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US President Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed social media rumors that have swirled about his health — including that he had died — as “fake news” during a press conference at the White House.Trump did not schedule any public appearances or hold any press conferences for several days last week, a noticeable absence from the cameras for the publicity-loving 79-year-old.Combined with his age — he is the oldest person ever to be elected US president — and recent images of his bruised hand and swollen ankles, the quiet from the Oval Office ignited widespread speculation that something was seriously wrong with Trump’s health.Many users even suggested that the 45th and 47th US president may have passed away, and that the White House was covering it up.”Really? I didn’t see that,” the Republican said when a reporter on Tuesday asked him jokingly, “How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?””That’s fake news,” he added as the reporter, Fox News’ Peter Doocy, told him of the speculation.Trump complained that he had done several news conferences last week “then I didn’t do any for two days and they said ‘there must be something wrong with him.'””It’s so fake. ‘Is he ok, how’s he feeling, what’s wrong?'”Trump, who began his second term in office in January, actually had no public events for six consecutive days before Tuesday’s press conference.But he was heard playing music in the Rose Garden on one of those days, and was then seen heading to play golf on three of them over the long US Labor Day weekend.”I was very active over the weekend,” Trump insisted.- Hand make-up -Trump’s right hand however appeared on Tuesday to be heavily made up, as it has on a number of recent occasions.The topic “#trumpdead” continued to trend on Tuesday on the X social network, owned by Trump’s former political ally Elon Musk.In July the White House said that discoloration on Trump’s right hand was “tissue irritation from frequent handshaking” and the use of aspirin as part of a standard cardiovascular treatment.It said his legs were swollen by chronic venous insufficiency, a common, benign vein condition.The condition involves damaged leg veins that fail to keep blood flowing properly.Presidential physician Sean Barbabella said Trump “remains in excellent health” despite the condition, in a letter released by the White House at the time.The billionaire frequently boasts of his good health and energy levels while the administration even posted an image depicting him as Superman.The health of US presidents has always been closely watched, but with the White House seeing its two oldest ever occupants since 2017 the scrutiny is now heavier than ever.Trump has alleged that Democrats covered up the mental and physical decline of his predecessor, Joe Biden, who was 82 when he left office in January.Biden’s health was a key issue in the 2024 election, and the then-president was forced to drop his campaign for a second term after a disastrous debate performance against Trump.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that the headquarters of the US Space Command will be moved from Colorado to Alabama, reversing a decision by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.The move, which Trump openly linked to his debunked conspiracy theory about election fraud by opponents, follows a bitter, years-long battle between the two states over which should host the facility.The command center oversees US operations in outer space and brings with it a significant boost to jobs in the area where it is located.”I’m thrilled to report that the US Space Command headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama,” Trump said at the White House.Democrat Biden had decided to keep Space Command — known as SPACECOM — at its temporary location in Colorado, after Republican Trump picked Alabama as the location during his first term.”We initially selected Huntsville for the SPACECOM headquarters. Yet those plans were wrongfully obstructed by the Biden administration,” Trump said.One of the reasons given by Trump for the military reorganization was his dislike for Colorado being one of the US states that allows voters to mail in their ballots.Trump, who himself has cast a vote by mail in Florida, repeated his claim that the method is linked to voter fraud — a theory repeatedly proved to be false, but which is part of the Republican’s broader, unprecedented attempts to discredit trust in US elections.”When the state is for mail-in voting, that means they want dishonest elections, because that’s what that means. So that played a big factor” in the SPACECOM decision, Trump said.Space plays a vital role in just about every aspect of modern warfare, with many military technologies reliant on a network of orbiting sensors and satellites.