May 31 – Flooding in Nigeria’s Niger State this week has killed 151 people and forced several thousand from their homes, an emergency official told Reuters on Saturday.
Ibrahim Audu Hussaini, director of information at the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, provided the new death toll, which was previously reported at 117 on Friday.
He added that over 500 households had been impacted and more than 3,000 people displaced.
The flooding incident in the central town of Mokwa in Niger State occurred on Wednesday night and continued into Thursday morning. Days later, rescuers were still picking through mud and debris in search of bodies.
Nigeria is prone to flooding during the rainy season, which began in April.
In 2022, the country’s worst wave of floods in more than a decade killed more than 600 people, displaced around 1.4 million and destroyed 440,000 hectares (1.09 million acres) of farmland.
TOKYO, May 31 – An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 struck off the coast of Kushiro in Japan’s Hokkaido on Saturday, local weather agency said.
The temblor occurred at 5:37 p.m. local time (0837 GMT), originating at a depth of approximately 20 km, said the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
While slight changes in sea level may be observed along Japan’s coastline, there is no concern for significant damage or a tsunami, the JMA said.
Emergency services are monitoring the situation closely, and no immediate reports of injury or structural damage have been issued.
SHIJIAZHUANG, May 31 – An explosion at a chemical plant in Wuyi County, north China’s Hebei Province, claimed five lives and left two injured on Friday, local authorities confirmed Saturday.
The blast occurred around 6:30 p.m. Friday in a workshop where a cleaning vessel exploded, according to the Wuyi county emergency management bureau.
Emergency teams, including fire, medical, police, and emergency management personnel from the city and county levels, rushed to the scene for rescue operations.
Rescue efforts have concluded, and the two injured are reported to be in stable condition. Authorities are investigating the cause of the explosion.
JAKARTA, May 31 – The number of casualties of landslides at a quarry in Indonesia’s West Java province increased to 14, and 11 others are still missing, an official said on Saturday.
Search for the missing victims after the landslides on Friday in the Gunung Kuda mine located in Bobos village of Cirebon Regency is ongoing, said Hadi Rahmat Hardjasasmita, spokesperson for the Disaster Management and Mitigation Agency of West Java province.
“The number of casualties reached 14, and the number of persons being buried is predicted to be eleven,” he told Xinhua.
The search operation also involved soldiers, policemen, the personnel of the local Disaster Management and Mitigation Agency, and those from other government institutions.
“However, large amounts of landslide materials and worries about further landslides during the evacuation are challenging the operation,” he said.
The authorities in the province had warned the firm operating in the mine of violating technical procedures in mining methods, said Vivi Silvia C., a press officer at the Administration Office of West Java province.
A state of emergency status has been applied after the disaster, she told Xinhua.
SYDNEY, May 31 – Police are searching for two attackers after three men were stabbed northwest of Sydney in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Emergency services were called to a street in the city of Dubbo, over 300 km northwest of Sydney, shortly after 3 a.m. local time on Saturday and found three men with stab wounds after they were reportedly attacked by two other men.
A police statement said that a 21-year-old man was treated for stab wounds to his head, back and lower body. Two other men, both aged 29, suffered stab wounds to their upper bodies.
All three were taken to a local hospital in a stable condition.
Police established a crime scene and have commenced inquiries into the cause of the incident and launched a search for the attackers.
SEOUL, May 31 – A fire broke out on a train of Subway Line 5 in South Korea’s capital Seoul at about 8:47 a.m. local time on Saturday, according to multiple media outlets.
According to police and witnesses, a man presumed to be in his 60s or 70s carried a torch and a jerrycan on the subway, and allegedly set fire between Yeouinaru and Mapo stations. The suspect of arson has been arrested by police, according to Yonhap News Agency.
Passengers in the train have been evacuated, with no casualties reported so far. The on-site fire-fighting operation has been completed.
Subway services between Yeouido and Aeogae stations have been suspended due to the incident, according to Seoul Metro.
Trucks transport aid as Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it has commenced operations to begin distribution of aid, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 26, 2025. Gaza Humanitarian Foundation/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
UNITED NATIONS, May 30 – The situation in Gaza is the worst since the war between Israel and Hamas militants began 19-months ago, the United Nations said on Friday, despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries in the Palestinian enclave where famine looms.
