Foreign News
Trump ‘very disappointed’ by Musk as row explodes into public
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)
The US has charged former Cuban leader Raúl Castro with conspiracy to kill US nationals and other crimes over the 1996 downing of two planes between Cuba and Florida.
The case unveiled on Wednesday accuses Castro and five others in the shooting down of the aircraft belonging to Cuban-American group Brothers to the Rescue and killing four people, including three Americans.
Castro, now 94, was then head of the country’s armed forces and faced international condemnation over the crash.
As the US seeks to exert increasing pressure on Cuba’s communist rule, President Miguel Díaz-Canel called the charges “a political manoeuvre, devoid of any legal foundation”.
Speaking at Freedom Tower in Miami, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that the US would also charge Castro with destruction of aircraft, and four individual counts of murder over the deaths of Armando Alejandre Jr, Carlos Alberto Costa, Mario Manuel de la Peña, and Pablo Morales.
“The United States, and President Trump, does not, and will not, forget its citizens,” Blanche said.
The charges must be argued in a US court, with some carrying the possibility life terms. The murder charges each carry a maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment.
The justice department’s new charges take aim at a key figurehead of Cuba’s communist leadership when it is facing intense US pressure to make significant political and economic reforms to its one-party rule there.
“I think the strategy is to increase the pressure gradually to the point where the Cuban government will give in and surrender at the bargaining table,” said Wiliam LeoGrand, a expert on Latin American politics at American University.
The US has issued sanctions on the country and imposed a blockade on oil to Cuba that has resulted in blackouts and food shortages.
Earlier on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a message to the Cuban people timed to the country’s independence day.
“President Trump is offering a new path between the US and a new Cuba,” Rubio said.
Rubio told citizens of the island that a Cuban military run conglomerate known as GAESA is primarily responsible for the blackouts and food shortages that the country continues to endure.
GAESA owns or operates most of the lucrative parts of the Cuban economy from the ports to the petrol pumps to five-star hotels.
In response to Rubio’s message, Díaz-Canel accused the US of lying and imposing a collective punishment on the Cuban people.
Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges in Miami. (BBC)Díaz-Canel also said that the indictment of Castro was being used to “justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba” and accused the US of distorting the facts around the downing of the plane.
Asked by reporters about the prospects of bringing Castro to the US to face charges, Blanche responded that there was a warrant for his arrest.
He did not confirm whether the US would try to capture Castro, but said, “we expect he will show up here, by his own will or another way”.
American University’s LeoGrande said he believes the US is ready to capture the former Cuban leader “if the Cubans don’t surrender at the bargaining table”.
In January, the US staged a military operation to seize former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and bring him to the US, after the justice department indicted him.
It transformed Venezuela’s relationship with Washington, something LeoGrande cautioned would be unlikely to have the same effect in Cuba, noting Castro retired almost a decade ago.
Nearly 95 years old, Castro, the brother of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro, remains an influential figure, acknowledged on the island as the surviving “leader of the Cuban Revolution”.
Blanche said he would “not compare cases” between Castro’s and that of Maduro.
President Donald Trump was asked about the political aspect of Wednesday’s indictment.
“A lot of those people are related to me in the sense that I’ve had such a great relationship with Cuban-Americans,” Trump said. “On a humanitarian basis, we’re here to help.”
While Castro is not expected to be extradited or to appear in the case, all options appear to be on the table, says attorney Lindsey Lazopoulos Friedman, who served as a prosecutor in the US attorney’s office in Miami.
“If he did appear in the case, he would be afforded the same legal rights as any other defendant,” Friedman said, adding that would ultimately include a trial by jury.
“No one expects that the case will follow this typical path… but the indictment is compelling and is supported by significant evidence,” she told the BBC.
Cuba unlikely to bow without a fight
The Miami centre where US officials announced the indictment of Raúl Castro was full of Cuban Americans, mostly representing Cuban exile organisations that have for decades led opposition of the Cuban government from within the United States.
