AFP USA

Ever since his political rise a decade ago, Donald Trump has sung the praises of Vladimir Putin — the Russian president was a “strong leader” who, perhaps more important, would often say “very good things” about him.With his announcement Monday of new arms for Ukraine via Europe and tariff threats on Russia, Trump’s bromance with Putin has hit a new low — but it may not have run its course.Trump, who had vowed to end the Ukraine war within a day of returning to the White House, said he was “disappointed” in Putin, who has kept attacking Ukraine as if the leaders’ telephone conversations “didn’t mean anything.””I go home, I tell the first lady, ‘You know, I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation. She said, ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit.'””I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy. It’s been proven over the years. He’s fooled a lot of people,” Trump said.Trump quickly rejected that he was among those fooled and again insisted that the 2022 invasion of Ukraine was the fault of his predecessor Joe Biden, who championed a hard line on Russia.Brandishing his favorite weapon, Trump gave Russia 50 days to comply before facing 100 percent tariffs on countries that purchase from Russia, but stopped short of backing a bill before Congress for up to 500 percent tariffs.Russia’s own trade with the United States has slowed down a trickle.Trump had “promised that he could get Putin to the negotiating table, and he has failed to do that,” said Heather Conley, a former State Department policymaker on Russia now at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.His tariff threat “shows frustration that he has failed to do it, but I don’t see it as a big policy change,” she said.- The great deal-maker? -Trump stunned European allies on February 28 when he publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, telling him he was ungrateful for billions of dollars in weapons under Biden. Trump then briefly held up new military and intelligence.For the US president, a transactional-minded businessman, Putin committed a key offense — undermining Trump’s self-image as a deal-maker.”For six months, President Trump tried to entice Putin to the table. The attacks have gone up, not down,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally who has led the push for tough new sanctions on Russia, told CBS News show “Face The Nation.””One of the biggest miscalculations Putin has made is to play Trump,” Graham said.Yet Trump has repeatedly shown a willingness to trust Putin, despite firm warnings from within the US government.Most famously, he sided with Putin over US intelligence at a 2018 news conference after they met in Helsinki after the Russian president denied meddling to support Trump in his first election.For observers of Putin, the longest-serving leader in Moscow since Stalin, there was never much chance he would accept compromise on Ukraine or work with the West.Putin has rued the demise of Russia’s influence with the fall of the Soviet Union as a historic calamity and rejected the idea that Ukraine has its own historical identity.With Russia making small but steady gains on the battlefield and bringing in North Korean troops, Putin has put his entire country on war footing, Conley said.”The Kremlin has thrown everything into this,” she said.”President Putin believes that this is just going to be a slow erosion of Ukraine’s position and the West’s position, and he will win this conflict on its own merits,” she said.Mark Montgomery, a retired US rear admiral and Senate policy aide, said Putin believed in what has been referred to as TACO — Trump Always Chickens Out.Putin “thought he could take it to the limit each time, and he found out he was wrong,” said Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish research group.”I don’t think this stops until Putin feels either weapons system pain or economic pain that he cannot sustain.”

A divided US Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump the green light on Monday to resume dismantling the Education Department.The conservative-dominated court, in an unsigned order, lifted a stay that had been placed by a federal district judge on mass layoffs at the department.The three liberal justices on the nine-member panel dissented.Trump pledged during his White House campaign to eliminate the Education Department, which was created by an act of Congress in 1979, and he moved in March to slash its workforce by nearly half.Trump instructed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “put herself out of a job.”Around 20 states joined teachers’ unions in challenging the move in court, arguing that the Republican president was violating the principle of separation of powers by encroaching on Congress’s prerogatives.In May, District Judge Myong Joun ordered the reinstatement of hundreds of fired Education Department employees.The Supreme Court lifted the judge’s order without explanation, just days after another ruling that cleared the way for Trump to carry out mass firings of federal workers in other government departments.Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent joined by justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said in the Education ruling that “only Congress has the power to abolish the Department.””The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave,” Sotomayor said.Traditionally, the federal government has had a limited role in education in the United States, with only about 13 percent of funding for primary and secondary schools coming from federal coffers, the rest being funded by states and local communities.But federal funding is invaluable for low-income schools and students with special needs. And the federal government has been essential in enforcing key civil rights protections for students.After returning to the White House in January, Trump directed federal agencies to prepare sweeping workforce reduction plans as part of wider efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — previously headed by Elon Musk — to downsize the government.Trump has moved to fire tens of thousands of government employees and slash programs — targeting diversity initiatives and abolishing the Education Department, the US humanitarian aid agency USAID and others.

