Author: Admin

KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 36 civilians are dead and more than 160 others were injured after Pakistani military forces carried out overnight airstrikes inside Afghanistan, Afghan officials announced Monday, deepening an already volatile conflict between the two neighboring nations.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said security forces first conducted a ground operation along the shared border late Sunday, then followed up with strikes against what officials described as militant hideouts and safe havens. Pakistani authorities reported 29 fighters were killed in the operations, which they said were launched in direct response to a series of militant attacks carried out inside Pakistan.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government sharply condemned the strikes, calling them a “cowardly act of aggression” and an “act of brutality.”

Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for Afghanistan’s Taliban government, said Pakistani forces initially struck a residence in the Chamkani district of Paktia province, killing an elderly man and a child while injuring several other family members. When local residents rushed to the scene to help the wounded, the area was struck a second time, leaving 28 villagers dead and 158 more injured, Fitrat said.

Six additional people — most of them women and children — were killed when another home was hit in the Giyan district of Paktika province, according to Fitrat. A separate home in Kunar province was also struck, though no human casualties were reported there; approximately 30 livestock were killed.

Militant attacks on Pakistan’s police and security personnel have risen sharply in recent years. Pakistani authorities have attributed most of the violence to the Pakistani Taliban — formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP — along with allied militant organizations. The Pakistani Taliban, while distinct from Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, share an alliance with the Afghan Taliban, who reclaimed power in 2021.

The military operation came after a militant assault on the regional headquarters of Pakistan’s paramilitary Rangers in Karachi, which left three soldiers dead. Pakistani security forces killed three of the attackers and captured a fourth, who the military identified as a wounded Afghan national. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack.

Sunday’s strikes and ground operation took place less than three weeks after Pakistan’s military conducted a previous round of airstrikes on alleged militant positions inside Afghanistan — ending roughly a month of relative quiet following what Islamabad had characterized as an “open war” between the two countries, despite international efforts to negotiate a durable peace agreement.

The latest violence is part of a months-long cycle of retaliatory military exchanges. Hundreds of lives have been lost in cross-border clashes since February, when Afghanistan launched its own strikes in response to earlier Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan soil.

Numerous rounds of diplomatic talks have failed to produce a lasting ceasefire. China brought both sides together for negotiations in April, and Beijing later reported that Pakistan and Afghanistan had agreed to avoid further escalation and to work toward a peaceful resolution.

COPENHAGEN — Canada has awarded C$7 million (approximately $4.93 million U.S.) in grant funding to support a molybdenum mining operation in Greenland, according to an announcement Monday from Greenland Resources.

The company is working to develop the open-pit Malmbjerg mine in eastern Greenland, which sits atop significant deposits of molybdenum — a metal that both the European Union and the United States have classified as a critical mineral.

The Canadian government formalized the commitment through a signed agreement providing a non-repayable contribution via Natural Resources Canada’s Critical Minerals Research, Development and Demonstration programme, the company said.

Greenland Resources noted that Canada has become the first G7 nation to put money into Greenland’s mining sector.

Molybdenum is a silvery-white metal used mainly to reinforce steel and boost its ability to withstand heat and corrosion. Those properties make it essential for industries including defence manufacturing and clean energy development.

Western nations have grown increasingly uneasy about access to the metal after China — which produces roughly 40% of the world’s molybdenum supply — imposed export restrictions on it in early 2025.

Interest in Greenland’s mineral wealth has surged in recent months following efforts by former President Trump to pursue control of the Arctic island, a push that was rejected by both Denmark and Greenland’s government. Despite its abundant natural resources, Greenland’s mining sector has historically struggled to grow due to regulatory hurdles and limited access to financing.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia and Vanuatu have officially signed a long-anticipated security and economic treaty that prohibits China from establishing a military base on the South Pacific island nation.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Vanuatuan counterpart Jotham Napat put pen to paper on the so-called Nakamal Agreement in Australia’s capital on Monday. The signing came nine months after Vanuatu’s government turned down an earlier version of the deal, citing concerns that the original terms would restrict its ability to bring in infrastructure investment from other countries.

Speaking to reporters after the signing, Albanese said, “Our agreement reflects and confirms Australia’s role as Vanuatu’s largest and most comprehensive economic, security and development partner, a responsibility that we take seriously.”

Napat added that the pact “reaffirms our shared commitment to continuing and strengthening the comprehensive partnership between our two countries, founded on mutual respect, trust and our common vision for a peaceful, stable and prosperous Pacific.”

According to an official government statement, the agreement requires Vanuatu to prohibit any foreign military base or military-related infrastructure within its borders. It also mandates that the nation’s critical infrastructure remain free from militarization, foreign interference, or unauthorized access.

The Nakamal Agreement is part of a broader effort by Australia to strike security deals with neighboring Pacific nations in order to limit China’s growing influence in the region.

Under the finalized terms, Vanuatu must consult with Australia before entering into any third-party arrangements involving its critical infrastructure. However, unlike the original proposal, Australia does not hold veto power over those decisions.

The agreement also commits Vanuatu to giving priority to policing cooperation with members of the Pacific Islands Forum — a group of 18 countries and territories that includes Australia. Notably, the deal does not explicitly exclude Chinese police. While China does not maintain a permanent police presence in Vanuatu, Chinese police personnel do make regular visits to the nation, which has a population of approximately 350,000 people.

Additionally, Vanuatu has agreed to turn first to Australia, New Zealand, and France when responding to major natural disasters.

The original draft of the agreement had included a proposed financial commitment of 500 million Australian dollars — roughly $344 million U.S. — to be provided to Vanuatu over ten years. Albanese indicated that the financial details of the updated agreement would be released publicly by December.

Napat also addressed a separate agreement Vanuatu is negotiating with China, saying the details would be shared once the deal received “clearance from Beijing.” He has previously referred to that deal — known as the Namele Agreement — as a “comprehensive development cooperation” arrangement, stressing that it is not a security pact.

Vanuatu has received substantial loans and aid from China in recent years, funding the construction of buildings, wharves, and other infrastructure projects.

“Currently, it’s not yet signed. We will share the (Namele) agreement. There is nothing to hide. Our government is transparent and I am so grateful that the Prime Minister (Albanese) has also given me the clearance to share with them (China) the Nakamal Agreement,” Napat said.

The road to Monday’s signing was not without setbacks. Last September, Albanese was informed that Vanuatu had rejected a previous draft of the treaty just hours before he was scheduled to fly there for the original signing ceremony.

KYIV/NEAR DRUZHKIVKA, Ukraine — Russian forces are slowly fighting their way into Kostiantynivka, a pivotal stronghold in Ukraine’s eastern defensive corridor that Moscow has long sought to capture, even as progress along most of the roughly 1,200-kilometer front line has largely ground to a halt.

Combat has now begun to spill into the city itself. Senior Ukrainian military commanders reported last week that small groups of Russian soldiers are attempting to push into the city’s outskirts — a development that suggests street-level, close-quarters fighting may be on the horizon.

Kostiantynivka sits at the southern end of a chain of four critical settlements that form a defensive line Ukraine is relying on to hold the heavily industrialized Donetsk region in the country’s east.

Russia’s continued push toward the city highlights Moscow’s persistent advantage in troop numbers, even as Ukrainian mid-range drone strikes targeting Russian supply lines have degraded some of its battlefield capabilities, according to analysts.

Emil Kastehelmi of the Black Bird conflict analysis team in Finland put it plainly: “The effect (of mid-range strikes) hasn’t been so great that it would have forced the Russians to suspend their offensive. So even though Russia has been taking increasingly heavy losses in the rear, they are still able to continue their offensives, at least in certain sectors.”

Taking Kostiantynivka would give Russian forces a launching point to push northward along the defensive belt, which has become the central focus of their military campaign. However, analysts warn that any such advance would likely be prolonged and costly — potentially mirroring the brutal sieges seen in other eastern cities like Pokrovsk and Avdiivka.

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that Russia must gain full control of the Donetsk region before the war concludes. Ukraine still controls roughly one-fifth of the region after more than four years of conflict.

Putin said last week that Russian forces were on the verge of capturing Kostiantynivka, a city whose pre-war population of nearly 70,000 has dwindled to around 2,000 residents. Senior commanders of Ukraine’s 19th Army Corps pushed back on that claim in comments to Ukrainian media, calling it an exaggeration and saying their troops were eliminating small Russian units that had managed to enter the city.

Maj. Gen. Viktor Nikoliuk, who leads Ukraine’s eastern operational command, told Ukraine’s public broadcaster on Thursday that Kostiantynivka could continue to hold at the current pace, provided troop levels and resources remain steady.

While the situation on the ground is deteriorating for Ukrainian forces, the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said in a June 23 assessment that the Russian infiltrations are not sufficient to trigger “a rapid operational breakthrough.”

Nevertheless, Russian efforts to surround the city using pincer movements are steadily making it more costly for Kyiv to keep defending it, according to Ukrainian analyst Ruslan Mykula of the DeepState open-source mapping group. “A choice will have to be made: either raise the stakes or withdraw,” Mykula said. “And right now, the situation is such that the stakes are rising with each passing day.”

Kastehelmi added that the city’s fall “seems to be more of a question of time.”

Russian troops are also pressing on the northern end of the defensive corridor, threatening the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk with regular air and drone attacks launched from roughly 15 kilometers away.

Ukrainian supply routes in the area are under sustained attack, with artillery, drones, and guided bombs striking infrastructure along the road running north from Kostiantynivka, according to troops stationed nearby.

Reuters recently accompanied members of the “Predator” rifle brigade, part of the National Police, as they patrolled the battered supply route against drone threats and remotely dropped mines. Fiber-optic cable used to guide first-person-view drones was visible strewn across anti-drone netting stretched over the road, glinting in the intense summer heat.

