The US president has struck an optimistic note after the Israeli PM vowed to eliminate Hamas in the Palestinian enclave
US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that a deal on ending the war in Gaza is close, but without providing any details.
His comments came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly he would “finish the job” of eliminating Hamas in the enclave.
“I think we have maybe a deal on Gaza, and very close to a deal on Gaza, it’s looking like we have a deal,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday.
Trump and Netanyahu are planning to meet in Washington on Monday.
”I think it’s a deal that will get the hostages back. It’s going to be a deal that will end the war,” Trump added.
Earlier this week, Trump and senior US officials presented a 21-point peace plan to Arab and Islamic leaders, the president’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said at the UNGA. The plan calls for a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages, new governance for Gaza without Hamas, and a phased Israeli withdrawal, according to media sources.
”I think it addresses Israeli concerns and, as well, the concerns of all the neighbors in the in the region,” Witkoff said. “And we’re hopeful, and I might say, even confident, that in the coming days, we’ll be able to announce some sort of breakthrough.”
Trump’s position on the future of Gaza has not been consistent. In March, Trump said that “nobody is expelling any Palestinians” from the enclave, but later in May, he reiterated his desire for the US to take over the territory and “make it a freedom zone,” urging residents to leave.
However, ahead of Netanyahu’s UN speech on Friday, Trump said he would not allow the annexation of the occupied West Bank, rejecting calls from some far-right politicians in Israel who want to extend sovereignty over the area. “It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding: “There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.”
Netanyahu signed a controversial West Bank settlement expansion plan this month.
The head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation Mohammad Eslami has blasted the West after UN Security Council voted to reimpose sanctions
Iran will continue its peaceful nuclear program regardless of foreign pressure, Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, has told RT in an exclusive interview. His comments come as Tehran announced it will halt cooperation on nuclear inspections following new sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council.
Last week, Britain, France, and Germany triggered the so-called “snapback” mechanism, part of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and world powers to limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The move has led to the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran, and derailed a recent agreement between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resume inspections of Iranian nuclear sites.
Eslami accused the West of double standards and repeated violations of past agreements, stressing that “Iran has always unilaterally fulfilled its commitments and they’ve never fulfilled theirs.”
He also condemned the US for consistently trying to harm Iran through “sanctions, aggression, war, conflict and conspiracy.”
Eslami dismissed Washington’s recent calls for Tehran to dismantle its uranium enrichment program, stating that remarks from US officials are “of no importance to us. We do not take orders from anyone.”
He claimed that Iran’s nuclear program is and has always been peaceful. He also denied that recent US-Israeli airstrikes had crippled Iran’s nuclear program, stating that while some people and buildings may have been eliminated, “knowledge is in the souls and minds of our scientists” which “cannot be destroyed.”
Russia and China have opposed the sanctions, with Moscow’s UN envoy stating that Russia does not recognize the snapback procedure as legal. Tehran, meanwhile, has argued that more than 130 countries condemned the attacks on its nuclear facilities, which it said shows the majority of the world supports Iran’s position.
Eslami concluded that Iran remains ready to negotiate but will not abandon its rights. “Our path and our programs are clear,” he said, stressing that the nuclear program will continue under Iranian control despite sanctions, strikes, and threats.
US President Donald Trump “was the one who promised to stop the killing,” the bloc’s foreign policy chief has argued
Brussels is not solely responsible for helping Ukraine end its conflict with Russia, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Politico on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday.
The comments follow US President Donald Trump’s recent apparent change of stance on Ukraine, after he suggested that Kiev, “with the support of the European Union,” was “in a position to fight and win.” Some observers saw the remark as Trump stepping back from the conflict after failing to make good on his pledge to end it quickly.
“He was the one who promised to stop the killing,” Kallas said. “So it can’t be on us.”
After taking office in January, Trump engaged in brokering peace negotiations while suspending military aid to Kiev and refraining from imposing sanctions on Russia.
He has insisted that the EU countries take greater responsibility for their own security, urging European NATO members to increase military spending to 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP).
