WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden will likely talk with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu soon, his national security adviser said on Sunday, as US officials race to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20.
Jake Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union” program that the parties were “very, very close” to reaching a deal to halt the fighting in the enclave and free the remaining 98 hostages held there, but still had to get it across the finish line.
Biden was getting daily updates on the talks in Doha, where Israeli and Palestinian officials have said since Thursday that some progress has been made in the indirect talks between Israel and militant group Hamas, Sullivan said.
“We are still determined to use every day we have in office to get this done,” he said, adding that Biden “is likely, in the near term, to engage with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and we are not, by any stretch of imagination, setting this aside.”
He said there was still a chance to reach an agreement before Biden leaves office, but that it was also possible “Hamas, in particular, remains intransigent.”
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian crisis, and most of its population displaced.
Vice President-elect JD Vance told the “Fox News Sunday” program in an interview taped on Saturday that he expects a deal for the release of US hostages in the Middle East to be announced in the final days of the Biden administration, maybe in the last day or two.
President-elect Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, has strongly backed Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas. He has promised to bring peace to the Middle East, but has not said how he would accomplish that.
Biden likely to talk with Netanyahu; hostage deal ‘very close,’ security adviser says
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Biden likely to talk with Netanyahu; hostage deal ‘very close,’ security adviser says

- Biden getting daily updates on talks in Doha, where Israeli and Palestinian officials said since Thursday some progress made
Beijing hails improving Vatican ties after Pope Leo names first Chinese bishop

- China recognizes appointment of Joseph Lin Yuntuan as auxiliary bishop of Fuzhou, capital of eastern Fujian province
- The Vatican and China do not have formal diplomatic relations because the Holy See recognizes Taiwan
BEIJING: Beijing hailed on Thursday improving ties with the Vatican after the first appointment of a Chinese bishop under Pope Leo XIV, signaling the new pontiff’s support for a controversial accord on nominations struck by his predecessor.
The Holy See expressed “satisfaction” on Wednesday at the recognition by China of the appointment of Joseph Lin Yuntuan as auxiliary bishop of Fuzhou, capital of eastern Fujian province. The pope made the nomination on June 5.
Beijing’s foreign ministry said the naming of the first Chinese bishop under the new pope had “enhanced understanding and mutual trust through constructive dialogue” with the Vatican.
“China is willing to work together with the Vatican to promote the continuous improvement of China-Vatican relations,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular news briefing.
The Vatican and China do not have formal diplomatic relations because the Holy See recognizes Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own territory.
However, they agreed in a historic deal in 2018 to let both sides have a say in the naming of bishops in China, home to about 12 million Catholics.
The deal – the text of which has never been made public – has drawn criticism within the Church, with some seeing it as allowing the Communist Party government a stranglehold over China’s Catholics.
The deal was renewed several times as Pope Francis sought to make inroads for the Church in China, most recently in October 2024 for four years.
“With the joint efforts of both sides, the provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops has been smoothly implemented,” Lin Jian said.
Out of the blue: How a wild fox changed Noura Ali-Ramahi’s life and art

