Category World News

The Board of Peace, which is one of the most significant structures ever built, was inaugurated on Thursday by US President Donald Trump.

After more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the area, this is all a part of the ceasefire agreement.

Trump stated that the board will work with the UN to address issues that extend beyond Gaza.

All eyes will now be on the board’s success in Gaza before other conflicts, which will be decided.

Will it then fulfill?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Editor-in-Chief of the Gulf Times, Faisal Al-Mudahka

Republican political strategist Christian Josi

Members of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) have made it illegal for American officials to remove Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime.

The Caribbean nation’s leadership has been tense over the announcement made on Friday, which has repeatedly delayed elections due to rising gang crime and instability.

At a press conference, council member Leslie Voltaire stated, “We are the ones who appointed Didier Fils-Aime in November 2024.” It is up to us to pass a new decree designating a new prime minister, a new government, and a new presidency because we worked with him for a year.

According to several members, five of the nine-member panel members had voted in favor of Fils-Aime’s removal and replacement in a 30-day period. The vote’s publication in the nation’s official gazette was required as of late Friday, which required it to do before the decision becomes legally binding.

In response to a political crisis that dates back to Jovenel Moise’s assassination in 2021, the TPC was established in 2024 as the nation’s top executive body. It quickly grew into rivalries, concerns about its membership, and corruption claims.

Six months after its formation, the council chose Fils-Aime as its replacement and removed Garry Conille as prime minister.

The council ended up postponing a planned series of votes that would have chosen a new president by February despite being given the task of creating a framework for federal elections.

Instead, August elections are now anticipated to start in tidal order. The council’s mandate is scheduled to end on February 7th.

American Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in a statement on Friday that he had spoken with Fils-Aime and that it was important for him to continue serving as Haiti’s prime minister to end terrorism and stabilize the island.

Rubio added that corrupt individuals “must be eliminated by February 7 to prevent corrupt individuals from scheming to influence Haiti’s elected government for their own gain.”

Additionally, the US embassy in Haiti warned politicians against paying a premium for their statements in both French and Haitian Creole on social media.

The United States will pay a heavy price to the corrupt politicians who support gangs and cause trouble in the nation, according to the statement, though some social media users assumed that the Creole phrase “pri final” or “final price” would have led to even worse consequences.

The obscene number of stark statements is thought to reflect US President Donald Trump’s growing aggression toward Latin America.

The US embassy in Haiti issued a warning the day before that it would “regard any attempt to change the composition of the government by the non-elected Transitional Presidential Council” as an “effort to undermine” Haiti’s security.

The US has not addressed the council’s concerns in a clear way, but it has previously imposed visa restrictions on an unnamed Haitian official for “supporting gangs and other criminal organizations and obstructing the country’s fight against terrorist gangs designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”

Fritz Alphonse Jean, a TPC member and economist, later admitted that he was the one who was the target under the visa restrictions.

Jean, however, refuted the US allegations and claimed that the council was being pressured to consent to both the US and Canada’s wishes.

More than 1.4 million Haitians are still internally displaced as a result of gang violence, with millions suffering from a lack of food as transport options are constrained.

An estimated 8,100 people were killed in violence in the nation between January and November of last year, according to a UN report earlier this week, a significant increase from the 5,600 killed overall in 2024.

The UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), led by Carlos Ruiz-Massieu, stated in a statement that the country is in a “critical phase” of its efforts to restore democratic institutions that are capable of addressing the country’s problems.

The talks in Abu Dhabi on Friday marked the first official discussions between Moscow and Kyiv regarding a US-backed plan to end the conflict.

According to the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “the talks commenced today in Abu Dhabi and are scheduled to continue over two days as part of ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and find political solutions to the crisis.”

Territorial disputes would be a top topic of discussion, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who emphasized that “Russia should be ready to end this war, which it started.

Zelenskyy said he was in regular contact with the Ukrainian delegation in a statement posted on Telegram, but it was too early to take any conclusions from Friday’s discussions.

He said, “We’ll see how the conversation turns out tomorrow and what comes next.”

