President Donald Trump is widely expected to impose tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada as early as February 1 as part of a plan he says will boost the U.S. economy. But with much about the specifics still unknown, economists, business owners and everyday consumers are still trying to understand how it could impact them. Johny Fernandez reports from New York City. (Produced by: Bakhtiyar Zamanov)
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Category: United States
United States news. The U.S. national government is a presidential constitutional republic and liberal democracy with three separate branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. It has a bicameral national legislature composed of the House of Representatives, a lower house based on population; and the Senate, an upper house based on equal representation for each state
Microsoft, Meta CEOs defend hefty AI spending after DeepSeek stuns tech world
Days after Chinese upstart DeepSeek revealed a breakthrough in cheap AI computing that shook the U.S. technology industry, the chief executives of Microsoft and Meta defended massive spending that they said was key to staying competitive in the new field.
DeepSeek’s quick progress has stirred doubts about the lead America has in AI with models that it claims can match or even outperform Western rivals at a fraction of the cost, but the U.S. executives said on Wednesday that building huge computer networks was necessary to serve growing corporate needs.
“Investing ‘very heavily’ in capital expenditure and infrastructure is going to be a strategic advantage over time,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a post-earnings call.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said the spending was needed to overcome the capacity constraints that have hampered the technology giant’s ability to capitalize on AI.
“As AI becomes more efficient and accessible, we will see exponentially more demand,” he said on a call with analysts.
Microsoft has earmarked $80 billion for AI in its current fiscal year, while Meta has pledged as much as $65 billion towards the technology.
That is a far cry from the roughly $6 million DeepSeek said it has spent to develop its AI model. U.S. tech executives and Wall Street analysts say that reflects the amount spent on computing power, rather than all development costs.
Still, some investors seem to be losing patience with the hefty spending and lack of big payoffs.
Shares of Microsoft — widely seen as a front runner in the AI race because of its tie to industry leader OpenAI – were down 5% in extended trading after the company said that growth in its Azure cloud business in the current quarter would fall short of estimates.
“We really want to start to see a clear road map to what that monetization model looks like for all of the capital that’s been invested,” said Brian Mulberry, portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, which holds shares in Microsoft.
Meta, meanwhile, sent mixed signals about how its bets on AI-powered tools were paying off, with a strong fourth quarter but a lackluster sales forecast for the current period.
“With these huge expenses, they need to turn the spigot on in terms of revenue generated, but I think this week was a wake-up call for the U.S.” said Futurum Group analyst Daniel Newman.
“For AI right now, there’s too much capital expenditure, not enough consumption.”
There are some signs though that executives are moving to change that.
Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said the company’s capital spending in the current quarter and the next would remain around the $22.6 billion level seen in the second quarter.
“In fiscal 2026, we expect to continue to invest against strong demand signals. However, the growth rate will be lower than fiscal 2025 (which ends in June),” she said.
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Trump’s ‘make peace or die’ message to Putin is deepfake. Yet it fooled Russians
The Russian lawmaker attributed to Trump a quote from a deepfake video created by Ukrainian bloggers and shared on the Telegram messaging platform.
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VOA Mandarin: How US cabinet nominees are vetted, approved
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate kicked off Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearing Wednesday. Candidates for the President’s Cabinet must be confirmed by the Senate. But individuals considered for politically appointed positions are thoroughly vetted during presidential transitions by a president-elect’s legal team. What to know about this process.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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Rare Declaration of Independence sold at Christie’s for $2.47 million
According to Harvard University, about 200 copies of the original Declaration of Independence were produced in 1776. Only about two dozen remain. In New York, a new copy from the times of the Founding Fathers was discovered. On Jan. 24, it was put on auction. Elena Wolf has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Michael Eckels
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Defense secretary pulls Trump critic Gen. Milley’s security clearance, protective detail
Washington — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is pulling the security protections and clearance of retired Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and he has ordered the Pentagon’s inspector general to review Milley’s actions while serving as the nation’s top uniformed officer to determine if a demotion is warranted, two defense officials confirmed late Tuesday.
The inspector general review will include “an inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding Gen Milley’s conduct so that the Secretary may determine whether it is appropriate to reopen his military grade review determination,” said Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot.
“The Secretary informed General Milley today that he is revoking the authorization for his security detail and suspending his security clearance as well,” he said.
Milley served as chairman during President Donald Trump’s first term in office. While the relationship initially went well, it soured deeply and fast, as Milley tried to advise and contain the president on a host of issues.
Milley pushed back on the president’s interest in using force domestically to quell protestors after the death of George Floyd, and he was at the center of a controversy in 2021 when he made independent calls to his Chinese counterpart. Trump called the calls an act of treason, but at the time Milley said the calls were routine and part of the scope of his job.
Milley in his final days as chairman after Trump had left office was equally outspoken about his former boss. He said at his official retirement ceremony “ we don’t take an oath to a king or a queen or to a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator.”
“We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it,” he said at the time.
Hegseth’s chief of staff Joe Kasper said that the decision to strip Milley of his clearance and detail was taken because “undermining the chain of command is corrosive to our national security, and restoring accountability is a priority for the Defense Department under President Trump’s leadership.”
The moves, which were first reported by Fox News, also may include taking down Milley’s Army chief of staff portrait. Milley’s chairman portrait was stripped from the wall just hours after Trump was sworn in. The portraits were both paid for by a donation from the Association of the United States Army, not taxpayer dollars, and were a gift to Milley honoring his service.
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US children fall behind in reading, make little improvement in math
WASHINGTON — America’s children have continued to lose ground on reading skills in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and have made little improvement in math, according to the latest results of an exam known as the nation’s report card.
The findings are yet another setback for U.S. schools and reflect the myriad challenges that have upended education, from pandemic school closures to a youth mental health crisis and high rates of chronic absenteeism. The national exam results also show growing inequality: While the highest-performing students have started to regain lost ground, lower-performing students are falling further behind.
Given every two years to a sample of America’s children, the National Assessment of Educational Progress is considered one of the best gauges of the academic progress of the U.S. school system. The most recent exam was administered in early 2024 in every state, testing fourth- and eighth-grade students on math and reading.
“The news is not good,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees the assessment. “We are not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground our students lost during the pandemic.”
