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Volodymyr Zelensky was due to meet on Thursday with US envoy Keith Kellogg after Donald Trump branded the Ukrainian leader a “dictator” and said Russia “have the cards” in any talks to end the war. The United States has provided essential funding and arms to Ukraine, but the US president has rattled Kyiv and its European backers by opening talks with Moscow they fear could end the war on terms unacceptable to them.    “I think the Russians want to see the war end… But I think they have the cards a little bit, because they’ve taken a lot of territory, so they have the cards,” Trump told reporters late Wednesday. Under former President Joe Biden, the United States lauded Zelensky as a hero and hammered Moscow with sanctions as Ukraine battled against advancing Russian troops.But Trump has been critical of Zelensky, claiming he has subverted democracy and blaming him for starting the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago. “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.Zelensky was elected in 2019 for a five-year term and has remained leader under martial law imposed as his country fights for its survival.Trump savaged Zelensky, saying “he refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing (Joe) Biden ‘like a fiddle.'””In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do.”Zelensky’s popularity has fallen, but the percentage of Ukrainians who trust him has never dipped below 50 percent since the conflict started, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).- Shock at Trump attack -Trump’s invective drew shock from Europe where German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was “wrong and dangerous” to call Zelensky a dictator.In Washington, Trump’s former vice president Mike Pence also issued a stinging rebuke.”Mr. President, Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives,” he wrote on X.”Ukraine is a democracy, (President Vladimir) Putin’s Russia is not,” European Union spokesman Stefan de Keersmaecker said. In contrast, the Kremlin hailed Trump’s comments. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it “absolutely” agreed with Trump after he urged Zelensky to “move fast” to end the conflict.Both sides are trying to improve their situation on the battlefield amid Trump’s push for a ceasefire.- Moscow buoyed -Moscow has been buoyed by Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia and Trump’s attacks on Zelensky.The talks “made the first step to restore work in various areas of mutual interests,” Putin told journalists.Kyiv was not invited to the Riyadh talks as Moscow and Washington moved to sideline both Ukraine and Europe.Putin said US allies “only have themselves to blame for what’s happening,” suggesting they were paying the price for opposing Trump’s return to the White House.Tensions between Zelensky and Trump over the new US position on the war had been building for weeks.But Zelensky struck a more positive tone ahead of Thursday’s meeting with Kellogg, saying “it is very important for us that the meeting and our work with America in general be constructive.””Together with America and Europe, peace can be more reliable, and this is our goal,” he added. Russia, which for years has railed against the US military presence in Europe, wants a reorganisation of the continent’s security framework as part of any deal to end the Ukraine fighting.Putin on Wednesday said that Russia and the United States needed to work with each other if talks were to be successful.”It is impossible to solve many issues, including the Ukrainian crisis, without increasing the level of trust between Russia and the United States,” he said.burs-jbr/oc/ach  

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday his treasury secretary was treated “rudely” during an official visit to Kyiv, accusing Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky of “sleeping” and failing to make a deal.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Zelensky in Ukraine’s capital last week to discuss granting Washington access to rare earth minerals in return for security support.”Scott Bessent actually went there and was treated rather rudely, because essentially, they told him ‘no’,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “And Zelensky was sleeping and unavailable to meet him. Bessent “traveled many hours on the train, which is a dangerous trip, and we’re talking about the secretary of the treasury,” Trump said.”He went there to get a document signed, and when he got there, he came back empty. “They wouldn’t sign the document.”The remarks came after Trump branded the Ukrainian president a “dictator” who refuses to hold elections and said the Russians “have the cards” in any negotiation to end the war.”A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.Zelensky said earlier Wednesday that Trump was living in a Russian “disinformation” bubble, responding to scathing comments by the US president about Zelensky’s popularity rating.The United States has provided essential funding and arms to Ukraine, but Trump has rattled Kyiv and its European backers by opening talks with Moscow they fear could end the three-year war on terms unacceptable to them.Trump has criticized US military funding for Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia and suggested this month that he wanted an agreement to access Ukraine’s rare earth material as a condition to sustain support.Bessent was dispatched to Kyiv on February 12 to discuss the matter, the first member of Trump’s cabinet to visit Ukraine.Zelensky was elected in 2019 for a five-year term but has remained leader under martial law imposed following the Russian invasion in February 2022.Under former president Joe Biden, the United States lauded Zelensky as a hero and hammered Moscow with sanctions as Ukraine battled against advancing Russian troops.

