NICOSIA: The president of Cyprus said Sunday his administration is committed to expanding defense and security cooperation with the US, as his meeting with American President Joe Biden last week charted a course for the “next ambitious steps” in bilateral relations that are currently at a “historic high.”
President Nikos Christodoulides says his government’s “clear foreign policy orientation” has resulted in deepening the Cyprus-US strategic partnership over the first 18 months of his five-year term in fields including law enforcement cooperation on countering money laundering and sanctions evasion, as well as energy.
A centerpiece of that security cooperation is the US-funded center for port and maritime security known by its acronym CYCLOPS where officials from neighboring countries including Libya, Yemen and Lebanon, receive key training ranging from cybersecurity to ship inspections.
Christodoulides said his Oct. 30 visit to the White House “is proof and recognition of the geostrategic role of Cyprus and the country’s potential and capabilities.”
“Cyprus can be a reliable ‘port of stability’ and at the same time a country that has a vision to transform its immediate region, alongside its partners, into a region of promise, stability, cooperation and prosperity,” Christodoulides said in an email response to an Associated Press questionnaire.
The Cypriot president said his administration is “certainly considering” procuring US-made weapons following the 2020 lifting of a decades-long arms embargo. But what must precede such purchases is for the US Congress to lift its embargo for an extended period. Currently, that is renewed annually.
Christodoulides said Cyprus’ geostrategic role is highlighted by the fact that since Sept. 27, some 3,635 third-country nationals from 29 countries have been repatriated through the island nation following their evacuation from Lebanon. He said several countries consider Cyprus an “assisted departure hub and a Temporary Safe Location (TSL)” where the island’s ports, airports and designated temporary accommodations are used for civilian or military-led departures. He did not specify those countries.
He said Cyprus is ready to respond if and when a mass evacuation from Lebanon is set in motion.
Another key initiative for which Cyprus has gained international plaudits and was singled out by Biden is the so-called Amalthea plan that saw the establishment of the Cyprus-Gaza maritime corridor through which some 20,000 metric tons of aid flowed into the Palestinian territory earlier this year.
Most of that aid reached Gaza through a US-built, $230 million temporary pier project that lasted about four months after being beset by turbulent weather, security threats and sweeping personnel restrictions.
Christodoulides said work is underway in cooperation with the US, the UK, the United Arab Emirates, and the European Union, to re-activate the maritime route to Gaza through the Israeli port of Ashdod. Collected aid will be security-screened in Cyprus and shipped to Ashdod “for swift onward delivery to Gaza.”
“We maintain excellent, longstanding relations with our neighboring countries, underpinned by trust, and we have consistently acted as the region’s voice in the European Union, and as a reliable interlocutor and partner with all the states of the region,” Christodoulides said.
On his decision to invite FBI and US Department of Justice officials to help Cypriot law enforcement to halt Russian sanctions evasion through Cypriot lawyers and accountants, Christodoulides said, “we are strongly determined to clear our country’s name internationally and prove that Cyprus is a state fully aligned with the principles and values of the West.”
He said “several cases” of possible sanctions evasion are under investigation” and the aim is to bring them to justice as quickly as possible.”
Regarding energy cooperation, Christodoulides said the fact that both US energy giants ExxonMobil and Chevron are active in the search for hydrocarbons in Cyprus’ offshore economic zone is “a vote of confidence” in the island nation.
He said next year will be a “milestone” for both energy companies. ExxonMobil and partner QatarEnergy, which discovered a sizeable natural gas deposit in one of two areas, or blocks, they hold exploration licenses for, are scheduled to drill two additional wells in January of next year.
Chevron is expected to complete fine-tuning a revised development plan for its Aphrodite gas field, estimated to hold around 4.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
“As the first gas from the Aphrodite is directed to the market, this automatically makes Cyprus a gas seller, which is extremely important not only in monetary terms but also for geopolitical reasons,” said Christodoulides.
Cyprus is committed to expanding defense ties with the US, says president
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Cyprus is committed to expanding defense ties with the US, says president
- Centerpiece of security cooperation is the US-funded center for port and maritime security known by its acronym CYCLOPS
- Officials from neighboring countries including Libya, Yemen, and Lebanon, receive key training ranging from cybersecurity to ship inspections
Trump calls to probe Kamala Harris celebrity endorsements
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Monday he would launch a “major investigation” into his 2024 election rival Kamala Harris over celebrities who backed her failed run for the White House.
“Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
“I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter.”
Harris sought to harness star power from celebrities such as Beyonce and Oprah Winfrey in the election race.
