World

Israel’s government cancelled visas for 27 French left-wing lawmakers and local officials two days before they were to start a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Sunday, the group said.The action came only days after Israel stopped two British members of parliament from the governing Labour Party from entering the country.It also came amid diplomatic tensions after President Emmanuel Macron said France would soon recognise a Palestinian state.Israel’s interior ministry said visas for the 27 had been cancelled under a law that allows authorities to ban people who could act against the state of Israel.Seventeen members of the group, from France’s Ecologist and Communist parties, said they had been victims of “collective punishment” by Israel and called on Macron to intervene....

The United States would drastically reduce its diplomatic footprint in Africa and scrap State Department offices dealing with climate change, democracy and human rights, according to a draft White House order.The executive order, framed as a strategy to cut costs while “reflecting the priorities” of the White House, also lays out measures to slash US soft power around the world.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said The New York Times, which first reported the existence of the draft order, had fallen “victim to another hoax”.“This is fake news,” Rubio posted on Sunday on social media.However, a copy of the draft viewed by Agence France-Presse calls for “full structural reorganisation” of the State Department by October 1 of this year.The aim, the draft order says, is “to streamline mission de...

US Vice-President J.D. Vance briefly met Pope Francis on Sunday to exchange Easter greetings, after they got into a long-distance tangle over the Trump administration’s migrant deportation plans.Francis, who is recovering from a near-fatal bout of pneumonia, received Vance in one of the reception rooms of the Vatican hotel where he lives. The 88-year-old pope offered the Catholic vice-president three big chocolate Easter eggs for Vance’s three young children, who did not attend, as well as a Vatican tie and rosaries.“I know you have not been feeling great but it’s good to see you in better health,” Vance told the pope. “Thank you for seeing me.”Vance’s motorcade entered Vatican City through a side gate while Easter Mass was being celebrated in St. Peter’s Square. Francis had delegated the ...

The long-running criminal case against a gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack targeting Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas in 2019 is on the verge of coming to a close.Patrick Crusius, 26, is expected to plead guilty on Monday to capital murder and receive a sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole for the massacre near the US-Mexico border.El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya said last month he was offering Crusius a plea deal and that he would not face the death penalty on the state charge.Crusius is expected to serve his time in a state prison. Crusius initially was arrested by local authorities and will enter the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice if he is sentenced on the state charges, a spokesperson for the Federal B...

The United States slashing foreign aid risks piling pressure on already acute humanitarian crises across the globe, a World Health Organization official said on Sunday, also warning against withdrawing from the UN agency.Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has effectively frozen foreign aid funding, moved to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other programmes, and announced plans to leave the WHO.Washington, which had long been the WHO’s biggest donor, did not pay its 2024 dues, and it remains unclear if the United States will meet its membership obligations for 2025The agency, already facing a gaping deficit this year, has proposed shrinking its budget by a fifth, likely reducing its reach and workforce, according to an earlier Agence Fran...

The Israeli military said on Sunday that a review into the killing of 15 emergency responders in Gaza last month found professional failures and violations of orders but no attempt to conceal the incident.The paramedics and emergency workers were shot dead on March 23 near the southern Gaza city of Rafah and buried in a shallow grave where their bodies were found a week later by officials from the UN and the Palestinian Red Crescent.A commanding officer is to be reprimanded and a deputy commander dismissed, the military said.“The examination identified several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident,” the military said in a statement.“The examination determined that the fire in the first two incidents resulted from an operational misunderstandi...

Ethiopians marked Easter festivities on Sunday with vows to embrace sacrifice, love and peace in a country facing armed conflict and other challenges.During Fasika, as Easter is known in Ethiopia, Christians of all denominations – including the majority Orthodox group – come together to celebrate Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.For some Ethiopians, religious festivals in recent months have acquired more meaning with the conflict in the Amhara region and instability in neighbouring Tigray, where a deadly war ended with a peace deal in 2022.Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a statement that it “takes patience, humility and sacrifice to achieve dialogue and reconciliation to heal a nation.”At the cathedral known as Medhane Alem in the capital Addis Ababa, mammoth congregations took part...

The US’ “reciprocal tariffs” resemble an indiscriminate attack, hitting not only industrial nations like China and Japan but also highly agricultural economies like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Laos.On April 4, China took the lead in retaliating by announcing 34 per cent tariffs. On April 10, the US raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 125 per cent, prompting China to match the US rate increase. Trump later clarified that the tariff rate on China was 145 per cent.As the situation evolves, China must consider more effective countermeasures. Relying solely on reciprocal tariff increases on US goods isn’t a proactive strategy. The Trump administration’s repeated tariff hikes on China look more like emotional venting than rational calculation. China should not merely react but adopt a ...

Qatar’s chief negotiator voiced frustration over talks for a truce in Gaza in an interview with Agence France-Presse, a month after Israel resumed its strikes on the Palestinian territory and another round of negotiations ended without a deal.“We’re definitely frustrated by the slowness, sometimes, of the process in the negotiation. This is an urgent matter. There are lives at stake here if this military operation continues day by day,” Mohammed Al-Khulaifi said on Friday.Qatar, with the United States and Egypt, brokered a truce in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas which came into force on January 15 and largely halted over a year of war triggered by Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.The initial phase of the truce ended in early March, with the two sides unabl...

In a fractured world of fraying alliances and retreating world powers, French President Emmanuel Macron has emerged as an unlikely champion of Palestinian statehood – launching a diplomatic crusade with Arab partners that has angered Israel and may yet sway Europe’s stance on the decades-old conflict.Macron declared his intention for France to take concrete steps towards recognising a Palestinian state “in the coming months” in an April 8 television interview.By doing so, analysts say he is seeking to demonstrate that Paris is a “more mature, reliable partner” than an increasingly isolationist United States under President Donald Trump.“He’s a young and ambitious politician with enthusiasm to take up the mantle of ‘Leader of the Free World’ as the US exits or destabilises Western alliances...