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  • PSG set a new benchmark in the Champions League, but can it stay at the top of European soccer?

    PSG set a new benchmark in the Champions League, but can it stay at the top of European soccer?

    Munich:  Paris Saint-Germain’s ascent to the top of European soccer is complete. Staying there is another matter entirely.

    Saturday’s Champions League triumph confirmed what many observers had suspected for some time – that PSG’s moment had finally come.

    Years of frustration in European club soccer’s elite competition was blown away in one glorious and historic night in Munich.

    Not only did PSG end its long wait for the trophy it prized most of all but it produced a statement performance and set a new benchmark for what it is to win the Champions League title.

    The 5-0 rout of Inter Milan was officially the biggest winning margin of any final in the competition’s 70-year history. And it could have been so much more emphatic had Bradley Barcola been clinical in front of goal, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia taken more than just one of his chances or Désiré Doué stayed on the field for longer than 67 minutes having scored two and set up another.

    Star striker Ousmane Dembele didn’t even get a goal to his name.

    As impressive as PSG’s victory was, it could have been even better. In other words, this is a team that is yet to reach its peak.

    Work in progress

    With an average age of 24.8 years old, PSG’s starting lineup was packed with youth, which was in stark contrast to an Inter team with an average age of over 30.

    At 31, captain Marquinhos was PSG’s only starter over 30, while Doué was one of three teenagers to play, along with substitutes Senny Mayulu and Warren Zaire-Emery.

    “We have a lot of young players – players who need to develop and I’m one of them,” Doué said. “We are always going to strive to get better.”

    Keeping young teams together is easier said than done when Europe’s biggest clubs come calling. That should not be a concern for Qatar-backed PSG, which is one of the richest clubs in the world and in recent years has focused on picking up the best young talent – from France in particular.

    Ambition

    It seems there is little danger of PSG settling for just one Champions League title.

    “We are ambitious, we are going to continue to conquer the football world,” a triumphant Luis Enrique said Saturday night after winning the trophy for the second time as a coach, 10 years after leading Barcelona to the trophy.

    He sounds like a man who has his sights set on building a new era of dominance and quickly turned to adding to the treble of trophies already won this season.

    Next up is the newly expanded Club World Cup.

    “I think it is an incredible competition. Maybe not now in its first edition, but it will become an incredibly important competition to win,” he said of the tournament that kicks off in the United States this month. “We want to finish the season in style with the cherry on the cake.”

    <hl2>Luis Enrique</hl2>The 55-year-old Luis Enrique has established himself as one of the finest coaches in the world after winning a second Champions League title.

    PSG has entrusted him to build a team in his image, rather than a selection of superstars and it has paid off.

    He has turned PSG into a Champions League winner while playing arguably the most exciting soccer in Europe, with Barcelona possibly the only team to rival it in the entertainment stakes.

    Yet while Barcelona was picked off by a wily Inter in the semifinals, the Italians were blown away by PSG.

    Liverpool, which ran away with the Premier League title this season, was eliminated in the round of 16, while Manchester City and Arsenal were beaten as well.

    Luis Enrique’s brand of soccer has simply been too good for the rest in Europe, which is now playing catch up.

    Transfers

    It is difficult to see where PSG needs to add to a squad with so much depth, but its rise to the top has come on the back of spending billions on some of the world’s best players.

    The era of Galactico signings is over for now, but the arrival of Kvaratskhelia from Napoli in January was evidence of president Nasser Al-Khelaifi’s ongoing willingness to go big in the transfer market.

    The Georgian forward sparked a dramatic turnaround in PSG’s form in Europe, which saw it go from near elimination at the league phase to Champions League winner.

    The rivals

    Manchester City might have thought its Champions League title in 2023 would spark a new era of success in Europe, but the opposite has been true and Pep Guardiola’s team was eliminated in the playoffs this season.

    The Champions League is notoriously difficult to defend, with Real Madrid the only team to retain the trophy in the modern era, having won three in a row from 2016-18. The difficulty is largely due to the wide spread of talent among Europe’s elite.

