World

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump on Friday appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ban on his use of an obscure wartime law to deport alleged gang members without due process.

The appeal sets up a showdown over one of the most glaring examples of Trump's unprecedented attempts to increase presidential power since returning to the White House in January.

Trump invoked the little-known 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify rounding up alleged Venezuelan gang members, some of whom were sent to a notorious prison set up by the right-wing government in El Salvador.

The Trump administration has used images of the alleged Tren de Aragua gang members being shackled and having their heads shaved in the Central American prison as proof that it is serious about cracking down on illegal immigration.

Rights advocates say some of the deportees had nothing to do with gangs and that even potential criminals are required to be given court hearings before expulsion, in line with the US Constitution.

A senior federal judge, James Boasberg, issued an injunction barring further flights of deportees under the Alien Enemies Act. He has been asked by the American Civil Liberties Union to extend the restraining order when it expires Saturday.

An initial appeal by the Trump administration was turned down Wednesday.

In its appeal to the Supreme Court, which is dominated by conservative justices, the White House said the case is a key test of presidential authority over the courts.

"This case presents fundamental questions about who decides how to conduct sensitive national-security-related operations in this country" -- the president or judges, the administration said.

The appeal said Boasberg's injunction was "flawed" and threatens "the government's sensitive negotiations with foreign powers".

The Supreme Court should "vacate the district court's orders. In addition, the Acting Solicitor General respectfully requests an immediate administrative stay of the district court's orders pending the Court's consideration of this application".

Trump has campaigned relentlessly on social media against Boasberg, even calling for him to be removed from his post by Congress.

ANDONG, SOUTH KOREA — At least 18 people have been killed in one of South Korea's worst wildfire outbreaks, with multiple raging blazes causing "unprecedented damage", the acting president said Wednesday.

More than a dozen fires broke out over the weekend, scorching wide swathes of the southeast, forcing around 27,000 people to urgently evacuate, with the fire cutting off roads and downing communications lines as residents fled in panic.

Overnight into Wednesday, the death toll jumped as wind-driven flames tore through neighbourhoods and razed an ancient temple. 

"Eighteen people died in the wildfires," a ministry of safety official told AFP.

According to the interior ministry, the wildfires have charred 17,398 hectares, with the blaze in Uiseong county alone accounting for 87 per cent of the total.

The government has raised the crisis alert to its highest level and taken the rare step of transferring thousands of prisoners.

"Wildfires burning for a fifth consecutive day... is causing unprecedented damage," South Korea's acting president Han Duck-soo said.

He told an emergency safety and disaster meeting that the blazes were "developing in a way that is exceeding both existing prediction models and earlier expectations."

"Throughout the night, chaos continued as power and communication lines were cut in several areas and roads were blocked," he added. 

In the city of Andong, some evacuees sheltering in an elementary school gym told AFP they had to flee so quickly they could bring nothing with them. 

"The wind was so strong," Kwon So-han, a 79-year-old resident in Andong told AFP, adding that as soon as he got the evacuation order he fled.

"The fire came from the mountain and fell on my house," he said.

"Those who haven't experienced it won't know. I could only bring my body."

'Most devastating' 

By Wednesday, one of the fires was threatening historic Hahoe Folk Village, a UNESCO-listed world heritage site popular with tourists but now under an emergency alert.

Thousands of firefighters have been deployed, but "strong winds reaching speeds of 25 metres per second persisted from yesterday afternoon through the night, forcing the suspension of helicopter and drone operations," Han said.

The changing wind patterns and dry weather have "revealed the limitations of conventional firefighting methods," he added.

Hundreds of soliders have joined the effort, with helicopter support also provided by US forces stationed in the South.

The fires are "the most devastating" yet in South Korea, Han said.

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump ramped up his claims to Greenland on Wednesday, saying ahead of a visit by Vice President JD Vance that the United States needed to take control of the Danish island for "international security."

Since coming to power in January, Trump has repeatedly insisted that he wants the self-governed territory to be in Washington's grip, refusing to rule out the use of force to do so.

"We need Greenland for international safety and security. We need it. We have to have it," Trump told podcaster Vince Coglianese. "I hate to put it that way, but we're going to have to have it."

Greenland, which is seeking independence from Denmark, holds massive untapped mineral and oil reserves though oil and uranium exploration are banned.

It is also strategically located between North America and Europe at a time of rising US, Chinese and Russian interest in the Arctic, where sea lanes have opened up because of climate change.

Asked if he thought Greenlanders were eager to join the United States, Trump said he did not know.

"We have to convince them," he said. "And we have to have that land, because it's not possible to properly defend a large section of this Earth, not just the United States, without it."

