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President Donald Trump’s administration will on Tuesday move to reverse a foundational scientific determination that underpins the US government’s ability to curb climate change, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin announced.Appearing on the right-wing “Ruthless Podcast,” Zeldin said: “Later today, we’re going to be making a big announcement in Indiana” about the so-called Endangerment Finding of 2009, which concluded that greenhouse trapping gases from motor vehicles were a threat to public health and welfare.Zeldin accused the Environmental Protection Agency under former president Barack Obama of taking “mental leaps,” when developing the finding based on overwhelming scientific consensus and peer-reviewed research.Agreeing with a podcast host who called the finding a “hub to the spoke of the left’s environment agenda,” Zeldin said: “This has been referred to as basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion.””Conservatives love the environment, want to be good stewards of the environment,” he continued. But “there are people who then, in the name of climate change, are willing to bankrupt the country in the name of environmental justice.”The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.The Endangerment Finding granted the EPA power to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act and served as the legal backbone for a range of climate rules, extending beyond vehicles to power plant standards to methane limits on oil and gas operations.According to a recent analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council, if it were a country, the US transportation sector would rank as the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases globally, while the power sector would be fifth.Dan Becker of the Center for Biological Diversity told AFP the Endangerment Finding has survived multiple legal challenges by industry over the years. “But this time, it’s the government itself mounting the attack,” he said.Environmental groups and states are expected to sue quickly. The legal battle could ultimately reach the Supreme Court, which would have to overturn its own 2007 ruling that paved the way for the Endangerment Finding.”Hopefully they will recognize that this is science and not politics — that there was a good reason for that precedent and no good reason to revoke it,” said Becker. “But this is a very political court.”Since returning to office, Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement on global warming and launched a sweeping campaign to expand fossil fuel development, including new moves this week to open ecologically sensitive areas of Alaska to drilling.The announcement comes as the planet swelters under historic levels of warming. Tens of millions of Americans are baking under a brutal heat dome gripping the Southeast, while climate-fueled floods killed more than 100 people in Texas earlier this month.

Russia said on Tuesday that it wanted peace in Ukraine, hours after mounting attacks that killed at least 25 people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates. The strikes came just hours after US President Donald Trump shortened his deadline for Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine — now into a fourth year — or face new sanctions.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of willfully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region — that Russia claims as its own — killing 16 people and wounding dozens others.”It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,” Zelensky said on social media in response.The Kremlin denied the claim.”The Russian army does not strike civilian targets,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP.The attacks came hours after Trump said he was cutting the deadline for President Vladimir Putin to halt the Ukraine war from 50 days to 10-12 days.”I really felt it was going to end. But every time I think it’s going to end he kills people,” Trump said Monday on a visit to Scotland.”I’m not so interested in talking (to him) anymore,” he added.Peskov said Moscow had “taken note” of Trump’s new deadline and that it remained “committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests.”- ‘War crimes’ -Ukraine’s justice ministry said Russian forces hit the prison in Bilenke with four glide bombs. Police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 wounded.Bricks and debris and blown out windows were strewn on the ground, according to images released by the ministry. The facility’s perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added.Rescue workers searched for survivors in pictures released by the region’s emergency services.A senior Ukrainian source said that 274 people were serving sentences in the Bilenkivska facility.The source added there were no Russian war prisoners at the centre.Nadiya, a resident of Bilenke, told AFP the attack damaged her house.”At about ten minutes to six, a neighbour called and said: ‘Come quickly, your roof is gone.’ Is that normal? Not a single window is intact,” the 74-year-old said.The Ukrainian air force said that Russia also launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones.One attack targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region, wounding 22 people. “Putin is rejecting a ceasefire, avoiding a leaders’ meeting, and prolonging the war,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media.”He will only end his terror if we break the spine of his economy,” he added, calling on Western allies to consolidate around sanctions on Moscow.- Hospital targeted -“Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23-years-old,” Zelensky said.Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said.In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region’s acting governor said.Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia’s summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022.The Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken two more villages — one in the Donetsk region, and another in Zaporizhzhia region.The prison strike on Tuesday came on the third anniversary of an attack on another detention facility in occupied Ukrainian territory that Kyiv blamed on Moscow and was reported to have killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers.Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the night-time strike three years ago on the Olenivka detention centre in Russian-occupied Donetsk region, which the Kremlin says is part of Russia.Ukraine says dozens of its soldiers who laid down their arms after a long Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol were killed in the attack.

