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Hundreds of US government websites were offline on Monday, an AFP review showed, including that of the humanitarian agency USAID which President Donald Trump’s administration is shutting down.From a list of nearly 1,400 federal sites provided by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), more than 350 were unavailable on Monday afternoon.These included sites linked to the departments of defense, commerce, energy, transportation, labor as well the Central Intelligence Agency and the Supreme Court, the review showed.The exact time when the sites became unavailable was not clear. Nor was it known whether the sites were temporarily offline or taken down at the instruction of Trump’s administration.But the development comes amid the administration’s controversial drive to radically shrink the US government.Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive and the world’s richest person, is leading Trump’s federal cost-cutting efforts under the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).On Monday, Musk said USAID will be shuttered, calling the agency which runs relief programs in about 120 countries a “criminal organization.”USAID’s website was offline as employees were instructed by email not to go to their offices on Monday.A slew of US government websites, including top public health agencies, have also scrubbed references to LGBTQ after a Trump directive last week instructing them to terminate all programs funded by taxpayers that promote “gender ideology,” US media reported.Trump has already issued executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion in the government.Key information and datasets related to HIV and LGBTQ youth have also disappeared from the website of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alarming health experts.On Monday, the CDC’s landing pages for both topics said: “The page you’re looking for was not found.””The removal of HIV- and LGBTQ-related resources from the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies is deeply concerning and creates a dangerous gap in scientific information and data to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks,” the Infectious Diseases Society of America said in a statement.Public access to this information was “especially important as diseases such as HIV, mpox, sexually transmitted infections and other illnesses threaten public health and impact the entire population,” it 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”.

US President Donald Trump delayed the start of tariffs on Mexico for one month after the two countries struck a last-minute border deal Monday — but Canada and China are still in talks to avoid sweeping levies that have caused stock markets to slump.As fears of a damaging global trade war mounted, Trump and his Mexican counterpart Claudia Sheinbaum announced the halt after she agreed to send 10,000 troops to the US-Mexico frontier to stop the flow of the drug fentanyl.Republican Trump said that after the “very friendly” talks he had agreed to “immediately pause” the 25 percent tariffs on Mexico, hours before they were due to take effect. There would now be further talks for a long-term deal, said Trump, who had media tycoon Rupert Murdoch in the Oval Office as he signed a number of executive orders.Leftist Sheinbaum said she had a “good conversation with President Trump with much respect for our relationship and sovereignty.”But despite a “good talk” with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau early Monday, Trump said there was still no agreement. The two leaders were due to talk again later Monday.”Canada is very tough to do business with,” said Trump, who is also imposing 25 percent tariffs on Ottawa.Trump said last-minute talks between Washington and Beijing will likely be held “probably in the next 24 hours” to avoid new tariffs on Chinese imports. China, the top economic competitor to the United States, faces a further 10 percent duty on top of existing levies.- Stocks slump -Canada, China and Mexico are the United States’s three biggest trading partners, and Trump’s threatened tariffs have sent shock waves through the global economy.Wall Street’s three main indices fell sharply in early deals, but clawed back ground after Trump’s announcement on the Mexico deal.The London, Paris and Frankfurt stock markets finished in the red as Trump warned over the weekend that the European Union would be next in the firing line and did not rule out tariffs on Britain.The Mexican peso and Canadian dollar also sank against the greenback, while oil jumped despite Trump limiting the levy on Canada’s energy imports at 10 percent to avoid a spike in fuel prices.The White House said earlier there had been a “heck of a lot of talks” over the weekend — and that they had gone better with Mexico than Canada.”This is not a trade war, this is a drug war,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC.”The Mexicans are very, very serious about doing what President Trump said” in his order imposing the tariffs, he said. “But the Canadians appeared to have misunderstood the plain language.”US government figures show that only a minimal quantity of drugs comes via Canada.- 51st state? -Canada has vowed to respond strongly to the tariffs.Its most populous province Ontario on Monday banned US firms from bidding on tens of billions of dollars in government contracts — and dumped a deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink.Musk is running a cost-cutting drive in Trump’s White House that, in a separate development, could shut down the US Agency for International Development.”Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on X.Trump has upped the pressure recently by calling Canada’s existence into question — once again calling on Monday for it to become the 51st US state.The US president — who has said that tariff is the “most beautiful word in the dictionary” — is going even further in his second term on the levies than he did in his first.He has insisted that the impact would be borne by foreign exporters without being passed on to American consumers, despite most experts saying the contrary.But the billionaire 78-year-old did acknowledge as he returned from a weekend at his Florida resort Sunday that Americans might feel economic “pain”.Trump has also wielded tariffs as a threat to achieve his wider policy goals, most recently when he said he would slap them on Colombia when it turned back US military planes carrying deported migrants.

