Latest News
Israel delays vote to approve Gaza ceasefire deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed a cabinet vote to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal, due on Thursday, accusing Hamas of seeking last-minute changes to the agreement.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a “loose end” was being tied up and that he was confident the ceasefire would still begin on Sunday as planned.
Although Israeli negotiators agreed to the deal after months of talks, it cannot be implemented until it is approved by the security cabinet and government.
Hamas said it was committed to the deal, but the BBC understands it was trying to add some of its members to the list of Palestinian prisoners that would be released under the deal.
The delay came after Israeli strikes in Gaza following Wednesday’s announcement of a deal killed more than 80 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
A few hours before the Thursday morning meeting was due, Netanyahu accused Hamas of trying to “extort last minute concessions”.
The cabinet would not convene until Hamas accepted “all elements of the agreement,” a statement from his office read.
Blinken said such a delay was to be expected in such a “challenging” situation. “It’s not exactly surprising that in a process and negotiation that has been this challenging and this fraught, you may get a loose end,” he told a press conference in Washington. “We’re tying up that loose end as we speak.”
He said the US was “confident” the deal would come into force on Sunday as planned, and that the ceasefire would then persist.
Israeli media reported that the cabinet was expected to meet on Friday to approve the deal and that the alleged issue had been resolved, although this was not officially confirmed.
A majority of Israeli ministers are expected to back the deal, but late on Thursday Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said his right-wing party would quit Netanyahu’s government if it was approved.
“The deal that is taking shape is a reckless deal,” Ben-Gvir told a news conference, adding it would “erase the achievements of the war”.
However, he said his Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party would not seek to topple the government should the deal be ratified.
He urged the leader of the other far-right party in government, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionist party, to join him in resigning.
Ohad Tal, the party’s chair in Israel’s parliament, told BBC that it was “debating” whether to leave Netanyahu’s government over the deal.

Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the group was committed to the agreement announced by the mediators.
The head of Hamas’s delegation, Khalil al-Hayya, officially informed Qatar and Egypt of its approval of all the terms of the agreement, the official told the BBC.
But BBC Gaza correspondent Rushdi Abualouf understands that Hamas was attempting to add the names of one or two symbolic members to the list of prisoners that would be released under the deal.
The first six-week phase of the deal would see 33 hostages – including women, children and elderly people – exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israeli troops would also withdraw to the east, away from densely populated areas of Gaza.
Displaced Palestinians would be able to start returning to their homes and hundreds of aid lorries would be allowed entry to the territory each day.
Negotiations for the second phase – which should see the remaining hostages released, a full Israeli troop withdrawal and a return to “sustainable calm” – would start on the 16th day.
The third and final stage would involve the return of any remaining hostages’ bodies and the reconstruction of Gaza – something which could take years.

Israeli air strikes continued after the deal was announced on Wednesday. At least 12 people were killed in Gaza City, where a doctor told the BBC staff “did not rest for one minute” during the “bloody night”.
Strikes were carried out on 50 targets in Gaza since the deal’s announcement, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Security Agency said in a statement.
The prime minister of Qatar – which mediated negotiations – called for “calm” on both sides before the start of the first six-week phase of the ceasefire deal.
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas – which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and others – in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 46,788 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has also been displaced, there is widespread destruction and there are severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter, while aid agencies struggle to get help to those in need.
Israel says 94 of the hostages are still being held by Hamas, 34 of whom are presumed dead. There are four Israelis who were abducted before the war, two of whom are dead.
[BBC]
Latest News
Starc, Lyon keep Sri Lanka on a tight leash

Sri Lanka endured another shoddy batting show at the start of the second Test in Galle as the hosts ended the opening day at 229/9. Despite half-centuries from Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Mendis, Australia kept the home side on a tight leash to take early control in the second fixture.
Dhananjaya de Silva put his under-fire batting unit in on a dry surface after winning the toss. A week after Australia posted a first-innings total of 654/6 at the same venue, Sri Lanka made a fairly solid start through the senior pair of Dimuth Karunaratne – playing in his 100th and final Test for Sri Lanka, and Chandimal. Nathan Lyon was employed early on a surface that took sharp turn from the first hour itself, and saw the back of returning opener Pathum Nissanka. The second-wicket pair of Karunaratne and Chandimal, however, saw through the rest of the morning session with solidity and some intent to push the team ahead.
What transpired after this break though, would’ve further peeved head coach Sanath Jayasuriya, who chided his batters for their shot selection in the aftermath of the first Test defeat. Karunaratne, who’d moved along to 30s, fell in the third over after the break – cleaned up by Lyon from round the stumps. Angelo Mathews was scratchy and circumspect for 25 deliveries, before biting the bullet on the 26th when Lyon tossed one up for him to reach out and defend, only to nick behind to Alex Carey.
Right after the drinks break, Australia struck through the golden arm of Travis Head. The offie got Kamindu Mendis to nick to Steve Smith in first slip while attempting a cut shot. Dhananjaya de Silva’s arrival coincided with the return of Mitchell Starc, and the pacer dismissed the Sri Lankan captain right away. Starc bowled full and wide and Dhananjaya chased after it, nicking to Beau Webster at gully.
Chandimal, who scored his 32nd Test fifty in this session, batted out the rest of the session with Kusal Mendis. But once again it didn’t result in a bigger, more significant alliance as Sri Lanka lost a wicket early into a session. This time, Chandimal fell to an exceptional piece of glovework by Carey. Matthew Kuhnemann got Chandimal to press forward and miss, and Carey whipped the bails off with no part of the batter’s foot behind the line. He walked off for 74.
Kusal Mendis tried to throw Lyon off his lengths by repeatedly slog sweeping him. He and Ramesh Mendis pushed back for the majority of the final session, showing gumption for a big partnership. They added 65 runs for the seventh wicket to take Sri Lanka past the 200-mark but Starc returned, with new ball in hand, to ensure Australia finished the day in the driver’s seat.
Starc bowled a quick one – 144kmph – across the right-hander, who was indecisive in playing or leaving the delivery and ended up edging to Carey. Prabath Jayasuriya then edged one to Smith at second slip for a first-ball duck. Kuhnemann then reduced Sri Lanka to 224/9 by cleaning up Nishan Peiris. Steve Smith threw in a lot of catchers around the bat for the final pair who still had to negotiate 3.5 overs to get to stumps. Lahiru Kumara played 11 of those balls – dead-batting most, to survive the day in the company of Mendis, who went to stumps unbeaten on 59.
Brief Scores:
Sri Lanka 224/9 (Dinesh Chandimal 74, Kusal Mendis 59; Mitchell Starc 3-37, Nathan Lyon 3-78, Matthew Kuhnemann 2-53) vs Australia.
Foreign News
India ‘engaging with US’ after shackled deportees spark anger

