International

An armed group backed by Rwandan troops took control of the airport in the besieged DR Congo city of Goma yesterday, a security source said, dealing a major blow to Congolese forces and putting the eastern regional capital on the brink of falling. The main city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has become a battleground since fighters from the Tutsi-led M23 armed group and Rwandan forces entered central Goma on Sunday night after a weeks-long advance through the region. Days of intense fighting involving mortars and gunfire have left bodies in the streets in Goma, AFP footage showed, while columns of M23 fighters could be seen marching through the eastern provincial capital. It has not been clear which parts of Goma were under the control of Congolese forces or the Rwandan-backed M23, which claimed it had taken the city on Sunday night. But a security source told AFP that M23 fighters had taken the airport yesterday, adding that “more than 1,200 Congolese soldiers have surrendered and are confined” to the airport base of the UN’s mission in DRC. The lightning offensive marks a major escalation in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-rich east, which has been plagued by fighting between armed groups backed by regional rivals since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It has also triggered a spiralling humanitarian crisis, with the UN warning about hundreds of thousands forced from their homes, serious food shortages, looted aid, overwhelmed hospitals and the potential spread of disease. The streets of Goma, a city of one million which sits on the shores of Lake Kivu and on the border with Rwanda, were almost deserted on Tuesday after heavy fighting the day before. Destin Jamaica Kela, one of around 1,200 people in Goma registered by Rwanda to have fled over the border in the last 24 hours, told AFP that “things changed very fast”.

She’s the face of a Trump-supporting Gen Z movement and the youngest White House press secretary in history. Now Karoline Leavitt is stepping up to the podium for the first time.The 27-year-old is already a polished presence, with her social media profile mixing shots of life as a young working mother with clips of her on Fox News going after the “fake news” media.But it has taken more than a week into Donald Trump’s second term for Leavitt to make her debut before the press in the James S Brady briefing room at the White House.It reflects the difficulties that Trump’s spokespeople face to emerge out of the shadow of their limelight-loving boss, with the president already having had several long interactions with the media since returning to power.“See you at the podium!” Leavitt said on X ahead of the briefing.Trump said when he appointed her shortly after his election win in November that Leavitt was “smart, tough” and would “excel at the podium”.Leavitt is nothing if not a Trump loyalist.Raised in New Hampshire, where her family ran an ice cream shop, she sent a letter to her university newspaper in 2017 to protest against the fact that a professor had criticised Trump in class.Eight years later she has had a meteoric rise through the ranks of Trumpworld, thanks partly to her aggressive defence of her 78-year-old boss on the airwaves.A veteran of the press office in his first term, she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in Congress in New Hampshire in 2022 on a pro-Trump, pro-gun ownership platform.An Instagram post at the time showed her firing a machinegun on a range with the caption: “@joebiden come and take it.”Then her steely appearances on television as Trump’s 2024 campaign spokeswoman earned her the job as press secretary.In one notable exchange, a CNN interviewer cut Leavitt off after she criticised the network’s moderators chosen to oversee a debate between Trump and then-president Joe Biden.Her loyalty was such that she returned to work four days after the birth of her first child when Trump survived an assassination attempt at a political rally last June.“I looked at my husband and said, ‘Looks like I’m going back to work,” Leavitt told The Conservateur magazine in an article titled Wonder Woman.The White House briefing room will be a different experience, with its rough-and-tumble sparring with journalists.Since Trump returned to power, she has so far only had a brief encounter with reporters on the driveway outside the West Wing, followed by a single “gaggle” on Air Force One as Trump travelled to California.Her television appearances have almost exclusively been reserved for Fox News and the conservative Newsmax channel.But she has still caused a stir, with conservative commentator Mary Rooke posting a picture of her driveway appearance with two similarly coiffed aides and saying: “We are finally entering our Blonde Supremacy era.”As she stepped up to the podium on Tuesday, Leavitt was seeking to avoid the fate of Trump’s previous spokespeople.His first, Sean Spicer, was widely ridiculed after falsely insisting during his first briefing that the crowd for Trump’s 2017 inauguration was the largest history.Three other spokespeople followed during the first term with one of them, Stephanie Grisham, failing to make a single appearance at the podium.

