First Thing: Prominent Al Jazeera correspondent among five journalists killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza

Israel admits deliberate attack on the journalist, known for frontline coverage, in a strike on a tent outside al-Shifa hospital. Plus, Trump demands homeless people leave Washington DC

Good morning.

A prominent Al Jazeera journalist who had previously been threatened by Israel has been killed along with four colleagues in an Israeli airstrike.

What did Israel say about the attack? The Israel Defense Forces admitted the strike and claimed the reporter had “served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organisation”. It claimed it had intelligence and documents found in Gaza as proof, but rights advocates said he had been targeted for his frontline reporting on the Gaza war and that Israel’s claim lacked evidence.

What else is going on in the region? Benjamin Netanyahu has defended his plan to take control of Gaza City in the face of widespread international outrage.

What was the reaction to the interview? Within minutes of the Fox News interview being broadcast, social media began to hum with renewed cries of “release the files!” Jon Favreau, Barack Obama’s former head speechwriter, said: “Release the names! Democrats, Republicans, billionaires, or not. What are you afraid of, JD Vance?”

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Nvidia and AMD agree to pay 15% of China chip sale revenues to US

Chipmakers agree to deal amid Trump trade war as condition for obtaining export licences for Chinese market

The chipmakers Nvidia and AMD have agreed to give the US government 15% of their revenue from advanced chips sold to China in return for export licences to the key market, in an unprecedented move amid Donald Trump’s trade war with China.

The move, an apparent reversal of US national security restrictions on the chip sales, signalled an easing in the US-China trade war.

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Farmers displaced by $1.5bn Trump golf course reportedly being offered rice and cash

White House denies suggestions resort in Vietnam presents conflict of interest amid row over compensation rates

Villagers whose farms in Vietnam will be bulldozed to make way for a $1.5bn golf resort backed by the Trump family have reportedly been offered rice provisions and cash compensation of as little as $12 for a square metre of land by state authorities.

Thousands of villagers will be offered compensation based on land size and location, according to a report by Reuters. The agency spoke to elderly farmers who said they feared they would struggle to find a stable livelihood.

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Colorado prison evacuated as wildfire becomes one of largest in state history

Lee fire chars more than 167 sq miles with 6% containment as California crews reach 62% containment on Canyon fire

A Colorado prison was evacuated as one of the largest wildfires in state history continued to grow, and officials warned residents of remote areas to be ready to leave on Sunday as gusty winds and low humidity fed the flames.

Evacuation orders were already in place for mountain communities as the Lee fire charred more than 167 sq miles (433 sq km) across Garfield and Rio Blanco counties, with just 6% containment. No injuries or structural damage has been reported.

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JD Vance’s attempt to blame Democrats

Vice-president tries to deflect criticism and blames Biden for doing ‘absolutely nothing’ about convicted sex offender

Four days after JD Vance reportedly asked top Trump administration officials to come up with a new communications strategy for dealing with the scandal around the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he appears to have put his foot in it, sparking a new round of online outrage even as he tried to defuse the furor.

In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Sunday, the vice-president tried to deflect criticism of the administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files by blaming Democrats. He accused Joe Biden of doing “absolutely nothing” about the scandal when he was in the White House.

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CDC union says vaccine misinformation put staff at risk after Atlanta shooting

Deadly violence not random as staff have endured ‘months of mistreatment, neglect and vilification’, says union

A union representing US Centers for Disease Control employees has demanded that the federal government condemn vaccine misinformation after a man who evidently blamed the Covid-19 vaccination for making him depressed and suicidal aimed gunfire Friday at the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta.

The 30-year-old shooting suspect, who killed a police officer and died during the attack, had also tried to get into the CDC’s headquarters – but he was stopped by guards before driving to a pharmacy across the street and opening fire, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press on Saturday.

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Texas redistricting fight with Democrats ‘could last years’, threatens Greg Abbott

Governor warns lawmakers who left to foil redistricting plan that he coould call special session to extend battle

Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has stepped up his war of words with Democratic lawmakers who have left the state to foil an aggressive redistricting plan aimed at giving his Republican party five additional seats in Congress, saying on Sunday that the fight “could literally last years”.

Abbott issued his new threat on Fox News Sunday, saying that he would use his powers to call a special session of the Texas legislature to extend the battle indefinitely. The special session lasts 30 days, he said, “and as soon as this one is over, I’m going to call another one, then another one, then another one, then another one”.

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Elon Musk’s Tesla applies to supply electricity to households in Great Britain

US carmaker makes move for licence that would allow it to provide energy to domestic and business premises

Elon Musk’s Tesla is gearing up to launch a household electricity supplier in Great Britain in the coming months.

The US electric car manufacturer run by the world’s richest man has formally applied to the energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, for an electricity supply licence, according to a notice published on the watchdog’s website.

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Trump administration threatens to strip Harvard University of lucrative patents

White House escalates offensive on Ivy League university by calling for review of federally funded research

The latest phase of the Trump administration’s offensive against Harvard University is a comprehensive review of the university’s federally funded research programs, and the threat to strip the school’s lucrative portfolio of patents.

In a letter to the Harvard president, Alan Garber, posted online on Friday, Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, accused Harvard of breaching its legal and contractual requirements tied to federally funded research programs and patents.

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Atlanta CDC gunman believed Covid vaccine made him suicidal, official says

Shooter, a 30-year-old man who died during violence, fired dozens of rounds into buildings and killed police officer

A Georgia man who opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta on Friday, shooting dozens of rounds into four buildings and killing a police officer, had blamed a Covid-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press on Saturday.

