Donald Trump

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has delivered its most damning allegations against Iran in nearly two decades.

It comes as the United States proposes a nuclear deal that it says is in Tehran’s best interests to accept.

But Tehran is accusing the West of political pressure and warns it will take “appropriate countermeasures” if European powers reimpose sanctions.

So is there still room for a deal?

Or will the US, United Kingdom, France and Germany declare Iran in violation of its nonproliferation obligations?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Hassan Ahmadian – assistant professor at the University of Tehran

Ali Vaez – Iran project director at the International Crisis Group

Sahil Shah – independent security analyst specialising in nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation policy

June 1 (UPI) — China criticized the United States on Sunday for having a “Cold War mentality” after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to warn that the U.S. is prepared to go to war to prevent China from dominating the Indo-Pacific region in a speech Saturday.

“Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a ‘threat,'” a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The remarks were filled with provocations and intended to sow discord. China deplores and firmly opposes them and has protested strongly to the U.S.”

Hegseth had delivered his remarks during the International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-La Dialogue event in Singapore. He said the Indo-Pacific region is the United States’ “priority theater” and won’t allow China to push it and its allies out of the region.

China retorted Sunday that “no country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the U.S. itself.”

“To perpetuate its hegemony and advance the so-called ‘Indo-Pacific strategy,’ the U.S. has deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea and kept stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific, which are turning the region into a powder keg and making countries in the region deeply concerned,” the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.

Hegseth had also said that China was “preparing to use military force” to alter the balance of power in the region and appeared to indicate that the United States would step in to defend Taiwan if China were to attack it.

Mainland China and the island of Taiwan, among other islands, were ruled by the Republic of China before the ROC lost the Chinese Civil War in the early 20th century to the Chinese Communist Party, which established the new government of the People’s Republic of China in October 1949.

The ROC in turn established a temporary capital in Taipei on the island of Taiwan, a former Japanese territory, in December 1949 that served as the seat for China at the United Nations until it was replaced by the People’s Republic of China in 1971 when foreign countries switched their diplomatic relations.

China views self-governed Taiwan and its 23 million residents as a wayward province and has vowed to retake it by force, if necessary. Many supporters of Taiwan have since argued that it is already an independent sovereign state separate from mainland China, which has never controlled Taiwan.

Tensions between the United States and China started to grow during the administration of President Joe Biden in 2022 when then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, sparking a military response from the Chinese government and increased drills in the Taiwan Strait. In 2022, a four-star general predicted that the U.S. and China could be at war by the end of this year.

After returning for his second term, President Donald Trump‘s administration has escalated tensions with China, particularly related to trade tariffs that appear now to be expanding into broader military and diplomatic arenas.

For example, the Pentagon has increased naval patrols in contested areas of the South China Sea and bolstered military partnerships with allies including Japan, Australia, and the Philippines.

“The Taiwan question is entirely China’s internal affair. No country is in a position to interfere. The U.S. should never imagine it could use the Taiwan question as leverage against China,” the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. “The U.S. must never play with fire on this question.”

By cracking down on immigration and defunding scientific research, the United States is slowly losing its position as the world leader in research and development, argues Holden Thorp, editor of Science journal and former chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Thorp tells host Steve Clemons that the US government had made a concerted effort over the past 80 years to fund scientific research, but with the changes ushered in by the administration of President Donald Trump, Thorp predicts the results will be “bad for science in general, and also for the US role in innovation”.

May 31 (UPI) — Iran has increased production of highly enriched uranium, according to the United Nations nuclear watchdog, as the nation conducts talks with the United States on a nuclear deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the Middle East country now possesses more than 408.6 kilograms, or 900 pounds, of uranium enriched to 60% purity as of May 17, according to a confidential report obtained by the BBC and Al Jazeera.

That’s a nearly 50% increase since February.

In December, the IAEA said Iran was rapidly moving closer to the 90% threshold needed for weapons-grade material.

This is enough for about 10 nuclear weapons if further refined.

Iran is the only non-nuclear-armed state producing uranium at this level.

“The significantly increased production and accumulation of highly enriched uranium by Iran … is of serious concern,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said.

IAEA concluded that Tehran conducted nuclear activities at three previously unknown sites: Lavisan-Shian, Varamin, Turquzabad.

And IAEA stated said it “cannot verify” the development of nuclear weapons, citing Iran’s refusal to grant access to senior inspectors and not answer questions about its nuclear history.

The IAEA board plans to meet in the coming days to discuss next steps.

Iran has long said its nuclear enrichment is for peaceful purposes.

“If the issue is nuclear weapons, yes, we too consider this type of weapon unacceptable,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a televised speech. “We agree with them on this issue.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday in a statement that Iran is “totally determined” to acquire nuclear weapons.

“Such a level of enrichment exists only in countries actively pursuing nuclear weapons and has no civilian justification whatsoever,” Netanyahu’s office said.

U.S. officials estimate Ian could produce weapons-grade material in less than two weeks and potentially build a bomb within months.

Since talks began in April, both sides have expressed optimism but are divided over key issues, including whether Iran can continue enrichment under any future agreement.

Two of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei‘s advisors — Ali Larijani and Kamal Kharazi — have suggested Iran might reconsider building nuclear weapons if international pressure mounts.

The IAEA findings could be a negotiation tool for Iran, Hamed Mousavi, professor of political science at Tehran University, told Al Jazeera.

“I think both sides are trying to build leverage against the other side,” he said. “From the Iranian perspective, an advancement in the nuclear program is going to bring them leverage at the negotiation table with the Americans.

“Enriching up to 60% – from the Iranian perspective – is a sort of leverage against the Americans to lift sanctions.”

He said the U.S. could threaten more sanctions and refer the situation to the U.N. Security Council for its breach of the 2006 non-proliferation agreement.

On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he sees a nuclear deal with Iran that would allow the destruction of labs and inspections. Iran has rejected inspections.

He said a deal is “very strong, where we can go in with inspectors. We can take whatever we want. We can blow up whatever we want. But nobody getting killed.”

In 2018, Trump unilaterally exited the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and reimposed harsh sanctions.

In 2015, Iran reached a deal with the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, Russia, China and the European Union.

Some sanctions on Iran were lifted for limits on its nuclear development program.

May 31 (UPI) — The United States and its allies won’t allow China to dominate the Indo-Pacific region, but do not seek war, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Saturday morning in Singapore.

He addressed regional concerns while speaking during the International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-La Dialogue event in Singapore.

Hegseth said the Indo-Pacific region is the United States’ “priority theater” and won’t allow China to push the United States and its allies out of the region, the Department of Defense announced Friday in a news release.

Instead, deterrence will be the primary tool by which the United States and its allies will counter any aggressive moves made by China, particularly in the South China Sea and against Taiwan.

“As our allies share the burden, we can increase our focus on the Indo-Pacific,” Hegseth said, adding that the region is the nation’s “priority theater.”

He said the futures of the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific depend on each other.

