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Donald Trump fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery on Friday, claiming she was “highly partisan,” as the US president pushes his plan to remake the country’s cultural institutions.The sacking of Kim Sajet, whose publicly funded museum in Washington is home to paintings of key figures in American history, is the latest broadside against an arts world the Republican views as hostile and in thrall to his Democratic Party opponents.”Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby (sic) terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,” Trump wrote Truth Social.”She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position,” he added, referring to “diversity, equity and inclusion.”The firing is the first concrete action Trump has taken against the Smithsonian Insitution — a grouping of museums in the US capital — since he issued an executive order promising to rid cultural bodies of “divisive narratives” and “anti-American ideology.” Sajet, who was born in Nigeria and raised in Australia, is a Dutch national, as well as a seasoned specialist in portraiture, who has led the National Portrait Gallery since 2013.The Smithsonian Institution, founded nearly two centuries ago, is a Washington mainstay whose 21 museums are largely dedicated to US history and culture.With free entry, they are a tourist favorite, sitting on the edges of the National Mall, a green esplanade that links the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, close to the White House.Friday’s firing, which comes as the Trump administration is engaged in a battle with elite universities like Harvard, follows the president seeking to remake the Kennedy Center, a performing arts venue, by reorganizing its board of directors.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that he would double steel import tariffs to 50 percent, speaking in Pennsylvania at a US Steel plant where he also touted a partnership between the American steelmaker and Japan’s Nippon Steel.”We’re going to bring it from 25 percent to 50 percent, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry,” he said.”Nobody’s going to get around that,” he added in the speech before blue-collar workers in the battleground state that helped deliver his election victory last year.The doubling of levies will take place next week, said the White House in a social media post.Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on allies and adversaries alike in moves that have rocked the world trade order and roiled financial markets.He has also targeted sector-specific goods including steel, aluminum and automobiles with 25 percent tariffs.On Friday, Trump mounted a defense of his trade policy, arguing that tariffs helped protect the US company. He added that the plant would not exist if he did not also impose duties on metals imports during his first administration.In his speech, Trump stressed as well that despite a recently announced partnership between US Steel and Nippon Steel, “US Steel will continue to be controlled by the USA.”He added that there would be no layoffs or outsourcing of jobs due to the deal.A proposed $14.9 billion sale of US Steel to Nippon Steel had previously drawn bipartisan opposition, and former president Joe Biden blocked the deal on national security grounds shortly before leaving office.The terms of the new partnership remain murky, however.The United Steelworkers union (USW) which represents thousands of hourly workers at US Steel facilities, said in a statement Wednesday that the “partnership” announcement “continues to raise more questions than answers.””Nippon still maintains it would only invest in USS facilities if it owned the company outright. We’ve seen nothing in the reporting to indicate that position has changed,” the USW statement added.Trump said previously that US Steel would remain in America with its headquarters to stay in Pittsburgh, adding that the arrangement with Nippon would create at least 70,000 jobs and add $14 billion to the US economy.But union leaders said they had no confirmation of how much of the $14 billion would go towards union-represented sites, if any.Trump had opposed Nippon Steel’s takeover plan while on the election campaign trail, but since returning to the presidency, he signaled that he would be open to some form of investment after all.

