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“The World Health Organization has long since ceased to operate as a professional and objective organization,” MK Limor Sonn Har Melech said during a Knesset discussion on the matter. US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee , informed the Israeli Health Committee that the United States would share all medical data with Israel if it decides to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO), according to a Knesset press release on January 20. The release recounted an internal debate within the Israeli Health Committee, where committee chair MK Limor Sonn Har Melech  revealed that she had discussed the possibility of Israel leaving the WHO at length with Ambassador Huckabee. “In this conversation, a very clear message arose on the part of the new administration in Washington. The ambassador said that the United States was reexamining its entire relationship with UN institutions, whether it is UNRWA  or the WHO .”  She continued, “The current American appro...

Germany’s government on Wednesday rejected calls for a boycott of the football World Cup co-hosted by the United States, after President Donald Trump retreated from his threats to seize Greenland. A boycott of the tournament would not be “the right approach”, government spokesman Steffen Meyer told a press conference in Berlin. “Political disputes should be settled at the political level, and sport should be left to be sport.” This year’s World Cup is to be held between June 11 and July 19 in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Some German politicians had questioned whether the country should still participate after Trump last month stepped up his longstanding threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark. He targeted eight European countries, including Germany, with tariffs for their opposition to his ambitions. But the US leader later withdrew his tariff threats and vowed not to take the Arctic island by force, after saying he had struck a “fr...

China is encircling Africa  with strategic ports that can service its warships as part of its strategy to expand its navy and military presence. Satellite images shared exclusively with The Telegraph show how Beijing has transformed ports across the continent over the past decade – from Lekki in Nigeria to Mombasa in Kenya. The civilian ports, which are often run by Chinese state-owned firms, are designed not just for trade but also to accommodate warships. Defence experts warn the expansion has created a network of potential naval bases capable of landing warships near key maritime routes, such as the Suez Canal .  The ports also give Beijing access to critical materials like copper and cobalt – vital for modern technology, ranging from fighter jets to smartphones. Many of the ports are linked to mines via Chinese-built rail and road projects, supporting China' s race against the US for high-tech resources. Control over the ports could allow Chine...

United States border security chief Tom Homan has announced that the administration of President Donald Trump will “draw down” 700 immigration enforcement personnel from Minnesota while promising to continue operations  in the northern state. The update on Wednesday was the latest indication of the Trump administration pivoting  on its enforcement surge in the state following the killing of two US citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis in January. Homan, who is officially called Trump’s “border czar”, said the decision came amid new cooperation agreements with local authorities, particularly related to detaining individuals at county jails. Details of those agreements were not immediately available. About 3,000 immigration enforcement agents are currently believed to be in Minnesota as part of Trump’s enforcement operations. "Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration, and as a result of the need for less law enforcement officers to do this work in a...

A recent Elon Musk decision to shut down Russian military-operated Starlink terminals in Ukraine has hammered Kremlin forces with internet access denial across a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) fighting front that has left commanders without means of communication and combat units unable to attack, Ukrainian mainstream news reports and milbloggers reported on Thursday. Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov, a high-profile Ukrainian electronic warfare expert, in Wednesday evening comments published on his personal Telegram channel, said practically all frontline Russian combat units dependent on the US-developed Starlink satellite system for digital communications no longer are able to transfer data via secure internet, while Russian sources said some formations had had to revert to paper maps and couriers carrying memory sticks between units. In late January, Beskrestnov, a private industry electronic warfare expert recently appointed as senior technical advisor to the Ukrainian Defense Mi...

Cuba is ready for “meaningful” dialogue with the United States but it is not willing to discuss changing its government, the Cuban deputy foreign minister told CNN on Wednesday, in comments that come as the Trump administration ramps up pressure  on the island with talk of regime change. “We’re not ready to discuss our constitutional system as we suppose the US is not ready to discuss their constitutional system, their political system, their economic reality,” Carlos Fernández de Cossío  said. He said the countries have not yet established “a bilateral dialogue” but they have had “some exchanges of messages” that were “linked” to the highest levels of Cuba’s government. His remarks come days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US “would love to see” regime change in Cuba although it wouldn’t necessarily act on it. It also comes as the Trump administration has ramped up pressure on the Caribbean island by trying to cut off oil deliveries there. The US ...

Dangote Refinery says it does not import refined petroleum products into Nigeria, insisting that all petrol and other fuels sold from its operations are fully refined locally. The clarification was made by the Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Refinery, Mr David Bird, during a news conference on Wednesday in Lagos, amid allegations over fuel importation and local refining capacity. Bird explained that materials often mistaken for imported fuel were, in fact, intermediate feedstocks used to optimise refinery operations. He said these include high catalytic sulphur gasoline and straight-run naphtha, unfinished components that undergo extensive processing at the Lekki-based facility before becoming market-ready products. “We do not import refined fuel. Everything sold as petrol, diesel or aviation fuel is refined here in Lekki to Nigerian and international Euro-V standards,” Bird said. According to him, the use of intermediate feedstocks is standard practice in complex and me...

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says more than 200 repair crews are working to restore power in Kyiv following widespread deadly Russian attacks targeting the country's energy sector. More than 1,100 apartment buildings in the capital are still without power, Zelensky said, adding that he had spoken to officials about supporting communities in other affected parts of Ukraine. In the eastern Ukrainian town of Druzhkivka, seven people were killed and fifteen injured in Russian cluster bomb strikes, the regional head said. Moscow has recently renewed its attacks after a week-long pause that US President Donald Trump had asked Vladimir Putin to observe as a fierce cold swept Ukraine. Meanwhile, US, Ukrainian and Russian officials are again meeting in Abu Dhabi to discuss details of a peace plan. However, there a few signs a breakthrough is imminent during the second round of such trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates. Russia launched a full-scale invasion ...

