South Africa faces legal action over birth certificate backlog
15/07/2025
Ukraine's Zelensky proposes new PM, defence minister in major reshuffle
15/07/2025
Ukraine cautiously welcomes US support
15/07/2025
EU plans countermeasures to Trump's tariffs
15/07/2025
Bastille Day fireworks in pictures
15/07/2025
US President Trump gives Moscow 50-day ultimatum over Ukraine war
15/07/2025
Israel strikes military tanks in southern Syria
15/07/2025
Syria: 'Sweida has been a real focal point of violence'
Middle East
15/07/2025
'Whole range of factors: environmental, human and societal, contributing to worsening of disasters'
Environment
14/07/2025
Excavations begin at child mass grave site in Ireland
Europe
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France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Russia says discussing Ukraine security guarantees without Moscow 'road to nowhere'
NATO military chiefs were set Wednesday to discuss the details of eventual security guarantees for Ukraine amid efforts to broker an end to Russia's offensive. But Lavrov warned that "seriously discussing security guarantees without the Russian Federation is a utopia, a road to nowhere. "We cannot agree that it is now suggested to solve collective security issues without the Russian Federation," he told reporters. President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and the ensuing conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes. US President Donald Trump, who spoke Monday with his Russian counterpart, said Putin had agreed to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine. Lavrov said in their phone call Putin had only told Trump he would "think about raising the level of" talks on Ukraine. Lavrov said any summit between Putin and Zelensky "must be prepared in the most meticulous way" so the meeting does not lead to a "deterioration" of the situation around the conflict. Lavrov also accused European leaders -- some of whom also visited the White House on Monday -- of making "clumsy attempts" to change the US president's position on Ukraine. "We have only seen aggressive escalation of the situation and rather clumsy attempts to change the position of the US president," he said, referring to Monday's meeting. "We did not hear any constructive ideas from the Europeans there," Lavrov added. Lavrov also said the West's "confrontational position, a position to continue the war, does not find understanding in the current US administration, which... seeks to help eliminate the root causes of the conflict". Post-war security is a key concern for Ukraine after more than three years of Russian offensive. Moscow has long said it will not tolerate Kyiv joining NATO and has been hostile to the idea of Western troops being deployed to the war-torn country.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
What's inside Israeli plan to conquer Gaza City ?
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France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Israel approves major settlement project that would divide West Bank
Israel gave final approval Wednesday for a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank that would effectively cut the territory in two, and that Palestinians and rights groups say could destroy hopes for a future Palestinian state. Settlement development in E1, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, has been under consideration for more than two decades, but was frozen due to US pressure during previous administrations. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank to be illegal and an obstacle to peace. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a former settler leader, cast the approval as a rebuke to Western countries that announced their plans to recognise a Palestinian state in recent weeks. 'The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions,' he said on Wednesday. 'Every settlement, every neighbourhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and has vowed to maintain open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem, and the war-ravaged Gaza Strip – territories Israel seized in the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for their state. Israel's expansion of settlements is part of an increasingly dire reality for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as the world's attention focuses on the war in Gaza. There have been marked increases in attacks by settlers on Palestinians, evictions from Palestinian towns, Israeli military operations, and checkpoints that choke freedom of movement, as well as several Palestinian attacks on Israelis. More than 700,000 Israelis settlers now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The location of E1 is significant because it is one of the last geographical links between the major West Bank cities of Ramallah, in the north, and Bethlehem, in the south. The two cities are 22 kilometres (14 miles) apart, but Palestinians travelling between them must take a wide detour and pass through multiple Israeli checkpoints, spending hours on the journey. The hope was that, in an eventual Palestinian state, the region would serve as a direct link between the cities. 'The settlement in E1 has no purpose other than to sabotage a political solution,' said Peace Now, an organisation that tracks settlement expansion in the West Bank. "While the consensus among our friends in the world is to strive for peace and a two-state solution, a government that long ago lost the people's trust is undermining the national interest, and we are all paying the price.' If the process moves quickly, infrastructure work in E1 could begin in the next few months and construction of homes could start in around a year. The plan includes around 3,500 apartments that would abut the existing settlement of Maale Adumim. Smotrich also hailed the approval, during the same meeting, of 350 homes for the settlement of Ashael near Hebron. Israel's government is dominated by religious and ultranationalist politicians, like Smotrich, with close ties to the settlement movement. The finance minister has been granted Cabinet-level authority over settlement policies and vowed to double the settler population in the West Bank.
