Dozens of world leaders head to Washington for what White House says will largely be a fundraiser on Thursday

Dozens of world leaders and national delegations will meet in Washington DC tomorrow for the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, as major European allies declined to join the group and criticised the organisation’s murky funding and political mandate.

The White House has indicated that tomorrow’s summit for his new ad hoc council at the renamed Donald J Trump Institute of Peace will heavily function as a fundraising round, with Trump announcing on social media that countries have pledged more than $5bn toward rebuilding Gaza, which has been devastated in the war with Israel and remains in a humanitarian crisis.

. . .

But, despite Trump’s characteristic bombast, the Board of Peace summit will open to heavy scepticism, with expectations limited both for the meeting tomorrow in Washington and in the Middle East, where the 100-day peace and recovery plan announced by Jared Kushner in Davos has stalled and aid into Gaza remains at a trickle.

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Separately, Israel's public broadcaster KAN said that the Security Cabinet meeting scheduled for Thursday to discuss developments in Iran has been rescheduled for Sunday, without providing any additional details.

Trump is clearly going to wait until the Winter Olympics end on the 22nd to launch the Iran War, I don't know why everyone is freaking out it would be bad television to step on the Winter Olympics with starting the war too soon, well that is unless the US isn't allowed to get enough Gold Medals... but then that will be the rest of the world's fault won't it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Winter_Olympics#%3A%7E%3Atext=The+2026+Winter+Olympics+officially+the+XXV%2Cin+selected+events+beginning+4+February+2026.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/29263

GREECE is working with four other European countries to set up deportation centres beyond their borders, “preferably in Africa,” Migration Minister Thanos Plevris said today.

From Morning Star via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/55146202

Everyone saw this coming but it's terrifying to watch it become a reality.

85-page report: Farmers Have no Freedom: Abuse and Exploitation of Cotton and Wheat Farmers in Uzbekistan— PDF.

• The Uzbek government is violating the human and labor rights of cotton and wheat farmers through a coercive state production system, including penalties such as land seizure for not meeting quotas.
• Though the government has ended state-imposed forced labor of cotton pickers in the cotton harvest and has committed to broader reforms, the remaining system of strategic crop cultivation and production in Uzbekistan still creates a risk of forced labor for cotton and wheat farmers.
• The government should ensure compliance with recent laws and decrees that offer farmers better rights protections, end the quota system, and engage farmers in policy discussions around agricultural reforms.

Speaking at an event held by his far-right Religious Zionism party with local settlement leaders, [Finance Minister] Smotrich laid out what he said should be the goals of the next government, including doing away with the 1990s-era Oslo Accords and applying Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank, a move akin to annexation.

“Destroy the idea of an Arab terror state; finally, formally and practically cancel the cursed Oslo Accords and get on the path of sovereignty, while encouraging migration both from Gaza and from Judea and Samaria,” said Smotrich, using the biblical term for the West Bank. “There is no other long-term solution.”

The idea, which critics say amounts to ethnic cleansing, has been pushed repeatedly by far-right leaders, including Smotrich, in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, but until now has largely focused on Gaza.

Thanks for sending us straight to hell Genocide Joe, you could have stopped this but you handed the US military machine over to fascists with a faith and convinction that was unwavering. Now our souls must pay the price for complicity in genocide while Joe Biden's waits in hell for his geriatric body to finally shut down and follow his conscience home.

A lot of people are going to die, including US service members, this is a solemn moment to reflect on how this will be a choice we could have avoided. We must never forget in the aftermath of trauma that this will is not a random act of nature but a targeted, willing dismantling of geopolitical global stability that was undertaken precisely because it could not be revoked.

I hope I am wrong, but I see no point in putting energy into hoping this war will be avoided at this point given all the obvious signs the US military has likely already committed itself to the warpath. I doubt these are real negotiations with Iran, the way I see it they are far more likely the establishment of pretext for rationalizing violence while keeping the target distracted until the Winter Olympics end so the news can focus on Trump's "heroics" and all the weapons can be gathered in place.

Further it is likely Trump needs an excuse not to be able to give Ukraine air defense missiles so that Putin can continue to terrorize Ukraine, an attack would be extremely convenient for Trump and his daddy if a whole bunch of super expensive US missile interceptors were used.

If you don't think we are about to go to war with Iran, ask yourself this - Do you think Trump is capable of NOT using all the shiny powerful military toys that have spent weeks gathering to grab headlines and distract from the Epstein Files? All the military might is concentrated in an unmistakable posture of war, there is no other strongman move Trump can take than to order them to fire, telling all of that military might to back off now would require restraint which Trump does not possess even in homeopathic amounts and it also would superficially feel unsatisfying from a PR standpoint which is all Trump cares about, especially when people are talking about how he is a pedophile..

War is coming

India grants some exemptions for Chinese power, coal equipment

Restrictions since 2020 caused shortages, slowing key projects

Formal order expected soon, sources say

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43342043

Eighteen defendants allegedly involved in a Palestine Action raid on an Israeli-owned arms factory in the UK will no longer face charges of aggarvated burglary, after six others were acquitted of the same charges.

At Woolwich Crown Court in London on Wednesday, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said the Crown Prosecution Service had "reconsidered the sufficiency of the evidence" and would offer no evidence on that charge. The 18 will continue to face other charges in connection with the alleged raid.

The move follows the acquittal of six other defendants on charges of aggravated burglary in connection with the same break-in at an Elbit Systems plant near Bristol in August 2024. Heer confirmed on Wednesday that those six defendants face a retrial at a date yet to be fixed on all charges which had not ended in verdicts, including criminal damage and violent disorder.

They were held for around 18 months on remand - in excess of standard UK pre-trial custody time limits of six months.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet told Reuters on Tuesday that Thai forces are occupying Cambodian territory after fighting last year despite a peace accord brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, and called on Thailand to allow a joint boundary commission to begin working on their disputed border.

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/59323067

In all these Russian missiles and drones that were used today, there are thousands of components that Russia does not produce itself. Five "Iskander-M" missiles contain at least 75 critical components of non-Russian origin. Three "Kh-101" missiles contain almost 160 components that Russia cannot replace on its own. Each "Shahed" contains hundreds of such components that are imported into Russia from other countries, and not only from Chinese companies, by the way. Also Europe, America, Japan

• said Zelenskyy.

https://archive.is/XXtFI