At least 200 people were killed earlier this week when heavy rains triggered a series of catastrophic landslides at the Rubaya coltan mine in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The site has been under the control of the M23 rebel group since 2024.
“It rained, a landslide followed, and it swept people away. Some were swallowed up, others died in the wells. Many are still trapped inside,” said miner Franck Bolingo.
A spokesperson for the rebel-appointed governor of North Kivu province, Lumumba Kambere Muyisa, said the victims include “miners, children and market women”.
He added that at least 20 injured people are being treated, some in local health facilities, while others will be transferred to Goma, the nearest city around 50 kilometres away.
With search and rescue operations still continuing, officials say the death toll is expected to rise.
Muyisa said the governor has temporarily halted artisanal mining on the site and ordered the relocation of residents who had built shelters near the mine.
Rubaya produces about 15 per cent of the world’s coltan which is processed into a hard metal used notably to make smartphones, computers, and aircraft engines.
The United Nations says M23 has plundered the mine’s riches to help fund its insurgency
Rubaya lies in the heart of mineral-rich eastern DRC which for decades has been ripped apart by violence between government forces and different armed groups.
Since its resurgence in 2021, the M23 group has taken vast tracts of the eastern DRC.
Despite a US-brokered deal between the Congolese and Rwandan governments and Kinshasa’s ongoing negotiations with the rebels, fighting continues on several fronts in the region. (AfricaNews)
Spain’s rail network is under scrutiny after a commuter train crashed near Barcelona just days after at least 43 people died and 152 were injured in a collision between two high-speed trains.
The second crash in three days occurred at approximately 9pm on Tuesday when a retaining wall collapsed onto the track near Gelida in the region of Catalonia in north-east Spain, derailing a local train.
A trainee driver, named as 27-year-old Fernando Huerta from Seville, was killed and 41 people were injured, five of whom are in a critical condition.
It is believed the wall collapsed as a result of the unusually heavy rainfall that Catalonia is experiencing. However, as a precaution the region’s network was shut down pending inspections, stranding hundreds of thousands of people and causing chaos on the roads.
Emergency responders work at the site of the train derailment accident in Gelida
Earlier in the day, several people were injured, none seriously, when a train on the Maresme coast north of Barcelona struck a rock on the track. After a delay, the train was able to continue its journey.
The incidents have prompted Spain’s biggest train drivers union to call for an indefinite strike to demand assurances for the profession’s safety.
“We are going to demand criminal liability from those responsible for ensuring safety in the railway infrastructure,” the Semaf union said in a statement on Wednesday. It said it could not accept “the constant deterioration of the rail network” and was calling for “urgent new measures”.
While the cause of Sunday night’s collision at Adamuz, near Córdoba in southern Spain, is not yet clear, the train’s black box recorder revealed that the driver of the high-speed train from Málaga to Madrid had warned the control centre that he was in trouble moments before.
The driver is heard saying: “I’ve got an enganchón [a snag] near Adamuz.” According to the train operator Adif, the issue referred to was related to the connection between the train’s operating system and the overhead power source. The control centre tells him to disconnect the train from the power source; the driver replies that he has already done so.
He tells the controller to stop all oncoming trains and is told there aren’t any, but only moments later the high-speed train collides with a regional train heading in the other direction. The driver is then heard saying the train has been derailed and calling for emergency services.
The two accidents have focused minds on the rail network – both the nearly 4,000km (2,485 miles) of the super-efficient high-speed AVE network, mostly built with EU funding, and the chronically unreliable and underfunded regional services.
The transport minister, Óscar Puente, stressed during an interview with the television station Telecinco that the two accidents were “completely unrelated”. But opposition parties have seized the opportunity to pile pressure on the government.
“This is too much,” the head of the rightwing Popular party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, wrote on X as he demanded an “immediate clarification” of the state of the nation’s railways.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday before the Barcelona-area crash, the far-right Vox party’s spokesperson Pepa Millán claimed Spaniards were now “afraid to get on a train”.
