World News

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A SpaceX Starship prototype failed in space on Thursday, minutes after launching from Texas, setting back the company’s speedy rocket development efforts in a mission that was expected to debut a key satellite deployment demonstration.

SpaceX’s Starship system, a heavily upgraded version standing roughly 37 stories tall, lifted off from the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, launch facilities at 5:38 p.m. EST (2238 GMT) in the company’s seventh test mission, and first such test this year.

SpaceX mission control in Texas lost contact with Starship eight minutes into flight after it separated in space from its Super Heavy first stage booster, SpaceX Communications Manager Dan Huot said on a live stream.

“We did lose all communications with the ship – that is essentially telling us we had an anomaly with the upper stage,” Huot said, confirming minutes later that the ship was lost.

The Starship upper stage, two meters (6.56 feet) taller than previous versions, was a “new generation ship with significant upgrades,” SpaceX said in a mission description prior to the test. It was due to make a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean roughly an hour after its launch from Texas.

SpaceX has not seen a Starship second stage fail since its second test mission in March last year, when the rocket was reentering Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart.

The towering Super Heavy booster, meanwhile, returned to its launchpad roughly seven minutes after liftoff, as planned, slowing its descent from space by reigniting its Raptor engines as it hooked itself on giant mechanical arms fixed to a launch tower.

The landing success was SpaceX’s second across three attempts.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Chris Reese and Sandra Maler)

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SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea denounced the United States for sending military aircraft over the Korean peninsula several times this month, as well as the U.S., Japan and South Korea for holding an air military exercise, state media KCNA reported on Friday.

North Korea also denounced the joint Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) between the U.S. and South Korea that seeks to manage North Korea’s nuclear threat, the report said.

North Korea will “strongly curb any military provocations” by exercising its thorough right to self-defence, KCNA reported, citing the country’s foreign ministry.

During the latest NCG meeting held last week, the U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to enhance the regular visibility of U.S. strategic assets on the Korean peninsula, according to a joint statement from the U.S. and South Korea.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Jamie Freed)

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NEW ADMINISTRATIVE CAPITAL, Egypt (AP) — Egypt’s chief diplomat on Thursday called on Israel and Hamas to implement a Gaza ceasefire plan “without any delay,” raising pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the deal.

Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty delivered the message at a sensitive time in efforts to end a devastating 15-month conflict. A day after President Joe Biden and other international mediators announced the ceasefire agreement, Netanyahu insisted there still was no deal.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Abdelatty declined to comment on Netanyahu’s claims that Hamas has “reneged” on certain pledges in the agreement. But he said a deal had been reached thanks to “deep involvement” by American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, including officials from the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

“We have a deal. What’s very important is to start implementation,” Abdelatty said from the foreign ministry’s headquarters in The New Administrative Capital, a newly built sprawling city about 45 kilometers (28 miles) east of Cairo that houses government offices.

“What we are doing now is to push for final approval and implementation, without any delay.”

Egypt, which has a peace agreement with Israel and shares a border with Hamas-ruled Gaza, has been a key mediator between the enemies for years and a leading player in ongoing ceasefire negotiations.

Cairo is supposed to be the location for continued talks between the U.S., Qatar and Egypt on implementing the deal. Abdelatty said the talks were set to begin soon, and that the mediators would have an “operation room” overseeing the deal in the Egyptian capital.

“We are fully committed to fulfill our own commitments and we are expecting that others to fulfill their own commitments,” he said.

Hamas has suffered heavy losses during the war, but the group appears to remain intact. Its fighters have continued to stage deadly attacks against Israeli troops and its government continues to provide some basic services.

Abdelatty declined to discuss Hamas’ capabilities, but signaled it will not play a role in governing Gaza after the war.

He said the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which governs from the occupied West Bank after being ousted by Hamas in 2007, is the proper Palestinian entity to lead postwar Gaza.

“We have to empower the Palestinian Authority,” he said, adding that Egypt is ready to work with the U.S. “to empower the Palestinians and the Palestinian police in order to provide security in Gaza.”

He said the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that includes the West Bank and Gaza. The outgoing Biden administration has called for a revitalized Palestinian Authority to return to post-war Gaza, an idea Netanyahu and his far-right partners reject.

Under the emerging deal, hundreds of truckloads of desperately needed humanitarian aid are expected to flow into Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing. The crossing, Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world, has been closed since the Israeli army took over the area last May.

Abdelatty said Egypt aims to open the crossing as soon as possible to allow in 600 trucks a day “because people are starving on the ground.”

He said arrangements are still being worked out, but that Egypt would welcome the return of civilian observers from the European Union.

An EU operation helped run the crossing, in coordination with Israel and the Palestinian Authority, for two years until Hamas seized control of Gaza.

