Current Final

Author: AFP

  • Ukraine drones strike deep in Russian territory on eve of new talks

    Ukraine drones strike deep in Russian territory on eve of new talks

    Ukraine said Sunday that its drones destroyed Russian bombers worth billions of dollars as far away as Siberia in its longest-range assault of the war, as it geared up for talks on prospects for a ceasefire.

    In a spectacular claim, Ukraine said it damaged $7 billion worth of Russian aircraft parked at four airbases thousands of kilometres across the border, with unverified video footage showing aircraft engulfed in flames and black smoke.

    A source in the Ukrainian security services (SBU) said the strikes hit 41 planes that were used to “bomb Ukrainian villages”.

    The drones were concealed in the ceilings of transportation containers that were opened remotely for the assault, the source added.

    Ceasefire talks

    The long-planned operation came at a delicate moment three years into Russia’s invasion.

    Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that he was sending a delegation to Istanbul led by his Defence Minister Rustem Umerov for talks on Monday with Russian officials.

    Turkey is hosting the meeting, which was spurred by US President Donald Trump’s push for a quick deal to end the three-year war.

    Zelensky, who previously voiced scepticism about whether Russia was serious in proposing Monday’s meeting, said priorities included “a complete and unconditional ceasefire” and the return of prisoners and abducted children.

    Russia, which has rejected previous ceasefire requests, said it had formulated its own peace terms but refused to divulge them in advance.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart Marco Rubio spoke by telephone Sunday about “several initiatives aimed at a political solution to the Ukraine crisis”, including Monday’s talks, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the TASS news agency.

    ‘Spider’s Web’

    Zelensky on Sunday hailed “brilliant” results of the coordinated attack, code-named “Spider’s Web”, which he said had used 117 drones and was the country’s “most long-range operation” in more than three years of war.

    Russia’s defence ministry confirmed on Telegram that several of its military aircraft “caught fire”, adding that there were no casualties.

    Rybar, an account on the Telegram message platform that is close to the Russian military, called it a “very heavy blow” for Moscow and pointed to what it called “serious errors” by Russian intelligence.

    The SBU source said the strikes targeted Russian airbases in the eastern Siberian city of Belaya, in Olenya, in the Arctic near Finland, and in Ivanovo and Dyagilevo, both east of Moscow.

    The operation was prepared for over a year and a half, the SBU source said, and aimed to destroy “enemy bombers far from the front”.

    Zelensky said one of the targeted locations was right next to one of the offices of the FSB Russian security services.

    ‘First such strike on Siberia’

    Russia said it had arrested several suspects, including the driver of a truck from which a drone had taken off, state agencies said.

    But Zelensky said people involved in preparing the attacks were “extracted from Russian territory in time”.

    Igor Kobzev, governor of Russia’s Irkutsk region, which hosts the Belaya airbase, said it was “the first attack of this sort in Siberia”.

    He called on the population not to panic and posted an amateur video apparently showing a drone in the sky and a large cloud of grey smoke.

    Russia drone strikes

    Russia has been announcing Ukrainian drone attacks on a near-daily basis, usually saying they had all been shot down.

    At the same time, Russia has been carrying out constant attacks on Ukraine.

    On Sunday, Ukraine’s air force said it was hit by 472 Russian drones and seven missiles overnight, a record number since the beginning of the invasion in February 2022.

    In a rare admission of its military losses, the Ukrainian army said Russia’s “missile strike on the location of one of the training units” had killed a dozen soldiers, most of whom had been in shelters during the attack, and wounded more than 60.

    The attack led Ukrainian ground forces commander Mykhailo Drapaty to announce his resignation, saying he felt “responsibility” for the soldiers’ deaths.

    Separately on Sunday, the Russian army said it had captured another village in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, where Kyiv fears Moscow could mount a renewed ground assault.

  • US suspends student visa processing as Trump ramps up social media vetting

    US suspends student visa processing as Trump ramps up social media vetting

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday ordered a suspension of student visa processing as President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up vetting of their social media, according to an internal cable.

    It is the latest move that takes aim at international students, a major source of revenue for US universities, after Rubio rescinded hundreds of visas and the Trump administration moved to bar Harvard University from admitting any non-Americans.

