AFP USA

Donald Trump declared Monday he has annulled preventative pardons issued by former president Joe Biden to members of Congress who angered Trump by investigating the attempt to overturn the 2020 US election.It was unclear what, if any authority Trump has to void presidential pardons issued by his predecessor.The Republican claimed that Biden’s signature on the documents had been carried out with a commonly used device known as an autopen and therefore was not valid — without providing evidence either for the autopen or his contention that it would invalidate the signature.The pardons “are hereby declared void, vacant, and of no further force or effect, because of the fact they were done by Autopen,” Trump posted on his social media account Truth Social.Biden issued pardons to former senior Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney and other members of the congressional committee that had investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters and multiple attempts by Trump to overturn the election in which he lost.The Biden pardons, issued at the end of his presidency, were effectively a blanket immunity to shield the lawmakers from Trump’s repeated promises that he would take revenge against them if he won the 2024 election.Trump appeared to acknowledge that his action entered disputed legal territory. Asked by reporters early Monday whether everything Biden signed with an autopen should be voided, Trump said “I think so. It’s not my decision, that’ll be up to a court.”But he said the committee members “should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level.”Biden also issued preemptive pardons to former Covid pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci, retired general Mark Milley, and — perhaps most controversially — to close family members including his son Hunter. All of them had become public targets of the incoming Republican president.Trump has repeatedly promised “retribution” against his political opponents and threatened some with criminal prosecution, and Biden said at the time that he could not “in good conscience do nothing.”On taking office this January, Trump immediately issued multiple pardons to supporters, including to about 1,500 people convicted in the storming of the Capitol building in an attempt to block certification of Biden’s election victory on January 6, 2021.

The death toll from tornadoes and violent storms that ravaged the central and southern United States over the weekend has risen to at least 40 people, with dozens more injured, local authorities said.Local news channels across the affected region showed video of roofs torn off homes, trees felled, and trucks overturned by high winds.Eight people died in Kansas in a crash involving more than 50 vehicles, caused by low visibility during a “severe dust storm,” local police said.In Oklahoma, four people were killed as wildfires and strong winds swept across the state, the local emergency management department said.Mississippi’s state governor said in a post on X that at least six people had been killed there, with three still missing.”We are actively monitoring the severe tornadoes and storms that have impacted many States across the South and Midwest,” President Donald Trump posted earlier Sunday on Truth Social, putting the toll at 36.He said National Guard troops were deployed in Arkansas, where officials said three people had died and 32 had been injured in the storm.”The damage is overwhelming,” Missouri governor Mike Kehoe said in a statement after visiting some of the hardest-hit areas in that state.”Homes and businesses have been destroyed, entire communities are without power, and the road to recovery will not be easy.”Earlier, the Missouri State Highway Patrol confirmed 12 storm-related fatalities and shared images of boats piled on top of one another at a marina destroyed by the weather.In Texas, local authorities said four people had died in vehicle accidents linked to dust storms and fires that reduced visibility on the roads.The United States saw the second-highest number of tornadoes on record last year with nearly 1,800, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), trailing only 2004.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels said they attacked an American aircraft carrier group twice within 24 hours as they prepared for huge rallies on Monday after US strikes left dozens dead.The response from the Huthis follows attacks on Saturday ordered by President Donald Trump that hammered the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, and several other areas, killing 53 people, according to the rebels.The United States struck the Huthis over their repeated attacks on Red Sea shipping sparked by the Gaza war, which have put a major strain on the vital trade route.The rebels said they had hit back by firing 18 missiles and a drone at the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier group on Sunday, before launching a second strike hours later.There was no immediate comment from the United States about the Huthis’ claimed attacks.In a statement posted to Telegram, a Huthi spokesperson said the attacks were “in retaliation to the continued American aggression against our country”.Washington has vowed to keep striking Yemen until the rebels stop attacking Red Sea shipping, with Trump warning he would use “overwhelming lethal force”.Huthi leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi called for large-scale rallies on Monday, the anniversary of the Battle of Badr — an against-the-odds, seventh-century military victory by the Prophet Mohammed.”I call on our dear people to go out tomorrow on the anniversary of the Battle of Badr in a million-strong march in Sanaa and the rest of the governorates,” he said in a televised address late on Sunday.