World News

The mayor of Nice is moving to ban large cruise ships from docking in its port, aiming to tackle pollution and overtourism. The decision mirrors Venice's 2021 ban, introduced to protect its fragile environment and infrastructure.

A Chinese drug runner involved in a 2023 blackmail scheme that drugged children with spiked drinks in Seoul has been sentenced to prison in Cambodia, according to Korea's top spy agency.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Thursday that the drug runner was sentenced to 26 years in prison by a Cambodian court for trafficking 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) of methamphetamine and possessing 700 grams of the substance.

The number of foreigners entering Japan rose to a new record high of 36.78 million in 2024, receiving boosts from a weak yen and an increase in regular international flight services to the country, government estimates showed Friday.

The total exceeded the previous record of 31.19 million logged in 2019 by around 5.59 million people, according to the Immigration Services Agency's statistics dating back to 1950.

Large numbers of troops from Rwanda have been pouring across the border into the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help rebels seize the regional capital of Goma before an emergency UN meeting about the crisis takes place on Monday, intelligence officials have warned.

Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) soldiers are believed to have secretly crossed into the eastern DRC over the past few days to assist a lightning offensive by the M23 militia.

Officials speaking to the Observer on condition of anonymity added that the RDF had cranked up the pressure on the embattled Congolese city by amassing vast numbers of troops on the Rwandan side of the border, a few hundred metres from central Goma.

Nine South African soldiers have been killed in eastern Congo's conflict zone, the South African defence department said on Saturday, as Congolese troops and peacekeepers battled to stop an advance by Rwanda-backed rebels on the city of Goma.

Democratic Republic of Congo and its allies earlier repelled an overnight advance on the provincial capital of over 1 million people, two army sources said. The sound of nearby heavy bombardment rocked the city in the early hours.

This has apparently been going on for a while. And wow does it all sound stupid to me. It apparently also helps them bypass broadcasting rights (and paying players of course).

The NFL, CBS Sports and Nickelodeon teamed up to bring SpongeBob and plenty of slime to a "kids-centric" telecast of the 2024 Super Bowl, for example. ESPN and Disney presented a "Funday Football" Toy Story animated game in 2023, and another with The Simpsons in December, featuring the canonical yellow characters on the field and sidelines, pre-recorded segments and the show's theme song and jingles.

The NHL has done several such projects dating back to February 2023, when it collaborated with ESPN and Disney for the NHL Big City Greens Classic — a live, animated telecast of a Washington Capitals-New York Rangers faceoff, with players modeled after characters from the animated comedy adventure series, which it reprised the following year.

It also presented the MultiVersus NHL Face-Off, a partnership with TNT Sports and Warner Bros. Games that brought beloved characters from the MultiVersus video game — including Bugs Bunny, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Steven Universe — to an animated matchup between the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights, officiated by the Tasmanian Devil.

These bodies, dug up as a ceasefire took hold this week, are Gaza’s “missing,” the uncounted dead haunting families scattered by the war. For the Gaza Health Ministry, they were reduced to a bullet-point caveat beneath every daily death toll: “A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the streets, and cannot be accessed.”

On Sunday, as a deal between Israel and Hamas paused the deadliest war in a century of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, families across the enclave scrambled to reunite with their loved ones — the living, the dead and the missing.

Palestinians crowded the ruins that were once their homes, watching anxiously as civil defense teams hacked at the rubble in search of missing bodies. Each day of the ceasefire, the ministry has logged 50 to 120 recovered corpses.

Red Cross informs Israeli authorities all 4 lookouts—Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, Karina Ariev and Liri Albag— in 'good condition'; parents will reunite with them at border

The IDF and Shin Bet announced Saturday that four freed hostages—Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, Karina Ariev and Liri Albag—have been handed over to Israeli forces in Gaza and crossed the border into Israel.

“The returning soldiers, accompanied by IDF and Shin Bet forces, crossed into Israeli territory a short time ago and are now en route to an initial reception center in the Gaza border area, where they will reunite with their parents," the agencies said in a joint statement.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/53586604

• First call between top diplomats in new Trump administration
• Wang tells Rubio 'I hope you would conduct yourself well'
• Says heads of state have 'pointed out the direction' of ties
• Rubio called China gravest threat to US at nomination hearing
• Rubio says Trump China policy will focus of US interests

The Jenin Brigades said its fighters detonated a “guided bomb” against an Israeli military infantry force that was advancing inside the besieged Palestinian camp.

The coalition group of armed fighters added on its Telegram channel that its operatives “confront the storming infantry forces and military vehicles with heavy showers of bullets and explosive devices, achieving confirmed injuries”.

The Jenin Brigades also reported detonating an explosive device planted under a road in the al-Damaj axis in Jenin camp, and said a military vehicle was attacked and put out of commission by an explosive.

Summary

The World Health Organization (WHO) is freezing recruitment, restricting travel, and cutting expenses following the U.S. withdrawal, its largest funding source.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned staff of worsening financial pressures and announced measures such as limiting technical missions, virtual-only meetings, renegotiating contracts, and halting office refurbishments.

Critics, like global health consultant Fifa Rahman, say the U.S. move harms global health preparedness.

Italy's Deputy PM Matteo Salvini has also proposed withdrawing from the WHO, though Italy’s Prime Minister has not taken a stance.

Summary

In a Fox News interview, Donald Trump argued that Ukraine should not have resisted Russia’s 2022 invasion, claiming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should have made a deal with Vladimir Putin.

Trump criticized Zelenskyy for choosing to fight, compared the military strength of Russia and Ukraine, and said he could have ended the war quickly through negotiations.

Trump’s stance contrasts with Joe Biden's strong support for Ukraine, including aid and sanctions on Russia.

The world's largest iceberg is on a collision course with the British territory of South Georgia - potentially putting millions of penguins and seals in danger.

The trillion-tonne slab of ice, named A23a, broke free from its position last month and started drifting northwards.

The "megaberg" - which is twice the size of Greater London and 130 feet tall - is expected to approach the remote island off Antarctica in the next two to four weeks.

In a statement, [top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court] Mr Khan said the two men were "criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as persons whom the Taliban perceived as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women".

Opposition to the Taliban government is "brutally repressed through the commission of crimes including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts", he added.

Summary

Zaheer Mahmood, 29, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempting to murder two people with a meat cleaver outside Charlie Hebdo's former Paris office in 2020.

Influenced by radical Pakistani preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi, Mahmood attacked two Premieres Lignes employees, mistaking the office for Charlie Hebdo's, which had relocated after the 2015 al-Qaeda attack.

Five accomplices were jailed for supporting Mahmood. The victims, who suffered severe injuries, rejected Mahmood's apology.

Mahmood, an illegal immigrant to France since 2017, was also convicted of terrorist conspiracy.