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US President Donald Trump has said he wants access to Ukraine’s mineral deposits in exchange for future military aid that Kyiv needs as it continues to defend itself against Russia’s aggression.

While the comment highlighted Trump’s transactional approach to the war in Ukraine, it was not entirely unexpected. The US and other Western countries have eyed Ukraine’s mineral riches for a long time.

“We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earths. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do (that),” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, without specifying what, if anything, Ukraine had agreed to do.

He has previously suggested that any future assistance should be provided as a loan and would be conditioned on Ukraine negotiating with Russia.

Under former US President Joe Biden, the US had provided Ukraine with $65.9 billion in military assistance since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

Biden argued the aid was necessary because Ukraine’s victory was key to America’s own security. Trump, however, has made it clear he doesn’t believe the US should continue providing assistance without getting something in return.

While Trump did not give any details on what he wants from Kyiv, a deal outlining a deeper cooperation between the US and Ukraine on minerals had been in the works for months before he took office in January.

A memorandum of understanding prepared under the Biden administration last year said the US would to promote investment opportunities in Ukraine’s mining projects to American companies in exchange for Kyiv creating economic incentives an implementing good business and environmental practices.

Ukraine already has a similar agreement with the European Union, signed in 2021.

Adam Mycyk, a partner in the Kyiv office of the global law firm Dentons, said that while the objective of the deal – securing critical mineral supplies from Ukraine – remains unchanged, Trump’s approach seems to be more transactional.

Kyiv has not yet responded to Trump’s comments, but the Ukrainian government has in the past made the argument that its mineral deposits are one of the reasons the West should support Ukraine – to prevent these strategically important resources from falling into Russian hands.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has specifically mentioned the possibility of future investments in the country’s natural resources by its Western allies as a key part of his “Victory plan.”

“The deposits of critical resources in Ukraine, along with Ukraine’s globally important energy and food production potential, are among the key predatory objectives of the Russian Federation in this war. And this is our opportunity for growth,” Zelensky said in a statement outlining the plan in October.

Nataliya Katser-Buchkovska, the co-founder of the Ukrainian Sustainable Investment Fund, said a deal that would bring US investment into Ukraine’s mining sector would be beneficial for both sides.

The US largely depends on imports for the minerals it needs, many of which come from China. Of the 50 minerals classed as critical, the US was entirely dependent on imports of 12 and more than 50% dependent on imports of a further 16, according to the United States Geological Survey, a government agency.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has deposits of 22 of these 50 critical materials, according to the Ukrainian government.

“It is not only a crucial step for Ukraine’s post-war economic recovery, but it’s also a chance for the US to address global supply chain issues,” said Katser-Buchkovska, who served as a member of the Ukrainian Parliament from 2014 to 2019 and was the head of a parliamentary committee on energy security and transition.

China’s global dominance

Although Trump used the term “rare earths,” it is unclear whether he intended to refer specifically to rare earth minerals – a group of 17 elements that exist in the earth’s core and have magnetic and conductive properties that make them crucial to the production of electronics, clean energy technologies and some weapon systems.

Ukraine doesn’t have globally significant reserves of rare earth minerals, but it does have some of the world’s largest deposits of graphite, lithium, titanium, beryllium and uranium, all of which are classed by the US as critical minerals. Some of these reserves are in areas that are currently under Russian occupation.

China has long dominated the global production of rare earths minerals and other strategically important materials. It is responsible for nearly 90% of global processing of rare earth minerals, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). On top of that, China is also the world’s largest producer of graphite and titanium, and a major processor of lithium.

The latest trade spat between Washington and Beijing makes it even more important for the US to look for alternative suppliers.

The economic measures China announced on Tuesday in retaliation for Trump’s new tariffs include new export controls on more than two dozen metal products and related technologies. While they do not cover the most critical materials the US needs, the move indicates that China is prepared to use its mineral riches as leverage in trade disputes.

Mycyk said that the demand for these critical materials is expected to surge because of the global transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies.

“Ukraine’s deposits are thus globally significant, offering diversification away from dominant producers like China. Keeping these resources under Ukrainian control is crucial for maintaining its economic sovereignty,” he added.

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Food distribution is being stopped. Health services are being shut down. Lifesaving aid is being tied up, with no way to disburse it.

These aren’t warnings of what’s to come, but examples of what aid workers say is the fallout of the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid and the gutting of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“It’s heartbreaking for our beneficiaries, for whom this is life and death,” a USAID worker said.

“We have programs in Ukraine, we have programs in Burma, in Sudan, in some of the most complicated, dangerous places in the world, where there are just massive humanitarian needs,” the USAID employee said. “All of that is stopped. All of that is paused.”

“We do work that we think is really important for America’s power and stability abroad. We don’t do this work because it’s nice. We do it because it buys us much more, and it gives us much more than we are giving,” the USAID employee added. “It’s devastating to see this on a personal level, and I just think it’s so foolhardy on a global level.”

Meanwhile, thousands of Americans and people abroad are losing their jobs, as the entire aid industry reels from unpaid contracts.

