Foreign News
Tee time with Trump – striking balls and deals over 18 holes
Mick Mulvaney thought he had beaten Donald Trump. The president and his White House chief of staff were playing golf at Trump’s Bedminster club in 2019, and Mulvaney was up by one stroke with three holes left.
“I slapped him on the shoulder and joked with him, ‘I got you today, old man,'” Mulvaney told the BBC. “He looked at me, half smiled, half-sneered and just laughed.”
The president birdied two of the next three holes and beat Mulvaney by two.
Mulvaney, who worked in Trump’s White House for three years in his first term, says he played golf with, or in the group just behind, the president around 40 times and never beat the man 21 years his elder. “Just soul-crushing” is how he described it.
Golf has been a popular activity for many modern American presidents, but none has had quite the same relationship with the sport as Trump, who is in Scotland this weekend for the opening of a new Trump course near Balmedie in Aberdeenshire.
For presidents like Barack Obama and George W Bush, golf seemed to serve as a diversion from the burdens of office. For the current president, however, golf is a business venture, a networking opportunity and – as Mulvaney recounts – a fiercely competitive undertaking. On the fairways and greens, he says, the president is focused on the game and has little tolerance for poor shots or slow play.
“In fact, if you are slow,” Mulvaney said, “you aren’t going to get invited back and might get left behind on the course.”
British golf journalist Kevin Brown experienced that first-hand when he played with Trump on his Balmedie course in 2012. He said he was taking in the scenery on the second hole, when one of the other players in his foursome told him that Trump had asked if he could “get a move on”.
“He was more focused, head down, motoring on ahead of us,” Brown said. “Most of the time, he was just playing his own game and obviously thinking about stuff he had to do.”
After the round, however, Brown spoke to Trump for nearly an hour about his connection to golf. He said the future president’s passion was clear.
“He’s nuts about golf,” he said. “He knew the background and history of the game. It was impressive.”
Trump, a real-estate developer turned politician, has played golf since his college days and bought his first golf property, Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach Florida, in 1999. Trump Golf currently owns 11 courses in the US and three in the UK, manages several others and has plans for new resorts in Oman, Indonesia, Vietnam and Qatar.
Golf clubs are a prized possession for Trump – and not always a profit-making one. According to filings with the British government, Trump’s Balmedie course lost $1.83m (£1.35m) in 2023 – its 11th-straight year running a deficit. Turnberry, on the other hand, reported about $5m in profit.
Trump has at times clashed with local authorities over land use and sought to restrict construction of wind turbines off the coast of his Balmedie property.
While his US courses have hosted major professional tournaments, he has long wanted Turnberry, which he will visit this weekend, to be the site of a future British Open Championship. The historic course has hosted four of the prestigious competitions, but none since Trump purchased the property in 2014.
According to Brown, Trump is drawn to high-profile golf properties because of the prestige they provide.
“He just likes the quality and the pedigree,” he said. “It’s about attracting the right people – i.e. filthy rich businessmen with pretty deep pockets.”
A single round of golf at Turnberry, for instance, costs around $1,350.
Golf has long been an avocation enjoyed by the elite, where the wealthy and the powerful could conduct business and make connections in an exclusive – and, until recently in many cases exclusively white and male – environment.
For businessman Trump, it was a pathway to the kind of connections helpful to building his real estate empire. It has offered him a means to connect with American politicians and foreign leaders – even if he did promise in 2016 that he was “not going to have time to play golf” if he was ever voted into White House.
Early in his first presidential term, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gifted Trump a golden golf club. The two would later play five rounds together – forging a friendship that lasted until Abe was assassinated in 2022.
Trump’s regular golf partners have included close political allies, like South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and Republicans with whom he sought to forge new connections, such as 2016 presidential rival Rand Paul of Kentucky.
“He’s a little better golfer than I am, admittedly, but we had a good time,” Paul said after a 2017 round with the president, adding that the two mostly focused on golf – but also discussed Trump’s tax policies.
In March of this year, Trump golfed with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in West Palm Beach, partnering in a club tournament Trump said the two men won. Stubb would later say that they talked about the war in Ukraine, Russia and global security.
“In Finnish history, it’s quite rare that the Finnish president has spent so much time with the president of the United States, either physically or on the phone or messaging,” Stubb told Canadian broadcaster CBC News.
It’s this kind of access, and influence, that has made a tee time with Trump a coveted prize for those seeking a presidential audience.
“Anybody who is sophisticated dealing with Donald quickly understands that everything about him is transactional,” said Professor David Cay Johnston of Rochester Institute of Technology, who as a reporter covered Trump for decades and has written three books about the man.
