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With US President Donald Trump skipping the UN’s climate summit in the Amazon, California Governor Gavin Newsom grabbed the spotlight on Tuesday and took a swipe at the fossil fuel agenda of his political nemesis.The well-coiffed Democrat — seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate — slammed Trump for leaving the Paris climate accord and for “doubling down on stupid” through his pro-oil stance.Newsom said a Democratic administration would rejoin the Paris Agreement “without hesitation.””It’s a moral commitment, it’s an economic imperative, it’s both — and it’s an abomination that he has twice, not once, pulled away from the accords,” Newsom said in response to a question by AFP in Belem, the Brazilian Amazon city hosting the climate summit known as COP30.Newsom appeared alongside Helder Barbalho, the governor of Para state, of which Belem is the capital, at an event on the city’s docks. Between bites of cupuacu fruit and sips of acai juice, he touted California’s green credentials, noting that the state now gets two-thirds of its electricity from renewable sources.It was the first stop for the leader of the world’s fourth largest economy, followed by a signing ceremony with the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg, and a press conference with the Brazilian’s summit leadership among events to follow.Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord — for the second time, after doing so in his first term, too — upon returning to office in January and has sneered at the idea of human-caused planetary warming, calling it a “con job”.But Champa Patel, executive director for governments and policy at Climate Group, which runs the Under2 Coalition of global states and regions, said US states could still pursue the climate blueprints left by former president Joe Biden’s administration. “The states have that roadmap, they can still follow it and keep to the spirit of Paris,” Patel told AFP, adding it was important to signal solidarity.”Even if national governments backslide, or if they undermine their own commitments, subnational governments, cities, states, regions, are really at the vanguard of implementation.”Still, their influence has limits: subnational regions have no seat at the negotiating table at COP30, which opened Monday with urgent calls to stay the course on climate action.”The absence of the United States of America does not compromise the COP,” Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro told reporters last week, adding Portugal would like for “the United States of America to return to these objectives.”  – State power -“The president can’t throw a switch and turn everything off — that’s not how our system works,” added Nate Hultman, a former official in the Barack Obama and Biden administrations who now works as a researcher at the University of Maryland’s Center for Global Sustainability.A recent analysis by the group found that if leading states and cities enhance action — and if a climate-friendly president is elected in 2028 — US emissions could fall by well over 50 percent by 2035, approaching the 61-66 percent targeted by Biden’s government.Much of that stems from states’ authority over energy and building policy, and cities’ control of waste management, methane reduction, public transport, and more, Hultman told AFP.The market-driven green shift remains a strong factor including in US states with climate-hostile leadership, including Texas, the country’s renewable energy generation leader last year.New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham, another Democratic governor, is also at COP30. She governs a major fossil fuel-producing state but has pushed to expand renewables and curb methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.Reflecting America’s divided politics on climate, pro-oil and gas group Power the Future slammed the New Mexico leader for “packing her bags for another international climate junket.”Still, questions linger over the limits of state-level action. Trump’s Republicans recently passed a law bringing an early end to clean energy tax credits enacted under Biden. This is seen as a potentially crippling blow to the renewable sector.His administration also torpedoed international efforts to impose a carbon tax on shipping, vowing reprisals against countries that backed the plan.Newsom urged nations to hold firm, saying it was vital to remember “Trump is temporary” and that “you stand up to a bully.”

