Syrians celebrated throughout the night after US President Donald Trump announced he would lift US sanctions on Syria during his visit to Saudi Arabia. Imran Khan breaks down what this means for the Syrian people.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 70 people, medical sources told Al Jazeera, as indirect ceasefire talks continue in Qatar.
At least 50 people were killed in Israeli attacks on northern Gaza, including in Jabalia refugee camp, since the early hours of Wednesday, according to medical sources.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said almost 50 people were killed around Jabalia and 10 others in the southern city of Khan Younis.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
In Jabalia, rescue workers smashed through collapsed concrete slabs using hand tools, lit only by the light of cellphone cameras, to remove the bodies of some of the children who were killed.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said Israel was carrying out a “systematic and intensifying military aerial campaign”.
“[It’s] primarily targeting residential homes in order to force families to leave these areas and to move to live in makeshift tents, which will facilitate any plans to displace them out of northern Gaza,” he said.
“This has been a very dramatic reality and it underscores the severity of the humanitarian toll that children and displaced families in northern Gaza have been bearing over the course of the past week,” Abu Azzoum added.
The attacks come as an Israeli delegation was in Doha to continue indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas through the mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States, a day after the release of Israeli-American captive Edan Alexander during a short pause in Israel’s bombardment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Tuesday that Israel would not end its military campaign in Gaza even if a ceasefire deal was reached.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 52,908 people, according to Gaza health authorities.
Israel’s assault has devastated much of Gaza’s urban landscape and displaced more than 90 percent of the population, often multiple times.
Israel launched its military campaign in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli statistics.
International food security experts issued a stern warning earlier this week that Gaza will likely fall into famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military assault.
French President Emmanuel Macron strongly denounced Netanyahu’s decision to block aid from entering Gaza as “a disgrace” that has caused a major humanitarian crisis.
“I say it forcefully, what Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is doing today is unacceptable,” Macron said on Tuesday evening on TF1 national television. “There’s no medicine. We can’t get the wounded out. Doctors can’t get in. What he’s doing is a disgrace. It’s a disgrace.”
Macron, who visited injured Palestinians in El Arish hospital in Egypt last month, called to reopen the Gaza border to humanitarian convoys. “Then, yes, we must fight to demilitarise Hamas, free the hostages and build a political solution,” he said.
Nearly half a million Palestinians are facing possible starvation, living at “catastrophic” levels of hunger, while one million others can barely get enough food, according to findings by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises.
Israel has banned all food, shelter, medicine and any other goods from entering the Palestinian territory for the past 10 weeks, even as it carries out waves of air strikes and ground operations.
Former Olympic cyclist and world champion Rohan Dennis received a suspended sentence over what was termed a “tragic accident” that led to the death of his wife, fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins.
The 34-year-old appeared in South Australia District Court on Wednesday after an earlier charge of committing an aggravated act likely to cause harm.
Dennis was arrested after Hoskins, 32, was struck by his vehicle in front of their home at Medindie in Adelaide’s north on December 30, 2023. Hoskins suffered serious injuries in the crash and died at Royal Adelaide Hospital.
The court was told that the couple had argued over kitchen renovations before Dennis left their home and drove away. The court also heard that Hoskins had jumped onto the hood of the car during the incident.
Dennis on Wednesday was sentenced to one year, four months and 28 days in jail, to be suspended for two years. The sentence was reduced from two years and two months because of his guilty plea and he’s been placed on a two-year good behaviour bond.
His driver’s licence was also suspended for five years.
“I accept you have a sense of responsibility for all that occurred, I accept you have anguished over what could have been different if you had acted in some other way,” Judge Ian Press said Wednesday.
Dennis showed little emotion when Press sentenced him.
“Given your plea of guilty, your remorse, that you are the sole carer for your young children, and given all your other personal circumstances and the circumstances of the offending, I am satisfied that good reason exists to suspend that sentence,” the judge said.
The offence carried a maximum sentence of seven years in jail but lawyer Jane Abbey asked that her client receive a suspended sentence, which was not opposed by the prosecution.
During sentencing submissions in April, Amanda Hoskins said her daughter had loved Dennis “and I know that you would never intentionally hurt her”.
“I believe this is a tragic accident. Your temper is your downfall and needs to be addressed,” she said.
Hoskins’ funeral was held in her home city of Perth, Western Australia, and a public memorial service was held in Adelaide in February 2024. Dennis attended the service with their two children.
Hoskins competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics on the track in the team pursuit and was in the squad that won the 2015 world title. Dennis won two world titles in the road time trial, as well as silver in the team pursuit at the 2012 Olympics and bronze in the road time trial at the Tokyo Olympics.
US President Donald Trump has met Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the GCC summit in Riyadh. Trump confirmed that he will lift sanctions on Syria to give the country a fresh start after the fall of the Assad government.
United States President Donald Trump says Washington is considering the normalisation of ties with Damascus after he met Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the first such encounter between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years.
Trump made the announcement on Wednesday at a meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, during which he also said the US will drop “all sanctions” against Syria.
“With the support of the great leaders in this room, we are currently exploring normalising relations with Syria’s new government,” Trump said, confirming his brief meeting with al-Sharaa.
The “cessation of sanctions” will give Syria “a fresh start”, Trump said.
“We will be dropping all sanctions.”
The US president said he conferred with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday about the lifting of sanctions.
He said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in Turkiye to further discuss US-Syria relations.
In a statement, the White House said that during the meeting, Trump asked al-Sharaa to deport Palestinians it described as “terrorists”, “sign onto the Abraham Accords with Israel” and “assume responsibility for ISIS detention centres in northeast Syria.”
