Courting Trump: Why African nations want to win over the White House
After an evening briefing on the latest attempt to broker an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza, will Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington bear fruit in the search for peace in the region?
Wednesday also saw five leaders from African states visit the White House, where they became the latest to lavish the US president with praise in the hope of gaining his favour, and a path to avoiding his trade tariffs. Is this the new status quo in interacting with Trump's America?
And - why is one of Donald Trump's cabinet members under fire for saying that there is no Jeffrey Epstein 'client list'?
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Sky News
24 minutes ago
- Sky News
UN expert Francesca Albanese who spoke to Sky News about 'economy of genocide' in Gaza sanctioned by US
UN expert Francesca Albanese has been sanctioned by the Trump Administration days after telling Sky News that several large US companies were involved in an "economy of genocide" in Gaza. Ms Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, told The World with Yalda Hakim on Monday that more than 60 private sector companies had "become enmeshed in the economy of occupation […] that have Israel displace the Palestinians and replace them with settlers, settlements and infrastructure Israel runs". Her comments came after she published a report on 1 July naming several large US companies that she claimed were involved, including some in the financial sector, big tech and the military industry. She has also been a strong supporter of the International Criminal Court's (ICC) arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for allegations of war crimes in Gaza. Arrest warrants have also been issued by the ICC for Hamas leaders. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions on Wednesday, saying they were for Ms Albanese's "illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt" the ICC's action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives. He added: "Albanese's campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated. "We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defence." It is not yet clear what the practical impact the sanctions will have and whether Ms Albanese will be able to travel to the US with diplomatic paperwork. In a post on X late on Wednesday, Albanese wrote that she stood "firmly and convincingly on the side of justice, as I have always done," without directly mentioning the sanctions. In a text message to Al Jazeera, she was quoted as dismissing the move as "mafia-style intimidation techniques." Jurg Lauber, president of the UN Human Rights Council, said in a statement he "regretted" the US's decision to impose sanctions on Ms Albanese, adding: "Special Rapporteurs are an essential instrument of the Council in fulfilling its mandate to promote and protect all human rights worldwide. "I call on all UN Member States to fully cooperate with the Special Rapporteurs and mandate holders of the Council and to refrain from any acts of intimidation or reprisal against them." Ms Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer, has long been critical of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), describing their actions in Gaza following the 7 October attacks as "genocide" - an accusation the Israeli government firmly denies. She also told Hakim that Israel's offensive in Gaza was "an assault against civilians" that is leaving its own soldiers "psychologically broken," and that "many" of the young people fighting in Gaza are "haunted by what they have seen, what they have done". Israel's war in Gaza began after the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 that claimed almost 1,200 lives. Roughly 60,000 people are estimated to have been killed in Gaza since, although Israel disputes the figures given by Hamas.
Telegraph
24 minutes ago
- Telegraph
White House blames Democrats for attacks on ICE agents
The White House has blamed Democrats for a series of attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The White House released a statement on Tuesday accusing Democratic lawmakers of spreading 'dangerous, inflammatory rhetoric' that it claimed has inspired vigilantes to assault immigration officers. 'As ICE agents risk their lives to secure our borders and protect our communities, they're facing a 700 per cent surge in assaults — a direct consequence of dangerous, inflammatory rhetoric from Democrat politicians,' the White House said. Eleven people were arrested this week after setting up a 'planned ambush' on an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, in which a police officer was shot in the neck, according to law enforcement. Ten suspects face charges of attempted murder, with one facing charges of obstruction of justice, after a group of people in black military-style clothing allegedly shot fireworks at the facility and defaced vehicles with graffiti saying 'ICE pig' and 'traitor'. When ICE agents and an Alvarado Police officer responded, two assailants opened fire, hitting the officer in the neck, officials said. In a separate instance of violence allegedly inspired by Democrats, three people were charged with assault this week after ICE agents were kicked, punched, and targeted with an 'incendiary device' during a protest in Oregon, according to state prosecutors. And on Monday, a man wielding an assault rifle was shot dead after he fired off dozens of rounds at federal agents outside another border patrol facility in Texas, leaving three people in hospital. It comes as House Democrats introduced a bill to ban federal agents from wearing face coverings and requiring them to wear visible ID during public enforcement operations. Footage of masked ICE agents snatching people off the streets and whisking them away in unmarked cars has sparked a furious backlash from Democrats and immigration activists. New Jersey representative LaMonica McIver, who was arrested while protesting outside a migrant detention centre, has called on her supporters to 'shut down the city' and said 'we are at war'. Meanwhile, Tim Walz, the former vice-presidential candidate, condemned ICE agents as the 'modern-day Gestapo'. Responding to the bill, Donald Trump warned that exposing the identity of ICE agents would place them in 'tremendous danger', and pointed out that Democrats have supported pro-Palestinian university protesters who wear face masks to hide their identities. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, also criticised Democrats for 'shamelessly attacking' federal agents. 'ICE agents put their lives on the line every day to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off our streets and out of our communities,' she wrote on X. 'They are making America safer, and Democrats are shamelessly attacking them for it.'
