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Hendrick Simoes served in the US Navy for 24 years, retiring last year and starting a new job as a civilian employee of the federal government.But some five months into his probationary period with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), he received a letter terminating his employment and thus joined thousands of other US veterans who have been fired as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash the government workforce.The sweeping job cuts have taken Trump’s administration into uncharted territory, and are negatively affecting retired troops in a country where both major political parties frequently express support for current and former military personnel.In addition to veterans being caught up in the layoffs, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced it plans to cut some 15 percent of its workforce, raising concerns about the impact on care and benefits.”It’s painful, it really is. And to me, it feels like such a betrayal,” Simoes, a 43-year-old who reached the rank of senior chief petty officer and spent much of his Navy career in public affairs, said of his dismissal.”My termination letter claimed that I don’t have the… abilities, knowledge and or skills for the organization, which was blatantly false,” he said, noting that a recent quarterly review “had called me exemplary and exceeding expectations.”Simoes considered his work as a senior communications specialist at NOAA a continuation of his service to his country — and that opportunity has now been taken away.”My heart was in working for… a good organization like NOAA, a place where I can continue to serve the American public and contribute to societal good. And now this just sucks, because I’m being told I can’t do that anymore,” he said.Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has launched a vast offensive aimed at curbing public spending and reducing the federal bureaucracy.- ‘Punch in the face’ -To that end, he tapped billionaire Elon Musk, a top campaign donor turned close adviser, to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has cut thousands of government jobs and upended agencies, prompting numerous court challenges.US military veterans make up a significant portion of the federal workforce — some 30 percent, while they are only around six percent of the overall US population — meaning they are disproportionately affected by recent cuts.Congressional Democrats estimated that nearly 6,000 veterans had been laid off by February 23 and more — including Simoes — have since been fired.The VA meanwhile announced this week that it aims to fire more than 70,000 employees, prompting warnings about the impact on the department, which oversees veterans’ health care, education, disability pay and other benefits they have earned.James LaCoursiere, national commander of the American Legion veterans’ association, expressed concern that “if these cuts go through, tens of thousands of veterans may be unemployed.””Not only do these job cuts threaten critical services provided to veterans but it takes away the opportunity for a veteran to continue to serve his or her brothers and sisters,” LaCoursiere said.Simoes described his termination plus the situation at the VA as a “one-two hit” and a “punch in the face,” saying he was recently told his VA treatment options would be more limited.”I have a lot of different… ailments,” he said, noting that he is “petrified that I’m not going to be able to get that same level of care.”Simoes also said he fears the impact that the cuts in federal jobs and reduced VA services may have on veterans overall.”With all these federal workers being fired, and with a big majority of them being veterans, and with veteran care being cut back, I’m really scared that we’re going to go back to the days where veteran homelessness is going to be high,” he said.”I’m scared that we’re going to go back to the days where veterans are committing suicide in VA parking lots,” Simoes said, adding: “I feel like we had come a long way towards combating that as a society, and now all of that is at risk.

Canada’s Liberal Party elects a new leader this weekend to replace Justin Trudeau as prime minister and take charge of confronting the threats posed by US President Donald Trump.Trudeau, who became Liberal leader in 2013 before taking over as prime minister two years later, announced in early January that he planned to resign, overcome by dismal polling numbers and internal party dissent. Before Christmas, the opposition Conservatives looked certain to win a general election that must be held by October but could be called within weeks.  Trade chaos with the United States and Trump’s repeated musing about annexing Canada have upended the political climate and surveys show the Liberals gaining ground.  “The context is completely unprecedented. Right now the only thing that matters to Canadians is ‘who is the right person to take on Donald Trump?'” Frederic Boily of the University of Alberta told AFP.Four candidates qualified to run in the Liberal leadership race but only two are seen as viable contenders. The front-runner is Mark Carney, who led the Bank of Canada before becoming the first non-Briton to serve as governor of the Bank of England. His main challenger is Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau’s former finance minister who dramatically broke with the prime minister in December, issuing a scathing resignation letter that partly pushed him to resign. Both Carney and Freeland have anchored their campaigns on the Trump threat. Carney, who has never held elected office, has sought to remind Liberal party voters that he led Canada’s central bank through the 2008-2009 financial crisis and steered the Bank of England through the turbulence that followed the Brexit vote. “Canada faces one of the most serious crises in our history. I know how to manage crises and I know how to build strong economies,” he said during a leadership debate.Freeland has warned that Trump “is posing the gravest challenge our country has faced since the Second World War,” and highlighted her experience negotiating directly with Trump’s first administration. – Transfer of power –  The winner of the Liberal leadership race will be announced in Ottawa on Sunday. The party says that 400,000 people have signed up to vote and boasted of unprecedented fundraising in recent weeks. Trudeau declined this week to give a precise date for when he would hand over power, telling reporters he would work out transition timelines with the new Liberal leader.  