US launches massive airstrikes on dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria

WASHINGTON, Dec 20: The United States on Friday launched airstrikes against dozens of Islamic State (IS) targets across central Syria in retaliation for a deadly attack on US personnel, officials said.

Defence secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that the strikes targeted “ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites” under an operation dubbed Operation Hawkeye Strike, adding that more action could follow.

“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Hegseth said in a statement and on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.”

Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the strikes hit dozens of IS targets across central Syria.

An official said that the operation involved F-15 Eagle fighter jets, A-10 Thunderbolt ground-attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters, and warned that additional strikes were expected. The Pentagon declined to provide further operational details, referring questions to Hegseth’s statement.

The airstrikes follow an attack last weekend in the Syrian desert near Palmyra, in which two US Army soldiers and a US civilian interpreter were killed and three other US soldiers wounded. The attacker targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead, according to the US military.

The US Army later identified the slain service members as Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, both members of the Iowa National Guard. The civilian interpreter killed in the attack was Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan.

The Syrian Interior Ministry has described the attacker as a member of Syria’s security forces suspected of sympathising with Islamic State.

President Donald Trump had vowed “very serious retaliation” after the attack, while stressing that Syrian forces were fighting alongside US troops. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said the president was delivering on that promise. “President Trump told the world that the United States would retaliate for the killing of our heroes by ISIS in Syria, and he is delivering on that promise,” she said.

‘Grateful to Pakistan’: US on Islamabad's ‘offer’ to send troops to Gaza for peacebuilding

WASHINGTON, Dec 20: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Washington is thankful to Pakistan for “offering” to consider joining a proposed international stabilisation force for Gaza, while making it clear that no firm commitments have yet been sought or secured.

Responding to a question on whether the United States has received Pakistan’s consent to send troops to Gaza for peacebuilding, Rubio said, “We're very grateful to Pakistan for their offer to be a part of it, or at least their offer to consider being a part of it.”

He went on to say that the US remains confident about international participation, saying, “We have a number of nation-states acceptable to all sides in this conflict who are willing to step forward and be a part of that stabilisation force.”

Rubio’s remarks came during a rare, extended end-of-year news conference at the State Department, where he spoke candidly about the obstacles facing the Trump administration in advancing its Israel-Hamas peace efforts.

First batch of Epstein files released, features Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson

WASHINGTON, Dec 20: The US Justice Department on Friday released more than 300,000 pages of records from its investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, bowing to pressure from lawmakers who forced disclosure through a new bipartisan law.

The release comes at the end of months of political wrangling and a rare rebellion by some of President Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters, who accused his administration of dragging its feet on making public all records tied to Epstein. Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law on November 19 after Congress overwhelmingly approved it, giving the Justice Department 30 days to release most unclassified material related to Epstein, including files concerning the investigation into his 2019 death in a Manhattan jail, which was ruled a suicide.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department released “hundreds of thousands” of pages on Friday and would publish several hundred thousand more in the coming weeks. In a letter to Congress, Blanche said additional documents were still under review and that it could take up to two more weeks to complete the process. He added that the files identify more than 1,200 names of victims or their relatives.

It was not immediately clear how much new information the latest release contains, given that many Epstein-related records have already entered the public domain since his death. The Justice Department also posted a warning alongside the files, saying that “all reasonable efforts have been made” to redact victims’ personal information, while cautioning that some sensitive details could have been inadvertently disclosed.

Among the materials released were several photographs of former Democratic President Bill Clinton, including one showing him in a swimming pool with Epstein’s longtime associate and co-defendant Ghislaine Maxwell, along with another individual whose face was obscured. Clinton did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but has previously said he regrets socialising with Epstein and was unaware of any criminal activity. The inclusion of the images raised questions about Justice Department policy, as Trump has ordered an investigation into Clinton’s ties to Epstein, and material linked to active investigations is typically withheld.

US announces $11bn weapons sale to Taiwan

WASHINGTON, Dec 18: The Trump administration has announced a huge arms sale worth around $11bn to Taiwan, which includes advanced rocket launchers, self-propelled howitzers and a variety of missiles.

This package, which still needs to be approved by the US Congress, will be the second arms sale to Taiwan since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.

