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US President Donald Trump said Monday that peace is happening now in the Middle East, which is going through a very remarkable period right now."We will see a lot of progress in the Middle East", Trump said during a joint meeting with his Egyptian counterpart ahead of the Sharm El Sheikh Peace Summit, explaining that Gaza needs the efforts of all to remove the rubble.He also noted that the Sharm El Sheikh Peace Summit is witnessing important representation in this regard, praising Egypt's role in ceasefire negotiations in Gaza.For his part, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi commended the efforts of his US counterpart in stopping the war in Gaza, describing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a tremendous achievement.US President is the only one capable of ending the war and achieving peace in our region, El-Sisi added, before pointing out that Egypt is working to stabilize the ceasefire as quickly as possible and urgently deliver humanitarian aid.He also said that coordination with the United States continues, expressing his country's readiness to take all necessary measures to ensure the goals of peace and stability in the Middle East are achieved.

The United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey signed a declaration on Monday as the guarantors of a Gaza deal aimed at ending two years of war."The document is going to spell out rules and regulations and lots of other things," Trump said before signing, repeating twice that "it's going to hold up".

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani arrived Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to head the State of Qatar's delegation participating in the Sharm el Sheikh Summit for Peace.His Highness the Amir was welcomed upon arrival at Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport by the Egyptian Minister of Culture Dr. Ahmed Fouad Hano, and Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Arab Republic of Egypt Tariq bin Ali Al Ansari.His Highness the Amir is accompanied by the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani and an official delegation.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday welcomed the start of Hamas's release of Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip, saying that with their release, "peace becomes possible for Israel, for Gaza, and for the region." "I share the joy of the families," Macron wrote on X, after seven captives were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The French president made the remarks upon his arrival in Egypt to attend a summit on Gaza. The Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit is being held today, co-chaired by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and US President Donald Trump, with participation from leaders of more than 20 countries. The summit aims to mobilize broader international support for President Trump's peace plan for the Gaza Strip, amid ongoing discussions regarding post-war governance, security and reconstruction in the territory.

US President Donald Trump headed on a high high-stakes trip to Israel and Egypt Sunday, after saying it would be a "very special" moment for efforts to end the Gaza war.Air Force One took off from Joint Base Andrews near Washington in light rain, AFP reporters said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA chief John Ratcliffe were also on the plane, the White House said.

More than 20 world leaders to attendMediators to ink guarantee documentCaptives, prisoners to be freed MondayA Gaza ceasefire was holding for a third day Sunday, ahead of a proposed hostage-prisoner exchange and a summit aimed at charting a path to peace after two years of war.US President Donald Trump is among the more than 20 world leaders expected in Egypt's Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh Monday for the Gaza peace summit co-hosted by his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. But neither Israel or Hamas will attend.Among those expected to attend are UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Jordan's King Abdullah II, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.Trump is due to arrive in Israel Monday to address the Knesset, the parliament, before traveling to Sharm El Sheikh for the summit.Egypt has said 21 nations will take part, with representation also expected from the EU and Arab League, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Pakistan, Indonesia, India and Germany, among others.Iran also said it received an invitation, but did not indicate whether it would attend.The mediating nations for the ceasefire deal in Gaza are to sign a document guaranteeing the agreement at the summit, a diplomatic source said."The signatories will be the guarantors -- (the) US, Egypt, Qatar and likely Turkiye," the diplomat said, after the Egyptian foreign ministry earlier said a document ending the war in Gaza was expected to be signed during the gathering.Israel expects all hostages held in Gaza to be freed early Monday, a spokeswoman for the prime minister's office said, adding that all surviving captives are to be released simultaneously."The living hostages are to be released together at one time to the Red Cross and transported among six to eight vehicles," Shosh Bedrosian told journalists.The initial stage of the ceasefire deal includes the release of 48 Israeli hostages in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,700 Gazans held by Israel since the war broke out.An Israeli official said the Palestinian prisoners would be "released once Israel has confirmation that all of our hostages are across the border into Israel".A Hamas source close to the group's negotiating committee told AFP Sunday that it would not participate in governing post-war Gaza.More than 200 trucks carrying aid destined for Gaza, including six diesel fuel trucks and five carrying cooking gas, were unloaded Sunday at the Kerem Shalom crossing with the Palestinian territory.Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians poured back into a shattered Gaza City after the guns fell silent.

