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US President Donald Trump headed home from Davos on Thursday after unveiling his new “Board of Peace” and once again casting himself as a global peacemaker, despite widespread scepticism over a plan that aims to rewrite the world order.Trump officials also unveiled ambitious plans for a “New Gaza” during the ceremony at the World Economic Forum, the US leader describing the devastated Palestinian territory as “great real estate”.Trump later met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with both describing their talks as good and the US leader saying Russia’s nearly four-year-old war with Kyiv “has to end”.Zelensky announced “trilateral” talks between Washington, Moscow and Kyiv in the coming days, and said he had reached agreement with Trump on post-war US security guarantees for Ukraine — though he conceded that dialogue with the US president was “not simple”.And the Ukrainian leader hit out at European allies for being too slow to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking: “What’s missing: time or political will?”- ‘Board of Peace’ -Trump’s “Board of Peace” was created after he expressed frustration at failing to win the Nobel Peace Prize and ramped up accusations the United Nations had failed to resolve a host of international conflicts.”Well this is exciting,” Trump said as he was joined on stage by leaders and officials from 19 countries to sign the board’s founding charter in the Swiss ski resort.”This board has the chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created,” he said.The body, of which Trump is the chairman, was initially designed to oversee the Gaza truce and the reconstruction of the strip after the war between Hamas and Israel.But its purpose has since morphed into resolving all sorts of international conflicts, sparking concerns that Trump wants to create a rival to the UN.Key US allies including France and Britain have expressed doubts.Countries have been asked to pay $1 billion for permanent membership of the board, and the invitation for Putin, whose country invaded Ukraine in 2022, has drawn criticism.Trump said the organisation would work “in conjunction” with the United Nations.- Gaza ‘master plan’ -A large part of the ceremony was devoted to talking about its plans for shattered Gaza.Gaza’s newly appointed administrator said in a video message that the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip would reopen in both directions next week.Then Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, like the president a former property developer, showed slides of what he billed as a “master plan” for Gaza’s reconstruction.They included maps of new settlements and artist renderings of gleaming seafront hotels and apartments under the caption “New Gaza”.”It could be a hope. It could be a destination,” Kushner said.Trump told Hamas to disarm under the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire accord or it would be the “end of them”. He added that he was ready to “talk” with regional foe Iran.- ‘Not so popular’ -The representatives of the 19 countries on stage with Trump included two close populist allies, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Argentine President Javier Milei, and officials from a host of Middle Eastern monarchies keen to curry favour.Trump said he expected around 50 countries to join — including Putin, though the latter said he was still studying the invitation.Zelensky, also invited, has said he could not envisage working alongside the Russian leader.Trump said he was hopeful of a deal soon to end the Ukraine war, and Zelensky told the forum that documents being drafted with Washington to end the war were “nearly, nearly ready”.Zelensky has voiced concern that Trump’s push to seize Greenland — which dominated Davos on Wednesday — could divert focus away from Russia’s invasion.Tensions over Greenland eased, however, after Trump announced a “framework of a future deal” over the Danish territory and dropped his threat to hit European allies with new tariffs.Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the Arctic island wanted a “peaceful dialogue” with Washington and it wanted to remain part of Denmark for now.”We have some red lines,” he told a press conference. “We have to respect our territorial integrity. We have to respect international law, sovereignty.”Global stock markets rallied with relief at Trump’s Greenland climbdown, riding what some called the “TACO” trade — for “Trump Always Chickens Out”.But as European leaders gathered in Brussels for a summit, worries lingered over lasting damage to transatlantic ties.burs-dk-lt/jhb/jj

