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Two men convicted of murder, including one who has spent more than 25 years on Death Row, are to be executed by lethal injection in the southern US states of Florida and Texas on Thursday.James Ford, 64, was sentenced to death in Florida in 1999 for the 1997 murders of Greg Malnory, 25, and his wife, Kimberly, 26, two coworkers at a turf farm in the town of Punta Gorda.Richard Tabler, 46, is scheduled to die for the 2004 murders of a strip club owner, Mohamed Amine Rahmouni, and another man, Haitham Zayed, in the city of Killeen, Texas.Tabler also confessed to killing two teenage dancers at the club, aged 16 and 18, but was never tried for their deaths.According to court documents, Ford, the Florida Death Row inmate, shot Greg Malnory in the head and slit his throat. His wife was raped, bludgeoned and shot.Their bodies were discovered by an employee of the sod farm the next day.The couple’s 22-month-old daughter spent more than 18 hours strapped in a car seat in their pickup truck before being found. She was covered in mosquito bites and her mother’s blood, according to court documents.Ford was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, rape and child abuse.Ford’s attorneys sought to halt his execution on the grounds that although he was 36 years old at the time of the murders he had the mental and developmental age of a 14-year-old.A 2005 US Supreme Court decision barred the execution of persons who were under the age of 18 when they committed their crimes.The Florida Supreme Court rejected Ford’s argument last week and he filed a last-ditch appeal with the US Supreme Court, which denied his application for a stay of execution without comment.Tabler, the Texas inmate, has abandoned his appeals against the death sentence.There have been three executions in the United States this year — one in Alabama, one in South Carolina and one in Texas.There were 25 executions in the country last year.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the country’s 50 states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.Three states — Arizona, Ohio and Tennessee — that had paused executions have recently announced plans to resume them. President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in the White House he called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

Mexico on Thursday threatened to sue Google over its changing the Gulf of Mexico’s name to “Gulf of America” for Maps users in the United States to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order.”We do have a dispute with Google at the moment,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said at her morning news conference. “And if necessary, we will file a civil suit.”Trump signed executive orders renaming the Gulf of Mexico and reverting the name of North America’s highest peak, Denali, back to Mount McKinley soon after his January 20 inauguration.Sheinbaum argued that Trump’s order referred only to the part of the continental shelf belonging to the United States.”What we are saying to Google is: check the order that was issued by the White House and signed by President Trump. You will see that it does not refer to the entire Gulf, but to the continental shelf,” she said.Sheinbaum said Google had maintained its position even after her government sent it a letter objecting to the renaming.”If they continue to insist, we will too,” she added.”We are even thinking of a lawsuit, because they are even naming Mexican territory, which is our continental shelf,” she said.In response to Trump, Sheinbaum has cheekily suggested calling the United States “Mexican America,” pointing to a map dating back to before 1848, when one-third of her country was seized by the United States.Google, which is part of tech giant Alphabet, said users of its Maps app outside the United States would continue to see both the original and new name for the Gulf of Mexico, as is the case for other disputed locations.”People using Maps in the US will see ‘Gulf of America,’ and people in Mexico will see ‘Gulf of Mexico.’ Everyone else will see both names,” the company said.Apple has also renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” for US users of its mapping application to comply with Trump’s order.Trump’s renamings also sparked criticism from Indigenous groups in Alaska, who have long advocated for maintaining the Denali name.

The US State Department backtracked Thursday on a document saying it would award $400 million for electric armored cars by Tesla, whose chief Elon Musk has been aggressively slashing government spending on behalf of President Donald Trump.Despite the denial, the share price of Tesla, the main source of the fortune of the world’s richest person Musk, was up more than four percent in morning tade, well outpacing the broader market.A State Department forecast on procurements, published regularly for years as part of transparency efforts, said it expected to buy the Tesla armored vehicles over five years for use by US embassies.After several media outlets reported on a Tesla contract, the language on the online document was altered to read simply “armored electric vehicles” without specifying the automaker.The State Department said the mention of Tesla was in error as it had been the only company that had responded to an initial public message to solicit interest, which takes place before the actual bid.”No government contract has been awarded to Tesla or any other vehicle manufacturer to produce armored electric vehicles for the Department of State,” a department spokesperson said.”The solicitation is on hold and there are no current plans to issue it.”Musk also walked back on Tesla winning the contract, or at least all of it, writing on X, the social media platform he owns: “I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400M. No one mentioned it to me, at least.”The push for electric vehicles, including for the US government, was initiated under former president Joe Biden, with the original document indicating a purchase from Tesla dating from December.Despite his friendship with Musk, Trump has vowed to roll back Biden’s efforts to transition to electric cars and his other initiatives to fight climate change.Musk has been aggressively seeking to scale down spending as head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, including by putting on leave virtually the whole staff of the US agency in charge of international aid.