Among the few bright spots was an improvement in fourth grade math, where the average score ticked up 2 points on a scale of 500. It’s still 3 points lower than the 2019 pre-pandemic average, yet some states and districts made significant strides, including in Washington, D.C., where the average score increased 10 points.
For the most part, however, American schools have not yet begun to make progress.
The average math score for eighth grade students was unchanged from 2022, while reading scores fell 2 points at both grade levels. One-third of eighth grade students scored below “basic” in reading, more than ever in the history of the assessment.
Students are considered below basic if they are missing fundamental skills. For example, eighth grade students who scored below basic in reading were typically unable to make a simple inference about a character’s motivation after reading a short story, and some were unable to identify that the word “industrious” means “to be hard working.”
Especially alarming to officials was the divide between higher- and lower-performing students, which has grown wider than ever. Students with the highest scores outperformed their peers from two years ago, making up some ground lost during the pandemic. But the lowest performers are scoring even lower, falling further behind.
It was most pronounced in eighth grade math: While the top 10% of students saw their scores increased by 3 points, the lowest 10% decreased by 6 points.
“We are deeply concerned about our low-performing students,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policies for the exam. “For a decade, these students have been on the decline. They need our urgent attention and our best effort.”
The latest setbacks follow a historic backslide in 2022. In that year’s exam, student achievement fell across both subjects and grade levels, in some cases by unprecedented levels.
This round of testing again featured students whose lives were disrupted by the pandemic. When COVID hit in 2020, the fourth graders were in kindergarten, and the eighth graders were in fourth grade.
But Carr said poor results can no longer be blamed solely on the pandemic, warning that the nation’s education system faces “complex challenges.”
A survey done alongside the exam found in 2022 that fewer young students were reading for enjoyment, which is linked to lower reading scores. And new survey results found that students who are often absent from class — a persistent problem nationwide — are struggling the most.
“The data are clear,” Carr said. “Students who don’t come to school are not improving.”
The results provide fresh fuel for a national debate over the impact of pandemic school closures, though they’re unlikely to add clarity. Some studies have found that longer closures led to bigger academic setbacks. Those slower to reopen were often in urban and Democratic-led areas, while more rural and Republican-led areas were quicker.
The new results don’t show a “direct link” on the topic, Carr said, though she said students clearly do better when they’re in school.
Among the states that saw reading scores fall in 2024 are Florida and Arizona, which were among the first to return to the classroom during the pandemic. Meanwhile, some big school systems that had longer closures made strides in fourth grade math, including Los Angeles and New York City.
The success of big urban districts — 14 of which saw notable improvement in fourth-grade math when the nation as a whole saw only minor gains — can be credited to academic recovery efforts funded by federal pandemic relief, said Ray Hart, executive director of the Council of Great City Schools. Investing in efforts like intensive tutoring programs and curriculum updates is “really proving to make a difference,” he said.
Republicans in Congress were quick to cast blame on Democrats and former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the decline is “clearly a reflection of the education bureaucracy continuing to focus on woke policies rather than helping students learn and grow.”
“I’m thankful we have an administration that is looking to reverse course,” he said in a reference to President Donald Trump.
Compared with 2019 results, eighth grade reading scores are now down 8 points. Reading scores are down 5 points in both grades. And in fourth grade math, scores are down 3 points.
Yet officials say there’s reason to be optimistic. Carr highlighted improvement in Louisiana, where fourth grade reading is now back above pre-pandemic levels, and in Alabama, which accomplished that feat in fourth grade math.
Carr was especially laudatory of Louisiana, where a campaign to improve reading proficiency resulted in both higher- and lower-performing students exceeding 2019 scores.
“I would not say that hope is lost, and I would not say that we cannot turn this around,” Carr said. “It’s been demonstrated that we can.”
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Caroline Kennedy calls on US lawmakers to oppose RFK Jr.’s health post
Caroline Kennedy, a member of the famed U.S. political family, urged senators on Tuesday to reject her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the top U.S. health agency, calling him a “predator” and his healthcare views “dangerous.”
The daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy said that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known as RFK Jr., has discouraged vaccinations for his own profit. She added he does not have the medical, financial or government experience to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Republican President Donald Trump nominated him in November.
A spokesperson for RFK Jr. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Senators will question RFK Jr. on Wednesday starting at 10 a.m. about his views before they vote on whether to confirm his nomination.
The Washington Post first reported the letter.
RFK Jr. has long sown doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines that have helped curb disease and prevent deaths for decades. He disputes the anti-vaccine characterization and has said he would not prevent Americans from getting inoculations.
“Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie and cheat his way through life today,” Caroline Kennedy said in a video on social media platform X, in which she read her letter addressed to senators.
U.S. doctors, nurses, researchers, scientists and caregivers “deserve a secretary committed to advancing cutting-edge medicine, to save lives, not to rejecting the advances we have already made,” said Caroline Kennedy, a former ambassador to Australia and Japan who served during the Democratic Biden and Obama administrations. “They deserve a stable, moral and ethical person at the helm of this crucial agency.”
In written testimony for the Finance committee, RFK Jr. said he is not “anti-vaccine” or “anti-industry” and that he believes “vaccines have a critical role in healthcare,” pointing to his own children being vaccinated, according to the document seen by Reuters.
However, RFK Jr. has led the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense and in a 2023 interview with podcaster Lex Fridman said no vaccines are safe and effective.
RFK Jr. has said he wants to work to end chronic disease, break any ties between employees at the U.S. drug regulator and industry and advise U.S. water systems to remove fluoride.
RFK Jr. has faced new scrutiny over his ties to Wisner Baum, a law firm specializing in pharmaceutical drug injury cases.
He has an arrangement to earn 10% of fees awarded in contingency cases he refers to the firm, according to a letter RFK Jr. wrote to an HHS ethics official released last week.
If confirmed, RFK Jr. would retain that financial interest in cases that do not directly impact the U.S. government, the letter said.
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Ukrainians skeptical Trump can end war with Russia on acceptable terms
U.S. President Donald Trump has promised repeatedly to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. But some Ukrainians are skeptical Trump can do anything to make President Vladimir Putin pull back his troops. The problem, as some analysts see it, is that the demands of Ukraine and Russia cannot be reconciled. Lesia Bakalets report from Kyiv. Camera: Vladyslav Smilianets
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China tests US commitment to South China Sea by pressuring Philippines
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — A little more than a week after Beijing and Manila reached an agreement aimed at easing tensions in the South China Sea, the Philippines has accused Chinese coast guard vessels of fresh incursions, harassment and “aggressive maneuvers.”