Professional players unions for the five major US sports leagues — baseball, soccer, basketball, football and hockey — appealed on Monday for American lawmakers to reject antitrust exemptions or legal liability shields in new regulations for college athletes.While compensation for professional players seemingly knows no limit, college athletes in the US have only been allowed to begin profiting from their performance and reputation in recent years. Now, professional players are weighing in as Congress works to develop a national framework for student athlete profit-sharing, with pros saying they felt a duty to protect future union members while they played in college.”Granting an antitrust exemption to the NCAA and its members gives the green light for the organization and schools to collude and work against student athletes,” the unions’ statement said.”Historically, antitrust exemptions have been used to set prices, limit wages, and restrict access to opportunities provided by open markets, all while shielding abuse from legal recourse.”The joint statement was sent by the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), Major League Soccer Players Association (MLSPA), National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) and National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA).The US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce is considering the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act after a House settlement last month ensured National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes will receive revenue sharing from their schools for Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) profits.In a statement last week Congressman Gus Bilirakis, a Florida Republican, said a national framework governing such profit-sharing was long overdue, and praised the SCORE Act saying it “delivers the stability, clarity and transparency” student athletes and colleges need. A 2021 Supreme Court decision held that the NCAA is subject to antitrust laws.In their joint statement, the players’ unions called for transparency and fair-dealing.”It is not hard to imagine a situation where NCAA and its members collude to restrict revenue sharing and deny student athletes fair compensation with the confidence of immunity against legal action. Indeed, they have been doing exactly that for decades.”The NCAA should not have a blank check to impose their will on the financial future of over 500,000 college athletes.”

US lawmakers are on the verge of passing landmark legislation that will give the much-maligned crypto world much-wanted legitimacy, riding on President Donald Trump’s recent embrace of the industry.The US House of Representatives is set to vote on three pieces of legislation this week, including one on the use of stablecoins — cryptocurrencies pegged to safe assets like the dollar — that if passed would immediately go to Trump for his signature.The raft of legislation comes after years of suspicion against the crypto industry amid the belief in the Biden administration that the sector, born out of the success of bitcoin, should be kept on a tight leash and away from mainstream investors.But after crypto investors poured millions of dollars into his presidential campaign last year, Trump reversed his own doubts about the industry, even launching a Trump meme coin and other ventures as he prepared for his return to the White House.According to federal financial disclosure forms released last month, Trump pocketed more than $57 million from the crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, that he launched with his sons last year.Trump has, among other moves, appointed crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).He has also established a federal “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” aimed at auditing the government’s bitcoin holdings, which were mainly accumulated by law enforcement from judicial seizures.And thanks to his backing, Trump could soon be signing the stablecoin bill — dubbed the GENIUS Act — that the US Senate passed last month and that sets rules such as requiring issuers to have reserves of assets equal in value to that of their outstanding cryptocurrency.- ‘Long time coming’ -Stablecoins are considered the safest and least volatile of digital currencies because their value is tied to traditional currency or secure assets such as gold.Another provision of the bill empowers banking regulators to oversee stablecoin issuers in the United States.The legislation could extend the US dollar’s influence in the world of cryptocurrency, with dollar-backed stablecoins seen as financial havens from local currencies prone to big fluctuations.The US House is also considering the CLARITY Act that would establish a clearer regulatory framework for digital assets — including cryptocurrencies and other blockchain-based assets. If passed the bill would require passage in the Senate.The act would clarify and divide regulatory authority between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).Gerald Gallagher, General Counsel at Sei Labs, a digital asset firm, said the bills could be a game changer for the industry.”GENIUS and CLARITY provide security and certainty for investors that previously were not available, either intentionally or unintentionally,” he told AFP.”This has been a long time coming.”The Republican-led House is also considering a bill it calls the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act that aims to block the issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) – a digital dollar issued by the US Federal Reserve.Republicans argue that a CBDC could enable the federal government to monitor, track, and potentially control the financial transactions of private citizens, undermining privacy and civil liberties.It also would require passage in the Senate before going to Trump for his signature.