    A cable signed by Rubio and seen by AFP orders embassies and consulates not to allow “any additional student or exchange visa… appointment capacity until further guidance is issued.”

    It said the State Department “plans to issue guidance on expanded social media vetting for all such applications.”

    The cable suggested that the suspension could be brief, telling embassies to receive new guidance in the “coming days,” although US missions already frequently see major backlogs in processing applications.

    State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce did not comment directly on the cable but said that “we take very seriously the process of vetting who it is that comes into the country.”

    “It’s a goal, as stated by the president and Secretary Rubio, to make sure that people who are here understand what the law is, that they don’t have any criminal intent, that they are going to be contributors to the experience here, however short or long their status,” she said.

    Asked if students seeking to study at US universities should expect visas to be ready before terms begin in the autumn, Bruce said only: “If you’re going to be applying for a visa, follow the normal process, the normal steps, (and) expect to be looked at.”

    Rubio last week told a Senate hearing that he has revoked “thousands” of visas since Trump took office on January 20.

    Rubio has used an obscure law that allows the secretary of state to remove foreigners for activities deemed counter to US foreign policy interests.

    The most visible targets have been students involved in activism over Gaza. Trump administration officials accused students of anti-Semitism, charges strenuously denied by a number of the people targeted.

  • US govt revokes Harvard’s right to enroll foreign students

    US govt revokes Harvard’s right to enroll foreign students

    Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday revoked Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign nationals — more than a quarter of the student body — in a dramatic escalation of the US president’s fight against the prestigious university.

    The school in Cambridge, Massachusetts quickly slammed the move as “unlawful” and said it would hurt both the campus and the country, while one student said the community was “panicking.”

    Trump is furious at Harvard — which has produced 162 Nobel prize winners — for rejecting his demand that it submit to oversight on admissions and hiring over his claims that it is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology.

    The loss of such a large proportion of the student body could prove to be a huge financial blow to Harvard, which charges tens of thousands of dollars a year in tuition.

    “Effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor (SEVIS) Program certification is revoked,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a letter to the Ivy League institution, referring to the main system by which foreign students are permitted to study in the United States.

    Harvard, which has sued the government over a separate raft of punitive measures, quickly fired back, calling the move “unlawful.”

    “We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host our international students and scholars,” it said in a statement, adding that it was working to offer students guidance and support.

    “This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission.”

    Karl Molden, an international student from Austria, said he had applied to study at Oxford in Britain because he feared such measures.

    “It’s scary and it’s saddening,” the 21-year-old government and classics student told AFP.

    “I love Harvard, and getting into the school has been the greatest privilege of my life.

    “It’s definitely going to change the perception of… students who (might) consider studying there — the US is getting less of an attractive spot for higher education.”

    Leaders of the Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors called the move “the latest in a string of nakedly authoritarian and retaliatory moves against America’s oldest institution of higher education.”

    “The Trump administration is unlawfully seeking to destroy higher education in the United States. It now demands that we sacrifice our international students in the process. Universities cannot acquiesce to such extortion,” it said.

    ‘Everyone’s panicking’

    Last month, Trump threatened to stop Harvard from enrolling foreign students if it did not agree to government demands that would put the private institution under outside political supervision.

    “As I explained to you in my April letter, it is a privilege to enroll foreign students,” Noem wrote.

    “All universities must comply with Department of Homeland Security requirements, including reporting requirements under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program regulations, to maintain this privilege,” she said.

    “As a result of your refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ policies, you have lost this privilege.”

    More than 27 percent of Harvard’s enrollment was made up of foreign students in the 2024-25 academic year, according to university data.

    Fourth-year US student Alice Goyer told AFP “no one knows” what the development would mean for international students already enrolled.

    “We just got the news, so I’ve been getting texts from a lot of international friends, and I think everyone’s just — no one knows,” she said.

    “Everyone’s panicking a bit.”

    On whether students would willingly transfer to other institutions, as suggested by Noem in the letter, Goyer said, “I doubt people would do that.”

    “I would hope maybe there’s going to be a legal battle that’ll take place.”

  • Two Israeli embassy staff shot dead in Washington

    Two Israeli embassy staff shot dead in Washington

    Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead late Wednesday outside a Jewish museum in Washington by a gunman who shouted “free Palestine,” authorities said, with US and Israeli leaders expressing shock and outrage over the killings.

