HONG KONG (AFP) – Asian markets stumbled Wednesday and gold hit a new record as investors kept tabs on China and the United States after they exchanged tariffs, sparking fears of another debilitating trade war between the economic superpowers.
Shanghai, which reopened after a week-long break, and Hong Kong were among the main losers as e-commerce firms took a hit from news that the US Postal Service was suspending inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong.
The tepid performance came despite a positive lead from Wall Street, where there was a sigh of relief that US President Donald Trump had reached a deal to delay 25 per cent duties on imports from Canada and Mexico.
Disappointing earnings from Google-parent Alphabet and Advanced Micro Devices added to the unease over the tech sector, which has already been roiled by the unveiling of a new chatbot by Chinese startup DeepSeek.
The waters of Victoria Harbour reflect the lights of the Hong Kong skyline on February 4, 2025. PHOTO: AFP
All eyes were on Washington and Beijing after they renewed their trade spat, though analysts said China’s apparently more measured approach provided some hope that a full-blown crisis could be avoided.
“Regarding China’s counter measures, we think that the tariffs are less than what we had expected in our view. The move is largely symbolic given that only about 12 per cent of total imports from the US would be subject to tariffs,” said Kai Wang, Asia equity market strategist at Morningstar.
“A key takeaway from this development, at least for now, is that fundamentally there is less risk implied than expected before.
“However, escalation of the trade war remains a risk given Trump’s history of unpredictable behaviour. Therefore, the volatility risk remains on the table for the next four years at least,” Wang added.
Economists at HSBC Global Research added that China’s “moves so far are more measured compared with the universal 10 percent tariff imposed by the US, suggesting a likely different playbook than a tit-for-tat strategy, though we acknowledge the risk of escalation has increased”.
Hong Kong fell 1.2 per cent, with e-commerce giant JD.com sinking more than four percent and rival Alibaba losing more than one percent on news of the US Postal Service suspension.
Trump’s tariff announcement against China included the removal of an allowance — used by China’s e-commerce firms — that exempted small packages worth less than USD800 from duties.
The suspension does not involve letters and flat mail.
There were also losses in Tokyo, Singapore, Wellington and Jakarta, though Sydney, Seoul, Taipei and Manila rose.
Gold hit a fresh peak of USD2,853.82 as investors rushed into the safe-haven metal.
Tech firms were again under pressure after Alphabet sank 7.5 per cent in after-hours trade in New York owing to disappointment at its lower-than-expected revenue growth and its ambitious 2025 capital spending forecast.
Advanced Micro Devices also sank in post-close business.
The tech sector has been feeling some pain since DeepSeek’s arrival on the scene with its chatbot, which apparently was developed at a fraction of the cost of similar tools made by US firms, stoking concerns about the eye-watering investments made in AI in recent years.
On currency markets, the yen strengthened against the dollar following data showing nominal wages in Japan rose far more than expected last month and at the fastest pace since 1997.
That firmed expectations the country’s central bank would continue to hike interest rates this year.
ÖREBRO, Sweden (AFP) – Around 10 people were killed on Tuesday in a shooting at an education centre in Sweden, including the suspected gunman, with the Swedish prime minister branding it the “worst mass shooting” in the country’s history.
Authorities had initially said that several people were wounded in the violence at Campus Risbergska, a secondary school for young adults in the town of Orebro, but had not reported any fatalities.
School attacks are relatively rare in Sweden, but the country has suffered shootings and bombings linked to gang violence that kill dozens of people each year.
“Around 10 people have been killed today,” Orebro police chief Roberto Eid Forest told reporters, adding that police could “not be more specific about the number due to the large number of wounded”.
He provided no details about the number of wounded.
“This is the worst mass shooting in Swedish history,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a press conference.
Police officers work at the scene of the Risbergska School in Orebro, Sweden, on February 4, 2025, following reports of a serious violent crime. PHOTO: AFP
Forest said police were not aware of a motive yet, but believed the gunman had acted alone.
Police did not disclose any information about the identity or ages of the dead, nor whether they were students or teachers at the school.
Several media reported the suspected gunman turned his gun on himself but police would not confirm those reports.
Kristersson noted a lot of “questions were still unanswered.”
“There will come a time when we will know what happened, how it could happen and what motives may have been behind it,” Kristersson said, urging people not to “speculate”.
‘Shooting in the hallway’
Forest said police received the first reports of a school shooting at 12:33 pm (1133 GMT), but could not specify how it unfolded.
