ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned on Tuesday against withdrawing UN peacekeepers from Lebanon at Israel’s unilateral request, as she announced she would visit Lebanon on Friday.
Meloni would be the first head of state or government to visit the country since an escalation between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on September 23.
At least five peacekeepers have been wounded in recent days as Israel targets Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Italian troops are part of a UN mission in southern Lebanon that has accused Israeli forces of firing on peacekeepers, something Meloni has said was “unacceptable.”
Speaking to members of the lower house of parliament on Tuesday, she rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the UN to move the peacekeepers.
“I think that a withdrawal based on a unilateral request by Israel would be a serious mistake, it would undermine the credibility of the mission itself, the credibility of the United Nations,” she said.
“And I also think that our soldiers, as they have been precious all these years, will be precious again when we manage to obtain a ceasefire.”
UNIFIL, a United Nations mission of about 9,500 troops of various nationalities created following Israel’s 1978 invasion of Lebanon, has accused the Israeli military of “deliberately” firing on its positions.
Italy is the second-biggest contributor of UNIFIL peacekeepers, and Meloni has been outspoken on the attacks, including during a phone call with Netanyahu on Sunday.
Speaking to the Senate earlier on Tuesday, she said the attitude of the Israeli forces was “entirely unjustified.”
“In recent days, for the first time in a year of Israeli military actions, the positions of the Italian military contingent assigned to the UNIFIL mission of the United Nations have been hit by the Israeli army,” she said.
“Although there were no casualties or significant damage, I believe this cannot be considered acceptable.”
She demanded the security of the soldiers be guaranteed.
She called the Israeli forces’ stance “a blatant violation of what was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701.”
She added: “On the other hand, we cannot ignore the violation of the same resolution committed over the years by Hezbollah, which has worked to militarise the area under UNIFIL’s jurisdiction.”
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will be heading to Israel and the Palestinian territories next week, Meloni added.
Italy PM to visit Lebanon Friday after hits on UNIFIL
https://arab.news/5bsne
Italy PM to visit Lebanon Friday after hits on UNIFIL
- Meloni would be the first head of state or government to visit the country since an escalation between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on September 23
- Italian troops are part of a UN mission in southern Lebanon that has accused Israeli forces of firing on peacekeepers, something Meloni has said was “unacceptable.”
TikTok says it will go dark Sunday in US without assurance from Biden
The statement came hours after the Supreme Court upheld a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not sell it, putting the popular short-video app on track to go dark in just two days.
The court’s 9-0 decision throws the social media platform — and its 170 million American users — into limbo, and its fate in the hands of Donald Trump, who has vowed to rescue TikTok after returning to the presidency on Monday.
“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” the company said.
The White House declined to comment.
Apple, Alphabet’s Google, Oracle and others could face massive fines if they continue to provide services to TikTok after the ban takes effect.
The law was passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by Biden, though a growing chorus of lawmakers who voted for it are now seeking to keep TikTok operating in the United States.
TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app’s users challenged the law, but the Supreme Court decided that it did not violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech as they had argued.
ByteDance has done little to divest of TikTok by the Sunday deadline set under the law. But the app’s shutdown might be brief. Trump, who in 2020 had tried to ban TikTok, has said he plans to take action to save the app.
“My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!” Trump said in a social media post.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to attend Trump’s second inauguration on Monday in Washington.
Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed TikTok in a phone call on Friday.
‘Foreign adversary control’
For years TikTok’s Chinese ownership has raised concerns among US leaders, and the TikTok fight has unfolded at a time of rising trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.
Lawmakers and Biden’s administration have said China could use TikTok to amass data on millions of Americans for harassment, recruitment and espionage.
“TikTok’s scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the government’s national security concerns,” the Supreme Court said in the unsigned opinion.
TikTok has become one of the most prominent social media platforms in the US, particularly among young people who use it for short-form videos, including many who use it as a platform for small businesses.
Some users reacted with shock that the ban could actually happen.
“Oh my god, I’m speechless,” said Lourd Asprec, 21, of Houston, who has amassed 16.3 million followers on TikTok and makes an estimated $80,000 a year from the platform. “I don’t even care about China stealing my data. They can take all my data from me. Like, if anything, I’ll go to China myself and give them my data.”
The company’s powerful algorithm, its main asset, feeds individual users short videos tailored to their liking. The platform presents a vast collection of user-submitted videos, that can be viewed with a smart phone app or on the Internet.
As the Jan. 19 deadline approached, millions of users jumped to other Chinese-owned apps like RedNote, finding they had to decipher its all-Mandarin platform to kickstart their feeds.
“China is adapting in real-time to the ruling,” said Craig Singleton, a China expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, which submitted a brief in the case against TikTok. “Beijing isn’t just building apps; it’s building a discourse power ecosystem to shape global narratives and influence societies.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement the ruling affirmed that the law protects US national security.
“Authoritarian regimes should not have unfettered access to millions of Americans’ sensitive data,” Garland added.
What happens next
The Biden administration has emphasized that TikTok could continue operating if it is freed from China’s control. The White House said on Friday that Biden will not take any action to save TikTok.
