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Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook rejected US President Donald Trump’s unprecedented bid to oust her on Tuesday, saying he had no legal authority for such an intervention against a member of the independent US central bank.After calling for her resignation last week, Trump posted a letter on Monday evening to his Truth Social platform purporting to have fired Cook “effective immediately.”The decision cited allegations of false statements on her mortgage agreements, claiming “there is sufficient cause to remove you from your position.””I will not resign,” said Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the central bank’s board, in a statement shared with AFP by her attorney Abbe Lowell.”President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so,” she added.Lowell pledged to “take whatever actions are needed to prevent his (Trump’s) attempted illegal action.”The potential legal dispute would be the latest test of presidential powers under Trump’s new term, with the 79-year-old Republican — backed by loyalists throughout the government — forcefully moving to exert executive authority.The Supreme Court’s conservative majority recently allowed Trump to fire members of other independent government boards, but notably created a carveout for the Federal Reserve in its ruling.Federal law says that Fed officials can only be removed for “cause,” which could be interpreted to mean malfeasance or dereliction of duty.In his announcement that Cook would be removed, Trump pointed to a criminal referral dated August 15 from the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s director — a staunch ally of Trump — to the US attorney general.The referral, Trump said, provided “sufficient reason” to believe that Cook might have made “false statements” on one or more mortgage agreements.One of the alleged false statements was that Cook had claimed two primary residences, one in Michigan and another in Georgia.Cook has not been charged with a crime and the alleged false statements occurred before she was in her current position.Earlier this month, Cook said in a statement that she had “no intention of being bullied to step down,” but would take questions about her financial history seriously.The Fed did not immediately respond to media queries.In his letter Monday, Trump said: “At a minimum, the conduct at issue exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question your competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator.”- Court challenge? -Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, called Trump’s move “an authoritarian power grab that blatantly violates the Federal Reserve Act.”She added in a statement that this “must be overturned in court.”Trump has been ramping up pressure on the Fed this year, repeatedly criticizing its chief Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates sooner despite benign inflation data.Fed policymakers have been cautious in cutting rates as they monitor the effects of Trump’s tariffs on prices.Trump has made no secret of his disdain for Powell, whom he has called a “numbskull” and “moron.”Since its last reduction in December, the Fed has held rates at a range between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent this year. Powell on Friday opened the door to lowering levels at the bank’s upcoming policy meeting in September.Trump also previously suggested that what he called an overly costly renovation of the Fed’s headquarters could be a reason to oust Powell, before backing off the threat.The president has picked Stephen Miran, the leader of his White House economic panel, to fill a recently vacated seat on the Federal Reserve board.Cook took office as a Fed governor in May 2022 and was reappointed to the board in September 2023. She was sworn in later that same month for a term ending in 2038.She has previously served on the Council of Economic Advisers under former president Barack Obama.The Trump administration has pursued allegations of mortgage fraud against high-profile Democrats who are seen as political adversaries of the president.

Fresh off a trade truce with Donald Trump, the EU is back in the US leader’s crosshairs after he vowed to punish countries that seek to curb big tech’s powers.Brussels has adopted a powerful legal arsenal aimed at reining in tech giants — namely through its Digital Markets Act (DMA) covering competition and the Digital Services Act (DSA) on content moderation.The EU has already slapped heavy fines on US behemoths including Meta and Apple under the new rules, which have faced strong pushback from Trump’s administration.The bloc’s trade chief Maros Sefcovic insisted last week that Brussels successfully “kept these issues out of the trade negotiations” with Washington — and that the bloc’s “regulatory autonomy” was not up for debate.But while he did not explicitly name the EU, the US leader cast new doubt on the status quo Monday by threatening fresh tariffs on countries with regulations that sought to “harm” American technology.Here is a look at the EU rules drawing Trump’s ire:- Digital Services Act -Rolled out in stages since 2023, the mammoth Digital Services Act forces online firms to aggressively police content in the 27 countries of the European Union — or face major fines.Aimed at protecting consumers from disinformation and hate speech as well as counterfeit or dangerous goods, it obliges platforms to swiftly remove illegal content or make it inaccessible.Companies must inform authorities when they suspect a criminal offence that threatens people’s lives or safety.And the law instructs platforms to suspend users who frequently share illegal content such as hate speech — a provision framed as “censorship” by detractors across the Atlantic.Tougher rules apply to a designated list of “very large” platforms that include US giants Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Microsoft and Snapchat.These giants must assess dangers linked to their services regarding illegal content and privacy, set up internal risk mitigation systems, and give regulators access to their data to verify compliance.Violators can face fines or up to six percent of global turnover, and for repeated non-compliance, the EU has the power to ban offending platforms from Europe.