Catégorie oBox : OBOXMA

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has raised his country’s US investment target from the $600 billion commitment he announced during Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May to a headline-grabbing $1 trillion, according to a statement on the White House website.

US, Saudi tout new business deals at investment forum reut.rs/47NZ1My

— Reuters (@reuters.com) 2025-11-19T16:50:13Z

The new figure, confirmed by the White House in a statement during the Saudi crown prince’s trip to Washington, dramatically expands the scale of the pledged investment but remains vague in practice, with no breakdown, timetable, or sector-by-sector plan, leaving key questions unanswered about how and when such funds would actually be deployed.

During his visit to Washington, the crown prince took part in multiple events with the president that brought together top US executives from across major industries, including Elon Musk of Tesla, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, and senior leaders from companies such as Chevron, Cisco, Qualcomm, Google, Boeing, and Pfizer.

The $1 trillion would be made up of prospective deals in major arms contracts (including a flagship F-35 package), artificial intelligence partnerships involving firms such as Nvidia and AMD alongside data centers and cloud infrastructure, and agreements on critical minerals and civil nuclear cooperation that Washington would present as key to securing US supply chains, according to the White House fact sheet.

«We’re told that $270 billion in agreements and sales are being signed between dozens of companies, and that’s just happening today.»

Trump Touts $270 Billion in US–Saudi Deals

During the investment forum, President Donald Trump announced that some US–Saudi deals were being signed with a total value of approximately US $270 billion, marking a further step in the deepening economic partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

He presented these agreements as part of a broader agenda to bring high-paying jobs and strategic industry cooperation back to the US, spanning sectors such as defence, technology and infrastructure.

Trump highlighted the scale of those deals by saying: «We’re told that $270 billion in agreements and sales are being signed between dozens of companies, and that’s just happening today.»

While the headline number of US $270 billion was cited, the administration offered few details on timing, exact terms or sector-specific commitments, which leaves major questions about how and when these deals will materialize.

Donald Trump touted $1tn of investment from Saudi Arabia during his welcome for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that included a 21-gun salute, a Marine Corps band, a fighter jet flypast — and threats against US journalists who might offend his guest. on.ft.com/3LKGOXG

— Financial Times (@financialtimes.com) 2025-11-19T01:05:36.870593Z

Axios and several media outlets, including Reuters, report that Donald Trump and his administration are quietly pressuring Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to accept their proposed peace plan.

SCOOP: New Trump plan to end war in Ukraine grants Russia parts of eastern Ukraine it does not currently control.

— Axios (@axios.com) 2025-11-19T17:35:45.850Z

A «28-point roadmap»

According to Axios, the U.S. administration is working on a secret «28-point roadmap» for ending the war in Ukraine, a plan reportedly developed in consultation with Russian officials and overseen by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. The discussions are taking place through secret channels rather than public diplomatic talks.

The plan described by Axios would require Ukraine to accept significant territorial losses and a substantial reduction of its armed forces.

These conditions, presented as part of a broader effort to end the conflict, would markedly reshape Ukraine’s borders and military capabilities.

According to Axios, Trump’s proposed plan to end the war in Ukraine includes granting Russia parts of eastern Ukraine that it does not currently control, as his administration tries to bargain these territories with Kyiv in exchange for security guarantees for Ukraine.

Major doubt on the credibility of the security guarantees

Trump’s peace plan would hand over the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk (the Donbas) to Russia, even though Ukraine still controls part of those territories. According to the plan, Trump wants to turn the Donbas into a sort of demilitarized zone under exclusive Russian control, claiming that Putin would not be able to station troops there.

According to Axios, a Ukrainian official said the Trump peace plan would also limit the size of Ukraine’s military and its weapons in exchange for U.S. security guarantees, but warned that the proposal fails to ensure protection if Russia attacks again or seizes more Ukrainian territory in the future, casting major doubt on the credibility of those guarantees as a whole.

For many in Kyiv, these vague security promises echo the broken assurances of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, deepening doubts about their real value.

Trump’s bargaining with Ukrainian territory in exchange for vague security guarantees is likely to shock Ukraine’s allies and European partners, as many already criticise him for failing to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty since entering peace negotiations earlier this year and for treating its land as a bargaining chip for Putin’s benefit.

The US signaled to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Ukraine must accept a US-drafted framework to end the war with Russia that proposes Kyiv giving up territory and some weapons, two people familiar with the matter said reut.rs/3X5jBBS

— Reuters (@reuters.com) 2025-11-19T17:02:49.333Z

A federal appeals court is now reviewing Donald Trump’s attempt to revive a sweeping RICO lawsuit accusing Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, and several others of driving what Trump calls the «Russia hoax» against his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump’s lawyers appeared before an appeals court in Alabama to try to revive a civil suit accusing Hillary Clinton of leading a conspiracy to bog down his 2016 presidential campaign with bogus allegations tying him to Russia.

— Bloomberg News (@bloomberg.com) 2025-11-19T10:30:12Z

«This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it.»

In 2022, Donald Trump brought a lawsuit claiming that Hillary Rodham Clinton, James Comey, and others conspired to invent allegations of collusion with Russia during the 2016 campaign, which he argued harmed his reputation and business dealings.

