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Ukraine is ready to hold direct peace talks with Russia but only after a ceasefire is in place, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday amid new US pressure to end the three-year-old conflict.US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff is to go to Moscow this week, the White House said, and a US envoy was to take part in new talks with European officials in London on Wednesday.US media reports have said US President Donald Trump has proposed accepting that Moscow-annexed territory in Crimea be recognised as Russian and this will be discussed.”After the ceasefire, we are ready to sit down in any format,” Zelensky told journalists at a briefing a day before the key talks in London on a potential Ukraine settlement.Trump, who had promised to strike a Moscow-Kyiv deal within 24 hours of taking office, has failed in the three months since to secure concessions from Russian President Vladimir Putin.Trump said at the weekend that he hoped a peace deal could be struck “this week” despite no signs the two sides were close even to a ceasefire, let alone a long-term settlement.- No ‘rigid time frames’ -Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the conflict was too “complex” to achieve a speedy ceasefire.”It is not worth setting any rigid time frames and trying to get a settlement, a viable settlement, in a short time frame,” he told state TV.White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed Witkoff would be travelling to Moscow, his fourth visit to Russia since Trump took office.”The negotiations continue. We’re hopefully moving in the right direction,” she said.Trump “has grown frustrated with both sides of this war, and he’s made that very known.”Moscow’s forces occupy around a fifth of Ukrainian territory and tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war started in February 2022.After rejecting a US-Ukrainian offer for an unconditional ceasefire last month, Putin announced a surprise Easter weekend truce. Fighting dipped during the 30-hour period but Russia launched fresh attacks on residential areas on Monday and Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.Ukraine’s foreign ministry meanwhile called in China’s ambassador to raise “serious concern” over allegations that Chinese fighters were in the Russian army and Chinese companies were helping Russia make military hardware, the ministry said.Zelensky has said at least 155 Chinese were fighting with the Russian army — two of whom have been detained by Ukraine — and that he had “information” that China was supplying arms to Russia. China last week denied providing weapons.The foreign ministry summoned China’s envoy in Kyiv, Ma Shengkun, over the accusations and produced “evidence” to back the claims, the ministry said.- London meeting -Ukraine’s allies are expected to discuss a possible deal they could all get behind when they meeting in London on Wednesday, a senior Kyiv official told AFP.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend the London talks due to scheduling issues, the State Department said, adding that US envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg would take part.European leaders are scrambling to work out how to support Ukraine should Trump pull Washington’s vital military and financial backing.Zelensky said his team’s “first priority” at the London talks would be “an unconditional ceasefire”.On Sunday he proposed a halt of missile and drones strikes against civilian facilities for at least 30 days.While saying he would “analyse” the idea, Putin threw doubt on it later by accusing Kyiv of using civilian facilities for military purposes.He held open the prospect of bilateral talks, though Peskov said there were “no concrete” plans to engage with Kyiv. “There is readiness from Putin to discuss this question,” he  said.”If we are talking about civilian infrastructure, then we need to understand, when is it civilian infrastructure and when is it a military target,” he added.- Russian attacks -Russia hit a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Myrnograd with drones Tuesday, killing three people and wounding two, authorities said.One person was reported dead and 23 wounded after two aerial bombs pounded the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, the region’s governor said.Photos from Ukraine’s emergency services showed the outer walls of an apartment block blown open and a bloodied man on a stretcher, with bandages around his head and arms.Russian strikes wounded another six people in the southern city of Kherson and seven in Kharkiv in the northeast, officials said.The Russian army meanwhile claimed to have captured a village in the eastern Donetsk region, where its troops are advancing.Russia has advanced in recent months in southern and eastern Ukraine and recaptured much of Russia’s Kursk region, parts of which Kyiv seized last year and was hoping to use as a bargaining chip.There were no ongoing discussions on any new US aid packages with the Trump administration, Zelensky said.In Paris last week, Rubio presented Washington’s plan for ending the conflict, though both he and Trump warned that Washington’s patience was wearing thin and could lead it to withdraw.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday announced plans to ban synthetic dyes from the US food supply — a move welcomed by health experts and marking a rare point of bipartisan agreement in an otherwise sharply divided political climate.Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. has vowed to overhaul America’s food system under the banner of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, and the push would phase out the eight approved artificial food dyes by the end of 2026.It builds upon a prohibition on Red Dye 3 by the government of former president Joe Biden but accelerates the timeline and also asks the National Institutes of Health to carry out comprehensive research on how additives impact children’s development.”For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals,” Food and Drug Administration commissioner Marty Makary said at a press conference, surrounded by young families and MAHA supporters. He cited studies linking synthetic dyes to conditions including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), diabetes, cancer, genomic disruption, gastrointestinal issues and moreKennedy, for his part, called the issue of dyes and additives more generally an “existential” threat. “When my uncle was president in the 1960s, we had the healthiest people in the world — and one of the basic assumptions of our country was that because we were robust people… that was responsible for our country being the land of the brave and the home of the free,” he said.The new plan is largely based on the food industry voluntarily complying, he added, but they have been receptive in talks.Of the eight synthetic dyes derived from petroleum, Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Red 40 constitute the lion’s share of those in use, Peter Lurie, president and executive director of the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, told AFP.They are found in a range of products, from beverages and candies to cereals, sauces and dairy products. “None of them convey anything of any nutritional significance, and what they’re really there for is to mislead — to make food appear somehow redder, somehow bluer, somehow fruitier or more attractive than it is,” he said.”And the purpose of all that is to drive up sales, it’s not anything that benefits the American public.”- Bipartisan momentum -Momentum has been building at the state level. In March, Republican-leaning West Virginia enacted a broad ban on synthetic dyes, following California’s 2024 decision to restrict them in public schools.While Red Dye No. 3 was previously targeted for phaseout in foods and drugs by 2027 and 2028 respectively due to cancer concerns, the remaining dyes have been linked to behavioral issues such as attention deficit disorder in children.In Europe, these dyes are not banned outright — but the requirement to carry warning labels has led many companies to switch to natural alternatives.Kennedy’s stance on synthetic dyes aligns him, unusually, with mainstream scientific consensus — a departure from his controversial history of promoting vaccine misinformation, downplaying the nation’s worst measles outbreak in years, and suggesting bird flu should be allowed to spread naturally among poultry.Industry opposition may still emerge. Food manufacturers have historically lobbied against tighter regulations, but Lurie believes resistance may be more muted this time.”The question that industries are wrestling with now is whether or not to oppose this, and you know, the signs that I see are that they may just suck it up in the end,” said Lurie.He cited “tepid” statements made when Red 3 was banned and the limited response when Kennedy first warned he would be targeting dyes.”I think they’re ready to change,” said Kennedy. “They want clear guidelines, they want to know what they can and can’t do, and we’re going to give them that.”

Tesla reported a 71 percent drop in first-quarter profits Tuesday in results that lagged analyst estimates as Elon Musk’s automaker warned of a hit to demand due to “changing political sentiment.”The electric vehicle producer reported profits of $409 million following a drop in auto sales that analysts said reflected brand damage due to Musk’s work for the Trump administration.Revenues fell nine percent to $19.3 billion.The company retreated from its 2025 guidance, citing unpredictability over trade policy and demand.”Uncertainty in the automotive and energy markets continues to increase as rapidly evolving trade policy adversely impacts the global supply chain and cost structure of Tesla and our peers,” the company said.”This dynamic, along with changing political sentiment, could have a meaningful impact on demand for our products in the near-term.”On the positive side, Tesla said it was on track to launch new vehicles “including more affordable models” in the first half of 2025.The statement followed a report last week that the company planned to delay the launch. Analysts have cited a stale portfolio of vehicles as among the challenges facing the company.Musk is expected to speak later Tuesday on a conference call with investors and analysts, some of whom have called on the billionaire to announce a plan to exit the Trump administration in order to focus on Tesla.Musk, the world’s richest person, donated more than $270 million to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.Analysts warn of significant brand damage to Tesla from Musk’s leadership role in the “Department of Government Efficiency,” which has granted itself access to government databases with sensitive personal information and implemented thousands of job cuts.- Robotaxi on track -The shakeup to US government operations has led to questions about programs like the Social Security retirement benefit and the continuation of programs like hurricane forecasting.Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said it will be a “Code Red” situation if Musk remains at DOGE, noting that “Tesla’s stock has been crushed since Trump stepped back into the White House,” according to a note released earlier this week.In January, Tesla confirmed plans to unveil new, more affordable vehicles in the first half of 2025, a move that helped mute criticism that the EV maker’s lineup has gotten stale.But a Reuters report last week said Tesla was pushing back the launch of a lower-cost Model Y SUV by a “few months” for reasons that were unclear.Besides confirming the new vehicles as on time, Tesla also reiterated that a robotaxi launch was on track for June, according to its press release.Ives, who has implored Musk to significantly scale back his work on DOGE, said he must also map out a timeline and “hard facts” around the company’s ambitious autonomous driving and robotics ventures.Analysts at Morgan Stanley meanwhile said Tesla may also unveil restructuring efforts to cut costs in light of weaker profit margins due in part the heavy investments in new technologies.Tesla’s stock reaction will also be influenced by whether there is a “sense of increased attention from their CEO,” Morgan Stanley said.”Investors will be searching for any signs of Tesla’s CEO reprioritizing the efforts of Tesla vs. politically oriented endeavors,” Morgan Stanley said.Tesla shares were little changed in after-hours trading.

