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US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the formation of a Gaza “board of peace,” a key phase two element of a US-backed plan to end the war in the Palestinian territory.”It is my Great Honor to announce that THE BOARD OF PEACE has been formed,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, adding that the members of the body will be announced “shortly.””I can say with certainty that it is the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place,” Trump said.The board’s creation comes shortly after the announcement of a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee, charged with managing the day-to-day governance of post-war Gaza.The committee will work under the supervision of the board of peace, which Trump said Thursday he will lead as its chair.The plan also calls for the deployment of an International Stabilisation Force to help secure Gaza and train vetted Palestinian police units.”The ball is now in the court of the mediators, the American guarantor and the international community to empower the committee,” Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas leader, said in a statement on Thursday.The US-backed Gaza peace plan first came into force on October 10, facilitating the return of all the hostages held by Hamas and an end to the fighting between the Palestinian militant group and Israel in the besieged territory.The plan’s second phase is now underway, though clouded by ongoing allegations of aid shortages and violence. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has said Israeli forces have killed 451 people since the ceasefire ostensibly took effect.For Palestinians, the central issue remains Israel’s full military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip — a step included in the plan’s framework but for which no detailed timetable has been announced.Hamas, meanwhile, has refused to publicly commit to a full disarmament, a non-negotiable demand from Israel.In a Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Washington expects Hamas to “comply fully with its obligations.” Hamas is preparing to hold internal elections to rebuild its leadership, which has been decimated by Israeli killings during the war in Gaza. That vote is expected “in the first months of 2026,” a Hamas leader told AFP Monday.Trump shared Witkoff’s post Thursday, adding “These Palestinian leaders are unwaveringly committed to a PEACEFUL future!” in reference to the transitional government he selects.”With the support of Egypt, Turkey and Qatar, we will secure a COMPREHENSIVE Demilitarization Agreement with Hamas, including the surrender of ALL weapons, and the dismantling of EVERY tunnel,” Trump said.

On a sunny January morning in Florida, Donald Trump went shopping for marble and onyx for his new White House ballroom. A few hours later, he was bombing Venezuela.It was just one day in an extraordinary year since his return to office, but it summed up how Trump has reshaped the US presidency through the sheer force of his own personality.And as he enters his second year back in the White House, Trump is increasingly acting as if there are no checks on his power — either at home or abroad.”He has really personalized the presidency,” Noah Rosenblum, professor of law at New York University, told AFP.If the former reality TV star’s first term dominated news cycles because of its chaos, Trump’s second has done so because of a single-minded determination to stamp his mark on the world’s most powerful job.He began with a freewheeling Oval Office appearance on January 20, 2025, during which he pardoned hundreds of pro-Trump rioters who attacked the US Capitol four years earlier.The Republican leader has kept up the pace ever since. An unprecedented blitz of executive orders, outrageous pronouncements and directives for the persecution of his political opponents came in the following days and months.Trump has shaken the foundations of American democracy as the country prepares to mark its 250th anniversary, caused global turmoil with his tariffs and upended the global order.”There is one thing. My own morality,” Trump, who is the first convicted felon to be elected president, told The New York Times when asked if there were limits on his power.At times Trump has also cultivated what looks like a cult of personality, revamping the White House and building a $400 million ballroom, and adding his name to the famed Kennedy Center for the performing arts.And 2026 dawned with an unapologetic Trump Unbound: ordering the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, threatening Greenland and sending immigration agents on a deadly operation into Minnesota.Rosenbaum said the past year had “revealed that the old system had less legitimacy and was more fragile than I had understood, than was widely understood.” – ‘Expect trouble’ -Trump has begun 2026 with a bang. Yet it could also finally show the limits of a presidency that revolves around the whims of one man who will turn 80 years old in June.The biggest inflection point could come in November’s midterm elections. While these votes for the control of Congress are always effectively a referendum on sitting presidents, this year’s will more than ever be a verdict on Trump himself.His approval numbers remain low, with the White House battling to show that his economic plans are working despite voter anger over affordability.If Republicans take a hammering, there are questions about whether Trump could seek to overturn the results, like he tried when Democrat Joe Biden beat him to the presidency in 2020.”I expect trouble,” William Galston of the Brookings Institution told AFP.”He is more actively involved in the management of the midterms than any president I’ve seen.”Galston said however that Trump was unlikely to be able to mount any meaningful challenge if Republicans lose control of the House, which would leave him a lame duck president for the remaining two years of his term.Trump faces challenges on other fronts too. The Supreme Court could clip Trump’s wings on tariffs, while his bypassing of Congress by the use of executive orders could also backfire, said Galston. “The problem with governing by fiat is that what you weave by day, your successor can unravel by night, which leads to far fewer permanent achievements,” Galston said.With Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, Ukraine and Gaza on Trump’s agenda in 2026, the self-professed “America First” president also appears preoccupied by foreign policy.”That’s a problem politically because a lot of the people who voted for him didn’t vote for that, they voted for them to focus on the economy. He’s paid a significant price for that,” added Galston.

