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Top US intelligence officials faced heated questions by Democratic senators on Tuesday over the spectacular security breach which saw a journalist included in a chat group discussion about airstrikes in Yemen.The Senate Intelligence Committee hearing was nominally about an annual report on national security threats, but Democrats used the opportunity to hammer officials — two of whom were reported to be in the group chat — over the mounting row.Pressed by Democratic Vice Chair Mark Warner over how military plans could be posted in Signal, a publicly-available instant messaging app known for its encryption, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard repeatedly denied that classified material had been shared. But she refused to go into further detail or confirm her presence in the group.Warner criticized her reticence and urged her to share the content of the chat, if indeed no classified information had been divulged.The breach was revealed Monday in an article by Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic magazine, who said he had given detailed plans on rebel Huthi targets in Yemen just hours before they were launched.Others in the chat appeared to include Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. Goldberg was initially skeptical but said he realized the chat was real when reports of strikes in Yemen emerged on the timeline that had been shared in the group, and at that point left.He chose not to reveal the contents of all the messages for fear of compromising security and potentially endangering American forces in the Middle East. But the existence of a group in which top Trump officials were discussing military planning in an unofficial chat app has raised widespread concerns about managing sensitive intelligence.The White House confirmed the authenticity of the group chat, but also asserted that no classified information had been revealed. Unlike Gabbard, CIA chief John Ratcliffe confirmed his presence in the chat to senators Tuesday, but defended the decision to use Signal for the discussion.Warner appeared unconvinced. “If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired,” he said, branding the incident “one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information.”Democratic Senator Ron Wyden called for the resignations of Waltz and Hegseth.The former is said to have been behind the inadvertent addition of Goldberg into the group, while the latter is said to have shared the plans for the strikes on the Huthis.

Lesotho will suffer from Donald Trump’s aid cuts and stands to lose up to 40,000 jobs if the US president also cancels a trade pact granting duty-free access to the American market, the monarch of the tiny southern African kingdom warned ahead of a trip to Europe on Wednesday.  Entirely surrounded by South Africa, Lesotho is heavily reliant on exports and foreign aid to fund its $2 billion gross domestic product. “If AGOA is terminated, it will have an immediate impact on the economy because it could mean the loss of jobs for 30,000 to 40,000 people,” King Letsie III told AFP in his palace in Matsieng, some 45 kilometres (28 miles) from the capital Maseru.”It’s a worrying thing but if it happens, we’ll have to deal with it,” he said. Enacted in 2000, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) provides duty-free access for some products from about 30 sub-Saharan  countries. It is due for renewal in September and many are questioning its fate after the blitz of trade policy changes since the return of Trump to the White House. The poor nation of about 2.3 million people has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world and is already reeling from a freeze to US funding of its healthcare. The United States has committed more than $630 million since 2006 to anti-HIV/AIDS efforts in Lesotho, according to the US embassy.Trump kicked up a diplomatic storm earlier this month when he defended the cuts to Lesotho, saying it was a country “nobody has ever heard of”. “I was a little bit upset,” said Letsie III, who has no formal power. “We have enjoyed very warm relations with the US and the people,” he said, vowing to use the publicity from Trump’s mockery to promote the country known for its beautiful mountainous terrain.Letsie III will travel to France on Wednesday and is due to meet President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.He is later expected to participate in a nutrition summit to round up the Europe trip at the weekend. 

Colorado state has pledged to remove a portrait of Donald Trump from public display after the US president complained that it was deliberately unflattering.”Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.The president suggested that British-born artist Sarah Boardman “must have lost her talent as she got older.””The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst,” Trump said.The 78-year-old Republican urged Colorado’s Democratic Governor Jared Polis to take down the oil painting, which has been hung in the capitol’s rotunda in Denver since 2019.The request was quickly granted. The Democrat-controlled state legislature said Monday that the painting would be moved from the gallery on the third floor and placed in storage.If the Republican party “wants to spend time and money on which portrait of Trump hangs in the Capitol, then that’s up to them,” said Jarrett Freedman, communications director for House Democrats.Trump has no shortage of portraits.Russian President Vladimir Putin recently commissioned a portrait of the US leader and presented it to Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff during their meeting in Moscow, as the two countries seek to improve amid negotiations on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.In an interview on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, Witkoff said that Trump “was clearly touched” by the portrait, which he described as “beautiful.”

