Russian-born fashion designer Dasha Pomeranz tells stories with the clothing she creates. Her latest collection is a tribute to women who were forced to leave their native countries and start new lives in the United States. Karina Bafradzhian has the story. (Videographer: Sergii Dogotar ; Produced by: Sergii Dogotar, Anna Rice )
…
«Під час нападу злочинець використав газовий балончик та наніс військовослужбовцю Збройних сил України ножове поранення»
…
New York — Paul McCartney’s previous New York-area performance took place three years ago at MetLife Stadium, capacity 82,500. His surprise show Tuesday night at the Bowery Ballroom fit, at most, 575.
It was probably less than that since McCartney’s sound board and gear — too much to fit backstage — occupied a portion of the floor space at the venerable downtown theater. The whole thing felt like, and was, a lark. McCartney announced the show just hours before taking the stage.
Like an echo of Beatlemania, the news swept through Manhattan and beyond earlier in the day, sending New Yorkers sprinting down Delancey Street for a chance to snag one of the few tickets at the Bowery. Most in attendance, including McCartney, himself, could hardly believe it was happening.
“So, here we are,” McCartney said, grinning. “Some little gig. New York. Why not?”
Later, before launching into “Let Me Roll It,” he added: “I can’t quite believe we’re here, doing this. But we are here, doing this.”
It was not McCartney’s first impromptu concert. The Beatles famously performed in 1969 atop the roof of their Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row in London. Since then, he’s made something of a habit of it on trips to New York.
In 2009, McCartney returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater, site of the Beatles’ famous U.S. debut, and performed above the marquee. In 2018, he popped up in Grand Central Terminal to promote the release of his “Egyptian Station.”
With temperatures in the low 30s on Tuesday, McCartney, 82, this time opted for an intimate, indoor show. Tickets were sold only physically at the venue, one per person. All were snapped up within about 30 minutes.
For those quick enough, it was like hitting the lottery.
Amy Jaffe, 69, was at home about 30 blocks north when she saw the announcement on Instagram. “I thought: I can do this,” Jaffe said before the show. “I put on jeans, grabbed a coat, called a Lyft.”
Jaffe has seen McCartney many times before, including with the Beatles in 1964 in Forrest Hills, Queens. But she was still incredulous, smiling and shaking her head: “I don’t actually believe it.”
Phil Sokoloff, 31, was on his way to work nearby when he saw the news. He ran in and told his co-worker, Mat Fuller, and they rushed over to the Bowery Ballroom.
“We just got lucky,” Sokoloff said. “I’m always learning about these things the day after.”
McCartney took the stage roughly on time at 6:30 p.m. with his regular band, along with a three-member horn section. They had only rehearsed once, the day before, McCartney said. Someone shouted: “You don’t need to rehearse!”
If the location was stripped down, the former Beatle didn’t come with a minimized show, packing in a blistering tour through his entire catalog, from Beatles classics to Wings hits. He began with “A Hard Day’s Night” and also performed “Got To Get You Into My Life,” “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Lady Madonna,” “Jet,” “Get Back,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “Let it Be” and “Hey Jude.”
“Blackbird” was a solo number on acoustic guitar, and afterward McCartney reflected on how he wrote it for the Civil Rights Movement, a memory that brought back his first trips to the United States.
“We were just kids,” McCartney said. “I’ve got grandchildren older than that now.”
In the early days, he said, he and John Lennon were always writing for the audience, and the songs were all about reaching out: “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “From Me to You.”
“It had everything to do with the fans, really,” McCartney said.
Before playing the Wings song “Mrs. Vanderbilt,” McCartney spoke of playing it in front of 350,000 people in Kyiv, when Ukraine was exuberant with a newfound freedom. “Let’s hope it gets back to that soon,” he said.
Conversation, mixed with shouts from the audience, peppered the set. After one particularly shrill scream, McCartney responded. “That was a Beatles scream.” Then he asked for more, saying, “OK, let’s get it out of the way. Girls, give me a Beatles scream.” All in attendance obliged.
McCartney also performed the so-called last Beatles song, “Now and Then,” a ballad penned by Lennon in the late ’70s but only released in 2023 with the help of the some of the technology used in Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary, “The Beatles: Get Back.” The song made McCartney wistful for his songwriting partner, whom he noted loved New York.
“Let’s hear it for John,” he said.
