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Donald Trump will travel to Pennsylvania next week to talk up his economic agenda, the White House said Thursday, as the US president faces growing pressure over an affordability crisis that he dismisses as a “hoax.”The Republican billionaire’s speech in the crucial blue-collar state marks the start of what aides say is a bid to ramp up his domestic travels, following criticism from some in his party that he has focused too much on foreign policy.”The president will be traveling to Pennsylvania to discuss how he and the administration continue to focus on delivering on his day one priority of ending Joe Biden’s inflation crisis,” a White House official told AFP.Trump insists that prices are falling and that he is fixing what he describes as a mess left by his Democratic predecessor.”They use the word ‘affordability.’ It’s a Democrat hoax,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday as he announced a reset of Biden’s fuel-economy standards that he said would lower US car prices.”Just about everything is down,” Trump said. “I think affordability is the greatest con job.”But Trump’s approval ratings have slumped to their lowest point since his return to office in January, particularly over the cost of living, which Americans have blamed at least partly on his tariffs.Democrats made a major issue of affordability in elections that they swept last month for New York City mayor, and for the governors of New Jersey and Virginia.On Tuesday, Republicans suffered a sharply reduced majority in a congressional district in deeply conservative Tennessee, one of Trump’s safest bastions.Pennsylvania is a key stop on the road to the White House. Trump narrowly won the northeastern state in 2016 and 2024, and lost it by a sliver to Biden in 2020.Trump is ineligible to run again in 2028 despite hints that he might try.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of commercial messaging app Signal to discuss strikes on Yemen risked compromising sensitive information and could have put troops at risk, the Pentagon’s independent watchdog said Thursday.The report piles further pressure on Hegseth, who is already under fire over US strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats that experts say amount to extrajudicial killings, with some lawmakers calling for him to quit or be fired.”The secretary sent nonpublic DoD information identifying the quantity and strike times of manned US aircraft over hostile territory over an unapproved, unsecure network approximately two to four hours before the execution of those strikes,” the inspector general’s office said in a report, using an abbreviation for the Department of Defense.”Using a personal cell phone to conduct official business and send nonpublic DoD information through Signal risks potential compromise of sensitive DoD information,” it said.The report noted that Hegseth is an “original classification authority” and can decide when materials no longer require protection, but said his actions “created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed US mission objectives and potential harm to US pilots.”Hegseth — who declined to be interviewed as part of the inspector general’s investigation — nonetheless described the report as a “total exoneration,” saying in a post on X: “Case closed.”The probe was sparked by the Atlantic magazine’s revelation in March that its editor-in-chief was inadvertently included in a Signal chat in which officials including Hegseth and then-national security advisor Mike Waltz discussed impending strikes on Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels.The magazine initially withheld the details the officials discussed, but later published them after the White House insisted that no classified information was shared and attacked the editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, as a liar.- Trump backs Hegseth -The chat included messages in which Hegseth revealed the timing of strikes hours before they happened and information on aircraft and missiles involved, while Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of the military action.”If this information had fallen into the hands of US adversaries, Huthi forces might have been able to counter US forces or reposition personnel and assets to avoid planned US strikes,” the watchdog report said.Trump at the time rejected calls for Hegseth to be fired and largely pinned the blame on Waltz, whom he ultimately replaced as national security advisor, appointing him as US ambassador to the United Nations instead.US media then reported in April that Hegseth had created a second Signal chat in which the March Yemen strikes were discussed with people including his wife and brother, but the Pentagon chief likewise weathered that storm and remained in office.The Huthis began targeting shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the Gaza war began in 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.The United States first started conducting strikes in response under the Biden administration, and US forces launched a renewed air campaign against the Huthis in mid-March.Trump’s strikes against the Huthis lasted until early May, when a ceasefire agreement was reached with the help of Omani mediation.Hegseth has also faced increasing recent scrutiny over a September 2 incident in which US forces launched a follow-up strike on the wreckage of a vessel that had already been hit, reportedly killing two survivors.Both the White House and Pentagon have sought to distance Hegseth from that decision — which some US lawmakers have said could be a war crime — instead pinning the blame on the admiral who directly oversaw the operation.

