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After President Trump ordered new tariffs on the country’s three biggest trade partners – Canada, Mexico, and China – Canada responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own, and Mexico is expected to respond as well.

The United States has imposed stiff tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China, prompting swift retaliatory measures from the country’s North American neighbours.

US President Donald Trump signed three separate executive orders on Saturday, imposing 25 percent on goods from Canada and Mexico, and 10 percent on all imports from China.

But energy imported from Canada, including oil, natural gas and electricity, would be taxed at a 10 percent rate.

Trump said the tariffs were necessary to “protect Americans” and promised to keep the duties in place until what he called a national emergency in the US over the drug fentanyl and undocumented migration ends.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum immediately ordered retaliatory tariffs and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would put matching 25 percent tariffs on up to $155bn in US imports.

There was no immediate reaction from China.

Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, reporting from the US city of Detroit, said Trump’s moves have raised concerns on both sides of the border.

“This is something that Canadians have been very worried about, and Americans here in Detroit, where I am, have expressed concern about rising prices and economists are warning that a trade war could develop as a result of these tariffs and cause prices to increase and possibly force Canada into a recession,” she said.

Steep tariffs

Trump declared the national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act to back the tariffs, which allow the president sweeping powers to impose sanctions to address crises.

The new duties make good on Trump’s repeated threats during the 2024 presidential campaign and since taking office, defying warnings from top economists that a new trade war with the top US trade partners would erode US and global growth, while raising prices for consumers and companies.

Tariff collections are set to begin at 12:01am EST (05:01 GMT) on Tuesday, according to Trump’s written order. But imports that were loaded onto a vessel or onto their final mode of transit before entering the US prior to 12:01am Saturday would be exempt from the duties.

A White House fact sheet said the tariffs would stay in place “until the crisis alleviated”, but gave no details on what the three countries would need to do to win a reprieve.

US officials, meanwhile, said that there would be no exclusions from the tariffs and if Canada, Mexico or China retaliated against US exports, Trump would likely increase the US duties.

They said that Canada, specifically, would no longer be allowed the “de minimis” US duty exemption for small shipments under $800. The officials said Canada, along with Mexico, has become a conduit for shipments of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals into the US, via small packages that are not often inspected by customs agents.

‘Real consequences’

Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, said that Canadian duties on $30bn in trade in US alcohol and fruit would take effect Tuesday, when the US tariffs go into effect. He opened his address to Canadians with a message aimed at American consumers.

“It will have real consequences for you, the American people,” he said, adding that it would result in higher prices on groceries and other goods.

“The actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together,” Trudeau said, warning in French that it could bring about “dark times” for many people. He encouraged Canadians to “choose Canadian products and services rather than American ones”.

Sheinbaum, the Mexican president, responded to Trump’s announcement in a post on X, saying she had instructed her economy secretary to implement a response that includes retaliatory tariffs and other measures in defence of Mexico’s interests.

“We categorically reject the White House’s slander that the Mexican government has alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any intention of meddling in our territory,” Sheinbaum wrote.

“If the United States government and its agencies wanted to address the serious fentanyl consumption in their country, they could fight the sale of drugs on the streets of their major cities, which they don’t do and the laundering of money that this illegal activity generates that has done so much harm to its population.”

Al Jazeera’s Julia Galiano, reporting from Mexico City, said the trade war would hit Mexico hard.

“Let’s remember that 80 percent of Mexico’s exports go to the US. The country is by far Mexico’s largest trading partner. Experts are telling us that the effects are going to be felt essentially right away, initially with prices going up [and] secondly, with a rise in inflation,” she said.

Republicans in the US, meanwhile, welcomed Trump’s move, while industry groups and Democrats issued stark warnings about the impact on prices.

National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) President Jake Colvin said Trump’s move threatened to raise the costs of “everything from avocados to automobiles” and urged the US, Canada and Mexico to find a quick solution to avoid escalation.

“Our focus should be on working together with Canada and Mexico to gain a competitive advantage and facilitate American companies’ ability to export to global markets,” Colvin said in a statement.

Democrats were quick to say that any inflation going forward was the result of Trump, who is about to start his third week back as president.

“You’re worried about grocery prices. Don’s raising prices with his tariffs,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York posted on X.

