As a parent, I know the importance of a good babysitter. No matter how mature you think your kids are, always expect them to try to burn down the house whenever they're unsupervised.
It's a lesson US President Donald Trump would do well to learn, as the lack of "Bibi-sitting" over the past week coincided with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordering new strikes on Gaza that killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children.
The ceasefire is barely three weeks old and this is the second time Israel has violated it, after accusing Hamas of killing a soldier and dragging its feet over the return of hostage bodies. Israel said the ceasefire was back in effect soon after the strikes.
After the signing of the ceasefire agreement, US officials from Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to members of Congress and, soon, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have travelled to Israel in a show of solidarity, and to exert not-so-subtle pressure on Mr Netanyahu's government.
It is perhaps no coincidence that the latest Israeli violation of the ceasefire came when Mr Trump's attention was elsewhere. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during a tour of East Asia, Mr Trump said Israeli forces are allowed to "hit back" when attacked, but he added that “nothing is going to jeopardise” the ceasefire.
He now seems determined to turn from the Middle East to Asia – the wish of many recent presidents – and met Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to South Korea.
Tension between Beijing and Washington has been high ever since Mr Trump returned to office, flaring again in recent weeks as China put tighter curbs on rare earth mineral exports. Mr Trump, as has become his wont, responded to this tension with a new vow to enact 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods starting on Saturday.
During his meeting with Mr Xi, Mr Trump said the US would shave 10 per cent off the tariffs it charges on Chinese goods in exchange for promises that China will crack down on fentanyl, bringing total tariffs down to 47 per cent.
Meanwhile, the US has continued to carry out strikes on suspected drug traffickers in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, killing almost 60 people so far. The US has also sent an aircraft carrier to the region.
"These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al Qaeda, and they will be treated the same," Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said in a post on X after a recent strike. "We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.”
Mr Trump put it a bit more succinctly: "We're gonna kill them. They'll be, like, dead."
Your nominee for next year's Nobel Peace Prize, ladies and gentlemen.
Eye on the White House
Can Donald Trump run again? US President appears to rule out seeking third term
President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office. AP
Mr Trump has acknowledged the constitutional limits of running for a third term, saying it was a “sad thing” he couldn't do so.
“If you read it, it’s pretty clear, I’m not allowed to run,” Mr Trump said on board Air Force One while en route to South Korea. “The sad thing is, I have my highest numbers that I've ever had.”
His comments came after House Speaker Mike Johnson said he had spoken to Mr Trump about the prospects of seeking a third term.
“Well, there’s the 22nd Amendment,” Mr Johnson said. “It's been a great run but I think the President knows, and he and I have talked about the constrictions of the Constitution.”
Interest rates The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points in a second consecutive meeting yesterday, as an extended government shutdown adds further uncertainty to the central bank’s policy path. The Fed entered this week's meeting without key economic data due to the shutdown. The federal government did not release a September jobs report, while October's release is also expected to be postponed, and Mr Trump said the government might not pull together the inflation report for this month either.
Rayburn out The Trump administration has withdrawn the nomination of Joel Rayburn for assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, the leading Middle East position at the State Department. Mr Rayburn was nominated in February, but his confirmation was held up for months amid concerns among some lawmakers in the Senate. The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs has not had a Senate-confirmed assistant secretary since January, when Barbara Leaf left.
Spotlight: Arab-American lawyer leads mission to save Gaza's wounded children
Vivian Khalaf is a Jerusalem-born lawyer and chairwoman of the board at the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Nilanjana Gupta / The National
When Vivian Khalaf was 13, studying in junior high school in El Bireh in the occupied West Bank, she watched as one of her classmates was injured by an Israeli soldier during a protest – a memory that still haunts her.
“It was a peaceful protest of students outside the school, children between the ages of 12 and 17 carrying signs,” said the Palestinian-American lawyer and chairwoman of the board at the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. “The military came to disperse the protest and started shooting rubber bullets. One hit the leg of one of my classmates, and she was injured and carried away.”
Ms Khalaf's journey, from witnessing violence as a teenager to leading humanitarian efforts benefiting her community from half a world away, reflects resilience and a lifelong commitment to justice.
“We came as non-immigrants,” she said. “I grew up in Denver until the age of 12, then we relocated to El Bireh in the West Bank, where my family is from. It was a shock – moving from the US to life under military occupation – but it taught me empathy and made me realise how privileged I was.”
Monkeys escape from overturned lorry on Mississippi motorway
The site of an overturned truck that was carrying research monkeys. AP
Monkeys being driven on a Mississippi motorway escaped captivity this week after the lorry carrying them overturned, according to law enforcement.
All but one of the escaped Rhesus monkeys – frequently used in medical studies – were killed, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department said in a post on Facebook, warning that the animals were “aggressive".
They were being housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Centre in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely provides primates for scientific research organisations, according to the university. In a statement, Tulane University said the monkeys did not belong to the university, and they were not being driven by the university.
The sheriff's department initially said the monkeys were carrying diseases including herpes, but Tulane University said in a statement that the monkeys “have not been exposed to any infectious agent".
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Name: Thndr Started: 2019 Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr Sector: FinTech Headquarters: Egypt UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi Current number of staff: More than 150 Funds raised: $22 million
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024. It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine. Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages]. The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts. With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians. Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved. Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world. The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo Friday, Sept 26 – UAE won by 36 runs Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
