Category: Australasia

Close'If we can't talk to Iran, bad things could happen' says Trump in latest threatIran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian says he has directed his foreign minister to pursue negotiations only if they are “free from threats” ahead of the first meeting with Donald Trump’s envoy in Turkey.
The comments called for “fair and equitable negotiations” on Iran's nuclear programme, and represent the first clear and direct sign from Tehran's leadership that it is open to talks.
Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff is due to meet Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday for talks over a new nuclear deal. It would be the first meeting between senior US and Iranian officials since Tehran’s 12-day war with Israel and the US last June, which saw Washington bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Trump said late on Monday that the process of diplomatic negotiations with Iran was ongoing, even as he warned that “bad things” would happen if it failed.
The US president said the “biggest ..

Don Lemon said about a dozen federal agents came to his Los Angeles hotel to arrest him last week, even though his attorney had told authorities he would turn himself in to face federal civil rights charges over his coverage of an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church.
Lemon told ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that sending the agents was a waste of resources because law enforcement wouldn't have had to dispatch agents to follow him if he had been allowed to surrender to authorities.
“I was walking up to the room and I pressed the elevator button, and then all of a sudden, I feel myself being jostled and and people trying to grab me and put me in handcuffs,” the independent journalist said Monday on the show on the show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
He asked the agents who they were and said they identified themselves. Lemon asked to see a warrant and was told they didn't have it. The agents then summoned an FBI agent to come in from ou..

Former cast member Pete Davidson returned to Saturday Night Live to channel border czar Tom Homan for a cold open sketch rallying a group of federal immigration agents during a pep talk set in Minneapolis.
Davidson’s Homan quipped that it was “crazy” that he appeared to be the only “reasonable adult” present, while the bumbling agents around him — played by cast members — failed to grasp their mission.
The sketch for the 1,000th episode of the long-running series comes just days after President Donald Trump deployed Homan to Minnesota to help defuse tensions sparked by a surge of federal immigration officers who have carried out hundreds of arrests and several fatal shootings, sparking international outrage as the state emered as the epicenter of the president’s mass deportation campaign.
On Thursday, Homan — who previously served under former President Barack Obama — announced “massive changes” would be coming to Minneapolis after reaching an agreement with local and state officials t..

Close'Evil must stop’: Zelenskyy mourns latest Russian attack on miners as he confirms next diplomatic talks in UAEUkraine, Russia, and America are set to hold the second round of trilateral talks this week to discuss a US-drafted plan to end the war on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The talks were earlier scheduled to take place on Sunday but no reason has been provided from either side for the delay. Zelensky said Ukraine is “interested in ensuring that the outcome brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war”.
“The dates for the next trilateral meetings have been set – February 4 and 5 in Abu Dhabi,” Zelensky said. Officials from Russia and the US are yet to confirm the new dates.
Just hours later, a Russian drone strike killed at least 12 people after it hit a bus carrying mineworkers in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Sunday.
At least another seven mineworkers who were returning from their shift were injured in the attack, which also sparked a fire that was late..

CloseOmid Djalili: Iranians will fight to the very end against this regimeIran says it now deems all EU militaries to be “terrorist groups”, accusing Europe of “blind obedience to the Americans” at a time of heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.
The announcement comes after the EU declared Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard a terror group in response to its brutal and deadly crackdown on economic protesters.
Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, also a former Guard member, made the announcement in parliament, where lawmakers later chanted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”.
Tensions remain high in the Middle East as US president Donald Trump sent an “armada” of navy destroyers towards Iran, with the Islamic Republic also planning a military drill for Sunday and Monday in the region's strategic Strait of Hormuz.
On Saturday, Iran was rocked by two explosions, though officials rushed to deny that any assassination attempt had taken place.
Four people were k..

CloseRussia-Ukraine pause on energy strikes amid fragile peace talksVolodymyr Zelensky has suggested that trilateral talks due to take place on Sunday will be delayed until next week as Donald Trump focuses on the “situation with Iran”.
In his nightly video address on Saturday, the Ukrainian President said he was waiting for more information from the US, which is brokering the negotiations, on where and when the talks would next take place.
He had previously suggested that Sunday’s anticipated meeting between Ukraine, Russia and the US could be delayed due to the ongoing tensions between the US and Iran.
“We are in constant communication with the American side and are expecting specific details from them regarding further meetings,” he said. “We are counting on meetings next week and are preparing for them.”
The three sides last met a week ago, and Zelensky said Kyiv was still “ready to work in all formats” to secure an elusive peace deal.
On Saturday, US special envoy Steve Witkoff h..

CloseTrump says Putin agreed to not fire on Kyiv for a week during coldUkrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested that a second round of three-way peace talks with the US and Russia may not go ahead tomorrow as planned.
Delegates from the US, Russia and Ukraine met last week to iron out their respective differences in order to move towards securing a peace deal with a follow-up to be held this weekend in Abu Dhabi.
However, Zelensky hinted that the follow-up planned for Sunday could be delayed with Donald Trump's attention focussed elsewhere on Iran.
“From our point of view, something is happening in the situation between the United States and Iran, and those developments could affect the timing,” Zelensky said.
Trump said earlier that Russian president Vladimir Putin had agreed to not attack Ukrainian energy infrastructure this weekend at a time when the war-hit nation is experiencing particularly harsh winter conditions.
Ukraine has said it will not attack Russia'..

Close'I told them two things': Trump reveals what he told IranIran is prepared for talks with the United States, but negotiations should be “fair and equitable” and not take place “under the shadow of threats”, the country’s foreign minister has said.
In a post on X, Abbas Araghchi said Tehran had “no problem with negotiations” following repeated threats of US military intervention by Donald Trump.
“They must certainly set aside their threats and change their approach toward a fair and equitable negotiation, as Mr Trump himself said in his post,” Araghchi said.
Trump warned Iran it must do “two things” to avoid US military action, as US forces continue to build in the Middle East ahead of a possible strike.
“Number one, no nuclear. And number two, stop killing protesters,” the US president said.
Iran earlier warned it will retaliate to any US attack “instantly” and that its response would not be limited. A response would likely see it attack the US military bases stationed ..

Overseeing Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign and government-wide anti-immigration efforts is a constellation of longtime loyalists, law enforcement officials and advisers spread across federal agencies.
The president has reshaped the government around his mission to find, arrest and deport tens of thousands of people, deter new arrivals and impose severe restrictions on legal immigration that have stranded refugees and forced immigrants to flee the country.
That mission is dovetailing with his campaign of “retribution” against political opponents, whose cities have been occupied by federal officers and National Guard troops under his direction.
These are some of the agencies and players in charge.
Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of policyThe architect of the Trump administration’s draconian immigration policies in his first term returned to the White House last year as an influential force behind mass deportations and the president’s attempts to unilaterally define who..