Author: Gulf News Week
US President Donald Trump has cautioned Taiwan against formally declaring independence from China.”I’m not looking to have somebody go independent,” the US president told Fox News on Friday, at the end of his two-day summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing.Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has previously stated that Taiwan does not need to declare formal independence because it already sees itself as a sovereign nation. The US has long supported Taiwan, including being bound by law to provide it with a means of self-defence, but has frequently had to square this alliance with maintaining a diplomatic relationship with…
US President Donald Trump says that American and Nigerian forces have killed the “second in command of ISIS globally” in a military operation in Africa.Writing on Truth Social, Trump said the joint mission was “flawlessly executed… to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world”, Abu-Bilal al-Minuki.Al‑Minuki was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by Washington in 2023. The Nigerian military has not yet commented on the raid. If confirmed, his killing could mark another significant setback for Islamic State group (IS) following the killing of its leader Abu Bakr al‑Baghdadi in 2019.Al-Minuki, also known as Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad…
A 38-year-old man has been killed by a 13ft (4m) great white shark in Western Australia. On Saturday, the man was bitten just before 10:00 (03:00 BST) at Horseshoe Reef – north-west of the popular Rottnest Island near the city of Perth, local police said.Aerial footage showed the man being rushed to shore by boat where paramedics and police performed CPR at the Geordie Bay jetty, local media ABC reported.”Sadly the man was unable to be revived,” a police spokesperson said.The department urged the public to take “additional caution” in waters around the area.The attack is the first fatal incident…
As a child, Reble often felt she was watching life from the sidelines. Now, at 24, the rapper has become one of the most compelling new voices in Indian hip-hop.Hailing from the rain-soaked hills of Meghalaya in India’s northeast, Reble raps in English as well as Khasi and Jaintia – indigenous languages spoken by tribal communities in the region – and writes about distance, reinvention and survival with an emotional restraint that feels unusually deliberate.Until recently, she was known mostly within Shillong’s close-knit music circles, in a city better known for rock bands, church choirs and old guitar legends than…
The US justice department is reportedly preparing to indict aging Cuban leader Raúl Castro in the coming days over the shooting down of two aircraft three decades ago.The reported charges, which would need to be approved by a US grand jury, emerged as the director of the CIA travelled to Cuba to meet officials in Havana.Castro, 94, stepped down as Cuban Communist Party leader in 2021, ending his family’s more than half a century in power. He led the country for 15 years, stepping in after his brother, Fidel, resigned.The potential indictment is the latest move in a US pressure…
Warning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers: this article contains references to and images of someone who has died. This note has been added to respect cultural beliefs of these readers during mourning.Who is Kumanjayi Little Baby and why has her death caused outrage in the outback?In the past few weeks, flowers, messages and cuddly toys have grown like a creeper on the chain link fence at the entrance of Old Timers town camp in Australia’s Northern Territory.A little girl gets out of a car with her brother and mother to add to the pile, laying a bright pink…
US President Donald Trump has said he would accept a 20-year suspension by Iran of its nuclear programme, in what appears to be confirmation of a shift in position away from a demand for a total end to it.Trump said it had to be a “real 20 years”. Previously he has called on Iran to permanently cease enriching uranium – a stage in making a weapon – and to be prevented from ever acquiring nuclear weapons.But he also said his patience with Iran was running out, with no sign of a breakthrough in talks.Israeli and US forces began massive air…
Israel says it has killed Hamas commander Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, who it described as “one of the architects of the October 7 massacre”, in an air strike on Gaza City.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yisrael Katz said in a joint statement that Haddad had been “responsible for the murder, kidnapping and injury of thousands of Israeli civilians and IDF [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers”.Three eyewitnesses told the BBC that a residential building known as Al-Mu’taz was struck by three missiles launched simultaneously from two separate directions, before a fleeing car was hit.The strike is the latest launched by…
Top leaders of the main Palestinian political faction, Fatah, are electing its highest decision-making body, at its first major conference in a decade.The 90-year-old Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas – who rules by decree – was re-elected as head of Fatah on Wednesday.Leading figures are promising unity and a political refresh. But ordinary Palestinians complain that this meeting, coming at a critical time for their nationalist cause, is showcasing the opposite.Palestinian opinion polls indicate profound dissatisfaction with Abbas, with most wanting him to resign.Addressing the conference on its opening day on Thursday, Abbas promised the first presidential and parliamentary elections in…
The Swiss Federal Intelligence Service has said it will finally open long-sealed files on the notorious Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, but without saying when.Mengele fled Europe after World War Two, but for years there have been rumours that he spent time in Switzerland, even though an international warrant was out for his arrest.Historians have repeatedly requested access to the files, but until now the Swiss authorities have refused.Mengele was a doctor who served in Germany’s Waffen SS. He was posted to the Auschwitz extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, where he selected those to be sent to the gas chambers…