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US President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for his $300-million White House ballroom, a spokesman said Thursday, after reported disagreements with the project’s original designer.Trump had differences with James McCrery, a specialist in classical architecture, including over the billionaire president’s wishes to increase the size of the ballroom, US media reported.The Republican had now picked architect Shalom Baranes, who has “shaped the architectural identity of our nation’s capital for decades,” to come on board, said White House spokesman Davis Ingle.”As we begin to transition into the next stage of development on the White House ballroom, the administration is excited to share that the highly talented Shalom Baranes has joined the team of experts to carry out President Trump’s vision,” Ingle said in a statement to AFP.The firm has previously worked on projects including the modernization of the US Treasury building near the White House, and renovating the Pentagon after the September 11, 2001 attacks.Trump has demolished the entire East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom that he says will have a capacity of 1,000 people.His plans have sparked concerns that the new building could overshadow the main presidential mansion itself, one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks.The project, which Trump says will be fully privately funded, has yet to undergo any public review.US media reported that in addition to disagreements over the size of the ballroom, property magnate Trump had concerns that McCrery’s small firm would be able to meet deadlines.A person familiar with the project however said that McCrery would remain a “valuable consultant” on the ballroom, adding that it was “not a replacement but rather a passing of the baton as the project develops into new phases.”

It may not make up for missing out on the Nobel Prize, but President Donald Trump still looked thrilled to arrive at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.”It’s a great honor,” said Trump, gazing admiringly at the ceiling as he hosted the signing on Thursday of a peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.The billionaire Republican then effusively thanked the leaders of the two African countries for attending the ceremony at the “spectacular” institute in the US capital Washington.”It means maybe more because we are here together for the first time ever in this building — brand new beautiful building,” Trump added.In fact, the building formerly known as the United States Institute of Peace was built in 2011, five years before Trump won the US presidency for the first time. But its current incarnation is new — and the latest in a series of moves by the administration aimed at bolstering Trump’s image as a global peacemaker.The State Department announced on the eve of the peace deal signing ceremony that the institute had been renamed in honor of the Republican president to “reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history”.It also shared a picture of the building with Trump’s name added on a wall above the engraved name of the organization.Trump has made no secret of his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize and claims to have resolved eight global conflicts since returning to office in January, including the war in the eastern DRC.Nor is it just Trump’s administration seeking to flatter the former reality TV star.Trump is widely regarded as the frontrunner to win a new peace prize that football’s governing body FIFA is set to award at the 2026 World Cup draw on Friday.That will take place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington — which Trump jokingly, or perhaps mischievously, referred to on Thursday as the “Trump-Kennedy Center”, before adding: “whoops, excuse me.”- Next stop Mount Rushmore? -The 79-year-old Trump has not been shy about stamping his own image on Washington during his second term.The US Institute of Peace itself was subject to a Trump takeover earlier this year.Created in 1984 by former president Ronald Reagan as a non-profit organization to prevent conflicts, and funded by the taxpayer, Trump ordered its dismantlement in February. In March, former ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) seized control of the center while the organization’s president was removed from its headquarters by law enforcement.And it is far from the last institution to get a makeover from Trump — who before he became president was famed partly for the skyscrapers and casinos bearing his name that stood astride several US cities.In the White House, the heart of the US presidency, Trump has covered the Oval Office with gold decor and turned the Rose Garden into a patio.Most notoriously he has demolished the entire East Wing to build a giant $300-million ballroom that, US media reported, will eventually be known as the “Donald J. Trump” ballroom.There could be more Trump-branded landmarks to come.Proposals have been made for Trump’s image to feature on a $1 coin and for his name to feature on a new stadium for the Washington Commanders NFL team and the capital’s Dulles Airport.A bill by Republican lawmakers has even suggested adding Trump’s face to the rock-hewn pantheon of presidents in Mount Rushmore.

