After Mass Firings and Ebola Funding Cut, Trump Asks if Anyone Is Unhappy with Elon – Cabinet Responds with Laughter and Applause
After firing approximately 30,000 federal employees, admitting to accidentally stopping Ebola funding, sending emails to over 1 million federal employees asking them to list their weekly accomplishments, Trump ask is anyone unhappy with Elon and his Cabinet responds with laughter and applause.
#News #ElonMusk #Trump #USA
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China says it is ready for 'any type of war' with US
China has warned the US it is ready to fight "any type" of war after hitting back against President Donald Trump's mounting trade tariffs.
The world's top two economies have edged closer to a trade war after Trump slapped more tariffs on all Chinese goods. China quickly retaliated imposing 10-15% tariffs on US farm products.
"If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we're ready to fight till the end," China's embassy said on X, reposting a line from a government statement on Tuesday.
It is some of the strongest rhetoric so far from China since Trump became president and comes as leaders gathered in Beijing for the annual National People's Congress.
On Wednesday, China's Premier Li Qiang announced that China would again boost its defence spending by 7.2% this year and warned that "changes unseen in a century were unfolding across the world at a faster pace." This increase was expected and matches the figure announced last year.
Leaders in Beijing are trying to send a message to people in China that they are confident the country's economy can grow, even with the threat of a trade war.
China has been keen to portray an image of being a stable, peaceful country in contrast to the US, which Beijing accuses of being embroiled in wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
China may also hope to capitalise on Trump's actions relating to US allies such as Canada and Mexico, which have also been hit by tariffs, and will not want to ramp up the rhetoric too far to scare off potential new global partners.
#China #US #BBC #News
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Number of Canadians travelling to U.S. plummets amid threats
Canadians appeared to be abandoning road trips to the U.S. amid President Donald Trump’s sovereignty and economic threats to their country.
The number of Canadian-resident return trips by car from the U.S. plunged 23% from a year ago in February, marking the second straight month with a year-over-year decline, Statistics Canada reported Monday.
The annual drops in January and February were the first and second since March 2021.
#Canada #USA #News #NationalPost
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4 arrested after 5-year-old Michigan boy's death in hyperbaric chamber explosion
Four people have been arrested after a 5-year-old boy was killed in a hyperbaric chamber explosion in Troy, Michigan.
The Troy Police Department confirmed that the arrests occurred Monday morning. They are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is providing an update on those arrested. CBS News Detroit is streaming live coverage at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Police did not release the names of the people arrested; however, court records show that one of them was Tami Peterson, the center's owner.
#CBS #News #Detroid
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Patients turned away as doctors hold mass strike in India over rape and murder of trainee medic
Sexual violence against women is a widespread problem in India - many crimes are believed to go unreported due to stigma and a lack of faith in police.
Patients are being turned away from hospitals and clinics across India as more than a million doctors are set to join a strike in protest at the rape and murder of a trainee medic.
The 24-hour strike began at 6am local time (1.30am UK time) with non-emergency treatment such as outpatient appointments and elective procedures cancelled, said the Indian Medical Association (IMA).
The mass walkout paralysed hospitals as staff from medical colleges were drafted in to help with emergency cases.
The strike was triggered by the killing of a 31-year-old trainee doctor, whose body was found on 9 August at the college where she worked in Kolkata.
A police volunteer was arrested but the victim's family believe it was a gang rape and that more people were involved.
The case has drawn comparisons with the notorious rape and murder of a student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.
People demonstrated near parliament in the capital on Friday - as well as cities including Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai - calling for tougher sentences and guarantees of safety for doctors.
The facility where the doctor was killed, the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, was attacked on Wednesday.
"Doctors, especially women are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession," said the IMA in a statement on X.
"It is for the authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses."
Sexual violence against women and girls is a widespread problem in India with 31,516 reports of rape in 2022 - a 20% increase on 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
Many are believed to go unreported due to a stigma over sexual assault and a lack of faith in the police.
