Trump, Scholz agree to work toward ‘return to peace in Europe’

Trump, Scholz agree to work toward ‘return to peace in Europe’
US President-elect Donald Trump (left) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. (Reuters/AFP photos)
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Updated 11 November 2024
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Trump, Scholz agree to work toward ‘return to peace in Europe’

Trump, Scholz agree to work toward ‘return to peace in Europe’
  • Scholz underlined his government’s willingness to continue the decades-long successful US-German cooperation, says spokesman
  • In their first phone call last week, Scholz told Trump: “We’re better off together. Together we can achieve much more than against each other.”

BERLIN:  US President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz by phone, Berlin said, adding that they “agreed to work together toward a return to peace in Europe.”
Scholz — mired in a political crisis and facing snap elections sometime in early 2025 — congratulated Trump a second time on his election victory, according to the chancellor’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.
“Both exchanged views on the German-American relationship and the current geopolitical challenges,” Hebestreit said in a brief statement.
“The chancellor underlined the government’s willingness to continue the decades-long successful cooperation between the governments of both countries.
“They also agreed to work together toward a return to peace in Europe.”
Trump’s election is seen as carrying the potential to upend the almost three-year Ukraine conflict, as he insists on a quick end to the fighting and casts doubt on Washington’s multi-billion-dollar support for Kyiv.
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to quickly end the Ukraine war — even before he is sworn into office — but without detailing his thinking.
Trump has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged him not to escalate the war in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported earlier Sunday. The president-elect’s representatives did not immediately respond when asked by AFP for comment.
During his last term in the White House, Trump berated NATO ally Germany for what he deemed insufficient defense spending as well as trade and other issues.
Scholz had already congratulated Trump on Wednesday and urged continued close transatlantic ties, telling him in English: “We’re better off together.”
“Together we can achieve much more than against each other,” added the center-left leader of Europe’s biggest economy, who plans to run again in the upcoming elections.
 


New York police hunt brazen Manhattan gunman

New York police hunt brazen Manhattan gunman
Updated 12 sec ago
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New York police hunt brazen Manhattan gunman

New York police hunt brazen Manhattan gunman
  • Masked killer used a pistol to gun down Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare – one of the country’s largest medical insurers
  • New York police commissioner: ‘Every indication is that this was a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack’
NEW YORK: New York police released a new security camera picture Thursday of the man believed to have shot a top health insurance executive at close range in a brazen daylight murder outside a Manhattan hotel.
The latest picture, in which the suspect’s face is uncovered and he is smiling or laughing, indicated progress in the manhunt after Wednesday’s shock killing.
In a hit conducted in front of bystanders and seen by millions on TV replays of security camera footage, the masked killer used a pistol to gun down Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare – one of the country’s largest medical insurers.
Thompson was attending an investor conference in the Midtown business district.
Police have yet to suggest a motive and would not confirm a New York Times report that the words “delay” and “deny” – often used by insurance companies to reject claims – were written on shell casings found at the scene.
Video footage shows Thompson on the sidewalk outside the New York Hilton Midtown when a man in a hoodie, and with his lower face covered, approaches from behind, then fires several shots at his 50-year-old victim, who crumples to the ground.
Camera footage showed the suspect fleeing on foot, before getting on a bicycle – which police initially said may have been a rented e-bike. Police said he went in the direction of Central Park.
“Every indication is that this was a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack,” New York’s police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told a briefing Wednesday.
US media on Thursday reported law enforcement sources said the suspected shooter traveled to New York via bus last month from Atlanta, Georgia, traversing a distance of 870 miles (1,400 kilometers).
NYPD chief of detectives Joseph Kenny would not confirm reports that a silencer was used on the pistol, saying that the question would be part of the investigation, but he did confirm that a cell phone had been recovered from the scene.
In the absence of an arrest, speculation has been rife that the gunman may have sought to take revenge for adverse medical coverage decisions made by the insurer.
Thompson’s wife Paulette Thompson, who is based in Minnesota, told the NBC News outlet that he had received unspecified threats.
“There had been some threats basically I don’t know – (over) a lack of coverage? I don’t know details,” said Thompson, who had two children with her late husband.
In a statement, UnitedHealth Group – the parent company of UHC – said it was “deeply saddened and shocked.”
UnitedHealthcare is a major player in the lucrative US health care market, providing workplace insurance, as well as administering huge health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid for older and low-income people funded by state budgets.
Police remained on the scene of the killing, and have been combing through Manhattan’s iconic Central Park with dogs and drones.
“We have a large detective agency. At any given hour, multiple detectives could be working on (the investigation),” an NYPD spokesman said.
“We will be using all our assets that we have.”
The spokesman said that there was no follow up briefing planned.
UnitedHealth Group had revenues of $100.8 billion in the third quarter of the year.
Thompson’s own compensation package in 2023 was $10.2 million according to a regulatory filing.
He had been chief executive of UnitedHealthcare since April 2021, according to a separate Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Before that, he oversaw UnitedHealthcare’s government programs including Medicare from July 2019 to April 2021.

