Global News

By Malek Fouda Euronews / Agencies At least 35 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 others were injured on Wednesday as Israel continues to strike Gaza. Airstrikes targeting residences in the centre of the enclave killed at least 12 people, including children, as reported by Palestinian hospital personnel, who received the deceased. The early morning attacks targeted three residences in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The casualties included three children, two of whom were brothers, with their remains arriving in fragments, according to the morgue staff. Israel has been conducting daily strikes on homes, shelters and public spaces since it moved to resume fighting on 18 March. The blockade has deprived the more than 2 million Gazans of all imports, including essential food and medical supplies, for nearly two months. The United Nations has reported that food reserves have been depleted, and humanitarian organizations indicate that thousands of Palestinian children are suffering ...

BY SAMYA KULLAB and HANNA ARHIROVA, Associated Press Ukraine is ready to sign an agreement that would give the U.S. access to its valuable rare minerals in the hopes of ensuring continued American support for Kyiv in its grinding war with Russia, senior Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. Ukraine’s economy minister and deputy prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, flew to Washington on Wednesday to help finalize the deal, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said during an appearance on Ukrainian television. Although the main part of the agreement had been settled, there were still hurdles to overcome, said a senior Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. For Ukraine, the agreement is seen as key to ensuring its access to future U.S. military aid. “Truly, this is a strategic deal for the creation of an investment partner fund,” Shmyhal said. “This is truly an equal and good international deal on joint investme...

More than a dozen people were killed in a predominantly Druze town near the Syrian capital on Tuesday in clashes sparked by a purported recording of a Druze man cursing the Prophet Mohammad which angered Sunni gunmen, rescuers and security sources said. The fighting marked the latest episode of deadly sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minorities have been swelling since Islamist-led rebels ousted former leader Bashar al-Assad from power in December, installing their own government and security forces. Those fears spiked after the killings of hundreds of Alawites in March in apparent revenge for an attack by Assad loyalists. The clashes began overnight when gunmen from the nearby town of Maliha and other predominantly Sunni areas converged on the mostly Druze town of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, security sources said. The fighting, with small and medium arms fire, left 13 people dead, according to local rescue workers. Among the dead were two members of Syria’s Gen...

Rwanda escorted the troops of a Southern African force through Rwandan territory to Tanzania on Tuesday as they pulled out from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda’s foreign minister and army spokesperson said. The Southern African Development Community (SADC), which groups 16 states, said in mid-March it had terminated the mandate of its mission and would begin a phased withdrawal of its force, known as SAMIDRC, from Congo. The force was sent to assist Kinshasa’s fight against rebel groups in Congo’s eastern borderlands in December 2023, prompting protests by the Rwandan government, which said the deployment would aggravate the conflict. “The presence of SAMIDRC troops was always a complicating factor in the conflict, and today’s start of withdrawal marks a positive step in support of the ongoing peace process,” Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said on X. Many of SAMIDRC’s troops, thought to number several hundred, sought shelter in U.N. peacekeeping bases af...

BY ROB GILLIES AP Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party won Canada’s federal election on Monday, capping a stunning turnaround in fortunes fueled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s annexation threats and trade war. After polls closed, the Liberals were projected to win more of Parliament’s 343 seats than the Conservatives. It wasn’t immediately clear, though, if they would win an outright majority — at least 172 — or would need to rely on one of the smaller parties to pass legislation. The Liberals looked headed for a crushing defeat until the American president started  attacking Canada’s economy and threatening its sovereignty , suggesting it should become the 51st state. Trump’s actions infuriated Canadians and stoked a  surge in nationalism  that helped the Liberals flip the election narrative and win a fourth-straight term in power. In a victory speech before supporters in Ottawa, Carney stressed the importance of Canadian unity in the face of Washington’s thr...

Power started returning to parts of the Iberian peninsula late on Monday after a huge outage brought parts of Spain and Portugal to a standstill, grounding planes, halting public transport, and forcing some hospitals to suspend routine operations. Spain’s Interior Ministry declared a national emergency and governments from the two countries convened emergency cabinet meetings as officials tried to find out what caused the mass blackout, which began around 1033 GMT. Outages on such a scale are extremely rare in Europe. Officials said the reasons for the blackout were unclear, with Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro saying there was “no indication” a cyberattack was the cause. In Spain, power started returning to the Basque country and Barcelona areas in the early afternoon, and to parts of capital Madrid on Monday night. Power was also gradually returning to various municipalities in Portugal late on Monday, including Lisbon city centre. “We do not yet have conclusive inform...

