Trump warns Zelensky he 'won't be around very long' if he refuses peace deal with Russia
Donald Trump stepped up the pressure on Volodymyr Zelensky Monday with a stark warning: Sign up to a peace deal or risk annihilation.
The U.S. president spoke to reporters at the White House after an investment announcement, and used the occasion to further ratchet up pressure on the Ukrainian leader.
He said Zelensky should be 'more appreciative' of American aid if he wants Washington's help and made clear his frustration after their Oval Office summit on Friday descended into a slanging match.
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Dow tumbles 800 points as Trump confirms tariffs on Mexico and Canada will start Tuesday
US stocks slid Monday as investors braced for President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico to go into effect by the midnight deadline.
The Dow tumbled 650 points, or 1.48%, to close at 43,191. The Dow fell almost 900 points in afternoon trading before pulling back slightly. The broader S&P 500 fell 1.76% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.64%.
The S&P 500 posted its biggest one-day decline of the year. The Nasdaq is down about 6.5% since since Trump took office on January 20.
“Tomorrow, tariffs — 25% on Canada and 25% on Mexico,” Trump said during a press conference at the White House. “And that’ll start. … What they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs.”
Trump said the two trading partners had “no room” left to negotiate to avoid the levies and that he was using tariffs to “punish” countries that, as he put it, were taking from the US economy without giving enough in return.
“They’re all set. They go into effect tomorrow,” he said.
Trump also signed an executive order on Monday raising tariffs on imports from China to 20%, up from 10%. Trump said the tariffs, aimed at bringing China to the table on curtailing fentanyl entering the United States, will be raised because the communist country has not done enough to stem the flow of illegal drugs.
The VIX, Wall Street’s fear gauge, surged to its highest point this year after Trump’s comments.
“Due to the uncertainty surrounding the tariffs, the stock market has erased the gains from the ‘Trump bump’ following the presidential election and the expected upward pressure on prices is giving investors pause,” said Gustavo Flores-Macias, a professor of government and public policy at Cornell University.
“For investors, 2025 can still be a positive year for stocks, but it may take all year to realize gains. And they may be modest,” said Gina Bolvin, president of Bolvin Wealth Management Group.
“I’m still a bull,” Bolvin said.
The import taxes Trump imposed are significant — the largest in US-China history. The initial tariffs, which went into effect February 4, set in motion tariffs on $1.4 trillion of imported goods. That’s more than triple the $380 billion worth of foreign goods that were hit with tariffs during Trump’s first term, according to estimates from the Tax Foundation.
Before he became president, Trump pledged a 60% tariff on all Chinese goods, so the tariff level could rise still.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said at the press conference about tariffs on Canada and Mexico that global companies can avoid tariffs if they invest into production in the United States, like TSMC, the Taiwanese chipmaker at the White House on Monday to announce a $100 billion US investment.
Trump’s tariffs will raise prices of imported goods, which could boost demand for goods produced in the US, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs. But they also noted that tariffs will have negative effects on some American businesses.
“Tariff increases will also raise production costs for some domestic producers and will likely prompt foreign retaliation against some US exports, both of which could hurt domestic production,” they wrote in a note.
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Ontario will cut off U.S. electricity exports 'with a smile on my face,' Ford says
Speaking Monday at a mining convention in downtown Toronto, Ontario Premier Doug Ford doubled down on threats to cut electricity exports to U.S. border states if the tariffs go through.
“If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything — including cut off their energy with a smile on my face,” Ford told reporters.
“They rely on our energy, they need to feel the pain. They want to come at us hard, we’re going to come back twice as hard.”
The United States is a major customer for Canadian electricity, with all American power grids — with the exception of Texas — interconnected with Canadian provinces.
New York, Michigan and Minnesota are Ontario’s three biggest customers of domestically-produced power.
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European leaders ‘doubling down’ on backing Zelensky after Trump blowup
LONDON — Rattled European leaders said Sunday they were “doubling down” on supporting Ukraine and boosting military aid following the televised Oval Office blowup between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The embattled Zelensky was greeted with cheers outside 10 Downing Street and a warm hug from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer when he arrived late Saturday for an emergency summit of European leaders. The pair embraced again at the start of the session Sunday, which Starmer described as a “once-in-a-generation moment” for European security, and they sat side-by-side during the talks.
The display of support stood in stark contrast with comments Sunday from Trump administration officials, who heaped blame on Zelensky for the White House uproar. National security adviser Michael Waltz described Zelensky’s behavior as “incredibly disrespectful,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused him of disrupting U.S. efforts to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war.
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"Putin couldn't be happier" over Trump-Zelenskyy meeting, Trump's former national security adviser says
An Oval Office showdown between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would have been cheered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who served as Mr. Trump's national security adviser during his first administration.