US President Donald Trump said that he would announce “reciprocal tariffs” on trading partners Thursday, opening new fronts in a trade war economists warn could fuel inflation at home.Trump has announced a broad range of tariffs targeting some of the biggest US trading partners since taking office, arguing that they would help tackle unfair practices — and in some cases using the threats to influence policy.He has referred to tariffs as a way to raise revenue, remedy trade imbalances and pressure countries to act on US concerns.On Thursday, the president said he would hold a news conference on reciprocal tariffs at the White House at 1:00 pm local time (1800 GMT).”Three great weeks, perhaps the best ever, but today is the big one: reciprocal tariffs!!! Make America great again!!!” Trump wrote in all capital letters on his Truth Social platform.The move is expected to match the United States’ tariff rates on imports to levels that other countries impose on US goods.Trump’s announcement came hours before he was due to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington.But it was unclear when the tariffs would take effect, if imposed.Analysts have warned that reciprocal duties could bring a broad tariff hike to emerging market economies such as India and Thailand, which tend to have higher effective tariff rates on US products.Countries such as South Korea that have trade deals with Washington are less at risk from this move, analysts believe.- Inflation concerns -Cost-of-living pressures were a key issue in the November election that saw Trump sweep to power, and the Republican has promised to swiftly reduce prices.But economists caution that sweeping tariffs on US imports would likely boost inflation, not reduce it, in the near term and could weigh on growth eventually.Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, however, has pushed back on the idea that duties would cause widespread inflation, even as certain costs might rise.Another lingering question is whether the Trump administration would take aim at issues like value-added taxes (VATs) using reciprocal tariffs.Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller previously said countries use the VAT to get an unfair trade advantage, although analysts have challenged this characterization.During election campaigning, Trump promised: “An eye for an eye, a tariff for a tariff, same exact amount.”For example, if India imposes a 25-percent tariff on US autos, Washington will have a 25-percent tariff as well on imports of autos from India, explained a Nomura report this week.Modi will hold talks with Trump on Thursday and New Delhi offered some quick tariff concessions ahead of his visit, including on high-end motorcycles.”Trump’s objective of implementing reciprocal tariffs is to ensure fair treatment for US exports, which could indirectly also address US trade imbalances with partner countries,” analysts at Nomura said.Among Asian economies, India has a 9.5-percent weighted average effective tariff on US exports, while there is a three-percent rate on India’s exports to the United States.Thailand has a 6.2-percent rate and China a 7.1-percent rate on US products, Nomura noted.Higher tariffs are often imposed by poorer countries, who use them as a tool for revenue and protection because they have fewer resources to impose non-tariff barriers, Cato Institute’s Scott Lincicome earlier told AFP.It is unclear if Trump views reciprocal tariffs as an alternative to a universal tariff of at least 10 percent, which he floated in the lead-up to last year’s presidential election, or as a separate policy.

