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The United Nations told President Donald Trump it had launched a “thorough investigation” into what the US leader called “triple sabotage” during his visit to the organization’s headquarters.   The US sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday demanding answers about an escalator that failed, stranding Trump and first lady Melania Trump, as well as a malfunctioning teleprompter and a faulty public address system.”The Secretary-General informed the US Permanent Mission that he had already ordered a thorough investigation, and he conveyed that the UN is ready to cooperate in full transparency with relevant US authorities on this matter to determine what caused the incidents referred to by the United States,” Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said late Wednesday. In a long, angry social media post, Trump described the string of mishaps as “very sinister,” called for people to be arrested and said the US Secret Service was also conducting a probe.”This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN. They ought to be ashamed of themselves,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.”I demand an immediate investigation,” he said.He was dogged by technical gremlins before and during his keynote speech to the organization and world leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly hall in New York.Footage showed the 79-year-old president and Melania Trump getting on the escalator at UN headquarters on Tuesday before it stopped with a lurch, forcing them to walk up.Then later, as he began his speech, he noted his teleprompter was not working.He spent much of the rest of the speech bashing the world body, accusing it of funding illegal migration that was turning the United States and European countries into “hell” and failing to support his peace efforts in Gaza and Ukraine.While Trump struck a mostly joking tone about the escalator, his mood hardened a day later.The UN has gently insisted that the teleprompter was operated by the White House.As for the escalator, Dujarric, the secretary-general’s spokesman, issued a note to reporters Wednesday saying that a videographer with the US delegation, who was filming on the escalator ahead of the first US couple, accidentally tripped a switch that caused the moving staircase to stop.  Trump also complained the public address system had been rigged so that his hour-long speech could not be heard.”The sound system was designed to allow people at their seats to hear speeches being translated into six different languages through earpieces,” said a UN official speaking on condition of anonymity.  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the Kremlin will become a target and Russian officials should check for bomb shelters if Moscow does not stop its invasion of his country, Axios reported Thursday.Russia has occupied about 20 percent of Ukraine and rained bombs and missiles on civilian and military sites since launching a full-scale invasion in 2022, with Moscow’s forces striking the government complex in Kyiv for the first time this month.Zelensky said that Ukrainian policy would also now put previously off-limits targets in the crosshairs, Axios reported.”They have to know where their bomb shelters are,” Zelensky told Axios in an interview. “They need it. If they will not stop the war, they will need it in any case.”Answering criticism from US President Donald Trump and his right-wing government over the indefinite suspension of elections in wartime Ukraine, Zelensky also told Axios that he would not seek to remain in power once peace comes.”My goal is to finish the war,” not to continue to run for office, he said.Zelensky said Ukraine would not target civilians in Russia because “we are not terrorists.”However, he indicated that Ukraine hopes to obtain a more powerful US weapon, which he did not name, to threaten strikes deep inside Russia.Axios quoted Zelensky as saying he had told Trump during a meeting in New York this week “what we need — one thing.”- Trump growing ‘impatient’ -“If we will have such long-distance weapons from the United States, we will use it,” he said in a clip of the interview released by Axios.US and European backing for Ukraine’s ability to strike deep inside Russia has often wavered, with Washington and European capitals nervous of provoking Moscow into an expanded conflict.However, Ukraine is now frequently hitting Russian energy industry installations and Zelensky said Trump had given him the green light to continue.He said Trump had told him that he “supports that we can answer on energy.”Trump said following his meeting with Zelensky earlier this week that Ukraine could win back all of its territory from Russia — an astonishing turnaround after months of saying Kyiv would likely have to cede land to its larger neighbor.The US leader also called for NATO countries to shoot down any Russian fighter jets violating their airspace, following a series of incidents that have rattled US allies in Eastern Europe.It marks a major shift on Ukraine for Trump, who told Zelensky during a televised Oval Office bust-up in February that “you don’t have the cards” to beat Russia.The change in views by the US president reflects his growing frustration with Putin since a summit in Alaska on August 15 failed to produce a breakthrough, and was instead followed by increased Russian attacks.Vice President JD Vance warned Wednesday that Trump was “growing incredibly impatient” with Moscow, saying the US leader “doesn’t feel like they’re putting enough on the table to end the war.””If the Russians refuse to negotiate in good faith, I think it’s going to be very, very bad for their country,” Vance added.

