Former Obama adviser David Axelrod says the GOP should be on edge over Trump’s ‘Marie Antoinette thing’

Trump has been remodeling the White House in gold and marble while polls show Americans struggle to put food on the table

Rachel Dobkin in New York

Tuesday 30 December 2025 

THE INDEPENDENT

CNN Chief Political Analyst David Axelrod has said Republicans should be on edge over Donald Trump’s focus on remodeling Washington D.C., which he calls the president’s “Marie Antoinette thing.”

Trump has slapped marble down in the Palm Room, painted the Oval Office gold, paved over the Rose Garden for a new patio and most notably torn down the East Wing for his multi-million dollar ballroom.

His renovation plans have gone beyond the White House, including an Arc de Triomphe-style arch at the edge of D.C. and marble armrests for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which was recently renamed to include the president’s moniker.

But Axelrod, who previously served as a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, warned that these shows of extravagance won’t sit well with voters who are struggling with the cost of living.


CNN Chief Political Analyst David Axelrod has said Republicans should be on edge over President Donald Trump’s focus on remodeling Washington D.C., which he called his 'Marie Antoinette thing' (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for The Atlantic)

“People are sitting around and thinking about how they’re gonna pay their bills and [Trump’s] posting stuff about how he’s gonna have marble handrails at the Kennedy Center and he’s posting pictures of his new marble Palm Room at the White House and so on,” Axelrod recently said on CNN.

He continued: "People are saying to themselves, 'What the hell does that have to do with me? I thought he was going to be fighting for me to bring my costs down.’ And he seems obsessed with gold and putting his name on things and remodeling buildings and rebuilding monuments to himself."

On the campaign trail, Trump promised voters he’d start bringing prices down “starting on Day One.”

Inflation has been cooling, with prices rising at a 2.7 percent annual rate in November, down from 3 percent in September, according to the government’s Consumer Price Index.


Trump has been remodeling the White House in gold and marble while polls show Americans struggle to put food on the table (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

While food costs are going down, energy costs are ticking up. The cost of food rose 2.6 percent in November compared to the year before, lower than 3.1 percent in September, according to government data. The cost of energy rose 4.2 percent in November compared to the previous year, up from 2.8 percent in September.


Axelrod says Trump’s efforts to remodel his current home amid an affordability crisis, “is a huge political problem for him.”

“It's a symbol of his distraction. It's the Marie Antoinette thing that he's got going. That is a big political problem,” the political analyst said, adding that while Trump is not on the ballot in the 2026 midterm elections, “Republicans should be really concerned about what they’re seeing.”


Trump tore down the East Wing of the White House for his multi-million dollar ballroom (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

This isn’t the first time Trump has been compared to the last queen of France, who became a symbol of selfish luxury as the public went hungry, ahead of the French Revolution.

Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, known for trolling Trump online, shared an AI-generated photo of Trump as Marie Antoinette in November during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

Newsom’s press team shared the image on X, along with the caption “GOOD NIGHT, PEASANTS!” in reaction to a report that Trump was traveling to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida as Americans faced flight delays and cancellations from the shutdown.

Drones dive into aviation's deepest enigma as MH370 hunt restarts

Published: 30 Dec 2025 -

AFP

Washington: Nearly 12 years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished with 239 people on board, the search for answers to one of aviation's most haunting riddles resumed Tuesday in the remote southern Indian Ocean.

Armed with cutting-edge deep-sea robots and smarter data, US investigators are scouring the seabed for clues that have eluded governments, experts and grieving families for more than a decade.

MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur just after midnight on March 8, 2014, bound for Beijing on what should have been an uneventful six-hour flight.
Less than an hour later, its transponder went dark, wiping the Boeing 777 from civilian radar. Military screens later showed the aircraft veering sharply west, crossing back over Malaysia before heading south over the vast Indian Ocean.

What followed was the most ambitious and costly search in aviation history, as multinational teams combed more than more than 46,000 square miles (120,000 square kilometers) of seabed off Western Australia with ships, aircraft and sonar.
They found nothing.

The hunt was called off in 2017, leaving families with heartbreak and a mystery that spawned theories ranging from hijacking to deliberate pilot action.
Now, the Malaysian government has given the green light for a fresh attempt led by Texas-based marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity under a "no find, no fee" contract, according to a statement from Malaysia's transport ministry.

