Trump unveils maritime action plan as China dominates global shipbuilding
The Trump administration unveiled a sweeping maritime action plan Friday, aimed at reclaiming U.S. maritime dominance and reducing America’s reliance on foreign-built and foreign-flagged ships that carry the vast majority of its international trade. Senior administration officials warned in a call with reporters that nearly 99% of U.S. international maritime trade “moves on foreign-built, foreign-owned and foreign-flagged” vessels, a dependence they described as a national and economic security vulnerability as global competition intensifies. “Roughly 50% of our trade moves through the maritime domain, and 99% of that moves on foreign-built, foreign-owned and foreign-flagged ships,” one senior administration official said during a call with reporters. “That’s the market we’re trying to tap.” The initiative, ordered by President Donald Trump in an April executive order, lays out what officials describe as the first comprehensive federal effort in decades to rebuild the nation’s commercial shipbuilding industry, expand the U.S.-flagged fleet and strengthen maritime supply chains. TRUMP’S $12B RARE EARTH PLAN TARGETS CHINA AS EXPERTS WARN US IS ‘ONE CRISIS AWAY’ The push comes as China now produces more than half of the world’s commercial ship tonnage, while U.S. shipyards account for only a sliver of global output — a disparity that has widened over decades as American commercial shipbuilding declined. Administration officials also linked that erosion to rising Navy shipbuilding costs. “The cost of building U.S. Navy warships has gone up, far outpacing inflation,” one senior administration official said, arguing that rebuilding commercial shipyards, suppliers and skilled labor pools could help stabilize long-term defense procurement costs. Officials argued that rebuilding commercial shipbuilding capacity would have ripple effects beyond global trade, strengthening the broader industrial base that underpins U.S. naval power. Throughout the past several decades, as American commercial shipyards shuttered or downsized, the domestic supplier network, skilled workforce and naval design expertise that support both commercial and military vessels also contracted, officials said. That contraction, they argued, has left Navy shipbuilders more dependent on smaller supplier pools and single-source components, contributing to rising costs and production delays. “The cost of building U.S. Navy warships has gone up, far outpacing inflation,” one senior administration official said, attributing part of the increase to the loss of adjacent commercial shipbuilding activity. By expanding commercial orders and modernizing shipyard infrastructure, officials said, the government hopes to create economies of scale that would benefit both commercial operators and the Navy. GULF SHIPPING OPERATIONS GRIND TO HALT NEAR IRAN, US QUIETLY PREPARES FOR POSSIBLE STRIKE: ‘HEIGHTENED RISK’ Historically, some U.S. shipyards operated as dual-use facilities, building commercial vessels alongside Navy ships — a model that officials said helped sustain a larger workforce and more resilient supply chain. While the maritime action plan focuses primarily on commercial shipping, administration officials said they expect downstream benefits for military shipbuilding as the industrial base expands. The decline in U.S. shipbuilding capacity has been decades in the making. Following World War II, the United States maintained dozens of major commercial shipyards. Today, only a small number remain capable of building large oceangoing vessels. In the defense sector, production has consolidated into a handful of primary shipyards. Just two shipbuilders — Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia and General Dynamics’ Electric Boat in Connecticut and Rhode Island — construct the Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines. Surface combatants such as destroyers are built at only a few additional yards. The strain on U.S. shipbuilding has drawn increasingly blunt warnings from Navy leadership. Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has cautioned that American shipyards must “act like we’re at war” as China rapidly expands its fleet and modernizes its production lines. According to the Office of Naval Intelligence, China’s shipbuilding capacity now exceeds that of the United States by more than 200 times — a gap analysts say reflects Beijing’s heavy state investment in automated, AI-enabled shipyards capable of producing vessels at a pace the U.S. industrial base has struggled to match. Meanwhile, the Navy continues to face submarine production delays and supply-chain bottlenecks that have slowed delivery of key programs, underscoring the challenges officials say must be addressed if the United States is to regain maritime competitiveness.
