Armed police in riot gear stand guard during a second night of riots, in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, June 10, 2025. REUTERS
BALLYMENA, Northern Ireland, June 10 – Rioters threw petrol bombs and other missiles at police in the Northern Irish town of Ballymena in the second successive night of disorder that followed a protest over an alleged sexual assault in the town, police and local media said on Tuesday.
Police said they were dealing with “serious disorder” in a part of the town, which is about 45 km (30 miles) from the capital Belfast, and urged people to avoid the area.
Officers responded by using water cannon against the rioters, a video posted on social media by a journalist from the Belfast Telegraph showed. Separate protests also blocked off some roads in Belfast, a Reuters witness said.
Fifteen police officers were injured, with some requiring hospital treatment, after they came under sustained attack for a number of hours on Monday when masked people broke from the protest to build barricades and attack properties.
Four houses were damaged by fire and windows and doors were smashed in other homes and businesses, in what police said they are investigating as racially-motivated hate attacks.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Ballymena on Monday in response to a case involving two teenage boys who appeared in court earlier in the day, accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in the County Antrim town.
Local media reported that the charges were read to the teenagers via an interpreter.
QUITO, June 10 – At least eight people were shot dead Tuesday morning in Ecuador’s southwestern coastal city of Guayaquil, amid a surge in criminal violence, national police said.
The attack occurred in the Pascuales district, along the Daule highway. “Eight people were killed by gunfire,” police said in a statement, adding that officers were deployed immediately to investigate and pursue those responsible.
Local media reported that the victims were gunned down in Guayaquil’s industrial zone, near the Peca area and outside a municipal market, just as vendors were beginning their workday.
Five of the victims were motorcycle taxi drivers, according to local TV reports.
Police suggested the spike in violence may be linked to the recent seizure of four assault rifles over the weekend.
Guayaquil, one of Ecuador’s most dangerous cities, has seen a string of deadly attacks in recent days. On Sunday, four men were killed in a home in Bastion Popular. On Monday, a married couple was shot dead after dropping off their children at school in the Mucho Lote neighborhood.
The city, capital of Guayas province, has been under a state of emergency since April due to what the government calls a “grave internal disturbance.”
Ecuador has been battling a severe security crisis since President Daniel Noboa declared an “internal armed conflict” in January 2024 against organized crime groups tied to drug trafficking.
Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire, according to the Gaza health ministry, near an aid distribution center in central Gaza, at Al-Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, June 10, 2025. REUTERS
ANKARA – At least 54,981 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
A ministry statement said that 54 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours, while 305 people were injured, taking the total number of injuries in the Israeli onslaught to 126,920.
“Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
The Israeli army resumed its attacks on the Gaza Strip on March 18 and has since killed 4,701 people and injured 14,879 others, shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.
A Palestinian youth kicks a tear gas canister away after it was fired by Israeli forces at protesters hurling rocks, during a large-scale military raid in the old town of Nablus city in the occupied West Bank on June 10, 2025. AFP
NABLUS – Israel launched a large-scale military operation on Tuesday in the old city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, AFP journalists reported, with the army reporting injured troops and two Palestinians “eliminated.”
Dozens of military vehicles entered the city shortly after midnight, an AFP journalist reported, after a curfew had been announced over loudspeakers the day before.
Military operations are focused on the old city, a densely populated area bordering a large downtown square where young men and boys gathered to burn tires and throw stones at armored vehicles.
The Israeli army said that one soldier was “moderately injured” and three others “lightly injured” when two Palestinians attempted to steal a soldier’s weapon.
Troops opened fire and “eliminated” both Palestinians, the army said in a statement, using a term the military often uses when killing militants.
AFPTV footage showed Israeli soldiers standing in one of the old city’s narrow streets, next to the bodies of two civilians.
Neither Palestinian medics nor the Israeli army confirmed the two deaths.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Tuesday that three people were injured from bullet shrapnel, four from “physical assaults,” and dozens more from tear gas inhalation.
It added that many injuries had to be handled within the old city after its ambulances were blocked from entering.
Nablus is located in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
The territory’s north has been the target of a major Israeli military operation dubbed “Iron Wall” since Jan. 21.
