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US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a “full and comprehensive” trade agreement with Britain, which would be the first such deal since he launched his global tariffs blitz.Trump provided no details about the scope of the deal but said there would be many more to come after he hit US trading partners with sweeping levies on his April 2 “Liberation Day.”But a more reserved tone from London suggested the deal might not be comprehensive as claimed by Trump, who has boasted for weeks that countries were lining up to strike deals with Washington.The 78-year-old Republican called it a “very big and exciting day” and was due to speak further about the agreement at a news conference in the White House scheduled for 10:00 am (1400 GMT). “The agreement with the United Kingdom is a full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come,” the president posted on his Truth Social platform.”Because of our long time history and allegiance together, it is a great honor to have the United Kingdom as our FIRST announcement. Many other deals, which are in serious stages of negotiation, to follow!”Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was an “important step towards fair and reciprocal trade with our partners around the world.”- ‘National interest’ -The deal follows a charm offensive by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who came to the White House in February — armed with an invitation from King Charles III for a historic second state visit for Trump.Reports said the deal would lift Trump’s 25-percent tariffs on British steel and cars but his baseline 10 percent tariffs would remain. In return Britain could give relief from the UK’s digital services tax paid by US tech giants.Sky News reported that London has agreed concessions on food and agriculture imports with Washington.Starmer said he would speak about the trade agreement with the United States — UK’s single largest country trading partner — later on Thursday.”Talks with the US have been ongoing and you’ll hear more from me about that later today,” the PM told a London conference on defense.”But make no mistake, I will always act in our national interest.”A UK government official likened the deal to a “general terms document” which will set out agreements but also lay out a framework where further discussion are needed.The deal was focused on specific sectors rather than being a fully-fledged free trade agreement sought by the UK following its 2020 departure from the European Union, the official said on condition of anonymity.As well as dealing with steel and car tariffs, it would lay out positions for discussions over possible future tariffs in the key pharmaceuticals sector.”There will be further negotiations to come,” the source added.- Brexit Britain -A US deal would be a fresh win for Starmer after Britain this week struck a free-trade agreement with India, its biggest such deal since leaving the EU.Trump described the British leader, who like the US president won power last year, as a tough negotiator following the latter’s visit to Washington in February.The president slapped 10 percent tariffs on imports from around the world in April, including Britain, but he temporarily froze higher duties on dozens of nations to allow for negotiations.The film industry — a main UK export for the services sector — is also in Trump’s sights.London however has not yet retaliated against Trump’s tariffs.Reaching a post-Brexit agreement with the United States has been a priority for Britain.London had been keen to achieve some type of accord with Washington ahead of a EU-UK summit on May 19 due to reset ties with the 27-nation bloc.The EU is meanwhile struggling to reach its own trade deal with the United States.Brussels on Thursday proposed hitting US planes and cars with tariffs if talks fail.burs-dk/bgs

The Gates Foundation plans to spend more than $200 billion over the next 20 years, accelerating its public health mission and shutting down in 2045, the organization said Thursday.The new timetable means a change to the organization’s charter, which planned for the foundation to sunset 20 years after the death of Bill Gates. The shift is driven by “urgency and opportunity,” as artificial intelligence advances boost the potential for human wellbeing even as governments cut back on aid funding, the foundation said.”During the first 25 years of the Gates Foundation — powered in part by the generosity of Warren Buffett — we gave away more than $100 billion,” Gates, 69, said in a blog post, referring to the influential American investor.”Over the next two decades, we will double our giving,” Gates wrote.The blog post contained a chart showing Gates’s net worth plummeting 99 percent over the next 20 years. Gates is currently listed as the 13th on the Forbes “real-time” billionaire list, with a net worth of $112.6 billion.”People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” Gates wrote. “There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.”The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched in 2000, the same year Bill Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft. In 2024, Melinda French Gates exited the foundation three years after the couple’s divorce.Gates cited progress in launching global public health efforts including campaigns to eradicate polio and the creation of a new vaccine for rotavirus that has helped reduce the number of children who die from diarrhea each year by 75 percent.”By accelerating our giving, my hope is we can put the world on a path to ending preventable deaths of moms and babies and lifting millions of people out of poverty,” Gates said in the blog.Separate from the Gates Foundation, the Microsoft founder said he plans to continue to provide funding for initiatives to expand access to affordable energy and for breakthrough research into Alzheimer’s disease.

