Global News

By Nir Kafri AFP | Posted By TOE Israel’s leader credited the Indian pilot of a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight, as well as the aircraft’s passengers, with averting catastrophe Wednesday after the man was attacked by his co-pilot, sparking a fight for control of the aircraft and forcing an emergency landing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot of the flydubai jet had been trying to crash it and kill all its passengers, with Israel’s foreign ministry denouncing the incident as “an attempted terrorist attack” aimed at damaging the country’s relationship with one of its key Middle Eastern partners. Passengers gave a similar account of the incident, describing rushing the cockpit after the plane suddenly plummeted, losing around 17,000 feet of altitude in the span of a minute, according to the Flightradar24 website. Flydubai said all the passengers — of whom 166 out of 174 were Israeli, according to media reports — were ...

By Reuters | Posted By TOE Somali pirates killed five crew members of the hijacked MT Honour 25 petroleum products tanker before it was rescued by security ‌forces, Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland said on Tuesday. Puntland’s authorities said they also ‌rescued a second vessel on Tuesday that had been hijacked in May. The deaths aboard the Palau-flagged ship appear ​to be the first at the hands of Somali pirates in over a decade. The ship with 17 crew members was seized by pirates in April during a resurgence of Somali piracy that experts have attributed, in part, to impacts of the Iran war, including elevated oil prices ‌that make tankers more attractive targets. Puntland’s ⁠information ministry said in a statement that a rescue mission had successfully freed the ship and captured 16 pirates. “Before the operation begun, the ⁠pirates on board the ship killed five of the crew. Among those killed were three from Pakistan, one fr...

By Ahmed Rasheed Reuters | Posted by TOE US forces are set to pull out from their last bases in Iraq by Wednesday, a departure celebrated as a victory by Iran and its allies who now have deep influence in the country where 4,500 Americans died during more than two decades of war. Iraqi security experts say the withdrawal — agreed in 2024 under President Joe Biden and carried ‌out by Donald Trump’s administration even as it wages war against Iran — could give Tehran and its powerful allies free rein, while also allowing other US enemies to stage a comeback, including Islamic State. “Iran stands ‌to benefit strategically from the coalition’s departure because it removes a military presence that for years acted as a counterweight to Tehran’s influence in Iraq,” said Jasim al-Bahadli, an Iraqi security analyst specialising in studying armed Shi’ite groups aligned with Iran. He predicted that the pro-Iranian militia groups would ​not only ...

By Javier TOVAR AFP | Posted by TOE Hurricane Polo made landfall on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula on Tuesday, cutting power and causing flooding as the sea breached coastal defenses. The Category 3 storm is the latest in a busy storm season turbo-charged by the El Nino weather phenomenon which has caused unprecedented warming in the equatorial Pacific. Polo hit just south of Las Barrancas, a small fishing village in Baja California Sur state on Mexico’s west side, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, warning of life-threatening winds and flash flooding. As Polo approached, strong winds churned the sea and waves off Puerto San Carlos, a fishing port of nearly 6,000 people in Baja California Sur. AFP reporters noted that the sea had already breached several sections of a sand barrier, causing water to pour into the street. The town’s power supply was cut, palm trees swayed violently in the wind and Mexican authorities ordered residen...

By GERALD IMRAY, Associated Press | Posted by TOE Eight gunmen with AK-47 rifles and pistols opened fire at patrons at a bar in the first of two separate mass shootings in South African townships in the space of a few hours that left at least 27 people dead, police said Sunday. The first massacre occurred late Saturday night near Johannesburg. The second happened in the early hours of Sunday near Cape Town. No arrests had been made in the two shootings, which came just five days after another mass shooting in a township near the city of Durban killed at least 11 people. The South African Police Service said 17 people were killed Saturday night when eight suspects armed with AK-47 rifles and pistols opened fire at a bar in Wedela township, southwest of South Africa’s biggest city of Johannesburg, around 9.30 p.m. The suspects shot at patrons outside the bar, then moved inside to continue the killing. The victims included 13 men and four women. At least 15 others sustain...

By CARA ANNA, FARNOUSH AMIRI and AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press | Posted by TOE Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume talks on its nuclear program in seven days if the United States lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waives sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observes a ceasefire that would include Lebanon. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi detailed the proposal to reporters outside the U.N. Security Council on Friday, saying it would also restart stalled talks with the U.S. on Iran’s nuclear program. “The seven-day timeline will start as soon as the United States accepts this plan,” he said. Araghchi said initial steps would take about four to five days to complete, and the strait would be open on the sixth day. “And on day seven, the talks with the U.S. will be started for the final deal on mutually agreed subjects,” he said, referring to the nuclear program. Iran’s disruption of the strait — through which a fifth of the world’s...

