AFP Asia Business

Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump will discuss the future of the Gaza ceasefire Tuesday as the Israeli prime minister becomes the first foreign leader to visit the White House since the US president’s return to power.Netanyahu is in Washington for talks with the new Trump administration on a second, longer-term phase of Israel’s fragile truce with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has not yet been finalized.Trump has meanwhile repeatedly touted a plan to “clean out” Gaza, calling for Palestinians to move to neighboring countries such as Egypt or Jordan, despite all those parties strongly rejecting his proposal.Before leaving for Washington, Netanyahu said that Israel’s wars with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and its confrontations with Iran had “redrawn the map” in the Middle East.”But I believe that working closely with President Trump we can redraw it even further, and for the better,” Netanyahu said.The White House meeting promises to be a crucial one for a region shattered by war since Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.Netanyahu hailed the fact that he would be the first foreign leader to meet Trump since his January 20 inauguration as “testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance.”The Israeli premier had tense relations with Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden over the growing death toll in Gaza, despite Biden’s steadfast maintenance of US military aid.But Trump, who has claimed credit for sealing the ceasefire after 15 months of war and prides himself on his dealmaking ability, will be pushing Netanyahu to stick to the agreement.He is also expected to lean on Netanyahu to accept a deal to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, something he tried to do in his first term.- ‘No guarantees’ -Trump said Sunday that talks with Israel and other Middle Eastern countries were “progressing” — but then warned less than 24 hours later that there that were “no guarantees that the peace is going to hold.”Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff — who met Netanyahu on Monday over terms for the second phase of the Gaza truce — said however that he was “certainly hopeful” that the truce would stick.Hamas officials have said they were ready to begin talks on the details of the second phase, which is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and could lead to a more permanent end to the war.But Trump’s sudden floating of a plan to move people out of Gaza — which he describes as a “demolition site” — has added further uncertainty to an already tense and difficult situation.Trump said the plan could be temporary or permanent, but the mass displacement of civilians from Gaza was strongly rejected by Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinians, and ceasefire mediator Qatar.Under the Gaza ceasefire’s 42-day first phase, Hamas is to free 33 hostages in staggered releases in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.Four hostage-prisoner exchanges have already taken place, and the truce has led to a surge of food, fuel, medical and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza, as well as allowing displaced Gazans to return to the territory’s north.Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel’s retaliatory response has killed at least 47,498 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.Israel has meanwhile turned its focus to the occupied West Bank and an operation it says is aimed at rooting out extremism that has killed dozens.

The man accused of trying to kill the author Salman Rushdie, leaving him blind in one eye, goes on trial Tuesday for attempted murder, according to state court filings.Hadi Matar, an American of Lebanese descent, has also been charged separately by a federal court on suspicion of terrorism for allegedly conducting the 2022 stabbing attack on behalf of militant group Hezbollah.In August 2022 Rushdie, now 77, lost vision in his right eye after the attack by a knife-wielding assailant, who jumped on stage at an arts gathering in New York state and stabbed the author about 10 times.The Indian-born writer, a naturalized American based in New York, has faced death threats since his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” was declared blasphemous by Iran’s supreme leader.Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, in 1989 calling on Muslims anywhere in the world to kill Rushdie.Hezbollah endorsed the fatwa, the FBI has said.Matar had told the New York Post newspaper that he had only read two pages of Rushdie’s novel but believed he had “attacked Islam.”Rushdie suffered stab wounds in the neck and abdomen before attendees and guards subdued the attacker, later identified as Matar.Matar was due to appear before judge David Foley in Chautauqua County Court on Tuesday, according to a New York state case listing index.The charges against him in the case are attempted murder and assault.- ‘I just stood there’ -Rushdie had lived in seclusion in London for the first decade after the fatwa was issued, but for the past 20 years he has lived a relatively normal life in New York.Last year, he published a memoir called “Knife” in which he recounted the near-death experience.”Why didn’t I fight? Why didn’t I run? I just stood there like a pinata and let him smash me,” Rushdie wrote.”It didn’t feel dramatic, or particularly awful. It just felt probable… matter-of-fact.”Tehran denied any link with the attacker — but said only Rushdie was to blame for the incident. The suspect, now 27, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.Rushdie explained in “Knife” that the attack has not changed his view on his most famous work. “I am proud of the work I’ve done, and that very much includes The Satanic Verses. If anyone’s looking for remorse, you can stop reading right here,” he said.Rushdie has said that he did not want to attend the talk, and two days before the incident, he had a dream of being attacked by a gladiator with a spear in a Roman amphitheater.”And then I thought, ‘Don’t be silly. It’s a dream,'” he told CBS.

