Global News

BY Marchio GORBIANO AFP Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Sunday spoke out against protests over economic conditions and inequality, saying some actions in rallies that have spread across the country in recent days amounted to treason and terrorism. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy was rocked by protests in major cities, including the capital Jakarta, in recent days after footage spread of a motorcycle taxi driver being run over by a police tactical vehicle at an earlier rally against perks for lawmakers. “The rights to peaceful assembly should be respected and protected. But we cannot deny that there are signs of actions outside the law, even against the law, even leaning towards treason and terrorism,” Prabowo said in a speech in Jakarta. He said protests should take place peacefully and if people destroyed public facilities or looted private homes “the state must step in to protect its citizens”. His comments come after the house of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati...

An Israeli airstrike killed the prime minister of the Houthi rebel-controlled government in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, the Houthis said Saturday. He was the most senior Houthi official killed in the Israeli-U.S. campaign against the Iranian-backed rebels. Ahmed al-Rahawi was killed in a Thursday strike in Sanaa along with a number of ministers, the rebels said in a statement. Other ministers and officials were wounded, the statement added without providing further details. The premier was targeted along with other members of his Houthi-controlled government during a “routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activities and performance over the past year,” the Houthi statement said. Thursday’s Israeli strike took place as the rebel-owned television station was broadcasting a speech by Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the secretive leader of the rebel group in which he was sharing updates on the latest Gaza developments and vowing retaliation against Israel. Senior ...

Russia launched “massive” strikes across Ukraine overnight, rescue services said on Saturday, a new blow to peace efforts that drew a fresh appeal from President Volodymyr Zelensky for US and European help. Despite a recent flurry of international efforts to broker a truce in the three-and-a-half-year conflict, led by US President Donald Trump, there have been no signs of a let-up in fighting on the ground. Ukrainian rescue services said on Telegram that overnight strikes on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia had killed at least one person and wounded at least 25. Three children aged between nine and 16 were admitted to hospital. Russia confirmed it had launched overnight attacks, saying they were against “military” targets. Zaporizhzhia regional governor Ivan Fedorov said residential buildings were hit and scores of homes left without gas or electricity. The cities of Dnipro and Pavlograd in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk also came under attack early on Saturday, causing fi...

At least 70 people were killed when a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of West Africa, Gambia’s foreign affairs ministry said late on Friday, in one of the deadliest accidents in recent years along a popular migration route to Europe. Another 30 people are feared dead after the vessel, believed to have departed from Gambia and carrying mostly Gambian and Senegalese nationals, sank off the coast of Mauritania early on Wednesday, the ministry said in a statement. It was carrying an estimated 150 passengers, 16 of whom had been rescued. Mauritanian authorities recovered 70 bodies on Wednesday and Thursday, and witness accounts suggest over 100 may have died, the statement said. The Atlantic migration route from the coast of West Africa to the Canary Islands, typically used by African migrants trying to reach Spain, is one of the world’s deadliest. More than 46,000 irregular migrants reached the Canary Islands last year, a record, according to the European Union. More than...

BY WAFAA SHURAFA, SAM METZ and JULIA FRANKEL, Associated Press Israel’s military has suspended mid-day pauses to fighting, which had allowed the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza City, saying on Friday that the city was now “a dangerous combat zone.” The city was among the places that Israel paused fighting last month to allow food and aid supplies to enter from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The “tactical pauses” applied to Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering. The suspension came as Israel prepared to widen its offensive in the city, days after it reported strikes in key neighborhoods and called up tens of thousands of reservists. Israel’s military did not say whether they had notified residents or aid groups of the impending declaration ahead of the 11:30 a.m. announcement. Israel has in the past called Gaza City a Hamas stronghold, with a network of tunnels that remain in use by militants after several previous large-sca...

Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Friday dismissed Paetongtarn Shinawatra from her position as prime minister, ruling that as the country’s leader she violated constitutional rules on ethics in a phone call with Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen. The ruling means she immediately loses her job, which she had held for about a year. Paetongtarn was suspended from her duties on July 1 when the court agreed to hear the case against her, and Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai took over her responsibilities. Paetongtarn’s leaked June 15 call with Hun Sen was aimed at easing tensions over competing claims to territory along their border, but sparked outrage in Thailand because Paetongtarn seemed overly friendly in discussing a matter of national security and appeared to malign a Thai army general. Audio of the call was leaked online by Hun Sen, who was Cambodia’s prime minister for 38 years until his son Hun Manet took over the job in 2023. The phone call came as long-standing te...

