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Polish prosecutors opened an investigation Monday after a Polish judge fled to the autocratic state of Belarus and asked for protection there.

The National Prosecutor’s Office said it is looking into suspicions that the judge was acting on behalf of a foreign intelligence service.

According to Belarus state media, Judge Tomasz Szmydt told journalists in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, that he was forced to leave Poland due to disagreements with the current authorities.

EXILED BELARUS OPPOSITION LEADER SAYS SHE HASN’T HEARD FROM HER IMPRISONED HUSBAND FOR OVER 400 DAYS

The pro-European Union government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk took power in December vowing to restore democratic norms after eight years of rule by the right-wing Law and Justice party.

Law and Justice, in power from 2015 to 2023, carried out a series of changes to the judicial system that gave the party more power over the courts and judicial bodies, eroding the democratic separation of powers. That led to a dispute with the European Union — one that the EU only closed on Monday.

Szmydt, a judge at the provincial administrative court in Warsaw, gained notoriety in 2019 when he and his then wife engaged in an online smear campaign against judges critical of the judicial changes made by Law and Justice.

Szmydt reportedly appealed to Belarus' longtime leader, Alexander Lukashenko, for his protection, saying he considers Belarus a "country with great potential" led by a "very wise leader" and a place where "you can live peacefully."

A U.S. Army soldier was detained in Vladivostok, Russia, last Thursday and has been charged with criminal misconduct, according to officials.

RUSSIAN SUSPECT IN $4B BITCOIN FRAUD PLEADS PARTIALLY GUILTY IN US

"The Russian Federation notified the U.S. Department of State of the criminal detention in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations," Army spokesperson Cynthia O. Smith said. "The Army notified his family, and the U.S. Department of State is providing appropriate consular support to the soldier in Russia."

Smith was unable to provide any additional information due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has begun conducting what it describes as "targeted strikes" against Hamas operatives in eastern Rafah, a city located in the southern Gaza Strip where more than 1 million civilians from other parts of Gaza are sheltering. 

Per the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the War Cabinet has unanimously decided that Israel would continue exerting "military pressure" on Hamas in Rafah to promote the release of hostages and the other goals of the war." 

ISRAEL URGES PALESTINIANS TO EVACUATE RAFAH AHEAD OF EXPECTED GROUND OPERATION IN HAMAS STRONGHOLD

Israel announced earlier Monday it was ordering around 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating from Rafah, following a statement from Hamas that it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a cease-fire to halt the seven-month-long war with Israel in Gaza.

The Prime Minister’s Office said that although the Hamas proposal is far from Israel's necessary requirements, Israel will send a delegation of working-class mediators to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement under conditions acceptable to Israel.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Monday that the military would hold drills involving tactical nuclear weapons — the first time such an exercise has been publicly announced by Moscow.

A look at tactical nuclear weapons and the part they play in the Kremlin's political messaging.

Unlike nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles that can destroy entire cities, tactical nuclear weapons for use against troops on the battlefield are less powerful and can have a yield as small as about 1 kiloton. The U.S. bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II was 15 kilotons.

PUTIN'S INAUGURATION: FRANCE WILL SEND DIPLOMAT, GERMANY AND BALTIC STATES WILL NOT

Such battlefield nuclear weapons — aerial bombs, warheads for short-range missiles or artillery munitions — can be very compact. Their small size allows them to be discreetly carried on a truck or plane.

Unlike strategic weapons, which have been subject to arms control agreements between Moscow and Washington, tactical weapons never have been limited by any such pacts, and Russia hasn’t released their numbers or any other specifics related to them.

Since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly reminded Western nations about Moscow’s nuclear might in a bid to discourage them from increasing military support to Kyiv.

Early on in the war, Putin frequently referenced Moscow’s nuclear arsenal by vowing repeatedly to use "all means" necessary to protect Russia. But he later toned down his statements as Ukraine's offensive last summer failed to reach its goals and Russia scored more gains on the battlefield.

Moscow's defense doctrine envisages a nuclear response to an atomic strike or even an attack with conventional weapons that "threaten the very existence of the Russian state." That vague wording has led some pro-Kremlin Russian experts to urge Putin to sharpen it to force the West to take the warnings more seriously.

Putin said last fall that he sees no reason for such a change.

"There is no situation in which anything would threaten Russian statehood and the existence of the Russian state," he said. "I think that no person of sober mind and clear memory could have an idea to use nuclear weapons against Russia."

Last year, Russia moved some of its tactical nuclear weapons into the territory of Belarus, an ally that neighbors Ukraine and NATO members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.

Belarus' authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, had long urged Moscow to station nuclear weapons in his country, which has close military ties with Russia and served as a staging ground for the war in Ukraine.

Both Putin and Lukashenko said that nuclear weapons deployment to Belarus was intended to counter perceived Western threats. Last year, Putin specifically linked the move to the U.K. government’s decision to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing shells containing depleted uranium.

Neither leader said how many were moved — only that Soviet-era facilities in the country were readied to accommodate them, and that Belarusian pilots and missile crews were trained to use them. The weapons have remained under Russian military control.

The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, which has a 673-mile border with Ukraine, would allow Russian aircraft and missiles to reach potential targets there more easily and quickly, if Moscow decides to use them. It has also extended Russia’s capability to target several NATO allies in Eastern and Central Europe.

France and the European Commission on Monday told China's President Xi Jinping that they wanted him to use his influence on Russia to end its war in Ukraine, while underscoring that the European Union would not waver in its support for Kyiv.