Wall Street stocks finished mixed at the end of a choppy session Thursday as markets digested varying labor market data and looked ahead to next week’s Federal Reserve decision.Strong gains by Facebook parent Meta and tech giant Salesforce helped lift the Nasdaq into positive territory, while the Dow finished slightly lower.Earlier, bourses in London, Paris and Frankfurt all pushed higher.A weekly report of initial US jobless claims showed a drop of 27,000. That upbeat figure came on the heels of data on Wednesday from private payroll firm ADP that showed a surprise decline in hiring last month.A separate report Thursday by the executive placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed a jump in job cuts in November, lifting the 2025 total to the highest level since 2020.”The market is trying to figure out how to interpret the jobs data today,” said Tom Cahill of Ventura Wealth Management. “There’s some confusion.”Cahill said widespread expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates next week is “putting a floor under equity prices and other risk assets.”Tokyo earlier rallied more than two percent in a positive Asian session which also saw Hong Kong, Sydney, Taipei and Bangkok finish higher.A healthy 30-year Japanese government bond sale provided some support as it slightly eased tensions about a possible rate hike by the central bank this month. The news compounded a strong response to a 10-year auction earlier in the week that settled some nerves.Elsewhere, oil prices advanced about one percent, with analysts pointing to uncertainty over the prospects for diplomatic efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.Shares in Meta rose 3.4 percent after a report that the Facebook parent is significantly cutting back on virtual-reality investments in a pivot toward artificial intelligence.According to Bloomberg, Meta plans to cut its Metaverse costs by 30 percent — news that drove its share price up as much as four percent in Thursday trading on Wall Street.Salesforce jumped 3.7 percent as the tech giant raised its full-year sales forecast.- Key figures at around 2115 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.1 percent at 47,850.94 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 0.1 percent at 6,857.12 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 23,505.14 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 9,710.87 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.4 percent at 8,122.03 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.8 percent at 23,882.03 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 2.3 percent at 51,028.42 (close) Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.7 percent at 25,935.90 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,875.79 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1648 from $1.1671 on WednesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3335 from $1.3353Dollar/yen: DOWN at 155.03 yen from 155.25 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 87.00 pence from 87.40 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.9 percent at $63.26 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.1 percent at $59.67 per barrel

President Donald Trump’s envoys were to meet Thursday with Ukrainian negotiators for the third time in two weeks to press his plan to end the war as his administration eased economic pressure on Russia.Two days after the envoys met Russian President Vladimir Putin, the US Treasury Department partially suspended measures that Trump had announced in October when he finally vowed to get tough on Moscow.The Treasury Department suspended until at least April 29 economic sanctions against Lukoil-branded gas stations outside of Russia.A ban remains in place to prevent the money from flowing back to Russia, which has been under sweeping US and EU sanctions since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.Trump’s sanctions had been one of the most concrete means to pressure Russia, which European diplomats accuse of trying to avoid pressure by pursuing negotiations.- Ukraine seeks ‘complete information’ -Steve Witkoff, Trump’s business partner-turned-roving global ambassador, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, will meet in the Miami area for dinner late Thursday with the top Ukrainian negotiator, Rustem Umerov, a US official said.The gathering, which will be closed to the press, came two days after the Trump duo met with Putin for five hours, stretching into the early morning, in Moscow.”Our task now is to obtain complete information about what has been said in Russia and what other reasons Putin has found to prolong the war and to pressure Ukraine, to pressure us, our independence,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening address from Kyiv.”Ukraine is prepared for any possible developments. Of course, we will work as constructively as possible with all our partners to ensure peace is achieved, and that it is a dignified peace.”Trump said Wednesday that the envoys had a “reasonably good meeting” with Putin.Pressed on whether Witkoff and Kushner got any sense that Putin genuinely wanted to halt the invasion, Trump replied: “He would like to end the war. That was their impression.”But Putin showed no public signs of budging, as Russia makes slow but steady progress seizing land in eastern Ukraine.”This is a complex task and a challenging mission that President Trump took upon himself,” Putin said of the diplomacy in an interview published Thursday as he visited India.”Achieving consensus among competing parties is no easy task, but President Trump, truly, I believe — he sincerely tries to do this,” he said, according to magazine India Today.”I think we should engage with this effort rather than obstruct it.”Putin’s visit to India, a historic partner of Russia, comes as international isolation of him gradually eases.Trump in August welcomed Putin to Alaska where they made no clear progress on ending the Ukraine conflict.Also on the diplomatic front, Turkey, a key broker, summoned envoys from both Ukraine and Russia after Kyiv claimed drone attacks on Russia-linked tankers in the Black Sea.- Critical time for Ukraine -Trump has previously mused that Russia will inevitably win more land and that Ukraine would be better off settling.A first draft of the US plan would see Ukraine surrendering land that Russia has not been able to win on the battleground in return for security promises that fall short of Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO.Witkoff and Kushner have been working on modifications since meeting with the Ukrainians on November 23 in Geneva. The two sides met again the following week in Miami alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio.The talks come at a delicate time for Zelensky, who was hailed as a hero in the West at the start of the war but has had a tumultuous relationship with Trump.Zelensky last week removed his top aide and negotiator Andriy Yermak, who days earlier had negotiated with Witkoff, as he came under investigation in a corruption scandal.

