Europe should seize Russia’s frozen assets now
The Trump administration is now determining what the future holds for Ukraine, and by extension for Europe, in matters of territorial integrity, sovereignty and security. Washington aims to make a deal to end the full-scale war Russia launched in February 2022 that Russian President Vladimir Putin has waged against Ukraine, even if it means abandoning longstanding international principles that prohibit the recognition of territory acquired through military occupation. For Europe more broadly, and the European Union in particular, however, there is far more at stake than those principles, which Washington has rarely prioritised in its own foreign policy. Deterring Putin from further aggression, and ensuring that Ukraine is stable both politically and economically, lies at the core of the bloc’s security and political concerns. A settlement to the conflict that fails to achieve either would risk the bloc’s own long-term security. Of course, all of this must be managed while ensuring that the Trump administration does not itself further endanger European security by once again casting doubt on its commitment to NATO’s security infrastructure. But Europe has already, if belatedly, begun to wake up to these concerns. By last year, 23 NATO members were spending the target 2 percent of GDP on defence, and the alliance agreed a new goal of raising core defence spending to at least 3.5 percent of GDP by 2035, with up to another 1.5 percent of GDP to be spent on critical infrastructure and on expanding their defence industrial bases. Advertisement More immediately, Europe has also surpassed the US for the first time since June 2022 in total military aid for Ukraine, with 72 billion euros ($83.6bn) allocated compared with Washington’s 65 billion euros ($75.5bn) by the end of April, according to the Ukraine Support Tracker. Yet, regardless of the outcome of the Trump administration’s efforts to push Ukraine towards a negotiating position that Putin might be willing to accept, the increased European support is not enough to offset the standstill in US funding. Military aid is also only one part of the picture: Kyiv is dependent on the West’s fiscal aid as well, to ensure the continued functioning of its government. And the bill for reconstruction only continues to grow as Russia’s assaults and aerial attacks continue. In February, the World Bank estimated it at $524bn (506 billion euros) —about 280 percent of Kyiv’s 2024 GDP. Without dramatic action, Europe risks being left to Trump’s whims as to its future security, despite having bowed to his demands not only on NATO spending and military support for Ukraine, but also on trade through agreements that have seen the US’s average tariff rate on imports from the EU and UK rise sharply. But there is a clear policy choice that Europe can make to ensure that financial support for Kyiv remains sufficient over the coming years and to shape the outcome of any settlement to the conflict, while simultaneously further deterring Putin. The European Union and the United Kingdom can move to confiscate the sovereign Russian funds frozen in their jurisdictions since 2022. Most importantly, they can seize the 185 billion euros ($214.8bn) frozen at the Belgium-based clearing house Euroclear – the majority of which is now in cash and can thus rapidly be deployed or reinvested – as well as the Russian government funds frozen at Euroclear’s Luxembourg-based rival, Clearstream, which are estimated to amount to around 20 billion euros ($23.2bn). Europe is not unaware of this possibility, and in fact, it has been debating doing so for months. The Euroclear assets have already been used to underpin an earlier $50bn (43 billion euros) loan to Ukraine finalised in January 2025, which is secured over earnings from those assets. Europe had been expected to advance a plan to create a new loan – one amounting to as much as 140 billion euros ($162.6bn) – secured over the assets at the European Council meeting on December 18-19, after delaying a final decision at the previous council meeting on October 23. The delay was largely due to obstinacy from the Belgian government, which has demanded indemnification from the rest of Europe while endorsing Kremlin talking points that such a move would be unprecedented. Advertisement Yet there is ample precedent. German and Japanese government assets were seized by the United States in the course of the second world war. In the latter case, Japan’s assets were even frozen before the attack on Pearl Harbour, the majority of which were later retained under the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951. The Kremlin’s threats to tie up Belgium in decades-long litigation are also overblown. They rely on a pre-Soviet-collapse bilateral investment treaty that Putin and his proxies have already failed to invoke successfully to unfreeze their assets or challenge previous sanctions. Additionally, there are dozens of unresolved claims worth tens of billions of dollars against Russia in European courts — including the roughly 13-billion-euro ($15bn) arbitration award won by energy firm Uniper against Gazprom for disruption to gas supplies in 2022. The largest and most significant case remains the 2014 award to former shareholders of Yukos, over the Kremlin’s