The first major set of economic reports last week reflect the state of the United States economy during President Donald Trump’s first full month in office. The data reveal a spike in layoffs and slower hiring growth across both the public and private sectors, with looming cuts suggesting larger economic woes in the months ahead.

The US economy added 151,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department report, which came out on Friday – well short of economist expectations showing a stall in economic growth. Approximately 7.1 million Americans are currently receiving unemployment benefits compared with 6.5 million this time last year.

“I think the real risk here is that if Trump doesn’t reverse course on what he’s doing, it could be his last boring report, which I think would be really damaging to the economy. If you look under the hood, I think we are starting to see pretty foreboding cracks,” Elizabeth Pancotti, the managing director of policy and advocacy at the economic think tank Groundwork Collective, told Al Jazeera.
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The White House painted an alternative picture. “In one month under President Trump, the American economy is soaring back to greatness after the economic calamity left by Joe Biden,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Former President Biden, however, was lauded as leading the best economic recovery in the world following the global economic downturn amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said that last week’s numbers are probably the best we will get in a while amid looming layoffs and tariff fears.

“This is the calm before the storm, before we start to see the fallout in the job market from the trade war and the DOGE cuts, and other economic policies from Trump,” Zandi told Al Jazeera. DOGE is the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, which is led by ardent Trump supporter, billionaire Elon Musk.

The conservative Christian Democrats have won Germany’s national election, putting them on track to lead the next coalition government, according to provisional results.

Germany’s mainstream conservatives led by Friedrich Merz won the country’s national election, ensuring that Ukraine has an even stronger supporter in the European Union’s largest country and creating hopes for renewal in an economic powerhouse that has been badly battered in recent years.

The far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to become the second-largest political force, gaining from a backlash against the high numbers of migrants and refugees the nation has absorbed over the past decade and a string of extremist attacks that has shaken its sense of security.

Merz, who is promising to unite Europe in the face of challenges from both Russia and the United States, is expected to become the country’s next leader. He vowed to do everything in his power to continue a good transatlantic relationship with the U.S., even if the Trump administration appears to have waning interest in Europe.

“If those who really do not just make ‘America First,’ but almost ‘America Alone’ their motto prevail, then it will be difficult,” he told reporters Monday in his first post-election news conference. “But I remain hopeful that we will succeed in maintaining the transatlantic relationship.”

The outcome means the party’s leader, Friedrich Merz, will likely be Germany’s next chancellor.

What were the key outcomes of the German election?

We’ve brought you the news that talks between US and Russian officials have started in Saudi Arabia

Here’s the latest pictures showing US secretary of state Marco Rubio flanked by national security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov sit opposite them.

Schmidt, an associate professor of national security at the University of New Haven, told CNN the talks raise the question of which potential peacekeepers could be accepted by both NATO and Russia.

Michael Bociurkiw, a former spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, told CNN that Ukraine has “very little leverage” right now and relies on the US for “critical intel” used on the battlefield.

President Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly asking for “extortionate” amounts of rare earth minerals located in Ukraine, he said, potentially worth billions of dollars.

Some context: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that he was open to signing a deal that would grant the US access to those rare earth minerals if Washington provides security guarantees to Kyiv in return.

Speaking to Fox News last week, Trump pointed to Ukraine’s “tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things. I want to have our money secured.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said he plans to unveil reciprocal tariffs on Thursday afternoon but gave no details about his latest tariff plan, which could take aim at every country that charges duties on U.S. imports.

“Today is the big one: reciprocal tariffs,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.

He later posted he would detail the latest in a barrage of tariffs on imports to the U.S. he has unveiled since taking office last month in a press conference at 1 p.m. (1800 GMT).

That will come a few hours ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s White House visit. Modi, who is scheduled to arrive at 4 p.m. (2100 GMT), oversees a government that imposes the highest tariffs on U.S. exports of any major U.S. trading partner.

The Republican president’s latest round of market-rattling tariffs has ratcheted up fears of a widening global trade war and threatened to accelerate U.S. inflation.

“THREE GREAT WEEKS, PERHAPS THE BEST EVER, BUT TODAY IS THE BIG ONE: RECIPROCAL TARIFFS!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Trump posted early Thursday. He later posted that he’ll hold a 1 pm ET press conference to announce the new tariffs.

Reciprocal tariffs were one of Trump’s core campaign pledges — his method for evening the score with foreign nations that place taxes on American goods and to solve what he has said are unfair trade practices.

“Very simply, it’s if they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said Sunday, explaining why he intends to enact reciprocal tariffs. He is set to share more details on the tariffs ahead of his visit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump’s plan for the US to take over war-torn Gaza and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere has shattered American policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and sparked widespread criticism.

The shock move from Mr Trump, a former New York property developer, was swiftly condemned by international powers, with regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, which Mr Trump hopes will establish ties with Israel, rejecting the plan outright.

The fate of the US Agency for International Development appeared bleak Monday after Elon Musk, the world’s richest man charged with overhauling the federal government, said President Donald Trump had signed off on shutting the agency down.

In Washington, USAID’s headquarters was closed for the day, with employees told in an email to remain at home.

Logos and photos of its aid work have been stripped from building walls. And its website and social media accounts have gone dark, replaced with a reduced version of its webpage on the State Department’s website.