On Tuesday night, Trump had announced he was lifting sanctions on the war-battered country, drawing a huge applause from Arab leaders and celebrations in the streets across Syria.
Trump’s announcement marks a major turn of events for a country still adjusting to life after more than 50 years of iron-gripped rule of the al-Assad family.
Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December after a lightning offensive by opposition fighters led by al-Sharaa’s forces.
Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Riyadh, described Trump’s announcement and his meeting with al-Sharaa as significant developments.
“This is a massive breakthrough, giving the new authorities in Syria more legitimacy internationally,” our correspondent said.
He said Trump’s decision would likely also pave the way for the GCC to commit more financial aid to the authorities in Syria, noting that US sanctions had previously held them back from investing.
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, who is reporting from Damascus, said the meeting between Trump and al-Sharaa, which lasted for 33 minutes, was a major diplomatic breakthrough for Saudi Arabia.
“For the first time in 25 years, a Syrian president has met with an American president. That in itself is very historic.”
While ties between the US and Syria is at an “all-time high”, our correspondent said that it would be “very, very difficult” for Damascus to agree on Trump’s demand for Syria to sign on to the Abraham Accord with Israel.
After a short flight, Trump has now arrived in Qatar’s capital Doha, where he will participate in a state visit with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and other officials.
Qatar, a key US ally, is expected to announce hundreds of billions of dollars in investments in the US.
While the precise details of the investments Qatar plans to announce were unclear, Qatar Airways was expected to announce a deal to buy about 100 widebody jets from Boeing, according to the Reuters news agency.
Trump’s first two days of a four-day swing through the Gulf region have been marked by lavish ceremonies and business deals, including a $600bn commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the US and $142bn in US arms sales to the kingdom.
Following his visit to Qatar, Trump will fly to Abu Dhabi to meet the UAE leaders on Thursday.
On Tuesday, brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez were resentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The brothers have spent 35 years in prison after they were arrested for killing their parents with a shotgun in 1989.
So what happened to the brothers, and could they be freed?
On August 20, 1989, Lyle, then 21 and Erik, then 18, fired multiple shotgun rounds at their parents, Jose Menendez and Mary “Kitty” Louise, in their Beverly Hills mansion, killing them. The brothers were arrested in 1990.
The brothers’ lawyers said that they were driven to murder because Jose had sexually abused them for years, and Kitty had enabled this behaviour while emotionally abusing them. Prosecutors, however, had argued that the intent behind the murders was malicious and that the brothers wanted to inherit their parents’ multimillion-dollar fortune. Jose worked as a music and film executive and was also the head of the successful record label RCA, which had signed artists such as Duran Duran.
A 1994 trial resulted in a hung jury. In 1996, the brothers were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.
The case became fodder for American popular culture references, including in comedy dramas like Gilmore Girls and 30 Rock. A new generation of Americans were introduced to the case last year with the release of the nine-part Netflix biopic called Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which tried to depict the murders and the circumstances leading up to them from both the parents’ and the brothers’ perspectives. A separate documentary on the case was also released a month after the Netflix show.
Public calls for their release from the general public, their family members, alongside celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Rosie O’Donnell, grew louder, and a TikTok movement sprang up after the release of the show and documentary.
Currently, the brothers are being held at the Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California.
The brothers were resentenced under California’s youthful offender statute. This applies to those who have committed a crime under the age of 26 and it immediately makes them eligible for parole once they serve half of their term.
The resentencing was one of three possible paths to freedom sought by the brothers. The other two included clemency granted by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who had ordered a parole board to assess whether the brothers would pose a danger to society; and a new trial, an option opposed by the office of Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. The brothers’ lawyers filed a motion in May 2023, detailing new evidence and seeking a new trial.
Judge Michael Jesic of Los Angeles Superior Court resentenced the Menendez brothers. This decision came after a daylong hearing where their family members testified before the court in favour of the brothers’ release.
While Jesic said that their crime was “horrific,” he said it was “amazing” how the brothers had rehabilitated themselves in prison. “It’s something I’ve never seen before,” Jesic said.
Anamaria Baralt, 54, the brothers’ first cousin, told the court on Tuesday that the brothers were “universally forgiven” by both sides of the family. “They are different men from the boys that they were when they committed these crimes,” Baralt said.
Other family members said the brothers should receive credit for their rehabilitation while in prison. They cited Green Space, Lyle’s 2018 prison beautification project, alongside the role Erik played in providing hospice care to fellow inmates.
Now 57 and 54 years old, Lyle and Erik addressed the court on Tuesday through videolink from the prison in San Diego and took responsibility for their actions. “My crime was not just criminal. It was wrong. It was immoral. It was cruel and it was vicious,” Erik said. “Today, 35 years later, I am deeply ashamed of who I was,” said Lyle.
However, prosecutor Habib Balian said he was not convinced by the family members’ testimonies and argued that the court could not be confident that the brothers would not commit another violent crime. “We know … what they are capable of doing,” he said.
In recent years, new evidence has emerged that defence lawyers argue substantiates claims of the brothers enduring sexual abuse at the hands of Jose.
This includes a letter Erik wrote to his cousin, detailing his father’s sexual abuse when he was 17 years old.
Additionally, Roy Rossello, who was a boy band member in the 1980s, publicly revealed that Jose sexually assaulted him in a 2023 documentary series on Peacock. Rossello’s band was called Menudo and the documentary series is called Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.
The emergence of new evidence was a trigger for the brothers to explore new avenues to secure their release.
While the brothers were initially sentenced, back in 1996, without the possibility of parole, their new sentence allows for parole. This means that they can be released before their sentence is over.
Before they can be freed, they have to make a case for why they should be released before the state parole board. The brothers will remain imprisoned until then, and it is now up to the state parole board and California Governor Newsom to decide their fate.