expropriation of their company. That award survived all appeals: in October 2025, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands rejected Russia’s final challenge, confirming that the award — now valued at more than $65bn, including interest — is final and enforceable against Russian state assets worldwide. Enforcement, however, will still depend on locating suitable Russian assets that courts are willing and able to seize. The Kremlin will certainly engage in lawfare and litigation over these disputes, as it has repeatedly throughout Putin’s tenure. But it will lose, and when its national interests are at stake, it will pay. Russia has repeatedly complied with adverse rulings when vital access to Western markets or assets was at stake. The only clear-cut cases of either the West or Russia returning funds owed as a result of litigation arising from Russia’s war have been the settlements paid by Russian state insurer NSK and aviation firm
Juan Orlando Hernandez freed after Trump’s ‘full and complete’ pardon
Hernandez, who was serving a 45-year sentence for drug conspiracy, received ‘full and unconditional pardon’, lawyer says. Authorities in the United States have released former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was serving a lengthy prison sentence for drug trafficking, after US President Donald Trump pardoned him. Hernandez’s lawyer, Renato Stabile, confirmed that the former Honduran president was freed on Tuesday, a day after being pardoned. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “President Trump has issued a full and unconditional pardon, signed, Dec 1, 2025. President Hernandez was released from prison early this morning,” Stabile told Al Jazeera in an email. A federal prison database showed that Hernandez was released from a detention centre in West Virginia after spending more than three years in US jail. Last year, Hernandez was sentenced to 45 years for involvement in a scheme to export cocaine in the US, which prosecutors described as “one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world”. Trump announced plans to pardon the former Honduran president last week as he called for the people in the Central American country to back right-wing candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura, a member of Hernandez’s party. “I will be granting a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez who has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday. “This cannot be allowed to happen, especially now, after Tito Asfura wins the Election, when Honduras will be on its way to Great Political and Financial Success.” Hernandez was convicted of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from violent drug-trafficking organisations over 18 years, which he used to fuel his rise in politics. Advertisement “During his political career, Hernandez abused his powerful positions and authority in Honduras to facilitate the importation of over 400 tons of cocaine into the US,” the US Justice Department said after he was sentenced last year. “Hernandez’s co-conspirators were armed with machine guns and destructive devices, including AK-47s, AR-15s, and grenade launchers, which they used to protect their massive cocaine loads as they transited across Honduras on their way to the United States, protect the money they made from the eventual sale of this cocaine, and guard their drug-trafficking territory from rivals.” During his trial, Hernandez denied taking bribes from drug dealers, arguing that he cracked down on the narcotics trade and citing his administration’s cooperation with the US military. Trump’s pardon of Hernandez comes at a time when his administration is carrying out deadly air strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean that it says are carrying drugs – a campaign that critics say violates domestic and international law. Trump has also been issuing threats against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after accusing him without evidence of leading a drug cartel that the US labelled as a “terrorist” group. Washington has also been ramping up its military presence in the Caribbean in what it calls an anti-drug trafficking operation, which raised speculations about a possible war to topple Maduro. Pardoning Hernandez has intensified criticism of the Trump administration’s approach to Latin America. “As President, Juan Orlando Hernandez personally helped the Sinaloa Cartel and El Chapo traffic deadly drugs into the United States. Drugs that killed Americans,” Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto said in a social media post on Monday. “But instead of standing with law enforcement who brought Hernandez to justice, Trump is letting this criminal go free.” In Honduras, an election took place on Sunday, but the race is still too close to call, with sports journalist Salvador Nasralla leading against Asfura by only hundreds of votes. Trump – who continues to falsely claim that his 2020 election loss to former US President Joe Biden was due to widespread fraud – is already casting doubt over the outcome of the vote in Honduras. “Looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their Presidential Election,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday. “If they do, there will be hell to pay!” Adblock test (Why?)
