German chancellor tells Trump US remains an ‘indispensable’ friend

German chancellor tells Trump US remains an ‘indispensable’ friend
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz addresses young people who took part in the youth4peace project in the Chancellery in Berlin on May 8, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 09 May 2025
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German chancellor tells Trump US remains an ‘indispensable’ friend

German chancellor tells Trump US remains an ‘indispensable’ friend
  • Friedrich Merz discussed the Ukraine war and trade rows with the US president on Thursday, using their first phone call to attempt to heal frayed ties

BERLIN: Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz discussed the Ukraine war and trade rows with US President Donald Trump on Thursday and said the United States remained Berlin’s “indispensable” partner, using their first phone call to attempt to heal frayed ties.
Since Trump returned to the White House, he has rattled Europe with head-pinning changes in security and trade policy, while his top administration officials have strongly supported Germany’s far-right AfD party.
Merz, despite being an avowed transatlanticist, has called for Europe to become more independent of its traditional NATO ally and said after his February election win that he had “no illusions” about the new tone from Washington.
But in their talk on Thursday, the conservative Merz “assured the American President that, 80 years after the end of the Second World War, the USA remains an indispensable friend and partner of Germany,” said a statement from Berlin.
“Both agreed to a close exchange and announced mutual visits to the USA and Germany,” it added without giving dates.
Merz’s spokesman Stefan Kornelius highlighted broad agreement to jointly resolve major crises, from the Ukraine war to the escalating US-EU trade row sparked by Trump’s blizzard of tariffs.
The new chancellor “shared the President’s call for a swift end to the killing in Ukraine” and said that “Russia must now agree to a ceasefire to create space for negotiations.”
The statement added that “Trump said he would strongly support Germany’s efforts, together with France, Great Britain, Poland and other European partners, to achieve lasting peace.”
The call came after Merz took power on Tuesday in a bumpy first day during which he was only elected in a second-round vote my MPs, having lost the first one in a surprise upset.
His inauguration ended half a year of political paralysis in Europe’s top economy since center-left ex-chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government collapsed last November 6, the day Trump was re-elected to the White House.

Trump’s inauguration came about a month before the German election on February 23 and heavily impacted the final stretch of the campaign.
The new US president reached out directly to Russia to end the Ukraine war and fueled doubts about the future strength of NATO, while threatening a trade war that would harm especially export power Germany.
Merz, straight after winning the election, urged the speedy formation of a new coalition government, warning that “the world isn’t waiting for us.”
He said his “absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA” in security matters.
During the campaign, the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) won strong backing from Trump ally Elon Musk, the technology billionaire, who called it the “best hope” for Germany.
Last week, after Germany’s domestic intelligence agency designated the AfD a “right-wing extremist” party, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the move “tyranny in disguise.”
Vice President JD Vance wrote on X that “the West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt — not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment.”
Merz on Tuesday condemned what he labelled the recent “absurd observations” from the United States and said he “would like to encourage the American government... to largely stay out of” German domestic politics.
A politician with longstanding US ties, Merz said he had always felt “from America that they can clearly distinguish between extremist parties and parties of the political center.”
Merz also noted on Tuesday that “I did not interfere in the American election campaign” that elected Trump.
The Berlin statement after the first Trump-Merz phone call made no mention of the row over the AfD.
 


Rubio to meet China’s Wang on sidelines of ASEAN talks

Rubio to meet China’s Wang on sidelines of ASEAN talks
Updated 34 sec ago
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Rubio to meet China’s Wang on sidelines of ASEAN talks

