Global News

By AFP and Posted by TOE Pakistan launched its deadliest attack on Afghanistan in months, with Islamabad saying on Monday it killed dozens of militants as the Afghan government reported civilian casualties. The nighttime strikes are the latest flare-up of violence between the neighbours whose relationship has been fraught since 2021, when the Taliban government took power in Kabul, and follow a weeks-long war that erupted in February. Pakistan’s information minister said air and ground operations killed 29 militants and were aimed at a group that it blames for a deadly weekend assault in Karachi, although Afghan authorities have repeatedly denied their territory harbours attackers. The Taliban government said the airstrikes hit three eastern provinces, killing 36 civilians and wounding 163. A resident of Paktia province, Adam Khan, said he “cannot put into words the condition of the children I saw at the hospital, or the screams of their parents and sibl...

By Darryl Coote UPI | Posted by TOE The United States and Iran have agreed to stop attacking one another, according to reports, a move that could end days of escalating strikes that threatened their brittle truce. The two countries have been in negotiations to end their war since signing a Memorandum of Understanding on June 17. But scheduled talks for Tuesday had appeared in jeopardy after Iran allegedly attacked a container ship on Thursday, triggering tit-for-tat strikes in which the U.S. military attacked Iran and Tehran attacked U.S. allies in the region. On Sunday, after both Bahrain and Kuwait said they had come under Iranian attack, the United States and Iran agreed to halt hostilities,  Axios ,  CNN  and  ABC News  reported, each citing an unnamed senior U.S. official. Iranian officials have yet to confirm the reported agreement. The United States and Iran, which have been at war since Feb. 28, signed a MOU toward ending the conflic...

By Gavin Blackburn EuroNews | Posted by TOE Emergency teams with rescue dogs are continuing the search for any remaining survivors of powerful twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela, where the death toll has surpassed 1,450 and nearly 200 buildings have completely collapsed. A man and his teen son were found alive under the rubble on Sunday by French and American rescue teams in Caraballeda, a town about 40 kilometres north of Caracas. The rescue offered a glimmer of hope in an ongoing tragedy that has shaken a country already mired in an economic crisis, but tens of thousands of people were still reported missing and the critical 72-hour window for rescuing trapped victims following a natural disaster has now passed. Millions more people were feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs after one of Latin America’s most devastating earthquake disasters. Rescue teams from the United States, Mexico and elsewhere scrambled to save people as desperate resident...

By Nathan Rennolds EuroNews | Posted by TOE More than 68,000 people are reportedly still missing in Venezuela after two earthquakes devastated parts of the country earlier this week. Back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude tremors hit Venezuela on Wednesday, causing widespread destruction and killing 1,430 people. A further 3,238 people were injured. Emergency response teams have flown in from around the world to support the 30,000 Venezuelan specialists leading search and rescue efforts, as authorities race to recover survivors. Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said 24 countries have so far provided support, sending 521 tonnes of supplies, 86 canine teams and more than 2,741 search, rescue and support personnel. Many locals have also taken matters into their own hands, digging through mounds of rubble in an attempt to find their loved ones. Harrowing videos circulating on social media show rescuers pulling people, including infants, out from topp...

By The Associated Press | Posted by TOE Burkina Faso’s military government severed diplomatic ties with France, its former colonial ruler that had been a key security partner for the West African nation before relations fractured. The junta said in a statement Friday it broke off relations with France effective immediately, accusing it of “blatant neo-colonial ambitions and active support for subversive networks and terrorists,” without providing evidence. France’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said in a statement that the country regrets the “hostile and unfounded decision, which illustrates the worrying drift of the Burkinabè authorities.” “Necessary reciprocal measures are currently under review,” he said. Confavreux added that France is monitoring the safety of French government personnel and citizens in Burkina Faso and urged them to exercise heightened vigilance. The West African country of 23 million people has been battered by yearslong  ...

By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG AP | Posted by TOE  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed major  weapons tests  and called for the military’s “deadly and destructive offensive posture” to be bolstered, state media reported Friday, as South Korea announced it would drastically boost its drone warfare capabilities. The development comes as tensions remain high on the Korean Peninsula, with Kim pushing to strengthen both nuclear and conventional  military capabilities  while refusing to return to talks with South Korea and the United States. The tests watched by Kim on Thursday were meant to evaluate the power of a “special mission” warhead for a tactical ballistic missile, an upgraded multiple rocket launch system and the hit accuracy of shells with an extended firing range of a self-propelled gun-howitzer, the official Korean Central News Agency said. KCNA cited Kim as saying results of the tests proved the technological progress achieved ...