DNC Chair Ken Martin boasts ‘win after win,’ shrugs off massive Trump, Republican money lead
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Democrats are spotlighting their “positive momentum” at the ballot box since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, as they work to win back House and Senate majorities in this year’s midterm elections. “We had a record of victories across the country over the last year,” Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin touted this weekend in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital. “We’re winning up and down the ballot, big statewide elections, of course, and county races, local races, state legislative races, one after another.” Democrats are hoping for a blue wave similar to the one they rode in 2018, the last time they won back the House from the GOP, and they’re energized. But Republicans are not sold on whether special elections are a good barometer of things to come in the midterms. “Special elections are very strange because turnout is often stifled,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Fox News Digital late last year. ‘FICTION’ – HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN CHAIR SCOFFS AT DEMOCRATS MOVE TO EXPAND GOP TARGET LIST A stunning setback for Republicans two and a half weeks ago in a special state Senate election for a ruby-red district in Texas grabbed tons of national attention, and was seen by some in the GOP as a “wakeup call.” The Democrats’ victory in Texas, and two more ballot box wins since then, were fueled in part by continued concerns by Americans over high prices, and came amid backlash over the Trump administration’s unprecedented crackdown on illegal immigration and, as the latest polling indicates, the president remains mired in negative numbers. Thanks in part to their laser focus on the issue of affordability amid persistent inflation, Democrats scored decisive victories in the 2025 elections, and have overperformed at the ballot box in other off-year and special elections since the start of Trump’s second administration. “There’s certainly positive momentum for the Democratic Party. There’s wind at our back. We’re seeing win after win, and that’s continued unabated into this new year,” Martin emphasized. REPUBLICAN ‘WAKE-UP CALL’ – SPECIAL ELECTION SHOCKER HIGHLIGHTS GOP TURNOUT AND MIDTERM RISKS The DNC chair was interviewed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as he made his way up to Maine this weekend to help organize local Democrats ahead of an upcoming special legislative election later this month. Martin said he’s anything but complacent, and is ignoring the latest national polling that indicates that Democrats hold a mid-single digit advantage over the Republicans in the battle for Congress. “We’re not going to rest on our laurels; we’re not going to believe those polls. We’re just going to keep organizing and talking to voters.” Republicans are facing traditional political headwinds in the midterms, when the party in power usually loses House and Senate seats. But Democrats also face obstacles, including polling that indicates their party’s brand remains deeply unpopular. Martin acknowledged in a Fox News Digital interview last summer that the party had hit “rock bottom,” but added that “there’s only one direction to go, and that’s up, and that’s what we’re doing.” PLAYING CATCHUP TO REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATS LAUNCH ‘LARGEST-EVER’ PARTISAN NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION CAMPAIGN The rival Republican National Committee (RNC) and Trump’s fundraising organizations hold a massive cash advantage over the Democrats. But Martin says the party’s success at the ballot box is boosting fundraising. “Our fundraising so far this year has really been gangbusters. People are starting to realize that the Democratic Party has a plan to win. They’re winning around the country, and they’re investing again,” he highlighted. And he added, “What I’ve always said is we don’t need to outraise the Republicans, right? We just need to be able to raise enough money to actually compete, to be in the ring so we can fight, and that’s what we’re doing.” The RNC isn’t buying Martin’s narrative. “While Republicans are focused on preparing for the midterms, Ken Martin is bragging about spending money the DNC doesn’t even have on deep-blue races and touting those easy wins as if they’re a serious national strategy,” RNC National Press Secretary Kiersten Pels charged in a statement to Fox News Digital. “As Democrats openly question his leadership and the party fractures, they’re broke, divided, and without a coherent plan — and voters will send that message loud and clear at the midterms.” While economic concerns have played into the Democrats’ political narrative, better-than-expected unemployment and inflation reports last week are giving Republicans something to brag about. “We just had a fantastic report on inflation. Way down. Cost of products way down. We inherited a mess, a total mess. And now it’s really coming along. We have the greatest numbers that we’ve ever had,” Trump emphasized Friday in a speech in North Carolina. But Martin says Trump has “a long ways to go to repair this economy.” “A couple good reports, and they’re not even that great right now,” Martin argued. “They’re going to have to string together a lot of reports to actually repair this economy and make it work for working people.”