These are a small selection of countries and programs severely affected by the aid freeze.

Without safe water, ‘people die, people are displaced’

USAID supports hundreds of projects focused on water security, in Jordan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, and dozens of other nations. An estimated 4 billion people globally don’t have access to safe drinking water.

Without those programs, “animals die, people die, people are displaced,” said Evan Thomas, a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

He works on a project in Kenya that helps more than 1 million people access clean water, via 200 deep groundwater pumps installed and partially funded by USAID. Now, the program is unable to pay contracts with people hired to help maintain and repair the pumps.

“That entire program is now at risk of falling apart,” he said.

“When people don’t have water, when their livestock die, they become very stressed, and there are militias that are willing to take advantage of that stress and recruit for their own aims,” said Thomas, citing concerns about the rising influence of terror group Al-Shabaab in Kenya. “Undermining the access of people around the world to food and water and medicine is not going to make America more secure.”

“People don’t just sit around and die of thirst. They move. They migrate. And so this will create increased migration pressure everywhere in the world,” Thomas added.

Elsewhere in Kenya, other USAID-funded projects help improve care for HIV/AIDS patients are also being disrupted.

‘Feeding programs in Sudan are being shut down’

In Sudan, food kitchens funded by US aid are already shutting down, according to Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International and a former USAID official.

It comes as the UN reports millions of families, many displaced, are experiencing crisis levels of hunger amid the country’s ongoing conflict.

“A lot of displaced people and a lot of people who are caught in famine and other crises could be harmed, if not gravely harmed, if not killed by this pullback of aid,” said Konyndyk, warning of the wide-reaching impact on refugees in Sudan, Syria and Gaza.

The US system for monitoring global famine, FEWSNET, which is used throughout the world, has also been shut down amid the Trump administration’s aid freeze.

“USAID has been a cornerstone of lifesaving initiatives in famine-stricken regions such as Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan, but the funding freeze leaves millions without access to essential services like health care, clean water, and shelter,” according to the executive director of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies, Jamie Munn.

Malaria cases will be ‘increasingly common occurrence’ in US without overseas projects

USAID spearheads a program to control and eliminate malaria in 24 of the hardest-hit African nations, including Mali, where malaria is the leading cause of mortality.

The aid agency funds and delivers antimalarial medications, test-kits and insecticide-treated bug nets, which save lives and help reduce the number of mosquitos.

Malaria still kills about 600,000 people each year worldwide – most of them children under the age of five. But in the countries where the USAID-run President’s Malaria Initiative operates, the mortality rate has been cut in half since George W. Bush launched it in 2006.

“One of the reasons that we don’t have malaria in the US is because we fund and track malaria worldwide, for global health security,” the contractor said. “So, the cases that everyone saw in Florida this past year would become an increasingly common occurrence if we’re not funding driving down the parasite elsewhere.”

Afghanistan ‘faces severe repercussions’ for vulnerable women

Afghanistan “faces severe repercussions as the funding pause disrupts education programmes, healthcare delivery, and women’s empowerment initiatives, undermining long-term recovery and stability,” the International Council of Voluntary Agencies said in a statement.

Meanwhile, more than 6 million people in the country are surviving on “just bread and tea,” World Food Program (WFP) Country Director for Afghanistan Hsiao-Wei Lee told Reuters.

She is concerned about the aid freeze given that the WFP is already running on half the funding it needs in Afghanistan.

The WFP received 54% of its funding last year from the US, according to the UN.

Funding disrupted for Ukrainian schools and heating systems

USAID funds backup heating systems to schools and hospitals in 14 regions of Ukraine, which are invaluable amid Russia’s continued attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure, according to the USAID Ukraine account on ‘X.’ That account has since been taken offline.

USAID also assists with equipment delivery to energy workers, for example in the southern city of Odesa, which was recently hit in one of Russia’s assaults on Ukraine’s energy supplies.

Funding for these programs, as well as others focused on food security and veterans’ rehabilitation has been frozen, according to nonprofits in the country.

Lawmakers in the Ukrainian parliament have made a plea for continued USAID assistance, which also funds programs that enable thousands of children to continue their education and support children impacted psychologically by the war.

USAID funding further supports Ukrainian media outlets, in an effort to keep them going amid economic hardship and counter Russian media and propaganda.

“The grants have become a pillar of support for many domestic media outlets, as the advertising market, which helped the media survive, has not yet revived after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian Parliament’s Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy said last week.

It’s ‘going to destabilize the Venezuelan and Colombian border’

In Colombia, USAID funds and operates programs related to counter-narcotics, emergency food assistance, combatting deforestation and more.

Donors and organizations working on the ground have expressed huge concerns about the sudden drop off in aid, especially as the country faces an escalation in violence and a humanitarian crisis in the Catatumbo region, a strategic territory for drug production.

“We’ve tried to explain that (the aid freeze) is both going to destabilize the Venezuelan and Colombian border, but also destabilize the internal conflict, and that is one of the largest coca-growing areas in the country,” said one aid worker, highlighting concerns about an uptick in drug trafficking as well as local people suffering.