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed social media rumors that have swirled about his health as “fake news” during press conference at the White House.Trump did not schedule any public appearances or hold any press conferences for several days last week, a noticeable absence from the cameras for the publicity-loving 79-year-old.Combined with his age — he is the oldest person ever to be elected US president — and recent images of his bruised hand and swollen ankles, the quiet from the Oval Office ignited widespread speculation that something was seriously wrong with Trump’s health.Many users even suggested that the 47th US president may have passed away, and that the White House was covering it up.”I didn’t see that,” the Republican said when a reporter on Tuesday asked him jokingly, “How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?””That’s fake news,” he added as the reporter, Fox News’ Peter Doocy, told him of the speculation.In July the White House said that discoloration on Trump’s right hand was “tissue irritation from frequent handshaking” and the use of aspirin as part of a standard cardiovascular treatment.It said his legs were swollen by chronic venous insufficiency, a common, benign vein condition.The condition involves damaged leg veins that fail to keep blood flowing properly.Presidential physician Sean Barbabella said Trump “remains in excellent health” despite the condition, in a letter released by the White House at the time.The Republican frequently boasts of his good health and energy levels while the administration even posted an image depicting him as Superman.The health of US presidents has always been closely watched, but with the White House seeing its two oldest ever occupants since 2017 the scrutiny is now heavier than ever.Trump has alleged that Democrats covered up the mental and physical decline of his predecessor, Joe Biden, who was 82 when he left office in January.Biden’s health was a key issue in the 2024 election, and the then-president was forced to drop his campaign for a second term after a disastrous debate performance against Trump.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio headed Tuesday on his first trip in office to Mexico, which has so far succeeded in navigating treacherous terrain with President Donald Trump who wants tough action on migration and cartels.Rubio is set to meet Wednesday with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on a trip that will also take him to Ecuador, where Trump ally Daniel Noboa is in charge.The State Department said Rubio would press on both stops for “swift and decisive action to dismantle cartels, halt fentanyl trafficking, end illegal immigration” and counter the “malign” influence of China.Hours before Rubio’s arrival, Sheinbaum said she would draw a line on US military intervention in Mexico, after Trump signed an order authorizing force against cartels.”The United States is not going to act alone because there is an understanding,” she told reporters.”We have been working for months on an understanding to collaborate on security matters,” she said.What Mexico will not accept is “intervention,” she said. “We also don’t accept violations of our territory, we don’t accept subordination. Simply collaboration between nations on equal terms.”Trump has declared drug cartels to be terrorist organizations, although few expect that even the unpredictable US leader would take the drastic step of military action on Mexican soil.- Sheinbaum stresses cooperation -Sheinbaum hails from Mexico’s left but has searched for common ground with Trump, much like her predecessor and ideological ally Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Trump’s first term.Mexico has cooperated on enforcement of the border against US-bound migrants, who mostly come from Central America or elsewhere rather than Mexico, and extradited people wanted by the United States.She has also taken steps to curb imports from China, whose manufacturers have eyed Mexico as a way into the US market.”President Sheinbaum from the beginning decided that she is going to seek a cooperative and collaborative relationship” with the Trump administration, said Jason Marczak, vice president and senior director at the Atlantic Council’s Latin America Center.”She has been emphatic in defending Mexican sovereignty, but at the same time reaching out to the United States and seeing where they can work together,” he said.The stability in the relationship marks a sharp contrast to Trump’s  pressure campaigns against the outspoken leftist leaders of two other Latin American powers, Brazil and Colombia.Trump has voiced respect for Sheinbaum and earlier this year even took the uncharacteristic step of crediting her with an idea on combatting fentanyl, the painkilling drug behind an overdose epidemic in the United States.”I know everything, and I never learn anything from anybody, and I spoke to this woman, and as soon as she said it, I said, ‘Exactly, what a great idea,'” said Trump, who has also commented favorably on the appearance of Mexico’s first female president.Mexicans are not on board with Trump, who rose to political prominence describing undocumented Mexicans as rapists and vowing to erect a wall to seal off the southern border.The image of the United States has deteriorated more sharply in Mexico than in any other country since Trump returned, according to a Pew Research Center survey published in July, which found that 91 percent of Mexicans lacked confidence in Trump.But Sheinbaum has won high marks for her handling of her US counterpart as well as the rest of her agenda, with polls showing she enjoys support of three-quarters of Mexicans.

