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Apple on Thursday reported first-quarter profit above expectations but warned that US tariffs could cost the company and were disrupting its supply chain.Apple expects US tariffs to cost $900 million in the current quarter, even though their impact was “limited” at the start of this year, chief executive Tim Cook said on an earnings call.Cook said he expected “a majority of iPhones sold in the US will have India as their country of origin,” adding that Apple’s products were exempt from Trump’s most severe reciprocal tariffs for now.”We are not able to precisely estimate the impact of tariffs, as we are uncertain of potential future actions prior to the end of the quarter,” Cook said. “Assuming the current global tariff rates, policies and applications do not change for the balance of the quarter and no new tariffs are added, we estimate the impact to add $900 million to our costs.”Tit-for-tat exchanges have seen hefty US levies imposed on China, with Beijing setting retaliatory barriers on US imports.High-end tech goods such as smartphones, semiconductors and computers received a temporary reprieve from US tariffs.Although completed smartphones are exempted from Trump’s tariffs for now, not all components that go into Apple devices are spared, said independent tech analyst Rob Enderle.”The more components are crossing borders, the most cost flows through to the device,” Enderle explained.”In the end, this all adds up to an expensive mess,” he said of the tariff situation.Canalys research manager Le Xuan Chiew said Apple built up inventory ahead of the tariffs going into effect.”With ongoing fluctuations in reciprocal tariff policies, Apple is likely to further shift US-bound production to India to reduce exposure to future risks,” he said.While iPhones produced in mainland China still account for the majority of US shipments, production in India ramped up toward the end of the quarter, according to Canalys.Cook said Vietnam would be the country of origin for almost all iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and AirPod products sold in the US.China will continue to be where most Apple products are made for sale outside the US, he insisted.”What we learned some time ago was that having everything in one location had too much risk with it and so we have, over time with certain parts of the supply chain, opened up new sources of supply,” Cook told analysts.”You could see that kind of thing continuing in the future.”- Sales slip in China -Apple’s revenue of $95.4 billion in the recently ended quarter was driven by iPhone sales, with the company reporting $24.8 billion profit for the quarter.”Apple saw strong growth in the Americas and Japan,” said CFRA Research equity analyst Angelo Zino, noting part of the reason could have been ramped up orders to get ahead of US tariffs.”China revenue declined 3 percent, but the hope was for growth as subsidies were put in place to help stimulate demand in the region.”Apple shares were down more than three percent in after-market trading.”The real story is in Tim Cook’s plans to navigate these unprecedented trade challenges,” said Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne.Apple’s plan to shift manufacturing to India “raises pressing questions about execution timeline, capacity limitations, and potentially unavoidable cost increases that will shrink margins, be passed to consumers, or have a mix of consequences,” Bourne added.

Demonstrators across the United States gathered Thursday for May Day rallies against Donald Trump, protesting his administration’s policies and attempts to push the limits of presidential power.The protests were organized by a loose network of left-leaning activist groups, which said the rallies were taking place in more than 1,000 locations.Hundreds to thousands of protesters gathered in many of the nation’s largest cities from New York to Chicago and Los Angeles, while a number of smaller towns also had demonstrators turn out in their streets.”We believe that the ultra wealthy are trying to take over the country and suppress the working class and the middle class,” Shane Riddle told AFP outside the White House in Washington.The 54-year-old, who works for an education union in the eastern state of Virginia, fears the United States “could turn into an authoritarian type of government if our citizens don’t stand up to this president and its billionaires allies.”Various rallies held across the capital brought together hundreds of people, with similar turnout in New York, while several thousand demonstrators congregated in Los Angeles, AFP photographers on the scene observed.In Houston, Texas activist Bernard Sampson denounced the administration’s rapid deportation of undocumented immigrants, defending the migrants as the people who “work in your restaurants or the people that build your homes.”- Americans ‘are angry’ -The protests come as Democratic elected officials have struggled to find an effective strategy against Trump’s far-reaching shake-up, and with fairly minimal mass mobilization by opposition protesters.”I feel like I haven’t heard anything from the party at all,” Izabela Cabrera, a 22-year-old student told AFP in Washington.”Clearly the American people are angry, and clearly we’re trying to fight for change,” she said, “but I don’t think the Democratic Party is really grasping at that right now.”The chief organizer of Thursday’s protests was the group 50501. Its name is meant to represent 50 protests in 50 states and one movement and it has been behind previous calls to demonstrate.A rally in Philadelphia organized by the AFL-CIO, America’s largest union federation, was headlined by leftist Senator Bernie Sanders, who has been touring the country for weeks to mobilize opposition.The demonstration, titled “For the Workers, Not the Billionaires,” alludes in part to the exceedingly wealthy individuals in Trump’s administration, including Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk, who heads the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” cost-cutting effort.”Today in America, one man, Elon Musk, owns more wealth than the bottom 52 percent of American households,” Sanders said.At May Day rallies across the globe, from France to the Philippines, anti-Trump themes were also visible.May Day, which is celebrated in many countries as International Workers’ Day, is not a public holiday in the United States, which marks Labor Day in September.