The attacker is also believed to have carried some form of equipment to create smoke inside the school, he added.
Two Campus Risbergska teachers, Miriam Jarlevall and Patrik Soderman, told newspaper Dagens Nyheter they heard gunfire in a hallway.
“Students came and said someone was shooting. Then we heard more shooting in the hallway. We didn’t go out, we hid in our offices,” they said.
“There were a lot of gunshots at first and then it was quiet for a half-hour and then it started again. We were lying under our desks, cowering.”
Some witnesses told Swedish media they heard what they believed to be automatic gunfire.
Swedish television channel TV4 meanwhile reported that police had raided the suspect’s home in Orebro late on Tuesday afternoon.
It said the suspect was around 35 years old and had a license to carry a weapon and no criminal record, but did not provide any details about his identity.
Police have not confirmed that information.
‘Bodies on the ground’
“I was standing there, watching what was happening, and I was just around here when I saw some bodies lying on the ground. I don’t know if they were dead or injured,” 16-year-old Linn, who goes to school near the site of the massacre, told an AFP correspondent at the scene.
There was blood everywhere, people were panicking and crying, parents were worried… it was chaos,” she added, her voice trembling.
Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf said in a statement that he had received the news of the shooting with “sadness and dismay.”
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen described the event as “truly horrifying.”
“Such violence and terror have no place in our societies — least of all in schools. In this dark hour, we stand with the people of Sweden,” she said in a post to X.
Students in several nearby schools as well as the one in question had been locked in for several hours “for safety reasons” before gradually being released, police said.
A mother whose son was kept indoors at his nearby school for several hours during the police operation told AFP she was “shocked” and “angry”.
“My son is at this school behind us, they’re locked in too. They have to hide, so I’m waiting for them to evacuate,” Cia Sandell, 42, said on Tuesday afternoon.
“This is crazy, totally crazy. I’m angry, I’m shocked. This shouldn’t happen,” she said.
Though such shootings are rare, several other violent incidents have struck Swedish schools in recent years.
In March 2022, an 18-year-old student stabbed two teachers to death at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmo.
Two months earlier, a 16-year-old was arrested after wounding another student and a teacher with a knife at a school in the small town of Kristianstad.
In October 2015, three people were killed in a racially motivated attack at a school in the western town of Trollhattan by a sword-wielding assailant who was later killed by police.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ratings for the Grammy Awards dipped from last year, despite the nail-biting tension of whether Beyoncé would win album of the year and a surprise appearance by The Weeknd.
Sunday night’s broadcast on CBS was seen by 15.4 million viewers according to Nielsen. That represents a decline from 2024, which was seen by 16.9 million, a 34 per cent increase from the year before.
The numbers so far only account for viewers on CBS. The telecast was also available to stream by those who purchased the Paramount+ With Showtime package. Due to last month’s devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, the Grammys scaled back marketing efforts ahead of the Grammys and canceled several pre-Grammy events.
Jay-Z, right, embraces Beyonce after she wins award for album of the year for “COWBOY CARTER”the during the 67th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. PHOTO: AP
The three-hour-plus show — with Trevor Noah once again hosting — took place in a Los Angeles still reeling from the wildfires and celebrated the past year’s most popular artists, with performances by Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli xcx.
The show raised nearly USD9 million for wildfire relief efforts.
Kendrick Lamar won song and record of the year for his diss track “Not Like Us,” taking home two of the night’s most prestigious awards, and Shakira won Latin pop album for “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran.”
LONDON (AP) — A panel of experts has disputed the medical evidence used to convict British nurse Lucy Letby of murdering seven newborns and trying to kill seven others, a doctor who led the examination said Tuesday.
The group found no sign of a crime and concluded that natural causes or bad medical care led to the demise of each of the newborns, Dr. Shoo Lee, a retired neonatologist from Canada, said.
“In summary, then, ladies and gentlemen, we did not find any murders,” Lee said at a London news conference.
Letby, 35, is serving multiple life sentences with no chance of release after being convicted of murder and attempted murder while working as a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwestern England between June 2015 and June 2016.
The report by the International Expert Panel is given out during a press conference to announce “new medical evidence” from an international panel of neonatologists in connection with the conviction of British nurse Lucy Letby, in London, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. PHOTO: AP
Defense lawyer Mark McDonald said there was now “overwhelming evidence” Letby was wrongly convicted and she’s “sitting in prison for the rest of her life for a crime that just never happened.”
