‘Miserable life terminated’: Donald Trump reacts to senior ISIS leader killed
Iraqi security forces have killed a senior Islamic State group leader responsible for foreign operations, with US President Donald Trump saying his “miserable life was terminated”.
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Iraqi security forces have killed a senior Islamic State (IS) group leader responsible for foreign operations, according to the country’s prime minister, with US President Donald Trump saying his “miserable life was terminated”.
Although Iraq had proclaimed in 2017 the defeat of the jihadist group on its territory, IS cells have remained active and carry out sporadic attacks against Iraq’s army and police.
Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufayi “was considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world”, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said on social media platform X.
The jihadist, sanctioned by the United States in 2023, was IS’s so-called governor of the group’s Syrian and Iraqi provinces, according to the Iraqi premier.
Rufayi was also “responsible for the foreign operations offices”, Sudani said. He did not say when Rufayi was killed but applauded the operation by Iraqi intelligence that was carried out in co-operation with the US-led anti-jihadist coalition in Iraq.
“Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
“He was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters. His miserable life was terminated, along with another member of ISIS, in co-ordination with the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Regional Government.” The US Central Command posted on X what appeared to be a video of the strike, which it said “killed the Global ISIS #2 leader... and one other ISIS operative.” It said that both fighters had been wearing unexploded “suicide vests” and that it had identified Rufayi through a DNA match.
RELIEF AS US CONGRESS AVERTS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
The United States averted a government shutdown with hours to spare as lawmakers already reeling from President Donald Trump’s radical federal spending cuts voted to keep the lights on through September.
Facing a midnight deadline to fund the government or allow it to start winding down, Democrats dropped plans for a blockade on a Trump-backed bill passed earlier this week by the House – clearing its path for approval by the Republican-led Senate.
“In their typical fashion, Senate Democrats engaged in political theatre to delay the inevitable and cause instability,” said Ted Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
“Americans voted for change under President Trump and Republican leadership after four years of chaos. The government is funded, let’s get back to work.”
Democrats had been under immense pressure from their own grassroots to defy Trump and reject a text they said was full of harmful spending cuts.
But Chuck Schumer, their leader in the upper chamber, shocked his rank-and-file ahead of the crunch vote by announcing he would back the Republican-drafted proposal.
Ten Democrats – worried that they would be blamed over a stoppage with no obvious exit ramp – backed down from a showdown with Trump and allowed the bill to advance to a final floor vote, where it only needed Republican support.
The week’s action in Congress marked a big victory for Trump, who turned the political thumbscrews on some holdouts among the fractious House Republicans – effectively stamping out a rebellion that could have ushered in a shutdown.
The funding fight was focused on opposition to Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, which is working to dramatically downsize the government.
DOGE aims to cut federal spending by $1 trillion this year and claims to have made savings so far of more than $100 billion although its verified cost savings come to less than a tenth of that figure.
‘ILLEGAL, CORRUPT’: TRUMP SLAMS CRITICAL US MEDIA
US media outlets that are critical of Donald Trump are “illegal” and “corrupt”, the president has said in a speech at the Department of Justice.
Mr Trump said CNN, MSNBC and unidentified newspapers “literally write 97.6 per cent bad about me” and “it has to stop. It has to be illegal”.
Speaking to prosecutors and law enforcement officers at the Department of Justice headquarters, Mr Trump described the media outlets as “political arms of the Democrat party. And in my opinion they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal”.
He said the media was “influencing judges and it’s really changing law, and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal. And they do it in total co-ordination with each other”.
‘200 PER CENT’: TRADE WAR EXPLODES AFTER TRUMP EU THREAT
US President Donald Trump has threatened 200 per cent tariffs on all alcohol products coming from the European Union after the countries levied a 50 per cent tax on whiskey coming from America.
“The European Union, one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World, which was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States, has just put a nasty 50 per cent Tariff on Whisky,” Mr Trump posted on Truth Social.
“If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”
Mr Trump has been threatening to impose reciprocal tariffs on the EU for weeks as a part of his agenda to reduce trade deficits — including with US allies.
The EU announced the 50 Per cent whiskey tariff — set to be imposed on April 1 — as a response to Mr Trump’s new tariff on all steel and aluminium imports that went into effect on Wednesday local time.
‘I THINK IT WILL HAPPEN’ TRUMP EYES GREENLAND ANNEX
Greenland’s outgoing Prime Minister Mute Egede said he would convene a meeting of party leaders to jointly reject US President Donald Trump’s vow to take over the island, warning that “Enough is enough.”
“This time we need to toughen our rejection of Trump. People cannot continue to disrespect us,” Egede wrote on Facebook, after Mr Trump earlier reiterated his desire to annex the autonomous Danish territory.