When ready, Trudeau and his successor will visit Governor General Mary Simon — King Charles III’s official representative in Canada — who will task the new Liberal chief with forming a government.The date Canadians will head to the polls for a general election remains unclear.- ‘Unique crisis’? -Most polls, and betting markets, still put the Conservatives as the favourites to win the next election. But the Liberals have tried to portray Tory leader Pierre Poilievre as a Trump-like figure, citing his right-wing populist style and record of bashing favourite Trump targets with inflammatory rhetoric, including government and the media. Experts say the Liberals may be wise to call snap elections with the Trump threat front of mind, including a trade war that Trudeau says the president launched to collapse the Canadian economy to make annexation “easier.”Carney, 59, is attractive because of his “economic experience and his seriousness,” said Stephanie Chouinard, a political scientist at Canada’s Royal Military College. “He knows the global financial system and he knows the strengths and weaknesses of the Canadian economy,” she added. Surveys indicate the election will be unlike any in recent Canadian history, with historically dominant domestic issues like health care and housing costs surpassed by Trump. “This is a unique crisis, and we do not know its scope or its duration. Today, a third of Canadians see the United States as an enemy country. It is historic and creates considerable upheaval in the way Canadians think,” said pollster Jean-Marc Leger.   

US President Donald Trump said Friday that he has written to Iran, pressing for talks on preventing the development of nuclear weapons and warning it faces possible military action if not.Iran’s foreign minister told AFP on Friday that the country would not negotiate so long as the United States applies “maximum pressure,” but he was not responding directly to Trump’s letter.Tehran’s mission to the United Nations told AFP that “we have not received such a letter so far.” It was unclear by what means Trump’s missive was transmitted to Tehran.Trump’s outreach marks a departure at least in tone from the hardline stance that marked his first term and could cause a rift with close ally Israel, which last year carried out bombing strikes inside Iran.Trump said he wrote a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei telling him that a negotiated solution “will be a lot better for Iran.””I’ve written them a letter, saying I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily it’s going to be a terrible thing for them,” Trump told Fox Business in a clip broadcast Friday.”You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”A landmark 2015 deal negotiated under former president Barack Obama — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.It fell apart after Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018 in his first presidential term and reimposed sweeping sanctions.Tehran adhered to the deal until a year after Washington pulled out, but then began rolling back its commitments. Trump, who returned to the White House in January, said he was reinstating his “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions against Iran but that he was doing so only reluctantly. He has since sidelined officials from his first term associated with his Iran policy, as Trump accuses Washington’s foreign policy establishment of encouraging war.Trump’s brash billionaire confidant Elon Musk was reported to have met Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations shortly after the election to deliver a message that Trump wants calm and diplomacy.- Iran warns against US threats -Iran has been cautious about a return to diplomacy since the collapse of the JCPOA.”We will not enter any direct negotiations with the US so long as they continue their maximum pressure policy and their threats,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told AFP on Friday.Speaking on the sidelines of an Organization of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Jeddah, Araghchi also warned that Iran’s nuclear program “cannot be destroyed through military operations.””This is a technology that we have achieved, and the technology is in the brains and cannot be bombed,” he said.Araghchi was a key negotiator of the JCPOA, brokered by a then reformist government. But Khamenei, 85, is the ultimate decision-maker in Iran’s clerical system and has pointed to the JCPOA as proof that the United States is not trustworthy.Trump’s outreach comes as Iran faces challenges not seen since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Israel devastated Iranian air defenses and has also pounded two militant movements allied with Iran’s clerical state: Hamas, which carried out the unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and also Lebanon’s Hezbollah.Iran’s main regional ally, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, fell in December to Sunni Islamist-led fighters.Iran has consistently denied claims that it is pursuing nuclear weapons.Last month, United Nations atomic agency chief Rafael Grossi said Iran was enriching uranium at 60 percent — “almost weapon level” — and that the 2015 deal was an “empty shell” that was “no longer fit for purpose.”burs-sct-gw/sms