US lawmakers returned to work Tuesday after more than a month off, with a countdown beginning as they rush to pass a temporary budget and ward off a federal government shutdown before September 30.The stakes are high: a shutdown would see an abrupt halt to many federal services, including some benefit payments, disruption to air traffic, and the furloughing of hundreds of thousands of civil servants.President Donald Trump’s Republicans have a majority in both chambers of Congress, but due to Senate rules will have to convince at least seven Democratic senators to vote for their budget.It’s a tall order: Democrats have already warned that the Trump administration’s decision last week to cut nearly $5 billion in international aid could destroy any chance of talks.”It is clear that Republicans are prioritizing chaos over governing, partisanship over partnership, and their own power over the American people,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a letter to fellow Democrats. The “only way” to avoid a shutdown is for Republicans to work with Democrats on the bill, he said. But it was far from certain that the White House would take such advice, having made virtually no concessions to Democrats since Trump returned to power in January.Last time Congress faced a shutdown — in March of this year — Republicans refused talks with Democrats over massive budget cuts and the layoff of thousands of federal employees.Ten Democratic senators, including Schumer, reluctantly voted for the bill to avoid the shutdown — provoking party supporters to accuse them of bowing to Trump and his radical agenda.There is one glimmer of bipartisanship in Congress — but it will not be welcome to the White House, as it again stirs up the controversy of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein died in prison in 2019 awaiting trial for alleged sex trafficking of underage girls.He and Trump were once friends, and US media has reported that the president’s name was among hundreds found in the so-called Epstein files, though there has not been evidence of wrongdoing.Trump’s supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and held as an article of faith that “Deep State” elites were protecting Epstein associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood — but not Trump.These supporters have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said in July that Epstein had committed suicide, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a “client list.”Since coming to power, Trump has repeatedly sought to shrug off allegations surrounding Epstein.But Democrat Ro Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie are expected to launch a push this week to force the House of Representatives to vote on publishing the Epstein files.

President Donald Trump is set to make an announcement Tuesday on moving the headquarters of the US Space Command, reversing a decision by his predecessor Joe Biden.Trump is expected to relocate the base from Colorado to Alabama following a bitter, years-long battle between the two states over which should host the facility.Democrat Biden had decided to keep Space Command — which oversees US operations in outer space — at its temporary location in Colorado despite a ruling by Republican Trump in his first term in 2021 that it should move to Alabama. Colorado, in the western US, leans Democrat while the southern state of Alabama leans Republican.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement sent to AFP that Trump “will be making an exciting announcement related to the Department of Defense” but gave no more details.Trump is due to speak from the Oval Office at 2:00 pm (1800 GMT) in his first official public appearance for a week.The Department of Defense’s image distribution website initially listed Trump’s announcement as being about “US Space Command Headquarters.” It later changed it to say only that “President Trump makes an announcement.”Speculation around Trump’s announcement had earlier centered on his recent statements that he wanted to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

A report commissioned by the Trump administration that disputes the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change mimics tactics once used by the tobacco industry to manufacture doubt, leading US experts said Tuesday.In a sweeping 440-page rebuttal, 85 scientists accused the government of relying on a small group of handpicked contrarians who drew on discredited research, misrepresented evidence, and bypassed the peer review process to reach pre-determined conclusions.The Trump administration’s 150-page report was published on the Department of Energy’s website in late July to support the administration’s proposal to overturn the 2009 “Endangerment Finding” — a bedrock determination that underpins much of the federal government’s authority to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”This report makes a mockery of science,” Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University and one of the co-authors, wrote in a statement.”It relies on ideas that were rejected long ago, supported by misrepresentations of the body of scientific knowledge, omissions of important facts, arm waving, anecdotes, and confirmation bias. This report makes it clear DOE has no interest in engaging with the scientific community.”Entitled “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the US Climate,” the DOE document made sweeping claims: that extreme weather events linked to human-caused emissions were not increasing, US temperatures were not rising, and that higher carbon dioxide levels would benefit agricultural productivity.The rebuttal marshals experts from multiple disciplines to challenge each assertion.”Contrary to the authors’ claims, the human-induced global warming signal is clearly discernible in all-time high and low temperature records over the continental United States and throughout the world,” scientists wrote in one example.On agriculture, the rebuttal notes that while elevated carbon dioxide can sometimes spur greater yields in isolation, rising heat and shifting rainfall patterns are expected to cause overall declines.The DOE report also downplays the threat of ocean acidification, stating that “life in the oceans evolved when the oceans were mildly acidic” billions of years ago. But according to the rebuttal, this is “irrelevant for evaluating whether current or near-future conditions are suitable for modern ecosystems to continue,” since complex multi-cellular life had not evolved at the time.Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has gone far beyond the pro-fossil fuel agenda of his first term.Republicans recently passed legislation titled the “Big Beautiful Bill” which gutted clean energy tax credits established under former president Joe Biden, while opening ecologically sensitive areas to expanded fossil fuel development.Trump has also withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate and is pressing America’s fossil fuel agenda abroad — requiring the EU in its trade deal to buy more US liquefied natural gas and pressuring the World Bank to stop prioritizing climate change.

