Finance

Hamas has agreed to a ceasefire proposal put forth by the United States for Gaza, according to Al Jazeera’s sources, but an American official rejected the claim and said the deal being discussed was “unacceptable” and “disappointing”.

Israeli officials also denied that the proposal was from the US, saying on Monday that no Israeli government could accept it, according to the Reuters news agency.

The conflicting reports came as Israeli forces kept up their relentless bombardment of starving Palestinians in Gaza, and continued to severely restrict the entry of aid into the besieged enclave.

Medical sources say at least 81 people, including many children, were killed in Israel’s attacks on Monday alone.

Al Jazeera’s sources said Hamas and the US’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, agreed to the draft deal at a meeting in the Qatari capital, Doha. They said it includes a 60-day ceasefire, and the release of 10 living captives held in Gaza, over two stages.

US President Donald Trump would guarantee the terms of the deal and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The agreement would also allow for the entry of humanitarian aid, without conditions, from day one, the sources said.

Witkoff, however, rejected the notion that Hamas had accepted his offer for a captive and truce deal, telling Reuters that what he had seen was “completely unacceptable”.

A US source close to Witkoff also told Al Jazeera that Hamas’s claims were “inaccurate” and the deal from the Palestinian group was “disappointing”.

New red lines

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, cited the US official as saying that the proposal on the table is only a “temporary ceasefire agreement” with Israel.

“What this would do is allow for half of the living captives, as well as half of the deceased, to be returned,” she said.

“In turn, the White House believes this would lead towards a diplomatic path of discussions that could result in a permanent ceasefire. And this is the deal that the source tells Al Jazeera is what Hamas should take,” she added.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

In Israel, meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a recorded message on social media, promising to bring back the 58 Israeli captives remaining in Gaza, of whom some 20 are believed to still be alive.

“If we don’t achieve it today, we will achieve it tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow. We are not giving up,” Netanyahu said.

“We intend to bring them all back, the living and the dead,” he added.

The Israeli leader made no mention of the proposed deal.

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from the Jordanian capital, Amman, said Netanyahu has long rejected Hamas’s calls for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and pledged to continue the war until “total victory” is achieved against the Palestinian group.

“The Israeli premier has even added new red lines for what to him would bring an end of the war,” Salhut said.

“That includes the return of the Israeli captives, the demilitarisation of Hamas [and] the exile of military and political leaders. And, also, the implementation of Trump’s plan for Gaza. This is a plan that has been widely condemned as ethnic cleansing, and the White House even walked it back several months ago,” she said.

“But Netanyahu says that’s what he wants if there is to be an end of the war.”

For its part, Hamas has said it is willing to free the remaining captives all at once in exchange for a permanent ceasefire. It has also said it is willing to cede control of the Gaza Strip to an interim government, as proposed in an Arab League-backed $53bn plan for the enclave’s reconstruction.

The Palestinian group, however, has refused to lay down arms or exile its leaders from Gaza, saying the demand is a “red line” as long as Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory continues.

‘All eyes on Doha’

In Gaza, Palestinians said they were desperate for any deal to bring an end to Israel’s relentless bombardment and blockade, which has left the enclave’s entire population on the brink of famine.

“All Palestinian eyes are on Doha,” Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

“Since Israel resumed the war, Palestinians have been attacked in their homes, schools, makeshift tents and also in so-called safe humanitarian zones… They are also saying they are not able to even secure one meal for their families,” Khoudary said.

“Palestinians here are saying they do not have any options left, and they are trying to survive the Israeli air strikes and the mass starvation that has been imposed on them.”

Israel resumed the war on Gaza on March 18, two weeks after imposing a total blockade on the enclave.

Health authorities in Gaza say at least 3,822 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s renewed offensive, and the confirmed overall death toll has now reached 53,977. Some 122,966 people have been wounded.

Israel eased its blockade last week, saying it has let in some 170 aid trucks into Gaza, but humanitarian officials say they are nowhere near the amount needed to feed the enclave’s two million people after 11 weeks of a total siege.

The Trump administration’s crackdowns on pro-Palestinian activism look eerily similar to a conservative proposal to target universities and international students it claims are part of a “terrorist support network”. Who is behind the plan, and what will its impact be?

A car hit multiple pedestrians during Liverpool FC’s victory parade on Monday evening in Liverpool, UK. Police say a 53-year-old British man has been arrested. The parade was to celebrate Liverpool FC winning the Premier League title.

Videos show right-wing Israelis attacking Palestinians, chanting anti-Muslim slogans and storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Israel’s “Jerusalem Day,” marking the occupation of the city in 1967.

The British monarch is expected to voice support for Canada’s sovereignty against Trump’s 51st state comments.

King Charles III, the British monarch, has arrived in Canada for a two-day visit that officials say aims to assert support for the country’s sovereignty amid Donald Trump’s calls for annexing the United States’ northern neighbour.

The monarch’s trip, which started on Monday, comes at the invite of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who won general elections last month amid Trump’s threats.

Charles is the ceremonial head of state in Canada, which remained a commonwealth realm after gaining independence from Great Britain in 1867.

The king is set to open parliament in Ottawa on Tuesday with a “Speech from the Throne” speech – the first such address to be delivered by a British monarch in Canada since 1977.

While the British monarch has refrained from interfering in politics in recent decades, remaining a symbolic figure, Charles is expected to deliver a message of support for Canada against Trump’s statements.

“The prime minister has made it clear that Canada is not for sale now, is not for sale ever,” Canada’s envoy to the UK, Ralph Goodale, told reporters last week.

“The king, as head of state, will reinforce the power and the strength of that message.”