Hundreds of red-eyed and exhausted people, including many journalists, crowded into the grounds of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in Gaza on Thursday to pay tribute to three fallen colleagues.The three, including a regular AFP contributor, were killed by an Israeli strike the day before that the military said had targeted “suspects” operating a drone.Mourners gathered around the bodies as they were taken from the morgue towards the hospital courtyard, where men lined up in silence to perform an Islamic funeral prayer recited for the dead.”Today we are witnessing a systematic execution by the Israeli occupation forces of our colleagues,” Ibrahim Qannan, one of the oldest journalists present, told the crowd.On one stretcher, a bulletproof vest marked “Press” was laid on the body of Abdul Raouf Shaath, a regular AFP contributor.Also on the vest, under a slate-gray sky where many men brought together in mourning wore hoodies and woollen caps, lay two dandelions and some flower petals.”Abed loved journalism and held it in high esteem because it documents the truth,” his father Samir Shaath told AFP, using his dead son’s nickname.He was just about able to help carry the stretcher bearing his boy, as other journalists crowded round to embrace him.”Abed’s not the first journalist they’ve targeted,” Samir Shaath said.According to media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), since Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war in Gaza, nearly 220 journalists have been killed by Israel, making the Palestinian territory by far the deadliest place for journalists.RSF said at least 71 have been targeted or killed while working.- ‘Another crime’ -The Israeli military says it never deliberately attacks journalists. However, it has admitted killing a number of press professionals it accused of being “terrorist” members of the armed wing of Hamas or other Palestinian groups.Israel was not a signatory of the extra Article 79 to the Geneva Conventions, which updated the laws of war in the wake of World War II.It states that “journalists in war zones must be treated as civilians and protected as such, provided they play no part in the hostilities”.On Thursday, a young woman journalist cried as her hand stroked a body bag holding one of her colleagues.The three killed on Wednesday by the Israeli air strike were Shaath, Mohammed Salah Qashta and Anas Ghneim.In the morgue, a relative sobbed silently, his forearm covering his eyes.It was a scene that has become all too familiar in Gaza.Some recalled last August 25, when Israeli strikes on a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip killed five Palestinian journalists, including a contributor to the American news agency Associated Press (AP).”This is another crime to add to the long list of crimes committed by Israel against journalists,” said Adly Abu Taha on Thursday.”The occupation has ignored all international laws and conventions that guarantee the protection of journalists and has directly targeted them.”On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it was looking into the circumstances of the deadly strike that killed the three.It told AFP on Thursday it had nothing more to add at this stage. After the burial, which as tradition dictates was carried out by men only, Shaath’s mother was able to clutch her son’s bulletproof vest.Surrounded by grieving women at Al-Mawasi camp in southern Gaza, where Palestinians displaced by fighting and bombardment live in precarious conditions, Nur al-Huda pressed her lips together to keep from crying.

After a year of tearing down global norms and withdrawing from UN bodies, US President Donald Trump is trying his hand at international institution building with his self-styled “Board of Peace” — to wide skepticism.Unlike the United Nations, where every member has a say and five big powers wield vetoes, the nascent board is unambiguously led not just by the United States but personally by Trump, who will hold final say and can remain in charge past his presidency.Trump first conceived of the board for Gaza, where Israel and Hamas agreed to a US-backed ceasefire in October.But Trump quickly raised eyebrows by sending out wide invitations including to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose Ukraine invasion Trump has failed to stop, and to countries far removed from traditional Middle East diplomacy.Launching the board at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, Trump said the new body could “spread out to other things as we succeed with Gaza,” with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the “possibilities are endless.”Trump boasts of ending eight wars in his year back in office — a claim viewed by many as overstated — and has loudly complained about not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.In Davos, Trump said he envisioned his board playing a role “coupled with the United Nations” but again bashed the global institution, to which he has ordered major US cuts.”On the eight wars that I ended, I never spoke to the United Nations about any of them — and you would think that I should have,” he said.Also raising suspicion is the question of money, as Trump already faces allegations of self-enrichment from the presidency.The board’s charter says that members of the executive board will pay $1 billion for a permanent spot.A US official clarified that members would not have to fork over the massive sum for a temporary two-year stint on the board and promised “highest financial controls and oversight mechanisms,” although where the money will actually go remains unclear.