Author: Gulf News Week

Palestinians say they have no choice but to go to deadly US- and Israeli-backed aid sites amid growing starvation.More than 700 Palestinians have been killed trying to get food in the Gaza Strip over the past few weeks, according to new figures from the Gaza Health Ministry, spurring renewed condemnation of a contentious United States and Israeli-backed aid scheme. The Health Ministry said on Saturday that at least 743 Palestinians were killed and more than 4,891 others were injured while seeking assistance at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution sites. The GHF, which began operating in the bombarded Palestinian enclave in…

PARIS (news agencies) — Cries of “It is warm!” rang out across the Seine on Saturday morning as Parisians jumped into the river — legally — for the first time in more than 100 years.Public swimming was allowed in designated areas of the Seine, including two newly built wooden decks near the Eiffel Tower and the Île Saint-Louis in central Paris. Before sunrise, a municipal officer skimmed away the last few patches of algae with a fishnet. Soon after, a line of eager Parisians formed, towels in hand, waiting for their chance to jump in.Woos and cries of joy echoed…

WASHINGTON (news agencies) — Barack Obama had the Affordable Care Act. Joe Biden had the Inflation Reduction Act. President Donald Trump will have the tax cuts.All were hailed in the moment and became ripe political targets in campaigns that followed. In Trump’s case, the tax cuts may almost become lost in the debates over other parts of the multitrillion-dollar bill that Democrats say will force poor Americans off their health care and overturn a decade or more of energy policy.Through persuasion and browbeating, Trump forced nearly all congressional Republicans to line up behind his marquee legislation despite some of its…

NAIROBI, Kenya (news agencies) — Kenyans disaffected with President William Ruto hold placards proclaiming “WANTAM,” a sensational slogan distilling their efforts to disgrace him as a “one-term” leader. They stick their index fingers in the air, saying Ruto must vacate the presidency when his term expires in 2027. For others who want him gone only three years after he was elected, even that’s a long time. Kenya’s fifth president became a remarkably unpopular leader barely two years into his presidency after proposing aggressive tax measures that many saw as a betrayal of his campaign promise to support working-class people. Ruto…

KYIV, Ukraine (news agencies) — Ukraine said it struck a Russian airbase on Saturday, while Russia continued to pound Ukraine with hundreds of drones overnight as part of a stepped-up bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the more than 3-year-old war.Ukraine’s military General Staff said Saturday that Ukrainian forces had struck the Borisoglebsk airbase in Russia’s Voronezh region, describing it as the “home base” of Russia’s Su-34, Su-35S and Su-30SM fighter jets. Writing on Facebook, the General Staff said it hit a depot containing glide bombs, a training aircraft and “possibly other…

Three Israeli attacks hit Bint Jbeil, Shebaa and Chaqra.Israel has carried out four drone attacks on towns in southern Lebanon, resulting in a death and several injured, in the latest wave of near-daily Israeli violations of the November ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah. An “Israeli enemy drone attack on a vehicle” in the Saf al-Hawa area in the city of Bint Jbeil “killed one person and wounded two others”, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said in a statement on Saturday carried by the official National News Agency (NNA), noting the toll was expected to rise. A second…

GONDOMAR, Portugal (news agencies) — Liverpool players joined family and friends for the funeral of their teammate Diogo Jota and his brother on Saturday, two days after the siblings died in a car crash in Spain.Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk arrived carrying a red floral arrangement in the shape of a soccer shirt with Jota’s No. 20 in white. Liverpool teammate Andrew Robertson carried a similar arrangement with the No. 30, the number worn by Jota’s brother, André Silva, who played for Portuguese club Penafiel.The service was held at Igreja Matriz church in the Portuguese town of Gondomar, where Jota…

The US president says he will not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear programme, adding Iranian officials want to meet with him.United States President Donald Trump has said Iran has not agreed to inspections of its nuclear programme or to giving up enriching uranium. He told reporters on board Air Force One on Friday that he believed Tehran’s nuclear programme had been “set back permanently”, although he conceded Iran could restart it at a different location. Trump said he would discuss Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits the White House on Monday, where a potential Gaza…

ISTANBUL (news agencies) — The mayors of two major cities in southern Turkey were arrested Saturday, state-run media reported, joining a growing list of opposition figures detained since the mayor of Istanbul was imprisoned in March.Abdurrahman Tutdere, the mayor of Adiyaman, and Zeydan Karalar, who heads Adana municipality, were detained in early morning raids, according to Anadolu Agency. Both are members of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP.Karalar was arrested in Istanbul and Tutdere was arrested in the capital, Ankara, where he has a home. Tutdere posted on X that he was being taken to Istanbul.In total, 10…

WASHINGTON (news agencies) — The Supreme Court said Thursday it will consider whether to revive a lawsuit from a man barred from evangelizing outside a small-town Mississippi amphitheater after authorities say he shouted insults at people over a loudspeaker.Gabriel Olivier, an evangelical Christian, says restricting him from public property violated his religious and free speech rights, but a legal Catch-22 has barred him from challenging the law in court. Lower courts found he couldn’t file a civil-rights lawsuit because he’d been arrested, and instead needed to file under habeas corpus, a legal remedy open to prisoners. But because he was…