The United States said Thursday that it has signed a deal with Taiwan to reduce tariffs on goods from the democratic island, while increasing Taiwanese semiconductor and tech companies’ investments in America.The agreement, the US Commerce Department said, “will drive a massive reshoring of America’s semiconductor sector.”Under the deal, Washington will lower tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15 percent, down from a 20 percent “reciprocal” rate meant to address US trade deficits and practices it deems unfair.Sector-specific tariffs on Taiwanese auto parts, timber, lumber and wood products will also be capped at 15 percent, while generic pharmaceuticals and certain natural resources will face no “reciprocal” duties, the Commerce Department added.Meanwhile, Taiwanese chip and tech businesses are set to make “new, direct investments totaling at least $250 billion” in the United States to build and expand capacity in areas like advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence.Taiwan will also provide “credit guarantees of at least $250 billion to facilitate additional investment by Taiwanese enterprises,” to support the growth of the US semiconductor supply chain, the department said.Taiwan’s government said the new tariff will not stack on top of existing duties, which had been a major concern for local industries.The department’s announcement did not mention names, but the deal has key implications for Taiwanese chipmaking titan TSMC, the world’s biggest contract maker of microchips used in everything from Apple phones to Nvidia’s cutting-edge AI hardware.In an interview with CNBC, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said TSMC has bought land and could expand in Arizona as part of the deal.”They just bought hundreds of acres adjacent to their property. Now I’m going to let them go through it with their board and give them time,” he said.Taiwanese producers who invest in the United States will also be treated more favorably when it comes to future semiconductor duties, the Commerce Department said.Firms building new US chip capacity may import up to 2.5 times their planned capacity without paying sector-specific duties during construction. The quota lowers to 1.5 times once projects are completed.A day prior, US officials held off imposing wider chip tariffs, instead announcing a 25 percent duty on certain semiconductors meant to be shipped abroad — a key step in allowing Nvidia to sell advanced AI chips to China.Ryan Majerus, a former US trade official, told AFP that although chip tariffs are currently narrowly targeted, Washington “signaled there is certainly potential for it to grow.”Majerus, now a partner at law firm King & Spalding, added that the deal had parallels to those with other US partners. The European Union and Japan, for example, both also secured a 15-percent tariff rate.- ‘Self-sufficient’ -“The objective is to bring 40 percent of Taiwan’s entire supply chain and production, to domestically bring it into America,” Lutnick told CNBC.”We’re going to bring it all over, so we become self-sufficient in the capacity of building semiconductors,” he added.The agreement comes after months of negotiations.Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te had pledged to boost investments in the United States and increase defense spending as his government tried to lower US duties, and avoid a toll on its semiconductor chip exports.Taiwan is a powerhouse in the manufacturing of semiconductor chips, which are the lifeblood of the global economy, as well as other electronics.But US President Donald Trump previously accused Taiwan of stealing the US chip industry, and his administration had made clear it wants more of the critical technology made on American soil.Taiwan’s trade surplus in goods with the United States was around $74 billion in 2024. More than half of its exports to the United States are information and communications technology products — including semiconductors.