Hamas has agreed to “give up their weapons” and the world will know “certainly over the next three weeks” if the group will follow through, Donald Trump told the World Economic Forum. Hamas will otherwise be “blown away very quickly,” the US president added.
The United States is expected to host a signing ceremony on Thursday for President Donald Trump’s “board of peace” (BoP) on the margins of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
Trump, who is to meet global leaders this week at the WEF, is pitching the board as the next phase of his administration’s 20-point peace plan and a mechanism to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, which has been devastated by Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the territory since October 2023.
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But while the BoP was first introduced last year with a specific two-year United Nations Security Council mandate to manage post-war Gaza, its official charter makes no direct reference to Gaza at all.
Instead, the document outlines a sweeping mandate that appears to challenge existing diplomatic frameworks, advocating a move away from established international institutions on the premise that they have failed to maintain global peace.
Invitations to join the BoP were sent this week to dozens of countries, several of which have confirmed receipt and signalled their willingness to participate. But others have so far been reluctant to join. Observers argued this reluctance of many invited states to make immediate commitments reflects growing concern that the Trump administration is seeking to use the BoP’s expansive charter to bypass, or even replace, the UN.
Here is what we know so far about the board, its structure and mandate, the countries that have agreed to join, those still undecided and why hesitation remains widespread.
First proposed in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, the board was initially framed as a mechanism to support the administration, reconstruction and economic recovery of the Gaza Strip.
The White House formally announced the creation of the BoP last week. However, the organisation’s 11-page charter, comprising eight chapters and 13 articles, does not mention Gaza once.
Instead, it proposes a broad mandate for a new international organisation that “seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict”.
The governance structure has three layers: the BoP, an executive board and a chairman with sweeping authority.
According to the White House, a “founding executive council” sits at the top. The board of peace votes on budgets, policy and senior appointments while the executive board, which consists of seven members, is responsible for implementing the mission.
Members of the executive board include former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The chairman is Trump himself. He serves as the final authority on the interpretation of the charter and holds veto power over key decisions, including membership removal and executive board actions.
Board members “will oversee a defined portfolio critical to Gaza’s stabilization and long-term success”, the White House said, including “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding, and capital mobilisation”.
Below the founding council is the “Gaza executive board”, tasked with regional coordination and supported by representatives from Arab countries. Its mandate is to help “support effective governance” in Gaza.
At the bottom of the hierarchy is the “national committee for the administration of Gaza” (NCAG), which is to be led by Ali Shaath, a former Palestinian Authority deputy minister.
Alongside these civilian structures is a military pillar, led by US General Jasper Jeffers as commander of the “international stabilisation force” with a mandate that includes “permanent disarmament”.
Membership in the BoP is limited to states invited by the chairman. Member states are represented by heads of state or senior government officials and must contribute to operations in line with their domestic laws.
While general membership terms last three years, this limit does not apply to states contributing more than $1bn in the first year, which would grant them a permanent seat.
Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, Trump praised the initiative. “I wish the United Nations could do more. I wish we didn’t need a board of peace, but the United Nations – and, you know, with all the wars I settled, United Nations never helped me on one war,” he told reporters.
Soon after the announcement, invitations were sent to dozens of countries across the world.
Leaders of at least 50 nations have confirmed receiving invitations, including close US allies such as the UK, France, Canada, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Australia.
US adversaries China and Russia were also invited.
Israel confirmed it will join the BoP after approval from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s office announced on Wednesday that he would participate in the initiative despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) having issued a warrant for his arrest over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
His decision comes even after earlier criticism from his office over the composition of the executive committee, which includes Turkiye, a regional rival.
Netanyahu’s participation, despite the ICC warrant issued in 2023 accusing him of overseeing crimes against humanity in Gaza, is likely to intensify concerns about the board’s objectivity, particularly given Trump’s central role in controlling its membership and direction.
Pakistan also confirmed on Wednesday that it would participate, according to a statement from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Pakistan expresses the hope that with the creation of this framework, concrete steps will be taken towards the implementation of a permanent ceasefire, further scaling up of humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, as well as reconstruction of Gaza,” the statement said.
Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said on Wednesday that the country’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, would join the board.
