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NEW YORK — U.S. public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization, effective immediately.

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, John Nkengasong, sent a memo to senior leaders at the agency on Sunday night telling them that all staff who work with the WHO must immediately stop their collaborations and “await further guidance.”

Experts said the sudden stoppage was a surprise and would set back work on investigating and trying to stop outbreaks of Marburg virus and mpox in Africa, as well as brewing global threats. It also comes as health authorities around the world are monitoring bird flu outbreaks among U.S. livestock.

The Associated Press viewed a copy of Nkengasong’s memo, which said the stop-work policy applied to “all CDC staff engaging with WHO through technical working groups, coordinating centers, advisory boards, cooperative agreements or other means — in person or virtual.” It also says CDC staff are not allowed to visit WHO offices.

President Donald Trump last week issued an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing the U.S. from WHO, but that did not take immediate effect. Leaving WHO requires the approval of Congress and that the U.S. meets its financial obligations for the current fiscal year. The U.S. also must provide a one-year notice.

His administration also told federal health agencies to stop most communications with the public through at least the end of the month.

“Stopping communications and meetings with WHO is a big problem,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a University of Southern California public health expert who collaborates with WHO on work against sexually transmitted infections.

“People thought there would be a slow withdrawal. This has really caught everyone with their pants down,” said Klausner, who said he learned of it from someone at CDC.

“Talking to WHO is a two-way street,” he added, noting that the two agencies benefit from each other’s expertise. The collaboration allows the U.S. to learn about new tests, new treatments and emerging outbreaks — information “which can help us protect Americans abroad and at home,” Klausner said.

The CDC details nearly 30 people to WHO and sends many millions of dollars to it through cooperative agreements. The U.S. agency also has some of the world’s leading experts in infectious diseases and public health threats, and the two agencies’ staffers are in daily contact about health dangers and how to stop them.

The collaboration halt isn’t the only global health effect of Trump’s executive orders. Last week, the president froze spending on another critical program, PEPFAR or the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

The anti-HIV program is credited with saving 25 million lives, including those of 5.5 million children, since it was started by Republican President George W. Bush. It was included in a Trump administration freeze on foreign aid spending slated to last at least three months.

PEPFAR provides HIV medication to more than 20 million people “and stopping its funding essentially stops their HIV treatment,” International AIDS Society President Beatriz Grinsztejn said in a statement. “If that happens, people are going to die and HIV will resurge.”

A U.S. health official confirmed that the CDC was stopping its work with WHO. The person was not authorized to talk about the memo and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A WHO spokesperson referred questions about the withdrawal to U.S. officials.

Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. And CDC officials didn’t respond to the AP’s request to speak with Nkengasong about the memo.
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WASHINGTON — On Jan. 22, Donald Trump — just two days after being inaugurated for his second term as U.S. president — again called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the “ridiculous” war with Ukraine, but this time he added a threat.

“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The following day, Trump told reporters that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had told him he’s ready to negotiate an end to the war. In an interview with Fox News aired that same day, Trump said Zelenskyy is “no angel” and “shouldn’t have allowed this war to happen.”

Does the new U.S. administration have sufficient economic leverage over Russia to force it to make peace, or at least talk about peace?

According to Konstantin Sonin, John Dewey distinguished service professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and former vice rector of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, the U.S. has economic leverage, but some of its levers are clearly weaker than others.

“Russia’s trade with the U.S. is very small — less than $3 billion a year,” he told Danila Galperovich of VOA’s Russian Service. “Accordingly, even if any opportunity for U.S. companies to trade with Russia is completely closed, the damage to Russia will be small. There is an opportunity to strengthen secondary sanctions — that is, additional pressure, first of all, on China, on India, on other countries, so that they more strictly comply with the primary sanctions.

“There is also an opportunity to continue what [former U.S. President Joe] Biden did with sanctions against the Russian shadow tanker fleet,” Sonin added, referring to vessels that Russia uses to sell oil and evade Western sanctions.

“This requires great international cooperation, but, in principle, it can be done,” said Sonin.

