Kenya Insights

Category: World

  • Bolsonaro Ordered To Start Serving 27-Year Prison Sentence For Brazil Coup Plot

    Bolsonaro Ordered To Start Serving 27-Year Prison Sentence For Brazil Coup Plot

    Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered that right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro begin serving his prison sentence of 27 years and three months for plotting a coup after he lost the last election.

    Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Tuesday ruled that the case had reached its final judgement and that no further appeals were possible.

    Bolsonaro, 70, was found guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

    He will begin serving his sentence in a federal police jail cell in the capital, Brasilia, where he has been detained since Saturday after being deemed a flight risk and removed from home detention.

    At a hearing on Sunday, Bolsonaro admitted trying to open his ankle monitor with a soldering iron until he “came to his senses”, court documents show.

    He said he had had no intention of fleeing and blamed medicine-induced “paranoia” for damage he caused to the monitor.

    Justice Moraes on Tuesday mandated that full-time medical care be given to Bolsonaro, whose medical team has previously said he is suffering from worsening health.

    Supreme Court justices said in September, when Bolsonaro was found guilty of plotting a coup, that he had known of plans to assassinate Lula and his vice-presidential running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and to arrest and execute Moraes, who has been overseeing Bolsonaro’s trial.

    The conspiracy failed to get the backing of the army and air force commanders. Lula was sworn in without incident on 1 January 2023.

    But a week later, on 8 January, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in Brasília. The security forces intervened and about 1,500 people were arrested.

    The justices found that the rioters had been incited by Bolsonaro, whose plan, they said, was for the military to step in and return him to power.

    Bolsonaro was also barred from running for public office until 2060 – eight years after the end of his sentence.

    The former president called the trial a “witch hunt” designed to prevent him running in the 2026 presidential election.

    Justice Moraes also ordered on Tuesday that others found guilty of being Bolsonaro’s co-conspirators must begin their sentences.

    They include Gen Augusto Heleno, former minister for institutional security, and Gen Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira, former defence minister.

  • Saudi Arabia To Open New Alcohol Stores Despite Ban, Sources Say

    Saudi Arabia To Open New Alcohol Stores Despite Ban, Sources Say

    Saudi Arabia plans to open two new alcohol stores, including one serving non-Muslim, foreign staff at state oil giant Aramco, as the kingdom further eases restrictions, according to people briefed on the plans.

    The launch of outlets in the eastern province of Dhahran and one for diplomats in the port city of Jeddah would be a further milestone in efforts, led by de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to open up the country.

    The kingdom, which is the birthplace of Islam, last year opened an alcohol store serving non-Muslim diplomats in a nondescript building in the diplomatic quarter of the capital Riyadh, known to some diplomats as the “booze bunker”.

    It was the first such outlet since a ban was brought in 73 years ago.

    The new store in Dhahran will be set up in a compound owned by Aramco, one of the three people who talked to Reuters said.

    That store would be open for non-Muslims working for Aramco, added the source, who said Saudi authorities had informed them of the plan.

    Two of the sources said a third liquor store was also in the works for non-Muslim diplomats in the city of Jeddah, where many missions have honorary consuls.

    Both stores were expected to open in 2026, but no timelines had been released, two of the sources said.

    The government media office did not immediately reply to questions over the plans for the stores in both locations, which were previously unreported. Aramco declined to comment.

    The Riyadh store’s customer base was recently expanded to include non-Muslim Saudi Premium Residency holders, two of the sources said. Premium residencies have been awarded to entrepreneurs, major investors and those with special talents.

    Before the Riyadh store, alcohol was largely only available through diplomatic mail, the black market or home brewing.

    Cinema, desert raves and female drivers

    While alcoholic drinks are still off limits for the vast majority of the population, under bin Salman’s reforms both Saudis and foreigners can now take part in once unthinkable activities from dancing at desert raves to going to the cinema.

    Other reforms have included allowing women to drive in 2017, easing rules on the segregation of men and women in public spaces and significantly reducing the power of the religious police.

    The kingdom has been easing restrictions to lure tourists and international businesses as part of an ambitious plan to diversify its economy and make itself less dependent on oil.

    Saudi Arabia has been aggressively expanding its local tourism portfolio with the giant Red Sea Global development, which includes plans to open 17 new hotels by next May. These ultra-luxury resorts remain dry.

    In May a media report, picked up by some international media after appearing on a wine blog, said Saudi authorities had planned to allow alcohol sales in tourist settings as the country prepares to host the 2034 soccer World Cup.

    The report, which was denied at the time by a Saudi official, sparked a vigorous online debate in the kingdom, whose king also holds the title of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques – Islam’s most revered places in Mecca and Medina.

    (FRANCE 24 with Reuters)

  • Ukraine Expected To Give Up Land, Some Arms Under US Peace Plan, Sources Say

    Ukraine Expected To Give Up Land, Some Arms Under US Peace Plan, Sources Say

    LONDON/KYIV, Nov 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. has signalled to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Ukraine must accept a U.S.-drafted framework to end the war with Russia that proposes Kyiv giving up territory and some weapons, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

    The sources, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the proposals included cutting the size of Ukraine’s armed forces, among other things. Washington wants Kyiv to accept the main points, they said.

    Such a plan would represent a major setback for Kyiv as it faces further Russian territorial gains in eastern Ukraine and with Zelenskiy tackling a corruption scandal, which on Wednesday saw parliament dismiss the energy and justice ministers.

    The White House declined to comment on the matter. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that Washington “will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

    “Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas. And achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions,” Rubio said.

    A senior Ukrainian official earlier told Reuters that Kyiv had received “signals” about a set of U.S. proposals to end the war that Washington has discussed with Russia. Ukraine has had no role in preparing the proposals, the source said.

    Zelenskiy, who was holding talks in Turkey on Wednesday with President Tayyip Erdogan, is due to meet U.S. Army officials in Kyiv on Thursday.

    In comments on Telegram, Zelenskiy did not mention Washington’s framework but called for effective U.S. leadership to help bring the more than 3 1/2-year-old war to an end.

    “The main thing for stopping the bloodshed and achieving lasting peace is that we work in coordination with all our partners and that American leadership remains effective, strong,” Zelenskiy wrote after meeting Erdogan in Ankara.

    Zelenskiy said only the United States and U.S. President Donald Trump “have sufficient strength for the war to finally come to an end.”

    The Ukrainian president also said Erdogan had proposed different formats for talks “and it is important for us that Turkey is ready to provide the necessary platform.”

    Signs of a renewed push by Trump’s administration to end the war triggered the biggest jump in Ukraine’s government bond prices in months on Wednesday.

    No face-to-face talks have taken place between Kyiv and Moscow since a meeting in Istanbul in July and Russian forces have pressed on with Moscow’s nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine, killing 25 people in strikes overnight.

    NO CHANGE IN RUSSIA’S POSITION

    Efforts to revive peace negotiations appear to be gaining momentum although Moscow has shown no sign of changing its terms for ending the war.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has long demanded Kyiv renounce plans to join the U.S.-led NATO military alliance and withdraw its troops from four provinces Moscow claims as part of Russia. Moscow has given no indication that it has dropped any of those demands and Ukraine says it will not accept them.

    Russian forces control about 19% of Ukrainian territory and are grinding forwards, while carrying out frequent attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure as winter approaches.

    Turkey, a NATO member that has remained close to both Kyiv and Moscow, hosted an initial round of peace talks in the early weeks of the war in 2022, the only such talks until this year when Trump launched a new bid to end the fighting.

    The Kremlin said Russian representatives would not be involved in Wednesday’s talks in Ankara but that Putin was open to conversations with the U.S. and Turkey about the results of the discussions.