By Margioni BERMÚDEZ AFP and Posted by TOE Powerful twin earthquakes have killed 32 people and injured more than 700 in Venezuela, the nation’s interim president said Thursday, after the massive shocks collapsed entire buildings and sent people running in panic. Rescue workers and residents were seen clambering on piles of rubble in the hunt for survivors after the disaster that prompted leader Delcy Rodriguez to declare a state of emergency. The earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck the same area of Venezuela on Wednesday, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), causing buildings in the capital to crumble and forcing the closure of the country’s main airport. Addressing the nation early Thursday, Rodriguez said the government had “received reports of 32 deaths” and “more than 700 injured,” adding she did not yet have data on the “hardest-hit region” of La Guaira, located near the capital. Rodrig...

By Joris Bolomey AFP | Posted TOE Faouzi Abdulbagi Mahammat Anour woke up in Tine, Chad, with a burnt face and his right eye missing after being attacked on the Sudanese side of the border by a drone. The attack happened on the morning of June 10, when the 18-year-old was grazing his family’s livestock northeast of the twin town of Tina in Sudan, in an area still outside the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Eight hours later, he found himself in a hospital in Tine, with his hands burnt and bandaged. His 15-year-old cousin, Tadjerdin Mahammat Anour, was at his bedside. The conflict in Sudan has pitted the country’s army against its former allies the RSF since April 2023, killing more than 11,000 civilians and forcing over 15 million to flee their homes, according to the UN. – 1,000+ killed – Another cousin, aged just 16, was killed on the spot, said Tadjerdin, dressed in a white tunic and also with burns on a large part of his fa...

By Reuters and Posted by TOE Britain, France and Germany raised the alarm on Wednesday over recent Chinese activities off the ‌east coast of Taiwan, where China has mounted coast guard ‌patrols, saying they threaten regional stability and freedom of navigation. China, which views democratically ​governed Taiwan as its own territory, earlier in June sent coast guard ships into the waters off the island’s east coast for what it called a “special maritime traffic law-enforcement operation”, angering Taipei. China said the ‌operation was in response ⁠to Japan and the Philippines, saying they would begin formal talks on their maritime boundaries, which Beijing viewed ⁠as involving Chinese waters off Taiwan. China has also been sending maritime survey ships into the same waters. “We have noted with concern novel ​Chinese activity ​in the waters east of Taiwan,” ​the de facto British, ‌French and German embassies in Taipei said in a rare joint...

By Eltayeb Siddig, Nafisa Eltahir and Khalid Abdelaziz Reuters and Posted by TOE Last month, Ali Rizkallah, a commander in the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, was welcomed to Sudan’s capital ​Khartoum and given a uniform and a rank in the armed forces he had spent about  three years fighting . The army-affiliated government hailed his defection — the latest in a series of ‌high-level switches that have been reshaping Sudan’s alliances and boosting the military in  one of the deadliest conflicts  of the century. But many others have balked at the sight of Rizkallah and other former RSF figures feted in public, holding press conferences and sometimes literally embracing their former rivals. They fear that the defectors will evade justice for alleged crimes committed under their command. ‘I CAN’T FORGIVE THEM,’ SAYS DARFUR WOMAN “These RSF soldiers, even if they seek God’s forgiveness, I can’t forgive them because of what I ​...

By Associated Press | Posted by TOE U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigned on Monday, paving the way for Britain to have its seventh prime minister in just over a decade. He said he was stepping down as leader of the governing Labour Party but will remain caretaker prime minister until a new Labour leader is chosen by the party. Andy Burnham, who won a special parliamentary election last week, is the front-runner to replace Starmer as Labour leader. Starmer won a landslide victory at a general election in 2024, but a series of missteps badly damaged his credibility. Here’s the latest: EU leader praises Starmer European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised Starmer’s legacy after news of his resignation in a post online on Monday. “It can take many leaders years to grow into the statesman you became in just two years,” she said on X. “European and Ukrainian security is stronger because of you. Thank you, dear K...

By Humeyra Pamuk, Dave Graham and Tala Ramadan Reuters and Posted by TOE U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived for peace talks with Iran at a Swiss mountaintop resort on Sunday as foreseen in a tentative peace deal, but the diplomacy was overshadowed by Iran’s announcement that it had reimposed its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. A memorandum of understanding on a path to end the ‌war, agreed a week ago, calls for the Strait to be reopened and a halt to all hostilities, including in Lebanon, which Washington’s ally Israel invaded in March. But with little sign of an end to ‌fighting there, Iran said on Saturday it had shut the Strait again. U.S. officials have disputed that the Strait is closed and said 55 merchant ships had crossed it on Saturday. But on Sunday Iran’s Fars news agency cited a military source as saying no new permits were being ​issued for ships to cross until further notice. OIL PRICES TUMBLED AFTER AGREEMENT ANNOUNCED As oft...

