Category Archives: Donald Trump

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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‘Waterfront property’: What are Trump’s real estate interests in Palestine?

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Many of US president’s allies support settler projects, and plans to effectively colonise Gaza are an expansion on ideas from first term

Planning to “clean out” Palestinians as a real estate money-making scheme is an idea that has long united the Israeli settler movement and some of Donald Trump’s circle of US property developers.

For decades, state-backed settlers have used concrete, steel and brick to build on occupied land in Palestine in a successful effort to use town-building as a means to claim territory and permanently force Palestinians from their homeland.

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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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Trump says US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip in shock announcement during Netanyahu visit

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President’s plan, which is low on detail, would involve the permanent resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring countries

Donald Trump has vowed that the US would “take over” war ravaged Gaza and “own it”, effectively endorsing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, in an announcement shocking even by the standards of his norm-shattering presidency.

Trump, who has previously threatened Greenland and Panama and suggested that Canada should become the 51st state, added Gaza to his expansionist agenda, claiming that it could become the “Riviera of the Middle East” and declined to rule out sending US troops to make it happen.

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US Senate confirms Trump nominee Pam Bondi as attorney general

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Bondi approved 54-46 as staunch political ally of president propelled to top perch of US law enforcement

The US Senate confirmed Pam Bondi on Tuesday as the next attorney general to steer the justice department through Donald Trump’s second term and his clear intent to turn it into an extension of his executive power, especially as a cudgel against his personal and political adversaries.

The 54 to 46 vote to confirm Bondi was largely across party lines. All Republicans voted to confirm and all but one Democratic senator, John Fetterman, voted against.

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Doge staffers enter Noaa headquarters and incite reports of cuts and threats

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Members reportedly sought access to IT systems at agency that Project 2025 has called ‘harmful to US prosperity’

Staffers with Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) reportedly entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Department of Commerce in Washington DC today, inciting concerns of downsizing at the agency.

“They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who is now a fellow at the University of New Hampshire. “They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information.”

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Musk intensifies government spending attack with push to cut all regulations

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Maxine Waters, Chuck Schumer and other lawmakers protest against billionaire outside US treasury

Elon Musk has proposed a “wholesale removal of regulations” in an intensification of his crusade to slash US federal government spending.

On a call aired on X, the social media platform he owns, the multibillionaire entrepreneur said regulations should be “gone” amid growing opposition to his mission as Donald Trump’s enforcer and head of a newly created “department of government efficiency” (Doge).

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Trump says Palestinians have ‘no alternative’ but to leave Gaza

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President in effect endorses ethnic cleansing of territory before hosting meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu

Donald Trump has said Palestinians have “no alternative” but to leave Gaza due to the devastation left by Israel’s war on Hamas, in effect endorsing ethnic cleansing of the territory over the opposition of Palestinians and neighbouring countries.

Speaking as he prepared to host Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday, Trump repeated the suggestion that Gaza’s population should be relocated to Jordan and Egypt – something both countries have firmly rejected.

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Trump administration says it has begun deporting migrants to Guantánamo Bay

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Press secretary says at least two deportation flights to Cuban base of undocumented immigrants ‘under way’

The Trump administration has begun flying undocumented immigrants from the US to a military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Tuesday.

Leavitt told Fox Business Network that at least two deportation flights were “under way”, but gave no further details.

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Panama court is asked to cancel Hong Kong firm’s contract to run canal ports

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Complaint by local lawyers to supreme court follows US demands to reduce China’s alleged influence on waterway

Two Panamanian lawyers have lodged a lawsuit with the country’s supreme court in an attempt to cancel a Hong Kong-based company’s concession to operate two ports at either end of the Panama canal.

Their complaint – filed a day after the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, to reduce China’s alleged influence on the canal – argues that the contract for the two ports is unconstitutional.

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Netanyahu hoping to ‘redraw map’ of Middle East in Washington DC ceasefire talks with Trump – Israel-Gaza war live

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Israeli PM in Washington for talks with US president as Hamas says it is ready to discuss details of second phase of ceasefire and hostage releases

We have some voices from some of the people affected by the Israeli operation in the Jenin refugee camp.

