Global Turmoil: Leaders in Crisis and Conflict Unfolding

This material discusses recent world events, including the waning dominance of the African National Congress in South Africa, Biden's policy shift regarding US arms in Ukraine, Hamas-Israel conflict, and the conviction of Donald Trump for falsifying documents. Additional situations in Gaza, Slovakia, North Korea, and Kharkiv are also covered.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

ANC on course to lose majority in South Africa's seismic election

The African National Congress looked set to lose the parliamentary majority it has held for 30 years, partial election results on Thursday showed, as voters punished the former liberation movement for years of decline in South Africa.

While the party of the late Nelson Mandela looked likely to remain the largest political force, such an outcome would push it into a coalition with other parties for the first time in the country's post-apartheid history.

Biden allows Ukraine limited use of US arms to strike inside Russia, say US officials

President Joe Biden quietly has authorized Kyiv to launch U.S.-supplied weapons at military targets inside Russia that are supporting an offensive against the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, four U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The decision marks a policy shift by Biden, who had steadfastly refused to allow Ukraine to use American weaponry for strikes inside Russia.

Hamas says it is ready for a 'complete agreement' if Israel stops war

Hamas said on Thursday it had told mediators it would not take part in more negotiations during ongoing aggression but was ready for a "complete agreement" including an exchange of hostages and prisoners if Israel stopped the war. Talks, mediated by among others Egypt and Qatar, to arrange a ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist movement in the Gaza war have repeatedly stalled with both sides blaming the other for the lack of progress.

Israeli airstrike on Rafah kills 12 Palestinians, Gaza medics say

Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians in a dawn airstrike on Rafah in southern Gaza on Thursday and fighting raged in several other areas of the coastal enclave, Gaza medics said. Israel pressed on with its offensive on Rafah a day after saying its forces had taken control of a buffer zone along the nearby border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, giving it effective authority over Gaza's entire land frontier.

Exclusive-Israel reopens Gaza food sales as Rafah raid chokes aid

The Israeli military has lifted a ban on the sale of food to Gaza from Israel and the occupied West Bank as its battlefield offensive chokes international aid, according to Palestinian officials, businessmen and international aid workers. Army authorities gave Gazan traders the green light to resume their purchases from Israeli and Palestinian suppliers of food such as fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy goods this month, days after Israeli forces launched an assault on the enclave's southernmost city of Rafah, the people said.

Slovak Prime Minister Fico released from hospital, media says

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was released from a hospital in the central city of Banska Bystrica, where he had been recovering from an assassination attempt, and taken to his apartment in Bratislava on Thursday, Slovak media reported. The hospital and the government office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

North Korea says 18-missile salvo was warning to South

North Korea says it fired 18 short-range ballistic missiles during a drill as a demonstration of its willingness to launch a pre-emptive strike against South Korea's "gangsters' regime" if necessary to counter an attack, state media reported on Friday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guided the firing drill of 600mm "super-large" multiple rocket launchers on Thursday, state news agency KCNA reported.

Four civilians, two cops shot in Minneapolis, police say

Four civilians and two Minneapolis police officers were wounded on Thursday from a shooting in the Whittier neighborhood south of downtown, police said. Two of the civilians were killed after a gunman opened fire, and one of the officers was critically wounded, KMSP television reported, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.

Russian shelling kills at least one in apartment block in Ukraine's Kharkiv

Russian forces shelled a five-storey apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, killing at least one person and injuring 13, local officials said on Thursday. Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said at least two children were among the injured in the attack, which occurred at about midnight local time.

Guilty on all counts, Donald Trump becomes first US president convicted of a crime

Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime on Thursday when a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election. After two days of deliberation, the 12-member jury pronounced Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts he faced.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)