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The head of the World Health Organization insisted on Monday it was “now or never” to strike a landmark global accord on tackling future pandemics, after the United States withdrew from negotiations.WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said no country could protect itself from the next pandemic on its own — three days after US President Donald Trump’s administration told the UN health agency it was leaving the pandemic agreement talks.”We are at a crucial point as you move to finalise the pandemic agreement in time for the World Health Assembly” in May, Tedros told WHO members at the opening of the week-long 13th round of negotiations in Geneva.”It really is a case of now or never. But I am confident that you will choose ‘now’ because you know what is at stake.”You remember the hard-won lessons of Covid-19, which left an estimated 20 million of our brothers and sisters dead, and which continues to kill.”A further one-week session is planned before the WHO’s annual assembly.The process began in December 2021, when, fearing a repeat of Covid-19 — which killed millions of people, crippled health systems and crashed economies — countries decided to draft an accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.- Next pandemic ‘when, not if’ -After returning to office on January 20, Trump signed an executive order to start the one-year process of withdrawing from the WHO, an organisation he has repeatedly criticised over its handling of Covid-19.The order added that Washington would “cease negotiations” on the pandemic agreement.Tedros said Washington had formally notified the WHO on Friday of its withdrawal from the talks.”The next pandemic is a matter of when, not if. There are reminders all around us — Ebola, Marburg, measles, mpox, influenza and the threat of the next disease X,” he said.”No country can protect itself by itself. Bilateral agreements will only get you so far,” Tedros added.”Like the decision to withdraw from WHO, we regret this decision and we hope the US will reconsider,” he said.- System ‘under siege’ -Non-governmental organisations following the pandemic agreement process urged remaining member states to get the accord finished.Pandemic Action Network said: “Despite geopolitical and policy challenges, do not walk away from this vital mission.”Spark Street Advisors, a health sector consultancy, said the world had changed since the last negotiations in December, with the global multilateral system “under siege”.”This is why member states cannot afford to fail this week. In this new reality meant to reverse decades of progress, the pandemic agreement is a concrete action against this great dismantling,” it said.While much of the draft text has been agreed, disputes remain over sharing access to pathogens with pandemic potential and the sharing of benefits derived from them — vaccines, tests and treatments.Talks co-chair Precious Matsoso expressed hoped that proposed new wording would ensure a breakthrough. “Let’s make sure that the three years that we’ve spent does not end up being regretted — that we wasted three years of our time,” she said.

European leaders were due to meet in Paris on Monday to address Washington’s shock policy shift on the war in Ukraine, as top US and Russian diplomats geared up for their first talks aimed at ending the three-year conflict.US President Donald Trump sidelined Kyiv and its European backers last week when he called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to talk about starting negotiations to end the conflict.The hastily convened Paris informal summit of European leaders set to start at 4:00 pm (1500 GMT) comes after Trump said he could meet Putin “very soon”.The Paris talks come as Washington said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff would on Tuesday meet with a Russian delegation including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh ahead of a future meeting between Trump and Putin in the Saudi capital.Rubio had earlier sought to play down expectations of any breakthrough at upcoming talks with Russian officials.”A process towards peace is not a one-meeting thing,” he told the CBS network.Hosted by President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee palace, the European meeting will gather the leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as the heads of the European Council, the European Commission and NATO.The war in Ukraine is days short of its third anniversary on February 24.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Sunday that he was willing to put “our own troops on the ground if necessary” in response to what he called “a once-in-a-generation moment for the collective security of our continent”.Starmer also said he would meet with Trump in the coming days.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was to visit Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, one day after the meeting between top US and Russian officials.Zelensky had announced the trip along with stops the United Arab Emirates and Turkey last week without giving dates, adding he had no plans to meet Russian or US officials.- ‘Take a leap forward’ -The Paris meeting will address “the situation in Ukraine” and “security in Europe”, the French presidency said.”Because of the acceleration of the Ukrainian issue, and as a result of what US leaders are saying, there is a need for Europeans to do more, better and in a coherent way, for our collective security,” an adviser in Macron’s office said.Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has said Europe would not be directly involved in talks on Ukraine, though it would still have “input”.French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Sunday it would fall to Europe to guarantee any peace deal in Ukraine, adding he expected the United States to “revise their level of commitment to NATO, including in terms of geography”.The American policy shift “requires that we truly wake up, and even take a leap forward, to take our place for the security of the European continent”, Barrot said. He told the LCI news channel that talks were already underway, involving notably France, Britain and Poland, to guarantee a future ceasefire and “lasting peace” in Ukraine.