Economist Vladislav Inozemtsev, a special adviser to the Russian Media Studies Project at MEMRI, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, and director of the Moscow-based Center for Post-Industrial Studies, also stressed the significance of secondary sanctions on countries that do business with Russia.

“Trump can somehow influence other countries so that they do not buy Russian products,” Inozemtsev told VOA. “For example, let’s say he can say that if India buys Russian oil, then the United States will impose 15% duties on all goods from India. This would have the most radical consequences. [I]f… countries trading with Russia are getting serious problems in the United States for all their products, then I think that this will be a very sobering moment. If it is possible to impose a virtually complete trade blockade through U.S. sanctions, then these will be devastating sanctions, of course.”

Sonin said that, over the longer term, deregulating oil production internationally would reduce world oil prices and thereby hinder Moscow’s ability to finance its military operations against Ukraine.

“Trump is famous for his good relations with Saudi Arabia, although they are unlikely to be so good that they will reduce oil prices at his request,” he said. “But nevertheless, it is possible to work towards lowering oil prices, which even without sanctions will reduce Russian income.”

Trump spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a Jan. 22 telephone call.

Still, Sonin said that economic levers, in and of themselves, cannot force Putin to do anything. “I would say that the most direct impact is still the supply of more powerful weapons to Ukraine. I do not know to what extent Trump wants to do this, but he mentioned it, and, in principle, it is possible to supply Ukraine with more powerful weapons in larger quantities.”

Inozemtsev, however, said that Putin, who has not previously changed his behavior in response to ultimatums, could do so this time.

“Trump is a person whose degree of radicalism and unpredictability corresponds to Putin’s,” he said. “Here, perhaps, it would be better for Putin to change his mind a bit. If Trump offers him: ‘Vladimir, let’s go, we’ll meet there, sit down at the negotiating table, bring your team, I’ll bring mine, and we’ll agree on something, we’ll discuss it for a day or two, but the issue needs to be resolved,’ I think Putin will go.”
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Israel’s leaders have high expectations for President Donald Trump’s second term, and analysts say Israeli officials hope his unconventional approach to foreign policy will get them the results they want on their top security priorities. But as Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem, Trump’s push for a peace deal with Saudi Arabia could cause tensions with the Jewish state. VOA footage by Ricki Rosen.
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Pentagon — New U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised more changes are coming to the country’s military before even walking through the doors of the Pentagon.

Hegseth, a decorated veteran and a former Fox News host, was greeted just outside the Pentagon by General Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after arriving for his first full day of work.

Hegseth said serving as defense secretary was the honor of a lifetime, telling reporters that the Defense Department will operate at a faster tempo.

“The lawful orders of the president of the United States will be executed inside this Defense Department swiftly and without excuse,” Hegseth said. “We’re going to hold people accountable.”

Hegseth won Senate confirmation late Friday by a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking ballot.

He was sworn in on Saturday and spoke Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in what the Pentagon described as an “introductory call.”

“We will be no better friend to our allies and no stronger adversary to those who want to test us and try us,” Hegseth told reporters Monday before entering the Pentagon.

He said that President Donald Trump is expected to sign additional executive orders on Monday impacting the military, including orders calling for a U.S. version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, the removal of all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from the Pentagon, and the reinstatement of troops forced to leave the military after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccination.

Hegseth also said the Pentagon will make sure Trump has all the resources needed to secure the U.S. southern border.

“Whatever is needed at the border will be provided,” the defense secretary said. “This is a shift. It’s not the way business has been done in the past.”

“The Defense Department will support the defense of the territorial integrity of the United States of America, the southern border, to include reservists, National Guard and active duty in compliance with the Constitution and the laws of our land and the directives of the commander in chief,” he added.

Asked about the fate of Afghans who worked alongside the United States before the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021, Hegseth said, “We’re going to make sure there’s accountability for what happened in Afghanistan and that we stand by our allies.”

