Wednesday, Jul 02nd
Last update06:57:18 AM GMT
International Glance
Gunmen shot and killed at least 26 tourists on Tuesday at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said in what appeared to be a major shift in a regional conflict in which tourists have largely been spared.
Police said it was a “terror attack” and blamed militants fighting against Indian rule. “This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, wrote on social media.
Russian attacks during the 30-hour Easter ceasefire unilaterally declared by President Vladimir Putin over the weekend killed three people in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, the local governor said Monday.
Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram that the casualties occurred over the last 24 hours, adding that three others were wounded.
Overall, Russia violated the ceasefire more than 2,900 times, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram statement in the early hours on Monday. Zelenskyy said that Russian forces carried out 96 assault operations along the front line, shelled Ukrainian positions more than 1,800 times and used hundreds of drones during the course of the ceasefire.
“The nature of Ukrainian actions will continue to be mirror-like: we will respond to silence with silence, and our blows will be a defense against Russian blows. Actions always speak louder than words,” he said.
Pope Francis, 88, a humble reformer who sought to make the Catholic Church more inclusive and clashed with world leaders over the rights of immigrants, died Easter Monday following a lengthy bout of double pneumonia, the Vatican said.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who oversees the pope's affairs, announced his death from Casa Santa Marta where Francis lived at the Vatican. No cause of death was released.
"Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis," Farrel said in a statement on Vatican News. "At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father."
The pope's death comes one day after a frail but determined Francis greeted thousands in St. Peter's Square after Easter Mass in his open-air popemobile − and just weeks after an extended hospital stay in which he battled bilateral pneumonia and other health issues.
Israel’s military has admitted to several “professional failures” and a breach of orders in the killing of 15 rescue workers in Gaza last month, and said that it was dismissing a deputy commander responsible.
The deadly shooting of eight Red Crescent paramedics, six civil defence workers and a UN staffer by Israeli troops, as they carried out a rescue mission in southern Gaza at dawn on 23 March, had prompted international outcry and calls for a war crimes investigation.
Their bodies were uncovered days after the shooting, buried in a sandy mass grave alongside their crushed vehicles. The UN said they had been killed “one by one”. Israel at first claimed that the medics’ vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire but later backtracked after phone video recovered from one of the medics contradicted the account.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of creating an "impression" of a ceasefire while still taking military actions in some places in Ukraine.
In the first six hours of the "Easter truce" - as ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin - Zelensky said there had been 387 shellings and 19 assaults by Russian forces, and drones used 290 times. There are no reports of casualties.
Putin ordered his forces to "stop all military activity" in Ukraine from 18:00 Moscow time (16:00 BST) on Saturday until midnight on Sunday. Kyiv said it would also adhere.
Russia's defence ministry insisted all Russian forces had been adhering to the truce and accused Ukraine's army of breaking it.
Berlin's Immigration Office has told three European Union citizens and one American they are to be deported from Germany this week over alleged actions at protests against Israel's war in Gaza. Their cases have not yet been heard in court.
The four demonstrators — two from Ireland, one from Poland and one from the United States — were served with orders last month, instructing them to leave Germany by April 21 or be deported. The Berlin Immigration Office says the deportation orders are connected to a protest at Berlin's Free University in October 2024.
Germany's push to deport protesters supporting Palestinians has drawn comparisons with the Trump administration's handling of pro-Palestinian student protesters in the U.S. There are concerns that by restricting the freedom of movement of the three EU citizens, these deportation orders may clash with EU law, which enshrines freedom of movement as a founding principle.
A Boeing jet intended for a Chinese airline landed back at the planemaker’s US production hub on Sunday, a victim of the tit-for-tat bilateral tariffs launched by Donald Trump.
The 737 MAX, which was meant for China’s Xiamen Airlines, landed at Seattle’s Boeing Field at 6.11pm, according to a Reuters witness. It was painted with Xiamen livery.
The jet, which made refuelling stops in Guam and Hawaii on its 5,000-mile (8,000-km) return journey, was one of several 737 MAX jets – Boeing’s bestselling model – that had been waiting at Boeing’s Zhoushan completion centre for final work and delivery.
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