By Ahmed Kingimi Reuters A cholera outbreak in Bukkuyum district of Zamfara state, northwest Nigeria, has claimed at least eight lives and infected over 200 people across 11 communities, residents and local officials said on Thursday, as limited healthcare access and insecurity exacerbate the crisis. Cholera, a water-borne disease, is not uncommon in Nigeria where health officials cite widespread shortages of clean water in rural areas and urban slums. The affected rural communities, including Nasarawa-Burkullu, Gurusu, and Adabka, have been overwhelmed, with many patients treated at home due to the lack of primary healthcare facilities. “We have over 21 patients presently admitted, although three died due to delays in reaching Nasarawa General Hospital,” Muhammad Jibci, village head of Gurusu told Reuters by phone late on Thursday. Ya’u Umar, another resident from the affected communities, said 53 people were infected in his village. “We don’t have medicine or drips. Bandits prev...

By Nidal Al-Mughrabi Reuters More Palestinian families left Gaza City on Tuesday after a night of Israeli shelling on its outskirts, as Israelis launched a day of nationwide protests calling for hostages to be released and the  war in Gaza  to end. Residents said Israeli aerial and tank shelling continued throughout the night and early on Tuesday in the eastern Gaza City suburbs of Sabra, Shejaia, and Tuffah, as well as in Jabalia town to the north, destroying roads and houses. “Earthquakes, we call it, they want to scare people to leave their homes,” said Ismail, 40, a Gaza City resident. The Israeli military has said its forces are operating in the area to locate weapons and destroy tunnels used by militants. Despite widespread  protests  at home and international condemnation, Israel is preparing to launch a new offensive in Gaza City, in what it describes as Hamas’ last bastion. Israeli strikes  at Nasser Hospital  in the southern Gaza Strip on Mon...

BY Beiyi SEOW AFP US tariffs of 50 percent took effect Wednesday on many Indian products, doubling an existing duty as President Donald Trump sought to punish New Delhi for buying Russian oil. Trump has raised pressure on India over the energy transactions, a key source of revenue for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, as part of a campaign to end the conflict. The latest salvo strains US-India ties, giving New Delhi fresh incentive to improve relations with Beijing. While Trump has slapped fresh duties on allies and competitors alike since returning to the presidency in January, this 50-percent level is among the highest that US trading partners face. Crucially, however, exemptions remain for sectors that could be hit with separate levies — like pharmaceuticals and computer chips. The Trump administration has launched investigations into these and other sectors that could culminate in further duties. Smartphones are in the list of exempted products as well. Industries that have already b...

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Jaidaa Taha Reuters Syria said that Israel had sent 60 soldiers to take control of an area inside the Syrian border around Mount Hermon in an operation that violated its sovereignty and posed a further threat to regional security. An Israeli military spokesperson said troops carried out a routine operational activity in an area of southern Syria but did not operate in Beit Jinn, an area close to the border with Lebanon and near Mount Hermon. The incident comes as the two countries engage in U.S.-mediated talks on de-escalating their conflict in southern Syria. Damascus hopes to reach a security arrangement that could eventually pave the way for broader political talks. Monday’s incident took place near a strategic hilltop that overlooks Beit Jinn, the Syrian ministry said. Israel also arrested six Syrians there, according to residents in the area. The Israeli military said they made no arrests during their activity in southern Syria but they detained one...

By STEPHANIE LIECHTENSTEIN AP Representatives from Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3 nations, are set to hold last-minute talks with their Iranian counterparts in Geneva on Tuesday amid a fast-approaching deadline for the Europeans to reimpose sanctions on Iran by triggering the so-called snapback mechanism. The meeting was announced by the spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday. The talks follow a  previous meeting  between the Europeans and Iran in Istanbul on July 25. The Europeans’ concern over the Iranian nuclear program, which had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels before  the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June  saw its atomic sites bombed, has only grown since Tehran cut off all cooperation with  the International Atomic Energy Agency  in the conflict’s wake. That has left the international community further blinded to Iran’s program — as well as the status of its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% purit...

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL AP Vietnam has evacuated hundreds of thousands of people and closed schools and airports as it braces for Typhoon Kajiki, its strongest storm of the year so far. More than 586,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes – thousands of soldiers are on standby to assist with evacuations Forecasters said the typhoon had winds of up to 166 kilometers (103 miles) per hour at 10 a.m. Monday but is expected to weaken slightly before making landfall between central Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh provinces later in the afternoon. The typhoon started as a weak tropical depression on Aug. 22 but grew into a powerful storm in less than two days, matching last year’s Typhoon Yagi as one of the region’s fastest-growing, according to state media. Its rapid strengthening forced Vietnamese authorities to rush emergency measures as strong winds and heavy rain hit the region. Last year, Typhoon Yagi killed about 300 people and caused $3.3 billion in damage. Kaj...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Lili Bayer Reuters  Israeli planes and tanks pounded the eastern and northern outskirts of Gaza City overnight Saturday to Sunday, destroying buildings and homes, residents said, as Israeli leaders vowed to press on with a planned offensive on the city. Witnesses reported the sound of explosions non-stop overnight in the areas of Zeitoun and Shejaia, while tanks shelled houses and roads in the nearby Sabra neighbourhood and several buildings were blown up in the northern town of Jabalia. Fire lit the skies from the direction of the explosions, causing panic, prompting some families to stream out of the city. Others said they would prefer to die and not leave. The Israeli military said on Sunday that its forces have returned to combat in the Jabalia area in recent days, to dismantle militant tunnels and strengthen control of the area. It added that the operation there “enables the expansion of combat into additional areas and prevents Hamas terrorists f...

