Category Archives: US foreign policy

US-Panama relationship was ‘very strong’. Then Trump upended the diplomatic playing board

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US had made inroads against Chinese influence in Panama, but Trump’s demands could help Beijing expand its regional power

When Panama’s then president Juan Carlos Varela was invited to the White House in June 2017, Donald Trump said the Panama canal was doing “pretty well” and described the bilateral relationship as “very strong”.

Just days earlier, Varela had broken ties with Taiwan to establish diplomatic relations with China, but there was no indication that this snub to a key US ally had clouded the meeting.

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‘Worst nightmare’: Egypt and Jordan put in impossible bind by Trump Gaza plan

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Though heavily dependent on US aid, Amman and Cairo face political calamity at home should they comply

International outrage in recent days has focused on Donald Trump’s proposal that the US take “ownership” of Gaza, and that more than two million Palestinians be displaced to allow the territory to be transformed from “a demolition site” into a “riviera” in the Middle East.

In Jordan and Egypt, the demand that both countries accept huge numbers of Palestinians from Gaza – potentially on a permanent basis – has prompted equal concern. Leaders of both countries immediately rejected the proposal, and the Jordanian king, Abdullah II, and the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, are heading to Washington in an attempt to convince Trump to change course.

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Trump doubles down on Gaza takeover proposal despite bipartisan opposition

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President says territory would be ‘turned over’ to US by Israel as it emerges idea was not discussed with aides

Donald Trump has restated his proposal to take over Gaza amid widespread opposition – even from his own supporters – saying the territory would be “turned over” to the US by Israel after it concludes its military offensive against Hamas.

Trump reinforced his commitment to the idea in a rambling post on his Truth Social network on Thursday, even as it emerged that the proposal – announced without warning during a White House visit by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister – was purely his own and had not been subject to detailed discussion with aides.

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Panama accuses US of peddling ‘intolerable falsehood’ about canal

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President José Raúl Mulino denies making a deal that US ships can transit the canal free of charge

The president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, has accused the US of peddling a “quite simply intolerable falsehood” about the Panama canal, as Donald Trump’s pledge to “take back” the waterway continued to poison relations between the two countries and cause alarm around Latin America.

The US state department claimed late on Wednesday the Central American country had agreed to no longer charge US government vessels to pass through its canal – a move that would supposedly save Washington millions of dollars a year.

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Rubio accuses South Africa of ‘anti-Americanism’ and snubs G20 meeting

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US secretary of state repeats remarks by Donald Trump about ‘expropriation of private property’ in African nation

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has accused South Africa of “anti-Americanism” and refused to attend a G20 meeting in Johannesburg later this month, as diplomatic ties sour between the two countries under Donald Trump’s administration.

Rubio made the announcement on X, where he repeated the US president’s unfounded claim that South Africa was expropriating private property.

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Israel tells army to prepare plans for Palestinians ‘who wish to leave’ Gaza

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Order comes after Donald Trump suggested US take over territory and resettle its residents elsewhere

Israel’s defence minister has ordered the military to prepare plans to allow Palestinians “who wish to leave” Gaza to exit, after Donald Trump suggested the US take over the territory and resettle its residents in other countries.

A Hamas official attacked the proposal as a “declaration of intent to occupy” Gaza, as Egypt, which Trump named as a possible destination for Palestinians, launched an intense behind-the-scenes diplomatic campaign to block it going further.

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Trump might want to revive America’s imperial heyday – but does his base?

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The president’s Gaza proposal is a signal that old-school, blunt-force US expansionism seems to be back in fashion

Donald Trump’s proposal that the US take ownership of the Gaza Strip, expel and resettle the people there, and turn Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” has outraged Palestinians, shocked the international community and even confused many of his own conservative voters.

Yet the announcement seems like yet another sign that the president, while sometimes distancing himself from the neoconservative foreign policies that entangled the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, is willing to pursue – or at least entertain pursuing – an undisguised US imperialism that has more in common with the expansionism of Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson, the 19th- and early 20th-century presidents associated with some of American’s most brazen and violent conquests.

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‘Dangerous, provocative, illegal’: Arab Americans condemn Trump’s vow to ‘take over’ Gaza

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‘Arab Americans for Trump’ group rebrands itself while activists also criticize Biden and Harris’s support of Israel

Donald Trump’s remarks that the US will “take over” Gaza and resettle the Palestinian population elsewhere have drawn outrage and criticism from Palestinian and Arab Americans across the US.

A group of Arab Americans that supported Trump during the 2024 election rebranded itself following Trump’s comments on displacing Palestinians, from “Arab Americans for Trump” to “Arab Americans for Peace”.

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Donald Trump signals wish to hold talks with Iran over nuclear deal

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US president’s remarks will spark divisions within Iran over country’s nuclear ambitions and sanctions

Donald Trump has said he wants a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran and denied he wanted to blow Iran to smithereens, describing such reports as “greatly exaggerated”.

But he said it was essential that Iran did not have a nuclear weapon, adding “we should start working on it immediately”. His remarks on his social media site, Truth Social represent the clearest sign that Trump is willing to hold talks with Iran to try to replace the nuclear deal signed in 2015, but from which Trump pulled the US out in 2018.

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Trump’s Gaza plan could amount to war crime, say experts

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Academics fear US president’s lack of reference to international law could lead to global breakdown of peace and security

Donald Trump’s proposal to permanently move millions of Palestinians out of Gaza to allow its reconstruction under US “ownership” could amount to a war crime or crime against humanity, experts in international law have said.

