International news

The US Department of Homeland Security is sending "hundreds" more officers to Minnesota, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, after tens of thousands of people marched through Minneapolis to protest the fatal shooting of a woman by an immigration agent.

India proposes requiring smartphone makers to share source code with the government and make several software changes as part of a raft of security measures, prompting behind-the-scenes opposition from giants like Apple and Samsung.

The US military said on Saturday it carried out multiple strikes in Syria targeting ISIS as part of an operation that Washington launched in December after an attack on American personnel.

Israeli fire killed at least three Palestinians in two separate incidents across Gaza, local health authorities said, as tension rises over continued violence.

Tens of thousands of people marched through Minneapolis on Saturday to decry the fatal shooting of a woman by a US immigration agent, part of more than 1,000 rallies planned nationwide over the weekend against the federal government's deportation drive.

At least one person has died in Australia's southeast where bushfires raging for days have razed buildings, cut power to thousands of homes and burned swathes of bushland, police said on Sunday.

The US needs to own Greenland to prevent Russia or China from occupying it in the future, President Donald Trump said on Friday.

Kyiv's water and heating systems were back on after being briefly shut down amid intense cold on Saturday, as engineers scrambled to stabilise a power grid brought to the brink by a campaign of Russian strikes, including one two nights ago.

Swiss prosecutors summoned on Friday the two owners of a ski resort bar where a fire on New Year's Day killed 40 people and a local newspaper said one of the couple had been detained, as calls grow for those responsible to be held to account.

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippines has risen to four, an official said on Saturday, as rescue efforts continued for dozens who remained missing.

Thousands of firefighters battled bushfires in Australia's southeast on Saturday that have razed homes, cut power to thousands of homes and burned swathes of bushland.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he had cancelled a previously expected second wave of attacks on Venezuela following cooperation from the South American nation.

Storm Goretti battered northern Europe on Friday, knocking out power to thousands of homes, shutting schools and suspending rail services in France, Britain and Germany as heavy snow and gale-force winds compounded a week of freezing weather.

At least one person was killed and 34 others were missing after a landfill collapsed in the city of Cebu in the central Philippines late on Thursday afternoon, officials said.

US President Donald Trump has indicated on Thursday that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was coming to Washington next week.

Russian drones attacked targets in Kyiv early on Friday, killing four people, injuring at least 19 and inflicting considerable damage on dwellings and infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said.

Three people have been unaccounted for as out-of-control bushfires rage in the Australian state of Victoria, destroying homes and burning through vast swathes of bushland, authorities said on Friday.

Spanish authorities have announced on Thursday that Venezuela released prominent Venezuelan-Spanish rights activist Rocio San Miguel and four other Spaniards from prison, but local rights groups said Venezuelan prisoners had not yet been freed as promised.

A US immigration agent has shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in her car in Minneapolis on Wednesday during an immigration enforcement surge, according to local and federal officials, the latest violence in President Donald Trump's nationwide crackdown on migrants.

Israeli strikes killed at least 11 Palestinians in separate strikes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said, in what the military said came in response to a failed rocket attack in the enclave.

Laurent Vinatier, a French researcher serving a three-year prison sentence in Russia for violating Moscow's foreign agent laws, has been freed as part of a prisoner exchange, French and Russian officials said on Thursday.

The US has seized two Venezuela-linked oil tankers in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, one sailing under Russia's flag, as part of President Donald Trump's aggressive push to dictate oil flows in the Americas and force Venezuela's socialist government to become an ally.

Ukrainian officials were racing to restore power on Thursday after Russian strikes plunged two southeastern regions into near-total blackout overnight, forcing critical infrastructure to rely on reserves.

French farmers blockaded sites in Paris on Thursday in protest against a sweeping trade deal the European Union is poised to sign with South American nations and other local grievances.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US would withdraw from dozens of international and UN entities because they "operate contrary to US national interests".

The US seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker that was being shadowed by a Russian submarine on Wednesday, after pursuing it for more than two weeks across the Atlantic as part of Washington's efforts to block Venezuelan oil exports.

