Category: World

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday promised “very threatening” steps against antifa and asked right-wing media allies for help identifying backers of the movement he has asked the federal government to treat as a “terrorist organisation.” Nearly a month after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, Trump has threatened action against left-wing groups and donors with no demonstrated ties to the killing. The Republican president has also moved to push federal law enforcement and troops into Democrat-run cities from Chicago to Portland, Oregon, over the objections of local…

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BERLIN: Germany’s parliament on Wednesday rescinded a fast-track citizenship programme, reflecting the rapidly shifting mood on migration in Europe’s labour-hungry economic powerhouse. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives pledged in this year’s election campaign to rescind the legislation, which allowed the “exceptionally well integrated” to gain citizenship in three years instead of five. “A German passport must come as recognition of a successful integration process and not act as an incentive for illegal immigration,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told parliament. The rest of the new citizenship law, a signature achievement of former…

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CHICAGO/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the imprisonment of Chicago’s mayor and Illinois’ governor, both Democrats, as his administration readied plans to send military troops into the streets of the nation’s third-largest city. Neither Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson nor Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has been accused of criminal wrongdoing, though both have emerged as prominent opponents of Trump’s immigration crackdown and deployment of National Guard troops in Democratic-leaning cities. Trump’s call to imprison the two elected officials comes as another high-profile political rival, former FBI Director James Comey,…

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MUMBAI: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in India on Wednesday, months after London and New Delhi signed a landmark free trade agreement, capping years of intense negotiations. Starmer’s first official trip to India, which he hopes will boost economic ties between the two nations, sees him accompanied by a 125-member delegation that includes top business leaders, including British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle. The two-day visit follows his July meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in London, where the pair signed the trade accord. Starmer is due to…

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Moscow’s forces had seized nearly 5,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory this year and maintained full strategic control of the battlefield. Russia’s 2025 gains would amount to nearly 1% of Ukraine’s land area, and the country controls nearly 20% in total. Putin, addressing a meeting with Russian top military commanders on his 73rd birthday, said Ukrainian forces were retreating in all sectors of the front. He said Kyiv was trying to strike deep into Russian territory, but it would not help to change…

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Emmanuel Macron’s first prime minister and one-time ally on Tuesday urged the cornered French head of state to resign in a shock call that compounded an escalating political crisis. The intervention by Edouard Philippe, Macron’s longest-serving prime minister from 2017 to 2020 who now heads an allied political party, came as frustration grew even within the president’s own camp over the biggest domestic political crisis of his eight years in office. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, appointed less than a month ago, stepped down on Monday morning after failing to rally…

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President Donald Trump’s effort to curtail birthright citizenship was declared unconstitutional by a second US appeals court on Friday, handing him another defeat on a core piece of his hardline immigration agenda whose ultimate fate may lie with the US Supreme Court. A three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld injunctions won by Democratic-led states and immigrant rights advocates that have stopped the Republican president’s executive order from taking effect nationwide. Trump’s order, issued on his first day back in office on January 20, directs…

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The United States killed four people in a strike against a vessel allegedly carrying illegal drugs just off the coast of Venezuela, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday, at least the fourth such attack in recent weeks. The strike is the latest example of President Donald Trump’s efforts to use US military power in new, and often legally contentious, ways, from deploying active-duty US troops in Los Angeles to carrying out counter-terrorism strikes against drug trafficking suspects. Hegseth said Friday’s strike was carried out in international waters and…

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The United States will provide Ukraine with intelligence for long-range missile strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, as it weighs whether to send Kyiv weapons that could put more targets within range. The United States has long been sharing intelligence with Kyiv but Wednesday’s report said the new development will make it easier for Ukraine to hit refineries, pipelines, power stations and other infrastructure with the aim of depriving the Kremlin of revenue and oil. US officials are also asking NATO allies to provide similar support,…

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WASHINGTON: Following an Israeli strike on Qatar last month, the White House has pledged to defend the Gulf state’s security and territorial integrity, declaring that any armed attack on the country would be treated as a threat to the United States. “In light of the continuing threats to the State of Qatar posed by foreign aggression, it is the policy of the United States to guarantee the security and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar against external attack,” said an Executive Order signed by US President Donald Trump. In…

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