The experts said the US president’s framing of his plan without any reference to international law set a dangerous precedent that would encourage other world leaders to do similarly and contribute to a global breakdown of peace and security.

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US Postal Service briefly halts packages arriving from China and Hong Kong

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Normal service resumes after initial suspension, in latest episode of growing trade war between the US and China

The US Postal Service briefly suspended incoming parcels from China and Hong Kong on Tuesday before returning to normal service on Wednesday after accusations of “unreasonable suppression” from Beijing, in the latest episode of a growing trade war between the US and China.

The initial suspension came as Donald Trump said he was not in a hurry to speak to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, despite expectations that they would hold talks after announcing tit-for-tat tariffs.

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Australian foreign aid workers fear ‘deaths and suffering’ will result from Trump’s halt to USAid

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The peak body for overseas aid organisations said without intervention the consequences of the president’s decision ‘will be catastrophic’

Australian overseas aid programs could shut, causing “unnecessary deaths and suffering”, in the fallout from the Trump administration’s decision to freeze foreign aid.

Workers have described “chaos” and “total panic” as they try to work out what the policy means. The peak body for overseas aid organisations said without intervention the consequences of the move “will be catastrophic”.

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Ukraine open to exchanging minerals for US military aid, says Zelenskyy

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Germany’s Olaf Scholz criticises Trump’s transactional foreign policy as ‘very selfish, very self-centred’

Ukraine is open to “investment” from allies as long as they help it fight Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, after Donald Trump demanded Kyiv supply the US with rare earth resources – critical elements used in electronics – in exchange for military aid.

The US president’s proposal has been criticised as exploiting Russia’s invasion for material gain, with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, calling the plan “selfish”. However, Ukrainian media reported that the idea may have originated in Kyiv as an incentive to keep weapon shipments flowing into the country.

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Toronto Raptors fans boo US national anthem after Donald Trump tariffs

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  • Canadian NHL fans also booed Star-Spangled Banner
  • Applause breaks out during Canadian national anthem

Fans at a Toronto Raptors game on Sunday continued an emerging trend of booing the American national anthem at sporting events in Canada.

Fans of the NBA’s lone Canadian franchise booed the US anthem before the Raptors’ game against the Los Angeles Clippers at the Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto. Similar reactions broke out on Saturday night at NHL games in Ottawa and Calgary, where the Senators and Flames faced the Minnesota Wild and Detroit Red Wings respectively. Those games came hours after Donald Trump made his threat of import tariffs on Canada a reality.

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Netanyahu heads for Trump talks in US amid uncertainty over Gaza truce

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Negotiations on second phase of ceasefire likely to be put back until after two leaders meet on Tuesday

Benjamin Netanyahu has flown to Washington for Donald Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since his return to office.

The pair are due to meet on Tuesday, amid widespread uncertainty about the parameters of the encounter.

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Fury in Mexico over Trump’s ‘slanderous’ claim of cartel links

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President Sheinbaum and politicians across the spectrum condemn accusation, which follows imposition of US tariffs

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has hit back at Donald Trump’s “slanderous” claim that her government had joined forces with drug bosses, amid anger and incredulity at the US president’s attack on the leaders of Latin America’s second biggest economy.

Trump made the claim on Saturday as he announced 25% tariffs against Mexico that the US said were a response to illegal immigration and the “intolerable alliance” between drug trafficking organisations and Mexico’s government, which had allegedly offered safe haven to “dangerous cartels”.

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Wall Street Journal editorial calls Trump tariffs ‘dumbest trade war in history’

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Some US business leaders reacted neutrally, while JP Morgan CEO says tariff threats can be used effectively

US business leaders are offering a mixed reaction to the steep trade tariffs that Donald Trump’s administration has imposed on Canada, Mexico and China, as the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal called it “the dumbest trade war in history”.

Donald Trump hit Canada and Mexico with a 25% tariff on imports, and China with 10%, on Saturday in a move that launched a new era of trade wars between the US and three of its largest trading partners. The tariffs against Canada tax oil and energy products at 10%.

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Trump warns Americans that tariffs may cause ‘pain’– US politics live

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US president says measures against Mexico, Canada and China will ‘all be worth the price’

After Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Volkswagen, Germany’s largest carmaker, said that tariffs would have a “harmful economic impact” on American consumers, as well as the international automotive industry.

German automakers say the tariffs will cause inflation for consumers.

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Top Democrats warn Trump tariffs will ‘hit Americans in their wallets’

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Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer leads charge against president’s tax plans on neighbors and allies

Top Democrats have slammed Donald Trump’s plans to impose serious tariffs on America’s neighbors and allies, warning that they will hit working families and small businesses hard.

Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the US senate, led the charge by saying the president’s threatened tariffs would likely “hit Americans in their wallets”. “It would be nice if Donald Trump could start focusing on getting the prices down instead of making them go up.”

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Trump aid spending freeze halts leading malaria vaccine programme

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Global collaboration with US researchers likely to be set back by years, including on spread of drug-resistant HIV

A flagship programme to create malaria vaccines has been halted by the Trump administration, in just one example of a rippling disruption to health research around the globe since the new US president took power.

The USAid Malaria Vaccine Development Program (MVDP) – which works to prevent child deaths by creating more effective second-generation vaccines – funds research by teams collaborating across institutes, including the US university Johns Hopkins and the UK’s University of Oxford.

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