‘I think it's close': Trump says of potential Gaza ceasefire
Washington | US President Donald Trump said on Friday (Saturday AEST) he believes it is possible that a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas militants will be reached within a week.
Trump, at an Oval Office event celebrating a Congo-Rwanda accord, told reporters that he believes a ceasefire is close. He said he had been just been talking to some of the people involved in trying to reach a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.
Reuters
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News.com.au
43 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Trump warns against ‘ultimate betrayal' as voting begins to pass his megabill
US President Donald Trump has warned Senate Republicans that refusing to support his 'big beautiful bill' would represent the 'ultimate betrayal'. 'With its passage, Americans will keep more of their hard-earned money while taking home much bigger paychecks,' according to a White House statement obtained by NewsNation on Saturday local time. 'Failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal.' The warning shot was fired as Senate members later Saturday prepared to take a procedural vote to kick off debate on the revised, 940-page multi trillion-dollar bill that makes Mr Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent, ends taxation on tips and overtime, boosts border security funding and scraps green-energy tax credits passed during the Biden administration. The megabill is expected to raise the debt ceiling by roughly $5 trillion in order to cram all the provisions in. It could be a make or break moment for the Republican Party – which has invested much of its political capital on Mr Trump's signature domestic policy plan. At its core, the legislation would make permanent many of the tax breaks from Mr Trump's first term that would otherwise expire by year's end if Congress fails to act, resulting in a potential tax increase on Americans. The bill would add new breaks, including no taxes on tips, and commit $350 billion to national security, including for Mr Trump's mass deportation agenda. The Senate will work through the weekend to try and pass Mr Trump's bill by his July 4 deadline. With a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber, the GOP can only afford to lose three votes and still pass the package with a tie-breaking ballot cast by Vice President JD Vance, The NY Post reports. A version of it passed the House by a single vote May 22. But the lower chamber will have to vote on the bill again after the Senate finalises its changes to it. Senator Thom Tillis, R-N. C., said he is concerned about the fundamentals of the package and will not support the procedural motion to begin debate. 'I'm voting no on the motion to proceed,' he said. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Republicans are rushing to finish the bill before the public fully knows what's in it. 'There's no good reason for Republicans to chase a silly deadline,' he added. Mr Trump had been hoping the bill would pass both chambers and reach his desk for signing by July 4. 'The Great Republicans in the U.S. Senate are working all weekend to finish our 'ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,'' the president posted on his Truth Social on Friday.
The Advertiser
an hour ago
- The Advertiser
Belfast trio Kneecap play Glastonbury despite criticism
Irish hip-hop group Kneecap has played to a huge crowd at Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and pressure from some in the music industry to pull the gig. Frontman Liam Og O hAnnaidh, whose stage name is Mo Chara, was charged with a terrorism offence last month for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at a concert in November while saying "up Hamas, up Hezbollah". He denied the charge. Starmer told the Sun newspaper this month it was "not appropriate" for Kneecap, who rap in Irish and English, to appear at Glastonbury. With the outdoor arena at full capacity and scores of Palestinian flags waving in the blazing sun, the Northern Irish trio took to the West Holts stage at the festival in southwest England on Saturday. "Glastonbury, I'm a free man," O hAnnaidh, wearing a keffiyeh, told the crowd. Member Naoise O Caireallain, who performs under the name Móglaí Bap, said: "The prime minister of your country - not mine - said he didn't want us to play so f*** Keir Starmer." Access to the area around the West Holts Stage was closed about 45 minutes before their performance after groups of fans arrived to form a sea of Irish and Palestinian flags. Rap punk duo Bob Vylan performed on the stage before Kneecap and led the crowd in chants of "Free, free Palestine" and "Death, death to the IDF". Speaking before the performance, festival-goer Greg Robertson, 30, said: "I don't think politicians should really have too much of an impact on a weekend where everyone's trying to have fun and trying to maybe create a more optimistic future." Sara Majid, 29, said she liked what Kneecap stood for. "I'm intrigued by them," she said. Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch had said the BBC public broadcaster, which is showing the festival, should not feature Kneecap, and 30 music industry bosses asked organisers to pull the band from the line-up, according to a letter leaked by DJ Toddla T, cited by the Guardian newspaper. In response, more than 100 musicians have signed a public letter in support of the group. Kneecap's manager Dan Lambert said the group had expected calls for the performance to be cancelled. "We knew that the biggest pressure would come on Glastonbury because Glastonbury's an institution," he told Reuters, adding that it had not been an issue for organisers. "We didn't bring it up and they didn't bring it up," he said. "They treated us professionally." Organiser Emily Eavis said on Wednesday the festival was a platform for artists from all over the world, adding that "everyone is welcome here". The BBC said on Saturday it would not be live-streaming the set but said the performance is likely to be made available on-demand later. The footage of O'Hanna displaying the flag came to light after the trio projected pro-Palestinian messages on stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California in April, ending with: "F*** Israel. Free Palestine." Kneecap, which also includes DJ Próvaí, have said they do not support Hamas or Hezbollah. O hAnnaidh said on Friday the group were "playing characters" on stage, and it was up to the audience to interpret their messages. Also playing on Saturday afternoon were Leeds rock band Kaiser Chiefs and US star Brandi Carlile, who released an album with Sir Elton John earlier in the year. with PA Irish hip-hop group Kneecap has played to a huge crowd at Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and pressure from some in the music industry to pull the gig. Frontman Liam Og O hAnnaidh, whose stage name is Mo Chara, was charged with a terrorism offence last month for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at a concert in November while saying "up Hamas, up Hezbollah". He denied the charge. Starmer told the Sun newspaper this month it was "not appropriate" for Kneecap, who rap in Irish and English, to appear at Glastonbury. With the outdoor arena at full capacity and scores of Palestinian flags waving in the blazing sun, the Northern Irish trio took to the West Holts stage at the festival in southwest England on Saturday. "Glastonbury, I'm a free man," O hAnnaidh, wearing a keffiyeh, told the crowd. Member Naoise O Caireallain, who performs under the name Móglaí Bap, said: "The prime minister of your country - not mine - said he didn't want us to play so f*** Keir Starmer." Access to the area around the West Holts Stage was closed about 45 minutes before their performance after groups of fans arrived to form a sea of Irish and Palestinian flags. Rap punk duo Bob Vylan performed on the stage before Kneecap and led the crowd in chants of "Free, free Palestine" and "Death, death to the IDF". Speaking before the performance, festival-goer Greg Robertson, 30, said: "I don't think politicians should really have too much of an impact on a weekend where everyone's trying to have fun and trying to maybe create a more optimistic future." Sara Majid, 29, said she liked what Kneecap stood for. "I'm intrigued by them," she said. Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch had said the BBC public broadcaster, which is showing the festival, should not feature Kneecap, and 30 music industry bosses asked organisers to pull the band from the line-up, according to a letter leaked by DJ Toddla T, cited by the Guardian newspaper. In response, more than 100 musicians have signed a public letter in support of the group. Kneecap's manager Dan Lambert said the group had expected calls for the performance to be cancelled. "We knew that the biggest pressure would come on Glastonbury because Glastonbury's an institution," he told Reuters, adding that it had not been an issue for organisers. "We didn't bring it up and they didn't bring it up," he said. "They treated us professionally." Organiser Emily Eavis said on Wednesday the festival was a platform for artists from all over the world, adding that "everyone is welcome here". The BBC said on Saturday it would not be live-streaming the set but said the performance is likely to be made available on-demand later. The footage of O'Hanna displaying the flag came to light after the trio projected pro-Palestinian messages on stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California in April, ending with: "F*** Israel. Free Palestine." Kneecap, which also includes DJ Próvaí, have said they do not support Hamas or Hezbollah. O hAnnaidh said on Friday the group were "playing characters" on stage, and it was up to the audience to interpret their messages. Also playing on Saturday afternoon were Leeds rock band Kaiser Chiefs and US star Brandi Carlile, who released an album with Sir Elton John earlier in the year. with PA Irish hip-hop group Kneecap has played to a huge crowd at Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and pressure from some in the music industry to pull the gig. Frontman Liam Og O hAnnaidh, whose stage name is Mo Chara, was charged with a terrorism offence last month for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at a concert in November while saying "up Hamas, up Hezbollah". He denied the charge. Starmer told the Sun newspaper this month it was "not appropriate" for Kneecap, who rap in Irish and English, to appear at Glastonbury. With the outdoor arena at full capacity and scores of Palestinian flags waving in the blazing sun, the Northern Irish trio took to the West Holts stage at the festival in southwest England on Saturday. "Glastonbury, I'm a free man," O hAnnaidh, wearing a keffiyeh, told the crowd. Member Naoise O Caireallain, who performs under the name Móglaí Bap, said: "The prime minister of your country - not mine - said he didn't want us to play so f*** Keir Starmer." Access to the area around the West Holts Stage was closed about 45 minutes before their performance after groups of fans arrived to form a sea of Irish and Palestinian flags. Rap punk duo Bob Vylan performed on the stage before Kneecap and led the crowd in chants of "Free, free Palestine" and "Death, death to the IDF". Speaking before the performance, festival-goer Greg Robertson, 30, said: "I don't think politicians should really have too much of an impact on a weekend where everyone's trying to have fun and trying to maybe create a more optimistic future." Sara Majid, 29, said she liked what Kneecap stood for. "I'm intrigued by them," she said. Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch had said the BBC public broadcaster, which is showing the festival, should not feature Kneecap, and 30 music industry bosses asked organisers to pull the band from the line-up, according to a letter leaked by DJ Toddla T, cited by the Guardian newspaper. In response, more than 100 musicians have signed a public letter in support of the group. Kneecap's manager Dan Lambert said the group had expected calls for the performance to be cancelled. "We knew that the biggest pressure would come on Glastonbury because Glastonbury's an institution," he told Reuters, adding that it had not been an issue for organisers. "We didn't bring it up and they didn't bring it up," he said. "They treated us professionally." Organiser Emily Eavis said on Wednesday the festival was a platform for artists from all over the world, adding that "everyone is welcome here". The BBC said on Saturday it would not be live-streaming the set but said the performance is likely to be made available on-demand later. The footage of O'Hanna displaying the flag came to light after the trio projected pro-Palestinian messages on stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California in April, ending with: "F*** Israel. Free Palestine." Kneecap, which also includes DJ Próvaí, have said they do not support Hamas or Hezbollah. O hAnnaidh said on Friday the group were "playing characters" on stage, and it was up to the audience to interpret their messages. Also playing on Saturday afternoon were Leeds rock band Kaiser Chiefs and US star Brandi Carlile, who released an album with Sir Elton John earlier in the year. with PA Irish hip-hop group Kneecap has played to a huge crowd at Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and pressure from some in the music industry to pull the gig. Frontman Liam Og O hAnnaidh, whose stage name is Mo Chara, was charged with a terrorism offence last month for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at a concert in November while saying "up Hamas, up Hezbollah". He denied the charge. Starmer told the Sun newspaper this month it was "not appropriate" for Kneecap, who rap in Irish and English, to appear at Glastonbury. With the outdoor arena at full capacity and scores of Palestinian flags waving in the blazing sun, the Northern Irish trio took to the West Holts stage at the festival in southwest England on Saturday. "Glastonbury, I'm a free man," O hAnnaidh, wearing a keffiyeh, told the crowd. Member Naoise O Caireallain, who performs under the name Móglaí Bap, said: "The prime minister of your country - not mine - said he didn't want us to play so f*** Keir Starmer." Access to the area around the West Holts Stage was closed about 45 minutes before their performance after groups of fans arrived to form a sea of Irish and Palestinian flags. Rap punk duo Bob Vylan performed on the stage before Kneecap and led the crowd in chants of "Free, free Palestine" and "Death, death to the IDF". Speaking before the performance, festival-goer Greg Robertson, 30, said: "I don't think politicians should really have too much of an impact on a weekend where everyone's trying to have fun and trying to maybe create a more optimistic future." Sara Majid, 29, said she liked what Kneecap stood for. "I'm intrigued by them," she said. Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch had said the BBC public broadcaster, which is showing the festival, should not feature Kneecap, and 30 music industry bosses asked organisers to pull the band from the line-up, according to a letter leaked by DJ Toddla T, cited by the Guardian newspaper. In response, more than 100 musicians have signed a public letter in support of the group. Kneecap's manager Dan Lambert said the group had expected calls for the performance to be cancelled. "We knew that the biggest pressure would come on Glastonbury because Glastonbury's an institution," he told Reuters, adding that it had not been an issue for organisers. "We didn't bring it up and they didn't bring it up," he said. "They treated us professionally." Organiser Emily Eavis said on Wednesday the festival was a platform for artists from all over the world, adding that "everyone is welcome here". The BBC said on Saturday it would not be live-streaming the set but said the performance is likely to be made available on-demand later. The footage of O'Hanna displaying the flag came to light after the trio projected pro-Palestinian messages on stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California in April, ending with: "F*** Israel. Free Palestine." Kneecap, which also includes DJ Próvaí, have said they do not support Hamas or Hezbollah. O hAnnaidh said on Friday the group were "playing characters" on stage, and it was up to the audience to interpret their messages. Also playing on Saturday afternoon were Leeds rock band Kaiser Chiefs and US star Brandi Carlile, who released an album with Sir Elton John earlier in the year. with PA
