Category Archives: US foreign policy

Bolsonaro supporters pray for Trump rescue as coup plot trial verdict nears

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Far-right ex-president’s devotees pin hopes on pressure campaign but tariffs and sanctions appear likely to fail

Each morning, Edite Costa steps out of her bungalow on Brasília’s sun-baked savannah, stands beneath a mango tree and lifts her hands to the sky in prayer. “I ask God to work so that not just Trump but all Americans come to help us rip out the evil that has taken hold of the country I love,” said the 66-year-old Baptist, who is a fervent supporter of Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro could face decades in jail for allegedly leading a murderous conspiracy to seize power after his leftwing rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat him in the 2022 presidential election. But Costa believes her populist leader can still be saved – if her prayers are answered and Donald Trump intervenes.

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Sheinbaum rejects US ‘invasion’ after Trump orders military to target Mexico cartels

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Mexico’s president says ‘there will be no invasion … it’s absolutely off the table’ after news reports of order

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has rejected the idea that the US might invade Mexico after news reports suggested Donald Trump had authorized the use of military force targeting drug cartels deemed terrorist organizations in Latin American countries.

“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with their military,” she said during a daily news conference on Friday. “We cooperate, we collaborate, but there will be no invasion. It’s off the table, absolutely off the table.”

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Top US diplomat in Brazil summoned to foreign ministry over Bolsonaro trial comments

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US embassy accused supreme court judge of persecuting ex-president, currently on trial for alleged coup attempt

Brazil’s foreign ministry has summoned the US chargé d’affaires after the embassy posted comments about the trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro, as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate.

On Thursday, the embassy published a social media post in Portuguese criticising the supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the cases against Bolsonaro, who is on trial over an alleged coup attempt.

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‘Freeze’ in Ukraine war may be close, says Tusk, as US and Russia plan talks

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Polish PM makes remarks after speaking with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, amid White House efforts to end the conflict

A “freeze” in the war in Ukraine may be close, the Polish prime minister said on Friday, as the White House and the Kremlin push forward with discussions for a high-level summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in the coming days.

Donald Tusk’s remarks came after he spoke with the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has communicated with Trump and European leaders in recent days as the White House continues to try to broker an end to the three-and-a-half-year war.

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Trump administration doubles reward for arrest of Venezuela’s president to $50m

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Nicolás Maduro was indicted in 2020 on federal charges of narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine

The Trump administration is doubling to $50m a reward for the arrest of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, accusing him of being one of the world’s largest narcotraffickers and working with cartels to flood the US with fentanyl-laced cocaine.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes,” Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said on Thursday in a video statement announcing the reward.

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US envoy Steve Witkoff meets Putin as Trump’s Ukraine deadline approaches

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Talks between Trump’s negotiator and Russian president lasted about three hours as US pushes for peace deal

Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff spent three hours in the Kremlin talking to Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, two days before a deadline the US president set for Russia to reach a peace deal in the Ukraine war or face fresh sanctions.

It was not immediately clear whether any agreement had been reached during the talks, which Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov described as “useful and constructive”. Ushakov said that it was only after Witkoff reported back to Trump that it would be possible to say more about the outcome of the meeting.

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US steps up efforts to help Bolsonaro avoid jail over alleged coup plot

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State department condemns judge’s decision to place former Brazil president under house arrest as trial proceeds

The US has intensified its campaign to help Jair Bolsonaro avoid punishment for allegedly masterminding a failed coup, with the state department denouncing the decision to place Brazil’s former president under house arrest.

“Let Bolsonaro speak!” the department’s bureau of western hemisphere affairs tweeted on Monday night after the far-right populist was confined to his mansion in the capital, Brasília, and police seized his mobile phone.

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Speaker Mike Johnson visits occupied West Bank to support Israeli settlers

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Palestinian foreign ministry condemns Republican visit for ‘undermining efforts to stop the war and cycle of violence’

Mike Johnson became the highest ranked US official to visit the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Republican House speaker drawing measures of praise and condemnation for his trip in support of Israeli settlements amid a worsening starvation crisis in Gaza.

The excursion followed Johnson’s arrival in Israel on Sunday on an unannounced visit with other Republican lawmakers, and his meeting with Israeli defense minister Israel Katz and foreign minister Gideon Saar.

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Trump’s demand that India stop buying Russian oil puts Modi in tight spot

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Prime minister faces a choice between high tariffs or giving up cheap oil, putting New Delhi’s non-alignment policy under severe strain

The relationship between India and the US is facing one of its most significant challenges in decades, as the Trump administration doubles down on its demands that India stop buying Russian oil or face punitive tariffs.

The US president, Donald Trump, has refused to cut tariffs on Indian exports to the US, as he has for other countries, and on Monday said he would significantly raise them over its purchases of cheap Russian oil, which now account for one-third of its imported oil.

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Swiss president under fire after Trump call leads to US tariffs shock

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Karin Keller-Sutter accused of mishandling talks as shares dive after Switzerland hit with 39% tariff

The Swiss stock market has plunged, the cabinet has been holding emergency talks and President Karin Keller-Sutter has been accused of mishandling a vital phone call with the White House after Donald Trump hit the country with a shock 39% export tariff.

Switzerland, home to some of the world’s best-known luxury brands, was left stunned after the US president on Friday imposed one of the highest tariff rates in his global trade reset. Industry associations warned that tens of thousands of jobs were at risk.

