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Zakaria Zubeidi, Militant Who Briefly Escaped Israeli Prison, Is Among Released Palestinians

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Zakaria Zubeidi, Militant Who Briefly Escaped Israeli Prison, Is Among Released Palestinians

Although they were later recaptured, the prison break shook Israelis and thrilled Palestinians. Israelis saw Mr. Zubeidi’s escape as a chilling security breach with the potential to incite further violence. Many Palestinians called it a temporary victory against Israel’s mass incarceration of Palestinians.

An Israeli drone strike killed Mr. Zubeidi’s son, Mohammad, in September. The Israeli military called the son a “significant terrorist” and said he had been involved in shooting at Israeli troops.

Other militants convicted of involvement in deadly attacks against Israelis were also among the Palestinians being released on Thursday.

One was Sami Jaradat, 56, who was serving multiple life sentences for involvement in a deadly 2003 suicide bombing that targeted a restaurant in Haifa, on the Israeli coast. Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack.

At least 21 people were killed in the bombing, according to the Israeli authorities, including women, children and a one-year-old girl.

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Mr. Jaradat, like many Palestinian detainees involved in the deadliest attacks against Israelis, will not be allowed to return to his home near Jenin. Under the terms of the deal, he will be expelled to either the Gaza Strip or another country like Egypt.

Unlike Mr. Jaradat, Mr. Zubeidi is expected to remain in the West Bank.

On Thursday, Mr. Zubeidi’s wife, Alaa, 39, stood with her sisters and friends in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, dressed in black, to wait for him to be released from prison.

She said she had been in mourning since her son Mohammad’s death, visiting his grave daily until mid-December, when Palestinian security forces began operating in the Jenin refugee camp.

Fatima AbdulKarim contributed reporting.

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U.S. Pressing Tough Demands in Revised Deal for Ukraine’s Minerals

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U.S. Pressing Tough Demands in Revised Deal for Ukraine’s Minerals

Ukraine on Saturday was seriously considering a revised American proposal for its vast natural resources that contains virtually the same provisions that Kyiv previously rejected as too onerous, according to a draft document of the new proposal.

Some of the terms appear even tougher than in a previous draft.

The proposed agreement would significantly shift onto a mercantile footing the United States’ three-year alliance with Ukraine in the largest war in Europe since World War II. The conflict to date has largely been seen as a struggle to secure Ukraine and the European continent from an authoritarian threat from Russia.

The Trump administration’s terms could also strip Ukraine of funds that are now mostly invested in the country’s military and defense industry, and that could help rebuild the country once the war is over.

The terms of the new proposal, which is dated Feb. 21 and was reviewed by The New York Times, call for Ukraine to relinquish half of its revenues from natural resources, including minerals, gas and oil, as well as earnings from ports and other infrastructure. A similar demand was made in a previous version of the deal, dated Feb. 14 and reviewed by The Times.

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Ukraine had been floating the prospect of a partnership with the United States on its valuable natural resources as a way to persuade Mr. Trump to provide additional support for its war effort. President Volodymyr Zelensky had also been seeking security guarantees for Ukraine, a condition that was absent in the first draft agreement presented to him last week, prompting him to decline to sign the deal.

But while the new document calls for a series of commitments from Ukraine it still does not provide any specific commitments in return from the U.S. to help Ukraine sustain its war effort. It says, however, that the United States intends to provide a long-term financial commitment to help Ukraine develop economically.

The new document states that revenues from Ukraine’s resources will be directed to a fund in which the United States holds 100 percent financial interest, and that Ukraine should contribute to the fund until it reaches $500 billion — the amount Mr. Trump has demanded from the war-torn country in exchange for American aid.

That figure far exceeds the country’s actual revenues from resources, which were $1.1 billion last year, and more than four times the value of U.S. aid committed to Ukraine so far. The $500 billion sum was not mentioned in the previous version of the deal, though Mr. Trump had said publicly that was what he wanted.

It is unclear whether Mr. Trump wants it in exchange for past American military and financial assistance, or whether it would also apply to future support.

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Ukraine has not said whether it would agree to the deal under the proposed terms. Ruslan Stefanchuk, the speaker of Ukraine’s Parliament, told local media that a government-level group would begin working on the agreement on Monday and that Ukraine wanted to receive specific security guarantees in exchange for access to its resources.

Ukraine has tried to resist a total capitulation to American demands on natural resources, but has faced intense pressure from President Trump, who views access to Ukraine’s vast mineral wealth as necessary repayment for the billions the United States has provided Kyiv for its war against Russia.