Analysts say the pressure campaign, which has stepped up in recent days, is part of Beijing’s attempt to test the United States’ commitment to support the Philippines.
“They want to see how far they can push the Philippines under the new administration in the U.S.,” Ja Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, told VOA by phone.
In a statement released on social media platform X last Saturday, the Philippine coast guard said two vessels from the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries encountered “aggressive maneuvers” from three Chinese coast guard vessels while heading to Sandy Cay for a marine scientific survey last Friday.
In one video released by Manila, a large Chinese coast guard vessel was seen moving within a few meters of one Philippine vessel. Another video showed a Chinese helicopter hovering above two inflatable boats carrying Philippine crew members.
Philippine coast guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the Philippine vessels were forced to suspend the scientific survey due to the “continuous harassment and the disregard for safety” shown by the Chinese coast guard.
In response to Manila’s accusations, Beijing said Chinese coast guard vessels “thwarted” two Philippine vessels’ attempts to “land on” Sandy Cay, which China calls “Tiexian Reef.”
“The vessels attempted to illegally land on the reef and conduct sand sampling. China Coast Guard [CCG] vessels lawfully obstructed the Philippine ships’ course and warned them away,” the Chinese coast guard spokesperson Liu Dejun said in a statement released last Friday.
China views almost all of the South China Sea as its territory and is engaged in a series of disputes with several Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, that have overlapping claims over the strategic waterway.
Apart from the incident near Sandy Cay, the Philippine coast guard said its vessels had successfully kept Chinese coast guard vessels from operating in waters near the coastline of the Philippines’ Zambales province since last Friday.
“The Philippine Coast Guard [PCG] vessel has maintained the China Coast Guard vessel to keep a distance of 90-100 nautical miles away from the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone,” said Jay Tarriela from the Philippine coast guard in a post on social media platform X on Sunday.
Then on Monday, the Philippine coast guard said its vessels were hindered by Chinese coast guard vessels while trying to recover the body of a dead Philippine fisherman from a Philippine fishing boat.
The series of incidents comes more than a week after senior Chinese and Philippine diplomats vowed to settle territorial disputes in the South China Sea through dialogues during a bilateral consultation.
Although the agreement has allowed the Philippines to conduct resupply missions to its forces near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal since late last year, some experts say the latest incidents are part of a bigger effort by Beijing to drive a wedge between Manila and Washington.
“Beijing isn’t happy with Manila’s assertive stance in the South China Sea and its close ties with the United States, so [these factors] serve as convenient justifications for Beijing to try to push Manila in the South China Sea,” said Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
Despite the persistent Chinese aggression, Koh said some in Manila think the Philippines can maintain its current approach in the South China Sea since there is bipartisan support for a more assertive position against China in the U.S. and some Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, have reiterated Washington’s “ironclad” defense commitment to the Philippines during interactions with their Philippine counterparts last week.
“Manila appears to be more cautiously optimistic that it can maintain the current policy, knowing that there is U.S. backing for that,” he told VOA by phone.
To counter Beijing’s pressure campaign, Don McLain Gill, a lecturer in international studies at De La Salle University in the Philippines, said it’s important for the Philippines and its allies, including the United States, to maintain close collaboration in areas such as joint maritime exercises.
Since China is expected to “continue pressing the Philippines into submission with its grey zone operations, which are now shifting from low intensity to high intensity, this must be addressed with more robust presence operations between the alliance and like-minded partners, along with continued support in the Philippines military modernization in line with the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defence Concept,” he told VOA in a written response.
With the Trump administration’s announcement to suspend new funding for almost all U.S. foreign assistance for 90 days, however, Chong in Singapore said Beijing may think there is a window of opportunity to pressure countries like the Philippines.
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Trump takes aim at DEI, COVID expulsions and transgender troops
Washington — U.S. President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders on Monday to remove diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI, from the military, reinstate thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, and take aim at transgender troops.
Earlier on Monday, Pete Hegseth, who narrowly secured enough votes to become defense secretary, referred to the names of Confederate generals that were once used for two key bases during his remarks to reporters as he entered the Pentagon on his first full day on the job.
Trump signed the executive orders while flying back from Miami to Washington, D.C.
One of the executive orders signed by Trump said that expressing a “gender identity” different from an individual’s sex at birth did not meet military standards.
While the order banned the use of “invented” pronouns in the military, it did not answer basic questions including whether transgender soldiers currently serving in the military would be allowed to stay and, if not, how they would be removed.
Trump’s plans have been heavily criticized by advocacy groups, which say his actions would be illegal.
“President Trump has made clear that a key priority for his administration is driving transgender people back into the closet and out of public life altogether,” Joshua Block, with the ACLU, said earlier on Monday.
During his first term, Trump announced that he would ban transgender troops from serving in the military. He did not fully follow through with that ban his administration froze their recruitment while allowing serving personnel to remain.
Biden overturned the decision when he took office in 2021.
The military has about 1.3 million active-duty personnel, Department of Defense data shows. While transgender rights advocates say there are as many as 15,000 transgender service members, officials say the number is in the low thousands.
When Trump announced his first ban in 2017, he said the military needed to focus on “decisive and overwhelming victory” without being burdened by the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of having transgender personnel.
Internal focus
Hegseth has promised to bring major changes to the Pentagon, and he has made eliminating DEI from the military a top priority.
Trump’s executive order on ending DEI in the military said service academies would be required to teach “that America and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good in human history.”
The Air Force said on Sunday that it will resume instruction of trainees using a video about the first Black airmen in the U.S. military, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, which has passed review to ensure compliance with Trump’s ban on DEI initiatives.
Hegseth was warmly greeted on the steps of the Pentagon by the top U.S. military officer, Air Force General Charles Brown, whom Hegseth criticized in his latest book. Asked if he might fire Brown, Hegseth joked that he was standing right next to him.
“I’m standing with him right now. I look forward to working with him,” as he patted Brown on the back.
Reuters has previously reported about the possibility of mass firing among top brass, something Hegseth repeatedly refused to rule out during his confirmation process.