McCartney, who was spotted Sunday at the Super Bowl in New Orleans chatting with Adam Sandler, was in New York for the upcoming “Saturday Night Live” 50th anniversary festivities. He’s to be a guest on the star-studded television special Sunday.
It was unclear if McCartney was playing a single show or preparing for something more. He wrapped the Got Back Tour in December and has said he’s hoping to finish a new album this year.
For now, though, it was a one-night-only event. One crowd member asked McCartney if it could go all night. “Some of us need to get some sleep, you know,” he replied.
…
У Міноборони зазначили, що бажаючі зможуть знайти вакансії, ознайомитись з умовами служби та переліком бригад
…
За словами Лубінця, щоб допомогти абітурієнтам вступити до українських закладів освіти, держава створила мережу освітніх центрів
…
NEW YORK — A giant schnauzer named Monty won the top prize at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show Tuesday night.
Monty bested six other finalists to take best in show at Madison Square Garden. The award is considered the most prestigious prize in the U.S. dog show world.
Each dog is judged according to how closely it matches the ideal for its breed.
Winners get a trophy, ribbons and bragging rights, but no cash prize.
Other finalists included a bichon frisé called Neal, a Skye terrier named Archer, a whippet and repeat runner-up known as Bourbon, a shih tzu called Comet who’s been a finalist before, a German shepherd named Mercedes, who came in second last year, and an English springer spaniel called Freddie.
Monty made the finals for a third year in a row and won the huge American Kennel Club’s big show in December.
A Westminster win is considered the most prestigious award in the U.S. dog show world. Each dog is judged according to how closely it matches the ideal for its breed.
Winners get a trophy, ribbons and bragging rights, but no cash prize.
Every dog at Westminster is a titled champion, but they also are household pets. Some also do therapy work, search-and-rescue or other canine jobs.
“A good German shepherd is an all-purpose dog,” said co-breeder and co-owner Sheree Moses Combs of Wardensville, West Virginia. Some of her pups have become service dogs for wounded veterans, she said.
“Dog shows are fun, but that is what our breed is all about,” she said.
Big dogs had their day at Westminster on Tuesday, when “working” breeds had their turns in the ring. First-round competitor Brina, for instance, is a 71.6 kilogram Neapolitan mastiff.
“I’ve been struck by this breed since I was 12. … They’re so unique,” owner Yves Belmont, Ph.D., said as Brina napped in her crate, equipped with a 7.5-liter water bucket.
With their size, jowly heads and guard-dog history, the breed was developed to be imposing. But Belmont, who currently has several of them at his family’s Atlanta-area home, said he also is impressed by their intelligence.
A trip to Westminster is a reminder of dogs’ variety, even just among purebreds. The same day Brina competed, Tyra the miniature bull terrier also strutted her stuff. Formally called GCH CH Rnr’s Top Model, she’s named after fashion model Tyra Banks.
The hardy terrier breed is “a big dog in a small package, but they always keep you smiling,” said owner and co-breeder Jessica Harrison of Austin, Texas. Asked where the 2-year-old Tyra falls on the mischief meter, Harrison smiled, “like a nine, for sure.”
“You can’t be upset with them because they’re just so cute,” she said as Tyra rolled on her back to get a belly rub from a passerby at the Javits Center, the convention venue that hosted the first-round judging of each breed.
Regardless which dog gets the trophy at Westminster, others also have scored points with the crowd.
During two nights of semifinals, spectators shouted out breeds and names of canine competitors as if they played for one of the pro teams that call the Garden home, the NBA’s New York Knicks and NHL’s New York Rangers.
“Love you, Lumpy!” someone yelled to a Pekingese named Lumpy, who earned laughs for his ambling gait.
The arena erupted with cheers for a golden retriever named Tuffy, a representative of a popular breed that has never won. Calaco, a Xoloitzcuintli, got huge applause for a confident performance that also earned him some recognition from the judge. Xoloitzcuintlis, are hairless dogs with deep roots in Mexico.
A Doberman pinscher called Penny got whoops of approval from spectators, too. Despite her dignified, focused appearance, Penny can be “a mush,” breeder and co-owner Theresa Connors-Chan of Ontario, Canada, said earlier in the day.
Westminster also featured agility and obedience championships, held Saturday. The agility prize went to a border collie named Vanish, and an Australian shepherd called Willie triumphed in obedience.
