Donald Trump began his second term vowing to be a peacemaker. Two months in, Israel has launched a major new offensive in Gaza, US forces are pounding Yemen, and Ukraine and Russia are exchanging fire despite his mediation.Speaking as he was sworn in on January 20, Trump said: “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.” He pointed to a just-concluded deal, conceived by outgoing president Joe Biden but pushed through by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, that halted Israel’s military operations in Gaza in return for the release of some hostages by Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.In recent days, Israel has relaunched air strikes, killing hundreds of people according to the Gaza health ministry, and renewed its ground operations. The State Department said Hamas bore “total responsibility” after rejecting a proposal by Witkoff, a Trump friend also mediating with Russia, to move toward a second phase of the Gaza ceasefire.Trump has also ordered military strikes on Yemen’s Huthi insurgents after the Iranian-backed forces reopened attacks on Red Sea shipping in professed solidarity with the Palestinians.Brian Finucane, a former State Department official now at the International Crisis Group, which promotes conflict resolution, said that the narrative of Trump as peacemaker was always overstated and that his approach was erratic.Trump likes to claim wins and would relish earning the Nobel Peace Prize, seeing it as a “one of life’s great achievements,” Finucane said.”He was happy to claim credit for the Gaza ceasefire in January, but then unwilling to put pressure on the Israelis to move to phase two,” Finucane said.Another Trump envoy held the first-ever direct US talks with Hamas, unthinkable for previous administrations, but Trump also has called for the mass removal of Gaza’s two million people.”None of this is terribly coherent, but neither is it terribly surprising,” Finucane said.He pointed to Trump’s first term in which he threatened to annihilate North Korea before holding unprecedented summits with leader Kim Jong Un and saying that they “fell in love.”- Preference for peace, but if not -Trump’s aides have described his bellicose posture as part of a strategy as he seeks an ultimate goal of peace.”He’s been abundantly clear. He’s a president that wants to promote peace,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a radio interview Wednesday. Trump, who had boasted that he would end the Ukraine war within a day, held successive calls this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and voiced optimism about reaching a truce.But Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, launched a barrage of missile and drone attacks hours after the Trump call.Jennifer Kavanaugh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, which supports restraint, said there was reason for optimism from Trump’s Ukraine diplomacy, but that Putin has the upper hand on the ground and is not going to compromise easily.She said that Trump also did not appear to offer any concessions to Putin, despite outside criticism of his ties with the Russian leader and Trump’s earlier berating of Zelensky that alarmed European allies.”To me, this was a positive step forward that set the ground for some confidence building, both between Ukraine and Russia and between Trump and European allies who are very concerned about his negotiating style,” she said.- ‘Hard realities’ -She said it was not yet “time to give up hope for peace” from Trump.”I think what we’ve seen is that promises run into the hard realities of how difficult it is to get to peace in these very difficult and intractable conflicts,” she said.Sina Toossi, a fellow at the progressive Center for International Policy, was less hopeful. Compared with his first term, Trump’s aides such as Rubio are “more loyalists than independent power players,” giving the president freer rein including for brinksmanship, Toossi said.”For Trump, foreign policy isn’t about carefully negotiated peace deals. It’s about performance, leverage and crafting a narrative that sells,” he said.Referring to Trump’s book as a hotel developer, Toossi said: “He approaches diplomacy the way he approached real estate in ‘The Art of the Deal:’ — escalate tensions, maximize threats, push the situation to the brink of disaster and then, at the last minute, strike a deal.”