Under growing global pressure, Israel ended an 11-week long blockade on Gaza 12 days ago, allowing limited U.N.-led operations to resume. Then on Monday, a controversial new avenue for aid distribution was also launched – the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, backed by the United States and Israel.
“Any aid that gets into the hands of people who need it is good,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York. But, he added, the aid deliveries so far overall have had “very, very little impact.”
“The catastrophic situation in Gaza is the worst since the war began,” he said.
The U.N. and international aid groups have refused to work with the GHF because they say it is not neutral and has a distribution model that forces the displacement of Palestinians.
Israel ultimately wants the U.N. to work through the GHF, which is using private U.S. security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution by civilian teams at so-called secure distribution sites.
However, Israel will allow aid deliveries “for the immediate future” via both the U.N. and the GHF operations, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said this week. GHF said on Friday that it has so far managed to distribute more than 2.1 million meals.
Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies.
The war in Gaza has raged since 2023, when Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies, and Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
LOOTING, ACCESS
The U.N. says that in the past 12 days it has only managed to transport some 200 truckloads of aid into Gaza, hindered by insecurity and Israeli access restrictions. It was not immediately clear how much of that aid reached those in need. It said some trucks and a World Food Programme warehouse have also been looted by desperate, hungry people.
U.N. officials have also criticized Israeli limitations on what kind of aid they can provide.
“Israeli authorities have not allowed us to bring in a single ready-to-eat meal. The only food permitted has been flour for bakeries. Even if allowed in unlimited quantities, which it hasn’t been, it wouldn’t amount to a complete diet for anyone,” said Eri Kaneko, U.N. humanitarian affairs spokesperson.
Some of recipients of GHF aid said the packages include some rice, flour, canned beans, pasta, olive oil, biscuits and sugar.
Under a complex process, Israel inspects and clears aid shipments, which are then transported to the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing. There the aid is offloaded and then reloaded on to other trucks for transport to warehouses in Gaza.
Several hundred more truckloads of aid currently await U.N. collection from the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom.
“More aid would actually get to the people if you would collect the aid waiting for you by the crossings,” COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, said to the U.N. in a posting on X on Friday.
However, the U.N. said that on Tuesday the Israeli military denied all its requests to access Kerem Shalom to pick up the aid. And on Thursday, when 65 trucks of aid managed to leave the crossing, all but five turned back due to intense fighting.
Five trucks of medical aid managed to reach the warehouses of a field hospital, but “a group of armed individuals stormed the warehouses… looting large quantities of medical equipment, supplies, medicines and nutritional supplements that was intended for malnourished children,” Dujarric said.
CEASEFIRE PROPOSAL
Israel says it has been facilitating all aid deliveries. COGAT said this week that since the war 1.8 million tonnes of aid, including 1.3 million tonnes of food, had reached Gaza.
A U.S. proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in the conflict – accepted by Israel and currently being considered by Hamas – would see humanitarian aid delivered by the United Nations, the Red Crescent and other agreed channels.
During a two-month ceasefire, which ended when Israel resumed its military operation in March, the U.N. said it got 600-700 trucks of aid a day into Gaza. It has stressed then when people know there is a steady flow of aid, the looting subsides.
“To prevent chaos, aid must flow in steadily,” Corinne Fleischer, the U.N. World Food Programme’s Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe director, posted on X on Thursday.
“When people know food is coming, desperation turns to calm.”
JAKARTA, May 30 – At least 10 people in Indonesia’s West Java were killed and six injured on Friday following a rock collapse at a quarry, the disaster agency said, with search efforts ongoing to find people buried beneath the rubble.
The collapse took place in Cirebon in West Java, where television footage showed excavators working to move huge rocks and personnel moving bags containing bodies to an ambulance. Kompas TV earlier said about 10 people were missing.
The national disaster management agency said heavy machinery, including three excavators, were also buried under rocks and operations would continue on Saturday. It gave no estimate on the number of people missing.
West Java’s governor, Dedi Mulyadi, on his Instagram account said the site was dangerous and “does not meet safety standards for workers”.
DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM, May 30 – Israel carried out airstrikes late Friday on multiple military targets in Syria’s coastal provinces of Tartus and Latakia, including a former special forces headquarters and military positions near civilian areas, according to Syrian state media and a war monitor.
