Middle East

The air attack in the Bani Suheila area, east of Khan Younis, comes a day after Israel killed 30 people across Gaza.

Hakimi is the first Moroccan since 1998 and the first defender since 1973 to win Africa’s most prestigious award.

French side Paris Saint-Germain footballer Achraf Hakimi has been named African Footballer of the Year, becoming the first defender to claim the prize in 52 years.

Moroccan right back Hakimi finished ahead of Liverpool’s Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah and Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen in Wednesday’s vote at the 2025 CAF Awards in the Moroccan city of Rabat.

Hakimi was awarded the trophy after helping PSG to their first ever Champions League title in May when they bulldozed Italy’s Inter Milan 5-0 in the final as part of a historic treble-winning season in which they also won the Ligue 1 title and the Coupe de France.

In August, PSG also beat English side Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Super Cup to pick up their fourth trophy in the 2025 calendar year.

Hakimi – the first Moroccan to win the award since Mustapha Hadji in 1998 and the first defender since Bwanga Tshimen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then Zaire, in 1973 – said it was “really a proud moment”.

“This trophy is not just for me but all the strong men and women who have dreams of being a footballer in Africa,” he said.

“And for those that always believed in me since I was a child, that I would be a professional footballer one day, I would like to thank them all,” he added.

A recognition that crowns years of hard work, success, and unforgettable moments.

My gratitude goes to my family, my teammates, and everyone who works with me every day, on and off the field. Your trust, dedication, and support make me stronger and allow me to grow.

Thank you… pic.twitter.com/ZssdnZ2T55

— Achraf Hakimi (@AchrafHakimi) November 19, 2025

Hakimi also finished sixth in the men’s 2025 Ballon d’Or rankings in September, the annual award for the world’s best footballer, achieving the highest position ever by a Moroccan. His teammate and French international forward Ousmane Dembele was named the Ballon d’Or winner.

Moroccan footballers also picked up the men’s Goalkeeper of the Year award and the Women’s Footballer of the Year awards as they were awarded to Saudi Arabia-based players Yassine Bounou and Ghizlane Chebbak, respectively.

Heart, talent, impact. Never unnoticed.

For giving her all, Ghizlane Chebbak is the Women’s Player of the Year. 🌟🇲🇦#CAFAwards2025 pic.twitter.com/kYSSHtdsi5

— CAF_Online (@CAF_Online) November 19, 2025

Nigerian goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie, who recently sealed a move to the English club Brighton & Hove Albion in the Women’s Super League, won the Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year award for a third successive year.

Cape Verde manager Bubista was awarded Coach of the Year after leading the African island nation of 525,000 people to a debut appearance at next year’s World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Cape Verde will not be the smallest country at the World Cup, however, after the Caribbean island nation Curacao, home to just 156,000 people, qualified after a 0-0 draw with Jamaica on Wednesday.

The family of Mohammed Ibrahim, a Palestinian American boy who has been detained by Israel since February, is demanding that an independent doctor assess the teenager’s condition amid alarming reports about his situation in prison.

Mohammed’s uncle, Zeyad Kadur, said an official from the United States embassy in Israel visited the 16-year-old last week at Ofer Prison.

The official told the family afterwards that Ibrahim had lost weight and dark circles were forming around his eyes, Kadur told Al Jazeera.

The consular officer also said he had raised Mohammed’s case with multiple US and Israeli agencies.

“This is the first time in nine months that they showed grave concern for his health, so how bad is it?” Kadur asked in an interview on Wednesday.

Despite rights groups and US lawmakers pleading for Mohammed’s release, Israel has refused to free him, and his family said the administration of President Donald Trump is not doing enough to bring him home.

Israeli authorities have accused Ibrahim of throwing rocks at settlers in the occupied West Bank, an allegation he denies.

But the legal proceedings in the case are moving at a snail’s pace in Israel’s military justice system, according to Mohammed’s family.

Rights advocates also say that the military court system in the occupied West Bank is part of Israel’s discriminatory apartheid regime, given its conviction rate of nearly 100 percent for Palestinian defendants.

Adding to the Ibrahim family’s angst is the lack of access to the teenager while Mohammed is in Israeli prison. Unable to visit him or communicate with him, his relatives are only able to receive updates from the US embassy.

The teenager has been suffering from severe weight loss while in detention, his father, Zaher Ibrahim, told Al Jazeera earlier this year. He also contracted scabies, a contagious skin infection.

The last visit he received from US embassy staff was in September.

Israeli authorities have committed well-documented abuses against Palestinian detainees, including torture and sexual violence, especially after the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.

