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Biden admin doesn’t want Israel-Hamas to suck U.S. back into the Middle East

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:57 GMT

President Joe Biden heads to Israel tomorrow not just to show support for a country during one of its darkest hours but to prevent the administration from getting bogged down in a larger Middle East conflict — one that could derail its agenda.Biden has been privately adamant that the administration needs to demonstrate it has Israel’s back, said five U.S. officials, all granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. The decision to make a one-day visit to the country was crafted with that in mind.But those officials also said there was a subtler objective inside the administration. No one, in the Oval Office or elsewhere in the West Wing, has an appetite to make Israel’s fight against Hamas the top foreign policy priority — and especially with mounting domestic concerns and a growing struggle to sustain support for Kyiv in its war with Russia.“We’re going to keep helping the Israelis wage this fight,” said one of the officials, adding that “there’s no interest in see...

Into the honey pot: Serbia and China ink free trade deal

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:57 GMT

Serbia and China signed a free trade deal on Tuesday, bringing the two countries closer together at a time when much of Europe is seeking to “de-risk” trading ties with China.Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who attended the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing on Tuesday, told reporters in Beijing the agreement was “a big step forward” for Serbia.“I am grateful to President Xi Jinping for the importance he gives to Serbia,” Vučić wrote on Instagram.The Serbian leader said he hoped the agreement would enter into force by May or June next year.It is the fourth free trade deal China has struck with a European country, after Switzerland, Iceland and Georgia. Though the details of the agreement have not been made public, it will particularly benefit Serbian producers of honey, Vučić said, as well as the country’s winemakers. It comes as the European Union, which does not have a free trade agreement with Beijing, is seeking to “de-risk&#...

Live updates | Biden arrives in Israel as tensions grow after hospital blast in Gaza

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:57 GMT

President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday on an urgent mission to keep the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a broader regional conflict and to encourage the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on the tarmac to greet Biden.The visit comes after hundreds of people were reported killed in an explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital on Tuesday. Hamas blamed the blast on an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military blamed a rocket misfired by another militant group, Islamic Jihad.The war that began Oct. 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,778 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 wounded. That was before the blast at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital hospital on Tuesday night. Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, and at least 199 others, including children, were c...

UK national, South African and local guide killed in an attack near a Ugandan national park

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:57 GMT

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A tourist from Britain, another from South Africa and their local guide were killed in an attack on a tourist vehicle near a Ugandan national park, according to wildlife authorities. Unknown assailants set the victims’ vehicle ablaze Tuesday along a road by Queen Elizabeth National Park, located in a remote area of southwestern Uganda near the Congo border. The park is one of the most popular conservation areas in the east African country. Attacks within and around national parks are rare in Uganda, with specialist police units deployed there. Ugandan police, in a statement, blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, a shadowy rebel group with ties to the Islamic State.Ugandan troops are currently hunting down the ADF deep inside Congo. Ugandan authorities say hundreds of ADF rebels have been killed in airstrikes in recent months.Thomas Tayebwa, deputy speaker of the national assembly said on social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, ...

In the news today: Israel-Hamas war roils as Canadians fear peace is impossible

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:57 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed tobring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Intense Israeli bombardments continue to strike GazaGaza’s Interior Ministry said Israel renewed airstrikes before dawn on Wednesday and hit locations across the Gaza Strip after the blast at al-Ahli Hospital. At least 37 people were killed following attacks in the al-Qasasib and Halima al-Saadia areas of Jabalia, north of Gaza, it said.Officials with Shifa Hospital, where hundreds of victims of the al-Ahli Hospital blast were taken, say the facility will run out of fuel on Wednesday unless more supplies enter the Gaza Strip.The hospital, Gaza’s largest, is stretched far beyond its capacity following the al-Ahli explosion, General Director Mohammed Abu Selmia said Wednesday, adding that health workers were still treating severely wounded patients.Aid workers, meantime, warned that life in Gaza was near complete collapse because of the Israeli siege that followed...

