AFP USA

By ordering a resumption of nuclear testing, US President Donald Trump risks an expanded arms race that could benefit China, experts say — something especially concerning given the shaky status of international arms control efforts.Trump caught the world by surprise when he announced the order just hours before meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea, saying Washington would start testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Moscow and Beijing.”We are already in the midst of a three-way arms race among Russia, the United States, and China,” said William Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.”A resumption in testing of nuclear warheads would make this unstable situation worse, possibly far worse,” he said.Trump said US testing would begin “immediately,” drawing pushback from both China and Russia.Beijing expressed its hope that Washington would respect its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and “take concrete actions to safeguard the global nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation system.”And Moscow, which recently tested nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable weapons — the Burevestnik cruise missile and the Poseidon underwater drone — insisted that those moves did not constitute a direct test of an atomic weapon.- China would benefit -But it seems that Pandora’s box has been opened.”By foolishly announcing his intention to resume nuclear testing, Trump will trigger strong international opposition that could unleash a chain reaction of nuclear testing by US adversaries, and blow apart the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,” Arms Control Association Executive Director Daryl Kimball said in a statement.Doreen Horschig of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) meanwhile said that “the only one who would benefit from nuclear warhead testing would be China, because they haven’t done as many as Russia and the US.”According to experts, China is developing its nuclear arsenal at a rapid pace, but still remains far behind the United States and Russia, the world’s two leading nuclear powers.The Pentagon warned last year that China moving faster than anticipated on nuclear arms, particularly in regard to the development of operational warheads.As of early 2025, China had a total of 600 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.- ‘Big risk’ -International nuclear arms control efforts have meanwhile suffered setbacks.The latest arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow — known as New Start, which limited each party to 1,550 deployed strategic offensive warheads and includes a currently suspended verification mechanism — will expire in February 2026.Russia has proposed extending the agreement for a year, but has not mentioned any inspections of arsenals.Asked in October about the issue, Trump responded that extending the deal “sounds like a good idea to me,” but the US government has yet to give an indication of what it plans to do.In July, the Republican leader also said that “we are starting to work on that” issue, noting that it “is a big problem for the world when you take off nuclear restrictions.”The United States also withdrew in 2019 from a major 1987 disarmament treaty on intermediate-range nuclear forces.Aside from North Korea, no state has officially conducted an explosive nuclear test in three decades, but countries including the United States regularly test their delivery systems such as missiles and warplanes.Horschig said that as far as nuclear weapons themselves, “everything is done now through computational testing.””The US is far ahead of Russia and China on how much data it has from this, so it really doesn’t need it at the moment,” she said of explosive testing.”None of them actually want to return to testing, but because they’re thinking the other is preparing for testing, then that’s how we end up testing. So that’s the big risk involved at the moment,” Horschig added.

G7 countries will have to use “non-market” tactics to curb China’s dominance in rare earth production, the US energy secretary said Friday, calling the effort a “strategic necessity.”Energy ministers from the Group of Seven meeting in Toronto this week are working on a coordinated effort to diversify supply chains of the materials vital to high-tech products, where China has built outsized control.”China, frankly, just used non-market practices to squish the rest of the world out of manufacturing those products, so it got strategic leverage. Everybody sees that now,” US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told reporters.”We need to establish our own ability to mine, process, refine, and create the products that come out of rare earth elements,” Wright said.”We’re going to have to intervene and use some non-market forces.”Repeating a widely shared accusation made against Beijing, Wright said China had used its rare earth stockpiles to manipulate global prices.”As soon as you start to invest, someone floods the market and crushes the prices. (China has) chilled investments,” he said.Wright did not specify what type of non-market practices President Donald Trump’s administration would support.But experts have called on the G7 and its allies to back policies that favor suppliers which bypass Chinese-controlled firms and use public subsidies to support new initiatives that could broaden the market. Energy ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States are meeting in Toronto after Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping reached a deal that will see Beijing suspend certain rare earth export restrictions for at least one year.Rare earths are needed to make a range of sophisticated products, and the prospect of China limiting exports had rattled markets.Trump’s tariffs have strained relations within the G7, but Wright said there was “no disagreement within the group” on the need to diversify rare earth supply chains.Canada’s Energy Minister Tim Hodgson, who is hosting the meeting which ends on Friday, said the G7 is aiming to launch a new alliance to upend the global supply of critical minerals, including rare earths.The alliance would mobilize private investment and advance other policies to expand critical mineral production that bypasses China.

