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Israel strikes Beirut hotel as war enters fifth day Israel carried out a strike on a hotel in Beirut as the war entered its fifth day, according to initial updates from the scene. Immediate details on the location within the capital, the extent of damage and whether there were casualties were not available. The strike underscores the volatility and speed at which events are unfolding in Lebanon’s capital, where hotels can house travelers, aid workers and residents alongside commercial tenants. With the conflict now five days…

U.S. military says two killed in strike on alleged drug-smuggling boat in eastern Pacific The U.S. military said it killed two people and left a third survivor in its latest strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the eastern Pacific, expanding a campaign Washington has framed as a fight against “narco-terrorists” operating out of Venezuela. “Two narco-terrorists were killed and one survived the strike,” U.S. Southern Command said in a statement posted on X. It added that the U.S. Coast Guard was notified to “activate…

Russian missile and drone strikes hammered Kyiv, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities early Tuesday, injuring at least four people and igniting new fires at energy facilities as a deep freeze gripped the country, officials said. The barrage came on the eve of planned trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates involving envoys from Kyiv, Moscow and Washington on efforts to halt the war. Air raid alerts sounded after midnight in the capital, where night temperatures fell below minus 20 C. Witnesses reported loud explosions as…

Landslides at M23-held Rubaya coltan mine in eastern DRC bury miners; fatalities feared A series of landslides struck the militia-controlled Rubaya mining zone in North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, burying people alive and killing several, according to accounts provided to AFP by the provincial governor and witnesses. The death toll remained unclear Friday, and independent verification of casualties was not immediately possible. The collapses followed heavy rains, with one landslide reported Wednesday…

US military says strike on suspected narco-trafficking boat in Eastern Pacific kills two; Coast Guard searches for survivor The US military said it killed two alleged drug traffickers in a strike on a boat in the Eastern Pacific, as the Coast Guard searched for a third person seen in video footage who survived the blast. US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said in a post on X that “intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking…

Spain’s rail network reeled from a fourth accident in less than a week as authorities recovered two more bodies from the wreckage of last weekend’s high-speed train collision in Andalusia, raising the death toll to 45. The discovery comes hours after a commuter train struck a crane arm near the port city of Cartagena in the southeastern Murcia region, lightly injuring six, officials said. An Andalusia emergency services spokesman said the bodies were retrieved from a Renfe-operated train that crashed into a derailed Iryo…

Russia launched a “massive” night-time barrage across Ukraine that killed at least four people, wounded 25 and damaged 20 residential buildings in Kyiv and its suburbs, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, adding a drone also hit the Embassy of Qatar in the capital. The overnight assault combined ballistic and cruise missiles with swarms of drones as temperatures plunged to minus 10 C and power outages spread. Zelensky said Russia fired 13 ballistic missiles, including the hypersonic Oreshnik, and 22 cruise missiles, and…

Saturday January 3, 2026 JOWHAR, Somalia — A landmine explosion struck a convoy escorting Hirshabelle State President Ali Guudlawe Hussein on Friday as it traveled from Mohamed Dheere Airport toward Jowhar, injuring several members of his delegation but leaving the president unharmed, officials said. The blast occurred at Jiiro Carmoole, a stretch of road between the airport and Jowhar town, and hit one of the vehicles providing security for the president shortly after his arrival, according to security sources. Ali Guudlawe…

Climate change fueled a punishing year of extreme weather in 2025 that fell hardest on poorer communities, even as a cooling La Niña pattern took hold, according to a new assessment by World Weather Attribution, an international group of climate scientists. The annual report found that 2025 ranked among the three hottest years ever recorded, a sign of how far human-caused warming has pushed baseline temperatures. That backdrop turbocharged heatwaves, droughts, storms and wildfires across continents, widening a stark…

A drone strike on a crowded market in Sudan’s North Darfur killed 10 people over the weekend, first responders said, as fighting intensified across the country and aid agencies pulled staff from a besieged, famine-hit city in the south. The North Darfur Emergency Rooms Council, a volunteer network coordinating relief, said a drone hit Al-Harra market in the Rapid Support Forces-controlled town of Malha, igniting fires in shops and causing extensive damage. The council did not identify who carried out the strike. There was no…