“We share a vision of peace and stability, of prosperity and security,” Hegseth said, “and we are here to stay.”

Common sense and national interests with guide policy making in the region, while respecting mutual self-interests.

President Donald Trump is working to get European nations to do more to increase their respective national security interests instead of largely relying on the United States.

As European nations do more to protect themselves, Hegseth said the United States will be better able to focus on matters in the Indo-Pacific region and do more to thwart Chinese aggression.

“This enables all of us to benefit from the peace and stability that comes with a lasting and strong American presence here in the Indo-Pacific,” Hegseth said.

That presence won’t come at a cost for the nation’s allies, though.

“We are not here to pressure other countries to embrace and adopt our politics or ideology,” Hegseth told the audience. “We are all sovereign nations.”

He said the United States does not “seek conflict with communist China.”

But the United States “will not be pushed out of this critical region,” Hegseth added. “And we will not let our allies and partners be subordinated and intimidated.”

He said China’s leaders are “preparing to use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific,” including occupying Taiwan.

Any move by China to take over Taiwan, which China has claimed as part of its sovereign state, would trigger “devastating consequences” for the region and the world, Hegseth told the audience.

“The threat China poses is real, and it could be imminent,” he said, adding that the United States and its allies must be prepared with “urgency and vigilance.”

If deterrence doesn’t work and a fighting war is inevitable, “we are prepared to do what the Department of Defense does best: to fight and win decisively,” Hegseth said.

The best way to ensure peace is to prepare for war, “but we have to do this quickly,” he said. “We have no time to waste.”

May 31 (UPI) — Militant Hamas said Saturday it would release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in return for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners and ending the war that began in October 2023.

Steve Witkoff, who is President Donald Trump‘s Middle East envoy, on Thursday submitted his proposal to mediators from Qatar and Egypt.

“As part of this agreement, 10 living Israeli prisoners held by the resistance will be released, in addition to the return of eighteen bodies, in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners,” Hamas said in a statement obtained by CNN.

The group said it came to the decision “after conducting a round of national consultations.”

“This proposal aims to achieve a permanent cease-fire, a comprehensive withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and ensure the flow of aid to our people and our families in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas said in a statement also obtained by The Guardian.

The Hamas response is similar to an earlier proposal to release 10 hostages, as well as a number of hostages’ remains during the cease-fire in exchange for 1,100 Palestinian prisoners.

An unidentified Israeli official told Israeli reporters in Saturday that they are treating Hamas’ response as an “effective rejection.”

Fifty-eight hostages are believed to still be alive. A total of 146 Israeli hostages have been freed or rescued from Gaza, including 25 during the truce.

The U.S. proposal called for a 60-day pause in fighting and renewed efforts toward long-term peace, as well as guarantees from Israel that it will not resume its offensive after Hamas releases hostages.

Negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire would begin immediately on the first day of the 60-day truce, according to the proposal.

Israeli negotiators accepted the deal, but Hamas has not backed it.

On Thursday, Hamas official Basem Naim said the U.S. proposal “does not respond to any of our people’s demands,” including lifting the humanitarian blockade on the Gaza Strip that has led to famine-like conditions among 2 million.

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz on Friday threatened Hamas if it did not accept.

“The Hamas murderers will now be forced to choose: accept the terms of the ‘Witkoff deal’ for the release of the hostages — or be annihilated,” Katz said.

A cease-fire lasted from Jan. 19 to March 1.

Israel refused to move to a planned second phase that could have led to a permanent end to the war. Israel began fighting, including airstrikes.

In a ramped-up offensive, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza over the last 24 hours, Hamas-run health officials said. And 72 were killed on Thursday.

Negotiators have made little progress.

“Negotiations are ongoing on the current proposal,” Qatar’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ayla Ahmed Saif al-Thani said Friday. He noted the mediators from Qatar are “very determined to find an ending to the horrific situation in Gaza.”

For three months, Israel’s blockade has stopped virtually all humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving – and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” the World Food Program said on Saturday.

The United Nations aid agency was allowed to bring 77 trucks loaded with flour into Gaza overnight, but the trucks were stopped by crowds of hungry people.

Lindsey Hutchison of Plan International said “having the military control aid and choose who they distribute it to in limited ways completely violates the way humanitarian operations are supposed to be conducted.”

She said the situation is not working.

“We saw chaos and despair at the distribution site, which is frankly masquerading as a humanitarian aid scheme. That’s not what this is,” she told Al Jazeera from New York.

More than 54,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began Oct. 7, 2023. Israel retaliated for a Hamas attack on the same da in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.

May 31 (UPI) — The Islamic State claimed responsibility for two bomb attacks in a remote region in southern Syria on Wednesday and Thursday.

The twin bombings mark the first time ISIS has attacked the new Syrian government that took power in December and occurred in the remote Sweida Province.

ISIS posted two online statements on Thursday claiming responsibility for the bombings that killed and wounded Syrian soldiers and militia members who are allied with the Syrian government, The New York Times reported.

An attack occurred on Wednesday and struck a Syrian Army reconnaissance group that was tracking ISIS activities in the remote desert area, CNN reported.

Those wounded in that attack are members of the Syrian Army’s 70th Division, and the man who died was assisting the soldiers, according to The New York Times.

ISIS used a remote-controlled land mine to target the vehicle in which they were traveling, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced.

That attack occurred in the eastern portion of the Sweida Province and was the first attack carried out by ISIS and targeting forces allied with the new Syrian government.

A second bombing occurred on Thursday in the same region, according to news reports and ISIS.

ISIS said it killed and injured seven soldiers for the “apostate Syrian regime” by using an explosive device on a road in the Talul al Safa area in the Suwayda province in southern Syria, Al Jazeera reported.

Both attacks occurred near Sweida in southern Syria, which is a mountainous desert area in which ISIS has operated for many years.

Neither the Syrian government nor the Free Syrian Army has commented on either bombing.

The United States backs the Free Syrian Army, which operates in the Sweida region’s al Tanf Deconfliction Zone that is located near Syria’s borders with Jordan.

The United States maintains a small outpost in the area.

ISIS also has operated in the area for a long time due to its “extremely rugged and dangerous” terrain, CNN reported.

Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump said he he was lifting “crippling” U.S. sanctions on Syria originally imposed to block flows of money into Syria, including aid, to put pressure on the brutal regime of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

He met with the country’s transitional leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May14.

Al-Sharaa, who was appointed president in January, has promised to hold elections once a new constitution is in place in around four years.

May 30 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday accused China of violating a trade agreement with the United States.

“I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn’t want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”

The president did not specify which trade agreement China was violating.

Just over two weeks ago, the United States and China reached a deal to pause tariffs between the countries for 90 days. China also reduced tariffs on American goods to 10%, down from 125%, while American officials cut tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30% as part of the deal.

Trump in early April announced he would enact tariffs on several countries worldwide. He later upped the number to 145% on China after that country responded to the initial levy with duties of its own on U.S. goods.

