It was improbable from the start. For months, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted he wanted to bring the hostages home from Gaza, he resisted signing a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Sustained pressure from thousands-strong marches could not get him to the signing table. But the combined pressure of the outgoing and incoming American presidents got Netanyahu to ...

An Israeli man who was held hostage by Hamas for 491 days has described how he was starved while in captivity and recalled the moment on his release from Gaza – when he found out his wife and daughters had been killed during the October 7, 2023 attacks. Eli Sharabi was released earlier this month along with Ohad Ben Ami ...

Pope Francis suffered a sudden episode of respiratory difficulty and was put on a breathing machine on Friday, according to the latest medical update from the Vatican. The episode was complicated by vomiting, some of which he aspirated, the Vatican said. Medical staff treated the aspiration issue before putting the pope on mechanical ventilation, it said. The Vatican added that ...

Twenty-five people have been arrested in a global operation over AI-generated child sexual abuse material, said Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, in a statement Friday. Operation Cumberland, which was led by Danish law enforcement, is one of the world’s first cases involving this kind of child abuse material, which Europol said made it “exceptionally challenging for investigators.” The ...

As consumers face skyrocketing egg prices, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reports an increase of people attempting to smuggle eggs across the border from Mexico. The CBP’s San Diego Field Office reported Thursday seeing a 158% increase in egg interceptions since the fiscal year of 2024. Egg prices have jumped to all-time highs due in part to an outbreak ...

Fatima Tawfeeq, 63, has lived through numerous Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank. She witnessed Israel’s takeover of the Palestinian territory in 1967 and lived through Israel’s crackdown during the first and second intifadas, the fierce Palestinian uprisings against Israeli control. But this is the first time she’s had to flee her home in Nur Shams. She says ...

A fish under a roof. A stick figure without a head. A series of lines that look like a garden rake. These symbols are part of an entirely undeciphered script from a sophisticated ancient civilization thousands of years old. And they remain an enduring mystery that has sparked heated debates, death threats to researchers, and cash prizes for the coveted ...

Western leaders scrambled to back Ukraine after Friday’s acrimonious meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky deepened the already yawning fault lines between Washington and many of its key allies. The remarkable Oval Office exchange highlights a tricky balancing act facing Western capitals since Trump’s return to office in January: maintaining steadfast support for Zelensky and Kyiv against Russian aggression, ...

The sky felt like it split over Kyiv. On a horizon where drones and airstrikes have killed 47 civilians in Ukraine in the past 10 days, superlatives rained: the most consequential moment in the war since Russia’s invasion; the ugliest personality clash — between a 48-year-old comedian turned wartime leader and a septuagenarian billionaire turned US president; the most significant ...

When Benedict XVI became the first pope to resign in 600 years it sent shockwaves through the Catholic Church. Now, after spending two weeks in hospital battling pneumonia, the speculation in the Vatican is whether his successor Pope Francis might do the same. The pope was put on a breathing machine on Friday, after suffering a sudden episode of respiratory ...