The US Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a major victory Friday in his immigration crackdown, giving his administration the green light to revoke the legal status of half a million migrants from four Caribbean and Latin American countries.The decision puts 532,000 people who came from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the United States under a two-year humanitarian “parole” program launched by former president Joe Biden at risk of deportation. And it marked the second time the highest US court has sided with Trump in his aggressive push to deliver on his election pledge to deport millions of non-citizens, through a series of policy moves that have prompted a flurry of lawsuits.On Calle Ocho, a historic street in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, Johnny Cardona, 63, was saddened by the Supreme Court’s decision.”Since I’m American, it’s not going to affect me, but I know it’s going to affect many friendships, many families, many people I know,” Cardona told AFP.The ruling sparked a scathing dissent from two justices in the liberal minority who said the six conservatives on the bench had “plainly botched” the decision and undervalued the “devastating consequences” to those potentially affected.The revoked program had allowed entry into the United States for two years for up to 30,000 migrants a month from the four countries, all of which have dismal human rights records.But as Trump takes a hard line on immigration, his administration moved to overturn those protections, winning a ruling from the Supreme Court earlier this month that allowed officials to begin deporting around 350,000 Venezuelans.The latest case resulted from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem canceling an 18-month extension of the temporary protected status of the migrants, citing in particular the “authoritarian” nature of Nicolas Maduro’s government in Venezuela.The department gave them 30 days to leave the country unless they had legal protection under another program.- ‘Needless human suffering’ -“The court has plainly botched this assessment today,” Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor wrote in their dissent.The justices said the migrants face being wrenched from family and returning to potential danger in their native countries — or opting to stay and risking imminent removal.”At a minimum, granting the stay would facilitate needless human suffering before the courts have reached a final judgment regarding the legal arguments at issue, while denying the government’s application would not have anything close to that kind of practical impact,” Jackson said.None of the other justices gave reasons for their decision, and the court was not required to make the vote public.”The ultimate goal of this policy is to leave these people without legal status, to make them subjects of deportation,” said Adelys Ferro, co-founder and executive director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, an advocacy group.The district court that barred the administration from revoking the migrants’ status had argued that it was unlawfully applying a fast-track deportation procedure aimed at illegal immigrants to non-citizens protected by government programs. At the Supreme Court, Justice Department lawyers said the “district court has nullified one of the administration’s most consequential immigration policy decisions” by issuing the stay.The high court’s decision means the Trump administration can go ahead with its policy change, even as the litigation on the merits plays out in lower courts.Trump campaigned for the White House on a pledge to deport millions of undocumented migrants, claiming there was an ongoing “invasion” of the United States by hordes of foreign criminals. But his program of mass deportations has been thwarted or restricted by numerous court rulings, including from the Supreme Court and notably on the grounds that those targeted should be able to assert their due process rights. The Trump administration systematically accuses judges who oppose his immigration decisions of plundering his presidential national security powers.

Former US President Joe Biden told reporters Friday he was feeling “optimistic” about the future after delivering his first public remarks since revealing he had an aggressive form of prostate cancer. “Well, the prognosis is good. You know, we’re working on everything. It’s moving along. So, I feel good,” Biden, 82, said after an event in Delaware belatedly marking Monday’s Memorial Day federal holiday.Biden’s office announced earlier this month he is battling prostate cancer with a Gleason score of nine, which places him in the most severe category.The veteran Democrat told reporters he had decided on a treatment regime, adding that “the expectation is, we’re going to be able to beat this.””It’s not in any organ, my bones are strong, it hasn’t penetrated. So I’m feeling good,” he said.The mental and physical health of the former president, the oldest person ever to hold the office, was a dominant issue in the 2024 election.After a disastrous debate performance against Trump, Biden ended his campaign for a second term.When Biden’s office announced his diagnosis, they said the cancer had spread to his bones.But Biden told reporters: “We’re all optimistic about the diagnosis. As a matter of fact, one of the leading surgeons in the world is working with me.”The political row over Biden’s aborted candidacy has become a major scandal since the release of the book “Original Sin” — which alleges that Biden’s White House covered up his cognitive decline while he was in office.The ex-president was asked about the controversy and responded with sarcasm, joking that “I’m mentally incompetent and I can’t walk.”He said he had no regrets about initially running for a second term, and that his Democratic critics could have challenged him but chose not to “because I’d have beaten them.”In earlier formal remarks in New Castle, Delaware, Biden spoke of his presidency as his greatest honor, and called for better treatment of veterans.But he saved his most poignant comments to mark the 10th anniversary on May 30 of his son, National Guard veteran Beau Biden, dying of brain cancer at the age of 46.”For the Bidens, this day is the 10th anniversary, the loss of my son Beau, who spent a year in Iraq,” said Biden, who had attended a memorial service for his son earlier in the day.”And, to be honest, it’s a hard day.”

