US President Donald Trump’s top diplomat and his main spokesperson walked back the idea that he wants the permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, after US allies and Republicans rebuffed his suggestion that the US would take “ownership” of the territory.
Follow our live blog for the latest developments.
Key Events
- 50m ago50 minutes agoWed 5 Feb 2025 at 10:04pm
- 1h ago1 hours agoWed 5 Feb 2025 at 9:45pm
7m agoWed 5 Feb 2025 at 10:47pm
Donald Trump’s plan to ‘take over’ Gaza has drawn widespread condemnation from world leaders and from people in the enclave.
Middle East correspondent Eric Tlozek is in Jerusalem and says Gazans have mixed feelings of resignation and despair.
“They have asked ‘why we weren’t consulted. Do we have no decision about whether we stay or leave our land?'”
“They said ‘there’s no other land for us.'”
North American bureau chief Jade Macmillan is in Washington DC and says the White House is defending the president’s proposal.
“Officials here have conceded that it has come as a surprise but they’re arguing that this is a bold vision for the Middle East from Donald Trump when previous plans”.
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38m agoWed 5 Feb 2025 at 10:16pm
Goodness gracious me. Where to begin?
US President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement Tuesday night that he wanted to “take over” the Gaza Strip has been walked back a bit by some officials today.
- At a press conference in Guatemala on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the president didn’t want the US to control the territory indefinitely. This came after Trump had said the previous evening that it would be “a long-term ownership position”.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson addressed journalists in Washington on Wednesday morning where he urged people to “withhold judgement” on the president’s “bold” proposal until more details were announced. Some other Republican member of Congress expressed surprise and confusion about Trump’s blueprint for Gaza.
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The president, who is in his third week in the White House, also signed an executive order on Wednesday afternoon banning transgender students from participating in women’s sports.
Trump is relying on the Education Department to ensure the new edict is enforced, and has instructed authorities to pull federal funding from schools that don’t comply.
He has also previously pledged to eradicate the Education Department.
The day also started with a report in The Washington Post that every CIA employee had been offered a “buyout”.
This term isn’t really in the Australian vernacular, but it basically means you accept money to leave your job quickly. The CIA is essentially the US’s spy agency.
This policy is in line with Trump’s promises to slash public spending, although the scale of it (offering everyone in an entire organisation) appears to have taken some people by surprise. The CIA doesn’t make public its budgets, so it’s hard to know how much this could save.
Also, a Federal Court judge in Maryland has pledged to block Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenships for children born in the US to undocumented migrants.
They’re the second judge to do that.
I hope every day is not like this, as it’s a bit hard to keep up.
50m agoWed 5 Feb 2025 at 10:04pm
While Trump’s top officials have been walking back the idea of permanently relocating Palestinians, Donald Trump has signed an executive order on Wednesday attempting to exclude transgender girls and women from female sports.
The order directs the Department of Justice to ban transgender girls and women from participating in female school sports under Trump’s interpretation of Title IX, a law against sex discrimination in education.
“The war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said at a signing ceremony with dozens of women and girls aligned behind him.
“My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes.”
The order, which is likely to face legal challenges, calls for “immediate enforcement” nationwide.
It threatens to cut off federal funding for any school that allows transgender women or girls to compete in female-designated sporting competitions.
The order would affect only a small number of athletes. The president of the National Collegiate Athletics Association told a Senate panel in December he was aware of fewer than 10 transgender athletes among the 520,000 competing at 1,100 member schools.
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Reporting by Reuters.
1h agoWed 5 Feb 2025 at 9:45pm
Donald Trump’s top officials have walked back the idea that the US president wants a permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.
In a press conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Trump’s proposal as a “very generous” offer to help with debris removal and reconstruction of the enclave following 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“In the interim, obviously people are going to have to live somewhere while you’re rebuilding it”.
Marco Rubio spoke about Trump’s proposal at a press conference in Guatemala. (AP: Mark Schiefelbein)
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says Trump only sought to move the roughly 1.8 million Gazans temporarily to allow for reconstruction.
“The president has made it clear that they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza,” she said, calling it currently “an uninhabitable place for human beings” and saying it would be “evil to suggest that people should live in such dire conditions.”
Reporting with AP.
1h agoWed 5 Feb 2025 at 9:34pm
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of Donald Trump’s top officials walking back the idea of the US taking ‘ownership’ of Gaza.
This comes after the US president said in a presser with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US would ‘take over’ Gaza and ‘permanently’ relocate Palestinians.
Stay with us as we update you with the latest.
