At today's Critical Minerals Ministerial with #VP Vance we joined efforts with global partners to build more secure and resilient critical mineral supply chains. Under President Trump's strong leadership, the U.S. is uniting likeminded governments to build stable and strong critical minerals supply chains to power our industries.

The last U.S.-Russian nuclear pact is about to expire, ending a half-century of arms control.

The last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States is set to expire Thursday, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century.

The termination of the New START Treaty would set the stage for what many fear could be an unconstrained nuclear arms race.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared readiness to stick to the treaty’s limits for another year if Washington follows suit, but President Donald Trump has been noncommittal about extending it.

Trump has repeatedly indicated he would like to keep limits on nuclear weapons and involve China in arms control talks, a White House official who was not authorized to talk publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity said Monday. Trump will make a decision on nuclear arms control “on his own timeline,” the official said.

Beijing has balked at any restrictions on its smaller but growing nuclear arsenal.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday it would be a “more dangerous” world without limits on U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles.

Arms control advocates long have voiced concern about the expiration of New START, warning it could lead to a new Russia-U.S. arms race, foment global instability and increase the risk of nuclear conflict.

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday called for the treaty “not to be abandoned without seeking to ensure its concrete and effective continuation.”

Failure to agree on keeping the pact’s limits will likely encourage a bigger deployment, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington.

“We’re at the point now where the two sides could, with the expiration of this treaty, for the first time in about 35 years, increase the number of nuclear weapons that are deployed on each side,” Kimball told The Associated Press. “And this would open up the possibility of an unconstrained, dangerous three-way arms race, not just between the U.S. and Russia, but also involving China, which is also increasing its smaller but still deadly nuclear arsenal.”

Kingston Reif of the RAND Corporation, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, also warned during an online discussion that “in the absence of the predictability of the treaty, each side could be incentivized to plan for the worst or to increase their deployed arsenals to show toughness and resolve, or to search for negotiating leverage.”

Putin repeatedly has brandished Russia’s nuclear might since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, warning Moscow was prepared to use “all means” to protect its security interests. In 2024, he signed a revised nuclear doctrine lowering the threshold for nuclear weapons use.
Signed in 2010

New START, signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, restricted each side to no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads on no more than 700 missiles and bombers — deployed and ready for use. It was originally supposed to expire in 2021 but was extended for five more years.

The pact envisioned sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance, although they stopped in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.

In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s participation, saying Russia couldn’t allow U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal. At the same time, the Kremlin emphasized it wasn’t withdrawing from the pact altogether, pledging to respect its caps on nuclear weapons.

In offering in September to abide by New START’s limits for a year to buy time for both sides to negotiate a successor agreement, Putin said the pact’s expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel nuclear proliferation.

Rose Gottemoeller, the chief U.S. negotiator for pact and a former NATO deputy secretary-general, said extending it would have served U.S. interests. “A one-year extension of New START limits would not prejudice any of the vital steps that the United States is taking to respond to the Chinese nuclear buildup,” she told an online discussion last month.
Previous pacts

New START followed a long succession of U.S.-Russian nuclear arms reduction pacts, starting with SALT I in 1972 signed by U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev — the first attempt to limit their arsenals.

The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty restricted the countries’ missile defense systems until President George W. Bush took the U.S. out of the pact in 2001 despite Moscow’s warnings. The Kremlin has described Washington’s efforts to build a missile shield as a major threat, arguing it would erode Russia’s nuclear deterrent by giving the U.S. the capability to shoot down its intercontinental ballistic missiles.

As a response to the U.S. missile shield, Putin ordered the development of the Burevestnik nuclear-tipped and nuclear-powered cruise missile and the Poseidon nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered underwater drone. Russia said last year it successfully tested the Poseidon and the Burevestnik and was preparing their deployment.

Also terminated in 2019 was the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was signed in 1987 and banned land-based missiles with a range between 500-5,500 kilometers (310-3,400 miles). Those missiles were seen as particularly destabilizing because of their short flight time to their targets, leaving only minutes to decide on a retaliatory strike and increasing the threat of a nuclear war on a false warning.

In November 2024 and again last month, Russia attacked Ukraine with a conventional version of its new Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile. Moscow says it has a range of up to 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), capable of reaching any European target, with either nuclear or conventional warheads.
Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’

Without agreements limiting nuclear arsenals, Russia “will promptly and firmly fend off any new threats to our security,” said Medvedev, who had signed the New START treaty and is now deputy head of Putin’s Security Council.

“If we are not heard, we act proportionately seeking to restore parity,” he said in recent remarks.

Medvedev specifically mentioned Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense system among potentially destabilizing moves, emphasizing a close link between offensive and defensive strategic weapons.

