Ottawa: Canada has taken official steps by requesting consultations with the World Trade Organization (WTO) to dispute US import duties on steel and aluminum products from Canada, according to a statement issued by the trade organization.

The request was circulated to WTO members Thursday, said the statement.

Canada argued that US measures, which ceased its exemption and increased duties, contravene US obligations under GATT 1994, Xinhua news agency reported.

Mary Ng, minister of export promotion, international trade and economic development, said Wednesday that Canada was seeking formal consultations with the US regarding tariffs on steel and aluminum.

“Canada is deeply disappointed that the US has chosen to reimpose these unjustified tariffs that hurt workers and businesses on both sides of the border,” Ng said in the statement. “These unilateral tariffs violate the United States’ obligations under both the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) and the WTO Agreement.”

Francois-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry, made a statement Thursday that Canadian steel and aluminum form the basis of North America’s critical infrastructure and manufacturing base, while supporting vital US industries, including defense, shipbuilding and automotive.

The industry minister said he directed Industry Canada to prioritise funding of projects that use predominantly Canadian steel and aluminum.

Canada announced Wednesday reciprocal tariffs on US steel and aluminum imports worth 29.8 billion Canadian dollars ($20.7 billion). This trade move came in response to US President Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports coming into effect on the same day.

February 10, US President Donald Trump signed proclamations to raise tariffs on aluminum from 10 per cent to 25 per cent, aligning them with the existing tariff rate for steel.

He also decided to eliminate duty-free quotas, exemptions, and exclusions for steel and aluminum tariffs. These measures were set to take effect March 12.

March 11, Trump announced a plan to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports to 50 per cent in response to tariffs on electricity exports from the Canadian province of Ontario. But the plan was reversed later that day after Ontario dropped the electricity export tariffs affecting three US states.

IANS

Lahore: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) domestic flight landed on the Lahore airport with one of its wheels missing, an official said Friday.

However, no untoward accident was reported due to the Thursday morning incident, the official said.

One of the rear wheels of PIA flight PK-306, which left from Karachi for Lahore, was missing when it landed at the Lahore airport, the official said.

An investigation has been initiated into the incident, a PIA official told PTI.

He added it was being probed whether the aircraft left Karachi with the “missing wheel” or got detached and fell during the take-off.

He said some fragments of the wheel were found at the Karachi airport.

“It appears that one of the rear wheels was in shabby condition when the aircraft took off,” the official said.

A PIA spokesperson said the PK-306 made a “smooth and uneventful landing” as per the schedule.

“Passengers disembarked as per routine. During a walk-around inspection by the aircraft captain, it was revealed that one out of the six-wheel assemblies on the main landing gear (rear) is missing,” he said.

“As per the standard flight practices, the matter was taken up by PIA flight safety and the Lahore airport teams who are investigating the matter and will submit their report later,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson further said the aircraft was designed looking into these contingencies and that no risk was posed to the equipment and the passengers.

He said the investigation team would also probe whether the wheel was stolen, whose chances are otherwise slim.

Taipei: Representatives of China, Russia and Iran called Friday for an end to US sanctions on Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program and a restart to multinational talks on the issue.

The talks are the latest attempt to broach the matter, coming after US President Donald Trump wrote to Iran’s supreme leader in an attempt to jumpstart talks.

The letter, which hasn’t been published, was offered as Trump levied new sanctions on Iran as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign that holds out the possibility of military action while emphasising he still believed a new deal could be reached.

The three nations who met Friday morning “emphasised the necessity of terminating all unlawful unilateral sanctions,” China’s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu read from a joint statement, flanked by Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov Sergey Alexeevich and Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi.

“The three countries reiterated that political and diplomatic engagement and dialogue based on the principle of mutual respect remains the only viable and practical option in this regard,” Ma read.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was due to meet with the representatives later in the day.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has mocked Trump, saying he wasn’t interested in talks with a “bullying government,” although Iranian officials have offered conflicting signals over the possibility of negotiations. Trump sent a letter to Khamenei in 2019 with no apparent effect on rising tensions.

China and Russia are both permanent members of the UN Security Council, along with France and Britain, that took part in the original 2015 Iran nuclear deal preliminary framework agreement alongside Germany and the European Union. Trump withdrew America from the accord in 2018, setting in motion years of attacks and tensions in the wider Middle East.

China and Russia have particularly close relations with Iran through energy deals, and Iran has provided Russia with bomb-carrying drones in its war against Ukraine.

They are also seen as sharing a joint interest in diminishing the role of the US and other liberal democracies in determining world events in favour of their own highly authoritarian systems.

Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officials increasingly threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran now enriches uranium to near weapons-grade levels of 60%, the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so.

Under the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium only up to 3.67% purity and to maintain a uranium stockpile of 300 kilograms (661 pounds). The last report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran’s program put its stockpile at 8,294.4 kilograms (18,286 pounds) as it enriches a fraction of it to 60% purity.

While Iran has maintained it won’t negotiate under duress, its economy has been savaged by the US sanctions. Protests over women’s rights, the economy and Iran’s theocracy in recent years have shaken its government.

China has sought to become more involved in Middle Eastern affairs and a year ago hosted talks leading to the full restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

AP

Karachi: The driver of Jaffar Express, which was hijacked by Balochistan Liberation Army militants, has described the terrifying moment when the insurgents attacked the train as survivors praised the military for their rescue.

Tuesday, Jaffar Express travelling from Quetta to Peshawar and carrying 440 passengers was hijacked, and 21 civilians and four soldiers were killed.

Speaking after the attack, Amjad described how the militants first detonated an explosive under the train’s engine, causing the bogies to derail, the Express Train reported.

“As soon as the train stopped, Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) terrorists launched an attack,” he said.

Meanwhile, one of the freed passengers recalled how the attackers took them hostage after the blast.

“They held us at gunpoint, but the commandos risked their own lives to rescue us,” he said, adding that the military’s courage gave them strength during the ordeal.

The ordeal began Tuesday when separatist militants ambushed the Jaffar Express, blowing up the railway track and attacking the train with rockets.