- Heavy strikes -Sanaa’s Al Sabeen Square, the scene of regular major protests during the Israel-Hamas war, looked set to be packed once again for Monday’s rally.Late on Saturday, the Huthi-controlled capital was hit by heavy strikes, including in northern districts frequented by the rebels’ leadership.The Huthi health ministry said women and children were among the 53 people killed and 98 wounded.”The house shook, the windows shattered, and my family and I were terrified,” father of two Ahmed, who declined to give his full name, told AFP.The strikes were the first since Trump came to office in January, and came despite a pause in the Huthis’ attacks during a ceasefire in the Gaza war.On Sunday, US officials vowed further strikes until the rebels ended their campaign against Red Sea shipping, also threatening action against Iran.Huthi media reported more explosions late on Sunday night, accusing the Americans of targeting a cotton facility in the Hodeida region and the Galaxy Leader, a cargo ship hijacked in November 2023.In response to the latest escalation along the maritime trade route, the United Nations urged both sides to “cease all military activity”, while China reiterated calls for diplomacy.”The reasons behind the situation in the Red Sea and the Yemen issue are complex and should be properly resolved through dialogue and negotiation,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.- ‘Hell will rain down’ -The Iran-backed Huthis, who control much of the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, have attacked Israel and shipping vessels throughout the Gaza war, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians.Before this weekend’s targeting of the US carrier group, the Huthis had not claimed attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since January 19, when the ceasefire in Gaza began.However, the group had recently threatened to resume its attacks over Israel’s blocking of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory. It said it would “move to additional escalatory options” if the “American aggression” continued.US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz told ABC News that Saturday’s strikes “targeted multiple Huthi leaders and took them out”. The Huthis have not responded to Waltz’s claim.Trump, meanwhile, has warned the Yemeni group that “hell will rain down upon you” if it did not stop its attacks. In a social media post he also addressed Iran, demanding it stop supporting “Huthi terrorists”.Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the US strikes and said Washington had “no authority” to dictate Tehran’s foreign policy.A database set up by ACLED, a non-profit monitor, shows 136 Huthi attacks against warships, commercial vessels, and Israeli and other targets since October 19, 2023.While the Red Sea trade route normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, Huthi attacks have forced many companies into costly detours around southern Africa.The United States had already launched several rounds of strikes on Huthi targets under former president Joe Biden.Israel has also struck Yemen, most recently in December, after Huthi missile fire towards Israeli territory.In addition to their actions in the Red Sea, the rebels have been at war for nearly a decade with a Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government, from which the Huthis have seized large swathes of territory.Fighting in that conflict has largely been on hold since a 2022 ceasefire, but the promised peace process has stalled in the face of the Huthi attacks on shipping.burs/th/smw

At least 40 people were killed and dozens more injured by tornadoes and violent storms that ravaged the central and southern United States at the weekend, local authorities said.Local news channels across the affected region showed video of roofs torn off homes, trees felled, and trucks overturned by high winds.Eight people died in Kansas in a crash involving more than 50 vehicles, caused by low visibility during a “severe dust storm”, local police said.In Oklahoma, four people were killed as wildfires and strong winds swept across the state, the local emergency management department said.”We are actively monitoring the severe tornadoes and storms that have impacted many States across the South and Midwest,” President Donald Trump posted Sunday on Truth Social.He said National Guard troops were deployed in Arkansas, where officials said three people had died and 32 had been injured in the storm.”The damage is overwhelming,” Missouri governor Mike Kehoe said in a statement after visiting some of the hardest-hit areas in that state.”Homes and businesses have been destroyed, entire communities are without power, and the road to recovery will not be easy.”Earlier, the Missouri State Highway Patrol confirmed 12 storm-related fatalities and shared images of boats piled on top of one another at a marina destroyed by the weather.In Texas, local authorities said four people had died in vehicle accidents linked to dust storms and fires that reduced visibility on the roads.The United States saw the second-highest number of tornadoes on record last year with nearly 1,800, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), trailing only 2004.

