War latest news. US, Hamas response on truce not encouraging. Biden v. Arizona Supreme Court on abortion

The Arizona Supreme Court decision is the 'result of the extreme agenda of Republicans who are committed to ripping away women's freedoms'. This was stated by Joe Biden commenting on the decision to reinstate an 1864 law banning abortion in almost all cases. 'The vice president and I stand with the majority of Americans who support women's right to choose. We will continue to fight," Biden added.

Il Presidente Usa Joe Biden (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Arizona Supreme Court found the 1864 law banning abortion in almost all cases, except for the need to save the life of the mother, to be "applicable". With four votes in favour and two against, the Arizona justices ruled that the almost total ban is enforceable given the lack of federal or state legislative intervention since the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn the abortion law. The state's attorney general, Democrat Kris Mayes, called the court's decision 'unconscionable' and an 'affront to liberty', not least because the 160-year-old law dates back to a time when 'Arizona was not a state, there was a war of secession, and women could not vote'. While finding the provision applicable, the Arizona Supreme Court is holding it in abeyance for the time being pending further opinions from other courts in the state. The judges' decision takes on even greater significance in light of Donald Trump's expressed position that it will be up to the states to legislate on pregnancy terminations.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reiterated his intention to transfer to Ruanda the first asylum seekers who arrived illegally on British shores by the end of spring, thus implementing the controversial plan reached between London and Kigali. The statement came at the end of a meeting today in Downing Street between the African country's president, Paul Kagame, and the Conservative prime minister.

Il Primo Ministro inglese Rishi Sunak e il Presidente del Rwanda Paul Kagame. REUTERS

"We know that the presence of Israelis in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is not justified for economic reasons and that they are there to carry out security and military work, which Tehran considers a threat to Iran and believes should not take place": this was stated by the naval commander of the Guardians of the Revolution, Alireza Tangsiri, quoted by the Isna news agency. According to him, "it is not the right decision on the part of the neighbouring country to bring Israel into the region, because the Israelis have no place in the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Oman". "We can close the Strait of Hormuz at any time and we do not intend to do so. But if the enemy approaches Iran, then we will decide on that," Tangsiri added. The UAE has normalised its relations with Israel since 2020, as part of the Abrahamic Accords, while also maintaining good relations with Iran.

The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, sent an indirect message to Elon Musk, owner of the social media company X, after the billionaire's attacks on Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes. "Today we have people who do not believe that deforestation and fires harm the Earth and do not take seriously what it means to preserve life on the planet. There are even billionaires who try to build rockets, travel in orbit, see if there is space out there when they should instead learn to live and use their money to help preserve the planet, to improve people's lives," he said. A few hours earlier Musk had called Moraes a 'dictator' for blocking the profiles of former president Jair Bolsonaro's supporters on X, accusing the judge of keeping Lula 'on a leash'.

Il Presidente del Brasile Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

The European Parliament's International Trade Committee approved, by a large majority, the provisional agreement reached yesterday evening with the Council presidency to extend for one year the suspension of import duties on agri-food products arriving from Ukraine. The plenary assembly will decide on 24 April and it will then be up to the Council to give the final green light to allow the regulation to enter into force at the beginning of June.

Compared to the existing legislation, the introduction of an 'emergency brake' (de facto reinstatement of ordinary duties) in the event of an increase in imports above the average calculated over a reference period from the second half of 2021 until the end of 2023 was agreed. The extension of the reference period to the second half of 2021, which makes it easier to activate the clause, had been requested by the Member States on 27 March. The 'emergency brake' will only be triggered for a list of sensitive products that includes poultry, eggs, sugar, maize, oats, semolina and honey. Therefore, the Europarliament's request to include soft wheat and barley in the list did not pass.