On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers entered shops to search them and arrested several people for questioning, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.
The correspondent added that Israeli flags were raised over the roofs of buildings in the Old City that had been turned into temporary bases for Israeli troops.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, triggered by the unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
At least 938 Palestinians, including fighters but also many civilians, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to data from the Palestinian Authority.
Snow covers the N2 road heading to Nolangeni, South Africa, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. AP
CAPE TOWN, South Africa – At least seven people have died in flooding in South Africa after a weather front bringing heavy rain and snow hit eastern and southern provinces, officials said Tuesday.
A bus carrying high school students was swept away in the floods in the Eastern Cape province and an unknown number of children were missing, the provincial government said in a statement. Three children were rescued after they clung onto trees, according to the South African National Taxi Council, which said the bus was operated by one of its members.
Disaster response teams have been activated in the province on the south coast.
Six people died in flooding in the Eastern Cape city of Mthatha, where houses and cars were left submerged. A seventh body was recovered near the town of Tsolo, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Mthatha, the provincial government said.
It said a search was underway for the minibus carrying schoolchildren that was swept away on Tuesday morning. SANTACO, the taxi council, said it was unclear how many children there were on the 22-seater bus when it was swept away by floodwater at a bridge near Mthatha.
“Eyewitnesses at the scene reported seeing at least three (children) clinging to trees and calling for help,” SANTACO said. “The three have since been rescued.”
Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane said “this is a devastating reminder of nature’s force.”
Another five people were killed in a car crash in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday when a minibus taxi overturned, according to provincial transport department spokesperson Unathi Binqose. He said the driver of the minibus was attempting to avoid a tree that had fallen onto the road.
The South African Weather Service has forecast several days of disruptive rain and snow for the Eastern Cape and the neighboring KwaZulu-Natal province along the east coast. Part of a major highway connecting the two provinces was closed because of snow and disaster response teams were also activated in KwaZulu-Natal.
South Africa occasionally experiences snow in some parts, but authorities had warned for days that a particularly strong cold front was about to hit the country.
People light candles in the main square following a deadly school shooting in Graz, Austria, June 10, 2025. REUTERS
GRAZ, Austria, June 10 – Austrians were dumbfounded by grief and horror after a 21-year-old gunman killed 10 people in a high school shooting spree on Tuesday morning, unleashing a new kind of violence to the Alpine country unaccustomed to such slayings.
Parents of pupils, top government officials and local residents in the southern city of Graz were lost for words after the young man, who has not been named, opened fire at the school where he had recently been a pupil.
“Terrible. There’s nothing else to make of it, is there?” said Monika Leiner, a 55-year-old IT consultant who lives near the school. “I’m a bit older, and I’ve seen quite a few things but I can’t remember (a shooting with) so many deaths.”
Police have given no motive for the killings though Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung said officers found a farewell letter during a search of the suspect’s home. Authorities said the man did not graduate from the school and Austrian media published unconfirmed reports he had suffered from bullying.
Hundreds of police rushed to the scene after shots rang out at around 10 a.m. Shortly afterwards the perpetrator was dead, having shot himself in a toilet, authorities said. The killings were the worst Austrian school shooting on record.
The government declared three days of national mourning and political parties cancelled upcoming events. In the afternoon, people arrived to leave flowers and candles by the school.
President Alexander Van der Bellen said it was hard to express what the country was feeling. “This horror cannot be put into words,” he said. Long queues also formed outside a blood donation centre in Graz.
“Today is a hard day for all of us in Graz. I’m here to (donate) my blood to help other people who need it,” 25-year-old Stephanie Koenig told Reuters.
A soldier walks past motorcycle wreckage after a bomb exploded in Cali, Colombia, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. AP
BOGOTA, Colombia – At least four people were killed in Colombia on Tuesday as rebel groups detonated bombs near police stations in the city of Cali and the neighboring Cauca province, according to authorities.
Military and police spokespeople blamed the attacks on the FARC-EMC, a group led by former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia who broke away from the group after it signed a peace deal with the government in 2016.
Authorities said the rebels placed bombs in cars and motorcycles that were parked near police stations.