Security forces stormed the hijacked Jaffar Express Wednesday, bringing a dramatic end to a 30-hour siege in the rugged Bolan area of Balochistan, killing all 33 terrorists while successfully rescuing more than 300 passengers.

Lt-Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the chief military spokesperson, revealed that 21 people were killed during the day-long standoff.

However, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director general firmly said that no civilians were harmed in the final rescue operation carried out by the armed forces.

According to the DG ISPR, the attack occurred in a remote and difficult-to-access area. He stated that the rescue operation was launched immediately, with the Army, Air Force and Frontier Corps (FC) taking part.

This is the first time the BLA or any insurgent group in the Balochistan province have resorted to hijacking a passenger train, although since last year, they have stepped up their attacks on security forces, installations and foreigners in different parts of the province.

PTI

Washington: Federal agencies will begin to vacate hundreds of offices across the country this summer under a frenetic and error-riddled push by Elon Musk’s budget-cutting advisers to terminate leases that they say waste money.

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency maintains a list of canceled real estate leases on its website, but internal documents obtained by The Associated Press contain a crucial detail when those cancellations are expected to take effect. The documents from inside the General Services Administration, the US government’s real estate manager, list dozens of federal office and building leases expected to end by June 30, with hundreds more slated over the coming months.

The rapid pace of cancellations has raised alarms, with some agencies and lawmakers appealing to DOGE to exempt specific buildings. Several agencies are facing 20 or more lease cancellations in all, including the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the US Department of Agriculture and the US Geological Survey.

Many of the terminations would affect agencies that aren’t as well-known but oversee services critical to many Americans.

They span from a Boise, Idaho, office of the Bureau of Reclamation — which oversees water supply and deals with disputes across the often-parched American West — to a Joliet, Illinois, outpost of the Railroad Retirement Board, which provides benefits for railroad workers and their survivors.

The lease terminations do not mean all the locations will close. In some cases, agencies may negotiate new leases to stay in place, downsize their existing space or relocate elsewhere.

“Some agencies are saying I’m not leaving. We can’t leave,’ said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official who now represents building owners with government leases at Arco Real Estate Solutions. “I think there’s going to be a period of pushback, a period of disbelief. And then, if necessary, they may start working on the actual execution of a move.

Errors add to confusion

DOGE says GSA has notified landlords in recent weeks that it plans to terminate 793 leases, focusing mostly on those that can be ended within months without penalty. The group estimates those moves will save roughly $500 million over the terms of the leases, which in some cases were slated to continue into the 2030s. The Bureau of Reclamation cancellation in Boise, for instance, would take effect Aug. 31 and is expected to save a total of $18.7 million through 2035.

But DOGE’s savings estimates — a fraction of Musk’s $1 trillion cost-cutting goal — have not been verified and do not take into account the costs of moves and closures. The group has released no information about what they will mean for agencies.

“My initial reaction is this is just going to cause more chaos,” said Jim Simpson, an accountant in Arizona who helps low-income people file taxes and serves on an IRS panel that advocates for taxpayers. “There’s a lot of room to help with government efficiency, but it should be done surgically and not with a chainsaw.”

Simpson said he was surprised to learn that dozens of IRS offices, including local taxpayer assistance centres, were facing upcoming lease cancellations. He refers clients there to get paperwork to file returns and answer IRS inquiries, and he said losing services would “cause a lot of anxiety” and delay refunds.

Plans to cancel the leases at several of the IRS centres and other sites were in error and have been rescinded, according to a person with direct knowledge of the changes who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity in order to avoid retaliation. Those changes are not yet reflected on DOGE’s list, which only removed one and added dozens more in its latest update published Thursday.

The GSA walked back the cancellation of a Geological Survey office in Anchorage, Alaska, for instance, after learning it did not have termination rights, according to the person familiar with the matter.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Monday that he’d convinced DOGE to back off lease terminations planned for the National Weather Centre in Norman, a Social Security office in Lawton and the Indian Health Services office in Oklahoma City. But all three leases remained on DOGE’s list of cancellations as of Thursday.

GSA’s press office didn’t respond to inquiries.

The real estate market is blindsided

While there was already a bipartisan push to reduce the government’s real estate footprint, the mass cancellations blindsided an industry known for its stability.

Landlords who had been expecting government agencies to remain tenants, for several more years in some cases under their existing leases, were stunned. Some agencies learned from building managers, not their federal partners, that their leases were being canceled, according to real estate managers.

Becker, whose firm is tracking the DOGE lease cancellations, and other observers said they expect some agencies will be unable to move their personnel and property out of their spaces within such tight timelines. That may force some agencies to pay additional rent during what’s known as a holdover period, undermining DOGE’s stated goal of saving taxpayer money.

The Building Owners and Managers Association, which represents the commercial real estate industry, told landlords in a recent advocacy alert to be prepared to seek payment from any federal government tenants who stay beyond their leases.

Many affected agencies aren’t speaking up

Asked about plans for buildings with leases that will soon expire, the IRS did not respond. A Social Security Administration spokesperson downplayed the impact of its offices losing leases, saying many were “small remote hearing sites,” did not serve the public, were already being consolidated elsewhere or planned for closure.

Several other agencies provided little clarity — saying they were working with GSA to consider their options, in statements that were nearly identical in some cases.

But a spokesperson for the Railroad Retirement Board expressed concern over the upcoming lease cancellations of its offices in Joliet, Illinois, and eight other states, saying it was working to maintain a public-facing office presence for the local railroad community.”

Government Accountability Office official David Marroni told a congressional hearing last week that the push to unload unnecessary federal real estate was “long overdue,” saying agencies have for too long held on to unnecessary space. But he warned the downsizing must be deliberate and carefully planned to “generate substantial savings and mitigate the risk of mistakes and unexpected mission impacts.”

That process had already started before Musk’s team arrived, with the federal government’s real estate portfolio steadily declining over the last decade. Indeed, critics of DOGE say if it were truly interested in cost-cutting, it could learn from GSA, whose mission even before Trump took office was to deliver “effective and efficient” services to the American public.

A law signed by former President Joe Biden before he left office in January directed agencies to measure the true occupancy rates of leased spaces by this summer. Those that did not meet a target of 60% use rate over time would be directed to dispose of their excess space.

