Category World News

Russia-Ukraine peace talks ‘down to one issue’, says US envoy Witkoff

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According to US envoy Steve Witkoff, “a lot of progress” has been made in the Russia-Ukraine peace talks, and negotiations have stalled due to the conduct of US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in what he has called positive exchanges.

At the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday, Witkoff said, “I believe we’ve got it down to one issue, and we’ve discussed iterations of that issue, and that means it’s solveable.”

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We’re going to get this solved, he said, “if both sides want to solve this.”

The US ambassador announced that he and Jared Kushner, the son of Donald Trump, would travel to Moscow, where the Kremlin has stated that Witkoff will meet with the Kremlin’s Russian president.

The US envoy stated that he and Kushner would not spend the night in Moscow, but instead would fly to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, where working groups would continue. The first trilateral discussions between US, Russian, and Ukrainian officials will take place during the UAE talks, according to Zelenskyy, which will last Friday and Saturday.

In Davos, Trump and Zelenskyy rendezvous.

Trump and Zelenskyy met while Trump was on the WEF’s sidelines, and he called it a “very good” meeting. Trump told Putin that the Ukrainian conflict needs to end, according to a statement he made to reporters following the meeting.

Zelenskyy, on the other hand, described the meeting with Trump as “productive and substantive.”

Zelenskyy previously stated he would only travel to Davos if a deal was reached with Trump regarding ending the nearly four-year conflict, including with security guarantees and post-war reconstruction funding for Ukraine. “The documents are now even better prepared,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy addressed the WEF after meeting with Trump, arguing that Putin should face international charges, and praising European allies for failing to defend Ukraine with frozen Russian assets.

The man who started the biggest war in Europe since World War II is not only free, but he is also fighting for his frozen money in Europe, Zelenskyy said. “This is the fourth year of the biggest war in Europe since World War II.”

Keep your eyes on Ukraine’s ball.

The two main issues, according to Zelenskyy in December, were the long-term fate of the territory that Russia had captured and areas that are still under Moscow’s control, and who would take control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian occupation in southern Ukraine.

Trump repeatedly claimed on Wednesday that Putin and Zelenskyy were close to striking a deal. I think they are at a point where they can work together to accomplish a deal. After giving a speech at the annual gathering of world elites, he said, “And if they don’t, they’re stupid,” he said.

Despite Trump’s repeated pledges to win the war, the US has held discussions with Russia, Ukraine, and leaders of Europe on various drafts of a strategy for ending it.

Trump’s efforts to end the war were praised by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who said Ukraine still needs military assistance because it is still being targeted by Russian drone and missile attacks.

“We need to keep our eyes on Ukraine’s ball.” Don’t let that ball fall. That implies. Great, peaceful discussions, indeed. Fantastic . He declared that we will do everything to bring them to a successful conclusion, but that won’t happen tomorrow.

The talks come as Russian attacks this week have left 3, 000 Kyiv residents without heat in sub-zero temperatures, leaving the majority of the country’s capital without electricity.

Trump launches ‘Board of Peace’ at ceremony in Davos

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Developing a Story
The first charter of Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace,” a body that offers a $1 billion annual membership fee, has been officially announced.

Following Israel’s two-year genocidal war on the Strip, Trump inaugurated the board at a signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. However, it appears that the charter’s original role does not merely apply to Palestinian territory.

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Before signing the documents formally establishing the initiative, Trump proclaimed on stage at the World Economic Forum (WEF), “Everyone wants to be a part of his board,” surrounded by other members.

Trump serves as president, while Tony Blair, the former head of the United Kingdom, Marco Rubio, the son of the president, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, make up the executive.

Numerous nations have accepted joining, while many others have not yet responded to Washington’s invitations.

However, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced on Thursday that the country would withdraw from signing, joining a growing list of countries like France, Norway, Sweden, and Slovenia.

Some apprehensions about the Board of Peace being in opposition to or demonizing the UN. Trump made an apparent reference to those issues in his opening remarks at the ceremony, stating that the initiative would “work with many others, including the United Nations,” as well as listing other significant diplomatic issues in the region and around the world.

Palestinians in Gaza are less optimistic about the initiative as more nations join, according to Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, who was based in the Strip on Thursday.

Palestinians are being discussed as a problem to be managed, not as people with rights to be completely addressed, according to Abu Azzoum, who has a sense that runs deep among Palestinians.

