Foreign News

Trump ‘very disappointed’ by Musk as row explodes into public

Published

10 months ago

2025/06/6

Priyan

US President Donald Trump says he was “very surprised” and “disappointed” with former ally Elon Musk’s criticisms of his centrepiece budget bill.

“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump told reporters in the White House on Thursday.

It was the president’s most direct criticism of Musk’s lobbying efforts against the proposals to cut taxes and slash government spending – a plan that has drawn outrage from the tycoon and some Republicans. And it set off an online war of words between the two men.

In response, Musk doubled down on X and accused the president of “ingratitude”, adding: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election”.

Musk left his post at the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) last week after 129 days on the job, and Trump presented him with a golden key during a congratulatory news conference on 30 May.

But in the days since, he has repeatedly criticised Trump’s budget bill currently working its way through Congress, calling it a “disgusting abomination” and posting: “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong.”

He encouraged his followers to phone their representatives to express opposition to the spending plan.

The bill passed the US House with the backing of most Republicans, with a handful of representatives from Trump’s party and all Democrats opposed. It still needs approval of the Senate and a merging of the two versions before it can be signed by Trump and become law.

Speaking to reporters during a news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday, Trump said: “We are doing things in that bill that are unbelievable.

“I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here. All of a sudden he had a problem.”

Trump suggested that Musk was upset about the removal of subsidies and mandates for electric vehicles, which could affect his Tesla business.

Musk denied this was the case and wrote: “Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill.”

“Pork” is a term used in US politics to describe wasteful government spending, particularly on things meant to curry favour with particular groups or local areas.

Musk endorsed Trump last July after the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, and the Tesla boss reportedly funnelled $250m into getting him back into the White House.

In a flurry of posts on X after Thursday’s news conference, Musk denied that he had seen a copy of the budget bill and reposted old tweets from Trump where the president promoted a balanced budget.

Musk also took credit for the sweeping Republican victory in November’s election, writing: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

“Such ingratitude,” he added.

Musk went on to post a poll asking his followers “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”

He also suggested without evidence in a new post on X that Trump appears in unreleased files held by the government related to late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Last year, court documents released by a judge named numerous public figures connected to Epstein. Trump was named in one document. Being named in the documents does not carry any inference of wrongdoing, and there were no allegations made against Trump.

While running for the White House, Trump had promised to release more files on Epstein. In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi released newly declassified files which contained no major new allegations about Epstein nor revelations about his associates.

Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking and died by suicide while awaiting trial. Trump was president at the time. He said he knew Epstein “like everybody in Palm Beach knew him” but had a “falling out with him a long time ago”.

The BBC has contacted the White House and the FBI for comment.

Trump responded by writing on his Truth Social network later on Thursday that Musk “just went CRAZY” and went on to post: “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

Musk’s companies including Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink have direct contacts with the US government and like many other businesses also benefit from subsidies and tax breaks.

Telsa stock dropped by 14% within hours of the row bursting out into public on Thursday.

According to the most recent analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the budget bill will increase the US national debt by $2.4 trillion over 10 years and leave nearly 11 million people without government-backed health insurance.

The White House disputes those figures, saying they don’t account for revenues brought in by increased tariffs.

Put in charge of radically slashing government spending, Musk initiated mass sackings and wholesale elimination of departments such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Doge claims to have saved $180bn, although that number has been disputed, and is well short of Musk’s initial aim to cut spending by up to $2tn.

(BBC)

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Foreign News

Iran says it downed two US jets as search for one pilot continues

Published

1 week ago

2026/04/4

Priyan

Media representatives gather in front of a heavily damaged building following a strike at the Azadi Sport Complex in Tehran ]Aljazeera]

Iranian forces have said they struck down two fighter jets belonging to the United States military, one over the southwest part of the country and another around the Strait of Hormuz.

A spokesperson for the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said on Friday that air defences completely destroyed one F-15 jet. Later in the day, the Iranian military said it targeted an A-10 US aircraft that crashed into the Gulf.

The New York Times had cited unidentified officials as saying that the A10’s pilot was safe after the crash.

But the fate of at least one pilot from the downed F-15 crew is unknown. Several US media outlets reported that one crew member of the jet was located and rescued by US forces, but the other remains missing.

US President Donald Trump told NBC News on Friday that the downing of the jet will not affect the prospect of talks with Tehran. “No, not at all. No, it’s war. We’re in war,” he said.

State media outlets in Iran showed photos of the wreckage of the F-15 jet and what appears to be an ejection seat with an attached parachute.

After the jet was downed, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf mocked Trump’s repeated claims of victory in the war.