Dozens of Colombian illegal migrants arrived home from the United States on Tuesday, grateful for an end to a gruelling deportation ordeal at the heart of a bitter row between the countries.Bogota sent two air force planes to fetch some 200 of its nationals, including children, from California and Texas after initially turning back two US military planes carrying the same.Colombian President Gustavo Petro refused the first planes after taking umbrage at the treatment meted out to expelled Brazilian migrants flown home from the United States last week, handcuffed and shackled at the ankles.Petro posted photographs on social media on Tuesday of his compatriots disembarking in Bogota without cuffs, and wrote: “They are Colombians, free and dignified, and in their homeland where they are loved.”He added: “The migrant is not a criminal but a human being who wants to work and progress, live life.”Carlos Gomez, one of the deportees, said he had left with his 17-year-old son for the United States two weeks ago seeking “a better future.”What he found was not that.“It is not an American dream, it is an American nightmare,” Gomez told journalists on his return to Bogota.At the migrant detention centre where they were held, Gomez claimed the food was “horrible”, the guards abusive, and the conditions “worse than (those of) a prisoner”.Then came the attempted initial deportation from San Diego, with Gomez claiming he and his teenage son were handcuffed and shackled.“He cried to me: ‘Daddy it hurts’,” he recounted.Petro, Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, on Sunday stepped back from the brink of a full-blown trade war with the United States after Trump threatened sanctions and tariffs on exports despite a free-trade agreement between the two countries.The US embassy in Bogota suspended visa applications.Petro insisted he would only accept migrants who were not treated “like criminals”.Another deportee, who identified himself only as Daniel, told reporters at Bogota’s El Dorado airport that he and other migrants were roughly treated by deportation officials: their few belongings seized before they were cuffed and chained for one of the rejected US flights “as if we were... wanted criminals”.Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Murillo insisted on Tuesday that none of the deportees, including 21 children and two pregnant women, were wanted for a crime in either country.Petro, a former guerrilla, was the first Latin American leader to defy Trump over his mass deportation plans.He threatened retaliatory steps, but his resistance fizzled in the face of Trump’s threats and an outcry at home over what many saw as a hot-headed handling of the dispute.“On both sides, they made mistakes. They insulted each other, and they took decisions that should not have been taken,” Colombian ex-president Juan Manuel Santos told AFP on Tuesday at an event in Washington.“Fortunately, they ended up doing the right thing, which they should have done from the beginning — sit down and talk.”Trump claimed victory on Monday, telling a lawmakers’ retreat in Miami that “America is respected again”.He insisted that “we’ve made it clear to every country that they will be taking back (their) people, that we’re sending out the criminals... the illegal aliens coming from their countries”.Brazil on Monday summoned the top US envoy to the country to explain the “degrading treatment” meted out to its own nationals.The Republican’s plans for mass migrant deportations has put him on a potential collision course with governments in Latin America — the original home of most of the United States’ estimated 11mn undocumented migrants.Since he took office a week ago, thousands of people have been sent back to countries including Guatemala and Mexico.While previous US administrations also routinely expelled illegal migrants, Trump has vowed the biggest deportation wave in history.Honduras has called an urgent meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States tomorrow to discuss migration issues.

The total number of registered vehicles in South Korea increased to 26.3 million units by the end of 2024, up 1.3 percent increase compared to 2023.South Korea's News Agency (Yonhap) said Tuesday that eco-friendly vehicles rose to over 10 percent of total registered vehicles for the first time, recording 10.4 percent, up 2.2 percentage points from 2023,The growth was mainly driven by hybrid models, which saw a significant increase, reaching 2.02 million units.The number of electric vehicles and hydrogen models came to 684,000 units and 38,000 units, respectively.The total number of eco-friendly vehicles, including electric, hydrogen and hybrid models, totaled 2.75 million units, up 626,000 units from a year ago.This increase in the share of environmentally friendly cars reflects the growing trend towards low-emission cars, at a time when the number of traditional cars with internal combustion engines is witnessing a continuous decline.