Foie gras — the fattened liver of ducks or geese — is a French delicacy prized for its rich, buttery flavor. But its production, which involves force-feeding the animals, has led to bans in several countries.Now, a team of scientists says they’ve developed a more ethical alternative: one that mimics the taste and texture of the dish, minus the controversy.The results were published Tuesday in the journal Physics of Fluids.”It was always a dream to make foie gras more accessible and better for animal welfare,” said lead author Thomas Vilgis, a professor of food science at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany. “It’s good to stop these force-feeding practices —- or at least reduce them.”Vilgis and his colleagues from his own institute and the University of Southern Denmark were adamant about one thing: no outside additives.They initially tried cooking collagen from the birds’ skin and bones into the liver-fat emulsion, but the result lacked the signature silky texture.Then came the breakthrough: treating the fat with the bird’s own lipases: enzymes the body naturally uses to break down fats. This tweak replicated a key part of the foie gras formation process, without resorting to force-feeding.”At the end of the process, it allows the fat to recrystallize into the large crystals which form aggregates like the ones we see in the original foie gras,” Vilgis said.According to the authors, the elegance of the method lies in its simplicity: harvest the liver and fat, treat the fat with lipases, mix, sterilize — and voila.Laser microscopy gave the new product a thumbs-up: the emulsion structure, fat droplet size, and shape closely matched traditional foie gras. Even the aroma passed the test.To test texture, the team turned to industrial compression devices -— machines that gently press on food samples to measure firmness. The new foie gras held up well, offering a mouthfeel strikingly close to the original.”We could really see the influence of these large fat particles, which we call in the paper ‘percolating clusters,'” Vilgis said. “At the beginning of the ‘bite,’ these large clusters have a high resistance, creating a similar mouthfeel of elasticity -— without being too rubbery like after the collagen or gelatin addition.”Vilgis has filed a patent for the process and now hopes to partner with companies to bring this kinder foie gras to market.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed the accidental addition of a journalist to a group chat about Yemen air strikes as a “glitch” and stood by his top national security team despite the stunning breach.Trump’s administration faces mounting pressure following a report on Monday by The Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg about the conversation on the Signal messaging app.The chat about attacks on Iran-backed Huthi rebels involved some of the administration’s most senior officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.Trump, who returned to the office in January, told broadcaster NBC in a phone interview that the breach was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”The president added that Waltz, his top security official in the White House, “has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man.” Goldberg said he had received a connection request from a user identified as Michael Waltz on Signal. Trump said however that “it was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”The White House had earlier pushed back more forcefully on day two of the scandal, after confirming the breach on Monday.Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X on Tuesday that “no ‘war plans’ were discussed” and “no classified material was sent to the thread.”She also attacked Goldberg as being “well-known for his sensationalist spin.”Hegseth, a former Fox News host with no experience running a huge organization like the Pentagon, had also said late Monday that “nobody was texting war plans.”But top Democrats have condemned the breach, saying it was potentially illegal and calling for an investigation to find out why officials were using a commercially available app for sensitive discussions.Leavitt said the White House’s Counsel’s Office “has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible.”The White House was also “looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread.”- ‘European free-loading’ -Trump announced the strikes on the Huthis on March 15, but Goldberg said he had hours of advance notice via the group chat.Two other officials on the chat, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA chief John Ratcliffe, were due to speak to the US Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.The panel’s Republican chair, Senator Tom Cotton, told Fox and Friends on Tuesday that the group chat issue “will come up” at the hearing.”John Ratcliffe, Tulsi Gabbard and the other leaders will have a chance to address it, but I do hope that we keep the focus on the decisive action that the president took against these outlaw rebels in Yemen,” Cotton said.Journalist Goldberg said he was added to the group chat two days before the Yemen strikes, and received messages from other top government officials designating representatives who would work on the issue.The leak could have been highly damaging if Goldberg had publicized details of the plan in advance, but he did not do so.But the report did reveal details of what top White House officials think about key allies.A person identified as Vance expressed doubts about carrying out the strikes, saying he hated “bailing Europe out again,” as countries there were more affected by Huthi attacks on shipping than the United States.Contributors identified as Hegseth and Waltz both sent messages arguing only Washington had the capability to carry out the strikes, with the Pentagon chief saying he shared Vance’s “loathing of European free-loading” and calling the Europeans “pathetic.”The Huthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the United States.They have launched scores of drone and missile attacks at ships passing Yemen in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden during the Gaza war, saying they were carried out in solidarity with Palestinians.