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A US judge ordered Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday to preserve messages from a chat group used by top national security officials to discuss plans for an attack on Yemen’s Huthi rebels.The ruling adds to the pressure on the White House after the Atlantic magazine revealed that its editor had been accidentally added to the group on the commercially-available Signal app.Republican Trump has dismissed the scandal as a “witch-hunt” while attacking the Atlantic and its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who broke the story earlier this week.District Judge James Boasberg — who has already incurred Trump’s wrath after ruling against the administration in a separate migration case — said he would order the government to “preserve all Signal communication between March 11 and March 15.”He also ordered the government to file details by Monday showing the steps it had taken to preserve the messages.The dates cover the period between when National Security Advisor Mike Waltz set up the chat — and mistakenly added Goldberg — and the day of deadly US airstrikes on the Iran-backed Huthis.The Atlantic said that Waltz had set some of the Signal messages to disappear after one week, and others after four. “That raises questions about whether the officials may have violated federal records law,” Goldberg wrote.The magazine published the full chat on Wednesday, including sensational messages in which Hegseth revealed the timings of strikes hours before they happened and details of planes and missiles used.Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of an attack, writing that US forces had identified the target “walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”Trump has largely pinned the blame on Waltz — saying he had admitted he was “responsible” — while denying that any classified material was shared in the group.But he has also dismissed calls by Democrats for top officials to resign and insisted instead on what he called the success of the raids on the Yemeni rebels.- ‘Mistake’ -Trump had also launched a fresh attack on Boasberg the night before the latest ruling, saying it was “disgraceful” that he was dealing with the Signal case and calling the judge “highly conflicted.”The president earlier this month called for Boasberg to be impeached after the judge barring the administration’s use of an obscure wartime law to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.Pressure continues to mount on the White House over “Signalgate,” however.The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a bipartisan call on Thursday for a Pentagon watchdog to probe the claims in the Atlantic.”If true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information,” said a letter from Republican committee chair Roger Wicker and ranking Democrat Jack Reed.Democrats have claimed that the lives of US service members could have been put at risk by the breach, and the row has raised serious questions about potential intelligence risks.Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the prospect of a watchdog investigation “doesn’t bother me.”White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that “we have never denied that this was a mistake” and insisted that Waltz had taken “responsibility.”- ‘Successful mission’ -US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday that the breach was unlikely to face a criminal investigation.”It was sensitive information, not classified, and inadvertently released, and what we should be talking about is that it was a very successful mission,” Bondi told a news conference.Washington has vowed to use overwhelming force against the Huthis until they stop firing on vessels in the key shipping routes of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, with the rebels threatening to resume attacks in protest over the Gaza war.The Huthis said Thursday they had targeted an Israeli airport and army site as well as a US warship, soon after Israel reported intercepting missiles launched from Yemen.

Automakers were battered Thursday as stock markets fell on both sides of the Atlantic after US President Donald Trump announced significant tariffs on imported vehicles and parts, pressing ahead with tough trade policies many fear will spark a recession.On Wall Street, the Dow, the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the broad-based S&P 500 all slipped, with General …

Autos lead market losses after Trump unveils sharp tariffs Read More »

The 25 percent tariffs on automobiles announced by President Donald Trump are meant to revitalize American industry, but Detroit’s giants were stunned Thursday by their scale and faced a beating on Wall Street.While the implementation of the tariffs had been anticipated for weeks, their details surprised manufacturers and experts as the levies will not only …