By José Arturo Cárdenas AFP | Posted by TOE Bolivia’s president declared a state of emergency on Saturday and deployed soldiers and bulldozers to raze anti-government roadblocks that have paralyzed the Andean nation. For more than six weeks, unions, Indigenous groups and coca farmers have marched through cities and blocked roads across the country with rubble, logs and debris in protest against the conservative government. Major cities have suffered acute shortages of fuel, food and medicine, the economy has lost billions of dollars, and the protests have threatened to topple Bolivia’s first non-socialist government in two decades. President Rodrigo Paz appeared in a predawn televised address on Saturday to warn protesters they would face “the full force of the law” as he moved to end the crisis.  He declared a 90-day state of emergency, which curbs the right to protest and allows the military to be deployed domestically. Hours after...

By Claire DOYEN AFP | Posted by TOE Ebola is spreading again in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where conflict, mistrust and the lack of a vaccine have made the outbreak hard to contain.  The virus, transmitted through close contact and bodily fluids, can cause a fatal haemorrhagic fever and has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.  Here is a look back at developments during the latest outbreak: – How did it begin? – The DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak was officially declared on May 15 but is believed to have been spreading under the radar for weeks.  The World Health Organization had already been alerted on May 5 to a mysterious and deadly illness in the mining town of Mongbwalu, where four health workers died within days. In northeastern Ituri province, locals told AFP of unexplained deaths that had been fuelling rumours of a “mystical illness” as far back as March.  Heal...

By Pierre DONADIEU AFP | Posted by TOE A group linked to Al-Qaeda claimed Thursday’s attack on the airport of Niger’s capital, Niamey that killed at least 11 soldiers and two civilians, six months after other jihadists staged a large assault on the sensitive site. Twenty-two attackers were also killed as security forces repelled the raid on the Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger’s defence ministry said. Gunfire erupted early in the morning and rang out for hours near the airport, where a large military presence was later deployed, residents said. In the evening, a brief statement from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, or JNIM using its Arabic acronym, said it had carried out “a suicide attack” on the airport and on a neighbouring military base. The group is Al-Qaeda’s Sahel branch. Niger has been ruled for three years by a military junta, which has struggled to contain jihadist violence that has rock...

By Reuters and Posted by TOE Explosions and sustained gunfire were heard early on Thursday morning at the airport and military airbase ‌in Niger’s capital Niamey, witnesses said, in what a ‌security source described as an apparent attack on the facility. There was no immediate claim ​of responsibility for an attack. A Niger government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Islamic State affiliate in the region claimed responsibility for an attack on the airport in January. At ‌the time, the group ⁠said it had targeted air command headquarters and drone assets and claimed to have “delivered a direct blow” to ⁠the Sahel country’s counterinsurgency operations. Niger, like its Sahel neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso, has struggled to contain attacks from jihadist groups linked to al ​Qaeda and ​Islamic State that have killed ​thousands and displaced millions across ‌the three countries. On Thursday morning, the firs...

By Reuters and Posted by TOE South Korea will shift a line running parallel to the military border ‌with North Korea to narrow the area that ‌restricts civilian access to reflect an evolving security environment and for the ​convenience of local residents, the defence minister said on Wednesday. The so-called Civilian Control Line is currently as much as 10 km (6.2 miles) to the south of the Military ‌Demarcation Line (MDL) drawn up ⁠at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Authorisation by the military is required ⁠to enter the area. Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back said the change that will shift the civilian access line by an ​average of ​6 km from the ​MDL is in response ‌to years of requests by residents and is made possible by improved defence readiness. As many as 20,000 people reside inside the zone according to media reports, and others enter the area to farm or work going through authorisation ‌procedures. The ministry also announced other ​changes that will ea...

By SYLVIE CORBET, DARLENE SUPERVILLE and AAMER MADHANI AP U.S. allies at the Group of Seven summit of major industrialized nations worked Tuesday to push the  war in Ukraine  back up the agenda of President Donald Trump after more than four years of fighting sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion. The Iran conflict  has in recent weeks overshadowed the war in Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched. Host President Emmanuel Macron of France said he’ll seek to persuade Trump to continue supporting Ukraine and increase pressure on Russia to help reach a peace agreement. As the U.S. under Trump has cut back aid to Ukraine, France and its European allies are now the biggest providers of military and financial support to Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined G7 leaders for a morning working session but talks wrapped quickly, as leaders gathered for just 75 minutes, according to the French G7 presidency. The Ukraine...

