Chipmaker Intel has agreed to give the US government a 10-percent stake in its business, the company and President Donald Trump announced Friday.The deal came after Trump’s administration said Intel should give Washington an equity stake in exchange for large grants committed when Joe Biden was president.Under the agreement, the US government will receive 433.3 million shares of common stock, representing a 9.9 percent stake in the company, Intel said in a statement.This amounts to an $8.9 billion investment, funded partially by $5.7 billion in grants awarded but not yet paid under the CHIPS and Science Act — a major law passed during Biden’s term that Trump has criticized.The other $3.2 billion comes from an award to the company as part of the Secure Enclave program, Intel said.The $8.9 billion investment would be in addition to $2.2 billion in CHIPS grants Intel has already received, taking the full amount to $11.1 billion, the company added.”The United States of America now fully owns and controls 10% of INTEL,” Trump posted on Truth Social.He claimed that the country “paid nothing for these shares” after negotiations with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.Intel noted in its statement: “The government’s investment in Intel will be a passive ownership, with no board representation or other governance or information rights.”Referring to a meeting with Intel last week, Trump told reporters Friday: “I said, I think you should pay us 10 percent of your company.””I said, I think it would be good having the United States as your partner… they’ve agreed to do it, and I think it’s a great deal for them.”Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Friday on X: “This historic agreement strengthens US leadership in semiconductors.”- ‘Slippery slope’ – Intel is one of Silicon Valley’s most iconic companies, but its fortunes have been dwarfed by Asian powerhouses TSMC and Samsung, which dominate the made-to-order semiconductor business. The CHIPS and Science Act was aimed at strengthening the US semiconductor industry, and the Biden administration had unveiled billions in grants through it.It finalized a $7.9 billion award in direct funding to Intel in November 2024, according to a US Department of Commerce statement.”This is a slippery slope,” independent tech analyst Rob Enderle said of the United States taking a stake in Intel. “This is one of those things that kind of brings chills because it’s a step toward nationalizing private business.”Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank that promotes limited government, said on X Friday that the government having a stake in Intel would be “a terrible decision, bad for almost everyone.”He said it would be “bad for Intel’s long-term viability, as politics, not commercial considerations, increasingly drive its decisions” and that “foreign governments might also target it.”In a statement, Tan of Intel said it is “deeply committed to ensuring the world’s most advanced technologies are American made.”The company said it is investing more than $100 billion to expand its US sites.Earlier this month, Trump had demanded Tan resign after a Republican senator raised national security concerns over his links to firms in China.Japan-based tech investor SoftBank Group also recently said it would invest $2 billion in Intel.

The head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and two other senior officers are being removed, officials said Friday — the latest in a series of military firings this year.The removal of Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, who led the DIA since early 2024, comes after the agency produced a preliminary assessment that said US strikes on Iran set back Tehran’s nuclear program by just a few months.The assessment — which was widely reported on by US media — contradicted claims from President Donald Trump that the strikes totally destroyed the nuclear sites, drawing the ire of both him and officials within his administration.Kruse “will no longer serve as DIA director,” a senior defense official said on condition of anonymity, without providing an explanation for the general’s departure.Prior to becoming director of the DIA, Kruse served as the advisor for military affairs for the director of national intelligence, and also held positions including director of intelligence for the coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group.A US official separately said on condition of anonymity that two other senior officers — Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore, chief of Navy Reserve, and Rear Admiral Milton Sands, commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command — were also leaving their positions.- Series of top officers fired -In June, the United States launched a massive operation against three Iranian nuclear sites, an effort that involved more than 125 US aircraft as well as a guided missile submarine.Trump called the strikes a “spectacular military success” and repeatedly said they “obliterated” the nuclear sites, but the DIA’s preliminary assessment raised doubts about the president’s claims.The Trump administration responded with an offensive against the media, insisting the operation was a total success and berating journalists for reporting on the assessment.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted the assessment was “leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn’t successful,” and slammed “fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment.”Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has overseen a purge of top military officers, including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff general Charles “CQ” Brown, whom he fired without explanation in February.Other senior officers dismissed this year include the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to NATO, and three top military lawyers.The chief of staff of the Air Force also recently announced his retirement without explanation just two years into a four-year term.Hegseth has insisted the president is simply choosing the leaders he wants, but Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential politicization of the traditionally neutral US military.Earlier this year, the Pentagon chief additionally ordered at least a 20 percent reduction in the number of active-duty four-star generals and admirals in the US military, as well as a 10 percent cut in the overall number of general and flag officers.