The White House raised the stakes in a clash over a possible US government shutdown Thursday, telling federal agencies to prepare for more mass firings by President Donald Trump’s administration.The memo by the White House Office of Management and Budget warned that the Republican administration would go beyond the usual practice of temporary furloughs during previous shutdowns.Trump is in a tense showdown with congressional Democrats over federal funding ahead of a fiscal deadline of midnight on September 30, which would trigger a fresh political crisis in Washington.The White House memo, obtained by AFP, said that “agencies are directed to use this opportunity to consider Reduction in Force (RIF) notices for all employees” in areas of government bearing the brunt of a shutdown.It ordered agencies to submit their proposed staff reduction plans and inform employees.The term “reduction in force” is the same that the Trump administration used during its large-scale firings under tycoon Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year.The White House blamed a “series of insane demands” by Democrats and accused them of breaking a 10-year trend of reaching bipartisan agreement to avoid shutdowns at the same time of year.”We remain hopeful that Democrats in Congress will not trigger a shutdown and the steps outlined above will not be necessary,” the OMB memo added.- ‘Get lost’ -Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries responded by telling the White House to “get lost.””We will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings” said Jeffries on X, going on to describe OMB chief Russ Vought as a “malignant political hack.”A shutdown would see non-essential operations grind to a halt and hundreds of thousands of civil servants temporarily left without pay.Shutdown battles have become a regular feature of US politics under both Republican and Democratic administrations, as Washington is increasingly paralyzed by polarization.Democrats in the Senate rejected a stopgap funding bill last week that was hurriedly passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives as it sought to avert a shutdown.Trump in turn cancelled a meeting on Tuesday with Democratic leaders in Congress, saying he would not meet with them until they “become realistic” with their demands.With both chambers on recess this week and senators returning on Monday, time is running out to keep the US government funded after the end of the fiscal year.Republicans hold a narrow majority in both chambers of Congress but, due to Senate rules, have to get some opposition support.House Republicans warned on Friday that their members will not return before the funding deadline, forcing the Senate to vote again and accept their proposal or face a shutdown.The bill, if passed, would still only be a temporary fix funding federal agencies through November 21.Congress last faced a shutdown in March, when Republicans refused talks with Democrats over Trump’s massive budget cuts and the layoff of thousands of federal employees.

The assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk hasn’t slowed his conservative youth movement — rather, it has energized it.”What happened ignited something in me. Like, he let down the flag, I’ve got to pick it up and carry it,” 16-year-old Kieran Owen told AFP.The Virginia high school student was among 2,500 people attending a Turning Point USA event on Wednesday evening at Virginia Tech University, four hours outside Washington.”We are Charlie,” the crowd chanted. Some attendees wore red caps with President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, others doffing white ones with “47” reflecting his current White House term.On each seat, organizers had placed a poster featuring a portrait of Kirk against the backdrop of the American flag.Staff at the “American Comeback Tour” event wore white T-shirts with the word “Freedom,” same as the one Kirk was wearing when he was killed.The 31-year-old was fatally shot in the neck two weeks ago while speaking at a Utah university as part of his popular public debate series.Owen recalled discovering Kirk on social media around the time of last year’s presidential election.”He did a live stream… I watched his live stream until like 1 am,” the soft-spoken teen said. “He really persuaded people.”A Christian with anti-abortion beliefs, Owen had been considering attending the Virginia Tech event before Kirk was killed.”Very shocking to me. No place for that in America,” he said of the political violence.- ‘Can’t silence a majority’ -Kayleigh Finch, wearing a cross and a T-shirt that said simply “Jesus,” told AFP it was “a more important time than ever to attend these kinds of things.””Show up and be here to show that you can’t silence a majority like this,” she said.Levi Testerman, 18, was attending his first political rally.”I actually kind of looked up to Charlie Kirk,” he said.”I saw him the first time on TikTok. I really enjoyed his message. I like how he went to college campuses, to talk to younger people, the upcoming voters of America, and I thought it was a great movement.”What happened really affected me… kind of gave me more of a drive to want to come here today to keep the legacy going that I feel he created. And change more people’s opinions.”It wasn’t only younger people mobilizing following Kirk’s death.Melissa Lucas Gardner, a 66-year-old retiree, said she had never heard of Kirk until he was killed.”I never listened to him until this happened. But as they said, it has created a whole new following,” the former police officer and hospice nurse said.”I didn’t know him. I know him now, and I’m definitely a follower.”She continued: “I believe in the mission that he had and what he was trying to do, to bring young people first to faith, faith in something.”Virginia’s Republican governor Glenn Youngkin addressed that vision in his address to the gathering on Wednesday.”You’ll be the next Charlie,” he told the crowd, before leading them through a prayer.

“You need the work,” one woman said, “so you shut your mouth.” #MeToo may have helped change the landscape for women in Hollywood and in the boardroom, but cleaners, secretaries and supermarket workers who have suffered sexual violence at work say it has yet to do much for them.Yasmina Tellal, 42, spent six years picking and packing fruit and vegetables in the south of France. “From the start” her bosses “established a system of fear”, she told AFP. “They would come to kiss us during breaks, touch us and try to make us take 300 euros ($350) to sleep with them. “One day while I was in the car with my supervisor, he stopped at a rest area, grabbed my hand and placed it on his thing,” she said, struggling to get the words out, even a decade on.Tellal arrived in France from Spain in 2011 with a promise of work through a Spanish temp agency. She thought she was getting a one-year contract at the French minimum wage — around 1,800 euros per month — with accommodation and meals provided.But that is not how it turned out. “I was paid around 400 euros, sometimes less. I had to figure out the rent on my own, and working conditions were inhumane,” she said.”When you don’t have money, you’re trapped, forced to stay and keep quiet,” she said. Then her body began to give.The dizziness and paralysis started in 2015. Doctors diagnosed multiple sclerosis, which she puts down to the stress and trauma.”They ruined my life,” Moroccan-born Tellal told AFP. But she used her anger to drive her fight for justice — “I had nothing left to lose.”The Spanish couple who ran the agency were eventually jailed for five years in 2021 — three of them suspended — for breaching labour laws. But they were not charged with human trafficking, as Tellal’s lawyer, Yann Prevost, had demanded.Nor did the labour court address the sexual violence she suffered.After a long and protracted fight, the former farm worker finally won 32,000 euros in damages in 2023, a sum upheld on appeal in June.While Prevost hailed her as a standard-bearer and “whistleblower”, hers is a rare story of a low-paid victim standing up against the odds.Six out of 10 women questioned in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain said they experienced sexism or harassment at work in a major 2019 study by the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS).More than one in 10 said they were victims of “forced” or “non-consensual” sexual relations.- From sexist jokes to rape -Marie, a medical secretary, was raped and harassed by one of the doctors she worked for in a Paris suburb. But for months the 42-year-old mother could not quite believe what was happening to her.She had moved to the area after a difficult break-up, and the doctor had assured her that “there was a great atmosphere in the office, that they often went out together after work. As a small-town girl, I was delighted,” she said.But soon came “the sexist jokes, wandering hands and then my bra being opened through my clothes.”I knew it wasn’t normal but I said to myself, ‘It’s no big deal’. I was in denial.” Until the day of the rape, which she is still unable to talk about five years later.The breaking point came when a much younger colleague began to be the target. “I realised that if I didn’t speak up, I was effectively complicit in everything happening at the clinic,” she said.Marie finally went to the police last year. “It took me a long time because I was afraid of not being believed. How could I be taken seriously when I myself had not been able to recognise what happened to me?”