Russia's largest attack on Naftogaz deals critical damage to Ukraine’s gas production sites
A massive Russian air assault struck some of Ukraine's main gas production facilities, officials said on Friday, in some cases causing critical damage...
President Donald Trump says a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could potentially be reached within the next week, as U.S. mediation efforts intensify.
President Donald Trump said on Friday that a ceasefire agreement to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could potentially be achieved “within the next week.”
Speaking to reporters during an Oval Office event marking a Congo-Rwanda accord, Trump said he had spoken with people involved in the mediation efforts.
“I think it’s close, I just spoke with some of the people involved, and it’s a terrible situation that’s going on in Gaza,” Trump said. “We think within the next week, we’re going to get a cease-fire.”
The Trump administration has been working to secure a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, who have been in conflict since October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a large-scale attack on southern Israel, prompting Israeli retaliatory operations in Gaza.
On May 31, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, urged Hamas to accept a proposed framework as the basis for proximity talks. He said the deal could pave the way for a 60-day pause in fighting and the release of hostages.
“That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families and in which we can have at the proximity talks substantive negotiations in good faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire,” Witkoff said in a statement.
The proposal would see Hamas release 10 living Israeli hostages and the remains of 18 deceased hostages. In return, Israel would release 125 prisoners serving life sentences and 1,111 Palestinian detainees arrested after the October 7 attack.
Israel has approved the U.S. proposal. Hamas, however, responded with a counterproposal seeking a permanent ceasefire, a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and unimpeded humanitarian aid access. The group said it would release 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 more in exchange for “an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners.”
Witkoff called Hamas’s response “totally unacceptable” and said it “only takes us backward.”
The proposed deal follows a previous six-week truce that ended in March. Since then, Israel has resumed airstrikes against Hamas targets in Gaza and tightened restrictions on aid deliveries, accusing Hamas of stealing supplies.
A day of mourning has been declared in Portugal to pay respect to victims who lost their lives in the Lisbon Funicular crash which happened on Wednesday evening.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
A massive Russian air assault struck some of Ukraine's main gas production facilities, officials said on Friday, in some cases causing critical damage as Ukraine prepares for a new heating season.
Russian warships have repeatedly manoeuvred on collision courses, aimed weaponry at Danish naval vessels, and disrupted navigation systems in Denmark's straits, which connect the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, according to the Danish Defence Intelligence Service on Friday.
Czechs began voting on Friday in an election likely to oust their centre-right government, with polls favouring populist billionaire Andrej Babis to return to power on pledges to raise wages and lift growth while reducing aid for Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of Italians took to the streets across the country on Friday, as part of a day-long general strike called by unions in support of an aid flotilla carrying food to Gaza that was intercepted by Israel this week.
Sarah Mullally was named on Friday as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman to head the Church of England in its 1,400-year history.
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