You are here

War on Gaza

White House: Biden expecting to meet Netanyahu next week

The Israeli and US governments have tentatively scheduled a meeting between Biden and Netanyahu on Monday. (File/AFP)
The Israeli and US governments have tentatively scheduled a meeting between Biden and Netanyahu on Monday. (File/AFP)
Short Url

https://arab.news/42xwj

Updated 18 July 2024
Reuters
Follow

White House: Biden expecting to meet Netanyahu next week

The Israeli and US governments have tentatively scheduled a meeting between Biden and Netanyahu on Monday. (File/AFP)
  • Netanyahu will be in Washington next week for a July 24 address to a joint session of the US Congress
  • The two leaders have had strained relations for months over Netanyahu’s handling of the Gaza conflict
Updated 18 July 2024
Reuters
Follow

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden expects to be able to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week depending on his recovery from COVID-19, the White House said on Thursday.
Netanyahu will be in Washington next week for a July 24 address to a joint session of the US Congress. The two governments have tentatively scheduled a meeting between Biden and Netanyahu on Monday.
Vice President Kamala Harris will also meet Netanyahu while he is in Washington, a White House official said.
Biden, under pressure from some fellow Democrats to not seek reelection due to a disastrous debate performance against Republican Donald Trump on June 27, tested positive on Wednesday for COVID-19 and is recuperating at his beach house in Delaware. His current plan is to return to Washington on Sunday.
The two leaders have had strained relations for months over Netanyahu’s handling of the Gaza conflict where more than 38,000 people have been killed in Israel’s pursuit of Hamas militants responsible for the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed.
“We have every expectation that the two leaders will have the chance to see each other while Prime Minister Netanyahu is in town,” said White House national security spokesperson John Kirby, without mentioning a specific date.
“Obviously we need to make sure that the president’s health and his recovery from COVID takes priority and if and how that might affect the discussion with Prime Minister Netanyahu, we’re just not in a position today to be able to help,” he told reporters.
The United States has been working with Qatar and Egypt to try to arrange a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict in order to free hostages held since Oct. 7 and get more humanitarian aid into the enclave
A US official said US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk was traveling to the Middle East on Thursday for consultations on the Gaza conflict, with stops planned in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, a US official said.
No deal appeared imminent. Kirby said McGurk’s trip was part of regular consultations.
Netanyahu’s visit would be his first visit to the White House since he returned to office in late 2022.
The Biden administration may have eased on one point of contention last week when it said it would resume shipping 500-pound bombs to Israel, though it said it would continue to hold back on supplying 2,000-pound bombs over concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza.
In June, Netanyahu had criticized the United States for withholding some weapons, prompting Biden’s aides to express disappointment and confusion over the Israeli leader’s remarks.
The invitation for Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress was orchestrated by the House of Representatives’ Republican leadership, which has accused the Democratic president of not being supportive enough of Israel’s strategy in the Gaza war.
Addresses to joint meetings of Congress by foreign leaders are a rare honor generally reserved for the closest US allies or major world figures.
Netanyahu’s speech could highlight differences over Israel policy between Biden and some progressive Democrats, especially if some of them follow through on their threat to boycott the Israeli leader’s appearance.

Topics: War on Gaza White House Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu US President Joe Biden

Related

Palestinian children sit on the balcony of their house which was heavily damaged by Israeli bombardment.
Middle-East
Netanyahu blocks minister’s order to build hospital for Gaza children
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu sits in a military vehicle during a surprise visit to Israeli soldiers in Rafah, Gaza Strip.
Middle-East
Netanyahu makes a surprise visit to southern Gaza, days before speech to US Congress

Hungary refuses to pay fines for breaking EU asylum rules

Updated 7 sec ago
Follow

Hungary refuses to pay fines for breaking EU asylum rules

Hungary refuses to pay fines for breaking EU asylum rules
Updated 7 sec ago
The European Court of Justice described Hungary’s actions as “an unprecedented and extremely serious infringement of EU law”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán slammed its ruling as “outrageous and unacceptable”

