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US President Donald Trump thanked Iran’s leadership on Friday after saying Tehran had called off the executions of hundreds of protesters arrested in a brutal crackdown.”I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.Trump repeatedly threatened military action against Iran over the past two weeks to help protesters, where rights groups say Iranian forces have killed thousands of people.But he is now holding off on intervening after saying on Wednesday that he had been told the killings had stopped.Trump also dismissed comments by Gulf officials on Thursday that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman led efforts to talk him out of an attack, and said that it was Iran’s actions that swayed him.”Nobody convinced me — I convinced myself,” Trump told reporters later Friday as he left the White House to head to Florida for the weekend.”They didn’t hang anyone. They cancelled the hangings. That had a big impact.”

A top UK police chief who oversaw a decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans from a Birmingham match stepped down by retiring on Friday after growing calls for him to go.West Midlands Police and its chief constable Craig Guildford have been under mounting pressure about how they came to the decision to bar the fans from the November 6 UEFA Europa League match with Aston Villa.The move sparked political outrage in Britain, including from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and in Israel, with Israeli leaders denouncing it as “antisemitic”.”The Chief Constable, Craig Guildford, has today retired from West Midlands Police with immediate effect,” the regional force’s crime commissioner Simon Foster told reporters.He said the row had become a “significant distraction” to West Midlands Police, which includes Birmingham, the UK’s second-biggest city.”It was important this matter was resolved in a balanced, calm, fair, measured and respectful manner,” Foster added.Britain’s interior minister, Shabana Mahmood, on Wednesday said she had lost confidence in Guildford, after a preliminary policing watchdog report found the force “overstated” the threat posed by Maccabi fans to justify the ban.”The chief constable of West Midlands Police no longer has my confidence,” Mahmood, who is also a local Birmingham MP, told parliament.Birmingham’s population is 30 percent Muslim, according to the last census in 2021, and has seen several protests in support of Palestinians since the 2023 start of the war in Gaza, including on the night of the match.The publication of the independent police watchdog’s report came after months of scrutiny of the police force over the ban.The report, led by police chief inspector Andy Cooke, accused the force of “confirmation bias”. “Rather than follow the evidence, the force sought only the evidence to support their desired position to ban the fans,” said Mahmood.Cooke’s review “shows that the police overstated the threat posed by the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, while understating the risk that was posed to the Israeli fans if they travelled to the area,” Mahmood said.- ‘Inaccuracies’ -In a statement, West Midlands Police said on Wednesday: “We are extremely sorry for the impact these have had on individuals and their communities.””We know that mistakes were made, but reiterate the findings that none of this was done with an intent of deliberate distortion or discrimination.”Maccabi fans were blocked from travelling to the match by the local Safety Advisory Group (SAG), which cited safety concerns based on advice from the police force.West Midlands Police had classified the match as “high risk”, but the police watchdog found eight “inaccuracies” in their advice to the SAG, including a reference to a non-existent game between Tel Aviv and West Ham, which was an “AI hallucination”.Guildford apologised to MPs for providing erroneous evidence when he was questioned by them earlier this month.He had previously told MPs the error was the result of a Google search and denied the force had used artificial intelligence.But in a letter to MPs on Wednesday, Guildford admitted the erroneous information was due to the use of Microsoft Copilot, an AI chatbot.The watchdog’s report said other inaccuracies included West Midlands Police “greatly” exaggerating the problems in Amsterdam in November 2024 after Maccabi fans clashed with locals there, the review said.

A bipartisan US Congress delegation began a visit to Copenhagen on Friday to voice support for Denmark and Greenland after US President Donald Trump threatened to take over the Arctic island, an autonomous Danish territory.The two-day visit comes alongside a European show of support in the form of a military reconnaissance mission to Greenland.The 11 congressmen and women were to hold talks with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart Jens-Frederik Nielsen.The group arrived at the Danish employers’ association Dansk Industri around midday for discussions with business leaders.They were due later to meet members of the Danish parliament, over which the Greenlandic flag was raised on Friday in a show of unity.”We are showing bipartisan solidarity with the people of this country and with Greenland. They’ve been our friends and allies for decades,” Democratic Senator Dick Durbin told reporters.”We want them to know we appreciate that very much. And the statements being made by the president do not reflect what the American people feel,” he added of Trump.An AFP reporter in Copenhagen saw a large black van leave Frederiksen’s office shortly before noon (1100 GMT) on Friday but her office declined to confirm whether the meeting had taken place.The delegation’s visit follows a meeting in Washington on Wednesday at which Danish representatives said Copenhagen and Washington were in “fundamental disagreement” over the future of Greenland.In Greenland’s capital Nuuk, residents welcomed the show of support.”(US) Congress would never approve of a military action in Greenland. It’s just one idiot speaking,” a 39-year-old union representative told AFP.”If he does it, he’ll get impeached or kicked out. If people in Congress want to save their own democracy, they have to step up,” said the union rep, speaking on condition of anonymity.- Demonstrations -Trump claims the United States needs mineral-rich Greenland and has criticised Denmark for, he says, not doing enough to ensure its security.The US president has pursued that argument, despite strategically located Greenland — as part of Denmark — being covered by NATO’s security umbrella.Military personnel were more visible in Nuuk on Friday, according to an AFP journalist, days after Denmark said it was beefing up its defence on the island. “I don’t think troops in Europe impact the president’s decision-making process, nor does it impact his goal of the acquisition of Greenland at all,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a briefing.Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen retorted that a US acquisition of Greenland was “out of the question”.The European troop deployment in Greenland for a military exercise is aimed at “sending a signal” to “everyone”, including the United States, that European countries are determined to “defend (their) sovereignty”, French armed forces minister Alice Rufo said.Britain, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have announced the deployment of small numbers of military personnel to prepare for future exercises in the Arctic. “A first team of French service members is already on site and will be reinforced in the coming days with land, air and maritime assets,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday.Large demonstrations are planned across Denmark and Greenland on Saturday to protest against Trump’s territorial ambitions.Thousands of people have taken to social networks to say they intend to take part in the protests organised by Greenlandic associations in Nuuk and Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense.In addition to Durbin, the US delegation included Democratic senators Chris Coons, Jeanne Shaheen and Peter Welch, as well as Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis.Democrats from the House of Representatives in the delegation are Madeleine Dean, Steny Hoyer, Sara Jacobs, Sarah McBride and Gregory Meeks.

