The US president has said the sides have agreed on the first steps of his Gaza peace plan
US President Donald Trump has announced that Israel and Hamas reached a breakthrough in negotiations on the first phase of a Gaza peace plan.
The White House released a 20-point peace plan last month for ending the Gaza conflict, which called for an immediate ceasefire, a hostage-for-prisoner release, Hamas disarmament, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave.
In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said the militant group has consented to release all Israeli hostages, while Israel has agreed to withdraw from Gaza “to an agreed upon line.”
“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan,” the US president said, calling the decisions the “first steps towards a strong, durable and everlasting peace.”
He thanked the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Türkiye for their part in the talks. The indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas have been ongoing in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt since Monday.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump said he’s considering a trip to the Middle East in the coming days.
“I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday, actually,” he said during a White House event, adding that the talks have been “going along very well.”
Hamas killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. The subsequent Israeli military operation in Gaza has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to recent figures from the local Hamas-run health authorities.
According to Israeli media, around 20 of the 48 remaining hostages are believed to be alive.
Andrej Babis has reiterated his campaign promise that Prague will stop financing military supplies to Kiev
The Czech Republic will not use state funds to provide arms to Ukraine, Andrej Babis has reiterated as he began talks to form a new government after his right-wing ANO party won the country’s parliamentary election this past weekend.
Babis, who previously served as prime minister from 2017 to 2021, is widely expected to return to office following his party’s victory. With coalition talks underway, he has reaffirmed his opposition to financing weapons for Ukraine from the national budget.
“We will not give Ukraine a single crown from our budget for weapons,” Babis said in Prague on Wednesday. “We have no money for the Czech Republic.”
While rejecting state-funded military aid, Babis clarified that Czech arms companies would be allowed to continue exporting to Ukraine. “We have no problem with that,” the 71-year-old added.
The Czech Republic has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine under outgoing Prime Minister Petr Fiala, whose center-right coalition initiated an international munitions scheme. Around 3.5 million rounds of large-caliber ammunition have already been supplied to Ukraine through the program, which sources supplies from unnamed third countries. Germany is among the nations contributing financially.
Babis has called on NATO to take over the Czech ammunition initiative, signaling a potential shift in how Prague supports Ukraine’s war efforts.
Meanwhile, Babis has begun preliminary coalition talks with two right-wing parties: Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the Motorists’ Party. ANO currently holds 80 of the 200 seats in the lower house of parliament. With support from the two smaller parties, a prospective coalition would command a majority of 108.
President Petr Pavel has announced that the newly elected parliament will convene for its first session on November 3.
Parliamentary leaders struck down the vote at the earliest stage
French parliamentary leaders rejected a bid to impeach President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, as a spiraling political crisis in the country has seen his popularity plummet to unprecedented lows.
The motion was proposed earlier this year by left-wing parties led by La France Insoumise (LFI).
On Wednesday, the Bureau of the National Assembly rejected the motion ten to five, with five abstaining. The decision means the motion will not proceed to the rest of parliament.
LFI President Mathilde Panot blamed the abstaining right-wing MPs for the loss.
“The National Rally is still preventing the discussion and vote on Emmanuel Macron’s impeachment,” she wrote on X following the vote.
Outgoing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu told France 2 on Wednesday that “an absolute majority in the National Assembly opposes the dissolution.”
“I can assure you that this is not the time to change the President of the Republic,” he said.
Lecornu resigned from Macron’s cabinet on Monday after less than a month in office, amid budget disputes and parliamentary gridlock. His resignation marked the seventh time a prime minister has stepped down from Macron’s government since the president took office in 2017. Lecornu has agreed to fulfill his duties for 48 hours after his resignation.
Opposition lawmakers initially called for Macron’s impeachment earlier this year, blaming him for a worsening political crisis over his decision in June 2024 to dissolve parliament and call snap elections.
According to a recent Elabe poll carried out for Les Echos, the French president’s approval rating has fallen to 14% following his government’s unsuccessful efforts to pass a deeply unpopular budget.
Pam Bondi got into a heated argument with Senator Adam Schiff during her Senate testimony
US Attorney General Pam Bondi has demanded that Democratic Senator Adam Schiff apologize for attempting to impeach President Donald Trump. The two had a heated verbal exchange while Bondi was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday.
