Thousands of Palestinians are once again fleeing towns in northern Gaza. They’re travelling, mostly by foot, to areas in the south like Khan Younis, after deadly Israeli strikes and evacuation warnings spread fears of further attacks.
Zelensky Says Discussed With Trump US Idea Of Owning Occupied Nuclear Plant– www.ndtv.com Source Link Excerpt:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday said that he and US counterpart Donald Trump had discussed possible US ownership of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
His comments to reporters came after Trump told Zelensky on Wednesday that the United States could own and run Ukraine’s nuclear power plants as part of his latest bid to secure a ceasefire in Russia’s invasion.
“We talked only about one power plant, which is under Russian occupation,” Zelensky, who was on an official visit to Finland, said during an online briefing, referring to the plant in Zaporizhzhia.
The power station, Europe’s largest, was captured by Russian forces early in their invasion launched in February 2022 and since has been a flashpoint of concerns over a possible nuclear incident.
UN Security Council discusses Israeli attack in Gaza – NHK WORLD Source Link Excerpt:
Members of the United Nations Security Council discussed the airstrikes that Israel carried out in Gaza on Tuesday. Many called for the ceasefire to be reestablished. However, the United States pushed back on the idea.
Health authorities in Gaza say the attacks killed at least 404 people. The Palestinian Permanent Observer to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said, “Palestinians are being killed indiscriminately, are being denied humanitarian aid indiscriminately, are being maimed and detained indiscriminately.”
Envoys from the UK, France and Russia joined Mansour in urging an immediate end to the fighting.
But the acting US Ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea, blamed the attacks on Hamas. She said, “It is well known that Hamas continues to use civilian infrastructure as launching pads, and the United States condemns this practice, as should others.”
Entire Families Wiped Out as Israel Resumes Genocidal Assault on Gaza – Common Dreams Source Link Excerpt:
Once again, entire families are being wiped out by Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip after U.S. President Donald Trumpreportedly gave the green light for the key American ally to resume its assault on the Palestinian enclave.
Israel unilaterally abrogated the crumbling eight-week cease-fire early Tuesday, unleashing a wave of ferocious strikes on the already flattened Gaza Strip, killing at least 404 people—including 174 children, 89 women, and 32 elders—and wounding at least 562 others, with the death toll expected to rise, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Trump Urged to Designate Nigeria as a ‘Concern’ for Christian Persecution – Decision Magazine Source Link Excerpt:
he House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa passed a resolution urging President Donald Trump to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, presented House Resolution 220, which expresses “the need to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern,” during a committee hearing on the matter March 12. A CPC is a country designated on a special watch list of countries where citizens face “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.”
In the hearing, Smith explained the history of Nigeria’s inclusion and removal in the CPC.
“In December 2020, President Trump designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern only to be reversed without justification by Secretary Blinken in November of 2021,” Smith said. “Religious leaders in Nigeria were outraged by Secretary Blinken’s decision.” He referred to Bishop Stephen Dami Mamza, who challenged Nigeria’s removal and stated that Christian persecution is “more intense than ever.”
Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, described the terror group responsible for most of the persecution in Nigeria.
Trump touts agreement after ‘very good and productive’ phone call with Putin, while critics say he’s being played, bigly– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link
Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman killed in Gaza strikes– www.yahoo.com Source Link Excerpt:
The spokesman for the militant organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) was killed in a massive Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the group said.
Naji Abu Saif, also known as Abu Hamsa, was killed during an “attack on his family and his brother’s family,” PIJ said.
The group is allied with Hamas, another Palestinian extremist group. Both organizations were involved in the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel that triggered the latest Gaza war.
Both are said to be backed by Iran.
Palestinians search for their belongings among the rubble of their destroyed homes, following the Israeli airstrikes on Khan Yunis. Israel launched a series of airstrikes against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after efforts to extend the ceasefire failed. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
Hamas Says Head Of Its Government In Gaza Killed In Israeli Strike– www.ndtv.com Source Link Excerpt:
Gaza City: Hamas on Tuesday named the head of its government in the Gaza Strip, Essam al-Dalis, among a list of officials it said were killed in a wave of Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory.
“These leaders, along with their families, were martyred after being directly targeted by the Zionist occupation forces’ aircraft,” said the Hamas statement, which also named interior ministry head Mahmud Abu Watfa and Bahjat Abu Sultan, director-general of the internal security service, among those killed.
Dalis, who was a member of Hamas’s political bureau in Gaza, was elected to the movement’s Gaza leadership in March 2021 and became the head of its administration in June of that year.
In November 2023, Israel claimed to have bombed a Hamas structure in which Dalis was present with other leaders who were killed.
Turkey Condemns Israel’s Strikes On Gaza– www.ndtv.com Source Link Excerpt:
Istanbul: Turkey on Tuesday denounced Israel’s deadly strikes in Gaza as “a new phase” in its “genocide policy”, saying the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defied humanity through its breach of international law.
