The US Treasury Department will start taking “extraordinary measures” next week to avoid risking a default on government debt, Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday, days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.With the government reaching its borrowing limit, the department would start making the moves on Tuesday, the day after the inauguration, Yellen said in a letter to congressional leaders.That will mean Trump’s administration has to grapple immediately with the issue of the debt ceiling — the legal limit on government borrowing to pay bills already incurred.In the past, Congress has routinely voted to lift this bar, but that tool has become a contentious issue, with Republican budget hawks calling for drastic spending reductions instead.”Extraordinary measures” are a way for the Treasury to ensure that the US government can keep paying its bills and avoid a hugely destabilizing debt default.On Friday, Yellen said: “The period of time that extraordinary measures may last is subject to considerable uncertainty.”She noted there are challenges to forecasting the government’s payments and revenue months into the future.”I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States,” Yellen wrote.For now, she said the Treasury would hold off investments of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund not immediately required to pay beneficiaries.It would redeem a part of investments held by the fund, and also suspend added investments of amounts credited to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund.The funds will be made whole once the debt limit is raised or suspended.”Federal retirees and employees will be unaffected by these actions,” she said.In mid-2023, US lawmakers voted to suspend the debt limit after weeks of fraught negotiations, to eliminate the threat of a default.The limit was reinstated on January 2 and set at $36.1 trillion, matching the total debt outstanding on the previous day.During December budget negotiations in Congress, Trump insisted the debt ceiling be raised or even eliminated altogether, although he was unsuccessful at the time.On Thursday, Trump’s Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing that he would work with Trump to remove the limit if the incoming president wanted to do so.He also vowed that the United States would not default on its debt if he became Treasury chief.Earlier this month, Fitch Ratings said the United States faces “significant fiscal policy challenges in 2025.”It pointed to the debt limit, appropriations and “tax cuts in the context of already large deficits and an increasing debt burden.””We believe it is unlikely that these will be resolved expeditiously because of long-standing weaknesses in the federal government’s budgetary process and a narrow Republican House majority,” Fitch added.

US law enforcement agents carried out exercises using barbed wire and concrete blocks Friday at a crossing on the border with Mexico as tensions crept up ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.Vehicle crossings on an international bridge connecting Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas were halted for about 40 minutes while US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers carried out training, an AFP journalist said.According to the CBP office in El Paso, the exercises began in 2019 and aim to ensure that agents are prepared for potential border incidents.Residents in Ciudad Juarez said the exercises have multiplied as Trump prepares to take office on Monday, having vowed the largest deportation of undocumented migrants in the history of the United States.”This is the second closure I’ve seen this week,” said Yadira Martinez, who was among those trying to cross.Ciudad Juarez is one of the main gateways to the United States for migrants fleeing poverty, violence or political instability in their countries. It is also one of the official entry points for migrants with appointments to file an asylum application through the US government’s cellphone app CBP One.Earlier this week another Mexican border city, Tijuana, declared an emergency to free up funds to deal with the potential arrival of deportees.Trump, who repeatedly called the arrival of migrants an “invasion,” has promised to declare a national emergency at the border with Mexico after taking office and to expel millions who lack residency papers.

Skepticism rages about whether Elon Musk actually put in the hours to become a top player of video games “Diablo IV” and “Path of Exile 2.”The fourth main installment in the Blizzard Entertainment series “Diablo” came out in 2023 and a “Vessel of Hatred” expansion pack was released late last year.Role-playing title “Path of Exile 2,” available to those who pay for early access, is expected to be free-to-play when it is officially released this year by Grinding Gear Games.Early talk among gamers is that “Path of Exile 2” is similar enough to “Diablo” to be considered a “clone”.Versions of both games are designed to be played on Xbox and PlayStation consoles and on personal computers running the Windows operating system.- Dungeon crawling -“Diablo” is considered a “dungeon crawler,” a genre in which a player’s character fights monsters, avoids traps, and solves puzzles to progress.Gameplay, not surprisingly, often takes place in fantasy-like dungeons or chambers, with adversaries becoming increasingly difficult.Victories earn rewards that players can use to ramp up their character’s abilities.Gaming industry analyst Mat Piscatella described “Diablo” as “a fantasy action role-playing game whose primary hook for players is the never-ending search for better weapons, armor and items in order to progress in the game to go find even more better weapons, armor and items.” “There’s a story, of course, but really, it’s all about the loot,” he said.- Grinding -Using a tactic called “grinding,” players repeat simple tasks to beat low-level enemies and amass loot.”Basically, clicking on enemies a lot,” Piscatella said.Players can spend hours grinding, prompting doubt that Musk had that kind of time to fritter while running Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and X, formerly known as Twitter.The main story in “Diablo IV” can be finished in about 30 hours, with the time commitment multiplying if a player tackles all side missions.The game also has an online multiplayer component.According to industry watcher Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker, the average “Diablo IV” player in the United States now plays between 10 and 35 hours per month.The average per-player time spent in “Path of Exile 2” in the United States since early access became an option in December ranged from 37 hours to 50.7 hours depending on whether they were using consoles or personal computers, Circana determined.- Barbarians and druids -“Diablo IV” players get to choose from six classes of characters: barbarian, druid, necromancer, rogue, sorcerer or spiritborn — each with its own strengths.Players battle their way through dungeons in an open world, building up their characters as they advance through quests and the story.There are also options for players to battle one another online. Musk has posted video and comments indicating he has played barbarian and spiritborn characters.”Path of Exile 2″ is described in online gamer forums as a more complicated action role-playing game than “Diablo.”Online posts indicate Musk has used both softcore and hardcore characters in “Path of Exile 2,” the former for acclimating to the game and the latter for testing one’s skills.