Rubio to meet China’s Wang on sidelines of ASEAN talks
  • Rubio said Thursday the United States has ‘no intention of abandoning’ the Asia-Pacific region
  • Before becoming Secretary of State, Rubio had already been one of the most vocal critics of China
KUALA LUMPUR: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Friday in Malaysia on the sidelines of ASEAN talks, where Washington’s tariffs are in sharp focus.
Rubio and Wang’s first face-to-face meeting since US President Donald Trump returned to office comes as Washington and Beijing are locked in disputes ranging from trade to Taiwan – and both powers vie for greater influence in the region.
Rubio, a longtime China hawk, and Wang are in Kuala Lumpur for a gathering of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which Japan, South Korea and Australia and other nations are also attending.
US officials said ahead of Rubio’s first trip to the region as secretary of state that Washington was “prioritizing” its commitment to East and Southeast Asia.
Rubio said Thursday the United States has “no intention of abandoning” the Asia-Pacific region.
But US tariffs have overshadowed the conference, and Rubio has sought to placate Asian trade partners, saying talks were ongoing and might result in “better” rates than for the rest of the world.
Trump has threatened punitive tariffs ranging from 20 to 50 percent against more than 20 countries, many of them in Asia, if they do not strike deals with Washington by August 1.
This included long-time US ally Japan which faced a 25 percent across-the board levy, separate from similar charges for cars, steel and aluminum that have already been imposed. Seoul faced a similar tariff percentage.
Earlier Friday Rubio met his Japanese and South Korean counterparts, with his spokeswoman Tammy Bruce calling it an “indispensable relationship.”
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, however, said this week that tariffs were being used as “sharpened instruments of geopolitical rivalry.”
Wang on Thursday said the US tariff drive “undermines the free trade system.”
“The United States’ imposition of high tariffs on Cambodia and Southeast Asian countries is an attempt to deprive all parties of their legitimate rights to development,” Wang said.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have ratcheted up since Trump took office in January, with both countries engaging in a tariff war that briefly sent duties on each other’s exports sky-high.
At one point the United States hit China with additional levies of 145 percent on its goods as both sides engaged in tit-for-tat escalation. China’s countermeasures on US goods reached 125 percent.
Beijing and Washington agreed in May to temporarily slash their staggeringly high tariffs — an outcome Trump dubbed a “total reset.”
Before becoming Secretary of State in January, Rubio had already been one of the most vocal critics of China on the American political stage for many years.
Rubio and Wang are also likely to discuss US concerns over China’s expansionary behavior in the South China Sea and Beijing’s growing military pressure on Taiwan.
China claims the democratic self-ruled island as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control.
Like most countries, Washington has no formal diplomatic relations with the island.
However, the United States is Taiwan’s biggest arms supplier and has shown increasing support for Taipei in the face of Beijing’s growing military pressure on the island in recent years.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused China in late May of “credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power” in the Asia-Pacific region.
He also claimed that Beijing “trains every day” to invade Taiwan.
In response, Chinese diplomats accused the United States of using the Taiwan issue to “contain China” and called on Washington to stop “playing with fire.”

Healy wins hilly 6th stage, Van der Poel takes yellow jersey from Pogacar at Tour de France

Healy wins hilly 6th stage, Van der Poel takes yellow jersey from Pogacar at Tour de France
Updated 17 min 8 sec ago
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Healy wins hilly 6th stage, Van der Poel takes yellow jersey from Pogacar at Tour de France

Healy wins hilly 6th stage, Van der Poel takes yellow jersey from Pogacar at Tour de France
  • The 24-year-old Healy had won a stage on the Giro d’Italia before, but this was his first victory at cycling’s showcase race
  • The Slovenian star accelerated at the end of the stage but could not quite do enough to stop the yellow jersey going to the 30-year-old Dutchman Van der Poel, who is not considered a race contender

VIRE NORMANDIE, France: Irish rider Ben Healy won a hilly sixth stage of the Tour de France after a long solo breakaway on Thursday and Mathieu van der Poel took back the yellow jersey from defending champion Tadej Pogacar by one second.

The 24-year-old Healy had won a stage on the Giro d’Italia before, but this was his first victory at cycling’s showcase race.

“A stage win in the Tour is just unbelievable, it’s what I’ve worked for,” he said. “I grew up watching the Tour and wishing one day I could just be there. Participating in the Tour is already an achievement and to win a stage is just so so amazing.”

American rider Quinn Simmons finished 2 minutes, 44 seconds behind Healy in second place and Australian Michael Storer was 2:51 back in third spot.

Van der Poel finished eighth, and Pogacar was a little further back in ninth.

Stage 6 took riders over 201.5 kilometers (125 miles) from Bayeux to Vire Normandie, featuring six minor climbs before a sharp uphill finish with a 10 percent gradient.

The Slovenian star accelerated at the end of the stage but could not quite do enough to stop the yellow jersey going to the 30-year-old Dutchman Van der Poel, who is not considered a race contender.

“I would have loved to have a bit more than one second but I’m happy to have it again,” said Van der Poel, who struggled with the heat. “I’ll try my best to recover as good as possible and then we’ll see tomorrow, but first I’m going to enjoy the yellow jersey. I will probably only have it for one day.”

Two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard finished 10th, just behind Pogacar, and is fifth overall.

The route favored allrounders and an experienced-looking eight-rider breakaway, including Stage 2 winner Van der Poel and Giro d’Italia champion Simon Yates, pulled away from the yellow jersey group around three-time Tour winner Pogacar.

