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US retail sales lost momentum in September and firms grappled with an uptick in business costs, government data showed Tuesday, underscoring growing concerns about affordability in the world’s biggest economy.Beyond these delayed economic figures — indicating that consumers turned cautious towards the end of the summer — a separate survey saw consumer confidence hitting its lowest level since April this month.Economists warn that the softening in sales is likely to persist as President Donald Trump’s tariffs add to cost increases, while the labor market weakens.Overall retail sales picked up by 0.2 percent on a month-on-month basis, said the Commerce Department, slightly below analyst expectations and cooling from August’s 0.6 percent increase.A report by the Labor Department meanwhile showed that wholesale inflation picked up in September, rising by 0.3 percent, in line with forecasts.This rise was driven by a 0.9-percent jump in goods prices, highlighting the steeper costs that businesses face. Much of it was attributed to the volatile food and energy segments.But for now, some retailers continue to shield customers from the full effects of higher business prices.- ‘Value-hunting’ -As Trump’s tariffs take hold, all eyes have been on how consumers — a key driver of the world’s biggest economy — respond to price pressures.Affordability has emerged as a key worry, with Democrats’ victories in off-year elections in New Jersey, New York and Virginia this month fueled by voters angry over rising costs.Trump has since widened tariff exemptions to cover various agriculture products as costs of living weigh on American voters.Besides the “muted growth” in September’s retail sales, Navy Federal Credit Union chief economist Heather Long flagged notable monthly declines in categories hard hit by tariffs.These include auto parts, electronics, appliances, sporting goods and instruments.”American consumers are in value-hunting mode,” Long said. “They are spending more on the basics and being extra choosy with where they spend their discretionary dollars.”- Rate cut ahead? -There is also a growing gap between higher earners and lower-income households.Although wealthier households continue to spend, “middle- and lower-income families are turning more cautious heading into the holiday season,” said EY-Parthenon senior economist Lydia Boussour.She noted mounting pressures from a weaker jobs market.The retail figures, alongside fresh evidence of soft private-sector hiring, boost the case for another Federal Reserve interest rate cut in December, Boussour added.Data released by The Conference Board showed Tuesday too that consumers are not only “less sanguine” about their current situations but “notably more pessimistic about business conditions six months from now.”Its consumer confidence index dropped to 88.7 in November, from 95.5 in October, the lowest reading in seven months.Looking ahead, Fed officials will be digesting the newer private sector indicators and delayed federal figures as they mull the need for another rate cut in December.Both government reports published Tuesday had been delayed as a shutdown between October and mid-November halted data releases on inflation, jobs and others.The stoppage hit the collection of consumer inflation and employment data for October in particular, resulting in the cancellation of full reports on both fronts. Instead, available numbers will be released with November’s figures.On Tuesday, Commerce Department figures showed that September retail sales were still up 4.3 percent from a year ago.The producer price index report, meanwhile, indicated that “the inflation impulse from the tariffs is modest and underlying services inflation is still slowing,” said Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics.Underlying PPI inflation “should ease after producers have finished passing on tariff costs in a few months’ time,” he added.

