31/01/2026

SATURDAY | JAN 31, 2026 9 New Zealand rejects Board of Peace invite WELLINGTON: New Zealand rejected an invitation to US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” yesterday, joining a small list of nations to knock back the proposal. “New Zealand will not be joining the Board in its current form but will continue to monitor developments,“ Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement. “A number of states, particularly from the region, have stepped up to contribute to the Board’s role in Gaza, and New Zealand would not add significant further value to that.” While many states have expressed misgivings, only a small number of nations, including France, Norway and Croatia, have explicitly turned down invitations. Peters made the decision in conjunction with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour. Wellington did not reject the idea of the Board entirely, but reiterated its commitment to the United Nations (UN). “We see a role for the Board of Peace in Gaza, to be carried out as mandated by UN Security Council Resolution 2803,“ said Peters. “As a leading founder and long-standing supporter of the UN, it is important that the Board’s work is complementary to and consistent with the UN charter. “It is a new body and we need clarity on this, and on other questions relating to its scope, now and in the future.” Trump launched his Board of Peace initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week. He was joined on stage by leaders and officials from 19 countries to sign its founding charter. Although originally meant to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza, the Board’s charter does not seem to limit its role to the Palestinian territory. – AFP AI helps doctors spot breast cancer in scans PARIS: AI could help doctors spot cases of breast cancer when reading routine scans, a world-first trial found yesterday. The results suggest that countries should roll out programmes taking advantage of AI’s scanning power to ease the workload of radiologists, said Swedish lead researchers. The study, published in medical journal The Lancet, marks the first completed randomised controlled trial, which is the gold standard for this kind of research, looking at AI-supported breast cancer screening. The trial involved more than 100,000 women who received routine breast cancer scans across Sweden in 2021 and 2022. They were randomly sorted into two groups. In one, a single radiologist was assisted by an AI system to check the scans. The other followed the standard European method, which requires two radiologists to read the scans. Nine percent more cancer cases were spotted in the AI group compared with the control group. Over the following two years, those in the AI group also had a 12% lower rate of being diagnosed with cancer between routine scans, which are known as interval cancers and can be particularly dangerous. The improvement was consistent across different ages and levels of breast density, which can be risk factors. The rate of false positives was similar in both groups. Senior study author Kristina Lang of Sweden’s Lund University said “widely rolling out AI-supported mammography in breast cancer screening programmes could help to reduce workload pressures among radiologists, as well as help to detect more cancers at an early stage”. But this must be done “cautiously” and with “continuous monitoring”, she said. Interim results from the trial, published in 2023, showed that AI nearly halved the time radiologists spent reading scans. – AFP

New border chief vows smarter ICE operation

Trump on Thursday acknowledged that a shutdown could occur, while lawmakers continued negotiating guardrails to rein in immigration agents. “It could happen. I do not know.” A partial government shutdown, affecting roughly three-quarters of the federal government, would be the second since Trump returned to office, threatening to furlough hundreds of thousands of public employees, interrupting government services and injecting fresh economic uncertainty just months ahead of midterm elections. Current government funding lapsed at midnight yesterday. Democrats have said they are prepared to pass five of the six spending Bills, but drew a red line around funding for the Homeland Security MINNEAPOLIS: US President Donald Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said on Thursday some federal agents could be withdrawn from Minneapolis, which has become a flashpoint for Trump’s immigration crackdown. The Trump administration, facing public backlash over the shooting deaths of two Americans by federal agents in Minneapolis, also eased immigration operations in the northeastern state of Maine. Homan vowed at a press conference in Minneapolis to press on with the immigration crackdown in the city, but said more cooperation could lead to a reduction in the number of federal agents there. “We are not surrendering our mission at all. We are just doing it smarter. Trump wants this fixed. And I am going to fix it.” Minneapolis has been gripped by weeks of demonstrations against the roundup of immigrants by masked and heavily armed federal agents. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, speaking to a conference of US mayors in Washington on Thursday, likened it to an “invasion”. “People’s constitutional rights have been trampled. Discrimination takes place only on the basis of: ‘Are you Somali? Are you Latino? Are you Southeast Asian?’ It is not how we operate in America.” Trump sent Homan to Minnesota to take control of immigration operations there with orders to report directly to him, effectively sidelining Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem. Homan’s appointment shows that the administration is “pivoting,” said 43-year-old Minneapolis freelance medical professional Cass, who did not provide a surname. “Just because one is older and bigger does not mean that it is not as scary. It is just that now we have got somebody with better self-regulation.” The political battle has landed in Congress, with a potential government funding shutdown looming after Senate Democrats rejected a procedural vote to express anger over the killing of two citizens in Minnesota. o ‘Cooperation could lead to reduction in number of federal agents in Minneapolis’