However, while the latest accidents raise concerns about safety, according to EU statistics Spain’s rail network is one of Europe’s safest. According to the same report, in 2024 a total of 16 passengers died in accidents on Europe’s rail networks, among them one passenger in Spain. During the same period there were 20,000 deaths on Europe’s roads. (Guardian)
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the alliance between Tokyo and Washington would collapse if Japan failed to act in the event of an attack on the U.S. military during a conflict in Taiwan.
Detailing the Japanese response to a hypothetical Taiwan crisis, Takaichi appeared to dial back on her remarks in November that suggested Tokyo could intervene militarily during a potential attack on the island.
That comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the democratic island as its own territory.
Ahead of a snap election in February, Takaichi was asked during a news program Monday about her remarks in November that suggested Tokyo could intervene militarily during a potential attack on Taiwan.
Takaichi pointed out that in the event of conflict, Japan and the United States might jointly conduct an evacuation operation to rescue Japanese and American nationals.
“If the U.S. military, acting jointly with Japan, comes under attack and Japan does nothing and runs home, the Japan-U.S. alliance will collapse,” she said on the TV Asahi program.
“If something serious happens there, we would have to go to rescue the Japanese and American citizens in Taiwan. In that situation, there may be cases where Japan and the U.S. take joint action,” the prime minister said.
She added: “We will respond strictly within the bounds of the law, making a comprehensive judgment based on the circumstances.”
In the wake of Takaichi’s comments in November, China has discouraged its nationals from traveling to Japan, citing deteriorating public security and criminal acts against Chinese nationals in the country.
Beijing is reportedly also choking off exports to Japan of rare-earth products crucial for making everything from electric cars to missiles. (JapanToday)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about European troops staying off the front lines in Afghanistan insulting and appalling, joining a chorus of criticism from other European officials and veterans.
“I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling, and I’m not surprised they’ve caused such hurt for the loved ones of those who were killed or injured,” Starmer told reporters.
When asked whether he would demand an apology from the U.S. leader, Starmer said: “If I had misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologize.”
Britain lost 457 service personnel killed in Afghanistan, its deadliest overseas war since the 1950s. For several of the war’s most intense years it led the allied campaign in Helmand, Afghanistan’s biggest and most violent province, while also fighting as the main U.S. battlefield ally in Iraq.
Starmer’s remarks were notably strong coming from a leader who has tended to avoid direct criticism of Trump in public.
Trump told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” on Thursday the United States had “never needed” the transatlantic alliance and accused allies of staying “a little off the front lines” in Afghanistan.
His remarks added to already strained relations with European allies after he used the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos to again signal his interest in acquiring Greenland.
Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel condemned Trump’s remarks on Afghanistan, calling them untrue and disrespectful.
Britain’s Prince Harry, who served in Afghanistan, also weighed in. “Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect,” he said in a statement.
“We expect an apology for this statement,” Roman Polko, a retired Polish general and former special forces commander who also served in Afghanistan and Iraq, told Reuters in an interview.
Trump has “crossed a red line”, he added. “We paid with blood for this alliance. We truly sacrificed our own lives.”
Britain’s veterans minister, Alistair Carns, whose own military service included five tours including alongside American troops in Afghanistan, called Trump’s claims “utterly ridiculous”.
“We shed blood, sweat and tears together. Not everybody came home,” he said in a video posted on X.
Richard Moore, the former head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence service, said he, like many MI6 officers, had operated in dangerous environments with “brave and highly esteemed” CIA counterparts and had been proud to do so with Britain’s closest ally.
Under NATO’s founding treaty, members are bound by a collective-defense clause, Article 5, which treats an attack on one member as an attack on all.
It has been invoked only once – after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, when allies pledged to support the United States. For most of the war in Afghanistan, the U.S.-led force there was under NATO command.