The U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia and provided aid to Ukraine after the war began but last month, Mr. Trump flipped U.S. policy on its head. He opened peace talks with Russia, which occupies 20% of Ukraine while bombing the rest, and did not invite Ukraine. Then on Friday, he berated Zelenskyy during an explosive Oval Office meeting.
"Vladimir Putin couldn't be happier," McMaster, who is a CBS News contributor and author of "At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House," said. "Because what he sees is all of the pressure on Zelenskyy, all of the pressure on Ukraine and no pressure on him."
Trump and Russia
During his Friday Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy, Mr. Trump revealed something of a common cause with the Russian president. Mr. Trump complained that he and Putin had both been slandered for years by allegations that Russia helped Mr. Trump's campaigns, allegations the U.S. president ties to his Democratic opponents.
"Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia, Russia," Mr. Trump said.
McMaster, who was ousted by Mr. Trump in 2018, said Putin has manipulated many world leaders, including the U.S. commander in chief.
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A black X is appearing on the doors of Maduro opponents in Venezuela
In a poor Caracas neighborhood, the letter “X” is appearing on people’s homes – crude chest-high slashes of paint that residents say amount to a threat.
Residents living in 23 de Enero, once the stronghold of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, believe pro-regime paramilitary groups are behind the spray paint. The groups, known as colectivos, are marking people who had protested the outcome of July’s presidential election, residents told CNN.
“There are some fifty homes in my street, and thirty-two have been marked,” said one resident, who asked to use the alias “Pablo”, due to fear of retaliation for speaking out.
The Xs appeared in Pablo’s neighborhood days after Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory at the polls on July 28 – a result disputed by the opposition and questioned by foreign observers.
Members of a Venezuelan paramilitary unit took photos of his neighbors as they stood outside their homes and called for Maduro to step down by banging pots. The next morning, “we woke up and all the houses were marked with a cross,” Pablo said.
Pablo told CNN he could hear the painting on his own door in the middle of the night, the rattle and spray waking him up from his sleep.
“The following days, they would ride around the street saying this mark is for cowards and that they would come back with guns if anyone protested,” he said.
Paramilitary groups have historically been used by the Maduro regime to intimidate or attack opposition supporters. In many of Caracas’ poorest neighborhoods, they are the only law.
CNN is attempting to contact Valentin Santana, the leader of one of the most notorious colectivo, La Piedrita, for comment.
Another resident of the same neighborhood said her home was not grafittied, but that she is now too intimidated to join planned anti-government protests on Saturday. She is fearful of a crackdown by the government, which has already detained hundreds of opposition supporters for protesting against Maduro or casting doubt about his disputed victory.
She says that paramilitary groups have installed surveillance cameras in her area, and she does not know who to trust. The Venezuelan government recently repurposed an app originally intended to report public administration malfunctions to allow anonymous charges against opposition supporters.
“This is the app to snitch on the fascists,” Maduro himself told a recent rally, presenting the new service. It has since been blocked on Apple’s App store but is still available on Google Play.
She believes that about 80% of the area she lives in would be in favor of Venezuela’s political opposition – but are too intimidated to make their voices heard.
“A couple days after the election, two young protesters were taken away, there’s no trust among neigbhbors also because of the app,” Valentina said.
A pattern of repression
Venezuelans have felt this fear before. In 2019, when opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself to be the interim president of Venezuela, with widespread popular support, motorcycle riding colectivo members terrorized anti-government rallies with gunfire and prevented opposition lawmakers and journalists from entering the National Assembly.
That pattern of repression appears to be ramping up today.
Pablo accuses colectivo members of making threats, such as being taken to prison, blacklisting for vital government benefits for cheap gasoline and food handouts. There have also been threats of overt violence in the past few days, though he maintains he will keep protesting.
“Going to jail, that is scary, because at my age that almost certainly means dying in jail. But I don’t want to stop, people are angry… I am very angry, furious,” Pablo, who is in his seventies, told CNN.
Such accounts echo the warnings of opposition leader María Corina Machado, who told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday that Maduro is “exercising violence on innocent people” in the aftermath of the disputed vote.
“Young people are [taken] out of their houses, houses are marked with a cross at their doors. Journalists have been detained, four of them have been accused of terrorism. This is happening as we speak,” she said.
Since the contested election, Maduro has been at the forefront of the government crackdown, ordering the opening of two new prisons to accommodate detained protesters and openly calling for everyone in the streets to be imprisoned.
Maduro has also endorsed what is informally referred to as “Operation Knock-Knock,” that has seen security services knocking at opposition members’ doors.