The World Health Organization chief said Tuesday that operations and jobs would be slashed as US funding cuts had left the UN agency with a budget hole of several hundred million dollars.”The sudden drop in income has left us with a large salary gap and no choice but to reduce the scale of our work and workforce,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told member states, according to a transcript of his remarks.The United Nations health agency has been bracing for President Donald Trump’s planned full withdrawal of the United States — by far its largest donor — next January.The United States gave WHO $1.3 billion for its 2022-2023 budget, mainly through voluntary contributions for specific projects rather than fixed membership fees.But Washington never paid its 2024 dues, and is not expected to pay its 2025 dues.This has left the WHO preparing a new structure, which Tedros presented to staff and member states on Tuesday.”The refusal of the US to pay its assessed contributions for 2024 and 2025, combined with reductions in official development assistance by some other countries, means we are facing a salary gap for the 2026–27 biennium of between $560 and $650 million,” he said.The lower end of that spectrum “represents about 25 percent of staff costs” currently, he said, stressing though that “that doesn’t necessarily mean a 25-percent cut to the number of positions”.He did not say how many jobs would be lost at the WHO, which employ more than 8,000 people around the world.- ‘Very painful’ -But he acknowledged that “we will be saying goodbye to a significant number of colleagues” and vowed to do so “humanely”.Tedros insisted that the most significant impact would likely be felt at the organisation’s headquarters in Geneva. “We are starting with reductions in senior management,” he said.”We are reducing the senior leadership team at headquarters from 12 to seven, and the number of departments will be reduced by (more than) half, from 76 to 34,” Tedros said.WHO’s regional offices would meanwhile be affected “to varying degrees”, he said, adding that some country offices in wealthier countries would likely be closed.”These are very painful decisions for all of us,” Tedros said.The WHO chief insisted the situation could have been worse.WHO member states agreed in 2022 to significantly increase membership fees and reduce the portion of WHO’s budget covered by less reliable and often earmarked voluntary contributions.”Without the increase, assessed contributions for the current biennium would have been $746 million,” he said, adding that instead, WHO expects to receive $1.07 billion in membership fees for 2026-27, “even without the US contribution”.Nonetheless, WHO needed to reduce its activities and recentre on its core functions, he said, even as he acknowledged that “many countries need our support now more than ever”.The US administration’s decision to virtually dismantle the US foreign aid arm, USAID, and freeze nearly all assistance, including to health projects worldwide, had made “very severe” impacts in developing countries especially, Tedros said.But WHO, he said, would now need to focus on helping countries “transition away from aid dependency to greater self-reliance”, he said.

The executive producer of “60 Minutes”, the storied US primetime current affairs show, resigned Tuesday blaming attacks on his independence in recent months as President Donald Trump has waged a legal battle against the program. The jewel in the crown of CBS News, owned by Paramount, the show has covered wars, US politics and consumer scandals since its first broadcast in 1968 but is now embroiled in a messy row with the president.”Over the past months, it has also become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it. To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience,” Bill Owens, a veteran journalist on the show, wrote in an email to his team seen by AFP.”So, having defended this show — and what we stand for — from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward.”The show, which pulls around 10 million viewers weekly, is a leading target of Trump’s offensive against the media.At the end of October 2024, the Republican sued the program, accusing it of manipulating an interview with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris on October 7.CBS strongly refuted the allegations, which commentators have described as baseless.The program has continued to broadcast investigations critical of the Trump administration since his return to the White House.In response, Trump has called for its cancellation, while his billionaire advisor Elon Musk has said he hoped the team behind “60 Minutes” would receive long prison sentences.The row has intensified against a backdrop of CBS News’s parent company Paramount seeking to merge with Skydance, which must first be approved by FCC chief and Trump admirer Brendan Carr.Trump is seeking $20 billion damages from the network over the Harris interview, and while the prospect of a mediated settlement is often raised in media circles, Owens has reportedly vowed not to apologize if such a deal is struck.