In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Anouar El Anouni confirmed Thursday that the EU is considering a return to the crossing. Egyptian officials said an EU mission is expected in Cairo next week.

“The EU presence would be of great importance,” Abdelatty said.

Egypt has also been harmed by the ongoing war, with seaborne attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen halting much of the shipping traffic through the Suez Canal.

Abdelatty said Egypt has lost about $600 million in revenue each month as a result of the ongoing tensions. He said the presence of an estimated 10 million refugees and migrants – including tens of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza — has created an additional burden.

“We are not a rich country,” he said.

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By Vitalii Hnidyi

KHARKIV REGION, Ukraine (Reuters) – The boxy, machine gun-equipped vehicle lumbered across the snow-covered battlefield, with no crew aboard and marking what its remote Ukrainian operators described as a major milestone as Russian artillery fire rained around it.

Sparing soldiers for the infantry assault that came later, the unmanned device was operated at a distance by Ukraine’s Khartiia Brigade in the latest advance in a conflict that has been defined by a technology race on both sides.

Khartiia released footage of last month’s attack in the northeastern Kharkiv region, which combined assault and mine- laying and mine-clearing vehicles guided by drones hovering above. The unit said it was the first documented machine-only ground assault in Ukraine’s war with Russia.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the claim.

The operation paved the way for a successful infantry advance, the brigade said.

“Our task is to maximally transfer reconnaissance, clearing operations and assaults… to machines that we can afford to lose,” said unit spokesperson Volodymyr Dehtiarov.

Units like Khartiia are embracing innovation, seeking to save lives as Russia’s full-scale invasion nears its three-year mark.

Ukrainian authorities say some 43,000 soldiers have been killed in the fighting since February 2022, but some Western officials have estimated the number may be higher.

The proliferation of cheap attack drones has made the artillery-heavy war even deadlier, soldiers have said.

Standing inside a humble storage structure at a Khartiia base, a 21-year-old platoon commander with the call sign “Happy” pointed to shelves of spare parts for their vehicles – including “kamikaze” drones fixed with anti-personnel mines used in last month’s attack.

“They get as close to their (Russian) dugouts as possible… and then explode,” Happy told Reuters.

Ground vehicle crews are typically based at least 2 km away to avoid attacks by enemy drones, added 28-year-old pilot “Khort”.

Other Ukrainian military units are using similar technology, such as remote-controlled stretchers, to try to gain a battlefield edge over a larger and better-equipped enemy.

STEPS AHEAD

Domestic production of ground-based remote technology is expanding in Ukraine, including through grassroots companies boosted by government development funds.

In the skies above, Ukraine is also using dozens of domestically made AI-augmented systems for drones to reach battlefield targets, a senior official said in October.

Russia’s military is also quickly adapting, said Khartiia spokesman Dehtiarov, meaning Ukrainian units like his have to innovate continually both on and off the battlefield.

“Any advantage … is eaten up after a few weeks – a few months at most – when the enemy begins to understand, analyse, apply and scale the same technologies.”

(Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Frances Kerry)

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(Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s computer was infiltrated and unclassified files were accessed as part of a broader breach of the Treasury Department by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

(Reporting by Angela Christy in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines and China agreed to seek common ground and find ways to cooperate despite their disagreements in the South China Sea, their foreign ministries said on Thursday, as heated rows persist over vessels deployed around disputed features.

The two countries on Thursday held a 10th round of talks under a bilateral consultation mechanism set up to address issues in the South China Sea, where disputes have been frequent and tense, with ties at their lowest point in years.

Both countries said they agreed to advance coast guard and marine scientific cooperation and pledged to resolve issues peacefully.

“We firmly believe that despite the unresolved challenges and differences, there is genuine space for diplomatic and pragmatic cooperation in dealing with our issues in the South China Sea,” Philippine foreign affairs Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro said in her opening remarks, according to a statement.

China said it called on the Philippines to remain committed to resolving differences through dialogue and consultation.

Both agreed to boost communication and deepen dialogue, but also called out each other out over recent standoffs.

U.S. ally the Philippines said it had expressed serious concern about the conduct of China’s coast guard, including its sustained presence in Manila’s exclusive economic zone.

China, for its part, said it lodged complaints over recent “maritime infringements and provocations” and for “hyping up” maritime disputes.

China’s expansive territorial claims in the key maritime trade route overlap with the EEZs of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

A 2016 ruling of an international arbitral tribunal said Beijing’s claims, based on its historic maps, have no basis under international law, a decision China does not recognise.

(Reporting by Mikhail Flores and Karen Lema in Manila and Ethan Wang in Beijing; Editing by Martin Petty)

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PARIS (Reuters) – France said on Thursday it had summoned a senior Venezuelan diplomat in Paris to protest against Caracas’ decision to limit the number of French diplomatic personnel in the Latin American country.