“If you’re the head of a company or the head of a nation, you either try and minimise any prospective damage he might do to you by buttering him up or to size him up on something if you’re unsure.”
Even back at the White House, foreign leaders have tried to parlay a golf connection into a friendly reception. When South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the Oval Office in May, he gave the president an illustrated South African golf book and included golf professionals Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in his national delegation.
That didn’t help much, however, as the meeting devolved into an extended confrontation over South Africa land confiscation policies.
While that drama played out in front of the gathered press and live television cameras, Trump may see benefit from his more cloistered golf outings, as it gives him an opportunity for meetings well removed from the prying eyes of journalists.
Reporters accompany Trump on all of his public movements, but when the president is on the golf course they are kept well away.
“He has time out of the eye of anybody else to deal with people,” Johnston said. “And of course, those heads of corporations or states, similarly, are going to use the opportunity to be away from any spotlight.”
The president’s penchant for privacy on the links also means there are wildly conflicting accounts of how good a golfer Trump really is. He boasts of winning dozens of club championships – all on courses he owns – including five this year alone.
Sports journalist Rick Reilly, in his 2019 book Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, writes that Trump’s championship claims are so “over-the-top” that he loses all credibility.
He details what he says is Trump’s penchant for cheating, including moving his ball to better spots on the course and taking multiple mulligans – a custom in which a player is allowed to replay a stroke with no penalty, after a mishit.
“He’s a notorious cheat,” Johnston said. “I spoke to someone once who played a round of golf with him, who told me that he had taken six mulligans on a single hole.”
According to Mulvaney, who says he never saw Trump cheat, the president may use golf as a way to connect, but 18 holes with the president isn’t about business or government or politics.
“This is golf,” he said. “And while that sounds obtuse, golfers know what I mean. Trump was a golfing enthusiast long before he was president. And he will be long after, as well.”
[BBC]
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung has called for a “new phase” in ties with China as he met its leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday.
Regional security and lifting Beijing’s unofficial ban on Korean pop culture is high on Lee’s agenda, as he continues his four-day trip in China. He is set to meet China’s Premier Li Qiang and the chairman of parliament, Zhao Leji on Tuesday.
It marks the first visit by a South Korean leader since 2019. Bilateral ties had soured under Lee’s predecessor, impeached ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was very critical of China.
Xi, meanwhile, has appeared keen to shore up ties with South Korea amid a diplomatic row between China and Japan.
South Korea is a US security ally – like Japan – but also relies on China for trade. Experts say Lee is expected to keep walking a diplomatic tightrope between Beijing and Tokyo.
The visit marks the second time the two leaders have met since November when Xi visited South Korea for a regional economic summit.
On Monday Lee stated that the visit was “a crucial opportunity” for the “full-scale restoration of South Korea-China relations”, reported South Korean newspaper Chosun. “We want to usher in a new phase in the development of South Korea-China relations.”
Government officials and companies from both countries signed a series of cooperation agreements on technology, trade and environment.
Lee also took selfies with Xi, using a Xiaomi phone that the Chinese president had gifted him last year.
“The image quality is certainly good, right?” Lee posted on X along with the photos.
Xi noted that the “international situation is becoming more turbulent and complex”.
The meeting followed the US’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro over the weekend.
Xi urged Lee to “firmly stand on the right side of history and make correct strategic choices”, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.
He also brought up the two countries’ shared history of resisting Japan militarism, saying that China and South Korea should now “work hand in hand to safeguard the outcomes of the victory of World War Two and uphold peace and stability in Northeast Asia”.
Xi’s eagerness to meet Lee signals the pressure he faces in finding a regional ally, Park Seung-chan, professor of China studies at Yongin University told the BBC.
“China may beat around the bush but its demand is clear: side with China and denounce Japan.”
During his four-day trip to China, Lee is expected to hold a memorial service in Shanghai for activists who fought for Korea’s independence from Japan.
But while South Korea is “still showing all its deference towards China”, it wants to “strengthen its relationships with both Japan and China”, Mr Park said.
Lee is reportedly planning to visit Japan later this month to meet Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Security on the Korean Peninsula has also been part of the discussions. Lee has sought to engage North Korea diplomatically, but there has been little progress so far. He needs Chinese cooperation in pressuring the North’s Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear weapons. Beijing is one of Pyongyang’s biggest supporters, economically and diplomatically.
Lee vowed on Monday to work with China on “viable alternatives for peace on the Korean Peninsula”.