    PSG will come up against a Liverpool team that topped the league phase of this year’s competition and is already making ambitious moves in the transfer market.

    Madrid with a new coach in Xabi Alonso and signings such as Trent Alexander-Arnold should be a contender again. So too Barcelona after falling short in the semifinal.

    City, meanwhile, is undergoing a rebuild of its own.

    PSG, however, will likely start next season as the team to beat, with a bright young squad that finally knows how to get over the line.

  • Maja Stark avoids mistakes to take 1-shot lead into final round of the U.S. Women’s Open

    Erin (US):  Maja Stark could tell pretty early that Erin Hills would provide much more of a challenge than it had in the first two days of the U.S. Women’s Open.

    Yet she found a way to avoid the mistakes that befell so many other competitors during a brutal third round. Now the 25-year-old from Sweden is in position to earn the $2.4 million prize in the biggest event of the women’s golf season.

    Stark shot a 2-under 70 to give her a 7-under 209 total and a one-shot advantage heading into the final round Sunday. Julia Lopez Ramirez of Spain was second after a 68, the best score of the day.

    “I think I’m just going to try to play freely,” Stark said. “I think that no one has ever played well when they’ve been playing scared, and I think that’s been my habit before, to just kind of try to hang on to it.”

    The Japanese trio of Rio Takeda (70), Hinako Shibuno (72) and second-round leader Mao Saigo (75) followed at 5 under. Top-ranked Nelly Korda was 4 under after a 73.

    Speedier greens and tricker pin placements wreaked havoc with just about everyone on the course, leading to plenty of double bogeys and triple bogeys.

    One example of this came on the par-4 15th, when Esther Henseleit’s eagle putt from 55 feet away rolled 90 feet beyond the hole and went into the rough. Henseleit ended up with a double bogey.

    “It’s so hard because they tend to put holes that are right on the edges of the slopes, so you can see going into the grain and up until the hole, and then after the hole you just see that the grain is going the other way,” Stark said. “It’s just so hard to get the distances right. It’s really scary when you know if you putt this five feet by, then that’s gone.”

    The struggles of the field helped Lopez Ramirez make a surprising surge less than three months after an appendectomy.

    Lopez Ramirez hasn’t finished higher than a tie for 29th in any of her seven LPGA Tour appearances this season, though the 22-year-old rookie was the Southeastern Conference player of the year in 2023 and 2024 at Mississippi State.

    “I do believe that obviously when you’re in college and you’re about to win an event you have the same nerves,” Lopez Ramirez said. “That’s the most you care in that moment. You just want to win that tournament.”

    Saigo took a three-shot lead into the day but made three straight bogeys at Nos. 4-6 to drop into a tie for first. She made an 8 1/2-foot birdie putt on No. 12 to move back into sole possession of the lead, but Stark tied her with a 21 1/2-foot birdie on the par-3 16th. Saigo then bogeyed the last two to fall two back.

    She said the pin placements caused her the biggest problems on Saturday.

    “The first thing is I’d like to rest well and then tomorrow (come out) refreshed and I’d like to start from zero,” Saigo said through an interpreter.

    Plenty of other contenders faced similar misfortune.

    A Lim Kim, who entered Saturday in a six-way tie for second place, birdied No. 1 to get to 6 under, then went 7 over for the next four holes. Kim bogeyed No. 2, double-bogeyed No. 3, triple-bogeyed No. 4 and bogeyed No. 5. She ended up with a 77.

    Jinhee Im birdied two of her first three holes to get to 6 under before she triple-bogeyed the par-4 fourth. Noh also was at 6 under before a double bogey on No. 3. Im ended up with a 79, and Noh shot 75.

    Korda also struggled early before coming on strong late. Korda had a 40 on the front nine with four bogeys and no birdies, but rallied with three birdies on her last five holes.

    “It’s just a golf course where you may not hit it in the right spot and it’ll go down 40 feet and instead of being almost tap-in range, now you have a 40-foot chip where it’s running off the back, as well,” Korda said. “You just know that your mentality is that you’re going to make mistakes, but you can also bounce back here.”