Medical researchers left to compile national data by hand, contraceptive guidelines deemed essential by doctors erased, and the nation’s largest tuberculosis outbreak left unreported: President Donald Trump’s administration has thrown the US health system into uncharted territory.Here’s a look at some of the biggest impacts. – Key medical journal goes silent -Within days of Trump taking office last month, the Health and Human Services Department imposed an indefinite “pause” on communications.  One of its first casualties was The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), a venerable epidemiological digest published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).For the first time in 60 years, the journal — which once published the first case studies of what would become the AIDS crisis — has missed two editions, with no word on when it will return.”MMWR is the voice of science. The delay in publishing is dangerous,” wrote former CDC director Tom Frieden on BlueSky.Meanwhile, Jeremy Faust, a physician and Harvard instructor who runs the Inside Medicine Substack, reported that CDC scientists have been instructed to retract or pause all papers submitted to external journals to remove language deemed offensive — including the word “gender.”- Critical resources for doctors scrubbed – Doctors nationwide are reeling after the sudden removal of a CDC app that helped determine the suitability of contraceptives based on patients’ medical history and medications.Also deleted: Clinical Guidance for PrEP (a critical HIV-prevention tool), resources on intimate partner violence, and guidelines on LGBTQ+ behavioral health.Some pages have been restored but now carry an ominous banner: “CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders.” Others remain missing, causing widespread confusion.Jessica Valenti, a feminist author and founder of the Abortion Every Day Substack, has been archiving the deleted materials on CDCguidelines.com to preserve the original, inclusive versions.”The hope is to have it be a resource for the people who need it,” she told AFP, adding that even if documents are restored, words like “trans” may be scrubbed from them.- Infectious outbreaks unreported – As medical associations sound the alarm over the lack of federal health communication, outbreaks are slipping under the radar.In Kansas City, Kansas, the largest tuberculosis outbreak in US history is unfolding with 67 active cases since 2024 — yet no national health authority has reported on it.”The National Medical Association (NMA) is calling for a swift resolution to the federal health communications freeze, which has the potential to exacerbate this outbreak and other public health threats,” wrote the group, which represents African American physicians.Similarly, a measles outbreak among unvaccinated schoolchildren in Texas has gone unreported at the national level.Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist who studies influenza trends, wrote on her blog that she has resorted to manually tallying cases from all 50 state health departments because the CDC’s central data repository has been taken down.

