WASHINGTON: As President Donald Trump approaches the first-month mark in his second term, he has moved with dizzying speed and blunt force to reorder American social and political norms and the economy while redefining the US role in the world.
At the same time, he has empowered Elon Musk, an unelected, South African-born billionaire, to help engineer the firing of thousands of federal employees and potentially shutter entire agencies created by Congress.
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Author: Arab News
Freed Palestinian inmates set prison garb ablaze on return to Gaza
KHAN YUNIS, Palestinian Territories: As Palestinian inmates released by Israel on Saturday stepped off the buses that took them to the Gaza Strip, some flashed a victory sign and swiftly set fire to sweatshirts they were made to wear in prison.
Images broadcast on Israeli media before their release under a ceasefire deal with Hamas showed rows of Palestinian prisoners wearing the sweatshirts emblazoned with the Star of David, the logo of Israel’s prison service and the Arabic phrase “we do not forget and we do not forgive.”
Turkiye says it would reconsider its military presence in Syria if Kurdish militants are eliminated
BEIRUT: Turkiye’s foreign minister said Saturday his country would reconsider its military presence in northeastern Syria if that country’s new leaders eliminate a Kurdish militant group designated as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union.
Hakan Fidan spoke at the Munich Security Conference alongside Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani, who did not comment on the remarks. Fidan has expressed such sentiments before.
European allies seek united Ukraine front as US backing wavers
MUNICH, Germany: European leaders on Saturday scrambled to force their way to the table for any talks on the Ukraine war, as Washington announced a team of senior US officials was planning to meet in Saudi Arabia with counterparts from Moscow and Kyiv.
US President Donald Trump upended the status quo this week when he announced he was likely to soon meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin to start talks to end the conflict, leaving US allies in Europe concerned their interests would be sidelined.
Mali gold mine accident kills at least 48
BAMAKO: At least 48 people were killed in the collapse of an illegally operated gold mine in western Mali Saturday, authorities and local sources told AFP.
Mali is one of Africa’s leading gold producers, and mining sites are regularly the scene of deadly landslides and accidents.
Authorities have struggled to control unregulated mining of the precious metal in the country, which is among the world’s poorest.
“The toll at 18:00 today is 48 dead following the collapse,” said a police source.
Brazil to host next BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro in July
SAO PAULO: The Brazilian government announced Saturday that the next BRICS summit will take place in Rio de Janeiro on July 6-7.
Brazil will chair the bloc of developing economies through 2025 and said it will focus on promoting global governance reform and cooperation among Global South countries, according to a statement from the federal government.
BRICS was established in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2010 as a counterbalance to the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
UK’s Starmer says Europe ‘must take on a greater role in NATO’
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday that Europe “must take on a greater role in NATO” and work with the United States to “secure Ukraine’s future.”
His comments came ahead of an expected gathering of European leaders in Paris on Monday, although France has yet to confirm the meeting.
Starmer will attend the get-together if it goes ahead, a UK official familiar with the matter told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The new NBA All-Star format is here, and Sunday night will show whether it works
SAN FRANCISCO: This will be an actual All-Star matchup. On one side, there’s a team with 86 combined All-Star selections, $2.7 billion in on-court earnings and where every single player on the team is either an NBA champion, an Olympic gold medalist, or both.
On the other, there’s a bunch of young guys without much in the way of resumes yet.
UK’s Royal Society to discuss fellows’ behaviors amid Musk controversy
LONDON: The Royal Society scientific academy said it would hold a meeting to discuss principles around the public pronouncements and behaviors of its fellows after thousands of scientists expressed their concerns over Elon Musk’s continued membership.
Britain’s Royal Society began in 1660 and is the oldest national scientific academy. Its fellows have included Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
Musk was elected as a fellow in 2018 for his technological achievements in space travel and electric vehicles.
Rubio arrives in Israel on first Middle East tour
TEL AVIV: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel late Saturday on the first leg of a Middle East tour, an AFP journalist reported.
Rubio landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and is due to hold talks with Israeli officials on Sunday when he will highlight President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to take control of the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by more than 15 months of war between Hamas and Israel.
Fourteen Gaza children flown to Italy for treatment
Rome: Fourteen Palestinian children, many with cancer, have been flown to Italy for medical treatment, the latest among dozens brought from Gaza following the Hamas-Israel war, the foreign ministry said Friday.
