Headline
Thousands Protest In Tel Aviv Against Israeli Govt Move To Expand Gaza War

Thousands took to the streets in Tel Aviv on Saturday to call for an end to the war in Gaza, a day after the Israeli government vowed to expand the conflict and capture Gaza City.
Demonstrators waved signs and held up pictures of hostages still being held in the Palestinian territory as they called on the government to secure their release.
AFP journalists at the rally estimated the number of attendees to be in the tens of thousands, while a group representing the families of hostages said as many as 100,000 people participated.
Authorities did not provide an official estimate for the size of the crowd, though it dwarfed the ones at other recent anti-war rallies.
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“We will end with a direct message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: if you invade parts of Gaza and the hostages are murdered, we will pursue you in the town squares, in election campaigns and at every time and place,” Shahar Mor Zahiro, the relative of a slain hostage, told AFP.
On Friday, Netanyahu’s security cabinet greenlighted plans for a major operation to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave of domestic and international criticism.
Foreign powers, including some of Israel’s allies, have been pushing for a negotiated ceasefire to secure the hostages’ return and help alleviate a humanitarian crisis in the Strip.
Despite the backlash and rumours of dissent from Israeli military top brass, Netanyahu has remained defiant over the decision.
In a post on social media late Friday, Netanyahu said “we are not going to occupy Gaza — we are going to free Gaza from Hamas”.
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The premier has faced regular protests over the course of 22 months of war, with many rallies calling for the government to strike a deal after past truces saw hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.
Out of 251 hostages captured during Hamas’s 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the military says are dead.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Saturday lambasted Israel’s plan to expand its operations in Gaza.
According to a statement carried by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, PA president Mahmud Abbas said the plan “constitutes a new crime”, and stressed “the urgent need to take action to stop it immediately”.
He also emphasised “the importance of enabling the State of Palestine to assume its full responsibilities in the Gaza Strip”.
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In the same meeting that approved the Gaza City plan, the security cabinet adopted a set of principles for ending the war in Gaza that included establishing a new “administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority”.
The PA, conceived as a first step towards a Palestinian state, exercises limited administration over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but does not have a presence in Hamas-run Gaza.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 37 people were killed by Israeli fire across the territory on Saturday, including 30 civilians who were waiting to collect aid.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, figures the United Nations says are reliable.
Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel — which triggered the war — resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
AFP
Headline
China, US Agree To Resume Trade Talks

China and the United States agreed on Saturday to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle.
Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation.
Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that Vice Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had “candid, in-depth and constructive exchanges” during a Saturday morning call, and that both sides agreed to hold a new round of trade talks “as soon as possible”.
On social media, Bessent described the call as “frank and detailed”, and said they would meet “in-person next week to continue our discussions”.
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Bessent had previously accused China of seeking to harm the rest of the world by tightening restrictions on rare earths, which are critical to everything from smartphones to guided missiles.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer also participated in the call, according to the report by Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
Hours before the call, Fox News released excerpts of an interview with Trump in which he said he would meet Xi at the APEC summit after all.
Trump told the outlet that the 100 percent tariff on goods from China was not sustainable.
“It’s not sustainable, but that’s what the number is… They forced me to do that,” he said.
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The high-level video call came as Washington worked to rally Group of Seven finance ministers in response to the latest Chinese export controls.
For now, the G7 ministers have agreed to coordinate a short-term response and diversify suppliers, the EU’s economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters in Washington.
Speaking after the grouping met this week, Dombrovskis noted the vast majority of rare earth supplies come from China, meaning that diversification could take years.
“We agreed, both bilaterally with the US and at the G7 level, to coordinate our approach,” he said on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s fall meetings.
Countries would also exchange information on their contacts with Chinese counterparts as they work out short-term solutions, he added.
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German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told journalists he hopes that Trump and Xi’s meeting can help to resolve much of the US-China trade conflict.
“We have made it clear within the G7 that we do not agree with China’s approach,” he added, referring to the group of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva also expressed hope Friday for an agreement between the countries to cool tensions.
The US-China trade war reignited this year as Trump promised sweeping tariffs on imports soon after returning to office.
At one point, US-China tariffs escalated to triple-digit levels, effectively halting some trade as businesses waited for a resolution.
The two countries have since lowered their respective levies, but their truce has remained shaky.
AFP
Headline
Morocco Jails Student One Year Over Gen Z Protest

A student arrested during Morocco’s youth-led protests has been sentenced to one year in prison, his lawyer told AFP on Friday.
The case marks the first publicly known prison sentence linked to the kingdom’s Gen Z demonstrations, which have been held near-daily between late September and last week to demand social and political reforms.
The student was charged with “participating in an unauthorised and unarmed gathering” and “insulting the judicial police by providing false information”, lawyer Mohamed Nouini said.
“The ruling is unfair, and we will appeal,” he added, arguing that sit-ins did not require authorisation as per a Supreme Court precedent.
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The lawyer said his client was arrested on September 30, three days after the protests erupted in the North African country.
According to a report by news website Hespress, citing another lawyer, the student’s arrest was “an unfortunate coincidence” as he was in Casablanca for a family visit.
The other lawyer, Mohamed Lakhdar, told the judge the student had “not insulted” police nor provided false information, telling them he “was just a student”, according to the report.
Hundreds were arrested during the early days of the largely peaceful demonstrations.
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Some cities had seen spates of violence and acts of vandalism, while authorities have said three people were killed by police acting in “self-defence” during clashes in a village near Agadir.
The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) has said roughly 550 people are facing prosecution on suspicion of joining the protests, with some still in detention.
The organisers of the online-based movement behind the nationwide protests, the GenZ 212 youth collective, remain unknown.
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The collective has called for “peaceful sit-ins” on Saturday and demanded the release of those arrested during the demonstrations.
The protest came after the deaths of eight pregnant women during Caesarean sections at a hospital in Agadir.
But protesters have also demanded reforms to the education system and a change of government.
AFP
Headline
Trump Refiles $15bn Defamation Lawsuit Against New York Times

US President Donald Trump has refiled a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, court documents show, weeks after it was thrown out by a federal judge.
Trump has intensified his long-established hostility toward the media since his return to the White House, and the suit is one of numerous attacks against news organizations he accuses of bias against him.
The Times’ complaint was thrown out in September because District Judge Steven Merryday took exception to its florid writing, repetitive and laudatory praise of Trump, and its excessive 85-page length.
The suit filed Thursday in Florida and seen by AFP runs to less than half the length, at 40 pages.
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It takes aim at “false, defamatory, and malicious publications”, highlighting a book and two Times articles.
The lawsuit named the newspaper, three Times reporters and the publisher Penguin Random House as defendants.
It accuses them of making defamatory statements against Trump “with actual malice.”
“The statements in question wrongly defame and disparage President Trump’s hard-earned professional reputation, which he painstakingly built for decades” before entering the White House, the lawsuit says.
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The court was asked to grant compensatory damages of not less than $15 billion and additional punitive damages “in an amount to be determined upon trial.”
Trump’s attacks on media outlets have seen him restrict access, badmouth journalists critical of his administration, and bring lawsuits demanding huge amounts of compensation.
In July, Trump sued media magnate Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal for at least $10 billion after it reported on the existence of a book and a letter he allegedly sent to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit over election coverage on CBS News’ flagship show “60 Minutes” for $16 million the same month. He had alleged that the program deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 election rival, Kamala Harris, in her favor.
AFP
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