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The Trump administration has ordered senior US military leaders to plan for expansive cuts that could slash the defense budget by eight percent annually, or some $290 billion within the next five years, US media reported Wednesday.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Pentagon to develop the deep reductions, The Washington Post reported, citing a memo.The Pentagon’s budget for 2025 is some $850 billion. Lawmakers across the political spectrum agree that the massive spending is needed to deter threats, especially from China and Russia. The cuts, if implemented in full, would reduce that figure by tens of billions each year to some $560 billion by the end of the five years.The report did not give details of where the cuts would be made in the world’s biggest military, but an earlier Post report said that junior civilian workers, not uniformed personnel, were being targeted.The news — which comes after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency reportedly visited the Pentagon last week — was likely to be met with stiff resistance from both the military and Congress.Trump on Wednesday signaled support for a House of Representatives bill that would increase the defense budget by $100 billion — a move at odds with the Hegseth-directed cuts.The planned reductions also run counter to calls by Trump and Hegseth for NATO members to increase their military spending to five percent of GDP a year.- ‘Revive the warrior ethos’ -The United States currently spends around 3.4 percent of its GDP on defense, and the five percent threshold would be even farther out of reach if the Pentagon’s budget is reduced.The stock prices of major US defense contractors were hit by the news, with Lockheed Martin dropping briefly before recovering, Northrop Grumann falling nearly two percent and Palantir closing down more than 10 percent. Hegseth’s memo said the proposed cuts must be drawn up by February 24, and include 17 categories that Trump wants exempted, including operations at the US border with Mexico and modernization of nuclear weapons and missile defense. It also calls for funding for regional headquarters such as Indo-Pacific Command and Space Command.But other major centers such as European Command, which has led the way on US strategy throughout the war in Ukraine, and also Africa Command and Central Command — which oversees operations in the Middle East — were absent from the list, the Post reported.The Defense Department “must act urgently to revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and reestablish deterrence,” Hegseth wrote in the memo, dated Tuesday, according to the Post. “Our budget will resource the fighting force we need, cease unnecessary defense spending, reject excessive bureaucracy, and drive actionable reform including progress on the audit,” he reportedly continued.US President Donald Trump has vowed to slash government spending and end US support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invasion. 

US President Donald Trump called Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” Wednesday, widening a personal rift with major implications for efforts to end the conflict triggered by Russia’s invasion three years ago.The United States has provided essential funding and arms to Ukraine, but Trump made an abrupt policy shift by opening talks with Moscow just weeks after he returned to the White House.”A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.Zelensky was elected in 2019 for a five-year term and has remained leader under martial law imposed as his country fights for its survival.Trump savaged Zelensky, saying “he refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing (Joe) Biden ‘like a fiddle.'””In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do.”Zelensky’s popularity has fallen, but the percentage of Ukrainians who trust him has never dipped below 50 percent since the conflict started, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).- Shock at Trump attack -Under Biden, the United States had lauded Zelensky as a hero and hammered Moscow with sanctions as Ukraine battled against advancing Russian soldiers.But Trump held a press conference on Tuesday in which he tore into the Ukrainian leader and repeated Kremlin narratives such as the claim that Ukraine started the war.Trump’s invective drew shock from Europe where German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was “wrong and dangerous” to call Zelensky a dictator.In Washington, Trump’s former vice president Mike Pence also issued a stinging rebuke.”Mr. President, Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives,” he wrote on X.Zelensky reacted to Trump’s attacks by accusing him of succumbing to Russian “disinformation.””I believe that the United States helped (Vladimir) Putin to break out of years of isolation,” he added, in some of his sharpest criticism yet of the new US administration.And in Ukraine, Trump’s rhetoric was greeted by disbelief. “Blaming Ukraine for starting the war is some kind of absurdity. As Ukrainians, we cannot understand this,” soldier Ivan Banias told AFP on the freezing streets of Kyiv. In contrast, Putin hailed progress in talks with the United States.The Russian leader also claimed his troops had crossed into Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region — a first ground attack there since 2022 — but Kyiv swiftly denied the claim.Both sides are trying to improve their situation on the battlefield amid Trump’s push for a ceasefire.