AFP USA

US President Donald Trump warned Tuesday of unspecified “very strong action” if Iranian authorities go ahead with threatened hangings of some protesters, with Tehran calling American warnings a “pretext for military intervention”.International outrage has built over the crackdown that a rights group said has likely killed thousands during protests posing one of the biggest challenges yet to Iran’s clerical leadership.Iran’s UN mission posted a statement on X, vowing that Washington’s “playbook” would “fail again”.”US fantasies and policy toward Iran are rooted in regime change, with sanctions, threats, engineered unrest, and chaos serving as the modus operandi to manufacture a pretext for military intervention,” the post said.  Iranian authorities have insisted they had regained control of the country after successive nights of mass protests nationwide since Thursday.Rights groups accuse the government of fatally shooting protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown with an internet blackout that has now surpassed the five-day mark.Trump — who earlier told the protesters in Iran that “help is on its way” — told CBS News that the United States would act if Iran began hanging protesters.Tehran prosecutors said Iranian authorities would press capital charges of “moharebeh”, or “waging war against God”, against some suspects arrested over recent demonstrations.”We will take very strong action if they do such a thing,” said the American leader, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention.”When they start killing thousands of people — and now you’re telling me about hanging. We’ll see how that’s going to work out for them,” Trump said.New videos on social media, with locations verified by AFP, showed bodies lined up in the Kahrizak morgue just south of the Iranian capital, with the corpses wrapped in black bags and distraught relatives searching for loved ones.International phone links were restored on Tuesday, but only for outgoing calls, according to an AFP journalist, and the quality remained spotty, with frequent interruptions.Earlier Tuesday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform urge Iranians to “KEEP PROTESTING”, adding: “I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”It was not immediately clear what meetings he was referring to or what the nature of the help would be. – ‘Rising casualties’ -European nations also signalled their anger over the crackdown, with France, Germany and the United Kingdom among the countries that summoned their Iranian ambassadors, as did the European Union. “The rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying,” said EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, vowing further sanctions against those responsible.The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it had confirmed 734 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely far higher.”The figures we publish are based on information received from fewer than half of the country’s provinces and fewer than 10 percent of Iran’s hospitals. The real number of those killed is likely in the thousands,” IHR’s director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said.IHR highlighted the case of Erfan Soltani, 26, who was arrested last week in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj and who, according to a family source, has already been sentenced to death and is due to be executed as early as Wednesday.Iranian state media has said dozens of members of the security forces have been killed, with their funerals turning into large pro-government rallies. Authorities in Tehran have announced a mass funeral ceremony in the capital on Wednesday for the “martyrs” of recent days.Amir, an Iraqi computer scientist, returned to Baghdad on Monday and described dramatic scenes in Tehran.”On Thursday night, my friends and I saw protesters in Tehran’s Sarsabz neighbourhood amid a heavy military presence. The police were firing rubber bullets,” he told AFP in Iraq.- ‘Serious challenge -The government on Monday sought to regain control of the streets with mass nationwide rallies that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed as proof that the protest movement was defeated, calling them a “warning” to the United States. In power since 1989 and now aged 86, Khamenei has faced significant challenges, most recently the 12-day war in June against Israel, which resulted in the killing of top security officials and forced him to go into hiding.Analysts have cautioned that it is premature to predict the immediate demise of the theocratic system, pointing to the repressive levers the leadership controls, including the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is charged with safeguarding the Islamic revolution.”These protests arguably represent the most serious challenge to the Islamic republic in years, both in scale and in their increasingly explicit political demands,” Nicole Grajewski, professor at the Sciences Po Centre for International Studies in Paris, told AFP.She said it was unclear if the protests would unseat the leadership, pointing to “the sheer depth and resilience of Iran’s repressive apparatus”.