Transit funding hits record highs as ridership languishes, new report questions return on billions
FIRST ON FOX: A new report is raising fresh questions about whether billions in federal transit spending are delivering results, as funding climbs to record highs while bus and rail commuting remains below pre-pandemic levels. Released by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, the analysis argues the disconnect reflects structural flaws in how federal transit dollars are allocated — particularly as remote work reshapes commuting patterns and budget pressures intensify. Wendell Cox, a senior fellow with the group and the report’s author, traces the federal transit program to its 1960s origins, when it was intended to expand mobility for low-income residents and reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. AMTRAK ADDING OVER 80 NEW TRAINS IN MASSIVE OVERHAUL OF FLEET; TRAVELERS REACT Since then, federal support has grown steadily — but transit’s commuter share has moved in the opposite direction, according to the report. “Transit’s commute market share in the U.S. has dropped from 12% in 1960 to under 4% in 2024,” Cox told Fox News Digital. Today, roughly 3.8% of American workers — about one in 25 — commute by mass transit, according to Cox’s analysis of federal data. By comparison, three times as many Americans now work from home. While transit use has edged down, 88 million more Americans drive to work than in 1960, the report notes, alongside a 17 million increase in remote workers. SEAN DUFFY: THIS TRANSPORTATION CRISIS WAS FORESEEABLE Cox argues transit struggles to compete with the automobile on speed and access. “Generally, transit travel times are slower than commuting by car,” he said. The average one-way commute is about 26 minutes by car, compared with 48 minutes by transit. The report also highlights disparities in job access. Researchers examined how many workplaces a person could physically reach in a 30-minute commute. Because cars offer direct, door-to-door travel, drivers can typically access far more job locations than transit riders, whose trips may involve walking to stops, waiting, and making transfers. Across the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas, workers can reach 58 times as many jobs by car as by transit, the report finds — a gap that persists even in New York, which has the country’s most extensive public transport network. Those findings, Cox writes, underscore what he sees as a need for a broader reassessment of federal transit policy. With federal debt at historic highs and remote work reshaping how Americans commute, Cox argues it may be time to rethink how Washington funds public transit. The question, he suggests, is not whether public transport has a role — but whether federal spending is aligned with how Americans actually travel today.
Rubio seals civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Hungary
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement involving the U.S. and Hungary on Monday. During remarks at the signing ceremony, Rubio indicated that the U.S.-Hungary relationship, and the relationship between President Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is very close. The American diplomat described the relationship between the two nations as being “as close as I can possibly imagine it being.” RUBIO BLASTS ‘WORLD WITHOUT BORDERS’ FANTASY, WARNS MASS MIGRATION THREATENS WESTERN CIVILIZATION Rubio, during remarks delivered alongside Orbán, asserted, “Your success is our success.” He noted that if Hungary ever faces financial problems, impediments to growth or threats to national stability, he knows “President Trump will be very interested” in “finding ways” to help. HUNGARY’S ORBAN SAYS BUDAPEST IS EUROPE’S SAFEST CITY FOR JEWS AS ANTISEMITISM SURGES Trump has praised Orbán and backed him for re-election. “Highly Respected Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, is a truly strong and powerful Leader, with a proven track record of delivering phenomenal results. He fights tirelessly for, and loves, his Great Country and People, just like I do for the United States of America. Viktor works hard to Protect Hungary, Grow the Economy, Create Jobs, Promote Trade, Stop Illegal Immigration, and Ensure LAW AND ORDER!” Trump declared on Truth Social this month. THE ONE SENTENCE IN RUBIO’S MUNICH SPEECH THAT REVEALED TRUMP’S RED LINE FOR EUROPE CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Relations between Hungary and the United States have reached new heights of cooperation and spectacular achievement under my Administration, thanks largely to Prime Minister Orbán. I look forward to continuing working closely with him so that both of our Countries can further advance this tremendous path to SUCCESS and cooperation. I was proud to ENDORSE Viktor for Re-Election in 2022, and am honored to do so again. Viktor Orbán is a true friend, fighter, and WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Hungary — HE WILL NEVER LET THE GREAT PEOPLE OF HUNGARY DOWN!” Trump added.
Nancy Mace proposes bill to make aliens deportable, inadmissible for animal cruelty
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina has introduced legislation that would make illegal immigrants who engage in animal cruelty inadmissible to the United States and subject to deportation. The measure is called the “Illegal Alien Animal Abuser Removal Act of 2026.” “If you come here illegally, you’re already a criminal. Add animal cruelty to the list and you’re on the next flight back to where you came from,” Mace said, according to a press release. NANCY MACE RIPS TRANS ATHLETE’S ATTORNEY FOR REFUSING TO DEFINE SEX AT SCOTUS WOMEN’S SPORTS HEARING “We have a duty to protect the voiceless from torture and abuse. Animal cruelty is a proven red flag for violence against people. These criminals escalate. Our bill makes it crystal clear: commit these sick acts and you’re deported. Immediately. No second chances,” she added. Mace, who has served in the House since 2021, is currently running for South Carolina governor. REP NANCY MACE SLAPS DOWN EARLY RETIREMENT RUMOR: ‘BIG FAT NO FROM ME’ “The message is clear: abuse animals, get deported. America will not be a sanctuary for animal abusers, especially ones who broke into our country illegally in the first place. Pack your bags,” she noted, according to the release. Under the legislation, an alien convicted under state, tribal or local laws related to animal cruelty, abuse or animal fighting would be deemed inadmissible and deportable. The bill also specifies that convictions under certain federal animal welfare statutes would carry the same immigration consequences. ‘TR*NSGENDER ANTIFA’ EXTREMIST CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER AFTER SKATING ON DEATH THREAT, REP MACE SAYS CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The proposal further states that an alien who admits to committing acts that constitute such offenses could also be deemed inadmissible.