US President Donald Trump said Friday that Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte were “fine,” after a viral video appeared to show her shoving the French president’s face on a trip to Vietnam.”Make sure the door remains closed,” the three-times married Trump quipped to reporters when asked if he had any “world leader to world leader marital advice” for Macron about the video. “That was not good,” added Trump, who was holding a joint press conference with billionaire Elon Musk in the Oval Office.The incident was filmed just as the door of the French presidential plane swung open after landing in Hanoi on Sunday. It showed Brigitte Macron, 72, sticking out both her hands and giving her husband’s face a shove. Macron, 47, appeared startled but quickly recovered and turns to wave through the open door.The 78-year-old US president, who has long had a “bromance” with his French counterpart, said he had been in touch with him since.”I spoke to him. He’s fine. They’re fine. They’re two really good people. I know them very well,” added Trump. “I don’t know what that was all about.”Macron himself denied on Monday that the couple had been having a domestic dispute. He blamed disinformation campaigns for trying to put false meaning on the footage.Musk, who was marking his departure from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, meanwhile took the chance to joke at Macron’s expense.Asked about a black eye he was sporting, the tycoon replied “I wasn’t anywhere near France” to the apparent puzzlement of a reporter who asked him to explain the comment.Musk then said it was his son who caused the injury with a punch.

US President Donald Trump signaled renewed trade tensions with China Friday, arguing that Beijing had “totally violated” a tariff de-escalation deal, while saying he expects to eventually speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.Trump’s comments came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that trade talks with China were “a bit stalled,” in an interview with broadcaster Fox News.Top officials from the world’s two biggest economies agreed during talks in Geneva this month to temporarily lower staggeringly high tariffs they had imposed on each other, in a pause to last 90 days.But on Friday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” without providing further details.The impasse came as China’s slow-walking on export license approvals for rare earths and other elements needed to make cars and chips fueled US frustration, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.Key to the tariff de-escalation pact was a demand that China resume rare earth exports, the report added, citing sources familiar with the matter.Earlier Friday, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC: “The Chinese are slow-rolling their compliance, which is completely unacceptable.”While Greer did not go into specifics, he noted reports that Beijing continues to “slow down and choke off things like critical minerals and rare earth magnets,” adding that the US trade deficit with China is still “enormous.”Greer said that Washington was not seeing major shifts in Beijing’s behavior.Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters that with China failing to fulfill its obligations, “that opens up all manner of action for the United States to ensure future compliance.”On Thursday, Bessent suggested that there could be a call between Trump and Xi eventually.Trump told reporters Friday afternoon: “I’m sure that I’ll speak to President Xi, and hopefully we’ll work that out.”US stock markets closed mixed, after fluctuating in the day on jitters that Trump could return to a more confrontational stance on China.- Forthcoming deals? -Washington is also in “intensive talks” with other trading partners, Greer told CNBC, saying he has meetings next week with counterparts from Malaysia, Vietnam and the European Union.The meetings come as he heads to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) talks in Europe.”The negotiations are on track, and we do hope to have some deals in the next couple of weeks,” Greer said.Washington and Tokyo are making progress towards a deal, Kyodo News reported, citing Japan’s tariffs envoy Ryosei Akazawa.Akazawa, who met with Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington, expects another round of talks before mid-June.But Trump’s tariff plans are facing legal challenges.A US federal trade court ruled this week that the president overstepped his authority in tapping emergency economic powers to justify sweeping tariffs.It blocked the most wide-ranging levies imposed since Trump returned to office, although this ruling has been stayed for now as an appeals process is ongoing.The decision left intact, however, tariffs that Trump imposed on sector-specific imports such as steel and autos.Greer said it was important to get through the legal process so partners have a “better understanding of the landing zone.”Since Trump returned to the presidency, he has slapped sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners, with especially high rates on Chinese imports.New tit-for-tat levies on both sides reached three digits before the de-escalation this month, where Washington agreed to temporarily reduce additional tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 percent to 30 percent.China, meanwhile, lowered its added duties from 125 percent to 10 percent.The US level is higher as it includes a 20 percent levy that Trump imposed on Chinese goods over the country’s alleged role in the illicit drug trade — an accusation that Beijing has pushed back against.The high US-China tariffs, while still in place, forced many businesses to pause shipments as they waited for both governments to strike a deal.