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Thursday she “presented” her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Donald Trump, in a bid to win over the US president who had sidelined her since overthrowing Nicolas Maduro.Her extraordinary gesture comes after Trump had said the award should have gone to him instead — and after he refused to back Machado following the January 3 US military operation to capture Maduro.Trump has instead backed Maduro’s vice president Delcy Rodriguez, so long as she toes Washington’s line, particularly on access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.”I presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters outside the US capitol, where she met with lawmakers after having lunch with Trump at the White House.Machado, 58, said it was “recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”It was not immediately clear if Trump actually kept the award following the closed-door meeting.The Norwegian Nobel committee says its prizes cannot be transferred.- ‘Not afraid’ – Trump had campaigned hard to win last year’s Nobel Peace Prize for what he says are his efforts to stop eight wars.Instead it went to Machado, who appeared in Oslo last month to collect her prize — following a daring escape from Venezuela by boat — and then dedicated it to Trump.Venezuela’s opposition has argued and presented evidence that Maduro stole the 2024 election from the candidate of Machado’s party, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia — claims supported by Washington.But Trump has said that Machado does not have enough support among Venezuelans, and opted to stick with former Maduro loyalist Rodriguez.Trump and Rodriguez had their first telephone call on Wednesday and the White House said Thursday he “likes what he’s seeing” with Venezuela’s interim leaders.Rodriguez said however that Thursday her government was “not afraid” of a diplomatic clash with Washington.”We know they are very powerful. We know they are a lethal nuclear power… We are not afraid to confront them diplomatically, through political dialogue,” said Rodriguez.Rodriguez was delivering Maduro’s state of the nation address to parliament while the toppled Venezuelan leader is in a New York jail facing drug trafficking charges.By contrast Machado, who campaigned for years to end leftist Maduro’s rule, was greeted by jubilant supporters as she left the White House.And her meeting with Trump was an opportunity for her to bring the the issue of a democratic transition back into the foreground.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said as the lunch started that Machado was a “remarkable and brave voice for many of the people of Venezuela.”But while Leavitt said Trump was “committed to hopefully seeing elections in Venezuela one day,” she would not give a timeline.- Sixth tanker seizure -Since Maduro’s capture, Trump has said the United States will “run” Venezuela — exerting pressure through a naval blockade and threats of further attacks — but has appeared content to let Rodriguez remain in power so long as oil keeps flowing.US forces on Thursday seized a sixth oil tanker in its campaign to control the South American country’s critical fossil fuel sector.Separately, the first US-brokered sale of Venezuelan oil, worth around $500 million, has been finalized, a US official told AFP on Thursday without identifying the buyer.Rodriguez in her speech also announced plans for legal reforms to Venezuela’s oil sector — which currently limit the involvement of foreign entities — but did not give specific details.Washington has also hailed the release of dozens of political prisoners in the past week, though hundreds remain behind bars.Meanwhile the shockwaves from the lightning US raid that toppled Maduro continue to reverberate.Cuba paid tribute on Thursday to 32 soldiers killed in the operation, some of whom had been assigned to Maduro’s protection team, in a ceremony attended by revolutionary leader Raul Castro.burs-dk/des