    President Donald Trump quickly condemned the attack, saying “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!”

    “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA,” he added on social media.

    Gunfire broke out on the sidewalk outside the Capital Jewish Museum in the center of Washington as the venue held a social event for young professionals and diplomatic staff.

    The victims were a young couple who planned to get married, the Israeli ambassador said.

    A video clip circulating on social media showed a young bearded man in a jacket and white shirt shouting “free, free Palestine” as he was led away by police.

    Police confirmed the suspected shooter walked into the museum after the shooting and had been detained.

    “We believe the shooting was committed by a single suspect who is now in custody,” Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters.

    “Prior to the shooting the suspect was observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum. He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire.

    “After the shooting, the suspect then entered the museum and was detained by event security.”

    She said the handcuffed suspect identified where he had discarded the weapon and chanted “Free, free Palestine.”

    Police identified him as Elias Rodriguez, 30, from Chicago.

    “I am devastated by the scenes in Washington,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a statement. “This is a despicable act of hatred, of anti-Semitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy.

    “America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us.”

    ‘Unspeakable act of violence’

    Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said “harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line.

    “Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives — everywhere in the world.”

    The targeted event appeared to be a reception hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) for Jewish young professionals and the Washington diplomatic community.

    The evening was “dedicated to fostering unity and celebrating Jewish heritage,” with an invitation to the event saying  the location would be “shared upon registration.”

    “American Jewish Committee (AJC) can confirm that we hosted an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC this evening,” AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement.

    “We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue… Our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.”

    The museum is in downtown Washington, close to the US Capitol and just over one mile (1.6 kilometers) from the White House.

    Police Chief Smith said  officers responded to multiple calls of a shooting near the museum at around 9:00 pm on Wednesday evening (0100 GMT Thursday).

    First responders found a man and a woman unconscious and not breathing. Despite life-saving efforts, both were pronounced dead.

    Engagement

    Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter told reporters the young staffers were a couple “about to be engaged.”

    “The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem,” Leiter said.

    He added that he spoke to Trump by telephone, with the president assuring that the United States will “do everything it can possibly do to fight and end anti-Semitism.”

    “We’ll stand together tall and firm, and we will confront this moral depravity without fear and with determination,” Leiter said.

    Emergency vehicles remained at the scene Thursday morning after police taped off the area.

    “We’re going to stand together as a community in the coming days and weeks to send the clear message that we will not tolerate anti-Semitism,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters.

    “The horrific incident is going to frighten a lot of people in our city, and in our country. I want to be clear that we will not tolerate this violence or hate.”

  • UN expert reacts to Indian navy ‘throwing’ Rohingya refugees, including children, into sea

    UN expert reacts to Indian navy ‘throwing’ Rohingya refugees, including children, into sea

    A UN expert said on Thursday, May 15, he was investigating “credible reports” that Rohingya refugees were forced off an Indian navy vessel into the Andaman Sea, in what would be an “unconscionable” act.

    “The idea that Rohingya refugees have been cast into the sea from naval vessels is nothing short of outrageous,” said Tom Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights situation in Myanmar.

    “I am seeking further information and testimony regarding these developments and implore the Indian government to provide a full accounting of what happened.”

    Andrews, who is an independent expert mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but who does not speak on behalf of the UN itself, said he was “deeply concerned by what appears to be a blatant disregard for the lives and safety of those who require international protection”.

    The mostly Muslim Rohingya have been heavily persecuted in Myanmar for decades.

    One million Rohingya live in a string of squalid camps in Bangladesh after escaping a 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar.

    Thousands of them risk their lives each year on long sea journeys to seek refuge elsewhere.

    Andrews’ statement pointed to reports that Indian authorities last week detained dozens of Rohingya refugees living in Delhi, “many or all of whom held refugee identification documents”.

    Around 40 members of the group were reportedly blindfolded and flown to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and then transferred to an Indian naval ship, he said.

    “After the boat crossed the Andaman Sea, the refugees were reportedly given life jackets, forced into the sea and made to swim to an island in Myanmar territory,” he said.

    “Such cruel actions would be an affront to human decency and represent a serious violation of the principle of non-refoulment,” he said, pointing out that Rohingya “face the threat of violence, persecution and other grave human rights violations in Myanmar”.

