More than half a million people in Afghanistan were displaced due to climate disasters in 2024, the International Organization for Migration said in a country report published on Tuesday.

Hamas yesterday called on Israel to enter negotiations for the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire after the group handed over the bodies of four hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

The United States has dramatically cut the budgets of overseas development and aid programmes, with multi-year contracts pared down by 92 percent, or $54 billion, the State Department said Wednesday.

Over 108,000 people applied for asylum in Britain last year, government figures showed yesterday, the highest number for any 12-month period since records began in 2001.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said yesterday that Israeli forces would indefinitely remain in what he called a “buffer zone”, in southern Lebanon.

The mpox outbreak is still a public health emergency, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

China’s defence ministry said yesterday that drills which had alarmed Taiwan off its coast were “routine” and the island should stop complaining, as Taipei reported a surge in Chinese military activity, although no live-fire exercises.

The Kremlin yesterday ruled out any negotiation over the status of five Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed despite not fully controlling four of them.

Gene Hackman, the intense character actor who won two Oscars in a more than 60-year career, has died alongside his wife, pianist Betsy Arakawa, and their dog at home, the sheriff’s office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, said yesterday.

The EU’s top team arrived in India on an “unprecedented” visit yesterday, aiming to broaden commercial and diplomatic ties and hedge against souring relations with the United States.

US President Donald Trump posted a video on his Truth Social account late on Tuesday, which appears to have been created with generative AI, promoting the transformation of Gaza into a Gulf state-like resort featuring a golden statue of himself, a hummus-eating Elon Musk, and shirtless American and Israeli leaders lounging on a beach.

The 33-second clip remained on Trump's accounts without denial or retraction hours after the initial posting on Tuesday night.

They are among some 7,000 people from more than two dozen countries released from scam compounds who are now enduring a gruelling wait to be sent home through Thailand.

In 2024, 720,988 babies were born in Japan, including to foreign nationals, down five percent from 758,631 in 2023

On Wednesday, the US government pointed the finger at Pyongyang.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel had received the coffins of "four fallen hostages"

He criticised the country's communist leaders on issues such as corruption, media control and relations with China

The effects of shutting foreign aid down permanently could have impacts globally

The memo represents a major escalation in Trump and Musk's campaign to slash the size of the US government.

Nearly 600 nearby residents have been evacuated, according to the local municipality, with no injuries confirmed so far.