A US aircraft carrier strike group arrived in Latin America on Tuesday, escalating a military buildup that Venezuela has warned could trigger a full-blown conflict as it announced its own deployment.The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, entered the US Naval Forces Southern Command’s area of responsibility, which encompasses Latin America and the Caribbean, the command said in a statement.The vessel’s deployment was ordered nearly three weeks ago to help counter drug trafficking in the region.Its presence “will bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.President Donald Trump’s administration is conducting a military campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, deploying naval and air forces for an anti-drugs offensive.Caracas fears the deployment, which also includes F-35 stealth warplanes deployed to Puerto Rico and six US Navy ships in the Caribbean, is a regime change plot in disguise.President Nicolas Maduro, whose last two reelections were dismissed as fraudulent by Washington and dozens of other countries, has accused the Trump administration of “fabricating a war.”On November 2, Trump played down the prospect of going to war with Venezuela but said Maduro’s days were numbered. US forces have carried out strikes on at least 20 vessels in international waters in the region since early September, killing at least 76 people, according to US figures.The Trump administration has said in a notice to Congress that the United States is engaged in “armed conflict” with Latin American drug cartels, describing them as terrorist groups.Washington has not provided any evidence the vessels were used to smuggle drugs, and human rights experts say the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target traffickers.- ‘Unacceptable’ -Venezuela announced Tuesday what it called a major, nationwide military deployment to counter the US naval presence off its coast.The defense ministry in Caracas spoke in a statement of a “massive deployment” of land, sea, air, river and missile forces as well as civilian militia to counter “imperial threats.” VTV, the state TV channel, broadcast footage of military leaders giving speeches in several states.Such announcements are common in Venezuela these days, but have not always led to visible military deployments.Experts have told AFP that Venezuela would be at a serious disadvantage in a military standoff with the United States, with an ill-disciplined fighting force and outdated arsenal.On Tuesday, Russia denounced US strikes on boats from Venezuela — an ally of Moscow — as illegal and “unacceptable”.”This is how, in general, lawless countries act, as well as those who consider themselves above the law,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised remarks, questioning what he described as a “pretext of fighting drugs”. Maduro relies heavily on the Kremlin for political and economic support. US-Russia relations have soured in recent weeks as Trump has voiced frustration with Moscow over the lack of a resolution to the Ukraine war.The United Kingdom, meanwhile, would not comment Tuesday on a CNN report that it had stopped sharing intelligence with the United States about suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean as it did not want to be complicit in any strikes.A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters in London: “We don’t comment on security or intelligence matters.”He underlined that “the US is our closest partner on defense, security, intelligence,” and would not be drawn on UK concerns about the US strikes.”Decisions on this are a matter for the US,” the spokesman said.burs-mlr/iv

A German court ruled Tuesday that OpenAI has infringed copyright law by using song lyrics to feed its chat models in a case that could have wide implications for European artists.The Munich court found that the maker of ChatGPT was not entitled to use song lyrics to train its artificial intelligence without licences, and that the artists who wrote them are entitled to compensation.”Both the memorisation in the language models and the reproduction of the song lyrics in the chatbot’s outputs constitute infringements of copyright law,” the court ruled.The case was filed in November 2024 by German music rights body GEMA on behalf of the artists behind nine German songs.GEMA, which represents more than 100,000 composers, songwriters and publishers, accused OpenAI of reproducing protected song lyrics without having purchased licences or paid the creators. San Francisco-based OpenAI argued it had not broken the law because its language models do not store or copy specific data but rather reflect in their settings what they have learnt, according to the court.With regard to the AI chatbot, it is users who are the producers of its output and are responsible for it, OpenAI argued.But the court on Tuesday ruled that the plaintiffs were entitled to compensation “both on the basis of the reproduction of the texts in the language models and their reproduction in the outputs”.In a statement on Tuesday, OpenAI said that “we disagree” with the ruling and that the company was “considering next steps”. “The decision is for a limited set of lyrics and does not impact the millions of people, businesses and developers in Germany that use our technology every day,” it said.”We respect the rights of creators and content owners and are having productive conversations with many organisations around the world, so that they can also benefit from the opportunities of this technology.”- ‘Milestone victory’ -OpenAI has faced several court cases in the United States, with media groups and authors among those claiming that the company’s ChatGPT chatbot has been trained on their work without permission.But GEMA’s challenge is the first major case of its kind in Europe, the music rights group said.Law firm Raue, which represented GEMA in the case, said the ruling “sets an important precedent for the protection of creative works and sends a clear signal to the global tech industry”.The ruling has provided “legal certainty for creative artists, music publishers and platforms throughout Europe and is likely to have an impact far beyond Germany”, it said in a statement.Kai Welp, the head of GEMA’s legal department, said it was “crucial for authors receive remuneration for the commercial exploitation of their works so that they can make a living”.”It is to be hoped that today’s decision will increase the willingness of AI companies to negotiate and that, in this way, fair remuneration for our members can be agreed,” Welp said.The verdict could also have implications for other types of creative content, according to GEMA.The German Journalists’ Association also welcomed the ruling, hailing it as “a milestone victory for copyright law”.

