tone taken by Sheinbaum.Mexico’s first female leader has refused to be rattled by months of threats of steep tariffs from Trump, pointing to her predecessor’s close relationship with Trump during his first mandate as proof the neighbors can collaborate.Her pragmatic approach has seen her defend Mexicans as the backbone of the US economy while acting to curb illegal migration and drug trafficking.Sheinbaum had managed to straddle the line between “dignity and realism,” political analyst Jorge Zepeda Patterson wrote in Milenio newspaper.In a sign of how their tactics have played with voters, Sheinbaum’s ratings have soared while Petro was roasted in Colombia, a longtime US ally in the war on drugs, for his rumble with Trump.Colombia’s right-wing former president Ivan Duque accused his 64-year-old predecessor of “an act of tremendous irresponsibility.”Shifter however rejected Trump’s claim of an unconditional Colombian surrender, noting that “there was some give and take,” including a stay, at least for now, on US military deportations to the country.Welcoming home migrants repatriated by the Colombian air force on Tuesday, Petro said they were “in their homeland, where they are loved.”burs-cb/des

Tesla reported lower than expected profits Wednesday but confirmed key 2025 benchmarks, saying it will return to sales volume growth and move forward with fully autonomous driving.The results — the first since the return of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s ally Donald Trump to the White House — capped a mixed year for Tesla in which Musk’s big bet on US electoral politics was countered by profit pressures as Tesla’s streak of annual car volume growth came to an end.The electric car company reported fourth-quarter profits of $2.3 billion, down 71 percent from the year-ago quarter, where profits were boosted by a one-time tax benefit.Revenues rose two percent to $25.7 billion, also missing analyst estimates, but reflecting a more than doubling of sales in energy generation and storage.Musk has sought to temper expectations about Tesla’s near-term financial growth, while employing superlatives in touting Tesla’s autonomous driving and robotic ventures, saying they could make Tesla “the most valuable company in the world by far,” worth more than the “next five companies combined.”Musk, who spent some $270 million or more to help Trump win the White House, largely steered clear of political subjects during the 65-minute conference call. The company has been confronted by intensifying EV competition in leading markets, including China and the United States, where General Motors and Ford have introduced more models.Another factor has been lower sales than expected from the Cybertruck, Musk’s futuristic auto giant that has won cheers from Tesla fans and jeers from critics.But Tesla expects growth in 2025, saying in its earnings release that “with the advancements in vehicle autonomy and the introduction of new products, we expect the vehicle business to return to growth in 2025.”The company confirmed plans to unveil new, more affordable vehicles in 2025 and said its launch of a new robotaxi venture in parts of the United States was on track to begin this year.- Full autonomy soon? -Tesla named its driver-assistance programs “autopilot” and “full self-driving” (FSD), even though the programs require the driver to maintain attention, while rival robotaxi venture Waymo has achieved full driverless functionality in three US cities so far.Musk has repeatedly missed earlier targets towards full autonomy, quipping during Wednesday that he was like the boy who cried wolf.”But I’m telling you, there’s a damn wolf this time, and you can drive it,” Musk said. “In fact, it can drive you. It’s a self-driving wolf.”Musk said he intends to launch FSD as a paid service in Austin, Texas this year, where the company also plans to introduce robotaxi services.”Teslas will be in the wild,” he said, describing a gradual expansion of service once the company can demonstrate its autonomous service is “unequivocally safer” than a human driver.Musk did not directly comment on how his alliance with Trump will affect Tesla.The billionaire’s widening influence and activism on behalf of far-right political movements has drawn rising attention and blowback. Polling data released Wednesday by YouGov showed Musk with a 44 percent favorable public opinion compared with a 48 percent negative.That’s a worse ratio than Trump, who came in at three points net-positive, according to YouGov.A coalition that includes a public workers union has filed a lawsuit to block Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, arguing the panel flouts federal laws and is “beset” by the conflicts of interest of an extremist “libertarian billionaire class.”And only days after being criticized for a hand gesture at Trump’s inauguration that resembled a Nazi salute, Musk drew scrutiny last weekend for reiterating support for Germany’s far-right, anti-immigrant AfD party, including comments that young Germans should feel able “to move beyond” expressing regret for the Holocaust.During the call, Musk’s most overtly political comment concerned what he described as the cumbersome process to introduce FSD in Europe, calling Europe “a layer cake of regulations and bureaucracy, which really needs to be addressed.”Shares of Tesla rose 4.4 percent in after-hours trading.