    LAND IN EXCHANGE FOR SECURITY GUARANTEES?

    On Wednesday, citing a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the matter, Axios reported that the new U.S. plan envisaged Ukraine granting Moscow part of eastern Ukraine it does not currently control in return for a U.S. security guarantee for Kyiv and Europe against future Russian aggression.

    A European diplomat, commenting on the purported new U.S. proposals, said they could be another attempt by the Trump administration “to push Kyiv into a corner”, but added there could be no solution that did not take into consideration Ukraine’s position or that of Washington’s European allies.

    Another European diplomat said the suggestion that Ukraine cut its army seemed like a Russian demand rather than a serious proposal.

    A U.S. delegation led by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is in Kyiv on a “fact-finding mission”, the U.S. embassy in Kyiv said. Army Chief of Staff General Randy George is also in the delegation and he and Driscoll will meet Zelenskiy on Thursday, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

  • Pornhub Says UK Visitors Down 77% Since Age Checks Came In

    Pornhub Says UK Visitors Down 77% Since Age Checks Came In

    Pornhub says the number of UK visitors to its website is down 77% compared with July, when more rigorous age checks for sexually explicit sites were introduced under the Online Safety Act.

    It claims sites that are ignoring the new requirements are benefiting.

    The BBC has not been able to independently verify Pornhub’s claim – however, data from Google shows searches for the site have decreased by almost half since the law came into effect.

    This could be a consequence of people reducing their porn use but could also be partly explained by people visiting the site through alternative means such as a VPN, which masks a user’s location.

    Pornhub is the most visited porn site in the world – and the 19th most visited on the entire web, according to data from Similarweb.

    Under the OSA, anyone accessing such websites in the UK now has to prove they are over 18 with age checks such as facial identification.

    The firm’s claim is the latest indication that people in the UK are changing how they use the internet since the Online Safety Act came into effect.

    According to Ofcom, visits to pornography sites in general in the UK have reduced by almost a third in the three months since 25 July.

    The regulator said the new law was fulfilling its primary purpose of stopping children from being able to “easily stumble across porn without searching for it”.

    “Our new rules end the era of an age-blind internet, when many sites and apps have undertaken no meaningful checks to see if children were using their services,” the watchdog said.

    Ofcom told the BBC it believed the number of people using VPNs for general use reached 1.5 million daily in July, after the law came in, but has since decreased to around one million.

    Meanwhile, research by Cybernews counted more than 10.7 million downloads of VPN apps in the UK from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store across 2025.

    “It is likely that people not wanting to verify their age or identity to access sexual content, for example because of privacy concerns, are using VPNs to get around this,” Dr Hanne Stegeman from the University of Exeter told the BBC.

    “As the location of website visitors are usually determined through IP addresses, it could be that those figures are inaccurate when a portion of visitors are using VPNs.”

    And Cybernews information security researcher Aras Nazarovas told the BBC people in the UK “can and do” use VPNs.

    “After age checks kicked in, VPN apps jumped to the top of the UK App Store, and at least one provider saw a 1,800% surge in downloads,” he said.

    “So part of Pornhub’s ‘missing’ UK audience hasn’t vanished – it’s being reclassified as non‑UK traffic.”

    But he said he believed “the rest” was indeed “users shifting to sites that don’t require age checks”.

    ‘Exponential growth’

     

    Alex Kekesi, an executive at Pornhub’s parent company Aylo, told the BBC the new rules were unenforceable.

    She said Ofcom faced an “insurmountable task” trying to get an estimated 240,000 adult platforms – visited by eight million users per month in the UK – to follow the rules.

    This compares with the regulator taking action against fewer than 70 sites for non-compliance.

    Ofcom says it prioritises sites to be investigated based on how risky they are and their number of users.

    And Ms Kekesi claimed some pornographic sites have benefited from flouting the rules. The BBC has not independently verified this.

    “There are a number of sites whose traffic has grown exponentially, and these are sites that are not complying,” she said.

    Ms Kekesi also has concerns about the content on some of these sites.

    She told the BBC of one which seemed to encourage users to search for content featuring girls below the age of consent.

    Aylo says it has shared details of this and other sites with Ofcom.

    The regulator has defended the way it enforces the new rules, saying increasing traffic to sites can be one factor that triggers an investigation.

    “Sites that don’t comply and put children at risk can expect to face enforcement action,” it told BBC News.

    Ofcom’s data shows that the top 10 most popular sites all have age assurance deployed. These sites represent a quarter of all visits to adult sites from across the UK.

    It adds that over three quarters of daily traffic to the top 100 most popular sites are going to sites that have age assurance.

    The government has also defended the regulator, and said protecting children online was a “top priority” for ministers.

    “Where evidence shows further intervention is needed to protect children, we will not hesitate to act,” it added in a statement.

    Should devices do the checks?

     

    Ms Kekesi spoke to the BBC while in the UK for a meeting with Ofcom and government officials, where she has been making Pornhub’s case that age checks should be done at device level, rather than by individual websites.

    She said the UK stands out in having persuaded the platform to introduce age checks.

    A number of jurisdictions have sought to compel Pornhub to check its users’ ages, but the response of the site has been to block users rather than comply.

    Ms Kekesi said the UK was different because it allowed sites to offer a range of different solutions, meaning that Pornhub could use methods – such as email-based checks – which didn’t require collecting biometric data.

    She denied that the threat of hefty fines for non-compliance had been the primary motive for complying, pointing to the contrast with France – its second biggest market – where it had cut off access rather than agreeing to what regulators demanded.

    Ian Corby of the Age Verification Providers Association rejected calls for a switch to device-based verification.

    But he added the group shared a desire for a “level playing field” meaning age checks should be “robust, not superficial or fake”.

    Chelsea Jarvie, a cybersecurity company founder who has been researching methods of age assurance for a PhD at Strathclyde University, told the BBC both approaches to age checks would be needed – with neither age verification on platforms nor devices being a “silver bullet”.

    “For somebody to truly be safe online we need different layers of controls throughout their browsing journey,” she said.

  • King Charles Strips Andrew Of Royal Titles, Windsor Home

    King Charles Strips Andrew Of Royal Titles, Windsor Home

    King Charles will strip his younger brother Andrew of his royal titles and long-term residence on the Windsor estate, the palace said on Thursday, the latest fallout to hit the scandal-plagued royal over the Jeffrey Epstein affair.

    “Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor,” Buckingham Palace said, adding Charles had begun the formal process to remove all his brother’s titles.

    Andrew has also been told to move out of his long-time home on Windsor Castle’s sprawling grounds, and he will move “to alternative private accommodation” as soon as possible.

    The announcement followed a torrent of outrage at renewed accusations of sexual assault made by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s main accusers against the 65-year-old, who has denied the charges.

    “These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” the palace said.

    “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse,” it added.

    It comes days after the posthumous publication of Virginia Giuffre’s memoir, in which the victim of US sex offender Epstein reiterated in shocking detail allegations that she was trafficked to have sex with Andrew three times, including twice when she was only 17.

    It is understood that Andrew did not object to the king’s decision, and that the UK government has been consulted.

    "Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor," Buckingham Palace said, adding Charles had begun the formal process to remove all his brother's titles
    “Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor,” Buckingham Palace said, adding Charles had begun the formal process to remove all his brother’s titles

    Giuffre took her own life in April, aged 41, while Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in prison awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

    Giuffre’s family, which had pushed for Andrew’s title of prince to be removed, hailed the move Thursday, saying in a statement to the BBC that “today, she declares a victory”.

    “Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage,” they said.

    “Virginia Roberts Giuffre, our sister, a child when she was sexually assaulted by Andrew, never stopped fighting for accountability for what had happened to her and countless other survivors like her.”

