Trump promises talks with Iran
US President Donald Trump has Talks with Iran promised and at the same time another warship was sent to the region. “I plan to do that, yes,” said Trump on Thursday (local time) when asked about possible negotiations with Tehran. “We have a lot of very large, very powerful ships heading towards Iran right now, and it would be great if we didn’t have to use them,” he added. However, Trump did not comment further on the nature or timing of a dialogue. He also did not say who would lead the negotiations for Washington.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the military was now waiting for Trump’s orders: “We are ready to implement everything the president asks of the War Department,” said Hegseth. Tensions between the US and Iran have escalated in recent weeks following the bloody crackdown on protests by the Iranian authorities. However, the nationwide demonstrations have now subsided. Trump had also threatened to intervene if Tehran resumed its nuclear program following air strikes by Israeli and US forces on key nuclear facilities in June. (rtr)
Trump threatens Canada with 50 percent tariff on aircraft
US President Donald Trump has threatened Canada with 50 percent tariffs on all aircraft sold in the US. In his announcement, which he posted on social media on Thursday (local time), the president said he was responding to Canada’s refusal to certify aircraft from Georgia-based manufacturer Gulfstream Aerospace.
In return, the US would revoke the certification of all Canadian aircraft, including those made by Bombardier, Trump said. “If for any reason this situation is not immediately corrected, I will impose a 50 percent tariff on Canada on all aircraft sold to the United States of America,” Trump wrote in his post. Canadian government spokesmen did not immediately comment.
Trump said he was “hereby withdrawing” the certification of Bombardier Global Express business jets. Aviation expert John Gradek of McGill University said if the U.S. were to revoke a plane’s air travel license for trade reasons, it would be unprecedented. The registration of aircraft is not about trade advantages, but about safety in air traffic. “The approval is not a banality. It is a very important step so that aircraft can be operated safely,” said Gradek. “There will be no decertification for trade reasons.”
Bombardier said it had noted Trump’s statements and was in contact with the Canadian government. The company’s aircraft have been fully certified according to US Federal Aviation Administration standards. “We hope that this matter will be resolved quickly to avoid significant impacts on air traffic (…).”
Trump’s threat followed his weekend announcement that he would impose 100 percent tariffs on goods imported from Canada if Prime Minister Mark Carney moves forward with a trade deal with China. Gradek expressed suspicion that Trump was not primarily concerned with Gulfstream. “This is a new salvo in the trade war,” he said. “This takes the matter to the extreme.” (ap)
Trump threatens tariffs against Cuba’s oil suppliers
US President Donald Trump threatens Cuba’s oil suppliers with additional tariffs to weaken the Caribbean country’s energy supply. The additional tariffs should be levied starting today, Friday, on goods imported into the United States from countries from which Cuba sources its oil. This emerges from a regulation by Trump that the White House published. The Foreign Minister of the socialist-ruled island state, Bruno Rodríguez, strongly condemned this “new escalation by the USA against Cuba” in a post on the X platform.
To justify this, the US relied on “a long list of lies designed to portray Cuba as a threat that it is not,” Rodríguez continued. “The only malign influence is that which the U.S. government exerts on the nations and peoples of our America in an attempt to subject them to its dictates,” the post continued.
The threatened additional tariffs concern products from countries that sell crude oil or petroleum products to Cuba directly or through third countries and intermediaries. How high the additional tariffs – which have not yet been imposed – are was not stated in the regulation. And Trump still wants to decide which countries the USA will specifically target.
Relations between Havana and Washington, which have been tense for decades, have deteriorated significantly since Trump took office a year ago. Trump accuses the Caribbean island’s communist government of harming the USA – and could effectively cause the already ailing Cuban economy to collapse completely by stopping oil deliveries from abroad. (dpa)
Trump wants to introduce his favorite central bank chiefs today
US President Donald Trump wants to announce his preferred candidate to succeed US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who has fallen out of favor with him, today. After he had initially promised the announcement of the personnel on Thursday for next week, Trump surprisingly moved the timing forward a few hours later: he would announce the name as early as Friday morning (local time), he told journalists.
Several names are being discussed as a successor to Powell, whose term as head of the Federal Reserve (Fed) ends in May. Trump’s advisor Kevin Hassett, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, current Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Blackrock manager Rick Rieder were recently discussed. After Hassett was considered the favorite for a while, most US media are now betting on Warsh.