Trump’s plan has worried Russia and China, Kimball said.

“They’re likely going to respond to Golden Dome by building up the number of offensive weapons they have to overwhelm the system and make sure that they have the potential to retaliate with nuclear weapons,” he said, adding that offensive capabilities can be built faster and cheaper than defensive ones.

Trump’s October statement about U.S. intentions to resume nuclear tests for the first time since 1992 also troubled the Kremlin, which last conducted a test in 1990 when the USSR still existed. Putin said Russia will respond in kind if the U.S. resumes tests, which are banned by a global treaty that Moscow and Washington signed.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in November that such tests would not include nuclear explosions.

Kimball said a U.S. resumption of tests “would blow a massive hole in the global system to reduce nuclear risk,” prompting Russia to respond in kind and tempting others, including China and India, to follow suit.

The world was heading toward accelerated strategic competition, he said, with more spending and increasingly unstable relations involving the U.S., Russia, and China on nuclear matters.

“This marks a potential turning point into a much more dangerous period of global nuclear competition, the likes of which we’ve not seen in our lifetimes,” Kimball added.

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Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed.

A Harry Potter villain is now an unlikely new-year mascot in China. Draco Malfoy, Potter’s privileged teen nemesis in J.K. Rowling’s wildly successful book series, is popping up in festive displays in the country ahead of the Lunar New Year.

The good fortune is in the name: “Malfoy” is transliterated as “Ma Er Fu” in Mandarin. The first word “Ma” means “horse” (马), while the third refers to good fortune (福). Read together, it sounds like horses are bringing good luck.

Videos on Chinese social media show people adorning their homes with red posters carrying well-wishing phrases, known as fai chun or chunlian, in an annual festive ritual.

Only this time, alongside messages wishing for wealth and health is the signature grin of the blond bully from Hogwarts school.

The Year of the Horse begins on Feb. 17 with the end of the Year of the Snake (an animal equally apt for Malfoy, as the symbol of Slytherin, his house at Hogwarts).

The Harry Potter franchise has been a hit in China. Nearly 10 million translated copies of books were sold even before the last instalment was released in 2007, its Chinese publisher told state broadcaster CCTV that year.

When the re-mastered version of the first Harry Potter movie was released again in 2020, the film raked in US$27.6 million at China’s box office, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Tom Felton, who played Malfoy in the Harry Potter film series for a decade from 2001, marked his most famous role’s unlikely crossover.

He posted a picture on his Instagram of a giant banner hanging at the atrium of a Chinese shopping mall, featuring the character in a wizard costume.

A short clip on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, shows someone sticking their Malfoy-faced fai chun on their fridge. The video garnered more than 60,000 likes, with another user commenting: “You’re genius.”

Some in China have spotted an opportunity to make a few bucks, selling the posters on Chinese e-commerce platforms.

“The fu has arrived,” one customer wrote on Pinduoduo, another e-commerce platform.

“Bring me some fortune in 2026, young master,” they said.

By Chris Lau, CNN

The son of Norway’s crown princess pleaded not guilty Tuesday to four counts of rape at the opening of a trial that has embarrassed the royal family.

U.S. House passes bill to end the partial government shutdown, sending the measure to Trump.

#WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald #Trump signed a roughly US$1.2 trillion government funding bill Tuesday that ends the partial federal shutdown that began over the weekend and sets the stage for an intense debate in Congress over Homeland Security funding.

The president moved quickly to sign the bill after the House approved it with a 217-214 vote.

“This bill is a great victory for the American people,” Trump said.

The vote Tuesday wrapped up congressional work on 11 annual appropriations bills that fund government agencies and programs through Sept. 30. Trump has said he will sign the bill when it reaches his desk, ending the partial government shutdown that began Saturday.

Passage of the legislation marked the end point for one funding fight, but the start of another. That’s because the package only funds the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks, through Feb 13, at the behest of Democrats who are demanding more restrictions on immigration enforcement after the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal officers in Minneapolis.
Leaders are digging in for a fight

Difficult negotiations are ahead, particularly for the agency that enforces the nation’s immigration laws -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries quickly warned Democrats would not support any further temporary funding for Homeland Security without substantial changes to its immigration operations., raising the potential of another shutdown for the department and its agencies.

“We need dramatic change in order to make sure that ICE and other agencies within the department of Homeland Security are conducting themselves like every other law enforcement organization in the country,” Jeffries said.

Speaker Mike Johnson said he expects the two sides will be able to reach an agreement by the deadline.

“This is no time to play games with that funding. We hope that they will operate in good faith over the next 10 days as we negotiate this,” said Johnson. “The president, again, has reached out.”

