BARCELONA, Spain: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and leading officials from several Middle Eastern countries in Madrid on Wednesday after Spain, Ireland and Norway recognized a Palestinian state.
The diplomatic move by the three western European nations on Tuesday was slammed by Israel and will have little immediate impact on its grinding war in Gaza, but it was a victory for the Palestinians and could encourage other Western powers to follow suit.
“On behalf of President (Mahmoud) Abbas and the government of Palestine, the people of Palestine, we warmly welcome Spain’s recognition of the state of Palestine,” Mustafa said after their meeting with Spain’s leader and Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares.
Mustafa was joined by Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Organization of Islamic Cooperation chairman Hussain Ibrahim Taha, and the foreign ministers for Turkiye and Jordan, members of the group called the Foreign Ministerial Committee of Arabic and Islamic countries for Gaza.
More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state — more than two-thirds of the United Nations.
With Spain and Ireland, there are now nine members of the 27-nation European Union that officially recognize a Palestinian state. Norway is not an EU member but its foreign policy is usually aligned with the bloc.
Slovenia, an EU member, will decide on the recognition of a Palestinian state on Thursday and forward its decision to parliament for final approval.
“We salute Spain, and we salute Norway, Ireland and Slovenia for doing the right thing. We urge other European partners to do the same thing,” said Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
The move to recognize a Palestinian state has caused relations between the EU and Israel to nosedive. Madrid and Dublin are pushing for the EU to take measures against Israel for its continued attacks on southern Gaza’s city of Rafah.
The decision by Spain, Ireland and Norway comes more than seven months into an assault waged by Israel following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in which militants stormed across the Gaza border into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage. Israel’s air and land attacks have since killed 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Spain hosts meeting with Foreign Ministerial Committee of Arabic and Islamic countries for Gaza
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Spain hosts meeting with Foreign Ministerial Committee of Arabic and Islamic countries for Gaza
- Palestinian PM was joined by Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani
- More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state
Trump targets ‘Anonymous’ author and former top cybersecurity official in escalation of retribution
- Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security official in Trump’s first term, is being targeted for writing an article critical of Trump's policies in 2018
- Trump also slammed Chris Krebs, a former top cybersecurity official, for declaring the 2020 election that Trump lost to be secure and the ballot counts to be accurate
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump intensified his efforts to punish his critics on Wednesday by signing a pair of memoranda directing the Justice Department to investigate two officials from his first administration and stripping them of any security clearances they may have.
Trump’s targeting of Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security official in Trump’s first term, and Chris Krebs, a former top cybersecurity official, came as the president has sought to use the powers of the presidency to retaliate against his adversaries, including law firms.
Trump also on Wednesday retaliated against another law firm, Susman Godfrey, as he seeks to punish firms that have links to prosecutors who have investigated him or employed attorneys he sees as opponents.
Although Trump has ordered security clearances to be stripped from a number of his opponents, including former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, the president’s order Wednesday directing the Justice Department to broadly investigate the actions of Taylor and Krebs marks an escalation of Trump’s campaign of retribution since he returned to power.
Taylor, who left the Trump administration in 2019, was later revealed to be the author of an anonymous New York Times op-ed in 2018 that was sharply critical of Trump. The person writing the essay described themselves as part of a secret “resistance” to counter Trump’s “misguided impulses,” and its publication touched off a leak investigation in Trump’s first White House.
Taylor later published a book under the pen name “Anonymous” and publicly revealed his identity days before the 2020 election.
Trump said Wednesday that Taylor was “like a traitor” and that his writings about “confidential” meetings were “like spying.”
“I think he’s guilty of treason,” he said.
Taylor responded by saying Trump had proved his point.
“Dissent isn’t unlawful. It certainly isn’t treasonous. America is headed down a dark path,” he wrote on X.
Trump named Krebs the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency but became angered with him after he declared the 2020 election that Trump lost to be secure and the ballot counts to be accurate.
Krebs did not respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday.
