Trump | Pakistan

WASHINGTON: United States lawmakers from both parties raised concerns on Tuesday about the strategy and potential consequences of the US-Israeli war against Iran following a classified congressional briefing. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said the Trump administration’s plans for the war appear “incoherent and incomplete” following the two-hour closed-door briefing. “So they are going to spend hundreds of billions of your taxpayer dollars, get a whole bunch of Americans killed, and a hardline regime — probably a MORE anti-American hardline regime — will still be in charge,” Murphy said on X following the briefing. Murphy said he could not disclose classified information but that the plans discussed left him deeply concerned about the administration’s strategy. He said the briefing suggested that destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons program is not among the listed war goals. He also said regime change in Tehran is not part of the strategy, raising questions about what the administration ultimately hopes to achi...

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Indian energy giant Reliance Industries was backing a deal to build the first new major oil refinery in the United States in half a century. Trump made the announcement via his Truth Social platform, saying the company America First Refining would construct the new facility at the Port of Brownsville, Texas. “This is a historic $300 billion dollar deal — the biggest in US history,” Trump wrote, framing the project as a cornerstone of his energy agenda, but offering no details on the plan. “Thank you to our partners in India, and their largest privately held Energy Company, Reliance, for this tremendous Investment,” he said, without specifying the company’s commitment. Reliance is India’s biggest privately held conglomerate and its Jamnagar refinery is the world’s largest. The America First Refining website says the company is a project of Element Fuels, which first announced plans in 2024 to build a Brownsville refinery at a cost of between $3-$4bn. The facility would...

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday declined to say whether Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader has a “target on his back,” but made clear his dissatisfaction with Tehran’s choice, calling it “going to lead to more of the same.” Asked at a news briefing in Doral, Florida, whether Iran’s new leader was a target, Trump replied: “The new leader, you mean the son?… I was disappointed to see their choice,” before adding, “I don’t want to say whether he has (a target on his back).” Pressed again at the end of the session, he repeated that he would not comment on any targeting decision but reiterated his broader frustration, saying the Iranian people are “an amazing people but the system they have only leads to failure.” The remarks came a day after Iran’s Assembly of Experts formally appointed Mojtaba Khamenei — son of the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — to succeed his father following his death in a US-Israeli strike. The succession consolidates power within the clerical circles and sign...

US President Donald Trump indicated for the first time on Monday that US military operations in Iran could be coming to an end, saying the war was “very complete” and progressing ahead of schedule. The war had sent stock markets slumping and oil prices soaring again on Monday as Tehran, under new leader Mojtaba Khamenei, fired a new barrage of missiles at its Gulf neighbours and signalled that the strategic Strait of Hormuz would likely remain closed. But Wall Street vaulted into positive territory on Monday after Trump’s remarks, despite the lack of details on any solution to the conflict still raging in the Middle East. “I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force,” Trump told CBS News by phone, repeating battle damage assessments that he has given in previous days. Trump told the US broadcaster that the United States was “very far” ahead of his initially stated timeframe for the war of four or five weeks. On the first day in power for the 56...

US President Donald Trump on Saturday urged Latin American nations to use military power against the “cancer” of drug cartels and offered to support them with US missile strikes targeting narco kingpins. Trump, currently waging a war with Iran, laid out a muscular position for advancing Washington’s interests in the Western hemisphere, pronouncing that communist-led Cuba was “in its last moments of life” and advocating tough action by allies against organised crime blighting the region. He formally launched a 17-nation “counter cartel” coalition, which the White House described as a pledge from governments in the region to use “hard power” against security threats. “We’re working with you to do whatever we have to do. You want us to use a missile? We’ll use missiles. They’re extremely accurate,” Trump told a dozen right-wing leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean at his Doral golf club near Miami. “‘Piu,’ right into the living room,” he said, suggesting the sound of a missile in flight. “That’s the end ...

WASHINGTON: Virginia’s legislature has passed a new education law that bars public schools from teaching former President Donald Trump’s version of recent history, particularly regarding the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Under the measure, approved by the Democratic-controlled Virginia General Assembly, schools cannot present the attack as a “peaceful protest” or claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through widespread fraud. Instead, teachers are required to describe January 6 as a violent assault on democratic institutions aimed at overturning the election results. Similar efforts are underway in New York. Democratic Representative Chuck Lavine of Long Island has introduced a bill that would require all public school students in the state to learn about the insurrection and its consequences. Lavine said failing to teach an accurate account would be a “grave disservice” to students and to the nation. Trump and his allies have characterised the events of January 6 as patriotic and ...

The US Justice Department released FBI records on Thursday that summarise interviews of an unidentified woman in which she made accusations against US President Donald Trump related to an alleged sexual encounter. FBI agents interviewed the woman four times in 2019 as part of their investigation into accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The Justice Department had previously released a log confirming that the interviews took place, but released a summary of only one of those four meetings, in which she accused Epstein of molesting her when she was a teenager. The newly disclosed records, which were posted on the department’s website on Thursday, show she also claimed Trump attempted to force her to engage in sexual acts after Epstein introduced her to the future president in New York or New Jersey in the 1980s when she was between 13 and 15 years old. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the disclosures. Politico, which first reported the disclosures, said White House press secreta...