- ‘Peace is still far off’ -Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, however said that, while it was necessary for Europeans to meet and prepare decisions, “nobody is currently planning to send troops to Ukraine, especially because peace is still far off”. Germany on Monday agreed, with deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann telling reporters it was “premature” to talk about sending troops to Ukraine.  Chancellor Olaf Scholz had said late Sunday that negotiations on Ukraine’s future could not be successful without European guarantees “that we will have created and accepted”.Meanwhile Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban is close to both Trump and Putin, said that Monday’s conference was an effort to “prevent” peace.”Today, in Paris, pro-war, anti-Trump, frustrated European leaders are gathering to prevent a peace agreement in Ukraine,” said Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.Lavrov said Europeans want to “continue war in Ukraine”.burs-jh/ah/jm

The head of the World Health Organization insisted on Monday it was “now or never” to strike a landmark global accord on tackling future pandemics, despite the United States withdrawing from negotiations.WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said no country could protect itself from the next pandemic on its own — three days after US President Donald Trump’s administration formally told the United Nations health agency it would play no further part in the pandemic agreement talks.”We are at a crucial point as you move to finalise the pandemic agreement in time for the World Health Assembly” in May, Tedros told WHO member states at the opening of the week-long 13th round of negotiations at the organisation’s Geneva headquarters.”It really is a case of now or never. But I am confident that you will choose “now” because you know what is at stake.”A further one-week session is planned to finalise the agreement before the WHO’s annual decision-making assembly.In December 2021, fearing a repeat of the devastation wrought by Covid-19 — which killed millions of people, crippled health systems and crashed economies — countries decided to draft a new accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.While much of the draft text has been agreed, disputes remain over some key provisions, notably over sharing access to pathogens with pandemic potential and then equitably sharing the benefits derived from them, such as vaccines, tests and treatments.- ‘Protect future generations’ -“You remember the hard-won lessons of Covid-19, which left an estimated 20 million of our brothers and sisters dead, and which continues to kill. “They are why we are here — to protect future generations from the impact of future pandemics,” said Tedros.”The next pandemic is a matter of when, not if. There are reminders all around us — Ebola, Marburg, measles, mpox, influenza and the threat of the next disease X.”Hours after returning to office on January 20, Trump signed an executive order to start the one-year process of withdrawing from the WHO, an organisation he has repeatedly criticised over its handling of Covid-19.The order also said that during the withdrawal process, Washington would “cease negotiations” on the pandemic agreement.Tedros said Washington had formally notified the WHO on Friday of its withdrawal from the agreement talks.”No country can protect itself by itself. Bilateral agreements will only get you so far,” Tedros said, adding that prevention, preparedness and response was the responsibility of all countries.”Like the decision to withdraw from WHO, we regret this decision and we hope the US will reconsider,” he said.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has sparked alarm by seeking access to a system with the US tax office that has detailed financial data about millions of Americans, US media reported.Spearheaded by Musk, the world’s richest man, US President Donald Trump has embarked on a campaign to slash public spending deemed wasteful or contrary to his policies.The Washington Post and others reported that the latest request is for DOGE officials to have broad access to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) systems, property and datasets.This includes the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), access to which is usually extremely limited and which offers “instantaneous visual access to certain taxpayer accounts”, according to the IRS.As of Sunday evening, the request had not been granted, the reports said.But it has sparked alarm within the government and among privacy experts who say granting Musk access to private taxpayer data could be extraordinarily dangerous, according to ABC News.”People who share their most sensitive information with the federal government do so under the understanding that not only will it be used legally, but also handled securely and in ways that minimize risks like identity theft and personal invasion, which this reporting brings into serious question,” Elizabeth Laird, a former state privacy officer now with the Center for Democracy and Technology, told ABC.”Waste, fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said when asked about the employee’s potential access to the sensitive system, NBC News reported.”It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.”DOGE will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover as the American people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard-earned tax dollars on,” Fields added.US media reported on Friday that the IRS is preparing to lay off thousands of employees as soon as this week as part of Trump and Musk’s drive to shrink the federal workforce.

