Why is Trump cracking down on Chinese students?
The United States will begin revoking visas for Chinese students. The State Department said this will include those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party as well as those studying in 'critical fields', though it did not provide details. This is to stop the exploitation of US universities and protect national security, according to the statement. Who is losing out in this latest development in US-China tensions?
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Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
The US has checked out. Can Europe stop Putin alone?
The United States was once Ukraine's most important ally – supplying arms, funding and political cover as Kyiv fought for its sovereignty. But today, Washington is losing interest. President Donald Trump, more at home on the golf course than in a war room, is pulling away from a conflict he no longer seems to care to understand. Trump has not hidden his disdain. He has echoed Kremlin narratives, questioned NATO's relevance and reduced Ukraine's defence to a punchline. Even his recent comment that Russian President Vladimir Putin has 'gone absolutely crazy' does little to undo years of indulgence and indifference. He has not become a credible peace broker or a consistent supporter of Ukraine. His words now carry little weight – and Kyiv is paying the price. Just last week, Ukraine launched what it called Operation Spiderweb, a coordinated series of drone strikes deep inside Russian territory. Dozens of aircraft were destroyed at airfields, and key military infrastructure was disrupted. The White House swiftly denied any US involvement. Trump responded by again threatening to 'walk away' from the war. Shortly afterwards, a second round of peace talks in Istanbul collapsed. The only agreement reached was a sombre one: the exchange of the remains of 6,000 fallen soldiers. That may help bring closure to grieving families – but it has done nothing to alter the course of the war. Trump's belated proposal – relayed by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt – that he supports direct talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin sounded more like political theatre than diplomacy. The moment had already passed. It is Trump – not Zelenskyy – who now lacks leverage. And with the US pulling back from its traditional security leadership, the burden is shifting decisively to Europe. Despite the brutality of Russia's invasion in 2022, American officials have frequently treated Kyiv as the side to pressure and Moscow as the side to appease. European leaders pushed back – but mostly with words. They posted pledges of 'unwavering support' yet hesitated to take full ownership of Europe's defence. Now, as US military aid slows and Trump continues to distance himself from the war, Europe faces a historic reckoning. For the first time in nearly 80 years, the continent stands alone. The future of NATO – the alliance created after World War II to ensure collective defence – is in question. Ukraine's ability to resist Russian aggression increasingly depends on European guarantees. Can Europe meet the moment? Can a loose coalition of willing nations evolve into a durable security bloc? And can it do so without the US? As of early 2025, Ukraine was meeting roughly 40 percent of its own military needs, according to the Centre for Security and Cooperation in Kyiv. Europe provided 30 percent and the US the remaining 30 percent. To sustain the fight, Europe must now do more – quickly. The alternative would be disastrous. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy has estimated that if Russia were to occupy Ukraine, it could cost Germany alone 10 to 20 times more than maintaining current levels of support – due to refugee flows, energy instability, economic disruptions and defence risks. One of Ukraine's most urgent needs is ammunition – particularly artillery shells. Until recently, the US was the main supplier. As American deliveries decline, Ukraine is burning through its reserves. Europe is now scrambling to fill the gap. The problem is scale. Europe's arms industry has long been underdeveloped. It is only now beginning to respond. According to European Union Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius, the bloc aims to produce 2 million artillery shells annually by the end of 2025. This would just meet Ukraine's minimum battlefield requirements. A particularly ambitious initiative is a Czech-led plan to procure and deliver up to 1.8 million shells to Ukraine by the end of next year. Confirmed by Czech President Petr Pavel in May and backed by Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and other countries, the effort is one of the few on track to make a meaningful impact – if it arrives on time. Germany has also moved beyond donations. In late May, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius signed an agreement with his Ukrainian counterpart, Rustem Umerov, to cofinance the production of long-range weapons inside Ukraine, tapping into local industrial and engineering capacity. The United Kingdom remains one of Kyiv's most dependable allies. On Wednesday, London announced a new 350-million-pound ($476m) drone package – part of a broader 4.5-billion-pound ($6.1bn) support pledge. It includes 100,000 drones by 2026, a substantial increase