| Saudi Arabia reaffirmed its “categorical rejection” of comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposing to resettle Palestinians from Gaza. Israel meanwhile pulled troops and tanks out of a belt of land in the strip after recovering three more hostages as part of a staggered ceasefire with Hamas, though prospects of a de-facto end to the war remain unclear. ![]() A protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday calling for the release of hostages held captive in Gaza. Photographer: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images Trump froze all US aid to South Africa over what he falsely claimed were the violations of rights of ethnic-minority Afrikaners stemming from a new land-expropriation law, as well as its allegations of genocide against Israel. A White Afrikaans group’s years of lobbying right-wing US politicians culminated in the order, sparking an unusually united condemnation across the political spectrum in South Africa, which overcame apartheid. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba went into his first summit meeting with Trump amid concerns in Tokyo that Japan could be next in the tariff firing line of US allies after Canada and others. Instead, he flew home from Washington having appeared to strike up a warm relationship with the American president, saying upon his return to Japan: “I do think we have chemistry.” Kosovo’s prime minister secured a parliamentary election victory as voters backed his pledge to root out corruption and swiftly integrate Serb-majority regions, even as his approach has irked Western allies. Albin Kurti’s Self-Determination Movement won 42% of the vote in the landlocked Balkan state yesterday, according to preliminary results, though he’ll need to seek coalition partners, complicating a bid to extend his five-year rule. ![]() Kurti at an election rally in Obiliq. Photographer: Atdhe Mulla/Bloomberg German Chancellor Olaf Scholz struggled yesterday to land the decisive blow he urgently needs on conservative frontrunner Friedrich Merz in the first of two televised debates going into snap elections on Feb. 23. Time is fast running out for Social Democrat Scholz, with Merz, who heads the CDU/CSU alliance, sitting on an average lead in opinion polls of around 14 percentage points ahead of the far-right Alternative for Germany and the chancellor’s SPD in third. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia successfully disconnected from Russia’s electricity grid and plugged into continental Europe’s network, securing long-sought energy independence from Moscow. Socialist challenger Luisa González did better than forecast in Ecuador’s presidential election, likely forcing President Daniel Noboa into an April 13 runoff in the crisis-hit nation. Billionaire Marcelo Claure floated the idea of offering a $1 million reward for Bolivian ex-president Evo Morales, who is the subject of an arrest warrant. Marriages in China plunged by a fifth to the lowest level on record last year, a setback to efforts by the government to reverse a demographic crisis threatening the world’s second-biggest economy. |