26/05/2025

MONDAY | MAY 26, 2025

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Nine children of two Gaza doctors killed

Ecuador president vows to save country from gangs QUITO: Daniel Noboa was sworn in on Saturday for a second term as Ecuadoran president, promising to “save” his country from narco-traffickers allied with foreign criminal gangs. The 37-year-old leader, speaking after his installation at the National Assembly in Quito, promised a “direct confrontation with organised criminal structures”. “There will be no truce against crime,” he vowed. Noboa, who has served as president since late 2023, handily defeated leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez in elections in April, handing him a full four-year term. The opposition, led by exiled former president Rafael Correa, has denounced what it says was election fraud and boycotted the inauguration ceremony. The allegations have been dismissed by international election observers. Noboa, a businessman, first became president of the country of 18 million following elections in 2023 that came amid a wave of drug-linked violence. Drug traffickers pose a challenge to the government, as drug-related violence has given Ecuador the highest homicide rate in South America. During Noboa’s first year in office, the homicide rate fell, which he attributed to his crackdown on crime. Among other things, he declared Ecuador to be in an internal armed conflict, empowering him to deploy the armed forces in the streets and prisons. Noboa touted the drug fight as a centre point of his campaign. His youth and Correa’s unpopularity among many voters helped power him to re-election, analysts say. – AFP WASHINGTON: US special envoy to Syria on Saturday said he met Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and commended the leader’s steps taken regarding foreign fighters and relations with Israel. Thomas Barrack, a special envoy to Syria and the ambassador to Turkiye, said they met in Istanbul on Saturday, and that he commended Sharaa for “taking meaningful steps” on foreign fighters as well as “relations with Israel”. The meeting comes after the US issued orders lifting sanctions on Syria after its 14-year civil war. Syria welcomed the waiver but said sanctions remain a heavy burden and hinder economic recovery. They also discussed how to attract foreign investments to Syria. Sharaa said Syria was ready to cut the red tape. – Reuters UNIVERSITY FIELD TRIP ENDS IN TRAGEDY BOGOTA: A field trip by students and their professors ended in tragedy on Saturday when their bus crashed in western Colombia, killing at least 10 people and injuring 11. The bus driver lost control of the vehicle as it carried 26 passengers from Tolima to Quindio. Several people were thrown from the bus when it slammed into the barrier on the side of the Helicoil Bridge in Quindio, said police commander Luis Fernando Atuesta. “Several passengers were thrown into the abyss,” he said. Humboldt University in Armenia said it was declaring two days of mourning after “the painful loss of several of our colleagues, students, professors and administrators”. – AFP U.S. ENVOY PRAISES SYRIAN LEADER

the early hours had killed at least 15 people across Gaza as of Saturday afternoon. He said the dead included a couple killed with their two young children in a pre-dawn strike on a house in the Amal quarter of Khan Younis. To the west of the city, at least five people were killed by a drone strike on a crowd of people that had gathered to wait for aid trucks, he added. At Nasser Hospital, tearful mourners gathered on Saturday around bodies shrouded in white outside. “Suddenly, a missile from an F-16 destroyed the entire house, and all of them were civilians – my sister, her husband and their children,” said Wissam Al-Madhoun. “What did this child do to Netanyahu?” The military said over the past day, the air force had struck more than 100 targets across the territory. Israel resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire. The Health Ministry said at least 3,747 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,901. – AFP

short in describing the pain,” he said, accusing Israel of “wiping out entire families”. Footage of the aftermath released by the civil defence agency showed rescuers recovering badly burned remains from the site. Asked about the incident, the Israeli military said it had “struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure” near its troops. “The Khan Younis area is a dangerous warzone,” it said. “The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review.” The army had issued an evacuation warning for the city on Monday. The children’s funeral took place at Nasser Hospital. Bassal said Israeli strikes since

o More than 100 ‘targets’ struck in one day

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Saturday that an Israeli strike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed nine children of a pair of married doctors, with the Israeli army saying it was reviewing the reports. Israel has stepped up its campaign in Gaza in recent days, drawing international criticism as well as calls to allow in more supplies after it partially eased a total blockade on aid imposed on March 2. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the agency had retrieved “the bodies of nine child martyrs, some of them charred, from the home of Dr

Hamdi al-Najjar and his wife Dr Alaa al-Najjar, all of whom were their children”. He added that Hamdi al-Najjar and another son, Adam, were also seriously wounded in the strike on Friday, and that the family was taken to Nasser Hospital. A medical source at the hospital gave Adam’s age as 10 . Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Health Ministry in Gaza, said on X that the strike happened shortly after Hamdi Al Najjar returned home from driving his wife, a paediatric specialist, to work at the same facility. “This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall

BR I E F S

Palestinians gather to fill containers with water at the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza Strip. – AFPPIC

US agency plans to drop greenhouse gas limits WASHINGTON: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed on Saturday that it was drafting a plan to eliminate all limits on greenhouse gases from coal and gas-fired power plants in the United States, adding that it would be published after a review. of energy. As part of this reconsideration, EPA is developing a proposed rule,” said an agency spokesperson. meaningful effect on public health and welfare, the report said. The US government has moved quickly to remove all federal spending related to efforts to combat climate change and to eliminate any regulation aimed at addressing greenhouse gas

Trump’s budget package, which he calls “one big beautiful Bill”, would eliminate funding established under former president Joe Biden’s administration through the Inflation Reduction Act and repeal grants intended to reduce air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions or buy electric heavy-duty vehicles. In his first term, Trump promised to repeal regulations focused on reducing carbon pollution from power plants. “We continue to build on that progress now,” said EPA administrator Lee Zeldin. – Reuters

The draft plan was first reported by the New York Times , which said the EPA argued in its proposed regulation that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from power plants that burn fossil fuels “do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution” or to climate change because they are a small and declining share of global emissions. The EPA also said eliminating those emissions would have no

emissions as part of its effort to bolster oil, gas and mining operations. On Thursday, the US House of Representatives advanced a tax and spending Bill, which may end numerous green-energy subsidies that have supported the renewable energy sector.

“Many have voiced concerns that the last administration’s replacement for that rule is similarly overreaching and an attempt to shut down affordable and reliable electricity generation in the United States, raising prices for American families, and increasing the country’s reliance on foreign forms