Attacked by anti-abortion hawks, such as his friend and ally Lindsey Graham, for his Solomonic statement on abortion, in which he merely referred everything back to the states without taking a position on a federal ban, Donald Trump retorts by recalling how it was the overly rigid positions on abortion that caused the negative results for the Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections. "Ending Roe v. Wade was, according to all legal experts, a great thing, but sometimes with great things come difficulties," the former president wrote on Truth Social, referring to the Supreme Court ruling, for which he boasts of being "primarily responsible" with the 3 conservative justices he appointed, that struck down the constitutional right to abortion, thus triggering laws banning or restricting abortion in dozens of Republican-led states. "A lot of good Republicans lost elections because of this, and people like Lindsey Graham, who insists, are providing Democrats with the House, the Senate, and maybe even the presidency of their dreams," he added, referring to the fact that Democrats will be able, as they did two years ago, to use the threat to abortion rights to push women and moderates to vote for them.

The Russian Investigative Committee claims to have opened an investigation into alleged 'financing of terrorist activities' alleging that 'money to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia and abroad' has 'come through commercial organisations, including the Ukrainian oil and gas company Burisma Holdings'. This is a company in which the son of US President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, sat on the board of directors. Moscow also seems to point the finger at unspecified 'senior officials of the US and NATO countries'.

Iran is operating a clandestine smuggling route in the Middle East to deliver weapons to Palestinians in the West Bank. The New York Times reports this, citing American, Israeli and Iranian officials. The aim is to foment unrest against Israel by flooding the area with as many weapons as possible. The operation fuels fears that Tehran wants to turn the West Bank into the next flashpoint in the shadow war between Israel and Iran.

Among the proposals for an agreement in Gaza is the return of up to 150,000 displaced Palestinians from south to north Gaza. The Wall Street Journal (Wsj) wrote this, citing officials familiar with the Cairo talks who also confirmed the six-week truce in exchange for 40 hostages and 900 Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails. "We are not optimistic," one of the two told the Wsj warning of progress in the negotiations.

The US and its G7 allies may need more than $10 trillion to rearm. This is the calculation of Bloomberg Economics based on the analysis of Western security officials who claim that military spending may have to match that of the Cold War days, amounting to 4% of GDP to realise the alliance's plans. A rearmament race that could trigger a series of difficult decisions for Western governments. Last year, says Bloomberg, global defence spending reached a record $2.2 trillion.

"The Ukrainian armed forces shelled a settlement in the Russian region of Bryansk, killing a woman and a child and wounding three others," Governor Alexander Bogomaz reported, as reported by Tass. "Ukrainian terrorists fired artillery at the peaceful population of the Klimovo settlement. They hit the very centre of the settlement. Unfortunately, a woman and a child were killed. According to initial information, three civilians were wounded. They are now receiving medical assistance,' he said on his Telegram channel.

Nearly 400 bodies have been recovered from around Gaza's largest hospital, Al Shifa, after Israeli forces withdrew from the area last week, the Gaza Civil Defence organisation said, quoted by Sky News. The organisation's spokesman Mahmoud Basal told CNN that the total does not include people buried in the hospital grounds and that workers are still trying to recover the bodies buried at al Shifa. For Hamas, there are "dozens" of bodies under the ground and sand. A mission led by the World Health Organisation is currently in the vicinity of the hospital

Israel has completed "an extensive exercise" on the northern border with Lebanon involving the 146th Division, forces from the Navy, Air Force, Police and First Aid Services. According to the military spokesperson - quoted by the media - "various scenarios from defending the area, to evacuating the wounded under fire and those of assault and attack" were implemented. "The IDF," he said, "continues its preparation to be ready for all enemy threats to strike the citizens of Israel and its territory.

An extraordinary meeting of the 35-country board of the UN Nuclear Security Organisation (NSA) will be held today. The focus of the meeting will be the drone attacks on the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Rbc Ukraina reports.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez begins a tour on Friday for a series of meetings with European leaders to "share concern about the situation in Gaza and the need to promote the recognition of Palestine as a state". This was announced today by government spokeswoman Pilar Alegria at a press conference at the end of today's Council of Ministers. The first two stops will be in Norway and Ireland, where the Spanish Prime Minister will meet his counterparts from the two countries, while on Monday 15 April he is scheduled to meet the Prime Minister of Portugal, Luis Montenegro, in his first official trip abroad, to the Moncloa Palace in Madrid. On Tuesday, Sanchez will be in Slovenia and "later" will meet the Belgian prime minister, Alexander de Croo, the rotating president of the European Union, according to Alegria. "Our objective is clear: to promote the recognition of Palestine as a state at a key moment in the conflict. We want to curb the humanitarian disaster that is unfolding in Gaza and contribute to the start as soon as possible of a political peace process that leads to the materialisation of the two-state solution," the government spokeswoman indicated.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. (Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP)

