WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that “there seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea after China restricted exports of rare earths needed for American industry.
The Republican president suggested that he was looking at a “massive increase” of import taxes on Chinese products in response to Xi’s moves.
“One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration.”
The United States and China have been jockeying for advantage in trade talks, after the import taxes announced earlier this year triggered a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Both nations agreed to ratchet down tariffs after negotiations in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, yet tensions remain as China has sought to restrict America’s access to the difficult-to-mine rare earth’s needed for a wide array of U.S. technologies.
On Thursday, the Chinese government restricted access to the rare earths ahead of the scheduled Trump-Xi meeting. Beijing would require foreign companies to get special approval for shipping the metallic elements aboard. It also announced permitting requirements on exports of technologies used in the mining, smelting and recycling of rare earths, adding that any export requests for products used in military goods would be rejected.
Trump said that China is “becoming very hostile” and that it’s holding the world “captive” by restricting access to the metals and magnets used in electronics, computer chips, lasers, jet engines and other technologies.
“I have not spoken to President Xi because there was no reason to do so,” Trump posted. “This was a real surprise, not only to me, but to all the Leaders of the Free World.”
The U.S. president said the move on rare earths was “especially inappropriate” given the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza so that the remaining hostages from Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack can be released. He raised the possibility without evidence that China was trying to steal the moment from him for his role in the ceasefire, saying on social media, “I wonder if that timing was coincidental?”
CAIRO — Israel’s Cabinet has approved the “outline” of a deal to release hostages held by Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said early Friday, as top Israeli officials debated a tentative deal to pause the devastating two-year war with Hamas.
The approval is a key step in implementing a ceasefire and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump. The brief statement focused on the hostage release and made no mention of the other parts of Trump’s plan for ending the war.
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By SAMY MAGDY, MELANIE LIDMAN and WAFAA SHURAFA – Associated Press
CAIRO — Peace talks between Israel and Hamas resumed at an Egyptian resort city on Tuesday, the two-year anniversary of the militant group’s surprise attack on Israel that triggered the bloody conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
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Israel and Hamas are preparing for indirect negotiations in Egypt on Monday as hopes are rising for a possible ceasefire in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a hostage release could be announced this week. Tuesday marks two years…
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By SAMY MAGDY and MELANIE LIDMAN – Associated Press
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish children play next to Sukkahs, a temporary structures built for the upcoming Jewish holiday of Sukkot in the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
MANCHESTER, England — An assailant drove a car into people outside a synagogue Thursday in northern England and then began stabbing them, killing two and seriously hurting at least three in what police called a terrorist attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year.
Officers shot and killed the suspect at the synagogue in Manchester, police said, though authorities took some time to confirm he was dead because he was wearing a vest that made it appear as if he had explosives. Police later said he did not have a bomb.
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By BRIAN MELLEY, PAN PYLAS and IAN HODGSON – Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS — As new tensions rise between Russia and NATO powers, Moscow’s top diplomat insisted to world leaders Saturday that his nation doesn’t intend to attack Europe but will mount a “decisive response” to any aggression.
Russia has denied that its planes entered Estonian airspace and has said the drones didn’t target Poland, with Moscow’s ally Belarus maintaining that Ukrainian signal-jamming sent the devices off course.
At the U.N., Lavrov maintained it’s Russia that’s facing threats.
“Russia has never had and does not have any such intentions” of attacking European or NATO countries, he said. “However, any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response. There should be no doubt about this among those in NATO and the EU.”
Lavrov spoke three years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a war that the international community has broadly deplored.
Sounding a notably open note from a country that has often lambasted the West, Lavrov noted the summit and said Russia had “some hopes” to keep talking with the United States.
“In the approaches of the current U.S. administration, we see a desire not only to contribute to ways to realistically resolve the Ukrainian crisis, but also a desire to develop pragmatic cooperation without adopting an ideological stance,” the diplomat said, portraying the powers as counterparts of sorts: “Russia and the U.S. bear a special responsibility for the state of affairs in the world, and for avoiding risks that could plunge humanity into a new war.”
To be sure, Lavrov still had sharp words for NATO, an alliance that includes the U.S., and for the West in general and the European Union.
Trump’s new view of Ukraine’s prospects came after he met with its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the sidelines of General Assembly on Tuesday — seven months after a televised blow-up between the two in the Oval Office. This time, the doors were closed, and the tenor was evidently different — “a good meeting,” as Zelenskyy described it in his assembly speech the next day.
For the fourth year in a row, Zelenskyy appealed to the gathering of presidents, prime ministers and other top officials to get Russia out of his country — and warned that inaction would put other countries at risk.
