AK-47 to LWRC M6: Houthi's peddling US, Russian weapons on X, WhatsApp; chilling details exposed
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First Post
13 minutes ago
- First Post
Gaza, Ukraine and beyond: Is Trump's bid to be a global peacemaker falling apart?
The United States cutting short Gaza ceasefire talks this week plunges one of President Donald Trump's pushes to solve global conflicts into new uncertainty. read more The United States' decision to withdraw from Gaza ceasefire negotiations this week has cast fresh doubt over President Donald Trump's attempts to resolve some of the world's most intractable conflicts. The faltering of talks aimed at ending the 21-month war between Israel and Hamas marks another setback for Trump whose efforts to broker international peace agreements have stalled across multiple fronts. Though back in office for only six months, the Republican president has sought to position himself as a global peacemaker. Some of his aims, such as ending the Ukraine war before taking office, have yet to materialise. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD While Trump has cited humanitarian motives for his diplomatic pursuits, he has also been vocal about his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Several allies have nominated him for the honour. Ceasefire efforts in Gaza: No major progress Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, announced Thursday that the U.S. was recalling its negotiating team from Qatar. Talks there had failed to yield a breakthrough. Witkoff accused Hamas of not engaging in 'good faith', though he did not elaborate. Despite a visit to Washington earlier this month by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the negotiations have produced little progress. Witkoff said the U.S. would now 'consider alternative options to bring the hostages home', but officials declined to provide further details. Asked about the issue on Friday, Trump told reporters that Hamas was uninterested in a deal and added, 'I think what's going to happen is they're going to be hunted down.' Ukraine war: Stalemate persists Trump previously vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict within 24 hours of assuming office, but the war continues with no sign of resolution. Despite increasing criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump has not supported a bipartisan U.S. sanctions bill. Instead, he gave Russia 50 days to accept a peace plan, delaying punitive measures. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This delay has allowed Moscow to intensify its military offensive. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reiterated his willingness to hold direct talks with Putin, but Russia has rejected the offer. Lower-level negotiations held in Istanbul on Wednesday ended without progress. Russia continues to demand that Ukraine withdraw from four regions it annexed in 2022 and abandon its NATO ambitions, terms Kyiv and its Western backers have rejected. Iran conflict: Ceasefire but no nuclear deal The US and Israel recently carried out joint strikes on Iran's nuclear infrastructure, leading to a fragile ceasefire. However, Washington has not yet reached any agreement with Tehran over its nuclear programme. An Iranian diplomat said this week that Tehran is open to talks with the US but only if steps are taken to rebuild trust. Meanwhile, Iran is also exploring a separate negotiation path with Britain, France and Germany—three parties to the 2015 nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from during his previous term. Foreign ministers from the four countries met Friday in Istanbul, warning that sanctions could be reinstated if there is no movement on a new deal by August. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Progress on some fronts Despite the setbacks, Trump has managed to broker certain regional agreements. In June, the US facilitated a peace accord between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, ending years of tension. The agreement includes commitments to cease hostilities, respect each other's sovereignty and grant US access to critical minerals. In May, the Trump administration claimed to de-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan following cross-border strikes. However, India denied any international interference. Earlier in July, US special envoy Tom Barrack announced a limited ceasefire between Israel and Syria following Israeli intervention in the latter's internal conflict. While the ceasefire was hailed as a success, the episode disrupted efforts to normalise relations between the two nations. With inputs from agencies
Time of India
42 minutes ago
- Time of India
EU sanctions Indian arm of UAE-based shipping company
New Delhi: Intershipping Services Hub Private Ltd , the Indian branch of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based entity, has been sanctioned by the European Union (EU). Captain Abhinav Kamal, the Indian-origin captain of crude oil tanker Argent also faces sanctions, the first and the only Indian to be sanctioned by the EU in connection with the Russia-Ukraine conflict , according to sector watchers. The company is under fire for providing cover to ships engaged in trade with Russian entities . The sanctions are not extraterritorial and only apply to EU citizens, territory and companies. The Indian government too maintains it does not subscribe to any unilateral sanction measures. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Cybersecurity Design Thinking Finance Product Management Degree healthcare CXO others Data Analytics Digital Marketing Management Leadership Technology Data Science Healthcare MBA PGDM Operations Management Others Project Management Public Policy Artificial Intelligence Data Science MCA Skills you'll gain: Duration: 10 Months MIT xPRO CERT-MIT xPRO PGC in Cybersecurity Starts on undefined Get Details "This means the assets that Intershipping Services LLC holds in Europe will be frozen and European citizens and companies cannot make money available to it, hence cannot do business," an EU official told ET on condition of anonymity. Since the sanctions do not apply to any non-EU entities doing business with Intershipping Services Hub, the company can court non-EU suitors, said the people cited earlier. However, Kamal may find the going tough since the global maritime industry has vast linkages with the EU, they said. Now, Kamal cannot board or provide services to any of these EU associated vessels. The bloc has accused Kamal of providing material, technical or financial support to the operations of a vessel that transports Russia-linked crude oil or petroleum products. Live Events Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
NDTV
43 minutes ago
- NDTV
Trump's Trip To Scotland As His New Golf Course Opens Blurs Politics, Family's Business
