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It was supposed to be the moment US President Donald Trump’s vision of bringing peace to the Middle East by redeveloping the war-torn Gaza strip into “Riviera” style premium housing and permanently relocating its more than 2 million residents finally got a reality check. Instead, it was the moment the true scale of the challenge facing America’s Arab allies became clear.  When King Abdullah II of Jordan met Trump at the Oval Office on Tuesday, there were widespread expectations that his visit – as the first Arab leader to meet the US president since his reelection – might help to rein in some of the more far-fetched elements of Trump’s vision.  (To recap, Trump apparently envisions the US taking control of the territory, rehoming millions of Palestinian refugees in Jordan and Egypt, replacing the rubble of Gaza with glass towers with Mediterranean views and inviting “the world’s people” to move in.) But it became clear almost as soon as Trump began talking at their joint p...

Marc Fogel, an American teacher detained for more than three years in Russia, was welcomed back to the US by President Donald Trump on Tuesday night after the White House secured his release in an “exchange.” Fogel arrived at the White House late Tuesday draped in an American flag and was greeted by Trump, who said it was “an honor to have played a small role” in his release. “Thank you all, and I love our country, and I’m so happy to be back here. And I wish I could articulate it better,” said Fogel, who appeared overwhelmed with emotion as he spoke in the Diplomatic Reception Room.   The deal to release Fogel, who was designated as wrongfully detained by the US State Department, was negotiated by Trump, Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, “and the President’s advisers,” according to a statement from national security adviser Mike Waltz. The statement did not provide any details about the “exchange,” other than to say it was “a show of good faith from ...

US President Donald Trump warned Monday that “all hell” would break loose if every Israeli hostage was not released from Gaza within days, after Hamas threatened to postpone further exchanges under a fragile ceasefire deal it said Israel was violating. The truce that went into effect on January 19 largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip and saw five groups of Israeli hostages freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli custody.   But tensions have been running high since a shock proposal by Trump to take over the Gaza Strip and remove its more than 2 million inhabitants. Trump said Monday he would call for the end of the ceasefire if every Israeli hostage was not released by noon on Saturday.   “But as far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday 12 o’clock – I think it’s an appropriate time – I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” Trump told reporters at the White Ho...

US President Donald Trump warned Monday that “all hell” would break loose if every Israeli hostage is not released from Gaza within days, after Hamas threatened to postpone further exchanges under a fragile ceasefire deal it said Israel was violating. The truce that went into effect on 19 January largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip and saw five groups of Israeli hostages freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli custody.  But tensions have been running high since a shock proposal by Trump to take over the Gaza Strip and remove its more than two million inhabitants. Trump said Monday he would call for the end of the ceasefire if every Israeli hostage was not released by noon on Saturday.  “But as far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday 12 o’clock—I think it’s an appropriate time—I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” Trump told reporters at the White House. The cea...

  Two tourists have died from suspected pesticide poisoning after their hostel in   Sri Lanka   was fumigated for   bedbugs , Britain’s PA Media news agency has reported. Ebony McIntosh, a 24-year-old digital marketing and social media manager from the English city of Derby, and 26-year-old Nadine Raguse from Germany were both staying in the Miracle Colombo City hostel in the Sri Lankan capital, PA reported Sri Lanka Police as saying on Thursday. They both fell ill after a room at the hostel was fumigated to treat bedbugs, Sri Lanka Police spokesman Buddhika Manatunga told PA, and McIntosh was hospitalized on Saturday. Officers are investigating whether the two women were poisoned by pesticides, the Manatunga said. Related article He added that an autopsy to determine McIntosh’s cause of death will take place after her family arrives in Sri Lanka on Monday. Manatunga said the hostel, which is currently closed, will remain shut until then, according to PA. A spokesper...

Like an object floating upward yet still underwater, the bare, vague bones of a peace plan for Ukraine are taking shape. Despite a relative silence in policy announcements on this war from an otherwise vocal Trump administration, the next two weeks may see significant route markers planted in public. Whether they gain any traction with the Kremlin remains unclear.  Last week, US President Donald Trump officially appointed 80-year-old retired Gen. Keith Kellogg as his envoy to Ukraine and Russia. Almost Kellogg’s first act was to announce he would discuss their vision for peace in Ukraine with allies at the Munich Security Conference, on February 14-16. He is then expected, four days later, to visit Kyiv, for his first, long-anticipated trip there, according to Ukrainian state media.   Kellogg’s every utterance is parsed by an anxious Kyiv. He hit back at suggestions that the Munich conference would see the outline of a peace plan revealed publicly, telling Newsmax: “...

  The expression Black Hawk Down, the title of a Hollywood film, has become shorthand for a 1993 US military disaster in Somalia. Eighteen American soldiers lost their lives in the fighting that began on 3 October, but so did hundreds of Somalis. As Netflix launches a documentary about those events, the BBC has spoken to some Somalis still scarred by what happened. Despite being surrounded by the debris of an ongoing civil war, Mogadishu's residents in the early 1990s embraced the moments of serenity. The warm Sunday sunshine and cooling ocean breeze made for the perfect opportunity for Binti Ali Wardhere, 24 at the time, to visit relatives with her mother. "That day was calm," she remembers. But like everyone else in the city she was unaware that the Americans were getting ready to attack warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed – and what happened would change her life forever. The US had deployed soldiers to Somalia in 1992. They were there to support a UN mission that offered hum...