“The reason Lucy Letby was convicted was because of the medical evidence presented to the jury,” McDonald said. “That today has been demolished.”
Letby has lost two bids to appeal her convictions, but her legal team has asked the Criminal Case Review Commission to examine her conviction, which could lead to another shot at an appeal.
The Crown Prosecution Service had no comment on the new medical panel’s conclusions.
Prosecutors previously said that two juries had convicted Letby and three appellate judges had rejected her arguments that the prosecution expert evidence was flawed.
The group of 14 international experts in neonatology and pediatrics who reviewed the medical records of 17 babies Letby was accused of harming found staffing levels inadequate at the hospital and a number of other serious problems.
They found medical workers were not properly skilled in resuscitation and inserting breathing tubes, lacked an understanding of some basic procedures, misdiagnosed ailments and acted slowly in treating acutely ill babies.
“I would say if this was a hospital in Canada, it would be shut down,” Lee said.
It was the second news conference held in part to challenge the conclusions of Dr. Dewi Evans, who was the prosecution’s key expert witness.
At a previous news conference, McDonald said that Evans was an unreliable witness because he later changed his conclusion on how three of the babies died.
Evans responded at the time that concerns over his evidence were “unsubstantiated, unfounded, inaccurate.”
Prosecutors said Letby left little trace when she killed babies and in some cases had injected air into their bloodstreams or stomach, causing an embolism.
But Lee, who wrote a 1989 academic paper on embolism, said Evans had misinterpreted his conclusions.
Evans diagnosed the babies with air embolism in the absence of finding another cause of death, Lee said. But Lee said embolism is very rare and the skin discoloration described at trial was not consistent with what is seen when there is an embolism.
“The notion that these babies can be diagnosed with air embolism because they collapsed and had these skin discolorations has no evidence in fact,” Lee said.
In the case of a baby Letby was accused of overfeeding, the panel concluded the child became sick from a viral infection and later recovered a week after being administered antibiotics.
A separate public inquiry into failures at the hospital that led babies to repeatedly be harmed is due to conclude next month. That probe is not examining evidence used to convict Letby but is aimed at accountability of hospital staff and management and looking at how parents were treated.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) – Saudi Arabia said Wednesday it will not formalise ties with Israel unless a Palestinian state is established, after Israel’s prime minister remarked that he thought normalisation with the Gulf kingdom was “going to happen”.
“Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement on X.
Both US President Donald Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden have backed Israel and Saudi Arabia having diplomatic relations.
US President Donald Trump takes questions during a press conference with unseen Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2025. PHOTO: AFP
Riyadh paused tentative talks on the matter early in the Gaza conflict and hardened its rhetoric as the war continued.
The foreign ministry’s statement came swiftly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said establishing formal relations “is not only feasible, I think it’s going to happen”.
His government remains opposed to the internationally backed two-state solution.
Netanyahu was speaking at the White House alongside Trump, whose administration in 2020 brokered accords which saw Israel establish relations with the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain.
That raised hopes of a similar deal with Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s richest economy and guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites.
Saudi Arabia does not recognise Israel, but since 2020 has been negotiating rapprochement in exchange for a US defence pact and Washington’s help on a civilian nuclear programme.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Using satellite trackers, scientists have discovered the whereabouts of young sea turtles during a key part of their lives.
“We’ve had massive data gaps about the early baby to toddler life stages of sea turtles,” said Kate Mansfield, a marine scientist at the University of Central Florida. “This part of their long lives has been largely a mystery.”
For decades, scientists have wondered about what happens during the so-called lost years between when tiny hatchlings leave the beach and when they return to coastlines nearly grown — a span of about one to 10 years.
New research published Tuesday begins to fill in that gap.
This photo provided by researchers shows a young green sea turtle with a satellite tag before release offshore of Venice, Louisiana, USA on April 12, 2012. The photo was made under protected species permit NMFS 16377. PHOTO: AP
For over a decade, Mansfield and colleagues attached GPS tags to the fast-growing shells of young wild turtles. Steering small boats, they looked for young turtles drifting among algae in the Gulf of Mexico, eventually tagging 114 animals – including endangered green turtles, loggerheads, hawksbills and Kemp’s ridleys.
Eventually the GPS tags slough off because “the outside of a young turtle’s shell sheds as they grow very quickly,” said Katrina Phillips, a marine ecologist at the University of Central Florida and co-author of the new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
But each tag stayed on long enough to transmit a few weeks to a few months of location data. What the researchers found challenged many old ideas.