Biden has not formally invoked a 90-day delay in the deadline as allowed by the law.
“This decision’s going to be made by the next president anyway,” Biden told reporters.
The law bars providing certain services to TikTok and other foreign adversary-controlled apps including by offering it through app stores such as Apple and Google.
Google declined to comment on Friday. Apple and Oracle did not respond to requests for comment.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said action to implement the law “must fall to the next administration” while the Justice Department said “implementing and ensuring compliance with the law after it goes into effect on January 19 — will be a process that plays out over time.”
TikTok said those statements “have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans.”
A viable buyer could still emerge, or Trump could invoke a law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, stating that keeping TikTok is beneficial for national security.
Only one notable bidder has emerged so far — Frank McCourt, former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, who said he believes TikTok is worth about $20 billion without its algorithm.
“Beijing needs TikTok more than Washington does,” said Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow and expert in US-China relations at the Hudson Institute think tank.
“With that leverage, Trump has a better chance of getting what he wants: TikTok’s continued operation in America without any national security threats.”
Trump plans big immigration raid in Chicago on day 2, WSJ reports
Donald Trump’s incoming US presidential administration plans to launch a large immigration raid in Chicago the day after he takes office, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing four people familiar with planning.
The raid, expected to start on Tuesday, will last all week, the newspaper said, adding the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement will send between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation.
Trump’s transition team did no immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
His incoming border czar, Tom Homan, told an event in the city that the administration is “going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois,” the Journal reported.
“And if the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us, if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien, I will prosecute him,” he was quoted as saying.
Immigration was at the center of Trump’s campaign in the lead-up to the Nov. 5 presidential election.
“Within moments of my inauguration, we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” Trump said in January 2024.
Trump is expected to mobilize agencies across the US government to help him deport record numbers of immigrants, Reuters has reported, building on efforts in his first term to tap all available resources and pressure so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions to cooperate.
Musk backing for European far right ‘endangers democracy’: Scholz
- The world’s richest man has provoked fury across Europe with a string of attacks on the continent’s leaders
- Musk used his influence and vast wealth to help propel Donald Trump to victory in the White House race
BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday said US tech billionaire Elon Musk is threatening European democracy with his attacks on political leaders and support for the far right.
“He supports the far right across Europe — in the UK, Germany and many other countries. This is something that is completely unacceptable, that endangers the democratic development of Europe,” Scholz said.
Musk, the world’s richest man, has provoked fury across Europe with a string of attacks on the continent’s leaders, including Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Musk, who used his influence and vast wealth to help propel Donald Trump to victory in the White House race, has also been vocal in his support for Germany’s far-right AfD before snap elections in Germany on February 23.
Musk earlier this month hosted Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate to be the German chancellor, for a wide-ranging livestream on his X social media platform.
He also boosted the livestream of an AfD congress by sharing it on his own X account, helping it gain a worldwide audience.
Dozens of EU lawmakers this week expressed “deep concern” over Musk’s interference in European politics in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Scholz on Friday said he was not criticizing the fact that “a billionaire from another country is speaking his mind in a global world.”
But “his partisanship for the extreme right, whether out of business interests or for reasons that have something to do with his own political stance, that is unacceptable,” Scholz said.
Russia says any British military role in Ukraine under new 100-year deal would be worrying
- Starmer said that the landmark century-long agreement commits the two sides to cooperate on defense
- While Starmer was meeting with Zelensky in Kyiv, debris from intercepted Russian drones fell in at least four districts of the capital
MOSCOW: Russia said on Friday that any placement of British military assets in Ukraine under a new 100-year partnership agreement between Kyiv and London would be of concern to Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked about the possibility of Britain setting up military bases in Ukraine under the agreement announced on Thursday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“Given that Britain is a NATO country, the advancement of its military infrastructure toward our borders is certainly a rather worrying element. In any case, it will be necessary to further analyze what will happen,” Peskov said.
At Thursday’s talks in Kyiv, Zelensky said he had spoken to Starmer about Kyiv’s desire for Western peacekeeping troops to be deployed in Ukraine if the war with Russia ended.
Asked if Britain would contribute troops, Starmer said in an interview with Sky News that he had discussed this with Zelensky and other allies and Britain would “play our full part.”
Peskov said Moscow also took a “negative” view of the prospect of British cooperation with Ukraine in the Sea of Azov, which he described as Russia’s “internal sea.”
The Azov Sea is bordered by southwest Russia, parts of southern Ukraine that Russia has seized in the war, and the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The landmark agreement
Starmer said that the landmark century-long agreement commits the two sides to cooperate on defense — especially maritime security against Russian activity in the Baltic Sea, Black Sea and Sea of Azov — and on technology projects including drones, which have become vital weapons for both sides in the war. The treaty also includes a system to help track stolen Ukrainian grain exported by Russia from occupied parts of the country.
The announcement came days before Donald Trump is sworn in as US president with skepticism of America’s military burden in Europe and what he says is a plan to end the continent’s biggest conflict since World War II.
