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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will discuss territorial issues, the main stumbling block in talks to end the war, with US President Donald Trump in Florida tomorrow, as a 20-point peace framework and a security guarantee deal near completion. Announcing the meeting, Zelensky said “a lot can be decided before the New Year,” as Washington drives efforts to end Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two. “As for the sensitive issues: We will discuss both Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. We will certainly discuss other issues as well,” he told reporters in a WhatsApp chat. Source link
A view shows an interior of a damaged mosque after several people were killed in an explosion in Homs, Syria yesterday. An explosion killed at least eight worshippers and injured another 21 at a mosque in Syria’s Homs yesterday, state media said.Health authorities in the city reported that the explosion occurred inside Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi Al Dahab neighbourhood of Homs yesterday.A security source meanwhile revealed that initial investigations indicate that the explosion was caused by explosive devices planted inside the mosque.Civil defence teams are working to remove the traces of destruction and secure the site, with investigations continuing to uncover the circumstances of the incident.Syria’s interior ministry said in a statement that “a terrorist explosion” targeted the mosque and that authorities had “begun investigating and collecting evidence to pursue the perpetrators of this criminal act”.Syria’s foreign ministry condemned a “cowardly criminal act”, saying it came “in the context of repeated desperate attempts to undermine security and stability and spread chaos among the Syrian people”, vowing to hold the attackers accountable.Several countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Turkiye and Jordan condemned the attack.Yesterday, Syrian state television reported the release of 70 detainees in the coastal city of Latakia “after it was proven that they were not involved in war crimes”, saying more releases would follow.In a speech this month marking a year since the fall of Bashar Assad, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa emphasised the importance of all Syrians unifying efforts to “to build a strong Syria”.Despite major achievements in relaunching Syria’s foreign standing, Sharaa faces the major domestic challenge of maintaining security and unity domestically. Source link
Magna Grecia Star won the Distaff Cup with a powerful late finish at the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club’s Al Uqda Racecourse yesterday.Hassan Ali Alabdulmalik-owned and Debbie Mountain-trained three-year-old bay filly continued her upward trajectory this season, doubling her tally with a determined success in the Thoroughbred Fillies and Mares Graduation run over 1,400m to win the cup. The filly was patiently ridden before unleashing a powerful late sweep in the home straight, edging out the gallant September Leaves by a neck to secure the victory.The race was run at a solid and even tempo as Flashy Dark Angel dictated proceedings for much of the journey, tracked closely by Kaliysta, September Leaves and Ripple Effect, the leading quartet maintaining their positions through the early and middle stages with little change in the order. As they straightened, several runners began to close, but it was Magna Grecia Star and September Leaves who emerged as the principal dangers. Produced from the rear of the field, Magna Grecia Star unleashed a strong sweeping run from the outside, drawing alongside September Leaves and locking horns in a fierce duel all the way to the line. The pair flashed past the post almost together in a blanket finish, with the result only confirmed after a photo. Magna Grecia Star was eventually declared the winner by a very narrow margin. September Leaves, representing Al Eida Racing, trained by Gassim al-Ghazali and ridden by Marco Casamento, was gallant in defeat in second while Ripple Effect, racing for Abdulrahman Fahad al-Attiyah, from the Hamad al-Jehani yard and partnered by Saleh Faraj al-Otaibi, finished a further one and a quarter lengths back in third. In the penultimate race of the day, jockey Ivan Rossi completed a double as he rode Winston’s Tipple, in the silks of Al Jasra Stud, to victory in the Thoroughbred Handicap (65-85) race for three-year-old+.Settled just behind the early leaders, Winston’s Tipple watched a steadily run contest unfold as Lucentio dictated the tempo, tracked closely by See All Match and Cambria Legend. The trio maintained their positions through the early and middle stages with the pace remaining moderate while Winston’s Tipple was momentarily shuffled further back as the field bunched approaching the home turn. Passing the bend, Lucentio and See All Match appeared set to fight out the finish as they continued to control the race. Winston’s Tipple, however, emerged from the outside with perfect timing in the final 200m, unleashing a sharp turn of foot that saw him sweep past his rivals and strike the front in a matter of strides to land the spoils. Corpus Juris, representing Al Ghazali Stud, trained by Jassim al-Ghazali and partnered by Marco Casamento, stayed on well