“You’re worried about tomato prices. Wait till Trump’s Mexico tariffs raise your tomato prices. … You’re worried about car prices. Wait till Trump’s Canada tariffs raise your car prices,” he wrote in a series of posts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Billionaire Elon Musk and his government efficiency team have been given access to the U.S. Treasury Department’s payment system, resolving a days-long standoff, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

Musk, who chairs the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency, has been tasked by President Donald Trump to identify fraud and waste in the government and had sought access to the system Treasury uses to dole out federal funds.

His efforts were resisted by a career Treasury official, David Lebryk, who was placed on leave this week and then retired. On Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Musk’s team access, the Times reported.

The system sends out more than $6 trillion per year in payments on behalf of federal agencies and contains the personal information of millions of Americans who receive Social Security payments, tax refunds and other monies from the government.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat, appeared to confirm that Musk’s team has access in a post on the social network Bluesky.

“Sources tell my office that Treasury Secretary Bessent has granted DOGE *full* access to this system. Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk’s own companies. All of it,” Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, posted on Saturday.

In a letter to Bessent on Friday, Wyden raised concerns that any “politically-motivated meddling” in the payment system “risks severe damage to our country and the economy.”

The Department of Government Efficiency is not a federal department but a unit assembled at Trump’s order working out of the White House.

In a post on X on Saturday, Musk claimed without providing evidence that officials at the Treasury Department had been instructed to approve payments to “known fraudulent or terrorist groups.”

(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Alistair Bell)

The Minister-designate for Communications, Digital Technology, and Innovation, Samuel Nartey George, has expressed strong support for his colleague, Rockson-Nelson Defeamekpor, MP for South Dayi, amid his recent suspension from Parliament.

This comes after the South Dayi MP was suspended from the House along with three other MPs for two weeks by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin following a disruptive incident during the Appointments Committee’s vetting session on Thursday, January 30.

The chaotic scene led to the destruction of microphones and tables, with some MPs nearly engaging blows.

The Speaker condemned their conduct and imposed the suspension during his address in Parliament on Friday, January 31.

In a heartfelt message posted on X (formerly Twitter), Mr George wrote, “I stand with you in this moment of unfortunate adversity,” offering his solidarity to Mr Defeamekpor following his suspension.

My dear Brother,

I stand with you in this moment of unfortunate adversity. You are a victim of your kind heart and humanity. You are a bulwark for our Caucus and we stand shoulder to shoulder with you.

To the people of South Dayi, you gave us a warrior, a leader, an advocate… pic.twitter.com/pnS0mCGSJ2

— Sam ‘Dzata’ George (@samgeorgegh) February 1, 2025

Continuing his message of support, Mr George highlighted Mr Defeamekpor’s admirable qualities, adding, “You are a victim of your kind heart and humanity.

“You are a bulwark for our Caucus, and we stand shoulder to shoulder with you.”

He also urged the people of South Dayi to protect their representative, reassuring them, “This storm too shall pass.”

DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.

More than 700 people have been killed in fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo this week, the UN has said.

The Congolese health ministry said on Saturday there were 773 bodies in hospital morgues in and around Goma following a recent offensive by rebels who seized the eastern city.

More bodies were lying in the street after morgues in the area exceeded their capacity, the ministry added.

The UN shared similar figures and added that around 2,800 people are thought to have been injured in the Goma area between 26 and 30 January.

Congo has been wracked by fighting between the Rwandan-backed rebels and government forces.

Recently, M23 rebels took control of Goma – east Congo’s largest city and the capital of the North Kivu province, which is home to lucrative gold, coltan and tin mines.

After taking the city, the Tutsi-led rebels were said to be moving toward Bukavu, in South Kivu, but appeared held up on Friday by Congolese troops supported by Burundi’s army.

Read more on Congo crisis:
Eyewitness: Fears in Goma after rebel advance
Explained: Why is there fighting and is Rwanda invading?

Well-trained and professionally armed, M23 is the latest in a long line of Rwandan-supported rebel movements to emerge in Congo’s volatile eastern borderlands following two successive wars stemming from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

It is the most potent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of the eastern region.

The central African nation’s military was weakened after it lost hundreds of troops and mercenaries in the fall of Goma.

But Congo’s military recently recaptured the villages of Sanzi, Muganzo and Mukwidja in South Kivu’s Kalehe territory, which had fallen to the rebels earlier this week, according to two civil society officials.

UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the M23 and Rwandan forces were around 37 miles (60km) north of South Kivu’s provincial capital of Bukavu, having covered almost the same distance in the previous two days.