China, which sees self-governed Taiwan as a breakaway province, condemned the move, saying it "severely undermines China's sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity".

Taiwan's defence ministry thanked the US and said the deal would help the island in "rapidly building robust deterrence capabilities".

The US has formal ties with Beijing rather than Taiwan, and has walked a tight diplomatic rope for decades. But it remains a powerful ally of Taiwan's and the island's biggest arms supplier.

The latest arms sale has angered Beijing, which has in recent years ramped up pressure over Taiwan with military drills and regular incursions into its waters and airspace.

"The US's attempt to support independence through force will only backfire, and its attempt to contain China by using Taiwan will absolutely not succeed," said its foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun.

"It will only accelerate the push towards a dangerous and violent situation across the Taiwan Strait," he said.

The latest package features High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (Himars) worth $4bn and self-propelled howitzers worth $4bn, according to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which announced the details late on Wednesday.

The size of this sale, if it goes through, dwarfs the 19 rounds of arms sales totalling $8.38bn during the previous administration under Joe Biden.

In his first term, Trump had approved arms sales to Taiwan totalling $18.3bn - the largest package was worth $8bn.

The US State Department said this deal serves Washington's interests "by supporting [Taipei's] continuing efforts to modernise its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability".

China has long vowed to "reunify" with Taiwan and has not ruled out the use of force to take it.

It is a threat that Taiwan is increasingly taking seriously. It plans to boost defence spending to more than 3% of its gross domestic product next year and up to 5% by 2030.

In October, President Lai Ching-te announced the building of a dome-like air defence system to guard against "hostile threats", without mentioning China by name.

China has grown increasingly assertive in the region, often rattling neighbours with unusual moves - in June, Japan protested following an unprecedented naval drill by Chinese aircraft carriers in the Pacific.

More recently the two countries have been sparring over the Japanese prime minister's suggestion that Japan could deploy its own self-defence force if China attacks Taiwan.

Tensions escalated this month as boats from both sides faced off near disputed islands, and Chinese fighter jets locked radar on Japanese aircraft.

 

Trump expands travel ban and restrictions to include an additional 20 countries

WASHINGTON, Dec 17: The Trump administration announced Tuesday it was expanding travel restrictions to an additional 20 countries and the Palestinian Authority, doubling the number of nations affected by sweeping limits announced earlier this year on who can travel and emigrate to the U.S.

The Trump administration included five more countries as well as people traveling on documents issued by the Palestinian Authority to the list of countries facing a full ban on travel to the U.S. and imposed new limits on 15 other countries.

The move is part of ongoing efforts by the administration to tighten U.S. entry standards for travel and immigration, in what critics say unfairly prevents travel for people from a broad range of countries. The administration suggested it would expand the restrictions after the arrest of an Afghan national suspect in the shooting of two National Guard troops over Thanksgiving weekend.

People who already have visas, are lawful permanent residents of the U.S. or have certain visa categories such as diplomats or athletes, or whose entry into the country is believed to serve the U.S. interest, are all exempt from the restrictions. The proclamation said the changes go into effect on January 1.

In June, President Donald Trump announced that citizens of 12 countries would be banned from coming to the United States and those from seven others would face restrictions. The decision resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term.

At the time the ban included Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen and heightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

U.S. officials say Washington has agreed to give Ukraine security guarantees in peace talks

WASHINGTON, Dec 16: The U.S. has agreed to provide unspecified security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a peace deal to end Russia's nearly four-year war, and more talks are likely this weekend, U.S. officials said on Monday following the latest discussions with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin.

The officials said talks with President Donald Trump's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, led to narrowing differences on security guarantees that Kyiv said must be provided, as well as on Moscow's demand that Ukraine concede land in the Donbas region in the country's east.

Trump dialled into a dinner on Monday evening with negotiators and European leaders, and more talks are expected this weekend in Miami or elsewhere in the United States, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly by the White House.

“I think we're closer now than we have been, ever,” Trump told reporters at an unrelated White House event. He added, “We're having tremendous support from European leaders. They want to get it ended, also." The U.S. officials said the offer of security guarantees won't be on the table “forever.” They said the Trump administration plans to put forward the agreement on guarantees for Senate approval, although they didn't specify whether it would be ratified like a treaty, which needs the chamber's two-thirds approval.

