May 29, 2024

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR | Updates from day 236 of the conflict:

• Overnight Israeli shelling and airstrikes killed at least 35 people near the southern Gaza city of Rafah – 16 in the city’s Tel al-Sultan district and 21 in the Al-Mawasi tent encampment on the Mediterranean coast west of Rafah. Reports say most of those killed were civilians. Israeli officials have denied carrying out an attack on the Al-Mawasi encampment. [more]
• Algeria yesterday circulated a U.N. Security Council resolution that demands a halt to Israeli military offensives in Rafah. Several similar resolutions before the Council have previously failed. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 825 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday warned Western nations against permitting Ukraine to use donated long-range weapons to strike deep within Russia, saying such a move could spark a global conflict. Putin’s comments came after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview last week that such use of Western weapons should be allowed. [more]
• Sweden has announced a new $1.23 billion military aid package for Ukraine, which, according to Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch, will consist of high-priority equipment, including air defenses, artillery ammunition, and armored vehicles. [more]

TEXAS | Following a series of powerful storms over several days, authorities in Texas say hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in the state could remain without power for several days. [more]

IOWA | Health and agriculture officials in Iowa say some 4 million chickens in Iowa will have to be killed after a case of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu was detected at a large egg farm in the state’s Sioux County. [more]

U.S. PHILANTHROPY | Billionaire philanthropist Melinda French Gates announced yesterday that she is committing $1 billion over the next two years to women’s causes and gender equality worldwide. Some $200 million of Gates’ donations will go to organizations in the U.S. that support gender and reproductive rights. [more]

U.S. COMMUNICATIONS | T-Mobile has announced plans to purchase U.S. Cellular’s wireless business and about 30% of its spectrum licenses in a deal worth about $4.4 billion in cash and assumed debt. [more]

E.U. CYBERSECURITY | According to Juhan Lepassaar, head of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, digital attacks on European infrastructure have doubled in number from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, with many such attacks targeting election-related services. [more]

SOUTH AFRICA | Citizens of South Africa are voting today in the country’s national election, the results of which, according to analysts, could end the African National Congress party’s 30-year government majority. [more]

U.K. | Under a plan proposed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s governing Conservative Party ahead of July’s national election, all 18-year-olds in Britain would be required to perform a year of military or civilian national service. [more]

PAKISTAN | Officials in Pakistan’s southwest Baluchistan province say 28 people were killed, and another 20 were injured, today when a bus traveling to the provincial capital of Quetta fell from a highway into a rocky ravine. The cause of the crash is under investigation. [more]

HAITI | Amidst the Caribbean island nation’s ongoing gang violence, Haiti’s transitional council yesterday named U.N. development specialist Garry Conille as the country’s new prime minister. Conille, who previously served as prime minister from October 2011 to May 2012, replaces interim prime minister Michel Patrick Boisvert. [more]

U.K. POSTAL SERVICE | International Distribution Services, the owner of Britain’s 500-year-old Royal Mail, has reportedly accepted a 3.6-billion-pound, or US$4.6 billion, takeover offer from Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Group. No major job cuts are expected as part of the purchase, and Royal Mail will reportedly maintain its name, branding, and obligation to six-day-a-week mail delivery. [more]

KOREA | Reports say North Korea has sent more than 250 balloons carrying trash, toilet paper, and suspected feces into South Korea this week in a move the North says is in retaliation for the scattering of propaganda leaflets in the border area between the two rivals. [more]

CHINESE ECONOMY | In its latest forecast, the International Monetary Fund estimates that China’s economy will expand at an annual rate of 5% this year – an increase of 0.4% above the organization’s previous estimate. [more]

VENEZUELA | Citing European Union sanctions imposed on more than 50 Venezuelans accused of acts of repression or efforts to undermine democracy, Venezuela yesterday revoked its invitation for an E.U. mission to observe the South American country’s upcoming presidential election. [more]

THAILAND | Prosecutors in Thailand say they intend to indict former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted from power in a military coup in 2006, on charges of defaming the country’s monarchy in 2016. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1953, following numerous failed attempts by others, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. [more history]