Mr Lacroix said the rebels “seem to be moving quite fast,” and had the chance to capture an airport a few kilometres away which “would be another really significant step.”

The seizure of Goma also resulted in a humanitarian crisis, the UN said.

It had served as a humanitarian hub and was vital for many of the six million people displaced by the conflict.

Rose Tchwenko, country director for the Mercy Corps aid group in Congo, said the capture had led to “a standstill, cutting off a vital lifeline for aid delivery across eastern Congo”.

She added: “The escalation of violence toward Bukavu raises fears of even greater displacement, while the breakdown of humanitarian access is leaving entire communities stranded without support.”

The rebels have vowed to march all the way to Congo’s capital Kinshasa, 1,000 miles (1,600km) to the west.

The rebel advance has been marked by “summary executions of at least 12 people” by the M23 group, UN human rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence said on Friday, adding the group has also occupied schools and hospitals and subjected civilians to conscription and forced labour.

On the other side, Congolese forces have been accused of sexual violence in the region, Mr Laurence added.

He said the UN was verifying reports that Congolese troops raped 52 women in South Kivu.

— Let’s just call these mass firings at Justice and the FBI what they are. Donald Trump is a lawless man who is ripping apart the FBI to turn it into a banana republic-style group of enforcing thugs who will only do his will. They will spare his friends and persecute his enemies. We’ve seen this over and over during the past century in countries all over the world; it’s nothing new. It’s just that we never expected to see it here in America. Putin dreamed for most of his life of destroying America; he now has a friend who is doing it for him. This attack on the Justice Department and particularly on the FBI is the beginning of America’s first true era of dictatorship. The only question now is how long and how far Democratic and Republican politicians and career government employees will tolerate this, and, when their resistance comes, whether it will be too late. The phone number for Congress is 202-224-3121.

— This plane crash shows Trump can’t handle a crisis; we’re going to have to hold our breath for the next 4 years… We already knew this from Covid, when at least 400,000 Americans died unnecessarily because of Trump’s utter incompetence and his attempts to use the pandemic for political gain. Now, with the plane and helicopter crash into the Potomac he let his racist and misogynist freak flag fly high, coming out before any investigations to say that the crash was caused by Black people, women, and/or handicapped people having been hired by the FAA. This is sick, twisted, unAmerican, inhumane, and highlights his complete and utter lack of character or humanity. It now appears that the fault for the crash lies with the helicopter pilot, who was both too high and off-course — and was apparently a woman. One of his people must’ve told Trump, who immediately saw it as an opportunity to go off on women, arguing, like Pete Hegseth, that women shouldn’t be in any kind of significant role in the military. The FAA itself did a quick investigation and found that there was only one controller in the tower handing both plane and helicopter traffic (normally there are 2) in part because the DCA airport only has 19 certified controllers altogether, even though the FAA says they should have 30. This is the result of years of Republican cuts to the FAA’s budget to finance tax breaks for billionaires. The GOP’s 2025 proposed budget includes another 26% cut in FAA funding to pay for tax cuts for Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, just like their unsuccessful 2023 budget effort. When will Americans wake up to the fact that Republicans only care about billionaires and big corporations that kick back campaign contributions to them in exchange for subsidies, deregulation, and tax loopholes? You’d think, after all these years of the Reaganomics trickle-down scam (among others) that they’d have figured it out…

— We have another “hair on fire” moment with Musk sticking his nose (and people) into our Government. After the head of the FAA opened an investigation into Musk’s SpaceX program, it appears that Musk himself intervened to get the guy to quit or be fired; now another federal officer, the highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department, has also resigned rather than do battle with Musk. Nobody elected this billionaire — arguably the richest man in the world — but this past week he apparently walked into (or sent emissaries) the part of the Treasury Department that writes trillions of dollars in checks to demand information about who’s getting paid, how much, and why. This could include highly confidential information that may well include government payments to Musk’s Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink competitors, among others. Will Trump reign him in? It appears that our president is as afraid of Musk as many of his employees say they are. Oligarchy is a form of government where morbidly rich people or their agents take over the reins of government and turn its resources and efforts away from helping average people and toward protecting and subsidizing the oligarchs themselves. We’re officially there.