…
WASHINGTON — After the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba last week, the two nations voiced alignment on Trump’s “peace through strength” approach toward countering China in the Indo-Pacific region, analysts said.
“The prime minister and I will be working closely together to maintain peace and security — and I also say – peace through strength all over the Indo-Pacific,” said Trump, at a press conference after his meeting Friday with Ishiba in Washington.
“We agreed to cooperate even more closely to combat the Chinese economic aggression, which is quite aggressive,” Trump said.
Ishiba said: “Further strengthening the strong and unwavering Japan-U.S. alliance to achieving a free and open Indo-Pacific” is key “to advance the national interests of both of our countries in synergy and to realize peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”
Analysts say the first official meeting between Trump and Ishiba succeeded in striking agreements on what both leaders consider crucial: combating China’s aggression and strengthening their national interests.
Security commitment
Ishiba continued to forge close ties with the U.S. to maintain multilateral alliance security cooperation close to home in the Indo-Pacific, while Trump secured Japanese investments and purchases.
Taken together, analysts say, Ishiba is aligned with Trump’s vision of making the U.S. strong at home in his “America First” approach as a prerequisite for maintaining peace through strength in the Indo-Pacific, a region crucial to Japan’s defense.
“The U.S.-Japan leaders’ communiqué went a long way to reaffirm Trump’s peace through strength approach to the Indo-Pacific,” said Kenneth Weinstein, the Japan chair at Hudson Institute.
“The U.S.-Japan leaders’ communiqué, which President Trump signed off on, highlighted the importance of multilateral networks in the Indo-Pacific,” Weinstein told VOA on Sunday.
“The two leaders intend to advance multilayered and aligned cooperation” with the Quad security dialogue and three separate trilateral ties with South Korea, Australia and the Philippines “to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Trump and Ishiba said in a joint statement.
There were concerns by some that Trump would not support alliance security formations aimed at maintaining peace and security in the region.
“A big concern on the part of the Japanese” was whether the Biden administration’s emphasis “on the centrality of alliance” or the “so-called multilayered structures” or “mini laterals” would continue, said Daniel Sneider, a lecturer in East Asian Studies at Stanford University.
Sneider told VOA on Monday, “It was reassuring for the Japanese and for those in the U.S. who are worried whether those types of policies would have continuity that there was at least a written affirmation of those things in the joint statement.”
In their joint statement, Trump and Ishiba also expressed “strong opposition” to China’s attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea and its unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea.
They also expressed support for Taiwan’s “meaningful participation in international organizations” and opposed China’s efforts to disturb stability across the Taiwan Strait.
At a press briefing held in Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun, said, “The part of the U.S.-Japan joint statement on China constitutes open interference in China’s domestic affairs and an attack and smear against China, which is also aimed at scaremongering in the region.”
Increased investment
Trump announced at the press conference that Japan will invest $1 trillion in the U.S., participate in the Alaska LNG project, and invest in, rather than buy, U.S. Steel.
In one of the first executive orders Trump signed on Jan. 20, he made Alaskan natural resources open to development and production and its liquefied natural gas available for sale to U.S. allied nations within the Pacific region.
Ishiba said, “An unprecedented investment” from Japan to the U.S. and the Japanese investments in U.S. Steel are “mutually beneficial” and “contribute not only to the United States and Japan but also to the whole world.”
Weinstein, at Hudson, said, “The announcement of a trillion dollars in foreign investment in the U.S. was the landmark moment, as was the announcement of the investments in the LNG sector” and “the pending U.S. Steel investment.”
“Ishiba is supporting what is in Japan’s best interest: an alliance with minimal distance between the U.S. and Japan,” he said. “So he understands he needs to back the America First approach to continue alignment with the Trump administration. A strong America is the best guarantee for global peace and stability.”
In explaining what foreign policy would look like under the Trump administration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during his confirmation hearing in January, emphasized “a foreign policy centered on our national interest” and making the U.S. strong first at home as the prerequisite for maintaining peace and security around the world.
“Ishiba respects Trump’s America First” policy, but he is also a “Japan first” prime minister, said Yuki Tatsumi, director of the Japan Program at the Stimson Center.
She told VOA on Friday that “both leaders gained. Trump got a commitment of increased investment by Japan in the U.S., while Ishiba gained Trump’s articulation of the U.S. commitment to the defense of Japanese territory, including the Senkaku Islands, and the joint statement in which U.S.-Japan support for Taiwan was articulated.”
