India looks on nervously as Trump wields tariff threat
Delhi hopes tariff cuts have put it ahead of the game - but will that satisfy Trump, or is trade action still on the table?
Foundations laid for tribunal to try Putin for Ukraine invasion, EU says
Tribunal’s creation was first proposed days after the full-scale invasion, but lawyers have struggled to find the right courtroom for nearly three years
International lawyers have “laid the foundations” for a special tribunal to try Russia for the crime of aggression, the EU has said, hailing a significant step towards holding Vladimir Putin and his top officials accountable for the invasion of Ukraine.
In a statement late on Tuesday, the EU executive declared a breakthrough that it said would mean the Russian political and military leaders “who bear the greatest responsibility” would be held to account.
Continue reading...Minister promises to spend £250m to top up England’s flood defences
Labour pledges to protect 66,500 more properties, criticising previous Tory efforts
Ministers are topping up flood defence investment in England to a “record” £2.65bn, after accusing the previous government of “putting lives at risk” by under-spending.
An extra £250m is being pledged on top of the £2.4bn previously announced, to shore up defences and protect an extra 66,500 properties from flooding over a two-year period, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.
Continue reading...Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI may go to trial in part, judge says
The case is part of a grudge match between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman which is playing out in court.
Top Trump nominees advance as Senate confirms attorney general
The full Senate voted in the evening, approving Bondi as the next attorney general, tasked with running the Department of Justice.
Could US criminals be sent to El Salvador’s mega-jail?
El Salvador has offered to take in criminals deported from the US and house them in its mega-jail.
Could US criminals be sent to El Salvador’s mega-jail?
El Salvador has offered to take in criminals deported from the US and house them in its mega-jail.
El Salvador offers to hold deportees and incarcerated US citizens in its jails
Human rights groups alarmed as Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, meets with Nayib Bukele during overseas trip
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has offered to accept deportees from the US of any nationality and hold them in his jails, including “dangerous American criminals”, Marco Rubio said on Monday.
The US secretary of state, who this week made his first overseas trip as the top US diplomat, visited El Salvador on Monday as part of a wider trip through Central America and the Caribbean.
Continue reading...Trump says Palestinians have ‘no alternative’ but to leave Gaza
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.
Continue reading...Labour MP to push for better maternal mental health care after friend’s suicide
Laura Kyrke-Smith says perinatal mental health care in England is ‘postcode lottery’, with disadvantaged women more likely to miss out
A new Labour MP will speak in parliament on Wednesday of her anguish over her friend’s suicide just 10 weeks after giving birth – despite the friend having repeatedly sought help for her anxiety.
Laura Kyrke-Smith, the MP for Aylesbury, will call for more specific mental health support to be embedded in maternity services.
Continue reading...Syria’s al-Sharaa, Turkiye’s Erdogan talk Kurdish fighters, defence pacts
Turkey meeting is second foreign trip by President Ahmed al-Sharaa as he seeks to bolster support for Syria.
Is US President Donald Trump using tariffs as a negotiating tactic?
US trade taxes on Canada and Mexico have been paused for 30 days.
How plausible is Trump’s plan to send 30,000 deportees to Guantanamo?
Donald Trump wants to send up to 30,000 undocumented immigrants to the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Trump administration says it has begun deporting migrants to Guantánamo Bay
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.
Continue reading...Police say around 10 people killed in Sweden school campus shooting
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson described Tuesday's attack as the "worst mass shooting in Swedish history".
‘Unfair’ to tell Palestinians they’ll return to Gaza in 5 years, US Adviser
Advisers to Donald Trump said his “cleaning out” Gaza comment referred to a long-range plan to make it habitable
South Africa leader calls Elon Musk over ‘distortions’ after Trump attack
President Ramaphosa called after US leader said he would suspend aid to South Africa over its land reform policy.
Mauritian PM expects ‘speedy resolution’ with UK over Chagos Islands
Navin Ramgoolam says Keir Starmer expressed confidence about finalising agreement within weeks
Downing Street has refused to comment on the prospect of an imminent deal over the Chagos Islands, after the Mauritian prime minister said Keir Starmer had told him he was confident about finalising an agreement in the coming weeks.
An interim deal on returning sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which would maintain the key UK-US military base on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia, was agreed last year, building on work that began under the Conservative government.
Continue reading...Trump faces moment of reckoning on trade after delaying tariffs
The president will soon have to decide whether to match his trade rhetoric with action or shelve his tariff plans.
Panama court is asked to cancel Hong Kong firm’s contract to run canal ports
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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