Elon Musk’s self-proclaimed persona as a top-class gamer took a thrashing on Friday, as video game enthusiasts mercilessly mocked the tech billionaire following a disastrous performance in a livestream.The uproar — tinged with hilarity –- left the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX battling the humiliating accusation that he was faking it as a skilled gamer.It erupted after Musk streamed himself last week playing “Path of Exile 2,” boasting of having one of the highest-ranked characters and inviting scrutiny from seasoned gamers.Many noted that Musk made rookie mistakes and was unfamiliar with basic game mechanics that he should have been familiar with given the advanced level of his avatar in the game.Suspicions swirled that the world’s richest man had hired help, inviting brutal comments that demolished his elite gamer persona.”This sounds like a middle-schooler giving a book report on a book they’ve never read,” said one comment under a YouTube video of Musk’s gameplay.A popular Twitch streamer called Asmongold took the criticism a step further, challenging Musk to prove that he had reached that level himself.The rebuke did not go down well.The billionaire unfollowed Asmongold on X, and soon the streamer lost his blue checkmark. The platform, previously known as Twitter, was purchased by Musk in 2022 for $44 billion.The spat did not end there. Musk shared private direct messages he had exchanged with Asmongold, which insinuated that the streamer’s opinions were not his own.”Asmon behaves like a maverick ‘independent,'” Musk wrote in a post.”But in reality has to ask his boss for permission before he can do anything. He is not his own man.”Provoking titters online, Musk’s post was attached with a Community Note — a crowd-sourced tool to debunk false information — which noted that Asmongold does not have “bosses.” The public spat led to an avalanche of comments that labelled Musk a “man-child” and lampooned his “fragile ego,” while many previous fans added that the billionaire had lost their trust.- ‘Killing the demons’ -The brouhaha punctures Musk’s carefully cultivated persona as something of a superhuman with extraordinary time management skills: running multiple corporations, posting breathlessly on X and excelling at video games — all while being a father to several children.The billionaire is also an an advisor to the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump and has been tapped to run the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with reducing government spending.”Path of Exile 2″ is considered a challenging game that expert players say requires a serious time commitment to reach the advanced level of Musk’s character — something he likely lacks. The tycoon has frequently shared his gaming experiences on social media, claiming to be one of the top players in various online games.He has said the activity forces him to “concentrate” and “killing the demons in a video game calms the demons” in his mind.The uproar has led users to question Musk’s other purported accomplishments, such as his claim that he was among the top 20 players of role-playing video game “Diablo IV.””As a gamer, you have a lot of pride in your rank/level. Trying to fake that while also being the richest guy in the world is just so absurdly unnecessary,” wrote one user on X. “I would say it also makes me wonder, if he is willing to lie about this, what else is he willing to lie about.”

Former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang was sentenced to more than eight years in prison on Friday in connection with a graft scandal that sparked an economic crisis in his home country.Chang, 69, was convicted in a US court in August for his role in the so-called “hidden debt” scandal that saw the Mozambican government contracting $2 billion in secret loans in 2013 and 2014 from international banks to buy a tuna-fishing fleet and surveillance vessels.The loans were hidden from parliament, but the debt came to light in 2016, prompting donors, including the IMF and the World Bank, to turn off financial support.The scandal triggered Mozambique’s worst economic crisis since independence from Portugal four decades earlier.An independent audit later found that $500 million had been diverted and remained unaccounted for.According to the Justice Department, Chang and his co-conspirators diverted more than $200 million of the loan proceeds to pay bribes and kickbacks.Chang was accused of receiving $7 million in bribes to help secure the loans.He was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and sentenced to 102 years in prison. He was also ordered to forfeit $7 million.Chang, who was arrested in South Africa and extradited to the United States, has already spent a total of six years in US and South African prisons and he may only have to serve another 2.5 years.”Chang’s brazen misconduct betrayed his duty to the people of Mozambique and defrauded investors, including those in the United States, of substantial amounts,” Brent Wible, a Justice Department official, said in a statement.”Today’s sentence shows that foreign officials who abuse their power to commit crimes targeting the US financial system will meet US justice,” acting US Attorney Carolyn Pokorny said.