Ukraine and the West have denounced Russia’s invastion as an unprovoked act of aggression.
Addressing the devastating war in Gaza, Lavrov condemned Hamas militants’ surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but said “there is no justification” for Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians, including children.
The Hamas attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel; 251 were taken hostage. Israel’s sweeping offensive has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not give a breakdown of civilian and combatant deaths but says around half of those killed were women and children.
Lavrov also said there is no basis for any potential Israeli annexation of the West Bank, which Palestinians consider a key part of their future state, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem.
Israel hasn’t announced such a move, but several leading members in Netanyahu’s government have advocated doing so. Officials recently approved a controversial settlement project that would effectively cut the West Bank in two, a move critics say could doom chances for a Palestinian state.
Between the Gaza war and the situation in the West Bank, “we are essentially dealing with an attempt at a kind of coup d’etat aimed at burying U.N. decisions on the creation of a Palestinian state,” Lavrov said.
The international community has long embraced a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the idea of a Palestinian state, saying it would reward Hamas — a position he reiterated Friday at the General Assembly.
CAIRO — Israeli strikes in Gaza City and at a refugee camp killed more than 40 people, including 19 women and children, health officials said Sunday, as several European countries and leading U.S. allies moved to recognize a Palestinian state.
Health officials at Shifa Hospital, where most of the bodies were brought, said the dead included 14 people killed in a strike late Saturday which hit a residential block in the southern side of the city. Health staff said a nurse who worked at the hospital was among the dead, along with his wife and three children.
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Israel has launched its offensive in Gaza City, vowing to overwhelm a city already in ruins from nearly two years of war. Vehicles strapped with mattresses and other belongings clogged a coastal road as thousands of Palestinians fled Tuesday. Hundreds…
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By MELANIE LIDMAN, JON GAMBRELL and SAMY MAGDY – Associated Press
TOKYO — Global shares mostly rose Wednesday, echoing record rallies on Wall Street after the latest update on the job market bolstered hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.
France’s CAC 40 rose 0.8 in early trading to 7,809.80. Germany’s DAX edged up 0.6% to 23,856.74. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2% to 9,263.14. U.S. shares were set to be mixed with Dow futures down 0.1% at 45,700.00, while S&P 500 futures gained 0.3% at 6,537.75.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.9% to finish at 43,837.67. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.3% to 8,830.40. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.7% to 3,314.53.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.0% to 26,200.26, while the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.1% to 3,812.22. Uncertainty is still in the air over U.S.-China tariff issues as bilateral talks continue.
U.S. President Donald Trump has raised taxes on imports from China, triggering a tit-for-tat tariff war. The U.S. is currently charging an additional 30% tariff on Chinese goods and China is charging a 10% tariff under a de-escalation deal reached in May.
Investors are also watching for the U.S. Federal Reserve possibly cutting its main interest rate for the first time this year at its next meeting in a week, in order to prop up the slowing job market. A report on Tuesday offered the latest signal of weakness, when the U.S. government said its prior count of jobs across the country through March may have been too high by 911,000, or 0.6%.
That was before President Donald Trump shocked the economy and financial markets in April by rolling out tariffs on countries worldwide.
The bet on Wall Street is that such data will convince Fed officials that the job market is the bigger problem now for the economy than the threat of inflation worsening because of Trump’s tariffs. That would push them to cut interest rates, a move that would give the economy a boost but could also send inflation higher.
“The broader narrative is increasingly anchored on expectations that the Fed will deliver a rate cut at next week’s meeting,” said Ahmad Assiri, research strategist at Pepperstone.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude added 58 cents to $63.21 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 56 cents to $66.95 a barrel.
DOHA, Qatar — Israel struck the headquarters of Hamas’ political leadership in Qatar on Tuesday as the group’s top figures gathered to consider a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The strike on the territory of a U.S. ally marked a stunning escalation and risked upending talks aimed at winding down the war and freeing hostages.
The attack angered Qatar, an energy-rich Gulf nation hosting thousands of American troops that has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas throughout the 23-month-old war and even before. It condemned what it referred to as a “flagrant violation of all international laws and norms” as smoke rose over its capital, Doha. Other key U.S. allies in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, promised their support to Qatar.
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By JOSEF FEDERMAN and JON GAMBRELL – Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A ship likely cut cables in the Red Sea that disrupted internet access in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, experts said Tuesday, showing the lines’ vulnerability over a year after another incident severed them.
The International Cable Protection Committee told The Associated Press that 15 submarine cables pass through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern mouth of the Red Sea that separates East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula.
