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Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Benjamin Netanyahu nominates Donald Trump for Nobel Peace Prize - as Gaza ceasefire talks continue
Israel's prime minister has nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Benjamin Netanyahu made the announcement at a White House dinner, handing over the nomination letter for the US president to read. "Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful," Mr Trump said. The Israeli leader said Mr Trump was "forging peace as we speak, and one country and one region after the other". Organisers award the prize to the person who does the most for "fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses". Mr Trump took credit for stopping Iran and Israel 's "12-day war" last month, announcing it with fanfare on Truth Social, and the ceasefire has so far held. The president has claimed US strikes obliterated Iran's purported nuclear weapons programme - and that the country now wants to restart negotiations. "We have scheduled Iran talks, and they want to," Mr Trump told reporters on Monday. "They want to talk." Iran hasn't confirmed the move, but its president told US broadcaster Tucker Carlson he believes his country can resolve differences with the US through dialogue. Masoud Pezeshkian also said Iran would be willing to resume cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog. However, he said full access to nuclear sites wasn't yet possible as US strikes had damaged them so badly. 0:44 Away from Iran, fighting continues in Gaza and Ukraine. Mr Trump famously boasted before his second stint in the White House that he could end the Ukraine war in 24 hours. The reality has been very different; with Ukraine saying last week that Russia unleashed the heaviest aerial attack of the war so far. Critics have also claimed President Putin is 'playing' his US counterpart and that he has no intention of agreeing a ceasefire. 1:08 However, President Trump could try to take credit for progress in Gaza if - as he's suggested - an agreement on a 60-day ceasefire is done this week. Indirect negotiations with Hamas are taking place that could lead to the release of some of the remaining 50 Israeli hostages and a surge in aid to Gaza. The White House said Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is travelling to Qatar this week to try to seal the agreement. 5:13 Whether a temporary pause could open a path to a lasting peace remains uncertain, with the two sides' criteria for peace still far apart. President Netanyahu has said Hamas must surrender, disarm and leave Gaza - something it refuses to do. Mr Netanyahu also told reporters on Monday that the US and Israel were working with other countries who would give Palestinians "a better future" - and indicated those in Gaza could move elsewhere. "If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave," he added. "We've had great cooperation from... surrounding countries, great cooperation from every single one of them. So something good will happen," Mr Trump said. The president was widely criticised earlier this year when he suggested resettling Gaza's population to countries such as Jordan and Egypt and turning it into the "Riviera of the Middle East". Human rights groups said the plan amounted to ethnic cleansing and most Gazans said they would never consider leaving.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
US to send more weapons to Ukraine
Donald Trump has pledged to send more weapons to Ukraine, reversing a recent decision to pause shipments to Kyiv days earlier. Speaking to reporters during a dinner with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, the US president said that Ukraine is 'getting hit very, very hard'. He added: 'They have to be able to defend themselves.' 'We're going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons primarily,' Mr Trump said on Monday evening. The Pentagon later confirmed the US would send additional weapons to aid the country in the war with Russia. 'The Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops,' chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. Sources familiar with the matter said the halted shipments of American military aid to Ukraine could resume after a series of high-level meetings in Italy and Ukraine over the coming week, Politico reported. The reversal comes after the Pentagon last week announced it would halt deliveries of key military hardware, including air defence systems and precision-guided artillery. On Tuesday last week, the White House said it would 'put America's interests first' following a review of the nation's military support and assistance to other countries. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Mr Trump told Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call on Friday that he was not responsible for the halt in weapons deliveries to Kyiv. Mr Trump is understood to have said that although he had directed a review of Pentagon stockpiles after recent US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, he had not ordered a freeze on military aid. The US president has long been sceptical of sending military aid to Ukraine, and had not announced any new packages since taking office in January. Under former President Joe Biden, $65 billion in military aid was pledged to Ukraine. Mr Trump's pledge to send more weapons to the war-torn country comes as Ukraine faces one of the most intense waves of Russian missile and drone attacks since 2022. Mr Zelensky said on Monday that Moscow had launched more than 1200 drones, 39 missiles and nearly 1000 glide bombs over the past week alone, with civilian areas taking the brunt. At least 11 civilians have been killed and more than 80 others have been injured in the latest strikes, including seven children. Mr Trump expressed rare dissatisfaction with Putin on Monday, saying: 'I'm not happy with President Putin at all.' The US president added that thousands of Russians and Ukrainians were losing their lives every week. 'I'm stopping wars and I hate to see people killed,' he said.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Ice ‘politically targeted' farm worker activist Juarez Zeferino, colleagues say