People on the ground say that the new Board of Peace’s formation seems disconnected from their reality.

Campaigning begins in Bangladesh for first election after Hasina’s ouster

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Bangladesh’s election campaign is underway as it prepares for its first national elections since the uprising in 2024, when Sheikh Hasina was ousted.

Prior to the February 12 election, the major political parties held campaign rallies in the capital, Dhaka.

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The interim administration, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has pledged to hold the elections, which are regarded as the most important in Bangladesh’s history.

The roughly 170 million-strong South Asian nation will elect 350 legislators and choose the most recent political changes. According to election observers in the European Union, the vote will be the “biggest democratic process in 2026.”

Yunus, the 85-year-old who helped millions of people out of poverty through his Grameen Bank, described himself as the “banker, to the poor” and claimed to have inherited a “completely broken” political system.

He left exile in August 2024 at the protesters’ request to become the “chief adviser” in charge of a caretaker government, but he has pledged to do so after the elections.

A referendum on the changes to be held on the same day as polling was promoted by Yunus’ interim government, which he claimed was necessary to stop a return to authoritarian rule.

The presidency has more authority to balance what had been a powerful prime minister’s position, according to the July National Charter, which was named in honor of the uprising that started in July of 2024 and led to Hasina’s fall. Additionally, it recommends measures to stop money laundering, corruption, and conflict of interest prevention.

25 of the country’s 52 registered political parties voted in favor of signing it last year, but its supporters claim a referendum is required to make it legally binding and a part of the constitution.

Hasina, 78, is still hiding in India after being sentenced to death in absentia in November for crimes against humanity.

Parties hold rallies to protest accusations of disinformation.

After the country’s Election&nbsp, Commission suspended its registration in May, the Awami League party, which was formerly led by Hasina, was prohibited from running in the election.

A leading candidate for prime minister is Tarique Rahman, the head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Khaleda Zia’s son. He will be launching his campaign on Thursday in Sylhet, a city in the northeast, and will be traveling to several other areas in the coming days.

In Sylhet, tens of thousands of supporters gathered to chant his name.

“Do we have a leader? Yes, we do”, BNP loyalists shouted. Rahman only returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in exile.

“He will carry forward the legacy of his parents”, Harun Ur Rashid, 40, told the AFP news agency, referring to Zia and her husband, former president Ziaur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1981.

A 10-party alliance led by the Jamaat-e-Islami party is also seeking to expand its influence. If the Jamaat-led alliance is able to emerge victorious, it will be a dramatic turnaround for a party that was subjected to a brutal crackdown during Hasina’s 15-year government.

Jamaat-e-Islami has long faced criticism from secular groups who say its positions challenge Bangladesh’s secular foundations. The country is home to one of the world’s largest Muslim-majority populations.

“We want something new and the new option is Jamaat”, Mohammad Jalal, 40, told the Reuters news agency as he attended the party’s rally in Dhaka. “They have a clean image and work for the country”.

Earlier this month, Yunus said he was “concerned” about the impact of a surge of disinformation, blaming both “foreign media and local sources”.

“They have flooded social media with fake news, rumours and speculation”, Yunus said.

Pro-Palestine activist on hunger strike says he will begin refusing water

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London, United Kingdom – A pro-Palestine activist on hunger strike plans to start refusing fluids as well as food, telling Al Jazeera that he hopes his “drastic action” pressures the government into engaging with his protest demands.

Umer Khalid, a Palestine Action-linked remand prisoner, stopped eating 13 days ago. He is currently receiving fluids with electrolytes, sugars and salts but said he will stop drinking altogether from Saturday.

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While the body can survive for weeks without food, dehydration is certain to have fatal consequences in a far shorter time.

The escalation comes days after three other hunger-striking remand prisoners affiliated with Palestine Action ended their protests, claiming victory.

“The only thing that seems to have any impact, whether that is positive or negative, is drastic action,” Khalid, 22, told Al Jazeera from prison via an intermediary. “The strike reflects the severity of this imprisonment. Being in this prison is not living life. Our lives have been paused. The world spins, and we sit in a concrete room. This strike reflects the severity of my demands.”

Khalid is calling for immediate bail; an end to alleged censorship in prison – authorities have been accused of withholding mail, calls and books and denying visitation rights; an inquiry into alleged British involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza; and the release of surveillance footage from Royal Air Force (RAF) spy flights that flew over Gaza on April 1, 2024, when British aid workers were killed in an Israeli attack.