Firefighters in Iran battled raging fires on Monday at the country’s largest commercial port, two days after a massive explosion killed at least 40 people, state TV reported. The blast took place on Saturday at Shahid Rajaee Port in Iran’s south near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one-fifth of global oil output passes. It killed at least 40 people and injured more than 1,000 others, officials said, after triggering smaller explosions and fires in nearby containers. Iran’s state TV showed images of firefighters dousing the flames, and said the damage will be assessed after the fire is fully brought under control. Thick, swirling plumes of smoke rose over the stacked containers at the site, the TV images showed. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion but the port’s customs office said it likely resulted from a fire that broke out at the hazardous and chemical materials storage depot. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered a pr...

The driver of a car struck revelers at a street festival in  Canada , killing and injuring an unknown number of people at the event celebrating Filipino culture, police said. The vehicle entered the street at 8:14 p.m. Saturday where people were attending the Lapu Lapu Day festival, the Vancouver Police Department said in a social media post. “A number of people have been killed and multiple others are injured after a driver drove into a crowd,” police said. The exact number of dead or injured was not immediately available. A 30-year-old Vancouver man was arrested at the scene and the department’s Major Crime Section is overseeing the investigation, police said. The festival was being held in a South Vancouver neighborhood. Video posted on social media showed victims and debris strewn across a long stretch of road, with at least seven people lying immobile on the ground. A black SUV with a crumpled front section could be seen in still photos from the scene. “I am shocked and d...

By Nicole Winfield And Colleen Barry, The Associated Press World leaders and Catholic faithful bade farewell to  Pope Francis  in a funeral Saturday reflecting his priorities as pope and wishes as pastor. Though presidents and princes attended the Mass in St. Peter’s Square, prisoners and migrants will welcome him into the basilica across town where he will be laid to rest. Tens of thousands of people flocked before dawn to the square on a brilliant spring day that was supposed to have been a special Holy Year celebration for adolescents. Perhaps because so many young people were on hand, the somber ceremony still had a festive mood, with mourners taking selfies amid the hymns as Francis’ simple coffin was brought out of St. Peter’s Basilica at the start of the Mass. Francis had  choreographed the funeral himself  when he revised and simplified the Vatican’s rites and rituals last year. His aim was to emphasize the pope’s role as a mere pastor and not “a powerful ...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi Reuters An Israeli airstrike hit a police station in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 10 people, local health authorities said, and Israel’s military said it had struck a command centre of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad groups. Medics said two Israeli missiles hit the police station, located near a market, which led to the wounding of dozens of people in addition to the 10 deaths. The identities of those killed were not immediately clear. The Israeli military said in a statement apparently referring to the same incident, that it attacked a command and control centre operated by Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad groups in Jabalia, which militants used to plan and execute attacks against Israeli forces. It accused Palestinian militant groups of exploiting civilians and civil properties for military purposes, an allegation Hamas and other factions deny. Local health authorities said Israeli strikes have killed at least 34 other peopl...

BY AAMER MADHANI and SAMUEL PETREQUIN AP President Donald Trump on Thursday offered  rare criticism of Vladimir Putin , urging the Russian leader to “STOP!” after a deadly barrage of attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying.” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!” Russia struck Kyiv with an hourslong barrage of missiles and drones. At least 12 people were killed and 90 were injured in the  deadliest assault on the city  since last July. Trump’s frustration is growing as a U.S.-led effort to get a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia has not made progress. The comments about Putin came after Trump  lashed out  at Ukrainian President  Volodymyr Zelenskyy  on Wednesday and accused him of prolonging the “killing field” by refusing to surrender the Russia-occupied  Crimean...

BY AIJAZ HUSSAIN and SHEIKH SAALIQ AP Tensions between arch rivals India and Pakistan were high on Thursday as New Delhi  mounted a diplomatic offensive  against Islamabad, blaming it for a  deadly attack  that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in disputed Kashmir. India accused Islamabad of supporting “cross-border terrorism” Wednesday night and imposed diplomatic measures, including downgrading diplomatic ties, suspending of a key water-sharing treaty and closing the main land border crossing with Pakistan. Pakistan has denied the accusation and a previously unknown militant group calling itself Kashmir Resistance has claimed responsibility for the attack. Islamabad said it would respond to India’s actions on Thursday and convene its National Security Committee, which is composed of senior civil and military officials. “India has taken irresponsible steps and leveled allegations,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told local Dunya News TV channel. Dar said...

