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Hankering for a chiseled jawline, a male TikTok influencer strikes his cheekbones with a hammer — highlighting the rise of “looksmaxxing,” an online trend pushing unproven and sometimes dangerous techniques to boost sexual appeal.Looksmaxxing influencers — part of an online ecosystem dubbed the “manosphere” — have surged in popularity across social media, capitalizing on the insecurities of young men eager to boost their physical attractiveness to women.In posts across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, they promote pseudoscientific methods to achieve everything from pouty lips to chin extensions and almond-shaped “hunter eyes,” often while monetizing their popularity by endorsing a range of consumer products.In more extreme cases, these influencers advocate taking steroids, undergoing plastic surgery and even “leg-lengthening” procedures to become more attractive.While women may pay regular visits to aestheticians or buy new beauty products, spurring a global beauty retail market worth hundreds of billions of dollars, the manosphere at times promotes a DIY approach that draws on the nearest toolbox. “Babe, what’s taking you so long in the bathroom?” reads the caption flashing across a viral TikTok video of a man seen hitting his cheeks with the sharp edge of a hammer, in what he calls his “skincare routine.”Underneath the video are dozens of comments warning that “bone smashing,” also known as the hammer technique, was “dangerous” while others hailed it as a legitimate way to achieve an angular jawline.In other videos, British influencer Oscar Patel promoted “mewing,” an unproven technique that involves pressing the tongue into the roof of the mouth for improving jaw and facial structure.Without offering evidence, he told his nearly 188,000 TikTok followers that such tricks would turn them into a “PSL god,” an internet slang for exceptionally attractive men, short for Perfectly Symmetrical Looks.- ‘Toxic combination’ -In another video, US-based TikToker Dillon Latham misleadingly told his 1.7 million followers to whiten their teeth by applying hydrogen peroxide to their teeth with a Q tip.Some dentists warn that regularly using store-bought peroxide could damage tooth enamel and gums.The looksmaxxing trend is fueling “an industry of influencers who promote ‘perfect bodies and perfect faces’, often to feather their own nest,” Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, an analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told AFP.”Among men, this is mixed with the misogyny of the manosphere, which often blames women for male insecurities, creating a toxic combination,” he added.Many looksmaxxing influencers appear to have a financial incentive, frequently leveraging their popularity to promote products ranging from skin cleansers to pheromone perfumes, and even Chinese knock-off watches.Looksmaxxing is rooted in “incel” — or involuntarily celibate — communities, an internet subculture rife with misogyny, with men tending to blame women and feminism for their romantic failings.”The incel ideology is being rebranded to looksmaxxing on TikTok,” Anda Solea, a researcher at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Portsmouth, told AFP.In a study, Solea found that incel-inspired accounts on TikTok were circumventing a ban on hateful language with a focus on looksmaxxing and more palatable words about self-improvement.”There are a lot of pressures on men –- we want to protect women from gender-based violence but we should also be careful about young men and boys,” Solea said.- ‘Deeply damaging’ -Other related maxxing trends have also gained traction, including “gymmaxxing,” which focuses on building muscle, and “moneymaxxing,” which centers on improving financial status — all with the ultimate goal of increasing sexual desirability.Looksmaxxing influencers –- many of whom idolize male models such as Australian Jordan Barrett and American Sean O’Pry — have amassed massive followings as algorithms propel their content to millions.These algorithms can lead to real-world harm, experts warn. The danger was dramatized in the recent Netflix hit “Adolescence,” which follows the case of a 13-year-old boy accused of killing a classmate after consuming misogynistic content online.The fictional crime drama references the popular but unfounded “80/20” theory that claims 80 percent of women are attracted to 20 percent of men.In a study last year, researchers at Dublin City University created fake accounts registered as teenage boys. They reported that their TikTok and YouTube feeds were “bombarded” with male supremacy and misogynistic content.”More widely, this does feed into toxic beauty standards which affect men as well as women,” said Venkataramakrishnan, from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.”The idea that if you don’t look like a Hollywood star, you might as well give up trying for a relationship is deeply damaging.”