WASHINGTON: A Pakistani man accused of planning to kill President Donald Trump told jurors on Wednesday that he did not willingly work with Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to devise the plot, media said. The Justice Department accused Asif Merchant of trying to recruit people in the United States in the plan targeting Trump and other US politicians in retaliation for Washington’s killing of the Corps’ top commander, Qassem Soleimani. The Corps has a central role in Iran, with its combination of military and economic power and an intelligence network. “I was not wanting to do this so willingly,” the New York Times quoted Merchant as telling a court during his trial for terrorism and murder-for-hire charges, adding that he participated to protect his family in Tehran. Prosecutors reject Merchant’s claim of duress, cite lack of evidence to support ‘coercion’ defence Prosecutors rejected Merchant’s claim, citing a “lack of evidentiary support for a true duress or coercion,” according to a letter s...

Kristi Noem, who oversaw United States President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown and faced bipartisan criticism in hearings this week, will leave her role as homeland security chief at the end of the month. Trump will tap Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace her, he said on his Truth Social platform, a move that would require US Senate confirmation. Noem, a former governor of South Dakota, became one of Trump’s most high-profile cabinet secretaries with social media posts that portrayed immigrants in harsh terms, highlighting cases of alleged criminal offenders and using vitriolic language. She faced criticism in January when she quickly labelled two US citizens fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis as committing “domestic terrorism”. Videos that emerged after the deaths undercut the assertion by Noem and other Trump officials that the two deceased — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — were violent aggressors. The public backlash for deaths led the Trump administration to ...

The European Union (EU) stands in full solidarity with Spain, European Council President Antonio Costa said on Wednesday, following US President Donald Trump’s threats to cut trade with Madrid over its stance against Washington’s attacks on Iran. “I have just held a call with President Sanchez to express the EU’s full solidarity with Spain. The EU will always ensure that the interests of its member states are fully protected,” Costa said on the social media platform on X. Trump lashed out at the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday, criticising its refusal to grant use of the Rota naval base and Moron air base, as well as his refusal to join Nato allies in a pledge to boost defence spending. “So we’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” Trump said. Meanwhile, the European Commission said it was “ready” to defend EU interests. “We stand in full solidarity with all member states and all their citizens and, through our common trade policy, stand ready...

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he is directing the government to stop work with Anthropic, and the Pentagon said it would declare the start-up a supply-chain risk, dealing a major blow to the artificial intelligence lab after a showdown about technology guardrails. Trump added there would be a six-month phase-out for the Defence Department and other agencies that use the company’s products. If Anthropic does not help with the transition, Trump said, he would use “the Full Power of the Presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences to follow”. The actions mark an extraordinary rebuke by the United States against one of the premier companies that has kept it in the lead on national security-critical AI, threatening to give Anthropic a pariah status that Washington until now had reserved for enemy suppliers. Google and Amazon are among Anthropic’s financial backers. The moves further set a precedent that US law alone would constrain how AI is deployed on the battlefield, wit...

US President Donald Trump renewed his condemnation of the Supreme Court on Monday after it ruled against his sweeping tariff programme last week, vowing to turn to other tariff powers and licences but giving no details. “The court has also approved all other Tariffs, of which there are many, and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the Tariffs as initially used,” he wrote in a social media post. Trump said on Saturday he would raise a temporary tariff from 10 per cent to 15 pc on US imports from all countries, the maximum level allowed under the law, a day after the court ruled that Trump had exceeded his presidential authority when he imposed an array of higher tariff rates under an economic emergency law. In his post on Monday, Trump also pointed to the potential use of licences to pressure countries, writing that “incomprehensibly, according to the ruling, (I) can’t charge them a Licence fee — BUT ALL LICENCES CHARGE FEES, why can’t the United States do...

Greenland does not need medical assistance from other countries, Denmark’s defence minister said on Sunday, after United States President Donald Trump claimed he was sending a hospital ship to the autonomous Danish territory that he covets. “The Greenlandic population receives the healthcare it needs. They receive it either in Greenland, or, if they require specialised treatment, they receive it in Denmark. So it’s not as if there’s a need for a special healthcare initiative in Greenland,” Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish broadcaster DR. Lund Poulsen told DR he was not aware of the hospital ship’s possible arrival. “Trump is constantly tweeting about Greenland. So this is undoubtedly an expression of the new normal that has taken hold in international politics,” he said. In a social media post, Trump had said the boat would treat many “sick” people in Greenland, without providing any details on who he was referring to or the number of people the vessel would help. “We are going to send a great...