President Emmanuel Macron is hosting the Chinese leader in his first visit to Europe in five years and held talks with him and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Paris as they sought to show a united front on issues ranging from trade to Ukraine.

China has strengthened trade and military ties with Russia in recent years as the U.S. and its allies imposed sanctions on both countries, especially on Moscow since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

PUTIN'S INAUGURATION: FRANCE WILL SEND DIPLOMAT, GERMANY AND BALTIC STATES WILL NOT

China-Russian trade hit a record of $240.1 billion in 2023, up 26.3% from a year earlier, Chinese customs data shows. Chinese shipments to Russia jumped 46.9% in 2023 while imports from Russia rose 13%.

Beyond the financial ties, Western powers have been especially worried that Beijing could provide weapons to Moscow and circumvent existing sanctions on materials that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

"We count on China to use all its influence on Russia to end Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine," von der Leyen told reporters after a trilateral meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Macron said coordination with China on Ukraine was "absolutely decisive."

Fighting on Ukraine's eastern front has worsened in recent weeks as Kyiv's troops await crucial U.S. and European military aid to beat back a Russian advance.

The two European leaders were keen to underline to Xi that despite Ukraine's current difficulties, they were determined to continue backing it and that Beijing needed to realize that the conflict was likely to last, with Western powers not ready to abandon Kyiv, diplomatic sources said.

Western powers have been trying for more than a year to convince China not to give Russia military support.

The diplomatic sources said Xi had been clear that Beijing did not intend to supply weapons to Moscow and that it was ready to look into the issue of dual-usage materials that enabled Russia's war effort.

They said they would now have to see whether commitments turned into actions. The EU is currently discussing possible sanctions against some Chinese firms.

Xi was quoted by Chinese state media as saying all parties wished to see an early ceasefire, a return of peace in Europe and to avoid any further escalation.

"China did not create the Ukraine crisis, nor is it a party to it," state media quoted Xi as saying. "All along, China has been working vigorously to facilitate talks for peace."

Russian President Vladmir Putin is expected to travel to China later in May in what could be his first overseas trip of his new presidential term.

China's National Health Commission said it was investigating a hospital in the southwest megacity of Chongqing for its alleged involvement in surrogacy, which is illegal in China, after wide circulation of the issue on social media.

The incident comes after a series of official investigations last year related to the issuance of fake birth certificates at a time when China is trying to boost its birth rate.

Chongqing Angel Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital has been cooperating with illegal surrogacy agencies, a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo said on Sunday.

CHINESE 'RENT-A-WOMB' INDUSTRY USING AMERICAN SURROGATES IS A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: HERITAGE RESEARCHER

Surrogate mothers would use forged ID cards to give birth in the hospital and forged birth certificates would be made after the babies were born, according to the post, made by a user called Shangguan Zhengyi, who describes himself as a volunteer fighting child trafficking.

A team had been set up to investigate and verify the situation, the local Chongqing health committee said in a statement on its website on Sunday in response to the post.

"Once verified, it (the hospital) will be dealt with seriously in accordance with laws and regulations."

Chongqing Angel Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

The Weibo post on the hospital was one of the top trending items on Monday, drawing hundreds of comments.

"This industry always seems to have existed," said one comment by a user called Wensheng. Another user called XJ said: "This is an industrial chain, not something that can be accomplished by one person."

China said last year it would "severely crack down" on illegal activities related to the use of assisted reproductive technologies such as the buying or selling of sperm or eggs and surrogacy.

It suspended a hospital and judicial institute in Wuhan in November after they were accused of surrogacy and issuing fake paternity results.

Birth certificates are required in China for obtaining household registration and are necessary for vaccinations, medical insurance enrollment and application for a social security card.

Turkey has carried out a new round of airstrikes targeting Kurdish militants in neighboring Iraq, the Turkish defense ministry said Monday.

Warplanes struck suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in the regions of Hakurk, Metina and Gara in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, according to the statement.

The airstrikes reportedly killed 16 militants, including some commanders, the ministry said. There was no immediate comment from the PKK, a banned separatist group that has waged an insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s.

TURKISH PRESIDENT MAKES FIRST OFFICIAL VISIT TO IRAQ IN OVER A DECADE

The ministry said it was determined to "rescue Turkey from this problem."

The latest airstrikes came weeks after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid his first visit to Iraq in 12 years, seeking greater cooperation from Baghdad in the fight against the militants. Erdogan had previously announced a major operation against the PKK for this summer with the aim of "permanently" eradicating the threat it poses.

The PKK, labelled a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, is fighting for Kurdish autonomy in southeast Turkey. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives since it began in 1984.

Baghdad has long alleged that Turkish actions in Iraq against the PKK violate its sovereignty, but it appears to be acquiescing to Ankara’s latest operations.

In March, after a meeting between the Iraqi and Turkish foreign ministers, Baghdad announced that the Iraqi National Security Council had issued a ban on the PKK, although it stopped short of designating it as a terrorist organization.

France will send its ambassador to the inauguration of Russian President Vladimir Putin for his next six-year term in office on Tuesday, a French diplomatic source said on Monday, in contrast with Germany which said it would not be represented.

Paris' decision suggests a potential split in the Western camp with several countries, including the Baltic states, vehemently opposed to giving Putin any form of legitimacy and potentially undermining Ukraine in its war with Russia after Moscow launched an invasion more than two years ago.

Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide, cementing his already tight grip on power, in Russia's presidential election, held in March just weeks after Putin's most prominent opponent Alexei Navalny died in jail. Western governments condemned the re-election as unfair and undemocratic.

