Rivals’ accord paves way for Palestine coalition

Fatah’s Azzam Al-Ahmad, right, and Saleh Al-Arouri of Hamas after signing a reconciliation deal in Cairo, Oct. 12, 2017, as the two rival Palestinian movements ended their decade-long split. (AFP)
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Updated 23 January 2021
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Rivals’ accord paves way for Palestine coalition

  • Hamas and Fatah agreed to share surplus votes in elections for a national unity government that will run affairs in Gaza and the West Bank
  • A coalition government appears to give the people of Gaza a chance to exercise freedom of movement and benefit from rebuilding work in the enclave

AMMAN: Fatah and Hamas leaders appear to be moving closer to setting up a unified list that will be the basis of a Palestinian coalition government, a draft agreement between the rival factions reveals.

The agreement, seen by Arab News, was a key factor in the decision to hold elections — Palestine’s first in 15 years — on May 22.

Details of the accord were discussed at meetings in Istanbul and Cairo, and became the basis of an exchange of letters between Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Compromises appear to have been made by both sides, but particularly by Hamas, which accepts that “the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) is the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and is responsible for all external political issues and negotiations as well as all issues related to war and peace.”

However, Fatah, which has effectively controlled the PLO for decades, acknowledges that the organization requires reform and strengthening so it can better represent all Palestinian groups and in order for its decisions to be mandatory.

By agreeing to be part of the PLO and under its political umbrella, Hamas can avoid the problems it faced in 2006 when it refused to recognize Israel. The PLO exchanged letters of recognition with Israel in 1993.

Hamas and Fatah also agreed to share surplus votes in elections for a national unity government that will run affairs in Gaza and the West Bank, and have total control over all Palestinian areas.

Both sides agreed that the new government “will work on unifying laws and institutions, and have security control over all areas.”

A coalition government appears to give the people of Gaza a chance to exercise freedom of movement and benefit from rebuilding work in the enclave.

According to the agreement, one of the main goals of a coalition government seeking to revive Gaza’s battered economy will be a long-term cease-fire with Israel to prepare the groundwork for extensive rebuilding.

The agreement also calls for Gaza airport and all crossings to be permanently restored along with the establishment of a security corridor between Gaza and the West Bank.

Hamas and Fatah also appear to agree on the need for a change in the role of the Palestinian president, with calls for an overhaul of Palestine’s political structure, “especially the roles of the president, government and legislative council.”

“It is either a presidential structure or a parliamentary one,” the accord said. “The hybrid is a source of conflict.”

Changes should take place before the presidential elections due on July 31, it adds.

The two factions also agreed that the “election campaigns must be civilized, respectful, and avoid abuse and libel from all sides.”

According to the agreement, election results “will be recognized no matter what they are.”


‘Mr Satan’ charged with Trump assassination threat, Justice Department says

Updated 8 min 46 sec ago
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‘Mr Satan’ charged with Trump assassination threat, Justice Department says

  • Officials said Shawn Monper was detained and charged with “making threats to assault and murder” Trump and other US officials
  • Monper is coincidentally from Butler, Pennsylvania where Trump was nearly assassinated during a campaign rally in July 2024

WASHINGTON: A US man posting content online as “Mr Satan” has been charged with threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump and other government officials, the Department of Justice announced Friday.
Shawn Monper, 32, was detained and charged in a federal criminal complaint with “making threats to assault and murder” Trump and other US officials, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
In a statement, the DOJ said the FBI received an emergency message about threats posted on YouTube by a user who identified himself as “Mr Satan,” whose Internet activity was determined to correspond with Monper’s residence.
Monper is coincidentally from Butler, Pennsylvania where Trump was nearly assassinated during a campaign rally in July.
Shortly after Trump’s inauguration in January, Monper obtained a firearms permit and commented from his account that he had “bought several guns and been stocking up on ammo since Trump got in office,” the DOJ said.
On February 17 he wrote: “Nah, we just need to start killing people, Trump, Elon, all the heads of agencies Trump appointed, and anyone who stands in the way,” referring to Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
“Remember, we are the majority, MAGA is a minority of the country, and by the time its time to make the move, they will be weakened, many will be crushed by these policies, and they will want revenge too. American Revolution 2.0,” he said, according to the DOJ.
Then on March 4, in a YouTube video titled “Live: Trump’s address to Congress,” Monper said he was “going to assassinate him myself,” the DOJ added.
Monper hails from Butler township, scene of a shooting last July 13 that nearly took Trump’s life, when a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed the Republican’s ear at an outdoor campaign rally. One person was killed and three were injured.
“Rest assured that whenever and wherever threats of assassination or mass violence occur, this Department of Justice will find, arrest, and prosecute the suspect to the fullest extent of the law and seek the maximum appropriate punishment,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the statement.
A detention hearing is scheduled for April 14.


