Friday, May 23rd
Last update03:57:01 AM GMT
International Glance
Israeli forces bombard Gaza, killing 43 people since midnight, after the military orders Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Younis to flee ahead of an “unprecedented attack”.
The leaders of Canada, France and the UK threaten to take “concrete action” against Israel if it does not end its renewed offensive in Gaza, while 22 countries urge Israel to let aid into the besieged enclave.
But the president’s outreach was inconclusive, and there was little sign of a breakthrough. Russia and Ukraine would hold direct talks on a ceasefire “immediately,” Trump said afterward in a post on his social network Truth Social, but it was unclear what form those talks would take or when they would happen. The Vatican, Trump said, has expressed interest in hosting the negotiations.
“The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of,” he said.
Trump’s call with Putin lasted more than two hours and “was very informative and very open,” Putin told Russian state media.
More,,,Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would control all of the Gaza Strip and prevent Hamas from looting aid.
The prime minister made his remarks as the Israeli military started in earnest a large-scale operation, called Gideon’s Chariot, that Netanyahu said amounted to his country essentially taking over Gaza.
This is part of defeating Hamas, in parallel with the tremendous military pressure, our massive entry, to essentially take over all of Gaza and strip Hamas of all ability to plunder humanitarian aid,” Netanyahu said, according to a transcript provided by Reuters.
“This is the war and victory plan.”
Netanyahu said the Israeli military would take control of food and aid distribution to Palestinians in the strip in coordination with American companies.
TVNL Comment: Will the world allow this to happen? We know.
Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 103 people overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, and prompted the main hospital in northern Gaza to close as Israel intensifies its war in the territory that, after more than 19 months, shows no signs of abating.
More than 48 people were killed in airstrikes in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, some of which hit houses and tents sheltering displaced people, according to Nasser Hospital. Among the dead were 18 children and 13 women, hospital spokesperson Weam Fares said.
In northern Gaza, a strike on a home in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp killed nine people from a single family, according to the Gaza health ministry’s emergency services. Another strike on a family’s residence, also in Jabaliya, killed 10, including seven children and a woman, according to the civil defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with top U.S. officials and European leaders in Rome on Sunday, part of stepped-up diplomatic efforts ahead of a high-stakes phone call Monday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on ending the war in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy spoke with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the U.S. ambassador's residence, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he had spoken both to Zelenskyy and to Rubio on the sidelines of the new pope's inauguration.
Tens of thousands of people have rallied across the world in solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and to mark the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Jewish militias, remembered as the Nakba, or catastrophe.The Nakba resulted in the permanent mass displacement of Palestinians after the creation of Israel in 1948. Activists say that history is repeating itself today in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
In Stockholm, thousands assembled at Odenplan Square, responding to calls from various civil society organisations to protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza. Participants waved Palestinian flags, displayed photographs of children killed, and carried banners stating: “Stop the Zionist regime’s genocide in Palestine”.
Pope Leo XIV formally assumed his role as the first American-born leader of the global Catholic Church with a Mass in St. Peter's Square in Rome drawing tens of thousands of people, including dozens of world leaders and European royalty.
As the Mass opened, the Chicago-born pope said in Italian, "Peace be with you and your spirits." He later said the church must confront modern challenges while maintaining its traditions, and rejected what he called "religious propaganda" and the misuse of power.
Leo reached out to conservatives who felt orphaned under his predecessor, vowing to preserve the Catholic Church's heritage and not rule like "an autocrat."
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