Some politicians noted that Trump had avoided the draft for the Vietnam War, citing bone spurs in his feet.
“Trump avoided military service 5 times,” Ed Davey, leader of Britain’s centrist Liberal Democrats, wrote on X. “How dare he question their sacrifice.”
Poland’s sacrifice “will never be forgotten and must not be diminished”, Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
Trump’s comments were “ignorant”, said Rasmus Jarlov, an opposition Conservative Party member of Denmark’s parliament.
In addition to the British deaths, more than 150 Canadians were killed in Afghanistan, along with 90 French service personnel and scores from Germany, Italy and other countries. Denmark – now under heavy pressure from Trump to transfer its semi-autonomous region of Greenland to the U.S. – lost 44 troops, one of NATO’s highest per-capita death rates.
The United States lost about 2,460 troops in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, a figure on par per capita with those of Britain and Denmark. (JapanToday)
A Border Patrol agent shot and killed a man in Minneapolis on Saturday, local and federal officials said, the second such incident this month during a surge in immigration enforcement in the northern U.S. city that residents and local politicians have fiercely protested.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the Border Patrol agent fired in defense after attempting to disarm a man local police said was a U.S. citizen. Federal officials said the man who was shot approached them with a handgun and two magazines.
“This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official leading local operations, said at a press conference. He said his agents had been searching for an immigrant before the shooting. Bovino did not provide details of what led to the shooting, which he said was being investigated.
Tensions are rising between Democratic state and local officials who say the presence of thousands of immigration agents has made the Minneapolis area less safe, and President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders, who accuse Democrats of fanning opposition and failing to protect immigration agents.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the man killed on Saturday was a 37-year-old city resident and a lawful gun owner with no criminal record other than traffic violations. O’Hara did not release the man’s name.
A video circulating on social media and aired on cable news stations showed people wearing masks and tactical vests wrestling with a man on a snow-covered street before shots are heard. In the video, the man falls to the ground, and several more shots are heard.
Video from the area later showed armed and masked agents deploying tear gas on a growing crowd of protesters, who chanted “shame” and called them “traitors.”
Local and state police arrived to face off against the crowd as federal agents left the scene.
O’Hara asked people to avoid the area and said the site of the shooting was a “volatile scene.”
“Please do not destroy our city,” he said.
The nearby Minneapolis Institute of Art said it had closed for the day due to safety concerns.
Hours later, after federal agents appeared to have left the scene, the situation appeared to have calmed, though chanting protesters remained in the area.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called for an immediate end to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations in the state.
“How many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?” Frey said at a press conference.
The state’s governor and two U.S. senators also called for federal agents to leave.
Trump, who has been briefed on the shooting, according to a White House official, accused local elected officials of stirring up opposition.
“The Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric,” he wrote on social media.
The shooting came one day after more than 10,000 people took to the frigid streets to protest the presence of the 3,000 federal agents who have been ordered to the state by Trump.
Residents have been angered by several incidents, including the killing of U.S. citizen Renee Good, the detention of a U.S. citizen who was taken from his home in his shorts, and the detention of school children, including a 5-year-old boy.
Vice President JD Vance, who visited Minneapolis on Thursday, posted on social media Saturday that ICE agents wanted to work with local law enforcement “so that situations on the ground didn’t get out of hand. The local leadership in Minnesota has so far refused to answer those requests.” (JapanToday)
Major European Union states including Germany and France decried U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats over Greenland as blackmail on Sunday, as France proposed responding with a range of untested economic countermeasures.
Trump vowed on Saturday to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on EU members Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, along with Britain and Norway, until the U.S. is allowed to buy Greenland.
All eight countries, already subject to U.S. tariffs of 10% and 15%, have sent small numbers of military personnel to Denmark’s vast Arctic island, as a row with the United States over its future escalates.
“Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral,” they said in a joint statement.