Electricity was restored to southwestern Berlin on Wednesday after a suspected arson attack on a power station by leftist activists caused a blackout for tens of thousands of households, the longest outage in the German capital since World War Two.

France is working with partners on a plan on how to respond should the US act on its threat to take over Greenland, a minister said on Wednesday, as Europe sought to address US President Donald Trump's ambitions in the region.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Wednesday that much progress had been made in restoring trust with Beijing, and that he had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to play a role in mediating Seoul's efforts to engage North Korea.

Western Europe braced for more snow and ice on Wednesday, with the first named storm of the year hitting the continent's Atlantic coast.

Australia’s south sweltered through a brutal heatwave on Wednesday that delivered temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius in some cities, triggering health warnings, straining power grids and causing bushfires to flare.

A 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the Philippines' southern islands on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, and there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Israel and Syria agreed during US-mediated talks in Paris to set up a communication mechanism to coordinate on security, intelligence and commercial issues, the three countries said in a joint statement released on Tuesday by the State Department.

Venezuela's main opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has vowed to return home quickly, praising US President Donald Trump for toppling her enemy Nicolas Maduro and declaring her movement ready to win a free election.

Security guarantees for Ukraine will include 'binding commitments' to support the country 'in the case of a future armed attack by Russia in order to restore peace', a draft statement from the "Coalition of Willing" of Kyiv's allies, showed on Tuesday.

Toppled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of narco-terrorism after US President Donald Trump's stunning capture of him rattled world leaders and left officials in Caracas scrambling to respond.

At least 14 people were killed after being swept away by flash floods in Indonesia's North Sulawesi, an official said on Tuesday, as the search for the missing continued.

The Swiss bar where 40 people were killed in a fire at the New Year had not been subjected to any annual safety inspections since 2019, the mayor of the ski resort of Crans-Montana said on Tuesday.

Nestle is recalling specific batches of its SMA, BEBA and NAN infant formula and follow-on formula in countries across Europe due to the potential presence of a toxin that could lead to nausea, vomiting and abdominal cramps.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has raised concerns about greater instability in Venezuela after the US capture of President Nicolas Maduro, while the US said it does not plan to occupy the Latin American country.

President Donald Trump does not plan to occupy or nation-build in Venezuela, Republican US lawmakers said on Monday after attending a briefing by top officials on the administration's policy toward the South American nation.

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 hit the western Chugoku region of Japan on Tuesday, followed by a series of sizeable aftershocks, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

US-mediated talks between Syria and Israel have resumed after an interruption of several months, Syria's state news agency SANA reported on Monday, with Damascus seeking withdrawal of Israeli troops from territory seized after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

Pressure was building for answers on Monday from the investigation into a New Year bar fire in a Swiss ski resort that killed 40 people, after authorities said they had now identified all the victims, most of whom were teenagers.

Snowfall disrupted air, train and road traffic in the Netherlands on Monday, as hundreds of flights were cancelled and trains around Amsterdam came to a standstill.

An overnight Russian air attack on Kyiv and its region killed two people, Ukraine’s authorities saidon Monday, in what appeared to be the first reported deaths in Russian strikes on the Ukrainian capital this year.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened military action against Colombia's government, telling reporters that such an operation "sounds good to me".

The Cuban government said on Sunday that 32 of its citizens were killed during the US raid on Venezuela to extract President Nicolas Maduro for prosecution in the United States.

At least 30 people were killed and several others abducted when gunmen attacked a market in Nigeria's Niger State, police said on Sunday.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was in a New York detention centre on Sunday after President Donald Trump ordered an audacious US raid to capture the South American leader and take control of the country and its vast oil reserves.

Teenagers as young as 14 and 15 were among those who died in the New Year's Eve bar fire that killed 40 people in Switzerland, police said on Sunday, as the Pope offered his sympathies to the victims and their families.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung began a state visit to China on Sunday, hoping to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula hours after rival North Korea launched ballistic missiles.

At least 25 people have died and 14 others remain missing after a boat carrying dozens of passengers capsized in Yobe State, northeastern Nigeria, officials said on Sunday.

The Italian airport of Bergamo Orio-al-Serio, a Ryanair hub for flights to Milan, halted flights on Saturday evening due to technical issues with the landing guidance system and poor visibility, leaving thousands stranded overnight.