The threat of a transatlantic trade war loomed large Monday over a gathering of European leaders aimed at boosting the continent’s defences in the face of an aggressive Russia.The EU’s 27 leaders convened the Brussels talks involving Britain’s prime minister and the head of NATO to brainstorm ways to ramp up European defence spending — a key demand that President Donald Trump has made to America’s allies.But it was Trump’s repeated threat to target Europe “soon” — after having ordered tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China — that set the meeting’s tone.”If we are attacked in terms of trade, Europe — as a true power — will have to stand up for itself and therefore react,” French President Emmanuel Macron warned.The tough talk mirrored the message from the European Commission, which leads trade policy for the bloc and warned Sunday it would “respond firmly” to any US tariffs. German leader Olaf Scholz likewise said Europe should be ready to act.The EU’s foreign policy chief, however, struck a more conciliatory note.”We need America, and America needs us as well,” Kaja Kallas told reporters. “There are no winners in trade wars.”Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, put it more bluntly, labelling trade wars “totally unnecessary and stupid”.Trade aside, Trump has rattled US allies with a series of direct threats — not least his insistence that he wants to acquire strategically important Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, reiterated in Brussels that the Arctic island was “not for sale”.- ‘Never always tranquil’ -The trade threats from the White House add an unwelcome new layer to the already complex challenge of bolstering European defences — faced with a menacing Russia and the spectre of Washington pulling back.Trump has made clear Europe can no longer take US protection for granted, insisting that NATO countries more than double their defence spending target to five percent of their total economic output — a goal out of reach for many.He has also vowed to bring a quick end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, leaving Europeans fearful he could sideline them and force Kyiv into a bad deal.NATO chief Mark Rutte insisted the trade tensions would not weaken the alliance’s collective deterrence. “There are always issues between allies — it is never always tranquil and happy going,” he said.European nations have ramped up their military budgets since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the all-out invasion almost three years ago.But EU officials concede they are still not arming themselves fast enough as warnings grow that Moscow could attack one of their own in the coming years.- ‘Crucial’ -There is widespread consensus across Europe on the need to step up on defence, with Brussels estimating the needs at 500 billion euros ($510 billion) over a decade.”It’s crucial that we today start real discussions how we can and how much we strengthen,” Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said. Key dividing lines revolve around how to fund investment, whether EU cash should be spent only on EU arms, and NATO’s role.Some members are pushing for massive joint EU borrowing but Germany — facing a fraught election — has tried to shut down the sensitive discussion.With no sign of movement on that, EU states have called for the bloc’s lending arm, the EIB, to drop limits on lending to defence firms.On weapons, France — long accused of caring more for its own industry — insists arms should be bought in the EU.- UK security deal? -As doubts swirl over the transatlantic relationship, many are keen to step up ties with an old friend: Britain.Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be back in the fold — at least for one dinner — as the first UK leader to attend a European Council gathering since the country withdrew from the EU five years ago.Starmer said he wanted to work with EU leaders to “crush Putin’s war machine” by further targeting Russia’s economy. The British leader, who has sought to reset relations after the rancour of Brexit, said he wanted to strike a “ambitious” security partnership with the EU.That could bring Britain, with its potent military and large defence industry, a little closer.”We can’t be commentators when it comes to matters of peace on our continent,” Starmer said.But the bitter legacy of Brexit remains.Numerous EU diplomats said there cannot be progress until a dispute over fishing rights is resolved and London drops its opposition to a youth mobility scheme proposed by Brussels.

The World Health Organization’s chief hit back Monday at US President Donald Trump’s reasons for pulling the United States out of the agency — and again urged Washington to reconsider.The United States is by far the WHO’s biggest donor and its withdrawal will leave a major hole in the organisation’s budget and its ability to respond to global public health threats.WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus went through, in turn, the reasons given by Trump’s executive order to withdraw from the organisation, signed within hours of his return to office on January 20, and outlined what the UN health agency was doing in each field.”We regret the decision and we hope the US will reconsider,” Tedros told the opening of the WHO’s executive board meeting.- Reforms and payments -Tedros rejected Trump’s assertion in his executive order that the agency had failed “to adopt urgently needed reforms”.Over the past seven years, the WHO has implemented “the deepest and most wide-ranging reforms in the organisation’s history”, he said.Addressing Trump’s claim that the WHO “demands unfairly onerous payments from the US”, Tedros said the organisation had been working to broaden its donor base.The WHO chief said shifting the balance away from the voluntary contributions, which make up the vast majority of the WHO’s income, towards regular membership fees would address the “over-reliance” on major donors.In its last complete budget cycle, for 2022-23, the United States pitched in $1.3 billion, representing 16.3 percent of the WHO’s $7.89 billion budget. Most of the US funding was through voluntary contributions.- Covid ‘challenges’ -In response to the executive order’s charge of the WHO “mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic”, Tedros highlighted the swift action taken from the very first signals of a “viral pneumonia” spreading in China to alert the world, publish guidance and protect populations.He admitted there were “challenges and weaknesses” along the way.But Tedros said the WHO had taken steps to address those issues, and had created a host of new entities to improve the response like the Pandemic Fund and the mRNA Technology Transfer Hub, along with the new pandemic agreement being negotiated among WHO member states.Finally, Trump’s order said the WHO had an “inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states”.Tedros said the organisation was impartial and tried to serve all countries, but when they make demands on the agency which are “not supported by scientific evidence… we say no, politely”.- ‘Domino effect’ -Responding to Tedros’s address, Israel’s board member Asher Salmon said he feared that Washington leaving “the most relevant health organisation in the world” could trigger a “domino effect” of other countries “not necessarily withdrawing, but losing interest”.He said the WHO must find a pathway to see if the United States could reverse its decision.France’s representative Gregory Emery said: “We are at a turning point. In the face of crises that are reshaping the world, we need a strong, legitimate and effective WHO more than ever.”China’s representative called for the WHO to “continuously improve transparency and accountability” and for “performance indicators for the cost effectiveness in the use of member states’ contributions”.The WHO executive board is meeting at the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva from Monday until February 11. It agrees the agenda and resolutions for the decision-making World Health Assembly in May.