The Danish exercise in Greenland was designed to strengthen Arctic security and posed no threat to anyone, they said, adding that they were ready to engage in dialogue, based on principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement she was pleased with the consistent messages from other states, adding: “Europe will not be blackmailed”, a view echoed by Germany’s finance minister and Sweden’s prime minister.
“It’s blackmail what he’s doing,” Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said on Dutch television of Trump’s threat.
Cyprus, holder of the rotating six-month EU presidency, summoned ambassadors to an emergency meeting in Brussels late on Sunday as EU leaders stepped up contacts.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, visiting his Norwegian counterpart in Oslo, said Denmark would continue to focus on diplomacy, referring to an agreement Denmark, Greenland and the U.S. made on Wednesday to set up a working group.
“Even though we are now being confronted with these threats, we will naturally try to stay on that path,” Rasmussen said.
“The U.S. is also more than the U.S. president. I’ve just been there. There are also checks and balances in American society.” he added.
Meanwhile, a source close to Emmanuel Macron said the French President was pushing to activate the Anti-Coercion Instrument, which could limit access to public tenders, investments or banking activity or restrict trade in services, in which the U.S. has a surplus with the bloc, including digital services.
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said that while there should be no doubt the EU would retaliate, it was “a bit premature” to activate the instrument.
And Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is closer to the U.S. President than some other EU leaders, described the tariff threat on Sunday as “a mistake”, adding she had spoken to Trump a few hours earlier and told him what she thought.
“He seemed interesting in listening,” she told a briefing with reporters during a trip to Korea.
British Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said allies needed to work with the United States to resolve the dispute.
“Our position on Greenland is non-negotiable … It is in our collective interest to work together and not to start a war of words,” she told Sky News.
The U.S. tariff threats call into question trade deals struck with Britain in May and the EU in July.
The limited agreements have already faced criticism about their lopsided nature, with the U.S. maintaining broad tariffs, while their partners are required to remove import duties.
The European Parliament looks likely now to suspend its work on the EU-U.S. trade deal. It had been due to vote on removing many EU import duties on January 26-27, but Manfred Weber, head of the European People’s Party, the largest group in parliament, said late on Saturday that approval was not possible for now.
German Christian Democrat lawmaker Juergen Hardt also mooted what he told Bild newspaper could be a last resort “to bring President Trump to his senses on the Greenland issue”, a boycott of the soccer World Cup that the U.S. is hosting this year. (JapanToday)
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday blamed President Donald Trump for weeks of demonstrations that rights groups said have led to more than 3,000 deaths.
“We consider the U.S. president criminal for the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted on the Iranian nation,” Khamenei said, according to Iranian state media.
The protests erupted on December 28 over economic hardship and swelled into widespread demonstrations calling for the end of clerical rule in the Islamic Republic.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene, including by threatening “very strong action” if Iran executed protesters.
But on Friday, in a social media post, he thanked Tehran’s leaders, saying they had called off mass hangings. Iran said there was “no plan to hang people”.
In comments that appeared to respond to Trump, Khamenei said: “We will not drag the country into war, but we will not let domestic or international criminals go unpunished,” state media reported.
Iran’s ultimate authority Khamenei said “several thousand deaths” had happened during the nationwide protests, which are Iran’s worst unrest in years. He accused Iran’s longtime enemies the U.S. and Israel of organizing the violence.
“Those linked to Israel and the U.S. caused massive damage and killed several thousand,” he said, adding that they started fires, destroyed public property and incited chaos. They “committed crimes and a grave slander,” he said.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, said it had verified 3,090 deaths, including 2,885 protesters, and over 22,000 arrests.
Last week, Iran’s prosecutor general said detainees would face severe punishment. Those held included people who “aided rioters and terrorists attacking security forces and public property” and “mercenaries who took up arms and spread fear among citizens,” he said.
“All perpetrators are mohareb,” state media quoted Mohammad Movahedi Azad as saying, adding that investigations would be conducted “without leniency, mercy or tolerance”.
