World news briefs: US suspends licences to ship nuclear plant parts to China

Rwanda threatens to quit bloc over DRC tensions

Kigali — Rwanda has said it would withdraw from the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), underscoring diplomatic tensions in the region over an offensive this year by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in eastern DRC.

Kigali had expected to assume the chair of the 11-member bloc at a meeting on Saturday in Equatorial Guinea.

Instead, the bloc kept Equatorial Guinea in the role, which Rwanda’s foreign ministry denounced as a violation of its rights.

Rwanda, in a statement, condemned DRC’s “instrumentalisation” of the bloc and saw “no justification for remaining in an organisation whose current functioning runs counter to its founding principles.”

It wasn’t clear if Rwanda’s exit from the bloc would take immediate effect. Reuters

Rachel Reeves to allocate £86bn for scientific R&D

London — British finance minister Rachel Reeves will allocate £86bn in this week’s spending review to fund research & development, the department for science, innovation and technology (DSIT) said on Sunday.

It said the package, funding everything from new drug treatments and longer-lasting batteries to artificial intelligence breakthroughs, would be worth over £22.5bn a year by 2029/30, driving new jobs and economic growth.

Reeves will divide more than £2-trillion of public money between her ministerial colleagues on Wednesday, making choices that will define what the year-old Labour government can achieve in the next four years. Reuters

Yusuf to return to Reform UK after burka spat

London — Zia Yusuf said on Saturday he would return to Britain’s right-wing Reform UK party, two days after quitting as its chair, blaming his abrupt resignation on exhaustion from the job.

Yusuf, a businessman who is not a legislator himself, resigned on Thursday hours after a row with a Reform legislator over her call for a ban on the burka, the full-length garment worn by some Muslim women.

Yusuf became Reform chair last year, tasked by party leader Nigel Farage with professionalising the party.

While it has since overtaken Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour in the polls, the exit of several senior figures has raised questions over whether Farage can hold together a team ahead of the next election, expected in 2029. Reuters

Pope Leo calls for open borders to dispel hatred

Vatican City — Pope Leo criticised the emergence of nationalist political movements on Sunday, calling them unfortunate, without naming a specific country or national leader.

Leo, the first pope from the US, asked during a Mass with a crowd of tens of thousands in St Peter’s Square that God would “open borders, break down walls (and) dispel hatred.”

“There is no room for prejudice, for ‘security’ zones separating us from our neighbours, for the exclusionary mindset that, unfortunately, we now see emerging also in political nationalisms,” said the pontiff.

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost was not shy about criticising US President Donald Trump, sharing numerous disapproving posts about Trump and vice-president JD Vance on X in recent years. Reuters

IDF retrieves body of Thai held hostage by Hamas

Jerusalem/Cairo — The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7 2023 attack, defence minister Israel Katz said on Saturday, as Israeli air strikes killed 55 people, according to local medics.

Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian militant group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.

Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the US- and Israeli-backed aid group, said on Saturday it was unable to distribute assistance to Palestinian civilians, blaming threats by Hamas, which Gaza’s dominant militant group denied. Reuters

Iran lashes out at ‘deeply hostile’ Trump travel ban

Dubai — Tehran on Saturday blasted US President Donald Trump’s travel ban on countries including Iran, saying it showed “deep hostility” towards Iranians and Muslims.

“The decision to ban the entry of Iranian nationals — merely due to their religion and nationality — not only indicates the deep hostility of American decisionmakers towards the Iranian people and Muslims but also violates… international law,” a senior foreign ministry official said in a ministry statement posted on the X platform.

Separately, Iran on Saturday condemned new sanctions imposed by the US targeting more than 30 individuals and entities Washington said are part of a “shadow banking” network linked to Tehran that has laundered billions of dollars through the global financial system. Reuters

US-China trade war: nuclear equipment suppliers hit

New York/Singapore — The US in recent days suspended licences for nuclear equipment suppliers to sell to China’s power plants, according to four people familiar with the matter, as the two countries engage in a damaging trade war.

The suspensions were sent to companies by the US department of commerce, the people said, and affect export licences for parts and equipment used with nuclear power plants.

Nuclear equipment suppliers are among a wide range of companies whose sales have been restricted over the past two weeks as the US-China trade war shifted from negotiating tariffs to throttling each other’s supply chains.

It is unclear whether a Thursday call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would affect the suspensions. Reuters