Iran may seem an unlikely setting for women’s ice hockey, but a fledgling league has seen its young players confront the country’s deeply conservative values and financial obstacles to blaze a trail for the sport.”The first time I was given a stick, I fell in love with this sport,” said Soheila Khosravi, a member of the Iranian women’s league, which played its inaugural round just three years ago.Khosravi left her family home two years ago to dedicate herself fully to ice hockey in Tehran, where Iran’s only Olympic ice rink is located.”It’s hard to live alone here, but it’s for the love of hockey,” said the 17-year-old athlete from the central province of Isfahan.Many of the players often face difficult odds, from social pressures to logistical and financial challenges in pursuing the sport.The players are required to wear the hijab head covering under their helmets, in keeping with the Islamic dress code mandated after the 1979 Islamic Revolution — though in recent years women in big cities have increasingly flouted the law.But despite these challenges and its very recent inception, the women’s league has seen a stellar rise since its first round in December 2021, when four teams competed.The Iranian women’s team claimed the title at the 2024 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Asia and Oceania Cup after defeating the Philippines in the finals, completing an unbeaten run.The victory marked a leap forward for the sport, allowing it to emerge from the sidelines and claim a place in the country.”Hockey is a sport that requires courage and bravery, and you see these two characteristics in Iranian women,” Kaveh Sedghi, a former captain of the men’s national team, told AFP.”We are the only country with more female players than male ice hockey players,” added Sedghi, who is now the president of Iran’s ice hockey association.- ‘Motivated’ -At the rink in Tehran, two teams battle it out for victory to the frenzied cheers of hundreds of exuberant spectators — both women and men.The M.R team, wearing red and white, and the Pandas, in green and black jerseys, are two out of the six teams competing in the league this year.The young women glide across the ice, skillfully manoeuvring the puck at the Iran Mall ice rink — one of only four in the country — which opened less than six years ago.Iran’s ski federation, which oversees ice hockey, introduced a girls’ ice hockey league last August to support the newly established women’s league.But the road to the league is not without obstacles.”We observe hijab when we play and no, we have no restrictions,” said national team player Dorsa Rahmani.”Our jerseys are exactly the same as men. From afar, sometimes you can’t even tell if a girl is playing or a boy,” the 19-year-old added. Financial constraints can nonetheless be a significant hurdle as many talented athletes come from less affluent backgrounds.”They are motivated, but the expenses are their biggest difficulty,” explained Azam Sanaei, the coach of the Iranian women’s team.According to her, a hockey stick, which may need to be replaced every two months, costs around $200 — equal to the average monthly salary in Iran.Despite these challenges, the players remain highly motivated and show great potential, according to Sanaei.Rahmani echoed this sentiment.”We work hard to achieve results,” said the young player who proudly wears the national jersey.

Stock markets slumped Monday over concerns about the global economy after US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico.Wall Street’s three main indices fell sharply in early trading but clawed back ground after Trump postponed the introduction of tariffs on Mexico for one month.Trump announced on Saturday 25 percent levies on imports from …

Stock markets sink on Trump tariffs Read More »