European leaders in a conference call this week voiced distrust of US efforts to negotiate an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to German news weekly Der Spiegel, which said it had obtained written notes on the call.German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron had expressed scepticism in the call Monday with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and others that US negotiators would safeguard Kyiv’s interests, the report said.The magazine quoted Macron as saying during the call that “there is a chance that the US will betray Ukraine on territory without clarity on security guarantees”.An Elysee source told AFP the reported quote did not match the French presidency’s own record of the call.”The president has publicly stated his position on the ongoing negotiations between Russia and the United States, which is no different in private,” the source added.According to the report, Merz warned Zelensky to be “very careful in the coming days” and added that “they are playing games with both you and us”.The German chancellery told AFP: “We cannot comment on individual media reports. Furthermore, we cannot, as a matter of principle, report on confidential conversations.”Zelensky’s communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn, asked about the Der Spiegel report by AFP, said: “We do not comment on provocations.”- ‘Protect’ Zelensky -According to the magazine, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb expressed distrust of US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who went to the Kremlin for talks earlier this week.”We cannot leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these guys,” Stubb said, Der Spiegel reported. His office told AFP: “We do not comment on confidential discussions held by the President of the Republic.”NATO chief Mark Rutte said in the call that “we must protect Volodymyr”, Der Spiegel said, citing what it said were notes on the call, not a verbatim transcript, without naming the author of the notes.A NATO official said: “As a general rule, we do not comment on leaks. As for the Secretary General’s stance on the ongoing work to end the war against Ukraine, he has been clear in his support for the efforts led by President Trump and his team.”Washington last month put forward an initial 28-point proposal to halt the war in Ukraine, drafted without input from Ukraine’s European allies and criticised as too close a reflection of Moscow’s maximalist demands on Ukrainian territory.A flurry of diplomacy followed, with US and Ukrainian negotiators holding talks in Geneva and Florida before Witkoff and Kushner headed to Moscow on Tuesday.Der Spiegel said two unnamed participants in the call on Monday had confirmed that the notes accurately reflected the content of the conversation.They would not, howevever, confirm the quotes word for word as the leaders’ conservation was confidential.

Spanish star Rosalia on Thursday announced 2026 world tour dates for her critically acclaimed new album “Lux”, with shows across Europe, the United States and Latin America.The 33-year-old, hailed for her genre-defying versatility, revealed the news on Instagram.The trips will begin with a stop in the French city of Lyon on March 16 and finish in Puerto Rico on September 3.During that time her odyssey will take in destinations including Paris, Zurich, Milan, Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Belgium, Berlin, London, New York, Toronto, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.Rosalia released her fourth album “Lux” last month, winning widespread praise for a sweeping, spiritual work that marked a departure from her previous flamenco and R&B rhythms.The album, which offers an orchestral meditation on faith and femininity, features lyrics sung in 13 languages including German, English and Sicilian in addition to her native Spanish.

