Category: Americas

‪Trump Considering Military Options To Acquire Greenland ‬

Washington (United States) (AFP) – US President Donald Trump is discussing options including military action to take control of Greenland, the White House said Tuesday, upping tensions that Denmark warns could destroy the NATO alliance.

Trump has stepped up his designs on the mineral-rich, self-governing Danish territory in the arctic since the US military seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro last weekend.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “acquiring Greenland is a national security priority” for Trump to deter US adversaries like Russia and China.

“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the commander in chief’s disposal,” she said in a statement to AFP.

The Wall Street Journal reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that Trump’s preferred option is to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding the threats did not signal an imminent invasion.

Denmark has warned any move to take Greenland by force would mean “everything would stop,” including NATO and 80 years of close transatlantic security links.

Any US military action against Greenland would effectively collapse NATO, since the alliance’s Article Five pledges that member states will defend any of their number that come under attack.

Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt wrote on social media that they’d sought a meeting with Rubio throughout 2025 but “it has so far not been possible.”

Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said meeting Rubio should “clear up certain misunderstandings.”

And Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen insisted that the island was not for sale, and only its 57,000 people should decide its future.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen thanked the European leaders (pictured) for their backing © NICOLAS TUCAT, GIANLUIGI GUERCIA, JOHN THYS, Ben STANSALL, Ludovic MARIN / AFP

Allies have rallied around Denmark and Greenland while simultaneously trying not to antagonize Trump.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain joined Denmark in a statement on Tuesday saying they would defend the “universal principles” of “sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders.”

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer both sought to play down the row as they attended Ukraine peace talks in Paris alongside Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“I cannot imagine a scenario in which the United States of America would be placed in a position to violate Danish sovereignty,” Macron said.

The United States has 150 military personnel stationed at the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland.

Greenland residents have rejected Trump’s threats.

“This is not something we appreciate,” Christian Keldsen, director of the Greenland Business Assocation, told AFP in the capital Nuuk. “It is not acceptable in the civilized world.”

Trump has been floating the idea of annexing Greenland since his first term. In the last year, Copenhagen has invested heavily in security, allocating some 90 billion kroner ($14 billion).

Big and strong

Still steaming over Trump’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, US legislators spoke out against the idea of military action against Greenland on Tuesday.

In social media posts, Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, vowed to introduce a resolution “to block Trump from invading Greenland,” saying the 79-year-old Republican simply “wants a giant island with his name on it. He wouldn’t think twice about putting our troops in danger if it makes him feel big and strong.”

In a sharp departure from the party’s typical partisanship, Republicans also pushed back against Trump’s military-backed expansionism.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, told reporters Tuesday night that he didn’t think it was “appropriate” for Washington to take military action on Greenland, Politico reported.

Republican Senator Jerry Moran of the midwestern state of Kansas, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told HuffPost “it’s none of our business” and warned that the move would lead to “the demise of NATO.”

Nebraska Republican Congressman Don Bacon put it even more bluntly in a post on X: “This is really dumb. Greenland and Denmark are our allies.”

January 7, 2026
Trump Says US Needs Greenland For Its National Security

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States needs Greenland for national security reasons, citing what he described as an increased Russian and Chinese presence around the strategically located island country.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said Greenland is “so strategic” and claimed that it is currently surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.

“We need Greenland, from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said when asked about any potential US action against Greenland.

Trump also argued that US control over Greenland would serve broader Western interests, adding the European Union “needs us to have it” from a security standpoint.

Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark and has previously rejected proposals suggesting any transfer of sovereignty.

January 5, 2026
US Govt Audits Cases Of Somali US Citizens For Potential Denaturalization
Summary
Trump has pursued hardline immigration policy

Administration has portrayed Minnesota’s Somali community as hotspot for fraud

Rights advocates have raised due process, free speech concerns over Trump policies
WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration said on Tuesday it was auditing immigration cases involving U.S. citizens of Somali origin to detect fraud that could lead to denaturalization, or revocation of citizenship.

“Under U.S. law, if an individual procures citizenship on a fraudulent basis, that is grounds for denaturalization,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that was first reported by Fox News and reposted by the White House on social media. Denaturalization cases are rare and can take years. According to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, about 11 cases were pursued per year between 1990 and 2017.

Human rights groups widely condemn Trump’s policies, saying they curb rights like due process and free speech. Trump and his allies say the policies aim to improve domestic security.

Federal officials in recent weeks have portrayed Minnesota’s Somali community as a hotspot for fraud involving millions of federal dollars intended for social services. Immigrant-rights advocates say the administration is using the fraud investigations as an excuse to target Somali immigrants more broadly.

FBI Director Kash Patel said on Sunday the bureau has “surged” investigative resources and personnel to Minnesota in the latest instance of the Trump administration’s fraud investigations that have targeted the state’s Somali immigrants.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services separately said on Tuesday it has frozen all child care payments to Minnesota. It said that going forward all payments from the department’s Administration for Children and Families nationwide “will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state.”

In response, Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz said his state government has “spent years cracking down on fraudsters” and that Trump was “politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.”
December 31, 2025
Trump Suspends Green Card Lottery Scheme After Brown Shooting

President Donald Trump has suspended the US green card lottery scheme in the wake of a mass shooting at Brown University last week in which two people were killed.

The suspect, a Portuguese man who was found dead on Thursday, entered the country through the diversity lottery immigrant visa programme (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she has paused the visa scheme under Trump’s direction to “ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous programme”.

US officials said they believe the suspect, 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente, also killed Portuguese Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro earlier this week.

The programme makes up to 50,000 visas available each year through a random selection process among entries from countries with low rates of immigration to the US.

Writing on social media, Noem said Trump had previously “fought to end” the scheme in 2017 after eight people were killed in a truck-ramming attack in New York City.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the suspect “should never have been allowed in our country”

Uzbekistan national Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic State supporter who is serving multiple life sentences for the attack, entered the US through the DV1 scheme, according to Noem.

Her comments come just hours after Neves Valente was found dead in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, from what police believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police said video evidence and tips from the public led investigators to a car rental location where they found the suspect’s name and matched him to their person of interest, following a six-day multi-state manhunt.

He was found dead with a satchel and two firearms. Evidence in a car nearby matched to the scene of the shooting at Brown University in Providence, according to Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.

Brown University President Christina Paxson said Neves Valente was enrolled at the Ivy League school from the autumn of 2000 to the following spring, and was studying for a PhD in physics.