Hegseth referred to Fort Moore and Fort Liberty by their previous names, Fort Benning and Fort Bragg, while speaking with reporters.
The names honoring Confederate officers were changed under former President Joe Biden as part of an effort to reexamine U.S. history and the Confederate legacy.
“I’m thinking about the guys and gals in Guam, Germany, Fort Benning and Fort Bragg,” Hegseth said.
Much of Hegseth’s focus at the Pentagon could be internal to the military, including making good on Trump’s executive order on bringing back troops discharged for refusing COVID vaccines.
Thousands of service members were removed from the military after the Pentagon made the vaccine mandatory in 2021.
US missile defense
Trump also signed an executive order that “mandated a process to develop an ‘American Iron Dome’.”
The short-range Iron Dome air defense system was built by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with U.S. backing, and it was built to intercept rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza toward Israel.
Each truck-towed unit fires radar-guided missiles to blow up short-range threats such as rockets, mortars and drones in midair.
The system determines whether a rocket is on course to hit a populated area. If not, the rocket is ignored and allowed to land harmlessly.
Any such effort would take years to implement in the United States.
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DOJ official: Trump administration fires team of lawyers who prosecuted him
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday fired more than a dozen Justice Department lawyers who brought two criminal cases against him, an official said, as the Republican moves swiftly to exert greater control over the department.
The officials were fired after Acting Attorney General James McHenry, a Trump appointee, concluded they could not be trusted “because of their significant role in prosecuting the President,” a Justice Department official said.
McHenry cited Trump’s power as chief executive under the U.S. Constitution to justify the firings, according to a copy of the termination letter seen by Reuters.
The lawyers worked with Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the two federal prosecutions of Trump that the department dropped after his November election. Smith resigned from the department earlier this month.
The norm-shattering move was made even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain with the department across presidential administrations and are not punished by virtue of their involvement in sensitive investigations. The firings are effective immediately.
News of the firings came the same day that Ed Martin, the top federal prosecutor in Washington and a Trump appointee, opened an internal review into the use of a felony obstruction charge in prosecutions of people accused of taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The U.S. Supreme Court raised the legal bar for that offense in a 6-3 ruling last year, prompting prosecutors to drop the charge in several cases.
Monday’s moves came after the Trump administration already reassigned up to 20 senior career Justice Department officials, including Bradley Weinsheimer, the top ethics official, and the former chief of the public corruption section, Corey Amundson, from their roles.
Amundson, whose section provided advice to Smith’s prosecutors, announced his resignation on Monday.
The moves to shake up the Justice Department’s workforce have happened before the U.S. Senate votes on Trump’s attorney general nominee Pam Bondi. Bondi’s nomination is set to be voted on by a Senate panel on Wednesday.
Smith, who was appointed by former Attorney General Merrick Garland, brought cases accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified documents at his Florida social club and attempting to interfere with the certification of the 2020 election.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges and argued the cases reflected a “weaponization” of the legal system.
Smith dropped both cases after Trump’s election, citing a longtime policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Many of those who worked on Smith’s cases were longtime public corruption and national security prosecutors who remained in the department when Smith closed his investigation earlier this month.
Some material for this report came from The Associated Press.
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VOA Spanish: US Embassy in Bogota is not processing visa applicants
Due to the dispute between the governments of Colombia and the United States, appointments for thousands of visa applicants at the US embassy in Bogota have been suspended. What is the situation and what response have visa applicants received? We report on it here.
Click her for the full story in Spanish.
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New US defense secretary promises agility, accountability
Pentagon — New U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised more changes are coming to the country’s military before even walking through the doors of the Pentagon.
Hegseth, a decorated veteran and a former Fox News host, was greeted just outside the Pentagon by General Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after arriving for his first full day of work.
Hegseth said serving as defense secretary was the honor of a lifetime, telling reporters that the Defense Department will operate at a faster tempo.
“The lawful orders of the president of the United States will be executed inside this Defense Department swiftly and without excuse,” Hegseth said. “We’re going to hold people accountable.”
Hegseth won Senate confirmation late Friday by a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking ballot.
He was sworn in on Saturday and spoke Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in what the Pentagon described as an “introductory call.”
“We will be no better friend to our allies and no stronger adversary to those who want to test us and try us,” Hegseth told reporters Monday before entering the Pentagon.
He said that President Donald Trump is expected to sign additional executive orders on Monday impacting the military, including orders calling for a U.S. version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, the removal of all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from the Pentagon, and the reinstatement of troops forced to leave the military after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccination.
Hegseth also said the Pentagon will make sure Trump has all the resources needed to secure the U.S. southern border.
“Whatever is needed at the border will be provided,” the defense secretary said. “This is a shift. It’s not the way business has been done in the past.”
“The Defense Department will support the defense of the territorial integrity of the United States of America, the southern border, to include reservists, National Guard and active duty in compliance with the Constitution and the laws of our land and the directives of the commander in chief,” he added.
Asked about the fate of Afghans who worked alongside the United States before the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021, Hegseth said, “We’re going to make sure there’s accountability for what happened in Afghanistan and that we stand by our allies.”
Hegseth also deflected questions about whether he plans to fire the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
“I’m standing with him right now,” Hegseth said. “I look forward to working with him.”
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DeepSeek’s ‘Sputnik moment’ prompts investors to sell big AI players
LONDON/SINGAPORE — Investors hammered technology stocks on Monday, sending the likes of Nvidia and Oracle plummeting, as the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model cast doubts on Western companies’ dominance in this sector.
Startup DeepSeek last week launched a free assistant it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent players’ models, possibly marking a turning point in the level of investment needed for AI.
Futures on the Nasdaq 100 slid almost 4%, suggesting the index could see its biggest daily slide since September 2022 later on Monday, if those losses are sustained.
Those on the S&P 500 dropped 2%. Shares in AI chipmaker Nvidia fell more than 11%, rival Oracle dropped 8.5% and AI data analytics company Palantir lost 6.5% in pre-market trading.
DeepSeek, which by Monday had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in terms of downloads on the Apple Store, offers the prospect of a viable, cheaper AI alternative which has raised questions about the sustainability of the level of spending and investment on AI by Western companies, including Apple and Microsoft.
