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British-Palestinian Doctor Denied Entry to France for Senate Meeting about War in Gaza

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, speaks during an interview at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. (AP)
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, speaks during an interview at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. (AP)
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British-Palestinian Doctor Denied Entry to France for Senate Meeting about War in Gaza

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, speaks during an interview at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. (AP)
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, speaks during an interview at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. (AP)

A well-known British-Palestinian surgeon who volunteered in Gaza hospitals said he was denied entry to France on Saturday to speak at a French Senate meeting about the Israel-Hamas war. Authorities wouldn't give a reason for the decision.

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta was placed in a holding zone in the Charles de Gaulle airport and will be expelled, according to French Sen. Raymonde Poncet Monge, who had invited him to speak at the Senate.

“It’s a disgrace,” she posted on X.

Abu Sitta posted on social networks that he was denied entry in France because of a one-year ban by Germany on his entry to Europe. Germany denied him entry last month, and France and Germany are part of Europe’s border-free Schengen zone. He posted Saturday that he was being sent back to London.

The French Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry, local police and the Paris airport authority would not comment on what happened or give an explanation.

Abu Sitta had been invited by France’s left-wing Ecologists group in the Senate to speak at a colloquium Saturday about the situation in Gaza, according to the Senate press service. The gathering included testimony from medics, journalists and international legal experts with Gaza-related experience.

Last month Abu Sitta was denied entry to Germany to take part in a pro-Palestinian conference. He said he was stopped at passport control, held for several hours and then told he had to return to the UK. He said airport police told him he was refused entry due to “the safety of the people at the conference and public order.”

Abu Sitta, who recently volunteered with Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, has worked during multiple conflicts in the Palestinian territories, beginning in the late 1980s during the first Palestinian uprising. He has also worked in other conflict zones, including in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

France has seen tensions related to the Mideast conflict almost daily since the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas incursion into Israel. In recent days and weeks police have cleared out students at French campuses holding demonstrations and sit-ins similar to those in the United States.

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Zelenskyy Says US Gave Ukraine and Russia a June Deadline to Reach Agreement to End War

05 February 2026, Ukraine, Kiev: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a press conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk after their meeting. (Ukrainian Presidency/dpa)
05 February 2026, Ukraine, Kiev: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a press conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk after their meeting. (Ukrainian Presidency/dpa)
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Zelenskyy Says US Gave Ukraine and Russia a June Deadline to Reach Agreement to End War

05 February 2026, Ukraine, Kiev: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a press conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk after their meeting. (Ukrainian Presidency/dpa)
05 February 2026, Ukraine, Kiev: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a press conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk after their meeting. (Ukrainian Presidency/dpa)

The US has given Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach a deal to end the nearly four‑year war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters, as Russian strikes on energy infrastructure forced nuclear power plants to cut output on Saturday.

If the June deadline is not met, the Trump administration will likely put pressure on both sides to meet it, he added.

“The Americans are proposing the parties end the war by the beginning of this summer and will probably put pressure on the parties precisely according to this schedule,” Zelenskyy said, speaking to reporters on Friday. Zelenskyy’s comments were embargoed until Saturday morning.

“And they say that they want to do everything by June. And they will do everything to end the war. And they want a clear schedule of all events,” he said.

He said the US proposed holding the next round of trilateral talks next week in their country for the first time, likely in Miami, Zelenskyy said. “We confirmed our participation,” he added.

Zelenskyy said Russia presented the US with a $12 trillion economic proposal — which he dubbed the “Dmitriev package” after Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Bilateral economic deals with the US form part of the broader negotiating process.

Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure continued with over 400 drones and about 40 missiles launched overnight Saturday, Zelenskyy said in a post on X. Targets included the energy grid, generation facilities and distribution networks.

Ukrenergo, the state energy transmission operator, said the attack was the second mass strike on energy infrastructure since the start of the year, forcing nuclear power plants to reduce output. Eight facilities in eight regions came under attack, it said in a statement.

“As a result of missile strikes on key high-voltage substations that ensured the output of nuclear power units, all nuclear power plants in the territories under control were forced to reduce their load,” the statement said.

It said the power deficit in the country has increased “significantly” as a result of the attacks forcing an extension of hourly power outages in all regions of Ukraine.

The latest deadline follows US-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi that produced no breakthrough as the warring parties cling to mutually exclusive demands. Russia is pressing Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas, where fighting remains intense — a condition Kyiv says it will never accept.

“Difficult issues remained difficult. Ukraine once again confirmed its positions on the Donbas issue. ‘We stand where we stand’ is the fairest and most reliable model for a ceasefire today, in our opinion,” Zelenskyy said. He reiterated that the most challenging topics would be reserved for a trilateral meeting between leaders.

Zelenskyy said no common ground was reached on managing the Russian‑held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and expressed skepticism about a US proposal to turn the Donbas region, coveted by Russia, into a free economic zone as a compromise.

“I do not know whether this can be implemented, because when we talked about a free economic zone, we had different views on it,” he said.