He had “no current active affiliation” to Brown, she said.

Officials said they believe Neves Valente shot and killed MIT professor Nuno F Gomes Loureiro, 47, on Monday at his home in Brookline, which is about 50 miles (80km) from Providence.

Both men had studied at the same university in Portugal in the late 1990s, police said.

Officials said the cases were linked when the suspect’s vehicle was identified via CCTV footage and a witness at Brown University.

The same car was spotted near the scene of the professor’s shooting, which happened just two days later.

Authorities have not provided any suspected motive for either of the attacks.

Two students were killed and nine others were injured as a gunman burst into Brown University’s engineering building on 13 December and opened fire during final exams.

They have been identified as Ella Cook, 19, a second-year student from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, an Uzbek-American who had just started at the university.

December 19, 2025
Wiz Khalifa Sentenced To Nine Months Jail In Romania For Smoking Cannabis On Stage

A Romanian court has sentenced Wiz Khalifa to nine months in prison for smoking cannabis on stage.

The American rapper, real name Thomaz Cameron Jibril, admitted to smoking a joint during his performance at the Beach, Please! festival last year in Costinesti.

A Romanian appeals court overturned an earlier fine of 3,600 Romanian lei (£619; $829) for drug possession and ruled the rapper must serve the sentence in custody.

However he was sentenced in absentia. Earlier this week he was seen on stage performing with Gunna in California, and on Thursday he posted pictures and clips from his home on streaming platform Twitch and social media.

The BBC has approached the ten-time Grammy-nominated artist for comment.

Police briefly held and questioned Jibril after the concert on 13 July 2024, and prosecutors later charged him with possession of “risk drugs” for personal use.

Romanian investigators said he was in possession of more than 18 grams of cannabis and consumed an additional amount on stage.

In a written decision, the Constanța Court of Appeal judges said they overturned the original fine because the artist had sent “a message of normalisation of illegal conduct” and thereby encouraged “drug use among young people”.

Calling it an “ostentatious act”, the judges said the rapper was “a music performer, on the stage of a music festival well known among young people” who “possessed and consumed, in front of a large audience predominantly made up of very young people, an artisanal cigarette”.

Jabril said in a post on X a day after the incident that he did not mean to offend the country.

“They [the authorities] were very respectful and let me go. I’ll be back soon. But without a big ass joint next time.”

Romanian criminologist Vlad Zaha told BBC News that there was little-to-no chance of the US extraditing Jibril, and described the sentence as “unusually harsh”.

“Given the defendant’s wealth and connections, Romania’s lack of real negotiating power on extradition, and the legal and political status of cannabis in the US, it is highly unlikely that Wiz Khalifa will be sent to serve a prison sentence in Constanța, even though a formal judicial request will be submitted to the United States,” Mr Zaha said.

The artist, known for songs like Black and Yellow, See You Again and Young, Wild & Free, is often pictured smoking on his social media and founded his own marijuana brand in 2016.

Cannabis is legal recreational and medical use in some US states, but remains illegal under federal law.

December 19, 2025
Trump Expands US Travel Ban To Five More Countries
President Donald Trump has expanded a US travel ban, barring nationals of five additional countries and people travelling on Palestinian Authority-issued documents from entering the US.

The White House said the restrictions were intended “to protect the security of the United States” and will come into force on 1 January.

Full-entry restrictions will be imposed on people from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders.

The administration also moved Laos and Sierra Leone, which were previously subject to partial restrictions, to the full ban list and put partial restrictions on 15 other countries, including Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Trump, who has tightened immigration controls since returning to the White House in January, said the expanded travel ban was necessary because of what his administration described as failures in screening and vetting systems overseas.

Officials cited high visa overstay rates, unreliable civil records, corruption, terrorist activity and a lack of cooperation in accepting deported nationals.

The announcement followed the arrest of an Afghan national suspected of shooting two National Guard troops over the Thanksgiving weekend, an incident the White House pointed to in highlighting its security concerns.

This is the third time Trump has imposed a travel ban.

During his first term, he introduced a similar order in 2017, which sparked protests and legal challenges at home and abroad. The policy was later upheld by the US Supreme Court.

The White House said the restrictions would remain in place until affected countries show “credible improvements” in identity management, information-sharing and cooperation with US immigration authorities.

A number of exceptions apply and the ban will not affect lawful permanent residents, many existing visa holders, diplomats, or athletes travelling for major sporting events. Officials said case-by-case waivers would also be available where travel is deemed to be in the national interest.

Countries with full restrictions:
- Afghanistan
- Burkina Faso
- Burma
- Chad
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Haiti
- Iran
- Laos
- Libya
- Mali
- Niger
- Republic of the Congo
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Syria
- Yemen
- Individuals travelling on Palestinian Authority issued or endorsed travel documents are also subject to a full suspension of entry
Partial restrictions:
- Angola
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Benin
- Burundi
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Gabon
- The Gambia
- Malawi
- Mauritania
- Nigeria
- Senegal
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tonga
- Venezuela
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Special case:
- Turkmenistan (restrictions remain for immigrants but have been lifted for non-immigrant visas)
December 17, 2025
US Plans To Start Checking All Tourists’ Social Media

All tourists – including those from Britain – will have to undergo a social media screening before being allowed entry into the US under new plans being considered by the country’s border force.

At the moment, Britons are among those who can visit for up to 90 days without a visa. They just have to obtain an electronic travel authorisation, known as an ESTA, for $40 (£30).

The potential social media mandate being proposed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) would apply to anyone visiting, whether they require a visa or not.

According to a notice published in America’s federal register on Tuesday, foreign tourists would need to provide their social media from the last five years.

Image: Pic: iStock

It will be “mandatory” to hand over the information, and other details – including email addresses and telephone numbers used in the last five years, as well as the names, addresses, numbers, and birthdays of family members – will also be required.

Currently, as part of the ESTA application process, a tourist from Britain would have to provide an email address, home address, phone number, and emergency contact details. If approved, the ESTA lasts for two years.

CBP is proposing that moving forward, ESTA applications would require a selfie.

It further wants to collect biometrics – face, fingerprints DNA and iris – as part of the ESTA application. It currently only records face and fingerprints upon arrival at the US border.

The proposed changes are open for public consultation for 60 days.

Image: An ESTA application form. Pic: iStock

So much for free speech?

There have been several reports of travellers already having been denied entry into the US over social media posts and messages found on their personal devices after President Donald Trump took office in January.