Donald Trump has not just turned against Volodymyr Zelensky by branding the Ukrainian president a “dictator” — he has also turned towards Russia’s narrative about its invasion, deepening uncertainty about Kyiv’s fate.Tensions had bubbled for days over Trump’s sudden decision to open talks with Moscow while excluding Ukraine, before they boiled over into an extraordinary war of words between the two leaders.But it was not just the sudden rift with Kyiv’s biggest backer that was most worrying for Ukraine and its European allies — it was the way that Trump has started openly echoing many of Moscow’s favorite talking points about the war.When Trump talked about how Ukraine started the war, quoted false figures about Zelensky’s popularity, urged him to call elections and ruled out NATO membership, analysts said it would all have sounded suspiciously familiar to many in Kyiv.”It looks like he’s preparing a big sell-out of Ukraine,” Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP.Bergmann said Trump seemed to be “creating a predicate for the United States to simply wash its hands of supporting Ukraine, and to focus on having a relationship with Moscow.”Trump has an “affinity for Vladimir Putin” and an “affinity for the strongman style that Putin has,” he added.- ‘Comedian’ -When Russia invaded Ukraine almost exactly three years ago, Zelensky was hailed as a hero in the United States.But Trump was not at the party; in fact, he’d had tense relations ever since he was impeached for the first time in 2019 over delaying assistance to Ukraine as he pressed Zelensky to dig up dirt on Joe Biden’s family before the 2020 election. Support for Ukraine was also not part of Trump’s “America First” agenda. He’s long opposed the billions of dollars in aid that Biden sent to Ukraine, and pledged during the 2024 election campaign to end the Ukraine conflict before taking office, sparking further fears he would push Kyiv into an unfavorable deal.The Republican’s shock announcement of a call with Putin last week had initially been tempered with a call to Zelensky immediately afterwards. But it rankled with Zelensky, and the tensions grew after Russian and US officials met in Saudi Arabia on Monday.In the gilded halls of his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday, Trump said Kyiv started the war. Zelensky responded by saying that Trump was in a Russian “disinformation space.”Trump furiously doubled down, first saying on social media that Zelensky was a “comedian” and a “dictator without elections.”There was criticism from some Republicans, including Trump’s former vice president Mike Pence.But it quickly became clear that it wasn’t an outburst — it was now US policy, with the White House reposting his comments on social media and officials rushing to the airwaves to defend them. “Why hasn’t President Zelensky tried to end this war for the betterment of his country?” National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told Fox News. – ‘Kill the patient’ -For Ukraine and Europe, the clash just intensified the whiplash from last week’s announcement.”A lot of the language, including his echoing of Kremlin talking points, indicates that maybe he’s just giving away the farm to Russia,” said Henry Hale, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University.But Hale said that while the Ukrainians should be worried, “I don’t think they should give up all hope…Trump’s negotiating style is to keep everybody off balance.”US Vice President JD Vance even seemed to offer Zelensky some advice, telling the Daily Mail that “badmouthing” Trump in public was an “atrocious” way to deal with Trump’s administration. European leaders are meanwhile still scrambling to respond.French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — who have both offered to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine —  are both expected at the White House next week, but have also called Zelensky to offer support.Others, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, criticized Trump.But former British prime minister and Trump ally Boris Johnson played down Trump’s comments, saying they were “not intended to be historically accurate but to shock Europeans into action.”Bergmann agreed that Trump’s comments could indeed be a “real pivot point” for Europeans — but he had a warning.”Now, sometimes shocks are effective at getting you going,” Bergmann said. “Sometimes they can kill the patient.”