In Tartus, the airstrikes targeted a military facility formerly used by special forces, as well as sites in the al-Wuhaib industrial area and the al-Blata barracks, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
State-run al-Ikhbariya TV reported that Israeli warplanes hit the village of Zama in the Jableh countryside, as well as military sites in the Mina al-Bayda port area and the 107th Brigade base in neighboring Latakia province.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it attacked weapon storage facilities in Latakia on Friday night.
It added that the facilities contained missiles that posed a threat to international and Israeli maritime freedom of navigation.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, and Syrian defense authorities had not issued an official statement.
The strikes come amid heightened regional tensions and follow a series of Israeli raids across Syria in recent months, some of which have resulted in casualties and the destruction of air defense systems or weapons depots.
KHARTOUM, May 30 – At least 26 civilians were killed in attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on three towns in Sudan’s western Kordofan region, the Sudanese government announced on Friday.
“In recent hours, the RSF militia has committed a series of horrific crimes, deliberately targeting civilian areas and claiming the lives of innocent people,” Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“Today (Friday), the militia targeted Al-Daman Hospital in El-Obeid city, killing 16 patients who were receiving treatment and injuring several others,” the ministry said, adding, “On Wednesday, the militia also attacked a public market in the town of Al-Khiwai with drones, killing eight civilians.”
The RSF also targeted a residential area in the town of Al-Dibaibat, South Kordofan, killing two civilians, the statement said.
The ministry described the RSF attacks as part of a deliberate and systematic campaign targeting civilians, humanitarian organizations, critical infrastructure, and essential services, with the intent of inflicting maximum civilian harm.
It accused the RSF of bombing World Food Programme warehouses in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, on Thursday and setting them ablaze, destroying large quantities of food supplies.
Armed clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF have intensified across the Kordofan region, which includes North, West, and South Kordofan states.
On Thursday, the RSF claimed control of the towns of Al-Dibaibat in South Kordofan and Al-Khiwai in West Kordofan. The Sudanese army has not yet responded to the claim.
Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal conflict between the SAF and the RSF since April 2023. The war has killed tens of thousands and forced millions to flee their homes, both within Sudan and across its borders.
UN relief chief Tom Fletcher talks to a young boy in northern Gaza during the ceasefire in February. (UNOCHA/Olga Cherevko)
LONDON – Israel’s blocking of food aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza in an attempt to forcibly remove the population amounts to a war crime, the UN’s humanitarian chief said in an interview broadcast on Friday.
Israel allowed a trickle of supplies into Gaza last week after a complete blockade for nearly three months. But there have been chaotic and deadly scenes amid a new distribution system that sidelined the UN.
“We’re seeing food sat on the borders and not being allowed in when there is a population on the other side of the border that is starving, and we’re hearing Israeli ministers say that is to put pressure on the population of Gaza,” Tom Fletcher told the BBC.
Using food as a weapon “is classified as a war crime,” he said, adding that would be for the courts and history to judge.
He also warned Israel against the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza to another country, a policy that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his hard-line cabinet have advocated.
Earlier this month, Israel’s extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Gaza would be “totally destroyed” within six months and Palestinians there would be so despairing that they would be “looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places.”
Fletcher called on Netanyahu to ensure that “this language, and ultimately, this policy … of forced displacement, isn’t enacted.”
Since Israel broke a two-month ceasefire in March it has ramped up its operations in Gaza, killing thousands more Palestinian civilians in an attempt to take full military control of the territory.
This picture shows houses in the Israeli settlement of Psagot in the occupied West Bank, located on Tawil hill adjacent to the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, on May 29, 2025. AFP
JERUSALEM – Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed on Friday to build a “Jewish Israeli state” in the occupied West Bank, a day after the government announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the Palestinian territory.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, seen as a major obstacle to lasting peace, are regularly condemned by the United Nations as illegal under international law, and Thursday’s announcement drew sharp foreign criticism.
“This is a decisive response to the terrorist organizations that are trying to harm and weaken our hold on this land — and it is also a clear message to (French President Emmanuel) Macron and his associates: they will recognize a Palestinian state on paper — but we will build the Jewish Israeli state here on the ground,” Katz was quoted as saying Friday in a statement from his office.