US Senate confirmed Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary of President Donald Trump's administration.In his confirmation hearing, Bessent warned that failure to renew $4 trillion in tax cuts expiring at the end of this year would be a "calamity" for middle-class Americans, and made the case that tariffs would help combat unfair trade practices, increase revenues, and bolster US leverage in international negotiations.The new Treasury Secretary faces significant challenges, including reducing the "out-of-control" government deficit, as he described it, and rebuilding the US economy amid political divisions.

The Japanese yen gave up some of the safe-haven-driven gains on Tuesday as investors grappled with the potential implications of a Chinese startup's free open-source artificial intelligence (AI) model, while fresh tariff threats had the euro on the back foot.The US dollar steadied after it took a hit overnight amid a broad shakeout in financial markets on the emergence of China's DeepSeek free AI assistant that it says uses lower-cost chips and less data.The dollar index, which measures the US currency against six rivals the yen and the euro, rose 0.13% to 107.94.The dollar was up 0.7% against the yen at 155.70, the euro fetched $1.0428, down 0.6%, and sterling last traded at $1.2441, down 0.4% on the day.The risk-sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollars continued to lose ground, with the Australian dollar falling by about 0.62% to 0.6254 per dollar.The New Zealand dollar also fell by about 0.58% to 0.5659 per dollar.

More than 350 UNICEF aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip in ongoing efforts to meet the needs of about 1 million children after 15 months of bombardment.The trucks, filled with water, hygiene kits, malnutrition treatments and other critical humanitarian aid, have been entering from crossing points at both the north and south of the Gaza Strip and being distributed with partners to families in need, UNICEF said in a statement."Our teams are working around the clock to scale up desperately needed humanitarian assistance, especially in areas not reached before the ceasefire due to operational challenges or restrictions," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said."The ceasefire has provided some relief, but families are returning to areas that have been completely destroyed. Physical and emotional scars run deep," she added.

China urged the United States to stop politicising origins-tracing of the COVID-19 pandemic.Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in remarks after the US Central Intelligence Agency indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from lab leak rather than from a natural source.Origins-tracing is a matter of science and any judgement on it should be made in a science-based spirit and by scientists, Mao noted at a regular news briefing."It is 'extremely unlikely' that the pandemic was caused by a lab leak, this is the authoritative conclusion reached by the experts of the World Health Organization (WHO)-China joint mission based on science following their field trips to the lab in Wuhan and in-depth communication with researchers," Mao said.She added that the conclusion has been widely acknowledged by the international community, including the science community.

Brazil's Foreign Affairs Ministry summoned Charge d'Affaires of the US Embassy in Brasilia Gabriel Escobar.The ministry said it summoned Escobar over what it called "degrading treatment" of Brazilian immigrants deported from the United States.The Brazilian Foreign Ministry had asked Washington for clarifications regarding what happened to 88 Brazilian citizens who were deported on Friday after they arrived at Manaus Airport in northern Brazil, handcuffed and chained.

The United Nations confirmed its firm opposition to the forcible displacement of Gaza's residents.The Spokesperson of the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric emphasized that the United Nations would naturally oppose any plan that could lead to the forcible displacement of people or any form of ethnic cleansing.The Arab League had previously emphasized that attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land, through displacement, annexation, or settlement expansion, had previously proven to have failed, and were rejected and in violation of international law, as the forced displacement and deportation of people from their land could only be called ethnic cleansing.