    Andrew, who is the second son of the late queen Elizabeth II, has repeatedly denied the allegations.

    But he had agreed to pay US and Australian citizen Giuffre millions of dollars in 2022 to end her civil sexual assault case against him.

    Public anger

    Adding to the outcry following Giuffre’s bestselling memoir, The Times revealed last week that the prince had only paid a minimal rent for the past two decades on his Royal Lodge home in the Windsor estate, where he lives with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.

    The arrangement stems from a seemingly favourable 2003 deal for the mansion owned by the Crown Estate, the royal family’s independently run land and property holdings.

    Moves to oust Andrew from Royal Lodge have gathered pace in the past days, given new urgency by the pending move of Charles’s son Prince William, heir to the throne, his wife Kate and their children, into a new home not far away from the lodge.

    In yet another revelation, the BBC reported this week that Andrew hosted Epstein, his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell — who is imprisoned for trafficking — and former US film producer Harvey Weinstein, now jailed for rape, at the Lodge in 2006 for his daughter Beatrice’s 18th birthday.

    Meanwhile, public anger has grown. On Monday the king was heckled during a visit to a cathedral when a man in the crowd shouted out: “How long have you known about Andrew and Epstein?”

    Andrew however had dug his heels in, and was reportedly only prepared to leave the Royal Lodge if he could move into Frogmore Cottage, the former home of his nephew Prince Harry and his wife Meghan.

    Andrew was also reportedly demanding that Ferguson be allowed to move into Adelaide Cottage, once it is vacated by William and his family.

    It was understood Thursday that Andrew will move to the king’s estate in Sandringham, eastern Norfolk, and will be privately funded by Charles.

    Ferguson will make her own arrangements.

    His daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, will retain their titles as princesses.

  • Former French President Sarkozy Begins a 5-Year Prison Sentence For Campaign Finance Conspiracy

    Former French President Sarkozy Begins a 5-Year Prison Sentence For Campaign Finance Conspiracy

    PARIS (AP) — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived at a prison in Paris on Tuesday to begin serving a 5-year sentence for a criminal conspiracy to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya.

    He is the first ex-leader of modern France to be imprisoned.

    Sarkozy, hand-in-hand with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, left home before getting into a police car and traveling to prison.

    On his way to prison, Sarkozy said in a statement released on social media that “an innocent man” was being locked up.

    Sarkozy’s lawyers said a request for release has been immediately filed.

    He was convicted last month for criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya.

    Sarkozy contests both the conviction and a judge’s unusual decision to incarcerate him pending appeal. His journey from the presidential Elysée Palace to the notorious La Santé prison in Paris has captivated France.

    Minutes before entering prison, Sarkozy and his wife walked slowly to join his children and grandchildren outside his home. He waved at a crowd of supporters gathered in the high-end Paris neighborhood where he lives, then got into his car.

    Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy reacts before entering a police car Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025 in Paris as he heads to prison to serve time for a criminal conspiracy to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
    Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy reacts before entering a police car Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025 in Paris as he heads to prison to serve time for a criminal conspiracy to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

    Hundreds of supporters applauded and chanted “Nicolas, Nicolas” and sang the French anthem. Two French flags were hung on a nearby fence, with the inscriptions: “Courage Nicolas, return soon” and “true France with Nicolas.”

    Sarkozy’s sons and daughter — Jean, Pierre, Louis and Giulia — and his grandchildren showed up at the gathering.

    Parisian resident Michelle Perié, 67, said she came in support “because there is anger, injustice.”

    “He’s not like any other defendants, he’s someone who holds state secrets, he’s someone who has always done his job with his head held high. We don’t understand,” she said.

    Embattled centrist President Emmanuel Macronhosted the conservative Sarkozy at the presidential palace last week. ‘’I have always been very clear in my public statements about the independence of the judiciary in my role, but it was normal on a human level to receive one of my predecessors in this context,’’ Macron said Monday.

    Sarkozy’s lawyers said the former president will be held in solitary confinement, where he will be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons.

    Sarkozy’s lawyer Christophe Ingrain said on BFM TV that incarceration “strengthens his determination, it strengthens his rage to prove that he is innocent.” Ingrain said Sarkozy is planning to write a book about his prison experience.

    Jean-Michel Darrois, another of Sarkozy’s lawyers, said on Tuesday that the former president got himself “mentally prepared” to be held in solitary confinement, where he would be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons.

    “First, he packed a bag with a few sweaters because it’s cold in prison, and earplugs because it’s very noisy,” Darrois said on France Info news broadcaster. “Isolation like what he’s going to go through is painful, but he got himself prepared.”

    “I’m not afraid of prison. I’ll hold my head high, including in front of the doors of La Santé,” Sarkozy told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper. “I’ll fight till the end.”

    The paper said Sarkozy has his prison bag ready with clothes and the 10 family photos he is allowed to bring.

    Sarkozy also told Le Figaro newspaper that he would bring three books — the maximum allowed — including Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo,’’ in which the hero escapes from an island prison before seeking revenge.

    The Paris judge ruled that Sarkozy would start to serve prison time without waiting for his appeal to be heard, due to “the seriousness of the disruption to public order caused by the offense.”

    Under the ruling, the 70-year-old Sarkozy will only be able to file a request for release to the appeals court once he is behind bars, and judges will then have up to two months to process it.

  • Prince Andrew Faces Renewed Scrutiny After Release of Virginia Giuffre’s Posthumous Memoir

    Prince Andrew Faces Renewed Scrutiny After Release of Virginia Giuffre’s Posthumous Memoir

    Prince Andrew is again under intense scrutiny following revelations from Nobody’s Girl, the posthumous memoir of Virginia Giuffre, the woman who accused him of sexual abuse linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

    The BBC obtained a copy of the book, which is set for publication on Tuesday, nearly six months after Giuffre’s death.

    In it, she describes years of abuse by Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, writing that she once feared she might “die a sex slave.”

    Giuffre claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew on three occasions – in London, New York, and on Epstein’s private island – including once “with Epstein and approximately eight other young women.”

    She recalled that when they first met, Maxwell told her she would meet a “handsome prince,” and Andrew, then 41, “guessed correctly: seventeen.”

    “He was friendly enough, but still entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright,” Giuffre wrote.

    She said Epstein later gave her $15,000 “for servicing the man the tabloids called ‘Randy Andy.’”

    Prince Andrew has consistently denied all allegations and reached an out-of-court financial settlement with Giuffre in 2022, while admitting no wrongdoing.

    The memoir’s release comes as the prince faces growing political and public pressure. Last week, he announced he would stop using his titles, including Duke of York, and step away from the Order of the Garter.

    “I vigorously deny the accusations against me,” he added in a statement.

    Some UK lawmakers are now calling for Andrew’s titles to be formally removed.

    MP Rachael Maskell told the BBC it was “incredibly strange that you can give a title, but you can’t remove a title.” Scottish National Party leader Stephen Flynn said there was “no justification” for the government not to act.

    Meanwhile, London’s Metropolitan Police said they are “actively” reviewing reports that Prince Andrew allegedly tried to obtain Giuffre’s personal information through a police protection officer in 2011 – claims described as “scandalous” by former royal protection chief Dai Davies.

    Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence.

  • Gaza Ceasefire: What We Know About The Gaza Ceasefire Deal

    Gaza Ceasefire: What We Know About The Gaza Ceasefire Deal

    After three days of intense indirect negotiations in Egypt, US President Donald Trump says Israel and Hamas have “signed off on the first phase” of the 20-point peace plan he unveiled last week.

    “This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,” he posted on social media, without providing further details about what the first phase entails.

    It comes two years and two days after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage.