The medical college case is being handled by India's central bureau of investigation after state government officers were accused of mishandling the case.
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Dalai Lama says his successor to be born outside China
NEW DELHI — The Dalai Lama’s successor will be born outside China, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism says in a new book, raising the stakes in a dispute with Beijing over control of the Himalayan region he fled more than six decades ago.
Tibetans worldwide want the institution of the Dalai Lama to continue after the 89-year-old’s death, he writes in “Voice for the Voiceless,” which was reviewed by Reuters and is being released on Tuesday.
He had previously said the line of spiritual leaders might end with him.
His book marks the first time the Dalai Lama has specified that his successor would be born in the “free world,” which he describes as outside China. He has previously said only that he could reincarnate outside Tibet, possibly in India where he lives in exile.
“Since the purpose of a reincarnation is to carry on the work of the predecessor, the new Dalai Lama will be born in the free world so that the traditional mission of the Dalai Lama — that is, to be the voice for universal compassion, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and the symbol of Tibet embodying the aspirations of the Tibetan people — will continue,” the Dalai Lama writes.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled at the age of 23 to India with thousands of other Tibetans in 1959 after a failed uprising against the rule of Mao Zedong’s Communists.
Beijing insists it will choose his successor, but the Dalai Lama has said any successor named by China would not be respected.
#NBC #News #DalaiLama
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I know what's on Putin's mind 💡
I know what's on Putin's mind,currently the US, & the Jewish Cabals/Elite who control the US government & parliament together with Israel & NATO are playing with our psychology with dangerous threats to our country's sovereignty.
#RedAlert #WW3 its Coming
& Start,Are U Ready?!!
#news #community #update #global #unite #revolution #palestine #GCSC #endtimes #prophecy #civilsociety #ww3 #GreatReset #bunker
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Since the outbreak of the war, Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán has paid Putin more than €15 billion for Russian gas and oil, becoming the biggest financier of the Russian war in the EU.
Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war on 24 February 2022, Hungary has purchased gas and oil from Russia for a total of EUR 15.6 billion. According to data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, an independent research institute in Finland, this makes the Orbán government the largest EU financier of Putin’s war. According to 444.hu, while many EU countries have drastically reduced their dependence on Russian energy sources, Hungary has taken a different path. Italy reduced its Russian gas imports from 43% in 2020 to 5% in 2024.
Austria announced it had found alternative routes, eliminating its dependence on Russian gas. Moreover, the Czech Republic and Poland had previously declared their independence from Russian gas. In contrast, Hungary has increased its gas imports from Russia to unprecedented levels.
#News #DailyNewsHungary
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Zelenskiy says Ukraine should be heard, not forgotten
KYIV, March 1 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday it was "very important" that Ukraine's plight was heard and not forgotten, a day after a heated White House meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
"It is very important for us that Ukraine is heard and that no one forgets about it, neither during the war nor after,"
#Reuters #News #Zelenskiy
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Trump supporters lose $12bn as president’s cryptocurrency coin collapses
Donald Trump’s supporters have lost more than $12bn (£9.5bn) in a month after the value of the president’s cryptocurrency collapsed.
$Trump, a so-called “meme coin” unveiled on Jan 17, three days before Mr Trump’s inauguration, has lost more than 80pc of its value since its peak on Jan 19.
This has led to its overall worth falling from a peak of $15bn to $2.7bn on Thursday, as it suffered amid a wider crypto rout.
The paper value of the coins owned by Mr Trump himself has also fallen by $50bn.
While Mr Trump’s own losses have not been crystallised, investors are on the hook after spending heavily to back the Trump coin in the run-up to his inauguration, partly as a show of support but also as a gamble that the token would rise in value.
#Trump #TrumpCoin #cryptocurrency #crypto #memeCoin #News
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Israel to purchase over 8,000 missiles and bombs from U.S.