Pope Leo XIV prays for peace in Lebanon and the Levant
NewsFeed Pope Leo stopped at one of Lebanon’s most important Christian sites, praying that Saint Charbel helps to resolve differences and bring peace to the region. Published On 1 Dec 20251 Dec 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share facebooktwitterwhatsappcopylink Save Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine seeks to shore up support in Brussels, Paris
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris to bolster support for Kyiv, as Ukrainian and European defence chiefs gathered in Brussels for talks centred around Ukrainian and collective security. The meetings came on Monday amid a diplomatic flurry of activity to end Russia’s almost four-year-old war in Ukraine. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Before the meeting, Macron’s office said the two presidents would discuss the conditions necessary for a “fair and lasting peace”. Speaking to La Tribune Dimanche newspaper on Sunday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the meeting aimed “to move the negotiations forward”. “Peace is within reach, if [Russian President] Vladimir Putin abandons his delusional hope of reconstituting the Soviet empire by first subjugating Ukraine,” he noted. EU ministers Reporting from Brussels, where a meeting of the European Union’s defence ministers, also attended by Ukraine’s Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal, took place on Monday, Al Jazeera’s Hashem Alhelbarra said Kyiv’s European allies wanted to see “an agreement where there’s no notion of part of Ukraine being handed over to Russia as the price they have to pay for a permanent deal”. Alhelbarra added that the bloc is worried about the possibility of a “blanket amnesty”, which would prevent Russian officials from being tried over crimes committed in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said on social media that he had briefed Finland’s President Alexander Stubb on “the signals we have received from the American side”, following a day of talks on Sunday between Ukrainian and American negotiators in Florida. Advertisement The Ukrainian leader also confirmed that he had spoken to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO boss Mark Rutte, saying “these are important days, and much can change”. Zelenskyy has described talks in the United States on Sunday between US and Ukrainian negotiators as “very constructive”, but noted that there were “some tough issues that still have to be worked through”. For Kyiv, it marks progress from US President Donald Trump’s original 28-point peace proposal, which it and its European allies viewed as favourable to Russia. On Sunday, the US president declared on Air Force One that “there’s a good chance we can make a deal”. However, he also said Ukraine has “some difficult little problems”. Two days earlier, Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff and Ukraine’s top negotiator, resigned amid a corruption scandal in the energy sector. More work needed Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, hailed the Florida talks as a success, but added that “there’s more work to be done”. “There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously there’s another party involved here that will have to be a part of the equation, and that will continue later this week when Mr Witkoff travels to Moscow,” he said. Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands said the Ukrainians would be happy that Rubio, whom they see as the Trump administration’s most Ukraine-friendly senior official, was currently leading the negotiations. “Because Rubio seems to be driving the car at the moment, things seem to be going OK for the Ukrainians,” Challands said. However, he stressed that caution was needed because of Trump’s unpredictability and because Russia had yet to react to the latest peace plan draft. Sticking to his maximalist demands, Putin has said he will end the war only when Ukrainian troops withdraw from four of its regions Russia illegally annexed in 2022 but does not fully control. “If they don’t withdraw, we’ll achieve this by force. That’s all,” the Russian president said last week. US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, will discuss the latest draft peace agreement with Putin when they meet in the Russian capital on Tuesday afternoon. Russians are generally not enthusiastic about their visit, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova said, reporting from Moscow. “On the one hand, polls show that most Russians really want an end to the conflict as soon as possible,” Shapovalova said. “On the other, there’s not much enthusiasm about Steve Witkoff’s visit,” she added. Advertisement Over on the battlefield in Ukraine, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Monday that its troops had seized the settlement of Klynove in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The announcement could not be independently confirmed. Deadly attack on Dnipro Elsewhere, at least four people were killed and 40 others injured, 11 critically, in a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Monday, according to Vladyslav Gaivanenko, the acting governor of Dnipropetrovsk region. The strike damaged four residential high-rises and an educational facility in the city centre, Dnipro’s Mayor Borys Filatov said. He also reported that search and rescue operations were ongoing. Russia launched 89 strike and decoy drones overnight on Sunday before the Dnipro attack, with 63 of those shot down or jammed, Ukraine said. The Russian Defence Ministry said it had downed 32 Ukrainian drones overnight across 11 of the country’s regions as well as the Sea of Azov. Adblock test (Why?)
Indonesia races to find missing after massive floods, landslides
NewsFeed More than 1,000 people have died in floods and landslides across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia after days of tropical storms. In North Sumatra, President Prabowo faces mounting pressure to declare a national emergency as aid teams struggle to reach cut-off villages. Published On 1 Dec 20251 Dec 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Israel attacks on Syria: What happened, who did Israel claim it was after?