The IMF raised its global growth forecast Tuesday as efforts to circumvent Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs sparked a bigger-than-expected surge in trade, while the US president stepped back from some of his harshest threats.The International Monetary Fund still sees growth slowing this year, however, even as it lifted its 2025 projection to 3.0 percent — up from 2.8 percent in April — in its World Economic Outlook update.In 2024, global growth came in at 3.3 percent.Looking ahead, the IMF expects the world economy to expand 3.1 percent next year, an improvement from the 3.0 percent it earlier predicted.Despite the upward revisions, “there are reasons to be very cautious,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told AFP.”Businesses were trying to frontload, move stuff around, before the tariffs were imposed, and so that’s supporting economic activity,” he said.”There is going to be payback for that. If you stock the shelves now, you don’t need to stock them later in the year or into the next year,” he added.This means a likelihood of reduced trade activity in the second half of the year and into 2026.”The global economy has continued to hold steady, but the composition of activity points to distortions from tariffs, rather than underlying robustness,” the IMF’s report said.For now, a “modest decline in trade tensions, however fragile, has contributed to the resilience of the global economy,” Gourinchas told reporters Tuesday.Trump imposed a 10 percent levy on almost all trading partners this year, alongside steeper duties on autos, steel and aluminum.He paused higher tariffs on dozens of economies until August 1, a significant delay from April when they were first unveiled.Washington and Beijing also agreed to lower for 90 days triple-digit duties on each other’s goods, in a halt expiring August 12. Talks that could lead to a further extension of the truce are ongoing.Trump’s actions have brought the US effective tariff rate to 17.3 percent, significantly above the 3.5 percent level for the rest of the world, the IMF said.If deals unravel or tariffs rebound to higher levels, global output would be 0.3 percent down next year, Gourinchas said.- US inflation hit -US growth for 2025 was revised 0.1 percentage points up, to 1.9 percent, with tariffs anticipated to settle at lower levels than initially announced in April.The country is also set to see a near-term boost from Trump’s flagship tax and spending bill.Euro area growth was adjusted 0.2 percentage points higher to 1.0 percent, partly reflecting a jump in Irish pharmaceutical exports to the United States to avoid fresh duties.Among European economies, Germany is still expected to avoid contraction while forecasts for France and Spain remained unchanged at 0.6 percent and 2.5 percent respectively.While the IMF anticipates global inflation to keep declining, with headline inflation cooling to 4.2 percent this year, it warned that US price increases will remain above target.”The tariffs, acting as a supply shock, are expected to pass through to US consumer prices gradually and hit inflation in the second half of 2025,” the IMF report said.Elsewhere, Trump’s duties “constitute a negative demand shock, lowering inflationary pressures,” the report added.- China challenges -Growth in the world’s number-two economy China, however, was revised 0.8 percentage points upwards to 4.8 percent.This reflects stronger-than-expected activity in the first half of 2025, alongside “the significant reduction in US–China tariffs,” the IMF said.Gourinchas warned that China is still experiencing headwinds, with “fairly weak” domestic demand.”There is relatively little consumer confidence, the property sector is still a black spot in the Chinese economy, it’s not been completely addressed,” he added. “That is resulting in a drag on economic activity going forward.”Russia’s growth was revised 0.6 percentage points down, to 0.9 percent, partially due to Russian policies but also oil prices, which are set to remain relatively subdued compared with 2024 levels, Gourinchas said.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it wanted to pursue peace in Ukraine hours after mounting attacks that killed at least 25 people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates. The strikes on several regions came hours after US President Donald Trump issued Moscow with a new deadline to end its grinding invasion of Ukraine — now in its fourth year — or face tough new sanctions.