Israel’s security cabinet was set to discuss on Monday the next phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, after top US diplomat Marco Rubio and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu presented a united front against Hamas and Iran.Rubio was in Israel on his first Middle East trip as President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, and was slated to leave for Saudi Arabia on Monday.”Hamas cannot continue as a military or a government force… they must be eliminated,” Rubio said of the Palestinian Islamist group that fought Israel for more than 15 months in Gaza until a fragile ceasefire took effect on January 19.Standing beside him, Netanyahu said the two allies had “a common strategy”, and that “the gates of hell will be opened” if all hostages still held by militants in Gaza are not freed.The comments came a day after Hamas freed three Israeli hostages in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners — the sixth such swap under the ceasefire deal, which the United States helped mediate along with Qatar and Egypt.Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the ceasefire, which has been further strained by Trump’s widely condemned proposal to take control of rubble-strewn Gaza and relocate its more than two million residents.”We discussed Trump’s bold vision for Gaza’s future and will work to ensure that vision becomes a reality,” Netanyahu said.The scheme that Trump outlined earlier this month as Netanyahu visited Washington lacked details, but he said it would entail moving Gazans to Jordan or Egypt. – ‘The only plan’ -Washington, Israel’s top ally and weapons supplier, says it is open to alternative proposals from Arab governments, but Rubio has said for now, “the only plan is the Trump plan”.However, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states have rejected his proposal, and instead favour the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday said establishment of a Palestinian state was “the only guarantee” of lasting Middle East peace.After visiting Saudi Arabia, Rubio will also travel to the United Arab Emirates.The United States has been pushing for a potentially historic deal in which Saudi Arabia would recognise Israel, but Trump’s Gaza plan is complicating that effort. Riyadh has said repeatedly that it needs to see progress towards a Palestinian state before taking such a step.Hamas and Israel are implementing the first, 42-day phase of the ceasefire, which nearly collapsed last week.”At any moment the fighting could resume. We hope that the calm will continue and that Egypt will pressure Israel to prevent them from restarting the war and displacing people,” said Nasser al-Astal, 62, a retired teacher in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis.Since the truce began last month, 19 Israeli hostages have been released in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.Out of 251 people seized in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.In a statement, Rubio condemned Hamas’s hostage-taking as “sick depravity” and called for the immediate release of all remaining captives, living and dead, particularly five Israeli-American dual nationals.Negotiations on a second phase of the truce, aimed at securing a more lasting end to the war, could begin this week in Doha, a Hamas official and another source familiar with the talks have said.Netanyahu’s office said he would convene a meeting of his security cabinet on Monday to discuss phase two.It said the prime minister was also dispatching negotiators to Cairo Monday to discuss the “continued implementation” of phase one.The team would “receive further directives for negotiations on Phase II” after the cabinet meeting, the office said.- ‘Finish the job’ -The Gaza war has rippled across the Middle East, triggering violence in Yemen and Lebanon, where Iran backs militant groups.  Israel fought a related war with Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah, severely weakening itbefore a ceasefire took effect on November 27.Israeli troops were meant to withdraw over a 60-day period but this was later extended to February 18.Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said Sunday “Israel must fully withdraw” on the Tuesday deadline.”It is the responsibility of the Lebanese state” to exert every effort “to make Israel withdraw”, he said in a televised address.There have also been limited direct strikes by Iran and Israel against each other.Rubio called Iran the “single greatest source of instability in the region”.Netanyahu said that with the support of the Trump administration, “I have no doubt that we can and will finish the job” against Iran.He later hailed Israel’s cooperation with Trump, saying “there has never been such a partnership, and there has never been the potential to remove threats and truly bring opportunities we simply never dreamed of”.The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,271 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.On Sunday, Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed three police officers near south Gaza’s Rafah in what the militant group called a “serious violation” of the truce. Israel said it had struck “several armed individuals” in south Gaza.It is at least the second Israeli air strike in Gaza since the ceasefire began.burs/rsc/tym