    “The government of India must immediately and unequivocally repudiate unconscionable acts against Rohingya refugees, stop all deportations to Myanmar and ensure that those responsible for these blatant violations of India’s international obligations are held responsible,” Andrews said.

  • Joe Biden diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer

    Joe Biden diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer

    Former US president Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, and is reviewing treatment options, his office said Sunday.

    On Friday, the 82-year-old Democrat — whose son Beau Biden died of cancer in 2015 — was diagnosed with the disease after he experienced urinary symptoms and a prostate nodule was found, a statement from his office said.

    “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management. The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” it continued.

    US President Donald Trump, who has long derided political rival Biden over his cognitive abilities, said he was “saddened” by the news.

    “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery,” Republican Trump said on Truth Social, referring to Biden’s wife, Jill Biden.

    “Joe is a fighter,” Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, who stepped in as Democratic nominee in the battle against Trump after Biden dropped out of last year’s presidential election, said in a post on X.

    “I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery,” she continued.

    Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men, with the American Cancer Society reporting one in eight men in the United States are diagnosed with it over their lifetime.

    While it is highly treatable if discovered early, it is the second leading cause of cancer death in men, the organization said.

    Hormone therapy is a common treatment that can shrink tumors and slow cancer growth, but is not a cure.

    According to the statement, Biden’s cancer was found to have “a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5).”

    Prostate cancer that looks “very abnormal” is assigned the highest rating, Grade 5, according to the American Cancer Society. The Gleason Score goes up to 10, indicating the seriousness of Biden’s disease.

    ‘Watch me’

    Biden left office in January this year as the oldest serving US president in history, and was dogged by questions, including from Democratic voters, over his health and age for much of his term — and whether he could handle the office’s demands.

    His response was a brisk: “Watch me.”

    In July last year, he was forced to drop his reelection bid after a disastrous debate against Trump in which fears about his decline and cognitive abilities came surging to the fore.

    Support rocketed for Harris as she stepped up to the plate, but she eventually lost to Trump.

    Biden, who beat Trump at the polls in 2020, maintains that he could have won the 2024 election too, but questions have long swirled over the responses of staff and key Democrats to his decline.

    They have flared with the upcoming release of a new book on his “disastrous” choice to run again, and the publication last week of a recording of him speaking hesitantly and struggling to recall key events and dates.

    Biden’s life has been marked by personal tragedy. In 1972, his first wife and baby daughter were killed in a car crash.

    His son Beau Biden died aged 46 of an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2015, a loss which touched many Americans.

    In the wake of Beau Biden’s death, then-president Barack Obama launched a “cancer moonshot” bid to corral the disease in the United States, tasking Biden, then his vice president, with leading the effort.

    “It’s personal for me,” Biden said at the time.

    “But it’s also personal for nearly every American, and millions of people around the world. We all know someone who has had cancer, or is fighting to beat it.”

    “Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe,” Obama said Sunday.

    “I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace,” he added in a statement on X.

    Trump’s administration cut cancer research funding by 31 percent in the first three months of 2025 compared to the same period last year, a Senate report showed earlier this month.

    Americans in the capital Washington lamented the diagnosis Sunday.

    Ariale Booker, a Washington resident who said her mother and grandmother had both died of cancer, described it as “heartbreaking.”

    “I think that’s just really sad,” she told AFP.

    “His last years, his life’s going to be really hard.”

  • Israel launches ‘initial stages’ of new Gaza operation: military

    Israel launches ‘initial stages’ of new Gaza operation: military

    The Israeli military said Saturday it had launched “extensive strikes” in the Gaza Strip over the past day as part of the “initial stages” of a fresh offensive on the besieged Palestinian territory.

    The strikes were part of “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip, with the goal of achieving all the war’s objectives, including the release of the abducted and the defeat of Hamas”, Israel’s army said in a statement in Arabic on Telegram.

    Gaza’s civil defence agency earlier said Israeli strikes on Gaza had killed 100 people on Friday.

    The offensive, known as “Operation Gideon’s Chariots”, comes as Israel faces pressure to lift a sweeping aid blockade in return for a US-Israeli hostage released by Hamas.

    Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by an attack by the Palestinian group in October 2023.