Trump has falsely claimed he was cheated out of reelection in 2020 by widespread fraud, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary. Recounts, reviews and audits in the battleground states where he disputed his loss all affirmed Biden’s victory. Judges, including some he appointed, rejected dozens of his legal challenges.
“It’s bizarre to see a president investigate his own administration and his own appointee,” said David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer and coauthor of “The Big Truth,” a book about Trump’s 2020 election lies.
Becker noted that Krebs issued his reassurances about the security of the upcoming election for months during 2020 without pushback from the then-president, with Trump only souring on him after the votes were counted.
“The reason he can sit in the White House today and govern from that position is because our election system is secure and has accurately determined who has won the presidency,” Becker said.
Susman Godfrey, the firm Trump targeted in an order Wednesday, represented Dominion Voting Systems in a lawsuit that accused Fox News of falsely claiming that the voting company had rigged the 2020 presidential election. Fox News ultimately agreed to pay nearly $800 million to avert a trial.
The order bars the firm from using government resources or buildings, according to White House staff secretary Will Scharf.
Trump has issued a series of orders meant to punish firms, including by ordering the suspension of lawyers’ security clearances and revoking federal contracts. He’s succeeded in extracting concessions from some who have settled, but others have challenged the orders in court.
Fearing deportation, migrants in US send more money home
- Fearing deportation, some migrants from Central and South America have cut short their journeys to the United States and returned home
GUATEMALA CITY: Central American migrants in the United States sent home around 20 percent more in remittances in the first quarter of 2025, official data showed this week, a trend economists said reflected their fear of deportation by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Nearly one-quarter of the GDP of impoverished Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua is made up of money sent from US-based migrants to relatives in their homelands.
Guatemala’s central bank said this week it had recorded $5.64 billion in remittances in the first quarter, a 20.5 percent increase over the same period in 2024.
Honduras’s central bank, for its part, said the country received $2.62 billion, a 24 percent increase on the first quarter of 2024.
El Salvador and Nicaragua do not yet have complete data for the first quarter, but in January and February, remittances to both countries increased by 14.2 percent and 22.6 percent respectively, compared to the same months in 2024.
El Salvador received $1.4 billion and Nicaragua $909 million in the first two months of 2025, according to their central banks.
In Nicaragua, the figure includes remittances not only from the United States, but also from Costa Rica ($68.2 million) and Spain ($48.6 million).
The president of Guatemala’s central bank, Alvaro Gonzalez, attributed the increase in remittances to migrants’ fear of being deported from the United States.
Guatemalan economic analyst Erick Coyoy took a similar view, telling local media that the surge was “an anticipated reaction by migrants to the perceived risk of deportation.”
It is unclear, however, whether they sent more money home to ensure that, if deported, they would be able to access their savings or whether it was to help their relatives benefit from their situation in the United States while they can.
Trump returned to the White House in January on a promise to conduct the biggest wave of migrant deportations in US history.
Fearing deportation, some migrants from Central and South America have cut short their journeys to the United States and returned home.
Some House Republicans threaten Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ budget and tax cut bill ahead of floor vote
Some House Republicans threaten Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ budget and tax cut bill ahead of floor vote
- Trump admonish Republican holdouts to "stop grandstanding" amid opposition to his budget plant allowing trillions of dollars in tax breaks
- The rebellion from Trump's conservative Republican base comes as the US economy is convulsing over his trade wars
WASHINGTON: With a shove from President Donald Trump, House Republicans were working to hoist their budget framework to approval late Wednesday, trying to flip conservative GOP holdouts who had raised grave misgivings over allowing trillions of dollars in tax breaks without deeper spending cuts.
Speaker Mike Johnson almost dared the Republican hard-liners to defy Trump and risk upending what the president calls the “big, beautiful bill,” which is central to his agenda of tax cuts, mass deportations and a smaller federal government. The GOP speaker cannot afford many defections from his slim majority, when faced with unified Democratic opposition.
“Stop grandstanding!” Trump had admonished Republicans during a black-tie fundraising dinner at the National Building Museum Tuesday night.