The US government shutdown barreled towards its second month Friday and the pain is spreading fast — with federal workers broke, food aid vanishing and millions of Americans caught in the crossfire.What started on October 1 as a Washington sideshow has morphed into a slow-motion implosion of public services and a growing economic convulsion, with federal offices dark and President Donald Trump’s government stuck in neutral.Republicans have warned that millions will begin feeling the full force of the shutdown for the first time this weekend, as unresolved fights over funding for health care and food stamps make them hungrier and poorer.”Most people haven’t noticed up until this week. Thanks to Donald Trump finding a way to pay our troops last month, that pain was delayed,” Republican House Whip Tom Emmer told Fox News. “But, starting this week… this is starting to become very real.”At the heart of the fight is money to help Americans cover health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Those subsidies — a lifeline for more than 20 million people — are set to expire at year’s end and, unless Congress acts, premiums will skyrocket when the new sign-up period opens Saturday.But Washington’s warring parties are locked in a familiar, bitter loop, as Democrats refuse to reopen the government without a deal to extend the subsidies and with Trump’s Republicans saying they won’t talk until the lights are back on.As Washington bickers, the shutdown’s fallout is rippling through everyday life and starting to pinch where it really hurts — the dinner table. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps 42 million low-income Americans buy groceries, is set to run out of funds this weekend. Democrats have been pushing the White House to use $5 billion in emergency cash to cover food stamps but the administration says it cannot legally tap that fund.- ‘Breaking point’ -“We are now reaching a breaking point thanks to Democrats voting no on government funding now 14 different times,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters.”You’re going to have real people, real families — you’re going to have children — who will go hungry beginning this weekend,” he added.With no end to the shutdown in sight, the deadlines are piling up fast.WIC — the food aid program for pregnant women, new mothers and infants — is also on the brink, while “Head Start” programs that provide nutrition and family support to 65,000 infants could begin shuttering from Saturday. The administration says it has scraped together enough money to cover Friday’s payday for active-duty troops, but acknowledges that they could go unpaid by mid-November. Some 670,000 federal workers have been sent home without pay, and another 730,000 — from park rangers to air traffic controllers — are working for nothing. Many missed their entire pay for the first time this week. The country’s largest federal workers’ union, AFGE, is begging Congress to pass a stopgap bill to get paychecks flowing again. But even that has become political quicksand, with Democrats holding the line.Still, there are faint signs of life on Capitol Hill. After weeks of political trench warfare, a handful of centrist Democrats and pragmatic Republicans have quietly started sketching possible compromises, most hinging on a commitment to tackle health care once the government reopens. And looming somewhere in the wings is Trump, whose shadow hangs over every Republican move. Lawmakers on both sides hope he’ll swoop in to broker a deal on the Obamacare subsidies. In a rare intervention in the crisis, Trump called Thursday for the Senate to scrap its 60-vote threshold for legislation to pass, which would strip Democrats of all their leverage. Americans blame the shutdown on Trump and the Republicans over Democrats by 45 percent to 33 percent, according to the latest ABC/Washington Post poll. Independents blame Republicans by a 2-to-1 margin. 

