Latest news with #Marco Rubio
The Independent
7 minutes ago
- Politics
- The Independent
This is no time for Britain to recognise Palestine
Although some 140 nations now recognise Palestine as a sovereign state, France is the first G7 member to take this decisive, historic step. It is, in truth, a purely symbolic move, given the savage reaction to it in Tel Aviv and the contemptuous statement in response issued by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio. It comes as Gaza is stalked by famine, something that has moved emotions across the world, though Emmanuel Macron did not specifically mention the starvation crisis taking the lives of innocent civilians. The French president clearly believes that, at this juncture, some dramatic gesture is necessary, and it will be formally declared by him at the United Nations General Assembly next month. In many quarters, it will be warmly welcomed. It also adds to the growing domestic political pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to follow suit. But the arguments are more finely balanced than is sometimes apparent to people on all sides of this issue. For the moment – and at this particular moment, when Donald Trump is arriving in Scotland for informal talks with the prime minister – the UK should not follow the example of the French. Given Sir Keir's unusually warm personal relationship with President Trump, he is at least more likely than the French president to be able to exert some pressure on the Americans to persuade Israel to end the hunger, arrange a ceasefire, and set the initial conditions for progress towards peace, unlikely as that may feel now. Had the British government immediately recognised full Palestinian statehood, Mr Trump would probably have addressed Sir Keir in similar, if not earthier, terms to those used by Secretary Rubio about the French: 'This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.' As a matter of fact, the diplomatic recognition of Palestine by France and other countries has been prompted more by the way in which Israel has conducted its war in Gaza, and failed to control illegal settlement in the West Bank, than by any desire to appease Hamas terrorists. If, in other words, Israel's military invasion had concluded by, say, the end of 2023, and there'd been no famine or systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure, France and the others would not have felt impelled to 'do something'; to recognise Palestine while there is still something to recognise. And President Macron was careful to make his announcement to Palestine's president Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, and not to Hamas. He also, correctly, demanded the return of the hostages. Britain was the last colonial power in Palestine, and for Britain to recognise its independence would, arguably, have a particular political impact. But it would not, realistically, make much difference on the ground today. Bluntly, it would not save the life of a single Palestinian infant suffering from chronic malnutrition, whereas pressure from President Trump on Tel Aviv at least carries some prospect of opening up access for humanitarian aid. Such limited diplomatic leverage as post-Brexit Britain possesses in this region must of necessity be used to the best advantage of the people of Palestine. So, heartbreaking as the striking images coming out of Gaza undoubtedly are – and they stand as prima facie evidence of war crimes – Sir Keir should resist the pressure to take this step, because it would make zero difference now, and could well make matters worse. Gestures that bring change and are well-timed are more useful to the Palestinians than are the futile variety. That said, the prime minister will find it difficult to manage his party on this issue, once the Commons reassembles and he must face the Labour conference. A substantial number of his backbench MPs have already openly declared that the UK must recognise Palestine. This sentiment is reflected in other parties, including among some Conservatives, as is also evidenced in the latest report by the foreign affairs select committee. Some of Sir Keir's senior colleagues, such as Wes Streeting and Peter Kyle, have made little secret of their own impatience about the recognition of Palestinian statehood. The foreign secretary, David Lammy, may not be far behind; he is plainly exhausted by having to stick to the government's line. The trend points to Sir Keir being defeated on the Palestine question in the Commons and at his own party conference. Given that diplomacy sits firmly within the royal prerogative, such votes cannot force him to do anything, outside making an extraordinary 'humble address' to the monarch to instruct his ministers to do so. Yet such manoeuvrings would weaken his already diminished authority further. In defence, Sir Keir can also point to the text of the Labour manifesto commitment, much referred to, which is deliberately ambiguous and does not pledge immediate recognition: 'We are committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.' For the moment, the prime minister is not alone in the G7 – Germany has also declined to join with France – and he does have support in the House, including from most of the Conservatives. However, on Palestine, as with welfare reform and much else, he will need to work harder than ever this autumn to win the argument.