The US Commerce Department on Tuesday opened the door for Nvidia to sell advanced artificial intelligence chips in China with restrictions, following through on a policy shift announced last month by President Donald Trump.The change would permit Nvidia to sell its powerful H200 chip to Chinese buyers if certain conditions are met — including proof of “sufficient” US supply — while sales of its most advanced processors would still be blocked.However, uncertainty has grown over how much demand there will be from Chinese companies, as Beijing has reportedly been encouraging tech companies to use homegrown chips.Chinese officials have informed some tech companies they would only approve buying H200 chips under special circumstances, such as development labs or university research, news website The Information reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the situation.The Information had previously reported that Chinese officials were calling on companies there to pause H200 purchases while they deliberated requiring them to buy a certain ratio of AI chips made by Nvidia rivals in China.In its official update on Tuesday, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said it had changed the licensing review policy for H200 and similar chips from a presumption of denial to handling applications case by case.Trump announced on December 9, 2025 that he had reached an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping to allow Nvidia to export its H200 chips to China, with the US government getting a 25-percent cut of sales.The move marked a significant shift in US export policy for advanced AI chips, which Joe Biden’s administration had heavily restricted over national security concerns about Chinese military applications.Democrats in Congress have criticized the shift as a huge mistake that will help the Chinese military and economy.Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has advocated for the company to be allowed to sell some of its more advanced chips in China, arguing the importance of AI systems around the world being built on US technology.The chips — graphic processing units or GPUs — are used to train the AI models that are the bedrock of the generative AI revolution launched with the release of ChatGPT in 2022.The GPU sector is dominated by Nvidia, now the world’s most valuable company thanks to frenzied global demand and optimism for AI.China and the United States are competing for dominance in AI.H200s are roughly 18 months behind the US company’s most state-of-the-art offerings, which will still be off-limits to China.

The United States said Tuesday it would end a special protected status for Somalis, telling them they must leave the country by mid-March under an escalating crackdown on the community. There is a large Somali community in Minnesota, the Midwestern state at the forefront of raids and searches by immigration officers, one of whom shot and killed a local woman last week, sparking protests.Minnesota has sought a temporary restraining order for the ICE operation in the state which, if granted by a federal judge, would pause the enforcement sweeps that have so far reportedly led to 2,000 arrests.In recent weeks Washington has lashed out at Somali immigrants, alleging large-scale public benefit fraud in Minnesota’s Somali community, the largest in the country with around 80,000 members.The Department of Homeland Security said on X it was “ENDING Temporary Protected Status for Somalians in the United States.” “Our message is clear. Go back to your own country, or we’ll send you back ourselves,” it said.DHS followed up by re-tweeting its initial post with a photograph of President Donald Trump and the caption “I am the captain now,” a reference to the film “Captain Phillips” in which a tanker is seized by Somali pirates.Temporary Protected Status (TPS) shields certain foreigners from deportation to disaster zones and allows them the right to work.Tuesday’s announcement set a March 17 departure deadline for Somalis losing their legal status.Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American elected to Congress, said Saturday Trump is “trying to scare them and terrorize them every single day… And what we know is that Somalis are not intimidated.”On Tuesday, the Republican president took to his Truth Social platform to attack Democrats who lead Minneapolis, its twin city St. Paul, and Minnesota. – Alleged major benefit fraud -“Minnesota Democrats love the unrest that anarchists and professional agitators are causing because it gets the spotlight off of the 19 Billion Dollars that was stolen by really bad and deranged people,” Trump wrote. “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”Local community organizer Mowlid Mohamed told AFP “it looks like the state of Minnesota is under a persecution by the federal government.””They (are) weaponizing the federal agencies to the state of Minnesota to make it that they show their power — and this is one of the tools that they’re using specifically targeting the Somali people.”Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) meanwhile has kept up its migrant sweeps across Minnesota.On Tuesday masked officers dragged a woman from her car as ICE agents conducted checks. Another individual was carried away by their limbs.Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot dead in her car by an ICE officer Wednesday in Minneapolis.Three federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned after coming under pressure to focus the probe into Good’s death on her widow’s actions, US media reported Tuesday.The Trump administration in recent months has latched onto news of a large-scale public benefit fraud scandal to carry out immigration raids and harsher policies targeting Minnesota’s Somali community.Federal charges have been filed against 98 people accused of embezzlement of public funds and — as US Attorney General Pam Bondi stressed — 85 of the defendants were “of Somali descent.” Fifty-seven people have already been convicted in the scheme to divert $300 million in public grants, prosecutors said.Republican elected officials and federal prosecutors accuse local Democratic authorities of turning a blind eye to numerous warnings because the fraud involved Minnesota’s Somali community.