In the joint statement, Ishiba and Trump underscored the United States’ “unwavering commitment” to defending Japan using its full range of capabilities, including nuclear capabilities. The two also “reiterated their strong opposition to any action that seeks to undermine Japan’s long and peaceful administration of the Senkaku Islands.”
There is “continuity” from the Biden administration to the Trump administration, Tatsumi said, and that is to make U.S.-Japan ties “the hub of alliance cooperation and partnership across the Indo-Pacific.”
…
WASHINGTON — Russia released American schoolteacher Marc Fogel on Tuesday following an unannounced visit to Moscow by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and he was headed for a White House welcome, U.S. President Donald Trump said.
The release of 63-year-old Fogel, who had been detained in Russia since August 2021 and was serving a 14-year sentence, came as Trump seeks to improve relations with Moscow as part of an effort to secure an end to the war in Ukraine.
Trump told reporters that Fogel would visit the White House on his return to the U.S. late on Tuesday, and White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said he would also be reunited Tuesday night with his family, who celebrated the news.
On a plane home, Fogel, who is from Pennsylvania, was shown with a raised glass, a cheese plate and his U.S. passport in a photo posted on social media by Trump’s chief hostage envoy Adam Boehler.
Asked what the United States gave up in exchange for Fogel, Trump said: “Not much” and called the release a show of good faith from the Russians.
“We were treated very nicely by Russia. Actually, I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that (Ukraine) war and millions of people can stop being killed,” Trump said.
Fogel was sentenced to 14 years in prison for drug smuggling after he was detained in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport in August 2021 with 17 grams of marijuana in his luggage. The marijuana had been medically prescribed in Pennsylvania, where it is legal, said Martin De Luca, a member of Fogel’s legal team.
Witkoff’s plane was on the ground in Moscow for a few hours before leaving with Fogel onboard, flying through central Europe and back to Washington, De Luca told Reuters.
“We are beyond grateful, relieved, and overwhelmed that after more than three years of detention, our father, husband, and son, Marc Fogel, is finally coming home,” the Fogel family said in a statement.
“This has been the darkest and most painful period of our lives, but today, we begin to heal.”
Fogel’s Russian lawyer Dmitry Ovsyannikov confirmed the release to state news agency RIA.
“For the moment, we don’t know on what grounds he was released from where he was serving time – a pardon or something else,” Ovsyannikov told TASS.
He told Russia’s Interfax news agency that Fogel was last week transferred from a prison in Rybinsk, north of Moscow, to a pre-trial detention center in Moscow ahead of his release.
Fogel was left out of a historic swap of prisoners in August that involved 24 prisoners – 16 sent from Russia to the West, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and eight sent back to Russia from the West.
Trump has indicated he has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin but has been vague on the details other than to say he is insistent on ending the three-year-old Ukraine war.
“We’re making good progress there. I think, I really think we’re making some very good progress,” Trump told reporters about Ukraine on Tuesday.
…
WASHINGTON — The White House fired the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday, several U.S. officials said. The dismissal comes a day after his office warned that the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID had made it all but impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian funds.
The White House gave no reason for the firing of Inspector General Paul Martin, one of the officials said. The dismissal was first reported by CNN. The officials were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Inspectors general are typically independently funded watchdogs tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse at government agencies. The Trump administration earlier purged more than a dozen inspectors general.
On Monday, Martin’s office issued a flash report warning that the Trump administration’s funding freeze and staff actions within USAID had left oversight of the humanitarian aid “largely nonoperational.”
That includes the agency’s greatly reduced ability to ensure none of the $8.2 billion in unspent unhumanitarian funds falls into the hands of violent extremist groups or goes astray in conflict zones, the watchdog said.
Multiparty lawsuit
Separately, a lawsuit filed Tuesday alleged that the Trump administration’s fast-paced dismantling of USAID is stiffing American businesses on hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid bills for work that has already been done.
The administration’s abrupt freeze on foreign aid also is forcing mass layoffs by U.S. suppliers and contractors for USAID, including 750 furloughs at one company, Washington-based Chemonics International, the lawsuit says.
“One cannot overstate the impact of that unlawful course of conduct: on businesses large and small forced to shut down their programs and let employees go; on hungry children across the globe who will go without; on populations around the world facing deadly disease; and on our constitutional order,” the U.S. businesses and organizations said.