The right to propose a new head of the central bank lies with the US President, but the Senate must approve the appointment. And in the powerful chamber of parliament, Trump and his candidate are facing considerable headwinds. The background is a criminal investigation against Powell, which is being pushed forward by the Justice Department. Accordingly, Powell is said to have made false statements to the Senate in connection with the renovation of central bank buildings in Washington – which he denies. Critics see the judiciary’s actions as an attempt to exert political influence on the Fed.
Before a vote in the full Senate, the candidacy of Powell’s potential successor must pass through the Finance Committee of the Parliamentary Chamber. Trump’s Republican party colleague Thom Tillis has announced that he will initially block all Fed nominations there until the investigations against Powell are over. (dpa)
US Defense Secretary apparently skips NATO meeting
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will apparently be absent from an important meeting of NATO defense ministers next month. Hegseth will not attend the meeting on February 12 at NATO headquarters in Brussels, a US government official and a NATO diplomat said on Thursday. It would be the second time in a row that a senior member of President Donald Trump’s administration has absented himself from a meeting of the military alliance. Foreign Minister Marco Rubio did not attend a NATO meeting in December. The Pentagon and NATO declined to comment.
“If this is confirmed, it would be a bad signal at a very tense time in transatlantic relations,” said Oana Lungescu, a former NATO spokeswoman. It will only deepen the other allies’ concerns about the US’s commitment to NATO. Lungescu now works as an expert for the Rusi think tank. Until Trump’s second term in office, it was considered highly unusual for a US minister to stay away from a NATO meeting. Hegseth’s absence is consistent with the new US military doctrine. The National Defense Strategy released last week said allies in Europe and elsewhere should take the lead against threats that are more serious to them than to the United States. Washington will provide crucial but more limited support. Instead of Hegseth, Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, who is responsible for the new strategy, is expected at the meeting in Brussels, it said.
The relationship between US President Trump and NATO is considered tense. His desire to acquire Greenland, which belongs to Denmark, recently caused anger. Jamie Shea, a former senior NATO official, called Hegseth’s likely absence unfortunate. This is particularly true because Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte have agreed that the alliance should play a larger role in Arctic security in order to reduce tensions over Greenland. (rtr)
Stricter rules for ICE under discussion
After the fatal shooting of two US citizens in Minneapolis The Democratic Party is calling for stricter rules for the immigration agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other emergency services that are subordinate to the Department of Homeland Security in Washington. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday evening an agreement with the White House on a compromise that would allow for further negotiations on the draft budget for the Department of Homeland Security.
Schumer is calling for stricter requirements for ICE operations in Minneapolis and other US cities. Among other things, he called for an end to undercover patrols, a ban on masks for federal employees and the use of body cameras to document the actions.
The Democrats had tied their approval to continued funding of the federal administration, and in particular the Department of Homeland Security, to concessions made by US President Donald Trump’s government in the dispute over ICE. Trump said on Thursday evening that the White House had found a compromise with the Democrats that would allow five of the six parts of the budget bill to be passed.
The agreement with the White House on the draft budget for the Department of Homeland Security does not mention specific demands such as the ban on masks for ICE employees. Instead, further negotiations are planned to rewrite the draft budget within two weeks before the ministry would be affected by a shutdown.
This will probably prevent a long-term budget freeze. Due to the fact that the US House of Representatives, which has to approve the new budget law, does not meet until Monday, there will be a short shutdown starting Saturday night. The last time there was a budget blockade in the USA was in the fall; at 43 days, it was the longest blockade in history.
What is ICE accused of?
The main problem: Trump is deploying the emergency services on a massive scale in cities and states governed by Democrats and is exploiting them like no president before him against his political opponents, for example in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Refugee workers and researchers also accuse the authority under Trump of violating fundamental rights, for example through excessive violence against migrants and demonstrators or inhumane conditions in deportation centers. According to media reports, the Department of Homeland Security also allowed ICE employees to enter migrants’ houses and apartments without a court order.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claims ICE is arresting “the worst of the worst” among undocumented aliens – including “murderers, predators, fraudsters and drug smugglers,” according to online channels from her department, which oversees ICE and the Border Patrol (CBP). However, an analysis by the Cato think tank shows that this is not the case. Nearly three in four people (73 percent) in ICE custody had no criminal conviction. Only five percent were convicted of a violent crime, the rest for moral offenses, making false statements to immigration or traffic violations. (afp)