On Friday, Israel killed at least 13 people, including two children, in the Damascus countryside town of Beit Jinn. The latest air raids came after locals tried to repel an Israeli military incursion into Beit Jinn, leading to clashes. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Israel claimed it was going after members of the Jamaa al-Islamiya, Lebanon’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. However, rubbishing the Israeli claim, the group said it was not active outside Lebanon. Here’s everything you need to know about the attack in Beit Jinn and the context behind it. What happened? The Israeli army’s 55th Reserve Brigade raided Beit Jinn in the early hours of Friday morning, ostensibly to take three Syrians who live there, claiming they were members of Jamaa al-Islamiya and that they posed a “danger to Israel”. However, the incursion did not go to plan. Locals resisted, and six Israeli soldiers were wounded in the resulting clashes, three of them seriously, according to the Israeli army. Israel then sent in its warplanes. “We were asleep when we were woken up at three in the morning by gunfire,” Iyad Daher, a wounded resident, told the AFP news agency from al-Mouwasat Hospital in Damascus. “We went outside to see what was happening and saw the Israeli army in the village, soldiers and tanks,” Daher said. “Then they withdrew, the air force came – and the shells started falling.” This was the deadliest of Israel’s more than 1,000 strikes on Syria since the fall of the Assad regime Why were Israeli forces in Syria? This was not the first time Israel raided Syrian territory. Advertisement Israeli officials and government-aligned media say Israel can no longer respect its enemies’ borders or allow “hostile” groups along its borders after the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, and Israel has sought to use force in other countries to create buffer zones around itself, in the Gaza Strip, Syria and Lebanon. Since the fall of the Assad regime last December, Israel has launched frequent air raids across Syria and ground incursions in its south. It set up numerous checkpoints in Syria and detained and disappeared Syrian citizens from Syrian territory, holding them illegally in Israel. It invaded the buffer zone that separated the two countries since they signed the 1974 disengagement agreement, setting up outposts around Jabal al-Sheikh (Mount Hermon in English). The new Syrian government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, said it would abide by the 1974 agreement. Israel occupied the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967. A demilitarised zone was later established, but when President Bashar al-Assad was ousted, and his army was in shambles, Israel invaded to take outposts on Syrian-controlled land. What did the Syrian government say? That the attack is a war crime. The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement, condemning “the criminal attack carried out by an Israeli occupation army patrol in Beit Jinn. The occupation forces’ targeting of the town of Beit Jinn with brutal and deliberate shelling, following their failed incursion, constitutes a full-fledged war crime.” What is Israel claiming? Israel’s public broadcaster said the operation was an “arrest raid” targeting Jamaa al-Islamiya members. An Israeli army spokesperson said three people linked to the group were “arrested”. Israel claims the group is operating in southern Syria to “recruit terrorists” and plays a role in what it calls the “northern front” – Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid reported from Syria that Israel has yet to offer any proof of the claim that the people it was after were involved with the group. What is Jamaa al-Islamiya? The group is the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. It was founded in 1956 and has a stable presence in Lebanon, though it has never been as popular as some of its regional counterparts. It has one member of parliament and was historically aligned with the Future Movement, founded by former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. However, the group moved closer to Iran and Hezbollah politically in recent years. Its armed wing, the Fajr Forces, took part in some operations against Israel in 2023-24. Advertisement After Israel’s claims that it was involved in southern Syria, the group released a statement on Friday stating that it was “surprised” Israeli media had involved it in what happened in Beit Jinn. Denouncing the attack, it said it conducts “no activities outside Lebanon”. The group added that it has abided by and committed to the ceasefire agreement from November 2024 between Lebanon and Israel. Has Israel claimed it was attacking this group before? Yes. In March 2024, Israel attacked al-Habbariyeh in southern Lebanon, killing seven emergency relief volunteers. It claimed the attack targeted a member of the group, calling him a “significant terrorist”. However, the alleged target was never named, the director of the Lebanese Emergency and Relief Corps’ Ambulance Association told Al Jazeera. Adblock test (Why?)
