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Trump admin exposed for massive deals with world’s most brutal leaders: report

Donald Trump's administration has seemingly changed tack with international diplomacy and struck deals with a series of the world's most brutal leaders, per a report.Records from the White House, seen by the New York Times, show that American diplomats are straining to strike deals with countries across the world and have put everything on the negotiating table as a result. Included in the possible negotiations were offers to "pay foreign security forces, ease visa restrictions or tariffs, finance public health services, and even reconsider a country’s placement on U.S. watch lists," per the NYT team. Part of the Trump admin's change has been on how they view immigration as a negotiating tool. The report, seen by Eileen Sullivan, Hamed Aleaziz, Megha Rajagopalan, and Pranav Baskar, notes that some countries could be swayed into making concessions to the US should they be given special treatment. "The negotiations show how Mr. Trump has turned mass deportation, one of his signature domestic initiatives, into a central part of American foreign policy," they wrote. "The Trump administration has deported thousands of people to about a dozen countries, often to places where they have no ties. "As mass detention in the United States becomes politically complicated, the administration is eager to cut more deals to deport migrants."Such arrangements are taking shape in particular in Africa, where Mr. Trump has ushered in a new style of diplomacy that prioritizes deal-making over enforcing human rights and promoting democracy. The policy is called 'America First in Africa.'"The Trump administration is in talks, records show, to send migrants to the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo, two countries where the judicial systems are dysfunctional and government forces have been linked to torture and forced disappearances."Deals have reportedly already been struck with the leaders of Cameroon and Rwanda, while an arrangement with Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, and South Sudan is in the works. Eswatini has a history of human rights abuses, while Equatorial Guinea is overseen by an autocratic state where torture is systemic.

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Fugitive mafia boss wanted for murder arrested at Amalfi coast luxury villa

Roberto Mazzarella, head of a notorious Camorra clan, had been on the run for more than a yearAn Italian mafia boss, who was one of Italy’s most dangerous fugitives, has been arrested on murder charges after more than a year on the run, Italian police said on Saturday.Roberto Mazzarella was the head of the notorious Mazzarella clan of the Camorra – the Naples-based organised crime gang. Continue reading...

Cubans study oil tanker diplomacy for signs of progress in secret talks with US

Despite hostile rhetoric Trump let a Russian ship break his blockade – could it herald a Venezuela-style outcome?When a sanctioned Russian oil tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, docked at Cuba’s Matanzas oil terminal on Tuesday, unloading 700,000 barrels of crude, it was not immediately clear why the ship had been allowed to pass through Donald Trump’s oil blockade.In January, the US president had proclaimed on social media: “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” yet last week he told reporters, “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with it” – and waved the Russian ship through. Continue reading...

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Landslides, floods triggered by heavy rain in Afghanistan leave 77 dead in 10 days, authorities say

Widespread flooding, landslides and lightning strikes triggered by heavy rain and storms across Afghanistan have left 77 people dead and 137 injured over the past 10 days, the country's Disaster Management Authority said Saturday.

Fire at a gas lighter factory near Bangladesh's capital kills 5 people

A fire broke out at a factory manufacturing gas lighters near Bangladesh's capital on Saturday, leaving at least five people dead, authorities said.