BRUSSELS: The European Union on Wednesday began the process of clawing back hundreds of millions of euros in funds meant to go Hungary after its ant-migrant government refused to pay a huge fine for breaking the bloc’s asylum rules.
In June, the EU’s top court ordered Hungary to pay 200 million euros ($223 million) for persistently depriving migrants of their right to apply for asylum. The court imposed an additional fine of 1 million euros for every day it failed to comply.
The European Court of Justice described Hungary’s actions as “an unprecedented and extremely serious infringement of EU law.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán slammed its ruling as “outrageous and unacceptable.”
The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, said that given Hungary’s failure to pay or provide information about its intentions, Brussels is “moving to what we call the off-setting procedure” by taking the money from common funds that would otherwise go to Budapest.
“So, what we are going to do now is to deduct the 200 million euro from upcoming payments from the EU budget toward Hungary,” commission spokesman Balazs Ujvari said. He said it would take time to identify which parts of Hungary’s funding could be deducted.
Ujvari said the commission has also sent a first payment request on the daily fines amounting to 93 million euros ($103 million) so far. “Counting from receipt, the Hungarian authorities will have 45 days to make that payment,” he said.
Hungary’s staunchly nationalist government has taken a hard line on people entering the country since well over 1 million people arrived in Europe in 2015, most of them fleeing conflict in Syria.
The case against it concerned changes Hungary made to its asylum system in the wake of that crisis, when some 400,000 people passed through Hungary on their way to Western Europe.
The government in Budapest ordered fences with razor wire to be erected on its southern borders with Serbia and Croatia and a pair of transit zones for holding asylum seekers to be set up on its border with Serbia. Those transit zones have since closed.
In 2020, the ECJ found that Hungary had restricted access to international protection, unlawfully detained asylum applicants, and failed to observe their right to stay while their applications were processed.
The transit zones were closed in 2020, shortly after that ruling.
But the commission, which is responsible for monitoring the 27 EU member states’ compliance with their shared laws, took the view that Budapest had still not complied and requested that the ECJ impose a fine.
After the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020, the government also pushed through a law forcing asylum seekers to travel to Belgrade or Kyiv to apply for a travel permit at its embassies there before entering Hungary. Only once back could they file their applications.
People have the right to apply for asylum or other forms of international protection if they fear for their safety in their home countries or face the prospect of persecution based on their race, religion, ethnic background, gender or other discrimination.

Gavi to buy 500,000 mpox vaccine doses from Bavarian Nordic

Gavi to buy 500,000 mpox vaccine doses from Bavarian Nordic
Updated 21 min 32 sec ago
Reuters
Follow

Gavi to buy 500,000 mpox vaccine doses from Bavarian Nordic

Gavi to buy 500,000 mpox vaccine doses from Bavarian Nordic
  • Gavi said it will spend up to $50 million on the plan, which includes the transportation, delivery and costs of administering the vaccines
  • Around 3.6 million doses of mpox vaccine have already been pledged to the DRC by rich nations which have stockpiles, WHO has said
Updated 21 min 32 sec ago
Reuters

