Pope Francis has strongly condemned the deportation policies of US President Donald Trump, describing them as a “major crisis” that “damages the dignity of men and women.” In a letter to US bishops on Tuesday, the Pope urged the faithful of the Catholic Church and all people of good will to resist narratives that discriminate against migrants and refugees, causing unnecessary suffering to these vulnerable groups. The Pope’s remarks continue…

U.S. President Donald Trump warned Monday that “all hell” would break loose if every Israeli hostage is not released from Gaza within days after Hamas threatened to postpone further exchanges under a fragile ceasefire deal it said Israel was violating. The truce that went into effect on January 19 largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip and saw five groups of Israeli hostages freed in…

Many feel forced to hide their status through shame or fear of being taken into care When three homeless people died of cold in the ice-gripped US Midwest during last month’s freeze, it captured headlines — in a few local news outlets. But for most Americans, most of the time, the spectacular social failure that is US homelessness remains well below the radar. Even the news that it hit a…

Albanian criminal escaped deportation because his lawyer argued that his son would not be able to get British chicken nuggets in his home country An Albanian criminal facing deportation has successfully delayed his removal from the UK after his legal team argued that his 10-year-old son’s limited diet would make relocation unduly harsh. Court documents revealed that the child’s reluctance to eat foreign chicken nuggets played a role in the…

United States President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Sunday (local time) declaring February 9 as “the first-ever Gulf of America Day,” celebrating the renaming of the area formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico. Trump was on his way to the New Orleans for the Super Bowl 59 and signed this proclamation as Air Force One flew over the area he was renaming. This follows the signing of Executive…

The European Union (EU) would retaliate by replicating any tariffs imposed on it by the United States, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, warned on Monday. Cautioning the US authorities not to trigger a trade war, Barrot said in an interview with TF1 after US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Washington will this week impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium products, “There is no hesitation…

Report offers rare insight into how Moscow sees invasion of Ukraine harming ties with close allies Russian officials believe western pressure is hampering Moscow’s efforts to draw former Soviet nations closer into its orbit and build economic ties with the global south, according to a leaked government report. The internal presentation, shown at a strategy session led by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin last April, offers a rare insight into how…

Esma chair says national pushback to harmonising rules risks undermining its push to become a European SEC The EU’s top financial markets regulator has warned that Brussels’ efforts to streamline bureaucracy are likely to face resistance from national watchdogs as it pushes to become a European equivalent of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) is pressing for greater powers to harmonise rules, including…

The township of Fateng Tse Ntsho houses some 7,000 Black South Africans, its huddle of corrugated metal roofs surrounded on all sides by vast tracts of mostly empty grassland owned by prosperous white farmers. The contrast illustrates the gaping land inequalities that persist more than three decades after the end of white minority rule – and which an expropriation act President Cyril Ramaphosa signed last month partly seeks to redress. That law,…

The world’s richest person and a top advisor to US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, said he has no interest in acquiring social media platform TikTok’s operations in the United States, in comments released Saturday. “I’ve not put in a bid for TikTok and I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok,” said Musk in comments made via videolink at a German forum in…

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would announce 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States on Monday. Speaking on Air Force One on the way to New Orleans to attend the 2025 Super Bowl, Trump said he would also announce “reciprocal tariffs” on Tuesday or Wednesday, which he said would go into effect immediately. This means that the U.S. would impose import duties…

The billionaire’s aggressive efficiency drive has critics warning of a constitutional crisis. Allies say he’s just getting started Before Donald Trump re-entered the White House last month, his top donor Elon Musk’s grand plan to slash trillions of dollars in US government spending appeared to consist of little more than a logo of a dog wearing sunglasses, and a stream of provocative social media posts. But behind the scenes,…