From Tokyo to Amsterdam, shares in AI players tumbled.
“We still don’t know the details and nothing has been 100% confirmed in regards to the claims, but if there truly has been a breakthrough in the cost to train models from $100 million+ to this alleged $6 million number this is actually very positive for productivity and AI end users as cost is obviously much lower meaning lower cost of access,” Jon Withaar, a senior portfolio manager at Pictet Asset Management, said.
The hype around AI has powered a huge inflow of capital into the equity markets in the last 18 months in particular, as investors have bought into the technology, inflating company valuations and sending stock markets to record highs.
Little is known about the small Hangzhou startup behind DeepSeek. Its researchers wrote in a paper last month that the DeepSeek-V3 model, launched on Jan. 10, used Nvidia’s H800 chips for training, spending less than $6 million – the figure referenced by Pictet’s Withaar.
H800 chips are not top-of-the-line. Initially developed as a reduced-capability product to get around restrictions on sales to China, they were subsequently banned by U.S. sanctions.
‘Sputnik moment’
Marc Andreessen, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, said in a post on X on Sunday that DeepSeek’s R1 model was AI’s “Sputnik moment,” referencing the former Soviet Union’s launch of a satellite that marked the start of the space race in the late 1950s.
“Deepseek R1 is one of the most amazing and impressive breakthroughs I’ve ever seen — and as open source, a profound gift to the world,” he said in a separate post.
In Europe, ASML which counts Taiwan’s TSMC, Intel and Samsung as its customers, dropped almost 7.5%, while Siemens Energy lost nearly 18%. In Japan, startup investor SoftBank Group slid more than 8%. Last week it announced a $19 billion commitment to fund Stargate, a data-center joint venture with OpenAI.
Given the volatility, investors sought out safe-havens such as U.S. Treasuries, which pushed 10-year yields down nearly 10 basis points to 4.52%, while low-yielding currencies like the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc soared against the dollar.
Big Tech has ramped up spending on developing AI capabilities and optimism over the possible returns has driven stock valuations sky-high.
Nvidia alone has risen by over 200% in about 18 months and trades at 56 times the value of its earnings, compared with a 53% rise in the Nasdaq .IXIC, which trades at a multiple of 16 to the value of its constituents’ earnings, according to LSEG data.
Nick Ferres, chief investment officer at Vantage Point Asset Management in Singapore said the market was questioning the capex spend of the major tech companies.
Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management said: “The idea that the most cutting-edge technologies in America, like Nvidia and ChatGPT, are the most superior globally, there’s concern that this perspective might start to change.”
“I think it might be a bit premature,” Ichikawa said.
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Chiefs, Eagles reach Super Bowl
The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles are set to face off in the National Football League’s Super Bowl, with the Chiefs looking to become the first team to win three consecutive championships and the Eagles trying to avenge their loss from two years ago.
The Chiefs reached the Feb. 9 championship game in New Orleans with a 32-29 win on Sunday night over the Buffalo Bills.
Kansas City’s star quarterback Patrick Mahomes ran for two touchdowns and threw for another score to reach his fifth Super Bowl in six years. That included the 2023 Super Bowl in which the Chiefs defeated the Eagles 38-35.
The Eagles earned their Super Bowl spot with a resounding 55-23 win Sunday over the Washington Commanders.
Philadelphia outscored Washington 21-0 in the game’s final quarter to secure the victory.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts ran for three touchdowns and added another through the air, while running back Saquon Barkley added three rushing touchdowns.
Oddsmakers made Kansas City the narrow early favorite for the game.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press
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Percival Everett’s ‘James’ awarded Carnegie Medal for fiction
NEW YORK — For author Percival Everett, libraries have long been a source of knowledge and discovery and pleasure, even of the forbidden kind.
“I remember making friends at age 13 with the librarian at the University of South Carolina, and she used to let me go through the stacks when I wasn’t supposed to,” Everett, who spent part of his childhood in Columbia, said during a telephone interview Sunday.
“One of the wonderful things about libraries is that when you’re looking for one book, it’s surrounded by other books that may not be connected to it. That’s what you get (online) with links, but (in libraries) no one’s decided what the links are.”
Everett’s latest honor comes from the country’s public libraries. On Sunday, the American Library Association announced that Everett’s “James” was this year’s winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, which includes a $5,000 cash award. Kevin Fedarko’s “A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon” was chosen for nonfiction.
Everett’s acclaimed reworking of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the perspective of Jim, Huck Finn’s enslaved companion, has already received the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize and is a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award. “James” has even topped The New York Times fiction hardcover list, a rare feat in recent years for a literary work that wasn’t a major book club pick or movie tie-in.
“Percival Everett has written a modern masterpiece, a beautiful and important work that offers a fresh perspective from the eyes of a classic character,” Allison Escoto, chair of the award’s selection committee, said in a statement. “Kevin Fedarko’s unforgettable journey through the otherworldly depths of the Grand Canyon shows us the triumphs and pitfalls of exploration and illuminates the many vital lessons we can all learn from our precious natural world.”
Fedarko is a former Time magazine correspondent whose work also has appeared in The New York Times and Esquire. A Pittsburgh native fascinated by distant places, Fedarko has a long history with libraries — Carnegie libraries. He remembers visiting two while growing up, notably one in the suburb of Oakmont near the hairdressing salon his parents ran. He would read biographies of historical figures from George Washington to Daniel Boone, and otherwise think of libraries as “important threads running through his life,” windows to a “wider world.”
Now a resident of Flagstaff, Arizona, Fedarko says that he relied in part on the library at the nearby Northern Arizona University campus for both “A Walk in the Park” and its predecessor, also about the Grand Canyon, “The Emerald Mile.”
“The library has an important and unique collection about the Grand Canyon, and it’s the backbone of the kind of history that helps form the framework of both books,” he says. “Neither of them could have been done without the library.”
Previous winners of the medals, established in 2012 with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, includes Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch,” Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad” and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “The Bully Pulpit.”
This year’s finalists besides “James” in the fiction category were Jiaming Tang’s “Cinema Love” and Kavin Akbar’s “Martyr!”
Adam Higginbotham’s “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space” and Emily Nussbaum’s “Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV” were the nonfiction runners-up.
All three fiction nominees were published by Penguin Random House and all three nonfiction finalists by Simon & Schuster.
