• Says Gaza ceasefire will be the eighth conflict he has helped end.
• Claims resolving India-Pakistan dispute within 24hrs using tariffs.
• Stresses he didn’t act for the Nobel Peace Prize but to “save lives.”

US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he was aware of the escalating tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, claiming he would address the situation once he returns from the Middle East, as he described himself as “good at solving wars.”

Trump, who reiterated his claim of having resolved several long-standing global conflicts, including the dispute between India and Pakistan, said the Gaza ceasefire would be the eighth conflict he has helped end.

“This will be my eighth war that I have solved, and I hear there is a war now going on between Pakistan and Afghanistan. I said, I’ll have to wait till I get back. I am doing another one. Because I am good at solving wars,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he began a flight from Washington to Israel.

“Think about India, Pakistan. Think about some of the wars that were going on for years. We had one going for 31, one going for 32, one going for 37 years, with millions of people being killed in every country, and I got every one of those done, for the most part, within a day. It’s pretty good…,” he added.

Trump also spoke about the Nobel Peace prize, stating, “It’s an honour to do it. I saved millions of lives. In all fairness to the Nobel committee, it was for 2024. 

“This was picked for 2024. But there are those who say you could make an exception because a lot of things happened during 2025 that are done and complete and great. But I did not do this for the Nobel. I did this for saving lives.”

He also took credit for resolving some disputes by leveraging economic tools like trade and tariffs.

“I settled a few of the wars just based on tariffs. For example, between India and Pakistan, I said, if you guys want to fight a war and you have nuclear weapons, I am going to put big tariffs on you both, like 100%, 150%, and 200%. I said I am putting tariffs. I had that thing settled in 24 hours. If I didn’t have tariffs, you could have never settled that war,” Trump added.

Trump is due to arrive in Israel on Monday (today) to address the Knesset, the parliament, before travelling to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt for a world leaders’ summit on ending the Gaza war.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will also attend the summit, an Axios reporter said on Sunday, citing a senior Palestinian official.

Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner addressed a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday, which many Israelis hoped would be the final one, urging the release of hostages and an end to the war.

The US, along with Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, mediated what has been described as a first-phase agreement between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of hostages by Hamas and prisoners and detainees by Israel.

“For two years we (have been) waiting for this day for this moment… All of us feel happy for the family, for the hostages, that finally…we will see them,” said demonstrator Dalia Yosef, thanking Trump.

• US president says Xi doesn’t want depression for his country.
• Washington ratcheted up economic measures against Beijing.
• Rare earths are major striking point between two superpowers.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday the United States wants to help China, not hurt it, striking a conciliatory tone days after threatening an additional 100% tariff on the world’s second-largest economy.

Trump’s statements on Friday, as well as his threat to cancel a meeting with Xi later this month, sent Wall Street stocks tumbling into negative territory as traders worried the trade war between Washington and Beijing could reignite.

“The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!!” Trump said in Sunday’s post on Truth Social, adding that “respected President Xi (Jinping)… doesn’t want Depression for his country.”

Trump on Friday said that he would impose the extra levies from November 1 in response to what he called “extraordinarily aggressive” new Chinese export curbs on the rare-earths industry.

Beijing, in turn, accused Washington of acting unfairly, with its Ministry of Commerce on Sunday calling Trump’s tariff threat a “typical example of ‘double standards’.”

The ministry said Washington had ratcheted up economic measures against Beijing since September.

“Threatening high tariffs at every turn is not the right approach to engaging with China,” it said in an online statement.

Chinese goods currently face US tariffs of 30% under levies that Trump imposed while accusing Beijing of aiding in the fentanyl trade as well as unfair trade practices.

China’s retaliatory tariffs are currently at 10%.

Rare earths have been a major sticking point in recent trade negotiations between the two superpowers.

They are critical to manufacturing everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to military hardware and renewable energy technology but produced and processed almost exclusively by China.

• Major cyberattack hits global firms via Salesforce.
• Sensitive customer details exposed, no financial data.
• Global tech and airline giants targeted in breach.
  

SYDNEY: Australian airline Qantas said Sunday that data from 5.7 million customers stolen in a major cyberattack this year had been shared online, part of a leak affecting dozens of firms.

Disney, Google, IKEA, Toyota, McDonald’s and fellow airlines Air France and KLM are also reported to have had data stolen in a cyberattack targeting software firm Salesforce, with the information now being held to ransom.

Salesforce said this month it was “aware of recent extortion attempts by threat actors”.

Qantas confirmed in July that hackers had targeted one of its customer contact centres, breaching a computer system used by a third party now known to have been Salesforce.

They secured access to sensitive information such as customer names, email addresses, phone numbers and birthdays, the blue-chip Australian company said.

No further breaches have taken place since and the company is cooperating with Australian security services.

“Qantas is one of a number of companies globally that has had data released by cyber criminals following the airline’s cyber incident in early July, where customer data was stolen via a third party platform,” the company said in a statement.

Most of the data leaked was names, email addresses and frequent flyer details, the firm said.

But some of the data included customers’ “business or home address, date of birth, phone number, gender and meal preferences”.

“No credit card details, personal financial information or passport details were impacted,” Qantas said.

It also said it had obtained a legal injunction with the Supreme Court of New South Wales, where the firm is headquartered, to prevent the stolen data being “accessed, viewed, released, used, transmitted or published”.

Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt told AFP that it would do little to prevent the spread of the data.

“It’s frankly ridiculous,” he said.

“It obviously doesn’t stop criminals at all anywhere, and it also really doesn’t have any effect on people outside of Australia.”

In response to questions about the leak, tech giant Google pointed AFP to an August statement in which it said one of its corporate Salesforce servers had been targeted. It did not confirm if the data had been leaked.

“Google responded to the activity, performed an impact analysis and has completed email notifications to the potentially affected businesses,” Melanie Lombardi, head of Google Cloud Security Communications, said.

Cybersecurity analysts have linked the hack to individuals with ties to an alliance of cybercriminals called Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters.

Research group Unit 42 said in a note the group had “asserted responsibility for laying siege to customer Salesforce tenants as part of a coordinated effort to steal data and hold it for ransom”.

The hackers had reportedly set an October 10 deadline for ransom payment.

‘Oldest tricks in the book’

The hackers stole the sensitive data using a social engineering technique, referring to a tactic of manipulating victims by pretending to be a company representative or other trusted person, experts said.

The FBI last month issued a warning about such attacks targeting Salesforce.

The agency said hackers posing as IT workers had tricked customer support employees into granting them access to sensitive data.

“They have been very effective,” expert Hunt said.

“And it hasn’t been using any sophisticated technical exploits… they have exploited really the oldest tricks in the books.”

The hack of data from Australia’s biggest airline comes as a string of major cyberattacks in the country has raised concerns about the protection of personal data.

Qantas apologised last year after a glitch with its mobile app exposed some passengers’ names and travel details.

And major ports handling 40% of Australia’s freight trade ground to a halt in 2023 after hackers infiltrated computers belonging to operator DP World.