In a statement, European leaders in Berlin said they and the U.S. committed to work together to provide “robust security guarantees,” including a European-led "multinational force Ukraine" supported by the U.S.

They said the force's work would include "operating inside Ukraine" as well as assisting in rebuilding Ukraine's forces, securing its skies and supporting safer seas. They said Ukrainian forces should remain at a peacetime level of 800,000.

Witkoff and Kushner were accompanied by U.S. Air Force Gen Alexus Grynkewich, who heads NATO's military operations and the US European Command, as talks honed in on the particulars of what the U.S. officials described as an “Article 5-like” security agreement. Article Five in the NATO treaty is the collective defence clause stating that an attack on one member is an attack on all.

The U.S. side presented the Ukrainians a document that spelled out in greater specificity aspects of the proposed U.S. security guarantees — something that Ukrainian officials said was missing from earlier iterations of the U.S. peace proposal, according to U.S. officials.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called it a “truly far-reaching, substantial agreement that we did not have before, namely that both Europe and the U.S. are jointly prepared to do this.” Questions over Ukraine's postwar security and the fate of occupied territories have been the main obstacles in talks.

Zelenskyy has emphasised that any Western security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress. Meanwhile, Russia has said it will not accept any troops from NATO countries being based on Ukrainian soil.

Zelenskyy on Monday called the talks “substantial” and noted that differences remain on the issue of territory.

2 Killed, 8 Injured In Shooting During Final Exams At Brown University In US

RHODE ISLAND, Dec 14: At least two people were killed and eight others were injured after a shooter dressed in black opened fire at Brown University, Rhode Island, United States, on Saturday, authorities said.

The shooting happened as students were appearing for final exams in the university. The suspect is yet to be caught. Police officers were hunting through campus buildings and sifting through trash cans more than three hours after the shooting erupted.

According to Deputy Chief of Police Timothy O'Hara, the suspect was a male in dark clothing who was last seen leaving an engineering building where the attack happened. Meanwhile, Mayor Brett Smiley said a shelter-in-place was in effect for the area and encouraged people living near the campus to stay inside and not to return home until it is lifted.

Mayor Smiley said that the authorities had all available resources to find the suspect. He added that the eight injured people were in critical but stable condition. The mayor refused to comment on whether the victims were students.

Trump Vows 'Serious Retaliation' After 3 Americans Killed In Syria By ISIS

DAMASCUS, Dec 14: President Donald Trump said Saturday that “there will be very serious retaliation” after two US service members and one American civilian were killed in an attack in Syria that the United States blames on the Islamic State group.

“This was an ISIS attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” he said in a social media post.

The American president told reporters at the White House that Syria's president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was “devastated by what happened” and stressed that Syria was fighting alongside US troops. Trump, in his post, said al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”

US Central Command said three service members were also wounded in the ambush Saturday by a lone IS member in central Syria. Trump said the three “seem to be doing pretty well.” The US military said the gunman was killed in the attack. Syrian officials said the attack wounded members of Syria's security forces as well.

The attack on US troops in Syria was the first with fatalities since the fall of President Bashar Assad a year ago.

“There will be very serious retaliation,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

The Pentagon's chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, said the civilian killed was a US interpreter. Parnell said the attack targeted soldiers involved in the ongoing counter-terrorism operations in the region and is under active investigation.

The shooting took place near historic Palmyra, according to the state-run SANA news agency, which earlier said two members of Syria's security force and several US service members had been wounded. The casualties were taken by helicopter to the al-Tanf garrison near the border with Iraq and Jordan.

Modi, Trump Discuss Trade, Energy And Defence

NEW DELHI, Dec 11: As speculation about an imminent trade deal between the two countries gathers steam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump spoke over the phone on Thursday and discussed expanding cooperation in various areas.

A statement said the two leaders reviewed progress in the India-US partnership and discussed expanding cooperation in key areas, including trade, critical technologies, energy, defence and security.

Stressing that both leaders expressed satisfaction at the "strengthening of bilateral cooperation" across sectors, the statement mentioned trade specifically and noted they "underlined the importance of sustaining momentum in shared efforts to enhance bilateral trade".

