Genevieve De Galard, War Hero Known As 'Angel of Dien Bien Phu', Dies At 99

Genevieve de Galard, a nurse dubbed the "Angel of Dien Bien Phu" for treating wounded during the war in the French colony of Indochina in the 1950s, has died aged 99, with President Emmanuel Macron on Friday hailing her "exemplary devotion".

"The angel of Dien Bien Phu has left us," Macron said on X.

"As a military nurse, Genevieve de Galard showed exemplary devotion to the courage and suffering of 15,000 French soldiers during the worst hours of the Indochina war."

Galard, who passed away on Thursday, volunteered to go to French Indochina in 1953 and helped evacuate casualties.

She was the only French woman on the ground during the 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu, which led to French troops' defeat in Vietnam and marked the country's last stand in colonial Indochina.

One of the evacuation planes she travelled in was destroyed by gunfire when she was about to leave Dien Bien Phu.

She remained on the ground for two months, "the only nurse in this tropical trap, where 15,000 men were fighting and dying", the president's office said.

When the French-held garrison fell in May 1954, the 12,000 surviving French soldiers were taken prisoner and Galard was repatriated to France against her will.

On her return she was celebrated as a star and French magazine Paris Match featured the 29-year-old on its cover.

In July 1954, US President Dwight Eisenhower invited her to the United States where she received a standing ovation from the House of Representatives.

"I had never wanted or sought it," she said of her fame. "I had only done my duty."

Throughout her life, de Galard continued to care for the disabled, in particular at the Invalides rehabilitation centre, Macron's office said.

In 2014, Galard received France's highest honour, the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.

Dien Bien Phu in northern Vietnam was the site of an epic battle against Vietnamese communist forces in 1954 that spelled the end of France's colonial empire in Indochina.

This year, France has for the first time been invited by Vietnam to commemorate the battle.

Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu represented Paris at commemorations marking the 70th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu in May.

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Humanitarian Aid Allowed Into Gaza "Not Getting" To People: UN

The humanitarian aid allowed into the Gaza Strip is not getting to civilians in need, the United Nations said Friday, urging Israel to fulfil its legal obligations.

"The aid that is getting in is not getting to the people, and that's a major problem," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told a media briefing in Geneva.

He highlighted the role of the Israeli authorities at their Kerem Shalom crossing, the main entry point for aid into the besieged Palestinian territory since the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza was closed by the Israeli military on May 7.

"We continue to insist that Israeli authorities' obligation under the law to facilitate delivery of aid does not stop at the border," said Laerke.

"It does not stop when you drop off just a few metres across the border and then drive away, and then leave it to humanitarians to drive through active combat zones -- which they cannot do -- to pick it up," he said.

"We need that safe and unimpeded access to get to the drop-off point so we can pick it up and get it to people.

"We want all parties to live up to their obligations under the law."

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Operatives also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,224 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

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"All Eyes On Congo": Social Media Ignites Support For African Crisis

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faces a relentless cycle of violence and humanitarian crises. A social media campaign using the hashtag #AllEyesOnCongo is drawing renewed global attention to the plight of the nation. This mirrors past efforts to focus on other conflicts, like the situation in Rafah, Gaza.

#AllEyesOnCongo is trending on social media, with users sharing disturbing images and videos showcasing the ongoing violence. While the hashtag has appeared periodically in the past, its current surge aims to bring light to the devastating and long-lasting conflict in the DRC. This conflict has claimed millions of lives and displaced countless people.

A haunting image of Congolese children, shared over 8 million times on Instagram, ignited a social media firestorm. Advocacy groups like Friends of the Congo amplified the message, drawing more eyes to the decades-long conflict in the DRC.

See the post here:

All eyes on Congo ??, Palestine ??, Sudan ??

Your comments on this ... pic.twitter.com/PvWz9Vm49W

— African Hub (@AfricanHub_) May 24, 2024

This conflict is a humanitarian catastrophe. Millions have died and been displaced in a country paradoxically rich in minerals like coltan, vital for electronics. Over 100 rebel groups, including the resurgent M23, fight for control, worsening the chaos.

The M23, ethnic Tutsis who left the Congolese army in 2012, are back on the offensive. Their attacks on key areas like Rubaya have intensified the fighting. Both the DRC and the UN accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23, a claim Rwanda denies.

The violence has sparked outrage within the DRC. In February, protestors clashed with police, burning flags to express frustration with perceived international inaction and suspected support for Rwanda.

This conflict has deep roots. Tensions from the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which flooded Congo with Hutu refugees, ignited two wars. The latter, starting in 1998, led to millions of Congolese deaths. The political situation remains unstable, with President Tshisekedi facing a volatile landscape after securing a second term amidst recent coup attempts and arrests, including Americans.

Human rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accuse M23 of horrific acts, including mass killings and sexual violence.

The "#AllEyesOnCongo" campaign mirrors similar efforts for Rafah and Sudan, showcasing a growing trend: using social media to shine a light on local conflicts. Sudan itself has faced decades of unrest, from the Darfur Conflict to the recent civil war. Online movements sprang up in support of both countries.

These viral campaigns, with millions of views and shares, aim to stir global empathy and inspire action.
 

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9 Killed In Series Of Russian Strikes In War-Battered Ukraine

Ukraine reported Wednesday that nine people had been killed in five regions of the war-battered country, as Russia presses gains on the front line where Kyiv's troops are struggling.

In the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, two were killed in attacks on the city of Nikopol on the right bank of the Dnipro River, said governor Sergiy Lysak.

These were a 52-year-old man who received severe shrapnel wounds from shelling, and a 54-year-old ambulance driver whose vehicle was hit by an attack drone, he said.

A missile attack earlier in the day on the eastern Sumy region that borders Russia killed two and wounded three, regional authorities said on social media.

The governor of the front-line Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia, said three people had been killed in separate attacks Tuesday. 

Governor Vadym Filashkin said two people had been killed in the town of Toretsk and another person was killed in an attack on the front-line town of Selydove on Tuesday, which is routinely targeted by Russian forces.

In the southern Kherson region, which the Kremlin also claimed to have annexed in 2022 even though it is still fighting for control of the Black Sea territory, the governor said Russia had shelled housing and infrastructure facilities.

"One person died as a result of Russian aggression," said Oleksandr Prokudin, Kherson's governor.

Last weekend, Russian forces carried out one of the single deadliest attacks in weeks on the northeastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia, hitting a busy hardware store.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that the toll from the strike had risen to 19, after a 40-year-old employee of the store who sustained severe burns during the attack died in hospital. 

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Volcano Erupts In Iceland, 5th Outbreak Since December 2023

A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted on Wednesday, live video from the area showed, making it the fifth outbreak since December.

The new outburst happened as another eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula recently ended after spewing fountains of molten rock for almost eight weeks.

Authorities had warned of the risk of renewed volcanic activity in the area just south of the capital Reykjavik as studies showed magma accumulated underground.

The fiery spectacle underlines the challenges the island nation of almost 400,000 people face as scientists have warned eruptions could happen over and over in Reykjanes for decades or even centuries.

The eruption was the eighth on the peninsula, home to some 30,000 people, since 2021 when geological systems that were dormant for some 800 years again became active.

Previous incidents had disrupted district heating, closed key roads and even razed several houses in the Grindavik fishing town, where only a few residents have since returned.

In an attempt to prevent further damage man-made barriers have been built to steer lava away from infrastructure including the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, the Blue Lagoon outdoor spa and Grindavik.

Icelanders often refer to their country as the "Land of Fire and Ice" as a tribute to its otherworldly landscape forged by glaciers and volcanoes which is positioned between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, making it a seismic hotbed.

While a 2010 eruption in a different part of Iceland grounded some 100,000 flights internationally due to huge ash clouds, Reykjanes is typically home to fissure outbreaks which do not reach into the stratosphere.

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Israel Says Its Munitions Alone "Could Not" Have Caused Deadly Rafah Blast

The Israeli military said on Tuesday its munitions alone "could not" have caused a deadly blaze that Gaza health authorities reported killed 45 people in the southern city of Rafah.

"Our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size," Hagari said in a press briefing on the preliminary findings of an army probe into the deadly blaze that has drawn international condemnation.

Israel's military said it targeted and killed two senior Hamas militants in northwest Rafah in Sunday's strike, which sparked a blaze that tore through an encampment full of displaced Palestinians.

On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident "a tragic accident".

Hagari said that "based on precise intelligence", aircraft dropped two 17-kilogramme munitions on the target, which he added was away from tent shelters housing displaced civilians.

"We are looking into all possibilities, including the option that weapons stored in a compound next to our target... may have ignited as a result of the strike."