- ‘There’s something that completely changed in me since I met her’ Lebanese-Emirati artist’s muse is fox, Blue, inspiration for new work
ABU DHABI: On the morning of her birthday, a wild fox walked up to Noura Ali-Ramahi and sniffed her feet. Her life has not been the same since.
What began as a chance encounter in Abu Dhabi has become a daily ritual — and a profound source of inspiration.
For months now, the Lebanese Emirati artist has walked the edges of a golf course near her home not for peace of mind, but in search of Blue, the fox she has named, and who has become her muse.
“There’s something that completely changed in me since I met her,” Ali-Ramahi said. “I would almost consider the walk incomplete if I didn’t see her.”
Since that December morning, the accomplished artist has embraced a new ritual: meeting foxes at dawn, then creating art inspired by those encounters.
The creative, who was trained at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, has had her work exhibited at New York’s Art Club and at galleries in the UAE, including Abu Dhabi’s Twofour54 and N2N Gallery.
Born in Beirut in 1976, the artist moved to Scotland at the age of 11 before settling in the UAE in 1989. In 1993, Ramahi returned to Beirut, graduating with a business degree from the American University of Beirut in 1997.
But it is the last few months that have impacted her the most.
As she recounts her experiences, Ali-Ramahi springs out of her seat as if reliving a small miracle. She gestures animatedly, replaying each encounter with the foxes in vivid detail — not as distant wildlife, but as if they were old friends she shares breakfast with each morning.
“She looked at me,” Ali-Ramahi said, suddenly alert, motioning toward the ground as if the fox were right there. “And it’s as if she was saying, ‘thank you.’”
Her artwork, much like herself, bursts with energy and emotional charge. But she is not simply documenting wildlife; Blue has become a recurring motif and a vessel for expressing longing, grief, and resistance.
In her vibrant studio — a riot of color and creative force — Blue often appears superimposed over scenes of Gaza or alongside another of Ali-Ramahi’s defining symbols: a chair.
“For me, it’s (the chair) my own confinement … it’s like nothing, it’s doing nothing. It’s like emptiness, it’s no response, it’s nothing,” she said.
“Blue is the opposite of the chair.”
The chair — in a time of political paralysis surrounding Gaza and Lebanon — reflects both Ali-Ramahi’s personal sense of confinement and a broader societal powerlessness.
The fox, by contrast, is everything the chair is not: cunning, wild, disobedient. It represents movement, instinct, and the refusal to be tamed.
Since leaving her full-time job, Ali-Ramahi has embraced this liberated, intuitive energy in her art, using it as a way to process emotion and resist despair.
“When I superimpose her onto a destroyed landscape, she becomes more than an animal,” she said. “She becomes survival.”
At no point does Ali-Ramahi pretend to understand why the fox chose her, and she does not need to.
“She makes me feel special … I’m not shy to admit it,” she said.
What she does know is this: like a fox hunting its prey, Blue arrived quietly in her life and became essential not just to Ali-Ramahi’s creative ecosystem, but to her emotional survival during moments of hopelessness.
“Maybe she trusts me because she sees me walking every day, sipping my coffee, never trying to hurt her,” she said softly. “I’m just ... there.”
And now, so is Blue.
World Bank to end ban on nuclear energy projects, still debating upstream gas

- World Bank to work closely with IAEA to build capacity
- Electricity demand is expected to more than double by 2035
WASHINGTON: The World Bank’s board has agreed to end a longstanding ban on funding nuclear energy projects in developing countries as part of a broader push to meet rising electricity needs, the bank’s president Ajay Banga said on Wednesday.
Banga outlined the bank’s revised energy strategy in an email to staff after what he called a constructive discussion with the board on Tuesday. He said the board was not yet in agreement on whether the bank should engage in funding the production of natural gas, and if so, under what circumstances.
The global development bank, which lends at low rates to help countries build everything from flood barriers to railroads, decided in 2013 to stop funding nuclear power projects. It announced in 2017 it would stop funding upstream oil and gas projects beginning in 2019, although it would still consider gas projects in the poorest countries.
The nuclear issue was agreed fairly easily by board members, but several countries, including Germany, France and Britain, did not fully support changing the bank’s approach to embrace upstream natural gas projects, sources familiar with the discussion said.
“While the issues are complex, we’ve made real progress toward a clear path forward on delivering electricity as a driver of development,” Banga said, adding that further discussion was required on the issue of upstream gas projects.
Banga has championed a shift in the bank’s energy policy since taking office in June 2023, arguing the bank should pursue an “all of the above” approach to help countries meet rising electricity needs and advance development goals.
In his memo, he noted that electricity demand was expected to more than double in developing countries by 2035, which would require more than doubling today’s annual investment of $280 billion in generation, grids and storage.
The Trump administration has been pushing hard for ending the ban on nuclear energy projects since taking office.
The US is the bank’s single largest shareholder — at 15.83 percent, followed by Japan with 7 percent and China with close to 6 percent — and the bank’s decision to broaden its approach to energy projects will likely please President Donald Trump, who withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Agreement and its emission-reduction targets as one of his first acts in January.
Twenty-eight countries already use commercial nuclear power, with 10 more ready to start and another 10 potentially ready by 2030, according to the Energy for Growth Hub and Third Way.
Banga said the World Bank Group would work closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency to strengthen its ability to advise on nuclear non-proliferation safeguards, safety, security and regulatory frameworks.
The bank would support efforts to extend the life of existing nuclear reactors, along with grid upgrades. It would also work to accelerate the potential of small modular reactors.
ENERGY MIX
Trump administration officials and some development experts say developing countries should not be blocked from using inexpensive power to expand their economies while advanced economies like Germany continue to burn fossil fuels.
But climate activists worry that funding more nuclear and natural gas projects will divert funds away from urgently needed efforts by developing countries to adapt to climate change and benefit from abundant alternative energy sources such as solar.
“Net zero does not mean fossil fuel free. It means, still, that there will be 20 percent energy coming from fossil fuels,” said Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados. “We know natural gas is that clean fuel.”
Banga said the bank’s revised strategy would allow countries to determine the best energy mix, with some choosing solar, wind, geothermal or hydroelectric power, while others might opt for natural gas or, over time, nuclear.
He said the bank would continue to advise on and finance midstream and downstream natural gas projects when they represented the least-cost option, aligned with development plans, minimized risk and did not constrain renewables.
The bank would further study evolving technologies like carbon capture and ocean energy, Banga said, adding it aimed to simplify reviews and approvals.
Banga said the bank would continue advising on and financing the retirement of coal plants, supporting carbon capture for industry and power generation, but not for enhanced oil recovery, which can typically secure commercial financing.
Rescuers in South Africa search for the missing after floods leave at least 49 dead