Hegseth also deflected questions about whether he plans to fire the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

“I’m standing with him right now,” Hegseth said. “I look forward to working with him.”
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«Поки ми ще тільки з’яcовуємо, фінансування щодо яких підрядників буде зупинено. Але поки ситуація – не критична»
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Part of a U.S. military aid package to Ukraine in April 2022, the M113 armored personnel carrier has proved vital in conducting assault operations and providing protection for Ukrainian infantry. And many of these vehicles are still up and running nearly three years later. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. Camera: Pavel Suhodolskiy
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The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles are set to face off in the National Football League’s Super Bowl, with the Chiefs looking to become the first team to win three consecutive championships and the Eagles trying to avenge their loss from two years ago.

The Chiefs reached the Feb. 9 championship game in New Orleans with a 32-29 win on Sunday night over the Buffalo Bills.

Kansas City’s star quarterback Patrick Mahomes ran for two touchdowns and threw for another score to reach his fifth Super Bowl in six years. That included the 2023 Super Bowl in which the Chiefs defeated the Eagles 38-35.

The Eagles earned their Super Bowl spot with a resounding 55-23 win Sunday over the Washington Commanders.

Philadelphia outscored Washington 21-0 in the game’s final quarter to secure the victory.

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts ran for three touchdowns and added another through the air, while running back Saquon Barkley added three rushing touchdowns.

Oddsmakers made Kansas City the narrow early favorite for the game.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press
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NEW YORK — For author Percival Everett, libraries have long been a source of knowledge and discovery and pleasure, even of the forbidden kind.

“I remember making friends at age 13 with the librarian at the University of South Carolina, and she used to let me go through the stacks when I wasn’t supposed to,” Everett, who spent part of his childhood in Columbia, said during a telephone interview Sunday.

“One of the wonderful things about libraries is that when you’re looking for one book, it’s surrounded by other books that may not be connected to it. That’s what you get (online) with links, but (in libraries) no one’s decided what the links are.”

Everett’s latest honor comes from the country’s public libraries. On Sunday, the American Library Association announced that Everett’s “James” was this year’s winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, which includes a $5,000 cash award. Kevin Fedarko’s “A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon” was chosen for nonfiction.

Everett’s acclaimed reworking of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the perspective of Jim, Huck Finn’s enslaved companion, has already received the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize and is a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award. “James” has even topped The New York Times fiction hardcover list, a rare feat in recent years for a literary work that wasn’t a major book club pick or movie tie-in.

“Percival Everett has written a modern masterpiece, a beautiful and important work that offers a fresh perspective from the eyes of a classic character,” Allison Escoto, chair of the award’s selection committee, said in a statement. “Kevin Fedarko’s unforgettable journey through the otherworldly depths of the Grand Canyon shows us the triumphs and pitfalls of exploration and illuminates the many vital lessons we can all learn from our precious natural world.”

Fedarko is a former Time magazine correspondent whose work also has appeared in The New York Times and Esquire. A Pittsburgh native fascinated by distant places, Fedarko has a long history with libraries — Carnegie libraries. He remembers visiting two while growing up, notably one in the suburb of Oakmont near the hairdressing salon his parents ran. He would read biographies of historical figures from George Washington to Daniel Boone, and otherwise think of libraries as “important threads running through his life,” windows to a “wider world.”

Now a resident of Flagstaff, Arizona, Fedarko says that he relied in part on the library at the nearby Northern Arizona University campus for both “A Walk in the Park” and its predecessor, also about the Grand Canyon, “The Emerald Mile.”

“The library has an important and unique collection about the Grand Canyon, and it’s the backbone of the kind of history that helps form the framework of both books,” he says. “Neither of them could have been done without the library.”

Previous winners of the medals, established in 2012 with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, includes Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch,” Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad” and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “The Bully Pulpit.”

This year’s finalists besides “James” in the fiction category were Jiaming Tang’s “Cinema Love” and Kavin Akbar’s “Martyr!”

Adam Higginbotham’s “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space” and Emily Nussbaum’s “Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV” were the nonfiction runners-up.