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is taking advantage of Europe’s unwillingness to antagonise its NATO ally at a time of international uncertainty and American disengagement as he presses on with a crackdown in the wake of the arrest of a political rival.Europe, analysts say, is eager to secure Turkish cooperation in a coalition to protect Ukraine after any settlement with Russia and is acutely aware Turkey is now the key player in Syria after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad.The United States under President Donald Trump is unlikely to show interest in Turkish domestic affairs as Washington focuses on securing an end of the fighting between Russia and Ukraine, ending any threat from Iran and ultimately countering China.Foreign ministries of European countries, including France and Germany, have condemned the March 19 arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan’s chief domestic opponent, but have not evoked any potential consequences. The US, meanwhile, has been largely silent.Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is to meet US counterpart Marco Rubio later Tuesday, while a Turkish representative is also expected at a Paris summit on Ukraine on Thursday.”Erdogan has read the geopolitical moment rather well,” Asli Aydintasbas, visiting fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, told AFP.”The Trump administration has little interest in values-based foreign policy and Europeans need Turkey to stabilise Syria and to achieve a sustainable European security architecture after the war in Ukraine,” she said. “There is little appetite for a spat with Erdogan,” she added.- ‘Counting on silence’ -Marc Pierini, senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, added that Erdogan had picked “the perfect moment of opportunity” from his point of view for the arrest of his main rival and to crack down on the ensuing protests.Britain and France are leading efforts to form a so-called coalition of the willing of countries willing to assist Ukraine by sending hardware and even troops, with Turkey a key partner due to its large military, world-class drone production and rare position of cordial ties with both Kyiv and Moscow.”This is potentially his (Erdogan’s) return to the international stage, playing a big role thanks to Turkey’s solid and flexible defence industry,” Pierini told AFP.”In this context, Erdogan is counting on western Europe’s silence on rule of law and — so far — has obtained it.”Imamoglu, elected mayor in 2019 and re-elected last year, was seen as by far the biggest domestic rival to Erdogan, with analysts outside Turkey in no doubt that his incarceration was approved by the president.Vast crowds have poured into the streets of Istanbul and other cities to protest against his arrest but the police have responded with pepper spray, water cannons and rubber bullets. Over 1,000 people have been arrested including journalists, among them an AFP reporter.- ‘Free pass’ from US -But whereas the former administration of Joe Biden was constantly upbraiding Turkey on human rights issues, US officials under Trump have been wary of offering any criticism of Erdogan whom the current US president in 2019 described as “a hell of a leader”.Questioned about Imamoglu’s arrest, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that Washington was “not going to comment on the internal decision-making of another country” while it expects “them (Turkey) to behave in a manner that respects the rights of all of its citizens”.”Basically, the State Department practically gave Erdogan a free pass. Any change in Turkey will come from within, if it comes from anywhere,” said Dorothee Schmid of the Turkey and Middle East Programme at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).Meanwhile Europeans are rushing to catch up with Trump’s rapid upending of the global agenda, with Turkey now also the key powerbroker in Syria after the Assad regime was toppled by pro-Ankara Islamists.Europe long dangled the carrot of EU membership in front of Turkey, a prospect that Ankara eagerly sought in the early years of Erdogan’s quarter-century rule. But this is no longer seen as realistic in the near term, especially with the focus on a fast-track membership for Ukraine. “The Europeans have no leverage over Turkey domestically, in my opinion,” Schmid added.Imamoglu is also not the only opponent of Erdogan to languish in prison — charismatic Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas has been jailed since 2016 and the philanthropist Osman Kavala since 2017. Ankara has ignored rulings from the European Court of Human Rights they should be freed as their cases were politically motivated.”It is a moment in history when democratic values can easily be crushed under the hard geopolitical realities of the day. Sadly, Turkey will neither be the first nor the last to experience this,” said Aydintasbas.