Pope Leo insists on two-state solution to resolve Israel-Palestine conflict
The pontiff is set to meet Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and deliver a speech to authorities and diplomats later today. Pope Leo XIV has reiterated the Vatican’s insistence on a two-state resolution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying it’s the “only solution” that can guarantee justice for both sides. Leo made the comments as he flew from Turkiye to Lebanon on Sunday for the second and final leg of his maiden international voyage as pope. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list On the flight, the pontiff was asked by reporters about his private talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan upon his arrival in Ankara, and whether they discussed the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Leo confirmed they had and said Turkiye has an “important role to play” to end both conflicts. On Gaza, he repeated the Holy See’s longstanding position supporting a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. The creation of a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Gaza has long been seen internationally as the only way to resolve the decades-long conflict. “We know that in this moment, Israel doesn’t accept this solution, but we see it as the only one that can offer a solution to the conflict that they are living in,” said Leo. “We are also friends with Israel, and we try with both sides to be a mediating voice that can help bring them closer to a solution with justice for all.” The pope has avoided any direct mention of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza while in Turkiye. There was no immediate response from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has long asserted that creating a Palestinian state would reward the Palestinian group Hamas and eventually lead to an even larger Hamas-run state on Israel’s borders. Advertisement Earlier this month, Netanyahu said Israel’s opposition to a Palestinian state has “not changed one bit” and isn’t threatened by external or internal pressure. “I do not need affirmations, tweets or lectures from anyone,” he said. ‘Glimmer of hope’ The American pontiff landed in Beirut and is now set to meet Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, the Arab world’s only Christian head of state, and deliver a speech to authorities and diplomats at the presidential palace later in the afternoon. “Many people are meeting him on the side of the road towards the presidential palace and he’s expected to meet Lebanese officials. He’ll also hold a huge mass in the centre of Beirut, and then visit several cities across the country,” reported Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem from the scene. About 30 percent of the population of Lebanon is Christian, while the vast majority are Muslim, roughly half of whom belong to the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam. Travelling abroad has become a major part of the modern papacy, with popes seeking to meet local Catholics, spread the faith, and conduct international diplomacy. People gather to welcome Pope Leo XIV as he arrives in Lebanon [Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters] ‘For the sake of peace’ Lebanon’s diverse communities have also welcomed the papal trip with leading Druze cleric Sheikh Sami Abi al-Muna saying Lebanon “needs the glimmer of hope represented by this visit”. Reinforcements from the Lebanese army and internal security forces were deployed to the airport before Leo’s arrival. His convoy will pass through Beirut’s southern suburbs, an area where Hezbollah holds sway and where the terrain was battered in last year’s Israeli air strikes. Hezbollah’s Imam al-Mahdi Scouts are to hold a welcoming ceremony by the roadside as the convoy passes. Leo’s schedule includes a prayer at the site of a 2020 explosion at the Beirut port that killed 200 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage. He will also lead an outdoor mass on the Beirut waterfront and visit a psychiatric hospital, one of the few mental health facilities in Lebanon, where healthcare workers and residents are eagerly anticipating his arrival. Leo will not travel to the south, the target of Israeli attacks. Despite a United States-brokered ceasefire in November 2024, Israel continues to launch near-daily air strikes on southern Lebanon. The pope “is coming to bless us and for the sake of peace”, said Farah Saadeh, a Beirut resident. “We have to wait and see what will happen after he leaves, and we hope nothing is going to happen after his departure,” Saadeh said. Advertisement Before Leo’s arrival, Hezbollah urged the pope to express his “rejection of injustice and aggression” that the country is being subjected to, a reference to the Israeli attacks. Adblock test (Why?)
Is US President Donald Trump preparing to strike Venezuela?