“After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’” Ghalibaf wrote in a social media post.

There was no immediate comment on the incident from the Pentagon and US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees military operations in the Middle East and much of Asia.

[Aljazeera]

Foreign News

Trump fires Pam Bondi as US attorney general, elevates Todd Blanche

Published

1 week ago

2026/04/3

Priyan

Attorney General Pam Bondi is seen during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, in Washington, DC, the United States [Aljazeera]

United States President Donald Trump has announced that Pam Bondi is out as US attorney general, in his second major cabinet-level shake-up in less than a month.

Trump confirmed the decision in a post on Truth Social on Thursday, after a slate of media reports suggested he was considering removing Bondi from the top law enforcement role. Several cited his discontent over Bondi’s handling of investigative files related to financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will temporarily replace Bondi in an interim capacity, he said.

“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump wrote.

The US president also praised Bondi for leading the Department of Justice during a period when violent crime decreased in the US, part of a wider downward trend in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump did not mention his reasoning for the decision, instead writing, “We love Pam.” He added that she would be “transitioning to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector”.

In a statement, Bondi said she would be transitioning the office to Blanche over the next month, adding she was moving to “an important private sector role I am thrilled about, and where I will continue fighting for President Trump and this Administration”.

“I remain eternally grateful for the trust that President Trump placed in me to Make America Safe Again,” she said.

Bondi’s dismissal comes shortly after Trump abruptly fired Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversaw the agency amid a mass deportation campaign that led to the killing of two US citizens.

[Aljazeera]

Foreign News

One ant for $220: the new frontier of wildlife trafficking

Published

2 weeks ago

2026/03/29

Priyan

Giant African harvester ants - seen here in Kenya - are popular with hobby collectors around the world (BBC

The ants are flying in Kenya at the moment

During this rainy season, swarms can be seen leaving the thousands of anthills in and around Gilgil, a quiet agricultural town in Kenya’s Rift Valley that has emerged as the centre of a booming illegal trade.

The mating ritual sees winged males leave the nest to impregnate queens, who also take flight at this time. This makes it the perfect time to chase down queen ants to sell on to smugglers who are at the heart of a growing global black market, that taps into the pet craze for keeping ants in transparent enclosures designed to observe the insects as they busily build a colony.

It is the giant African harvester ant queens, which are large and coloured red, that are most prized by international ant collectors – one can fetch up to £170 ($220) on the black market, which tends to operate online.

A single fertilised queen is able to create a whole colony and can live for decades – and can be easily posted as scanners do not tend to detect organic material.

“At first, I did not even know it was illegal,” a man, who asked not to be named, told the BBC about how he had once acted as a broker, linking foreign buyers with local collection networks.

Also known as Messor cephalotes, these ants are native to East Africa and known for their distinctive seed-gathering behaviour making them popular with ant collectors.

“A friend told me a foreigner was paying good money for queen ants – the big red ones which are easily seen around here,” the former broker said.

“You look for the mounds near open fields, usually early morning before the heat. The foreigners never came to the fields themselves – they would wait in town, in a guest house or a car, and we would bring the ants to them packed in small tubes or syringes they supplied us with.”

The scale of the illicit trade in Kenya became apparent last year when 5,000 giant harvester ant queens – mainly collected around Gilgil – were found alive at a guest house in Naivasha, a nearby lakeside town popular with tourists.

The suspects – from Belgium, Vietnam and Kenya – had packed the test tubes and syringes with moist cotton wool, which would enable each ant to survive for two months, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

The plan was to take them to Europe and Asia and put them up for sale.

This trade in ants has caught scientists and the authorities by surprise.

The East African nation is more accustomed to high-profile wildlife crimes involving elephant tusks and rhino horns.

UK based retailer Ants RbUs described the giant African harvester ant as “many peoples dream species” – though the queens are currently out of stock, with the site explaining that it is very hard for retailers to source them.

“Even I, as an entomologist, have been surprised at the extent of the apparent trade,” Dino Martins, a biologist based in Kenya, where there are around 600 kinds of ants, told the BBC.

However, he can understand the fascination with East Africa’s harvester, with colonies created by a “foundress queen”, who can grow up to 25mm (0.98 inches) and who produces eggs throughout her life.

“They are one of the most enigmatic species of ants – they form large colonies, engage in interesting behaviours and are easy to keep. They are not aggressive.”

During the swarming he says the queens mate with several males.

“Then that is it for the males – their job is done… most are eaten by predators or die,” the entomologist says, going on to explain how the queen then scurries away to dig a small burrow and begin laying eggs to start her empire.

Her workers and soldier ants, those that protect the nest, are all female and will eventually number in the hundreds of thousands.

