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Trump invites Israel’s Netanyahu to meet with him at White House

The Israeli prime minister will be the first foreign leader to visit in Trump’s second term

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Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu

US President Donald Trump has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House next week as the first foreign leader to visit in Trump’s second term, Netanyahu and the White House said Tuesday.

The announcement came as the United States pressures Israel and Hamas to continue a ceasefire that has paused a devastating 15-month war in Gaza, Associated Press reported. 

Talks about the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which aims to end the war, begin Monday.

In a letter from the White House, shared by Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday, Trump said: “I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries.”

Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid, and Netanyahu is likely to encourage Trump not to hold up some weapons deliveries the way the Biden administration did, though it continued other deliveries and overall military support.

Netanyahu also reportedly wants Trump to put more pressure on Iran, and renew efforts to deliver a historic normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a rival of Iran and the Arab world’s most powerful country.

Even before taking office this month, Trump was sending his special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to the region to apply pressure along with the Biden administration to get the current Gaza ceasefire achieved.

But Netanyahu has vowed to renew the war if Hamas doesn’t meet his demands in negotiations over the ceasefire’s second phase, meant to discuss a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a “sustainable calm,” AP reported. 

Trump’s suspension of aid sets off alarm bells

According to Washington-based think tank, the Brookings Institution, there is a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability about Trump’s presidency in the coming months not just domestically but also internationally.  

One area of growing concerns is that related to US foreign aid after Trump suspended all funding for 90 days, pending a review. 

Humanitarian organisations and U.N. agencies say they could face drastic curbs on their ability to distribute food, shelter and healthcare if the freeze becomes permanent.

The U.S. is by far the biggest contributor to global humanitarian aid, supplying an estimated $13.9 billion in 2024, accounting for 42% of all aid tracked by the United Nations, Reuters reported. 

Washington did however say it would grant waivers to the freeze in some areas including emergency food assistance, according to a memo seen by Reuters. 

Bangladesh's government said in a statement that the U.S. had granted a waiver for emergency food aid to more than a million Rohingya refugees sheltering in Bangladesh.

But the exemption does not apply to other humanitarian programming. A Bangladesh-based aid worker said organisations working on shelter, for example, would not be able to buy new materials for building and fixing homes for refugees.

The cuts will also affect the supply of lifesaving drugs for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis around the globe, which millions of people depend on, according to another memo seen by Reuters.

World Food Program Country Director for Afghanistan Hsiao-Wei Lee told Reuters she was concerned about the freeze given that the WFP was already only receiving about half the aid it needed for Afghanistan, and that over 6 million people were surviving on "just bread and tea".

The WFP received $4.7 billion from the U.S. last year, accounting for 54% of its funding, according to the U.N.

The order to freeze funding has thrown USAID missions and their partners into chaos, with many organisations unsure whether to lay off staff, start selling assets such as cars or tell employees to take unpaid leave, according to a source at the agency. 

USAID has been forbidden from communicating with implementing partners except to say funds have been paused, the person told Reuters.

"These are people we work with on a daily basis," the source added. "We can’t speak with them any more."

In 2023, the U.S. was the largest landmine action donor with a total contribution of $310 million, representing 39% of all international support, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. 

Syria, Myanmar, Ukraine and Afghanistan were among the countries where uncleared mines claim most lives.

The State Department said on Sunday, that the U.S. government must refocus on American national interests in its role as steward of taxpayer dollars.

"President Trump stated clearly that the United States is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people. Reviewing and realigning foreign assistance on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not just the right thing to do, it is a moral imperative," the State Department said.

 

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Trump says Hamas should free all hostages by midday Saturday or ‘let hell break out’

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump’s statement that Palestinians would not be able to return to Gaza was “irresponsible.”

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Hamas should release all hostages held by the militant group in Gaza by midday Saturday or he would propose canceling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and "let hell break out."