In 2023, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton, dismissed Trump’s lawsuit, calling the 193-page filing a «shotgun pleading» that was confusing and poorly structured.

Middlebrooks found that the complaint failed to identify any coordinated enterprise, did not allege valid criminal acts, did not show concrete financial damages, and was filed outside the applicable statute of limitations. Concluding that the suit served a political rather than legal purpose, Middlebrooks wrote:

«This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it»

«I can read this complaint. It seems a classic shotgun complaint. It incorporates, by reference, hundreds of paragraphs into succeeding counts.»

A «classic shotgun complaint»

At the appeals stage, the three-judge panel expressed skepticism as they weighed whether the case, dismissed in 2023, should be revived in federal court and whether nearly $1 million in sanctions against Trump and his former attorney Alina Habba stemming from that lawsuit should be allowed to stand.

Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr., one of the three judges on the Eleventh Circuit panel hearing Trump’s appeal, underscored early in the session that he viewed Trump’s sprawling 108-page complaint — expanded to 193 pages in a later version — as a «classic shotgun complaint» that improperly lumped together too many defendants and claims, saying:

«I can read this complaint. It seems a classic shotgun complaint. It incorporates, by reference, hundreds of paragraphs into succeeding counts.»

The appeals court is expected to issue its decision in the coming weeks or months, and if Donald Trump loses, he can seek a rehearing by the full court or ask the Supreme Court to take up the case.

«No reasonable lawyer would have filed it.»

-U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks

In another of his legal cases, Donald Trump recently filed a request with the Supreme Court seeking to dismiss a civil judgment against him in the E. Jean Carroll case, after a New York jury in May 2023 found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded 5 million dollars in damages, followed by a second jury in January 2024 that ordered him to pay an additional 83.3 million dollars for further defamatory statements.

Appeals court panel mulls $1M penalty for Trump in lawsuit against Hillary Clinton

— Politico (@politico.com) 2025-11-19T03:33:32Z

Während die Trump-Administration wegen fragwürdiger Ziele in ihrer so genannten « Drogenkartell »-Kampagne in die Kritik gerät, weigert sich Trump, ein militärisches Eingreifen der USA in Venezuela auszuschließen, während die amerikanische Militärpräsenz in der Karibik mit einem umfangreichen Einsatz von Ressourcen und Personal für groß angelegte Übungen in den nächsten Wochen verstärkt wird.

Breaking news: President Trump said he will not rule out the possibility of sending U.S. troops into Venezuela, as a buildup of U.S. forces in the region — and his increasingly combustible rhetoric — raises the prospect of military action there.

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) 2025-11-17T22:01:26.985346758Z

Steigende Spannungen in der Region

Die Spannungen in der Region um Venezuela nehmen zu, da die Nachbarländer ängstlich auf den nächsten Schritt der Vereinigten Staaten warten. Die US-Militärpräsenz in der Region ist so hoch wie seit fast zwei Jahrzehnten nicht mehr und kommt einer Beinahe-Blockade gegen Venezuela gleich.

Während einer Fragerunde von Journalisten im Oval Office wurde Trump gefragt, ob er die Entsendung von US-Truppen nach Venezuela ausschließen würde und antwortete:

« Nein, das schließe ich nicht aus. Ich schließe nichts aus. »

Trump bezeichnete eine mögliche Militäraktion als Teil von Washingtons umfassenderen Aufgaben in der Region und fügte hinzu:

« Wir müssen uns einfach um Venezuela kümmern. »

Einige Tage zuvor hatte Trump an Bord der Air Force One auf die Frage, ob er sich für ein militärisches Vorgehen in Venezuela entschieden habe, geantwortet: « Ich kann Ihnen nicht sagen, was es sein würde, aber ich habe mich sozusagen entschieden. »

Die jüngste Militäroperation

Die amerikanischen Streitkräfte setzten ihre Kampagne gegen die von Washington als Drogenschmuggler bezeichneten Boote fort und führten am Wochenende einen weiteren Angriff durch. Regionalen Berichten zufolge wurden bei der jüngsten Operation, die am späten Samstag vor der Nordküste Venezuelas stattfand, mehrere kleine Schiffe zerstört, die im Verdacht standen, Drogen zu transportieren.

Mit diesem neuen Angriff wurden seit Beginn der Kampagne im September nun mindestens 22 Boote getroffen und 83 Menschen getötet, eine steigende Zahl, die das internationale Unbehagen über die wahre Natur der Ziele verstärkt.

Ein Appell für den Frieden

Auf einer Kundgebung in Caracas versuchte der venezolanische Präsident Nicolás Maduro am Samstag, die Spannungen mit den Vereinigten Staaten abzubauen, indem er einen Teil seiner Rede in einen Friedensappell verwandelte.

Vor Hunderten von Anhängern beschuldigte er Washington, Venezuela « bombardieren und einmarschieren » zu wollen, und forderte seine Zuhörer auf, « alles für den Frieden zu tun, wie John Lennon sagte », bevor er auf der Bühne kurz den Refrain von « Imagine » sang.

The Trump administration is rapidly escalating its pressure campaign against Venezuela, even as President Trump’s aides provide conflicting accounts of what, exactly, they are seeking to achieve. nyti.ms/49nV4PY

— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) 2025-11-16T17:36:26.439Z