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the Russians “have the cards” in any negotiation to end the war in Ukraine, after branding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” who refuses to hold elections. The Ukrainian leader, who has exchanged barbs with Trump since he initiated a dramatic shift in Washington’s stance on the war, was due to meet US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv Thursday.The United States has provided essential funding and arms to Ukraine, but Trump has rattled Kyiv and its European backers by opening talks with Moscow they fear could end the war on terms unacceptable to them. “I think the Russians want to see the war end… But I think they have the cards a little bit, because they’ve taken a lot of territory, so they have the cards,” Trump told reporters late Wednesday.Under former President Joe Biden, the United States lauded Zelensky as a hero and hammered Moscow with sanctions as Ukraine battled against advancing Russian troops.But Trump has been harshly critical of the Ukrainian leader, claiming he has subverted democracy and blaming him for starting the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago. “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.Zelensky was elected in 2019 for a five-year term and has remained leader under martial law imposed as his country fights for its survival.Trump savaged Zelensky, saying “he refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing (Joe) Biden ‘like a fiddle.'””In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do.”Zelensky’s popularity has fallen, but the percentage of Ukrainians who trust him has never dipped below 50 percent since the conflict started, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).- Shock at Trump attack -Trump’s invective drew shock from Europe where German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was “wrong and dangerous” to call Zelensky a dictator.In Washington, Trump’s former vice president Mike Pence also issued a stinging rebuke.”Mr. President, Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives,” he wrote on X.Zelensky reacted to Trump’s attacks by accusing him of succumbing to Russian “disinformation”.”I believe that the United States helped (Vladimir) Putin to break out of years of isolation,” he added, in some of his sharpest criticism yet of the new US administration.And in Ukraine, Trump’s rhetoric was greeted by disbelief. “Blaming Ukraine for starting the war is some kind of absurdity. As Ukrainians, we cannot understand this,” soldier Ivan Banias told AFP on the freezing streets of Kyiv. In contrast, Putin hailed progress in talks with the United States.The Russian leader also claimed his troops had crossed into Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region — a first ground attack there since 2022 — but Kyiv swiftly denied the claim.Both sides are trying to improve their situation on the battlefield amid Trump’s push for a ceasefire.- Moscow buoyed -Moscow has been buoyed by Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia and Trump’s attacks on Zelensky.The talks “made the first step to restore work in various areas of mutual interests,” Putin told journalists while visiting a drone manufacturing plant in his native Saint Petersburg.Kyiv was not invited to the Riyadh talks as Moscow and Washington moved to sideline both Ukraine and Europe.Putin said that the United States’ allies “only have themselves to blame for what’s happening,” suggesting they were paying the price for opposing Trump’s return to the White House.Tensions between Zelensky and Trump over the new US position on the war had been building for weeks, before bursting into the open.But Zelensky struck a more positive tone ahead of Thursday’s scheduled meeting with Kellogg, saying “it is very important for us that the meeting and our work with America in general be constructive.””Together with America and Europe, peace can be more reliable, and this is our goal,” he added. Russia, which for years has railed against the US military presence in Europe, wants a reorganization of the continent’s security framework as part of any deal to end the Ukraine fighting.Putin on Wednesday said that Russia and the United States needed to work with each other if talks were to be successful.”It is impossible to solve many issues, including the Ukrainian crisis, without increasing the level of trust between Russia and the United States,” he said.burs-tym/hmn

US airline Delta will offer $30,000 to each passenger on a plane that crashed as it landed at Toronto airport this week, the carrier told AFP on Wednesday. “This gesture has no strings attached and does not affect rights” of passengers, a company spokesman said. On Monday, a Delta Air Lines plane that departed from the US city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, hit the runway hard at Toronto’s main airport and flipped upside down. A fireball and thick plumes of black smoke engulfed the plane as it skidded to a halt on its roof but none of the 80 people on board were killed.Delta said 21 passengers were injured in the accident but only one was still hospitalized as of Wednesday morning. Paramedic services said emergency responders dealt with various injuries among the passengers, including back sprains, head injuries, anxiety and headaches.Dramatic footage of the crash posted on social media and verified by AFP on Tuesday showed the Bombardier CRJ-900 coming in to land before slamming into the runway, then sliding forward in a roll, with its wings sheared off before it stopped on its back.Canada’s Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation, assisted by the US Federal Aviation Administration, Delta and Mitsubishi, which purchased the CRJ line of planes from Bombardier in 2019. The Toronto crash was the latest in a recent string of air incidents in North America, including a midair collision between a US Army helicopter and a passenger jet in Washington that killed 67 people, and a medical transport plane crash in Philadelphia that left seven dead.

