autocrat avengers assemble at davos after trump unveils his board of peace

Donald Trump has said ‘just about every country’ wants to be a part of his Board of Peace,after Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper revealed the UK will turn down its invitation.

The US President announced the panel as part of his plan to end the brutal war in Gaza – but its broad founding charter has led some to speculate he wants to turn it into a rival to the United Nations.

And it later emerged that Russian warmonger Vladimir Putin and Belarussian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko were invited to join.

Among the leaders who joined Trump on the stage for a signing ceremony at the World Economic Forum in Davos this morning were several with questionable human rights records.

In fact,11 of the 23 countries announced so far on the founding board are included in an ongoing US travel ban,including Uzbekistan,Egypt,Pakistan and Azerbaijan.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast this morning,Cooper confirmed the government had been offered a seat at the table.

Trump called the people behind him ‘friends of mine’,saying ‘I like every single one of them’.

They included Ilham Aliyev,the authoritarian dictator of Azerbaijan since 2003.

Representatives from Belarus and Israel did not join the ceremony today,though both have signalled they intend to join the board.

Meanwhile,Putin has said Moscow would continue to consult with its ‘strategic partners’ before coming to a decision on whether to take a seat on the board.

That statement came despite Trump appearing to confirm at Davos yesterday that the Russian President had committed to joining.

Metro cartoon by Guy Venables (Picture: Guy Venables/Metro)

Cooper’s announcement came after French President Emmanuel Macron also confirmed his country would decline the invitation.

On Monday,his office released a statement saying the charter ‘goes beyond the framework of Gaza and raises serious questions,in particular with respect to the principles and structure of the United Nations,which cannot be called into question’.

The charter,which sets out the founding principles for the body,does not mention Gaza at all.

Trump sues JPMorgan Chase over alleged 'political' debanking

U.S. President Donald Trump is suing JPMorgan Chase and its CEO,Jamie Dimon,in a $5 a billion lawsuit,Fox Business reported on Thursday.The president’s attorney,Alejandro Brito,filed the lawsuit Thursday morning in Florida state court in Miami,the report said,alleging the bank of debanking him for political reasons.Trump said over the weekend he plans to sue JPMorgan sometime in the next two weeks for allegedly ‘debanking’ him following the January 6,2021,attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.In a statement, JPMorgan said that it ‘regrets’ that Trump sued them but insisted they did not close the accounts for political reasons.‘We believe the suit has no merit,’ a bank spokesperson said. ‘JPMC does not close accounts for political or religious reasons. We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company.’That fact has prompted questions over whether it will be expanded to tackle conflicts around the world in the future,presenting competition to the UN – and giving Trump another chance to win his elusive Nobel Prize.According to the charter,countries that wish to bag a permanent set on the board would need to contribute more than $1 billion in cash to the new organisation within its first year.