Hagari then aired a recording of a phone call he said Israeli intelligence intercepted, which raised "the possibility that weapons stored in a nearby compound caught fire".

"Despite our efforts to minimise civilian casualties, the fire that broke out was unexpected and unintended," he said, adding the incident was still under investigation.

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Iran's Enriched Uranium Stock Exceeds 2015 Accord Limit: UN Watchdog

Planned discussions between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resolve the impasse over Tehran's nuclear programme have been suspended following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi this month, the agency said.

One day after the May 19 helicopter crash which killed Raisi and others "Iran indicated that due to the 'special circumstances', it was no longer appropriate to hold substantive discussions" and a new date would be set, according to a confidential report seen by AFP on Monday.

Tensions between Iran and the IAEA have repeatedly flared since a 2015 deal curbing Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanction relief fell apart.

In recent years, Tehran has decreased its cooperation with the IAEA by deactivating surveillance devices needed to monitor the nuclear programme and barred UN inspectors.

Earlier this month, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi visited Iran in a bid to improve cooperation with Tehran.

After returning from his trip, Grossi decried "completely unsatisfactory" cooperation. 

In a separate confidential report seen by AFP ahead of an IAEA board of governors' meeting next week, the agency said Iran's estimated stockpile of enriched uranium had reached more than 30 times the limit set out in the 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers.

According to the report, Iran's total enriched uranium stockpile was estimated at 6,201.3 kilogrammes as of May 11, up by 675.8 kilogrammes from the last quarterly report in February.

EU-mediated efforts to revive the deal -- bringing the US back on board and Iran back into compliance -- have so far been fruitless. 

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Over 300 Million Children A Year Face Sexual Abuse Online: Study

More than 300 million children a year are victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse, according to the first global estimate of the scale of the problem published on Monday.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that one in eight of the world's children have been victims of non-consensual taking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video in the past 12 months.

That amounts to about 302 million young people, said the university's Childlight Global Child Safety Institute, which carried out the study.

There have been a similar number of cases of solicitation, such as unwanted sexting and requests for sexual acts by adults and other youths, according to the report.

Offences range from so-called sextortion, where predators demand money from victims to keep images private, to the abuse of AI technology to create deepfake videos and pictures.

The problem is worldwide but the research suggests the United States is a particularly high-risk area, with one in nine men there admitting to online offending against children at some point.

"Child abuse material is so prevalent that files are on average reported to watchdog and policing organisations once every second," said Childlight chief executive Paul Stanfield.

"This is a global health pandemic that has remained hidden for far too long. It occurs in every country, it's growing exponentially, and it requires a global response," he added.

The report comes after UK police warned last month about criminal gangs in West Africa and Southeast Asia targeting British teenagers in sextortion scams online.

Cases -- particularly against teenage boys -- are soaring worldwide, according to non-governmental organisations and police.

Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) issued an alert to hundreds of thousands of teachers telling them to be aware of the threat their pupils might face.

The scammers often pose as another young person, making contact on social media before moving to encrypted messaging apps and encouraging the victim to share intimate images.

They often make their blackmail demands within an hour of making contact and are motivated by extorting as much money as possible rather than sexual gratification, the NCA said.
 

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35 Killed In Israeli Strike Near Rafah: Health Ministry

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said early Monday that at least 35 people were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli strikes on a centre for displaced people near the Palestinian territory's far-southern city of Rafah.

Israel's army said it had killed two senior Hamas officials in an air strike on a compound in the city and said it was aware of reports that civilians had been harmed in the incident.

The Gazan ministry said in a statement that Israeli strikes "claimed the lives of 35 martyrs and left dozens injured, most of them children and women".

Israel's army said its aircraft "struck a Hamas compound in Rafah", killing Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, both of whom were senior officials for the Palestinian Hamas group in the occupied West Bank.

Both men were involved in Hamas's activities in the West Bank, including planning attacks and transferring funds, while Nagar also managed funds intended for the group's operations in Gaza, according to the army.

"The strike was carried out against legitimate targets under international law, through the use of precise munitions and on the basis of precise intelligence that indicated Hamas's use of the area," it added.

"The (Israeli army) is aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review."

The Hamas-run government media office said: "The Israeli occupation committed a horrific massacre by bombarding intensively and intentionally the UNRWA's Barkasat displacement centre northwest of Rafah Governorate", referring to the UN Palestinian refugee agency.

The strikes "led to the death of 30 martyrs and dozens of injured", it said, adding that Israeli forces had bombed the UNRWA centre with "seven missiles".

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes had killed and wounded at least 50 people in the area, where it said 100,000 displaced people live.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders said 15 dead people had been brought to a facility that it supports.

The ICRC said one of its field hospitals was receiving an "influx of casualties seeking care for injuries and burns" and reported that other hospitals were also receiving a large number of patients.

"Our teams are doing their best to save lives," the ICRC said in a statement.

Strikes in other areas of Rafah were also reported late Sunday, with the Kuwait Specialized Hospital saying it had received the bodies of three people, including a pregnant woman.

Israel launched a ground operation on Rafah in early May despite widespread opposition over concerns for civilians sheltering there.

Earlier on Sunday, Israel's army said at least eight rockets were fired towards central areas of the country from Rafah.

Hamas's armed wing said in a post on Telegram it had targeted Tel Aviv "with a large rocket barrage in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians".

Later Sunday, the Israeli military said in a statement its air force had carried out strikes on Rafah in response.

"The rocket launcher, which was situated near two mosques in the area of Rafah, was struck by the (Israeli Air Force) shortly after," it said.

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9 Killed As Tornadoes, Extreme Storms Hit Several US States

At least nine people were killed across the central United States as tornadoes and other extreme storms hit several states including Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, officials said Sunday.

Rescue efforts were ongoing and hundreds of thousands of people were without power after the storms struck the Southern Plains region beginning late Saturday.

In Texas, Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington told ABC affiliate WFAA that five people were dead after a tornado ripped through the Valley View area, north of Dallas.

"Sadly, I think that number will rise," Sappington told The Weather Channel, adding that search and rescue operations were ongoing.

The twister destroyed homes and a gas station and overturned vehicles on an interstate highway. Sappington called the damage "pretty extensive."

There had been "a lot" of injuries, though none there were life-threatening, he earlier told ABC affiliate WFAA. 

In Oklahoma, at least two people were dead after a tornado hit Mayes County late Saturday, the county head of emergency management Johnny Janzen told the Fox News affiliate in Tulsa.

And in northern Arkansas, two people were killed in storms in the early hours of Sunday, local authorities confirmed.

As far north as Indiana, the start of the Indianapolis 500 was delayed Sunday due to storms in the area, with fans asked to exit the bleachers and seek shelter. 

A crowd of 125,000 was expected for the race, one of the most emblematic car races in America.

As the storm system moved across the country, some 470,000 people were without power in states stretching from Texas to Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, according to the website Poweroutage.us.

Tornado alerts were still active in several places.

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4 US Army Vessels Run Aground Near Gaza Pier

Four US Army vessels supporting the temporary pier built to deliver aid to Gaza have run aground in heavy seas and Israel is aiding a recovery effort, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Saturday.

"The vessels broke free from their moorings and two vessels are now anchored on the beach near the pier. The third and fourth vessels are beached on the coast of Israel near Ashkelon," the statement said.

"No US personnel will enter Gaza. No injuries have been reported and the pier remains fully functional," it continued, adding that the Israeli navy is assisting with recovering the vessels.

Gaza is suffering through its bloodiest ever war, which broke out after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,800 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Israel has imposed a siege on Gaza that has deprived the territory's 2.4 million people of most clean water, food, medicines and fuel.

US President Joe Biden had said in March the pier would be built to alleviate restrictions imposed by Israel on aid delivery by land to Gaza.

The UN World Food Programme "took possession of 97 trucks since the floating dock came into operation" on May 17, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, told reporters on Friday.

In the first few days of deliveries, desperate people made off with the contents of some trucks heading to warehouses, but the situation has now stabilized, he said.

CENTCOM said 1,005 metric tons of aid had been delivered from the sea to the beach transfer point as of Friday, with 903 metric tons distributed from the transfer point to the UN warehouse.

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First Batch Of French Tourists Stuck In New Caledonia Evacuated

The first evacuation flights for tourists stranded in France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia took off Saturday, the high commission in the archipelago said, as President Emmanuel Macron's government sought to defuse the crisis.

The international airport in the capital Noumea has remained closed for more than a week and all commercial flights have been cancelled due to the unrest until at least Tuesday.

"Measures to send foreigners and French tourists home continue," the high commission, which represents the French state, said in a statement.