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Hamas releases second video of Israeli hostage and says it will not disarm until Palestinian state established

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Family of Evyatar David condemn video as protesters in Tel Aviv call for a deal to be made to return hostages

Hamas has reaffirmed that it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established, as the group released its second video in two days of an Israeli hostage.

Responding to one of the key Israeli demands to end the war in Gaza, Hamas – which has dominated the territory since 2007 – said it could not yield its right to “armed resistance” unless an “independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital” is established.

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Durham disclosures further undermine Gabbard’s claims of plot against Trump

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Declassified document contains deflating conclusion for DNI director that Russian spies were behind key 2016 emails

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of US national intelligence, hoped to uncover evidence that Barack Obama and his national security team conspired to undermine Donald Trump in a slow-motion coup.

But if her crusade was aimed at proving that Obama embarked on a “treasonous conspiracy” to falsely show that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump, Gabbard made a mistake. A previously classified annexe to a report by another special counsel, John Durham – appointed towards the end of Trump’s first presidency – has further undermined Gabbard’s case.

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Durham disclosures further undermine Gabbard’s claims of plot against Trump

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Declassified document contains deflating conclusion for DNI director that Russian spies were behind key 2016 emails

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of US national intelligence, hoped to uncover evidence that Barack Obama and his national security team conspired to undermine Donald Trump in a slow-motion coup.

But if her crusade was aimed at proving that Obama embarked on a “treasonous conspiracy” to falsely show that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump, Gabbard made a mistake. A previously classified annexe to a report by another special counsel, John Durham – appointed towards the end of Trump’s first presidency – has further undermined Gabbard’s case.

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Putin offers no hint of concessions as he says he wants ‘stable’ peace in Ukraine

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Russian president’s remarks come as Kyiv rescuers find more than a dozen dead in apartment block after strikes

Vladimir Putin has said he wants a “lasting and stable peace” in Ukraine but given no indication that he is willing to make any concessions to achieve it, after a week in which Russian missiles and drones again caused death and destruction across Ukraine.

“We need a lasting and stable peace on solid foundations that would satisfy both Russia and Ukraine, and would ensure the security of both countries,” said Putin, speaking to journalists on Friday, a week before a new deadline imposed by Donald Trump for hostilities to cease.

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‘Classic tinpot dictator’: Trump exports his assault on democracy to Brazil

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US president seems to be weaponizing tariffs to punish Brazil for its coup trial against his ally Bolsonaro

Over the past six months, Donald Trump has been accused of rapidly dragging the largest democracy in the Americas towards authoritarianism. Now, the US president seems bent on undermining the region’s second largest democracy too.

Since early July, Trump has launched an extraordinary attack on Brazil’s institutions, slapping 50% tariffs on imports from the South American country and sanctions on a supreme court judge – partly in retribution for what he called the political persecution of his ally, Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly masterminding a failed coup.

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Taiwan president scraps Latin America trip amid reports the US opposed stopover in New York

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The Taiwanese government insists Lai Ching-te’s visit was delayed due to domestic issues, including natural disasters and tariff negotiations

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te will delay an expected trip to his country’s remaining allies in Latin America, amid conflicting accounts of the reason for the postponement.

Lai was expected to travel to the Americas next month, as his government seeks to shore up support in a region where many countries have cut diplomatic ties in favour of relations with China, which claims Taiwan as its territory.

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Overnight strikes on Ukraine kill 25 as Trump sets Russia new truce deadline

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Missile attack on prison in frontline region of Zaporizhzhia kills 16 as Kyiv hopes for US action against Moscow

Russia launched one of its deadliest night assaults on Ukraine for months in the early hours of Tuesday, the day after Donald Trump said he was setting a new deadline of “10 or 12 days” for Russia to make progress towards ending the war or face new sanctions.

A series of Russian strikes across the country killed at least 25 people, Ukrainian officials said, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates. About 100 people were injured across the country.

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Trump ‘caught off guard’ by Israeli strikes on Syria last week

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The White House confirmed that Trump called Netanyahu to ‘rectify’ the situation after ongoing clashes in the city of Sweida

Donald Trump was “caught off guard” by Israeli strikes on Syria last week, the White House has said, adding that the US president called Benjamin Netanyahu to “rectify” the situation.

Israel launched strikes on the capital Damascus and the southern Druze-majority city of Sweida last week, saying it aimed to put pressure on the Syrian government to withdraw its troops from the region amid ongoing clashes there.

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Zelenskyy accuses Russia of ‘assault on humanity’ after latest drone barrage

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Germany vows to expedite delivery of Patriot systems as drone strikes Kyiv metro station sheltering civilians

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of “an assault on humanity” after a barrage of drones and missiles hit Ukraine, as Germany promised to supply five Patriot air-defence systems to help an under-pressure Kyiv.

Ukraine’s president said Moscow had launched more than 420 drones and more than 20 missiles in its latest overnight attack, killing at least two people and targeting a metro station in the capital where people were sheltering.

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Israeli airstrike hits Sweida city in Syria as Bedouin tribes clash with Druze

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Conflict restarts in southern province as Druze groups reportedly target Bedouin villages in ‘revenge’ attacks

The Israeli military has carried out an airstrike on the outskirts of Sweida city as clashes between Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters intensified on Thursday night.

The clashes started a wave of tit-for-tat retaliatory violence earlier on in the day after Syrian government forces withdrew from Sweida.

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