     

     

     

     

  • Brook’s England ODI reign begins with crushing win over West Indies by 238 runs

    Brook’s England ODI reign begins with crushing win over West Indies by 238 runs

    Birmingham: Harry Brook’s reign as England’s new white-ball captain began by thumping the West Indies by 238 runs in a one-day international at Edgbaston on Thursday.

    For the first time in an ODI, the first seven batters scored 35 or more as England racked up 400-8. Brook was among four players to contribute half-centuries.

    The West Indies needed to pull off a record run chase but was out for 162 in the 27th.

    Medium-pacer Saqib Mahmood knocked over the top order and fast bowler Jamie Overton got hold of the tail.

    “That was a pretty phenomenal performance,” Brook said. “I’m not concerned (no one convrted fifties into hundreds). We got 400 runs. If one of us kicks on, that’s a complete performance.”

    England can clinch its first ODI bilateral series win since September 2023 on Sunday in Cardiff. The third and last match is on Tuesday at the Oval.

    About all that England lost at Edgbaston was the toss.

    West Indies thought it could exploit humid conditions but the initial bowling was mediocre and Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith, who was opening for the first time and dropped on 1, smashed 64 runs within seven overs. By the end of the powerplay, England was 90 for the loss of only Smith.

    Duckett made 60 off 48 balls, and Joe Root 57. Brook added 58 as the scoring rate was pegged back in the middle overs.

    But as 400 looked to fall out of reach, Barbados-born Jacob Bethell, brought back from the Indian Premier League to play his first international at his home ground, launched into the West Indies with 82 off 53 until falling in the last over.

    Bethell and Will Jacks added 98 from 44 balls.

    England reached 400 for the sixth time ever, and has never lost from that vantage point.

    The total might have been much higher if ordinary West Indies bowling hadn’t been compensated by outstanding catches.

    Roston Chase’s leaping one-handed take at backward point to dismiss Duckett was the pick, just ahead of Brandon King’s reflexes to snatch Smith’s rocket at short midwicket and Keacy Carty’s diving catch at deep cover to end Brook’s threatening innings.

    The batting performance wasn’t in the same class.

    Mahmood nagged out Justin Greaves in the third over and Carty in the 10th, while Brydon Carse was too quick for King. Carse’s stunning boundary catch ended captain Shai Hope in the 12th over at 66-4 and it was all downhill for the visitors.

    Mahmood and Overton led with three wickets each.

     

  • Trump wants Apple to stop production of iPhones in India; co assures New Delhi plans intact

    New Delhi/Doha: US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he has asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to stop producing iPhones in India, and rather make them in the US.

    Apple has no smartphone production in the US – most of its iPhones are made in China while facilities in India produce around 40 million units per year (about 15 per cent of Apple’s annual output).

    Trump, who in his second term as President is pushing for local manufacturing, said Apple will be “upping their production in the United States.”

    Soon after Trump’s comments in Doha, Qatar, Indian government officials spoke to Apple executives, who assured that Apple’s investment plans for India are intact and the company proposes to make the country a major manufacturing base for its products.

    “I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said of his conversation with Apple’s CEO, in Doha. “I said to him, Tim, you’re my friend. I treated you very well. You’re coming in with USD 500 billion (investment). But now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India if you want to take care of India.”

    Apple had earlier this year pledged to spend USD 500 billion in the US over the next four years.

    As a result of discussions with Cook, Trump said Apple will be “upping their production in the United States.”

    He did not elaborate.

    While Apple did not respond to an e-mail sent for comments, sources said Indian officials spoke to executives of the Cupertino-based firm on Trump’s statements.

    “Apple has said that its investment plans in India are intact and it proposes to continue to have India as a major manufacturing base for its products,” the source said.

    Cheaper skilled labour and availability of precision engineered product supply chains have driven Apple to China and India for manufacturing iPhones. American labour and manufacturing in comparison is expensive.

