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The United States on Thursday sanctioned the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court over the ICC’s investigations targeting US personnel as well as alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza.The US Treasury Department said in a statement that it had imposed sanctions against Karim Khan in response to President Donald Trump’s February 6 executive order, which called for him to be sanctioned.The ICC has been investigating Israel’s conduct during its war against Hamas in Gaza, launched in response to the Palestinian militant group’s deadly October 7, 2023 attacks. Khan, who is a British national, was responsible for the request that led the ICC to issue arrest warrants late last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant. The court said it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare during the Gaza conflict, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.Alongside its probe into Israel, the ICC has also been investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity alleged to have been carried out during the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021.In his executive order, Trump accused the ICC of engaging in “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the United States and its ally Israel — neither of which are ICC members.Trump added that the Hague-based court had “abused its power by issuing baseless arrest warrants” targeting Netanyahu and Gallant, and he ordered asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their family members.The ICC condemned Trump’s executive order, which it said sought to “harm its independent and impartial judicial work.”This is not the first time Trump has targeted ICC officials: During his first term, he imposed financial sanctions and a visa ban on the ICC’s then-prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and other senior officials.Joe Biden lifted those sanctions soon after he became president in 2021.

US President Donald Trump inked plans Thursday for sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” hitting both allies and competitors, in a dramatic escalation of an international trade war that economists warn could fuel inflation at home.Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said he had decided to impose the reciprocal duties, telling reporters that US allies were often “worse than our enemies” on trade issues.The levies would be tailored to each US trading partner and consider non-tariff factors including value-added tax (VAT).”Major exporting nations of the world attack our markets with punishing tariffs and even more punishing non-tariff barriers,” Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro told reporters, taking aim at the European Union in particular over VAT.Washington will start by examining economies with which the United States has its biggest deficits or “most egregious issues,” said a White House official.”This should be a matter of weeks, in a few months, but not much longer than that,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.Trump acknowledged Thursday that US prices “could go up” due to tariffs, but he expressed confidence that they would ultimately ease.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.The president has referred to tariffs as a way to raise revenue, remedy trade imbalances and pressure countries to act on US concerns.The White House official said Thursday that the United States has been “treated unfairly,” saying a lack of reciprocity is a reason behind the country’s “persistent annual trade deficit in goods.”With the memo Trump signed on Thursday, the US Trade Representative, commerce secretary and other officials will work to propose remedies on a country-by-country basis.Trump’s announcement came hours before he was due to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington.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 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.The consideration of non-tariff factors might shift this calculus.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.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was meeting Donald Trump and Elon Musk in Washington Thursday, as he seeks to rekindle his bromance with the US president and avoid his wrath on tariffs and trade.White House officials said Trump and Modi would be aiming for a “fair” trade deal between their countries — a long-sought goal — this year, as well as a new defense partnership and military sales.Modi said he had first held a “very good” one-on-one meeting with tech billionaire Musk, who has launched an aggressive effort as Trump’s right-hand man to overhaul the federal bureaucracy.The Indian premier posted pictures of himself shaking hands with the beaming SpaceX and Tesla tycoon in front of US and Indian flags, with several children on Musk’s side of the room, and Indian officials on the other.”We discussed various issues, including those he is passionate about such as space, mobility, technology and innovation,” Modi said on Musk’s X social network, adding that he had spoken about “India’s efforts towards reform.”Modi will later meet Trump in the Oval Office before they hold a joint press conference — a rare move from the Indian leader, who is a prolific social media user but seldom takes questions from reporters.”There’s a lot of natural warmth dating back to President Trump’s first term,” a senior Trump administration official said.But the official said that while there was “early body language from the government of India that has been well received,” they were “modest steps” and there remained “a lot more work to do.”So far Modi has offered quick tariff concessions ahead of his visit, with New Delhi slashing duties on high-end motorcycles — a boost to Harley-Davidson, the iconic US manufacturer whose struggles in India have irked Trump.The two leaders would make a further push towards a trade deal with a hope to have it in place sometime this year, the official added.US officials said it would be up to Trump to talk about any possible tariffs on India. The United States had a $45.6 billion trade deficit with India in 2024, according to US figures.- ‘Trump’s anger’ -India has already accepted a US military flight carrying 100 shackled migrants last week as part of Trump’s immigration overhaul, and New Delhi has vowed its own “strong crackdown” on illegal migration.For nearly three decades, US presidents from both parties have prioritized building ties with India, seeing a natural partner against a rising China.But Trump has also raged against India over trade, the biggest foreign policy preoccupation of his new term, in the past calling the world’s fifth-largest economy the “biggest tariff abuser.”Former property tycoon Trump has unapologetically weaponized tariffs against friends and foes since his return.Modi “has prepared for this, and he is seeking to preempt Trump’s anger,” said Lisa Curtis, the National Security Council director on South Asia during Trump’s first term.One thing Modi is set to avoid, however, is official US scrutiny of his record on the rights of Muslims and other minorities. Trump is unlikely to highlight an issue on which former president Joe Biden’s administration offered gentle critiques.Modi is the fourth world leader to visit Trump since his return, following the prime ministers of Israel and Japan, and the king of Jordan.The Indian prime minister assiduously courted Trump during his first term.The two share much in common, with both campaigning on promises to promote majority communities over minorities and both doggedly quashing dissent.In 2020, 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.Trump could visit India later this year for a summit of the Quad — a four-way grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the United States.burs-dk/aha

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.”