Trump | Pakistan

• PM Shehbaz, FM Dar join leaders from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Turkiye and Indonesia for multilateral meeting • US president calls for immediate end to war, tells Muslim leaders ‘this is the group that can do it’ • Opposes recognition of Palestine statehood in UNGA speech; Rubio says permanent solution only possible through ‘negotiated settlement’ NEW YORK: After an antagonistic speech at the UN General Assembly, where he opposed a growing global push towards the recognition of a Palestinian state, US President Donald Trump met Muslim leaders, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to present his plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza. The meeting, held on the sidelines of the 80th UNGA at United Nations Headquarters, brought together leaders from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Turkiye and Indonesia. Ahead of the meeting, in a televised interaction with Muslim leaders, Trump said: “We have to get the hostages back… This is the group that can do it, more than any other grou...

US President Donald Trump on Monday linked autism to childhood vaccine use and the taking of popular pain medication Tylenol by women when pregnant, elevating claims not backed by scientific evidence to the forefront of US health policy. In an extraordinary news conference at the White House, the Republican president delivered medical advice to pregnant women and parents of young children, repeatedly telling them not to use or administer the painkiller and suggesting that common vaccines not be taken together or so early in a child’s life. The advice from Trump, who acknowledged he is not a doctor, goes against that of medical societies, which cite data from numerous studies showing that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, plays a safe role in the well-being of pregnant women. View this post on Instagram “I want to say it like it is, don’t take Tylenol. Don’t take it,” Trump said. “Other things that we recommend, or certainly I do anyway, is … don’t let them pump your baby up with the largest pil...

United States President Donald Trump on Sunday said he would defend Poland and the Baltic states in case of an escalation from Russia, following Moscow’s incursion into Estonia’s airspace. Asked whether he would help defend the EU members if Russia intensifies hostilities, Trump told reporters: “Yeah, I would. I would.” Estonia has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday following Friday’s incursion. Three Russian MiG-31 fighters violated Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland, triggering complaints of a dangerous new provocation from the European Union and Nato, but a denial from Moscow. Italian F-35 fighters attached to Nato’s air defence support mission in the Baltic states, along with Swedish and Finnish aircraft, were scrambled to intercept the Russian jets and warn them off. Asked whether he had been briefed on the situation in Estonia, Trump answered in the affirmative and added: “We don’t like it.” His statement came about two weeks after some 17 Russian drones violated...

US President Donald Trump on Friday ordered an annual $100,000 fee be added to H-1B skilled worker visas, creating potentially major repercussions for the tech industry where such permits are prolific. The new measure, which could likely face legal challenges, was announced alongside the introduction of a $1 million “gold card“ residency programme that Trump had previewed months earlier. “The main thing is, we’re going to have great people coming in, and they’re going to be paying,” Trump told reporters as he signed the orders in the Oval Office. Later, the White House issued a major clarification to the new visa policy, saying the $100,000 fee will be a “one-time” payment imposed on new applicants. “This is a one-time fee that applies only to the petition. It only applies to new visas, not renewals or current visa holders,” a White House official said on condition of anonymity. H-1B visas allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialised skills — such as scientists, engineers, and computer programm...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would meet US counterpart Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly next week as Russia intensified attacks across his country. Russia carried out one of its largest aerial attacks overnight, firing 40 missiles and some 580 drones at Ukraine in a barrage that killed at least three people and wounded dozens, Zelensky said on Saturday. Zelensky said he would hold “a meeting with the President of the United States”, adding he would discuss security guarantees for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia during the talks with Trump. Ukraine has insisted on Western-backed security guarantees to prevent future Russian attacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin has meanwhile warned that any Western troops in Ukraine would be unacceptable and legitimate targets. A US-led push for a quick end to the war has stalled and Russia effectively ruled out a meeting between Putin and Zelensky — something that Kyiv says is the only way towards peace. “We expect san...