Mohareb, an Islamic legal term meaning to wage war against God, is punishable by death under Iranian law.
Reuters has not been able to independently verify the numbers of casualties or details of disturbances reported by Iranian media and rights groups. The crackdown appears to have broadly quelled protests, according to residents and state media.
Getting information has been complicated by internet blackouts, which were partly lifted for a few hours early on Saturday. But internet monitoring group NetBlocks said the blackout seemed to have been reimposed late on Saturday.
“Internet connectivity continues to flatline in #Iran despite a minor short-lived bump in access earlier today,” NetBlocks said on X. “As the shutdown enters day ten, confusion surrounds whether the regime intends to restore service soon, or at all.”
A resident of Karaj, west of Tehran, reached by phone via WhatsApp, said he noticed the internet was back at 4 a.m. on Saturday. Karaj experienced some of the most severe violence during the protests. The resident, who asked not to be identified, said Thursday was the peak of the unrest there.
A few Iranians overseas said earlier on social media that they had also been able to message users in Iran early on Saturday.
State media has reported the arrest of thousands of “rioters and terrorists” across the country, including people linked to opposition groups abroad that advocate the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.
The arrests included several people Iranian state media described as “ringleaders”, including a woman named as Nazanin Baradaran, who was taken into custody following “complex intelligence operations”.
The reports said that Baradaran operated under the pseudonym Raha Parham on behalf of Reza Pahlavi – the exiled son of Iran’s last shah – and had played a leading role in organizing the unrest. Reuters could not verify the report or her identity.
Pahlavi, a longtime opposition figure, has positioned himself as a potential leader in the event of regime collapse and has said he would seek to re-establish diplomatic ties between Iran and Israel if he were to assume a leadership role in the country.
Israeli officials have expressed support for Pahlavi. In a rare public disclosure this month, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio that Israel had operatives “on the ground” in Iran.
He said they aimed to weaken Iran’s capabilities, though he denied they were directly working to topple the leadership. (JapanToday)
Should foreign tourists pay more for state-funded galleries than locals, or should art be accessible to all, without discrimination? France is hiking prices for non-Europeans at the Louvre this week, provoking debate about so-called “dual pricing”.
From Wednesday, any adult visitor from outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway will have to pay 32 euros ($37) to enter the Louvre — a 45-percent increase — while the Palace of Versailles will up its prices by three euros.
Americans, UK citizens and Chinese nationals, who are some of the museum’s most numerous foreign visitors, will be among those affected, as will tourists from poorer countries.
The French move has few precedents elsewhere in Europe, but is more common in developing countries, where tariffs at sites such as Machu Picchu in Peru or the Taj Mahal in India vary.
Trade unions at the Louvre have denounced the policy as “shocking philosophically, socially and on a human level” and have called for strike action over the change, along with a raft of other complaints.
They argue that the museum’s vast collection of 500,000 items, including many from Egypt, the Middle East or Africa, hold universal human value.
While rejecting discriminatory pricing on principle, they are also worried for practical reasons, as staff will now need to check visitors’ identity papers.
French academic Patrick Poncet has drawn a parallel between France’s move and the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration hiked the cost for foreign tourists of visiting U.S. National Parks by $100 on January 1.
The French policy was “symptomatic of the return, as elsewhere in the world, of unabashed nationalism”, Poncet wrote in Le Monde newspaper last month.
Other state-owned French tourist hotspots are also hiking their fees, including the Chambord Palace in the Loire region and the national opera house in Paris.
The government has justified the increases on financial grounds, looking to raise 20-30 million euros annually at a time when it is under pressure to boost revenues and cut spending.
Some of the funds will go towards a colossal plan to renovate the Louvre, which French President Emmanuel Macron announced last year.
Estimated to cost around a billion euros, unions and some art critics have called the project wasteful.
