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US President Donald Trump’s move to sidestep global regulations and begin pushing for seabed mining in international waters could pose a wider threat of competing countries claiming sovereignty over the ocean, experts say.Trump last month signed an executive order to accelerate the permit-granting process for deep-sea mining in domestic and international waters, citing an obscure 1980 US law.And the Canadian deep-sea mining frontrunner The Metals Company has already filed an application in the United States to conduct commercial mining on the high seas — bypassing the International Seabed Authority (ISA). This is the body entrusted by a United Nations convention with managing the ocean floor outside of national jurisdictions.Ocean law is largely guided by that accord — the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), first signed in 1982 to prevent “a competitive scramble for sovereign rights over the land underlying the world’s seas and oceans,” according to Maltese diplomat Arvid Pardo, the convention’s forebearer.The United States never ratified the convention, which took effect in 1994, though it has applied many of its clauses.Coalter Lathrop, an attorney at the US law firm Sovereign Geographic, told AFP that the United States is “a huge beneficiary of the parallel set of customary international law rules” despite not being a party to UNCLOS.For instance, the United States has one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) which gives states sovereignty over maritime areas up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from their coastline — protecting them from foreign fishing boats, among other extractive industries.If the US enjoys the benefits of ocean law, Lathrop argues, “but then you disregard the other part of the package deal — that the seabed and its minerals in areas beyond national jurisdiction are the common heritage of humankind — that is going to be destabilizing, to say the least, for the general legal order of the oceans.””US unilateral permitting could lead to the disintegration of a system that has been carefully curated and created by the United States, largely for its own benefit,” he added.- ‘Unraveled’ -The US and Canadian moves sparked an international outcry from ISA member states, including China, whose foreign ministry spokesman warned it violates international law.ISA secretary general Leticia Carvalho expressed similar concern, saying that “any unilateral action… sets a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance.”The Metals Company does maintain contracts with ISA members like Japan — where it has a partnership with smelting company Pamco. And experts note such ISA member states could invoke their obligation to UNCLOS to enforce maritime law on The Metals Company via these proxies, even if it ultimately receives a permit from the Trump administration.Guy Standing, an economist at the University of London, told AFP: “It’s the most dangerous thing he’s done so far,” referring to Trump.If marine laws “were to come sort of unraveled,” Standing said, “you could have a carve up in different parts of the world, with Russia, China and America carving up the Arctic.”However, not all scholars in the field are in agreement.James Kraska, a professor of international maritime law at US Naval War College, said “it’s naive to think the United States has that kind of influence.””I just disagree with the people that are saying that it’s somehow a legal obligation to comply with a treaty that you never joined,” he told AFP.”I just can’t see any way that it’s unlawful. I understand that there’s sort of political opposition to it, but I would just distinguish between politics and the law.”

As a damning expose on Joe Biden’s cognitive decline scandalizes Washington, Democrats in Congress are facing their own reckoning over a seniority system that critics say is holding back younger talent.Six Democratic lawmakers have died in a little over a year — dispiriting bereaved colleagues but also leaving the rank-and-file critically under-resourced when it comes to opposing President Donald Trump.House Republicans passed Trump’s sprawling tax relief and spending cuts by a solitary vote last week, approving a package that Democrats say will deprive more than eight million Americans of health care.Democrats did not have the numbers to cause problems for the bill because of three empty seats on their side — all recently vacated by lawmakers in their 70s who had died after battling cancer.”Imagine if one of the older and sicker Dems would’ve retired instead of died in office and what that would’ve meant for millions of people,” political consultant Rebecca Katz posted on X.The complicated math means that even a full Democratic contingent would likely only have been able to delay rather than torpedo the bill.But it is being seen as a lost opportunity that has laid bare the party’s problems with aging members clinging to office despite ailing health — in a party desperate for new blood.One of the vacancies was the Virginia seat formerly held by Gerry Connolly, 75, who had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and died just a day earlier.- Oldest president -Democrats had just picked Connolly to be their leader on the powerful oversight committee, choosing his experience over the energy and social media savvy of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, 40 years his junior.”By elevating someone who was more of a standard politician, they sort of lost out on getting into the culture,” left-leaning political commentator Molly Jong-Fast told MSNBC.”And ultimately that was, I think, a miss for Democrats.”Age is a touchy subject among Democrats, with 82-year-old Biden’s inner circle denying accusations in a new book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of covering up his glaring infirmity. In the Senate the party is led by 74-year-old Chuck Schumer and in the House former speaker Nancy Pelosi, 85, still holds enormous sway two years after giving up the gavel.  