“We hear and see people getting out of prison and what they look like, and we know it’s bad,” Kadur said.

“Mohammed is an American kid who was taken at 15. He is now 16, and he’s been sitting there for nine months and hasn’t seen his mom, hasn’t seen his dad.”

He added that the family is also concerned about Mohammed’s mental health.

“We’re requesting that he gets sent to a hospital and evaluated by a third party, not by a prison medic or nurse. He needs some actual attention,” Mohammed’s uncle told Al Jazeera.

Mohammed, who is from Florida, was visiting Palestine when in the middle of the night he was arrested, blindfolded and beaten in what Kadur described as a “kidnapping”.

The US Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on the latest consular visit to Mohammed.

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Israel last month, he appeared to have misheard a question about Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti and thought it was about Mohammed’s case.

“Are you talking about the one from the US? I don’t have any news for you on that today,” Rubio told reporters.

“Obviously, we’ll work that through our embassy here and our diplomatic channels, but we don’t have anything to announce on that.”

But for Kadur, Mohammed’s case is not a bureaucratic or legal matter – it is one that requires political will from Washington to secure his freedom.

Kadur underscored that the US has negotiated with adversaries, including Venezuela, Russia and North Korea, to free detained Americans, so it can push for the release of Mohammed from its closest ally in the Middle East.

The US provided Israel with more than $21bn in military aid over the past two years.

Kadur drew a contrast between the lack of US effort to free Mohammed and the push to release Edan Alexander, a US citizen who was volunteering in the Israeli army and was taken prisoner during Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Alexander was released in May after pressure from the Trump administration on Hamas.

“The American government negotiated with what they consider a terrorist organisation, and they secured his release – an adult who put on a uniform, who picked up a gun and did what he signed up for,” Kadur said of Alexander.

“Why is a 16-year-old still there for nine months, rotting away, deteriorating in a prison? That’s one example to show that Mohammed – and his name and his Palestinian DNA – [are] not considered American enough by the State Department first and by the administration second.”

Israel has kept troops in a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights since December’s ouster of Bashar al-Assad.

Syria has denounced a trip by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials to the country’s south, where they visited troops deployed to Syrian territory they’ve occupied for months.

Israel expanded its occupation of southern Syrian territory as the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad was overrun by rebel forces in December.

“My government strongly condemns this provocative tour, which epitomises Israel’s ongoing aggression against Syria and its people,” Ibrahim Olabi, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

“We renew our call on the UN and this council to take firm and immediate action to halt these violations, ensure their non-reoccurrence, end the occupation and enforce relevant resolutions, particularly the 1974 disengagement agreement” that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

Since the overthrow of al-Assad, Israel has kept troops in a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights separating Israeli and Syrian forces.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric described Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials’ “very public visit” as “concerning, to say the least”.

Dujarric noted that UN Resolution 2799, recently passed by the Security Council, “called for the full sovereignty, unity, independence, and territorial integrity of Syria”.

Israel has previously said the 1974 agreement has been void since al-Assad fled, and it has breached Syrian sovereignty with air strikes, ground infiltration operations, reconnaissance overflights, the establishment of checkpoints, and the arrest and disappearance of Syrian citizens.

Syria has not reciprocated the attacks.

‘Zero signs of aggression’

During the Security Council meeting, Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, did not directly address Netanyahu’s visit but instead lectured Syria’s ambassador.

“Show us that Syria is moving away from extremism and radicalism, that the protection of Christians and Jews is not an afterthought but a priority. Show us that the militias are restrained and justice is real and the cycle of indiscriminate killings has ended,” Danon said.

Olabi responded: “The proving, Mr Ambassador, tends to be on your shoulders. You have struck Syria more than 1,000 times, and we have responded with requests for diplomacy … and responded with zero signs of aggression towards Israel. … We have engaged constructively. and we still await for you to do the same.”

Netanyahu was accompanied to Syrian territory by Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, Defence Minister Israel Katz, army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and the head of the Shin Bet security service, David Zini

Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned “in the strongest terms the illegal visit, … considering it a serious violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

This month, Israel’s army renewed its incursions into Syria, setting up a military checkpoint in the southern province of Quneitra.

In September, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said Israel had conducted more than 1,000 air strikes and more than 400 ground incursions in Syria since al-Assad was overthrown, describing the actions as “very dangerous”.

Reporting from the UN in New York, Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo noted Syria and Israel continue to negotiate a security pact that analysts said could be finalised before the end of the year.

“The testy exchange between the two ambassadors likely won’t derail that. But it does show how little trust there is between both countries – and how Netanyahu and his government continue to try to provoke Damascus,” Elizondo said.

