World
Trump invites Israel’s Netanyahu to meet with him at White House
The Israeli prime minister will be the first foreign leader to visit in Trump’s second term
US President Donald Trump has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House next week as the first foreign leader to visit in Trump’s second term, Netanyahu and the White House said Tuesday.
The announcement came as the United States pressures Israel and Hamas to continue a ceasefire that has paused a devastating 15-month war in Gaza, Associated Press reported.
Talks about the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which aims to end the war, begin Monday.
In a letter from the White House, shared by Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday, Trump said: “I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries.”
Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid, and Netanyahu is likely to encourage Trump not to hold up some weapons deliveries the way the Biden administration did, though it continued other deliveries and overall military support.
Netanyahu also reportedly wants Trump to put more pressure on Iran, and renew efforts to deliver a historic normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a rival of Iran and the Arab world’s most powerful country.
Even before taking office this month, Trump was sending his special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to the region to apply pressure along with the Biden administration to get the current Gaza ceasefire achieved.
But Netanyahu has vowed to renew the war if Hamas doesn’t meet his demands in negotiations over the ceasefire’s second phase, meant to discuss a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a “sustainable calm,” AP reported.
Trump’s suspension of aid sets off alarm bells
According to Washington-based think tank, the Brookings Institution, there is a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability about Trump’s presidency in the coming months not just domestically but also internationally.
One area of growing concerns is that related to US foreign aid after Trump suspended all funding for 90 days, pending a review.
Humanitarian organisations and U.N. agencies say they could face drastic curbs on their ability to distribute food, shelter and healthcare if the freeze becomes permanent.
The U.S. is by far the biggest contributor to global humanitarian aid, supplying an estimated $13.9 billion in 2024, accounting for 42% of all aid tracked by the United Nations, Reuters reported.
Washington did however say it would grant waivers to the freeze in some areas including emergency food assistance, according to a memo seen by Reuters.
Bangladesh’s government said in a statement that the U.S. had granted a waiver for emergency food aid to more than a million Rohingya refugees sheltering in Bangladesh.
But the exemption does not apply to other humanitarian programming. A Bangladesh-based aid worker said organisations working on shelter, for example, would not be able to buy new materials for building and fixing homes for refugees.
The cuts will also affect the supply of lifesaving drugs for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis around the globe, which millions of people depend on, according to another memo seen by Reuters.
World Food Program Country Director for Afghanistan Hsiao-Wei Lee told Reuters she was concerned about the freeze given that the WFP was already only receiving about half the aid it needed for Afghanistan, and that over 6 million people were surviving on “just bread and tea”.
The WFP received $4.7 billion from the U.S. last year, accounting for 54% of its funding, according to the U.N.
The order to freeze funding has thrown USAID missions and their partners into chaos, with many organisations unsure whether to lay off staff, start selling assets such as cars or tell employees to take unpaid leave, according to a source at the agency.
USAID has been forbidden from communicating with implementing partners except to say funds have been paused, the person told Reuters.
“These are people we work with on a daily basis,” the source added. “We can’t speak with them any more.”
In 2023, the U.S. was the largest landmine action donor with a total contribution of $310 million, representing 39% of all international support, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Syria, Myanmar, Ukraine and Afghanistan were among the countries where uncleared mines claim most lives.
The State Department said on Sunday, that the U.S. government must refocus on American national interests in its role as steward of taxpayer dollars.
“President Trump stated clearly that the United States is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people. Reviewing and realigning foreign assistance on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not just the right thing to do, it is a moral imperative,” the State Department said.
World
One dead in new attack on Saudi airport, a day after Houthi strike kills 13
US aviation authorities issued a notice to US airlines to use caution while flying to or over the kingdom, Reuters reported.
One person was killed and nearly a dozen hurt in a new attack Riyadh’s international airport on Sunday, Saudi authorities reported, a day after a strike claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, Reuters reported.
Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen said an unidentified projectile had targeted Riyadh’s international airport Terminal 4 on Sunday, causing a fire. Eleven people were wounded in addition to the fatality, the Saudi civil aviation authority said.
Coalition forces also said Saudi air defences had intercepted a cruise missile in the vicinity of King Khalid International Airport. They later added that a drone had been intercepted and destroyed in the country’s Eastern Province, and a ballistic missile launched towards Khamis Mushait had been intercepted. Emergency alerts were also issued in Abha, in the south, early on Monday but the danger had since passed, the Saudi Civil Defense said.
The strikes have exposed vulnerabilities in Saudi defence capabilities as the kingdom wages an air campaign against the Houthis, who are fighting a ground war in Yemen against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
Footage released by Saudi state television of the Saturday attack on the Riyadh airport showed scores of religious pilgrims lined up at a gate as they prepared to travel to Islam’s two holiest sites. A bright orange flash sent people running in panic, while parts of the roof appeared to cave in, read the report.