The tourists departed Saturday from the Magenta airfield in Noumea aboard military aircraft headed for Australia and New Zealand, according to an AFP journalist.

They will then have to take commercial flights to mainland France.

"I came on vacation to visit my best friend... The conflict broke out and I got stuck," in Noumea, Audrey, who did not give her last name, told AFP.

Australia and New Zealand had already begun repatriating their nationals on Tuesday.

The situation has been gradually easing for the many people trapped in the territory that has been shaken since May 13 by riots over planned voting reforms.

Seven people have been killed in the violence, the latest a man shot dead on Friday by a policeman who was attacked by protesters.

Possible referendum

New Caledonia has been ruled from Paris since the 1800s, but many indigenous Kanaks still resent France's power over their islands and want fuller autonomy or independence.

France is planning to give voting rights to thousands of non-indigenous long-term residents, something Kanaks say would dilute the influence of their votes.

President Emmanuel Macron flew to the archipelago on Thursday in an urgent bid to defuse the political crisis.

He pledged during his lightning trip that the planned voting reforms "will not be forced through".

On Saturday, Macron said he would be willing to hold a referendum on the contentious changes, though he hoped that election Caledonia officials would be able to reach an agreement.

"I can move toward a referendum at any time," he told the Parisien newspaper in an interview.

"Even if the violence ends, we will have to live together again. That's the hardest thing," he said.

The pro-independence FLNKS party on Saturday reiterated its demand for the withdrawal of the voting reforms after meeting with Macron.

"The FLNKS asked the president of the French Republic that a strong announcement be made from him indicating the withdrawal of the draft constitutional law," it said in a statement, saying it was a "prerequisite to ending the crisis".

In Paris, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said: "The situation in New Caledonia today remains extremely fragile".

France has enforced a state of emergency, flying in hundreds of police and military reinforcements to restore order in the Pacific archipelago, around 17,000 kilometres (10,600 miles) from mainland France.

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US Rapper Detained At Amsterdam Airport Over Suspicion Of Carrying Drugs

American rapper Nicki Minaj said on social media on Saturday that she was held at Amsterdam Schiphol airport on allegations of possession of soft drugs.

Minaj, 41, was detained hours before she was due to perform a concert in Manchester, England.

Dutch military police confirmed a 41-year-old American woman had been held for possession of soft drugs on Saturday, adding it was prohibited to take such substances out of the Netherlands.

Police did not identify the suspect, but in a later post on social media platform X said the woman had been fined and released around 1945 GMT.

pic.twitter.com/h9UrZM9Abm

— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) May 25, 2024

That was 45 minutes after Minaj had been due to begin performing a concert in Manchester, England, at the Manchester Co-op Live.

The singer had earlier posted a video on X in which a Schiphol employee apparently told her that police wanted to "search all her luggage".

Another video on her social media showed a police officer telling her she was "carrying drugs". In the video Minaj denies that.

"Now they said they found weed & that another group of ppl have to come here to weigh the pre-rolls," she said in a following post.

The former "American Idol" judge played a show in Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome on Thursday and is due to return there for another show on June 2.

Minaj is known to start shows late. On Thursday she arrived on stage almost three hours after the advertised starting time.

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US Director Sean Baker Wins Cannes Film Festival's Top Prize For 'Anora'

"Anora", a raw and often hilarious story about an erotic dancer who strikes gold with a wealthy client, took the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.

US indie director Sean Baker won the festival's top prize for his free-wheeling sex farce starring Mikey Madison.

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Eiffel Tower Ticket Prices To Increase By 20% Starting June 17

Paris city hall on Friday voted to increase the Eiffel Tower adult admission price by 20 percent from next month to help pay for urgent renovation work.

Visitors currently pay 29.40 euros ($31.90) for a ride by lift to the top of the Eiffel tower, a price tag that is set to rise to 35.30 euros on June 17.

The Paris city council also backed a recapitalisation for Eiffel Tower operator SETE, and lowered the annual fee it charges the operator for running one of the world's most famous monuments.

Lower visitor numbers during the Covid pandemic combined with spiralling renovation costs have pushed SETE deep into deficit.

Staff at the Eiffel Tower went on strike earlier this year, protesting against what unions said was insufficient investment.

The Eiffel Tower booked a shortfall of around 120 million euros during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Unions argued that previous recapitalisation of 60 million euros was insufficient given the need for major maintenance work, including a fresh paint job.

The masterpiece by architect Gustave Eiffel has been repainted 19 times since it was built for the 1889 World Fair.

Eiffel recommended at the time that it should be painted every seven years to keep inevitable rust at bay.

But the 300-metre (985-feet) iron structure -- 330 metres tall when the high-frequency antenna at the top is included -- has not been given a full paint job since 2010.

Visitor numbers recovered to nearly six million last year, having dropped to 1.5 million in 2020 because of Covid restrictions.

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Pics: Gaza Zookeeper Flees Rafah, Creates Temporary Home For Animals

In a cowshed in Gaza's Khan Yunis, zookeeper Fathi Ahmed Gomaa has created a temporary home for dozens of animals including lions and baboons, having fled with them from Israel's offensive in Rafah.

A lioness rests in a cage after the animals of the Rafah Zoo were evacuated to a location in Khan Yunis in the Gaza strip.

"We've moved all the animals we had, except for three big lions that remain (in Rafah)", he said.

"I ran out of time and couldn't move them."

Ahmed abandoned his zoo in Rafah when Israel ordered the evacuation of parts of the southern Gazan city.

A keeper cares for animals of the Rafah Zoo after their evacuation to a location in Khan Yunis.

Before the offensive, the city on the border with Egypt had been spared a ground invasion and more than half of the Gaza Strip's population was sheltering there.

Now, the Israeli offensive has sent more than 800,000 people fleeing from Rafah, according to the UN, with Gomaa and his family among them.

"I am appealing to the Israeli authorities: these animals have no connection to terrorism", Gomaa told AFP, saying he wanted their help in coordinating with aid agencies to rescue the lions left behind in Rafah.

He fears they won't survive long on their own.

A lioness rests in a cage after the animals of the Rafah Zoo.

"Of course, within a week or 10 days, if we don't get them out they will die because they'll be left with no food or water."

Gomaa said he had already lost several of his animals to the war. "Three lion cubs, five monkeys, a newborn monkey and nine squirrels," he said.

And while the squawking of parrots fills the air, many of Gomaa's other birds are no longer with him.

A keeper looks after exotic birds in the Rafah Zoo.

"I released some of the dogs, some of the hawks and eagles, some of the pigeons and some of the ornamental birds. I released a lot of them because we didn't have cages to transport them."

In the cowshed, Gomaa is making do with what he has, using improvised fencing to raise the heights of the pens so that their new inhabitants, spotted deer, can't leap out.

Keeper feeds spotted deer's in the Rafah Zoo.

Israeli troops began their assault on Rafah on May 7, defying widespread international concern for the safety of the 1.4 million civilians sheltering in the city.

The bloodiest ever Gaza war broke out after Hamas's unprecedented attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Operatives also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,800 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

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UK-Born Italian Teen To Become Catholic Church's First Millennial Saint

A London-born Italian teenager who spent his short life spreading the faith online will become the Catholic Church's first millennial saint, after the Vatican attributed to him a second miracle.

Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 aged 15, was beatified four years ago after the Vatican ruled he had miraculously saved another boy's life.

He will now become a saint after Pope Francis approved another miraculous act, an intercession on behalf of a young woman in Florence who suffered severe head trauma in July 2022.

Carlo was born in London on May 3, 1991, to Italian parents, and moved with them to Milan as a young boy, where he grew up with a huge interest in computers.

"He was considered a computer genius... But what did he do? He didn't use these media to chat and have fun," his mother Antonia Salzano said in an interview with Vatican News at the time of his 2020 beatification.

Instead, "his zeal for the Lord" drove him to make a website on miracles, she said.

He also warned his contemporaries that the internet could be a curse as well as a blessing.

While his mother said the family rarely attended church, Carlo was religious from a young age.

He also enjoyed playing football and was known in his neighbourhood for his kindness to those living on the margins of society.

He died on October 1, 2006, in Monza, northern Italy.

The Vatican had previously claimed the teen had posthumously interceded in 2013 to cure a Brazilian boy suffering from a rare pancreatic disease.

And on Thursday, it recognised another miracle, involving a student in Florence called Valeria.

According to the Vatican's news outlet, Valeria suffered severe head trauma after falling off her bicycle and doctors gave her a very low chance of survival.

Her mother Liliana, from Costa Rica, made a pilgrimage to Carlo's tomb in the Italian town of Assisi.

That same day, July 8, 2022 -- six days after the accident -- Valeria began to breath on her own, Vatican News said.

