AFP USA

Billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk promised Friday to give $1 million to two voters in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race, his latest foray into using his vast fortune to sway the results of crucial US votes.Musk, the world’s richest person and one of President Donald Trump’s top advisors, has already spent millions trying to boost support for  Republican Brad Schimel, who would tilt the swing-state’s top court to a conservative majority if elected.The Tesla and SpaceX tycoon announced on X, which he also owns, that he would “hand over checks for a million dollars” to two people who sign a petition opposing “activist judges” — a term used by Republicans for judges who rule against some of Trump’s policies.He has also offered $100 to anyone signing the petition.Serious national issues are on the docket for the Wisconsin court’s next term, including abortion access and rules for voting in the crucial 2026 midterm nationwide congressional elections. Schimel is also openly backed by Trump, who wrote on his Truth Social platform this week that the race is “really big and important.”The latest stunt was a redux of Musk’s earlier million-dollar prizes in battleground states during the presidential election.The entrepreneur has rapidly emerged as one of the most powerful people in the country, with huge government contracts for his companies and a free-ranging role in Trump’s administration to slash spending on everything from foreign policy to domestic programs.In January, Tesla — currently facing tumbling stock prices amid consumer anger at Musk — took Wisconsin to court over the state’s denial of dealer licenses for the auto company.

The western US state of Utah has become the first to prohibit fluoridation of its public drinking water, part of a growing movement reexamining the decades-old public health practice.New US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long been a vocal critic of fluoridated water, which currently reaches an estimated 200 million Americans — about two-thirds of the population.Utah’s ban, signed into law by Governor Spencer Cox on Thursday, is set to take effect on May 7. Legislatures in other Republican-led states including North Dakota, Tennessee, and Montana, are considering similar measures.Opposition is not limited to red states. Liberal-leaning cities such as Portland, Oregon, and the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, have also banned fluoridation.Fluoride was first introduced to US water systems in 1945, dramatically reducing childhood cavities and adult tooth loss. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hails it as one of the top public health achievements of the 20th century.But controversy has grown around its potential neurotoxic effects. Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services under former president Joe Biden concluded with “moderate confidence” that higher levels of fluoride are linked to lower IQ scores.This January, a paper in the prestigious journal JAMA Pediatrics, authored by the same government scientists, found a “statistically significant association” between fluoride exposure and reduced IQ. However, it left open key questions about what dosage levels may be harmful.The World Health Organization’s safety threshold stands at 1.5 milligrams per liter — about double the US guideline of 0.7 mg/L — and the study said there was insufficient data to determine whether that limit should be revised.Ending fluoridation is generally opposed by the dental and public health communities. Critics of the recent study argue it failed to adequately control for confounding variables and environmental factors.Fluoride occurs naturally in varying concentrations and strengthens teeth in several ways: by restoring minerals lost to acid, reducing acid production by cavity-causing bacteria, and making it harder for those bacteria to adhere to enamel.Proponents argue fluoridation reduces socioeconomic disparities in dental care.But with fluoride toothpastes widely available since the 1960s, some research suggests diminishing returns. A recent Canadian study found that ending fluoridation increased dental caries, while an Irish study reported a decline in severe caries in both fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas.Fluoridation policies also vary widely by country, with many, including Germany and France eschewing the practice altogether.