An organization representing 170 small U.S. businesses, major suppliers, an American Jewish group aiding displaced people abroad, the American Bar Association and others joined the court challenge.
It was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington against President Donald Trump; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; acting USAID Deputy Administrator Peter Marocco, a Trump appointee who has been a central figure in hollowing out the agency; and Russell Vought, Trump’s head of the Office of Management and Budget.
Marocco defended the funding cutoff and push to put all but a fraction of USAID staff on leave in an affidavit filed late Monday in the lawsuit brought by the workers’ groups.
“Insubordination” and “noncompliance” by USAID staffers made it necessary to stop funding and operations by the agency to allow the administration to carry out a program-by-program review to decide which U.S. aid programs could resume overseas, Marocco wrote.
It is at least the third lawsuit over the administration’s rapid unraveling of the U.S. aid and development agency and its programs worldwide. Trump and ally Elon Musk have targeted USAID in particular, saying its work is out of line with Trump’s agenda.
Marocco, Musk and Rubio have overseen an across-the-board freeze on foreign assistance and an agency shutdown under a January 20 executive order by Trump. A lawsuit brought by federal employees associations has temporarily blocked the administration from pulling thousands of USAID staffers off the job. The funding freeze and other measures have persisted, including the agency losing the lease on its Washington headquarters.
Interceding for farmers
The new administration terminated contracts without the required 30-day notice and without back payments for work that was already done, according to a U.S. official, a businessperson with a USAID contract and an email seen by The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal by the Trump administration.
For Chemonics, one of the larger of the USAID partners, the funding freeze has meant $103 million in unpaid invoices and almost $500 million in USAID-ordered medication, food and other goods stalled in the supply chain or ports, the lawsuit says.
For the health commodities alone, not delivering them “on time could potentially lead to as many as 566,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS, malaria, and unmet reproductive health needs, including 215,000 pediatric deaths,” the lawsuit says.
Meanwhile, seven Republican lawmakers from farm states introduced legislation to safeguard a long-running $1.8 billion food-aid program run by the aid agency, by moving the Food for Peace program under the Department of Agriculture.
Farmers, a politically important bloc for the Trump administration, have been affected by the administration’s funding freeze as well. Kansas Republican Senator Jerry Moran, who announced the legislation, over the weekend thanked Rubio for interceding to allow delivery of $560 million in U.S.-grown commodities intended for hunger programs worldwide but stuck in ports because of the administration’s abrupt cutoff of foreign assistance spending.
…
The latest offerings for electric vehicles take center stage at the 2025 Chicago Auto Show as some federal tax incentives could end. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more.
…
Marc Fogel, an American teacher detained in Russia since August 2021 for bringing medically prescribed marijuana into the country, was freed by Moscow on Tuesday and headed back to the United States, the White House announced.
The 63-year-old history teacher, who had been serving a 14-year sentence, was expected to be reunited with his family in the eastern state of Pennsylvania by the end of the day.
He left Russian airspace aboard the personal aircraft of Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign affairs envoy who helped negotiate his release.
Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said the U.S. and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to free Fogel but gave no details about what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. In such deals in recent years, the U.S. has often released Russian prisoners that Moscow wanted in exchange.
Instead, Waltz cast the deal for Fogel’s release in broader geopolitical terms, saying it was “a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” an invasion Russia launched against its neighbor in February 2022, with hundreds of thousands killed or wounded on both sides.
Trump had vowed to broker an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine before taking office Jan. 20, but his aides more recently have said he hopes to do it within the first 100 days of his new administration, roughly by the end of April.
“Since President Trump’s swearing-in, he has successfully secured the release of Americans detained around the world, and President Trump will continue until all Americans being held are returned to the United States,” Waltz said. The recent release of six Americans held in Venezuela and Fogel’s freeing are the only publicly known instances.
Fogel had been traveling with a small amount of medically prescribed marijuana to treat back pain. Once convicted by a Russian court, he began serving his 14-year sentence in June 2022, with the outgoing administration of former President Joe Biden late last year classifying him as wrongfully detained.
Witkoff is a billionaire New York real estate executive and close friend of Trump’s. He previously had helped negotiate the six-week Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza initiated by Biden in the last months of his presidency.