- Digital Markets Act -Since March 2024, the world’s biggest digital companies have faced strict EU rules intended to limit abuses linked to market dominance, favour the emergence of start-ups in Europe and improve options for consumers.Brussels has so far named seven so-called gatekeepers covered by the Digital Markets Act: Google’s Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok parent ByteDance, Facebook and Instagram parent Meta, Microsoft and travel giant Booking.In a bid to limit the ability of online giants to snuff out potential rivals, the rules require all buyouts to be notified to the European Commission, the EU’s competition regulator.Gatekeepers can be fined for locking in customers to use pre-installed services, such as a web browser, mapping or weather information.The DMA has forced Google to overhaul its search display to avoid favouring its own services — such as Google flights or shopping.It requires that users be able to choose what app stores to use — without going via the dominant two players, Apple’s App Store and Google Play.And it has forced Apple to allow developers to offer alternative payment options directly to consumers — outside of the App Store.The DMA has also imposed interoperability between messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger and competitors who request it.And it imposes new obligations on the world’s biggest online advertisers — namely Google’s search engine and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram — by forcing them to reveal much more to advertisers and publishers on how their ads work.Failure to comply with the DMA can carry fines in the billions of dollars, reaching 20 percent of global turnover for repeat offenders.

US President Donald Trump expanded pressure on the Federal Reserve on Monday by moving to fire Governor Lisa Cook “effective immediately”, a step the independent central bank official said he had “no authority” to take.Trump’s decision against the first Black woman to serve on the central bank’s board cited allegations of false statements on her mortgage agreements.Referring to the Federal Reserve Act as justification, Trump wrote in a letter addressed to Cook: “I have determined that there is sufficient cause to remove you from your position.”Cook rejected the president’s authority to do so, saying no cause exists.”I will not resign,” she said in a statement shared by her attorney Abbe Lowell with US media. “I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy.”A US president is generally limited in their ability to remove officials from the central bank, with a Supreme Court order recently suggesting that Fed officials can only be removed for “cause,” which could be interpreted to mean malfeasance or dereliction of duty.But the US leader pointed to a criminal referral dated August 15 from the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s director — a staunch ally of Trump — to the US attorney general in his announcement that Cook would be removed from her role.The referral, Trump said, provided “sufficient reason” to believe that Cook might have made “false statements” on one or more mortgage agreements.One of the alleged false statements was that Cook had claimed two primary residences, one in Michigan and another in Georgia.Earlier this month, Cook said in a statement that she had “no intention of being bullied to step down,” but would take questions about her financial history seriously.The Fed did not immediately respond to media queries on Trump’s latest announcement.In his letter Monday, Trump said: “At a minimum, the conduct at issue exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question your competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator.”- Court challenge? -Trump’s effort to remove Cook is likely to set off a legal battle, and she could be allowed to remain in her position during this period.Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, called Trump’s move “an authoritarian power grab that blatantly violates the Federal Reserve Act.”She added in a statement that this “must be overturned in court.”Trump has been ramping up pressure on the Fed this year, repeatedly criticizing its chief Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates sooner despite benign inflation data.Fed policymakers have been cautious in cutting rates as they monitor the effects of Trump’s tariffs on prices.Trump has made no secret of his disdain for Powell, whom he has called a “numbskull” and “moron.”He also previously suggested that what he called an overly costly renovation of the Fed’s headquarters could be a reason to oust Powell, before backing off the threat.Trump said this month he had tipped Stephen Miran, the leader of his White House economic panel, to fill a recently vacated seat on the Federal Reserve board.The president’s targeting of Cook, who sits on the Fed’s rate-setting committee too, comes after his repeated broadsides against Powell while the central bank kept the benchmark lending rate unchanged.Since its last reduction in December, the Fed has held rates at a range between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent this year. Powell on Friday opened the door to lowering levels at the bank’s upcoming policy meeting in September.Cook took office as a Fed governor in May 2022 and was reappointed to the board in September 2023. She was sworn in later that same month for a term ending in 2038.She has previously served on the Council of Economic Advisers under former president Barack Obama.The Trump administration has pursued allegations of mortgage fraud against high-profile Democrats who are seen as political adversaries of the president.