“We’ve already started working on that.” US President Donald Trump said his administration is searching for a possible resolution to the war in Sudan. He added that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had raised the conflict in a conversation with him.

Last week, 42 migrants were presumed to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea after their dinghy set sail off the Libyan coast.

At least 29 of them were Sudanese refugees who fled the catastrophic civil war in their country between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the regular army known as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

Since erupting in April 2023, the Sudan war has caused the largest displacement crisis in the world.

Nearly 13 million people have been uprooted from their homes and more than four million have fled to neighbouring countries, such as Chad, Egypt and Libya.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), more than 86,000 Sudanese nationals are registered as asylum seekers or refugees in Libya – a 60,000 uptick compared with before the war.

As more Sudanese attempt to reach Europe from Libya, this is everything you need to know about their plight.

How many Sudanese asylum seekers have reached Europe since the war started?

From April 2023 to January 2024, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) registered nearly 10,000 asylum applications from Sudanese nationals across the European Union – nearly twice as high as the previous year.

While figures for 2025 have not yet been published, the growing number of Sudanese nationals arriving in Libya suggests that more people are aiming to reach Europe as their final destination.

“I hope to soon take the journey across the sea to Europe,” Hamid, a Sudanese refugee from Khartoum, told Al Jazeera from Libya, where he arrived earlier this year.

“Hopefully, God will make the journey safe,” he added with resignation.

How are Sudanese asylum seekers treated in Europe?

Only a minority of the 10,000 Sudanese asylum seekers have been granted protection so far, with the rest either rejected or waiting for a ruling.

In general, life has not been easy for many young Sudanese men after reaching Europe.

Some EU states are using anti-smuggling laws to criminalise young men for steering the small and overcrowded boats that smugglers put them in.

In Greece, more than 200 Sudanese minors and young men between the ages of 15 and 21 are facing smuggling charges.

Some have already been convicted and sentenced to decades or life in prison, pushing their lawyers to appeal.

Migration experts have long explained that vulnerable youth often agree to “steer” boats in exchange for a discounted price from smugglers, who often charge thousands of dollars from destitute asylum seekers looking for safety.

Does Europe share responsibility for the crisis in Sudan?

The RSF, which has committed countless atrocities throughout the war, emerged from the nomadic “Arab” government-linked Popular Defence Forces, known as the Janjaweed militias, that spearheaded a brutal campaign in the far western region of Darfur at the turn of the millennium.

Those militias were later accused of carrying out countless war crimes and crimes against humanity against mainly sedentary “non-Arab” communities.

Many legal scholars and human rights groups believe the atrocities may have amounted to genocide.

Yet in 2013, Sudan’s then-President Omar al-Bashir repackaged many of the Popular Defence Forces militias into the RSF.

The RSF, looking to acquire international legitimacy, quickly portrayed itself as a possible partner in the EU’s mission to “manage migration” in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

In 2014, the EU announced that it was launching the “Khartoum Process”, an initiative that strengthened cooperation between the EU and East African nations to counter irregular migration.

About $200m was pumped into Sudan over the next five years for this purpose.

According to research carried out by Sudan expert Suliman Baldo in 2017, a portion of this money went to strengthening the judiciary and law enforcement and may have possibly been diverted towards the RSF.

The EU has long denied that it financed the RSF in any capacity.

When Sudan’s security forces – including the RSF – killed more than 120 pro-democracy protesters in the capital Khartoum on June 3, 2019, the EU suspended all migration cooperation.

At the time, Sudan expert Alex de Waal said the EU’s reaction was “basically an admission of guilt” that the RSF had benefitted politically and financially from the Khartoum Process.

US President Donald Trump welcomed Saudi Arabia’s crown prince to the White House, declaring the Kingdom a major non-NATO ally and signaling a push to deepen US-Saudi ties. Here’s what we know about what they agreed on.

President Donald Trump has designated Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally of the United States during a visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Washington, DC, where the two leaders reached agreements covering arms sales, civil nuclear cooperation, artificial intelligence and critical minerals.

During a formal black-tie dinner at the White House on Tuesday evening, Trump made the announcement that he was taking “military cooperation to even greater heights by formally designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally”.

Trump said the designation was “something that is very important to them, and I’m just telling you now for the first time because I wanted to keep a little secret for tonight”.

The designation means a US partner benefits from military and economic privileges but it does not entail security commitments.

Saudi Arabia and the US also signed a “historic strategic defence agreement”, Trump said.

A White House fact sheet said the defence agreement, “fortifies deterrence across the Middle East”, makes it easier for US defence firms to operate in Saudi Arabia and secures “new burden-sharing funds from Saudi Arabia to defray US costs”.