Witkoff also had been secretly negotiating the deal for Fogel’s release. Online flight trackers spotted his presence in Moscow when he flew there on his private jet.
With the U.S. leading the way in the West’s opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the first known trip to Moscow by a senior U.S. official since William Burns, then the Central Intelligence Agency director, flew to the Russian capital in November 2021, in an unsuccessful attempt to keep Russia from invading Ukraine.
…
The 27-nation European Union and Canada quickly vowed Tuesday to stand firm against U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to impose 25% tariffs on their steel and aluminum exports, verbal sparring that could lead to a full-blown trade war between the traditionally allied nations.
“The EU will act to safeguard its economic interests,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. “Tariffs are taxes — bad for business, worse for consumers.
“Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered — they will trigger firm and proportionate countermeasures,” she said.
Trump said the steel and aluminum tariffs would take effect on March 12. In response, EU officials said they could target such U.S. products as bourbon, jeans, peanut butter and motorcycles, much of it produced in Republican states that supported Trump in his election victory.
The EU scheduled a first emergency video on Wednesday to shape the bloc’s response.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, which holds the EU presidency, said it was “important that everyone sticks together. Difficult times require such full solidarity.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a conference on artificial intelligence in Paris that Trump’s steel and aluminum levy would be “entirely unjustified,” and that “Canadians will resist strongly and firmly if necessary.”
Von der Leyen is meeting Tuesday with U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Paris, where they are expected to discuss Trump’s tariff orders.
“We will protect our workers, businesses and consumers,” she said in advance of the meeting.
Trump imposed the steel and aluminum tariff to boost the fortunes of U.S. producers.
“It’s a big deal,” he said. “This is the beginning of making America rich again.”
Billionaire financier Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department, said the tariff on the imports could bring back 120,000 U.S. jobs.
As he watched Trump sign an executive order, Lutnick said, “You are the president who is standing up for the American steelworker, and I am just tremendously impressed and delighted to stand next to you.”
Trump’s proclamations raised the rate on aluminum imports to 25% from the previous 10% that he imposed in 2018 to aid the struggling sector. And he restored a 25% tariff on millions of tons of steel and aluminum imports.
South Korea — the fourth-biggest steel exporter to the United States, following Canada, Brazil and Mexico — also vowed to protect its companies’ interests but did not say how.
South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok said Seoul would seek to reduce uncertainties “by building a close relationship with the Trump administration and expanding diplomatic options.”
The spokesperson of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said London was “engaging with our U.S. counterparts to work through the detail” of the planned tariffs.
In Monday’s executive order, Trump said “all imports of aluminum articles and derivative aluminum articles from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Mexico, EU countries and the UK” would be subject to additional tariffs.
The same countries are named in his executive order on steel, along with Brazil, Japan and South Korea.
“I’m simplifying our tariffs on steel and aluminum,” Trump said. “It’s 25% without exceptions or exemptions.”
Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament’s international trade committee, warned that previous trade measures against the U.S. were only suspended and could legally be easily revived.
“When he starts again now, then we will, of course, immediately reinstate our countermeasures,” Lange told rbb24 German radio. “Motorcycles, jeans, peanut butter, bourbon, whiskey and a whole range of products that of course also affect American exporters” would be targeted, he said.
In Germany, the EU’s largest economy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told parliament that “if the U.S. leaves us no other choice, then the European Union will react united.”
But he warned, “Ultimately, trade wars always cost both sides prosperity.”
The European steel industry expressed concerns about the Trump tariffs.
“It will further worsen the situation of the European steel industry, exacerbating an already dire market environment,” said Henrik Adam, president of the European Steel Association.
He said the EU could lose up to 3.7 million tons of steel exports. The United States is the second-largest export market for EU steel producers, representing 16% of the total EU steel exports.
“Losing a significant part of these exports cannot be compensated for by EU exports to other markets,” Adam said.
Some material in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
…
The Trump administration last month paused funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development amid reports that it may be put under State Department control as the president seeks to align it with his “America First” policy. Britain’s recent similar move to restructure its foreign aid could offer lessons for Washington. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
…
WASHINGTON — The U.S., U.K. and Australia on Tuesday sanctioned a Russian web-hosting services provider and two Russian men who administer the service in support of Russian ransomware syndicate LockBit.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and its U.K. and Australian counterparts sanctioned Zservers, a Russia-based bulletproof hosting services provider — which is a web-hosting service that ignores or evades law enforcement requests — and two Russian nationals serving as Zservers operators.