Arsonists set Melbourne synagogue ablaze

Arsonists set Melbourne synagogue ablaze
Updated 54 min 24 sec ago
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Arsonists set Melbourne synagogue ablaze

Arsonists set Melbourne synagogue ablaze
  • Fire broke out at 4:10 a.m. in the Adass Israel Synagogue when some congregants were already inside
  • Members of the congregation form human chain to remove religious items from the damaged synagogue

MELBOURNE: Mask-wearing arsonists set a synagogue ablaze in a pre-dawn attack Friday in the Australian city of Melbourne, police said, sparking widespread condemnation.
The fire broke out at 4:10 a.m. (1710 GMT) in the Adass Israel Synagogue when some congregants were already inside, police said, gutting much of the building in the southeast Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea.
No serious injuries were reported.
A witness entering the synagogue for morning prayers saw “two individuals wearing masks,” Detective Inspector Chris Murray of the Victorian police arson and explosive squad told reporters at the scene.
“They appeared to be spreading an accelerant of some type in the premises,” he said.
The synagogue was “engulfed in flames,” he added.
“We believe it was deliberate. We believe it has been targeted. What we don’t know is why.”
Police will increase patrols as they hunt for the arsonists, who were wearing dark clothing, he said.
Detectives would be looking at CCTV footage and interviewing any witnesses, Murray said.
Television images showed firefighters hosing down the embers through the blackened door of the single-story building, which has a grey concrete facade.
A board member of the synagogue, Benjamin Klein, said a few congregants were sitting and praying inside when the fire started.
“They heard loud banging,” Klein said.
Liquid was poured inside the synagogue and set alight, he said.
“If this had happened an hour later, there would have been hundreds of people inside,” Klein said.
The congregants “ran out the back of the synagogue. One man who ran out — his hand got burnt,” he said.
“The fire was extensive,” he said.
“Inside is completely gutted.”
Holy books and furniture had been destroyed, he said, vowing however that the community would “rebuild.”
Members of the congregation formed a human chain to remove religious items from the damaged synagogue, including Torah scrolls — one of which was brought to Australia from Germany in World War II, the Age newspaper reported.
Klein said the synagogue had increased security over the past 12 months amid safety concerns, without giving further details.
In 1995, the synagogue was damaged by a deliberately lit fire, with walls and Torah scrolls burned.
Klein, who was a child at the time, said he remembered standing inside the damaged synagogue with his grandfather, who he said was a Holocaust survivor.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “unequivocally” condemned the fire and said federal police would help the state to investigate it.
“This violence and intimidation and destruction at a place of worship is an outrage,” Albanese said in a statement.
“This attack has risked lives and is clearly aimed at creating fear in the community.”
The prime minister said he had “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism.
“It has absolutely no place in Australia.”
The war in Gaza has sparked protests from supporters of Israel and Palestinians in cities around Australia, as in much of the world.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion said the community had been living in fear of such an incident since the start of the war in Gaza.
“This for us is just evidence of that fear,” he told reporters.
“This is something that is the greatest manifestation of what we have been seeing and hearing in terms of threatening emails, threatening social media, threatening letters and all sorts of other material.”
Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack which triggered the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,580 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.


