Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Saturday that mediators hope all parties will deal positively with the principles of a Gaza ceasefire proposal that U.S. President Joe Biden laid out on Friday. Al Thani made the remarks during a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Qatar's state news agency said. The principles in the ceasefire proposal "include the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas in Gaza, the release of detainees including women, the elderly, and the wounded in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and the entry of aid into the strip," Al Thani added.
Boeing is preparing to launch its Starliner spacecraft on a key test flight with two NASA astronauts onboard, following a canceled attempt and many other delays and setbacks.
NASA and Boeing were forced once again to call off the first crewed launch of the company’s Starliner spacecraft.
Tens of thousands of Hungarians rallied at a "peace march" Saturday called by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is increasingly stoking fears of a war between the West and Russia he blames on Brussels and NATO, ahead of EU elections next week.In recent weeks, Orban has ramped up his rhetoric, accusing Brussels and NATO of fuelling the war in Ukraine by providing support.
Dozens of students protesting the war in Gaza walked out of the University of Chicago’s commencement Saturday as the school withheld the diplomas of four seniors over their involvement with a pro-Palestinian encampment. Four graduating seniors, including Youssef Haweh, were informed by email in recent days that their degrees would be withheld pending a disciplinary process related to complaints about the encampment, according to student group UChicago United for Palestine. Students have walked out of commencements at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and others as protest camps have sprung up across the U.S. and in Europe in recent weeks.
In 2021, the Biden administration turned down a meeting request with El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele on a trip to the U.S. capital, snubbing the self-proclaimed “world's coolest dictator” for fear a photo op would embolden his attempts to expand his power base. A high level delegation led by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and senior White House and State Department officials attended Bukele's inauguration in San Salvador on Saturday to a second term. The visit — unthinkable until recently — caps a quiet, 180-degree shift in U.S. policy toward the tiny Central American nation of 6 million that reflects how the Biden administration's criticisms of Bukele's strong-armed governing style have been overtaken by more urgent concerns tied to immigration — a key issue in this year's U.S. presidential election.
Boeing called off its Starliner launch attempt that was aiming to carry veteran NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station.
NASA said the Boeing Starliner launch planned for Saturday afternoon has been scrubbed. It's the latest in several launch delays for the spacecraft.
A Hezbollah-affiliated medical organisation said 16 children were wounded Saturday in an Israeli air strike on the south Lebanon town of Siddikine.Aged between four and 14, the wounded children were taken for treatment in hospitals around the region, a source in the Islamic Health Committee told AFP. Lebanon's state-run national News Agency said the strike on the town inland from the coastal city of Tyre was one of several conducted by Israel on Saturday.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alliance could double its parliamentary seats in the prosperous south of the country, in a sign that he can widen his appeal even after 10 years in office. Results of the six-week national election will be out on June 4 and the alliance led by Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to win easily, exit polls showed after voting ended on Saturday. This would make him only the second Indian prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to win three straight terms.
The first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spaceship was dramatically called off Saturday with just under four minutes left on the launch countdown clock, for reasons that aren't yet clear. Starliner is poised to become just the sixth type of US-built spaceship to fly NASA astronauts, following the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs in the 1960s and 1970s, the Space Shuttle from 1981 to 2011, and SpaceX's Crew Dragon from 2020.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that the conditions for ending the country’s war in Gaza “have not changed,” raising questions over a peace proposal laid out by US President Joe Biden, which he said Israel submitted.
Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the country's leading opposition party, has been hit by a major cyberattack and has taken parts of its IT-infrastructure off the grid as a precautionary measure, authorities said on Saturday. "There was a serious cyber attack on the CDU network," Germany's Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding security authorities were working intensively to fend off and investigate the attack, and prevent further damage.
As the storm tore apart their home, Tonette Jackson’s last request of her husband was to take care of their children and grandchildren.
Israeli forces hammered Rafah in southern Gaza with tanks and artillery Saturday, hours after US President Joe Biden said Israel was offering a new roadmap towards a full ceasefire.In his first major address outlining a possible end to the nearly eight-month war, the US president said Israel's three-stage offer would begin with a six-week phase that would see Israeli forces withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza.
The beloved eagles are perched 75-feet-high over their nest, damaged by a violent storm system that ripped through North Texas on Tuesday.
Members and supporters of Thailand’s LGBT community celebrated ahead of the expected passage of a marriage equality law.
A crowd of tens of thousands gathered in Hungary’s capital on Saturday in a show of strength behind Prime Minister Viktor Orbán a week ahead of European Parliament elections, a contest he has cast as an existential turning point between peace in Europe and a world war. The demonstration, dubbed by organizers as a “peace march,” brought Orbán’s supporters from all over Hungary and neighboring countries, who marched along the Danube River in Budapest from the city's iconic Chain Bridge onto Margaret Island, waving flags and signs reading “No War.” Orbán, whose 14 years in power make him the European Union’s longest serving leader, has focused his campaign for the June 9 ballot on the war in Ukraine, portraying his domestic and international opponents as warmongers who seek to involve Hungary directly in the conflict.
Netanyahu cast doubt on a key part of a truce proposal U.S. President Joe Biden said Israel itself had made.
Voters in Iceland are choosing a president on Saturday, selecting from a field of 12 people, including a former prime minister. The candidates are vying to replace outgoing President Gudni Th. The winner will be the seventh president of Iceland since the founding of the republic.