This includes a French scientist who was turned away at the US border in March after messages “that reflect hatred toward Trump and can be described as terrorism” were found on his phone.

Despite Mr Trump vowing to “restore freedom of speech” on online platforms and end “federal censorship” when he took office, he has found himself at the centre of various free speech rows since.

In September, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was taken off-air by Disney-owned ABC over comments he made about the assassination of the right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.

Mr Kimmel accused the Trump administration and its allies of “working very hard to capitalise on the murder of Charlie Kirk”, with the president among those to pin it on left-wing extremism.

Image: President Donald Trump has been at the centre of several free speech rows. Pic: AP

At the time, Mr Trump suggested certain networks should have their licenses revoked over a lack of support for him.

Mr Kimmel’s show was reinstated less than a week after his suspension following widespread backlash from celebrities and viewers.

And in April, Harvard University sued the Trump administration for seeking “unprecedented and improper” control of the school, after it froze $2.6bn (£1.9bn) of its federal funding.

Harvard’s lawsuit accused the government of waging a retaliation campaign against the university after it rejected a list of 10 demands from a federal antisemitism task force, which included sweeping changes related to campus protests, academics and admissions.

A judge ruled in September that the Trump administration’s freeze of billions in research funding to Harvard was unconstitutional and retaliatory, a decision the US government vowed to appeal.

An agreement has not yet been reached, so the fight between the Ivy League university and Mr Trump rages on.

(Sky News)

December 10, 2025
Trump Warns Europe ‘To Be Very Careful’ Over $140M fine Imposed On Elon Musk’s X

US President Donald Trump warned Europe Monday “to be very careful” over the $140 million fine the European Commission imposed on American social media company X over breaches of transparency rules.

“Oh, that’s a nasty one. Elon has not called me to ask for help on that one. But no, it’s a tough thing. I don’t think it’s right,” Trump said at a White House event, referring to his one-time political aide Elon Musk, who is also the owner of X.

“I’ll speak about it later. I’m going to get a full report on it. Look, Europe has to be very careful. They’re doing a lot of things. We want to keep Europe, Europe,” he added.

The European Commission issued its €120 million (nearly $140 million) fine against X on Friday, citing multiple breaches of the EU’s Digital Services Act, marking the first non-compliance decision under the landmark regulation.

According to the commission, X misled users through the “deceptive design” of its blue checkmark feature, failed to meet transparency requirements for its advertising repository, and blocked researchers from accessing public data.

The commission found that X’s blue checkmark system — where users can pay for “verified” status — misrepresents verification.

This, regulators said, exposes users to scams and impersonation, violating Article 25(1) of the DSA, which prohibits deceptive design practices.

December 9, 2025
Explainer: Why S. Africa-U.S. Ties Have Soured?

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) — The United States and South Africa have been trading barbs, especially after President Donald Trump announced in November that Washington would not send a delegation to the Group of 20 (G20) summit held in Johannesburg, publicly boycotting the host nation.

Tensions further escalated as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola issued pointed open letters on Wednesday and Thursday, highlighting the deepening diplomatic rift.

NEW ROUND OF WAR OF WORDS

The latest round of rhetorical clashes began when Washington openly boycotted the G20 summit hosted by South Africa.

On Nov. 7, Trump wrote on social media that U.S. officials would not attend the summit in Johannesburg and again accused the South African government of discriminating against the white minority. In response, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the U.S. absence was “their loss” and that a boycott would only backfire.

In the days before the summit, the United States formally notified Pretoria that it would not take part and opposed issuing any G20 outcome document based on consensus without Washington’s consent. South Africa countered that the U.S. boycott had cost Washington its voice at the meeting and that Pretoria would not bow to American pressure.

The G20 summit opened in Johannesburg on Nov. 22 as scheduled and, for the first time, adopted a joint declaration on the opening day. Because the United States insisted on sending only its charge d’affaires to the handover ceremony for the rotating presidency, South African officials called Washington’s failure to send a representative of the appropriate rank “unacceptable” and refused to hold the handover at the summit venue.

The handover was instead held in a low-key manner on Nov. 25. The next day, Trump said South Africa would not be invited to next year’s G20 summit in Miami. Pretoria called the decision “regrettable” and said it was based on false information about South Africa.

On Dec. 3, Rubio issued a statement again attacking South Africa’s domestic policies and its leadership of the G20, and threatened to replace South Africa with Poland in the grouping.

Ramaphosa said on Dec. 4 that although media reports claimed South Africa had been excluded from the Miami summit, Pretoria had received no formal written notice.

“We are yet to receive anything formally, and we will deal with that when it comes,” he said, adding that South Africa would not try to rally other countries to boycott the U.S.-hosted summit next year.

DETERIORATION OF RELATIONS

Since Trump began his second term this year, relations between the United States and South Africa have deteriorated rapidly. Analysts note that South Africa’s positions on major international issues have diverged from Washington’s, including Pretoria’s 2023 case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and its close ties with Iran.

In February, Trump denounced South Africa’s new land law, accusing the government of seizing land in a way that discriminated against white citizens, and issued an executive order cutting off U.S. aid. He later expelled South Africa’s ambassador to the United States after the envoy publicly criticized him.

On May 21, during Ramaphosa’s visit to the White House, Trump suddenly showed videos and newspaper clippings alleging a “white genocide” in South Africa. Ramaphosa rejected the claims, saying the assertion that white South Africans were fleeing violence and racist laws was unfounded.

In August, the U.S. State Department’s 2024 human rights report said South Africa’s human rights situation had “significantly worsened,” arguing that the new land law marked a “worrying step” toward expropriating white-owned land and further harming minority rights. South African officials dismissed the accusations as baseless and inaccurate.

Beginning Aug. 7, the United States imposed a 30 percent tariff on South African exports, making South Africa the sub-Saharan African country facing the highest U.S. tariff rate.

WILL RELATIONS WORSEN FURTHER

Looking ahead, South Africa may be largely absent from major G20 activities during the U.S. presidency. In the near term, relations between the two governments are likely to feature both political confrontation and limited cooperation in specific areas.

Washington’s hostile posture toward the South African government is unlikely to change soon, and further political bullying or economic coercion cannot be ruled out. Pretoria is expected to continue relying on Global South forums and BRICS to counter U.S. pressure. The two countries are unlikely to restore ambassador-level relations in the short term.