China later said it could punish other countries that side with the United States in the trade war.

Earlier this week a federal appeals court blocked the Trump administration from enacting the tariffs on most American trading partners.

“President Trump is carrying out the long-overdue work of rebalancing the global economy to the benefit of the American people,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on X Thursday.

“I am confident that the Chinese, and the rest of our trading partners, will come to the table thanks to his leadership.”

Bessent also called trade talks in general with China “a bit stalled.”

At the time the agreement was reached in Geneva, Switzerland, Bessent said the two sides engaged in “very robust discussions.”

Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer led the American delegation during discussions.

The “United States did exactly what it was supposed to do, and the Chinese are slow rolling their compliance,” Greer told CNBC in an interview Friday.

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement of protest against the head of the United States mission to the island, Michael Hammer.

In a news release published on Friday, the Foreign Ministry accused Hammer, a career diplomat, of “unfriendly and meddling behaviour” since his arrival in Cuba in late 2024.

“By inciting Cuban citizens to commit extremely serious criminal acts, attacking the constitutional order, or encouraging them to act against the authorities or demonstrate in support of the interests and objectives of a hostile foreign power, the diplomat is engaging in provocative and irresponsible conduct,” the Foreign Ministry wrote.

“The immunity he enjoys as a representative of his country cannot be used as cover for acts contrary to the sovereignty and internal order of the country to which he is assigned, in this case, Cuba.”

The Foreign Ministry said the message was delivered by its director of bilateral affairs with the US, Alejandro Garcia del Toro.

Friday’s statement is the latest indication of increasingly rocky relations between Cuba and the US, particularly since President Donald Trump began his second term in January.

A history of tensions

Diplomatic ties between the two countries, however, have been icy for decades, stretching back to the Cold War in the 1960s. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the US government imposed strict trade restrictions on the island and backed efforts to topple the newly established Communist government.

But there have been efforts to ease the tensions, notably during the administrations of Democratic presidents like Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the US.

In 2016, for instance, Obama sought to normalise relations with Cuba, only to see those efforts rolled back during the first Trump administration, starting in 2017.

Likewise, President Biden – who formerly served as Obama’s vice president – removed Cuba from the US’s list of “state sponsors of terrorism” in the waning days of his term in January.

But upon taking office for his second time on January 20, Trump reversed course once more, putting Cuba back on the list that very same day.

Trump also included in his presidential cabinet several officials who have taken a hardline stance towards Cuba, most notably former Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Born to Cuban immigrants, Rubio is an outspoken supporter of continuing the trade embargo against the island.

The Cuban government, meanwhile, has continued to accuse the US of attempting to destabilise its leadership.

In Friday’s statement, the Cuban Foreign Ministry accused Hammer of “public and insulting manipulation” for his recent visit to the tomb of a 19th-century national hero, Jose Marti.

The US Embassy to Cuba posted a video of the visit with a voiceover of Marti’s words, “Respect for the freedom and thoughts of others, even of the most unhappy kind, is my passion: If I die or am killed, it will be for that.” Critics have interpreted that citation as an implied endorsement of dissent on the island.

Ramping up pressure

In recent months, there have also been signs that Trump plans to once again tighten the screws on the Cuban government, in a return to the “maximum pressure” campaigns that typified foreign policy during his first term.

In February, for instance, the Trump administration announced it would yank visas from anyone who works with Cuba’s medical system, which sends thousands of healthcare workers abroad each year, particularly in the Caribbean region.

Critics have criticised the healthcare programme for its low pay and hefty restrictions on its employees. Trump and Rubio, meanwhile, have claimed the medical system amounts to a form of “forced labour” that enriches the Cuban government. But leaders in Havana have denied that allegation.

Then, in April, the US government condemned Cuba for re-arresting a group of dissidents, among them prominent figures like Jose Daniel Ferrer and Felix Navarro.

Cuba had initially agreed to release Ferrer and Navarro as part of a bargain brokered by the Vatican earlier this year.

Cuba was expected to release 553 prisoners, many of whom were swept up in antigovernment protests, and in exchange, the US was supposed to ease its sanctions against the island. The sanctions relief, however, never came.

An additional measure was taken against Cuba just this month. The Department of State, under Rubio’s direction, determined that “Cuba did not fully cooperate with US counterterrorism efforts in 2024”. It accused Cuba of harbouring 11 fugitives, some of whom faced terrorism-related charges in the US.

“The Cuban regime made clear it was not willing to discuss their return to face justice in our nation,” the State Department wrote in a news release. “The United States will continue to promote international cooperation on counterterrorism issues. We also continue to promote accountability for countries that do not stand against terrorism.”

As punishment, Cuba was labelled as a “not fully cooperating country” under the Arms Export Control Act, a designation that limits its ability to buy weaponry and other defence tools from the US.

Furthermore, Hammer had recently signalled that new sanctions were on the way for the island.

But in the face of Friday’s reprimand, the State Department indicated it was undeterred and would continue to support dissidents against Cuba’s “malign influence”.

United States President Donald Trump has accused China of violating an agreement to mutually roll back tariffs and trade restrictions for critical minerals, as he suggested China was in “grave economic danger” until he agreed to cut a deal earlier this month.

Posting on his Truth Social platform on Friday evening, Trump said he made a “fast deal” with China for both countries to back away from triple-digit tariffs for 90 days to “save” Beijing from a “very bad situation”.

The US leader said his tariffs of up to 145 percent on Chinese imports had made it “virtually impossible” for China to trade with the US market, resulting in closed factories and “civil unrest” in the country.

“China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!” Trump added.

Trump did not specify in his post how China had violated the agreement – made following trade talks in Geneva, Switzerland, in mid-May – or what action he planned to take at their alleged failure to comply with its terms.

Asked by reporters about the China deal later on Friday in the Oval Office, Trump said: “I’m sure that I’ll speak to [China’s] President Xi [Jinping], and hopefully we’ll work that out.”

Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, told reporters that China’s failure to fulfil its obligations “opens up all manner of action for the United States to ensure future compliance”.

Miller added that Trump hoped China would open up to American business in a similar manner to the way the US has been open to Chinese business “for a very long time now”.

China’s embassy in Washington said Beijing has maintained communication with its US counterparts since the Geneva talks, but said they had concerns about recently imposed US export controls.

“China has repeatedly raised concerns with the US regarding its abuse of export control measures in the semiconductor sector and other related practices,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement.

“China once again urges the US to immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva,” Liu added.

Broken promises

Earlier this week, media reports suggested the Trump administration had ordered US firms offering software used to design semiconductors to stop selling their services to Chinese groups.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the US Department of Commerce confirmed that it was reviewing exports of strategic significance to China, and “in some cases … suspended existing export licences or imposed additional licence requirements while the review is pending”.

On Friday, shortly after lamenting China’s lack of compliance with the Geneva agreement, President Trump also announced plans to increase tariffs on foreign imports of steel from 25 percent to 50 percent on June 4.