Elon Musk’s aides have taken control of the US Treasury Department’s payments system — which manages trillions of dollars of transactions each year — sparking alarm among critics.Musk, the world’s richest person, is leading President Donald Trump’s federal cost-cutting efforts under the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).”The corruption and waste is being rooted out in real-time,” Musk posted Sunday on X, the platform he owns.Later, replying to a post outlining alleged payments to Lutheran charities, Musk said DOGE was “rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”The Treasury’s closely guarded payments system handles the money flow of the US government, including $6 trillion annually for Social Security, Medicare, federal salaries, and other critical payments.Musk’s control of the payments system was approved by incoming Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and was made possible when a career official was put on administrative leave on Friday after refusing to hand over access, The Washington Post first reported.The official subsequently retired from the department, a source close to the matter told AFP.Trump on Sunday praised Musk as “a big cost-cutter.””Sometimes we won’t agree with it and we’ll not go where he wants to go. But I think he’s doing a great job,” he added.News outlet Wired was first to report that Musk has placed young surrogates working for DOGE into key government positions, with his team gaining unprecedented access to the payment systems typically restricted to career employees.The staff, reportedly aged between 19 and 24, were also placed at the federal Office of Personnel Management, the HR department for public workers that sent out an email last week offering most employees a chance to leave the government on immediate notice with about nine months’ pay.Democratic lawmakers have expressed deep concerns about political operators having access to the US government’s money flow, pointing to possible systemic risks to the economy.Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, blasted the move in a letter to Bessent as “extraordinarily dangerous.””I am alarmed that as one of your first acts as secretary, you appear to have handed over a highly sensitive system responsible for millions of Americans’ private data — and a key function of government — to an unelected billionaire and an unknown number of his unqualified flunkies,” wrote Warren.She also said that sidelining experienced staff in this crucial corner of government “puts the country at greater risk of defaulting on our debt, which could trigger a global financial crisis.”On X, Musk predicted “Excitement guaranteed” in response to a post that said DOGE would uncover an “unprecedented amount of fraud and corruption in numerous government departments.”

US President Donald Trump paused tariffs on Mexico for one month after last-minute talks Monday — but there was no breakthrough yet in negotiations with Canada on an issue that has sparked fears of a global trade war.As world markets slumped, Trump and his Mexican counterpart Claudia Sheinbaum both announced the halt in the levies after she agreed to send 10,000 troops to the US-Mexico border following talks on Monday.Trump said on his Truth Social network that after the “very friendly conversation” he had “agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period.”During that time there would be further talks “as we attempt to achieve a ‘deal’ between our two Countries,” the Republican said.Leftist Sheinbaum had announced the tariff pause a few minutes earlier, saying she had a “good conversation with President Trump with great respect for our relationship and sovereignty.”Trump agreed to increase measures to prevent trafficking of US weapons into Mexico, she said — a point that did not appear in Trump’s statement.The development came hours before the 25 percent levies that Trump has ordered on imports from the US neighbors and chief trading partners — plus an extra 10 percent on China — were due to take effect at midnight on Tuesday.Trump said he had also spoken to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday and was due to speak again at 3:00 pm (2000 GMT) — but the White House said negotiations with Ottawa were not going as well.Trump repeated his frequent claims that the United States is being unfairly treated by trade while pushing his argument that the tariffs were about a “drug war” from opioids “pouring through the Borders of Mexico and Canada.”US government figures show that only a minimal quantity of drugs comes via Canada.