The United States and Britain were reportedly set to announce a trade agreement on Thursday that could have implications for President Donald Trump’s tariffs assault, but the scope of the deal could be limited.The New York Times and Politico reported that the agreement would be with the UK, citing multiple people familiar with the plans, while the Wall Street Journal said it would be a “framework” of a deal.It would be the first such trade agreement since Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on US trading partners on what he called “Liberation Day” on April 2.The president slapped 10 percent tariffs on imports from around the world, including Britain, but he temporarily froze higher duties on dozens of nations to give space for negotiations.Trump on Wednesday wrote that a “major trade deal” would be announced with a “big, and highly respected country”.However, media and analysts said it was unclear whether a US deal with Britain had been finalised or if the two countries would announce a framework for an agreement that would be subject to further negotiation.Trump is set to announce the “deal” at a 10:00 am (1400 GMT) news conference in the Oval Office at the White House, and touted it as the “first of many”.In London, Downing Street said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will give an “update” on trade talks with the United States on Thursday.”Talks on a deal between our countries have been continuing at pace and the prime minister will update later today,” a spokeswoman said.Starmer, who like Trump won power last year, had pushed for a trade deal before the president unleashed his tariffs blitz on Britain and countries worldwide.Reaching a post-Brexit agreement with the United States has been the Holy Grail for Britain since it exited the European Union at the start of the decade.London is keen to get some kind of accord with Washington, ahead of a EU-UK summit on May 19 due to reset ties with the 27-nation bloc.A US-UK deal could prove problematic for the EU which is struggling to reach an acceptable trade deal of its own with the United States.Britain this week struck a free-trade agreement with India, its biggest such deal since leaving the EU, after negotiations relaunched in February following US tariff threats.The EU remains Britain’s biggest trading partner, while the United States is the UK’s single largest country trading partner.- Details of deal? -Trump has for weeks claimed that countries were lining up to strike trade agreements with the United States.Reports have suggested that Washington may reduce certain tariffs on British products in exchange for relief from the UK’s digital services tax paid by US tech giants. London had not retaliated against the Trump’s 10-percent tariff imposed on UK imports, nor to the higher 25-percent levies for steel, aluminium and the automotive sector.”Any deal with the US is likely to be damage limitation rather than an economic boost,” Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King’s College London, told AFP.”That is, it is likely to limit the Trump tariffs, but … exporters will probably still be facing higher tariffs overall than they were last year.”Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid said “given that full trade deals take years to negotiate, this will likely be a framework and it will be interesting to see whether the 10-percent baseline tariff stays as that will provide an important template for negotiations with other countries”.The Bank of England is widely expected to cut its key interest rate by a quarter point Thursday as Trump’s planned tariffs threaten to weaken global economic growth.- Affinity for Britain – Starmer visited Washington at the end of February in part to discuss tariffs and came away hopeful that a long-awaited accord could be reached. Trump at the time held out the prospect of a “great” deal, hailing Starmer as a tough negotiator.Starmer during his visit handed Trump an invitation to meet King Charles III for an unprecedented second state visit that London hopes will boost transatlantic ties. The 78-year-old Republican has long been a vocal fan of the British royal family. He also has a close affinity to the UK as his mother was born in Scotland, where he owns a golf course.