Other countries that have agreed to join include the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Argentina, Hungary and Belarus.
Andreas Krieg, associate professor of security studies at King’s College London, said countries joining the BoP were motivated by “access and leverage”.
“They will want a direct line into the White House; a seat in the room where contracts, corridors, crossings and timelines are decided; and a chance to shape what ‘post-Hamas’ means before facts harden on the ground,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that participation also amounts to “buying insurance” against future exclusion.
Filippo Boni, a senior lecturer in politics and international studies at the Open University in the UK, said invited states face a stark choice.
“Either join the board and undermine the UN or refuse to join,” he said, “and potentially face tariffs from the US.”
At least four countries – France, Denmark, Norway and Sweden – have confirmed they will not join. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson confirmed the decision to reporters in Davos on Wednesday.
Denmark is already under pressure from Washington over Greenland. Trump has repeatedly suggested the US should acquire the semiautonomous Danish territory, even threatening force if Copenhagen refuses – although in his speech to the WEF on Wednesday, Trump said he would not use force.
Several other countries across the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia, including India, Indonesia, Egypt, Japan and Thailand, have also been invited but have yet to make a decision.
Most of Europe – including US allies like the UK, Germany and Italy – have not said whether they will join the board.
China and Russia haven’t confirmed participation in the board either.
For many nations, including China, that reluctance isn’t surprising, Boni suggested. Several of these countries advocate for UN principles and laws as the guiding pillars of international relations. Beijing, meanwhile, “has proposed its own global governance framework through the Global Governance Initiative (GGI), so it will likely move cautiously on Trump’s proposed plan”, he said. Launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2025, the GGI is a governance framework aimed at promoting multilateralism although Beijing has not outlined many specifics.
Krieg said states choosing to stay out will still seek to maintain close ties with Washington through bilateral channels, defence cooperation, trade and discreet humanitarian support.
At the same time, “they will also keep insisting that anything involving troops and legal authority should run through the UN because that gives them cover and limits the sense that they are working for an American project,” he said.
Masood Khan, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US and UN, said the invitation for his country to join the board reflects growing international recognition of Islamabad’s stature. But he warned that the initiative’s success depends more on politics than on its structure.
“As long as President Trump’s political authority remains intact, the structure is likely to function,” he said, noting that the top tiers are filled with figures closely aligned with Trump.
Trump began his second term as president a year ago and is set to remain in office until January 2029, a year longer than the BoP’s UN mandate.
Boni said any countries willing to pay $1bn for a permanent seat would make that decision based more on “a political choice than an economic one”.
“The choice is to either challenge multilateralism and the rule-based international order with the UN at its centre or to continue abiding by it, thereby refusing to endorse US leadership under this new framework,” he said.
Krieg suggested that some wealthy states may see value in paying for influence although even they may proceed cautiously.
“Beyond the Gulf, a country like Japan could afford it, but I would expect Tokyo to be cautious about a paywall model that weakens UN norms. India can afford it too, but Delhi rarely pays to join someone else’s club unless the return is concrete and immediate,” he said.
Perhaps the most serious concern surrounding the BoP is its potential role as a rival to the UN, which has served as the cornerstone of global diplomacy for eight decades despite multiple failings – and repeated violations of its rules by powerful states like the US and its allies like Israel.
But Khan rejected the idea that the UN’s failure to act decisively in Gaza reflected an institutional collapse
“The UN was prevented from acting. It did not choose inaction,” he said, alluding to repeated US vetoes against Israel that paralysed the Security Council.
Trump was a vocal critic of the UN during his first term from 2017 to 2021 and has cut funding to several UN-affiliated bodies during his second stint in the Oval Office.
But Boni pointed out that while the UN Charter enshrined principles such as the equal rights of large and small states after World War II, the board of peace charter is essentially a list of rules to join the club “where no such principles seem to be present”.
Krieg said fears that the BoP could hollow out the UN are well founded.
“You do not need to abolish the UN to hollow it out. You can drain attention, drain money and create a habit where the big calls move to ad hoc bodies chaired by major powers,” he said.
Trump’s BoP poses that risk, he added.
