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Elon Musk’s SpaceX is now aiming for Thursday to conduct the next test flight of its massive Starship rocket, following a last-minute cancellation on Monday.The world’s biggest and most powerful launch vehicle is set to lift off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, during a launch window that opens at 5:30 pm local time (2330 GMT).An earlier attempt set for Wednesday was postponed a day without explanation.It will be Starship’s eighth orbital mission — all so far uncrewed — and the first since its dramatic mid-air explosion over the Caribbean during its last test.Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall — about 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty — Starship is designed to eventually be fully reusable and is key to Musk and SpaceX’s vision of colonizing Mars.Meanwhile, NASA is awaiting a modified version of Starship as a lunar lander for its Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon this decade.The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded Starship after its previous flight on January 16 ended with the upper stage disintegrating in a fiery cascade over the Turks and Caicos Islands, prompting cleanup efforts for fallen debris.Last Friday, the FAA announced that Starship could proceed with its next flight before the agency finalizes its review of SpaceX’s “mishap investigation.”During Joe Biden’s presidency, Musk frequently accused the FAA of excessive scrutiny over SpaceX’s safety and environmental concerns. Now, as President Donald Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief, the world’s richest person faces allegations of wielding undue influence over regulatory agencies overseeing his companies.The administration has taken particular aim at the FAA over its hiring policies, and a union says hundreds of staff at the agency were fired last month.For the upcoming flight, SpaceX says it has introduced numerous upgrades to the upper-stage spaceship that enhance its reliability and performance.The mission, expected to last just over an hour, includes another attempt to catch the booster stage using the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms — a feat SpaceX has successfully executed twice, including in the last flight.Additionally, Starship will deploy Starlink simulators designed to mimic Starlink satellites, which will burn up upon atmospheric re-entry.Eventually, SpaceX aims to recover the upper stage as well, but for now, it is targeting splashdown in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Australia, as in previous flights.In a recent interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Musk said the toughest engineering hurdle is building a “fully reusable orbital heat shield — a problem that has never been solved before.”Despite the challenge, Musk remains optimistic, predicting that Starship will be fully and rapidly reusable by next year, a milestone he describes as the “fundamental breakthrough required for life to be multiplanetary.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that a lasting peace was “entirely achievable” as the Kremlin called it “positive” that Kyiv was professing its readiness for talks on ending the three-year war.Zelensky has been scrambling to contain the fallout from the explosive meeting with Donald Trump last week that saw him kicked out of the White House after being scolded by the US leader and his vice president in front of news cameras.The United States said Wednesday it had “paused” intelligence sharing with Ukraine, a blow to Kyiv’s military capacity that came after Washington suspended military aid to the country.The moves have cemented fears in Kyiv and Europe that Ukraine could have to accept a settlement on terms favourable to Moscow or risk losing US support entirely.”We all want a safe future for our people. Not a temporary ceasefire, but an end to the war once and for all. With our coordinated efforts and U.S. leadership, this is entirely achievable,” Zelensky wrote Wednesday on social media following a call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.A day earlier he said he was “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer” and that he wanted to “make things right” with Trump. In an address to US Congress on Tuesday , Trump read aloud from a letter he said he had received from Zelensky in which he said he was ready for peace talks.The Republican has made ending the war one of his top foreign policy priorities, though has yet to outline his plan for a deal both sides could endorse.Zelensky wants security guarantees from the United States to deter Russia from invading once again in the future.Moscow, meanwhile, has refused to rule out giving up any of the land it has captured in its three-year military campaign, and has been buoyed by the suspension of military aid.- ‘Generally positive’ -The Kremlin welcomed news of the Ukrainian leader’s letter to Trump.”This approach is generally positive,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in answer to a question from AFP.However, the Kremlin has repeatedly thrown doubt on whether it would hold talks with Zelensky.On Wednesday, Peskov cited a decree passed by Zelensky that rules out direct negotiations with Putin.The Ukrainian leader has since said on multiple occasions he would be willing to meet Putin — but only after Kyiv and its Western allies agree a common negotiating position.Moscow has also accused Zelensky of not being a legitimate leader, citing the expiration of his five-year mandate following his 2019 election as president.Under Ukrainian martial law, elections are banned during wartime.Zelensky’s key European backers have supported the suspension of any vote amid Russia’s full-scale offensive, though Trump has falsely claimed the Ukrainian leader is widely unpopular at home and called on him to hold elections.- Intelligence pause -Outgoing German Chancellor Scholz on Wednesday gave his backing to Zelensky’s calls for a truce in the sky and at sea as a first step towards ending the fighting.”The Chancellor welcomed the Ukrainian president’s willingness to start negotiations as soon as possible. Both agreed on the importance of the American president’s leadership,” Scholz’s office said in a statement.French President Emmanuel Macron is mulling a joint visit to Washington alongside Zelensky and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to present a united European front to Trump, the French government said Wednesday.Trump is pushing for Europe to do more for Ukraine’s defence.CIA director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday the United States had “paused” intelligence sharing with Ukraine after the dramatic breakdown in relations between Kyiv and the White House.The Ukrainian presidency declined to comment.On the battlefield, Russia’s forces said they had captured another small village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.The gains come as AFP analysis of US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) data showed Moscow’s advance had slowed in February after a series of accelerating territorial gains throughout the winter.