The longtime international aid agency has found itself in the crosshairs of Trump and Musk’s effort to reform the federal government. Trump and his allies have said the agency, created by Congress as an independent body, is overtly partisan. Democrats have rejected that assertion and say Trump does not have the authority to dismantle the agency.

Lawmakers and aid workers have been bracing for Trump to shut down the agency entirely and place it under the umbrella of the State Department, a step that appeared imminent Monday morning following Musk’s comments during a talk on X, the social media platform that he owns.

“With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with (the president) in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down,” Musk said in a X Spaces conversation early Monday.

CNN has reached out to the White House and USAID for comment. Trump himself affirmed his disdain for the agency and its mission of providing foreign aid during a question-and-answer session with reporters late Monday.

“It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision” on its future, he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews

US President Donald Trump has called the rise of Chinese company DeepSeek “a wake-up call” for the US tech industry, after the emergence of its artificial intelligence (AI) model triggered shockwaves on Wall Street.

Shares in major tech firms such as Nvidia fell sharply, with the chip giant losing almost $600bn (£482bn) in market value.

Donald Trump has said that DeepSeek, a Chinese startup, should serve as a “wake-up call” for America’s AI industry, reports Sky News.

The US President aims for US tech companies to dominate the field but recognises the challenge posed by DeepSeek, which claims to have a technical edge over American competitors.

DeepSeek asserts that its AI models are comparable to those of US giants like OpenAI (the creator of ChatGPT) and Google’s Gemini, yet at a much lower cost. This has led to a dip in stock prices, particularly for chipmaker Nvidia, which experienced its largest one-day loss in history, it said.

What has shaken the industry is DeepSeek’s claim that its R1 model was made at a fraction of the cost of its rivals – raising questions about the future of America’s AI dominance and the scale of investments US firms are planning.

DeepSeek has become the most downloaded free app in the US just a week after it was launched.

The Senate voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee, Pete Hegseth, as defense secretary on Friday night after a high-tempered battle to sway lawmakers in his favor that was almost derailed by accusations about his behavior.

Pete Hegseth confirmed to lead Pentagon after VP Vance casts tie-breaking vote

“Congratulations to Pete Hegseth. He will make a great Secretary of Defense!” Trump wrote on Truth Social after Hegseth’s confirmation.

The United States Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth as the nation’s defense secretary late Friday in a dramatic tie-breaking vote, swatting back questions about his qualifications to lead the Pentagon amid allegations of heavy drinking and aggressive behavior toward women.

Rarely has a Cabinet nominee faced such wide-ranging concerns about his experience and behavior as Hegseth, particularly for such a high-profile role atop the US military. But the Republican-led Senate was determined to confirm Hegseth, a former Fox News host and combat veteran who has vowed to bring a “warrior culture,” rounding out US President Donald Trump’s top national security cabinet officials.

“We have a great secretary of defense and we’re very happy,” Trump said as he boarded Air Force One after surveying fire devastation in California.

Trump said he didn’t care about the dissent from Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the influential former Republican leader — who joined two other Republicans, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, in voting against Hegseth — because the “important thing is winning.”

The Senate’s two moderate Republican women: Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted no. As did Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the former GOP leader.

After Elon Musk made an apparent Nazi salute at an inauguration rally for United States President Donald Trump, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) rushed to defend the SpaceX founder.

ADL faces backlash for defending Elon Musk’s raised-arm gesture

The self-described anti-Semitism watchdog and “leading anti-hate organization in the world” dismissed Musk’s raised arm as “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm” in a social media post on Monday.

The incident occurred at the Capital One Arena, where Musk raised his arm in a manner that drew widespread comparisons to the infamous “Sieg Heil” salute associated with Nazi Germany. The ADL dismissed the gesture as “an awkward expression of enthusiasm,” prompting backlash from various quarters, including progressive Jewish and Palestinian rights groups

Months earlier, however, Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the staunchly pro-Israel ADL, compared the Palestinian keffiyeh to the Nazi swastika.

ADL faces backlash for defending Elon Musk’s raised-arm gesture

Activists say the contrast between the ADL’s hurried defence of Musk and its efforts to demonise Palestinians and their supporters shows that the group is more focused on silencing voices critical of Israel than it is on fighting anti-Semitism.

“The ADL is being crystal clear about where it stands,” said Beth Miller, political director at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

“They have made it as clear as possible that they are not a reputable source of information when it comes to anti-Semitism. They are not actually prioritising the protection of Jewish communities at all.”

Donald Trump will be sworn in as U.S. president on Monday, ushering in another turbulent four-year term with promises to push the limits of executive power, deport millions of immigrants, secure retribution against his political enemies and transform the role of the U.S. on the world stage.

Triumphant Trump returns to White House launching new era of upheaval

Trump’s inauguration completes a triumphant comeback for a political disruptor who survived two impeachment trials, a felony conviction, two assassination attempts and an indictment for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Triumphant Trump returns to White House launching new era of upheaval

The ceremony will take place at noon (1700 GMT) inside the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, four years after a mob of Trump supporters breached the symbol of American democracy in an unsuccessful effort to forestall the Republican Trump’s 2020 defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. The swearing-in was moved indoors for the first time in 40 years due to the extreme cold.
Trump, the first U.S. president since the 19th century to win a second term after losing the White House, has said he will pardon “on Day One” many of the more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.