The attacks on the police stations come just days after Miguel Uribe, a conservative presidential candidate, was shot during a rally in Bogota. Authorities say they are investigating who was behind the attack on Uribe, who is in a critical condition in hospital in Bogota.
A body lies in the street, covered by a sheet, after a bomb explosion in Cali, Colombia, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. AP
Colombia’s government has struggled to contain violence in urban and rural areas as several rebel groups try to take over territory abandoned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia following its peace deal with the government.
Peace talks between the FARC-EMC faction and the government broke down last year after a series of attacks on indigenous communities.
The government is currently holding talks with another faction of the group, that is led by commander Luis Alberto Alban, known also as Marcos Calarca.
Manchester City’s head coach Pep Guardiola looks on ahead of the English Premier League soccer match between Fulham and Manchester City at Craven Cottage, London, Sunday, May 25, 2025. AP
MANCHESTER, England – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has urged people not to ignore the suffering in Gaza amid Israel’s military campaign and longstanding blockade of the territory.
“It’s so painful, what we see in Gaza. It hurts me all (over) my body,” the Spanish coach said in a speech at the University of Manchester, where he was given an honorary degree on Monday.
“It’s not about ideology. It’s not about, I’m right or you’re wrong. Come on. It is just about the love of life, about the care of your neighbor,” Guardiola said.
Guardiola was honored for his sporting success with City and for his “inspirational work away from football, including through his family foundation, the Guardiola Sala Foundation,” the university said on its website.
It made no mention of Guardiola’s speech regarding the situation in Gaza, where more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed during the 20-month-long war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
“Maybe we think that we see the boys and girls of four years old being killed (by) a bomb or being killed at the hospital because it’s not a hospital anymore, it’s not our business,” Guardiola said. “But be careful. The next one will be ours. The next four- or five-year-old kids will be ours. Sorry, but I see my kids, Maria, Marius and Valentina, when I see every morning since the nightmare started for the infants in Gaza, and I’m so … scared.”
The current war was ignited by the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on Oct. 7, 2023, when 251 hostages were taken. Hamas is still holding 55 hostages, more than half of them believed to be dead.
Israel has restricted and sometimes blocked all aid into Gaza, including food, fuel and medicine. Experts say that policy has pushed Gaza toward famine. Israel says Hamas siphons off the aid to bolster its rule.
“You might ask what we can do,” Guardiola said. “There is a story, I’m reminded of it often. A forest is on fire. All the animals leave, terrified, helpless, helpless. But the small bird flies back and forth, back and forth to the sea, back and forth, carrying drops of water in the sea and beak. The snake laughs and asks, ‘Why bro, you will never put the fire out.’ The bird replies, ‘Yes I know it.’ ‘Then why you do it again and again,’ the snake asks. ‘I’m just doing my part,’ the bird replied for the last time. That is, the bird knows it doesn’t stop the fire, but it refuses to do nothing.”
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of the territory’s population, leaving people there almost completely dependent on international aid.
Flowers and a candle lie in front of a portrait of slain investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia during a vigil outside the law courts in Valletta, Malta, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. AP Photo/File
VALLETTA, Malta – Two men were sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday after being convicted of complicity in the murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Jamie Vella and Robert Agius were accused of supplying the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia. Both were found guilty of the charges last week and on Tuesday were given the maximum sentence of life in prison.
Caruana Galizia, 53, was murdered on Oct. 16, 2017, by a car bomb that was detonated while she was driving near her home.
The journalist had written extensively about suspected corruption in political and business circles in Malta. Her murder shocked Europe and triggered angry protests in Malta. At the time of her death, she was facing more than 40 libel suits.
The six-week trial also concerned the separate murder of a lawyer, Carmel Chircop, who was shot and killed in 2015. Two other men, George Degiorgio and Adrian Agius, were convicted last week and sentenced to life in prison for that murder on Tuesday.
George Degiorgio and his brother Alfred Degiorgio both pleaded guilty in 2022 to carrying out the murder of Caruana Galizia. They were each sentenced to 40 years in prison.
A third man, Vincent Muscat, pleaded guilty in 2021 for his role in the Caruana Galizia murder, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He testified in the recent jury trial after being granted a presidential pardon for his role in the Chircop murder on the condition he tell the whole truth.