Dogsled visit dropped 

Trump's latest strident comments come as Vice President Vance is due to accompany his wife Usha on a visit to the US-run Pituffik Space Base in Greenland on Friday.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's outgoing Prime Minister Mute Egede had earlier harshly criticized plans by a US delegation to visit the Arctic island uninvited for what was initially a much broader visit.

Egede had characterized the initial plans as "foreign interference," noting that the outgoing government had not "sent out any invitations for visits, private or official."

On Wednesday, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen welcomed the decision to limit the visit to the US space base.

"I think it's very positive that the Americans have canceled their visit among Greenlandic society. They will only visit their own base, Pituffik, and we have nothing against that," he told public broadcaster DR.

Formerly known as Thule Air Base, the Pituffik Space Base is the United States' northernmost military installation and supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance missions. 

The White House on Tuesday said the Vances' visit to the space base would take place in lieu of the second lady's scheduled visit to a dogsled race in Sisimiut, where an anti-US demonstration was reportedly planned.

 'Respect this process' 

Greenlandic officials have repeatedly said the territory does not want to be either Danish or American, but is "open for business" with everyone. 

According to opinion polls, most Greenlanders support independence from Denmark but not annexation by Washington.

Following March 11 elections, Greenland has only a transitional government, with parties still in negotiations to form a new coalition government.

Egede has called for "all countries to respect this process."

Marc Jacobsen, a senior lecturer at the Royal Danish Defense College, called the decision to limit the US visit "a de-escalation," a term also used by Foreign Minister Lokke.

"You do not come to another country when you haven't been welcomed," he told AFP.

Jacobsen added that the planned anti-US demonstration in Sisimiut, after a similar protest in the capital Nuuk on March 15, may have also factored into Vance's decision to contain the visit.

"Perhaps we could also see demonstrations like we saw in Nuuk just a couple of weeks ago where a lot of people had signs showing 'Yankee go home' and 'We're not for sale'," he said. 

DUBAI — The world installed a record amount of renewable energy capacity last year, largely driven by China, according to a report published on Wednesday by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Generating capacity from the likes of solar, wind, hydroelectric and geothermal energy, grew by 15.1 per cent globally, reaching close to 4.5 terawatts, according to the report from IRENA.

Across the world, 585 gigawatts of renewable capacity was added to grids, accounting for 92.5 per cent of all new electricity-generating capacity installed last year.

"The continuous growth of renewables we witness each year is evidence that renewables are economically viable and readily deployable," Francesco La Camera, IRENA's director said in a statement.

"Each year they keep breaking their own expansion records, but we also face the same challenges of great regional disparities and the ticking clock," he added.

To achieve a global goal, agreed at the COP28 climate summit in 2023, to triple renewable energy generation capacity by 2030 the world must reach 11.2 terawatts.

That will require annual growth of 16.6 percent until the end of the decade, the report said.

Last year, Asia was central to global renewable growth, with China alone accounting for 64 percent of new capacity worldwide.

More than three-quarters of all the newly installed capacity worldwide was in the form of photovoltaic cells, which turn solar energy directly into electricity. Of that, China accounted for more than half.

Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN's climate treaty process, said in the same statement that "renewables grew in Asia at double the rate in Europe". 

"Clearly there is still so much opportunity for Europe to step up the pace."

"In a global clean energy boom that hit $2 trillion last year -- the dividends on offer are monumental," he added.

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia and Ukraine accused each other Wednesday of derailing a US-brokered deal -- announced a day earlier -- that could see the warring countries halt attacks on the Black Sea and against energy sites.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced a barrage of more than 100 drones launched by Russia overnight, hours after Kyiv agreed to a framework for a halt in fighting in the key waterway.

The United States said it had brokered the agreements in talks with both sides in Saudi Arabia, part of efforts by US President Donald Trump to speedily end Russia's invasion of Ukraine now grinding through its fourth year.

But key questions over implementation remain. The Kremlin said the agreement to halt Black Sea strikes could only come into force after the lifting of restrictions on its agriculture sector.

Kyiv, which has voiced readiness to agree a complete 30-day ceasefire, said it had come into effect when the US published details of the agreement late Tuesday.

"Launching such large-scale attacks after ceasefire negotiations is a clear signal to the whole world that Moscow is not going to pursue real peace," Zelensky wrote in a statement on social media.

'More pressure' on Russia

"There must also be clear pressure and strong action from the world on Russia -- more pressure, more sanctions from the United States -- to stop Russian strikes," Zelensky said.

Russia launched 117 drones over Ukraine overnight, out of which 56 were downed and 48 were lost from radar without causing damage, the air force said.

The attack damaged buildings in the central city of Kryvyi Rig -- Zelensky's hometown -- and in the border region of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said.

Russia meanwhile accused Ukraine of attacking its energy infrastructure overnight. President Vladimir Putin had ordered a 30-day truce on such targets last week but Kyiv has said Russian strikes on energy sites have continued unabated.