Brussels’ top diplomat insisted that there is no NATO without the US, adding that America is one of the military bloc’s key members and any discussion of NATO’s role must reflect Washington’s responsibilities.
The EU has faced challenges in financing long-term support for Ukraine, limited by constraints in its budgetary mechanisms and resistance from some members.
Kallas, a long-time Russia hawk, put forward an ambitious plan in March to mobilize new military aid for Ukraine worth €40 billion via EU member states. Several countries, including France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, resisted the proposal, wary of the formidable commitments.
After weeks of negotiations, the package was scaled back to €5 billion for ammunition, underscoring both the limits of EU unity and the challenges Kallas faces in translating her hawkish stance into collective action.
Russia has repeatedly accused the EU of undermining the peace efforts around Ukraine and militarizing in preparation for any conflict with Moscow.
Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday that the EU and NATO have declared “an actual war” on Russia, accusing the West of orchestrating the Ukraine conflict.
New details have been revealed about the ex-British prime minister’s plans to administer the Palestinian enclave
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has proposed to lead a transitional administration in Gaza when Israel’s military campaign in the enclave ends, British media reported on Friday.
Blair is reportedly seeking to chair a body called the Gaza International Transitional Authority (GITA), which would oversee reconstruction and eventually transfer power to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA).
One of a dozen concepts proposed by various governments and think tanks, GITA would seek a UN mandate to be Gaza’s “supreme political and legal authority” for five years. If approved, Blair would have a secretariat of up to 25 people funded by Gulf states. The Economist described the plan “a distinct improvement” over US President Donald Trump’s earlier vision of an American-owned Gaza “riviera.”
According to the report, GITA would be initially headquartered in El-Arish, Egypt, and modeled on past transitional authorities in East Timor and Kosovo. Its mission would include unifying Gaza and the West Bank under the PA.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian body currently exercises only limited authority in the West Bank, where the Israeli military exerts dominant control – an arrangement critics have branded as an apartheid system. Israel has previously rejected any role for the PA in governing Gaza after the war.
The Financial Times said Washington presented fresh ideas for Gaza’s future during this week’s UN General Assembly meetings, including putting Blair on an international supervisory board. Several Arab states reportedly favored a committee of Palestinian technocrats instead.
Earlier this month, the Times of Israel detailed Blair’s lobbying efforts, including talks with Trump and a July meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, noting that his plan requires “significant reforms” from the Palestinian Authority and offers it only limited involvement in Gaza.
Analysts remain skeptical that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would back GITA, given his reliance on right-wing ministers who are urging him to annex all Palestinian territory, including Gaza and the West Bank.
Milan-listed Brunello Cucinelli shed more than 17% after accusations it breached an EU ban on luxury exports
Shares of Italian fashion house Brunello Cucinelli experienced their steepest slump in over a decade on Thursday following accusations by a London-based short seller that it has continued operations in Russia despite European Union sanctions.
Trading in Cucinelli was suspended on the Italian exchange for about four hours after a steep drop. The stock later resumed trade and closed down more than 17% at $85.08, after plunging as much as 20% intraday, Bloomberg data shows.
Short seller Morpheus Research accused the brand of “misleading shareholders” and running Moscow boutiques in violation of EU sanctions, which since 2022 have banned exports to Russia of luxury goods worth over €300.
Morpheus said that during its three-month probe it “sent secret shoppers to some of Cucinelli’s Moscow stores in August and September 2025” who “confirmed that the stores are open and selling multi-thousand-euro luxury goods.” The firm added that “the tags on many of these garments reveal that they had been manufactured in Italy in either 2024 or 2025,” years after the EU imposed its luxury-goods ban.
The report followed earlier claims by hedge fund Pertento Partners, which alleged in the summer that three Russian Cucinelli stores were selling items “at prices several times above the limits set by sanctions.”
Cucinelli’s chief executive Luca Lisandroni told Financial Times on Thursday that the luxury group continues to sell a limited range of items in Russia in line with EU regulations.
Brunello Cucinelli, known for its cashmere clothing and accessories, listed on the Milan exchange in 2012. Thursday marked its steepest single-day drop since the initial public offering.