- ‘Galaxy far, far away’ from reality -Major European nations have shunned the board, which is heavy on longstanding US partners in the Middle East, ideological allies of Trump and smaller countries eager for Trump’s attention.”This thing doesn’t have the bandwidth and doesn’t have the set of guiding principles that would enable serious countries to join,” said Aaron David Miller, a former US Middle East negotiator now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.He said Trump felt emboldened after ordering the US raid that seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on January 3, and was convinced that existing global institutions “don’t understand that the central driving feature of the international system today is US power.”The board is “tethered to a galaxy far, far away and not to the realities of conflict resolution back here on Planet Earth,” he said.Britain has historically been among the most eager to sign on to US initiatives, but Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a BBC interview there was a “huge amount of work to do” and questioned inviting Putin.France has made clear it will not join, leading Trump to threaten a 200 percent tariff on French wine unless President Emmanuel Macron joins the voluntary board.A group of Muslim-majority countries — Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — welcomed the board but in a joint statement highlighted that it should be a “transitional administration” for Gaza.Richard Gowan, program director for global issues and institutions at the International Crisis Group, said the “Board of Peace” offered a sign of how Trump wants to pursue diplomacy in his remaining three years in office.”He seems to be putting the boot into existing multilateral institutions like the United Nations and switching to his own boutique organization that he can control completely,” Gowan said.But he noted that the board’s first task was Gaza, where Trump has proposed glitzy development but which lies in rubble with a fragile ceasefire.”If Gaza implodes, the Board won’t have a lot of credibility elsewhere.”

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned Washington Thursday that the force had its “finger on the trigger” in the wake of mass protests, as US President Donald Trump said Tehran still appeared interested in talks.Trump has repeatedly left open the option of new military action against Iran after Washington backed and joined Israel’s 12-day war in June aimed at degrading Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.A fortnight of protests starting in late December shook the clerical leadership under supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but the movement has petered out in the face of a crackdown that activists say killed thousands, accompanied by an unprecedented internet blackout.The prospect of immediate American action against Tehran appears to have receded, with both sides insisting on giving diplomacy a chance even as US media report Trump is still studying options.Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump said the United States attacked Iranian uranium enrichment sites last year to prevent Tehran from making a nuclear weapon. Iran denies its nuclear programme is aimed at seeking the bomb.”Can’t let that happen,” Trump said, adding: “And Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk.”In a standoff marked by seesawing rhetoric, Trump had on Tuesday warned Iran’s leaders the US would “wipe them off the face of this earth” if there was any attack on his life in response to a strike targeting Khamenei.Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a speech Thursday accused the United States and Israel of stoking the protests as a “cowardly revenge… for the defeat in the 12-Day War”.- ‘Legitimate targets’ -Guards commander General Mohammad Pakpour warned Israel and the United States “to avoid any miscalculations, by learning from historical experiences and what they learned in the 12-day imposed war, so that they do not face a more painful and regrettable fate”.”The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and dear Iran have their finger on the trigger, more prepared than ever, ready to carry out the orders and measures of the supreme commander-in-chief — a leader dearer than their own lives,” he said of Khamenei.Pakpour’s comments came in a written statement quoted by state television marking the national day in Iran to celebrate the Guards, whose mission is to protect the 1979 Islamic revolution from internal and external threats.Activists accuse the Guards of playing a frontline role in the deadly crackdown on protests. The group is sanctioned as a terrorist entity by countries including Australia, Canada and the United States, and campaigners have long urged similar moves from the EU and UK.Another senior military figure, General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi who leads the Iranian joint command headquarters, meanwhile warned that if America attacked, “all US interests, bases and centres of influence” would be “legitimate targets” for Iran’s armed forces.