At the same time, the two sides share interests in areas such as HIV/AIDS prevention, counterterrorism intelligence, combating transnational crime and developing mineral resources. Cooperation in these fields can help prevent ties from spiraling out of control.

Both countries also have incentives to continue working together on global agendas such as food security, climate change and public health, making a complete “decoupling” unlikely.

Next year’s U.S. midterm elections and South Africa’s local elections may also influence policy adjustments. The Trump administration may ease tariffs on South African agricultural and automotive products to win support from U.S. voters, while maintaining a manageable relationship with Washington remains essential for stability within South Africa’s governing coalition.

Relations between the two countries are likely to worsen to some degree, with political confrontation forming the core of the relationship. Even so, cooperation in certain areas will continue to cushion the impact.

December 7, 2025
Trump, Rwanda and DR Congo Leaders Sign Deal Despite Fresh Violence

US President Donald Trump and the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a peace deal Thursday, even as fresh violence raised questions about the accord to end one of Africa’s longest wars.

Trump said the United States was also signing deals on critical minerals with the two countries as he hosted Paul Kagame, the longtime president of Rwanda, and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in Washington.

“I think it’s going to be a great miracle,” Trump said after the signing — held in a peace institute which his administration has just renamed after him.

Speaking of the two leaders, he added: “They spent a lot of time killing each other, and now they are going to spend a lot of time hugging, holding hands and taking advantage of the United States of America economically, like every other country does.”

But the African leaders both took a more cautious tone, as fighting raged in eastern DRC where the M23 armed group — which the UN says is backed by Rwanda — has been gaining ground in recent weeks against Kinshasa’s forces.

“There will be ups and downs on the road ahead, there is no doubt about it,” said Kagame, whose allies have taken a decisive edge on the ground against his country’s turbulent neighbor.

The DRC’s Tshisekedi called it the “beginning of a new path, a demanding path.”

– ‘A lot of money’ –

Trump has boasted that the eastern DRC conflict, where hundreds of thousands of people have died over several decades, is among eight wars he has ended since he returned to office in January.

The US president has made no secret of his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump said the agreement will pave the way for the United States to gain access to critical minerals in both countries. The violence-torn eastern DRC in particular has reserves of many of the key ingredients in modern technologies such as electric cars.

It is the latest in a series of deals in which the billionaire Republican has negotiated a stake for US firms to extract rare earth minerals, including in Ukraine.

“We’re going take out some of the rare earth,” Trump said. “And everybody’s going to make a lot of money.”

The signing comes more than five months after the countries’ foreign ministers also met Trump and announced another deal to end the conflict.

The long-simmering conflict exploded in late January as the M23 captured the major cities of Goma and Bukavu.

After the June agreement, the M23 — which denies links to Rwanda — and the Kinshasa government pledged a ceasefire following mediation by US partner Qatar, but both sides have since accused the other of violations.

– ‘Many dead’ –

Violence continued on the ground even on the day of the signing.

An AFP journalist at the scene heard weapon fire ring out on the outskirts of Kamanyola, an M23-controlled town in South Kivu province near the borders with Rwanda and Burundi.

“Many houses have been bombed, and there are many dead,” said Rene Chubaka Kalembire, an administrative official in Kaziba, a town also under M23 control, on the eve of the signing.

After several days of clashes around Kaziba, fighter jets bombarded the town again on Thursday morning, a local civil society representative who requested anonymity told AFP.

Explosions could also be heard coming from the Bugarama border post in Rwanda across the border in neighboring Burundi, with Rwandan police temporarily shutting the frontier post on Thursday.

AFP was unable to obtain a verifiable toll from the fighting from independent sources.

Local sources reported a massive build-up of M23 reinforcements, accompanied by armored cars, in the high plateau of South Kivu.

Passage through the mountainous region would allow its troops to encircle Uvira, the last major town in South Kivu to evade the M23’s capture.

The Trump-brokered deal meanwhile comes as both countries are in talks with his administration on its priority of taking in migrants amid the president’s sweeping deportation drive.

(AFP)

December 5, 2025
US Freezes All Asylum Decisions As Trump Hardens Anti-Migrant Stance After Troop Killing

The United States is freezing all asylum decisions, officials said Friday, as President Donald Trump hardens his anti-migrant stance after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members this week in Washington.

Wednesday’s attack on the soldiers — one of whom died from her injuries — has ignited a fresh crackdown on foreigners in the United States, with Trump also pledging to suspend migration from “third world countries.”

Joseph Edlow, director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said his agency has “halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

That followed Trump’s announcement late Thursday of plans to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover.”

Asked which nationalities would be affected, the Department of Homeland Security pointed AFP to a list of 19 countries — including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran and Myanmar — already facing US travel restrictions since June.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the US had temporarily stopped issuing visas to all individuals traveling on Afghan passports.

“The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people,” he said.

– ‘Monster’ –

The shooting has brought together three politically explosive issues: Trump’s controversial use of the military on American soil, immigration, and the lingering legacy of the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, who allegedly opened fire on the guardsmen just a few blocks from the White House, had been part of a CIA-backed “partner force” fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

He entered the United States as part of a resettlement program following the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old West Virginia National Guard member deployed in the US capital as part of what Trump called a crackdown on crime, died from her wounds / AFP

Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington DC, said Friday that Lakanwal would be charged with murder over the attack.

Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old West Virginia National Guard member deployed in the US capital as part of what Trump called a crackdown on crime, died from her wounds.

The second injured soldier, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, was “fighting for his life,” Pirro told the Fox News program Fox & Friends.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has pledged to seek the death penalty against Lakanwal, describing him as a “monster.”

– ‘Long planned’ –

In his social media post Thursday, Trump also threatened to reverse “millions” of admissions granted under his predecessor Joe Biden, in a new escalation of his anti-immigration stance.

Separately, the USCIS said it would reexamine the green cards — permanent residency cards — issued to individuals who had migrated to the US from the same 19 countries also cited by the Department of Homeland Security.

More than 1.6 million green card holders, roughly 12 percent of the total permanent resident population, were born in the countries listed, according to US immigration data analyzed by AFP.

Afghanistan has over 116,000 green card holders.

Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, a group that helped resettle Afghans in the country after the military withdrawal, blasted Rubio’s move to halt all visa issuances.

“They are using a single violent individual as cover for a policy they have long planned,” he said in a statement.

Lakanwal had been living in the western state of Washington with his family and drove across the country to the capital before Wednesday’s shooting, officials said.