- Moscow buoyed -Moscow has been buoyed by Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia and Trump’s attacks on Zelensky.The talks “made the first step to restore work in various areas of mutual interests,” Putin told journalists while visiting a drone manufacturing plant in his native Saint Petersburg.Kyiv was not invited to the Riyadh talks as Moscow and Washington moved to sideline both Ukraine and Europe.Putin said that the United States’ allies “only have themselves to blame for what’s happening,” suggesting they were paying the price for opposing Trump’s return to the White House.Tensions between Zelensky and Trump over the new US position on the war had been building for weeks, before bursting into the open.But Zelensky sought to take a positive approach ahead of meeting Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, in Kyiv on Thursday.”It is very important for us that the meeting and our work with America in general be constructive,” Zelensky said, while adding, “it is a choice for everyone in the world — and for the powerful — to be with Putin or with peace.”Russia, which for years has railed against the US military presence in Europe, wants a reorganization of the continent’s security framework as part of any deal to end the Ukraine fighting.Putin on Wednesday said that Russia and the United States needed to work with each other if talks were to be successful.”It is impossible to solve many issues, including the Ukrainian crisis, without increasing the level of trust between Russia and the United States,” he said.burs/spm/bgs/bjt

US President Donald Trump called Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” Wednesday, widening a personal rift with major implications for efforts to end the conflict triggered by Russia’s invasion three years ago.The United States had provided funding and arms to Ukraine, but in an abrupt policy shift since coming to power, Trump has opened talks with Moscow.”A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform of the Ukrainian leader, whose five-year term expired last year.Ukrainian law does not require elections during wartime.On Tuesday Trump held a press conference in which he criticized Zelensky, repeated several Kremlin narratives about the conflict and called for an end to the war.Zelensky in turn accused Trump of succumbing to Russian “disinformation,” including Trump blaming of Kyiv for having “started” the war and echoing Kremlin questions over Zelensky’s legitimacy.”He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing (Joe) Biden ‘like a fiddle,'” said Trump in the Truth Social post of Zelensky.”In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do,” the president added.Zelensky was elected in 2019 for a five-year term, but has remained leader under martial law imposed following the Russian invasion.His popularity has eroded, but the percentage of Ukrainians who trust him has never dipped below 50 percent since the conflict started, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).- ‘Doublethink’ -Trump has long held his party in lockstep, but moderate Republicans swiftly pushed back against his attack on Zelensky Wednesday. “Putin started this war. Putin committed war crimes. Putin is the dictator who murdered his opponents. The EU nations have contributed more to Ukraine. Zelensky polls over 50%. Ukraine wants to be part of the West, Putin hates the West,” congressman Don Bacon, from Nebraska, wrote on X. “I don’t accept George Orwell’s doublethink,” he added, referring to the author of the dystopian novel “1984.”New York Republican Mike Lawler said that Putin demanding elections in Ukraine was “both comical and self-serving.””Vladimir Putin is a vile dictator and thug, who has worked in a concerted effort with China and Iran to undermine and destabilize the United States, Europe, Israel, and the free world. He is not our friend, nor our ally,” he wrote, also on X. Trump’s staunch ally Senator Lindsey Graham, meanwhile, threaded the needle carefully, writing that he blames Putin “above all others” for the war — but adding on X that he still saw the US president as Ukraine’s “best hope.”Former vice president Mike Pence, who broke with Trump after his supporters stormed the US Capitol in 2021 in a bid to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, also issued a rare public rebuke.”Mr. President, Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives,” he wrote on X.

