Category: Global

President Donald Trump is changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, the White House announced Thursday, insisting the rebrand will project a more powerful image.

While the department’s official name is set in law, Trump in an executive order is authorizing use of the new label as a “secondary title” by his administration, a White House document said.

Defense officials are permitted to use to use “secondary titles such as ‘Secretary of War,’…in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch,” according to the document.

It was not immediately clear when Trump planned to sign the order, but his public schedule for Friday said he would be signing executive orders in the afternoon as well as making an announcement in the Oval Office.

The president, a marketing-savvy real estate developer, has repeatedly said in recent weeks that he was mulling such a change.

Late last month, the 79-year-old Republican claimed the Defense Department’s title was too “defensive.”

The Department of War “was the name when we won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything,” he told reporters on August 25.

According to the White House document, the name change “conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve.”

Established in the early days of US independence, the Department of War historically oversaw American land forces.

A government reorganization after World War II brought it along with the US Navy and Air Force under the unified National Military Establishment, which in 1949 was retitled to the Department of Defense.

“Restoring the name ‘Department of War’ will sharpen the focus of this Department on our national interest and signal to adversaries America’s readiness to wage war to secure its interests,” the White House document said.

The move is the latest overhaul at the Pentagon since Trump took office in January and appointed former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the sprawling department.

Hegseth, a combat veteran, has repeatedly touted the push to restore a “warrior ethos” in the department, and has lambasted prior administrations for policies he and Trump have derided as “woke.”

Hegseth notably has sought to expel transgender troops from the military and change the names of bases that honored Confederate troops back to their original titles, after they were renamed under former president Joe Biden.

While Trump’s order could potentially be rescinded by a future president, it “instructs the Secretary of War to recommend actions, to include legislative and executive actions, required to permanently rename” the department, the White House document said.

The United States plans to end long-running military assistance for European countries close to Russia, as President Donald Trump’s administration pushes the continent to play a greater role in its own defense, media reports said Thursday.

The Washington Post quoted six people familiar with the matter as confirming the move, which the newspaper said would impact hundreds of millions of dollars in aid aimed at bolstering defenses against Russia.

The Financial Times also reported the news, saying US officials informed European diplomats last week about Washington’s decision to halt funding for programs to train and equip eastern European militaries along Russia’s border.

A White House official pointed to a January executive order by Trump on the reevaluation of US foreign aid but did not confirm specifics of the decision to cut security assistance.

“This action has been coordinated with European countries in line with the executive order and the president’s longstanding emphasis on ensuring Europe takes more responsibility for its own defense,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The decision to curb assistance for countries located near Russia comes as Trump struggles to end Moscow’s three-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine.

Trump has long been skeptical of both US defense spending in Europe and aid for Ukraine, pushing some of Washington’s closest allies to play a greater role on both fronts.

Turkish authorities Wednesday said they have banned a planned concert Friday in Istanbul by Enrico Macias after calls to protest the French singer’s pro-Israeli views.

The Istanbul governorate said in a statement that it had wanted to prevent any demonstrations on the sidelines of the concert “against the genocide of the terrorist state Israel in Gaza and its supporters”.

The 86-year-old singer told AFP that he has performed in Turkey for 60 years and is “deeply surprised and saddened not to be able to see my audience, with whom I have always shared values of peace and fraternity.”

Macias, who was born into a Jewish family in Algeria, has on several occasions defended Israel’s lethal response to Hamas’s deadly October 2023 attacks.

“My problem is that I can’t stand the violence of the terrorists,” he said in an interview on YouTube in August.  “And if there was violence on the Israeli side, it was because of Hamas,” he said, while saying he had “nothing against the Palestinians.”

Macias has lived in France since 1961, where he has contributed to the popularity of Arab-Andalusian music.

European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are to meet in Paris on Thursday in a new effort to pile pressure on Vladimir Putin after he vowed Russia will fight on in Ukraine if no peace deal is reached.

Frustration has been building in the West over what leaders say is the Russian president’s unwillingness to strike a deal to end Moscow’s three-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine.

The summit, to be co-chaired by the leaders of France and the UK, aims to firm up plans on security guarantees for Ukraine if or when there is a ceasefire, and get a clearer picture of US involvement.

However, Russia has heaped scorn on such assurances, and Putin himself has said Moscow is willing to “resolve all our tasks militarily” in the absence of an agreement.

“We are ready, we the Europeans, to offer the security guarantees to Ukraine and Ukrainians the day that a peace (accord) is signed,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday evening, speaking alongside Zelensky.

Macron said the details of the guarantees were “extremely confidential” but the “preparation was completed” at an earlier meeting of defence ministers.