Trump has insisted that Lakanwal had been granted unvetted access to the United States because of lax asylum policies after the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan under former president Biden.

However, AfghanEvac said the Afghans had undergone “some of the most extensive security vetting” of any migrants. It added that Lakanwal applied for asylum under Biden but received it later, under Trump.

November 29, 2025
‪Trump Administration Will Reexamine Green Cards Issued To People From 19 Countries “Of Concern”‬

The US will reexamine all green cards issued to people from 19 countries “of concern” at President Donald Trump’s direction, as the Trump administration intensifies its immigration crackdown following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC.

“At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” Joe Edlow, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, wrote in a post on X Thursday.

Asked for additional details, including which countries are considered to be “of concern,” USCIS pointed CNN to 19 countries listed in a June presidential proclamation.

The 19 countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

USCIS said in a statement later Thursday that when vetting immigrants from those 19 countries, the agency will now take into consideration “negative, country specific factors,” which includes whether the country is able “to issue secure identity documents.”

Since officials last night identified the suspect of the shooting as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, the Trump administration has ramped up its efforts to restrict immigration.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS, said Thursday the administration is also reviewing all asylum cases that were approved under former President Joe Biden.

“Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CNN, adding, “The Trump Administration is also reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden Administration.”

Lakanwal — who previously worked with the US government, including the CIA — came to the country in 2021 as part of Biden’s “Operation Allies Welcome”after assisting the US in Afghanistan. He applied for asylum in 2024, and the Trump administration granted it in April 2025, CNN previously reported.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal Department of Justice

The Alliance of Afghan Communities in the United States on Thursday condemned the shooting, while also expressing concerns over the impact of Lakanwal’s actions on the immigration process for other Afghan nationals.

“A single individual’s crime must not jeopardize or obstruct the legal cases of thousands of deserving Afghans who meet all U.S. legal requirements,” the alliance said in a statement, which called for federal agencies to process Afghan immigrants as usual, without delays or suspensions.

More than 190,000 Afghans have resettled in the United States since the US military withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, according to the State Department.

In a video address from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida late Wednesday, Trump blamed the Biden administration for bringing the alleged shooter to the US and argued the attack “underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation.”

Trump said in the remarks, “We must now reexamine every single alien who’s entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country.”

Trump also lamented what he described as “20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners” who entered the US during his predecessor’s administration, casting it “a risk to our very survival.”

The administration’s latest move to reexamine green cards is in line with Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric. A green card is a document that deems its holder as a lawful permanent resident of the US. It differs from refugee and asylum programs — which the Trump administration has already sought to limit — though refugees must apply for a green card after one year of being in the US.

November 28, 2025
Epstein Victims’ Lawyers Urge Court Intervention After Unredacted Names Appear In Document Release

A law firm representing alleged victims of the late Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced sex offender, has asked a federal judge to intervene after dozens of unredacted victim names appeared in documents released by the US House Oversight Committee earlier this month, media reports said on Wednesday.

Attorneys Bradley Edwards and Brittany Henderson said the release caused “widespread panic” among alleged victims, with several expressing shock that identifying information had been made public despite prior assurances that names would be redacted, according to ABC News.

“I thought the government had promised to redact our names and identifying material,” one alleged victim told the firm, according to a court filing.

Another said the disclosure was “just impossible,” while a third wrote, “I have been unable to mentally and emotionally function or sleep.”

The Justice Department faces a Dec. 19 deadline to release hundreds of thousands of Epstein-related files under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The attorneys urged US District Judge Richard Berman to order the Department of Justice (DOJ) to strengthen its review procedures to prevent another release of sensitive material.

“‘These women are not political pawns,’” the filing read, adding that victims “have the right to be treated with dignity and respect and to feel safe and protected by our country, which has failed them time and time again.”

The filing states that the Oversight Committee’s documents included unredacted data for dozens of alleged victims, including minors.

One file alone contained 28 names.

The attorneys said the DOJ either “does not know the identities of all the victims” or is “intentionally failing to protect victims from public exposure.”

The lawyers noted that the DOJ has acknowledged that Epstein harmed “over one thousand victims” and asked the court to confirm whether the department had attempted to redact all corresponding names before sharing documents with Congress.

They also said victims had been unable to reach DOJ officials to prevent further breaches.

“Despite numerous pleas for assistance,” they wrote, “the Department of Justice has been the primary violator of the victims’ identity protection thus far.”

The DOJ has separately asked courts in New York and Florida to authorize the release of grand jury transcripts and exhibits from Epstein- and Maxwell-related cases, records that are typically kept confidential.

Judge Berman responded by ordering the DOJ to provide by Dec. 1 a “detailed description” of the materials it plans to release and its redaction procedures to protect victim identities.

In a separate filing, US Attorney Jay Clayton said his office would “confer with counsel for known victims concerning names and terms for withholding and redactions” and outlined categories of material the DOJ intends to release, including witness interview notes, search warrant applications, financial records, and documents from the Epstein estate.

November 27, 2025
US Envoy Advised Kremlin On How To Pitch Ukraine Plan To Trump: Report

US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff advised a senior Kremlin official on how Russian President Vladimir Putin could broach a potential Ukraine peace proposal with his counterpart Donald Trump during a phone call last month, according to a report Tuesday.

Bloomberg, citing a transcript of the Oct. 14 call, said Witkoff told Putin’s top foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov that the Russian leader should congratulate Trump on the Gaza ceasefire agreement and suggest launching a similar 20-point peace plan for Ukraine.

“I’m thinking maybe we do the same thing with you,” Witkoff told Ushakov, according to the reported transcript.

He also proposed arranging a Trump-Putin call before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s White House visit that week. The Kremlin aide responded that Putin would praise Trump as “a real peace man.”

“This story proves one thing: Special Envoy Witkoff talks to officials in both Russia and Ukraine nearly every day to achieve peace, which is exactly what President Trump appointed him to do,” White House communications director Steven Cheung was quoted as saying in the report.

Asked about the report by reporters on Air Force One en route to Washington, DC from Florida, Trump described Witkoff’s approach as “a standard thing…that’s what a deal maker does.”

“You got to say, look, they want this. You’ve got to convince him of this. You know, that’s a very standard form of negotiation,” he said.

“I would imagine he’s saying the same thing to Ukraine, because each party has to give and take,” he added.

The report comes as Trump on Tuesday signaled the possibility of a high-level meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin if negotiations advance.