“Knock Knock! Don’t be a crybaby… You’re going to Tocorón (a jail)” Maduro shouted at a rally last week.
Even after Venezuela’s electoral and judicial authorities announced the victory of Maduro, they have not shown detailed results and electoral records to support it, prompting anger and concern across the country and abroad.
Meanwhile, the team of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia has released independently collected polling station data that, although partial, appears to suggest that Maduro lost.
Numerous countries say they will not recognize the official election result until the vote tallies are published in full.
In a report shared Tuesday, a panel of experts from the United Nations said the presidential election lacked “basic transparency and integrity.” They also strongly criticized the National Electoral Council (CNE) for announcing the winner without revealing the tabulated results from each of the country’s polling stations, saying it had “no precedent in contemporary democratic elections.”
“The note … from the UN is giving us a lot of hope. The world must know that we have a neo-Nazi for president,” Pablo said.
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High-stakes Gaza ceasefire talks have ended. Here’s what to know
The death toll in Gaza since Israel started its war against Hamas passed 40,000 this week, just as mediators arrived in Doha to discuss a ceasefire. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa/picture alliance/AP/File
Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.
CNN
—
Mediators in talks for a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel made a last-ditch effort this week to revive stalled negotiations, with high-stakes discussions wrapping up Friday against a backdrop of tension and desperation in the region.
The meeting in Doha started on Thursday and has now ended, a diplomat familiar with the discussions told CNN. A breakthrough wasn’t expected but efforts will continue. Technical teams will meet again in the coming days, starting Saturday, until the main figures meet again in Cairo next week, the diplomat said.
It took place as the Middle East braces for a possible Iranian attack on Israel, and after the death toll since October in Gaza reached 40,000 people, a bleak figure that underscores 10 months of suffering, malnutrition and despair in the enclave.
The fear of an Iranian attack poses a serious threat to any hopes of a ceasefire that have already appeared tenuous in recent weeks, after Israeli strikes took out Hamas’ former political leader and senior figures in Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
But the talks went ahead, despite some initial fears they would be scrapped. Participants on Thursday included CIA director Bill Burns, Mossad chief David Barnea, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Jassim Al Thani and Egyptian intelligence head Abbas Kamel, a diplomatic source close to negotiations told CNN.
In the meeting, Qatar, Egypt and the United States were expected to present a plan to implement a deal that could bring about a ceasefire in the war in Gaza and free the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The deal was proposed by US President Joe Biden in May – but unresolved differences have left the path forward unclear.
Here’s what we know about the status of the talks.
People protest in Tel Aviv ahead of the latest round of talks, calling for a deal that would secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
People protest in Tel Aviv ahead of the latest round of talks, calling for a deal that would secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Florion Goga/Reuters
What happened in the talks?
Mediators presented a bridging proposal to Israel and Hamas to close the remaining gaps of disagreement between both sides, a joint statement between the US, Qatar and Egypt said on Friday after talks wrapped up for the week.
The statement, published by the Egyptian presidency and Qatari foreign ministry, said the proposal presented to both sides “builds on the areas of agreement over the past week,” and “bridges remaining gaps in a manner that allows for a swift implementation of the deal.”
The talks were “serious and constructive,” the statement said.
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But the statement did not elaborate on what points of agreement were achieved over the past week.
Hamas had said it would not participate in talks but engaged separately with Qatari and Egyptian mediators, a source told CNN, adding that the mediators are still working to bridge the gap on the remaining key differences.
“Our position was clear… we will not go for new negotiation rounds. We will only go to implement what has been agreed on,” Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told CNN on Tuesday.
On Thursday, the militant group reiterated that there will be no hostage deal or ceasefire agreement without a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
What is Biden’s proposal?
In May, Biden laid out a three-phase proposal the administration said was submitted by Israel that would pair a release of hostages from Gaza with a “full and complete ceasefire” and a release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
The first phase would last six weeks and include the “withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza” and the “release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners” and the implementation of a temporary truce.
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More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in 10 months of war in Gaza, health ministry says
Phase 2 would allow for the “exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers” and a permanent end to the fighting.
In Phase 3, a “major reconstruction plan for Gaza would commence and any final remains of hostages who’ve been killed will be returned to their families,” the US president said.
Israel launched its war against Hamas after the group’s cross-border October 7 attacks, in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. More than 100 of those hostages remain in Gaza, their families back home pleading for a breakthrough to secure their safe return. It is unclear how many of the original hostages set for release are still alive.
Hamas and Israel have been engaged in tedious negotiations for months. Officials from Qatar and Egypt act as intermediaries, delivering messages to Israeli and Hamas representatives in shuttle-style diplomacy since representatives from the warring parties are not present at the same location. Technical teams have flown in and out of Doha and Cairo to iron out details for a potential agreement.