The foreign ministry said in a statement it would take “reciprocal measures” but did not give details.

Venezuela said on Tuesday it would impose restrictions on French, Italian and Dutch diplomats in Caracas and reduce their embassy personnel to just three, citing their governments’ “hostile” response to President Nicolas Maduro’s inauguration for a third term.

“This summons follows the Venezuelan regime’s decision to reduce the diplomatic presence of the French embassy in Venezuela,” France’s foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said, referring to the summons on Wednesday of the charge d’affaires.

“France categorically rejects the allegations of interference made against it.”

The Dutch government on Wednesday said it had ordered Venezuela to cut its diplomatic staff in the Netherlands from four to two, in response to Venezuela’s decision.

Italy on Wednesday also summoned Venezuela’s chief diplomat in Rome to protest at the move as well as a lack of information on the fate of an Italian national arrested in the Latin American country two months ago.

“France will take, at national level, all the reciprocal measures it deems necessary,” Lemoine said. “France remains in close coordination with its European partners who are also targeted by this decision.”

Several Western nations have not recognised Maduro’s victory in Venezuela’s July 2024 presidential election. France, Italy and the Netherlands loudly condemned Maduro’s inauguration last week while the United States has offered a $25 million reward for Maduro’s arrest.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and John Irish; Editing by Alex Richardson and Christina Fincher)

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CHESTER, England (Reuters) -A British lawmaker pleaded guilty on Thursday to common assault after he punched a passerby who he said had been threatening him while he was enjoying a night out.

Mike Amesbury was suspended from the governing Labour Party after CCTV and video footage showed him throwing a punch at a man in October, and repeatedly hitting him after the man was knocked to the ground.

After the incident, Amesbury, the member of parliament for Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England, said he felt threatened on the street after an evening out with friends.

Amesbury, 55, appeared at Chester Magistrates’ Court on Thursday when he pleaded guilty to a single count of common assault.

Prosecutor Alison Storey said Amesbury assaulted the man at around 2 a.m. on Oct. 26 last year, after a discussion about the closure of a local bridge.

Amesbury punched the man and knocked him to the floor, before punching him at least five times when he was on the ground, Storey added. He then told his victim: “You won’t threaten your MP again, will you?”.

Lawmakers convicted of an offence can potentially be removed from office if enough constituents support a petition calling for a new election for their parliamentary seat.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin in London; Editing by Catarina Demony and Michael Holden)

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Thursday his Cabinet won’t meet to approve the agreement for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of dozens of hostages until Hamas backs down, accusing the group of reneging on parts of the agreement in an attempt to gain further concessions.

Netanyahu said a “last-minute crisis” with Hamas was holding up Israeli approval of the long-awaited ceasefire agreement. His office did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 48 people over the past day. Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight as people were celebrating the ceasefire deal. In previous conflicts, both sides have stepped up military operations in the final hours before ceasefires go into effect as a way to project strength.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the 48 bodies of people killed since midday Wednesday were brought to several hospitals. Around half of the dead were women and children, Zaher al-Wahedi, head of the ministry’s registration department, told The Associated Press.

Under the deal reached Wednesday, 33 hostages are set to be released over the next six weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The remainder, including male soldiers, are to be released in a second phase that will be negotiated during the first. Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 46,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry. It does not say how many of the dead were militants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.

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Here’s the latest:

Russia’s Foreign Ministry voiced hopes Thursday that the long-awaited agreement to pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip will help secure lasting stability in Gaza.

Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova praised “the patient and persistent work of Qatari and Egyptian mediators” who helped broker the agreement and noted that “at the final stage, representatives of the new American administration also joined the negotiating marathon.”

“We expect that the implementation of the agreement reached now will contribute to the sustainable stabilization of the situation in Gaza and create conditions for the return of all internally displaced persons … and allow Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners released as a result of the deal to join their families,” Zakharova said at a briefing.

She specifically mentioned Russian citizen Alexander Trufanov, who was held in the Gaza Strip along other hostages.

“We believe that the conclusion of this agreement will contribute to the formation of the necessary conditions for establishing a process of a comprehensive political settlement of the Palestinian problem on a generally accepted international legal basis,” Zakharova added.

Mourners held a Muslim funeral service on Thursday for a Palestinian journalist who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza the previous day.

The strike hit a food charity known as Tikia in the Muwasi area in the city of Khan Younis Wednesday evening as people were waiting for the announcement of the ceasefire deal, according to the Naser hospital and the journalists’ relatives.

The journalist, Ahmed al-Shaiyah, was killed in the strike along with three other people, according to the hospital, which received the bodies.

“Instead of receiving news of the truce, we received news of his martyrdom,” the journalist’s brother, Ismail al-Shaiyah, told the AP.

“We were waiting to rest and get rid of this nightmare, but my son was martyred in the last hour. He was gone from me,” said Nagat Moammar, the mother of one of those killed.