US President Donald Trump was surrounded by faith leaders calling for him to be given “divine dreams” in an extraordinary event at the White House on Thursday.One man even knelt in front of the 78-year-old Republican for the ceremony in the Rose Garden to mark National Prayer Day.Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other religious leaders then sang “Amazing Grace” as the thrice-married billionaire signed an executive order establishing a so-called Religious Liberty Commission.Trump has taken on an increasingly religious tone since surviving an assassination attempt last year, saying at his inauguration that he had been “saved by God.””We’re bringing back religion in our country, and we’re bringing it back quickly and strongly,” Trump said.He said God had answered American “prayers because he’s put in an administration to run this country that’s going to make you proud again.”The Republican has long had an ambiguous relationship with religion — not least amid a series of sex scandals and a criminal conviction. He also hawked $60 Trump-branded Bibles on the campaign trail. But he was hailed at the event in almost messianic terms.- ‘Supernatural protection’ -“Surround him with divine supernatural protection,” said televangelist Paula White, Trump’s official spiritual adviser and head of his newly created Faith Office at the White House.Leading a prayer for Trump, White called for a “spiritual reset” in America, with the 47th president at the helm.”Grant him wisdom beyond human understanding…. and give him divine dreams, visions,” she said.One member of the audience rose from his seat and fell to one knee in a gesture of prayer before Trump as the president sat at a desk to sign the order.Others raised their hands in the air as they sang.Despite the various scandals that have swirled around him, evangelical Christians continued to back Trump in the 2024 election, just as they did in 2016.Trump thanked them for their support at the event which lasted 90 minutes, held under a blazing sun.He also stressed what he said were his efforts to bring religion back to the White House, including the Faith Office and the creation of an “anti-Christian bias” task force for the United States — the country with the world’s largest Christian population.Trump has adopted a series of positions that have delighted America’s religious right, including on abortion and transgender issues.”They say ‘separation between church and state.’ I said, ‘all right, let’s forget about that,'” Trump said. “You guys are in the White House where you should be.”- ‘Nonsense’ -Trump then thanked the swaths of Muslim voters who backed him in the 2024 campaign, swayed by his promise to end the bloodshed in the Middle East.But he drifted off on a tangent, riffing on the idea promoted in some forms of Islamic teachings that martyrs to their cause will receive 72 virgins in Heaven.Talking about meeting imams in Michigan, where there is a large Arab-American population, Trump said: “I said ‘you want to die?’ They said ‘We don’t want to die’, I said ‘What about 38 virgins?’ They say, ‘that’s nonsense.”Trump also embarked on a familiar litany of exaggerated or debunked claims, including that he won the 2020 election against Joe Biden — himself a devout Catholic.As people wiped sweat from their brows, Trump then brought a variety of people on stage, including TV host “Dr Phil” and most of the senior members of his cabinet.But there was one notable absence from the congregation — National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, whose replacement Trump announced about an hour later, after Waltz was embroiled in a scandal over a chat group leak.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday replaced his national security advisor Mike Waltz following a scandal over a chat group leak, saying he would appoint him as ambassador to the United Nations instead.In the first major cabinet shake-up of Trump’s new term, the president said Secretary of State Marco Rubio would now also serve as his interim national security advisor following Waltz’s departure.”From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first,” Trump said on Truth Social as he announced the move.But the 51-year-old former special forces officer and Florida congressman had been living on borrowed time since the so-called “Signalgate” scandal broke in March.The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine revealed at the time that Waltz had mistakenly added him to a group chat about US strikes on Yemen’s Huthi rebels on the commercial messaging app Signal.”I’m deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation,” Waltz said in a post on X.Trump had repeatedly offered his backing in public, but behind the scenes Waltz was losing his confidence over Signalgate, while there were also tensions with other officials due to his hawkish stance on Russia and Iran.His position was increasingly at odds with Trump’s pivot towards Moscow as Washington pushed for Ukraine to reach a quick ceasefire