📌 Rebulding Gaza, Trump And Zelenskyy Rift, More

Arab leaders will gather in Saudi Arabia on Friday to counter US President Donald Trump’s plan for American control of Gaza.

The plan stirred rare unity among Arab states which roundly rejected the idea, but they could still disagree over who will govern the enclave and who will pay for reconstruction.

Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi foreign policy, said the summit would be the “most consequential“ in decades in relation to the wider Arab world and the Palestinian issue. Arab leaders will reportedly discuss “a reconstruction plan counter to Trump’s plan for Gaza.“

Reconstruction will be a critical issue at the summit after Trump highlighted this as the key reason for moving its inhabitants out while Gaza’s infrastructure is rebuilt.

Egypt has not yet announced its counter-initiative, but Egyptian former diplomat Mohamed Hegazy described a plan “in three technical phases over three to five years.“

A UN estimate put the cost of rebuilding at more than $53 billion, including more than $20 billion over the first three years.

President Donald Trump warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he “better move fast“ to negotiate an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or risk not having a nation to lead.

The rhetoric from Trump toward Ukraine comes amid an escalating back-and-forth between the two presidents and rising tensions between Washington and much of Europe over Trump’s approach to settling the biggest conflict on the continent since World War II.

Trump’s harsh words for Zelenskyy drew criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans. Zelenskyy said Trump was falling into a Russian disinformation trap — and was quickly admonished by Vice President JD Vance about the perils of publicly criticizing the new president.

Trump, trying to bring the fighting to a close on terms Kyiv says are too favorable to Moscow, used an extended social media post on his Truth Social platform to lash out at Zelenskyy and call the Ukrainian a “dictator without elections.“ Due to the war, Ukraine delayed elections that were scheduled for April 2024.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, commented: “Why should dominance be handed over to a country that is an aggressor, a violator of international law, and the author of aggression against Ukraine? We still do not understand this strategy.“

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, S.D., said the Trump administration needed space as it seeks a resolution. “The president speaks for himself,“ Thune said about Trump’s sharpening rhetoric toward Zelenskyy. “What I want to see is a peaceful result, a peaceful outcome.“

Meta has announced plans to build the world’s longest underwater cable project.

Project Waterworth aims to connect the US, India, South Africa, Brazil and other regions via a 31,000-mile subsea cable, longer than the Earth’s circumference. The cable would be the longest to date that uses a 24 fibre-pair system, giving it a higher capacity, and would help support its AI projects.

Meta said in a blog post: “This project will enable greater economic cooperation, facilitate digital inclusion, and open opportunities for technological development in these regions.

“In India, where we’ve already seen significant growth and investment in digital infrastructure, Waterworth will help accelerate this progress and support the country’s ambitious plans for its digital economy.“

The company added: “We’ve driven infrastructure innovation with various partners over the past decade, developing more than 20 subsea cables.“

More than 95% of the world’s internet traffic is transferred through undersea cables, which has triggered concerns about their susceptibility to attacks or accidents and being a target during geopolitical tensions and conflict.

Research suggests that pale complexions are a relatively recent addition.

Experts at the University of Ferrara in Italy claim darker complexions were the norm throughout Europe for the vast majority (96%) of its inhabited history.

Light skin tones originally appeared in Sweden in the Mesolithic period – starting about 14,000 years ago – but remained rare, according to the researchers. The Copper and Bronze Ages (about 7,000 to 3,000 years ago) saw continued increases in light pigmentation, but darker skin types remained widespread.

By the Iron Age (about 3,000 to 1,700 years ago), light skin was nearly as frequent as dark skin, particularly in Northern and Central Europe.

For the study, the researchers analysed ancient genomes (the entire set of DNA instructions) of 348 individuals who lived between 45,000 and 1,700 years ago.

The scientists say light pigmentation became more common as Homo sapiens dispersed from Africa into regions with lower ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

About a dozen drugmakers are developing new weight-loss treatments aimed at preserving muscle.

Clinical trial experts and doctors say they may also need to demonstrate additional health benefits beyond the numbers on a scale to get approved.

The drugs are being tested to complement or replace the popular Wegovy from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly's Zepbound, which in trials helped patients lose 15% to 20% of their weight but also caused a decline in muscle that some doctors find concerning.

In trials of Wegovy, up to 40% of weight loss was from a decrease in lean or fat-free mass rather than excess fat. New drugs from Eli Lilly, Regeneron, Scholar Rock and Veru target proteins tied to muscle preservation or growth. Wegovy and Zepbound target the GLP-1 protein to help control appetite.

Veru was first with results in January from a 168-person trial, showing its enobosarm helped older patients lose 71% less muscle when taken with Wegovy. Data on Lilly's muscle mass-preserving drug, bimagrumab, is due this year.

The treatments “must be able to show not just that there is a structural change in the size of muscles or lean mass, but that there's a performance improvement,“ said Graham McMahon, endocrinologist at the Chicago-based Feinberg School of Medicine. “That's what clinicians like me will be looking for.“

Native American activist Leonard Peltier was grateful for his supporters as they welcomed him home to North Dakota.

Peltier, 80, was released from a Florida prison where he was serving a life sentence for killing two FBI agents in 1975. Peltier grew emotional as he addressed about 500 people at a festive event in Belcourt, a small town just south of the Canadian border on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians' reservation.

“I'm so proud of the showing and support you've given me,“ Peltier said. “I've got a hard time keeping myself from crying. A strong warrior can't be up crying in front of his people.“

Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden commuted Peltier's life sentence to home confinement, leading to his release. Peltier was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and given two consecutive life sentences from a 1975 confrontation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams were killed. Peltier said he fired shots but denied shooting the men. Native Americans widely believe he was a political prisoner wrongly convicted because he was fighting for indigenous rights as a member of the American Indian Movement.

Tribal leaders presented Peltier with an eagle feather staff that supporters had carried to Washington and other places as they campaigned for his release and a traditional star quilt that Peltier draped over his shoulder.

Bruce Yamate, a 16-year-old Californian, underwent a marathon surgery session that put a smile on his face again.

A bump in his mouth last year shifted one of his teeth to reveal itself as ameloblastoma, a rare and aggressive tumor of the oral cavity that threatened to erode his jawbone and, with it, his ability to chew food and smile.

Yamate would undergo a marathon surgery known as the “Jaw in a Day“ procedure. This involves two lead surgeons: one to remove the tumor and another to harvest bone from the patient’s fibula to reconstruct the jaw and dental configuration once the tumor is removed. Dental implants would replace lost teeth.

The procedures were once spread out over a year, but advances in surgical precision and 3D printing can condense them into a day. Maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Chi Viet removed the tumor while colleague Dr. Paul Walker at Loma Linda University Health worked on the leg.

The surgery was a complete success and has left Yamate excited to eat solid, crunchy food again, but also with a different perspective. “It taught me to live every moment to the fullest,“ he said. “You never know when things can change, and you have to enjoy life, even when it’s hard.“