The Peacemaker’s Firestorm
Trump’s global peace push is cracking under pressure: Gaza ceasefire hangs by a thread, Ukraine’s war may be frozen on Putin’s terms & Europe faces uneasy prospect of welcoming a war crimes suspect
This week kicks off with Donald Trump’s self-styled peace crusade being put to the test on two fronts. In the Middle East, a shaky Gaza ceasefire is fraying after a weekend of bloodshed — fast-tracking the arrival of a top U.S. commander and 200 troops into Israel to keep the truce alive. And in Europe, the pressure is mounting on Ukraine to accept a “deal where we are,” as Trump floats freezing the war along current frontlines — a proposal that would reward Putin’s advances and redraw the map once again.
Meanwhile, Europe is caught in an ethical bind ahead of the planned Budapest summit: how to engage a president eager to host Vladimir Putin, a wanted man under the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant. From Gaza to Donetsk, Trump’s version of peace is proving combustible — and the world is once again bracing for the fallout.
A top American commander is in Israel after a weekend of deadly violence in the Gaza Strip threatened to derail the US-brokered ceasefire with Hamas, a news report says. The Wall Street Journal reported US Central Command Admiral Brad Cooper is “already on hand trying to calm tensions”, it quoted unnamed US officials as saying. “Roughly 200 US troops were in Israel on Monday setting up a civil-military coordination centre to monitor the ceasefire and facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid and logistical and security assistance into Gaza,” one unidentified Pentagon official told the newspaper. “International partners are expected to arrive to help with coordination in the coming days and weeks.” The news report comes as senior American envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday after the deadliest day in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect on October 10. Separately, US President Donald Trump threatens “to eradicate Hamas if they’re not good.” US Vice President JD Vance and his wife are due to visit Israel for a few days and will be meeting with the prime minister - Al Jazeera
U.S. President Donald Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to give up swaths of territory to Russia during a tense meeting on Friday that left the Ukrainian delegation disappointed, according to two people briefed on the discussion. Trump also declined to provide Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine’s use, and mused about giving security guarantees to both Kyiv and Moscow, comments that the Ukrainian delegation found confusing, added the two sources, who requested anonymity to discuss a private conversation. After his meeting with Zelenskiy, Trump publicly called for a ceasefire on the current frontlines, a position that the Ukrainian president then embraced in comments to reporters. A third person said Trump came up with that proposal during the meeting after Zelenskiy said he would not voluntarily cede any territory to Moscow. “The meeting ended with (Trump’s) decision to make a ‘deal where we are, on the demarcation line,’” the third source said. Trump underscored that position in remarks to reporters on Sunday. “We think that what they should do is just stop at the lines where they are, the battle lines,” he said on Air Force One. “The rest is very tough to negotiate if you’re going to say, ‘you take this, we take that.’” Asked if he had told Zelensky that Ukraine must cede all of the Donbas region to Russia, Trump said no. “Let it be cut the way it is. It’s cut up right now. I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia,” Trump said in response to a question from a Reuters reporter. “You leave it the way it is right now. They can...negotiate something later on down the line,” he said. Overall, while not a disaster for the Ukrainians, the Friday discussion was a clear disappointment for Zelensky, who had hoped to convince Trump to supply his government with long-range Tomahawk missiles capable of hitting deep inside Russia. Trump has not decided whether to make Tomahawks available, U.S. Vice President JD Vance told a group of reporters on Sunday night - Reuters
As they gathered on Monday for a meeting in Luxembourg, foreign affairs ministers of the European Union walked a fine line between supporting Trump’s diplomacy and defending the integrity of the International Criminal Court (ICC), where Putin is wanted for the deportation and transfer of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. Hungary remains party to the ICC until its withdrawal takes effect next year. The country has already disregarded an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “It’s not nice to see that a person with an arrest warrant (issued) by the ICC is coming to a European country,” admitted High Representative Kaja Kallas. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys was blunter in his assessment. “There is no place for war criminals in Europe….We have to hold the principles of Europe that we all agreed, and the only place for Putin in Europe is The Hague in front of the tribunal and not in any of our capitals” - Euronews
“There is no place for war criminals in Europe….We have to hold the principles of Europe that we all agreed, and the only place for Putin in Europe is The Hague in front of the tribunal and not in any of our capitals” - Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys
Watch my interview with CBC News, where we unpacked what happened during Mr. Zelensky’s meeting at the White House. “Mr. Zelensky came into the White House with a pretty strong hand of cards, but found himself walking into basically a house of cards after that phone call between Trump and Putin where, once again, the Kremlin leader was able to whisper into Trump’s ear and convince him that providing Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine would be an escalation…..”
China’s top leaders convene this week to set the country’s policy agenda for the next five years, with far-reaching implications for global markets. The Chinese Communist Party Central Committee’s four-day “Fourth Plenum” comes as trade tensions with the US flare and China grapples with deflation and tepid spending, even as stocks have boomed. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is likely to double down on state-supported innovation and industry, an expert wrote for the Lowy Institute, as Beijing’s economic agenda prioritizes security over growth as geopolitical volatility rises. “For foreign businesses and governments, the signal is blunt. Xi is staying the course on industrial self-reliance, even if it causes overcapacity and strains global trade ties.”
A cargo plane veered off the runway and into the sea at Hong Kong’s airport on Monday, leaving two ground workers dead. Police told HKFP that a male staff member aboard a ground patrol vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene, whilst another man in the vehicle died later at North Lantau Hospital. The four crew members on board Emirates SkyCargo Flight EK9788 (UAE9788) escaped uninjured, police added, following the incident at around 4am. The Boeing 747-481 was operated by Turkish carrier Air ACT and was arriving from Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport. According to sources, the plane struck the ground service vehicle when landing on the north runway, ripping off a wheel and launching the passengers into the sea. Airport officials did not receive a distress signal from the cargo aircraft - HKFP
The US and Australia have signed a rare earths and critical minerals deal. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has explained that the deal will see billions of dollars contributed by both countries to projects in the next six months. There are three groups of projects under the deal: joint investments between Australia and the US; projects in Australia; joint projects between the US, Australia and Japan Critical minerals and rare earths have become a major issue in the US-China trade war - ABC
Paris’s landmark Louvre museum remained closed on Monday as French police continued its manhunt for the team of robbers who stole eight “priceless” pieces of royal jewellery from the museum on Sunday. Some 60 investigators are currently investigating the crime, which is thought to have been orchestrated by a team of experienced, possibly “foreign” thieves. In France, the almost movie-like robbery reignited a row over the lack of security in the country’s museums, which the new Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez acknowledged Sunday was a “major weak spot”. The thieves arrived between 9:30 and 9:40am (07:30 and 07:40 GMT) Sunday, shortly after the museum opened to the public at 9:00am, a source close to the investigation said. They used an extendable ladder to access the Apollo Gallery, home to the royal collection, and cutting equipment to get in through a window and open the display cases. A brief clip of the raid, apparently filmed on the phone of a visitor to the museum, was broadcast on French news channels. The masked thieves stole nine 19th-century items of jewellery, one of which — the crown of the Empress Eugénie — was dropped and damaged as they made their escape. The list of stolen items included an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon gave his wife Empress Marie Louise. Also stolen was a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugénie, which has nearly 2,000 diamonds; and a necklace that once belonged to Marie-Amelie, the last queen of France. It has eight sapphires and 631 diamonds, according to the Louvre’s website. The whole raid took just seven minutes and was thought to have been carried out by an experienced team, possibly “foreigners”, said Nuñez - France 24
The journals….
