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Donald Trump’s sudden concern about starving Palestinians was a major shift for the US president, who had previously ignored the endless cries for help from aid groups. So what changed?In his words, it was images of emaciated children in Gaza that Trump saw on television — his main window into the world that has long shaped his political and diplomatic decision-making.Trump made clear his affection for the small screen in late July when asked if he agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a major US ally, that there was no famine in Gaza.”Based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry,” said Trump, a former reality TV star.”That’s real starvation stuff. I see it, and you can’t fake that.”Since then, the 79-year-old has repeated that aid must be brought to people living in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, though he has stopped of any major diplomatic moves.”Trump has a reputation for not reading anything, including the briefing papers that his aides prepare for him, and for always believing that he knows better than his staff or anyone else does,” said Dan Kennedy, a journalist professor at Northeastern University.”So it’s not surprising that he would be affected by images on television, especially since he is known to spend a lot of time watching TV.”- ‘I watch the shows’ -Trump has attended 22 intelligence briefings since taking office in January, according to an AFP tally, despite several reports having revealed that he lacks interest in written reports. However, his love for television is well-documented — even when it comes to major decisions.In 2015, before he first entered the White House, the billionaire told a journalist asking how he educates himself on military strategy: “Well, I watch the shows.”And a New York Times report recounted how Trump spent several hours a day in his first term glued to the television, mainly watching Fox News — his favorite channel — but also CNN, NBC and ABC news channels.His second term has been little changed, despite Trump leading an election campaign that deployed social media and podcasts. “Trump is a product of his generation,” Kennedy said. “He’s not sitting around looking at TikTok.”- ‘Great television’ -The Republican, who hosted 14 seasons of “The Apprentice” television series, knows better than most how images can be weaponized for political point-scoring.He was gleeful after his shocking clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House in February, which saw the pair rowing in front of the world’s press. “This is going to be great television,” Trump said. And in May he gave a similar public dressing down to South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa when he sat in the Oval Office for what turned into a diplomatic ambush. Trump hijacked the meeting by playing a video montage — one littered with inaccuracies — that purported to prove claims of a “genocide” against white farmers in South Africa. 

Japan marked 80 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday with a ceremony reminding the world of the horrors unleashed, as sabre-rattling between the United States and Russia keeps the nuclear “Doomsday Clock” close to midnight.A silent prayer was held at 8:15 am (2315 GMT), the moment when US aircraft Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” over the western Japanese city on August 6, 1945.On a sweltering morning, hundreds of black-clad officials, students and survivors laid flowers at the memorial cenotaph, with the ruins of a domed building in the background, a stark reminder of the horrors that unfolded. In a speech, Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui warned of “an accelerating trend toward military buildup around the world”, against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the chaos in the Middle East.”These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history,” he said. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said it was Japan’s mission “to take the lead… toward a world without nuclear weapons”.The final death toll of the Hiroshima attack would hit around 140,000 people, killed not just by the colossal blast and the ball of fire, but also later by the radiation.Three days after “Little Boy”, on August 9, another atomic bomb killed 74,000 people in Nagasaki. Imperial Japan surrendered on August 15, bringing an end to World War II.Today, Hiroshima is a thriving metropolis of 1.2 million but the attacks live on in the memories of many. On the eve of the ceremony, people began lining up to pay their respects to the victims in front of the cenotaph.Before dawn on Wednesday, families who lost loved ones in the attack also came to pray.Yoshie Yokoyama, 96, who arrived in a wheelchair with her grandson, told reporters that her parents and grandparents were bomb victims. “My grandfather died soon after the bombing, while my father and mother both died after developing cancer. My parents-in-law also died, so my husband couldn’t see them again when he came back from battlefields after the war.”People are still suffering,” she added.Wednesday’s ceremony was set to include a record of around 120 countries and regions including, for the first time, Taiwanese and Palestinian representatives. The United States — which has never formally apologised for the bombings — was represented by its ambassador to Japan. Russia and China were absent.Nihon Hidankyo, the grassroots organisation that last year won the Nobel Peace Prize, is representing the dwindling number of survivors, known as hibakusha. As of March, there were 99,130 hibakusha, according to the Japanese health ministry, with the average age of 86.”I want foreign envoys to visit the peace memorial museum and understand what happened,” the group’s co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki told local media ahead of the commemorations.Pope Leo XIV said in a statement that “in our time of mounting global tensions and conflicts”, Hiroshima and Nagasaki remained “living reminders of the profound horrors wrought by nuclear weapons”.United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that “the very weapons that brought such devastation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki are once again being treated as tools of coercion”.- Younger generation -The attacks remain the only time atomic bombs have been used in wartime.Kunihiko Sakuma, 80, who survived the blasts as a baby, told AFP he was hopeful that there could eventually be a nuclear-free world.”The younger generation is working hard for that end,” he said ahead of the ceremony.But in January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ “Doomsday Clock” shifted to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest in its 78-year history.The clock symbolising humanity’s distance from destruction was last moved to 90 seconds to midnight over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.Russia and the United States account for around 90 percent of the world’s over 12,000 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).SIPRI warned in June that “a dangerous new nuclear arms race is emerging at a time when arms control regimes are severely weakened,” with nearly all of the nine nuclear-armed states modernising their arsenals.Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump said that he had ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines following an online spat with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