Farm worker activist Alfredo 'Lelo' Juarez Zeferino, 25, was driving his partner to her job on a tulip farm north of Seattle one March morning when they were pulled over by an unmarked car. A plainclothes agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) emerged and shattered Juarez Zeferino's front window before handcuffing him, his partner said. The officer drove Juarez Zeferino to a nondescript warehouse – the same one he and other activists had years ago discovered is an unmarked Ice holding facility. After his 25 March detention, dozens gathered outside to demand his release. Instead, he was transferred to the Northwest Ice Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, where he has been held ever since. Officially, Juarez Zeferino's arrest was based on a deportation order. But the activist's detention comes as the Trump administration has launched an aggressive crackdown against its perceived political enemies, including both immigrants and labor organizers. 'We believe, no question, that he was a target,' said Rosalinda Guillen, veteran farm worker organizer and founder of Community to Community Development, where Juarez Zeferino volunteered. The young organizer has played an instrumental role in securing protections for Washington farm workers, including strengthened statewide heat protections for outdoor laborers mandating water breaks when temperatures top 80F, enshrined in 2023. In 2021, he and other activists also won a law guaranteeing farm workers overtime pay. And in 2019, advocacy from Juarez Zeferino and other campaigners about exploitation in the H-2A guest worker program prompted Washington to create the nation's first-ever oversight committee for foreign workers. 'He's a very humble person, very quiet but yet very determined and willing to go to whatever extent to get victory for his people,' said Edgar Franks, political director of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, an independent farm worker union which Juarez Zeferino helped found. His successful track record has earned him renown in labor and immigrant justice circles across the country. Franks believes it also made him a 'political target' for Trump. 'We just have to look at the record of everybody that has been targeted by the Trump administration, from the students at Columbia to [the detention of immigration activist Jeanette Vizguerra] in Colorado,' he said. 'There's already a track of people that have been targeted to silence them and to make sure that the people that look up to them get silenced.' Reached for comment, the Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said that allegations of Ice politically targeting Juarez Zeferino were 'categorically FALSE', calling him 'an illegal alien from Mexico with a final order of removal from a judge'. 'The only thing that makes someone a target of Ice is if they are in the United States illegally,' she said. She said the activist, whom she called 'Juan Juarez-Ceferino,' refused to comply with Ice during his arrest, and that officers used the 'minimum amount of force necessary to resolve the situation' and protect themselves. In court, a DHS attorney also said Juarez Zeferino was noncompliant during his arrest, and claimed he was a flight risk because he had previously missed a court hearing. His lawyer Larkin VanDerhoef denied that his client was a flight risk, saying he was unaware of his missed court date. In court, he noted that Juarez Zeferino had received dozens of letters, demonstrating that he is a 'positive force'. He said Juarez Zeferino complied with the officers who arrested him. 'Lelo had opened his window to talk to officers and was asking to see their warrant for his arrest when they smashed his window,' he said, adding that a group of officers from not only Ice, but also border patrol, homeland security investigations, and the Drug Enforcement Administration worked together to arrest him. Juarez Zeferino's detention has sparked concern among other immigrant workers fighting for better labor conditions, and since his arrest, others have also been detained. In April armed Customs and Border Protection agents raided a Vermont dairy farm and arrested eight immigrant laborers who were involved with a labor rights campaign. Last month, Ice also arrested farm worker leaders in New York. 'This is a good strategy to squelch union organizing as well as farm worker advocacy, but it is horrifying to us that some of the people who make the lowest salaries in our country are being deported even as they provide the necessary workforce to keep our country fed,' said Julie Taylor, executive director of the National Farm Worker Ministry, a faith-based organization which supports farm worker organizing. Juarez Zeferino was arrested on the grounds of a 2018 deportation order. It stemmed from a 2015 traffic stop by Bellingham, Washington, police officers who then turned him over to Ice. After the stop, Juarez Zeferino – then a minor – was detained for less than 24 hours. He later sued Bellingham and its police department saying that his arrest was the result of racial profiling; the city settled for $100,000. The farm worker activist's friends and legal counsel said he was unaware of the deportation order, which was mailed to an address Juarez Zeferino provided but then bounced back to the government. 