Category: News

US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday in a post to Truth Social that he has agreed to a request from the military to transform his proposed triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC, into a facility for housing and deploying drones and sniper ammunition. 

Trump cited national security concerns for the move but did not mention any specific threats in the post.

“There will be no facility like this anywhere in the World. Out of the 59 top cities and Capitals, Washington, D.C., IS THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD THAT DOES NOT HAVE A TRIUMPHAL ARCH, but it will now and, by far, the greatest of them all!” Trump’s post stated.

Trump’s plan to build the arch has faced heavy criticism since its announcement for various reasons, including its location and the potential to obstruct views of other monuments in Washington.

The Federal Aviation Administration said last week that the 250-foot (76-meter) arch would not pose a hazard to aircraft but would be required to have an “eternal flame” on top, clearing an aviation hurdle for the arch, which Trump proposed to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Aviation experts have raised safety concerns given its proximity to Reagan Washington National Airport while veterans have sued to block the arch, arguing it would destroy the historic sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

The project is part of the president's broader drive to reshape Washington's monumental landscape, including a new White House ballroom, renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and redevelopment of a golf course in East Potomac Park.

Caribbean officials are considering legal strategies in an effort to get the United Kingdom into a negotiation for a reparations deal, The Guardian reported on Saturday.

The recent push came during the CARICOM Regional Conference on Reparations, which took place from Thursday to Saturday, the Guardian reported. 

The conference was hosted by Barbados, and, according to its website, featured between 150-20 representatives from numerous Caribbean nations, including governmental officials, academics, activists, and cultural leaders.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley compared slavery to the Holocaust during the conference, the Guardian cited, pointing out that the German government had repaid the Jewish community $95b. 

She said that she did not want anybody to "diminish the fact that in this country here, which I have the honor to lead, that from settlement in 1627, 400 years ago next year, for 211 years, not six, people were treated as chattel.

“If they dared to speak or to do things that were displeasing, their lives and limbs were put at risk. The evidence is clear. What is absent is the will,” she said.

“We need a concrete, multigenerational plan,” Ralph Gonsalves, former prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines who now serves as an elder and adviser for the Repair Campaign, said.

According to the Guardian, Gonsalves challenged claims that Britain was not obligated to pay reparations due to it not having violated historical laws during the era of transatlantic slavery.

“The fact is that the consequences of slavery fall squarely under the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which obliges states to help address the consequences of native genocide and slavery,” Gonsalves said.

Among the legal strategies which may be employed by Caribbean nations is going to the International Court of Justice, David Comissiong, deputy chair of the Barbados National Task Force on Reparations, said.

Another option currently being employed by Jamaica, the Guardian cited Comissiong as saying, was “trying to engage with the national legal judicial system of the UK, the privy council.”

The chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, Prof Sir Hilary Beckles, called reparations a matter of justice.

“When Jamaica took its petition to the UK, we had to surround that petition with the fact that when Jamaica became independent in 1962, 80% of the black people in Jamaica could not read or write,” he said. “After 300 years of British colonization, they moved into independence with 80% illiteracy. How do you build a modern nation, not even a competitive economy, with 80% illiteracy?”

World leaders gather in New York this week for the UN General Assembly, bracing for US President Donald Trump's return to the rostrum for a second year running, with talks centering on the widening conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and the risks of artificial intelligence.

Nearly 130 heads of state meet with the post-World War Two order under strain and with the UN itself struggling to remain relevant and weathering attacks from Trump, who has slashed America's contributions and withdrawn from dozens of UN bodies.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who last addressed the diplomatic jamboree via video in 2021, will skip New York in favor of one-on-one talks with Trump in Washington on Thursday, fueling debate about the UN's relevance in addressing global crises.

Compounding the crisis of morale and finance are questions about the next leader of the 80-year-old organization: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres completes his term at the end of 2026, with no clear frontrunner in the race to replace him.

The 15-member UN Security Council may hold high-level meetings on Ukraine, AI, and the Middle East, including talks with Arab leaders, diplomats said.