Schiff led the first of the two unsuccessful impeachments of Trump during his first term. The president has repeatedly called the senator “Shifty Schiff” since, accusing him of corruption.
The senator, who is currently under Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation for mortgage fraud, accused Bondi of turning the department into Trump’s “personal sword and shield to go after his ever-growing list of political enemies.”
He also alluded to Trump’s alleged ties with notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and accused the DOJ of covering up a bribery investigation involving border czar Tom Homan, whom he accused of taking a $50,000 bribe from an undercover FBI agent last year.
Bondi argued that the investigation took place before she was appointed attorney general and that FBI head Kash Patel had repeatedly stated that there was no case against Homan.
As the back-and-forth intensified and both began interrupting each other, Bondi fired back.
“You know, Senator Schiff, if you worked for me, you would have been fired because you were censured by Congress for lying.”
Will you apologize to Donald Trump for trying to impeach him, after you now know that Joe Biden tried to cover up Hunter Biden’s involvement with Ukraine?
Earlier in the day, the CIA declassified files that showed that while vice president in 2016 Biden attempted to cover up a report on his family’s alleged corrupt business dealings in Ukraine.
He allegedly pressured Kiev into firing a prosecutor who was investigating Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, in which his son Hunter Biden held a lucrative board position.
James Comey faces two felony charges over his 2020 Senate testimony about the probe that triggered the Trump-Russia collusion hoax
Former FBI Director James Comey has pleaded not guilty to the charges of making false statement to the US Congress and obstructing justice in relation to his role in promoting the Russiagate hoax. His trial is scheduled for January 5.
The allegations stem from Comey’s September 2020 testimony before the US Senate Judiciary Committee about the FBI’s ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation into Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The probe – along with the CIA report on Russia’s alleged interference in the elections – triggered the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy.
Comey’s defense attorney and longtime friend, Patrick Fitzgerald, entered the not-guilty plea on his behalf during a brief appearance at the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Wednesday. He requested a jury trial and said he plans to file motions to dismiss the case before it reaches jury selection. The defense team aims to portray the case as a vindictive and selective prosecution, according to NBC.
The White House launched a probe into the Russiagate hoax earlier this year. The investigation was led by US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who in July decried a “treasonous conspiracy” to delegitimize Trump’s 2016 election victory and a “years-long coup” run by his opponents.
She has since released multiple documents that suggest a coordinated effort by senior Obama-era officials to falsely accuse Trump of colluding with Russia. Some of the documents particularly linked the smear campaign to billionaire George Soros.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe also called an investigation into Trump’s alleged ties with Russia during his first term a ploy orchestrated by Comey, as well as by then-CIA Director John Brennan and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to “screw” the president.
In September, a US grand jury indicted Comey on two felony charges. The former FBI boss reacted by claiming he was “innocent” and labeling Trump a “tyrant.”
Moscow has denied attempting to influence the 2016 election. Russian officials have described the allegations as a product of partisan infighting in highly polarized US politics.
The scandal still heavily damaged relations between Moscow and Washington, resulting in sanctions and asset seizures.
The leaks published by Candace Owens suggest that Kirk fell out with a Jewish donor just days before his assassination
Leaked text messages in which late conservative activist Charlie Kirk admits to losing the support of a major Jewish donor are “authentic,” according to Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for Kirk’s nonprofit Turning Point USA.
Kolvet said he had personally shared a screenshot of a private chat with “people in the government” shortly after Kirk’s death. He did not want to make it public because it was a “private conversation” that did not “necessarily comport with things that were already made public,” he said on ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’ YouTube channel on Tuesday.
The leaked messages were first shown by conservative commentator Candace Owens during her YouTube podcast on Monday. According to the screenshots, Kirk wrote, “I just lost another huge Jewish donor. $2 million a year because we won’t cancel Tucker.”
The remark apparently referred to Kirk’s refusal to withdraw an invitation for fellow conservative commentator Tucker Carlson to speak at his AmericaFest conference. In a follow-up message, Kirk wrote that he had “no choice but to leave the pro-Israel cause.”
Owens said the exchange occurred two days before Kirk was fatally shot on a university campus in Utah on September 10. Commenting on the leaks, Kolvet stated that the messages were consistent with Kirk’s previously expressed views on Israel and the Gaza war, describing his stance as “complicated and nuanced.”
