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Former special counsel Jack Smith defiantly defended his prosecution of Donald Trump in a long-awaited showdown on Thursday with Republican critics in the US Congress, citing overwhelming evidence that he led a “criminal scheme” to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.Although Smith, who led two failed prosecutions against Trump, never got his day in court, the televised hearing before the House Judiciary Committee provided the opportunity he has long sought to make his case to the American public.A veteran federal attorney and former war crimes prosecutor in The Hague, Smith told lawmakers his team of investigators had “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity.””Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power,” he said.Smith said his decision to bring charges against Trump was taken “without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.”Smith was appointed special counsel in 2022 by attorney general Merrick Garland and charged Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, and separately with mishandling classified documents.The Republican president denied both charges and sought to frame them as politically motivated, accusing the Justice Department of being weaponized against him.Neither case came to trial and Smith, in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president, dropped them both after Trump won the November 2024 vote.Smith said his decision to charge Trump was not motivated by politics.”If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Democrat or a Republican,” he said.”No one should be above the law in this country and the law required that he be held to account,” he said. “President Trump was charged because the evidence established that he willfully broke the very laws that he took an oath to uphold.”- ‘Get President Trump’ -Smith’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee comes a little over a month after he testified behind closed doors about his prosecution of Trump.Smith had requested that the deposition be delivered in public, but the Republican majority on the House panel declined his request.Republican committee chairman Jim Jordan accused Smith at Thursday’s hearing of seeking to “get President Trump” in an attempt to prevent him from running in the 2024 election.”He’s got to stop President Trump from running, tie him up in court,” Jordan said. “It was always about politics. The good news is the American people saw through it.”Since taking office for the second time, Trump has urged the Justice Department to bring cases against Smith and several other perceived political opponents.He did so again on Thursday, attacking Smith in a Truth Social post.”He destroyed many lives under the guise of legitimacy. Jack Smith is a deranged animal, who shouldn’t be allowed to practice Law,” Trump said. “Hopefully the Attorney General is looking at what he’s done.”Cases brought against Trump foes James Comey, a former FBI director, and New York Attorney General Letitia James collapsed last year after a judge ruled that the prosecutor who brought the charges was unlawfully appointed.Representative Jamie Raskin, the House committee’s top Democrat, defended Smith’s investigation at Thursday’s hearing.”Donald Trump says you’re a criminal and you belong in prison,” Raskin said. “Not because you did anything wrong, mind you, but because you did everything right. You pursued the facts, you followed the law.”

Former special counsel Jack Smith defended his prosecution of Donald Trump on Thursday, accusing him of engaging in a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.Smith, in remarks to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, said his team of investigators had “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity.””Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power,” Smith told lawmakers.He said his decision to bring charges against Trump were taken “without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.”Smith was appointed special counsel in 2022, and charged Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.Trump denied both charges and sought to frame them as politically motivated, accusing the Justice Department of being weaponized against him.Neither case came to trial and Smith — in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president — dropped them both after Trump won the November 2024 presidential election.- ‘No one’ above law -Smith said his decision to charge Trump was not motivated by politics.”If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Democrat or a Republican,” he said. “No one should be above the law in this country and the law required that he be held to account.”President Trump was charged because the evidence established that he willfully broke the very laws that he took an oath to uphold,” he said.Smith’s public appearance before the House panel comes a little over a month after he testified behind closed doors about his investigation and prosecution of Trump.Smith had requested that the initial deposition be delivered in public, but the Republican majority on the House Judiciary Committee declined his request.Since taking office for the second time, Trump has urged the Justice Department to bring cases against Smith and a number of other perceived political opponents.Trump has lashed out repeatedly at Smith over the years and he called him “deranged” and a “sick son of a bitch” at a press conference this week.Cases brought against Trump foes James Comey, a former FBI director, and New York Attorney General Letitia James collapsed last year after a judge ruled that the prosecutor who brought the charges was unlawfully appointed.