And the next day, she began to move and partially regain her speech. On July 18, a CAT scan proved that her haemorrhage had disappeared.

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Global Beauty Pageant Will No Longer Be Held In Myanmar Over War In Nation

Myanmar has been scrapped as the host of this year's Miss Grand International beauty pageant due to the civil war roiling the country, its organisers told AFP on Thursday.

Dozens of contestants were slated to arrive in the commercial hub Yangon in October to compete in the pageant, hosted by Thailand-based Miss Grand International.

"We confirm that MGI 2024 will no longer be held in Myanmar, due to the current situation," Ratchaphol Chantaratim, a representative for the company, told AFP.

An alternate venue "will be announced later", he said in an email.

Myanmar opened up to tourists in 2011 following decades of military rule, becoming popular with travellers seeking a new destination away from the well-trodden backpacker haunts of Southeast Asia.

However, foreign arrivals have plummeted since the military seized power again in 2021 and sparked a widespread armed uprising.

Around 2.7 million people have been displaced by the conflict, according to the United Nations, and the military has been accused of mass atrocities as it struggles to crush opposition to its rule.

Most of the fighting is taking place outside Yangon, but opponents of the junta regularly bomb buildings linked to the security forces and carry out assassinations of its supporters in the city.

A night-time curfew remains in place in the city of some eight million and security forces carry out regular raids and arrests of suspected dissidents.

Power blackouts frequently plunge whole neighbourhoods into darkness and access to ATMs and foreign exchange counters is patchy.

Many Western embassies advise against travel to Myanmar.

Australian football club Macarthur faced criticism in 2023 after travelling to play in Myanmar against official government advice.

Honduran model Cecilia Garcia -- who had been selected to represent her country at the "Miss Grand International" -- said this month she would not be travelling to Myanmar due to security risks.

At the 2021 edition of the event in Thailand, Myanmar contestant Thaw Nandar Aung publicly criticised the junta and its bloody crackdown on protests against its coup.

The former psychology student, better known by her professional name Han Lay, was refused permission to enter Thailand and spent days stranded at an airport in Bangkok.

She was later granted asylum in Canada.

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Israeli TV Shows Video Of 5 Female Troops Seized By Hamas On October 7

Israeli television aired previously withheld footage on Wednesday of five pyjama-clad female army conscripts being seized by Hamas gunmen during the Oct. 7 raid that triggered the Gaza war.

The captives' families hoped the footage would increase pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree a truce with Hamas and secure the hostages' release.

The government saw the release of the subtitled three-minute clip to national and international media as an opportunity to shore up support.

"These girls are still in the captivity of Hamas. Please don't look away," government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters. "Watch the film. Support Israel in bringing our people home."

The footage shows the young women, all of them stunned and some bloodied, being bound and bundled into a jeep.

"I have friends in Palestine," one of the conscripts, 19-year-old Naama Levy, pleads in English.

One of the gunmen can be heard shouting back in Arabic: "You are dogs! We will step on you, dogs!"

Another gunman tells a captive: "You're beautiful."

The Hostages Families Forum, which represents relatives of the 124 people - mostly civilians - still held by Hamas, said the footage was recovered from bodycams worn by gunmen who attacked the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel where the women served as surveillance spotters.

Shots of Israeli soldiers were excluded and publication was approved by the families of the five captives, the forum said.

"The Israeli government must not waste another moment; it must return to the negotiating table today!", the Forum said.

Israel says 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 abducted in the Oct. 7 attack led by Hamas. Israel responded by launching an offensive to eliminate the Islamist group in which Gaza health authorities say more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed. Israel's military says 286 Israeli soldiers have also been killed.

Netanyahu's government says continued military pressure will force Hamas to yield. Hostage families fear their loved ones will not survive and that the women captives may be raped. Hamas has denied allegations of sexual abuse by its men.

"So please, please do whatever you can to, to bring them home," Orly Gilboa, whose daughter Daniela is a hostage, told Reuters. "They suffer there every minute, every second. And every minute is important."

Israel's Foreign Ministry said the ambassadors of Ireland, Norway and Spain, whom it summoned to protest at their governments' preparations to recognise a Palestinian state, would be shown the video in a special screening on Thursday.

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Trump Says FBI Warrant Shows Biden Wanted Armed Agents To Shoot Him

Donald Trump drew disbelief -- and some support -- Wednesday after suggesting that standard language from an FBI search warrant executed in 2022 on his Florida mansion showed that President Joe Biden wanted armed agents to shoot him.

Trump's latest incendiary claim was in response to a court filing outlining plans for the FBI search at the Mar-a-Lago club, where he kept classified national security documents after leaving the White House.

The filing included standard FBI wording stating that agents are allowed to use deadly force if someone is in imminent danger.

But Trump, who is running to unseat Biden in November's election, distorted the statement to say that it showed the Justice Department was ready to shoot him and harm his family.

"It's just been revealed that Biden's DOJ was authorized to use DEADLY FORCE for their DESPICABLE raid in Mar-a-Lago. You know they're just itching to do the unthinkable," Trump said Tuesday in a fundraising email shared by US media.

"Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger. He thinks he can frighten me, intimidate me, and KNOCK ME DOWN!"

The wild remarks add to the pile of false claims made by Trump against Biden, whom he has repeatedly accused without evidence of weaponizing the justice system to target him.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for all lawmakers to condemn Trump's "outlandish and dangerous" remarks in a speech in the upper chamber of Congress.

"We cannot let this man, Donald Trump, or anybody else, throw these kinds of matches to light flames that could burn our democracy," he said.

David Axelrod, a White House aide under Barack Obama, called Trump's comments "patently nuts...and dangerously provocative" in a post on X.

But several of Trump's staunchest allies joined Trump in misrepresenting the court filing.

Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X that the Justice Department and the FBI "gave the green light" to assassinate Trump.

On the day of the raid, Trump was not on Florida but at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey.

The FBI issued a rare statement, saying "there was no departure from the norm in this matter."

The bureau -- which recovered more than 100 classified documents, including some marked top secret -- got the go-ahead for the raid from a federal judge after the government tried for months to get the records back.

The billionaire is accused of willfully retaining national defense information and obstructing government efforts to recover it.

He denies 40 felony charges, but the trial has been indefinitely postponed.

In a statement to AFP, the Trump campaign said reporting of the fundraising email was "a sickening attempt to run cover for Joe Biden who is the most corrupt president in history and a threat to our democracy."

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Trump Adviser Urges Sanctions On UN Court Officials Over Netanyahu Warrant

The United States should slap sanctions on International Criminal Court officials who seek an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a top foreign policy adviser to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday after meeting the Israeli leader.

Robert O'Brien, who served as Trump's fourth and final national security adviser, made the comments in a Jerusalem interview with Reuters after meeting Netanyahu and other Israeli officials during a multi-day visit to the U.S. ally.

O'Brien, who said Trump would be briefed on the results of the trip, discussed what he called the ICC's "irrational decision" to issue a warrant for Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with three Palestinian Hamas leaders, in his meetings with the Israeli officials.

"We can sanction the bank accounts, the travel. We can put visa restrictions on these corrupt prosecutors and judges. We can show some real mettle here," O'Brien told Reuters from Jerusalem.

O'Brien was joined by former U.S. Ambassador to the UAE John Rakolta and former Ambassador to Switzerland Ed McMullen.

The trip, first reported by Reuters, was a rare case of Trump allies traveling abroad as part of an organized delegation to meet foreign officials. It took place amid strains between Israel and the Biden administration about the U.S. Middle East ally's conduct of the war in Gaza.

In addition to Netanyahu, the delegation met in recent days with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, and Gallant, O'Brien said. Their itinerary did not include Palestinian leaders.

O'Brien said rescuing all remaining hostages held by Hamas and capturing Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that prompted Israel's Gaza offensive, would be key to declaring victory over the militant group.

"This is something I did share with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and President Herzog and Benny Gantz from the war cabinet: We've got to move quickly," O'Brien told Reuters. "Israel has to defeat Hamas in Rafah."

The group said they did not go to Israel at Trump's behest.

But O'Brien, Rakolta and McMullen all speak regularly to Trump who, despite facing four criminal trials, is ahead of his Nov. 5 presidential election rival, Democratic President Joe Biden, in opinion polls in most battleground states.

In addition to meeting political leaders, members of the delegation traveled to areas of Israel that were targeted in the Hamas attack in October, including the site of the Nova Music Festival and the Nir Oz kibbutz, both near Gaza.

TRUMP IMPOSED SANCTIONS ON ICC WHILE PRESIDENT

More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's seven-month-old assault on the Gaza Strip, according to health officials in the Hamas-ruled enclave. The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 others, according to Israeli tallies. Israel says that more than 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, including several Americans.