Winfrey defended a $1 million payment to her production company from the Harris campaign to covers costs associated with the talk show legend hosting the presidential candidate.
Harris’s team, meanwhile, denied rumors that she paid pop megastar Beyonce $10 million to appear at a rally.
The Harris campaign listed one endorsement-related expenditure for $75 in its financial reports to an environmental advocacy group.
Trump, who won the election comfortably, received scant support from the entertainment industry at large but tapped into a targeted subset of well-known, hypermasculine influencers including podcast host Joe Rogan.
The president on Monday took aim at Beyonce, Winfrey and Bruce Springsteen, accusing Harris of paying the legendary rock star to perform at a rally in Georgia weeks before the election.
“How much did Kamala Harris pay Bruce Springsteen for his poor performance during her campaign for president?” he wrote.
“Why did he accept that money if he is such a fan of hers?“
Trump last week took to Truth Social to feud with Springsteen after the star told a British concert audience that his homeland is now ruled by a “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”
In return, the 78-year-old Republican said the star, nicknamed “the Boss,” is “Highly Overrated.”
Springsteen is an outspoken liberal critic of Trump and turned out for Harris after she replaced Democratic president Joe Biden in his abandoned reelection bid.
Iran summons British envoy after arrest of nationals
TEHRAN: Iran has summoned a British envoy in Tehran to protest the arrest of several of its nationals on charges of spying, state media reported Monday.
“Following the unjustified arrest of a number of Iranian nationals in the UK... the British charge d’affaires in Tehran was summoned on Sunday,” the IRNA news agency said, describing the arrests as “politically motivated.”
Three Iranian men appeared in a London court on Saturday charged with spying for the Islamic republic.
They were arrested on May 3 and identified as Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, all living in London.
The British Home Office said they were irregular migrants who arrived by small boat or other means, such as hidden in a vehicle, between 2016 and 2022.
The alleged spying took place from August 2024 to February 2025, according to UK police.
A fourth man was arrested on May 9 as part of the investigation, but has now been released without charge, the police said in a statement.
Five Iranians were also arrested on May 3 in a separate investigation.
Four of the men — who had been held on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act — had been released, although the investigation “remains active and is ongoing,” police said.
The fifth was earlier bailed to an unspecified date in May.
Indonesia searches for 19 people after landslide at gold mine in Papua
JAKARTA: Indonesian rescue teams were searching for 19 people missing after heavy rain caused a landslide at a gold mine in its easternmost region of Papua, officials said on Monday.
Torrential rain triggered a landslide late on Friday in a small-scale mine run by local residents in the Arfak mountains in West Papua province, said Abdul Muhari, the spokesperson of Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency.
The landslide hit temporary shelters used by the miners and killed at least one person and injured four with 19 others still missing, he added.
At least 40 rescuers with police and military personnel had been deployed to search for the missing, officials said.
Small-scale and illegal mining has often led to accidents in Indonesia, where mineral resources are located in remote areas in conditions difficult for authorities to regulate.
The rescuers started the search operation only on Sunday because it took at least 12 hours for teams to travel to the site, Yefri Sabaruddin, the head of the local rescue team, told Reuters on Monday.
"The damaged roads and mountainous tracks as well as bad weather hampered the rescue efforts," Yefri said.
The number of casualties could rise, he added.
At least 15 people died in the collapse of an illegal gold mine in West Sumatra province September last year after a landslide caused by heavy rains.
Another landslide in a gold mine on Sulawesi island killed at least 23 people in July last year.
Trump to hold call with Putin in push for Ukraine ceasefire
- Says he would also speak to Ukraine's President Zelensky and NATO officials
- Trump has repeatedly stressed that he wants to see an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will hold a phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday as part of his long-running effort to end the war set off by Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Trump had vowed during the US election campaign to halt the conflict within a day of taking office, but his diplomatic efforts have so far yielded little progress.
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine held direct negotiations in Istanbul last week for the first time in almost three years, but the talks ended without a commitment to a ceasefire.
Both sides traded insults, with Ukraine accusing Moscow of sending a “dummy” delegation of low-ranking officials.
After the negotiations, Trump announced that he would speak by phone with the Russian president in a bid to end the “bloodbath” in Ukraine, which has destroyed large swathes of the country and displaced millions of people.
Trump also said he would speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO officials, expressing hope that a “ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war... will end.”
Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly stressed that he wants to see an end to the conflict, and has recently backed calls for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.
So far, he has mainly focused on upping the pressure on Ukraine and abstained from criticizing Putin.