    This triggered a massive Israeli military offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 67,100 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. Its figures are seen as accurate by the UN and other international bodies.

    Israel’s government approved the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release plan early on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

    This is what we know.

    What has been agreed?

     

    Now the agreement has been formally approved by the Israeli cabinet, a ceasefire is expected to take effect. Reports in Israeli media suggest this will happen immediately, although a spokesperson for the prime minister’s office said it would begin within 24 hours of the cabinet’s approval.

    The Israeli military will withdraw to a line that will leave it in control of about 53% of the Strip, the spokesperson said. According to a map distributed by the White House last week, this is the first of three stages of Israeli withdrawal.

    The Israeli military said on Thursday that preparations were under way to “transition to adjusted deployment lines soon”.

    After this, a 72-hour countdown will begin during which Hamas must release all 20 of the hostages believed to be alive. The return of the bodies of the 28 deceased hostages would follow, although it is not clear how long that could take.

    Israel would then release about 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 1,700 detainees from Gaza, a Palestinian source told the BBC. Their identities are currently unclear, but a list submitted by Hamas before the agreement was reached included high-profile figures serving multiple life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis.

    One of the most high-profile prisoners, Marwan Barghouti, will not be released as part of the swap, according to the Israeli spokesperson.

    Israel will also return the bodies of 15 Gazans for the remains of each Israeli hostage, according to Trump’s plan.

    Hundreds of lorries carrying humanitarian aid will also start entering Gaza, where a famine was confirmed by UN-backed experts in August.

    Trump’s plan specified that 600 lorry loads would be delivered each day, but Palestinian sources said there would initially be a daily minimum of 400, with the number increasing gradually after that.

    A multinational force of around 200 troops overseen by the US military will monitor the Gaza ceasefire, according to a senior US official.

    The force’s makeup is likely to include troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the UAE. The official said their role would be to “oversee, observe [and] make sure there are no violations or incursions” of the ceasefire in Gaza.

    A second senior US official said no US forces would be on the ground in Gaza.

    What happens next?

     

    If completed, the first phase of Trump’s 20-point plan would be followed by negotiations over the details of the later phases – but many of these points could be hard to reach an agreement on.

    The proposal, which you can read in full here, says that if it is agreed by both sides, the war would “immediately end”.

    It says Gaza would be demilitarised and all “military, terror and offensive infrastructure” would be destroyed.

    It also says Gaza would be governed by a temporary transitional committee of Palestinian technocrats – supervised by a “Board of Peace” headed and chaired by Donald Trump and involving former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

    Governance of the Strip would eventually be handed over to the Palestinian Authority, once it has been reformed.

    Hamas would have no future role in the governance of Gaza, directly or indirectly, according to the plan.

    Hamas members would be offered amnesty if they committed to peaceful co-existence or be provided safe passage to another country.

    No Palestinians would be forced to leave Gaza and those who wished to leave would be free to return.

    A “Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energise Gaza” would be created by a panel of experts.

    What are the sticking points over the later phases?

     

    But there are likely to be multiple points of contention during the negotiations over later phases of the deal.

    Hamas has previously refused to lay down its weapons, saying it would only do so once a Palestinian state has been established.

    The group also made no mention of disarming in its initial response to the plan last weekend, fuelling speculation that its position has not changed.

    And although Israel agreed to the plan in full, Netanyahu appeared to push back on involvement of the PA in post-war Gaza even as he stood on the podium next to the president last week, insisting it would play no role in governing the territory.

    Hamas has also said it expects to have some future role in Gaza as part of “a unified Palestinian movement”.

    Another sticking point is the extent of Israeli troop withdrawal. Israel says its first withdrawal will see it retaining control of around 53% of Gaza. The White House plan indicates further withdrawals to around 40%, then 15%.

    That final stage would be a “security perimeter” that would “remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat”.

    The wording here is vague and gives no clear timeline for full Israeli withdrawal – something Hamas is likely to want clarity on.

    (BBC)

  • ‪Trump Gives Hamas Sunday Deadline To Accept Gaza Peace Deal or Face ‘All Hell’‬

    ‪Trump Gives Hamas Sunday Deadline To Accept Gaza Peace Deal or Face ‘All Hell’‬

    US President Donald Trump has given Hamas a deadline to accept a US peace plan for Gaza or face “all hell”.

    Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday that an agreement must be reached by 18:00 Washington time (22:00 GMT) on Sunday.

    The plan proposes an immediate end to fighting and the release within 72 hours of 20 living Israeli hostages held by Hamas – as well as the remains of hostages thought to be dead – in exchange for hundreds of detained Gazans.

    Arab and Turkish mediators are understood to be pressing Hamas for a positive response to the proposal, but a senior Hamas figure has said the armed group is likely to reject it.

    “If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER,” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post.

    The deadline announced on Friday comes after Trump said on Tuesday that he was giving Hamas “three to four days” to respond to the peace plan.

    Mediators have made contact with the head of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, who has indicated he does not agree to the new US ceasefire plan, the BBC understands.

    It is thought that some of Hamas’s political leadership in Qatar are open to accepting it with adjustments – but have found their influence limited as they do not have control of the hostages held by the group.

    Another stumbling block for some in Hamas is that the plan requires them to hand over all of the hostages over the first 72 hours of the ceasefire – giving away their only bargaining chip.

    There are believed to be 48 hostages still being held in the Palestinian territory by the armed group, only 20 of whom are thought to be alive.

    The 20-point plan, agreed by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and announced by both at the White House on Monday, also says Hamas will have no role in governing Gaza, and leaves the door open for an eventual Palestinian state.

    However, Netanyahu later reinstated his longstanding opposition to a Palestinian state, saying in a video statement shortly after the announcement: “It’s not written in the agreement. We said we would strongly oppose a Palestinian state.”

    The plan stipulates that once both sides agree to the proposal “full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip”.

    It also outlines a plan for the future governance of Gaza, saying a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” will govern temporarily “with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, called the Board of Peace”, which it says will be headed by Trump.

    European and Middle Eastern leaders have welcomed the proposal. The Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has called the US president’s efforts “sincere and determined”.

    Pakistan initially voiced support for the plan, but the country’s foreign minister has since said the points announced were not in line with a draft from a group of Muslim-majority countries, BBC Urdu and Reuters reported.

    Trump has said that if Hamas does not agree to the plan, Israel would have US backing to “finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas”.

    Netanyahu has also said Israel “will finish the job” if Hamas rejected the plan or did not follow through.

    The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

    At least 66,288 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

    In the 24 hours before Friday midday, 63 people were killed by Israeli military operations, the health ministry said.

    The push for the peace plan comes as Israel is carrying out an offensive in Gaza City, with Israel’s defence minister saying earlier this week that Israeli forces were “tightening the siege” around the city.

    Israel has said the offensive aims to secure the release of the remaining hostages.

    Hundreds of thousands of Gaza City residents have been forced to flee after the Israeli military ordered evacuations to a designated “humanitarian area” in the southern al-Mawasi area, but hundreds of thousands more are believed to have remained.

    Israel’s defence minister has warned that those who stay during the offensive against Hamas would be “terrorists and supporters of terror”.

    James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency, Unicef, said on Friday that the idea of a safe zone in southern Gaza was “farcical”.

    “Bombs are dropped from the sky with chilling predictability. Schools, which have been designated as temporary shelters, are regularly reduced to rubble,” he said.

    (BBC)

  • Indian Court Tells Doctors To Fix Their Handwriting

    Indian Court Tells Doctors To Fix Their Handwriting

    At a time when most people use keyboards to write, does handwriting really matter?

    Yes, say Indian courts, if the writer is a doctor.

    Jokes around the notoriously bad handwriting of many doctors that can only be deciphered by pharmacists are common in India, as around the world.

