External Source, Author at Africa News Matters

MAGA warned Trump on Iran. Now he’s in an impossible position.

External SourceJune 22, 2025028 views

President Donald Trump campaigned on ending what his base has long derided as U.S. foreign adventurism, leading the rebellion against an establishment that long favored international interventions.

Now some of his most vocal supporters fear Israel may have trampled his ability to make good on that promise.

The Jewish nation’s decision to conduct a pre-emptive strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities on Thursday night threatens to draw the United States into a Middle East conflict — and split the MAGA coalition that catapulted Trump back into the Oval Office.

While administration officials say the U.S. played no part in the offensive, it was unclear as of Thursday night whether the U.S. will be able to actually stay on the sidelines. Trump will almost certainly feel compelled to help defend Israel against counter-attacks by Iran.

And there are real questions about how Tehran — which was slated to meet with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff for the latest round of peace talks on Sunday —..

The global impact of Trump vs. Musk

External SourceJune 22, 2025030 views

Could Elon Musk’s online slapfight with President Donald Trump put a dent in his global telecom ambitions?

Musk’s satellite broadband company Starlink has reaped massive gains since he became “first buddy” to Trump. Numerous countries have cut red tape to approve Starlink this year, some reportedly under pressure from Trump’s State Department. In some cases, countries appeared to be giving Starlink a green light in order to ingratiate themselves with the White House.

Vietnam approved the service in February. In early May, the Democratic Republic of Congo granted Starlink a license. Later that month, South Africa eased laws that required telecom companies to provide 30 percent equity to groups that were historically marginalized — which could allow Starlink to start service without meeting the requirement.

Now, Musk’s feud with Trump raises the question of how Starlink will fare in future negotiations. Will countries feel the need to let it in? Will Trump go to bat for the company?

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Mark Carney says Canada will meet NATO spending target this year

External SourceJune 22, 2025027 views

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday announced an ambitious defense spending target that would end Canada’s status as a NATO laggard and mollify frustrated Americans.

Carney committed to meeting the alliance’s current spending target of 2 percent in 2025, half a decade ahead of Ottawa’s previous commitment.

Carney’s announcement comes less than a week before he hosts President Donald Trump at the G7 summit in Alberta. The accelerated spending also follows amplified calls from the U.S. president and his Canadian ambassador, Pete Hoekstra, for Ottawa to honor its unfulfilled 11-year-old commitment to the target.

Carney framed the new spending as a necessary response to a more dangerous world that has left Canada more vulnerable to threats in the Arctic — and less protected by Americans.

“A new imperialism threatens. Middle powers must compete for interests and attention, knowing that if they’re not at the table, they’re on the menu,” Carney said, repeating a go-to line from ..

Can Merz have an effective foreign policy?

External SourceJune 22, 2025033 views

John Kampfner is a British author, broadcaster and commentator. His latest book “In Search of Berlin” is published by Atlantic. He is a regular POLITICO columnist.

“He’s a very good man to deal with. He is difficult, but he is a very great representative of Germany.”

Wannabe “macho bro” Chancellor Friedrich Merz beamed as U.S. President Donald Trump handed down his version of praise. The compliment could not have been more appreciated. Given that anything could have happened in the Oval Office — with many a humiliation already meted out to several world leaders — Merz emerged surprisingly unscathed. In fact, he did better than that: He acquitted himself as well as any visitor to MAGA HQ could.

Unlike French President Emmanuel Macron or British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — his two closest counterparts — he also avoided false pretense. He didn’t put his hand on Trump’s knee or whip out a royal letter. In fact, by comparison, his gift — a framed copy of Trump’s grandfather’s birth cer..