LONDON: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had personally requested that London Mayor Sadiq Khan be excluded from the state banquet held by King Charles at Windsor Castle during his second state visit to the United Kingdom. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on his return flight to Washington, Trump branded Khan as “one of the worst mayors in the world”, accusing him of failing on crime and immigration. “I asked that he not be there. He wanted to be there, as I understand. I didn’t want him,” the president said. The mayor did not attend the banquet and was not expecting an invitation, according to British media. A source close to Sadiq Khan dismissed Mr Trump’s remarks, saying his “politics is one of fear and division”. He claimed London remains “a global success story” that attracts record numbers of Americans. Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2025

China on Friday strongly reacted to United States President Donald Trump’s plan to retake control of Afghanistan’s Bagram air base and said “hyping up tensions and creating confrontation” in the region runs counter to people’s aspirations. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the country’s future should be decided by the Afghan people, according to state-run Global Times. “China respects Afghanistan’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and that the country’s future should be decided by the Afghan people,” he said. “Hyping up tensions and creating confrontation in the region runs counter to people’s aspirations,” Lin said, adding that China hopes all parties will play a constructive role in promoting regional peace and stability. On Thursday, Trump said that his administration is trying to secure the return of the Bagram air base from the Taliban, though specifics on the hitherto secretive negotiations remained scarce. Trump said part of his motivation for attempting to reacqu...

United States President Donald Trump hailed on Friday what he called progress with Chinese President Xi Jinping, including on selling blockbuster app TikTok, and said he would visit the Asian power, which offered a more cautious assessment of their talks. The leaders of the world’s two largest economies spoke by telephone for the second time since the return to the White House of Trump, who has tried to keep a lid on tensions despite his once virulent criticism of China. Trump told reporters ahead of the call that he hoped it would finalise a deal to take out of Chinese hands TikTok, the social media platform hugely popular with young Americans that the Republican mogul has turned to himself to garner support. Neither side reported a final agreement but Trump said the call was “very productive”. “We made progress on many very important issues, including trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the war between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platfor...

The United States is trying to get Bagram air base in Afghanistan back, President Donald Trump said on Thursday during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump is on an official state visit to the UK — his second state trip to Britain — where he signed a technology agreement with Starmer earlier today. “We’re trying to get it back,” Trump said, referring to Bagram. “It’s one of the biggest airbases in the world; we gave it to them for nothing. We’re trying to get it back. “One of the reasons we want the base, as you know, is it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.” Bagram Air Base served as the linchpin for US operations in the rugged country, where the long war against the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies was fought with air strikes and resupply missions from the airfield. The historic Soviet-built airstrip was the main base for American forces in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks, up until their 2021 withdrawal, which led to a takeove...

United States President Donald Trump was treated to a royal reception featuring gun salutes, soldiers on horseback and bagpipes as he met Wednesday with Britain’s King Charles III for a historic second state visit, which unfolded far from marching protesters. The pair laughed and joked as Trump inspected troops at Windsor Castle, west of London, in an elaborate spectacle featuring a carriage procession designed to play into the mercurial American leader’s love of pomp and pageantry. Some 120 horses, and 1,300 members of the British military — some in red tunics and gold plumed helmets — feted Trump during a ceremonial guard of honour that United Kingdom officials called the largest for a state visit to Britain in living memory. The president and First Lady Melania Trump were greeted by heir-to-the-throne Prince William and wife Catherine at Windsor after stepping off the Marine One helicopter under grey skies at 12:15pm (1115 GMT). Inside a ring of steel and out of sight from thousands of demonstrators shouti...

United States President Donald Trump said on Monday he would file a $15-billion lawsuit for defamation and libel against The New York Times, days after the newspaper released articles on his ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The statement comes after Trump threatened last week to sue The New York Times for its reporting related to a sexually suggestive note and drawing given to Epstein. “Today, I have the great honour of bringing a $15 billion dollar defamation and libel lawsuit against The New York Times,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. Trump accused the paper of lying about him, his family and businesses, as well as Republican-led movements and ideologies such as the America First Movement, and Make America Great Again, or MAGA. The suit would be filed in Florida, he added, but gave no further details.

United States President Donald Trump said on Monday he would call a national emergency and federalise Washington DC after Mayor Muriel Bowser said its police would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). At issue is the provision of information on individuals living in, or entering, the United States illegally. Trump’s threat adds to a move critics have seen as federal overreach, with more than 2,000 troops patrolling the city. The comments come after several thousand protesters hit the streets this month over Trump’s August deployment of National Guard troops to “re-establish law, order, and public safety“, after calling crime a blight on the capital. “In just a few weeks. The ‘place’ is absolutely booming … for the first time in decades, virtually no crime,” Trump said on Truth Social. Bowser’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post. Earlier, he had put the metropolitan police department under direct federal control and sent federal law enforcement,...