US President Donald Trump said Sunday he could meet “very soon” with Vladimir Putin, adding he believes his Russian counterpart genuinely wants to stop fighting in Ukraine.”No time set, but it could be very soon,” Trump told reporters, hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio sought to play down expectations of upcoming high-level talks in Riyadh on ending the war.With Rubio set to lead a high-level American delegation at the discussions with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia’s capital in the coming days, a flurry of diplomacy was taking place as the brutal Ukraine war nears its third anniversary.Trump, addressing reporters after a flight on Air Force One, said his team has been speaking “long and hard” with Russian officials, including his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff whom the president said met with Putin for about three hours recently.”I think he wants to stop fighting,” Trump said of Putin. Asked whether he believes Putin wants to seize the entirety of Ukraine, Trump said: “That was my question to him. “If he’s going to go on… that would have caused me a big problem,” Trump added. “I think he wants to end it, and they want to end it fast. Both of them,” he said, adding “Zelensky wants to end it too.”Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile said Sunday he believes Russia is preparing to “wage war” against a weakened NATO should Trump dilute US support for the alliance.Trump appeared to dismiss Zelensky’s remarks, telling reporters he was “not even a little bit” concerned about the Ukrainian leader’s messaging.The Republican had repeatedly insisted he would end the Ukraine conflict in a single day if he returned to the White House, but Rubio stressed it would “not be easy” to resolve such a long-running, bloody and complex conflict.”A process towards peace is not a one-meeting thing,” America’s top diplomat said in an interview with CBS on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.- ‘Nothing’ finalized -Rubio is set to lead a high-level US team to Riyadh, but it remains unclear whether there will be any Ukrainian participation. Rubio said he wasn’t even sure who Moscow was sending.”Nothing’s been finalized yet,” he said, adding the aim was to seek an opening for a broader conversation that “would include Ukraine and would involve the end of the war.”Witkoff and US National Security Adviser Michael Waltz are both expected to attend the talks.Trump and Putin held a lengthy phone call Wednesday in which they agreed to start ceasefire negotiations immediately.The call blindsided NATO allies as well as Kyiv, with Zelensky insisting there should be “no decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine.””Right now there is no process,” said Rubio, who spoke by phone Saturday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “One phone call does not make peace.”In an interview with NBC broadcast Sunday, Zelensky had said Putin was a serial liar and could not be trusted as a negotiating partner.”I don’t think in geopolitics, anyone should trust anyone,” Rubio said.”The next few weeks and days will determine whether (Putin) is serious or not.”

At least nine people have died in the eastern United States, including eight in Kentucky, as powerful storms brought flooding and exceptionally powerful winds, downing trees and cutting power, local officials announced Sunday.Brutally cold weather is expected to hit much of the country later in the week.”I’m heartbroken to share we’ve lost at least 8 people to this storm,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on X. “And remember, the severe weather continues.”He said the number of fatalities was likely to increase.In addition, one person died in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia. The victim was killed when an “extremely large” tree fell on his house early Sunday, local fire official Scott Powell told local media.Most of the dead in Kentucky, Beshear said in an earlier news conference, drowned when trapped in their vehicles by fast-rising floodwaters. The victims included a mother and her child.The governor, who has declared a state of emergency, urged people to stay off the roads.Beshear said more than 1,000 people had been rescued by first responders within 24 hours.The storm was blowing up from the South and into the US Northeast, a region struck in recent weeks by a succession of extreme cold, snow, rain and powerful winds. More than 500,000 customers were without power Sunday from the South through New York state, according to monitoring website poweroutage.us. The National Weather Service predicted the center of the country would be hit this week by a mass of extremely cold Arctic air, bringing record temperatures that could hit brutal lows — even -60 degrees Fahrenheit (-51 degrees celsius) in the Plains states near the Canadian border.