The agreement two weeks ago dialling back tariffs for 90 days prompted a massive rally in global stocks, as it effectively lowered the US tariff rate on Chinese goods to the mid-teens from about 25 percent in early April.

As part of the deal, China also agreed to lift trade countermeasures restricting exports of critical metals needed for production by US semiconductors, electronics and defence industries.

But Trump administration officials have publicly stated that China has been slow to adhere to their Geneva commitments and have so far failed to comply.

The Reuters news agency also reported on Friday that global auto executives are sounding the alarm on a looming shortage of rare-earth magnets from China that could force car factories to close within weeks.

“Without reliable access to these elements and magnets, automotive suppliers will be unable to produce critical automotive components, including automatic transmissions, throttle bodies, alternators, various motors, sensors, seat belts, speakers, lights, motors, power steering, and cameras,” the Alliance for Automotive Innovation said in a letter to the Trump administration.

May 30 (UPI) — Legal status in the United States can be lawfully revoked for more than a combined 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

The court only issued an unsigned dissenting opinion acknowledging the federal government can move ahead with its Termination of Parole Process for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, commonly referred to as CHNV.

In March, President Donald Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to revoke the legal status of 532,000 migrants under sponsorship programs, primarily from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

The migrants were granted legal protected status under former President Joe Biden‘s administration, a program Trump has attempted to wind down amid legal challenges.

A federal judge in Massachusetts last month granted a temporary order blocking Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem from revoking previously-granted parole to the protected migrants.

Earlier this month, Trump asked the Supreme Court to intervene and allow the government to remove protected status.

On Thursday, Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ordered the Trump administration to restart processing applications under the migrant program.

Friday’s Supreme Court ruling returns the issue to the lower courts, giving the Department of Homeland Security the ability to stop processing extension requests from migrants with current legal protections under CHNV while the legal process plays out.

“The Court has plainly botched this assessment today. It requires next to nothing from the Government with respect to irreparable harm. And it undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending,” the unsigned dissenting opinion states.

Two of the high court’s liberal judges, Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, dissented from the majority.

“Even if the Government is likely to win on the merits, in our legal system, success takes time and the stay standards require more than anticipated victory. I would have denied the Government’s application because its harm-related showing is patently insufficient. The balance of the equities also weighs heavily in respondents’ favor. While it is apparent that the Government seeks a stay to enable it to inflict maximum predecision damage, court-ordered stays exist to minimize-not maximize-harm to litigating parties,” the dissenting opinion states.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled in a similar fashion when it allowed the Trump administration to revoke special legal protections for nearly 350,000 Venezuelan nationals living in the United States temporarily.

United States President Donald Trump has announced his administration is raising tariffs on steel imports from 25 percent to 50 percent.

Speaking to steelworkers and supporters at a rally outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Trump framed his latest tariff increase as a boon to the domestic manufacturing industry.

“We’re going to bring it from 25 percent to 50 percent, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States,” Trump told the crowd. “Nobody’s going to get around that.”

How that tariff increase would affect the free-trade deal with Canada and Mexico – or a separate trade deal struck earlier this month with the United Kingdom – remains unclear.

Also left ambiguous was the nature of a deal struck between Nippon Steel, the largest steel producer in Japan, and the domestic company US Steel. Still, Trump played up the partnership between the two companies as a “blockbuster agreement”.

“ There’s never been a $14bn investment in the history of the steel industry in the United States of America,” Trump said of the deal.

A tariff hike on steel

Friday’s rally was a return to the site of many election-season campaign events for Trump and his team.

In 2024, Trump hinged his pitch for re-election on an appeal to working-class voters, including those in the Rust Belt region, a manufacturing hub that has declined in the face of the shifting industry trends and greater overseas competition.

Key swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan are located in the region, and they leaned Republican on election day, helping to propel Trump to a second term as president.

Trump, in turn, has framed his “America First” agenda as a policy platform designed to bolster the domestic manufacturing industry. Tariffs and other protectionist policies have played a prominent part in that agenda.

In March, for instance, Trump announced an initial slate of 25-percent tariffs on steel and aluminium, causing major trading partners like Canada to respond with retaliatory measures.

The following month, he also imposed a blanket 10-percent tariff on nearly all trade partners as well as higher country-specific import taxes. Those were quickly paused amid economic shockwaves and widespread criticism, while the 10-percent tariff remained in place.

Trump has argued that the tariffs are a vital negotiating tool to encourage greater investment in the US economy.

But economists have warned that attempting a “hard reset” of the global economy – through dramatic tax hikes like tariffs – will likely blow back on US consumers, raising prices.

Rachel Ziemba, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said the latest tariff hike on steel also signals that negotiating trade deals with Trump may result in “limited benefits”, given the sudden shifts in his policies.

Further, Friday’s announcement signals that Trump is likely to continue doubling down on tariffs, she said.

“The challenge is that hiking the steel tariffs may be good for steel workers, but it is bad for manufacturing and the energy sector, among others. So overall, it is not great for the US economy and adds uncertainty to the macro outlook,” Ziemba explained.

Trump’s tariff policies have also faced legal challenges in the US, where businesses, interest groups and states have all filed lawsuits to stop the tax hikes on imports.

On Thursday, for instance, a federal court briefly ruled that Trump had illegally exercised emergency powers to impose his sweeping slate of international tariffs, only for an appeals court to temporarily pause that ruling a few hours later.

A deal with Nippon Steel

Before the tariff hike was announced, Friday’s rally in Pittsburgh was expected to focus on Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of US Steel, the second largest steel producer in the country.

“We’re here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays an American company,” Trump said at the outset of his speech.

But the merger between Nippon Steel and US Steel had been controversial, and it was largely opposed by labour unions.

Upon returning to the White House in January, Trump initially said he would block the acquisition, mirroring a similar position taken by his predecessor, former US President Joe Biden.

However, he has since pivoted his stance and backed the deal. Last week, he announced an agreement that he said would grant Nippon only “partial ownership” over US Steel.

Speaking on Friday, Trump said the new deal would include Nippon making a “$14bn commitment to the future” of US Steel, although he did not provide details about how the ownership agreement would play out.

“Oh, you’re gonna be happy,” Trump told the crowd of steelworkers. “There’s a lot of money coming your way.”

The Republican leader also waxed poetic about the history of steel in the US, describing it as the backbone of the country’s economy.

“The city of Pittsburgh used to produce more steel than most entire countries could produce, and it wasn’t even close,” he said, adding: “If you don’t have steel, you don’t have a country.”

For its part, US Steel has not publicly communicated any details of a revamped deal to investors. Nippon, meanwhile, issued a statement approving the proposed “partnership”, but it also has not disclosed terms of the arrangement.

The acquisition has split union workers, although the national United Steelworkers Union has been one of its leading opponents.

In a statement prior to the rally, the union questioned whether the new arrangement makes “any meaningful change” from the initial proposal.