President Donald Trump escalated his war against elite US universities Tuesday with a threat to strip Harvard’s tax-exempt status if the country’s most famous educational establishment refuses to submit to wide-ranging government oversight.Harvard stands out for defying Trump, in contrast to several other universities and a string of powerful law firms that have folded under intense pressure from the White House in its crackdown on American institutions.Its president, Alan Garber, said the school would not “negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.”Tuesday’s threat of a major tax bill comes a day after the freezing of $2.2 billion in federal funding.The impacts are already being felt on a campus that has produced 162 Nobel prize winners and whose alumni range from Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg to eight US presidents.The university said one faculty member had just been told to halt her tuberculosis research because of “the broader funding freeze.”But the mood was defiant.”I love it. I think it’s amazing. I think more schools across the country need to. It shows that you’re not going to bow down, you’re not going to let free speech be taken,” student Darious Hanson told AFP.- Anti-Semitism -Trump posted on social media that non-profit Harvard “should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity” if it does not submit to his demands for the university to change the way it runs itself, including selection of students and authority for professors.Trump and his White House team have justified their pressure campaign on universities as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled anti-Semitism and support for the Palestinian militant group Hamas.Trump “wants to see Harvard apologize. And Harvard should apologize,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists.The anti-Semitism allegations are based on controversy at protests against Israel’s war in Gaza that swept across campuses last year.Columbia University in New York — an epicenter of the protests — stood down last month and agreed to oversight of its Middle Eastern department after being threatened with a loss of $400 million in federal funds.The White House has also strong-armed dozens of universities and colleges with threats to remove federal funding over their policies meant to encourage racial diversity among students and staff.The White House has cited similarly ideological goals in its unprecedented crackdown on law firms, pressuring them to volunteer hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of legal work to support issues that Trump supports.- Harvard defiant -Harvard, the oldest and wealthiest university in the United States, is now the most prominent institution to resist Trump’s ever-growing bid for control.The Trump administration is demanding that a wide range of Harvard departments come under outside supervision for potential anti-Semitism. It also seeks to require “viewpoint diversity” in student admissions and choice of professors.Garber’s insistence that Harvard cannot “allow itself to be taken over by the federal government” sets up a likely long-running, high-profile fight.Hard-line presidential advisors such as Stephen Miller depict universities as bastions of anti-conservative forces that need to be brought to heel — a message that resonates strongly with Trump’s hard-right anti-elite base.For Trump’s opponents, the Harvard refusal to bend marks a chance to draw a line in the sand against an authoritarian takeover.”Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions — rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom,” former president Barack Obama wrote on X. “Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”Dozens of universities and other stakeholders are separately battling the Trump administration in court over broad research funding cuts that have led to staff layoffs and created deep uncertainty among US academics.

US aviation giant Boeing, fresh off a crippling labor dispute and quality control crisis, has now found itself drawn into the escalating trade conflict between Washington and Beijing.The largest US exporter, Boeing has been caught in the crossfire after President Donald Trump imposed new tariffs of up to 145 percent on many Chinese products, sparking retaliatory 125 percent levies from Beijing.The duties more than double the cost of aircraft and spare parts manufactured in the United States.On Tuesday, Trump accused China of reneging on a “big Boeing deal,” following a Bloomberg news report that Beijing ordered airlines not to take further deliveries of the company’s jets.The report also said that Beijing requested Chinese carriers to pause purchases of aircraft-related equipment and parts from US firms.Boeing has declined to comment on the matter.Last week, Bloomberg reported that China’s Juneyao Airlines was delaying delivery of a Boeing widebody aircraft as the growing trade conflict drives up costs of big-ticket products.