— People are trying to simplify the message. One of the latest viral internet memes is a graphic with the following words on it:
*January 20: Trump FIRES the FAA director
*January 21: Trump FREEZES all Air Traffic Controller hiring
*January 22: Trump DISBANDS the Aviation Safety Advisory Committee
*January 28: Trump sends a buyout/retirement ransom letter to existing FAA employees
*January 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years, 67 fatalities. WE ARE ONCE AGAIN RULED BY AN INCOMPETENT FOOL WHO IS GONNA GET US ALL KILLED!

— “They’re both dangerous”: Senators are worried after both Patel and Gabbard refused a constitutional pledge. Delaware’s Democratic Senator Chris Coons is warning Americans that when he asked both Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard if they’d refuse an illegal or unconstitutional order from Trump, both refused to say they’d stand up to the Mango Mussolini. “It gives me real pause,” Coons told Raw Story, adding, “Bill Barr answered easily [that he’d refuse an illegal order]. Pam Bondi answered easily. Merrick Garland answered easily. I do that with every nominee.” The sad and simple reality is that Trump has so badly intimidated his nominees that most are afraid to even say out loud that they’d challenge him, much less actually do it when the chips are down. This should alarm every American, particularly given Trump’s long history of criminal behavior and his past requests to the military to shoot protestors “in the legs” and other bizarre, illegal, and fundamentally unAmerican steps. We’re in for a hell of a ride over the next four years…

— “Mass Murderer in Waiting”: Reporter accuses LA Times’ billionaire owner of editing his anti-RFK op-ed to support Kennedy. Eric Reinhart wrote an article for the LA Times about Bob Kennedy’s appearance before the Senate, but is now saying that the paper’s editors — presumably at the behest of the paper’s rightwing billionaire owner — rewrote his article and changed the headline to make it seem like he was endorsing Kennedy when in fact it was the opposite. “I am the author of this OpEd,” Reinhart wrote on X, “which was given a misleading title and from which key lines were cut—lines that made very clear that RFK Jr is dangerously ignorant, has absolutely no business near HHS, and is effectively a mass murderer in waiting.” What’s the old joke about the Golden Rule? “He who has the gold makes the rules,” as I recall. Certainly seems to be the case here, truth be damned…

— ICE horror story hits the news… A grandmother, mother, and toddler were all hauled off to an ICE immigration detention center (euphemism for “jail”) by Trump’s officers when they were caught speaking Spanish to each other. Turns out they were visiting from Puerto Rico — where everybody’s a US citizen — but that didn’t deter the enthusiastic cops. Thank the gods they didn’t end up in Gitmo. ICE had been prioritizing undocumented immigrants who’d committed crimes while in the US, but since Trump gave each ICE office a daily quota for arrests they’re starting to do more general sweeps, looking for people who’ve been good residents, quietly doing their work and paying their taxes. The latest report is that Trump wants to open the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison for black- and brown-skinned people here without documentation; as the old saying goes, the cruelty is the point.

NOW READ: Inside the GOP’s 60-year conspiracy to kill our democracy

The moves were a powerful indication that Mr. Trump has few qualms deploying the colossal might of federal law enforcement to punish perceived political enemies, even as his cabinet nominees offered sober assurances they would abide by the rule of law. Forcing out both agents and prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases would amount to a wide-scale assault on the Justice Department.

On Friday, interim leaders at the department instructed the F.B.I. to notify more than a half-dozen high-ranking career officials that they faced termination, according to a copy of an internal memo obtained by The New York Times.

The acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, also told the acting leadership of the F.B.I. to compile a list of all agents and F.B.I. staff “assigned at any time to investigations and/or prosecutions” relating to the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — the day a mob of Trump supporters stormed through the halls of Congress.

In issuing his directive, Mr. Bove, who has overseen an opening volley of threats, firings and forced transfers since the inauguration, cited Mr. Trump’s executive order vowing to end “the weaponization of the federal government.”

Under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the government waged a “systematic campaign against its perceived political opponents,” including by deploying law enforcement to pursue its rivals, he said.

The memo also demands the names of agents who worked on a case against Hamas leadership, though it is not clear why it was added to the list of agents under scrutiny. Prosecutors and agents had disagreed about the merits of the case.

The office of the deputy attorney general “will commence a review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary” against those F.B.I. agents, analysts and staff, according to the memo, which was addressed to Brian Driscoll, the acting F.B.I. director.

In an email to F.B.I. employees Friday night, Mr. Driscoll noted that he was among the agents who would be on such a list. The F.B.I. has been told to submit the list of names by Tuesday.