What are the key remaining sticking points?
Despite an initial positive reaction from Hamas and Israel, both sides failed to agree on the implementation of the finer details of the proposal including the sequencing of the hostage-prisoner exchange, the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released and how far back Israeli forces should withdraw in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of undermining the deal as far-right members of his ruling coalition threaten to collapse the government despite pressure from the US and families of hostages.
Throughout the war, the prime minister has been caught between two potent political forces: the far-right members of his governing coalition who have been opposed to any suggestion that Israeli troops should leave Gaza, and the relatives of hostages held by Hamas, who have formed a powerful pressure group and have implored Netanyahu to reach a deal.
Last month, the prime minister reversed on a key Israeli concession in ceasefire negotiations, demanding that armed men be barred from returning to northern Gaza during an eventual ceasefire, an Israeli source familiar with the talks told CNN. Israel had previously agreed to allow Palestinians unrestricted access to northern Gaza.
Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday rejected claims that the prime minister had changed positions, saying his most recent stance “does not introduce extra conditions and certainly does not contradict or undermine” the May proposal. Netanyahu’s office instead accused Hamas of adding unrealistic demands to its position.
A regional diplomat familiar with the negotiations told CNN that the remaining sticking points for Hamas are Israel’s restrictions on the movement of people from southern Gaza to the north, its demand for a veto over which Palestinian prisoners would be released, as well as its continued presence at the Philadelphi corridor and the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
What is Hamas’ position?
US officials had said that talks had reached an advanced stage until Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran in late July in an assassination Iran blamed on Israel. Israel hasn’t confirmed or denied responsibility, but Iran has vowed vengeance.
There were concerns that the assassination would throw a wrench in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas. The militant group replaced Haniyeh with Yahya Sinwar, the hardline Hamas leader in Gaza who is one of Israel’s most wanted men. While Haniyeh, a relative moderate, lived in Qatar and was susceptible to pressure from his host country, Sinwar is believed to be deep underground in a tunnel in Gaza and is hard to reach.
Hamas on Thursday denied it was having difficulty communicating with its leader Sinwar, after one of its top officials Osama Hamdan reportedly acknowledged in an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday that there are “some difficulties” and delays in communicating with him.
Hamas hasn’t ruled out an agreement with Israel, but said that it won’t engage in further negotiations. It instead asked mediators for a plan to implement a ceasefire proposal put forward by Biden.
A Hamas source told CNN on Wednesday that the group has adopted a position of “intentional ambiguity” over whether it will attend ceasefire talks, adding that its position on a potential ceasefire is firm whether not it attends the talks.
Asked why Hamas has been unclear about whether it will attend the ceasefire talks, the source said: “This ambiguity is the movement’s position, which was announced in its latest statement, is intentional and did not come by chance. It comes as a result of Netanyahu’s behavior.”
Why is this round of talks so important?
This latest round of ceasefire talks were the result of a major diplomatic effort by mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US to push for a last-ditch effort to end the war and free the hostages as Iran prepares to attack Israel.
The urgency of the talks was highlighted by the three mediators, who issued a rare joint statement last week calling on the warring parties to return to negotiations and offered what they called a “final bridge proposal” to overcome the remaining sticking points. The details of that proposal have not been made public.
In parallel, US and Middle East diplomats have been mobilizing to dissuade Iran from launching an attack on Israel that could lead to a wider regional war. Both Iran and the US have said that that lines of communication between them are open through intermediaries.
There have been some indications that Iran may abandon plans to attack Israel if a ceasefire deal is reached. But the country’s mission to the United Nations said on Saturday that Tehran’s retaliation is “totally unrelated to the Gaza ceasefire.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, US officials didn’t believe that Iran has decided on a course of retaliatory action against Israel, according to two US administration officials. Furious diplomatic backchannel efforts are ongoing to try to deter a wide-scale attack and de-escalate the volatile situation, one of those officials said.
The second official added that the Biden administration does believe that the US’s public warnings in recent days have affected Iran’s calculus.
The conversation between Al Thani and Kani was “positive,” a diplomat familiar with the call said.
Biden acknowledged the challenges facing a ceasefire deal Tuesday, telling reporters traveling with him to New Orleans he’s “concerned” about negotiations between the two parties amid the looming threat of an attack on Israel from Iran.
The president rebuffed questions on what he’s doing to pressure Israel and Hamas to come to the bargaining table for proposed ceasefire deal talks Thursday, telling reporters, “If I told you what pressure that I’m putting on it, it wouldn’t be very much pressure would it?”
