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Oct 9, 2025 - World

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that both Israel and Hamas had agreed to the “first phase” of his 20-point plan to end hostilities in Gaza, but multiple high-ranking Israeli officials are already pouring cold water on the proposal.Under the peace plan, Hamas would return all of the remaining Israeli hostages and commit to peaceful co-existence, and in exchange, Israel would begin a phased withdrawal of Gaza and release 1,950 Palestinians it currently holds captive – 250 serving life sentences, and 1,700 detained after Oct. 7, 2023. Israel currently holds an estimated 9,500 Palestinians captive, around 3,660 of them without criminal charge.Hamas would also be granted amnesty under the plan, granted they agree to end hostilities and not play any role in future governance of Gaza. It’s this point, however, that has some high-ranking Israeli officials already souring on the deal.“Mixed emotions on a complex morning,” wrote Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in a social media post on X Thursday, according to an automated translation of his post, originally written in Hebrew.“...We cannot join the short-sighted celebrations and vote in favor of the deal. A tremendous responsibility to ensure that this is not, God forbid, a deal of ‘hostages in exchange for stopping the war,’ as Hamas thinks and boasts.”As pointed out by Arab Center Washington DC Fellow Assal Rad, however, Smotrich’s comments were in direct contradiction with a core component of the deal as was presented by Trump.“Israeli officials are already contradicting Trump,” Rad wrote in a social media post on X Thursday morning.“Here is Smotrich saying they want to ‘ensure that this is not, God forbid, a deal of hostages in exchange for stopping the war.’ That is, in fact, exactly the point of a ceasefire.”Smotrich, who last year argued it was “justified and moral” to allow Palestinian civilians to “die of hunger” amid Israel’s aid blockade, was not alone in his opposition to one of the key components of Trump’s peace plan. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also spoke ill of the plan, going as far as to threaten Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his far-right party would leave the Israeli government if Hamas “continues to exist” following the hostage exchange.“We will not be part of a national defeat which will be an eternal disgrace, and which will turn into a ticking time bomb of the next massacre,” Gvir said on Saturday, according to The Times of Israel. “...[We] can in no way agree to a scenario in which the terror group that brought about the greatest ever catastrophe upon the State of Israel will be able to resurrect itself.”Both Smotrich and Gvir pledged to vote against the peace plan, and Israel, despite Trump’s demand that the nation “immediately stop the bombing of Gaza,” has continued to strike Gaza, killing dozens.“Israeli Finance Minister and de facto West Bank governor Bezalel Smotrich directly contradicts contours of ceasefire agreement this morning, saying it must not be a ‘hostages in exchange for end of war’ deal – which is precisely what it is, if Trump holds Israel to it,” wrote New York Times opinion writer Mairav Zonszein Thursday in a social media post on X.Still, both Israelis and Gazans have been seen rejoicing at the news that an agreement had been reached on the peace plan, with millions hopeful for an end to the hostilities that began exactly two years ago as of Tuesday.Israeli officials are already contradicting Trump. Here is Smotrich saying they want to “ensure that this is not, God forbid, a deal of hostages in exchange for stopping the war.”That is, in fact, exactly the point of a ceasefire. https://t.co/bv7BnDZoEP— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) October 9, 2025

Oct 9, 2025 - World

Donald Trump’s obsession with winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and his inability to stop talking about it, is likely dragging down his chances despite getting multiple nominations, according to new reporting.According to a report from the Washington Post, this year's prize will be announced on Friday, and betting markets are against the 79-year-old American president despite his best efforts to lobby for himself.As the Post’s Michael Birnbaum and Dan Diamond dryly wrote, “Trump maintains he is not politicking for the prize, which he has mentioned publicly every few weeks since reclaiming the Oval Office — a habit people familiar with the award warned could hurt his chances.”Noting that Trump recently stated that, if he doesn’t win, “it’ll be a big insult to our country, I will tell you that,” there was a feeling that the president was pressuring negotiators to wrap up the ceasefire agreement in Gaza because he felt it would help his chances, despite the Nobel committee traditionally using an end of January deadline for nominations.RELATED: Trump phone call boast about Nobel Prize nomination set off feud with major ally: report With the Post describing Trump’s attempt to sway the Nobel Committee as “naked hunger” for more accolades, observers described his desperation for the honor as unusual and unseemly."Trump’s not-a-campaign campaign has little precedent in the subdued world of Nobel peace picks, where five Norwegians appointed by their country’s parliament meet in conclave for months of studious deliberation. Winners almost never campaign publicly — and few lobby privately, according to people familiar with Nobel history. His public interest in the award could backfire, according to a person familiar with the operations of the prize,” the Post is reporting.According to one insider, “The pressure from Trump is rather extraordinary and comes across not least as remarkably self-centered. That rhetoric and his whole approach must be said to collide quite dramatically with the traditions of the prize, even if that in itself may not be disqualifying.”Nina Graeger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, which compiles a short list for the prize, admitted the American president did not make the cut, and noted Trump’s pressure and called it, “unprecedented, and it’s very unusual.”Graeger did concede that, if Trump’s last-minute success in Gaza sticks he would receive consideration; however, she added, “They would also, however, look at whatever else he’s doing in the world, but at least they would have to consider him.”You can read more here.

