IndustryStandard

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed Wednesday to a limited ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow, as U.S. President Donald Trump suggested during a call with the embattled country’s leader that he consider American ownership of Ukraine’s power plants to ensure their long-term security.

Trump told Zelenskyy that the U.S could be “very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise,” according to a White House statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz that described the call as “fantastic.”

Trump suggested “American ownership of those plants could be the best protection for that infrastructure,” according to White House officials. The idea was floated even as the Trump administration looks to finalize an agreement to gain access to Ukraine’s critical minerals as partial repayment for U.S. support for Ukraine during the war.

As horrifying images and accounts of maimed children and grieving mothers circulate online, media outlets in the U.S. spent the day trying to make sense of one of the most brutal single-day bombings of Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza.

Some explained Israel’s deadly airstrikes as a natural result of “fruitless negotiations” with Hamas, or as a bargaining tactic to “increase pressure on Hamas.” Other outlets simply repeated, without question or skepticism, Israeli and U.S. government claims that blame Hamas for the strikes

The first phase of the ceasefire, which took effect on January 19, included an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. But in that span, Israel continued military operations in Gaza, killing more than 150 Palestinians, including in a bombing that took the lives of journalists and aid workers. And at the start of the second phase on March 2, Israel continued to violate the agreement, refusing to withdraw its soldiers from the Philadelphi Corridor, a crucial crossing point between Gaza and Egypt.

Instead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went back on the deal and presented Hamas with an alternate plan: the continued military occupation of the territory, the continued release of hostages, and setting aside talks toward a permanent ceasefire.

A federal judge denied the Trump administration's bid to dismiss activist Mahmoud Khalil's challenge to his arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and has decided to shift the jurisdiction of the case to the state of New Jersey.

Khalil, a Palestinian who completed his studies at Columbia University in December, will remain in the US for the time being.

In his order on Wednesday morning, district judge Jesse Furman explained that, given the fact that Khalil was in detention in New Jersey at the time his lawyers submitted their petition, it meant that the New York court he presides over “lacks jurisdiction over most, if not all, of Khalil’s claims”.

The unprecedented amount of capital the UAE is spending on American AI and technology gives them huge sway over the Trump administration, US and Arab officials have told MEE.

What was absent from the UAE officials' visit were public discussions or statements about Israel’s war on Gaza, which re-erupted on Tuesday when Israel began bombing the enclave.

The UAE's priorities underscore how far it has drifted away from its wealthy Gulf neighbours.

Whereas Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has publicly accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, the UAE has continued to engage with Israel.

Behind the scenes, the UAE has broken with fellow Arab states lobbying the Trump administration against a plan drafted by Egypt and endorsed by the Arab League for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, MEE revealed.

The UAE’s foreign minister hosted his Israeli counterpart in the UAE in January before a brief ceasefire was reached in Gaza. The two countries normalised ties in 2020 under Trump’s Abraham Accords.

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military says it has launched a new ground offensive in Gaza, sending troops back into areas they had retreated from during a nearly two-month ceasefire. This comes a day after Israel broke the ceasefire with a punishing series of airstrikes that killed more than 400 people, many of whom were children, and wounded hundreds more.

The IDF said it aims to expand what it calls the "security perimeter" separating Gaza and Israel, and to create a "partial buffer zone" between the north and south of the Gaza Strip. The IDF says it has "taken control and re-established" its presence in the Netzarim corridor, the large strip of land dividing Gaza's north and south that troops had occupied during the war and retreated from as part of a January ceasefire agreement.

CAIRO, March 19 (Reuters) - A foreign national was killed and four other people were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the site of a United Nations headquarters in central Gaza City on Wednesday, Gaza's health ministry said.

We’re still in shock. My eight-year-old daughter can no longer sleep.

I tried to comfort her, to help her sleep, but she kept waking up crying. She told me, “Mama, every time I close my eyes, I feel like another bomb is falling on us.”

I lay beside her to soothe her. This morning, I discovered she had wet herself in fear.

My 12-year-old, Saida, keeps asking me, “Mama, will the planes come back again?” I have no answer for her.

How can I reassure her when I no longer believe I will wake up tomorrow?

I looked into my husband’s weary, burdened eyes and asked him, “When will this nightmare end?” He replied, “We are alone in this world. No one cares.”

The Houthis' military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement posted on X that the group targeted Israel's Nevatim air base with a "hypersonic ballistic missile type Palestine 2".

Israel said it intercepted the missile, after air raid sirens sounded in several areas in Israel's south.

Sirens went off in Beersheba and parts of the Negev desert, according to the Israeli military's Home Front Command.

It was the first reported attack on Israel from Yemen since a ceasefire in the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza came into force on January 19.

Israeli attacks on Tuesday killed at least 174 Palestinian children in Gaza, causing “one of the largest one-day child death tolls” in the territory’s history, the civil society group Defense for Children has said.

“Israeli forces have signed a death warrant for Palestinian children in Gaza as they carry out nonstop attacks, continue to destroy civilian infrastructure, and prevent any humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians in need,” Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability programme director at DCIP, said in a statement.

“This is nothing short of genocide.”

The Lebanese army has engaged in clashes with Syrian troops on Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria, in the latest round of fighting that started on Sunday night.

The new Syrian government, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, accused Lebanese group Hezbollah of kidnapping and killing three members of Syria's security forces.

Different accounts of the events that unfolded on Sunday night have emerged from both sides.

Hezbollah has denied any involvement, while a Lebanese security source told Reuters that three Syrian soldiers initially crossed into Lebanese territory and were subsequently killed by armed members of a tribe in northeastern Lebanon. The tribe reportedly feared their town was under attack.

Syrian forces shelled Lebanese towns overnight in retaliation for the deaths, causing some Lebanese residents to flee.

Staff at some of London’s biggest NHS hospitals have been banned from wearing pro-Palestine symbols after complaints they were “upsetting and intimidating” vulnerable patients.

The move came after UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) raised the case of a young Jewish woman who attended Whipps Cross for a caesarean and encountered three members of staff wearing pro-Palestine badges in a 24-hour period.

Two wore “Free Palestine” badges on their lanyards and one had a watermelon symbol, a reference to the Palestinian colours, pinned to their uniform.

The woman, who attended Whipps Cross in January, said: “The display of these symbols made me feel extremely vulnerable, particularly given the level of anti-Semitic activity we’re all witnessing via the extreme elements of online activity and at the UK-wide marches.

TYLERTOWN, Miss. (AP) — Unusually vicious and damaging weather across multiple U.S. states spawned violent tornadoes, blinding dust storms and fast-moving wildfires over the weekend, leaving at least 39 people dead.

In the latest tally of the destruction, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said Sunday evening that more than 400 homes were damaged as wildfires swept across the state Friday. At least 74 homes in and around Stillwater were destroyed by wildfires, Mayor Will Joyce said Sunday night on Facebook.

The emergency management department also said the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed four fatalities related to the fires or high winds.

The National Weather Service said weekend tornado watches had mostly expired, but dangerous winds were still possible in the Carolinas, east Georgia and northern Florida through Sunday.