The oldest survivor of the Tulsa race massacre, one of the worst episodes of racist violence in US history, has died aged 111, a local official said on Tuesday.Viola Fletcher was a child in 1921 when her Black neighborhood of Greenwood in Oklahoma state was torched by white mobs. Historians say as many as 300 African American residents were killed.”Today, our city mourns the loss of Mother Viola Fletcher — a survivor of one of the darkest chapters in our city’s history,” Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols said in a statement.”Fletcher carried 111 years of truth, resilience, and grace and was a reminder of how far we’ve come and how far we must still go.”The violence began after a group of Black men went to the local courthouse on May 31, 1921, to defend a young African American man accused of assaulting a white woman.They found themselves facing a furious white mob and retreated to Greenwood when shots were fired.White men looted and burned the neighborhood, then one of America’s most successful Black enclaves and so affluent it was known as Black Wall Street, at dawn the next day.Much of the neighbourhood was burned to the ground, buildings were destroyed, and businesses looted. Thousands of people were left homeless.Fletcher, who dropped out of elementary school and suffered decades of poverty, working mostly as a housekeeper for white families, later said she had “lived through the massacre every day” for the past century.- ‘Still hear the screams’ -She was one of the survivors of the massacre who testified before Congress a century later to the horrors she witnessed, calling for reparations.”I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street… I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear the screams,” Fletcher told a House Judiciary Committee hearing in 2021.”Our country may forget this history but I cannot. I will not, and other survivors do not, and our descendants do not,” she said.The commission concluded that Tulsa authorities themselves had armed some of the white rioters.It also recommended that Greenwood residents and their descendants be compensated, but the effort failed.In 2021, Joe Biden became the first US president to commemorate the massacre in a Tulsa service honoring the forgotten victims.The city also began to excavate mass graves, where many Black victims of the massacre were buried, in an effort to shed more light on its dark past.The last surviving witness to the massacre is 111-year-old Lessie Evelyn Benningfield, six months younger than Fletcher.The United States has been embroiled in a debate over racism in recent years, fuelled by the 2020 killing of African American George Floyd, who suffocated under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.

Donald Trump demolished part of the White House near the end of 2025 to make way for a giant ballroom, a fitting symbol for a president whose second term began like a political wrecking ball.In the second year of his second presidency, Trump will seek to turn his bulldozer into a lasting legacy. But in politics, as with his construction work, 2026 is going to involve heavy lifting.And the clock is ticking for the 79-year-old. After midterm elections in November that will be dominated by the cost of living, his Republican Party will have to contemplate life without Trump in 2028.”The shock and awe sent everyone on the other side reeling,” William Galston, senior fellow at Brookings Institution, told AFP. “But I have a feeling that the shock and awe is wearing off.” Trump’s immediate challenge will be to deliver on the promises of his first year back in the White House — an unprecedented display of presidential power that climaxed with the physical destruction of the East Wing.In his first 100 days, Trump issued a slew of executive orders aimed at ripping apart the government and laying off federal workers, aided by tycoon Elon Musk until their relationship blew up.He cracked down on migration, sent troops into Democratic-run cities, targeted political enemies for retribution, and used legal threats to cow businesses, universities and media organizations.On the world stage Trump was the great disruptor yet again.His tariffs sent the world’s economies scrambling, he held summits with the strongmen leaders of Russia and China, and see-sawed on Ukraine with his notorious Oval Office ambushing of Volodymyr Zelensky.His peace efforts brought fragile success in Gaza but war drums could be beating for Venezuela, with an American aircraft carrier now deployed off the coast.- ‘Promises’ -Trump insists his approach his working. “We’ve had a great nine months. Now we have to do it more than a few more times, we just have to keep it going,” he said last week.But the vultures have already started hovering as year two approaches, thanks to Trump’s rare predicament as a president serving non-consecutive terms.His critics believe the first cracks have started to show, in the face of poor off-year election results, worries about affordability, and a rebellion inside the Republican Party over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.Looming over 2026 will be November’s mid-term elections.Democrats will be hoping to win back the House amid mounting discontent with the cost-of-living and with Trump himself, whose approval ratings keep hitting new lows.White House officials told AFP Trump is turning his focus to the economy, ramping up domestic travel even before the end of 2025 with a series of events and campaign-style rallies.Trump, they say, has got the message from voters worried about affordability and healthcare, even as critics in his own Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement have criticized his focus on foreign peace deals.”Candidate Trump 2024 made a series of promises to working-class Americans,” Galston said. “They’re going to have to get redeemed in the next 12 months.”