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of purposefully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region — that Russia claims as its own — killing 16 people and wounding more than 40 others.”It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,” Zelensky said on social media in response.The Kremlin denied that claim.”The Russian army does not strike civilian targets,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP.Peskov added that Moscow had “taken note” of Trump’s new deadline and told journalists that it remained “committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests.”- ‘War crimes’ -Ukraine’s justice ministry said Moscow’s forces hit the prison with four glide bombs, while police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 were wounded.Bricks and debris were strewn on the ground around buildings with blown-out windows, according to images released by the ministry. The facility’s perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added.Rescue workers were seen searching for survivors in pictures released by the region’s emergency services.A senior Ukrainian source said that 274 people were serving sentences in the Bilenkivska facility, where 30 people worked.The source added there were no Russian war prisoners being held at the centre.Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the Zaporizhzhia attack was further evidence of Russian “war crimes”.”People held in places of detention do not lose their right to life and protection,” he wrote on social media.In addition to the glide bomb attack, the Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones.Zelensky said that among the separate attacks, Russian forces had targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region.- Hospital targeted -“Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23-years-old,” Zelensky said.Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said.In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region’s acting governor said.Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia’s summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022.The Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the sprawling front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken control of two more villages — one in the Donetsk region, and another in the Zaporizhzhia region.The prison strike on Tuesday came on the three-year anniversary of a attack on another detention facility in occupied Ukrainian territory that Kyiv blamed on Moscow and that was reported to have killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers.Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the strike over the night of July 29 three years ago on the detention centre in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, which the Kremlin says is part of Russia.Ukraine says that dozens of its soldiers who laid down their arms after a long Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol were killed in that attack on the Olenivka detention facility.

A gunman with mental health issues opened fire in a central Manhattan skyscraper on Monday, killing four people including a policeman before apparently taking his own life, officials said.A fifth victim was in critical condition after being shot, Mayor Eric Adams told a late-night press briefing at a nearby hospital.The gunman was caught on surveillance footage leaving a black BMW and carrying an M-4 rifle, police commissioner Jessica Tisch told the news conference.On entering the building, he immediately opened fire on a police officer before “spraying the lobby” with bullets, she said.The gunman then took an elevator to the 33rd floor of Rudin Management, which owns the building, and continued his spree before apparently shooting himself. He was later discovered by officers next to his weapon.The office tower block at 345 Park Avenue — home to the National Football League, hedge fund giant Blackstone, and auditor KPMG — was apparently targeted by the gunman, who is believed to have acted alone, Tisch said.The police commissioner identified the shooter as Shane Tamura from Las Vegas and said a revolver, ammunition and magazines were found in his vehicle.Tamura had a history of mental health issues, she said.The incident began around 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) when reports of gunfire prompted hundreds of police to swarm a busy office district on Park Avenue, an area popular with tourists and businesspeople.A worker from a nearby office building wept as she left the area after a local lockdown was lifted.