Edinburgh: Lashed by cold winds and overlooking choppy, steel-gray North Sea waters, the breathtaking sand dunes of Scotland's northeastern coast rank among Donald Trump's favorite spots on earth. "At some point, maybe in my very old age, I'll go there and do the most beautiful thing you've ever seen," Trump said in 2023, during his New York civil fraud trial, talking about his plans for future developments on his property in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire. At 79 and back in the White House, Trump is making at least part of that pledge a reality, traveling to Scotland on Friday as his family's business prepares for the Aug. 13 opening of a new course it's billing as "the greatest 36 holes in golf." Trump will be in Scotland until Tuesday and plans to talk trade with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The Aberdeen area is already home to another of his courses, Trump International Scotland, and the Republican president also plans to visit a Trump course near Turnberry, around 200 miles (320 kilometers) away on Scotland's southwest coast. Using a presidential overseas trip - with its sprawling entourage of advisers, White House and support staffers, Secret Service agents and reporters - to help show off Trump-brand golf destinations demonstrates how the president has become increasingly comfortable intermingling his governing pursuits with promoting his family's business interests. The White House has brushed off questions about potential conflicts of interest, arguing Trump's business success before he entered politics was a key to his appeal with voters. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers called the Scotland swing a "working trip." But she added Trump "has built the best and most beautiful world-class golf courses anywhere in the world, which is why they continue to be used for prestigious tournaments and by the most elite players in the sport." Trump went to Scotland to play his Turnberry course during his first term in 2018 while en route to a meeting in Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This time, his trip comes as the new golf course is about to debut and is already actively selling tee times. It's not cheap for the president to travel. The helicopters that operate as Marine One when the president is on board cost between $16,700 and nearly $20,000 per hour to operate, according to Pentagon data for fiscal year 2022. The modified Boeing 747s that serve as the iconic Air Force One cost about $200,000 per hour to fly. That's not to mention the military cargo aircraft that fly ahead of the president with his armored limousines and other official vehicles. "We're at a point where the Trump administration is so intertwined with the Trump business that he doesn't seem to see much of a difference," said Jordan Libowitz, vice president for the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "It's as if the White House were almost an arm of the Trump Organization." During his first term, the Trump Organization signed an ethics pact barring deals with foreign companies. An ethics frameworks for Trump's second term allows them. Trump's assets are in a trust run by his children, who are also handling day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization while he's in the White House. The company has inked many recent, lucrative foreign agreements involving golf courses, including plans to build luxury developments in Qatar and Vietnam, even as the administration negotiates tariff rates for those countries and around the globe. Trump's existing Aberdeenshire course, meanwhile, has a history nearly as rocky as the area's cliffs. It has struggled to turn a profit and was found by Scottish conservation authorities to have partially destroyed nearby sand dunes. Trump's company also was ordered to cover the Scottish government's legal costs after the course unsuccessfully sued over the construction of a nearby wind farm, arguing in part that it hurt golfers' views. And the development was part of the massive civil case, which accused Trump of inflating his wealth to secure loans and make business deals. Trump's company's initial plans for his first Aberdeen-area course called for a luxury hotel and nearby housing. His company received permission to build 500 houses, but Trump suggested he'd be allowed to build five times as many and borrowed against their values without actually building any homes, the lawsuit alleged. Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable last year and ordered his company to pay $355 million in fines - a judgment that has grown with interest to more than $510 million as Trump appeals. Family financial interests aside, Trump isn't the first sitting U.S. president to golf in Scotland. That was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who played in Turnberry in 1959. George W. Bush visited the famed course at Gleneagles in 2005 but didn't play. Many historians trace golf back to Scotland in the Middle Ages. Among the earliest known references to game was a Scottish Parliament resolution in 1457 that tried to ban it, along with soccer, because of fears both were distracting men from practicing archery - then considered vital to national defense. The first U.S. president to golf regularly was William Howard Taft, who served from 1909 to 1913 and ignored warnings from his predecessor, Teddy Roosevelt, that playing too much would make it seem like he wasn't working hard enough. Woodrow Wilson played nearly every day but Sundays, and even had the Secret Service paint his golf balls red so he could practice in the snow, said Mike Trostel, director of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Warren G. Harding trained his dog Laddie Boy to fetch golf balls while he practiced. Lyndon B. Johnson's swing was sometimes described as looking like a man trying to kill a rattlesnake. Bill Clinton, who liked to joke that he was the only president whose game improved while in office, restored a putting green on the White House's South Lawn. It was originally installed by Eisenhower, who was such an avid user that he left cleat marks in the wooden floors of the Oval Office by the door leading out to it. Bush stopped golfing after the start of the Iraq war in 2003 because of the optics. Barack Obama had a golf simulator installed in the White House that Trump upgraded during his first term, Trostel said. John F. Kennedy largely hid his love of the game as president, but he played on Harvard's golf team and nearly made a hole-in-one at California's renowned Cypress Point Golf Club just before the 1960 Democratic National Convention. "I'd say, between President Trump and President John F. Kennedy, those are two of the most skilled golfers we've had in the White House," Trostel said. Trump, Trostel said, has a handicap index - how many strokes above par a golfer is likely to score - of a very strong 2.5, though he's not posted an official round with the U.S. Golf Association since 2021. That's better than Joe Biden's handicap of 6.7, which also might be outdated, and Obama, who once described his own handicap as an "honest 13." The White House described Trump as a championship-level golfer but said he plays with no handicap.