President Donald Trump’s top diplomat Marco Rubio on Tuesday unveiled a restructuring of the US State Department that will cut positions and scale back human rights offices, saying the “bloated” organization was ideologically out of sync with the administration.Rubio billed the plan as a major shake-up in the State Department, long a bete noire for many US conservatives, although the outline was less drastic than drafts that have circulated — including one of which would have virtually wiped out day-to-day diplomacy in Africa.”The Department is bloated, bureaucratic and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great-power competition,” Rubio said in a statement, referring to US rivalry with China.”The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America’s core national interests.”One key change will be eliminating a division in charge of “civilian security, democracy and human rights.”It will be replaced by a new office of “coordination for foreign assistance and humanitarian affairs,” which will absorb functions of the US Agency for International Development — gutted at the start of the Trump administration with the elimination of more than 80 percent of programs.The new office will oversee a bureau on “democracy, human rights and religious freedom” — a shift from the current “democracy, human rights and labor,” which included advocacy of workers’ rights overseas.Previous administrations from both major US parties had separate envoys in charge of religious freedom, a position now being merged.In an opinion piece, Rubio aired grievances about previous work within the bureau including its unsuccessful push internally to restrict weapons sales to Israel on human rights grounds.”The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor became a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against ‘anti-woke’ leaders in nations such as Poland, Hungary and Brazil, and to transform their hatred of Israel into concrete policies such as arms embargoes,” he wrote in the piece on Substack.- ‘Eviscerating American soft power’ -The restructuring formalizes the end of a special envoy on climate, which had been a senior position under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.The plan newly eliminates an office on war crimes, whose recent work has included documenting Russia’s treatment of civilians in Ukraine. Rubio’s outline also gets rid of the Office of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, whose activities have included a task force that tries to prevent atrocities overseas before they happen.State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said that the end of offices did not necessarily mean their functions would end and that their areas of focus “could be implemented in a better, more nimble, faster way.”Lawmakers of the rival Democratic Party accused Rubio, a former senator, of a lack of transparency and of ceding ground to China, which has topped the United States globally in the number of diplomatic missions.”These potentially sweeping changes have less to do with streamlining the State Department and more to do with eviscerating American soft power, including our values-driven defense of human rights and democracy globally,” said Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.Brandon Wu of anti-poverty group ActionAid USA said that Rubio’s plan was “part of an unhinged crusade against perceived ‘woke’ policies and practices, not a coherent plan for reform.”Rubio reposted an article from the online outlet The Free Press that said the State Department will reduce overall offices from 734 to 602.Under secretaries will be asked to come up with plans within 30 days to reduce personnel by 15 percent, it said, cuts that are significant but below those at a number of federal agencies.A senior State Department official, asked about the figures, said they sounded “correct” but that some positions may be eliminated without laying people off.”There will not be stories or images of people carting their belongings out of the building today,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The White House on Tuesday brushed off criticism levied by dozens of US universities and colleges that accused the Trump administration of unprecedented “political interference” in American academia.More than 100 educational institutions issued a joint letter earlier Tuesday condemning President Donald Trump’s undue “intrusion.”The move comes a day after Harvard University sued the Trump administration, which has threatened to cut funding and impose outside political supervision.”The president has made it quite clear that it’s Harvard who has put themselves in a position to lose their own funding by not obeying federal law, and we expect all colleges and universities who are receiving taxpayer funds to abide by federal law,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said told reporters.The educational facilities — including Ivy League institutions Princeton and Brown — said in the letter that they spoke with “one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.””We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion,” it said, adding: “We must reject the coercive use of public research funding.”Trump has sought to bring several prestigious universities to heel over claims they tolerated campus anti-Semitism, threatening their budgets, tax-exempt status and the enrolment of foreign students.The letter said the schools were committed to serving as centers where “faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation.”- Harvard lawsuit -Trump’s war against universities has seen him threaten to cut federal funding over policies meant to encourage diversity among students and staff.The Republican president has also pursued a wide-ranging immigration crackdown that has expanded to foreign students, revoking their visas, often for little or no reason.The White House has publicly justified its campaign against universities as a reaction to unchecked anti-Semitism and the desire to reverse diversity programs aimed at addressing historical oppression of minorities.Leavitt told reporters that Trump was “not going to tolerate illegal harassment and violence towards Jewish American students or students of any faith on our campuses across the country.” “We will be responding to the lawsuit in court,” she added.The administration claims protests against Israel’s war in Gaza that swept across US college campuses last year were rife with anti-Semitism.Many American universities, including Harvard, cracked down on the protests over the allegations at the time.Several top institutions, including Columbia University, have also bowed to demands from the Trump administration, which claims the educational elite is too left-wing.In the case of Harvard, the White House is seeking unprecedented levels of government control over admissions and hiring practices at the country’s oldest and wealthiest university.But Harvard rejected the government’s demands, prompting the administration last week to order the freezing of $2.2 billion in federal funding to the institution.In its lawsuit, Harvard calls for the freezing of funds and conditions imposed on federal grants to be declared unlawful, as well as for the Trump administration to pay the institution’s costs.The Department of Homeland Security has also threatened Harvard’s ability to enroll international students unless it turns over records on visa holders’ “illegal and violent activities.”International students made up 27.2 percent of Harvard’s enrollment this academic year, according to its website.