US President Donald Trump vowed Tuesday to quickly and dramatically reduce crime in Chicago, hinting at sending federal troops into what he branded the “most dangerous city in the world.””I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, referring to his deployment of National Guard reservists to the US capital beginning last month. “Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far,” he said, adding that JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of the state of Illinois where Chicago is located, “needs help badly, he just doesn’t know it yet.”Trump cited what he described as the latest crime statistics from America’s third-largest city: Some 54 people shot in Chicago over the holiday weekend, including eight deaths, with similar figures for the previous two weekends.”Chicago will be safe again, and soon,” he said.Trump followed up with a provocative, all-caps post: “CHICAGO IS THE MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!”The abrasive comments come as the Republican leader repeatedly threatens to send thousands of US military personnel into Democratic strongholds like Chicago and Baltimore, cities he has slammed as high-crime zones flooded with undocumented immigrants.Pritzker has clashed with Trump in recent days, accusing the president of launching “an invasion” with the deployments as he seeks to boost his anti-crime, anti-immigration agenda.Thousands of National Guard troops and US Marines were deployed to Los Angeles beginning in June, intended to assist police as they cracked down on protests and unrest over Trump’s sweeps for undocumented migrants.Trump also ordered the deployment of the National Guard into Washington in August, and has claimed the move improved city safety.He has said such a deployment could dramatically reduce crime in Chicago, home to some 2.7 million people and one of the country’s most diverse cities.- President as police chief? -The unprecedented steps are being challenged in federal court.On Tuesday a federal judge declared that Trump effectively violated the law when he used troops in Los Angeles, and barred the Pentagon from ordering National Guard reservists or Marines to perform police functions including arrests, security patrols or searches and seizures.Judge Charles Breyer of the District Court in San Francisco warned in his ruling that Trump appears intent on “creating a national police force with the President as its chief.”Breyer’s injunction, however, would only come into force on September 12, potentially leaving an opening for the conservative-majority US Supreme Court to rule on the case.As Chicago residents braced for a possible intervention by Trump — reportedly as early as this week — its Democratic mayor delivered a spirited defense of the Windy City.”No federal troops in the city of Chicago! No militarized force in the city of Chicago!” Mayor Brandon Johnson said Monday at a rousing Labor Day rally.”We’re going to take this fight across America, but we’ve got to defend the home front first,” he added.Protesters also marched through parts of Chicago on Monday in a “Workers over Billionaires” rally that also saw people vocalize their opposition to Trump sending troops into the city.

The world needs to be “more informed” and reduce its nuclear stockpile, US director Kathryn Bigelow said on Tuesday before the premier of her latest film, about an imminent strike on the US.The first woman to win the Academy Award for best director, Oscar winner Bigelow was to showcase her first movie in eight years, White House political thriller “A House of Dynamite”, at the Venice Film Festival later Tuesday.Arguing for nuclear disarmament, the director of “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty” said human survival was at stake. “Hope against hope maybe we reduce the global stockpile someday but in the meantime we are really living in a house of dynamite,” she told journalists at a press conference ahead of the film’s premiere.  “I want them all gone. How is annihilating the world a good defensive measure? I mean, what are you defending?” asked Bigelow.”We need to be much more informed, and that would be my greatest hope, and that we actually initiate a conversation about nuclear weapons and non-proliferation in a perfect world,” she said. The 2010 winner of the best director Oscar for “The Hurt Locker”, which follows a US bomb disposal team in Iraq, Bigelow once again focuses on geopolitics and national security, this time a nuclear missile threat to the United States. Starring Idris Elba as the US president, the action of the film takes place over 18 minutes following the discovery that a nuclear missile from an unknown country has been launched at the United States, threatening to wipe out Chicago.Bigelow follows the countdown to the imminent strike from various command centres, starting with the Situation Room, the West Wing’s crisis management centre. In a tension-creating cinematic construct, she then revisits the same event, using the same dialogue, from the perspective of the Pentagon and the White House, in which the president is finally forced to decide how to act. It is one of 21 films competing for the top Golden Lion prize in Venice, which will be handed out on Saturday. – Passion required -It