The United States wants to secure its supply of strategic minerals in conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, hoping to challenge China’s near-monopoly on the lucrative sector.While the strategy has been in the works for years, Washington has doubled down on it since Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January.- Risky El Dorado -Although it is among the world’s 15 least developed countries, the DRC has some of the richest mineral veins on the planet.Besides gold and uranium, its mines contain significant deposits of copper, cobalt, coltan and lithium, with uses ranging from weaponry to mobile phones and electric cars.More than three-quarters of the world’s cobalt came from the DRC in 2024, according to the US Geological Survey.Threatened by the resurgence of the Rwanda-backed M23 militia in the DRC’s east, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has sought to strike a deal with the United States, trading direct access to those minerals for beefed-up security cooperation.But the Congolese mining sector is rife with chronic trafficking, organised crime and corruption, discouraging businesses from investing.- Skirting the eastern conflict -Since taking up arms again in 2021, the M23 has taken control of a raft of mining sites in the eastern DRC, notably in North and South Kivu provinces, with Rwanda’s help.However, Washington’s gaze has turned further to the southeast, to the cobalt and copper-rich Katanga region, which has been spared by conflict in recent times, according to experts.To rival China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative, the United States has worked for years to establish the “Lobito Corridor”, an ambitious infrastructure project which would allow minerals mined in the southeastern DRC to be transported thousands of kilometres (miles) overland to the Atlantic Ocean.- China’s dropped anchor -Chinese businesses are involved in mining the vast majority of the DRC’s deposits, often taking over from Western companies put off by conflicts or the business environment.”If the Americans want to enter into the sector today and begin to make a profit immediately, that will involve snatching mining permits away from certain companies,” said Christian-Geraud Neema, an expert for the China-Global South Project, a non-profit group.”If they want to start from zero, they will have to request research permits and get involved in exploration, which could take a minimum of eight to nine years before achieving any results,” he added.- AI mapping -To that end, KoBold Metals, an American start-up specialised in using artificial intelligence to discover new mineral deposits, especially of lithium, signed a declaration of principles with the DRC’s government in July for the exploration of 1,700 new potential mining sites.With financiers including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, the group likewise obtained the authorities’ assent to comb through its precious mining information database.”All the mines which we know of come from searches done 80, even 100 years ago,” under Belgian colonial rule, said Jean-Jacques Kayembe, coordinator for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in the DRC.”Less than 20 percent of the territory has been subject to sustained study,” he added.- Plots up for grabs -In July, the DRC’s mining registry made more than 600 mining titles up for grabs following a major clean-up of its records.Several sources and security officials said the government was piling on the pressure to make those plots available to respond to US demands.Crispin Mbindule, chairman of the board of directors of the Congolese mining registry, denies those claims, insisting that the DRC “is not selling off its assets”.He said that the Americans “followed all the procedures and paid all the fees”.Besides discovering new deposits, the DRC is attempting to respond to the United States’s interests by offering up joint ventures in mining companies owned by the state, according to Kayembe.- Israeli billionaire’s shadow -Looming over proceedings is Israeli investor Dan Gertler, who continues to wield significant influence in the DRC’s mining sector despite being sanctioned by the United States over his dealings and business practices.”He still collects royalties from three of the biggest mining projects in the country,” said Jean Claude Mputu of the non-profit group The Congo is Not for Sale.In March 2021, the United States re-imposed sanctions on Gertler, first set in 2017 for allegedly cheating the DRC of about $1.4 billion in revenues through opaque mining deals.Trump had reversed some of the sanctions just before the end of his first term.”It’s impossible that someone who has his know-how will not be involved” in the ongoing negotiations, a European diplomat said.Congolese civil society representatives launched a campaign in July demanding an end to the sanctions against Gertler.The Israeli businessman, who has denied any suggestion of being involved in any massive resource corruption in Africa, could not be reached for comment.

