US President Donald Trump will receive Israel's highest civilian honor in 2026, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday that his country will break with decades of tradition to recognize a non-citizen.
Speaking after a cordial Florida meet-up with Trump, Netanyahu said the move reflected "overwhelming sentiment" in Israel in appreciation of the US president's support for the country.
By Andrea Shalal and Kanishka Singh
PALM BEACH, Florida, Dec 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not agree fully on the issue of the Israeli-occupied West Bank but the Republican leader did not lay out what the disagreement was.
In a briefing after a meeting with Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump was asked if he had a message for Netanyahu about the West Bank and if he was concerned that settler violence in the West Bank could undermine peace.
By Andrea Shalal
PALM BEACH, Florida, Dec 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Israeli President Isaac Herzog had told him a pardon for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “on its way,” an assertion Herzog’s office was quick to challenge.
"He's a wartime prime minister who's a hero. How do you not give a pardon?" Trump told reporters while standing beside Netanyahu before a meeting in Florida. "I spoke to the president ... he tells me it's on its way."
Iraq's new parliament elected a senior figure from the Sunni Taqadom party as its speaker Monday, the first session since November elections that consolidated the main parties' grip on power.
Parliament's media office said 309 out of 329 lawmakers took part in the inaugural session, with Haibat al-Halbussi, 45, emerging as the winner from three candidates, with 208 votes.
By convention, a Shiite Muslim holds the post of prime minister, the parliament speaker is Sunni and the largely ceremonial presidency goes to a Kurd.
Dec 29 (Reuters) - Hamas confirmed on Monday that its armed wing spokesperson, Abu Ubaida, and then Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar were killed in the Gaza war earlier this year.
The Israeli military said in May that it had killed Sinwar, the younger brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Three months later, it said it had also killed Abu Ubaida.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir;Editing by Alison Williams)
By Nafisa Eltahir
Dec 29 - International aid staff who accessed Sudan's al-Fashir for the first time since its takeover by a paramilitary force found the city largely deserted, with a few people sheltering in buildings or under plastic sheets, a senior U.N. official said on Monday.
More than 100,000 are estimated to have fled al-Fashir since late October after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took control there following an 18-month siege that plunged the city into famine.
ATHENS, Dec 29 - Greece, Israel and Cyprus will step up joint air and naval exercises in the eastern Mediterranean in 2026, deepening their defence cooperation, Greek military officials and a senior source said on Monday.
The three eastern Mediterranean nations have drawn closer over the past decade through joint military drills, defence procurement and energy cooperation, developments closely watched by regional rival Turkey.
India's navy boasts aircraft carriers, submarines, warships and frontline vessels of steel as it spreads its maritime power worldwide.
But none of its vessels is as unusual as its newest addition that sets sail on its maiden Indian Ocean crossing on Monday -- a wooden stitched ship inspired by a fifth-century design, built not to dominate the seas but to remember how India once traversed them.
Mining company Axis International said Monday it was seeking World Bank arbitration against Guinea for withdrawing its right to operate a major bauxite mine in the west African country.
Guinea, which has been run by a junta since a coup in 2021, has cancelled dozens of licences for international and domestic companies mining bauxite, gold, iron ore or diamonds over recent months.
Axis International, which is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, had operated Guinea's second-biggest bauxite mine with estimated reserves of more than 800 million tonnes since 2010.
BAGHDAD, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Iraq's newly elected parliament convened on Monday for its first session since the November national election, opening the way for lawmakers to begin the process of forming a new government.
Parliament is due to elect a speaker and two deputies during its first meeting. Lawmakers must then choose a new president by within 30 days of the first session.
The president will subsequently ask the largest bloc in parliament to form a government, a process that in Iraq typically drags on for months.