FRENCH CYBERWARRIORS READY TO TEST THEIR DEFENSE AGAINST HACKERS AND MALWARE DURING THE OLYMPICS

"France will be represented by its ambassador to Russia," a French diplomatic source said.

The source said Paris had previously condemned the context of repression in which the election was held, depriving voters of a real choice, as well as the organization of elections in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, which France considers a violation of international law and the United Nations Charter.

Franco-Russian relations have deteriorated in recent months as Paris has increased its support for Ukraine. Just last week President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out sending troops to Ukraine saying if Russia broke through Ukrainian front lines it would be legitimate to consider it if Kyiv requested the support.

Germany said it would not send a representative to Putin's inauguration. The Baltic states, which no longer have envoys in Moscow, have also categorically ruled out attending the inauguration.

Two European diplomats said they did not expect the United States to send an envoy to the inauguration, although Washington has not made a public announcement.

"We believe that the isolation of Russia, and especially of its criminal leader, must be continued," Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said. "Participation in Putin's inauguration is not acceptable for Lithuania. Our priority remains support for Ukraine and its people fighting against Russian aggression."

Hamas has agreed to a cease-fire agreement framework put forward by Egypt and Qatar, the terrorist group announced in a Monday statement.

The White House and State Department could not confirm the agreement as of press time, but a Hamas spokesman confirmed it to Fox News Digital. Israel has not announced its stance on the framework. If it is approved, however, it would bring an extended pause to the fighting that has raged in Gaza for seven months.

"The fighter brother Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, had a phone call with the Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani, and with the Egyptian Minister of Intelligence, Mr. Abbas Kamel, and informed them of the Hamas movement’s approval of their proposal regarding the ceasefire agreement," the Hamas statement read.

News of the agreement comes just as Israel appeared to be preparing for a ground assault on Rafah, the final stronghold of Hamas in Gaza. The city is also playing host to more than 1 million Gazans displaced from the north.

HAMAS KINGPIN HOLED UP DEEP BELOW GAZA, SURROUNDED BY HOSTAGES USED AS HUMAN SHIELDS, SAYS EXPERT

Israel urged Palestinians to flee Rafah ahead of the expected operation. Overnight on Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that Israel was left with no choice but to act in Rafah after Hamas terrorists carried out a deadly rocket attack from Rafah earlier in the day that left four Israeli soldiers dead.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION PUTS HOLD ON US AMMUNITION SHIPMENT TO ISRAEL: REPORT

President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone about Rafah on Monday, Fox News has learned. Netanyahu has vowed repeatedly to carry out a military operation in Rafah. According to Israel’s army, forces are beginning with a "limited scope operation."

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said some 100,000 people were being ordered to move to a nearby Israel-declared humanitarian zone called Muwasi. He said Israel published a map of the evacuation area.

BIDEN ADMIN ACCUSES ISRAELI MILITARY OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN STUNNING CONDEMNATION

These orders were issued through air-dropped leaflets, text messages and radio broadcasts so that Palestinians could get the information.

"Anyone found near (militant) organizations endangers themselves and their family members. For your safety, the (army) urges you to evacuate immediately to the expanded humanitarian area," one flyer read.

Israel's army said on the social media platform X that it would act with "extreme force" against Hamas terrorists, and urged the population to evacuate immediately for their safety.

Fox News' Lawrence Richard and Trey Yingst contributed to this report

A multi-story apartment building under construction collapsed Monday in a coastal city in South Africa, injuring at least 22 workers and trapping more than 40 others in the rubble, authorities said.

The injured workers were taken to a hospital, but authorities did not immediately provide details of their injuries. South African media reported that at least five workers had sustained serious injuries.

Local media reports said at least 59 people were trapped under the rubble after the collapse of what appeared to be a multi-story apartment block that was being built. The reports said 10 people had been rescued, with five sustaining serious injuries.

BUILDING FIRE THAT KILLED 76 IN SOUTH AFRICA WAS CAUSED BY BUILDING NEGLIGENCE, REPORT SAYS

The building collapsed just after 2 p.m. in the city of George, about 250 miles east of Cape Town on South Africa's south coast.

The George Municipality said in a statement that its disaster management services, ambulances and police were responding to the building collapse. The building was located close to the municipal offices, it said.

It said there were multiple injuries but did not give any more details.

George Municipality spokesperson Ntobeko Mangqwengqwe told the News24 media outlet that the structure looked like it had four or five stories.

"At the moment, we don’t have the exact number of injuries," Mangqwengqwe said. "Our emergency personnel and local ambulances are on site."

The provincial Western Cape government said it was closely monitoring the situation and had sent resources to assist city authorities with the emergency response.

"All the necessary support has been offered to emergency personnel to expedite their response. At the moment, officials are focused on saving lives. This is our top priority at this stage," Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, the head of the provincial government, said in a statement.

The national government was being briefed, Winde said.

Alexander Vinnik, a Russian suspected cybercrime kingpin who was arrested in Greece in 2017, convicted of money laundering in France three years later and is now awaiting trial in California, has pleaded partially guilty, TASS news agency cited his lawyer as saying on Saturday.

The lawyer, Arkady Bukh, said that as a result of the plea bargain he now expected Vinnik to get a prison term of less than 10 years.

"He pleaded guilty on a restricted number of charges," TASS quoted Bukh as saying, adding that Vinnik had faced life imprisonment.

RUSSIAN HACKERS ARRESTED ON VACATION IN US-LED OPERATION

"The culmination of the negotiations was a deal with the prosecutor's office. We expect that the prison term will be up to 10 years."