Donald Trump is pulling hard on the levers of power to strengthen Republicans through redistricting in Texas and other states — the latest offensive in escalating moves by both sides to shape the battlefield of US democracy for the midterm elections.The president’s efforts have lit a fuse in multiple states, triggering a high-stakes tussle over election law that could upend what is expected to be a fierce fight for control of the House of Representatives in 2026.Partisan redistricting — or gerrymandering — operates under a principle that has become known as “packing and cracking.”Officials redrawing the districts in any given state “pack” opposition voters together so that they win big in a tiny number of districts. Then they “crack” the rest more thinly across the remaining districts to ensure losses there.It isn’t inherently illegal at the federal level unless electoral districts are redrawn along racial lines and both parties have been guilty of excessive manipulation to maximize their vote.”I’d be happy to outlaw gerrymandering,” Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, a former top aide to 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris, posted on X.”I think it’s ridiculous for politicians to draw their own maps, but I’m not for unilateral disarmament when Republicans are trying to rig the midterms.”Redistricting typically happens once a decade after the census, but lawmakers have increasingly been inclined to break with that tradition.While Trump coasted to victory in 2024, his success wasn’t contagious, and his party was left clinging to the House by a threadbare 219–212 margin. Historically, the party in the White House loses ground in midterms, and Trump’s team knows the clock is ticking. To tighten his grip, the president has leaned on Texas to redraw its congressional map to create five new Republican-friendly seats.  But Trump and his party are not stopping with the Lone Star State, according to US media.Republicans in Missouri and Ohio are planning their own redistricting to boost their representation in Washington, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has made noises about addressing the “raw deal” conservatives got in the last Sunshine State redistricting round.- Democratic counteroffensives -Meanwhile, Democratic governors are preparing their own counteroffensives.In California, Gavin Newsom has floated a potential special election to redraw the map — a dramatic reversal in a state where redistricting power has belonged to an independent commission since the 2010s. In Illinois, JB Pritzker recently hosted a delegation of Texas Democrats to talk strategy. And in New York, Kathy Hochul hinted at a redistricting push of her own, telling a Buffalo crowd, “If other states are violating the rules, I’m going to look at it closely.”Gerrymandering is hardly a new phenomenon in US elections, but the latest escalation has sparked fears of what Hochul cast as a nationwide partisan “war.”Opponents say gerrymandering entrenches politicians, pushes candidates toward ideological extremes and erodes public trust in the democratic process.It is also a risky business, and even the best-laid maps can collapse under the shifting ground of demographic changes and political overreach that tends to spark a legal backlash. The term “gerrymandering” dates back to 1812, when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry approved a salamander-shaped district that sparked the term.As the salamander digs in for 21st century elections, the consequences are more far-reaching.According to the Cook Political Report, just one in 16 House seats were competitive in 2024 — 12 held by Democrats and 15 held by Republicans, out of a total of 435.Democrats believe Trump’s latest push may have crossed a legal line by coordinating with local Texas officials, citing the president’s July 15 comment that with “just a simple redrawing, we pick up five seats.” They also point to reports that senior Trump aides met with Texas Republicans to finalize plans.But Daron Shaw, a politics professor at the University of Texas, said it was “curious” to blame Trump for the problem, given that deeply Democratic California is the country’s most “egregious gerrymander.” Liberal Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts were also at fault, he told AFP.”It’s especially kind of rich coming from people in California and Illinois that have gerrymander significantly more egregious than exists in Texas,” he added.

Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is to be sentenced in October for his conviction on prostitution-related charges, is seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump, one of his lawyers said Tuesday.”It’s my understanding that we’ve reached out and had conversations in reference to a pardon,” Nicole Westmoreland told CNN in an interview.Trump has indicated, however, that he is unlikely to grant a pardon to the 55-year-old Combs.”I was very friendly with him. I got along with him great and he seemed like a nice guy,” Trump said in an interview on Friday with Newsmax. “I didn’t know him well, but when I ran for office, he was very hostile.”Asked if that meant he was not inclined to pardon Combs, Trump said: “I would say so, yeah.”A New York jury found Combs guilty last month of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking charges after a marathon trial in which he was accused of harrowing abuse.Sentencing has been set for October 3.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday announced it would terminate 22 federal contracts for mRNA-based vaccines, questioning the safety of a technology credited with helping end the Covid pandemic and saving millions of lives.The announcement, made by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., marks his latest effort to weave vaccine skepticism into the core of US government policy.”We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted,” Kennedy said in a statement.The health department’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is “terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” he added.”We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.”The changes affect Moderna’s mRNA bird flu vaccine — a move the company itself disclosed in May — as well as numerous other programs, including “rejection or cancellation of multiple pre-award solicitations” from pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Sanofi.In total, the affected projects are worth “nearly $500 million,” the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said. Certain late-stage projects were excluded from the move “to preserve prior taxpayer investment.””Let me be absolutely clear: HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them,” Secretary Kennedy said.”That’s why we’re moving beyond the limitations of mRNA and investing in better solutions.”Since taking office, Kennedy, who spent two decades sowing misinformation around immunization, has overseen a major overhaul of US health policy — firing, for example, a panel of vaccine experts that advise the government and replacing them with his own appointees.In its first meeting, the new panel promptly voted to ban a longstanding vaccine preservative targeted by the anti-vaccine movement, despite its strong safety record.He has also ordered a sweeping new study on the long-debunked link between vaccines and autism.Unlike traditional vaccines, which often use weakened or inactivated forms of the target virus or bacteria, mRNA shots deliver genetic instructions into the host’s cells, prompting them to produce a harmless decoy of the pathogen and train the immune system to fight the real thing.Though in development for decades, mRNA vaccines were propelled from lab benches to widespread use through President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed — a public-private partnership led by BARDA that poured billions into companies to accelerate development.The technology’s pioneers, Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work contributing “to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.”

Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, asked a judge on Tuesday to reject a US Justice Department request to unseal the grand jury transcripts in her criminal case and that of the late notorious sex offender.”Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not,” Maxwell’s lawyers said in a filing with the federal judge in New York who is considering the government request.”Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain,” the attorneys said.Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of recruiting underage girls for Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.President Donald Trump’s supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said last month that the wealthy financier had committed suicide while in jail, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a “client list.”In a bid to calm the furor, the Justice Department is seeking the release of the grand jury transcripts from the cases against Epstein and Maxwell.US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, also met recently with Maxwell but has not revealed what was discussed.Trump was asked on Tuesday about the meeting and said it was “not an uncommon thing” and was “totally above board.””I think (Blanche) probably wants to make sure that, you know, people that should not be involved, or aren’t involved, are not hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate, very unfair to a lot of people,” he said.Trump also told reporters that he was not aware of Maxwell’s recent move from a prison in Florida to a minimum security facility in Texas until after it happened.- ‘Firestorm of false reporting’ -Trump, 79, was once a close friend of Epstein, and The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the president’s name was among hundreds found during a Justice Department review of the so-called “Epstein files,” though there has not been evidence of wrongdoing.Trump filed a $10 billion defamation suit against the newspaper after it reported that he had penned a sexually suggestive letter to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003.Maxwell is the only former Epstein associate convicted in connection with his activities, which right-wing conspiracy theorists allege included trafficking young girls for VIPs and other elites.In their filing with Judge Paul Engelmayer, Maxwell’s lawyers said she was “convicted in a media firestorm of false reporting” and noted that she has appealed her conviction to the Supreme Court.”The government seeks to unseal the grand jury transcripts, citing ‘historical interest’ without regard for how that release will affect Maxwell’s privacy interests, her pending (Supreme Court) Petition, and any future litigation,” they said.Her lawyers also said Maxwell has not been been allowed to review the transcripts even though the government has not opposed her request to do so.

A luxurious superyacht seized by the US authorities from sanctioned Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov is headed to the auction block.The 348-foot (106-metre) Amadea has a helipad, pool, jacuzzi, gym, spa, beauty salon and eight staterooms that can accommodate 16 guests, according to amadeaauction.com.The yacht, which has been valued at more than $300 million, was seized from the Russian oligarch in Fiji in April 2022 and is currently berthed in San Diego, California.The auction is being held by National Maritime Services, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, company. Sealed bids are being accepted until September 10 and require a $10 million initial bid deposit.The yacht is headed to the auction block after a US judge in March dismissed a competing claim to ownership of the vessel.Another wealthy Russian, Eduard Khudainatov, the former head of Russian state oil and gas company Rosneft, claimed in a New York court to be the rightful owner of the Amadea but his claim was dismissed by District Judge Dale Ho.According to prosecutors, Khudainatov was a “straw owner” of the Amadea and the true owner was Kerimov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was sanctioned by the United States in 2018 and again in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Following the invasion, the Justice Department under then-president Joe Biden began seizing the assets of Russian oligarchs close to Putin, an operation known as Task Force KleptoCapture.President Donald Trump disbanded the task force after taking office.The US Congress passed legislation last year that allows for the sale of seized Russian assets, with the proceeds going to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