An Islamic State operative who allegedly planned the 2021 suicide bombing outside Kabul airport during the chaotic US military withdrawal has been arrested, President Donald Trump has said.The bomber detonated a device among packed crowds as they tried to flee Afghanistan, killing 170 Afghans and 13 US troops securing the perimeter, days after the Taliban seized control of the capital.In his first address to Congress since returning to the White House, Trump announced on Tuesday that Pakistan had assisted in the arrest of “the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity.”The Justice Department named the man as Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, and said he is expected to appear in a Virginia court on Wednesday.Sharifullah, who is a leader of the Islamic State Khorasan branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been charged with “providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization resulting in death.”The Justice Department said Wednesday the operative admitted to FBI Special Agents “to helping prepare” for the attack, “including scouting a route near the airport for an attacker.””This evil ISIS-K terrorist orchestrated the brutal murder of 13 heroic Marines,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.Sharifullah also admitted to involvement in several other attacks, the Justice Department said, including the March 2024 Moscow Crocus City Hall attack in which he said “he had shared instructions on how to use AK-style rifles and other weapons to would-be attackers.”In Tuesday’s speech, Trump took a swipe at his predecessor Joe Biden’s oversight of the “disastrous and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan” and thanked Pakistan “for helping arrest this monster.”The United States withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, ending a chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans who had rushed to Kabul’s airport in the hope of boarding a flight out of the country.Images of crowds storming the airport, climbing atop aircraft — and some clinging to a departing US military cargo plane as it rolled down the runway — aired on news bulletins around the world.In April 2023, the White House announced that an Islamic State official involved in plotting the attack at the airport’s Abbey Gate had been killed in an operation by Afghanistan’s new Taliban government.- ‘Leverage US concerns’ -Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for “acknowledging and appreciating Pakistan’s role and support” in counter-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan.”We will continue to partner closely with the United States in securing regional peace and stability,” he wrote on social media platform X.Pakistan’s strategic importance has waned since the US and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has seen violence rebound in the border regions.Tensions between the neighboring countries have soared, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of failing to root out militants sheltering on Afghan soil who launch attacks on Pakistan.The Taliban government denies the charges and in a statement said the arrest of the ISK operative Sharifullah “is proof” that the group’s hideouts are on Pakistani soil.ISK, which has claimed several recent attacks in Afghanistan, has staged a growing number of bloody international assaults, including killing more than 90 in an Iranian bombing last year.Michael Kugelman, South Asia Institute director at The Wilson Center, said on X that Pakistan was trying to “leverage US concerns about terror in Afghanistan and pitch a renewed security partnership.””Pakistan’s help catching the Abbey Gate attack plotter should be seen in this context,” he added.