By DPA | Posted by TOE Israel’s military said on Friday it had again killed members of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, including a commander it said had taken part in the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel and had subsequently held abducted Israeli hostages. The military reported a total of four targeted killings of members of Hamas’ military wing. One of those killed is said to have been involved in transferring funds to the terrorist organization. The Hamas members had also been preparing attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians and working to rebuild Hamas’ strength, the military said, adding that this constituted a violation of the ceasefire agreement. “The terrorists were eliminated to remove the threat they posed,” the Israeli military said. The Palestinian news agency WAFA had reported several fatalities in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including in the north of the territory. Israeli military destroys tunnel in G...

By Isabel KUA AFP | Posted by TOE Residents in China’s capital hope President Xi Jinping’s high-stakes meeting with US counterpart Donald Trump in Washington will stabilise ties between the two countries, telling AFP on Thursday a trade war “hurts everyone”. Xi was greeted in Washington on Wednesday evening local time by Trump, kicking off a pomp-filled state visit where the two leaders are expected to discuss everything from AI and trade to Iran. In Beijing, a 59-year-old resident surnamed Huang called it a “very important” visit which would be critical in shaping the relationship between the two global superpowers. “As an ordinary citizen, I naturally hope that China-US relations can achieve long-term, stable, and mutually beneficial development,” Huang told AFP in central Beijing on an overcast Thursday morning. “I also hope that through President Xi’s visit to the US and friendly, harmonious, and goodwi...

By Portia Crowe Reuters | Posted by TOE Jihadists killed more ​than 100 soldiers in central Mali this month, two sources said, while the army ‌said it had evacuated troops from the camp under attack and struck enemy positions during a retaliatory operation lasting more than a week. The September 10 attack in the town of Dioura and another on the airport ​in the town of Sevare were the latest by al Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam ​wal Muslimin (JNIM) against Mali’s military rulers who seized power in coups in ⁠2020 and 2021. In April, JNIM joined forces with the Tuareg-led separatist group the FLA to carry ​out nationwide attacks that killed Mali’s defence minister and hit the main airport, highlighting lack of progress ​by pro-government fighters against the insurgents. A security source said 130 soldiers died in the September 10 attack in Dioura with more than 100 taken hostage. A diplomatic source said around 120 soldiers were killed. ...

By Camille BAS-WOHLERT AFP | Posted by TOE Denmark on Saturday hailed a “binding” deal announced by US President Donald Trump to give Washington “permanent control” over Greenland’s security and bar Russian and Chinese bases from the Arctic territory. Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington needed to control Greenland for strategic reasons, alarming NATO ally Denmark and sparking fierce pushback from the alliance. Denmark and Greenland — an autonomous Danish territory — both hailed the deal and said they would sign it on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next week. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Saturday that the potential signing meant “next week could be a good week”. “A long period of uncertainty will hopefully be replaced by a binding agreement that strengthens security in the Arctic and North Atlantic,...

By AFP | Posted by TOE Authorities imposed an overnight curfew in Nigeria’s central city of Minna on Friday after security forces opened fire as hundreds of people took to the streets to protest against the deaths of 37 detainees in the ‌custody of a paramilitary force. Survivors of a Nigerian disaster that saw 37 suspected illegal gold miners die while in the custody of a paramilitary civil defence group recounted their panic on Friday as they struggled to breathe inside the cell. Police fired shots to disperse protests as tensions spilled onto the streets of Minna, the capital of mineral-rich Niger state in central Nigeria. It was not immediately clear whether police were firing anti-riot pellets or live ammunition in Minna, where mobs blocked a main street and attacked a transport depot, a bank, political party offices and private businesses. Government has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew to curtail the unrest. Nigeria’s government suspended a civil...

By Olivia Le Poidevin Reuters  At least 112,000 people have been displaced inside Yemen within the last two weeks as fighting continues along the country’s west ​coast amid a renewed conflict, while nearly 3,000 have fled by sea to ‌Djibouti, the United Nations migration agency said on Friday. Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have stepped up attacks on Saudi cities and energy infrastructure while advancing along Yemen’s Red Sea coast towards the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a ​key shipping route. Responding to the Houthi offensive, the Saudi and Yemeni air ​forces have bombarded Houthi targets. Nearly 3,000 people have crossed the Gulf of ⁠Aden to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa in less than a week as ​escalating violence have forced more families to flee, Sandrine Desamours, the representative for the UN’s ​refugee agency, UNHCR, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Djibouti. The government of Djibouti is preparing for the arrival of up to 10,000 re...