Fears that the AI gold rush could be under threat rocked Wall Street yesterday following the emergence of a ChatGPT-like model from China, triggering predictions of turmoil for Silicon Valley and accusations of cheating.Last week’s release of the latest DeepSeek model initially received limited attention, overshadowed by the inauguration of US President Donald Trump that took place the same day.However, over the weekend, the Chinese artificial intelligence startup’s chatbot surged to become the most downloaded free app on Apple’s US App Store, displacing OpenAI’s ChatGPT.What truly rattled the industry was DeepSeek’s claim that it developed its latest model, the R1, at a fraction of the cost major companies are currently investing in AI development, primarily on expensive Nvidia chips and software.This development is particularly significant given that the AI boom, ignited by ChatGPT’s release in late 2022, has propelled Nvidia to become one of the world’s most valuable companies.The news sent shockwaves through the US tech sector, exposing a critical concern: should tech giants continue pouring hundreds of billions into AI investment when a Chinese company can produce a comparable model so economically?DeepSeek was also a poke in the eye to Washington and its priority of thwarting China by maintaining American technological dominance, which has already led to legislation that could ban TikTok in the United States.On his first full day in office, Trump last week announced a major AI infrastructure project with OpenAI and Japan’s SoftBank, emphasising the competition with China as a key motivator.Tech investor and Trump ally Marc Andreessen declared “Deepseek R1 is AI’s Sputnik moment,” referencing the 1957 launch of Earth’s first artificial satellite by the Soviet Union that stunned the Western world.The situation is particularly remarkable since, as a Chinese company, DeepSeek lacks access to Nvidia’s state-of-the-art chips used to train AI models powering chatbots like ChatGPT.Exports of Nvidia’s most powerful technology are blocked by order of the US government, given the strategic importance of developing AI.“If China is catching up quickly to the US in the AI race, then the economics of AI will be turned on its head,” warned Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, in a note to clients.Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, visibly concerned, took to social media hours before markets opened to dismiss concerns about cheaply-produced AI, saying less expensive AI was good for everyone.But last week at the World Economic Forum in Davis, Nadella warned: “We should take the developments out of China very, very seriously.”Microsoft, an eager adopter of generative AI, plans to invest $80bn in AI this year, while Meta announced at least $60bn in investments on Friday.Much of those investments go into the coffers of Nvidia, whose shares plunged as much as a staggering 17% yesterday.Adding to the turmoil, the esteemed Stratechery tech newsletter and others suggested that DeepSeek’s innovations stemmed from necessity, as lacking access to powerful Nvidia-designed chips forced them to develop novel methods.The blocks are “driving startups like DeepSeek to innovate in ways that prioritise efficiency, resource-pooling, and collaboration,” wrote the MIT Technology Review.Elon Musk, who has invested heavily in Nvidia chips for his xAI company’s supercluster, suspects DeepSeek of secretly accessing banned H100 chips — an accusation also made by the CEO of ScaleAI, a prominent Silicon Valley startup backed by Amazon and Meta.But such accusations “sound like a rich kids team got outplayed by a poor kids team,” wrote Hong Kong-based investor Jen Zhu Scott on X.

Colombia said yesterday it had sent aircraft to repatriate migrants deported from the United States after apparently bowing to President Donald Trump’s threats of painful tariffs for defying his plans for mass expulsions.After a day-long showdown with Trump, which culminated with Washington and Bogota threatening each other with a full-blown trade war, the White House claimed Sunday evening that Colombia had backed down.Washington said that Bogota, which turned back two US military planeloads of migrants on Sunday, had agreed to “unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States.”But it was unclear whether Colombia’s left-wing President Gustavo Petro had relinquished all of his demands, with Bogota saying yesterday it had sent its own planes to bring home deportees.Colombia’s ambassador to Washington, Daniel Garcia Pena, told Blu Radio that the planes were “on their way to pick up our compatriots in the United States” and would be “landing today, or at the latest early tomorrow.”Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo on Sunday night confirmed that the government had “overcome the impasse” with Washington but did not give details, saying only that Colombia would “continue to receive Colombians who return as deportees” in “dignified conditions.” Trump’s plan for mass deportations of migrants has put him on a potential collision course with governments in Latin America, the original home of most of the United States’ estimated 11mn undocumented migrants.Since he took office a week ago, thousands of migrants have been deported to Central and South America — but in most cases the deportations stemmed from agreements predating his return to power.Colombia, traditionally one of the United States’ closest allies in Latin America, was the only country to announce that it had turned back deportation flights. The decision appeared linked to the treatment of dozens of Brazilian migrants who were sent home in chains on a US plane on Friday, in what Brazil called “flagrant disregard” for their basic rights.Colombia’s president had made clear however he would allow in civilian deportation flights, as long as the migrants were not treated “like criminals.”But Trump responded furiously nonetheless, announcing stiff tariffs on Colombian imports despite the two countries having a free-trade agreement and suspending the issuing of visas at the US embassy in Bogota among other measures.Petro initially sought to hit back and impose his own tariffs on US products, but later backed down following an outcry in Colombia over what many saw as his reckless handling of the dispute.Trump later said he would suspend implementation of the tariffs but that the visa measures would stay in place until the first planeload of deportees returned.While previous US administrations also routinely carried out deportations, the Trump administration has begun using military aircraft, with at least one landing in Guatemala this week.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said yesterday that her country received around 4,000 deported migrants during Trump’s first week back in office, which was “not a substantial increase” on the usual rate.