Meta raised $30 billion in debt on Thursday, as tech giants flush with cash turn to borrowing to finance the expensive race to lead in artificial intelligence.On a day when Facebook-parent Meta’s share price plunged on the heels of disappointing quarterly earnings, demand for its bonds was reportedly four times greater than supply in a market keen to hold the social networking titan’s debt.The $30 billion in bonds scheduled to be repaid over the course of decades is intended to provide money to continue a breakneck pace of AI development that has come to define the sector.”(Mark) Zuckerberg seems like he’s got no limit in terms of his spending,” said CFRA Research senior equity analyst Angelo Zino.Zino noted that Meta takes in more than $100 billion a year, and that while Wall Street may be concerned with Zuckerberg’s spending it sees little risk debt won’t get repaid.”(But) they just can’t use up all their excess free cash flow and completely leverage it into AI.”The analyst wouldn’t be surprised to see Meta AI rivals Google and Microsoft opt for similar debt moves.Shareholder worry over Meta spending, on the other hand, is believed to be what drove the tech firm’s share price down more than 11 percent during trading hours on Thursday.Meta’s debt, however, drew flocks of investors despite rates for corporate bonds being at decade lows, noted Byron Anderson, head of fixed income at Laffer Tengler Investments.”Is there some worry about the AI trade? Maybe,” Anderson said. “But the revenue and profit coming off that company are massive.”If not for a one-time charge related to US President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, Meta would have recorded $18.6 billion in its recently ended quarter.That amount of net income is more than General Motors, Netflix, Walmart and Visa profits for that quarter combined.- FOMO? -Anderson doubts that so-called fear of missing out on the AI revolution drove demand for Meta’s bond.  “I don’t think this was FOMO,” he said.”People want good quality names in their portfolios at attractive levels, and this is a high-quality name — just like Oracle.”Business cloud application and infrastructure stalwart Oracle is reported to have raised $18 billion in a bond offering last month.According to Bloomberg, the Texas-based tech firm is poised to issue an additional $38 billion in debt, this time through banks rather than bond sales.Debt taken on by major AI firms is typically secured by physical assets, such as data centers or the coveted graphics processing units (GPUs) vital to the technology.Given the cash flow and physical assets of tech titans, risk is low for lenders. And the markets have been shaking off the possibility of an AI bubble that might burst.Meta just days ago announced creation of a joint venture with asset manager Blue Owl Capital to raise some $27 billion for datacenter construction.Meta and Oracle are also benefiting from recent moves by the US Federal Reserve to reduce the cost of borrowing.The trend toward debt is new for internet giants long accustomed to having ample cash flow to pay for what they want.Crucially, debt markets would not be as welcoming to AI startups such as OpenAI, Anthropic or Perplexity which have yet to turn profits.”I learned in my profession that if a company is not making profits and they issue (debt), that is a risky proposition,” Anderson said.The analyst reasoned that young AI companies like those will have to raise money through equity stakes — where the financier gets a stake in the company — as they have done so far.”I don’t know why they would go into the debt market,” Anderson said of such startups.”It would be too expensive for them,” he added, meaning the lenders would charge them much higher rates than the likes of cash cows like Meta.

US tech giant Nvidia said on Friday it will supply 260,000 of its most cutting-edge chips to South Korea, as CEO Jensen Huang met President Lee Jae Myung and the heads of the country’s biggest companies on the sidelines of the APEC summit. South Korea is home to two of the world’s leading memory chip makers — Samsung Electronics and SK hynix — which manufacture chips essential for artificial intelligence products and the data centres that the fast-evolving industry relies on.President Lee has also expressed his hope that the country can become the world’s third AI power after the United States and China.Speaking to media after the announcement, Huang said that goal was “ambitious”.But, he said, “there’s no reason why Korea cannot achieve it — you have the technology, you have the software expertise and you also have a natural ability to build manufacturing plants”.Nvidia has been caught in the middle of that geopolitical tussle.Its chips are currently not sold in China due to a combination of Beijing government bans, US national security concerns and ongoing trade tensions.Huang has urged the United States to allow the sale of US-made AI chips in China in order to ensure Silicon Valley companies remain a global powerhouse in providing artificial intelligence.”The US government and the Chinese government have to decide what role they would like Nvidia to play,” Huang told reporters on Friday. “I’ve been very clear that having Nvidia technology in China is in the best interest of the United States and in the best interest of China as well,” he said.”I’m optimistic,” he added.And asked if he wanted Nvidia’s most high-tech chip, the Blackwell, to be sold in China, he said: “I hope so”.”But that’s a decision for President Trump to make.”Nvidia’s chips featured in talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Gyeongju this week.Beijing has ramped up its chip industry to beat Washington’s export restrictions on the critical component used to power AI systems.- Chicken and chips -Under Friday’s deal, 50,000 of the graphics processing units will go towards a new “AI factory” being built by Samsung Electronics. “By deploying more than 50,000 Nvidia GPUs, AI will be embedded throughout Samsung’s entire manufacturing flow,” the Korean tech giant said.SK Group and Hyundai Motor Group will also receive 50,000 chips for use in AI facilities.NAVER Cloud — which operates South Korea’s largest search engine — will receive 60,000 to expand its AI infrastructure. A further 50,000 will be deployed across Seoul’s National AI Computing Center and to cloud service and IT providers.Huang has sought to forge closer ties with South Korean tech giants in his visit to the country this week.He met Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Eui-sun on Thursday for “chimaek” — a beloved South Korean pairing of fried chicken and beer — in the capital Seoul.The restaurant, Kkanbu, was reportedly chosen by Nvidia because the term — popularised by Netflix’s megahit “Squid Game” and meaning “friend” — was intended to highlight the spirit of friendship underpinning their AI and chip collaborations.Nvidia in July became the first company to top $4 trillion in market capitalisation, and followed that up by becoming the first to hit $5 trillion following an event on Tuesday where it announced new ventures building on its AI technology.