”There is a logical and orderly way to do this,” Rep. Greg Stanton, an Arizona Democrat, said at last week’s hearing. Instead, he said, DOGE is pursuing a reckless approach that threatens to harm the delivery of public services.

Industry observers cautioned that each situation is different, and it will take months or years to understand the full impact of the lease cancellations.

“It really depends on the terms. But it is a shock, there is no question, that all of a sudden, boom, in six weeks, all these things have happened,” said J. Reid Cummings, a professor of finance and real estate at the University of South Alabama.

AP

Brussels: In the year after Russia launched an outright war on Ukraine, NATO leaders approved a set of military plans designed to repel an invasion of Europe. It was the biggest shake-up of the alliance’s defence readiness preparations since the Cold War.

The secret plans set out how Western allies would defend NATO territory from the Atlantic to the Arctic, through the Baltic region and Central Europe, down to the Mediterranean Sea. Up to 300,000 troops would move to its eastern flank within 30 days, many of them American. That would climb to 800,000 within six months.

But the Trump administration warned last month that US priorities lie elsewhere. Europe must take care of its own security, and those goals now seem questionable. Mustering just 30,000 European troops to police any future peace in Ukraine is proving a challenge.

Billions of euros are being shifted to military budgets, but only slowly, and the Europeans are struggling to fire up production in their defence industries.

Beyond funding, tens of thousands more European citizens might have to complete military service, and time is of the essence.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has warned that Russian forces could be capable of launching an attack on European territory in 2030.

Concerned about Russia’s intentions, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wants to introduce large-scale military training for every adult male and double the size of Poland’s army to around 500,000 soldiers.

“If Ukraine loses the war or if it accepts the terms of peace, armistice or capitulation … then, without a doubt — and we can all agree on that — Poland will find itself in a much more difficult geopolitical situation,” Tusk warned lawmakers last week.

<hl2>The scale of Europe’s military personnel shortage</hl2>The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates that Europe, including the U.K., has almost 1.5 million active duty personnel. But many can’t be deployed on a battlefield, and those who can are hard to use effectively without a centralized command system.

The number of Russian troops in Ukraine at the end of 2024 was estimated to be around 700,000.

NATO troops are controlled by a US general, using American air transport and logistics.

Analysts say that in the event of a Russian attack, NATO’s top military officer would probably dispatch around 200,000 US troops to Europe to build on the 100,000 US military personnel already based there.

With the Americans out of the picture, “a realistic estimate may therefore be that an increase in European capacities equivalent to the fighting capacity of 300,000 U.S. troops is needed,” the Brussels-based Bruegel think tank estimates.

“Europe faces a choice: either increase troop numbers significantly by more than 300,000 to make up for the fragmented nature of national militaries, or find ways to rapidly enhance military coordination,” Bruegel said.

The question is how.

Making up the numbers

NATO is encouraging countries to build up personnel numbers, but the trans-Atlantic alliance isn’t telling them how to do it. Maintaining public support for the armed forces and Ukraine is too important to risk by dictating choices.

“The way they go about it is intensely political, so we wouldn’t prescribe any way of changing this — whether to go for conscription, elective conscription, bigger reserves,” a senior NATO official said on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to brief journalists unless he remained unnamed.

“We do stress the point that fighting with those regional plans means that we are in collective defence and likely in an attrition war that requires way more manpower than we currently have, or we designed our force models to deliver,” he added.

Eleven European countries have compulsory military service: Austria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, and non-European Union nation Norway. The length of service ranges from as little as two months in Croatia to 19 months in Norway.

Poland isn’t considering a return to universal military service, but rather a reserve system based on the model in Switzerland, where every man is obliged to serve in the armed forces or an alternative civilian service. Women can volunteer.

Belgium’s new defence minister plans to write a letter in November to around 120,000 citizens who are age 18 to try to persuade at least 500 of them to sign up for voluntary military service. Debate about the issue goes on in the U.K. and Germany.

Confronting the challenges

Germany’s professional armed forces had 181,174 active service personnel at the end of last year — slightly lower than in 2023, according to a parliamentary report released Tuesday. That means it’s no closer to reaching a Defence Ministry target of 203,000 by 2031.

Last year, 20,290 people started serving in the German military, or Bundeswehr, an 8% increase, the report said. But of the 18,810 who joined in 2023, more than a quarter — 5,100 or 27% of the total — left again, most at their own request during the six-month trial period.

The German parliament’s commissioner for the armed forces, Eva Högl, said that army life is a hard sell.

“The biggest problem is boredom,” Högl said. “If young people have nothing to do, if there isn’t enough equipment and there aren’t enough trainers, if the rooms aren’t reasonably clean and orderly, that deters people, and it makes the Bundeswehr unattractive.”

At the other end of the scale, tiny Luxembourg has unique demographic challenges. Of its roughly 630,000 passport holders, only 315,000 are Luxembourgers. The number of people of military service age — 18 to 40 — is smaller still.

Around 1,000 people are enlisted. That’s small compared to some European powers, but bigger per capita than the UK armed forces. Recently, Luxembourg — where unemployment is low and salaries are high — has struggled to find just 200-300 military personnel.

Military service comes with many challenges too, not least being convincing someone to sign up when they might be sent to the front, and hastily trained conscripts can’t replace a professional army. The draft also costs money. Extra staff, accommodation and trainers are needed throughout a conscript’s term.

AP

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his gratitude to several world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, for their continued attention to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

During a press briefing Thursday, Putin acknowledged the efforts of these leaders and others for their commitment to seeking peace in the war-torn region, despite the many global challenges they face.

“I would like to start by offering my sincere thanks to President Trump of the US for his focus on the Ukraine situation. Many state leaders, including President Xi Jinping of China, Prime Minister Modi of India, and the Presidents of Brazil and South Africa, have been dedicating significant time to this issue. We appreciate their contributions, as it is all for the noble cause of stopping the conflict and preventing further loss of life,” Putin stated.

Prime Minister Modi has been stressing and reiterating about bringing peace to the region, thereby clearly setting India’s stance on the Russia- Ukraine conflict. During his recent meeting with Trump at the White House, PM Modi made it clear that India was not neutral in the matter, emphasising that India sides with peace.