The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court appeared to side with parents in a case Tuesday about whether they have the religious right to pull their children from classes when books containing LGBTQ-related content are read or discussed.The court is reviewing an appeal filed by parents against a Maryland public school district where, in 2022, books aimed at combating prejudice and discussing homosexuality and gender identity were introduced to the curricula of kindergarten and elementary school students. The schools had initially offered parents the chance to opt out of controversial coursework, but later retracted the option, saying: “These opt-outs were unworkable. Some schools, for example, experienced unsustainably high numbers of absent students.”Parents are suing because the opt-outs were canceled. They say the schools’ inclusive curriculum choices infringe on their Christian and Muslim faiths and First Amendment rights. The complaint alleges that the Montgomery County school board “wants to disrupt” parents’ rights to “pass those beliefs on to their young children.”Court precedent has generally established that exposing students to ideas contrary to religion does not constitute coercion.At the hearing on Tuesday morning, however, a majority of the justices seemed to side with the parents, rejecting the feasibility argument put forward by school authorities.”The plaintiffs here are not asking the school to change its curriculum,” said conservative Justice Samuel Alito, adding that parents only wanted the choice to withdraw their children from certain classes.”Why isn’t that feasible?” he questioned.The decision of the court, with its six conservative and three progressive justices, is expected before the current session ends in late June. – Hot-button issue -US President Donald Trump has targeted diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the federal government, taking particular aim at transgender issues.On Tuesday, his spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said he continued to stand with the parents in this case.”The president has been very clear he stands on the side of parental rights, and he believes strongly that parents should have a greater say in their children’s education,” she said in response to a question at a briefing.School systems in some conservative states have already issued book bans or cracked down on library catalogues, with parents and conservative groups saying it is inappropriate for public spaces to host books they accuse of promoting homosexuality and inclusive progressive ideologies.The Justice Department under Trump supports the parents in the case, accusing the schools of “textbook interference with the free exercise of religion.”

In frontier soup kitchens and shelters, Francis is remembered as the ‘Pope of migrants’ — a steadfast champion who offered spiritual support during perilous escapes from poverty, violence and oppression.Stranded a stone’s throw from the Mexico-US border, 28-year-old Colombian Yulieth Cuellar is one of countless tired, poor and huddled masses today demonised by politicians in Washington and beyond.But until his death on Monday, she could count on support from the Argentine-born son of Italian migrants, who became Latin America’s first pope.”He prayed a lot for us migrants” said Cuellar, recalling the late 88-year-old pontiff as she sheltered from the desert sun amid rows of empty pop-up tables and folding chairs in a Ciudad Juarez soup kitchen run by the church.”His prayers touched us to the core” she said.It was in Ciudad Juarez in 2016 that Francis climbed a ramp facing the Rio Grande that separates the city from El Paso, Texas, laid flowers under a black cross and blessed crowds of migrants.The first Latin American pontiff was eager to see the border barrier with his own eyes, Jose Guadalupe Torres, bishop of Ciudad Juarez, recalled.When he saw it, he said: “I have seen the promised land where neither milk nor honey flows,” Torres said during a mass in honor of Francis.A decade on, against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown, the late pope’s prayers were welcomed more than ever.”We must follow his example, continue welcoming our migrant brothers and sisters, protect them as best we can and integrate them into society,” said Ileana Margarita Sorto, a migrant from El Salvador.