Ground robots carrying food, water, and supplies — now the primary means of delivery within what soldiers call the “kill zone” — rolled back and forth along the route while soldiers zipped past on quad bikes.

Serviceman Oleksandr Kosmin, 34, explained that the route is far too dangerous for standard vehicles to carry out casualty evacuations: “Everything happens on foot.”

Civilian life in the surrounding area is collapsing under the weight of the ongoing fighting. In Druzhkivka, located about 12 kilometers to the north, residents are being forced to flee as the conflict creeps closer. On one tree-lined street, a husband and wife were found dead inside a van that had been struck by a Russian drone — white ribbons intended to identify the vehicle as civilian still fluttered from its roof.

Larysa Sereda, 59, spoke from inside a police evacuation vehicle as she prepared to leave. “Why am I leaving? Because I’m scared. Drones are flying,” she said. “But I plan to return home. I don’t want to stay in some strange place. The war will end, and I’ll come home.”

Russia’s slow advance around Kostiantynivka is unfolding despite growing pressure on its war effort from Ukrainian strikes on supply lines to and from Crimea, as well as longer-range attacks on Russia’s oil sector. Russian-installed authorities on the occupied Black Sea peninsula have declared a state of emergency to address economic problems and have suspended all fuel sales to individuals and businesses.

Across the broader battlefield, Russian forces appear stretched thin, with frontline assaults often involving only one or two soldiers at a time, according to analyst Mykula.

Still, Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-installed leader of the occupied portion of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, told Reuters that Russia’s push to take more cities was ongoing. “Talking about whether this is happening slowly or quickly isn’t really the point,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russian hardliners have been pressuring Putin to walk away from the U.S.-backed peace process and escalate military operations as Ukrainian strikes intensify — including attacks reaching into Moscow itself.

SYDNEY — Australia is set to introduce new legislation in parliament aimed at strengthening its ban on social media use for children under the age of 16, while also expanding the powers of its internet regulator to take tech giants to court when they fail to follow the rules.

The proposed laws come after the country became the first in the world to enact such restrictions, which went into effect last December. Many other nations have been watching Australia’s approach closely, especially as evidence continues to emerge that children are still finding ways onto the platforms.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said tech companies are not doing nearly enough to comply with the existing law, and that far too many children remain active on social media.

“We’re calling time on the social media companies today and doubling down on the changes that we have made and that we’re prepared to make,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra.

“Today, we’ll introduce legislation this afternoon that goes further to ensure social media companies are doing everything within their power to stop children under 16 being on their platforms,” he added.

Australia’s internet regulator is currently investigating five platforms for possible violations: Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Google’s YouTube. Meta, Google, and Snapchat had no immediate response, while TikTok declined to offer any comment.

Albanese also urged the conservative coalition opposition to support the bill, pointing out that the original policy received backing from both sides of the political aisle.

The proposed changes, which were announced on Sunday, would double the maximum penalty for non-compliance from A$49.5 million to A$99 million — roughly $68.2 million U.S. dollars.

The new legislation would also give the eSafety Commissioner the authority to demand internal company documents, including board meeting minutes and private emails, to help build the strongest possible legal cases against platforms that are not complying.

Communications Minister Anika Wells made clear the government has no intention of backing down.

“My message to Big Tech is this: we are not stopping. Every effort you make to frustrate these laws will be met with our efforts to make these laws work,” she said.

“If the eSafety Commissioner finds companies are not doing everything they can to comply, they will face the full force of the law,” Wells added.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — China announced new export control measures Monday targeting 40 Japanese companies, accusing them of contributing to what Beijing calls Japan’s “remilitarization.”

According to China’s Commerce Ministry, 20 of those companies — including Mitsui E&S, a manufacturer of ship engines and related equipment — have been added to a watch list covering dual-use items, meaning products that can serve both civilian and military functions.

Chinese companies that wish to export goods to those firms will now be required to obtain special licenses, provide risk assessment reports on the Japanese businesses, and submit written commitments that any dual-use items will not be used for military purposes.

Separately, 20 additional Japanese companies that were placed on a watch list back in February have now been moved to a stricter control list. Under that designation, both Chinese and foreign exporters are prohibited from selling them any dual-use products manufactured in China. Among those on the control list are several divisions of Mitsubishi Corporation.

In its official statement, China’s Commerce Ministry defended the actions: “China’s measures are entirely justified, reasonable and lawful. They are aimed at firmly deterring Japan’s reckless pursuit of ‘new militarism.’”

The statement went further, adding: “We hope Japan will recognize its mistakes, reverse its wrongful course, genuinely reflect on its past and return to the right track.”

The friction between the two nations has been building since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested last year that Japan could step in militarily if China moved against Taiwan — a self-governing island democracy that Beijing claims as its own territory.

Takaichi’s government has also been expanding Japan’s military capacity, including placing longer-range missiles on remote islands and opening the door to lethal weapons exports under a newly adopted policy. Japan is also expected to revise its defense and security documents by December, a move that could push its defense budget even higher.

On Monday, Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force announced the deployment of a Type-12 missile launcher on Minamitorishima, the country’s southernmost remote island — a move widely seen as a response to China’s growing military presence in the Pacific.

China’s latest actions mirror steps it took in February, when it placed 20 Japanese companies on an export control list and another 20 on a watch list.

Beijing has been steadily increasing military pressure on Taiwan, viewing the island as territory that must eventually be reunified with the mainland, by force if needed.

Earlier this month, China’s Coast Guard conducted patrols east of Taiwan, which state media described as a “pointed warning” to Japan and the Philippines following a joint announcement that the two countries would discuss their shared maritime boundaries in waters Beijing considers its own.

Last week, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France issued an unusual joint statement condemning Chinese actions in the waters east of Taiwan and declaring their opposition to any change in the current status quo between China and Taiwan.

PARIS (AP) — The phone at one Paris mortuary rings every few minutes, and the answer is almost always the same. Since a record-breaking heat wave began claiming lives across France and filling cold storage facilities beyond capacity, funeral directors and grieving families have been calling mortuary owner Zouhaeir Hertelli with one desperate question: Is there any room left?

With all 32 spaces in his cold room occupied, Hertelli finds himself forced to gently say “Non” — again and again.

“We’re facing a really catastrophic situation,” he said. “I’m getting hundreds of calls.”

As the historic heat wave pushed its deadly temperatures eastward into other parts of Europe over the weekend, France began the grim task of counting lives lost in its aftermath.

The full accounting of heat-related deaths — a process that can take weeks or even months — has only just begun. But it is already clear that the suffering caused by the relentless extreme temperatures was severe in France, the first country to be struck starting in mid-June. Older people who died alone at home made up a significant portion of the casualties.

“We’re dealing with an enormous spike of deaths because of the heat wave and we’re really full, full, full,” Hertelli said.

In an initial preliminary estimate, France’s national public health agency reported that deaths climbed sharply during the heat wave’s peak last week, when temperatures in many areas surpassed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across much of the country. Nighttime temperatures also broke records, leaving already exhausted bodies with no chance to recover.

Public Health France reported more than 1,200 deaths last Wednesday — the day France recorded its hottest temperature ever, breaking a record that had only been set the day before. The death toll climbed further to more than 1,400 on Thursday and another 1,400 on Friday. For comparison, France’s typical daily death rate in April and May hovered between 900 and 1,000.

The agency warned that its estimate of at least 1,000 additional deaths during just those three peak days is likely to grow as more death certificates arrive from people who died at home and in care facilities for the elderly — locations where electronic death registration is still not widely used.

“Mortality will as a consequence be higher than these first figures,” the agency stated.

The agency also noted that 85% of deaths recorded during the three days studied involved people aged 65 and older, and that deaths at home jumped by roughly 40%, particularly in the Paris region.

Hertelli and other funeral industry professionals said Paris mortuaries ran out of storage space almost immediately. City Hall announced that two temporary storage units, each holding 20 bodies, were set up at municipal mortuaries, and city hospitals added another 50 spaces. Even so, Hertelli said funeral directors told him they were transporting bodies as far as Chartres — 80 kilometers, or about 50 miles, from Paris — and to other surrounding regions just to find available space. He said he has requested permission from authorities to set up refrigerated containers outside his mortuary near Paris’s Orly airport, but is still waiting for approval.

“Families are suffering,” he said. “We have no solution to offer them, because the funeral homes are full. So we are deeply affected, we have empathy for them, but there’s nothing we can offer. We are really facing a problem, a big problem.”

The current heat wave surpassed the historic high temperatures of 2003, which were blamed for 15,000 deaths in France and sparked a national conversation about how the country cares for its elderly population. An exceptionally hot summer the previous year was also linked to more than 5,700 deaths.

Paris funeral director Véronique Bertrand said she worries that the hard lessons of 2003 have faded from public memory.

“Most of the deaths that we are dealing with at the moment were people who were living alone at home, isolated. Given the circumstances in which they were found, there can be no other conclusion than that these were deaths caused by the heat,” Bertrand said.

She urged the public to reconnect with a sense of community responsibility. “I think people absolutely need to wake up, that solidarity needs to come back, that what happened in 2003 led to a movement in that direction, with people thinking about their neighbors, of those around them who live alone and perhaps checking from time to time that they’re drinking water and are being looked after,” she said.

“With the passing years, we’ve perhaps forgotten that it could happen again and that things would even perhaps be worse,” Bertrand added.

HONG KONG — A nearly 40-hour voyage on a small rubber dinghy with a fading phone battery and detention in South Korea — that’s part of the extraordinary ordeal Chinese dissident Dong Guangping went through to escape his homeland. He touched down in Canada late last week, reaching a country he had been trying to get to for more than ten years.

Dong had been imprisoned in China multiple times, including for activities honoring the memory of pro-democracy demonstrators who were suppressed in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, as well as for previous escape attempts.

“It’s like living in a cage. Very suffocating,” he told The Associated Press during a video interview conducted from Toronto, describing the absence of free expression in China.

