GAZA
Airstrikes kill 25: rescuers
Gaza’s civil defense agency yesterday said that a spate of Israeli airstrikes since dawn killed at least 25 people across the Hamas-run territory. Nine people were killed and several others wounded when an airstrike hit a house in the southern city of Khan Yunis, said Mohammad Mughayyir, a senior agency official, adding that six more remained trapped under the rubble. Another nine were killed in separate strikes on Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Mughayyir said, including five when a tent housing displaced people was hit. Five others were killed in a strike on a home belonging to the Bakr family in the al-Shati refugee camp of Gaza City, he said, while two died in a similar attack in the southern city of Rafah. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the latest strikes.
AUSTRALIA
Offshore gas plan cleared
The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority yesterday approved a major offshore gas project, sparking dismay among environmental and indigenous groups. Fuel producer Santos plans to pump gas from wells off the northern coast to processing plants before being moved to tankers for export. The regulator yesterday listed Santos’ environmental plan for gas production as approved on its Web site. Clearance of the plan is seen as one of the final hurdles before extraction can begin. A Santos spokesperson said the A$5 billion (US$3.2 billion) Barossa Gas Project remained “on track” to start gas production on budget in the third quarter, even though it has been repeatedly delayed. However, opponents have raised concerns about its contribution to climate change, ecological footprint and impact on areas of cultural significance.
PAKISTAN
100,529 Afghans have left
The Ministry of the Interior yesterday said that “100,529 Afghans have left in April,” after Islamabad announced the widespread cancelation of residence permits. Calling Afghans “terrorists and criminals,” the government launched its mass eviction campaign on April 1. Analysts say the expulsions are designed to pressure the Taliban government, which Islamabad blames for fueling a rise in border attacks. Convoys of Afghan families have been heading to the border since the start of this month, when the deadline to leave expired. Afghan Prime Minister Hasan Akhund on Saturday condemned the “unilateral measures” taken by its neighbor after Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar flew to Kabul for a day-long visit to discuss the returns.
UNITED STATES
Trump backs Hegseth
President Donald Trump on Monday stood behind Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, despite a new scandal over his reported use of messaging app Signal to discuss US strikes on Yemen with his wife and others. “He’s doing a great job,” Trump said, dismissing the reports as “just fake news.” US media reported that Hegseth used Signal to talk about the airstrikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels with people not usually involved in such discussions, just weeks after it emerged that he also shared details about the strikes in another Signal chat to which a journalist had been inadvertently added. Hegseth, a former Fox News cohost, was defiant, blaming the media. “This is what the media does. They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations,” he said at the White House, adding: “Not going to work with me.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
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