President Donald Trump said Sunday a group of buyers had been found for TikTok, which faces a looming ban in the United States due to its China ties, adding he could name the purchasers in two weeks.”We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” Trump said in an interview on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures …
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes and gunfire killed 23 people in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory on Sunday, including at least three children.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that his services “transported 23 martyrs, including several children and women” killed in various locations around the Gaza Strip.The Israeli military told AFP it was not able to comment on the reported incidents but said it was fighting “to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” in a campaign launched to root out the Islamist militant group after its October 2023 attack on Israel.Bassal said two children were killed in an air strike on their home in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood in the early morning, adding “the house was completely destroyed”.A family member, Abdel Rahman Azzam, 45, told AFP he was at home when he “heard a huge explosion at my relative’s house”.”I rushed out in panic and saw the house destroyed and on fire,” he added.”We evacuated more than 20 injured people, including two martyrs — two children from the family. The screams of children and women were non-stop,” Azzam said.”They bombed the house with a missile without any prior warning. This is a horrific crime. We sleep without knowing if we will wake up.”Elsewhere, Bassal said a drone strike on a tent housing displaced people near the southern city of Khan Yunis killed five people, including a child, while four more people were killed by Israeli gunfire in Rafah, also in the south.Restrictions on media in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers.- Israeli soldier killed -The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that a 20-year-old soldier was killed “during combat in the northern Gaza Strip”.The military had issued an evacuation order earlier in the day for parts of Gaza City and nearby areas in the territory’s north.The military “will operate with intense force in these areas, and these military operations will intensify and expand… to destroy the capabilities of the terrorist organisations”, military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a statement on X.He told residents to “evacuate immediately” to the Al-Mawasi area on the southern coast.The civil defence agency later said an Israeli air strike hit a house in Gaza City, killing three people.AFP video footage filmed from southern Israel showed large plumes of smoke rising from northern Gaza.- House destroyed -A resident in the northern town of Jabalia, Ahmed Arar, 60, said his family’s house was destroyed after they received a warning it would be bombed from a person identifying himself as an Israeli army officer.”About half an hour later, they bombed the house, and it was completely destroyed,” he told AFP by telephone.He said the family had already evacuated the house several days ago due to repeated shelling and air strikes.Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 56,500 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.After claiming victory in a 12-day war against Iran that ended with a ceasefire on Tuesday, the Israeli military said it would refocus on its offensive in Gaza, where Palestinian militants still hold Israeli hostages.
An Israeli court on Sunday postponed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony in his corruption trial after he requested a delay, as US President Donald Trump called for the case to be thrown out.”Following the explanations given… we partially accept the request and cancel at this stage Mr Netanyahu’s hearings scheduled” for this week, the Jerusalem district court said in its ruling, published online by Netanyahu’s Likud party.Netanyahu’s lawyers had asked the court to excuse him from testifying over the next two weeks so he could focus on security issues following a ceasefire with Iran and amid ongoing fighting in Gaza where Israeli hostages are held.They had submitted Netanyahu’s schedule to the court to demonstrate “the national need for the prime minister to devote all his time and energy to the political, national and security issues at hand”.The court initially rejected the lawyers’ request but said in its ruling on Sunday that it had changed its judgement after hearing arguments from the prime minister, the head of military intelligence and the chief of the Mossad spy agency.- Trump backing -Trump on Saturday said in a post on his Truth Social platform that the United States was “not going to stand” for the continued prosecution, prompting Netanyahu to thank him in a message on X.Earlier in the week, the US president had described the case against the Israeli premier as a “witch hunt”, saying the trial “should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero”.Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid reacted by saying that Trump “should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country”.Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing in the corruption affair and his supporters have described the long-running trial as politically motivated.In one of the cases, he and his wife, Sara, are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewellery and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favours.In two others, Netanyahu is accused of attempting to negotiate more favourable coverage from two Israeli media outlets.The prime minister has requested multiple postponements to the trial since it began in May 2020.- Rival urges Netanyahu to quit -During his current term, which started in late 2022, Netanyahu’s government has proposed far-reaching judicial reforms that critics say were designed to weaken the courts and prompted massive protests that were only curtailed by the onset of the Gaza war.In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 that aired on Saturday, former prime minister Naftali Bennett accused Netanyahu of deepening divisions in Israeli society, and said that he “must go”.Netanyahu “has been in power for 20 years… that’s too much, it’s not healthy,” Bennett said.The former right-wing premier managed to form a coalition in 2021 that ousted Netanyahu from the premiership after 12 consecutive years, but it collapsed before the end of the following year.Bennett is rumoured to be planning a comeback, with public opinion polls suggesting he may have enough support to oust Netanyahu again. He declined to comment on that prospect in Saturday’s interview.
Operations at Bangladesh’s biggest port were suspended on Sunday as a strike by customs officials brought shipping activity to a halt.The shutdown at Chittagong Port is part of an ongoing dispute between tax authority employees and the government, which is trying to overhaul the body.”The port typically handles around 7,000 to 8,000 containers daily… But …
President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States was “not going to stand” for the continued prosecution of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges.”The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.Netanyahu responded on X, saying “thank you again” and promising that “together, we… will make the Middle East Great Again!”.An Israeli court on Friday rejected Netanyahu’s request to postpone giving testimony in his corruption trial, ruling that he had not provided adequate justification for his request.In one case, Netanyahu and his wife Sara are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewelry and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favors.In two other cases, Netanyahu is accused of attempting to negotiate more favorable coverage from two Israeli media outlets.Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and has thanked Trump for his support in Israel’s war with Iran, which saw a ceasefire agreement earlier this week.His lawyer had asked the court to excuse the leader from hearings over the next two weeks, saying he needs to concentrate on “security issues.”Trump on Wednesday sprung to Netanyahu’s defense, describing the case against him as a “witch hunt.”On Saturday, he described Netanyahu as a “War Hero” and said the case would distract the prime minister from negotiations with Iran and with Hamas, the Gaza-based Palestinian armed group that Israel is at war with.”This travesty of ‘Justice’ will interfere with both Iran and Hamas negotiations,” said Trump, although it was unclear what negotiations he was referring to with regards to Iran.Hamas took 251 hostages during its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, with 49 still believed to be held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Talks are ongoing for the return of the remaining hostages and the bodies of those killed, while Israel’s punishing war on Gaza continues unabated.The US leader also likened Netanyahu’s legal troubles to his own before he took office for his second term.”It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure,” said Trump.The Republican was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in May 2024 in a case related to hush money payments to a porn star.Trump also faced two federal cases, one related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The world’s most advanced AI models are exhibiting troubling new behaviors – lying, scheming, and even threatening their creators to achieve their goals.In one particularly jarring example, under threat of being unplugged, Anthropic’s latest creation Claude 4 lashed back by blackmailing an engineer and threatened to reveal an extramarital affair.Meanwhile, ChatGPT-creator OpenAI’s o1 tried to …
AI is learning to lie, scheme, and threaten its creators Read More »