As a child, Adrian Quesada dreamed of success at the MTV Video Music Awards, but now, he is on an even bigger stage — with an Oscar nomination.The American musician with Mexican roots hopes the presence at the Academy Awards of someone from the Texas border town of Laredo will help serve as an inspiration for other people from minority communities.”Representation, I think, in the arts, is a big thing,” Quesada told AFP in Los Angeles as he promoted his powerful track “Like a Bird” from the prison drama “Sing Sing” — a nominee for the best original song prize. “If I’m a young kid watching MTV or watching movies or watching TV, when you actually see people that look like you out there, people that you know come from your culture, it inspires the next generation.”The Black Pumas guitarist co-wrote and performed “Like a Bird,” which closes the film, with singer Abraham Alexander.The nomination is one of three for “Sing Sing,” which tells the true story of Divine G (Colman Domingo), a wrongfully convicted inmate who finds an outlet in a prison theater group.Former prisoners who participated in the real-life theater program performed in the film, which was directed by Greg Kwedar. Domingo is nominated for best actor, and the script is vying for best adapted screenplay honors.Quesada and Alexander did not have their sights set on Hollywood’s glitzy awards season when they signed up for the film, and Quesada admits that it has been “surreal” to be caught up in Tinseltown’s annual jamboree.”It’s still something that is hard to process,” he said. “I still sometimes wake up and can’t believe that.”Quesada is no stranger to plaudits, earning multiple Grammy nominations during his long career and winning one golden gramophone for his work with Austin-based Latin funk outfit Grupo Fantasma.But he admits a nod from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is something special.”The Academy Awards just seemed like such a different world,” he said.- True story -“Like a Bird” will face some stiff competition at the Oscars on March 2.Other nominees are “El Mal” and “Mi Camino” from the narco musical “Emilia Perez;” “Never Too Late” from the documentary “Elton John: Never Too Late;” and “The Journey” from “The Six Triple Eight” by veteran composer Diane Warren, who has never won in the category despite being nominated 15 previous times. Inspired by the plot of “Sing Sing,” the song encapsulates the longing for freedom of someone who cannot follow his dreams.For Quesada, who says he firmly believes in second chances and rehabilitation through the arts, taking part in the project was an invitation he found impossible to refuse.The importance of seeing prisoners as more than their crimes has been highlighted by their role in helping to quell the huge wildfires that tore through Los Angeles last month, with inmate crews working alongside firefighters.”You have prisoners… fighting fires for people and then having to go back to prison… fighting these fires for homes that they can’t even afford,” said Quesada.”I think this film really brings to light a lot of humanity.”Taking part in “Sing Sing” was not without obstacles, especially when it came to finding time when both he and Alexander were available.”It was like we were never even in the same room to do it,” he laughed.”He came into my studio, but I was out of town, and then he left, and I came back.”Winning an Oscar would be “a great honor,” admits the guitarist.But he says it would be one shared by everyone who worked on “Sing Sing.””We believe in our song, but I think we’re part of a big picture here, which is the film’s message,” he told AFP.

Americans and Canadians are punching and booing each other in the wake of President Donald Trump’s taunts about making Canada a US state — at least on the ice hockey rink.Canadians have a long history of taking their national team hockey seriously. But with Trump goading their country and questioning its sovereignty, the temperature ahead of Thursday’s NHL Four Nations Face-Off tournament final is decidedly icy.”We hear the comments. We feel like we’re being mocked,” said Cedric Bernard, out playing recreational hockey on a Montreal rink.”Our way of honoring ourselves (as Canadians) is to win at hockey,” added Bernard, leaning on his hockey stick with pucks scattered around his skates. Canada fell short in an opening round match on Saturday, which the United States won 3-1. But both teams advanced to the final after eliminating Finland and Sweden and for Canada, the revenge match is on.The first meeting did not go smoothly.There were three fights in the first nine seconds, an emotionally charged opening that many linked to the ugly politics.The first fight was instigated by US winger Matthew Tkachuk, who made clear he did not appreciate fans in Montreal booing the American anthem, a protest that has become common at sporting events in Canada since Trump signed an executive order detailing tariffs on Canadian imports.Dan Guiry, a stand-up comic and bartender in Toronto, recalls his reaction to the mayhem at Saturday’s game, was, “You want to go to war? Let’s do this!” Guiry, 40, suggested the drama on the ice reflects the broader jolt to Canada since Trump’s election in November. Political leaders have said Trump’s trade war threats and verbal assaults on Canadian sovereignty should be a “wake up call” for a nation that had grown complacent, believing its relationship with its superpower southern neighbor would always remain