Non-governmental aid workers in the Latin America region have compiled a list of current USAID projects they say are designed to counter immigration and combat the influence of cartels, with that work now halted in Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

US funds 47% of global humanitarian aid

The impacts are far wider than a handful of countries, of course, with international nonprofits warning about consequences on every continent.

“I think the entire humanitarian system could collapse because we fund about 40% of it,” the USAID official added. According to UN officials, the US funds around 47% of global humanitarian aid.

The country is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance globally, although it accounts for less than 1% of the federal budget.

Speaking to the press in El Salvador on Monday, Rubio said the “functions of USAID” must align with US foreign policy and that it is “a completely unresponsive agency.”

When asked about the arguments that USAID’s work is vital to national security and promoting US interests, Rubio said, “There are things that USAID, that we do through USAID, that we should continue to do, and we will continue to do.”

Since it was established by Congress in 1961, USAID “has brought lifesaving medicines, food, clean water, assistance for farmers, kept women and girls safe, promoted peace, and so much more over decades, all for less than one percent of our federal budget,” Oxfam America President Abby Maxman said in a statement. “Ending USAID as we know it would undo hard-earned gains in the fight against poverty and humanitarian crisis, and cause long-term, irreparable harm.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

The Taliban suspended the operation of Afghanistan’s only women’s radio station after raiding its premises on Tuesday, deepening the exclusion of women from public life and society since the group took power in 2021.

Kabul-based Radio Begum – a station run by women with content aimed at women’s education – said officers from the Taliban’s information and culture ministry restrained the station’s staff as it searched its premises in the nation’s capital.

Officers “seized computers, hard drives, files and phones from Begum staff, including Begum female journalists, and took into custody two male employees of the organization who do not hold any senior management position,” the station said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ministry later confirmed the station’s suspension, citing several alleged violations of “broadcasting policy and improper use of the station’s license,” including “the unauthorized provision of content and programming to a foreign-based television channel.”

It did not identify the foreign TV channel in question, but said it will determine the station’s future “in due course.”

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an independent rights group, condemned the suspension and demanded its immediate reversal.

Before Tuesday’s ban, Radio Begum broadcast six hours of lessons a day, along with health, psychology and spiritual programs to women across most of Afghanistan. The station said it provides education to Afghan girls and support to Afghan women, without being “involved in any political activity whatsoever.”

Its sister channels also offer lessons online filmed in studios thousands of miles away in Paris. The televised classes cover a wider array of subjects, providing education in a country where girls are banned from school after sixth grade.

Tightening the grip

The Taliban, a radical Islamist group not recognized by most countries around the world, has been tightening its grip on the media landscape since its takeover more than three years ago.

Initially presenting itself as more moderate than during its previous rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s, it even promised that women would be allowed to continue their education up to university.

But it has since cracked down instead, closing secondary schools for girls; banning women from attending university, working in most sectors and at NGOs, including the United Nations; restricting their travel without a male chaperone; and banning them from public spaces such as parks and gyms.

Last year, the Taliban closed at least 12 media outlets, both public and private, according to RSF, which ranked Afghanistan 178 out of 180 countries in its latest press freedom index.

The Islamist regime also banned the sound of women’s voices in public – including singing, reciting, or reading aloud – under a strict set of “vice and virtue” laws that made it even harder for Radio Begum to reach its female audience.

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President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed reporters at the White House Tuesday, during which the president laid out his plan for the US to “take over” Gaza, relocate Palestinians to neighboring countries, and redevelop the war-torn enclave into what he described as the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Trump’s shocking comments break with decades of US foreign policy, which has long emphasized a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, as well as the president’s past wariness over US intervention in the Middle East.

Here is what we know about Trump’s vision for Gaza – which is home to some two million Palestinians – including just how feasible such a proposal even is.

Trump said the US will ‘take over’ and ‘own’ Gaza long-term

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said, unveiling what he called his “long-term ownership” and redevelopment plan for the enclave, much of which has been reduced to rubble after 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli airstrikes have damaged or destroyed around 60% of buildings, including schools and hospitals, and around 92% of homes, according to the United Nations.

“We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings,” Trump said Tuesday.

Trump did not rule out sending in US troops, saying “as far as Gaza is concerned, we’ll do what is necessary.”

It’s not clear how exactly Trump’s proposed land grab would work, and analysts have cast doubt on the feasibility of his plan.

Most of the two million people living in Gaza won’t want to leave, Sanner said, raising the question of whether they could be forcefully removed – which is prohibited under international law.

“That means that somebody, maybe the United States,” would have to step in – because “no Arab army is going to be carting people against their will out of their homeland,” Sanner said.

Trump’s vision for Gaza has no buy in from Palestinians

Trump’s plan flies in the face of the aspirations of Palestinians, who have long advocated for statehood and roundly dismissed Trump’s relocation proposal when he first floated it two weeks ago.

There are already about 5.9 million Palestinian refugees worldwide, most of them descendants of people who fled with the creation of Israel in 1948. Half of Gaza’s population were already refugees from outside the coastal strip. Approximately 90% of Gaza residents were displaced in the latest war, and many have been forced to move repeatedly, some more than 10 times, according to the UN.