French police raided X offices in Paris on Tuesday as part of an investigation into the company’s use of algorithms and its artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok. The search was carried out by the  Paris public prosecutor’s cybercrime unit , which then summoned Elon Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino to give evidence on April 20, according to Reuters . French prosecutors had opened the probe in 2025 following a complaint by a lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms  on the platform were likely to have distorted the operation of an automated data processing system. Authorities are now examining suspected algorithm abuse and fraudulent data extraction by X or the platform's executives, prosecutors said. The investigation has also broadened to include Grok, the AI chatbot developed by Musk’s company xAI and integrated into the platform, Reuters said. Britain’s privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, also said on Tuesday in a ...

Morocco  have decided to appeal a ruling that resulted in fines of $415,000 and match bans because of a chaotic Africa Cup of Nations  final, their federation said Tuesday. CAF, African football's governing body, last month fined the host and  Senegal  over unrest at last month's final in the Moroccan capital. Senegal won the game 1-0 after extra time  and decided not to appeal the ruling. The Moroccan federation and national team player Ismael Saibari  were issued fines totalling $415,000. Saibari and a teammate were also banned from games. During the final, ball boys tried to seize a towel belonging to Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy,  apparently to distract him, an incident that alone led to a $200,000 fine for the host. Morocco see CAF's sanctions as disproportionate to the incidents. "Given the incompatibility of these sanctions with the scale and severity of the incidents (...), the FRMF has decided to appeal these decision...

SINGAPORE, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Germany is "not in equidistance" from the United States and China, and will always be closer to Washington despite recent tensions, German foreign minister Johann Wadephul said in Singapore on Monday. At a lecture hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Wadephul said the United States remains the most important partner for Europe and Germany and that Europe remains dependent on it for its security, despite issues that are currently "alienating" Washington from the region. Trump administration officials have been critical of European countries for failing to meet NATO spending targets and for being too dependent on the United States for their own defence. "Running with open arms to President Xi and saying all our problems vanished in this very moment and we are only heading to become your big partner, this would be the wrong answer," he said, referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Western nat...

Elon Musk just became the first person ever worth $800 billion or more after his rocket maker SpaceX acquired his artificial intelligence and social media company xAI.  Forbes  estimates that the deal, which values the combined company at $1.25 trillion, boosted Musk’s fortune by $84 billion, to a record $852 billion. Before the deal, Musk owned an estimated 42% stake in SpaceX worth $336 billion, based on a tender offer launched in December that valued the privately-held rocket maker at $800 billion. He also owned an estimated 49% stake in xAI worth $122 billion, based on a private fundraising round that valued that company at $250 billion earlier this month. After the merger, which valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion,  Forbes  estimates that Musk now owns a 43% stake in the combined company worth $542 billion. That makes SpaceX Musk’s most valuable asset by far. He also owns a 12% stake in Tesla worth $178 billion and Tesla stock option...

Ukraine's sports minister has called Fifa president Gianni Infantino "irresponsible" and "infantile" for saying that world football's governing body will look at lifting a ban on Russia. Russian national teams and clubs were suspended from all competitions  by Fifa and Uefa in February 2022 after the country's invasion of Ukraine. With the war still going on, Infantino has said  "this ban has not achieved anything" and "has just created more frustration and hatred". He added: "Having girls and boys from Russia being able to play football games in other parts of Europe would help." In response, Ukraine sports minister Matvii Bidnyi  said in a social media post:, external  "Gianni Infantino's words sound irresponsible - not to say infantile. "They detach football from the reality in which children are being killed. "Let me remind you that since the start of Russia's full-scale aggression, mor...

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has spoken out against banning Russia and Israel from international football — and also defended awarding U.S. President Donald Trump the FIFA Peace Prize in December. Both FIFA, the world governing body, and its European counterpart UEFA banned the Russian national team from competing in 2022 after the country invaded Ukraine. There have been calls for FIFA and UEFA to impose a similar ban on Israel because of the ongoing conflict in Gaza and the country’s support of settlements in Palestinian territories. Although Russia’s ban is yet to be lifted, Infantino claimed it “has not achieved anything” and revealed he will be looking at removing the ban, as well as potentially changing FIFA’s statutes to prevent similar sanctions in the future. Infantino was speaking in an hour-long, in-person interview with Yalda Hakim, host of The World on Sky News,  which was released online on Monday afternoon. “We have to,” Infantino responded when asked ...

GAZA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Israel on Monday reopened the Rafah crossing to a trickle of Palestinians for the first time in months, a major step in a U.S.-backed plan to end the war, though strict Israeli security checks slowed the process. The  Rafah crossing,  standing amidst rubble and ruins, is the sole route in or out for nearly all of Gaza's more than 2 million residents. It was largely shut for most of the war, and reopening it to allow even limited access to the outside world is one of the last steps required under the initial phase of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire reached in October. The crossing reopened around 9 a.m. on Monday morning. Some 50 Palestinians had been expected to enter the enclave with a similar number exiting. Many of those seeking to depart are hospital patients awaiting specialised medical care outside Gaza. By nightfall, Israel had permitted 12 Palestinians to reenter the enclave, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said. A further...