US President Donald Trump unveiled his new Board of Peace at Davos on Thursday, casting himself again as a global peacemaker despite widespread scepticism over a plan that aims to rewrite the world order.Trump officials also unveiled ambitious plans for a “New Gaza” during the ceremony at the World Economic Forum, with the US leader describing the devastated Palestinian territory as “great real estate.”Trump later met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with both leaders describing their talks as good and the US leader saying Russia’s nearly four-year-old war with Kyiv “has to end”.The Board of Peace was created after Trump expressed frustration at failing to win the Nobel Peace Prize and ramped up his accusations that the United Nations had failed to resolve a host of international conflicts.”Well this is exciting,” Trump said as he was joined on stage by leaders and officials from 19 countries to sign the board’s founding charter in the Swiss ski resort.”This board has the chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created,” he said.The Board of Peace, of which Trump is the chairman, was initially designed to oversee the Gaza truce and the reconstruction of the strip after the war between Hamas and Israel.But its purpose has since morphed into resolving all sorts of international conflicts, sparking concerns that the US president wants to create a rival to the UN.Countries have been asked to pay $1 billion for permanent membership of the board.And the invitation for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country invaded Ukraine in 2022, has sparked controversy.- Gaza ‘master plan’ -Key US allies including France and Britain have expressed doubts, with London saying Thursday it would not attend the ceremony.Trump told the gathering of the global elite in the Swiss mountain resorts that the organisation would work “in conjunction” with the United Nations.A large part of the ceremony was devoted to talking about its plans for shattered Gaza.Gaza’s newly appointed administrator said in a video message that the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip will reopen in both directions next week.Then Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, like the president a former property developer, showed slides of what he billed as a “master plan” for Gaza’s reconstruction.The slides included maps of new settlements in the Gaza Strip and artist renderings of gleaming seafront hotels and apartments under the caption “New Gaza”.”It could be a hope. It could be a destination,” Kushner said.Trump told Hamas to disarm under the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire accord or it would be the “end of them”. He added that he was ready to “talk” with regional foe Iran.- ‘Not so popular’ -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over the Gaza war, had said he would join, but was not at the ceremony.The representatives of the 19 countries on stage with Trump included two close populist allies, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Argentine President Javier Milei, and officials from a host of Middle Eastern monarchies keen to curry favour.Trump joked that they were “in most cases very popular leaders, some cases not so popular”.”That’s the way it goes in life,” he said.He said he expected around 50 countries to join, but the full extent of the board’s membership remains unclear.Egypt said President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had accepted Trump’s invitation to join, but he was not on stage.Trump said Putin had also agreed to join, though the Russian leader said he was still studying the invite.Zelensky has also been invited, but has said that he could not envisage working alongside arch-foe Putin.Trump said Thursday he was hopeful of a deal soon to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — which he admits he thought would be the easiest conflict to resolve but has proved the hardest.Zelensky told the World Economic Forum that documents being drafted with Washington to end the war were “nearly, nearly ready”.While Zelensky said his meeting with Trump was “positive”, the Ukrainian leader conceded that dialogue with the US president was “not simple”.Zelensky has voiced fears that Trump’s push to seize Greenland — which dominated Davos on Wednesday — could divert focus away from Russia’s invasion.Tensions over Greenland eased, however, after Trump announced a “framework of a future deal” over the Danish territory and dropped his threat to hit European allies with new tariffs.burs-dk-lt/jhb

“Sinners” set a new Oscars record with 16 nominations on Thursday, but that was not the only surprise from the Academy’s announcement.Here are five takeaways from this year’s Oscars nominations, ahead of the March 15 gala:- Snubs and surprises -Every year, the Oscars nominations bring hand-wringing over the names that were not read out.This year’s highest-profile “snub” was Ariana Grande. The pop sensation had earned a best supporting nod last year for the first “Wicked” film, but missed out this year despite taking a more prominent role in the Broadway adaptation’s second chapter.Indeed, there was no love at all for “Wicked: For Good,” which failed to earn any nominations — despite the first movie landing 10 nods, and winning two Oscars.Other notable omissions this year included “One Battle After Another” female star Chase Infiniti, and “Hamnet” male lead Paul Mescal.Among the surprises were supporting acting nominations for veteran Delroy Lindo (“Sinners”) and Elle Fanning in Norwegian dramedy “Sentimental Value.”- Warner swansong? -It is a rare feat for a single Hollywood studio to boast the two clear Oscar frontrunners.With “Sinners” (16 nominations) and “One Battle After Another” (13), Warner Bros has pulled that off. The studio has recently backed original fare from auteur filmmakers — like Zach Cregger’s horror hit “Weapons” (one nomination) and Bong Joon-ho’s “Mickey 17” — along with more commercial hits like “Superman” and “A Minecraft Movie.”Ironically, that success comes in what could be the century-old studio’s swansong year as an independent distributor.Warner Bros is the target of a fierce bidding war between Paramount Skydance and Netflix.