By Reuters and Posted by TOE U.S. President Donald Trump said he hoped an end to the war against Iran was near, as the conflict, in its seventh month, escalated with Saudi aircraft pounding Yemen and Houthi fighters launching drones and missiles at Saudi cities. The Iran-backed Houthis’ lightning advance ‌in Yemen along the Red Sea and their attacks on Saudi Arabia, along with attacks that damaged Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline, have extended Tehran’s ‌reach in the war and heightened global oil-supply risks. As the war expands into a new theatre, the United States tightened its travel warning for Saudi Arabia, banning government employees from travelling within 20 miles (30 ​km) of the Yemen border. Still, just hours after reports of the Houthis and Saudi Arabia fighting, Trump told reporters on Wednesday evening: “Well, hopefully we are towards the end of the war.” TRUMP SAYS IRAN WANTS A DEAL, OIL PRICE STILL ELEVATED ...

By Jana Choukeir and Nayera Abdallah Reuters Saudi warplanes pounded Yemen, the Houthis said on Wednesday, as the Iran-backed fighters solidified their gains after a lightning advance that has extended Tehran’s reach in the Middle East war and further disrupted global oil supplies. In a sign of ‌the worsening conflict in a new theatre, the United States tightened its travel warning for Saudi Arabia, banning government employees from travelling within 20 miles ‌of the Yemen border. The Houthis, who since last week have swept through Yemeni towns along the Red Sea coast and seized islands in the Bab el-Mandeb strait at its mouth, released battlefield video overnight ​of fighters seizing armoured vehicles from Saudi-backed forces. Warplanes flew overhead and huge explosions billowed into the sky from desert dunes, the video showed. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the Houthis had shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet. No immediate evidence was presented and S...

By Timour Azhari Reuters | Posted by TOE Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis launched a new wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia and were digging into positions on the western coast of Yemen along the Red Sea, Yemeni ​officials said, as urgent deliberations took place in Riyadh over how to respond to their lightning advance. Meanwhile, Gulf Arab states postponed planned talks with Iran, raising concerns the ‌Middle East conflict could spread further and threaten global oil supplies. The Houthis on Monday said they fired dozens of missiles and drones at a military airbase in Khamis Mushait in southern Saudi Arabia, targeting aircraft hangars, radar systems, runways and ammunition depots in retaliation for Saudi airstrikes in Yemen. Saudi authorities issued emergency alerts there and in three other southern cities. Thirteen civilians were wounded in the Houthi attacks, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said. The Houthi advances in recent ​days, including the taking of Perim ...

By Reuters | Posted by TOE A Russian drone hit a passenger train on Ukraine’s border with NATO member Poland on Sunday, shortly after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other European diplomats had used ‌the same line. The train, on a route frequently used by foreign delegations returning from Kyiv, was attacked just ‌2 kilometres (1.2 miles) from the Polish border, Ukraine’s railway operator said. No casualties were reported. “This wasn’t our train, but the one just minutes after us by ​the border crossing. It was evacuated as the drone approached and no one was hurt,” Carl Bildt, former Sweden’s Prime Minister said on X. He and other politicians were returning to Europe by train after attending a conference in Kyiv. “It is entirely possible that the Russian drone’s intended target was the diplomatic train, which departed the station earlier than scheduled after train timetables were adjusted in ‌rea...

By Reuters | Posted by TOE  Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that events in Europe, including the far-right victory in a German state election, were the ​result of “system errors” committed by globalists in the West. Putin , speaking to reporters ‌in a pool report on the first day of a visit to India, also said the conflict in Ukraine was the fault of the West for constantly putting pressure on Moscow and seeking ​to “drag” Ukraine into the NATO alliance. The Russian president said he would offer no ​comment on Sunday’s top result for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ⁠in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, but then added that Western elites were ​to blame for events on the continent, including the election. “I think that everything happening ​in Europe right now is basically the result of system errors by the so-called West … the Western globalists in politics, security, and economics,” Putin sai...

By Pavel Polityuk and Anna Pruchnicka Reuters Russian drones pounded central part of the industrial city of Pavlohrad in southeastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing five, as ‌well as striking a petrol station in the capital Kyiv and an international agribusiness facility in Dnipro as Moscow intensifies attacks ‌on logistics and economic targets. Governor Oleksandr Hanzha, writing on Telegram, said Russia deployed drones, artillery and aerial bombs in hitting five districts of in the Dnipropetrovsk region, killing two more ​people. A total of 76 people were injured, including several children, he said. Photos posted online showed shattered shops and burned-out vehicles in the city, which has acted as a critical supply route for the Ukrainian military connecting central Ukraine to eastern front lines. The attack on the petrol station in Kyiv and on an agribusiness facility run by Bunge in the southeastern city of Dnipro added to Russia’s intensified air campaign in re...