Pope Francis’s blood tests show a “slight improvement” as he receives hospital treatment for pneumonia, the Vatican said Wednesday, while Italy’s prime minister found the 88-year-old joking “as always”.The Holy See said the Argentine pope’s clinical conditions were “stable” on his sixth day at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where on Tuesday it revealed he had been diagnosed with pneumonia in both of his lungs. “The blood tests, evaluated by the medical staff, show a slight improvement, particularly in inflammatory indices,” said the Vatican in a statement Wednesday. Following breakfast, he “dedicated himself to work activities with his closest collaborators”, it added.Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also visited the pontiff for 20 minutes, it said, and she found him “alert and responsive”.”We joked as always. He hasn’t lost his proverbial sense of humour,” the far-right leader said in a statement.The double pneumonia diagnosis caused widespread alarm over the pope’s health, after a series of issues in recent years, from colon and hernia surgery to problems walking.But amid much speculation online, including reports of his supposed death, the Vatican issued an early bulletin Wednesday saying he had spent a “peaceful night” in the hospital’s papal suite and had breakfast.”The pope is breathing on his own. His heart is holding up very well,” a source in the Vatican added.Francis has been speaking to friends by telephone, has been out of bed and sitting in a chair, and working on and off, the source said.- ‘Complex picture’ -The pope, who has been head of the Catholic Church since 2013, keeps a full schedule despite his age and ailments, and this year is busy with celebrations of the holy Jubilee year.But he had struggled to read his homilies in the days before his hospital admission.After an initial diagnosis of bronchitis, the Holy See revealed on Tuesday evening that tests “continue to present a complex picture”.A “polymicrobial infection” which has come on top of “bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis, and which required the use of cortisone antibiotic therapy, makes therapeutic treatment more complex”, the Vatican said.”The follow-up chest CT scan which the Holy Father underwent… demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy,” it added.Bronchiectasis is when the bronchi, or air passages, thicken due to infection or another condition.The pontiff had part of his right lung cut away when he was 21, after developing pleurisy that almost killed him.The Vatican has cancelled a papal audience on Saturday and said the pope would not attend a mass on Sunday, although it has yet to announce plans for his weekly Angelus prayer, which is held on Sunday at midday.- ‘Vital energy’ -Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, called on all parishes in the Italian capital to pray for the pope’s recovery.US Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, had a similar message.”Let’s all say a prayer for Pope Francis, who appears to have some serious health issues,” he wrote on social media.Candles, some with pictures of the pope on them, have been set at the bottom of a statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital, where pilgrims have been coming to pray.”I hope he recovers as soon as possible because this is the Jubilee year and he has so much to do for young people, for everyone, it’s very sad,” said Annamaria Santoro, an Italian woman whose son was in the same hospital.Jesuit theologian Antonio Spadaro, who is close to Francis, told Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily the pope could be in hospital for two to three weeks.”It is clear that the situation is delicate, but I have not perceived any form of alarmism,” he said.The pope “has an extraordinary vital energy. He is not a person who lets himself go, he is not a resigned man. And that is a very positive element, we have seen that in the past”, he said.The pope has left open the option of resigning were he to become unable to carry out his duties.But in a memoir last year Francis said it was just a “distant possibility” that would be justified only in the event of “a serious physical impediment”.

US President Donald Trump called Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” Wednesday, widening a personal rift with major implications for efforts to end the conflict triggered by Russia’s invasion three years ago.The United States has provided essential funding and arms to Ukraine, but Trump made an abrupt policy shift by opening talks with Moscow weeks after returning to the White House.”A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.Zelensky was elected in 2019 for a five-year term, and has remained leader under martial law imposed due to the Russian invasion as his country fights for its survival.Trump savaged Zelensky, saying “he refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing (Joe) Biden ‘like a fiddle.'””In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do.”Zelensky’s popularity has fallen, but the percentage of Ukrainians who trust him has never dipped below 50 percent since the conflict started, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).Under Biden, the United States had lauded Zelensky and pumped money and weapons into Ukraine to help it battle against advancing Russian soldiers.But Trump held a press conference on Tuesday in which he tore into the Ukrainian leader and repeated Kremlin narratives about the conflict.