China retaliates again in Trump’s trade war, prompting flight from US assets

Updated 27 min 43 sec ago
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China retaliates again in Trump’s trade war, prompting flight from US assets

  • Bond prices fall, dollar weakens, gold hits record high as stand up to US ‘bullying’
  • Stocks recover but inflation and recession fears persist

BEIJING/WASHINGTON/LONDON: Beijing increased its tariffs on US imports to 125 percent on Friday, hitting back against President Donald Trump’s decision to raise duties on Chinese goods and upping the stakes in a trade war that threatens to upend global supply chains.
The retaliation intensified global economic turmoil unleashed by Trump’s tariffs. US stocks ended a volatile week higher, but the safe haven of gold hit a record high during the session and benchmark US 10-year government bond yields posted their biggest weekly increase since 2001 alongside a slump in the dollar, signaling a lack of confidence in America Inc.
One US survey of consumers showed inflation fears have mounted to their highest since 1981, while financial institutions have been forecasting an ever greater risk of recession.
Trump downplayed the market turbulence, predicting the dollar would strengthen and saying many tariffs could settle in around 10 percent once the United States cut trade deals with all the countries that want to negotiate.
“When people understand what we’re doing, I think the dollar will go way up,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One late on Friday. “The bond market’s going good. It had a little moment but I solved that problem very quickly.”
The White House has said more than 75 countries have sought negotiations and that future deals would bring certainty.
India and Japan are among the powers to have advanced toward trade talks, but generally foreign leaders have puzzled over how to respond to the biggest disruption to the world trade order in decades.
The tit-for-tat tariff increases by the US and China stand to make goods trade between the world’s two largest economies impossible, analysts say. That commerce was worth more than $650 billion in 2024.
“The president made it very clear: When the United States is punched, he will punch back harder,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday.
The dollar slid and a sell-off intensified in US Treasuries, the world’s biggest bond market, as gold climbed.
With the dollar weakening, selling of US assets was perhaps most exemplified by t
The price decline in the US 10-year Treasury note. decline drove its yield — which moves opposite to the price and is critical for determining interest rates on mortgages — to a two-month high. On the week, its yield has climbed nearly half a percentage point.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is closely monitoring the bond market, Leavitt said.
A second day of data on US inflation showed price pressures were not yet building broadly across the US economy, although the Producer Price Index for March did show industrial metals prices rising due to import levies on things like steel and aluminum, in place for a month now.
“Tarifflation will be much more important for the outlook than backward-looking data,” said Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank. “If tariffs stay in place they will push inflation considerably higher in coming months.”
The University of Michigan said its Consumer Sentiment Index dropped to 50.8 this month from 57.0 in March. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index falling to 54.5.
In a reversal of previous surveys, the latest one also showed weakening confidence among Trump’s fellow Republicans.
Consumers’ 12-month inflation expectations soared to 6.7 percent this month, the highest since 1981, from 5.0 percent in March, according to the survey.

Trade war with China
This week, Trump announced a 90-day tariff pause on dozens of countries while ratcheting up tariffs on Chinese imports effectively to 145 percent.
China retaliated with more tariffs on Friday. China’s finance ministry called Trump’s tariffs “completely unilateral bullying and coercion.”
Beijing indicated this would be the last time it matched US tariff rises but left the door open for other types of retaliation.
“If the US truly wants to have talks, it should stop its capricious and destructive behavior,” Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the US, wrote on social media. “China will never bow to maximum pressure of the US“
UBS analysts in a note called China’s declaration “an acknowledgement that trade between the two countries has essentially been completely severed.”
Leavitt, in turn, delivered a warning to Beijing: “If China continues to retaliate, it’s not good for China.”
On Thursday, Trump told reporters he thought the US could make a deal with China and he respected Chinese President Xi Jinping. On Friday, Xi made his first public remarks on Trump’s tariffs, telling Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Beijing that China and the European Union should “jointly oppose unilateral acts of bullying.”