on previous commitments. But war is not waged with weapons alone. Financial and economic power matter too. Trump recently told Fox News that US taxpayer money was being 'pissed away' in Ukraine. The remark was not only crude – it was also misleading. Since 2022, the US has provided about $128bn in aid to Ukraine, including $66.5bn in military assistance. Meanwhile, the EU and its member states have contributed about 135 billion euros ($155bn), including 50 billion euros ($57bn) in military support, 67 billion euros ($77bn) in financial and humanitarian aid, and 17 billion euros ($19.5bn) for refugee programmes. The UK has added another 12.8 billion pounds ($17.4 billion). These are not gifts. They are strategic investments – meant to prevent far higher costs if Russia succeeds in its imperial project. Europe has also led on sanctions. Since 2014 – and with renewed urgency since 2022 – it has imposed 17 successive rounds of measures targeting Russia's economy. None has ended the war, but each has taken a toll. On May 20, one day after a reportedly warm call between Trump and Putin, the EU and UK unveiled their most sweeping sanctions package yet. It included nearly 200 vessels from Russia's so-called shadow fleet, used to smuggle oil and circumvent global price caps. Some estimates, including AI-assisted modelling, suggest the sanctions could cost Russia $10bn to $20bn per year if loopholes are closed and enforcement holds. Even partial implementation would disrupt Moscow's wartime revenue. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas was clear: 'The longer Russia wages war, the tougher our response.' Europe is beginning to back that promise with action. From drones to shells, sanctions to weapons production, the continent is finally moving from statements to strategy – slowly but steadily building the foundations of Ukrainian resilience and Russian defeat. But this momentum cannot stall. This is no longer just Ukraine's war. The US has stepped aside. Europe is no longer the backup plan. It is the last line of defence. If it fails, so does Ukraine – and with it, the idea of a secure, sovereign Europe. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Al Jazeera
8 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump-Musk feud escalates: What happened? And what comes next?
Washington, DC – The ties between United States President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have seen highs and lows throughout the years. But it all came crashing down on Thursday after months of what appeared to be an unshakable alliance in the White House. A disagreement over Trump's massive tax bill has escalated over the past few days, with Musk going so far as to suggest that the US president should be impeached. In a series of social media posts, Musk launched personal attacks against Trump, culminating in a claim, made without evidence, that Trump is in the 'Epstein files'. Those documents relate to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and include travel logs and guest lists related to him and his associates. Part of the Epstein files remain secret, sparking curiosity and conspiracy theories about who might be mentioned. Trump, meanwhile, responded with a social media fusillade of his own. He claimed he asked Musk to leave his White House role and suggested cutting the government subsidies and contracts awarded to the billionaire's companies. So how did the partnership between Musk and Trump collapse? And what may come next for the two men often described as the world's richest and the world's most powerful, respectively? A few months before the war of words between Musk and Trump erupted, the two seemed like an inseparable political force. Musk had spent nearly $200m to elect Trump to a second term in 2024. Days after his successful election, Trump responded by appointing Musk to lead a newly created government cutting agency, called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Even the name of the department reflected the leeway that the billionaire investor had in Trump's administration. The word 'doge' refers to an internet meme of a dog, favoured by Musk, that became popular in 2010. In the early weeks of Trump's second term, Musk became one of the most prominent figures in the administration – and a lightning rod for public criticism. Under his leadership, DOGE sacked thousands of federal employees and gutted various agencies, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Musk appeared so powerful that some Democrats started to refer to him as 'President Elon' to get under Trump's skin. But Trump and Musk presented a united front. During a Fox News interview in February, the US president and his then-adviser appeared side by side and heaped praise on one another. 'He gets it done. He's a leader,' Trump said of Musk. 