- ‘Explosive’ 2028 looms -The question is how much Trump will be able to do.The Supreme Court is set to hand down a series of major judgments that may not all go his way despite its conservative bent, particularly on the legality of his tariffs.At the same time, Trump’s administration effectively admitted that tariffs are raising the cost of living — it recently lowered them on goods like coffee, beef and tomatoes.Still, the consummate political showman will keep selling his political brand.Two major events will help him — the FIFA World Cup, and the 250th anniversary of US independence, which Trump will celebrate with a cage fight on the White House lawn.”I’m not sure he’s a lame duck yet,” Garret Martin, professor of international relations at American University, told AFP.But he predicted an “explosive” situation over Trump’s succession, the battle for which will start as soon as the midterms are over.Vice President JD Vance has already staked out his claim, while MAGA ally-turned-foe Marjorie Taylor Green has emerged as a possible rival, despite her denials.Trump could throw further oil on the fire if he starts hinting again that he try to run for a third term in 2028, despite this being barred by the US Constitution.”Given the president’s inclination to litigate everything, I wouldn’t put it past him,” said Galston.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping pressed the ever-sensitive issue of Taiwan in a phone call Monday with US President Donald Trump, as he stressed the need to build on a fragile trade truce between the two superpowers.China’s foreign ministry said the call touched on other issues, such as Ukraine, but Taiwan featured prominently, with China embroiled in a weeks-long diplomatic row with key US ally Japan over the self-governing island.China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, and Xi told Trump that its return was an “integral part of the post-war international order” forged in the joint US-China fight against “fascism and militarism”, according to the department.”Given what is going on, it is even more important for us to jointly safeguard the victory of WWII,” Xi told Trump.Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai hit back at Xi’s comments, telling reporters on Tuesday that Taiwan “is a fully sovereign state” and “there is no such option as return”.The latest bitter dispute between Tokyo and Beijing was triggered by new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggesting this month that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.While the United States does not officially recognise Taiwan’s claim to statehood, Washington remains the island’s most important partner and arms supplier.Trump praised “extremely strong” US-China relations in a social media post after the call, but made no mention of the contentious issue of Taiwan.According to China’s foreign ministry, Trump told Xi during their discussion that the United States “understands how important the Taiwan question is to China”.The US president’s statement also confirmed that he will visit China in April, and that Xi will go to Washington later in 2026.Meanwhile Takaichi said she also had a call with Trump and discussed his conversation with Xi, as well as US-Japan relations.We “held a wide-ranging exchange of views on strengthening the Japan-US alliance and the challenges and issues facing the Indo-Pacific region”, she told reporters, without elaborating.She said Trump had proposed the call.Both China and Japan have sent letters to the UN in recent days over the Taiwan issue.- Trade talks momentum -Xi and Trump’s call came after the pair met in late October for the first time since 2019, engaging in closely watched trade talks between the world’s top two economies.The Washington-Beijing tussle, which encompasses everything from rare earths to soybeans and port fees, has rocked markets and gummed up supply chains for months.A tentative deal reached in October’s meeting in South Korea saw Beijing agree to suspend for one year certain export restrictions on critical minerals.China is hugely dominant in the mining and processing of rare earths, which are essential for sophisticated electronic components across a range of industries, including auto, electronics and defence.Meanwhile, the United States said it will cut back tariffs on Chinese products, and Beijing will buy at least 12 million tonnes of American soybeans by the end of this year and 25 million tonnes in 2026.Xi told Trump on Monday that their two countries should “keep up the momentum”, according to the foreign ministry.He added that the “successful” meeting in South Korea “recalibrated the course of the giant ship of China-US relations and provided more momentum for it to sail forward steadily”.Since the meeting, China–US ties have “generally maintained a steady and positive trajectory, and this is welcomed by the two countries and the broader international community”, Xi said.Trump struck a similarly optimistic tone in his statement. “Now we can set our sights on the big picture,” he said.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said Washington hoped to finalise a deal with Beijing for securing supplies of rare earths by the Thanksgiving holiday, which falls on Thursday.The two leaders also discussed the war in Ukraine — an issue high on Trump’s agenda as he pushes for an end to the war with a fresh deal that critics say largely satisfies Russian demands at the expense of Kyiv.China has positioned itself as a neutral party, and in Monday’s call Xi reiterated his backing to end the nearly four-year conflict.

