Author: Disha Mishra

U.S. President Donald Trump will not let up his pressure on tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China related to their handling of fentanyl, Howard Lutnick, United States Commerce Secretary stated on Sunday. “If fentanyl ends, I think these will come off. But if fentanyl does not end, or he’s uncertain about it, he will stay this way until he is comfortable,” Lutnick said of the addictive and deadly opioid in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “This is black and white. You got to save American lives.” United States tariffs of 25% on imports of steel and aluminum will…

Talkings between Hamas leaders and United States hostage negotiator Adam Boehler in current days have focused on the free of an American-Israeli dual national being held by the militant group in Gaza, a senior Hamas official said Reuters on Sunday. A political adviser, Taher Al-Nono, to the leader of the Palestinian group, confirmed the unprecedented, direct talks with Washington, saying the discussions had taken place in the Qatari capital over the past week. “Several meetings have already taken place in Doha, focusing on releasing one of the dual-nationality prisoners. We have dealt positively and flexibly, in a way that serves…

Russian special forces crept miles through a major gas pipeline near the town of Sudzha in an attempt to surprise Ukrainian forces as part of a major offensive to eject Ukrainian soldiers from the western Russian region of Kursk, pro-Russian war bloggers said. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers seized about 1,300 square km of Russia’s Kursk region in August last year in what Kyiv said was an attempt to gain a bargaining chip in future negotiations and to force Russia to shift military forces from eastern Ukraine. In its daily update on the situation in Kursk, Russia’s Defence Ministry said its…

(Forelines) – Israel and Hamas signaled on Saturday they were preparing for the next round of ceasefire negotiations, as mediators pushed forward with talks to extend the fragile 42-day truce that started in January, according to Reuters. Hamas stated there were “positive indicators” for the start of the ceasefire’s second-round talks but did not elaborate. Israel further stated it was preparing for talks. “Israel has accepted the invitation of the mediators backed by the U.S., and will send a delegation to Doha on Monday in an effort to advance the negotiations,” according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office report. A…

(Forelines) – Ahmed Sharaa, Syria’s interim president, stated current developments are within “expected challenges”, according to Arab media reported on Sunday, as clashes continue between forces aligned to the new Islamist rulers and fighters from deposed leader Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect. Ahmed Sharaa also urged for national unity in a video shared by Arab media, including Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya TV, which featured him addressing at a mosque. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated on Saturday that two days of clashes in the country’s coastal region have died over 1,000 people.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday Iran will not be bullied into negotiations, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had sent a letter to the country’s top authority to negotiate a nuclear deal. In an interview with Fox Business, Trump said “there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal” to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. At a meeting with senior Iranian officials, Khamenei said the aim of Washington’s offer for negotiations was to “impose their own expectations”, Iranian state media reported. “The insistence of some bullying governments on…

At least 11 people were died and 30 injured, including five children, in Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s eastern city of Dobropillia overnight, stated by the Ukrainian Interior Ministry on Saturday. Russian forces striked Dobropillia with ballistic missiles, several rockets, and drones, causing damage to eight multi-storey buildings and 30 vehicles, as per the ministry. The attack resulted in the deaths of 11 people, including five children, and left 30 others injured. “While extinguishing the fire, the occupiers struck again, damaging the fire truck,” stated by the ministry on the Telegram messenger app. Photographs of partially destroyed buildings…

(Forelines) – On Wednesday, Denmark’s foreign minister stated that it was important that United States President Donald Trump had recognised Greenland’s right to self-determination while reiterating an interest in acquiring the island in his address to Congress. Donald Trump on Tuesday painted a picture of prosperity and safety for the people of Greenland, an autonomous territory of the kingdom of Denmark, which Trump has stated he wants to make a part of the U.S. Opinion polls suggest that most Greenlanders oppose joining the United States, although a majority favour eventual freedom from Denmark, while the Danish government has stated the…

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Republican U.S. President Donald Trump from firing the Democratic chair of a U.S. agency that hears appeals by federal government employees when they are fired or disciplined. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington, D.C., ruled, opens new tab that the president could not remove Cathy Harris from her position at the Merit Systems Protection Board before her term expires without cause. The judge, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, had on February 18 issued a temporary restraining order that required Harris to be reinstated as the board’s chair while he considered…

Arab leaders meet in Cairo on Tuesday with Egypt to present a plan for Gaza that would sideline Hamas and create interim bodies run by Arab, Muslim and Western states in contrast to U.S. President Donald Trump’s idea of a “Middle East Riviera”. Who will run Gaza is the big unanswered question in negotiations over the future of the Palestinian enclave shattered by 15 months of Israel’s war with Hamas. The militant group has said it rejects any solution imposed on the Gaza Strip by outsiders. Egypt, Jordan and Gulf Arab states have for almost a month been consulting over…