Donald Trump told Volodymyr Zelensky Wednesday that the United States could own and run Ukraine’s nuclear power plants as part of his latest bid to secure a ceasefire in Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.The Ukrainian president said following their call that Kyiv was ready to pause attacks on Russia’s energy network and infrastructure, a day after Vladimir Putin agreed to halt similar strikes on Ukraine.But a wider ceasefire remains elusive with the Kremlin leader insisting in his own call with Trump on Tuesday that the West first stop all military aid for Ukraine.Republican Trump’s tone was markedly more positive after the Zelensky call, with the White House describing it as “fantastic” — despite the fact that the two men had a blazing televised row in the Oval Office recently.Trump “discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants” and said Washington could be “very helpful” in running them,” said a statement from National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.”American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” it said.Trump also pledged to help Kyiv get more air defense equipment from Europe, and to find Ukrainian children “abducted” by Russia, the statement said.The US president earlier said on his Truth Social network that efforts to reach a full truce were “very much on track.”- ‘Ending the war’ -For his part, Zelensky said he was ready to reciprocate with Russia on a pause on energy network strikes following the “frank” conversation with the US president.”One of the first steps towards fully ending the war could be ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure. I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it,” he added.Zelensky said Ukrainian and US officials could meet in coming days for fresh talks in Saudi Arabia, where Russian and American teams are also due to meet early next week.Russia and Ukraine exchanged 372 prisoners, Moscow said Wednesday, which was planned as a goodwill gesture following the Trump-Putin call.Kyiv and Moscow however accused each other of continuing attacks.Ukraine’s defense ministry said an overnight barrage of Russian missiles and drones struck the war-battered nation, killing one person and damaging two hospitals.”Today Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire,” Zelensky said of the strikes.Ukraine’s national railway service said the barrage had hit railway energy infrastructure in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.Russia’s defense ministry reported a “deliberate” Ukrainian attack overnight on an oil depot in the south of the country, which they said was aimed at “derailing” Trump’s attempts to broker an end to the fighting.”These attacks are countering our common efforts,” added Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, referring to the US-Russian talks.- ‘Don’t believe Putin’ -The major sticking point remains Putin’s resistance to a full ceasefire — something that Kyiv and some Western allies say underscores how the Russian leader cannot be trusted.Putin insisted during his call with Trump on Tuesday that a full ceasefire was only possible if the West agrees to Moscow’s long-standing demand to halt its billions of dollars in military aid for Ukraine.The Kremlin chief also demanded Ukraine must not be allowed to rearm and must halt mandatory mobilization.Moscow and Washington were even at odds on the results of the call. The Kremlin said they only discussed halting power plant attacks, but the White House insisted the talks covered both energy and other civilian infrastructure.Trump’s overtures to Putin, and indications Washington will no longer guarantee European security, have spooked Kyiv and the United States’s NATO allies.”I don’t believe Putin at all, not a single word. He only understands force,” said Kyiv resident Lev Sholoudko, 32.In Moscow, locals were more optimistic the talks could bring an end to the fighting — to Russia’s advantage.”Definitely this is in our favor,” said Moscow resident Larisa, 46. “There is no other way. What happened in 1945 will happen now,” she added, referring to the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.

Mervin Yamarte’s family in Venezuela thought the 29-year-old — arrested by US authorities amid President Donald Trump’s migrant crackdown — would be put on a deportation flight home. But the plane never arrived.Instead, they learned he had been flown to El Salvador after spotting him in a video, head shaven and bowed, sitting on the floor of a maximum security prison.Yamarte was arrested last week at his home in Dallas with three friends, all of whom survived the brutal Darien jungle on their journey north in September 2023.Three days after being detained, they were deported in shackles to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), accused of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which has a presence in the United States.Mervin and his friends were among 238 Venezuelans deported to El Salvador under a centuries-old wartime act invoked by Donald Trump which can be used to repel an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” by an enemy country.The deportations took place despite a US federal judge granting a temporary suspension of the expulsions order.Mervin, Andy, Ringo and Edwuar grew up in Los Pescadores, a poor neighborhood of small homes with tin roofs and dirt streets in the country’s oil