The regional diplomat who spoke to CNN said there is concern that Iran may not hold back on striking Israel, as the diplomat believes the Biden administration is not applying enough pressure on Netanyahu to reach an agreement.
The lack of clarity on whether the Israeli prime minister will adhere to Biden’s May proposal, the source added, suggests time is running out to strike a deal before an Iranian attack. Qatar and Egypt, the source said, may not have enough influence to push Hamas to compromise.
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Israel will say it had no choice, but its airstrikes in Lebanon risks igniting a regional war
Israel carried out "pre-emptive" strikes against Hezbollah overnight, while the militant group says it has completed the "first phase" of an attack on 11 Israeli military sites.
This appears to have been a high-stakes Israeli military operation that risked igniting a regional war.
Israel will say it had no choice: One of the pillars of Israeli military doctrine has long been the principle that offence is the best form of defence.
It is not the first time it has used its air force hoping to defang an imminent threat. Israel insists it sent an armada of warplanes to the skies over Lebanon, more than a hundred strong, to stop an 'extensive planned attack involving thousands of rocket launches' about to be let loose by Hezbollah.
Just as Israel launched audacious air attacks obliterating Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser's air force in 1967 and Saddam Hussein's atomic programme in 1981, Israel says it despatched jets overnight to neutralise Hezbollah.
It is not clear how many enemy drones and missiles were already in the air. Hezbollah claims all 11 of its targets in Israel were hit and it launched 320 Katyusha rockets.
The primary strike it says was aimed at "a qualitative Israeli military target that will be announced later" as well as "enemy sites and barracks and Iron Dome [missile defence] platforms".
Israeli intelligence sources had claimed the airbase used in the strike on Shukr and the headquarters of Unit 8200, the Israeli military intelligence agency, north of Tel Aviv, were on Hezbollah's target list.
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Hezbollah meanwhile says Israel's operation failed to pre-empt its long-awaited retaliation and insists it succeeded in striking targets deep within Israel.
Two questions for now: Hezbollah's next move and what this does to efforts to end the war in Gaza.
Will Hezbollah draw a line under the Shukr/Haniyeh affair? The organisation says today's action is over but is more planned in the coming days? All eyes are on its commander Hassan Nasrallah who will address his faithful by video link tonight.
He has not been seen in public since Hezbollah's war with Israel in 2006 for fear of being assassinated by Israeli jets himself.
Hezbollah attacked Israel in the wake of Hamas atrocities on 7 October and has been locked in an almost daily artillery duel with Israel over their border ever since.
Israeli intelligence claims Hezbollah has amassed an arsenal of 150,000 missiles secreted in the hills of southern Lebanon since 2006, 10 times the amount it possessed back then.
It has so far refrained from unleashing that firepower: Analysts believe its paymasters and patrons in Tehran prefer to keep that armoury in reserve as an insurance policy for the day Israel may attack Iran itself, as well as its alleged nuclear programme.
But Israel has been testing that theory for months now, responding with force to Hezbollah's attacks in the north. Each exchange of fire has the potential to escalate the region into a wider war through miscalculation and unintended mass civilian casualties.
So far, events overnight do not seem to have upended the fragile efforts towards a ceasefire in Gaza. Delegations are still on their way to Cairo for the next round of talks. If anything the escalation reemphasises the urgency behind the diplomacy.
But it could also offer the Israelis a distraction, should they want one, from huge pressure from the US to make the concessions required to reach a deal.
Most Israeli observers believe Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want a ceasefire on the terms currently being negotiated for fear it could lead to his coalition government falling apart.
But US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators insist the truce terms are the best and possibly last chance of bringing home Israel's hostages and ending the war.
They also believe a ceasefire in Gaza is the best way of reducing tensions in the north - which have exploded overnight so spectacularly.
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bastard staff app x, they did shadow ban again
while we have to gather people in underground communities to carry out resistance & war against Globalists, Cabals & Zionist Israel!!!
#news #community #alert #global #wars #globalist #ww3 #civilunrest #revolution #freedom #palestine
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Trump rolls back tariffs
Trump hikes China tariffs to 30% and then 84%
China reciprocates
Trump hikes tariffs to 145%
China reciprocates
Trump announces that he wants Xi to call him
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China does nothing
Trump rolls back tariffs
#Trump #News #Politics #China
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Echoes of a massacre: Tales from Israel's attack on al-Tabin
Al-Tabin School was not the first school in Gaza that Israel has targeted. But medics, journalists and survivors told Al Jazeera that Israel’s August 10 attack on it was the most gruesome massacre since Israel launched its assault on the besieged enclave in October last year.
Israel killed more than 100 displaced Palestinians, leaving victims dismembered, charred and often unidentifiable by their loved ones.