The United States has approved two major Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Israel, valued at £6 billion ($7.41 billion), aimed at bolstering the Israeli Air Force’s operational readiness with advanced missiles and precision-guided munitions.
The first sale involves 3,000 AGM-114 Hellfire Air-to-Ground Missiles, comprising a mix of variants such as R3, F, and K. The package, valued at £520 million ($660 million), includes spare parts, test equipment, software support, and technical assistance.
Lockheed Martin will serve as the primary contractor, with deliveries beginning in 2028.
#Israel #News
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UK gives royal welcome to Zelenskyy after White House meltdown
King Charles will hold an official audience at Sandringham with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday as the UK and EU demonstrate their “unwavering” support after his humiliation at the hands of Donald Trump and JD Vance in the White House.
Keir Starmer will also host European heads of government and the leaders of Canada and Turkey at a special defence summit aimed at presenting a united front on the Ukraine crisis.
On arrival in Downing Street for a meeting with Starmer on Saturday night, just 24 hours after Trump and his vice-president Vance subjected him to a 10-minute tirade in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy said he was “very happy” that the king had agreed to the meeting.
The offer of a royal audience was seen at Westminster as a deliberate move to give the Ukrainian president equal treatment to Trump, who was presented during his meeting at the White House on Wednesday by Starmer with an invitation to a second state visit to the UK, including a meeting with King Charles.
#Zelenskyy #UK #News
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Europe must show leadership against Trump’s ‘ruthlessness,’ Germany's foreign minister says
With U.S. support in doubt, German foreign minister warns that Europe must lead on Ukraine or risk losing its security.
BERLIN — As European leaders prepare to meet in London on Sunday for an emergency summit on Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called for Europe to show decisive leadership in the wake of the Oval Office clash between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In a starkly worded speech delivered Saturday in the Foreign Ministry, Baerbock warned of a “new era of ruthlessness” following Trump’s public humiliation of Zelenskyy and the U.S. administration’s shifting stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
“A ruthless time has begun, in which we must defend the rules-based international order and the strength of law more than ever against the power of the strongest,” Baerbock said.
#Berlim #News #Europe #Ukraine
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Ukraine's biggest drone attack on Moscow kills one, disrupts air and train transport
MOSCOW, March 11 (Reuters) - Ukraine on Tuesday launched its biggest ever drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region, killing at least three employees of a meat warehouse, injuring 17 others and causing a short shutdown at the Russian capital's four airports, Russian officials said.
A total of 343 drones were downed over Russia, including 91 over Moscow region and 126 over the western region of Kursk where Ukrainian forces have been pulling back, as well as near the Kursk nuclear power plant, the defence ministry said.
#Russia #Ukraine #War #Reuters #News
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Macron raises prospect of new European nuclear weapons
French President Emmanuel Macron has said he is ready to start discussions for nuclear deterrence for Europe in response to the threat posed by Moscow.
Macron told the newspaper Le Monde he was ready for talks about nuclear weapons for the continent following a request from the likely German chancellor, Friedrich Merz.
The French president's comments on Friday follow reports earlier in the week that France was ready to use its nuclear deterrent to help protect Europe.
Michael Witt from King's Business School, King's College London, told Newsweek that France's offer to extend its nuclear umbrella was in response to President Donald Trump signaling a retreat from NATO which meant Europe could not rely on U.S. protection.
#News #Macron #Europe #News #NewsWeek
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European stocks steady after US markets plunge
A sell-off in global shares eased in Europe on Tuesday following a sharp fall in US stocks that came as investors raised concerns about the negative economic impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs.
It followed the president saying in a TV interview that the world's biggest economy was in a "period of transition", when asked about suggestions of a potential recession.
Since those remarks were broadcast on Sunday, top Trump officials and advisers have sought to calm investor fears.
The US S&P 500 share index fell nearly 3% on Monday, but in Europe most of the major markets opened little changed.