Boeing secured orders for nearly 1,200 commercial planes last year, topping European rival Airbus for the first time since 2018, according to figures released Tuesday.The US aviation giant booked 175 orders in December, taking the total for 2025 to 1,173. Airbus on Monday disclosed net orders of 889 aircraft for the year.Boeing still lags behind Airbus in terms of the total number of undelivered planes following stumbles in the wake of fatal 2018 and 2019 crashes of the 737 MAX that have weighed on the US company.But Boeing on Tuesday also received a boost from an order by Delta Air Lines to purchase 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with options for 30 more of the widebody jet.Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC that the company was the only major US carrier without the popular plane but it was “confident” based on Boeing’s efforts under Kelly Ortberg, who joined as chief executive in 2024.”Watching the progress that the team has made, we realize that turnaround is still in midst,” Bastian said.Delta’s order was not included in Boeing’s 2025 figures. – Progress with FAA -The improvement in orders marks the latest sign of progress for Boeing after a bruising 2024. Last year opened with a near-catastrophic emergency landing on an Alaska Airlines flight in January, and concluded with the restart of plane production in the Seattle region following a lengthy labor strike.After the Alaska Airlines incident, Boeing fortified its quality control and manufacturing operations under close scrutiny by the US Federal Aviation Administration.In October, the FAA granted approval to Boeing to increase production on the 737 MAX to 42 per month from 38, a key sign of progress.”Our team did great work throughout 2025 to improve the on-time delivery of safe, quality airplanes to our customers to support their growth and modernization plans,” said Boeing commercial plane chief Stephanie Pope.”We’re focused on getting better every day and building on the momentum in the year ahead.”Boeing said it delivered 63 planes in December, taking the annual total to 600 for all of 2025.While that figure marked the most since 2018 and a big jump from the strike-plagued 2024 season, it came in well below the 793 delivered by Airbus.Airbus has dominated deliveries in recent years in the aftermath of the two crashes of Boeing 737 MAX planes that occurred in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Airbus also still holds a sizeable advantage in terms of orders, pointing to a backlog of 8,754 at the end of 2025.Boeing currently lists 6,720 unfilled orders with a backlog of 6,130 after an adjustment under US accounting standards.Morningstar analyst Nicolas Owens said the 2025 result was positive for Boeing, but needs to be weighed against the accumulated orders, which is a “better benchmark,” he said.Boeing’s outpacing of Airbus’ orders in 2025 is “a nice bit of news for Boeing, but it is just one year in a competition for a very large market that plays out over decades,” Owens said in an email to AFP.Boeing shares rose 2.0 percent.

Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama in 1955 and became a US civil rights pioneer, has died aged 86, her foundation said Tuesday.Colvin, then aged 15, made her protest several months before Rosa Parks’ similar act of defiance became a key moment in the birth of the modern civil rights movement in the United States.Colvin “leaves behind a legacy of courage that helped change the course of American history,” her foundation said.Colvin had been studying Black history in school on March 2, 1955, when she was detained after she refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a bus in Montgomery — the same southern US city where Parks’ protest made headlines.”I remained seated because the lady could have sat in the seat opposite me,” Colvin told reporters in Paris in April 2023.”She refused because…a white person wasn’t supposed to sit close to a negro.” “People ask me why I refused to move, and I say history had me glued to the seat,” Colvin said.Colvin was briefly imprisoned for disturbing public order. The following year, she became one of four Black female plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit challenging segregated bus seating in Montgomery. The case was successful, impacting public transportation throughout the United States, including trains, airplanes and taxis.Colvin’s role in the US civil rights movement was less celebrated than that of Parks, who was already a key figure in the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at the time of her arrest.Parks’ arrest triggered a year-long bus boycott in Montgomery that thrust civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence.The civil rights movement led to significant advances for Black people in the mid-1960s — ending legal segregation and securing their voting rights.Colvin, who was born in Alabama in 1939 as the eldest of eight sisters, would be ostracized from the civil rights movement when she became pregnant out of wedlock. She spent decades in obscurity, working for 30 years at a Catholic nursing home, caring for elderly patients as a nursing assistant.But she won recognition later in life. A 2009 biography by Phillip Hoose, “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice,” won the US National Book Award for young people’s literature.However, it was only in 2021 that the record of her 1955 arrest and adjudication of delinquency was expunged by a US court.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States would react strongly if authorities in Iran started hanging people in their crackdown on a popular uprising against the government.”We will take very strong action if they do such a thing,” he told CBS News in an interview, when asked about hangings potentially beginning on Wednesday.”When they start killing thousands of people — and now you’re telling me about hanging. We’ll see how that’s going to work out for them,” Trump said in a video clip released online.The interview took place as Trump was in the northern US state of Michigan to visit a manufacturing plant and deliver a speech on the economy.In his speech, Trump reiterated a message he had posted earlier on social media, that “help is on its way” for the Iranian protesters.He also said it was unclear what the death toll in Iran actually was.”I hear numbers — look, one death is too much — but I hear much lower numbers, and then I hear much higher numbers,” he said.Later, speaking to reporters on his return to Washington, Trump said he would soon be receiving a briefing on Iran.”The killing looks like it’s significant, but we don’t know yet for certain. I’ll know within 20 minutes — and we’ll act accordingly,” he said.Trump had previously vowed the United States would get involved if protesters were killed, a line crossed days ago.At least 734 people are confirmed to have been killed, though the actual death toll is likely in the thousands, Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said Tuesday.Fears have also grown that the Islamic republic could use the death penalty to crack down on the protests, after Tehran prosecutors said authorities would press capital charges of “moharebeh,” or “waging war against God,” against some suspects arrested over recent demonstrations.”Concerns are mounting that authorities will once again resort to swift trials and arbitrary executions to crush and deter dissent,” Amnesty International said. IHR highlighted the case of Erfan Soltani, 26, who was arrested last week in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj and who, according to a family source, has already been sentenced to death and is due to be executed as early as Wednesday.

The US Supreme Court appeared likely on Tuesday in a closely watched pair of cases to uphold state bans on the participation of transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports.The conservative-dominated court heard more than three hours of arguments in separate challenges to state laws in Idaho and West Virginia banning transgender students from female competition.Twenty-seven US states have passed laws in recent years barring athletes who were assigned as male at birth from taking part in girls’ or women’s sports.The Idaho case stems from the Republican-led state’s 2020 Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.The act was challenged by a transgender athlete at an Idaho university, and lower courts ruled that it violates the equal protection clause of the US Constitution.”Idaho’s law classifies on the basis of sex, because sex is what matters in sports,” not gender identity, Alan Hurst, the Idaho solicitor general, told the court.”It correlates strongly with countless athletic advantages like size, muscle mass, bone mass and heart and lung capacity,” Hurst said. “If women don’t have their own competitions, they won’t be able to compete.”Kathleen Hartnett, an attorney for the Idaho woman who brought the case, pushed back, saying the number of transgender girls who have “participated and excelled” in competitive sports are “few and far between.”Hartnett also argued that transgender girls who have undergone testosterone suppressant treatments do not have a competitive edge and have “mitigated their biological advantage of being born male.”Justice Samuel Alito, one of the six conservatives on the nine-member court, took issue with that, saying “there is a healthy scientific dispute about the efficacy of some of these treatments.””There are an awful lot of female athletes who are strongly opposed to participation by trans athletes in competitions with them,” Alito added. “Are they deluded in thinking that they are subjected to unfair competition?”