- Records tumble -Sixteen nominations for “Sinners” was not the only record broken at Thursday’s announcement.In a sign of the increasingly global outlook of Oscars voters, a record four non-English-language acting performances are nominated this year.That includes three Norwegian actors from “Sentimental Value” — Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas — and Brazil’s Wagner Moura, the star of “The Secret Agent.”Meanwhile, “Hamnet” director Chloe Zhao became only the second woman to achieve multiple directing nominations, after Jane Campion. Zhao previously won the category with her best picture winner “Nomadland.”- Best casting -This year, the Oscars introduced a prize for best casting — the Academy’s first new category since the animated film award was created in 2002.With no precedent, it was unclear what exactly voters would be looking for — star power, new discoveries, or a cohesive ensemble.In the end, the category mostly mirrored the expected best picture frontrunners, with nominations going to “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “One Battle after Another,” “The Secret Agent” and “Sinners.” – Chalamet supreme -Timothee Chalamet is only 30, yet his Oscar nomination for “Marty Supreme” is his third for best actor — after “Call Me By Your Name” in 2018 and last year for playing Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.”Arguably the biggest star of his generation, Chalamet also earned a nod for his role as a producer in best picture nominee “Marty Supreme,” the semi-fictional tale of a talented, always-hustling ping-pong player in 1950s New York and Japan.Will it be third time lucky for Chalamet, at the Oscars ceremony in March?Though up against Leonardo DiCaprio, Chalamet’s chances are boosted by a strong all-round showing for “Marty Supreme” at Thursday’s nominations announcement.The movie exceeded most pundits’ expectations with nine nods, including best director for Josh Safdie, best cinematography and best production design — suggesting Oscars voters are paying close attention.

Here are the nominees in key categories for the 98th Academy Awards, to be handed out in Hollywood on March 15.Vampire period horror film “Sinners” shattered the all-time record for nominations with 16, followed by “One Battle After Another” with 13. “Frankenstein,” “Marty Supreme” and “Sentimental Value” tied with nine nominations each.- Best picture -“Bugonia””F1″”Frankenstein””Hamnet””Marty Supreme” “One Battle After Another””The Secret Agent””Sentimental Value””Sinners””Train Dreams”- Best director – Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme”Joachim Trier, “Sentimental Value”Chloe Zhao, “Hamnet”- Best actor – Timothee Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another”Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent”- Best actress -Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue”Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”Emma Stone, “Bugonia”- Best supporting actor – Benicio Del Toro, “One Battle After Another”Jacob Elordi, “Frankenstein”Delroy Lindo, “Sinners”Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”Stellan Skarsgard, “Sentimental Value”- Best supporting actress -Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”Amy Madigan, “Weapons”Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another”- Best international feature film – “The Secret Agent” (Brazil)”It Was Just an Accident” (France)”Sentimental Value” (Norway)”Sirat” (Spain)”The Voice of Hind Rajab” (Tunisia)- Best animated feature – “Arco””Elio””Kpop Demon Hunters””Little Amelie or the Character of Rain””Zootopia 2”- Best documentary feature -“The Alabama Solution””Come See Me In The Good Light””Cutting Through Rocks””Mr. Nobody Against Putin””The Perfect Neighbor”- Films with eight or more nominations – “Sinners” – 16″One Battle After Another” – 13″Frankenstein” – 9″Marty Supreme” – 9″Sentimental Value” – 9″Hamnet” – 8

US President Donald Trump will show off his new “Board of Peace” at Davos on Thursday — burnishing his claim to be a peacemaker a day after backing off his own threats against Greenland.Trump will host a signing ceremony for the founding charter of his body for resolving international conflicts, which has a $1 billion price tag for permanent membership.That membership has however proved controversial, with the inclusion of leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who invaded Ukraine four years ago. Trump said Putin had agreed to join, while the Russian leader said he was still studying the invite.Other members include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungary’s Viktor Orban, while Pope Leo XVI has also been sent an invitation. “This is the greatest board ever assembled,” Trump, who is the chairman of the board, told reporters including AFP on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort.”Yeah, I have some controversial people on it but these are people who get the job done, these are people who have tremendous influence.”Originally meant to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza after the war between Hamas and Israel, the board’s charter does not limit its role to the Strip, and has sparked concerns that Trump wants it to rival the United Nations.”It’s going to get a lot of work done that the United Nations should have done,” added Trump.Key US allies including France and Britain have expressed skepticism, with the UK saying Thursday it would not attend the ceremony.But others have signed up, particularly in the Middle East where Trump-friendly Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt have agreed to join.About 35 world leaders have committed so far out of the 50 or so invitations that went out, a senior Trump administration official told reporters on Wednesday.The launch of the board comes against the backdrop of Trump’s frustration at having failed to win the Nobel Peace Prize, despite his disputed claim to have ended eight conflicts.