European leaders have been tight-lipped about the nature of the guarantees, which are expected to include the deployment of European troops to Ukraine, training and “backstop” support from the United States.

Zelensky, for his part, said he was confident Kyiv’s allies would help “increase pressure on Russia to move towards a diplomatic solution”.

But he also added: “Unfortunately, we have not yet seen any signs from Russia that they want to end the war.”

Hours before the talks were due to begin, Russia’s foreign ministry said the notional guarantees for Ukraine were “absolutely unacceptable”.

“They are not guarantees of Ukraine’s security, they are guarantees of danger to the European continent,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the sidelines of an economic forum in Russia’s far east.

She added that Russia would not consider the deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine “in any format”.

– ‘Alliance between Europe and US’ –

In an interview with French magazine Le Point published ahead of the summit, Zelensky said European security guarantees “might not be enough” to prevent Putin from starting a new war.

“We need an alliance between Europe and the United States,” he said.

The summit will be followed by phone talks with US President Donald Trump, to begin at 1200 GMT, and then a 1300 GMT press conference.

The gathering takes place following Putin’s high-profile trips to China and the United States.

Speaking earlier Wednesday in Beijing, where he attended a massive military parade alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin hailed his forces’ progress in Ukraine.

He said Russian troops were advancing on “all fronts” and had hobbled Ukraine’s army so much it could no longer mount an offensive.

In unprecedented scenes, Putin was pictured shaking hands and chatting with Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as they walked down a red carpet by Tiananmen Square.

Last month Trump rolled out a red carpet for Putin in Alaska but those talks yielded no breakthrough.

Trump has indicated the United States could back up any European peacekeeping plan, but would not deploy US soldiers to Ukraine.

– ‘War criminal’ –

European leaders have been growing exasperated with Putin, sharpening their criticism and warning that the Ukraine war could last for many more months.

“Putin is a war criminal,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on X on Tuesday.

“He is perhaps the most severe war criminal of our time that we see on a large scale. We must be clear about how to deal with war criminals: leniency is out of place here.”

Macron last month called Putin “an ogre at our gates”, while his Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Russia could continue to wage its war against Ukraine “for as long as it can”.

“In a Soviet KGB culture, buying time and deceiving one’s partners and adversaries is part of a well-known Russian strategy,” Lecornu told French daily Le Parisien in a recent interview, referring to the main security agency of Moscow’s predecessor state.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin discussed life-prolonging organ transplants and immortality as they chatted before Beijing’s massive military parade this week, in comments picked up by state media microphones.

Historic images showed Xi shaking hands and speaking with Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as they walked down a red carpet by Tiananmen Square, in scenes viewed as a challenge to US President Donald Trump.

“These days… 70 years old,” Xi said in Mandarin as he walked beside Putin and Kim, footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed.

Xi’s translator, conveying his remarks to Putin, is then heard in Russian quoting a line from a Tang dynasty poem: “In the past, it used to be rare for someone to be older than 70 and these days they say that at 70 one’s still a child.”

Putin then turned towards Xi, speaking while gesturing with his hands, though this is inaudible on the CCTV feed.

The same Chinese translator then relayed Putin’s remarks to Xi.

“With the… development of biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted, people could get younger as they grow older, and may even become immortal,” Putin said, according to the translator.

Xi then spoke again in Mandarin as the camera cut away: “Predictions are, in this century, it may be… possible to live to 150 years old.”

Putin confirmed the exchange during a press briefing on Wednesday.

“Ah, I think it was when we were going to the parade that the Chairman spoke about this,” he told reporters, referring to Xi.

“Modern means — both health improvement and medical means, and then even all kinds of surgical ones related to organ replacement — allow humanity to hope that active life will continue not as it does today,” Putin added.

The Chinese and Russian leaders, both 72, have not expressed any intention of stepping down.

While Xi’s predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao relinquished power after 10 years in office, he abolished term limits in 2018 and in 2023 was handed a third term as Chinese president.

An Indian man has been sentenced to death for burning his wife alive because of her “dark skin”.

According to reports, a court in Udaipur handed death sentence to Kishan Das for pouring a brown-coloured solution on his wife Lakshmi under the pretense that it would make her skin fairer, then setting her on fire back in June 2017.

Before her death, Lakshmi recorded statements for the police, doctors and an executive magistrate, saying, “My husband used to constantly taunt me for my dark skin.”

Lakshmi told authorities that she married Das in 2016 and that he regularly called her “kali”, which means dark-skinned. On the night of the attack, he handed her a solution, saying the “medicine” would make her skin “beautiful”.