On Monday, the ICC's prosecutor in The Hague, Karim Khan, requested the warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and three Palestinian leaders, alleging they had committed war crimes.

In the Reuters interview, O'Brien said he was throwing his support behind Republican-led legislation in Congress that would sanction ICC employees that investigate officials in the U.S. or in allied countries that do not recognize the court, like Israel.

It was unclear how much bipartisan support that bill could garner, though both Democratic and Republican officials have been sharply critical of the ICC.

In 2020, Trump issued an executive order to restrict travel and freeze assets of court staff involved in investigating U.S. conduct in Afghanistan, sanctions which were reversed in the opening months of the Biden administration.

O'Brien's comments suggest Trump's advisers would be willing to reimpose and expand sanctions should the former president return to the White House. While the U.S. has at times engaged with the ICC in a limited fashion, it has never been a member of the court, and many U.S. political leaders argue the ICC's international jurisdiction threatens national sovereignty.

Throughout the interview, O'Brien, Rakolta and McMullen rejected assessments by many U.S., Palestinian and international officials who say Israel is not doing enough to protect civilian life.

"The Israelis are conducting themselves in a really fine tradition of a modern, humanitarian military, and I think that's the biggest takeaway from the meetings we've had in my view," O'Brien said.

The Biden administration has at times dissented from that view, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying earlier in May that Israel lacked a credible plan to protect civilians in Rafah.

While the Trump administration backed a two-state solution to Middle East conflict, O'Brien said the conflict in Gaza and Palestinians' hostile attitude toward Israel makes discussing it a moot point at the moment.

The U.S. government has long held that the pathway to a lasting peace runs through the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Since Oct. 7, however, Trump has indicated in interviews and on the campaign trail that he is rethinking his stance.

O'Brien and Rakolta played central roles in the Abraham Accords, which normalized bilateral Israeli relations with both Bahrain and the UAE during Trump's term.

They remained interested and hopeful regarding the possibility of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, though Israel would need to win the war in Gaza before that process could begin in earnest, they said.

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Vice President To Visit Tehran To Attend Iran President's Funeral Tomorrow

The funeral of Iran President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others killed in helicopter crash will be held tomorrow at Tehran University, in the capital city of Iran. 

India's vice president Jagdeep Dhankar will fly to Iran to attend the funeral of Raisi and others in the capital city. At Tehran university, the funeral will be led by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following which the procession will go to Maidan-e-Azadi (Azadi Square). 

The people of Tehran will pay tribute to Raisi, Hossein Amir Abdollahian and others. Ten and thousand of mourners have alreadt gathered, waving Iranian flags and portraits of the late president. 

The mourners marched in the northwestern city of Tabriz, where Raisi's helicopter had been headed when it crashed.

Ashraf Zaidi, an expert on Iran affairs, said that their bodies will be kept in The Sa'dabad Complex - the presidential complex - from 3 pm to 6 pm, where guests from other countries will pay their tributes.

On Thursday, people will pay homage to Raisi and others in Mashhad city. Later, in the evening, Raisi along with others will be laid to rest at the Shrine of Imam-e-Raza.

Raisi and Amir Abdollahian were among nine people who died after their helicopter crashed in Iran's mountainous northwest area while they were returning from the Azerbaijan border after flagging off joint projects in the region.

After the wreckage was found by rescuers, their bodies were first brought to Tabriz city, where thousands of people paid tribute. The bodies were later brought to the Holy Shrine of Masooma e Qum in Qum city for homage.

Many countries including India mourned Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi with several nations declaring state mourning. India also observed state mourning today, while national flag was flown at half mast on all government buildings including the Rashtrapati Bhavan. 

#WATCH | Delhi: National flag at Rashtrapati Bhavan flies at half-mast as one-day national mourning is being observed in the country following the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister and other high-ranking officials in a helicopter crash. pic.twitter.com/xZZXGiCdpv

— ANI (@ANI) May 21, 2024

Foreign minister S Jaishankar visited the Iranian embassy in Delhi  today to convey "deepest condolences on the tragic passing away of President Ebrahim Raisi and my colleague, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian."

Visited the Embassy of Iran in Delhi today to convey our deepest condolences on the tragic passing away of President Ebrahim Raisi and my colleague, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

They will always be remembered as friends of India who contributed immensely to the… pic.twitter.com/twLg2OXoFq

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (Modi Ka Parivar) (@DrSJaishankar) May 21, 2024

While one day state mourning was observed in Pakistan and Iraq, three days of national mourning was also declared in Syria and Lebanon, and five days in Iran.

Leaders who paid tributes 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, China's President Xi Jinping, King Salman and Mohammed bin Salman from Saudi Arabia, President Syria Bashar al-Assad including Iraq, Lebnon, Jordan, Egypt, European Union, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Qatar, Sudan, Turkey, Venezuela, Yemen, UN paid their tributes.

Religious leaders also paid tributes 

Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome, the Pope and head of the Catholic Church, also sent a telegram message expressing his condolences on the deaths of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, the country's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and all those killed in the May 19 helicopter crash. 

Senior Shia cleric in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, also expressed "deep condolences" over the death of Iran president and others killed in the crash.

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"Am A Love Child": Philippines Town Mayor Denies Being Chinese Spy

The mayor of a small Philippines town who has been accused of being a Chinese spy has rebutted the charges and clarified that she is a filipino. Alice Leal Guo, the mayor of Bamban town in Philippines, is being investigated for her alleged ties to China after she failed to give clear answers when asked about her family background during a senate hearing.

"I want to tell the public is that I am not a Chinese spy. I am a Filipino. I love my own country. I am not an asset," said Alice Leal Guo in an interview to ABS-CBN news. 

According to BBC, she has also said that she is a "love child" of her father who was Chinese and his Filipino maid and that her mother had abandoned her. "I am my father's love child with a maid... It's a very private matter. I can't just tell anyone that my own mother had deserted me," she said.

Ms Guo also said that during the hearing, her mind just "went blank". 

The clarification comes amid heat she has been facing for being an alleged "asset of China". 

Alice Leal Guo is under investigation after an online offshore casino in her town, also called POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations), was found to be a front for a scam centre. POGOs are online gaming firms for foreign customers, particularly Chinese nationals since gambling there is illegal. As per BBC, the land on which the casino was built was partially owned by Ms Guo. However, she has claimed that she sold her stakes before becoming the mayor in 2022. 

While facing a senate hearing for this, Ms Gua gave vague answers when asked about her childhood and family background. She revealed that her birth certificate was registered when she turned 17 because she was born in a house, not a hospital. She also said that she was home-schooled, however, couldn't give more details about that. 

Ms Guo's inability to share a clear picture of her childhood and her alleged links to the POGO centre in her town raised suspicions about her nationality. 

''Is she, along with others like her who have mahiwaga [mysterious] backgrounds, an asset inserted by China into our government to have a heavy influence in Philippine politics?'' said a senator, Risa Hontiveros, on May 8.

President Ferdinand Marcos has also raised his concerns saying, "I know all the politicians from Tarlac [province], no one knows her. So, we are wondering where she came from. We don't know. That's why an investigation is really needed."

According to South China Morning Post, Ms Gua said that allegations against her regarding the POGO centre didn't affect her, however, the scrutiny she faced over suspicions of being a Chinese spy has "hurt" her. She also said that she hopes to find her mother some day. 

Philippines and China have been embroiled in a diplomatic row over claims on the South China sea. China's territorial claim over the entire sea overlaps with that of other countries including the Philippines. 

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World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab To Step Back From Executive Role

Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, will be stepping down from his executive role. He will be transitioning to a non-executive role by January 2025. "By January 2025, Klaus Schwab will transition from Executive Chairman to Chairman of the Board of Trustees," the World Economic Forum (WEF) said in a statement.

"In addition, the Forum's prominent Board of Trustees will be organised around four strategic committees to further reinforce the impact of our work," it said.

The Forum's governance is also set to change as a consequence of the move and Schwab hasn't yet named a successor.

"Since 2015, the World Economic Forum has been transforming from a convening platform to the leading global institution for public-private cooperation. As part of that transformation, the organization has also been undergoing a planned governance evolution from a founder-managed organization to one where a President and Managing Board assume full executive responsibility," the forum said.

The WEF, which the 86-year-old founded in 1971, organises a yearly gathering of world leaders in finance, economy and politics in Davos, Switzerland as well as several smaller events throughout the world.