Some 2,400 displaced Palestinians, many exhausted by having been displaced several times, were sheltering in the school in eastern Gaza's Daraj neighbourhood when it was struck by two guided missiles.
The missiles blazed through the upper level, a space that women and children slept and prayed in, to reach the men's prayer area on the ground floor.
Most of the men and boys had woken up to perform the Fajr - or dawn - prayers and were gathered in that space. It was timed for maximum casualties, medics who were there said.
The nearby al-Ahli Arab Hospital - which came under attack months ago and is only partially operational with no burn ward - was overwhelmed as injuries and bodies of slain Palestinians began pouring in.
Throughout the war, Israeli forces have largely kept Gaza’s vital crossings sealed shut, blocking the entry of much-needed fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to the enclave, where famine is looming.
Al Jazeera spoke to some of the displaced people who survived the attack but lost loved ones, as well as rescue workers and medics who worked in mute horror to save as many people as they could.
Sumaya Abu Ajwa had woken up for the Fajr prayer with her two foster daughters, 16-year-old Nuseiba and 14-year-old Retaj, and their mother.
She and the girls' mother were off to one side when the missiles struck, one of them passing between the two girls, Abu Ajwa told Al Jazeera.
"Suddenly, dust and fire spread everywhere, like it was Judgement Day. I started looking frantically for the girls," she says tearfully, sitting on a bed because she has difficulty walking.
"I found the younger girl [Retaj] and held her in my arms. Her blood was pouring onto my clothes, but I could sense that she was still breathing," Abu Ajwa said, adding that she screamed for help, for anyone to come and save Retaj, but the scene was so chaotic nobody was able to help.
Soon after, Retaj succumbed to her wounds.
The search for Retaj's big sister Nuseiba took longer.
"I went back into the flaming prayer room over and over, looking for her, I couldn't see her anywhere. Then someone told me that she was under the rubble so I went to look where they said.
"When I reached her," Abu Ajwa breaks down, "I found her and her body had been torn in two."
Weeping bitterly, she said she and the girls' mother had done everything they could, through several displacements, to keep the four of them together.
Abu Ajwa had discussed leaving al-Tabin with the girls, but Nuseiba had been reluctant to leave, she said, because she was attending Quran classes there and was proud of her progress in memorising the holy book.
"She told us that if we wanted to leave that was fine, she would stay behind in the school. I told her that I had stayed with them throughout the war and wouldn't leave them now, we'd either make it together or die together, but now they've gone on ahead and left us. They died before us."
The girls only had one wish, she added - for the war to end because they "have been scared so many times, displaced so many times, they were so exhausted and had gone hungry so many times".
The girls have a 14-year-old brother, Abu Ajwa said, who had been taken from them when the Israeli army raided al-Shifa Hospital where they were sheltering at the time.
"The Israelis sent him north on his own. We were very sad then but, who knows, this may have saved him, he's the only hope we have left.
"Who will call me Mama Sumaya now? I crave those words so much," Abu Ajwa sobs.
Suzan al-Basyouni heard the impact first then realised that the school had been targeted, with the mosque hit hardest, and ran to look for her husband who had gone to perform the Fajr prayer.
"The moments of the massacre are etched into my eyes... imagine looking for your husband amid piles of human body parts, to try to identify him and not be able to," al-Basyouni told Al Jazeera.
"Inside the mosque were piles of bodies, dismembered limbs flung around. Those very few who survived were running out of the mosque screaming, in flames.
"I was struggling to get through, stepping on bodies with my own two feet. I stepped on a woman as I was trying to find my husband. I know her, she's a friend of mine and I didn't realise that I was stepping on her. She was at the mosque's entrance."
The dark made it hard for al-Basyouni and her family to find her husband and it was only when the sun rose and rescue efforts advanced a bit that they found him under a pile of bodies.
"His legs had been blown off and his abdomen torn open. He had been martyred alongside his father.
"My solace, my only hope now is that we will find ease in heaven. There is no life left to live in Gaza, we had no idea how horrific life could be and now we know that it's all over.
"There will be no earthly justice, how could there be when we live in Gaza and nobody has moved to help us? Justice will be served by God alone."
Vascular surgery consultant Tayseer al-Tanna stood in shock in the hospital corridor, recounting what he saw after the attack in a voice he was trying to control.
"I deal in science," he said. "So, I try to use my head more than my heart when it comes to treating people.
"But that day, what I saw and what I had to do, I was working with a vice gripping my heart. Yet I kept working, I couldn't stop."
The severity and sheer number of injuries he encountered have left a lasting impression on al-Tanna.
"The burns were unlike anything I’ve seen before, covering 50...70... up to 90 percent of the victims' bodies. Many lost limbs, and so many died in surgery because their injuries were so severe," he said.