Yorgen Fenech, a prominent Maltese businessman, is currently out of jail on bail awaiting trial on charges of alleged complicity in the Caruana Galizia murder.
PARIS – A French middle school employee was stabbed to death by a 14-year-old student during a bag check Tuesday at their school in eastern France, authorities said. The student was detained.
A police officer helping with the bag checks was slightly injured during the arrest by the student, using the same knife he used against the school employee, the gendarme service said. The attack at the Francoise Dolto School in Nogent, north of the Burgundy city of Dijon, was being investigated.
“While she was looking after our children in Nogent, an educational assistant lost her life, a victim of senseless violence,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X. “The nation is in mourning and the government mobilized to bring crime down.”
Such fatal attacks have been rare in France, but concerns about school violence have been on the rise.
The Education Ministry introduced bag checks this year at some schools to reduce it. Over a two-month period this spring, 186 knives were seized during school bag checks and 32 people detained, the interior minister’s office said.
Regional Prosecutor Denis Devallois said the student was 14 years old and did not have a police record. Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said the boy had been a student representative in the school’s anti-bullying program, and had been briefly suspended earlier this year for disrupting class.
Police officers were carrying out bag checks just outside the school, and the school employee was standing alongside them when the stabbing occurred at the school entry, the gendarme service said.
The school’s classes were canceled for the day, and the prosecutor said psychological help was being offered to students and staff.
In April, a high school student stabbed four other students at his school in western France, killing one and wounding three others before being arrested, police said. That prompted the prime minister to call for tougher measures against knife violence in schools.
Government soldiers stand over pro-democracy protesters demanding the resignation of Suchinda Kraprayoon, who surrendered after they moved in firing automatic weapons in the air in an attempt to clear the area near Phan Fa Bridge in Bangkok, May 18, 1992. AP Photo/File
BANGKOK – Suchinda Kraprayoon, an army commander in Thailand who in 1992 followed the Southeast Asian nation’s tradition of military strongmen assuming the reins of government, died Tuesday at age 91, the state Thai News Agency reported.
Suchinda, who served just under seven weeks as prime minister, became one of the country’s most reviled politicians after the military used lethal force to quash protests alleging he took office by undemocratic means. The episode became known as “Black May.”
The violence, during which 52 people were killed according to an official count, ended only when the country’s revered monarch, then-King Bhumibol Adulyadej, summoned Suchinda and protest leader Chamlong Srimuang for a scolding on a live television broadcast.
Suchinda stepped down and exited politics, living generally out of the public eye. He was respected by fellow officers and named chairman of a major Thai telecoms company.
He began his military career by attending Chulachomklao Military Academy, Thailand’s West Point, and did two study tours in the United States. He served a stint in a Thai unit supporting the U.S. war effort in Vietnam and was an assistant military attache in 1971 at the Thai Embassy in Washington.
A 1985 appointment as assistant chief of staff for operations put him on track to be appointed army commander, which he achieved in March 1990.
He then rose to become prime minister a year after leading a February 1991 coup ousting the elected government of Chatichai Choonhaven, whose ruling coalition was dubbed the “buffet Cabinet” because its members were seen as feeding on the spoils of power.
Although Suchinda was one of four deputy leaders of the junta that took over, he was arguably more influential than its official leader, Gen. Sunthorn Kongsompong. The junta got credit for appointing qualified technocrats to serve in its interim Cabinet and for holding an election in March 1992.
Five parties that won a majority of seats nominated Narong Wongwan, a wealthy businessman and member of Parliament, to be prime minister. His nomination was withdrawn after the United States caused a controversy by saying it had refused him a visa because of suspected links to drug trafficking.
The five parties then selected Suchinda as their candidate, and he became Thailand’s 19th prime minister.
A protest movement immediately took hold and grew rapidly. The confrontation escalated into violence by May 17, with running street battles, the burning of public property and troops opening fire on unarmed protesters.
When King Bhumibol on May 20 summoned Suchinda and his main critic Chamlong to tell them to end the violence, Suchinda’s position became untenable. After the king signed an amnesty covering both sides in the conflict, he resigned.