US President Donald Trump said he had an “extremely productive” first call Friday with Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney, after soaring tensions over tariffs and Trump’s repeated calls to annex his northern neighbor.Trump added that the two had agreed to meet soon after Canada’s April 28 general election in which Carney — who took office two weeks ago — has made standing up to the US president the focus of his campaign.”I just finished speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney, of Canada. It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.Trump said they would be “meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada.”Typically, a new Canadian leader makes a phone call with the US president an immediate priority but this was Trump and Carney’s first contact since the Canadian was sworn in on March 14.Carney’s office said the pair had a “very constructive conversation” and agreed to begin “comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship immediately following the election.”It added, however, that Carney told Trump his government will impose retaliatory tariffs on American goods from April 2, when sweeping US levies are set to come into place.Trump’s glowing post was still a dramatic change in tone from recent rhetoric between Washington and Ottawa, who are NATO allies and long-standing economic partners.The US president has sparked fury in Canada by repeatedly insisting that it should become the 51st US state and by slapping or threatening tariffs on the country.His post on Friday was notable for its diplomacy, as Trump gave Carney his official title of prime minister and made no reference to his annexation drive.In contrast, Trump would often belittle Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau, with whom he had a long-standing rivalry, as “governor” in a reference to his calls for Canada to join the United States.Canada’s new prime minister — who is in a tight election race to stay in the job — has meanwhile stepped up his rhetoric.The former central banker was chosen by Canada’s centrist Liberal Party to replace Trudeau but has never faced the country’s electorate.- ‘Old relationship’ -Just a day before the call, Carney upped the ante by declaring that decades of close cooperation with the United States were now at an end because of Trump.”The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,” Carney said.Carney added that he would not participate in substantive trade negotiations with Washington until the president shows Canada “respect,” particularly by ending his repeated annexation threats.While the call may have eased tensions for now, the tariffs issue in particular has not gone away.Trump’s planned 25 percent levy on vehicle imports to the United States is to come into force next week and could be devastating for a Canadian auto industry that supports an estimated 500,000 jobs. The 78-year-old Republican is also set to impose reciprocal tariffs on all countries that put levies on US exports, and Canada is to be in the firing line for those too.Trump has warned Canada against working with the European Union to counter upcoming reciprocal tariffs on all imports that he is expected to announce next week.If they did so, they would face “large scale tariffs, far larger than currently planned,” Trump has said. The US president’s statement that he and Carney would meet immediately after Canada’s elections apparently ignored the fact that the race is too close to call.Trudeau was deeply unpopular when he announced he was stepping down, with Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives seen as election favorites just weeks ago.Since Trump’s threats, the polls have spectacularly narrowed in favor of Carney’s Liberals, who hold a minority in parliament.

US government lawyers pushed Friday for the case of a pro-Palestinian protest leader slated for deportation to be moved to a Louisiana court thought to be sympathetic to President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil — a prominent face of the protest movement that erupted in response to Israel’s war in Gaza — was arrested and taken to Louisiana earlier this month, sparking protests. Several other foreign student protesters have been similarly targeted.The government has not accused Khalil of any crime but instead ordered his deportation and cancellation of his green card resident’s permit on the grounds of undermining US foreign policy.At a hearing in New Jersey, government lawyer August Flentje said that “for jurisdictional certainty, the case belongs in Louisiana.”But  Khalil’s lawyer Baher Azmy accused the government of seeking to move the case to bolster its “retaliation.”The judge said he would not rule immediately on shifting the case to the Western District of Louisiana, a more conservative bench that has previously been sympathetic to Trump’s policies.Khalil was not present but his wife Noor attended with several supporters.His arrest has triggered outrage from Trump opponents, free speech advocates and some on the political right, who say the case will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression.Immigration officers have similarly detained and sought to deport a Tufts University student from Turkey, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Columbia student Yunseo Chung. Their deportations have been blocked for now by courts.Ozturk’s lawyer said Thursday that “we should all be horrified at the way (officers) abducted Rumeysa in broad daylight” after footage of masked, plainclothes officers surrounding the veiled student circulated online.Dozens protested in support of Khalil outside the New Jersey courthouse, holding Palestinian flags and banners.”We are going to fight this witch hunt,” said one protester, who did not want to be identified.As well as targeting foreign students at Columbia University, the Trump administration has sought to slash $400 million of federal funding and grants over alleged anti-Semitism on campus.- Academics sue government -Last week the Ivy League university announced a comprehensive package of measures to appease the White House, including “improvements to our disciplinary processes.” It said it would require protesters to identify themselves when challenged, even if they wear masks, as many did during the height of the pro-Palestinian protests.It also announced the expansion of its security team, including the hiring of 36 officers empowered to remove or arrest those that break university rules.The Trump administration had demanded that the university deploy external oversight, but the school stopped short of that, instead vowing to engage with outside academics on the issue.Separately, a number of university professors sued the Trump administration in Massachusetts Tuesday, arguing its campaign targeting foreign academics was illegal.