The Irish rap group Kneecap has cancelled a planned tour in the United States, citing a UK court hearing in a case one of its members is facing for allegedly supporting Hezbollah.Band member Liam O’Hanna, 27, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged in May after being accused of displaying a Hezbollah flag during a London concert last year.He attended a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London last week, with the court adjourning the case until September 26 for a decision.Kneecap said in a statement late Monday that they would “have to cancel all 15 US tour dates in October” due to “the proximity of our next court hearing in London to the first date of the tour”.”But once we win our court case, which we will, we promise to embark on an even bigger tour”, the band said, adding that refunds would be available.The statement also accused the British government of perpetrating a “witch-hunt” against them.According to their website, the band had been scheduled to perform in New York on October 1, travelling across the country before a final show in Oakland, California on October 28.Since Hezbollah was banned in the UK in 2019, it has been an offence to show support for the Iran-backed Lebanese force.Kneecap has grabbed headlines for statements denouncing the war in Gaza and against Israel.They played a closely scrutinised concert at the Glastonbury Festival in June, where Chara declared: “Israel are war criminals.”The group later missed playing at the Sziget Festival in Budapest after being barred from entering the country by the Hungarian authorities, a close ally of Israel.Kneecap, who also support Irish republicanism and criticise British imperialism, have sparked widespread debate in the UK and Ireland, more than two-and-a-half decades after the peace agreement that aimed to end the conflict over the status of Northern Ireland.The group takes its name from the deliberate shooting of the limbs, known as “kneecapping”, carried out by Irish republicans as punishment attacks during the decades of unrest.- Sea of supporters -There has been huge support for Kneecap and O’Hanna, whose name is Liam Og O hAnnaidh in Irish, from the band’s fans since his first court appearance in June.He arrived at court in London last week to cheers from a sea of supporters brandishing banners and chanting “Free Palestine”.At the hearing the defence sought to have the charges thrown out on a legal technicality.It took place against the backdrop of a growing controversy over moves by the British government to prosecute those deemed to show support for banned organisations.More than 700 people have been arrested, mostly at demonstrations, since a group called Palestine Action was outlawed in early July under the Terrorism Act 2000.Supporting a proscribed group is a criminal offence in the UK, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Australia joined on Tuesday a string of countries suspending some postal deliveries to the United States, citing a “complex and rapidly evolving situation” with US President Donald Trump’s looming tariffs.Australia Post said most goods being sent to the United States and Puerto Rico would no longer be accepted “until further notice”.Gifts with a value of less than US$100, letters and documents were exempt from the suspension. The move follows similar steps taken by other postal services and mail carriers including in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, India and New Zealand.Japan also announced that US-bound individual gifts worth more than $100 and goods for sale would no longer be accepted from Wednesday.Taiwan said it will stop sending merchandise-type mail to the United States from Tuesday.The Trump administration has said that as of August 29 it will abolish a tax exemption on small packages entering the United States.Australia Post executive general manager Gary Starr said the company was focused on providing “a reliable and competitive postal service for customers”. “We are disappointed we have had to take this action, however, due to the complex and rapidly evolving situation, a temporary partial suspension has been necessary to allow us to develop and implement a workable solution for our customers.”

Bad weather on Monday forced SpaceX to postpone the latest launch of its massive prototype Starship rocket, key to founder Elon Musk’s dreams of colonizing Mars and NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the Moon.The tenth test flight, which could now happen as soon as Tuesday, comes at a time of heightened scrutiny for the world’s most powerful launch vehicle following a string of explosive failures that have begun raising doubts about its viability.Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall, the stainless steel behemoth was set to lift off from the company’s Starbase in southern Texas in a window that opened at 6:30 pm local time (2330 GMT).It was the second delay in two days after a ground-system leak, a relatively routine issue in spaceflight, scuppered an attempt on Sunday.The mission aims to put the upper stage — also known as “Starship” or simply “ship” and eventually intended to carry crew and cargo — through structural stress testing as it flies halfway around the world before splashing down in the Indian Ocean.SpaceX will also try out new heat-shield materials and attempt to deploy mock Starlink satellites as cargo. Unlike recent attempts, the “Super Heavy” booster will not be caught by the launch tower’s giant “chopstick” arms but instead aim for a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.The company’s aggressive “fail fast, learn fast” approach has been credited with giving it a commanding lead in space launches through its Falcon rocket family.Its Dragon capsules are the only American spacecraft ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station, while Starlink has become a geopolitical asset.But concern is mounting over whether these successes will translate to Starship, a rocket unlike any before it. The upper stage has exploded in all three 2025 test flights.Two scattered debris over Caribbean islands, while the third broke apart after reaching space. In June, another upper stage blew up during a ground “static fire” test.- ‘Spacefaring civilization’ -Appearing on the webcast on Monday, Musk was characteristically bullish, reiterating his vision of Mars as a lifeboat for humanity should disaster strike on Earth.But he added that beyond safeguarding survival, there are also more uplifting motives: “A future where we are a spacefaring civilization is infinitely more exciting than one where we are not,” he said.Even if the tenth flight succeeds, formidable hurdles lie ahead.”There are thousands of engineering challenges left for both the ship and the booster, but perhaps the single biggest is developing a fully reusable orbital heat shield,” said Musk, sporting a “Nuke Mars” T-shirt.The slogan is a nod to the idea of detonating nuclear bombs over the Red Planet’s ice caps to release greenhouse gases and make it more Earth-like.Another key obstacle is proving that Starships can be refueled in orbit with super-cooled propellant — an unprecedented feat, but one that is essential for the rocket to carry out deep-space missions.Delays to Starship could ripple through NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return US astronauts to the Moon by mid-2027 using a modified version of Starship as the landing vehicle.