to secure second while Tamborrada, racing for Fahad Salem al-Hajri, prepared by Mohammed Hassan al-Matwi and ridden by Arnaud De Lepine, finished a further three-quarters of a length back in third. Earlier in the eight-race card opener, Rossi guided Dawod to the Purebred Arabian Maiden Plate race for three-year-olds.Dawod put a modest debut behind him to open his account in the over 1,400m, Class 6, race, prevailing by one and a half lengths from 14 runners. The bay gelding, racing for Al Wasmiyah Farm, trained by Hamad al-Jehani, under Rossi, showed marked improvement at just his second career start to get off the mark, with the progeny of Mister Ginoux dominating the first three places. Breaking well from barrier six, Dawod quickly moved to the front after Lzaz showed early speed from the gates. Once in control, Dawod travelled comfortably and set his own rhythm, never looking in danger as he maintained the advantage throughout. Lzaz, carrying the same colours, remained in close attendance and applied pressure along the way, with HM Al Jadwal tracking the leading pair. Turning for home, the order remained unchanged and Lzaz closed the gap inside the final 200m, briefly threatening to challenge. Dawod; however, responded willingly, keeping his rival at bay and holding on gamely to seal a deserved victory. Lzaz, representing the same ownership and handled by Mohammed al-Ghazali with Soufiane Saadi aboard, secured second to complete a one–two for Al Wasmiyah Farm. HM Al Jadwal, racing for Al Majd Stud, trained by Yousef al-Jumaily and ridden by Louis Nomis, finished a further three and a half length back in third, completing a clean sweep for the Mister Ginoux progeny. Source link
MCC1 won the championship in the ISC women’s cricket tournament. The Ladies Box Cricket Season 2, conducted under the banner of the ISC ‘Khel Mahotsav,’ concluded successfully with enthusiastic participation and high-quality competition, reflecting the growing engagement of women in sports and community activities in Qatar.The final match, held at the Doha Pearling International School ground, witnessed a closely contested encounter in which Mangalore Cricket Association 1 (MCC1) emerged as champions, registering a four-wicket victory over Mangalore Cricket Association 2 (MCC2).The tournament saw participation from multiple women’s teams across Qatar, including Alpha Squad, Captains Screw, Sealine Strikers, Team Al Khor, SNVB Thrissur, and others, underscoring the inclusive and competitive spirit of the event.For the individual awards, the Best Batter was awarded to Sathya Sasikumar (MCC2) while the Best Bowler went to Trupti Kale (MCC1). Sathya Sasikumar (MCC2) received the the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.The matches were officiated by umpires Satya Anumalla and Kiran Kumar, ensuring fair play and smooth conduct throughout the tournament.The closing ceremony was attended by office-bearers and management committee members of the Indian Sports Centre, including president EP Abdurahman, vice president Sithendu Pal, general secretary Hamsa Yusuf, head of Cricket Deepak Chukkala, secretary Basheer Thuvarikkal, joint secretary Kavita Mahendran, and management committee members Abdul Azeem, Hamsa P Kunniyil, Chandrashekhar Angadi, Somaraju and Nivedita Mehta, who presented the trophies and awards to the winners and outstanding performers. Source link
Abdoul Aziz Balde sobbed as he spoke of his son Idrissa, who left Guinea in search of a better future, but has not been heard from since capsizing off the Moroccan coast.”I know that the boat my son was on sank, but we haven’t been shown his body, so to say that the boy is dead, I just don’t know,” the desperate father said.Thousands of young undocumented migrants from Guinea have disappeared along migration routes in recent years, leaving their families in a state of uncertainty and helplessness.Although it affects families across west Africa, the problem is particularly bad in Guinea, which has become one of the main departure points for those heading to North Africa and Europe.One day they are in touch; the next seemingly gone forever.Some disappear after boarding overcrowded boats, others after crossing the desert with smugglers who have been known to abandon migrants.Still others have gone missing following police raids in North Africa, due to imprisonment in Libya or even once in Europe, disappearing voluntarily out of shame over having failed in their dream.Families are left to scour Facebook or watch macabre WhatsApp clips showing young people in morgues or corpses after shipwrecks.The Guinean Organisation for the Fight Against Irregular Migration (OGLMI) has pioneered a way to help families by collaborating with migrant aid associations around the world over the last year.The NGO estimates the number of missing Guineans to be in the thousands.”Out of 100 migrants who leave, at least 10 will never return,” said OGLMI executive director Elhadj Mohamed Diallo.”People have been missing for a long time but the issue has never been discussed at the civil society, government or international institution level,” he said.AFP accompanied Diallo as he navigated the streets of a Conakry suburb on his motorcycle to visit the parents of Idrissa, who disappeared more than a year ago.The Balde family lives in a house shared with other tenants