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Global markets slumped Monday, with Wall Street logging sharp losses over fears that US President Donald Trump’s trade policies could tip the world’s biggest economy into a recession.In the United States, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted by 4.0 percent, seeing its worst day since 2022 after Trump declined to rule out the risk of …

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Syria’s new authorities announced on Monday the end of an operation against loyalists of deposed president Bashar al-Assad, after a war monitor reported more than 1,000 civilians killed in the worst violence since his overthrow.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the overwhelming majority of the 1,068 civilians killed since Thursday were members of the Alawite minority who were executed by the security forces or allied groups.The violence in the coastal heartland of the Alawite community, to which the ousted president belongs, has threatened to throw into chaos the country’s fragile transition after decades of the Assad clan’s iron-fisted rule.The authorities on Monday ended their sweeping “military operation” against security threats and “regime remnants” in Latakia and Tartus provinces on the Mediterranean coast, defence ministry spokesman Hassan Abdul Ghani said in a statement.The announcement came after interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Islamist group led the offensive that toppled Assad on December 8, said the country would not be pulled back into civil strife.”Syria… will not allow any foreign powers or domestic parties to drag it into chaos or civil war,” Sharaa said in a speech.He also vowed to “hold accountable, firmly and without leniency, anyone who was involved in the bloodshed of civilians… or who overstepped the powers of the state”.Clashes broke out in the area on Thursday after gunmen loyal to the deposed president attacked Syria’s new security forces.The fighting has killed 231 security personnel and 250 pro-Assad fighters, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria. The authorities did not provide any casualty figures.In Jableh in Latakia province, a resident who requested anonymity over safety concerns spoke to AFP in tears about being terrorised by armed groups who had taken control of the town.”More than 50 people from among my family and friends have been killed. They gathered bodies with bulldozers and buried them in mass graves.”- ‘Extreme fear’ -In some areas, residents had begun tentatively venturing out, but many were still afraid to leave home after dark and complained of a lack of basic supplies.”Today the situation in Latakia is a little calmer, people are out and about after five days of anxiety and extreme fear,” said Farah, a 22-year-old university student who gave only her first name.But with the situation still “very tense”, she said that “after six o’clock… the neighbourhood turns into a ghost town”.An AFP journalist said the road between Latakia and Jableh further south was largely empty, with only military vehicles and ambulances passing through.Vehicles damaged in clashes also littered the sides of the road.During a sermon in Damascus on Sunday, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch John X said that “many innocent Christians were also killed” alongside Alawites.Obituaries were shared on social media for several members of the small Christian community living on the coast, seven of whom AFP was able to confirm were killed.”We are all victims, from all sects,” said Michel Khoury, 42, a Christian lawyer in Latakia.”We are all on a sinking ship, and no one will protect us except ourselves.”The Syrian presidency has announced the formation of an “independent committee” to “investigate the violations against civilians and identify those responsible”.Amnesty International said on Monday that the authorities should also “grant independent national and international investigators access to Syria… so that they can conduct their own fact-finding work”.- ‘Not in control’ -Sharaa — whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has its roots in the Syrian branch of jihadist network Al-Qaeda — has vowed to protect Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities since toppling Assad.HTS is still listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and other governments.Analysts have said the latest violence calls into question the new authorities’ ability to rule and rebuild a country devastated by 13 years of civil war.”The militia chaos that we saw in the Alawite coastal cities tells us… that the new Syrian army is not in control,” said Joshua Landis, an expert on Syria at the University of Oklahoma.The violence “will hinder Ahmed al-Sharaa’s efforts to consolidate his rule and to convince the international community that he is in control”, Landis added.Iran, a key backer of Assad, on Monday rejected as “completely ridiculous” accusations that Tehran may have been involved in the latest violence.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, pledged to continue providing “every kind of support for our neighbour Syria to recover… and to achieve peace with all its ethnic and sectarian minorities”.The Syrian presidency announced on Monday evening an agreement to integrate into the national government the institutions of the autonomous Kurdish administration that controls large parts of the country’s northeast, including vital oil and gas fields.The statement, signed by Sharaa and the head of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), called the Kurds “an essential component” of Syria, and made reference to “supporting the Syrian state in its fight against Assad’s remnants”.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Monday rejected Israel’s assertion that other organisations could replace it in Gaza, insisting that only a Palestinian state “institution” could take over.Israel has banned UNRWA from operating in Gaza and agency chief Philippe Lazzarini hit back after Israel’s ambassador Daniel Meron told reporters  that his country was “working to find substitutes to the work of UNRWA inside Gaza”.Israel was actively “encouraging UN agencies and NGOs to take over,” he said.Lazzarini told reporters that UNRWA was still “it can’t be an NGO, it can’t be another UN agency”.”The only viable alternative are capable Palestinian institutions … in a Palestinian state.”For more than seven decades, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has provided aid and assistance to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.But after Israel said some UNRWA staff took part in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, Israeli legislation severing ties with the agency came into force at the end of January.UNRWA has been banned from operating on Israeli soil and from contacting Israeli officials.The UN says the move would hamper vital services delivered by the agency in Gaza, which has been ravaged by 15 months of war.UNRWA is “continuing to operate in Gaza. We are continuing to operate in the West Bank”, Lazzarini said.The agency said Sunday that since January it had “delivered food assistance to the entire population of the Gaza Strip”. It also carried out “over 412,000 health consultations and reached more than half a million people with shelter and non-food items”.