    Trump suggested that Apple could make its products in India for the Indian market. But Made in India iPhones being sold in the US has to stop. “You can build in India if you want, to take care of India.”

    Cook had previously stated that Apple will source the majority of iPhones sold in the US from India in the June quarter while China will produce the vast majority of the devices for other markets amid uncertainty over tariffs.

    India-made iPhones are assembled in Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn’s factory in Tamil Nadu. Tata Electronics, which runs Pegatron Corp’s operations in India, is the other key manufacturer. Tata and Foxconn are building new plants and adding production capacity to raise iPhone production.

    Apple assembled 60 per cent more iPhones, worth an estimated USD 22 billion, in India in the year ended March 31.

    Foxconn has also started manufacturing Apple Airpods in Telangana for exports.

    According to an analysis by S&P Global, iPhone sales in the US were 75.9 million units in 2024, with exports in March from India at 3.1 million units, suggesting a need to double shipments either through new capacity or redirecting shipments bound for the domestic market.

    “Apple’s Indian exports already headed predominantly to the United States, which represented 81.9 per cent of phones exported by the firm in the three months to February 28, 2025. That increased to 97.6 per cent in March 2025 as a result of a 219 per cent jump in exports, likely reflecting the firm looking to preempt higher tariffs,” S&P Global Market Intelligence report said.

    Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had in April announced that iPhones worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore were exported from India in fiscal year 2025.

    The Apple ecosystem in India is one the biggest job creators in the country. It is estimated to have employed around 2 lakh people across various vendors in the country.

     

  • UN humanitarian chief blasts Israel for ‘deliberately’ blocking aid to Gaza

    UN humanitarian chief blasts Israel for ‘deliberately’ blocking aid to Gaza

    United Nations: The United Nations’ top humanitarian official blasted Israel on Tuesday for “deliberately and unashamedly” imposing inhumane conditions on Palestinians, including the risk of famine — one of the strongest condemnations by a high-ranking U.N. official during the war in Gaza.

    Tom Fletcher, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, briefed members of the Security Council, describing this work as a “grim undertaking” since Israel began blocking all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza more than 10 weeks ago. He went as far as saying that the council must “act now” to “prevent genocide.” Israel vehemently denied that is taking place.

    “I ask you to reflect — for a moment — on what action we will tell future generations we each took to stop the 21st century atrocity to which we bear daily witness in Gaza,” said Fletcher, a longtime British diplomat who took up the U.N. post in November. “It is a question we will hear, sometimes incredulous, sometimes furious — but always there — for the rest of our lives.”

    In response to Fletcher’s remarks, the Israeli mission to the U.N. said that “Israel will not accept a humanitarian mechanism that props up the Hamas terror organization that butchered our people in their homes and communities.” Before the blockade, the U.N. and other international aid agencies handled moving aid into the enclave.

    The U.N. World Food Program’s director for Gaza, Antoine Renard, told The Associated Press that a quarter of Gaza’s population is at risk of famine. That’s despite all the food needed to feed the territory’s population sitting in warehouses in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan — and most of it is not even 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, he said.

    Renard said WFP warehouses in Gaza are empty, and the agency has gone from providing meals for 1 million people at the end of April to producing only 250,000 meals daily. The meals they can serve are “meaningless, compared to people’s requirements,” he said.

    “Soon, we’re going to speak about the fact that people don’t even have access to a meal,” Renard warned. “Is that where we need to go to actually raise the alarm? It’s now that we need to act.”

    The warnings come after food security experts said Monday that Gaza will likely fall into famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military campaign. Nearly half a million Palestinians are facing possible starvation, living in “catastrophic” levels of hunger, and 1 million others can barely get enough food, according to findings by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises. In January 2024, the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s top court, ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction, and any acts of genocide in Gaza.

    The alarm comes after the AP obtained a proposal from a newly created group backed by the U.S., the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, to implement a new aid distribution system based on plans similar to those designed by Israel. The U.N. and aid groups have rejected Israel’s moves to control aid distribution.