- ‘Not surprised’-Boeing’s website shows its order book at the end of March contained 130 aircraft due to Chinese customers, including airlines and leasing companies.But as some buyers prefer to remain anonymous, the true figure could be higher.Bank of America (BofA) analysts note that Boeing is scheduled to deliver 29 aircraft this year to identified Chinese companies, but added that a large portion of unidentified customers who bought aircraft are actually Chinese.”China represents about 20 percent of the market for large civil jets over the next 20 years,” BofA Securities said in a note.It added that the US administration cannot ignore Boeing when it considers trade balances.”Boeing is the US’s largest exporter, as such, we are not surprised by China’s move; however, we do see this as unsustainable,” BofA Securities said.Boeing’s main competitor Airbus cannot be China’s only supplier of large commercial jets given its capacity constraints, it said.The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) is also “highly dependent on US suppliers,” the analysts said.If China stopped buying aircraft components from the United States, COMAC’s C919 program — a competitor to Boeing’s 737 or Airbus’s A320 — would be halted, they said.A delivery blockage would affect the United States’ trade balance further as well.Boeing’s production slowed significantly after quality issues that emerged with an in-flight incident in January 2024, and two factories were subsequently paralysed by a strike in the fall.According to US official data, commercial aircraft exports reached $4.2 billion in August last year but dropped to $2.6 billion in September. They slipped further in October and November.In December, when Boeing deliveries gradually resumed, the amount rose to $3.1 billion.- Airline customers -Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg previously stressed that the company supports 1.8 million jobs in the United States.A delivery freeze would have direct consequences for the group, which traditionally receives 60 percent of the price upon delivery.With its difficulties of 2024, Boeing is already dipping heavily into cash flow that has been depleted by the Covid-19 pandemic and other issues.Besides concerns surrounding Beijing, Boeing will likely be squeezed by higher duties too.Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, said on Tuesday his company might postpone delivery of 25 Boeing jets expected from August if they cost more customs duties.Ryanair, a major Boeing customer, notably placed an order in May 2023 for 300 737 MAX 10s, including 150 firm orders, for a list price estimated at over $40 billion.Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, said last week that he does not intend to pay customs duties on the Airbus aircraft he expects this year.

Nvidia on Tuesday notified regulators that it expects a $5.5 billion hit this quarter due to a new US licensing requirement on the primary chip it can legally sell in China.US officials last week told Nvidia it must obtain licenses to export its H20 chips to China because of concerns they may be used in supercomputers there, the Silicon Valley company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.Shares of Nvidia, which have seen high volatility since US President Donald Trump made a major tariffs announcement on April 2, were down more than six percent in after-market trades.The new licensing rule applies to Nvidia GPUs (graphics processing units) with bandwidth similar to that of the H20.The United States had already restricted exports to China of Nvidia’s most sophisticated GPUs, tailored for powering top-end artificial intelligence models.Nvidia was told the licensing requirement on H20 chips would last indefinitely, it said in the filing.Nvidia’s current fiscal quarter ends on April 27.”First quarter results are expected to include up to approximately $5.5 billion of charges associated with H20 products for inventory, purchase commitments, and related reserves,” Nvidia said in the filing.Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said publicly that the AI chip powerhouse will balance legal compliance and technological advances under Trump, and that nothing will stop the global advancement of artificial intelligence.”We’ll continue to do that and we’ll be able to do that just fine,” the Taiwan-born entrepreneur told reporters late last year.Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden restricted Nvidia from selling some of its top AI chips to China, which the United States sees as a strategic competitor in technology.Global markets have been on a roller coaster since Trump’s April 2 announcement, declining sharply before partially recovering with his 90-day pause on the steepest tariff rates last week.Trump warned Sunday that no country would be getting “off the hook” on tariffs despite a 90-day reprieve on some levies, while also downplaying exemptions for Chinese technology.Most nations will now face a baseline 10 percent tariff for the near-three-month period — except China, which launched a tit-for-tat escalation.China has sought to present itself as a stable alternative to an erratic Washington, courting countries spooked by the global economic storm.