By Daren Butler Reuters More than 150 people were injured when they jumped from buildings in Istanbul on Wednesday as one of the strongest quakes in years hit the city. Many people gathered in parks and others sat on doorsteps, or stood outside their homes in the centre of Istanbul as aftershocks from the magnitude 6.2 quake on the European side of the city continued to be felt. “It started with a big tremor all of a sudden and we felt it very strongly,” said Istanbul resident Neslisah Aygoren, sitting in a park. “I ran straight to my dog in fear, hugged it and we waited for it to end, lying on the ground. After that, we took our belongings and went straight to the street.” A total of 151 people were hurt and received hospital treatment after leaping from buildings in panic during the tremor but none were in a critical condition, the Istanbul governor’s office said. It said one abandoned building collapsed in central Istanbul, but nobody was hurt there, while there was no damage ...

By Chloe Rouveyrolles-Bazire AFP On deserted university grounds in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian children run outside nearly empty buildings, their playground after being driven from their homes by a major Israeli “counter-terrorism” operation. Between a stadium and flower fields where goats now graze, the children play to escape boredom. They have no school to go to since the Israeli military ordered residents to leave the Jenin refugee camp more than two months ago. Mohammed Shalabi, a 53-year-old father who is among several hundred Palestinians sheltering at the university campus in Jenin city, recalled the day he heard that special Israeli forces were inside the camp. “Everyone knows that when the army enters, it destroys the infrastructure, even the cars,” said the municipal worker. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced from the northern West Bank since Israel launched the offensive dubbed “Iron Wall” on January 21 in the area. Shalabi first left Jenin ...

-Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, has died, the Vatican said in a video statement on Monday, ending an often turbulent reign marked by division and tension as he sought to overhaul the hidebound institution. He was 88, and had recently survived a serious bout of double pneumonia. “Dear brothers and sisters, it is with profound sadness I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced on the Vatican’s TV channel. His death comes a day after he appeared in St Peter’s Square to wish “Happy Easter” to thousands of worshippers “At 7:35 this morning the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father.” Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope on March 13, 2013, surprising many Church watchers who had seen the Argentine cleric, known for his concern for the poor, as an outsider. He sought to project simplicity into the grand role and never took possession of the ornate papal apartments in the A...

Al Qaeda affiliate JNIM said it killed 70 soldiers in raids on two military posts in north Benin, the biggest death count claimed by jihadists in the country in over a decade of activity in West Africa, the SITE Intelligence Group said on Saturday. The West African state and its coastal neighbour Togo have suffered a series of attacks in recent years as groups linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda have expanded their presence beyond the Sahel region to the north. Reuters news agency could not immediately confirm the report independently. Benin’s army spokesman Ebenezer Honfoga did not respond to calls and messages. SITE quoted a statement by Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) on Thursday saying 70 soldiers were killed in attacks on two military posts in Benin’s northeastern Kandi province in the Alibori department, more than 500 km (300 miles) from the capital Cotonou. U.S. group SITE tracks online content from militant groups. The Sahel insurgency took root after a Tuar...

Thousands of protesters rallied Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the United States for a second major round of demonstrations against Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans like “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting “No ICE, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” a reference to the role of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in rounding up migrants. In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The administration is carrying out “a direct assault on the idea of the rule of law and the idea that the government should be restrained from abusing the people who live here in the United States,” Benjamin Douglas, 41, told AFP outside the White House. Wearing a keffi...

Sitting in a crowd of mothers and children under the harsh sun, Najlaa Ahmed described the moment the Rapid Support Forces men poured into Darfur’s Zamzam displacement camp, looting and burning homes as shells rained down and drones flew overhead. She lost track of most of her family as she fled. “I don’t know what’s become of them, my mother, father, siblings, my grandmother, I came here with strangers,” she said – one of six survivors who told Reuters of arson and executions in the raid. The Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group – two years into its conflict with Sudan’s army – seized the massive camp in North Darfur a week ago in an attack that the United Nations says left at least 300 people dead and forced 400,000 to flee. The RSF did not respond to a request for comment, but has denied accusations of atrocities and said the camp was being used as a base by forces loyal to the army. Humanitarian groups have denounced the raid as a targeted attack on civilians already facing f...