Neighbors, volunteers and parents escorted children to the first day of the new school year across Washington on Monday, vowing to protect students from Donald Trump’s deportation drive.At one elementary school in the US capital, crowds blew whistles, shook tambourines and cheered children on their way to class, ready to fend off any law enforcement action and to support a neighborhood with a high Latino population.Throughout the city, chaperone groups, carpools and patrols were organized over fears that immigration agents, who have stepped up arrests and sweeps, could target school campuses.Resident Helena Bonde, 36, showed up at the elementary school in her wheelchair to support immigrant families who she says have been terrorized by raids, with some neighbors afraid to go to the grocery store.”Nobody’s trying to arrest a disabled white woman right now, so I just figured I’ll be wherever I can be,” Bonde told AFP.”Everybody really just wanted to help out in a way that could feel concrete and useful and help make our local families feel a little safer.”The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said it would not target Washington schools on Monday.But it has not ruled out activity on school campuses to conduct welfare checks on undocumented and unaccompanied children that the Trump administration says need to be rescued from sex trafficking and forced labor rings.On Monday “you are not going to see ICE officers doing a raid or a sweep,” ICE chief Todd Lyons told NBC News last week.”But our goal… is finding those 300,000 undocumented children and those minors that came here through the last administration.”- ‘It’s about how you look’ -Selene, a Mexican-American community organizer, admitted that the thought of not sending her daughter to school crossed her mind because even Latino families residing in the United States legally have been targeted and detained.”This is not about status. It’s about how you look, right? If you look Latino on the street, you’re a target, unfortunately,” Selene, who declined to give her last name, told AFP.In the end, encouraged by her neighbors, Selene walked her daughter to school and urged others to do the same.”The community is here for you, don’t be afraid, and we’re going to keep up the great work. We’re going to keep helping our community members. Our kids who come to school need to feel safe, and we can do that together,” she said.Others, however, were too frightened.Blanca, a middle-aged immigrant from El Salvador who stood near the school entrance with a sign that read “Every day is an opportunity” in English and in Spanish, said some families had kept their children home, at least temporarily, out of fear of being deported.”Because they are scared,” Blanca, who declined to give her last name for safety reasons, told AFP. “We are scared to go out. We don’t know what’s going to happen to us. We’re not safe.”- Compulsory education -According to the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, the US capital was home to about 25,000 undocumented migrants in 2023.While city schools do not collect citizenship information on students, a 2022 Washington Post report quoted a DC council member as estimating that there are from 3,000 to 4,000 undocumented students in Washington schools. In California, home to the largest immigrant population in the United States, ICE raids that began after Trump’s return to the White House in January have caused a spike in student absences, according to the National Education Association. Jeffrey Freitas, president of the California Federation of Teachers, cited a landmark 1982 Supreme Court ruling that established that states cannot prevent undocumented children from attending public schools.”What they’re doing, this is inhumane. This is trying to put fear into these communities,” Freitas told AFP.”Education is compulsory for every student in the United States. That’s what we have to go by.”Lora Ries, of the conservative Heritage Foundation, confirmed that “kids are, no matter what their immigration status, under the Supreme Court decision, able to go to public schools, so they are not at risk.”But, she added, “If someone is here illegally, then they should get right with the law.”