The United States flew more than 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to be imprisoned in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele said Sunday, after US counterpart Donald Trump controversially invoked wartime legislation to expel them.The deportations took place despite a US federal judge granting a temporary suspension of the expulsions order — apparently as planes were headed to El Salvador — raising questions over whether the Trump administration deliberately defied the court decision.”Oopsie … Too late,” Bukele posted on social media in response to an article on the judge’s ruling, adding a crying-with-laughter emoji.White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt denied that officials had refused to comply with the court order, which the Trump administration is appealing, as she said the deportees had already left the United States.”A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil,” Leavitt wrote in a statement.Civil rights groups have warned that if Trump’s invocation of the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act law is upheld in courts, it could allow the deportation of huge numbers of adult migrants without explanation or a court hearing.Bukele announced Sunday that 238 members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which Trump has designated a foreign terrorist organization, had arrived in El Salvador.He shared a video on X of several men in handcuffs and shackles being transferred from a plane to a heavily guarded convoy, while the presidency shared photos showing prisoners’ heads being shaved upon arrival in El Salvador.AFP did not have access to the prisoners during their transfer nor was given details of the circumstances in which the images were taken. The El Salvador presidency released the only images of the event.The Washington Post, citing a White House official, said 137 of prisoners deported Saturday were under the Alien Enemies Act. It said a total of 261 people were deported.Bukele said the United States would “pay a very low fee” to El Salvador but did not specify the amount.- Mega-jail with windowless cells -In a post Sunday on his Truth Social platform, Trump referred to the deportees as “monsters sent into our Country by Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats,” and thanked El Salvador for receiving them.The US president on Friday had signed an order invoking the little-known Alien Enemies Act of 1798, but it was not publicly announced until Saturday.The wartime authority allows a president to detain or deport citizens of an enemy nation.It has been invoked only three times — during the War of 1812 to expel British nationals, during World War I against nationals from enemy nations and, most notoriously, during World War II for the internment of more than 100,000 Japanese citizens and Japanese Americans.Bukele, in a meeting last month with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, had offered to house prisoners from the United States in his country, including members of Tren de Aragua and El Salvador’s own MS-13 gang.The iron-fisted leader is extremely popular in his country for a successful crackdown on violent gangs, but has faced criticism from human rights groups.Bukele said the alleged gang members had been sent to the country’s maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a mega-prison southeast of the capital San Salvador with capacity for 40,000 prisoners.Inmates there are packed in windowless cells, sleep on metal beds with no mattresses and are forbidden visitors.- ‘Wartime powers’ -In a sharp rebuke Sunday, Venezuela’s government said Trump had “criminalized” Venezuelan migrants, whom it said were “in their immense majority… dignified and honest” workers.Trump, in his order, claimed Tren de Aragua was “conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime” in Caracas.The order will apply to all Venezuelan Tren de Aragua members who are over 14 and not naturalized US citizens or lawful permanent residents.The ACLU rights group and an allied group, Democracy Forward, asked a US District Court in Washington to bar the deportations — arguing that the 1798 act was not intended for use in peacetime.A Democracy Forward statement called Saturday a “horrific day in the history of the nation, when the president publicized that he was seeking to invoke extraordinary wartime powers in the absence of a war or invasion.”

US President Donald Trump says he plans to speak to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday about ending the war in Ukraine, adding discussions are already ongoing about “dividing up certain assets” between the warring parties.US officials had expressed optimism Sunday that a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire deal could be reached in weeks after Washington proposed a halt in fighting in the three-year war after talks in Saudi Arabia, which Kyiv accepted. “I think we’ll be talking about land… we’ll be talking about power plants,” Trump said aboard Air Force One.”I think we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia. We’re already talking about that, dividing up certain assets.”Washington and Kyiv’s European allies are pressing Moscow to accept a halt in the fighting, but Putin has given no clear answer — instead listing a string of conditions and raising “serious questions” over the proposal.Trump’s envoy for the conflict, Steve Witkoff, who met for several hours with Putin days ago, told CNN that he thinks “the two presidents are going to have a really good and positive discussion this week.”Trump, he added, “really expects there to be some sort of deal in the coming weeks, maybe, and I believe that’s the case”.Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday accused the Kremlin of not wanting to end the war. He warned that Moscow wanted to first “improve their situation on the battlefield” before agreeing to any ceasefire.- Rubio, Lavrov talk -Earlier, Moscow said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to discuss “concrete aspects of the implementation of understandings” at a US-Russia summit in Saudi Arabia last month. February’s Riyadh gathering was the first high-level meeting between the United States and Russia since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.”Sergei Lavrov and Marco Rubio agreed to remain in contact,” the Russian foreign ministry said, with no mention of the US-suggested ceasefire.State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Saturday that the pair had “discussed the next steps” on Ukraine, and “agreed to continue working towards restoring communication between the United States and Russia”.The Lavrov-Rubio call came hours after the UK hosted a virtual summit on Ukraine, at which Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Putin of “dragging his feet” on the ceasefire.  “The ‘yes, but’ from Russia is not good enough,” Starmer said, calling for a stop to the “barbaric attacks on Ukraine once and for all”.On Sunday, Kyiv said Moscow had launched 90 Iranian-made Shahed drones onto nine Ukrainian regions.- ‘Force Putin’ to peace -In his reaction to the ceasefire earlier this week, Putin said the initiative would benefit primarily Ukraine, as Russian forces were “advancing” in many areas. He raised “serious questions” over the initiative. The proposal came as Russia — which occupies swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine — has the momentum in some areas of the front.It has pushed out Ukrainian forces from parts of its Kursk region, where Kyiv hopes to hold onto Russian territory as a potential bargaining chip in any future negotiations. Putin said he wanted to discuss Moscow’s concerns with Trump in a phone call. Late on Sunday, Zelensky said he had spoken with Canada’s new Prime Minister, Mark Carney.”The Prime Minister made the right points about how we need to step up pressure on Moscow,” he said.”The shadow fleet, the banking sector. We must impose all-out sanctions on everything that provides Russia with funding for its war. Only then can we force Putin to a just and lasting peace.”Carney is due in France on Monday for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron that will cover the war in Ukraine, before travelling to London to meet UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.Canada has the presidency of the G7 nations this year.Also Sunday, Zelensky announced the chief of general staff of the armed forces, Anatoliy Bargylevych by Andriy Gnatov. Gnatov has been tasked with increasing efficiency in the armed forces.burs/jj/gv/cms/fox

Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels claimed on Monday to have twice attacked an American aircraft carrier group within 24 hours, calling it retaliation for deadly US strikes.The Huthis initially said they launched 18 missiles and a drone at the “aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and its accompanying warships” in the Red Sea, before hours later claiming to have fired a second round.There was no immediate comment from the United States about the Huthis’ claimed attacks.In a statement posted to Telegram on Monday, a Huthi spokesperson said the attacks on the carrier group were “in retaliation to the continued American aggression against our country”.Washington has vowed to keep striking Yemen until the rebels stop attacking Red Sea shipping, with President Donald Trump warning he will use “overwhelming lethal force”.The Huthi health ministry said women and children were among the 53 people killed and 98 wounded in US strikes on Saturday.Huthi media reported more explosions on Sunday night, accusing the Americans of targeting a cotton ginning factory in the western region of Hodeida as well as the Galaxy Leader, an Israeli ship captured more than a year ago.Huthi leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi called on Yemenis to march on Monday in defiance.In response to the latest escalation along the maritime trade route, the United Nations has urged both sides to “cease all military activity”.The Iran-backed Huthis, who control much of the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, have attacked Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, claiming to be acting in solidarity with Palestinians.Before this weekend’s targeting of the US carrier group, the Huthis had not claimed attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since January 19, when a ceasefire began in the Gaza Strip.The group said it relaunched its attacks over Israel’s halting of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and would “move to additional escalatory options” if “the American aggression against our country continues”.- ‘Terrified’ -Washington’s weekend strikes against the Huthis were the first since Trump’s return to the White House in January.US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz told ABC News that Saturday’s strikes “targeted multiple Huthi leaders and took them out”.Trump meanwhile warned the Huthis that “hell will rain down upon you”. In a social media post addressed to Iran, the US president demanded the Islamic Republic stop supporting “Huthi terrorists”.The US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed a “large scale operation” against the Huthis, which it said on Sunday night was continuing.Witnesses in Sanaa described experiencing a “horrific explosion” that shook houses and shattered windows.Footage on Huthi media showed children, including a dazed girl with blackened legs wrapped in bandages, and a woman being treated in hospital.The Huthis have sealed off areas around the blast sites, however, making it impossible to gauge the true scale of the destruction.One father of two, who gave his name as Ahmed, told AFP: “I’ve been living in Sanaa for 10 years, hearing shelling throughout the war. By God, I’ve never experienced anything like this before”.”My family and I were terrified,” he added.Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the deadly US strikes and said Washington had “no authority” to dictate Tehran’s foreign policy.The Huthis’ political bureau said its “forces are fully prepared to confront escalation with escalation”.- ‘Fully prepared’ -A database set up by ACLED, a non-profit monitor, shows 136 Huthi attacks against warships and commercial vessels, as well as Israeli and other targets since October 19, 2023.While the Red Sea trade route normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, Huthi attacks have forced many companies into costly detours around southern Africa.The Palestinian group Hamas, which has praised Huthi support, branded the US strikes “a stark violation of international law and an assault on the country’s sovereignty and stability”.The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, said: “Iran will not wage war, but if anyone threatens, it will give appropriate, decisive and conclusive responses.”The United States had already launched several rounds of strikes on Huthi targets.Israel has also struck Yemen, most recently in December, after Huthi missile fire towards Israeli territory.Fighting in Yemen’s own war has largely been on hold since a 2022 ceasefire, but the promised peace process has stalled in the face of the Huthi attacks on shipping.The war killed hundreds of thousands either directly or indirectly through causes such as disease, plunging Yemen into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.burs-lb/tym

President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday began mass layoffs at Voice of America and other US-funded media, making clear its intent to gut outlets long seen as critical for US influence.Just a day after all employees were put on leave, staff working on a contractual basis received an email notifying them that they were terminated at the end of March.The email, confirmed to AFP by several employees, told contractors that “you must cease all work immediately and are not permitted to access any agency buildings or systems.”Contractors make up much of VOA’s workforce and dominate staffing in the non-English language services, although recent figures were not immediately available.Many contractors are not US citizens, meaning they likely depend on their soon-to-disappear jobs for visas to stay in the United States.Most full-time VOA staff, who have more legal protections, were not immediately terminated but remain on administrative leave and have been told not to work.Voice of America, created during World War II, broadcast around the world in 49 languages with a mission to reach countries without media freedom. Liam Scott, a VOA reporter who covers press freedom and disinformation, said he was notified that he also reported that he was being dismissed as of March 31.The Trump administration’s destruction of VOA and sister outlets “are part of its efforts to dismantle the government more broadly — but it’s also part of the administration’s broader assault on press freedom and the media,” he wrote on X. “I’ve covered press freedom for a long time, and I’ve never seen something like what’s happened in the US over the past couple of months.”With VOA in limbo, some of its services have switched to playing music for lack of new programming.- Sweeping cuts -Trump signed an executive order Friday targeting VOA’s parent US Agency for Global Media in his latest sweeping cuts to the federal government.The agency had 3,384 employees in the 2023 fiscal year. It had requested $950 million for the current fiscal year.The sweeping cuts also froze Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, formed in the Cold War to reach the former Soviet bloc, and Radio Free Asia, established to provide reporting to China, North Korea and other Asian countries with heavily restricted media.Other US-funded outlets being gutted include Radio Farda, a Persian-language broadcaster blocked by Iran’s government, and Alhurra, an Arabic-language network established after the Iraq invasion in the face of highly critical coverage by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera.The White House said in a statement Saturday that “taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda,” a charge rarely leveled before Trump at the staid VOA, long aimed at countering communism.Trump regularly criticizes media coverage of him and has questioned the wisdom of funding VOA when it has a “firewall” ensuring its editorial independence.Trump, with the advice of tech billionaire Elon Musk, has vowed to drastically reduce the size of government to make way for tax cuts. His administration has already ended the vast majority of foreign development assistance and moved to eviscerate the Education Department.The moves come as China and Russia invest heavily in state media to compete with Western narratives, with China often offering free content to outlets in the developing world.In an editorial on the demise of VOA, China’s state-run Global Times said that “the monopoly of information held by some traditional Western media is being shattered.””As more Americans begin to break through their information cocoons and see a real world and a multidimensional China, the demonizing narratives propagated by VOA will ultimately become a laughingstock of the times,” it said.