“Nippon has maintained consistently that it would only invest in US Steel’s facilities if it owned the company outright,” the union said in a statement, which noted firmer details had not yet been released.

“We’ve seen nothing in the reporting over the past few days suggesting that Nippon has walked back from this position.”

The rally on Friday comes as Trump has sought to reassure his base of voters following a tumultuous start to his second term.

Critics point out that steel prices have risen in the US by roughly 16 percent since Trump took office, and his Republican Party faces potentially punishing congressional elections in 2026.

Washington, DC – When the Heritage Foundation, a prominent right-wing think tank in the United States, released a playbook last year for how to destroy the Palestine solidarity movement, it did not garner much attention.

But more than eight months later, the policy document – known as Project Esther – now faces heightened scrutiny from activists and media outlets, in part because President Donald Trump appears to be following its blueprint.

The authors of Project Esther have presented their report as a set of recommendations for combating anti-Semitism, but critics say the document’s ultimate aim is to “poison” groups critical of Israel by painting them as Hamas associates.

Project Esther was created as a response to growing protests against the US support for Israel’s war on Gaza, which United Nations experts and rights groups have described as a genocide.

So, what is Project Esther, and how is it being applied against activists? Here is a look at the document and its ongoing implications for the US.

What is the Heritage Foundation?

The Heritage Foundation is an influential conservative think tank in Washington, DC, whose stated mission is to “formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense”.

Yet, critics argue that Project Esther calls for government interference to curb individual freedoms, including the rights to free speech and association when it comes to opposing Israeli government policies.

According to a New York Times report published earlier this month, the project is overseen by Victoria Coates, a vice president at the Heritage Foundation who served as deputy national security adviser during Trump’s first term.

The Heritage Foundation is also behind Project 2025, which critics describe as an authoritarian playbook for the second Trump presidency.

Ahead of the elections last year, Democrats repeatedly invoked Project 2025 to criticise Trump, but the then-candidate distanced himself from the document.

What does Project Esther aim to achieve?

The initiative says that it aims to “dismantle the infrastructure that sustains” what it calls the “Hamas Support Network” within 24 months.

What is the ‘Hamas Support Network’, according to Project Esther?

The authors claim that groups engaged in advocacy for Palestinian rights are members of the Hamas Support Network (HSN).

They define the supposed network as “people and organizations that are both directly and indirectly involved in furthering Hamas’s cause in contravention of American values and to the detriment of American citizens and America’s national security interests”.

In short, the document alleges that the “pro-Palestinian movement” is “effectively a terrorist support network”.

Does the ‘Hamas Support Network’ exist?

No.

There is no such network in the US, which has stern laws against providing material support to groups designated as “terrorist organisations”, including Hamas.

Beth Miller – the political director at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a group that the Heritage Foundation names as part of the network – called Project Esther’s allegations “outlandish”.

“It exposes the length of lies and of absurdity that they are going through to try to tear down the Palestinian rights movement,” Miller told Al Jazeera.

The Heritage Foundation did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

How does Project Esther plan to take down the Palestinian rights movement?

The document calls for a multi-faceted campaign against supporters of Palestinian rights, targeting them legally, politically and financially.

The initiative outlines 19 goals that it labels as “desired effects”.

They include denying Palestinian rights supporters who are not US citizens access to universities, ensuring that social media platforms do not allow “anti-Semitic content”, and presenting evidence of “criminal activity” by Palestine advocates to the executive branch.

It also calls for refusing to grant permits for protests organised in support of Palestinian rights.

Project Esther suggests that Israel’s backers should conduct “legal, private research” into pro-Palestine groups to “uncover criminal wrongdoing” and undermine their credibility.

“We must wage lawfare,” it reads, referring to the tactic of using litigation to pressure opponents.

Is the Trump administration turning Project Esther recommendations into policy?

It appears to be the case.

“The phase we’re in now is starting to execute some of the lines of effort in terms of legislative, legal and financial penalties for what we consider to be material support for terrorism,” Coates told The New York Times.

Trump’s crackdown on college protests seems to align with what Project Esther is trying to achieve.

For example, the US administration has been revoking the visas of foreign students critical of Israel. This echoes a proposal in Project Esther, which calls for identifying students “in violation of student visa requirements”.

The Heritage Foundation also extensively cites Canary Mission – a website dedicated to doxxing and smearing pro-Palestine students – in its footnotes for Project Esther. The Trump administration is also suspected of relying on the website, along with other pro-Israel groups, to identify students for deportation.

In addition, Project Esther singles out the “Middle East/North Africa or Islamic studies” programmes as having professors who are “hostile to Israel”.

The Trump administration has been pressuring elite universities to revamp academic departments, including Middle East studies programmes, that it views as biased in favour of Palestinians. Columbia University, for instance, appointed a provost to review its programmes at Trump’s request, “starting immediately with the Middle East” department.

The White House did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

What groups does Project Esther name as targets?

The initiative explicitly identifies several Arab, Muslim and progressive Jewish organisations as well as student groups as part of the so-called Hamas Support Network.

The initiative claims that “the network revolves around” American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), an educational and civic advocacy group.

Osama Abuirshaid, AMP’s executive director, said Project Esther points the finger at the group because it has “Muslim” in its name, playing on Islamophobic bigotry.

“American Muslims for Palestine is an easy target. Given the Islamophobic tendencies, it’s easy to assume guilt of American Muslims, Palestinians. That’s a name that sticks,” Abuirshaid told Al Jazeera.

He added that the group is also a target because it is effective and has a “solid constituency”.

“If they can cripple and bring down AMP, that will have a chilling effect within the movement. So they think, if they can bring us down, other organisations will stop working on Palestine solidarity,” Abuirshaid said.

Why focus on universities?

Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a US policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank, said Project Esther targets universities because Israel is bleeding support among young people in the US.

“That’s why there’s such an overwhelming focus on universities and college campuses,” he told Al Jazeera’s The Take podcast.

Kenney-Shawa explained that support for Israel’s war on Gaza has been trending downwards across US demographics. But on college campuses, the change is more pronounced.

“While this change is absolutely across the political spectrum, it’s obviously a lot more acute in the left and among young Americans,” Kenney-Shawa said.

A recent poll from the Pew Research Center showed that 53 percent of US respondents had negative views of Israel, a number that rises to 71 percent among Democrats below the age of 50.

Is Project Esther working?

Advocates say that, in the immediate future, the crackdown on the Palestine solidarity movement threatens the safety and wellbeing of activists, especially foreign students. But it has also sparked a backlash.

“The extreme nature of these attacks has also emboldened people to defiantly continue to speak out in the face of these attacks,” JVP’s Miller said.

“And it has actually, in many cases, awoken people – who weren’t paying attention before – to the hypocrisy that has so long existed in the willingness to silence and censor Palestinian rights activists.”

Earlier in May, several right-wing lawmakers and Trump allies came out in opposition of a bill that aimed to expand restrictions on boycotts of Israel, citing free speech concerns.