A Virginia man was arrested on Thursday for allegedly planting pipe bombs near the Democratic and Republican party headquarters on the eve of the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riot, officials said.The arrest of Brian Cole Jr, 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, is the first breakthrough in the nearly five-year-old case, which spawned numerous conspiracy theories among the far right.Attorney General Pam Bondi said Cole faces charges of interstate transportation of an explosive device and attempted destruction using explosive materials.”There could be more charges to come,” Bondi said at a press conference.Bondi declined to speculate on whether the pipe-bombing was politically motivated, saying the investigation was ongoing.The pipe bombs — placed outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Republican National Committee (RNC) offices in Washington in the evening of January 5 — failed to detonate.The devices were discovered by authorities the next day as supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in a bid to prevent the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.The FBI released numerous photos and video clips of a masked and hooded suspect over the years and eventually increased the reward for information leading to an arrest to half a million dollars.Bondi said Cole’s arrest resulted from a reexamination of the existing evidence.The FBI and other law enforcement partners “worked tirelessly for months sifting through evidence that had been sitting at the FBI with the Biden administration for four long years,” Bondi said.”There was no new tip, there was no new witness, just good, diligent police work,” she said.FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said the authorities were determined to “track this person to the end of the earth.””You’re not going to walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices and walk off in the sunset. Not going to happen,” Bongino said.According to the criminal complaint, Cole lived with his mother and other family members in Woodbridge, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Washington, and worked in the office of a bail bondsman.The complaint listed numerous purchases allegedly made by Cole of components that were used in the pipe bombs as well as tracking of his cellphone use on the day the devices were placed in downtown Washington.The failure of law enforcement to swiftly solve the case birthed a number of conspiracy theories among the far right, including baseless accusations that the bomber may have been a US Capitol police officer.After taking office for a second time in January, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people charged or convicted of taking part in the assault on the US Capitol.

Experts appointed by the Trump administration’s vaccine-skeptic health secretary reviewed on Thursday the routine practice of administering hepatitis B vaccines to newborns, considering whether to delay the shot.The reorganized Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is convening for two days in Atlanta, Georgia, to follow up on a September meeting that resulted in new recommendations for Covid-19 and measles vaccinations.But it had to postpone until Friday its decision on doing the same for hepatitis B shots due to confusion and resistance from some committee members who sought more time to evaluate the implications of the proposed change.Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, ACIP is now composed largely of figures criticized by the scientific community for lack of expertise or their promotion of vaccine-skeptic theories.It has initiated a broad review of the safety of several vaccines, some of which have been in use for decades.The shift led by the nation’s health chief — who has long voiced anti-vaccine rhetoric despite his lack of medical credentials — is causing alarm in the American medical and scientific community. Experts have warned about dropping immunization rates and the return of deadly contagious diseases like the measles, which caused several deaths in 2025.- First 24 hours -Since 1991, US health officials have recommended the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, as is done in countries like China and Australia and is recommended by the World Health Organization.The viral liver disease exposes infected individuals to a high risk of death from cirrhosis or liver cancer.Vaccination of newborns has virtually eradicated hepatitis B infections among young people in the United States.But a proposal unveiled Thursday said the shot should be limited to babies whose mothers are carriers of the disease. Other children would receive their first dose at two months.According to several ACIP members, such a change would align the US vaccination schedule with those of other developed countries like France and Britain.But medical experts said such a change is risky in the United States, pointing to shortcomings in maternal screening, with delays likely to cause a drop in vaccination rates in a country where access to health care can be complicated.Delaying the hepatitis B vaccine is “irresponsible, disrespectful and very damaging,” Flor Munoz of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases said Thursday, warning of risks to the most vulnerable patients.”Ninety percent of babies infected with hepatitis B will go on to have chronic liver disease. Of those, a quarter will die from their hepatitis B infection. These are entirely preventable deaths,” said Sean O’Leary, an infectious disease and pediatric specialist who has been critical of the lack of qualifications among ACIP’s new members.But anti-vax groups and President Donald Trump have pushed back, with Trump insisting that children should not be vaccinated against hepatitis B until the age of 12, saying: “Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted. There’s no reason to give a baby that’s almost just born hepatitis B.”Medical experts condemned Trump’s assertions, saying newborns can be infected by their mother during pregnancy or childbirth.An analysis published University of Minnesota researchers this week looked at more than 400 studies, concluding there was no benefit to delaying the hepatitis B vaccine, but there are “critical risks of changing current US recommendations.”- Loss of trust -The repercussions of the ACIP’s vaccine recommendations are broad because federal guidelines often dictate whether vaccines are paid for by health insurance companies in the United States, where a vaccine can cost hundreds of dollars.But the committee’s influence is waning amid withering criticism from the American scientific and medical community, with Democratic-led states announcing they will no longer follow its recommendations.