Herd of animal puppets treks from Africa to arctic Circle in climate action

Updated 45 min 5 sec ago
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Herd of animal puppets treks from Africa to arctic Circle in climate action

  • A wildebeest, a gorilla and a giraffe were among the life-size puppets to begin the 20,000-kilometer trek that will cross about 10 countries between central Africa and the Arctic by August

KINSHASA, Congo: In the Kinshasa Botanical Garden, a troupe of cardboard animals stand at attention in a clearing. Their handlers, puppeteers dressed in black, begin to move slowly through the woods, eventually picking up speed and breaking out into a run.
These were the first steps of “The Herds,” a moving theater performance made up of cardboard puppet animals that flee from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Arctic Circle in a bid to bring attention to the climate crisis.
This week, the puppet animals started their journey in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC in central Africa. The story goes that the animals will be forced out of their natural habitats due to global warming and displaced north, stopping in cities along the way and being joined by more animals.
Just meters away a real-life example of climate change: Part of the botanical garden lay under floodwaters left over from massive flooding earlier this week that left half the city inaccessible and killed dozens. The sight brought “The Herds” story to life in a bleak way. The main event planned in the center of Kinshasa on Friday was canceled because of the heavy rain.

A wildebeest, a gorilla and a giraffe were among the life-size puppets to begin the 20,000-kilometer (12,400-mile) trek that will cross about 10 countries between central Africa and the Arctic by August.

Puppeteers walk next to life size animal puppets, part of the Herds public art and climate action project are displayed in Kinshasa on April 9, 2025. (AFP)

Their journey will take them through Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, France and Norway, among other countries.
“This project tries to give the public a powerful emotional sense of what’s happening to the planet,” project producer David Lan said.
The trek includes “now 20, later 40, later 70 animals from all over west Africa, Morocco, Europe who are traveling to escape from the damage done to their ecosystem,” he added.
It is financed by several European countries as well as private foundations.
The puppets are made of mostly recycled materials: cardboard for the skin and rubber for the joints, according to Siphokazi Mpofu, of the South African collective, Ukwanda Puppets, which created the first puppets.
“Some animals will die on the way,” due to high humidity for instance, “just like in real life,” Mpofu said.
As it travels, the herd will be joined by new puppets representing local species, such as vervet monkeys in Nigeria, wolves and red deer in Europe, and reindeer in Norway.

Puppeteers move cardboard animals through Kinshasa's botanical gardens on April 10, 2025, the first steps of "The Herds" as it travels from Africa to the Arctic Circle in a bid to bring attention to the climate crisis. (AP Photo)

“The Herds” comes from the team that was behind “The Walk” in 2021, in which a 12-foot tall puppet of a refugee girl called Little Amal drew attention to the refugee crisis by traveling to 15 countries — from Turkiye to the UK, Ukraine, Mexico and the US.
Tshoper Kabambi, a Congolese filmmaker and producer, is working on “The Herds” as its DRC producer. He said “The Herds” main goal is to raise awareness.
“Nature is very important to us. But humans have a tendency to neglect nature,” he said. “We want to raise awareness among people about everything that is happening. You have seen the floods all over the world, global warming, deforestation.”
“The Herds” will stay in Kinshasa until Saturday before moving onto Lagos, Nigeria, and Dakar, Senegal.
“The Herds” organizers say the significance of starting in Congo lies in the fact that the country is home to the second biggest rainforest in the world. The Congo Basin serves as one of the planet’s “lungs,” the other being the Amazon Rainforest.
They say much less attention has been focused on Congo’s rainforest, but it is still in dire need of protection.
Congolese artists were an integral part of “The Herds” opening act, just as artists from other countries will be as the project moves north.
Amir Nizar Zuabi was on that team and is now the artistic director of “The Herds.” He was also a part of “The Walk.”
“I think one of the big impacts of this project is the fact that this project is happening in 20 different cities,” he said. “It will travel through different cultures, different places, and it accumulates. And it will tell the story of the Congo also in Norway, because we have partners everywhere.”

