Author: AFP
A senior Hamas official told AFP on Saturday that Israel’s “lack of commitment” to the Gaza ceasefire has put it in danger of collapse. Israel’s “procrastination and lack of commitment in implementing the first phase… certainly exposes this agreement to danger and thus it may stop or collapse,” said Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau.
A summit of African leaders meeting to address the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday called for an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” within five days. The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has rapidly seized swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC in an offensive that has left thousands dead and displaced vast numbers. The summit in Tanzania brought together Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi as well as leaders from both the East African Community (EAC) and 16-member Southern African Development Community. Kagame appeared in person, while Tshisekedi joined via video call. In…
US tech billionaire Elon Musk said Friday he was reinstating a deputy who quit a job giving him access to the sensitive personal data of millions of Americans after the staffer was linked to a racist social media account. Marko Elez, 25, resigned from Musk’s self-styled Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Thursday when The Wall Street Journal uncovered a welter of offensive posts on the account, including a boast from last July that “I was racist before it was cool.” Musk — US President Donald Trump’s close confidante and point man on spending cuts — asked his 216 million X…
The head of the world’s chemical weapons watchdog will meet Syria’s new leader Saturday, in a first official visit since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, who was repeatedly accused of using such weapons during Syria’s 13-year civil war. “We will broadcast the President of the Syrian Arab Republic Ahmad al-Sharaa and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad Al-Shaibani receiving a delegation from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)”, an official Syrian Telegram channel said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to sanction the International Criminal Court increases the “risk of impunity” for serious crimes, 79 parties to the global tribunal said in a joint statement Friday. “Such measures increase the risk of impunity for the most serious crimes and threaten to erode the international rule of law, which is crucial for promoting global order and security,” said the joint statement, led by Slovenia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Sierra Leone and Vanuatu. They were joined by dozens of other nations, including Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Brazil and Bangladesh. “Today, the Court is facing unprecedented challenges,” the statement warned,…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave US President Donald Trump a golden pager during their meeting at the White House this week, in a symbolic gesture marking Israel’s shocking attack on Hezbollah last year. The gift symbolises “a turning point in the war” against Hezbollah, when Israel carried out a deadly operation against the Lebanese group using exploding pagers in September 2024, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “This strategic operation showcases Israel’s strength, technological superiority, and ingenuity against its enemies,” it said on Thursday. Israel shocked Hezbollah with the attacks, in which exploding pagers and walkie-talkies killed dozens of…
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told an economic summit Friday that President Donald Trump is serious about annexing Canada to access its natural resources, as his government vowed the country’s sovereignty was non-negotiable. Trudeau called the summit of business and labor leaders to coordinate a response to Trump’s looming threat of a 25 percent tariff on all Canadian imports, a penalty that could cripple Canada’s economy. In closed-door remarks, Trudeau told a group of executives that for Trump, “absorbing Canada” is “a real thing,” according to multiple Canadian media reports. “I suggest that not only does the Trump administration know how…
President Donald Trump said Friday that he was in no hurry to advance his shock plan for Gaza, which would see its Palestinian inhabitants moved out and the United States take control. “There’s absolutely no rush,” Trump told reporters at the White House, where he was meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
The president of the International Criminal Court on Friday hit out at the announced US sanctions against her institution, describing them as “serious attacks” against the global law-based order. US President Donald Trump’s order against the court was “the latest in a series of unprecedented and escalatory attacks aiming to undermine the Court’s ability to administer justice”, said Tomoko Akane in a statement. “Such threats and coercive measures constitute serious attacks against the Court’s States Parties, the rule of law based international order and millions of victims,” she added. On Thursday, Trump signed an Executive Order placing sanctions on the…
President Donald Trump on Friday raged against eco-friendly paper straws promoted by his predecessor Joe Biden, and pledged that the United States would return to using plastic ones. “I will be signing an Executive Order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work. BACK TO PLASTIC!” Trump said on social media. Democrat Biden had announced a target to eliminate single-used plastic utensils like drinking straws by 2035 in government departments. Trump’s move is the latest on environmental issues by the Republican president, who pulled out of the Paris climate change agreement soon after his inauguration…