Canadian officials have forcefully rejected Trump’s comments about making their country the 51st US state, as a trade row between the two countries continues. During a visit to the White House earlier this month, Carney told Trump that Canada is “not for sale”.

Charles’ trip, which he will make with his wife Queen Camilla, will be his first visit to the former British colony since becoming king in September 2022.

Governor General Mary Simon, the monarch’s ceremonial representative in Canada, said the royal couple’s visit holds “profound significance”.

“It reaffirms the enduring constitutional bond that has shaped Canada’s journey into a proud and independent nation,” Simon, who is the first indigenous person to hold the position, said in a statement.

On Monday, the royal couple will visit a large park in Ottawa and meet vendors and artists, according to Buckingham Palace. The king will then participate in a ceremonial puck drop to launch a street hockey demonstration before planting a tree in another part of the city.

After a long fight against leukaemia, three-year-old Ali Asaf Demir is now cancer-free. Thousands of people in Istanbul heeded his father’s call on social media to gather to release balloons in celebration of his return to health.

Beirut, Lebanon – As southern Lebanon continues to suffer from sporadic Israeli attacks despite a ceasefire signed in November between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, establishment parties have emerged as the biggest winners of municipal elections.

Voting took place over four weeks, starting in Mount Lebanon – north of the capital, Beirut – followed by the country’s northern districts, Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley, and concluding on Saturday in southern Lebanon.

While Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim political and armed group, suffered setbacks to its political influence and military capabilities during 14 months of war with Israel, the group’s voter base was still intact and handed it and Amal, its closest political ally, victories across dozens of municipalities.

“The Hezbollah-Amal alliance has held firm and support among the Shia base has not experienced any dramatic erosion,” Imad Salamey, a professor of political science at the Lebanese American University, told Al Jazeera.

Despite establishment parties winning the majority of seats across the country, candidates running on campaigns of political reform and opposition to the political establishment also made inroads in some parts of the country, even winning seats in municipalities in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah historically has enjoyed strong support.

In Lebanon, there is no unified bloc of reformists although political actors and groups that emerged during the 2019 antigovernment protests over the economic crisis are referred to locally as “el-tagheyereen”, or change makers.

“Alternative Shia candidates in some localities were able to run without facing significant intimidation, signalling a limited but growing space for dissent within the community,” Salamey said.

The fact the elections were held at all will be seen as a boon to the pro-reform government of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who came to power in January, say analysts. The polls, initially set for 2022, were delayed three times due to parliamentary elections, funding issues and the war with Israel, which started in October 2023.

Critics, however, argued the elections favoured established parties because the uncertainty over when they would be held meant candidates waited to build their campaigns. As recently as March, there were still proposals to delay the elections until September to give candidates a chance to prepare their platforms after Lebanon suffered through the war and a two-month intensification by Israel from September to November, which left the country needing $11bn for recovery and reconstruction, according to the World Bank.

The war left Hezbollah politically and militarily battered after Israel killed much of its leadership, including longtime Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and his successor Hachem Safieddine.

The war reordered the power balance in Lebanon, diminishing Hezbollah’s influence. Many villages in southern Lebanon are still inaccessible, and Israel continues to occupy five points of Lebanese territory that it has refused to withdraw from after the ceasefire. It also continues to attack other parts of the south, where it claims Hezbollah still has weapons.

With their villages still destroyed or too dangerous to access, many southerners cast ballots in Nabatieh or Tyre, an act that recalls the 18-year Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000. During the occupation, elections for southern regions under Israeli control were also held in other cities still under Lebanese sovereignty.

Hezbollah has given up the majority of its sites in the south to the Lebanese army, a senior western diplomat told Al Jazeera and local media has reported.

The recent post-war period also brought to power a new president, army commander Joseph Aoun, and the reform camp’s choice for prime minister, Salam, former president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Hezbollah remains ‘strong’

Municipal elections are not seen as an indicator of the country’s popular sentiment due to low voter interest and local political dynamics differing from those at the national level. Some analysts dismissed the results, calling them “insignificant” and added that next year’s parliamentary elections would more accurately reflect which direction the country is headed.

Voter turnout was lower in almost every part of the country compared with 2016, the last time municipal elections took place. The places it fell included southern Lebanon, where 37 percent of the population voted. In 2016, 48 percent of its voters cast ballots. This was also true in most of the Bekaa Valley, an area that also was hit hard during the war and where Hezbollah tends to be the most popular party. In the north, voter turnout dropped from 45 percent in 2016 to 39 percent in 2025. In Beirut, the turnout was marginally higher – 21 percent in 2025 compared with 20 percent in 2016.

Many people in southern Lebanon are still living through the war as Israel continues to carry out attacks on areas like Nabatieh. While some in and from the south have questioned Hezbollah’s standing and decision to enter into a war with Israel on behalf of Gaza when they fired rockets on the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms territory on October 8, 2023, others still cling to their fervent support for the group.

“The municipal elections confirmed that Hezbollah and the Amal Movement remain strong,” Qassem Kassir, a journalist and political analyst believed to be close to Hezbollah, told Al Jazeera. “The forces of change are weak, and their role has declined. The party [Hezbollah] maintains its relationship with the people.”

Although reform forces did win some seats, including in Lebanon’s third largest city, Sidon, they were largely at a disadvantage due to a lack of name familiarity, the short campaign time and misinformation circulated by politically affiliated media.

Claims of corruption and contested election results marred voting in parts of the north, where many candidates from traditional political parties dominated.

In Beirut, forces for change were dealt a heavy blow. After receiving about 40 percent of the vote in 2016, which still was not enough to earn them a municipal seat, the reformist Beirut Madinati (Beirut My City) list won less than 10 percent of this year’s vote.