Earlier this year Vincenzo Trani, the head of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce, said only about 30% of Italian companies had left the Russian market in the past three years, while most continued operating. He noted that those who exited were mainly smaller firms, state-owned enterprises or businesses hit directly by Western sanctions, adding that Italians had “always felt quite comfortable doing business in Russia.”
The president has signed a decree to put the Chinese-owned app’s US operations under the control of American companies and global investors
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order transferring TikTok’s US operations to American and international investors. He said he had spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who reportedly told him to “go ahead with it.”
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, became widely popular with American teenagers and young adults in the late 2010s. It now counts around 170 million American users. Its rapid growth sparked concerns that Chinese law could allow Beijing to access US user data.
Trump attempted to ban the app during his first term but was blocked in US courts. TikTok was banned from US government devices in 2022, and in 2024 Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which required TikTok’s Chinese owners to divest by January 2025 or face a nationwide shutdown. Since returning to office, Trump has repeatedly delayed the deadline.
On Thursday, Trump ordered that TikTok’s US business be put under the control of a new American-based company. The order designates the move as a “qualified divestiture” under the 2024 law and bans any “operational relationship” with ByteDance, including cooperation on algorithms or data sharing. The divestiture deadline has been delayed to January 20, 2026.
Vice President J.D. Vance has valued the new company at $14 billion, a figure far below estimates by some analysts for TikTok’s US business.
Trump said Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell, Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, and several other “world-class investors” would be part of the deal and control about half of the venture. ByteDance would retain a stake of less than 20%.
His executive order also places TikTok’s recommendation algorithm under US control, with oversight by American security partners.
Trump’s past divestiture attempt in 2020 was denounced by Beijing as “economic coercion.” However, this time, Trump claims to have received Xi’s approval. “We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing and he said go ahead with it,” the US leader stated on Thursday.
Vance has said there is still some resistance from the Chinese side, but stressed that Washington is committed to keeping TikTok operational while safeguarding American data privacy.
Slovakia’s parliament has approved an amendment framed as a shield against “progressive ideology”
Slovakia’s parliament has approved a constitutional amendment specifying that there are only two genders, male and female. Of the 99 lawmakers present, 90 voted in favor of the measure, TASR news agency reported on Friday.
The move sets Slovakia at odds with prevailing EU norms, which stress the recognition of gender identity and protections for LGBTQ rights.
The amendment raises the prospect of conflict between Bratislava and Brussels, since the EU insists that European legislation must take precedence over domestic rules.
The changes go beyond gender definitions: they limit adoption rights to married couples, ban surrogacy, and require equal pay for men and women. The new provisions are due to take effect on November 1.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico framed the reform as a shield against the “progressive ideology” being imposed by Brussels, casting it as an assertion of national sovereignty.
His Slovak National Party coalition said the vote showed that “reason, values and principles can prevail even within the European Union,” according to TASR.
Critics have denounced the amendment as a dangerous retreat from human rights and equality, warning that it would contradict international human rights law and leave transgender, intersex, and non-binary people legally unprotected.
Hungary took a similar step in April, defining gender strictly as “sex at birth” and giving priority to the right of children to physical, mental, and moral development over other rights.
The trend also echoes developments beyond the EU. In his inaugural address in January, US President Donald Trump declared that “there are only two genders, male and female,” before ordering federal agencies to stop recognizing nonbinary identities. Russia, meanwhile, has banned gender reassignment and “non-traditional gender ideology,” with its Supreme Court in 2023 designating the “international LGBT movement” as a terrorist organization.
Unlike Slovakia and Hungary, neither the US nor Russia has constitutional provisions explicitly specifying that there are only two genders.
The toll may rise by 75% by 2050, research published by The Lancet has warned
The annual global cancer death toll is projected to climb by nearly 75% by 2050, reaching 18.6 million, driven largely by population growth and aging, according to a study published in The Lancet on Thursday.
More than half of new cancer cases and two-thirds of deaths will occur in low- and middle-income countries, the latest update from the Global Burden of Disease Study Cancer Collaborators predicted.