The US sent arms and ammunition seized from Iran to Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's state visit to China will be in 2024. This was announced by the Russian Foreign Ministry, confirming rumours circulating in the media so far. This was reported by Tass.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 'was informed by the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant of the drone attack that occurred today at the plant's training centre adjacent to the site. The reported explosion is consistent with the observations of the IAEA team. This time there is no direct threat to nuclear safety, but this latest incident once again highlights an extremely serious situation', said the Agency's director, Rafael Grossi, as reported by the IAEA on X.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), based in Strasbourg, has ruled in favour of the more than 2,000 members of the Swiss Senior Women for Climate Protection association, which had accused the Swiss government of violating their human rights by not working fast enough to tackle climate change. This is the first time the ECHR has ruled on measures taken against global warming. The ruling is binding and could influence the law in the 46 European member states of the Council of Europe

Following a series of targeted missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure by Russia in recent weeks, Ukraine's energy supply suffered significant damage. In response to this crisis, the EU rapidly mobilised emergency energy assistance to Ukraine.

In response to Ukraine's request for assistance, Austria, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands offered 157 power generators of various sizes through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. To further strengthen Ukraine's energy infrastructure, the EU also deployed 10 large-capacity (1 MW) power generators from its strategic rescEU stockpile, with a financial value of EUR 3.57 million. Each of these powerful 1 MW generators has the capacity to supply electricity to a medium-sized hospital in emergency conditions.

Una centrale termica ucraina danneggiata da un raid russo. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo

The dengue emergency continues its trail of cases and deaths in Brazil. Infections exceed 3 million and in the first 13 weeks of 2024 the country has already surpassed the historical annual record of deaths from dengue fever. This was reported by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The report updated yesterday indicated 1,116 confirmed deaths caused by the disease, never so many since 2000. And in 2023 there had been a total of just over 1,000 deaths from dengue. Positive signs seem to be coming from the epidemiological trend. According to the Brazilian government, in fact, 'in most regions of the country the peak of contagions has already been passed. Eight of the 27 states show a consolidated downward trend and in another 12 a trend towards stability'.

- Contacts between the presidents of Russia and China, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, are "in the planning stage", there is "awareness of their feasibility and necessity given the high level of friendly relations" between Moscow and Beijing, but "for now" it is "premature to specify the timing", Putin's spokesman Dmitri Peskov said in response to a question about a possible trip by Putin to China in May. This was reported by the Ria Novosti news agency.

- The United Kingdom, the US's historic number one ally, is preparing for all eventualities in view of the upcoming overseas presidential elections. This is confirmed by the surprise stop by Lord David Cameron, Foreign Minister in Rishi Sunak's Tory government, in Florida in recent hours to see Donald Trump before official meetings in Washington, as part of a visit to the US that has been ongoing since yesterday. The face-to-face meeting with the former president, and Republican candidate ready to challenge Joe Biden in November to seek a resounding encore in the White House that the polls do not rule out, preceded the meeting that Cameron will have in the next few hours with the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, the BBC highlights. Recalling how the current head of the Foreign Office (and former British premier) has criticised some of Trump's stances in the past, but evidently felt it was essential to pay him a visit. One of the objectives of Cameron's US trip is to urge the release of $60 billion in funds for US support of Ukraine's war with Russia: funds currently stranded in Congress due to opposition from The Donald's Republican supporters. The former president has in the past had mixed relations with British conservatives, beyond expressions of personal sympathy for former prime minister Boris Johnson. While he continues to cultivate a friendship with Nigel Farage, former leader of the Brexit Party, and currently honorary chairman of Reform UK, a new political formation that competes with the Tories from the right and appears to be on the rise in the polls ahead of the vote also expected in the Kingdom within the year

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron and former US President Donald Trump . (Photo by Daniel LEAL and Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP)

- Inter-community tension in Lebanon has risen after the recent killing of a politician of the Lebanese Forces, a group linked to the Catholic-Maronite community, in the Byblos district of Mount Lebanon. According to the authorities, Pascal Suleiman was abducted and subsequently murdered by individuals generically identified as 'Syrians'. However, sources close to the Lebanese Forces claim that Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite political movement allied with Iran and currently involved in an armed conflict with Israel for six months, was behind the kidnapping and murder. Hezbollah has so far denied any involvement in the affair.

