Trump's second presidency is taking an authoritarian tone
He also brandished that threat against his former ally, Elon Musk, who was likewise born outside the US, after their dramatic falling out in June. The same month, the Department of Justice issued a memo making denaturalization a priority, though it is only applicable to those who "illegally procured" their citizenship or "concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation." On July 12, the president did not rule out revoking the citizenship of one of his fiercest critics, comedian Rosie O'Donnell, who was born in the US, even though such a move would exceed his constitutional authority.
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France 24
15 minutes ago
- France 24
Displaced Cambodians return home after Thailand truce
People who fled the Cambodia-Thailand border return to their homes in Oddar Meanchey province The territorial conflict, which ignited into open combat on Thursday, stems from an obscure cartographical dispute dating back decades, and the truce was sealed after interventions from world leaders including US President Donald Trump. Back in his Cambodian village of Kouk Khpos -- about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Thai border -- 30-year-old farmer Lat Laem is grateful for his homecoming, and more quotidian concerns. Lat Laem said he was working in his rice field when the first blasts broke out, heralding the start of fighting © TANG CHHIN Sothy, TANG CHHIN SOTHY / AFP "I feel happy to be back to my newly built home so I can clean the floor," he told AFP, after a two-hour trip trailing his family home on a tractor through shuttered villages and empty streets. Lat Laem said he was working in his rice field when the first blasts broke out, heralding the start of fighting that was waged with artillery, rockets, jets and ground troops. At least 43 people have been killed on both sides in the deadliest clashes in years over a scattering of ancient contested temples on Thailand and Cambodia's 800-kilometre border. The truce came into effect at midnight on Monday, and while Thailand accused Cambodia of violating the pact with skirmishes, peace has generally prevailed. Hope intact When the strikes started raining down around his home, Lat Laem says he took refuge in his brother's bunker -- built because border residents are accustomed to sporadic strife. He was initially reluctant to abandon his simple white home, so recently constructed that he has yet to hold a house-warming. When the drumbeat of blasts became too much to bear, he fled -- joining around 140,000 others in Cambodia, and 180,000 more in Thailand who were forced to quit their homes. He left with his wife and daughter, his sister-in-law and her children on a tractor-drawn wagon known locally as an "iron cow" -- piled with a few scant belongings including cooking gear and a fan -- and headed to a shelter 50 kilometres away. While they were gone the border was scarred by destruction, as both sides traded fire and allegations about the use of cluster bombs, the targeting of civilian homes and even of hospitals. Evacuated far from his prized property, Lat Laem was consumed by anxiety it would be claimed by the conflict. "I was worried that my house that I spent all that money to build might be damaged -- that would upset me," said Lat Laem. "I could not sleep." But pacing the perimeter of his own patch of land back near the contested frontier he confirms it is free of shrapnel scars -- totally undamaged by the turmoil. "It was not hit, it is intact," he marvelled. "Now I am happy that it is all good." © 2025 AFP
LeMonde
2 hours ago
- LeMonde
'The EU seeks economic deals, preferably for free trade, because the member states leading it gain from them'
The agreement reached on Sunday, July 27, between US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen favors the United States, which will now impose a 15% tariff on goods imported from the European Union (EU), without reciprocity. Nevertheless, in its relationship with the US, the 27-member states are not powerless. According to Eurostat, the European Union's official statistics office, the EU has consistently increased its trade surpluses with the US over the decades. In 2024, these surpluses related to goods trade totaled €198 billion for the entire Union. All US presidents, each in their own way, have tried to address this trade deficit with Europe. Their main challenge lies in the fact that the US is a major geopolitical power, while the EU has prioritized economic and commercial strength above all else. Today, the US produces little and sells poorly in Europe. Reorganizing in an economic war takes time and involves complex stakes. Unable to quickly correct the trade deficit with Europe, the US has chosen to tax European exports to its market. In response to these measures, most member states and members of the European Parliament have made strategic choices. The Germans, the Italians, and almost all of Europe have purchased F-35 aircraft produced by Lockheed Martin. The company then acted as a lobbyist in the US to protect German civilian interests from tariffs and to allow them to sell their cars. Trump, for his part, waited for European states to confirm their F-35 purchases before threatening to impose a 30% tax on European goods entering the US. Imbalances of interest between the two sides Constant bargaining takes place between Europeans and Americans. At the end of 2024, European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde said that to avoid a trade war, it was necessary to buy "made in USA." Similarly, Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, explained in US media that European purchases of US-made weapons would help reduce the American trade deficit.
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
Russia kills 25 in Ukraine, as Kremlin says 'committed' to peace
The strikes on several regions came hours after US President Donald Trump issued Moscow with a new deadline to end its grinding invasion of Ukraine -- now in its fourth year -- or face tough new sanctions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of purposefully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region -- that Russia claims as its own -- killing 16 people and wounding more than 40 others. "It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility," Zelensky said on social media in response. The Kremlin denied that claim. "The Russian army does not strike civilian targets," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP. Peskov added that Moscow had "taken note" of Trump's new deadline and told journalists that it remained "committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests." 'War crimes' Ukraine's justice ministry said Moscow's forces hit the prison with four glide bombs, while police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 were wounded. Bricks and debris were strewn on the ground around buildings with blown-out windows, according to images released by the ministry. The facility's perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added. Rescue workers were seen searching for survivors in pictures released by the region's emergency services. The source added there were no Russian war prisoners being held at the centre. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the Zaporizhzhia attack was further evidence of Russian "war crimes". "People held in places of detention do not lose their right to life and protection," he wrote on social media. In addition to the glide bomb attack, the Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones. Zelensky said that among the separate attacks, Russian forces had targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Hospital targeted "Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23-years-old," Zelensky said. Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said. In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region's acting governor said. Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia's summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022. The Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the sprawling front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken control of two more villages -- one in the Donetsk region, and another in the Zaporizhzhia region. The prison strike on Tuesday came on the three-year anniversary of a attack on another detention facility in occupied Ukrainian territory that Kyiv blamed on Moscow and that was reported to have killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers. Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the strike over the night of July 29 three years ago on the detention centre in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, which the Kremlin says is part of Russia. Ukraine says that dozens of its soldiers who laid down their arms after a long Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol were killed in that attack on the Olenivka detention facility.