“Cancer remains an important contributor to disease burden globally and our study highlights how it is anticipated to grow substantially over the coming decades, with disproportionate growth in countries with limited resources,” said lead author Dr. Lisa Force of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
IHME, based in Seattle, leads the ongoing research, which draws on data from cancer registries and caregiver interviews dating back to 1990. Between 1990 and 2023, annual new cancer cases more than doubled to 18.5 million worldwide, and the upward trend is expected to continue.
Tobacco use – particularly among men – remains the leading cause of cancer mortality, responsible for an estimated 21% of all cancer deaths in 2023. In most countries it was the top risk factor, except in low-income nations where unsafe sex, leading to human papillomavirus (HPV) infections, ranked first.
Other major risks for men included alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets, occupational exposures, and air pollution. Among women, obesity and high blood sugar were significant contributors.
Co-author Dr. Theo Vos said the fact that so many cancer deaths stem from modifiable risk factors presents “tremendous opportunities” for prevention by targeting behaviors such as smoking, poor diet, and unsafe sexual practices.
Scores of delegates walked out in protest before the PM began speaking
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the United Nations General Assembly on the war in Gaza, amid global pressure to end the ongoing offensive in the enclave.
As he began his speech, dozens of UN delegates walked out of the room in protest.
A total of 157 out of 193 UN nations currently recognize the Palestinian state. Two UN Security Council members, France and the UK, joined ten other members this week to recognize Palestine, ratcheting up pressure on the Israeli PM.
Netanyahu dubbed the wave of recognitions as “shameful, sheer madness, and insane.”
“What you’re doing is giving the ultimate reward to intolerant fanatics who perpetrated and supported the Sabbath massacre. Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after October 7 is like giving al-Qaeda a state one mile from New York City after September 11,” he claimed.
Netanyahu vowed to “finish the job” of eliminating Hamas militias in Gaza, also referring to a QR code on his jacket that links to the October 7 atrocities website.
A UN commission of inquiry ruled last week that Israel is “responsible for genocide in Gaza,” citing killings, serious physical and mental harm, the deliberate imposition of life-threatening conditions, and measures aimed at preventing births.
Over 68,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in the Israeli operation in Gaza, which was launched in response to a deadly incursion by Hamas into the Jewish state on October 2023.
Netanyahu has denied the accusations of genocide and slammed the countries that recognized Palestine, saying that they were “handing a huge reward to terror.”
The measure appears to target the EU, the main supplier of patented medicines to the US
US President Donald Trump has announced a 100% tariff on imports of branded drugs starting from October, in a move aimed at forcing manufacturers to shift production to America.
Trump has overhauled US trade policy since returning to office, imposing sweeping tariffs on key trading partners to protect domestic industry. The US president has long argued that tariffs fix unfair trade deficits and stop other countries from “ripping off” the US. Critics say the policy raises domestic prices and hurts the economy.
The new drug tariff will not apply to companies that are already investing in US manufacturing, with exemptions granted if a plant is “breaking ground” or “under construction,” Trump stated in a social media post on Friday.
The measure is expected to hit Europe hardest as it is the dominant supplier of branded drugs to the US, led by Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium. Generic medicines, which are mainly imported from India, are exempt from the levy.
In April, Trump labelled the EU “nastier than China” regarding trade practices. He claimed that the bloc is at least partly to blame for the excessively high prices that Americans pay for prescription drugs. According to the president, Brussels has been unfairly exerting “brutal” pressure on pharmaceutical companies to keep prices low in Europe, while refusing to shoulder the fair share of firms’ research and development and other related costs. He fell short, however, of imposing tariffs on pharmaceuticals at the time.
Major firms, including Merck & Co., AstraZeneca, Roche, Novartis, and Johnson & Johnson, have since announced billions in new US manufacturing projects. At the same time, 32 pharmaceutical companies sent a joint letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, warning that Trump’s tariffs could shift more than €100 billion ($117 billion) in investment out of Europe over the next few years. The CEOs urged Brussels to overhaul pricing rules, strengthen patent protections, and streamline regulation to keep the continent competitive.