- Trump to meet Zelensky -The inclusion of Putin has caused particular concern among US allies, but especially in Ukraine as it seeks an end to Moscow’s nearly four-year-old invasion.Trump said he would meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Davos after the “Board of Peace” ceremony to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine — the major peace deal that continues to elude him. The two leaders will meet at 1:00 pm (1200 GMT), the Ukrainian presidency said, with Zelensky due to address the Davos forum some 90 minutes later.Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is due to travel to Moscow to meet Putin later Thursday, said in Davos that talks to end the war had made a “lot of progress” and were down to one issue.”I think we’ve got it down to one issue, and we have discussed iterations of that issue, and that means it’s solvable,” said Witkoff, without saying what the issue was.Witkoff added that he and the US leader’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would not stay in Moscow overnight but fly straight to Abu Dhabi for “military to military” talks.At Davos on Wednesday, Trump repeated his oft-stated belief that Putin and Zelensky were close to a deal, although he has veered between blaming one or the other for the lack of a ceasefire so far.Trump has long been a skeptic of US support for Ukraine and says that it is now up to NATO and Europe to back Kyiv. But his belief that he has a personal connection with Putin has not brought an end to the war so far.Zelensky has meanwhile voiced fears that Trump’s push to seize Greenland — which has dominated Davos so far and threatened to unravel the transatlantic alliance — could divert focus away from Russia’s invasion of his country.Trump however said late Wednesday he had reached a “framework of a future deal” after meeting NATO chief Mark Rutte, and that he would therefore waive tariffs scheduled to hit European allies on February 1.He gave no further details, leaving Europeans drawing only cautious sighs of relief. A source close to the talks told AFP that a 1951 Greenland defence pact would be renegotiated as part of the deal.Rutte told AFP in Davos that the meeting had been “very good” but that there was “still a lot of work to be done” on Greenland. Trump insists the mineral-rich Arctic island is vital for US and NATO security against Russia and China.

The first Sundance Film Festival since the death of founder Robert Redford begins in Park City Thursday — the final time it will be held in the mountains of Utah.Hollywood A-listers Olivia Wilde, Natalie Portman and Ethan Hawke are expected to walk the red carpet at the snowcapped Rocky Mountain resort, along with a host of lesser-known filmmakers at one of the most important gatherings in the global movie calendar.Amy Redford, daughter of the “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” star who created the festival in 1978, said this year’s get-together would be an emotional experience, just four months after her father’s death.”Very proud,” she said, when asked how she felt about her father’s legacy.”He was somebody that created from the field, not from on high,” she told AFP.”He never meant to be the center of focus for this whole organization. The center of focus was always the storytellers.”- Line-up -Among the dozens of feature-length films and documentaries on show over the coming days will be “The Invite” directed by and starring Wilde, opposite Seth Rogen and Edward Norton.The script, co-written by Rashida Jones (“Parks and Recreation”), deals with a couple whose mysterious neighbors come over for dinner.”Mad Men” stars Jon Hamm and John Slattery reunite in “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” where a Midwestern bride-to-be rampages through Hollywood in an effort to even the score after her fiance uses the couple’s “free celebrity pass” on his famous crush.In “The Gallerist” — starring Oscar winners Natalie Portman and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, along with Jenna Ortega and Sterling K. Brown — a desperate curator tries to sell a dead body at Art Basel Miami.Among the most hotly anticipated non-celebrity films premiering at the festival is “The History of Concrete,” a sideways look by John Wilson about how to sell a film about building materials.A strong international lineup includes director Molly Manners debut feature “Extra Geography” from the UK and queer genre film “Leviticus” from Australia.”Hanging by a Wire” tells the story of the nail-biting race to save schoolboys dangling from a stranded cable car in the Himalayan foothills.”Hold On to Me” from Cyprus traces the efforts of an 11-year-old tracking down her estranged father, while documentary “Kikuyu Land” from Kenya examines how powerful outside forces use local corruption to dispossess a people.All of them will offer something special, Amy Redford said.”I think the look on the faces of people that premiere their films and realize they’re looking out into an audience who understand what they were trying to say…it always just is kind of a stunning experience,” she said.- Moving on -The festival moves next year to Boulder, Colorado, having outgrown its current host city.For festival programmer John Nein, who has been at every edition since 1996, leaving Park City will be bittersweet.”It’s a special place,” he told AFP.”It’s a place that has been so tied to how the festival works in terms of people coming to this place. It’s not particularly convenient. It’s really cold.””But in a weird way, that’s what brings people here and it’s what creates the audience that we have here. So I feel like that’s part of what made it special.”Festival director Eugene Hernandez said the Sundance Institute will continue to have roots in Utah, even as the festival moves to Colorado.But this year’s program will be one to remember.”There’s going to be a lot of laughter, there will probably also be some tears, there will be joy, there will be connection, there will be community,” he said.”I think those are all aspects that make a festival.”