Hundreds of farmworkers and truck drivers blocked the Mexican side of a major border bridge with the United States on Monday as part of an ongoing national farmers’ strike.The protest blocked the Zaragoza-Ysleta International Bridge, which connects the US city of El Paso, Texas with Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez. An estimated 70 percent of trade between the two countries passes through such border crossings.The protest came in response to several reforms in the General Water Law promoted by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, which would ban the sale of concession titles or their transfer. Similar demonstrations were conducted in 16 states across Mexico.”We don’t want them (the government) to monopolize the water and do whatever they want with the permits,” said Gerardo Fierro, one of the farmers at the protest.Protests also saw agricultural workers storm the customs offices in Ciudad Juarez.Javier Jurado, president of an agricultural business, said Sheinbaum’s administration wants to “hijack” the water and leave farmers “defenseless.”Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez addressed the protests at a press conference in Mexico City, saying that “there is no motive for the protests…unless they are politically motivated.”

Venezuela on Monday rejected the US terrorist designation of an alleged drug cartel on its territory as a “ridiculous lie” aimed at paving the way for an “illegitimate” military intervention.A major US military build-up near Venezuela has led to speculation that President Donald Trump is planning to try to topple Venezuela’ Socialist leader Nicolas Maduro.Washington accuses Maduro of heading an alleged Venezuelan drug cartel, “Cartel de los Soles” (Cartel of the Suns), which the United States on Monday designated a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).Venezuela’s foreign ministry on Monday rejected what it called “the new and ridiculous lie from Secretary of State Marco Rubio” which it said aimed “to justify an illegitimate and illegal intervention against Venezuela.”On Tuesday, the top US military officer, Dan Caine, will visit the small Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, a US ally situated a few miles from Venezuela that recently hosted US troops for training exercises.The US embassy said that the visit by the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff would focus on “countering illicit trafficking and transnational criminal organizations.”The visit is part of a months-long campaign of maximum pressure on Maduro, whose reelection last year was widely dismissed by the international community as fraudulent.Maduro appeared at two public events on Monday without mentioning the designation, instead reiterating that Venezuela will remain triumphant. “Whatever they do, wherever they do it, however they do it, they will not be able to defeat Venezuela. We are invincible,” Maduro said during his weekly television program.The US has deployed the world’s largest aircraft carrier and other military forces to waters near Venezuela as part of a stated campaign to dismantle Latin American drug trafficking routes.The Trump administration claims that the Cartel of the Suns is a drug trafficking syndicate run by Maduro and has issued a $50 million reward for the president’s capture.But Venezuela and countries that support it insist no such organization even exists. Several Venezuela experts say what Washington calls the Cartel of the Suns refers to the corruption of senior officials by criminal gangs.- Flights cancelled -US forces have killed at least 83 people in strikes on boats accused of ferrying drugs from Latin America towards the United States since September, according to an AFP tally of publicly released figures. No evidence has been made public that drugs were on board, and experts say the strikes are likely illegal even if the targets were proven to be drug traffickers.The terrorism designation will give Washington legal cover for more pressure on the Venezuelan authorities.The Trump administration has been vague about how far it is willing to go in Venezuela, but the huge military build-up and regular killings of people in small boats have rattled nerves — and prompted concerns in Washington that the US military may be breaking the law.On Saturday, six airlines announced they were canceling flights to Venezuela due to safety concerns.The US Federal Aviation Administration on Friday urged civilian aircraft in Venezuelan airspace to “exercise caution” due to the “worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela.”burs-cb/jgc/sla

