Muhamad Yehia The first round of negotiations in Riyadh on Tuesday prompted European allies to rally around Volodymyr Zelenskyy, nervous about Trump’s perceived pivot to Moscow and fears that talks would take place without Ukraine’s direct involvement and favour Russia. US President Donald Trump has announced a new phase of …
Read More »Monthly Archives: February 2025
Hamas releases six last hostages in first phase of ceasefire agreement
Muhamad Yehia The six included three Israeli men seized from the Nova music festival and another taken while visiting family in southern Israel when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border in the 7 October, 2023, attack that triggered Israel’s 16-month bombing campaign in Gaza. Hamas released six more hostages in …
Read More »Austria’s biggest centrist parties inch close to forming new coalition without far-right
Muhamad Yehia For Austria, the political situation is unprecedented, as coalition formation talks have never taken this long. After nearly five months of an impasse, three of Austria’s biggest centrist parties in parliament on Saturday hinted they were on the verge of agreeing to form a coalition government. The move, …
Read More »Deciphering Trump’s comments on Ukraine
Muhamad Yehia European leaders are struggling to make sense of a seemingly dramatic reset of the relationship between Washington and Moscow. President Trump has been echoing talking points made by President Vladimir Putin of Russia, falsely accusing Ukraine of having provoked Russia’s invasion and casting Russia as the aggrieved party rather than the aggressor. …
Read More »A troubling development after a hostage handover
MuhamadmYehia Hamas handed over yesterday what it said were the remains of four Israelis abducted during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Among them were Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir, the militant group said. Early this morning, however, the Israeli military said that genetic testing had revealed …
Read More »Germany prepares to vote, as a Trump-E.U. rift grows
Muhamad Yehia Germans will head to the polls on Sunday to choose their next chancellor. The man favored to clinch the election is Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democrats. Polling second is the far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which has been linked to neo-Nazis and to plots to overthrow …
Read More »Hamas releases bodies of Israeli hostages, including the Bibas family
Muhamad Yehia The Bibas family include a mother and two children whose whereabouts were widely speculated on. Hamas on Thursday released the bodies of four deceased Israeli hostages, said to include the Bibas family — a mother and her two children who have long been feared dead. Militants displayed four …
Read More »Braga’s full of food and history: Swap overcrowded Porto for Portugal’s new capital of culture
Muhamad Yehia The historic yet hip city of Braga offers Roman ruins, spiritual festivals and divine dining. Founded in Roman times as Bracara Augusta over two thousand years ago, Portugal’s oldest city has a little-known cultural offering. Historic Braga is fast becoming an arts epicentre, with their efforts rewarded by …
Read More »Popular Portuguese resort town tells tourists to put their clothes on or face a fine
Muhamad Yehia Albufeira is the latest European city to propose new laws to stop tourists walking around without their clothes on. Visitors to Albufeira may soon need to cover up when they walk around the popular coastal city under a new tourist code of conduct proposed by the city council. …
Read More »Fact check: Scholz did not call for German state of emergency over Russia-US peace talks
Muhamad Yehia Misleading claims targeting the German chancellor have been spreading online days before German voters head to the polls to elect a new government. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has not ordered a state of emergency in Germany over the US’s bilateral peace negotiations with Russia, despite the claim spreading …
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