The document suggests the United States may send more aid to Ukraine in the future — but at a high price. It states that Ukraine will be required to contribute to the fund a sum equal to twice the amount the United States might give to Ukraine after the deal is signed.

The revised proposal states that the United States could reinvest a portion of the revenue into Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction, including by investing in the development of the country’s subsoil assets and infrastructure.

The new draft agreement also includes provisions for revenues from territories currently occupied by Russia, in the event they were freed: The share of resource revenues contributed to the fund from liberated areas would be 66 percent. Russia currently occupies about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including significant portions of the resource-rich Donbas region.

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The document reviewed by The Times outlines the establishment of a fund to receive revenues from resource extraction and other sources. A second agreement, described as the Fund Agreement, would be concluded later to work out specific details.

Keith Kellogg, Mr. Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, visited Kyiv from Wednesday to Friday and discussed the new proposal with Mr. Zelensky. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent first met with Mr. Zelensky recently to discuss the deal, and more recently Mr. Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, became involved the negotiations, according to a person familiarly with the discussion.

A potential deal for Ukraine’s resources has been a major point of dispute in a rapidly deteriorating relationship between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump. Their interactions became acrimonious in the last week as the American president assailed Mr. Zelensky in highly personal terms, calling him “an unelected dictator.”

The Ukrainian president, in turn, said that Mr. Trump was living in a “disinformation web” after Mr. Trump falsely claimed that Ukraine had started the war against Russia.

Mr. Zelensky’s initial hesitancy, and comments that were perceived by Mr. Trump and cabinet officials as public criticism of the president prompted a fierce backlash from the Trump administration. That possibly led to the addition of further demands written into the agreement, according to drafts and people familiar with the discussions of the deal on the Ukrainian side.

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Two of the people who had the new proposal described to them said that one of the few changes made by the United States that could satisfy Ukraine was the removal of a clause placing the deal under the jurisdiction of a New York court. The provision had raised concerns on the Ukrainian side, because it could weaken Ukraine’s legal standing in case of a dispute.

Whether Ukraine can meet the terms requested by the Trump administration is unclear.

Ukraine is not a major natural resource exporting country, as the most dynamic spheres of its economy have been agriculture, steel and other metal smelting and outsourced programming work for Silicon Valley companies. Revenues from natural resources comprised 2.5 percent of budget revenue last year.

Ukrainian officials and energy experts also say that any new fields would likely take years and significant investment to develop. Much exploration remains to be done to assess the true value of the country’s critical minerals, they say, and administrative and legislative obstacles still hinder foreign investment in the sector.

The Trump administration has suggested that the mere presence of American economic interests in Ukraine would be a security guarantee for Kyiv. Top U.S. cabinet members have pressed Mr. Zelensky to sign the deal in recent days.

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“President Zelensky is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term,” the U.S. national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said on Friday. “And that is good for Ukraine. What better could you have for Ukraine than to be in an economic partnership with the United States?”

Speaking in the Oval Office later Friday, Mr. Trump said, “We’re going to either sign a deal, or there’s going to be a lot of problems with them.”

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.

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70 Christians beheaded in African country by ISIS-aligned militants, groups say; world mostly silent

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70 Christians beheaded in African country by ISIS-aligned militants, groups say; world mostly silent

JOHANNESBURG – Seventy Christians have been beheaded with machetes or large knives, according to multiple groups that monitor terrorism and persecution, by Islamist militants in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – and yet the world remains mostly silent.

The 70 Christians were first rounded up by Islamist rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces, a group affiliated with the terror group Islamic State, or ISIS, according Open Doors U.S., which monitors Christian persecution around the world. The Christians, reportedly all from the Lubero district, were forced out of their homes allegedly early in the morning of Feb. 13, with the rebels shouting, “Get out, get out.”

They were taken hostage, and moved to a small Christian church in the village of Kasanga. There, inside the building that had until then been considered a sanctuary, they were first tied up, and then all 70 were beheaded, the groups say.

Vianney Vitswamba, coordinator of a local community protection committee, is quoted by the Global Fight Against Terrorism Funding organization, (GFATF) as saying, “70 bodies were discovered in the church. They were (found) tied up.”

