[🇺🇸] USA News/Views

[Saif]

US startup Apptronik raises $350 mln to create humanoid robots

US-based robotics firm Apptronik has secured $350 million in a recent funding round, spearheaded by B Capital and Capital Factory, with additional backing from Google’s parent company Alphabet. The funding will be used to scale production of the company’s humanoid robot, Apollo, which is...

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US startup Apptronik raises $350 mln to create humanoid robots

Apollo, the humanoid robot built by Apptronik, Inc. at Austin, Texas, US. Photo: Reuters/Evan Garcia/File photo

US-based robotics firm Apptronik has secured $350 million in a recent funding round, spearheaded by B Capital and Capital Factory, with additional backing from Google's parent company Alphabet.

As per a report by Reuters, the funding will be used to scale production of the company's humanoid robot, Apollo, which is designed to automate tasks in supply chains, such as moving packages in warehouses and manufacturing facilities.

The investment places Apptronik alongside other robotics players, such as Tesla and Nvidia-backed Figure AI, in the rapidly evolving field of humanoid robotics, states the report. With AI advancements at the forefront, these companies are racing to develop robots capable of performing increasingly complex tasks. Elon Musk's Tesla, for instance, has made significant strides in its Optimus robot, which is intended to assist with household chores.

As per Reuters, Apptronik CEO Jeff Cardenas described the funding as a pivotal moment for the robotics industry, likening it to the rapid growth seen in large language models (LLMs) in 2023. He pointed to 2025 as a key year for robotics, anticipating major developments in the field.

Apptronik aims to extend Apollo's use beyond logistics, with plans to explore applications in sectors like healthcare and elder care. The company has also confirmed partnerships with Google DeepMind's robotics team, automotive giant Mercedes-Benz, and logistics firm GXO. However, details regarding these commercial agreements remain under wraps, adds the report.​

 

[Saif]

Trump deporting people at a slower rate than Biden's last year in office

US President Donald Trump deported 37,660 people during his first month in office, previously unpublished US Department of Homeland Security data show, far less than the monthly average of 57,000 removals and returns in the last full year of Joe Biden's administration. A senior Trump administratio

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Trump deporting people at a slower rate than Biden's last year in office
REUTERS
Published :
Feb 22, 2025 01:10
Updated :
Feb 22, 2025 01:10

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conduct an arrest as part of US President Donald Trump's wide-ranging immigration crackdown in Chicago, Illinois, US January 26, 2025 in a still image from video. Photo : Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout via REUTERS/Files

US President Donald Trump deported 37,660 people during his first month in office, previously unpublished US Department of Homeland Security data show, far less than the monthly average of 57,000 removals and returns in the last full year of Joe Biden's administration.

A senior Trump administration official and experts said deportations were poised to rise in coming months as Trump opens up new avenues to ramp up arrests and removals.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Biden-era deportation numbers appeared "artificially high" because of higher levels of illegal immigration.

Trump campaigned for the White House promising to deport millions of illegal immigrants in the largest deportation operation in US history. Yet initial figures suggest Trump could struggle to match higher deportation rates during the last full year of the Biden administration when large numbers of migrants were caught crossing illegally, making them easier to deport.

The deportation effort could take off in several months, aided by agreements from Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, and Costa Rica to take deportees from other nations, the sources said.

The US military has assisted in more than a dozen military deportation flights to Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Ecuador, Peru and India. The Trump administration has also flown Venezuelan migrants to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay. Trump said in late January that his administration would prepare to detain up to 30,000 migrants there despite pushback from civil liberties groups.

The military-assisted deportations could grow considering the Pentagon's vast budget and ability to surge resources, according to Adam Isacson, a security expert with the Washington Office on Latin America think tank.

EXPANDING DEPORTATIONS

Meanwhile, the administration is moving to make it easier to arrest deportable migrants without criminal records and to detain more people with final deportation orders.

Last month, the Justice Department issued a memo allowing ICE officers to arrest migrants at US immigration courts, rolling back a Biden-era policy that limited such arrests.

On Wednesday, the US State Department designated Venezuela's Tren de Aragua and seven other criminal gangs and cartels as terrorist organizations. Under US immigration law, alleged gang members designated as terrorists and people with ties to the groups could become deportable.

The Trump administration is also pulling from ICE’s investigative arm, the Justice Department, the IRS, and State Department to assist with arrests and investigations.

Jessica Vaughan, a policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors lower levels of immigration, said those investigative agents could help crack down on employers who hire workers without legal status and people who have final deportation orders.

“Those are all harder cases,” Vaughan said. “In the case of a worksite operation, you've got a lot of planning to do, some investigation that precedes it, all of which takes a lot of time.”