Abuirshaid echoed Miller’s comments. He acknowledged that the media attacks, arrests and lawsuits against advocates and student protesters have been “distracting” from the mission of focusing on Palestine.

However, he added, “I’m going to be clear: It’s energising us to continue this fight.”

May 30 (UPI) — President Donald on Friday announced a 50% tariff on steel made outside the United States as he touted a partnership between Japan’s Nippon Steel Corporation and the United States Steel Corporation during a rally near Pittsburgh.

Calling it the “heart of U.S. Steel,” Trump spoke at the company’s headquarters in Allegany County. The indoor rally began around 5:30 p.m. and ended one hour later.

On Feb. 11, Trump restored a 25% tariff on steel and increased the aluminum tariff from 10% to 25%.

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the European Union, Ukraine and Britain had received exemptions, “which prevented the tariffs from being effective,” according to the order.

He touted the efforts of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who were on hand.

One week ago, Trump announced a “planned partnership between the two steel giants, promising the U.S. Steel headquarters would remain on American soil rather than shift to Japan.

Trump said the deal includes “vital protections to ensure that all steelworkers will keep their jobs and all facilities in the United States will remain open and thriving.”

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said the new tariffs will take effect June 4.

Also, he said U.S. Steel would also keep all of its blast furnace facilities at full capacity for at least the next decade and vowed that there would be “no layoffs and no outsourcing whatsoever.”

Trump, who opposed the acquisition during the 2024 campaign, is now touting the $14 billion investment that the president said would create at least 70,000 jobs.

“You’re going to be very happy,” Trump said Friday. “There’s a lot of money coming your way.”

Every U.S. steelworker would be receiving a $5,000 bonus, he said.

At one time, U.S. Steel dominated production worldwide, but over the years it has “melted away just like butter melts away” as China mainly poured what he said was “garbage steel” into the country.

“If you don’t have steel, you don’t have a country,” Trump said in citing national security.

U.S. Steel, which was founded in 1901, has about 22,000 employees with revenue of $15.6 billion in 2024. Nippon, which traces its roots to Japan Iron & Steel Co. in 1934, has about 113,640 workers with revenue of $43 billion in 2019.

This week, CNBC reported Tokyo-based Nippon Steel will pay $55 per share to acquire U.S. Steel, citing sources familiar with the deal.

Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel shares rose $0.59 or 1.11% to $53.82 at the close of the U.S. Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon.

The two steel companies were working on a deal before Trump took office on Jan. 20.

Days before leaving office in January, former President Joe Biden blocked Nippon Steel’s proposed $14.1 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel.

Biden cited national security concerns when rejecting the deal involving the second-largest American steel producer and Japan’s largest.

Both firms later filed separate federal lawsuits in the District of Columbia and in Pennsylvania to move the deal ahead, citing “unlawful political influences.”

In April, Trump issued an executive order directing a review of the acquisition by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a branch of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. U.S. Steel stock surged at the time, climbing more than 10% in a single day.

The president has said the deal will have a major positive economic effect.

The deal “will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy. The bulk of that Investment will occur in the next 14 months,” Trump said on Truth Social last week.

He also teased Friday’s rally at U.S. Steel’s Irvin Works factory.

“President Trump is a bold leader and businessman who knows how to get the best deal for America, American workers and American manufacturing,” Trump said in a statement to The Hill on Friday.

“U.S. Steel greatly appreciates President Trump’s leadership and personal attention to the futures of thousands of steelworkers and our iconic company.”

Trump touted other companies increasing production in the United States.

During his speech, sometimes ad-libbed, he ventured into other areas, noting undocumented immigrants coming into the nation in “open borders.” He also bragged about winning all the battleground states during the 2024 election, including Pennsylvania.

He blasted Biden and called Democrats “lunatics.”

He voiced his support for the U.S. budget bill, which is moving through Congress, including extension of the 2017 tax cuts, no taxes on tips or overtime, deductions on loan interest for U.S.-made cars and permanent extension of the $2,000 per child credit. He didn’t mention Medicaid cuts and other program reductions.

Former Steelers running back Rocky Bleier presented Trump with a Steelers 47 jersey as two current players also were called up to speak: quarterback Mason Rudolph and safety Miles Killbrew.

The rally was about 35 miles south of Butler, where he survived an assassination attempt on July 13, two days before the National Republican Convention in Milwaukee, Wis.

The lawsuit came three days after a similar case by NPR, which also saw its funds cut.

PBS has filed a lawsuit against United States President Donald Trump and other administration officials to block his order stripping federal funding from the 330-station public television system, three days after NPR did the same for its radio network.

In its lawsuit filed on Friday, PBS relied on similar arguments, saying Trump was overstepping his authority and engaging in “viewpoint discrimination” because of his claim that PBS’s news coverage is biassed against conservatives.

“PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms,” lawyer Z W Julius Chen wrote in the suit, filed in US District Court in Washington, DC. “But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS’s programming, including by attempting to defund PBS.”

It was the latest of many legal actions taken against the administration for its moves, including several by media organisations impacted by Trump’s orders.

PBS was joined as a plaintiff by one of its stations, Lakeland PBS, which serves rural areas in northern and central Minnesota. Trump’s order is an “existential threat” to the station, the lawsuit said.

A PBS spokesman said that “after careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television’s editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations”.

‘Lawful authority’

Through an executive order earlier this month, Trump told the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies to stop funding the two systems. Through the corporation alone, PBS is receiving $325m this year, most of which goes directly to individual stations.

The White House deputy press secretary, Harrison Fields, said the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime.

“Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS,” Fields said. “The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.”

PBS, which makes much of the programming used by the stations, said it gets 22 percent of its revenue directly from the feds. Sixty-one percent of PBS’s budget is funded through individual station dues, and the stations raise the bulk of that money through the government.

Interrupting ‘a rich tapestry of programming’

Trump’s order “would have profound impacts on the ability of PBS and PBS member stations to provide a rich tapestry of programming to all Americans”, Chen wrote.

PBS said the US Department of Education has cancelled a $78m grant to the system for educational programming, used to make children’s shows like Sesame Street, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Reading Rainbow.

For Minnesota residents, the order threatens the Lakeland Learns education programme and Lakeland News, described in the lawsuit as the only television programme in the region providing local news, weather and sports.

Besides Trump, the lawsuit names other administration officials as defendants, including Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. PBS says its technology is used as a backup for the nationwide wireless emergency alert system.

The administration has fought with several media organisations. Government-run news services like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are struggling for their lives. The Associated Press has battled with the White House over press access, and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating television news divisions.

May 30 (UPI) — President Donald Trump bid multi-billionaire Elon Musk farewell from his role as a senior adviser tasked with shrinking the government through program cuts and worker departures.

Musk, dressed in all black in a T-shirt, jacket, DOGE baseball cap and pants, appeared with Trump in the White House’s Oval Office, 130 days after beginning as a special government employee, including running the Department of Government Efficiency.