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Thursday she “presented” her Nobel Peace Prize medal to US President Donald Trump, who has openly coveted the award that the Nobel committee says cannot be transferred.”I presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters outside the US Capitol following her White House meeting with Trump.Machado, whom Trump had earlier dismissed as unfit to lead Venezuela, did not clarify if Trump kept it.She drew a comparison to the Marquis de Lafayette, the French officer who helped the United States in the Revolutionary War against Britain, saying he handed a medal with the image of first US president George Washington to Simon Bolivar, the Venezuelan who led a wave of successful independence fights against Spain.”Two hundred years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal — in this case, the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom,” she said.The Norwegian Nobel Committee earlier wrote in a statement on X that the prestigious prize “cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others” and that the name of the winner “stands for all time” even if the medal physically changes hands.Trump — who has relished military action and on Thursday was threatening greater force against protesters in the US state of Minnesota — has loudly said he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize and was dismissive of Machado when she won it.Trump on January 3 ordered a deadly military raid into oil-rich Venezuela that removed Nicolas Maduro, the leftist president long described as illegitimate by the United States and several other countries due to elections riddled with reported irregularities.But after the operation, Trump said that Machado — whose opposition forces were considered by Washington to have won the last election — does not command the “respect” to lead Venezuela.Machado offered a positive account of their closed-door conversation, saying, “We are counting on President Trump for freedom in Venezuela.””President Trump knows the situation in Venezuela; he cares about how the people of Venezuela are suffering,” she said.She said she told him that Venezuelans “want to live with freedom, with dignity, with justice, we want our children back home, and for that to happen, there has to be democracy in Venezuela.”Trump has previously vowed to work not with Machado but with Maduro’s vice president turned interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, by threatening her with force if she does not comply on key US demands starting with benefitting US oil firms.

Venezuela’s interim president on Thursday announced pending legal reforms to the country’s critical fossil fuel sector, as she seeks to recalibrate ties with Washington following the US military ouster of her predecessor, Nicolas Maduro.Since the January 3 capture of Maduro, US President Donald Trump has asserted that the United States essentially controls Venezuela, while making clear that accessing its vast oil reserves is a key goal of the intervention.Sanctioned by Washington since 2019, Venezuela sits on about a fifth of the world’s oil reserves and was once a major crude supplier to the United States.But it produced only around one percent of the world’s total crude output in 2024, according to OPEC, having been hampered by years of underinvestment, sanctions and embargoes.Without providing details, interim president Delcy Rodriguez told parliament Thursday there would be reforms to Venezuela’s Hydrocarbons Law, which limits the involvement of foreign entities in exploiting the nationalized resources.The changes would also touch on so-called anti-blockade provisions which give the government tools to counteract US sanctions in place since 2019.Trump has recently pressed top oil executives to invest in Venezuela.Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips exited in 2007 after refusing demands by then-president Hugo Chavez to cede majority control to the state. They have been fighting to recoup billions of dollars they say Venezuela owes them.Chevron is the only US firm operating in Venezuela, under a special sanctions exemption license.The US Department of Energy has unveiled a plan to develop Venezuela’s oil industry and has begun marketing Venezuelan crude.US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said Washington will control the sales of Venezuelan oil “indefinitely.”Rodriguez said the envisioned legal reform would result in money for “new fields, to fields where there has never been investment, and to fields where there is no infrastructure.”The South American country produced over one million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 2025 — up from a historic low of about 360,000 — but still far from the three million bpd it was pumping 25 years ago.Oil exports are Venezuela’s main source of revenue.