During Trump’s first three weeks in office, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested about 14,000 people, border czar Tom Homan said last week. That amounts to 667 per day - twice last year’s average but on pace for a quarter million arrests annually - not millions.

ICE arrests spiked to around 800-1,200 per day during Trump’s first week in office, then fell off as detention centers filled up and officers surged to target cities returned home.

“It's going to be like turning a supertanker for the first few months,” Isacson said. “The civilian part of the US government can only do so much.”

During Trump's first month in office, ICE doubled arrests of people with criminal charges or convictions compared with the same period a year ago, according to data provided by DHS.

While arrests have risen, ICE detention space remains a limiting factor. The agency currently holds around 41,100 detainees, with funding to hold 41,500.

About 19,000 of those detainees were arrested by ICE while about 22,000 were picked up by US border authorities, according to agency data published in mid-February.

Of the 19,000 arrested by ICE, around 2,800 had no criminal record, according to the same agency data. The figure was up from 858 in mid-January, before Trump took office.

The Republican-led US Senate on Friday passed a bill to provide $340 billion over four years for border security, deportations, energy deregulation and additional military spending. But the party remains divided on how to move forward with the funding plan, with Trump pressing for the funding to be combined with tax cuts.​

 

[Saif]

Trump urges Musk to be more aggressive in bid to shrink US government

US President Donald Trump on Saturday urged billionaire Elon Musk to be more aggressive in his efforts to shrink the federal government despite uproar over layoffs and deep spending cuts. “Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive,” Trump posted all in

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Trump urges Musk to be more aggressive in bid to shrink US government
REUTERS
Published :
Feb 22, 2025 21:22
Updated :
Feb 22, 2025 21:22

Elon Musk listens to US President Donald Trump speak in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, Feb 11, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

US President Donald Trump on Saturday urged billionaire Elon Musk to be more aggressive in his efforts to shrink the federal government despite uproar over layoffs and deep spending cuts.

“Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive,” Trump posted all in uppercase letters on his Truth Social platform. “Remember, we have a country to save, but ultimately, to make greater than ever before. MAGA!”

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE - an entity created by Trump - has swept across federal government agencies, firing tens of thousands of federal government workers from scientists to park rangers, mostly those on probation.​

 

[Saif]

UN rights chief laments ‘shift in direction’ in United States

The UN rights chief yesterday voiced deep concern over the United States’ “fundamental shift” in direction since Donald Trump returned to power, and decried the “unchecked power” of “unelected tech oligarchs”.

www.thedailystar.net

UN rights chief laments ‘shift in direction’ in United States

The UN rights chief yesterday voiced deep concern over the United States' "fundamental shift" in direction since Donald Trump returned to power, and decried the "unchecked power" of "unelected tech oligarchs".

Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council, Volker Turk voiced his strongest rebuke to date of the dramatic about-face seen in the United States in recent weeks.

"We have enjoyed bipartisan support from the United States of America on human rights over many decades," he said, before adding: "I am now deeply worried by the fundamental shift in direction that is taking place domestically and internationally".

Without naming Trump, he decried that "policies intended to protect people from discrimination are now labelled as discriminatory".

"Progress is being rolled back on gender equality. Disinformation, intimidation and threats, notably against journalists and public officials, risk undermining the work of independent media and the functioning of institutions."

Turk also lamented that "divisive rhetoric is being used to distort, deceive and polarise".

"This is generating fear and anxiety among many," he warned. "On these issues and more, my office will continue building on our long history of constructive engagement."

Since returning to the White House on January 20, Trump has signed a whopping 79 executive orders touching on issues from foreign policy to transgender rights.​

 

[Saif]

Greenland rejects Trump pledge to make the island American

Greenland’s prime minister on Wednesday hit back at President Donald Trump’s pledge to take the Arctic territory ‘one way or the other’, insisting that islanders did not see their future with the United States or even Denmark...

www.newagebd.net

Greenland rejects Trump pledge to make the island American
Agence France-Presse . Nuuk, Denmark 05 March, 2025, 22:08

Sermitsiaq Mountain looms behind a row of houses in Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday. US president Donald Trump has strained relations with Denmark by repeatedly signalling that he wants control over Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory which will hold legislative elections on March 11. | AFP photo

Greenland’s prime minister on Wednesday hit back at President Donald Trump’s pledge to take the Arctic territory ‘one way or the other’, insisting that islanders did not see their future with the United States or even Denmark.

Mute Egede rejected Trump’s expansionist ambitions to annex the sparsely populated but mineral-rich and strategically placed island, in a partisan address to the US Congress in Washington on Tuesday.

‘We don’t want to be Americans, or Danes either. We are Greenlanders. The Americans and their leader must understand that,’ Egede wrote in a Facebook post.