President Donald Trump’s bid to lock in Republican rule in next year’s US elections with an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting sweep could be coming undone — and threatening to gift Democrats an unexpected advantage.Breaking with political tradition, the president has pressed conservative states to redraw their congressional maps years before the next census, arguing that Republicans are “entitled” to grow their thin majority in the US House of Representatives.His party initially seemed well positioned — they control more state legislatures and map-drawing processes — but the strategy has stumbled.Democrats, once bracing for losses in a redistricting arms race, are now hopeful of netting around five seats — and possibly more — as courts and state officials weigh in.The biggest blow came last week when a federal court struck down Texas’s new map, which would have generated up to five additional Republican-friendly seats for the 2026 midterm elections.Democrats’ momentum was partially checked Friday when the conservative-majority US Supreme Court allowed Texas to put its disputed map back into effect while justices review the case. But the effort remains mired in uncertainty.”No one is going to win the redistricting battle,” said Republican political writer Patrick Payton, a pastor and business leader who has served as the mayor of the Texan city of Midland.”It’s a zero-sum game where the executive and legislative branches both seek to manipulate outcomes by re-drawing maps rather than leading and governing in such a way as to gain trust and votes.”The Texas ruling followed a court defeat in Utah and resistance from Republican lawmakers in Indiana, Kansas and New Hampshire who have balked at White House pressure. – Playing with fire? -Frustration is rising, with some arguing Republicans should be concentrating on campaigning, not cartography.”Donald Trump and (Governor) Greg Abbott played with fire, got burned — and democracy won,” California Governor Gavin Newsom declared after the Texas map began running into problems.The Lone Star State’s quick appeal could be viewed favorably by the US Supreme Court, which has previously overturned some rulings that blocked Trump policies.But for now, Democrats are advancing.Voters approved a new map drawn by the party in California, adding as many as five US House seats. In Virginia, Democratic leaders are pushing a plan that could yield two or three more.Combined with the Utah ruling, analysts believe Democrats could be up by nine seats when the maps are all finalized, if Texas goes their way.Republicans have logged their own successes — North Carolina may have added a conservative-leaning seat, and Missouri redrew its map, at Trump’s urging, to eliminate a Democratic district. But both face legal challenges.Elsewhere, progress is slow. Florida’s legislature meets December 4 to consider whether to begin redistricting, and Governor Ron DeSantis has urged voters to “stay tuned.” But the tit-for-tat is accelerating, prompting Democratic countermeasures in blue states.”They started this redistricting fight. We’ll end it,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed to reporters.Time is short, as candidates need boundaries before party primaries early next year. The Supreme Court’s full ruling on Texas could still come within weeks. Filing deadlines begin December 8, and primaries start in March.- ‘Years of litigation’ -Meanwhile, the high court is weighing a major Voting Rights Act challenge from Louisiana that could shrink the number of Black and Latino majority districts nationwide, potentially giving Republicans a dozen seats.Whether that drama affects the midterms will depend on timing.Lower courts are reviewing maps in multiple states, and voters in New York have sued to change a Staten Island–based district that could hand Democrats another seat.Tensions are also rising in Republican-led states. In Indiana, after Trump attacked local officials over their hesitancy to act, state Senator Greg Goode was “swatted” — a dangerous hoax that summoned armed police to his home.With control of the US House at stake — Republicans hold a narrow 219–213 majority — the risks are enormous. Mid-decade redistricting is unusual, and both parties fear each aggressive move provokes another.”Betting on maximal maps in as many states as possible made sense if courts kept to the sidelines, but… there is a line on racial gerrymandering,” political analyst Michael Ashley Schulman said.”And once you cross it you invite years of litigation that can boomerang into less favorable redistricting.”