- The missing included four high school students who were swept away when their bus was caught up in the floods near a river on Tuesday
- The floods hit early Tuesday after an extreme cold front brought heavy rain, strong winds and snow to parts of eastern and southern South Africa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa: Rescue teams began a third day searching for missing people Thursday after floods devastated parts of South Africa’s rural Eastern Cape province and left at least 49 dead.
Authorities said they expected the death toll to rise.
The missing included four high school students who were swept away when their bus was caught up in the floods near a river on Tuesday. Six students on the bus were confirmed dead, while three were rescued after clinging onto trees and calling out for help, according to the provincial government.
The floods hit the province early Tuesday after an extreme cold front brought heavy rain, strong winds and snow to parts of eastern and southern South Africa. Forecasters had warned about the damaging weather last week.
Eastern Cape provincial government officials said they believed people were still missing but did not give an exact number. They were working with families to find out who was still unaccounted for, they said.
On Wednesday, rescue teams brought bodies out of the water in blue body bags, while witnesses said many people had taken refuge on the top of buildings or in trees.
The floods centered on the town of Mthatha and its surrounding district, which is around 430 kilometers (267 miles) south of the east coast city of Durban.
Officials said at least 58 schools and 20 hospitals were damaged, while hundreds of families were left homeless after their houses were submerged under water or washed away by the floods. Critical infrastructure including roads and bridges has been badly damaged, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane said.
He said it was one of the worst weather-related disasters his province had experienced.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he had activated the National Disaster Management Center to help local authorities in the Eastern Cape, while national officials were expected to visit the province on Thursday.
Ukrainian pea prices may rise amid expected exports to China, producers say

- UAC said an increase in demand could push pea prices up to as much as 16,000 hryvnias ($385.33) per metric ton
KYIV: Prices for Ukrainian peas may rise significantly by mid-summer on the back of expected significant supplies to China, which opened its market to Ukrainian peas this spring, Ukrainian producers union UAC said on Thursday.
Farmers sowed 250,000 hectares of peas in 2025 compared with 212,000 hectares in 2024, farm ministry data shows.
“China has opened its market, and a significant part of the peas will probably go there,” UAC said in a statement.
UAC said an increase in demand could push pea prices up to as much as 16,000 hryvnias ($385.33) per metric ton ex works (EXW) in late summer against the current 14,000 hryvnias.
The farm ministry has said pea production in Ukraine could increase to 476,000 metric tons in the 2025/26 July-June season from 409,000 tons in 2024/25.
Ukraine exports its peas mostly to Turkiye, India, Italy, Malaysia, the ministry said.