Democrats do not have a monopoly on aging issues.Mitch McConnell, 83, was clearly ailing when he stepped down after 18 years as Republican leader in the Senate in January and Trump, 78, is set to become the oldest US president in history.But the so-called “gerontocracy” has been more harmful to Washington’s minority party, frustrating the agenda of Democratic White Houses and allowing Republicans in Congress to absorb more defections.At the heart of the problem is the Democrats’ long-honored seniority system, which prioritizes lawmakers based on experience when allocating plum committee assignments, leadership posts and office space. – ‘Contemptible little twerp’ -As a result, top Democrats on more than half of the House committees are aged 70 or over. The mean age of these 20 party grandees is 69, compared with a more youthful 62 for Republicans.And the problem is not confined to Congress.Mourning gave way to frustration over liberal Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who clung on until her death in 2020 at age 87 instead of retiring with Barack Obama in office, allowing Trump to fill the vacancy. There have been baby steps to address the gerontocracy but progress has been halting.Gun safety campaigner David Hogg, 25, was elected as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee in February and promptly called for primary challenges to “out-of-touch, ineffective Democrats.”This did not go down well among the party’s old guard, with 80-year-old strategist James Carville calling Hogg a “contemptible little twerp.”But the revelations about Biden’s deteriorating health, including a newly announced prostate cancer diagnosis, are an illustration for activists and analysts that the party needs to change course.”If you are saying that democracy is on the ballot, if you are saying this the most important election of our lifetime, which they did say to the base, then the base expects you to act like it,” Jong-Fast added.”They expect you to elevate the people who can speak better than the people who are your friends… And I think this is a sea change for the Democratic Party.”

Harvard students protested Tuesday after the US government said it intends to cancel all remaining financial contracts with the university, President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to force the prestigious institution to submit to unprecedented oversight.Hundreds of students gathered to oppose Trump’s widening offensive, including Tuesday’s measures estimated to be worth $100 million, against the university that has drawn his ire for refusing to give up control of curriculum, admissions and research.”Trump = traitor” read one student placard, while the crowd chanted “who belongs in class today, let them stay” in reference to Harvard’s international students whose status Trump has upended by summarily revoking the university’s accreditation to the country’s Student and Exchange Visitor program.A judge issued a restraining order pending a hearing on the matter scheduled for Thursday, the same day as the university’s commencement graduation ceremony for which thousands of graduating students and their families had gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts near Boston.Tuesday’s protest unfolded as news helicopters hovered overhead and graduating students in academic attire and their guests ate finger food at a reception on the lawns of Harvard Square nearby.”I’m graduating this week and not only is my last week as a Harvard student but it’s a very important week as all my international friends and peers and professors and researchers are at risk and be threatened with being deported — or their option is to transfer” to another university, said Alice Goyer, who attended the protest wearing a black academic gown.”As a US student, it’s my responsibility to speak out for them.”One history of medicine student from Britain graduating this week who gave his name only as Jack said that the policies pursued by Trump would make US universities less attractive to international students.”The cloud may pass but the damage will be done,” said the graduating student whose parents had travelled from Britain for the graduation ceremony, suggesting that the courts would likely overturn the most damaging measures.”(Foreign students) who are here don’t know where they stand, those overseas don’t know if they’ll be able to get back in… I don’t know if I’d pursue a PhD here, six years is a long time.”Harvard itself has filed extensive legal challenges against the Trump measures, which legal experts say are likely to be overturned by the courts.Separately, alumni plan to file a lawsuit against Trump on June 9, filmmaker Anurima Bhargava told a virtual meeting staged by Crimson Courage, a grassroots alumni group that held a mass webinar to raise awareness and a fighting fund from former students.