Faced with fresh flight safety problems at a major US airport, the Trump administration is set Thursday to unveil a modernized air traffic control system.US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is planning a news conference in Washington to announce an upgrade billed as a dramatic break from the “band-aid” fixes of past administrations.A massive overhaul of the US air traffic control system could cost tens of billions of dollars. Such a policy would need to win congressional approval at a time when Trump’s administration is also seeking deep spending cuts to finance tax cuts.The union for air traffic controllers has complained of obsolete buildings containing radar technology that is no longer manufactured and computers with floppy disks last seen in the 20th century.Duffy’s agency is facing scrutiny after an April 28 incident at Newark Liberty International Airport in which air traffic officials stationed in nearby Philadelphia were unable to connect with planes on radar and through radio for 90 seconds.The troubles at one of the busiest US airports follow a January 29 midair collision near Washington’s Reagan National Airport involving a passenger jet and a military helicopter, the first major US commercial crash since 2009.Duffy, who has blamed his predecessor in the Biden administration for recent problems, talked up the plan at an April 30 Cabinet meeting with Trump, who seemed to favor a lead contractor.”We’re going to have one, great big beautiful contractor, whether it’s maybe Raytheon, maybe IBM,” Trump said. “You put one in charge. They’re very big, very powerful monetarily, and they give you a guarantee, and they hook up everything. They do every single thing.”Duffy has so far not released details about the plan. A Department of Transportation advisory touted Thursday’s event as “ushering in a golden age of transportation.”- Newark in focus -On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it has been slowing arrivals and departures at Newark after the system outage.Other steps included adding more backup equipment and bolstering air traffic controller staffing, the FAA said.While Newark’s staffing issues are the norm across the network, the incident highlights unique problems at the airport, said Michael McCormick, a former FAA control tower manager who is now associate professor at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University.McCormick said the telecommunications failures stem from the FAA’s 2024 relocation of Newark air traffic staff from Long Island to Philadelphia.Even with the loss of contact with air traffic staff, pilots would have still been able to safely fly during the outage because of on-board technology that tracks other planes, McCormick said.”There’s still backup,” McCormick said. “It’s not optimal.”

Donald Trump will announce a trade deal with the United Kingdom on Thursday, US media reported, after the president touted a “major” upcoming agreement on social media.The New York Times and Politico reported that Trump was set to agree to a deal with Britain, citing multiple people familiar with the plans.Trump wrote earlier on Wednesday the “major trade deal” would be announced with a “big, and highly respected country.”He said he would announce the deal at a 10:00 am (1400 GMT) news conference in the Oval Office at the White House, and touted it as the “first of many.”Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on US trading partners last month but temporarily froze most of them to allow for the negotiation of trade deals.He has been claiming for weeks that countries were lining up to strike trade agreements with the United States.The Times said it was not clear whether a US trade deal with Britain had been finalized or if the two countries would announce a framework for an agreement that would be subject to further negotiation.The Bank of England is widely expected to cut its key interest rate by a quarter point Thursday as Trump’s planned tariffs threaten to weaken global economic growth.- An affinity for Britain – Britain this week struck a free-trade agreement with India, its biggest such deal since leaving the European Union, after negotiations relaunched in February following US tariff threats.Britain has sought to bolster trade ties across the world since it left the EU at the start of the decade under Brexit, a need that became more pressing after Trump took power.Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Washington at the end of February in part to discuss tariffs and came away hopeful that a long-awaited accord could be reached. Trump at the time held out the prospect of a “great” deal, hailing Starmer as a tough negotiator.Starmer during his visit handed Trump an invitation to meet King Charles III in September for an unprecedented second state visit that London hopes will boost transatlantic ties. Trump will become the first political leader to receive a second state visit to Britain, after he traveled there in 2019 during his first term as president. The 78-year-old Republican has long been a vocal fan of the British royal family. He also has a close affinity to the UK due to the fact his mother was born in Scotland, where he owns a golf course.

