Author: Gulf News Week
Beijing has confirmed that US President Donald Trump will travel to China this week to meet Xi Jinping.The visit, from the 13 – 15 May, will be the first to China by a US president in nearly a decade – and comes at a pivotal moment for ties between the world’s two largest economies.Executives from some of America’s biggest companiess – including Boeing, Citigroup and Qualcomm – are expected to travel with Trump, potentially to make deals with Chinese firms. It will also mark a key test in the fragile trade truce between Washington and Beijing.In April 2025, Trump unveiled…
Sir Keir Starmer is to promise bolder action to tackle “big challenges” facing the country, as he battles to persuade his MPs not to ditch him as Labour leader.The prime minister will seek to reset his premiership in a speech on Monday, after heavy election losses left him facing renewed calls to quit.Growing numbers of Labour MPs went public with calls for him to go over the weekend, with potential challenger Angela Rayner saying the party needed to do more to appeal to voters whose living standards had been squeezed. It comes as backbencher Catherine West said she could try…
For a man who spent most of the past 20 years in exile, and the past eight months in jail, the figure of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra still looms large over Thailand.His release from prison, at the age of 76 and wearing an electronic ankle bracelet, after serving part of a one-year sentence for corruption and abuses of power during his terms as prime minister from 2001 to 2006, was headline news in Thailand.Hundreds of supporters wearing red cheered as Thaksin emerged from Bangkok’s Klong Prem jail on Monday, wearing a white shirt, ankle bracelet and cropped hair.”I was…
Mohammed Asasa had only just returned home after burying his 80-year-old father Hussein when several children ran into the house shouting, “the settlers are digging up the grave!”In the small village of Asasa, near Jenin in the West Bank, from which the family patriarch took his name, Hussein had been a highly regarded figure before his death last Friday from natural causes. In keeping with Islamic custom, the old man – a former livestock trader and father of 10 children – was laid to rest in a simple plot in the graveyard, on a small hill on the other side…
Iranian human rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi has been transferred from jail to a Tehran hospital amid concern over her deteriorating health. Iranian authorities granted Mohammadi “a sentence suspension on heavy bail”, a foundation run by her family said on Sunday.Last week Mohammadi’s family and supporters warned she could die in prison after suffering two suspected heart attacks earlier this year. Mohammadi, 54, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her activism against female oppression in Iran and promoting human rights.She had spent 10 days hospitalised in Zanjan in northern Iran, where she had been serving her sentence. Mohammadi’s Paris-based…
Oil prices rose in Monday morning trade in Asia after President Donald Trump said Iran’s response to US proposals to end the war was “totally unacceptable”.Tehran sent its response via Pakistan, which has served as a mediator between the two sides, calling for an immediate end to the conflict and guarantees of no further US-Israeli attacks on Iran, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.International oil benchmark Brent rose by 3.1% to $104.50 (£76.88) a barrel, while US-traded crude increased by 3% to $98.40.The key Strait of Hormuz waterway has been effectively shut since shortly after the war started on…
As Argentina’s southernmost city, Ushuaia has long enjoyed its reputation as ‘The End of the World’ and as a gateway for trips both to Antarctica and for tourists to explore the dramatic, natural beauty of Patagonia.But in recent days it has been grappling with a different kind of fame, one that has cast a shadow over local businesses and officials: the suggestion it could be ground zero for the hantavirus outbreak on the Dutch vessel MV Hondius.The cruise ship is now anchored in Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands where passengers are being evacuated and flown home. It began its journey…
Workers have begun painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue as part of US President Donald Trump’s bid to beautify Washington DC ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday this summer. The historic pool, stretching 2,030ft (620m) between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, has long been plagued by leaks, structural deterioration, faulty pipes, algae growth and bird droppings. Trump has said his project to restore and paint the monument would solve the leaking problem and make the pool more beautiful than ever.But it is unclear whether the repairs can specifically fix the underlying structural issues at the attraction, which…
These days and nights she stays at home in Tehran. Waiting. For the sound of aircraft. Bombs. For news or no news of friends in detention. Shirin – not her real name – is constantly anxious. She is showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Her left hand is no longer fully functional.”Whenever I hear a disturbing sound, my body reacts involuntarily. The psychological pressure that entered my mind has numbed this part of my left hand. It doesn’t work. I still have anxiety that the war might start again, and that is a terrifying thing.”On the streets the regime stages…
A passenger of a cruise ship that was struck by an outbreak of hantavirus has shown symptoms of the disease while being repatriated to France, the country’s prime minister has said.Sebastian Lecornu said the French national developed symptoms while on a chartered flight from Tenerife to Paris, and so all five evacuated from the MV Hondius had been “immediately placed in strict isolation until further notice”.The French citizens are among more than 90 tourists to be ferried home from the Dutch vessel on Sunday, which anchored off the Canary Islands before dawn.Three passengers have died after travelling on the ship,…