“The UN still carries something the board cannot easily replicate – near-universal membership, legal standing and the machinery of agencies that can operate at scale. The risk is that the board turns the UN into a service provider that takes instructions rather than sets terms,” Krieg said.
Palestinian photojournalists Abdul Ra’ouf, Anas Ghunaim and Shaath Mohammad Qeshta have been killed after an Israeli air strike targeted their car. Gaza’s Health Ministry said they were working for an Egyptian aid group documenting a newly set-up camp when their vehicle was hit. They are among 11 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks Wednesday.
Published On 21 Jan 2026
It’s been more than six years since Ali Hassan Ali Bakhtiyan was released from a secret prison in eastern Yemen’s Hadramout Governorate, but he cannot forget the horrors he underwent during his more than two years in detention.
“It was a very bitter and extremely painful experience,” the 39-year-old man said, adding he was lodged inside the secret prison run by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and local Yemeni troops called the Hadrami Elite Forces (HEF) inside Hadramout’s Presidential Palace.
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“They stripped me naked and used cold water. I was interrogated first by members of the Hadrami Elite Forces, then they handed me to the Emiratis officers,” Ali told Al Jazeera over the phone, saying he was detained twice – first in 2016 and then again in 2017.
The prison, Ali says, was not even suitable for animals. “Closed, dark rooms, hands tied and blindfolded. Twenty days went by without a chance to clean your body. They used physical and body torture, solitary confinement several times, beating many times,” Ali recalls.
The 30-year-old says he was first detained following a bomb blast in Hadramout. “I was falsely accused of being a member of the Islah Party,” he said, denying he was a member of the party, which is the main opposition party in Yemen. The country’s Muslim Brotherhood also falls under its umbrella.
“I do not have any affiliation with any political party. Even the interrogator later told me, ‘I have nothing against you, but the Emiratis wanted you,’” Ali said.
In 2019, he was transferred to the central prison in Hadramout and appeared before a judge, following which, he was released without charge.
Ali’s case and many other prisoners have come under the spotlight again after Hadramout Governor Salem al-Khanbashi on Monday announced the discovery of “secret prisons at sites where UAE forces were stationed”.
The governor “expressed his regret at what was found inside the UAE bases and camps – especially in the vicinity of Rayyan International Airport – of equipment and contents unrelated to regular armies, including explosives, detonators and dangerous components usually used by terrorist groups, in addition to the discovery of secret prisons at those forces’ deployment sites,” according to the state-run Yemeni News Agency (SABA).
The UAE forces withdrew from Yemen on January 3 after Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) chairman Rashad al-Alimi annulled a joint defence agreement with Abu Dhabi and asked UAE forces to leave within 24 hours.
This came after the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces took control of Hadramout and al-Mahrah provinces in early December. The STC control of Hadramout, which borders Saudi Arabia, was seen as a national security threat by Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces bombed Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout, targeting what Riyadh said was a UAE-linked weapons shipment destined for the STC. Soon, government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, regained the two provinces in early January, triggering the collapse of the STC. The UAE denied supplying weapons to the southern separatists.
Deputy Governor of Hadramout al-Jilani told Al Jazeera that “four illegal detention sites” affiliated with UAE forces in the governorate had been “identified”.
“Such practices are a blatant violation of the Yemeni constitution, applicable laws, and all international and humanitarian charters and agreements that criminalise detention outside the judicial framework,” he said, adding that local authorities in the governorate will carry out comprehensive and transparent investigations and hear the testimonies of victims and witnesses to gather evidence to hold those responsible accountable.
In the meantime, the UAE’s Ministry of Defence issued a statement categorically denying the accusations, describing them as “false and misleading allegations and claims that are not based on any evidence or fact”.
“These allegations are attempts to mislead the public opinion and to defame the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates, the statement read.
The government’s National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations of Human Rights (NCIAVHR) has been tasked with investigating the cases of torture in prisons. Officials from the body have visited prisons and are speaking with victims.
”The secret detention centres were in state institutions and service facilities, such as al-Rayyan Airport [in Mukalla], the Republican Palace, al-Dhabba Port, and the central prison known as ‘Al-Manoura Prison’,” committee member Ishraq Al-Maqtari told Al Jazeera, adding that Emirati forces had converted them into private, secret detention centres after adding some inhumane modifications.