The children and their families, a total of 45 people, had on Wednesday crossed the Rafah border from Gaza into Egypt, where they underwent medical checks at the Italian hospital in Cairo, officials said.
They were flown to Italy on an Italian military plane, and greeted at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Thursday evening by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
Hezbollah supporters protest banning Iranian plane from landing in Beirut
BEIRUT: Supporters of Iran-backed Hezbollah group blocked the Beirut airport road and burned tires on Thursday to protest a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital, state media and an airport official said.
“Young men set tires on fire in front of the airport entrance, raising banners supporting Hezbollah’s former Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah,” Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
The scent of the mummy. Research discovers ancient Egyptian remains smell nice
LONDON: At first whiff, it sounds repulsive: sniff the essence of an ancient corpse.
But researchers who indulged their curiosity in the name of science found that well-preserved Egyptian mummies actually smell pretty good.
“In films and books, terrible things happen to those who smell mummified bodies,” said Cecilia Bembibre, director of research at University College London’s Institute for Sustainable Heritage. “We were surprised at the pleasantness of them.”
Israel says received names of 3 hostages to be freed Saturday
JERUSALEM: Israel said Friday it had received the names of three hostages to be freed by militants this weekend, after a crisis in the ceasefire threatened to plunge Gaza back into war.
The hostages due for release Saturday are Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov, Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen and Israeli-Argentinian Yair Horn, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
One of them is being held by Hamas’s militant ally Islamic Jihad, which participated in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
Turkiye’s Erdogan says US making “wrong calculations” in Mideast
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the administration of US President Donald Trump was making “wrong calculations” regarding the Middle East, adding that heeding “Zionist lies” would only exacerbate conflicts.
Turkiye has rejected Trump’s plan to remove the more than 2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, claim US control of it and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” It has also said Israel’s assault on Gaza amounted to a genocide, while calling for international measures against its government.
Israeli security official says military readying to withdraw from Lebanon
Jerusalem: The Israeli military is prepared to withdraw from Lebanese territory and hand over areas to the Lebanese army “within the timeline” set by a US-French-mediated ceasefire agreement, a senior Israeli security official said.
Under the ceasefire that took effect November 27, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in the south alongside United Nations peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period, later extended until February 18.
Hezbollah was also expected to vacate its positions in the south, near the Israeli border, during that timeframe.
Lebanon marks 20 years since Rafic Hariri killed as power balance shifts
BEIRUT: Lebanon on Friday marked 20 years since former prime minister Rafic Hariri’s assassination, with seismic political changes underway that have weakened Hezbollah and its backers and could herald a comeback for Hariri’s son Saad.
Rafic Hariri, a towering political figure who oversaw Lebanon’s reconstruction era after the 1975-1990 civil war, had recently resigned as premier when he was killed on February 14, 2005.
Syria’s new leaders zero in on Assad’s business barons
DAMASCUS: Syria’s new rulers are combing through the billion-dollar corporate empires of ousted President Bashar Assad’s allies, and have held talks with some of these tycoons, in what they say is a campaign to root out corruption and illegal activity.
After seizing power in December, the new administration that now runs Syria pledged to reconstruct the country after 13 years of brutal civil war and abandon a highly-centralized and corrupt economic system where Assad’s cronies held sway.
France says EU working toward ‘rapid’ easing of Syria sanctions
PARIS: France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Thursday that the EU was working toward swiftly easing Syria sanctions as Paris hosted a conference on the transition in the war-torn country after President Bashar Assad’s fall.
Opposition fighters toppled Assad in December after a lightning offensive.
The new authorities, headed by interim leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa, have sought to reassure the international community that they have broken with their jihadist past and will respect the rights of minorities.
Vatican says Palestinians must ‘stay on their land’
VATICAN CITY: A top Vatican official on Thursday rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal to move Palestinians from Gaza, saying “the Palestinian population must remain on its land.”
“This is one of the fundamental points of the Holy See: no deportations,” Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said on the sidelines of an Italy-Vatican meeting, according to the ANSA news agency.
Moving Palestinians out would cause regional tensions and “makes no sense” as neighboring countries such as Jordan are opposed, he continued.