Jordan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Jordan Times
Safadi, US Rubio discuss strategic Amman-Washington partnership, regional developments — ministry
AMMAN — Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the strategic partnership between the two countries and pressing regional developments, during a meeting in Washington on Wednesday. During the meeting, the two top diplomats reaffirmed the strong ties between Jordan and the United States, stressing the importance of strengthening cooperation across various sectors, according to a Foreign Ministry statement. Safadi expressed appreciation for the continued US support to Jordan, while Rubio highlighted Jordan's vital role in promoting regional security and stability. Talks also focused on efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, the statement said, with Safadi reiterating Jordan's support for US, Egyptian, and Qatari efforts aimed at reaching a swap agreement that would lead to a lasting ceasefire. The situation in the West Bank and Syria also featured prominently in the discussions. The two ministers reviewed progress following last week's tripartite Jordanian-American-Syrian talks hosted in Amman, particularly the implementation of a ceasefire in southern Syria's Sweida Governorate, the statement said. Rubio emphasised the need for dialogue to resolve the crisis in southern Syria and protect civilians. Safadi underlining the importance of sustaining the ceasefire, delivering aid, ensuring civilian protection, and upholding Syrian sovereignty and the rule of law throughout the country. He also stressed the importance of supporting Syria's reconstruction in a manner that safeguards its unity, sovereignty, stability, and the rights of all its citizens. Safadi and Rubio agreed to maintain coordination and communication to enhance bilateral cooperation, address regional crises, and advance peace and stability in the region.
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Business
- Al Jazeera
Trump administration unveils wide ranging AI action plan
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has unveiled its new artificial intelligence action plan, which includes a strategy it says will boost the US standing in AI as it competes with China for dominance in the rapidly growing sector. The White House released the 25-page 'America's AI Action Plan' on Wednesday. It includes 90 different policy proposals that the administration says will increase AI tools for allies around the globe. It will also promote production of new data centres around the US. It will scrap federal regulations that 'hinder AI development', although it is not clear which regulations are in question. In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the plan will 'ensure America sets the technological gold standard worldwide, and that the world continues to run on American technology'. The president is expected to announce a series of executive orders which will outline key parts of the plan around 5pm in New York (21:00 GMT). 'We believe we're in an AI race … and we want the United States to win that race,' White House AI czar David Sacks told reporters on Wednesday. The White House says the plan will 'counter Chinese influence in international governance bodies' and also will give the US more control over exports of AI technology. However, the administration did not offer any details on how it plans to do that. The plan outlined by the Trump administration will also include a framework to analyse models built by China to assess 'alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship'. Free speech in the spotlight The plan says that it will also uphold free speech in models that will allow systems to be 'objective and free from top-down ideological bias' for organisations wanting to do business with the federal government. A senior White House official said the main target was AI models that consider diversity and inclusion, according to The Wall Street Journal, which, experts say, signals the concern is the government's perceived liberal bias as opposed to an overall bias. 'The government should not be acting as a Ministry of AI Truth or insisting that AI models hew to its preferred interpretation of reality,' Samir Jain, vice president of policy at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera. 'The plan is highly unbalanced, focusing too much on promoting the technology while largely failing to address the ways in which it could potentially harm people.' Conservatives have long accused AI chatbots of having a liberal bias, comparable to their comments on legacy media for providing critical coverage of the administration. However, it comes as users of GrokAI, former Trump ally and right-wing tycoon Elon Musk's AI platform, have accused it of having a right-wing lean. Musk's X AI is part of a $200m package with the Pentagon that has other AI companies, including OpenAI. Building out data centres A key focus of the new plan will be to build out new data centers for AI technology as the industry rapidly expands. The administration said that will include streamlining permits for new centre development and the energy production facilities used to power these data centres. The plan sidesteps environmental concerns that have been a major criticism of the AI industry. AI 'challenges America to build vastly greater energy generation than we have today', the plan said. AI data centres have been tied to increased power consumption and, in turn, greenhouse gas emissions. According Google's 2024 sustainability report, there was a 48 percent increase in power greenhouse gas emissions since 2019 which, it says, will only become more prevalent. 