Both Moscow and Washington have previously stressed the need for a meeting on the conflict between Putin and Trump.
The US president has also argued that “nothing’s going to happen” on the conflict until he meets Putin face-to-face.
At the talks in Istanbul, which were also attended by US officials, Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each and trade ideas on a possible truce, but with no concrete commitment.
Ukraine’s top negotiator, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, said that the “next step” would be a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.
Russia said it had taken note of the request.
“We consider it possible, but only as a result of the work and upon achieving certain results in the form of an agreement between the two sides,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson said.
Ukraine’s western allies have since accused Putin of deliberately ignoring calls for a ceasefire and pushed for fresh sanctions against Russia.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy held a phone call with Trump on Sunday.
“Looking ahead to President Trump’s call with President Putin tomorrow, the leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and for President Putin to take peace talks seriously,” said a spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“They also discussed the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and peace talks,” the spokesman said.
Zelensky also discussed possible sanctions with US Vice President JD Vance when they met after Pope Leo’s inaugural mass at the Vatican on Sunday.
“We discussed the talks in Istanbul, where the Russians sent a low-level delegation with no decision-making powers,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram following the meeting.
“We also touched on the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defense cooperation, the situation on the battlefield and the future exchange of prisoners.”
A senior Ukrainian official from the president’s office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that they had also discussed preparations for Monday’s telephone conversation between Trump and Putin.
It was the first meeting between Zelensky and Vance since their heated White House exchange in February.
In the Oval Office, Vance publicly accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” toward Trump, who told the Ukrainian leader he should be more grateful and that he had no “cards” to play in negotiations with Russia.
Ukraine on Sunday said that Russia had launched a record number of drones at the country overnight, targeting various regions, including the capital Kyiv, where a woman was killed.
Another man was killed in the southeastern Kherson region, where a railway station and private houses and cars were hit.
In an interview with Russian state TV published on Sunday, Putin said that Moscow’s aim was to “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security,” without elaborating further.
Russia’s references to the “root causes” of the conflict typically refer to grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the invasion in February 2022.
They include pledges to “de-Nazify” and demilitarise Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country’s east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine’s westward geopolitical drift.
However, Kyiv and the West say that Russia’s invasion is an imperial-style land grab.
Trump to carry out tariff threats if nations don’t negotiate in ‘good faith,’ US treasury chief warns
- Bessent: Notified countries likely to see April 2 rates return
- Says Trump administration was focused on its 18 most important trading relationships
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will impose tariffs at the rate he threatened last month on trading partners that do not negotiate in “good faith” on deals, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in television interviews on Sunday.
He did not say what would constitute “good faith” negotiations or clarify the timing to announce any decisions to return a country to the various rates Trump initially imposed on April 2.
Trump has repeatedly reversed course since then, notably on April 9, when he lowered his tariff rates on most imported goods to 10 percent for 90 days to give negotiators time to hash out deals with other countries. He separately lowered the rate for Chinese goods to 30 percent. On Friday, he reiterated that his administration would send letters telling nations what their rates would be.
On Sunday, Bessent said the administration was focused on its 18 most important trading relationships and that the timing of any deals would also depend on whether countries were negotiating in good faith, with letters going out to those that did not.
“This means that they’re not negotiating in good faith. They are going to get a letter saying, ‘Here is the rate.’ So I would expect that everyone would come and negotiate in good faith,” he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
He added that those countries that are notified would likely see their rates return to the levels set on April 2.
Asked when any trade deals could be announced, Bessent separately told CNN’s “State of the Union” program: “Again, it will depend on whether they’re negotiating in good faith.”
“My other sense is that we will do a lot of regional deals -this is the rate for Central America. This is the rate for this part of Africa,” he added.
Trump’s ongoing trade wars have severely disrupted global trade flows and roiled financial markets as investors grapple with what Bessent has called the Republican president’s “strategic uncertainty,” in his drive to reshape economic relationships in the US’ favor
Companies of all sizes have been whipsawed by Trump’s swift imposition of tariffs and sudden reversals as they seek to manage supply chains, production, staffing and prices. Congress is also grappling with the tariffs as it weighs revenues and tax cuts in its spending bill.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, last week said it would have to start raising prices later in May due to the high costs of tariffs, prompting Trump to slam the company for blaming the increases on his trade policies.
“Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING,” Trump posted online on Saturday.
Bessent said he had spoken to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on Saturday and that the company would absorb some tariffs. Representatives for the retailer declined to comment.
“Walmart is, in fact, going to ... eat some of the tariffs,” Bessent told NBC. “I didn’t apply any pressure.”