The White House also announced that Trump had approved future deliveries of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia while the kingdom had agreed to purchase 300 American tanks.

“I’m pleased to announce that we are taking our military cooperation to even greater heights by formally designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally.” – President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸🇸🇦 pic.twitter.com/PXXGGCBPGU

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 19, 2025

Saudi F-35 deal raises questions about Israel’s ‘qualitative military edge’

Saudi Arabia’s purchase of the stealth fighter jets would mark the first US sale of the advanced fighter planes to Riyadh. The kingdom has reportedly requested to buy 48 of the aircraft.

The move is seen as a significant policy shift by Washington that could alter the military balance of power in the Middle East, where US law states that Israel must maintain a “qualitative military edge”.

Israel has been the only country in the Middle East to have the F-35 until now.

Asked by Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett about the impact of the jet fighter deal on Israel’s “qualitative military edge”, Trump said he was aware that Israel would prefer that Riyadh receive warplanes of “reduced calibre”.

“I don’t think that makes you too happy,” Trump said, addressing the crown prince, who was seated beside him in the White House.

“They’ve been a great ally. Israel’s been a great ally. … As far as I’m concerned, I think they are both at a level where they should get top of the line,” Trump said of the F-35 deal.

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from the White House, said part of the almost $1 trillion investment in the US announced by Prince Mohammed included $142bn for the procurement of the F-35 fighter jets, “the most advanced of their kind in the world”.

Fisher also said the Israeli government and lobbyists had tried to block the sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia.

The agreements announced were about “much more” than Saudi investment in the US, he added.

“It’s about helping each other’s economy, business and defence. Politics isn’t near the top of the agenda, but both countries believe these deals could create a political reset in the Middle East,” Fisher said.

‘A clear path’ for Palestinian state

The two countries also signed a joint declaration on the completion of negotiations on civil nuclear energy cooperation, which the White House said would build the legal foundation for a long-term nuclear energy partnership with Riyadh.

Israeli officials had suggested that they would not be opposed to Saudi Arabia getting F-35s as long as Saudi Arabia normalises relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords framework.

The Saudis, however, have said they would join the Abraham Accords but only after there is a credible and guaranteed path to Palestinian statehood, a position Prince Mohammed repeated in the meeting with Trump.

“We want to be part of the Abraham Accords, but we want also to be sure that we secure a clear path of a two-state solution,” he said.

“We’re going to work on that to be sure that we come prepared for the situation as soon as possible to have that,” he added.

Spain finish unbeaten at the top of Group E despite being given genuine scare by Turkiye, who will compete in playoffs.

Spain have booked their ticket to the 2026 World Cup with a 2-2 draw against Turkiye in their final qualifier to top Group E.

Turkiye finished second on Tuesday and will compete in the playoffs after they became the first team to force Luis de la Fuente’s Euro 2024 champions to drop points.

Dani Olmo fired Spain ahead, but Deniz Gul and Salih Ozcan struck for Turkiye as the hosts conceded their first goals in the qualification process.

Mikel Oyarzabal hit back to equalise in Seville for a Spanish team looking to win football’s biggest prize for the second time.

Spain scored 21 goals in qualifying while conceding just twice and have not tasted defeat in a national record 31 consecutive games.

However, that run includes a 2-2 Nations League final draw with Portugal after extra time in June with Spain losing on penalties.

Turkiye showed de la Fuente’s side are not flawless although Spain were missing several key players, including Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams and Rodri.

They knew to qualify all they had to do was avoid defeat by a seven-goal margin, which was never on the cards, and might have triumphed if not for some inspired goalkeeping by Manchester United stopper Altay Bayindir.

Marc Cucurella’s cross found Olmo in the box, and he controlled it well to bypass a defender before finishing lethally in the fourth minute.

The Barcelona playmaker twice came close to scoring a second from long range, but Bayindir tipped over both efforts.

Turkiye became the first team to score against Spain in qualifying just before the break when Gul levelled, reacting quickly to flick home a knock-down from a corner.

The visitors came out strongly in the second half and forced Spain’s goalkeeper Unai Simon into a pair of smart saves before taking the lead.

Borussia Dortmund midfielder Ozcan rifled home from the edge of the box after Orkun Kokcu had set the ball up nicely for him.

Spain bit back, and Oyarzabal finished from close range after Merih Demiral did brilliantly to block Yeremy Pino’s shot on the line, but it rebounded off another defender nicely for the Real Sociedad forward.

It was Oyarzabal’s sixth goal in a qualifying campaign in which he has staked his claim to being Spain’s starting striker at the World Cup.