“Nests can live for over 50 years, perhaps even up to 70 years. I personally know of nests near Nairobi that are at least 40 years old as I’ve been visiting them for that long,” said Martins.

This means the queens live that long too – because as soon as she dies, the colony collapses and any surviving workers will look for another nest.

Kenyans who have had to deal with ants raiding their crops or invading their houses know this well – and to get rid of a colony someone is sent in to locate the queen, often hidden deep in one of the tunnels or chambers of an ant mound.

The former broker said ants could also be harvested by gently disturbing the mound and collecting them as they tried to escape.

“It was only when I saw the arrests on the news that I realised what I had been part of – and I immediately quit,” he said.

Those arrested were convicted on charges of biopiracy and ordered to pay fines or serve 12 months in jail – they opted to pay the $7,700 fee and the foreign nationals left the country.

Two weeks ago, a Chinese national – the alleged mastermind behind last year’s ring and who is said to have escaped using a different passport, was arrested at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyata International Airport with another 2,000 queen ants packed in test tubes and tissue rolls.

For Zhengyang Wang, who was part of a team of researchers who published a report on the ant trade in 2023 focusing on China, this is a worry and could “wreak havoc” with local ecosystems.

“Initially, we were very excited when we learnt that many people have taken up keeping ants,” Wang, assistant professor at Sichuan University, told the BBC.

“A colony of pet ants are often kept in a formicarium, which is basically a transparent plastic box so that keepers can observe colonies at work, digging tunnels, collecting food, and guarding their queen. I’d say it’s quite charming and… can be a good way of educating people about insects and their behaviour.

“But then we realised, wait, isn’t keeping invasive species incredibly dangerous?”

Monitoring online sales – of more than 58,000 colonies – in China over six months, the researchers found that more than a quarter of the traded species were not native to China – despite it being illegal to import them.

“If the trade volume of invasive ants continues to grow, it’s only a matter of time before a few escape from their formicaria and become established in the wild,” said Wang.

The study he worked on, published in the journal Biological Conservation, explained what could happen in the case of giant African harvester, one of the most traded species in China: “For example, Messor cephalotes, an East African native, is among the largest seed harvesters in the world and could potentially disrupt predominantly grain-based agriculture in south-eastern China.”

The environmental consequences are also a concern in Kenya.

“Harvester ants are both keystone species and ecosystem engineers. They harvest seeds of grasses, and other plants and in so doing also help to disperse the seeds,” said Martins, adding that the insects “create a more healthy and dynamic grassland”.

Mukonyi Watai, a senior scientist at Kenya’s Wildlife Research and Training Institute, shares these fears.

“Unsustainable harvesting – particularly the removal of queen ants – can lead to colony collapse, disrupting ecosystems and threatening biodiversity,” he told the BBC.

It is possible to collect ants legally in Kenya – in line with various international treaties – with a special permit, which would require the buyer to sign a benefit-sharing agreement with the local community involved to split any profits.

But, according to the KWS, so far none have been applied for – with the paperwork also requiring details of how many ants are being collected and their destination.

Getty Images A young man holds tweezers as he places something in a formicarium

Some conservationists are now calling for greater trade protections for all ant species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), the global wildlife trade treaty.

“The reality is that no ant species is currently listed under Cites,” Sérgio Henriques, a researcher into the global ant trade, told the BBC.

“Without international treaties monitoring these movements, the scale of the trade remains largely invisible to policy makers and the global community,” he said.

But for the KWS the real problem is more immediate – how to monitor and clamp down on “under-reported” insect trafficking, with the agency suggesting better surveillance equipment at airports and others border points would be a good start.

Martins agrees: “It is likely only a fraction of the actual ants being traded that are being detected, so one can only guess at the scale for now.”

Journalist Charles Onyango-Obbo argues that Kenya is overlooking a significant global revenue opportunity.

“The ants are not finite items like gold or diamonds. They are biological assets that can be bred and farmed, and their production can be scaled up to thousand a day. Yet we treat them like stolen artefacts,” he recently wrote in Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper.

In fact, Kenya’s cabinet did approve policy guidelines last year aimed at commercialising the wildlife economy, including the ant trade.

“The guidelines seek to promote sustainable use trade of wild species such as ants to generate jobs, wealth and community livelihoods across all the counties,” said Watai.

With careful monitoring in place, it could be that future farmers around Gilgil will have special formicaria on their land expanding the yields from their fields and orchards – full of vegetables and fruits – to include lucrative queen ants.

But the debate over the dangers of exporting ants to hobby collectors in different parts of the world is yet to be settled.