    “It is a cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement,” Fletcher said Tuesday about the proposal.

    When asked Tuesday whether the U.S. supports aid quickly entering Gaza, a spokesperson for the State Department said he would not speak for the foundation, while repeating Israeli rhetoric that Hamas “bears responsibility” for the humanitarian conditions in Gaza. It’s a claim that aid officials have continuously disputed.

    “I will reiterate that we are supportive of creative solutions to get aid in there, but also in a way that the aid is not falling into the hands of Hamas, that it actually reaches the people that need it,” deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott told reporters.

  • Rights groups say migrant workers dying on Saudi job sites as kingdom prepares for World Cup

    Rights groups say migrant workers dying on Saudi job sites as kingdom prepares for World Cup

    Dubai: Scores of labourers from countries including India, Bangladesh and Nepal have faced preventable deaths from electrocution, road accidents, falling from heights, and more while working in Saudi Arabia, according to a report Wednesday by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

    Human Rights Watch and another rights group, FairSquare, released separate investigations Wednesday detailing preventable deaths of migrant workers from job-site accidents and work-related illnesses.

    The reports accuse Saudi authorities of often misreporting such deaths and failing to investigate, preventing families from receiving compensation from the kingdom that they are entitled to and knowing how their loved ones died.

    As Saudi Arabia pushes ahead with hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure and development initiatives — including the 2034 men’s soccer World Cup and the futuristic city Neom — rights groups warn of thousands more avoidable deaths in the coming years.

    In one case, Human Rights Watch said a Bangladeshi worker was electrocuted on the job. But his employer allegedly withheld the body, telling the family they would be compensated only if they agreed to a local burial.

    Another family reported waiting nearly 15 years before they were compensated by the Saudi government.

    “It’s very urgent that the Saudi authorities and FIFA put in place basic labour rights protections,” Minky Worden, Human Rights Watch’s director of global initiatives, told The Associated Press, referring to soccer’s world governing body.

    Authorities in Saudi Arabia did not respond to a request for comment.

    FairSquare, which looked into the deaths of 17 Nepali contractors in Saudi Arabia over the last 18 months, warned in its report that without accountability, “thousands of unexplained deaths” of low-paid foreign workers are likely to follow.

    “In some cases, you have families being pursued by money lenders for the loans that their (dead) husband or father took out in order to migrate to the Gulf,” said James Lynch, who co-directs FairSquare.

    Saudi Arabia has long faced allegations of labour abuses and wage theft tied to its Vision 2030 project, a big-money effort to diversify its economy beyond dependence on oil.

    FIFA shared with the AP a letter it sent Human Rights Watch last month defending the selection of Saudi Arabia as host of the 2034 World Cup.

    The letter cited the Saudis’ commitments to establishing “a workers’ welfare system” and enhancing “country-wide labour protections including through a strengthened collaboration” with the United Nations’ International Labour Organisation.

    The kingdom is not the only Gulf Arab state to be accused of abusing migrant labourers in the run-up to a World Cup. Rights groups also criticised Qatar, which hosted the competition in 2022, saying they tallied thousands of unexplained worker deaths.

    But this time has the potential to be even worse for foreign workers, Worden said, noting that the 2034 World Cup has plans to require more stadiums and infrastructure with more teams competing.

    Qatar established an oversight board called the Supreme Committee, which monitored FIFA construction sites and took reports of unsafe work conditions.

    “There’s no such committee like that in Saudi Arabia,” Worden said, adding, “In the end, Qatar did have concrete policies like life insurance and heat protection. Those aren’t in place now” in Saudi Arabia.

    The details of the investigations from Human Rights Watch and FairSquare come a day after FIFA President Gianni Infantino joined US President Donald Trump on his official visit to Saudi Arabia, where Trump met with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

  • Saudi crown prince welcomes Trump to kingdom as US leader begins 4-day Middle East tour

    Saudi crown prince welcomes Trump to kingdom as US leader begins 4-day Middle East tour

    Riyadh: US President Donald Trump kicked off a four-day Middle East trip on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, putting the focus on sealing economic agreements with a key Mideast ally while shared concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme and the war in Gaza dragging on in the background.

    Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi de facto ruler, warmly greeted Trump as he stepped off Air Force One at King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital. The two leaders then retreated to a grand hall at the Riyadh airport, where Trump and his aides were served traditional Arabic coffee by waiting attendants wearing ceremonial gun belts.

    “I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump said later during a brief appearance with the crown prince at the start of a bilateral meeting.

    Prince Mohammed has already committed to some USD 600 billion in new Saudi investment in the US, but Trump teased USD 1 trillion would be even better.

    The pomp began before Trump even landed. Royal Saudi Air Force F-15s provided an honourary escort for Air Force One as it approached the kingdom’s capital.

    Trump and Prince Mohammed also took part in a lunch at the Royal Court, gathering with guests and aides in an ornate room with blue accents and massive crystal chandeliers.

    As he greeted business titans with Trump by his side, Prince Mohammed was animated and smiling.

    It was a stark contrast to his awkward fist bump with then-President Joe Biden, who looked to avoid being seen on camera shaking hands with the prince during a 2022 visit to the kingdom.

    Biden had decided to pay a visit to Saudi Arabia as he looked to alleviate soaring prices at the pump for motorists at home and around the globe.

    At the time, Prince Mohammed’s reputation had been badly damaged by a US intelligence determination that found he had ordered the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

    But that dark moment appeared to be distant memory for the prince as he rubbed elbows with high-profile business executives — including Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — in front of the cameras and with Trump by his side.

    Later, the crown prince will fete Trump with a formal dinner. Trump is also slated to take part Tuesday in a US-Saudi investment conference.

    Saudi Arabia and fellow OPEC+ nations have already helped their cause with Trump early in his second term by stepping up oil production. Trump sees cheap energy as a key component to lowering costs and stemming inflation for Americans.

    The Republican president has also made the case that lower oil prices will hasten an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.

    But Saudi Arabia’s economy remains heavily dependent on oil, and the kingdom needs a fiscal break-even oil price of USD 96 to USD 98 a barrel to balance its budget. It’s questionable how long OPEC+, of which Saudi Arabia is the leading member, is willing to keep production elevated.

    The price of a barrel of Brent crude closed Monday at USD 64.77.

    “One of the challenges for the Gulf states of lower oil prices is it doesn’t necessarily imperil economic diversification programmes, but it certainly makes them harder,” said Jon Alterman, a senior Middle East analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

    Trump picked the kingdom for his first stop, because it has pledged to make big investments in the US, but Trump ended up travelling to Italy last month for Pope Francis’ funeral.

    Riyadh was the first overseas stop of his first term.

    The three countries on the president’s itinerary — Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — are all places where the Trump Organisation, run by Trump’s two elder sons, is developing major real estate projects. They include a high-rise tower in Jeddah, a luxury hotel in Dubai and a golf course and villa complex in Qatar.

    Trump is trying to demonstrate that his transactional strategy for international politics is paying dividends as he faces criticism from Democrats who say his global tariff war and approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine are isolating the United States from allies.

    He’s expected to announce deals with the three wealthy countries that will touch on artificial intelligence, expanding energy cooperation and perhaps new arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The administration earlier this month announced initial approval to sell USD 3.5 billion worth of air-to-air missiles for Saudi Arabia’s fighter jets.

    But Trump arrived in the Middle East at a moment when his top regional allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, are far from neatly aligned with his approach.

    Before the trip, Trump announced that Washington was halting a nearly two-month US airstrike campaign against Yemen’s Houthis, saying the Iran-backed rebels have pledged to stop attacking ships along a vital global trade route.

    The administration didn’t notify Israel — which the Houthis continue to target — of the agreement before Trump publicly announced it. It was the latest example of Trump leaving the Israelis in the dark about his administration’s negotiations with common adversaries.

    In March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t notified by the administration until after talks began with Hamas about the war in Gaza. And Netanyahu found out about the ongoing US nuclear talks with Iran only when Trump announced them during an Oval Office visit by the Israeli leader last month.