- ‘American values’ -The cutting of contracts announced Tuesday — estimated by US media to be worth $100 million — would mark the slashing of business ties between the government and a university that is the country’s oldest and a research powerhouse.Amid a broad campaign against seats of learning that Trump accuses of being hotbeds of liberal bias and anti-Semitism, the president has singled out Harvard for particular punishment.In the last few weeks, the elite educational powerhouse has seen billions of dollars in federal grants frozen and millions of dollars of federal contracts torn up.The university has sued both to block the revocation of its right to recruit and sponsor foreign students, 27 percent of its total roll, as well as to overturn the withdrawal of federal funding.A legal expert suggested Harvard could file a lawsuit to overturn the latest contract cuts as part of existing legal action.”The case is so strong that the court system is not going to step to the side and allow this… to go forward,” said Albany Law School professor Ray Brescia.He said the Trump administration’s assault on Harvard was so flawed that a higher court would likely strike down the campaign against the university if the Trump was to challenge it on appeal. On Monday, Trump nonetheless vowed he would prevail in the increasingly public struggle, claiming that foreign students at Harvard included “radicalized lunatics, troublemakers.”Professor of government Ryan Enos said that Trump’s campaign against Harvard had already made the United States less attractive as a destination for top scholars.”I’ve already heard this from professors in other countries who say ‘we encourage our best students to go to the United States’,” he told AFP at the rally, adding  “we wonder if we can tell them that anymore.”

King Charles III hailed Canada as “strong and free” as he delivered a major speech to open parliament in Ottawa against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s threats to take over the country.”Democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, self-determination, and freedom are values which Canadians hold dear, and ones which the government is determined to protect,” King Charles said, adding that Canada was facing a “critical moment.”To loud applause, he drew on the national anthem as he said “the true north is indeed strong and free!”Prime Minister Mark Carney invited the 76-year-old British monarch — Canada’s head of state as it is a Commonwealth member — to the capital, accompanied by Queen Camilla.The king has never publicly commented on Trump’s repeated talk of making Canada the 51st US state, but his language was closely watched for veiled references.Although the speech was read by the king as if it were his own words, it was written by the prime minister’s office to set out the government’s priorities to “build Canada strong” and how it aims to achieve them.In addition to his annexation threats, Trump has also launched tariff wars, particularly targeting Canada.”The system of open global trade that, while not perfect, has helped to deliver prosperity for Canadians for decades, is changing,” Charles said, in cautious words.”We must be clear-eyed: the world is a more dangerous and uncertain place than at any point since the Second World War.”Not to be outdone, Trump on Tuesday posted on his TruthSocial platform about annexing Canada — eliding mention of King Charles — by offering protection from his proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense system. “I told Canada, which very much wants to be part of our fabulous Golden Dome System, that it will cost $61 Billion Dollars if they remain a separate, but unequal, Nation, but will cost ZERO DOLLARS if they become our cherished 51st State,” Trump said, adding: “They are considering the offer!”There was no immediate response from Canada to Trump’s claims.- ‘Symbolism’ – The speech was delivered in the Senate — a former railway station that has been converted while parliament undergoes renovations — with past prime ministers, Supreme Court justices and Indigenous leaders in feather headdresses in attendance.”You see the enthusiasm for our institutions,” Carney told reporters, pointing to cheering crowds that awaited the king. “Our sovereignty is strong.”King Charles’s “speech from the throne” was the first by a monarch in nearly half a century. It was delivered by Charles’s mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, in 1957 and 1977.”In terms of symbolism, it’s extraordinary,” said Felix Mathieu, a politics professor at the University of Quebec in Outaouais.Tuesday’s event, Mathieu said, was a message to Trump to show him that “Canada is not alone in this fight.”Carney has vowed to oversee the biggest transformation of Canada’s economy since the end of the Second World War to enable it to “stand up” to Trump.Charles said in the speech that Canada would also “build new alliances” and seek out “reliable trading partners and allies around the world,” while reinvesting in its military and Arctic defense.”Canada is ready to build a coalition of like-minded countries that share its values, that believe in international cooperation and the free and open exchange of goods, services, and ideas,” he said.- Festive welcome -Thousands gathered along a parade route for a chance to see the monarch arriving in a carriage escorted by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers on horseback.The atmosphere was festive, with people waving Canadian flags, a 21-gun salute and a fighter jet flyover. The king stopped several times to speak with people along a security fence before and after his speech.Kirsten Hanson, 44, said she welcomed the king’s show of support as the pressure grows from the United States.”If there’s anything that he can do to demonstrate Canada’s sovereignty I think that that’s fantastic,” she told AFP. “Nobody wants to be absorbed into the US.””Elbows up,” said Marion Hand, 88, in reference to Carney’s battle cry in the face of Trump’s annexation threats. She traveled from Mississauga, Ontario for the event and was visibly giddy after shaking hands with the king and queen.