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, has called on all parties to exercise restraint and avoid escalation in Venezuela.

The US has struck Venezuela and captured its President Nicolas Maduro, who has been taken out of the country, President Donald Trump said on Saturday.

Russian missiles struck a multi-storey apartment building in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine on Friday, leaving the building in ruins and killing at least two people and injuring about 25 more, officials said.

A powerful earthquake shook southern Mexico on Friday morning, damaging roads and hospitals and briefly interrupting President Claudia Sheinbaum's first press conference of the new year.

The US Justice Department said on Friday it thwarted an alleged plan by a North Carolina man to carry out an IS-inspired attack using knives and hammers on New Year’s Eve.

Investigators on Friday set about the painful task of identifying the burned bodies of a blaze that engulfed a crowded bar and killed around 40 people at a New Year's Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.

A hiker in Colorado has died in the state's first suspected fatal mountain lion attack in over 25 years, authorities said.

At least nine people have died and more than 200 have been hospitalised in the central Indian city of Indore after a diarrhoea outbreak that officials said was linked to contaminated drinking water, according to a lawmaker and local health authorities.

Several people were killed during unrest in Iran, Iranian media and rights groups said on Thursday, as the biggest protests to hit the country for three years over worsening economic conditions sparked violence in several provinces.

Democrat Zohran Mamdani became New York City's mayor on Thursday, vowing during a public swearing-in ceremony on the steps of City Hall to enact an aggressive agenda aimed at making the nation's largest city more affordable for working people.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's daughter, Ju Ae, who is likely being prepared as his successor, accompanied her parents on her first public visit to the Kumsusan mausoleum to pay respects to former leaders, state media photos published on Friday showed.

Russia and Ukraine accused each other of targeting civilians over the New Year, with Moscow reporting a deadly strike on a hotel in territory it occupies in southern Ukraine while Kyiv said there had been another broad attack on its power supplies.

Dozens of people were killed and 100 injured, most of them seriously, after fire tore through a crowded New Year's Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, officials said on Thursday.

Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City mayor in the first minutes of the New Year at the historic City Hall subway station, with his wife Rama Duwaji standing by his side.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his administration was removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland but he added in his social media post that federal forces will "come back" if crime rates go up.

As Wednesday turned to Thursday, people around the world said goodbye to a sometimes challenging 2025 and expressed hopes for the new year to come.

President Donald Trump's advisers held talks on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and national security advisers from the UK, France and Germany to discuss the next steps in ending Russia's war in Ukraine, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used his annual televised New Year's address to rally his troops fighting in Ukraine, saying he believed in them and in victory in a war that he has framed as part of an existential struggle with the West.

Russia's defence ministry released video footage on Wednesday of what it said was a downed drone at a briefing intended to show Ukraine tried this week to attack a presidential residence and challenge Kyiv's denials that such an attack took place.

Thailand has released 18 Cambodian soldiers on Wednesday that it had detained since July under the renewed ceasefire the two countries agreed on the weekend to end a border conflict, Cambodian and Thai authorities said.

Mali and Burkina Faso have said they are imposing a travel ban on US citizens in response to an equivalent measure announced by the Trump administration earlier this month.

Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa region, damaging residential buildings and infrastructure and injuring four people, including three children, regional authorities said on Wednesday.

Train companies said services between Britain and continental Europe would resume on Wednesday but warned of further disruption after technical failures suspended travel the day before and left some passengers stuck on trains all night.

A train driver has been killed and 40 more people injured on Tuesday after two trains collided head-on on the railway leading to the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, the Andean nation's top tourist site that draws well over 1 million visitors each year.

Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières expects to be barred from operating in Gaza once it misses Wednesday's deadline to comply with new registration rules for relief agencies that Israel says are meant to prevent Hamas from exploiting international aid.

Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of the 35th US president, John F. Kennedy, has died on Tuesday at 35 years-old after revealing in a November essay that she had been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.

Britain, Canada, France and others have stated that the humanitarian situation in Gaza has worsened again and is of serious concern in a joint statement on Tuesday that also called on Israel to take urgent action.