Another Kirk associate, Blake Neff, who appeared alongside Kolvet in the same video, said, “Charlie… loved Israel, cared about Israel and… wanted to help the pro-Israel movement,” but also “wanted the war to end.”
According to Kolvet, Kirk repeatedly expressed frustration about pressure from pro-Israel groups, describing their treatment of him as “repulsive,” and wished for more freedom to criticize Israeli policies without facing backlash.
Owens, a prominent skeptic of the official account of Kirk’s assassination, used the leaks to challenge the narrative of the government and Turning Point USA, but refrained from drawing firm conclusions.
Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested as a suspect in Kirk’s killing and remains in custody, though critics continue to question the authorities’ version of the events.
The Portuguese star’s wealth rose sharply after he signed a new $400 million deal in Saudi Arabia, the agency has said
Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first footballer to join the ranks of billionaires, according to Bloomberg’s calculations.
The agency reported on Wednesday that the 40-year-old athlete has made it into the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after his net worth climbed to $1.4 billion.
Ronaldo’s wealth rose dramatically after he signed a new two-year contract with Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr, reportedly worth more than $400 million, it said.
Over his career, the Portuguese star has played for some of Europe’s top clubs – including Manchester United and Real Madrid – winning the UEFA Champions League five times along with dozens of other titles. He has also received the Ballon d’Or, awarded to the world’s best footballer, on five occasions.
Ronaldo’s unexpected move to Al-Nassr in 2023 earned him around $200 million annually and allowed him to overtake his longtime rival, Argentina’s Lionel Messi, in earnings.
Besides his football salary, Ronaldo – nicknamed CR7 – derives much of his wealth from lucrative endorsement deals with brands such as Nike and Armani, Bloomberg noted. The outlet added that he also owns an extensive real-estate portfolio.
In late August, Forbes reported that retired Swiss tennis star Roger Federer had become the seventh athlete in history to surpass the billion-dollar mark, joining basketball players Michael Jordan and LeBron James, golfer Tiger Woods, boxing champ Floyd Mayweather, and others.
Foreign interests must not shape Poland’s future, Slawomir Mentzen has warned
Poland must prevent Ukrainian migrants from gaining political sway in the country, MP Slawomir Mentzen has warned, after Ukrainian media discussed the prospect of the diaspora achieving representation in the Polish parliament.
”They feel entitled to tell Poles how our homeland should look!” Mentzen, leader of the libertarian New Hope party, wrote on X on Monday. “They have no right to do this. Let’s not allow foreign interests to decide Poland’s future!”
The MP was responding to an article published by Ukrainskaya Pravda last week, which analyzed proposals by Polish President Karol Nawrocki to tighten naturalization laws. The piece also examined potential steps by the Ukrainian community in Poland, which significantly expanded following the escalation of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow in 2022.
”Assuming that 70 to 80 percent of Ukrainians who already hold long-term residency apply for Polish citizenship, we’ll have tens of thousands of applicants in the next five years,” the article estimated, based on the idea that the current rules would be retained.
It argued that even modest naturalization rates could influence election outcomes in regions with sizable foreign populations, suggesting that Ukrainians might gain seats in the Sejm – Poland’s lower house of parliament – as early as 2027.
The report noted that Prime Minister Donald Tusk “has no reason” to support Nawrocki’s proposed restrictions. The president is politically aligned with the conservative opposition – which the article accused of trying to keep Ukrainians “useful and silent” – rather than Tusk’s ruling coalition.
Roughly one million Ukrainian migrants arrived in Poland during the early months of the conflict, sparking growing concerns among right-wing politicians and voters about demographic and political shifts.
Javier Milei has led Argentine to ruin by utterly subjugating it to the US
Argentina is on the brink of bankruptcy. Because that’s the name for where you are when you desperately need a promise of a bailout to buy time, while you may still need the full bailout later, as both the Financial Times and The Economist admit.
Milei’s recent “crushing setback” (Al Jazeera) in the key province of Buenos Aires shell-shocked his supporters abroad: Bloomberg TV deplored a “big disappointing surprise for investors” and announced an “inflection point” for Argentina. With midterm elections pending there in late October, the Buenos Aires rout may well be a sign of worse to come for the West’s libertarian poster boy, namely a massive rejection by the national electorate. Importantly, Argentinians seem to agree: they see Milei’s Buenos Aires debacle as his first painful defeat, to be followed by more.