“This is not an era of war but of dialogue and diplomacy,” PM Modi had said, underscoring India’s commitment to diplomatic efforts. PM Modi has also maintained open channels of communication with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, repeatedly stressing the need for peaceful resolution.

The US has proposed a 30-day ceasefire, urging Russia to accept the deal without any conditions.

Putin, while expressing support for a ceasefire, acknowledged there are “nuances” that need to be addressed, adding that he had “serious questions” about how the proposal would be implemented.

In response, US President Donald Trump referred to Putin’s comments as “promising” but also noted that the statement was “not complete”, suggesting that further discussions were necessary.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has agreed to the ceasefire proposal during talks held in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, following mounting pressure after a meeting between Trump and Zelensky in February.

The war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has caused immense devastation, with hundreds of thousands dead or injured and millions displaced. The conflict has led to severe economic and geopolitical tensions between Russia and the West, with the ceasefire discussions now offering a glimmer of hope for a resolution.

IANS

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he agrees in principle with a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, but the terms need to be worked out, and he emphasised that it should pave the way to lasting peace.

“So the idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it,” Putin told a news conference in Moscow. “But there are issues that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to discuss it with our American colleagues and partners.”

He noted the need to develop a mechanism to control possible breaches of the truce. Another issue, he said, is whether Ukraine could use the 30-day ceasefire to continue mobilization and rearmament.

“We agree with the proposals to halt the fighting, but we proceed from the assumption that the ceasefire should lead to lasting peace and remove the root causes of the crisis,” Putin said.

Putin noted that while it appeared that the US persuaded Ukraine to accept a ceasefire, Ukraine is interested in that because of the battlefield situation, noting that Ukrainian troops that launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region would be fully blocked in the coming days.

“In these conditions, I believe it would be good for the Ukrainian side to secure a ceasefire for at least 30 days,” he said.

Referring to the Ukrainian troops in Kursk, he said: “Will all those who are there come out without a fight?”

Putin thanked US President Donald Trump “for paying so much attention to the settlement in Ukraine.”

He also thanked the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa for their “noble mission to end the fighting to casualties,” a statement that signalled those countries’ potential involvement in a ceasefire deal.

Russia has said it will not accept peacekeepers from any NATO members to monitor a prospective truce.

AP

Colombo: India has donated urgently needed medicines to Sri Lanka, responding to an urgent request from Colombo, the Indian High Commission said here Thursday.

India gifted 50,000 ampoules of Furosemide injection 20mg/2ml to cater to its shortage in Sri Lankan hospitals in the immediate term. These were handed over by Santosh Jha, the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, to the Minister of Health and Mass Media Nalinda Jayatissa.

“India has been a reliable friend and first responder for Sri Lanka during times of difficulties and shortages, including in the health sector,” a release from the Indian High Commission said.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, India supplied over 25 tonnes of medicines on a special aircraft to Sri Lanka in May 2020; gifted 5,00,000 doses of Covishield vaccine in January 2021; and 1 lakh Rapid Antigen Test kits in February 2022, it said.

In the wake of the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, in February 2022, a USD 1 billion credit facility for supply of essential items, including medicines, was extended in March 2022 for a period of one year. It was subsequently extended until March 2024 on the request of the Sri Lankan government.

“Over 26 tonnes of drugs and other medical supplies were provided to Peradeniya University Hospital, Jaffna Teaching Hospital, Hambantota General Hospital, among others, in April- May 2022 to meet the acute shortage of medicines”, the release said.

The health sector has also been an important focus area for India’s development cooperation initiatives in Sri Lanka. Notable initiatives include the island-wide ‘1990 Suwa Seriya’ ambulance service; construction of 150-bed multi-specialty hospital at Dickoya; construction of a new surgical unit at Teaching Hospital, Batticaloa; infrastructure creation and up-gradation, as well as equipment supply, at Jaffna Teaching Hospital, District Hospitals at Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu; among others, the release added.

PTI

Washington: President Donald Trump Thursday threatened a 200 per cent tariff on European wine, champagne and spirits if the European Union goes forward with a planned tariff on American whiskey.

The European tariff, which was unveiled in response to steel and aluminum tariffs by the US administration, was expected to go into effect April 1.

But Trump, in a morning social media post, vowed a new escalation in his trade war if the EU pushes ahead with the planned 50 per cent tariff on American whiskey.

“If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES,” Trump wrote. “This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”

The Republican president  Wednesday signalled that he intended to take the action.

“Of course I will respond,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office exchange with reporters.

AP

Dhaka: Bangladesh Thursday termed the recent remarks by the Ministry of the External Affairs on the country as unwarranted and amounting to interference in another country’s domestic affairs.

Last week, India voiced concern over Bangladesh releasing certain violent extremists and underlined that it is the responsibility of the interim government in Dhaka to protect Hindus and other minorities as well as their religious institutions.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Rafiqul Alam said Dhaka took note of the MEA’s comments concerning Bangladesh’s elections, law and order situation and matters related to minorities.

Bangladesh firmly believes these issues are entirely its internal affairs, and such remarks are unwarranted and tantamount to interference in another country’s domestic matters, he said in his weekly media briefing.

Alam, who also serves as the ministry’s public diplomacy wing director, said New Delhi’s comments were misleading as well as those did not “reflect the reality on the ground.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said India supports a stable, peaceful, inclusive and progressive Bangladesh in which all issues are resolved through democratic means and by holding inclusive and participatory elections.

We remain concerned about the deteriorating law and order situation, further exacerbated by the release of violent extremists who were sentenced for serious crimes, he said.

India has repeatedly underlined that it is the responsibility of the interim government to protect the Hindus and other minorities, as well as their properties and religious institutions.

The foreign office spokesman said Bangladesh upholds the principles of respecting every nation’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and non-interference in internal affairs. It remains committed to fostering friendly and constructive relations with India based on mutual respect, trust, and understanding, he said.

From this perspective, Bangladesh hopes that the relevant authorities of the Indian government will take necessary measures to refrain from making such remarks, he added.

There has been a sharp downturn in India-Bangladesh relations after deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled Dhaka in August in the face of a massive anti-government protest.