    That assault resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

    Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

    The health ministry in Gaza said 2,985 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,119.

    Israeli media reported on Friday that the military had stepped up its offensive in line with a plan approved by the government earlier this month, though there had not been any formal announcement of an expanded campaign.

    The military said its forces had “struck over 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in 24 hours.

    The latest operation comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces increasing pressure to lift a sweeping aid blockade on Gaza, as NGOs warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.

    The return to fighting since March 18 has drawn international condemnation, with the UN’s rights chief on Friday denouncing the renewed attacks — and what he described as an apparent push to permanently displace the population.

    ‘People are starving’

    US President Donald Trump acknowledged on Friday that “a lot of people are starving” in the besieged Palestinian territory.

    “We’re looking at Gaza. And we’re going to get that taken care of,” Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi, on a regional tour that excluded key ally Israel.

    The Arab League is to meet in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss regional crises, with Gaza expected to be high on the agenda.

    United Nations chief Antonio Guterres will attend the summit, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez — who has sharply criticised Israel’s offensive in Gaza — is expected to address it as a guest.

  • Ben & Jerry’s cofounder removed from Senate after Gaza protest

    Ben & Jerry’s cofounder removed from Senate after Gaza protest

    Ben Cohen, co‑founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and a longtime progressive activist, told AFP he was speaking for millions of Americans outraged by the “slaughter” in Gaza after his removal from a US  Senate hearing on Wednesday.

    Cohen, 74, was among a group of protesters who startled Health Secretary  Robert F Kennedy Jr. by interrupting his testimony about his department’s budget proposal.

    Shouting that “Congress pays for bombs to kill children in Gaza” while lawmakers move to slash Medicaid — the health insurance program for low‑income families — the businessman and philanthropist was placed in handcuffs by Capitol Police.

    He urged senators to press Israel to let food reach “starving kids” as he was led away.

    “It got to a point where we had to do something,” Cohen said in an interview after his release, calling it “scandalizing” that the US approved “$20 billion worth of bombs” for Israel even as social programs are squeezed back home.

    “The majority of Americans hate what’s going on, what our country is doing with our money and in our name,” he said.

    US public opinion toward Israel has become increasingly unfavorable, especially among Democrats, according to a Pew Research Center Poll last month.

    Beyond the spending, Cohen framed the issue as a moral and “spiritual” breach.

    “Condoning and being complicit in the slaughter of tens of thousands of people strikes at the core of us as far as human beings and what our country stands for,” he said, pointing to the fact that the United States pours roughly half its discretionary budget into war‑related spending.

    “If you spent half of that money making lives better around the world, I think there’d be a whole lot less friction.”

    Invoking a parenting analogy, he added: “You go to a three-year-old who goes around hitting people and you say ‘Use your words.’ There’s issues between countries but you can work them out without killing.”

    A longtime critic of Israeli policy, Cohen last year joined prominent Jewish figures in an open letter opposing the pro‑Israel lobby AIPAC. “I understand that I have a higher profile than most people and so I raise my voice, it gets heard. But I need you and others to understand that I speak for millions of people who feel the same way.”

    Israel intensified the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza after the October  7, 2023, attack by Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

    Israeli military aggression has killed at least 52,928 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

    Gaza is at “critical risk of famine,” with the entire population facing a food crisis after more than two months of an Israeli aid blockade, and 22 percent facing a humanitarian “catastrophe,” a UN-backed food security monitor warned this week.

  • Donald Trump starts Gulf trip in Saudi Arabia seeking big economic deal

    Donald Trump starts Gulf trip in Saudi Arabia seeking big economic deal

    US President Donald Trump received a cordial and royal welcome in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday on the first state visit of his second term, with the US president foremost focused on business deals at the start of a Gulf tour.

    Saudi Arabia escorted Air Force One with fighter jets before bringing out long-stretching honour guards both at the airport and a palace decked out with imposing chandeliers.

    With cameras rolling, a lengthy procession of Saudi royalty and business figures waited their turn to shake hands with Trump and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who stood by his side.

    Trump brought along top members of his cabinet as well as US business figures including his adviser Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who made a rare appearance in a suit as he chatted to the prince.

    Trump will address an investment forum in Riyadh and later in the week head to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, fellow oil-rich Arab monarchies with long ties to the United States.