Chinese firm DeepSeek's artificial intelligence chatbot has soared to the top of the Apple Store's download charts, stunning industry insiders and analysts with its ability to match its US competitors. The programme has shaken up the tech industry and hit US titans including Nvidia and Meta, which has spent vast sums of cash to get ahead in the fast-developing AI sector. Here's what you need to know about DeepSeek: DeepSeek was developed by a start-up based in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, known for its high density of tech firms. Available as an app or on desktop, DeepSeek can do many of the things that its Western competitors can do -- write song lyrics, help work on a personal development plan, or even write a recipe for dinner based on what's in the fridge. It can communicate in multiple languages, though it told AFP that it was strongest in English and Chinese. It is subject to many of the limitations seen in other Chinese-made chatbots like Baidu's Ernie Bot -- asked about leader Xi Jinping or Beijing's policies in the western region of Xinjiang, it implored AFP to "talk about something else". But from writing complex code to solving difficult sums, industry insiders have been astonished by just how well DeepSeek's abilities match the competition. "What we've found is that DeepSeek... is the top performing, or roughly on par with the best American models," Alexandr Wang, CEO of Scale AI, told CNBC. That's all the more surprising given what is known about how it was made. In a paper detailing its development, the firm said the model was trained using only a fraction of the chips used by its Western competitors. Analysts had long thought that the United States' critical advantage over China when it comes to producing high-powered chips -- and its ability to prevent the Asian power from accessing the technology -- would give it the edge in the AI race. But DeepSeek said they spent only $5.6 million developing their model -- peanuts when compared with the billions US tech giants have poured into AI. Shares in major tech firms in the US and Japan have tumbled as the industry takes stock of the challenge from DeepSeek. Chip making giant Nvidia -- the world's dominant supplier of AI hardware and software -- closed down more than three percent on Wall Street on Friday. And Japanese firm SoftBank, a key investor in US President Donald Trump's announcement of a new $500 billion venture to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence in the United States, lost more than eight percent Monday. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, a close advisor to Trump, described it as "AI's Sputnik moment" -- a reference to the Soviet satellite launch that sparked the Cold War space race. "DeepSeek R1 is one of the most amazing and impressive breakthroughs I've ever seen," he wrote on X. Like its Western competitors Chat-GPT, Meta's Llama and Claude, DeepSeek uses a large-language model -- massive quantities of texts to train their everyday language use. But unlike Silicon Valley rivals, who have developed proprietary LLMs, DeepSeek is open source, meaning anyone can access the app's code, see how it works and modify it themselves. "We are living in a timeline where a non-US company is keeping the original mission of OpenAI alive -- truly open, frontier research that empowers all," Jim Fan, a senior research manager at Nvidia, wrote on X. DeepSeek said it "tops the leaderboard among open-source models" -- and "rivals the most advanced closed-source models globally". Scale AI's Wang wrote on X that "DeepSeek is a wake up call for America". Beijing's leadership has vowed to be the world leader in AI technology by 2030 and is projected to spend tens of billions in support for the industry over the next few years. And the success of DeepSeek suggests that Chinese firms may have begun leaping the hurdles placed in their way. Last week DeepSeek's founder, hedge fund manager Liang Wenfeng, sat alongside other entrepreneurs at a symposium with Chinese Premier Li Qiang -- highlighting the firm's rapid rise. Its viral success also sent it to the top of the trending topics on China's X-like Weibo website Monday, with related hashtags pulling in tens of millions of views. "This really is an example of spending a little money to do great things," one user wrote.