Over the weekend, authorities in multiple countries identified the cables affected as the South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4, the India-Middle East-Western Europe and the FALCON GCX cables. On Tuesday, that list expanded to include the Europe India Gateway cable as well, said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at the firm Kentik.
Initial reporting suggested the cut happened off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, something authorities in the kingdom have not acknowledged, nor have the companies managing the cables.
“Early independent analysis indicates that the probable cause of damage is commercial shipping activity in the region,” John Wrottesley, the committee’s operations manager, told the AP. “Damage to submarine cables from dragged anchors account for approximately 30% of incidents each year representing around 60 faults.”
Madory also told the AP that the working assumption was a commercial vessel dropped its anchor and dragged it across the four cables, severing the connections. Cabling in the Red Sea can be at a shallow depth, making it easier for an anchor drag to affect them.
Undersea cables are one of the backbones of the internet, along with satellite connections and land-based cables. Typically, internet service providers have multiple access points and reroute traffic if one fails.
However, rerouting traffic can cause latency, or lag, for internet users. Madory said it appeared at least 10 nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East had been affected by the cable cut. Among those nations were India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
“Nobody’s completely offline, but each provider has lost a subset of their international transit,” Madory said. “So if you imagine this is like an equivalent to plumbing and you lose some volume of water coming down the pipes … and now you just have less volumes to carry the traffic.”
Cable security also has been a concern amid attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on ships over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In early 2024, Yemen’s internationally recognized government in exile alleged that the Houthis planned to attack undersea cables. Several later were cut, possibly by a ship attacked by the Houthis dragging its anchor, but the rebels denied being responsible.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted internet access in parts of Asia and the Middle East, experts said Sunday, though it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the incident.
There has been concern about the cables being targeted in a Red Sea campaign by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which the rebels describe as an effort to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But the Houthis have denied attacking the lines in the past.
Undersea cables are one of the backbones of the internet, along with satellite connections and land-based cables. Typically, internet service providers have multiple access points and reroute traffic if one fails, though it can slow down access for users.
Microsoft announced via a status website that the Mideast “may experience increased latency due to undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea.” The Redmond, Washington-based firm did not immediately elaborate, though it said that internet traffic not moving through the Middle East “is not impacted.”
NetBlocks, which monitors internet access, said “a series of subsea cable outages in the Red Sea has degraded internet connectivity in multiple countries,” which it said included India and Pakistan. It blamed “failures affecting the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.”
The South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 cable is run by Tata Communications, part of the Indian conglomerate. The India-Middle East-Western Europe cable is run by another consortium overseen by Alcatel Submarine Networks. Neither firm responded to requests for comment.
Pakistan Telecommunications Co. Ltd., a telecommunication giant in that country, noted that the cuts had taken place in a statement on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia did not acknowledge the disruption and authorities there did not respond to a request for comment.
In Kuwait, authorities also said the FALCON GCX cable running through the Red Sea had been cut, causing disruptions in the small, oil-rich nation. GCX did not respond to a request for comment.
In the United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, internet users on the country’s state-owned Du and Etisalat networks complained of slower internet speeds. The government did not acknowledge the disruption.
Subsea cables can be cut by anchors dropped from ships, but can also be targeted in attacks. It can take weeks for repairs to be made as a ship and crew must locate themselves over the damaged cable.
The cuts to the lines come as Yemen’s Houthi rebels remain locked in a series of attacks targeting Israel over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Israel has responded with airstrikes, including one that killed top leaders within the rebel movement.
In early 2024, Yemen’s internationally recognized government in exile alleged that the Houthis planned to attack undersea cables in the Red Sea. Several were cut, possibly by a ship attacked by the Houthis dragging its anchor, but the rebels denied being responsible. On Sunday morning, the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel acknowledged that the cuts had taken place, citing NetBlocks.
Moammar al-Eryani, the information minister with Yemen’s internationally recognized government that opposes the Houthis and is based in southern Yemen, issued a statement saying the cable cuts “cannot be isolated from the series of direct attacks carried out by the Houthi militia.”
“What is happening today in the Red Sea should serve as a wake-up call for the international community, which must take a firm stance to stop these escalating threats and protect the digital infrastructure that serves as the lifeline of the modern world,” al-Eryani said.
From November 2023 to December 2024, the Houthis targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In their campaign so far, the Houthis have sunk four vessels and killed at least eight mariners.
The Iranian-backed Houthis stopped their attacks during a brief ceasefire in the war. They later became the target of an intense weekslong campaign of airstrikes ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump before he declared a ceasefire had been reached with the rebels. The Houthis sank two vessels in July, killing at least four on board, with others believed to be held by the rebels.