stable. “We’ve got to wake the heck up as a country and as a hockey team,” Guiry said. – The Summit Series -Before Saturday’s match, a Toronto Star op-ed carried a headline that said Canada vs. the US  “is more than a game, and more political than the Summit Series ever was.”That legendary series featured eight head-to-head matches in 1972 between Canada and the Soviet Union, which had become a major hockey power — something few Canadians understood until the Soviet’s shocking 7-3 win in the first game.The series, which Canada ultimately won, was charged by Cold War tensions but there “was never really a question of whether Canada would cease to exist,” wrote Star columnist Bruce Arthur on Saturday. Today, however, “the United States has become a threat to our way of life,” Arthur wrote. “The hockey game’s big.”Serge Savard, a renowned Montreal Canadiens player and executive, was on Canada’s team in the Summit Series. And he told AFP he understands the national furor over Trump’s mockery.”When we’re told we should be the 51st state and that someone is going to annex Canada these are insulting words,” he said. But Savard criticized disrespecting the Star-Spangled Banner, saying “the flag and the anthem, regardless of the country, is something sacred.”- Staying silent -Thursday’s final is in Boston, so the 20,000-capacity arena will be packed with Americans and US team general manager Bill Guerin says he’d “love it if President Trump was in attendance.”Whether or not Trump is there, the Republican is already seeking to make inroads into Canadian politics — and ice hockey.Two of the sport’s greatest ever players, Canadians Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr have expressed support for Trump.Gretzky was at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago election victory party in November and Trump has said he encouraged Gretzky to be “governor” of an annexed US-Canadian state.Orr, who lives in the United States, publicly endorsed Trump in a full page newspaper add before the 2020 election.  Both Gretzky and Orr have not responded to Trump’s Canada mockery, earning a scathing rebuke in The Globe and Mail, days before Trump’s inauguration.Trump “is treating Canada — historic friend, great trading partner, ally in war and peace — like an enemy. Are you, our two greatest hockey legends, going to speak out and stand up for Canada, or will you remain silent?”

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a review of the department’s 2026 budget so as to reallocate $50 billion in funds, the Pentagon said Wednesday, following reports that he had directed deep, multi-year cuts to military spending.US media said Hegseth directed senior Defense Department leaders to plan for cuts that could slash the defense budget by eight percent annually, or some $290 billion within the next five years.The Pentagon did not directly deny those reports, but instead described an effort aimed at removing funding from programs favored by former president Joe Biden and using it on those advocated by his successor Donald Trump.”Secretary Hegseth has directed a review to identify offsets from the Biden administration’s FY26 budget that could be realigned from low-impact and low-priority Biden-legacy programs to align with President Trump’s America First priorities for our national defense,” Robert Salesses, performing the duties of deputy secretary of defense, said in a statement.”The department will develop a list of potential offsets that could be used to fund these priorities, as well as to refocus the department on its core mission of deterring and winning wars. The offsets are targeted at eight percent of the Biden Administration’s FY26 budget, totaling around $50 billion, which will then be spent on programs aligned with President Trump’s priorities,” the statement said.A report from the Washington Post meanwhile described a memo from Hegseth — dated Tuesday — that ordered the development of plans for eight percent to be cut from the defense budget in each of the next five years.- ‘Revive the warrior ethos’ -Hegseth’s memo said the proposed cuts must be drawn up by February 24, and include 17 categories that Trump wants exempted, including operations at the US border with Mexico and modernization of nuclear weapons and missile defense, the newspaper reported.It also called for funding for Indo-Pacific Command and Space Command, but did not do so for others such as European Command, which has led the way on US strategy throughout the war in Ukraine, the Post reported.The Defense Department “must act urgently to revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and reestablish deterrence,” Hegseth wrote in the memo, according to the Post. “Our budget will resource the fighting force we need, cease unnecessary defense spending, reject excessive bureaucracy, and drive actionable reform including progress on the audit,” he reportedly continued.The Pentagon’s budget for 2025 is some $850 billion and the cuts described in the memo, if implemented in full, would reduce that figure by tens of billions each year to some $560 billion by the end of the five years.Trump has vowed to slash government spending, and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — which is tasked with carrying out that effort — reportedly visited the Pentagon last week.Hegseth signaled support for DOGE’s work at the Pentagon in a Tuesday post on X: “Let’s get to work. DOGE the waste; Double-Down on warriors,” he wrote.