Elon Musk’s xAI, which features a large language model that has spewed Hitler-supporting rhetoric and antisemitic tropes, said Monday it has signed a deal to provide its services to the US Department of Defense.Launched at the end of 2023, Grok has rarely been out of the headlines for its offensive gaffes, and will now offer its services as “Grok for Government.” In addition to the Pentagon contract, “every federal government department, agency, or office (can now) purchase xAI products” thanks to its inclusion on an official supplier list, xAI added.After an update on July 7, the chatbot praised Adolf Hitler in some responses, denounced on X “anti-white hate”, and described Jewish representation in Hollywood as “disproportionate.” xAI apologized on Saturday for extremist and offensive messages, and said it had corrected the instructions that led to the incidents. The new version of the chatbot, Grok 4, presented on Wednesday, consulted Musk’s positions on some questions it was asked before responding, an AFP correspondent saw. The contract between xAI and the Department of Defense comes even as Musk and President Donald Trump are locked in a bitter feud. The two men became close during Trump’s latest run for the presidency and, following the inauguration, the Republican billionaire entrusted Musk with managing the new agency known as DOGE to slash the government by firing tens of thousands of civil servants.  After ending his assignment in May, the South African-born entrepreneur publicly criticized Trump’s major budget bill for increasing government debt. The president and the businessman engaged in heated exchanges on social media and in public statements before Musk apologized for some of his more combative messages. The government and the defense sector are considered a potential growth driver for AI giants. Meta has partnered with the start-up Anduril to develop virtual reality headsets for soldiers and law enforcement, while in June OpenAI secured a contract to provide AI services to the US military.

Major US ice cream makers on Monday announced plans to phase out their use of artificial dyes following pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to eliminate unnecessary additives from the American diet.The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), which includes over 40 top ice cream brands, said its members would stop using petroleum-derived synthetic colorings by the end of 2027.These chemicals have been linked in studies to conditions including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), cancer, diabetes, gastrointestinal issues, and genomic disruption, yet serve no nutritional or functional purpose beyond cosmetic coloring, health advocates have long argued.”I’m particularly happy to be here today because this is relevant to my favorite food, which is ice cream,” Kennedy said at a press event, lauding the dairy industry for its actions.”This is a great day for dairy and it’s a great day for Make America Healthy Again,” added the IDFA’s President and CEO Michael Dykes, referencing Kennedy’s MAHA slogan that is a play on President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” or MAGA.Andy Jacobs, CEO of Turkey Hill, said many commercial ice cream manufacturers had already phased out artificial colors or were in the process of doing so. “By taking this step now, ice cream manufacturers are ensuring that ice cream remains a special part of our lives as consumer preferences change and the nation’s regulatory priorities evolve,” he said.Industry data shows Americans consume roughly 19 pounds (8.6 kg) of ice cream a year. The frozen treat contributes an estimated $12 billion to the economy and supports more than 27,000 dairy industry jobs.In April, Kennedy announced plans to revoke authorization for two synthetic dyes and to “work with industry” to eliminate six more — an approach critics dismissed as too soft and overly reliant on voluntary action.- Peer pressure -By contrast, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in one of its final acts under president Joe Biden finalized a rule to actually ban Red Dye No. 3, one of the most widely used and controversial colorings.Yet there are signs that Kennedy’s peer pressure strategy is yielding some results.Major food manufacturers including Nestle, Kraft Heinz, General Mills, and PepsiCo have already signed on to ditch artificial dyes.Kennedy on Monday said between “35 and 40 percent” of the food industry has now pledged to make the shift, but it was notable the ice cream makers’ pledge pushes past the health secretary’s original target of end-2026, giving companies an extra year to adjust their supply chains.And key holdouts remain — for example Mars, the maker of M&M’s and Skittles, and its subsidiary Kellogg’s, whose Froot Loops still use Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, and Yellow 6 in the US, even though the same cereal is artificial dye-free in places like Canada.At the same time, Trump’s FDA has fast-tracking natural-dye based alternatives, adding gardenia (genipin) blue to the list on Monday, the fourth such approval in two months. 