Substitute Samu Aghehowa came close as Spain sought a winner, but Bayindir kept out his header and then denied Alex Baena to secure Turkiye an impressive point.

Barcelona’s Fermin Lopez found the net in stoppage time, but his goal was disallowed for offside.

Elsewhere, Scotland scored two dramatic stoppage-time goals to beat 10-man Denmark 4-2 on Tuesday and reach the World Cup for the first time since 1998.

A 1-1 home draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina was enough for Austria in Group H while Belgium routed Liechtenstein 7-0. Switzerland qualified after a 1-1 draw at Kosovo.

The 12 group winners qualified directly while the runners-up will participate in playoffs along with the four best-ranked group winners of the 2024-2025 Nations League that did not finish first or second in their groups.

The playoffs will be played on March 26 and March 31.

The World Cup will be played in the United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19.

Israel continues to attack Lebanon on a near-daily basis in violation of a yearlong ceasefire with Hezbollah.

At least 13 people have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

The drone strike hit a car on Tuesday in the car park of a mosque in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, the Lebanese state-run National News Agency reported.

At least four people were wounded in the attack, the ministry said, adding that “ambulances are still transporting more wounded to nearby hospitals.”

Israel said it struck members of the Palestinian armed group Hamas who were operating in a training compound in the refugee camp.

“When we say we will not tolerate any threat on our northern border, this means all terrorist groups operating in the region,” the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement. “We will continue to act forcefully against Hamas’s attempts to establish a foothold in Lebanon and eliminate its elements that threaten our security.”

Hamas denied Israel’s claim, calling it a “fabrication” and stressing the group doesn’t have training facilities in Lebanon’s refugee camps.

“The Zionist bombardment was a barbaric aggression against our innocent Palestinian people as well as Lebanon’s sovereignty,” it said in a statement.

Earlier on Tuesday, Lebanon said Israeli strikes on cars elsewhere in the country’s south killed two people.

Israel has killed several officials from Palestinian factions including Hamas in Lebanon since it launched its war on Gaza in October 2023 after Hamas led an attack on southern Israel

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 69,483 Palestinians and wounded 170,706. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.

A day after Israel launched its war on Gaza, Hezbollah began firing rockets towards Israel, which responded with shelling and air strikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in a conflict that Israel escalated into a full-blown war in late September 2024.

Israel’s war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians. In Israel, 127 people were killed, including 80 soldiers.

The war halted in late November 2024 with a United States-brokered ceasefire, but since then, Israel has carried out dozens of air attacks on Lebanon, accusing Hezbollah of trying to rebuild its capabilities.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry has reported more than 270 people killed and about 850 wounded by Israeli military actions since the ceasefire.

“There are daily violations of the ceasefire by Israel in Lebanon, and it would be unfair at this stage to pin the blame on the Lebanese government,” Lebanese political analyst Karim Emile Bitar told Al Jazeera. “The Lebanese government went above and beyond what was required … and took a historic decision to ask the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah.”

However, Bitar said, Israel has not lived up to its end of the bargain. Under the terms of the ceasefire signed on November 27, 2024, Israel was meant to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon by January 26, a deadline it missed.

Paramount Skydance is reportedly preparing a bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery.

Variety, an entertainment industry trade magazine in the United States, first reported the looming proposal on Tuesday, quoting sources familiar with the talks.

The publication said the company formed an investment consortium with the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi to submit a $71bn bid for Warner Bros Discovery.

The report said Paramount Skydance would contribute about $50bn towards the proposed acquisition with the remainder coming from the wealth funds.

Paramount Skydance has described the involvement of the sovereign wealth funds as “categorically inaccurate”.

Paramount Skydance is now led by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, cofounder of Oracle and a close ally of US President Donald Trump. Warner Bros Discovery previously rejected a bid from the Ellison family, which holds all board voting power at Paramount Skydance.

Neither Paramount nor Warner Bros Discovery responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Under the proposed structure, the wealth funds would take small minority stakes and each would receive “an IP, a movie premiere, a movie shoot”, the report said.

Warner Bros Discovery – home to the DC film universe and television studios, HBO, CNN, TNT and Warner Bros Games – is on the verge of breaking up, crippled by declines in its television business.

The company said in October that it has been considering a range of options, including a planned separation, a deal for the entire company or separate transactions for its Warner Bros or Discovery Global businesses.

Nonbinding, first-round bids are due on Thursday.

Paramount is the only company currently considering a full buyout according to the US news website Axios. Warner Bros Discovery also wants to have a deal by the end of the year, according to Axios’s reporting.