The defeat took place despite the worsening living conditions in the capital, which critics blamed on establishment parties, including those running the municipality.

“The municipality lives on another planet, completely detached from the concerns of the people,” Sarah Mahmoud, a Beirut Madinati candidate, told Al Jazeera on May 18 on the streets of Beirut as people went out to vote.

Since an economic crisis took hold in 2019, electricity cuts have become more common, and diesel generators have plugged the gap. These generators contribute to air pollution, which has been linked to cardiovascular and respiratory ailments in Beirut and carries cancer risks.

Despite the criticisms and degraded living situation in the city, a list of candidates backed by establishment figures and major parties, including Hezbollah and Amal, but also their major ideological opponents, including the Lebanese Forces and the right-wing Kataeb Party, won 23 out of 24 seats.

This list ran on a platform that stoked fears of sectarian disenfranchisement and promised sectarian parity.

Municipalities, unlike Lebanon’s parliament, do not have sectarian quotas.

‘What are you fighting for?’

The unlikely coalition of establishment parties, which was similar to the successful list in 2016 that aligned establishment parties against reform candidates, puzzled some in the capital. In separate incidents, television reporters confronted representatives from Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces, drawing angry and confrontational reactions from them but little clarification as to why they’d align with an avowed enemy.

Bernard Bridi, a media adviser for the list, said its priority was to bring in a foreign consultancy that would advise the municipality on how to manage Beirut like other major international capitals. She added that the opposing parties decided to unify because the stakes are so high this year after years of economic suffering, particularly since the war.

Critics, however, accused the establishment parties of trying to keep power concentrated among themselves rather than let it fall to reformists who could threaten the system that has consolidated power in the hands of a few key figures and groups in the post-civil war era.

“The question is what are you fighting for,” Karim Safieddine, a political organiser with Beirut Madinati, said, referring to the establishment list. “And if they can tell me what they’re fighting for, I’d be grateful.”

Now the nation’s eyes will turn to May next year as parties and movements are already preparing their candidates and platforms for parliamentary elections.

In 2022, just more than a dozen reform candidates emerged from Lebanon’s economic crisis and subsequent popular uprising. Some speculated that the reform spirit has subsided since thousands of Lebanese have emigrated abroad – close to 200,000 from 2018 to 2021 alone – and others have grown disillusioned at a perceived lack of immediate change or disagreements among reform-minded figures.

Many Lebanese will also have last year’s struggles during the war and need for reconstruction in mind when heading to the polls next year.

Some have started to question or challenge Hezbollah’s longtime dominance after seeing the group so badly weakened by Israel. Others are doubling down on their support due to what they said is neglect by the new government and their belief that Hezbollah is the only group working in their interests.

“Taken together, these developments imply a future trajectory where Shia political support for Hezbollah remains solid but increasingly isolated,” Salamey explained, “while its broader cross-sectarian coalition continues to shrink, potentially reducing Hezbollah’s influence in future parliamentary elections to that of a more pronounced minority bloc.”

Israeli attacks on land, wells and greenhouses are exacerbating the already critical risk of famine in Gaza, the FAO says.

Less than five percent of the Gaza Strip’s cropland is able to be cultivated, according to a new geospatial assessment from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT).

The FAO described the situation as “alarming” on Monday, warning that the destruction of agricultural infrastructure amid Israel’s war on Gaza is “further deteriorating food production capacity and exacerbating the risk of famine”.

The joint assessment found that more than 80 percent of Gaza’s total cropland has been damaged, while 77.8 percent of that land is now inaccessible to farmers. Only 688 hectares (1,700 acres), or 4.6 percent of cropland, remains available for cultivation.

The destruction has extended to Gaza’s greenhouses and water sources, with 71.2 percent of greenhouses and 82.8 percent of agricultural wells also damaged.

“This level of destruction is not just a loss of infrastructure – it is a collapse of Gaza’s agrifood system and of lifelines,” said Beth Bechdol, FAO’s deputy director-general.

“What once provided food, income, and stability for hundreds of thousands is now in ruins. With cropland, greenhouses, and wells destroyed, local food production has ground to a halt. Rebuilding will require massive investment –  and a sustained commitment to restore both livelihoods and hope.”

The findings follow the release of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis earlier this month, which warned that Gaza’s entire population is facing a critical risk of famine after 19 months of war, mass displacement, and severe restrictions on humanitarian aid.

While Israel announced last week that it would allow “minimal” aid deliveries into Gaza, humanitarian organisations have warned that the trickle of supplies is failing to reach Gaza’s starving population.

Meanwhile, Israeli air attacks continue to kill dozens of Palestinians every day in Gaza.

On Monday, Israeli forces bombed a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City, sparking a fire and killing at least 36 Palestinians, including several children.

More than 50 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the enclave since dawn, according to health officials.

Venezuela’s ruling coalition, led by President Nicolas Maduro, has won the parliamentary and regional elections by a landslide, maintaining a significant majority in the powerful National Assembly, according to the country’s electoral authority.

Sunday’s legislative and gubernatorial elections were held as several opposition groups called for a boycott in response to what they described as fraudulent results of the July 2024 presidential vote. Maduro was declared the winner of the 2024 disputed vote.

Following the results, the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) will continue to control key institutions, such as the attorney general’s office and the supreme court, as their members are chosen by the 285-member assembly.

Here is what you need to know about parliamentary and regional elections:

What were the official results of the 2025 regional and legislative elections?

Preliminary results released by the National Electoral Council (CNE) on Monday showed that the PSUV and its allies won 82.68 percent of the votes cast the previous day for seats in the National Assembly.

The ruling coalition also won 23 out of 24 state governor positions, the CNE said.

