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Trump threatens Russia with sanctions, tariffs amid his spat with Ukraine

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Trump threatens Russia with sanctions, tariffs amid his spat with Ukraine

United States President Donald Trump has issued a statement threatening Russia with tariffs and sanctions, amid accusations that he favours Moscow over the country it has invaded, Ukraine.

On his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump avoided condemning Russia’s invasion, which has been denounced as an unjustified crime of aggression under the United Nations Charter.

Instead, he focused on Russia’s latest bombardment, which happened just days after the US announced it would temporarily stop sharing military intelligence with Ukraine.

“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” Trump wrote.

“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you!!!”

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Trump has repeatedly stated his aim of serving as a “peacemaker” and “mediator” between Russia and Ukraine, the latter of which has been fending off a full-scale invasion since February 2022.

But Trump has increasingly criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while showing an affinity for his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

Later, in a Friday news conference at the White House, Trump described negotiations with Russia as “easier” than similar discussions with Ukraine.

“I’m finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine, and they don’t have the cards,” Trump said. “It may be easier dealing with Russia.”

A history of tension

Tensions with Zelenskyy started to re-emerge shortly after Trump took office for a second term in January.

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There has been growing scepticism among Trump’s Republican Party about continued support for Ukraine.

And Trump had previously been impeached during his first term over an alleged threat to withhold military aid to Ukraine if it did not provide damaging information about his political rivals — something critics say may be fuelling the present-day discord.

But Trump has stepped up his criticism of Zelenskyy in recent weeks. He has also attempted to steer peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, resulting in what some consider early concessions to Moscow.

Trump has said, for example, that it was “unlikely” Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders, before Russia annexed Crimea and started incursions into other territories.

He also dismissed Ukraine’s attempts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance as a non-starter, even repeating Russian talking points that Ukraine’s bid was what started the war.

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On February 12, Trump announced he had conducted “a lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Putin, and that their two countries would begin peace negotiations in Saudi Arabia.

This led to outcry from traditional US allies in Europe, including Ukraine, which feared being sidelined from the private talks.

Then, on February 19, Trump escalated tensions by calling Zelenskyy a “dictator” for not holding war-time elections. Ukraine is under martial law as a result of the invasion, which prohibits elections from unfolding.

All the while, Trump had been pushing Ukraine to grant the US ownership over its rare earth minerals, which include metals used in technology products. Ukraine had baulked at the lack of security assurances in the deal, however.

Relations between the two leaders came to a boiling point on February 28, when Zelenskyy visited the White House to negotiate the minerals deal.

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A news conference in the Oval Office devolved into a shouting match, wherein Trump berated Zelenskyy for not being “thankful” enough for US support.

“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out,” Trump told Zelenskyy, while also remarking, “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me.”

Russian officials applauded Trump’s remarks, and shortly afterwards, Trump announced he would suspend aid to Ukraine.

On Wednesday, his administration also announced that it would temporarily cease sharing the military intelligence that Ukraine uses to track Russian troop movement, shield against incoming missiles and deploy rockets of its own.

An overnight assault

In the early hours of Friday, Russia released a barrage of missiles onto Ukrainian energy facilities, seemingly taking advantage of the current defensive blind spots.

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Ukraine reported that, while it was able to intercept Russia’s drones, it was less successful in destroying the missiles before they struck.

The attack was the motivation for Trump’s sanction threat, something the president himself explained during his Oval Office appearance.

“They’re bombing the hell out of them right now,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Friday.

“I put a statement in — a very strong statement: ‘Can’t do that. You can’t do that.’ We’re trying to help them, and Ukraine has to get on the ball and get a job done.”

Still, reporters pressed Trump on whether his decision to cease intelligence-sharing with Ukraine allowed Putin to take advantage of a moment of weakness.

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Trump shrugged the suggestion off, saying the Russian attack was a natural response to the situation. He also situated the attack in the context of his negotiations with Putin.

“I think he wants to get it stopped and settled, and I think he’s hitting them harder than he’s been hitting them,” Trump said of Putin.

“And I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now. He wants to get it ended, and I think Ukraine wants to get it ended, but I don’t see —. It’s crazy. They are taking tremendous punishment. I don’t quite get it.”

When asked about whether the US should offer more assistance to Ukraine to help defend against such attacks, Trump once again accused Ukraine of refusing to participate in peace negotiations.

“I have to know that they want to settle. I don’t know that they want to settle.  If they don’t want to settle, we’re out of there,” Trump said.

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Mending fences?

