Diddy trial outcome and Trump's tax bill
US President Donald Trump's tax bill and the American courts verdict to acquit music mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs of the most serious charges against him received most views from American newspapers.
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Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Israel to send delegation to Qatar for Gaza ceasefire talks
Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war. Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a 'positive spirit,' a few days after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed 'to the necessary conditions to finalize' a 60-day truce. The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters. But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday, has yet to comment on Trump's announcement, and in their public statements Hamas and Israel remain far apart. Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the militant group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss. Israeli media said on Friday that Israel had received and was reviewing Hamas' response to the ceasefire proposal. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's retaliatory military assault on the enclave has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, displaced Gaza's entire population internally and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes. Israel denies the accusations.
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
Diplomatic spotlight falls on Global South ahead of G20 meeting
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is making final preparations to attend the big BRICS summit on Sunday and Monday in Brazil. However, his mind may well be some 5,000 miles away in his home nation, which is facing the growing challenges of hosting another major global diplomatic event — the G20 meeting. South Africa's hosting of this year's G20 should be a victory lap for Ramaphosa and his country. It is the first time the African continent has chaired the global forum, yet the process has been beset with problems, largely emanating from the US. A few weeks ago, Ramaphosa visited the White House to try to course correct relations with the Trump team. However, the meeting proved tense, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly accusing South Africa of 'white genocide,' and it is still not clear whether the US president will attend November's leadership summit, despite the fact that Washington takes over as the next G20 host. Before his meeting with Ramaphosa, Trump declared that 'South Africa is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly. The United States won't stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of the situation has been completed.' Moreover, Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 7 which claimed that an expropriation law, passed in December, enables 'the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural property without compensation. This act follows countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.' Washington donated about $440 million in aid to South Africa in 2023, most of which was for healthcare programs. It is not just Trump who has berated Ramaphosa. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who declined an invitation to attend a G20 foreign ministers meeting earlier this year, has declared that 'South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote solidarity, equality, & sustainability. In other words: DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and climate change. My job is to advance America's national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.' South Africa's hosting of this year's G20 should be a victory lap for President Cyril Ramaphosa and his country. Andrew Hammond What Trump and Rubio refer to in their denunciation is the 2024 South Africa Expropriation Act, which aims to resolve ownership inequality issues created by the pre-1994 apartheid system of white minority rule. The controversial law has drawn criticism for potentially disregarding private property rights, particularly those of the white minority, as it potentially permits state land seizures without compensation. To date, no land has been expropriated. The hostility of the Trump team to South Africa is making it much harder for Ramaphosa to host the G20, yet this is only the latest example of growing geopolitical divisions affecting the club in recent years. Tensions have long been high, too, between China and the West, and recent summits have seen significant disagreements over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, which have caused diplomatic fireworks. In 2022, 2023, and 2024, G20 ministers frequently clashed diplomatically, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov walking out of some meetings. Moreover, the customary group pictures of the so-called 'G20 family' have become rarer. In this context, there are significant challenges to constructive discussion taking place at the G20 this year — this despite the strong support that South Africa has received from other powers, including the EU. For instance, European Council President Antonio Costa has highlighted with Ramaphosa 'the EU's commitment to deepen ties with South Africa, as a reliable and predictable partner.' He added that the EU offers 'full support to South Africa's leadership of G20 and its ambition to strengthen multilateral cooperation and the Pact for the Future to address the most pressing global issues.' The backing of Brussels for Pretoria reflects not just its partnership with the country and the wider continent, but also the concern that Washington's absence from the G20 will only benefit Moscow and China. Yet, even if some governments, like the Trump team, have disagreements with parts of Ramaphosa's G20 agenda to address climate change and fairer finance for poorer nations, there are other items for constructive engagement. Take the example of the future of the energy agenda in Africa in which US firms have a huge stake. The danger if the US does not engage on these agendas is that it will lose a critical mass of its economic foothold in South Africa and much of the rest of the continent. All of this highlights why 2025 will be perhaps the most unpredictable G20 year ever. Amid the uncertainty, however, what is at stake is more than the future of the multilateral forum. At play are much wider questions about US international leadership in the new era.
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
Musk says ‘America Party' is formed in US
'By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!' he said'Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom'WASHINGTON: A day after asking his followers on X whether a new US political party should be created, Elon Musk said on Saturday that the 'America Party is formed.''By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!' he said in a post on X.'Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.'The announcement from Musk comes after President Donald Trump signed a tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which the billionaire chief executive officer of Tesla fiercely spent hundreds of millions on Trump's re-election and led the Department of Government Efficiency under the Trump administration aimed at slashing government spending, but the two have since fallen out over disagreements about the earlier this week threatened to cut off the billions of dollars in subsidies that Musk's companies receive from the federal said previously that he would start a new political party and spend money to unseat lawmakers who supported the have expressed concern that Musk's on-again, off-again feud with Trump could hurt their chances to protect their majority in the 2026 midterm congressional elections.