Trump told them, “Close your eyes and get there.”
But by Wednesday afternoon, the conservative Republicans stood firmly against the plan, throwing the schedule in flux. Several of them met privately with Senate GOP leaders to insist on deeper cuts. Johnson later pulled a group of Republicans into a private meeting room off the House chamber.
“The intention is to have the vote by this evening, and we’ll see when that time is,” Johnson told reporters at the Capitol. “Very positive, productive discussions. Everybody is moving forward.”
Pushing the budget framework forward would be a milestone for Johnson, who had set a deadline of the congressional spring break recess Thursday for advancing the resolution. But a failed vote, particularly as the economy is convulsing over Trump’s trade wars, would prove a major setback for the embattled speaker and the Republican agenda in Washington.
It’s coming as Trump’s tariff onslaught has left lawmakers on edge. Hours before the House was ready to vote, Trump paused much of his ambitious tariffs scheme, giving financial markets a bounce after days of turmoil and warnings of a US recession.
“We are at a critical inflection point, with a generational opportunity,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the chair of the House Budget Committee, at a rules meeting ahead of voting.
But House GOP conservatives, including several of those who met personally with Trump at the White House this week, remain concerned that the Senate GOP’s blueprint, approved last weekend, does not slash spending to the level they believe is necessary to help prevent soaring deficits.
“The Math Does Not Add Up,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, posted on social media. He said he would not support it.
In an unusual move, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chair of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, and others walked across the Capitol to met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and other Senate GOP leaders.
Sen. John Barrasso, the GOP whip, exited a short time later calling it a very positive meeting. “The House and the Senate Republicans are all on the same page, and we’re all committed to serious and significant savings for the American taxpayers,” Barrasso said.
Wednesday’s vote would be another step in a weeks, if not months, long process. The House and Senate must resolve their differences with more votes ahead on the final product later this spring or summer.
Democrats, in the minority, do not have enough votes to stop the package, but have warned against it.
Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle, the ranking Democrat on the budget committee, said whether the House or Senate version, the proposed GOP budget cuts would deeply harm Medicaid, the health care program used by tens of millions of Americans.
“This will have a devasting impact on my district, my state — and all 435 congressional districts throughout our land,” Boyle said.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the Republicans’ budget plan is reckless and callous as it proposes slashing budgets to give tax breaks to the wealthy.
“We’re here to make it clear,” Jeffries said. “Hands off everyday Americans struggling to make ends meet.”
The budget framework starts the process of the Republican effort to preserve the tax breaks approved in 2017, during Trump’s first term, while potentially adding the new ones he promised on the campaign trail. That includes no taxes on tipped wages, Social Security income and others, ballooning the price tag to some $7 trillion over the decade.
The package also allows for budget increases with some $175 billion to pay for Trump’s mass deportation operation and as much for the Defense Department to bolster military spending.
It all would be partly paid for with steep cuts to domestic programs, including health care, as part of the $2 trillion in reductions outlined in the House GOP version of the package, though several GOP senators have signaled they are not willing to go that far.
To clip costs, the Senate is using an unusual accounting method that does not count the costs of preserving the 2017 tax cuts, some $4.5 trillion, as new spending, another factor that is enraging the House conservatives.
Two Republican senators voted against their package during an overnight weekend session — Maine Sen. Susan Collins objected to steep cuts to Medicaid in the House’s framework, while Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul argued the whole package relied on “fishy” math that would add to the debt.
The package would also boost the nation’s debt limit to allow more borrowing to pay the bills. Trump had wanted lawmakers to take the politically difficult issue off the table. With debt now at $36 trillion, the Treasury Department has said it will run out of funds by August.
But the House and Senate need to resolve their differences on the debt limit, as well. The House GOP raises the debt limit by $4 trillion, but the Senate GOP boosted it to $5 trillion so the Congress would not have to revisit the issue again until after the fall 2026 midterm election.
With Trump’s trade wars hovering over the debate, House Republicans tucked a provision into a procedural vote that would prevent House action – as the Senate has taken – to disapprove of Trump’s tariffs.
