SCO summit strengthens Azerbaijan–China partnership
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit opened in Tianjin on 31 August, gathering leaders from across Eurasia and the Global South....
A dispute between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and billionaire White House adviser Elon Musk erupted during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, according to The New York Times.
The confrontation, which unfolded while President Donald Trump observed the meeting, centered on the level of staff cuts carried out at the State Department.
The meeting was reportedly convened in response to complaints from agency heads and senior White House officials about the blunt-force approach employed by Musk’s operation to streamline the federal bureaucracy. Trump was said to have reminded Cabinet members that they, rather than Musk, have the final say on staffing and policy within their agencies.
According to the report, Musk accused Rubio of firing “nobody” and resisting his push for significant staff reductions. Rubio countered by noting that approximately 1,500 State Department employees had accepted early retirement buyouts. In a pointed remark, Rubio sarcastically questioned whether Musk wanted him to rehire all those employees only to fire them again.
The dispute comes amid ongoing debates over the best approach to reducing federal bureaucracy, with Musk assigned by Trump to implement large-scale staffing cuts. However, agency leaders and members of Congress have expressed concern over the potential impact of such measures, prompting the Cabinet meeting that led to the reported clash.
When asked about the incident on Friday, President Trump denied any clash. “No clash, I was there, you’re just a troublemaker,” he told a reporter. He added that both Rubio and Musk are doing a “fantastic job,” commending Rubio’s work as Secretary of State and praising Musk as “a unique guy.”
The incident highlights the growing tensions within the administration over how best to manage federal staffing and policy in the face of evolving political priorities.
A powerful eruption at Japan’s Shinmoedake volcano sent an ash plume more than 3,000 metres high on Sunday morning, prompting safety warnings from authorities.
According to the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the Oaxaca region of Mexico on Saturday.
The UK is gearing up for Exercise Pegasus 2025, its largest pandemic readiness test since COVID-19. Running from September to November, this full-scale simulation will challenge the country's response to a fast-moving respiratory outbreak.
A Polish Air Force pilot was killed on Thursday when an F-16 fighter jet crashed during a training flight ahead of the 2025 Radom International Air Show.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for the 31th of August, covering the latest developments you need to know.
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin on Sunday for a regional security summit, Chinese and Russian state media reported.
China’s largest city and global financial hub, Shanghai, has set a new heat record, state media reported on Saturday. Temperatures in the city exceeded 35°C (95°F) for 25 consecutive days, breaking the previous record set in 1926.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Japan on Thursday to meet his Japanese counterpart, Shigeru Ishiba, with trade and security high on the agenda.
Spain has condemned the U.S. decision to revoke visas for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials, calling it “unacceptable” and urging the European Union to take a leading role in defending Palestinian representation at the UN.
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