United States President Donald Trump declared on Saturday that Venezuelan airspace had been “closed”, without offering any further details, spiking tensions between Washington and Caracas amid months of military build-up in the Caribbean. Venezuela has accused the US of a “colonialist threat” in Latin America, as millions of people in the country remain on edge. President Nicolas Maduro had earlier warned that Washington was fabricating claims as a pretext to justify military intervention in Venezuela. Venezuela has been conducting regular drills over the past few weeks and has announced a large-scale mobilisation in preparation for any possible attack. The Trump administration has deployed massive naval assets in the Southern Caribbean since launching a series of strikes on alleged drug boats in early September. Washington has not provided any proof that the targeted boats were involved in drug trafficking. At least 83 people have been killed in those attacks. Ramping up pressure on Maduro last week, Washington designated what is known among Venezuelans as the Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns in English, as a “foreign terrorist organization”. The Trump administration says it is targeting Venezuela as part of a push to combat drug trafficking. However, political analysts and human rights observers warn Washington against laying the groundwork to unlawfully remove Maduro from power. So, will Trump strike Venezuela after announcing the closure of Venezuelan airspace? Can the US military action be legally justified? And what is driving Trump’s hostile policy against Maduro? Will the US go to war against Venezuela? Since returning to power in January, Trump has ramped up rhetoric against Maduro, blaming Caracas for drug trafficking and the flow of immigrants from Venezuela. Advertisement Within a few weeks into his second term, Trump nixed Venezuelan oil concessions granted by his predecessor, Joe Biden, imposed 25 percent tariffs on countries buying oil from Venezuela, and doubled the reward for the arrest of Maduro to $50m, designating him a “global terrorist leader”. In recent weeks, Trump confirmed that he has authorised the CIA to carry out secret operations in Venezuela, as his administration deployed the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R Ford, other warships, thousands of troops, and F-35 stealth jets to the Caribbean. Last Thursday, Trump said land strikes inside the country could come imminently. Amid heightened military tensions, Trump reportedly spoke with Maduro last week, as per reporting by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, before sanctions against Cartel de los Soles came into effect. On November 25, Trump, on board Air Force One, was asked by reporters if he planned on speaking with Maduro. “I might talk to him. We’ll see. But we’re discussing that with the different staffs. We might talk,” Trump told reporters. When asked why Trump wants to talk to a leader of the designated “foreign terrorist organization”, he took the moral high ground. “If we can save lives, we can do things the easy way, that’s fine. And if we have to do it the hard way, that’s fine, too,” he replied. Can the US military action be legally justified? Critics of the Trump administration have argued that the administration’s military actions violate the US Constitution in addition to international laws. Rights observers and legal scholars have said the deadly boat strikes amount to “extrajudicial killing” and violation of human rights. A report in The Washington Post says that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the military to kill all the passengers on board a boat suspected of carrying drugs. Hegseth has rejected allegations, calling the report “fake news”. The “fabricated and inflammatory” report, he said, was aimed at “discrediting our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland”. The defence secretary has said the strikes in the Caribbean are “lawful”. Meanwhile, the US Congress on Saturday ordered an inquiry into the incident. “At this point, I would call them extrajudicial killings,” Republican Senator Rand Paul told Fox News Sunday in October. Bruce Fein, a US constitutional expert, concurred with Paul. “Trump is acting extra-constitutionally and committing murder,” said Fein, who served as associate deputy attorney general under Republican President Ronald Reagan. Advertisement “Only Congress can authorise the offensive use of the military,” said Fein, adding that Trump’s executive orders in this matter do not have a legal standing. “The victims are engaged in warfare against the United States, except in Trump’s fantasyland – a page from George Orwell’s 1984.” By designating the Cartel de los Soles, which now Washington equates with the Venezuelan state, as a “foreign terrorist organization”, the Trump administration is posing that this is no longer a war between two nations that requires congressional declaration, but a counterterrorism operation against a non-state actor. Cartel de los Soles emerged in the 1990s when Venezuelan generals and senior officers were investigated for drug trafficking and related crimes. In Venezuela, it is not a cartel, but rather a common reference to military officers and officials involved in corruption and other illegal activities. Maduro delivers a speech while holding the Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar’s ‘Sword of Peru’ during a military ceremony in Caracas on November 25, 2025 [Federico Parra/AFP] How has the Venezuelan president responded? Caracas has denounced Trump’s announcement that effectively closed the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Trump’s statement sought “to affect the sovereignty of [Venezuelan] airspace, constituting yet another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people”. Meanwhile, Maduro, whose win in July’s election was not recognised by Washington, has called for peace, rejecting war, and advocated for harmony as he continues to appear frequently on state television broadcasts. In a mix of Spanish and English, Maduro declared, “No war … Yes peace, forever.” On November 15, Maduro invoked singer John Lennon’s peace anthem “Imagine” during a rally of supporters. “Do everything for peace, as John Lennon used to say. Imagine all the people,” he said. Two days later, condemning the use of force or military threats, Maduro said, “Dialogue, call, yes.