- ‘More vulnerable’ -Lazzarini stressed the Israeli ban meant the agency was facing “serious operational challenges”, and warned that agency staff “feel much more vulnerable” without the ability to coordinate with the Israeli military.UN agencies and other aid organisations have repeatedly said that UNRWA could not be replaced. The agency is also the main provider of basic public services in Gaza, including education and social services for registered  refugees.Meron said Israel was urging other specialist organisations to step in. For instance, he said, the UN’s World Food Programme could deal with food, while “others deal with other issues”.”There has been serious work… with the different agencies and making sure that the people of Gaza will not suffer because of the this… switch from UNRWA to other agencies,” he said.Lazzarini acknowledged that if the only objective is to “bring trucks into Gaza” to address the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, others could step in.But he insisted that UNRWA’s role was far broader.”When it comes to the acute humanitarian emergency, yes of course you will find other NGOs and UN agencies who could scale up,” he said.”The real question is, who will provide primary health? Who will provide education?”

US President Donald Trump said Monday that the detention of a leader of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University in New York is “the first arrest of many to come.””We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.Mahmoud Khalil, one of the most prominent faces of the university’s protest movement that erupted last year in opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza, was arrested by immigration officials over the weekend.The Department of Homeland Security said the action was taken “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State.”Khalil, a Columbia graduate, held a permanent residency green card at the time of his arrest, according to the Student Workers of Columbia union.Trump threatened in his post further action against other campus protesters, some of whom he alleged without evidence to be “paid agitators.””We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again,” he wrote.The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) condemned Khalil’s arrest, calling it “unprecedented, illegal, and un-American.” “The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate,” said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, in a statement.The arrest also prompted an outcry from the United Nations, with the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying Monday “it is crucial to underscore the importance of respecting the right of freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly everywhere.”US campuses including Columbia’s were rocked by student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. The demonstrations ignited accusations of anti-Semitism.Protests — some of which turned violent and saw campus buildings occupied and lectures disrupted — pitted students protesting Israel’s conduct against pro-Israel campaigners, many of whom were Jewish. 

For Gazan teacher Abdullah Mortaja, Israel’s decision to cut off electricity to the war-battered territory was “a joke”, having already lived with little power supply since war began more than 16 months ago.The announcement Sunday by Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen followed a decision to block the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip in a bid to pressure Hamas to extend a fragile ceasefire on Israel’s terms.But for many in the Palestinian territory where Israel had imposed a “complete siege” at the start of the war in October 2023, living without electricity has become the norm.”What electricity do they want to cut?” said Mortaja, 40.”There is no electricity in Gaza”.Of the nearly dozen high-voltage power lines cut at the start of the war — along with food and water supply — one was reconnected by Israel in November to restart Gaza’s main water desalination plant.On Monday, employees at the facility in the central city of Deir el-Balah filled large tanks with water that had been treated before the cut-off, which brought the plant to a near-complete halt.Around 600,000 people — about a quarter of Gaza’s population — rely on the plant’s supply of drinking water, according to UN figures.Solar panels, which together with fuel-powered generators have become key sources of electricity in Gaza, allow only for extremely limited activity at the desalination plant, said a UN source.Instead, many people are now left to rely on brackish well water or the occasional supply of potable water from international humanitarian aid groups, added the source involved in work in the Gaza Strip.- Power grid ravaged -Announcing the electricity cut on the eve of a new round of ceasefire negotiations in Qatar, Cohen said Israel “will use all the tools at our disposal” to secure the release of hostages held by Gaza militants since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war.Hamas called Cohen’s decision “cheap and unacceptable blackmail” as the sides fail to agree a path toward a permanent end to their war.The first phase of the fragile Gaza truce began on January 19 and ended in early March, with no agreement yet on subsequent stages.More than 15 months of intense Israeli bombardment and fighting before the truce began had left electricity pylons collapsed and mangled across Gaza.One official from the Gaza Electricity Company, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Israeli attacks “destroyed 70 percent of the electricity distribution networks”.At night, the territory is plunged into almost total darkness.In the relatively few buildings left standing, the odd window is illuminated by a small square of white LED light.The war has displaced nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants and triggered widespread hunger, according to the UN, with hundreds of thousands living in tents as their homes were damaged or destroyed.”Cutting electricity will only worsen our suffering,” said Jihan Khalil, 35, who has taken shelter in a school building in Nuseirat refugee camp.