A second suspect in the alleged kidnapping and torture of an Italian bitcoin investor in New York surrendered on Tuesday, authorities said.Police on Friday arrested John Woeltz, 37, of Kentucky, on suspicion of brazenly kidnapping and torturing an Italian cryptocurrency entrepreneur for weeks in a luxury Manhattan townhouse in order to extort his bitcoin password.New York City Police Chief Jessica Tisch said on Fox 5 that the second suspect in the case, William Duplessie, was also taken into custody Tuesday morning.”We do have someone that we were looking for, Mr Duplessie, in custody. As of this morning, 7:45, he turned himself in at our 13th precinct,” Tisch said.”We know he is going to be charged with Mr Woeltz with kidnapping and false imprisonment of an associate in Soho,” said. Duplessie, who according to US media is 33 and comes from Miami, Florida, surrendered to police clad in black pants and a white shirt, photos from the scene showed.The name of the alleged victim has not been published, but US media reports identified him as Italian bitcoin entrepreneur Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan. According to reports, Carturan arrived in New York from Italy on May 6 and went Woeltz’s home.There, Woeltz, described by the New York Post as “Kentucky’s crypto boss,” and Duplessie confiscated the victim’s electronic devices and passport, and demanded access to his bitcoin accounts, according to police.After the victim refused, the two men tortured him for two weeks, tying his wrists, hitting him with a rifle, pointing a gun at his face, threatening to throw him off the roof of the five-story building and promising to kill his family members, media reports said.Several details of the story remain murky, including exactly why the victim had agreed to come to the townhouse in an upscale SoHo neighborhood, and whether he revealed anything of use to the kidnappers.