where the poverty is striking.With every family, it is the same ritual when Diallo visits: Idrissa’s parents scrolled through WhatsApp to find the last virtual trace of their child.One of the last photos was a smiling selfie.”He left to save us, and to save his little sister. But God didn’t want it to be,” Abdoul Aziz Balde, a 62-year-old driver, said, breaking down in tears.Despite being bright at school, Idrissa — who would now be 29 years old — saw no opportunity in Guinea, a recurring theme among many young people.From 2023, he made three unsuccessful attempts to migrate to Europe, reaching as far as Morocco. Each time, his father tried to stop him.Last year his parents financed his master’s studies in Senegal, but he was lured by others who did manage to reach Europe and left for Morocco again.In August his father received a fateful phone call: “Are you Mr Balde? Do you have a son who is in Morocco?” the voice on the other end asked. “My deepest condolences. They boarded small boats… they drowned.”Balde said he was “devastated” and had to break the news to his wife. “The whole family wept,” he said.They were able to contact a young girl on the same boat but she had lost consciousness when they were hit by a wave and did not see what happened to Idrissa.”Is he dead? Is he not dead?” Balde asked, his voice filled with anguish.Between 2014 and 2025, at least 33,220 migrants died or went missing in the Mediterranean and 17,768 in Africa, according to the International Organisation for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project.However, the figures are likely underestimated. In 2024 alone, the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras recorded 10,457 people dead or missing at sea on the western European-Africa border.Guinean researcher Mahmoud Kaba is working on a study to shed light on “the large-scale phenomenon” of families who have lost loved ones during attempts to migrate from Guinea.Some “suffer strokes upon hearing the news, others experience insomnia and amnesia”, he told AFP.Families feel isolated due to increasingly restrictive border policies and controls in Europe, general indifference and the criminalisation of migrants.Abdoulaye Diallo, 67, told AFP he felt “abandoned”. His eldest son Abdou Karim, who would now be aged 25, went missing two years ago.”He stopped communicating with me in March 2023 which was unusual for him and that’s when the worry set in,” Diallo said.The family found some of Abdou’s last traces of life on Facebook.He had already left once, in 2018, barely aged 18, reaching Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, where he was imprisoned, but ended up back in Conakry.On a second attempt, while working in Rabat he told a friend he was leaving for Tangier and then on to Spain.Just east of Tangier, the massive Gourougou forest has become a base for thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa seeking to enter the nearby Spanish enclave of Melilla illegally.Moroccan authorities often carry out raids to dislodge them.”There is violence against migrants in Morocco, especially from the security forces. It’s a country where lives are senselessly lost,” Diallo said, breaking down in tears.One of Abdou’s brothers said he received information that he was in a detention centre in the Tangier region.Diallo said he tried to contact the authorities to inform the Guinean embassy in Morocco but had received no news.There is “no shame” in being the parents of a young migrant who has gone missing, he insisted.”It’s a wind that has swept through every home in Africa because of bad governance,” he said.OGLMI has set up WhatsApp groups in local languages to connect Guinean families, as well as a support group.Even when relatives try to report their child’s disappearance, there is often no follow-up, Diallo said.Guinea’s ruling junta, which took power in 2021, is reluctant to allow public discussion of illegal migration.”Admitting that we are losing our citizens at sea is also admitting a political failure and that we are not doing enough for our citizens,” Kaba, the researcher, said.But the head of the Directorate General for Guineans Living Abroad, Mamadou Saitiou Barry, said that the term “disappeared” should be used with “great caution”.He said there were “many situations” other than death that could cause a migrant to disappear.They include “those who have not succeeded and refuse to communicate, those who are hospitalised, those who are under arrest or detained,” he said.He added that Guinean authorities had helped families of shipwreck victims that they know about, often the few that gain media attention.”Families have the right to the truth and to file a complaint, the missing have the right to be searched for, and the deceased have the right to be buried with dignity,” Helena Maleno, founder of Caminando Fronteras, told AFP.”But getting states to recognise this is very complicated,” she said.After receiving a report of a disappearance, OGLMI contacts relatives and creates an identification file, including the migration route.The information is transmitted to associations in North Africa and Europe and to activists as far away as Mexico, Argentina and the US.The search might even involve visiting unmarked graves in the migrant sections of cemeteries or morgues.Some families do manage to trace their loved one, such as Tahibou Diallo, 58, who had no news of her son Thierno for two years.AFP went along with OGLMI’s Diallo when he met Tahibou for the first time.The mother became visibly distraught as she recounted how she had helped fund Thierno’s journey to Spain.”He told me he was going to study there,” she said, explaining he instead went to France then disappeared. In October, OGLMI was able to locate the young man, alive but homeless in the western city of Nantes.He was not doing well but his mother was able to speak to him and re-establish contact. However, other families who have sought the NGO’s help are still without news after more than a year. “These families must be helped to grieve,” Diallo said.”We must not forget all these missing people.” Source link