US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday that President Donald Trump is questioning why Iran has not “capitulated” in the face of Washington’s military build-up aimed at pressuring them into a nuclear deal. The United States and Iran this week resumed Oman-mediated talks in Geneva aimed at averting the possibility of military action, after Washington dispatched two aircraft carriers, jets and weaponry to the region to back its warnings. In a Fox News interview with Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara, Witkoff said the president was “curious” about Iran’s position after he had warned them of severe consequences in the event they failed to strike a deal. “I don’t want to use the word ‘frustrated’, because he understands he has plenty of alternatives, but he’s curious as to why they haven’t… I don’t want to use the word ‘capitulated’, but why they haven’t capitulated,” he said. “Why, under this pressure, with the amount of seapower and naval power over there, why haven’t they come to us and said, ‘We profess we don’t wa...

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he is raising the worldwide tariffs on goods entering the United States from 10 per cent to 15pc “effective immediately,” a day after the Supreme Court largely struck down his sweeping duties. Trump had immediately announced a 10pc across-the-board tariff on Friday after the court’s decision, which found the president had exceeded his authority when he imposed an array of higher rates under an economic emergency law. The new levies are grounded in a separate law, known as Section 122, that allows tariffs up to 15pc but requires congressional approval to extend them after 150 days. Trump said on his Truth Social platform that after a thorough review of Friday’s “extraordinarily anti-American decision” by the court to rein in his tariff programme, the administration was hiking the import levies “to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15pc level”. “During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissibl...

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Saturday criticised the government for participating in the Boa­rd of Peace’s (BoP) first meeting over Gaza, terming it “unacceptable”. His remarks came after the inaugural BoP meeting on Thursday in Washington, where Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised the peacemaking efforts of United States President Donald Trump, who is heading the forum. Addressing the media in Lahore, the JI leader said it was “unacceptable at any cost” to ignore the country’s long-established policy on the Palestine issue. He emphasised that since the time of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s policy had remained clear and that any deviation from it would be intolerable. Rehman also opposed any plan to send Pakistani troops to Gaza as part of an International Stabilisation Force (ISF) envisioned under Trump’s 20-point plan. He argued that the matter concerned Gaza’s internal affairs and should be handled only by local Palestinian police and security forces rather than forei...

US President Donald Trump will travel to China from March 31 to April 2 for a highly anticipated meeting between the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies, a trip announced as the Supreme Court overturned Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imported goods. A White House official confirmed the trip on Friday, just before the highest US court dealt Trump a stinging defeat by striking down many of the tariffs he has used in a global trade war, including some against rival China. Trump’s talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on an extended visit to Beijing had been expected to revolve around extending a trade truce that kept both countries from further hiking tariffs. Ruling raises questions for US-China relations But the Supreme Court’s reversal created new questions for tense US-China relations that had recently stabilised after Trump trimmed tariffs on Chinese goods, in exchange for measures from Beijing, including cracking down on the illicit fentanyl trade and pausing export restrictions on critical mineral...

After the US Supreme Court struck down on Friday President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs that he pursued under a law meant for use in national emergencies, he announced that he was imposing an extra global tariff of 10 percent on US trade partners. Speaking to reporters after the Supreme Court ruled his sweeping global tariffs illegal, Trump said he would impose tariffs using alternative authorities. “The Supreme Court’s decision today made a president’s ability to both regulate trade and impose tariffs more powerful and more crystal clear, rather than less,” he said. “I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” Trump added. Insisting the the ruling left him “more powerful”, he said: “In order to protect our country, a president can actually charge more tariffs than I was charging in the past.” Trump has leveraged tariffs — taxes on imported goods — as a key economic and foreign policy tool. They have been central to a glob...

US President Donald Trump said he was considering a limited strike on Iran after ordering a major naval buildup in the Middle East aimed at heaping pressure on Tehran to cut a deal to curb its nuclear programme. The latest threat came after Iran’s foreign minister said a draft proposal for an agreement with Washington would be ready in a matter of days following negotiations between the two sides in Geneva earlier this week. Trump had suggested on Thursday that “bad things” would happen if Tehran did not strike a deal within 10 days, which he subsequently extended to 15. Asked by a reporter on Friday whether he was contemplating a limited military strike, Trump answered: “The most I can say — I am considering it.” After the talks in Geneva, Tehran said the two sides had agreed to submit drafts of a potential agreement, which Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told US media would be the “next step”. “I believe that in the next two, three days, that would be ready, and after final confirmation by my superi...

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would direct federal agencies to begin releasing government files related to aliens and unidentified flying objects, pointing to what he described as strong public interest in the issue. In a social media post, Trump said he would order Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and other agencies to release the information, calling the matter “extremely interesting and important.” Earlier in the day, Trump, without providing evidence, accused former President Barack Obama of improperly disclosing classified information when discussing aliens publicly, saying Obama “made a big mistake.” “He took it out of classified information … He’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump told reporters while traveling to Georgia. During an interview with podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen released on Saturday, Obama was asked if aliens were real. “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in … Area 51. There’s no underground facility unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and ...