- ‘So normalised’ -Women like Marie — whose name we have changed at her request — and Yasmina “are not the kind of people who usually turn to lawyers”, said Jessica Sanchez, who specialises in social law in Bordeaux, in southern France. Taking a case to court “requires a crazy amount of courage… and you have to have the means to be able to risk losing your job,” she said.”The first question they ask themselves is, ‘How can I pay the rent or feed my kids?'” said Tiffany Coisnard, a legal expert with the AVFT, a European campaign group against workplace violence.”Sexual harassment at work is so normalised as a risk of the job that many women struggle to even label it,” she added.They are often in precarious financial positions, with single parents or those whose immigration status depends on their job particularly vulnerable.Foreigners working without papers run even higher risks of “having to reveal themselves” to the authorities and risk being deported, said Pauline Delage, a gender violence specialist at French research centre CNRS. Only “a very small minority of workplace harassment victims break the wall of silence that paralyses older women in particular,” the FEPS study found. Even when women in lower-paid jobs speak out, they are “much less heard in the media” than actors, writers or journalists, said the AVFT.”Very few” cases make it to the police, never mind court, a French police source told AFP, even if he insisted the way officers deal with victims has “evolved”.”Now we take care to reassure them… There is a guide with things not to say and not to do.” But even he admitted that some police officers, both men and women, are “boorish”, with “no compassion”.- Even unions affected -In theory, victims should be able to report abuse to their employers or their union.But sometimes union representatives are conflicted about supporting victims when it means getting a “colleague fired, even if they’ve been accused of sexual harassment”, said Coisnard.But French unions FO and CGT, which have themselves been hit with abuse and harassment cases within their branches, insist things have changed.”A few years ago there was probably the idea that union advocacy outweighed individual cases,” said Beatrice Clicq, a sexual violence officer for FO.The union was fined nearly a quarter of a million euros in February over sexual harassment in one of its branches in Brittany, in western France.”What could have been tolerated 15 years ago is no longer acceptable,” insisted Myriam Lebkiri, who holds the same position at the CGT.- Hotel cleaners revolt -A marathon strike by cleaners at an Ibis hotel in Paris made headlines around the world when one of the housekeepers, Rachel Keke, was elected to parliament in 2022.But the cases of sexual violence raised during the 22-month dispute got little traction, even though Keke herself revealed that a guest had touched her breasts.”We talk openly about it between ourselves,” Keke told AFP — “a guest opened the door naked, another exposed his buttocks, or offered money to sleep with him… But quickly we were made to understand that it was pointless” to make a complaint, she said. “The client is always protected.” As far as management was concerned, “what happened to us was not a big deal”, the 51-year-old added.”These kinds of situations end the same way, with a mere apology from the management and that’s it,” sighed Sylvie Kimissa, one of Keke’s former colleagues, after a long day of making beds, cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming. A Congolese single mother, she said she has witnessed several sexual assaults. “We have no choice but to keep working.”The hotel’s owner, Accor, said the management had recently been changed and “no case of harassment or assault has been reported in recent months.”- DSK scandal -Very little has changed in the 14 years since the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal, experts say, when the head of the International Monetary Fund and favourite to be the next French president, nicknamed “DSK”, was accused of sexually assaulting housekeeper Nafissatou Diallo in the Sofitel hotel in New York.”All levels of the hotel trade are affected,” said Maud Descamps, a trainer in sexual harassment prevention in the industry, but it is particularly problematic at the luxury end.”The more upmarket, the more ‘touchy’ it gets to handle cases involving customers with extremely high purchasing power,” she said.”It continues to be minimised because it’s a massive thorn in the side.””A hotel room is a place of risk,” Descamps said, “and what fuels that is very precarious working conditions, and the contracting out of staff which further waters down responsibility.”The DSK case was closed at the end of 2012 with a confidential financial agreement between him and the Guinean-born housekeeper.While the #MeToo movement has since happened, “the social pressure on victims is still very hard to bear and the mechanism of shame and guilt remains pervasive,” said lawyer Giuseppina Marras.She represented a supermarket worker from Flixecourt in northern France who tried to kill herself in 2016, despairing at her colleagues defending the boss who had raped and sexually assaulted her on numerous occasions.The manager was finally jailed for 10 years in March.But there has been some progress, Marras insisted, with a “clear difference in the judicial handling of these cases compared to a decade ago”.When she defended a boss accused of raping employees back then, he “walked away with a suspended sentence”.