Five people were killed and 25 others were injured in a gas tanker truck explosion near Hamidpur Chowk in Fahad town in Pakistan.The incident occurred as a result of a gas leak from the truck, which triggered a powerful explosion and a large fire. The incident caused extensive damage to nearby warehouses and houses.Rescue officials stated that efforts to put out the fire lasted for many hours.The authorities are still investigating the causes of the incident.Last November, at least 22 people were killed and more than 40 injured in a bomb blast at a railway station in the city of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan.

The White House announced Monday that "the arrangement between Lebanon and Israel, monitored by the United States, will continue to be in effect until February 18, 2025."The White House statement said that the governments of Lebanon, the Israeli entity, and the US "will also begin negotiations for the return of Lebanese prisoners captured after October 7, 2023."The ceasefire agreement that entered into force on Nov. 27, 2024, stipulates the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation from the Lebanese territories it occupied after 60 days from the entry into force of the agreement.

Incumbent Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko won a new term in the presidential election that took place Sunday, according to preliminary results on Monday.According to preliminary data from the regional and Minsk city commissions, Lukashenko took 86.8% of the vote, the chairman of the Central Election Commission Igor Karpenko told a press conference.First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Belarusian Communist Party Sergey Syrankov was backed by 3% of the voters, he added.Voters in Belarus cast their ballots yesterday to elect a new president, with over 450 international observers from 49 countries monitoring the election. Five candidates, including incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, have been registered for the presidential election.

Donald Trump has shaken up America and the world in an extraordinary first week back in the White House that saw him remake the US political universe in his own image.On his first day, Trump signed more executive orders than any president in history, consolidating his power over every lever of the US government.Since then, he has seemingly been everywhere, doing everything all at once to further impose his will — and his conservative, nationalist version of a “golden age” — on the country.The theme has been “promises made, promises kept”: starting with his mass pardons for the 2021 US Capitol rioters and a slew of executive orders from immigration to gender.From Trump and his supporters, the theme has been one of regal, even divine, power.The 78-year-old claimed he was “saved by God” from an assassination attempt to make America great again — and danced with a sword at an inaugural ball. His ally Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, simply hailed the “return of the king”.Trump’s influence on the world stage is outsized too, as he flaunts mass tariffs and threats of American territorial expansion.“Early in his new term, emboldened by his astonishing resurrection, Trump appears to be Godzilla domestically and abroad,” Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told AFP.If Trump’s supporters — and critics — had any doubts about what his second coming would bring, they were dispelled with a few squeaky strokes of a black marker in the Oval Office on Monday.Hours after his inauguration at the US Capitol, Trump signed a pardon of 1,500 rioters who had stormed the same building four years earlier to try to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden.But it was just the start of an avalanche of dizzying changes.The Republican’s orders launched a long-promised immigration crackdown, eliminated birthright citizenship, and said the US government would only recognise two genders.He purged the government of diversity efforts and employees — and then got rid of the internal watchdogs who might challenge his rulings.He yanked the United States out of the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organisation.“We are so back,” was the repeated refrain heard in the corridors of the White House.His spokeswoman insisted Trump had delivered “more in 100 hours than any president in 100 days.”And the contrast with Trump’s own first term could not have been greater.Instead of chaos and fights, the first days of Trump 2.0 have been marked by what appears to be careful planning, steely discipline and intense messaging.Internationally, Trump appeared at the Davos forum on a huge screen where he towered over the gathered global elite.Trump has told other countries to either make products in America or face tariffs.All week, he has repeated his territorial threats against Greenland and Panama — calling their sovereignty into question even as he asserted America’s.“Trump is saying: I’m in control,” said Peter Loge, the director of George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs.But the return of the Trump show has also brought back some old habits — and challenges.Trump still can’t resist rehashing grievances against opponents — including a bishop at his inaugural service who urged him to show “mercy” — and continues to deploy falsehoods and exaggerations.Nor can the former reality TV star resist a microphone, holding a series of freewheeling encounters with the press since his return. At one point Trump asked reporters: “Does Biden ever do news conferences like this?”Key promises remain unfulfilled: US grocery prices remain high despite Trump’s pledge that they would come down, and the war in Ukraine that he vowed to end within 24 hours of his return grinds on.But as billionaire Trump promises a golden age, his critics fear it will come with a dark side.For instance, the freed leader of one far-right militia toured the Capitol two days after the January 6 pardons.“Trump would love to restore the so-called imperial presidency” that existed from Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s until Richard Nixon’s fall in 1974, said Sabato.However, Sabato added that “era was long gone and Trump lacks the strong public support necessary to sustain the tough image he’s projecting.”While Democrats and the anti-Trump “resistance” that opposed his 2016 victory have largely fallen silent for now, there is already legal action against key parts of his agenda.“We all know Trump. He can’t change and won’t change, so over time much of the public will tire of his antics, just as they did in his first term,” said