The Trump administration announced on Monday that it was ending temporary protections shielding immigrants from Myanmar from deportation from the United States.The move affects around 4,000 people from the Southeast Asian nation who have been living in the United States under what is known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).TPS protects its holders from deportation and allows them to work.It is granted to people deemed to be in danger if they return to their home countries, because of war, natural disaster or other extraordinary circumstances.President Donald Trump, as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown, has removed TPS for nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria, South Sudan and Venezuela.Trump announced on Friday that he would also withdraw TPS from Somalis.TPS was extended to Myanmar nationals after a 2021 military coup. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the decision to withdraw it was made after a review of conditions in the country.Myanmar continues to face “humanitarian challenges due in part to continued military operations against armed resistance,” Noem said.But, she added, there have been improvements in “governance and stability at the national and local levels.”Noem noted the July lifting of a state of emergency and the announcement that “free and fair elections” will take place beginning in December.The move drew fierce criticism from nongovernmental advocacy organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW). “Homeland Security’s misstatements in revoking TPS for people from Myanmar are so egregious that it is hard to imagine who would believe them,” John Sifton, HRW’s Asia advocacy director, said in a statement.The group noted that “Myanmar’s supposedly revoked state of emergency in July was immediately replaced with a new state of emergency and martial law in scores of townships across nine states and regions.”Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has said it is “unfathomable” for Myanmar to hold free and fair elections under current circumstances.”How can anyone say that they’re free and fair,” Turk said in a recent interview with AFP.”And how can they even be conducted when considerable parts of the country are actually not in anyone’s control, and with the military being party to the conflict and having suppressed its population for years?” he added.Rights groups have said the election cannot be legitimate, with democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi deposed and jailed in the coup, and her popular National League for Democracy party dissolved.The junta seized power making unsubstantiated claims of fraud in a 2020 election that the NLD won in a landslide.A many-sided civil war has since consumed Myanmar, with the junta having lost swathes of the country to pro-democracy guerrillas and powerful ethnic-minority armed factions.The US State Department currently advises Americans not to travel to Myanmar due to “armed conflict, the potential for civil unrest” and “wrongful detentions.”  

Elon Musk’s X erupted in uproar after the rollout of a feature revealing an account’s location, exposing what users describe as global troll farms and influence operations on the platform — including in support of Donald Trump.X’s head of product Nikita Bier launched the feature over the weekend, allowing users “to see the country or region where an account is based,” in a bid to boost transparency on a platform that tech experts say is rife with disinformation.”This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square,” Bier wrote on X.The launch triggered a wave of online sleuthing.Almost immediately, the platform flooded with posts flagging dozens of right-wing internet personalities — promoters of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) or “America First” political slogans — whose location data showed they were in Nigeria, Bangladesh, or Eastern Europe.Influential pro-Trump accounts that present themselves as US-based but actually operate overseas have circulated 31 false claims over the past 15 months — including allegations of Democratic corruption — according to a NewsGuard analysis using the location feature.The feature also seemed to vindicate researchers who warned during last year’s US presidential election that a network of MAGA accounts — posing as “Trump-supporting independent women” and using stolen photos of European models and influencers — was operating overseas.”X’s new account info showed many of these ‘American’ women were actually based in Thailand, with some tied to Myanmar,” Benjamin Strick, the London-based director of investigations at the Centre for Information Resilience, told AFP.”Before this change we could show these profiles were fake, but we had almost no visibility on where they were run from, and often had to rely on ‘slip ups’ posted by the accounts, time posting patterns and irregularities in language.”Now we can see that many of the accounts in this specific network are linked to Southeast Asia, which brings us closer to understanding who might be behind them,” Strick added.