Vinnik, accused of laundering more than $4 billion through the digital currency bitcoin, was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the United States, although Moscow has repeatedly demanded he be returned to Russia.

He was extradited to France from Greece where he was sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering before he was sent back to Greece and then on to the United States in 2022.

The U.S. Department of Justice has said Vinnik "allegedly owned, operated, and administrated BTC-e, a significant cybercrime and online money laundering entity that allowed its users to trade in bitcoin with high levels of anonymity and developed a customer base heavily reliant on criminal activity."

The maximum penalty for the U.S. charges against Vinnik is 55 years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice website.

Several thousand Jews, including Holocaust survivors personally affected by the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, walked through the former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp on Monday for the annual March of the Living ceremony in Poland.

Walking along the 1.8 mile path towards the crematoria of Birkenau, they paid tribute to the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War Two.

This year's ceremony was overshadowed by the events last year when 1,200 people were killed in a Hamas-led rampage through Israeli towns and 253 hostages were taken, according to Israeli tallies.

HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS CONFRONT RISING DENIAL, ANTISEMITISM IN NEW DIGITAL CAMPAIGN

Daniel Louz, a 90-year-old whose hometown Kibbutz Beeri lost a tenth of its residents to the Palestinian attackers, came to the Auschwitz camp on Monday for the first time since his mother's family was killed there in 1942.

"I am convinced that on October 7 in Beeri the good souls (of the Holocaust dead) protected me and did not let the Hamas criminals shoot at our home," Louz told Reuters. "So that I might be able to tell the story. I am really thankful to you all."

More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, perished in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease at Auschwitz, which Germans set up in occupied Poland during World War Two.

More than three million of Poland's 3.2 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for about half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust.

"Prior to October 7 it is my belief ... that the worst event in human history happened on these grounds. That this place, the very word Auschwitz, speaks volumes in one word about fear, death, destruction, annihilation," Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, President of the International March of the Living, said during Monday's event.

"And then came October 7, and perhaps we have to come as a people to the realization that perhaps in some ways the Shoah (Holocaust) isn't over for us. It's not a competition, certainly not a comparison, it's a continuum."

Polish prosecutors have discontinued an investigation into human skeletons found at a site where German dictator Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders spent time during World War II because the advanced state of decay made it impossible to determine the cause of death, a spokesman said Monday.

The remains were found Feb. 24 at Wolf's Lair, which served as Hitler’s chief headquarters from 1941-44 when the area was part of Germany. The compound of about 200 Nazi bunkers and military barracks hidden in deep woods was the site of the failed assassination attempt on Hitler by Col. Claus Stauffenberg on July 20, 1944. The site is now a tourist attraction.

The spokesman for the prosecutor's office in nearby Ketrzyn town, Daniel Brodowski, said police officers secured the remains after they were found by a local group, Latebra, which searches for historical objects.

HITLER’S VEGETABLE GARDEN DISCOVERED AT HIS SECRET HEADQUARTERS

A forensic medical expert examined them under the supervision of the prosecutor's office, which was trying to determine if manslaughter had occurred. It discontinued the investigation in late March due to a lack of evidence that a crime had been committed, Brodowski told The Associated Press in an emailed statement.

"The expert stated that the preserved bone remains were of human origin and came from at least four people, three of whom were most likely middle-aged men, and the fourth was a child several years of age whose sex cannot be determined," Brodowski wrote.

But due to advanced decay of the remains, it was no longer possible to determine the cause of death, he said, noting that at least several dozen years had passed.

JERUSALEM – The Israel Defense Forces and the country’s domestic security agency Shin Bet announced that a military strike on Sunday targeted a Hamas command center located in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) compound in the Gaza Strip.

According to an IDF statement, "The strike was carefully planned and carried out using precise munition in order to minimize harm to uninvolved civilians."

The statement said, "The command and control center was used as a staging ground for multiple attacks on IDF troops located in Gaza's central corridor in recent weeks. Furthermore, the forward operations base was used to carry out attacks on humanitarian efforts, which aims to increase the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians."

ISRAEL SHARES DOSSIER SPELLING OUT ALLEGATIONS AGAINST 12 UN EMPLOYEES ALLEGEDLY INVOLVED IN HAMAS ATTACK

The IDF statement added, "Hamas oversaw the supply of weapons to dozens of Hamas terrorists from inside the command and control center, including those located and operating inside underground terror tunnels. Hamas intentionally positioned the command and control position within the vicinity of an active UNRWA location, jeopardizing the Gazan civilians taking refuge there. As a result of the strike, the Hamas’ command and control center located in the UNRWA complex is no longer operational."

When approached about the IDF strike on the UNRWA facility and the contention that the U.N.’s facility was a Hamas terrorist command center, a UNRWA spokesperson, Juliette Touma, told Fox News Digital, "On this particular incident we don’t have more information. For all violations of the inviolability of United Nations premises we call for investigations."

The IDF and Shin Bet joint statement said, "The Hamas terrorist organization systematically exploits the civilian population and institutions as human shields for their terrorist activities against the State of Israel."

When asked if Hamas was endangering UNRWA employees and Palestinians by using UNRWA schools and other buildings to store weapons and lodge terrorists, Touma told Fox News Digital, "You see, we don’t know if the above claim is true."

David Bedein, an Israeli expert on UNRWA, told Fox News Digital that "the past seven months of combat, UNRWA facilities in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), in Jerusalem and in Gaza, have been shown to be filled with weapons, ammunition and missiles. What we have uncovered over a period of over 37 years is UNRWA is Hamas and Hamas is UNRWA." 