President Donald Trump took a sudden swipe at France on Monday during an interview with US broadcaster Fox News, saying “we’ve had a lot of problems with the French.”Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham questioned the US president on the enrolment of Chinese students at US universities, saying, “they’re not the French, they’re the Chinese. They spy on us. They steal our intellectual property.”But Trump abruptly cut in to respond, saying: “Do you think the French are better, really? I will tell you, I’m not so sure.”Trump, who has been locked in a trade war with Beijing, has had a well-catalogued hands-on relationship with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, full of muscular handshakes, mutual backslapping and knee-touching for the cameras.Macron in September even rang the US leader directly to tell him he was being blocked on the street by the presidential convoy in New York as he rushed to a meeting from the UN headquarters.But the pair’s bromance has occasionally been tetchy, with Trump notably opposed to Macron’s recognition of a Palestinian state and climate policy.The US leader has also pushed Europe to step up funding of its own defence through NATO, with Macron part of the continent’s multi-pronged charm offensive to keep Trump onside with military support of Ukraine against Russia.In the Fox interview, Trump switched focus from China to France’s taxation policies, which he said were an issue for the United States.”We’ve had a lot of problems with the French where we get taxed unfairly on our technology,” Trump said. Trump has previously said he would impose “substantial” extra tariffs on countries that introduced “discriminatory” digital taxes. The comments were sparked by Ingraham grilling Trump on his administration’s back and forth on foreign students. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May that Washington would “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students”.However, just a few months later, Trump said the country was going to allow 600,000 Chinese students to “come in”.

The Americans are coming.President Donald Trump’s administration may have steered clear of this year’s UN climate summit in the Brazilian Amazon, but the conference’s second day on Tuesday is nonetheless set to be dominated by the governors of California and New Mexico.Anticipation is building particularly around California’s telegenic leader Gavin Newsom, who governs the world’s fourth-largest economy and has sought to cast himself as the Anti-Trump — with murmurs of a 2028 presidential run in the air.”We are doubling down on stupid in the United States of America,” the Democrat told an audience at a Milken Institute event in Sao Paulo on Monday, giving a taste of the sharp anti-Republican rhetoric for which he has become known. “Not in my state of California.”Newsom’s agenda in Brazil includes a meeting with Helder Barbalho, governor of Para state, of which the COP30 host city Belem is the capital, and another with New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham.Trump, who has made an aggressive fossil fuel expansion central to his second term, withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord upon returning to office in January.But according to Champa Patel, executive director for governments and policy at Climate Group, which runs the Under2 Coalition of global states and regions, US states can still pursue the climate blueprints left by former president Joe Biden’s administration.”The states have that roadmap, they can still follow it and keep to the spirit of Paris,” Patel told AFP. “Ultimately, it’s state-level actors that are going to implement, and the real economy is shifting,” Patel said, pointing to wind and solar growth even in Republican-led states driven by market forces.Newsom is expected to tout California’s green credentials, including a $4.1 trillion economy that is now two-thirds powered by clean energy, and the state’s successful Cap-and-Invest program, a carbon market recently extended by law until 2045.New Mexico’s Lujan Grisham governs a major fossil fuel-producing state but has pushed to expand renewables and curb methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.Still, questions linger over the limits of state-level action. Trump’s Republicans recently passed a law bringing an early end to clean energy tax credits enacted under Biden that is seen as a potentially crippling blow to the renewable sector.And while state and regional coalitions can exert political pressure at climate summits they remain, for now, outside the official text-drafting process.

The longest-ever US government shutdown moved forward Monday toward an eventual resolution, after several Democratic senators broke ranks to join Republicans in a 60-40 vote passing a compromise deal — sparking intra-party backlash.Since October 1, the first day of the shutdown, more than a million federal workers have been unpaid, while government benefits and services have been increasingly disrupted.Severe impacts on air traffic have begun to mount in recent days, with more than 1,000 flights canceled daily, raising the political pressure to end the stalemate.”We’ll be opening up our country very quickly,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding: “the deal is very good.”After the vote, Senate Republican Leader John Thune wrote on X that he was glad to support the “clear path to ending this unnecessary shutdown in a responsible way that quickly pays federal workers and reopens the federal government.”Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who voted to support the Republican measure, posted to X Monday night about his decision.”Feed everyone. Pay our military, government workers, and Capitol Police. End the chaos in airports. Country over party,” Fetterman said.With the stopgap funding bill passed through the Senate, the legislation moves to the House of Representatives for a vote, which like the Senate is controlled by Republicans. The chamber is expected to reconvene as early as Wednesday, as Tuesday is a national holiday.”It appears to us this morning that our long national nightmare is finally coming to an end, and we’re grateful for that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday. “At least some Democrats now finally appear ready to do what Republicans and President Trump and millions of hardworking American people have been asking them to do for weeks.”The House — which Johnson has kept out of session throughout the standoff — would be called back this week, he said.