On Sunday Seoul’s military said Pyongyang fired ballistic missiles off its east coast. And on Monday the North’s state news agency said the country test-fired hypersonic missiles to assess deterrence capabilities following recent developments, in an apparent reference to the US’s seizure of Maduro.
It remains unclear how much Lee will be able to push China on North Korea. In September, Xi had pledged to strengthen Beijing’s “traditional friendship” with Pyongyang.
And Seoul and Beijing are not natural allies.
US troops have been stationed in South Korea for decades in case of an attack from the North, and last year the two sides agreed to cooperate on building nuclear-powered submarines. The announcement drew warnings from China.
Lee has also sought to put a stop to China’s build-up of maritime structures in waters between the two countries. Beijing says the structures are fish-farming equipment, but they have sparked security concerns in Seoul.
The two leaders agreed on Monday to continue “constructive” dialogue on the matter, South Korea’s presidential spokesperson said.
Another item high on Lee’s agenda is China’s unofficial restrictions on South Korean music and dramas that have been in place for a decade. K-pop and K-dramas are either unavailable or difficult to access on Chinese media platforms.
While China has never acknowledged a ban on Korean artists, it’s believed to be a protest against South Korea’s decision to deploy a US anti-missile system in 2016, which China sees as a threat to its military operations in the region.
China is a massive market for Korean entertainment, which is already a huge global success.
At a Korea-China business forum on Sunday, Lee encouraged deeper bilateral collaboration in beauty products, food and cultural content including movies and music.
A South Korean presidential spokesperson said on Monday that the two leaders agreed to discuss the gradual expansion of cultural exchanges – without specifying concrete commitments on K-dramas or K-pop.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson similarly told reporters on Tuesday that both sides have agreed to “carry out orderly, healthy, and beneficial cultural exchanges”.
Speaking before Korean residents in Beijing on Sunday, Lee said his visit would “serve as a new starting point to fill in the gaps in Korea-China relations, restore them to normal and upgrade them to a new level”.
Cuba has announced the death of 32 of its citizens during the United States military operation to abduct and detain Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in Caracas.
Havana said on Sunday that there would be two days of mourning on January 5 and 6 in honour of those killed and that funeral arrangements would be announced.
The state-run Prensa Latina agency said the Cuban “fighters” were killed while “carrying out missions” on behalf of the country’s military, at the request of the Venezuelan government.
The agency said the slain Cubans “fell in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombing of the facilities” after offering “fierce resistance”.
Cuba is a close ally of Venezuela’s government, and has sent military and police forces to assist in operations in the Latin American country for years.
Maduro and his wife have been flown to New York following the US operation to face prosecution on drug-related charges. The 63-year-old Venezuelan leader is due to appear in court on Monday.
He has previously denied criminal involvement.
[Aljazeera]
Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, recently abducted with his wife by US special forces from his home, has appeared in a federal courtroom in New York City for a hearing on alleged ‘narcoterrorism’ and other charges.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were brought before US District Judge Alvin K Hellerstein at 12pm (17:00 GMT) on Monday for a brief legal proceeding that kicks off a long legal battle over whether they can face trial in the United States.
Handcuffed and wearing blue jail uniforms, Maduro and his wife were led into the court by officers, and both put on headsets to hear the English-language proceeding as it was translated into Spanish.
Maduro pleaded not guilty, telling the judge, “I was kidnapped. I am innocent and a decent man, the president of my country.”
Across the street from the court, the police separated a small but growing group of protesters from about a dozen pro-intervention demonstrators, including one man who pulled a Venezuelan flag away from those protesting the US abduction.
The left-wing leader, his wife, son and three others could face life in prison if convicted of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tonnes of cocaine into the country. Some observers say there is no evidence linking Maduro to cartels.
Maduro’s lawyers said they will contest the legality of his arrest, arguing he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of a foreign state, though he is not recognised as Venezuela’s legitimate leader by the US and other nations.
Flores also pleaded not guilty to US charges against her during the arraignment. Hellerstein ordered the Venezuelan leader to appear in court for a hearing on March 17.
Near the end of the hearing, Maduro’s lawyer, Barry J Pollack, said his client “is head of a sovereign state and entitled to the privilege” that the status ensures.
Pollack said there were “questions about the legality of his military abduction”, and there will be “voluminous” pretrial filings to address those legal challenges.
Earlier, images showed the pair being led handcuffed and under heavy guard from a helicopter en route from a detention facility to the court, two days after they were forcibly removed from Caracas in a brazen US special forces operation.
At an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council earlier on Monday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern that Washington’s capture of Maduro violated international law.