Political pressures

The looming deal is shaped in part by how the Trump administration views coverage by the news outlets owned by Warner Bros Discovery.

Netflix and Comcast are also reportedly exploring bids, but any Comcast-led effort would need regulatory approval.

Trump has also repeatedly attacked Comcast over its TV news coverage, saying the company “should be forced to pay vast sums of money for the damage they’ve done to our country”.

Comcast owns NBC News and its subsidiary Versant Media, the parent company of MS-Now – formerly MSNBC – and CNBC.

CBS, owned by Paramount Skydance, has taken a more conciliatory posture towards the administration, including hiring a Trump nominee as an ombudsman to investigate bias allegations after settling a Trump lawsuit claiming its flagship programme 60 Minutes deceptively edited an interview with 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump.

Paramount Skydance also recently tapped Bari Weiss, a right-leaning opinion journalist with no television background, to lead the CBS broadcast news division.

Any of the deals that are being discussed raise antitrust concerns. But if Paramount Skydance, which already owns CBS, now purchases CNN as part of Warner Bros Discovery, “that would create an added civic risk”, Rodney Benson, professor of media, culture and communication at New York University, told Al Jazeera.

“Such a deal would put two leading news outlets under the roof of the same large, multi-industry conglomerate with avowed close relations to the party in power – and that could lead to more conflicts of interest, less independent watchdog reporting and a narrowing of diverse voices and viewpoints in the public sphere,” Benson said.

Warner Bros Discovery remains the parent company of CNN.

On Wall Street, Paramount Skydance shares were up 1.7 percent in midday trading. Warner Bros Discovery was also up 2.8 percent from the market open. Comcast gained 0.5 percent, and Netflix climbed 3.5 percent.

During a White House visit, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman promised to invest almost a trillion dollars in new partnerships with the US, including in technology and AI.

Follow the build-up, analysis, and live text commentary of the game as Spain and Turkiye vie for top spot in Group E.

The attacks in March killed thousands, many from the Alawite religious minority.

Syria has launched the trial of the first of hundreds of suspects for their role in deadly clashes earlier this year that killed hundreds in the country’s coastal provinces.

Syrian state media reported on Tuesday that 14 people were brought before Aleppo’s Palace of Justice following a months-long, government-led investigation.

Hundreds of people from the Alawite religious minority, to which ousted President Bashar al-Assad belonged, were killed in the massacres in March.

The violence erupted after attacks on the new government’s security forces by armed groups aligned with the deposed autocrat. Counterattacks soon spiralled out of control to target civilians in the coastal regions that host the Alawite population.

Seven of the defendants in the court on Tuesday were al-Assad loyalists, while the other seven were members of the new government’s security forces.

Charges against the suspects could include sedition, inciting civil war, attacking security forces, murder, looting and leading armed gangs, according to state media.

The seven accused from government forces are being prosecuted for “premeditated murder”.

The public and the international community have put pressure on the country’s new rulers to commit to judicial reform.

“The court is sovereign and independent,” said Judge Zakaria Bakkar as the trial opened.

The proceedings are important for President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of forces that formerly had links to al-Qaeda, who since coming to power in December has scrambled to step out from diplomatic isolation. He is working to convince the United States to drop more of its crippling sanctions against Syria and to boost trade to rebuild the war-torn country.

However, despite initial reports by the state media that charges could quickly be brought against the defendants, the judge adjourned the session and rescheduled the next hearing for December.

The National Commission of Inquiry said in July that it had verified serious violations leading to the deaths of at least 1,426 people, most of them civilians, and identified 298 suspects.

It claimed 238 members of the security forces and army had been killed in attacks attributed to al-Assad’s supporters. The authorities then sent reinforcements to the region, with the commission estimating their number at 200,000 fighters.

The commission said there was no evidence that Syria’s new military leaders had ordered attacks on the Alawite community.

A United Nations probe, however, found that violence targeting civilians by government-aligned factions had been “widespread and systematic.”

A UN commission said that during the violence, homes in Alawite-majority areas were raided and civilians were asked “whether they were Sunni or Alawite.”

It said: ”Alawite men and boys were then taken away to be executed.”

On Monday, the UN Security Council passed a US-sponsored resolution which backs US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending Israel’s war on Gaza.

Among the clauses was one that supported the creation and deployment of an international stabilisation force (ISF) to provide security and oversight of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

In theory, this security body will work with Israel and Egypt to “demilitarise” the Gaza Strip and will reportedly train a Palestinian police force.

Despite the passing of a resolution that “acknowledges the parties have accepted” the Trump plan, Israeli air strikes on Gaza continued, including on areas on the Palestinian side of the yellow line.