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel had his biggest audience in a decade when he returned to US TV screens a week after pressure from Donald Trump’s government saw him forced off the air, Disney said Wednesday.The comedian was benched by the entertainment giant’s ABC network after officials threatened to yank broadcast licenses, purportedly over comments Kimmel made in the wake of the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.But after a public outcry and complaints from usually reliable Trump allies that this was a government attempt to chill free speech, the suspension was reversed and Kimmel was back on the air on Tuesday, delivering a biting monologue attacking censorship.”A government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American,” Kimmel told viewers.”The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke.”Early figures showed more than six million people tuned in to the broadcast, even as the show remained unavailable to almost a quarter of American households because of a boycott by companies that own local TV stations, Disney said.By comparison, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” drew an average of 1.42 million viewers across its full 2024/2025 season — meaning the audience increased more than threefold Tuesday.It was the show’s best performance in 10 years, Disney added. A further 26 million people watched Tuesday’s monologue on social media, it said.Trump, who frequently complains about negative media coverage and regularly targets Kimmel and other late-night comedians with invective, had celebrated when he was taken off the air, calling it “Great news for America.”Before the show’s return, Trump told reporters Kimmel had “no talent… he had no ratings.””Well,” quipped Kimmel on Tuesday night’s show. “I do tonight.””He tried did his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly,” he added to wild studio applause.

Americans exhausted by the firehose of news in 2025 were being offered a brief respite Wednesday, as Fat Bear Week got under way in Alaska.The annual tongue-in-cheek contest pits bears against each other as they stuff themselves with salmon to prepare for months of hibernation.The unwitting competitors — known only by their numbers — battle it out in a series of head-to-head votes, with hundreds of thousands of people around the world expected to cast a ballot.The winner at the end of the week will be the bear voters judge to have piled on the most pounds.The online contest began in 2014 with just a few thousand people voting, but has now turned into an outsize exercise in democracy.Organizers said that around 1.2 million votes were cast from more than 100 countries in Fat Bear Week 2024.”Like a bear’s body mass in late summer, anticipation for the tournament continues to grow,” said a statement from Katmai Conservancy and Explore.org, who organize the contest.”Last year, 128 Grazer won her second Fat Bear Week championship and became the first mother bear to win. Does she have the size and story to earn a three-peat?”Voters compare before-and-after pictures of the enormous animals in Katmai National Park, Alaska to see which one looks best equipped to thrive in the lean months of hibernation.The aim is to raise awareness of brown bears and their habitat in Alaska, and the risks they face from human activity.Around 2,000 bears in the park start chubbing up in late summer and early fall. They can eat up to 100 pounds (45 kilograms) of salmon a day as they prepare for five months of hibernation.During the deep sleep, the animals rarely wake to eat, drink or even go to the toilet, emerging famished — and a lot thinner — in the spring.Voting in this year’s poll — at explore.org/fat-bear-week — closes at 5:00 pm Tuesday in Alaska (0100 GMT Wednesday).

