As Melania Trump returns to the White House, she’s winning Chinese fans
Joyce Yip, a 39-year-old entrepreneur in southern China’s Guangzhou, has a new celebrity crush: Melania Trump. The two-time first lady has become an online celebrity in China, especially among women. That may be surprising, given her husband’s hostility toward China, but social media posts reflect an admiration for her independence, her taste in fashion and how she’s raising her teenage son. And, perhaps most importantly, her stoic allegiance to President Donald Trump despite his misogynistic comments, allegations that he’s had extramarital affairs and his being found liable for sexual abuse in a civil suit brought by a New York advice columnist.
The Australian and New Zealand militaries are monitoring 3 Chinese warships off Australia
The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said Thursday. The Australian government revealed a week ago that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea and were approaching northeast Australia. Defense Minister Richard Marles said Thursday that the Chinese ships — the naval frigate Hengyang, cruiser Zunyi and replenishment vessel Weishanhu — were “off the east coast of Australia.”
A look at the 8 Latin American crime groups designated as terrorist organizations by the US
The United States government is formally designating eight Latin American organized crime groups that also operate in the U.S. to be “foreign terrorist organizations.” They are involved in drug trafficking, migrant smuggling and extend their territory through violence. The Trump administration is applying a “terrorist” designation that’s normally reserved for groups like the Islamic State group or al-Qaida that use violence for political ends — not for money-focused crime rings such as the Latin American cartels. The aim is to increase pressure on the groups and anyone who the U.S. sees as aiding them. The designation will be published in Thursday’s edition of the Federal Register, according to a notice Wednesday.
Panama sends 97 deportees from US to the Darien camp after they refused to return to their countries
Panama transferred about one-third of the deportees from various nations it had received from the United States to a camp in its Darien province Wednesday, an area that became the main thoroughfare for migrants traveling from South America to the U.S. border in recent years, security officials said late Wednesday. The migrants sent to Darien had refused to voluntarily be repatriated to their countries and will be held there until third countries can be found to take them, said a Panamanian official familiar with the situation who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Thousands of Palestinian families flee West Bank homes as Israel confronts militants
By car and on foot, through muddy olive groves and snipers’ sight lines, tens of thousands of Palestinians in recent weeks have fled Israeli military operations across the northern West Bank — the largest displacement in the occupied territory since the 1967 Mideast war. After announcing a widespread crackdown against West Bank militants on Jan. 21 — just two days after its ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza — Israeli forces descended on the restive city of Jenin, as they have dozens of times since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
US top diplomat Rubio visits the UAE after landmark talks with Russia over Ukraine war
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Wednesday with the leader of the United Arab Emirates, wrapping up an overseas trip that saw the highest-level outreach between the United States and Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Rubio’s talk with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also the ruler of Abu Dhabi, comes as the U.S. also tries to continue a shaky ceasefire in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the militant Hamas group.
Middle East latest: Netanyahu appoints an adviser with Trump ties to lead ceasefire talks
An Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a close confidant to lead negotiations for the second stage of the ceasefire with Hamas. The U.S.-born Ron Dermer is a Cabinet minister who’s widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser. He previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. and is a former Republican activist with strong ties to the Trump White House. Israel and Hamas have yet to negotiate the second and more difficult phase of the ceasefire, and the first ends in early March. Palestinians and Arab countries have universally rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and take over the territory.
Advance of Rwanda-backed rebels in Congo threatens regional peace, UN officials warn
Top United Nations officials in Africa warned an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that the offensive of Rwanda-backed rebels in mineral-rich eastern Congo is threatening peace in the wider region. “It is imperative that this council takes urgent and decisive steps to avert a wider regional war,” said Bintou Keita, U.N. special envoy for Congo.
Rubio will skip a G20 meeting after calling host South Africa’s policies anti-American
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will skip a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the leading rich and developing nations that starts on Thursday after criticizing host South Africa’s policies as anti-American. Instead, Rubio was headed back to the United States on Wednesday from his first trip to the Middle East as America’s chief diplomat, and after leading a U.S. delegation in talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia over the war in Ukraine.
Trump’s foreign aid freeze halted a crucial program fighting HIV in Africa. Here’s what’s at stake
Florence Makumene held a plastic container of HIV medication and wondered if it would be her last as fears swelled of a return to a time decades ago when millions across sub-Saharan Africa died of AIDS. As a young adult in Zimbabwe, Makumene watched loved ones succumb to a diagnosis of HIV that was viewed back then as a death sentence. But the 53-year-old didn’t have to suffer the same fate when she tested positive in 2016. A community group funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, ensured she enrolled in lifesaving treatment.