SpaceX is set Tuesday for the next test flight of its Starship megarocket — the linchpin of founder Elon Musk’s Mars ambitions — after the vessel’s last two outings ended in fiery explosions.A launch window opens at 6:30 pm (2330 GMT) from the company’s Starbase facility near a southern Texas village that recently voted to become a city, also called Starbase.Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall, Starship is the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built, and it carries Musk’s hopes of making humanity a multi-planetary species.NASA is also counting on a variant of Starship to serve as the crew lander for Artemis 3, the mission to return Americans to the Moon.But the last two tests ended with the upper stages erupting into fiery cascades that sent debris raining down over Caribbean islands and disrupting flights — piling more pressure onto SpaceX to get it right this time.Dozens of spectators awaited the launch Tuesday from Isla Blanca Park on South Padre Island, to see if SpaceX will pull off its aims this time.Australian Piers Dawson, 50, says he’s “obsessed” with the launch and made it a destination on his family vacation — his first trip to the United States with his wife and teenager.”I’m just expecting a successful launch. Obviously, that’s very exciting,” Dawson said, adding “I brought my 15-year-old son, took him out of school to bring him here.”- The stakes of space -The company is betting that its aggressive testing approach, which helped it become the dominant force in commercial spaceflight, will once again pay off. Still, it acknowledged in a statement that progress “won’t always come in leaps.”According to the Wall Street Journal, SpaceX is shifting personnel and resources to the Starship program in a push to have the vehicle ready for a Mars mission as soon as next year.On the bright side, SpaceX has now demonstrated three times that it can catch the Super Heavy first stage booster in the giant robotic arms of its launch tower — a daring feat of engineering that it says is key to making the system rapidly reusable and reducing costs.It will be reusing a Super Heavy booster for the first time on this ninth flight. In order to stress-test it, the base will not attempt a catch this time, opting instead for a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.Similar to previous missions, the upper stage will attempt to fly halfway around the globe and splash down in the Indian Ocean. For the first time, SpaceX will also aim to deploy a payload: mock-ups of its Starlink internet satellites, which are expected to burn up in the atmosphere.In issuing its launch approval, the Federal Aviation Administration said it had nearly doubled the airspace closure zone to 1,600 nautical miles east of the launch site. It is coordinating with authorities in the UK, the British-controlled Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, Mexico, and Cuba.The FAA also recently approved an increase in annual launches from five to 25 — stating the increased frequency would not adversely impact the environment and overruling objections from conservation groups who warned the expansion could endanger sea turtles and shorebirds.

A former assistant of Sean Combs testified Tuesday that the music mogul often threatened and once kidnapped her in a jealous rage related to his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura.The assistant, Capricorn Clark, was speaking to jurors on the stand in the federal trial of the once-famed rapper, producer and entrepreneur widely known as “Diddy,” who faces racketeering and sex trafficking charges that could put him in prison for life.Clark said he arrived at her door early one morning in December 2011, having learned that Ventura was seeing the rapper Kid Cudi.Combs had a gun and demanded Clark get dressed and come with him. “We’re going to kill” Kid Cudi — whose real name is Scott Mescudi — she recalled Combs saying, referring to the rapper who testified last week in the high-profile criminal proceedings in Manhattan.The alleged incident is core to government prosecutors’ case that Combs, once one of the music industry’s most powerful figures, was the kingpin of a criminal conspiracy ring that wielded its power including with arson, kidnapping and bribery.Clark’s version of events corroborrated accounts from Mescudi and Ventura. Shortly after the chaotic series of events in December, in January 2012 Mescudi testified that his car was set aflame — an act Ventura said Combs had threatened.- Threats, lie-detector test -Clark is the highest-profile employee thus far to testify in the trial against her former boss.She described rising through the ranks in Combs’s business empire, working as his personal assistant before assuming top roles at his fashion brand, Sean John.Clark repeatedly shed tears on the stand, describing having herself received death threats from Combs, including when he insisted she help him evade police investigation over the incident connected to Mescudi.She described a moment early in her career when she says she underwent a harrowing five-day long lie detector test after Combs suspected she had stolen diamond jewelry.The defense sought to poke holes in her chronology of events as well as her credibility as an employee who continued to go back to work for Combs despite having experienced what she described as disturbing labor abuse.Clark said that aside from one year when she worked at Jive Records before returning to work for Combs, she found it impossible to find employment elsewhere.She said he made clear “that I would never work again,” Clark said. “That he would make me kill myself.”Clark said her work for Combs was complicated: at times it was an inspiring “form of business school,” but was undergirded by threats and fear.She described witnessing Combs beat and kick Ventura amid the Mescudi love triangle.”Each kick she would crouch more and more into the fetal position,” Clark said.Earlier in the trial, Ventura gave hours of testimony about incidents of alleged abuse. She alleged Combs flew into a violent rage after he learned of her romance with Mescudi, lunging at her with a wine corkscrew. He allegedly threatened to make public sexually explicit footage of her, after she says he coerced her into filmed “freak-off” sex marathons with male prostitutes for years.Jurors were shown a message from Ventura to Clark in which the former described that threat.But some of the messaging was mixed: Clark at points appeared critical of Ventura’s skills, talent and work ethic.She also sobbed as she said Ventura played a role in her firing, “wanting her gone” in the love triangle’s aftermath — but then, she said Ventura was partially responsible for getting Clark a new job years later.The government next plans to call a police officer and arson investigator, both from Los Angeles. Stylist Deonte Nash and an alleged victim who was also one of Combs’s former employees are also expected.Now in its third week of testimony, the trial is expected to last well into the summer.