President Donald Trump on Friday tapped close political aide Sergio Gor as US ambassador to India, sending one of his feared enforcers at a delicate time in ties with New Delhi.The 38-year-old Gor rose quickly in conservative politics to become one of the most powerful, if low-profile, aides in the White House with a task of vetting some 4,000 appointees to ensure utmost loyalty to Trump.Gor’s enemies include Elon Musk, who following his spectacular falling-out with Trump branded Gor a “snake” after he scuttled the tech and aerospace billionaire’s choice to lead NASA.Gor’s influence does not include extensive experience in foreign policy, beyond joining travel overseas and leading a purge of National Security Council staffers whose views were called into suspicion.”For the most populous Region in the World, it is important that I have someone I can fully trust to deliver on my Agenda and help us, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.”Sergio will make an incredible Ambassador,” he wrote.Trump wrote that Gor would also hold a role of special envoy for South and Central Asia. Trump has largely sidelined traditional diplomats and relied for diplomacy on personal friends, with the State Department’s top position for South Asia still vacant.The nomination comes after a spike in tensions with India, which the United States has prioritized as an emerging partner since the 1990s.Trump has moved to ramp up tariffs on India to pressure it over its purchases of energy from Russia, despite Trump’s own diplomacy with counterpart Vladimir Putin.India in recent days has held top-level meetings with both Russia and China. Successive US administrations have viewed India as a balance against China, seen as the top US global rival.Trump has spoken of brokering between India and Pakistan after they reached a ceasefire in a brief conflict in May, although India has been hesitant on any direct US role.- Political insider -Gor was born in Uzbekistan when it was still in the Soviet Union — a background on which he has been discreet — before moving as a child to Malta.After attending university in the United States, he became active in Republican Party politics, eventually taking top positions with Senator Rand Paul, a leading Republican critic of foreign interventionism, then working as a fund-raiser and book publisher for Trump — and as an amateur wedding DJ.In his post, Trump hailed Gor’s work as director of presidential personnel, saying that 95 percent of positions have been filled and that he will stay on until the Republican-led Senate confirms him as ambassador.Secretary of State Marco Rubio quickly endorsed Gor on X, saying he would be an “excellent representative of America in one of the most important relationships our nation has in the world.”Trump named an ambassador to India later than for many other major countries. While presidents have often tapped political aides as ambassador — former president Joe Biden sent former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to Tokyo — India has an illustrious history of seeing public intellectuals as ambassador. US ambassadors to India have included prominent economist John Kenneth Galbraith and the social scientist and future senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.Biden’s ambassador to India was Eric Garcetti, a former mayor of Los Angeles known for his interest in Indian philosophy and who had studied Hindi and Urdu as a young man.

US President Donald Trump announced Friday that the draw for the 2026 World Cup will be held in Washington on December 5 — and then jokingly asked if he could keep the golden trophy for himself.The draw for the 48-team football championship will be held at the Kennedy Center in the US capital, where Trump recently installed himself as chairman in what he called a war on “woke” culture.”It’s the biggest, probably the biggest event in sports,” Trump, flanked by FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, said as he made the announcement in the Oval Office of the White House.The 2026 World Cup is being hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico next year, and Trump has made a big deal about it happening during his presidency.Infantino, who has fostered close ties with the billionaire US president, brought the World Cup with him for the announcement and even let Trump get his hands on it.”Only the FIFA president, presidents of countries, and then those who win can touch it, because it’s for winners only. And since you are a winner, of course you can as well touch it,” Infantino said.”Can I keep it?” replied Trump, who won a second term in the White House last year, as he lifted the trophy with both hands. “That’s a beautiful piece of gold.”Trump appeared to be joking — although the separate FIFA Club World Cup trophy remains in the Oval Office more than a month after English side Chelsea won it in New Jersey last month.- Putin ‘may be coming and he may not’ -There was a brief moment of nerves as Trump appeared to fumble the World Cup before placing it on his desk — as Infantino reached out a hand to steady it.Infantino later presented the US leader with a giant ticket — Row 1 Seat 1 — for the World Cup final on July 19 at the MetLife stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside New York.Trump also suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin may attend the World Cup.Holding up a photo that he said Putin had sent him after their summit in Alaska last week, Trump said the Kremlin chief “wants to be there very badly,” but that he “may be coming and he may not” depending on the outcome of Ukraine peace efforts.The United States was named as a joint host of the 2026 World Cup during Trump’s first term as president in 2018. He lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden but won a second term last year.Since his return to power, Trump has launched a major crackdown on immigration, but he said it would be “very easy” for most World Cup fans to get a visa.For visitors from some countries, it would be “obviously a little bit more difficult,” said Trump, who has banned all travelers from 12 nations including Afghanistan, Haiti and Iran.- ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’ -The World Cup draw was reportedly due to be held in Las Vegas but the new venue has more political overtones.Trump led a takeover of the Kennedy Center earlier this year, saying that the venerable performing arts venue named after late Democratic president John F. Kennedy had become too “woke.”He added on Friday as he made the announcement that “some people refer to it as the Trump-Kennedy Center, but we’re not prepared to do that quite yet, maybe in a week or so.” Trump visited the Kennedy Center just before the Oval Office announcement on Friday. He has said he is going to make major improvements to “beautify” it, including adding marble cladding.The US president also hailed a major federal crime crackdown in Washington that has seen US National Guard troops deployed on the streets of the capital.Trump said the move would make Washington safe for football fans visiting the city during next year’s tournament.