'This result was primarily due to increases in data center energy consumption and supply chain emissions. As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute, and the emissions associated with the expected increases in our technical infrastructure investment,' the report said. The streamlining of permits also comes as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to reverse its scientific determination that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health. That change would remove the legal framework that climate regulations are based on, the Reuters news agency has reported, citing two unnamed sources. The reversal would remove the 'endangerment finding', making it easier for the EPA to undo legislation limiting greenhouse gas emissions on energy-producing facilities, including those used to power AI data centres. The administration has created environmental review exceptions for data centre construction and will allow expanding access to federal lands for AI development. 'AI will improve the lives of Americans by complementing their work — not replacing it,' the plan says. It, however, comes as employers across the country scrap jobs because of AI. Earlier this month, Recruit Holdings, the parent company of Indeed and Glassdoor, cut 1300 jobs which it directly attributed to AI. In June, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said that AI is doing 30 to 50 percent of the company's workload. In February, the tech giant laid off 1,000 employees. Analysts say the plan looks promising for investors in the AI sector. 'This is a watershed moment in the AI revolution, and Trump recognises this AI arms race between the US and China. A big step forward,' Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, told Al Jazeera. As of 4pm in New York (20:00 GMT), stocks of AI-focused companies had mixed results. NVIDIA was up 2.1 percent; Palantir up 3.6 percent, Oracle up 1.5 percent and Microsoft was up 0.3 percent. On the other hand, Google's parent company Alphabet was down 0.5 percent.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
US set to deport permanent residents over alleged support to Haitian gang leaders
By Daphne Psaledakis and Ted Hesson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday paved the way for the United States to deport certain lawful permanent residents, saying Washington determined some had supported Haitian gang leaders connected to a U.S.-designated "terrorist" organization. Rubio in a statement said certain U.S. lawful permanent residents had supported and collaborated with gang leaders tied to Viv Ansanm, the armed alliance that controls most of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, which President Donald Trump's administration labeled a Foreign Terrorist Organization in May. Following the determination, the Department of Homeland Security can pursue the deportation of the lawful permanent residents, also known as green-card holders, Rubio added. It was unclear how many people could be targeted for deportation, and no individuals were named in his statement. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said late on Monday that its Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested Pierre Reginald Boulos, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. and citizen of Haiti, over alleged engagement in violence and contribution to "destabilization of Haiti." The Miami Herald described Boulos, 69, as "an influential Haitian businessman and controversial political powerbroker" who was an American-born entrepreneur and physician. The move by Rubio comes as the Trump administration has sought to ramp up deportations as part of its wide-ranging efforts to fulfill the president's hardline immigration agenda, with the secretary of state making unprecedented use of his power to try to revoke the visas and green cards of pro-Palestinian student protesters. "The United States will not allow individuals to enjoy the benefits of legal status in our country while they are facilitating the actions of violent organizations or supporting criminal terrorist organizations," Rubio said on Monday. Stephen Yale-Loehr, a retired immigration law professor at Cornell University, said that prior to this Trump administration, trying to take away someone's permanent-resident status in this manner was "very rare" but that the administration had shown a willingness to target students. He said it seemed unlikely that many Haitians would have their green card revoked as a result of the policy because of the difficulty of identifying them and then proving the affiliation in immigration court. "Three years from now, how many people from Haiti will be deported under this ground? I think very few," he said. Haiti's transitional government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Almost 5,000 people have been killed in Haiti between October 2024 and June 2025 amid worsening gang violence nationwide, according to a U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights report. IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN The surge in violence is deepening Haiti's humanitarian crisis, destabilizing the country and raising concerns of spillover effects in the region. The gang conflict in Haiti has been met with little international response, while neighboring countries, including the U.S., have continued to deport migrants back to the Caribbean nation despite pleas by the United Nations to stop the practice, citing humanitarian concerns. Trump has taken several steps to strip deportation relief and work permits from Haitians in the U.S., although a federal judge earlier this month blocked an attempt to end Temporary Protected Status for more than half a million Haitians. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump falsely said during a debate that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people's pets. Washington's designation of Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif as terrorist groups followed similar measures made recently for Latin American drug cartels and was intended to isolate the groups, denying them access to financing from U.S. people or companies.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Rubio moves to strip US visas from eight Brazilian judges in Bolsonaro battle