All three fiction nominees were published by Penguin Random House and all three nonfiction finalists by Simon & Schuster.
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Bogota, Colombia — U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he was ordering tariffs, visa restrictions and other retaliatory measures to be taken against Colombia after its government rejected two flights carrying migrants.

Trump said the measures were necessary, because the decision of Colombian President Gustavo Petro “jeopardized” national security in the United States.

“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States.”

Earlier Sunday, Petro said that his government won’t accept flights carrying migrants deported from the U.S. until the Trump administration creates a protocol that treats them with “dignity.” Petro made the announcement in two X posts, one of which included a news video of migrants reportedly deported to Brazil walking on a tarmac with restraints on their hands and feet.

“A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves,” Petro said. “That is why I returned the U.S. military planes that were carrying Colombian migrants.”

Colombia accepted 475 deportation flights from the United States from 2020 to 2024, fifth behind Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data. It accepted 124 deportation flights in 2024.

Last year, Colombia and other countries began accepting U.S.-funded deportation flights from Panama.

The U.S. government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press regarding aircraft and protocols used in deportations to Colombia.

Petro, a former leftist guerrilla, added that his country would receive Colombians in “civilian airplanes” and “without treatment like criminals.”

As part of a flurry of actions to make good on U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration, his government is using active-duty military to help secure the border and carry out deportations.

Two Air Force C-17 cargo planes carrying migrants removed from the U.S. touched down early Friday in Guatemala. That same day, Honduras received two deportation flights carrying a total of 193 people.

In announcing what he called “urgent and decisive retaliatory measures,” Trump explained that he ordered “25% tariffs on all goods coming into the United States,” which would be raised to 50% in one week. He said he also ordered “A Travel Ban and immediate Visa Revocations” on Colombian government officials, allies and supporters.

“All Party Members, Family Members, and Supporters of the Colombian Government,” Trump wrote will be subject to “Visa Sanctions.” He didn’t say to which party he was referring to or provide any additional details on the visa and travel restrictions.

Trump added that all Colombians will face enhanced customs inspections.
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President Donald Trump’s border czar said Sunday that the administration’s current priority is to deport undocumented immigrants who are deemed to pose security threats to the U.S. But he stressed that illegal immigration in general won’t be tolerated. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
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New York — Critics lambasted it and audiences didn’t grade it much better. But despite the turbulence, Mel Gibson’s “Flight Risk” managed to open No. 1 at the box office with a modest $12 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. 

On a quiet weekend, even for the typically frigid movie-going month of January, the top spot went to the Lionsgate thriller starring Mark Wahlberg as a pilot flying an Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) and fugitive (Topher Grace) across Alaska. But it wasn’t a particularly triumphant result for Gibson’s directorial follow-up to 2016’s “Hacksaw Ridge.” Reviews (21% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and audience scores (a “C” CinemaScore) were terrible. 

President Donald Trump recently named Gibson a “special ambassador” to Hollywood, along with Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone. 

Going into the weekend, Hollywood’s attention was more focused on the Sundance Film Festival and on Thursday’s Oscar nominations, which were twice postponed by the wildfires in the Los Angeles region. 

The weekend was also a small test as to whether the once more common Oscar “bump” that can sometimes follow nominations still exists. Most contenders have by now completed the bulk of their theatrical runs and are more likely to see an uptick on VOD or streaming. 

But the weekend’s most daring gambit was A24 pushing Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” a three–and-a-half-hour epic nominated for 10 Academy Awards, into wide release. Though some executives initially greeted “The Brutalist,” which is running with an intermission, as “un-distributable,” Corbet has said, A24 acquired the film out of the Venice Film Festival and it’s managed solid business, collecting $6 million in limited release. 

In wide release, it earned $2.9 million — a far from blockbuster sum but the best weekend yet for “The Brutalist.” 

The audience was downright miniscule for another best-picture nominee: RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys.” Innovatively shot almost entirely in first-person POV, the Amazon MGM Studios release gathered just $340,171 in 540 locations after expanding by 300 theaters. 

Coming off one of the lowest Martin Luther King Jr. weekends in years, no new releases made a major impact. 

Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” a well-reviewed horror film shot from the perspective of a ghost inside a suburban home, debuted with $3.4 million in 1,750 locations. The film, released by Neon and acquired out of last year’s Sundance, was made for just $2 million. 

The top spots otherwise went to holdovers. The Walt Disney Co.’s “Mufasa: The Lion King,” in its sixth weekend of release, scored $8.7 million to hold second place. After starting slowly, the Barry Jenkins-directed film has amassed $626.7 million globally. 

“One of Them Days,” the Keke Palmer and SZA-led comedy from Sony Pictures, held well in its second weekend, dropping just 32% with $8 million in ticket sales. In recent years, few comedies have found success on the big screen, but “One of Them Days” has proven an exception. 

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday. 

1. “Flight Risk,” $12 million. 

2. “Mufasa: The Lion King,” $8.7 million. 

3. “One of Them Days,” $8 million. 

4. “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” $5.5 million. 

5. “Moana 2,” $4.3 million. 

6. “Presence,” $3.4 million. 

7. “Wolf Man,” $3.4 million. 

8. “A Complete Unknown,” $3.1 million. 

9. “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” $3 million. 

10. “The Brutalist,” $2.9 million. 
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U.S. authorities are now arresting hundreds of undocumented migrants per day and sending them back to their home countries, carrying out President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign pledge to deport masses of migrants who have illegally entered the United States. 

“We’re going to enforce immigration laws,” Vice President JD Vance told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. 

More than 1,000 migrants were arrested with hundreds repatriated to other countries, including Guatemala last week, during the first days of the new Trump administration, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the White House.  

“It’s going very well. We’re getting the bad, hard criminals out,” Trump told reporters Friday during a trip to North Carolina to view the flood recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene. 

Without evidence, he said, “These are murderers. These are people that have been as bad as you get. As bad as anybody you’ve seen. We’re taking them out first.” 

The White House released photos of shackled migrants boarding a C-17 military transport aircraft for flights out of the United States. 

Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, told ABC’s “This Week” show Sunday, “There will be more arrests nationwide.” 

Trump authorized sending 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, and Homan said, “You’ll see the numbers increase. They’re down there to create a secure border.” 

He said the U.S. is deporting “as many as we can” arrest, with the focus first on those convicted of U.S. crimes and then moving on to detain and deport those whose asylum requests have been rejected by U.S. officials. 

“We’re in the beginning stages,” Homan said. 

“It’s not OK to violate the laws of this country,” Homan said. He urged undocumented migrants, even those who have not been ordered out of the U.S., to return to their home countries voluntarily. 

About 11 million undocumented migrants are believed to be living in the U.S., a staggering number that most officials believe will be impossible to deport. 

“We’re going to do what we can with the money we have,” Homan said. 

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump ally, urged his Republican colleagues in Congress to authorize more spending for the deportation effort.  

“We haven’t given the Trump team the resources,” Graham said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” show. He said Homan “needs to substantially hire more [immigration] agents. He needs to finish the [border] wall [with Mexico] and technology. He needs to go from 41,000 detention beds to 150,000 detention beds to make this work.” 

“So, to my Republican colleagues, particularly in the House [of Representatives], as we fiddle, our immigration plans are hitting walls. We’re not building walls, we’re hitting walls. We need to give Tom Homan the money now to execute the plan that he’s come up with. And without congressional funding this is going to hit a wall,” Graham declared. 

The Trump administration has stopped taking appointments for migrants waiting in Mexico to request asylum through a mobile app, but Trump’s anti-immigration edicts are facing legal challenges. One judge has already temporarily blocked Trump from declaring that he no longer recognizes constitutionally guaranteed citizenship for children of undocumented migrants born in the United States. 
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Cairo — Tens of thousands of Palestinians waited, blocked on the road, to return to their homes in northern Gaza on Sunday, voicing frustration after Israel accused Hamas of breaching a ceasefire agreement and refused to open crossing points. 

A day after a second exchange of Israeli hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, the holdup underlined the risks hanging over the truce between the militant group and Israel, longtime adversaries in a series of Gaza wars. 