- Push for battlefield gains -Zelensky then accused Trump of succumbing to Russian “disinformation,” including Trump blaming Kyiv for supposedly having “started” the war.”Unfortunately, President Trump, for whom we have great respect as leader of the American people… lives in this disinformation space,” Zelensky said in a press conference in Kyiv.”I believe that the United States helped (Vladimir) Putin to break out of years of isolation,” he added, in some of his sharpest criticism yet of the new US administration.In contrast, Putin hailed progress in talks with the United States.The Russian leader also claimed his troops had crossed into Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region — a first ground attack there since 2022 — but Kyiv swiftly denied the claim.Both sides are trying to improve their situation on the battlefield amid Trump’s push for a ceasefire.Moscow has been buoyed by Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia and Trump’s attacks on Zelensky. Putin said he rated the bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia “highly.””We made the first step to restore work in various areas of mutual interests,” he told journalists while visiting a drone manufacturing plant in his native Saint Petersburg.Kyiv was not invited to the Riyadh talks as Moscow and Washington moved to sideline both Ukraine and Europe.Putin said that the United States’ allies “only have themselves to blame for what’s happening,” suggesting they were paying the price for opposing Trump’s return to the White House.Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised Trump as the “only Western leader” who understood that “dragging Ukraine into NATO” was a cause of the conflict.Tensions between Zelensky and Trump over the new president’s position on the war had been building for weeks, before bursting to the fore.Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg — who was not involved in the Saudi talks — arrived in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday in what he said was a mission to “sit and listen” to Kyiv’s concerns.Russia, which for years has railed against the US military presence in Europe, wants a reorganization of the continent’s security framework as part of any deal to end the Ukraine fighting.Putin on Wednesday said that Russia and the United States needed to “trust” each other if talks were to be successful.”It is impossible to solve many issues, including the Ukrainian crisis, without increasing the level of trust between Russia and the United States,” he said.burs/spm/bgs

Germany’s car lobby on Wednesday warned that tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump would raise prices for American drivers after Trump said he might hike taxes on imports of cars, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that tariffs on the automobile industry will “be in the neighbourhood of 25 percent”, with specifics to come around April 2.Asked about threatened tariffs on pharmaceuticals and chips, Trump said: “It’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll go very substantially higher over (the) course of a year.”He added that he wanted to give affected companies time to bring their operations to the United States, saying that he had been contacted by major firms that “want to come back”. The president also said that Washington’s trading partners could avoid being taxed by investing in factories in the United States. “We want to give them time to come in,” he said. “When they come into the United States and they have their plant or factory here, there is no tariff. So we want to give them a little bit of a chance.”Trump has announced a broad range of levies on some of his country’s biggest trading partners since taking office in January, arguing that they will help tackle unfair practices — and in some cases using threats to influence policy.He recently pledged an extra 10 percent duties on all goods coming from China, and 25 percent on steel and aluminium imports.The German VDA auto lobby on Wednesday described Trump’s announcement as a “provocation” and warned that tariffs could rebound on the United States.”Further tariffs would directly hit the American economy and make products for US consumers more expensive,” said VDA chief Hildegard Mueller.- Asia imports -Experts have warned that it is often Americans who end up paying the cost of tariffs on imports, rather than foreign exporters.About 50 percent of the cars sold in the United States are manufactured within the country. Among imports, about half come from Mexico and Canada, with Japan, South Korea and Germany also major suppliers.Trump’s tariff threats were cautiously received in Asia, home to some of the main US suppliers of the potentially affected industries.Yoshimasa Hayashi, Tokyo’s top government spokesman, told reporters: “With regards to automobile tariffs, we have raised the issue with the US government, taking into account the importance of Japan’s auto industry.””Japan will first take appropriate action while carefully examining the specific details of the measures,” he added.Taiwan, a global powerhouse in semiconductor production that Trump has accused of stealing the US chip industry, also remained cautious.”The scope of products subject to tariffs has not yet been clarified. We will continue to monitor the direction of US policies and assist Taiwan’s industries,” Taipei’s economic ministry said in a statement.The island’s government had previously said it would boost investment in the United States as it sought to head off Trump’s duties.- ‘Wrong tool’ -Meanwhile a spokesperson for Malaysia’s semiconductor industry, which accounts for around 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, on Wednesday told AFP that the United States would be “slapping themselves” with the new tariffs.Malaysia has long been a chip manufacturing hub for many US semiconductor companies.”If we (Malaysia) ship these products back to the US, it will only increase the cost of components back to the US,” Malaysia Semiconductor Industry Association president Datuk Seri Wong Siew Hai said.Speaking on Tuesday, Trump said he was pleased to see the EU “reduce their tariffs on cars to the level we have”.”The EU had 10 percent tax on cars and now they have a 2.5 percent tax, which is the exact same as us… If everybody would do that, then we’d all be on the same playing field,” he said.”The EU has been very unfair to us. We have a trade deficit of $350 billion, they don’t buy our cars, they don’t take our farm products, they don’t take almost anything… and we’ll have to straighten that out,” he added.The VDA said that any differences between specific EU and US tariff rates did not justify Washington hiking tariffs, noting that tariffs on pick-up trucks popular with US consumers were 25 percent.”Tariffs as a negotiating instrument are the wrong tool. The risk of a global trade war with negative consequences for the world economy is high,” Mueller said.