Three climbers missing on New Zealand mountain believed dead: police

Three climbers missing on New Zealand mountain believed dead: police
Updated 17 min 46 sec ago
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Three climbers missing on New Zealand mountain believed dead: police

Three climbers missing on New Zealand mountain believed dead: police
  • The trio were reported missing five days ago after failing to return from a climb

WELLINGTON: Three climbers who went missing on New Zealand’s tallest mountain are believed to have fallen to their deaths, police said Friday.

The climbers were identified as Americans Kurt Blair, 56, and Carlos Romero, 50, along with a Canadian whose name has been withheld in accordance with the family’s wishes.

The trio were reported missing five days ago after failing to return from a climb on Mount Cook, which rises 3,700-meter (12,000 feet) on the South Island.

“We do not believe the men have survived. We believe they have taken a fall,” local police inspector Vicki Walker said.

Dangerous weather had halted the search for three days, but on Friday conditions cleared enough to deploy a search helicopter and drones in the alpine terrain.

Search crews had previously recovered a jacket and ice axe among other items which police believe belonged to the climbers.

Drone footage on Friday also revealed footprints where police believe the trio had been traversing the slopes beneath the mountain’s Zurbriggen Ridge.

“After reviewing the number of days the climbers have been missing, no communication, the items we have retrieved, and our reconnaissance today, we do not believe the men have survived,” Walker said.

“This is certainly not the news we wanted to share today.”

Walker added police would restart their search if fresh information or credible sightings were reported.

The families of all three climbers have been contacted.


Trump appoints former PayPal COO David Sacks as AI and crypto czar

Trump appoints former PayPal COO David Sacks as AI and crypto czar
Updated 06 December 2024
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Trump appoints former PayPal COO David Sacks as AI and crypto czar

Trump appoints former PayPal COO David Sacks as AI and crypto czar

US President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday said he was appointing former PayPal Chief Operating Officer David Sacks as his artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency czar, another step toward overhauling US policy.
“He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the US,” Trump said in a post on his social-media site Truth Social.
The crypto czar and other officials in Trump’s incoming administration such as the chairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are expected to reshape US policy on digital currency along with a newly created crypto advisory council.
Trump’s tech backers generally want to see minimal regulation around AI and cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, saying Washington would throttle growing innovative sectors with excessive rules.
Trump announced on Wednesday that he was nominating prominent Washington lawyer and crypto advocate Paul Atkins to lead the SEC, in a move celebrated by the industry.
Trump — who once labeled crypto a scam — embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and to accumulate a national stockpile of bitcoin.
Bitcoin broke $100,000 for the first time on Wednesday night, a milestone hailed even by skeptics as a coming-of-age for digital assets as investors bet on a friendly US administration to cement the place of cryptocurrencies in financial markets.
Born in South Africa, Sacks, 52, is a co-founder of venture capital firm Craft Ventures and an early leader of PayPal, a payment processing firm that was acquired by eBay in 2002.
Sacks is also a former chief executive of software company Zenefits and founded Yammer, a social network for enterprise users.
He was an early evangelist of cryptocurrencies, telling CNBC in a 2017 interview that he believed the rise of bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, was revolutionizing the Internet.
“It feels like we are witnessing the birth of a new kind of web. Some people have called it the decentralized web or the Internet of money,” he said.
Trump said Sacks will also lead a White House advisory council on science and technology. 


Trump says he picks former Senator David Perdue to be ambassador to China

Trump says he picks former Senator David Perdue to be ambassador to China
Updated 06 December 2024
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Trump says he picks former Senator David Perdue to be ambassador to China

Trump says he picks former Senator David Perdue to be ambassador to China

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday he has chosen former Senator David Perdue to be ambassador to China.
“He will be instrumental in implementing my strategy to maintain Peace in the region, and a productive working relationship with China’s leaders,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, 2025, has said he will impose an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing does more to stop the trafficking of the highly addictive narcotic fentanyl.
He also threatened tariffs in excess of 60 percent on Chinese goods while on the campaign trail.