A year after Donald Trump swept to power, Republicans face their first major test at the polls, with voters in two of the most populous US states set to deliver their verdict on the president’s return to the White House. The high-profile mayoral contest in New York City may be grabbing the headlines, but the races for the governor’s mansions in New Jersey and Virginia — home to a combined 18 million people — offer a sharper preview of next year’s midterm elections.Both pit centrist Democrats against Republicans aligned with Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, and could signal whether middle-of-the-road voters have made peace with the president’s radical cost-slashing agenda — or plan to give his party a bloody nose in 2026.Trump has sent a steamroller through government since returning to office in January, shuttering entire agencies and cutting an estimated 200,000 jobs even before the government shutdown.”If Democrats sweep — or even win — Virginia and edge New Jersey, it signals the suburbs haven’t forgiven MAGA,” California-based financial and political analyst Michael Ashley Schulman told AFP.The election in Virginia, which is second only to California in the size of its federal workforce, will be a historic showdown between two women vying to become the state’s first female governor. Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer and three-term congresswoman, faces Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, a Marine veteran and staunch Trump ally. Polls show Spanberger — who has leaned on her national security credentials and cast herself as a bulwark against Trump’s aggressive federal downsizing — holding a steady lead of about seven points.She has vowed in stump speeches to be “a governor who will stand up” for the thousands of federal workers laid off by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.- ‘Tooth and nail’ -Earle-Sears opened her campaign on red meat to fire up conservatives, mirroring the playbook of outgoing Governor Glenn Youngkin to focus on culture war issues such as transgender athletes and abortion.Her lagging campaign was boosted by an endorsement from Trump and a down-ticket scandal involving Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones, who reportedly sent violent text messages about a political rival in 2022.Over in New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill — another 2018 “blue wave” alum and former Navy pilot — is also ahead, but locked in a tighter battle with Republican businessman Jack Ciattarelli. “Given New Jersey’s traditional Democratic lean, a loss for the party in the 2025 election would raise concerns about its national prospects heading into the 2026 midterms,” said Janie Mackenzie, a communications specialist who worked on John Kerry’s 2008 Senate campaign.Polls show Sherrill narrowly ahead, bolstered by strong early Democratic turnout.Trump’s decision to freeze funding for the Hudson Tunnel project — a vital link between New Jersey and New York — may yet prove to be the biggest boost of the campaign for Sherrill, who has vowed to “fight this tooth and nail.” Ciattarelli, who has embraced Trump more openly than in previous runs for office, focuses on affordability, promising to cap property taxes and cut corporate rates.Keith Nahigian, a veteran of six presidential campaigns and former member of Trump’s transition team, said a focus on the economy — including “the high cost of electric” — would benefit Ciattarelli.For Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, Tuesday’s vote will be “a referendum on where the country is right now.””It’s the first major opportunity for Democrats to show they can win again,” the former advisor to ex-vice president Kamala Harris told AFP.”It’s a chance for voters to make themselves heard on what’s happening in this country with Donald Trump.”