deal, and as Trump reopened negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.US Vice President JD Vance nonetheless told Fox News that Waltz’s removal and shift to the UN could be seen as a “promotion,” and had nothing to do with Signalgate.In the end, Waltz lasted just over 100 days of Trump’s second term, which has so far been more stable in terms of personnel than his first.Democrats will now turn up the heat on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who revealed timings that US warplanes would take off to bomb targets in the same Signal chat.Hegseth was also reported to have shared those details in a separate Signal group chain that included his wife.”Now do Hegseth,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer posted on X.- ‘SCALP’ -Trump has so far stood by Hegseth, a former Fox News contributor who has had a rocky first few months at the Pentagon, dismissing the Signal scandal as a “witch hunt.”Alluding to Hegseth’s job security, Vance told Fox News that the defense secretary was “safe,” adding that “we’ve got total faith in Pete.”Waltz’s new role will also require Senate confirmation, ensuring that Signalgate will stay in the headlines.There was no immediate confirmation of US media reports that Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, would also leave the National Security Council.US media had reported that Steve Witkoff, a real estate magnate whom Trump has picked to lead US talks with both Russia and Iran, is in contention to replace Waltz in the longer term.Waltz was among a number of White House staff targeted by right-wing influencer and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who met with Trump to urge a purge.Loomer, who is known for claiming that the September 11, 2001, attacks were an inside job, is reported to have successfully pushed for the dismissal of several senior US security officials she deemed disloyal to the president.After news of Waltz’s ouster was reported Thursday, Loomer appeared to take credit in a post on X, saying: “SCALP.”Waltz showed no sign that he knew of his imminent departure when appearing early Wednesday on Fox News, where he hailed the new US minerals deal with Ukraine.Waltz was also present at Trump’s televised cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where he and other senior officials lavished praise on the president.The National Security Advisor’s role has been held in the past by some of the most high-profile officials in US history, including Henry Kissinger.

Amazon reported a nine percent rise in first-quarter revenue on Thursday, but its outlook fell below expectations as potential impact from the US-China trade war rattled investors.The online retail behemoth said sales hit $155.7 billion in the January-to-March period, but its share price dropped as much as four percent in after-hours trading on Wall Street.Amazon Web Services, the company’s hugely successful cloud business, saw sales jump 17 percent to $29.3 billion, but the gain was slightly below expectations.”We’re pleased with the start to 2025, especially our pace of innovation and progress in continuing to improve customer experiences,” CEO Andy Jassy said, highlighting new AI offerings including the next-generation Alexa+ virtual assistant.Amazon said it had launched several AI initiatives during the quarter, including Amazon Nova generative AI models, while expanding its Project Kuiper satellite network to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink.Looking ahead, Amazon forecast second-quarter net sales between $159 billion and $164 billion, representing solid growth of seven to 11 percent. But this was lower than what analysts had expected.The outlook is especially sensitive for investors with speculation high on how the wave of high trade tariffs announced by President Donald Trump’s administration will affect Amazon’s performance.Trump has most notably slapped 145 percent levies on China, where many US-bound products are made, though he as given exceptions on electronics and other items for now.There is also uncertainty around whether tariffs will slow spending — the US economy already showed a contraction in the first quarter of the year.Jassy said the company had yet to see any reduction in demand since Trump announced his tariffs a month ago even if “to some extent, we’ve seen some heightened buying in certain categories” as shoppers anticipate price hikes.Still, “most sellers (on Amazon) just haven’t changed pricing yet,” he added, while insisting that Amazon wasn’t particularly exposed to China.A report earlier in the week that Amazon was going to display the extra cost of the levies for customers on its platform drew a furious response from the White House.Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos called Trump to defuse the drama, and the company quickly said it had no intention of executing the plan.Advertising, usually dominated by rivals Google and Meta, was a bright spot in the quarter with sales up 19 percent year-on-year.

The Trump administration asked the US Supreme Court on Thursday to back its bid to end the temporary protected status (TPS) shielding more than 350,000 Venezuelans from deportation.A federal judge in California put a temporary stay in March on plans by Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem to end deportation protections for the Venezuelan nationals.US District Judge Edward Chen said the plan to end TPS “smacks of racism” and mischaracterizes Venezuelans as criminals.”Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotype to the entire group is the classic example of racism,” Chen wrote.Solicitor General John Sauer filed an emergency application with the conservative-majority Supreme Court on Thursday asking it to stay the judge’s order.”So long as the order is in effect, the secretary must permit hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals to remain in the country, notwithstanding her reasoned determination that doing so is ‘contrary to the national interest,'” Sauer said.In addition, “the district court’s decision undermines the executive branch’s inherent powers as to immigration and foreign affairs,” he added.Former president Joe Biden extended TPS for another 18 months just days before Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.The United States grants TPS to foreign citizens who cannot safely return home because of war, natural disasters or other “extraordinary” conditions.Trump campaigned for the White House promising to deport millions of undocumented migrants.A number of his executive orders around immigration have encountered pushback from judges across the country.A federal judge in Texas ruled on Thursday that Trump’s use of an obscure wartime law to summarily deport alleged Venezuelan gang members was “unlawful.”District Judge Fernando Rodriguez, a Trump appointee, blocked any deportations from his southern Texas district of alleged members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA).Trump invoked the little-known AEA, which was last used to round up Japanese-American citizens during World War II, on March 15 and flew two planeloads of alleged TdA members to El Salvador’s notorious maximum security CECOT prison.The Supreme Court and several district courts have temporarily halted removals under the AEA citing a lack of due process, but Rodriguez was the first federal judge to find that its use is unlawful.

In signing a minerals deal, Ukraine has found a new way to tie the United States to its future, but it remains to be seen if it can guarantee long-term support from mercurial President Donald Trump.Two months after President Volodymyr Zelensky was unceremoniously kicked out of the White House following an on-camera clash with Trump, Ukraine renegotiated the deal he had been set to sign, with the Ukrainian leader hailing the signed version as truly equal.”Trump has already made clear that he will not back Ukraine’s accession into NATO, backing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position that membership in the Western alliance is a red line, and he has repeatedly criticized the billions of dollars in US assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.But after earlier bristling at Trump’s demands for compensation for past aid, Ukraine managed through the deal to secure a US presence in a way relatable to the businessman Trump, experts said.The deal puts the Ukrainians “in their strongest position yet with Washington since Trump took office,” said Shelby Magid, deputy director of the Atlantic Council think tank’s Eurasia Center.”While the Trump administration put tremendous pressure on Ukraine to accept earlier deals, Ukraine managed to show that it is not just a junior partner that has to roll over and accept a bad deal,” she said.The deal does not speak of any debt owed by Ukraine, despite demands from Trump after he took office.- ‘Extortion’? -But one lesson from recent history could dishearten Ukrainians. Trump, critical of US involvement in Afghanistan, early in his first term reached an agreement with the country’s Western-backed president, Ashraf Ghani, to develop untapped mineral wealth.By the end of Trump’s term, the United States had effectively sidelined Ghani by negotiating a deal with the Taliban, who swiftly took over when president Joe Biden carried out the agreement and withdrew US troops.Some of Trump’s Democratic rivals dismissed the importance of the Ukraine minerals deal. Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a statement called it “extortion” by Trump.Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said that the agreement was meaningless without Trump committing further weapons to Ukraine.”Right now all indications are that Donald Trump’s policy is to hand Ukraine to Vladimir Putin, and in that case, this agreement isn’t worth the paper that it’s written on,” Murphy said on MSNBC television.- Shift at least in short term -Robert Murrett, deputy director of Syracuse University’s Institute for Security Policy and Law, said it was too early to see how much of a security guarantee the deal would provide.But he said that from an economic perspective it can only be read as “something positive, in terms of giving the United States a long-term stake in Ukraine.””I think the other good indicator is a kind of acid test — the fact that the Kremlin is very, very unhappy with the deal,” he said.Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the language in the deal was striking, two months after the Trump-Zelensky clash.The agreement speaks of Russia’s invasion and raises the prospect of renewed US military assistance, by saying that security funding would be counted as US investment in the fund.She said that the deal was a means for “long-term economic recovery” and acknowledged that much could change over time.But in the short term, “it actually provides a Trump administration avenue for support” to Ukraine, she said.”This is a pretty big shift from where we were 60 days ago,” she said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that a landmark minerals deal with the United States offered “equal” benefits for both sides, despite falling short of the explicit security guarantees Kyiv had sought.But Zelensky said more pressure was needed on Russia after its military response to the minerals accord signed on Wednesday was missile strikes on Kyiv and other towns that left at least two dead and 15 wounded.The agreement, which has taken months to negotiate, would see the United States and Kyiv jointly develop and invest in Ukraine’s critical mineral resources.US President Donald Trump initially described the arrangement as “money back” for the wartime aid Ukraine received under his predecessor Joe Biden.Ukraine said the new agreement is not linked to any past “debt” however. And US officials stressed that the accord signalled US support for Ukraine.”This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine over the long term,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in Washington.The agreement “changed significantly” during negotiations, Zelensky said in his daily address.”Now it is a truly equal agreement that creates an opportunity for quite significant investment in Ukraine.””There is no debt in the deal, and a fund — a recovery fund — will be created that will invest in Ukraine and earn money here,” he added.Kyiv and Washington planned to sign the agreement in February, but a White House clash between Trump and Zelensky derailed the talks.Ukraine hopes the deal will now pave the way for the United States to give security guarantees as it seeks to safeguard against future Russian attacks following Moscow’s three-year invasion.The agreement still needs to be ratified by Ukraine’s parliament.- ‘Be quiet and negotiate’ -Under the deal, Ukraine and the United States will establish a joint Reconstruction Investment Fund.Profits from the agreement will be invested exclusively in Ukraine for the first 10 years, after which profits “may be distributed between the partners,” Kyiv said.The new agreement does not give any specific US security commitments, but Washington argues boosting its business interests in Ukraine will help deter Russia.Moscow has kept up its attacks on Ukraine unabated, despite Trump’s efforts to broker a ceasefire.An overnight Russian drone strike on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa killed two people and wounded more than a dozen others, authorities said.”We need further pressure on Russia to force it to be quiet and to negotiate. The more effective the sanctions are, the more incentives Russia will have to end the war,” Zelensky said on Telegram following the attack.French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told AFP on Thursday, after Washington talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that the European Union is preparing a 17th round of sanctions against Russia, describing President Vladimir Putin as the “sole obstacle” to peace in Ukraine.A bipartisan group of US senators lead by Republican Lindsay Graham and Democrat Richard Blumenthal also last month proposed legislation that would impose sanctions on countries friendly to Moscow if it disrupts efforts to end the war.Russia rejected a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States and Ukraine in March, demanding a halt in Western military aid for Kyiv.The United States warned that this week would be “critical” in determining whether it would walk away from efforts to broker an end to the three-year war.Putin has declared a surprise three-day truce from May 8-10, coinciding with Moscow’s large-scale celebrations for the 80th World War II Victory Day celebrations.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday released what it described as a comprehensive review of gender-related medical interventions for children and adolescents, warning of “significant risks” associated with puberty blockers and surgeries.The 400-page report was issued without named authors — a departure from scientific norms but nonetheless defended by the Department of Health and Human Services as a measure “to help maintain the integrity of this process.”Youth gender medicine is a highly polarizing issue in many countries, with medical professionals seeking to strike a balance between alleviating psychological distress, respecting patient autonomy, and ensuring that interventions are evidence-based and appropriate for developing bodies and minds.But the Trump administration’s record of hostility toward transgender people — including efforts to ban them from the military and erase language around gender identity from official documents — has raised questions about the objectivity of the review.The report states that gender-affirming treatments carry risks “including infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret.””Our duty is to protect our nation’s children — not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions,” said Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health. “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”Aisha Mays, a family physician in California and member of the nonprofit Physicians for Reproductive Health, called the report “propaganda” that aimed “to delegitimize the perfectly safe, effective, and evidence-based health care that transgender people access to be who they are.””Being transgender, just like being cisgender, is not a choice nor can it be reversed by any medical or social method,” she added. “The same way cisgender people know who they are, so do trans people. The same way cis people receive gender-affirming care, so do trans people.”While Health Secretary and noted vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has drawn scrutiny for brash statements at odds with scientific consensus, the report itself is largely written in sober, academic prose and heavily cites medical literature.Still, it levels strong accusations — most notably against US medical associations, which it claims “may impede or even oppose evidence-based medicine when the professional or financial interests of their members are threatened by medical practice reversal.”The report also denounces terms like “assigned sex at birth,” arguing that it “suggests an arbitrary decision — not unlike ‘assigned seating’ — rather than the observation of a characteristic present long before birth, namely the child’s sex.”- Rare interventions -Its release follows a landmark review in the United Kingdom last year, led by retired pediatrician Hilary Cass, which urged “extreme caution” in prescribing hormone therapies to youth. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which supports access to medically necessary gender-affirming care and opposes legislation that restricts it, said it was “deeply alarmed” by the U.S. report.”For such an analysis to carry credibility, it must consider the totality of available data and the full spectrum of clinical outcomes rather than relying on select perspectives and a narrow set of data,” the group said, adding that its own guidelines were misrepresented.Despite intensifying political rhetoric, data show gender-affirming care among minors remains rare.A study in JAMA Network Open found that gender-affirming surgery occurred at a rate of 5.3 per 100,000 among adults, compared to 2.1 per 100,000 among minors aged 15 to 17; 0.1 among those aged 13 to 14; and zero cases among children 12 or younger.Another recent JAMA Pediatrics study reported that fewer than 0.1 percent of privately insured minors with a transgender or gender-diverse diagnosis received puberty blockers or hormones—and none were under 12.