The Republican-controlled US Senate approved Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary Thursday, disregarding alarm from the medical community over his history of promoting vaccine misinformation and denying scientific facts.Known widely as “RFK Jr,” the 71-year-old nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy secured the nomination by a vote of 52-48, becoming the latest contentious addition to President Donald Trump’s cabinet.Former Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell voted no, standing as the sole Republican dissenter.Kennedy now leads a department overseeing more than 80,000 employees and a $1.7 trillion budget, just as scientists warn of the growing threat of bird flu triggering a human pandemic, while declining vaccination rates mean once vanquished childhood diseases are re-emerging.He was previously an environmental lawyer who sued chemical giant Monsanto and accused climate-change deniers of being traitors.But he has spent much of the past two decades touting conspiracy theories from linking childhood vaccines to autism and suggesting the Covid virus spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, to casting doubt on whether germs cause infectious diseases.Yet it was his shift toward Republican positions — particularly on abortion, which he once supported but has since signaled a willingness to further restrict — that ultimately won over conservative lawmakers wary of his past.During heated confirmation hearings, Democrats pointed to what they called glaring conflicts of interest in Kennedy’s financial filings: lucrative consulting fees from law firms suing pharmaceutical companies.They also called attention to allegations of sexual misconduct and his claims linking school shootings to antidepressants.- Make America Healthy Again -Kennedy found steadier footing when promoting his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda — a play on Trump’s signature slogan — emphasizing the need to combat the nation’s chronic disease crisis by holding the food industry more accountable.Such ideas have cross-party resonance, though experts question how he will implement them, given his troubled relationship with science-based evidence.Kennedy initially launched an independent bid in the 2024 presidential election, making news with a string of bizarre revelations.Among them was his claim of recovering from a parasitic brain worm, and his daughter’s story about him using a chainsaw to decapitate a dead whale.Last year, 77 Nobel Prize winners penned an open letter to the Senate opposing his nomination, warning that his confirmation could put public health “in jeopardy.” He was also widely opposed by his own family, with his cousin Caroline Kennedy, a former diplomat, recently accusing him of being a “predator” who led younger relatives down the path of drug addiction.- ‘Disaster waiting to happen’ -“He’s a frightening man, a dangerous man, and I think he’ll do harm,” Paul Offit, a leading vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia told AFP. “It is a disaster waiting to happen, and it will happen.”Critics have accused Republican senators of looking the other way.”They are choosing to pretend like it is in any way believable that RFK Jr. won’t use his new power to do exactly the thing he has been trying to do for decades — undermine vaccines,” said Democratic Senator Patty Murray.Nothing prevents Kennedy from dismissing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory committee, which determines which vaccines must be covered by insurance, she added.Kennedy has also vowed to gut the Food and Drug Administration and suspend research on infectious diseases.The Senate has approved all Trump’s cabinet picks to date.Just one day prior, lawmakers gave the green light to Tulsi Gabbard as Trump’s pick to oversee US intelligence services, despite criticism over her limited background and past support for adversarial nations such as Russia and Syria. Gabbard’s confirmation is viewed as yet another testament to Trump’s firm grip on his party, following a slate of controversial cabinet nominees — among them a defense secretary accused of sexual assault and an FBI chief allegedly driven by political vendettas.

US President Donald Trump’s pick for education secretary, Linda McMahon, testified Thursday before a US Senate committee, decrying an “excessive consolidation of power” in the department she has been named to lead.”Our wounds are caused by the excessive consolidation of power in our federal education establishment,” said McMahon, a 76-year-old businesswoman, during her testimony before the committee tasked to overview education issues.”So what’s the remedy? Fund education freedom, not government,” she said.On the campaign trail, Trump promised to shutter the federal education department, saying he would devolve its powers to state governments.McMahon is the former head of the wildly popular WWE wrestling league and also served in Trump’s first term government, that time as the chief of the Small Business Administration. Trump’s threat to shut down the education department has angered Democrats, teachers’ unions and many parents, who see it as an attack on the public education system.Underscoring his intention, the Republican president had earlier directed McMahon to “put herself out of a job.” Conservative groups, on the other hand, hail it as a long-overdue measure to reassert local control over American classrooms. But they acknowledge that the task of winding down the vast department will not be easy. At the hearing, Senator Bernie Sanders said the department was “providing vital resources for 26 million children in this country who live in high-poverty school districts.”He asserted it was “the responsibility of the federal government to say that every kid in America, whether you’re poor, middle class, rich, gets a quality education.”McMahon, a major donor to the Republican Party, has financially backed Trump’s political career since 2016.She is married to Vince McMahon, also a powerful figure at the WWE, a wrestling empire that was founded in the 1950s and combines scripted combat with stunning stunt work and soap-opera-esque storylines. Linda McMahon became its president in 1993 and CEO in 1997, before resigning in 2009 to try her luck in politics. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been largely shunned by the West since his troops attacked Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. That era of isolation came to an abrupt end on Wednesday, when US President Donald Trump picked up the phone. The call between the two men — which the Kremlin said lasted almost an hour and a half — triggered concern in Ukraine and Europe, but has energised the ex-KGB spy, who has had almost no direct contact with his Western counterparts over the last three years.Horrified at the devastation caused by Russia’s military campaign on Ukraine, the West hit Putin with sanctions, while the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest.Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden called him a “crazy dictator,” “pariah around the world,” and “crazy SOB.”The long-awaited call with Trump shows how quickly the situation is now changing for Putin — after three long years of being labelled a bete noire.”Putin’s patience has paid off,” Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said.- ‘Work together’ -The call is likely just the first step in Putin emerging from the shadow of isolation.In its readout, the Kremlin said Putin and Trump believed “it was time our countries worked together.”Putin invited Trump to Moscow, while the US leader said the pair will meet face-to-face in Saudi Arabia — without giving a time — and that talks on a Ukraine settlement should start immediately.”He (Putin) sees it as a window of opportunity that needs to be used and to get as much as possible,” Stanovaya said.However, the analyst is “sceptical” the talks will lead to any real results because of Putin’s “hardline” stance. “He (Putin) has not changed his position: Ukraine should become a friendly country to Russia, with ironclad guarantees,” she added. The Kremlin leader, in power for 25 years, is “completely ready” for the talks to fail and is still intent on achieving Ukraine’s “capitulation” — with or without Trump.”Trump is not a panacea for Putin. In his military logic, he thinks he can achieve his goals in Ukraine without Trump,” Stanovaya said. – ‘Not a punishment’ -While Russia has spent three years telling its people and the world that it does not need contact with the West, Russian officials revelled in the symbolism of the call.”It shows the abnormality of those years that we went through under the Biden administration,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday. Putin has acknowledged the toll the conflict has taken on him personally.”These three years were a serious challenge for all of us and for me,” the 71-year-old said in December, referring to the Ukraine conflict in general.Russian political experts said he wants to be back in the fold, holding talks with the US leader.”There is a lot of euphoria and emotion in Russia now because it looks as if Putin already won, Trump legitimised him as a respected partner and Ukraine lost,” analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP. But there were also calls for caution. “Negotiations are only just starting. We don’t know what Trump plan looks like,” Kalachev said. “Of course, the Kremlin hopes that, with the help of Trump, the West will change so much that it can welcome Putin again,” Kalachev said. Trump said during the call the pair had even discussed joint US-Soviet efforts during World War II.That prompted speculation the US leader could attend Moscow’s ultra-patriotic May 9 military parade — a hitherto unthinkable prospect for a Western leader amid Russia’s campaign in Ukraine.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Trump would be welcome at the event, as would other Western leaders.Stanovaya said she “can imagine that Trump will come to Moscow. But it is still too early to talk about it.””That is possible in the event that there will be a breakthrough in talks.” 

US President Donald Trump has threatened to broaden his trade war by unveiling reciprocal tariffs Thursday, the latest among sweeping measures targeting allies and competitors alike.Trump’s fresh salvo, which he said would hit “every country,” could bring a broad tariff hike on emerging market economies and add to inflation fears domestically, analysts warn.- What are reciprocal tariffs? -Tariffs are taxes imposed on goods imported from another country.As for reciprocal tariffs — during election campaigning, Trump promised: “An eye for an eye, a tariff for a tariff, same exact amount.””Every country will be reciprocal,” Trump said Sunday. He was due to hold a news conference offering more details on Thursday afternoon.Analysts expect reciprocal tariffs mean hiking rates on imports to match the level that other countries apply to US products.Matching this based on specific products would likely raise the United States’ average tariff rate by around two percentage points, said Goldman Sachs analysts in a recent note. Doing so to match the average tariff imposed by countries raises the US rate by a smaller amount, the note added.But taking a product-focused approach has its complexities.While Washington has relatively low average tariffs at a 2.7 percent rate in 2022, it has higher rates in “very politically sensitive” areas such as apparel, sugar and pick-up trucks, said Cato Institute’s Scott Lincicome.Similarly, including non-tariff barriers like regulations in the calculus would add to complications.- Who will be impacted? -Reciprocal tariffs may open the door to “a broad tariff hike” on emerging market economies who have high duties on US products, JPMorgan analysts expect.If officials go by average tariff rates applied on all products, countries like India or Thailand — which tax imports at higher average rates than the United States does — could be more affected.Trump has previously slammed India as a “very big abuser” on trade and this week, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC that India had high tariffs that lock out imports.Lincicome cautioned that high tariffs are often also imposed by poorer countries, who use them as a tool for revenue and protection as they have fewer resources to impose non-tariff barriers like regulatory protectionism.Goldman Sachs estimates that “there should be no effect on countries with free trade agreements like Mexico, Canada, and (South) Korea, limiting the overall impact” if Washington took a country-based approach to reciprocal tariffs.