Global stock markets mostly fell Wednesday after US President Donald Trump broadened his tariff threats, stoking wider trade war fears.Trump warned the previous day that he would impose tariffs “in the neighbourhood of 25 percent” on auto imports and a similar amount or higher on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.”Understandably this has helped drive European carmakers lower, with the likes of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and VW losing ground,” said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets. European markets all dropped, with London hit by higher-than-expected inflation figures.Tariff threats also knocked auto firms and semiconductor makers in Tokyo, dragging the index into the red.Shares in US carmaker GM fell but Ford managed a small gain.Trump’s comments widened his trade war, having earlier pledged 25 percent levies on steel and aluminium.While some observers have said that the threats are likely being used as a negotiating tool, it has nonetheless revived worries about the impact on the global economy.”It remains to be seen which of the floated tariffs will be implemented but there are now many tariff spinning plates in play,” said Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid.Wall Street’s main three indices slid lower, with the S&P 500 hanging just below the all-time high that it set at the close of trading on Tuesday.Concerns that share valuations may be too high may also be part of the reason for the retreat in equities along with a rise in Treasury yields, noted Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare. China — a key target in Trump’s tariffs policy — told the World Trade Organization on Tuesday that the United States risked triggering inflation, market distortions and even a global recession.The tariff threats added to market uncertainty since Europe and Kyiv were excluded from the first high-level talks between the US and Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine.Frankfurt’s DAX 40 index set another record high during morning trading, but broke a two-week winning streak as investors have looked forward to a business-friendly government following Sunday’s election. “The uncertainty surrounding the election is likely to negatively impact short-term price developments,” said CMC Markets analyst Konstantin Oldenburger.Asian markets struggled for direction, with Hong Kong was dragged lower by tech firms after Chinese internet giant Baidu’s fourth-quarter earnings saw a fall in revenue and a warning of near-term pressures.The sector has helped the Hang Seng Index surge around 15 percent since the turn of the year, spurred by the emergence of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s new chatbot that has upended the AI universe.President Xi Jinping’s meeting with China’s top business leaders this week — including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma — added to the optimism amid hopes of a fresh boost for the private sector.The Shanghai stock market rose while Taipei was weighed by a sell-off in chip giant TSMC.In other company news, Swiss mining and commodity trading giant Glencore dropped more than six percent on London’s FTSE 100 after it reported a net loss for 2024.Shares in Dutch medical device maker Philips dropped more than 11 percent on the Amsterdam stock exchange after it posted worse-than-expected losses. – Key figures around 1630 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 44,428.59 pointsNew York – S&P 500: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 6,126.71New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 20,016.10London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.6 percent at 8,712.53 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.2 percent at 8,110.54 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.8 percent at 22,433.63 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.3 percent at 39,164.61 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.1 percent at 22,944.24 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 3,351.54 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0407 from $1.0445 on TuesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2572 from $1.2608Dollar/yen: DOWN at 151.61 from 152.09 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 82.78 pence from 82.85 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.9 percent at $72.47 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.7 percent at $76.40 per barrelburs-rl/cw

Members of Donald Trump’s Justice Department were set to appear Wednesday before a federal judge to explain their extraordinary decision to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, a move that triggered multiple protest resignations.US District Judge Dale Ho, who is presiding over the case, ordered the Washington prosecutors to attend a 2:00 pm (1900 GMT) hearing in Manhattan to explain the reasons for dismissing the charges just months before the embattled mayor of America’s largest city was slated to go to trial.In asking last week for the case against Adams to be dropped, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said the prosecution was restricting the Democratic mayor’s “ability to devote full attention and resources to illegal immigration and violent crime.”The remarkable request prompted allegations that it was a quid pro quo in exchange for Adams agreeing to enforce Republican President Trump’s immigration crackdown — a claim the mayor denies.”I want to be crystal clear with New Yorkers: I never offered — nor did anyone offer on my behalf — any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case,” he said.Adams, who pleaded not guilty in September to charges of fraud and bribery, is facing growing pressure to resign, as the suggestion that he is beholden to the Trump administration triggers widespread condemnation.On Monday, the head of New York’s city council called on the mayor — who is up for reelection in November, with the competitive Democratic primary in June — to step down, and four deputy mayors announced that they were resigning.Governor Kathy Hochul, who has the power to remove Adams from office, met with “key leaders” on Tuesday to discuss what she called a “path forward with the goal of ensuring stability for the City of New York.”And city comptroller Brad Lander — who is also running for mayor — has threatened to invoke an untested, little-known lever of the City Charter allowing for convening an “inability committee” to remove a mayor unfit to lead the city.Whether he leaves office early or not, the ruckus appears to be dimming Adams’s chances at reelection, as polling increasingly suggests New Yorkers are fed up with him.