Donald Trump’s presidential style is framed around made-for-TV moments, political drama and public feuds — all of which were on display in another busy week at the White House.- Secret Service agent, aged 13 -During a major address to Congress, Trump made one guest — 13-year-old cancer patient DJ Daniel — an honorary Secret Service agent.DJ was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2018 and given just five months to live, Trump said.”He has always dreamed of becoming a police officer,” the president said, as a stunned but happy DJ was given Secret Service credentials, which he held up to loud cheers.- Tempers flare at Trump address -Some Democrats walked out, heckled or held up signs to protest Trump’s address, which was littered with falsehoods and divisive rhetoric.In response, Trump’s spokeswoman accused them of being the “party of insanity and hate.”The House of Representatives censured one Democrat after he was thrown out of the chamber for repeatedly interrupting Trump’s address and waving his walking stick in the air.- Canadians get angry -Canadian leader Justin Trudeau spoke for almost an hour with Trump on Wednesday and described their discussion as “colorful” as a damaging trade war looms.Trump has threatened to annex Canada, sparking shock and fury among many citizens.Multiple Canadian provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, banned the sale of US alcohol, part of a growing national retaliation against Trump.- Crypto, now in the White House -Trump hosted top cryptocurrency players at the White House and signed an executive order establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” boosting an industry that has struggled to gain legitimacy.Crypto investors were major supporters of Trump’s presidential campaign in the hope of ending government skepticism toward digital currencies.Trump also has significant financial ties to the sector, partnering with an exchange platform and launching a “Trump” memecoin, as did his wife Melania.- Musk, and the Royal Society -Top Trump ally Elon Musk survived a push to expel him from the Royal Society, an elite British science institute founded in 1660 with past members including Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin and Benjamin Franklin.More than 3,000 people including Nobel prize winners signed a letter saying Musk, the world’s richest person, had broken the Society’s code of conduct by promoting unfounded conspiracy theories.”Only craven, insecure fools care about awards and memberships,” Musk said before the vote. “History is the actual judge, always and forever.”

Donald Trump on Friday hosts top cryptocurrency players at the White House, a political boost for an industry that has struggled to gain legitimacy — and where the Republican president faces conflict of interest concerns.US crypto investors were major supporters of Trump’s presidential campaign, contributing millions of dollars toward his victory in hopes of ending the Joe Biden administration’s deep skepticism toward digital currencies.”We will have our conversation about rolling back Biden’s war on crypto regulations,” a senior White House official told reporters ahead of the meeting.It is an opportunity for the president “to hear directly from the industry, and for us to take in feedback from the industry,” the official added.Trump now has significant financial ties to the sector, partnering with exchange platform World Liberty Financial and launching the “Trump” memecoin in January. First Lady Melania Trump announced a meme coin of her own, $MELANIA, one day before the inauguration.The president’s “crypto czar,” Silicon Valley investor David Sacks, has invited prominent founders, CEOs and investors along with members of a Trump working group to craft policies aimed at accelerating crypto growth and providing legitimacy that the industry has long sought.On Thursday Trump signed an executive order establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” a move Sacks said made good on a campaign promise to an increasingly important component of his coalition.Summit guests include twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of crypto platform Gemini, as well as Brian Armstrong of Coinbase and Michael Saylor, the boss of major Bitcoin investor MicroStrategy.In an X post, Sacks said the event would take place as a roundtable, and despite industry interest, the White House would have to “keep it small.”For believers, cryptocurrencies represent a financial revolution that reduces dependence on centralized authorities while offering individuals an alternative to traditional banking systems.Bitcoin, the world’s most traded cryptocurrency, is heralded by advocates as a substitute for gold or a hedge against currency devaluation and political instability.- Memecoins -Critics meanwhile maintain that these assets function primarily as speculative investments with questionable real-world utility that could leave taxpayers on the hook for cleaning up if the market crashes.The proliferation of “memecoins” — cryptocurrencies based on celebrities, internet memes, or pop culture items rather than technical utility — presents another challenge.Much of the crypto industry frowns upon these tokens, fearing they tarnish the sector’s credibility, amid reports of quick pump-and-dump schemes that leave unwitting buyers paying for assets that end up worthless.Once hostile to the crypto industry, Trump has already taken significant steps to clear regulatory hurdles.Under Thursday’s executive order, the bitcoin stockpile will be composed of digital currency seized in US criminal proceedings. The use of these assets “means it will not cost taxpayers a dime”, Sacks said Thursday on X.Sacks said that if previous administrations had held onto their digital holdings over the past decade, they would be worth $17 billion today.Trump has appointed crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.Under Atkins, the SEC has dropped legal proceedings against major platforms like Coinbase and Kraken that were initiated during Biden’s term.The previous administration had implemented restrictions on banks holding cryptocurrencies — which have since been lifted — and allowed former SEC chairman Gary Gensler to pursue aggressive enforcement.However, meaningful change will likely require congressional action, where crypto legislation has remained stalled despite intense lobbying efforts led by investors.