Al-Tanna used to work at al-Shifa Hospital and is now the only vascular surgeon remaining in northern Gaza, working out of al-Ahli Arab Hospital where he receives cases from all over the north.
Al Jazeera Arabic’s Anas al-Sharif was among the first journalists who reported on the direct aftermath of the attack.
"I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. The number of martyrs was beyond anything I could have imagined," al-Sharif said.
"There were bodies and limbs outside the school, but nothing could prepare me for the scenes inside. I documented what was happening outside the school and kept going.
"But when I got to the mosque that had been targeted, I was so shocked that I had no words left any more," he recalled.
"I was walking over the bodies of martyrs without realising it. A very painful scene unfolded in front of me, a girl saying goodbye to her father as he died from his burns," he said.
"It’s difficult to move past something like this. Those images, I see them everywhere... in my dreams, when I’m awake."
Asked whether this shock could make him give up journalism, al-Sharif said seeing such a crime being perpetrated against the people of Gaza only makes him more determined to carry on documenting what is happening.
"There are still families who haven't found their loved ones," he said. "The victims are nothing more than body parts.
"I went to the school after the attack and saw some families trying to clean it up, they were collecting kilos and kilos of just body parts, they don't know who they are."
Momen Silmi, a civil defence worker who was among the first to reach the school, said the scenes at al-Tabin were "terrifying", with people standing outside the school, afraid to enter.
When he and his team entered, they found the scene of the strike in flames, upstairs and down.
"Some of the victims were engulfed in flames, but they couldn't extinguish the fire because their limbs had been blown off.
"No human should have to witness such a sight," Silmi said. "But we've seen so much, we were able to go in there and try to help. I would grab anything I could find and try to put out the fires that were burning some of the injured people.
"We went upstairs and the sight I saw there was appalling. Most people were burned, dismembered, disembowelled, and they were all women and children. There were no men, not even teenagers up there.
"I saw an injured mother holding her daughter of about 18 or 19 who was badly injured... her intestines were spilling out and her hands had been blown off. She had her eyes closed and was screaming out for help: 'Baba! Don't leave me please!' she was crying, holding on to me because she thought I was her father.
"I was trying to help her while my colleague was trying to calm her mother down because she was bleeding profusely as well.
"We were all deeply branded by this experience, yes we've seen a lot and helped a lot of people in terrible conditions, but working on a disembowelled injured person while their seriously injured parent or child looked on wailing, that was horrific and will stay with us forever."
"I had just woken up really, we were about to pray Fajr at the civil defence centre," rescue worker Noah al-Sharnoubi said.
"As I walked through the carnage, I felt like I was in a dream. There were tens of bodies piled up, and dismembered body parts were strewn everywhere.
"We've seen schools targeted before, we knew to expect a dozen casualties maybe, but this time the number of bodies and injured screaming for help...
"People were screaming out to me to save their mothers, brothers, and fathers, grabbing me in desperation. Sometimes I would go to them and find that their loved ones were taking their last breaths, and I would have to leave to help someone else."
Al-Sharnoubi kept working alongside his team until all the injured people on the ground floor had been taken to hospital, then he headed upstairs to help out there too.
"As I was going up the stairs, I saw a human head on the steps with a fire blazing nearby. It was a head with part of the shoulders still attached.
"I tried to move it with my hands, but they started trembling … I lost control of myself and couldn’t lift bodies or help the injured," he said.
All the rescue workers on the site cried at some point, he added, because of the severity of the attack.
"I haven't slept for three days since the massacre. The images keep replaying in my mind. This wasn't just a massacre - it was a genocide against displaced people who sought refuge in a school.
"Believers were killed while they prayed; they were children, women and the elderly."
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40,405 Palestinians killed in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, Gaza health ministry says
CAIRO, Aug 25 (Reuters) - At least 40,405 Palestinians have been killed and 93,468 others injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, said the Gaza Health Ministry.
In the last 24-hours, 71 were killed and 112 were injured in what the ministry called three "massacres" by Israel in the strip.
The recent war in Gaza started after Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel says it goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties and accuses Hamas of using human shields, an allegation the group denies.
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Trump softens tone on Zelenskyy but repeats threat to take over Greenland
Donald Trump has said he appreciated Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s willingness to sign a minerals deal with the United States and come to the negotiating table to bring a lasting peace in Ukraine closer.
“Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskyy of Ukraine,” the US president said in a speech to Congress after last week’s disastrous meeting at the White House. Quoting from the letter, Trump said Zelenskyy told him that “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians.”
“My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts,” Trump quoted Zelenskyy as writing. “We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence.”