Trump cautioned that Israel might want to override him on the issue and said he might speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuters reported.

But in a wide-ranging session with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump expressed frustration with the condition of the last group of hostages freed by Hamas and by the announcement by the militant group that it would halt further releases.

"As far as I'm concerned, if all of the hostages aren't returned by Saturday at 12 o'clock, I think it's an appropriate time. I would say, cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out. I'd say they ought to be returned by 12 o'clock on Saturday," Trump said.

He said he wanted the hostages released en masse, instead of a few at a time. "We want 'em all back."

Trump also said he might withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt if they don't take Palestinian refugees being relocated from Gaza. He is to meet Jordan's King Abdullah on Tuesday.

The comments came on a day of some confusion over Trump's proposal for a U.S. takeover of Gaza once the fighting stops.

He said Palestinians would not have the right of return to the Gaza Strip under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, contradicting his own officials who had suggested Gazans would only be relocated temporarily, read the report.

In an excerpt of an interview with Fox News channel's Bret Baier broadcast on Monday, Trump added that he thought he could make a deal with Jordan and Egypt to take the displaced Palestinians, saying the U.S. gives the two countries "billions and billions of dollars a year."

Asked if Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza, Trump said: "No, they wouldn't because they're going to have much better housing."

"I'm talking about building a permanent place for them," he said, adding it would take years for Gaza to be habitable again.

In a shock announcement on Feb. 4 after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, Trump proposed resettling Gaza's 2.2 million Palestinians and the U.S. taking control of the seaside enclave, redeveloping it into the "Riviera of the Middle East."

Trump's suggestion of Palestinian displacement has been repeatedly rejected by Gaza residents and Arab states, and labeled by rights advocates and the United Nations as a proposal of ethnic cleansing.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump's statement that Palestinians would not be able to return to Gaza was "irresponsible."

"We affirm that such plans are capable of igniting the region," he told Reuters on Monday.

Netanyahu, who praised the proposal, suggested Palestinians would be allowed to return. "They can leave, they can then come back, they can relocate and come back. But you have to rebuild Gaza," he said the day after Trump's announcement, Reuters reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will depart later this week for his first visit to the Middle East in the office, said on Thursday that Palestinians would have to "live somewhere else in the interim," during reconstruction, although he declined to explicitly rule out their permanent displacement.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the disparity between Rubio and Trump's most recent remarks on the plan.

Trump's comments come as a fragile ceasefire reached last month between Israel and Hamas is at risk of collapse after Hamas announced on Monday it would stop releasing Israeli hostages over alleged Israeli violations of the agreement.

Israel's Arab neighbors, including Egypt and Jordan, have said any plan to transfer Palestinians from their land would destabilize the region, read the report.

Rubio met Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in Washington on Monday. Egypt's foreign ministry said Abdelatty told Rubio that Arab countries support Palestinians in rejecting Trump's plan. Cairo fears Palestinians could be forced across Egypt's border with Gaza.

Trump said in the Fox News interview that between two and six communities could be built for the Palestinians "a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is."

"I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent," he said.

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Trump says US is making progress with Russia, declines to discuss talks with Putin

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are seen by Russia as possible venues for a summit, Reuters reported earlier this month.

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he believed the United States was making progress in its talks to end thewar between Russia and Ukraine, but declined to provide details about any communications he had had with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Reuters reported.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump indicated that the two men had been in contact; that would mark the first officially acknowledged conversation between Putin and a U.S president since early 2022.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he believed the United States was making progress in its talks to end thewar between Russia and Ukraine, but declined to provide details about any communications he had had with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump indicated that the two men had been in contact; that would mark the first officially acknowledged conversation between Putin and a U.S president since early 2022.

Trump has promised to end the war but not set out yet in public how he would do so.

In a Friday interview with the New York Post, Trump said that he had "better not say" how many times he and Putin had spoken and did not disclose when the latest conversation had taken place.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS state news agency that "many different communications are emerging."