The 68-year-old said that following his release from prison, he was cut off from retirement benefits, could not renew his passport, and was kept under continuous police surveillance.

He had tried to flee China at least three times before: in 2015 to Thailand, where he was deported back to China; in 2019 when he attempted to swim to a Taiwanese island off China’s eastern coast; and in 2020 when he made it to Vietnam, only to be sent back once again.

Last month, he made another attempt.

In the early morning hours of May 24, Dong departed from Weihai — a coastal city in Shandong province in eastern China — aboard a gray rubber dinghy equipped with an engine, under clear skies. His destination was Japan, where he believed authorities would not force him to return to China.

The following day brought thick fog. When he noticed his phone — his only GPS navigation tool — was down to its last bar of battery, panic set in. His backup power bank had also given out. He quickly pivoted to his backup plan and set his course for South Korea instead.

He recalled the deep fear that gripped him, knowing his small vessel could overturn if conditions worsened. But he had no way to turn back, and he pushed past his fear of dying.

“Living conditions back in the country are so terrible that being alive is little different than being dead. So there is no point fearing death,” he said. “If you move forward, there’s a chance at life.”

As evening fell, he spotted lights in the distance and steered toward them. The first vessel he approached could not hear his calls for help and moved on. He eventually came across a fishing boat whose crew agreed to bring him aboard. He asked the fishermen to contact authorities on his behalf.

The South Korean Coast Guard took him into custody for allegedly breaking the country’s immigration laws. Officials sought a formal arrest warrant, but a court turned it down, ruling it was “difficult to recognize sufficient grounds and necessity” for his arrest.

Dong was then transferred to a refugee center in Incheon, a port city near Seoul. Earlier this month, the U.N. refugee agency reached out to him via video call, he said.

A manager at the refugee center later asked him about his height, weight, and eye color. Though he was initially nervous, it turned out to be a promising sign. His attorney informed him the request had come from the Canadian diplomatic mission, he said.

Roughly a week later, Dong boarded a plane and arrived in Toronto on Friday. He said he was still unsure exactly what legal steps were involved, but believed it came down to coordination between the South Korean and Canadian governments along with the U.N. agency.

“I feel very surprised, extremely surprised. It’s like still in a dream. It’s very fast,” he said.

He believes the resettlement status in Canada that his family secured back in 2015 — before Thai authorities sent him back to China — remains valid.

The Canadian Embassy in South Korea declined to comment on his situation. The U.N. refugee agency and the South Korean government did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.

Dong said he feels at home now that he’s in Toronto, describing it as the first taste of genuine freedom he’s had in more than a decade.

“There’s not even a hint of fear,” he said.

He hopes to support himself by working as a truck driver or an Uber driver.

Despite his relief, Dong has not forgotten how Thailand and Vietnam both sent him back to China. In 2015, he and his family traveled to Thailand to seek refugee status through the U.N. refugee agency, but Thai authorities arrested him and returned him to China, according to Amnesty International. His ex-wife and daughter were able to settle in Canada. He fled to Vietnam in 2020 but was sent back in 2022. Each time he was returned to China, he was jailed. He said he intends to consult a lawyer about the possibility of suing both Thailand and Vietnam.

For Dong, the struggle is not over. He also plans to continue advocating for China’s democratization.

In the late 1990s, the former police officer distributed leaflets containing his writings on subjects including the Tiananmen crackdown. He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2001 on charges of inciting subversion of state power. He also spent more than eight months behind bars after being arrested in 2014 for participating in a memorial for victims of the crackdown.

“My ultimate goal is for China to achieve constitutional democracy,” he said.

A senior Israeli cybersecurity official says the number of Iranian cyberattacks targeting Israel has risen sharply since the start of a U.S.-Israeli military offensive against Iran this year.

Yossi Karadi, Director General of Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, spoke with German newspaper Die Welt, revealing that Israeli authorities recorded approximately 1,600 hostile cyber incidents during June 2025, when Israeli military operations against Iran were underway. That number soared to roughly 4,800 incidents during the same month in 2026.

“Some groups are very skilled,” Karadi told the newspaper. “We can handle them, but we have to take them seriously. Unlike in the kinetic realm, there’s no ceasefire in cyberspace.”

Karadi explained that the attacks have been aimed at a wide range of targets, including critical infrastructure systems, major organizations, small and medium-sized businesses, and the general public. He specifically mentioned law practices and accounting firms among the smaller entities that have been hit.

“So far — and hopefully it stays that way — we’ve managed to fend off attacks on critical infrastructure,” he said.

He added that organizations with weaker defenses often had their computer systems completely wiped out, though he declined to name any specific victims.

Iran has historically denied involvement in hacking operations against other nations, even as it reports being the target of cyberattacks itself.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko traveled to Beijing for a face-to-face meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to the Belarusian presidential Telegram channel Pul Pervogo, which reported the development on Monday.

During the meeting, Xi told Lukashenko that relations between China and Belarus have reached their “historic peak,” as quoted by Pul Pervogo.

Lukashenko responded warmly to the remark. “This is exactly what we talked with you before,” he said, according to the Telegram post. “And perhaps, to some extent, what we had dreamed of on the eve of this global cooperation between Belarus and … China.”

The Beijing visit follows talks Lukashenko held with Russian President Vladimir Putin just last week. The diplomatic activity comes at a time of heightened tension between Belarus and Ukraine, whose president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has stated his belief that Putin is working to push Lukashenko into increasing his backing of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

Australia and Vanuatu formally signed a long-awaited security and development agreement on Monday, ending months of delays that stemmed from concerns the deal could limit Vanuatu’s access to investment from outside countries.

Under the terms of the agreement — called the Nakamal Agreement — Australia will be consulted whenever a third party seeks to invest in Vanuatu’s critical infrastructure. Australia will also remain Vanuatu’s primary partner in security and policing matters.

The deal comes as Australia works to maintain its influence across the Pacific in the face of growing competition from China. Canberra had previously committed A$500 million, roughly $344.50 million U.S. dollars, to be paid out over 10 years as part of the arrangement.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke at a joint news conference alongside his Vanuatu counterpart, Prime Minister Jotham Napat, emphasizing the agreement’s scope. “It encapsulates Vanuatu’s sovereign decision not to permit its territory to be used for any foreign military base or infrastructure and that Vanuatu’s critical infrastructure remains free from militarisation,” Albanese said.

The agreement had originally been scheduled for signing in September, but negotiations stalled after Napat indicated that a coalition partner had raised worries the pact might prevent Vanuatu from securing infrastructure funding from other nations.

China plays a significant financial role in Vanuatu, serving as the island nation’s largest external creditor. Chinese banks have funded Chinese contractors to carry out major construction projects there, including the presidential office complex, the parliament building, and a road network.

Vanuatu is also currently working toward its own separate economic agreement with China. Napat said Monday that deal is still waiting for approval from Beijing.

When asked whether that China agreement might include security provisions, Napat said, “We will share the agreement, there is nothing to hide.”

DHAKA — Deposed former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has made a bold declaration: she intends to return to her home country before the end of this year, even in the face of a death sentence issued against her while she remains abroad.

Hasina, 78, has been living in India since a student-led uprising brought down her government in August 2024. In a recent interview with Indian television network NDTV, she said no obstacle or conspiracy would stop her from going back.

“I want to say clearly: overcoming every obstacle and every conspiracy, I will return to my country this year,” she stated when pressed on whether she would return despite the death sentence hanging over her. It marked the first time she had publicly set a timeline for her return.

A court in Dhaka handed down the death sentence last November, convicting her of inciting killings, ordering violence, and failing to stop atrocities during the unrest that swept Bangladesh in 2024.

Hasina flatly rejected the verdict, accusing the country’s court system of being weaponized for political purposes. She described the judiciary as “an instrument of political revenge” designed to destroy the leadership of her Awami League party.

“I do not fear death,” she declared, adding that previous attempts to dismantle her party had ultimately failed — and would fail again.

She framed her planned return not as a personal political comeback, but as a mission to restore democratic rights, the rule of law, and the values of Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.

Despite a ban on the Awami League’s activities — restrictions first put in place by a previous interim administration and still enforced under Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s government, which came to power following February elections — Hasina insisted the party remains a powerful force.

“The Awami League is not a paper organisation but a political force rooted in the soil of Bengal, in the people of Bengal, in the history of Bengal and in the identity of the Bengali nation,” she said.

Hasina also called on the Tarique Rahman-led government to lift the ban on her party, drop what she characterized as fabricated charges against its leaders, free political prisoners, and allow peaceful political activity to resume.

In response, the government has defended the legal actions against her, saying the proceedings are part of a broader effort to hold accountable those responsible for alleged crimes committed during the final period of Hasina’s rule.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia is preparing to significantly toughen its penalties against social media companies, including Facebook and Instagram, after critics say the country’s groundbreaking ban on social media accounts for children under 16 is falling short.

Communications Minister Anika Wells, speaking Monday, pointed the finger at the platforms themselves, saying their pushback against age restrictions is forcing the government’s hand on strengthening the rules that went into effect on December 10.

“We can all agree we would like the scheme to work better than it is currently, but that is on Big Tech taking the Mickey,” Wells told the Australian Broadcasting Corp., using an Australian slang expression meaning to deceive or mock someone.

On Sunday, the government announced it would submit draft legislation to Parliament this week that would raise the maximum penalty to 99 million Australian dollars — roughly $68 million — for platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to stop Australian children from maintaining accounts.

The proposed amendments would also expand the authority of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, the country’s top online safety official, giving her greater ability to demand records and information to verify that platforms are following Australian law.

Under the new powers, the commissioner could also seek information from outside parties — such as companies that provide age verification technology — to evaluate the platforms’ claims about how children under 16 continue to get around the ban.

Senior opposition lawmaker Jane Hume indicated her party would likely support the reforms, acknowledging that the “social media ban wasn’t working” due to weaknesses in the original legislation.