#TheGuardian #News
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Israel launches air attacks near Syria’s Tartous
Israel has carried out air strikes near Syria’s Mediterranean port city of Tartous, Syrian state media has reported.
An Israeli army statement on Monday said that its forces “struck a military site where weapons belonging to the previous Syrian regime were stored in the area of Qardaha”, the hometown of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, some 60km (37 miles) north of the Tartous port.
#Aljazeera #News #Israel #Syria
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Canada is caught in a ‘double trade war’ — and one premier is urging Ottawa to drop its fight against China
OTTAWA — On top of threatened U.S. tariffs, China has brought down another hammer on many Canadian farm and seafood exports, hitting them with a “double trade war” that industry leaders say will slam Canadian producers.
In response, B.C. Premier David Eby called on Ottawa to drop its tariff fight against China, saying Canada got nothing out of trying to align trade policy with the United States last fall ahead of President Donald Trump’s election.
Eby, who stepped up measures against the United States along with Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday, said the government of Canada should offer a concession in the trade dispute it has with China.
#TheStar #News
#Canda
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Trump has instructed to raise Canadian tariffs on aluminum and steel to 50%
Trump orders more tariffs on Canada after Ontario levies tax on electricity exports
Donald Trump has ordered an increase in tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum and threatened to impose more levies, after Ontario yesterday slapped a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to three US states.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump said he would “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” if the country did not end unspecified tariffs it had placed on US goods:
Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% Tariff on “Electricity” coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to ad an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th. Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous. I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada. If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada. Those cars can easily be made in the USA!
Ontario’s addition of a 25% electricity surcharge affects New York, Minnesota and Michigan, which receive electricity from the province.
#News #Canada #USA #TheGuardian
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Kenyan police deployed to Haiti haven’t received full promised salary in two months
Hundreds of Kenyan police officers leading an international policing force in Haiti have not received their full pay for two months, the latest complication in what has been a rocky start to the security mission in the gang-plagued Caribbean nation.
The first Kenyan officers deployed to Haiti arrived in June, the vanguard of a multinational security support mission (MSS) that is being funded largely by the United States. There are now around 400 Kenyan police in the country, many from specialized units.
In an August 25 statement acknowledging delays to payments, the MSS announced that officers could expect the missing funds to hit their bank accounts this week.
“Therefore, there is nothing to worry about (regarding) welfare issues of the MSS officers, since mainstream processes have been finalized,” the MSS added.
In a “progress report” released Monday, Kenya’s National Police Service (NPS) said that the officers were continuing “to draw their NPS salaries” while waiting for the supplemental pay for their MSS duties.
Kenyan officers had expected to be paid a significant supplement for their Haiti deployment – a grueling assignment more typical of a military than of a police force. Officers are not allowed to leave their base in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince during non-working hours.
Speaking to CNN, some officers expressed frustration and concern about the missing supplemental payments. With schools reopening in Kenya this week, some say they need the money urgently to manage school fees and other expenses for their families back home.
“The officers feel frustrated after not having been paid for two months. And we hear that the money has already been sent to Kenya but they haven’t paid us, so please help us out,” one officer in Haiti told CNN before the police statement was released, requesting anonymity.
The MSS force is expected to ultimately grow to 2,500, with more troops expected from Jamaica, Benin, Chad, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados and Belize. The force is hoped to bolster the Haitian National Police’s battles against an alliance of gangs that controls an estimated 85% of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.
Around 600,000 Haitians have been forced to flee their homes due to gang violence, and some 2 million people live in gang-ravaged areas where fear of attack is constant, Haitian interim Prime Minister Garry Conille said in an interview with CNN in early August.
The MSS is financed through a UN-managed trust fund, to which the US, Canada, France and Spain have contributed millions of dollars. The United States has committed at least $380 million overall in support of the mission, largely in the form of equipment and materiel.
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Arab Leaders have an alternative to Trump's GAZA plan - "Draft" statement obtained by the BBC
A $53bn (£41.4 billion) reconstruction plan to rival President Donald Trump's idea for the US to "take over Gaza" and move out more than two million Palestinians has been approved by Arab leaders at an emergency summit in the Egyptian capital Cairo.
"The Egypt plan is now an Arab plan," announced the secretary general of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit at the end of this hours-long gathering.
Without referring specifically to President Trump's ideas, he underlined that "the Arab stance is to reject any displacement, whether it is voluntary or forced".
Egypt had produced a detailed blueprint, with a 91-page glossy document including images of leafy neighbourhoods and grand public buildings, to counter a US scheme labelled as a "Middle East Riviera" which shocked the Arab world and beyond.
#USA #US #GAZA #Egypt #News #BBC
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