- Obamacare – At the heart of the Senate standoff was Democrats’ demand to extend health insurance subsidies expiring at the end of the year. Republicans insisted any negotiation occur after the government is re-opened.Millions of Americans who have purchased health insurance through the “Obamacare” program would see their costs double if the subsidies are not extended.Sunday’s breakthrough agreement would re-open the government through January, with some programs funded for the full fiscal year, and reverse some of the Trump administration’s firings of federal workers.The bill notably would restore funding for the SNAP food aid program, which helps more than 42 million lower-income Americans pay for groceries.While the Senate’s Republican leadership has agreed to hold an eventual vote on health care, it does not ensure the insurance subsidies will be extended.”After 40 days of uncertainty, I’m profoundly glad to be able to announce that nutrition programs, our veterans, and other critical priorities will have their full-year funding,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said late Sunday.- Divided Democrats -Senator Jeanne Shaheen, one of eight Democratic caucus members who backed the measure, said the Senate “took a big step forward towards protecting the health care of tens of millions of Americans.”She said the agreement would grant Democrats, despite being in the minority, the power to call a vote on health care legislation.However, with the extension of the subsidies not guaranteed, the move has angered party members who preferred to keep holding out.”Pathetic,” California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X in reaction to the announced agreement.Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer voted no, saying he could “not in good faith” support a measure “that fails to address the health care crisis.””This fight will and must continue,” he vowed.Some lawmakers criticized Schumer himself for failing to keep the Democrats united.”Tonight is another example of why we need new leadership,” Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton said Sunday. 

An additional 2,300 US flights were cancelled Monday as President Donald Trump threatened to dock pay for air traffic controllers who called in sick during the government shutdown.After Trump ripped absent aviation workers as unpatriotic, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) labor union hailed members working without pay as “unsung heroes” in a statement that called for Congress to immediately end the shutdown.”Enough is enough,” the union said. The back-and-forth highlights the mounting strain on the aviation industry as the record-breaking shutdown hit day 41, though a compromise bill advancing in Congress was raising hopes of a resolution this week.The air traffic control system was already under strain prior to the shutdown due to understaffing, and is facing a surge in passengers with upcoming Thanksgiving holiday travel.Besides Monday’s 2,300 cancellations, more than 8,700 flights involving US airports were delayed, according to website FlightAware. And carriers have already scrapped 1,100 flights scheduled for Tuesday, the flight tracker reported.The Trump administration last week ordered 10 percent reductions in flights at dozens of airports, including some of the nation’s busiest, due to “staffing triggers.”Trump took to social media on Monday to threaten that controllers who do not return to work “will be substantially ‘docked.'””All Air Traffic Controllers must get back to work, NOW!!!” he demanded on his Truth Social platform.Trump said he was recommending a bonus of $10,000 to the “GREAT PATRIOTS” who did not take time off during the shutdown.His statement was posted just as the air traffic controller union was concluding a press conference, timed to the second consecutive zero-dollar paycheck for its members.Union president Nick Daniels called an emerging deal in Congress a “right step in the right direction.””Air traffic controllers should not be the political pawn during a government shutdown,” said Daniels, who has spoken in increasingly dire terms since federal funding first lapsed on October 1.A NATCA statement released later Monday, following Trump’s social media threat, said controllers “deserve our praise.””This nation’s air traffic controllers have been working without pay for over 40 days,” the union said. “The vast majority of these highly trained and skilled professionals continue to perform one of the most stressful and demanding jobs in the world, despite not being compensated. Many are working six-day weeks and ten-hour days without any pay.” Democratic congressman Rick Larsen called Trump’s comments “nuts.””The women and men working long hours in air traffic control towers to keep the aviation system running deserve our thanks and appreciation, not unhinged attacks on their patriotism,” said the Democrat from Washington state.Hours later, during a phone-in interview to broadcaster Fox News, Trump doubled down on the bonuses but admitted he was unsure where the funds might come from.”I don’t know. I’ll get it from someplace…I always get the money from someplace,” the billionaire president said. “Regardless, it doesn’t matter.”- Working two jobs -Prospects for a resolution to the longest shutdown in US history looked brighter on Monday, after enough Democrats in the US Senate joined Republicans to pass a bill to fund the government through January.However, Daniels noted that after a lengthy shutdown in 2019 it took two and a half months for all controllers to receive back pay.Meanwhile, “January 30 will loom around the corner,” he added, alluding to uncertainty about what will happen after the next spending bill expires.Daniels was joined at the event by Amy Lark, who works at an air traffic facility in Virginia.Her family is having to make do without two paychecks, because Lark’s husband also works for the agency.”Yesterday, my kids asked me how long we could stay in our house. Having to answer that question was heartbreaking,” said Lark.The cutbacks are also forcing travelers to adapt.”It’s a little crazy this morning,” said Jack Nicks at Miami International Airport, adding he doublechecked to make sure his flight would be ready for takeoff.”I have other friends that are flying today. They’ve already had three flight changes. So it’s a little rough.”