Passengers headed to China aboard a recent United Airlines flight faced an unexpected travel headache after a pilot’s forgotten passport prompted their return to the United States.Flight UA198 from Los Angeles to Shanghai was out over the Pacific Ocean on Saturday afternoon when it made a u-turn and headed to San Francisco, tracking data showed.United confirmed Tuesday to AFP in an email that the plane, a Boeing 787 with 270 people onboard, made a stop in San Francisco “as the pilot did not have their passport onboard.””We arranged for a new crew to take our customers to their destination that evening,” the company said, adding that “customers were provided with meal vouchers and compensation,” without specifying.Flight tracking data showed the plane landed at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport after midnight, about six hours behind its normal arrival time.The United flight’s rerouting came as travelers around the world continued to face disruptions over the shutdown at London’s Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest hub, due to a power outage the day prior.

US President Donald Trump announced Monday steep tariffs on imports from countries buying Venezuelan oil and gas, a punitive measure that could hit China and India, among others, and sow fresh global trade uncertainty.Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has unleashed tariffs on US allies and foes alike, attempting to strong-arm both economic and diplomatic policy.The latest across-the-board 25 percent levies targeting direct and indirect buyers of Venezuelan oil can take effect as soon as April 2, according to an order signed Monday by Trump.The US secretary of state, in consultation with other government agencies, is authorized to determine if the new levy will be imposed.These could hit China and India, with experts noting that Venezuela exports oil to both those countries, and to the United States and Spain.Trump told reporters Monday that the 25 percent tariff would be on top of existing rates.Caracas called the measure a “new aggression” by Washington. “They can sanction and impose tariffs on whatever they want, what they cannot sanction is the love and patriotism of the Venezuelan people,” President Nicolas Maduro said during an event broadcast on radio and television.China, the largest importer of Venezuelan oil, accused the United States of interference and called on Washington to do more to help “the peace, stability and development” of Venezuela.”We call on the US to stop interfering in Venezuela’s internal affairs (and) abolish the illegal unilateral sanctions,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular news conference.In February, Venezuela exported about 500,000 barrels of oil per day to China and 240,000 barrels to the United States, experts told AFP.- ‘Liberation day’ -Trump has dubbed April 2 “Liberation Day” for the world’s biggest economy, already promising reciprocal tariffs tailored to each trading partner in an effort to remedy practices that Washington deems unfair.He earlier signaled sector-specific duties coming around the same day — but the White House said Monday it might take a narrower approach.In his Monday announcement on Truth Social involving Venezuela, the president cited “numerous reasons” for what he called a “secondary tariff.”He accused Venezuela of “purposefully and deceitfully” sending “undercover, tens of thousands of high level, and other, criminals” to the United States.He added in his post that “Venezuela has been very hostile to the United States and the Freedoms which we espouse.”According to Trump’s order, the 25 percent tariff expires a year after the last date that a country has imported Venezuelan oil — or sooner if Washington decides so.Trump’s announcement comes as the deportation pipeline between the United States and Venezuela was suspended last month when he claimed Caracas had not lived up to a deal to quickly receive deported migrants.Venezuela subsequently said it would no longer accept the flights.But Caracas said Saturday it had reached agreement with Washington to resume repatriations after which nearly 200 Venezuelan citizens were deported from the United States via Honduras.Separately Monday, the Trump administration extended US oil giant Chevron’s deadline to halt its operations in Venezuela through May 27.The company had been operating in Venezuela under a sanctions waiver.- Tariff ‘breaks’? -Trump’s latest move adds to tariffs he has vowed would start on or around April 2.Besides reciprocal tariffs, he has promised sweeping sector-specific duties hitting imported automobiles, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.As things stand, however, his plans for the day might become more targeted.Sector-specific tariffs “may or may not happen April 2,” a White House official told AFP, adding that the situation is “still fluid.”The official reaffirmed that reciprocal tariffs would take place.But Trump told reporters Monday he might “give a lot of countries breaks” eventually, without elaborating.He separately added that he would announce car tariffs “very shortly” and those on pharmaceuticals later down the line.US partners are furthering talks with Washington as deadlines loom, with EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic heading to the country Tuesday to meet his counterparts — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and trade envoy Jamieson Greer.Hopes of a narrower tariff rollout gave financial markets a boost.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo last week that Washington would go to trading partners with an indication of where tariff levels and non-tariff barriers are.If countries stopped their practices, Bessent added, they could potentially avoid levies.