So what is the ISF, and what does it mean for Gaza? Here’s what you need to know:

What is the ISF?

The ISF is envisioned as a multinational force that would deploy to Gaza to help train police, secure the borders, maintain security by helping demilitarise Gaza, protect civilians and humanitarian operations, including securing humanitarian corridors, among “additional tasks as may be necessary in support of the Comprehensive Plan”.

Essentially, the force would take over many of the security responsibilities that have been managed by Hamas over the last 19 years.

Since 2006, Hamas has been in charge of governing the Gaza Strip, including managing its social and security services.

Trump’s Comprehensive Plan was formulated with no input from Palestinian parties.

Who makes up the force?

That is still unclear, though under the resolution, the forces will work with Israel and Egypt and a newly trained Palestinian police force that will not be under Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.

A senior adviser to Trump said Azerbaijan and Indonesia had offered to send troops.

He also said Egypt, Qatar and the UAE were in talks about contributing, though a senior Emirati official, Anwar Gargash, said his country would not participate. Reports have said Egypt could lead the force.

In October, Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country was ready to provide support to Gaza.

But as tensions have heated up between Turkiye and Israel, the latter’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Israel would not agree to Turkish troops on the ground in Gaza.

And how did the vote go?

It passed with a 13-0 vote.

But Russia and China abstained, expressing concern over the lack of Palestinian participation in the force and the lack of a clear role for the UN in the future of Gaza.

Russia had earlier proposed its own resolution that was “inspired by the US draft”.

Russia’s version requests that the UN secretary-general be involved in identifying potential options to participate in the international stabilisation force for Gaza.

It did not mention Trump’s so-called “board of peace” that would act as a transitional administration in Gaza.

What was Hamas’s response?

They rejected the resolution. The group released a statement on social messaging app Telegram, saying the vote “imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Gaza Strip”.

Under Trump’s plan, Hamas would have no role in Gaza and would be disarmed, with its personnel offered two options: either commit to coexistence or be granted safe passage out of Gaza.

Hamas has repeatedly said it would give up governance but is not willing to give up its arms.

For his part, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, recently that the war “has not ended” and that Hamas would be disarmed.

What did Israel say?

Israel focused on the disarmament of Hamas, with its UN envoy Danny Danon saying his country would “demonstrate … determination in ensuring that Hamas is disarmed”.

In Israel, the resolution led at least one opposition party to lambast Netanyahu’s government.

“What happened tonight at the UN is a result of the Israeli government’s failed conduct,” Avigdor Lieberman, an ultranationalist politician who leads the Yisrael Beytenu party, wrote on X.

“The decision led to a Palestinian state, a Saudi nuclear [programme] and F-35 planes for Turkey and Saudi Arabia.”

Seventy-six Palestinian patients and their attendants have returned to Gaza after being stranded for two years in hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem where they’d been getting treatment, unable to come back due to Israeli restrictions.

Hamas says a UN Security Council resolution backing Trump’s Gaza plan fails to meet the political and humanitarian demands of Palestinians.

The UN Security Council has adopted the US’s 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan, approving an international stabilisation force and a ‘board of peace’ with extensive powers to oversee Gaza’s governance and reconstruction.

Syria’s Asaad al-Shaibani meets with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi as Damascus pushes to bolster international ties.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani has pledged to deepen collaboration on “counterterrorism” with China on his first visit to Beijing since the toppling of former President Bashar al-Assad last year.

Al-Shaibani and Chinese counterpart Wang Yi agreed on Monday that they would work together on combating “terrorism” and on security matters, with the top Syrian diplomat promising that Damascus would not allow its territory to be used for any actions against Chinese interests, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.

China, a former backer of al-Assad, said that it hoped Syria would take “effective measures” to fulfil its commitment, “thereby removing security obstacles to the stable development of China-Syria relations”, according to a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement.

The fate of the Uighur fighters who had gone to Syria after war erupted in 2011 to fight al-Assad’s forces, with many joining the Uighur-dominated Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) based in Idlib province, was expected to be on al-Shaibani’s agenda in Beijing.

A source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in Damascus denied a report by news agency AFP that cited unidentified sources as saying the Syrian government planned to hand over 400 fighters who had fled persecution in China “in batches”.

The “report regarding the Syrian government’s intention to hand over fighters to China is without foundation”, said the source in a brief statement to SANA.

During the meeting in Beijing, al-Shaibani also gave his country’s support for the one China principle, establishing formal diplomatic ties with the Chinese government, rather than with Taiwan, as the sole legal representative of the territory.