US President Donald Trump told Russia on Monday to end its Ukraine war within 50 days or face massive new economic sanctions as he laid out plans for new infusions of weaponry for Kyiv via NATO.Trump said he was “very, very unhappy” with Vladimir Putin, underlining his insistence that his patience had finally snapped with the Russian leader’s refusal to end his three-year-old invasion of Ukraine.”We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 percent,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.The Republican added that they would be “secondary tariffs” that target Russia’s remaining trade partners — seeking to cripple Moscow’s ability to survive already sweeping Western sanctions.Trump and Rutte also unveiled a deal under which the NATO military alliance would buy billions of dollars of arms from the United States — including Patriot anti-missile batteries — and then send them to Ukraine.”This is really big,” said Rutte, as he touted a deal aimed at easing Trump’s long-held complaints that the US is paying more than European and NATO allies to aid Ukraine.Germany, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Britain were among the buyers helping Ukraine, added the NATO chief.”If I was Vladimir Putin today and heard you speaking… I would reconsider that I should take negotiations about Ukraine more seriously,” said Rutte.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced he had spoken with Trump and was “grateful” for the arms deal.- ‘Very long time’ -German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Berlin would play a “decisive role” in the new weapons plan.But EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Trump’s sanctions deadline was too far into the future. “Fifty days is a very long time if we see that they are killing innocent civilians every day,” she said.Trump attempted a rapprochement with Putin shortly after starting his second term, in a bid to honor his election campaign pledge to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours.His pivot towards Putin sparked fears in Kyiv that he was about to sell out Ukraine, especially after Trump and his team berated Zelensky in the Oval Office on February 28.But in recent weeks Trump has shown increasing frustration with Putin as the Russian leader, instead of halting his invasion, stepped up missile and drone attacks to record levels.Washington has also U-turned from an announcement earlier this month that it would pause some arms deliveries to Kyiv.Trump said his wife Melania had helped changed his thinking about Putin, a man for whom he formerly expressed admiration.”I go home, I tell the First Lady, ‘you know, I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation.’,” Trump said. “And she said, ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit.'”He added of Putin: “I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy.”- ‘Better late than never’ -US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, who are pushing a bipartisan bill on Russia secondary sanctions, praised Trump’s “powerful” move.”The ultimate hammer to bring about the end of this war will be tariffs against countries, like China, India and Brazil, that prop up Putin’s war machine,” they said in a statement.Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg arrived in Kyiv on Monday for what Zelensky called a “productive meeting.”One Ukrainian soldier deployed in the war-scarred east of the country, who identified himself by his call sign Grizzly, welcomed Trump’s promise of fresh air defense systems. “Better late than never,” the 29-year-old told AFP.Russian forces meanwhile said on Monday they had captured new territory in eastern Ukraine with the seizure of one village in the Donetsk region and another in the Zaporizhzhia region.Its forces also killed at least three civilians in the eastern Kharkiv and Sumy regions on Monday, Ukrainian officials said.In Kyiv, Zelensky also proposed a major political shake-up, recommending economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko take over new prime minister, and appointing current premier Prime Minister Denys Shmygal as defense minister.burs-dk/sms