Partial government shutdown drags on as DHS funding talks stall
The partial government shutdown stretched into another week after negotiators failed to reach a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the weekend. Congress is on a weeklong recess and is not scheduled to return to Washington, D.C., until next week, leaving the shutdown’s end in limbo as both parties remain far apart on key provisions. Senate Democrats are demanding a series of reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a position they have maintained since the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good during ICE operations in Minnesota. FETTERMAN BUCKS DEMOCRATS, SAYS PARTY PUT POLITICS OVER COUNTRY IN DHS SHUTDOWN STANDOFF Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus are standing by a list of 10 proposed reforms, including requiring ICE agents to obtain judicial warrants and limiting the use of face coverings — proposals Republicans have described as red lines. “Americans are tired of masked agents conducting warrantless operations in their communities — secret police,” Schumer said. “They’re tired of chaos, secrecy and zero accountability. That is not what law and order looks like, and Republicans simply cannot pretend that this outrage does not exist.” However, ICE received additional funding under previously passed legislation, and core enforcement operations are expected to continue. Other DHS agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Coast Guard, remain affected by the shutdown. GOVERNMENT TO SHUT DOWN AT MIDNIGHT AFTER DEMS, WHITE HOUSE FAIL TO STRIKE DHS DEAL The White House has led negotiations for Senate Republicans and offered Senate Democrats a proposal that they have rejected. Details of that proposal have not been made public. “This is a Democrat-driven shutdown caused by their intransigence and desire to use government funding for services all Americans rely on as a hostage in order to achieve an unrelated political goal,” a senior White House official said. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said lawmakers would receive 24 hours’ notice to return if a deal is reached. DHS SHUTDOWN EXPLAINED: WHO WORKS WITHOUT PAY, WHAT HAPPENS TO AIRPORTS AND DISASTER RESPONSE “I think all those reasonable efforts and requests have been overshadowed by the fact that the Democrats don’t seem to want to play ball,” Thune said. On the House side, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told lawmakers they would receive 48 hours’ notice to return if the Senate passes a bill. The House is also in recess until Feb. 23. Johnson and other Republicans have expressed support for the original DHS funding bill crafted by House and Senate appropriators, but the speaker said he does not want further delays in DHS funding to be attributed to the House. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has said Democrats will not accept a funding bill that does not include significant reforms to ICE.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,453
These are the key developments from day 1,453 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Listen to this article Listen to this article | 4 mins info By News Agencies Published On 16 Feb 202616 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is where things stand on Monday, February 16: Fighting Russian forces launched attacks across Ukraine on Sunday, wounding six people in the central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, three in the northeastern Sumy region, and two in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, the Ukrinform news outlet reported, citing local officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia has launched about 1,300 drones, 1,200 guided aerial bombs and dozens of ballistic missiles at Ukraine over the past week alone. About 1,600 buildings in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, remained without heat on Sunday following recent Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, officials said. Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said Russian strikes overnight on Sunday had damaged railroad infrastructure in the southern region of Odesa and the Dnipropetrovsk region. The Ukrainian military said in a statement that it hit a key oil terminal in southern Russia, near the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula, on Sunday. The attack was on the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal near the village of Volna in the Krasnodar region. Ukrainian forces also launched a drone attack on the Russian Black Sea port of Taman, which handles oil products, grain, coal and commodities, causing damage and triggering several fires, according to Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region. He said more than 100 people were working to put out the fires. Kondratyev said there were more Ukrainian attacks on the Russian resort city of Sochi and the village of Yurovka, close to the seaside town of Anapa. They caused less significant damage, he added. Advertisement Russian air defences downed five drones approaching the Russian capital, Moscow, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. A Ukrainian attack also left five municipalities in the Russian border region of Bryansk and parts of its capital without heat and electricity, Governor Alexander Bogomaz said. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that its troops had taken the village of Tsvitkove in the southeastern Zaporizhia region, according to the TASS news agency. Russia controls about 75 percent of the Zaporizhia region, but battle lines had been largely static since 2022 until recent Russian advances. Russia’s army chief, Valery Gerasimov, said on Sunday that Russian troops had seized a dozen villages in eastern Ukraine in February. He made the announcement while visiting Russian troops in Ukraine, the AFP news agency reported. Politics and diplomacy Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested the country’s former energy minister, German Galushchenko, who resigned in November amid a huge corruption scandal, as he tried to cross Ukraine’s border. Zelenskyy said in a statement that Ukraine has agreed to new energy and military support packages with European allies. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said she felt that the bloc’s governments were not ready to give Ukraine a date for membership into the EU, despite demands from Zelenskyy. Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics echoed Kallas’s comments, saying that “there is no readiness to accept a date” for Ukrainian membership. He added that he has little hope of an imminent peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has accused Ukraine of delaying the restart of a pipeline carrying Russian oil to Eastern Europe via Ukraine to “blackmail” Hungary to drop its opposition to Ukraine’s future EU membership. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over the completion ceremony of a new housing district in Pyongyang for families of troops who died in overseas military operations, state media KCNA reported. It is believed that more than 6,000 North Korean soldiers were killed while fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine. Russia will not end the militarisation of its economy after fighting in Ukraine ends, the head of Latvia’s intelligence agency, Egils Zviedris, told the AFP news agency on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, which ended on Sunday. A wounded Ukrainian serviceman walks in a street in Kyiv during snow fall on Sunday, February 15 [Sergei Supinsky/AFP] Adblock test (Why?)
Israel’s move to register land ‘systematises dispossession’ of Palestinians
Listen to this article Listen to this article | 5 mins info Israel’s decision to resume the land registration processes in the occupied West Bank for the first time since 1967 will facilitate the dispossession and displacement of Palestinians in violation of international law, Israeli rights groups say. The land registration process – also known as settlement of land title – has been reinstated after nearly six decades, following the government’s approval on Sunday of a proposal submitted by far-right Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, and Minister of Defence Israel Katz. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list While Israel has increased the confiscation of Palestinian land through military orders, with the activity reaching record levels in 2025, the new move gives Israel a legal avenue that “systemati[ses] the dispossession of Palestinian land to further Israeli settlement expansion and cement the apartheid regime”, Bimkom, an Israeli human rights organisation that focuses on land and housing rights, said in a statement. Michal Braier, head of research at Bimkom, told Al Jazeera that land registration will be inaccessible to large segments of the Palestinian population who never had their land formally registered, or who may fail to prove ownership. In the occupied West Bank, land registration under the Jordanian Administration – which followed British Mandate rule and lasted from 1949 to 1967 – covered about 30 percent of the total area. As a consequence, about 70 percent of the West Bank is “completely unregistered”, Braier said, making it “very hard to determine who actually owns the land”. Advertisement Even for those whose land was registered, “the legal bar for proving land ownership is very, very high, in a way that most Palestinians won’t have the proper documents to prove it”, said Braier. ‘Full annexation’ In 1968, Israeli occupation authorities froze most land settlement procedures in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, making transfer of ownership down the family line hard to prove for Palestinians. Additionally, legal documents could have been lost or stored in homes that are now out of reach to Palestinian refugees displaced by the Arab–Israeli war (1948-49) – when the newly-founded Israel seized control of 77 percent of Palestine – and in the Six Day War of 1967, which ended with Israel capturing the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria, while occupying the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now said the newly reinstated process of land registration amounts to a “full annexation” of Palestinian land. “This is a way for Israel to take control over the West Bank,” Hagit Ofran, a Peace Now member, told Al Jazeera. “The government is asking for papers that are dating back to the British mandate or to the Jordanian time 100 years ago.” “This is something that, very rarely, Palestinians will be able to prove, and therefore, by default, the land will be registered under [Israel’s] name,” she added. Israel’s Supreme Court last month rejected a petition opposing the resumption of the land registration process, filed by local human rights groups Bimkom, Yesh Din, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and HaMoked. The court deemed it “premature” to rule on the implementation of the government’s decision. Israeli settlers attempt to stop foreign activists and Palestinians from picking olives during harvest season in the village of Turmus Aya near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank [File: Mohammed Torokman/Reuters] ‘Totally invalid’ Israeli authorities have provided few details on how the process will unfold. Yet, a similar scenario has already played out in occupied East Jerusalem, where the settlement of land title that began in 2018 resulted in the expropriation of Palestinian land. Research conducted by Bimkom found that only 1 percent of the East Jerusalem land registered for ownership between 2018 and 2024 was registered to Palestinians, while the rest came under the control of the Israeli state or private Israeli owners. The move expanded Israel’s de facto annexation over East Jerusalem in breach of international law, including, most recently, an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2024. Advertisement In its landmark ruling, the World Court found that Israel’s “expropriation of land and properties, transfer of populations, and legislation aimed at the incorporation of the occupied section are totally invalid and cannot change that status”. More broadly, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s long-term occupation of Palestinian territory – comprised of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – was unlawful, and must be terminated “as rapidly as possible”. Braier said the Israeli government’s decision was its latest move expand control over Palestinian territory in breach of international law. “The government is not hiding its intentions. They want to expand settlements and push Palestinians into as small an area as possible.” Adblock test (Why?)