“Most of the modifications included building very small, extremely narrow rooms unfit for human detention, some far from public life in the desert, and some of them were constructed underground,” she said.
Al-Maqtari further described that detention centres were built with “punitive specifications, such that a detainee could not stand in them even for short periods, let alone attempt to sit or sleep”.
“Some rooms were also used as presses for torture, where a person is held for very long periods, even though they are unfit to remain in for a few hours,” she told Al Jazeera.
Since the UAE forces withdrew, protests have been regularly held demanding disclosure of the fate of hundreds of abducted and forcibly disappeared people in UAE prisons, particularly in the interim capital, Aden.
The NCIAVHR has said it will head to other governorates where secret detention facilities have been reported, including in the Socotra Archipelago governorate, Aden, Lahj, Taiz and Al Hodeidah.
Donald Trump said the US needs “ownership” of Greenland to defend it from adversaries like China and Russia, but in lengthy comments at the World Economic Forum he said that he “won’t use force” to acquire the autonomous Danish territory.
Published On 21 Jan 2026
US President Donald Trump sat in the White House press room for 104 minutes to list his accomplishments on the one-year anniversary of the start of his second term.
Trump introduced a slew of photos of people who had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis, the site of extensive searches and counterprotests as well as the fatal shooting of an American citizen by an ICE agent.
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Trump then addressed a crowd of reporters and outlined the policies he had in place since taking office in January 2025. He occasionally continued to use the prepared text, but frequently veered into related and unrelated issues and made repeated remarks at times.
Trump also raised issues with foreign policy, many of which included his plans to buy Greenland, his creation of a “Board of Peace” to oversee reconstruction in Gaza, and Venezuela’s current state of the country following Nicolas Maduro’s abduction as then-leader.
Trump is scheduled to leave for Davos, Switzerland, the day before the press conference.
Trump said, “Everyone said, “Oh, tariffs will cause inflation. ” There is no inflation in our country. There isn’t much inflation in our country.
We looked at a , a broad range of price data , for the previous year to determine that overall prices are still rising despite price declines in some specific products, like eggs and gasoline.
Trump claimed that his administration prioritized deporting criminals in the immigration debate. He said, “We’re concentrating on the drug dealers and murderers.”
Trump has deported somewhere between 300,000 and 600,000 people in his first year. Since no detailed deportation statistics have been released, it’s unclear how many of those people had criminal histories.
However, according to reports obtained by US media, about 74 percent of the nearly 70 000 immigrants held in immigration detention have no criminal convictions.
Trump repeated some erroneous assertions he’s made in the past during the briefing. He claimed that the US has “secured commitments for new investments of a record-breaking $ 18 trillion”
Since mid-November, the White House website has reported a figure of $ 9.6 trillion. Additionally, PolitiFact has been cautioned and provided by experts that some of the $ 9.6 trillion in pledges may not be realized and that others are unfeigned in comparison to the countries’ gross domestic product.
Additionally, Trump noted that gasoline costs “at $ 1,99 in many states.” The average price per gallon for the entire nation was $2.78 in January 2026, up from $3.11 in January 2025.
No state has seen the average cost of its products fall below $2. Oklahoma had the lowest average gas price in any state in the middle of January, at $2.34 per gallon.
According to the gas price app Gas Buddy, four states, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming, had at least seven stations selling gasoline for less than $2 on January 20; however, one or four other states, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming, also had one or four stations selling gasoline for less than $2.
According to Trump, “one out of four jobs added was a government job” under his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Exaggerated, that is. About 1.8 million jobs were created by the economy over the course of four years, or about 11% of the total, which includes 16 million jobs created by the government, including those in federal, state, or local government.
In Biden’s final year in office, the overall economy added more than 2 million jobs, up from 473, 000 in 2025 under Trump.
Trump claimed that 300, 000 people died last year as a result of fentanyl overdoses, but that figure is significantly higher than the most recent federal data.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 69, 000 Americans perished in the year leading up to August 2025 from all different drug overdoses, not just fentanyl.