Biden lands in Israel as Middle East turmoil grows following hospital explosion in Gaza

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:57 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — President Joe Biden touched down in Israel on Wednesday for a diplomatic scramble to prevent the war with Hamas from spiraling into an even larger conflict, a challenge that became more difficult as outrage swept through the Middle East over an explosion that killed hundreds in a Gaza Strip hospital. Biden was originally scheduled to visit Jordan as well, but his meetings with Arab leaders were called off as he was leaving Washington, costing him an opportunity for the face-to-face conversations that he views as crucial for navigating this fraught moment. Now Biden’s only stop is Tel Aviv, where he’s expected to push for allowing critical humanitarian aid into Gaza during meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel has been preparing for a potential ground invasion of Gaza in response to Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, which killed 1,400 Israelis. John Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, told reporters aboard Air Force On...

Stock market today: World markets edge lower as China reports slower growth in the last quarter

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:57 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Markets fell in Europe and Asia after China reported Wednesday that its economy grew at a 4.9% annual pace in July-September, down from 6.3% in the previous quarter. Oil prices jumped more than $1.Germany’s DAX was unchanged at 15,253.87 while the CAC 40 in Paris also was virtually flat at 7,028.83. Britain’s FTSE 199 fell 0.2% to 7,656.76 as the government reported that inflation held steady at 6.7% in September as easing food and drink price rises were offset by higher fuel costs.The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.2% and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.1% lower. China’s National Bureau of Statistics said the world’s second-largest economy slowed in the summer as global demand for exports faltered and the ailing property sector sank deeper into crisis.The Chinese government has acted to help the economy with various policies, raising spending on building ports and other infrastructure, cutting interest rates and easing curbs...

Wab Kinew to be sworn in as Manitoba premier along with new NDP cabinet

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:57 GMT

WINNIPEG — Manitoba’s new premier, Wab Kinew, is scheduled to be sworn in today and appoint his cabinet.Kinew led the New Democrats to victory on Oct. 3 and defeated the Progressive Conservatives, who had been in power for seven years.He becomes the first First Nations premier of a Canadian province.He has also said his cabinet will include, for the first time in Manitoba, First Nations women.The ceremony is to take place at The Leaf, a botanical attraction in Winnipeg, and is set to include traditional singing and dancing.The NDP captured 34 of the 57 legislature seats on election night, and Kinew has many veteran politicians and rookies from which to pick his cabinet.Among the high-profile New Democrats who were re-elected is Uzoma Asagwara, a former psychiatric nurse who was the NDP health critic in Opposition.Adrien Sala, who served as NDP finance critic, is also serving a second term and has had a high profile in the legislature.Among the First Nations women in the NDP ca...

Caribbean leaders meeting in Ottawa to talk climate, trade and instability in Haiti

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:57 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is welcoming a dozen leaders from across the Caribbean to Ottawa today, as part of a two-day summit aimed at forming closer ties with Canada.The Caribbean Community includes 15 countries and five overseas territories, spanning from Bahamas to Trinidad and Tobago, but not including Cuba.The group, known as CARICOM, works on initiatives ranging from inclusive economic growth to climate change — but lately, it’s been focused on the situation in Haiti.De facto Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry will make his first visit to Canada since August 2021, when he assumed the role without having been elected, following the assassination of the country’s president.Today’s meetings are set to involve three working sessions, and Trudeau is expected to meet individually with many leaders between these forums.On Thursday, the leaders are expected to take part in a trade and investment roundtable, ahead of an afternoon press conference.Among th...

Canada a beacon for others but must keep its promises: UN human-rights chief

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:57 GMT

OTTAWA — The United Nations human-rights chief says Canada can boost its chances of joining the council that monitors freedom around the world by better following up on the pledges it makes at home and abroad.“When you think of Canada, you think of human rights,” said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a Tuesday interview.Türk visited Ottawa this week to touch base on human-rights issues in general, including how they are handled in Canada and how Ottawa can best address issues abroad.His visit comes as Canada campaigns to join the UN Human Rights Council for a term spanning from 2028 to 2030. That body will undertake an in-depth review of the human-rights situation in Canada next month, as part of an exercise applied to most countries every four years.Türk said the Canadian government should consider not relying on the four-year review, and instead do its own annual or biannual exercises to take stock of how Canada is doing.“It is important...