LONDON: The global vaccine group Gavi will buy 500,000 doses of Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine, its first purchase of the shot to help battle an outbreak in parts of Africa, the group said on Wednesday.
In 2024, there have been more than 25,000 suspected mpox cases and 723 deaths in Africa, mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the World Health Organization, which has declared the outbreak a global health emergency.
Gavi, a public-private alliance which co-funds vaccine purchases for low-income countries, said it will spend up to $50 million on the plan, which includes the transportation, delivery and costs of administering the vaccines. The doses are due to be delivered this year.
Around 3.6 million doses of mpox vaccine have already been pledged to the DRC by rich nations which have stockpiles, the World Health Organization has said, but only a small portion has arrived so far. The WHO approved the vaccine for use on Friday last week.
Gavi’s purchase, using a new facility set up after the COVID-19 pandemic to respond quickly to public health emergencies, could speed up the response in Congo and other affected countries.
Also on Wednesday, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it would provide $9.5 million to support Congo with its emergency response at the request of the government there, including surveillance, laboratory systems and risk communication.
The price of the vaccine was not disclosed. Gavi’s $50 million investment would likely equate to less than around $100 per vaccine, because transportation and logistics are included in the total. The figure is lower than previous estimates of the cost.
Gavi chief executive Sania Nishtar said the priority was working with partners “to turn these vaccines into vaccinations as quickly and effectively as possible and, over time, to build a global vaccine stockpile.”
The deal will significantly increase the availability of mpox vaccine for African countries, Bavarian Nordic chief executive Paul Chaplin said. Last week, the company said it would push back some existing orders to 2025, based on US government contracts, to focus on market needs now.
Mpox, which spreads through close contact and typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions, has been a public health problem in parts of Africa for decades. But vaccines have never previously been available outside clinical trials in affected countries in Africa, even after a different strain of the virus spread globally in 2022 and high-income countries used vaccines to help stem the outbreak.

Topics: Mpox vaccine Gavi Bavarian Nordic Africa MPOX

Related

WHO clears Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine for mpox, sets up access scheme
World
WHO clears Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine for mpox, sets up access scheme
Morocco sees first mpox case in North Africa during emergency
Middle-East
Morocco sees first mpox case in North Africa during emergency

Pakistan police arrest key suspect in gang rape of a woman polio worker

Women polio workers have complained of harassment in the past during the campaigns. (File/AFP)
Women polio workers have complained of harassment in the past during the campaigns. (File/AFP)
Updated 29 min 37 sec ago
AP
Follow

Pakistan police arrest key suspect in gang rape of a woman polio worker

Women polio workers have complained of harassment in the past during the campaigns. (File/AFP)
  • Police also detained husband of attacked woman for kicking her out of home and threatening to kill her over allegedly tarnishing the family’s honor by being raped
Updated 29 min 37 sec ago
AP

MULTAN: Pakistani police arrested the key suspect in the gang rape of a woman polio worker who was assaulted by three men during last week’s vaccination campaign, officials said Wednesday. Two other suspects are still at large.
The assault on Thursday in Jacobabad, a district in the southern Sindh province, was one in a spate of attacks targeting polio vaccination teams going door to door in the campaign across Pakistan.
The woman who was attacked had alerted the authorities, saying she was raped by three men after going into a house in Jacobabad to administer polio drops to the children there, local police official Mohammad Saifal said.
The suspect, identified as Ahmad Jakhrani, was arrested overnight, Saifal added.
Police are still seeking the arrest of the two other men, accused of taking turns to assault the woman, Saifal said. A local police chief was fired for negligence following the attack, for failing to provide the polio worker with adequate security.
The attack shocked many Pakistanis as such sexual assaults are rare, though women polio workers have complained of harassment in the past during the campaigns. The provincial government in Sindh has said it would fully investigate the case.
Police also detained the husband of the attacked woman for kicking her out of their home and threatening to kill her after the assault over allegedly tarnishing the family’s honor by being raped.
So-called honor killings, in which women and girls are slain by their own relatives for allegedly dishonoring the family’s reputation, are still common in Pakistan.
Saifal also said police have been deployed to the house where the woman was now staying with her relatives for her protection.
Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants often target polio vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Since January, Pakistan has reported 17 new cases of polio, jeopardizing decades of efforts to eliminate the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease from the country. Polio often strikes children under age 5 and typically spreads through contaminated water.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in which the spread of polio has never been stopped. Pakistan’s government is planning another polio vaccination drive in October.

