8 h. ago Before Maduro’s capture in Venezuela, US spoke with minister who is his loyal ally

Trump administration officials had been in discussions with Venezuela’s hardline Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello months before the US operation to seize the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, and have been in communication with him since then, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The officials warned Cabello, 62, against using the security services or militant ruling-party supporters overseen by him to target the country’s opposition, four sources said. That security...

Politics

48 h. ago Lutnick warns Taipei to keep Trump ‘happy’ as US$500 billion chip deal draws China rebuke

Blending economic nationalism with geopolitical leverage, US President Donald Trump’s top trade official delivered a pointed message to Taiwan shortly after Washington announced an ambitious deal on Thursday to bring critical technology manufacturing, including semiconductors, back to the United States. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick framed the massive reshoring initiative as not just a business transaction, but as a strategic imperative for Taiwan to maintain favour with the “America...

Events

48 h. ago Lutnick warns Taipei to keep Trump ‘happy’ as US chip deal draws Beijing rebuke

Blending economic nationalism with geopolitical leverage, US President Donald Trump’s top trade official delivered a pointed message to Taiwan shortly after Washington announced an ambitious deal on Thursday to bring critical technology manufacturing, including semiconductors, back to the United States. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick framed the massive reshoring initiative as not just a business transaction, but as a strategic imperative for Taiwan to maintain favour with the “America...

Events

3 d. ago Trump says ‘unacceptable’ if US does not control Greenland ahead of Vance talks

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that anything less than US control of Greenland is “unacceptable”, hours before Vice-President J.D. Vance was to host Danish and Greenlandic officials for talks. In a post on his social media site, Trump reiterated his argument that the US “needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security”. He added that “NATO should be leading the way for us to get it” and that otherwise Russia or China would. “NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with...

Politics

3 d. ago Denmark cites ‘fundamental disagreement’ with Trump over Greenland after White House talks

A top Danish official said on Wednesday that a “fundamental disagreement” over Greenland remained with US President Donald Trump after holding highly anticipated White House talks with Vice-President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The two sides, however, agreed to create a working group to discuss ways to work through differences as Trump continues to call for a US takeover of the semi-autonomous territory of Nato ally Denmark. “The group, in our view, should focus on how to...

Politics

4 d. ago Greenland says ‘we choose Denmark’, as talks with Trump officials loom

Greenland would choose to remain Danish over a US takeover, its leader said on Tuesday, ahead of crunch White House talks on the future of the Arctic island which President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened. Trump has been talking up the idea of buying or annexing the autonomous territory for years, and further stoked tensions this week by saying the United States would take it “one way or the other”. “We are now facing a geopolitical crisis, and if we have to choose between the United...

Politics

8 d. ago No amount of money can buy Greenland, local lawmakers tell Trump

There is no sum of money from Donald Trump that would persuade Greenlanders to join the US, two Greenlandic lawmakers in the Danish parliament said. Any attempt by the US president to entice the Arctic island with cash is doomed to fail and only risks pushing Greenlanders further away, said Aaja Chemnitz, one of two Greenland representatives in the Danish legislature, where she chairs the committee focused on the territory’s affairs. Trump administration officials have discussed sending direct...

Politics

8 d. ago Chip sales to China part of US plan to build its own digital silk road: official

A senior Trump administration official has defended exports of advanced chips to China, arguing that the US was building its own “digital silk road” to counteract concerns that Washington was eroding the competitiveness of top US models. The comments, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday, came amid questions from Chinese observers over why the US government would make certain advanced integrated circuits, such as Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips, available to the...

Politics

8 d. ago Top South Korean official calls Trump’s Venezuela raid ‘violent atrocity’, stirring unease

Senior officials in South Korea’s Prime Minister’s Office are voicing concern over Park Seok-woon, a committee chairman under its authority, after he joined protests criticising US President Donald Trump and his administration over American military operations in Venezuela. Park, a long-time liberal activist, took part in a rally on Monday in front of the US embassy in Seoul, following an American military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power since 2013,...

Politics

9 d. ago Minnesota, US officials clash over investigation into ICE agent’s killing of woman

The investigation into the killing of a US citizen by an ICE agent in Minneapolis this week is being complicated by clashes between federal and local officials, with the FBI taking control over the objections of Governor Tim Walz. State authorities questioned whether a federal probe could be trusted, especially given comments by Trump administration officials that seemed to exonerate the officer. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said that after it was invited to participate in the...

Events

1 week ago ICE agent shoots woman dead in Minneapolis crackdown, sparking outcry

A US immigration agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in her car in Minneapolis on Wednesday during an immigration enforcement surge, according to local and federal officials, the latest violence in US President Donald Trump’s nationwide crackdown on migrants. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey adamantly rejected the Trump administration’s assertion that the agent fired in self defence, saying video of the shooting directly contradicted what he called the government’s “garbage...

Events

1 week ago Trump says Ukraine did not target Putin residence, disputing Russian claim of drone attack

US President Donald Trump on Sunday told reporters that US officials have determined that Ukraine did not target a residence belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack last week, disputing Kremlin claims that Trump had initially greeted with deep concern. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week said Ukraine launched a wave of drones at Putin’s state residence in the northwestern Novgorod region that the Russian defence systems were able to defeat. Lavrov also...

Events

2 w. ago Trump and Iran official exchange threats after protests turn deadly in the Islamic Republic

US President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to come to the aid of protesters in Iran if security forces fire on them, days into unrest that has left several dead and posed the biggest internal threat to Iranian authorities in years. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” he said in a social media post. The United States struck Iranian nuclear facilities in June, joining an Israeli air campaign that targeted Tehran’s atomic programme and military leadership. Top Iranian official Ali...

Events

2 w. ago Trump, Iran official exchange threats after protests turn deadly in the Islamic Republic

US President Donald Trump and top Iranian officials exchanged duelling threats on Friday as widening protests swept across parts of the Islamic Republic, further escalating tensions between the countries after America bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June. At least seven people have been killed so far in violence surrounding the demonstrations, which were sparked in part by the collapse of Iran’s rial currency but have increasingly seen crowds chanting anti-government slogans. The protests, now...

Events

2 w. ago US Coast Guard searches for survivors after strike on alleged drug boat convoy

The United States Coast Guard is searching for survivors of a US military strike against a convoy of suspected drug vessels in the Pacific Ocean, US officials said on Wednesday. President Donald Trump’s administration has carried out more than 30 strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific since September in a campaign that has killed at least 110 people. In a statement, the US military’s Southern Command said the military had carried out a strike against three...

Events