Khalil Huwail, 39, is a father of four and has been forced to leave the area with his family.

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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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Johnnie Walker owner Diageo says Trump tariffs could hit profits by $200m

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UK drinks company considering possible price rises as shares fall despite strong Guinness sales

Diageo, the company behind Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whisky, has said US tariffs could damage a nascent recovery in its sales and result in a $200m (£161m) hit to profits, with its tequila portfolio and Canadian whisky most affected.

The UK drinks company returned to sales growth in the latest half year, as strong performances for Guinness and tequila offset weakness in other spirits – but Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports could stop this recovery in its tracks, analysts said.

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‘It’s been madness’: US federal workers reeling over Trump-Musk takeover

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Office of personnel management workers say anxiety is palpable amid intimidation and threat of dismissal

US government workers are describing an atmosphere of “fear” and “madness” as they grapple with a barrage of executive orders issued by Donald Trump and threats to their jobs from the office of personnel management, the agency tasked with managing the federal civil service, which has been taken over by the billionaire Elon Musk.

Weeks before the administration transition, federal worker unions reported low morale among workers in anticipation of pushes for intimidation, mass firings and harassment.

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Trump personally ordered firings of special counsel prosecutors

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Exclusive: move to purge those who worked for Jack Smith came from Trump, sources say, in show of unchecked power

The US justice department fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on the criminal cases against Donald Trump hours after the president directly ordered it from the Oval Office, according to two people familiar with the intervention.

The move to purge people who worked for former special counsel Jack Smith had ostensibly come from the acting attorney general, James McHenry, who sent the formal termination notices that said they could not be trusted to implement Trump’s agenda.

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Scientists brace ‘for the worst’ as Trump purges climate mentions from websites

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Trump administration pulling references online ‘won’t make crisis’ stop affecting Americans’ lives, say experts

Donald Trump’s administration has started to remove or downgrade mentions of the climate crisis across the US government, with the websites of several major departments pulling down references to anything related to the climate crisis. Climate scientists said they were braced “for the worst”.

A major climate portal on the Department of Defense’s website has been scrapped, as has the main climate change section on the site of the Department of State. A climate change page on the White House’s website no longer exists, nor does climate content provided by the US agriculture department, including information that provides vulnerability assessments for wildfires.

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Trump advisers weigh actions to dismantle education department – report

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Officials are discussing executive order as part of efforts by Musk’s Doge team to seize control of federal spending

The Trump administration is weighing executive actions to dismantle the US education department as part of efforts by Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to seize control of federal spending and slash the size of the government workforce, the Wall Street Journal reported.

US officials have discussed an executive order that would shut down all functions of the education department that are not written explicitly into statute, or move certain functions to other departments, according to the paper, citing sources.

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Progressive Democrats accuse Trump and Musk of ‘a plutocratic coup’

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Lawmakers point to shutting of USAid and accessing federal payment system as markings of ‘constitutional crisis’

Progressive lawmakers condemned Donald Trump and Elon Musk on Monday, pointing to the attempted shuttering of the foreign aid agency USAid and the accessing of the treasury department’s federal payment system as the markings of a “constitutional crisis”.

After Musk declared that he was working to shut down USAid, Democratic members of Congress tried to enter the agency’s Washington headquarters but said they were turned away on the orders of Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge). USAid staffers were also locked out of the building on Monday, as the White House confirmed plans to merge the agency with the state department.

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Greenland plans to ban foreign political funding over Trump-led election fears

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Bill to rule out interference from abroad expected to pass this week as country prepares for polls before 6 April

Greenland plans to ban foreign political donations over fears about potential interference in its forthcoming elections after attracting Donald Trump’s interest.

The government of the autonomous territory, which is a former Danish colony and remains part of the kingdom of Denmark, announced details of a bill on Monday intended to “safeguard the political integrity of Greenland”.

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