Israeli troops killed 22 people in south Lebanon yesterday including a soldier, health officials said, as residents tried to return home on the day Israel was meant to withdraw under a truce deal.The withdrawal deadline is part of a ceasefire agreement reached two months ago that ended Israel’s war with Hezbollah, which had left the Lebanese group weakened.The deal that took effect on November 27 said the Lebanese army was to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that ended yesterday.The parties have traded blame for the delay in implementing the agreement, and on Friday Israel said it would keep troops across the border in south Lebanon beyond the pullout date.Lebanon’s health ministry said yesterday that Israeli forces opened fire on “citizens who were trying to return to their villages that are still under (Israeli) occupation”.It said 22 people including six women and a soldier were killed and 124 more wounded. The Lebanese army also announced the soldier’s death and said another had been wounded.The Israeli military said in a statement that its “troops operating in southern Lebanon fired warning shots to remove threats” where “suspects were identified approaching the troops”. It added that “a number of suspects... that posed an imminent threat to the troops were apprehended”.AFP journalists said convoys of vehicles carrying hundreds of people, some flying yellow Hezbollah flags, were trying to get to several border villages.“We will return to our villages and the Israeli enemy will leave,” even if it costs lives, said Ali Harb, a 27-year-old trying to go to Kfar Kila.A joint statement from the UN special co-ordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the head of the Unifil peacekeeping mission acknowledged that “conditions are not yet in place for the safe return of citizens to their villages”.An AFP correspondent saw hundreds of people gather for a collective prayer on a main road in the border town of Bint Jbeil, followed by a march to some nearby villages.Residents could also be seen heading on foot and by motorbike towards the devastated border town of Mays al-Jabal, where Israeli troops are still stationed.Some held up portraits of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, slain in an Israeli attack in late September, while women dressed in black carried photos of family members killed in the war.Hezbollah hailed a “glorious day” and praised residents’ “deep attachment to their land” in a statement on Sunday.The group also called on the backers of the ceasefire agreement — which includes the US and France — to “assume their responsibilities in the face of these violations and crimes of the Israeli enemy”.Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati earlier called on the foreign mediators “to force the Israeli enemy to withdraw”.Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee had issued a message earlier yesterday to residents of more than 60 villages in southern Lebanon telling them not to return.Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, the former army chief who took office earlier this month, called on residents to keep a cool head and “trust the Lebanese army” which sought their safe return home. In a statement late yesterday, the Lebanese army said it would “continue to accompany residents” returning to the south and “protect them from Israeli attacks”. Israeli forces have left coastal areas of southern Lebanon but are still present in areas further east.The ceasefire deal stipulates that Hezbollah pull back its forces north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometres from the border — and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that the “agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state”, so the military’s withdrawal would continue beyond the deadline yesterday.

- Voting began today as Belarusians went to the polls to elect a new president.Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. today and will continue until 8 p.m. with the participation of more than 450 international observers from 49 countries, in the absence of western observers.Five candidates have been registered for the presidential election, including incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko.The authorities did not open polling stations abroad, citing the lack of security measures at polling stations previously set up on the territory of other countries, and the reduction of the number of Belarusian diplomatic personnel in some countries.Belarus was part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991. The Slavic country of 9 million people is sandwiched between Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The last three are members of NATO.

Four militants were killed in a security operation in the Bagh area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, northwest Pakistan.The Pakistani army said in a statement that a security operation was carried out in the Bagh area, killing four militants and wounding two others.The statement added that a clearing operation was also carried out in the area to eliminate the militants. Weapons and ammunition were also recovered.Pakistan's security forces and army have been carrying out security operations in various parts of the country to hunt down armed groups.