Ukraine fired drones at a "gas storage facility" in the annexed Crimean peninsula as well as a power installation in the Bryansk region, the Russian defence ministry said.

"The Kyiv regime, while continuing to damage Russia's civilian energy infrastructure, is actually doing everything it can to disrupt the Russian-American agreements," it wrote.

Moscow insists the 30-day truce has been in effect since March 18, but the monitoring of it is unclear and both the US and Russia have issued contradictory statements.

 'Dragging their feet'

The US said Moscow and Kyiv had only agreed to "develop measures" towards an energy truce. A communications advisor for Zelensky said late Tuesday that Russian forces had struck Ukrainian energy sites eight times since Putin's order.

Trump's aim to hastily end the war has raised fears in Ukraine that it could be forced into ceding some of the 20 percent of its territory that Russia occupies, or that a US deal might not come with deterrents that would stop Russia from attacking again.

Zelensky and officials in Kyiv have claimed repeatedly that Moscow does in fact not want peace and is only seeking to continue advancing across the front line.

Trump in an interview Tuesday conceded that "it could be they're dragging their feet", referring to Russia, adding that: "I think Russia would like to see it end, and I think Zelensky would like to see it end at this point."

Germany urged Russia on Wednesday to agree to a ceasefire without conditions.

"It is not a situation for dialogue when a ceasefire is repeatedly tied to concessions and new demands... we must not be deceived by the Russian president," Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.

BRUSSELS — The prospect of deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine under a United Nations mandate is "very hypothetical" at this stage, the UN's peacekeeping chief said on Tuesday.

European nations are working on plans to secure a potential ceasefire in Russia's war on Ukraine, which could include the deployment of a peacekeeping force.

"I think it's fair to say it's very, very hypothetical," Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations since 2017, told reporters in Brussels when pressed on the matter.

"The question is obviously there and it's being asked, and we think of it," he said. "But we're not planning anything."

A new summit of the so-called "coalition of the willing" being assembled by France and Britain will meet on Thursday in Paris.

Russia's negotiator in the latest round of talks with the United States on ending the conflict said on Tuesday that Moscow would aim to involve the UN in the process, without specifying what role it might play.

Any UN peacekeeping mission to Ukraine would first have to receive a mandate from the Security Council, stressed Lacroix, who said his teams had received no signals "at this stage" in that regard.

"We're not mandated to plan and I can't really know on what basis right now we would be planning anything," Lacroix said.

UISEONG — Inhabitants of a UNESCO-listed village were ordered to evacuate while a historic Buddhist temple was burned to the ground as South Korea scrambled to contain worsening wildfires, which are tearing across the country's southeast.

More than a dozen different blazes broke out over the weekend; with four people killed as dry windy weather hampered efforts to contain one of the countries worst-ever fire outbreaks, prompting the government to transfer thousands of prisoners. 

Early on Tuesday, acting Interior and Safety Minister Ko Ki-dong said the wildfires had "so far affected approximately 14,694 hectares with damage continuing to grow". 

The extent of damage makes the fires collectively the third largest in South Korea's history. The worst was an April 2000 blaze that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast.

"Strong winds, dry weather, and haze are hampering fire fighting efforts," Ko told a disaster and safety meeting.

The government declared a state of emergency in four regions, citing "the extensive damage caused by simultaneous wildfires" and thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate.

"The wind was so strong that I couldn't stand still," Kwon So-han, a 79-year-old resident in Andong told AFP. 

"The fire came from the mountain and fell on my house.

"Those who haven't experienced it won't know. I could only bring my body."

Late on Tuesday, authorities in Andong issued an emergency alert to residents of the historic Hahoe Folk Village,  a UNESCO-listed world heritage site popular with tourists,  as the blaze drew closer.

"The Uiseong Angye wildfire is moving in the direction" of that area, the alert said. "Residents are requested to evacuate immediately."

In Uiseong, the sky was full of smoke and haze, AFP reporters saw, with the Korea Forest Service saying that the containment rate for the fire in that area had decreased from 60 to 55 per cent on Tuesday.

Early in the morning, workers at the Gounsa Temple, which was more than a thousand years old, were attempting to move valuable artefacts and cover up Buddhist statues to protect them from possible damage.

"We used fire retardant blankets," Joo Jung-wan, a Gyeongbuk Seobu Cultural Heritage Care Centre worker told AFP, saying that a giant gilded Buddha statue was too large to move so had been carefully covered.

Hours later, an official at the Korea Heritage Service told AFP that the temple had been burnt down.

"It is very heartbreaking and painful to see the precious temples that are over a thousand years old being lost," monk Deung-woon told AFP.

Around 3,500 inmates from correctional facilities in the southeastern county of Cheongsong and Andong are being transferred to nearby prisons, Yonhap news agency reported, citing the justice ministry.