'I love the president. I just want to be clear about that,' Musk said of Trump. Musk, who is originally from South Africa, started espousing right-wing views over the past few years and grew vocally critical of Democrats and progressives. Those views became more prominent after he bought the social media platform Twitter, now X, in 2022. As he started to tilt rightward, he used the platform to bash irregular migration and efforts he believed aimed to police free speech, particularly with regards to identity politics and the COVID-19 pandemic. Even during Musk's political realignment, however, he and Trump exchanged stern criticism. For example, in July 2022, Musk posted that Trump was getting to be 'too old to be chief executive of anything', much less the presidency. He also initially backed Trump's Republican rival in the 2024 presidential race, Ron DeSantis, even hosting the Florida governor's campaign launch on X. But the failed assassination attempt against Trump would cement Musk's shift in allegiance. After a bullet grazed Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, Musk announced he would 'fully endorse' the Republican leader. He even joined Trump for a return to Butler in September of last year. The cliche in politics is that there are no permanent enemies or permanent allies, only permanent interests. That appears to be the case for Trump, who has a history of firing advisers and disavowing former friends. Musk is only the latest high-profile rupture – and one that might not come as a surprise to political observers. The unravelling of Trump's 'bromance' with Musk comes at the tail end of a rocky few months, as rumours swirled about closed-door clashes between the billionaire and the president's inner circle. In April, Musk announced that he would be spending less time at DOGE. By that time, his role appeared to be diminishing, with the billionaire no longer dominating headlines or regularly appearing in the Oval Office. Late in May, Musk criticised the White House-backed tax and budget proposal, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 'I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Musk told the TV programme CBS Sunday Morning. The bill cuts electric vehicle (EV) subsidies that boost Musk's Tesla car company. But Musk has maintained his opposition to the bill lies in its increases to the national debt and its byzantine provisions: The bill clocks in at more than 1,000 pages. The notoriously confrontational Trump, who had pinned his vision for the economy on the bill, kept his cool amid Musk's early criticisms. He even acknowledged to reporters, 'I'm not happy about certain aspects of [the bill].' The two men made a public appearance together afterwards in the Oval Office, where Trump celebrated the end of Musk's role as a special government employee. Even then, Trump insisted that Musk was 'not really leaving' his team. Once out of the government, though, Musk not only voiced discontent with the budget bill; he appeared to be lobbying against it. The bill had narrowly passed in the House of Representatives, only to face similarly steep odds in the Senate. 'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,' Musk wrote on X on Monday. 'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.' The US president shot back on Thursday, starting with an appearance in the Oval Office with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. ' I'm very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here,' Trump said. ' He had no problem with it. All of a sudden, he had a problem.' Trump told the assembled reporters that Musk's reaction was a backlash to his EV policies. He also speculated that Musk would have preferred to stay in the White House. ' I'll be honest, I think he misses the place,' Trump said. ' It's sort of Trump derangement syndrome. We have it with others, too. They leave, and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour's gone. The whole world is different, and they become hostile.' Afterwards, Trump took his criticisms to his social media platform, Truth Social. 'Elon was 'wearing thin,' I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!' Trump wrote in a social media post. All the while, Musk had been posting on social media, criticising Trump's bill and taking credit for his re-election campaign. 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,' Musk wrote. 'Such ingratitude.' What happens next remains unclear. Although Musk has gained popularity within the Republican base, his political rise was partly due to his association with Trump. He may now find himself loathed by both Democrats and Trump loyalists. The US president, on the other hand, has a track record of surviving public scandals, including criminal charges. Trump has also shown apparent willingness to use the government's power against his rivals, most recently ordering an investigation into the administration of his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. Already, Trump has warned of risks to Musk's businesses, including the rocket company SpaceX and the communications firm Starlink. 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,' Trump wrote. Still, Musk can also hurt Trump's agenda. In his inauguration speech, Trump envisioned planting a US flag on Mars, but on Thursday, Musk said he plans to decommission a SpaceX rocket that the US uses to reach the International Space Station, as retaliation for Trump's words. Musk could also align with fiscally conservative lawmakers to block Trump's signature tax bill in the Senate. Despite Musk going on the offensive against Trump on Thursday, the US president used one of his later social media posts to shift the focus to his One Big Beautiful Bill. 'I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. It's a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'If this Bill doesn't pass, there will be a 68% Tax Increase, and things far worse than that.'