Trump rejected the idea that displaced Palestinians would want to return to Gaza, describing it as a “symbol of death and destruction.”

“Why would they want to return? The place has been hell,” Trump said, ignoring a reporter who cried out: “Because it’s their home.”

Instead of Gaza, Trump suggested the Palestinians be provided a “good, fresh, beautiful piece of land” to live.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians walked for hours to return to their bombed-out homes in Gaza after a ceasefire came into force in late January.

A Hamas official called Trump’s plan a “recipe for creating chaos.”

“Our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow these plans to pass, and what is required is to end the occupation and aggression against our people, not expel them from their land,” spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said late Tuesday local time.

When asked whether he supports Israel’s claim to the occupied West Bank, which is home to more than three million Palestinians and coveted by far-right hardliners in Israel, Trump said “we haven’t taken a position on it yet” but said an announcement would be coming soon.

A shift would not be unprecedented. During his first term, Trump broke with decades of US foreign policy by recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights. He also recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the US Embassy there.

Trump views Gaza as a real estate opportunity

The Israeli Palestinian conflict has been one of the Middle East’s most intractable problems. But Trump has portrayed it as a business opportunity.

The “potential in the Gaza Strip is unbelievable” and that it could become the “Riviera of the Middle East,” the real-estate investor turned president said.

“We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal. And I don’t want to be cute, I don’t want to be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East, this could be something that could be so — this could be so magnificent,” Trump told reporters.

Asked who he envisions living in Gaza, Trump said, “I envision the world people living there. The world’s people. I think you’ll make that into an international, unbelievable place,” positing that some Palestinians might live there one day.

The president also said he plans to visit Gaza soon.

Last month, Trump praised Gaza as having a “phenomenal location, on the sea” and “the best weather,” echoing remarks made in 2024 by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who called the waterfront property in Gaza “very valuable.”

Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is also a real estate developer. Witkoff traveled to Gaza last week, becoming the first high-ranking US official known to visit the strip in years.

Trump’s proposal is welcome news for Israel’s far right

Israel’s far-right has long endorsed the idea of expelling Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, and lawmakers welcomed Trump’s comments about taking over the strip.

Jewish Power party leader Itamar Ben Gvir, who resigned as national security minister last month in protest over the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, urged Netanyahu to adopt Trump’s plan in a statement to X Wednesday.

“Now it is clear: this is the only solution to the Gaza problem — this is the strategy for the ‘day after,’” he said.

While Israel’s government has previously rejected claims that it plans to force Palestinians out of Gaza, Netanyahu expressed support for Trump’s vision.

Pointing to Israel’s war objective of making sure Gaza does not pose a threat to it, Netanyahu said, “President Trump is taking it to a much higher level. He sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism.”

The Israeli leader said Trump’s idea could “change history” and that it is “worthwhile really pursuing this avenue.”

Trump claimed his plan has broad support – but Arab nations say it’s a non-starter

Trump told reporters that “everybody (he’s) spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land” and that he hoped Jordan and Egypt would take in forced out Palestinians.

But Arab nations have long rejected any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, which critics have argued would amount to ethnic cleansing.

In a statement Wednesday following Trump and Netanyahu’s news conference, Saudi Arabia affirmed its “unwavering” support for a Palestinian state and demanded an end to Israeli occupation.

“Achieving lasting and just peace is impossible without the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate rights in accordance with international resolutions, as has been previously clarified to both the former and current US administrations,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement to social media.

Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and other Arab allies issued a statement last week reaffirming their long-held desire for a two-state solution and pledging their “continued full support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land.”

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle aren’t thrilled with the idea – at least for now

Trump’s remarks drew criticism and skepticism from lawmakers, including some Republicans.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham called it an “interesting proposal” but also “problematic.”

“We’ll see what our Arab friends say about that. I think most South Carolinians would probably not be excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza. I think that might be problematic. But I’ll keep an open mind,” he said.

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said that “there are probably a couple of kinks in that Slinky, but I’ll have to take a look at the statement.”

New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democratic on the Foreign Relations Committee, said the idea “fails to recognize the need to have a Palestinian state, and the fact that until we address the concerns of the Palestinians, there will continue to be conflict in the region.”

Sen. Chris Coons, another key Democratic member of the committee, said Trump’s plan is “between offensive and insane and dangerous and foolish.”

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Thailand cut electricity supplies on Wednesday to several areas in neighboring Myanmar that are home to sites at the center of a global, billion-dollar online scam industry.

As of Wednesday afternoon, at least one of the scam compounds was still operating, according to a local NGO in contact with workers inside one location. However, it’s unclear whether the cuts impacted other scam site operations in the area.

Online scam factories – many run by Chinese crime syndicates – have proliferated in Myanmar, which has been riven by a bloody civil war since the military seized power in 2021.

Often lured by the promise of well-paid jobs or other enticing opportunities, workers are routinely held against their will and forced to carry out online fraud schemes in heavily guarded compounds, where former detainees say beatings and torture are common.