Riding through rolling countryside they opened up a four-minute lead with 40 kilometers to go, which is when Healy decided to go for the stage win and pulled away from his rivals, who could not follow.

“Today’s stage really suited me, I had circled this day from the start,” Healy said. “I knew I needed to get away from the group, I think I timed it well and I caught them by surprise a little bit. Then I knew what I had to do: just put my head down.”

Friday’s stage is also hilly

Stage 7 is 197 kilometers long, starting from the port city of Saint-Malo and finishing with a climb up Mûr-de-Bretagne in Britanny’s picturesque Côtes-d’Armor department.

“When you see how Tadej is riding,” Van der Poel said, “if he attacks tomorrow, or Jonas as well, it will be very difficult not only for me but for the whole bunch to follow on this climb.”


ICC warns of worsening atrocities in Darfur, cites evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity

ICC warns of worsening atrocities in Darfur, cites evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity
Updated 23 min 41 sec ago
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ICC warns of worsening atrocities in Darfur, cites evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity

ICC warns of worsening atrocities in Darfur, cites evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity
  • Court’s deputy prosecutor, Nazhat Shameem Khan, tells UN Security Council the humanitarian situation in the region has reached an ‘intolerable’ level
  • ‘People are being deprived of food and water. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized. Abductions have become common practice,” she says

NEW YORK CITY: The International Criminal Court has “reasonable grounds to believe” that war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in Darfur, its deputy prosecutor, Nazhat Shameem Khan, told the UN Security Council on Thursday.

The humanitarian situation in the region has reached an “intolerable” level, he warned.

Speaking in New York, Khan described an escalating crisis marked by widespread famine, targeted attacks on hospitals and aid convoys, and sexual violence.

“People are being deprived of food and water,” she said. “Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized. Abductions have become common practice. Things can still get worse.”

Her comments came amid escalating violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, where the Rapid Support Forces, one of two main rival military factions in the country, and allied groups have been accused of targeting civilians at displacement camps such as Zamzam and Abu Shouk, and during attacks on the regional capital, Al-Fashir.

Khan said the findings of the ICC were based on extensive evidence gathered from various sources over the past six months, including field missions to refugee camps in Chad, and cooperation with civil society organizations and UN fact-finding agencies.

“We have collected over 7,000 evidence items, documentary, testimonial and digital, supporting our conclusion,” she added.

Highlighting gender-based crimes as a key focus of the investigations, Khan detailed ongoing efforts to increase the visibility of such violations, which remain “underreported and insufficiently recognized.”

A dedicated team is working with Darfuri women and girls to gather testimonies of sexual violence, she said, adding: “There is an inescapable pattern of offending targeting gender and ethnicity through rape and sexual violence. These crimes are being given particular priority.”

There were signs of growing cooperation with the court from the Sudanese government, including a recent visit to Port Sudan that allowed investigators to identify potential new witnesses, Khan said, and a second visit is planned in the near future.

But she urged Sudanese authorities to take bolder steps, particularly in the execution of ICC warrants for the arrest of senior officials, including the former president, Omar Bashir, as well as Ahmad Harun and Abdul Raheem Mohammed Hussein, former officials wanted by the ICC over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Darfur conflict of the early 2000s.

“Transferring Mr. Harun now would carry exceptional weight,” Khan said. She noted that the charges against him closely resemble those at the heart of another ongoing case, against Ali Mohammed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, a former Janjaweed militia leader accused by the ICC of orchestrating war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Darfur conflict. A verdict in that case is expected this year.

Khan urged the Security Council and the wider international community to act collectively to address the crisis and break what she described as a “seemingly never-ending cycle of violence fueled by impunity.”

She added: “Every single state here is appalled by what is happening in Darfur. Let us take our report as a blueprint. With your support, we can not only deliver justice but prevent this cycle of violence.”

Despite mounting challenges, including limited resources and obstruction on the ground, Khan said the ICC remains determined to pursue accountability in Darfur.

“We need your support now more than ever before,” she said. Though the ICC’s progress is “never sufficient, relative to the scale of the suffering,” if it can be reinforced through international support, “justice delivered collectively can reduce suffering and lay foundations for peace,” Khan added.

“If we can come together, if we can agree that such suffering needs the support of all those who are able to provide it, I believe the present crisis can ultimately demonstrate how justice delivered collectively can set the foundations for the reduction of suffering and the beginning of work towards peace.”