The discussions in the Emirati capital took place just after Zelenskyy and Trump met at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and just before US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin had late-night meetings at the Kremlin.

Yulia Shapovalova, a reporter from Moscow’s capital, reported that the talks between Putin and Witkoff did not resolve the main issues, namely territorial disputes and security guarantees, in a report from Al Jazeera.

According to Shapovalova, “Russia demands that the Ukrainian army leave the Donbass region, which is unacceptable for Ukraine.”

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, stated on Friday that Russia’s demand was “a very important condition” for Ukraine to give up all of the Donbass, including the 20% of Donetsk, which is still under Ukrainian control.

Yury Ushakov, a Kremlin envoy to Putin and Witkoff, also stated that “it can’t be expected to reach a long-term settlement can’t be expected without solving the territorial issue.”

According to Russian state-run TASS news agency, the discussions in Abu Dhabi included potential buffer zones and monitoring measures.

In order to deter Russia from regaining control of the region, Ukraine has demanded security guarantees from its Western allies, including the US, should a peace agreement be reached.

As a result of Russian attacks on the country’s capital Kyiv and other parts of the country’s energy infrastructure, thousands of Ukrainians have been forced to stay warm in freezing temperatures.

Prior to the start of Friday’s talks, Ukraine claimed that Russian airs had overnight in the east of the Kharkiv region and killed three people, including a father and his five-year-old son.

Trump asserted this week that he believed both Zelenskyy and Putin wanted to reach a deal to end the war despite the ongoing hostilities.

“I think they’re at a point where they can work together to accomplish a deal,” he added. And if they don’t, they’re stupid, too, according to the US president.

The last time Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in person in Istanbul last summer, during negotiations that only ended with purchases of captured soldiers.

Russian military officials are part of the Kremlin’s delegation, according to the Kremlin, while Witkoff and Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev will speak separately about economic issues.

The US has confirmed that US Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich, US Air Force General, and Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, are also present.

Donald Trump should apologize for his claims that European troops did not participate in the Afghan war, according to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Starmer, a remarkably direct critic of the president of the United States, claimed Friday that Trump’s earlier remarks to Fox News that NATO allies stayed “a little off the front lines” in Afghanistan were “insulting and frankly appalling” were “insulting and frankly appalling.”

When asked if he would demand an apology from Trump, Starmer responded, “I would certainly apologise if I had said those things.”

Trump made the remarks after drawing a threat to impose tariffs on several European nations that opposed his demands for the US to annex Greenland, a Danish semi-autonomous territory.

Trump said on Thursday that he had never needed them and that he had never really asked them for help. He said this on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Starmer also paid tribute to the 457 British personnel who perished in the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Afghanistan is home to more than 150 000 British soldiers, making it the second-largest contributor to the US-led coalition’s efforts to end al-Qaeda and the Taliban-held organization.

Soldiers from dozens of nations, including those from NATO, whose collective security clause, Article 5, was first triggered following the attacks on New York and Washington, were stationed alongside them.

90 French service members, scores of Americans from Germany, Italy, and other nations were among the more than 150 Canadians killed in Afghanistan.

44 troops were lost in Denmark, which is still under Trump’s control over Greenland.

More than 2,400 soldiers were reported lost by the US.

“Two thousand lives were changed.”

Trump’s comments sparked a wave of outcry in Europe, where his reluctance toward the US president appeared to be waning at the end of the week as his threats to annex Greenland grew to a crescendo.

The US president threatened to impose tariffs on European countries opposed to his plans to annex the territory, which raised questions about NATO’s future.

Trump’s comments about NATO troops in Afghanistan drew widespread criticism, despite the fact that he appeared to back down after a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and formed the “framework” for a deal over Arctic security.

Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel criticized Trump’s statements on Friday, calling them disrespectful and untrue.

Nothing can replace Poland’s Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, who claimed that his nation was a “reliable and proven ally.”

The United Kingdom’s Prince Harry responded to the incident later on Friday, saying that truthfully and with respect should be discussed about the sacrifices made by British soldiers during the war.

Harry, who served in the British Army during two tours of duty in Afghanistan, said, “Thousands of lives were forever changed.”