On Wednesday, Thailand’s Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul toured a control station at the national electricity grid as staff pulled the plug on supplies to five locations across the border, in an event broadcast live on television.

Thailand “has stopped the electricity supply to Myanmar in five locations based on the decision of the National Security Council,” he told reporters.

“The electricity supply is not being stopped because the companies violated the contract, but because the electricity is being misused for scams, drugs and call centers,” he said.

One of those locations was in the town of Myawaddy, on the banks of a river that divides Thailand from Myanmar, and close to some of the largest scam compounds that NGOs say house thousands of workers. Several of the compounds lie near the border, where they can take advantage of more reliable electricity and telecoms services from Thailand.

Renewed focus on the sites came last month when a Chinese actor, having flown to Bangkok for what he thought was a movie casting call, was picked up at the airport and driven across the border into Myanmar and forced to work in a scam center there.

The scam compounds have operated for years, shielded by corruption and lawlessness that has long saturated Myanmar’s border regions — and only worsened after years of devastating civil war.

But Thailand has come under increased pressure to help curb the criminal activity and has held a series of high-profile meetings recently that suggest officials in Myanmar, Thailand and China may make stronger moves to crack down on the syndicates.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra is currently visiting Beijing, where she will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

China’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that Beijing was “highly concerned” about recent incidents involving online scammers “at the Thailand-Myanmar border,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in a daily briefing.

Myawaddy alone is home to about 6,500 victims from 23 countries being held under duress in scam compounds, including about 4,500 Chinese nationals, according to an estimate from the Civil Society Network for Victim Assistance in Human Trafficking, a Thai NGO fighting against human trafficking.

Thailand has previously cut electricity supplies to scam sites near its border with Myanmar in recent years. However, it’s unclear if those prior cuts had any impact on operations.

In the event there were electricity cuts, compound bosses could switch to diesel-run generators for power, and Elon Musk’s Starlink – which is used elsewhere in Myanmar by various ethnic rebel groups – for internet connectivity.

‘Tonight you will see the lights’

Thailand’s cuts Wednesday also targeted Myanmar’s Three Pagodas Pass, which links southeastern Myanmar and western Thailand, prompting concerns among locals who worried how they would cope.

A resident of Thailand’s Mae Sot, which sits across the river from Myawaddy in Myanmar, said he doubted the power cuts would stop the scam centers.

“Tonight you will see the lights on in Shwe Kokko,” he said, referring to a notorious compound visible across the border.

The abduction of Chinese actor Wang Xing has brought renewed focus to the scams. Just days after he was reported missing in Mae Sot, Thai police said they located him in Myawaddy and brought him back to Thailand.

His subsequent safe return to China has spurred hundreds of Chinese families to call on their government to help to find and free their loved ones, who they believe are still trapped in the scam centers. Some have been missing for months or even years, their families say.

More than four years on from its coup, Myanmar’s military continues to fight multiple fronts across the country against powerful armed ethnic militias to hold onto power. More than 5,000 civilians have been killed and 3.3 million people displaced by the fighting, according to a United Nations report last September.

Amid the political turmoil, Myanmar has become a cyber scam hotspot, where fraud, cybercrime, human trafficking, money laundering and corruption have flourished, often with the tacit consent of the junta, experts say.

China previously worked with authorities in Myanmar to crack down on scam centers in northern Shan state, near the Chinese border. In 2023, as ethnic rebel groups gained ground against the junta, powerful warlord families – backed by the military to rule the region and oversee these fraud operations – were apprehended and handed to Chinese police.

Chinese authorities say more than 53,000 Chinese “suspects” – including trafficked victims – have been sent back to China from scam compounds in northern Myanmar.

But many scam centers have moved further south in Myanmar, including to Myawaddy, according to NGOs and experts who have long tracked these criminal operations.

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A new study shows that more than a quarter of high school-aged students’ time spent on their smartphones occurs in school. It comes as state lawmakers across the country introduce and pass legislation aimed at cracking down on student cellphone usage in schools. 

The study, spearheaded by Seattle Children’s Hospital, found that among the more than 115 eighth- through 12th-grade students that it tracked, 25% of them spent more than two hours on their phones during a typical six-and-a-half hour school day. The study found that the average time spent among all the students they tracked was roughly 1.5 hours, which contributed to 27% of their average daily use.

The study’s findings come just several days after the state of Colorado introduced House Bill 1135, which would require school districts in the state to adopt policies that limit the use of cellphones by students during school hours. If passed, Colorado would join 19 other states that have adopted some type of cellphone restrictions for students, according to Democratic state Rep. Meghan Lukens. 

‘I’m not a big fan of government controlling people’s lives, but in this context, I’m all for it,’ psychotherapist Thomas Kersting told Fox News Digital. Kersting is a former school counselor who has lectured for 16 years about the adolescent impact of increased screen time. He wrote a bestselling book called ‘Disconnected,’ which posited that increased screen time for kids is re-wiring their brains. 