The relations nosedived dramatically after the interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus failed to contain attacks on minorities, especially Hindus, in that country.

PTI

Mekele: As a displaced person in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, 76-year-old Haile Tsege is no stranger to hunger.

During its war with Tigray fighters that devastated the region in 2020-2022, the Ethiopian government’s restrictions on the rebellious region reduced aid flows to a trickle. Then, in 2023, US and UN aid distributions of grain were halted for months over a corruption scandal.

Now, the Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development, or USAID, has again halted food deliveries to a sprawling camp of over 20,000 people outside Tigray’s regional capital, Mekele.

“We will just die in silence,” said Tsege, one of the 2.4 million people in Tigray who depend on humanitarian grain, most of it provided by the US.

Ethiopia, with over 125 million people, had been the biggest beneficiary of US aid in sub-Saharan Africa, receiving $1.8 billion in the 2023 financial year. In addition to life-saving food, the funds were spent on HIV medications, vaccines, literacy programs and jobs creation, as well as services for 1 million refugees hosted by Ethiopia.

Most of these programs have been stopped. The USAID staffers who oversaw them have been placed on administrative leave and told not to work, as they face the threat of termination. The US Embassy didn’t respond to questions.

Emergency food was exempted from President Donald Trump’s executive order, signed on his first day in office, suspending foreign aid during a 90-day review amid the administration’s allegations of waste.

Aid agencies in Ethiopia had to apply to USAID for waivers to continue handing out US grain. These have been secured, but USAID’s payment system is still not functioning.

As a result, a consortium of aid agencies in Tigray has had to stop distributions to the over 1 million people it has been responsible for feeding with US-provided grain. It has no money to pay for fuel, trucks and drivers to distribute existing food stockpiles.

That includes 5,000 metric tons of sorghum – enough to feed 300,000 people for a month – stuck in a storage facility in Mekele that could rot before it reaches those in need.

“This is just one warehouse. There are several others across the region,” said Teklewoini Assefa, head of the Relief Society of Tigray, part of the consortium. “This will create malnutrition, disease. If this situation continues, what follows? Death.”

He added, “Everything boils down to the payment system.”

The effects of the aid cuts are widespread, with many USAID contracts terminated. Already, Ethiopia has been forced to lay off 5,000 local healthcare workers who were working on its HIV response.

Tigray relied heavily on US funds. More than two years after the war killed hundreds of thousands, full-scale recovery efforts have yet to start. The region’s health system is in ruins, and hundreds of schools remain closed.

In 2024, child malnutrition stood at 21% in some areas, according to a survey reviewed by The Associated Press — far above the World Health Organization’s threshold of 15% at which a situation is classified as an emergency.

Now, aid workers say many programs to improve nutrition have halted. Projects to deliver medicines and vaccines have stopped. Dozens of camps for displaced people have had water sources cut off.

“The impact has been huge,” said Ashenafi Asmelash, executive director of Mums for Mums, which has had two USAID-funded programs terminated. One helped build long-term resilience among farmers. The other helped improve the nutrition of children and new mothers.

Management Sciences for Health, another Tigray organization, has halted a project to combat tuberculosis and told its staff to expect mass layoffs in March, according to a senior executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Efforts to assist thousands of women who were raped during the war have been derailed, said Rigat Bishaw at Ayder Hospital, Tigray’s biggest healthcare facility.

This includes counselling and physiotherapy sessions for survivors run by the US-based Center for Victims of Torture, which received a stop-work order from the Trump administration in February and furloughed its staff.

CVT also halted a program to train health workers to recognize sexual abuse cases and refer survivors to appropriate health services.

“This sudden disruption is having a huge impact on the healing of traumatized people,” said Yohannes Fisseha, a CVT manager.

Major projects to support people living with HIV, improve access to life-saving nutrition services and improve relations between war-affected communities have also been cut off, said Yirga Gebregziabher, the Tigray branch manager of an Ethiopian organization called OSSHD, which helped implement the projects.

The organization has been forced to fire dozens of expert staff.

“Our picture of America was as a protector of rights, a positive force in the world,” Yigra said. “That image has now been broken. If there was a process, maybe the shock would have been less.

AP

Seoul: The South Korean prosecution said Thursday that there is “no change” in its decision not to appeal the release of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol from jail.

The statement by the Supreme Prosecutors Office (SPO) came a day after Chun Dae-yup, the chief of the National Court Administration, an arm of the Supreme Court, questioned the prosecution’s decision, saying he believes it is necessary to receive the judgment of a higher court through an immediate appeal.

“There is no change in the prosecution’s position,” the SPO said in the statement.

“The question of appealing a (court) decision to cancel an arrest lies within the scope of the prosecution’s work, and as long as the Prosecutor General made a quasi-judicial decision after careful consideration upon fully listening to the opinions of the investigation team and SPO leaders, there must be no wavering in the face of any external influence.”

The prosecution has come under intense scrutiny after it released Yoon from a detention centre Saturday following a court ruling that his detention had been invalid due to questions about the legality of the investigation and the exact time the prosecution filed its indictment.

By law, the prosecution has seven days, until Friday, to file an immediate appeal against the court decision, Yonhap news agency reported.

“Regarding the calculation method of the detention period and the immediate appeal system for arrest cancellations, we will consult with relevant institutions on ways to swiftly overhaul the relevant rules to remove controversy about legal interpretations and any unconstitutionality,” the SPO said in the statement.

Earlier Wednesday, South Korea’s acting Justice Minister Kim Seok-woo termed “unjust” a court’s decision to release the impeached President from jail.

Yoon, who was detained in January on charges of inciting an insurrection through his failed bid to impose martial law December 3, was released from jail last Saturday as the court allowed the suspended President to stand trial without detention, citing some questions over investigations into his charges.

IANS

Moscow: Russia claimed Thursday that its troops have driven the Ukrainian army out of the biggest town in Russia’s Kursk border region, as a senior Kremlin official said that a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire in the war three years after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine would help Kyiv by giving its weary and short-handed military a break.

The Russian Defence Ministry’s claim that it recaptured the town of Sudzha hours after President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in Kursk and wore military fatigues could not be independently verified. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the claim.