The crowd, some with signature red hats bearing US President Donald Trump’s name, cheered when the man on the stage asked if they were happy that America was becoming great again.But instead of somewhere in the United States, this scene was playing out in an arena in a southern Polish city, complete with a dusting of red or blue “Make Poland Great Again” hats.Hundreds had come for the first Polish edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a US convention that has been around for decades and has become a celebration of Trump.The event in Rzeszow is a sharp signal of the hold the US leader’s particular brand of conservatism has in Poland, which is days from picking a new president from a field that includes a big Trump fan. That candidate — nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki — was endorsed by a special guest at Tuesday’s conference: US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who said: “He needs to be the next president of Poland.””We need you to elect the right leader. You will be the leaders that will turn Europe back to conservative values,” the Trump ally told the crowd in Rzeszow.”If you elect a leader that will work with President Donald J. Trump, the Polish people will have an ally strong that will ensure that you will be able to fight off enemies that do not share your values,” Noem said.”You will have strong borders. And protect your communities. And keep them safe… You will continue to have a US presence here. A military presence… And you will have equipment that is American made,” she added. Nawrocki, who got a standing ovation at the conference, is a Trump fan and met the US leader at the White House earlier this month. He claimed Trump told him: “You will win”. Poland’s run-off election on Sunday is shaping up to be a very tight one in the polarised country of 38 million people, as the latest opinion surveys have the candidates tied.Nawrocki, who is backed by Poland’s right-wing main opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), will face off against pro-EU Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, the candidate of the ruling centrists led by former EU chief Donald Tusk.- ‘American style: loud and big’ -The event in Rzeszow, which was organised with Poland’s right-wing TV Republika, was held in a region populated by conservative voters.”Are you happy that America is getting closer to being great again? Did the re-election of Donald Trump bring you joy, make you happy?” CPAC organiser Matt Schlapp asked the crowd, which responded with applause.”We thank you for your courage to be in this room, to stand with us as we fight a most venomous enemy,” the chairman of the American Conservative Union said, decrying the “globalists” who he said threatened tenets like family, rule of law and freedom of religion.Vendors sold trucker hats with the slogan “Make Poland Great Again”, CPAC Poland mugs and books including one by Nawrocki. While most of the Rzeszow crowd was in suits and ties — there were exceptions like Anna Maria Ziolkiewicz, who came dressed in Poland’s national red-and-white colours with a Nawrocki election button on her lapel.”I’m a patriotic, religious person with right-wing views, so this event is right up my alley… There’s a positive atmosphere,” the 61-year-old accountant and history buff from the central city of Lodz told AFP.She praised Trump as “a wonderful man with character, brave and strong” — though cautioned that he did not quite understand the danger posed by Russia.Ziolkiewicz believes Poland should be closer to the United States than to the European Union as “the US has never double-crossed us, never deceived us”, while she said countries like France and Britain failed to help Poland at the start of World War II.Krzysztof Pietrzyk, a 43-year-old entrepreneur from nearby Lublin, regretted that the atmosphere at Tuesday’s event was “a little bit too quiet”. “I was hoping to have here more American style: loud and big,” he said, recalling how tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk brandished a chainsaw on stage at this year’s CPAC event near Washington. Donning a well-worn “Make Poland Great Again” hat, unemployed engineer Zenon Fabianowicz said he covered more than 700 kilometres (over 400 miles) from the western village of Krzeszyce to attend.Poland is a “pro-American society. We have a lot in common with the United States. And I think Trump also has a fondness for Poland,” the 62-year-old said. “It’s the first time CPAC is happening in Poland and I couldn’t miss the opportunity.”