    But the latest order emphasising the importance of clear handwriting came recently from the Punjab and Haryana High Court which said that “legible medical prescription is a fundamental right” as it can make a difference between life and death.

    The court order came in a case that had nothing to do with the written word. It involved allegations of rape, cheating and forgery by a woman and Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri was hearing the man’s petition for bail.

    The woman had alleged that the man had taken money from her promising her a government job, conducted fake interviews with her and sexually exploited her.

    The accused denied the charges – he said they had a consensual relationship and the case was brought on because of a dispute over money.

    Justice Puri said when he looked at the medico-legal report – written by a government doctor who had examined the woman – he found it incomprehensible.

    “It shook the conscience of this court as not even a word or a letter was legible,” he wrote in the order.

    The BBC has seen a copy of the judgement which includes the report and a two-page prescription which shows the doctor’s unreadable scrawl.

    “At a time when technology and computers are easily accessible, it is shocking that government doctors are still writing prescriptions by hand which cannot be read by anybody except perhaps some chemists,” Justice Puri wrote.

    The court asked the government to include handwriting lessons in the medical school curriculum and set a two-year timeline for rolling out digitised prescriptions.

    Until that happens, all doctors must write prescriptions clearly in capital letters, Justice Puri said.

    Dr Dilip Bhanushali, president of Indian Medical Association that has more than 330,000 doctors as members, told the BBC that they’re willing to help find a solution to the problem.

    In cities and bigger towns, he says, doctors have moved to digital prescriptions, but it’s very difficult in rural areas and small towns to get prescriptions that are clear.

    “It’s a well-known fact that many doctors have poor handwriting, but that’s because most medical practitioners are very busy, especially in overcrowded government hospitals,” he says.

    “We have recommended to our members to follow the government guidelines and write prescriptions in bold letters that should be readable to both patients and chemists. A doctor who sees seven patients a day can do it, but if you see 70 patients a day, you can’t do it,” he adds.

    (BBC)

  • ‪UN Security Council Approves New Military Force To Fight Gangs in Haiti‬

    ‪UN Security Council Approves New Military Force To Fight Gangs in Haiti‬

    The new force can now have a maximum of 5,500 uniformed personnel, including police officers and soldiers, unlike the current mission, which is just law enforcement.

    US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said the vote by 12 council members “to transform the Multinational Security Support mission to the new gang suppression force, a mission five-times the size of its predecessor” showed the “international community was sharing the burden.”

    “This resolution offers Haiti hope. It is a hope that has been rapidly slipping away as terrorist gangs expanded their territory, raped, pillaged, murdered and terrorized the Haitian population,” he said.

    Washington co-sponsored the enlargement push with Panama.

    Currently, just 1,000 police officers, mostly from Kenya, are deployed in Haiti under the Multinational Security Mission (MSS) to support the overwhelmed Haitian police in their fight against rampant gang violence.

    But the mission, which was approved in 2023, has had mixed results.

    Violence-ravaged Haiti is 'a nation at war,' its leader Laurent Saint-Cyr warned at the United Nations on Thursday, as he appealed for help from the international community to defeat gangs that have overrun the Caribbean country. AFP
    Violence-ravaged Haiti is ‘a nation at war,’ its leader Laurent Saint-Cyr warned at the United Nations on Thursday, as he appealed for help from the international community to defeat gangs that have overrun the Caribbean country. AFP

    “This marks a decisive turning point in my country’s fight against one of the most serious challenges in its already turbulent history,” said Haiti’s ambassador to the UN Ericq Pierre.

    “Multiple heavily armed gangs have extended their control over large parts of the territory, particularly in the capital.

    “These gangs are no longer mere groups of petty criminals. They have for some time now become powerful criminal organizations that mock and challenge the authority of the state and even threaten regional stability.”

    ‘Merciless gangs’

    Haiti’s Laurent Saint-Cyr, who heads the country’s Transitional Presidential Council, had thrown his support behind the US and Panamanian proposal to evolve the MSS into a more resilient force for an initial period of one year.

    Laurent Saint-Cyr, chairman of Haiti's Transitional Presidential Council, speaks during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters. AFP
    Laurent Saint-Cyr, chairman of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council, speaks during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters. AFP

    “The Council can help restore peace in a nation currently suffocated by merciless gangs,” Panama’s ambassador to the UN Eloy Alfaro de Alba said ahead of the vote.

    Kenya’s president William Ruto said last week that “with the right personnel, adequate resources, appropriate equipment and necessary logistics, Haiti’s security can be restored.”

    The major force boost will be accompanied by the creation of a support office within the UN, suggested several months ago by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to provide the required logistical and financial support.

    China had expressed skepticism about the role of the MSS without political transition in Haiti, but it abstained during the vote to create it in 2023, as did Russia.

    China and Russia abstained again on Tuesday’s vote.

    “Resorting to military force to combat violence with violence at this juncture is not only unlikely to succeed, but could further complicate Haiti’s already intractable situation,” said China’s ambassador to the UN Fu Cong.

    Children in a shelter for people displaced by gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. AFP
    Children in a shelter for people displaced by gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. AFP

    He warned the resolution left specifics like the rules of engagement and force composition unanswered, saying Beijing did not block the resolution only “in light of Haiti’s dire security situation.”

    The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti has long suffered at the hands of violent criminal gangs that commit murders, rapes, looting, and kidnappings against a backdrop of chronic political instability.

    The situation has worsened significantly since early 2024, when gangs drove then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign.

    The country, which has not held elections since 2016, has since been led by a Transitional Presidential Council.

  • UAE Introduces Major Changes to Visa Rules

    UAE Introduces Major Changes to Visa Rules

    The United Arab Emirates has announced major changes to visa rules, introducing several new visa types to support professionals, tourists, and residents.

    Among the most notable updates is a new special visa for artificial intelligence experts. This move highlights the UAE’s push to attract global talent in advanced technologies.

    Additionally, a new event visa will allow entry for those attending festivals, exhibitions, conferences, or sports events held in the country.

    Tourists arriving through cruise or recreational ships will now benefit from a multiple-entry visa.

    This aims to boost tourism by making it easier for travelers to explore the UAE.

    In another humanitarian step, the UAE will now offer a one-year residency permit to individuals affected by war or natural disasters, even without a sponsor.

    This change reflects the country’s growing focus on compassion and global responsibility.

    Widows and divorced women can now obtain residency without needing a sponsor, offering them greater independence and security.

    The new UAE visa rules.

    The new rules also set a minimum income requirement for sponsoring relatives or friends on visit visas.

    To sponsor a friend, for example, a monthly income of at least 15,000 dirhams is now required. These rules aim to balance flexibility with financial accountability.

    For entrepreneurs, the business visa will now be issued based on financial proof or ownership of a foreign company.

    This change is expected to attract international investors and startup founders.

    In the transport sector, only licensed transport companies can now sponsor foreign drivers, ensuring better regulation and oversight.

    These updates show the UAE’s intent to modernize and regulate its immigration system more effectively.

    Overall, the UAE introduces major changes to visa rules to meet new global needs and economic goals.

    With a mix of skilled-worker visas, humanitarian permits, and tourism-friendly options, the UAE is positioning itself as a more open and innovative destination.

    These changes reflect both flexibility and control, shaping a future-ready immigration system.

  • ‪Tony Blair Could Help Run Gaza Under Trump Peace Plan‬

    ‪Tony Blair Could Help Run Gaza Under Trump Peace Plan‬

    US President Donald Trump has said Sir Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, wants to join the international body overseeing Gaza under an American plan to end the war.