Brize Norton break-in

Khalid is among five activists accused of breaking into the United Kingdom’s largest airbase, RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire in June and spray-painting two Voyager refuelling and transport planes. The incident, which was claimed by Palestine Action, caused millions of pounds worth of damage, according to the British government, which later proscribed the protest group as a “terrorist” organisation.

Critics have condemned the ban as illiberal overreach, given that Palestine Action’s stated objective is to use nonviolent means to counter Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians and what it says is British complicity in it.

Khalid denies the charges against him of conspiracy to commit criminal damage and conspiracy to enter a prohibited place for purposes prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK.

He is part of a collective of eight remand prisoners linked to Palestine Action that began a rolling hunger strike in November. Last week, three of them – two of whom were on the brink of death – ended their protests. Khalid is the only one still refusing food.

Eight remand prisoners accused of incidents claimed by Palestine Action have joined the rolling hunger strike since November. Top row from left: Amu Gib, Heba Muraisi, Jon Cink and Kamran Ahmed. Bottom row from left: Qesser Zuhrah, Lewie Chiaramello, Teuta Hoxha and Umer Khalid [Courtesy of Prisoners for Palestine]

Those now refeeding said improved prison rights signalled a concession. The UK’s reported denial of a defence contract to Elbit, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, is also being interpreted by them as a win.

Throughout the hunger strike, the British government said it has no power over the issue of bail because it is a matter for the judiciary to decide. The government also insisted that prison welfare procedures are being followed.

As for Khalid’s other demands, last year, the opposition Labour Party blocked a bill tabled by the left-wing lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn backing an official inquiry into Britain’s involvement in the war on Gaza.

And in April, the Ministry of Defence told The Times newspaper that it had video footage from an RAF surveillance plane that had flown over Gaza on the day of the Israeli strike that killed the aid workers but could not disclose any further details, citing national security.

Britain has said it flew spy planes over Gaza during Israel’s onslaught to locate missing captives, but critics have raised questions about possible intelligence sharing with Israel.

Asim Qureshi, research director at the campaign group Cage, told Al Jazeera that the government’s refusal to meet with Khalid to negotiate on his demands “indicates their lack of concern for the life of this man, who is acting based on his principles within the context of a genocide”.

The Ministry of Justice has not commented on Khalid’s imprisonment or demands.

‘I cry myself to sleep’

Khalid’s family and friends told Al Jazeera that they are particularly concerned because he suffers with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, a condition that causes muscle weakness and wasting.

“I miss him,” his mother, Shabana Khalid, said, fighting back tears. “He’s starting to feel tired.

“My first thoughts when I wake up are with Umer. Some nights, I cry myself to sleep.”

As she herself recovers from cancer and takes care of her disabled sister, travelling to Prison Wormwood Scrubs in London, 320km (200 miles) from the family home in Manchester, is fraught with logistical challenges. She last saw her son on December 26 and does not know when she will be able to visit him next.

She accused Wormwood Scrubs of denying visiting rights, saying she and his friends have applied to the prison to see him but are told there are no appointments for weeks.

“My worries are that he’s going to decline very, very quickly,” she said.

At the time of publication, Wormwood Scrubs had not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Umer’s brother Usman, a mechanical engineering graduate, told Al Jazeera: “When Umer says he’s going to do something, he means it with his full sincerity. And as morbid and sad as it might be to say, I think in his own mind he’s prepared to put his life on the line for this cause.”

Usman said that while he supports his brother’s protest demands, “from a slightly selfish and sort of personal perspective, I hope he doesn’t [start refusing water].”

According to the Prisoners for Palestine group, which advocates for the protesters, Umer has asked prison staff “not to intervene in the event he becomes unconscious”.

In December, he ended a 12-day hunger strike due to his declining health.

His mother said that before entering prison, he managed his rare condition carefully with a balanced diet and plenty of exercise.

“Alhamdulillah [Thank God], I am well. I feel very strong both mentally and physically,” Umer said. “I can usually use the prison gym once a week, but I’m not using it during my strike.”

He said he passes the time by praying and reading books.

His trial date is set for January 2027, by which time he will have spent a year and a half in prison – far beyond the standard six-month pre-trial detention limit.