NEW YORK: Donald Trump and Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull met for a patch-things-up summit in New York Thursday, with the US president saying an earlier telephone spat was “all worked out.”
Trump claimed a bad-tempered call with the Australian prime minister early in his White House tenure had been “fake news” that was a “big exaggeration” by the media.
Trump reportedly exploded and cut short the call when he was told about a Barack Obama-era deal to move refugees from Australia to America.
The president took to Twitter afterward to label the agreement as “dumb,” rattling a decades-old alliance.
“It’s all worked out. It’s been worked out for a long time,” Trump said, as the pair, dressing in black tie, smiled and swapped legislative war stories.
“We had a great telephone call. You guys exaggerated that call. That was a big exaggeration. We’re not babies,” Trump said, reverting to his favored tactic of media-bashing.
“We get along great. We have a fantastic relationship, I love Australia, I always have,” Trump said as the pair met for the first time.
Turnbull said that “we can put the refugee deal behind you and move on.”
Trump and Turnbull gathered in New York, hoping to steady the long-standing alliance after relations soured at a time of growing tensions in the Asia-Pacific.
The two leaders convened on a decommissioned aircraft carrier, the Intrepid, in New York, to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea.
The World War II fight against Japanese forces forged an alliance that has seen Australia pitch in alongside the United States in every major conflict since.
Trump’s first return to his hometown since becoming president was marked by protests. Hundreds of opponents, shouted slogans as his motorcade passed.
The crisis over North Korea’s nuclear and weapons programs and a fence-mending trip by Vice President Mike Pence to Sydney appears to have eased tension between the United States and Australia.
After meeting Turnbull, Pence said the United States would take the refugees but added it “doesn’t mean we admire the agreement.”
Turnbull, like Trump a businessman-turned-politician, has said he is “delighted” to meet with the US leader and affirm the relationship.
Trump, for his part, said he would be happy to travel Down Under.
“Oh that will happen. It’s one of the great, great places. It’s one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I have so many friends there. I’ll be there. We’ll be there — absolutely we’ll be there.”
The advent of Trump has invigorated a debate over Australia’s place in the world and whether its future lies with an unpredictable United States, or a closer relationship with China, its top trading partner.
Several former senior Australian diplomats have also urged Canberra to rethink ties with the US in light of China’s rise.
The icy start was cooled further by Washington’s withdrawal from a trans-Pacific trade agreement that would have given Australian businesses greater access to the US and key regional markets.
Trump meets Australia’s Turnbull, says spat ‘all worked out’
Trump meets Australia’s Turnbull, says spat ‘all worked out’
Russia jails 15 for life over IS-claimed 2024 concert hall attack
- Eleven other men were also jailed for life for acting as accomplices and of having terrorist links
- Four more men were handed sentences of between 19 and 22 years over their links with the attackers
MOSCOW: A Russian court on Thursday handed life sentences to four gunmen from Tajikistan, and 11 others it said were their accomplices, for the 2024 Crocus concert hall attack that left 150 people dead.
The March 2024 shooting spree was claimed by Daesh and was the deadliest militant attack in Russia in more than two decades.
Relatives of some of the victims stood in the grand Moscow military court as the verdict was read out.
Shamsidin Fariduni, Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Makhammadsobir Fayzov and Saidakrami Rachabolizoda — all Tajik citizens who went on a shooting spree in the building before setting it on fire — looked down as the judge sentenced them to life.
Eleven other men — some Russian citizens — were also jailed for life for acting as accomplices and of having terrorist links.
Four more men — including a father and his sons — were handed sentences of between 19 and 22 years over their links with the attackers.
The gunmen entered the concert hall shortly before a show by Soviet-era rock band Picnic. They went on a shooting spree before setting fire to the building, trapping many victims. The attack wounded more than 600 people. Six children were among those killed.
Uliana Filippochkina, whose twin brother Grigory was killed in the attack, flew from Siberia’s Novosibirsk for the verdict.
She said she was “satisfied” with the ruling and that she had looked the men who killed her twin in the eyes during their final statements in the trial.
“They didn’t explain anything, they tried to escape responsibility, appealing to the fact that they had wives and children... That they were under the influence of drugs,” she said.
- ‘No remorse’ -
“There was no sympathy or remorse whatsoever,” she added.
Her brother went to the concert shortly before his 35th birthday. The family were only able to identify what was left of his body weeks later, burying his remains in Novosibirsk.
The verdict came ahead of the second anniversary of the killings.
“For us all it’s like yesterday,” Ivan Pomorin, who was filming the Crocus Hall concert at the time, told AFP.
Lawyers said some of the victims are still being treated for their wounds, while others have severe PTSD, unable to sleep, use public transport or be in crowded places.
The four gunmen — aged 20 to 31 at the time — worked in various professions, among them was a taxi driver, factory employee and construction worker.
They stood in the glass defendant’s cage, surrounded by security guards.
According to media reports, Mirzoyev’s brother was killed fighting in Syria, possibly leading to his radicalization.
Hours after the attack, Russian police brought them to court with signs of torture — including one barely conscious in a wheelchair.
- ‘Redeem guilt with blood’ -
The attack came two years into Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with Russia — bogged down by the offensive — dismissing prior US warnings of an imminent attack.
The Kremlin had suggested a Ukrainian connection at the time of the attack, but never provided evidence.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said after the verdict it was “reliably established” that the attack was “planned and committed in the interests of” Kyiv.
It accused the men of also plotting attacks in Dagestan.
TASS state news agency reported this month, citing a lawyer, that two of them — Dzhabrail Aushyev and Khusein Medov — had asked to be sent to fight in Ukraine instead of a life sentence.
Throughout its offensive, Russia has recruited prisoners for its military campaign, offering a buy-out from their sentences should they survive.
According to the lawyer quoted by TASS, Medov said he wanted to “redeem his guilt with blood.”
- Anti-migrant turn -
Russia — already undergoing a conservative social turn during the war — upped anti-migrant laws and rhetoric after the attack.
This has led to tensions with Moscow’s allies in Central Asia, some of whom have confronted Russia and called on it to respect the rights of their citizens.
Russia’s economy has for years been heavily reliant on millions of Central Asian migrants.
But their flow to Russia dipped after Moscow launched its Ukraine campaign and some Central Asians also held back from going to Russia after the post-Crocus migrant crackdowns.