- ‘Wonderful person’ -Thousands of miles to the south, in a shelter in Honduras, 35-year-old Venezuelan Ericxon Serrano remembered Pope Francis as a “wonderful person.”The pontiff had asked Trump to “stop the harassment of migrants,” said Serrano, who was returning to Caracas with his wife and two young children having abandoned hope of entering the United States.Francis’s defense of migrant rights saw him clash with Trump, including when the Republican first ran for president in 2016 with a promise to build a wall to seal off Mexico.”Anyone, whoever he is, who only wants to build walls and not bridges is not a Christian,” Francis said.In a letter to US bishops in February, the pontiff called Trump’s deportation plans a “calamity” and pleaded for “the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized.”His support gave hope to migrants like Marisela Guerrero, a 45-year-old Venezuelan who moved to Chile a few months ago.”His words encouraged all of us who left our countries,” she said.Priests and others involved in migrant support programs also remembered Pope Francis with fondness and respect.He was a “living saint,” says Cristina Coronado, head of the food kitchen in Ciudad Juarez, who said that Francis restored her confidence in the Church.”It’s very sad that this angel who defended migrants has passed away,” said Father Francisco Calvillo, who ran a migrant shelter in the border city at the time of the pontiff’s visit.Calvillo hopes Francis will now ask God to “send us a pope, more bishops, more priests, more lay people who are sensitive to this reality” of migration.

With lawsuits and tirades about “the enemy of the people” Donald Trump has launched a frontal assault on the mainstream media, while empowering conservative bloggers and podcasters to get his radical agenda across.The president has stepped up his long-established hostility towards TV news channels like CNN and newspapers such as The New York Times, but even the respected Associated Press news agency has been under intense fire.The AP has become a test case for editorial independence after it was barred from the Oval Office and Air Force One over its decision to refer to the “Gulf of Mexico” — and not the “Gulf of America” as decreed by Trump.As well as his fiery rhetoric against the press, Trump has sued private channel CBS, regional newspaper The Des Moines Register, and pressured ABC which paid $15 million when threatened with a defamation lawsuit.”The White House’s moves to curtail journalists’ abilities to do their jobs and document what’s happening is unprecedented,” said Katherine Jacobsen, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ US program director. “This attempt to control the narrative threatens both freedom of the press, and American democratic values.” The Trump administration has moved fast — pressing to dismantle US overseas outlets Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, and threatening to starve NPR public radio and PBS television of federal funds. Trump’s cheerleader and dismantler-in-chief Elon Musk has even said the team behind CBS’s flagship “60 Minutes” show deserve prison.”Wielding the power of the government to stifle free speech and to threaten news organizations — I think we’re in a new territory,” said City University of New York journalism professor Reece Peck.The Federal Communications Commission — headed by a Trump ally — has launched probes into CBS, ABC and NBC, alongside NPR and PBS, he said as an example.The United States fell from 45th to 55th place in 2024 in the World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).It is unclear how far Trump can go in a country that has a rich tradition of investigative reporting and where freedom of speech is protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment.”His ability is limited,” said Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy.”He can try to find some targets here and there, but he certainly hasn’t been able to do anything about The New York Times, which has been doing excellent reporting on the chaos of the Trump administration.”But Kennedy warned Trump was seeking to design a media system where the Times “will simply be ignored by everybody, except their core audience.”- Suspicious of media -Trump is drawing on mounting suspicion and disregard for traditional media among ordinary Americans.Just 31 percent of people surveyed by Gallup in 2024 said they trusted the mainstream media to provide complete, accurate and unbiased information — a figure that was above 50 percent in the 2000s.In its first 100 days, the White House has welcomed influencers, podcasters, and commentators aligned with his agenda and on whom Trump relied during the election campaign — not known for speaking truth to power.One such figure, Real America Voice’s Brian Glenn, joined the official pile-on against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he visited Washington.”Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office and you refuse to wear a suit. A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the office,” Glenn said to the wartime leader, parroting White House talking points.”Trump cultivated relationships with independent, alternative right-wing media way, way back in 2015 and 2016,” said Peck, a move born of necessity because Fox News, with its conservative viewership, had yet to support the then-candidate. Trump has continued the successful “flood the zone” strategy to dominate the news cycle, pioneered by his one-time adviser Steve Bannon.As the news gets ever more hectic — and hard to cover — Kennedy said the question now is whether any outlets are “big enough to cover everything that’s happening?”