“The massacre of hundreds of Palestinians in Israel’s attacks on Gaza… demonstrates that the Netanyahu government’s genocide policy has entered a new phase,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Israel launched its most intense strikes overnight since a ceasefire took effect on January 19, with the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reporting more than 330 people killed.
Hundreds killed as Israel launches air strikes across Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict News– www.aljazeera.com Source Link Excerpt:
Israel has launched a wave of air attacks across the Gaza Strip, shattering the agreed ceasefire, which, although shaky, had been in place since January.
The air raids in the early hours of Tuesday killed more than 320 people, including many women and children.
The surprise bombardment shattered a period of relative calm during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and raised the prospect of a full return to fighting in a 17-month war that has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians and caused widespread destruction across Gaza.
Greenlanders head to polls as opposition party encourages ‘collaboration’ with US– www.foxnews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Independence from Denmark is not on the ballot itself, but who is elected to Greenland’s parliament will signal how the country could move forward in not only divorcing itself from Copenhagen, but in handling what some critics have perceived as threats issued by President Donald Trump.
Parliamentary elections on the world’s largest island, a nation of less than 60,000 people, have previously picked up scant coverage due to their relatively low impact on world affairs.
But all that changed in January when, ahead of his inauguration, Trump refused to rule out the possibility of “acquiring” Greenland through economic or military means and has since repeated his interest in the strategically important island.
While the majority of Greenlanders support independence from Denmark, they also align in their opposition to Trump’s ambitions for the island nation.
There is not a single lawmaker in Greenland that ran for election in this cycle on becoming a part of the U.S., but the leading opposition party known as Naleraq, which currently holds just five of the 31 seats in Greenland’s parliament, may have a solution to achieve independence while also appealing to Trump’s interests.
Kim Jong Un Tests Trump With Ballistic Missile Launch – PJ Media– pjmedia.com Source Link Excerpt:
U.S. and South Korea began their first major joint military exercise of President Donald Trump’s second term on Monday, and soon after North Korea launched multiple ballistic missiles into the sea.
According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the missiles were fired from the North’s southwestern Hwanghae Province and were classified as close-range. In response, South Korea’s military has heightened its surveillance and is working closely with U.S. forces to monitor the situation.
“We are aware of the DPRK’s multiple ballistic missile launches and are consulting closely with the Republic of Korea and Japan, as well as other regional allies and partners. The United States condemns these actions and calls on the DPRK to refrain from further unlawful and destabilizing acts,” the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. “While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, or territory, or to our allies, we continue to monitor the situation. The U.S. commitments to the defense of the ROK and Japan remain ironclad.”
The launches come after South Korean and U.S. forces began their annual Freedom Shield exercise Monday.
“Freedom Shield is an 11-day exercise conducted by the Republic of Korea and the United States consisting of training to reflect the Korea Theater of Operations – a combined, joint, multi-domain, and interagency operating environment,” according to the U.S. Army.
“Field training events throughout FS25 include urban combat operations, field hospital operations, mass casualty treatment and evacuation, field artillery exercises, air assault training, wet gap crossing, air defense artillery asset deployment and validation, and a joint assault exercise with the U.S. Marine Corps,” the Army added.
However, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry is calling the exercises an “aggressive and confrontational war rehearsal.”
A coalition government is forming in Germany that saw the alliance of the far left Green Party with the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to prevent the rising Alliance for Deutschland party (AfD) from gaining any power despite finishing a close second to the CDU. That coalition is in peril already, thanks to a new budget proposal.
The German government on its way out, in a lame duck session, is preparing to pass a budget, one that the presumed next Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, is not only approving, but introducing. It includes billions of euros more in increases targeting infrastructure improvement and military expansion, all under the guise of responding to the Donald Trump threat. The stumbling block for the bill passing is the same leftist party expected to work in partnership with the CDU in the next party, the Green Party, who is threatening to vote the proposed Merz amendments down.
Germany’s Green Party rejects Merz’s spending proposals | Politics News– www.aljazeera.com Source Link Excerpt:
Germany’s Green Party has threatened to torpedo plans put forward by likely incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz to invest hundreds of billions of euros in defence and infrastructure.
Merz, whose conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) emerged the biggest in February’s legislative elections, wants in particular to relax the strict limits imposed by the “debt brake” in Germany to invest more in defence and security. His proposal comes as the country’s economy experiences prolonged stagnation and United States President Donald Trump’s direct overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin have left Europe feeling vulnerable on security.
The proposed constitutional changes to ease strict borrowing limits in the area of defence and establish a 500-billion euro ($542bn) fund for infrastructure had been described as historic when they were presented last week.