Trump said his team made “tremendous progress” over the past week on a US-drafted 28-point peace plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, which he said has been “fine-tuned” with input from both sides, leaving “only a few remaining points of disagreement.”

Talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Geneva over the weekend produced an “updated and refined” framework, according to a joint statement by both countries.

November 26, 2025
Trump Claims Ukraine War Deal ‘Very Close’

US President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that an agreement to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is “very close,” though European leaders urged caution as Russian missiles once again struck Kyiv.

Trump, who has repeatedly insisted he could swiftly end the war, showed clear frustration at the lack of a breakthrough.

He maintained that progress had been made, saying the latest proposal marked a significant improvement on an earlier version that heavily favoured Moscow.

A source familiar with the revised text told AFP the updated plan was “significantly better,” though US officials admitted that several “sensitive” issues were still unresolved.

European leaders, however, were far from convinced. French President Emmanuel Macron insisted there was “clearly no Russian willingness” to consider a ceasefire or engage meaningfully with the new plan, which incorporates more of Ukraine’s demands.

Intensive diplomatic efforts have taken place since the weekend, when Ukrainian and American officials met in Geneva to scrutinise Trump’s controversial original 28-point proposal.

Further talks involving US and Russian representatives were held in Abu Dhabi, according to US media, while leaders from 30 Ukraine-supporting nations convened online on Tuesday.

US negotiator Dan Driscoll struck an optimistic tone after meeting Russian delegates, and the White House also reported “tremendous progress,” though it warned that some details still needed resolving.

Donald Trump. Credit: The Times of Israel.

Despite the diplomatic activity, the war continued to rage. Kyiv was rocked by explosions shortly after 1am as waves of Russian missiles and drones targeted the capital, sparking fires in residential buildings and killing seven people, officials confirmed. Thick smoke lit up by Ukrainian air-defence fire rose above the city as residents sheltered in metro stations.

Trump has demanded that Kyiv respond to his proposal by Thursday, the US Thanksgiving holiday. His initial plan — which barred Ukraine from joining NATO and required the surrender of additional territory — caused alarm across Europe.

The revised version offers more concessions to Ukraine, including increasing a proposed cap on future Ukrainian armed forces from 600,000 to 800,000 personnel, according to a source who reviewed the text.

Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov said there was now a “common understanding on the core” of the deal with the United States, but stressed that remaining details should be resolved in direct talks between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned that “there’s still a long way to go and a tough road ahead.” Russia continues to occupy around 20 percent of Ukrainian territory, and the conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives while forcing millions from their homes.

Ukrainian army sergeant Ivan Zadontsev said negotiations were necessary but expressed scepticism, warning that proposals from both the US and the EU “do not serve Ukraine’s national interests.”

November 26, 2025
Court Seals Records In Investigation Of Teen’s Body Found In Singer D4vd’s Tesla

Records about the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 15-year-old girl whose body was found in singer D4vd’s car, have been barred from public release, officials said.

The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office said it received a court order imposing a security hold on the case, and that no details about Ms Rivas Hernandez’s death can be released or posted on its website.

The police department said it requested the order to ensure officers “receive information from the Medical Examiner before the public”.

Chief Medical Examiner Dr Odey Ukpo said the practice of security holds is “virtually unheard of in other counties” and “has not been proven to improve outcomes in the legal system”.

“We are dedicated to serving our community with full transparency; however, the law precludes us from doing so while the court order remains in this case,” Dr Ukpo added.

Police discovered Rivas Hernandez’s remains inside the boot of the impounded Tesla on 8 September, after responding to reports of a foul odour at a Hollywood tow yard.

Rivas Hernandez, from Lake Elsinore in California, had been missing and was last seen in April 2024, according to a missing person flyer cited by CBS, the BBC’s US news partner.

The car, registered to D4vd, had been towed from the Hollywood Hills neighbourhood five days after it had been abandoned.

D4vd, 20, whose real name David Anthony Burke, released his debut album in April and was on tour when the remains were discovered.

He has not commented on the case, but his representatives previously said he was cooperating with police.

A police spokesperson said the case was being investigated by its robbery-homicide division. No arrests have been made.

The county’s medical examiner previously said Ms Rivas Hernandez’s body was “severely decomposed” when it was found in September and deferred making a ruling on how she died pending the death investigation.

When her remains were found in a bag in D4vd’s car on 8 September, the medical examiner said that she was wearing a tube top, size small black leggings and jewellery, including a yellow metal stud earring and a yellow metal chain bracelet.

She also had a tattoo that read “Shhh…” on her index finger – a marking nearly identical to that on the pop singer’s own index finger.

The decomposition of her body indicated that she had already been “deceased for several weeks”, investigators said.

The girl, who lived about 75 miles away from where her body was discovered – had run away from her home repeatedly.

Neighbours recognised the first-generation daughter of immigrant parents from El Salvador, as as a girl who would visit the corner store almost daily to buy candy and soda, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Her family, who described her as a beloved daughter, sister, cousin and friend, has said they are “heartbroken and devastated by this tragic loss”. They solicited money on a crowdfunding website to pay for her funeral, which took place in October.

The case has also derailed the aspiring career of the viral hitmaker.

His world tour was cancelled within days of the discovery, and Sony Music Publishing reportedly suspended promotion of his sophomore album.

Los Angeles police soon raided the posh Hollywood Hills mansion where the singer was living, just blocks from where his Tesla had been towed.

US retailer Hollister and footwear giant Crocs dropped D4vd from marketing campaigns and Telepatía singer Kali Uchis announced she was taking down their collaboration, Crashing.

November 25, 2025
DOGE Disbanded: Elon Musk’s Cost-Cutting Project Quietly Ended

WASHINGTON, Nov 23 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has disbanded with eight months left to its mandate, ending an initiative launched with fanfare as a symbol of Trump’s pledge to slash the government’s size but which critics say delivered few measurable savings.

“That doesn’t exist,” Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters earlier this month when asked about DOGE’s status.

It is no longer a “centralized entity,” Kupor added, in the first public comments from the Trump administration on the end of DOGE.

The agency, set up in January, made dramatic forays across Washington in the early months of Trump’s second term to rapidly shrink federal agencies, cut their budgets or redirect their work to Trump priorities. The OPM, the federal government’s human resources office, has since taken over many of DOGE’s functions, according to Kupor and documents reviewed by Reuters.