Fierce fighting in south and west Sudan killed at least 65 people and wounded more than 130 Monday, medics said, as the devastating war between the army and paramilitary forces rages on.In South Kordofan, artillery fire on the state capital Kadugli killed at least 40 people and wounded 70, according to two medical sources.The city, controlled by the Sudanese army, was targeted in an attack that Governor Mohamed Ibrahim blamed on a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, which also maintains a foothold in the state.”Hilu’s attack on civilians in Kadugli aims to destabilise” the area, Ibrahim said in a statement to AFP, vowing to “clear the mountains around Kadugli” of rebel forces.The governor said that the shelling targeted a local market.SPLM-N has clashed with both the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in different parts of South Kordofan throughout their war.Sudan has been mired in conflict since April 2023, with battles between the regular army and RSF escalating in recent weeks.- Air strike in Nyala -In the vast western region of Darfur, a military air strike on South Darfur’s capital, Nyala, killed 25 people and wounded 63 on Monday, a medical source told AFP.The attack hit “the Cinema District in Nyala”, an area under RSF control, the source told AFP, on condition of anonymity over safety concerns.In a statement on Monday, the RSF accused the army of using “barrel bombs” against civilians in several neighbourhoods in Nyala.The RSF holds sway over much of Darfur, including Nyala, which lies 195 kilometres (121 miles) from El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur which is the only state in the region still under army control.El-Fasher is home to some two million people who have been under RSF siege since May.The city has seen some of the worst fighting of the war as the army battles to keep its last foothold in the region.The UN’s migration agency said on Monday that more than 600,000 people have been displaced from North Darfur only between April 2024 and January 2025.The International Organisation for Migration reported 95 incidents across North Darfur, more than half occurring in El-Fasher, during this period.”These incidents displaced an estimated 605,257 individuals (121,179 households),” the IOM report said.- Civilians ‘paying the price’ -Monday’s attacks in South Kordofan and Darfur also come amid intensified fighting between the army and the RSF in Khartoum, where the army has made advances against the paramilitaries.Last week, the army broke a siege of its headquarters in the capital and the Signal Corps in Khartoum North, which had both been encircled by the RSF since the war began.On Saturday, at least 60 people were killed and more than 150 injured when the RSF shelled a busy market in army-controlled Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum.Across the Nile in the capital itself, an air strike on an RSF-controlled area left two civilians dead and dozens wounded, rescuers said.Both warring sides have been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.The war has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and devastated Sudan’s fragile infrastructure, forcing most health facilities out of service.As the Sudanese army advances in the capital, the UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed alarm on Monday over reports of summary executions of civilians in Khartoum North, allegedly by fighters and militias allied with the army.”Many of the victims of these incidents were allegedly originally from Darfur or the Kordofan regions of Sudan,” he said, calling on all parties to stop fighting and work towards a lasting peace.Sudanese women, children and men “are paying the price for the continued fighting by the belligerents,” Dujarric added.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday there were “no guarantees” that a fragile ceasefire in Gaza will hold, as he prepares to discuss its future with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Netanyahu was in Washington for talks with the new Trump administration on a second phase of the truce with Hamas, which has not yet been finalised.Just over two weeks after the ceasefire took hold, two Hamas officials said the group was ready to begin talks on the details of a second phase, which could help secure a lasting cessation of violence.Before leaving Israel, Netanyahu told reporters he would discuss “victory over Hamas”, countering Iran and freeing all hostages when he meets Trump on Tuesday.It will be Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since returning to the White House in January, a prioritisation Netanyahu said showed “the strength of the Israeli-American alliance”.With fragile ceasefires holding in both Gaza and Lebanon — where an Israeli campaign badly weakened Iran-backed Hezbollah — Israel has turned its focus to the occupied West Bank and an operation that it says is aimed at rooting out extremism that has killed dozens.Trump, who has claimed credit for sealing the ceasefire deal after 15 months of war, said Sunday negotiations with Israel and other countries in the Middle East were “progressing”.The president later told reporters that he has “no guarantees that the peace is going to hold”.Netanyahu’s office said he would begin discussions with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday over terms for the second phase of the Gaza truce.Witkoff said he was “certainly hopeful” that the truce will hold.The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and could lead to a more permanent end to the war.One Hamas official, speaking to AFP on condition on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the Palestinian group “has informed the mediators… that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase”.A second official said Hamas was “waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round”.The Washington discussions are also expected to cover normalisation efforts between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which Riyadh froze early in the Gaza war.- ‘Return to their land’ -Under the Gaza ceasefire’s first, 42-day phase, Hamas is to free 33 hostages in staggered releases in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.Four hostage-prisoner exchanges have already taken place, and the truce has led to a surge of food, fuel, medical and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza.It has also allowed displaced Gazans to return to the territory’s north, which Israel had blocked before. According to UN humanitarian office OCHA, more than 545,000 people have reached the north since the truce began.During Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, militants took 251 hostages, 91 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory response has killed at least 47,498 people in Gaza, a majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, figures which the UN considers reliable.While Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden sustained Washington’s military and diplomatic backing of Israel, he also criticised the mounting death toll and aid restrictions.Back in office, Trump moved quickly to lift sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and reportedly approved a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that the Biden administration had blocked.Trump has also repeatedly touted a plan to “clean out” Gaza, calling for Palestinians to move to neighbouring countries such as Egypt or Jordan.Qatar, which jointly mediated the ceasefire along with the United States and Egypt, underscored the importance of allowing Palestinians to “return to their homes and land”.Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, meanwhile, warned Monday that relocating Gazans “would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.- Jenin operation -In the West Bank — which is separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory — Israel said it had killed at least 50 militants and detained more than 100 “wanted individuals” in an operation that began on January 21.Israel’s military says the offensive is aimed at rooting out Palestinian armed groups from the Jenin area, where militants have long operated.On Sunday, Palestinian official news agency WAFA said Israeli forces “simultaneously detonated about 20 buildings” in the Jenin refugee camp.On Monday, the Palestinian presidency denounced the operation in the territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and where violence has surged since the Gaza war began.In a statement, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Palestinian presidency “condemned the occupation authorities’ expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the West Bank to implement their plans aimed at displacing citizens and ethnic cleansing”.