Israeli forces redeployedHostages to be released by Monday noonQuestions remain about Trump's planTrump expected to travel to Israel, EgyptThousands of Palestinians streamed north along the coast of Gaza on Saturday, trekking by foot, car and cart back to their abandoned homes as a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas appeared to be holding.Israeli troops pulled back under the first phase of a US-brokered agreement reached this week to end the war, which has killed tens of thousands of people and left much of the enclave in ruins.**media[367309]**"It is an indescribable feeling; praise be to God," said Nabila Basal as she travelled by foot with her daughter, who she said had suffered a head wound in the war. "We are very, very happy that the war has stopped, and the suffering has ended."US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was in Gaza early Saturday to observe the Israeli military redeployment, Israeli Army Radio reported, citing a security source.**media[367311]**He was joined by the head of the US military's Central Command (CENTCOM), Admiral Brad Cooper, who said in a statement that his visit was part of the establishment of a task force that would support stabilisation efforts in Gaza, though US troops would not be deployed inside the enclave.Once the Israeli forces had completed their redeployment on Friday, which keeps them out of major urban areas but still in control of roughly half the enclave, the clock began ticking for Hamas to release its hostages within 72 hours."We are very excited, waiting for our son and for all the 48 hostages," said Hagai Angrest, whose son Matan is among the 20 Israeli hostages believed to still be alive. "We are waiting for the phone call."**media[367310]**Twenty-six hostages have been declared dead in absentia and the fate of two more is unknown.According to the agreement, after the hostages are handed over, Israel will free 250 Palestinians serving long sentences in its prisons and 1,700 detainees captured during the war.Hundreds of trucks per day are expected to surge into Gaza carrying food and medical aid, according to the agreement.**media[367307]**But questions remain about whether the ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal, the biggest step yet towards ending two years of war, will lead to a lasting peace under Trump's 20-point plan.Much could still go wrong. Further steps in Trump's plan have yet to be agreed.These include how the demolished Gaza Strip is to be ruled when fighting ends, and the ultimate fate of Hamas, which has rejected Israel's demands it disarm.Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump expressed confidence the ceasefire would hold, saying: "They're all tired of the fighting." He said he believed there was a "consensus" on the next steps but acknowledged some details still have to be worked out.**media[367306]**Israelis and Palestinians alike rejoiced after the deal was announced to end a war in which more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians, and to return the last hostages seized by Hamas.Trump is expected to visit the region on Monday and address the Knesset, Israel's parliament, the first US president to do so since George W. Bush in 2008.Trump said he would also travel to Egypt and that other world leaders were expected to be present.

Mixed emotions as Gazans cheer US-brokered truce deal but face wreckage of pre-war lives'Okay, it is over - then what? There is no home I can go back to,' says displaced mother of five'We are happy just to return to where our homes were. That, too, is a great joy,' says displaced Gaza manAs thousands of Gazans began picking through the ruins of their shattered homes on Friday after a ceasefire deal, the excitement of return was quickly tempered by shock at the depth of the destruction and anxiety over the hardships ahead.The announcement that the US-brokered accord had gone into effect sent thousands of Palestinians pouring up the Gaza Strip's coastal road by foot, bicycle, truck and donkey cart toward the largely devastated north.Essentially all of Gaza's 2.2 million population was displaced during two years of unrelenting war that has killed tens of thousands of people and reduced huge swathes of the enclave to ruins.For some, the prospect of returning even to the remnants of their former houses was enough to inspire elation."Of course, there are no homes - they've been destroyed - but we are happy just to return to where our homes were, even over the rubble," Mahdi Saqla, 40, said as he stood by a makeshift tent in central Gaza. "That, too, is a great joy."Trudging along the road along with her family, former Gaza City resident Mahira al-Ashi said she was so excited to return to the city where she'd grown up that she couldn't sleep as she waited for news about when they could start moving."By God, when they opened the road, I was so happy to go back," she said.But for many of those who have already returned, the stark reality of the situation quickly sank in.To the south, in the city of Khan Younis, Ahmed al-Brim pushed a bicycle loaded with wood through a scene of apocalyptic destruction - row after row of buildings crumpled by bombardment and streets strewn with rubble."We went to our area - it was exterminated," he said, waving a hand through the air. "We don't know where we will go after that."Another Khan Younis resident, Muhannad al-Shawaf, said it used to take him three minutes to reach a nearby street from his house. Now, took over an hour as he picked his way through piles of debris."The destruction is huge and indescribable - indescribable," he said. "It is almost all in ruins and not suitable for living in."Despite the widespread celebrations that greeted news of the ceasefire, many Palestinians were keenly aware even before going back that little remained of the lives they knew before the war."Okay, it is over - then what? There is no home I can go back to," Balqees, a mother of five from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, told Reuters on Friday morning."They have destroyed everything. Tens of thousands of people are dead, the Gaza Strip is in ruins, and they made a ceasefire. Am I supposed to be happy? No, I am not."Her sentiments were echoed by Mustafa Ibrahim, an activist and human rights advocate from Gaza City who also took refuge in Deir al-Balah, one of the few areas in the enclave not overrun and levelled by Israeli forces."Laughter has vanished and tears have run dry," he said. "The people of Gaza are lost, as if they are the walking dead, searching for a distant future."Some former Gaza City residents had already started heading back even before the ceasefire went into effect, some making it as far as the northwest suburb of Sheikh Radwan.Among them was Ismail Zayda, a 40-year-old father of three, who went to check on his house on Friday morning and was amazed to find it still intact - albeit amid a "sea of rubble"."Thank God, my house is still standing," he told Reuters in a voice note. "But the area is destroyed, my neighbours' houses are destroyed - entire districts are gone."