“The legislation was clearly undercooked in the first place. The eSafety Commissioner wasn’t given the powers to be able to pursue these Big Tech companies,” Hume said.

Parliament originally passed the law with broad bipartisan support in 2024, and the affected platforms were given more than a year to prepare for the ban’s implementation.

Countries around the world that are considering or have already enacted similar restrictions have been keeping a close eye on how Australia’s approach has played out.

Initially, the government reported that more than 5 million children had their accounts removed, deactivated, or restricted once the ban became law. However, eSafety reported in March that seven out of ten children who had accounts on restricted platforms as of December 10 were still active on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.

In April, Commissioner Inman Grant said she was weighing legal action against those platforms as well as YouTube, alleging they were not doing enough to keep children off their services. She noted she was satisfied with the progress made by the other restricted platforms — X, Kick, Reddit, Threads, and Twitch.

Wells said she has been receiving monthly progress reports from eSafety since March and that “we are not seeing improvements.”

“These (draft) changes ensure that the eSafety Commissioner has the tools and powers she needs to hold platforms to account and we’re making sure that she can do just that,” Wells added.

South Korea is preparing to announce three ambitious “mega-projects” designed to drive the country’s next era of economic expansion, including a major semiconductor hub planned for the nation’s southwest region that local media report could draw hundreds of billions of dollars in investment from Samsung and SK over several years.

The announcement represents President Lee Jae Myung’s most significant push yet to align the country’s artificial intelligence and chip industry goals with his commitment to reducing regional inequality and boosting economies outside the Seoul metropolitan area.

President Lee will lead the event, which his office has described as a national “great leap” forward. Ministries overseeing industry, science, climate, and transportation are expected to lay out specific policy support measures at the gathering.

Samsung Electronics and SK are both anticipated to share their investment plans at the event. The chairmen of those companies — Jay Y. Lee and Chey Tae-won — are among the business leaders local media expect to be in attendance. Representatives from other major companies, including LG Electronics, HD Hyundai Robotics, Korea Electric Power Corp, and Korea Water Resources Corp, are also slated to participate, according to Lee’s office.

The initiative will encompass semiconductors, AI data centers, and physical AI technologies such as robotics. Social media posts from the president pointed to a new chip cluster being developed in the southwest, including the Gwangju area and South Jeolla province — regions that have historically lagged behind the Seoul area in economic development.

Local media have reported that the total planned investments could surpass 1,000 trillion won, which is equivalent to roughly $651.41 billion, over the years ahead.

South Korean construction and engineering stocks jumped in early trading ahead of the formal announcement, as investors anticipated a wave of regional infrastructure spending. Major cement producers Asia Cement and Hanil Cement saw their shares rise 15% and 7%, respectively. Meanwhile, the broader KOSPI index fell more than 2%, with chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each dropping more than 4% and 3% as global tech stocks pulled back from a recent strong run.

South Korea is home to two of the world’s largest memory chipmakers — Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix — whose high-bandwidth memory chips play a central role in the global effort to develop advanced AI systems. Both companies currently operate major semiconductor facilities in and around the Seoul metropolitan area.

The government is expected to announce a wide-ranging support package that includes provisions for power supply, water access, land use, infrastructure development, workforce training, and housing.

President Lee spent part of the weekend defending the proposed southwest chip hub in a series of posts on X, pushing back against criticism that the project is intended to benefit a liberal political stronghold. He described the initiative as a “national survival strategy” aimed at easing regional imbalances and building the capacity needed for the AI era.

“The creation of a semiconductor industrial ecosystem in (the southwest) is not a special favour for a particular region,” Lee wrote in one post. “It is the additional creation of the most rational semiconductor industrial centre through the decisions of relevant companies under full government support.”

Industry analysts acknowledge that spreading chip investment beyond Seoul could help relieve infrastructure strain, but caution that constructing state-of-the-art fabrication plants demands enormous amounts of electricity and water, sophisticated logistics, extensive supplier networks, and a highly trained workforce — all of which may be difficult to develop quickly enough in a new location to keep pace with rapidly growing AI demand.

Opposition politicians have been vocal in their criticism, questioning whether the project is driven more by political calculations than economic logic, noting that 85% of voters in the southwest region supported Lee in last year’s presidential election.

The unveiling comes as Lee’s approval rating has declined for six consecutive weeks, reaching 46.5%, according to pollster Realmeter.

Singapore’s largest opposition party has decided to stand by its leader, voting to keep Pritam Singh in the role of secretary-general despite a court conviction that cost him his official parliamentary designation earlier this year.

The Workers’ Party held a meeting on Sunday where Singh addressed members and fielded their questions regarding his conviction before the vote was taken. A supermajority of the party’s cadres backed Singh in the decision, according to Workers’ Party Central Executive Committee member Gerald Giam, who spoke to local media.

“This decision reflects the considered judgment of the Party’s cadres, and the Party’s commitment to democratic principles and due process,” the party said in an official statement.

In February 2025, a Singapore court found Singh guilty of providing false testimony to a parliamentary committee in 2021 concerning a fellow party member. He had appealed the ruling, but the High Court rejected that appeal in December of last year.

Following the conviction, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong removed Singh from the designated role of Leader of the Opposition in January of this year, stating that Singh’s position had become impossible to maintain. In Singapore, it is the head of government — not the constitution or parliament’s standing orders — who designates who holds the Leader of the Opposition title.

Wong had urged the Workers’ Party to put forward a different lawmaker, one not connected to the controversy, to fill the opposition leader role. The party, which secured 10 seats in last year’s general election, declined to nominate anyone else. The party maintained in January that whoever leads the largest opposition bloc in parliament should naturally hold the Leader of the Opposition designation.

The position carries meaningful benefits and responsibilities, including additional financial allowance, dedicated staff support, and access to confidential government briefings.

In the rough waters of the Taiwan Strait, a coast guard officer named Yeh Chih-sheng boards his patrol vessel carrying something beyond standard equipment — temple charms blessed by deities long revered by seafarers for protection on the water.

Yeh serves as first mate aboard the CG1005, a 2,400-ton vessel stationed in Taiwan’s Penghu islands. His ship stands as part of Taiwan’s maritime defense line as China continues to press its claim of sovereignty over the democratically governed island.

When he’s not on duty, Yeh takes on a very different role — that of an assistant priest, known in Taiwanese as a “sio-huat,” at a Penghu temple dedicated to the Five Lords, guardian deities traditionally worshipped by coastal communities for calm seas and protection from disease.

Yeh’s connection to these deities goes back to his childhood, when he began assisting spirit mediums during religious rituals in which gods are believed to come down from the heavens and offer guidance.

“The Coast Guard is a tangible backing people can see,” Yeh said. “The Five Lords are a spiritual anchor in people’s hearts. Both help bring fishermen and ordinary people a sense of reassurance.”

That combination of professional duty and personal faith has grown increasingly meaningful for Yeh as China ramps up military pressure on Taiwan. Beijing has not ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control, while Taipei firmly rejects those territorial claims — including China’s assertion that it has the right to conduct “law enforcement” patrols in Taiwanese waters.

The situation has drawn concern from the United States and some of its allies, who said last week that recent Chinese operations off Taiwan’s eastern coast posed a threat to regional stability. China’s defense ministry pushed back on Thursday, calling its coast guard patrols “lawful, legitimate and necessary.”

Reuters was given rare access to Yeh’s ship while it was anchored in Penghu, an island chain sitting in the Taiwan Strait — a critical waterway through which billions of dollars in trade flows annually.

Yeh described a changed reality at sea, saying Chinese warships and coast guard vessels now regularly cross what was once an informal dividing line — the median line — and come close to Taiwan’s 24-nautical mile contiguous zone.

“They have already erased the median line,” Yeh said. He added that his mission is to monitor and warn off Chinese vessels using tools like water cannons, loudspeakers, LED display boards, and radio communications, rather than escalating confrontations.

He said he follows the coast guard’s guiding principle of “not provoking and not yielding,” and he takes talismans and ceremonial command tablets from the temple with him whenever he goes out on patrol.

Standing near the temple’s Chienchiu Paochien — a ceremonial divine boat — Yeh drew a parallel between the sacred vessel and his coast guard ship, saying both exist to guard the Taiwan Strait and shield fishermen and everyday people from harm.

“What we protect is people’s sense of safety and peace of mind,” Yeh said. “With the coast guard and navy there, people can live normally.”

All 14 people aboard a helicopter owned by Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, died when the aircraft went down in Saudi Arabia early Sunday morning, according to the Saudi Ministry of Energy.

The crash took place at approximately 6 a.m. in Ras Tanura. Officials confirmed that every person killed was a Saudi national. Authorities have opened a formal investigation to determine the cause of the accident.

The helicopter was the property of Aramco, a company that is majority-owned by the Saudi Arabian government.

The crash comes at an already challenging time for Aramco. The company has been navigating disruptions caused by the Iran war, which has affected oil supplies and pushed prices higher. Aramco has stated that it managed to redirect some of its oil exports through a pipeline in order to work around the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway that has seen disruptions as Iran has moved to assert control over it.

BANGKOK — A human rights organization is raising serious concerns about Vietnam’s growing use of broadly worded criminal laws to detain activists, critics, and others seen as threats to Communist Party rule, according to a new report released Monday.

The 88 Project, an organization focused on human rights conditions in Vietnam, recorded 56 politically motivated arrests in 2025 alone — the third year in a row that figure has climbed, and twice the number seen in 2022. Ben Swanton, co-director of the group, noted the report only counts cases where the arrested individual could be identified by name and the case monitored, meaning the true total is likely far greater.

The report describes Vietnam under leader To Lam as a government that “routinely weaponizes criminal law” to stamp out dissent. To Lam, who previously served as the country’s top security official, has held the position of general secretary of the Communist Party since 2024 and was also elected president earlier this year.

