Kurdish militia declares ceasefire following leader’s call to end five-decade insurgency with Turkey
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militia on Saturday declared an immediate ceasefire, two days after its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan called on fighters to lay down their arms and dissolve the group. If accepted by Turkey, the declaration could bring about the end of a decades-long conflict estimated to have killed at least 40,000 people and rippled across the borders of multiple neighboring countries. “We agree with the content of Leader Ocalan’s call as it is, and we state that we will comply with and implement the requirements of the call from our own side. We declare a ceasefire effective as of today,” the PKK Executive Committee said in a statement published by the Firat News Agency, a media outlet close to the group.
Gaza ceasefire hits expiration date with Israel and Hamas split on way forward
The first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, under which dozens of Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees were freed, reached its expiration date on Saturday — with Israel and Hamas split on what comes next. In essence, the Israelis want phase one to continue – the exchange of hostages, alive and deceased, in return for the continued release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and the flow of higher volumes of aid into Gaza. There are thought to be 24 Israeli hostages still alive in Gaza. But Hamas insists that negotiations include the withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of Gaza they still occupy and a permanent end to the conflict, as envisaged in the second phase of the deal.
Zelensky says Trump’s backing is ‘crucial’ after US president berated him at White House
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says US support is “crucial” a day after cutting short a visit to Washington DC following an extraordinary public argument with Donald Trump. A meeting intended to discuss a natural resources deal imploded, with Trump and Vice President JD Vance berating the Ukrainian leader in front of reporters in the Oval Office. At one point, when Zelensky tried to respond, an angry Trump accused him of “gambling with World War III.” A Europe already rattled by Trump’s overtures to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin quickly rallied around Zelensky, with the European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, saying in a statement that it’s “clear that the free world needs a new leader.”
Dominican Republic deported more than 276,000 people in 2024
The Dominican Republic deported more than 276,000 people in 2024, the country’s Immigration Directorate said Wednesday. In the last three months of the year alone, over 94,000 foreigners with irregular status were deported under a new operation aiming to remove up to 10,000 undocumented Haitians per week, ordered by the Dominican Republic’s National Security and Defense Council headed by President Luis Abinader. Dominican authorities also deported 48,344 during the January-March quarter, 62,446 between April-June, and 71,414 from July to September, according to the statement.
How a CIA informant stopped Taiwan from developing nuclear weapons
In January 1988, one of Taiwan’s most senior nuclear engineers defected to the United States after passing crucial intelligence on a top-secret program that would alter the course of Taiwan’s history. Colonel Chang Hsien-yi was a leading figure in Taiwan’s nuclear weapons project, a closely guarded secret between the 1960s and ‘80s, as Taipei raced to develop its first nuclear bomb to keep pace with China. He was also a CIA informant.
‘People would leave their Oscars behind’: Tales of a Hollywood party photographer
Photographer Dafydd Jones’ Hollywood party pictures are littered with Oscars. They sit casually on star-studded dinner tables and are wielded by celebrities before the press. In some cases, the golden statuettes are even being used like tickets to enter Vanity Fair’s exclusive after-party. “I think Vanity Fair had a (policy that) anyone who had an Oscar could come in,” said Jones, who worked for the magazine from the 1980s, in a video interview. “They had a guestlist as well. But if you had an Oscar, you could demand entry or just be let in.” “I’ve also been at parties where people have left them behind absentmindedly and wanted to get them back,” he added.
How Americans will feel the impact of Trump’s weather forecasting layoffs
The survivor’s guilt-stricken remaining employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are trying to “pick up the pieces” and figure out how to continue delivering life-saving information to the public, after the shock firing of hundreds of America’s foremost experts in weather forecasting and earth sciences on Thursday. “This is an enormous self-inflicted wound. This is a hard day,” said an employee at the National Weather Service, which is under NOAA. “It’s a bleak day and I don’t know what the solution is.” Hundreds of employees were terminated — potentially as many as 800, sources close to the agency said. Most divisions of the agency, which employs scientists and specialists in weather, oceans, biodiversity, climate and other research and planetary monitoring fields, were affected.
The haphazard nihilism of America’s new Department of Government Efficiency
First, they fired the people who look after the nuclear bombs, then had to hurriedly find where they went and hire them back. They got rid of the government agricultural workers responsible for fighting bird flu — which has sent the cost of America’s breakfast soaring. Then, amid rising public concern that an Ebola outbreak in Africa could leapfrog to the US, Elon Musk took his chainsaw to the most prominent US experts on the disease. “We won’t be perfect. But when we make mistake, we will fix it very quickly,” later backtracked Musk, who is running President Donald Trump’s effort to eviscerate the federal government.
Hundreds of thousands protest across Greece over deadly train crash
Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in cities and towns across Greece on Friday to demand justice on the second anniversary of the country’s deadliest-ever train crash, and striking workers grounded flights and halted sea and train transport. Fifty-seven people were killed when a passenger train filled with students collided with a freight train on February 28, 2023, near the Tempi gorge in central Greece. Two years later, the safety gaps that caused the crash have not been filled, an inquiry found on Thursday. A separate judicial investigation remains unfinished and no one has been convicted in the accident.
Bomb kills six at Pakistan Islamic seminary known for training Afghan Taliban
A bomb blast at an Islamic seminary in northwestern Pakistan known as a historic training ground for the Afghan Taliban killed six worshipers during Friday prayers, police said. Several others were wounded including the head of the religious school, Maulana Hamid-ul-Haq, son of the late Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, considered the father of the Taliban. Regional police officer Najeebur Rahman said Haq was in critical condition.