#Europe #Stocks #US #BBC #News
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Russia is ‘recycling’ wounded troops, sending some to the frontline on crutches
Kyiv & London
CNN
—
The Russian military is sending wounded troops on crutches back to the frontlines to fight, and redeploying soldiers with significant injuries to combat roles, as it struggles with growing manpower issues, according to videos and testimony obtained by CNN.
Frontline footage posted by Ukrainian drone operators and Russian troops show men who have clearly suffered leg injuries, some still bandaged, using crutches in combat areas, in several instances targeted by Ukrainian drones as they use the walking aids to try to flee.
“The Russians are recycling the wounded back into the fight,” one Western official said, referring to videos of “troops on crutches being pushed back into the line.”
The use of wounded soldiers is a sign that Moscow is managing its growing manpower issues without a wider, general mobilisation, which would be unpopular among Russia’s urban middle classes, according to the official, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity on a sensitive topic.
#Russia #CNN #News
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Echoes of a massacre: Tales from Israel's attack on al-Tabin
Al-Tabin School was not the first school in Gaza that Israel has targeted. But medics, journalists and survivors told Al Jazeera that Israel’s August 10 attack on it was the most gruesome massacre since Israel launched its assault on the besieged enclave in October last year.
Israel killed more than 100 displaced Palestinians, leaving victims dismembered, charred and often unidentifiable by their loved ones.
Some 2,400 displaced Palestinians, many exhausted by having been displaced several times, were sheltering in the school in eastern Gaza's Daraj neighbourhood when it was struck by two guided missiles.
The missiles blazed through the upper level, a space that women and children slept and prayed in, to reach the men's prayer area on the ground floor.
Most of the men and boys had woken up to perform the Fajr - or dawn - prayers and were gathered in that space. It was timed for maximum casualties, medics who were there said.
The nearby al-Ahli Arab Hospital - which came under attack months ago and is only partially operational with no burn ward - was overwhelmed as injuries and bodies of slain Palestinians began pouring in.
Throughout the war, Israeli forces have largely kept Gaza’s vital crossings sealed shut, blocking the entry of much-needed fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to the enclave, where famine is looming.
Al Jazeera spoke to some of the displaced people who survived the attack but lost loved ones, as well as rescue workers and medics who worked in mute horror to save as many people as they could.
Sumaya Abu Ajwa had woken up for the Fajr prayer with her two foster daughters, 16-year-old Nuseiba and 14-year-old Retaj, and their mother.
She and the girls' mother were off to one side when the missiles struck, one of them passing between the two girls, Abu Ajwa told Al Jazeera.
"Suddenly, dust and fire spread everywhere, like it was Judgement Day. I started looking frantically for the girls," she says tearfully, sitting on a bed because she has difficulty walking.
"I found the younger girl [Retaj] and held her in my arms. Her blood was pouring onto my clothes, but I could sense that she was still breathing," Abu Ajwa said, adding that she screamed for help, for anyone to come and save Retaj, but the scene was so chaotic nobody was able to help.
Soon after, Retaj succumbed to her wounds.
The search for Retaj's big sister Nuseiba took longer.
"I went back into the flaming prayer room over and over, looking for her, I couldn't see her anywhere. Then someone told me that she was under the rubble so I went to look where they said.
"When I reached her," Abu Ajwa breaks down, "I found her and her body had been torn in two."
Weeping bitterly, she said she and the girls' mother had done everything they could, through several displacements, to keep the four of them together.
Abu Ajwa had discussed leaving al-Tabin with the girls, but Nuseiba had been reluctant to leave, she said, because she was attending Quran classes there and was proud of her progress in memorising the holy book.
"She told us that if we wanted to leave that was fine, she would stay behind in the school. I told her that I had stayed with them throughout the war and wouldn't leave them now, we'd either make it together or die together, but now they've gone on ahead and left us. They died before us."
The girls only had one wish, she added - for the war to end because they "have been scared so many times, displaced so many times, they were so exhausted and had gone hungry so many times".