A coalition considered close to the ruling socialist party won 6.25 percent of the vote, while an opposition alliance won 5.17 percent, CNE rector Carlos Quintero said in a declaration broadcast on state television.

Maduro hailed the election results as a “victory of peace and stability” and said it “proved the power of Chavismo” – the left-wing, populist political movement founded by his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.

What did voters elect?

The CNE oversaw Sunday’s election for 260 state legislators, 285 members of the unicameral National Assembly and all 24 governors, including the newly created governorship purportedly established to administer Essequibo, a region long under dispute between Venezuela and neighbouring Guyana.

Opposition candidates won the governorship of Cojedes state, a fall from the four they won in 2021.

Why election in Essequibo, a disputed region near Guyana, was controversial?

The Venezuelan government revised the electoral boundaries to elect a governor and eight representatives for the Essequibo, an oil-rich region that Caracas disputes with Guyana in a colonial-era dispute.

The vote took place in a micro-district of 21,403 voters in Venezuela’s Bolivar state, on the Guyanese border. Caracas had specially created it for Sunday’s legislative and regional elections. There were no polling stations in the 160,000sq km (61,776sq miles) territory of Essequibo, administered by Georgetown.

Guyana has administered the region for decades, but Caracas has threatened to partially annex it – a threat that Maduro repeated on Sunday. The Guyanese government, before the vote, warned that participating in Venezuela’s election could amount to treason.

The Maduro government last year passed a law creating a new state in the disputed territory, despite the ongoing case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The Venezuelan actions have come despite a 2023 court order asking Caracas to avoid any action that would change the status quo of the territory.

The Venezuelan government has said it does not recognise the court’s authority in the case.

How did the opposition respond to the results?

Opposition figurehead Maria Corina Machado declared in a post on X late on Sunday that in some areas of the country, up to 85 percent of eligible voters snubbed the election, which she slammed as an “enormous farce that the regime is trying to stage to bury its defeat” in last year’s election.

Edmundo Gonzalez, who is recognised by the United States and several other countries as the winner of the July 2024 presidential election, said, “We witnessed an event that attempted to disguise itself as an election, but failed to deceive the country or the world.”

“What the world saw today was an act of civic courage. A silent but powerful declaration that the desire for change, dignity, and a future remains intact,” he said in a post on X.

Meanwhile, another opposition faction, headed by two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles and Zulia state Governor Manuel Rosales, urged people to vote to avoid the opposition being cut out of all governance.

Capriles was elected to the National Assembly, while Rosales lost his governor’s seat.

What was the voter turnout, and what factors influenced it?

Turnout in the elections was 8.9 million, or roughly 42 percent of 21 million voters eligible to cast their ballots, according to the CNE.

However, the country’s main opposition leaders had urged voters to boycott the election in protest over the July 2024 presidential election.

What are the implications of these elections for Venezuela’s political landscape?

The results are a big boost for Maduro who will further consolidate power as the ruling coalition now exercises almost complete control over the democratic institutions.

It will also demoralise the opposition, which has been in a disarray, with the executive secretary of the opposition’s Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), Omar Barboza, stepping down in March. Barboza cited lack of unity as one of the reasons to quit his post weeks before the elections.

Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo, reporting from Argentina, noted that during the campaign, the opposition had been divided on the boycott call, making it difficult to present a more forceful challenge against Maduro.

She added that most analysts have said they “could not guarantee if the elections were free and fair”. “They denounced the lack of international observers, among other things,” she said.

What’s next for Maduro?

Maduro’s success in recent elections comes despite the decline of the economy following years of mismanagement and international sanctions.

US President Donald Trump has recently revoked permission for oil giant Chevron to continue pumping Venezuelan crude, potentially depriving Maduro’s administration of a vital economic lifeline.

Licence to Chevron was given in 2022 under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, after Maduro agreed to work with the opposition towards a democratic election.

Washington has also started to deport Venezuelan immigrants, many of them to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Last week, the US Supreme Court revoked the deportation protection for some 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants in the US.

US president continues to fuel global economic uncertainty with erratic trade policy.

United States President Donald Trump has backed away from launching a trade war with the European Union, two days after threatening to impose punishing tariffs.

Trump said on Sunday that he has agreed to extend trade negotiations with the EU to July 9 following a call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. As part of that agreement, the US will also hold back from imposing a 50 percent tariff on imports from the bloc, which Trump announced on Friday would be imposed on June 1.

The announcement is the latest U-turn on US trade policy in a long series in recent months, and will only add to the uncertainty that Trump’s erratic and unpredictable policy is casting over the global economy.

Trump said, “[von der Leyen] said she wants to get down to serious negotiation. We had a very nice call.”

“She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out,” he told reporters.

The European Commission chief noted that she had shared a “good call” with Trump and that the EU was ready to move swiftly.

Backtracked

Trump set a 90-day window for trade negotiations with the EU in April, making them due to end on July 9.

He had backtracked on Friday, saying he was not interested in reaching an agreement at all and escalated the transatlantic trade dispute.

“I’m not looking for a deal,” the president said. “We’ve set the deal – it’s at 50 percent.”

However, by Sunday, he welcomed von der Leyen’s assertion that the bloc is willing to negotiate but needs more time.

“Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” she recapped on X. “To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9.”

The bloc’s top trade negotiator, Maros Sefcovic, had on Friday urged the US to show “mutual respect, not threats”.

Trump roiled financial markets with his Liberation Day announcement in April, which threatened sweeping tariffs on multiple countries.

However, amid nosediving markets, threats of retaliation, and turmoil across the globe, the US president has in many cases softened his stance in favour of negotiations.

Washington has made deals with the United Kingdom and opened talks with China. Those moves have buoyed markets somewhat, but uncertainty persists as the US stance continues to shift.