Zelenskyy sees post-Trump polling bump. What about other world leaders? – National– globalnews.ca Source Link Excerpt:
U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on world leaders have given many of them a boost in their approval ratings, as allies contend with what experts say is an “external threat” posed by the Trump administration.
Leaders who were suffering polling slumps in recent months and years — including outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his incumbent Liberal Party, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — have seen their popularity rebound since Trump returned to the White House in January, according to recent polls.
“Donald Trump is making other countries rally around their leaders in opposition,” said Matthew Lebo, a political science professor at Western University.
EU chief calls for defence ‘surge’, says ‘time of illusions’ over– www.channelnewsasia.com Source Link Excerpt:
Stating that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot be trusted” but only “deterred”, von der Leyen noted that the Kremlin was spending more on its military “than all of Europe combined”.
“We all wish we could live in more peaceful times. But I am confident that, if we unleash our industrial power, we can restore deterrence against those who seek to do us harm,” she said.
“It is time to build a European Defence Union that ensures peace on our continent through unity and strength.”
The commission plan also allows member states to repurpose so-called “cohesion” funds intended for the development of poorer European countries and lifts curbs on defence investments by the bloc’s lending arm, the European Investment Bank.
Trump Vows to ‘Invest Billions’ into Greenland if They Join U.S.– www.breitbart.com Source Link Excerpt:
President Donald Trump vowed to invest billions into Greenland and to “create new jobs” if Greenlanders decide to join the United States, adding that they would be welcomed.
“As I made clear during my Joint Address to Congress, the United States strongly supports the people of Greenland’s right to determine their own future,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “We will continue to KEEP YOU SAFE, as we have since World War II. We are ready to INVEST BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to create new jobs and MAKE YOU RICH — And, if you so choose, we welcome you to be part of the Greatest Nation anywhere in the World, the United States of America!”
As Breitbart News’s Joel Pollak reported, during Trump’s address before a joint session of Congress, Trump expressed that the U.S. respects Greenlanders’ “right to determine” their future, while adding that Greenlanders would be welcomed if they join the U.S. Then he added, in an ad-libbed aside: “One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”
In December 2024, Trump announced that Ken Howery would serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark and expressed that the U.S. taking ownership over Greenland was an “absolute necessity” for national security and freedom worldwide.
Rubio and Saudi Arabia’s MBS discuss Gaza reconstruction in Riyadh – The Times of Israel Source Link Excerpt:
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed the “reconstruction of Gaza” during their meeting in Riyadh earlier today, the State Department says in its readout.
Rubio thanked the Saudi leader for “hosting Arab countries,” the State Department says in an apparent reference to the summit Riyadh hosted for Arab leaders last month to prepare for another confab held in Cairo last week, where Egypt unveiled its plan for the post-war management of Gaza.
The Trump administration has called the plan a good start, while indicating that it doesn’t sufficiently address Hamas’s role, which Washington wants to be non-existent.
Rubio “reiterated [to MBS] the United States’ firm commitment that any solution to the situation in Gaza must not include any role for Hamas,” the US readout adds.
News24 | Hamas pushes for phase two of Gaza truce talks– www.news24.com Source Link Excerpt:
Hamas reiterated on Sunday its insistence on moving directly into negotiating a second phase of the Gaza truce, as Israel announced it would dispatch a delegation to Doha for further talks.
Representatives of the Palestinian militant group met with mediators in Cairo at the weekend, emphasising the need for humanitarian aid to re-enter the besieged territory “without restrictions or conditions”, according to a Hamas press release.
The high-level delegation also stressed the need for “moving directly to begin negotiations for the second phase” of the deal, which will aim to lay the groundwork for a permanent ceasefire.
Press statement by President von der Leyen on the defence package – European Commission Source Link Excerpt:
We are living in the most momentous and dangerous of times. I do not need to describe the grave nature of the threats that we face. Or the devastating consequences that we will have to endure if those threats would come to pass. Because the question is no longer whether Europe’s security is threatened in a very real way. Or whether Europe should shoulder more of the responsibility for its own security. In truth, we have long known the answers to those questions. The real question in front of us is whether Europe is prepared to act as decisively as the situation dictates. And whether Europe is ready and able to act with the speed and the ambition that is needed. In the various meetings in the last few weeks – most recently two days ago in London – the answer from European capitals has been as resounding as it is clear. We are in an era of rearmament. And Europe is ready to massively boost its defence spending. Both, to respond to the short-term urgency to act and to support Ukraine but also to address the long-term need to take on much more responsibility for our own European security.
This is why today I have written a letter to Leaders ahead of Thursday’s European Council. This is why we are here together today. And I have outlined in this letter to the leaders the ReArm Europe Plan. This set of proposals focuses on how to use all of the financial levers at our disposal – in order to help Member States to quickly and significantly increase expenditures in defence capabilities. Urgently now but also over a longer time over this decade. There are five parts to this.