Bangladesh’s Khaleda Zia hospitalised in ‘very critical’ condition
Ex-prime minister’s family calls for prayers for her early recovery after hospitalisation for a lung infection. Bangladeshi former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has been hospitalised in “very critical” condition, according to members of her party, as her family and supporters urged well-wishers to pray for her speedy recovery. Zia’s personal physician, Dr A Z M Zahid Hossein, told reporters late on Saturday that the 80-year-old politician, who was taken to the Evercare Hospital in Dhaka on November 23, remains in intensive care. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list She was admitted with symptoms of a lung infection and Hossein said she appeared to be responding to the treatment. “At this moment, I can say her condition has been in the same stage for the last three days. In doctors’ language, we say ‘she is responding to the treatment’,” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Star news website. “Please pray so that she can continue to receive this treatment.” Hossein’s comments came a day after the secretary-general of Zia’s Bangladesh National Party (BNP), Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, told reporters that her “condition was very critical”. According to the Daily Star, Zia has “heart problems, liver and kidney issues, diabetes, lung problems, arthritis, and eye-related illnesses”. She has a permanent pacemaker and previously underwent stenting for her heart, the outlet reported. Activists in support of Bangladesh’s former prime minister, Khaleda Zia, hold a banner with her portrait as they pray for her recovery in front of the Evercare Hospital in Dhaka on November 29, 2025 [Munir UZ Zaman/AFP] Earlier on Saturday, BNP’s vice chairman, Ahmed Azam Khan, told reporters that an air ambulance was on standby to take Zia abroad for advanced treatment if her medical condition stabilises. Advertisement Zia’s eldest son, Tarique Rahman, who has been based in London since 2008, called on the people of Bangladesh to pray for his mother’s recovery. “We express our heartfelt thanks and gratitude for all your prayers and love for the highly respected Begum Khaleda Zia,” Rahman, 60, said in a social media post on Saturday. “We fervently request you to continue your prayers for her early recovery.” Zia, who served three terms as prime minister, was jailed for corruption in 2018 under recently ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, which also barred her from travelling abroad for medical treatment. She was released last year, shortly after Hasina’s removal. Despite her ill health, Zia has promised to campaign in elections expected in February 2026, in which the BNP is widely seen as a frontrunner. Waiting in front of the hospital since morning, Liton Molla, a driver for a private company, said he rushed there after hearing about Zia’s condition, describing her as his “dear leader”. “I just pray she recovers and can contest in the election,” Liton, 45, told the AFP news agency. “At this moment, Bangladesh needs a leader like Khaleda Zia.” Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, also issued a statement. “During this transitional period to democracy, Khaleda Zia is a source of utmost inspiration for the nation. Her recovery is very important for the country,” he said on Friday night. Adblock test (Why?)
One killed in ‘riot’ in Iraq’s Erbil after attack on Khor Mor gas field
Kurdish authorities say one killed, several wounded in riots in Erbil’s Gwer, as authorities try to restore power after attack on Khor Mor. Published On 30 Nov 202530 Nov 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share A group of “rioters” have opened fire at fuel tanker trucks in the northern Iraqi governorate of Erbil, killing at least one person and wounding several others, Kurdish authorities said, days after a rocket attack on the region’s Khor Mor gas field. In a statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency late on Saturday, the Ministry of Interior of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) linked the shooting to the Khor Mor attack. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The rocket attack hit a storage tank at the gas field, which is one of the region’s largest facilities, late on Wednesday, leading to production shutdown and extensive power cuts. The ministry said the KRG sent liquid fuel to supply power plants following the Khor Mor attack, but that “a group of rioters blocked the road used by fuel tankers and civilians in Gwer, opening fire on passersby and travellers”. The shooting “resulted in the death of one citizen and injuries to several others”, it said. The ministry pledged action against the “riots”, saying “we will put an end to these acts of sabotage”. The ministry statement followed an earlier report by the Iraqi News Agency in which it said there had been armed clashes between the Harkiya tribe and security forces in Erbil, near the village of Lajan on the Erbil-Gwer road. The agency cited security forces as saying that the clashes, adjacent to the Lanaz Company refinery, had “resulted in fatalities and injuries”. Meanwhile, Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has announced that the KRG has agreed with the company operating the Khor Mor gas field to restart production within hours to restore electricity. Advertisement The attack on Thursday on Khor Mor was the most significant violence since a series of drone attacks in July that cut production by about 150,000 barrels per day. “I have spoken with the company’s [Dana Gas] leadership to thank them and their workforce for their extraordinary resilience and determination amid eleven attacks on the Khor Mor field,” Barzani said in a statement posted in English. “I have urged [Iraqi] Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to hold the perpetrators of this attack accountable to the full extent of the law, whoever they may be and wherever they are,” Barzani added. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack on Khor Mor, and authorities have not said who was behind the attack. Abdulkhaliq Talaat, a military expert and former official from the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, however, told the Rudaw news channel that the drone attack on the Khor Mor gas field was launched from an area under the control of Iraqi forces. The storage tank at Khor Mor is part of new facilities partially financed by the US and built by a US contractor, an industry source told the Reuters news agency earlier this week. The KRG exercises autonomy in parts of northern Iraq, where US companies have significant investments in energy. Adblock test (Why?)