- What are the complications? -It remains unclear if Trump views reciprocal tariffs as an alternative to a universal tariff of between 10 and 20 percent that he floated on the campaign trail — or a separate policy.One risk is that the Trump administration could use “reciprocal tariffs” to address non-tariff issues, said Goldman Sachs in a note. In particular, he could consider value-added taxes (VATs) when deciding how much to adjust tariffs. Doing so stands to raise the average effective tariff rate by another 10 percentage points, Goldman analysts added.Such a move might also be a response to high European Union VATs, JPMorgan said.- What is the goal? -“One of the objectives is to create uncertainty as a negotiating tactic, but uncertainty is a tax on doing business,” Jeffrey Schott, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, earlier told AFP.Unpredictability surrounding tariffs, retaliation and non-trade issues all contribute to a situation that weighs on US and foreign firms, he said.In the case of allies like Europe, Schott said, US objectives in negotiation could involve “economic and geopolitical priorities, including Ukraine.”They could include finding a better resolution of the situation in Ukraine, which has been fighting off a Russian invasion since 2022, but also to expand US exports in key sectors like liquefied natural gas (LNG).- Two-way street? -When it comes to its average general tariff rate, the United States stands around the middle among wealthy, industrialized countries, said Cato’s Lincicome.”Should Trump’s system be based on average tariff rates, then ‘true’ reciprocity would require US tariff rate reductions on goods from dozens of countries,” he added in a recent report.

Blindsided Europeans warned Thursday that a “dirty deal” between US President Donald Trump and Moscow on ending the Ukraine war was doomed to fail — insisting they and Kyiv must have a seat at the negotiating table.Meeting NATO partners the day after Trump revealed he had agreed to start peace talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth denied it meant a betrayal of Kyiv’s three-year war effort.But Trump’s move stunned European allies — several of whom openly called his strategy into question.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected any “dictated peace” and his defence minister called it “regrettable” that Washington was already making “concessions” to the Kremlin. In a blunt address to reporters at NATO talks in Brussels, EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas insisted that no deal “behind our backs” could work, as she accused Washington of “appeasement” towards Russia.”We shouldn’t take anything off the table before the negotiations have even started because it plays to Russia’s court and it is what they want,” she said. “Any quick fix is a dirty deal,” she said. “It will just simply not work.”- ‘No betrayal’ -After a 90-minute phone call with Putin, his first since returning to power, Trump said he expected to meet the Russian leader in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace talks — sparking fears Kyiv would be frozen out.That came after his administration poured cold water on Ukraine’s goals of reclaiming all its territory and pushing to join NATO’s protective umbrella.”There is no betrayal there. There is a recognition that the whole world and the United States is invested and interested in peace,” Hegseth said at NATO. “That will require both sides recognising things they don’t want to,” added the US Defense Secretary. Trump, who has been pushing for a quick end to the war, denied that Ukraine was being excluded from direct negotiations between the two nuclear-armed superpowers.The Kremlin said both leaders had agreed the “time has come to work together,” insisting it wanted to organise a face-to-face meeting promptly and that broader European security should be on the agenda.  After speaking to Putin, the US president called Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and shared details of his talks with the Kremlin leader.Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov told Kyiv’s NATO backers “we’re continuing, we’re strong, we’re capable, we’re able, we will deliver”.Zelensky is set to meet US Vice President JD Vance at a security conference in Munich on Friday to kick off negotiations.It will be the latest in a flurry of high-level meetings after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held talks in Kyiv on Wednesday on granting Washington access to Ukraine’s rare earth deposits in return for security support. – ‘Overwhelming share’ -Trump’s outreach to Putin had been broadly expected, but the quick pace of his peace push has left heads spinning after three years of staunch Western support for Kyiv. Kyiv’s European backers are terrified that Trump could force Ukraine into a bad peace deal that will leave them facing an emboldened Putin — while fronting the lion’s share of costs for post-war security.Hegseth Wednesday laid out a string of US expectations to halt the conflict, saying it was not realistic for Ukraine to regain all its land or become a NATO member.He also said Europe must now start providing the “overwhelming share” of aid to Ukraine and that the United States would not deploy troops as a security guarantee under any deal. In a statement on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of key European powers including Germany, France, Poland and Britain said “Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.”Throughout Russia’s war on Ukraine since 2022 it has been a mantra for Western powers that there should be no decisions taken on Ukraine’s future without Kyiv.NATO chief Mark Rutte on Thursday said it was crucial that Kyiv was “closely involved” in any talks about what happens in Ukraine. Britain’s defence minister John Healey echoed that message.”There can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine, and Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks,” he said.Rutte insisted that any potential peace deal had to be “enduring”, pointing to similar comments made earlier by Hegseth. Russia’s ally China meanwhile said it was “happy” to see the United States and Russia “strengthen communication”. 