Surrounded by pictures of the four people who died in the 1996 crashes, many at the Miami event described being thrilled by the news.
“It was time, 67 years of that murderous regime,” said Isela Fiterre. “Raúl Castro did not merely kill four individuals. Over the course of many years, he has killed countless people,” Fiterre said.
She said it is never too late for justice and that she is grateful to the Trump administration for taking this step.
Another attendee, Mercedes Puid-Soto, echoed those sentiments.
“I feel very happy. Justice has been served,” she said. “It’s very important that the families can close that chapter, and we Cubans too.”
“It’s unlikely that the Cuban regime will surrender to the United States without a fight,” Vigil noted. “And any move that includes working with the Cuban regime would be very difficult for the Cuban diaspora in the United States to accept.”
US and Cuban representatives, including Raúl Castro’s grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, have held “conversations” in recent months, but US charges against the former president are unlikely to smooth these contacts.
On the contrary, the Cuban side showed signs of further entrenching into its “no surrender, no concessions” position against US pressure, with Cuban state media outlets blasting what they called the “false accusations”.
(BBC)
At least 10 people have died after heavy rains caused widespread flooding and landslides across southern and central China.
The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) maintained elevated orange alerts on Tuesday for heavy rain and severe stormy weather, warning that the huge precipitation system has entered its strongest, most destructive stage.
China’s State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters officially activated a Level-IV emergency response, the initial tier to accelerate state-level disaster relief for floods, in Hunan and Guangxi, while maintaining the same emergency tier for Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou.
The torrential downpours have shattered multiple local historical records, particularly in the central Hubei province. State broadcaster CCTV reported that 337 townships in Hubei recorded more than 100mm of rain within a 48-hour window.
In Guangxi, six people died after a pick-up truck carrying 15 passengers fell into a swollen river amid heavy rainfall, CCTV said. In Hubei, three people were killed by flash floods in a low-lying village, while another death was recorded in southern Hunan province.
Images on the Chinese social media platform Douyin showed residents in Jingzhou, Hubei, standing knee-deep in floodwater, with some catching fish swimming in submerged streets. Several cars were almost entirely underwater.
Authorities have suspended schools, businesses, and transport services in affected areas. Emergency responses are under way, and residents in parts of Hubei and Hunan are actively being relocated.
Meteorologists attributed the unusually large area of intense rainfall to the convergence of moisture from the Bay of Bengal, the South China Sea, and the Pacific Ocean. They said the slow-moving nature of the weather system had exacerbated cumulative rainfall totals.
The National Meteorological Centre expects severe weather to move east and south over the next two days, with the heaviest rainfall forecast along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River from Wednesday.
[Aljazeera]
A Jackson Pollock artwork, described as one of history’s “first truly abstract paintings”, has sold at auction for $181m (£135m) in New York.
Number 7A, 1948, which went under the hammer at the renowned Christie’s auction house on Monday, smashed the previous record for the most a work by the late American artist has taken at auction.
The painting, which came from the private collection of media magnate SI Newhouse, is also now the fourth most expensive artwork ever sold at auction, according to ARTnews.
Also in the collection was a bronze sculpture by Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi, which sold for $107.6m – the second highest amount a sculpture has ever gone for at auction.
Pollock, who died in 1956, was a major figure in the abstract expressionist art movement. His drip painting technique is one the art world’s most recognisable and often imitated.
The previous auction record for one of Pollock’s artworks was $61.2m for his Number 17, 1951 painting, which was sold in 2021. Other pieces have sold for higher prices in private sales.
Christie’s called Number 7A, 1948, which depicts black drips of paint with touches of red on a huge canvas spanning more than three metres, a key piece of art history.
“It is with this work that Pollock finally frees himself from the shackles of conventional easel painting and produces one of the first truly abstract paintings in the history of art,” it wrote in its description of the piece online.
Other artworks sold at the Christie’s auction included pieces by Mark Rothko and Joan Miro, which also both broke previous records for works by the artists at auction.
[BBC]
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