President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend US overseas funding could result in millions more deaths from AIDS, the head of the UN’s programme for the illness warned Sunday.The United States is the world’s largest provider of official development assistance, with most funds directed through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).Trump ordered the bulk of US foreign assistance to be frozen for three months on returning to office in January, leaving global humanitarians scrambling to deal with the fallout.”It’s dramatic in many countries,” UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima told AFP.”I need to sound the alarm so that it’s very clear that this is a big part (of AIDS relief funding). If it goes away, people are going to die.”The US move included a 90-day suspension of all work by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), although his administration later issued waivers for medication under the programme.- ‘Tenfold’ death increase -That programme supports more than 20 million HIV patients and 270,000 health workers, according to an analysis from the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).”We could see additional deaths increasing by tenfold” to 6.3 million in five years, Byanyima said, citing UNAIDS estimates.”Or we could see new infections increase up to 8.7 million” in the same period, she said.The United States has said that “life-saving treatments” would be exempt from the freeze — although front-line workers in Africa say facilities have already closed.Speaking on the sidelines of the African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Byanyima said she had discussed the issue with leaders, urging them to transition from foreign funding towards using domestic revenue.But she noted many African nations were saddled with huge debts — some at “more than 50 percent of their entire revenue collections” — which crippled their ability to even begin to plug the potential shortfall.”Part of the answer is in pushing very hard for an immediate and comprehensive debt restructuring,” she said.”For many of them, debt is crowding out what could be spent on health and education.”Founded in 1961, USAID has an annual budget of more than $40 billion, used to support development, health and humanitarian programmes around the world, especially in poor countries.

Marvel and Disney’s new superhero film “Captain America: Brave New World” easily dominated the North American box office this weekend, earning an estimated $100 million in the biggest opening of the year, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday. The film’s strong showing on a four-day US holiday weekend came despite tepid reviews and lukewarm audience scores, with analysts saying stories of superhero-movie fatigue may be exaggerated.Anthony Mackie stars as Sam Wilson, taking over the title role from Chris Evans, this time in a tale about an international struggle over a cache of super-powerful adamantium. Harrison Ford plays a US president who (spoiler alert) morphs into a monster. Columbia and Sony’s “Paddington in Peru,” the return of the earnest, floppy hatted, marmalade-loving bear, came in a very distant second, at an estimated $16 million for the Friday-through-Monday period, despite positive reviews. The live action/animation hybrid has Paddington, voiced by Ben Whishaw, returning to Peru to visit his aunt, who turns up missing. His friends the Browns, played by Hugh Bonneville and Emily Mortimer, come along. Made for an estimated $90 million, the film has already sold some $115 million in tickets overseas.Third place for the four days went to the animation “Dog Man,” a superhero comedy from Universal and DreamWorks, at $12.3 million. The film is a spinoff from the best-selling “Captain Underpants” books.In fourth was the Sony horror film “Heart Eyes,” at $11.1 million. Described as a “romantic comedy slasher” film, it stars Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding in the story of a serial killer who strikes on Valentine’s Day. And animation “Ne Zha 2″ from CMC Pictures came in fifth, at $8.5 million. The film has pulverized records in China with ticket sales exceeding $1 billion since its release there on January 29, the highest total ever for any movie in the big Chinese market. Loosely inspired by a famous 16th century novel and Chinese mythology, the movie has the supernaturally powerful Nezha taking on the Dragon King of the Four Seas. Its 2019 precursor broke animation records in China, ultimately grossing over $700 million. Rounding out the top 10 were:”Mufasa: The Lion King” ($5.3 million)”Love Hurts” ($5 million)”One of Them Days” ($3.3 million)”Companion” ($2.2 million)”Becoming Led Zeppelin” ($2 million)