Venezuela’s interim president will soon visit the United States, a senior US official said Wednesday, further signaling President Donald Trump’s willingness to embrace the oil-rich country’s new leader. Delcy Rodriguez would be the first sitting Venezuelan president to visit the United States in more than a quarter century — aside from presidents attending United Nations meetings in New York. She said Wednesday that she approached any dialogue with the United States “without fear.””We are in a process of dialogue, of working with the United States, without any fear, to confront our differences and difficulties…and to address them through diplomacy,” said Rodriguez.The invitation reflects a head-snapping shift in relations between Washington and Caracas since US Delta Force operatives swooped into Caracas, seized president Nicolas Maduro and spirited him to a US jail to face narcotrafficking charges. Rodriguez was a former vice president and long-time insider in Venezuela’s authoritarian and anti-American government, before changing tack as interim president.She is still the subject of US sanctions, including an asset freeze.Rodriguez on Wednesday began reorganizing the leadership of the country’s military forces, appointing 12 senior officers to regional commands.As a flotilla of US warships remains off the Venezuelan coast, she has allowed the United States to broker the sale of Venezuelan oil, facilitated foreign investment and released dozens of political prisoners. A senior White House official said Rodriguez would visit soon, but no date has been set. – All for oil -The last bilateral visit by a sitting Venezuelan president came in the 1990s — before populist leader Hugo Chavez took power. Since then, successive Venezuelan governments have made a point of thumbing their nose at Washington and building close ties with US foes in China, Cuba, Iran and Russia.The US trip, which has yet to be confirmed by Venezuelan authorities, could pose problems for Rodriguez inside the government — where some hardliners still detest what they see as Washington’s hemispheric imperialism.Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez remain powerful forces in the country, and analysts say their support for Rodriguez is not a given. Cabello on his weekly state television program Wednesday night denied reports he had met with US officials ahead of Maduro’s ouster.”It’s a campaign. They say, ‘Diosdado met with the United States’…I haven’t met with anyone,” he said.Trump has so far appeared happy to allow Rodriguez and much of the repressive government to remain in power, so long as the United States has access to Venezuelan oil — the largest proven reserves in the world. Trump hosted Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado at the White House earlier this month. After initially dismissing Machado and her ability to control the country’s powerful armed forces and intelligence services, he said Tuesday that he would “love” to have her “involved in some way.” Machado’s party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections that Washington said were stolen by Maduro. Analysts say Trump’s embrace of Rodriguez and avoidance of wholesale regime change can be explained by an unwillingness to repeat mistakes made in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. “Those kinds of intervention operations — and the deployment of troops for stabilization — have always ended very badly,” said Benigno Alarcon, a politics expert at the Andres Bello Catholic University in Caracas. Trump’s stance has however angered democracy activists who argue that all political prisoners must be freed and granted amnesty, and Venezuela must hold fresh elections.

