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President Donald Trump's administration is offering federal workers the chance to take a "deferred resignation," which would mean they agree now to resign but get paid through September.

A senior administration official told NBC News that they expect 5%-10% of the federal workforce to quit, which, they estimate, could lead to around $100 billion in savings.

All full-time federal employees are eligible, except for members of the military, employees of the U.S. Postal Service, positions related to immigration enforcement and national security and other jobs excluded by agencies.

The offer went out to the federal workforce through a new system the Trump administration set up that gives officials the ability to email all federal employees at once.

The email included a draft resignation letter for them to review. If a person wishes to resign, they will be able to reply with the word "resign."

The resignation period will begin Tuesday and go through Feb. 6.

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The tariffs would ensnare cutting-edge smartphone and PC-related chips for Apple, AMD and Nvidia if enacted. But Trump is betting his plan will bring more chip production to the US.

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A Milwaukee-based CBS affiliate has dismissed one of its weather presenters after she reportedly called Elon Musk a Nazi on social media, over a gesture the tech billionaire made during an inauguration rally for US President Donald Trump.

WDJT-TV (Channel 58), where meteorologist Sam Kuffel had worked since 2019, has confirmed her departure but provided no official explanation in an internal memo to or public comments, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

While the station described the matter as a “personal issue,” Kuffel was reportedly dismissed one day after commenting on Musk’s gesture on her Instagram account.

The TV channel has removed Kuffel’s bio from its website and no longer mentions her in its weather section, but retains articles written by her. Her Instagram account has been set to private, but screenshots purportedly capturing her posts are available online. She has not commented publicly on the incident.

Before her tenure at WDJT-TV, the journalist worked at WAOW-TV (Channel 9) in Wausau, after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in atmospheric science.

The Anti-Defamation League, a US-based pro-Israeli group which monitors anti-Semitism and hate speech, has described Musk’s gesture as “awkward” but did not say it was a Nazi salute. Similarly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the subject of an International Criminal Court warrant on charges related to genocide, has tweeted in support of the X owner, declaring him to be “a friend of Israel.”

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Top diplomats from China and India will meet next week in Beijing as the nuclear-armed neighbors try to repair ties marred by a border dispute nearly five years ago.

India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will meet his Chinese counterpart during a two-day trip to Beijing starting Sunday, India’s External Affairs Ministry said on Thursday.

“The resumption of this bilateral mechanism flows from the agreement at the leadership level to discuss the next steps for India-China relations, including in the political, economic, and people-to-people domains,” the ministry said in a statement.

Diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries plunged after June 2020 when clashes between soldiers along the border left at least 20 Indian and an unknown number of Chinese troops dead. As the relations soured, the two countries moved thousands of troops, missiles and fighter jets along parts of the 3,488 kilometer (2,167 mile) unmarked border. India also imposed strict rules on Chinese businesses seeking to invest in the country, banned hundreds of Chinese apps and slowed visa approvals.

In October, the two nations agreed to stabilize relations after Chinese President Xi Jinping and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met at the BRICS summit in Russia. India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing last December and the two sides agreed to refine the rules for border management, and enhance confidence-building measures to achieve sustainable peace and stability in the border areas.

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The original:

Chinese scientist Xiao Chen has been named as the chairwoman of a committee that sets international standards for nuclear equipment.

Xiao will head the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)’s technical committee for nuclear instrumentation, which is responsible for setting the standards for nuclear facilities, systems and equipment as well as aspects of nuclear safety and security.

“I intend to actively try new methods and new tools proposed by the IEC. My aim will be to improve the efficiency in the compilation of standards as well as to promote the community through the development of more projects,” Xiao said.

She will succeed Gerhard Roos, managing director of the German Nuclear Safety Standards Commission, who has been chairman of the IEC committee since 2016.

Xiao, a graduate of Tsinghua University’s precision instruments department, has more than 20 years’ experience in the nuclear industry and also holds positions at the Chinese Institute for the Standardisation of the Nuclear Industry and the Standardisation Administration of China.

Her work includes designing protection and control systems, as well as research work concerning the French-based International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, the world’s largest nuclear fusion experiment.

The state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation said Xiao was the first person from Asia to be selected as chair of the committee and this showed “China’s contribution is highly recognised internationally” in the field of nuclear instrumentation and standardisation.

“China will seize the opportunity … to collaborate with standards experts worldwide and make greater contributions.”

The Geneva-based International Electrotechnical Commission is responsible for setting international safety standards for a wide range of technologies.

The nuclear instrumentation committee, which sets safety standards for the civilian nuclear industry, has 36 members, including Britain, Canada, China, France, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Ukraine and the United States.

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Police said on Wednesday a Chinese mine worker was killed in an attack in Afghanistan which the Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for, as the Taliban government attempts to project an image of security to encourage investment from Beijing.

The Chinese citizen was travelling on Tuesday evening in northern Takhar province bordering Tajikistan when he was killed by “unknown armed men”, provincial police spokesman Mohammad Akbar Haqqani said.

He said the man was travelling “for an unknown reason” and without notifying security officials, who typically accompany Chinese nationals on trips in the country.

A translator travelling with the man was unharmed, Haqqani added.

The Islamic State (Isis) group’s regional chapter claimed responsibility for the attack later on Wednesday, according to jihadist monitor SITE.

“[Islamic State] issued a communique … reporting that fighters fired at a vehicle carrying a ‘communist Chinese’ in Takhar, a province in which the group was last active in 2022,” the monitor said.

Security has drastically improved in Afghanistan since foreign troops withdrew in 2021 and the Taliban ended their insurgency as they swept back to power.

But the regional chapter of Isis regularly stages attacks on civilians, security forces, Taliban government officials and foreigners in Afghanistan.

At least five Chinese nationals were wounded when gunmen stormed a Kabul hotel popular with Beijing businessmen in a 2022 attack claimed by Isis.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said any effective peacekeeping force deployed in Ukraine will need to include US troops, as he appealed to Donald Trump ahead of talks with Russia.

In an interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait, Zelenskiy said that his European allies don’t have enough soldiers to pose a realistic deterrent to President Vladimir Putin and any other solution would risk opening up divisions within the NATO alliance.

As Trump reaches out to Putin, Zelenskiy is trying to persuade China too to use its influence on Russia to help end the fighting, though he expressed frustration that he hasn’t managed to speak more often to President Xi Jinping.

“He can push Putin for peace, I’m sure,” he said. “President Trump is the strongest — and Xi Jinping. I think there’s no other ally who can really do it. His economy, Putin, depends very much on China.”

As officials in Washington and Kyiv start to work out the details of how they can bring Putin to the table and what the structure of a deal should look like, one clear divide is emerging over Ukraine’s willingness to mobilize more troops.

Officials from the US and other western allies have been urging Ukraine to lower the age of conscription while Zelenskiy insists there’s more need for guns and missiles than for more soldiers.

“Why mobilize even younger people,” he said, “So that there are even more people without weapons?”

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The flag at the start is a bit anachronistic as Howard Zinn would not write this quote until 21 years after this song was written. However, I like the quote a lot, and I consider it fitting for an anti-war song.

"British War" refers to the War of 1812. In other recordings, he sings "British wars."

"Injun" is an old slur for Native Americans; "Little Bighorn" refers to the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Battle of the Greasy Grass), where Native forces successfully repelled a colonizer army led by George Armstrong Custer.

"United Fruit" refers to the United Fruit Company, a multinational corporation that participated, at the behest of the United States, in economic imperialism against much of Latin America, devastating these lands and turning them into effective puppet states of the US, with heavy economic inequality, poverty, and other such miseries. In 1960, they were accused by Fidel Castro of aiding Cuban exiles in an eventual plan to invade Cuba, which happened at the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

"I ain't marching anymore" is a 1965 anti-war protest song by the American singer-songwriter Phil Ochs. He initially released it on his second album, the song's namesake, as a protest to the ongoing Vietnam War (of which he was a very passionate critic). Like many of his other songs, it was treated with suspicion by the US government, and seldom played on the radio (a factor that vindicated its purpose for him), though it was popular among the anti-war movement in the 60s, with Ochs even performing it outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, provoking hundreds to burn their draft cards. After Phil Ochs died, it was revealed that the FBI had nearly 500 pages on him.

This recording is an electronic remix released in 1966 as a single accompanied by The Blues Project, but was rather unpopular compared to the original acoustic version. I decided to use it because, though I do prefer the acoustic version, this one felt more conducive to uploading.

United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was considering imposing a 10 percent tariff on imports from China, which could come into force as soon as February 1.

Yet, if the intent of the proposed tariffs was to hurt Chinese exports, in a bid to push for US interests in their trade relationship, Trump’s threats — so far at least — appear to have had the opposite effect.

China’s overall exports, including to the US, have grown in recent months.

On Tuesday, Trump argued that China was behind the supply of fentanyl to US neighbours, which he said was in turn responsible for a deadly addiction crisis in the country.

As 2024 came to a close, Chinese exports to US companies rose, growing by 4 percent between November 2023 and November 2024.

But more broadly, Trump has also accused China of unfair trade practices. China, the world’s largest exporter, has a massive balance of trade advantage with the US. In the first 11 months of 2024, Chinese exports to the US totalled about $401bn, while China imported approximately $131bn in goods from the US.

China’s overall exports have boomed too. Last month, Chinese total exports hit record highs, up 10.7 percent in December compared with a year earlier, beating analyst estimates. Total exports for 2024 reached $3.58 trillion, a 5.9 percent increase from 2023.

China’s trade surplus soared to a record-breaking $992bn in 2024, representing a 21 percent increase from the previous year, as reported by the customs on Monday.

And there could be more bad news for the US.

“While this influx temporarily fuelled China’s trade surplus, the broader trade relationship has been undermined by US policies,” Carlos Lopes, a Chatham House associate fellow for the Africa Programme, told Al Jazeera.

“Escalation of tariffs and a continuation of unilateral measures could deepen the erosion of trust in the global trade system, further pushing China to diversify its partners and reduce reliance on the US market,” Lopes, whose areas of expertise include international trade and China, said.

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