A country that “never existed” or a “problem called Ukraine”: Hungary’s government and affiliated media have attacked their war-torn neighbour with increased pace since Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s “dear friend” Donald Trump took power.Orban and his allies have long used the same “hostile narratives” against the West and Ukraine as Russia, Dorka Takacsy, a research fellow at the Budapest-based Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy (CEID) think tank told AFP.But the government — a close EU ally of Washington under Trump and the Kremlin — is more emboldened since the election of the US Republican.”It seems Hungarian leadership saw Trump’s victory as an opportunity to do whatever they want with Ukraine,” Takacsy said, noting the number of anti-Kyiv messages from Orban and his allies has increased lately.Trump last month called Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president since 2019, a “dictator” for not holding elections, even though martial law precludes any vote because of the war.Amid a rush of online disinformation targeting Ukraine, here are some key Hungarian statements:- West provoked Russia into war -Orban regularly breaks EU unity on Ukraine, to which he has refused to send arms since Russia invaded in 2022, while slamming EU sanctions on Moscow.In his weekly radio address on Friday, he warned again EU membership of Ukraine would “ruin” the bloc.  The nationalist leader also did not join EU leaders, shaken by the prospect of US disengagement, in signing a text on Thursday in support of Ukraine.In late February, Orban blamed the West for provoking Moscow into the conflict.”The war is not really about Ukraine, it is about the fact that the territory called Ukraine — which has been a buffer zone, a buffer state, between NATO and Russia — should be brought under the auspices of NATO,” Orban said in his annual state of the nation address.”Why European and American liberals thought that the Russians would stand idly by and watch this, is still a mystery,” he added.Trump has blamed Ukraine over the war, saying “you should have never started it”.Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with Russia occupying almost 20 percent of the country’s territory.- ‘Never existed’ -Echoing a narrative often employed by Putin, Hungary’s parliamentary speaker Laszlo Kover this week said Ukraine was a “country that actually has never existed in history”.”It has no real political history, no real political elite, no tradition of governance,” the ultraconservative politician and Orban ally said in a Tuesday radio interview, adding that only those remain “who are incapable of defending themselves and those who have unscrupulously exploited the weaker”.Ukraine, a nation of more than 40 million people, has had a series of elected leaders since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.Top Orban aide Balazs Orban — who has the same last name as the premier but is not related to him — in a Facebook post on Monday referred to the neighbouring country as a “problem called Ukraine” that now “must be dealt with by the pro-war Europeans”.  Hungary’s pro-government newspaper Magyar Nemzet published opinion pieces, calling Ukraine a “rotten mafia monster state” and referred to the killings in Bucha — where Russian forces are accused of slaying hundreds of civilians — as “false flag theatrics”.A 2022 UN Human Rights report said Russian forces killed civilians in Bucha and other cities.AFP reporters were among international journalists to document bodies in the streets of Bucha, including some with their hands tied.- ‘Bought’ celebrities -Hungary’s nationalist premier has also referenced in interviews conspiracy narratives about a “global left-wing network” having supposedly “bought” journalists and even US celebrities to boost Zelensky’s popularity.”Hollywood stars were paid to go to Kyiv. They paid them millions of dollars,” Orban said in a recent interview with state radio.The Hungarian government did not respond to AFP’s inquiry about the source of the allegation.The claim may originate from a debunked video, purported to be from the US entertainment show E! News, which was shared by Elon Musk and prominent American conservatives.It alleged without proof that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) “sponsored American celebrity visits to Ukraine… to increase Zelensky’s popularity among foreign audiences, particularly in the United States.”Russian state media often quotes Orban’s remarks on Ukraine at length, according to Takacsy.Orban “paints the same picture of the world that the Kremlin’s domestic propaganda would like to suggest… If they can quote the same criticisms of the West, the same accusations, from the mouth of an outsider, it gives extra credibility to the same criticisms,” the researcher said.