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Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces vowed on Thursday there would be “no retreat and no surrender” after rival troops of the regular army retook nearly all of central Khartoum.From inside the recaptured presidential palace, Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at war with his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo since April 2023, had on Wednesday declared the capital “free” from the RSF.But in its first direct comment since the army retook what remains of the capital’s state institutions this week, the RSF said: “Our forces have not lost any battle, but have repositioned.”Our forces will continue to defend the homeland’s soil and secure a decisive victory. There will be no retreat or surrender,” it said.”We will deliver crushing defeats to the enemy on all fronts.”AFP could not independently confirm the RSF’s remaining positions in the capital. The war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million, according to UN figures.It has also split Africa’s third-largest country in two, with the army holding the north and east while the RSF controls parts of the south and nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur, which borders Chad.On Wednesday, the army cleared Khartoum airport of RSF fighters and encircled their last major stronghold in the Khartoum area, just south of the city centre.An army source told AFP that RSF fighters were fleeing across the Jebel Awliya bridge, their only way out of greater Khartoum.A successful withdrawal could link the RSF’s Jebel Awliya troops to its positions west of the city and then to its strongholds in Darfur hundreds of kilometres (miles) away.On Wednesday, hours after Burhan arrived in the presidential palace for the first time in two years, the RSF announced a “military alliance” with a rebel group, which controls much of South Kordofan state and parts of Blue Nile bordering Ethiopia.The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, had clashed with both sides, before signing a political charter with the RSF last month to establish a rival government.- ‘No desire’ to govern -Following a year and a half of defeats at the hands of the RSF, the army began pushing through central Sudan towards Khartoum late last year.Analysts have blamed the RSF’s losses on strategic blunders, internal divisions and dwindling supplies.Since the army recaptured the presidential palace on Friday, witnesses and activists have reported RSF fighters in retreat across the capital.The army’s gains have been met with celebrations in its wartime headquarters in the Red Sea coastal city of Port Sudan, where displaced Sudanese rejoiced at the prospect of finally returning to Khartoum.”God willing, we’re going home, we’ll finally celebrate Eid in our own homes,” Khartoum native Motaz Essam told AFP, ululations and fireworks echoing around him.Burhan, Sudan’s de facto leader since he ousted civilian politicians from power in a 2021 coup, said on Wednesday the army was looking to form a technocratic government and had “no desire to engage in political work”.”The armed forces are working to create the conditions for an elected civilian government,” Burhan said in a meeting with Germany’s envoy to the Horn of Africa, Heiko Nitzschke, according to a statement from Burhan’s office.The RSF has its origins in the Janjaweed militia unleashed by then strongman Omar al-Bashir more than two decades ago in Darfur.Like the army, the RSF has sought to position itself as the guardian of Sudan’s democratic uprising which ousted Bashir in 2019.The United States has imposed sanctions on both sides. It accused the army of attacks on civilians and said the RSF had “committed genocide”.Burhan and Daglo, in the fragile political transition that followed Bashir’s overthrow, forged an alliance which saw both rise to prominence. Then a bitter power struggle over the potential integration of the RSF into the regular army erupted into all-out war.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday warned “the fate of free societies” was linked to their fight against anti-Semitism, at a conference in Jerusalem, where the attendance of far-right European politicians has divided the international Jewish community. Guests at the symposium on combating anti-Semitism included the leader of France’s far right National Rally (RN), a party whose cofounder Jean-Marie Le Pen was known for his anti-Semitic comments.Also in attendance were a representative from Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, and Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, a Kremlin ally for whom Bosnia on Thursday issued an arrest warrant.Analysts say the invitation of parties that have themselves been accused of anti-Semitism demonstrates the willingness of Israel’s right to cultivate new relationships with unlikely supporters, amid pressure from traditional allies over the Gaza war.In a keynote speech, Netanyahu warned that “the fate of free societies is tied to their willingness to fight the scourge of anti-Semitism”.”Eighty years ago this deadly virus destroyed a third of the Jewish people,” he said.”Now this hatred has re-emerged… through radical Islamist carriers in Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza, and elsewhere.”These anti-Semites wish to destroy not only the Jewish state. They seek to destroy the forces of modernity in the Arab and Muslim world,” he added.Addressing the crowd earlier in the day was Jordan Bardella, the president of France’s RN, whose speech capped an unprecedented trip to Israel by a leader of the party.Bardella pledged France would fight anti-Semitism “in all its forms… whether it comes from fanatical Islamists, the far left disguised as anti-Zionists, or even far-right groups and their delusional plots”.He also spoke of a “link” between what he described as “the rise of Islamism, the upsurge of anti-Semitism, and the migratory phenomenon that is fracturing all Western societies.”Member of European Parliament (MEP) Kinga Gal, representing Hungary’s Fidesz party, echoed the comments linking immigration to Europe and anti-Semitism during a panel discussion.- ‘Black and White’ -Thursday’s conference focuses on fighting what rights groups have described as a rising tide of anti-Semitism around the world, a priority for Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history.The guest list for the symposium, organised by right-wing Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, also included Bardella’s fellow MEP Marion Marechal, who leads another far-right movement and is the niece of Marine Le Pen, daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen.Earlier in the week Dodik, president of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated statelet of Republika Srpska, said on X: “The Serbs and the Jews are peoples that others have sought to annihilate,” and that is “why we stand together.”He travelled abroad despite the Bosnian warrant accusing him of attacking the constitutional order. A state court said the matter was now in Interpol’s hands.”The current Israeli government sees the world in black and white,” said Denis Charbit, a political scientist at the Open University of Israel.Some in Israel feel the country is currently isolated, and needs “new friends”, even if it deems them distasteful, he added.Israeli media reported on guests who cancelled their appearances in protest of the far-right politicians’ presence, including Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy.Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and the UK government’s independent adviser on anti-Semitism, John Mann, have also withdrawn.Bardella on Wednesday visited sites where Hamas militants carried out their October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.Since Hamas’s attack, the RN has sought to present itself as a bulwark against anti-Semitism.The party was cofounded as the National Front by Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier this year, and who was charged and convicted in a French court for downplaying the Holocaust.His daughter, Marine Le Pen, has moved emphatically to distance the movement from her father’s legacy, renaming the party and seeking to make it more broadly electable.When asked about his party’s past during Wednesday’s visit, Bardella responded: “I don’t do politics in the rearview mirror.”crb-lba-acc-jd/it