By Bart H. Meijer and Dominique Vidalon Reuters U.S. President Donald Trump will walk away from trying to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within days unless there are clear signs that a deal can be done, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday. “We’re not going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months on end. So we need to determine very quickly now, and I’m talking about a matter of days whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks,” Rubio said in Paris after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders. “The president feels very strongly about that. He has dedicated a lot of time and energy to this … this is important, but there are a lot of other really important things going on that deserves just as much, if not more attention.” Rubio’s warning came amid signs of some progress in U.S. talks with Ukraine. Trump said on Thursday he expected to sign a deal with Kyiv next week that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s minerals. An attempt to sign a mi...

The Colombian government will suspend a ceasefire with a faction of what was once the armed Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group, it said on Thursday, though it said the decision did not imply the end of peace talks with the group. The ceasefire between the government and the FARC-EP group expired earlier this week. An extension was expected to be agreed upon, but failed to be settled in time. The ceasefire had been in effect since December 2023 and had been extended several times. Now, both parties have 72 hours to move to locations where they will take up their own security and protection measures, as agreed on. The peace talks with this branch of the FARC, with around 1,500 members, are part of President Gustavo Petro’s efforts to end a six-decade-long armed conflict that has left more than 450,000 people dead. Still, his government has made little progress since he took office in 2022. There was no immediate reaction to the ceasefire’s end from the FAR...

By Daniel Lawler AFP Astronomers announced Thursday that they had detected the most promising “hints” of potential life on a planet beyond our solar system, though other scientists expressed scepticism. There has been vigorous debate in scientific circles about whether the planet K2-18b, which is 124 light years away in the Leo constellation, could be an ocean world capable of hosting microbial life. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, a British-US team of researchers detected signs of two chemicals in the planet’s atmosphere long considered to be “biosignatures” indicating extraterrestrial life. On Earth, the chemicals dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide are produced only by life, mostly microscopic marine algae called phytoplankton. The researchers emphasised caution, saying that more observations were needed to confirm these findings, and that they were not announcing a definitive discovery. But the implications could be huge, according to Nikku Madhusudhan, a Camb...

Al Shabaab fighters attacked a town in central Somalia on Wednesday that government forces have been using as a staging area for their efforts to drive back the militants, who have been gaining ground in recent weeks, residents said. Advances by the  al Qaeda affiliate , which included briefly capturing villages within 50 km (30 miles) of Mogadishu last month, have left residents of the capital on edge amid rumours al Shabaab could target the city. The army has recaptured those villages, but al Shabaab has continued to advance in the countryside, leading the government to deploy police officers and prison guards to support the military, soldiers have told Reuters. The town attacked on Wednesday, Adan Yabaal, lies around 245 kilometres north of Mogadishu and has been used as an operating base for raids on al Shabaab. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who hails from the area, visited Adan Yabaal last month to meet with military commanders there about reinforcing them. “After earl...

By Kevin Yao and Yukun Zhang Reuters China’s first-quarter economic growth outstripped expectations, underpinned by solid consumption and industrial output, but analysts fear momentum could shift sharply lower as U.S. tariffs pose the biggest risk to the Asian powerhouse in decades. President Donald Trump has ratcheted up tariffs on Chinese goods to eye-watering levels, prompting Beijing to slap retaliatory duties on U.S. imports that have raised the stakes for the world’s two biggest economies and rattled financial markets. Data on Wednesday showed China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.4% in the January-March quarter from a year earlier, unchanged from the fourth quarter, but surpassed analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a rise of 5.1%. Growth momentum is expected to cool sharply in the next few quarters, however, as Washington’s tariff shock hits the crucial export engine, heaping pressure on Chinese leaders to roll out more support measures to keep the world’s sec...

G7 foreign ministers on Tuesday issued a statement calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Sudan and condemning attacks by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces. The war in  Sudan  erupted in April 2023, sparked by a power struggle between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, shattering hopes for a transition to civilian rule. US condemns Sudan’s RSF for attacks on civilians, calls for accountability The Trump administration on Tuesday condemned attacks by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on civilians in North Darfur and called for parties in the country’s civil war to be held accountable for breaches of international humanitarian law. “We are deeply alarmed by reports the RSF has deliberately targeted civilians and humanitarian actors in Zamzam and Abu Shouk,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters, referring to two camps in the region where  hundreds of thousands of people  have been displaced in recent days, according to the U...