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SILENT OVER HAMAS' USE OF GAZA HOSPITAL AS TERROR HQ

Bedein is the director of the Center for Near East Policy Research and has published numerous reports on UNRWA's curriculum that documented pro-terrorism and pro-antisemitic teaching.

Bedein added, "Since the IDF discovered so many weapons in 40 schools and hospitals over the last six months, how does UNRWA account for the massive amount of weapons found in UNRWA schools and medical facilities in Gaza and Jenin in the West Bank?"

When Fox News Digital sent Touma from UNRWA Bedein’s question, she wrote, "We call for accountability and investigations into ALL violations by ALL parties to the conflict into the breaches of international law and the lack of protection of U.N. premises and personnel in Gaza."

UN, HUMAN RIGHTS, MEDIA GROUPS RELY ON HAMAS DEATH TOLL IN 'SYSTEMATIC DECEPTION': EXPERT

Over the weekend, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner in charge of UNRWA, took to X to complain, "The Israeli Authorities continue to deny humanitarian access to the United Nations. Just this week, they have denied – for the second time – my entry to Gaza where I planned to be with our @UNRWA teams including those on the front lines. The past while recorded an increase in the denial of humanitarian access & attacks on humanitarian workers and convoys."

Fox News Digital sent a press query to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs about Lazzarini’s complaints. Touma, the UNRWA spokeswoman, said, "I’m not sure if the government of Israel responded" to Lazzarini’s X post.

In January, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz urged Lazzarini to resign over accusations that his agency’s workers participated in the Hamas-run massacre of nearly 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Hamas murdered over 30 Americans during the invasion.

Katz said Israel would no longer be meeting with UNRWA. "I have just canceled the meetings of UNRWA head, Lazzarini, with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel on Wednesday," Katz wrote, adding. "UNRWA employees participated in the massacre of October 7."

Israel is slated to launch an incursion into the last major bastion of Hamas control in the city of Rafah, where Hamas mastermind terrorist Yahya Sinwar has reportedly surrounded himself with hostages as human shields.

A Nigerian journalist’s arrest last week has triggered criticism of worsening press freedoms in the West African country.

Daniel Ojukwu with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism went missing last Wednesday in the economic hub of Lagos. His family and employer found out on Friday that he was detained and held in a police station for allegedly violating the country’s Cybercrime Act, often criticized as a tool for censorship.

The arrest of Ojukwu, who was later transferred to the Nigerian capital of Abuja, follows his report about alleged financial mismanagement of over $104,600 involving a senior government official, according to his employer, the foundation.

RUSSIAN JOURNALIST DETAINED FOR POSTS CRITICIZING THE MILITARY, LAWYER SAYS

Nigeria is ranked 112th out of 180 countries in the latest World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders. It is known for the country's tough environment for journalists who face frequent abductions, arrests and prosecution, usually after reporting on chronic corruption and bad governance plaguing the oil-rich country.

At least 25 journalists have been prosecuted under the country’s Cybercrime Act since it was introduced in 2015, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. They include eight detained under President Bola Tinubu whose government, in power since May last year, touts itself as one encouraging press freedoms — a claim it repeated last week during World Press Freedom Day events.

The Cybercrime Act was amended this year to remove some harsh provisions but the police still use it to "silence journalists and critics," Amnesty International’s Nigeria office said.

Nigeria's law requires a suspect to be charged or released within 48 hours following arrest. Ojukwu, however, was not allowed any means of communication or access to a lawyer until his third day in custody, said Oke Ridwan, a human rights lawyer who met with the journalist at the police station where he was held.

Nigeria's Minister of Information Mohammed Idris Malagi told The Associated Press that he is making efforts to resolve the case and is "on top of the issue." Local and international civil society groups have condemned the detention.

It is a "symptom of a larger problem within Nigeria’s law enforcement agencies, and their relationship with politically exposed persons undermining democratic principles," a coalition of at least 30 civil society groups known as the Action Group on Protection of Civic Actors said in a statement on Monday.

"The Nigerian Police Force has veered off course from its duty to uphold law and order to become an oppressive tool in stifling dissent and independent journalism," it added.

A 16-year-old boy who was shot dead by police after stabbing a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth had been in a deradicalization program but had no links to an alleged network of teen extremists in the east coast city of Sydney, authorities said.

The boy had participated in the federally funded Countering Violent Extremism program for two years but had no criminal record, Western Australia Police Minister Paul Papalia said Monday.

"The challenge we confront with people like the 16-year-old in this incident is that he’s known to hold views that are dangerous and potentially he could be radicalized," Papalia said. "But the problem with individuals like this is they can act at short notice without warning and be very dangerous."

AUSTRALIA ACCUSES CHINA OF RECKLESS BEHAVIOR AFTER FIGHTER JET DROPPED FLARES IN FRONT OF HELICOPTER

On the potential for the boy to have been radicalized, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was concerned by social media pushing extreme positions.

"It’s a dynamic that isn’t just an issue for government. It’s an issue for our entire society, whether it be violent extremism, misogyny and violence against women. It is an issue that of course I’m concerned about," Albanese told reporters.

Western Australia Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the boy had phoned police late Saturday saying he was about to commit "acts of violence" but did not say where. Minutes later, a member of the public reported to police seeing the boy with a knife in a hardware store parking lot.

Three police officers responded, one armed with a gun and two with stun guns. Police deployed both stun guns but they failed to incapacitate the boy before he was killed by a single gunshot, Blanch said.