“Today, it’s about a man named Elon, and he’s one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced,” Trump told reporters about Musk, who is worth $421.2 billion, according to Forbes. “He stepped forward to put his very great talents into the service of our nation, and we appreciate it.”

Then, a video by CNBC’s Joe Kernan and Rick Santelli was shown that praises the Trump administration.

Musk claims to have identified more than $160 billion in federal spending cuts since Trump entered office on Jan. 20. That includes 56,000 employees terminated and 34 taking buyouts. There are plans to dissolve the Department of Education and cut health programs despite Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy‘s goal to Make Amerca Healthy Again. The Department of Defense and Homeland Security aren’t facing as severe cuts.

Musk initially predicted he could cut $2 trillion from the nation’s roughly $6.8 trillion federal budget. Despite the much lower number, Musk said he believes the savings will reach $1 trillion.

“It’s just a lot of work going through the vast expenses of the federal government and just really asking questions,” Trump said.

Musk said the president wants him to still help out.

“Elon is really not leaving,” Trump said. “He’s going to be back and forth. It’s his baby.”

Musk, who personally spent $277 million to bring Trump back to the White House, announced his departure Wednesday on X, saying the DOGE “mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

During the public appearance with Trump, Musk said: “This is not the end, but the beginning. My role as a government employee has to end. It comes with a time limit.”

Musk said he will remain as an informal adviser and make trips to the White House. Plans are for him to maintain an office in the White House.

“The DOGE team is doing an incredible job and will continue to do an incredible job,” he said, noting most of the 100 workers will remain in government. “I look forward to being back in this room. Isn’t it incredible? “

He said loved the “gold in the ceiling” of the Oval Office.

Musk was presented with a special symbolic gold key to the White House.

Musk plans to focus more on his businesses: Tesla, SpaceX and artificial intelligence startup xAI, which now includes X.

Musk told reporters last week that he had worked in Washington, D.C., on his DOGE initiative “seven days a week, or close to seven days a week” during Trump’s first 100 days in office. He frequently traveled on Air Force One with Trump to the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., and recently to the Middle East.

This has meant less attention to his companies, including publicly held Tesla, the company that makes electric vehicles, solar panels/shingles and energy storage devices.

He said his efforts have been far more challenging than expected and DOGE had become “the whipping boy for everything.”

He also became at odds with Trump on Trump’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package going through Congress.

“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk told CBS Sunday Morning. “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both.”

Later Friday Trump was to head to Pittsburgh to praise a partnership between iconic U.S. Steel and its Japanese rival, Nippon Steel.

United States President Donald Trump has bid goodbye to Elon Musk at a White House event marking the billionaire’s departure from his role in government.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Friday, Trump showered Musk with praise for his work as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative to reduce federal bureaucracy and spending.

“ I just want to say that Elon has worked tirelessly helping lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform programme in generations,” Trump said.

He credited Musk with delivering “a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington” and called Musk’s service “without comparison in modern history”.

Still, the president also assured reporters that DOGE would continue its work even after Musk is gone.

“With Elon’s guidance, [DOGE is] helping to detect fraud, slash waste and modernise broken and outdated systems,” Trump said.

The joint appearance comes as the two men seek to downplay reports of a growing rift, particularly after Musk criticised Trump’s signature budget bill on CBS News. It also coincides with the publication of a New York Times report alleging that Musk has struggled with increasing drug use and personal turmoil behind the scenes.

Musk declined to comment on the Times report during his Oval Office appearance. He also avoided remarking on speculation that his departure was connected to tumbling sales at his car company, Tesla.

Instead, he pointed out that, as a special government employee, he cannot work in the Trump administration for a period exceeding 130 days without facing stricter disclosure and ethics requirements.

He also focused on promoting his work with DOGE and criticising those on the political left who would impede Trump’s agenda.

“This is not the end of DOGE, but really at the beginning,” Musk said, clad in a black T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “The Dogefather”, written in the style of the gangster film The Godfather. “The DOGE team will only grow stronger over time.”

Trump, meanwhile, emphasised that his relationship with the billionaire – a prominent backer of his 2024 re-election campaign – would continue.

“Elon’s really not leaving. He’s going to be back and forth, I think,” Trump said.

Unclear accounting

Despite White House claims about its efficacy, the extent of DOGE’s cost-savings has remained foggy.

As of Friday, the panel claimed it had achieved an estimated $175bn in savings, made up of “asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions”.

But DOGE’s transparency and methodology have been repeatedly questioned. The only accounting made available to the public adds up to less than half of the claimed figure.

An analysis published on Friday by the news agency Reuters also suggests the actual sum is much lower. Using US Treasury summaries, Reuters found that only $19bn in federal spending had been cut, though it noted that some savings may require more time to be reflected in the Treasury Department’s data.

Regardless, all of those figures fall far short of the goal of $2 trillion saved that Musk initially set out to achieve.

When asked about the discrepancy on Friday, Musk maintained that $1 trillion in savings remained a long-term goal.

“I’m confident that over time, we’ll see a trillion dollars of savings, a reduction – a trillion dollars of waste and fraud reduction,” he said.

But critics have questioned if DOGE will continue with the same verve following Musk’s departure.

Musk and DOGE have long been lightning rods for public criticism, as they implemented sweeping changes to the federal government. Since Trump started his second term as president in January, organisations like the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have seen their funding cut and their staffing slashed.

As a result, employees, contractors, labour groups and state officials have sued to block DOGE’s efforts, with varying levels of success.

Behind the scenes, there have also been reports that Musk clashed with members of Trump’s cabinet, who may seek relief from cuts to their departments after Musk’s exit.

Musk’s foray into government has caused blowback for his companies as well, with protests at Tesla dealerships spreading across the country. Profits plunged 71 percent at Tesla in the first three months of the year, with shareholders calling for Musk to return to work.

When asked by a reporter if Musk’s time in government was “worth it”, he was circumspect. He explained that he felt DOGE had become seen as a “boogeyman”, blamed for any effort to overhaul the federal government.

But he reaffirmed his commitment to being a “friend and adviser to the president” and said the experience was worthwhile.

“I think it was. I think [it] was an important thing,” he added. “I think it was a necessary thing, and I think it will have a good effect in the future.”

The ruling means people from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua can be targeted for deportation as lawsuits continue.

The conservative-dominated United States Supreme Court has handed President Donald Trump another major victory, allowing his administration to revoke a temporary legal status from more than 500,000 immigrants as legal challenges continue in lower courts.

Friday’s decision applies to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan people who were granted humanitarian parole under the administration of former President Joe Biden.

That parole status allowed them to enter the US due to emergencies or urgent humanitarian reasons, including instability, violence and political repression in their home countries.

But the Supreme Court’s ruling means that the beneficiaries of humanitarian parole could be targeted for deportation prior to a final ruling on whether the revocation of their immigration status is legal.