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Border czar: Trump administration prioritizes undocumented migrants seen as security threats
President Donald Trump’s border czar said Sunday that the administration’s current priority is to deport undocumented immigrants who are deemed to pose security threats to the U.S. But he stressed that illegal immigration in general won’t be tolerated. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
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Mel Gibson’s ‘Flight Risk’ is No. 1 at box office, ‘The Brutalist’ expands
New York — Critics lambasted it and audiences didn’t grade it much better. But despite the turbulence, Mel Gibson’s “Flight Risk” managed to open No. 1 at the box office with a modest $12 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
On a quiet weekend, even for the typically frigid movie-going month of January, the top spot went to the Lionsgate thriller starring Mark Wahlberg as a pilot flying an Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) and fugitive (Topher Grace) across Alaska. But it wasn’t a particularly triumphant result for Gibson’s directorial follow-up to 2016’s “Hacksaw Ridge.” Reviews (21% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and audience scores (a “C” CinemaScore) were terrible.
President Donald Trump recently named Gibson a “special ambassador” to Hollywood, along with Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone.
Going into the weekend, Hollywood’s attention was more focused on the Sundance Film Festival and on Thursday’s Oscar nominations, which were twice postponed by the wildfires in the Los Angeles region.
The weekend was also a small test as to whether the once more common Oscar “bump” that can sometimes follow nominations still exists. Most contenders have by now completed the bulk of their theatrical runs and are more likely to see an uptick on VOD or streaming.
But the weekend’s most daring gambit was A24 pushing Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” a three–and-a-half-hour epic nominated for 10 Academy Awards, into wide release. Though some executives initially greeted “The Brutalist,” which is running with an intermission, as “un-distributable,” Corbet has said, A24 acquired the film out of the Venice Film Festival and it’s managed solid business, collecting $6 million in limited release.
In wide release, it earned $2.9 million — a far from blockbuster sum but the best weekend yet for “The Brutalist.”
The audience was downright miniscule for another best-picture nominee: RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys.” Innovatively shot almost entirely in first-person POV, the Amazon MGM Studios release gathered just $340,171 in 540 locations after expanding by 300 theaters.
Coming off one of the lowest Martin Luther King Jr. weekends in years, no new releases made a major impact.
Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” a well-reviewed horror film shot from the perspective of a ghost inside a suburban home, debuted with $3.4 million in 1,750 locations. The film, released by Neon and acquired out of last year’s Sundance, was made for just $2 million.
The top spots otherwise went to holdovers. The Walt Disney Co.’s “Mufasa: The Lion King,” in its sixth weekend of release, scored $8.7 million to hold second place. After starting slowly, the Barry Jenkins-directed film has amassed $626.7 million globally.
“One of Them Days,” the Keke Palmer and SZA-led comedy from Sony Pictures, held well in its second weekend, dropping just 32% with $8 million in ticket sales. In recent years, few comedies have found success on the big screen, but “One of Them Days” has proven an exception.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
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“Flight Risk,” $12 million.
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“Mufasa: The Lion King,” $8.7 million.
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“One of Them Days,” $8 million.
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“Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” $5.5 million.
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“Moana 2,” $4.3 million.
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“Presence,” $3.4 million.
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“Wolf Man,” $3.4 million.
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“A Complete Unknown,” $3.1 million.
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“Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” $3 million.
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“The Brutalist,” $2.9 million.
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Thousands wait to return to northern Gaza, Trump urges Jordan, Egypt to take Palestinians
Cairo — Tens of thousands of Palestinians waited, blocked on the road, to return to their homes in northern Gaza on Sunday, voicing frustration after Israel accused Hamas of breaching a ceasefire agreement and refused to open crossing points.
A day after a second exchange of Israeli hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, the holdup underlined the risks hanging over the truce between the militant group and Israel, longtime adversaries in a series of Gaza wars.
In central areas of Gaza, columns of people were waiting along the main roads leading north, some in vehicles and some on foot, witnesses said.
“A sea of people is waiting for a signal to move back to Gaza City and the north, people are fed up and they want to go home,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a displaced person from Gaza City. “This is the deal that was signed, isn’t it?”
“Many of those people have no idea whether their houses back home are still standing. But they want to go regardless, they want to put up the tents next to the rubble of their houses, they want to feel home,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
On Sunday, witnesses said many people had slept overnight on the Salahuddin Road, the main thoroughfare running north to south and on the coastal road leading north, waiting to go past the Israeli military positions in the Netzarim corridor running across the center of the Gaza Strip.
Vehicles, trucks and rickshaws were overloaded with mattresses, food, and with the tents that used to shelter them for over a year in the central and southern areas of the enclave, and volunteers were distributing water and food.
Under the agreement worked out with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the United States, Israel was meant to allow Palestinians displaced from the homes in the north to return to their homes.
But Israel said that Hamas’ failure to hand over a list detailing which of the hostages scheduled for release is alive or to hand over Arbel Yehud, an Israeli woman taken hostage during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 meant it had violated the agreement.
As a result, checkpoints in the central Gaza Strip would not be opened to allow crossings into the northern Gaza Strip, it said in a statement. Hamas issued a statement accusing Israel of stalling and holding it responsible for the delay.
‘Demolition site’
On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump instructed the U.S. military to release 2,000-pound bombs that his predecessor, Joe Biden, had ordered to be withheld from delivery to Israel over concern about their impact on the civilian population of Gaza.
He also called on Egypt and Jordan to take on more Palestinians from Gaza either temporarily or permanently, saying “we should just clear out the whole thing.”
“It’s literally a demolition site, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there,” he told reporters after a call with Jordan’s King Abdullah.
An official of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza, reacted with suspicion to the remarks, echoing longstanding Palestinian fears about being driven permanently from their homes.
Palestinians “will not accept any offers or solutions, even if [such offers] appear to have good intentions under the guise of reconstruction, as announced in the proposals of U.S. President Trump,” Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told Reuters.
Al-Awda Hospital officials said four people were wounded by Israeli fire, from soldiers apparently trying to prevent people coming too close.