But Johnson’s counterpart across the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., sounded less optimistic of a deal. “There’s always miracles, right?” Thune told reporters.
Voting with no margin for error

The funding bill that cleared Congress Tuesday had provisions that appealed to both parties.

Republicans avoided a massive, catchall funding bill known as an omnibus as part of this year’s appropriations process. Such bills, often taken up before the holiday season with lawmakers anxious to return home, have contributed to greater federal spending, they say.

Democrats were able to fend off some of Trump’s most draconian proposed cuts while adding language that helps ensure funds are spent as stipulated by Congress.

Still, Johnson needed near-unanimous support from his Republican conference to proceed to a final vote on the bill. He narrowly got it during a roll call that was held open for nearly an hour as leaders worked to gain support from a handful of GOP lawmakers who were trying to advance other priorities unrelated to the funding measure.

The final vote wasn’t much easier for GOP leaders. In the end, 21 Republicans sided with the vast majority of Democrats in voting against the funding bill, while that exact same number of Democrats sided with the vast majority of Republicans in voting yes.

Trump had weighed in Monday in a social media post, calling on Republicans to stay united and telling holdouts, “There can be NO CHANGES at this time.”
Key differences from the last shutdown

The path to the current partial shutdown differs from the fall impasse, which affected more agencies and lasted a record 43 days.

Then, the debate was over extending temporary coronavirus pandemic-era subsidies for those who get health coverage through the Affordable Care Act. Democrats were unsuccessful in getting those subsidies included as part of a package to end the shutdown.

Congress has made important progress since then, passing six of the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund federal agencies and programs. That includes important programs such as nutrition assistance and fully operating national parks and historic sites. They are funded through Sept. 30. The remaining bills passed Tuesday represent roughly three-quarters of federal spending set annually by Congress, including the Defense Department.

Kevin Freking, The Associated Press

Spain considers social media ban for under-16s, joining others in Europe.

Sánchez chided the world’s biggest tech companies in a speech at a Dubai summit for allowing illegal content such as child sex abuse and nonconsensual sexualized deepfake images and videos to proliferate on their platforms, saying that governments also needed to “stop turning a blind eye.”

“Today, our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone,” Sánchez said. “We will no longer accept that.”

Spain joins a growing number of countries, including Australia and France, which have taken or are considering measures to restrict minors’ access to social media.

In January, France approved a bill banning social media for children under 15, paving the way for the measure to take effect at the start of the next school year in September. The bill would also ban the use of mobile phones in high schools.

Australia has started implementing the world’s first social media ban for under-16s, after its government passed a measure that holds platforms including TikTok, Twitch, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for failing to prevent children from having accounts.

Denmark has introduced similar legislation to ban access to social media for users under 15, while the U.K. said last month it would consider banning young teenagers from social media, as it tightens laws designed to protect children from harmful content and excessive screen time.

Sánchez said that Spain would require social media companies to enforce the ban with age verification systems, “not just check boxes, but real barriers that work.”

Many social media apps require users to be at least 13, though enforcement varies. Users are often asked to declare their own age.

Spain’s ban will be added to an already existing measure centered on digital protections for minors that is being debated by parliament, a government spokesperson said. Sánchez said that could happen as early as next week.

It’s unclear if Sánchez’s left-wing coalition will get the approval needed in Parliament, where his government lacks a majority. A spokesperson for the far-right Vox party accusing the government “of making sure that no one criticizes them,” while the main opposition party — the center-right Popular Party — said it had proposed similar restrictions last year, seemingly offering its support.

Spain has joined five other European countries in what the Spanish leader dubbed a “coalition of the digitally willing” to coordinate the regulation of social media platforms at a multinational level.

Additionally, Sánchez said Spain would make it a criminal offense to manipulate algorithms to amplify illegal content and would hold tech executives liable for failing to take down criminal content from their platforms.

“No more pretending that technology is neutral,” he said.

Both measures would require parliamentary approval to change Spanish law, a government spokesperson said.

Suman Naishadham, The Associated Press

#CAIRO, February 3. The first group of Palestinians has returned to the Gaza Strip from Egypt after receiving medical treatment, Egyptian TV channel Al-Qahera Al-Ikhbariya reported

A bus with residents reportedly entered Gaza via the Rafah crossing, headed to Khan Yunis escorted by WHO vehicles, with all passengers to undergo medical examinations. The number of people was not specified.

Since the October 2023 conflict escalation, Rafah had only operated for exits from Gaza. Entry was limited to humanitarian aid trucks, although, throughout 2025, humanitarian cargoes were reaching the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom and El-Aouga crossings after checks by the Israeli military.

#TUNIS, February 3. #Iran is prepared to negotiate the nuclear dossier only with the United States, as Europe has proven its incapacity, Ali Shamkhani, advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Al Mayadeen.