Scientists long thought that tiny turtles drifted passively with ocean currents, literally going with the flow.
“What we’ve uncovered is that the turtles are actually swimming,” said co-author Nathan Putman, an ecologist at LGL Ecological Research Associates in Texas.
The scientists confirmed this by comparing location data of young turtles with the routes of drifting buoys set in the water at the same time. More than half of the buoys washed ashore while the turtles did not.
This photo provided by researchers shows a young green sea turtle released with a satellite tag swimming in sargassum seaweed offshore of Venice, Louisiana, USA on June 2, 2015.
“This tiny little hatchling is actually making its own decisions about where it wants to go in the ocean and what it wants to avoid,” said Bryan Wallace, a wildlife ecologist at Ecolibrium in Colorado.
The tracking data also showed more variability in locations than scientists expected, as the little turtles moved between continental shelf waters and open ocean.
Besides the painstaking work of finding turtles, the trick was developing flexible solar-powered tags that could hang onto shells long enough to send back data.
“For years, the technology couldn’t match the dream,” said Jeffrey Seminoff, a marine biologist at NOAA who was not involved in the study.
The findings give biologists a better idea of how young turtles use the Gulf of Mexico, a critical region for four species of endangered sea turtles.
“It’s not that the sea turtles were ever lost, but that we had lost track of them,” said Jeanette Wyneken at Florida Atlantic University, who had no role in the research.
SEOUL (ANN/THE KOREA HERALD) – Places such as Hongdae in Mapo-gu and Seongsu-dong have become popular dating locations for numerous millennials and Gen Zs but to Korean baby boomers – those born between 1955 to 1974 – the Dongmyo Flea Market is their equivalent of where cool vibes emanate from nearly every store brimming with vintage goods.
The Dongmyo Flea Market is captivating visitors once again as a spot that stirs nostalgia – from fashion, food and music from the 1980s and 1990s – for older travelers while providing a time-travel experience for younger visitors.
A local visitor looks for clothes at one of the vintage shop in Dongmyo Flea Market in Jongno-gu, central Seoul. (Lee Si-jin/The Korea Herald)
The market’s revived appeal was additionally boosted by its appearance in an episode of the acclaimed Korean reality series “I Live Alone,” in which Key from the popular K-pop boy band SHINee visited the location and celebrated the nostalgic atmosphere.
A local visitor looks for clothes at one of the vintage shop in Dongmyo Flea Market in Jongno-gu, central Seoul. PHOTO: ANN/KOREA HERALD
The main street of Dongmyo Flea Market begins from Dongmyo Station Exit No. 3 on Subway Line No. 1.
One feature of the market that stands out the most is the clothing stalls where vendors casually stack the clothes on the street and shoppers would have to bend down to sift through the heaps in search of hidden gems.
The state of the clothes may be unpredictable, but their astonishingly low prices – beginning at KRW1,000 (USD0.72) — encourage individuals to dedicate some time to discover a piece of clothing that is both stylish and matches the buyers’ preferences.
Whether you want to enhance your outfit or embrace the current Y2K fashion, a variety of products are all available to delight fashion enthusiasts and captivate casual visitors alike.
Entrance of vintage cloth shop Sold Out in Jongno-gu, central Seoul. PHOTO: ANN/KOREA HERALD
If clothes and accessories do not interest you, take a moment to explore the stores showcasing faded DVDs, vinyl records, stylish accessories, plush dolls and other intriguing merchandise are displayed.
Why go to convenience stores to get the extra drinks when you could satisfy your thirst with a cup of coffee, sikhye – a sweet-flavored rice drink – or makgeolli at the nearby beverage stalls? Conveniently, many of these beverages only cost KRW1,000.
Exploring traditional Korean markets is essential for both local and international tourists. These markets provide visitors with an opportunity to experience life in Korea, discover lesser-known areas in the city and browse items that enhance their trip in Seoul.
SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices on the advice of security agencies, a top official said Wednesday, citing privacy and malware risks posed by China’s breakout AI program.
The DeepSeek chatbot — developed by a China-based startup — has astounded industry insiders and upended financial markets since it was released last month.
But a growing list of countries including South Korea, Italy and France have voiced concerns about the application’s security and data practices.
Australia upped the ante overnight banning DeepSeek from all government devices, one of the toughest moves against the Chinese chatbot yet.