- ‘Harm’ -West Virginia’s 2021 Save Women’s Sports Act was challenged by a middle school student who was not allowed to compete for the girls’ track team.An appeals court ruled that the ban amounted to discrimination on the basis of sex and violated Title IX, the federal civil rights law which prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational programs.West Virginia Solicitor General Michael Williams urged the Supreme Court to reverse that ruling because it means schools “can no longer designate teams by looking to biological sex.””Instead, schools must place students on sports teams based on their self-identified gender,” Williams said.”But that idea turns Title IX, a law Congress passed to protect educational opportunities for girls, into a law that actually denies those opportunities for girls,” he said.Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative, appeared sympathetic to that argument.”I hate, hate that a kid who wants to play sports might not be able to play sports,” Kavanaugh said. “But it’s kind of a zero-sum game for a lot of teams.”Someone who tries out and makes it who is a transgender girl will bump from the starting lineup, from playing time, from the team… someone else,” he said. “There’s a harm there.”Kavanaugh also noted that the US Olympic Committee and National Collegiate Athletic Association do not allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports.Those moves came after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February that enables federal agencies to deny funding to schools that allow transgender athletes to compete on girls’ or women’s teams.University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas became a lightning rod in the debate over transgender athletes in women’s sports after competing in female collegiate meets in 2022. Some fellow swimmers said Thomas, who had earlier swum on UPenn’s men’s team, should not have been allowed to compete against women due to an unfair physiological advantage.UPenn eventually agreed to ban transgender athletes from its women’s sports teams, settling a federal civil rights complaint stemming from the furor around Thomas.Supporters and opponents of both sides rallied outside the Supreme Court ahead of the hearing.Rebekah Bruesehoff, 19, a transgender college student from New Hampshire, said she enjoyed playing field hockey in school and it’s “important that everyone has the right to participate fully in their school community.””This is so much more than just sports,” Bruesehoff said. “It’s about being ourselves in the world today.”The Supreme Court is expected to rule in June or early July.

US President Donald Trump urged Iranians on Tuesday to keep protesting against the country’s theocratic leadership, telling them “help is on its way” as international outrage grows over a crackdown one rights group said has likely killed thousands.Iranian authorities insisted they had regained control of the country after successive nights of mass protests nationwide since Thursday that have posed one of the biggest challenges to the clerical leadership since it came to power in the 1979 Islamic revolution.Rights groups accuse the government of fatally shooting protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown with an internet blackout that has now surpassed the five-day mark.New videos on social media, whose location AFP verified, showed bodies lined up in the Kahrizak morgue just south of the Iranian capital, with the corpses wrapped in black bags and distraught relatives searching for loved ones.International phone links were restored on Tuesday, but only for outgoing calls, according to an AFP journalist, and the quality remained spotty, with frequent interruptions.Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention, said Iranians should continue their nationwide protests, take over institutions and record the names of “killers and abusers”.”Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”It was not immediately clear what meetings he was referring to or what the nature of the help would be.European nations also signalled their anger, with France, Germany and the United Kingdom among the countries that summoned their Iranian ambassadors to protest what French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called “state violence unquestioningly unleashed on peaceful protesters”.The European Union also summoned Iran’s ambassador in Brussels.”The rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying,” said EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, vowing further sanctions against those responsible.- ‘In the thousands’ -The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it had confirmed 734 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely far higher.”The figures we publish are based on information received from fewer than half of the country’s provinces and fewer than 10 percent of Iran’s hospitals. The real number of those killed is likely in the thousands,” IHR’s director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said.Fears have also grown that the Islamic republic could use the death penalty to crack down on the protests, after Tehran prosecutors said Iranian authorities would press capital charges of “moharebeh”, or “waging war against God”, against some suspects arrested over recent demonstrations.”Concerns are mounting that authorities will once again resort to swift trials and arbitrary executions to crush and deter dissent,” Amnesty International said.IHR highlighted the case of Erfan Soltani, 26, who was arrested last week in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj and who, according to a family source, has already been sentenced to death and is due to be executed as early as Wednesday.Iranian state media has said dozens of members of the security forces have been killed, with their funerals turning into large pro-government rallies. Authorities have declared three days of national mourning for those killed.Authorities in Tehran have announced a mass funeral ceremony in the capital on Wednesday for the “martyrs” of recent days.Amir, an Iraqi computer scientist, returned to Baghdad on Monday and described dramatic scenes in Tehran.”On Thursday night, my friends and I saw protesters in Tehran’s Sarsabz neighbourhood amid a heavy military presence. The police were firing rubber bullets,” he told AFP in Iraq.