The Houthis’ new attacks come as a new possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war remains in the balance. Meanwhile, the future of talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s battered nuclear program is in question after Israel launched a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in which the Americans bombed three Iranian atomic sites.
ADEN, Yemen — Hundreds of Yemenis mourned Monday the death of Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi, killed last week along with several officials by an Israeli strike, as the group targeted an oil tanker in the Red Sea, renewing their attacks in the crucial global waterway.
The Israeli attack came three days after the Houthis launched a ballistic missile toward Israel that its military described as the first cluster bomb the Iranian-backed rebels had launched at it since 2023.
In the capital city of Sanaa, mourners attended the funeral, held at Shaab Mosque and broadcast by Al-Masirah TV, a Houthi-controlled satellite news channel.
Crowds inside the mosque chanted against Israel and the United States as they grieved the deaths of the officials, including the foreign affairs, media and culture, and industrial ministers.
Funeral attendees Ahmed Khaled and Fathy Mahmoud told The Associated Press the families of the slain officials arrived in ambulances for the funeral, where the bodies were placed in caskets inside the mosque.
Footage showed 11 coffins with individual photos of the killed officials on each and wrapped in Yemeni flags.
“We’re participating in this funeral because Israel killed those officials and that’s enough reason to attend their funeral,” Ahmed Azam, another attendee, told the AP.
Al-Rahawi was the most senior Houthi official to be killed since an Israeli-U.S. campaign against the rebel group started earlier this year. Other ministers and officials were wounded, confirmed a Houthi statement on Thursday, following the Israeli attack.
“We entered a huge and influential war and clashed with the U.S. This war was not only military-focused but also economic as Israel targeted everything,” Acting Houthi Prime Minister Mohamed Muftah said in his address at the funeral on Monday.
He confirmed that despite Israeli attacks, Yemeni ports controlled by the group are still functioning and that there is no food or fuel crisis.
The Yemeni rebels said Monday they launched a missile at an oil tanker off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed responsibility in a prerecorded message aired on Al-Masirah. He alleged the vessel, the Liberian-flagged Scarlet Ray, owned by Eastern Pacific, had ties to Israel.
The maritime security firm Ambrey described the ship as fitting the Houthis’ “target profile, as the vessel is publicly Israeli owned.”
Eastern Pacific is a company that is ultimately controlled by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and had been previously targeted in suspected Iranian attacks.
In a statement, the company said “the vessel has not sustained any damage and continues to operate under the command of its Master. All crew members onboard the Scarlet Ray are safe and accounted for.”
The Houthi rebels have been launching missile and drone attacks on Israel and on ships in the Red Sea in response to the war in Gaza, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians. Their attacks over the past two years have upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion of goods pass each year.
The Iranian-backed Houthis stopped their attacks during a brief ceasefire in the war. They later became the target of an intense weekslong campaign of airstrikes ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump before he declared a ceasefire had been reached with the rebels. The Houthis sank two vessels in July, killing at least four on board, with others believed to be held by the rebels.
The Houthis’ fresh attacks come as a new, possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war remains in the balance. Meanwhile, the future of talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s battered nuclear program is in question after Israel launched a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in which the Americans bombed three Iranian atomic sites.
A U.N. official said the world body was unable to contact many of its staff in Houthi-held areas as of Monday morning.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, said 11 U.N. staffers, who were detained on Sunday during a Houthi raid on their offices, include international and local workers, and a senior international official. The rebel group also seized documents and other materials from the U.N. offices, according to the official.
World Food Program executive director Cindy McCain said Monday afternoon on X that Houthis forcibly entered WFP offices, confiscated and destroyed property, and detained nine of its team members — part of the 11 already arrested. McCain wrote the rebel group’s actions were “unacceptable.” ___
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Magdy and Khaled from Cairo.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s rial currency fell to near-record lows Thursday as concerns grew in Tehran that European nations will start a process to reimpose United Nations sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, further squeezing the country’s ailing economy.
The move, termed the “snapback” mechanism by the diplomats who negotiated it into Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, was designed to be veto-proof before the world body and would be likely to go into effect after a 30-day window. If implemented, the measure would again freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran and penalizes any development of its ballistic missile program, among other measures.
In Tehran on Thursday, the rial traded at over 1 million to $1. At the time of the 2015 accord, it traded at 32,000 to $1, showing the currency’s precipitous collapse in the time since. The rial hit its lowest point ever in April at 1,043,000 rials to $1.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom warned Aug. 8 that Iran could trigger snapback when it halted inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency after Israeli strikes at the start of the two countries’ 12-day war in June. Israeli attacks then killed Tehran’s top military leaders and saw Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei go into hiding.