US President Donald Trump warned Vladimir Putin Tuesday that he was “playing with fire,” in a fresh jab at his Russian counterpart as he weighs new sanctions against Moscow over the war in Ukraine.Trump’s latest broadside showed his frustration with stalled peace talks, and comes two days after he called the Kremlin leader “absolutely CRAZY” following a record Russian drone attack on Ukraine.”What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!” Trump said on his Truth Social network.Trump did not specify what the “really bad” things were, or make any specific threats. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment by AFP.But the Wall Street Journal and CNN both reported that Trump was now considering fresh sanctions against Russia as early as this week, while stressing that he could still change his mind.He told reporters on Sunday he was “absolutely” considering increasing sanctions on Moscow.His predecessor Joe Biden imposed sweeping sanctions after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but Trump has so far avoided what he says could be “devastating” sanctions on Russian banks.Trump’s recent rebukes mark a major change from his previous attitude towards Putin, whom he often speaks of with admiration and has previously held off criticizing.The Republican tycoon promised during the 2024 election campaign to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours and said his friendship with Putin from his first term would help seal a deal.Trump has however expressed increasing frustration with Moscow’s position in deadlocked truce negotiations with Kyiv.- ‘Game over’ -That frustration boiled over at the weekend when Russia launched a record drone barrage at Ukraine, killing at least 13 people.”I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday night.Trump however also criticized Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky — with whom he had a stunning Oval Office row in February — saying on Sunday that he was “doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does.”Russia’s attacks have continued despite a phone call between Trump and Putin eight days ago in which the US leader said the Russian president had agreed to “immediately” start ceasefire talks.Moscow on Tuesday accused Kyiv of trying to “disrupt” peace efforts and said its aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent days were a “response” to escalating Ukrainian drone strikes on its own civilians.US lawmakers have also stepped up calls for sanctions.Veteran Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said on X that it was “time for sanctions” that were strong enough for Putin to know it was “game over.”Two other senators, Republican Lindsay Graham and Democrat Richard Blumenthal, also called for heavy “secondary” sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil, gas and raw materials.Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg meanwhile told Fox News Tuesday that the US president’s “frustration is understandable” after the recent Russian attacks.Kellogg added that he expected the next peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, if they happen, to take place in Geneva after Moscow rejected the Vatican as a venue.After that the aim would be to “get the President, President Putin and President Zelensky together and hammer this thing out,” he added.

The US will no longer recommend Covid-19 vaccines for children and healthy pregnant women, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday, calling it a “common sense” decision grounded in sound science.The change follows last week’s announcement by Food and Drug Administration officials that they would limit approval of Covid shots — a critical tool in ending the pandemic — to adults aged 65 and older, as well as younger individuals with underlying health conditions.Trump administration officials have framed the shift as bringing the US into closer alignment with countries like Britain, Germany and France where annual boosters are recommended only for the elderly and immunocompromised.But it comes as Kennedy — who has long promoted misinformation about vaccines in general and the Covid shots in particular — pushes to overhaul federal public health policy. “I couldn’t be more pleased to announce that as of today, the Covid vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommended immunization schedule,” he said in a video posted to X.FDA officials also said vaccine manufacturers will need to conduct new clinical trials — including comparisons against a saline placebo — if they wish to retain approval for use in healthy people under 65.These recent changes have drawn criticism.Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, told AFP last week that while the new approach matched that taken by other countries, “I do think, however, that the initial Covid-19 vaccine series should be part of routine childhood immunization.”Paul Offit, a top vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, warned the change could restrict access for people who still want boosters, particularly under the US’s privatized health care system, where insurers may decline coverage.The reversal on pregnant women marks a major departure from previous CDC guidance.As of Tuesday morning, the agency’s website — which had yet to reflect Kennedy’s announcement — still stated that pregnant women are among people for whom it is “especially important” to receive the vaccine. “If you are pregnant or were recently pregnant, you are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19 compared to those who are not pregnant,” it says.