In the week since the Oval Office blowup, Ukrainian officials have attempted to mend fences with their US counterparts. Both parties are set to meet in Saudi Arabia next week.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy also sent a letter to Trump, signalling he is ready to sign a deal with the US. He also posted similar comments on social media.

“I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace,” Zelenskyy said. “Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”

Trump read aloud part of Zelenskyy’s letter in front of a joint session of Congress, while bemoaning the amount of money the US has invested in Ukraine’s defence.

“The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s defence with no security, with no anything,” he said. “Do you want to keep it going for another five years?”

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Still, Friday’s threat of sanctions against Russia is the most assertive Trump has been against Moscow since the start of his second term.

Trump’s predecessor, former President Joe Biden, had issued multiple sanctions against Russia during his four years in office, including measures against its energy sector in his final days in office.

According to the US government statistics, the total US trade with Russia in 2024 was valued at about $3.5bn. That is down from $36bn in 2021, the year before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine started.

Al Jazeera correspondent Alan Fisher explained that Trump’s threats of “large-scale” sanctions could be a response to the pressure he feels to beef up his response to Russia.

“Many people thought that Donald Trump was perhaps being too supportive of Russia, was forcing Ukraine into talks, and not putting the same level of pressure onto Russia,” Fisher said.

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“The United States has been leading the world under Joe Biden with sanctions. Donald Trump hasn’t implemented any new ones since he took office.”

But it is yet unclear whether Trump will follow through, particularly as he is expected to meet Putin in the coming months.

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UAE cuts funding for citizens studying at UK universities over campus radicalization fears: report

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UAE cuts funding for citizens studying at UK universities over campus radicalization fears: report

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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is removing funding for its citizens to study in the United Kingdom, citing concerns they could be radicalized abroad. 

The move means the UAE has removed British universities from a list of higher education institutions eligible for state scholarships amid growing tensions over London’s decision not to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, The Financial Times reported. 

“[The UAE] don’t want their kids to be radicalized on campus,” a person directly involved with the decision told the outlet. 

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ORDERED TO REINSTATE LAW STUDENT WHO WAS EXPELLED AFTER ANTI-JEWISH COMMENTS

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A “Welcome to the People’s University for Palestine” banner at King’s College at the University of Cambridge May 11, 2024, in Cambridge, U.K.  (Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images)

Since then, Emirati students who have applied to their government for scholarships to study in the U.K. have been denied. 

The move also means that the UAE will not recognize qualifications from academic institutions that are not on its accredited list, rendering degrees from U.K. universities less valuable than others, according to the report. 

NYC STUDENTS EXPOSE ‘EXTREMIST’ PROFESSORS FOSTERING CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM AT MAJOR UNIVERSITIES

The skyline in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where funding for its citizens to study in the United Kingdom has been halted.  (Vidhyaa Chandramohan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“All forms of extremism have absolutely no place in our society, and we will stamp them out wherever they are found,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said in a statement. “We offer one of the best education systems in the world and maintain stringent measures on student welfare and on-campus safety.”

The UAE has taken a hardline approach to Islamist movements abroad and at home. 

During the 2023-24 school year, 70 students at U.K. universities were reported for possible referral to the government’s deradicalization program, the report states. 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan has repeatedly questioned the U.K.’s decision to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. 

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Starmer’s administration last year said the matter was under “close review.”

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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,416

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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,416

These are the key developments from day 1,416 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

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Here is where things stand on Saturday, January 10:

Fighting:

  • The death toll from a massive Russian attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv that began on Thursday night has risen to four, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service wrote in an update shared on Facebook on Friday. At least 25 people were also injured, including five rescuers, the service added.
  • The attack left thousands of Kyiv apartments without heat, electricity and water as temperatures fell to minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and other local officials said.
  • Klitschko called on people to temporarily leave the city, saying on Telegram that “half of apartment buildings in Kyiv – nearly 6,000 – are currently without heating because the capital’s critical infrastructure was damaged by the enemy’s massive attack”.
  • Russian forces shelled a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Kherson just after midday on Friday, damaging the intensive care unit and injuring three nurses, the regional prosecutor’s office wrote on Telegram.
  • “As a result of the attack, three nurses aged 21, 49, and 52 were wounded. At the time of the shelling, the women were inside the medical facility,” the office said in a statement.
  • The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned attacks on healthcare in Ukraine in a statement shared on X, saying that there had been nine attacks since the beginning of 2026, killing one patient, one medic and injuring 11 others, including healthcare workers and patients.
  • Tedros said that the attacks further “complicated the delivery of health care during the winter period” and called for “the protection of health care facilities, patients and health workers”.
  • Russian forces attacked two foreign-flagged civilian vessels with drones in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, killing a Syrian national and injuring another, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba and other officials said on Friday.
  • A Ukrainian drone attack on a bus in Russia’s Belgorod region injured four people, the regional task force reported, according to Russia’s TASS state news agency.
  • Russian forces seized five settlements in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, including Zelenoye, the Russian Ministry of Defence said, according to TASS.
  • Ukrainian battlefield monitoring site DeepState said on Friday that Russian forces advanced in Huliaipole and Prymorske in the Zaporizhia region, but did not report any further changes.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that Russia’s Oreshnik missile strike late on Thursday was “demonstratively” close to Ukraine’s border with the European Union.
  • The International Atomic Energy Agency has begun consultations to establish a temporary ceasefire zone near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after military activity damaged one of two high-voltage power lines, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement on Friday.