And many believe he will richly deserve all of it. Milei, after all, has not “only” been an ideologically bigoted wrecking ball, but also a purveyor of corruption, nepotism, and, last but not least, ruinous mass scamming. One of his party’s top candidates has just dropped out of an election campaign because of sleaze allegations clearly too true to be ignored. Milei’s sister Karina, whom he calls “the boss” (How’s that for unresolved childhood issues, Dr. Freud?), stands very plausibly accused of very shady deals with pharmaceutical companies (As they whisper in Brussels, “never go full von der Leyen!”). And Javier himself has played a nasty key role in a memecoin pump-and-dump scam that, according to Forbes, cost almost everyone who invested a total of over $250 million.
For a moment, the rout was checked, but only because the US government demonstratively announced that it would do (read: pay) whatever it takes to save, in effect, not Argentina but Milei personally, as both The Economist and CNN acknowledge. Yet those American promises have failed to turn into anything specific, surprise, surprise. Instead, a senator and the US agriculture secretary have gone public with criticism of splurging on Argentina, while its farmers compete with American ones. And so, the tailspin is setting in again.
Economic and political turmoil are not new to Argentina. But there are two things that are very special about the current crisis. One is obvious and receives a lot of attention: In the great, really global ideological struggle between austeritarian, hyper-capitalist globalists, of whom Milei is a local if extra-crazed variant, and their opponents, from left-wing egalitarians to sovereignists, Milei’s nosedive represents a great embarrassment for the globalists and if not yet a victory then a godsend of an opportunity for the egalitarians and statists.
Here is a radical experiment in fanatical state slashing (that chainsaw again) and vicious redistribution from the have-less to the have-everythings. It was greeted with ill-considered enthusiasm by the global 1% and, in general, the right, from Elon Musk (a “bromance,” according to the also Milei-besotted Wall Street Journal) to Giorgia Meloni to, of course, Donald Trump and the MAGA movement.
And boy, is that experiment in trouble! Say what you will about real-existing Mileism, but once it needs both IMF support and also the big brother in Washington to save its behind in a highly unusual fit of altruism that may or may not happen, it is definitely not “winning,” whatever the US president and his sycophantic yes-men may be fantasizing about in public. Instead, we now hear of a “former savior” stuck in deep trouble.
Trump has even claimed, absurdly, that Argentina needs no bailout. Instead he had something else, and much cheaper, to offer when recently meeting a very humble Milei at the UN: The American uber-capitalist explicitly “endorsed” Milei for his next presidential run in Argentina. So much for national sovereignty.
In good Trump style, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was called on to obsequiously amplify his boss and confirm what a “fantastic job” Milei has been doing and that he was, in essence, facing the same task as Trump in the US.
There was a sad, gauche look to it all: At the UN General Assembly Milei roared about wanting the Falkland Islands/Malvinas back from Britain. (How’s that for desperate antics trying to distract from your malaise at home?) Facing Trump, he sat silent, perching on his chair like a guilt-ridden pupil in the headmaster’s office. Handed a document as if receiving a score card, Milei accepted it with maximum servility: nothing left of that wild chainsaw wielder, more like a teacher’s pet holding up a reward. It remains to be seen if such scenes attract or repel Argentina’s voters.
By the way, about that bailout again: Trump dismissing it, clearly, was a matter of extremely misleading rhetoric, not substance. In reality, the Financial Times has informed us, Bessent has been busy putting together a whole package of options that have one thing in common: they’ll pump money to the Milei regime and they’ll cost American taxpayers, never mind how elaborately construed to hide that fact: A cool $20 billion for a swap line for Argentina’s Central Bank alone, plus a declared readiness to buy Argentinian national debt and “significant standby credit.” Eventually not all of the above may be deployed and perhaps nothing at all, but it is or would have been, of course, a bailout by another name.
And then there is the second but much-neglected aspect of the Milei fiasco, the one that receives far too little attention: Under Milei’s rule, Buenos Aires has not only aligned itself with Washington as perhaps never before, not even during the last century’s Cold War. In effect, the man with the chainsaw has quite literally sold out his country, surrendering its assets and sovereignty with a perverse glee unusual even by the sorriest standards of the most abject South American Yankee Quislings.