‘I started seeing an incredible influx of kids diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADHD) from when I was working as a high school counselor. It did not add up,’ Kersting said. ‘The chronic eight or nine hours a day of stimulation affects the executive functioning, executive functions of the brain, which is what you need to be able to concentrate, focus, retain, and all that stuff.’

Kersting pointed out that schools and school districts are also taking the lead in implementing various ways to cut down on students using their cellphones during class time, but added that state and local legislation can have the power to push schools that may be afraid to act due to parental concerns.

‘The phone has become the umbilical cord between parent and child,’ said Kersting. ‘So, the idea of a parent nowadays sending their kid to school is more terrifying and schools, I believe, are probably concerned about litigation, violation of rights and things of that nature.’

But while parents may be apprehensive, taking phones out of school can help improve students’ test scores, attention spans and socialization, while reducing the need for disciplinary intervention, Kersting said.

The study by Seattle Children’s Hospital found that, excluding web browsers, the top five apps or categories used by school-aged students were messaging, Instagram, video streaming, audio apps and email.

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President Donald Trump unveiled an executive order reinstating a ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran on Tuesday, coinciding with a visit from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House. 

Trump voiced that he was ‘torn’ on signing the order and admitted he was ‘unhappy to do it,’ noting that that the executive order was very tough on Iran. 

‘Hopefully, we’re not going to have to use it very much,’ Trump told reporters Tuesday. 

The order instructs the Treasury Department to execute ‘maximum economic pressure’ upon Iran through a series of sanctions aimed at sinking Iran’s oil exports. 

His first administration also adopted a ‘maximum pressure’ initiative against Tehran, issuing greater sanctions and harsher enforcement for violations. 

Lawmakers are also interested in exerting more pressure on Iran. For example, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John Fetterman, D-Penn., along with lawmakers in the House, introduced a resolution on Thursday that affirms that all options should remain on the table in dealing with Iran’s nuclear threat. 

Graham said in a statement Thursday that should Iran obtain a nuclear weapon it would prove ‘one of the most destabilizing and dangerous events in world history.’ 

Additionally, Graham said ahead of Netanyahu’s visit that the moment is right to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat now, and that the U.S. should back Israel if it chooses to ‘decimate’ Iran’s nuclear program.

‘Israel is strong. Iran is weak. Hezbollah, Hamas have been decimated,’ Graham said in an interview with Fox News Sunday. ‘They’re not finished off, but they’ve been weakened. And there’s an opportunity to hit the Iran nuclear program in a fashion I haven’t seen in decades. And I think it would be in the world’s interest for us to decimate the Iranian nuclear threat while we can. If we don’t, we will regret it later.’

Strict sanctions were reimposed upon Iran after Trump withdrew from the Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in May 2018. The 2015 agreement brokered under the Obama administration had lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear program. 

Meanwhile, Trump signaled in January some optimism about securing a nuclear deal with Iran when asked if he backed Israel striking Iran’s nuclear facilities. 

‘We’ll have to see. I’m going to be meeting with various people over the next couple of days,’ Trump told reporters Jan. 24. ‘We’ll see, but hopefully that could be worked out without having to worry about it.’

‘Iran hopefully will make a deal. I mean, they don’t make a deal, I guess that’s OK, too,’ Trump said. 

Other executive orders that Trump signed on Tuesday include pulling the U.S. out of the United Nations Human Rights Council and cutting funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). 

Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report. 

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded President Donald Trump’s leadership when asked who should take credit for the ceasefire deal reached in the waning days of the Biden administration.

‘Prime Minister Netanyahu, we’ve heard Joe Biden and Donald Trump take credit for the hostage and ceasefire deal. Who do you think deserves more credit?’ Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Netanyahu as he joined Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday. 

‘I think President Trump had a great force and powerful leadership to this effort. I appreciate it,’ Netanyahu responded. ‘He sent a very good emissary. He’s helped a lot. And, you know, I’ll just tell you, I’m happy that they’re here. And I’m sure the president is happy that they’re here. And I would think that’s about enough.’ 

Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal Jan. 15, just days before Biden exited the White House, and Trump entered it, on Jan. 20. The ceasefire followed a meeting between Trump’s then-incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Netanyahu. 

Credit for the ceasefire was claimed by both Biden and Trump, with the 46th president taking a victory lap for the achievement in the opening remarks of his farewell address to the nation. 

‘After eight months of nonstop negotiation, my administration — by my administration — a cease-fire and hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas, the elements of which I laid out in great detail in May of this year,’ Biden said in his farewell address. 

‘This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because that’s how it should be, working together as Americans.’ 

At another point of Tuesday’s joint press conference, Netanyahu argued that chances of peace in the Middle East increase when he and Trump — and Israel and the U.S. overall — work side by side. 

‘When Israel and the United States work together, and President Trump and I work together, you know, the chances go up a lot [to reach the second phase of the ceasefire deal],’ he said. ‘It’s when we don’t work together, when Israel and the United States don’t work together, that creates problems. When the other side sees daylight between us, and occasionally in the last few years … then it’s more difficult.’ 