    Sir Tony became the first named member of a new “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump, to be tasked with temporarily supervising Gaza’s governance if Hamas accept the plan. “Leaders from other countries” on the board will be named later, Trump said.

    The board is part of a 20-point plan aimed at ending the nearly two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas – including a process of demilitarising and redeveloping Gaza.

    Sir Tony said the plans were “the best chance of ending two years of war, misery and suffering”.

    A Palestinian source familiar with the ceasefire negotiations told the BBC that Hamas officials had been given the White House’s 20-point proposal.

    Earlier, a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the group remained open to studying any proposal that could end the war in Gaza, but stressed that any agreement must safeguard Palestinian interests, ensure a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and bring the war to an end.

    Sir Tony, who was UK prime minister from 1997 to 2007 and who took the UK into the Iraq War in 2003, has been part of high-level talks with the US and other parties about the future of Gaza.

    After leaving office, he served as Middle East envoy for the Quartet of international powers (the US, EU, Russia and the UN). He focused on bringing economic development to Palestine and creating the conditions for a two state-solution.

    In August, he joined a White House meeting with Trump to discuss plans for the territory, which US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff described as “very comprehensive” – though little else was disclosed about the meeting.

    Under the plan, unveiled by Trump on Monday evening, the war would “immediately end” once both sides agreed to it.

    It would also see all 20 living Israeli hostages and the remains of more than two dozen who are believed to be dead returned within 72 hours.

    Israel would then release 250 life-sentence prisoners plus 1,700 Gazans detained since the war began on 7 October 2023.

    “Full aid” would immediately be sent to Gaza, the plan says. A multinational stabilisation force would deploy to support security and train local police. Israeli forces would withdraw in stages.

    According to the text of the plan, “Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza.

    “This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the ‘Board of Peace,’ which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of State to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair.”

    Hamas, the plan states, would have no role in governance, “directly, indirectly, or in any form”.

    Trump said that if Hamas rejected the deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have his “full backing” to “do what you would have to do”.

    The plan also leaves the door open to an eventual Palestinian state, but only if the Palestinian Authority carries out sweeping reforms.

    The president also hit out at countries for “foolishly” recognising Palestine statehood – as the UK, Australia, Canada and France did last week.

    Responding to the announcement, Sir Tony said: “President Trump has put down a bold and intelligent plan which, if agreed, can end the war, bring immediate relief to Gaza, the chance of a brighter and better future for its people, whilst ensuring Israel’s absolute and enduring security and the release of all hostages.

    “It offers us the best chance of ending two years of war, misery and suffering and I thank President Trump for his leadership, determination and commitment.

    “In particular, his willingness to chair the Board of Peace to oversee the new Gaza is a huge signal of support and confidence in the future of Gaza, of the possibility of Israelis and Palestinians finding a path to peace and of the potential for a broader regional and global alliance to counter the forces of extremism and promote peace and prosperity between nations.”

    The plan announced on Monday marks a shift from earlier ideas floated by the Trump administration. In February, Trump declared the US would take over the Gaza Strip and build a “riviera of the Middle East”

    The idea would have involved the forced displacement of Palestinians in the territory and be in violation of international law, a step Sir Tony’s office vowed not to support.

    The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

    At least 66,055 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

    A UN-backed body recently confirmed that famine was taking place in Gaza City. Earlier this month, a UN commission of inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza – which Israel strongly rejects.

  • Trump and Netanyahu Agree New Gaza Peace Plan

    Trump and Netanyahu Agree New Gaza Peace Plan

    US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu say they have agreed a new peace plan for Gaza, warning Hamas to accept it.

    The plan proposes an immediate end to military operations, with Hamas releasing 20 living Israeli hostages and the remains of the more than two dozen hostages who are believed to be dead within 72 hours, in exchange for hundreds of detained Gazans.

    A Palestinian source familiar with the ceasefire negotiations told the BBC that Hamas officials have been given the White House’s 20-point proposal.

    It demands that Hamas will have no role in governing Gaza, and leaves the door open for an eventual Palestinian state.

    Speaking at a news conference following talks at the White House, Trump called the plan “a historic day for peace”.

    But he said that Netanyahu will have US backing to “finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas” if Hamas does not agree to the plan.

    Netanyahu then said Israel “will finish the job” if Hamas rejects the plan or does not follow through.

    The Palestinian Authority, which governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has called the US president’s efforts as “sincere and determined”.

    In a statement published by its WAFA news agency, the authority said it “renews its joint commitment to work with the United States, regional states, and partners” to end the war on Gaza, ensure sufficient delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and the release of hostages and prisoners.

    At least 66,055 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 2023.
    At least 66,055 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 2023.

    The proposal, if followed, would begin with the immediate cessation of military operations. It also says existing “battle lines” would be frozen in place until conditions are met for a staged withdrawal.

    Under Trump’s plan, Hamas would lay down its arms and its tunnels and weapon production facilities would be destroyed.

    For every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 dead Gazans, the plan says.

    The plan also stipulates that once both sides agree to the proposal “full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip”.

    The US also outlines its plan for the future governance of Gaza.

    It says a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” will govern temporarily “with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, called the Board of Peace, which will be headed” by Trump.

    Former UK PM Sir Tony Blair will be part of the governing body alongside other leaders “to be announced”. Sir Tony called the plan “bold and intelligent”.

    Blair wants to be on board that will oversee Gaza, Trump says

    British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer welcomed the plan, saying, “We call on all sides to come together and to work with the US Administration to finalise this agreement and bring it into reality.

    “Hamas should now agree to the plan and end the misery, by laying down their arms and releasing all remaining hostages,” Sir Keir added.

    European Council President Antonio Costa said he was “encouraged by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s positive response” to the proposal. He added “all parties must seize this moment to give peace a genuine chance”.

    French president Emmanuel Macron praised the proposal, saying: “France stands ready to contribute” to the efforts to end the war and release hostages.

    “These elements must pave the way for in-depth discussions with all relevant partners to build a lasting peace in the region, based on the two-state solution,” said Macron.

    The plan adds that Hamas must have no role in governance, “directly, indirectly, or in any form”.

    Much of the plan is focused on what the US calls an “economic development plan” to rebuild Gaza. It also says “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza” and its forces will withdraw from the territory in stages over time.

    In a shift from Trump’s earlier statements, Palestinians will not be forced to leave Gaza. Instead, the document said: “We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza.”

    The plan also leaves the door open to an eventual Palestinian state.

    A Palestinian source familiar with the ceasefire negotiations told the BBC “Qatari and Egyptian officials have handed over the White House plan to end the war in Gaza to Hamas officials in Doha”.

    Earlier, a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the group remained open to studying any proposal that could end the war in Gaza, but stressed that any agreement must safeguard Palestinian interests, ensure a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and bring the war to an end.

    Asked about the group’s weapons, the official said: “The weapons of the resistance are a red line as long as the occupation continues.

    “The issue of arms can only be discussed within the framework of a political solution that guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.”

    The announcement of the plan comes just days after Netanyahu attacked the recognition of a Palestinian state by multiple Western countries during a combative speech at the UN General Assembly.

    Netanyahu labelled the recognition moves a “mark of shame” that sent the message that “murdering Jews pays off”.

    Dozens of officials and diplomats staged a walk-out as he took to the UN podium, leaving large parts of the conference hall empty.

    While Trump has staunchly backed Netanyahu since returning to the White House for a second term, he has become increasingly frustrated with Israel’s moves in recent weeks.

    Trump expressed annoyance at Israel’s recent strike on Hamas members in key US ally Qatar.

    Before Monday’s news conference, Netanyahu called Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani of Qatar from the White House to express his deep regret that Israel’s missile strike unintentionally killed a Qatari serviceman.