“The paper will be thrown into the trash bin of history, and the State of Israel will flourish and prosper.”
Katz was speaking during a visit to the Sa-Nur settlement outpost in the northern West Bank.
Sa-Nur was evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, promoted by then prime minister Ariel Sharon.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
During a visit to Singapore on Friday, French President Macron asserted that recognition of a Palestinian state, with some conditions, was “not only a moral duty, but a political necessity.”
An international conference meant to resurrect the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is set to take place in June at the UN headquarters in New York.
A diplomat in Paris close to preparations for the conference said it should pave the way for more countries to recognize a Palestinian state.
Macron said in April that France could recognize a Palestinian state in June.
Following Israel’s announcement of the new settlements on Thursday, Britain called the move a “deliberate obstacle” to Palestinian statehood, while UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman said it pushed efforts toward a two-state solution “in the wrong direction.”
ABUJA, Nigeria – At least 111 people were confirmed dead in central Nigeria on Friday after floods submerged the market town of Mokwa in the country’s Niger State following torrential rains, officials said.
The heavy rains lasted for several hours Thursday, and media reports quoting local government officials said a dam collapse in a nearby town had worsened the situation. The flooding displaced large amounts of people, the reports said.
Rescuers continued to find more bodies into the afternoon Friday. Earlier reports said 88 people had died, but then at least 23 more bodies were found, Niger State emergency agency spokesman IIbrahim Audu Husseinit told The Associated Press in the afternoon.
That brought the toll to 111, but that could go higher as the search continued.
“More bodies have just been brought and are yet to be counted, but we have at least 111 confirmed already,” Husseini told AP by telephone.
Mokwa, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) west of Abuja, is a major meeting point where traders from the south buy food from growers in the north.
GAZA, May 30, 2025 – The death toll arising from the ongoing Israeli genocidal aggression on the Gaza Strip surged to 54,321 people, medical sources said on Friday.
MADRID, May 30, 2025 – The Spanish government on Friday condemned Israel’s recent approval of plans to build 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, calling the move a blatant violation of international law and a serious threat to regional peace.
In a statement issued by the Spanish Foreign Ministry, the government expressed its “deep concern” over the Israeli decision, warning that such actions severely undermine the prospects of a two-state solution and escalate tensions in the region.
Spain also voiced alarm over the intensifying Israeli military aggression in the West Bank, particularly in the Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nour Shams refugee camps. The statement denounced the ongoing demolitions, increasing settler violence, and the forced displacement of thousands of Palestinians, describing these acts as violations of international humanitarian law.
The Spanish government reaffirmed its position that lasting peace in the Middle East requires the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state encompassing the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
GAZA, May 30, 2025 – Three Palestinian civilians were killed and several others injured on Friday in Israeli airstrikes targeting central areas of the Gaza Strip.
According to WAFA correspondent, one of the attacks struck a residential area in the city of Deir al-Balah, killing a man and his wife, who was nine months pregnant.
In a separate airstrike on Al-Bureij refugee camp, at least one more Palestinian was killed and several others were wounded, most of them critically. The target of the strike was reportedly a local barbershop.
ABUJA, May 30 – The death toll from devastating floods triggered by heavy rainfall in Nigeria’s north-central Niger State has climbed to at least 88, local authorities said Friday.
Ibrahim Isah Hussaini, head of operations at the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said at least 67 more bodies were recovered during ongoing rescue efforts in the Mokwa area, raising the death toll from 21 reported on Thursday.
“The number keeps rising. But at the last count, 88 bodies have been recovered,” Hussaini said during rescue operations, adding that more people remain missing.
Palestinians evacuate in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a house, in Gaza City, May 30, 2025. REUTERS
May 30 – The U.S. plan for Gaza, seen by Reuters on Friday, proposes a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 28 Israeli hostages – alive and dead – in the first week, in exchange for the release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians.
The document, which says the plan is guaranteed by U.S. President Donald Trump and mediators Egypt and Qatar, includes sending humanitarian aid to Gaza as soon as Hamas signs off on the ceasefire agreement.
The aid will be delivered by the United Nations, the Red Crescent and other agreed channels.
The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the U.S. ceasefire proposal.