Greenland’s prime minister on Wednesday hit back at President Donald Trump’s pledge to take the Arctic territory “one way or the other”, insisting that islanders did not see their future with the United States or even Denmark.Mute Egede rejected Trump’s expansionist ambitions to annex the sparsely populated but mineral-rich and strategically placed island, in a partisan address to the US Congress in Washington on Tuesday.”We don’t want to be Americans, or Danes either. We are Greenlanders. The Americans and their leader must understand that,” Egede wrote in a Facebook post.”We are not for sale and can’t just be taken. Our future is decided by us in Greenland,” he said, six days before the island’s legislative elections where the longstanding question of independence tops the agenda.Trump offered only passing lines on world affairs in his speech, focusing on his domestic goals like rounding up undocumented immigrants and slashing government spending.But he repeated his aspirations to take Greenland and claimed an initial victory on retaking control of the Panama Canal.Trump said he had a message for the “incredible people” of Greenland. “We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” he added.But he made clear he would not give up if persuasion fails, saying: “One way or the other we’re going to get it.”We will keep you safe, we will make you rich, and together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before.”- ‘Won’t happen’ -Denmark, of which self-governing Greenland is part, also rebuffed Trump’s aspirations to take the island, with China and Russia increasingly active in the Arctic, as climate change opens up sea routes.In Copenhagen, Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told public broadcaster DR that US annexation of Greenland “won’t happen”.”The direction that Greenland wants to take will be decided by Greenlanders,” he said.Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen called for cool heads to prevail.”I think everyone, including us, should be cautious about having all kinds of opinions about the future” of Greenland, he told Danish television TV2.US threats to take Greenland would once have been unthinkable, with Denmark a treaty ally of the United States under NATO.But Trump has made clear he has little patience for European allies, which he again denounced for not spending more on their militaries, with Trump instead seeing a return to an era of big powers taking what they want.He has similarly vowed to take back the Panama Canal, the crucial link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that the United States handed to Panama at the end of 1999.- ‘Taking it back’ -Trump declared triumph after Hong Kong firm CK Hutchison decided to sell its Panama ports to a US-led consortium. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had complained that rival China had gained too much influence over the canal and could shut it down in a conflict with the United States.”To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it,” he said, as he mentioned the port deal.”We didn’t give it to China. Gave it to Panama — and we’re taking it back,” he said.Trump had earlier not ruled out military force to seize either the Panama Canal or Greenland.Trump has paradoxically sought to cast himself as a peacemaker. He has vowed to end the war in Ukraine and has rattled allies by suspending aid to the country, which Russia invaded three years ago.Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he visited the White House on Friday, calling him ungrateful.Addressing Congress, Trump read a message from Zelensky in which the Ukrainian leader sought to repair the damage and voiced a willingness to a sign a deal in which the United States would take much of Ukraine’s mineral wealth.”It’s time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides,” Trump said.The Trump administration at the same time has cancelled more than 90 percent of US development assistance, traditionally a key source of US non-military influence.Trump has described aid as not in the US interest.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky has told him Kyiv was ready for talks with Russia and the finalization of a US minerals deal, days after the pair’s explosive White House meeting.The dramatic collapse of Kyiv and Washington’s wartime alliance has played out in the open since the televised dispute in the Oval Office last week, followed by Ukraine’s top ally suspending crucial military aid.Zelensky has since sought to bring Trump back onside, posting on social media that their clash was “regrettable” and he wanted “to make things right”.In his address to US Congress later on Tuesday, Trump read aloud from a letter he said he recently received from Zelensky, which matched the social media statement.”The letter reads, ‘Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians,” Trump told US lawmakers in his first address since returning to office.”We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence.'”Addressing Congress, Trump added that, “regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time that is convenient for you.”Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has meanwhile offered to host Russia-Ukraine peace talks.”Tell Trump that I expect him here with Putin and Zelensky,” Lukashenko proposed to the three leaders in a video interview with US blogger Mario Nawfal, reported by state news agency Belta on Wednesday.”We are going to sit down and calmly make an accord,” said Lukashenko, adding there had to be a deal with Zelensky “since a large part of Ukrainian society is with him”.In the Oval Office on Friday, Vice President JD Vance accused Zelensky of being ungrateful for US assistance and Trump berated the wartime leader as not having “cards” to play.Zelensky left without signing an agreement pushed by Trump for the United States to secure control over Ukrainian mineral resources.While Trump was expected to use Tuesday’s speech to lay out a plan for the Ukraine war, he did not further detail how he envisages ending the grueling three-year conflict.He did say he had engaged in “serious discussions with Russia”.Trump’s rapprochement with Moscow and decision on Monday to halt military assistance to Kyiv has stunned allies.Like Ukraine, the European Union has been excluded from US-Russian negotiations towards a potential truce, prompting fears any deal proposed would be on Moscow’s terms.Moscow, which has hailed Trump’s decision to halt assistance to Ukraine as a “solution which could really push the Kyiv regime to a peace process,” said Wednesday news that Zelensky was ready for peace talks was “positive”.The US pause impacts hundreds of millions of dollars of weaponry in the process of being sent to Ukraine, The New York Times reported.