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US President Donald Trump announced that the recently formedآ Board of Peace will unveil a humanitarian and reconstruction aid package for Gaza,along with a major international security commitment, during the Board's inaugural meeting in Washington scheduled for next Thursday.In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that on February 19, 2026, he would join members of the Board of Peace, where it would be announced that member states had pledged more than $5 billion to support humanitarian efforts and the reconstruction of Gaza. He added that thousands of personnel were assigned to the international stabilization force (ISF) and local police to maintain security in Gaza.The upcoming meeting will mark the first official session for the Board of Peace.Trump called the initiative a turning point for Gaza's future. The New York Times, citing officials, reported earlier that the United States had pledged over $1 billion to fund the Board's projects in Gaza.A White House official confirmed that the administration expects additional pledges in the coming weeks, noting that Trump's 20-point plan, announced last September and which paved the way for a ceasefire, stipulates that the Board of Peace will manage funding and establish the overall framework for Gaza's redevelopment. According to sources, a large portion of the financial pledges is designated for humanitarian projects in Gaza, as well as support for the ISF. More than 20 countries have so far joined the Board of Peace launched on Jan 22 by President Donald Trump. The Board's founding charter was signed during a ceremony on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Source link
Award-winning Indian writer Arundhati Roy said Friday she was withdrawing from the Berlin Film Festival over jury president Wim Wenders’s comments that cinema should “stay out of politics” when asked about Gaza. Roy said in a statement sent to AFP that she was “shocked and disgusted” by responses from Wenders and other jury members to a question about the Palestinian territory at a press conference on Thursday. Roy, whose novel The God of Small Things won the 1997 Booker Prize, had been announced as a festival guest to present a restored version of the 1989 film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, in which she starred and wrote the screenplay. However, she said that the “unconscionable” statements by Wenders and other jury members had led her to reconsider, “with deep regret”. When asked about Germany’s support for Israel at a press conference on Thursday, Wenders said: “We cannot really enter the field of politics”, describing filmmakers as “the counterweight to politics”. Fellow jury member Ewa Puszczynska said it was a “little bit unfair” to expect the jury to take a direct stance on the issue. Roy said in her statement that “to hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping”. She described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel”. “If the greatest filmmakers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say so, they should know that history will judge them,” she said. Source link
Switzerland said yesterday that Oman would host talks between the US and Iran in Geneva next week, with Washington pushing Tehran to make a deal to limit its nuclear programme.“Switzerland stands ready at all times to offer its good offices to facilitate dialogue between the US and Iran,” a Swiss foreign ministry spokesman told AFP. On February 6, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held talks in Oman with US envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s influential son-in-law Jared Kushner.The talks were indirect, with the Omanis acting as mediators. Trump has recently focused his military threats on Tehran’s nuclear programme, which US forces struck last July during Israel’s unprecedented 12-day war with Iran.Trump said Friday that a change of government in Iran would be the “best thing that could happen”, as he sent a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East, ratcheting up military pressure on the nationc. Switzerland has played a key role in diplomatic relations between Iran and the US for decades.Renowned for its neutrality, Switzerland has been representing US interests in Iran since Washington broke off relations with Tehran after the 1980 hostage crisis, a year after the Iranian revolution. In its role as the so-called protecting power, Switzerland has for decades allowed the two feuding nations to maintain a minimum of diplomatic and consular relations. The Swiss embassy in Tehran handles all consular affairs between the US and Iran, including passport requests, altering civil status and consular protection for US citizens in Iran. Under the protecting power mandate, “Switzerland can either offer to act as a go-between on its own initiative or can fulfil this function at the request of the parties concerned, provided that all those involved agree,” the foreign ministry says on its website.The US will be holding separate talks, also in Geneva next week, between Russia and Ukraine.Moscow and Kyiv will hold US-brokered talks on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Swiss city, both countries have said, announcing the next leg in fraught negotiations seeking to end the four-year war. Source link
File photo of UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese. European states criticise UN expert over alleged Israel remarksAlbanese denies calling Israel a ‘common enemy of humanity’US sanctions freeze Albanese’s assetsA UN human rights spokesperson expressed concern yesterday about attacks on independent UN experts after several European governments criticised the organisation’s special rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, and called for her resignation.This follows condemnation from Germany, France and Italy this week of Albanese’s alleged criticism of Israel. Albanese, an Italian lawyer, denies making the remarks.”We are very worried. We are concerned that UN officials, independent experts and judicial officials, are increasingly subjected to personal attacks, threats and misinformation that distracts from the serious human rights issues,” UN human rights office spokesperson Marta Hurtado told a press briefing when asked about the criticism.UN experts are commissioned by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to monitor and document specific human rights crises but are independent of the organisation itself.Yesterday, the Czech Republic’s Foreign Minister Petr Macinka quoted Albanese on X as having called Israel a “common enemy of humanity”, and he also called for her resignation.A transcript of Albanese’s remarks made on February 7 seen by Reuters did not characterise Israel in this way, although she has consistently criticised the country in the past over the Gaza conflict.German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Thursday that Albanese’s position was “untenable”, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot accused her of making “outrageous and reprehensible remarks” against Israel.Albanese said in overnight remarks on X: “Three European governments accuse me — based on statements I never made — with a virulence and conviction that they have never used against those who have slaughtered 20,000+ children in 858 days.”She was citing figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry, which puts the total death toll from the Gaza war at more than 72,000.US President Donald Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on Albanese after she wrote letters to US companies accusing them of contributing to gross human rights violations by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank.Albanese, whose term expires in 2028, is due to speak at the Rights Council in Geneva next month on Palestinian rights.There is no precedent for removing a special rapporteur during their term, although diplomats said that states on the 47-member council could in theory propose a motion to do so.However, they said strong support for Palestinian rights within the body means that such a motion was unlikely to pass. Source link