The US Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure was largely unchanged last month, according to government data published Friday, but a widely scrutinized gauge of underlying price pressures rose.The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 2.5 percent in the 12 months to February, the Commerce Department said in a statement, unchanged from a month earlier. Inflation rose 0.3 percent on a monthly basis.Both measures were in line with the median forecasts from economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.But of greater concern to Fed officials, an inflation measure stripping out volatile food and energy costs rose more than expected, by 0.4 percent month-on-month, and by 2.8 percent from a year ago.The Fed is attempting to return inflation to its long-term target of two percent. Friday’s data suggests policymakers still have some way to go as they also grapple with the effects of trade policy uncertainty.”They’re kind of in wait-and-see mode for awhile,” Wolfe Research chief economist Stephanie Roth told AFP. “Our call is that they’re going to cut rates because growth is weakening, but they actually need to see a rising unemployment rate first.”So today probably doesn’t really change the narrative that much for them,” she added. – Stop-start tariff rollout -US President Donald Trump has embarked on a stop-start rollout of country- and sector-specific tariffs, drawing condemnation from allies and warnings from Fed officials that the measures will likely push up prices. “It looks inevitable that tariffs are going to increase inflation in the near term,” Boston Fed President Susan Collins — who has a vote on the US central bank’s rate-setting committee this year — said Thursday.Earlier this month, the Fed voted to extend a pause in rate cuts, holding its key lending rate at between 4.25 and 4.50 percent.Financial markets see a roughly 90 percent chance that the Fed will vote to continue that pause at its next rate meeting in May, according to CME Group.”The data support our view that downside risks to the economy are emerging, but with inflation heating up, the Fed for now will maintain its wait-and-see approach,” Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic wrote in a note to clients. Personal income increased by 0.8 percent last month, according to the Commerce Department data published Friday.And personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income — a measure of how much consumers are saving — jumped to 4.6 percent last month, up from a revised 4.3 percent a month earlier.The jump in the personal savings rate since the start of the year may be related to consumer confidence, which has deteriorated sharply in recent months, with consumers more likely to save money if they are concerned about where the economy is headed.Americans are now feeling less optimistic about the US economy, and more concerned about rising inflation, according to fresh data on consumer sentiment published Friday by the University of Michigan.  “UMich isn’t the greatest measure, but I think directionally, it tells you something important,” said Roth from Wolfe Research. “And I think it’s telling you that consumers are starting to become concerned about the inflation backdrop, and this is the thing that differentiates whether the Fed is able to look through this tariff or not.”

A woman sentenced to life in prison for murdering a Mexican-American pop star in a Texas motel was denied parole on Thursday, almost three decades after the killing.Yolanda Saldivar was president of Selena’s fan club and had claimed she accidentally shot the singer on March 31, 1995 at a motel room in Corpus Christi, Texas.The 23-year-old star, whose full name was Selena Quintanilla Perez, was wildly popular in the Mexican-American community of Tejano music — an upbeat mingle of Texan and Mexican sounds — and on the verge of breaking through to a larger mainstream audience when she was killed.”After a thorough consideration of all available information, which included any confidential interviews conducted, it was the parole panel’s determination to deny parole to Yolanda Saldivar and set her next parole review for March 2030,” the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole said in a statement.According to the board, the decision was based on the “brutality, violence, assaultive behavior or conscious selection of the victim’s vulnerability” of the murder, which indicated Saldivar “poses a continuing threat to public safety.”The singer’s family welcomed the decision.”While nothing can bring Selena back, this decision reaffirms that justice continues to stand for the beautiful life that was taken from us,” her family and widower Chris Perez said in a joint statement.Saldivar, now 64, was a personal assistant to Selena and an employee at her boutique when she fatally shot the star in the back after meeting her at a motel.The singer had reportedly confronted Saldivar about more than 30,000 dollars missing from her fan club and two of her boutiques.Witnesses told police that Selena identified Saldivar as her killer before she collapsed and died.Listed by Billboard magazine as one of the greatest Latin artists of all time, Selena won a Grammy in 1993 and received a posthumous award in 2021.In 2017, she was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The United States is “doubling down” on its alliance with the Philippines, defence chief Pete Hegseth said Friday in Manila, in the face of what he called “Communist China’s aggression in the region”.Hegseth’s trip, aimed at bolstering ties in the Asia-Pacific region as tensions rise with Beijing, comes in the shadow of a mounting scandal at home over leaked plans for a military strike.The defence secretary revealed details of strikes on Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen in a group of top administration officials on the Signal messaging platform, according to a journalist added to the chat by accident.But US President Donald Trump has defended Hegseth, and in Manila the defence chief focused on Washington’s plan to “reestablish deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region”, he told reporters alongside his Philippine counterpart Gilberto Teodoro.”Deterrence is necessary around the world, but specifically in this region, in your country — considering the threats from the Communist Chinese,” he said earlier, when he met with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.His Manila visit, to be followed by trips to Tokyo and World War II battleground Iwo Jima, follows months of confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the disputed South China Sea.Beijing claims almost the entirety of the crucial waterway, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit.”Friends need to stand shoulder to shoulder to deter conflict to ensure that there’s free navigation, whether you call it the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea,” Hegseth said.”Peace through strength is a very real thing”, he added.