Republican President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the United States ambassador to India said on Thursday that Washington and New Delhi were “not that far apart” on tariffs. “We’re not that far apart on a deal on these tariffs,” Sergio Gor, a close Trump aide who is currently director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, said at his Senate confirmation hearing. “I do think it will get resolved in the next few weeks,” Gor said. US-India ties have been strained by Trump’s trade war, with talks on lower tariff rates collapsing after India, the world’s fifth-largest economy, resisted opening its vast agricultural and dairy sectors. Bilateral trade between the two countries is worth more than $190 billion each year. Trump first imposed additional tariffs of 25 per cent on imports from India, then said they would double to 50pc from August 27 as punishment for New Delhi’s increased purchases of Russian oil, as Washington works to end the war in Ukraine. Trump said on Tuesday his administration is contin...

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday his administration is continuing negotiations to address trade barriers with India and that he would talk to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a sign a deal may be imminent after weeks of diplomatic friction. Trump, in a marked shift of tone, said he looked forward to speaking to Modi in the “upcoming weeks” and expressed optimism that they could finalise a trade deal. “I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries,” he said in a post on social media. Modi reciprocated the optimism in a social media post on Wednesday, saying Washington and New Delhi “are close friends and natural partners”. He said teams from both countries are working to conclude the trade discussions at the earliest. “I am also looking forward to speaking with President Trump. We will work together to secure a brighter, more prosperous future for both our people,” Modi said. The latest comments from both the leaders drove India’s ...

A United States appeals court upheld on Monday a jury’s $83.3 million penalty against President Donald Trump for defaming author E. Jean Carroll, whom he was found to have sexually assaulted. The January 2024 order consisted of $65m in punitive damages after the jury found Trump acted maliciously in his many public comments about Carroll, $7.3m in compensatory damages and $11m to pay for an online campaign to repair Carroll’s reputation. The civil order, which prompted an audible gasp in the federal court, far exceeded the more than $10m in damages for defamation that Carroll had sought. Trump — whom a jury found liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a separate federal civil case in New York — used his Truth Social platform at the time to fire off a spate of insulting messages attacking Carroll, the trial and the judge, whom he called “an extremely abusive individual”. ‘Substantial financial penalty’ “We hold that the district court did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s duly ren...

Donald Trump will become the first sitting United States president to attend the US Open in a quarter-century on Sunday, as he joins the legions of fans in New York to catch a highly anticipated showdown between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Republican Trump has attended numerous sports events to meet with his supporters, but he may not receive the warmest welcome at the US Open in deeply Democratic New York City. He was once a fixture of the tournament before taking office and in 2015 was booed by some tennis fans not long after launching his presidential campaign. Ticketholders can expect extraordinary security measures at the sprawling Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre in Trump’s home borough, Queens, where the final tennis major of 2025 is on track for a fourth straight year of record-setting attendances. While the pricey playground for tennis fanatics and designer-clad social media influencers regularly brings in an array of A-listers, the tournament has not seen a sitting US president since Bi...

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order offering some tariff exemptions as soon as Monday to trading partners who strike deals on industrial exports such as nickel, gold and other metals, as well as pharmaceutical compounds and chemicals. Trump has spent his first seven months in office building up massive tariff increases to reorder the global trading system, cut US trade deficits and extract concessions from trading partner countries in negotiations. His latest order identifies more than 45 categories for zero import tariffs from “aligned partners” who clinch framework pacts to cut Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs and duties imposed under the Section 232 national security statute. Friday’s order brings US tariffs in line with its commitments in existing framework deals, including those with allies such as Japan and the European Union. The exemptions for countries with US trade deals are set to begin at 12:01 a.m. EDT/0401 GMT on Monday, it said. Pakistan is also among the countries that have signed ...

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Alcaraz welcomes Trump’s planned attendance at the US Open final, calling it a boost for tennis

Trump unlawfully ended deportation relief for over 1m migrants under TPS, court rules