has been eight years since Bigelow’s last feature, “Detroit” about the 1967 riot in the US city, making the premiere of “A House of Dynamite” one of the highlights of the festival.”I have to be passionate about a subject matter,” Bigelow said, explaining her absence until now. “I have to really believe in whatever the material is.” Producer Netflix is banking on “A House of Dynamite” as an Oscar contender. It is one of three films from the streaming platform at Venice this year, along with Noah Baumbach’s comedy “Jay Kelly”, starring George Clooney as a Hollywood star with an identity crisis, and the big-budget “Frankenstein” by Guillermo del Toro, starring Oscar Isaac. Also premiering on Tuesday is “Dead Man’s Wire” from Gus Van Sant — the director of “Good Will Hunting” and “Drugstore Cowboy” — who similarly has been out of the spotlight in recent years.The US director’s first movie since 2018 centres on a real-life hostage drama at a loan agency, with Bill Skarsgard and Al Pacino.”L’Etranger” (The Stranger), an adaptation of the Albert Camus novel from French director Francois Ozon, is also set to debut. Starring Benjamin Voisin as the detached protagonist Meursault, the film is shot in black and white, which Ozon said helped to get at the novel’s essence.”As it’s a philosophical book, it seemed to me that black and white was ideal for telling this story, getting rid of colours, the essential was a form of purity,” Ozon told a press conference. The French director acknowledged feeling “a little anxious” tackling the French classic published in 1942. “Everyone around me was saying: ‘It’s my favourite book. I’m curious to see what you’ll do with it.'”

With “The Odyssey” and a new “Spider-Man” film, next summer looks set to be the summer of Tom Holland — and the famously boyish and ebullient star can hardly contain his excitement.First up will be Christopher Nolan’s epic adaptation of “The Odyssey,” out mid-July. Holland plays Telemachus, the son of the saga’s hero Odysseus and a key character in the Ancient Greek saga.”The script is the best script I’ve ever read,” Holland, who recently wrapped filming in locations around the Mediterranean, tells AFP.The movie is Nolan’s follow-up to “Oppenheimer,” and again boasts an A-list cast, including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron — and Zendaya, Holland’s fiancee.”Chris [Nolan] is a real collaborator. He knows what he wants… but it is not an environment where you can’t pitch ideas or build characters in certain ways,” enthuses Holland.The two Brits have not worked together before, but have plenty in common.Nolan directed the Batman “Dark Knight” trilogy. They stand alongside Holland’s “Spider-Man” movies among the superhero genre’s most successful and beloved movies.Just days before Holland spoke to AFP, photos circulated of him shooting an action sequence for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” in Glasgow, with the Scottish city standing in for New York.For Holland, donning the Spidey suit for his seventh overall Marvel movie, it still “feels like the first time.””Yesterday, I was on top of a tank driving down the high street in Glasgow, in front of thousands of fans, and it was awesome,” he said.”It was so incredible, it was exciting, and exhilarating, and it felt fresh.”The film is due out late July, just two weeks after “The Odyssey.”- ‘Toxic’ technology – Holland’s take on Peter Parker — aka Spider-Man — has always stood out from previous versions for its especially playful, youthful energy.Those qualities are also central to “Never Stop Playing,” a new campaign and short film fronted by Holland for The LEGO Group, which warns that children today feel pressured into growing up too fast.”With screens and phones and iPads and Instagram and all these sorts of toxic pieces of technology, it was really nice to be a part of something that is a tangible product,” says Holland.Holland, 29, says his generation is lucky to have grown up at the dawn of social media, when the technology was less pervasive and destructive than it is now. “I think that it puts young people under a certain amount of pressure, to maybe not necessarily be themselves, but be versions of themselves that the internet want them to be,” he says.”By the time my peers are having kids, we’ll understand the dangers of social media and kids living in the spotlight.”- Zendaya – Holland’s engagement to “Spider-Man” co-star Zendaya drew global headlines earlier this year, after she was spotted wearing a giant, gleaming engagement ring to the Golden Globes.As for the topic of children, “I haven’t embarked on that part of my life yet,” Holland says.”But keeping a keen eye on the access young people have on the internet is very important. I’ll definitely be buying them LEGO before I’m buying them a phone,” he says.For now, Holland is excited to keep imbuing his Spider-Man with that youthful vigor, which “really is just who I am — it’s kind of like a heightened version of myself.””It’s very important to never lose that eagerness to play,” he says.As Holland has grown older and become more famous, “I’ve become slightly more introverted, and kind of yearn for a bit more of a private life at times,” he reflects.”But I think that kid in me will always be there.”