More than a year into Trump's second term, "we would no longer say that the UN is in freefall, but we would say that it's stuck in an open-ended crisis," said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.

"The UN may not be in emergency care like it was last year, but it seems to be trapped in a trauma center for the foreseeable future," Gowan said.

The US avoided losing its vote at the assembly by paying $725 million in contributions to the regular budget this week, but it still owes the organization more than a billion dollars and makes ongoing demands for cuts and reforms.

The assembly meets shortly after several artificial intelligence industry leaders called for a coordinated slowdown of the development of the technology, warning that it could soon improve on its own and escape human control.

Guterres has said that AI will be a major topic, adding that countries pushing its frontiers should set up "common guardrails in order to avoid this race to the bottom that could lead one day to a gigantic disaster at the global level."

The secretary-general has long proposed global governance of AI. In 2023, the UN created an advisory body on the technology, with members including tech executives, government officials and academics.

The warning has put Guterres at odds with Trump, who dismissed AI risks as a “hoax,” saying there is a “sick conspiracy” against it and that China would benefit from the doubt being cast on its development.

The Middle East will again be a focus of discussions, as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues to drive global inflation and destabilize the region. Recent gains by Houthi terrorists threaten shipping in ​the vital Bab al-Mandab Strait and could further spike energy prices.

"It's very difficult to have a military solution for that problem, and the experience of fighting in Yemen demonstrated how complicated it is to have successful interventions," said Guterres, adding that the UN's envoy on Yemen was making a "huge effort" to advance talks.

Peace talks remain stalled, however, as Iran and the US continue to exchange strikes and Trump threatens a major escalation of the war.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is scheduled to address the assembly on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court and will reportedly face protests following his arrival, is due to speak on Thursday.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will for the second year running not be at the gathering in person. The US, a close Israeli ally, again denied him a visa. On Thursday, the General Assembly voted to allow Abbas to appear via video.

There is likely to be a high-level meeting on the conflict in Sudan on the sidelines, diplomats said, although a diplomatic breakthrough is unlikely.

Also on the agenda is Russia's more than four-year-old war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will address the General Assembly. Zelensky will likely seek to shore up Ukraine's position ahead of what is expected to be another tough winter, diplomats said.

The Security Council has been unable to take action to end the conflict because permanent member Russia holds a veto.

Trump has at times appeared frustrated that he has been unable to broker an end to the war, a goal he declared a priority when he began his second term in January last year. The US president spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin earlier this month, but it was unclear whether he plans to meet Zelensky in New York.

Guterres highlighted the impact the war was having on civilians but also on food security and energy prices.

"The effective blockade existing in the Black Sea is creating enormous problems that add to the problems generated by the Middle East crisis, and I think it would be very important to find a way to allow Ukrainian exports and Russian exports of food, fertilizers and energy to take place in a safe way through the Black Sea," he said.

US President Donald Trump announced his intention to form an “AI Force” to assist in the development of the artificial intelligence industry in a Truth Social post on Saturday, after claiming that warnings about the risks of AI were a hoax.

Trump also declared that an "AI 'Czar'" would be appointed over the force, adding that "Only High IQ individuals need apply!"

In his post, Trump listed the decimation of AI among a variety of concepts he believed to be hoaxes generated by "Radical Left Dumocrats" for the purposes of destroying the United States.

"We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry," he wrote, "Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!"

The AI Force, he said, would be "looking for BAD" in the ongoing development of this new industry.

"AI is the next Industrial Revolution, or Internet, but will be even larger and more impactful, possibly as much as 25% of our Country’s GDP," he wrote.

"We are leading China, and the rest of the World, and I intend to keep it that way!"

Earlier on Saturday, Trump also stated that the term "artificial intelligence" was insufficient to describe the technology, and that a more suitable term would be "Superior Intelligence (SI) or, Extreme Intelligence (EI) or, Supreme Intelligence (SI)."