A US judge on Thursday authorized work to resume on a New York offshore wind project that had been suspended under an order by President Donald Trump’s administration.US District Judge Carl Nichols granted a preliminary injunction to the Norwegian company Equinor for its Empire Wind project, just three days after a different judge ordered the restart of a project by Denmark’s Orsted.Trump’s Interior Department in late December suspended all large offshore wind projects in the United States, affecting five projects.Empire Wind had requested the court’s intervention on an emergency basis, arguing in a January 6 filing that it needed to resume construction by January 16.Without restarting by that time, “the project faces likely termination due to disruption of a tightly choreographed construction schedule dependent on vessels with constrained availability, delay costs, and the existential threat to the project financing,” said the filing.The venture’s legal brief described the suspension order as “arbitrary and capricious.”Nichols granted the motion after a telephone hearing Thursday with the parties. He did not rule on Equinor’s underlying challenge to the Trump administration’s action.The project, expected to be fully operational by the end of 2027, could provide enough energy to power 500,000 homes.Equinor has already invested more than $4 billion in the venture, which is about 60 percent complete, the company said.Empire Wind “will now focus on safely restarting construction activities that were halted during the suspension period,” the company said.”In addition, the project will continue to engage with the US government to ensure the safe, secure and responsible execution of its operations.”The underlying lawsuit “will continue to proceed,” it added. The US Department of Interior did not respond to a request for comment.- ‘Ugly monsters’ -The Interior Department on December 22 said it had paused leases for Empire Wind and four other offshore wind projects under construction, citing “national security.”A press release pointed to “radar interference” due to “the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers.”The US Department of Energy says wind turbines “can interfere with radar systems if they are located within the line sight of these systems,” according to its website.”In most cases, however, thoughtful wind farm site selection, planning, and other mitigations have resolved conflicts and allow wind power projects to coexist effectively with radar missions,” the agency adds.Trump has long complained that windmills ruin views and are expensive. During a trip last summer to one of his UK golf courses, the US president urged Britain to stop subsidizing the “ugly monsters.”The order on Empire Wind comes after US District Judge Royce Lamberth on Monday cleared another project, Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island, to resume construction.Orsted has a 50-percent stake in the project alongside a renewables infrastructure developer that is part of the BlackRock investment group.In a one-page order, Lamberth wrote that Revolution Wind was likely to succeed in underlying litigation, faced “irreparable harm” without an injunction, and the venture’s request was “in the public interest.”Other projects affected by the Interior Department December action are Sunrise Wind, also in New York state and the CVOW project in Virginia.  The fifth project, Vineyard Wind, has filed a challenge to the Trump action in federal court in Massachusetts.

Twenty-six people have been charged with fixing US college and Chinese professional basketball games in an alleged transnational criminal conspiracy, federal prosecutors said Thursday.The indictment, filed in Philadelphia, includes bribery charges, and relates to nearly 30 games in which conspirators allegedly placed huge bets on the scores of contests after paying players to underperform.”We allege an extensive international criminal conspiracy of… players, alumni and professional bettors who fixed games across the country and poisoned the American spirit of competition for monetary gain,” said federal prosecutor David Metcalf.”This was a massive scheme. It enveloped the world of college basketball,” he told a press conference.It is the latest scandal to rock the world of US sports, after two sprawling federal investigations resulted in the arrest of an NBA coach and player in October.The indictment unveiled Thursday says an illegal sports gambling network originated in China in or about September 2022.Former NBA Chicago Bulls player Antonio Blakeney — who is named but not charged in the latest indictment — is alleged to have been recruited by conspirators to influence the outcomes of games in the Chinese Basketball Association league, where he was playing for the Jiangsu Dragons.A package containing nearly $200,000 in cash was allegedly left in Blakeney’s storage unit in Florida at the end of the CBA 2022-23 season.”Because it proved profitable, they decided to take their operation Stateside to the world of NCAA Division I men’s basketball,” said Metcalf, referring to the hugely popular US college league.Defendants allegedly then offered more than 39 US college players bribes of up to $30,000 per game, and made wagers totaling millions of dollars.More than a dozen of the defendants have played college basketball within the past three years.Former NBA player Blakeney is “charged elsewhere,” according to the indictment.If convicted on the bribery charges, defendants could face up to five years in prison.Sports wagering in most US states was illegal until 2018, but leagues have since rushed to get in on the multi-billion dollar bonanza of legalized betting.The NBA last year said it is reviewing league policies to ensure players know gambling’s “dire risks”.