Wang, for his part, stated that China viewed the Golan Heights as Syrian territory. Israel occupied a portion of the territory in 1967 and subsequently annexed it in violation of international law.

Since al-Assad’s fall in December 2024, Israel has been expanding its occupation into southern Syria, including a United Nations-monitored buffer zone established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement.

On Monday, Damascus and Beijing expressed interest in expanding collaboration on economic development, Syria’s reconstruction, and raising living standards, highlighting the role of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum as a basis for bilateral collaboration, said SANA.

Al-Shaibani’s visit to China comes as Damascus pushes to rebuild its diplomatic ties around the world, with some stunning successes, including securing sanction relief from the West and major Gulf investments, giving the country a much-needed economic lifeline.

Earlier this month, President Ahmed al-Sharaa became the first-ever Syrian leader to visit the White House since the country’s independence in 1946. Syria also joined a US-led international coalition to fight ISIL (ISIS).

In October, al-Sharaa told Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Moscow that he sought to “restore and redefine ties” between the two countries.

However, there was no mention after that meeting of whether Moscow would hand over al-Assad, who fled to Russia after his government fell due to an offensive by armed opposition groups led by al-Sharaa.

Since the collapse of the al-Assad government, Russia has retained a presence at its air and naval bases on the Syrian coast. Moscow was one of al-Assad’s top backers and provided air support for government forces during the war.

But al-Shraa’s government appears to be prepared to forge relations with allies of the former regime, as highlighted by al-Shaibani’s talks in Beijing on Monday.

US president signals major arms deal before Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the White House.

United States President Donald Trump says he will greenlight the sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, signalling a departure in how Washington handles sophisticated weapons transfers to Arab countries.

Trump made the announcement on Monday at the White House, just one day before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is due to visit. “We’ll be selling F-35s,” the president told reporters, lauding Washington’s ties with Riyadh.

 “Yeah, I am planning on doing it. They want to buy them. They’ve been a great ally,” Trump said.

The decision marks a substantial win for Riyadh as Trump works to persuade Saudi Arabia to establish official ties with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords.

But Saudi officials have repeatedly reasserted the kingdom’s commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative, which conditions recognition of Israel on the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.

The potential arms deal between Washington and Riyadh raises questions about preserving Israel’s qualitative military edge, which is enshrined in US law. Some Israeli officials have already voiced opposition to the transfer of F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia.

The US has a decades-old commitment of ensuring Israel retains superior military capabilities over potential regional adversaries.

The principle, first established under President Lyndon Johnson in 1968 and formally adopted by President Ronald Reagan, has guided American arms sales in the Middle East for more than four decades.

Every US administration since has pledged to preserve Israel’s ability to emerge victorious against any likely combination of regional forces.

The F-35, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is widely regarded as the world’s most advanced fighter jet, featuring technology that makes it difficult for enemy defences to detect.

Critics in Israel have warned the sale could erode the country’s longstanding military superiority in the region.

Yair Golan, an opposition politician and former deputy chief of the Israeli army, said the move risked opening “an arms race in the Middle East” that could undermine advantages Israel has held for decades. He also blasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as being “failure-prone”.

“The qualitative military edge, which has been the cornerstone of Israel’s security for many decades, is being squandered,” Golan said.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also said Israel must maintain its aerial superiority in the region.

“We are in the Middle East – we cannot get confused. We extend a hand to anyone who truly wants to extend a hand and not harm the State of Israel, but we must preserve our superiority,” he told the Jewish News Syndicate on Monday.

The timing of Trump’s announcement, just before Prince Mohammed’s visit to the White House, underscores the US administration’s efforts to deepen ties with Riyadh as part of its broader Middle East strategy.

Washington has historically managed concerns about Israel’s military edge by either downgrading weapons systems sold to Arab states or providing upgraded versions and additional equipment to Israel.

Prince Mohammed’s visit comes as the shaky ceasefire in Gaza continues amid near-daily Israeli violations.

On Monday, when asked about a potential F-35 deal with Riyadh, Trump invoked the US attack on Iran in June, which he said “obliterated” the country’s nuclear facilities.

Saudi Arabia was not involved in those strikes, but the kingdom’s official news agency, SPA, reported on Monday that Prince Mohammed received a handwritten letter from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian before his trip to Washington – without providing details about its content.

If the F-35 sale materialises, Saudi Arabia would become the first Arab country in the F-35 programme.

In 2020, Trump approved the sale of F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates after Abu Dhabi agreed to establish formal ties with Israel. But the deal fell through after Joe Biden succeeded Trump in 2021 amid concerns by US lawmakers over the security of the technology.

The US Congress can disapprove weapon sales authorised by the president and his secretary of state.