Melania Trump returns to Washington after four-week absence.

-
Image
After a four-week absence from Washington, first lady Melania Trump returned to the White House on Saturday for an annual dinner and reception with the nation’s governors. “She worked very hard on making sure that everything was beautiful. And she’s very good at that,” President Donald Trump said in brief remarks to governors in the candlelit East Room, his wife seated nearby at a table filled with overflowing vases of white hydrangeas and tulips. While Melania Trump may be preparing the White House for visitors — she announced in a statement last week that tours of the historic home are reopening to the public — the first lady apparently has had less interest in spending time there.  Since her husband took the oath of office on January 20, she has not spent significant time at the White House, according to sources with direct knowledge of her schedule. Melania Trump was an active presence during the first days of the president’s second term, but after joining her husband for...
Post a Comment

Trump says India 'will do what's right' on illegal immigration.

-

 


US President Donald Trump has said India "will do what's right" on the deportation of 

illegal migrants following a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The leaders spoke on Monday, their first conversation since Trump's inauguration last 

week.

They discussed immigration, security issues and trade in what the White House 

described as a "productive call".

Trump told reporters after the call that Modi was likely to visit the United States

 "sometime in February".

Since taking office on 20 January, Trump has announced a number of 

immigration-related executive orders, paving the way for a widespread effort to crack 

down on undocumented migrants in the US.

According to the Pew Research Center, there are an estimated 725,000 undocumented

 Indian immigrants in the US as of 2024.

Last week, India's foreign ministry said Delhi would take in Indians overstaying

 "anywhere in the world" as long as their documents were shared and nationality was

 verified.

In their phone call on Monday, the ministry said, Trump and Modi discussed the bilateral relationship, "including in the areas of technology, trade, investment, energy and

 defence".

The two leaders also discussed security in the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Europe.

According to a White House statement, Trump emphasised the importance of India 

increasing its procurement of US-made security equipment and moving towards a "fair" bilateral trading relationship.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Modi called Trump a "dear friend" and said they were "committed to a mutually beneficial and trusted partnership".

The White House said both leaders emphasised their commitment to advancing their countries' strategic partnership and the Indo-Pacific Quad partnership, which also 

includes Japan and Australia.

India will be hosting Quad leaders for the first time later this year.

Modi and Trump shared cordial relations during the US president's first term between

 2017 and 2021.

But India faced a bitter tariff war with the Trump administration that affected businesses

 on both sides.

In November, following Trump's election victory, India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar 

said the country was not nervous about working with the US president.

Trump had called Modi a "great leader" last year but also accused India of charging 

excessive tariffs.

Analysts say it will be interesting to watch if the bonhomie between the two will help

 overcome concerns about trade and immigration.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American fighters are dying in Ukraine in growing numbers. Bringing their bodies home is a complex task

-
Image
More than 20 Americans are missing in action on the front lines in Ukraine, with a spike in casualties over the past six months as foreigners fill urgent gaps in the country’s embattled defenses, according to a CNN investigation. The bodies of at least five American volunteers who signed up to the Ukrainian military could not be retrieved from the battlefield after being killed in action in the past six months, CNN found. Two of these were repatriated from Russian-occupied territory on Friday to Ukrainian soil after lengthy negotiations. The stark testimony of their surviving colleagues, and the growing toll, portrays the obscure yet important role of American frontline fighters in a war President Donald Trump has called “ridiculous” and has pushed Russian President Vladimir Putin to end diplomatically. The relatives of the missing Americans have told CNN of the distressing lack of closure in not being able to bury their sons, of the legal limbo of not being able to officially ...
Read more

Wrongfully detained American teacher Marc Fogel meets with Trump after being released from Russia in an ‘exchange’.

-
Image
Marc Fogel, an American teacher detained for more than three years in Russia, was welcomed back to the US by President Donald Trump on Tuesday night after the White House secured his release in an “exchange.” Fogel arrived at the White House late Tuesday draped in an American flag and was greeted by Trump, who said it was “an honor to have played a small role” in his release. “Thank you all, and I love our country, and I’m so happy to be back here. And I wish I could articulate it better,” said Fogel, who appeared overwhelmed with emotion as he spoke in the Diplomatic Reception Room.   The deal to release Fogel, who was designated as wrongfully detained by the US State Department, was negotiated by Trump, Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, “and the President’s advisers,” according to a statement from national security adviser Mike Waltz. The statement did not provide any details about the “exchange,” other than to say it was “a show of good faith from ...
Read more

OpenAI says Chinese rivals using its work for their AI apps

-
Image
  The maker of ChatGPT, OpenAI, has complained that rivals, including those in China, are using its work to make rapid advances in developing their own artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The status of OpenAI - and other US firms - as the world leaders in AI  has been dramatically undermined this week  by the sudden emergence of DeepSeek, a Chinese app that can emulate the performance of ChatGPT, apparently at a fraction of the cost. Bloomberg has reported that Microsoft is investigating whether data belonging to OpenAI - which it is a major investor in - has been used in an unauthorised way. The BBC has contacted Microsoft and DeepSeek for comment. OpenAI's concerns have been echoed by the recently appointed White House "AI and crypto czar", David Sacks. Speaking on Fox News, he suggested that DeepSeek may have used the models developed by OpenAI to get better, a process called knowledge distillation. "There's substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is ...
Read more