World
Gaza health ministry says 87 killed in northern Gaza airstrike
“Victims are still under the rubble and on the road and ambulance teams and civil emergency can’t reach them,” it said in a statement.

A total of 87 people were killed or missing under the rubble after an Israeli attack on Saturday on northern Gaza’s town of Beit Lahiya, with more than 40 wounded, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said on Sunday.
The Israeli military has said it was investigating reports of the incident, which left one of the highest casualty tolls in months. Earlier, it said a total of 73 reported by the Hamas media office appeared exaggerated given the nature of the munitions used in the strike, which it said hit a Hamas target.
Gaza’s health ministry said rescue operations were being hindered by communications problems and by the Israeli military operation still going on around the area, close to the border line with Israel, the ministry said.
“Victims are still under the rubble and on the road and ambulance teams and civil emergency can’t reach them,” it said in a statement.
The strike, late on Saturday night, came two weeks into a major operation around the town of Jabalia, just to the south of Beit Lahiya, where Israeli troops backed with tanks have been trying to squeeze out remaining Hamas fighters.
“Horrifying scenes unfolding in Gaza, amidst conflict, relentless Israeli strikes & an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis. I condemn the continuing attacks on civilians,” U.N. Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland posted on X.
“Hostages must be freed, displacement of Palestinians must cease, & civilians must be protected,” he added.
Evacuation orders, directing people south, have fuelled fears among many Palestinians that the operation is intended to clear them out of the northern part of Gaza in order to help ensure Israeli control of the area after the war.
Israel has denied any such plans, saying it is trying to protect civilians and separate them from Hamas fighters.
The military says it has killed scores of armed Palestinian fighters, located weapons, and dismantled a variety of military infrastructure during the operation in Jabalia, home to one of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps.
Residents in Jabalia said Israeli forces raided shelters housing displaced families and detained dozens of men.
The death last week of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had drawn hopes of a possible opening up of moves to end the fighting in Gaza, more than a year after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel by Hamas-led gunmen who killed some 1,200 people and seized 251 hostages.
But the latest incident underscores how intense the conflict in Gaza still remains, even as Israel’s main focus has shifted north to its operation against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
More than 42,600 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s ground offensive, according to Palestinian health ministry figures, and thousands more are thought to be buried under the rubble. Much of the coastal enclave has been destroyed and most of its 2.3 million population has been displaced.
As the fighting has continued, health officials have reported stark shortages of food, fuel and medical supplies to treat patients in the three remaining hospitals still partially operating in the area.
Officials at the Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and Al-Awda hospitals said their facilities were besieged by Israeli forces, and at Kamal Adwan Hospital officials said the facility came under Israeli fire.
World
Trump says he still has good relations with leader of ‘nuclear power’ North Korea

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he still has a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with whom he held several summits during his first term, and referred to North Korea once again as a “nuclear power.”
Asked by reporters during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte whether he had plans to reestablish relations with Kim, Trump said: “I would … I have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un, and we’ll see what happens, but certainly he’s a nuclear power,” Reuters reported.
On January 20, when he was inaugurated for his second term, Trump said North Korea was a “nuclear power,” raising questions about whether he would pursue arms reduction talks rather than denuclearization efforts that failed in his first term in any re-engagement with Pyongyang.
After referring to Russia and China’s nuclear arsenals, Trump said: “It would be a great achievement if we could bring down the number. We have so many weapons, and the power is so great.
“And number one, you don’t need them to that extent. And then we’d have to get others, ’cause, as you know, in a smaller way – Kim Jong Un has a lot of nuclear weapons, by the way, a lot, and others do also. You have India, you have Pakistan, you have others that have them, and we get them involved.”
Asked if Trump remarks represented any shift in policy towards North Korea’s nuclear weapons, a White House official said: “President Trump will pursue the complete denuclearization of North Korea, just as he did in his first term.”
On February 15, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Japanese and South Korean counterparts reaffirmed their “resolute commitment to the complete denuclearization” of North Korea in accordance with U.S. Security Council Resolutions.
Last week, Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong criticized the Trump administration for stepping up "provocations" and said it justified North Korea increasing its nuclear deterrent. This week North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles, its first since Trump took office.
World
Iran’s President to Trump: I will not negotiate, ‘do whatever the hell you want’
“It is unacceptable for us that they (the U.S.) give orders and make threats. I won’t even negotiate with you. Do whatever the hell you want”, state media quoted Pezeshkian as saying.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would not negotiate with the U.S. while being threatened, telling President Donald Trump to “do whatever the hell you want”, Iranian state media reported on Tuesday.
“It is unacceptable for us that they (the U.S.) give orders and make threats. I won’t even negotiate with you. Do whatever the hell you want”, state media quoted Pezeshkian as saying.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations, a day after Trump said he had sent a letter urging Iran to engage in talks on a new nuclear deal, Reuters reported.
While expressing openness to a deal with Tehran, Trump has reinstated the “maximum pressure” campaign he applied in his first term as president to isolate Iran from the global economy and drive its oil exports down towards zero.
In an interview with Fox Business, Trump said last week, “There are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal” to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Iran has long denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. However, it is “dramatically” accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level, the IAEA has warned.
Iran has accelerated its nuclear work since 2019, a year after then-President Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.
World
Philippines’ ex-President Duterte arrested at ICC’s request over ‘drugs war’ killings

The Philippines arrested firebrand former President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday at the request of the International Criminal Court, a major step in the world body’s investigation into thousands of killings in a bloody “war on drugs” that defined his presidency.
Duterte, the maverick former mayor who led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was served an arrest warrant on arrival from Hong Kong at Manila’s main airport and was now in custody, the office of his successor Ferdinand Marcos Jr said in a statement.
The “war on drugs” was Duterte’s signature campaign platform that swept the mercurial, crime-busting former prosecutor to power in 2016 and he soon delivered on promises made during vitriolic speeches to kill thousands of drug dealers and users, Reuters reported.
If transferred to the Hague, he could become Asia’s first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.
Duterte has insisted he told police to kill only in self-defence and has repeatedly defended the crackdown, saying he was willing to “rot in jail” if it meant ridding the Philippines of drugs.
In a video posted on Instagram by daughter Veronica Duterte from Manila’s Villamor Air Base, where he has been placed in custody, the former leader questioned the reason for his arrest.
“What is the law and what is the crime that I committed?” he said in the video. It was unclear who he was speaking to.
“I was brought here not of my own volition, it is somebody else’s. You have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty.”
The president’s office has yet to clarify the next steps for Duterte and it was not immediately clear what the ICC has charged him with.
According to police, 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations that they say ended in shootouts. But activists say the real toll of Duterte’s crackdown was far greater, with many thousands more slumland drug users, some named on community “watch lists”, killed in mysterious circumstances.
The ICC’s prosecutor has said as many as 30,000 people may have been killed by police or unidentified individuals.
Police have rejected allegations from rights groups of systematic executions and cover-ups.
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