Nearly 5,000 flights were disrupted in the US due to winter storm warnings. The flight tracking website FlightAware reported that US airlines cancelled and delayed thousands of flights during the peak travel season yesterday due to warnings of a severe winter storm. The website reported 1,139 cancellations and 3,808 delays due to the winter storm warnings. The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings yesterday, saying they would cause hazardous travel conditions in the Great Lakes region, extending to the North Mid-Atlantic and Southern New England, from Friday until Saturday morning. Source link
MES Indian School emerged triumphant at the ‘International Cricket Council (ICC) CRIIIO National Cricket Festival for Women’, organised by the Qatar Cricket Association (QCA).The tournament, which aims to promote women’s cricket, witnessed enthusiastic participation from various schools across Qatar.MES Indian School’s MES Falcons and the MES Phoenix performed exceptionally, showcasing great skill, discipline, and determination.Team MES Falcons advanced confidently through the rounds, clinching the gold medal after a gripping final against Birla Public School.Meanwhile, Team MES Phoenix delivered a commendable performance, securing the bronze medal after a win over Bright Future School in the third-place play-off.A highlight of the event was the presence of Jay Shah, chairman of the ICC, who honoured the winners and finalists. His words and presence greatly enriched the occasion and served as a source of inspiration for all participants.The school principal Dr Hameeda Kadar praised the exceptional achievement and emphasised the school’s commitment to nurturing girls’ sports.The Physical Education Department and the coaching staff, Kabia Badoni, were lauded by the school management for guiding the students. Source link
Residents inspect the damage after US forces had launched a strike against Islamic State militants in Nigeria at the request of Nigeria’s government, as US President…
The Telangana Gulf Samithi – Qatar organised the International Migrants Day celebration, recognising and honouring the dedication, hard work, and sacrifices of migrant workers in Qatar.Chairperson Maitham Madhu highlighted the responsibilities of migrant workers and thanked their invaluable contributions.The event was graced by distinguished guests, including Khalid Abdul Rehman Fakhroo, Ministry Labour Relations specialist; and Shanwaj Bava, Indian Community Benevolent Forum president, Deepak Shetty, ICBF general secretary, Shankar Goud, head of Labour, ICBF, Narsimhamurthy, APWA president, Nizam Khan, Rajasthan Community president, Satyanarayana Reddy, TKS president, Soumya, AKV general secretary, Krishna Kumar, Outreach Qatar president, and Uma Reddy, APWA vice president.On this occasion, Ministry of Labour officials honoured five migrant workers who have been serving in Qatar for over 30 years: Sridhar Tadepu, Ramgiri Deepak, Aripelli Gangadhar, BurraKunta Sai Annagari and Arapelli Gangaram.The celebration featured cultural performances, drama, Telugu cuisine, and speeches by senior dignitaries. The event was managed by organising committee members Bandapelli Ellayya (vice president), Sandhya Rani (general secretary), Pratish Kumar (joint general secretary), Sagar Durgam (insurance in-charge), Rajeshwar Salla (membership in-charge) and Manohar Ellayya Bandapelli. Source link
RK Selvamani, Roja Selvamani grace “Forever Captain” Vijayakanth Tribute Night in Doha Manithaneya Kalachara Peravai (MKP) Qatar marked its 10th anniversary with a grand cultural evening, titled “Forever Captain – A Tribute Night in Remembrance of Vijayakanth”, held at the DPS–MIS Auditorium in Doha recently.The event drew more than 1,000 attendees, reflecting the strong emotional bond the Indian diaspora in Doha shares with the legacy of the late actor and leader Vijayakanth, fondly known as “captain.”The highlight of the evening was the presence of RK Selvamani, renowned Indian film director, and Roja Selvamani, former Minister for Tourism, Culture and Youth Advancement of Andhra Pradesh. The programme was also attended by Vaibhav A Tandale, counsellor (head of chancery and consular), Indian embassy, along with several distinguished guests and representatives from Indian community organisations in Qatar.Featuring vibrant cultural performances and an on-stage interaction session, the tribute night celebrated Vijayakanth’s contributions to cinema, leadership, and public life, making it a memorable milestone event for MKP Qatar’s cultural journey. Source link