India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has told parliament the government is working with the US to ensure Indian citizens are not mistreated while being deported.
His statement came a day after a US military flight brought back 104 Indians accused of entering the US illegally.
One of the deportees told the BBC they had been handcuffed throughout the 40-hour flight, sparking criticism.
But Jaishankar said he had been told by the US that women and children were not restrained. Deportation flights to India had been taking place for several years and US procedures allowed for the use of restraints, he added.
Deportation in the US is organised and executed by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“We have been informed by ICE that women and children are not restrained,” Jaishankar said.
He added that according to ICE, the needs of deportees during transit, including for food and medical attention, were attended to and deportees could be unrestrained during bathroom breaks.
“There has been no change from past procedure,” he added.
However Jaspal Singh, one of the deportees on the flight that landed in Amritsar city in the state of Punjab on Wednesday, told BBC Punjabi that he was shackled throughout the flight.
“We were tortured in many ways. My hands and feet were tied after we were put on the plane. The plane stopped at several places,” he said, adding that he was unshackled only after the plane landed in Amritsar.

The US has not given further details of how deportees were treated on the flight. Officials have said that enforcing immigration laws is “critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States” and it was US policy to “faithfully execute the immigration laws against all inadmissible and removable aliens”.
The US border patrol chief posted video showing deportees in shackles, saying the deportation flight to India was the “farthest deportation flight yet using military transport”.
President Donald Trump has made the mass deportation of undocumented foreign nationals a key policy. The US is said to have identified about 18,000 Indian nationals it believes entered illegally.
Trump has said India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him that the country would “do what’s right” in accepting US deportations.
In his statement on Thursday, Jaishankar said all countries had an obligation to take back their nationals who had entered other countries illegally. They often faced dangerous journeys and inhumane working conditions once they had reached their destinations, he said.
Fraudulent Indian travel agencies are known to take huge sums of money from people desperate to travel abroad for work, and then make them undertake dangerous journeys to avoid being caught by immigration officials.
Jaspal said he had taken a loan of 4m rupees ($46,000; £37,000] to travel to the US, a dangerous journey that took months and during which he saw bodies in the jungle of other migrants who had died on the route.
[BBC]
Latest News
Trump signs order banning transgender women from female sports

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that prevents transgender women from competing in female categories of sports.
The order provides guidance, regulations and legal interpretations, and it will enlist the Department of Education to investigate high schools thought to be non-compliant.
Republicans say it restores fairness to sports but LGBT advocacy and human rights organisations have described the move as discriminatory.
The order, which goes into effect immediately, largely covers high school, universities and grassroots sports.
A number of sporting governing bodies, including swimming, athletics and golf, have banned transgender women from competing in the female category at elite level if they have gone through male puberty.
According to White House officials who briefed reporters on Wednesday morning, this latest order empowers the Department of Education to investigate how schools implement Title IX, a US law that bans sex discrimination in federally funded education programmes.
An administration official said that the executive order will reverse the position of the Biden administration which in April last year said that LGBT students would be protected by federal law, although it did not give specific guidance on transgender athletes.
“If you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding,” Trump explained.
Additionally, the White House plans to bring in sporting bodies – such as the National Collegiate Athletics Association, or NCAA – to come to the White House to meet female athletes and their parents to discuss concerns.
The official who discussed the order, said the US would do all it could to prevent transgender athletes from competing against females in International Olympic Committee competitions that take place on US soil.
President Trump specified that the order would include the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
He has said he will deny visas for transgender Olympic athletes trying to visit the US to compete at the LA Games.
Ahead of signing the executive order, Trump declared that “the war on women’s sports is over”, saying that during the LA Games, “my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes.”
He said he would direct the secretary of homeland security “to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes…”
IOC has been approached for comment.
White House officials described the policies as being broadly popular with Americans, and critical to ensuring “fairness” for women in sports, as well as safety.
In a statement, Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson said that the order “exposes young people to harassment and discrimination, emboldening people to question the gender of kids who don’t fit a narrow view of how they’re supposed to dress or look”.
“For so many students, sports are about finding somewhere to belong,” Ms Robinson added. “Not partisan policies that make life harder for them.”
Less than 1% of the population over the age of 13 in the US are transgender, according to a study by the UCLA Williams Institute, and the number playing sports is smaller.
On Trump’s first day in office on 20 January, he signed a separate order calling for the federal government to officially define sex as either being male or female.
[BBC]
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