- ‘Went back to 50 years ago’ -For 47-year-old Baha al-Helou, living conditions were as if “we went back to 50 years ago”.”We sleep without electricity, wash our clothes by hand, cook with wood, and there is no gas for cooking,” he told AFP.”Now our lives depend on wood, fire and candles.”From apartment blocks to hospitals, fuel-powered generators have been a common alternative for years in Gaza, where the electricity supply was precarious even before the war, in part due to a crippling Israeli-led blockade.Israel’s power supply to Gaza depended on payments from the Palestinian Authority — based in the occupied West bank, a separate territory, and dominated by political rivals of Hamas.The Palestinian Authority had previously withheld funds as a means of exerting pressure on Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007.Carpenter Hani Ajour said he had little choice but to use a public generator in the street.But that option is expensive, and he can only afford to plug in his machines for a few minutes a day.Some Gazans rely on solar panels, but these are less efficient and sell for around $2,000, a fortune in the impoverished territory.For the most destitute, street vendors offer to charge telephones on a multi-socket cable for a few Israeli shekels, the equivalent of several quarter dollars.

Israel’s negotiating team left for Qatar Monday for talks aimed at extending the fragile Gaza ceasefire after the authorities cut the Palestinian territory’s electricity supply to ramp up pressure on Hamas.Ahead of the negotiations, Israel disconnected the only power line to a water desalination plant in Gaza, a move Hamas denounced as “cheap and unacceptable blackmail”.The first phase of the truce deal expired on March 1 with no agreement on subsequent stages that should secure a lasting end to the war that erupted with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.There are differences over how to proceed — Hamas wants immediate negotiations on the next phase, but Israel prefers extending phase one.Hamas accused Israel of reneging on the ceasefire deal, saying in a statement on Monday that Israel “refuses to commence the second phase, exposing its intentions of evasion and stalling”.An Israeli official familiar with the negotiations told AFP the country’s team had left for Doha. Media reports said the delegation was led by a top official from the domestic security agency Shin Bet.Israel has halted aid deliveries to Gaza amid the deadlock and said on Sunday it was cutting the electricity supply.”We will use all the tools at our disposal to bring back the hostages and ensure that Hamas is no longer in Gaza the day after” the war, Energy Minister Eli Cohen said.- Loss of drinking water -The move echoed the early days of the war when Israel announced a “complete siege” on the Palestinian territory, severing the electricity supply, which only began flowing again in late 2024.Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanoua said Israel’s move would impact its hostages still held in Gaza.”The decision to cut electricity is a failed option and poses a threat to its prisoners, who will only be freed through negotiations,” Qanoua said in a statement on Monday.The United Nations expressed concerns over Israel’s latest decision.”This latest decision will substantially reduce the availability of drinking water in the Gaza Strip, starting today,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.”Restoring this connection is vital for tens of thousands of families and children.”Germany’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer said that cutting off electricity was “unacceptable and not compatible with (Israel’s) obligations under international law”.But Israel’s key military ally, the United States, appeared to back the decision.”The Israelis are going to do what they believe is in their interest to force Hamas to make a decision,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told journalists.The sole power line between Israel and Gaza supplies electricity to the territory’s main desalination plant, and Gazans now mainly rely on solar panels and fuel-powered generators to produce electricity.- ‘Long-term truce’ -Gaza residents told AFP the electricity cut would only worsen their situation.”The decision to cut off electricity is proof of a war of extermination,” Dina al-Sayigh said from Gaza City.”The occupation never stops killing Palestinian civilians, whether by bombing, missiles or by starvation.”Hamas has repeatedly demanded that the second phase of the truce — brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States — include a comprehensive hostage-prisoner exchange, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a permanent ceasefire and the reopening of border crossings to end the blockade.Spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP that Hamas wanted the mediators to ensure Israel “complies with the agreement… and proceeds with the second phase according to the agreed-upon terms”.Former US president Joe Biden had outlined a second phase involving hostage releases and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza.US envoy Adam Boehler, who has held unprecedented direct talks with Hamas, told CNN on Sunday a deal could be reached “within weeks” to secure the release of all remaining hostages.Of the 251 hostages taken during the October 7 attack, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed dead.Boehler told CNN a “long-term truce” was “real close”.- ‘Nothing available’ -Hamas meanwhile accused Israel of violating the ceasefire by keeping its troops at the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land on the Palestinian side of the Egypt-Gaza border.Hamas said that, according to the ceasefire deal, Israel was to remove troops from the corridor by Sunday. Israel seized the area last year and insists that controlling it is vital to stop smuggling of weapons into Gaza.The initial 42-day phase of the truce, which began on January 19, reduced hostilities after more than 15 months of relentless fighting that displaced nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people.But in recent days, Israel has carried out daily strikes targeting militants in Gaza, including on Monday when it struck three people it said were trying to plant explosives.During the ceasefire’s first phase, 25 living Israeli hostages and eight bodies were exchanged for about 1,800 Palestinians in Israeli custody.Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, while Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,467 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from both sides.