“We understand that this request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts,” Mr. Driscoll wrote, who added that he and his deputy “are going to follow the law, follow F.B.I. policy and do what’s in the best interest of the work force and the American people — always.”

Later, the F.B.I.’s counterterrorism division sent an email to field offices around the country with instructions about filling a database with bureau personnel who worked on the cases — a number likely to be about 6,000.

People familiar with the internal discussions said that some Trump administration officials are moving to force scores, or possibly hundreds, of agents out of the F.B.I. in the coming days and weeks. Officials have discussed notifying a large number of agents that they face possible termination, demotion or transfer.

At the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, more than a dozen prosecutors who had worked on Jan. 6-related cases were told that they were being terminated, according to people familiar with the notices.

Those informed of their dismissals had been hired as the office struggled to manage what became the largest prosecution in the department’s history.

In another memo, Mr. Bove said the prosecutors in question had been short-term hires that were improperly made permanent staff during the Biden administration. “I will not tolerate subversive personnel actions,” he wrote.

Mr. Bove offered no evidence those targeted had done anything improper, illegal or unethical. Instead, he cited a legal technicality and questioned whether those targeted would allow the U.S. attorney’s office to “faithfully implement the agenda that the American people elected President Trump to execute.”

The moves come just one day after Kash Patel, Mr. Trump’s pick to lead the F.B.I., testified before Congress that the bureau would not be targeted for political reasons.

“All F.B.I. employees will be protected against political retribution,” Mr. Patel said during his confirmation hearing on Thursday.

Around the time that Mr. Patel appeared before the committee, a handful of senior F.B.I. employees were informed that they needed to resign in a matter of days or be fired, part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to shake up the agency’s upper ranks.

The moves are highly unusual in part because they are happening before a director has been confirmed to take charge of the bureau. The timing of these moves — made while the nominations of Mr. Patel and Pam Bondi for attorney general are still pending — could lessen the blowback for them — or it could jeopardize their support among Republican senators.

A department spokesman, and Mr. Patel’s representative, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. F.B.I. officials declined to comment. The people familiar with the planning spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

In a statement, the F.B.I. Agents Association said that if true, “these outrageous actions by acting officials are fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump.”

“Dismissing potentially hundreds of agents would severely weaken the bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats,” the statement continued.

If the administration follows through, it would be a singular moment in the F.B.I.’s history, and fly in the face of decades worth of civil service laws that are meant to protect the integrity and professionalism of the government work force.

Mr. Patel, speaking under oath, also promised to follow established bureau procedures in seeking terminations or transfers, including referring accusations of improper conduct by prosecutors to the Justice Department’s inspector general before taking action.

F.B.I. officials were already bracing for swift changes, but the forced retirements and the dismissal of senior agents in the field and at headquarters this week has led to immense unease. Agents are worried that they will be fired for investigations that angered Mr. Trump — especially those who worked on squads at the Washington field office on the criminal inquiry into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents as well as the inquiry into a fake electors’ scheme.

Two of the senior agents who ran field offices in Miami and Las Vegas and were forced out had been criticized by former agents with ties to Mr. Patel’s foundation, a nonprofit that Mr. Patel has said gives aid to a range of recipients, including the families of those charged in the Jan. 6 riot.

Some F.B.I. personnel expressed frustration that the bureau’s leadership provided little guidance as rumors circulated widely about firings and about colleagues being escorted out of field offices. Mr. Driscoll’s email Friday night ended some of that confusion, though it confirmed some of their deepest fears.

Jason Manning, a former federal prosecutor who worked on Jan. 6 cases, warned of the consequences.

“It will mean firing agents who investigate child sex crimes, violent crimes, immigration crimes, Chinese espionage and lots of other criminal activity that President Trump claims to care about,” he said. “Our country is significantly weaker and more dangerous because of this.”

The disarray in the bureau was also evident on its website, which notably omitted the name of the acting director, Mr. Driscoll. Inside the bureau, one person said that the atmosphere was sullen and that employees were startled by what was unfolding as top F.B.I. officials scrambled to complete the required retirement paperwork, with the agents turning in their badges.

Mr. Driscoll and Robert C. Kissane, his acting deputy, said goodbye to their colleagues.

In an interview, Democratic lawmakers denounced the moves.