"The latest development underscores the government of Malaysia's commitment in providing closure to the families affected by this tragedy," it said.
The company will pocket $70 million only if it locates the wreck, reports said.

This new phase, expected to last up to 55 days, targets a tighter search zone of about 5,800 square miles -- far smaller than earlier efforts and pinpointed using updated satellite data, drift modeling and expert analysis.


Keeping the hunt alive

Ocean Infinity is unleashing autonomous underwater vehicles that can dive nearly 19,700 feet (6,000 meters) and stay submerged for days at a time.
The drones use high-resolution side-scan sonar, ultrasound imaging and magnetometers to map the seabed in 3D, detect buried debris and pick up traces of metal. If something promising appears, remotely operated vehicles can descend for close inspection.

Ocean Infinity, which also has a control center in Britain, led an unsuccessful hunt in 2018, before agreeing to launch a new search this year. AFP reached out to the company for comment but there was no immediate response.

Only fragments of MH370 have ever been recovered. Since 2015, fewer than 30 pieces believed to be from the aircraft -- bits of wing, landing gear and fuselage -- have washed ashore thousands of kilometers apart, from Reunion to Mozambique.

No bodies have ever been found

Malaysia's official probe concluded in 2018 that the plane was likely deliberately diverted from its course, but stopped short of assigning responsibility.
Relatives from China, Australia, Europe and beyond have fought for years to keep the hunt alive, arguing that closure matters not only for the dead but for global aviation safety.

Governments in Beijing and Canberra have welcomed Malaysia's decision, pledging support for any practical effort to crack the case.
Chinese national Jiang Hui, who lost his 72-year-old mother Jiang Cuiyun in the disaster, told AFP in an interview at his home in Beijing earlier this month that he remains set on finding answers, despite frustration with the authorities.

"Finding the plane, finding my loved one, and finding the truth, I believe this is something I must do in my life," he said.

MH370 search restarts more than ten years after plane's disappearance


Issued on: 30/12/2025 - FRANCE24


The deep-sea search for the wreckage of the MH370, which disappeared in 2014 is set to restart on December 30. Ocean Infinity, a private US and UK based company are managing the effort. They are working on a 'no find, no fee' contract, and will receive almost 60 million euros if they succeed. The hope is that improved technology will help solve the biggest recent mystery in aviation.

 

MY THEORY

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WATERSPOUT

South Korea approves operation of Saeul-3 nuclear reactor

Saeul-3 is South Korea’s 1st nuclear reactor designed to withstand aircraft attacks

Saadet Gokce |30.12.2025 - TRT/AA

ISTANBUL

South Korea on Tuesday greenlighted the operation of the Saeul-3 nuclear reactor, with its commercial launch scheduled for 2026.

The domestically built APR1400 reactor, located at the Saeul Nuclear Power Site in the southeastern port city of Ulsan, began construction in 2016, according to the Seoul-based news agency Yonhap.

The unit will undergo a pilot run over the next six months.

"In accordance with legal procedures and on scientific and technological grounds, we have thoroughly inspected the safety of the Saeul-3," Choi Won-ho, chairperson of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, said in a statement.

"We plan to continue strictly checking safety through pre-use inspections during nuclear fuel loading and the test-run process," Choi added.

The approval came about two weeks after the commission postponed its final decision at an initial meeting.

Saeul-3 is South Korea’s first nuclear reactor designed to withstand aircraft attacks.

It can store spent nuclear fuel for up to 60 years, enough to hold all fuel produced during its operating lifetime.

Climate-driven extreme weather pushing states to adaptation limits: Report

Millions of people were pushed close to limits of human adaptation in 2025, according to new report by World Weather Attribution

Necva Tastan Sevinc |30.12.2025 - TRT/AA



ISTANBUL

The growing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events driven by climate change are pushing the adaptive capacity of states to their limits, according to a new report by the World Weather Attribution (WWA).

The 2025 WWA report found that climate change fueled severe weather events across the globe this year, disproportionately affecting vulnerable and marginalized communities. Global temperatures have continued to rise, with heat waves now significantly more intense than a decade ago, it said.

The report noted that since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the global average temperature has increased by around 0.3 degrees Celsius. While the rise may appear modest, experts warned it has translated into an average of 11 additional days of extreme heat each year worldwide.

WWA researchers said millions of people were pushed close to the limits of human adaptation in 2025, stressing that “drastically reducing fossil fuel emissions remains the key policy” to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change.