The former so-called prime minister of the self-proclaimed Kosovo government-in-exile talk to the media in Bonn, Germany, March 24, 1999. AP
PRISTINA, Kosovo – Bujar Bukoshi, a former Kosovo independence leader who for years headed a self-proclaimed government-in-exile, died early Tuesday morning after a long illness, his family said. He was 78.
He died in Germany, where he was being treated for cancer and receiving financial support from the Albanian government, according to his family.
Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani expressed deep regret for the loss of “a visionary physician and a statesman of unparalleled dedication.”
“Dr. Bukoshi, former Prime Minister in Exile, will forever be remembered for his contributions to strengthening the cause of a free and independent Kosovo in the most difficult times for our people,” she wrote in a letter of condolence to his family.
A respected physician and surgeon, Bukoshi helped to found the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, in 1989 alongside Ibrahim Rugova, who was later president of Kosovo.
Shortly after receiving his medical degree at Belgrade’s Medical School University, Bukoshi went into exile, where he raised funds to run parallel governing institutions to peacefully defy the late Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s repressive rule in Kosovo, a former Serbian province.
Bukoshi served as prime minister of Kosovo’s government in exile from 1991 through 1999, the end of the 1998-1999 war that left around 11,400 people dead. A 78-day NATO air campaign stopped the Serb forces’ crackdown on ethnic Albanians and pushed Serbian forces and authorities out of Kosovo.
He also led an ethnic Albanian militia that was seen as a rival to the more militant Kosovo Liberation Army.
The shadow government, which was never recognized by Belgrade, was formally dissolved in 2000.
After the war, Bukoshi served as deputy prime minister, healthcare minister and lawmaker.
“His life and activity are a record of patriotic commitment and unshakable political involvement for Kosovo’s freedom and independence,” said LDK’s current leader Lumir Abdixhiku. “His contribution at the most difficult moments of our country will be forever valued.”
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Most Western nations recognize its sovereignty, but Serbia and its allies Russia and China don’t.
Bukoshi was born in Suhareke, 60 kilometers north of the capital Pristina. He is survived by his spouse Zana, three daughters and two nephews.
Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire, according to the Gaza health ministry, near an aid distribution center in central Gaza, at Al-Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, June 10, 2025. REUTERS
CAIRO, June 10 – Israeli gunfire killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded dozens as thousands of displaced people approached an aid distribution site of a U.S.-backed humanitarian group in central Gaza on Tuesday, local health authorities said.
Medics said the casualties were rushed to two hospitals, the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, and the Al-Quds in Gaza City, in the north.
The Israeli military said its forces had fired warning shots at “suspects who were advancing in the area of Wadi Gaza and posed a threat to the troops”.
It added that it was aware of reports that several were injured, but said numbers released by local health authorities did not align with the information it had collected.
“The warning shots were fired hundreds of meters from the aid distribution site, prior to its opening hours and toward the suspects who posed a threat to the troops,” the military added.
It has previously accused Hamas militants of deliberately disrupting aid distribution.
Last week the army warned Palestinians not to approach routes leading to sites of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time, describing these roads as closed military zones.
There was no immediate GHF comment on Tuesday’s incident.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral.
“Day after day, casualties & scores of injured are reported at distribution points manned by Israel & private security companies,” Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), wrote on X.
“This humiliating system continues to force thousands of hungry & desperate people to walk for tens of miles excluding the most vulnerable & those living too far,” he said.
Far-right Israeli lawmakers Itamar Ben Gvir, and Bezalel Smotrich, right, attend the swearing-in ceremony for the new Israeli parliament, at the Knesset, or parliament, in Jerusalem, November 15, 2022. REUTERS/File Photo
LONDON, June 10 – Britain and four other nations on Tuesday imposed sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway joined Britain in freezing the assets and imposing travel bans on Israel’s national security minister Ben-Gvir – a West Bank settler – and finance minister Smotrich.
“Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights. These actions are not acceptable,” British foreign minister David Lammy, along with the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway said in a joint statement.
“This is why we have taken action now to hold those responsible to account,” the statement said.
Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said that the sanctions included targeted financial restrictions and travel bans.
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said the move was “outrageous” and the Israeli government would hold a special meeting early next week to decide how to respond to the “unacceptable decision”.
Smotrich, speaking at the inauguration of a new settlement in the Hebron Hills, spoke of “contempt” for Britain’s move.
“Britain has already tried once to prevent us from settling the cradle of our homeland, and we cannot do it again. We are determined God willing to continue building.”
As the five nations announced action against the Israeli ministers, the United States instead said it would sanction individuals and sham charities that provided financial support to Hamas and another Palestinian group.
Aktivis Sweden Greta Thunberg berjalan di dalam terminal di Lapangan Terbang Paris-Charles de Gaulle di Roissy-en-France dekat Paris, Perancis, 10 Jun 2025. REUTERS
PARIS – Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday accused Israel of “kidnapping us in international waters and taking us against our will to Israel” after security forces intercepted a boat carrying humanitarian aid bound for Gaza.
“This is yet another intentional violation of rights that is added to the list of countless other violations that Israel is committing,” Thunberg, 22, told reporters on arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris after being deported from Israel.
She stressed that her own experience was “nothing compared to what the Palestinians are going through.”
Of the 12 people on board the Madleen carrying food and supplies for Gaza, five French activists were taken into custody after they refused to leave Israel voluntarily.
But Thunberg, who rose to fame as a schoolgirl activist against climate change and seeks to avoid flying because of its environmental impact, was deported by Israel on a commercial flight of national airline El Al bound for Paris.
“This is not the real story. The real story is there is a genocide going on in Gaza and systematic starvation,” said Thunberg.
Several rights groups including Amnesty International have accused Israel of genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza but Israel vehemently rejects the term.
The vessel carrying French, German, Brazilian, Turkish, Swedish, Spanish and Dutch activists had the stated aim of delivering humanitarian aid and breaking the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory.
Israel intercepted the Madleen about 185 kilometers (115 miles) west of the coast of Gaza.
Thunberg said what happened to the vessel was a “continuation and violation of international law and war crimes that are being systematically committed by Israel by not letting aid in” to Gaza.
“This was a mission of attempting to once again bring aid to Gaza and send solidarity. And saw we cannot,” she said.
She also denounced what she termed the “silence and passivity” of governments worldwide over what was taking place in Gaza.
“There are no words to describe the betrayal that is happening every day by our own governments,” she said.
Admitting she was “desperately in need of a shower,” Thunberg vowed to carry on her campaign. “We will not stop. We will try every single day to demand an end to the atrocities Israel is carrying out.”
AN – @IsraelMFA
The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 54,981 people, the majority civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war. The UN considers these figures reliable.
Out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 are still held in Gaza including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.
Police officers stand guard near a school following a deadly school shooting in Graz, Austria, June 10, 2025. REUTERS
GRAZ, Austria, June 10- A former pupil killed nine people and then himself at a secondary school in the southern Austrian city of Graz on Tuesday in the worst school shooting in the country’s modern history.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said six of the victims were male and three were female, and that 12 people were also injured. He gave no further details to identify the victims but Austrian media said most were pupils.
The motive for an attack that shocked the nation was not yet known. But police said they assumed the 21-year-old Austrian shooter, who was found dead in a bathroom, was operating alone when he entered the school with two guns and opened fire.
“The rampage at a school in Graz is a national tragedy that has deeply shaken our entire country,” Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said, calling it a “dark day in the history of our country”.
“There are no words for the pain and grief that we all – all of Austria – are feeling right now.”
Stocker travelled to Graz where, at a press conference alongside other officials including Karner, he announced three days of national mourning, with a minute’s silence to be held at 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Wednesday.
At the scene, police had set up a perimeter a few hundred meters away from the school, barring access routes with police cars after evacuating the school. Relatives of the victims and pupils were being cared for.
The Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper said in an unconfirmed report that the suspect had been a victim of bullying.
Armed with a pistol and shotgun, he opened fire on pupils in two classrooms, one of which had once been his own, it said.
‘DARK HOUR’
Police were called to the scene at around 10 a.m. after shots were heard at the school. Police and ambulances were on the scene in minutes.