He said in the last round of talks the negotiators discussed how a ceasefire would be technically monitored. He added that the US has reaffirmed it would play a role in that process.

Repeated Russian aerial assaults have in recent months focused on Ukraine’s power grid, causing blackouts and disrupting the heating and water supply for families during a bitterly cold winter, putting more pressure on Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said the US again proposed a ceasefire banning strikes on energy infrastructure. Ukraine is ready to observe such a pause if Russia commits; but he added that when Moscow previously agreed to a one-week pause suggested by the US, it was violated after just four days.

World

ISIS Affiliate Claims Suicide Bombing that Killed 31 at Mosque in Pakistani Capital

Mourners attend funeral prayer of the victims of Friday suicide bombing inside a mosque, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Mourners attend funeral prayer of the victims of Friday suicide bombing inside a mosque, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
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ISIS Affiliate Claims Suicide Bombing that Killed 31 at Mosque in Pakistani Capital

Mourners attend funeral prayer of the victims of Friday suicide bombing inside a mosque, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Mourners attend funeral prayer of the victims of Friday suicide bombing inside a mosque, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

An affiliate of the ISIS group claimed responsibility overnight for a deadly suicide bombing inside a Shiite mosque on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital that killed 31 people and wounded 169 others, as mourners gathered Saturday under tight security at the same mosque for funerals for the victims.

The regional ISIS affiliate, known as ISIS in Pakistan, claimed responsibility in a statement posted on its Amaq News Agency. It said the attacker arrived, opened fire on security guards who tried to stop him at the main gate and detonated his explosive vest after reaching the mosque’s inner gate.

The ISIS group suggested it viewed the Pakistani Shiites as legitimate targets, calling them a “human reservoir” that provided recruits to Shiite militias fighting ISIS in Syria.

Friday’s mosque bombing was the deadliest in Islamabad since a 2008 suicide bombing at the Marriott Hotel that killed 63 people and wounded more than 250. In November, a suicide bomber struck outside a court in the capital, killing 12 people.

The latest attack comes as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government has had to deal with a surge in militant attacks across Pakistan. According to Pakistani authorities, the attacker was a Pakistani national who had recently traveled to Afghanistan.

Authorities said several suspects, including the brother, mother and other relatives of the bomber, were arrested during overnight raids in Islamabad and in northwestern Pakistan, and that a police officer was killed in the operation.

More than 2,000 grief-stricken mourners gathered as coffins of those killed were brought to the mosque for funerals. Senior government officials and leaders of the Shiite community were among those who attended the funerals for about a dozen victims. Funerals of other victims were to be held in their home towns.

Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif told reporters Friday that the attack signaled that Pakistan-based militants operating from Afghanistan could strike even in the capital.

His remarks drew a sharp response from Afghanistan’s Taliban government.

In a statement, Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry condemned the mosque attack in Islamabad but said the Pakistani defense minister had “irresponsibly” linked it to Afghanistan. Pakistan has frequently accused Afghanistan, where the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, of harboring militants, including members of the Pakistani Taliban. Kabul denies the accusations.

The attack also drew condemnation from the international community, including the United States, Russia and the European Union.

Prime Minister Sharif said he was grateful for the messages of sympathy and support received “from across the globe” following what he called a “heart-wrenching suicide attack in Islamabad.” He said international support remained critical to Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts and vowed the perpetrators would be brought to justice.

World

Man Charged with Threatening to Kill US Vice President

US Vice President JD Vance and US second lady Usha Vance watch the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the San Siro stadium in Milan, northern Italy, on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
US Vice President JD Vance and US second lady Usha Vance watch the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the San Siro stadium in Milan, northern Italy, on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
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Man Charged with Threatening to Kill US Vice President

US Vice President JD Vance and US second lady Usha Vance watch the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the San Siro stadium in Milan, northern Italy, on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
US Vice President JD Vance and US second lady Usha Vance watch the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the San Siro stadium in Milan, northern Italy, on February 6, 2026. (AFP)

A federal grand jury charged a 33-year-old man with threatening to kill US Vice President JD Vance during his visit to Ohio in January, the Justice Department said on Friday.

Shannon Mathre, a resident of Toledo, Ohio, is accused of "making a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon" the vice president, the department said in a statement.

Mathre reportedly said he was "going to find out where he (the vice president) is going to be and use my M14 automatic gun and kill him," according to the statement. It did not say where he made the comment.

US Secret Service agents arrested Mathre on Friday.

The threat is the latest reported incident involving Vance.

Vance said in early January "a crazy person" had tried to break into his Ohio home by hammering on the windows. The vice president and his family were not home at the time, and a 26-year-old man was taken into custody, according to US media reports.

The Justice Department said on Friday it found "multiple digital files of child sexual abuse materials" in Mathre's possession while investigating the alleged threat against Vance.

Mathre made his initial court appearance before a US Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Ohio on Friday.

He is in custody pending a detention hearing on February 11, the Justice Department said.