On Monday, Trump dismissed concerns by several industry leaders warning about the dangers of AI as a “hoax” during a call with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

"The data centers are great, and they make people wealthy, and they make states wealthy. And it's the oil of the next 20 to 25 years; it's even bigger than the internet," Trump claimed in his call with the Nvidia CEO. "They [the AI industry leaders] are playing right into the hands of some people that don't want to see it happening."

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on AI companies to deliberately moderate the pace at which they advance model capabilities, outlining a three-step framework to slow development and create more time to manage risks, Reuters reported earlier this month. 

The comments came after Jacob Coxon, a former employee of both Anthropic and OpenAI, resigned from the company, accusing the firms of acting irresponsibly and “gambling with our lives.” Coxon warned that the technology could potentially “kill us all by the end of the decade.”

Tobias Holcman, Reuters, and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto voiced strong support for the Palestinians on Saturday, calling the situation in Gaza a source of deep pain and declaring “Free Palestine!” during a major Islamic gathering, months after he said Israel’s security must be recognized as part of achieving Middle East peace.

The event took place during an official reception marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the renowned Islamic boarding school Gontor in eastern Indonesia.

In his speech, Subianto spoke of his feelings over the situation in the Gaza Strip, saying: “I remember our brothers and sisters in Palestine. They are being massacred, bombed, and attacked continuously, and it seems that we are powerless to help them.”

He called on the younger generation and religious leaders to strengthen Indonesia’s independence, allowing the country to stand alongside oppressed peoples around the world and avoid being subject to the dictates of foreign powers.

The display marked a sharp contrast with the moderate and pragmatic tone Subianto adopted just last year. In a speech at the UN General Assembly in 2025, he surprised capitals across the Muslim world by declaring that “we must recognize, respect and guarantee the security of Israel in order to achieve true peace in the Middle East.”

At the time, reports said Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, was considering steps toward normalization with Israel, partly as part of its process of joining the OECD. Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry denied at the time that normalization with Israel was a condition for joining the organization.

However, amid stalled negotiations and continued fighting, Jakarta appears to have moved away from messages of reconciliation and toward more active involvement in support of the Palestinians.

In February, Subianto attended the inaugural meeting of the “Peace Council” in Washington, where he announced that his government intended to deploy around 8,000 Indonesian troops to serve as a central peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip.

In March, the Indonesian government announced that the deployment had been suspended indefinitely due to the regional escalation.

Reporters and a photographer from CNN and MS NOW were denied access to the White House and told their press passes were no longer valid on Saturday morning, according to a CNN report, one day after US President Donald Trump announced he was banning the news outlets.

CNN reporter Betsy Klein recounted that when she tried to enter the premises, a Secret Service agent said her press pass had been deactivated and would not explain why her credentials had been revoked. 

According to MS NOW, reporter Akayla Gardner was also not allowed to enter the grounds.

Gardner told MS NOW that her press pass let her through two security gates as usual, but when she tried to enter the White House grounds, her pass did not work and was confiscated. 

The MS NOW reporter said that she asked a security guard why her badge was disabled, he said that the matter was “above him.”

Both CNN and MS NOW issued statements decrying the ban on their reporters and asserting their First Amendment right to freedom of the press.

“CNN’s mission to report on the US government will continue regardless of any attempts to restrict physical access to the White House and other government buildings, or any other attempts to impede our journalism,” CNN said.

MS NOW similarly said it “intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy.”

On Friday, Trump accused MS NOW, CNN, and Politico of spreading “fake news,” banned them from the White House, and warned that other media outlets could face similar bans.

"I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW… and Politico… from the White House as a result of their constant 'reporting' fake news," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Idan Kweller contributed to this report.

A shipment of sensitive components for the F-35 stealth fighter jets, which was on its way from Australia to the United States for repairs, was unexpectedly diverted to Hong Kong and disappeared. 

The incident raised concerns that China may gain access to the highly classified technology of sophisticated US weapons, Politico reported Friday.