“It is not yet possible to provide any information about the motive. Extensive criminal investigations are still required,” a police spokesperson said.
Julia Ebner, an extremism expert at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue think-tank, said the incident appeared to be the worst school shooting in Austria’s post-war history, describing such shootings as rare compared to some countries including the United States.
“I am deeply shaken that young people were torn from their lives so abruptly,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, one of a number of foreign leaders who expressed shock at the shooting, said in a message to Stocker.
“We hope that their loved ones can find comfort in the company of their families and friends in this dark hour.”
A view shows the school where a deadly shooting took place, in Graz, Austria, June 10, 2025. REUTERS
Austria has one of the most heavily armed civilian populations in Europe, with an estimated 30 firearms per 100 persons, according to the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project.
Four people were killed and 22 injured when a convicted jihadist went on a shooting spree in the centre of Vienna in 2020. In November 1997, a 36-year-old mechanic shot dead six people in the town of Mauterndorf before killing himself.
Marines stand near vehicles as they prepare to depart for Los Angeles, at an unknown location, in this handout picture released on June 9, 2025. U.S. Northern Command via X/Handout via REUTERS
LOS ANGELES, June 10 – Hundreds of U.S. Marines arrived in Los Angeles overnight and more were expected on Tuesday under orders from President Donald Trump, who has also activated 4,000 National Guard troops to quell protests despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom and other local leaders.
The city has seen days of public outrage since the Trump administration launched a series of immigration raids on Friday, though local officials said the demonstrations on Monday were largely peaceful.
About half of the roughly 700 Marines that Trump ordered to Los Angeles arrived on Monday night, and the remaining troops will enter the city on Tuesday, a U.S. official told Reuters. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told KABC that more than 100 people had been arrested on Monday but that the majority of protesters were nonviolent. Over the weekend, protesters threw rocks and other objects at officers and vehicles and set several cars ablaze. Police responded by firing projectiles like pepper balls as well as flash bang grenades and tear gas.
Trump has justified his decision to deploy active military troops to Los Angeles by describing the protests as a violent occupation of the city, a characterization that Newsom and Bass have said is grossly exaggerated.
Newsom said that Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops has only inflamed the situation and made it more difficult for local law enforcement to respond to the demonstrations.
In a statement on Monday, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said the department had not been notified that any Marines were traveling to the city and that their possible arrival “presents a significant logistical and operational challenge” for police.
Trump’s decision to mobilize 700 Marines based in Southern California escalated his confrontation with Newsom, who filed a lawsuit on Monday asserting that Trump’s deployment of Guard troops without the governor’s consent was illegal.
The Guard deployment was the first time in decades that a president activated the Guard absent a request from a sitting governor.
While the Marines are only tasked with guarding federal property temporarily until the full contingent of 4,000 Guard troops arrives, the use of active military to respond to civil disturbances is extremely rare.
“This isn’t about public safety,” Newsom wrote on X on Monday. “It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego.”
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Jack Reed, said he was “gravely troubled” by Trump’s deployment of active-duty Marines.
“Since our nation’s founding, the American people have been perfectly clear: we do not want the military conducting law enforcement on U.S. soil,” he said.
In a post on Tuesday morning on Truth Social, Trump claimed Los Angeles would be “burning to the ground right now” if he had not deployed troops to the city.
JERUSALEM, June 10 – Israel said on Tuesday that a 13-year-old boy from Tel Aviv had been arrested on suspicion of carrying out tasks on behalf of Iranian operatives, including an attempt to photograph Iron Dome missile defense batteries.
In a joint statement, the police and Shin Bet internal security agency said the boy was contacted in recent weeks by Iranian agents via the Telegram messaging app and was offered payment to carry out several missions.
“He agreed to their request and, following their instructions, sprayed graffiti in the Tel Aviv area in return for money,” the statement said. “He was also asked to photograph the Iron Dome defense system, but ultimately did not complete that task.”
The boy was released to house arrest following his interrogation.
The case is the latest in a string of incidents since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, in which Israeli citizens have been accused of being recruited by Iran via social media to gather intelligence.