- ‘ Senseless’ -Another office worker described the gunman going floor-to-floor as staff prepared to leave for the day.”We lost four souls to another act of senseless violence,” the city’s mayor said, excluding the shooter, who died by an apparently self-inflicted gunshot.Adams said the fallen police officer was a 36-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh.Two other males and a female died and another man remained in a critical condition, officials said without giving any preliminary motive for the shootings.An NFL employee was stable after being “seriously injured” in the attack, ESPN reported, quoting an internal memo from league commissioner Roger Goodell.CNN and NBC cited unnamed officials as saying the shooter had a grievance with the NFL and its handling of CTE, a brain condition linked to head trauma.The gunman had a note in his pocket saying he suffered from CTE, the news channels said, quoting a source with knowledge of the investigation.Office worker Shad Sakib told AFP that he was packing his things to leave work when a public address announcement warned him and his colleagues to shelter in place.”Everyone was confused with like, ‘wait, what’s going on?’ And then someone finally realized that it’s online, that someone walked in with a machine gun,” the witness said.- ‘Floor by floor’ -“He walked right into a building right next door. We saw the photo of him walking through the same area that I walked through to get lunch here.”You would think it won’t happen to you, and then it does.”Another witness, a woman who declined to give her name as she left the vicinity of the shooting, told AFP: “I was in the building. He went floor by floor.” A second woman wept as she left the scene. There have been 254 mass shootings in the United States this year including Monday’s incident in New York, according to the Gun Violence Archive — which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.Police deployed a drone near Park Avenue at the height of the evening rush hour as dozens of officers swarmed the area, some carrying long guns and others wearing ballistic vests.Police repeatedly pushed back journalists and members of the public who gathered to see what was happening in the normally calm but busy area of Midtown Manhattan.The area is home to several five-star business hotels, as well as a number of corporate headquarters and financial and law firms. The United Nations headquarters is nearby.New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she has been briefed on the shooting.Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner in the forthcoming New York mayoral race, wrote on social media that he was “heartbroken to learn of the horrific shooting in midtown and I am holding the victims, their families, and the NYPD officer… in my thoughts.”

Donald Trump inaugurated his new golf course in eastern Scotland on Tuesday, ending a five-day trip in which the US president signed a major trade deal and weighed in on several key issues.Secret agents and golfers criss-crossed the sprawling complex on the Aberdeenshire coast, waiting for the president to tee off.But the Republican president, a keen golfer, let his son Eric officially open the course, having transferred his real estate and assets to a family holding company.The new course features the world’s largest natural bunker, dunes and greens overlooking the sea, with a “focus on environmental sensitivity”, said a press release.Visible out to sea were the offshore wind turbines that Trump unsuccessfully tried to block.The president once again spoke out against wind power as he hosted European Union President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday.It was one of the many issues Trump addressed during the free-wheeling press conferences at his other golf complex in Turnberry, western Scotland over the past days.With Von der Leyen, he announced a trade agreement in which the EU resigned itself to 15 percent tariffs on goods entering the US, a deal heavily criticised across the continent. During Monday’s press conference with Starmer, Trump promised more aid for Gaza, gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a “10 or 12 day” ultimatum to cease hostilities in Ukraine and criticised London mayor Sadiq Khan.The US leader further waded into UK politics on Tuesday morning when he took to his Truth Social platform to urge the government to cut taxes and incentivise drilling in the North Sea oilfield.”Incentivize the drillers, FAST. A VAST FORTUNE TO BE MADE for the UK, and far lower energy costs for the people,” he wrote.Trump played golf at Turnberry on Saturday and Sunday on a visit that mixed leisure with diplomacy, further blurring the lines between the presidency and his business interests.