Iran threatened to abandon all cooperation with the IAEA if “snapback” moves forward.
“We have told them if this happens, the pathway we have opened for working with the IAEA will be completely affected and the process will likely be stopped,” Kazem Gharibabadi, a deputy foreign minister, told state television. “If they opt for snapback, it makes no sense for Iran to continue working with them.”
That means seeking to use the “snapback” mechanism likely will raise tensions further between Iran and the West in a Mideast still burning over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
“The U.S. and its European partners see invoking the ‘snapback’ as a means of keeping Iran strategically weak and unable to reconstitute the nuclear program damaged by the U.S. and Israeli strikes,” the New York-based Soufan Center think tank said Thursday.
“Iranian leaders perceive a sanctions snapback as a Western effort to weaken Iran’s economy indefinitely and perhaps stimulate sufficient popular unrest to unseat Iran’s regime.”
Iran initially downplayed the threat of renewed sanctions and engaged in little visible diplomacy for weeks after Europe’s warning, but has engaged in a brief diplomatic push in recent days, highlighting the chaos gripping its theocracy.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking last week, signaled Iran’s fatalistic view of its diplomacy with the West, particularly as the Israelis started the war just as a sixth round of negotiations with the United States were due to take place.
“Weren’t we in the talks when the war happened? So, negotiation alone cannot prevent war,” Araghchi told the state-run IRNA news agency. “Sometimes war is inevitable and diplomacy alone is not able to prevent it.”
Before the war in June, Iran was enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. It also built a stockpile containing enough highly enriched uranium to build multiple atomic bombs, should it choose to do so.
Iran long has insisted its program is peaceful, though Western nations and the IAEA assess Tehran had an active nuclear weapons program up until 2003.
It remains unclear just how much the Israel and U.S. strikes on nuclear sites during the war disrupted Iran’s program.
Under the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to allow the IAEA even greater access to its nuclear program than those the agency has in other member nations. That included permanently installing cameras and sensors at nuclear sites. Other devices, known as online enrichment monitors, measured the uranium enrichment level at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility.
The IAEA also regularly sent inspectors into Iranian sites to conduct surveys, sometimes collecting environmental samples with cotton clothes and swabs that would be tested at IAEA labs back in Austria. Others monitor Iranian sites via satellite images.
But IAEA inspectors, who faced increasing restrictions on their activities since the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s nuclear deal in 2018, have yet to access those sites. Meanwhile, Iran has said it moved uranium and other equipment out prior to the strikes — possibly to new, undeclared sites that raise the risk that monitors could lose track of the program’s status.
In their Aug. 8 letter, the three European nations warned Iran they would proceed with “snapback” by the end of August if Tehran didn’t reach a “satisfactory solution” to the nuclear issues. That’s left little time for Iran to likely reach any agreement with the Europeans, who have grown increasingly skeptical of Iran over years of inconclusive negotiations over its nuclear program.
The deal’s snapback mechanism would expire Oct. 18, which put the three European nations in a situation where they likely feel now is the time to act. Under snapback, any party to the deal can find Iran in noncompliance, triggering renewed sanctions.
After it expires, any sanctions effort would face a veto from U.N. Security Council members China and Russia, nations that have provided some support to Iran in the past but stayed out of the June war. China as well has remained a major buyer of Iranian crude oil, something that could be affected in “snapback” happens.
Russia in recent days has floated a proposal to extend the life of the U.N. resolution granting the “snapback” power. Russia also is due to take the presidency of the U.N. Security Council in October, likely putting additional pressure on the Europeans to act.
___
Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat and Mehdi Fattahi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
UNITED NATIONS — The Security Council scheduled a vote Thursday on a resolution that would end the more than four-decade operation of the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon on Dec. 31, 2026.
Two council diplomats said late Wednesday that the United States, which had been demanding that the force known as UNIFIL be terminated in a year, did not object to a French draft resolution with that end date in 16 months.
That signaled the resolution would be approved, but it was not clear whether the United States would vote in favor or abstain, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations have been private.
UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. Its mission was expanded following the monthlong 2006 war between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah.
The resolution would terminate UNIFIL’s mandate and halt its operations at the end of 2026. The process of withdrawing its 10,800 military and civilian personnel and equipment would start immediately in consultation with the Lebanese government, to be completed within a year.
The draft says the aim is to make the Lebanese government “the sole provider of security” in southern Lebanon north of the U.N.-drawn border with Israel known as the Blue Line. It calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from north of the Blue Line.
The multinational force has played a significant role in monitoring the security situation in southern Lebanon for decades, including during the Israel-Hezbollah war last year, but has drawn criticism from both sides and numerous U.S. lawmakers, some of whom now hold prominent roles in President Donald Trump’s administration or wield new influence with the White House.
They regard the operation as a waste of money that is merely delaying the goal of eliminating Hezbollah’s influence and restoring full security control to the Lebanese armed forces. The government says its forces are not yet capable of assuming full control.
European nations, notably France and Italy, objected to winding down UNIFIL too quickly. They argued that ending the peacekeeping mission before the Lebanese army was able to fully secure the border area would create a vacuum that Hezbollah could easily exploit.
During the one-year withdrawal period, the draft resolution says UNIFIL is authorized to provide security and assistance to U.N. personnel, “to maintain situational awareness in the vicinity of UNIFIL locations,” and to contribute to the protection of civilians and safe delivery of humanitarian aid “within the limits of its capacities.”
The draft urges the international community “to intensify its support, including equipment, material and finance” to the Lebanese armed forces.
MINNEAPOLIS — Ken Martin is in the fight of his life.
The low-profile political operative from Minnesota, just six months on the job as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is charged with leading his party’s formal resistance to President Donald Trump and fixing the Democratic brand.
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Famine is now occurring in Gaza City, according to the world’s leading authority on food crises.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification released an analysis Friday, saying more than more than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, suffering widespread starvation and preventable deaths.
It’s the first time the IPC has confirmed a famine in the Middle East, where Israel has been in a brutal war with Hamas since the militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack.
People in Gaza rely almost entirely on outside aid to survive because Israel’s military offensive has wiped out most capacity to produce food inside the territory.
“I am speechless that in 2025, we are facing starvation on the planet,” said Dr. Mark Manary at Washington University in St. Louis, an expert on childhood malnutrition. “It’s got to be a wake-up call.”
Manary said if food were made widely available, it would take around two or three months for the region to recover from the famine.
Here’s a look at what famine means and how the world finds out when one exists.
“Famine is, in plain language, not having enough to eat,” Manary said.
IPC, the leading international authority on hunger crises, considers an area to be in famine when three things occur: 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or essentially are starving; at least 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height; and two adults or four children per every 10,000 people are dying daily of hunger and its complications.
Famine can appear in pockets — sometimes small ones — and a formal classification requires caution.
Last year, experts said a famine was ongoing in parts of North Darfur in Sudan. Somalia, in 2011, and South Sudan, in 2017, also saw famines in which tens of thousands of people were affected.
The short answer is, there’s no set rule.
While the IPC says it is the “primary mechanism” used by the international community to analyze data and conclude whether a famine is happening or projected, it typically doesn’t make such a declaration itself.
Often, U.N. officials or governments will make a formal statement, based on an analysis from the IPC.
In Gaza, the World Health Organization said malnutrition among children “is accelerating at a catastrophic pace,” with more than 12,000 children identified as acutely malnourished in July alone. That’s the highest monthly figure ever recorded.
When people don’t have enough to eat, Manary said, the first thing that happens is the body uses up its reserves.
“So we have about three days’ worth of carbohydrates … and sometimes even months’ worth of fat that we can keep in our body in storage,” he said. “These are used up. And then the body still needs to keep working. So it starts breaking down less essential parts of the body. So you see, like, people become very thin.”
In a sense, he said, people’s muscles are being eaten by their own bodies to keep them going.
“The body is eating all of itself up in order to try to survive,” he said.
At some point, he said, that process breaks down and a stressor like an infection can kill the person.
If they start eating, Manary said, their risk of dying drops quite a bit in just a week. But it sometimes takes a couple of months for someone to recover completely.
When a famine is declared, governments and the international aid community, including the U.N., can potentially unlock aid and funding to help feed people en masse.
Because this famine is human-caused, “it can be halted and reversed,” the IPC report said. “The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Police officers arrested 18 people at worker-led protests at Microsoft headquarters Wednesday as the tech company promises an “urgent” review of the Israeli military’s use of its technology during the ongoing war in Gaza.
Two consecutive days of protest at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington called for the tech giant to immediately cut its business ties with Israel.
But unlike Tuesday, when about 35 protesters occupying a plaza between office buildings left after Microsoft asked them to leave, the protesters on Wednesday “resisted and became aggressive” after the company told police they were trespassing, according to the Redmond Police Department.
The protesters also splattered red paint resembling the color of blood over a landmark sign that bears the company logo and spells Microsoft in big gray letters.
“We said, ‘Please leave or you will be arrested,’ and they chose not to leave so they were detained,” said police spokesperson Jill Green.
Microsoft late last week said it was tapping a law firm to investigate allegations reported by British newspaper The Guardian that the Israeli Defense Forces used Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
“Microsoft’s standard terms of service prohibit this type of usage,” the company said in a statement posted Friday, adding that the report raises “precise allegations that merit a full and urgent review.”
In February, The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details about the tech giant’s close partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, with military use of commercial artificial intelligence products skyrocketing by nearly 200 times after the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The AP reported that the Israeli military uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance, which can then be cross-checked with Israel’s in-house AI-enabled targeting systems.
Following The AP’s report, Microsoft acknowledged the military applications but said a review it commissioned found no evidence that its Azure platform and artificial intelligence technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. Microsoft did not share a copy of that review or say who conducted it.
Microsoft said it will share the latest review’s findings after it’s completed by law firm Covington & Burling.
The promise of a second review was insufficient for the employee-led No Azure for Apartheid group, which for months has protested Microsoft’s supplying the Israeli military with technology used for its war against Hamas in Gaza. The group said Wednesday the technology is “being used to surveil, starve and kill Palestinians.”
Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella to protest the contracts, and in April, fired two others who interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration.
On Tuesday, the protesters posted online a call for what they called a “worker intifada,” using language evoking the Palestinian uprisings against Israeli military occupation that began in 1987.
On Wednesday, the police department said it took 18 people into custody “for multiple charges, including trespassing, malicious mischief, resisting arrest, and obstruction.” It wasn’t clear how many were Microsoft employees. No injuries were reported.
Microsoft said in a statement after the arrests that it “will continue to do the hard work needed to uphold its human rights standards in the Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others.”
President Donald Trump has projected himself as a peacemaker since returning to the White House in January, touting his efforts to end global conflicts.
In meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders Monday, Trump repeated that he has been instrumental in stopping multiple wars but didn’t specify which.
“I’ve done six wars, I’ve ended six wars, Trump said in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy. He later added: “If you look at the six deals I settled this year, they were all at war. I didn’t do any ceasefires.”
He raised that figure Tuesday, telling “Fox & Friends” that “we ended seven wars.”
But although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.
Here’s a closer look at the conflicts.
People take pictures of smoke rising from an Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo, File)
People take pictures of smoke rising from an Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo, File)
Israel and Iran
Trump is credited with ending the 12-day war.
Israel launched attacks on the heart of Iran’s nuclear program and military leadership in June, saying it wanted to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon — which Tehran has denied it was trying to do.
Trump negotiated a ceasefire between Israel and Iran just after directing American warplanes to strike Iran’s Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. He publicly harangued both countries into maintaining the ceasefire.
Evelyn Farkas, executive director of Arizona State University’s McCain Institute, said Trump should get credit for ending the war.
“There’s always a chance it could flare up again if Iran restarts its nuclear weapons program, but nonetheless, they were engaged in a hot war with one another,” she said. “And it didn’t have any real end in sight before President Trump got involved and gave them an ultimatum.”
Lawrence Haas, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the American Foreign Policy Council who is an expert on Israel-Iran tensions, agreed the U.S. was instrumental in securing the ceasefire. But he characterized it as a “temporary respite” from the ongoing “day-to-day cold war” between the two foes that often involves flare-ups.
Egypt and Ethiopia
This could be described as tensions at best, and peace efforts — which don’t directly involve the U.S. — have stalled.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River has caused friction between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan since the power-generating project was announced more than a decade ago. In July, Ethiopia declared the project complete, with an inauguration set for September.
Egypt and Sudan oppose the dam. Although the vast majority of the water that flows down the Nile originates in Ethiopia, Egyptian agriculture relies on the river almost entirely. Sudan, meanwhile, fears flooding and wants to protect its own power-generating dams.
During his first term, Trump tried to broker a deal between Ethiopia and Egypt but couldn’t get them to agree. He suspended aid to Ethiopia over the dispute. In July, he posted on Truth Social that he helped the “fight over the massive dam (and) there is peace at least for now.” However, the disagreement persists, and negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have stalled.
“It would be a gross overstatement to say that these countries are at war,” said Haas. “I mean, they’re just not.”
Indian security officers patrol in armored vehicles in Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, on April 22, 2025, after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)
Indian security officers patrol in armored vehicles in Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, on April 22, 2025, after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)
Trump has claimed that the U.S. brokered the ceasefire, which he said came about in part because he offered trade concessions. Pakistan thanked Trump, recommending him for the Nobel Peace Prize. But India has denied Trump’s claims, saying there was no conversation between the U.S. and India on trade in regards to the ceasefire.
Although India has downplayed the Trump administration’s role in the ceasefire, Haas and Farkas believe the U.S. deserves some credit for helping stop the fighting.
“I think that President Trump played a constructive role from all accounts, but it may not have been decisive. And again, I’m not sure whether you would define that as a full-blown war,” Farkas said.
Serbia and Kosovo
The White House lists the conflict between these countries as one Trump resolved, but there has been no threat of a war between the two neighbors during Trump’s second term, nor any significant contribution from Trump this year to improve their relations.
Kosovo is a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008. Tensions have persisted ever since, but never to the point of war, mostly because NATO-led peacekeepers have been deployed in Kosovo, which has been recognized by more than 100 countries.
During his first term, Trump negotiated a wide-ranging deal between Serbia and Kosovo, but much of what was agreed on was never carried out.
People protest in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, against the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels’ advances into eastern Congo’s capital, Goma, on Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi, File)
People protest in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, against the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels’ advances into eastern Congo’s capital, Goma, on Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi, File)
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Trump has played a key role in peace efforts between the African neighbors, but he’s hardly alone and the conflict is far from over.
Eastern Congo, rich in minerals, has been battered by fighting with more than 100 armed groups. The most potent is the M23 rebel group backed by neighboring Rwanda, which claims it is protecting its territorial interests and that some of those who participated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide fled to Congo and are working with the Congolese army.
The Trump administration’s efforts paid off in June, when the Congolese and Rwandan foreign ministers signed a peace deal at the White House. The M23, however, wasn’t directly involved in the U.S.-facilitated negotiations and said it couldn’t abide by the terms of an agreement that didn’t involve it.
The final step to peace was meant to be a separate Qatar-facilitated deal between Congo and M23 that would bring about a permanent ceasefire. But with the fighting still raging, Monday’s deadline for the Qatar-led deal was missed and there have been no public signs of major talks between Congo and M23 on the final terms.
Armenia and Azerbaijan
Trump this month hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House, where they signed a deal aimed at ending a decades-long conflict between the two nations. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the signed document a “significant milestone,” and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hailed Trump for performing “a miracle.”
The two countries signed agreements intended to reopen key transportation routes and reaffirm Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s commitment to signing a peace treaty. The treaty’s text was initialed by the countries’ foreign ministers at that meeting, which indicates preliminary approval. But the two countries have yet to sign and ratify the deal.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a bitter conflict over territory since the early 1990s, when ethnic Armenian forces took control of the Karabakh province, known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, and nearby territories. In 2020, Azerbaijan’s military recaptured broad swaths of territory. Russia brokered a truce and deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to the region.
In September 2023, Azerbaijani forces launched a lightning blitz to retake remaining portions. The two countries have worked toward normalizing ties and signing a peace treaty ever since.
This photo released by the Royal Thai Army shows an injured Thai soldier who stepped on a land mine, being airlifted to a hospital in Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand, July 23, 2025. (The Royal Thai Army via AP, File)
This photo released by the Royal Thai Army shows an injured Thai soldier who stepped on a land mine, being airlifted to a hospital in Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand, July 23, 2025. (The Royal Thai Army via AP, File)
Cambodia and Thailand
Officials from Thailand and Cambodia credit Trump with pushing the Asian neighbors to agree to a ceasefire in this summer’s brief border conflict.
Cambodia and Thailand have clashed in the past over their shared border. The latest fighting began in July after a land mine explosion along the border wounded five Thai soldiers. Tensions had been growing since May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a confrontation that created a diplomatic rift and roiled Thai politics.
Both countries agreed in late July to an unconditional ceasefire during a meeting in Malaysia. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim pressed for the pact, but there was little headway until Trump intervened. Trump said on social media that he warned the Thai and Cambodian leaders that the U.S. would not move forward with trade agreements if the hostilities continued. Both countries faced economic difficulties and neither had reached tariff deals with the U.S., though most of their Southeast Asian neighbors had.
According to Ken Lohatepanont, a political analyst and University of Michigan doctoral candidate, “President Trump’s decision to condition a successful conclusion to these talks on a ceasefire likely played a significant role in ensuring that both sides came to the negotiating table when they did.” ___ Associated Press reporters Jon Gambrell, Grant Peck, Dasha Litvinova, Fay Abuelgasim, Rajesh Roy, and Dusan Stojanovic contributed.