China has fired rockets into waters off Taiwan on Tuesday, showcased new assault ships and dismissed prospects of US and allied intervention to block any future attack by Beijing to take control of the island in its most extensive war games to date.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that a Ukrainian drone attack on a presidential residence in the Novgorod region would toughen Russia's position on a possible peace deal to end the fighting.

Turkish police detained 357 suspects in a nationwide operation against ISIS on Tuesday, the interior minister said, a day after three police officers and six rebels were killed in a gunfight in northwest Turkey.

Israel has defended its formal recognition of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, but several countries at the United Nations questioned whether the move aimed to relocate Palestinians from Gaza or to establish military bases.

Khaleda Zia, who became Bangladesh's first female prime minister in 1991 and went on to develop a bitter rivalry with Sheikh Hasina as they spent decades trading power, died on Tuesday after a long illness at 80 years old.

Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of trying to attack President Vladimir Putin's residence and vowed retaliation, providing no evidence for a claim Kyiv dismissed as baseless and aimed at derailing arduous peace talks.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US had "hit" an area in Venezuela where boats are loaded with drugs, marking the first known time Washington has carried out land operations in Venezuela since a pressure campaign began against President Nicolas Maduro's government.

Thailand and Cambodia plan to rebuild mutual trust and gradually consolidate a ceasefire after weeks of border clashes, Beijing said in a communique with the two countries following talks in southwestern China.

Three Turkish police officers and six ISIS fighters were killed in a gunfight in northwest Turkey on Monday, the Interior Minister said, a week after more than 100 suspected ISIS members were detained for planning Christmas and New Year attacks.

A fire at a retirement home in the city of Manado on Indonesia's on Sulawesi island has killed 16 people, a local police official was quoted as saying on Monday by state news agency Antara.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were "getting a lot closer, maybe very close" to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, while acknowledging that the fate of the Donbas region remains a key unresolved issue.

China staged live-fire drills around Taiwan on Monday, deploying troops, warships, fighter jets and artillery for its "Justice Mission 2025" exercises, as the island scrambled soldiers and showcased US-made hardware to rehearse repelling an attack.

Mexican authorities said on Sunday that at least 13 people were killed after ‌an Interoceanic train derailed in the southern state of Oaxaca.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday has apologised to the families of the 179 people who died in a Jeju Air crash a year ago, vowing to reveal the truth behind the worst aircraft accident on the country's soil.

US President Donald Trump is expected to push for progress in the stalled ceasefire in Gaza when he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday for talks that will include Israel’s concerns over Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran.

The Council of the League of Arab States has strongly condemned Israel’s recognition of the Somaliland region on December 26, in a session chaired by the UAE in Cairo on Sunday.

China on Sunday congratulated Cambodia on reaching a ceasefire with Thailand after weeks of deadly border fighting, as officials from the three countries prepared to open a two-day meeting in southwestern China.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump will meet in Florida on Sunday to hammer out a plan to end the war in Ukraine, but face major differences on crucial issues and provocations from Russian air attacks.

Overshadowed by civil war and doubts about the credibility of the polls, voters in Myanmar were casting their ballots in a general election starting on Sunday, the first since a military coup toppled the last civilian government in 2021.

At least 15 people were killed and 19 injured after a passenger bus plunged into a ravine on the Inter-American Highway in western Guatemala, authorities said on Saturday.

Shamshad Akhtar, the first and only woman to lead Pakistan's central bank and a two-time caretaker finance minister, died at 71, the finance ministry said on Saturday.

Thailand and Cambodia agreed on Saturday to halt weeks of fierce border clashes, the worst fighting in years between the Southeast Asian countries that has included fighter jets sorties, exchange of rocket fire and artillery barrages.

A winter storm packing a frosty mix of snow and ice bore down on the US Northeast early on Saturday, disrupting post-holiday weekend airline traffic and prompting officials in New York and New Jersey to issue weather emergency declarations.

Russia attacked Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones on Saturday, ahead of what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said would be a crucial meeting with US President Donald Trump to work out a deal to end nearly four years of war.