- ‘Advanced capabilities’ -Manila and Washington have deepened their defence cooperation since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022 and began pushing back on Beijing’s sweeping South China Sea claims.Hegseth said Friday that the United States would deploy “additional advanced capabilities to the Philippines”, including anti-ship missile systems and unmanned surface vehicles, for next month’s joint Balikatan exercises.Teodoro said the Philippines would accelerate its “capability upgrades and our logistical support facilities to support deterrence”.The two countries have expanded the sharing of military intelligence in recent years and boosted to nine the number of bases US troops can access on the archipelago.Given the Philippines’ proximity to Taiwan and its surrounding waters, Manila’s cooperation would be crucial in the event of any conflict with China.- ‘Witch hunt’ -Despite mounting pressure over the Signal leak, Trump has defended Hegseth.”Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this,” Trump said when asked by AFP whether the defence secretary should be considering his position.”How do you bring Hegseth into this? Look, look it’s all a witch hunt,” Trump added in the Oval Office.He also repeated his insistence that no classified information was shared in the breach, adding that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz “took responsibility” for the error.Waltz added Atlantic Magazine editor Jeffrey Goldberg to the group chat that included Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, National Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard and others.Apart from the timing of the strikes in Yemen, Hegseth also identified the type of aircraft, missiles and drones used, according to the Atlantic, which later released screen grabs of the chat.The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a bipartisan call on Thursday for a Pentagon watchdog to probe the magazine’s claims.”If true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information,” said a letter from Republican committee chair Roger Wicker and ranking Democrat Jack Reed.But the White House and its allies have largely held firm in their messaging, praising the success of the attacks and slamming Goldberg as an “anti-Trump hater”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday he has canceled more than 300 visas in a crackdown on anti-Israel activism and vowed to keep doing so, brushing aside furor after masked agents snatched a student.Rubio, a staunch supporter of Israel, said that he personally signed off on every visa revocation and rejected charges he was violating US protections of free speech.Asked about a report on the number of visas he has stripped, mostly for students, Rubio said: “Maybe more than 300 at this point. We do it every day.””Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,” he told reporters on a visit to Guyana.”At some point I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of them,” Rubio said.Since his return to the White House on January 20, President Donald Trump has moved aggressively against student activists and universities over the disruptive protests that swept US colleges campuses in response to the Gaza war.Earlier this week, a video went viral of a 30-year-old Turkish graduate student, Rumeysa Ozturk, being detained by masked, plain-clothed figures near Tufts University in Massachusetts.Ozturk had penned an op-ed in a student newspaper decrying Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide.” She now faces deportation.Immigration lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai complained that Ozturk had been taken to a detention center in the southern state of Louisiana, despite a court order that she remain in Massachusetts, and was denied access to legal representation.”Masked DHS agents unlawfully arrested my client,” she said, referring to the Department of Homeland Security.Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat from Massachusetts, accused the Trump administration of moving to “abduct students with legal status.””This is a horrifying violation of Rumeysa’s constitutional rights to due process and free speech. She must be immediately released,” Pressley said in a statement.- Visas a ‘gift’ -Rubio, asked if Ozturk was being targeted over her writing in a student newspaper, said that she met his criteria for visa revocation without providing details.”I would caution you against solely going off of what the media has been to identify” for the visa decision, the former senator told reporters later on his plane to his home city of Miami.Rubio said that visas were a “gift” at the discretion of the State Department and not subject to any judicial review.He said it was “crazy” to allow in the United States students who were “supportive of a group that just slaughtered babies,” a reference to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that triggered massive Israeli retaliation.Asked if the Trump administration would go after anyone who presents dissenting views, Rubio said, “If you’re complaining about paper straws, then we’re obviously not going to yank a visa over that.””The overwhelming majority of student visas in this country will not be revoked,” he said.The most high-profile deportation case is Mahmoud Khalil, who led protests at Columbia University in New York. He was also taken to Louisiana ahead of deportation proceedings, despite being a US permanent resident.Khalil’s supporters reject the characterization that he supports Hamas and note that he has spoken out against antisemitism. The US government has since pointed to technicalities in his original student visa.Rubio contends that student activists have made education intolerable for Jewish students.”If you tell us that the reason why you’re coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we’re not going to give you a visa,” Rubio said in Guyana.