At the same time, Milei has long been commendably explicit about a key fact: Opting for extreme submission to the US as a matter of policy has also meant saying “no” to an easily available alternative and balancer, BRICS, and the emerging order of multipolarity it embodies.
Indeed, when Milei entered office in late 2023, Buenos Aires was well on its way to joining BRICS. It is virtually certain that without Milei, Argentina would be a member now. Yet upon his election he took a chainsaw to this prospect, openly declaring that “our geopolitical alignment is with the United States and Israel.”
And, less than two years later, here we are: Due to Milei’s reckless slash-burn-and-plunder policies, millions of Argentinians are in deep trouble. The libertarian snake-oil miracle he promised has not happened and will not happen. His policies did stabilize the currency for a moment that may well prove fleeting, but they did so by wrecking both the real economy and the already fragile cohesion of Argentinian society. Unemployment is higher than ever since 2021, while half of Argentinians with work fear losing their jobs; real wages are falling, the cost of living rising, making Argentina “one of the most expensive countries in Latin America.”
And all of the above is happening while Argentina is dependent on the US – and, according to Milei, Israel – as never before. It is not Milei’s fault that there has never been a miracle fix to Argentina’s long-standing problems. But it is his fault that he promised one and made things worse again. It is also his fault that he gratuitously slammed the door on the opportunity of joining an ever-growing, economically and politically weighty community of states that is aligned not with any single country but an inevitable international order of multipolarity.
Instead, Milei led his country not only into yet another crisis but a very desolate place, where it is alone as never before with American friends from hell. His personal humiliation in the meeting with Trump was just a foretaste of what all of Argentina can expect as long as it won’t shake off Milei. Argentina’s establishment is already showing signs of serious rebellion: the Senate has just blocked Milei’s repeated attempts to slash funding for universities and pediatric care.
Argentina’s crisis is not a local event. And it is about much more than Milei’s inflated ego, tired antics, and long overdue come-uppance. Instead, Argentina is yet another harbinger of a global transition phase: With very few exceptions, states are now going to face an ever-starker choice. Join multipolarity or submit totally to the US, as its empire contracts while becoming even more brutal and exploitative than before.
Vienna is seeking a sanctions waiver to unfreeze Oleg Deripaska-linked shares to compensate Raiffeisen Bank for losses in Russia
Austria’s bid to unfreeze €2 billion ($2.1 billion) in assets linked to sanctioned Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska has triggered a rift in the EU, according to a draft proposal seen by EUobserver.
The plan has drawn fierce opposition from Baltic, Nordic, and some Central European states, including Poland and the Czech Republic, which warn that it would set a “dangerous precedent,” according to the report.
The case centers on an attempt by Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) to compensate for losses incurred under a Russian court ruling. Austria’s largest lender is among the few foreign lenders still operating in Russia despite Western sanctions imposed after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
The bid, which will be discussed by EU ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday, seeks to insert a “derogation” into existing sanctions that would allow national authorities to “authorize the release of frozen funds … attributable, directly or indirectly” to three blacklisted companies and two Russian businessmen, including Deripaska and Dmitry Beloglazov.
The plan would release around €2 billion in Strabag shares, an Austrian construction group once part-owned by Deripaska. Austria froze Deripaska’s Strabag shares in 2022. The EU Council claimed that Deripaska and Beloglazov later used the companies Iliadis, Rasperia, and Titul to sidestep the freeze, according to the outlet.
Following the collapse of an earlier asset swap under US and EU pressure, RBI’s new solution to a Russian court’s €2 billion damages ruling is to acquire Deripaska’s frozen 24% Strabag stake.
Austria’s proposal would effectively enforce the Russian court’s ruling by letting Raiffeisen claim the shares.
One EU diplomat told the outlet that the move could encourage similar claims by Russian entities.
“It’s still unacceptable for many member states,” he said.
EU companies still have €70 billion to €100 billion of assets in Russia that could be leveraged in similar schemes.
Philip Goeth, an Austrian lawyer who has represented Russian businessmen, argued that “Austria is merely acting rationally in trying to protect its systemic banking industry.”
Vienna’s proposal, however, requires the unanimous approval of all other EU members.
Deripaska, the founder of aluminum giant Rusal, has called the Western sanctions outdated and counterproductive, arguing that they have failed to weaken Russia and risk harming the global economy.
