Day News Recap: Congo crash, Middle East tensions and Trump Xi talks dominate a crowded day

At least 13 people were killed when a military aircraft crashed near homes in Kenge, in the southwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the plane coming down close to residential buildings.  🔗

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In the Middle East, Iran said it no longer trusts talks with Washington as it waits for a response to a new proposal on the war and sanctions dispute, while Donald Trump reportedly rejected Tehran's seven day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.  🔗 🔗 Iraq said the conflict involving Iran has already cut oil revenues and disrupted trade routes through the strait, and four Iraqi airports suspended flights to and from Iran after new US aviation sanctions.  🔗 🔗

Fighting also intensified in several other regional flashpoints. In Ethiopia, fresh clashes in Tigray raised fears for the 2022 peace deal, and the UN said the security situation across northern Ethiopia was deteriorating further.  🔗 🔗 In Yemen, Rashad al Alimi called for mobilisation and offered amnesty to Houthi defectors as the conflict shifted towards Bab al Mandeb, while Saudi Arabia said it intercepted drones and missiles aimed at Riyadh and Khamis Mushait.  🔗 🔗 Pakistan's prime minister warned that any Houthi threat to Mecca or Medina would cross a red line, as military chiefs from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye met in Islamabad.  🔗

Lebanon's prime minister used the UN stage to demand the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and full enforcement of the ceasefire, as shelling continued in the south.  🔗 In Gaza City, families were reported sheltering inside damaged buildings at risk of collapse after repeated displacement left many with nowhere safer to go.  🔗 In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers were accused of diverting water from the Fasayil spring to a nearby tourist site, and the UN expanded its database of firms linked to Israeli settlements by adding 61 companies.  🔗 🔗

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Elsewhere in the region, Israel's Central Elections Committee voted to disqualify the country's two main Arab majority political lists from next month's parliamentary election, a move likely to deepen political tensions.  🔗 In Greece, emergency crews recovered all six bodies after an explosion destroyed a building in Athens' Plaka district near the Acropolis, and a separate fire on a cargo ship near Mykonos prompted an evacuation.  🔗 🔗

In Europe and security news, Poland raised its air defence posture after repeated alleged Russian airspace incursions, while a Russian Aeroflot jet remained stranded at Geneva airport because sanctions have prevented it from leaving Switzerland since the start of the war in Ukraine.  🔗 🔗 Ukraine said Russian strikes had widened to hit data centres and internet providers, including damage to a business centre in Kyiv.  🔗

In Asia, heavy rain turned Bangkok into a flood disaster zone as authorities kept pumping water from affected areas.  🔗 In Pakistan, at least 12 people were killed and 30 wounded in a suicide bombing at a roadside police checkpoint in Dera Ismail Khan district.  🔗 India's election commission also came under scrutiny after reporting of internal disagreements over changes to the voter database.  🔗

On the diplomatic front, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping ended their Washington summit with no major breakthrough but agreed to extend a tariff truce, while the two sides also opened a communication channel on artificial intelligence incidents.  🔗 🔗 In Washington, the US Supreme Court revived the federal SAVE database for citizenship checks, and a federal appeals court upheld the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic.  🔗 🔗 Trump also questioned whether CNN and MSNBC should keep White House access, signalling a tougher media stance, and the US Army was reported to be reviewing support units for a possible Cuba related operation.  🔗 🔗

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Law enforcement and migration cases also featured, with a federal grand jury indicting a former USCIS officer and associate over an immigration application scheme, while Colombian national Geovany Andres Rojas, known as Araña, was extradited to the US in a Homeland Security task force case.  🔗 🔗 A Cuban national was separately convicted in Florida in an alien smuggling and money laundering case.  🔗

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