Ruben del Campo, spokesperson for Spain’s national weather agency AEMET, described the report as “a new wake-up call from the scientific community for climate action.”

He noted that heat waves in Spain are lengthening by nearly three days per decade, in line with the global trends highlighted in the study, reported Science Media Centre Spain.

Froila M. Palmeiro, a researcher at the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, said the report reviewed the most significant extreme weather events of 2025 and examined their links to climate change.

She stressed that every fraction of a degree of warming avoided is “a major achievement,” as it helps limit the number of extreme heat days, Spanish news broadcaster RTVE reported.

The report also underlined deep inequalities in climate impacts, pointing to higher vulnerability in parts of the Global South and gaps in climate data outside the Northern Hemisphere, which affect the accuracy of forecasts.

Anna Cabre, a climate scientist affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, said climate impacts are felt more intensely in the Global South, where limited data and weaker infrastructure make adaptation especially challenging.

She called for urgent action to strengthen mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Spanish climatologist Ernesto Rodriguez Camino also warned that the world is already living in a “profoundly altered climate,” with clear limits to adaptation.

He emphasized the need to cut emissions while simultaneously investing in adaptation, scientific research and global equity to address the growing risks posed by extreme weather.

French right pushes for national tribute to film star Brigitte Bardot

Paul Kirby

Europe digital editor

BBC

30.12.2025 - 

Charly Hel/Prestige/Getty Images

Brigitte Bardot died on Sunday aged 91 and had long shunned the limelight, preferring the company of animals

French right-wing figure Éric Ciotti has called for a national tribute to honour film legend Brigitte Bardot, prompting objections from political opponents on the left.

"France has a duty to honour its Marianne," said Ciotti, referring to the emblem of French liberty whose face Bardot was chosen to represent in the 1960s.

Bardot died on Sunday aged 91. A petition launched by Ciotti since has attracted more than 23,000 signatures, and has the backing of some allies on the far right.

But Socialist leader Olivier Faure has pointed out that national homages are for "exceptional services to the nation". Bardot was an iconic actress but she also "turned her back on republican values", Faure argued.

Bardot has been hailed by President Emmanuel Macron as a "legend of the century" who embodied a life of freedom, and Ciotti, who leads the right-wing UDR party, has appealed to him to organise a national send-off.

Ciotti said France should recognise a woman who brought her country an extraordinary level of international recognition and actively helped in the fight for women's liberty and abortion rights.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, has announced that his city will name an "iconic site" in Bardot's honour.

But Bardot is destined to remain controversial in death as she was during her life. Faure pointed out that she had been convicted five times for inciting racial hatred.

Bardot starred in some 50 films, after bursting on to the scene in And God Created Woman in 1956.

She then left the world of cinema in 1973 for a life devoted to animal welfare, and lived for decades in Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera, at her home called La Madrague.

But she became as well known for her far-right sympathies as she was for her love of animals. Some of her remarks targeted Muslims, and others insulted the people of the French Indian Ocean island of Réunion.

"To be moved by the plight of dolphins and yet be indifferent to the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean - what degree of cynicism is that?" asked Green MP Sandrine Rousseau on social media.

There are differing types of national tribute in France.

Robert Badinter, who abolished the death penalty in France, was honoured with a national homage in the form of a solemn ceremony in 2024, as was singer Charles Aznavour in 2018.

A more likely option for Bardot would be along the lines of the public farewell given to rock star Johnny Hallyday, when large crowds lined the streets of Paris in 2017.

Not everyone on the left is opposed to the idea of a national homage to Bardot.

"Why not? We've done it for other figures, particularly Johnny Hallyday," Socialist MP Philippe Brun told French radio. "If the president of the republic decides on it, I don't see why we should oppose it."

MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP
Bardot will be buried near her family's graves in the marine cemetery in Saint-Tropez


Bardot herself had shunned the limelight for decades and close friend Wendy Bouchard said she was not remotely interested in medals and ceremonies.

"It probably comes from a good place, but I'm not sure that she, who lived a life of simplicity and deprivation, would have wanted this national homage," she told French TV.

Journalist Steven Bellery, who interviewed Bardot earlier this year, agreed she wanted something far more simple and intimate.

Bardot had asked to be buried at her Riviera home at La Madrague, rather than in a public cemetery, where she feared "a crowd of idiots might damage the graves of my parents and grandparents".