Topics: Polio Pakistan rape

Related

Police, health officials removed after Pakistan polio vaccinator says she was raped on duty
Pakistan
Police, health officials removed after Pakistan polio vaccinator says she was raped on duty
Indian rape protests spiral into political street clashes
World
Indian rape protests spiral into political street clashes

Ukrainian drones strike a major military depot in a Russian town northwest of Moscow

Ukrainian drones strike a major military depot in a Russian town northwest of Moscow
Updated 30 min 9 sec ago
AP
Follow

Ukrainian drones strike a major military depot in a Russian town northwest of Moscow

Ukrainian drones strike a major military depot in a Russian town northwest of Moscow
  • Ukraine claimed the strike destroyed Russian military warehouses in Toropets about 380 kilometers northwest of Moscow
  • The attack was carried out by Ukraine’s Security Service, along with Ukraine’s Intelligence and Special Operations Forces
Updated 30 min 9 sec ago
AP

KYIV: Ukrainian drones struck a large military depot in a town deep inside Russia overnight, causing a huge blaze and prompting the evacuation of some local residents, a Ukrainian official and Russian news reports said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a senior US diplomat said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said he has a plan for winning the war that “can work” and help end the conflict, which is now in its third year. But the Ukrainian leader hasn’t publicly spelled out the plan.
Ukraine claimed the strike destroyed Russian military warehouses in Toropets, a town in Russia’s Tver region about 380 kilometers (240 miles) northwest of Moscow and about 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the border with Ukraine.
The attack was carried out by Ukraine’s Security Service, along with Ukraine’s Intelligence and Special Operations Forces, a Kyiv security official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the operation.
According to the official, the depot housed Iskander and Tochka-U missiles, as well as glide bombs and artillery shells. He said the facility caught fire in the strike and was burning across an area 6 kilometers (4 miles) wide.
Among the destroyed ammunition were North Korean KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles, another official, in Ukraine’s Intelligence Office, told The AP. He was not authorized to comment publicly and didn’t provide evidence to support his claim.
Russia and North Korea signed a landmark pact last June that envisioned mutual military assistance between Moscow and Pyongyang.
More than 100 domestically-produced kamikaze drones were deployed in the attack on the depot, the Ukrainian Intelligence Office official added.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted regional authorities as saying air defense systems were working to repel a “massive drone attack” on Toropets, which has a population of around 11,000. The agency also reported a fire and the evacuation of some local residents.
There was no immediate information about whether the strikes had caused any casualties.
Successful Ukrainian strikes on targets deep inside Russia have become more common as the war has progressed and Kyiv developed its drone technology.
Zelensky is also seeking approval from Western nations for Ukraine to use the sophisticated weapons they are providing to hit targets inside Russia. Some Western leaders have balked at that possibility, fearing they could be dragged into the conflict.
Ukraine’s targeting of Russian military equipment, ammunition and infrastructure deep inside Russia, as well as making Russian civilians feel some of the consequences of the war that is being fought largely inside Ukraine, is part of Kyiv’s strategy.
The swift push by Ukrainian forces into Russia’s Kursk border region last month fits into that plan, which apparently seeks to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to back down.
Putin, however, has shown no signs of backing down, and has been trying to grind down Ukraine’s resolve through attritional warfare and also sap the West’s support for Kyiv by drawing out the conflict. That has come at a price, however, as the UK Defense Ministry estimates that the war has likely killed and wounded more than 600,000 Russian troops.
On Tuesday, Putin ordered the country’s military to increase its number of troops by 180,000 to a total of 1.5 million by Dec. 1.
Zelensky last month said his plan for victory includes not only battlefield goals but also diplomatic and economic wins. The plan has been kept under wraps but the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said during a news conference Tuesday that Washington officials have seen it.
“We think it lays out a strategy and a plan that can work,” she said, adding that the United States will bring it up with other world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York next week. She did not comment on what the plan contained.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Ukrainian drones Toropets

Related

Ukraine’s air defense units trying to repel Russian drone attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s military says
World
Ukraine’s air defense units trying to repel Russian drone attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s military says
Russia says shot dead Ukrainian agent who tried to blow up car
World
Russia says shot dead Ukrainian agent who tried to blow up car