According to the report, much of the crackdown stems from the leadership’s fear of a popular uprising — the kind of so-called “color revolution” seen in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution or the Philippines’ 1986 Yellow Revolution.

That same fear is shared by Communist Party leadership in neighboring China, which has faced similar accusations of suppressing critics. Despite tensions over competing territorial claims in the South China Sea, Vietnam and China agreed earlier this year to jointly “prioritize political security and enhance efforts to prevent and resist color revolutions,” according to the Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency.

“With the ascendancy of To Lam, the country has become a literal police state that tolerates no dissent,” Swanton said. “This represents a serious regression from the period of relative openness in the 2010s when some dissent was tolerated and civil society groups were able to engage in policy activism.”

Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the report’s findings.

The report highlights a growing reliance on Article 331 of Vietnam’s penal code, a law that makes it a criminal offense — carrying up to seven years in prison — to “abuse democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state.”

Once rarely enforced, New York-based Human Rights Watch wrote in a report last year that authorities have “enlarged the scope and application of Article 331 so that it reaches further into society, beyond human rights and democracy dissidents … to all those who voice any grievance with state or local Communist Party and government officials.”

Human Rights Watch also described the trend as “a little known facet of the government’s expanding crackdown on ordinary people who are seeking to use social media and other peaceful means to publicly raise important social issues, including religious freedom, land rights, rights of Indigenous people, and government and Communist Party corruption.”

Among those arrested under Article 331 last year were three men behind a YouTube channel called “Nguoi Da Tin” — translated as “The Messenger” — who were accused of uploading videos containing “distorted content” that violated the law, according to The 88 Project.

Other politically related arrests documented in the report include an activist representing the minority Montagnard community who was detained in Thailand and sent back to Vietnam, a writer accused of spreading “propaganda against the state,” and an individual who assisted residents of Ha Tinh province in filing complaints seeking fair payment for land seized to build a new highway.

“The Vietnamese government has dealt alarmingly severe punishments to longstanding targets like journalists and human rights activists, while displaying an increasing willingness to attack groups previously thought safe, such as political exiles and legal petitioners,” the report concluded.

Argentine President Javier Milei announced Sunday that he is replacing his chief of cabinet, tapping Interior Minister Diego Santilli for the top government post. The announcement came via a post on Milei’s X account.

Santilli steps into the role vacated by Manuel Adorni, who submitted his resignation Saturday following corruption allegations against him. The transition is scheduled to take effect Tuesday.

The leadership change comes at a difficult moment for Milei, whose approval ratings have been slipping amid the corruption controversy and growing tensions within his administration.

Santilli brings a lengthy political resume to the position. An accountant by training, he comes from the center-right PRO party, which was founded by former president Mauricio Macri. He has previously held positions including deputy chief of the City of Buenos Aires, congressman, senator, and security minister of the City of Buenos Aires.

In his own post on X, Santilli expressed his commitment to the administration’s agenda. “I am going to give everything so that this government continues to advance in the structural reforms that Argentina has needed for decades,” he wrote.

Adorni, the outgoing cabinet chief, is currently under investigation for alleged illicit enrichment, among other charges. He also drew public criticism over several personal trips taken with family members — including a first-class holiday to the Caribbean island of Aruba during the Christmas season and a private jet trip to Uruguay during Carnival.

Adorni has pushed back against the criticism, maintaining that his wealth was accumulated before he joined the government and that all personal travel expenses were covered with his own private funds.

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — A father and his son have been pulled from the ruins of a collapsed building, surviving four days beneath the rubble left behind by Venezuela’s deadly earthquakes.

The dramatic rescue unfolded Sunday in La Guaira, offering a rare moment of hope for the French and American rescue crews working around the clock to find more survivors before time runs out.

Rescue workers carried both men through debris-covered streets on makeshift fabric stretchers, visibly exhausted and wearing masks, toward a waiting ambulance as onlookers gathered near the emergency vehicles.

La Guaira, a coastal state, was the hardest-hit area when the earthquakes struck on Wednesday, leaving at least 1,450 people dead and thousands more unaccounted for.

The rescue took approximately 12 hours of careful, painstaking work. Teams used specialized search cameras to comb through the unstable wreckage before safely reaching the two survivors.

“They are extremely weak, as any patient trapped under rubble for four days would be, so we are doing everything possible to rehydrate them and administer various medications during the extraction process, which is moving very slowly,” said a member of the French Civil Security.

The rescue operation in that area involved members of the French Civil Security alongside American responders from the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team in Virginia. That same team had rescued a mother and her 9-month-old baby just the day before.

Prior to removing the father and son from the rubble, rescuers set up intravenous drips and cleared surrounding debris. Other team members stayed close to the wreckage, searching for additional signs of life and staying in communication with colleagues working through the remains.

At least 33 people were rescued over the course of the weekend. However, tens of thousands are still reported missing, raising growing concerns that the window for finding survivors alive is closing fast.

Specialists warn that after 72 hours following an earthquake, the chances of locating victims alive under rubble drop sharply.

Residents across the Philippines are racing to put solar panels on their rooftops as electricity bills climb to painful levels, pushing the island nation to the top of the global rankings for solar panel imports.

The country’s leading power distributor, Meralco, has raised electricity rates by 10% since a conflict broke out in the Middle East in late February. For a typical household using around 200 kilowatt-hours per month — roughly the amount consumed by three people — electricity now eats up about 12% of monthly income.

Unlike most of its neighbors in Southeast Asia, the Philippines offers almost no government subsidies for power, leaving residents with some of the highest residential electricity rates in the region. Only Singapore has comparable prices, but Singaporeans have nearly 13 times the purchasing power of the average Filipino.

Adrian Sabatera, a 39-year-old software engineer, had considered going solar for years but held off due to the cost. As panel prices dropped and electricity bills kept climbing, he finally made the move — spending 570,000 pesos (about $9,300) on a system for the Manila home he shares with three others.

“I wouldn’t be shocked if a third of the middle-class population eventually finds their way to this setup,” Sabatera said.

The surge in rooftop solar installations has driven $407 million worth of panel imports in the three-month period ending in May — a 145% jump compared to the same period a year ago, according to trade figures from China, which supplies the bulk of the world’s solar panels. Even when overall Chinese panel exports fell 13% in May following the removal of a tax rebate, shipments to the Philippines actually grew by nearly a third.

While the Netherlands technically ranks as a larger market on paper, analysts note that it functions primarily as a transshipment hub rather than an end consumer.

INQUIRIES FLOODING IN

Philergy German Solar, a Manila-based installation company, reported receiving more than two-and-a-half times as many customer inquiries in the first five months of this year compared to the same stretch last year. At peak times, the company was handling as many as 3,000 inquiries in a single day, according to managing partner Jochen Staudter.

Staudter noted that customers are making up their minds “much faster than before” and predicted that “demand will continue to be driven by high electricity prices.”

According to Alnie Demoral, an analyst at energy think tank Ember, distributed solar capacity in the Philippines could nearly triple to 3,500 megawatts within two years — matching the country’s existing large-scale solar infrastructure. Loan repayment periods are also shrinking, from four years down to about 3.1 years, making the investment more attractive.

Currently, solar power accounts for less than 4% of the country’s total electricity consumption, according to government figures.

OBSTACLES REMAIN

A weakening currency has made the electricity crisis worse, since the Philippines depends heavily on imported coal and natural gas to generate power. That dependency has contributed to rising inflation and slower economic growth.

Manila entrepreneur Jason Porciuncula installed a 12-kilowatt solar system with battery storage back in January. When power prices hit record levels in May, his monthly electricity bill fell to just one-fifth of what he paid last summer — when bills reached 21,000 pesos.

Still, the industry faces real growing pains. Brenda Valerio, the Philippines director at New Energy Nexus, said installations are struggling to keep pace with demand due to hoarding of components, unpredictable equipment costs, and insufficient quality control.

Government loans for solar installations are available up to 500,000 pesos at a below-market interest rate of 5%, but private-sector employees are excluded from the program.

The biggest barrier remains the steep upfront cost, which typically exceeds the average annual household income of 353,200 pesos.

“The opportunity is real, but the upfront cost is often too high for a household or business, no matter how quick the payback time is,” Ember’s Demoral said.

(Exchange rate: $1 = 61.29 Philippine pesos)

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Sunday that Russia has no intention of slowing its military push to seize full control of four Ukrainian regions, dismissing a recent Ukrainian proposal aimed at reducing the intensity of the ongoing conflict, now in its fifth year.

Speaking in an interview with Russian state television, Putin said Russia also needs to rapidly expand its air defense capabilities in response to a growing wave of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting the country’s oil sector. He maintained that Russia is handling the fuel supply disruptions caused by those attacks.

Earlier that same day, Putin acknowledged at a Kremlin meeting with government ministers and senior officials that the drone strikes had caused fuel shortages in several Russian regions — but insisted the situation was under control.

During the television interview, Putin addressed a Ukrainian proposal calling for both sides to stop launching long-range strikes as a possible step toward peace. He dismissed the idea, saying Moscow viewed it as nothing more than a tactic to ease military pressure on Ukrainian forces along the 1,250-kilometer (775-mile) front line.

“It is clear why this proposal is being made, because our counter-strikes deep into Ukrainian territory are much stronger, have greater impact and are, frankly, more destructive,” Putin said.

“Given their catastrophic shortage of personnel, the Ukrainian Armed Forces apparently believe this could be their salvation. But saving the Kyiv regime is not part of our plans,” he added.

A spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not respond to a request for comment on Putin’s statements, as the request was submitted during late-night hours in Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Zelenskiy sent Putin an open letter requesting a direct, face-to-face meeting — an invitation the Russian leader has turned down.