Donald Trump’s proposal to put 100 percent tariffs on foreign movies left many filmmakers scratching their heads. But it did highlight a problem plaguing Hollywood: cinema is rapidly abandoning its long-time home.For decades almost every film that hit US theatres — as well as most of what was on TV — emanated from a handful of movie lots in the sun-soaked capital of America’s entertainment industry.Actors, stunt performers, costume designers, set builders, editors and special effects wizards flocked to Los Angeles, where they worked with hundreds of thousands of drivers, caterers, location managers, animal handlers and prop wranglers to produce thousands of hours of output every year.The city boomed from the 1920s onwards because it was an industry town with a virtual stranglehold.Not any more.”The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” Trump blared on his social media platform over the weekend.- All-time low -The number of shooting days in Los Angeles reached an all-time low last year — lower even than during the Covid-19 pandemic, when filming shut down completely.Less than one-in-five film or TV series broadcast in the United States was produced in California, according to FilmLA, an organization that tracks the movie industry.”On-location production in Greater Los Angeles declined by 22.4 percent from January through March 2025,” it said in a report, with film and TV production both down 30 percent year-on-year.Southern California’s high costs — including for labor — are a problem for studios, whose margins are small, especially as fewer people are prepared to shell out for pricey cinema tickets, preferring to watch titles at home.As revenue pressures mount, production houses are turning to filming opportunities abroad that offer them savings. And there is no shortage of countries courting them: Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Hungary, Thailand and others all offer tax incentives.The temptation to film abroad only increased during the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strike in 2023, said entertainment lawyer Steve Weizenecker, who advises producers on financial incentives.”During the strikes, I had production that went to the UK, that went to France, Italy and Spain, because they couldn’t shoot here,” he told AFP.”And so the concern now is how do we bring that back?”Toronto, Vancouver, Britain, Central Europe and Australia now all rank above California as preferred filming locations for industry executives.Competition has never been more fierce: in 2024, 120 jurisdictions worldwide offered tax incentives for film and TV production, almost 40 percent more than seven years ago.- Canada first -Canada introduced a tax break for film and TV productions as early as 1995.”That was when the term ‘runaway production’ started being thrown about, because suddenly producers did not have to shoot in California or New York,” Weizenecker said.Canada’s success has since spawned competition between dozens of US states.Georgia, where many Marvel superhero films are shot, has offered a tax credit since 2005. New Mexico, the setting for drug drama “Breaking Bad,” has been doing the same since 2002. And Texas, which has offered tax breaks since 2007, wants to increase its budget allocated to such funding.”Much like Detroit lost its hold on the auto industry, California has lost its dominance, mostly due to the arrogance of not understanding there are always alternatives,” Bill Mechanic, a former Paramount and Disney executive, told Deadline.State officials, prompted by the cries of anguish from Hollywood have belatedly begun to take notice.Last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom called on lawmakers to double the money available to the state’s TV and film tax credit program.California currently offers a tax credit of up to 25 percent that can be used to offset expenses including the cost of hiring film crews or building sets.Two bills trundling through the legislature could increase it up to 35 percent of qualified expenditures, and would expand the kind of productions that would qualify.Newsom reacted to Trump’s tariff suggestion with a counter-proposal for a $7.5 billion federal tax credit that would apply nationwide.Whether or not the Republican would be keen to support an industry he views as hostile and overly liberal remains to be seen, but it would really help, according to George Huang, a UCLA professor of screenwriting.”Right now the industry is teetering,” Huang told the Los Angeles Times. “This would go a long way in helping right the ship and putting us back on course to being the capital of the entertainment world.”