The US government on Wednesday moved to kill New York’s nascent congestion pricing scheme designed to ease traffic and finance public transport by imposing tolls on drivers in Manhattan — a first-in-the-nation plan President Donald Trump had vowed to quash. The $9 daytime toll for motorists entering areas of Manhattan south of Central Park was introduced in early January after being approved at the last minute before the inauguration of the Republican president — a native New Yorker.  In a letter to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy terminated approval for the pilot program, sparking an immediate backlash from city officials. “New York State’s congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” Duffy said, according to a statement. He criticised the program for funding public transit over roads and accused it of hurting small businesses and commercial flows into the United States’ largest city. Trump celebrated the move on his Truth Social network, posting: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” Hochul hit back, posting on X her support of the program, saying it was proving a success and gaining backers “every day”.”We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king,” she wrote. “We’ll see you in court.” In a press conference, she said the move was “an attack on our sovereignty and independence from Washington.”The city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority quickly filed a lawsuit to challenge the order.  “The MTA filed papers in federal court to ensure that the highly successful program — which has already dramatically reduced congestion, bringing reduced traffic and faster travel times,  while increasing speeds for buses and emergency vehicles — will continue notwithstanding this baseless effort to snatch those benefits away,” CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement.At the time the toll went into effect, some 700,000 vehicles entered the congestion zone every day, and gridlock meant cars could travel just seven miles per hour (11 kilometers per hour) on average, according to officials. The congestion pricing plan also aimed to combat air pollution. Environmental non-governmental group Evergreen Action criticized the Trump administration action as a “reckless, illegal move to dismantle critical climate and economic policies.”Similar driver-tolling schemes have been operated for years in other megacities, including London and Stockholm, but opposition and legal challenges ahead of implementation in New York highlighted the difficulty of charging drivers in a country where the car is king.

US President Donald Trump’s decision to designate eight Latin American drug trafficking groups as “terrorist” organizations has raised speculation about possible military action on foreign soil.What are the ramifications of the order targeting six Mexican drug cartels, Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and Mara Salvatrucha, the street gang with close links to Central America?- Is military intervention likely? -The cartels’ designation as terrorist groups “means they’re eligible for drone strikes” wrote tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been given a prominent role in the Trump administration, on his social media platform X.Experts, however, said that bombing Mexican cartels or sending troops over the border still appeared unlikely, although Trump’s unpredictability makes it impossible to completely rule out.The idea “used to be something that was found in a niche, very much on the fringes, and now it is at the center of the discussion,” said Cecilia Farfan-Mendez, an analyst at the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.Trump’s negotiating style is to push his counterparts to the “extreme,” said Steven Dudley, co-director of the InSight Crime think tank.”The extreme is military invasion, of course, so what he’s looking for is middle ground,” Dudley said.Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert at the Washington-based Brookings Institute, believes that unilateral US military strikes against the cartels would risk dealing “a tremendous setback” to the fight against fentanyl smuggling.”Mexico would consider this act an invasion, and whatever law enforcement cooperation that does exist would grind to a halt,” she wrote in an article for Foreign Affairs magazine.- Will it reduce fentanyl trafficking? -The strength of fentanyl means that both its ingredients and pills can be transported in tiny quantities and still be profitable, according to experts.”You don’t need a truck, a boat, a plane, you need human beings,” and the millions of people crossing the Mexican-US border every day make it “impossible” to control smuggling, Dudley said.Farfan-Mendez said that Trump’s strategy, focused on blaming and coercing Mexico, avoids addressing fentanyl as a health crisis that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year.”If the goal is to prevent these deaths, this designation is not going to save more lives. It requires a public health policy,” she said.Felbab-Brown said that asking Mexico to completely halt the influx of fentanyl into the United States was “an unachievable demand.”  – Will it enable US to dismantle cartels? -According to Trump’s executive order, it is US policy “to ensure the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States through their extraterritorial command-and-control structures.”Dudley doubts that the cartels can be eliminated, either by deploying more troops on the ground or by using legal tools, because they are “sophisticated and very dispersed” organizations, capable of quickly recomposing.”It cannot be solved by capturing a single person… or by dismantling an entire organization,” he said.According to Felbab-Brown, unilateral US military strikes “would almost certainly fail to destroy the cartels.”Replacements for leaders who were killed would be quickly found and the cartels “have repeatedly demonstrated a capacity to re-create damaged drug labs within days,” she added.- What are the risks for US companies? -The designation “theoretically allows US authorities to impose penalties on entities and individuals that provide material support to cartels, including companies paying extortion fees under duress,” according to the Mexican political risk consultancy EMPRA.According to Dudley, the broad legal scope of the decree means that “in the hands of irresponsible authorities” it could be “extremely dangerous.”If the Mexican subsidiary of a US company pays extortion to a cartel, the parent company could be accused of “material support” for terrorism, he said.”Providing even a pencil, a toy, or a cup of coffee can trigger severe criminal and financial penalties,” Felbab-Brown said.