The Israeli military issued warnings to Palestinians not to approach its positions in Gaza and said soldiers had fired warning shots on several occasions but said “as of now, we are unaware of any harm caused to the suspects as a result of the shooting.”
your ad hereTrump discussing TikTok purchase with multiple people; decision in 30 days
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was in talks with multiple people over buying TikTok and would likely have a decision on the popular app’s future in the next 30 days.
“I have spoken to many people about TikTok and there is great interest in TikTok,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One during a flight to Florida.
Earlier in the day, Reuters reported two people with knowledge of the discussions said Trump’s administration is working on a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app’s operations.
Under the deal being negotiated by the White House, TikTok’s China-based owner, ByteDance, would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle, which already provides the foundation of TikTok’s Web infrastructure, one of the sources told Reuters.
However, in his comments to reporters on the flight, Trump said he had not spoken to Oracle’s Larry Ellison about buying the app.
Asked if he was putting together a deal with Oracle and other investors to save TikTok, Trump said: “No, not with Oracle. Numerous people are talking to me, very substantial people, about buying it and I will make that decision probably over the next 30 days. Congress has given 90 days. If we can save TikTok, I think it would be a good thing.”
The sources did say the terms of any potential deal with Oracle were fluid and likely to change. One source said the full scope of the discussions was not yet set and could include the U.S. operations as well as other regions.
National Public Radio on Saturday reported the deal talks for TikTok’s global operations, citing two people with knowledge of the negotiations. Oracle had no immediate comment.
The deal being negotiated anticipates participation from ByteDance’s current U.S. investors, according to the sources. Jeff Yass’s Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Sequoia Capital are among ByteDance’s U.S. backers.
Representatives for TikTok, ByteDance investors General Atlantic, KKR, Sequoia and Susquehanna could not immediately be reached for comment.
Others vying to acquire TikTok, including the investor group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and another involving Jimmy Donaldson, better known as the YouTube star Mr. Beast, are not part of the Oracle negotiation, one of the sources said.
Oracle responsible
Under the terms of the deal, Oracle would be responsible for addressing national security issues. TikTok initially struck a deal with Oracle in 2022 to store U.S. users’ information to alleviate Washington’s worries about Chinese government interference.
TikTok’s management would remain in place, to operate the short video app, according to one of the sources.
The app, which is used by 170 million Americans, was taken offline temporarily for users shortly before a law that said it must be sold by ByteDance on national security grounds, or be banned, took effect on Jan. 19.
Trump, after taking office a day later, signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law that was put in place after U.S. officials warned that under ByteDance, there was a risk of Americans’ data being misused.
Officials from Oracle and the White House held a meeting on Friday about a potential deal, and another meeting has been scheduled for next week, NPR reported.
Oracle was interested in a TikTok stake “in the tens of billions,” but the rest of the deal is in flux, the NPR report cited the source as saying.
Trump has said he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” in TikTok.
NPR cited another source as saying that appeasing Congress is seen as a key hurdle by the White House.
Free speech advocates have opposed TikTok’s ban under a law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden.
The company has said U.S. officials have misstated its ties to China, arguing its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated by Oracle while content moderation decisions that affect American users are also made in the U.S.
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Rubio threatens bounties on Taliban leaders over detained Americans
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday threatened bounties on the heads of Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders, sharply escalating the tone as he said more Americans may be detained in the country than previously thought.
The threat comes days after the Afghan Taliban government and the United States swapped prisoners in one of the final acts of former U.S. President Joe Biden.
The new top U.S. diplomat issued the harsh warning via social media, in a rhetorical style strikingly similar to his boss, President Donald Trump.
“Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported,” Rubio wrote on X.
“If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on bin Laden,” he said, referring to the al-Qaida leader killed by U.S. forces in 2011.
Rubio did not describe who the other Americans may be, but there have long been accounts of missing Americans whose cases were not formally taken up by the U.S. government as wrongful detentions.
In the deal with the Biden administration, the Taliban freed the best-known American detained in Afghanistan, Ryan Corbett, who had been living with his family in the country and was seized in August 2022.
Also freed was William McKenty, an American about whom little information has been released.
The United States in turn freed Khan Mohammed, who was serving a life sentence in a California prison.
Mohammed was convicted of trafficking heroin and opium into the United States and was accused of seeking rockets to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
The United States offered a bounty of $25 million for information leading to the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden shortly after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, with Congress later authorizing the secretary of state to offer up to $50 million.
No one is believed to have collected the bounty for bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan.
Harder line on Taliban?
Trump is known for brandishing threats in his speeches and on social media. But he is also a critic of U.S. military interventions overseas and in his second inaugural address Monday said he aspired to be a “peacemaker.”
In his first term, the Trump administration broke a then-taboo and negotiated directly with the Taliban — with Trump even proposing a summit with the then-insurgents at the Camp David presidential retreat — as he brokered a deal to pull U.S. troops and end America’s longest war.
Biden carried out the agreement, with the Western-backed government swiftly collapsing and the Taliban retaking power in August 2021 just after U.S. troops left.
The scenes of chaos in Kabul brought strong criticism of Biden, especially when 13 American troops and scores of Afghans died in a suicide bombing at the city’s airport.
The Biden administration had low-level contacts with Taliban government representatives but made little headway.
Some members of Trump’s Republican Party criticized even the limited U.S. engagements with the Taliban government and especially the humanitarian assistance authorized by the Biden administration, which insisted the money was for urgent needs in the impoverished country and never routed through the Taliban.
Rubio on Friday froze nearly all U.S. aid around the world.
No country has officially recognized the Taliban government, which has imposed severe restrictions on women and girls under its ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Thursday said he was seeking arrest warrants for senior Taliban leaders over the persecution of women.
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Trump restores US participation in two anti-abortion pacts
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump used his executive authority Friday to restore U.S. participation in two international anti-abortion pacts, including one that cuts off U.S. family planning funds for foreign organizations if they provide or promote abortions.
Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which opponents call the “global gag rule” because they say it silences pro-choice advocates. Established by former President Ronald Reagan in 1984, it has been rescinded by each Democratic president since then and reinstated when a Republican returns to the White House.
Abortion is a divisive issue in U.S. politics and was a major issue in the 2024 campaign won by Trump. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to eliminate a nationwide right to abortion, leaving abortion laws to each of the 50 states.
Trump said in his memorandum Friday he was directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to implement the Mexico City Policy “to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.”