- ‘Rough edges’ -Reflecting a hyperpolarized political climate, some right-wing personalities also pointed fingers at left-wing users seemingly posting from suspicious locations.X, however, cautioned that the location data “may not be accurate and can change periodically.”When users clicked on an account’s location, a pop up noted: “The country or region that an account is based can be impacted by recent travel or temporary relocation.”Some users may also be connected via a VPN that can mask their real location.”There are a few rough edges that will be resolved by Tuesday,” Bier wrote after the feature’s launch.Late Sunday, Bier said an “upgrade” was upcoming that will ensure “accuracy will be nearly 99.99%”Some users criticized the launch, warning that it could expose the locations of dissidents and protestors in autocratic states. Bier, however, said that for users in countries “where speech has penalties,” the feature includes privacy toggles that reveal only the region.Soon after the launch, some apparent imposter accounts with vast followings were suddenly taken down.One X handle posing as a fan account for Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, was suspended after users noted that its location was listed as Nigeria.The account, which had amassed one million followers, regularly posted pro-Trump content as well as Islamophobic and anti-immigration messages.As tech platforms scale back content moderation and reduce their reliance on human fact-checkers, disinformation researchers warn of a growing threat from Russian and Chinese actors seeking to sow political chaos in Western countries — as well as from overseas influencers driven by the prospect of monetary gain.The new feature “shines a light on a fundamental problem with social media today: paid actors are deliberately inflaming difficult issues because controversy attracts attention,” Amy Bruckman, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told AFP.”It’s a difficult situation, and I believe we need more trustworthy platforms that don’t allow people to behave badly.”Last month, X laid off half of its engineering team responsible for fighting influence operations, spam, and illegal content on the platform, reflecting a push to replace staff with artificial intelligence, The Information reported on Monday.X did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.burs-ac/jgc

Elon Musk’s X erupted in uproar after the rollout of a feature revealing an account’s location, exposing what users describe as global troll farms and influence operations on the platform — including in support of President Donald Trump.X’s head of product Nikita Bier launched the feature over the weekend, allowing users “to see the country or region where an account is based,” in a bid to boost transparency on a platform that tech experts say is rife with disinformation.”This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square,” Bier wrote on X.The launch triggered a wave of online sleuthing.Almost immediately, the platform flooded with posts flagging dozens of right-wing internet personalities — promoters of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) or “America First” political slogans — whose location data showed they were in Nigeria, Bangladesh, or Eastern Europe.”Why are so many MAGA influencers from outside the U.S.? It’s almost as if they are working for foreign governments,” liberal influencer Ed Krassenstein wrote in a post.The feature also seemed to vindicate researchers who warned during last year’s US presidential election that a network of MAGA accounts — posing as “Trump-supporting independent women” and using stolen photos of European models and influencers — was operating overseas.”X’s new account info showed many of these ‘American’ women were actually based in Thailand, with some tied to Myanmar,” Benjamin Strick, the London-based director of investigations at the Centre for Information Resilience, told AFP.”Before this change we could show these profiles were fake, but we had almost no visibility on where they were run from, and often had to rely on ‘slip ups’ posted by the accounts, time posting patterns and irregularities in language.”Now we can see that many of the accounts in this specific network are linked to Southeast Asia, which brings us closer to understanding who might be behind them,” Strick added.- ‘Rough edges’ -Reflecting a hyperpolarized political climate, some right-wing personalities also pointed fingers at left-wing users seemingly posting from suspicious locations.X, however, cautioned that the location data “may not be accurate and can change periodically.”When users clicked on an account’s location, a pop up noted: “The country or region that an account is based can be impacted by recent travel or temporary relocation.”Some users may also be connected via a VPN that can mask their real location.”There are a few rough edges that will be resolved by Tuesday,” Bier wrote after the feature’s launch.Late Sunday, Bier said an “upgrade” was upcoming that will ensure “accuracy will be nearly 99.99%”Some users criticized the launch, warning that it could expose the locations of dissidents and protestors in autocratic states. Bier, however, said that for users in countries “where speech has penalties,” the feature includes privacy toggles that reveal only the region.Soon after the launch, some apparent imposter accounts with vast followings were suddenly taken down without any explanation.One X handle posing as a fan account for Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, was suspended after users noted that its location was listed as Nigeria.The account, which had amassed more than one million followers, regularly posted pro-Trump content as well as Islamophobic and anti-immigration messages.X did not respond to AFP’s request for comment on the suspension.As tech platforms scale back content moderation and reduce their reliance on human fact-checkers, disinformation researchers warn of a growing threat from Russian and Chinese actors seeking to sow political chaos in Western countries — as well as from overseas influencers driven by the prospect of monetary gain.The new feature “shines a light on a fundamental problem with social media today: paid actors are deliberately inflaming difficult issues because controversy attracts attention,” Amy Bruckman, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told AFP.”It’s a difficult situation, and I believe we need more trustworthy platforms that don’t allow people to behave badly.”burs-ac/sms/sla