Everyone agrees the Louvre is in poor shape, however, with a recent water leak, structural problems and an embarrassing daylight robbery in October focusing minds.
“I want visitors from outside the EU to pay more for their entry tickets and for that surcharge to go toward funding the renovation of our national heritage,” Culture Minister Rachida Dati said at the end of 2024 as she announced the hikes.
“The French are not meant to pay for everything all by themselves,” she added.
It remains to be seen whether the break with European convention by the continent’s most-visited country will spur other cultural destinations to follow suit.
Pricing based on age is commonplace in Europe, with access for under-18s free at places such as the Acropolis in Athens, the Prado in Madrid or the Colosseum in Rome to encourage them to visit.
The Louvre will remain free for minors from all countries and Europeans under 26.
Other destinations, such as the Doge’s Palace in Venice, offer free entrance for city residents.
Britain has long had a policy of offering universal free access to permanent collections at its national galleries and museums.
But the former director of the British Museum, Mark Jones, backed fee-paying in one of his last interviews in charge, telling The Sunday Times newspaper in 2024 that “it would make sense for us to charge overseas visitors for admission”.
The proposal prompted debate but has not been adopted.
A research paper published last year by The Cultural Policy Unit, a British museum think tank, opposed it for both practical and philosophical reasons.
It would reduce entries, lengthen queue times and overturn a centuries-old policy, the report concluded.
“Britain holds its national collections for the world — not just its own residents,” it objected. (JapanToday)
US President Donald Trump on Saturday escalated his quest to acquire Greenland, threatening multiple European nations with tariffs of up to 25 percent until his purchase of the Danish territory is achieved.
Trump aimed his ire at Denmark, a fellow NATO member, as well as several European countries that have deployed troops in recent days to the vast, mineral-rich territory at the gateway to the Arctic with a population of 57,000.
If realized, Trump’s threats against Washington’s NATO partners would create unprecedented tension within the alliance.
From February 1, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland would be subject to a 10-percent tariff on all goods sent to the United States, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.
“On June 1st, 2026, the Tariff will be increased to 25%. This Tariff will be due and payable until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland,” he wrote.
“These Countries, who are playing this very dangerous game, have put a level of risk in play that is not tenable or sustainable,” Trump said.
“Therefore, it is imperative that, in order to protect Global Peace and Security, strong measures be taken so that this potentially perilous situation end quickly, and without question.”
It was not immediately clear what authority the US leader would invoke to impose the threatened tariffs of up to 25 percent.
Since returning to the presidency, Trump has unleashed sweeping tariffs on goods from virtually all trading partners, to address what Washington says are unfair trade practices and as a tool to press governments on US concerns. (Vanguard)
Scott Adams, the creator of the popular comic strip “Dilbert,” has died, according to an announcement on his social media pages.
Adams, who was 68, announced in May that he’d been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
“Dilbert,” a chronicle of the indignities of American office work, was one of the country’s most widely read comic strips from its breakout success in the 1990s until February 2023, when Adams made racist comments against Black Americans, calling them a “hate group” that white people should “get the hell away from,” in response to a dubious poll about whether it’s “OK to be white.” Hundreds of newspapers stopped carrying “Dilbert” within days, and the strip was soon dropped by its distributor.
Adams, also a longtime outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, began self-publishing the strip, in a “spicier version” called “Dilbert Reborn,” on his website for a subscription fee. He stopped personally drawing “Dilbert” in November 2025 due to cramping and partial paralysis in his hands, he said, though he continued to write scripts and have them illustrated for him.
Adams’ ex-wife Shelly Miles announced his death on Tuesday’s episode of the livestream “Coffee with Scott Adams,” which he hosted daily until his death, with a written statement from Adams.
“I had an amazing life,” Scott Adams wrote in the statement, composed on New Year’s Day. “I gave it everything I had. If I get any benefits from my work, I’m asking that you pay it forward as best as you can. That’s the legacy I want. Be useful, and please know, I loved you all to the very end.”
