By Lili Bayer
(Reuters) -A ceasefire in Gaza is raising hopes among many in Israel that the country can begin to repair its image abroad, after months of deepening isolation due to thetoll of the two-yearconflict.
Public opinion in the West has shifted significantly since the war erupted following Islamist group Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel,in which some 1,200 people were killed and251taken hostage.
(Reuters) -Saudi Arabia is discussing a defence deal with the United States which it hopes to seal when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visits the White House next month, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
A senior Trump administration official told the Financial Times there were "discussions about signing something when the crown prince comes, but the details are in flux.”
Nearly 80 percent of the world's poorest, or about 900 million people, are directly exposed to climate hazards exacerbated by global warming, bearing a "double and deeply unequal burden," the United Nations warned Friday.
"No one is immune to the increasingly frequent and stronger climate change effects like droughts, floods, heat waves, and air pollution, but it's the poorest among us who are facing the harshest impact," Haoliang Xu, acting administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, told AFP in a statement.
By Lucy Craymer
WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand is reimposing sanctions on Iran due to concerns about Iran's non-compliance with itsnuclear obligations, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement on Friday.
The statement said the reimposition of United Nations sanctions is a result of Iran not complying with the terms of the internationally recognised Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which was signed in 2015, and will take effect on October 18.
A French human rights group on Thursday filed a legal complaint against Airbnb and Booking.com, accusing them of promoting "occupation tourism" by listing accommodation in Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.
In the case submitted in Paris, the Ligue des droits de l'Homme (LDH) alleges that the platforms were complicit in the aggravated concealment of war crimes.
(Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday, on the eve of talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, that momentum in the Middle East peace process would help end his country's more than 3-1/2-year-old war with Russia.
"We have a meeting planned with President Trump tomorrow and we are counting on the impulse to curb terror and war which worked in the Middle East to help end Russia's war against Ukraine," Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
"The language of strength and justice is sure to work with respect to Russia as well."
By Ahmed Elimam
DUBAI (Reuters) -Yemen's Houthis said on Thursday that their Chief of Staff Muhammad Abd Al-Karim al-Ghamari, one of the most senior military officials of the Iran-backed group, was killed "while fulfilling his duties".
Without directly blaming Israel for his killing, Houthis said that the conflict with Israel had not ended. Israel will "receive its deterrent punishment for the crimes it has committed".
MOSCOW (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will speak in the coming days to prepare a new summit between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday.
The official, Yuri Ushakov, said the timing of the summit would depend on how the preparatory work progressed.
Ushakov made the remarks during a briefing for reporters on a phone call between Putin and Trump, their eighth this year, which he said had taken place at Moscow's initiative.
By John Irish and Michelle Nichols
PARIS/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -France and Britain, in coordination with the United States, are working to finalise a U.N. Security Council resolution in the coming days that would lay the foundation for a future international force in Gaza, France said on Thursday.
With a shaky U.S.-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holding, planning has begun for an international force to stabilize security in the Palestinian enclave, two senior U.S. advisers said on Wednesday.
Abdul Rahim surveys the rubble that was his home in Kabul, where he lived with six family members.
A gaping hole in the living room reveals only charred belongings and debris, while blackened teddy bears and makeup lie in what once was a bedroom.
The explosion at his home was one of four that hit the Afghan capital within a week, as unusually intense violence broke out with Pakistan -- then suddenly halted under a temporary truce.