According to three sources familiar with the details of the case, the shipment left Australia headed for the United States. However, the flight was diverted en route to Hong Kong. It is unclear who currently holds the classified components or whether they are being transferred to Chinese authorities

A broker handled the shipment for Lockheed Martin, the maker of the F-35. The Pentagon confirmed that some of the components were missing. The Defense Department’s F-35 Joint Chiefs of Staff said it was “aware of the issue with the shipment of unserviceable F-35 Lightning II components” and that it was working with US authorities and industry partners “to recover the components, investigate the incident, and institute safeguards to prevent a similar incident from occurring again.”

According to two of the sources who spoke to Politico, the shipment included one of the aircraft’s cockpit canopies. The canopy is not just a transparent covering that protects the pilot, but a key component of the F-35’s stealth envelope.

It is coated with a thin, transparent layer of radar-absorbing material that helps reduce the aircraft’s signature and hide it from enemy radar systems.

Access to the canopy could allow a rival country to examine its materials and production methods, compare them with information already collected through intelligence means, and even attempt to reverse-engineer the technology.

“It’s no secret that China is aggressively trying to obtain information about the F-35 through electronic espionage and other means. Even if they already had specifications or other information about the component, having a real item can provide them with additional information and verify or refine what they’ve already learned,” said JJ Gertler, former member of the House Armed Services Committee and a military aviation expert at the Congressional Research Service.

The previously undisclosed incident led to a series of briefings for staff members of key national security committees in Congress. Representatives from the State Department and the Pentagon held the first briefing in June, and additional briefings are expected in the coming weeks, according to Politico’s sources.

The transfer of components to Hong Kong is of particular concern in Washington due to China's tightening control over the city in recent years. Chinese national security laws give Beijing authorities extensive influence over what happens in Hong Kong and the ability to access equipment within its borders.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said it was unaware of the incident. The US State Department declined to comment. Lockheed Martin said it could not discuss the status of shipments for security reasons, but stressed that it complies with all US regulations for the transfer of aircraft components. “Our teams handle each shipment with the utmost care and safeguards to ensure the integrity of the F-35 program and the security of our allies,” the company said.

The F-35 supply chain is a complex global system that relies on facilities in many countries to manufacture, transport, and repair parts. There are maintenance centers for the aircraft in Australia, but none of them are yet capable of repairing the cockpit canopies. That is why the canopy had to be shipped to the United States.

The countries participating in the program, including the United States, Britain, Australia, Denmark, Norway and Poland, use a shared global pool of spare parts. The components remain the property of the US Department of Defense until they are installed on the aircraft, but it is Lockheed Martin and not the Pentagon who manage information about the parts’ movements.

A 2023 report by the US Office of the Comptroller found that more than a million F-35 spare parts had gone missing in the five years prior to its release. The report said the Pentagon could not verify the loss of parts worth tens of millions of dollars because Lockheed Martin and prime contractors held the relevant information.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Friday that Ukraine was deliberately hindering talks aimed at ending the 4 1/2-year-old war and accused Kyiv of interfering in Russia’s parliamentary election.

Putin, in comments to Russia’s Military-Industrial commission, also reasserted Moscow’s main defense aim of relying on its “nuclear triad” of weapons and said Moscow also had to move towards improving its anti-missile defenses.

In comments reported by Russian state news agencies, Putin claimed that Ukraine had “long degenerated into a dictatorship,” referring to the country not holding a new presidential election despite the expiry of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s mandate.

"The Ukrainian leadership is in no hurry to hold elections, as you know, but they are also trying to interfere with us," Putin was quoted as saying, without providing evidence.

Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials say no election can be held in their country while a state of emergency, in place since Russia's February 2022 invasion, remains in effect.

Kyiv derides the Russian vote as a "pseudo-election" with the result never in doubt.

Russians began voting on Friday in a three-day parliamentary election that Putin has said will show that millions of people back his army fighting in Ukraine, even though most anti-war candidates were not allowed to run.

The result is likely to be held up by the Kremlin as evidence of widespread public support for Putin's policies and, in particular, for his prosecution of Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two, now in its fifth year.