The stabbing victim is a man in his 30s who was wounded in his back. He was in serious but stable condition at a Perth hospital, police said.

Blanch said members of the local Muslim community had raised concerns with police about the boy’s behavior before he was killed on Saturday.

The boy had said in a text message to associates, "I am going on the path of jihad tonight for the sake of Allah," Australian Associated Press reported, prompting several to alert police.

Police said the stabbing had the hallmarks of a terrorist attack but have not declared it as such. Factors that can influence that decision include whether state police need federal resources, including the Australian Security Intelligence Organization domestic spy agency.

Blanch said the Western Australia Police Force investigation did not need additional federal resources and he was confidence the situation was different from the one in Sydney.

"We are dealing with complex issues, both mental health issues but also online radicalization issues," Blanch said Sunday. "But we believe he very much is acting alone and we do not have concerns at this time that there is an ongoing network or other concerns that might have been seen over in Sydney."

Western Australia Premier Roger Cook said his government and the state education department had been aware of concerns at the boy's school about his behavior. Cook didn't directly respond to reports that several boys at Rossmoyne Senior High School, the prestigious government school he attended, were attempting to radicalize classmates.

"I'll leave that up the the Education Department to clarify," Cook told reporters. "This young man was harboring some extremist thoughts, which is the reason why he was part of the Countering Violent Extremism program."

Amanda Spencer-Teo, a parent of a Rossmoyne student, said multiple "red flags" had been raised about the behavior of some students.

"Parents have been raising this with the school for some time," Spencer-Teo, who will be an opposition party candidate at state elections next year, told The Australian newspaper. "The school and the department have failed to provide information to those concerned parents."

In the stabbings at a Sydney church on April 15, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb declared the stabbings of an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and priest as a terrorist act within hours. The boy arrested was later charged with committing a terrorist act. In the subsequent investigation, six more teenagers were charged with terror-related offenses.

Police alleged all seven were part of a network that "adhered to a religiously motivated, violent extremist ideology."

Some Muslim leaders have criticized Australian police for declaring the church stabbing a terrorist act but not a rampage two days earlier in a Sydney shopping mall in which six people were killed and a dozen wounded.

The 40-year-old attacker, who was shot dead by police, had a history of schizophrenia and most of the victims he targeted were women. Police have yet to reveal the man’s motive.

A report into a building fire that killed 76 people in South Africa last year has concluded that city authorities should be held responsible because they were aware of serious safety issues at the rundown apartment block at least four years before the blaze.

The nighttime fire at the five-story building in downtown Johannesburg on Aug. 31 was one of South Africa's worst disasters. At least 12 children were among the dead and another 86 people were injured, with some having to leap out of windows to escape the flames.

Others said they threw small children out the windows in the hope that they would be caught by people below. Many of the victims were burned beyond recognition having become trapped in the overcrowded building and it took authorities weeks to identify bodies using DNA tests.

JOHANNESBURG BUILDING FIRE LEAVES AT LEAST 73 DEAD, 52 INJURED

Retired Judge Sisi Khampepe was put in charge of the inquiry, which began in October. She delivered the first part of her report on Sunday and concluded that the City of Johannesburg, which owns the building, had shown "total disregard" for its "calamitous state."

In the wake of the fire, hundreds of people were found to be living illegally in the building, some of them in shacks that had been erected in the corridors, the bathrooms and the basement, which was meant to be a parking garage. Emergency services said that the fire extinguishers had been taken off the walls and the main fire escape was found to be locked on the night of the fire.

The inside of the building was strewn with waste and that combined with the makeshift wooden shacks to make the blaze especially deadly, Khampepe's report found.

Yet city officials, national immigration officials and police officers had raided the building in 2019, and "found the distressing living conditions in the building that contributed to the devastation of the fire," Khampepe told reporters after delivering her report.

She recommended that disciplinary action be taken against the chief executive officer of the Johannesburg Property Company, which oversees the city's buildings. She also said that the building should be demolished and a plaque erected as a memorial to the dozens of victims.

The tragedy revealed the extent of the decay in parts of South Africa's biggest city and economic hub, where many buildings have been "hijacked" by illegal landlords, who rent out space to people desperate for somewhere to live. The buildings are often overcrowded and safety precautions are disregarded.

There was a stunning development at the inquiry in January when a man due to testify as a resident of the building said that he had started the fire to burn the body of a man he had killed on the orders of a drug dealer.

The man who made the shocking confession was arrested and charged with 76 counts of murder and arson.

China's President Xi Jinping arrived at the French presidential palace on Monday for a two-day state visit that is expected to focus both on trade disputes and diplomatic efforts to convince Beijing to use its influence to move Russia toward ending the war in Ukraine.

In Paris, Xi first joined a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meant to address broader EU concerns. Macron said in his introductory remarks the meeting would first address trade issues and how to ensure "fair competition," then the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

"We are at a turning point in our history" as the Europe-China relationship is faced with challenges, Macron said.

FRENCH CYBERWARRIORS READY TO TEST THEIR DEFENSE AGAINST HACKERS AND MALWARE DURING THE OLYMPICS

The talks are aimed at sharing "both our shared positions and our concerns, to try to overcome them, because the future of our continent will very clearly also depend on our ability to develop balanced relations with China," he said.

Macron, a strong advocate of Europe’s economic sovereignty, wants to raise French concerns about a Chinese antidumping investigation into cognac and other European brandy, and tensions over French cosmetics and other sectors.

In a recent speech, he denounced trade practices of both China and the United States as shoring up protections and subsidies.