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Israel "Commited" To Expanding Rafah Offensive Despite US Warning

Israel intends to broaden its military operation in Rafah, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday told a senior aide to US President Joe Biden, who has warned against major action in the southern Gazan city that may risk mass civilian casualties.

Israel describes Rafah, which abuts the Gaza Strip's border with the Egyptian Sinai, as the last stronghold of Hamas whose governing and combat capabilities it has been trying to dismantle during the more than seven-month-old war.

After weeks of public disagreements with Washington over the Rafah planning, Israel on May 6 ordered Palestinian civilians to evacuate parts of the city and began troop and tank incursions.

"We are committed to broadening the ground operation in Rafah to the end of dismantling Hamas and recovering the hostages," a statement from Gallant's office quoted him as telling visiting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Israel believes dozens of hostages from the cross-border Hamas rampage on Oct. 7 are being held in Rafah.

Western powers and Egypt have voiced concern for the fate of hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians sheltering there, despite Israeli assurances about humanitarian safeguards.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA said on Monday that it estimated 810,000 people had fled Rafah since May 6 - potentially more than half of the city's wartime population.

There was no immediate US comment on the Gallant talks.

The statement from Gallant's office said he "presented to (National Security) Adviser Sullivan the provisions Israel implemented for evacuating the population from the Rafah area and for setting up the appropriate humanitarian response".

Israel says its forces in Rafah have discovered dozens of tunnels from the Sinai, a potential embarrassment for Cairo. The Egyptian state information service has previously dismissed speculation about cross-border smuggling to Gaza as "lies".

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UK's Infected Blood Scandal That Killed 3,000 Was Covered Up: Report

A decades-long UK scandal in which thousands of people died after being treated with infected blood was covered up and largely could have been avoided, according to a bombshell report published Monday.

More than 30,000 people were infected with viruses such as HIV and hepatitis after being given contaminated blood in Britain between the 1970s and early 1990s, the Infected Blood Inquiry concluded.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday said he was "truly sorry" for the decades-long institutional cover-up that saw thousands of people receive infected blood products. "I want to make a wholehearted and unequivocal apology for this terrible injustice," he told MPs, promising to pay "whatever it costs" to compensate those affected and the families of victims who died.

Victims included those needing blood transfusions for accidents and in surgery, and those suffering from blood disorders such as haemophilia who were treated with donated blood plasma products.

Some 3,000 of them died, and more will follow, in what has been described as the biggest treatment disaster in the eight-decade history of the state-run National Health Service (NHS).

In some instances, children with bleeding disorders were treated as "objects for research". Many went on to develop and die from HIV and hepatitis.

The long-awaited report, running to more than 2,500 pages, laid bare a "catalogue of failures" with "catastrophic" consequences for victims and their loved ones.

"I have to report that it could largely, though not entirely, have been avoided," concluded its author, judge Brian Langstaff.

His team found that successive governments and health professionals failed to mitigate risks despite it being apparent by the early 1980s that the cause of AIDS could be transmitted by blood.

Blood donors were not screened properly and blood products were imported from abroad, including from the United States where drug users and prisoners were used for donations.

Too many transfusions were also given when they were not necessarily needed, the report added.

There were even attempts to conceal the scandal, including evidence that officials in the health department destroyed documents in 1993.

"Viewing the response of the NHS and of government overall, the answer to the question, 'Was there a cover-up?' is that there has been," the report stated.

"Not in the sense of a handful of people plotting in an orchestrated conspiracy to mislead, but in a way that was more subtle, more pervasive and more chilling in its implications.

- 'Vindicated' -

"In this way there has been a hiding of much of the truth," it added.

On top of the 3,000 who died, many more were left with lifelong health problems.

Langstaff said that "the scale of what happened is horrifying" and said people's suffering had been compounded by repeated denials and false assurances that they had received good treatment.

When victims were told the truth, sometimes years later, this was sometimes done in "insensitive" and "inappropriate" ways.

"What I have found is that disaster was no accident. People put their trust in doctors and the government to keep them safe and that trust was betrayed," Langstaff told reporters.

He recommended that victims now received compensation. The government is expected to announced a package worth about 10 billion pounds (12 billion dollars) on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to express regret when he speaks in parliament later on Monday.

Speaking ahead of the inquiry, a government spokesman said: "This was an appalling tragedy that never should have happened. We are clear that justice needs to be done and swiftly."

Former prime minister Theresa May launched the inquiry -- one of the country's largest -- in 2017.

Campaigners hailed the report as the culmination of a decades-long struggle but noted that it came too late for many of the victims who will never see justice.

Andy Evans, chairman of the Tainted Blood campaign group, described the report as "momentous" and that he felt "validated and vindicated".

"We have been gaslit for generations... Sometimes we felt like we were shouting into the wind during the last 40 years," he told reporters.

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Indonesian Volcano Erupts, Forces 7 Villages To Evacuate

A volcano on the remote Indonesian island of Halmahera has spectacularly erupted, spewing a grey ash cloud into the sky, and people from seven nearby villages have been evacuated, authorities said on Sunday.

Mt. Ibu erupted on Saturday evening, sending ash 4 km (2.5 miles) high, as streaks of purple lightning flashed around its crater, according to information and images shared by Indonesia's volcanology agency.

A joint team comprised of police, military and search and rescue officials was dispatched to the area to evacuate residents from surrounding villages, Abdul Muhari, from the disaster mitigation agency, said in a statement.

Photos shared by the disaster agency showed authorities assisting the elderly, while other residents were moved in pick-up trucks and accommodated in emergency tents for the night.

The agency did not provide any information about how many people had been moved, but authorities have recommended that a seven-km (4.35-mile) radius be cleared.

Indonesia's volcanology agency raised the alert level of the volcano to the highest level on Thursday, after Ibu erupted multiple times earlier this month.

Ibu's activities follow a series of eruptions of different volcanoes in Indonesia, which sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and has 127 active volcanoes.

Flash floods and cold lava flow from Mount Marapi, one of the most active in West Sumatra province, covered several nearby districts following torrential rain on May 11, killing more than 60 people.

In recent weeks, North Sulawesi's Ruang volcano has also erupted, spewing incandescent lava. The eruption prompted authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people on a nearby island.

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66 Killed In Floods In Northern Afghanistan, Over 1500 Houses Damaged

Fresh floods killed 66 people in northern Afghanistan, a provincial official said Sunday, after weeks of flooding that has inundated farms and villages and swept away swathes of communities.

Hundreds of people have died in flash floods this month that have also swamped agricultural lands in a country where 80 percent of the population depends on farming to survive.

The latest heavy floods hit multiple districts of Faryab province on Saturday night and "resulted in human and financial losses," said Asmatullah Muradi, spokesman for the Faryab governor, in a statement.

"Due to the floods 66 people were killed," he said, adding that at least five people were injured and others were still missing.

The flooding damaged more than 1,500 houses, swamped more than 1,000 acres of agricultural land and killed hundreds of livestock, he said.

The floods came a day after provincial police said more than 50 people were killed in flash flooding in the western province of Ghor.

Just over a week ago, more than 300 people were killed by torrents in northern Baghlan province, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Taliban officials.

Taliban officials have warned the death counts would go up in regions impacted by flooding, as destroyed infrastructure hampered aid delivery and efforts to find the missing.

The death count from the Ghor flooding rose from 50 to 55 on Sunday, according to Abdul Wahid Hamas, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

"More than 3,000 homes were totally destroyed due to the floods" in Ghor, he added.

Videos shared on social media platform X by the WFP showed currents of brown water crashing through walls of homes and churning through streets in Ghor.

'Washed away our life'

Residents in Baghlan, Ghor, Faryab and other affected provinces found themselves without shelter, stripped of their homes and livelihoods.

"We were inside our home when rain started and all of a sudden, a flash flood came, we were trying to get things out but it washed away our home, our life, everything," Ghor resident Jawan Gul told AFP on Saturday.

The flooding also sparked concern for the revered 12th-century Jam minaret, located in a remote part of Ghor, provincial officials said.

Images circulated to media showed brown torrents crashing around the base of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

"The situation of Jam was very concerning," Abdul Hai Zaeem, information and culture director in Ghor, told AFP, adding that mud was still piled high around the brick minaret.

The WFP warned that the recent floods have compounded an already dire humanitarian situation in the impoverished country.

Spring floods are not uncommon in Afghanistan, a country of more than 40 million people, but above-average rainfall this year has sparked devastating flash flooding.

Even before the most recent spate of floods, about 100 people had been killed from mid-April to early May as a result of flooding in 10 of Afghanistan's provinces, authorities said.

The rains come after a prolonged drought in Afghanistan, which is one of the least prepared nations to tackle climate change impacts, according to experts.