“I remain deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected with regard to the 3 January military action. The Charter enshrines the prohibition of the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state,” Guterres said, referring to the UN’s founding document.
“The maintenance of international peace and security depends on the continued commitment of all member states to adhere to all the provisions of the Charter.”
Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s ambassador to the UN, accused the US of carrying out an illegal armed attack against his country.
Venezuela was subjected to bombing, destruction of civilian infrastructure, the loss of civilian and military lives, and the “kidnapping” of Maduro and his wife, Moncada said.
The abduction of a sitting head of state breached a core norm of international law, the personal immunity of leaders in office, he added, warning that such actions set a dangerous precedent for all countries.
Russia and China, Venezuela’s most powerful allies, strongly condemned Maduro’s abduction and called for his release.
US allies France and Colombia also notably voiced concern, saying Washington’s military operation had undermined international law.
The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, defended Maduro’s abduction, describing it as a “law enforcement operation”.
“The United States arrested a narcotrafficker who is now going to stand trial in the United States,” Waltz said.
Waltz accused Maduro of being “responsible for attacks against the people of the United States, for destabilising the Western Hemisphere, and illegitimately repressing the people of Venezuela”.
All eyes are on Venezuela’s response to the swiftly moving events after US President Donald Trump said late on Sunday that the US is “in charge” of the South American nation, which has the world’s largest oil reserves.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, was officially sworn in as interim president on Monday.
Rodriguez, a 56-year-old labour lawyer known for close connections to the private sector and her devotion to the governing party, was sworn in by her brother, Jorge, who is the head of the National Assembly legislature.
Delcy Rodriguez initially took a defiant stand against the seizure of the president, in what some observers labelled a return to “US gunboat diplomacy”. But she has now offered to colaborate with Washington.
One analyst said that Venezuela’s opposition appreciates the US intervention to remove Maduro from power, but is alarmed by Trump’s comments about US plans to “run” Venezuela, apparently with members of his government.
“Trump doesn’t recognise the decision of the Venezuelan people. We are not a colony of the US. We are an independent country,” Jose Manuel Puente, a professor at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion, a private university in Caracas, told Al Jazeera.
“We want to initiate a transition to democracy, to rebuild the institutions, to rebuild the economy, to rebuild the oil sector. And we don’t see that from Trump until now.”
Venezuela’s National Assembly opened on Monday with lawmakers chanting “Let’s go, Nico!” as they denounced his abduction.
“The president of the United States, Mr Trump, claims to be the prosecutor, the judge, and the policeman of the world,” senior lawmaker Fernando Soto Rojas told the assembly. “We say, you will not succeed, and we will ultimately deploy all our solidarity so that our legitimate president, Nicolas Maduro, returns victorious to Miraflores”, the presidential palace, he added.
Rodriguez has served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela’s oil dependent economy and its feared intelligence service, and was next in the presidential line of succession.
She is part of a band of senior officials in Maduro’s administration who now appear to control Venezuela, even as Trump and other US officials say they will pressure the government to fall in line with their vision for the oil-rich nation.
On Sunday, some 2,000 Maduro supporters, including rifle-wielding men on motorcycles, rallied in Caracas with crowds shouting and waving Venezuelan flags. The Venezuelan military, loyal to Maduro, announced it recognised Rodriguez and urged calm.
The White House indicated on Sunday that it does not want regime change, only Maduro’s removal and a pliant new government that will enable US companies to exploit the country’s oil reserves, even if the government is filled with his former associates.
[Aljazeera]
Selfies and smiles: South Korea seeks ‘new phase’ in ties with China
Nestle issues global recall of some baby formula products over toxin fears
M/s South Asian Technologies awarded contract to supply vehicle number plates
A new act for National Lotteries Board to be introduced
Motor Vehicles (Driving License Levy) Regulations No. 3 of 2022 to be amended
Mrs. P. K. L. S. Panduwawala appointed to the post of Surveyor General
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
News13 hours agoBroad support emerges for Faiszer’s sweeping proposals on long- delayed divorce and personal law reforms
-
News2 days agoPrivate airline crew member nabbed with contraband gold
-
News4 days agoHealth Minister sends letter of demand for one billion rupees in damages
-
Opinion6 days agoRemembering Douglas Devananda on New Year’s Day 2026
-
News7 days agoLeading the Nation’s Connectivity Recovery Amid Unprecedented Challenges
-
Features2 days agoPharmaceuticals, deaths, and work ethics
-
Latest News1 day agoCurran, bowlers lead Desert Vipers to maiden ILT20 title
-
News1 day agoPM lays foundation stone for seven-storey Sadaham Mandiraya