The 30-year-old gunman, identified by the Georgia bureau of investigation as Patrick Joseph White, tried to get into the CDC’s headquarters but was stopped by guards before driving to a CVS across the street and opening fire, the official said. White died during Friday’s violence.

The suspect’s father contacted police and said his son was upset about the death of his dog, and had also become fixated on the Covid-19 vaccine, an official said.

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Trump nominates ex-Fox commentator Tammy Bruce for deputy UN ambassador

Bruce, dubbed a ‘great patriot’ by Trump in announcement, now serves as state department spokesperson

Donald Trump said on Saturday he was nominating Tammy Bruce, the state department spokesperson, as the next US deputy representative to the United Nations, which would make the former Fox News commentator an ambassador.

The president made the announcement on Truth Social, where he praised Bruce as a “Great Patriot, Television Personality, and Bestselling Author”.

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IRS commissioner’s removal reportedly over clash on undocumented immigrant data

Trump removed Billy Long from post months after agency said it couldn’t release information on some taxpayers

The removal of the Internal Revenue Service commissioner Billy Long after just two months in the post came after the federal tax collection agency said it could not release some information on taxpayers suspected of being in the US illegally, it was reported on Saturday.

The IRS and the White House had clashed over using tax data to help locate suspected undocumented immigrants soon before Long was dismissed by the administration, according to the Washington Post.

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Vinay Prasad returns to FDA days after leaving under pressure from Laura Loomer

Prasad left the agency after far-right influencer released edited audio misleadingly suggesting he was anti-Trump

Vinay Prasad is returning to his role overseeing vaccine, gene therapy and blood product regulation at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a little more than a week after he left the agency.

“At the FDA’s request, Dr Vinay Prasad is resuming leadership of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research,” Department Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement to Reuters.

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Path to peace cannot be decided without Ukraine, says Europe

Ukrainian and European partners to join UK foreign secretary and US vice-president at Chevening for talks

The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, and the US vice-president, JD Vance, held a meeting with Ukrainian and European partners in Britain on Saturday to discuss the drive for peace in Ukraine.

The summit comes before a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin set for next Friday in Alaska. In a comment that that was met with pushback from Kyiv, the US president said that an end to the war must involve “some swapping of territories”. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stressed early on Saturday that “Ukrainians will not give their land to occupiers”.

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Trump-backed World Liberty proposes $1.5bn crypto holder, Bloomberg News reports

Co-founded by president’s eldest sons, Eric and Don Jr, World Liberty has earned the family $500m since its launch

World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture backed by Donald Trump and the US president’s family, is sounding out investors for a $1.5bn fundraising round meant to set up a public company that will hold its WLFI tokens, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

The structure of the deal is yet to be finalized, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter, adding that large investors in the crypto and tech space had been approached for the venture.

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The Tennessee execution that ‘went horribly wrong’: how Byron Black’s killing unfolded

Witnesses say disabled death-row man was in distress upon gurney, while lawyer calls execution ‘100% botched’

For attorney Kelley Henry, the visible blood was the first indication that the execution of her client was going wrong.

At 10.15am on Tuesday inside the Riverbend maximum security prison in Nashville, the longtime Tennessee death row lawyer watched as staff attempted to place an IV into the right arm of Byron Black. Black was locked on to a gurney with crisscrossing black straps over his chest, stomach and legs, and Henry saw blood ooze from the injection site.

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Three people injured in shooting at New York City’s Times Square

NYPD say shooting took place after verbal dispute and one person is being held in custody

Three people have been injured in a shooting at New York City’s Times Square after a 17-year-old opened fire, the New York police department has said.

Police said they were questioning one person who is being held in custody, but that no charges have been pressed yet.

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Ukraine will not give up land, Zelenskyy warns ahead of Trump-Putin meeting

US president said end to war will involve ‘some swapping of territories’ before announcing meeting

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said early on Saturday that “Ukrainians will not give their land to occupiers” after Donald Trump said he would meet Vladimir Putin next week and that an end to the war must involve “some swapping of territories”.

The Ukrainian president said Kyiv was ready for real solutions that could bring peace but that any solutions without Ukraine would be against peace. “Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace. They will achieve nothing,” he said, adding that the war “cannot be ended without us, without Ukraine”.

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Trump Burger owner in Texas faces deportation after Ice arrest

Roland Beainy from Lebanon, who opened chain of restaurants in support of president, says charges ‘not true’

The owner of a Donald Trump-themed hamburger restaurant chain in Texas is facing deportation after immigration authorities under the command of the president detained him.

Roland Mehrez Beainy, 28, entered the US as “a non-immigrant visitor” from Lebanon in 2019 and was supposed to have left the country by 12 February 2024, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) spokesperson told the Guardian.

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Azerbaijan and Armenia sign peace deal at White House that creates a ‘Trump Route’ in region

Deal to end four-decade conflict includes creation of transit corridor named ‘Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity’

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a peace agreement at the White House on Friday, in a deal brokered by the US that brings decades of conflict to an end.

The two countries in the South Caucasus signed agreements with each other, as well as the US, that will reopen key transportation routes while allowing the US to seize on Russia’s declining influence in the region. The deal includes an agreement that will create a major transit corridor linking Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan, with the United States owning development rights to the corridor. It was to be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, the White House said.

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