- ‘National kill-switch’ -Giving their first official toll from the protests, Iranian authorities on Wednesday said 3,117 people were killed.The statement from Iran’s foundation for martyrs and veterans sought to draw a distinction between “martyrs”, members of security forces or innocent bystanders, and what it called US-backed “rioters”.Of its toll of 3,117, it said 2,427 people were “martyrs”.Pezeshkian said Thursday that protest “is the natural right of citizens” but a distinction had to be drawn between protesters “whose hands are stained with the blood of innocent people”.However, rights groups say the heavy toll was caused by security forces firing directly on protesters and that the actual number of dead could be far higher, even more than 20,000.Efforts to confirm the scale of the toll have been hampered by the national internet shutdown, with monitor Netblocks saying Thursday the blackout had surpassed “two full weeks”.”All the evidence gradually emerging from inside Iran shows that the real number of people killed in the protests is far higher than the official figure,” said the director of the Iran Human Rights NGO Mahmood Amriy-Moghaddam, saying the authorities’ toll has “no credibility whatsoever”.Warning that their own current tolls do not reflect the true number of fatalities, IHR says it has verified at least 3,428 killings. Another NGO, US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), has documented 4,902 deaths.According to HRANA, at least 26,541 people have been arrested. On Thursday alone, state TV announced over 200 more arrests in provinces including Kermanshah in the west and Isfahan in central Iran.

US officials on Thursday presented their vision for a “New Gaza” that would turn the shattered Palestinian territory into a glitzy resort of skyscrapers by the sea, saying the transformation could emerge in three years.The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, left much of the Palestinian territory damaged or destroyed and forced most of its residents to flee their homes.A US-brokered ceasefire took effect last October, reducing the level of bombing and fighting, but for most Gazans, the humanitarian disaster has endured three months on.”We’re going to be very successful in Gaza. It’s going to be a great thing to watch,” President Donald Trump said while presenting his controversial “Board of Peace” conflict-resolution body in Davos.”I’m a real estate person at heart… and I said, look at this location on the sea. Look at this beautiful piece of property. What it could be for so many people,” he said at the World Economic Forum.His son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has no official title but is one of Trump’s envoys for the Gaza ceasefire, said his “master plan” aimed for “catastrophic success”.With a slide showing dozens of shiny terraced apartment towers overlooking a tree-lined promenade, he promised a Mediterranean utopia rising from the scarred Gaza landscape.”In the Middle East they build cities like this, you know for two or three million people, they build this in three years,” Kushner said.”And so stuff like this is very doable if we make it happen.”He touted investments of at least $25 billion to rebuild destroyed infrastructure and public services.Within 10 years, the territory’s GDP would be $10 billion, and households would enjoy average income of $13,000 a year thanks to “100-percent full employment and opportunity for everybody there”, he said.”It could be a hope. It could be a destination, have a lot of industry and really be a place that the people there can thrive.”- ‘Amazing’ opportunities -Kushner said the so-called National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) had enlisted help from Israeli real estate developer Yakir Gabay.”He’s volunteered to do this not for profit, really because of his heart he wants to do this,” Kushner said.”So the next 100 days, we’re going to continue to just be heads down and focused on making sure this is implemented.”Trump had earlier in the conflict floated his vision of turning Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East”, sparking outrage around the world.Notably absent from Kushner’s presentation was Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose country had spearheaded in 2025 a reconstruction plan for Gaza supported by Arab nations and welcomed by the European Union.According to a brief statement from his office, Sisi flew home at dawn on Thursday, hours after he and Trump exchanged praise in a tete-a-tete, with the US president calling him “a great leader, a great guy”.Ali Shaath, Gaza’s recently appointed administrator under Trump’s “Board of Peace”, has said the Egyptian plan was the “foundation” of his committee’s reconstruction project.A top UN official warned this month that Gazans were living in “inhumane” conditions even as the US-backed truce entered its second phase.Entire neighbourhoods, hospitals and schools have been heavily damaged or destroyed, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to live in makeshift shelters.Kushner said 85 percent of Gaza’s economic output had been aid for a long time.”That’s not sustainable. It doesn’t give these people dignity. It doesn’t give them hope,” he said.He insisted that the full disarming of Hamas, as called for in the October ceasefire, would convince firms and donors to commit to the territory.”We’ll announce a lot of the contributions that will be made in a couple of weeks in Washington,” he said.”There’ll be amazing investment opportunities.”Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, and 251 people were taken hostage that day, including 44 who were dead.Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 71,562 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.The ministry also said 477 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Thursday warned Washington that the force had its “finger on the trigger” in the wake of mass protests, as US President Donald Trump said the Islamic republic still appeared interested in talks.Trump has repeatedly left open the option of new military action against Iran after Washington backed and joined Israel’s 12-day war in June aimed at degrading Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.A fortnight of protests starting in late December shook the clerical leadership under supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but the movement has petered out in the face of a crackdown that activists say has left thousands dead, accompanied by an unprecedented internet blackout.The prospect of immediate American action against Tehran appears to have receded over the last week, with both sides insisting on giving diplomacy a chance even as US media report Trump is still studying options.Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump said the US struck Iranian uranium enrichment sites last year to prevent Tehran from making a nuclear weapon. Iran denies its nuclear programme is aimed at seeking the bomb.”Can’t let that happen,” he said, adding: “And Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk.”In a standoff marked by seesawing rhetoric, Trump had on Tuesday warned Iran’s leaders the US would “wipe them off the face of this earth” if there was any attack on his life in response to a strike targeting Khamenei.- ‘Legitimate targets’ -Guards commander General Mohammad Pakpour warned Israel and the United States “to avoid any miscalculations, by learning from historical experiences and what they learned in the 12-day imposed war, so that they do not face a more painful and regrettable fate”.”The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and dear Iran have their finger on the trigger, more prepared than ever, ready to carry out the orders and measures of the supreme commander-in-chief — a leader dearer than their own lives,” he said, referring to Khamenei.His comments came in a written statement quoted by state television marking the national day in Iran to celebrate the Guards, a force whose mission is to protect the 1979 Islamic revolution from internal and external threats.Activists accuse the Guards of playing a frontline role in the deadly crackdown on protests. The group is sanctioned as a terrorist entity by countries including Australia, Canada and the United States, and campaigners have long urged similar moves from the EU and UK.Another senior military figure, General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi who leads the Iranian joint command headquarters, meanwhile warned that in the case of an attack by the United States, “all US interests, bases and centres of influence” would be “legitimate targets” for the Iranian armed forces.- ‘National kill-switch’ -Giving their first official toll from the protests, Iranian authorities on Wednesday said 3,117 people were killed.The statement from Iran’s foundation for martyrs and veterans sought to draw a distinction between “martyrs”, who it said were members of security forces or innocent bystanders, and what it described as “rioters” backed by the US.Of its toll of 3,117, it said 2,427 people were “martyrs”.However, rights groups say the heavy toll was caused by security forces firing directly on protesters and that the actual number of those killed could be far higher and even extend to over 20,000.Efforts to confirm the scale of the toll have been hampered by the national internet shutdown, with monitor Netblocks saying it was now two weeks since the authorities reached for the “national kill-switch”.”All the evidence gradually emerging from inside Iran shows that the real number of people killed in the protests is far higher than the official figure,” said the director of the Iran Human Rights NGO Mahmood Amriy-Moghaddam, saying the authorities’ toll has “no credibility whatsoever”.Warning that their own current tolls do not reflect the true number of fatalities, IHR says it has verified at least 3,428 killings while another NGO, US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), has documented 4,902 deaths.According to HRANA, at least 26,541 people have been arrested. On Thursday alone, state TV announced over 200 more arrests in provinces including Kermanshah in the west and Isfahan in central Iran.Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said “the future for the Iranian people can only be in a regime change”, adding that “the Ayatollah regime is in quite a fragile situation”.