However, the town hall in Saint-Tropez has said she will have a private burial in the public cemetery that overlooks the Mediterranean as well as her home.

The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which is dedicated to animal welfare, says her funeral will take place on 7 January at the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption church and will be broadcast on screens across the town.

MET officers to declare if they are Freemasons

'Two thirds of officers and staff surveyed agree that this policy is needed. We think the majority of the public would also agree,' says Metropolitan Police

WATCHING TO MANY JACK THE RIPPER MOVIES

Burak Bir |30.12.2025 - 




LONDON

The London police vowed to robustly defend its decision requiring staff and police officers to declare their Freemasonry membership, according to a statement on Monday.

The Metropolitan Police (Met) statement came in response to the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) seeking an injunction blocking implementation of the new policy.

The lodge, representing the secretive group in England, Wales, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands, has pushed back against plans, announced earlier this month, to make Freemasonry membership a "declarable" association.

The Freemasons filed papers in London last week claiming the policy amounts to "religious discrimination" against Freemasons who are also police officers, The Guardian reported.

On Dec. 17, the lodge said in a statement that the Met decision cast an "aura of mistrust" over the entire organization.

The group also said it was "extremely disappointed" that the police had reached this decision without a "fair consultation process, or any direct engagement with it."

However, the Met said that the majority of British people agree with the new policy, stressing that they must prioritize the maintenance of vital trust and confidence over any organization’s desire to maintain secrecy.

"Two thirds of officers and staff surveyed agree that this policy is needed. We think the majority of the public would also agree," said the Met in response to the lodge’s injunction.

The Met statement also cited a recommendation in a 2021 report saying police membership in the Freemasons had been "a source of recurring suspicion and mistrust."

"We strongly believe that failing to act on these calls would further damage trust not only among the public but also other officers and staff," said the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel report.

The panel examined the force’s handling of the unsolved 1987 murder of private detective Daniel Morgan, a father of two who was killed with an axe in a London parking lot.

"Victims should be able to know that when they report allegations to us, the officers investigating have been transparent about any potential conflicts of interest," added the statement.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for FREEMASONS

  

 

FREEDOM OF SPEECH, NOT SO MUCH

UK to probe British-Egyptian activist case ‘failures’ after social media posts cause furor

PM Keir Starmer was “unaware” of historic social media posts by Alaa Abd El-Fattah — in which he said killing Zionists was “heroic” — when he welcomed him to the U.K. last week.


Successive U.K. ministers campaigned for the release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who was convicted of “spreading fake news” in Egypt in 2021 for sharing a Facebook post about torture in the country. | Sayed Hassan/Getty Images

December 30, 2025 
By Annabelle Dickson


LONDON — The U.K. Foreign Office will review “serious information failures” that led to ministers being unaware of “abhorrent” social media posts by the British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Monday evening.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday said he was “delighted” Abd El-Fattah was back in the U.K. after he was released from prison in Egypt after successive British governments had campaigned for his release. The case has been a “top priority for my government since we came to office,” Starmer added.

But Downing Street was later forced to condemn Abd El-Fattah after social media posts emerged, in which he said he considered “killing any colonialists and specially Zionists heroic,” and called British people “dogs and monkeys.”
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In a letter to a U.K. parliamentary committee, Cooper said she, Starmer and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy “were all unaware” of historic tweets by Abd El-Fattah. “We consider them to be abhorrent,” she said. Abd El-Fattah on Monday “unequivocally” apologized for the tweets.

Cooper said current and former ministers were “never briefed on these tweets when they spoke publicly about the case,” and civil servants in charge of the case “were also unaware” of them.

In her letter to the foreign affairs committee Cooper said she was “deeply concerned” that the re-emergence of the historic posts — and the social media posts by senior politicians on Boxing Day welcoming Abd El-Fattah’s reunion with his family — had “added to the distress felt by Jewish communities in the UK.”

It was clear there had been an “unacceptable failure” and that long-standing due diligence procedures had been “completely inadequate for this situation,” she added.

A senior Foreign Office civil servant has been asked to review the “serious information failures in this case” and the broader systems in place in the department for carrying out due diligence on high-profile consular and human rights cases to make sure they are “functioning properly for the future,” Cooper said.

Successive U.K. ministers campaigned for the release of Abd El-Fattah, who was convicted of “spreading fake news” in Egypt in 2021 for sharing a Facebook post about torture in the country.

