Category: 2. World

Donald Trump has signed an executive order to end US sanctions against Syria, which the White House said was a move to support the country’s “path to stability and peace”.

The sanctions, which blocked any foreign financing, were imposed on the government of Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown by rebels in December.

The White House said it would monitor the new Syrian government’s actions including “taking concrete steps toward normalising ties with Israel” as well as “addressing foreign terrorists” and “banning Palestinian terrorist groups”.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said the move would “lift the obstacle” to economic recovery and open the country to the international community.

However the US has maintained sanctions on Assad and his associates as well as the Islamic State group and Iranian proxies.

Trump said he would lift sanctions on Syria in May, before he met the country’s new president, former rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh. The announcement sparked celebrations in the streets of Damascus.

Sharaa’s Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – which led the overthrow of Assad – was al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria until he severed ties in 2016. HTS is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, US and UK.

Monday’s executive order directs Secretary of State Marco Rubio “to review” HTS’s designation. It also says that the US wants the new Syrian government to take over responsibility for detention camps in north-eastern Syria where Islamic State prisoners are being held.

Earlier this year, Rubio called for Syria’s transitional authorities to be supported, warning that a failure to achieve economic progress could lead to a “full-scale civil war of epic proportions”.

Ninety percent of Syria’s population were left under the poverty line when the Assad regime was ousted at the end of 13 years of devastating civil war.

Syria’s new leader has promised to protect the country’s ethnic minorities. However, the mass killings of hundreds of civilians from Assad’s minority Alawite sect in the western coastal region in March, during clashes between the new security forces and Assad loyalists, has hardened fears among minority communities.

There have also been deadly clashes between Islamist armed factions, security forces and fighters from the Druze religious minority. And in June at least 25 people were killed in a suicide attack on a church in Damascus.

Ahead of Monday’s signing, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters it Trump was making good on his commitment to support Syria’s stability and peace.

“This is another promise made and promise kept by this president to promote peace and stability in the region,” she added.

The US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack told reporters that cancelling the sanctions regime had been the “culmination of a very tedious, detailed, excruciating process of, how do you unwrap these sanctions.”

“Syria needs to be given a chance, and that’s what’s happened,” he added.

More than 600,000 people were killed and 12 million others forced from their homes during former president Assad’s rule.

The United States on Monday announced the approval of a $510 million sale to Israel of bomb guidance kits and related support, after Israel expended significant munitions in its recent conflict with Iran.

“The proposed sale will enhance Israel’s capability to meet current and future threats by improving its ability to defend Israel’s borders, vital infrastructure, and population centers,” the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement.

“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” it added.

The State Department approved the possible sale and the DSCA has provided the required notification to the US Congress, which still needs to sign off on the transaction.

Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign on June 13 targeting Iranian nuclear sites, scientists and top military brass in a bid to end the country’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is for civilian purposes but Washington and other powers insist is aimed at acquiring atomic weapons.

Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path to replace the nuclear deal with Tehran that he tore up in 2018 during his first term, but he ultimately decided to take military action, ordering US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

A ceasefire brought the war to a halt last week, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to prevent Tehran from ever rebuilding its nuclear facilities, raising the prospect of a future conflict.

Last Updated:June 30, 2025, 14:14 IST

Pakistan and China are reportedly in advanced talks to form a new regional organisation aimed at boosting connectivity and trade across South Asia.

Pakistan is working with China on a proposal to establish a new regional organisation that could potentially replace the now-defunct South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the Express Tribune newspaper reported.

The report quoted diplomatic sources familiar with the development and claimed that talks between Islamabad and Beijing are now at an advanced stage as both sides are convinced that a new organisation is essential for regional integration and connectivity.

The paper also cited sources and claimed that the new organisation could potentially replace the regional bloc SAARC, which comprises India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

A recent trilateral meeting between Pakistan, China and Bangladesh in Kunming, China, was part of those diplomatic manoeuvres, the report claimed, adding that its goal was to invite other South Asian countries, which were part of SAARC, to join the new grouping.