The girls have a 14-year-old brother, Abu Ajwa said, who had been taken from them when the Israeli army raided al-Shifa Hospital where they were sheltering at the time.
"The Israelis sent him north on his own. We were very sad then but, who knows, this may have saved him, he's the only hope we have left.
"Who will call me Mama Sumaya now? I crave those words so much," Abu Ajwa sobs.
Suzan al-Basyouni heard the impact first then realised that the school had been targeted, with the mosque hit hardest, and ran to look for her husband who had gone to perform the Fajr prayer.
"The moments of the massacre are etched into my eyes... imagine looking for your husband amid piles of human body parts, to try to identify him and not be able to," al-Basyouni told Al Jazeera.
"Inside the mosque were piles of bodies, dismembered limbs flung around. Those very few who survived were running out of the mosque screaming, in flames.
"I was struggling to get through, stepping on bodies with my own two feet. I stepped on a woman as I was trying to find my husband. I know her, she's a friend of mine and I didn't realise that I was stepping on her. She was at the mosque's entrance."
The dark made it hard for al-Basyouni and her family to find her husband and it was only when the sun rose and rescue efforts advanced a bit that they found him under a pile of bodies.
"His legs had been blown off and his abdomen torn open. He had been martyred alongside his father.
"My solace, my only hope now is that we will find ease in heaven. There is no life left to live in Gaza, we had no idea how horrific life could be and now we know that it's all over.
"There will be no earthly justice, how could there be when we live in Gaza and nobody has moved to help us? Justice will be served by God alone."
Vascular surgery consultant Tayseer al-Tanna stood in shock in the hospital corridor, recounting what he saw after the attack in a voice he was trying to control.
"I deal in science," he said. "So, I try to use my head more than my heart when it comes to treating people.
"But that day, what I saw and what I had to do, I was working with a vice gripping my heart. Yet I kept working, I couldn't stop."
The severity and sheer number of injuries he encountered have left a lasting impression on al-Tanna.
"The burns were unlike anything I’ve seen before, covering 50...70... up to 90 percent of the victims' bodies. Many lost limbs, and so many died in surgery because their injuries were so severe," he said.
Al-Tanna used to work at al-Shifa Hospital and is now the only vascular surgeon remaining in northern Gaza, working out of al-Ahli Arab Hospital where he receives cases from all over the north.
Al Jazeera Arabic’s Anas al-Sharif was among the first journalists who reported on the direct aftermath of the attack.
"I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. The number of martyrs was beyond anything I could have imagined," al-Sharif said.
"There were bodies and limbs outside the school, but nothing could prepare me for the scenes inside. I documented what was happening outside the school and kept going.
"But when I got to the mosque that had been targeted, I was so shocked that I had no words left any more," he recalled.
"I was walking over the bodies of martyrs without realising it. A very painful scene unfolded in front of me, a girl saying goodbye to her father as he died from his burns," he said.
"It’s difficult to move past something like this. Those images, I see them everywhere... in my dreams, when I’m awake."
Asked whether this shock could make him give up journalism, al-Sharif said seeing such a crime being perpetrated against the people of Gaza only makes him more determined to carry on documenting what is happening.
"There are still families who haven't found their loved ones," he said. "The victims are nothing more than body parts.
"I went to the school after the attack and saw some families trying to clean it up, they were collecting kilos and kilos of just body parts, they don't know who they are."
Momen Silmi, a civil defence worker who was among the first to reach the school, said the scenes at al-Tabin were "terrifying", with people standing outside the school, afraid to enter.
When he and his team entered, they found the scene of the strike in flames, upstairs and down.
"Some of the victims were engulfed in flames, but they couldn't extinguish the fire because their limbs had been blown off.
"No human should have to witness such a sight," Silmi said. "But we've seen so much, we were able to go in there and try to help. I would grab anything I could find and try to put out the fires that were burning some of the injured people.
"We went upstairs and the sight I saw there was appalling. Most people were burned, dismembered, disembowelled, and they were all women and children. There were no men, not even teenagers up there.
