World

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday defended a decision to pause a delivery to Israel of 3,500 bombs over concerns they could be used in the Gazan city of Rafah, saying Israel lacked a “credible plan” to protect some 1.4 million civilians sheltering there.

NAHRIN, Afghanistan, (Reuters) – Flash floods caused by heavy rains have devastated villages in northern Afghanistan, killing 315 people and injuring more than 1,600, authorities said today, as villagers buried their dead and aid agencies warned of widening havoc.

CAIRO/JERUSALEM, (Reuters) – Israel called yesterday for Palestinians in more areas of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah to evacuate and head to what it calls an expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, in a further indication that the military is pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack on Rafah.

TBILISI, (Reuters) – About 50,000 opponents of a “foreign agents” bill marched peacefully in heavy rain through the Georgian capital yesterday, after the United States said the country had to choose between the “Kremlin-style” law and the people’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

MALMO, Sweden,  (Reuters) – Switzerland yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Swedish host city Malmo, beating runner-up Croatia, after having been among bookmakers’ top-three to win the competition.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – The biggest geomagnetic storm in two decades, sparked by solar flares, caused dazzling lights displays in parts of Latin America overnight on Friday, including a rare appearance in Mexico.

(Reuters) – Starlink, the satellite arm of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, warned today of a “degraded service” as the Earth is battered by the biggest geomagnetic storm due to solar activity in two decades.

CAIRO, (Reuters) – The Palestinian militant group Hamas said yesterday that efforts to find a Gaza Strip truce deal were back at square one after Israel effectively spurned a plan from international mediators, and the White House said it was trying to keep the sides engaged “if only virtually.”

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) –  India’s top court gave temporary bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a graft case yesterday, allowing him to campaign in the ongoing general elections, boosting the opposition alliance of which he is a prominent figure.

UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – The United Nations General Assembly yesterday overwhelmingly backed a Palestinian bid to become a full U.N.

VALLETTA,  (Reuters) – Malta deputy prime minister Chris Fearne resigned yesterday amid a corruption scandal over a 2015 government concession for the management of three state hospitals granted to a previously unknown healthcare group.

KYIV,  (Reuters) – Russian forces launched an armoured ground attack today near Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv in the northeast of the country and made limited gains, opening a new front in a war that has long been waged in the east and south.

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – India’s top court gave temporary bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a graft case today, allowing him to campaign in the ongoing general elections, boosting the opposition alliance of which he is a prominent figure.

MAPUTO, (Reuters) – Mozambique’s army is fighting Islamist insurgents who launched a major attack on the northern town of Macomia this morning, President Filipe Nyusi said in a televised address.

JERUSALEM, (Reuters) – Israelis are ready to fight with their “fingernails”,  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday in a thinly veiled rebuff to U.S.

MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West today of risking a global conflict and said no one would be allowed to threaten the world’s biggest nuclear power as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – British foreign minister David Cameron urged fellow NATO members today to meet pledges to spend 2% of GDP on defence, saying a tougher foreign policy is needed in a world more dangerous “than most of us have ever known”.

LONDON, (Reuters) – The ringleader of an extreme body modification conspiracy who cut off men’s genitals and uploaded videos to his “Eunuch Maker” website was jailed for a minimum of 22 years in a London court today.

0WASHINGTON/CAIRO/RAFAH, Gaza Strip, (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden for the first time publicly vowed to withhold weapons from Israel if its forces make a major invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza while negotiations in Cairo on a ceasefire plan for the enclave were due to continue today.

KYIV,  (Reuters) – Russian missiles and drones struck nearly a dozen Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities on Wednesday, causing serious damage at three Soviet-era thermal power plants and blackouts in multiple regions, officials said.