Morning Briefing: Feb. 22, 2025

By Efe Ozkan

ISTANBUL (AA) - Here’s a rundown of all the news you need to start your Saturday, including the hostage swap deal in Gaza, German leaders holding their final campaign rallies and Israeli raids in the West Bank.

TOP STORIES

- Gaza ceasefire, hostage swap deal

Hamas military wing Al-Qassam Brigades announced Friday the names of six Israeli captives set to be released on Saturday in the seventh hostage-prisoner exchange of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire. Israel will free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return.

Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem-Tov, Omer Wenkert, Tal Shoham, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham Al-Sayed will be set free, according to spokesperson Abu Obeida.

- German leaders hold final campaign rallies

Conservative opposition leader and chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz will hold his final campaign rally in the southeastern city of Munich while Chancellor Olaf Scholz will meet voters at his final campaign event in Potsdam, near Berlin.

Recent polls show Merz's center-right CDU/CSU alliance leading with 30%, though unable to secure an outright majority in parliament. Analysts expect him to seek a coalition with either the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) or the Greens to form a government. Chancellor Scholz's SPD currently stands at 16%, with the Greens at 14%.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is positioned to become parliament's second-largest party at 20%. However, the AfD appears unlikely to be part of any coalition government, as all other parties have rejected working with the far-right group.

- Israeli raids in West Bank

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered on Friday a Palestinian home in the Tulkarem refugee camp accompanied by soldiers.

His visit came just hours after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz entered the same home during his own tour of the area.

He instructed an “intensive” military crackdown in the occupied territory after explosions tore through three empty buses in parking lots in the Tel Aviv suburbs of Bat Yam and Holon on Thursday evening.

NEWS IN BRIEF

• US Supreme Court prevented President Donald Trump from firing the head of the US Office of Special Counsel.
• US President Donald Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Brown in an unprecedented military shakeup.
• Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani expected to travel to Baghdad, marking his first official visit to Iraq.
• The Israeli army launched airstrikes on sites along the Syria-Lebanon border, claiming Hezbollah was using them to transfer weapons into Lebanon.
• Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa meet Chinese Ambassador to Syria Shi Hongwei.
• South Africa concluded the G20 foreign ministers meeting; a range of global issues were discussed.
  

SPORTS

French bill banning headscarves in sports 'exclusivism'

A French bill banning headscarves in sports is exclusivism, a representative organization for youth in sports told Anadolu.

“This law directly targets the exclusion of women who wear a sports headscarf,” said ANESTAPS President Lily Rogier.

The French Senate will debate and vote on a bill to extend the ban on religious symbols, including headscarves, to all sports competitions in France.

The proposed legislation also seeks to prohibit collective prayers in publicly funded sports facilities.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

US stocks end week with huge losses, fear index soars

The New York Stock Exchange closed the last trading day of the week with sharp declines due to weak US economic data and concerns related to inflationary pressures.

The composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which includes manufacturing and services sectors, fell 2.3 points on a monthly basis to 50.4, and recorded its lowest in 17 months.

Consumers' short-term inflation expectations rose from 3.3% to 4.3% in February, the highest since November 2023, and long-term also rose from 3.2% to 3.5%; it was the largest monthly increase since May 2021.