By Susan NJANJI AFP Nigeria’s airforce said it had killed more than 35 jihadists in raids Saturday on militant fighters that had gathered near the Nigeria–Cameroon border following an attempted attack on ground troops. The air strike was the latest by the Nigerian military, which is battling a resurgence of attacks in the country’s embattled northeast. The region faces frequent attacks from the jihadist fighters of Boko Haram and its rival splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). “Acting on multiple intelligence from several sources, the Air Component executed precision strikes in successive passes, engaging the terrorists and neutralising more than 35 fighters at four identified assembly areas,” said a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) statement. They had re-established communication with the ground troops that had been threatened and they confirmed that the “situation around their location had been stabilised”, the statement added. Both ISWAP and Boko Haram have r...

By MARIAM DAGGA and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 25 Palestinians including people sheltering in tents or seeking scarce food Saturday in Gaza, local hospitals said, as a famine in Gaza’s largest city sparks new pressure on Israel over its 22-month offensive. Israel’s defense minister has warned that Gaza City could be destroyed in a new military operation perhaps just days away, even as famine spreads there. Aid groups have long warned that the war, sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and months of Israeli restrictions on food and medical supplies entering Gaza are causing starvation. Israel has rejected the data-based famine declaration as “an outright lie.” Ceasefire efforts are on hold as mediators await Israel’s next steps. Women and children struck and killed in tents Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people in southern Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to morgue records and...

Vietnam has significantly expanded island-building work in areas it claims in the Spratly Islands chain of the disputed South China Sea and will match and likely surpass the scale of such activity there by China, a U.S. think tank reported on Friday. Recent satellite imagery showed that since the start of this year, Vietnam has expanded island-building to eight features previously untouched by a round of reclamation that began in 2021, the report from Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies said. The report from CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, said the imagery showed Vietnam has undertaken dredging and landfill work at Alison Reef, Collins Reef, East Reef, Landsdowne Reef and Petley Reefs. The work meant that all 21 Vietnamese-occupied rocks and low-tide elevations in the Spratly Islands chain have now been expanded to include artificial land, when four years ago a majority hosted only isolated pillbox structures. The report said new expansion had ...

Russia launched 574 drones and 40 ballistic and cruise missiles overnight, in one of its biggest aerial attacks on Ukraine of the year, the Ukrainian Air Force said Thursday, while a recent diplomatic push to stop the three-year war is trying to gain momentum. The attack mostly targeted western regions of the country, the air force said, where much of the military aid provided by Ukraine’s Western allies is believed to be delivered and stored. The strikes killed at least one person and injured 15 others, according to officials. It was Russia’s third-largest aerial attack this year in terms of the number of drones fired and the eighth-largest in terms of missiles, according to official Ukrainian figures. Most such Russian attacks have hit civilian areas. The strikes occurred during a renewed U.S.-led effort to reach a peace settlement following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor. U.S. President Donald Trump discussed the war with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alask...

TUNIS -Thousands of members and supporters of Tunisia’s powerful Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) protested in the capital over what they called a decline in union rights and civic freedoms. It was one of the largest political demonstrations Tunisia has seen recently, and comes amid a deepening standoff between the UGTT and President Kais Saied. Last month, a UGTT strike over wages and working conditions disrupted transport services across the country and piled pressure on Saied to deal with a deepening economic crisis. In response, hundreds of Saied’s supporters staged a rally outside the UGTT headquarters early this month to urge the president to suspend the union. Thursday’s protest started in front of the UGTT headquarters in Tunis and passed through Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the site of mass protests that led to the downfall of President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 and sparked the Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East. Demonstrators chanted slogans including, “The...