Senior Republican and Democratic US senators issued a bipartisan call Thursday for a probe into a scandal over an accidentally leaked chat between top officials on Yemen air strikes that has engulfed Donald Trump’s White House.Republican Senator Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and ranking Democrat Jack Reed wrote to a Pentagon watchdog asking it to “conduct an inquiry” into the incident.The Atlantic magazine published the full chat — which Trump’s top security officials conducted on the commercially available app Signal rather than on a secure government platform — after its editor was mistakenly looped in.Republican Trump has dismissed the scandal as a “witch-hunt” and backed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, despite the fact that Hegseth used the app to discuss precise timings of the strikes shortly before they happened and aircraft types involved.The president told reporters on Wednesday that the prospect of a watchdog investigation “doesn’t bother me.”But Democrats have claimed that the lives of US service members could have been put at risk by the breach, and the row has raised serious questions about potential intelligence risks.In their letter, Wicker and Reed asked the Pentagon’s acting inspector general to look into the “facts and circumstances,” whether classified material was shared, and the security of communications.”If true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information,” they said of The Atlantic’s story about the chat.- ‘Mistake’ -Wicker said on Wednesday that the information shared in the chat “appears to me to be of such a sensitive nature that based on my knowledge, I would have wanted it classified.”But the White House has gone on the offensive, denying that any classified material was shared and attacking Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, who revealed that he had been erroneously added into the supposedly secret chat group.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that “we have never denied that this was a mistake” and insisted that National Security advisor Mike Waltz had taken “responsibility” for including Goldberg.US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday that the breach was unlikely to face a criminal investigation.”It was sensitive information, not classified, and inadvertently released, and what we should be talking about is that it was a very successful mission,” Bondi told a news conference.Trump and his top officials have repeatedly tried to turn the conversation towards the strikes themselves that began on March 15.Washington has vowed to use overwhelming force against the Huthis until they stop firing on vessels in the key shipping routes of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, with the rebels threatening to resume attacks in protest over the Gaza war.The Huthis said Thursday they targeted an Israeli airport and army site as well as a US warship, soon after Israel reported intercepting missiles launched from Yemen.

AFP photographer Yasin Akgul, who was arrested this week covering Turkey’s worst unrest in more than a decade, was freed Thursday from an Istanbul jail, AFP correspondents said, though his lawyer said the charges against him remain.Akgul was detained in a pre-dawn raid at his home Monday and remanded in custody by an Istanbul court a day later. He was charged with “taking part in illegal rallies and marches”, drawing outrage from rights groups and the Paris-based news agency.On Thursday, the court ordered that he and six other journalists be released from custody, the MLSA rights group said. Akgul’s lawyer told AFP he would be unconditionally released but said that the charges against him had “not been dropped” and that the investigation would continue.The 35-year-old father of two was released from Metris prison just before 1530 GMT, AFP correspondents at the scene said. The protests erupted on March 19 after the arrest and subsequent jailing of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival.Defying a protest ban, vast crowds have hit the streets daily, with the nightly rallies often descending into running battles with riot police, whose crackdowns have drawn international condemnation.- ‘Only doing my job’ -“As a photojournalist for an international news agency, my arrest in a dawn raid in front of my family and children was completely illegal. I was only doing my job,” Akgul said while leaving prison. “Over these past four days, all I thought about was my family and getting back to do my job again. This arrest was aimed at preventing us from taking photos in the field.”Agence France-Presse chief executive and chairman Fabrice Fries had denounced his imprisonment as “unacceptable”.Akgul, he said, was “not part of the protest” but only covering it as a journalist, demanding his immediate release. Eleven Turkish journalists were detained early Monday, and Akgul was one of seven who were charged and remanded in custody.He was the last of them to be released. All the others were freed earlier in the day bar one on Wednesday, the Turkish Union of Journalists said. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders hailed the court’s decision to release him. “Yasin Akgul’s release is welcome and constitutes redress for a monumental injustice,” RSF’s Erol Onderoglu told AFP, saying the journalists had been subjected to “grossly unjust treatment”.The arrests sparked international condemnation including from the United Nations. RSF had earlier described the arrests as “scandalous”, while the Turkish Photojournalists Union denounced it as “unlawful, unconscionable and unacceptable”.Turkey ranks 158 out of 180 countries in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).