More than a hundred American state and local leaders will attend next month’s COP30 climate talks in Brazil, including governors, state officials and mayors, even as the Trump administration is expected to stay away.”We are showing up in force,” Gina McCarthy, co-chair of the “America Is All In” coalition told reporters on a call Thursday.The group represents around “two-thirds of the US population and three quarters of the US GDP, and more than 50 percent of US emissions,” said McCarthy, who served as a climate advisor to former president Joe Biden, and as ex-president Barack Obama’s environment chief.President Donald Trump announced he was withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accord for a second time on his return to office in January.But McCarthy said that would not halt American participation in global climate efforts.”We’ll deliver on the promises we made to the American people and our international colleagues,” she said. “Local leaders here have authority to act on their own behalf, to take climate action at home and abroad.”She pointed to the work of the 24-state “US Climate Alliance” that have slashed emissions by a quarter relative to 2005 while growing their economies. Because the Paris accord requires a one-year notice period for withdrawal, the United States remains a party for a few more months.But Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who was also on the call, said it appeared unlikely the administration would send an official delegation to COP, given it had not put in embassy support for the Americans attending.”But who knows?” added Whitehouse. “This is a very mercurial administration. They can decide at the last minute to send a plane to Belem, full of climate deniers and fossil fuel operatives.”While Trump also exited the Paris deal in his first term, his administration has gone further this time, exerting its clout to boost fossil fuels globally. This includes, for example, threatening countries with retaliatory measures if they agreed to a carbon pricing system by the UN’s International Maritime Organization, effectively curtailing its implementation.Climate advocates fear the administration could seek to withdraw from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — the treaty that underpins the Paris Agreement.Doing so could prevent future administrations from re-entering the deal, but it is not clear if the executive branch has the legal authority to undo a Senate-ratified treaty.

A stone’s throw from Venezuela, in the eye of a political storm fueled by a US naval deployment, fishermen from the archipelago of Trinidad and Tobago fear getting caught up in the tumult.Between Venezuelan military preparations in response to muscular US “provocation” on the one hand, and Trinidad-backed American strikes on alleged drug boats on the other, people who normally ply their trade in the sea told AFP they are keeping a low profile.In Cedros, a village in the extreme southwest of the island of Trinidad, a group of them chatted in hammocks on the beach, their boats unusually idle.The fishers eyed the Venezuelan coast, about a dozen kilometers (seven miles) away, as they discussed their dilemma.Barefoot and dressed in shorts, Kendrick Moodee told AFP he and his comrades were taking “a little more caution,” with the Venezuelan coast guard “a bit tense” these days.There has been closer policing, the 58-year-old said, of fishing in Venezuelan territorial waters where boats from Trinidad and Tobago were previously left to operate undisturbed.Several Cedros fishermen said Venezuelan patrols have been violently repelling Trinidadian vessels, and beatings and extortion have increased.Their territory curtailed, the fishermen have seen their yields and income dwindle.- ‘Anything can happen’ -US strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific have killed at least 62 people on boats Washington claims were ferrying drugs in recent weeks. Family members and victims’ governments have said some of them were fishermen at sea.Earlier this month US President Donald Trump hailed the success of the operation, saying: “We’re so good at it that there are no boats. In fact, even fishing boats –- nobody wants to go into the water anymore.”At least two of those killed were Trinidadians, according to mourning loved ones, though the government of the US-aligned nation of 1.4 million people has refused to confirm the identities.”This (fishing) is the only thing we have to… make a dollar,” 42-year-old Rakesh Ramdass told AFP, saying he was afraid of the diplomatic fallout, but without an alternative.”You have to take a chance,” he said. But at sea, “anything can happen.”Fishermen said the Trinidadian coast guard was also making life more difficult for them in an area known as a hotspot for the trafficking of drugs, arms and people — including Venezuelans fleeing dire economic straits in their own country.Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is a fierce critic of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and a friend of Trump, and has welcomed the US strikes.Maduro accused her of turning Trinidad and Tobago into “an aircraft carrier of the American empire” after Washington sent a guided-missile destroyer there for four days for a joint military exercise within striking distance of the Venezuelan mainland.Caracas fears the US deployment of war vessels is part of a regime change plan under the guise of an anti-drug operation.- ‘Everyone becomes suspect’ – The diplomatic standoff has meant that “everyone becomes suspect, even simple fishermen,” a Western diplomat in Trinidad and Tobago told AFP on condition of anonymity.Those who fish “find themselves caught in the crossfire,” said the diplomat, and “normal economic life is disrupted.”In Icacos, a village near Cedros, Alexsi Soomai, 63, lamented that fishermen like him were going out to sea less frequently. “Better safe than sorry,” he said. Icacos is the arrival point for many undocumented Venezuelans seeking a better life elsewhere.A few steps from the beach, a hamlet with houses made of salvaged wood shelters several families, including that of Yacelis Garcia, a 35-year-old Indigenous Venezuelan who left that country six years ago. In Venezuela, she recounted, “sometimes we ate, sometimes we didn’t.”Her brother-in-law Juan Salazar said he now lives “solely from fishing.”But he does not dare venture far in the current political climate, fearing he will be caught and sent back.