Rising rivers threaten southern Poland as flooding recedes elsewhere in Central Europe

Rising rivers threaten southern Poland as flooding recedes elsewhere in Central Europe
Updated 42 min 27 sec ago
AP
Follow

Rising rivers threaten southern Poland as flooding recedes elsewhere in Central Europe

Rising rivers threaten southern Poland as flooding recedes elsewhere in Central Europe
  • Authorities have reported 23 deaths so far, with seven each in Poland and Romania, five in Austria and four in the Czech Republic
  • The combination of floods in Central Europe and deadly wildfires in Portugal are joint proof of a “climate breakdown”, the European Union’s head office said
Updated 42 min 27 sec ago
AP

WARSAW: Soldiers and volunteers in southwestern Poland were laying sandbags Wednesday near swollen rivers in the region of Wroclaw as they worked to safeguard homes and businesses after days of flooding across Central Europe.
Several Central European nations have been hit by severe flooding, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania as a result of a low pressure system that began dumping record rainfall in the region last Thursday.
Authorities have reported 23 deaths so far, with seven each in Poland and Romania, five in Austria and four in the Czech Republic.
The combination of floods in Central Europe and deadly wildfires in Portugal are joint proof of a “climate breakdown” that will become the norm unless drastic action is taken, the European Union’s head office said Wednesday.
The fourth death in the Czech Republic was reported Wednesday, when police said they found the body of a 70-year-old woman who was swept away by waters on Sunday in the town of Kobyla nad Vidnavkou near the town of Jesenik, located in the badly hit northeast.
The weather has improved, with warm and sunny conditions in the Czech Republic, Poland and elsewhere. Water levels were falling in some places, allowing authorities and residents to clean up debris.
Firefighters in Poland were pumping water out of flooded streets and basements. And in Romania, about 1,000 firefighters were working across the country to clean up severely affected areas, the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations said Wednesday in a Facebook post.
But some areas are still facing a threat, particularly in southwestern Poland.
Soldiers and residents in Marcinkowice, near Wroclaw, were laying sandbags near a bridge over the Olawa River, whose waters flow into the Oder, the major river that rises in the Oder Mountains in the Czech Republic and runs north through Poland to Germany.
The community leader of the town of Olawa, Artur Piotrowski, described the situation as difficult. He told the Polish state news agency PAP that two villages in a low-lying area have been flooded since Monday and residents refused to evacuate.
Thousands of Polish soldiers were in action. Some evacuated people and animals — including dogs and horses — from flood-affected areas and distributed food and drinking water. The army also posted on X on Wednesday that it set up a field hospital in the town of Nysa after patients in a hospital there had to be evacuated earlier this week.
Experts have been preparing for flood threats due to the cresting Oder River in Opole, a city of some 130,000 residents, and Wroclaw, home to about 640,000 residents, which suffered disastrous flooding in 1997.

Topics: Central Europe floods Poland

Related

Budapest and Poland’s Wroclaw reinforce river banks ahead of more flooding in Central Europe
World
Budapest and Poland’s Wroclaw reinforce river banks ahead of more flooding in Central Europe
Central European flooding widens as death toll rises
World
Central European flooding widens as death toll rises

Latest updates

Erdogan says Turkiye will deepen ties with East while still facing West
Erdogan says Turkiye will deepen ties with East while still facing West
UN rights chief demands accountability for Lebanon pager blasts
UN rights chief demands accountability for Lebanon pager blasts
Hungary refuses to pay fines for breaking EU asylum rules
Hungary refuses to pay fines for breaking EU asylum rules
Blinken says Sudan progress threatened by new RSF offensive in Al-Fashir
Blinken says Sudan progress threatened by new RSF offensive in Al-Fashir
Growth of Saudi banking sector accelerated by diversification initiatives: Moody’s
Growth of Saudi banking sector accelerated by diversification initiatives: Moody’s

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2024 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.