Putin said Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets meant Kyiv's offers to hold negotiations to end the war were disingenuous.

He said one recent Ukrainian strike had hit a home in a village in a Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhzhia, killing the head of a local election commission, who had been presented posthumously with a Russian state honor.

"By committing crimes of this kind, they are doing everything to ensure that there is no peace and no negotiations," Putin was quoted as telling the commission.

In other comments to the commission, Putin said Russia was continuing to rely on the nuclear triad of land-based, sea-based and aircraft-launched weapons, but that it also needed to improve air defense systems.

Ukraine has rapidly developed its drone capabilities and has launched strikes against Russian industrial targets up to 1,800 miles from its border, disrupting fuel supplies and other aspects of Russian daily life.

Foreign hackers targeted and manipulated equipment in two local Colorado water systems last month, a spokesperson for Colorado Governor Jared Polis said on Friday.

The incidents occurred at two privately owned utilities, each serving less than 200 people, and there was "no impact to public safety or water services," the spokesperson, Ally Sullivan, said in a statement.

Sullivan said the governor's office "cannot confirm what foreign actors may have been involved, but we are aware of ongoing efforts across the nation by an Iranian-backed group to access drinking water and wastewater systems."

The hackers managed to change equipment settings, including disabling remote access and alarms and altering pumping cycles, Sullivan said.

“These were brief incidents and the risks were quickly addressed by the providers themselves, who subsequently alerted the state,” Sullivan said. “To our knowledge, treatment processes and water quality were not impacted at either provider.”

The incidents, which occurred in late August, happened several weeks after a wave of cyberattacks targeting equipment in local water systems across roughly a dozen states and 100 water entities, according to an August 21 advisory from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

CISA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cybersecurity experts previously said the earlier attacks appeared similar to previous Iranian-linked hacking activity targeting programmable logic controllers, computer devices used to control machinery within critical infrastructure networks.

Some of the previous attacks included "degraded water operations" including changing IP addresses and turning on and setting passwords, "resulting in a loss of view, and in some cases function, of connected equipment in targeted facilities," the FBI said in a July 30 statement.

The FBI declined to comment.

A hundred-meter-long shroud with the handwritten names of more than 20,000 Palestinian children was put on display at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York, Ynet reported on Friday.

The exhibition, called “The Shroud of the Children of Gaza,” was organized by a coalition of interfaith organizations, including Clergy Against Genocide and Doctors Against Genocide, as well as representatives from the Palestinian delegation to the UN.

According to Ynet’s report, the organizers described the event as an “attempt to document the young victims and prevent them from becoming numbers in official records.”

The exhibition is part of a campaign set to be held in other US cities, including Washington, DC, and Philadelphia, the report added.

“In the Gaza Strip alone, a million Palestinian children are still alive. They need food,” Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour urged during a speech at the exhibition’s unveiling.

“They need humanitarian aid. They need the withdrawal of the entire Israeli army. They need freedom. They need respect. Palestine must be free,” he continued.

Mansour’s remarks came as the UN prepares for its General Assembly High-level Week, set to take place from September 18 to 28. Part of its agenda, according to Ynet, is to demand legal and international action against Israel.

The ambassador argued during the speech that Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip constitute a violation of international law, and that “The occupation must be held accountable for the crimes committed against children, and the officials must not be allowed to escape because they constitute crimes against humanity and a threat to international peace,” Ynet cited him as saying.

Pictures of the children and clothing items such as shoes and keffiyehs were displaced as well, according to the report.

The event concluded with the reading of verses from the Quran and a joint religious mass attended by leaders from different religions, including rabbis.

Some of the rabbis even wore keffiyehs and headscarves, the report added.

Organizers described the ceremony as an “expression of human solidarity” demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Organizers added that they are working in coordination with the Palestinian delegation to place the shroud in a permanent display inside the UN building. The coalition is also planning to hold additional vigils in front of Western diplomatic buildings across Manhattan, according to the report.