03/07/2025

THURSDAY | JULY 3, 2025

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Portugal should apologise for colonial past: Poll of respondents in Angola and Cape Verde believe Portugal should apologise for its colonial past and return artefacts and other items looted during that era, a survey found. Pollsters from Lisbon’s Catholic University, in partnership with public broadcaster RTP and a commission commemorating the fall of Portugal’s fascist dictatorship in 1974, surveyed more than 3,000 people across Angola, Cape Verde and Portugal. In Angola, 58% of respondents said Portugal should return artefacts such as masks, sculptures and ritual objects taken from former colonies. Support was higher in Cape Verde, at 63%. The survey showed 54% of the Portuguese supported the return of such items, but 58% said Portugal need not apologise. In Angola, 59% thought Lisbon should apologise, with 58% in Cape Verde. Portugal’s colonial history, which spanned Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Brazil, East Timor and parts of India, remains contentious. From the 15th to the 19th century, nearly six million Africans were transported by Portuguese ships and sold into slavery, primarily to Brazil. Little is taught about it in schools. Most respondents in all three countries – 58% in Angola, 83% in Cape Verde and 78% in Portugal – do not think monuments related to colonialism should be taken down. In Portugal, 58% of respondents said a memorial to victims of transatlantic slavery should be built. – Reuters LONDON: The majority IRAN CONFIRMS FORDOW DAMAGE TEHRAN: The US bombing of Iran’s key Fordow nuclear site has “seriously and heavily damaged” the facility, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in an interview with CBS News. “No one exactly knows what has transpired in Fordow. What we know is that the facilities have been seriously and heavily damaged. The Atomic Energy Organisation of the Islamic Republic of Iran is undertaking evaluation, the report of which will be submitted to the government.” Intercepted Iranian communications downplayed the extent of damage caused by US strikes, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing four people familiar with classified intelligence circulating within the US government. – Reuters TWO FOUND DEAD AFTER SPAIN WILDFIRE BARCELONA: Firefighters in Spain have said they found two bodies after a blaze in the northeast of the country, which is in the midst of a brutal heatwave. Authorities in Catalonia on Tuesday confined about 14,000 people to their homes due to two wildfires that broke out almost simultaneously in the province of Lerida. In one of the blazes, near the city of Cosco, “two people were found lifeless by firefighters”, the fire and emergency service said in a statement. The exact cause of the fire was unclear, but the service said the recent heat, dry conditions and strong winds caused by storms had increased the intensity of the flames. – AFP

A Palestinian girl peers over the rubble of a damaged house in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. – AFPPIC

Trump teases ceasefire push

on a house in Gaza City, and another five in a drone strike on a house in Deir el-Balah. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers. The Israeli military requested precise coordinates for the targeted locations and said it “will try to look into” the reports. On Tuesday the military said its forces had expanded operations across Gaza, “eliminating dozens of terrorists and dismantling hundreds of terror infrastructure sites”. After months of stalled However, last week Trump said he was considering selling more Patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine following a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky. Russia, which already controls about a fifth of Ukraine, has been preparing a summer ground offensive, advancing gradually in the eastern region of Donetsk and northeastern region of Sumy. Ukraine is already experiencing a shortage of 155mm ammunition used for artillery on the front lines, said one Ukrainian defence source, calling the shortages and news of delays in US supplies “all quite sad”. In an email, the Pentagon said it was providing Trump with options to

proposal has Israel’s support. “Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalise the 60 day ceasefire, during which time we will work with all parties to end the war,” Trump said. He added that Qatari and Egyptian mediators, who have been in direct contact with Hamas, would deliver “this final proposal”. “I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this deal, because it will not get better – it will only get worse.” Trump is due to host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House next week. Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 56,647 people in Gaza. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable. – AFP continue military aid to Ukraine in line with the goal of ending the war. “At the same time, the department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving US forces’ readiness for administration defence priorities,” said Elbridge Colby, the undersecretary for policy. All weapons aid was briefly paused in February with a second, longer pause in March. The Trump administration resumed sending the last of the aid approved under Biden. No new policy has been announced. Politico reported the pause on Tuesday. – Reuters

o Israeli strikes kill 14 in Gaza

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GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people yesterday, as President Donald Trump urged Hamas to agree to a 60-day ceasefire. After nearly 21 months of war which has created dire humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million people, the Israeli military said this week it had expanded its operations. In southern Gaza, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said five members of a family were killed and several others wounded in an WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has halted some shipments of air defence missiles and other precision munitions to Ukraine over concerns that US stockpiles were too low, two people familiar with the decision said on Tuesday. The slowing of some weapons shipments promised to Kyiv by former President Joe Biden’s administration came in recent days, they said, adding that air defence interceptors to help knock down Russian drones and projectiles were among the items delayed. In recent weeks, Russia has intensified air attacks on Ukraine’s cities, on several nights launching hundreds of drones and missiles at a

airstrike that hit a tent housing displaced people in the coastal Al-Mawasi area. AFP images from the nearby Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis city, showed medics treating young children covered in blood. Some appeared terrified while others lay still on hospital beds in bloodied bandages and clothes. Despite being declared a safe zone by Israel in December 2023, Al-Mawasi has been hit by repeated Israeli strikes.

Further north, Bassal said four people from the same family were killed in a pre-dawn Israeli airstrike US halts missile shipments to Ukraine mediation efforts to bring an end to the war, Trump on Tuesday said on social media that a new ceasefire

time, leading to widespread damage and an increase in civilian casualties. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, he has softened Washington’s position toward Russia, seeking a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine and raising doubts about future military support for Kyiv’s war effort. Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of the Ukrainian parliament’s national security and defence committee, called the decision to halt the shipments “very unpleasant for us”. “It’s painful, and against the background of the terrorist attacks which Russia commits against Ukraine, it’s a very unpleasant situation,”Venislavskyi told reporters.