THOUSANDS OF CHRISTIANS ‘DELIBERATELY TARGETED’ AND KILLED IN NIGERIA, NEW REPORT SAYS

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Recent clashes in the same Lubero district where the massacre of Christians took place show members of the Congolese Red Cross carrying body bags containing human remains during a mass burial for victims of the clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo at Musigiko cemetery in Bukavu on Feb. 20, 2025. It is not clear from the picture whether the two events are related. The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on February 20, 2025, urged on local airwaves the soldiers fleeing in the eastern province of North Kivu to rejoin their units and continue the fight to counter the advance of the M23 rebels. In Lubero, a town toward which the M23 is advancing, 250 km north of the provincial capital Goma, taken on January 28, terrified residents reported to AFP Congolese soldiers in disarray shooting in the town and engaging in looting. (Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images)

Sources report that local Islamist militants wouldn’t let Christian leaders bury the dead for some five days.

Open Doors U.S. reports that 95% of people living in the DRC are Christian. Yet the Islamist ADF, analysts say, are bent on turning this community in the troubled North East of the country into an Islamic Caliphate, forcing this majority-Christian community to follow extreme Muslim practices.

“The violence takes place in a context of impunity, where almost no one is held accountable,” John Samuel, Open Doors legal expert for sub-Saharan Africa, stated. “This massacre is a clear indicator of widespread human rights violations against civilians and vulnerable communities, often targeting Christians, perpetrated by ADF – a(n) Islamic State affiliate.”

Tristan Azbej, Hungary’s State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians posted on X, “Horrified to learn about the 70 Christian martyrs beheaded by terrorists in a church . . . . Hungary stands in solidarity with the persecuted Christians . . . the world needs to recognize and act against Christian persecution.”

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CHRISTIANS IN AFRICA FACE WORRYING RISE IN KILLINGS, PERSECUTION AND DISPLACEMENT

Open Doors UK declared in a recent statement that Christians in the DRC “face severe persecution and violence frequently from Islamist militants, the ADF, especially in the eastern region. Allied with the Islamic State group, the ADF abduct and kill Christians and attack churches, leading to widespread terror, insecurity and displacement.”

Worldwide, and particularly in Africa, Christians face increasing persecution. In a January 2025 report, Open Doors US stated that “over 380 million Christians worldwide experienced at least a “high level” of persecution and discrimination because of their faith.”

Church attacked in DR Congo

The facade of a church hit by an artillery shell following clashes is seen in Goma on Jan. 30, 2025.  (Alexis Huguet/AFP via Getty Images)

Local Christians are said to be in despair. “We don’t know what to do or how to pray; we’ve had enough of massacres,” an elder of the local CECA20 church told reporters. “May God’s will alone be done.”

But despite the shocking nature of the killings, and the large number of those murdered, there has been little reported in the media. Posting on X, American political commentator Liz Wheeler wrote, “70 Christian men, women & children were beheaded . . . because they’re Christian. Their decapitated bodies were left in a church . . . because they’re Christian. The terrorists who murdered them have ties to ISIS. MSM, where’s your outrage? Are you silent . . . because they’re Christian?”

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Also in North-Eastern DRC, Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are reported to have entered the region’s second-largest city of Bukavu on Friday, after taking over the major city of Goma on the Rwanda border.

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Vatican denies rumours of possible Pope resignation

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Vatican denies rumours of possible Pope resignation
This article was originally published in Italian

The Vatican said in a statement on Saturday, that Pope Francis would not lead Sunday prayers again this weekend, the second week in a row he has to cancel his personal appearance.

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The Vatican has said in a statement that “the Pope has rested well” in its latest update on the health condition of the pontiff who has been hospitalised for nine days at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital due to bilateral pneumonia.

But on Friday, Professor Sergio Alfieri, who is part of the Pope’s medical team, warned that he is “not out of danger” and will remain in hospital for at least another week.

“The Pope has always wanted us to tell the truth,” Alfieri told reporters at the entrance to Gemelli Hospital.

“The chronic illness remains, the Pope knows this, he said ‘I realise that the situation is serious’,” Alfieri explained and then added: “Sometimes he catches his breath, and the feeling is not pleasant for anyone.”

The Vatican said in a statement on Saturday, that Pope Francis would not lead Sunday prayers again this weekend, the second week in a row he has to cancel his personal appearance.

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Parolin denies resignation rumours

As Pope Francis’ health situation becomes increasingly worrying, rumours of his imminent resignation have grown louder.

“They all seem to me to be useless speculation. Now we are thinking about the Holy Father’s health, his recovery, his return to the Vatican: these are the only things that matter,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.

“Thank God, the news coming from Gemelli is encouraging, he is recovering. He has been sent paperwork and this means that he is proceeding well,” Parolin said.

88-year-old Pope Francis has been dogged by bouts of ill health for years and as a young man, had the upper lobe of his right lung removed.

But the Vatican says he remains in good spirits, has eaten breakfast every day and continued to work from his hospital room.

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