A double-digit combination set the social media sphere ablaze among teens in 2025, leaving parents and teachers befuddled — and now it has officially been crowned Dictionary.com’s “Word of the Year”: 67.  But even the organization that unveiled the winning word — pronounced “six-seven” and never “sixty-seven” — admitted it was not exactly sure about its meaning. “You might be feeling a familiar vexation at the sight of these two formerly innocuous numerals,” Dictionary.com said, addressing parents as it announced the winner this week.Members of Gen Alpha, it added, might be “smirking at the thought of adults once again struggling to make sense of your notoriously slippery slang.” Dictionary.com said the origin of the word might be traced to “Doot Doot (6 7),” a song by the US rapper Skrilla. Use of the word went viral in schools and on social media this year. It can be taken to mean a variety of things, with context, tone and absurdity all playing a role in determining its definition in the moment.”67″ beat out some stiff competition from other words that were short-listed for “Word of the Year.” These included “broligarchy,” “Gen Z stare,” and an entry from the world of emoticons — the dynamite emoji.Its use exploded online with news of the engagement between pop superstar Taylor Swift and American football star Travis Kelce, as it was used as shorthand to refer to the “TNT” couple.  

Amazon’s share price skyrocketed by more than ten percent on Thursday after the online retail behemoth reported better than expected earnings, powered by surging demand for its cloud computing services.Quarterly sales rose 13 percent to $180.2 billion across the company, it said. Net income climbed to $21.2 billion from $15.3 billion a year earlier.Stoking investor sentiment, the company forecast fourth-quarter sales of $206-$213 billion, representing growth of 10-13 percent.The e-commerce giant’s Amazon Web Services division, which recently suffered a global outage, saw revenues jump 20 percent to $33 billion in the third quarter, marking its fastest growth rate since 2022 as companies race to build AI capabilities.Amazon’s major rivals in the cloud computing space on Wednesday also reported sales increases in their cloud computing business, with all companies pointing to adoption of AI services as the main driver.The tech giants are all making huge investments to build up their AI computing capabilities, money that the companies insist will be justified by increasing adoption of AI tools and applications by customers across the globe.While the company did not break out its specific investment in AI capabilities, Amazon said it increased year-on-year purchases of property and equipment by $50.9 billion, which is a massive jump in spending.Amazon also said it added 3.8 gigawatts of power capacity over the past year to support AI infrastructure — more than any other cloud provider — and launched a massive computing cluster with nearly 500,000 custom AI chips.AI computing demands enormous amounts of electricity, far more than traditional computing, and can put a strain on local resources, notably water supplies needed for cooling data center activity.Operating income, however, remained flat at $17.4 billion after Amazon took two major charges: $2.5 billion for a legal settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and $1.8 billion in severance costs tied to planned job cuts.Amazon said Tuesday it was reducing its workforce by 14,000 posts to streamline operations as it invests in artificial intelligence.The cuts are expected to target areas such as human resources, advertising, and management in a group that has 350,000 office positions, out of a total of more than 1.5 million employees.The settlement with the FTC was over long-running allegations from the US regulator that it used deceptive practices to enroll consumers in Amazon Prime and made it difficult to cancel subscriptions.The online retail giant, which admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, paid $1.5 billion into a consumer fund for refunds and $1 billion in civil penalties.Shortly after the results landed, Amazon’s share price was up by 11 percent in after-hours trading.