At least two prominent DOGE employees are now involved with the National Design Studio, a new body created through an executive order signed by Trump in August. That body is headed by Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, and Trump’s order directed him to beautify government websites.

Gebbia was part of billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE team while DOGE employee Edward Coristine, nicknamed “Big Balls,” encouraged followers on his X account to apply to join.

The fading away of DOGE is in sharp contrast to the government-wide effort over months to draw attention to it, with Trump, his advisers and cabinet secretaries posting about it on social media. Musk, who led DOGE initially, regularly touted its work on his X platform and at one point brandished a chainsaw to advertise his efforts to cut government jobs.

“This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,” Musk said, holding the tool above his head at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, in February.

DOGE claimed to have slashed tens of billions of dollars in expenditures, but it was impossible for outside financial experts to verify that because the unit did not provide detailed public accounting of its work.

“President Trump was given a clear mandate to reduce waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government, and he continues to actively deliver on that commitment,” said White House spokeswoman Liz Huston in an email to Reuters.

Trump officials have been signaling DOGE’s demise

Billionaire Elon Musk looks on as President Donald Trump speaks at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 19, 2025. The Trump administration told Reuters on Nov. 23, 2025 that it has disbanded the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was initially led by Musk before the Tesla founder publicly feuded with the president.
Brendan Smialowsky/AFP via Getty Images

Trump administration officials have not openly said that DOGE no longer exists, even after Musk’s public feud with Trump in May. Musk has since left Washington.

Trump and his team have nevertheless signaled its demise in public since this summer, even though the U.S. president signed an executive order earlier in his term decreeing that DOGE would last through July 2026.

In statements to reporters, Trump often talks about DOGE in the past tense. Acting DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason, whose background is in healthcare tech, formally became an adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy in March, according to a court filing, in addition to her role with DOGE. Her public statements have largely focused on her HHS role.

Republican-led states, including Idaho and Florida, meanwhile are creating local entities similar to DOGE.

A government-wide hiring freeze – another hallmark of DOGE – is also over, Kupor said.

Trump on his first day in office barred federal agencies from bringing on new employees, with exceptions for positions his team deemed necessary to enforce immigration laws and protect public safety. He later said DOGE representatives must approve any other exceptions, adding that agencies should hire “no more than one employee for every four” that depart.

“There is no target around reductions” anymore, Kupor said.

Former DOGE employees move on to new roles

AirBnB co-founder Joe Gebbia speaks at the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, on March 13, 2022. Gebbia was part of billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE team before leading President Donald Trump’s recently-created National Design Studio, where he’s directed to beautify government websites.
Matthew Busch/Bloomberg via Getty Images

DOGE staff have also taken on other roles in the administration. Most prominent is Gebbia, whom Trump tasked with improving the “visual presentation” of government websites.

So far, his design studio has launched websites to recruit law enforcement officers to patrol Washington, D.C., and advertise the president’s drug pricing program. Gebbia declined an interview with Reuters via a spokesperson.

Zachary Terrell, part of the DOGE team given access to government health systems in the early days of Trump’s second term, is now chief technology officer at the Department of Health and Human Services. Rachel Riley, who had the same access according to court filings, is now chief of the Office of Naval Research, according to the office’s website.

Jeremy Lewin, who helped Musk and the Trump administration dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, now oversees foreign assistance at the State Department, according to the agency’s website.

Musk shortly after Trump’s election said he had a mandate to “delete the mountain” of government regulations. He made undoing government regulations and remaking the government with AI two key tenets of DOGE, in addition to eliminating federal government jobs.

The administration is still working toward slashing regulations. The White House budget office has tasked Scott Langmack, who was DOGE’s representative at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, with creating custom AI applications to pore through U.S. regulations and determine which ones to eliminate, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Musk, meanwhile, has reappeared in Washington. This week, he attended a White House dinner for Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

November 24, 2025
Trump Says Ukraine Showed ‘Zero Gratitude’ For US Efforts To End War

President Donald Trump has accused Ukraine’s leaders of showing “zero gratitude” for US efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

His comments on social media came as Ukraine and its European allies hold talks with US negotiators in Geneva over a widely-leaked set of proposals seen as strongly favouring Moscow.

During a break in the talks with Ukrainians, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “We’ve had probably the most productive and meaningful meeting so far in this entire process.” Ukraine’s envoy said the sides were “moving to a just peace”.

President Volodymyr Zelensky later said he was “personally” grateful to Trump.

Earlier this week, Zelensky had warned that Ukraine faced the choice of “either losing dignity, or risk losing a key partner”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin – who launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – has said the US plan could be “the basis” for settlement.

As Rubio met the Ukrainians on Sunday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that the the Russia-Ukraine war would have never happened with “strong and proper” US and Ukrainian leadership.

Switching to capital letters, he went on to blame Ukraine’s “leadership” for not thanking the US for its peace efforts.

In his post, the US president also pointed out that Europe – where Kyiv has some of its staunchest allies – was continuing to buy oil from Russia.

Moscow relies heavily on its oil and gas exports to continue financing its war in Ukraine.

The talks in Geneva – involving senior officials from the US, Ukraine, Britain, France and Germany – began over dinner on Saturday and are expected to last all day in a variety of formats behind closed doors.

They are focusing on the 28-point draft, the leaked version of which includes a Ukrainian troop withdrawal from the part of the eastern Donetsk region that they currently control, and the de facto Russian control of Donetsk, as well as the neighbouring Luhansk region in addition to the southern Crimea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

The plan also includes freezing the borders of Ukraine’s southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions along the current battle lines. Both regions are partially occupied by Russia.

The US plan also limits Ukraine’s military to 600,000 personnel – from about 880,000 now.

The draft crucially includes a pledge for Ukraine not to seek membership of Nato. Instead, Kyiv would receive “reliable security guarantees” about which no details have been given.

The document says “it is expected” that Russia will not invade its neighbours and that Nato will not expand further.

The draft also suggests Russia will be “reintegrated into the global economy”, through the lifting of sanctions and by inviting Russia to rejoin the G7 group of the world’s most powerful countries – making it the G8 again.

Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory and its troops have been making slow advances along the vast front line, despite reported heavy losses.

Before Trump’s latest comments, President Zelensky said there was an understanding the US plan may take into account “a number of elements that are based on the Ukrainian vision and are critical to Ukraine’s national interests”.

Trump had initially given Ukraine until 27 November to accept the proposals.

