Category: International

SEOUL: North Korea said on Saturday that its nuclear weapons are meant solely for combat use against enemies threatening its people and world peace, and not for negotiations. The statement comes after US President Donald Trump hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House on Friday. The two leaders expressed their commitment to ensuring North Korea ends its nuclear weapons programme. KCNA did not mention the meeting between the US and Japanese leaders but instead cited reported comments by officials of NATO and the EU that reiterated demands…

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Friday called for the shutdown of USAID, escalating his unprecedented push to dismantle the humanitarian agency.  In a post on his Truth Social app, he claimed the agency was deeply corrupt, writing, “THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!”  The move has sparked chaos across the agency’s global network and fuelled concerns over the decline of US influence on the international stage. In the three weeks since he began his new term, Trump has launched a crusade led by his top donor…

Iran on Friday condemned Washington’s move to impose sanctions related to shipping Iranian crude oil to China worth hundreds of millions of dollars, calling them as “illegal” and “unjustified”. “The decision of the new US government to exert pressure on the Iranian nation by preventing Iran’s legal trade with its economic partners is an illegitimate, illegal and violative measure,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement. The US move was “categorically unjustified and contrary to international rules”, Baqaei added. The US Department of the Treasury on Thursday announced…

The Trump administration’s measures to cut and restructure American foreign aid is severely damaging the complex international system that attempts to avoid and respond to hunger. The international famine monitoring and relief system, which was already struggling to handle the food crises that were sweeping the developing world before US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, has taken several hits as a result of the abrupt halting of US foreign aid. The spending freeze, which Trump ordered upon taking office on January 20, is supposed to last 90…

The Trump administration is working to identify and exempt specific USAID programmes from a sweeping freeze on foreign aid, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday. His remarks come after President Donald Trump’s decision last month to halt most US foreign assistance, a move that has already placed all directly hired USAID employees globally on leave and recalled thousands of overseas personnel as part of his “America First” policy. Trump and his aides have stated they aim to ensure that billions of dollars in US assistance, including humanitarian…

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump is planning to merge the country’s international aid agency, USAID, into the State Department as part of a wider shake-up aimed at cutting staff and bringing aid spending in line with his “America First” policy. Trump has entrusted Elon Musk, the billionaire heading his drive to shrink the federal government, to oversee the project. On Sunday, Trump said USAID had “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out,” while Musk called it “a criminal organisation” without providing any evidence and…

OTTAWA: Canada has decided to impose 25% levies on imports from the United States following President Donald Trump’s decision to charge tariffs on the Canadian goods entering the country. Relations between the long-time allies who share the world’s longest land border have reached a new low with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warning Americans that Trump’s actions would have real consequences for them. Speaking at a news conference, PM Trudeau he was slapping tariffs on C$155 billion ($107 billion) of US goods. Those on C$30 billion will take effect on…

US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered sweeping tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China, demanding they stanch the flow of fentanyl — and illegal immigrants in the case of Canada and Mexico — into the United States, kicking off a trade war that could dent global growth and reignite inflation. Mexico and Canada, the top two US trading partners, immediately vowed retaliatory tariffs, while China said it would challenge Trump’s move at the World Trade Organisation and take other “countermeasures.” In three executive orders, Trump imposed 25% tariffs…

OTTAWA: The Canadian government has pledged to offer financial aid on the scale seen during the COVID-19 pandemic to support workers and businesses if US President Donald Trump imposes broad new tariffs, a move that could strain economic ties between the two countries, officials said Wednesday. Trump has said he would impose 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico as early as 1 February unless more action is taken to prevent migrants and illicit drugs from crossing into the United States. With about 20 per cent of…

South Korean prosecutors indicted impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday for being the “ringleader of an insurrection” after his abortive declaration of martial law, ordering the suspended leader to remain in detention. Yoon plunged the country into political chaos with his December 3 bid to suspend civilian rule, a move which lasted just six hours before lawmakers defied armed soliders in parliament to vote it down. He was impeached soon after, and this month became the first sitting South Korean head of state to be arrested. That came after…