Israeli media said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel had accepted the deal presented by Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The prime minister’s office declined to comment.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas said it had received the Israeli response to the proposal, which it said “fails to meet any of the just and legitimate demands of our people” including an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Hamas official Basem Naim said the Israeli response “fundamentally seeks to entrench the occupation and perpetuate policies of killing and starvation, even during what is supposed to be a period of temporary de-escalation”.
However, he said Hamas’ leadership was carrying out a “thorough and responsible review of the new proposal”.
A Palestinian woman reacts in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a house, in Gaza City, May 30, 2025. REUTERS
The U.S. plan provides for Hamas to release the last 30 of the 58 remaining Israeli hostages once a permanent ceasefire is in place. Israel will also cease all military operations in Gaza as soon as the truce takes effect, it shows.
The Israeli army will also redeploy its troops in stages.
Deep differences between Hamas and Israel have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March.
Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm completely, be dismantled as a military and governing force and return all 58 hostages still held in Gaza before it will agree to end the war.
Hamas has rejected the demand to give up its weapons and says Israel must pull its troops out of Gaza and commit to ending the war.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack in its south on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 Israelis taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
The subsequent Israeli military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, Gaza health officials say, and has left the enclave in ruins.
MOUNTING PRESSURE
Israel has come under increasing international pressure, with many European countries that are usually reluctant to criticise it openly demanding an end to the war and a major relief effort.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, with almost no ready-to-eat food entering what its spokesperson described as “the hungriest place on earth”.
Witkoff told reporters on Wednesday that Washington was close to “sending out a new term sheet” about a ceasefire by the two sides in the conflict.
“I have some very good feelings about getting to a long-term resolution, temporary ceasefire and a long-term resolution, a peaceful resolution, of that conflict,” Witkoff said then.
The 60-day ceasefire, according to the plan, may be extended if negotiations for a permanent ceasefire are not concluded within the set period.
Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, May 30, 2025. REUTERS
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Thursday the terms of the proposal echoed Israel’s position and did not contain commitments to end the war, withdraw Israeli troops or admit aid as Hamas has demanded.
AID DISTRIBUTION
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private group backed by the United States and endorsed by Israel, said it had distributed a total of more than 1.8 million meals this week and it expanded its aid distribution to a third site in Gaza on Thursday. GHF plans to open more sites in coming weeks.
The group, heavily criticised by the United Nations and other aid groups as inadequate and flawed, began its operation this week in Gaza, where the U.N. has said 2 million people are at risk of famine after an 11-week blockade by Israel on aid entering the enclave.
There were tumultuous scenes on Tuesday as thousands of Palestinians rushed to distribution points and forced private security contractors to retreat.
The chaotic start to the operation has raised international pressure on Israel to get more food in and halt the fighting in Gaza.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that his country could harden its position if Israel continues to block humanitarian aid to Gaza.
ISLAMABAD, May 30 – Four soldiers and seven terrorists were killed in two separate operations in Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military has said.
Security forces conducted intelligence-based operations in North Waziristan and Chitral districts on Wednesday, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistani military, said in a statement.
Six terrorists were killed in an exchange of fire after they attacked a security check post in the Shawal area of North Waziristan, the statement said, adding that four soldiers were also killed in the ensuing firefight.
One more terrorist was killed during a clearance operation in Chitral district, the ISPR said.
Weapons and ammunition were recovered from the terrorists, who were reportedly involved in various militant activities in the region, the statement said.
ISTANBUL, May 30 – Turkish police detained 873 people in a large-scale security operation in Istanbul aimed at maintaining public order and apprehending criminal suspects, the city’s police department said on Friday.
The operation, carried out on Thursday, involved road checkpoints at 215 locations across the city, supported by a police helicopter and five patrol boats from the Marine Port Branch. Officers also conducted inspections at numerous public venues.
Police said they checked a total of 550,751 individuals. Among those detained were 539 people wanted for various offenses.
Security forces seized 27 unlicensed pistols, five rifles, five blank-firing guns and 299 rounds of ammunition. Authorities also confiscated 1,733 grams of narcotics and 1,300 drug pills.
The latest operation follows a similar sweep on May 8, during which police detained 982 suspects.
The Istanbul Police Department said such operations would continue.