Treasury alleges that Zservers provided LockBit access to specialized servers designed to resist law enforcement actions. LockBit ransomware attacks have extracted more than $120 million from thousands of victims around the world.
LockBit has operated since 2019, and is the most deployed ransomware variant across the world and continues to be prolific, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The Treasury Department’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley T. Smith, said Tuesday’s action “underscores our collective resolve to disrupt all aspects of this criminal ecosystem, wherever located, to protect our national security.”
LockBit has been linked to attacks on airplane manufacturer Boeing, the November 2023 attack against the Industrial Commercial Bank of China, the U.K.’s Royal Mail, Britain’s National Health Service, and international law firm Allen and Overy.
Ransomware is the costliest and most disruptive form of cybercrime, crippling local governments, court systems, hospitals and schools as well as businesses. It is difficult to combat as most gangs are based in former Soviet states and out of reach of Western justice.
Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokeswoman, said Tuesday’s sanctions “underscore the United States’ commitment, along with our international partners, to combating cybercrime and degrading the networks that enable cyber criminals to target our citizens.”
…
У січні 2025 року в Україні загинули щонайменше 139 цивільних осіб і 738 зазнали поранень – це 39% більше, ніж у грудні 2024 року
…
Paris — U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Europeans on Tuesday their “massive” regulations on artificial intelligence could strangle the technology, and rejected content moderation as “authoritarian censorship.”
The mood on AI has shifted as the technology takes root, from one of concerns around safety to geopolitical competition, as countries jockey to nurture the next big AI giant.
Vance, setting out the Trump administration’s America First agenda, said the United States intended to remain the dominant force in AI and strongly opposed the European Union’s far tougher regulatory approach.
“We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry,” Vance told an AI summit of CEOs and heads of state in Paris.
“We feel very strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias and that American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship,” he added.
Vance criticized the “massive regulations” created by the EU’s Digital Services Act, as well as Europe’s online privacy rules, known by the acronym GDPR, which he said meant endless legal compliance costs for smaller firms.
“Of course, we want to ensure the internet is a safe place, but it is one thing to prevent a predator from preying on a child on the internet, and it is something quite different to prevent a grown man or woman from accessing an opinion that the government thinks is misinformation,” he said.
European lawmakers last year approved the bloc’s AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive set of rules governing the technology.
Vance is leading the American delegation at the Paris summit.
Vance also appeared to take aim at China at a delicate moment for the U.S. technology sector.
Last month, Chinese startup DeepSeek freely distributed a powerful AI reasoning model that some said challenged U.S. technology leadership. It sent shares of American chip designer Nvidia down 17%.
“From CCTV to 5G equipment, we’re all familiar with cheap tech in the marketplace that’s been heavily subsidized and exported by authoritarian regimes,” Vance said.
But he said that “partnering with them means chaining your nation to an authoritarian master that seeks to infiltrate, dig in and seize your information infrastructure. Should a deal seem too good to be true? Just remember the old adage that we learned in Silicon Valley: if you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.”
Vance did not mention DeepSeek by name. There has been no evidence of information being able to surreptitiously flow through the startup’s technology to China’s government, and the underlying code is freely available to use and view. However, some government organizations have reportedly banned DeepSeek’s use.
Speaking after Vance, French President Emmanuel Macron said that he was fully in favor of trimming red tape, but he stressed that regulation was still needed to ensure trust in AI, or people would end up rejecting it. “We need a trustworthy AI,” he said.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen also said the EU would cut red tape and invest more in AI.
In a bilateral meeting, Vance and von der Leyen were also likely to discuss Trump’s substantial increase of tariffs on steel.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was expected to address the summit on Tuesday. A consortium led by Musk said on Monday it had offered $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit controlling OpenAI.
Altman promptly posted on X: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
The technology world has closely watched whether the Trump administration will ease recent antitrust enforcement that had seen the U.S. sue or investigate the industry’s biggest players.
Vance said the U.S. would champion American AI — which big players develop — he also said: “Our laws will keep Big Tech, little tech, and all other developers on a level playing field.”
…
«Ця проблема ще більше загострюється еміграцією приблизно 1,3 мільйона росіян з моменту вторгнення в Україну»
…
