Wednesday, April 2, 2025

BIG Wrap

Trump says he ordered air strikes on Islamic State group in Somalia

(BBC News) Donald Trump says he ordered military air strikes on a senior attack planner and others from the Islamic State (IS) group in Somalia. "These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies," Trump posted on social media. "The strikes destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians." In a post on X, the office of the president of Somalia said they...

How Canada could fight Trump tariffs

(BBC News) Canada will react forcefully and immediately if Donald Trump imposes tariffs, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday. The US president has said he could levy a 25% tariff on Canadian imports as soon as Saturday. "It's not what we want, but if he moves forward, we will also act," Trudeau said. Tariffs are a central part of Trump's economic vision. He sees them as a way of growing the US economy, protecting jobs and...

Canada and Mexico face 25% tariffs on Saturday, Trump says

(BBC News) US President Donald Trump has said he will follow through with his threat to hit imports from Canada and Mexico with 25% border taxes, known as tariffs, on February 1. But he added that a decision about whether this would include oil from those countries has not yet been made. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the move was aimed to address the large amounts of undocumented migrants and the fentanyl that...

Hamas says 110 Palestinian prisoners freed after chaotic hostage release

(BBC News) Hamas says 110 Palestinian prisoners have been freed as buses arrive in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. It is the third release of hostages since the ceasefire deal between Israel and Gaza began earlier this month. Earlier, seven hostages – two Israelis and five Thais – were freed in Khan Younis, as hundreds of people swarmed round the hostages' vans in chaotic scenes. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said they were "shocking scenes". An eighth hostage, Agam...

What we know about American Airlines plane collision with Black Hawk in DC

(Al Jazeera Media Network) More than 60 people are believed to have been killed after an American Airlines plane collided with an army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport near the District of Columbia in the US. American Airlines said on Thursday that 60 passengers and four crew members were on board the jet travelling from Wichita, Kansas, to the United States capital. An unnamed army official confirmed that the helicopter, on...

Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa named president for transitional period

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has been named president for a transitional period, the Syrian state news agency (SANA) has reported. Al-Sharaa was also authorised to form a temporary legislative council for the transitional phase that will carry out its task until a new constitution is adopted, SANA reported on Wednesday, citing military official Hassan Abdel Ghani. Al-Sharaa is the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former opposition armed group...

Danish PM on whirlwind EU trip as Greenland unease grows

(BBC News) Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen visited three European capitals on Tuesday, days after US President Donald Trump reiterated his interest in acquiring Greenland. Over the space of a day, Frederiksen met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, and NATO leader Mark Rutte in Brussels. Although the leaders were said to have discussed issues including Ukraine and hybrid Russian attacks in the Baltic Sea, the Danish PM's whirlwind...

DeepSeek a wake-up call for U.S. tech firms, Trump warns

(BBC News) US President Donald Trump warns Chinese startup DeepSeek is a wake-up call for America's technology industry. The emergence of DeepSeek's low-cost AI chatbot caused shockwaves on Wall Street, with Nvidia losing more than $500 billion in market value. Shares in other major technology firms fell steeply in value when markets opened on Monday. That day, DeepSeek said it was hit by a "large-scale malicious attack". Tech-focused shares in Japan fell on Tuesday, while stock...

Trump wants neighbours to take in Palestinians to ‘clean out’ Gaza

(BBC News) US President Donald Trump has said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza. Trump said he had made the request to Jordan's King Abdullah and planned to ask Egypt's president on Sunday, too. Describing Gaza as a "demolition site", Trump said: "You're talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing." He added that the move "could be temporary" or "could be...

Trump orders sanctions on Colombia after Petro blocks deportation flights

(Al Jazeera Media Network) US President Donald Trump has ordered tariffs and visa restrictions on Colombia after Bogota turned away two US military aircraft transporting migrants being deported under Trump’s immigration crackdown. Washington will slap Colombia with 25 percent “emergency tariffs” on all goods coming into the US, which would then be raised to 50 percent in a week, Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform that he owns on Sunday. He added that...