Pakistani passenger, bound for Karachi, ‘mistakenly’ flies to Jeddah

Pakistani passenger, bound for Karachi, ‘mistakenly’ flies to Jeddah
Updated 33 min 6 sec ago
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Pakistani passenger, bound for Karachi, ‘mistakenly’ flies to Jeddah

Pakistani passenger, bound for Karachi, ‘mistakenly’ flies to Jeddah
  • Civil aviation regulator requested to impose a ‘heavy fine on the airline that is guilty of negligence’
  • No explanation yet on how the passenger cleared immigration at Lahore airport without a passport

KARACHI: In a bizarre turn of events, a Pakistani man, who was supposed to travel to Karachi from Lahore, boarded a wrong flight and landed in the Saudi city of Jeddah this week, the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) confirmed on Friday.

The passenger, Malik Shahzain Ahmed, was traveling to Karachi through a private airline, Air Sial, but instead boarded the airline’s flight to Jeddah from the Lahore airport, local media reported, citing the passenger.

Ahmed told media that immigration authorities at the Jeddah airport briefly detained and questioned him upon landing in the Kingdom without a passport and deported him to Lahore after the situation became clear.

In a statement, the PAA said higher officials had taken notice of the lapse and written letters to civil aviation regulator and the station manager.

“In the letter, the civil aviation regulator has been requested to impose a heavy fine on the airline that is guilty of negligence,” PAA spokesman Saifullah said.

The PAA statement did not offer an explanation as to how the passenger cleared immigration at the Lahore airport before boarding the Jeddah-bound flight.

In a video clip circulating online, Ahmed said he went to Lahore airport to board the Karachi-bound flight on July 8, but he “mistakenly” sat in the Jeddah-bound flight after collecting his boarding pass for the domestic flight.

“After two hours, I asked [myself], ‘This plane doesn’t seem to be landing [soon]’,” he said. “Then I got to know that I had taken boarded the wrong plane.”
 


Gunmen kidnap and kill nine bus passengers in Pakistan’s Balochistan

Gunmen kidnap and kill nine bus passengers in Pakistan’s Balochistan
Updated 11 July 2025
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Gunmen kidnap and kill nine bus passengers in Pakistan’s Balochistan

Gunmen kidnap and kill nine bus passengers in Pakistan’s Balochistan
  • Armed men offboarded passengers, who hailed from the Punjab province, from two buses in the Zhob district
  • No group has claimed responsibility for the incident, but suspicion is likely to fall on Baloch separatist militants

QUETTA: Armed men killed nine bus passengers after kidnapping them in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Friday, in the latest attack on commuters hailing from the eastern Punjab province.

The attackers took the passengers with them after intercepting two buses on the N-70 highway in Balochistan’s Zhob district, according to a senior official of the paramilitary Levies force. Their bodies were found in the nearby mountains in the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack on the Punjab-bound buses, but suspicion is likely to fall on Baloch separatist groups who have been involved in multiple such attacks targeting ethnic Punjabi commuters in the past.

“Armed men intercepted two Lahore-bound passenger buses at the Balochistan-Punjab national highway near Sara Dhaka area and kidnapped nine ethnic Punjabi travelers after checking their national identity cards (NICs),” Yasin Mandokhail, the Levies station house officer (SHO) in Zhob district, told Arab News.

“The bodies are being shifted to Rakhni Hospital for medico-legal procedure.”

Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Balochistan government, said security forces immediately responded to the attack but the attackers fled under the cover of darkness.

“Security forces are conducting a thorough search operation in the area,” he said in a statement.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but most impoverished province, has been the site of a long-running insurgency that has intensified in recent months, with separatist militants attacking security forces, government officials and installations and people from other provinces, particularly Punjab, who they see as “outsiders.”

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the strongest of a number of insurgent groups long operating in the mineral-rich region bordering Afghanistan and Iran, who accuse the central government of stealing their resources to fund development in Punjab.

The federal government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan, where China has been building a deep-sea port as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.

Last August, nearly two dozen passengers were killed after BLA militants forcibly removed them from Punjab-bound buses in a string of coordinated attacks in Balochistan. Another seven Punjabi commuters were offboarded from buses and killed in Balochistan’s Barkhan district in February this year.

In March, the BLA separatist hijacked a train with hundreds of passengers aboard near Balochistan’s Bolan Pass, which resulted in the deaths of 23 soldiers, three railway employees and five passengers. At least 33 insurgents were also killed.

On Thursday, Pakistan Railways suspended train service from Balochistan provincial capital of Quetta to the rest of the country for a day after law enforcement agencies shared security concerns.