 

 

 

 

 

 


US senators ask SEC for Trump insider trading probe

Updated 12 April 2025
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US senators ask SEC for Trump insider trading probe

  • Trump posted on his website Truth Social early Wednesday that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” as stock markets were tanking
  • A few hours later, Trump announced a 90-day suspension of additional tariffs against some countries, triggering a historic stock market rebound

WASHINGTON: A group of US senators on Friday urged the government’s markets watchdog to investigate whether President Donald Trump or White House insiders broke securities laws ahead of his dramatic reversal on global tariffs.
The six Democrats — led by Massachusetts progressive Elizabeth Warren — noted in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Trump posted on his website Truth Social early Wednesday that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” as stock markets were tanking.
A few hours later, Trump announced a 90-day suspension of additional tariffs against dozens of countries, triggering a historic stock market rebound and the best day for the S&P 500 since the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.
“We urge the SEC to investigate whether the tariff announcements... enriched administration insiders and friends at the expense of the American public,” senators wrote in a letter to regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The letter urged the SEC to probe whether “any insiders, including the president’s family, had prior knowledge of the tariff pause that they abused to make stock trades ahead of the president’s announcement.”
Trump signed his Truth Social post with the letters “DJT” — both his initials and the stock market abbreviation for his media company, Trump Media & Technology Group.
The company’s shares closed up 21.67 percent on Wednesday.

“Corruption and lawlessness”

The senators called on the SEC to investigate whether the president, his donors or other insiders had engaged in market manipulation, insider trading or other violations of securities laws.
SEC chairman Paul Atkins has history with Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, who has accused him of having conflicts of interest over his ties to the financial services industry.
Atkins is not obliged to do what the senators ask, and four of the group followed up with a second letter to the National Association of Attorneys General asking for state-level investigations.
“Corruption and lawlessness have become a calling card of the Trump administration,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, one of the signatories of both letters.

 

The demand for action came amid concern over the growing number of avenues through which Trump and his family can monetize the power of the presidency, although no evidence of corruption had emerged.
Days before his inauguration, Trump released a “memecoin” — a digital cryptocurrency token with no inherent value — opening the door for secret donations from foreign buyers.
“Now anyone in world can essentially deposit money into bank account of President of USA with a couple clicks,” his former aide Anthony Scaramucci posted on social media after the launch.
“Every favor — geopolitical, corporate or personal — is now on sale, right out in the open.”
The White House told The Washington Post that Trump’s Truth Social post sought only to “reassure” the public and that he had a responsibility to “reassure markets and Americans about their economic security.”
 


US prosecutors seek release of ex-FBI informant who admitted fabricating claims against Biden

Updated 12 April 2025
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US prosecutors seek release of ex-FBI informant who admitted fabricating claims against Biden

  • The move is the latest by the Trump administration to reverse cases against supporters of President Trump or those who aided conservative causes
  • Smirnov pleaded guilty in December to fabricating bribery claims against former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter

WASHINGTON: US prosecutors plan to review the case of a former FBI informant who admitted to fabricating bribery claims against former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, according to a court filing on Friday.
The disclosure came as prosecutors, together with defense lawyers for the informant, Alexander Smirnov, asked a federal judge to release him from prison while he appeals a six-year prison sentence.
“The United States intends to review the government’s theory of the case underlying Defendant’s criminal conviction,” prosecutors wrote in a filing in Los Angeles federal court.
The move is the latest by the US Justice Department during the Trump administration to review or dismiss cases against supporters of President Donald Trump or those who aided conservative causes.
Smirnov pleaded guilty in December to causing the creation of a false record after falsely telling his FBI handler years earlier that he had knowledge of bribes paid by executives at a Ukrainian energy company to Joe and Hunter Biden. He also admitted to tax evasion.
Smirnov’s claims, documented in an FBI record, briefly became the focus of a Republican-led impeachment investigation into Joe Biden that was later abandoned.
The case was brought by former Special Counsel David Weiss, who separately indicted Hunter Biden on tax and gun crimes. Joe Biden later issued a sweeping pardon for his son.
In seeking his release, prosecutors agreed that Smirnov was not likely to flee or pose a threat to public safety. His travel would be limited largely to Nevada, where he lived, according to the filing. It is not clear how the Justice Department review could impact the case. Smirnov already struck a plea agreement with prosecutors.
His appeal has so far been limited to arguing that his time spent in pretrial detention should count toward his six-year sentence.