Four people including a police officer were killed Monday after a gunman walked into a skyscraper in central Manhattan and opened fire in broad daylight, officials said.A fifth victim was also in critical condition after being shot, while the gunman apparently took his own life, Mayor Eric Adams told a late-night briefing at a hospital near the scene of the shooting.The gunman was caught on camera exiting a black BMW carrying an M-4 rifle, then entering the building, immediately opening fire on a police officer before “spraying the lobby” with bullets, police commissioner Jessica Tisch told the press conference.He then took an elevator to the 33rd floor, of Rudin Management which owns the building, where the man continued his spree before apparently shooting himself. He was later discovered by officers next to his weapon.The office tower block at 345 Park Avenue is also home to hedge fund giant Blackstone, auditor KPMG and the National Football League.Tisch told the briefing that the suspect was believed to have acted alone but inquiries were ongoing, with the FBI assisting in the investigation.She identified the shooter as Shane Tamura of Las Vegas and said a revolver, ammunition and magazines were found in his vehicle along with medication bearing his name. The man had a history of mental health issues according to Las Vegas law enforcement — but did appear to possess a valid firearms permit for Nevada, Tisch said.He drove cross-country from the southwestern state in recent days and arrived in New York on Monday, she said.The incident began around 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) when reports of gunfire prompted hundreds of police to swarm a busy office district on the storied Park Avenue, an area popular with tourists and visiting businesspeople.A worker from a nearby office building wept as she left the area after a local lockdown was lifted, while another described a gunman going floor to floor as staff prepared to leave for the day.Adams said the fallen police officer, an immigrant from Bangladesh who was 36 years old, was among the dead.Two other males and a female died, and another man remained in a critical condition, officials said without giving any preliminary motive for the shootings.- Rush hour -Office worker Shad Sakib told AFP that he was packing his things to leave work when a public address announcement warned him and his colleagues to shelter in place.”Everyone was confused with like, ‘wait, what’s going on?’ And then someone finally realized that it’s online, that someone walked in with a machine gun,” said the witness who wore a grey suit jacket.”He walked right into a building right next door. We saw the photo of him walking through the same area that I walked through to get lunch here.”You would think it won’t happen to you, and then it does.”Mass shootings are common in the United States, where a constitutional right to bear arms outweighs demands for stricter rules.There have been 254 mass shootings in the United States this year including Monday’s incident in New York, according to the Gun Violence Archive — which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.Police officers deployed a drone near Park Avenue at the height of the evening rush-hour as dozens of officers swarmed the area, some carrying long guns and others wearing ballistic vests.The area is home to several five-star business hotels, as well as a number of corporate headquarters. The United Nations headquarters is nearby.New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she has been briefed on the shooting.The frontrunner in the race for mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote on X that he was “heartbroken to learn of the horrific shooting in midtown and I am holding the victims, their families, and the NYPD officer… in my thoughts.”

At least four people including a police officer were killed Monday after a gunman walked into a skyscraper in central Manhattan and opened fire in broad daylight, officials said.A fifth victim was also in critical condition after being shot, while the gunman apparently took his own life, Mayor Eric Adams told a late-night briefing at a hospital near the scene of the shooting.The gunman was caught on surveillance footage leaving a black BMW carrying an M-4 rifle before entering the building, immediately opening fire on a police officer before “spraying the lobby” with bullets, police commissioner Jessica Tisch told a press conference.An office tower block at 345 Park Avenue — home to hedge fund giant Blackstone, auditor KPMG and the National Football League — was apparently targeted by the gunman, Tisch said. She said that the suspect was believed to have acted alone.Tisch gave the shooter’s name as Shane Tamura from Las Vegas and said a revolver, ammunition and magazines were found in his vehicle. She said Tamura had a history of mental health issues.The incident began around 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) when reports of gunfire prompted hundreds of police to swarm a busy office district on the storied Park Avenue, an area popular with tourists and visiting businesspeople.A worker from a nearby office building wept as she left the area after a local lockdown was lifted, while another described a gunman going floor to floor as staff prepared to leave for the day.”We lost four souls to another act of senseless violence,” Adams said, without counting the gunman who also died, apparently by a self-inflicted gunshot.Adams said the fallen police officer, an immigrant from Bangladesh who was 36 years old, was among the dead.Two other males and a female died and another man remained in a critical condition, officials said without giving any preliminary motive for the shootings.Office worker Shad Sakib told AFP that he was packing his things to leave work when a public address announcement warned him and his colleagues to shelter in place.”Everyone was confused with like, ‘wait, what’s going on?’ And then someone finally realized that it’s online, that someone walked in with a machine gun,” said the witness who wore a grey suit jacket.”He walked right into a building right next door. We saw the photo of him walking through the same area that I walked through to get lunch here.”You would think it won’t happen to you, and then it does.”- ‘Floor by floor’ -Another witness, a woman who declined to give her name as she left the vicinity of the shooting, told AFP “I was in the building. He went floor by floor,” while a second woman wept as she left the scene. There have been 254 mass shootings in the United States this year including Monday’s incident in New York, according to the Gun Violence Archive — which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.Police officers deployed a drone near Park Avenue at the height of the evening rush-hour as dozens of officers swarmed the area, some carrying long guns and others wearing ballistic vests.Police repeatedly pushed back journalists and members of the public who gathered to see what was happening in the normally calm but busy area of Midtown Manhattan.The area is home to several five-star business hotels, as well as a number of corporate headquarters and financial and law firms.New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she has been briefed on the shooting.The frontrunner in the race for mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote on X that he was “heartbroken to learn of the horrific shooting in midtown and I am holding the victims, their families, and the NYPD officer… in my thoughts.”