Merwil Gutierrez, 19, was among 200 Venezuelans controversially deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in March without due process or any criminal charges, says his father who has heard nothing for weeks.”I don’t know if my son is okay, if he is sick, I don’t know if he is eating at all,” Wilmer Gutierrez, Merwil’s father, told AFP.  “The relatives of all those who are there” have the same concerns, he said.Merwil does not know why he was taken to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in a wave of deportations that has stirred legal debate in the United States over a lack of due process and alleged human rights violations, his father said.Merwil was arrested by agents around 11:00 pm on February 24 from the door of the Bronx building where he lived, after buying dinner and socializing with neighbors.The agents initially asked for another man with a different name, his father said. After checking his identity, one agent told him he could go, but another decided to detain him, along with two others, said Wilmer in a park in front of their building. He last spoke to his son while Merwil was detained in a Texas processing center where he learned that he would be deported the next day. Both men assumed it would be to their native Venezuela.”When we found out that those flights had arrived in El Salvador… we weren’t sure about whether they had sent him to Venezuela, because no flight was due to leave for there,” said the 40-year-old father of three.Until US authorities issued a list of those deported to El Salvador some days later, Wilmer was in the dark about his son’s whereabouts.The removals conducted by the Trump administration sparked condemnation and allegations he has run roughshod over the law, court orders and human rights in his push to conduct the “largest deportation effort in US history.”- ‘Simply a kidnapping’ -One of the most publicized was the removal of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was apparently deported to his native El Salvador by accident.The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.Last week, a Texas judge blocked deportations like Merwil Gutierrez’s under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.Previously, the US Supreme Court and several district courts had temporarily halted the expulsions. Merwil had filed for asylum, said lawyer Ana de Jesus from the organization Immigracion al Dia, who described what happened to her client as “horrible.” Together with other migrant support organizations, they are considering seeking a court order demanding the government correct its abuse of power. “Regardless of whether something can be done or not, what we’re trying to do is make noise, public pressure because what is being done — not following due process, not allowing us to help our clients — it is simply a kidnapping,” said de Jesus.In Merwil’s case, two US lawmakers from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Adriano Espaillat, said in a statement “we are horrified by ICE’s abduction of Merwil Gutierrez, who was violently taken from his doorstop in the Bronx and deported to El Salvador.”After an arduous journey through the famously dangerous jungles of the Darien Gap, between Colombia and Panama, following hundreds of thousands of other Venezuelans, Wilmer and his then 17-year-old son entered the US in July 2023 seeking asylum.Wilmer insists his son, whom he describes as passionate about clothing and shoes, did not have the tattoos commonly linked by law enforcement to the violent Tren de Aragua Venezuelan street gang.”If they made a mistake in this country, then let them do the time in this country or send them to their own country,” said Wilmer. Father and son both worked nights at a packaging warehouse since arriving in New York.On the night of his arrest, Merwil was off work.”That dream (of coming to the United States) turned into a nightmare. It was beautiful while we were coming,” the father said, swiping through images of their journey on his phone. “Look at his childlike face,” he said wistfully. “If they send him back to Venezuela… I would grab my suitcase and leave — that’s where the American dream ends.”

Donald Trump’s order to withhold $5 billion earmarked to grow the electric vehicle charging network in the United States is being challenged in court by more than a dozen states, California officials said Wednesday.The lawsuit is the latest attempt by a coalition of largely liberal jurisdictions looking to push back on what they see as the American president’s overreach, especially on environmental issues.”The President continues his unconstitutional attempts to withhold funding that Congress appropriated to programs he dislikes,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.”This time he’s illegally stripping away billions of dollars for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, all to line the pockets of his Big Oil friends.”A mammoth congressional bill passed in 2022 aimed at bolstering America’s crumbling infrastructure included $5 billion to help build out charging points for electric vehicles.But as soon as he arrived in the Oval Office in January, Trump ordered that the money be stopped, part of a slew of executive orders the Republican has issued, which also included demands that the United States produce more fossil fuels.The cash had been allocated by Congress to the states, and in some cases was expected to be paired with state and private funds as jurisdictions look to grow charging networks and reduce the range anxiety that drivers of gas cars sometimes say puts them off switching to electric vehicles.The lawsuit announced Wednesday contends that as president, Trump does not have the power to divert monies the legislature has allocated.”The complaint asks the court to declare that the… directive is unlawful and to permanently stop the administration from withholding the funds,” a statement said.Trump, a climate change skeptic, has long been hostile to electric vehicles and has repeatedly lashed out at Environmental Protection Agency rules requiring automakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions in their cars.California, which is home to the lion’s share of EVs and hybrid vehicles in the United States, plans to phase out the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.The lawsuit comes as Republicans in Congress are trying to remove the rules that allow the state — the biggest and richest in the nation — to make its own vehicle emission rules.”The facts don’t lie: The demand for clean transportation continues to rise, and California will be at the forefront of this transition to a more sustainable, low-emissions future,” said Bonta.”California will not back down, not from Big Oil, and not from federal overreach.”Bonta is joined in the lawsuit by attorneys general from, Colorado, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.

