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US President Donald Trump expressed his appreciation for the efforts of his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El Sisi for the mediation efforts between Hamas and the Israeli occupation to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, expressing his appreciation for bilateral relations between the two countries.In a message to the Egyptian President, Trump noted the repercussions of the war in Gaza on security and humanitarian conditions.He also said that the US was ready to launch a mediation between the State of Qatar and Ethiopia to resolve the dispute over the Nile water sharing that addresses the needs of all parties involved. He stressed that no country should unilaterally control the precious resources of the Nile. Related Story Source link
The White House announced some of the members of what it refers to as the Board of Peace, which, under President Donald Trump’s plan, will oversee the temporary administration of the Gaza Strip.In a statement, the White House said the names include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Private Equity billionaire Marc Rowan, President of the World Bank Group Ajay Banga, and Trump adviser Robert Gabriel. Former United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov will assume the role of High Representative for Gaza, noting that additional members will be announced in the coming weeks.Trump’s plan, unveiled late last year, which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian technocratic authority under the supervision of what it termed an international Board of Peace to oversee the administration of Gaza during a transitional period, indicates that the US president himself would chair the council.The statement did not specify the responsibilities of each member, but it did include the appointment of Major General Jasper Jeffers, the former commander of US special operations, as commander of the international stabilization force in the territory. Related Story Source link
Portugal announced yesterday a “temporary” closure of its embassy in Tehran, citing a “context of tension”, and advised its nationals not to travel to Iran. Portugal’s foreign ministry said in a statement that eight Portuguese citizens had already left Iran, and others were preparing to do the same. Another 10 Portuguese passport holders, including seven dual nationals, had decided to remain in the country, the ministry said. On Wednesday the British embassy in Tehran was temporarily closed. “We have temporarily closed the British embassy in Tehran, this will now operate remotely. Foreign Office travel advice has now been updated to reflect this consular change,” a UK government spokesperson said.Britain’s ambassador and all consular staff were evacuated based on a security assessment and a decision to prioritise staff safety, a British official said. – AFP/Reuters Source link
US. President Donald Trump is closely monitoring the situation on the ground in Iran, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said yesterday, adding Trump and his team have warned Tehran there would be “grave consequences” if — according to Washington — killings linked to its crackdown continue. It also imposed sanctions yesterday on Iranian security officials and financial networks, accusing them of orchestrating a violent crackdown on peaceful protests and laundering billions in oil revenues. Among those sanctioned is Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council for National Security, whom Washington accused of coordinating the crackdown and calling for force against protesters. Four regional commanders of Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces and Revolutionary Guard were also sanctioned for their roles in the crackdown in Lorestan and Fars provinces. Source link
US President Donald Trump has announced the formation of a Gaza Peace Council, a body outlined in a US-backed plan aimed at ending the war in the territory.In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said it was a great honor to announce that the council had been formed, adding that the list of its members would be revealed soon.He described it as the greatest and most distinguished council ever formed at any time or place. Trump said that, in his capacity as head of the Peace Council, he supports the newly appointed Palestinian technocratic committee and the national committee tasked with administering Gaza during a transitional period.He added that these Palestinian leaders were firmly committed to a peaceful future. The announcement comes shortly after the formation of a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee to manage Gaza in the post-war period. The US-backed Gaza peace plan came into effect on October 10 and includes provisions for the deployment of an international stabilization force in the territory, as well as the training of Palestinian police units.According to the US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, the second phase of the plan, which entered into force on Wednesday, focuses on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Source link
Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan looks on as he addresses the audience during a press briefing meeting to review the past year and to…
A Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF) Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules is parked on the tarmac at Nuuk international airport Thursday. (AFP) A European military mission was taking shape in Greenland Thursday, drawing a sharp rebuke from Russia, as Denmark said Washington still aimed to take control of the mineral-rich Arctic island.Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen insisted meanwhile that “dialogue and diplomacy are the right way forward”, hailing in a Facebook post the fact that a dialogue was now “underway”.The developments came a day after a White House meeting failed to resolve “fundamental disagreement” over Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory that President Donald Trump insists the United States needs to ensure its security.Two Danish troop transport planes landed in Greenland on Wednesday.Britain, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have also announced the deployment of military personnel as part of a reconnaissance mission to Greenland’s capital Nuuk, under Denmark’s “Arctic Endurance” exercise organised with NATO allies.The modest military reinforcements – 13 soldiers from Germany, for example – are meant to prepare armed forces for future exercises in the Arctic, according to European defence sources.”A first team of French service members is already on site and will be reinforced in the coming days with land, air, and maritime assets,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday.Germany’s defence ministry said the aim was to “explore the framework conditions for possible military contributions to support Denmark in ensuring security in the region”.’NATO consensus’The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Wednesday.Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement Thursday that “a working group” was being set up to discuss how Arctic security could be improved.”However, this does not change the fact that there is a fundamental disagreement, because the American ambition to take over Greenland remains intact,” Frederiksen said, hailing the arrival of European military personnel in Greenland.”There is consensus within the NATO alliance that a strengthened presence in the Arctic is crucial for European and North American security,” she said.Trump has argued that if the United States does not take Greenland, “China or Russia will”, deriding Danish efforts to increase security for Greenland as amounting to “two dogsleds”.Denmark says it has invested almost $14 billion in Arctic security.The Russian embassy in Belgium, where NATO is headquartered, said the arrival of NATO forces to Greenland was concerning.”The situation unfolding in the high latitudes is of serious concern to us,” the embassy said in a statement late Wednesday.NATO is “building up its military presence there under the false pretext of a growing threat from Moscow and Beijing”, it added.’Frightening’On the streets of Nuuk, where red and white Greenlandic flags fly in shop windows, on apartment balconies and on cars and buses in a show of national unity, some residents have described anxiety over the geopolitical tensions.”It’s very frightening because it’s such a big thing,” said Vera Stidsen, a 51-year-old teacher.”I hope that in the future we can continue to live as we have until now: in peace and without being disturbed,” she told AFP.After attending the White House talks, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen posted Thursday on Facebook that “We agree on the objective: enhancing long term security in the Arctic. But we disagree on the method.””This is 2026 – you can trade with people, but you don’t trade people.”After the meeting, Trump for the first time sounded conciliatory on Greenland, acknowledging Denmark’s interests even if he again said he was not ruling out any options.”I think something will work out,” Trump said.Trump has insisted Greenland is “vital” for his planned “Golden Dome” air and missile defence system, as it lies on the shortest route for missiles between Russia and the United States. Related Story Source link
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney and China’s Premier Li Qiang review the honour guard at an official welcoming ceremony, during the first visit by a Canadian…
US President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces in Minnesota after days of angry protests over a surge in immigration agents on the streets of Minneapolis.Confrontations between residents and federal officers have become increasingly tense after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot a US citizen, Renee Good, in a car eight days ago in Minneapolis, and the protests have spread to other cities.Trump’s latest threat came a few hours after an immigration officer shot a Venezuelan man that the government said was fleeing after agents tried to stop his vehicle in Minneapolis.”If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT,” Trump wrote on social media.Trump, a Republican, has for weeks derided the state’s Democratic leaders and called the Somali community in the area “garbage” who should be “thrown out” of the country.He has already sent nearly 3,000 federal officers into the Minneapolis area, who have carried guns through the city’s icy streets, wearing military-style camouflage gear and masks that hide their faces.They have been met frequently by loud, often angry protests by residents, some blowing whistles or banging tambourines.The agents have arrested both immigrants and protesters, at times smashing windows and pulling people from their cars, and have been shouted at for several episodes where they have stopped black and Latino US citizens and demanded identification.The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is overseeing Trump’s immigration crackdown, said that just before Wednesday’s shooting, two people attacked the federal officer with a broomstick and snow shovel as he wrestled with the Venezuelan man on the ground outside a home he had been running towards.The officer “fired defensive shots to defend his life”, the DHS statement said.The DHS said the man had been allowed into the US by the administration of Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, in 2022 through the government’s humanitarian parole programme.The Trump administration, which has sought to revoke Biden-era immigration and asylum programmes, accused him of being in the country illegally.Reuters was not able to verify the account given by the DHS.Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters at a late-night press conference that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were gathering evidence from the scene.The man’s injuries were not life-threatening and he was recovering in hospital, O’Hara said.Speaking alongside O’Hara, Mayor Jacob Frey called the ICE surge an invasion and said he had seen “conduct from ICE that is disgusting and is intolerable”.”We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two governmental entities that are literally fighting one another,” Frey said.The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a law allowing the president to deploy the military or federalise soldiers in a state’s National Guard to quell rebellion, an exception to laws that prohibit soldiers being used in civil or criminal law enforcement.It has been used 30 times in US history, according to New York University’s Brennan Centre for Justice.The Supreme Court has ruled that the president alone can determine if the act’s conditions have been met.However, so far Trump has stopped short of resorting to the law as he presses an agenda that has drawn accusations of authoritarian overreach and periodic mass rallies with the mantra “No Kings”.Tge president has already taken the unusual step of federalising National Guard soldiers to help with immigration law enforcement in Democrat-run cities over the objections of state governors, including in Los Angeles last year, which a judge ruled in December was unconstitutional.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, addressing reporters outside the White House, declined to say if she thinks Trump should invoke the law.”I think that the President has that opportunity in the future. It’s his constitutional right, and it’s up to him if he wants to utilise it to do it,” Noem said.Asked if Trump is likely to take this major step, she said: “I don’t know.”The Insurrection Act was last invoked in 1992 by [resident George HW Bush at the request of the Republican governor of California, who was facing unprecedented riots in Los Angeles following the acquittal of police officers who had beaten Rodney King, a black motorist, the previous year.If Trump sends soldiers to Minnesota, he would almost certainly face legal challenges by the state.The Minnesota attorney-general’s office has already sued the Trump administration this week, saying that the ICE surge was violating Minnesotans’ rights, and on Wednesday asked US District Judge Kate Menendez to issue a temporary order restraining it.Brian Carter, a lawyer for Minnesota, told the judge that Trump’s agents were engaged in a “pattern of unlawful, violent conduct”, including racial profiling and forced entry into residents’ homes without warrants.”They are foisting this crisis onto us,” Carter said.In a social media post Thursday morning, Trump said incorrectly that the judge had “declined to block” the ICE surge.In the hearing, Judge Menendez ordered the Trump administration to respond by Monday to Minnesota’s complaints, saying that she would rule after that, calling the issues raised by Minnesota’s lawsuit “enormously important”.”They deal with the very fundamental relationships between the government and the state and municipalities,” she said. 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French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with soldiers after delivering his New Year’s address to the armed forces at the Istres military air force base, southern…