It used to be a political match made in MAGA heaven.But US President Donald Trump fell out with hard-right lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday, saying she had “lost her way” after a series of critical comments.The firebrand Republican congresswoman from Georgia was previously a diehard pro-Trump supporter but has emerged as an unlikely — and rare — dissenting voice on a host of issues.In recent months Greene, 51, has broken ranks with the 79-year-old president on issues ranging from Gaza to the affordability crisis.The final straw came when she urged him to focus on domestic issues instead of foreign policy, as Trump hosted Syria’s former jihadist president at the White House on Monday.”I don’t know what happened to Marjorie. She’s a nice woman, but I don’t know what happened. She’s lost her way, I think,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about her comments.Trump said Greene was “now catering to the other side” and said she had “got some kind of an act going.””I’m surprised at her. But when somebody like Marjorie goes over and starts making statements like that, it shows she doesn’t know.”Greene’s sudden shift has prompted speculation that she is lining up for her own presidential bid in 2028, although she has dismissed it as “baseless gossip.” The change is especially jarring as she made her name as a fierce defender of Trump’s policies — particularly to foreign media, whom she lashed out at in a number of clips that went viral.She also embraced QAnon conspiracy theories and in 2018 asserted that California wildfires were ignited by a space laser controlled by the Jewish Rothschild family.- ‘Affordability is a problem’ -But Greene has increasingly taken a softer tone, and one that is at odds with Trump on a growing number of issues.The first signs came when she split with other Republicans over the summer when she called Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide.”Then she became a leading voice calling for justice for victims of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, despite Trump trying to dampen the reignited furor over the case.More recently, Greene has been critical on healthcare and particularly the cost of living crisis, telling CNN that “affordability is a problem” — just hours after Trump said that “I don’t want to hear about the affordability.” She even appeared on the ABC television program “The View”, a morning show widely viewed as left-leaning that  previously hosted Democratic then-president Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris.Then ahead of the visit of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whom she branded a “former Al-Qaeda terrorist”, Greene said that “I would really like to see nonstop meetings at the WH on domestic policy not foreign policy.”Her comments, while more direct, in fact echoed Vice President JD Vance’s remark last week that Republicans need to focus on the “home front” after heavy losses to Democrats in elections in New York, New Jersey and Virginia.Trump defended his focus on foreign policy on Monday. “It’s easy to say, ‘Oh don’t worry about the world,’ but the world is turning out to be our biggest customer,” he said.

The breakout success of the US reality TV show “The Secret Life of Mormon Wives,” the third season of which begins Thursday, shines a light on America’s fascination with the Christian religious movement. The main Mormon Church, known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has seven million US members — two percent of the country’s population.Fundamentalist Mormon groups, which practice polygamy, account for fewer than 100,000 people.Mormons are still “prominent and unique in American imagination,” said Brenda Weber, a professor at Indiana University and author of a book on Mormonism in media and culture.The movement began in 1830 in New York state, coinciding with the rise of the printing press which served as a springboard for the belief system, Weber said.Mormonism, and particularly the practice of polygamy, also inspired the Sherlock Holmes story “A Study in Scarlet,” and silent cinema hit “Trapped by the Mormons” in 1922.The Church, which emphasizes singing and dancing, has been home to many hit artists including Donny Osmond and actor Ryan Gosling.The 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah — which is the Church’s stronghold — marked the start of a cultural “Mormon moment.”The presidential ambitions of Republican Mormon Mitt Romney in 2008 and 2012 coincided with television programs dedicated to polygamous families in Utah.The series “Big Love” aired between 2006 and 2011, while the reality show “Sister Wives” has broadcast since 2010.On Broadway, the parody musical “The Book of Mormon,” named after a religious text, has been a hit since 2011.Around the same time, “Momfluencers” began gaining traction on social media — including Mormon matriarchs who are more likely to be stay-at-home mothers with more education and wealth than other American women.Matthew Bowman, a specialist in American religions at Claremont Graduate University, said that combination of factors created “potent possibilities for social media.” – ‘Very sensitive’ -Being a proselytizing religion — meaning followers seek to convert others — the Mormon women active online “create media to attract people,” said Weber. After being discovered on TikTok, the heroines of “The Secret Life of Mormon Wives” are their direct descendants. But the swinging practices of one of the stars serves as the basis for the show, the first season of which released on Hulu in 2024 and outperformed the Kardashians series.Show stars Taylor Frankie Paul, Mayci Neeley, Jen Affleck, and others — recently invited onto hit shows like “Dancing with the Stars” and “The Bachelorette” — claim to want to modernize the image of Mormons.They regularly discuss their roles in a culture where men are traditionally family heads and breadwinners. Even though the women claim they earn more than their husbands, many also paint themselves as “tradwives,” according to Weber.The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not respond to AFP’s request for comments on the program.A statement published shortly before season one criticized media representations that “depict lifestyles and practices blatantly inconsistent with the teachings of the Church.”Bowman said the Church has been struggling with something ever since ‘The Book of Mormon’ musical came out: “how does it grapple with publicity that may not, on the face of it, seem very favorable?”The Church responded to the hit musical with tongue-in-cheek advertisements inviting people to read its founding text.But overall, it “has often tended to be very sensitive about this sort of thing, and in many of its responses or public statements, it can be rather defensive,” said Bowman.