The renewed Russian military push and Putin’s high-profile visit to his troops came as US President Donald Trump pressed for a diplomatic end to the war. Tuesday, the US lifted its March 3 suspension of military aid for Kyiv after senior US and Ukrainian officials made progress on how to stop the fighting during talks held in Saudi Arabia.

Trump said Wednesday that “it’s up to Russia now” as his administration presses Moscow to agree to the ceasefire. The US president has made veiled threats to hit Russia with new sanctions if it won’t engage with peace efforts.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that US negotiators were on their way to Russia, but he wouldn’t comment on Moscow’s view of the ceasefire proposal.

“Before the talks start, and they haven’t started yet, it would be wrong to talk about it in public,” he told reporters.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that national security adviser Mike Waltz spoke Wednesday with his Russian counterpart. She also confirmed that Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will head to Moscow for talks with Russian officials, possibly including Putin.

Russian news agencies reported Thursday that Witkoff’s plane had landed in Moscow. It wasn’t immediately possible to verify the reports.

Senior US officials say they hope to see Russia stop attacks on Ukraine within the next few days.

But Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser, complained in televised remarks Thursday that a ceasefire would grant a “temporary break for the Ukrainian military.”

Ushakov said that Moscow wants a “long-term peaceful settlement that takes into account Moscow’s interests and concerns.” His comments came a day after his phone call with Waltz.

Ushakov’s comments echoed statements from Putin, who has repeatedly said a temporary ceasefire would benefit Ukraine and its Western allies.

The US still has about $3.85 billion in congressionally authorized funding for future arms shipments to Ukraine, but the Trump administration has shown no interest so far in using that authority to send additional weapons as it awaits the outcome of peace overtures.

By signalling its openness to a ceasefire, Ukraine has presented the Kremlin with a dilemma at a time when the Russian military has the upper hand in the war — whether to accept a truce and abandon hopes of making new gains or reject the offer and risk derailing a cautious rapprochement with Washington.

The Ukrainian army’s foothold inside Russia has been under intense pressure for months from a renewed effort by Russian forces backed by North Korean troops. Ukraine’s daring incursion last August led to the first occupation of Russian soil by foreign troops since World War II and embarrassed the Kremlin.

Speaking to commanders Wednesday, Putin said he expected the military “to completely free the Kursk region from the enemy in the nearest future.”

Putin added that in the future “it’s necessary to think about creating a security zone alongside the state border,” in a signal that Moscow could try to expand its territorial gains by capturing parts of Ukraine’s neighbouring Sumy region. That idea could complicate a ceasefire deal.

Ukraine launched the raid in a bid to counter the unceasingly glum news from the front line, as well as draw Russian troops away from the battlefield inside Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any peace talks. However, the incursion didn’t significantly change the dynamic of the war.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, assessed late Wednesday that Russian forces were in control of Sudzha, a town close to the border that was previously home to about 5,000 people.

Ukraine’s top military head, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said late Wednesday that Russian aviation had carried out an unprecedented number of strikes on Kursk and that, as a result, Sudzha had been almost completely destroyed. He did not comment on whether Ukraine still controlled the settlement but said it was “maneuvering (troops) to more advantageous lines.”

Meanwhile, Major General Dmytro Krasylnykov, commander of Ukraine’s Northern Operational Command, which includes the Kursk region, was dismissed from his post, he told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne Wednesday. He told the outlet he was not given a reason for his dismissal, saying “I’m guessing, but I don’t want to talk about it yet.

AP

Seoul: South Korea’s top court Thursday rejected social media giant Meta’s appeal against a 6.7 billion-won ($4.6 million) fine imposed by the data protection watchdog for sharing user information without their consent, judicial sources said.

In November 2020, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) fined Meta, formerly known as Facebook, after its probe found that the personal information of at least 3.3 million South Korean users had been provided to third parties without their knowledge from May 2012 to June 2018, reports Yonhap news agency.

In response, Meta filed a lawsuit in March 2021, disputing the fine, claiming the information sharing was made upon the users’ agreement and it did not induce them to agree.

The Supreme Court, however, found the PIPC’s measures lawful and dismissed the case, upholding lower court rulings made in October 2023 and September of last year, according to the sources.

With the top court’s ruling, the PIPC said it would proceed with enforcing corrective measures, which had been suspended due to the ongoing lawsuit.

Last year, Meta Platforms Ireland lost a legal battle to defy the South Korean data protection watchdog’s decision to slap a fine for providing users’ personal information to other operators without consent.

Meta then filed a complaint against the ruling, claiming the information sharing was made upon the users’ agreement and it did not induce them to do so.

According to the PIPC’s investigation, the personal information of a user’s Facebook friends was provided to other operators without their knowledge when someone uses another operator’s service through Facebook login.

The compromised information included their academic background, family and marriage status.

The watchdog also said Meta had not been cooperating with the probe by belatedly submitting data and providing false documents.

IANS

Moscow: Russian forces have driven the Ukrainian army out of the biggest town in Russia’s Kursk border region, officials claimed Thursday, as US officials sought the Kremlin’s response to a proposed 30-day ceasefire in the three-year war that Ukraine has endorsed.

The Russian Defence Ministry’s claim that it recaptured the town of Sudzha hours after President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in Kursk and wore military fatigues could not be independently verified. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.

The renewed Russian military push and Putin’s high-profile visit to his troops came as US President Donald Trump pressed for a diplomatic end to the war. Tuesday, the US lifted its March 3 suspension of military aid for Kyiv after senior US and Ukrainian officials made progress on how to stop the fighting in talks held in Saudi Arabia.

Trump said Wednesday, “It’s up to Russia now” as his administration presses Moscow to agree to the ceasefire.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that US negotiators were on their way to Russia, but he wouldn’t comment on Moscow’s view on the ceasefire proposal.

“Before the talks start, and they haven’t started yet, it would be wrong to talk about it in public,” he told reporters.

Senior US officials say they hope to see Russia stop attacks on Ukraine within the next few days.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that national security adviser Mike Waltz spoke Wednesday with his Russian counterpart. She also confirmed that Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will head to Moscow for talks with Russian officials, possibly including Putin.