But he then said this was not his “final offer” for Kyiv, after Ukraine’s allies from Europe, Canada and Japan voiced concerns.

In a joint statement, the allies said the plan had elements “essential for a just and lasting peace” – but would “require additional work”, citing concerns over border changes and caps on Ukraine’s army.

There were reports that the European team in Geneva would propose to change some key points in the original US plan regarding border changes and caps on Ukraine’s armed forces.

November 23, 2025
Trump To End Temporary Protected Status For Somalis

US President Donald Trump announced he will end the temporary status protecting Somali immigrants in Minnesota from deportation, claiming on Friday that his latest cut to refugee programs was a crime prevention measure.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he was “hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota,” while accusing “Somali gangs” of harming locals.

“Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER!” he added.

TPS protects its holders from deportation and allows them to work. It is granted to people deemed to be in danger if they return to their home countries because of war, natural disaster or other extraordinary circumstances.

The midwestern state of Minnesota hosts one of the largest Somali populations outside of the eastern African nation, which has endured decades of conflict.

According to the Congressional record, around 705 Somali individuals have approved TPS applications as of March 31, and “DHS estimated that approximately 4,300 individuals may become newly eligible for TPS” were it to be extended.

TPS was initially granted to Somalis in 1991, and most recently extended in July 2024 “due to conditions in Somalia that prevent individuals from safely returning,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.

After a brutal civil war in the 1990s, Somalia has been fighting Al-Qaeda-linked insurgent group Al-Shabaab since the mid-2000s. The militants launched a new offensive early this year.

The Trump administration, which is carrying out a sweeping immigration crackdown, has also moved to strip TPS for Afghans, Haitians, South Sudan, Venezuelans and nationals of several other countries.

The immigration crackdown has faced numerous legal challenges, and Trump’s latest TPS dictate is likewise expected to go to court.

Under a separate new policy, the United States would slash the number of refugees it admits to 7,500 in fiscal 2026, down from more than 100,000 a year under Democratic president Joe Biden.

In his post targeting Somalis on Friday, Trump also slammed Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz, accusing him of “laundering activity,” without offering evidence.

Trump has also frequently mocked Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, urging the Somalia-born Democrat to “go back!” to the country.

(AFP)

November 22, 2025
Nicki Minaj Supports Contested Trump Claim Christians Being Persecuted In Nigeria

Award-winning rapper Nicki Minaj has publicly backed President Donald Trump’s allegations that Christians face persecution in Nigeria.

“In Nigeria, Christians are being targeted,” Minaj said on Tuesday at an event organised by the US, adding: “Churches have been burned, families have been torn apart… simply because of how they pray.”

Analysts say that jihadists and other armed groups have waged campaigns of violence that affect all communities in the West African nation, regardless of background or belief.

This week alone, two people were killed in an attack on a church, while a group of 25 girls, who the BBC has been told are Muslim, were abducted from a school.

Two of the girls later managed to escape from their abductors. A teacher and a security guard – both Muslim – were also killed in the attack on the secondary school in the north-western Kebbi state.

Earlier this month, Trump said he would send troops into Nigeria “guns a-blazing” if its government “continues to allow the killing of Christians”.

Minaj, whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, told an event organised by the US embassy to the UN in New York that calling for the protection of Christians in Nigeria was “not about taking sides or dividing people… but about uniting humanity”.

“This is about standing up in the face of injustice. It’s about what I’ve always stood for,” she added.

The 42-year-old rapper, who has previously spoken of her Christian faith, thanked Trump for “prioritising this issue and for his leadership”.

The Nigerian government has pushed back on these claims, describing them as “a gross misrepresentation of reality”.

An official said that “terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology – Muslims, Christians and those of no faith alike”.

Other groups monitoring political violence in Nigeria say most victims of the jihadist groups are Muslims.

The country’s 220 million people are roughly evenly split between followers of the two religions, with Muslims in the majority in the north, where most attacks take place.

On Wednesday, Nigeria police in the south-western Kwara state confirmed a deadly attack on a church in the town of Eruku, where gunmen opened fire on worshippers the previous day, killing two people and abducting several others.

Local media say armed men, identified by residents as bandits, stormed the Christ Apostolic Church during an evening programme on Tuesday evening, shooting the pastor and rounding up the faithful at gunpoint.

Images and short video clips – believed to be from the church’s CCTV cameras – have circulated widely online, showing terrified people scrambling for safety, including an elderly woman seen desperately trying to escape the gunmen.

Armed groups have been targeting school children in Nigeria since 2014

On Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu confirmed that jihadist forces had killed a senior army officer, after he had been captured in an ambush.

The Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) said on Monday its fighters had killed Brigadier General Musa Uba in the north-eastern state of Borno.

The Nigerian army had earlier denied that the officer had been abducted and killed.

The latest attacks have triggered frustration and anger across Nigeria, with many lamenting what they see as an unending wave of insecurity affecting rural communities, churches, schools and major transport routes.

In a statement on Wednesday, President Tinubu said he was “fully apprised of the recent uptick in violent extremism” across the country, adding that the surge had left him “depressed”.

He directed security agencies to respond with “urgency, clarity, and decisive action” to what he described as attacks by the “heartless terrorists”.

Minaj described Nigeria as “a beautiful nation with deep faith traditions” and even acknowledged the “beautiful Barbz” – her fans – in the West African country.

The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, thanked the rapper for “leveraging her massive platform to spotlight the atrocities against Christians in Nigeria”.

For months, right-wing campaigners and politicians in Washington have been alleging that Islamist militants were systematically targeting Christians in Nigeria.

But the BBC has found that some of the data being relied on to come to this conclusion is difficult to verify.

Deadly disputes are also often over vital resources like land and water or fuelled by inter-ethnic tensions, rather than religion, say analysts.

Last year Minaj publicly revealed that despite moving from her native Trinidad to New York at an early age, she still does not have US citizenship.

Her appearance at the UN on Tuesday is her highest-profile political intervention to date.

She made headlines during the pandemic for sharing disinformation about side-effects of the Covid vaccine – claiming that when a friend of her cousin had the jab, it caused his testicles to swell up and he became impotent.

“His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding,” Minaj wrote online.

Her comments were criticised by the UK’s chief medical officer at the time, and then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson also commented, joking: “I am not as familiar with the works of Nicki Minaj as I probably should be.”

In recent months, her years-long feud with fellow New York rapper Cardi B escalated to them trading insults about each others’ careers and family members.

(BBC)

November 19, 2025