Billionaire Elon Musk sparked fevered speculation when he turned up with a black eye for his Oval Office farewell with US President Donald Trump on Friday.But the South African-born tech magnate said he had a simple explanation: his son had punched him in the face.”I was just horsing around with lil’ X, and I said, ‘go ahead punch me in the face,'” 53-year-old Musk told reporters when asked how he got the shiner.”And he did. Turns out even a five-year-old punching you in the face actually is…” he added, before tailing off.”I didn’t really feel much at the time but I guess it bruises up.”Trump hosted the press conference with Musk to mark the Tesla boss’s last day at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk had expressed increasing disillusionment with the job but said he would remain a “friend and advisor.”Musk’s appearance was overshadowed by allegations in the New York Times that he had engaged in heavy drug use while on the campaign trail for Trump in 2024.Trump said he “didn’t notice” the purple bruise next to Musk’s right eye, but added: “X could do it, if you knew X.”Musk’s son X — full name X Æ A-Xii — made frequent appearances in the White House when his father was running DOGE’s cost-cutting rampage through the federal government.He even sat on Musk’s shoulders during the SpaceX magnate’s first Oval appearance back in February, and was seen picking his nose next to Trump’s “Resolute” Desk.Musk took the chance to joke at French President Emmanuel Macron’s expense when it came to his black eye.After Trump was asked for his reaction to a video of Macron’s wife apparently shoving the French leader’s face, Musk laughed and said: “I’ve got a little shiner here.”Musk, wearing a DOGE baseball cap and a T-shirt saying “The Dogefather,” joked about it again when he was asked how he got the injury.”I wasn’t anywhere near France,” he said.

Google on Friday urged a US judge to reject the notion of making it spin off its Chrome browser to weaken its dominance in online search.Rival attorneys made their final arguments before US District Court Judge Amit Mehta, who is considering “remedies” to impose after making a landmark decision last year that Google maintained an illegal monopoly in search.US government attorneys have called on Mehta to order Google divest itself of Chrome browser, contending that artificial intelligence is poised to ramp up the tech giant’s dominance as the go-to window into the internet.They also want Google barred from agreements with partners such as Apple and Samsung to distribute its search tools, which was the focus of the suit against the Silicon Valley internet giant.Three weeks of testimony ended early in May, with Friday devoted to rival sides parsing points of law and making their arguments before Mehta in a courtroom in Washington.John Schmidtlein, an attorney for Google, told Mehta that there was no evidence presented showing people would have opted for a different search engine if no exclusivity deals had been in place.Schmidtlein noted that Verizon installed Chrome on smartphones even though the US telecom titan owned Yahoo! search engine and was not bound by a contract with Google.Of the 100 or so witnesses heard at trial, not one said “if I had more flexibility, I would have installed Bing” search engine from Microsoft, the Google attorney told the judge.- ‘More flexibility’ -Department of Justice (DoJ) attorney David Dahlquist countered that Apple, which was paid billions of dollars to make Chrome the default browser on iPhones, “repeatedly asked for more flexibility” but was denied by Google.Google contends that the United States has gone way beyond the scope of the suit by recommending a spinoff of Chrome, and holding open the option to force a sale of its Android mobile operating system.”Forcing the sale of Chrome or banning default agreements wouldn’t foster competition,” said Cato Institute senior fellow in technology policy Jennifer Huddleston.”It would hobble innovation, hurt smaller players, and leave users with worse products.”The potential of Chrome being weakened or spun off comes as rivals such as Microsoft, ChatGPT and Perplexity put generative artificial intelligence (AI) to work fetching information from the internet in response to user queries.The online search antitrust suit was filed against Google some five years ago, before ChatGPT made its debut, triggering AI fervor.Google is among the tech companies investing heavily to be a leader in AI, and is weaving the technology into search and other online offerings.- Kneecap Google? -Testimony at trial included Apple vice president of services Eddy Cue revealing that Google’s search traffic on Apple devices declined in April for the first time in over two decades.Cue testified that Google was losing ground to AI alternatives like ChatGPT and Perplexity.Mehta pressed rival attorneys regarding the potential for Google to share data as proposed by the DoJ in its recommended remedies.”We’re not looking to kneecap Google,” DoJ attorney Adam Severt told the judge.”But, we are looking to make sure someone can compete with Google.”Schmidtlein contended that the data Google is being asked to share contains much more than just information about people’s online searches, saying it would be tantamount to handing over the fruit of investments made over the course of decades.”There are countless algorithms that Google engineers have invented that have nothing to do with click and query data,” Schmidtlein said.”Their remedy says we want to be on par with all of your ingenuity, and, respectfully your honor, that is not proportional to the conduct of this case.”