In central areas of Gaza, columns of people were waiting along the main roads leading north, some in vehicles and some on foot, witnesses said. 

“A sea of people is waiting for a signal to move back to Gaza City and the north, people are fed up and they want to go home,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a displaced person from Gaza City. “This is the deal that was signed, isn’t it?” 

“Many of those people have no idea whether their houses back home are still standing. But they want to go regardless, they want to put up the tents next to the rubble of their houses, they want to feel home,” he told Reuters via a chat app. 

On Sunday, witnesses said many people had slept overnight on the Salahuddin Road, the main thoroughfare running north to south and on the coastal road leading north, waiting to go past the Israeli military positions in the Netzarim corridor running across the center of the Gaza Strip. 

Vehicles, trucks and rickshaws were overloaded with mattresses, food, and with the tents that used to shelter them for over a year in the central and southern areas of the enclave, and volunteers were distributing water and food. 

Under the agreement worked out with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the United States, Israel was meant to allow Palestinians displaced from the homes in the north to return to their homes. 

But Israel said that Hamas’ failure to hand over a list detailing which of the hostages scheduled for release is alive or to hand over Arbel Yehud, an Israeli woman taken hostage during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 meant it had violated the agreement. 

As a result, checkpoints in the central Gaza Strip would not be opened to allow crossings into the northern Gaza Strip, it said in a statement. Hamas issued a statement accusing Israel of stalling and holding it responsible for the delay. 

‘Demolition site’ 

On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump instructed the U.S. military to release 2,000-pound bombs that his predecessor, Joe Biden, had ordered to be withheld from delivery to Israel over concern about their impact on the civilian population of Gaza. 

He also called on Egypt and Jordan to take on more Palestinians from Gaza either temporarily or permanently, saying “we should just clear out the whole thing.” 

“It’s literally a demolition site, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there,” he told reporters after a call with Jordan’s King Abdullah. 

An official of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza, reacted with suspicion to the remarks, echoing longstanding Palestinian fears about being driven permanently from their homes. 

Palestinians “will not accept any offers or solutions, even if [such offers] appear to have good intentions under the guise of reconstruction, as announced in the proposals of U.S. President Trump,” Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told Reuters. 

Al-Awda Hospital officials said four people were wounded by Israeli fire, from soldiers apparently trying to prevent people coming too close. 

The Israeli military issued warnings to Palestinians not to approach its positions in Gaza and said soldiers had fired warning shots on several occasions but said “as of now, we are unaware of any harm caused to the suspects as a result of the shooting.” 

 
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ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was in talks with multiple people over buying TikTok and would likely have a decision on the popular app’s future in the next 30 days.

“I have spoken to many people about TikTok and there is great interest in TikTok,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One during a flight to Florida.

Earlier in the day, Reuters reported two people with knowledge of the discussions said Trump’s administration is working on a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app’s operations.

Under the deal being negotiated by the White House, TikTok’s China-based owner, ByteDance, would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle, which already provides the foundation of TikTok’s Web infrastructure, one of the sources told Reuters.

However, in his comments to reporters on the flight, Trump said he had not spoken to Oracle’s Larry Ellison about buying the app.

Asked if he was putting together a deal with Oracle and other investors to save TikTok, Trump said: “No, not with Oracle. Numerous people are talking to me, very substantial people, about buying it and I will make that decision probably over the next 30 days. Congress has given 90 days. If we can save TikTok, I think it would be a good thing.”

The sources did say the terms of any potential deal with Oracle were fluid and likely to change. One source said the full scope of the discussions was not yet set and could include the U.S. operations as well as other regions.

National Public Radio on Saturday reported the deal talks for TikTok’s global operations, citing two people with knowledge of the negotiations. Oracle had no immediate comment.

The deal being negotiated anticipates participation from ByteDance’s current U.S. investors, according to the sources. Jeff Yass’s Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Sequoia Capital are among ByteDance’s U.S. backers.

Representatives for TikTok, ByteDance investors General Atlantic, KKR, Sequoia and Susquehanna could not immediately be reached for comment.