At the start of the meeting in Paris, Xi said "the world today has entered a new period of turbulence and change."

"As two important forces in the world, China and Europe should ... continuously make new contributions to world peace and development," he said.

The EU launched an investigation last fall into Chinese subsidies and could impose tariffs on electric vehicles exported from China.

"The European Union and China want good relations," von der Leyen said. "We have a substantial EU-China economic relationship. ... But this relationship is also challenged, for example, through state-induced overcapacity, unequal market access and overdependencies."

Paris is the first stop on Xi's European trip, seeking to rebuild relations at a time of global tensions. After France on Monday and Tuesday, he will head to Serbia and Hungary.

France hopes the discussions will help convince China to use its leverage with Moscow to ‘’contribute to a resolution of the conflict" in Ukraine, according to a French presidential official. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently announced plans to visit China this month.

Macron will press Xi over supplies from Chinese companies supporting the Russian war effort despite EU sanctions, he said. China claims neutrality in the Ukraine conflict. France also wants China to maintain a dialogue with Kyiv, added the official, who was not authorized to be identified according to presidential policy.

Last year, Macron appealed to Xi to "bring Russia to its senses," but the call was not followed by any apparent action by Beijing.

"French authorities are pursuing two objectives that are ultimately contradictory," said Marc Julienne, director of the Center for Asian Studies at the French Institute of International Relations. "On the one hand, to convince Xi that it's in his interest to help Europeans to put pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the war and, on the other hand, to dissuade the Chinese president from delivering arms to his Russian friend."

"In short, we think that Xi can help us, but at the same time we fear that he could help Putin," Julienne wrote.

As France prepares to host the Summer Olympics, Macron said he would ask Xi to use his influence to make the Games "a diplomatic moment of peace."

The discussions will also be closely watched from Washington, a month before President Joe Biden is expected to pay his own state visit to France.

Xi's visit marks the 60th anniversary of France-China diplomatic relations, and follows Macron’s trip to China in April 2023. Macron prompted controversy on that trip after he said France wouldn’t blindly follow the U.S. in getting involved in crises that are not its concern, apparently referring to China’s demands for unification with Taiwan.

Several groups — including International Campaign for Tibet and France’s Human Rights League — urged Macron to put human rights issues at the heart of his talks with Xi. Protesters demonstrated in Paris as Xi arrived on Sunday, calling for a free Tibet.

Amnesty International called on Macron to demand the release of Uyghur economics professor Ilham Tohti, who was jailed in China for life in 2014 on charges of promoting separatism, and other imprisoned activists.

On Monday morning, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders staged a protest in front of the Arc de Triomphe monument to denounce Xi's visit, calling the Chinese president "one of the greatest predators of press freedom." The group says 119 journalists are imprisoned in the country.

Macron said in an interview published Sunday that he will raise human rights concerns.

Later on Monday, a formal ceremony is to take place at the Invalides monument before bilateral talks at the Elysee presidential palace. Macron and Xi will conclude a nearby French-Chinese economic forum and then join their wives for a state dinner.

The second day of the visit is meant to be a more personal moment.

Macron has invited Xi to visit the Tourmalet Pass in the Pyrenees mountains on Tuesday, where the French leader spent time as a child to see his grandmother. The trip is meant to be a reciprocal gesture after Xi took Macron last year to the residence of the governor of Guangdong province, where his father once lived.

Voters in Chad headed to the polls on Monday to cast their ballot in a long delayed presidential election that is set to end three years of military rule under interim president, Mahamat Deby Itno.

Deby Itno seized power after his father who ran the country for more than three decades was killed fighting rebels in 2021. Last year, the government announced it was extending the 18-month transition for two more years, which provoked protests across the country.

There are 10 candidates on the ballot, including a woman. Some 8 million people are registered to vote, in a country of more than 17 million people, one of the poorest in the world. Analysts say Deby Itno is expected to win the vote. A leading opposition figure Yaya Dillo, the current president’s cousin, was killed in February in circumstances that remain unclear.

US TO PULL TROOPS FROM CHAD AND NIGER AS THE AFRICAN NATIONS QUESTION ITS COUNTERTERRORISM ROLE

The oil-exporting country of nearly 18 million people has not had a free-and-fair transfer of power since it became independent in 1960 after decades of French colonial rule.

Chad is seen by the U.S. and France as one of the last remaining stable allies in the vast Sahel region following military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in recent years. The ruling juntas in all three nations have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance instead.

Earlier this year, Niger’s junta ordered all U.S. troops out, meaning Washington will lose access to its key base in Agadez, the center of its counter-terrorism operations in the region. The U.S. and France still have a military presence in Chad, who consider it an especially critical partner.

The West also fears that any instability in Chad, which has absorbed over half a million refugees from Sudan, could increase the flow of illegal migrants north towards Europe.

US SAYS IT WILL RETURN TO CHAD FOR TALKS TO KEEP TROOPS IN THE COUNTRY

"These are all the reasons the West is staying relatively quiet about the democratic transition in Chad," said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. "Everybody just wants this vote to pass so Deby Itno gets elected so they continue to work with him and preserve the stability of the region," he added.

Along with the arrival of refugees from Sudan, Chad is also dealing with high food prices partly caused by the war in Ukraine and a renewed threat from the Boko Haram insurgency spilling over from its southwestern border with Nigeria.

In March, an attack the government blamed on Boko Haram killed 7 soldiers, reviving fears of violence in the Lake Chad area after a period of peace following a successful operation launched in 2020 by the Chadian army to destroy the extremist group’s bases there. Schools, mosques and churches reopened and humanitarian organizations returned.