He was granted British citizenship in December 2021 through his London-born mother, when the opposition Conservatives were in power.

The Conservatives and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK are now calling for Abd El-Fattah to be stripped of U.K. citizenship and deported.

 

UNICEF: 2025 the worst year for millions of children worldwide

30/12/2025

Berlin, Dec. 30 (SANA) The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that 2025 was the most devastating year for millions of children globally, particularly in Gaza, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as other conflict zones.

The agency reported that hunger, disease, and war have severely affected children’s lives. For the first time, both Sudan and Gaza faced famine in the same year, caused by war and conflict. In Darfur, famine was recorded in 2024 and 2025, while in Gaza, parts of the city suffered famine during the summer after war and a blockade restricted aid. About 100,000 children in Gaza continue to face severe food insecurity.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than 35,000 cases of sexual violence against children were documented, alongside the worst cholera outbreak in 25 years.
Christian Schneider, Executive Director of UNICEF Germany, said, “Child hunger and poverty are not inevitable disasters—they reflect a failure in global policies and societal responsibility. Children bear the heaviest burden, despite being innocent.”

UNICEF reports that one in five children now lives in conditions of war, disease, or displacement—nearly double the figure from the mid-1990s—and grave violations against children and attacks on aid workers reached unprecedented levels in 2025.

The agency has launched a $7.66 billion appeal to fund its 2026 humanitarian operations, aiming to reach 73 million children with emergency aid and long-term support.

U.S. DEPT OF WAR ANTI-D.E.I.

U.S. removal of cemetery panels honoring Black World War II troops spurs anger in Netherlands

When Black soldiers came to Europe in the Second World War, ''what they found was people who accepted them, who welcomed them, who treated them as the heroes that they were. And that includes the Netherlands

December 30, 2025  / AP

Margraten, Netherlands — Ever since a U.S. military cemetery in the southern Netherlands removed two displays recognizing Black troops who helped liberate Europe from the Nazis, visitors have filled the guestbook with objections.

The guestbook at the American Cemetery in the village of Margraten, Netherlands, on Dec. 11, 2025, shows a message with an objection to the removal of two displays honoring Black soldiers who helped liberate Europe from the Nazis.

Molly Quell / AP

Sometime in the spring, the American Battle Monuments Commission, the U.S. government agency responsible for maintaining memorial sites outside the United States, removed the panels from the visitors center at the American Cemetery in Margraten, the final resting place for roughly 8,300 U.S. soldiers, set in rolling hills near the border with Belgium and Germany.

The move came after President Trump issued a series of executive orders ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs. "Our country will be woke no longer," he said in an address to Congress in March.

The removal, carried out without public explanation, has angered Dutch officials, the families of U.S. soldiers and the local residents who honor the American sacrifice by caring for the graves.

U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands Joe Popolo seemed to support the removal of the displays. "The signs at Margraten are not intended to promote an agenda that criticizes America," he wrote on social media following a visit to the cemetery after the controversy had erupted. Popolo declined a request for comment.


One display told the story of 23-year-old George H. Pruitt, a Black soldier buried at the cemetery, who died attempting to rescue a comrade from drowning in 1945. The other described the U.S. policy of racial segregation in place during World War II.

The sun sets over the graves of more than 8.300 WW II troops at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands, on Dec. 11, 2025, where the American Battle Monuments Commission removed two displays honoring Black liberators from the visitors center.Peter Dejong / AP

Some 1 million Black soldiers enlisted in the U.S. military during the war, serving in separate units, mostly doing menial tasks but also fighting in some combat missions. An all-Black unit dug the thousands of graves in Margraten during the brutal 1944-45 season of famine in the German-occupied Netherlands known in the Hunger Winter.

Cor Linssen, the 79-year-old son of a Black American soldier and a Dutch mother, is one of those who opposes the removal of the panels.

Linssen grew up some 30 miles (50 kilometers) away from the cemetery and although he didn't learn who his father was until later in life, he knew he was the son of a Black soldier.


"When I was born, the nurse thought something was wrong with me because I was the wrong color," he told The Associated Press. "I was the only dark child at school."

Linssen together with a group of other children of Black soldiers, now all in their 70s and 80s, visited the cemetery in February 2025 to see the panels.

"It's an important part of history," Linssen said. "They should put the panels back."