“We are with you not just today or tomorrow, for this year or the next, but for 100 years — long after this terrible war is over and Ukraine is free and thriving once again,” Starmer told Zelensky during a visit to Kyiv, promising that the UK would “play our part” in guaranteeing Ukraine’s post-war security.
While Starmer was meeting with Zelensky at the presidential palace, debris from Russian drones shot down by Ukraine’s air defenses fell in at least four districts of Kyiv, according to city administration chief Tymur Tkachenko. One was close to the Baroque presidential palace where the two men met.
Starmer said that the drones were “a reminder” of what the Ukrainian people are up against and their resolve.
Starmer’s unannounced visit is his first trip to Ukraine since he took office in July, though he said that it was his seventh meeting with Zelensky.
The Italian defense chief was also in Kyiv on Thursday, two days after Germany’s defense minister visited and three days after Zelensky talked by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron.
The flurry of diplomatic activity came in the days leading up to Trump’s inauguration on Monday, which is expected to bring a departure from the outgoing US administration’s pledge to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes to defeat Russia. Trump has also indicated that he wants Europe to shoulder more of the burden for helping Ukraine.
Flood of support
Kyiv’s allies have rushed to flood Ukraine with as much support as possible before Trump’s inauguration, with the aim of putting Ukraine in the strongest position possible for any future negotiations to end the full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.
Ukrainians worry that Trump’s plan will demand unpalatable concessions, such as giving up territory. Zelensky has also said that he wants security guarantees to deter Russia from invading again in the future.
“We must look at how this war could end, the practical ways to get a just and lasting peace … that guarantees your security, your independence and your right to choose your own future,” Starmer said at a joint news conference.
Zelensky said that the two leaders had discussed an idea floated by Macron for Western troops to monitor a future ceasefire, but said that it’s “a bit too early to talk about details.”
Starmer left the door open to UK participation, telling Ukraine’s leader that “we will work with you and all of our allies on steps that would be robust enough to guarantee Ukraine’s security.”
“Those conversations will continue for many months ahead,” Starmer said.
Zelensky has previously discussed a potential peacekeeping force with Baltic countries, France and Poland. But he said that it could only be part of the security solution and noted that “we do not consider security guarantees without the United States.”
Starmer agreed that Washington’s role in Ukraine is “vital.” The United States is the biggest provider of military support and advanced weaponry to the country.
“We will continue to work with the US on this,” Starmer said.
Starmer said that in 2025, the UK will give Ukraine “more military support than ever before.” He said that his country has already committed 3 billion pounds ($3.6 billion) for military aid this year, including 150 more artillery barrels and a UK-designed mobile air defense system named Gravehawk. The UK has pledged 12.8 billion pounds ($15.6 billion) in military and civilian aid since the war broke out.
During the daylong visit, Starmer and Zelensky laid flowers at a wall of remembrance for those killed in the war. The wall outside St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, a Kyiv landmark, is covered in photos of the slain, stretching for a city block. It has become a place of pilgrimage for families paying tribute to their lost loved ones.
Starmer also visited a Kyiv hospital specializing in burns treatment and an exhibition of drone technology.
As the grinding war nears the three-year mark, both Russia and Ukraine are pushing for battlefield gains before possible peace talks. Ukraine has started a second offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, where it is struggling to hang onto a chunk of territory it captured last year, and has stepped up drone and missile attacks on weapons sites and fuel depots inside Russia.
Moscow is slowly taking territory at the cost of high casualties along the 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) front line in eastern Ukraine and launching intense barrages at Ukraine’s energy system, seeking to deprive Ukrainians of heat and light in the depths of winter. A major Russian ballistic and cruise missile attack on regions across Ukraine on Wednesday compelled authorities to shut down the power grid in some areas.
Canada will impose ‘Trump tax’ on US in response to tariffs, says foreign minister
- Donald Trump has said he plans to slap 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports
- “We will be strong and unequivocal in our defense of Canada and Canadians,” says outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
MONTREAL: Americans will be hit by a “Trump tariffs tax” if the US president-elect increases customs duties on Canadian products, the Canadian foreign minister said Friday, pledging a hard-hitting response in any trade war.
Donald Trump, who returns to the White House next week, has said he plans to slap 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports as part of his economic and foreign policy plans that also target Mexico, China and other trade partners.
“This would be the biggest trade war between Canada and the US in decades,” Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said. “The Americans would be starting a trade war against us.
“We are ready to put maximum pressure,” she said at a press conference in Washington, adding that Canada has a series of measures prepared if Trump carries out his threat, which would have a major impact on Canadian consumers and jobs.
A government source told AFP that Ottawa is considering higher duties on goods from the United States including steel products, ceramics like toilets and sinks, glassware and orange juice — in a first phase of tariffs that could be extended.
“We will be strong and unequivocal in our defense of Canada and Canadians,” said outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“The proposed tariffs would put American jobs at risk, raise prices for American consumers, put our collective security at risk and raise costs all across the continent.”
One scenario from Scotiabank suggests that a trade war could cause Canadian GDP to fall by more than five percent, increase unemployment significantly and fuel inflation.