Ukraine says more than 150 Chinese mercenaries are fighting for Russia in Ukraine
- The Ukrainian accusation and Chinese denial come as the US strives to secure a ceasefire in the more than three-year war
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine on Wednesday expanded on its claim that significant numbers of Chinese nationals are fighting for Russia’s invading army, saying it had gathered detailed intelligence on more than 150 mercenaries Moscow allegedly recruited through social media. In China, officials called the allegations “totally unfounded.”
The Ukrainian accusation and Chinese denial come as the US strives to secure a ceasefire in the more than three-year war.
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Tuesday that the Ukrainian military had captured two Chinese men fighting alongside the Russian army on Ukrainian soil. It was the first time Ukraine had made such a claim about Chinese fighters in the war.
On Wednesday, Zelensky said he was willing to exchange the two prisoners of war for Ukrainian soldiers held captive in Russia. Without providing evidence, Zelensky said officials in Beijing were aware of Russia’s campaign to recruit Chinese mercenaries. He stopped short of saying the Chinese government authorized the mercenaries’ involvement in Ukraine.
Zelensky said Ukraine has the last names and passport data for 155 Chinese citizens fighting for the Russian army and that “we believe that there are many more of them.” He shared with journalists documents listing names, passport numbers and personal details of the alleged Chinese recruits, including when they arrived in Russia for military training and departed for service; the AP has not independently verified the documents.
China has provided strong diplomatic support for Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It has also sold Russia machinery and microelectronics that it can use to make weapons, Western officials say, in addition to providing an economic lifeline through the trade in energy and consumer goods.
China is not believed to have knowingly provided Russia with troops, weapons or military expertise.
US officials have accused Iran of providing Russia with drones, while American and South Korean officials say North Korea has sent thousands of troops and ammunition to help Russia on the battlefield.
With the US and Europe having provided substantial military support and diplomatic heft for Ukraine, the war has to some degree become a contest between power blocs.
Tensions between the US and China have deepened in recent years. Disputes have centered on geopolitical influence, technology and trade — and recently escalating import tariffs between the countries have roiled global financial markets. Zelensky said US officials expressed “surprise” when informed of the presence of Chinese mercenaries in Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump is trying to follow through on a campaign promise last year to swiftly end the war in Ukraine.
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said at a briefing in Washington on Tuesday that reports of Chinese citizens fighting on behalf of Russia were “disturbing.”
“China is a major enabler of Russia in the war in Ukraine,” Bruce said. China provides nearly 80 percent of the dual-use items Russia needs to sustain the war, she claimed.
But Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said he is “not convinced yet” the Chinese personnel identified as fighting on behalf of Russia against Ukraine are more than mercenaries or volunteers.
“There’s an axiom in the military, the first report is always wrong,” Kellogg said during a Wednesday appearance at Georgetown University. “And this is one of those let’s sit back and see how this plays out, because it could be volunteers.”
Kellogg noted that Ukraine also has volunteers from other countries, including the United States, fighting on its behalf. He added that the early reports of Chinese personnel are not on par with North Korea’s deployment of thousands of troops to the frontlines.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, also called Beijing “the key enabler of Russia’s war.”
Dual-use goods are entering Russia via China, she said in Brussels, adding “it’s clear that if China would want to really stop the support then it would have an impact.”
China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow in turn is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for the war, according to a US assessment last year.
The Kremlin has effectively rejected a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting in Ukraine. The Kyiv government has consented to it. Both sides are believed to be readying spring-summer military campaigns.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in Beijing that China has played a “constructive role in politically resolving the Ukraine crisis.”
Lin told a daily news briefing Wednesday that “the Chinese government always asks Chinese citizens to stay away from conflict zones, avoid getting involved in any form of armed conflict, and especially refrain from participating in any party’s military operations.”
His comments appeared to indicate that the captured Chinese had joined Russia’s ranks on their own initiative. Both Russia and Ukraine allow foreign soldiers to enlist.
China has previously put forward a vague peace plan that was swiftly dismissed by most observers.