- ‘Stab in the back’ -Ordinary Ukrainians speaking to AFP were shocked at what they viewed as a betrayal by Trump.”It’s like a stab in the back,” a 33-year-old financial assistant in Kyiv who gave only her first name, Sofia, told AFP.Trump “wants Ukraine’s surrender, the deaths of our people, the surrender of our territories,” army volunteer Sergiy Sternenko said on Telegram.Poland’s government noted that Washington’s decision was made without consulting NATO allies, and said the impact was already being felt.French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told lawmakers in Paris that “entire trains” carrying US supplies for Ukraine “are being stopped and prevented from reaching their destination”.- Troops on the ground? -Last week, Zelensky had travelled to Washington expecting to sign a US-Ukrainian deal for the joint exploitation of Ukraine’s vast mineral resources, as part of a post-war recovery in a US-brokered peace deal.The proposal was to give Washington financial benefits for helping Ukraine in a truce, even if Trump has repeatedly refused to commit any US military force as a back-up to European troops who might act as peacekeepers.After the fiery Oval Office exchange, Zelensky was asked to leave.On Tuesday, Zelensky said that Kyiv remained ready to sign the deal at “any time and in any convenient format”.Ukraine is also seeking tough security guarantees for an end to the war.After weekend crisis talks in London, Britain and France are investigating how to propose a one-month Ukraine-Russia truce — potentially backstopped by troops on the ground.Vance, in an interview with Fox News on Monday, mocked the idea of “some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years” sending soldiers to Ukraine. That prompted angry responses from French and British politicians.Vance insisted Tuesday he had not mentioned France or Britain, and said both had “fought bravely” alongside the United States over the past two decades.

President Donald Trump urged Greenland to choose to join the United States but vowed to take the Danish-ruled island “one way or the other” — a bid Denmark swiftly rejected on Wednesday.”That won’t happen,” Danish Defence Minister Trouls Lund Poulsen told public broadcaster DR.”The direction that Greenland wants to take will be decided by Greenlanders,” Lund Poulsen said.In a partisan speech to Congress on Tuesday, Trump offered only passing lines on world affairs, focusing on his domestic goals like rounding up undocumented immigrants and slashing government spending.But he underlined his expansionist vision of the United States, as he repeated his aspirations to take Greenland and claimed an initial victory on retaking control of the Panama Canal.One week before general elections in Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark with an independence movement, Trump said he had a message for the “incredible people” of the sparsely populated but mineral-rich and strategically-placed island.”We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” Trump said.But he made clear he would not give up if persuasion fails, saying: “One way or the other we’re going to get it.””We will keep you safe, we will make you rich, and together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before.”China and Russia have been stepping up activity in the Arctic as climate change opens further sea routes.- ‘Taking it back’ -Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen called for cool heads to prevail.”I think everyone, including us, should be cautious about having all kinds of opinions about the future” of Greenland, he told Danish television TV2.US threats to take Greenland would once have been thinkable, with Denmark a treaty ally of the United States under NATO.But Trump has made clear he has little patience for European allies, which he again denounced for not spending more on their militaries, with Trump instead seeing a return to an era of big powers taking what they want.He has similarly vowed to take back the Panama Canal, the crucial link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that the United States handed to Panama at the end of 1999.Trump declared triumph after Hong Kong firm CK Hutchison decided to sell its Panama ports to a US-led consortium. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had complained that rival China had gained too much influence over the canal and could shut it down in a conflict with the United States.”To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it,” he said, as he mentioned the port deal.”We didn’t give it to China. Gave it to Panama — and we’re taking it back,” he said.Trump had earlier not ruled out military force to seize either the Panama Canal or Greenland.Trump has paradoxically sought to cast himself as a peacemaker. He has vowed to end the war in Ukraine and has rattled allies by suspending aid to the country, which Russia invaded three years ago.Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he visited the White House on Friday, calling him ungrateful.Addressing Congress, Trump read a message from Zelensky in which the Ukrainian leader sought to repair the damage and voiced a willingness to a sign a deal in which the United States would take much of Ukraine’s mineral wealth.”It’s time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides,” Trump said.- Overseas aid -The Trump administration at the same time has canceled more than 90 percent of US development assistance, traditionally a key source of US non-military influence.Trump has described aid as not in the US interest, with his advisor Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, pushing massive cuts to make way for tax cuts.Trump rattled off a list of previous aid grants and reserved mockery for a project in the landlocked African country of Lesotho, which has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV/AIDS.”Eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho,” Trump said, struggling with the pronunciation.”Which nobody has ever heard of,” Trump added to laughter from Republican lawmakers.