“They are hollowing out our professional law enforcement community,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a Democrat who questioned Mr. Patel at the confirmation hearing. “It is the absolute height of arrogance to be doing exactly what their F.B.I. nominee promised not to do.”

Retribution has been swift at the Justice Department as about a dozen prosecutors who worked on the two criminal investigations into Mr. Trump for the special counsel Jack Smith were fired.

Mr. Trump once called the Jan. 6 riot a “heinous attack,” but in one of his first official acts, he granted sweeping clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in the assault. He issued pardons to most of the defendants and commuted the sentences of 14 members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia, most of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

During Mr. Patel’s testimony on Thursday, Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, told Mr. Patel that lawmakers would hold him accountable if he tried to exact revenge at the F.B.I., saying two wrongs did not make a right.

“And there have been and may still be some bad people there, and you’ve got to find out who the bad people are and get rid of them, in accordance with due process and the rule of law,” Mr. Kennedy said. “And then you’ve got to lift up the good people. Don’t go over there and burn that place down. Go over there and make it better.”

The F.B.I. has been in turmoil since Christopher A. Wray, the former director, stepped down before Mr. Trump took office. After Mr. Wray’s deputy abruptly resigned and shortly after Mr. Trump took office, the administration identified the wrong agent as acting director.

Instead of correcting the error, officials kept it in the hope that a new director would be quickly confirmed, The Wall Street Journal earlier reported.

Mr. Kissane, who had been the top counterterrorism agent in New York, had been widely believed to be in line to be acting director, several current and former agents said, with Mr. Driscoll, a decorated agent in the F.B.I.’s New York field office as the No. 2. But when the White House unveiled its website after Mr. Trump was inaugurated, Mr. Driscoll was named in the top job.

Alan Feuer and Eileen Sullivan contributed reporting.

CNN
 — 

In the wake of the worst American air disaster in two decades, the understaffed and cash-strapped National Transportation Safety Board was scrambling to keep investigators from leaving after federal employees received an offer by the Trump administration to resign and be paid through September.

An internal NTSB memo informed employees Friday that they would not be eligible for the program.

NTSB, an independent and apolitical agency that does not report to the executive branch, investigates transportation accidents, provides aid to those affected by them and recommends safety measures. Multiple sources confirmed to CNN that all 400 of its staffers received the email titled “Fork in the Road” — effectively offering a buyout from the federal government.

That message, dated 9:41 p.m. ET Tuesday, went out barely 23 hours before an American Airlines regional jet operated by PSA Airlines and a US Army Blackhawk helicopter collided in a tremendous fireball, plunging all 67 on board the two aircraft into the icy Potomac River below. There were no survivors.

The disaster apparently left top brass at the agency scrambling behind the scenes to find a way to exempt employees from the Trump administration’s offer. Friday, the head of the NTSB sent a message to any employee who agreed to administration’s initial message to “rescind their deferred resignation letter immediately” with the Office of Personnel Management.

One source said the initial message came as a shock to staffers, including highly specialized investigators, many of whom are nearing retirement. “It’s not like we have an easy time finding people,” the source said.

Another source told CNN they know investigators who were seriously considering accepting the offer.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy sent an agencywide email Friday saying the agency was “granted a full exemption” to the deferred resignation program. The move “means this program is not available to NTSB employees.”

“Given the nature of our safety work, limited budget, and the ongoing investigation of the highest fatality, mass casualty aviation accident since 9/11,” said the email message viewed by CNN, “we need each and every position represented at our agency in order for us to successfully carry out our mission critical work.”

This story and headline have been updated.

Serbia’s populist leader Aleksandar Vučić was facing his biggest challenge yet as student-led demonstrations intensified at the weekend in what was being called the Balkan country’s greatest protest movement ever.

Three months to the day after a concrete canopy collapsed at the entrance of Novi Sad’s railway station, tens of thousands of protesters converged on the northern city, blockading its three bridges in commemoration of the 15 people killed in the accident. The tragedy has been blamed squarely on government ineptitude and graft.

“What we are seeing are the greatest street protests in the history of Serbia,” said Dejan Bagarić, a master’s student speaking from the city. “There’s never been anything like it, people are really animated because everybody has had enough of corruption and this government is very corrupt.”

Saturday’s outpouring of dissent – the culmination of sit-ins and protests that began in November – have focused on what demonstrators have described as the government’s striking unwillingness to accept any accountability for the tragedy. Reconstruction of the station was carried out in collaboration with a Chinese state consortium as part of a large infrastructure project that critics contend paid little, if any, attention to safety regulations.