By signaling its openness to a ceasefire, Ukraine has presented the Kremlin with a difficult challenge at a time when the Russian military has the upper hand in the war — whether to accept a truce and abandon hopes of making new gains or reject the offer and risk derailing a cautious rapprochement with Washington.

The Ukrainian army’s seven-month foothold inside Russia has been under intense pressure for months from a renewed effort by Russian forces backed by North Korean troops. Ukraine’s daring incursion last August led to the first occupation of Russian soil by foreign troops since World War II and embarrassed the Kremlin.

Ukraine launched the raid in a bid to counter the unceasingly glum news from the front line, as well as draw Russian troops away from the battlefield inside Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any peace talks.

AP

Karachi: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif  Thursday visited the restive Balochistan province Thursday to review the law and order situation and to express solidarity with the people there following the Jaffar Express hijacking incident in which 21 civilians and four soldiers were killed.

Sharif’s visit comes a day after security forces killed all 33 Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) militants who Tuesday hijacked the Jaffar Express.

Sharif is accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Federal Minister for Planning, Development Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Nawabzada Mir Khalid Magsi and others.

The incident occurred when the train, travelling from Quetta to Peshawar and carrying 440 passengers, was ambushed by BLA militants near the mountainous terrain of Gudalar and Piru Kunri in a tunnel. They opened fire on the train and held the passengers hostage, prompting the security forces to initiate an operation that lasted two days.

Announcing the completion of the operation, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry Wednesday said the armed forces took part in the action against militants who “remained in contact with their facilitators and mastermind based in Afghanistan via satellite phone”.

Units from the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Special Services Group (SSG), Army, and Frontier Corps (FC) took part in the operation, the army’s spokesperson said.

Chaudhary said no one can be permitted to make innocent people of Pakistan the victim of their barbarism in the streets, trains, buses or markets because of their misleading ideas and instructions and facilitation of foreign masters.

“Whoever does this, let me say it very clearly, will be hunted down and brought to justice. Let me also say that this incident of Jaffar Express changes the rules of the game,” he said.

The bodies of those killed in the attack will be sent to their native areas after the necessary administrative prerequisites.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif Thursday lambasted former prime minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for “politicising” the incident and misinterpreting the situation on social media.

“We need to rise above political interests and demonstrate national unity (on such occasions),” said Asif.

Asif slammed the former PTI-led government’s decision to relocate thousands of fighters from the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to the country.

On the Jaffar Express rescue operation, the minister said, “God forbids, there could have been a lot of casualties, but the security forces eliminated the terrorists.

“Our war against terrorism is a big milestone that the entire country can be proud of. If the entire nation stands proud like this with our armed forces, then there is no doubt we will be successful in our war (against terrorism),” the minister asserted.

AP

Dubai: An Emirati diplomat earlier identified by Tehran as carrying a letter from US President Donald Trump seeking to jump-start talks over Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme met Wednesday with Iran’s foreign minister in the Iranian capital.

It is unclear how Iran will react to the letter, which Trump revealed during a television interview last week. Its intended recipient, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said he’s not interested in talks with a “bullying government.”

But Iran struggles with economic woes exacerbated by US and Western sanctions over its nuclear programme, and Trump has imposed more since he took office in January. That pressure, coupled with internal turmoil in Iran and recent direct attacks by Israel, has put Tehran in one of the most precarious positions its theocracy has faced since its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“America threatens with military action, but in my opinion, this threat is irrational,” Khamenei said earlier Wednesday. “Iran is capable of delivering a reciprocal blow, and it will certainly do so.”

A sudden visit by an Emirati diplomat

Iranian state television showed Emirati official Anwar Gargash meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran. Gargash’s visit had not been previously announced. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman earlier said he’d be carrying the letter from Trump. The UAE, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, maintains close ties with the United States.

The brief footage shot before the meeting did not show the letter. Gargash and the UAE government did not acknowledge his trip during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and did not respond to a request for comment.

Last week, Trump acknowledged writing a letter to the 85-year-old Khamenei.

“I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing, ‘” Trump said in the interview.

Trump has offered no details on what, if anything, was specifically offered to Iran in the letter.

The move recalled Trump’s letter-writing to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his first term, which led to face-to-face meetings but no deals to limit Pyongyang’s atomic bombs and a missile programme capable of reaching the continental US.

The last time Trump tried to send a letter to Khamenei through the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2019, the supreme leader mocked the effort. Abe ended up slipping the envelope under his leg in footage widely shared by Iranian state media to this day.

Wednesday, before Gargash’s arrival, Khamenei spoke to students during a ceremony in Tehran and called Trump’s letter “an attempt to deceive global public opinion.”

“This person tore apart and threw out of the window finished and completed, and signed, talks,” Khamenei said. “How could one possibly negotiate with such a person?”

He added: “If we wanted to build a nuclear weapon, America couldn’t stop us.”

Iran’s uranium is now close to weapons-grade

Trump’s overture comes as Israel and the United States have warned they will never let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon, leading to fears of a military confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at near weapons-grade levels of 60 per cent purity — something only done by atomic-armed nations.

Iran has long maintained that its programme is for peaceful purposes, even as its officials increasingly threaten to pursue the bomb as tensions are high with the US over its sanctions and with Israel as a shaky ceasefire holds in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israel and Iran have traded direct attacks during the Israel-Hamas war, while partners in Tehran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” are reeling after the assassinations of their leaders by Israel.

In Israel, officials have suggested striking Iran’s nuclear programme now, something Trump has threatened while insisting he’d prefer reaching a diplomatic deal with Tehran.

Since Trump returned to the White House, his administration has said that Iran must be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons. A report last month by the UN’s nuclear watchdog said Iran has accelerated its production of near weapons-grade uranium.

Trump’s first term in office was marked by a particularly troubled period in relations with Tehran. In 2018, he unilaterally withdrew the United States from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, leading to sanctions hobbling Iran’s economy. Iran retaliated with attacks at sea — including one that it likely carried out and that temporarily halved Saudi Arabia’s oil production.

Trump also ordered the attack that killed Iran’s top general in a Baghdad drone strike in January 2020.

It is unclear how Iran will handle further pressure. The Islamic Republic’s currency, the rial, has dramatically fallen in value. Unemployment and underemployment are rampant.