    The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

    At least 66,055 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

    A UN-backed body recently confirmed that famine was taking place in Gaza City. Earlier this month, a UN commission of inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza – which Israel strongly rejects.

  • Madagascar President Dissolves Government Following Deadly Protests

    Madagascar President Dissolves Government Following Deadly Protests

    ANTANANARIVO, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina said on Monday he was dissolving the government following youth-led protests over water and power cuts in which the United Nations says at least 22 people have been killed and more than 100 injured.

    Inspired by the so-called “Gen Z” protests in Kenya and Nepal, the three days of demonstrations are the largest the Indian Ocean island has seen in years, and the most serious challenge Rajoelina has faced since his re-election in 2023.

    “We acknowledge and apologise if members of the government have not carried out the tasks assigned to them,” Rajoelina said in speech on state broadcaster Televiziona Malagasy (TVM).

    The president said he wanted to create space for dialogue with young people, and promised measures to support businesses affected by looting.

    “I understand the anger, the sadness, and the difficulties caused by power cuts and water supply problems. I heard the call, I felt the suffering, I understood the impact on daily life,” he said.

    The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said the casualties include protesters and bystanders killed by members of the security forces, but also others killed in subsequent widespread violence and looting by individuals and gangs not associated with the protesters.

    Madagascar’s ministry of foreign affairs rejected the casualty figures reported by the UN, saying the data did not come from competent national authorities “and are based on rumors or misinformation.”

    On Monday protesters gathered at a university where they waved placards and sang the national anthem before attempting to march towards the city centre, footage from 2424.MG news channel showed.

    Police fired teargas to disperse the crowd, after authorities declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew last week.
    The protesters have adapted a flag used in Nepal where protesters forced the prime minister to resign this month and have also used similar online organisation tactics as protests in Kenya last year that culminated in the government scrapping proposed tax legislation.

    Rajoelina first came to power in a 2009 coup. He stepped down in 2014 but became president again after winning the 2018 election, and secured a third term in a December 2023 poll that his challengers said was marred by irregularities.

  • Netanyahu Says Palestinian State Would Be ‘National Suicide’ For Israel

    Netanyahu Says Palestinian State Would Be ‘National Suicide’ For Israel

    United Nations (United States) (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Friday in an angry UN address to block a Palestinian state, accusing European leaders of pushing his country into “national suicide” and rewarding Hamas.

    Netanyahu, who said his speech was being partially broadcast on Israeli military loudspeakers in Gaza, vowed to “finish the job” against Hamas even as President Donald Trump said he thought he had sealed a deal on a ceasefire.

    Days after Britain, France and other Western powers recognized a state of Palestine, Netanyahu said that they had sent “a very clear message that murdering Jews pays off.”

    “Israel will not allow you to shove a terrorist state down our throats,” Netanyahu said. “We will not commit national suicide because you don’t have the guts to face down the hostile media and antisemitic mobs demanding Israel’s blood.”

    Hamas carried out the worst-ever attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering a relentless Israeli offensive in Gaza.

    Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, a rival of Hamas, condemned the attack as well as antisemitism in his own address Thursday, which he delivered virtually after the United States refused him a visa.

    Netanyahu — who has opposed a Palestinian state for decades — mocked Western support for Abbas and called the Palestinian Authority “corrupt to the core.”

    But Palestinian foreign ministry official Adel Atieh called Netanyahu’s address “the speech of a defeated man.”

    Netanyahu notably did not touch on the issue of annexing the West Bank, which some members of his cabinet have threatened as a way to kill any prospect of a real Palestinian state.

    Trump, normally a staunch ally of Netanyahu, has warned against annexation as he pitches a peace plan on Gaza that would include the disarmament of Hamas.

    Netanyahu went out of his way to praise Trump, whom he will meet Monday in Washington.

    Trump said Friday just after Netanyahu spoke, “I think we have a deal.”

    Former British prime minister Tony Blair was floated in some media reports as a possible leader of a transitional authority for Gaza under the US proposals.

    Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose government has championed Hamas, said Friday he backed any ceasefire in Gaza.

    Protests and circuitous route

    With Netanyahu facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over war crime allegations, including using starvation as a weapon, the Israeli prime minister took an unusual route to New York that included flying over the narrow Strait of Gibraltar.

    As he walked up to the General Assembly rostrum many delegations walked out. Protesters marched nearby in Times Square calling for his arrest.

    “War criminals don’t deserve any peace of mind. They don’t deserve any sleep,” said Andrea Mirez, a young woman who kept up an overnight noisy protest outside Netanyahu’s hotel.

    Netanyahu in his address aggressively challenged allegations that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, noting Gazans were repeatedly urged to flee.

    However, humanitarian law also considers forced displacement to be a war crime. Nearly the entire population of the Gaza Strip has been displaced during the war.

    The October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally from Israeli official figures, in the deadliest day in the country’s history.

    Israel’s offensive has killed more than 65,549 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

    Twenty people across Gaza were killed Friday ahead of Netanyahu’s speech alone, Gaza’s civil defense agency reported.

    Medical charity Doctors without Borders said Friday it had been forced to suspend its work in Gaza City because of the ongoing Israeli offensive.

    ‘Not forgotten you’

    Netanyahu said that his speech was broadcast in part on loudspeaker in hopes of reaching both Hamas leaders and hostages still held since the October 7, 2023 attack.

    “We have not forgotten you — not even for a second,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew.

    A number of hostage families have criticized Netanyahu’s renewed military campaign and sought a ceasefire to save their loved ones.

    Netanyahu spoke months after he ordered a major bombing campaign of Iran’s nuclear sites.

    During his speech he showed a map of the Middle East, taking out a pen to cross out adversaries Israel has killed. Iran boycotted the speech.

  • Tony Blair In Discussions To Run Transitional Gaza Authority

    Tony Blair In Discussions To Run Transitional Gaza Authority

    Former UK Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair has been involved in discussions about leading a post-war transitional authority in Gaza, the BBC understands.

    The proposal, which is said to have backing from the White House, would see Blair lead a governing authority supported by the UN and Gulf nations – before handing control back to Palestinians.

    His office said he would not support any proposal that displaced the people of Gaza.

    Sir Tony, who took the UK into the Iraq War in 2003, has been part of high-level planning talks with the US and other parties about the future of Gaza.

    In August, he joined a White House meeting with Trump to discuss plans for the territory, which US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff described as “very comprehensive” – though little else was disclosed about the meeting.

    The plans could see Blair head a body named the Gaza International Transitional Authority (Gita), according to reports in the Economist and Israeli media. It would seek a UN mandate to be Gaza’s “supreme political and legal authority” for five years.

    The plan would be modelled on the international administrations that oversaw East Timor and Kosovo’s transitions to statehood. It would initially be based in Egypt, near Gaza’s southern border, before entering Gaza once the Strip is stable, alongside a multinational force.

    As PM, Blair took the decision to commit British forces to the 2003 Iraq War that was heavily criticised in the official inquiry into the conflict, which found he had acted on flawed intelligence without certainty about the production of weapons of mass destruction there.

    After leaving office in 2007, Blair served as Middle East envoy for the Quartet of international powers (the US, EU, Russia and the UN). He focused on bringing economic development to Palestine and creating the conditions for a two state-solution.

    Reports of discussions about his involvement in a transitional authority for Gaza come after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that he was ready to work with Trump and other world leaders to implement a two-state peace plan.

    Abbas stressed his rejection of a future governing role for Hamas in Gaza and demanded it disarm.

    Throughout the conflict, varying proposals for the future of Gaza have been tabled by multiple parties.