Attacks on civilian infrastructure rising amid Israel’s ‘intensified’ offensive on battered enclave.

Israeli attacks on northern Gaza are reported to have killed more than 50 people since dawn.

The death toll from the overnight attacks was being tallied on Monday morning. Among the targets hit was a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City and a family home in Jabalia, according to Palestinian Civil Defence officials.

At least 33 people were killed in an attack in the middle of the night on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi school in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City, Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told the AFP news agency.

The school had been sheltering “hundreds” of people, Bassal said, adding that those killed were mostly children and women. Dozens were injured, he added.

The Israeli military claimed on Monday that the target of the attack had been a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad control centre housing “key terrorists”.

“Numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians,” it added.

Video footage broadcast by Al Jazeera showed fires in classrooms where forcibly displaced people had been sleeping, a child wandering alone among the flames, and people on the outside desperately trying to break windows.

In a separate attack on a residence in the town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, 19 members of the Abd Rabbo family were killed, according to Bassal.

A nearby tent camp in Gaza City was also targeted, according to unconfirmed reports, killing six people.

Schools targeted

Despite mounting international pressure, which has pushed Israel to lift a blockade on aid supplies in the face of warnings of looming famine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated last week that Israel would carry out an intensified military campaign until it controls the whole of Gaza.

International humanitarian law forbids attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools. But Israel has repeatedly bombed schools, mostly being used as shelter by displaced people, throughout its 19-month war in Gaza.

At least 50 people were killed by bombs and artillery attacks in November 2023 at al-Buraq School in Gaza City

At the nearby al-Tabin School, more than 100 people were killed as they gathered for morning prayers in August last year.

A late scoring binge by Karl-Anthony Towns allowed New York Knicks to beat the Indiana Pacers for the first time this playoff series.

Karl-Anthony Towns scored 20 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter and collected a game-high 15 rebounds to help the New York Knicks notch a crucial 106-100 victory over the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals at Indianapolis.

The big fourth quarter marked just the second time a New York player scored 20 points in a quarter in a playoff game, and in the process, it kept the Knicks in the series. Jalen Brunson set the franchise record with 21 in a quarter against the Pacers in Game 1 of last season’s conference semifinals.

“When I got a chance to do what I do in the fourth, I was going to make sure I seized the opportunity,” Towns said on Sunday. “I just wanted to go there to give our team a chance to win. I’m just happy I was able to do that.”

Towns flirted with overheating when he scored 15 points in the first 3:58 of the quarter to give New York an 87-85 lead. But his offensive explosion was the fuel the Knicks needed.

“KAT [Karl-Anthony Towns] is a very gifted scorer,” New York coach Tom Thibodeau said of Towns, who played him for fewer than 28 minutes in Game 2’s 114-109 loss. “He can score three levels – he’s comfortable at the 3-point line, he’s comfortable putting it on the floor, and he’s comfortable playing back to the basket. As long as he stays aggressive, it’s a huge plus for us.”

New York will attempt to even the best-of-seven series at 2-2 on Tuesday night at Indianapolis.

“Unpredictable,” Brunson said of the series. “Obviously, no lead is safe. Both teams are going to fight until the buzzer.”

Brunson scored 23 points despite 6-of-18 shooting but made all 10 free throw attempts for New York, which recovered from a 20-point, second-quarter deficit. OG Anunoby had 16 points and Mikal Bridges added 15 for the third-seeded Knicks.

Tyrese Haliburton scored 20 points and Myles Turner had 19 for fourth-seeded Indiana, which opened the series with two road victories. Pascal Siakam had 17 points and TJ McConnell tallied 12 for the Pacers, who had just 42 second-half points.

“We didn’t do a good enough job of continuing to play fast,” Haliburton said. “I felt I did a poor job of keeping pace in the game, especially in the fourth … A 42-point half isn’t us.”

Knicks’ rally late

New York’s comeback was reminiscent of the Eastern Conference semifinals when the Knicks rallied from 20-point deficits in each of the first two games in Boston to earn victories en route to eventually winning the series in six games.

Indiana led most of the game but needed two free throws apiece from Turner and Siakam to tie the game at 98 with 1:37 left. Brunson hit a runner 20 seconds later to put New York back ahead.

Josh Hart made two free throws with 19.6 seconds left for the Knicks before Haliburton answered with two foul shots with 9.7 seconds left to pull Indiana within 102-100.

Brunson hit two free throws to make it a four-point margin with 8.1 seconds left, and Hart wrapped it up with two of his own with 2.6 seconds remaining.

New York trailed by 15 late in the third quarter and by 80-70 entering the fourth quarter, but Towns came racing out of the gates in the fourth quarter.

A three-point play by Towns gave the Knicks the 87-85 advantage at 8:02 of the quarter, the team’s first lead since the first quarter.

Towns raised his final-quarter tally to 20 points when he drained a 30-foot, step-back 3-pointer while double-covered to give the Knicks a 94-90 lead with 5:10 remaining.

The Knicks made 43.6 percent of their shots in the game and were 11 of 32 from behind the arc.

Indiana shot 44.2 percent from the field, including the shaky 5-of-25 from 3-point range. The Pacers were stellar in transition with a 16-2 edge in fast-break points.

But Indiana were outscored 36-20 in the final quarter when they could not slow Towns.

“He made some big plays for them,” Siakam said of Towns. “We couldn’t get stops when we needed them. And offensively, we didn’t have our usual pop. We didn’t have the ball movement that we usually do.”

The Pacers held a 58-45 halftime lead. Indiana ran off 13 consecutive points in the second quarter to land their biggest lead. Haliburton capped the spurt with a 3-pointer and a steal for an easy dunk to make it 55-35 with 3:20 to go in the half.

