Author: Gulf News Week
NEW YORK (news agencies) — Sean “Diddy” Combs got a standing ovation from fellow inmates when the music mogul returned to jail after winning acquittals on potential life-in-prison charges, providing what his lawyer says might have been the best thing he could do for Black incarcerated men in America.“They all said: ‘We never get to see anyone who beats the government,’” attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a weekend interview days after a jury acquitted Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.Combs, 55, remains jailed after his Wednesday conviction on prostitution-related charges and could still face several years in prison…
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (news agencies) — A ship set ablaze by a series of attacks in the Red Sea began taking on water Sunday night as its crew prepared to abandon the vessel, the first serious assault in the vital corridor for trade after a monthslong campaign by Yemen’s Houthi rebels there. Suspicion for the attack immediately fell on the Houthis, particularly as a security firm said it appeared bomb-carrying drone boats hit the ship after it was targeted by small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. The rebels’ media reported on the attack but did not claim it. It can…
Once a master of narrative warfare, Israel is now losing to smartphones, social media, and the digital archive.Since October 7, 2023, the war of images has eclipsed the war of weapons. From Gaza’s pulverised hospitals and starving infants to mass graves and desperate fathers digging through rubble, every pixel captured on a smartphone strikes deeper than a missile. These raw, unfiltered, and undeniable images have a far greater impact than any press conference or official speech. And for the first time in its history, Israel cannot delete them or drown them in propaganda. The horrifying images of the Israeli army…
ATLANTA (news agencies) — President Donald Trump and other Republicans have long criticized states that take weeks to count their ballots after Election Day. This year has seen a flurry of activity to address it.Part of Trump’s executive order on elections, signed in March but held up by lawsuits, takes aim at one of the main reasons for late vote counts: Many states allow mailed ballots to be counted even if they arrive after Election Day.The U.S. Supreme Court last month said it would consider whether a challenge in Illinois can proceed in a case that is among several Republican-backed…
LONDON (news agencies) — Successful as Novak Djokovic has been on the grass courts of Wimbledon — he’s won 100 matches and seven of his 24 Grand Slam trophies there — it’s not as if he grew up plying his talents on the surface. Indeed, he never competed or even practiced on it at all until 2005, when he entered the qualifying event held at the nearby Roehampton facility and won three matches there to earn the right to make his debut at the All England Club at age 18.“That was actually the first year I stepped out on the…
BANGKOK (news agencies) — China said Sunday that European medical device companies will be barred from selling to the Chinese government as a countermeasure for the European Union’s restrictions on the sale of similar products from China. European companies will be excluded if the budget for procurement is above 45 million yuan ($6.28 million), according to a notice from the Finance Ministry on Sunday with the restrictions in place the same day. The move will not apply to European companies that have invested in China and that manufacture goods in the country. China on Friday imposed anti-dumping duties on European…
Naim Qassem says his group will not surrender or lay down weapons in response to Israeli threats, despite pressure on the group to disarm.The Hezbollah chief says the Lebanese group remains open to peace, but it will not disarm or back down from confronting Israel until it ends its air raids and withdraws from southern Lebanon. “We cannot be asked to soften our stance or lay down arms while [Israeli] aggression continues,” Naim Qassem told thousands of supporters gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday for Ashura, an important day in the Shia Muslim calendar. Ashura commemorates the 680 AD…
Discussions over a ceasefire are intensifying as Israel kills more Palestinians, sowing doubts that a deal can happen.Discussions of a ceasefire in Gaza have picked up in recent days. United States President Donald Trump said last week that Israel agreed to the conditions for a 60-day ceasefire, and negotiators could meet to carve out a path to finally ending Israel’s nearly 21-month-long war on Gaza. Hamas said it delivered a “positive response” to mediators, with amendments, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Palestinian group’s asks “unacceptable” but sent negotiators to the Qatari capital, Doha, for talks nonetheless. Netanyahu…
DEIR al-BALAH, Gaza Strip (news agencies) — Israeli airstrikes killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza, hospital officials said on Sunday, as Israel’s military said it has struck over 100 targets in the embattled enclave in the past day. The strikes came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was preparing to fly to Washington for talks at the White House aimed at pushing forward ceasefire efforts. Separately, an Israeli official said the Israeli security Cabinet on Saturday night approved sending aid into the northern part of Gaza, where civilians are suffering from acute food shortages. The official declined to offer…
FRANKFURT, Germany (news agencies) — America’s largest trade partner, the European Union, is among the entities awaiting word Monday on whether U.S. President Donald Trump will impose punishing tariffs on their goods, a move economists have warned would have repercussions for companies and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.Trump imposed a 20% import tax on all EU-made products in early April as part of a set of tariffs targeting countries with which the United States has a trade imbalance. Hours after the nation-specific duties took effect, he put them on hold until July 9 at a standard rate of…