Members of Syria’s small Christian community on the coast are living in fear after attacks killed more than 1,000 mostly Alawite civilians, with Christians reportedly caught up in the violence.”The current conflict in Syria does not concern me, but we are its victims,” said Ruwayda, a 36-year-old Christian from the port city of Latakia.”There’s a feeling that no one is protecting us,” she told AFP.”I feel a mix of both fear and anticipation for what lies ahead in Syria, but I feel certain that migration is the only option,” she added.The wave of violence — the worst since former president Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December — erupted in Syria’s Alawite heartland on the coast on Thursday.It began with clashes between gunmen loyal to Assad and the country’s new security forces.What later transpired has been described as a “massacre” in which members of Assad’s Alawite minority were targeted.War monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at least 1,068 civilians — the vast majority Alawites — killed by security forces and allied groups.There were reports of Christians being caught in the crosshairs.In a Damascus sermon on Sunday, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch John X said “many innocent Christians were also killed” alongside Alawites.Obituaries have been shared on social media for several members of the small Christian community on the coast.AFP was able to confirm at least seven of these, including for a man and his son an acquaintance said were shot on their way to Latakia.Another four members of one family were killed in their home in an Alawite-majority neighbourhood of the city, and the father of a priest was killed in Baniyas further south, relatives and their churches said.- ‘Doors locked’ -Social media videos have also spread panic, with one showing a fighter speaking in a non-Syrian Arabic dialect threatening Christians as well as Alawites.One Christian resident of Latakia, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said he and his neighbours “have been staying at home since the start of the escalation with the doors locked for fear that foreign fighters might enter”.All the Christians who spoke to AFP refused to give their full or real names for safety reasons.Many of the fighters who have staged the attacks since Thursday were not from Syria, according to various accounts.Analyst Fabrice Balanche said that before the war began in 2011, Syria had about one million Christians, or about five percent of the population.He said that number shrank to about 300,000 after the majority fled during the civil war.Despite efforts by the interim president and government to assuage fears, Syria’s various minorities, including Christians, have been gripped by dread since the Sunni authorities seized power in December.Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa led the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad.HTS was an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in Syria, and remains proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments including the United States.- ‘Pale with fear’ -By Monday, a sense of relative normalcy had returned to Latakia, as security forces erected checkpoints outside Alawite-majority neighbourhoods, an AFP correspondent said.In Sunni and Christian districts, there was near-normal activity, although they lacked their habitual hustle and bustle.”We are very anxious. People’s faces are pale with fear,” said Heba, a Christian teacher who used a pseudonym to protect her identity.”We don’t know what the future will bring,” the 40-year-old said.She noted that while Christians had not been targeted directly as Alawites were, people were killed after being caught in crossfire.In a joint statement on Saturday, the pastors of churches in Latakia urged residents “not to be carried away by rumours”.The statement sought to send a “message of reassurance” after the pastors met “a delegation from the leadership of the security department”.Sharaa on Sunday vowed to “hold accountable, firmly and without leniency, anyone who was involved in the bloodshed of civilians… or who overstepped the powers of the state”.But residents such as Gabriel, 37, said this failed to allay deep fears.”I’m not reassured about my future and I don’t dare get married and have children in this place,” he said.”A decade ago I had the chance to migrate to Canada, but I gambled that the situation would improve.”Today I regret not making use of that opportunity.”