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Musk wields Milei’s ‘chainsaw for bureaucracy’

Elon Musk has appeared at a conservative gathering outside Washington waving a chainsaw in the air, showing openness to auditing the Federal Reserve and accusing Democrats of “treason”. Musk, the Tesla CEO who has become perhaps President Donald Trump’s most influential adviser, spoke about his crusade to cut government spending and downsize the federal workforce with the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

AP/Reuters

Middle East

Bodies of littlest hostages handed over

Hamas handed over the bodies of Israeli infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel, the two youngest captives taken by Hamas in their October 7, 2023, attack and among the most potent symbols of the trauma inflicted that day. Red Cross vehicles drove away from the handover site in the Gaza Strip with four black coffins that had been placed on a stage. Each of the caskets had a small picture of the hostages.

AP/Reuters

Ukraine

Trump tirade at Zelensky causes alarm

US President Donald Trump has denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator”, warning he has to move quickly to secure peace or risk losing his country, deepening a feud between the two leaders that has alarmed European officials. The extraordinary attacks – a day after Trump claimed Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s 2022 invasion – heightened concerns among US allies in Europe that Trump’s approach to ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict could benefit Moscow.

AP/Reuters

Explainer

How did everyone survive such a plane crash?

After watching videos of a Delta Air Lines jet catch fire upon landing and flip over on a Toronto runway, it’s fair to wonder how anyone could have survived. But aviation experts said it was not surprising that all 76 passengers and four crew walked away from Monday’s disaster, with 21 people suffering minor injuries and only one still hospitalised. It’s a credit, they said, to advances in plane design as well as a crew that flawlessly executed an evacuation plan.

AP/Reuters

Brazil

Bolsonaro charged over coup plot

Former Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro has been charged with leading a plot to overthrow the government and undermine the country’s 40-year-old democracy after his 2022 election loss. The charges come after a two-year police investigation into the election-denying movement that culminated in riots by Bolsonaro supporters in the capital in early 2023, a week after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office. Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet charged the far-right firebrand and his running mate, General Walter Braga Netto, with leading a “criminal organisation” that wanted to create a new order in the country, including with plans to poison Lula.

AP/Reuters

Economy

19 Feb 2025

Inflation rises to 10-month high

Inflation in the UK rose to a 10-month high in January, an increase that will likely diminish expectations of rapid interest rate reductions from the Bank of England. The Office for National Statistics said inflation, as measured by the consumer prices index, rose to 3 per cent in the year to January, up from the equivalent 2.5 per cent rate the month before. The spike, which took inflation further above the bank’s target of 2 per cent, was largely due to increases in airfares, food casts and private school fees in the wake of the new Labour government’s decision to impose a sales tax.

AP/Reuters

19 Feb 2025

Canada

Child among injured as plane flips over

A Delta Air Lines regional jet has flipped upside down upon landing at Canada’s Toronto Pearson Airport amid windy weather following a snowstorm, injuring 18 of the 80 people on board, officials say. Three people on flight DL4819 from Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport suffered critical injuries, among them a child, a Canadian air ambulance official said, with 15 others also immediately taken to hospitals. Some of the injured have since been released, Delta said later.

AP/Reuters

Defence

US, Europe ‘must both play their roles’

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says there must be a US security commitment for European countries to send postwar peacekeeping forces to Ukraine. Starmer said that it was clear after an emergency meeting of European leaders in Paris that leaders would need to raise defence spending and take more responsibility for security on the continent. Europes leaders insisted their governments must have a say in talks between the US and Russia to end the war in Ukraine, as both Moscow and Washington said there is no role for Europe in the negotiations that could shape the future of the continent.

AP/Reuters

Germany

Germany rebukes Vance stance

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivered a strong rebuke to US Vice President JD Vance’s attack on Europe’s stance toward hate speech and the far right, saying it was not right for others to tell Germany, and Europe, what to do. A day earlier at the Munich Security Conference, Vance lambasted European leaders, accusing them of censoring free speech and strongly criticising German mainstream parties’ firewall against the far-right AfD.

AP/Reuters

Germany

Vance attack on Europe overshadows Ukraine talks

US Vice President JD Vance has accused European leaders of censoring free speech and failing to control immigration, drawing a sharp rebuke from Germany’s defence minister and overshadowing discussions on the war in Ukraine. The prospect of peace talks had been expected to dominate the annual Munich Security Conference after a call between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week, but Vance barely mentioned Russia or Ukraine in his speech to the gathering.

AP/Reuters

Odd Spot

14 Feb 2025

Whale swallows Chilean kayaker

A huge humpback whale briefly scooped a kayaker in its mouth in the seas off the coast of southern Chile before spitting him out unscathed in a dramatic incident caught on camera. It happened in Bahía El Águila near the San Isidro Lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan. Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell Simancas, when the massive whale suddenly surfaced, trapping the young man and his yellow kayak in its mouth for a few seconds before letting him go.

AP/Reuters

14 Feb 2025

Ukraine

13 Feb 2025

NATO plea to not ignore Europe

Several NATO allies have stressed that Ukraine and Europe must not be cut out of any peace negotiations as US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denies the United States is betraying the war-ravaged country. European governments are reeling after the Trump administration signalled that it is planning face-to-face talks with Russia on ending the Ukraine war without involving them, insisted that Kyiv should not join NATO, and said that it’s up to Europe to protect itself and Ukraine from whatever Russia might do next.

AP/Reuters

13 Feb 2025

Russia

Trump greets teacher freed by Russia

Marc Fogel, an American teacher who was deemed wrongfully detained by Russia, has been released and returned to the US in what the White House describes as a diplomatic thaw that could advance negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for President Donald Trump, left Russia with Fogel, a history teacher from Pennsylvania, and brought him to the White House, where Trump greeted him.

AP/Reuters

Government

Trump, Musk defend government overhaul

President Donald Trump has appeared with Elon Musk in the Oval Office in a rare joint appearance between the Republican commander-in-chief and his most powerful adviser. Trump put Musk in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency to help eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in spending and trim the more than 2 million-person federal workforce. Trump insisted the hunt for government efficiency had uncovered “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse”.

AP/Reuters

Technology

Britain, US fail to sign AI declaration

Britain and the United States did not signed the Paris AI Summit’s declaration entitled ‘Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence’. The communique said priorities included “ensuring AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy, taking into account international frameworks for all” and “making AI sustainable for people and the planet”. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain did not sign on because it lacked clarity on questions around global governance and national security.

AP/Reuters

Technology

Britain, US, Australia target Russian cybercrime network

Britain, the US and Australia have sanctioned a Russian web-hosting services provider and two Russian men who administer the service in support of Russian ransomware syndicate LockBit. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and its British and Australian counterparts sanctioned Zservers, a Russia-based bulletproof hosting services provider – which is a web-hosting service that ignores or evades law enforcement requests – and two Russian nationals serving as Zservers operators.

AP/Reuters

Israel

PM: Return hostages or ceasefire ends

A Hamas official said Israeli hostages can be brought home from Gaza only if a fragile ceasefire is respected, dismissing the “language of threats” after US President Donald Trump said he would he would intervene if they were not freed. Hamas has begun releasing some hostages gradually under the first phase of a ceasefire reached last month, but said it would not free any more until further notice, accusing Israel of violating the terms with several deadly shootings as well as hold-ups of some aid deliveries in Gaza. Trump, a close ally of Israel, said in response that Hamas should release all the hostages held by the Palestinian militant group by midday on Saturday or he would propose cancelling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, which took effect on January 19.

AP/Reuters