Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters
United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed in a phone call efforts for reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, Emirati state news agency WAM reported on Tuesday, as Israel resumed its military offensive in the enclave last week. The Israeli military resumed fighting in Gaza on March 18, shattering a fragile two-month ceasefire. Since then, nearly 700 people, mostly women and children, have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials. In his phone call with Trump, the Emirati president also urged making aid available for Gaza residents as well as supporting the…
United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed in a phone call efforts for reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, Emirati state news agency WAM reported on Tuesday, as Israel resumed its military offensive in the enclave last week. The Israeli military resumed fighting in Gaza on March 18, shattering a fragile two-month ceasefire. Since then, nearly 700 people, mostly women and children, have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials. In his phone call with Trump, the Emirati president also urged making aid available for Gaza residents as well as supporting the…
One of Taiwan’s deputy defence ministers will visit the United States for a ceremony this week marking the completion of a new F-16 fighter jet for the island, the first acknowledged such trip since U.S. President Donald Trump took office. The United States in 2019 approved an $8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16V fighter jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the island’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, the largest in Asia, to strengthen its defences in the face of a stepped up threat from China, which views Taiwan as its own. Taiwan has been converting…
Ukraine’s air defence units shot down 56 of 117 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack on Wednesday, the air force said. It said 48 drones were lost, in reference to the Ukrainian military using electronic warfare to redirect them.
Britain’s Prince Harry said he was “in shock” after quitting as a patron of Sentebale, a British charity he set up to help young people with HIV and Aids in Lesotho and Botswana, following a row between trustees and the chair of the board. Harry, the younger son of King Charles, co-founded Sentebale in 2006 in honour of his mother Princess Diana nine years after she was killed in a Paris car crash. Sentebale means ‘forget-me-not’ in the local language of Lesotho in southern Africa. Co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, as well as the board of trustees, joined Harry in…
Ukraine’s air defence units shot down 56 of 117 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack on Wednesday, the air force said. It said 48 drones were lost, in reference to the Ukrainian military using electronic warfare to redirect them.
Last year was Ukraine’s worst year for wildfires in more than three decades of record-keeping, as shelling along front lines in the war with Russia triggered an unprecedented number of blazes, scientists said. Forest fires in Ukraine in 2024 burnt more than twice the area destroyed by fire in the entire 27-country European Union in 2024, the EU’s Joint Research Centre – its independent science research service – said in a report published this week. Satellite data showed nearly 9,000 fires torched a total of 965,000 hectares in Ukraine in 2024. Ukraine has around 10 million hectares, or 100,000 sq…
There will be no normalisation of relations with Russia even after the war in Ukraine is over, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday. “That will not happen. This will take decades, because there is a total lack of confidence. The threat is still there… even if the war comes to a conclusion, the Russian threat is still there,” Rutte told journalists in Warsaw.
The European Commission said on Wednesday that Europe should enhance stockpiling of critical equipment and encourage the public to maintain sufficient supplies for at least 72 hours in case of emergencies. The Commission said in its new EU Preparedness Union Strategy that the bloc is preparing for risks such as natural disasters, cyberattacks and geopolitical crises including the possibility of armed aggression against EU countries. “Families living in flood zones should know what to do when the waters rise. Early warning systems can prevent regions hit by wildfires from losing precious time,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said…
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday the agreements struck with Ukraine and Russia a day before was in principle and that Washington was going to evaluate the conditions that Moscow put forward and decide on a way forward. The United States reached separate deals on Tuesday with Ukraine and Russia to pause their attacks at sea and against energy targets, with Washington agreeing to push to lift some sanctions against Moscow. Shortly after the U.S. announcements, the Kremlin said the Black Sea agreements would not come into effect unless links between some Russian banks and the international financial…