    In choosing the Gulf, the 78-year-old billionaire is again bypassing traditional first presidential stops in Western allies, some of which have been unnerved by his norms-shattering diplomacy.

    Eight years ago Trump also chose Saudi Arabia for his first overseas trip — when he memorably posed with a glowing orb and participated in a sword dance.

    Trump’s embrace of the Saudis contrasts with a more hesitant initial approach by former president Joe Biden, who had vowed to punish the crown prince after US intelligence found that he ordered the murder of Saudi dissident and US resident Jamal Khashoggi.

    Since Khashoggi’s gruesome 2018 killing, Saudi Arabia has worked aggressively to change its image, from easing restrictions on women to pursuing initiatives in new areas such as artificial intelligence.

    Saudi Arabia has also increasingly exercised diplomatic clout, serving as a venue for the United States to pursue talks with Ukraine and Russia.

    Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have also sought outsized international roles, with the Qataris serving as the go-between for US-brokered diplomacy between Israel and Hamas.


    Trump’s ‘happy place’ 

    But the focus during the tour of the Gulf will likely be locking down business rather than diplomatic agreements.

    Jon Alterman, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that for Trump, the Gulf “is his happy place”.

    “His hosts will be generous and hospitable. They’ll be keen to make deals. They’ll flatter him and not criticise him. And they’ll treat his family members as past and future business partners,” he said.

    Saudi Arabia has pushed hard to be first on Trump’s diplomatic schedule, with de facto ruler Prince Mohammed vowing to pour $600 billion into US trade and investments.

    “I’ll be asking the crown prince, who’s a fantastic guy, to round it out to around one trillion. I think they’ll do that because we’ve been very good to them,” Trump said in response to the offer.

    According to a Saudi official close to the defence ministry, Riyadh will push for securing the latest US F-35 fighter jets along with state-of-the-art air defence systems worth billions of dollars.

    “We will condition that the deliveries take place during Trump’s term,” the source told AFP.


    Navigating hotspots 

    Both Trump and Biden have been eager for Saudi Arabia to take the landmark step of recognising Israel.

    But Israel normalisation is not likely to feature high on the agenda on Trump’s trip, with Riyadh insisting a Palestinian state must be established before a deal can be brokered.

    Israel has cut off all food and other supplies to Gaza for more than two months as it pursues a new offensive against Hamas militants.

    The United States, which has quietly been frustrated with its ally, negotiated directly with Hamas to secure the release Monday of a hostage with US citizenship, Edan Alexander.

    Iran is also likely to feature prominently during the visit, following the Trump administration’s fourth round of talks in Oman at the weekend.

    Both sides have voiced hope but the United States on Monday imposed fresh sanctions targeting Iran’s suspect nuclear programme.

    Controversy is also swirling over Trump’s plans to accept a luxury Boeing jet from the Qatari royal family for use as Air Force One.

    Trump called the deal “a very public and transparent transaction” and said: “I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer.”

  • Huge dust storm sweeps into Iran, affecting millions

    Huge dust storm sweeps into Iran, affecting millions

    Iranian authorities ordered schools and offices closed in seven western provinces Tuesday as a dust storm swept in from neighbouring Iraq, with around 13 million people told to stay indoors.

    Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Ilam and Kurdistan provinces were all affected, and state television cited local officials as blaming the closures on high levels of accumulated dust.

    Government and private offices also shut in several provinces including Kermanshah and Ilam, as well as Khuzestan in the southwest.

    Zanjan in the northeast and Bushehr in the south were also hit.

    Bushehr, nearly 1,100 kilometres (680 miles) south of Tehran, was given an Air Quality Index of 108 on Tuesday, rated “poor for sensitive groups”.

    That figure is more than four times higher than the concentration of air microparticles deemed acceptable by the World Health Organization.

    Iran’s meteorological authorities said the conditions were caused by “the movement of a large mass of dust from Iraq towards western Iran”.

    State television reported low visibility in some areas and urged residents to remain inside and to wear face masks if they had to go out.

    Last month, a similar dust storm in Iraq grounded flights and sent thousands of people to hospital with breathing problems.

    On Monday, Iran’s IRNA state news agency reported that more than 240 people in Khuzestan province had been treated for respiratory issues because of the dust.