Friday, Jun 13th
Last update07:39:45 AM GMT
International Glance
International condemnation is mounting after Israeli forces fired warning shots towards foreign diplomats visiting the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
The United Nations’s chief spokesperson said the limited humanitarian aid “finally” entering Gaza is “nowhere near enough to meet the needs” of the war-torn enclave’s famished population.
A former Ukrainian politician who worked as a senior aide to the former pro-Russian president has been shot and killed outside his children’s school in an upmarket suburb of Madrid.
In the latest violence to rattle Spain since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Andriy Portnov was killed on Wednesday morning outside the American School of Madrid in Pozuelo de Alarcón.
Authorities said Portnov, who worked closely with Ukraine’s former president, Viktor Yanukovych, had been targeted when he was getting into his car, a black Mercedes-Benz. “Several people shot him in the back and the head and then fled towards a forested area,” said a source at Spain’s interior ministry.
Local media said Portnov had been dropping off his children at the school, where classes had begun 30 minutes before the shooting. Police sources told El País he had two daughters at the school.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa brought two championship golfers from his country and a 14-kilogram book showcasing South Africa's greatest golf courses.
But even his best attempts to appeal to President Donald Trump's golf fandom couldn't shield him from becoming the latest target of an Oval Office ambush.
In a wild one-hour May 21 meeting between Trump and Ramaphosa ‒ rivaled only by Trump's memorable clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February ‒ Trump accused the South African leader of overseeing "genocide" against White people, played a video to try to prove the false claim and lashed out at a reporter who asked about his administration accepting a $400 million jet from Qatar.
"I wish you did. I'd take it," Trump said. "If your country offered the U.S. Air Force a plane, I would take it."
Pope Leo confirmed to Giorgia Meloni his willingness to host in the Vatican the next round of negotiations to try to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Italian prime minister said on Tuesday. “Finding in the Holy Father confirmation of the readiness to host the next talks between the parties in the Vatican, the prime minister expressed deep gratitude to Pope Leo XIV for his unceasing commitment to peace,” said a statement from Meloni. Leo, elected two weeks ago, said on 14 May that the Vatican could act as a mediator in global conflicts, without specifically mentioning Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Separately the Italian prime minister said she had talks with other European leaders and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, over next steps.
“It was agreed to maintain close coordination between the partners with a view to a new round of negotiations aimed at a ceasefire and a peace agreement in Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy accused Russia of “trying to buy time” to continue the war, a day after the US president, Donald Trump, discussed the war with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Their two-hour phone call, as Peter Beaumont and Pjotr Sauer write, failed to deliver any meaningful concessions from Moscow. The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, also accused Vladimir Putin of “playing for time” and not really being interested in peace in Ukraine.
Israeli forces bombard Gaza, killing 43 people since midnight, after the military orders Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Younis to flee ahead of an “unprecedented attack”.
The leaders of Canada, France and the UK threaten to take “concrete action” against Israel if it does not end its renewed offensive in Gaza, while 22 countries urge Israel to let aid into the besieged enclave.
But the president’s outreach was inconclusive, and there was little sign of a breakthrough. Russia and Ukraine would hold direct talks on a ceasefire “immediately,” Trump said afterward in a post on his social network Truth Social, but it was unclear what form those talks would take or when they would happen. The Vatican, Trump said, has expressed interest in hosting the negotiations.
“The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of,” he said.
Trump’s call with Putin lasted more than two hours and “was very informative and very open,” Putin told Russian state media.
More,,,Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would control all of the Gaza Strip and prevent Hamas from looting aid.
The prime minister made his remarks as the Israeli military started in earnest a large-scale operation, called Gideon’s Chariot, that Netanyahu said amounted to his country essentially taking over Gaza.
This is part of defeating Hamas, in parallel with the tremendous military pressure, our massive entry, to essentially take over all of Gaza and strip Hamas of all ability to plunder humanitarian aid,” Netanyahu said, according to a transcript provided by Reuters.
“This is the war and victory plan.”
Netanyahu said the Israeli military would take control of food and aid distribution to Palestinians in the strip in coordination with American companies.
TVNL Comment: Will the world allow this to happen? We know.
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