Mexico’s booming tequila industry was left reeling Wednesday after US President Donald Trump slapped sweeping tariffs on the Central American nation that producers say threaten the popularity of its most famous liquor.Trump imposed 25 percent levies on Mexico and Canada, and doubled tariffs on China, prompting jitters on global markets and fears the spat is devolving into a brutal trade war.More than two-thirds of tequila produced last year was exported to the United States — 335 million liters of almost 500 million, according to Mexico’s Tequila Regulatory Council.The US market makes up 83.6 percent of tequila exports, representing $4.5-billion worth of liquor.”The possible increase in tequila prices in the United States could encourage substitution with other alcoholic drinks,” said Ana Cristina Villalpando Fonseca, head of the National Chamber of the Tequila Industry (CNIT). The tariffs risk affecting the whole supply chain, from producers of agave — the plant used to make tequila — to bottlers and transporters, the CNIT added in a statement.The industry employs more than 100,000 people in Mexico, Villalpando said.Fast-rising demand for tequila has seen American celebrities cash in on the tipple in recent years — and in 2020 tech billionaire Elon Musk joined the party with the launch of a limited edition Tesla Tequila.In January 2025, tequila exports jumped 34.6 percent compared to the same month the previous year, although the CNIT attributed the rise to stockpiling ahead of Trump’s anticipated tariffs.The CNIT said it would promote expansion to other international markets and that it was confident the Mexican government’s efforts will help mitigate the effects of the tariffs.President Claudia Sheinbaum pushed back on Trump’s duties saying her government would retaliate with unspecified tariff and non-tariff measures of its own.US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said however that Trump could dial down hefty levies on Mexico and Canada this week, while maintaining pressure on China.

There was dismay on the left and jubilation on the right as Donald Trump addressed the US Congress on Tuesday in a tense atmosphere and with Washington’s political divisions rarely more visible. Trump entered the chamber to cheers from Republicans and took a languid stroll down the center aisle to the podium, taking his time and pressing flesh along the way. As he passed Democrat Melanie Stansbury, the New Mexico congresswoman held up a sheet of paper reading “This is not normal.” A Republican politician snatched the sign out of her hands — a harbinger of the tensions to come. The ultra-Trumpist Marjorie Taylor Greene, always a politician to wear her support on her sleeve, sported a red “Trump was right about everything” cap — in violation of a ban on headwear introduced almost two centuries ago.When Trump arrived at the podium, the Republican half of the chamber chanted “USA! USA!” their jubilation evident in their broad grins. On the other side of the room, the Democratic members remain seated and stony-faced. The only (presumed) Republican who might have bested the president on the applause-o-meter: his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, who waved to acknowledge the raucous applause as she took her place, wearing a charcoal gray suit. “To my fellow citizens, America is back!” Trump enthused as he began his address, whose theme was “Renewal of the  American Dream.”- Yellow and blue -Minutes later, Democrat congressman Al Green stood up and yelled at the president: “You don’t have a mandate.” His protest was drowned out by the uproarious Republicans, who ordered him to take a seat as they dived into another stirring round of patriotic chants. Green refused to sit down, and was quickly escorted out of the chamber, as he was jeered by his political opponents on the Republican side. When Trump called predecessor Joe Biden the “worst president” in history, there were whistles from a few triggered Democrats, some of whom denounced the “lies.” Many were wearing scarves, striped ties, or lapel ribbons in the yellow and blue colors of the Ukrainian flag, as a sign of solidarity for a war-torn ally they consider the Trump administration to have betrayed.Indeed, the speech came just after Trump had ordered a pause in American military aid to Kyiv, and the atmosphere was markedly different from Biden’s March 2022 address to Congress, five days after the start of the Russian invasion.On that occasion marked a demonstration of unity from both sides of Congress, and both chambers, as Democrat and Republican alike rose at Biden’s beckoning to offer solidarity with the Ukrainian people. That unanimity is decidedly a thing of the past