World

The Central Intelligence Agency has shifted its official stance on the origin of Covid-19, saying on Saturday it was “more likely” the virus leaked from a Chinese lab rather than being transmitted by animals.The new assessment came after John Ratcliffe was confirmed Thursday as the CIA director under the second White House administration of US President Donald Trump.Ratcliffe, who served as the director of national intelligence from 2020-2021 during Trump’s first term, said in an interview published on Friday a “day-one” priority would be making an assessment of Covid’s origins.The CIA said it was “more likely” the virus leaked from a Chinese lab rather than being transmitted by animals. Photo / 123RF“The agency is going to get off the sidelines,” Ratcliffe – who believes Covid-19 leaked f...

Praising Trump as a “smart” and “pragmatic” man, Putin also repeated the Republican’s unfounded claim that he won the US presidential election against Joe Biden in 2020.“I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president – if his victory hadn’t been stolen in 2020 – then maybe there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that emerged in 2022,” Putin said.Pressure from TrumpThe nearly three-year Ukraine conflict has plunged relations between the two nuclear powers to their lowest levels since the Cold War.Trump, who was inaugurated on Monday, has called the conflict “ridiculous” and threatened Russia with tougher economic sanctions if it does not agree to stop its offensive.AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.“If they don’t settle this war soon, like almost immediately, I’m going to ...

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after signing a series of executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House. Photo / Getty ImagesUnited States authorities have arrested 538 migrants and deported hundreds in a mass operation just days into President Donald Trump’s second administration, his press secretary said today.“The Trump Administration arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals,” Karoline Leavitt said in a post on social platform X, adding “hundreds” were deported by military aircraft.“The largest massive deportation operation in history is well under way. Promises made. Promises kept,” she said.During the election campaign, Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration and began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the...

Trump’s remarks came as an explosive new wildfire erupted north of Los Angeles, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes and setting nerves jangling in an area still reeling from two deadly blazes.Trump and Republicans in Congress have said that help for California should be conditioned on the actions of the state’s Democratic leaders, despite making no such suggestion when storms killed more than 100 people and caused destructive flooding across the US southeast.Trump’s freewheeling press conferences and interviews distinguish him from previous presidents, particularly Joe Biden, who almost never agreed to sit down for detailed conversations with journalists.The Republican was praised during his campaign for his embrace of podcasts, YouTube and other new media, but he w...

United States President Donald Trump said today that he had pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the man behind the “Silk Road” online marketplace that facilitated millions of dollars of drug sales.In 2015, Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of masterminding the “dark web” platform, on which some US$200 million ($353m) in narcotics were sold to customers across the world.Ulbricht, who ran Silk Road under the alias “Dread Pirate Roberts” and who had also been accused of commissioning five murders, was sentenced to two life sentences for narcotics distribution and criminal enterprise.On the campaign trail last year, Trump had promised to free Ulbricht during a speech at the Libertarian National Convention, as he sought to gain the fringe party’s support.Ross Ulbricht. Sourc...

While campaigning, Trump had vilified diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the federal government and corporate world, saying they discriminated against white people – men in particular.He also demonised any recognition of gender diversity, attacking transgender people – notably transgender women in sports – and gender-affirming care for children.In front of a crowd of supporters in Washington Monday – his first day in office – the Republican wiped out 78 executive orders, actions and presidential memoranda issued by his Democrat predecessor Joe Biden.New: OPM says that by tomorrow at 5 pm agency heads are required to inform "all employees of DEIA offices that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all DE...

Donald Trump on Wednesday called a Washington bishop “nasty” and demanded an apology after she told the US President from the pulpit that he was sowing fear among the country’s immigrants and LGBTQ people.“The so-called bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a radical left hard-line Trump hater,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.“She brought her church into the world of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart,” wrote Trump, after attending a service at the Washington National Cathedral given by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde arrives as US President Donald Trump looks on during the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral. Photo ...

Donald Trump’s most trusted advisers are always his family. And this time around there are fresh faces, including his youngest son, Barron, and granddaughter Kai, primed to spread the Maga message to Gen Z. Ever since the revolting colonists gave that tyrant King George the boot, there has been a dynastic vacuum at the apex of American society. “We were educated in royalism - no wonder if some of us retain that idolatry still,” observed Thomas Jefferson, the third US president, arguing for the Bill of Rights to entrench republicanism in succeeding generations of free Americans. But the yearning for pomp, circumstance and intrigue in public life remained, with the royal burden falling mainly on the first family of the “elective king”, as Theodore Roosevelt, the 26...

Displaced Palestinian Ghadeer Abdul Rabbo, 30, told AFP she hopes that “with or without Trump”, the ceasefire will hold, and that world governments will help to “maintain this calm, because we are afraid”.If all goes to plan, the first phase of the truce would last six weeks, during which the parties would negotiate a permanent ceasefire, which has not been agreed yet.Israel has dropped more tons of bombs on Gaza than the total bombing of London, Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.London: 20,000 tons in 1940-1944Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 15,000 tons in 1945.Dresden: 3,900 tons in 1945.Gaza: 100,000+ tons in 15 months. pic.twitter.com/vn5sQy0MwS— Mohamad Safa (@mhdksafa) January 19, 2025 Despite the risks, hundreds of Palestinians were streaming through an apocalyptic lands...

Trump, 78, was a political outsider at his first inauguration in 2017 as the 45th President, but this time around he is surrounded by America’s wealthy and powerful.The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos and Google CEO Sundar Pichai all had prime seats in the Capitol alongside Trump’s family and Cabinet members.Musk, who bankrolled Trump’s election campaign to the tune of a quarter of a billion dollars and promotes far-right policies on the X social network, will lead a cost-cutting drive in the new administration.AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.While Trump refused to attend Biden’s 2021 inauguration after falsely claiming electoral fraud by the Democrat, this time Biden has been keen to restore the sense of tradition.Biden joined former pre...