Switzerland’s president was in Washington on Tuesday in a last-minute push to stop steep new tariffs, but with no appointment to plead her case to US President Donald Trump.Switzerland faces a 39-percent duty, one of the highest among the dozens of economies that will be hit by new tariffs expected to come into force from Thursday.President Karin Keller-Sutter and Economy Minister Guy Parmelin were visiting Washington “to facilitate meetings with the US authorities at short notice and hold talks with a view to improving the tariff situation for Switzerland,” the government said in a statement.”The aim is to present a more attractive offer to the United States in a bid to lower the level of reciprocal tariffs for Swiss exports, taking US concerns into account.”But a White House official told AFP there was “no meeting with the President scheduled at this time.”Trump had originally threatened in April to slap a 31-percent tariff on Switzerland. But he surprised the export-driven country last week when he decided to hike the rate to 39 percent despite numerous discussions between Swiss and US officials aimed at reaching a deal.The Swiss government noted that the country will be hit by much higher tariffs than what other wealthy economies, such as Britain, Japan or the European Union, are facing.The government “reaffirmed that it was keen to pursue talks with the United States on the tariff situation,” and the president and economy minister were visiting Washington “for this reason,” Tuesday’s statement said.US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, however, told CBS television on Sunday that the tariffs on global trading partners, which are coming into force this week, “are pretty much set.”Trump signaled that a separate initially “small” tariff on imports of pharmaceuticals from around the world — a key sector for Switzerland — could come “within the next week.”But the sector-specific tariff could rise to 150 percent in a year and eventually be as high as 250 percent, he added, saying the delay was to allow companies to shift production to the United States.Pharmaceuticals represented 60 percent of Swiss goods exports to the United States last year.- Swiss surplus -Keller-Sutter and Parmelin were accompanied by a small delegation, including the heads of the economy and international finance departments, a Swiss government official said.But the official declined to give details about the potential meetings.The government said it will “issue a statement as soon as there are any relevant developments for the public.”The United States is a key trading partner for Switzerland, taking 18.6 percent of its total exports last year, according to Swiss customs data.Keller-Sutter has said Trump believes that Switzerland “steals” from the United States by enjoying a trade surplus of 40 billion Swiss francs ($50 billion).Swiss companies have urged the government to negotiate a lower tariff.”I am convinced that Donald Trump wants to make a deal and show it to his US voters,” Nik Hayek, the head of watch firm Swatch, told Le Temps newspaper in an interview published late Monday.But, Hayek added, “President Karin Keller-Sutter has to react and find a solution in person there.”

US envoy Steve Witkoff will meet on Wednesday with Russian leadership in Moscow as President Donald Trump’s deadline to impose fresh sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine looms.Trump has given Russia until Friday to halt its offensive in Ukraine or face new penalties.The White House has not outlined specific actions it plans to take on Friday, but Trump has previously threatened to impose “secondary tariffs” targeting Russia’s remaining trade partners, such as China and India.The move would aim to stifle Russian exports, but would risk significant international disruption.Trump said Tuesday that he would await the outcome of the Moscow talks before moving forward with any economic retaliation. “We’re going to see what happens,” he told reporters. “We’ll make that determination at that time.”An American source did not specify if the meetings will include Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Witkoff has met with several times previously.Despite pressure from Washington, Russia has continued its onslaught against its pro-Western neighbor.Three rounds of peace talks in Istanbul have failed to make headway on a possible ceasefire, with the two sides appearing as far apart as ever.Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede more territory and renounce Western support.Kyiv is calling for an immediate ceasefire, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week urged his allies to push for “regime change” in Moscow.- Nuclear rhetoric -In recent weeks, Trump has increasingly voiced frustration with Putin over Moscow’s unrelenting offensive.When reporters asked Trump on Monday what Witkoff’s message would be to Moscow, and if there was anything Russia could do to avoid the sanctions, Trump replied: “Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday it considered the talks with Witkoff to be “important, substantial and helpful” and valued US efforts to end the conflict.Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said Friday that he wants peace but that his demands for ending his nearly three-and-a-half-year offensive were unchanged.Russia has frequently called on Ukraine to effectively cede control of four regions Moscow claims to have annexed, a demand Kyiv has called unacceptable.Putin also wants Ukraine to drop its ambitions to join NATO.The visit comes after Trump said that two nuclear submarines he deployed following an online row with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev were now “in the region.”Trump has not said whether he meant nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines. He also did not elaborate on the exact deployment locations, which are kept secret by the US military.Russia, in its first comments on the deployment, urged “caution” Monday.”Russia is very attentive to the topic of nuclear non-proliferation. And we believe that everyone should be very, very cautious with nuclear rhetoric,” the Kremlin’s Peskov said.