French scientist Etienne-Emile Baulieu, the inventor of the abortion pill, died at the age of 98 at his home in Paris on Friday, his wife told AFP.The doctor and researcher, who achieved worldwide renown for his work that led to the pill, had an eventful life that included fighting in the French resistance and becoming friends with artists such as Andy Warhol.”His research was guided by his commitment to the progress made possible by science, his dedication to women’s freedom, and his desire to enable everyone to live better, longer lives,” Baulieu’s wife Simone Harari Baulieu said in a statement. French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to his life, calling him “a beacon of courage” and “a progressive mind who enabled women to win their freedom”.”Few French people have changed the world to such an extent,” he added in a post on X.Baulieu’s most famous discovery helped create the oral drug RU-486, also known as mifepristone, which provided a safe and inexpensive alternative to surgical abortion to millions of women across the world.For decades, he pushed governments to authorise the drug, facing fierce criticism and sometimes threats from opponents of abortion. When Wyoming became the first US state to outlaw the abortion pill in 2023, Baulieu told AFP it was “scandalous”.Then aged 96, Baulieu said he had dedicated a large part of his life to “increasing the freedom of women,” and such bans were a step in the wrong direction.On news of his death, French Equality Minister Aurore Berge passed on her condolences to Baulieu’s family, saying on X he was “guided throughout his life by one requirement: human dignity.”- ‘Fascinated by artists’ -Born on December 12, 1926 in Strasbourg to Jewish parents, Etienne Blum was raised by his feminist mother after his father, a doctor, died.He changed his name to Emile Baulieu when he joined the French resistance against Nazi occupation at the age of 15, then later adding Etienne.After the war, he became a self-described “doctor who does science,” specialising in the field of steroid hormones.Invited to work in the United States, Baulieu was noticed in 1961 by Gregory Pincus, known as the father of the contraceptive pill, who convinced him to focus on sex hormones.Back in France, Baulieu designed a way to block the effect of the hormone progesterone, which is essential for the egg to implant in the uterus after fertilisation.This led to the development of mifepristone in 1982.Dragged before the courts and demonised by US anti-abortion groups who accused him of inventing a “death pill”, Baulieu refused to back down.”Adversity slides off him like water off a duck’s back,” Simone Harari Baulieu told AFP.”You, a Jew and a resistance fighter, you were overwhelmed with the most atrocious insults and even compared to Nazi scientists,” Macron said as he presented Baulieu with France’s top honour in 2023.”But you held on, for the love of freedom and science.”In the 1960s, literature fan Baulieu became friends with artists such as Andy Warhol.He said he was “fascinated by artists who claim to have access to the human soul, something that will forever remain beyond the reach of scientists.”- Alzheimer’s, depression research -Baulieu kept going into his Parisian office well into his mid-90s.”I would be bored if I did not work anymore,” he said in 2023.His recent research has included trying to find a way to prevent the development of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as a treatment for severe depression, for which clinical trials are currently underway across the world.”There is no reason we cannot find treatments” for both illnesses, he said.Baulieu was also the first to describe how the hormone DHEA secreted from adrenal glands in 1963. He was convinced of the hormone’s anti-ageing abilities, but drugs using it only had limited effects, such as in skin-firming creams.In the United States, Baulieu was also awarded the prestigious Lasker prize in 1989.After his wife Yolande Compagnon died, Baulieu married Simone Harari in 2016.He leaves behind three children, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, according to the statement released by his family.