‘We are not for sale and can’t just be taken. Our future is decided by us in Greenland,’ he said, six days before the island’s legislative elections where the longstanding question of independence tops the agenda.

Trump offered only passing lines on world affairs in his speech, focusing on his domestic goals like rounding up undocumented immigrants and slashing government spending.

But he repeated his aspirations to take Greenland and claimed an initial victory on retaking control of the Panama Canal.

Trump said he had a message for the ‘incredible people’ of Greenland. ‘We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,’ he added.

But he made clear he would not give up if persuasion fails, saying: ‘One way or the other we’re going to get it.

‘We will keep you safe, we will make you rich, and together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before.’

Denmark, of which self-governing Greenland is part, also rebuffed Trump’s aspirations to take the island, with China and Russia increasingly active in the Arctic, as climate change opens up sea routes.

In Copenhagen, Danish defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen told public broadcaster DR that US annexation of Greenland ‘won’t happen’.

‘The direction that Greenland wants to take will be decided by Greenlanders,’ he said.

Danish foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen called for cool heads to prevail.

‘I think everyone, including us, should be cautious about having all kinds of opinions about the future’ of Greenland, he told Danish television TV2.

US threats to take Greenland would once have been unthinkable, with Denmark a treaty ally of the United States under NATO.

But Trump has made clear he has little patience for European allies, which he again denounced for not spending more on their militaries, with Trump instead seeing a return to an era of big powers taking what they want.

He has similarly vowed to take back the Panama Canal, the crucial link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that the United States handed to Panama at the end of 1999.

Trump declared triumph after Hong Kong firm CK Hutchison decided to sell its Panama ports to a US-led consortium.

Trump and secretary of state Marco Rubio had complained that rival China had gained too much influence over the canal and could shut it down in a conflict with the United States.

‘To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it,’ he said, as he mentioned the port deal.

‘We didn’t give it to China. Gave it to Panama — and we’re taking it back,’ he said.

Trump had earlier not ruled out military force to seize either the Panama Canal or Greenland.

Trump has paradoxically sought to cast himself as a peacemaker. He has vowed to end the war in Ukraine and has rattled allies by suspending aid to the country, which Russia invaded three years ago.

Trump and vice president JD Vance berated Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky when he visited the White House on Friday, calling him ungrateful.

Addressing Congress, Trump read a message from Zelensky in which the Ukrainian leader sought to repair the damage and voiced a willingness to a sign a deal in which the United States would take much of Ukraine’s mineral wealth.

‘It’s time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides,’ Trump said.

The Trump administration at the same time has cancelled more than 90 per cent of US development assistance, traditionally a key source of US non-military influence.

Trump has described aid as not in the US interest.​

 

[Saif]

Panama president says Trump ‘lying’ about reclaiming canal

Panamanian president Jose Raul Mulino on Wednesday accused his US counterpart Donald Trump of ‘lying’ about Washington taking back the Panama Canal...

www.newagebd.net

Panama president says Trump ‘lying’ about reclaiming canal
Agence France-Presse . Panama City 05 March, 2025, 22:02

Panamanian president Jose Raul Mulino on Wednesday accused his US counterpart Donald Trump of ‘lying’ about Washington taking back the Panama Canal.

‘Once again, president Trump is lying. The Panama Canal is not in the process of recovery,’ Mulino wrote on X.

‘I reject, on behalf of Panama and all Panamanians, this new affront to the truth and to our dignity as a nation,’ Mulino added, after Trump said that his administration had started to take back the vital waterway.

‘To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it,’ Trump said in a speech to Congress Tuesday. ‘We’re taking it back.’

Under mounting pressure from Washington, Hong Kong firm Hutchison said Tuesday it had agreed to sell its lucrative Panama Canal ports to a US-led consortium.

CK Hutchison Holdings said it would offload a 90-per cent stake in the Panama Ports Company and sell a slew of other non-Chinese ports to a group led by asset manager BlackRock.

The sellers will receive $19 billion in cash, the company said.

Hutchison subsidiary PPC has for decades run ports at Balboa and Cristobal on the Pacific and Atlantic ends of the interoceanic waterway.

But since taking office in January, Trump has complained that China controls the canal — a vital strategic asset that the United States once ran.

He has refused to rule out a military invasion of Panama to regain control, sparking angry protests and a complaint to the United Nations by the Central American nation.

Since 1999, the canal has been run by the Panama Canal Authority — an autonomous entity whose board of directors is appointed by Panama’s president and National Assembly.

The 80-kilometer long canal handles five per cent of global maritime trade, and 40 per cent of US container traffic.

Beijing has consistently denied interfering in the canal.​