Israel is buying 40,000 tents to prepare for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the southern Gaza town of Rafah, an Israeli official told the Associated Press, reported by the Guardian. Yesterday, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that a date had been set for the Israeli invasion of Gaza's last city on the border with Egypt. An estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have taken refuge in the southern city after fleeing Israeli shelling elsewhere in the territory.

- "Erdogan is once again sacrificing the economic interests of the Turkish people for his support of Hamas: we will respond accordingly and prepare an extended list of additional products that Israel will prevent Turkey from exporting." This was said by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz after Turkey's "unilateral" decision to stop exporting products to Israel. Israel, the ministry said, will appeal "to pro-Israeli countries and organisations in the US to stop investments in Turkey and prevent the import of products from Turkey" and impose "sanctions".

The bodies of 46 Palestinians found by medics east of the Khan Younis area have been taken to Gaza's European Hospital, the European Hospital said on Telegram, as reported by CNN. "Most of the bodies were from the east of the Khan Younis area, and the bodies are decomposed under the rubble of demolished buildings," the hospital said. Thirty-eight of these 46 bodies have been identified, the hospital said. This comes after a search and recovery operation following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Khan Younis.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Russian Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov in Beijing. This was reported by the state-run Xinhua news agency. It was an unexpected visit and out of protocol decided perhaps in view of the expected arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin in May.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov EPA/SHAMIL ZHUMATOV / POOL

Iran will not attack Israel directly, but will strike through Iranian forces in the region, two sources close to US intelligence told CNN on the issue, who claim Tehran has urged several of its militia groups to simultaneously launch a large-scale attack against Israel, using drones and missiles, which could attack as early as this week. Tehran fears a dramatic escalation of the fighting, the sources say, and does not want to give the US or its allies an excuse to attack Iran directly.

Isis has threatened to hit four stadiums that will host the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. Several Spanish media reported this, citing the Islamic State's message distribution channels. The news, according to Europa Press, was also confirmed by Site Intelligence group. Isis has published an image depicting four stadiums, two in Madrid, the Santiago Bernabéu and the Metropolitano, where Real Madrid-Manchester City tonight and Atletico Madrid-Borussia Dortmund tomorrow night, the Parc des Princes in Paris where Psg-Barcelona will be played tomorrow, and the Emirates Stadium in London (Arsenal-Bayern tonight) with the words 'Kill them all'.

Russia has taken its propaganda to a new level: it manipulates the opinion of the International Atomic Agency (IAEA) and the world community, trying to accuse Ukraine of violating nuclear safety at the Zaporizhzhia plant by concealing its intentions. The Ukrainian atomic energy agency Energoatom writes this on Telegram. "The Kremlin's false statements about Ukraine's alleged drone attacks are nothing more than an attempt to conceal its intentions to carry out a terrorist attack or to cover up serious emergency events that have already occurred at the plant," the agency points out. Energoatom then states that 'the only way to prevent a nuclear and radioactive accident is to implement the IEA resolution, withdraw military and Russian equipment from the station, transfer Znpp (the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, ed.) under the control of Ukraine, the legitimate operator Energoatom, and de-mining the surrounding territories'. 'The seizure of the Zaporizhzhia NPP by the Russians is not only a serious violation of international law, but also a true act of nuclear terrorism,' the Agency concludes. 'The dangerous game of the occupants of the nuclear plant must end'.

The Guatemalan Congress has sent a request to the President of the Republic, Bernardo Arévalo, to declare a state of emergency throughout the country due to the environmental crisis generated by forest fires that have also affected landfills. The National Commission for Disaster Containment of Guatemala (Conred) reported that 44 forest and landfill fires are currently active and that 1,300 firefighters are busy tackling the flames. So far, some 7,000 hectares of land have gone up in smoke. The Ministry of Education meanwhile reported that it is maintaining the suspension of classes in the departments of Guatemala, Sacatepéquez and Escuintla, the nation's most populated, due to air pollution caused by a landfill fire, the effects of which are 'harmful to health', it said.