"I personally may not know something, be unaware of something," Peskov said when asked by TASS to comment. "Therefore, in this case, I can neither confirm nor deny it."

U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz also declined to elaborate when asked about communications between the two countries, read the report.

"There certainly are a lot of sensitive conversations going on," Waltz said on NBC News.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war and that he will meet with Putin to discuss it, though the date or venue for such a meeting has not been announced. Trump told reporters on Sunday that he would meet with Putin at an appropriate time.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are seen by Russia as possible venues for a summit, Reuters reported earlier this month.

In the coming days, a flurry of U.S. officials are heading to Europe in part to discuss the war, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Keith Kellogg, the special envoy for the Ukraine war.

Waltz indicated that Trump would be willing to use sanctions and tariffs to coax Putin to the negotiating table.

Waltz said U.S. and Ukrainian officials would discuss the United States gaining access to Ukraine's rare earth resources as compensation for U.S. aid to the eastern European ally.

On June 14, Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia, Reuters reported.

Reuters reported in November that Putin is open to discussing a Ukraine peace deal with Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists that Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.

The Kremlin has repeatedly urged caution over speculation about contacts with the Trump team over a possible peace deal.

Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian parliament's international affairs committee, was cited by the state RIA news agency on Thursday as saying that preparations for such a meeting were at "an advanced stage" and that it could take place in February or March.

Putin last spoke to former U.S. President Joe Biden in February 2022, shortly before Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine.

Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward in his 2024 book "War" reported that Trump had direct conversations as many as seven times with Putin after he left the White House in 2021.

Asked if that were true in an interview to Bloomberg last year, Trump said: "If I did, it's a smart thing." The Kremlin denied Woodward's report.

Reuters, The Washington Post and Axios reported separately that Trump and Putin talked in early November. The Kremlin also denied those reports.

On Friday, Trump said he would probably meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy the following week to discuss ending the war. Zelenskiy told Reuters that he wanted Ukraine to supply the United States with rare earths and other minerals in return for financially supporting its war effort.

Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, calling it a "special military operation" to protect Russian speakers and counter what he said was a grave threat to Russia from potential Ukrainian membership of NATO.

Ukraine and its Western backers, led by the United States, said the invasion was an imperial-style land grab and vowed to defeat Russian forces.

Moscow controls a chunk of Ukraine about the size of the American state of Virginia and is advancing at the fastest pace since the early days of the 2022 invasion.

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Trump revokes security clearances for Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan

The move came a day after Trump said he had revoked the security clearance for his predecessor Joe Biden, stopping his access to daily intelligence briefings, Reuters reported.

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President Donald Trump has revoked security clearances for Antony Blinken, the former secretary of state, and Jake Sullivan, the former national security adviser, White House officials said on Saturday.

The move came a day after Trump said he had revoked the security clearance for his predecessor Joe Biden, stopping his access to daily intelligence briefings, Reuters reported.

Trump also revoked security clearances for Biden's Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who helped coordinate the Department of Justice's response to the January 6, 2021, attacks by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol, the officials said on Saturday.

They said Trump also removed the clearances of the New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, both of whom led cases against Trump.

While the revocations may not have immediate impacts, it is another sign of the growing rift in Washington. Former U.S. presidents have traditionally received intelligence briefings so they can advise incumbent presidents on national security and foreign policy, read the report.

In 2021, Biden revoked the security clearance for Trump, who was then a former president.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month revoked the personal security detail and security clearance for Mark Milley, a retired Army general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Milley, who served as the top U.S. military officer during some of Trump's first presidential term, became a leading critic of him after retiring as a four-star general in 2023 during Biden's administration, Reuters reported.

Many of Biden's diplomats had worked with incoming Trump officials in the weeks before Jan. 20, when Trump took office, on issues including Russia's war in Ukraine.

Blinken could not be immediately reached for comment.

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