"I saw an injured mother holding her daughter of about 18 or 19 who was badly injured... her intestines were spilling out and her hands had been blown off. She had her eyes closed and was screaming out for help: 'Baba! Don't leave me please!' she was crying, holding on to me because she thought I was her father.
"I was trying to help her while my colleague was trying to calm her mother down because she was bleeding profusely as well.
"We were all deeply branded by this experience, yes we've seen a lot and helped a lot of people in terrible conditions, but working on a disembowelled injured person while their seriously injured parent or child looked on wailing, that was horrific and will stay with us forever."
"I had just woken up really, we were about to pray Fajr at the civil defence centre," rescue worker Noah al-Sharnoubi said.
"As I walked through the carnage, I felt like I was in a dream. There were tens of bodies piled up, and dismembered body parts were strewn everywhere.
"We've seen schools targeted before, we knew to expect a dozen casualties maybe, but this time the number of bodies and injured screaming for help...
"People were screaming out to me to save their mothers, brothers, and fathers, grabbing me in desperation. Sometimes I would go to them and find that their loved ones were taking their last breaths, and I would have to leave to help someone else."
Al-Sharnoubi kept working alongside his team until all the injured people on the ground floor had been taken to hospital, then he headed upstairs to help out there too.
"As I was going up the stairs, I saw a human head on the steps with a fire blazing nearby. It was a head with part of the shoulders still attached.
"I tried to move it with my hands, but they started trembling … I lost control of myself and couldn’t lift bodies or help the injured," he said.
All the rescue workers on the site cried at some point, he added, because of the severity of the attack.
"I haven't slept for three days since the massacre. The images keep replaying in my mind. This wasn't just a massacre - it was a genocide against displaced people who sought refuge in a school.
"Believers were killed while they prayed; they were children, women and the elderly."
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Israel will say it had no choice, but its airstrikes in Lebanon risks igniting a regional war
Israel carried out "pre-emptive" strikes against Hezbollah overnight, while the militant group says it has completed the "first phase" of an attack on 11 Israeli military sites.
This appears to have been a high-stakes Israeli military operation that risked igniting a regional war.
Israel will say it had no choice: One of the pillars of Israeli military doctrine has long been the principle that offence is the best form of defence.
It is not the first time it has used its air force hoping to defang an imminent threat. Israel insists it sent an armada of warplanes to the skies over Lebanon, more than a hundred strong, to stop an 'extensive planned attack involving thousands of rocket launches' about to be let loose by Hezbollah.
Just as Israel launched audacious air attacks obliterating Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser's air force in 1967 and Saddam Hussein's atomic programme in 1981, Israel says it despatched jets overnight to neutralise Hezbollah.
It is not clear how many enemy drones and missiles were already in the air. Hezbollah claims all 11 of its targets in Israel were hit and it launched 320 Katyusha rockets.
The primary strike it says was aimed at "a qualitative Israeli military target that will be announced later" as well as "enemy sites and barracks and Iron Dome [missile defence] platforms".
Israeli intelligence sources had claimed the airbase used in the strike on Shukr and the headquarters of Unit 8200, the Israeli military intelligence agency, north of Tel Aviv, were on Hezbollah's target list.
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Hezbollah meanwhile says Israel's operation failed to pre-empt its long-awaited retaliation and insists it succeeded in striking targets deep within Israel.
Two questions for now: Hezbollah's next move and what this does to efforts to end the war in Gaza.
Will Hezbollah draw a line under the Shukr/Haniyeh affair? The organisation says today's action is over but is more planned in the coming days? All eyes are on its commander Hassan Nasrallah who will address his faithful by video link tonight.
He has not been seen in public since Hezbollah's war with Israel in 2006 for fear of being assassinated by Israeli jets himself.
Hezbollah attacked Israel in the wake of Hamas atrocities on 7 October and has been locked in an almost daily artillery duel with Israel over their border ever since.