Netanyahu calls for dismantling Iran’s nuclear programme in any US deal
Listen to this article Listen to this article | 4 mins info Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has outlined the conditions he considers necessary for any prospective deal between the United States and Iran, including the dismantling of all of Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure. His comments on Sunday came as Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi headed to Switzerland for a second round of nuclear talks with the US. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Speaking at the annual Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Netanyahu said he was sceptical of a deal, but had told US President Donald Trump last week that any agreement must include several elements. “The first is that all enriched material has to leave Iran,” he said. “The second is that there should be no enrichment capability – not stopping the enrichment process, but dismantling the equipment and the infrastructure that allows you to enrich in the first place”. The third, he said, was resolving the issue of ballistic missiles. Netanyahu also called for sustained inspections of Tehran’s nuclear programme. “There has to be real inspection, substantive inspections, no lead-time inspections, but effective inspections for all of the above,” he said. Iran and the US resumed nuclear negotiations in Oman on February 6, months after previous talks collapsed when Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran last June, which started a 12-day war. The US joined in the attacks, bombing three Iranian nuclear sites. Netanyahu’s comments mark the first time he has spoken publicly on the discussions with Trump in Washington, DC, last Wednesday. The meeting was their seventh since Trump returned to office last year. Advertisement Trump told reporters afterwards that they had reached no “definitive” agreement on how to move forward with Iran, but that he had “insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a deal can be consummated”. According to a report by Axios, the two leaders agreed to intensify economic strangleholds on Iran, mostly on its oil sales to China. More than 80 percent of Iranian oil exports current go to China. The report, which cited US officials, said Netanyahu and Trump agreed in their meeting on the necessary end state: an Iran without the capability to obtain nuclear weapons. But they disagreed about how to get there. Netanyahu told Trump it would be impossible to make a good deal, while Trump said he thought it was possible. “Let’s give it a shot”, Trump said, according to Axios. Iran has long denied any intent to produce nuclear weapons, but has said it is prepared to discuss curbs on its atomic programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. It has ruled out linking the issue to missiles, however. The CBS broadcaster, meanwhile, reported on Sunday that Trump had told Netanyahu during a meeting in Florida in December that he would support Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile programme if the US and Iran could not reach a deal. The network cited two sources familiar with the matter. There was no immediate comment from the US or Israel on the CBS report. The renewed push for diplomacy comes after Trump threatened new attacks on Iran and sent a US aircraft carrier to the region, citing a deadly crackdown on antigovernment protesters in January. Tensions in the region remain high, meanwhile. On Friday, Trump said he was sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East, and openly discussed changing Iran’s government. Asked if he wanted a government change in Iran, Trump responded that it “seems like that would be the best thing that could happen”. Asked why a second aircraft carrier was headed to the Middle East, Trump said: “In case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it … if we need it, we’ll have it ready.” For its part, Iran has promised to retaliate to any attack, saying it will strike US bases in the Middle East. The continued tensions have sparked fears of a wider regional war. Adblock test (Why?)
Delhi-NCR AQI: National Capital air quality sees marginal improvement but remains ‘poor’, AQI stands at 214; Check area-wise pollution level
Delhi’s Anand Vihar recorded AQI at 293, Bawana at 259, Chandni Chowk at 247, DTU at 203, Dwarka Sector 8 at 234, ITO at 200, Jahangirpuri at 285, Narela at 243, Punjabi Bagh at 203, RK Puram at 239, and Wazirpur at 268.