capital of Maracaibo.With Venezuela’s economy, including its oil industry, in meltdown, the four decided to follow in the footsteps of the nearly eight million Venezuelans to have emigrated in the past decade.But life in the United States, surviving off odds jobs, was a struggle.”My son wanted to come home because he said this wasn’t the American dream, it was the American nightmare,” his mother Mercedes Yamarte told AFP.After their arrest, the four — who were never charged with any crime, according to their families — agreed to be deported to Venezuela, where their families were waiting over the weekend to welcome them home.Instead, they were flown to El Salvador, whose gang-busting President Nayib Bukele struck a deal with Trump to house alleged gang members at his showpiece mega-jail.One of Mervin’s brothers recognized him in a video released by the Salvadoran presidency showing the prisoners being led in chains from a plane, having their heads shaved and sitting in rows on the floor.A sobbing Yamarte is haunted by her son’s “terrified” look in the footage.”It’s the greatest pain in my life, because it’s like a cry for help from my son,” said Yamarte, adding her two other children in the United States are now “begging” to return home but fear suffering the same fate as Mervin if they agree to be deported.- Tattoos -In Canada Honda, another impoverished Maracaibo neighborhood, Yajaira Chiquinquira Fuenmayor was also anticipating an emotional reunion with her son.After 16 months in the United States, Alirio Belloso was detained in Utah on January 28, a week after Trump returned to office vowing the biggest deportation wave in US history.He too was awaiting deportation to Venezuela but instead was transferred to El Salvador’s CECOT, where prisoners are crammed in windowless cells, under 24-hour surveillance and barred from receiving visitors.In the Salvadoran propaganda video, Belloso is shown having his head shaved.Legal experts in the United States have challenged the legality of the expulsions, saying that even if courts ruled that Tren de Aragua’s presence in the United States constitutes an “invasion,” authorities must still prove that each detainee is a member of the gang.”My son is not a criminal; my son is a decent person. He went to the United States to work to support his family,” Fuenmayor argued.Belloso’s 19-year-old wife Noemi Briceno, who lives in Venezuela, wondered “was it the tattoos” that led him to be tagged a gang member.”My husband has tattoos of his niece, who died of leukemia, and (others with) the name of his daughter and his mother,” Briceno said. “And an hourglass,” she added, adding that it was a nod to a promise he made by his daughter to return home soon.Yamarte said that Mervin too had a tattoo on his hand, which she now sees as a call to action.It reads “strong like mum.”

A jury in North Dakota on Wednesday ordered Greenpeace to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in a case brought by a US pipeline operator that had been closely watched for its far-reaching free speech implications. The verdict dealt a massive blow to the prominent environmental advocacy group, which was accused by the operator of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Energy Transfer (ET), of orchestrating a campaign of violence and defamation.”We would like to thank the judge and the jury for the incredible amount of time and effort they dedicated to this trial,” said ET.”While we are pleased that Greenpeace will be held accountable for their actions, this win is really for the people of Mandan and throughout North Dakota who had to live through the daily harassment and disruptions caused by the protesters who were funded and trained by Greenpeace.”Nearly a decade ago, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe led one of the largest anti-fossil fuel protests in US history against the project’s construction. Hundreds were arrested and injured, prompting concerns from the United Nations over violations of Indigenous sovereignty.The pipeline, which transports fracked crude oil to refineries and global markets, has been operational since 2017.But Energy Transfer continued to pursue legal action against three Greenpeace entities — first in a federal lawsuit seeking $300 million, which was dismissed, and then at the state level in North Dakota.A trial began in late February in Mandan, North Dakota, and the jury deliberated for nearly three days before returning their verdict.”We should all be concerned about the future of the First Amendment, and lawsuits like this aimed at destroying our rights to peaceful protest and free speech,”  Deepa Padmanabha, senior legal advisor of Greenpeace USA said in a statement.”Greenpeace will continue to do its part to fight for the protection of these fundamental rights for everyone.”Critics had called the case a clear example of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP), designed to silence dissent and drain financial resources. Notably, North Dakota is among the minority of US states without anti-SLAPP protections.Greenpeace also maintained that it played only a small role in the protest movement, which was led by Native Americans.More than 400 organizations, along with public figures such as singer Billie Eilish and actors Jane Fonda and Susan Sarandon, had signed an open letter in support of Greenpeace, as had hundreds of thousands of individuals globally.