By Parisa Hafezi, Yomna Ehab and Humeyra Pamuk Reuters and by TOE U.S. and Iranian officials said they had reached an agreement to end their war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a preliminary pact that sent oil prices falling but leaves the fate of Tehran’s nuclear program to further negotiations. While still a framework, the deal marked the biggest breakthrough towards resolving ‌the conflict that has killed thousands and upended energy markets since it began with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in February. “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” U.S. President Donald ‌Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform at around 5:30 p.m. in Washington (2130 GMT) on Sunday. His post came shortly after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has served as a mediator, announced a deal had been struck early on Monday local time. The memorandum of ​understanding is scheduled to be officially signed on Friday in Switzerland....

By Nina LARSON AFP and Posted by TOE Swiss voters will decide the fate of a divisive anti-immigration proposal on Sunday to cap the country’s population, and another referendum on restricting access to conscientious objection to military service. Opinion polls suggest that both votes, put forward under Switzerland’s direct democracy system, could be tight. Voting booths will open for just a few hours Sunday morning before closing at noon (1000 GMT), most of the votes having been cast in advance by post. The first results are expected by mid-afternoon. Tensions have been running particularly high over the “No to a Switzerland with 10 million!” initiative, put forward by the hard-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP). That proposal wants measures to stop the wealthy Alpine nation’s population — currently 9.1 million — going above 10 million before 2050. In a country where foreigners make up over a quarter of the populatio...

By Steve Holland, Parisa Hafezi and John Irish Reuters and Posted by TOE The United States and Iran signalled on Friday that an agreement to end their war was close, with a senior U.S. administration official saying both sides had agreed on a text and that Washington expects to sign an initial deal in the coming days. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said changes were still ‌possible, but the tentative agreement showed his country had emerged stronger from the conflict. “Iran is the winner of the war with the U.S.,” he said on state television. The proposed memorandum of understanding calls ‌for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports, sources on all sides of the talks said. Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program — U.S. President Donald Trump’s stated rationale for starting the war — would take place afterward. The U.S. official, speaking on condition ​of anonymity, told reporter...

 By Stephen Feller UPI and Posted by TOE President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he cancelled new U.S. strikes in Iran because Iranian leadership, and other regional powers, have approved “final points” in a deal to end the war. Trump said in a mid-afternoon post on Truth Social that he cancelled military strikes that were announced on Wednesday because the United States, Iran, Israel and other Middle Eastern nations reached an agreement. The United States on Wednesday had launched airstrikes in Iran and that it planned to hit the country “very hard,” Trump had said, and would seize Kharg Island, where 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports are shipped from. A shaky cease-fire had held in the three-month-old conflict, occasional skirmishes and blockage of the Strait of Hormuz aside, for weeks until Iran carried out a “powerful assault” on U.S. military assets Tuesday, which prompted Trump’s now jettisoned threat of new, larg...

By Reuters and Posted by TOE Armed bandits in northwest Nigeria abducted dozens of villagers whom they invited to a meeting ‌about potential peace negotiations, authorities and residents said on ‌Monday, highlighting the region’s worsening security. Police said 39 people were seized on Sunday ​when they went to a meeting in the forest near Magamin Diddi village in the Maradun municipality of northwest Zamfara State. Some local residents and officials said the number could be as ‌high as 50. According to ⁠a Zamfara State Police Command statement, the victims were meeting relatives of a bandit leader in ⁠an attempt to broker peace and ease restrictions on movement imposed on the community. Zamfara is at the centre of a long-running security ​crisis in ​which armed groups, locally referred ​to as bandits, carry ‌out mass kidnappings, killings and village raids. The violence has disrupted farming and displaced thousands. Security forces have deployed personnel and...

By Fatos Bytyci Reuters | Posted by TOE Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti called for cooperation from other parties to end 18 months of political deadlock after his Vetevendosje party came out top in a parliamentary ‌election on Sunday but failed to secure enough votes to govern alone. The tiny Balkan state wants to ‌join the European Union, and Brussels says it needs to create strong institutions capable of delivering reforms needed for membership. But political instability has left Kosovo ​without functioning institutions, delaying reforms and the flow of EU funds, and political analysts said the impasse looks likely to continue. Vetevendosje had 43% of votes after 99.4% of ballots were counted in Sunday’s election, the third in less than 18 months, official results showed. The Democratic Party of Kosovo was on 21% and the Democratic League of Kosovo was on 18% following the election, ‌called after Kosovo’s fractured parliament failed to ⁠elect a speaker a...