Albanian actor Anila Bisha, who is suing the government for allegedly using her face and voice to create an AI chatbot named Diella, presented as a…
Six weeks after a ceasefire ended fighting at the Thai-Cambodian border, thousands of displaced Cambodians still hope to return home, despite an election victory in Thailand by nationalists who want to wall off the disputed frontier.In Banteay Meanchey province, Proeung Sopheap, 59, was visiting her abandoned home in the border village of Prey Chan for the first time since the December clashes to collect some personal belongings and cooking utensils.”I don’t know what led to this fighting,” she said. “Like other Cambodians, I want peace, not war.”In an election last week, Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul romped to victory on a platform that includes building a wall at the border.During a visit to the area on the Cambodian side, most of the people Reuters spoke to said they knew nothing about last week’s Thai vote or what the implications might be for the area.Pich Vorn, displaced from the neighbouring village of Chouk Chey, said he just wanted his house and land back.”Even if it is small, it is where I have lived for many years.”The worst fighting in more than a decade has left Sopheap’s village Prey Chan divided: Thai authorities say part of it is in Thailand, and have put up barbed wire fencing, now reinforced with a barrier formed of metal shipping containers.On the Thai side, authorities say all residents have been able to return home since fighting ended.But on the Cambodian side, officials estimate that about 80% of land and homes in Prey Chan and Chouk Chey communes are now inaccessible, leaving more than 4,600 people living in temporary shelters.Thailand said in a statement on Friday the installation of barriers “to enhance safety and security along the border” was “fully consistent” with the joint statement agreed by the two countries during the ceasefire on December 27.The border clashes killed at least 149 people and displaced hundreds of thousands along the 817-kilometre border (508-mile) before Thailand and Cambodia agreed to a second ceasefire in late December, after an earlier truce from July collapsed.Both sides have traded accusations of aggression. They have tussled over their shared border for decades. Source link
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won a majority of more than two-thirds of the seats in parliamentary polls, the Election Commission said on Friday.Election Commission figures said the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, compared with 77 for the Islamist-led Jamaat-e-Islami alliance, Commission senior secretary Akhtar Ahmed told reporters. Turnout was 59 percent. A referendum on a sweeping democratic charter was endorsed by 60 percent of voters. Source link
The death toll from Cyclone Gezani in Madagascar has climbed to at least 36, as authorities continue recovery operations following the powerful storm that struck the Indian Ocean island nation last Tuesday, disaster officials reported.The National Office for Risk and Disaster Management said the cyclone, which made landfall near the eastern port city of Toamasina, inflicted widespread destruction, injuring more than 370 people and leaving six others missing. Of the confirmed deaths, 32 occurred in the Toamasina region, the country’s primary economic hub. The storm uprooted homes, flattened buildings, and displaced thousands as it tore across the island with winds exceeding 195 kilometers per hour. Authorities reported that nearly 18,000 homes were destroyed and more than 37,000 others damaged by the cyclone. President Michael Randrianirina declared a state of national disaster and appealed to the international community for urgent assistance to support relief and recovery efforts, including shelter, food, and basic necessities for affected families. Officials said many of the fatalities were caused by building collapses as the cyclone brought torrential winds and flooding to populated areas. Toamasina’s infrastructure suffered extensive damage, with reports indicating that a large portion of the city’s buildings were either severely damaged or destroyed. Cyclone Gezani’s landfall follows a series of powerful storms in recent weeks. Just last month, Cyclone Fytia hit the northwestern part of Madagascar, killing at least 14 people and displacing tens of thousands.Madagascar, located off Africa’s southeast coast, is highly vulnerable to cyclones and tropical storms originating in the Indian Ocean, with frequent seasonal impacts that compound the country’s ongoing development challenges. Source link
Passengers carry their luggage at El Paso International Airport after the US Federal Aviation Administration lifted its temporary closure of the airspace over El Paso, Texas,…
Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speak to the press after the talks in Parkveien, Oslo, Wednesday. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called Wednesday for a “firm response” from the US and the international community to Israel’s plan to tighten its control of the occupied West Bank.During a visit to Oslo, Abbas said he had discussed the issue with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, as well as those of Israeli settler violence and Israel’s freezing of “$4bn” intended for the Palestinian people.”These serious violations require a firm response from the US administration and the international community because they hinder (US) President (Donald) Trump’s efforts and constitute a violation of international law,” Abbas told reporters.On Sunday, Israel’s security cabinet approved a series of measures that would allow Israel to expand its control in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo accords in place since the 1990s.The plans, which have sparked international outrage, would also allow Israelis to buy West Bank land directly and allow Israeli authorities to administer certain religious sites even when they are located in areas under Palestinian Authority control.Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts across the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.Around 3mn Palestinians live in the territory. Related Story Source…