United States President Donald Trump has lambasted his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, describing him as “absolutely crazy” after Moscow launched its largest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine, killing at least 13 people.

Trump’s comments, issued on his Truth Social platform late on Sunday, marked a rare rebuke of Putin.

“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” the US president wrote.

“I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!” he added.

The comments came as Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia had launched a record number of drones against Ukraine overnight on Sunday. It said Russian forces deployed 298 drones and 69 missiles, but that it was able to down 266 drones and 45 missiles.

The Russian attack was the largest of the war in terms of weapons fired, although other strikes have killed more people.

Ukraine’s emergency services described an atmosphere of “terror” across the country on Sunday, and regional officials said those killed included victims aged eight, 12 and 17 in the northwestern region of Zhytomyr.

More than 60 others were wounded.

“Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.

“The silence of America, the silence of others around the world only encourages Putin,” he said, adding: “Sanctions will certainly help.”

Sanctions

Trump has increasingly voiced irritation with Putin and the inability to resolve the now three-year-old war, which the US leader had promised he would do within days of returning to the White House.

He had long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin and repeatedly stressed that Russia is more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal.

But earlier on Sunday, Trump made it clear that he is losing patience with the Russian president.

“I’m not happy with what Putin’s doing. He’s killing a lot of people. And I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” Trump told reporters as he departed northern New Jersey, where he had spent most of the weekend.

“I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”

Asked if he was considering more sanctions on Russia, Trump said, “Absolutely.”

Trump also criticised Zelenskyy, a more frequent target of his ire, in his social media post, accusing him of “doing his Country no favours by talking the way he does”.

“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” he said of Zelenskyy.

Europe condemns Russia

A peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine remains elusive.

Last week, Trump and Putin held a two-hour phone call, after which the US leader said Moscow and Kyiv would “immediately start negotiations towards a ceasefire”.

Putin, however, made no commitment to pause his three-year invasion of Ukraine, announcing only a vague proposal to work on a “memorandum” outlining Moscow’s demands for peace.

That conversation occurred after Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Turkiye for the first face-to-face talks since 2022. But on Thursday, the Kremlin said no direct talks were scheduled.

The Russian attack against Ukraine prompted criticism from Europe, too.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, called for “the strongest international pressure on Russia to stop this war”. In a post on X, she said the attacks “again show Russia bent on more suffering and the annihilation of Ukraine. Devastating to see children among innocent victims harmed and killed”.

German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul also denounced the attacks, saying, “Putin does not want peace, he wants to carry on the war and we shouldn’t allow him to do this,” he said.

“For this reason, we will approve further sanctions at a European level.”

The massive attacks on Ukraine came as Russia said it had exchanged another 303 Ukrainian prisoners of war for the same number of Russian soldiers held by Kyiv – the last phase of a swap agreed during talks in Istanbul on May 16.

That marked their biggest prisoner swap since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, with 1,000 captured soldiers and civilian prisoners in total sent back by each side.

At least 260 miners have been brought to the surface in South Africa after being stuck underground at a gold mine for 24 hours.

Africa is at the centre of a rising demand for minerals and precious metals.

Lithium is essential to the transition away from fossil fuels, used for batteries in electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies.

But in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rights groups continue to denounce the dangerous working conditions of children in artisanal mines, particularly for cobalt.

So, are the continent’s critical minerals at a critical juncture? And what will be the impact of the global scramble for Africa’s natural resources?

Presenter: Tom McRae

Guests:

Claude Kabemba – Executive director of Southern Africa Resource Watch

Christopher Vandome – Senior research fellow at Chatham House Africa Programme

Maurice Carney – Co-founder and executive director, Friends of the Congo

Lando Norris wins at Monte Carlo for first time, leading home Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and current drivers’ standings leader and McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri.

Lando Norris celebrated his first Monaco Grand Prix win from pole position and slashed McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri’s Formula One drivers’ championship lead to just three points in a race more about strategy than speed.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished runner-up in the home race he won last year, with Piastri third and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fourth – all four finishing in the order they started.

The Sunday afternoon race featured two mandatory pit stops for the first time, but hopes of more action around the cramped harbourside circuit fell short.

Drivers through the field played a waiting game, with Verstappen holding off his final stop until the penultimate lap and those behind biding their time while keeping out of trouble. Norris ultimately lapped all but four cars.

The win was the Briton’s second in eight races and first since the Australian GP season opener in March, as well as McLaren’s first at Monaco since 2008.

“Monaco baby!” Norris shouted over the radio as the chequered flag finally fell.

“The last quarter was stressful with Leclerc behind and Max ahead, but we won in Monaco,” he said.

“This is what I dreamed of when I was a kid, so I achieved one of my dreams.”

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was fifth, with Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar sixth and Haas’s Esteban Ocon seventh.

Liam Lawson scored his first points of the season for Racing Bulls in eighth place, and Williams completed the top 10 with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.

Mercedes had a dismal afternoon in the Mediterranean sunshine, after a nightmare in qualifying, with George Russell 11th and Italian rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli 18th and the last car still running.

The virtual safety car was deployed on the opening lap when Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto went into the tyre wall at Portier, the turn before the tunnel, as Antonelli passed on the inside.

Bortoleto made it back to the pits and continued.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was the first retirement, the Frenchman crashing into the back of Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull car at the tunnel exit on lap nine and limping back to the pits with the front left wheel hanging off.

“Is he an idiot? What is he doing?” exclaimed Tsunoda.

Gasly, who said he had no brakes, almost took out Argentine rookie teammate Franco Colapinto as he careered through the Nouvelle Chicane.