Oct 8, 2025 - World

Prime minister hopes to learn from success of scheme rolled out to most of country’s 1.4bn citizensKeir Starmer is to examine India’s digital ID system on his visit to Mumbai as a potential model for the UK, praising the system as a “massive success”.Speaking on his two-day trip to Mumbai, where he met an expert on India’s digital ID system, Starmer defended the introduction of a similar measure in the UK, saying he believed the rollout of a voluntary system could be expanded to school applications, mortgages and driving licences. Continue reading...

Oct 8, 2025 - World

A history professor is abruptly leaving the U.S. after a conservative group founded by the late Charlie Kirk singled him out for persecution, according to a report on Wednesday. Mark Bray, who has taught about antifascist movements at Rutgers University since 2019, notified students Sunday that his courses would immediately move online as he and his family prepared to flee the country for their safety, reported the Washington Post.“Since my family and I do not feel safe in our home at the moment, we are moving for the year to Europe,” Bray told students by email. “Truly I am so bummed about not being able to spend time with you all in the classroom.”Far-right social media accounts called attention to Bray in late September, after news outlets quoted his remarks about President Donald Trump’s executive order designating antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization," and the Washington Post confirmed three death threats sent to the professor since Sept. 26.One online activist called him a “domestic terrorist professor," while another shared his home address in New Jersey, and the Rutgers chapter of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, which was founded by the late Kirk, launched a petition Thursday demanding Bray's firing, referring to Trump's executive order and smearing the educator as a threat to their safety.Bray decided to move his family to Spain for the rest of the year, and he's optimistic they'll be able to return one day. “I’m hopeful about returning, and I’m hopeful — and I say this as a history professor — that someday we will look back on this as a cautionary tale about authoritarianism,” Bray said.The university told the Post that administrators were aware of the Turning Point USA petition and Bray's message to students. “We are gathering more information about this evolving situation,” the university said in a statement.Bray, the author of four books on anarchism and antifa, also faced widespread criticism when he told NBC News’s “Meet the Press” in 2017, while a lecturer at Dartmouth University, that violence was sometimes justified, after the deadly “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.Dartmouth's president at the time condemned Bray in a statement and accused him “supporting violent protest," but more than 100 of the university's faculty members rallied around him.Turning Point USA did not respond to requests for comment on the report, but the Trump administration justified the threats he received by blaming Kirk's assassination, which remains under investigation, on "Democrat violence," but Bray characterized the threats chasing him to Europe as part of the president's crackdown on academic freedom.“There’s been a concerted attack on universities, and I feel like this is a facet of that," Bray said, "to make it so that professors who conduct research on protest movements don’t feel safe sharing their research or teaching about topics that the administration doesn’t like.”

Oct 8, 2025 - World

The holidays are about to more difficult and more expensive, warned importers speaking to CNBC for a Wednesday report. President Donald Trump's tariffs are leading to complications for countries that don't know how to submit funds that come as a result of the tariffs. While Trump has boasted that trillions of dollars are coming in from his tariffs, in August, at least 30 countries simply gave up and suspended or restricted all shipments to the United States. U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods mean that the world's largest Christmas tree manufacturer will face an extra 57.6% tariff, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics.“We brought in about 25% less product,” said Chris Butler, CEO of National Tree Company, when speaking to CNBC about the matter. “We are definitely going to see a short supply this year. So if you’re a consumer and you are in the market for Christmas goods this year, I would definitely act now and get ahead of the curve.”Butler leads "the Christmas Trade Group," which is a group of organizations with over 1,000 employees who generate $1 billion in revenue annually. He explained that Black Friday is usually a big day for purchases on Christmas décor and trees are just scratching the surface of the smaller amount of items being imported. The reduction of imports means such items will likely sell out quickly. “I would get ahead of that. So buy now, buy early is what I would say to consumers,” Butler said.He went on to say that prices will be increased by at least 10% as a result of Trump's trade war. “I think most consumers will be able to weather the 10% price increase, but consumers at the lower end of the economic spectrum may struggle,” he continued.Butler has already met with the the Trump administration twice about his hope to "save Christmas." “This is why we are having conversations with the [Trump] administration so we can potentially save Christmas going forward and give American consumers the low prices that we think they deserve,” he said.Read the full report here.