The ruling by the top court, which is dominated six-to-three by conservatives, reverses a lower court’s order temporarily halting the Trump administration from yanking humanitarian parole from Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans.

The Supreme Court’s decision was unsigned and did not provide reasoning. However, two liberal justices on the panel publicly dissented.

The outcome “undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending”, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote.

She noted that some of the affected individuals had indicated in court filings that they would face grave harm if their humanitarian parole were cut short.

Trump has targeted programmes like humanitarian parole as part of his efforts to limit immigration into the US. His administration has accused Biden of “broad abuse” in his invocation of humanitarian parole: Trump has said Biden was lax on immigration and oversaw an “invasion” of the US from abroad.

Since taking office in January, Trump’s administration has also indefinitely suspended applications for asylum and other forms of immigration relief.

The plaintiffs in Friday’s humanitarian parole case warned the Supreme Court they could face life-threatening conditions if they were not allowed to seek other avenues for immigration and were forced to leave the country.

If they were deported “to the same despotic and unstable countries from which they fled”, lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that “many will face serious risks of danger, persecution and even death”.

Earlier in May, the Supreme Court also allowed Trump to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) — another temporary immigration pathway — for about 350,000 Venezuelans living in the US. TPS allows non-citizens to remain in the US while circumstances in their home countries remain unsafe or unstable.

As with Friday’s case, the Supreme Court’s ruling on TPS allowed the Trump administration to move forward with removals while a legal challenge to Trump’s policy plays out in lower courts.

Biden had encouraged the use of programmes like TPS and humanitarian parole as alternatives to undocumented immigration into the US.

Humanitarian parole, for instance, allowed recipients to legally live and work in the US for two years. Trump’s efforts to end the programme would cut that timeframe short.

The countries in question — Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti — have all experienced significant economic and political crises in recent years.

In Venezuela, for instance, critics have accused President Nicolas Maduro of detaining and disappearing political dissidents and activists, and an economic collapse caused hyperinflation that put basic necessities beyond the means of many Venezuelans. Millions have fled the country in recent years.

One of the other countries, Haiti, has been ravaged by a spike in gang violence since the assassination of President Jovenal Moise in 2021. Federal elections have not been held since, and gangs have used violence to fill the power vacuum.

As much as 90 percent of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, has fallen under gang control, according to the United Nations, and thousands have been killed.

DONALD Trump’s luxury “sky Palace” gifted to him by Qatar will cost a few billion dollars, says the President of Emirates airline.

The US government now faces a “Herculean task” to transform the huge Boeing 747-8 into a new Air Force One fit for a president, warns Sir Tim Clark.

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President Trump, 78, sparked concerns earlier this month with his willingness to accept the plush flying mansion from the Qatari royal family.

The giant gift, worth an estimated $400m (£300m), has raised several ethical questions about if the US leader should be allowed to accept such expensive goods from other states.

But despite the controversy, Trump gladly took the 13-year-old mega jet back to Washington with him.

He now plans to make it part of his Air Force One fleet alongside two other Boeing 747-200 jumbo jets.

They have been operational since 1990 but are now said to be not up to scratch compared to modern planes such as Qatar‘s 747-8.

In order for it to become a fully fledged member of the president’s aviation arsenal however, it will need to go through some serious work.

It would have to be kitted out with top-tier communications and security tech before ever ferrying around Trump.

And significant retrofitting and clearance from security officials would be required.

Sir Tim, president of Emirates, told Piers Morgan Uncensored that President Trump’s flashy plans may cost a “couple of billion dollars”.

He explained to Piers: “I think you’re talking a couple of billion dollars to start with.

“Just roll back a little bit and look at what it takes for us to convert our 777s – from the old to the new – because we haven’t got the Boeing’s coming in at the pace we want them so we’re having to reconfigure all of them.”

The top aviation boss said trying to fix up all the jets as an airline has been an extremely tough task.

Tim admitted to “pulling his hair out” over the regulators and the tiny tweaks that have to be made to modernise a plane of that size and stature.

And he believes the US government will face an even trickier – and much more expensive – battle to get the gifted plane ready for presidential trips.

He said: “It’s a Herculean task, make no mistake about it.

“Whether President Trump will adapt fully, this present from Qatar, to an Air Force One I doubt it, but he’ll certainly get a lot of it done.”

Aviation specialist Jeff Wise also told The Sun that he expects the Air Force One replacement to take years and need billions of dollars pumped into the project to make the jet viable.

Trump’s Air Force One jets currently in use come with dozens of specialised security features.

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These include armoured glass and plating, on board flares to confuse enemy missiles, mirror-ball defences and even an electric jamming system.

Another unique yet needed element is an electromagnetic shield for nuclear explosions.

This has to be on a presidential plane as the leader of Washington can actually launch a nuke from the aircraft.

But the new Qatari jet lacks most of these security features.

Instead, the lavish aeroplane boasts a luxurious interior, featuring spacious suites and rooms with ornate interior decoration.

It also has glittering gold-coloured furnishings and hallways that echo Trump’s well-know interior design preferences.

The president is believed to have spent an hour inspecting the plan when when it was parked at West Palm Beach International Airport back in February.

The luxury Boeing was once even listed for a whopping $400 million, according to the Business Jet Traveler.

During his first stint in office, Trump had ordered two new Air Force One jumbo jets from Boeing to replace the pair that have been in service since George H. W. Bush’s presidency.

But the Boeing contract has faced delays, and reports suggest the new plans would not be ready until after Trump leaves the Oval Office.

Fears Trump’s new Air Force One replacement is vulnerable to devastating HACKS – or worse

By Chief Foreign Reporter, Katie Davis

A LAVISH jumbo jet Donald Trump plans to receive from Qatar will be vulnerable to hacking, an expert has warned.

The Boeing 747 – dubbed a “palace in the sky” – could even be blasted out the sky, aviation specialist Jeff Wise believes.

He fears Trump may bypass necessary measures to save time and money – which could therefore invite hacking or a devastating assassination attempt.

Wise told The Sun: “This Air Force One would be a major intelligence target for any adversary nation or even our allies, because allies love to spy on each other.

“The United States is being given this albatross that they are going to have to spend billions of dollars on to fix up for the personal use of Trump.

“If your job is to protect the President of the United States or if your job is to protect the secrets of the United States, then this is a massive headache for you.

“This is a plane that does not have secure communications and the anti-missiles defence systems that a normal Air Force One has. It’s just wide open.

“This is an administration that is completely irresponsible in the way they use their personal devices. They’re using these off-brand apps to communicate. It’s just a hacker’s dream.”

Wise continued: “I would say an increasing number of people would like to target Air Force One. 

“America’s list of enemies is growing longer and longer as we become an increasingly horrible nation, from the Houthis to the Iranians to the Russians.”

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During Trump’s tour of Gulf states in May, the US president was eager to talk about the deals he’d made and the investments he’d secured, but do the numbers add up and how many of the agreements touted were actually a result of his visit?