US President Donald Trump’s showdown with the judicial system came into the spotlight Tuesday as a judge grilled his administration over its failure to return a migrant wrongly deported to El Salvador.The Trump administration previously admitted that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was living in the eastern state of Maryland and married to a US citizen, was deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador due to an “administrative error.”A judge has ordered Trump to “facilitate” his return, an order upheld by the Supreme Court, but his government has yet to request El Salvador return Abrego Garcia.Trump has alleged that Abrego Garcia is “an MS-13 Gang Member and Foreign Terrorist from El Salvador,” while Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that he was “engaged in human trafficking.”But Abrego Garcia’s family has continued to proclaim his innocence, and Judge Paula Xinis — before whom the Tuesday hearing was held — has said she had seen no evidence Abrego Garcia was a gang member.During the high-stakes hearing — widely seen as a test of the judiciary’s ability to tame Trump’s White House — Xinis slammed the administration for sharing “nothing” on its plans for Abrego Garcia’s return. “There’s so much daylight between what you’re actually saying and where this case is,” Xinis said, adding she would set in motion a process to discover if officials acted against court orders.If so, it would mark a tipping point for the Trump administration, which has for months flirted with open defiance of the judiciary following court setbacks to its right-wing agenda. Dozens of protestors carrying signs reading “Defend democracy” and “Bring Abrego Garcia home” gathered outside the courthouse in Maryland on Tuesday.They were joined by Abreago Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who urged Trump and his ally, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, to “stop playing political games with my husband.”Hoping to heap political pressure on Trump, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen said he will travel to El Salvador on Wednesday to check on Abrego Garcia’s condition and discuss his return.”He shouldn’t have to spend another second away from his family,” Van Hollen, a Democrat, said on X.- ‘Alive and secure’ -Trump and his administration have repeatedly clashed with the courts since he returned to office in January, criticizing rulings that curb the president’s policies and power and attacking judges who issued them.”No District Court Judge, or any Judge, can assume the duties of the President of the United States. Only Crime and Chaos would result,” Trump said on Truth Social last month.Government attorneys last week rejected Xinis’s order to provide an update on Abrego Garcia’s status by Friday, saying that “foreign affairs cannot operate on judicial timelines.”The Trump administration has since partially complied with the judge’s directives, providing a statement from a State Department official saying that Abrego Garcia is “alive and secure” in the Salvadoran prison.The Department of Homeland Security said in a court filing Tuesday that it would take Abrego Garcia into custody and deport him again if he returned to the United States.But El Salvador’s Bukele on Monday, sitting next to Trump at the White House, rejected calls to repatriate Abrego Garcia, saying: “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”The case represents the only time the administration has acknowledged wrongly deporting anyone, though the Justice Department subsequently fired the lawyer who made that concession, saying he had failed to vigorously defend the government position.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday aiming to lower crippling drug prices by giving states more leeway to bargain-hunt abroad and improving the process for price negotiations.Americans face the highest prescription drug prices in the world, leaving many people to pay partially out of their own pockets despite already exorbitant insurance premiums.”This (order) will provide meaningful relief to seniors and low income individuals who depend on insulin and many, many more,” a White House official told reporters.”Furthermore, it will foster a more competitive prescription drug market to ensure the prices being charged to patients and the government are more aligned with the value they provide, rather than some quirk in the way that the government pays for them.”The order directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, to allow more states to import medicines directly from countries with lower prices.The administration of Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden approved Florida’s application to import from Canada last year but no other states were given the green light for their own deals. The order also tweaks the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed under Biden, which allowed the Medicare health insurance plan for seniors to negotiate the prices of certain drugs for the first time.The aim of the changes is to eliminate the difference between price negotiation rules for pills and those for injectable drugs — a disparity that critics argue could harm investment in the orally-administered products.Under the IRA, Medicare could negotiate on prices for “small molecule” drugs that patients swallow, such as ibuprofen, nine years after FDA approval.”Large molecule” biologics such as gene-based therapies and hormonal regulators could only be subject to negotiations after 13 years.The order did not specify how the disparity would be addressed.Officials said the edict also did not make use of a “most favored nation” status that would force pharmaceutical companies to offer their lowest prices in America.Biden’s IRA reforms led to the costs of 10 key medicines being cut in landmark negotiations with pharmaceutical firms.Days before leaving office, the Democrat announced a further 15 drugs for which the government would negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical companies, with the resulting prices taking effect in 2027.

Nvidia on Tuesday notified regulators that it expects a $5.5 billion hit this quarter due to a new US licensing requirement on the primary chip it can legally sell in China.US officials last week told Nvidia it must obtain licenses to export its H20 chips to China because of concerns they may be used in supercomputers there, the Silicon Valley company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.Shares of Nvidia, which have already seen high volatility since Trump’s April 2 tariffs announcement, were down over six percent in after-market trades.The new licensing rule applies to Nvidia GPUs (graphics processing units) with bandwidth similar to that of the H20.The United States had already barred exports to China of Nvidia’s most sophisticated GPUs, tailored for powering top-end artificial intelligence models.Nvidia was told the licensing requirement on H20 chips will last indefinitely, it said in the filing.Nvidia’s current fiscal quarter ends on April 27.”First quarter results are expected to include up to approximately $5.5 billion of charges associated with H20 products for inventory, purchase commitments, and related reserves,” Nvidia said in the filing.