South Africa’s defence minister has ordered an inquiry into reports of Iran’s participation in navy exercises, apparently against the instructions of the president, the ministry said Friday.The probe comes after the United States sharply criticised the past week’s drills, which brought vessels from China, Iran, Russia and the United Arab Emirates to waters off Cape Town.Local media reported President Cyril Ramaphosa had instructed the defence minister to withdraw the three Iranian warships from the drills, which came amid the Iranian government’s deadly crackdown on protesters.It was unclear to what extent Iran took part, but images emerged of at least one Iranian vessel at sea.A defence ministry statement on social media on Tuesday listed an Iranian corvette as among the participants, but the post was later removed.Defence Minister Angie Motshekga had “clearly communicated” the president’s instruction, the defence ministry said in a statement that did not make clear the president’s order, which was also not confirmed by his office.A board of inquiry would investigate “whether the instruction of the president may have been misrepresented and/or ignored”, it said.The defence force said the China-led exercises of nations in the BRICS alliance were to “ensure the safety of shipping lanes and maritime economic activities”.The US embassy on Thursday criticised Iran’s presence as “particularly unconscionable” given the protest crackdown, which independent monitors say left thousands dead.The exercises involved nations with major diplomatic differences with the United States, at a time when Pretoria is seeking to improve its battered ties with Washington.US President Donald Trump’s administration has accused South Africa of anti-American policies and boycotted a G20 summit it hosted in November, also imposing 30-percent trade tariffs.In August, Ramaphosa’s office rebuked the defence force for allowing the country’s top general to visit Iran, where he reportedly called for cooperation in defence matters.The visit was unhelpful as South Africa managed “a very delicate exercise of resetting diplomatic relations with the United States”, a spokesman said.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will hold talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin Tuesday as Germany seeks to step up deportations of Syrians, despite unease about continued instability in their homeland.On his first visit to Germany since ousting Syria’s longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, Sharaa is also set to meet President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The former Islamist rebel chief has made frequent overseas trips as he undergoes a rapid reinvention, including to the United States and France, and a series of international sanctions on Syria have been lifted. The focus of next week’s visit for the German government will be on stepping up repatriations of Syrians, a priority for Merz’s conservative-led coalition since Assad was toppled. Roughly one million Syrians fled to Germany in recent years, many of them arriving in 2015-16 to escape the civil war.A German government spokesman said Berlin had an “interest in deepening and finding a new start with the new Syrian government”. Among topics on the agenda will be “the return of Syrians to their home country,” he confirmed.Merz, who fears being outflanked by the far-right AfD party on immigration, has previously insisted that there is “no longer any reason” for Syrians who fled the war to seek asylum in Germany.In December, Germany carried out its first deportation of a Syrian since the civil war erupted in 2011, flying a man convicted of crimes to Damascus.But rights groups have criticised such efforts, citing continued instability in Syria and evidence of rights abuses.- ‘Dramatic situation’ -Violence between the government and minority groups has repeatedly flared in multi-confessional Syria since Sharaa came to power, including recent clashes between the army and Kurdish forces. Several NGOs, including those representing the Kurdish and Alawite Syrian communities in Germany, have urged Berlin to axe Sharaa’s planned visit, labelling it “totally unacceptable”. “The situation in Syria is dramatic. Civilians are being persecuted solely on the basis of their ethnic or religious affiliation,” they said in a joint statement.”It is incomprehensible to us and legally and morally unacceptable that the German government knowingly intends to receive a person suspected of being responsible for these acts at the chancellery.”The Kurdish Community of Germany, among the signatories of that statement, also filed a complaint with German prosecutors in November, accusing Sharaa of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.But the German foreign ministry insisted treatment of minorities in Syria was “very important” for Berlin.”I would like to reject the suggestion that we are not addressing this issue,” a ministry spokesman told a press conference in Berlin. “It is one of the central topics we are discussing with the Syrian government.”Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who has been among those voicing caution with regard to deportations, will also meet his Syrian counterpart in Berlin next week. On a trip to Damascus in October, Wadephul said that the potential for Syrians to return was “very limited” since the war had destroyed much of Syria’s infrastructure — triggering a backlash in his own centre-right party.Armin Laschet, a former chancellor candidate for Merz’s CDU party, told AFP in an interview that Sharaa should “clearly hear Europe’s expectations” on the protection of minorities during the visit. But Laschet, currently an MP and chairman of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, supported the decision to host Sharaa at the chancellery.”Dialogue is necessary, especially against the backdrop of recent fighting,” he said. “Sharaa faces an extraordinarily demanding task.”