- Markets slump -Spiralling fears of a global trade war had earlier sent US, European and Asian markets into a fall.Wall Street stocks opened sharply lower, a European push lower was driven by Frankfurt and Paris with falls of around two percent, and Asian equity markets mostly slid by the close.The Mexican peso and Canadian dollar also sank against the greenback, while oil jumped despite Trump limiting the levy on Canada’s energy imports at 10 percent to avoid a spike in fuel prices.The White House said earlier there had been a “heck of a lot of talks” over the weekend — and that they had gone better with Mexico than Canada.”This is not a trade war, this is a drug war,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC.”The Mexicans are very, very serious about doing what President Trump said” in his order imposing the tariffs, he said. “But the Canadians appeared to have misunderstood the plain language.”Canada has vowed to respond strongly to the tariffs.Its most populous province Ontario on Monday banned US firms from bidding on tens of billions of dollars in government contracts — and dumped a deal with Musk’s Starlink.Musk is running a cost-cutting drive in Trump’s White House that, in a separate development, could shut down the US Agency for International Development.”Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on X.Trump has upped the pressure recently by calling Canada’s existence into question — calling again as recently as Sunday for it to become the 51st US state.- ‘A little pain’ -The US president — who has said that tariff is the “most beautiful word in the dictionary” — is going even further in his second term on the levies than he did in his first.He has insisted that the impact would be borne by foreign exporters without being passed on to American consumers, despite most experts saying the contrary.But the billionaire 78-year-old did acknowledge Sunday that Americans might feel economic “pain”.”We may have short term a little pain, and people understand that,” Trump told reporters as he returned to Washington on Sunday from a weekend at his Florida resort.”But long term, the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world.”Trump has also wielded tariffs as a threat to achieve his wider policy goals, most recently when he said he would slap them on Colombia when it turned back US military planes carrying deported migrants.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to begin talks Monday on a second phase of the ceasefire with Hamas as he meets with the new Trump administration in Washington.Just over two weeks after the Gaza truce began, 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 President Donald 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.Netanyahu said Israel’s wartime decisions had reshaped the Middle East and that with Trump’s support, this could go “even further”.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”.”Netanyahu’s coming on Tuesday, and I think we have some very big meetings scheduled,” Trump said.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.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.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, it also criticised the mounting death toll and aid restrictions.Trump moved quickly to reset relations.In one of his first acts back in office, he lifted 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 to root 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”.The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces had killed 70 people in the West Bank since January 1.Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 883 Palestinians in the West Bank since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023, according to the Palestinian health ministry.At least 30 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.

Hundreds of Latinos in Texas protested Sunday against US President Donald Trump’s push to deport migrants, urging him to “leave the people alone.”Since the Republican retook office on January 20, his administration has announced plans to ramp up deportations of undocumented migrants, and authorized entry of immigration agents at “sensitive” locations, such as churches, schools and workplaces.On Sunday, Latino protesters — many of Mexican, Honduran and Salvadoran descent — marched to Hermann Park in Houston chanting “we are not leaving” and “long live the migrants”. “I’m here to be a voice for the voiceless, for people that are scared right now,” protester Alexandria Pike, 34, told AFP. An American citizen, Pike said her grandmother came to the United States illegally when she was pregnant with her mother “to give all of our generations a better life.” “I want Donald Trump to stop mass deportations now, leave children alone, stay out of school, stay out of places of worship, and all these spaces, and just leave the people alone,” she said. Alfredo Castillo, a 63-year-old American retiree who was the son of Mexican immigrants, said “we are not criminals like Trump says.” “He is the criminal,” he said, referring to Trump’s conviction for making hush money payments to an adult star during his first presidential run.”People come here to work, to make an honest living,” Castillo said. “This country was made by immigrants and it will always be so.”Omar Martinez, a 51-year-old who became a US citizen, said he was fearful for his relatives. “I still have relatives who are not legal and they are people who have been here for many years, hardworking, good people, without crimes, and we are scared for them,” he said, calling for Trump to “stop separating families”. Trump has made deporting undocumented people in the United States a top priority. During his campaign, he described immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of the United States.