in the Washington of the “America First” movement which has Trump as its standard-bearer. In addition to Ukrainian yellow and blue, a number of Democrats came in pink outfits to protest against what they see as the Trump administration’s anti-women policies.Some of the House Democrats left the chamber before Trump had even got into his stride and Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett removed her jacket to reveal a t-shirt with the word “Resist” emblazoned on the back. – Musk the spectator -Some traditions hold, even in the norm-breaking Trump era, and the usual bevy of Supreme Court justices could be found in the front row, enjoying the pomp and circumstance. With many of the Trump administration’s decisions already the subject of legal challenges, the judicial panel — with its strong conservative tilt —  is likely to have its hands full in the weeks and months ahead. But if Trump was expecting a sold-out speech, he will have been disappointed. A number of Democrats, such as left-winger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, had previously announced that they would be giving the event a wide berth. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump’s point man on drastically downsizing the federal government, watched from the galleries, a spectator to the drama for once. Yet, even from the sidelines, he still managed to command the attention of the TV cameras as Trump invited applause for a man whose millions helped get the Republican elected.A few hours before Trump’s arrival, a dozen protesters outside the US Capitol waved signs reading “Stand up to tyranny” and “Musk must go.” Trump seemed to provide a direct retort during his speech, as he warned: “We’re just getting started.”

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is considering letting go up to half of its approximately 90,000 employees, a source with knowledge of the situation told AFP on Tuesday.The bloodbath would be the latest drastic cut to a federal agency under President Donald Trump’s administration. When asked about US press reports of the plans to halve the IRS headcount, the source confirmed such a project was being discussed internally. Last month, the IRS laid off around 7,000 probationary employees, amid similar cuts at other federal agencies.Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has launched a vast offensive aimed at slashing public spending and reducing the federal bureaucracy, one of the goals he promised on the campaign trail. To that end, he has tapped billionaire Elon Musk, his top campaign donor turned close adviser, to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has cut thousands of government jobs and upended federal agencies. Among his first targets were members of the federal bureaucracy overseeing policies that promote diversity. Trump’s return also saw the dismantling of the US Agency on International Development (USAID), ending humanitarian and international development projects around the globe.

More than 200 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered Tuesday in front of Columbia University in New York to demonstrate against former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett, who was at the campus for a speaking engagement.After more than a year of protests at the campus by both supporters of Israel and opponents of the assault on Gaza after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, the appearance of the former leader of Israel’s far-right was met with expected pushback.”The decision to host a man with such a violent and openly discriminatory record sends a message that the university values some voices over others,” a spokesperson for Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition — one of the groups taking part in the protest — said in a statement.None of the individual protesters at the event, many of whom wore masks or traditional Palestinian keffiyehs, agreed to speak with AFP journalists.Police at the scene worked to separate the protest from a small group of pro-Israel counter-demonstrators nearby, though the two demonstrations passed without any incident.The protest was held at the same time as US President Donald Trump’s administration threatened federal funding for the New York university over an anti-semitism row.The federal government on Monday said it was considering ending contracts it has with Columbia worth over $50 million, blaming it for failing to protect its Jewish students from anti-Semitism amid the protests.”All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” Trump wrote Tuesday on his platform Truth Social.”Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on …the crime, arrested,” the post continued.