A Colombian court on Monday found Alvaro Uribe guilty of witness tampering, making him the South American country’s first ex-president to be convicted of a crime.The 73-year-old — who led Colombia from 2002 to 2010 — was found guilty of asking right-wing paramilitaries to lie about their alleged links to him.As the judge started reading out her verdict Monday, Uribe — who attended the trial virtually — sat shaking his head.The still-powerful ex-president is expected to hear his sentence on Friday. He risks 12 years in prison.The judgement brought rapid condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who decried “the weaponization of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges.”A law-and-order hardliner, Uribe was a close ally of the United States and retains close ties to the American right. At home his popularity has waned as alleged rights abuses during his tenure have come to light.Even before the ruling and Rubio’s high-profile attack, a Colombian lawyers’ guild asked for more protection for Judge Sandra Heredia, who is presiding over this case.Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro shot back at Rubio’s criticism and insisted the judiciary was independent.Allegations “to the contrary were an insult that would not be tolerated”, he said.- Dirty war -Paramilitary groups emerged in the 1980s in Colombia to fight Marxist guerrillas that had taken up arms against the state.A plethora of armed groups that emerged in the standoff adopted cocaine as their main source of income — the genesis of a deadly rivalry for resources and trafficking routes that continues to this day.Uribe led a relentless military campaign against drug cartels and the FARC guerrilla army, which signed a peace deal with his successor Juan Manuel Santos in 2016 — much to Uribe’s chagrin.After leftist senator Ivan Cepeda accused him of ties with paramilitary groups responsible for human rights violations, Uribe is alleged to have contacted jailed ex-fighters to lie for him.The judge Monday found him guilty on two charges: interfering with witnesses and “procedural fraud.”- Popular politician -Uribe remains popular in Colombia for his anti-FARC campaigns, and is still a prominent voice on the right. Recent opinion polls revealed him to be the South American country’s best loved politician.In 2019, thousands protested in Bogota and Medellin when he was indicted in the case, and on Monday, a smaller group of followers gathered outside the court wearing masks fashioned after his image and chanting: “Uribe, innocent!”They clashed with a group of critics.The investigation against Uribe began in 2018 and has had numerous twists and turns, with several attorneys-general seeking to close the case.It gained new impetus under Attorney General Luz Camargo, picked by Petro — himself a former guerrilla and a political arch-foe of Uribe.More than 90 witnesses testified in the trial, which opened in May 2024.Prosecutors produced evidence during the trial of least one paramilitary ex-fighter who said he was contacted by Uribe to change his story.- ‘Vengeance’ -The former president is also under investigation in other matters.He has testified before prosecutors in a preliminary probe into a 1997 paramilitary massacre of farmers when he was governor of the western Antioquia department.A complaint has also been filed against him in Argentina, where universal jurisdiction allows for the prosecution of crimes committed anywhere in the world.That complaint stems from Uribe’s alleged involvement in the more than 6,000 executions and forced disappearances of civilians by the military when he was president.Uribe insists his trial is a product of “political vengeance.”