Adams, a New York native, worked as a bank teller from 1979 until 1986, the same year he graduated with an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. (He was twice held at gunpoint as a teller, he wrote in the 20-year retrospective “Dilbert 2.0.”) He debuted “Dilbert” in 1989 while working as an engineer at the telephone company Pacific Bell, whose sterile setting and zany employees inspired his strip.
“For the future of ‘Dilbert,’ you could say that the group I was in was a target-rich environment,” he told EE Times, an electronics industry publication, in 2005.
“Dilbert” didn’t become a hit until a few years into its run, when Adams started to set most of its strips in his bespectacled office drone’s workplace. “It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do, but it worked,” he told the Associated Press when he won the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben award for the best comic strip of 1997.
He credited Dilbert’s blankness — his absence of visible eyes, for one, but also the lack of any particulars about his location or role at his company — with making the strip so popular.
“People have no reason to think it’s not just like their experience,” Adams told EE Times. “For instance, there are both engineers and programmers who are convinced Dilbert is one of them.”
And for decades, “Dilbert” was. Readers recognized their own upward-failing managers in Dilbert’s clueless “pointy-haired boss,” or identified with the everyman hero’s losing battle against incompetence in meetings with his dim coworkers. Adams included his email address in strips for years to gather stories from readers struggling in their own offices, material that “keeps me going,” he told the New Yorker in 2008.
Following the success of the strip, Adams felt unstoppable: “For a while, everything I touched turned to gold,” he told Bloomberg in 2017.
Confident in his ability to sell just about anything, he entered the food business, with much less success. In 1997, he opened a restaurant near his California home called Stacey’s Cafe. He eventually took over as boss at its sister location, where employees described him to the New York Times as “dramatically clueless about the harsh realities of the restaurant industry,” despite his years satirizing oblivious bosses. Both Stacey’s locations went “belly-up” sometime before 2017, Bloomberg reported.
He was also briefly the purveyor of the “Dilberito,” a frozen vegetarian burrito named for his cartoon and marketed as a nutrient-packed alternative to unhealthy microwavable meals. (The AV Club in 2020 remembered the product as “stomach-ruining.”) The Dilberito, launched in 1999, was discontinued in 2003. Adams told the New Yorker a few years later that “the world wasn’t interested in being healthy, so I got out of that business eventually.”
Adams started to become better known for his conservative politics when he began praising President Donald Trump in 2015, correctly predicting ahead of the 2016 election that Trump would win. Adams, who described himself as a “trained hypnotist,” said he found similarities between the persuasive methods of hypnosis and Trump’s rhetorical style.
He began blogging about Trump almost daily following the candidate’s 2015 debate against Hillary Clinton, and the new subject helped boost his readership, social media following (where he had a prolific presence up until his death) and TV news appearances.
“I could go on for pages about how Trump has good-but-not-world-class skills in a variety of areas,” he wrote on a now-defunct Dilbert blog, per Bloomberg. “And when you put all of those talents together it makes him the most persuasive human I have ever observed.”
His outspoken support for the president led to an invitation to the White House following Trump’s 2016 victory. The pair stayed in touch: In November, he publicly pleaded with the president for access to a new cancer treatment. Trump responded “on it.” Adams posted that he was scheduled to receive the drug two days after making the request, and he credited the Trump administration.
Adams began calling himself a “disgraced and canceled cartoonist” after “Dilbert” was pulled from syndication in 2023. His beliefs about race, though, had been visible well before that: In the 2005 EE Times interview, he said he “actually was told that as a Caucasian male, I had no future with the company,” referring to Pacific Bell, which he left in 1995, a few years after “Dilbert” debuted. He also wrote in “Dilbert 2.0” that the animated series based on his comic was canceled after two seasons because “the network made a strategic decision to focus on shows with African-American actors.” (CNN)
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