The 22.13-km Tianshan Shengli Tunnel, the world's longest expressway tunnel, officially opened to traffic, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Malaysia's former premier Najib Razak was jailed on Friday for a further 15 years and fined $2.8 billion for power abuse and money laundering in the biggest trial of the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, a ruling that could have big political ramifications.

The United States has carried out a strike against IS targets in northwest Nigeria at the request of Nigeria's government, President Donald Trump and the US military said on Thursday, claiming the group had been targeting Christians in the region.

Israel became the first country to formally recognise the self-declared Republic of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state on Friday - a decision that could reshape regional dynamics and test Somalia’s long standing opposition to its secession.

Eight people were killed in an explosion at a mosque of the Alawite minority sect in the Syrian city of Homs on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that he spoke with US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner for about an hour on how to end the war with Russia.

The White House will unveil new details on President Donald Trump's planned East Wing ballroom during a hearing early next month, according to a federal commission tasked with reviewing the project.

The Arab Parliament has welcomed the holding of direct municipal elections in Somalia, considered to be the first in the country since 1969.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting Chairman Tarique Rahman returned from nearly 17 years in exile on Thursday, a homecoming the party hopes will energise supporters with Rahman poised to be the top contender for prime minister in February.

Syria will start swapping old banknotes for new ones from January 1, 2026, Central Bank Governor Abdelkader Husrieh said on Thursday, under a plan to replace Assad-era notes to try to strengthen the currency's value.

At least 5 were killed and 35 others injured when a bomber detonated an explosive inside a mosque in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria's Borno state, during evening prayers, police said.

A helicopter has crashed on Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, killing five people, the civil aviation authority said on Thursday, while local media reported that the aircraft was on a medical rescue mission.

Fourteen countries including Britain, Canada, and Germany have condemned the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, saying they violated international law and risked fuelling instability.

The US Justice Department has found more than a million more documents potentially tied to convicted American financier Jeffrey Epstein, delaying a full release for weeks while officials redact details to protect victims, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

Russia plans to put a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade to supply its lunar space programme and a joint Russian-Chinese research station, as major powers rush to explore the earth's only natural satellite.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck Taiwan's southeastern coastal county of Taitung on Wednesday, the island's weather administration said, although there were no immediate reports of damage.

A pair of explosions and a fire, apparently sparked by leaking gas, has ripped through a nursing home near Philadelphia on Tuesday, killing at least two people and prompting an intense search for victims in a collapsed portion of the building, officials said.

A private jet carrying the chief of staff of Libya’s army reported an electrical failure and requested an emergency landing shortly before crashing near Ankara, Turkey’s head of communications has announced on Wednesday.

At least six people, including a 2-year-old burn victim, have died when a small Mexican Navy aircraft crashed on Monday off the Texas coast near Galveston during a humanitarian mission to transfer the child for treatment in the United States.

Australia's most populous state has passed sweeping new gun and anti-terror rules on Wednesday following the mass shooting on Bondi Beach, tightening firearm ownership, banning public display of terror symbols and strengthening police power to curb protests.

At least five people died when a small Mexican Navy aircraft crashed on Monday off the Texas coast near Galveston during a mission for an organisation that helps child burn victims, including transferring them for treatment in the US.

Two workers have been killed due to an outburst of methane and rock masses at the Pniowek coal mine in southern Poland, owner JSW said on Monday evening.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said on Monday he will discuss Iran's nuclear activities during his visit next week with US President Donald Trump.

US President Trump announced plans for a new "Trump class" of battleships on Monday, marking the start of an expanded naval buildup and signaling increased scrutiny of defence contractors over production delays and cost overruns.

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed on Monday to hold a December 24 meeting of defence officials towards resuming a months-old ceasefire, as fierce border fighting between them entered a third week with at least 80 people killed so far.

US President Donald Trump named Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry on Sunday as his special envoy to Greenland, drawing renewed criticism from Denmark and Greenland over Washington's interest in the mineral-rich Arctic island.

Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, will be boarding Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity and blasting off to space on Sunday.

Singapore is reviewing penalties for violent offences following an outcry over a 12-day prison sentence for a student who strangled his girlfriend until she blacked out.