TAIWAN — Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Thursday that Beijing welcomes the ceasefire deal and hopes it can be “effectively implemented so a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in Gaza can be achieved.”

China will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza and make “positive efforts” for post-war reconstruction, he added.

“We also sincerely hope that the relevant parties will take the Gaza ceasefire as an opportunity to promote the easing of local tensions. China is willing to work with the international community to make unremitting efforts to promote peace and stability in the Middle East,” Guo said.

Baghdad — The leader of the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Harakat al-Nujaba, Akram al-Kaabi, announced Thursday the suspension of the group’s operations against Israel following the declaration of a Gaza ceasefire agreement but warned they could start again if there were violations of the truce.

In a statement, al-Kaabi congratulated the Palestinian people and “freedom-loving” individuals worldwide on “this important development.”

“We will suspend our military operations against (Israel) in solidarity with the halt of operations in Palestine and to support the continuation of the ceasefire in Gaza, but let the occupying entity know that any foolishness from them in Palestine or the region will be met with a harsh response,” he added.

Al-Kaabi said the group’s missiles and drones “remain on permanent standby.”

During the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Iraqi militias launched a series of drone attacks targeting U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq as well as sites in Israel.

ANKARA, Turkey — Syria’s new foreign minister has called for a lifting of sanctions that were imposed on his country during former President Bashar Assad’s rule.

In an interview with Turkish state broadcaster TRT that aired Thursday, Asaad al-Shibani also said Syria’s new leadership wanted to “open a new page” in its diplomatic relations with countries that had cut diplomatic ties with Damascus during the Syrian civil war.

“The economic sanctions are one of the problems that the old regime left us,” al-Shibani said in the interview, which aired a day after he met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials in Ankara. “We are saying that there is no longer any need for them. The old regime is gone.”

“These sanctions must be lifted in order for people to live in better economic conditions and for security and economic stability to be achieved,” he added.

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has welcomed the ceasefire and called for its immediate implementation, along with the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state.

“Peace in Palestine cannot be achieved without the end of Israel’s occupation and the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state, in accordance with the two-state solution based on agreed international parameters,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

Muslim-majority Indonesia has long been a strong supporter of Palestinians.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has applauded the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and called it a “great victory” for Hamas and the resistance front.

“This great victory, like the ‘al-Aqsa storm,’ which was a multifaceted and irreparable defeat for the Zionists, did not bring any gains for the Zionist regime, and the resistance remained alive, thriving and strong,” the Guard said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the Oct. 7, 2023 surprise attack that sparked the war.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later said in a post on social platform X that the patience of the resistance front forced Israel to retreat.

“It will be written in books that there was a mob who once killed thousands of children & women in Gaza! Everyone will realize it was the patience of the people & steadfastness of Palestinian Resistance & Resistance Front that forced Zionist regime to retreat,” he wrote in a post on the social platform X on Thursday.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that Islamabad welcomes the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas and calls for its immediate and full implementation.

“Indiscriminate use of force by Israeli occupation forces has caused unprecedented loss of lives and property and displacement of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian Palestinians. Israel’s expansionist designs have destabilized the entire region,” the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

It added that Pakistan hopes the truce will lead to a permanent ceasefire and help scale up humanitarian assistance.

TOKYO — Japan and South Korea have separately welcomed the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza as a key step toward improving humanitarian conditions and calming the situation in the territory.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, speaking to reporters in Tokyo on Thursday, urged Israel and Hamas to implement the agreement “sincerely and steadily” and he praised the United States, Egypt and Qatar for their work to achieve the deal.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, called for a “thorough and swift implementation” of the agreement so that “all hostages are released and the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip improves.”

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HONG KONG (AP) — Taiwan computer chip maker TSMC reported Thursday that its profit in the last quarter rose 57%, buoyed by the artificial intelligence boom.

The world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer reported a net profit of 374.7 billion new Taiwan dollars ($11.4 billion), higher than expected.

Last week, the company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., reported that its revenue for 2024 rose almost 34% to 2.9 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($88 billion). Revenue for the fourth quarter rose 38.8% to 868.46 billion new Taiwan dollars ($26.4 billion), also higher than forecasts.

TSMC has been caught in the crossfire of U.S.-China tensions over trade and technology.

The U.S. said this week that it would further restrict exports of chips used for AI and other advanced technology, seeking to limit China’s access. The new rules cap the number of AI chips that can be exported to most countries, although about 20 close allies including Taiwan will have unlimited access to U.S. AI technology.

The regulations however could impact demand for AI chips from chipmakers like TSMC.

The Taiwanese chipmaker has plans to open three factories in the U.S. and two more in Japan. Both the Japanese and U.S. governments are offering billions in funding and subsidies to TSMC to boost domestic chip production.

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