"The water level in the river Ural in the city is approaching a dangerous level and was 897 centimetres at 8:00am. All those in the area of possible flooding should evacuate immediately'. This was stated by the municipality of the Russian city of Orenburg, near the Ural area, on its Telegram channel, as reported by Tass. "At 10.40am (7.40am in Italy) a siren sounded in Orenburg. A state of emergency is in force in the regional centre,' the municipality said, according to Tass.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi reportedly discussed the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine with his Russian counterpart Serghei Lavrov in their meeting in Beijing today. "Foreign Minister Lavrov and I had an in-depth communication on various international and regional issues, including the conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine-Israel," the Chinese diplomacy chief said.

"I would like to emphasise that as a responsible great power, China always decides its positions independently on the basis of the individual rights and wrongs of each situation," Wang further noted, for whom "at the same time, as a force for peace and stability, China will continue to play a constructive role on the international stage and will never add fuel to the fire. China and Russia have intensified economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts, and their strategic partnership has been further strengthened since the invasion of Ukraine, causing trade to soar above USD 200 billion.

The salary of argentine workers fell by 17% between December 2023 and January 2024, according to the latest official data. According to an analysis by the Centre for Economic Studies of the Provincial Bank (Bapro), this is the biggest drop after a devaluation. The measurement compares the declines after exchange rate jumps in December 2013, November 2015, August 2018, August 2019 and November 2023, concluding that the current one is the worst wage collapse. The report states that, in a time series of real wages, last January's figures imply a return to March 2006 levels, i.e. almost 18 years ago. In the run-up between prices and wages last year, workers' wages grew by 191.5 per cent, against inflation of 254.2 per cent, according to January 2024 data from Indec, the official statistics agency.

Russian Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov denounced the West's "illegal sanctions" against Moscow and other countries at a press conference in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. The West "is applying illegal sanctions against a number of states, including of course Russia", Lavrov said, according to which "this policy is also starting to be actively applied against China".

The Turkey today imposed limits on exports of numerous goods to Israel, including steel, iron and aluminium products, the Turkish Ministry of Commerce announced. "This decision will remain in force until Israel declares an immediate ceasefire and allows continued humanitarian aid access to Gaza," the ministry said in a statement.

The Institute for the Study of War (Isw) believes that the Kremlin is trying to use pro-Russian actors in Moldova to destabilise the country's democracy and society. In this way, reads the US think tank's analysis, Russia wants to prevent Moldova from joining the EU or even justify future hybrid or conventional operations against Chisinau. The governor of the pro-Russian autonomous region of Gagauzia, Yevgenia Hutsul, who is linked to the Kremlin, has hinted that Romanian officials control the Moldovan government, the Isw experts recall, commenting that this was the latest in a series of recent Kremlin attempts to question the sovereignty of pro-Western European governments.

Hutsul stated on 8 April in an interview with the Russian state TV station Pervyi Kanal that if Gagauzia starts the process of secession from Moldova, there will be a reaction not only from the Moldovan government in Chisinau, but also from the Romanian government, which according to her 'controls' the Moldovan government, implying that Moldova is not a sovereign state. Military experts believe that Hutsul's interview is probably intended to create the conditions to justify potential future Russian aggression against Moldova in front of a Russian-speaking and pro-Russian public in Gagauzia, the pro-Russian separatist republic of Transnistria and other pro-Russian regions in Europe and Central Asia, as well as in Russia itself.

After artillery strikes from Syria  last night on Yonatan in the Golan Heights, the IDF attacked "military facilities and a Syrian army post in the village of Mhajjah". This was announced by the military spokesman.

King Abdullah of Jordan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and French President Emmanuel Macron demanded that "the fire in Gaza end now" and called for the Two-State Solution. In a joint article published by the Washington Post (Wp) - and picked up by the Israeli media - the three leaders, after demanding the immediate release of the hostages, emphasised that "violence, terrorism and war cannot bring peace to the Middle East". "The two-state solution", they reiterated, "is the only way to guarantee peace and security".