Democrats and abortion rights advocates contend the rule disrupts other forms of health care access and blocks nongovernmental organizations abroad from receiving U.S. funds, even if they use their own money on abortion care.
Janeen Madan Keller, a policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, said research showed that the order has led to an increase in unwanted pregnancies and abortions, counter to its intended impact.
“Broadly speaking these decisions are going to really set the United States back in advancing gender equality,” Madan Keller said, in part by limiting the ability of women and girls to complete school and enter the workforce.
Rubio also announced Friday the United States was rejoining the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which critics say aims to limit abortion access for millions of women and girls around the world.
The declaration was co-sponsored by the United States, Brazil, Uganda, Egypt, Hungary and Indonesia in 2020, when Trump was in office during his first term. It now has more than 35 signatories.
The previous Trump administration said the declaration sought better health care for women and the preservation of human life, while also strengthening family as the foundational unit of society and protecting each nation’s sovereignty.
The State Department said Friday that one of the four objectives of the pact was to “protect life at all stages.”
Trump also issued an executive order related to the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortion coverage in the United States, and rescinded two of predecessor Joe Biden’s executive orders intending to preserve reproductive health services after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion.
“While this EO (executive order) has no immediate impact, it is an indication of the Trump administration doubling down on denying abortion access to people with low incomes,” the women’s health care provider Planned Parenthood said in a statement.
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Trump proposes ‘getting rid of FEMA’ while touring disaster areas
LOS ANGELES — U.S. President Donald Trump surveyed disaster zones in California and North Carolina on Friday and said he was considering “getting rid of” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, offering the latest sign of how he is weighing sweeping changes to the nation’s central organization for responding to disasters.
In fire-ravaged California, the state’s Democratic leaders pressed Trump for federal assistance that he’s threatened to hold up, some setting aside their past differences to shower him with praise. Trump, in turn, pressured local officials to waive permitting requirements so people can immediately rebuild, pledging that federal permits would be granted promptly.
Instead of having federal financial assistance flow through FEMA, the Republican president said Washington could provide money directly to the states. He made the comments while visiting North Carolina, which is still recovering months after Hurricane Helene, on the first trip of his second term.
“FEMA has been a very big disappointment,” the Republican president said. “It’s very bureaucratic. And it’s very slow.”
Trump was greeted in California by Governor Gavin Newsom, a Trump critic whom the president frequently disparages. The duo chatted amiably and gestured toward cooperation despite their history.
“We’re going to need your support. We’re going to need your help,” Newsom told Trump. “You were there for us during COVID. I don’t forget that, and I have all the expectations we’ll be able to work together to get a speedy recovery.”
Newsom has praised Trump before when looking for help from the federal government. In the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, he called Trump “thoughtful” and “collaborative.”
Trump flew over several devastated neighborhoods in Marine One, the presidential helicopter, before landing in Pacific Palisades, a hard-hit community that’s home to some of Southern California’s rich and famous. Accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, he walked a street where all the houses have burned, chatting with residents and police officers.
It takes seeing the damage firsthand to grasp its enormity, Trump said after. The fires, which continue to burn, could end up being the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.
“It is devastation. It really is an incineration,” Trump said.
Trump’s brief but friendly interaction with Newsom belied the confrontational stance he signaled toward California earlier in the day. Even on the plane en route to Los Angeles, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was using Trump’s disparaging nickname for the governor, “Newscum,” and telling reporters, “He has wronged the people of his state” and saying Trump was visiting to pressure Newsom and other officials “to do right by their citizens.”
Trump said Los Angeles residents who lost their homes should be able to get back onto their properties immediately to clear them, adding several told him it will be months before they can rebuild.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said residents should be able to return home within the week, but keeping people safe from hazardous materials is a top priority. She said the city was easing the process to get permits, but she was repeatedly interrupted by Trump as she tried to explain the city’s efforts. He downplayed the concerns about toxins, saying: “What’s hazardous waste? We’re going to have to define that.”
Trump has a long history of minimizing the risks of asbestos. In his 1997 book, The Art of the Comeback, Trump called asbestos “the greatest fireproofing material ever used” and “100% safe, once applied,” and claimed the movement against the insulator was led by the mob, “because it was often mob-related companies that would do the asbestos removal.”
Before flying to California, Trump reiterated that he wants to extract concessions from the Democratic-led state in return for disaster assistance, including changes to water policies and requirements that voters need to show identification when casting ballots.
Beyond Trump’s criticism of FEMA, he’s suggested limiting the federal government’s role in responding to disasters, echoing comments from conservative allies who have proposed reducing funding and responsibility.
“I’d like to see the states take care of disasters,” he said in North Carolina. “Let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and all of the other things that happen.”
Trump said Michael Whatley, a North Carolina native and chair of the Republican National Committee, would help coordinate recovery efforts in the state, where frustrations over the federal response have lingered. Although Whatley does not hold an official government position, Trump said he would be “very much in charge.”
FEMA helps respond to disasters when local leaders request a presidential emergency declaration, a signal that the damage is beyond the state’s ability to handle on its own. FEMA can reimburse governments for recovery efforts such as debris removal, and it gives stopgap financial assistance to individual residents.
Trump has criticized former President Joe Biden for his administration’s response to Helene in North Carolina. As he left the White House on Friday morning, he told reporters that “it’s been a horrible thing the way that’s been allowed to fester” since the storm hit in September, and “we’re going to get it fixed up.
In a small town in western North Carolina, residents told Trump about wading through waist-deep water to escape from their homes while fearing for their lives. Some have battled with insurance companies to get their losses covered.
“We’ve come to North Carolina with a simple message,” Trump said. “You are not forgotten any longer. You were treated very badly by the previous administration.”
FEMA has distributed $319 million in financial assistance to residents, but that hasn’t alleviated the feeling of abandonment among residents who are struggling to rebuild their lives.
Michael A. Coen Jr., who served as chief of staff at FEMA during the Biden administration, said Trump was “misinformed” about an agency that provides critical help to states when they are overwhelmed by catastrophe.
In addition, Coen criticized the idea of attaching strings to assistance. “I think the American people expect the federal government will be there for them on their worst day, no matter where they live,” he said.
Trump tapped Cameron Hamilton, a former Navy SEAL with limited experience managing natural disasters, as FEMA’s acting director.
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