A growing wildfire at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim has now charred at least 50 structures, including a historic lodge inside the popular US tourist site and natural wonder, authorities said Monday.Hundreds of firefighters working from the air and ground in Arizona are battling the so-called Dragon Bravo blaze.More than 500 tourists and park staffers have been evacuated since the fire broke out on July 4, apparently from a lightning strike.On Saturday night the flames intensified quickly due to sustained winds gusting at up to 40 miles (64 kilometers) per hour, the National Park Service said.According to early assessments, the fire has burned down between 50 and 80 structures, including administrative buildings, a water treatment facility, and a historic building called Grand Canyon Lodge.It is the only place on the North Rim inside the park where visitors can spend the night. It was rebuilt in the 1930s after being destroyed in a fire and declared a national historic monument in 1987.Burning for over a week, the fire was initially managed by federal authorities in a confine and contain strategy — rather than being tackled aggressively to try to put it out.Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has criticized the approach and called for an independent probe.”An incident of this magnitude demands intense oversight and scrutiny into the federal government’s emergency response,” she wrote on X.”They must first take aggressive action to end the wildfire and prevent further damage. But Arizonans deserve answers for how this fire was allowed to decimate the Grand Canyon National Park,” the Democratic governor wrote.Authorities announced the North Rim is now closed for the remainder of the tourism season running through mid-October.Firefighters are also battling a second blaze around 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of the Dragon Bravo fire in Kaibab National Forest.Roads have been closed down too but the more popular South Rim of the canyon remains open.Dozens of fires are burning in the western United States as the country goes into a dry and dangerous season for wildfires.   The region faces additional challenges because the Trump administration has cut funding and staff at federal agencies that work to prevent and grapple with fires and other natural disasters.One of the greatest wonders of the natural world, the Grand Canyon is the result of the Colorado River eating away at layers of red sandstone and other rock for millions of years, leaving a chasm up to 18 miles wide and more than a mile deep.Last year almost five million people visited the world-famous site.

The X account of Sesame Street’s Elmo, a beloved children’s TV character, shared antisemitic and anti-Donald Trump posts after being hacked on Sunday.A slew of messages calling for the extermination of Jewish people and labeling the US president a “puppet” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were shared on the account.Around 650,000 users follow Elmo, the fuzzy red monster who teaches his young audience about kindness and patience.An archived version of the X account showed several messages were published on Sunday afternoon. They were later removed, although a link to a Telegram page apparently associated with the hack remained in the account’s bio section.Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, said that an unidentified hacker was behind the posts.”Elmo’s X account was briefly compromised yesterday by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts,” a spokesperson told AFP in a statement.”The account has since been secured,” they added.The hacking on Elon Musk’s X platform is the latest in a string of hate speech incidents since the billionaire bought then-Twitter in 2022 and axed moderation policies that he considers censorship.On Saturday, his xAI startup apologized for antisemitic posts published on X by its artificial intelligence assistant Grok, which praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Antisemitism is facing particular scrutiny in the United States after two Israeli embassy staffers were killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington in May.  A firebombing attack at a protest in Colorado supporting Israeli hostages held in Gaza left over a dozen people wounded in June, and an 82-year-old woman later died from her injuries.Anger over Israel’s conduct of its war in Gaza resulted in widespread protests on US university campuses, with the government cracking down on the demonstrations after accusing them of antisemitism. 

A SpaceX capsule carrying an international crew from India, Poland, Hungary, and the United States has departed the International Space Station and is set to splash down off the coast of California.Axiom Mission 4, or Ax-4, undocked from the orbital lab at 7:15 am ET (1115 GMT) on Monday, beginning a 22.5-hour journey back to Earth.Splashdown is scheduled for 5:31 ET (0931 GMT) in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday. “Thank you very much for your support. You guys are amazing,” Commander Peggy Whitson, an Axiom employee and former NASA astronaut, told flight controllers in Houston.Also aboard are pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.Axiom Space is a private company that organizes missions to the International Space Station, flying both wealthy individuals and, as in this case, astronauts sponsored by their national governments. For the non-American trio, the mission marked a return to crewed spaceflight for their respective nations after decades-long absences.They launched from Kennedy Space Center on June 25 for what turned out to be a two-and-a-half-week mission, during which they conducted around 60 scientific experiments.For rising space power India, the flight served as a key stepping stone toward its first independent crewed mission, scheduled for 2027 under the Gaganyaan (“sky craft”) program.Shukla held a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in what was widely viewed as a significant soft power moment. He recounted sharing the sweet dish gajar ka halwa with his crewmates aboard the station.This will be only SpaceX’s second crew recovery in the Pacific Ocean. The first occurred in April with the return of the Fram-2 mission. SpaceX has since shifted permanently to West Coast splashdowns, citing incidents where debris from Dragon’s trunk survived atmospheric reentry and crashed back to Earth.