- ‘Last days’ -The government on Monday sought to regain control of the streets with mass nationwide rallies that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed as proof that the protest movement was defeated, calling them a “warning” to the United States. In power since 1989 and now aged 86, Khamenei has faced significant challenges, most recently the 12-day war in June against Israel, which resulted in the killing of top security officials and forced him to go into hiding.”When a regime can only hold on to power through violence, then it is effectively finished,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a trip to India. “I believe that we are now witnessing the last days and weeks of this regime.”Analysts, however, have cautioned that it is premature to predict the immediate demise of the theocratic system, pointing to the repressive levers the leadership controls, including the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is charged with safeguarding the Islamic revolution.”These protests arguably represent the most serious challenge to the Islamic republic in years, both in scale and in their increasingly explicit political demands,” Nicole Grajewski, professor at the Sciences Po Centre for International Studies in Paris, told AFP.She said it was unclear if the protests would unseat the leadership, pointing to “the sheer depth and resilience of Iran’s repressive apparatus”.

Republicans moved Tuesday to hold former US president Bill Clinton in criminal contempt after he skipped a subpoenaed deposition in the congressional investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — marking a sharp escalation in a politically charged inquiry.The Republican-led House Oversight Committee said it would begin contempt proceedings next week after the 79-year-old Democrat did not show up for closed-door testimony scheduled for Tuesday morning. The panel is also threatening similar action against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who is due to testify Wednesday but is also expected to be a no-show.The pressure comes as President Donald Trump faces mounting calls for transparency, with the Justice Department angering his supporters — many of whom believe Epstein was murdered in a cover-up — by releasing only a sliver of case files nearly a month past the legal deadline.”As a result of Bill Clinton not showing up for his lawful subpoena — which was voted unanimously by the committee in a bipartisan manner — we will move next week… to hold former President Clinton in contempt of Congress,” committee chairman James Comer told reporters.In an eight-page letter to Comer, the Clintons said they did not plan to appear for the depositions, describing the moment as one requiring resistance “no matter the consequences.”Invoking contempt against a former president is rare and would represent a significant step by House Republicans. Any contempt resolution would require approval by the full House before being referred to the Justice Department, which ultimately decides whether to prosecute. Criminal contempt of Congress is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and fines of up to $100,000, though referrals are unevenly enforced.The Oversight Committee is investigating Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and how information about his crimes was handled by US authorities. – Conspiracy theories -Epstein, once a friend and associate of Trump and other high-profile figures, was convicted of sex crimes and later jailed pending trial for allegedly trafficking underage girls.The financier died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial, a death officially ruled a suicide but long the subject of conspiracy theories amplified by Trump’s supporters.The Clintons were subpoenaed in August alongside other current and former officials, including former FBI director James Comey. Their depositions were initially scheduled for October, then delayed twice — once after Clinton said he needed to attend a funeral. Clinton’s spokesman Angel Urena has accused Comer of singling out the former president, saying his legal team offered the same terms accepted for other witnesses. Hillary Clinton’s office has questioned why she was subpoenaed at all, saying the committee had failed to explain the relevance of her testimony.The dispute comes amid controversy over the Trump administration’s handling of Epstein-related records. Weeks after a legal deadline to release the Epstein files, the Justice Department has offered up only one percent of the total archive, angering Trump supporters who had expected sweeping disclosures.Those documents included multiple photographs of Bill Clinton from the early 2000s. The former president has acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s private plane during Clinton Foundation trips before the financier was charged with any sex crimes, but denies wrongdoing and says he cut ties years before Epstein’s 2006 arrest.No evidence has emerged implicating either Bill or Hillary Clinton in criminal conduct related to Epstein.Contempt of Congress has taken on greater weight in recent years. Two Trump allies were jailed for defying subpoenas during the investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol — underscoring that defiance can carry real legal consequences.