Telegraph
24 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The little-known Pentagon official who blindsided Trump on Ukraine aid
Donald Trump's frustration was clear when he was asked who had approved a pause on sending weapons to Ukraine during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. 'I don't know,' he snapped at the reporter. 'Why don't you tell me?' The freeze in military aid last week blindsided top national security figures, alarmed key allies and was rapidly reversed by the US president himself, but not before generating a rush of headlines about dysfunction and incoherence in the policy process. At the centre of it all is a little-known Pentagon official: Elbridge Colby, a national security policy chief, who reportedly halted supplies because US stockpiles were running low. Insiders say, at best, it illustrates confusion about how to put Mr Trump's 'America First' policies into practice and, at worst, it shows how the administration's decision-making process has broken down. A former member of the US national security council said Mr Colby had come unstuck because he was trying to put proverbial flesh on the bones of Mr Trump's vague platform of ending foreign wars and avoiding anything that looked like intervention. 'I don't think he's trying anything he didn't think is the position of the president or the defence secretary. He's not freelancing,' he said. 'He thinks this is the position of the people above him.' Others pushed back on the claim that Mr Colby was behind a freeze. 'There was no pause,' said a person familiar with the events. 'The review and the assessment may have slowed things down temporarily, but there was never a decision made to pause those shipments. Mr Colby served in the first Trump administration and was a lead author of the US 2018 national defence strategy. The report set out a shift from conflicts dominated by counterterrorism operations to great power competition between the US, Russia and China. But his return in the second Trump administration has proved controversial. He has argued consistently that America can no longer rely on massively outspending rivals. 'The fundamental reality is that there are structural limitations on what the United States can do – it cannot do everything at once,' he wrote in his 2021 book, The Strategy of Denial. 'Thus it must make hard choices.' His argument that defence resources should be reoriented away from Europe and the Middle East and towards China ignited a feud between Maga loyalists and hawkish conservative senators when his name was put forward earlier this year. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Senator, led opposition to his nomination and highlighted some of Mr Colby's past comments on Iran, including how he had played down the threat of Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons. A nuclear-armed Iran could be contained, he argued in 2012, angering Israel's allies who, much like Mr Trump, see it as an existential threat. Opponents scoured his background for ammunition to prevent him taking up the position. They pointed to a grandfather who ran the CIA and degrees from Harvard University and Yale Law School, as evidence that he was too 'establishment' for the Trump administration. He was eventually confirmed with a Senate vote of 54 to 45, thanks to the backing of some heavy hitters from Trump world. Arthur Schwartz, an adviser to Donald Trump Jr who is also close to JD Vance, the vice-president, had responsibility for steering his nomination through the Senate. Key Trump confidants, such as Charlie Kirk, head of the Turning Point USA youth movement, spoke up in his support. And Mr Vance delivered a telling line at his confirmation hearing, setting out an 'America First' approach to Pentagon policy. 'We cannot fight wars unless our troops have the ammunition we need; we cannot defend our own national security unless we have the tank shells, the artillery shells and increasingly the drones and other advanced weapons that are necessary to actually fight battles when - God forbid - those battles are necessary to fight,' he said. After Mr Colby concluded his review last month, the US halted supplies of Patriot air defence systems, Hellfire air-to-ground missiles, missiles used by Himars rocket artillery, Stinger portable air defence systems and 155mm artillery shells promised by the Biden administration. 'This decision was made to put America's interests first following a [US department of defence] review of our nation's military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,' said Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman. Russia met the announcement with its biggest barrage of attacks on Ukraine in more than three years of war. One person was killed and 26 were wounded after waves of missiles and drones rained down on Thursday, prompting a phone call between Mr Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. The US president reportedly told his Ukrainian counterpart that he did not know about the halt in supplies. By Monday the pause had been reversed. 'We're gonna send some more weapons. We have to,' Mr Trump told reporters. 'They have to be able to defend themselves. They're getting hit very hard now.' The reversal won praise from friends of Ukraine, even as some worried about the message the U-turn sent to the rest of the world. Mitch McConnell, who was until recently the leader of Republicans in the Senate, said: 'Today, the strategic incoherence of underfunding our military and restricting lethal assistance to partners like Ukraine is measured in the avoidable erosion of American credibility with allies and the mounting deaths of innocents.' Some of that stems from the administration's mix of traditional conservatives and Maga World iconoclasts, according to John Herbst, former US ambassador to Ukraine. 'Even if the pause was approved at no higher level than the under secretary of defence for policy or even the secretary of defence, it is a reminder that administration policy on Russia and Ukraine is put together with the input of people with vastly different worldviews,' he wrote in a paper for the Atlantic Council. And Mr Colby has his supporters. Steve Bannon, former chief strategist to Mr Trump, said pivoting away from Ukraine to China made more sense from an 'America First' perspective. 'This is key to our hemispheric defence, and we're being sucked dry,' he said, before drawing an analogy with the strikes on Iran. 'Bridge knows the process, once you supply the weapons, next thing you know you're a combatant like the 12-day war.'