Trump invited Netanyahu to the White House to discuss the ceasefire deal’s future, and Iran’s grip in the Middle East and resettling Gaza residents in other nations.

Iran has been at the forefront of Hamas’ war on Israel, assisting in funding the effort. Trump said during the press conference that war would not have broken out if he had been president back on Oct. 7, 2023 — citing that Iran was financially hobbled under his first administration. 

‘Iran was in big trouble when I left. They were broke,’ Trump said. ‘They didn’t have money for Hamas. They didn’t have any money for Hezbollah. You had no problem. October 7th could have never happened when I left.’ 

Netanyahu vowed during the press conference that he would bring home the remaining hostages in Hamas captivity, while adding that ‘Hamas is not going to be in Gaza’ much longer. 

Trump added that Gaza is too dangerous for even the soldiers currently on the ground. 

‘It’s too dangerous for people. Nobody wants to be there,’ he said. ‘Warriors don’t want to be there. Soldiers don’t want to be there. How can you have people go back? You’re saying go back into Gaza now? The same thing’s going to happen.’ 

‘It’ll only be death,’ he said. 

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Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts to slash government waste and streamline the federal bureaucracy include the hiring of several up-and-coming young software engineers tasked with ‘modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.’ 

Six young men between the ages of 19 and 24 — Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger and Ethan Shaotran — have taken up various roles furthering the DOGE agenda, according to a report from Wired.

Bobba was part of the highly regarded Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology program at UC Berkeley and has held internships at the Bridgewater Associates hedge fund, Meta and Palantir.

‘Let me tell you something about Akash,’ Grata AI CEO Charis Zhang posted on X about Bobba in recent days. ‘During a project at Berkeley, I accidentally deleted our entire codebase 2 days before the deadline. I panicked. Akash just stared at the screen, shrugged, and rewrote everything from scratch in one night — better than before. We submitted early and got first in the class. Many such stories. I trust him with everything I own.’

Coristine, a recent high school graduate who studied mechanical engineering and physics at Northwestern, previously worked for Musk’s Neuralink project, Wired reported.

Bobba and Costine reportedly work directly under Anna Scales as ‘experts’ at the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM). 

Kliger is listed on LinkedIn as a special advisor to the director of OPM and attended UC Berkeley in 2020. Kliger has also worked at the AI company Databricks. Kliger’s substack contains a post, ‘The Curious Case of Matt Gaetz: How the Deep State Destroys Its Enemies,’ as well as another titled ‘Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense: The Warrior Washington Fears.’

Another post on the substack is headlined, ‘Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America.’

Killian is listed as a volunteer for DOGE who attended McGill University after graduating from high school in 2019. Wired reported that Killian previously worked as an engineer at a company called Jump Trading that deals with high-frequency financial trades and algorithms.

Shaotran was studying computer science at Harvard University last year and is the founder of Energize AI, an OpenAI-backed startup. Additionally, Shaotran participated in a ‘hackathon’ sponsored by an Elon Musk company where he finished in second place. 

Farritor, who dropped out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has a working GSA email address, was previously an intern for SpaceX and is also a Thiel fellow. 

In 2023, at 21years old, Farritor became the first person to successfully decode text inside a 2,000-year-old Greek scroll using AI, according to the University of Nebraska website.

According to Wired, Bobba, Coristine, Farritor and Shaotran have working GSA emails along with A-suite level clearance that allows them to work on the top floor at GSA with access to all IT systems. 

Fox News Digital reached out to OPM and GSA for comment. 

Speaking to Fox News’ Peter Doocy in the Oval Office Tuesday, President Donald Trump praised the intelligence of some of the young hires working for DOGE.

‘That’s good,’ Trump said of the hires as young as 19. ‘They’re very smart, though, Peter. They’re like you. They’re very smart people.

‘No, I haven’t seen them,’ Trump said when asked if he had met the team. ‘They work, actually, out of the White House as smart people, unlike what they do in the control towers. We need smart people. We should use some of them in the control towers, where we were putting people that were actually intellectually deficient. That was one of the qualifications is you could be intellectually deficient.

‘No. We need smart people. Some are young and some are not young. Some are not young at all. But they found great things. Look at the list of things. I’ll … maybe I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ll read off a list of 15 or 20 things that they found inside of the USAID. It has to be corrupt.’

Elon Musk has also publicly posted online about the qualifications he is looking for and the strength of his team. 

‘If you’re a hardcore software engineer and want to build the everything app, please join us by sending your best work to code@x.com,’ Musk posted on X in January. ‘We don’t care where you went to school or even whether you went to school or what ‘big name’ company you worked at. Just show us your code.’

In another X post this week, Musk wrote, ‘Time to confess: Media reports saying that @DOGE has some of world’s best software engineers are in fact true.’

Wired cited sources who raised concerns about Musk’s team’s clearance, and Democrats in Congress have been railing against DOGE in recent days, arguing that DOGE has received improper access to various government systems. 

Musk has pushed back on the criticism from Democrats, including allegations about DOGE’s involvement in treasury payment oversight. 

‘The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups. They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once,’ Musk, the chair of DOGE, posted early Saturday morning to X. 