Trump demands Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’ – as it happened

External SourceJune 19, 2025058 views

This blog is closed. Follow our new blog here for live updates on the Israel-Iran conflict
Israel-Iran conflict: live updates
Full report: Trump demands Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’
Living in Israel: how have you been affected?
Living in Iran: how have you been affected?
Donald Trump has encouraged vice president JD Vance and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to offer to meet the Iranians this week, the New York Times has reported, citing a US official.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi had earlier indicated that Tehran was open to negotiations, also suggesting Trump could stop the war with “one phone call” to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. In a post on X he wrote:
If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential. Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue.
It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netany..

No, South Africa’s HIV care is not ‘under control’. To pretend so recalls the dark days of Aids denialism | Yvette Raphael and Sibongile Tshabalala

External SourceJune 19, 2025056 views

It is not just Trump’s funding cuts that have led the country to a health crisis. The real collapse comes from a lack of political courage to act
No one should be surprised that the health system in South Africa is straining in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s cruel gutting of HIV funding. What is shocking is the political will to pretend otherwise.
As public health workers, researchers, academics, people living with HIV and civil society organisations, we reject the narrative put forward by the government that things are “under control”. Testing has dropped. Frontline workers are being dismissed. Clinics that served our most marginalised communities have closed or are struggling to keep their doors open. And those most affected, such as transgender people, sex workers and drug users, have not been meaningfully included in any transition planning. The National Treasury and the Department of Health are at odds with each other. Officials within the health department are at odds with each ..

Trump’s Yemen bombings killed nearly as many civilians as 23 previous years of US attacks, analysis shows

External SourceJune 19, 2025055 views

Monitoring group says high death rate in two months indicates change in US policy that could affect Iran
• Middle East crisis – live updates
The US bombing campaign of Yemen under Donald Trump led to the deaths of almost as many civilians in two months as in the previous 23 years of US attacks on Islamists and militants in the country.
An analysis of Operation Rough Rider by the monitoring group Airwars has concluded that 224 civilians were killed between March and the end of the campaign in May, compared with 258 between 2002 and 2024.
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The warmongers were wrong about Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Now watch them make the same mistake about Iran | Owen Jones

External SourceJune 19, 2025067 views

Israel is the main source of terror and instability in the Middle East. But the west continually turns away from this reality
As the G7 issues a statement declaring that Israel has a “right to defend itself”, you have a right to ask if you are losing your mind. Israel launched an unprovoked onslaught on Iran. Its excuse – that Tehran may acquire a nuclear weapon – renders its attack illegal under the UN charter, which forbids wars justified by the claim of a future threat.
“Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror,” declares the G7 statement. Even though Donald Trump’s intelligence chief testified three months ago that the US intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon”. Even though it’s Israel that actually possesses nuclear weapons, while refusing to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and refusing International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. Even though, as progress was being made in nuclear talks between Ira..

America is sleepwalking into another unnecessary war | Eli Clifton and Eldar Mamedov

External SourceJune 19, 2025053 views

Here we are, on the brink of another Middle East conflict with Iran – one that was entirely preventable
As the United States inches closer to direct military confrontation with Iran, it is critical to recognize how avoidable this escalation has been. “We knew everything [about Israel’s plans to strike Iran], and I tried to save Iran humiliation and death,” said Donald Trump on Friday. “I tried to save them very hard because I would have loved to have seen a deal worked out.”
As two of the last analysts from an American thinktank to visit Iran, just three weeks ago, we can report that Iran’s own foreign ministry and members of the nuclear negotiating team were eager to work out a deal with Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, and showed no indication they were interested in slow-walking talks.
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Most Trump supporters want to keep US military out of Israel-Iran conflict, poll finds

External SourceJune 19, 2025053 views

Findings show public appetite for peaceful approach to aim of forcing Iran to give up ambition of acquiring nuclear arms
A majority of supporters of Donald Trump are against US military involvement in Israel’s conflict with Iran, a poll published on Wednesday found, reflecting a growing Republican backlash to the president’s threats to utilize American firepower.
A wide-ranging Economist/YouGov poll conducted over the weekend revealed that 53% of voters who backed Trump in the 2024 presidential election do not want the country to join in Israel’s strikes.
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