Social media giant Meta on Wednesday reported surging profits and revenue for 2024, announcing ambitious plans to expand its artificial intelligence infrastructure in the year ahead.The bullish projection about the company’s AI future sent shares in the company spiking by as much as five percent in after hours trading, though this later steadied to two percent.CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he believed that Meta’s AI powers would make it a world leader on the technology, even if he warned that delivering on the hefty investments needed would “take time.”The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp saw its net income soar 59 percent to $62.36 billion for the full year, while fourth-quarter profits jumped 49 percent to $20.84 billion.Revenue reached $164.5 billion, up 22 percent from 2023, boosted by stronger advertising performance as ad prices rose 10 percent and impressions increased 11 percent across its platforms.The solid performance comes amid significant shifts in Meta’s content policies intended to endear the company to US President Donald Trump.The company recently announced the end of its US fact-checking program aimed at combating misinformation, a move that followed criticism from conservative voices who viewed such efforts as censorship.Zuckerberg said that 2025 was going to be a “big year for redefining our relationship with governments.””We now have a US administration that is proud of our leading companies, prioritizes American technology winning, and that will defend our values and interests abroad,” Zuckerberg told analysts.Meta has also scaled back diversity initiatives and relaxed content moderation rules on its platforms, particularly regarding certain forms of speech — changes that could potentially concern major advertisers who are wary of having their ads appear alongside divisive content.On the analyst call, Meta’s chief financial officer said the changes had not had an impact on ad revenue.- User growth -The company’s user base continued to grow, reaching 3.35 billion daily active users across its platforms in December 2024, a 5 percent increase year-over-year.Looking ahead, Meta plans massive infrastructure investments, with expected capital expenditures of $60-65 billion for 2025, primarily supporting AI initiatives. Total expenses are projected to reach $114-119 billion.”In AI, I expect this is going to be the year when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than 1 billion people, and I expect Meta AI to be that leading assistant,” Zuckerberg said.But he warned the investments would “be expensive for us to serve all of these people, because we are serving a lot of people.”Meta’s Reality Labs unit, which encompasses its virtual reality endeavours, posted a lower-than-expected operating loss of $4.97 billion while generating $1.1 billion in sales during the fourth quarter.The company expanded its workforce by 10 percent to 74,067 employees in 2024, with plans for further growth in technical roles focused on AI development and infrastructure.Meta last month said it will dismiss 3,600 employees (5 percent of its workforce) identified as low performers, with the intention to bring in new talent to strengthen the company.While Meta’s stock has performed strongly, the company faces both regulatory challenges and emerging competition.The rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s more economical AI model has reportedly prompted Meta to establish war rooms to study and potentially adapt the innovations for its own Llama AI models.The company projects first-quarter 2025 revenue between $39.5-41.8 billion, representing growth of 8-15 percent year-over-year.This was a lighter outlook than expected and “indicates that Meta’s recent content moderation changes may be having an impact on revenue in the coming quarter,” said Debra Aho Williamson of Sonata Insights.

US aid experts on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump’s claim that the United States had spent $50 million to fund condoms for the war-battered Gaza Strip, which the president has sought to make a poster child for wasteful spending.”We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas,” Trump told reporters, referring to the militant group that has ruled the Palestinian territory for nearly two decades.”And do you know what’s happened to them? They’ve used them as a method of making bombs.”Trump offered no evidence to back his claim, which prompted both vehement rejections and ridicule from relief agencies and experts.The United States sent no condoms to any part of the Middle East since 2019, according to a detailed report last year from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).Its only family planning contribution to the region was a small shipment of injectable and oral contraceptives worth $45,680 that was sent to Jordan in 2023, the report said.International Medical Corps, a humanitarian aid organization, said it received about $68 million from USAID for its Gaza operations since October 7, 2023 — the day Hamas launched a major attack on Israel –- which paid for two field hospitals providing lifesaving care.”No US government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms,” the organization said in a statement.- ‘Dangerous’ -On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the $50 million expenditure was discovered in Trump’s first week by the budget office and the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.She called it a “preposterous waste of taxpayer money.””The White House claim that DOGE uncovered $50 million in funding for condoms in Gaza is quite obviously untrue,” Matthew Kavanagh, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, told AFP.”It does not even make sense.”A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests $50 million would buy over a billion condoms for Gaza’s adult population.”What’s going is here is NOT a billion condoms for Gaza,” Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, wrote on X, the Musk-owned site formerly called Twitter.”What’s going on is that the bros at DOGE apparently can’t read (government) spreadsheets.”Jesse Watters, host of a conservative-leaning talk show on Fox News, said that Hamas were using the non-existent US shipments to make “condom bombs,” floating explosives-laden balloons into Israel — a claim echoed by Trump.Soon after returning to office for a second term on January 20, Trump ordered a 90-day freeze in foreign assistance.He has vowed a review to ensure that aid conforms with policies of his administration, which opposes abortion, transgender rights and diversity programs.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a memo that the United States was freezing nearly all aid disbursement except for emergency food and military aid to Egypt and Israel. “What seems clear is the administration is taking a large grant to support healthcare infrastructure in Gaza and mischaracterizing it in order to justify the dangerous halt to lifesaving aid programs around the world,” Kavanagh said.