A car bomb killed 20 people in northern Syria Monday, authorities said, vowing to punish those behind the attack in an area where Kurdish-led forces and Turkey-backed factions have clashed for weeks.Also on Monday, Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said organising elections could take up to five years, the week after he was appointed interim president and less than two months after ousting Bashar al-Assad.The second such car bomb attack in days in northern Syria’s Manbij — and the deadliest attack since Assad’s ouster — comes amid talks between the new authorities, who are close to Ankara, and the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) over the group’s future.”A treacherous terrorist bombing targeted civilians in Manbij city, killing 20 people,” Syria’s presidency said in a statement, without apportioning blame.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which the SDF also condemned.”This crime will not pass without imposing the most severe of punishments on those responsible,” said the presidency, vowing “to pursue and hold accountable” those involved.Fighting in the Manbij area has raged despite efforts from SDF backer the United States to broker a ceasefire.Turkey, which opposes the SDF, is due to host Sharaa on Tuesday for his second international visit since Assad was toppled.Sharaa, who was in Saudi Arabia for a second day Monday, said in a pre-recorded television interview that “my estimate is that the period of time will be approximately between four and five years until the elections”.He said in the interview broadcast by a private Syrian channel that the vote’s infrastructure “needs to be re-established, and this takes time”.- ‘Correct’ process -Sharaa also pointed to the “technological tools that the state needs” to hold a census “in order to have correct and clear statistics”, in a country where more than 500,000 people have been killed in almost 14 years of war.Millions of others fled abroad.”People have told me a lot, ‘organise elections and the people will vote for you’,” said Sharaa, adding: “For me, that’s not important — what is important is that the process be correct.”He also promised “a law regulating political parties”, adding that Syria would be “a republic with a parliament and an executive government”.Sharaa last week was also tasked with forming an interim legislature and the Assad-era parliament was dissolved, along with the Baath party which ruled Syria for decades.His planned visit to Turkey follows the trip to Saudi Arabia, where he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as war-ravaged Syria seeks reconstruction funds from wealthy Gulf countries.He will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss “joint steps to be taken for economic recovery, sustainable stability and security”, Fahrettin Altun, head of communications at the presidency, said on X.Turkish-backed factions launched attacks on Kurdish-held areas in northern Syria at around the same time as the Islamist-led offensive that overthrew Assad, seizing the strategic Tal Rifaat and Manbij areas.SDF leader Mazloum Abdi condemned Monday’s attack in a post on X, saying that “those responsible must be held accountable”.White Helmets rescuers said women and children were among those killed in the car bombing that targeted agricultural workers on outskirts of Manbij city.- ‘Nobody wants secession’ -Turkey has threatened a military operation against the SDF unless it accepts Ankara’s conditions for a “bloodless” transition after Assad’s fall.Syria’s new authorities have called on the force to hand over its weapons and integrate into a new national army, rejecting demands for Kurdish self-rule.In Monday’s interview, Sharaa said the new authorities were “in negotiations” with the SDF.”There are differences on certain details,” he said, without elaborating, adding that “nobody wants secession in Syria”.Last month, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said after talks in Ankara that Syria would never allow its territory to be used as a staging ground for threats against Turkey.Turkey has mounted multiple operations against the SDF since 2016, and Erdogan had repeatedly threatened to seize Kurdish-held areas in the north like Manbij.The SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted the Islamic State jihadist group from Syria in 2019. It controls much of the oil-producing northeast, where the Kurds have enjoyed de facto autonomy for more than a decade.Turkey accuses the SDF’s main component, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it considers a “terrorist” group.