Once shunned and now eagerly courted by the West, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stood by Donald Trump’s side at a huge rally and also been lauded by the US president as a “total killer”.Modi’s political ascent was marred by allegations of his culpability in India’s worst religious riots this century, and his tenure has dovetailed with rising hostility towards Muslims and other minorities.Supporters revere Modi’s tough-guy persona, burnished by his image as a steward of India’s Hindu majority faith and myth-making that played up his modest roots.”They dislike me because of my humble origins,” he said in rallies ahead of 2019 elections, lambasting his opponents.”Yes, a person belonging to a poor family has become prime minister. They do not fail to hide their contempt for this fact.”Modi was born in 1950 in the western state of Gujarat, the third of six children whose father sold tea at a railway station.He was an average student but his gift for rousing oratory was first seen as a keen member of a school debate club and his participation in theatrical performances.The seeds of his political destiny were sown at the age of eight when he joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a hardline nationalist group.Modi dedicated himself to its cause of promoting Hindu supremacy in constitutionally secular India, even walking out of his arranged marriage soon after his wedding at the age of 18. Remaining with his wife — whom he never officially divorced — would have hampered his advancement through the ranks of the RSS, which expected senior cadres to stay celibate.- Deadly riots -The RSS groomed Modi for a career in its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which grew into a major force through the 1990s. He was appointed chief minister of Gujarat in 2001 but the state was rocked by sectarian riots the following year, sparked by a fire that killed dozens of Hindu pilgrims.At least 1,000 people were killed in the ensuing violence, most of the victims Muslims.Modi was accused of both helping stir up the unrest and failing to order a police intervention.He later told a BBC reporter that his main weakness in responding to the riots was not knowing “how to handle the media”.A probe by India’s top court eventually said there was no evidence to prosecute Modi, but the international fallout saw him banned from entering the United States and Britain for years.However, it was a testament to India’s changing political tides that his popularity only grew at home.He built a reputation as a leader ready to assert the interests of Hindus, who he contended had been held back by the secularist forces that ruled India almost continuously since independence from Britain. – ‘Friend of mine’ -Critics have sounded the alarm over a spate of prosecutions directed at Modi’s political rivals and the taming of a once-vibrant press.India’s Muslim community of more than 200 million people is also increasingly anxious about its future.Modi’s rise to the premiership was followed by a spate of lynchings targeting Muslims for the slaughter of cows, a sacred animal in the Hindu tradition.But Western democracies have sidestepped rights concerns in the hopes of cultivating a regional ally that can help check China’s assertiveness.He has taken credit for India’s rising diplomatic and economic clout, claiming that the country has become a “vishwaguru” — a teacher to the world — under his watch.He is now looking to rekindle his cosy friendship with Trump when he meets the US president at the White House on Thursday.Modi assiduously courted Trump during his first term and the two share much in common.Both campaigned on promises to promote the interests of their countries’ majority communities over minorities and both pursue critics doggedly.The pair heaped praise on each other in a joint appearance at a stadium in Houston in 2019, touting a close, personal alliance in front of tens of thousands of Indian-Americans.Some 50,000 people attended the event — dubbed “Howdy, Modi!” — and it was billed as the largest gathering by a foreign leader in the United States other than the pope.The following year Modi invited Trump before a cheering crowd of more than 100,000 people to inaugurate the world’s largest cricket stadium in his home state of Gujarat.Modi also took Trump and wife Melania on a guided visit of independence hero Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram.”He’s great. He’s a friend of mine,” Trump told a podcast hosted by stand-up comedian Andrew Schultz last year.”On the outside he looks like he’s your father. He’s the nicest. Total killer.”