Top US diplomat Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a united front Sunday against their common enemies, threatening to “open the gates of hell” on Hamas and “finish the job” against Iran.The pledges came during a joint address to reporters in Jerusalem, where Rubio began his first Middle East trip as secretary of state in President Donald Trump’s new administration.”Hamas cannot continue as a military or a government force… they must be eliminated,” Rubio said of the Palestinian Islamist group that fought Israel for more than 15 months in Gaza until a fragile ceasefire took effect on January 19.Standing beside Rubio, Netanyahu said the two allies had “a common strategy”, and that “the gates of hell will be opened” if all hostages still held by militants in Gaza are not freed.The comments came a day after Hamas freed three Israeli hostages in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners — the sixth such swap under the ceasefire deal, which the United States helped mediate along with Qatar and Egypt.Netanyahu’s comment echoed one made by Trump ahead of Saturday’s swap. Trump had said “all hell” would break loose and that he would call for the truce deal’s cancellation if the hostages weren’t freed on Saturday.Israel and Hamas have traded accusations of ceasefire violations.Adding to strain on the deal, Trump has made a widely condemned proposal to take control of rubble-strewn Gaza and relocate its more than two million residents.”We discussed Trump’s bold vision for Gaza’s future and will work to ensure that vision becomes a reality,” Netanyahu said.The scheme that Trump outlined earlier this month while Netanyahu visited Washington lacked details, but he said it would entail moving Gazans to Jordan or Egypt. Trump said Palestinians had “lived a miserable existence” in Gaza, and suggested the coastal territory could be redeveloped into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.- ‘The only plan’ -Washington, Israel’s top ally and weapons supplier, says it is open to alternative proposals from Arab governments, but Rubio has said that for now, “the only plan is the Trump plan”.The international community, however, including Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, is largely in favour of a two-state solution, with a Palestinian state alongside Israel.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday said establishment of a Palestinian state was “the only guarantee” of lasting Middle East peace.Rubio is heading to Saudi Arabia on Monday, and will also visit the United Arab Emirates.Hamas and Israel are implementing the first, 42-day phase of the ceasefire, which nearly collapsed last week.”At any moment the fighting could resume. We hope that the calm will continue and that Egypt will pressure Israel to prevent them from restarting the war and displacing people,” said Nasser al-Astal, 62, a retired teacher in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis.Since the truce began last month, 19 Israeli hostages have been released in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.Out of 251 people seized in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.In a statement on Sunday, Rubio condemned Hamas’s hostage-taking and called for the immediate release of all remaining captives, living and dead, particularly five Israeli-American dual nationals.”The fact that these terrorists continue to hold hostages and even dead bodies reflects their sick depravity,” Rubio said. “I call on our partners to help impress upon Hamas’s leaders that they are playing with fire.”Negotiations on a second phase of the truce, aimed at securing a more lasting end to the war, could begin this week in Doha, a Hamas official and another source familiar with the talks have said.Netanyahu’s office said he would convene a meeting of his security cabinet on Monday to discuss phase two.Separately, it said he was also dispatching negotiators to Cairo Monday to discuss the “continued implementation” of phase one.The team would “receive further directives for negotiations on Phase II” after Monday’s meeting, the office said.- ‘Finish the job’ -The Gaza war triggered violent fallout throughout the Middle East, where Iran backs militant groups including in Yemen and Lebanon. Israel fought a related war with Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah, severely weakening it. There were also limited direct strikes by Iran and Israel against each other.Rubio called Iran the “single greatest source of instability in the region”.Netanyahu said that with the support of the Trump administration, “I have no doubt that we can and will finish the job” against Iran.The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,271 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.On Sunday, Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed three police officers near south Gaza’s Rafah in what the militant group called a “serious violation” of the truce. Israel said it had struck “several armed individuals” in south Gaza.It is at least the second Israeli air strike in Gaza since the ceasefire began.burs-lb/it/smw