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Northern Ireland’s first minister will not attend the White House for St Patrick’s Day in protest at the “injustice” of Donald Trump’s recent comments on Gaza.

Michelle O’Neill, who is also the vice president of Sinn Fein, will be joined by the party’s leader Mary Lou McDonald in boycotting the annual ceremony to mark the national holiday on 17 March.

Ms McDonald said she will not attend the event at the White House over “a principled stance against the threat of mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza” – a reference to recent comments by US President Donald Trump.

Speaking at a press conference in Dublin, Ms O’Neill said she “cannot ignore” Mr Trump’s comments and that her decision not to travel to the White House meant she was standing “on the side of humanity”.

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“The decision to not travel to the White House has not been taken lightly, but it is taken very conscious of the responsibility that each of us have as individuals to call out injustice when we see it,” she said.

“We are all heartbroken whenever we witness the suffering of the Palestinian people, and the recent comments by the US president around the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza is just simply something that I cannot ignore.”

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She added: “At times like this, people look towards political leaders to stand against injustice. So in the future whenever our children and grandchildren ask us what did we do when the Palestinian people endured unimaginable suffering, I can say firmly that I stood on the side of humanity.”

Mr Trump sparked international alarm earlier this month when he laid out his plans for the Middle East in a news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

The US president called Gaza a “demolition site” and said the two million Palestinians who currently live there could go to “various domains” – and that his “takeover” plans would not include a right of return for those who left.

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Trump says US will take over Gaza

Mr Trump did also not rule out sending US troops to the region, and said his plan would “develop” Gaza and create “thousands and thousands of jobs”.

“Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs,” Mr Trump said, adding that Gaza could become “the Riviera of the Middle East” where “the world’s people” could live.

America traditionally enjoys a close relationship with Ireland owing to ancestral ties and history, but the war in Gaza and US support for Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 has put that under strain.

Ireland has been one of the world’s most vocal supporters of the Palestinian cause and in 2024, along with Norway and Spain, it officially recognised Palestine as a separate state – prompting Israel to recall its ambassadors from two of the European states.

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Palestinians react to Trump’s Gaza comments

Last year Ms McDonald rejected calls for a boycott of the White House over the US position on Gaza under Joe Biden’s presidency, arguing that she had used the “unparalleled” influence Ireland ha sin Washington to raise concerns about the Middle East.

President Trump’s proposal to transfer the Palestinian population out of Gaza and redevelop it under US ownership has been criticised by Palestinians, human rights groups, regional powers and US allies, but last week Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was “the only viable plan to enable a different future”.

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The decision of Sinn Fein to boycott the White House comes after Israel accused Hamas of a “serious violation” of the ceasefire deal after it failed to hand over the body of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas, instead returning the remains of an “anonymous body without identification”.

Hamas has since said it will investigate the claims.

Ms Bibas was kidnapped with her sons – four-year-old Ariel, and nine-month-old Kfir – from the Niz Or kibbutz during the Palestinian militant group’s incursion into Israel in October 2023, which killed 1,195 people, according to Israeli authorities, including 815 civilians.

Israel‘s subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza, and 405 Israeli soldiers, according to the Israeli military.

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Stock markets slump for second day running after Trump announces tariffs – in worst day for indexes since COVID

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Stock markets slump for second day running after Trump announces tariffs - in worst day for indexes since COVID

Worldwide stock markets have plummeted for the second day running as the fallout from Donald Trump’s global tariffs continues.

While European and Asian markets suffered notable falls, American indexes were the worst hit, with Wall Street closing to a sea of red on Friday following Thursday’s rout – the worst day in US markets since the COVID-19 pandemic.

As it happened: Worst week’s trading in five years

All three of the US’s major indexes were down by more than 5% at market close; The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 5.5%, the S&P 500 was 5.97% lower, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 5.82%.

The Nasdaq was also 22% below its record-high set in December, which indicates a bear market.

Read more: What’s a bear market?

Ever since the US president announced the tariffs on Wednesday evening, analysts estimate that around $4.9trn (£3.8trn) has been wiped off the value of the global stock market.

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Mr Trump has remained unapologetic as the markets struggle, posting in all-caps on Truth Social before the markets closed that “only the weak will fail”.

The UK’s leading stock market, the FTSE 100, also suffered its worst daily drop in more than five years, closing 4.95% down, a level not seen since March 2020.

And the Japanese exchange Nikkei 225 dropped by 2.75% at end of trading, down 20% from its recent peak in July last year.

Pic: Reuters
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US indexes had the worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. Pic: Reuters

Trump holds trade deal talks – reports

It comes as a source told CNN that Mr Trump has been in discussions with Vietnamese, Indian and Israeli representatives to negotiate bespoke trade deals that could alleviate proposed tariffs on those countries before a deadline next week.

The source told the US broadcaster the talks were being held in advance of the reciprocal levies going into effect next week.

Vietnam faced one of the highest reciprocal tariffs announced by the US president this week, with 46% rates on imports. Israeli imports face a 17% rate, and Indian goods will be subject to 26% tariffs.

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Do Trump’s tariffs add up?

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China – hit with 34% tariffs on imported goods – has also announced it will issue its own levy of the same rate on US imports.

Mr Trump said China “played it wrong” and “panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do” in another all-caps Truth Social post earlier on Friday.

Later, on Air Force One, the US president told reporters that “the beauty” of the tariffs is that they allow for negotiations, referencing talks with Chinese company ByteDance on the sale of social media app TikTok.

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Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump

He said: “We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, ‘We’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs?’

“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.”

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Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they’re also battling with another problem

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Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they're also battling with another problem

Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.

The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.

The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.

Tariffs latest: FTSE 100 suffers biggest daily drop since COVID

Financial investors had been gradually re-calibrating their expectations of Donald Trump over the past few months.

Hopes that his actions may not match his rhetoric were dashed on Wednesday as he imposed sweeping tariffs on the US’ trading partners, ratcheting up protectionism to a level not seen in more than a century.

Markets were always going to respond to that but they are also battling with another problem: the lack of certainty when it comes to Trump.

More on Donald Trump

He is a capricious figure and we can only guess his next move. Will he row back? How far is he willing to negotiate and offer concessions?

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These are massive unknowns, which are piled on to uncertainty about how countries will respond.

China has already retaliated and Europe has indicated it will go further.

That will compound the problems for the global economy and undoubtedly send shivers through the markets.

Much is yet to be determined, but if there’s one thing markets hate, it’s uncertainty.

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Court confirms sacking of South Korean president who declared martial law

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Court confirms sacking of South Korean president who declared martial law

South Korea’s constitutional court has confirmed the dismissal of President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached in December after declaring martial law.

His decision to send troops onto the streets led to the country’s worst political crisis in decades.

The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.

The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.

Demonstrators who stayed overnight near the constitutional court wait for the start of a rally calling for the president to step down. Pic: AP
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Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP

Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.

The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.

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The Constitutional Court is under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement of the impeachment trial. Pic: AP
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The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP

After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.

He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.

His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.

The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.

South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.

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