Others vying to acquire TikTok, including the investor group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and another involving Jimmy Donaldson, better known as the YouTube star Mr. Beast, are not part of the Oracle negotiation, one of the sources said.

Oracle responsible

Under the terms of the deal, Oracle would be responsible for addressing national security issues. TikTok initially struck a deal with Oracle in 2022 to store U.S. users’ information to alleviate Washington’s worries about Chinese government interference.

TikTok’s management would remain in place, to operate the short video app, according to one of the sources.

The app, which is used by 170 million Americans, was taken offline temporarily for users shortly before a law that said it must be sold by ByteDance on national security grounds, or be banned, took effect on Jan. 19.

Trump, after taking office a day later, signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law that was put in place after U.S. officials warned that under ByteDance, there was a risk of Americans’ data being misused.

Officials from Oracle and the White House held a meeting on Friday about a potential deal, and another meeting has been scheduled for next week, NPR reported.

Oracle was interested in a TikTok stake “in the tens of billions,” but the rest of the deal is in flux, the NPR report cited the source as saying.

Trump has said he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” in TikTok.

NPR cited another source as saying that appeasing Congress is seen as a key hurdle by the White House.

Free speech advocates have opposed TikTok’s ban under a law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden.

The company has said U.S. officials have misstated its ties to China, arguing its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated by Oracle while content moderation decisions that affect American users are also made in the U.S. 
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday threatened bounties on the heads of Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders, sharply escalating the tone as he said more Americans may be detained in the country than previously thought.

The threat comes days after the Afghan Taliban government and the United States swapped prisoners in one of the final acts of former U.S. President Joe Biden.

The new top U.S. diplomat issued the harsh warning via social media, in a rhetorical style strikingly similar to his boss, President Donald Trump.

“Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported,” Rubio wrote on X.

“If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on bin Laden,” he said, referring to the al-Qaida leader killed by U.S. forces in 2011.

Rubio did not describe who the other Americans may be, but there have long been accounts of missing Americans whose cases were not formally taken up by the U.S. government as wrongful detentions.

In the deal with the Biden administration, the Taliban freed the best-known American detained in Afghanistan, Ryan Corbett, who had been living with his family in the country and was seized in August 2022.

Also freed was William McKenty, an American about whom little information has been released.

The United States in turn freed Khan Mohammed, who was serving a life sentence in a California prison.

Mohammed was convicted of trafficking heroin and opium into the United States and was accused of seeking rockets to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The United States offered a bounty of $25 million for information leading to the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden shortly after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, with Congress later authorizing the secretary of state to offer up to $50 million.

No one is believed to have collected the bounty for bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan.

Harder line on Taliban?

Trump is known for brandishing threats in his speeches and on social media. But he is also a critic of U.S. military interventions overseas and in his second inaugural address Monday said he aspired to be a “peacemaker.”

In his first term, the Trump administration broke a then-taboo and negotiated directly with the Taliban — with Trump even proposing a summit with the then-insurgents at the Camp David presidential retreat — as he brokered a deal to pull U.S. troops and end America’s longest war.

Biden carried out the agreement, with the Western-backed government swiftly collapsing and the Taliban retaking power in August 2021 just after U.S. troops left.

The scenes of chaos in Kabul brought strong criticism of Biden, especially when 13 American troops and scores of Afghans died in a suicide bombing at the city’s airport.

The Biden administration had low-level contacts with Taliban government representatives but made little headway.

Some members of Trump’s Republican Party criticized even the limited U.S. engagements with the Taliban government and especially the humanitarian assistance authorized by the Biden administration, which insisted the money was for urgent needs in the impoverished country and never routed through the Taliban.

Rubio on Friday froze nearly all U.S. aid around the world.

No country has officially recognized the Taliban government, which has imposed severe restrictions on women and girls under its ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Thursday said he was seeking arrest warrants for senior Taliban leaders over the persecution of women. 
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«Проєкт містить структурні прогалини, юридичну невизначеність, а також положення, які можуть послаблювати права працівників»
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