Aston Martin’s double world champion Fernando Alonso was the second retirement, pulling off on lap 38 with a smoking car to continue his scoreless run for the season.

The Spanish Grand Prix is the next race on the F1 calendar and will take place on Sunday, June 1.

A Medicaid bill pushed by Republicans proposes significant cuts to the health insurance programme for lower-income Americans. But United States President Donald Trump has claimed the legislation would change Medicaid in ways that only combat “waste, fraud and abuse”, a phrase he repeated seven times over a couple of minutes.

“We’re not doing any cutting of anything meaningful,” the Republican president said. “The only thing we’re cutting is waste, fraud and abuse. … We’re not changing Medicaid, and we’re not changing Medicare, and we’re not changing Social Security.”

The House of Representatives passed the bill on Thursday, and it now moves to the Senate, where it could be changed. The House version doesn’t directly target Social Security or Medicare. But it changes Medicaid, including in ways that align with Republican priorities.

Congress’s nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that at least 8.6 million people will lose coverage because of the changes.

“Relatively little of the bill is clearly related to trying to reduce fraud or error,” said Leighton Ku, director of George Washington University’s Center for Health Policy Research. “There are some minor provisions about things like looking for dead people who are enrolled or checking addresses. But the major provisions are not fraud, waste or error by any means. They’re things that reflect policy preferences of the Republican architects.”

Robin Rudowitz, vice president and director of the Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured at the health policy research group KFF, agreed that the scope of the bill’s changes go further than Trump said. “The magnitude of the federal spending reductions and resulting coverage loss go well beyond rooting out fraud and abuse,” she said.

The bill’s key provisions could be removed before the final votes and enactment while others may be added.

The White House did not respond to an inquiry for this fact check.

How the federal government defines waste, fraud and abuse

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that runs Medicaid, offers official definitions for these three terms:

• Fraud: “When someone knowingly deceives, conceals, or misrepresents to obtain money or property from any health care benefit program. Medicare or Medicaid fraud is considered a criminal act.”
• Waste: “Overusing services or other practices that directly or indirectly result in unnecessary costs to any health care benefit program. Examples of waste are conducting excessive office visits, prescribing more medications than necessary, and ordering excessive laboratory tests.”
• Abuse: “When health care providers or suppliers perform actions that directly or indirectly result in unnecessary costs to any health care benefit program. Abuse includes any practice that doesn’t provide patients with medically necessary services or meet professionally recognised standards,” such as overbilling or misusing billing codes.

Some bill provisions can be described as targeting waste, fraud and abuse

One provision in the bill requires states to confirm recipients’ Medicaid eligibility at least every six months rather than every year under current law. Another would set stricter requirements for verifying enrollees’ addresses and other information.

Such efforts could save expenditures on ineligible people and could be classified as a waste-prevention measure.

Other provisions are more ideological than focused on waste, fraud and abuse

Several of the bill’s highest-profile provisions are driven more by ideology – differences in how expansive the programme should be and what types of people should benefit.

One of these provisions involves people in the US without documentation.

Because it’s already against the law to spend federal Medicaid funds on undocumented people, the bill takes a different approach: It seeks to make it harder for states to exclusively rely on state funds to cover immigrants in the US. Currently, 14 states and the District of Columbia cover children regardless of their immigration status, and seven states plus Washington, DC, cover at least some adults living in the US without documents too.

For these states, the bill reduces the federal government’s share of Medicaid payments from 90 percent to 80 percent.

In other words, if a state wants to keep covering undocumented people, it will face a cut in the federal reimbursement rate for the coverage of US citizens, not just immigrants in the country without documents. Budgetary pressures in these states could mean that some citizens also lose some of their benefits or all of their Medicaid coverage.

Another provision involves work requirements. The bill would require individuals aged 19 to 64 receiving Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act expansion, which was passed during former President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration, to be working or participating in qualifying activities (such as having a disability, being a caretaker for family members or attending school) for at least 80 hours per month.

Research has found that the vast majority of people who would be required to work under similar requirements are already employed or have a qualifying exemption — yet many get thrown off Medicaid because they fail to keep up with the mandatory paperwork.

“Work requirements are not about waste, fraud, and abuse. They are fundamentally changing the rules of who is eligible for the programme, and they are adding an immense set of bureaucratic obstacles and red tape for eligible people to keep coverage,” said Benjamin D Sommers, a professor of healthcare economics and medicine at Harvard University’s TH Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.

A KFF analysis in March found that fraud occurs in Medicare and Medicaid mostly by providers. “There are checks on fraud, waste, and abuse at both the federal and the state levels,” KFF wrote.

Another bill provision bans Medicaid funds spent on nonprofit organisations primarily engaged in family planning or reproductive services, which would affect Planned Parenthood and other organisations that provide abortions.

Finally, at least two provisions focus on saving money. One would require, for the first time, that states impose $35 copays for many types of care. The other would limit retroactive coverage after applying for Medicaid to one month before application, down from 90 days. These provisions don’t specify how they’d root out waste, fraud and abuse.

“The ‘Medicaid savings’ in this bill are primarily from reducing programme enrolment,” Sommers said.

Our ruling

Trump said the House bill is “not changing Medicaid,” only cutting “waste, fraud and abuse”.

The legislation includes provisions that could improve the detection of beneficiaries who aren’t eligible for coverage.

But other provisions would change Medicaid to align with Trump’s ideology and Republican priorities. The bill would incentivise states to stop using their own funds to cover undocumented people in the US; it requires people to work or do other approved activities to secure benefits; and it bans Medicaid payments to nonprofits such as Planned Parenthood, which provide abortions among other services.

Other changes aim to cut expenses, including the imposition of copays and a shorter window for retroactive coverage. Those provisions don’t specify how they’d cut waste, fraud or abuse.