"Iran has repeatedly confirmed and demonstrated its readiness for practical negotiations with the United States, not with any other party," he said. "Europe has proven its inability to do anything after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018, as well as during the negotiations before the war in June last year," Shamkhani stated. He described these as negotiations where "only the US participates, and only the nuclear dossier is discussed."

Shamkhani acknowledged the possibility of direct talks with the US after mutual understanding is reached. "Bilateral negotiations should begin based on achieved mutual understanding and on the condition that illogical and unfounded demands are avoided," he said, adding, "reaching a consensus is possible." He noted this opens "a possibility of direct and indirect meetings," including possibly in Turkey.

GOMA, Congo — A landslide earlier this week collapsed several mines at a major coltan mining site in eastern Congo, leaving at least 200 people dead, rebel authorities said Saturday.

The collapse took place Wednesday at the Rubaya mines, which are controlled by the M23 rebels, Lumumba Kambere Muyisa, the spokesperson of the rebel-appointed governor of North-Kivu province told The Associated Press. He said the landslide was caused by heavy rains.

“For now, there are more than 200 dead, some of whom are still in the mud and have not yet been recovered,” Muyisa said. He added that several others were injured and taken to three health facilities in the town of Rubaya, while ambulances were expected to transfer the wounded Saturday to Goma, the nearest city around 50 kilometers (30 miles) away.

The rebel-appointed governor of North Kivu has temporarily halted artisanal mining on the site and ordered the relocation of residents who had built shelters near the mine, Muyisa said.

Congo’s government in a statement on X expressed solidarity with the victims’ families and accused the rebels of illegally and unsafely exploiting the region’s natural resources.

A former miner at the site told The Associated Press there have been repeated landslides because the tunnels are dug by hand, poorly constructed, and left without maintenance.

“People dig everywhere, without control or safety measures. In a single pit, there can be as many as 500 miners, and because the tunnels run parallel, one collapse can affect many pits at once,” Clovis Mafare said.

Rubaya lies in the heart of eastern Congo, a mineral-rich part of the Central African nation which for decades has been ripped apart by violence from government forces and different armed groups, including the Rwanda-backed M23, whose recent resurgence has escalated the conflict, worsening an already acute humanitarian crisis.

Congo is a major supplier of coltan, a black metallic ore that contains the rare metal tantalum, a key component in the production of smartphones, computers and aircraft engines.

The country produced about 40 percent of the world’s coltan in 2023, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, with Australia, Canada and Brazil being other big suppliers. Over 15% of the world’s supply of tantalum from Rubaya’s mines.

In May 2024, M23 seized the town and took control of its mines. According to a U.N. report, since seizing Rubaya, the rebels have imposed taxes on the trade and transport of coltan, generating at least $800,000 a month.

Eastern Congo has been in and out of crisis for decades. Various conflicts have created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises with more than 7 million people displaced, including more than 300,000 who have fled their homes since December.

Despite the signing of a deal between the Congolese and Rwandan governments brokered by the U.S. and ongoing negotiations between rebels and Congo, fighting continues on several fronts in eastern Congo, continuing to claim numerous civilian and military casualties.

The deal between Congo and Rwanda also opens up access to critical minerals for the U.S. government and American companies.

Justin Kabumba, Ruth Alonga and Mark Banchereau, The Associated Press

Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.

Blast in Iran port city kills 1, wounds 14 before Strait of Hormuz naval drill watched by U.S.

The blast happened a day before a planned naval drill by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. Already, the U.S. military had warned Iran not to threaten its warships or commercial traffic in the strait, on which Bandar Abbas sits.

State television quoted a local fire official as blaming the blast on a gas leak. Media reported at least 14 others suffered injuries in the explosion at the eight-story building, which blew out windows and covered the street below in debris.

A local newspaper, Sobh-e Sahel, aired footage of one of its correspondents speaking in front of the building. The footage included a sequence that showed a man in black boots and a green security force uniform being carried out on a stretcher. He wore a neck brace and appeared to be in pain, his left hand covering the branch insignia on his uniform.

The local newspaper did not acknowledge the security force member being carried out elsewhere in its reporting. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard itself did not discuss the blast, other than to deny that a Guard navy commander had been hurt in the explosion.

Another explosion blamed on a gas explosion Saturday in the southwestern city of Ahvaz killed five people, state media reported.

It comes as Iran remains tense over a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to potentially launch a military strike on the country over the killing of peaceful protesters or the possible mass execution of those detained in a major crackdown over the demonstrations.

Ali Larijani, a top security official in Iran, wrote on X late Saturday that “structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing.” However, there is no public sign of any talks with the United States, which Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has repeatedly ruled out.

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press