Top Trump administration officials texted a group chat including a journalist plans for strikes on Yemen’s Huthi rebels, the White House said, an extraordinary security breach that shocked Washington’s political elite.US President Donald Trump announced the strikes on March 15, but The Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote on Monday that he had hours of advance notice via the group chat on Signal, which included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance.Top Democrats were quick to condemn the breach, saying it was potentially illegal and calling for an investigation to find out how it happened, while Republicans tried to play down the incident.”The message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said.The White House said Trump “continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team,” after the US president earlier said he did not “know anything about” the issue.Hegseth, a former Fox News host with no experience running a huge organization like the Pentagon, took no responsibility for the security breach as he spoke to reporters late Monday.He instead attacked Goldberg and insisted that “nobody was texting war plans,” despite the White House confirming the breach.Goldberg wrote that Hegseth sent information on the strikes, including on “targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” to the group chat.”According to the lengthy Hegseth text, the first detonations in Yemen would be felt two hours hence, at 1:45 pm eastern time,” Goldberg wrote — a timeline that was borne out on the ground in Yemen.The leak could have been highly damaging if Goldberg had publicized details of the plan in advance, but he did not do so.The journalist said he was added to the group chat two days earlier, and received messages from other top government officials designating representatives who would work on the issue.On March 14, a person identified as Vance expressed doubts about carrying out the strikes, saying he hated “bailing Europe out again,” as countries there were more affected by Huthi attacks on shipping than the United States.- ‘Dangerous’ -Group chat contributors identified as National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Hegseth both sent messages arguing only Washington had the capability to carry out the strikes, with the latter official saying he shared Vance’s “loathing of European free-loading.”As he spoke to reporters Monday Hegseth dodged questions about the leak, in which highly sensitive material was also shared on a commercial app rather than in secure military channels reserved for such communications.The security breach provoked outrage among Democrats, including some like Senator Elizabeth Warren who said the exchange over group chat could be illegal.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described it as “one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about” and called for a full investigation.And Hillary Clinton — who was repeatedly attacked by Trump for using a private email server while she was secretary of state — posted on X: “You have got to be kidding me.”The reaction of top Republicans like House Speaker Mike Johnson was less critical.Johnson said those involved should not be punished, calling it a “mistake” that “won’t happen again”, news site Axios reported. But former national security officials reacted with shock.”Some of these issues… they should only be discussed face to face,” former national security advisor John Bolton told CNN.”I have no faith that the Department of Justice will prosecute anyone involved.”- Huthi attacks -The Huthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the United States.They have launched scores of drone and missile attacks at ships passing Yemen in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden during the Gaza war, saying they were carried out in solidarity with Palestinians.The Huthis’ campaign crippled the vital route, which normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic.The US began targeting the Huthis in response under the previous administration of president Joe Biden, and has launched repeated rounds of strikes on Huthi targets, some with British support.Trump has vowed to “use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” citing the Huthis’ threats against Red Sea shipping.

China has released five local employees of an American due diligence firm detained more than two years ago during a crackdown on foreign consultancies with multinational links, the company said Tuesday.In March 2023, Mintz Group said Chinese authorities had detained five Chinese staff members from its office in Beijing and forced the firm to cease its operations there.Beijing’s foreign ministry later said the company was under investigation for suspected “illegal operations”, but did not provide details.”We understand that the Mintz Group Beijing employees who were detained, all Chinese nationals, have now all been released,” a Mintz spokesperson told AFP in a statement on Tuesday.”We are grateful to the Chinese authorities that our former colleagues can now be home with their families.”Asked on Tuesday about the staff members’ release, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun referred journalists to the “competent authorities”.Headquartered in New York, Mintz specialises in conducting investigations into fraud, corruption and workplace misconduct allegations, as well as background checks.The company employs over 280 investigators in 12 offices worldwide, according to its website.China targeted other US firms during its 2023 crackdown on the sector, including consultancies Bain & Company and Capvision.Analysts warned at the time that the raids indicated that Beijing was increasingly prioritising national security concerns over attracting international business.