Herald Sun
2 hours ago
- Herald Sun
Peta Credlin: Australia will lose US security blanket without Albo increasing military spending
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News. Forget help from the US marines rotating through Darwin, forget intelligence from the joint Space Facility at Pine Gap, and certainly forget the promised delivery of Virginia-class nuclear subs. If we don't lift military spending to the 3.5 per cent of GDP, that the Trump administration demands as a minimum of all US allies, we can still expect to be a potential target but we can't expect any help to defend Australia. Put yourself in US shoes for a moment. Why should their sons and daughters put their lives on the line to defend Australia when we're refusing to help ourselves? And, whatever you think about their patriotism, which tends to be more demonstrative than ours, at least they're less at risk of raising a whole generation of young people who are taught to hate their history, their flag and their country as we are here. After years of increasingly strident badgering, America's NATO allies have just agreed to lift their military spending to 3.5 per cent and to lift all defence-related spending to 5 per cent of GDP. This was in response to President Donald Trump's expressed reluctance to commit to NATO's 'one-in, all-in' Article 5 security guarantee. Partly, this was to placate an unpredictable and transactional president. And partly, it's apprehension that an America that's tired of being the world's policeman might just leave them in the lurch should Russia broaden its aggression after finishing off Ukraine. But if this is how Trump treats France, a nuclear power; and Germany, Europe's economic titan, how do we think he would treat us? Especially as the Albanese government has shown zero willingness to offer the military help that the US thinks it has a right to expect and that Australia has always given in the past. It's almost impossible to overstate the extent to which the Albanese government has misread the signals out of Washington and the strategic isolation to which we are now exposed. Turning down the December 2023 request to send a frigate to the Red Sea was perhaps the Albanese government's most egregious mistake. It was first time Australia had refused an American request for military help since the ANZUS treaty in 1951. Naturally, it was almost unnoticed here but it was seismic in a Washington. It was, after all, the Hawke government that sent clearance divers to help the US-led liberation of Kuwait; the Howard government that sent special forces, strike planes and a frigate to help the US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein; plus special forces, a mentoring task force and a reconstruction team to help the US-led campaign against the Taliban; a military effort that the Rudd and Gillard governments amply continued; and the Abbott government that sent special forces, strike planes and military trainers to help the US-led campaign against Islamic State. Not only has the Albanese government ostentatiously declined to give credible military help; it's consistently voted against the US at the UN on Israel; it's appeased China on trade; and it took 24 hours before it tepidly and half-heartedly backed last weekend's attack on Iran's nuclear weapons facility. But the fundamental problem is the Albanese government's repeated and obstinate refusal to entertain any increase at all in Australia's military spending. The Prime Minister was at it again on Friday, blathering that taking a decade to lift defence spending to 2.3 per cent is sacrosanct because 'we put forward our budget, we took it to an election and received overwhelming support'. As JM Keynes famously said: 'When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?' And the facts have changed, as even the UK Labour government has recognised. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, in every other respect our PM's green-left ideological soulmate, rushed to Washington in February and pledged to lift British defence spending to 2.7 per cent now and 3.5 per cent by the early 2030s. Sooner or later, Albanese won't be able to keep shirking a face-to-face meeting with the leader of the free world – despite a personal distaste for Trump that's becoming only-too-obvious. When a Labor frontbencher in 2017, he said of the then first-term president: 'He scares the shit out of me'; and plainly he meant it. Eventually, he'll have to face up to a meeting with our main ally but is almost certain to get an Oval Office blast in the absence of the defence boost that's so plainly needed. And, yes, we do need to get much better value for our defence dollar too, noting that Australia spends more on defence than Israel but has nothing remotely approaching the Israeli armed forces' capabilities. Without a swift boost to military spending and capability, the charge that will haunt this PM is that he would prefer us to be an economic colony of China than a military ally of the United States. THUMBS UP B-2 bomber pilots – With two pilots per aircraft, in a single mission last Sunday, these brave Americans made the world safer and deserve our heartfelt gratitude. THUMBS DOWN Jacinta Allan – Victorian Labor's new draft laws to fine farmers $12,000-plus if they refuse to allow new transmission lines on their land are criminal. This is what Net Zero really means! Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm Originally published as Peta Credlin: Australia will lose US security blanket without Albo increasing military spending