This illustration photograph shows screens displaying the logo of DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence company that develops open-source large language models on January 29, 2025 in Toulouse, southwestern France. PHOTO: AFP
“This is an action the government has taken on the advice of security agencies. It’s absolutely not a symbolic move,” said government cyber security envoy Andrew Charlton.
“We don’t want to expose government systems to these applications.”
Risks included that uploaded information “might not be kept private”, Charlton told national broadcaster ABC, and that applications such as DeepSeek “may expose you to malware”.
‘Unacceptable’ risk
Australia’s Home Affairs department issued a directive to government employees overnight.
“After considering threat and risk analysis, I have determined that the use of DeepSeek products, applications and web services poses an unacceptable level of security risk to the Australian Government,” Department of Home Affairs Secretary Stephanie Foster said in the directive.
As of Wednesday all non-corporate Commonwealth entities must “identify and remove all existing instances of DeepSeek products, applications and web services on all Australian Government systems and mobile devices,” she added.
The directive also required that “access, use or installation of DeepSeek products” be prevented across government systems and mobile devices.
It has garnered bipartisan support among Australian politicians.
Deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley said the public should “think carefully” about also removing DeepSeek from their private phones and computers.
In 2018 Australia banned Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from its national 5G network, citing national security concerns.
TikTok was banned from government devices in 2023 on the advice of Australian intelligence agencies.
Alarm bells
DeepSeek raised alarm last month when it claimed its new R1 chatbot matches the capacity of artificial intelligence pace-setters in the United States for a fraction of the cost.
It has sent Silicon Valley into a frenzy, with some calling its high performance and supposed low cost a wake-up call for US developers.
Some experts have accused DeepSeek of reverse-engineering the capabilities of leading US technology, such as the AI powering ChatGPT.
Several countries now including South Korea, Ireland, France, Australia and Italy have expressed concern about DeepSeek’s data practices, including how it handles personal data and what information is used to train DeepSeek’s AI system.
Tech and trade spats between China and Australia go back years.
Beijing was enraged by Canberra’s Huawei decision, along with its crackdown on Chinese foreign influence operations and a call for an investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A multi-billion-dollar trade war raged between Canberra and Beijing but eventually cooled late last year, when China lifted its final barrier, a ban on imports of Australian live rock lobsters.
TOKYO (AP) — Record-breaking snowfall fell on Japan ‘s northern main island of Hokkaido, disrupting traffic, causing airport closures and delaying deliveries on Tuesday.
The Hokkaido prefectural government said record-breaking snowfall has been observed especially in the eastern regions of the island, including Obihiro and Kushiro, whose city offices received dozens of calls for help from drivers whose vehicles had stalled in the snow.
The heavy snow and traffic disruptions came just as a popular snow festival began in Sapporo in southern Hokkaido, although the city did not face major disruptions.
Television footage showed residents shoveling snow and passengers pushing vehicles that got stuck. So far, no injuries or major damage have been reported.
People remove snow from a street in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. PHOTO: Kyodo News via AP
In Obihiro, record-breaking snowfall of 129 centimeters (4 feet) was detected earlier Tuesday.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said two powerful low pressure systems are moving on both sides of the Japanese archipelago, sending cold air into the region.
The agency predicted up to 100 centimeters (3.2 feet) of snowfall in northwestern Japan and 50 centimeters (1.6 feet) more snowfall in Hokkaido over the next 24 hours through Wednesday evening.
The prefecture said parts of highways and main roads were closed, and train services in the affected areas were suspended. Runways were closed due to snow at Obihiro and Kushiro airports, while dozens of flights in and out of Hokkaido were cancelled, affecting thousands of people.
About 370 schools canceled classes Tuesday across Hokkaido, according to the prefecture.
The snow also caused closures of post offices and other distribution services, delaying deliveries within Hokkaido and to destinations across Japan.
Hokkaido officials called on the residents and visitors to carry shovels and warm clothes in their vehicles in case they stall in the snow.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be “permanently” resettled outside the war-torn territory and proposed the US take “ownership” in redeveloping the war-torn territory
Trump’s audacious proposal appears certain to roil the next stage of talks meant to extend the tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
The provocative comments came as talks are ramping up this week with the promise of surging humanitarian aid and reconstruction supplies to help the people of Gaza recover after more than 15 months of devastating conflict. Now Trump wants to push roughly 1.8 million people to leave the land they have called home and claim it for the US, perhaps with American troops.
Trump outlined his thinking as he held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, where the two leaders also discussed the fragile ceasefire and hostage deal in the Israeli-Hamas conflict and shared concerns about Iran.