- ‘Fool’ or a ‘coward’ -Danielle Sassoon, a Trump appointee and acting US attorney in Manhattan, and assistant US attorney Hagan Scotten who brought the case against Adams, resigned last week along with several Justice Department officials in Washington to protest the order to dismiss the charges.Scotten, the lead prosecutor, in a blistering letter to Bove, said only a “fool” or a “coward” would comply with the Justice Department demand to drop the case.In ordering Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Ho, citing previous rulings, noted that the government has “broad discretion” in deciding which cases to prosecute.But the court, in considering a request for dismissal, “must have sufficient factual information supporting the recommendation.”The Justice Department, which Trump has accused of unjustly prosecuting him, has been the target of a sweeping shakeup since the Republican took office and a number of high-ranking officials have been fired, demoted or reassigned.More than 800 former federal prosecutors released an open letter Monday condemning recent actions by Trump’s Justice Department that are not based on “the facts and the law” but appear intended “to serve solely political purposes.”Among those who signed the letter was Jack Smith, the former special counsel who brought two now-abandoned criminal cases against Trump — for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden and for mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.

Pope Francis is alert and still making jokes despite having double pneumonia, Italy’s prime minister said Wednesday after visiting the 88-year-old pontiff in hospital.Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital with bronchitis last Friday, but the Holy See revealed on Tuesday that he had developed pneumonia in both of his lungs.The development caused widespread alarm over the pope’s health, after a series of issues in recent years, from colon and hernia surgery to problems walking.”I was very happy to find him alert and responsive. We joked as always. He hasn’t lost his proverbial sense of humour,” Giorgia Meloni said in a statement after her visit.Amid widespread speculation online, including reports of his death, the Vatican issued an early bulletin Wednesday saying he had spent a “peaceful night” in the hospital’s papal suite and had breakfast.”The pope is breathing on his own. His heart is holding up very well,” a source in the Vatican added.Francis has been speaking to friends by telephone, has been out of bed and sitting in a chair, and working on and off, the source said.- ‘Complex picture’ -The Argentine pope, who has been head of the Catholic Church since 2013, keeps a busy schedule despite his age and ailments, and this year is busy with celebrations of the holy Jubilee year.But he had struggled to read his homilies in the days before his hospital admission.After an initial diagnosis of bronchitis, the Holy See revealed on Tuesday evening that “the laboratory tests, chest X-ray, and the Holy Father’s clinical condition continue to present a complex picture”.A “polymicrobial infection” which has come on top of “bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis, and which required the use of cortisone antibiotic therapy, makes therapeutic treatment more complex”, the Vatican said.”The follow-up chest CT scan which the Holy Father underwent this afternoon… demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy,” it added.Bronchiectasis is when the bronchi, or air passages, thicken due to infection or another condition.The pontiff had part of his right lung cut away when he was 21, after developing pleurisy that almost killed him.The Vatican has cancelled a papal audience on Saturday and said the pope would not attend a mass on Sunday, although it has yet to announce plans for his weekly Angelus prayer, which is held on Sunday at midday.- ‘Vital energy’ -Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, called on all parishes in the Italian capital to pray for the pope’s recovery.Candles, some with pictures of the pope on them, have been set at the bottom of a statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital, where pilgrims have been coming to pray.”I hope he recovers as soon as possible because this is the Jubilee year and he has so much to do for young people, for everyone, it’s very sad,” said Annamaria Santoro, an Italian woman whose son was in the same hospital.The Vatican published drawings made by children in the hospital for Francis, as well as letters from parents asking him to pray for their sick offspring.Jesuit theologian Antonio Spadaro, who is close to Francis, told Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily the pope could be in hospital for two to three weeks.”It is clear that the situation is delicate, but I have not perceived any form of alarmism,” he said.The pope “has an extraordinary vital energy. He is not a person who lets himself go, he is not a resigned man. And that is a very positive element, we have seen that in the past”, he said.The pope has left open the option of resigning were he to become unable to carry out his duties.But in a memoir last year Francis said it was just a “distant possibility” that would be justified only in the event of “a serious physical impediment”.