The airport was closed after the attack, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade.
In a televised speech on Sunday, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack and said the group had also struck the airport in Dammam in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province and two facilities of Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco.
The Saudi government’s media office and Aramco did not respond to requests for comment.
The Saudi civil aviation authority confirmed the strike on Dammam’s King Fahd International Airport late on Sunday, adding that “damage assessments and safety inspections of airport facilities are under way.”
An eyewitness aboard a taxiing aircraft at Dammam told Reuters that around 8:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) on Sunday, they saw a projectile strike the tarmac beside several parked aircraft, causing a fire. The witness said the aircraft returned to the gate. Passengers disembarked and were told to leave.
Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed several delays and cancellations on Sunday for arrivals and departures at Dammam airport, the kingdom’s third-largest.
The Houthis earlier on Sunday had renewed their warning against using Saudi airports. “We urge everyone to take our warnings seriously, and Saudi Arabia bears responsibility for any failed interceptions,” the group said.
Britain’s embassy in Saudi Arabia in a post on X advised British citizens against all but essential travel to Jeddah, Dammam and all airports in the kingdom except the airport in Medina.
US aviation authorities issued a notice to US airlines to use caution while flying to or over the kingdom, Reuters reported.
Saudi Arabia has recently stepped up its military involvement in Yemen, launching strikes against the Houthis and backing a government counteroffensive after the Houthis seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast last month.
The Houthis said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia carried out 124 air strikes in Yemen in the past 24 hours. “Unless the Saudi enemy stops its aggression and interference in Yemen, worse is yet to come, God willing,” Yemen’s Houthi-run foreign ministry said in statements carried by Al Masirah television.
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday the United States was considering joining Saudi strikes on the Houthis in the conflict, a spillover from the wider war with Iran that the US and Israel launched in February.
In a post on Telegram, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said he told his Saudi counterpart that Tehran was ready to help facilitate dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
A five-day conference of international energy organization WPC Energy opened as planned on Sunday at a convention centre about 10 km (6 miles) from the Riyadh airport, the Saudi energy ministry said.
A ministerial meeting of the International Energy Forum also went ahead, according to a media advisory from the ministry. It was not clear which ministers attended.
Italy’s energy minister, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, whose country was co-hosting, had said on Friday he would participate remotely via video link.
German officials were trying to organise a return flight for economy minister Katherina Reiche, read the report.
She was supposed to return to Berlin from Riyadh on Monday but the ministry said it appeared likely her flight would be unable to take off.
Separately, Saudi authorities announced that in-person classes at schools in Riyadh would be shifted to remote learning from Sunday until Thursday.
Sunday’s attack brought the death toll in attacks on Riyadh’s airport to 18 for the week. In Saturday’s attack, the dead included four Saudis while the remainder were foreign nationals, Saudi authorities said.
World
14 killed in two separate mass shootings across the United States
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro expressed his support for the affected community, describing the incident as a tragic loss of life.
At least 14 people have been killed in two separate mass shootings in the United States within hours of each other, according to local authorities.
Five people were shot dead at a home in Douglas, Georgia, on Friday evening, police said.
In a separate incident in Erie, Pennsylvania, nine people were killed, including two children and a pregnant woman. Authorities confirmed that the suspected assailant was also among the dead.
Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah described the scene as one of the most devastating incidents of his career, saying the motive for the shooting had not yet been established.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro expressed his support for the affected community, describing the incident as a tragic loss of life.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding both shootings.
World
Zelenskiy says letting Russia sell diesel to US is ‘investment in war’
“Gifts to Putin will not bring peace or any benefit to the civilised world,” Zelenskiy wrote on the X social media platform.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy criticised an accord on Friday between the US and Russia allowing Moscow to provide the US with diesel, calling it “an investment in a war that must be ended.”
He dismissed the accord, which was announced while a Ukrainian delegation was in the US to discuss how to seek a resolution of the war with Russia, as “a weak decision on the part of strong partners”.
“Gifts to Putin will not bring peace or any benefit to the civilised world,” Zelenskiy wrote on the X social media platform.
“Russia will ‘repay’ the diesel with further terror and perfidy. Allowing Russia to sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged. What is needed is real de-escalation with Russia on a reciprocal basis,” Zelenskiy said.
Trump said in a post on social media that he had agreed in a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia would immediately supply diesel to the US and global marketplace. Trump said lower prices for Americans “is my Greatest Priority”.
Zelenskiy, speaking to reporters later on WhatsApp, said the accord would provide Moscow with additional funds to wage war and undermine any attempts to work towards a settlement.
“I believe our team is simply being used as a front. And that is certainly not fair, nor is it how partners should treat each other,” he said. “In my view, it is a weak decision on the part of strong partners.”
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