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has reportedly stripped eight of Brazil's 11 supreme court judges of their US visas as the White House escalates its campaign to help the country's former president Jair Bolsonaro avoid justice over his alleged attempt to seize power with a military coup. Bolsonaro, a far-right populist with ties to Donald Trump's Maga movement, is on trial for allegedly masterminding a murderous plot to cling to power after losing the 2022 election to his leftwing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro is expected to be convicted by the supreme court in the coming weeks and faces a jail sentence of up to 43 years. As the day of judgment nears, Trump has been increasing pressure on the court and President Lula's administration. On 9 July, the US president announced he would impose 50% tariffs on all Brazilian imports as of 1 August, partly as a result of the supposed persecution of his ally. The move triggered an outpouring of nationalist anger in the South American country, with Lula describing it as 'unacceptable blackmail'. On Friday, after federal police raided Bolsonaro's house and fitted him with an electronic tag to stop him absconding, Rubio announced further moves in support of the defendant, who he claimed was the victim of a 'political witch hunt'. Writing on X, Rubio said he had ordered visa revocations for the judge leading the investigation into Bolsonaro, Alexandre de Moraes, as well as 'his allies on the court' and their family members. Rubio did not name his other targets but the Brazilian newspaper O Globo identified them as Luís Roberto Barroso, José Antonio Dias Toffoli, Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino, Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha, Luiz Edson Fachin and Gilmar Ferreira Mendes. Two other judges who were nominated to the court during Bolsonaro's 2019-23 presidency, André Mendonça and Kassio Nunes Marques, reportedly avoided the sanction, as did a third judge, Luiz Fux. Lula denounced what he called 'another arbitrary and completely groundless measure from the US government'. 'Interference in another country's justice system is unacceptable and offends the basic principles of national sovereignty and respect between nations,' the president said on Saturday, adding: 'I'm certain that no kind of intimidation or threat – from whoever it may be – will compromise the most important mission of our nation's powers and institutions, which is to act permanently to defend and safeguard the democratic rule of law.' The Trump strategist Alex Bruesewitz welcomed Rubio's announcement, calling Bolsonaro's treatment 'sick and wrong'. Bolsonaro's congressman son, Eduardo, thanked Rubio for his decision. 'Thank you very much for this fight in favor of free speech, we do believe in the same values,' tweeted Eduardo, who has been living in the US since February and has reportedly been lobbying officials there over his father's plight. Trump's interventions have appalled millions of Brazilians who hope to see their former leader held responsible for the alleged coup attempt, which culminated in the 8 January riots in Brasília. Lula's institutional relations minister, Gleisi Hoffmann, called the visa cancellations 'an aggressive and petty retaliation' and 'an affront to the Brazilian judiciary and national sovereignty'. Even influential rightwing voices have criticised the US's attempt to meddle in one of the world's most populous democracies by imposing 50% tariffs. On Saturday, the conservative Estado de São Paulo newspaper described Trump's behaviour as 'unacceptable external interference in Brazil's domestic matters'. 'Trump has not only attacked our national sovereignty … [but also] stained the history of diplomatic relations between the two largest democracies in the Americas,' the newspaper's editorial board wrote. While the Bolsonaros have hailed Trump's actions, they also appear to have grasped how the announcement of tariffs has backfired, allowing Lula to pose as a nationalist defender of Brazilian interests and paint the Bolsonaro clan as self-serving 'traitors'. Lula, who had been facing growing public disillusionment and an uphill battle to win re-election next year, has enjoyed a bounce in the polls since Trump launched his trade war, the brunt of which will be borne by coffee producers and cattle ranchers in Bolsonaro-voting regions, such as São Paulo. Celso Rocha de Barros, a political columnist, said he suspected the Bolsonaros had been blindsided by the scale of Trump's attack. 'I think [Bolsonaro] wanted some kind of penalty - something he could use to say: 'Look, Brazil's being punished because of Bolsonaro's persecution. But [the tariffs] went far too far … [they] screwed Bolsonaro's base,' said Rocha de Barros, pointing to their potential impact on agribusiness. On Friday night, Bolsonaro's senator son, Flávio, post on X, calling on Trump to suspend the tariffs and replace them with individual sanctions. Soon after, however, he deleted the post.