US President Donald Trump expanded his offensive against trading partners on Tuesday, threatening 25 percent tariffs on imported cars, and similar or higher duties on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.Trump has announced a broad range of levies on some of the biggest US trading partners since taking office in January, arguing that they will help tackle unfair practices — and in some cases using the threats to influence policy.He recently pledged 10 percent duties on all goods coming from China, and 25 on steel and aluminum imports.At his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, he told reporters that tariffs on the automobile industry will “be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” with specifics to come around April 2.Asked about threatened tariffs on pharmaceuticals and chips, Trump said: “It’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll go very substantially higher over (the) course of a year.”He added he wanted to give affected companies time to bring their operations to the United States, saying that he had been contacted by major firms that “want to come back”. The president also said that Washington’s trading partners could avoid being taxed by investing in factories in the United States. “We want to give them time to come in,” he said. “When they come into the United States and they have their plant or factory here, there is no tariff. So we want to give them a little bit of a chance.”Experts have warned it is often Americans who end up paying the cost of tariffs on imports, rather than foreign exporters.About 50 percent of the cars sold in the United States are manufactured within the country. Among imports, about half come from Mexico and Canada, with Japan, South Korea and Germany, also major suppliers.- Asia cautious -Trump’s tariffs threats have been cautiously received in Asia, home to some of the main US suppliers of the potentially affected industries. Yoshimasa Hayashi, Tokyo’s top government spokesman, told reporters “with regard to automobile tariffs, we have raised the issue with the US government, taking into account the importance of Japan’s auto industry.”Japan will first take appropriate action while carefully examining the specific details of the measures,” he added.Taiwan, a global powerhouse in semiconductor production that Trump has accused of stealing the US chip industry, also remained cautious.”The scope of products subject to tariffs has not yet been clarified. We will continue to monitor the direction of US policies and assist Taiwan’s industries,” Taipei’s economic ministry said in a statement.The island’s government had previously said it would boost investment in the United States as it sought to head off Trump’s duties.Meanwhile a spokesperson for Malaysia’s semiconductor industry, which accounts for around 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, told AFP on Wednesday the United States would be “slapping themselves” with the new tariffs.Malaysia has long been a chip manufacturing hub for many US semiconductor companies.”If we (Malaysia) ship these products back to the US, it will only increase the cost of components back to the US,” Malaysia Semiconductor Industry Association president Datuk Seri Wong Siew Hai said.- EU visit -Trump said he was pleased to see the EU “reduce their tariffs on cars to the level we have.””The EU had 10 percent tax on cars and now they have a 2.5 percent tax, which is the exact same as us… If everybody would do that, then we’d all be on the same playing field,” he said.”The EU has been very unfair to us. We have a trade deficit of $350 billion, they don’t buy our cars, they don’t take our farm products, they don’t take almost anything… and we’ll have to straighten that out,” he added.The US trade deficit in goods with the EU was over $235 billion in 2024, according to Commerce Department data. On the other hand, the United States had a trade surplus of $109 billion with the EU in services in 2023, the last year with consolidated data, according to European Commission data. The European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Maros Sefcovic, arrived in Washington on Tuesday and will meet with Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative nominee Jamieson Greer.