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Spain Recalls Ambassador After Argentina President Calls PM's Wife "Corrupt"

Spain recalled its ambassador to Buenos Aires for consultations on Sunday after Argentina's President Javier Milei made derogatory comments about Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's wife during a far-right rally in Madrid.

Milei had called Sanchez's wife Begona Gomez "corrupt" during a rally in Madrid organised by the far-right Vox party and attended by many of its international allies.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said he expected an apology from Milei.

Other ministers also condemned Milei's speech, in which he described socialism as "cursed and carcinogenic". Sanchez leads Spain's Socialist Party.

"With his behaviour, Milei has brought the relationship between Spain and Argentina to its most serious state in recent history," Albares said in a video statement.

Milei's visit broke with diplomatic protocol as he refused to meet Spain's King Felipe and Sanchez, instead preferring to promote his book alongside Vox leader Santiago Abascal at the party rally.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a post on social messaging app X that "attacks against family members of political leaders have no place in our culture".

Spain's main opposition party, the conservative People's Party (PP), refused to support Madrid's stance, with party sources saying that Sanchez should have provided explanations about the alleged corruption case weeks ago.

"His silence generates internal doubts, but also distrust abroad," a PP source said, adding that the party's job was to oppose the Spanish government and not Milei.

A city court said in April it was looking into accusations of influence peddling and business corruption against Sanchez's wife, brought in a private complaint by Manos Limpias, or Clean Hands, an anti-corruption activist group.

However, Madrid's prosecuting authority later said it was appealing to have the case thrown out for lack of evidence.

Sanchez decided to stay in office after five days of weighing his future once the probe against his wife was announced.

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Explained: How Might A US-Saudi Civil Nuclear Deal Work

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will visit Saudi Arabia this weekend for talks expected to touch on a civil nuclear cooperation agreement, one piece of a wider arrangement Washington hopes will lead to normalization of Israeli-Saudi relations.

Below is a description of the key issues involved in a US-Saudi civil nuclear deal, what risks and benefits it may offer the United States and Saudi Arabia, and how it fits within US efforts to broker Israeli-Saudi reconciliation.

What is a civil nuclear coorperation agreement?

Under Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954, the United States may negotiate agreements to engage in significant civil nuclear cooperation with other nations.

It specifies nine nonproliferation criteria those states must meet to keep them from using the technology to develop nuclear arms or transfer sensitive materials to others.

The law stipulates congressional review of such pacts.

Why does Saudi Arabia want a US nuclear cooperation agreement?

As the world's largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia at first glance is not an obvious candidate for a nuclear pact typically aimed at building power plants to generate electricity.

There are two reasons Riyadh may wish to do so.

The first is that under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's ambitious Vision 2030 reform plan, the kingdom aims to generate substantial renewable energy and reduce emissions. At least some of this is expected to come from nuclear energy.

Critics cite a second potential reason: that Riyadh might wish to develop nuclear expertise in case it someday wished to acquire nuclear weapons despite the safeguards enshrined in any deal with Washington to prevent this.

The Saudi crown prince has long said that if Iran developed a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabia would follow suit, a stance that has fueled deep concern among arms control advocates and some US lawmakers over a possible US-Saudi civil nuclear deal.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom and Shi'ite revolutionary Iran have been at odds for decades.

How would the US benefit from a civil nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia?

There could be strategic and commercial gains.

The Biden administration has made no secret of its hope to broker a long-shot, multi-part arrangement leading Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize relations. It believes Saudi support for normalization may hinge partly on striking a civil nuclear deal.

The strategic benefits would be to shore up Israel's security, build a wider coalition against Iran and reinforce US ties to one of the wealthiest Arab nations at a time when China is seeking to extend its influence in the Gulf.

The commercial benefit would be to put US industry in a prime spot to win contracts to build Saudi nuclear power plants, as US atomic companies compete with Russia, China and other countries for global business.

What are the hurdles to a US-Saudi civil nuclear deal?

To start, it is all but inconceivable while the Gaza war rages.

Israel invaded the Gaza Strip after Hamas-led gunmen on Oct. 7 attacked southern Israeli communities, killing about 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli figures.

The Gaza death count, health officials in the Hamas-run coastal enclave say, has risen to more than 35,000 and malnutrition is widespread.

It is hard to imagine the Saudis being willing to normalize relations while Palestinians are dying in such numbers.

What is the wider pact in which a nuclear deal might figure?

The United States hopes to find a way to give Saudi Arabia several things it wants - a civil nuclear pact, security guarantees and a pathway toward a Palestinian state - in return for Riyadh agreeing to normalize relations with Israel.

Earlier this month, seven people familiar with the matter told Reuters the Biden administration and Saudi Arabia were finalizing an agreement  for US security guarantees and civilian nuclear assistance to Riyadh.

However, the wider Israel-Saudi normalization envisaged as part of a Middle East "grand bargain" remains elusive.

What are some of the key issues to be worked out in a Saudi-US nuclear deal

A key issue is whether Washington might agree to build a uranium enrichment facility on Saudi territory, when it might do so, and whether Saudi personnel might have access to it or it would be run solely by US staff in a "black box" arrangement.

Without safeguards built into an agreement, Saudi Arabia, which has uranium ore, could theoretically use an enrichment facility to produce highly enriched uranium, which, if purified enough, can yield fissile material for bombs.

Another issue is whether Riyadh would agree to make a Saudi investment in a US-based and US-owned uranium enrichment plant and to hire US companies to build Saudi nuclear reactors.

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Man Who Attacked Nancy Pelosi's Husband Jailed For 30 Years

A man who attacked the elderly husband of former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a hammer was jailed Friday for 30 years.

David DePape was convicted last year of breaking into the couple's San Francisco home and bludgeoning Paul Pelosi.

At the time of the October 2022 attack, Democrat Nancy Pelosi was second in line to the presidency and a regular target of outlandish far-right conspiracy theories.

Jurors heard how DePape -- a Canadian former nudist activist who supported himself with occasional carpentry work -- had initially planned to target Nancy Pelosi, planning to smash her kneecaps if she did not admit to her party's "lies."

On arriving at their home armed with rope, gloves and duct tape, DePape instead encountered her then-82-year-old husband, and kept asking, "Where's Nancy?"

During what DePape told officers was a "pretty amicable" conversation with Paul Pelosi, the husband managed to call for help from law enforcement officers.

But moments later, in scenes captured by police bodycam, DePape hit Pelosi with a hammer before officers rushed at him and took the weapon away.

Pelosi was knocked unconscious and had his skull fractured. He spent almost a week in a hospital, where he underwent surgery.

Nancy Pelosi was not at home the night of the attack.

Prosecutors had asked the federal court in San Francisco to sentence DePape to 40 years in prison.

In the lead up to Friday's sentencing, Nancy Pelosi had asked the judge to impose a "very long" sentence for an attack that "has had a devastating effect on three generations of our family."  

"Even now, eighteen months after the home invasion and assault, the signs of blood and break-in are impossible to avoid.

"Our home remains a heartbreaking crime scene," she wrote, according to court documents cited by the San Francisco Chronicle.

On Friday her office said the family was proud of Paul Pelosi "and his tremendous courage in saving his own life on the night of the attack and in testifying in this case."

- Politicized-

DePape had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

While not denying the attack, his defense rested on contesting federal prosecutors' claims that he had targeted Nancy Pelosi in her capacity as a federal official -- a key factor in their charges.

Instead, his lawyers argued that DePape was driven to target a number of prominent liberal figures, due to his exposure to a web of obscure conspiracy theories.

In social media posts, DePape shared QAnon theories and false claims that the last US election was stolen.

The trial heard how DePape did not intend to stop his supposed anti-corruption crusade with Pelosi, and had drawn up a list of other targets including a feminist academic whom he accused of turning US schools into "pedophile molestation factories."

Other personalities the defendant admitted wanting to attack included California Governor Gavin Newsom, President Joe Biden's son Hunter, and actor Tom Hanks.

Jurors took less than 10 hours to reject DePape's explanation of the attack, which took place just a few days before the US midterm elections.

The attack itself became politicized in the weeks after it occurred, with some members of the Republican Party mocking the incident and suggesting lurid and unsubstantiated explanations for why there was a man in Pelosi's house late at night.

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Moroccan Who Murdered UK Man In Revenge For War In Gaza Jailed For 45 Years

A Moroccan man who stabbed a passer-by to death on a British street in what he later told police was revenge for Israeli action in Gaza was jailed for at least 45 years on Friday, with the judge calling the murder an act of terrorism.

Ahmed Alid, 45, who had sought asylum in Britain, killed his 70-year-old victim after approaching him from behind on a road in Hartlepool, northeast England, in the early hours of Oct. 15 last year, having previously attacked his Muslim housemate who had converted to Christianity.