The Israeli army killed "terrorist Hatem Alramery (Hatem Al-Ghamri, according to Hamas, ed.), head of the Emergency Office for the Central Fields of Gaza " of Hamas. This was made known by the military spokesman, according to whom Alramery was 'the military wing operative in the field of rocket launching in the Maghazi Battalion in the Central Camps'. Hamas had announced the killing of 'Hatem Al-Ghamri', calling him the mayor of Maghazi.

A wide-ranging anti-drug operation by the Central Operations Service and the Bologna Mobile Squad , coordinated by the Dda of Bologna, is currently being carried out, involving an Albanian gang specialised in the import of considerable quantities of cocaine from Germany. Thirteen restraining orders were executed and a total of twenty-two people were under investigation. Some arrests were also made in Albania and Germany, with the cooperation of the respective police forces, and five people were caught in the act. 26.5 kg of cocaine and 11 kg of marjuana were seized.

In the course of investigations carried out in cooperation with the International Police Cooperation Service and the Office of the Security Expert in Tirana of the Central Criminal Police Directorate, the Criminal Police Department (CO and Fast Albania Investigative Directorate) and the Central National Interpol Office in Tirana of the Albanian State Police, it was ascertained that Albanian couriers, on behalf of the organisation, were dispatching several kilos of cocaine to numerous buyers, their compatriots, on a weekly basis throughout the country. The Albanian organisation was also able to supply itself with considerable quantities of marjuana. Numerous trips of the Albanian couriers from Germany to Italy were monitored. A press conference will take place at 10.30 a.m. at the Police Headquarters in Bologna.

China and Russia must stand on the side of 'fairness and justice', Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said today at a press conference following his meeting in Beijing with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. "As permanent members of the UN Security Council and major emerging powers, China and Russia must clearly stand on the side of historical progress, fairness and justice," ;;Wang said, adding that the two sides "will continue to maintain close exchanges in various forms".

Former US president Donald Trump says his successor Joe Biden is '100 per cent' on the side of the Palestinians. "Anyone who votes for him doesn't like Israel, and frankly you'd have to ask them: how can a Jewish person vote for Biden or a Democrat since they are 100 per cent on the side of the Palestinians," Trump said last night in an interview with conservative broadcaster Real America's Voice picked up by Israeli media. "It's amazing that historically Jews vote for Democrats. I don't understand that. I've been far more pro-Israel than any other American president," the Republican candidate for the US 2024 election added.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa states that five people died in an Israeli shelling that hit a building in the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip last night. Also according to Wafa, ten more corpses including those of six children were recovered northwest of Khan Yunis, in the south of the Palestinian enclave. The death toll in the Gaza Strip since 7 October is at least 33,207 dead and 75,933 injured, says the local Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

China will "strengthen strategic cooperation" with Russia and support its "stable development under the leadership of President Putin. Beijing and Moscow will continue to strengthen strategic cooperation on the world stage and provide strong mutual support'. This was stated by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, meeting with his counterpart Serghei Lavrov, according to Russian media. Lavrov noted that the two sides will continue cooperation in the fight against terrorism, including through multilateral mechanisms: 'I thank the Chinese side for the condolences expressed on the terrorist attack in the Moscow region on 22 March'.

The nuclear nightmare is back in Ukraine , with the Zaporizhzhia plant suffering a drone attack. Moscow "plays a very dangerous game", the US warns. Kiev claims an operation in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad in which the missile ship Serpukhov was set on fire. China will strengthen strategic cooperation with Russia, Moscow media say during Lavrov's visit to Beijing. A 32-year-old man from Tajikistan was arrested for terrorism at Fiumicino airport: allegedly fighting with Isis.

Press service of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant/Handout via REUTERS

Hamas says Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu 's words about an imminent ground attack on Rafah "raise questions about the purpose of resuming negotiations". "The success of any negotiations depends on ending the aggression," Palestinian Islamist movement spokesman Sami Abu Zahry told Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera. Hamas' demands "are clear: an end to the aggression against our people," Zahry added.

What happened on 8 April 2024