Machado is Venezuela's opposition leaderWas blocked from running for president in 2024Laureate lives in hiding'Oh my God ... I have no words' says laureateVenezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who lives in hiding, won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for fighting dictatorship in the country, receiving the award despite US President Donald Trump's repeated insistence he deserved it.Machado, a 58-year-old industrial engineer, was blocked in 2024 by Venezuela's courts from running for president and thus challenging President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power since 2013."Oh my God ... I have no words," Machado told the secretary of the award body, Kristian Berg Harpviken, in a phone call which the Nobel Committee posted on social media."I thank you so much, but I hope you understand this is a movement, this is an achievement of a whole society. I am just one person. I certainly do not deserve it," she added.The White House criticised the decision, just days after Trump announced a breakthrough in talks to halt the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas."President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives... The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace," White House spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a post on X.Maduro, whose 12 years in office have been marked by deep economic and social crisis, was sworn in for a third term in January this year, despite a six-month-long election dispute, international calls for him to stand aside and an increase in the US reward offered for his capture."When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its citation.It was not immediately clear whether she would be able to attend the award ceremony in Oslo on December 10.Should she not attend, she would join the list of Peace Prize laureates prevented from doing so in the award's 124-year-history, including Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in 1975, Poland's Lech Walesa in 1983 and Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991.Machado is the first Venezuelan to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the sixth from Latin America.The United Nations human rights office welcomed the award to Machado as a recognition of "the clear aspirations of the people of Venezuela for free and fair elections".The head of the award committee, Joergen Watne Frydnes, said he hoped the award would spur the Venezuelan opposition's work."We hope that the entire opposition will have renewed energy to continue the work for a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy," Frydnes told Reuters after the announcement.It could also strengthen international pressure against the Maduro administration, said Human Rights Watch's Americas director, Juanita Goebertus Estrada.The lead-up to this year's award was dominated by Trump's repeated public statements that he deserved to win the award. Trump is also a fierce critic of Maduro."I think the main takeaway is that the committee is again demonstrating its independence, that they wouldn't be swayed by popular opinions or political leaders to award the prize," Halvard Leira, research director at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, told Reuters."The democratic opposition of Venezuela is something that the US has been eager to support. So, in that sense, it would be hard for anyone to constitute this as an insult to Trump."The United States has struck several vessels allegedly carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks.Trump has also said the US would look into attacking drug cartels "coming by land" in Venezuela.Trump has determined that the US is engaged in "a non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels, according to a document notifying Congress of its legal justification for deadly US strikes on boats off Venezuela.Frydnes, the Nobel committee leader, declined to say what it would take for Trump or others to win the prize in the future, or if efforts to end the fighting in Gaza could lead to an award in 2026."If it is nominated, then it will be considered, but time will show," Frydnes said."It's not our task to tell other people or other countries what to do, our task is to give out the peace prize.... So we'll have to see next year."The committee took its final decision before a ceasefire and hostage deal under the first phase of Trump's initiative to end the war in Gaza was announced on Wednesday.Ahead of the Nobel announcement, experts on the award had also said Trump was very unlikely to win as his policies were seen as dismantling the international world order the Nobel committee cherishes.The peace prize is the fifth Nobel awarded this week, after literature, chemistry, physics and medicine. Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, won in 2024.The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 11 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.2 million, will be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.

Kuwait on Thursday welcomed the agreement reached to implement the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which includes a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the launch of serious negotiations aimed at ending the war and alleviating the worsening humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people in the Strip. In a statement, Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed Kuwait’s full support for all international efforts and initiatives aimed at consolidating the ceasefire and delivering humanitarian aid immediately, safely, and sustainably, as a step toward establishing security and stability in the region. The ministry also reiterated its appreciation for the positive role played by Qatar, Egypt, the United States, and Turkiye in making the agreement a success. The ministry reaffirmed Kuwait’s firm and longstanding support for the rights of the Palestinian people, particularly the establishment of an independent state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with international legitimacy, the Arab Peace Initiative, and the New York Statement on the two-state solution. The ministry stressed that achieving a just and comprehensive peace is the only path to ensuring lasting security and stability in the region.

The Arab League welcomed the mediators' announcement of an agreement on implementing the first phase of the peace plan for the Gaza Strip and expressed appreciation for the efforts of Qatar, Egypt, and the United States in this regard. Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a post on X that this was good news for the people in Gaza after witnessing two years of bloodshed and destruction. He expressed hope that the mediators' efforts will be crowned with success to complete and implement what has been agreed upon, whether it is the exchange deal or the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces. The Secretary-General expressed hope that mediators will continue their diligent efforts to ensure the agreement holds and is strengthened for the benefit of the Palestinian people. He thanked Egypt, Qatar, Turkiye, and the US for their commendable efforts. US President Donald Trump announced earlier today that Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) had signed the first phase of the peace plan and expressed his gratitude to the mediators from the State of Qatar, the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the Republic of Turkiye.

Oil prices were little changed on Thursday as investors weighed a ceasefire deal in Gaza that could ease geopolitical tensions in the Middle East against stalled peace talks in Ukraine. Brent Crude futures rose 2 cents to $66.27 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1 cent to $62.54. Prices had gained around 1% on Wednesday to reach a one-week high after investors viewed stalled progress on an Ukraine peace deal as a sign that sanctions against Russia will continue for some time.