Israeli intelligence claims Hezbollah has amassed an arsenal of 150,000 missiles secreted in the hills of southern Lebanon since 2006, 10 times the amount it possessed back then.
It has so far refrained from unleashing that firepower: Analysts believe its paymasters and patrons in Tehran prefer to keep that armoury in reserve as an insurance policy for the day Israel may attack Iran itself, as well as its alleged nuclear programme.
But Israel has been testing that theory for months now, responding with force to Hezbollah's attacks in the north. Each exchange of fire has the potential to escalate the region into a wider war through miscalculation and unintended mass civilian casualties.
So far, events overnight do not seem to have upended the fragile efforts towards a ceasefire in Gaza. Delegations are still on their way to Cairo for the next round of talks. If anything the escalation reemphasises the urgency behind the diplomacy.
But it could also offer the Israelis a distraction, should they want one, from huge pressure from the US to make the concessions required to reach a deal.
Most Israeli observers believe Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want a ceasefire on the terms currently being negotiated for fear it could lead to his coalition government falling apart.
But US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators insist the truce terms are the best and possibly last chance of bringing home Israel's hostages and ending the war.
They also believe a ceasefire in Gaza is the best way of reducing tensions in the north - which have exploded overnight so spectacularly.
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40,405 Palestinians killed in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, Gaza health ministry says
CAIRO, Aug 25 (Reuters) - At least 40,405 Palestinians have been killed and 93,468 others injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, said the Gaza Health Ministry.
In the last 24-hours, 71 were killed and 112 were injured in what the ministry called three "massacres" by Israel in the strip.
The recent war in Gaza started after Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel says it goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties and accuses Hamas of using human shields, an allegation the group denies.
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No survivors from plane that crashed in Brazil with 61 people on board, officials say
The Voepass aircraft crashed into a residential area, although there were no reports of casualties on the ground
A passenger plane with 61 people on board has crashed in a fiery wreck in Brazil’s São Paulo state, killing all passengers and crew.
The airline Voepass initially reported 62 people had been on the plane but later revised the figure to 61, confirming the deaths of all 57 passengers and four crew members on board.
“At this time, Voepass is prioritizing provision of unrestricted assistance to the victims’ families and effectively collaborating with authorities to determine the causes of the accident,” the company said in a statement
“There are no survivors,” Col Emerson Massera of the Brazilian military police told reporters at the crash site in the city of Vinhedo late on Thursday.
Massera said the fire had been brought under control, but about 50 firefighters were still working to cool down the area. “It’s a very sad scene; our work now is focused on clearing the area so that the investigation and identification of the bodies can proceed,” he said.
The ATR-72 turboprop plane was en route from Cascavel, in the state of Paraná, to Guarulhos, in São Paulo, when it crashed in a residential neighbourhood about 76km away from the state capital.
No casualties were reported on the ground, according to Col Cassio Araújo de Freitas, the general commander of the military police, who said: “We have no reports of any other victims besides those on the aircraft.”
According to the Flight Radar website, the plane was traveling at 17,000ft before plunging 4,000ft in two minutes, and then its signal was lost.
Video shared on social media showed the plane spiraling out of control as it plunged down into a cluster of trees, followed by a large plume of black smoke.
Another clip showed flames and smoke coming from the plane fuselage where it had apparently plowed into the side of a house. Burning debris and at least one body could be seen strewn across the gardens of a residential area, while emergency vehicles arrived.
Ana Lúcia de Lima, who lives nearby, told the UOL news website that the noise was so loud it “sounded like it was falling into my house … The first blast was strong, there was already dark smoke coming out, and then there were several more explosions.”
Another resident, Daniel de Lima, said he heard a loud noise before looking outside and seeing the plane in a horizontal spiral.
“It was rotating, but it wasn’t moving forward,” he told Reuters. “Soon after, it fell out of the sky and exploded.”
The Brazilian air force and the federal police sent teams of investigators to the site.
The head of the air force’s Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Centre, Brigadier Marcelo Moreno, said that there was no timeline for the investigation to be completed. He said: “It is still very premature to say anything.”
But he said it was already clear that “there was no communication from the aircraft to the control authorities indicating an emergency”.
Voepass stated that the aircraft had taken off “without any flight restrictions, with all its systems functioning properly for the operation”.
Speaking at an event in southern Brazil on Friday afternoon, just minutes after the accident, the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called for a minute of silence for those lost in the crash.
#news #brazil
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Trump condemns Zelensky remarks that war end is 'far away'
A statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying a deal to end the war with Russia was "very far away" has drawn a furious response by Donald Trump.
"America will not put up with it for much longer," the US president said in a social media post, before accusing Zelensky of not wanting peace.
A summit of mostly European leaders in London on Sunday agreed a four-point plan to guarantee Ukraine's defence in the event of a peace deal with Russia.
"Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?" Trump said, apparently referring to the summit held two days after his fiery clash with Zelensky at the Oval Office.
The summit - hosted by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer - was intended as a show of support for Ukraine and an attempt to reduce differences between Western countries over Ukraine.
Britain and France said they were working on a European-led solution to the conflict.
After the meeting, Zelensky said a deal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia was "still very, very far away".
He added that he expected the US to continue backing Ukraine despite his own fraught relations with Trump.
"I believe that Ukraine has a strong enough partnership with the United States of America," Zelensky said late on Sunday.
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As measles outbreak grows, HHS secretary says vaccination is a personal decision that can protect individuals and communities
As a measles outbreak in Texas has grown to nearly 150 cases, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an opinion piece on Fox News on Sunday that parents should consult with health-care providers “to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine” for their children.
Kennedy did not explicitly recommend the vaccine, but said the outbreak was a “call to action for all of us to reaffirm our commitment to public health.”
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Kenyan police deployed to Haiti haven’t received full promised salary in two months
Hundreds of Kenyan police officers leading an international policing force in Haiti have not received their full pay for two months, the latest complication in what has been a rocky start to the security mission in the gang-plagued Caribbean nation.
The first Kenyan officers deployed to Haiti arrived in June, the vanguard of a multinational security support mission (MSS) that is being funded largely by the United States. There are now around 400 Kenyan police in the country, many from specialized units.
In an August 25 statement acknowledging delays to payments, the MSS announced that officers could expect the missing funds to hit their bank accounts this week.
“Therefore, there is nothing to worry about (regarding) welfare issues of the MSS officers, since mainstream processes have been finalized,” the MSS added.
In a “progress report” released Monday, Kenya’s National Police Service (NPS) said that the officers were continuing “to draw their NPS salaries” while waiting for the supplemental pay for their MSS duties.
Kenyan officers had expected to be paid a significant supplement for their Haiti deployment – a grueling assignment more typical of a military than of a police force. Officers are not allowed to leave their base in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince during non-working hours.
Speaking to CNN, some officers expressed frustration and concern about the missing supplemental payments. With schools reopening in Kenya this week, some say they need the money urgently to manage school fees and other expenses for their families back home.
“The officers feel frustrated after not having been paid for two months. And we hear that the money has already been sent to Kenya but they haven’t paid us, so please help us out,” one officer in Haiti told CNN before the police statement was released, requesting anonymity.
The MSS force is expected to ultimately grow to 2,500, with more troops expected from Jamaica, Benin, Chad, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados and Belize. The force is hoped to bolster the Haitian National Police’s battles against an alliance of gangs that controls an estimated 85% of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.
Around 600,000 Haitians have been forced to flee their homes due to gang violence, and some 2 million people live in gang-ravaged areas where fear of attack is constant, Haitian interim Prime Minister Garry Conille said in an interview with CNN in early August.
The MSS is financed through a UN-managed trust fund, to which the US, Canada, France and Spain have contributed millions of dollars. The United States has committed at least $380 million overall in support of the mission, largely in the form of equipment and materiel.
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