US President Donald Trump and the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a peace deal Thursday, even as fresh violence raised questions about the accord to end one of Africa’s longest wars.Trump said the United States was also signing deals on critical minerals with the two countries as he hosted Paul Kagame, the longtime president of Rwanda, and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in Washington.”I think it’s going to be a great miracle,” Trump said after the signing — held in a peace institute which his administration has just renamed after him.Speaking of the two leaders, he added: “They spent a lot of time killing each other, and now they are going to spend a lot of time hugging, holding hands and taking advantage of the United States of America economically, like every other country does.”But the African leaders both took a more cautious tone, as fighting raged in eastern DRC where the M23 armed group — which the UN says is backed by Rwanda — has been gaining ground in recent weeks against Kinshasa’s forces.”There will be ups and downs on the road ahead, there is no doubt about it,” said Kagame, whose allies have taken a decisive edge on the ground against his country’s turbulent neighbor.The DRC’s Tshisekedi called it the “beginning of a new path, a demanding path.”- ‘A lot of money’ -Trump has boasted that the eastern DRC conflict, where hundreds of thousands of people have died over several decades, is among eight wars he has ended since he returned to office in January.The US president has made no secret of his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize.Trump said the agreement will pave the way for the United States to gain access to critical minerals in both countries. The violence-torn eastern DRC in particular has reserves of many of the key ingredients in modern technologies such as electric cars.It is the latest in a series of deals in which the billionaire Republican has negotiated a stake for US firms to extract rare earth minerals, including in Ukraine.”We’re going take out some of the rare earth,” Trump said. “And everybody’s going to make a lot of money.”The signing comes more than five months after the countries’ foreign ministers also met Trump and announced another deal to end the conflict.The long-simmering conflict exploded in late January as the M23 captured the major cities of Goma and Bukavu.After the June agreement, the M23 — which denies links to Rwanda — and the Kinshasa government pledged a ceasefire following mediation by US partner Qatar, but both sides have since accused the other of violations.- ‘Many dead’ -Violence continued on the ground even on the day of the signing.An AFP journalist at the scene heard weapon fire ring out on the outskirts of Kamanyola, an M23-controlled town in South Kivu province near the borders with Rwanda and Burundi. “Many houses have been bombed, and there are many dead,” said Rene Chubaka Kalembire, an administrative official in Kaziba, a town also under M23 control, on the eve of the signing.After several days of clashes around Kaziba, fighter jets bombarded the town again on Thursday morning, a local civil society representative who requested anonymity told AFP.Explosions could also be heard coming from the Bugarama border post in Rwanda across the border in neighboring Burundi, with Rwandan police temporarily shutting the frontier post on Thursday. AFP was unable to obtain a verifiable toll from the fighting from independent sources.Local sources reported a massive build-up of M23 reinforcements, accompanied by armored cars, in the high plateau of South Kivu.Passage through the mountainous region would allow its troops to encircle Uvira, the last major town in South Kivu to evade the M23’s capture.The Trump-brokered deal meanwhile comes as both countries are in talks with his administration on its priority of taking in migrants amid the president’s sweeping deportation drive.burs-dk/des