Greenland would choose to remain Danish over a US takeover, its leader said Tuesday, ahead of crunch White House talks on the future of the Arctic island which President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened.Trump has been talking up the idea of buying or annexing the autonomous territory for years, and further stoked tensions this week by saying the United States would take it “one way or the other”.”We are now facing a geopolitical crisis, and if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a press conference.”One thing must be clear to everyone: Greenland does not want to be owned by the United States. Greenland does not want to be governed by the United States. Greenland does not want to be part of the United States.”He was speaking alongside Danish leader Mette Frederiksen, who said it had not been easy to stand up to what she slammed as “completely unacceptable pressure from our closest ally”.”However, there are many indications that the most challenging part is ahead of us,” Frederiksen said.Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt are to meet US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday to discuss Greenland’s future.Lokke said they had requested a meeting with Rubio, and Vance had asked to take part and host it at the White House.Vance made an uninvited visit to the island in March where he criticised Denmark for what he said was a lack of commitment to Greenland and security in the Arctic, and called it a “bad ally”.The comments enraged Copenhagen, which has been an ardent trans-Atlantic supporter and which has sent troops to fight US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.- ‘Misunderstandings’ -For Nuuk and Copenhagen, Wednesday’s meeting at the White House is aimed at ironing out “misunderstandings”. These relate to Greenland’s defence, Chinese and Russian military presence in the Arctic, and the relationship between Greenland and Copenhagen, which together with the Faroe Islands make up the Kingdom of Denmark. “To the uninformed American listener, the ongoing (independence) talks between Denmark and Greenland might have been construed as if Greenland’s secession from Denmark was imminent,” said Greenland specialist Mikaela Engell.For these listeners, “I can understand that, in this situation, it would be better for the Americans to take hold of that strategic place”, the former Danish representative on the island told AFP.But this “discussion has been going on for years and years and it has never meant that Greenland was on its way out the door”, she stressed.Denmark’s foreign minister said the reason Copenhagen and Nuuk had requested Wednesday’s meeting was “to move the entire discussion… into a meeting room, where you can look each other in the eye and talk through these issues”. Greenland’s location is highly strategic, lying on the shortest route for missiles between Russia and the United States. It is therefore a crucial part of the US anti-missile shield.Washington has accused Copenhagen of doing little to protect Greenland from what it perceives as a growing Arctic threat from Russia and China, though analysts suggest Beijing is a small player in the region.Denmark’s government has rejected US claims, recalling that it has invested almost 90 billion kroner ($14 billion) to beef up its military presence in the Arctic.The Danish prime minister on Tuesday called for stronger cooperation with the US and NATO to improve the region’s security.She also called for NATO to defend Greenland, and said that security guarantees would be “the best defence against Chinese or Russian threats in the Arctic”.Diplomats at NATO say some Alliance members have floated the idea of launching a new mission in the region, although no concrete proposals are yet on the table.Rutte said on Monday that NATO was working on “the next steps” to bolster Arctic security.Greenland’s foreign minister and Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen are to meet NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte on January 19 to discuss the issue. “We are now moving forward with the whole issue of a more permanent, larger presence in Greenland from the Danish defence forces but also with the participation of other countries,” Lund Poulsen told reporters.