Joseph Nye, a versatile and influential political scientist and US policymaker who coined the term “soft power,” a concept of nations gaining dominance through attractiveness now scoffed at by President Donald Trump, has died, Harvard University announced Wednesday. He was 88.Nye, who died Tuesday, first joined Harvard’s faculty in 1964 and served as dean of the Harvard Kennedy School as well as in positions under presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.The author of 14 books and more than 200 journal articles, the neo-liberal thinker studied topics as varied as arms control and pan-Africanism but became best known for developing the term “soft power” in the late 1980s.As opposed to hard power, such as weapons and economic sanctions, soft power includes values and culture that can win over others.”Soft power — getting others to want the outcomes that you want — co-opts people rather than coerces them,” Nye wrote in a 2004 book on the topic.Among other examples, he pointed to growing US influence in Latin America when Franklin Roosevelt instituted a “good neighbor policy” and, conversely, how the Soviet Union lost Eastern Europe through brutality even as Moscow’s hard power grew.Trump, since returning to office in January, has sharply reduced US soft power, including through dismantling foreign assistance and cracking down on international students, and has sought to ramp up military spending.In responses to AFP in February about how he saw Trump’s second term, Nye wrote: “Trump does not really understand power. He only thinks in terms of coercion and payment.” “He mistakes short-term results for long-term effects. Hard coercive power (such as a threat of tariffs) may work in the short term while creating incentives for others to reduce their reliance on the US in the longer term,” he wrote to AFP by email.”Our success over the past eight decades has also been based on attractiveness.”But he said that US soft power had seen cycles in the past, pointing to the unpopularity of the United States during the Vietnam War.”We will probably recover somewhat after Trump, but he has damaged trust in the US,” he wrote.- Nuclear thinker -Nye acknowledged the limitations of soft power alone. In his book, he wrote: “Excellent wines and cheese do not guarantee attraction to France, nor does the popularity of Pokemon games assure that Japan will get the policy outcomes it wishes.”Nye was considered a possible national security advisor if John Kerry won the White House in 2004. He was also particularly active on Japan, where former president Barack Obama considered appointing him ambassador.Always attentive to soft power, Nye took to the opinion pages of The New York Times in 2010 to criticize some in the Obama administration for seeking to play “hardball” with a new, inexperienced Japanese government over base relocation, calling for a “more patient and strategic approach” to the longtime US ally.Much of Nye’s time in government was focused on nuclear policy. He argued that the risk of nuclear weapons could have deterred major powers from entering World War I — but that the spread of nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War posed new dangers.”He was proudest of having contributed both intellectually… and practically (in the Carter and Clinton administrations) to preventing nuclear war,” fellow Harvard scholar Graham Allison said in a statement.

US envoy Steve Witkoff briefed members of the UN Security Council on Wednesday about various topics, including Gaza, participants in the closed-door talks said.The informal meeting in New York came a day after Witkoff was formally sworn in as President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East.At the swearing-in ceremony, Trump teased a “very, very big announcement” to come before his multi-nation visit to the Middle East next week, without providing details.Witkoff, a billionaire real estate developer and close Trump ally, has been acting as lead US negotiator on several major disputes, including the Israel-Hamas war, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and  Iran’s nuclear program.After the meeting Wednesday, ambassadors from the UN Security Council’s 14 other members declined to give details of Witkoff’s remarks.”It was confidential,” Pakistani Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said.Panamanian Ambassador Eloy Alfaro de Alba called it “an informal meeting, it was very interesting, about various subjects, not only Gaza.”Since Trump’s return to office in January there has not been a permanent US ambassador to the UN, making it difficult for council members to stay abreast of American positions on various issues, some diplomats have said.Witkoff also met separately on Wednesday with Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon.Danon said afterward they had an “important discussion about the regional issues.””We will continue to cooperate with our strongest ally, the United States,” he added.