With posters remembering Good and Pretti in the background, a Minneapolis resident on Thursday keeps an eye out for ICE agents near a school where some students were recently arrested. – AFPPIC

authority and the moral obligation to act,“ said Schumer. However, any fix would have to be approved by the House of Representatives, which is not due back from recess until Monday, making at least a weekend gap in funding inevitable. Lawmakers in both parties privately acknowledged that a brief lapse could easily stretch on if Schumer’s agreement with the White House, enthusiastically endorsed by Trump on Thursday, hits roadblocks in the lower chamber. Ironically, ICE would be largely unaffected by a shutdown since it was allocated some US$75 billion (RM295 billion) over four years in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act 2025. Democrats want to see an end to roving immigration patrols, tighter warrant requirements, a universal use-of-force code, a ban on officers wearing masks and mandates for body cameras and visible identification. – AFP Minneapolis “citizen observer” and 41-year-old jewellery designer Steven Gagner was skeptical about the drawdown. “This administration has proven time and again that they just lie to us and they do not really hold themselves or anyone else accountable.” The two agents involved in Saturday’s shooting have been placed on leave, and Homan said any federal agents who breach standards of conduct “will be dealt with”. Trump has scrambled to stem outrage over the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, saying earlier this week he wanted to “de-escalate a little bit” in Minneapolis. However, he has not let up on his attacks on Somali-born Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, even going so far as to suggest that she may have staged an attack on herself Tuesday, when a man sprayed her with an unknown liquid while she gave a speech. The suspect, Anthony Kazmierczak, faces state and federal assault charges for using a syringe to spray what appeared to be apple cider vinegar on the Democratic representative. – AFP

Democrats had vowed to block the measure unless funding for the Homeland Security Department is renegotiated to include guardrails on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Homan struck a conciliatory tone at his first press conference, saying “certain improvements could and should be made”, a marked difference from the Border Patrol commander who previously headed the mission and has been removed. The border chief urged Minnesotans to avoid “hateful rhetoric” against federal immigration officers. He said his staff is “working on a drawdown plan” for some of the more than 3,000 federal agents who have been taking part in “Operation Metro Surge”. One such measure would be notifying ICE agents about the release dates of incarcerated migrants considered “criminal public safety risks” so that they can be detained by the agency, he said. “This is common sense cooperation that allows us to draw down on the number of people we have here.”

Govt shutdown ‘could happen’: Trump WASHINGTON: The US Senate edged closer to a vote yesterday on a funding deal to avert a government shutdown following a bitter standoff over President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Department, demanding it be stripped out and renegotiated to impose new constraints on immigration enforcement agencies. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday said the White House has agreed to the demand. Democratic backlash to Trump’s

immigration crackdown, sharpened by the killing of two citizens in Minneapolis by federal agents in recent weeks, has raised the prospects of a shutdown in recent days. Democrats are pushing to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency that has rapidly expanded its ranks under Trump and now commands more funding than all other US federal law enforcement agencies combined. Anger boiled over on Thursday when Senate Democrats blocked a key procedural vote on a six-Bill spending package designed to keep most of the government funded. “What ICE is doing is state-sanctioned thuggery and it must stop. Congress has the