We rate the statement false.

Five years ago on May 25, 2020, a white police officer in the United States killed George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during an arrest.

A bystander’s video showed officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as Floyd pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. The footage sparked weeks of global protests against police brutality and racism. It contributed to a jury’s murder conviction against Chauvin and a federal investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department.

Although ample evidence showed that Chauvin and police misconduct were to blame for Floyd’s death, another narrative quickly emerged – that Floyd died because of a drug overdose.

Five years later, that falsehood is central to calls for President Donald Trump to pardon Chauvin.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a member of Trump’s Republican Party from Georgia, for example, recently revived her longstanding and long-debunked take that Chauvin did not cause Floyd’s death.

“I strongly support Derek Chauvin being pardoned and released from prison,” Greene wrote in a May 14 X post. “George Floyd died of a drug overdose.”

In 2021, a Minnesota jury convicted Chauvin of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin also pleaded guilty to twice violating a federal criminal civil rights statute – once against Floyd and once against a 14-year-old in 2017. The state and federal sentences that Chauvin is serving concurrently each exceeded 20 years.

In 2023 after a two-year investigation sparked by Floyd’s death, the US Department of Justice found that the city of Minneapolis and its police department engaged in a pattern of civil rights violations, including use of excessive force and unlawful discrimination against Black and Native American people.

The narrative that Floyd died of an overdose persisted through the involved police officers’ criminal trials and beyond their convictions, in part because powerful political critics of the racial justice movement sought to rewrite history with false claims. It was one of many false statements about Floyd’s actions, his criminal history and the protests that followed his murder.

Experts said systemic racism contributes also to the proliferation of the inaccurate narratives and their staying power.

“The core through-line that emerges is the kind of longstanding, deep racist narratives around Black criminality and also the ways people try to justify who is or isn’t an ‘innocent victim’,” Rachel Kuo, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who studies race, social movements and technology, said of the falsehoods.

The summer 2020 protests built on 2014 and 2016 protests against police brutality, but with Floyd’s case as a catalyst, racial justice advocates achieved global visibility and corporate attention, Kuo said.

That visibility came with a price.

When people of colour achieve visibility for their social movements or political demands, an effort to delegitimise those demands quickly follows, Kuo said. Misinformation plays a part by trying to “chip away” at the belief that what happened to Floyd was unjust or to undermine the protest movement overall, she said.

How conservative influencers distort an autopsy report to push overdose claim

Chauvin killed Floyd after police were called to a corner grocery store where Floyd was suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill. News reports about Floyd’s criminal record – which included three drug charges, two theft cases, aggravated robbery and trespassing – fuelled false claims about his background.

Two autopsy reports – one performed by Hennepin County’s medical examiner and one commissioned by Floyd’s family – concluded Floyd’s death was a homicide. Although they pointed to different causes of death, neither report said he died because of an overdose.

The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office reported “fentanyl intoxication” and “recent methamphetamine use” among “other significant conditions” related to his death, but it did not say drugs killed him. It said Floyd “experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer”. The private autopsy concluded Floyd died of suffocation.

Nevertheless, the Hennepin County autopsy report’s fentanyl detail provided kindling for the drug overdose narrative to catch fire. PolitiFact first fact-checked this narrative when it was published on a conservative blog in August 2020.

As Chauvin’s trial approached in early 2021, then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson wrongly told his millions of viewers that Floyd’s autopsy showed he “almost certainly died of a drug overdose. Fentanyl.”

Conservative influencer Candace Owens amplified the false narrative in March 2021. Lawyers defending Chauvin argued drug use was a more primary cause of death than the police restraint, but jurors were unconvinced.

Chauvin’s 2021 conviction didn’t spell the end of misinformation about Floyd’s death. The drug overdose narrative emerged again in late 2022 as the trial neared for two other police officers charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death.

Misinformation experts said it’s not surprising that Floyd and the 2020 protests remain a target of false portrayals years later because of the widespread attention Floyd’s death drew at a time when online platforms incentivise inflammatory commentary.

“Marginalised groups have been prime targets of misinformation going back hundreds, even thousands of years” because falsehoods can be weaponised to demonise, harm and further oppress and discriminate, said Deen Freelon, a University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication professor who studies digital politics with a focus on race, gender, ideology and other identity dimensions in social media.

He said Floyd’s murder was a magnet for mis- and disinformation because it “fits the mould of a prominent event that ties into controversial, long-running political issues,” similar to events such as the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conservative activists and politicians with large followings have continued to target Floyd and the 2020 protests.

The drug overdose narrative proliferated in conjunction with the October 2022 release of Owens’s film about Floyd and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, titled The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM. Rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, parroted the false narrative in an October 2022 podcast interview, citing Owens’s film.

In October 2023, Carlson repeated the false drug overdose narrative. That X video has since received more than 23.5 million views. In December 2023, Greene reshared a different Carlson video with the caption, “George Floyd died from a drug overdose.”

Ramesh Srinivasan, an information studies professor at the University of California-Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, said social media algorithms don’t allow for nuanced conversations that require detail and context, which are important for productive discussion about what happened in the summer of 2020.

A person’s online visibility and virality, which can directly correlate to their revenues in some cases, improves when a person takes extreme, antagonistic, partisan or hardened positions, he said.

“Those conditions have propped up certain people who specialise in the peddling of troll-type content, of caricatured content, of deliberately false content,” Srinivasan said.

Freelon said the internet has “added fuel to the fire” and broadened misinformation’s reach.

“So it’s important to remain vigilant against misinformation,” he said, “not only because lies are inherently bad but also because the people who bear the harm have often historically suffered disproportionately from prejudice and mistreatment.”

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.