“There was no transparency, no public tenders for the contract and then when the accident happened, no desire for justice,” said Čedomir Stojković, a leading human rights lawyer who filed a criminal complaint that eventually spurred prosecutors to launch an inquiry. “Instead, the government did what it always does, it went ahead with a full-scale cover-up. There’s a lot of solidarity, a lot of empathy for the students, more and more people are coming out in support of them, professors, farmers, everyone.”

By last week the anti-government rallies had spread to more than 100 provincial towns and villages nationwide.

The scale of the protests had, said Stojković, proved “beyond any doubt” that the demonstrations were not only fuelled by disgust over corruption, an ill that has come to be identified with everything that is wrong with the EU candidate nation, but were a way for citizens to vent their unhappiness with their nationalist president’s increasingly authoritarian rule.

For a generation raised on the internet, knowledge of the world beyond impoverished Serbia is readily available. Also unprecedented is the ability to rapidly arrange protests by circumventing state-controlled media – tens of thousands of striking students participated in a 24-hour blockade of a major intersection in Belgrade last week.

Vučić had faced similar protests last year following allegations of rigged elections, facilitated, opponents say, by a media landscape that remains one of the most censored in Europe. Unlike these demonstrations, however, it was opposition parties, themselves often discredited, who led the backlash.

“People want the government and Vučić to finally go,” said Stojković, who participated as a student in mass protests over 25 years ago against Slobodan Milošević, the late Yugoslav strongman and former president of Serbia, whose policies triggered the region’s descent into bloodthirsty genocide. The protests paved the way to Milošević eventually being toppled in 2000.

“These students were children when Vučić became president eight years ago and they want democracy. It’s been building up … this is the moment just before the balloon is pricked by the needle. It has caught [the government] unaware.”

On Friday as hundreds of students reached Novi Sad on foot after a two-day, 80km trek from Belgrade, Vučić, addressing the protests, told the nation: “Our country is under attack, from abroad and from inside,” echoing earlier claims that the protesters were working for unspecified foreign powers to oust the government.

The ruling Serbian Progressive party has tried to defuse the situation by releasing classified documents about the railway station’s collapse and has even gone so far as to say it will meet all the students’ demands. This week, in what was seen as a first victory, Vučić’s close ally, prime minister Miloš Vučević, resigned but few believe the protests are about to fizzle out.

With youth unemployment at record levels and graduates forced in ever growing numbers to move abroad in search of work, there is a growing sense among young Serbs that there is little to lose.

To defy government crackdowns, the students have deliberately avoided being associated with a leadership of any sort ensuring that decisions are taken in concert in plenary sessions.

“We are not choosing violence and for now the government is not choosing violence either,” Bagarić said at the protests in Novi Sad.

As the protests swelled, Srđan Milivojević, who leads the opposition Democratic party, said it was clear Serbia’s young demonstrators were now dictating events.

“It’s irrelevant how the government reacts,” he said as he drove along the car-choked highway linking Belgrade with Novi Sad. “The students are dictating the tempo of the protests and they will continue to do so until Vučić falls.”

Felix Kwakye Ofosu is the Minister-designate for Government Communications

Felix Kwakye Ofosu, the Minister-designate for Government Communications, has announced plans to restructure the government’s communication institutions.

This significant restructuring will involve merging the Ghana News Agency (GNA) and the Information Services Department (ISD) to enhance efficiency and modernise government communication, aligning it with technological advancements.

During his vetting by the Appointments Committee on January 31, 2025, Kwakye Ofosu emphasised the need for this new initiative, citing the outdated methods currently employed by the information department.

He noted that President John Dramani Mahama aims to create a unified government communication office by combining the ISD and GNA to improve service delivery at a more efficient rate.

“What has become clear is that the approaches that have been adopted over the years are no longer fit for purpose. The ISD used to have cinema vans, but now nobody will show up if you brought a cinema van to their community,” he stated.

He continued, “This means things need to change, and we must keep pace with the way technology is revolutionizing information dissemination.”

Kwakye Ofosu added that President Mahama has a vision to transform the ISD and GNA by merging them into the Government Communication Office, allowing them to provide better services at an improved rate of efficiency.

VKB/MA

Meanwhile, watch as chaos erupts at Parliament over vetting of Okudzeto Ablakwa and Mintah Akandoh