A US jury on Tuesday convicted a Gambian man for torturing opponents of the African country’s former president by burning and beating them, including with molten plastic.Michael Sang Correa, 46, served in an armed unit known as the “Junglers,” which answered to The Gambia’s then-president, Yahya Jammeh. A trial in Denver, Colorado, found that Correa and other members of the death squad had tortured five people because of suspicions they had plotted against Jammeh. “Michael Sang Correa tried to evade responsibility for his crimes in The Gambia by coming to the United States and hiding his past,” Matthew Galeotti, head of the US Justice Department’s Criminal Division said after the trial. “But we found him, we investigated him, and we prosecuted him.”Jurors in Colorado heard how in March 2006, shortly after a failed coup attempt, the Junglers took their victims to The Gambia’s main prison.Over the next two months, they beat, stabbed, burned, and electroshocked their victims, including some on their genitals.One man testified he had his thigh burned by molten plastic; another told of how he was suffocated, while others spoke of being pistol whipped, burned with cigarettes and hit in the face with a hammer.Correa was convicted of five counts of torture and one of conspiracy to commit torture.He faces up to 120 years in prison when he is sentenced at a later date.Correa entered the United States in 2016 to work as a bodyguard for The Gambia’s vice president, who was visiting the United Nations.He stayed in the country and moved to Denver at some point after Jammeh, who ruled the country with an iron fist from 1994 to 2017, was voted out of office.Correa was arrested by US authorities in September 2019, initially for overstaying his visa.According to the indictment, Correa joined the Junglers in 2004.The paramilitary unit operated outside the Gambian army’s chain of command, taking orders directly from Jammeh, and has been accused by watchdog groups of carrying out widespread human rights violations.Another member of the Junglers, Bai Lowe, was sentenced to life in prison in Germany in November 2023 after being convicted of crimes against humanity, murder and attempted murder.A Swiss court in May sentenced Gambian ex-interior minister Ousman Sonko to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed under the Jammeh regime.Victims of the Junglers included an AFP correspondent, Deyda Hydara, who was gunned down in his car on the outskirts of Gambia’s capital Banjul on December 16, 2004.

US President Donald Trump’s bid to take back control of the Panama Canal has put his counterpart Jose Raul Mulino in a difficult position and revived fears in the Central American country that US military bases will return.After Trump vowed to reclaim the interoceanic waterway from Chinese influence, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an agreement with the Mulino administration last week for the United States to deploy troops in areas adjacent to the canal.For more than two decades, after handing over control of the strategically vital waterway to Panama in 1999 and dismantling the bases that protected it, Washington has regularly conducted maneuvers in the country.So what is changing and why is the new agreement causing controversy?- Will US military bases return? -Although the agreement does not allow the United States to build its own permanent bases, Washington will be able to maintain a long-term rotational force in Panama, similar to the one it has in Australia and other countries, for training, exercises and “other activities.”The United States will be able to deploy an unspecified number of personnel to three bases that Washington built when it previously had an enclave in the canal zone.That is a “flagrant violation” of the constitution, which prohibits foreign bases, and the 1977 handover treaties that establish the “neutrality” of the canal and permit only Panama to have military forces on national territory, Euclides Tapia, a Panamanian professor of international relations, told AFP.But there is a loophole: one of the treaties “allows the US to defend the canal when it feels the neutrality is jeopardized,” said Will Freeman, an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, a US-based think tank.Benjamin Gedan, former director for South America on the US National Security Council, argues that Panama has cooperated with the United States in securing the canal. Panamanian lawyer Arturo Hoyos sees no violation of laws or treaties, as the new agreement allows “joint” operations.- Is Mulino in trouble? -Mulino’s government says that the facilities and land belong to Panama and will be for “joint use” by US and Panamanian security forces.He maintains that he has not ceded an inch of sovereignty to Trump, a natural right-wing allyThe agreement is a “trade-off” because it “limits the Trump administration’s pressure tactics and hostility and maybe the scope of the concessions” by Panama, Freeman said.”The risk that nobody’s pricing in, at least on the US side, is that they make Mulino a lame duck” by humiliating him, leaving the Panamanian leader “unable to govern,” he added.Former presidential candidate Ricardo Lombana accused Mulino of “camouflaging” military bases and disguising “surrender” as “cooperation.””The United States is recolonizing and reoccupying us,” said Julio Yao, who advised the Panamanian government in the 1977 negotiations.Gedan, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, believes Panamanians “are not willing” to allow the return of US bases due to the trauma of the past occupation of the canal zone and the 1989 US invasion to overthrow dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega.- What does Trump really want? -The United States considers a Hong Kong company’s operation of ports at both ends of the canal to be a threat to its national security.”Trump wants to minimize the risk of Beijing blocking the canal to prevent the passage of military vessels in a potential conflict,” Gedan said.Natasha Lindstaedt, an expert at Britain’s University of Essex, sees the US moves as “part of a larger conflict with China as the US is trying to curb China’s influence in Panama and the region more generally.”Freeman said that the Trump administration “most likely is trying to show that if it wanted to, it could close the canal to Chinese commerce as a way of exerting pressure on China, either not to invade Taiwan or in the event of a conflict over Taiwan.””What we’re seeing in Panama is also about Trump’s doctrine of peace through strength,” he said.But Tapia was skeptical that China really poses a threat, suggesting the threats were aimed at boosting Trump’s domestic support.”Canada becoming part of the United States or saying that they will take over the canal and Greenland is just a gimmick aimed at the American public,” he said.

The US State Department is expected to propose an unprecedented dismantling of Washington’s diplomatic reach, multiple news outlets reported Tuesday, shuttering programs and embassies worldwide to slash the budget by almost 50 percent. The proposals, contained in an internal departmental memo said to be under serious discussion by senior officials, would eliminate almost all funding for international organizations, including the United Nations and NATO.Financial support for international peacekeeping would be curtailed, along with funding for educational and cultural exchanges like the Fulbright Program, one of the most prestigious US scholarships.The plan comes with President Donald Trump pressing a broader assault on government spending, and a scaling back of America’s leading role on the international stage.State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce downplayed the reports, telling journalists “there is no final plan, final budget, final dynamic.””That is up to the White House and the president of the United States as they continue to work on their budget plan and what they will submit to Congress,” Bruce said Tuesday. She added that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had “reiterated our complete commitment to NATO, as has the president of the United States.”The American Foreign Service Association called the proposed cuts “reckless and dangerous” while former US ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul blasted a “giant gift to the Communist Party of China.”The memo says the State Department will request a $28.4 billion budget in fiscal year 2026, beginning October 1 — $26 billion less than the 2025 figure, according to The New York Times.Although it has little to say about humanitarian aid, programs tackling tropical disease, providing vaccines to children in developing nations and promoting maternal and child health would go, the Times reported.The remnants of USAID — the sprawling development agency already crippled and eyed for closure by Trump and Musk — is assumed by the memo’s authors to have been fully absorbed into the State Department, said The Washington Post.Only Congress — which the majority Republicans still need some Democratic votes to pass most laws — can authorize such cuts.But the proposals will likely loom large in lawmakers’ negotiations over the 2026 budget.Government departments were facing a deadline of this week to send the White House their plans for cuts, but the State Department has yet to make any public announcements. It is not clear if Rubio has endorsed the April 10 memo, but he would need to sign off on any cuts before they could be considered by Congress.The document earmarks 10 embassies and 17 consulates for closure, including missions in Eritrea, Luxembourg, South Sudan and Malta, according to politics outlet Punchbowl News. Five consulates earmarked for closure are in France while two are in Germany, Punchbowl reported. The list also includes missions in Scotland and Italy.In Canada, US consulates in Montreal and Halifax would be downsized to “provide ‘last-mile’ diplomacy with minimal local support,” the website reported, citing the document.US missions to international bodies such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the UN’s children’s fund, UNICEF, would be merged with the diplomatic outposts in the city where they are located.Rubio, meanwhile, wrote on X Tuesday that the State Department had canceled a further 139 grants worth $214 million for “misguided programs,” citing an anti-hate speech project in Britain as one example.