JERUSALEM, June 10 – Israel deported Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, a day after she and 11 other activists were detained by Israeli forces while attempting to breach the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip aboard an aid boat.
“Greta Thunberg just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden (via France),” the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote on social media platform X. The ministry released two photos of her, one boarding the plane with her hands behind her back and another seated inside.
State broadcaster Kan reported that Thunberg, 22, and other activists were taken to Ben Gurion Airport for deportation. According to the report, Thunberg was seated “in a back seat without the ability to recline.”
Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel confirmed several activists were taken to the airport for deportation, and said he had “instructed that all 12 participants in the flotilla be returned to their countries of origin.”
“Israel will not allow its sovereignty to be harmed through protest flotilla provocations at its borders,” Arbel said in a statement.
The Foreign Ministry said activists who agreed to sign documents stating they voluntarily agree to leave Israel were expected to leave the country by flights on Tuesday. Those who refused would be brought before a judicial authority to authorize their deportation, according to the ministry.
Consular officials from the activists’ home countries met them at the airport, the ministry said.
Adalah, an Israel-based legal rights group representing the activists, said four agreed to immediate repatriation, while the remaining eight are contesting their deportation orders. They would be held in a detention center pending a court hearing. The timing of the hearing was not immediately clear.
According to Adalah, after the Israeli forces seized the boat Madleen early on Monday, the people on board were held at sea for hours before being brought to Ashdod port after nightfall.
Israel intercepted the charity vessel in international waters and escorted it to Ashdod, the largest port in Israel, a move the Freedom Flotilla Coalition described as illegal and called a “kidnapping.” The vessel was reportedly carrying humanitarian supplies, including food and medicine, intended for Gaza.
The incident came about a month after another flotilla vessel, Conscience, was damaged in an alleged drone strike in international waters near Malta.
Israel imposed a naval blockade on Gaza in 2007 after Hamas took control of the enclave. Restrictions were further tightened following Hamas’s cross-border attack in October 2023.
The Israeli offensive has devastated Gaza’s infrastructure and pushed its more than 2 million residents into a deep humanitarian crisis. UN agencies warn of an impending famine, with the entire population facing acute food insecurity.
People attend a rally against federal immigration sweeps, in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 9, 2025. REUTERS
LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON, June 9 – The Trump administration on Monday ordered U.S. Marines into Los Angeles and intensified raids on suspected undocumented immigrants, fueling more outrage from street protesters and Democratic leaders who raised concerns over a national crisis.
Some 700 Marines based in Southern California were expected to reach Los Angeles Monday night or Tuesday morning, officials said, as part of a federal strategy to quell street demonstrations opposing the immigration raids, which are a part of a signature effort of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Although their mission to protect federal personnel and property is temporary – filling the gaps until a full contingent of 4,000 National Guard troops can reach Los Angeles – the deployment is an extraordinary use of military force in support of a police operation, and it comes over the objection of state and local leaders who did not request help.
Meanwhile, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged to carry out even more operations to round up suspected immigration violators, extending a crackdown that provoked the protests. Trump officials have branded the protests as lawless and blamed state and local Democrats for permitting upheaval and protecting undocumented immigrants with sanctuary cities.
The military and federal enforcement operations have further polarized America’s two major political parties as Trump, a Republican, threatened to arrest California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, for resisting the federal crackdown.
California sued the Trump administration to block deployment of the National Guard and the Marines on Monday, arguing that it violates federal law and state sovereignty.
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Jack Reed, said he was “gravely troubled” by Trump’s deployment of active-duty Marines.
“The president is forcibly overriding the authority of the governor and mayor and using the military as a political weapon. This unprecedented move threatens to turn a tense situation into a national crisis,” Reed said.
“Since our nation’s founding, the American people have been perfectly clear: we do not want the military conducting law enforcement on U.S. soil,” he said.
The announcement that Marines would be deployed was made on the fourth straight day of protests. Late on Monday police began to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who gathered outside a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles where immigrants have been held. Police said arrests were being made.
National Guard forces had formed a human barricade to keep people out of the building.
Then a phalanx of police moved up the street, pushing people from the scene and firing “less lethal” munitions such as gas canisters. Police had used similar tactics since Friday.