Palantir, an American data analysis and artificial intelligence company, has emerged as Silicon Valley’s latest tech darling — one that makes no secret of its macho, America-first ethos now ascendant in Trump-era tech culture.The company’s reach spans the global economy, with banks, hospitals, the US government, and the Israeli military among its ever-expanding client roster.”We want and need this country to be the strongest, most important country in the world,” Alex Karp, Palantir’s CEO, recently declared at a client conference in Palo Alto, California, where AFP was the only media outlet present.In armed conflicts — most notably in Ukraine — Palantir’s tools help evaluate potential targets in real-time, using multiple sources, including biometric data and intercepted phone calls.”I’m super proud of… what we do to protect our soldiers… (using our AI) to kill our enemies and scare them, because they know they will be killed,” the graying, curly-haired billionaire continued, wearing a tight white T-shirt.Washington has been filling Palantir’s coffers.In the first quarter, the company received $373 million from the US government — a 45 percent jump from the previous year — and it’s not all miltary spending.This spring, federal immigration authorities (ICE) awarded the company a $30 million contract to develop a new platform for tracking deportations and visa overstays.- ‘Like a drug’ -The company then secured an investment of nearly $800 million from the US military, adding to the $480 million contract signed in May 2024 for its AI platform supporting the Pentagon’s “Project Maven” target identification program. This marked Palantir’s first billion-dollar contract, elevating it alongside government contracting stalwarts like Microsoft and Amazon’s AWS.However, financial results “are not and will never be the ultimate measure of the value, broadly defined, of our business,” Karp wrote in his letter to shareholders in early May, where he tossed in quotes from Saint Augustine, the Bible and Richard Nixon.”We have grander and more idiosyncratic aims.”Palantir was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel — Silicon Valley’s preeminent conservative — Karp, and others with CIA backing. The company takes its name from the magical seeing stones in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.””Young people would say we’re like pure drugs — very expensive, highly sought after… that make you stronger and better,” Karp boasted on stage.Palantir’s expanding footprint at the highest levels of government has raised eyebrows.Several members of the Trump administration’s “DOGE” cost-cutting commission, originally headed by Elon Musk, came from the company.Recent reports from The New York Times, Wired, and CNN have detailed secret government projects to create, with Palantir’s help, a central database combining data from different federal agencies.- ‘Deeply proud’ -This development has created “a lot of concerns about how that information might be used,” warned Elizabeth Laird from the Center for Democracy & Technology.Palantir maintains it isn’t building “surveillance technology” or a “central database on Americans.”Unlike most traditional Silicon Valley companies that have kept military projects discreet, Palantir now embraces its defense work openly.Sasha Spivak, director of strategy, said that when she joined Palantir ten years ago, the company kept its sense of purpose behind closed doors.”Today we’re not ashamed, we’re not afraid, and we’re deeply proud of what we do and our clients,” said Spivak. Some employee groups are pushing back. In early May, 13 former Palantir employees published a letter accusing tech giants of helping to “normalize authoritarianism under the cover of a ‘revolution’ led by oligarchs.”They argue that by supporting the Trump administration and DOGE, Palantir has betrayed its stated values of ethics, transparency, and defending democracy.”When I joined the company… there were many smart, motivated people — that’s pretty rare,” said one of the letter’s signatories, who wishes to remain anonymous, for fear of reprisal.After months of seeking management explanations about Palantir’s collaboration with Israel and ICE, several of these employees resigned.”They said, ‘We’re a company that’s very responsive to employees,’ but people asking about Israel were quickly shut down and told, ‘That’s what we do — if you don’t like it, you can leave,'” the former staffer recalled.Jeremy David, co-director of the Health division, plays down the controversies.”My daily life is more about nurses and doctors who often hate us at first and are very grateful at the end,” he told AFP at the conference. On stage, Joe Bonanno, head of data analysis at Citibank, celebrated how one operation that previously required “nine days and sometimes 50 people” now “takes just a few minutes for one person.””Like I said, and like Alex said, I came to dominate, crush and annihilate. So if you’re JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, sorry,” he concluded with a broad smile.Some potential clients quietly admit they don’t appreciate the war-like rhetoric, but they see no alternative to Palantir’s capabilities.