By Enas Alashray, Idrees Ali and Jana Choukeir Reuters Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest wave of attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war. The attacks sent the price of ‌oil surging, with benchmark Brent crude futures breaching $100 a barrel for the first time since July. At least one seafarer aboard a tanker was reported killed and another listed as missing. The ‌incidents follow a month of relative calm, during which the U.S. has sought to pressure Iran through economic means. Iran said it had fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in Jordan. Jordan said it intercepted 18 missiles, with the remaining two ​falling harmlessly in unpopulated areas. A U.S. official said all American troops were accounted for. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would sharply escalate its response to any further attacks, and said I...

By AFP | Posted by TOE At least five people were killed and 86 remain missing after a fire erupted aboard a ferry near a tourist hotspot in the Philippine province of Palawan, the coast guard said Thursday. The blaze broke out on the M/V June Aster Wednesday evening about 2.2 kilometres (1.3 miles) offshore, the coast guard said, adding that five casualties had been brought ashore. Video shared by the coast guard on Facebook showed the vessel completely engulfed in flames. Hundreds of people, desperate for news about the incident, have left comments on the Coron town mayor’s Facebook page, searching for relatives, friends and even a dog. “Based on the data we have right now on rescued (42) and the casualties, we still have 87 people who are unaccounted for,” coast guard Captain Noemi Cayabyab told a local radio station on Thursday. The ship’s manifest had listed 134 passengers and crew, Cayabyab said. Of those rescued, 38 were passeng...

By Yury Garcia and Alexandra Valencia Reuters | Posted by TOE For one grandmother, it was when bullets began hitting the rooftops of her neighborhood that she decided she would have to leave the housing development where she had lived for nearly 20 years. A sharp rise in fighting between gang factions in Ecuador has prompted thousands ​of families to flee and abandon their homes to the gangs, who strip the houses for drug money or use them to hide kidnapping victims, according to residents and police. One of the areas ‌that has been the site of the heaviest bloodshed is the Nueva Prosperina district in the coastal city of Guayaquil, where fighting between factions of the Los Tiguerones gang last year killed 22 people. Among those who fled was a 66-year-old woman, who, like other residents of the district Reuters spoke to for this story, asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals from the gangs. Armed groups were targeting people indiscriminately, assuming that an...

By Reuters | Posted by TOE At least 11 people were killed ‌and six others injured after ‌an avalanche struck a group of ​climbers in Russia’s Kabardino-Balkaria region in the North Caucasus, local emergency services said. The avalanche swept down Mount ‌Mizhirgi, one ⁠of the highest peaks in Russia’s North Caucasus, at ⁠around 5 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) on Sunday, hitting a ​group of ​33 climbers. As ​of 9 a.m. ‌local time on Monday, 10 climbers had made their own way down the mountain, while the fate of six others remained ‌unknown, emergency services ​said. More than 50 emergency ​workers ​were involved in the ‌search and rescue operation, ​but efforts ​were being hampered by difficult terrain and a high risk ​of ‌further avalanches, they said. from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/0RA42PI

By Eric BERNAUDEAU AFP | Posted by TOE Indonesia halted operations at its main international airport outside Jakarta on Sunday after ash spewed from the Anak Krakatoa volcano more than 150 kilometres away, impacting thousands of passengers. Mount Anak Krakatoa erupted on Saturday, producing a fountain of lava and booming sounds that could be heard up to a few hundred kilometres away, the geology agency said in a statement. Two new eruptions were recorded on Sunday, the volcanology agency warned. Ash from the volcano was detected in the airspace surrounding Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, prompting authorities to initially suspend operations from 1:30 am Sunday (Saturday 1830 GMT) to 5:30 am. The suspension was extended three times, with the latest ending at 5:30 pm Sunday “due to increased eruptive activity,” the airport said in a social media post.  Operations have been suspended at six airports including the Hussein Sastranegara airport ...

By AFP | Posted by TOE Russian strikes hit Kyiv’s airports overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, as US envoys are expected to arrive in the region to discuss a plan to end more than four years of war. US President Donald Trump said Friday he was sending Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kyiv, in Washington’s latest bid to break a diplomatic stalemate in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. Russia hit a civilian target in the Dnipro region overnight, killing four people, as well as Kyiv’s two airports, Zelensky said, accusing the Kremlin of trying to disrupt the envoys’ visit. “Clearly, these Russian strikes on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility of the US side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine,” Zelensky said on X, adding there would be “no threats to diplomacy” from the Ukrainian side. It will be the first time...