Middle East updates: Blinken calls for end to Gaza war

Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Israel achieved its aims and must now allow Palestinians to return to Gaza.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah has launched drone attacks on Tel Aviv.

EU top diplomat suggests suspending political dialogue with Israel — reports

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is proposing that EU member states suspend regular political dialogue with Israel over allegations from international aid organizations that Israel is violating human rights and international humanitarian law in Gaza, according to reports from the DPA and Reuters news agencies.

A potential peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine would have the same ripple effect as the 1945 Potsdam Conference, which determined the post-World War II order for decades to come, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has claimed.

In an interview with the TVN24 broadcaster on Tuesday, Sikorski offered his take on how the administration of US President-elect Donald Trump could change American policy on Ukraine and what that would mean for the rest of Europe.

 

‘New world order’ coming after Russia-Ukraine peace deal – Polish FM       US President-elect Donald Trump “cannot afford a catastrophic defeat” for Kiev, Radoslaw Sikorski has argued...

 

Washington: A far-right Republican, who was investigated for sex crimes and was also responsible for a leadership coup that paralysed the US Congress for weeks, has been nominated by Donald Trump to be America’s new attorney-general.

In an announcement that sent shock waves across Washington, the president-elect has tapped Florida congressman Matt Gaetz to be his top lawmaker tasked with overhauling what Trump has long viewed as a “weaponised” federal Justice Department.

US President-elect Donald Trump has chosen former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to be the next director of national intelligence. A former Democrat, Gabbard joined the Republican Party in 2024 and endorsed Trump for president.

“For over two decades, Tulsi has fought for our country and the freedoms of all Americans,” Trump said in a statement on Wednesday, arguing that Gabbard “has broad support in both parties.”

Trump said that Gabbard “will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our intelligence community, championing our constitutional rights, and securing peace through strength.”

In a post on X, Gabbard thanked Trump “for the opportunity to serve as a member of your cabinet to defend the safety, security and freedom of the American people.”

O’ gentle pain and angry serenity

We hide our being behind flimsy screens

For we use aspirin and valium pills

Morphine and codeine, vitamins and Seraphims

Is our life worth more than heavenly eternity?

 

Others in Palestine scream

For Zion to stop the genocide

It sells as a day in October retribution

For a self-induced century-old affliction

With gleeful anger on a nasty godly side

Bombs and pagers and phosphorus white

Counted in pounds, kilos and many biggoodles

Turning flimsy tents and houses into rubbles 

Piles of concrete, limbs and severed heads

Blood oozing soon drying in the heat of dreads

Running towards a hospital destroyed

Helpers with stretchers stopped by dust

To the summarily-made morgue now

Mass grave where mangled bodies burst

Michael Waltz is a former Green Beret and Florida congressman, who has previously called for Europe to do more to support Ukraine and for the US to pull back its own support in the fight against Russian invasion. 

The 50-year-old was a member of the Armed Forces and of Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees, and served as a counterterrorism adviser to Vice-President Dick Cheney. 

His wife, Julie Nesheiwat, was Mr Trump's homeland security adviser during his first administration. 

South Dakota's Governor Kristi Noem has been tapped to lead Homeland Security, the same organisation that oversees multiple entities including the Coast Guard and the Secret Service. 

She has been a fierce critic of immigration policy. 

In his announcement, Mr Trump said Ms Noem would be "very strong on border security". 

As governor, Ms Noem sent National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border to assist Texas Governor Greg Abbott in policing it. 

Marco Rubio was elected to the Senate in 2010, and has previously taken a hard stance on China, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. 

He was also considered a top pick to become Mr Trump's vice-president until Senator JD Vance was announced as the president-elect's running mate. 

According to the New York Times, he has become one of the most outspoken senators when it comes to the need for the US to be more aggressive in its dealings with China. 

Boris Johnson continues to stir tensions with Moscow more than two years after leaving office, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has said, after the former UK prime minister suggested deploying troops to assist Ukraine.

In an interview with GB News on Tuesday, Johnson raised the possibility of US President-elect Donald Trump cutting support for Kiev in its conflict with Moscow, saying there are some people with “wrong” views on the issue in his inner circle. If this happens, “we will then have to pay to send British troops to help defend Ukraine,” he argued.

"Having ceded power, Johnson continues to provoke and incite” as it is the only type of behavior he is capable of, Zakharov told the Izvestia newspaper on Tuesday.

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday billionaire backer Elon Musk and supporter Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” while Fox News host Pete Hegseth will serve as secretary of defense, the latest in a flurry of appointments in the days since Trump won the election, tapping some of his staunchest defenders and loyalists for roles in the administration.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk became one of the most high-profile Trump supporters and MAGA influencers on the campaign trail. 

Speaking to reporters last month, Mr Musk said he had a goal of slashing government spending by trillions of dollars. 

President-elect Trump has announced Tom Homan as his new administration’s border czar, putting a 30-plus-year immigration enforcement veteran at the head of his mass deportation pledge.

Homan, the second Trump appointee announced after White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, ran Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an acting capacity in 2017 and 2018 before announcing his retirement.

This is his second time coming out of retirement for Trump

Homan led ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) component from 2013 onward under former President Obama, and had planned to retire from public service to a consulting job at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in 2017.

But on the way out of his retirement party, Homan received a call from then-White House chief of staff John Kelly offering him the top job at ICE.

 

‘Who the f--k is this guy?’: Defense world reacts to Trump’s surprise Pentagon pick
“Hegseth is undoubtedly the least qualified nominee for SecDef in American history,” one veterans’ advocate said.

President-elect Donald Trump’s Tuesday night surprise pick of a conservative commentator and television host as his Pentagon chief shocked Washington, which had expected the nominee to be a seasoned lawmaker or someone with defense policy experience.

National security officials and defense analysts had braced for surprises from Trump after experiencing his first four years in office. But even grading on that curve, they say the announcement of Fox News host and decorated Army veteran Pete Hegseth caught them totally off-guard.

Western countries should allow Kiev to issue an ultimatum to Moscow and allow long-range missile strikes deep into Russian territory if the Kremlin fails to comply with it, German MP Friedrich Merz told Stern magazine in an interview published over the weekend.

The politician leads Germany’s biggest opposition party – the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – and will be its chancellor candidate at the next parliamentary elections.

Germany is potentially heading into a snap vote early next year after the three-party government coalition collapsed last week. According to multiple news media outlets, the elections could take place as early as February 23, if Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s now-minority cabinet loses a confidence vote in mid-December.

Indonesia has officially become a new BRICS partner, joining countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Türkiye, Nigeria, Cuba and Kazakhstan. Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Sugiono announced this shift last week at the most recent BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia. Last year, at talks in Johannesburg, South Africa, China advocated for the expansion of BRICS and Indonesia was identified as a potential member supported by all five existing BRICS nations.

 

Fyodor Lukyanov: This is why Trump’s approach to Ukraine is so different
The key is understanding how the US president-elect formulates policy, and his background in the business world

Donald Trump formulates his political course using memes. Strategies, programs and action plans are then drawn up by people around him. But the impetus comes from the main character’s pronouncements.

That’s why we hear the US president-elect promise to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. It sounds unrealistic, to say the least, but it reflects his desire. Which is obviously a conscious one. Which means it shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.