With US President Donald Trump and other sceptics calling climate change a hoax, the UN’s climate science body must tell the world in a “very clear way” that humans are heating the planet, its chairman told AFP.Jim Skea, a Scottish professor, chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which held a five-day meeting in a skyscraper outside Paris this week to begin drafting the next major UN climate assessment.The gathering of more than 600 scientists from around the world, which ends Friday, kicked off a process that will culminate in the publication of the massive report by 2028 or 2029.Established in 1988, the IPCC assesses global climate research and issues comprehensive reports every five to seven years to inform policymakers and guide climate negotiations.QUESTION: You said recently it is “almost inevitable” the world will cross the 1.5C warming threshold. If this happens before the next IPCC assessment is published, what should it emphasise to remain relevant and impactful?ANSWER: “The messages are that if we want to return global warming to 1.5C, it’s quite clear what steps need to be taken. We do need very significant reductions in emissions from land use and from energy. And we also need to start thinking about removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at scale. And there are a lot of knowledge gaps associated with that.”QUESTION: France voiced strong support for the IPCC this week, saying it stood for its scientists in the face of rising climate scepticism. You met with President Emmanuel Macron. How important was it for the IPCC to have this kind of backing in this context?ANSWER: “It’s really important. It was really welcome to get that level of support from the French government, from multiple people. I mean, the head of state, three senior ministers, that was a significant level of support and it gave a lot of impulse to the scientists. When I talked to the scientists afterwards, they were very pleased to have that level of support. It gave them confidence and enthusiasm about moving forward.” QUESTION: How will the IPCC ensure that its findings cut through misinformation and reach the public effectively when you have people like US President Donald Trump calling climate change a hoax?A: “We need to keep communicating the science in a very clear way. I mean, we concluded in our last report, very simple conclusion: It is unequivocal that human beings are causing the climate change that we are already seeing. And we need to keep emphasising that message and we can support it with several different types of explanation, lines of evidence.”QUESTION: The US government is absent from the IPCC and is not funding American academics participating in the process, but are you concerned that it could intervene at the approval stage to block the final report?ANSWER: “We still have a huge US presence in IPCC. We’ve got nearly 50 US authors at this meeting whose travel and subsistence is being supported by US philanthropies and who were nominated by US observer organisations. …”The approval sessions — when we finish the reports — have always been difficult sessions because we need scientists and governments to agree down to the last word and comma. And I don’t think it’s got really substantially more difficult over time to do that.”There’s only been one occasion in IPCC history where a summary for policymakers was not approved and was passed over to the next session. And this wasn’t recent, this was in 1995. So it’s always been difficult. But we’ve always overcome these hurdles.”QUESTION: France and other countries want the IPCC assessment to be published in 2028 ahead of the COP33 climate summit in India. French diplomats say Saudi Arabia and India are pushing for 2029. Is it important for the report to be published in 2028?ANSWER: “Whether or not it is published in time for the global stocktake is frankly, a matter for the governments. For the scientists here, what the question is, is the timetable compatible with the time needed to produce an assessment? And frankly, that time should not be too short or not be too long.”QUESTION: What is your message to governments and ordinary people as you begin this new cycle of work?ANSWER: “Wait with bated breath for what we are going to come out with in roughly three years down the line. There are new areas of research, there are new knowledge gaps that we need to explore, including this issue of, is it possible to limit warming to 1.5C in the long term?”

A Virginia man was arrested on Thursday for allegedly planting pipe bombs near the Democratic and Republican party headquarters on the eve of the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riot, officials said.Attorney General Pam Bondi identified the suspect as Brian Cole Jr. of Woodbridge, Virginia.The pipe bombs placed outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Republican National Committee (RNC) offices in Washington in the evening of January 5 failed to detonate.The devices were discovered by authorities the next day as supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in a bid to prevent the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.The FBI released numerous photos and video clips of a masked and hooded suspect over the years and eventually increased the reward money for information leading to an arrest to half a million dollars.But Thursday’s arrest is the first breakthrough in the case, which spawned numerous conspiracy theories among the far right.

Donald Trump will travel to Pennsylvania next week to talk up his economic agenda, the White House said Thursday, as the US president faces growing pressure over an affordability crisis that he dismisses as a “hoax.”The Republican billionaire’s speech in the crucial blue-collar state marks the start of what aides say is a bid to ramp up his domestic travels, following criticism from some in his party that he has focused too much on foreign policy.”The president will be traveling to Pennsylvania to discuss how he and the administration continue to focus on delivering on his day one priority of ending Joe Biden’s inflation crisis,” a White House official told AFP.Trump insists that prices are falling and that he is fixing what he describes as a mess left by his Democratic predecessor.”They use the word ‘affordability.’ It’s a Democrat hoax,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday as he announced a reset of Biden’s fuel-economy standards that he said would lower US car prices.”Just about everything is down,” Trump said. “I think affordability is the greatest con job.”But Trump’s approval ratings have slumped to their lowest point since his return to office in January, particularly over the cost of living, which Americans have blamed at least partly on his tariffs.Democrats made a major issue of affordability in elections that they swept last month for New York City mayor, and for the governors of New Jersey and Virginia.On Tuesday, Republicans suffered a sharply reduced majority in a congressional district in deeply conservative Tennessee, one of Trump’s safest bastions.Pennsylvania is a key stop on the road to the White House. Trump narrowly won the northeastern state in 2016 and 2024, and lost it by a sliver to Biden in 2020.Trump is ineligible to run again in 2028 despite hints that he might try.