US President Donald Trump will show off his new “Board of Peace” and meet Ukraine’s leader at Davos on Thursday — burnishing his claim to be a peacemaker a day after backing off his own threats against Greenland.Trump abruptly announced on Wednesday that he was scrapping tariffs against Europe and ruling out military action to take Greenland from Denmark, partially defusing a crisis which has shaken the meeting of global elites.On his second day at the Swiss ski resort, Trump will seek to promote the  “Board of Peace”, his controversial body for resolving international conflicts, with a signing ceremony for the organisation’s charter.The fledgling board boasts a $1 billion price tag for permanent membership and Trump has invited leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungary’s Viktor Orban to join.”I think it’s the greatest board ever formed,” Trump said Wednesday as he met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, another of the leaders who have agreed to join.The launch of the board comes against the backdrop of Trump’s frustration at having failed to win the Nobel Peace Prize, despite his disputed claim to have ended eight conflicts.Originally meant to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza after the war between Hamas and Israel, the board’s charter does not limit its role to the Strip and has sparked concerns that Trump wants it to rival the United Nations.Key US allies including France and Britain have expressed skepticism but others have signed up, particularly in the Middle East where Trump-friendly Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have agreed to join.About 35 world leaders have committed so far out of the 50 or so invitations that went out, a senior Trump administration official told reporters on Wednesday.Trump also said on Wednesday that Putin had agreed to join — despite the Kremlin so far saying it was still studying the invite.- ‘Framework of a future deal’ -The inclusion of Russian president Putin has caused particular concern among US allies, but especially in Ukraine as it seeks an end to Moscow’s nearly four-year-old invasion.Trump said he was due to hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after the “Board of Peace” meeting as difficult negotiations for a ceasefire in the Ukraine war continue.At Davos on Wednesday, Trump said Russia and Ukraine would be “stupid” not to reach a peace deal in the conflict that he said he could solve within a day of taking office a year ago.Trump repeated his oft-stated belief that Putin and Zelensky were close to a deal, although he has veered between blaming one or the other for the lack of a ceasefire so far.”I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done. And if they don’t, they’re stupid — that goes for both of them,” said the US president.Trump has long been a skeptic of US support for Ukraine and says that it is now up to NATO and Europe to back Kyiv. But his belief that he has a personal connection with Putin has not brought an end to the war so far.The US leader’s roving special envoy, businessman Steve Witkoff, is set to travel to Moscow from Davos with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and hold talks with Putin on Thursday.Zelensky has meanwhile voiced fears that Trump’s push to seize Greenland could divert focus away from Russia’s invasion of his country.Trump however said late Wednesday he had reached a “framework of a future deal” after meeting NATO chief Mark Rutte, and that he would therefore waive tariffs scheduled to hit European allies on February 1.Rutte told AFP in Davos that the meeting had been “very good” but that there was “still a lot of work to be done” on Greenland. Trump insists the mineral-rich Arctic island is vital for US and NATO security against Russia and China.

A US jury on Wednesday acquitted the former school police officer for his response to a 2022 mass shooting at a Texas elementary school which killed 21 people, including 19 children — the the frustration of the victims’s families.Adrian Gonzales, 52, was accused of failing to “engage, distract or delay the shooter,” and faced 29 felony counts of child endangerment — one for each of the 19 children who died and for the 10 students who survived. The jury took several hours to deliberate.”In each of the 29 counts, we the jury find the defendant, Adrian Gonzales, not guilty,” Judge Sid Harle said as he read the verdict in a Corpus Christi courthouse, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Uvalde, where the shooting took place.Nineteen young children and two teachers were killed in the city of Uvalde on May 24, 2022 when a teenage gunman went on a rampage with an AR-15 style assault rifle at Robb Elementary School, in what was America’s deadliest school shooting in a decade.The official response by law enforcement was heavily criticized after it emerged that more than a dozen officers waited for over an hour outside classrooms where the shooting was taking place and did nothing as children lay dead or dying inside.Family members voiced frustration at the decision, which followed an uncommon attempt to hold law enforcement accountable for their response to a mass shooting. “They failed the children again,” Javier Cazares, the father of Jackie Cazares who was killed in the attack, told press. “I’ve been emotionally shattered since day one, but again, we had to brace for the worst.”A total of 376 officers — border guards, state police, city police, local sheriff departments and elite forces — responded to the massacre, a Texas state lawmakers’ report said in July 2022.After the verdict was read, Gonzales thanked god and his attorneys, who insisted he did risk his life.The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was reportedly killed by law enforcement at the site of the attack.Former school district police chief Pete Arredondo also faces charges over the tragedy, but will be tried separately and has pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces.