Hamas’s popularity has edged up among Palestinians in Gaza since the cease-fire, ending a slide during the war and posing a challenge to President Trump’s plan to bring peace to the enclave by disarming the militant group.
A major reason is security. Last month, as a cease-fire took root and Israeli forces pulled back, Hamas fighters re-emerged on the streets as police and internal-security forces, patrolling and targeting criminals along with rivals and critics. While many Gazans have a dim view of the U.S.-designated terrorist group and don’t like seeing the group reassert itself, Palestinians have welcomed a reduction in crime and looting.
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday that Australia would not co-host the COP31 climate summit with Turkey amid an ongoing stalemate between the two countries.
Turkey has proposed jointly leading next year’s U.N. climate summit with Australia and the discussions on the hosting standoff remain unresolved, Turkish diplomatic sources told Reuters on Sunday.
“No, we won’t be co-hosting because co-hosting isn’t provided for under the rules of the (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change),” Albanese said during a media briefing in Melbourne.
“So that’s not an option and people are aware that it is not an option, which is why it has been ruled out.”
Australia and Turkey both submitted bids in 2022 to host COP31 and neither has withdrawn, leading to an attention-sapping impasse that must be overcome at this year’s COP30 meeting currently taking place in Belem, Brazil.
The annual COP, or Conference of the Parties, is the world’s main forum for driving climate action. But it has grown over the years from diplomatic gatherings into vast trade shows where host countries can promote economic prospects.
The host matters because they set the agenda and lead the diplomacy needed to reach global agreements.
Albanese this month wrote to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in an attempt to resolve the tussle as he pushes to host the summit with Pacific island nations for the first time.
A regional diplomatic bloc of 18 countries, the Pacific Islands Forum, is backing Australia’s bid. Several Pacific island nations are at risk from rising seas.
(Reporting by Christine Chen and Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Tom Hogue and Stephen Coates)
Iran on Saturday confirmed the seizure of a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker as it traveled through the narrow Strait of Hormuz over violations, including carrying an illegal consignment, state media reported.
A report by the official IRNA news agency carried a statement by the Revolutionary Guard that said the tanker was taken to Iranian waters. It did not elaborate on the “illegal consignment,” the crew or say where the ship was now heading.
It said the seizure came following a court order and the operation was aimed at “protecting Iran’s national interests and resources.” It identified the oil tanker as the Talara and said it was carrying 30,000 tons of petrochemical products.
The seizure happened on Friday. Tehran has been increasingly warning it could strike back after a 12-day war with Israel in June that saw the U.S. strike Iranian nuclear sites.
In this Jan. 19, 2012 file photo, a plane flies over the mountains of northern Oman as trading vessels are seen in the Strait of Hormuz, near the town of Khasab, Oman.
AP
It said the ship had been en route to Singapore when Iranian forces intercepted. A private security firm, Ambrey, described the assault as involving three small boats.
U.S. Central Command forces also acknowledged the incident, saying in a statement on Sunday that the M/V Talara was seized after being boarded by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces via helicopter.
“IRGC operatives then steered the tanker to Iran’s territorial waters where the ship remains,” the statement said. “Iran’s use of military forces to conduct an armed boarding and seizure of a commercial vessel in international waters constitutes a blatant violation of international law, undermining freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce. We call on Iran to articulate to the international community the legal basis for its actions.”
A U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton drone had been circling above the area where the Talara was for hours on Friday, observing the seizure, flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center separately acknowledged the incident, saying a possible “state activity” forced the Talara to turn into Iranian territorial waters.
Cyprus-based Columbia Shipmanagement later said in a statement that it had “lost contact” with the tanker, which was carrying high-sulphur gasoil. It did not immediately provide any update on Saturday.
Iran has been blamed for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021. Those attacks began after President Trump, in his first term in office, unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Map showing the Strait of Hormuz and its role in transporting oil and liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Middle East to global markets via the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Murat Usubali/Anadolu via Getty Images
In 2022, Iran took two Greek tankers and held them until November of that year. Iran seized the Portuguese-flagged cargo ship MSC Aries in April 2024.
Years of tensions between Iran and the West, coupled with the situation in the Gaza Strip, exploded into a full-scale 12-day war in June.
Tehran has long threatened to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all traded oil passes. The U.S. Navy has long patrolled the Mideast through its Bahrain-based 5th Fleet to keep the waterways open.
(Reuters) -Ukraine is working to resume the exchange of prisoners with Russia, hoping for the release of 1,200 Ukrainians, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Security Council chief said.
“We are … counting on the resumption of exchanges,” Zelenskiy said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday. “Many meetings, negotiations and calls are now devoted to this.”
His security chief, Rustem Umerov, said on Saturday that he had held consultations in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, with the support of Kyiv’s partners, on resuming the process of exchanges.
“As a result of these negotiations, the parties agreed to return to the Istanbul agreements,” he said. “This concerns the release of 1,200 Ukrainians,” Umerov said in a statement on Telegram.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow to Ukraine’s statements.
The Istanbul agreements are prisoner-exchange understandings brokered with Turkish mediation in 2022, setting out rules for large, coordinated swaps between Russia and Ukraine.
Since then, the two have traded thousands of prisoners, though exchanges have been sporadic and often disrupted by frontline escalation in the war Russia launched against Ukraine in February 2022.
Umerov said that consultations would take place in the near future to decide the procedural and organisational details of the process.
“We are working without pause so that Ukrainians who are to return from captivity can celebrate New Year and Christmas at home – at the family table and with their loved ones,” Umerov said.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by William Mallard)
Iran seized a Cyprus-registered fuel tanker Friday, its first such interdiction in the Strait of Hormuz in more than a year.
The seizure of the tanker Talara, which was carrying diesel fuel from the United Arab Emirates to Singapore, comes amid a still unresolved standoff between Tehran and the West over Iran’s nuclear program.
-U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to reach a deal with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman allowing Riyadh to acquire F-35 stealth fighter jets, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing a White House official.
Trump and the crown prince plan to sign economic and defense agreements during a visit to the White House scheduled for Tuesday, the report added.
Israeli settlers extended a wave of attacks in the West Bank, drawing rare condemnation from authorities and concern from the U.S. over the escalating violence.
GENEVA (Reuters) -A special session on the situation in al-Fashir, Sudan, opened on Friday at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva following grave concerns about mass killings during the fall of the city to paramilitary forces.
States will consider a draft resolution which requests a U.N. fact-finding mission to conduct an urgent inquiry into recent violations allegedly committed by the Rapid Support Forces and their allies in al-Fashir, as well as identifying the perpetrators.
In an opening address to delegates, U.N. human rights chief urged the international community to act.
“There has been too much pretence and performance, and too little action. It must stand up against these atrocities – a display of naked cruelty used to subjugate and control an entire population,” said the High Commissioner for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Volker Turk.
The fall of al-Fashir on October 26 to the RSF cemented their control of the Darfur region in the more than 2-1/2-year civil war with the Sudanese army.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, additional reporting by Emme Farge; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A Pentagon intelligence report raises concerns over Saudi Arabia’s bid to buy F-35 jets from the United States, warning that China could acquire the aircraft’s technology if the sale proceeds, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the assessment.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Writing by Katharine Jackson)
LONDON (Reuters) -British pro-Palestinian political commentator Sami Hamdi landed back in London on Thursday after being released from the United States, where he spent more than two weeks in immigration detention.
Hamdi was detained on October 26 at San Francisco International Airport after U.S. officials revoked his visa during a speaking tour in which he criticised Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“It’s wonderful to be back after being exonerated by two federal judges, both of whom found that there were serious breaches of freedom of speech,” Hamdi told reporters after landing at London’s Heathrow Airport, where he was embraced by his family.
He said the only allegation against him was overstaying his visa after it was revoked without warning. He insisted he had complied with all visa conditions and alleged the move was linked to his advocacy for Gaza.
“I want to say that this wasn’t just an attack on me. It was an attack on the freedoms of ordinary Americans and citizens worldwide. It was an attack on their freedom to speak the truth in the face of hatred,” he said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Hamdi’s visa was cancelled under security rules and that he was in the country illegally. Rights groups and press freedom advocates condemned the detention, calling it an attack on free speech.
Hamdi, managing director of The International Interest, a political risk consultancy, and a frequent analyst on British television, had spoken at a gala for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in California and was scheduled to appear at another event in Florida before his arrest.
The Trump administration has pursued a sweeping immigration crackdown this year, including revoking visas for people accused of supporting terrorism and deporting foreign nationals who have voiced support for Palestinians.
(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti and Marissa Davison; Editing by Catarina Demony and Alex Richardson)
(Reuters) -The armed wings of Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad said on Thursday they would hand over the body of an Israeli hostage at 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT).
If the transfer takes place, the bodies of three hostages will still be held in Gaza.
Islamic Jihad, which is allied with Hamas and also seized hostages during the October 7, 2023, attack that precipitated the Gaza war, said the body was recovered in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Under an October ceasefire deal, Hamas released all 20 surviving hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and wartime detainees held by Israel.
The agreement also provided for the return of the remains of 28 hostages in exchange for the remains of 360 militants.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir, Editing by William Maclean)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s coalition came first in this week’s parliamentary election, but Iran-backed militias also had a strong showing, setting up what could be long negotiations over who will be the country’s leader.
Sudani had been seeking a second term, positioning himself as a leader who could make Iraq independent of both the U.S. and Iran, the two rivals that have battled for influence over the country since the 2003 American-led invasion.
ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey’s main expectation from a planned International Stabilisation Force in Gaza is for it to provide guarantees that the fragile ceasefire will last, its Defence Ministry said on Thursday.
NATO member Turkey has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s devastating two-year assault on Gaza, calling it a genocide. It has emerged as a critical player and mediator in ceasefire efforts, voicing a desire to join the stabilisation force despite Israel’s repeated objections.
At a briefing in Ankara, the ministry also said Turkey believed the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) must ensure unhindered humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza in line with international law.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
Two years on, Israel’s war in Gaza might be finally drawing to a close. The conflict built an unprecedented arms pipeline from the U.S. to Israel that continues to flow, generating substantial business for big U.S. companies—including Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Caterpillar.
Sales of U.S. weapons to Israel have surged since October 2023, with Washington approving more than $32 billion in armaments, ammunition and other equipment to the Israeli military over that time, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of State Department disclosures.
(Reuters) -Israel’s defense minister said on Wednesday he planned to close publicly funded Army Radio in what he described as an attempt to preserve the military’s nonpartisan character, but the decision was denounced by the station’s chief as a blow to press freedom.
The minister, Israel Katz, said in a statement he would soon submit a proposal to the country’s right-wing government to close the station, which is editorially independent, and he expected it to end its broadcasts by March 1.
Army Radio’s chief, Tal Lev Ram, said the move was unexpected and not a professional process that prioritized the interests of soldiers.
“We see this as a real, regrettable, and dramatic blow to the people’s army, to Israeli society, and to freedom of the press in a democratic state,” he said in a statement.
“I intend to fight this grave decision by every means,” he said.
Army Radio is among two state-funded news outlets in Israel, the other being the public broadcaster KAN which operates a television news channel and several radio news stations.
Both are editorially independent of the government.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been critical of Army Radio and KAN, sometimes accusing it of being biased against state institutions.
Katz said Army Radio had aired many opinions attacking the military and soldiers. The station is staffed by both soldiers and civilians and is widely popular among the Israeli public. A communications ministry spokesperson declined to comment.
The government has sought to privatise KAN, a move that some critics say is because KAN is critical of the government.
Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on X condemned the decision to close Army Radio, saying it was driven by “an anxious government that fears criticism”. He accused the government of trying to “change the rules of the game” ahead of next year’s election.
Israel’s journalist union said that it would fight to overturn Katz’s “harmful” decision.
It was not immediately clear when Katz would submit the proposal to the entire government.
Public opinion polls frequently show that Netanyahu’s coalition, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, would not win enough seats to form a government if an election were held today.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, Jana Choukeir and Emily Rose; Editing by Alex Richardson, William Maclean)
GAZA (Reuters) -Israel reopened the Zikim Crossing in northern Gaza to allow humanitarian aid trucks into the enclave on Wednesday, COGAT, the Israeli military’s arm that oversees aid flows, said.
U.N. aid agencies have been calling for the reopening of the crossing for more aid to flow into the devastated northern part of the enclave, especially after last month’s Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
The U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA) said that the crossing was shut on September 12 and no aid groups have been able to import supplies since. Israel’s military has not responded to a request for comment on its reasons for the closure.
Some humanitarian aid was allowed into northern Gaza through the south, but more was needed as the northern Gaza City and surrounding areas were officially suffering from famine, a global hunger monitor had said a month earlier.
A COGAT statement said the crossing opened “in accordance with a directive of the political echelon.”
“The aid will be transferred by the UN and international organizations following thorough security inspections by the Land Crossings Authority of the Ministry of Defense,” it added.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir in Dubai, Writing by Nayera Abdallah, Editing by Alex Richardson)
Can you believe President Trump sat down with him at the White House? That’s the question most of the media has posed after the Monday visit of Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al Qaeda and Islamist rebel commander who now rules Syria. But what if this framing gets the dynamic backward?
Mr. Trump will meet with anyone, as he’s amply demonstrated. The real geopolitical news here is that a President of Syria has come to the White House—for the first time—to bring his country into the American orbit. This is an opportunity to reverse seven decades of enmity.
TUNIS (Reuters) -Jailed Tunisian opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, 84, began a hunger strike, joining two prominent politicians who are protesting what they call “unjust imprisonment,” lawyers said on Saturday, marking the latest escalation in a standoff with President Kais Saied.
Most of the country’s opposition leaders are in jail and some parties have accused Saied of turning Tunisia into an “open-air prison” while using the judiciary to cement his authoritarian rule.
Ghannouchi follows opposition politician Jawhar Ben Mbarek who has been on a “wildcat” hunger strike since last week. And Republican Party leader Issam Chebbi started a hunger strike on Friday, demanding his release.
Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda party and a fierce critic of Saied, has been detained since 2023 and was sentenced to 37 years in prison across multiple cases, including illicit foreign financing and conspiracy against the state. He has refused to appear in court, saying he won’t face judges who only follow Saied’s orders.
Lawyers, family, and rights groups say Ben Mbarek’s health has sharply deteriorated, he is refusing treatment and is at risk of dying.
The Tunisian Prisons Authority denied that the prisoners’ health had deteriorated due to the hunger strikes, saying medical examinations showed conditions were “normal and stable,” without giving additional details.
This year, courts handed prison sentences ranging from five to 66 years to opposition leaders including Ben Mbarek and Chebbi on charges including “conspiracy against state security.” Human rights groups say these prosecutions targeted political opponents.
Lawyer Dalila Ben Mbarek said Jawhar informed her that he would soon leave the prison “either free or dead.” His father said Saied was responsible for any harm that came to his son, calling him a dictator.
The opposition says Saied’s sudden closure of the elected parliament in 2021 and his move to rule by decree was a coup.
Saied denied this, saying his actions were necessary to save Tunisia from years of chaos; he has called jailed opposition leaders criminals, traitors and terrorists.
(Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