By Alexander Cornwell, Maayan Lubell and Nidal Al-Mughrabi Reuters Israel’s military announced the first steps of an operation to take over Gaza City on Wednesday and called up tens of thousands of reservists while the government considered a new ceasefire proposal to pause nearly two years of war. “We have begun the preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack on Gaza City, and already now IDF forces are holding the outskirts of Gaza City,” Brigadier General Effie Defrin, Israel’s military spokesperson, told reporters. A military official briefing reporters earlier on Wednesday said reserve soldiers would not report for duty until September, an interval that gives mediators some time to bridge gaps between Hamas and Israel over truce terms. But after Israeli troops clashed with Hamas fighters in the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli leader sped up the timeline for taking control o...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that discussing any Western security guarantees for Ukraine without Russian involvement was a “road to nowhere”. NATO military chiefs were set Wednesday to discuss the details of eventual security guarantees for Ukraine amid efforts to broker an end to Russia’s offensive. But Lavrov warned that “seriously discussing security guarantees without the Russian Federation is a utopia, a road to nowhere. “We cannot agree that it is now suggested to solve collective security issues without the Russian Federation,” he told reporters. President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and the ensuing conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes. US President Donald Trump, who spoke Monday with his Russian counterpart, said Putin had agreed to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine. Lavrov said in their phone call ...

India and China agreed on Tuesday to resume direct flights and step up trade and investment flows as the neighbours rebuild ties damaged by a 2020 border clash. The Asian giants are cautiously strengthening ties against the backdrop of U.S. President Donald Trump’s unpredictable foreign policy, staging a series of high-level bilateral visits. The two countries would resume direct flights and boost trade and investment, including reopening border trade at three designated points, and facilitate in visas, the Indian foreign ministry said. Direct flights have been suspended since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. No date was given for their resumption. The latest statements came at the end of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s two-day visit to New Delhi for the  24th round of talks  with Indian National Security (NSA) Advisor Ajit Doval to resolve their decades old border dispute. The border talks covered issues related to pulling back troops both countries have amassed on their...

By: Josh Boak, Samya Kullab, Associated Press Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump expressed hope that their critical meeting Monday with European leaders at the White House could soon lead to three-party talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring an end to his war on Ukraine. The U.S. president also said he would back European security guarantees for Ukraine as European leaders gathered for the extraordinary White House meeting. “I think President Putin wants to find an answer, too,” Trump told Zelenskyy and European leaders. “And we’ll see in a certain period of time, not very far from now, a week or two weeks, we’re going to know whether or not we’re going to solve this or is this horrible fighting going to continue.” Trump stopped short of committing U.S. troops to a collective effort to bolster Ukraine’s security. He said instead that there would be a “NATO-like” security presence and that all those details would be hashed out with EU le...

By Menna Farouk in Cairo, Bahira Amin in Rafah, Egypt and David Stout in Jerusalem AFP Hamas has accepted a new ceasefire proposal for Gaza, a senior member from the group said Monday, after a fresh diplomatic push to end more than 22 months of war. Mediators Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, have struggled to secure a lasting truce in the conflict, which has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. But after receiving a new proposal from mediators, Hamas said it was ready for talks. “The movement has submitted its response, agreeing to the mediators’ new proposal. We pray to God to extinguish the fire of this war on our people,” senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said on Facebook. Earlier a Hamas source told AFP the group accepted the proposal “without requesting any amendments”. Egypt said it and Qatar had sent the new proposal to Israel, adding “the ball is now in its court”. Israel has yet to respond. A Palestinian source familiar with the talks sai...

Ukrainian President  Volodymyr Zelenskyy  and President  Donald Trump  expressed hope that their  critical meeting  Monday with European leaders at the White House could soon lead to three-party talks with Russian President  Vladimir Putin  to bring an end to his war on Ukraine. The U.S. president also said he would back European security guarantees for Ukraine as European leaders gathered for the extraordinary White House meeting. “I think President Putin wants to find an answer, too,” Trump told Zelenskyy and European leaders. “And we’ll see in a certain period of time, not very far from now, a week or two weeks, we’re going to know whether or not we’re going to solve this or is this horrible fighting going to continue.” Trump stopped short of committing U.S. troops to a collective effort to bolster Ukraine’s security. He said instead that there would be a “NATO-like” security presence and that all those details would be hashed out with EU le...

By JOSH BOAK and SAMYA KULLAB AP Ukraine’s future could hinge on a  hastily assembled meeting  Monday at the White House as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy brings an extraordinary group of European leaders to show U.S. President Donald Trump a  united front against Russia . The European leaders were left out of  Trump’s summit  with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday, and they want to safeguard Ukraine and the continent  from any widening aggression  from Moscow. Many are coming with the explicit goal of protecting Ukraine’s interests — a rare and sweeping show of diplomatic force. By coming as a group, they hope to avoid debacles like  Zelenskyy’s February meeting in the Oval Office , where Trump chastised him for not showing enough gratitude for U.S. military aid. Trump and Zelenskyy were due to meet in the Oval Office before European leaders join them in the East Room for talks. The meetings are also a test of America’s relationship...