    In February, Donald Trump floated plans – which since appear to have been dropped – for the US to take “a long-term ownership position” over Gaza, saying it could be the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

    The idea would have involved the forced displacement of Palestinians in the territory and be in violation of international law. The US and Israel said it would involve “voluntary” emigration.

    In March, the US and Israel rejected an Arab plan for the post-war reconstruction of the Gaza Strip that would allow the 2.1 million Palestinians living there to stay in place. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas welcomed the Arab plan, which called for Gaza to be governed temporarily by a committee of independent experts and for international peacekeepers to be deployed there.

    In July, a French and Saudi-led international conference in New York proposed a “transitional administrative committee” for Gaza which would operate “under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority”. Neither the US nor Israel attended. The so-called New York Declaration was backed by a majority of the UN General Assembly in a resolution earlier this month.

    Earlier this week, the UK formally recognised the State of Palestine, alongside France, Canada, Australia, and several other countries.

    In his speech, Abbas thanked them for taking the step, including, he said, Denmark, though that country has not yet recognised Palestine. It says it will only do so if certain conditions are met.

    The UK and others reiterated calls for a two-state solution, which would see the creation of an independent Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside Israel.

    Israel and the US criticised the move as a “reward for Hamas”.

    The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

    At least 65,502 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. A UN commission of inquiry has said Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, which Israel denies.

  • ‪Netanyahu’s Flight To US Bypassed Most European Airspace For Fears of Arrest Over ICC Warrant ‬

    ‪Netanyahu’s Flight To US Bypassed Most European Airspace For Fears of Arrest Over ICC Warrant ‬

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s flight to the US bypassed the airspace of most European countries for fears of being arrested over an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for war crimes in Gaza, local media said Thursday.

    According to Amichai Stein, a diplomatic correspondent for i24 News channel, Netanyahu’s plane avoided the French airspace, lengthening the journey to the US over the ICC arrest warrant and current tensions between Tel Aviv and Paris regarding the Gaza war.

    His plane did not pass over any European country, except Greece and Italy, the correspondent said, as he shared a map disclosing the route of Netanyahu’s flight.

    In November 2024, the Hague-based court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

    Netanyahu departed Tel Aviv early Thursday to address the 80th UN General Assembly in New York and meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.

    Speaking to reporters at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport before his departure, Netanyahu said he will condemn the leaders of countries that recognized Palestinian statehood.

    Several Western countries, including France, the UK, Canada, Australia, and Belgium, recognized the state of Palestine this week, raising the total to 159 of the UN’s 193 member states.

    Netanyahu said he will meet Trump for the fourth time since the US president assumed office in January 2025, to discuss “the great opportunities our victories have brought and our need to complete the war objectives.”

    His trip comes as the Israeli army continued a brutal offensive in Gaza, killing more than 65,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children, since October 2023.

    The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable and led to starvation and the spread of diseases.

  • Russia Will Expand Aggression Beyond Ukraine If Not Stopped, Zelensky Warns

    Russia Will Expand Aggression Beyond Ukraine If Not Stopped, Zelensky Warns

    Vladimir Putin “will keep driving the war forward wider and deeper” if he is not stopped, Ukraine’s President Zelensky has warned.

    Speaking at the UN’s General Assembly in New York, Zelensky said more countries would be met with Russian aggression unless allies displayed a united front and ramped up support.

    He said all nations were threatened by a global arms race, as military technology advances, adding that “weapons decide who survives” and calling for global rules on AI.

    His comments come after US President Donald Trump shifted his position on the Russia-Ukraine war, saying for the first time that Ukraine could win back all of its land.

    Zelensky criticised international institutions, suggesting they are “too weak” to offer Ukraine safety guarantees, adding – in apparent reference to Nato – that being part of a long-standing military alliance “doesn’t automatically mean you are safe”.

    “We are now living through the most destructive arms race in human history,” he said.

    He argued that “stopping Russia now” was cheaper than “wondering who will be the first to create a simple drone carrying a nuclear warhead”.

    Zelensky called for international rules around AI and its role in weaponry, and said the development of autonomous drones and unmanned planes represented a far greater risk than traditional warfare.

    The Ukrainian leader also warned that Europe cannot afford to lose Moldova – which lies between Ukraine and EU-member Romania – to Russian influence. He said the West had missed a chance to save Georgia and Belarus from Putin’s orbit.

    On Thursday the pro-EU president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, accused the Kremlin of “pouring hundreds of millions of euros” into Moldova in an attempt to instigate violence and spread fear.

    Voters in the former Soviet republic go to the polls on Sunday, amid what a BBC investigation found to be a barrage of disinformation spread by a network with ties to Moscow.

    Last week, Estonia and Poland requested a consultation with other Nato members after Russia violated its airspace in separate incidents. Romania, another Nato member, also said Russian drones breached its airspace.

    Earlier on Tuesday, following his speech to the UN, Trump said Nato nations should shoot down Russian planes breaching their airspace, following the recent incursions by Russian fighter jets and drones.

    Zelensky praised Donald Trump and said he had a “good meeting” with the US president.

    On Tuesday, he told reporters he understood the US was willing to give Ukraine security guarantees after the war is finished.

    Pressed on what this would look like, he said he did not have specific details but broached the possibility of more weapons, air defences and drones.

    Trump’s suggestion on Tuesday that Kyiv could win, with support from the EU and Nato, marked an apparent U-turn after his previous comments that Ukraine would have to accept “land swaps” as a condition of peace.

    The US president also described Russia as a “paper tiger” that had been “fighting aimlessly in Ukraine.”

    Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov responded: “Russia is in no way a tiger. It’s more associated with a bear. And there is no such thing as a paper bear.”

    Peskov told reporters the US president had made the comments “apparently under the influence of the vision put forward by Zelensky”.

    “This vision is in absolute contrast with our understanding of the current state of affairs.”

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday, marking the highest-level US encounter with Russia since Trump invited Putin to Alaska last month.

    According to a brief statement from the US State Department, Rubio reiterated Trump’s “call for the killing to stop and the need for Moscow to take meaningful steps toward a durable resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war”.

    The Kremlin did not immediately comment on the meeting.

    (BBC)

  • Nicolas Sarkozy Found Guilty of Criminal Conspiracy in Libya Case

    Nicolas Sarkozy Found Guilty of Criminal Conspiracy in Libya Case

    Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a case related to taking millions of euros of illicit funds from the late Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.

    The Paris criminal court acquitted him of all other charges, including passive corruption and illegal campaign financing.

    Sarkozy, who claims the case is politically motivated, was accused of using the funds from Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign.

    In exchange, the prosecution alleged Sarkozy promised to help Gaddafi combat his reputation as a pariah with Western countries.

    Sarkozy, 70, was the president of France from 2007 to 2012.

    The investigation was opened in 2013, two years after Saif al-Islam, son of the then-Libyan leader, first accused Sarkozy of taking millions of his father’s money for campaign funding.

    The following year, Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine – who for a long time acted as a middleman between France and the Middle East – said he had written proof that Sarkozy’s campaign bid was “abundantly” financed by Tripoli, and that the €50m (£43m) worth of payments continued after he became president.

    Sarkozy’s wife, Italian-born former supermodel and singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was charged last year with hiding evidence linked to the Gaddafi case and associating with wrongdoers to commit fraud, both of which she denies.

    Since losing his re-election bid in 2012, Sarkozy has been targeted by several criminal investigations.

    He also appealed against a February 2024 ruling which found him guilty of overspending on his 2012 re-election campaign, then hiring a PR firm to cover it up. He was handed a one-year sentence, of which six months were suspended.

    In 2021, he was found guilty of trying to bribe a judge in 2014 and became the first former French president to get a custodial sentence. In December, the Paris appeals court ruled that he could serve his time at home wearing a tag instead of going to jail.

    (BBC)