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to remove “improper ideology” from the famed Smithsonian Museums — and the National Zoo — expanding his conservative clampdown on cultural institutions.Trump, who has sought to root out what he called “woke” culture since returning to power in January, accused the Smithsonian of trying to rewrite American history on issues of race and gender.His order puts hardline Vice President JD Vance in charge of efforts to carry out the order at the Smithsonian’s museums, educations and research centers.Trump said this should include a drive to “remove improper ideology from such properties.”The Smithsonian operates 21 internationally renowned museums and galleries, mainly in and around Washington, dedicated to art, science, space and American history.They include the National Zoo in the US capital, which recently welcomed two giant pandas from China, debuting them to the public just days after Trump’s inauguration for a second term.The presidential order — titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” — targeted a number of examples of what it also called “corrosive ideology.”It said the National Museum of African American History and Culture, one of the newest Smithsonian additions, had described hard work and the nuclear family as “aspects of ‘White Culture.'”Trump also targeted what he said was a plan by the as-yet-unopened American Women’s history museum for “celebrating the exploits of male athletes participating in women’s sports.”There was no immediate reaction from the Smithsonian.- ‘Safe and beautiful’ -The Smithsonian Institute was founded in the mid-19th century with a donation from a deceased and childless British chemist, James Smithson, who asked in his will for his wealth to be used to create an educational institution in the then-young United States — a country he had never set foot in.Trump’s wide-ranging 21st century effort to reshape the US government has increasingly extended to cultural issues, where he is seeking to stamp his conservative mark.The 78-year-old Republican recently took over the chairmanship of the Kennedy Center in Washington, a famed arts venue, after complaining that it was too liberal.The president has also eyed reforms in governance of the US capital city, which he has repeatedly complained of having high crime and unsightly nuisances such as graffiti.In a separate order on Thursday titled “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful,” Trump directed the creation of an inter-agency task force to increase immigration enforcement and other law enforcement priorities.It also calls for the development of a “coordinated beautification plan” for the city.”We will take over our horribly run Washington, DC, and clean up, renovate, and rebuild our capital so that it is no longer a nightmare of murder and crime,” Trump said on the campaign trail last year — a message reposted Thursday on X by the White House.Washington’s approximately 700,000 residents are overwhelmingly Democrats, with the party’s candidate Kamala Harris winning over 90 percent of the vote last November.The city has a unique status in the country as it is not a part of any state. It has no voting representation in Congress — despite having a population larger than two states.Though the city now runs its own affairs, Congress — currently controlled by Republicans — retains the ability to take back control, something Trump has repeatedly threatened to do.With that backdrop, city authorities have sought to develop a conciliatory relationship with the president, quickly fulfilling his requests, such as removing some homeless encampments and a “Black Lives Matter” mural.

President Donald Trump’s administration said Thursday it will investigate admissions practices at some of California’s top universities, broadening a campaign against elite educational institutions.US Attorney General Pam Bondi said she had ordered probes into how students are admitted to the private Stanford University, as well as to three of the most prestigious campuses of the University of California system — Berkeley, UCLA and UC Irvine.”President Trump and I are dedicated to ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity across the country,” Bondi said in a statement.”Every student in America deserves to be judged solely based on their hard work, intellect, and character, not the color of their skin.”A spokesperson for the University of California said the institutions have not considered race in admissions since it was outlawed in the state by a 1996 ballot measure, but clarified school applications gather race and ethnicity data “for statistical purposes only.””This information is  not shared with application reviewers  and is not used for admissions,” the spokesperson added.A Stanford spokesperson said in a statement that the private university “immediately took steps to ensure compliance in our admissions processes” after the US Supreme Court eliminated race-based affirmative action in 2023.Conservatives have long griped that America’s foremost universities make it easier for ethnic minority students to attend.They say the insistence on the notion of “diversity, equity and inclusion,” or DEI, is damaging and unfair to otherwise well-qualified candidates.Bondi’s announcement comes with elite institutions across the country on the back foot.This month Trump’s administration revoked $400 million of funding from New York’s Columbia University, claiming school officials had not sufficiently protected Jewish students during last year’s campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.On Friday Columbia announced a package of concessions around defining anti-Semitism, policing protests and oversight for specific academic departments in a bid to head off the funding squeeze.A number of students at various colleges around the country have also been targeted for deportation, in what the government’s critics say is part of a broader campaign to silence dissent at America’s fractious universities and bring the left-leaning sector to heel.