Both Modi and Trump, the statement said, agreed to work closely to address challenges and advance common interests.

"The leaders also exchanged views on expanding cooperation in critical technologies, energy, defence and security, and other priority areas that are central to the implementation of the India-US COMPACT (Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st century)," it said.

Prime Minister Modi also posted about the call on X, terming the conversation "warm and engaging", but did not mention trade.

"Had a very warm and engaging conversation with President Trump. We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," he wrote.

Trump’s new national security strategy: China a threat, India a critical partner, Europe in ‘decline’

WASHINGTON, Dec 7: US President Donald Trump sees China as a threat, backs the US, Australia, India, and Japan’s Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD), and wants Europe to stand on its feet, his new National Security Strategy shows.

The 33-page document presents the Trump administration’s foreign policy. The strategy document is typically released once each term to shape the US government’s policy priorities.

The White House quietly released the Trump National Security Strategy Thursday, with scathing words not only for China but also Europe, which the document claims is in ‘civilisational decline’.

On China, the document claims that President Trump “single-handedly reversed more than three decades of mistaken American assumptions about China” after the previous government’s idea to stop China’s integration into global markets and supply chains, which would apparently have encouraged it to adopt a “rules-based international order.” Instead, it argues, China “got rich and powerful” and used its gains strategically, while American elites across four administrations enabled or ignored Beijing’s ambitions.

The strategy document places significant emphasis on deterring conflict over Taiwan, given its centrality to semiconductor production and its control of the Second Island Chain—an area that divides Northeast from Southeast Asia. With one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea annually, the consequences for the US economy would be profound, the document states.

It says that the US administration pledges to preserve military overmatch to deter any attempt to “alter the status quo by force”. It also reiterates America’s longstanding declared policy—no support for any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.

With the Indo-Pacific now generating almost half of global GDP (PPP) and poised to dominate the 21st century, the strategy states that the region would remain “among the next century’s key economic and geopolitical battlegrounds”.

US prosperity, it argues, depends on competing successfully there. It highlights Trump’s October 2025 agreements with key Indo-Pacific partners, deepening ties in commerce, technology, culture, and defense. It also reaffirms the commitment of Washington, DC, to a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”

“Trump is building alliances and strengthening partnerships in the Indo-Pacific that will be the bedrock of future security”, it says.

China, it warns, has adapted to US tariffs by tightening its grip on supply chains, especially in low- and middle-income countries, which are “among the greatest economic battlegrounds of the coming decades”. Beijing’s exports to low-income countries doubled between 2020 and 2024 and are now nearly four times its exports to the United States.

Although China’s direct exports to the US have fallen from four percent to just over two percent of its GDP since 2017, Beijing continues to ship goods into the US market through intermediary nations, including Mexico.

The strategy, therefore, is to “rebalance America’s economic relationship with China”, ensuring reciprocity and reducing strategic vulnerabilities.

The strategy designates India as a critical partner in countering predatory economic practices and maintaining US global leadership.

“We must continue to improve commercial (and other) relations with India to encourage New Delhi to contribute to Indo-Pacific security, including through continued quadrilateral cooperation with Australia, Japan, and the United States (’the Quad’),” the document states.

The document calls for joint efforts with India, Europe, and Asian partners to strengthen positions in the Western Hemisphere and in Africa’s “critical minerals” sector, steering economic ties towards a “managed cooperation tied to strategic alignment”.

One major security challenge highlighted is the potential control of the South China Sea by a competitor, which could allow a hostile power to impose tolls or even close the region’s vital shipping lanes. Preventing this, the document argues, will require expanded US naval investment and coordination with every nation at risk, including India and Japan.

The strategy’s language on Europe is sharp. It warns that within decades, “certain NATO members will become majority non-European” before outlining a US policy that prioritises reestablishing stability in Europe and maintaining strategic stability with Russia.

It focuses on enabling Europe’s operation as aligned sovereign nations, which are responsible for their own defense, encouraging resistance within Europe to its “current trajectory”, and opening European markets to US goods while ensuring fair treatment for American workers.