Musk also responded to Democratic critics, including those upset about his efforts to push reforms at USAID, saying the ‘hysterical reactions’ demonstrate the importance of DOGE’s work.

‘An unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government,’ a post on Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer’s X account states, echoing remarks the lawmaker made during a press conference. 

‘DOGE is not a real government agency. DOGE has no authority to make spending decisions. DOGE has no authority to shut programs down or to ignore federal law. DOGE’s conduct cannot be allowed to stand. Congress must take action to restore the rule of law.’

Musk described the effort to slash government waste and bureaucracy as a one-time opportunity.

‘Hysterical reactions like this is how you know that @DOGE is doing work that really matters,’ he wrote in response to Schumer. 

‘This is the one shot the American people have to defeat BUREAUcracy, rule of the bureaucrats, and restore DEMOcracy, rule of the people. We’re never going to get another chance like this. It’s now or never. Your support is crucial to the success of the revolution of the people.’

Since its creation last month, DOGE’s X account has provided updates on its work to cut government spending, including an announcement last week that it had cut more than $1 billion from federal spending through now-defunct diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and personnel. 

‘DOGE is fulfilling President Trump’s commitment to making government more accountable, efficient and, most importantly, restoring proper stewardship of the American taxpayer’s hard-earned dollars,’ a White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

‘Those leading this mission with Elon Musk are doing so in full compliance with federal law, appropriate security clearances and as employees of the relevant agencies, not as outside advisors or entities. The ongoing operations of DOGE may be seen as disruptive by those entrenched in the federal bureaucracy, who resist change. While change can be uncomfortable, it is necessary and aligns with the mandate supported by more than 77 million American voters.’

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report

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The Senate voted late Tuesday to confirm Pam Bondi, President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, voting 54-46 to install the longtime prosecutor and former Florida attorney general to head the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., bucked his party to make the vote bipartisan. He was the only Democrat to join Republicans in support of the nominee. 

Bondi’s confirmation comes as both the Justice Department and FBI have been under scrutiny by Democrats in Congress who have raised concerns over Trump’s recent decision to pardon or commute the sentences of 1,600 defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots and to oust more than 15 inspectors general and special counsel investigators. 

 

To date, there are no known plans to conduct sweeping removals or take punitive action against the agents involved in the Jan. 6 investigations.

But U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sparked fresh concerns last week after he directed the acting FBI director to identify all current and former bureau employees assigned to the Jan. 6 cases for internal review. 

The effort prompted FBI agents to file two separate lawsuits Tuesday seeking emergency injunctive relief in federal court, arguing in the lawsuits that any effort by the DOJ or FBI to review or discriminate against agents involved in the Jan. 6 probe would be both ‘unlawful and retaliatory’ and a violation of civil service protections.

Bondi has repeatedly said she will not use her position to advance any political agenda, a refrain she returned to many times during her hours-long confirmation hearing. 

‘Politics has to be taken out of this system,’ Bondi told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month. 

 

Bondi’s nomination earned praise both from Republicans and some Democrats in the chamber for her composure and her ability to deftly navigate thorny and politically tricky topics and lines of questioning from some would-be detractors. 

She was widely expected to glide to confirmation after the hearing, and her nomination had earned the praise of more than 110 former senior Justice Department officials, including former attorneys general and dozens of Democratic and Republican state attorneys general, who praised her experience and work across party and state lines.

Those backers described Bondi in interviews and letters previewed exclusively by Fox News Digital as an experienced and motivated prosecutor whose record has proven to be more as a consensus builder than a bridge-burner.

‘It is all too rare for senior Justice Department officials — much less Attorneys General — to have such a wealth of experience in the day-to-day work of keeping our communities safe,’ former Justice Department officials wrote in a letter urging her confirmation.

Bondi’s former colleagues in Florida also told Fox News Digital they expect her to bring the same playbook she used in Florida to Washington, this time, with an eye toward cracking down on drug trafficking, illicit fentanyl use and cartels responsible for smuggling drugs across the border.

Democrat Dave Aronberg, who challenged Bondi in her bid for Florida attorney general, told Fox News Digital in an interview he was stunned when Bondi called him after winning the race and asked him to be her drug czar.

He also praised Bondi for staring down political challenges before noting that when she took office in Florida, Bondi ‘received a lot of pushback’ from members of the Republican Party’ for certain actions, including appointing a Democrat to a top office. 

‘But she stood up to them, and she did what she thought was right, regardless of political pressure,’ Aaronberg told Fox News Digital on the eve of her confirmation vote. ‘So, that’s what gives me hope here, is that she’ll right the ship and refocus the Department of Justice on policy not politics.’ 

In floor remarks Monday evening, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley praised Bondi’s prosecutorial experience and her time as a public servant, noting that she made history as the first female attorney general in Florida. 

Bondi ‘fought against pill mills, eliminated the backlog of rape test kits and stood for law and order,’ Grassley told lawmakers shortly before the Senate cloture vote, noting that Bondi ‘was easily re-elected to a second term’ as state attorney general ‘because she did such a great job.’

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