Mr Egede continues to lead Greenland while awaiting the formation of a new government following his party’s defeat in elections on Tuesday.
“The American president has once again evoked the idea of annexing us. I absolutely cannot accept that,” he wrote.
“I respect the result of the election, but I consider that I have an obligation as interim head of government: I have therefore asked the administration to summon the party heads as soon as possible.”
Speaking at the White House alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Mr Trump had responded to a question about annexing the island of 57,000 people by saying: “I think it will happen.”
Also in the NATO meeting Mr Trump said he loved Canada and was determined to make Canada the “probably the greatest American state”.
They will be able to keep their national anthem, “O, Canada”, he said, except it will become their state anthem.
CANADA, EUROPE HIT US WITH TARIFFS
Earlier, Europe immediately moved to slap retaliatory levies on the United States, announcing
A$44 billion of levies on American goods including bourbon, boats and motorcycles.
The European Union’s countermeasures to America’s 25 per cent steel and aluminium tariffs will target Republican-held states and come into play from April 1.
Meanwhile, Canada announced new A$33 billion tariffs on US imports of computers, sports equipment and cast iron products.
Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the new levies would come into effect on Thursday local time.
“I am announcing that the government of Canada, following a dollar-for-dollar approach, will be imposing … 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on an additional C$29.8 billion (A$33 billion) of imports from the United States,” he said.
“This includes steel products worth C$12.6 billion (A$13.9 billion) and aluminium products worth C$3 billion (A$3.3 billion) as well as additional imported US goods worth C$14.2 billion (A$15.6 billion).”
European leaders have called for further talks with Washington amid the escalating global trade war.
“I think we have enough war in the world, we need to stop the wars we have and not create a trade war,” EU Council chief Antonio Costa said.
“We don’t want to escalate, the good way is to de-escalate.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticised Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
“I think the decisions on tariffs by the USA are wrong and we will react to them appropriately and quickly,” he said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU’s response was proportional to the US measures.
“As the US are applying tariffs worth 28 billion dollars, (A$44 billion) we are responding with countermeasures worth 26 billion euros (A$45 billion),” she said in a statement.
“The commission manages trade and commercial conflicts on behalf of the 27 member EU countries.
“We firmly believe that in a world fraught with geopolitical and economic uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to burden our economies with tariffs.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “disappointed” about the tariffs but said the UK would not retaliate as negotiations continued.
“Obviously, like everybody else, I’m disappointed to see global tariffs in relation to steel and aluminium, but we will take a pragmatic approach,” Sir Keir said.
He said Britain was keeping “all options on the table” as it looked to find a suitable solution.
Europe’s countermeasures will be rolled out in stages, starting by lifting a pause on previous tariffs imposed under the previous Trump administration and paused under Joe Biden.
They will include 50 per cent levies on well-known American products including Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Kentucky bourbon.
Further measures are being drawn up to take effect from mid-April, including tariffs on watermelons, white chocolate and soybeans.
The EU’s moves came after similar steps by Canada to hit back at Mr Trump’s tariffs by imposing a 25 per cent fee on electricity exported to the US.
But after a dramatic escalation in which Mr Trump threatened to double Canada’s steel tariff to 50 per cent and annex the country, Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford backed down – returning to the negotiating table with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
“Secretary Lutnick and President Trump are brilliant business people,” Mr Ford said. “They are hard negotiators.
“We need to put this behind us and move forward and build the two strongest countries in the world.”
ELON MUSK ORDERED TO RELEASE INTERNAL DOGE RECORDS
A federal judge ordered tech billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to release all internal records and justify in writing his decision to slash federal agencies, eliminate contracts and terminate thousands of government workers in the first seven weeks of the Trump administration.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan gave the richest man alive three weeks to comply with the discovery order that requires him to answer questions about the internal workings of DOGE and turn over all relevant documents detailing his mass government slashings, according to the filing.
US BORDER CZAR SAYS ICE AGENTS WILL ‘FLOOD NYC’
US border tsar Tom Homan has warned that immigration agents could “flood New York” if Governor Kathy Hochul doesn’t co-operate on immigration crackdowns.
Mr Homan warned Governor Hochul and Democrats against defending sanctuary city policies.
“Sanctuary cities are going to get exactly what they don’t want: more ICE agents in your community,” he said.
“We’ll double the man-force if we have to. Rather than one officer arresting a bad guy, now I have to send a whole team.”
When Mr Homan was asked if he would meet with Governor Hochul while in New York, he said, “She knows my number.”
Mr Homan’s comments came during a rally by Republican politicians pushing to repeal the state’s Green Light Law, which allows undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licences, as well as pass New York’s Laken Riley Act, which aims to undercut sanctuary city policies.
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