World News Roundup: Man dies after setting self on fire outside New York court where Trump trial underway; Fighting flares at Myanmar-Thai border as rebels target stranded junta troops and more

The charity Campaign Against ­Antisemitism released a video late on Thursday which showed a police officer preventing Gideon Falter, its chief executive, from crossing a road in the capital because of the protest on April 13. Iran's foreign minister downplays drone attack, says Tehran investigating Iran's foreign minister on Friday said Tehran was investigating an overnight attack on Iran, adding that so far a link to Israel had not been proven as he downplayed the strike.


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 20-04-2024 18:45 IST | Created: 20-04-2024 18:26 IST
World News Roundup: Man dies after setting self on fire outside New York court where Trump trial underway; Fighting flares at Myanmar-Thai border as rebels target stranded junta troops and more
Representative Image Image Credit: Pixabay

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

X vows to 'robustly challenge' Australia order to remove stabbing posts

Social media platform X said on Saturday it would challenge in court an order from an Australian regulator demanding the company remove some posts related to the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney. Police charged a boy, 16, with a terrorism offence on Thursday for the alleged stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at a church in the New South Wales capital on Monday. Footage from the scene showed the boy restrained by the congregation and shouting accusations that Emmanuel had insulted Islam.

US House to vote on long-awaited $95 billion Ukraine, Israel aid package

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday is set to vote on, and expected to pass, a $95 billion legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, over bitter objections from party hardliners. More than two months have passed since the Democratic-majority Senate passed a similar measure and U.S. leaders from Democratic President Joe Biden to top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell have been urging embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring it up for a vote.

Ukrainian drones strike Russian fuel depot, substations in major attack, Kyiv source says

Ukraine attacked eight Russian regions with dozens of long-range strike drones, setting ablaze a fuel depot and hitting three power substations in a major attack early on Saturday, an intelligence source in Kyiv told Reuters. The overnight attack, which was confirmed by the defence ministry in Moscow, comes amid a Russian airstrike campaign that has battered Ukraine's energy system and pounded its cities in recent weeks.

UK minister writes to London police over 'openly Jewish' comment

British interior minister James Cleverly has written to London's Metropolitan Police after an officer stopped a man who was wearing a traditional kippah cap from crossing a road during a pro-Palestinian march on the grounds he was "openly Jewish". The charity Campaign Against ­Antisemitism released a video late on Thursday which showed a police officer preventing Gideon Falter, its chief executive, from crossing a road in the capital because of the protest on April 13.

Iran's foreign minister downplays drone attack, says Tehran investigating

Iran's foreign minister on Friday said Tehran was investigating an overnight attack on Iran, adding that so far a link to Israel had not been proven as he downplayed the strike. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told NBC News the drones took off from inside Iran and flew for a few hundred meters before being downed.

Two die in ongoing Israeli raid in West Bank, Palestinian Health Ministry says

Israeli forces exchanged fire with Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank on Saturday in the second day of a raid that has so far left at least two people dead, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israeli forces launched the raid on the Nur Shams area, near the Palestinian city of Tulkarm, on Friday. A number of militants were killed and more arrested, the Israeli military said, and at least four soldiers were wounded in fire exchanges.

Iraq's PMF force says base was attacked, army investigates

A huge blast at a military base in Iraq early on Saturday killed a member of an Iraqi security force that includes Iran-backed groups. The force commander said it was an attack while the army said it was investigating and there were no warplanes in the sky at the time. Two security sources had said earlier that an airstrike caused the blast, which killed a member of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and wounded eight others at Kalso military base about 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad.

US military strategy tested as Iran-Israel warfare comes out of shadows

The U.S. military's success helping Israel stop a massive wave of Iranian missiles and drones last weekend might suggest Washington is well prepared militarily for whatever comes next as Iran and Israel move from shadow warfare to direct confrontation. But current and former U.S. officials say U.S. forces are not positioned for a major, sustained Middle East conflict and the Pentagon may have to revisit assumptions about military needs in the region if the crisis deepens.

Man dies after setting self on fire outside New York court where Trump trial underway

A man has died after setting himself on fire on Friday outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump's historic hush-money trial was taking place as jury selection wrapped up, but officials said he did not appear to have been targeting Trump. The man burned for several minutes in full view of television cameras that were set up outside the courthouse, where the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president is being held.

Fighting flares at Myanmar-Thai border as rebels target stranded junta troops

Fighting raged at Myanmar's eastern frontier with Thailand on Saturday, witnesses, media and Thailand's government said, forcing about 200 civilians to flee as rebels pressed to flush out junta troops holed up for days at a bridge border crossing. Resistance fighters and ethnic minority rebels seized the key trading town of Myawaddy on the Myanmar side of the frontier on April 11, dealing a big blow to a well-equipped military that is struggling to govern and is now facing a critical test of its battlefield credibility.

(With inputs from agencies.)

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