Legendary American folk singer Joan Baez has told AFP that the return of Donald Trump to the White House has pushed her to go back to the studio where she has just recorded a protest song.The 1960s icon, a famed anti-war and social justice campaigner, will appear on a duet with American folk singer Jesse Welles, performing his anti-Trump track “No Kings”.”I love singing with younger people, and that song is perfect for my voice. It was just a treat,” the 85-year-old told AFP in Paris, adding that it would be released in the next 10 days.”It’s fresh, and he’s 33 and he’s writing this stuff, and I haven’t heard anything like that,” Baez added of Arkansas-born Welles, whom she has performed with several times.”What’s needed is an anthem, something that everybody can sing. They don’t have to worry about all the verses. Just sing the ‘No Kings, no Kings, no Kings’ part,” the pacifist campaigner added.Baez’s last recording was “Whistle Down the Wind”, released in 2018.As well as writing about Trump and billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Welles’s other recent release is “Join Ice”, which mocks the beefed-up department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.The shaggy-haired singer-songwriter, known for his witty lyrics and nasal voice, invites immediate comparisons with Baez’s ex, Bob Dylan.”There isn’t any comparison so I wouldn’t pretend there was, but similarities? For sure,” said Baez.”But I’m happy to keep Dylan on the pedestal where he belongs.”- ‘Huge thing’ – The Baez-Dylan love story was back in the spotlight in last year’s well-received Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown”, starring Timothee Chalamet.Baez was broadly happy with her portrayal by actress Monica Barbaro, with the Oscar-nominated actress consulting her several times during her research. “The film was a huge thing,” Baez explained, saying she was recognised on the street much more now. “There was a huge spike and it’s still going on.”Two of the world’s biggest female artists — Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift — have also helped introduce Baez to new, younger audiences.Swift brought Baez on stage during a 2015 stop in California, while Lana Del Ray has sung with her and went on to write a 2021 song about their night-out together, “Dance Till We Die.”Baez praised “very sweet” Swift who she says “gives her money away all the time”. She said she was initially sceptical about playing with Del Rey because her teenage fans would be too young to know Baez in her pomp, when she shared stages with Martin Luther King or led anti-Vietnam war protests.”She said ‘Well, they should know you’. I loved her for that,” Baez explained. “Of the young women songwriters, she’s my preference to listen to.”- ‘Honest legacy’ – When not worrying about American democracy, indulging her passion for painting or tending to her chickens at her south California home, Baez’s focus in recent years has been releasing more autobiographical material.She opened up her personal video archives for the 2023 documentary “Joan Baez: I Am a Noise”, revealing her struggles with depression, substance abuse, and her belief she had suffered child abuse from her physicist father.After writing two sets of memoirs, her latest contribution is a book of poems, collected from scraps of paper, notebooks and old computers, all composed over decades.Some of them were written during her time struggling with dissociative identity disorder, a condition that sees sufferers assume multiple personalities.”I can write poetry now, but there was something special about the way it was written from inner voices here and they can’t come back,” she said. Although she suffers from nightmares and sometimes struggles to keep the “darkness and gloom” out, she says her last decade has been her happiest.”Isn’t that nuts?” she laughed. “For whatever reason, I’m just giving up a lot of shit. At 85, who cares? She did her last tour in 2019 and no longer plays guitar.”I really want to leave an honest legacy, whether it’s the poems, the music, the documentary. I’m going to close it out in an honest way,” she said.

A right-wing Honduran presidential candidate backed by Donald Trump reclaimed a narrow lead over his rival Thursday on the fourth day of a plodding vote count.With 84.52 percent of the vote count complete, businessman Nasry Asfura led with 40.05 percent to 39.74 percent for fellow right-winger and TV personality Salvador Nasralla, the CNE electoral council said.The result was still too early to call.The CNE has come under fire from the US president after announcing Monday that a partial count showed the two men locked in a “technical tie.”Trump, who routinely casts doubt on the integrity of elections whose results he disapproves of, accused Honduran authorities of “trying to change” the results, and threatened there would be “hell to pay” if they did. Honduras is one of Latin America’s most impoverished and violent countries, and many citizens have fled north to the United States to escape those hardships, including minors fearing forced recruitment by gangs.The CNE called for “patience” as it finishes the count delayed by technical difficulties, and has vowed the end result will “scrupulously respect the popular will.”It said Tuesday that ballots were still coming in from remote areas — some only accessible by donkey or boat — and the declaration of a winner may still be days away.The CNE, which has frequently been accused by parties of political favoritism, legally has one month to announce a winner.Honduran presidential elections are determined in one round, with a simple majority needed to win.- ‘Friend of freedom’ -Trump supports 67-year-old businessman Asfura, whom he has called a “friend of freedom,” while accusing 72-year-old Nasralla of merely “pretending to be an anti-communist.”Trump has become increasingly vocal in his support for allies in the region, having threatened to cut aid to Argentina and Honduras if his picks did not win.Argentina’s President Javier Milei, a close Trump ally, was victorious in his country’s midterm elections.Whatever the outcome in Honduras, Sunday’s election was a clear defeat for ruling leftists. Honduras’s swing to the right will likely boost US influence in a country that under the last government had increasingly looked to China.Trump has also granted a pardon to Juan Orlando Hernandez, a former president from Asfura’s National Party who had been serving a 45-year sentence in the United States for drug trafficking.The 57-year-old lawyer was released Monday in what was widely perceived as more interference.