Putin framed Ukraine’s ongoing strikes as an attempt to pull Russian forces away from their core military goals, saying the attacks were “aimed at diverting our attention and forces from achieving the main objectives – the complete liberation of Donbas and Novorossiya.” That phrase refers to the Donbas region as well as the neighboring regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Putin has consistently demanded that Ukraine give up its remaining positions in the Donetsk region of Donbas as a fundamental condition for any peace agreement. Seven months after launching its 2022 invasion, Russia formally annexed all four regions — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia — though it only partially controls the latter two.

On the subject of Ukraine’s drone campaign, Putin said the top priority is to “quickly and significantly ramp up production of those air defence systems that are most needed.”

He also downplayed the impact of the strikes, saying: “All the strikes, wherever they hit our infrastructure, absolutely do not affect the situation on the front, on the line of combat contact.”

Putin said Russia is anticipating a renewed round of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to end the war, including a planned return visit to Moscow by U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — but only after the “hot phase” of the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran has concluded.

He also appeared to align with remarks made last week by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said no formal agreement came out of Putin’s talks in Alaska with U.S. President Donald Trump, though American proposals were discussed.

“Nobody signed anything, but we talked about certain possibilities for ending the conflict in Ukraine,” Putin said, adding that the U.S. side had asked Russia for compromises as part of those discussions.

Putin also suggested that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko — with whom he held two days of talks this week — could play a role in facilitating peace negotiations. He made no mention of Ukraine’s claims that Russia is trying to draw Belarus more deeply into the conflict. While Belarus allowed Russian forces to use its territory during the February 2022 invasion, Lukashenko has pledged not to send Belarusian troops into combat.

By Vivian Sequera

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — She was lying on her bed, thinking about watching a Brazil soccer match, when the bedframe began shaking violently, like a mechanical bull.

Reuters journalist Vivian Sequera pressed herself against the mattress, fixed her eyes on the open window, said a prayer for her parents, shut her eyes, and braced for the ceiling to come down on her.

The two earthquakes that hit Venezuela on Wednesday evening arrived just 39 seconds apart — the first registering a magnitude 7.2, followed almost immediately by a magnitude 7.5.

Then, suddenly, it stopped.

She grabbed her phone and sent a message to her Reuters colleagues. The power had held — at least for the moment. In other parts of the area, electricity had already gone dark.

The walls of her apartment were left with long cracks running through them, resembling claw marks on fabric. As she made her way down the emergency stairwell from the sixth floor, the damage grew progressively worse. By the time she reached the ground floor, the glass doors had been completely shattered.

Outside, there was no cell signal. Anxiety set in. She photographed neighbors gathered in the street and documented damage to surrounding buildings before steeling herself to go back upstairs to retrieve her laptop and phone charger.

These were the fifth and sixth earthquakes she has covered since beginning her journalism career with newswires in 1991 in Caracas.

Each one, she said, shares a familiar pattern in its early moments: chaos, silence, pain, uncertainty, and thousands of stunned faces trying to process what just happened — followed by the arrival of foreign rescue teams, varying levels of government response, delays in aid, looting, and ultimately, burials.

TWO DAYS LATER: RANDOM, INDISCRIMINATE DESTRUCTION

Two days after the quakes, Sequera traveled to the city of La Guaira, roughly a 30-minute drive from Caracas — the area the government had designated as ground zero for the disaster.

The contrast she encountered was striking.

In some parts of the city, streets were clean, buildings were standing, and avenues were nearly empty, all bathed in soft Caribbean morning sunlight. Then, just one block away, structures on both sides of the road had been reduced to rubble.

The further her team ventured into the city’s parishes — Caraballeda and Los Corales — the more devastating the scenes became. In the early morning hours, near silence dominated the streets.

But as the sun climbed higher, voices grew louder and movement increased. Swarms of motorcycles carried aid and transported survivors through a backdrop of noise, disorder, and scattered sobbing.

Thousands of young people in shorts and t-shirts — some barefoot or wearing sandals — moved rocks from debris piles that towered more than 10 meters high. Others swung sledgehammers at concrete slabs in a desperate race to find anyone still alive beneath the wreckage.

Meanwhile, exhausted survivors sat motionless in plastic chairs under trees, seeking whatever shade they could find from the relentless midday Caribbean heat.

To cope, Sequera pressed handfuls of ice from a cooler in the car against her skin. She made a mental note: next time, bring two coolers.

Many residents of La Guaira expressed frustration over delays in the arrival of rescue equipment and food. There was also some looting reported in the disaster zone.

Standing amid the wreckage, she described the feeling that the mountains of rubble seemed immovable — and the question that kept surfacing: when can any of this be repaired?

What struck her most, she said, was the sheer and indiscriminate force of tectonic violence. It does not distinguish between neighborhoods, social classes, or religions. And yet it is also unpredictable — one building left completely intact while the one right next to it is entirely gone.

Back home, on her nightstand, a glass of wine sat untouched and upright. Nearby, photographs of her parents from when they were dating remained standing, along with a photo of her elderly mother at a flower market in Caracas.

Everything still in place.

She said she feels very fortunate.

Oil prices ticked upward on Monday following several days of exchanged military strikes between the United States and Iran across the Middle East, raising fresh concerns about the durability of the two countries’ short-term peace arrangement and once again slowing the flow of energy tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude futures gained 50 cents, or 0.69%, reaching $72.49 per barrel as of 2204 GMT. Meanwhile, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 73 cents, or 1.05%, to trade at $69.96 per barrel.

The uptick in prices reflects growing market anxiety as the renewed hostilities between Washington and Tehran cast doubt on whether the fragile ceasefire arrangement between the two nations can hold, particularly given the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz as a global energy shipping corridor.

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — On Sunday, a crowd of rescue workers and civilians gathered around a massive pile of rubble along Venezuela’s northern coastline — wreckage that looked much like the countless other collapsed structures left behind by two catastrophic earthquakes.

For days following Wednesday’s magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes, search teams and local residents had seen no indication that anyone could still be alive beneath the concrete debris in La Guaira state, one of the regions hit hardest by the disaster.

Then Sunday brought an extraordinary development. Rescue crews from Virginia, France, and Venezuela reached into a gap in the rubble and pulled out a pair of dust-covered legs — and then the man they belonged to.

Workers carefully lifted the man from the structure where he had spent four days trapped, his body limp but his hand still clutching his phone. Rescuers placed him on a black tarp and began administering an IV.

Moments later, his young son was brought out — shirtless and barely conscious — passed over the heads of hard-hat-wearing rescue workers with the words “Fairfax County Urban Search & Rescue” printed across their backs.

“Slow, slow, gentle, gentle,” teams called out in a blend of Spanish and English as they moved the father and son through the watching crowd and into a waiting ambulance.

The rescue teams erupted in applause — a rare celebration during days of grim search efforts when the prospect of finding survivors had been fading.

Associated Press journalists Juan Pablo Arraez and Matías Delacroix were among those who witnessed the rescue firsthand. Arraez said the team had been combing the La Guaira area “trying to see if we can see any miracles” when they came upon the U.S. rescue crews and local civilians quietly working to free the two survivors.

“At this stage many begin to lose hope. You see that in their faces,” Arraez said, as helicopters passed overhead. “When somebody makes it out alive, this father and son. It’s more than a glimpse, it’s real hope for people.”

The back-to-back earthquakes represent the worst natural disaster Venezuela has experienced in decades. By Sunday, authorities had confirmed at least 1,450 deaths, with thousands more injured and many others still unaccounted for.

Disaster response experts note that the first 48 to 72 hours following a major earthquake are the most critical window for rescuing survivors, though people with access to food and water can sometimes survive much longer.

Amid the widespread grief, small but powerful moments of compassion and resilience have emerged. Venezuelan firefighters were seen carefully pouring water into the mouth of a dust-covered dog whose head was poking through cracks in the concrete.

One woman, after spending 70 hours buried beneath debris, was brought out on a stretcher sitting upright — smiling and waving to cheering onlookers as she was loaded into an ambulance.

LONDON — Andy Burnham, the Labour lawmaker widely anticipated to take over as Britain’s next prime minister, is preparing to share his governing vision on Monday, according to his office. The centerpiece of his pitch: shifting political power away from London and into the hands of regional communities across the country.

Burnham made his return to Westminster earlier this month after securing a parliamentary seat, and he stands as the sole declared candidate to succeed Keir Starmer. He could be taking up residence at Downing Street within a matter of weeks.

Starmer announced last week that he would be stepping down — just two years after leading Labour to a sweeping parliamentary victory — as his public approval ratings declined sharply.

Burnham built his national profile as mayor of Greater Manchester, earning the nickname “King of the North.” His Monday address will place the devolution of power to regions and local communities at the heart of his leadership platform.

Beyond governance structure, Burnham is also expected to commit to a decade-long effort to improve living standards through reindustrialisation, expanded housing, infrastructure investment, and reform of utility services. His office described the focus as being not just about who holds power in Britain, but about fundamentally changing how the country is governed.

He plans to outline how he intends to “lift Britain back up to where it should be” and deliver the “circuit-breaker it needs,” along with a pledge to overhaul public procurement in ways that better support British workers and industry.

Should Burnham take office, he would become the seventh person to serve as British prime minister within a single decade. Many within his party believe he uniquely possesses both the personality and the vision needed to reconnect with voters and push back against the growing influence of Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party.

Despite the ambitious agenda, economic realities may constrain how far Burnham can go. Britain’s economy has been strained by the fallout from the war in Ukraine and, more recently, the energy disruptions tied to the U.S. conflict with Iran, leaving little room for sweeping new spending commitments.

Burnham previously suggested the government should “get beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets,” though he later maintained those remarks had been taken out of context. He has also walked back earlier positions calling for widespread nationalisation or a near-term return to the European Union.

Housing minister Steve Reed said Sunday that Burnham intends to honor the commitments Labour made ahead of the 2024 election and to abide by the government’s fiscal rules — including keeping day-to-day spending in line with tax revenues and reducing national debt as a proportion of economic output.

