USA – President-elect Donald Trump ran on a platform of isolating the US from foreign conflicts like the Ukraine war, increasing tariffs on foreign trade partners, and rebuilding domestic manufacturing. But in recent days he has suggested a more outwardly aggressive approach for his foreign policy. At first, he joked about Canada being an additional US state. Since, he has threatened to take back control of the Panama Canal. He also reiterated a desire from his first term to own the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, which is not for sale. The US is unlikely to take control of any of these regions. But these statements could indicate that Trump’s “America First” vision includes flexing the superpower’s muscle beyond its borders for US trade and national security interests.

Over the weekend, Trump said in a social media post that the US “feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity”, for reasons of national security and global freedom.

The US maintains Pituffik Space Base in Greenland. The territory is rich with natural resources, including rare earth minerals and oil, and occupies a strategic location for trade as global powers seek to expand their reach in the Arctic Circle. Russia, in particular, sees the region as a strategic opportunity. Trump floated the idea of purchasing Greenland in 2019, during his first term as president, and it never came to fruition. Greenland’s prime minister, Múte B Egede, responded to Trump’s latest comments this week: “We are not for sale and we will not be for sale.” Still, Trump continued emphasising his public statements online. On Truth Social, Trump’s account showed an image of an American flag being planted in the middle of the Panama Canal. (BBC)

JAMAICA – By his own admission, Gull Mansukhani came to Jamaica from India with nothing 41 years ago. Now he is a successful businessman with a burning desire to help the people of the country which has done so much for him. “Jamaica has given me everything, so I think it is my time to give back to Jamaica. I have created a foundation in the names of my mother Veena, and my son Vijay — the Veena/Vijay [V] Mansukhani Foundation — because I realised that I don’t want to do small projects, I want to do big projects,” Mansukhani told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday. “I am a guy who came to Jamaica 41 years ago and I used to work with a company, and little by little I have gone on my own. I have grown to become a businessman,” added Mansukhani.

His philanthropic work officially started in March 2022 when he partnered with the Indian High Commission in Jamaica and Member of Parliament for St Andrew East Rural Juliet Holness to organise a health fair in Papine, St Andrew.

More than 360 people were seen at the health fair and Mansukhani was overjoyed to see the difference it made in the lives of those most in need. Later that year Mansukhani handed out $2 million in scholarships to a medical student and a nursing student who were struggling to pay their school fees.

That followed the death of his son in April 2022 from complications related to asthma. As an asthmatic himself, Mansukhani organised a donation of 450 nebulisers to public hospitals and other facilities islandwide.

“A lot of machines were there but were not working in hospitals, but I didn’t know. I just did this because my son died. I didn’t know that Jamaica needed this. I just said, ‘Let me give some nebulisers’, only to find out that there was a big shortage of nebulisers in hospitals,” said Mansukhani. His next major project was to come in 2023 through a chance encounter with a newspaper article with the picture of child using a bottle of ice to cool himself at Farm Primary and Infant School in St James. (Jamaicaobserver)

Photo: MANSUKHANI… Jamaica has given me everything, so I think it is my time to give back to Jamaica. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

KAZAKHSTAN – Dozens of people have died after a passenger plane crashed with 67 people on board in Kazakhstan, local officials say. The country’s emergency ministry said there were at least 25 survivors. The plane, operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, caught fire as it attempted to make an emergency landing near the city of Aktau.

Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 was on route from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny in Russia. Reports say it was diverted because of fog. Video verified by Reuters news agency shows the plane heading towards the ground at high speed, with its landing gear down. Seconds after it seems to attempt to land, a huge fireball erupts.

The airline said the plane “made an emergency landing” about 3km (1.9 miles) from Aktau. It took off from Baku at 03:55 GMT on Wednesday, and crashed around 06:28, data from flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed. There were 62 passengers and 5 crew members on board the Embraer 190 aircraft, the transport ministry said. Those on board were mostly Azerbaijani nationals, but there were also some passengers from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Out of the 25 known survivors, 22 were taken to hospital, the emergency ministry said. (BBC)

TOKYO – Japan’s government is set to compile a record $735 billion budget for the fiscal year from April due to larger social security and debt-servicing costs, adding to the industrial world’s heaviest debt, a draft seen by Reuters showed. The 115.5 trillion yen draft budget is being compiled as the Bank of Japan shifts away from its decade-long stimulus programme, putting more burden on the government to stimulate the economy. In an attempt to improve public finances, however, the government plans to trim new bond issuance next fiscal year to 28.6 trillion yen from this fiscal year’s initially planned 35.4 trillion yen, helped by tax revenue growth, the draft showed. It is the first time in 17 years that new bond issuance will drop below 30 trillion yen. Decades of stop-start fiscal spending and reform have left Japan with the industrial world’s heaviest public debt burden – more than double the size of its annual economic output.

The BOJ’s retreat from a decade of radical stimulus adds to pressure on Japan’s fiscal health, as the government can no longer count on the central bank to effectively bankroll debt. The BOJ ended negative interest rates in March and raised its short-term policy target to 0.25% in July. Governor Kazuo Ueda signalled on Wednesday that the next rate hike is nearing, saying wage and price developments indicate the economy will move closer to sustainably achieving the central bank’s 2% inflation target next year. The draft budget, up from this fiscal year’s 112.6 trillion yen, is expected to be approved by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s cabinet on Friday for submission to parliament for deliberation early next year. (Reuters)