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ain the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. PHOTO: AP
“I don’t think people should be going back,” Trump said. “You can’t live in Gaza right now. I think we need another location. I think it should be a location that’s going to make people happy.”
Trump said the US would take ownership of the Gaza Strip and redevelop it after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere and turn the territory into “the Riviera of the Middle East” in which the “world’s people”— including Palestinians — would live.
“We’ll make sure that it’s done world class,” Trump said. “It’ll be wonderful for the people–Palestinians, Palestinians mostly, we’re talking about.”
Egypt, Jordan and other US allies in the Mideast have cautioned Trump that relocating Palestinians from Gaza would threaten Mideast stability, risk expanding the conflict and undermine a decades-long push by the US and allies for a two-state solution.
Still, Trump insists the Palestinians “have no alternative” but to leave the “big pile of rubble” that is Gaza. He spoke out as his top aides stressed that a three-to-five-year timeline for reconstruction of the war-torn territory, as laid out in a temporary truce agreement, is not viable.
Last week, both Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordanian King Abdullah II dismissed Trump’s calls to resettle Gazans.
But Trump said he believes Egypt and Jordan—as well as other countries, which he did not name—will ultimately agree to take in Palestinians.
“You look over the decades, it’s all death in Gaza,” Trump said. “This has been happening for years. It’s all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza.”
Trump also said he isn’t ruling out deploying US troops to support reconstruction of Gaza.
He envisions “long-term” U. ownership of a redevelopment of the territory.
“We’ll do what is necessary,” Trump said about the possibility of deploying American troops to fill any security vacuum.
The White House’s focus on the future of Gaza comes as the nascent truce between Israel and Hamas hangs in the balance.
Netanyahu is facing competing pressure from his right-wing coalition to end a temporary truce against Hamas militants in Gaza and from war-weary Israelis who want the remaining hostages home and for the 15-month conflict to end.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League joined Egypt and Jordan in rejecting plans to move Palestinians out of their territories in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Trump may be betting he can persuade Egypt and Jordan to come around to accept displaced Palestinians because of the significant aid that the US provides Cairo and Amman. Hard-line right-wing members of Netanyahu’s government have embraced the call to move displaced Palestinians out of Gaza.
“To me, it is unfair to explain to Palestinians that they might be back in five years,” Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, told reporters. “That’s just preposterous.”
Trump also signaled that he may be reconsidering an independent Palestinian state as part of a broader two-state solution to the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict. “Well, a lot of plans change with time,” he told reporters when asked if he was still committed to a plan like the one he laid out in 2020 that called for a Palestinian state. “A lot of death has occurred since I left and now came back.”
Netanyahu’s arrival in Washington for the first foreign leader visit of Trump’s second term coincides with the prime minister’s popular support sagging.
The prime minister is in the middle of weekslong testimony in an ongoing corruption trial that centers on allegations he exchanged favors with media moguls and wealthy associates. He has decried the accusations and said he is the victim of a “witch hunt.”
Being seen with Trump, who is popular in Israel, could help distract the public from the trial and boost Netanyahu’s standing.
Netanyahu met with White House national security adviser Mike Waltz and Witkoff on Monday to begin the daunting work of brokering the next phase of a ceasefire agreement.
The Israeli leader said he would send a delegation to Qatar to continue indirect talks with Hamas that are being mediated by the Gulf Arab country, the first confirmation that those negotiations would continue. Netanyahu also said he would convene his security Cabinet to discuss Israel’s demands for the next phase of the ceasefire when he returns to Israel at the end of the week.
Witkoff, meanwhile, said he plans to meet with Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Florida on Thursday to discuss the next phase in the ceasefire. Qatar and Egypt have served as key intermediaries with Hamas throughout the conflict.
Netanyahu is under intense pressure from hard-right members of his governing coalition to abandon the ceasefire and resume fighting in Gaza to eliminate Hamas. Bezalel Smotrich, one of Netanyahu’s key partners, vows to topple the government if the war isn’t relaunched, a step that could lead to early elections.
Hamas, which has reasserted control over Gaza since the ceasefire began last month, has said it will not release hostages in the second phase without an end to the war and Israeli forces’ full withdrawal. Netanyahu, meanwhile, maintains that Israel is committed to victory over Hamas and the return of all hostages captured.
The two leaders also discussed Iran’s nuclear program. Ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump signed an executive order that he said would increase economic pressure on Iran.
“We’re not going to allow them to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