Syria is joining the global coalition against the Islamic State group, a US official said Monday hours after President Donald Trump welcomed his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa for historic White House talks.Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, was the first Syrian leader to visit the White House since the Middle Eastern country’s independence in 1946.But the 43-year-old’s landmark visit to the Oval Office came just days after Washington removed him from its terrorism list. Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda.”During the visit, Syria announced that it is joining the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS,” becoming the 90th member of the alliance and “partnering with the United States to eliminate ISIS remnants and halt foreign fighter flows,” a senior administration official said.According to the official, Syria will also be allowed to resume diplomatic relations with Washington “to further counterterrorism, security, and economic coordination.”Trump said he wanted Syria to become “very successful” after more than a decade of civil war and added that he believed Sharaa “can do it, I really do.””He’s a very strong leader. He comes from a very tough place, and he’s a tough guy,” Trump told reporters after the meeting, which was closed to press.”People said he’s had a rough past, we’ve all had rough pasts… And I think, frankly, if you didn’t have a rough past, you wouldn’t have a chance.”Trump said Syria was a “big part” of his plan for a wider Middle East peace plan, which the US president is hoping will prop up the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.”Having a stable and successful Syria is very important to all countries in the Region,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform after the meeting.Despite this, Trump would not confirm reports that Syria would sign any non-aggression pact with long-term foe Israel.Afterwards Sharaa was interviewed by broadcaster Fox News, saying Syria’s ongoing dispute with Israel over the Golan Heights territory would make entering peace talks difficult now. But he suggested talks facilitated by Trump and Washington could help start negotiations.The Syrian president’s visit capped a remarkable turnaround for a former jihadist who once had a $10 million US bounty on his head.In dramatic scenes as he left his meeting with Trump, he climbed out of his motorcade to greet crowds of supporters outside the White House, surrounded on all sides by bodyguards.- ‘Astonishing transformation’ -Syria’s presidency said on X that Sharaa and Trump discussed the bilateral relationship, “the ways to strengthen and develop it, as well as a number of regional and international issues of common interest.”It published photos of Trump standing and shaking hands with a smiling Sharaa beside the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.Other pictures showed the Syrian leader sitting opposite Trump with top US officials including Vice President JD Vance, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and top US military officer Dan Caine.Since taking power, Syria’s new leaders have sought to break from their violent past and present a more moderate image to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers.Sharaa’s White House visit is “a hugely symbolic moment for the country’s new leader, who thus marks another step in his astonishing transformation from militant leader to global statesman,” said Michael Hanna, US program director at the International Crisis Group.The Syrian met Trump for the first time in Saudi Arabia during the US leader’s regional tour in May. At the time the 79-year-old Trump dubbed Sharaa, 43, as “a young, attractive guy.”Sharaa was expected to seek US funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of devastating civil war.After his arrival in Washington, Sharaa over the weekend met with International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva over possible aid.Sharaa’s jihadist past has caused controversy in some quarters but the State Department’s decision Friday to remove him from the blacklist was widely expected.The Syrian president has also been making diplomatic outreach towards Washington’s rivals. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in October in their first meeting since the removal of Assad, a key Kremlin ally.