News in Brief

Date: 06 July 2025 - 22:45

News ID: ۱۴۱۱۱۱

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The dispute between Republican President Donald Trump and his main campaign financier Elon Musk took another fractious turn on Saturday when the space and automotive billionaire announced the formation of a new political party, saying Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax bill would bankrupt America. A day after asking his followers on his X platform whether a new U.S. political party should be created, Musk declared in a post on Saturday that “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.” “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” he wrote. The announcement from Musk comes after Trump signed his self-styled “big, beautiful” tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which Musk fiercely opposed. Musk, who became the world’s richest man thanks to his Tesla car company and his SpaceX satellite firm, spent hundreds of millions on Trump’s re-election and led the Department of Government Efficiency from the start of the president’s second term aimed at slashing government spending.

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SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean special prosecutors on Sunday filed a request to detain former President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges related to insurrection from when he declared martial law last year, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “Detention request is related to allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of justice,” the statement from the special counsel of prosecutors investigating the December 3 incident said. Yoon’s martial law decree was lifted about six hours after it was announced when lawmakers, who had been forced to scale the walls of the assembly building to make it through a ring of security forces, voted the decree down. Yoon was summoned on Saturday for hours of questioning by the special counsel as part of the probe over the insurrection charges, according to the counsel officials. Yoon’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment on Sunday.

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NIAMEY, Niger (AFP) – A double attack by suspected militants near Niger’s western border with Burkina Faso left 10 troops dead, authorities said whilst stating that 41 attackers were also killed. The West African country, now run by a military junta, has been battling violence by groups linked to Al-Qaeda for the past decade. Defense Minister General Salifou Modi said in a statement the simultaneous attacks by “several hundred mercenaries” took place in Bouloundjounga and Samira in Gotheye department. The statement, read on national television, said 10 soldiers were killed and 15 wounded. “On the enemy side, 41 mercenaries were neutralized,” it added. Gotheye department is near the borders with Mali and Burkina Faso and has long been a zone known for militant attacks. The village of Samira has Niger’s only industrial scale gold mining company. Eight of the company’s workers were killed in May when their vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb.

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NAIROBI (AFP) – An armed gang attacked the headquarters of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission on Sunday as it hosted a press conference calling for an end to state violence, an AFP journalist saw. The attack came on the eve of “Saba Saba Day” when Kenyans mark pro-democracy protests from the 1990s, and renewed unrest is expected on Monday. The east African country is once again facing a wave of violent protests over economic stagnation, corruption and repeated acts of police brutality under President William Ruto. The Kenyan Human Rights Commission was hosting a press conference calling for “an immediate end to arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings” when it was attacked by 20 men, some armed with sticks. “The gate was locked but they forced themselves in. They were attacking and robbing guys, saying: ‘You are planning protests here’,” said an AFP journalist at the scene.

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TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will export used navy destroyers to the Philippines to strengthen its deterrence against China’s maritime expansion, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Sunday, as the two U.S. allies increase cooperation to counter Beijing. The export plan involves six Abukuma-class destroyer escorts in service with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force for more than three decades, the Japanese daily said, citing multiple unnamed government sources. Defence ministers Gen Nakatani and Gilberto Teodoro agreed to the destroyer export when they met in Singapore last month, the Yomiuri said, adding that the Philippine military will inspect the ships this summer as part of the final preparations. A delegation of naval experts from the Philippines will conduct an in-depth assessment of the ships, the Philippine Navy said in a statement on Sunday, following an official invitation from Japan’s defence ministry.