Al Jazeera
9 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
In face-off with Trump, Tesla shares plunge and Musk threatens NASA
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and self-proclaimed 'first buddy' of United States President Donald Trump, has stepped up criticism of the president's massive tax legislation in recent days, leading to a blow-up which saw Tesla stock plunge and Musk saying he would decommission Dragon aircraft immediately. NASA relies on SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station under a contract worth roughly $4.9bn. The capsule is the only US spacecraft capable of flying humans in orbit. Musk's statement marks a dramatic escalation in an intensifying fight with Trump that burst into public view this week, when Musk opposed the Trump administration's linchpin spending bill. Taking Dragon out of service would disrupt the International Space Station (ISS) programme, which involves dozens of countries under an international agreement signed more than two decades ago. Russia's Soyuz system is the only other crewed spacecraft that sends astronauts to the ISS. Musk's comment came in response to a post by Trump on his social media site, Truth Social: 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.' The first impact of the public break up between the two powerful men was on Tesla shares, which dropped nearly 15 percent, wiping off around $150bn from its market value on Thursday on a day otherwise devoid of news for the electric vehicle (EV) maker, leading traders to speculate that Musk's increasingly pointed rhetoric suggests strain in the relationship that has benefitted his sprawling empire of businesses. Trump said on Thursday that Musk was upset because the bill took the EV mandate away. 'Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will any more,' the president said. 'He said the most beautiful things about me. And he hasn't said bad about me personally. That'll be next. But I'm very disappointed.' Trump's comments extended a decline in Tesla shares. The world's richest man, a key figure in the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) cost-cutting initiative for several months, has blasted the bill, not long after he said he would spend less time in the White House and more time with his companies. On his social media platform X, Musk has called on Congress members to kill the legislation, calling it a 'disgusting abomination'. 'It more than defeats all the cost savings achieved by the DOGE team at great personal cost and risk,' Musk, the largest Republican donor in the 2024 election cycle, said on X on Tuesday. Musk's leadership of DOGE and his alignment with the Trump administration have put off some Tesla buyers. Sales of his EVs have slumped in Europe, China and key US markets like California, even as overall electric vehicle purchases continue to grow. In the past few weeks, Musk had slowly started to separate himself from the White House, stung in part by the wave of protests against Tesla. 'Elon's politics continue to harm the stock. First, he aligned himself with Trump, which upset many potential Democratic buyers. Now, he has turned on the Trump administration,' said Tesla shareholder Dennis Dick, chief strategist at Stock Trader Network. Musk's other businesses, SpaceX and Starlink, dominate their respective markets, but have also come under scrutiny due to Musk's relationship with Trump. Tesla shares are down nearly 22 percent since May 27, roughly coinciding with his decision to pull back from Washington's activities. The stock has been on a rollercoaster ever since Musk's endorsement of Trump in mid-July 2024 in his re-election bid, gaining 169 percent from that point through mid-December. That was followed by a 54 percent sell-off through early April as a 'Tesla Takedown' protest movement intensified. The House of Representatives version of the budget bill proposes largely ending the popular $7,500 electric vehicle subsidy by the end of 2025. Tesla and other carmakers have relied on incentives for years to drum up demand, but Trump promised during the transition to end the subsidy. Tesla could face a $1.2bn hit to its full-year profit, along with an additional $2bn setback to regulatory credit sales due to separate Senate legislation targeting California's EV sales mandates, according to JP Morgan analysts. 'The budget bill contains bad stuff for Tesla with the end of the EV credits, and just generally his falling out with Trump has risks for Tesla and Elon's other companies,' said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management. Musk's public attacks have upset potential Republican Tesla buyers as well, Dennis Dick added. One White House official on Wednesday called the Tesla CEO's moves 'infuriating'. The billionaire joined Senate Republican deficit hawks this week in arguing that the House bill does not go far enough in reducing spending.