'He wasn't in hiding,' said Franks. 'He was out in the open, doing media and serving on city commissions.' His lawyer VanDerhoef successfully had the order reopened in April this year – just one day before Juarez Zeferino was due to be placed on a deportation flight. But in May, an immigration court judge ruled that she had no jurisdiction to grant bond to Juarez Zeferino – a decision VanDerhoef quickly appealed. VanDerhoef said the judge's ruling was based on an unusual legal interpretation by Tacoma judges, who routinely argue that they lack jurisdiction to issue bonds to immigrants who entered the country without a visa. He signed his client on to a class-action lawsuit focused on the issue. He also filed a motion to terminate the case against his client. In June, a court denied the motion, so the next step will probably be to apply for asylum in the US. 'We're basically weighing what other options he has, what he can apply for,' VanDerhoef said. Aaron Korthuis, an attorney at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, who is representing Juarez Zeferino in the class-action lawsuit, said he did not doubt the activist was a political target. 'A lot of what this administration is doing is attempting to send a message through its arrests [and] through its removals,' he said. 'It shouldn't shock anyone that who they are targeting for arrest is part and parcel of the larger effort to intimidate, exact retribution, and send a message.' VanDerhoef declined to comment on whether or not his client's arrest was politically motivated, but said it was unsurprising that it had sparked concern about Trump's immigration policies among other farm workers. 'The last thing I want to do is cause any more fear or panic that is already high among immigrant communities,' he said. 'But I do think this administration has shown that nothing is off the table when it comes to who they will target and also the tactics they use.' Experts say the Trump administration has violated court norms and ignored court orders in its attacks on immigrants. The president has also made life harder for immigration attorneys, including in a memorandum claiming they engage in 'unscrupulous behavior'. And the sheer number of Ice raids conducted under his administration also makes it harder for such lawyers to do their jobs, said VanDerhoef. In the north-east US, Ice arrests have increased so much that officials are 'running into space issues', said VanDerhoef. The immigration prison where Juarez Zeferino is being held has so far exceeded its capacity that some people have been transferred without warning to facilities in Los Angeles and Alaska. The overcrowding also creates challenges when it comes to representation, VanDerhoef said. These days, visitation rooms are often so overbooked that he and other attorneys are facing 'half a day waits' to meet with their clients. He worries that attorneys cannot keep up with the increase in Ice arrests. 'There are not significantly more lawyers doing this work even though there are significantly more people being detained,' he said. Guillen, the veteran farm worker organizer, first met Juarez Zeferino in 2013, when he he was a 13-year-old who had recently arrived in the US from Mexico. He was so small that he looked more like he was 11, she said, but he was 'a hard worker' and 'fierce'. That year, Juarez Zeferino and about 200 workers on a Washington berry farm walked off the job demanding better working conditions and pay. Over the next four years, they organized work stoppages and boycotts, with Juarez Zeferino – who speaks English, Spanish and his native Mixteco – often serving as a spokesperson. In 2017, the workers were granted a union election, resulting in the formation of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, an independent farm worker union representing hundreds of Indigenous farm workers. It's a 'nightmare' organization for Trump, who doesn't want to see immigrant laborers organized, said Guillen. 'These are communities that normally are marginalized, fighting for their rights and winning,' she said. The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods. Secure Messaging in the Guardian app The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said. If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select 'Secure Messaging'. SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post See our guide at for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each. Since Juarez Zeferino's arrest, calls for his freedom have met with an outpouring of support, Guillen said. 'All the legislators know him, and there was immediate support for him in letters and calls,' she said. But she wishes Democrats would do more to fight for workers like him, including by trying to stop Ice arrests within Washington. 'Democrats need to be bolder,' she said. Franks agreed, and said workers like Juarez Zeferino should obtain amnesty from Ice. 'Just a couple years ago we were essential workers and the heroes but now we're the terrorists and the criminals,' he said. Asked if she had visited Juarez Zeferino, Guillen said, 'I can't do it.' She worries about his health and wellbeing in the facility. Franks, too, said he was concerned that the 'already skinny' Juarez Zeferino will become malnourished while in detention. But when he has visited the young activist, he said he was 'trying to keep his spirits up'. 'He's still messing around and joking around,' he said. 'And he's like, 'when I get out, we're going to do this, we're going to do that.'' Asked what is on that to-do list, Franks said Juarez Zeferino wants to be reunited with his family. 'And he wants to get back to the struggle,' he said.