US President Donald Trump mocked Joe Biden Wednesday by putting a picture of a so-called “autopen,” instead of his likeness, in a new gallery of presidential portraits in the White House.Republican Trump has alleged, without evidence, that Biden’s use of the automated technology to sign pardons and other documents was part of a cover-up of the Democrat’s cognitive decline.Now he has doubled down on the allegation by putting a picture of Biden’s signature and the device, in place of his portrait, in a new “Walk of Fame” located in the colonnade that runs along the White House Rose Garden.”The Presidential Walk of Fame has arrived on the West Wing Colonnade. Wait for it…” Trump’s Communications Advisor Margo Martin posted on X along with a video of the new display.The camera pans along a line of black and white, gold-framed presidential portraits, hanging along the colonnade in chronological order, before it  reaches the picture of the autopen representing Biden.The White House separately posted a photo of Trump himself — whose portraits as the 45th and 47th US president are on either side of Biden’s — looking at the new addition.The Biden autopen portrait will be visible by guests attending a dinner later Wednesday in the Rose Garden, where Trump has recently replaced the grass with a patio.Trump had previewed the move in an interview with the conservative Daily Caller earlier this month, saying: “We put up a picture of the autopen.”The 79-year-old almost obsessively bashes his now 82-year-old predecessor, seeking to blame him for a host of ills including inflation and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.The Biden autopen portrait is meanwhile the brashest step yet in billionaire property developer Trump’s revamp of the more than 200-year-old presidential residence in Washington.Trump notably has covered the Oval Office with gold decorations, installed huge flagpoles and is now building a giant ballroom.He has also moved a painting of Democrat Barack Obama from its original position and, breaking with precedent, hung several paintings of himself in the White House.

US President Donald Trump demanded an investigation Wednesday into what he called “triple sabotage” after an escalator, teleprompter and sound system malfunctioned as he addressed the United Nations.The UN has said the events that happened while Trump was at its headquarters in New York on Tuesday were accidental, and partly blamed them on White House staff.But in a long, angry social media post, Trump described the string of mishaps as “very sinister,” called for people to be arrested and said the Secret Service was also probing.”This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN. They ought to be ashamed of themselves,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.”I’m sending a copy of this letter to the Secretary General, and I demand an immediate investigation. No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do.” Footage showed the 79-year-old president and First Lady Melania Trump getting on the escalator at UN headquarters on Tuesday before it stopped with a lurch, forcing them to walk up.Then, as he began his speech, he noted his teleprompter was not working.He spent much of the rest of the speech bashing the world body, accusing it of funding illegal migration that was turning Western countries into “hell” and failing to support his peace efforts in Gaza and Ukraine.But while Trump struck a mostly joking tone about the escalator, his mood hardened a day later.”A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday. Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!” he wrote.Trump said the escalator stop could have been a “real disaster.””It’s amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first,” he said.Trump then complained that his teleprompter for his speech was “stone cold dark” for the first 15 minutes, and that the sound in the UN auditorium was “completely off.”The US president called for the security tapes for the escalator to be saved, adding: “The Secret Service is involved.”- UN points to White House -UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday issued a statement addressing the uproar, saying a videographer from the US delegation “may have inadvertently triggered the safety function” on the escalator.”Regarding the teleprompter, we have no comment since the teleprompter for the US president is operated by the White House,” he said.A Secret Service official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the agency was “looking into what the UN said to corroborate it.”Reached for comment after Trump’s post on Wednesday, a UN official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to Dujarric’s earlier statement.Regarding the alleged sound issues, the official said: “The sound system was designed to allow people at their seats to hear speeches being translated into six different languages through earpieces.”Mike Waltz, the newly installed US ambassador, said on X that he had formally demanded the “complete results” of the UN’s probe of the escalator incident, as well as a “detailed explanation of the teleprompter failure’s root cause, along with immediate plans to implement robust preventive measures.””The United States will not tolerate threats to our security or dignity at international forums. We expect swift cooperation and decisive action,” Waltz added.