Several valuable Pokemon cards were stolen in a gunpoint robbery at a New York store, US police said Thursday, with about $100,000 worth of merchandise reportedly taken. Images shared by the shop show a hooded man dressed in all black pointing what appears to be a pistol at someone sitting with their hands up. US media said some of the individual cards taken were worth as much as $5,500. Pokemon cards bearing “little monsters” attract children as well as adult superfans and collectors, with billions printed and some selling for millions of dollars.Earlier this month, around $300,000 worth of Pokemon cards were stolen in another armed robbery in California. New York police said they received reports late Wednesday that three men had entered The Poke Court shop in Manhattan and “displayed a firearm and made threats to individuals.””They then removed multiple merchandise and cash and a phone,” a spokesman said.No arrests have been made.Courtney Chin, owner of The Poke Court, said in a video posted on Instagram that all customers and staff were safe. She spoke in front of display cases that had been smashed.The store listed several cards as stolen, each stored in protective plastic cases called “slabs” that verify their authenticity. The stolen cards include those of famous Pokemon characters like Pikachu, the large yellow mouse with a lightning bolt-shaped tail. Several people were in the Manhattan store to attend a community event when the robbery unfolded. “This hobby should be a safe and welcoming place and while cardboard can be replaced, no one should ever have to go through this,” the shop wrote on Instagram.Characters from Pokemon games have been spun off into films, animated series and a plethora of merchandise.The franchise racked up $12 billion in licensing revenue in 2024, according to specialist publication License Global — more than toy giant Mattel.

Global outrage persisted Thursday over sexualized deepfakes created by Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok, even after his social media platform X said it was blocking the chatbot from undressing images in certain locations.The Philippines became the third country to ban Grok, following Southeast Asian neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia, while Britain and France said they would maintain pressure after the chatbot cranked out a flood of lewd photos of women and children.X announced Wednesday that it would “geoblock the ability” of all Grok and X users to create images of people in “bikinis, underwear, and similar attire” in jurisdictions where such actions are illegal.It was not immediately clear where the tool would be restricted.The announcement came after California’s attorney general launched an investigation into xAI — the developer of Grok — over the sexually explicit material and several countries opened their own probes.Following an initial uproar last week, Grok said it would restrict image generation and editing to paying subscribers, prompting outraged critics to accuse Musk’s company of monetizing the problem rather than solving it.Bowing to global pressure, X on Wednesday said it would restrict “all users,” including paying subscribers, from using the Grok account to edit images of people in “revealing clothes such as bikinis.”But just hours later, the Philippines announced the country’s block could be effective by the end of Thursday.Cybercrime chief Renato Paraiso said that X’s announcement would have no effect on the government’s plans, adding that authorities will monitor whether the platform follows through on its promises.”We need to clean the internet now because much toxic content is appearing, especially with the advent of AI,” said Philippine telecommunications secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda.Meanwhile, Malaysia on Thursday said its regulators found that X’s measures to prevent Grok from generating revealing images were “not done in totality.”If X can successfully deactivate and prevent the generation of such content, Malaysia will lift the temporary restriction on Grok, communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said.- ‘Zero tolerance’ -British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — a favourite target of Musk’s political posts — welcomed that X was acting to ensure “full compliance with UK law,” but insisted that it “must happen immediately.””If we need to strengthen existing laws further, we are prepare to do that,” Starmer wrote on X.Pressure has been building on xAI to rein in Grok after its so-called “Spicy Mode” feature allowed users to create sexualized deepfakes using simple text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.”The European Commission, which acts as the EU’s digital watchdog, has said it will “carefully assess” measures taken by X to ensure “they effectively protect citizens.””France and Europe taking action… is producing results,” Paris’s digital minister Anne Le Henanff told AFP on Thursday, warning that “no platform is above the law.”California Governor Gavin Newsom said that xAI’s “vile” decision to allow sexually explicit deepfakes to proliferate prompted him to urge the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, to hold the company accountable.”We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material,” Bonta said on Wednesday.He added that the California investigation would determine whether xAI violated state law after the explicit imagery was “used to harass people across the internet.”Further adding pressure on xAI, a coalition of 28 civil society groups submitted open letters to the CEOs of Apple and Google on Wednesday, urging them to ban Grok and X from their app stores amid the surge in sexualized images.burs-ac/arp