    “Israel will defend itself by itself,” Netanyahu said last week following Trump’s Houthi truce announcement. “If others join us — our American friends — all the better.”

    William Wechsler, senior director of the Rafik Hariri Centre and Middle East Programmes at the Atlantic Council, said Trump’s decision to skip Israel on his first Middle East visit is remarkable.

    “The main message coming out of this, at least as the itinerary stands today, is that the governments of the Gulf… are in fact stronger friends to President Trump than the current government of Israel at this moment,” Wechsler said.

    Trump, meanwhile, hopes to restart his first-term effort to normalise relations between the Middle East’s major powers, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Trump’s Abraham Accords effort led to Sudan, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco agreeing to normalise relations with Israel.

    But Riyadh has made clear that in exchange for normalisation it wants US security guarantees, assistance with the kingdom’s nuclear programme and progress on a pathway to Palestinian statehood.

    There seems to be scant hope for making headway on a Palestinian state with the Israel-Hamas war raging and the Israelis threatening to flatten and occupy Gaza.

    Prince Mohammed last week notably hosted Palestinian Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh in Jeddah on the official’s first foreign visit since assuming office in April.

    Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said the crown prince appeared to be subtly signalling to Trump that the kingdom needs to see progress on Palestinian statehood for the Saudis to begin seriously moving on a normalisation deal with the Israelis.

  • Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter kills 16 people in Gaza

    Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter kills 16 people in Gaza

    Deir al-Balah: An Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip killed at least 16 people early on Monday, mostly women and children, according to local health officials.

    At least five children and four women were among those killed in the strike on a school in the Jabaliya area, the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said. It also said that a number of people were wounded.

    The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters operate in densely populated areas. There was no immediate comment on the latest strike.

    The attack came as U.S. President Donald Trump is heading to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week.

    After ending a ceasefire two months ago, Israel is intensifying the war in the Gaza Strip, where its 10-week blockade on food, medicine and other supplies is worsening a humanitarian crisis.

    Meanwhile, Hamas said the last living American hostage in Gaza will be released as part of efforts to establish a ceasefire, reopen crossings into the Israeli-blockaded territory and resume aid delivery to the battered enclave.

    Two Hamas officials have told The Associated Press they expect the release of Edan Alexander in the next 48 hours.

    Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed in a message to the AP that Hamas has agreed to release Alexander as a good will gesture toward Trump.

    The announcement of the first hostage release since Israel shattered a ceasefire in March comes shortly before Trump visits the Middle East this week. Alexander is an Israeli-American soldier who grew up in the United States.

     

  • Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 11 people, mostly women and children

    Deir Al-Balah (Gaza Strip): Israeli strikes overnight and into Sunday killed 11 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, according to local health officials.

    Two of the strikes hit tents in the southern city of Khan Younis, each killing two children and their parents. Other strikes killed a child and a man riding a bicycle, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. In northern Gaza, an Israeli strike killed a 16-year-old boy, according to the Indonesian Hospital.

    The Israeli military says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames Hamas for civilian deaths in the 19-month-old war because the militants are embedded in densely populated areas. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the latest strikes.

    Israel has sealed Gaza off from all imports, including food, medicine and emergency shelter, for over 10 weeks in what it says is a pressure tactic aimed at forcing Hamas to release hostages. Israel resumed its offensive in March, shattering a ceasefire that had facilitated the release of more than 30 hostages.

    Aid groups say food supplies are running low and hunger is widespread.

    U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration has voiced full support for Israel’s actions, is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week in a regional tour that will not include Israel.

    The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage. Fifty-nine hostages are still inside Gaza, around a third of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

    Israel’s offensive has killed over 52,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants or civilians. The offensive has destroyed vast areas of the territory and displaced some 90% of its population of around 2 million.

  • Tariff talks begin between US, Chinese officials in Geneva as world looks for signs of hope

    Tariff talks begin between US, Chinese officials in Geneva as world looks for signs of hope

    Geneva: The US Treasury Secretary and America’s top trade negotiator began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland Saturday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy.