A man was arrested on Thursday for allegedly planting pipe bombs near the Democratic and Republican party headquarters on the eve of the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riot, US media reported.CNN, citing law enforcement sources, said the man was taken into custody by the FBI, which had offered a $500,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.ABC News said he was arrested in Virginia. His identity was not immediately available.The pipe bombs placed outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Republican National Committee (RNC) offices in Washington in the evening of January 5 failed to detonate.The devices were discovered by the authorities the next day as supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in a bid to prevent the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.The FBI released numerous photos and video clips of a masked and hooded suspect over the years and eventually increased the reward money to half a million dollars.But Thursday’s arrest is the first breakthrough in the case, which spawned numerous conspiracy theories among the far right.

The New York Times on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging the Pentagon’s new restrictive media policy, saying it was unconstitutional and asking a court to block its implementation.US and international news outlets including AFP, AP, Fox News and the Times declined to sign the new policy in mid-October, meaning they were stripped of their Pentagon credentials.The Pentagon policy “in violation of the First Amendment seeks to restrict journalists’ ability to do what journalists have always done — ask questions of government employees and gather information to report stories that take the public beyond official pronouncements,” according to the Times’ complaint.”If and when they do and then publish anything that has not been approved by Pentagon officials, the policy permits those officials to, at any time and without any standards to guide their decisions, immediately suspend and ultimately revoke those journalists'” badges, it says.The new policy is the latest in a series of moves aimed at restricting journalists’ access to information from the Pentagon, the nation’s single largest employer with a budget in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year.The Defense Department announced earlier this year that eight media organizations including the Times, the Washington Post, CNN, NBC and NPR had to vacate their dedicated office spaces in the Pentagon, alleging that there was a need to create room for other — predominantly conservative — outlets.It also required journalists to be accompanied by official escorts if they go outside a limited number of areas in the Pentagon — another new restriction on the press — and has only held a limited number of briefings for journalists this year.The journalists who refused to sign the media policy have been replaced by media personalities friendly to the Trump administration, who were invited to attend the Pentagon press secretary’s first on-camera briefing this week while outlets that had their credentials stripped were barred from the event.

Steve Cropper, the Booker T. & the MG’s guitarist and key songwriter and producer for the Memphis soul sound of Stax Records, has died aged 84, his family said.Cropper who co-wrote soul classics including “In the Midnight Hour” and “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay,” died peacefully on Wednesday in Nashville, according to a family statement posted on his official Facebook page.”Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose extraordinary talent touched millions of lives around the world,” the statement said.”Steve’s influence on American music is immeasurable.”At Stax Records, Cropper accompanied artists such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Rufus and Carla Thomas, and Eddie Floyd.He was a member of Booker T. & the MG’s, as well as a producer and songwriter. He co-wrote the group’s “Green Onions,” “Soul Limbo,” and “Time Is Tight,” as well as Redding’s hits “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” and “Mr. Pitiful.”In 2023, Rolling Stone magazine listed Cropper 45th among its 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. In 1996, British magazine MOJO ranked him the second-best guitarist, after Jimi Hendrix.”Cropper has been the secret ingredient in some of the greatest rock and soul songs,” Rolling Stone said.”Think of the introduction to Sam and Dave’s ‘Soul Man,’ the explosive bent notes in Booker T.’s ‘Green Onions,’ or the filigreed guitar fills in Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” — they all bear Cropper’s signature sound, the quintessence of soul guitar.”Cropper was also the lead guitarist for the Blues Brothers, the band formed by comedians John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.He contributed to the duo’s double platinum album, “Briefcase Full of Blues,” released in 1978, as well as four other albums. He also appeared in John Landis’s film “The Blues Brothers” (1980) and its sequel “Blues Brothers 2000” (1998).Cropper was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 as a member of Booker T. and the M.G.’s. 

