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Russia reclaims Kursk foothold

Russia has pushed Ukrainian forces from one of their last remaining footholds in Russia’s Kursk region, officials say. According to Russia’s Defence Ministry, its forces took control of the village of Oleshnya, on the border with Ukraine. “Units of the ‘North’ military group have liberated the village of Oleshnya in the Kursk region during active offensive operations,” the ministry said in a statement. The claim was unable to be immediately verified and there was no immediate response from Ukrainian officials.

Asia

Japanese warships dock amid US fears of Chinese use

Two Japanese naval ships have docked at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, whose recently completed Chinese-funded upgrade has heightened US concerns that it will be used as a strategic outpost for China’s navy in the Gulf of Thailand. The visit by the two minesweepers, the 141-meter (463-foot) -long Bungo and the 67-meter (219-foot) -long Etajima, part of the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force, marks the first foreign navy visit since the base’s expansion project was completed earlier this month.

Middle East

US attacks crippling Houthis

A US airstrike on an important oil port held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has killed more than 70 people and wounded many others, a major escalation in the military campaign President Donald Trump has launched against the faction which one expert says is crippling the Houthi’s strategic options.

Anniversary

Clinton returns to Oklahoma City for bombing memorial

Thirty years after the deadliest homegrown attack in US history, former President Bill Clinton will return to Oklahoma City on Saturday to remember the people who were killed and comfort those affected by the bombing. Clinton was president on April 19, 1995, when a truck bomb exploded, destroying a nine-story federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. He will deliver the keynote address at a remembrance ceremony near the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum.

Japan

11 hours ago

Envoy says tariff deal will get done

The new US ambassador to Japan is optimistic that his country and its key Asian ally will reach a deal in their ongoing tariff negotiations. George Glass, a prominent businessman known for his background in finance, investment banking and technology, began his new job as Washington and Tokyo are negotiating President Donald Trump’s tariff measures, which have triggered worldwide concern about their impact on the economy and global trade. ”I’m extremely optimistic ... that a deal will be get done,“ Glass told reporters after landing at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.

11 hours ago

Lebanon

Hezbollah defies calls to disarm

The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group says its fighters will not disarm as long as Israeli troops remain in southern Lebanon. Naim Kassem addressed supporters in a speech broadcast on Hezbollah’s television station. Kassem took over Hezbollah after Israeli airstrikes killed longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, his successor Hashem Safieddine and other top Hezbollah figures last year, decimating the group’s leadership.

Central America

Senator seeks freedom for wrongly deported man

The dispute over the wrongful deportation and imprisonment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia “is not only about one man” but also about Donald Trump’s disregard of the American judicial system, says a senator who met Abrego Garcia in El Salvador. Speaking to reporters just after landing back in the United States, Senator Chris Van Hollen offered few answers about what will come next in Abrego Garcia’s case. But the Maryland Democrat said that he and others will keep speaking out after the Trump administration defied court orders to facilitate his return to the United States and insisted that he would stay in El Salvador — even as officials acknowledged an “error” in deporting him.

Migration

15 hours ago

US seeks to make deportations more efficient – ‘like Amazon’

Amid rural Louisiana’s crawfish farms, towering pine trees and cafes serving po’boys, nearly 7,000 people are waiting at immigration detention centres to learn whether they will be expelled from the United States. If President Donald Trump’s administration has its way, the capacity to hold tens of thousands more migrants will soon be added around the country as the US seeks an explosive expansion of what is already the world’s largest immigration detention system. Trump’s effort to conduct mass deportations as promised in the 2024 campaign represents a potential bonanza for private prison companies and a challenge to the government agencies responsible for the orderly expulsion of immigrants.

15 hours ago

China

16 hours ago

Cambodia and China sign deal to build huge canal

Cambodia and China have signed a $US1.2 billion deal to finance an ambitious canal project that aims to boost trade efficiency by linking a branch of the Mekong River near Phnom Penh to a port on the Gulf of Thailand. The deal to fund the Funan Techo Canal was signed during the state visit to Cambodia of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Cambodian government agency heading the project said in a news release. Xi has returned home after a three-nation Southeast Asian tour that also included Vietnam and Malaysia.

16 hours ago

Canada

18 hours ago

Carney: US relationship ‘will not go back to where it was’

Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the relationship Canada has had with the US for the past years has fundamentally changed because of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and that the focus is on rebuilding a new relationship. “It will not fully...

18 hours ago

News

19 hours ago

Trump releases RFK papers

About 10,000 pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy have been released, including handwritten notes by the gunman, who said the Democratic presidential candidate “must be disposed of” and acknowledged an...

19 hours ago

In Depth

20 hours ago

Strange sell-off of dollar raises threat of lost confidence

Among the threats tariffs pose to the US economy, none may be as strange as the sell-off in the dollar. Currencies rise and fall all the time because of inflation fears, central bank moves and other factors. But economists worry that the recent drop...

20 hours ago

Italy

British tourist among four killed in cable car plunge

Three tourists were among four people who died when a cable car crashed south of Naples, including a British and an Israeli woman, an Italian official says. Only two of the three foreign victims have been identified since the accident on Thursday, said Marco De Rosa, the spokesperson for the mayor of Vico Equense.

Israel

Soldiers’ protest letters unveil rift over ongoing war

When nearly 1,000 Israeli Air Force veterans signed an open letter last week calling for an end to the war in Gaza, the military responded immediately, saying it would dismiss any active reservist who signed the document. But in the days since, thousands of retired and reservist soldiers across the military have signed similar letters of support.

History

Glimpse inside Maine’s hidden ‘Sistine Chapel’

From the outside, it looks like any other New England church building — a boxy, white structure with a single steeple surrounded by an old stone wall, set against rolling hills and pine forest. Inside, though, the South Solon Meeting House has a secret unknown even to some who drive through the tiny Maine town every day.

Diplomacy

Vance to meet with Meloni, Modi

Vice President JD Vance and his family have taken off on Air Force Two for a trip to to Italy, and later India, to meet with leaders and visit cultural sites. Vance’s office said his trip, lasting until April 24, will include visits to Rome and New...

Canada

Carney looks within for free trade

Prime Minister Mark Carney says eliminating trade barriers within Canada would benefit Canadians far more than US President Donald Trump can ever take away with his trade war as he made his case to retain power at the last debate ahead of the April 28 vote. Carney has set a goal of free trade within the country’s 10 provinces and three territories by July 1. Canada has long had interprovincial trade barriers. “We can give ourselves far more than Donald Trump can ever take away,“ Carney said.

Education

Alabama moves to mandate Ten Commandments

Alabama lawmakers have approved a slew of bills that would expand the use of Christian texts in public schools, and allow chaplains to volunteer as school counsellors. Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter described the bills as “common sense” while members of the Democratic caucus condemned the legislation as “a waste of taxpayer money” that “won’t bring down the cost of eggs”. Alabama joins at least 20 states that have considered legislation in 2025 that would mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools or state buildings, according to an Associated Press analysis using the bill-tracking software Plural.