After months of mystery around the disappearance of the panels, two media organizations - the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and online media Dutch News - this month published emails obtained through a U.S. Freedom of Information Act request showing that Trump's DEI policies directly prompted the commission to take down the panels.

The White House did not respond to queries from AP about the removed panels.

The American Battle Monuments Commission did not respond to queries from AP about the revelations. Earlier, the ABMC told the AP that the panel that discussed segregation "did not fall within (the) commemorative mission.''

It also said that the panel about Pruitt was "rotated" out. The replacement panel features Leslie Loveland, a white soldier killed in Germany in 1945, who is buried at Margraten.

Chair of the Black Liberators foundation and Dutch senator Theo Bovens said his organization, which pushed for the inclusion of the panels at the visitors center, was not informed that they were removed. He told AP it is "strange" that the U.S. commission feels the panels are not in their mission, as they placed them in 2024.

"Something has changed in the United States," he said.

Bovens, who is from the region around Margraten, is one of thousands of locals who tend to the graves at the cemetery. People who adopt a grave visit it regularly and leave flowers on the fallen soldier's birthday and other holidays. The responsibility is often passed down through Dutch families, and there is a waiting list to adopt graves of the U.S. soldiers.

Both the city and the province where the cemetery is located have demanded the panels be returned. In November, a Dutch television program recreated the panels and installed them outside the cemetery, where they were quickly removed by police. The show is now seeking a permanent location for them.

The Black Liberators is also looking to find a permanent location for a memorial for the Black soldiers who gave their lives to free the Dutch.

On America Square, in front of the Eijsden-Margraten city hall, there is a small park named for Jefferson Wiggins, a Black solider who, at age 19, dug many of the graves at Margraten when he was stationed in the Netherlands.

In his memoir, published posthumously in 2014, he describes burying the bodies of his white comrades who he was barred from fraternizing with while they were alive.

When Black soldiers came to Europe in the Second World War, ''what they found was people who accepted them, who welcomed them, who treated them as the heroes that they were. And that includes the Netherlands,″ said Linda Hervieux, whose book "Forgotten" chronicles Black soldiers who fought on D-Day and segregation they faced back home.

The removal of the panels, she said, "follows a historical pattern of writing out the stories of men and women of color in the United States."

GLOBALIZATION 2.0

Tech giant Meta buys Chinese-founded AI firm Manus

Meta says ‘autonomous’ AI agent will help improve the lives of billions following rare deal amid US-China tech rivalry.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during an event at the Biohub Imaging Institute in Redwood City, California, on November 5, 2025 [File: Jeff Chiu/AP]

By John Power
30 Dec 2025

Tech giant Meta has announced it will buy artificial intelligence startup Manus in a rare crossover of US and Chinese technology amid Washington and Beijing’s heated tech rivalry.

Meta said the acquisition would see it take over the operation of Manus’s self-directing AI agent and integrate the technology into its own products.

Manus, which was founded in China in 2022 but relocated to Singapore earlier this year, bills its agent as a “virtual colleague” capable of “planning, executing, and delivering complete work products from start to finish”.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said the deal would bring one of the “leading autonomous general-purpose agents” to billions of people worldwide.

“Manus’s exceptional talent will join Meta’s team to deliver general-purpose agents across our consumer and business products, including in Meta AI,” the California-based firm said in a statement on Monday.

“We’re excited to welcome the Manus team and help improve the lives of billions of people and millions of businesses with their technology.”

Manus founder and CEO Xiao Hong hailed the deal as a retort to sceptics of autonomous AI.

“We were told it was too early, too ambitious, too hard. But we kept building. Through the doubts, the setbacks, and the countless nights wondering if we were chasing the impossible. We weren’t,” Xiao said on social media.

“The era of AI that doesn’t just talk, but acts, creates, and delivers, is only beginning,” Xiao added.

“And now, we get to build it at a scale we never could have imagined.”

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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Manus, which claims to have created more than 80 million virtual computers, generated major buzz in tech circles almost immediately following its launch in March, drawing comparisons to the frenzy that surrounded the arrival of the Chinese-developed chatbot DeepSeek.

Tech analysts have offered mixed assessments of Manus’s agent, whose capabilities include being able to create travel itineraries and analyse stocks with minimal human intervention.

Manus earlier this month announced that its annual recurring revenue had surpassed $100m, claiming to be the fastest startup in history to achieve the milestone.