Meanwhile, women have continued their defiance of laws on the mandatory headscarf, or hijab, and go without the head covering, two years after the death of a detained young woman, Mahsa Amini, sparked nationwide protests.

AP

Taipei: Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te said Thursday tougher measures are needed to counter stepped-up Chinese infiltration, spying and other efforts to weaken the island’s defences.

Lai cited a range of recent incidents involving China that fall into a “gray area” of psychological warfare short of open armed conflict.

Beijing’s efforts to “subvert, obtain secrets, lure members of the armed forces and influence public opinion to lose confidence in our national defence require that we step up our legal safeguards to prevent and detect such incidents,” Lai said at a news conference.

Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party favours the island’s continued de facto independence from Beijing. China has refused almost all official contact with the DPP since Lai’s predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, was elected eight years ago.

China regularly sends ships and planes into airspace and waters near the island to intimidate its 23 million people and wear down its armed forces and morale.

Taiwan’s government recently expelled the Chinese wife of a Taiwanese citizen after the woman repeatedly posted short clips on Chinese social media saying China would conquer Taiwan in half an hour and praising the Chinese leadership.

Such acts are illegal under Taiwan’s laws on aiding and abetting the enemy. The woman, who also held official Chinese titles as a consultant, can apply for residency again in five years.

Other recent incidents have included Taiwanese artists and influencers living in China reposting statements from Chinese state media asserting Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan. The two sides split amid the civil war in 1949.

Retired Taiwanese service members have also passed information about the island’s weapons systems to Chinese agents and sought to recruit serving military members to serve as spies.

AP

Washington: Mia Francis, a 22-year-old barista from Boston, filed her taxes on her own this year for the first time, using a free government tax filing program that made it easy because it did most of the work for her.

Francis said it took 45 minutes to finish her taxes with the IRS Direct File programme, an electronic tax return filing system that the IRS made permanent last year and that has rolled out to 25 states.

Francis is expecting a $530 refund. And because she saved cash by not using a commercial tax preparation company to file her taxes, “that money will go a long way,” she said. She plans to use it for a trip to Amsterdam this year.

Despite its popularity with Francis and other members of the American public, the IRS Direct File’s fate remains unclear as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency cleave their way through the federal bureaucracy.

So far, the program is still available for use ahead of the April 15 tax filing deadline, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent committed during his January confirmation hearing to maintaining it, at least for this tax season.

Representatives from the Internal Revenue Service and DOGE did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press on their plans for Direct File. But one Republican tax expert says the IRS never got congressional authorization to create Direct File.

And Republican lawmakers and commercial tax preparation firms complain the programme is a waste of money because free filing programs already exist, although they are hard to use.

Direct File was rolled out as a pilot program in 2024 after the IRS was tasked with looking into how to create a “direct file” system as part of the money it received from the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. Last May, the agency announced that the programme would be made permanent.

The IRS accepted 140,803 returns filed by taxpayers using Direct File in the 12 states where it was available last tax season. It’s been expanded to include half the country this year. It is unclear how many taxpayers have used Direct File this year.

Merici Vinton, an original architect of Direct File from the US Digital Service, noted the ease and accessibility of the programme and called it “a great example of how people should interact with the government in the 21st century.”

“We effectively launched a startup in the IRS,” she said. “It was built by an in-house product team, in an iterative manner, and we ship updates to the software to improve user experience in real time based on feedback. If we continue to invest in it, both taxpayers and the IRS can benefit.”

Musk posted last month on his social media site that he had “deleted” 18F, a government agency that worked on technology projects such as the IRS’s Direct File programme.

This led to some confusion about whether Direct File is still available to taxpayers. However, conversations inside the IRS indicate that no decision has been made on whether to cut the program, two people familiar with these conversations tell the AP.

Former IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, who oversaw the rollout of the programme, said Treasury officials considering the future of the program should take into account “the voice of the taxpayers.”

“My reflection is that taxpayers are in very different situations and have very different preferences for how they want to file,” he said. “Those whose preference is to file electronically direct with the IRS for free, it’s a good option to have on the menu. But it should not replace other options.”

Derrick Plummer, a spokesperson for Intuit, one of the country’s largest commercial tax preparation firms, said free tax preparation had been available for years before Direct File came along.

“IRS Direct File is a solution in search of a problem, a waste of taxpayer dollars and a drain on critical IRS resources,” he said. A June 2024 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report estimates that the annual costs of Direct File may range from $64 million to $249 million.

“The IRS should focus on its core mission, including data privacy and customer service while policymakers in Washington focus on simplifying the tax code,” Plummer said.

However, other taxpayers, like 31-year-old Aquiel Warner in Austin, Texas, say they want to avoid using commercial tax preparation software.

Warner filed her taxes with Direct File in 10 minutes using her phone and a chatbot that the IRS provides. She likes the program’s convenience, that it prepopulated her tax forms and that it allowed for free filing. Although she has some concerns about data privacy in the government — DOGE is reported to have access to some of the IRS’s internal systems — she feels more secure going through the IRS than commercial tax preparation services.

“I don’t want to be a product. I don’t want my information sold when I file my taxes,” she said. “I have to file my taxes, and I don’t want to be put in a situation where, to file my taxes, I have to pay to get the help I need because I’m not a professional tax preparer.”

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said the IRS never got explicit permission from Congress to create the Direct File system.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a good idea. It was done illegally,” he said, calling on Congress and the Justice Department to look into what he says is unauthorized spending that went into the creation of Direct File.

Democratic lawmakers in January asked Bessent and IRS commissioner nominee Billy Long to preserve the program. They wrote in a letter that “ending Direct File would hurt everyday Americans.” Long has not yet received a nomination hearing.

In the meantime, Musk and his cadre of computer programmers could decide to wield their tech skills to boost the programme — or use the very same digital savvy to delete it.

For his part, Werfel hopes that the agency will keep the program. “It’s a big country with a lot of taxpayers with a lot of different preferences,” he said.

Francis, the Boston barista, hopes so, too.

”There are a lot of young people like me who are working and figuring out how to file their taxes — this just makes it faster and easier,” she said.

AP