Category: World

WASHINGTON: Billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, has announced that all US federal employees are required to report on their weekly work output or risk losing their jobs, warning that those who fail to do so will be considered to have resigned. Musk’s unexpected bold move comes just hours after Trump called for stronger and “more aggressive” measures to reduce government spending and tackle waste. “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure…

Read More

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis is in a critical condition after he suffered a severe respiratory attack that requires high-flow oxygen and blood transfusions, as he remains in hospital receiving treatment for double pneumonia. “At the moment, the prognosis is reserved,” it said, as the head of the 88-year-old Catholic Church prepared to spend his ninth night in Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where he was diagnosed this week with double pneumonia. “The Holy Father’s condition continues to be critical; therefore, as explained yesterday, the pope is not…

Read More

President Donald Trump fired top US military officer General Charles “CQ” Brown on Friday, part of a major shake-up of the armed forces’ leadership. Trump offered no explanation for Brown’s dismissal less than two years into his four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which followed sweeping layoffs of federal workers and moves to dismantle government institutions just a month into the president’s second term. Brown had been nominated to the top military role by Democratic president Joe Biden and became only the second Black person to…

Read More

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump engaged in a fiery argument with Maine Governor Janet Mills on Friday, defending his recent executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports, which prompted the Democratic leader to defiantly respond, “See you in court,” amid threats of withheld federal funding. The Republican president was making televised remarks to a gathering of the country’s governors at the White House when he raised the executive order he signed earlier this month. “Two weeks ago I signed an executive order banning men from playing in women’s sports.…

Read More

WASHINGTON: Newly released data from the US Department of Homeland Security reveals that President Donald Trump deported 37,660 individuals in his first month in office, a figure significantly lower than the monthly average of 57,000 removals and returns recorded during the final full year of Joe Biden’s administration. A senior Trump administration official and experts said deportations were poised to rise in coming months as Trump opens up new avenues to ramp up arrests and removals. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Biden-era deportation numbers appeared “artificially high” because of higher…

Read More

WASHINGTON: The Republican-controlled US Senate on Thursday confirmed Kash Patel, a staunch loyalist who has threatened to go after President Donald Trump’s political enemies, as director of the FBI, the country’s top law enforcement agency. Patel, 44, whose nomination sparked fierce but ultimately futile opposition from Democrats, was approved by a 51-49 vote. The vote was split along party lines with the exception of two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who voted not to confirm Patel to head the 38,000-strong Federal Bureau of Investigation. Patel drew fire from…

Read More

CAIRO: Egypt’s antiquities authority has announced the discovery of the ancient tomb of King Thutmose II—the first royal burial site uncovered since the famous unearthing of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. The tomb, discovered near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor in southern Egypt, belonged to King Thutmose II of the 18th dynasty, who lived nearly 3,500 years ago. Thutmose II was an ancestor of Tutankhamun himself, and his half-sister and queen consort was Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Her giant mortuary temple stands on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor,…

Read More

US President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped slightly, reflecting growing concerns among Americans about the state of the economy, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The six-day survey, which concluded on Tuesday, found that 44% of respondents approved of Trump’s presidency, down from 45% in a poll conducted in late January. Meanwhile, disapproval of his presidency has increased to 51%, up from 41% shortly after he assumed office. Trump maintains strong approval for his immigration policies, with 47% of Americans supporting his stance, particularly his promises to ramp up deportations. However, concerns…

Read More

US President Donald Trump criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday, labeling him a “dictator without elections” and urging him to act swiftly to secure peace, or risk losing Ukraine altogether, Reuters reported. Trump’s comments came shortly after Zelenskiy rejected his claim that Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s 2022 invasion, accusing Trump of falling victim to Russian disinformation. Trump took to his Truth Social platform, writing, “Zelenskiy better move fast or he won’t have a country left.” In response, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha asserted that Ukraine would not give in,…

Read More

Russia and the United States on Tuesday agreed to establish teams to negotiate a path to ending the war in Ukraine after talks that drew a strong rebuke from Kyiv over its exclusion, AFP reported. Washington noted European nations would have to have a seat at the negotiating table “at some point”, following the first high-level official Washington-Moscow talks since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Some European leaders, alarmed by President Donald Trump’s overhaul of US policy on Russia, fear Washington will make serious concessions to Moscow and re-write the continent’s security…

Read More