“When it comes to the fundamentals, Andy has been clear he will stick to the fiscal rules that have delivered this country stability in the economy for the first time in over 15 years,” Reed told Sky News.

Pakistan’s military conducted an intelligence-driven ground operation along its border with Afghanistan on Sunday, then followed up with what officials described as “calibrated strikes” against militant hideouts, resulting in the deaths of 29 fighters, according to a Monday report from the Associated Press citing government officials.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced the operation on the social media platform X, stating it was launched in direct response to a series of militant attacks that had taken place across the country.

Reuters, which reported on the AP account, noted it was unable to independently confirm the details at the time of publication.

CAIRO — Israel’s military has demolished an underground tunnel network belonging to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a southern Lebanon village, according to a Sunday joint statement issued by Israel’s prime minister and defense minister.

The strike hit a 200-meter (656-foot) tunnel located in the town of Majdal Zoun. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed in their statement that the United States was notified before the attack took place.

According to the Israeli statement, the tunnel was packed with hundreds of weapons and rocket launchers.

The operation followed earlier Israeli military strikes the same day, when forces targeted Hezbollah fighters carrying rocket-propelled grenades and hit a rocket launcher in the Nabatieh region of southern Lebanon.

Just days earlier, on Friday, a security deal brokered by the United States was reached between Lebanon and Israel. The agreement calls for a gradual Israeli pullback from certain parts of southern Lebanon while the Lebanese army moves in. However, Israeli forces would be allowed to remain in an expanded security zone for the foreseeable future.

Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem flatly rejected the deal, calling it a capitulation to Israel and vowing that his group would press on with armed resistance.

In his Sunday night statement, Netanyahu said Israeli forces would hold their position in the southern Lebanon security zone and would “continue to destroy terrorist infrastructure, remove threats from the northern communities, and safeguard the security of Israel’s citizens.”

The ongoing conflict has forced more than one million Lebanese residents out of their homes. Hezbollah and Iran have claimed that Washington committed to ending hostilities in Lebanon as part of a memorandum of understanding signed two weeks ago to bring a halt to the broader war with Iran.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — At least four Palestinians, including a 13-year-old girl, were killed Sunday in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip, according to local health officials.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that the first strike hit a group of people in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, leaving two dead and one wounded.

A second Israeli strike in southern Gaza took the life of a man, health officials at Nasser hospital confirmed.

Also in southern Gaza, a 13-year-old girl named Eileen al-Farra died after being struck by shrapnel from Israeli tank shelling, Nasser hospital reported.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though it did state that one of the strikes targeted a “Hamas terrorist,” offering no further details.

Residents across Gaza described a Sunday marked by heavy tank shelling and the constant presence of quadcopters — small unmanned aerial vehicles — flying overhead.

While the most intense fighting in Gaza has subsided following a fragile ceasefire agreement reached in October between Israel and the Hamas militant group, Palestinians report new deaths nearly every day. Israel maintains that its strikes target Hamas and other militants who pose a threat or who have violated the terms of the ceasefire.

Gaza’s Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-led government, reports that more than 1,040 people in Gaza have been killed since the ceasefire went into effect. United Nations agencies and independent experts generally consider the ministry’s casualty data to be reliable. The ministry does not separate civilian deaths from militant deaths, but notes that women and children account for roughly half of all fatalities.

Israel has reported five of its own soldiers killed since the ceasefire began.

The current conflict was sparked by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Israel’s military response in Gaza has since resulted in the deaths of more than 73,050 Palestinians, including those killed after the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Pakistan’s military announced that its security forces launched an intelligence-driven ground operation along the border shared with Afghanistan, followed by what officials described as “calibrated strikes” targeting terrorist hideouts and safe havens in the area.

According to Pakistani authorities, the combined operation resulted in the deaths of 29 militants. The strikes were focused on known terrorist positions within the border region.

As of the time of the announcement, no response had been issued by officials in Kabul regarding the Pakistani military action.

Iran opted out of technical negotiations that were set to take place on Sunday, according to a statement carried by Iranian state television. An official from the Office of Preservation and Publication of the Works of Iran’s Supreme Leader cited two main reasons for the decision: recent attacks on Iran and conditions outlined in a memorandum of understanding with the United States that have yet to be satisfied.

Mehdi Fazaeili, the official who spoke to state TV, pointed to the frozen funds issue as a key sticking point. “For example one of the reasons is checking if we have access to the unfrozen funds, if there is no access then this condition has not been fulfilled,” he said.

The announcement signals continued tension in diplomatic efforts between Iran and the United States, with Iran making clear it will not move forward in talks until it believes the agreed-upon conditions have been honored.

At least four people lost their lives Sunday as Russian forces carried out attacks in two separate regions of Ukraine, according to regional officials.

In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, two people were killed and 16 others were wounded in strikes that tore through the area. Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov shared details of the attack on Telegram, posting images that showed a building engulfed in flames and portions of a neighborhood left in ruins.

Further north, in the Kharkiv region along Ukraine’s northeastern border — an area that has been repeatedly targeted by Russian forces — a missile strike hit the town of Zmiiv. That attack killed one person and left eight others injured, including two children, according to Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov.

Authorities in the Kharkiv region also reported that a police officer was killed while working to coordinate the evacuation of residents in a community located to the north of Zmiiv.

Reuters was not able to independently confirm the accounts provided by officials from either side of the conflict. Both Russia and Ukraine maintain that they do not deliberately target civilians in what has now become a more than four-year-long war.

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — Rescue workers from Venezuela and around the globe are growing increasingly desperate in their search for survivors four days after two powerful earthquakes devastated the northern state of La Guaira.

Venezuelan authorities reported a death toll exceeding 1,400 as of Saturday, even as the government faced mounting criticism that its response has been insufficient. Much of the search effort has been driven by ordinary citizens looking for missing loved ones beneath the ruins of collapsed buildings. Online databases set up for families to report and track missing persons indicate thousands of people are still unaccounted for.

Acting President Delcy Rodriguez announced Sunday that 33 people had been pulled from the wreckage the previous day, though she stopped short of releasing a new total death count.

A rescue team from Virginia in the United States successfully freed a man and his son from the debris Sunday morning. The two survivors, coated in dust, were carefully transported on a black tarp into a waiting ambulance, where they received fluids through an IV as a large crowd looked on.

Aid organizations generally regard the first 48 to 72 hours following a natural disaster as the most critical window for finding people alive — though that timeframe can stretch longer if survivors have had access to food and water. The United Nations reported that more than 2,200 rescue workers from countries around the world had arrived by Saturday, with additional teams still coming in.

As expressions of solidarity poured in from across the globe, Pope Leo offered prayers for “the eternal rest of the deceased.” He added, “Likewise, I express my gratitude and encouragement to all those who are generously working in the search and rescue efforts.”

Rodriguez stated on state television Saturday that more than 14,000 military and police personnel are now patrolling La Guaira state, which has been closed to the public — requiring special permits to enter. Despite this, many residents in the disaster zones reported seeing little presence from their government.

The catastrophe presents an enormous challenge for Rodriguez, the former vice president who assumed office in January following the capture and removal of then-President Nicolás Maduro by the United States. Venezuela has been mired in economic turmoil for over a decade, and significant portions of the population do not recognize the legitimacy of the political movement Rodriguez leads.

Scenes of anguish played out across the disaster zone. Some people climbed the ruins of buildings and called out names, hoping to hear a response. A thick layer of dust blanketed coastal communities, and as temperatures soared, more people began wearing masks as the smell of decomposition spread through the air. Elsewhere in La Guaira, workers loaded stacks of bodies — some in white bags, others without covering — onto white trucks from a dirt hospital parking lot, where they were being identified.

Lacking proper safety equipment, both civilian volunteers and rescue workers resorted to wearing motorcycle helmets while picking through debris.

Frustration with the government’s handling of the disaster boiled over in some areas. After state workers were seen taking selfies in front of flattened buildings before leaving without assisting, some angry residents physically blocked an excavator from departing a collapse site and removed the operator from the cab. Officials from the ruling party are known to frequently photograph themselves at government-related events.

The International Organization for Migration estimated that more than 6 million people could ultimately be affected by the disaster, including roughly 2 million in the capital, Caracas.

Experts noted that the damage was worsened by the rapid sequence of shallow quakes. Smaller aftershocks have continued to rattle Caracas and surrounding areas in the days since, including one registering 4.8 on Saturday.

Search and rescue teams and humanitarian aid have been arriving from Mexico, the United States, Brazil, El Salvador, France, and other nations.

On Saturday, Mexican rescue teams scaled collapsed structures and pressed into gaps in the crushed concrete, listening for any signs of life. “We’re rescuers from the Mexican military, if there’s anyone down there still alive, make noise or scream. Now!” one team member shouted into the rubble.

For survivors like Yonahí Regalado, the arrival of international teams offered a measure of hope. She had been calling out the names of her sister and 1-year-old nephew and godson since 1 a.m. the morning after the earthquakes — continuing until foreign aid workers began showing up. “It doesn’t matter who it is, whoever, whether it’s family or somebody else. If there is anyone alive, let’s get them out,” she said, as helicopters circled above.

Moments of compassion emerged amid the devastation. One video captured a Venezuelan rescuer reassuring a frightened elderly woman trapped under rubble who feared moving would cause the structure to collapse on her. “The roof won’t cave in. If it falls, I’ll be here with you,” he told her.

Simón Bolívar International Airport, which serves Caracas, sustained significant damage. Jeremy Lewin, a senior State Department official overseeing foreign assistance, told reporters that one runway is now operational as U.S. teams work to restore the airport’s full capacity. Lewin also said a U.S. Navy transport vessel is stationed off the coast and ready to receive airlifted survivors requiring medical care, calling the ongoing effort “a race against the clock.”