Sanctions

  • US forces seized the Olina oil tanker and forced it to return to Venezuela so its oil could be sold “through the GREAT Energy Deal”, United States President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. According to The Associated Press news agency, US government records showed that the Olina had been sanctioned for moving Russian oil under its prior name, Minerva M.
  • Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olha Stefanishyna, said that Ukrainian nationals were among members of the crew of the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera seized earlier this week by US forces over its links to Venezuela, according to Interfax Ukraine news agency.
  • The Russian Foreign Ministry separately said on Friday that the US had released two Russian crewmembers from the Marinera, expressing gratitude to Washington for the decision and pledging to ensure the return home of crewmembers.

Politics and diplomacy

  • Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “deep regret” over damage to its embassy in Kyiv, confirming that no diplomats or staff were hurt, in a statement on Friday. The ministry underscored the importance of protecting diplomatic buildings and reiterated its call for a “resolution to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis through dialogue and peaceful means”.
  • British Defence Secretary John Healey said that the United Kingdom was allocating 200 million pounds ($270m) to fund preparations for the possible deployment of troops to Ukraine, during a visit to Kyiv on Friday.
  • The leaders of Britain, France and Germany described Russia’s use of an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile in western Ukraine as “escalatory and unacceptable”, according to a readout of their call released by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office on Friday.
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Some flu measures decline, but it’s not clear this severe season has peaked

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Some flu measures decline, but it’s not clear this severe season has peaked

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. flu infections showed signs of a slight decline last week, but health officials say it is not clear that this severe flu season has peaked.

New government data posted Friday — for flu activity through last week — showed declines in medical office visits due to flu-like illness and in the number of states reporting high flu activity.

However, some measures show this season is already surpassing the flu epidemic of last winter, one of the harshest in recent history. And experts believe there is more suffering ahead.

“This is going to be a long, hard flu season,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, in a statement Friday.

One type of flu virus, called A H3N2, historically has caused the most hospitalizations and deaths in older people. So far this season, that is the type most frequently reported. Even more concerning, more than 91% of the H3N2 infections analyzed were a new version — known as the subclade K variant — that differs from the strain in this year’s flu shots.

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The last flu season saw the highest overall flu hospitalization rate since the H1N1 flu pandemic 15 years ago. And child flu deaths reached 289, the worst recorded for any U.S. flu season this century — including that H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic of 2009-2010.

So far this season, there have been at least 15 million flu illnesses and 180,000 hospitalizations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. It also estimates there have been 7,400 deaths, including the deaths of at least 17 children.

Last week, 44 states reported high flu activity, down slightly from the week before. However, flu deaths and hospitalizations rose.

Determining exactly how flu season is going can be particularly tricky around the holidays. Schools are closed, and many people are traveling. Some people may be less likely to see a doctor, deciding to just suffer at home. Others may be more likely to go.

Also, some seasons see a surge in cases, then a decline, and then a second surge.

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For years, federal health officials joined doctors’ groups in recommending that everyone 6 months and older get an annual influenza vaccine. The shots may not prevent all symptoms but can prevent many infections from becoming severe, experts say.

But federal health officials on Monday announced they will no longer recommend flu vaccinations for U.S. children, saying it is a decision parents and patients should make in consultation with their doctors.

“I can’t begin to express how concerned we are about the future health of the children in this country, who already have been unnecessarily dying from the flu — a vaccine preventable disease,” said Michele Slafkosky, executive director of an advocacy organization called Families Fighting Flu.

“Now, with added confusion for parents and health care providers about childhood vaccines, I fear that flu seasons to come could be even more deadly for our youngest and most vulnerable,” she said in a statement.

Flu is just one of a group of viruses that tend to strike more often in the winter. Hospitalizations from COVID-19 and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, also have been rising in recent weeks — though were not diagnosed nearly as often as flu infections, according to other federal data.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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