When she applied the solution, her body began to burn and Das allegedly poured more liquid on her before setting her on fire and fleeing.

Later, Das’s parents and sister took Lakshmi to the hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.

The court described Das’s actions as crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death.

Love can make people do strange things, but one man’s extreme reaction has left the internet in splits.

A viral video from India shows a boy climbing an electric pole with giant pliers in his hand. Moments later, he is seen cutting wires, an act that allegedly plunged his girlfriend’s entire village into darkness.

According to Indian media reports, he was furious because his girlfriend’s phone line was constantly busy.

Instead of resolving the matter with a conversation, the man decided to vent his anger by snapping the power lines. The video, which remains unverified, has been widely shared on social media.

While many viewers were shocked, others turned the dramatic stunt into meme material. One user wrote, “Jio tower girana tha dost .” Another added, “Ye badiya tha guru .” A third user joked, “Bhai yeh telephone ka wire nahin hai.” Some even called him a “true filmi lover” for his over-the-top act.

The clip continues to circulate online, with netizens laughing at the stunt and joking about how far people can go in the name of love.

The world’s biggest academic association of genocide scholars has passed a resolution saying the legal criteria have been met to establish that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), 86 percent backed the resolution, declaring that Israel’s “policies and actions in Gaza” had met the legal definition set out in Article II of the 1948 UN Convention on genocide.

The IAGS called upon the government of Israel to “immediately cease” all acts that constitute “genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza”.

The three-page resolution also calls on Israel to cease killing of civilians, including children; starvation; deprivation of humanitarian aid, water, fuel, and other items essential to the survival of the population; sexual and reproductive violence; and forced displacement of the population.

“This is a definitive statement from experts in the field of genocide studies that what is going on the ground in Gaza is genocide,” the association’s president, Melanie O’Brien, a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, has said.

Since October 05, 2023, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza, as more than 63,000 Palestinians, including children, have been killed. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) destroyed most buildings in the territory and forced nearly all its residents to flee their homes at least once. 

A global hunger monitor relied on by the United Nations (UN) warned that parts of the territory are now suffering a man-made famine.

Founded in 1994, the IAGS has a broad membership that includes academics, historians, political scientists and human rights activists. It has adopted previous resolutions identifying genocide, including historical cases such as the Armenian genocide.

Previously, the IAGS recognised genocides in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Armenia, and Myanmar.

A strange incident in India’s Uttar Pradesh’s has gone viral on social media after a missing man was discovered through an Instagram reel.

According to Indian media reports, a Hardoi native who disappeared shortly after his marriage was spotted in a video with another woman in Ludhiana, seven years after he was last seen. 

The reports stated that Jitendra Kumar married a woman named Sheelu from Meran Nagar in 2017. Soon after the wedding, the couple welcomed a baby boy. However, Jitendra and his family allegedly began harassing Sheelu for dowry, demanding a gold chain and other valuables.

In 2018, Jitendra suddenly went missing, and his disappearance was reported to the police. Despite extensive searches, no information about him was uncovered. During this time, Jitendra’s family accused Sheelu’s relatives of murdering him, forcing Sheelu to live with her son at her parents’ home.

However, fate took an unexpected turn a few days ago when Sheelu, while browsing Instagram, saw a reel featuring her husband with another woman in Ludhiana.

Sheelu claimed that Jitendra had remarried and was living with the woman seen in the video. She also alleged that Jitendra’s family knew about this but kept it a secret.

Police said Jitendra left home without informing anyone a year after the marriage, and a missing person report had been filed in 2018. After confirming his whereabouts, Sheelu has submitted a new complaint to the police. Authorities have started an investigation into the matter.

Audiences around the world woke up on Monday to a powerful message on the front pages of newspapers and media websites.

“At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no one left to keep you informed,” read a message on main pages of dailies and media websites as part of a protest organised by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and global advocacy group Avaaz to condemn the killing of journalists in Gaza.

For the first time in history, more than 250 media outlets across 70 countries, including Qatar, France, the UK, Germany, Palestine, South Korea, Spain and Italy, blacked out their front pages, homepages and broadcasts to send the message.

RSF stated that the protest aimed to demand protection for Palestinian journalists, free access for media in Gaza, and an end to what it called crimes against journalists by the Israeli army.

Television and radio stations will also air a joint statement whereas online media platforms will display blackout banners in solidarity.

According to RSF, Israel has killed 220 journalists in the past two years, with many more injured.

The Gaza Health Ministry reports that more than 63,000 Palestinians have died since the genocide began. The United Nations (UN) considers these figures reliable.