US President Donald Trump said Monday he hoped to meet again with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, possibly this year, as he held White House talks with South Korea’s dovish new leader that got off awkwardly.Hours before President Lee Jae Myung arrived for his long-planned first visit to the White House, Trump took to social media to denounce what he said was a “Purge or Revolution” in South Korea, apparently over raids that involved churches.Forty minutes into an Oval Office meeting in which Lee profusely praised Trump, the US leader dismissed his own sharply worded rebuke, saying, “I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding” as “there is a rumor going around.”Trump said he believed he was on the same page on North Korea as Lee, a progressive who supports diplomacy over confrontation.Trump, who met Kim Jong Un three times in his first term, hailed his relationship with the young totalitarian and said he knew him “better than anybody, almost, other than his sister.””Someday I’ll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me,” Trump told reporters, saying he hoped the talks would take place this year.Trump once said that he and Kim “fell in love” during their meetings, which reduced tensions but failed to produce a lasting agreement.But Kim has since been emboldened by the war in Ukraine, securing critical support from Russia after sending thousands of North Korean troops to fight.North Korea has dug in and refused any talk of ending its nuclear weapons program.- ‘Trump Tower’ in Pyongyang -Lee, a former labor rights lawyer who has criticized the US military in the past, immediately flattered his host and said Trump has made the United States “not a keeper of peace, but a maker of peace.””I look forward to your meeting with Chairman Kim Jong Un and construction of Trump Tower in North Korea and playing golf” there, Lee told him.He even cited propaganda from North Korea that denounced South Korea by noting that Pyongyang said the relationship with Trump was better.Kim “will be waiting for you,” Lee told him.In a speech after his meeting, Lee warned that North Korea could soon produce 10 to 20 nuclear weapons per year as well as a missile that can hit the United States — despite pressure and sanctions.”The hard fact is that the number of nuclear weapons that North Korea possesses has increased over the past three to four years,” Lee said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.He highlighted his overtures to the North such as stopping the blaring of anti-Kim messages over loudspeakers on the military frontier.Lee was elected in June after the impeachment of the more hawkish Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office after briefly imposing martial law.The raids denounced by Trump likely referred in part to investigations surrounding Yoon’s conservative allies.- Seeking to buy base -Korean Air announced after the talks that it would buy more than 100 aircraft from US manufacturer Boeing, as Trump presses allies hard for business. Trump, who frequently accuses European allies of freeloading off the United States, made clear he would seek greater compensation by South Korea over the 28,500 US troops in the country.He suggested the United States could seek to take over base land, an idea likely to enrage Lee’s brethren on the South Korean left.”We spent a lot of money building a fort, and there was a contribution made by South Korea, but I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base,” Trump said.He also spoke bluntly about one of South Korea’s most delicate issues: so-called “comfort women” who were forced into sexual slavery during Japan’s 1910-1945 rule.The South Korean left has historically been outspoken about Japan’s legacy, although Lee visited Tokyo on his way to Washington, a highly symbolic stop praised by Trump.Japan had agreed to compensate comfort women but the deal was criticized by survivors who questioned Tokyo’s sincerity.

Perplexity AI on Monday said it will begin paying out millions of dollars to media outlets as part of a new model for sharing search revenue with publishers.The company’s media partners will soon get paid when their work is used by Perplexity’s browser or AI assistant to satisfy queries or requests, according to the San Francisco-based startup.”We’re compensating publishers in the model that’s right for the AI age,” the Perplexity team said in a blog post.The payouts will be administered via a subscription service to be rolled out in the coming months, dubbed Comet Plus, which the startup described as a program that ensures publishers and journalists benefit from new business models enabled by AI.A $42.5 million pool of money has been set aside to share with publishers and is expected to grow over time, according to Perplexity.”As the web has evolved beyond information to include knowledge, action, and opportunities, excellent content from publishers and journalists matters even more,” the Perplexity team said.The company will charge a $5 monthly subscription for Comet Plus, which will be an added perk for those who already pay for premium versions of Perplexity.Perplexity is one of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups, whose AI-powered search engine is often mentioned as a potential disruptor to Google.But the company has been targeted with lawsuits by media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, claiming the startup unfairly profits from their work.One suit accuses Perplexity of illegally copying and reproducing copyrighted content from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post to power its AI-driven “answer engine.”A revenue-sharing model by Perplexity would be a peace offering to publishers and bolster its defenses against accusations of free-riding on their work.Unlike ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, Perplexity’s tool provides up-to-date answers that often include links to source materials, allowing users to verify information.And unlike a classic search engine, Perplexity provides ready-made answers on its webpage, making it unnecessary for users to click through to the source website.Google, meanwhile, has built powerful AI into its search engine and offers AI-generated summaries with query results.After a lawsuit by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post in October, Perplexity criticized the “adversarial posture” of many media as “shortsighted, unnecessary, and self-defeating.”They “prefer to live in a world where publicly reported facts are owned by corporations, and no one can do anything with those publicly reported facts without paying a toll,” it said at the time.”We should all be working together to offer people amazing new tools and build genuinely pie-expanding businesses.”