US President Donald Trump confirmed Thursday that he was replacing his national security advisor Mike Waltz following a chat group leak, saying he planned to move him to the United Nations.In the first major cabinet shake-up of Trump’s new term, the president said Secretary of State Marco Rubio would now also serve as his “interim” national security advisor following Waltz’s departure.”I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump said on Truth Social, confirming earlier reports that Waltz was being ousted.”Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”Trump did not give a reason for the move but Waltz had been under pressure over the so-called “Signalgate” scandal since late March.The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine revealed at the time that Waltz had mistakenly added him to a group chat about US strikes on Yemen’s Huthi rebels on the commercial messaging app Signal.Officials on the group laid out the attack plan, including the timings that US warplanes would take off to bomb targets, with the first texts barely half an hour before they launched.Despite intense media speculation that Trump would fire Waltz over the scandal, the president repeatedly offered his backing and the national security advisor appeared to have ridden out the storm.In the end, however, the 51-year-old former congressman from Florida lasted just over 100 days of Trump’s second term, which has so far been more stable in terms of personnel than his first.Democrats will now turn up the heat on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was the official who revealed the air strike details in advance, and who was also reported to have shared those details in a separate Signal group chat that included, among others, his spouse.”Now do Hegseth,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer posted on X.Waltz’s new role will also require Senate confirmation, ensuring that Signalgate will stay in the headlines.There was no immediate confirmation of US media reports that Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, would also leave the National Security Council.US media had reported that Steve Witkoff, a real estate magnate whom Trump has picked to lead US talks with both Russia and Iran, is in contention to replace Waltz in the longer term.- ‘SCALP’ -Waltz was among a number of White House staff targeted by right-wing influencer and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who met with Trump urging a purge.Loomer, who is known for claiming that the September 11, 2001, attacks were an inside job, is reported to have successfully pushed for the dismissal of several senior US security officials she deemed disloyal to the president.After news of Waltz’s ouster was reported Thursday, Loomer appeared to take credit in a post on X, saying: “SCALP.”Waltz showed no sign that he knew of his imminent departure when appearing early Wednesday on Fox News, where he hailed the new US minerals deal with Ukraine.Waltz was also present at Trump’s televised cabinet meeting on Wednesday when he lavished praise on the president.”We’ve had 100 days of your leadership with respect, with strength,” Waltz said. “It’s an honor to serve you in this administration.”A former special forces officer, Waltz was seen as a moderate voice in the Trump administration when he was appointed, but reportedly clashed with other officials over his hawkish stance against Russia and Iran.Trump has pushed for Ukraine to reach a quick ceasefire deal with Russia, while reopening negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.The National Security Advisor’s role has been held in the past by some of the most high-profile officials in US history, including Henry Kissinger.But Waltz had been on borrowed time since Signalgate emerged as the first major scandal of the whirlwind start of Trump’s new term.On the text chain, Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of an attack on the Huthis, writing that US forces had identified the target “walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”Hegseth revealed detailed timings of the US airstrikes on Yemen, putting him squarely in the Democrats’ crosshairs.