The document also mentions strengthening central, eastern, and southern European states through commercial ties, along with weapons sales and cultural cooperation, ending the perception of NATO as a “perpetually expanding alliance”, and pushing Europe to counter mercantilist overcapacity, tech theft, cyber espionage, and other hostile economic behaviours.

Trump Calls Moscow Talks 'Very Good Meeting', Says Putin Wants To End War

WASHINGTON, Dec 4: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he believes Vladimir Putin wants to end the Ukraine war, despite talks between the Russian president and American negotiators ending without a deal.

Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner negotiated into the early hours with Putin in the Kremlin but reached no breakthrough for a settlement to end Europe's worst conflict since World War II.

The Kremlin said Wednesday that its army's recent battlefield successes in Ukraine had bolstered its position, adding that the two sides failed to find a "compromise" and that Kyiv's ties to NATO remained a key question.

"I thought they had a very good meeting yesterday with President Putin," Trump said.

"What comes out of that meeting? I can't tell you, because it does take two to tango."

Pressed on whether Witkoff and Kushner got any sense that Putin genuinely wanted to halt Russia's nearly four-year-old invasion, Trump replied: "He would like to end the war. That was their impression."

"Their impression was very strongly that he'd like to make a deal," he added.

Witkoff and Kushner brought an updated version of a US plan to end the war, which included Ukraine ceding parts of the eastern Donbas region and agreeing not to join NATO.

But while the White House had voiced optimism ahead of the Kremlin talks, Moscow said afterward it had found parts of the plan unacceptable.

Russia's advance in eastern Ukraine gathered pace last month and Putin has said in recent days that Moscow is ready to fight on to seize the rest of the land it claims if Kyiv does not surrender it.

Rubio says ‘more work’ required after U.S.-Ukraine talks in Florida

HALLANDALE BEACH (FLORIDA), Dec 1: The United States and Ukraine on Sunday hailed “productive” talks on Washington’s plan to halt Russia’s war with its neighbor, but both sides also cautioned that the high-stakes negotiations were far from over.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that more work was required, and a source in Kyiv’s delegation characterised the discussions as “not easy.”

The talks in Florida come as Kyiv faces mounting military and political pressure, along with the fallout from a domestic corruption scandal.

Washington has put forward a plan to end the nearly four-year conflict and is seeking to finalize it with Moscow and Kyiv’s approval.

The negotiations, which follow talks in Geneva, could set the stage for an upcoming visit to Moscow by President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who is expected to discuss Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We had another very productive session, building off Geneva, building off the events of this week,” Rubio told reporters.

“But there’s more work to be done. This is delicate. It’s complicated,” he added.

“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 Witkoff travels to Moscow.”

Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also attended the meeting in Hallandale Beach, north of Miami.

Ukraine’s security council secretary Rustem Umerov led Kyiv’s delegation, which also included Andrii Hnatov, the chief of staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, and presidential adviser Oleksandr Bevz.

Umerov described the Florida talks as “productive and successful.”

Trump administration discusses Venezuela amid military build-up concerns

WASHINGTON, Dec 1: Top United States officials were set to meet at the White House to discuss Venezuela, as the administration of US President Donald Trump continued to defend a controversial double strike on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean.

The planned meeting on Monday came as the US military continued to surge assets to the Caribbean. That has sparked concerns over a possible land invasion aimed at toppling the government of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro even as Trump has sent mixed messages in recent days.

Last week, the US president said that land operations against criminal groups in Venezuela could begin “very soon”, in what would be an escalation of the US military’s months-long strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug smugglers in international waters in the Caribbean.

Days earlier, the US designated the Cartel de los Soles, which officials describe as a drug trafficking cartel led by Maduro, as a “foreign terrorist organization” (FTO). Experts have pushed back on the characterisation, saying the “Cartel de los Soles” has traditionally referred to a loose network of corruption within the Venezuelan government.

In a Saturday post on his Truth Social account, Trump said airspace over Venezuela should be considered closed “in its entirety”, in what some observers saw as the final preparations for military action.

But on Sunday, Trump told reporters not to “read anything into” the move.

He added that many observers in Washington have read the threats and asset build-up as an effort to force Maduro to flee the country before any military action is taken. Others have pointed to Trump’s past statements on Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, sparking concerns he could pursue a “war for oil”.