After more than a decade of negotiations, a new round of talks to finalize a code to regulate deep-sea mining in international waters begins Monday in Jamaica, with hopes high for adoption this year.The International Seabed Authority (ISA), an independent body established in 1994 under a UN convention, has been working since 2014 on the new rules for developing mineral resources on the ocean floor.The huge task has gathered pace, under pressure from corporate concerns eager to cash in on the untapped minerals.Canada’s The Metals Company plans to file the first commercial mining license request in June, through its subsidiary Nori (Nauru Ocean Resources Inc.), which hopes to extract polymetallic nodules from the Pacific.Here is a look at the proposed rules, and why they have sparked intense debate:- What does this mining code entail? -Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the ISA must both oversee any exploration or mining of coveted resources (such as cobalt, nickel, or manganese) in international waters, and protect the marine environment.For activists worried about the protection of hard-to-reach ocean ecosystems, this twin mandate is nonsensical. Some groups, and more and more countries, are asking for a moratorium on seabed mining.With no consensus, the ISA-led negotiations have continued.The ISA Council, made up of 36 of the authority’s 169 member states, will spend the next two weeks trying to bridge the gaps on finalizing the code.They are working from a 250-page “consolidated text” already riddled with parenthetical changes, and comments on disagreements.But then there are dozens of amendments filed by countries, companies and non-governmental organizations.Emma Wilson of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition told AFP there were “over 2,000 textual elements that are still being discussed — and that those debates were  “not close to being resolved.”- How would seabed mining work? -Any entity wishing to obtain a contract to mine the ocean floor must be sponsored by a specific country.Those applications for mining licenses would first go through the ISA’s legal and technical commission, which NGOs say is too pro-industry and opaque. The commission would evaluate the financial, technical and environmental aspects of the proposed plans, and then make a recommendation to the ISA Council, the final decision-maker.But some worry that rules already set by UNCLOS would make it too difficult to reject any favorable recommendations.The draft code calls for initial contracts lasting 30 years, followed up with extensions of five years at a time.- What about environmental protection? -Potential mining companies must conduct a survey of the possible environmental risks of their activities, but details on these surveys are still up in the air, with negotiators not yet even agreed on how to define the terms. More and more countries, along with NGOs, highlight that even the idea of surveying potential impact is effectively impossible, given the lack of scientific data about the zones. And some Pacific states insist that the code explicitly state the need to protect “underwater cultural heritage,” but that is under debate.- What about compliance? -The draft text calls for inspections and evaluations for deep-sea mining companies, but how such a system would work is under debate. Some even think such mechanisms are ultimately not all that feasible.- Will there be profit-sharing? -Under UNCLOS, resources on the ocean floor are seen as the “common heritage of mankind.”The mining code under consideration stipulates that each company must pay royalties to the ISA based on the value of the metals. But what percentage should they pay?A working group has proposed royalties of anywhere from three to 12 percent, while African states believe 40 percent is more just.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday began mass layoffs at Voice of America and other US-funded media, making clear its intent to gut outlets long seen as critical for US influence.Just a day after all employees were put on leave, staff working on a contractual basis received an email notifying them that they were terminated at the end of March.The email, confirmed to AFP by several employees, told contractors that “you must cease all work immediately and are not permitted to access any agency buildings or systems.”Contractors make up much of VOA’s workforce and dominate staffing in the non-English language services, although recent figures were not immediately available.Many contractors are not US citizens, meaning they likely depend on their soon-to-disappear jobs for visas to stay in the United States.Full-time VOA staff, who have more legal protections, were not immediately terminated but remain on administrative leave and have been told not to work.Voice of America, created during World War II, broadcast around the world in 49 languages with a mission to reach countries without media freedom. Trump signed an executive order Friday targeting VOA’s parent US Agency for Global Media in his latest sweeping cuts to the federal government.The agency had 3,384 employees in the 2023 fiscal year. It had requested $950 million for the current fiscal year.With VOA in limbo, some of its services have switched to playing music for lack of new programming.The sweeping cuts also froze Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, formed in the Cold War to reach the former Soviet bloc, and Radio Free Asia, established to provide reporting to China, North Korea and other Asian countries with heavily restricted media.Other US-funded outlets being gutted include Radio Farda, a Persian-language broadcaster blocked by Iran’s government, and Alhurra, an Arabic-language network established after the Iraq invasion in the face of highly critical coverage by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera.The White House in a statement Saturday said that “taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda,” a charge rarely leveled before Trump at staid VOA, long aimed at countering communism.Trump regularly criticizes media coverage of him and has questioned the wisdom of funding VOA when it has a “firewall” ensuring its editorial independence.The cuts come as China and Russia invest heavily in state media to compete with Western narratives, with China often offering free content to outlets in the developing world.In an editorial on the demise of VOA, China’s state-run Global Times said that “the monopoly of information held by some traditional Western media is being shattered.””As more Americans begin to break through their information cocoons and see a real world and a multidimensional China, the demonizing narratives propagated by VOA will ultimately become a laughingstock of the times,” it said.