Israeli Navy Halts Gaza-Bound Flotilla, Global Reactions Ripple
Middle East | Blockade, Peace Plan, West Bank Tensions
Before dawn, commandos boarded 39 vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla, confiscating medicine and food meant for Gaza and detaining hundreds of foreign activists, among them climate campaigner Greta Thunberg. Israel says the convoy violated its naval blockade; organisers call the raid “piracy”. One small craft is still unaccounted for.
Hours later the foreign ministry confirmed deportation procedures, posting images of placid detainees in Ashdod. A parallel AFP dispatch shows Italian, Spanish and Turkish escorts turning back after naval warnings, while protests erupted from Naples to Bogotá and Colombian President Gustavo Petro expelled Israel’s diplomats.
Inside Gaza, shelling intensified around Gaza City even as U.S. President Donald Trump pushed a 20-point cease-fire blueprint. Israel’s “last warning” leaflets urged residents to flee south; Hamas said it was still studying the plan, which envisages its disarmament and a phased Israeli withdrawal. Analysts note the proposal could reshape regional alliances but risks fracturing Israel’s own coalition, as explored in an in-depth analysis.
Across the occupied West Bank, bulldozers cut new settler roads, trapping villages and undercutting hopes for statehood, villagers told Reuters. European capitals that recently recognised Palestine condemned the expansion even as diplomatic focus stays fixed on Gaza.
Reuters
AFPSecurity & Energy | Drones, Tankers and Silent Seas
Uneasy skies pushed EU leaders in Copenhagen to back a “drone wall” after unexplained overflights of Danish and Baltic military sites. The bloc will knit sensors and jammers along its eastern rim, a plan welcomed by NATO’s Mark Rutte, according to Reuters.
At sea, French marines boarded the aging tanker Boracay, blacklisted as part of Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet”, and arrested its captain and first mate. Prosecutors are probing links to September’s Danish drone scare.
The clandestine flows of Russian oil also drew a coordinated threat: G7 finance ministers pledged to target buyers “dramatically increasing” imports from Moscow (AFP). Washington is simultaneously weighing tariffs on those purchases, mirroring moves already applied to electronics and steel.
Separately, Polish police detained a Ukrainian diver suspected of planting explosives on the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022, marking the first arrest on EU soil over the Baltic Sea blasts.
ReutersAFPHumanitarian Front | Aid Cuts, Hunger and a 48-Hour Blackout
In northern Cameroon, families blamed U.S. aid freezes for a surge in malaria deaths among infants. Washington’s pause on the President’s Malaria Initiative left rural clinics without diagnostic kits or injectable artesunate, threatening to reverse years of gains.
Across Myanmar’s war-ravaged Rakhine, more than 100,000 children face acute malnutrition as aid convoys remain blocked by fighting between junta forces and the Arakan Army. UN officials warn of an “alarming” hunger spike but say data collection itself has been curtailed.
Afghans experienced a different kind of deprivation: a sudden, nationwide communications blackout. Two days after Taliban authorities cut cell and internet links, services flickered back on Wednesday evening, prompting street celebrations in Kabul (AFP). Officials offered no explanation; the UN said the shutdown jeopardised quake relief and refugee tracking.
ReutersAFPIn Memoriam | Jane Goodall, 1934 – 2025
Jane Goodall, the trail-blazing primatologist who revealed chimpanzees use tools and feel complex emotions, has died aged 91 while on a U.S. speaking tour (AFP). Tributes poured in from conservationists, scientists and the UN, where she served as a Messenger of Peace (world reaction). Her pioneering work in Tanzania’s Gombe forest reshaped primatology and inspired global activism through her Roots & Shoots youth network.
AFPEarth & Adversity | Quakes, Storms and Collapse
• Philippines: At least 69 dead after a 6.9-magnitude quake on Cebu island; rescuers race the clock amid aftershocks (Reuters).
• Indonesia: Crews working by tunnel and drone pulled five pupils alive from the ruins of Sidoarjo’s collapsed boarding school; dozens are still missing (AFP).
• Atlantic: Hurricane Imelda, now Category 2, bears down on Bermuda with 100 mph winds and coastal inundation forecast for tonight (AFP).
ReutersAFPQuote of the Day
“After all, there isn’t a sharp line dividing humans from the rest of the animal kingdom.” — Jane Goodall (1934-2025)