However, according to news agency PTI, Bangladesh’s interim government had dismissed the idea of any emerging alliance between Dhaka, Beijing and Islamabad, saying the meeting was not “political”.

“We are not forming any alliance,” foreign affairs adviser M Touhid Hossain had said.

The main purpose of the new organisation is to seek greater regional engagement through enhanced trade and connectivity, the newspaper said.

It added that if the proposal is materialised, it would replace the SAARC, which has been suspended for a long time due to the India-Pakistan conflict.

The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad. However, after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to “prevailing circumstances”.

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Vani Mehrotra

Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

First Published:

The news: President Donald Trump said that he has found “very wealthy people” to buy TikTok and would reveal more in the coming weeks, further chipping away at fears that the app will be banned in the US after he extended the forced sale deadline multiple times.

Meanwhile, TikTok’s swath of new features and presence at Cannes Lions signaled that the platform isn’t overly worried about the potential of a US ban. TikTok is currently testing “bulletins,” an Instagram Channels-like feature that lets creators and brands directly message their followers. Chatter about the ban was muted at Cannes, overshadowed in part by high profile AI feature announcements.

The damage: After much anxiety at the start of the year, TikTok’s looming ban still hasn’t gone away—but concern that the app could be permanently blocked is beginning to fade. While that’s obviously good news for TikTok, the uncertainty has still left an impact on its business.

TikTok CPMs fell by as much as 80% in January 2025 as the first ban took hold, per AdRoll estimates. Its two biggest short-form video competitors, YouTube and Meta, stood to gain as much as 50% of ad dollars reallocated from TikTok. While advertisers are unlikely to abandon TikTok entirely, uncertainty has driven spending and user activity to its competitors.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves following a meeting in the White House, in Washington, U.S., April 7, 2025. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“Amid ongoing Israeli military operations, scores of people have reportedly been killed and injured, including while waiting for food,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

“Over the weekend, there were numerous reports of attacks hitting homes, as well as schools hosting displaced people,” it added.

Catastrophic hunger

OCHA noted that amid the “heavy constraints” on bringing in supplies and carrying out humanitarian operations across Gaza, people are going hungry.

“The World Food Programme (WFP) reports that one in five people faces catastrophic hunger, and more than 90,000 women and children urgently require treatment for malnutrition,” it said.

WFP has about 130,000 metric tons of food positioned in the region, ready to serve people in Gaza if improved access is granted.

Call for access

OCHA reiterated calls on Israel to facilitate the access and entry of essential supplies into Gaza, through the available crossing points and corridors, to address people’s desperate needs. Fuel, in particular, is urgently needed.

“The UN and its partners call on the Israeli authorities, with utmost urgency, to allow the entry of fuel into Gaza. This is critically needed for life-saving operations – including hospitals, water and sanitation equipment, telecommunications, moving cargo from crossings, and operating community kitchens,” it said.

Displacement continues

Mass displacement continues in the war-torn enclave.

On Sunday, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for parts of Jabalya and Gaza City, impacting around 150,000 people. Those forced to flee join thousands already crowded into shelters lacking water, sanitation, and medical care. Shelter materials such as tents and timber have not entered Gaza in 17 weeks.

Most of the territory remains under displacement orders, OCHA said, and Israel, as the occupying power, has a legal obligation to protect civilians.

Search for the missing

Meanwhile, in war-torn Gaza, thousands of families remain trapped in a spiral of anxiety and despair as they search for their missing loved ones.

Among them is Anwar Hawas, a young woman in her twenties, searching desperately for Hadi, her 17-year-old autistic brother who has been missing for weeks.

“Every day I go out in the morning and return in the evening, hoping to find him,” she told UN News.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reports that more than 11,000 individuals are missing in Gaza since the war started on 7 October 2023, the majority among them women and children.