"For years now, we’ve had to cope with the high cost of living, without any solution," said Adoumadji Jean, a teacher at a state secondary school in Moyen-Chari province, in an interview with The Associated Press. "We want a change this year through this election", he added.

Boko Haram launched an insurgency more than a decade ago against Western education and seeks to establish Islamic law in Nigeria’s northeast. The insurgency has spread to West African neighbors including Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Human rights groups have called for an investigation in to the killing of Chad’s main opposition figure, Dillo. The government has said Dillo was killed during an attack on the the National State Security Agency by his group, known as The Socialist Party Without Borders. But a photo of Dillo showed he was killed by a single bullet wound to the head.

Human Rights Watch said the killing raised serious concerns about the environment for the election.

"With his most significant opponents either co-opted or eliminated, and critical electoral institutions stacked with his supporters, Déby Itno’s victory is all but certain," wrote Michelle Gavin for the Council of Foreign Relations, a Washington DC based think tank.

Votes will be first counted at polling stations after polls close at 5pm, but preliminary results will be announced three weeks later on May 21. If no candidate wins outright, a runoff will be held on June 5.

Russia said Monday it plans to hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons amid rising tensions following comments by senior Western officials about the possibility of deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine.

The announcement came on the eve of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration to a fifth term in office and in a week when Moscow on Thursday will celebrate Victory Day, its most important secular holiday, marking its defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

The drills are a response to "provocative statements and threats of certain Western officials regarding the Russian Federation," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

PUTIN WARNS THE WEST THAT RUSSIA IS 'READY' FOR NUCLEAR WAR: 'WEAPONS EXIST IN ORDER TO USE THEM'

It was the first time Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, although its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises. Tactical nuclear weapons include air bombs, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery munitions and are meant for use on a battlefield. They are less powerful than the strategic weapons — massive warheads that arm intercontinental ballistic missiles and are intended to obliterate entire cities.

The Russian announcement was a warning to Ukraine’s Western allies about becoming more deeply engaged in the 2-year-old war, where the Kremlin's forces have gained an upper hand amid Ukraine's shortage of manpower and weapons. Some of Ukraine’s Western partners have previously expressed concern that the conflict could spill beyond Ukraine into a war between NATO and Russia.

French President Emmanuel Macron repeated last week that he doesn’t exclude sending troops to Ukraine, and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Kyiv’s forces will be able to use British long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia. Some other NATO countries providing weapons to Kyiv have balked at that possibility.

The Kremlin branded those comments as dangerous, heightening tension between Russia and NATO. The war already has placed significant strain on relations between Moscow and the West.

RUSSIA HAS GROUNDS TO SEIZE WESTERN ASSETS AFTER US LEGISLATIVE MOVE, TOP LAWMAKER SAYS

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Macron’s recent statement and other remarks by British and U.S. officials had prompted the nuclear drills.

"It’s a new round of escalation," Peskov said, referring to what the Kremlin regarded as provocative statements. "It’s unprecedented and requires special attention and special measures."

Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned both the French and British ambassadors.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said the nuclear exercises "contribute to increasing instability."

"In the current security situation, Russia’s actions may be considered particularly irresponsible and reckless," Billström told Swedish news agency TT.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council that's chaired by Putin, said in his typically hawkish fashion that the comments by Macron and Cameron risked pushing the nuclear-armed world toward a "global catastrophe."

It wasn’t the first time Europe’s military support for Ukraine has prompted nuclear saber-rattling. In March 2023, after the U.K.’s decision to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing shells containing depleted uranium, Putin said he intends to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Ukraine neighbor Belarus.

RUSSIA'S KREMLIN PARADES WESTERN EQUIPMENT CAPTURED FROM UKRAINIAN ARMY AT EXHIBITION

The ministry said the exercise is intended to "increase the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to fulfill combat tasks" and will be held on Putin’s orders. The maneuvers will involve missile units of the Southern Military District along with the air force and the navy, it said.

The Russian announcement stirred little reaction in Ukraine, where the spokesman for the Military Intelligence agency, Andrii Yusov, said on national television: "Nuclear blackmail is a usual practice of Putin’s regime; it does not constitute major news."

Western officials have blamed Russia for threatening a wider war through provocative acts. NATO countries said last week they are deeply concerned by a campaign of hybrid activities on the military alliance’s soil, accusing Moscow of being behind them and saying they represent a security threat.

Peskov dismissed those claims as "new, unfounded accusations leveled at our country."

Germany said Monday it recalled its ambassador to Russia for a week of consultations in Berlin following an alleged computer hack of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones hit two vehicles Monday in Russia’s Belgorod region, killing six people and injuring 35 others, including two children, local authorities said. The area has been hit by Kyiv’s forces in recent months.

One of the vehicles was a minibus carrying farm workers, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

It was not possible to independently confirm the report.

While Ukraine’s army is largely pinned down on the 600-mile front line due to a shortage of troops and ammunition after more than two years of fighting, it has used its long-range firepower to hit targets deep inside Russia.

In what has largely been a war of attrition, Russia also has relied heavily on long-range missile, artillery and drones to wreak damage on Ukraine.

The Kremlin's forces kept up their bombardment of Ukraine's power grid, with a nighttime Russian drone attack targeting energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s northern region of Sumy. Multiple towns and villages in the region, including Sumy, lost power, regional authorities said.

Russia attacked Ukrainian targets with 13 Shahed drones overnight, 12 of which were intercepted in the Sumy region, Ukraine’s air force said.