Qatar’s interior ministry announced Sunday that a Qatari national lost his life after suffering shrapnel wounds attributed to what officials described as “military operations in the area.”

The incident came to light after a boat carrying the deceased and one other individual was reported missing. Search efforts launched the day before ultimately led authorities to locate the vessel in the early morning hours of Sunday.

The second person aboard the boat survived but sustained injuries, according to the ministry.

Officials did not disclose the exact location where the incident took place. The ministry also stopped short of clarifying whether the shrapnel that struck the victims had any connection to Iranian drone attacks launched against U.S. military installations in Kuwait and Bahrain on Sunday.

Thousands of protesters were expected to flood the Serbian city of Kraljevo on Sunday, just one day after President Aleksandar Vucic announced his intention to resign and open the door to early presidential and parliamentary elections.

Vucic has held the reins of power in Serbia — first as prime minister, then as president — for 12 years. His tenure has been rocked by months of student-led demonstrations that were ignited by the deadly collapse of a concrete canopy at a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad in late 2024, which claimed the lives of 16 people.

That tragedy has come to represent widespread frustration over what many citizens view as government corruption and mismanagement under Vucic’s leadership. The resulting wave of protests has grown into the largest Serbia has seen since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Vucic has consistently denied any wrongdoing or corruption.

“This is not just a political struggle but a fight between good and evil,” said Jelena Danicic, a Serbian language professor who met up with friends in the city center ahead of the rally.

Despite sweltering heat, crowds made their way into Kraljevo, where street vendors hawked T-shirts bearing the slogan “Students are winning.”

What started as a demand for accountability over the deaths in Novi Sad gradually evolved into broader calls for Vucic to leave office and hold early elections.

While many in the protest movement feel that Vucic’s announcement vindicates their efforts, they are not convinced he will truly exit the political stage. Political analysts suggest he may seek to run for prime minister and place a trusted ally in the presidency, allowing him to maintain his influence behind the scenes.

“I cannot imagine that he will step down and leave power to someone else,” said Marko Djokic, a 41-year-old IT professional who traveled back to his hometown specifically to take part in the demonstrations.

The situation in Serbia is drawing close attention from both the European Union and Russia. Serbia is a candidate for EU membership and sits just outside the bloc’s eastern border, but it also maintains deep ties with Russia and China — a delicate balancing act Vucic has long navigated.

Before Serbia can join the EU, it must strengthen the rule of law, create conditions for free and fair elections, crack down on corruption and organized crime, bring its foreign policy in line with EU positions, and normalize relations with Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Both Brussels and Moscow are watching closely to see how the situation unfolds in the weeks ahead. The EU has spoken out against the use of force on peaceful protesters and has also expressed concern about press freedom and judicial independence in the country.

MOSCOW — Russia’s ruling party has announced its slate of lead candidates for a parliamentary election set to take place this September, placing a wounded Ukraine war veteran and a state television correspondent at the top of the ticket.

At United Russia’s pre-election congress, party chairman and former president Dmitry Medvedev revealed that Vladislav Golovin, a veteran of the Ukraine conflict, and Yevgeny Poddubny, a war correspondent for state television, would head the party’s candidate list.

Golovin, 29, gained recognition through state media coverage beginning in 2022, when he served as a naval infantry platoon commander during the battle for the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol — a fight in which he sustained injuries. Poddubny was also wounded, suffering injuries in 2024 while covering combat in Russia’s Kursk region.

Rounding out the top five are Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin — both described as among Russia’s most prominent and well-regarded officials — and Maria Lvova-Belova, who serves as Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights.

United Russia has consistently captured large majorities in every national election it has entered, though polling data suggests the party is considerably less popular than President Vladimir Putin, who secured another presidential term in 2024 that keeps him in power through at least 2030.

Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine and fuel supply disruptions caused by Ukrainian drone attacks, analysts expect United Russia to again win a commanding majority, aided by Putin’s backing and a parliamentary opposition that largely aligns with the Kremlin’s position on Ukraine.

While high-profile national figures frequently appear on United Russia’s candidate lists, they do not always claim seats in the lower chamber of parliament, known as the State Duma. Putin has spoken on multiple occasions about his desire to see Ukraine war veterans become part of Russia’s new political leadership class.

Thirty-three people have been rescued so far this weekend in the aftermath of Venezuela’s catastrophic twin earthquakes, the country’s interim president announced, among them several children. However, tens of thousands of people remain unaccounted for, and rescuers say the critical window for finding survivors alive is rapidly closing.

The death toll from Wednesday’s dual earthquakes climbed past 1,400 as of Saturday, as international rescue teams flooded into La Guaira — the coastal state that bore the brunt of the destruction.

Before those more than 1,600 foreign rescue workers arrived, families and volunteers spent days pulling both survivors and bodies from collapsed buildings. Many complained of a lack of heavy equipment and minimal official support, while hundreds of aftershocks continued to cause additional damage and kept residents living in fear.

Venezuela’s government — currently led by interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who took over after her predecessor was removed by the United States in a January raid — had initially praised civilian volunteers for delivering aid to La Guaira. The government later significantly restricted access to the road leading to the area, citing traffic as an obstacle to emergency vehicles and limiting use of the roadway to accredited individuals only.

While the government has acknowledged hundreds of people as missing or trapped, a website run by the country’s political opposition listed just under 50,000 people as unaccounted for as of Sunday. That number represented a slight drop from Saturday’s figure of 55,000.

The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that more than 10,000 deaths could ultimately result from the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes — a toll that would rank them among the deadliest in Latin America over the past century.

Rescue experts stressed that time is running out. “There exists a window of roughly three days, 72 hours, where the probability afterwards decreases that you can save people alive,” said Sebastian Eugster, the leader of the Swiss rescue team, speaking to reporters on Saturday. His 80-member team had located multiple living survivors in the rubble with the help of eight search dogs, but was unable to extract them in time to save their lives. Saturday evening marked exactly 72 hours since the earthquakes struck.

Eugster said the Swiss team will coordinate with other rescue groups and local authorities to determine when to officially end rescue operations, though the team plans to stay in the region to assist with broader relief efforts.

Among those rescued were several children. The U.S. State Department celebrated the rescue of an infant by American crews on Saturday, sharing video footage on social media showing rescuers in helmets lifting a blanket-wrapped, crying baby from the debris.

A Colombian rescue team saved an 11-year-old boy named Moises, who had been buried roughly 3 meters — about 10 feet — underground. Rescuers used a scanner to pinpoint his location and removed him on a stretcher with a broken arm, his eyes covered with cloth to shield them from the sudden exposure to daylight. His mother and sister did not survive.

In the town of Caraballeda, Mexican rescuers pulled another 11-year-old boy from the ruins of a collapsed building, interim President Rodriguez announced late Saturday on social media, sharing video of crews carrying the child out on a stretcher. “In these hours each life is hope for Venezuela,” Rodriguez said. The government also shared footage of a young man being freed from debris by rescue workers.

Additional government videos showed Rodriguez meeting with international rescue teams, during which she provided the updated count of people saved on Saturday. Officials also reported that more than 3,000 people have been injured and a similar number are currently living in emergency shelters.

In Caraballeda on Saturday, U.S. rescuers worked side by side with civilian volunteers, some of whom were searching for their own missing family members. Rescuers had originally marked the rubble with the name of the apartment building that once stood there. By Saturday evening, they had updated the markings with codes indicating they no longer believed any living person remained in that section of ruins.

Pope Leo addressed worshippers gathered for the Angelus prayer in Rome on Sunday, expressing his desire to “express my closeness to the Venezuelan sisters and brothers affected by the recent earthquakes” and offering gratitude to all rescue workers involved.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief announced on social media that the EU had mobilized 5 million euros — approximately $5.9 million — in emergency aid, and that the EU’s Copernicus satellite system is being used to map the damage and guide assistance to the areas most in need.

A senior U.S. official said Saturday that a funding package worth hundreds of millions of dollars is expected to be announced within the next day or so, in addition to $150 million already committed by the Trump administration.

The disaster may carry political consequences for Rodriguez, who has presented herself as a force for change despite having previously served as vice president under her predecessor. Meanwhile, electrical power was gradually being restored across the region, though Venezuela’s power grid — weakened by years of underinvestment and economic sanctions — routinely suffers from failures that cause hours-long blackouts in parts of the country.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Dozens of Iraqi political figures have been taken into custody on corruption charges, according to a report Sunday from Iraq’s state-run Iraqi News Agency.

Authorities said the arrests stemmed from a statement given by former Deputy Minister of Oil Adnan al-Jumaili, who himself was arrested last month. The report noted that the detained individuals “included members of Parliament whose immunity had been lifted.”

Early Sunday morning, Iraqi security forces locked down all entry points to Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone — the compound that serves as home to major government buildings and foreign embassies — and carried out raids throughout the area.

The state news agency later put the total number of arrests at 47, though it remained unclear whether all of those individuals were taken into custody on Sunday or whether some had been detained in earlier operations.

Officials released the names of 15 people who were arrested, among them 12 current members of Parliament, one former legislator, a former advisor to ex-Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and another senior official from the oil ministry. Several of the arrested lawmakers were affiliated with al-Sudani’s Shiite political bloc, while others belonged to the Azm Alliance, a prominent Sunni political party.

The specific charges each individual faces were not immediately disclosed.

Al-Sudani’s political bloc secured the largest number of seats in November’s parliamentary elections, but he ultimately withdrew from contention for a new term after a stalemate within the Coordination Framework — a coalition of Shiite parties with ties to Iran that originally helped bring him to power — over who should lead the country next.

Al-Sudani was succeeded by Ali al-Zaidi, a businessman with no prior political experience, who emerged as a compromise choice and received support from the United States.

The wave of arrests is expected to have far-reaching consequences across Iraq’s fragmented political environment, where corruption allegations are often entangled with broader struggles for power and influence.