    China’s Xinhua News Agency says Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier He Lifeng.

    Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks wasn’t made public.

    However, a motorcade of black cars and vans was seen leaving the home of the Swiss Ambassador to the United Nations in the wealthy Swiss city, and a diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, because of the sensitivity of the meeting, said the sides met for about two hours before departing for a previously arranged luncheon.

    Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim.

    But there is hope that the two countries will scale back the massive taxes — tariffs — they’ve slapped on each other’s goods, a move that would relieve world financial markets and companies on both sides of the Pacific Ocean that depend on US-China trade.

    US President Donald Trump last month raised US tariffs on China to a combined 145 per cent, and China retaliated by hitting American imports with a 125 per cent levy. Tariffs that high essentially amount to the countries’ boycotting each other’s products, disrupting trade that last year topped USD 660 billion.

    Even before the talks began, Trump suggested Friday that the US could lower its tariffs on China, saying in a Truth Social post that “80 per cent Tariff seems right! Up to Scott.”

    Sun Yun, director of the China programme at the Stimson Centre, noted it will be the first time He and Bessent have talked. She doubts the Geneva meeting will produce any substantive results.

    “The best scenario is for the two sides to agree to de-escalate on the… tariffs at the same time,” she said, adding even a small reduction would send a positive signal. “It cannot just be words.”

    Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has aggressively used tariffs as his favourite economic weapon. He has, for example, imposed a 10 per cent tax on imports from almost every country in the world.

    But the fight with China has been the most intense. His tariffs on China include a 20 per cent charge meant to pressure Beijing into doing more to stop the flow of the synthetic opioid fentanyl into the United States.

    The remaining 125 per cent involve a dispute that dates back to Trump’s first term and comes atop tariffs he levied on China back then, which means the total tariffs on some Chinese goods can exceed 145 per cent.

    During Trump’s first term, the US alleged that China uses unfair tactics to give itself an edge in advanced technologies such as quantum computing and driverless cars. These include forcing US and other foreign companies to hand over trade secrets in exchange for access to the Chinese market; using government money to subsidise domestic tech firms; and outright theft of sensitive technologies.

    Those issues were never fully resolved. After nearly two years of negotiation, the United States and China reached a so-called Phase One agreement in January 2020. The US agreed then not to go ahead with even higher tariffs on China, and Beijing agreed to buy more American products.

    The tough issues — such as China’s subsidies — were left for future negotiations.

    But China didn’t come through with the promised purchases, partly because COVID-19 disrupted global commerce just after the Phase One truce was announced.

    The fight over China’s tech policy now resumes.

    Trump is also agitated by America’s massive trade deficit with China, which came to USD 263 billion last year.

    In Switzerland, Bessent and Greer also plan to meet with Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter.

    Trump last month suspended plans to slap hefty 31 per cent tariffs on Swiss goods — more than the 20 per cent levies he plastered on exports from European Union. For now, he’s reduced those taxes to 10 per cent but could raise them again.

    The government in Bern is taking a cautious approach. But it has warned of the impact on crucial Swiss industries like watches, coffee capsules, cheese and chocolate.

    “An increase in trade tensions is not in Switzerland’s interests. Countermeasures against US tariff increases would entail costs for the Swiss economy, in particular by making imports from the USA more expensive,” the government said last week, adding that the executive branch “is therefore not planning to impose any countermeasures at the present time.”

    The government said Swiss exports to the United States on Saturday were subject to an additional 10 per cent tariff, and another 21 per cent beginning Wednesday.

    The United States is Switzerland’s second-biggest trading partner after the EU – a 27-member-country bloc that nearly surrounds the wealthy Alpine country of more than 9 million. US-Swiss trade in goods and services has quadrupled over the last two decades, the government said.

    The Swiss government said Switzerland abolished all industrial tariffs on January 1 last year, meaning that 99 per cent of all goods from the United States can be imported into Switzerland duty-free.