A private company’s second attempt to land on the Moon officially ended Friday after its Athena spaceship came down sideways in a repeat of an off-kilter landing last year.Houston-based Intuitive Machines hoped to make history with Athena, a hexagonal lander designed to touch down on the Mons Mouton plateau, closer to the lunar south pole than any mission before.But after traveling more than a million kilometers through space, the spacecraft came to rest inside a crater, 250 meters from its intended target — once again landing on its side.Images downlinked from Athena confirmed mission controllers’ worst fears: the lander had suffered a similar fate to Intuitive Machines’ prior attempt in February 2024.But mission controllers were able to “accelerate several program and payload milestones,” including a NASA experiment designed to drill beneath the lunar surface in search of ice and chemicals, before Athena’s batteries depleted.”With the direction of the Sun, the orientation of the solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge,” the company said.”The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission.”On Thursday, the company suggested that issues with Athena’s laser altimeter — which provide altitude and velocity readings — may have contributed to the bad landing, much like in the previous mission.Adding to the disappointment, Intuitive Machines’ latest mishap comes just days after Texas rival Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its Blue Ghost lander on its first attempt.The missions are part of NASA’s $2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which seeks to leverage private industry to lower costs and support Artemis — NASA’s effort to return astronauts to the Moon and eventually reach Mars.Of the four CLPS missions attempted so far, only one lander managed an upright touchdown, two landed sideways, and one failed to reach the Moon altogether.

A South Carolina man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat is to be put to death by firing squad Friday in the first such execution in the United States in 15 years.Brad Sigmon, 67, faces execution at a prison in the state’s capital Columbia for the 2001 murders of David and Gladys Larke.Sigmon, who confessed to the murders and admitted his guilt at trial, has filed a last-minute appeal for a stay of execution with the Supreme Court but the nation’s highest court rarely intervenes in death penalty cases.He has also sought clemency from South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, but the Republican state chief executive has declined previous such requests.The murder convict had a choice between lethal injection, the firing squad or the electric chair as his manner of execution.Gerald “Bo” King, one of his lawyers, said Sigmon had chosen the firing squad after being placed in an “impossible” position, forced to make an “abjectly cruel” decision about how he would die.”Unless he elected lethal injection or the firing squad, he would die in South Carolina’s ancient electric chair, which would burn and cook him alive,” King said.”But the alternative is just as monstrous,” he said. “If he chose lethal injection, he risked the prolonged death suffered by all three of the men South Carolina has executed since September.”The last firing squad execution in the United States was in Utah in 2010. Two others have also been carried out by firing squad in the western state — in 1996 and in 1977.The 1977 execution of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was the basis for the 1979 book “The Executioner’s Song” by Norman Mailer.The vast majority of US executions have been done by lethal injection since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.Alabama has carried out four executions recently using nitrogen gas, which has been denounced by UN experts as cruel and inhumane. The execution is performed by pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.Three other states — Idaho, Mississippi and Oklahoma — have joined South Carolina and Utah in authorizing the use of firing squads.- Death chamber renovated -According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC), the prison death chamber where Sigmon is to be executed has been renovated to accommodate a firing squad.Bullet-resistant glass has been placed between the witness room and execution chamber.Sigmon will be restrained in a metal chair with a hood over his head 15 feet (five meters) away from a wall with a rectangular opening.A three-person firing squad of SCDC volunteers will shoot through the opening.All three rifles will have live ammunition, and an “aim point” will be placed above Sigmon’s heart.There have been five executions in the United States this year, following 25 last year.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.Arizona, Ohio and Tennessee had paused executions but recently announced plans to resume them.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

President Donald Trump said Friday South African farmers were welcome to settle in the United States after repeating his accusations that the government was “confiscating” land from white people as he announced an end to federal funding.Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that “any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States of America with a rapid pathway to Citizenship.”He said the process would begin immediately, calling the country a “bad place to be right now” as he announced a halt to all US aid to Pretoria.Trump and Pretoria are locked in a diplomatic row over a land expropriation act that the Republican leader says will lead to the takeover of white-owned farms.The South African presidency swiftly responded, saying in a statement that it would not engage in “counterproductive megaphone diplomacy.”Trump, whose close aide Elon Musk was born in South Africa, said in February that a law signed the previous month would “enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”The law stipulates that the government may, in certain circumstances, offer “nil compensation” for property it decides to expropriate in the public interest.English and Afrikaner colonists ruled South Africa until 1994 under a brutal system in which the black majority were deprived of political and economic rights.The new law is intended to address historic inequalities in land ownership, with the minority white population still owning most farmland three decades after the end of apartheid.But Trump accused the country of “being terrible, plus, to long time Farmers in the country.”South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has said he wants to find agreement with the new US government on diplomatic, trade and other issues.Ramaphosa announced in February that Pretoria plans to send a delegation to Washington to settle a host of issues.”We would like to go to the United States to do a deal,” he said in a discussion with Goldman Sachs vice chairman Richard Gnodde. “We don’t want to go and explain ourselves, we want to go and do a meaningful deal with the United States on a whole range of issues,” he said.Ramaphosa said he had a “wonderful” call with Trump soon after the US leader took office in January. But relations later “seemed to go a little bit off the rails”, he said.Many of Trump’s high-profile supporters took to social media to praise his leadership, although far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who accompanied Trump to events during his campaign, voiced concerns over adding to migration in the United States.”Let’s hope we can increase the number of mass deportations first. Immigration won’t get better if more people come in while deportation numbers remain extremely low,” she posted on X.

China’s foreign minister on Friday vowed Beijing would “firmly counter” US pressure, after Donald Trump heaped tariffs on Chinese goods and torched off a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.Trump imposed more blanket tariffs on Chinese imports this week, following a similar move last month — levies expected to hit hundreds of billions of dollars in total trade.The mercurial magnate has overturned the international order since returning to office in January, from pushing Ukraine to seek a peace deal with Russia to floating a widely condemned plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza.At a press conference on the sidelines of a key political meeting, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi framed Beijing as a bulwark of stability in an unstable world.He warned the “law of the jungle” could take hold if nations were to pursue purely their own interests.Wang touted Beijing’s cooperation with the United States in the fight against the fentanyl epidemic, in which Washington has accused China of being complicit in justifying its tariffs.Washington should not “repay kindness with resentment, let alone impose tariffs without reason”, he said.”There are around 190 countries in the world,” Wang said.”Imagine if every country emphasised their own priority and believed in strength and status, the world would fall back into the law of the jungle.”He said the policy currently implemented by Washington was “not how a responsible major country behaves”.The Chinese top diplomat was speaking on the sidelines of the “Two Sessions” political meetings in Beijing, so far clouded by a new administration in the United States that is overturning the international order.He told the attending press that good China-US economic and trade ties benefitted all parties.”If you choose to cooperate, you can achieve mutually beneficial and win-win results,” he added.”If you use only pressure, China will firmly counter.””China and the United States will both exist on this planet for a long time, so they must coexist peacefully,” Wang stressed.- ‘No winners’ in war -The veteran diplomat, however, appeared to side with Trump’s push for peace talks to end the conflict in Ukraine.He also called for negotiations between all parties — warning “conflict has no winners, and peace has no losers”.Beijing, he stressed, “welcomes and supports all efforts dedicated to peace”.And he urged all parties to seek a “comprehensive and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and increase humanitarian assistance”.Beijing has vowed to fight a trade war with the United States “to the end” as tariffs from Washington buffeted the global economy and threatened to hit Beijing’s lagging growth.The country’s leaders set an ambitious annual growth target of around five percent this week, vowing to make domestic demand its main economic driver as the escalating trade confrontation with the United States hit exports.They also raised the country’s military budget by 7.2 percent as Beijing’s armed forces undergo rapid modernisation and eye deepening strategic competition with the United States.- Taiwan, South China Sea -Among key flashpoints in the past year have been the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims.Wang on Friday said the island’s return to Beijing’s control remained the “shared hope of all Chinese people, the general trend of the time, and a righteous cause”.”Using Taiwan to control China is just like trying to stop a car with the arm of a mantis,” he said.And he touched on another key flashpoint, the South China Sea — which Beijing claims almost in its entirety despite an international arbitration ruling that declared its stance baseless.Wang accused the Philippines, with which Chinese ships have repeatedly clashed in the disputed waters, of provoking confrontation. “For every Philippine maritime operation, it is the forces outside of the region that write the script and the Western media that undertake the live broadcast,” he said.”The same old theatre is being used to discredit China,” he said.