After his arrest, he told detectives he had committed the acts because of the conflict in Gaza and said he would have killed more people if he had been able to, prosecutors said.

He was found guilty last month of murder, attempted murder and assaulting two female detectives during his police interview.

"You attacked and murdered Terence Carney in a terrorist act," judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb told Alid as she sentenced him to life in prison at Teesside Crown Court, saying he must serve a total of 45 years behind bars before he could be considered for release.

"You intended it as revenge for the actions of a foreign country, Israel, and to intimidate and influence the British government in its international relations."

Alid had first used two knives to attack his sleeping housemate, to whom he had become aggressive after learning of his conversion to Christianity, stabbing him six times while shouting "Allahu akbar", or "God is greatest".

The 32-year-old housemate, one of five asylum seekers who shared the property, managed to fight him off and another occupant came to his aid.

Alid left the house and walked down the road where he passed Carney on the opposite side of the street. He circled back and attacked him from behind, stabbing him six times in the chest, abdomen and back. Carney died shortly afterwards.

Following his interview with police, he attacked the two female detectives, with one suffering injuries to her shoulder and wrist.

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Israeli Military Says Recovered Bodies Of 3 Hostages From Gaza

Israeli forces on Thursday night retrieved the bodies of three hostages from the Gaza Strip, chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Friday.

Hagari identified the three as Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Yitzhak Gelernter, who he said "were murdered by Hamas while escaping the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 and their bodies were taken into Gaza". He did not say where the bodies were found.

The Israeli government had confirmed the death of German-Israeli Louk, a 23-year-old tattoo artist, in late October. A video that circulated on social media at the time showed her half-naked body slung across the back of a pick-up truck and paraded through Gaza.

But the family of 57-year-old Gelernter was "in total darkness" about his fate until Friday, his daughter, Yarden Pivko, told Channel 12 News.

"We held on to hope and had a lot of faith that the end would be different," she said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the military operation in a statement on Friday and reiterated a pledge to return all the hostages, "the living and the deceased alike".

In response to the military's announcement, the armed wing of Hamas, the group that governs Gaza, said it was "skeptical" of Israel's claims and added that the only way for the remaining hostages to return alive was through a truce.

"The resistance believes that the enemy will not get its prisoners except as lifeless corpses or through an honorable exchange deal for our people," it said.

Hamas led a surprise attack on southern Israeli bases and communities on Oct. 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and some 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Some 129 hostages remain captive in Gaza.

Israel has since launched an air, ground and sea assault on the blockaded Palestinian territory, killing more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

The bombardment has displaced most of Gaza's 2.3 million population, laid waste to the coastal enclave and caused a deep humanitarian crisis.

During the only truce so far, which lasted a week at the end of November, 110 Israeli and foreign hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinians Israel was holding.

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15 EU States Demand Plan To Send Asylum Seekers To Third Countries

Fifteen EU states have demanded a further tightening of the bloc's asylum policy, making it easier to transfer undocumented migrants to third countries, including when they are rescued at sea.

The demand, sent in a letter to the European Commission that AFP received today, comes less than a month before European Parliament elections, in which far-right anti-immigration parties are forecast to make gains.

The letter asks the European Union's executive arm to "propose new ways and solutions to prevent irregular migration to Europe".

The group includes Italy and Greece, which receive a substantial number of the people making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea to reach the EU -- many seeking to escape poverty, war or persecution, according to the International Organization for Migration.

They want the EU to toughen up its recently adopted asylum pact, which introduces tighter controls on those seeking to enter the 27-nation bloc.

That reform includes speedier vetting of people arriving without documents, new border detention centres and faster deportation for rejected asylum applicants.

The 15 proposed in their letter the introduction of "mechanisms... aimed at detecting, intercepting -- or in cases of distress, rescuing -- migrants on the high seas and bringing them to a predetermined place of safety in a partner country outside the EU, where durable solutions for those migrants could be found".

They said it should be easier to send asylum seekers to third countries while their requests for protection are assessed.

They cited the example of a controversial deal that Italy has struck with non-EU Albania, under which Rome can send thousands of asylum seekers plucked from Italian waters to holding camps in the Balkan country until their cases are processed.

The concept in EU asylum law of what constitutes "safe third countries" should be reassessed, they continued.

Safe country debate

EU law stipulates that people arriving in the bloc without documents can be sent to a third country, where they could have requested asylum -- so long as that country is deemed safe and the applicant has a genuine link with it.

That would exclude schemes like the divisive law passed by the UK, which has now left the EU, enabling London to refuse all irregular arrivals the right to request asylum and send them to Rwanda.

Rights groups accuse the African country -- ruled with an iron fist by President Paul Kagame since the end of the 1994 genocide that killed around 800,000 people -- of cracking down on free speech and political opposition.

The 15 nations said they wanted the EU to make deals with third countries along the main migration routes, citing the example of the arrangement it made with Turkey in 2016 to take in Syrian refugees from the war in their home country.

The letter was signed by Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania.

It was not signed by Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban has resisted EU plans to share out responsibility across the bloc for hosting asylum seekers, or to contribute to the costs of that plan.

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Explained: Why Russia Is Holding Nuclear Exercises And What To Watch For

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to practise the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons after what Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States.

Why, and what will happen?

What Drills Will Take Place And Where?

Russia's defence ministry said missile forces in the Southern Military District will take part, together with aviation and the navy. The southern district, headquartered in Rostov-on-Don, lies alongside Ukraine and includes parts of Ukraine which Russia controls. Belarus will also be involved.

The Russian Foreign Ministry linked the drills to what it called "combatant statements" by Western officials which it said created security threats for Russia. It specifically mentioned French President Emmanuel Macron, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and the delivery to Ukraine of U.S. Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS).

Macron has floated the idea of sending European troops to fight Russia in Ukraine while Cameron said that Ukraine had a right to use the weapons provided by London to strike targets inside Russia.

Why Is This Significant?

All nuclear powers carry out routine nuclear exercises but it is extremely rare to explicitly link such drills in public to a current war as Russia did. It is unclear how much Russia will allow the outside world to see.

What Will Happen?

Mock warheads will probably be taken out of storage and driven to a designated point where soldiers will train how to "mate" them with the aircraft or missiles that would be used to deliver them.

Russia has numerous weapons systems capable of delivering a tactical nuclear warhead - meaning one designed for use on the battlefield, as opposed to strategic warheads that could wipe out whole cities.

The U.S. and its allies will be watching closely which ones are involved. They could include Iskander, Kinzhal, Kalibr or Novator 9M729 missiles, and possibly air-dropped bombs, said William Alberque of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"The Kalibr Kh-102 is of great interest because the Kh-101 has been so comparatively easy for Ukraine to shoot down," said Alberque, who believes the war in Ukraine has increased the importance to Moscow of tactical nuclear weapons as a means of deterring and defeating NATO.

What Is Putin Saying?

"This is a clear case of nuclear signalling," said Matt Korda, senior research fellow for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.

"Russia's nuclear signalling in the context of its invasion of Ukraine has been designed to deter conventional invasion by NATO and long-range strikes into Russia."

Pavel Podvig, director of the Russian Nuclear Forces Project, said: "This is supposed to be a signal to the West, probably to make people stop thinking about deeper involvement in the war. But I believe we can be quite confident that it is not a threat to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine or against Ukraine."

Nikolai Sokov, a former Soviet and Russian arms control official, said the message was intended for NATO, Europe and particularly France.

"They (Russia) felt it necessary to invoke nuclear weapons as a signal that the move, about which Macron has been talking, may result in escalation up to the nuclear threshold," said Sokov, a senior fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation.

He said Russia had sent a previous signal when it announced the deployment of tactical nuclear missiles to Belarus last year, but this was "all but ignored" by the West.

Will Russia Use Nuclear Weapons?

A senior Russian source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the signal was meant to make the West afraid and to deter the United States and its European allies from a potentially catastrophic escalation over Ukraine.

The source said that the West's declared aim of defeating Russia on the battlefield could trigger a nuclear scenario.

"You are making a grave mistake if you dismiss such signals," the source said. "Russia will not be defeated."

Christopher Chivvis, Senior Fellow and Director of the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "Putin is reminding the world that Russia is a nuclear power and indicating that he might be willing to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.

"He is not saying that he is about to do so, but warning that there are some conditions under which he would do so," said Chivvis, a former U.S. intelligence official.

"It seems unlikely Russia would use such weapons offensively to make gains on the battlefield. More likely, they would use them defensively in a situation where Russian forces were rapidly retreating and significant losses seemed probable."

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