As the United States deploys more military forces and carries out airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean, Venezuelans in South Florida are divided over what President Donald Trump’s next moves should be.Most people in the diaspora here long for a new leader to replace President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, a country that hundreds of thousands have fled amid economic and political crisis in recent years.”If there’s one common sentiment among all Venezuelans, it’s the hatred we have toward Chavismo and Maduro,” said Andrea Gonzalez, 38, referring to the left-wing ideology named for Maduro’s predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.But differences arise over how to remove Maduro.Some say force is the only option, especially after Maduro proclaimed himself president again in 2024 in elections that were deemed fraudulent by the opposition and other countries alike.Others, fearful of the casualties of war, prefer to exhaust diplomatic avenues.While the Trump administration has said it is targeting “narcoterrorists,” many question the true motivation behind Washington’s sudden military interest in the South American country with the most oil reserves on Earth. Within the diaspora, Trump’s image has been tarnished by his own immigration policy, which has cracked down on Venezuelans despite their overwhelming support for his pressure on Caracas.In recent weeks, Washington has sent the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, along with a fleet of warships, and Trump declared Venezuelan airspace “completely closed” for a supposed operation against drug trafficking.Trump also said that operations “by land” to stop alleged drug traffickers were imminent.- ‘Double-edged sword’ -From Caracas, Maduro has long claimed Washington intends to overthrow him.And in Doral, near Miami, where more than 40 percent of the population is of Venezuelan origin, Diana Gonzalez hopes that is the case.The 47-year-old interior designer supports a “100 percent” intervention in her country to overthrow a government she accuses of being corrupt, stealing elections and repressing its opponents.After years of unsuccessful peaceful attempts, that’s the only viable option, she said.”We can’t go on alone because it’s an unfair fight between people with flags and people with weapons,” she said, adding that “no one in Venezuela will fight for the regime.”Regarding the future, she envisions a government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, the opposition leader who is living in hiding.But 66-year-old Carmen considers military intervention a “double-edged sword” for the country she left in 2020.”If Maduro falls, it would be wonderful,” she said, declining to give her last name. “But if that happens, there will be many deaths. A war between the two countries would be a catastrophe.”- Tensions -Adelys Ferro, a Venezuelan activist for migrant rights, doubts the Trump administration’s intentions for her country — and tries to balance the personal with the political.”In the midst of our desperation and desire for freedom, we have minimized what a war means,” she said. “I can’t put my desire to see my mother again above the lives of Venezuelans.”She believes if Washington wants change in Caracas, it should take advantage of the current pressures to force a peaceful transition. And she fears the consequences of a conflict for the country’s inhabitants, including her mother.In Doral, many prefer to avoid the topic and there is a reluctance to talking about Trump. The mass arrests of Latino migrants promoted by his government and the revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) granted to some 600,000 Venezuelans under previous president Joe Biden’s administration have hit the community hard.And that has created tensions.Andrea Gonzalez, who supports Trump’s initiatives in Venezuela but criticizes his immigration policies stateside, has experienced those tensions personally.”There are people in your family who” say she should be happy about the immigration raids and the end of immigration privileges “because you voted for that person,” Gonzalez said. “Resentment is building among Venezuelans.”She believes, however, that Trump can regain ground in her community if he successfully overthrows Maduro.”The same people who have been deported wouldn’t hate him so much if he achieved that,” she said.