In the meantime, both countries have kept fighting a war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and targeted each other with long-range strikes.
The city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk endured a “massive drone attack” overnight, regional head Vadym Filashkin said, injuring an 11-year-old girl, her mother and her grandmother.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 55 Shahed and decoy drones at the country overnight.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 158 Ukrainian drones over 11 Russian regions overnight but reported no casualties or damage.
Several Russian regions temporarily suspended flights at their airports because of the attack, however, and some Ukrainian drones reached Russia’s Orenburg region in the southern Urals located nearly 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, the Defense Ministry said.
South Sudan at ‘critical tipping point’ as extreme hunger reaches its peak, World Food Program warns
South Sudan at ‘critical tipping point’ as extreme hunger reaches its peak, World Food Program warns
- The UN food agency says nearly 7.7m people, more than half the country’s population, are facing crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger
- The nation is also grappling with a cholera outbreak as ongoing violence and mass displacement drive the spread of disease, and war in neighboring Sudan adds to the challenges
NEW YORK CITY: South Sudan is grappling with an unprecedented humanitarian crisis as escalating violence in the country, particularly in the conflict-ridden Greater Upper Nile region, exacerbates a dire situation of food insecurity, the UN’s food agency said on Wednesday.
The World Food Program warned that nearly 7.7 million people, more half of the country’s population, are currently facing crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger.
Mary-Ellen McGroarty, the WFP’s representative and country director for South Sudan, painted a grim picture of the deteriorating situation as she highlighted the compounded challenges the country faces as it enters its annual lean season, the time of year when hunger reaches its peak.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes by the violence, political fragmentation and security instability, including more than 100,000 in the Upper Nile region alone.
“These are some of the most vulnerable and food-insecure areas of South Sudan, and the impact of conflict is only making matters worse,” McGroarty said.
More than 40 percent of the 7.7 million food-insecure people are concentrated in the Greater Upper Nile area, she added, where more than 60 percent of the population struggles to find a meal.
The worsening violence has also hindered humanitarian efforts, forcing the WFP to pause its operations in several regions. In total, more than 213,000 people in six counties are cut off from critical food aid. These areas, which lack roads or transportation infrastructure, rely on deliveries by river and air but active conflict means access is nearly impossible.
“The situation is catastrophic,” McGroarty said. “We’ve seen over 100 metric tons of food, including vital nutrition supplies for children, looted during recent clashes.
“These resources, which we cannot replace, were meant to feed children in a country where 17 percent of children are already malnourished.”
Beyond hunger, South Sudan is also grappling with a cholera outbreak that has compounded the public health crisis. The ongoing violence, coupled with mass displacement, is driving the spread of disease, further endangering the lives of vulnerable populations.
The war in neighboring Sudan adds an additional level of complexity. Since the conflict there began, more than 1.1 million refugees and South Sudanese returnees have fled across the border, many of them arriving with few or no possessions. McGroarty said that these individuals, who have endured harrowing journeys, add to the already immense pressure on resources and infrastructure in South Sudan.
“The economic toll of the Sudanese conflict is also being felt here,” she added. “Food prices in the border states have soared, with some rising by as much as 200 percent. Disrupted supply chains are forcing us to bring food from the south, significantly increasing costs.”
South Sudan’s vulnerability to climate change, manifested in both severe flooding and droughts, has further eroded the resilience of the country, leaving it ill-equipped to cope with escalating conflict.
“We are at a critical tipping point,” McGroarty warned. “The people of South Sudan, already trapped in the cycle of conflict and hunger, deserve freedom from these crises. They need our attention and support now more than ever.”
With humanitarian resources stretched thin and urgent needs continuing to rise, McGroarty told Arab News that the WFP needs $396 million in funding to enable it to reach 4.5 million people in need.
“That means, out of 7.7 million people, we will be leaving people behind,” she said.
Her organization needs to “preposition the food stocks as we approach the rainy season, so that communities that are food insecure have resources throughout (that) season,” she added.
