Reuters: World

Mozambique's president says northern town under Islamist attack Mozambique's army is fighting Islamist insurgents who launched a major attack on the northern town of Macomia on Friday morning, President Filipe Nyusi said in a televised address. The town is in Cabo Delgado, a gas-rich northern province where Islamic State-linked militants started an insurgency in 2017. Despite a large security response, there has been a surge in attacks since January this year. "Macomia is under attack since this morning. Fire exchange still continues," he said at around 1000 GMT, adding that the militants initially withdrew after about 45 minutes of fighting, but then regrouped and came back. read more

Hong Kong court bans protest anthem, saying it can be used as a weapon Hong Kong's Court of Appeal on Wednesday granted an application by the government to ban a protest anthem called "Glory to Hong Kong", overturning a lower court judgment that had rejected such a ban because of its possible "chilling effects" on free speech. The ruling comes amid what critics say is an erosion in Hong Kong's rule of law and individual rights amid a sweeping national security crackdown by Beijing that has jailed scores of opposition democrats and shut down liberal media outlets. The case has implications for internet freedoms and the operations of firms including internet platform operators (IPOs) and technology firms such as Google (GOOGL.O) read more

US optimistic revised Hamas proposal may break Gaza ceasefire impasse The United States believes the remaining differences between Israel and Hamas can be bridged in negotiations over the Palestinian militant group's latest ceasefire proposal, as talks resume in Cairo on Wednesday. Israeli forces on Tuesday seized the main border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than one million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter during Israel's seven-month-old offensive. This cut off a vital route for aid into the tiny enclave, where hundreds of thousands of people are homeless and hungry. read more

Gaza ceasefire uncertain, Israel vows to continue Rafah operation Palestinian militant group Hamas on Monday agreed to a Gaza ceasefire proposal from mediators, but Israel said the terms did not meet its demands and pressed ahead with strikes in Rafah while planning to continue negotiations on a deal. The developments in the seven-month-old war came as Israeli forces struck Rafah on Gaza's southern edge from the air and ground and ordered residents to leave parts of the city, which has been a refuge for more than a million displaced Palestinians. read more

Israel attacks Rafah after Hamas claims responsibility for deadly rocket attack Three Israeli soldiers were killed in a rocket attack claimed by Hamas armed wing, near the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, where Palestinian health officials said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli fire on Sunday. Hamas's armed wing claimed responsibility on Sunday for an attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza that Israel said killed three of its soldiers. Israel's military said 10 projectiles were launched from Rafah in southern Gaza towards the area of the crossing, which it said was now closed to aid trucks going into the coastal enclave. Other crossings remained open. read more

Israeli cabinet votes to shut down Al Jazeera's local operations Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet decided on Sunday to shut down Al Jazeera's operations in Israel for as long as the war in Gaza continues, on the grounds the Qatari television network threatens national security. Al Jazeera rejected accusations that it harmed Israel's security as a "dangerous and ridiculous lie" that puts its journalists at risk and said that it reserved the right to "pursue every legal step”. read more

NATO drills show it is preparing for potential conflict with Russia, Moscow says NATO's four-month long military exercises near Russia's borders, known as Steadfast Defender, are proof the alliance is preparing for a potential conflict with Russia, a spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. The spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, dismissed accusations by NATO this week that Russia is engaged in hybrid attacks on its member states, saying this was misleading "misinformation" aimed at distracting people from the alliance's activities. read more

Fresh chaos, arrests on US college campuses as police flatten camp at UCLA Police forcibly removed scores of defiant pro-Palestinian protesters at several colleges on Thursday, including taking down an encampment at UCLA in a jarring scene that underscored the heightened chaos that has erupted at universities this week. In the pre-dawn hours, helmeted police swarmed a tent city set up at the University of California in Los Angeles, using flash bangs and riot gear to push through lines of protesters who linked arms in a futile attempt to halt their advance. read more

California police move in to dismantle pro-Palestinian protest camp at UCLA Hundreds of helmeted police muscled their way into a central plaza of the University of California at Los Angeles early on Thursday to dismantle a pro-Palestinian protest camp attacked the previous night by pro-Israel supporters. The pre-dawn police crackdown at UCLA marked the latest flashpoint for mounting tensions on U.S. college campuses, where protests over Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza have led to student clashes with each other and law enforcement. read more

Russia can't match a Western asset seizure, but it can inflict pain Russia's ability to mete out like-for-like retaliation if Western leaders seize its frozen assets has been eroded by dwindling foreign investment, but officials and economists say there are still ways it can strike back. The United States wants to seize immobilised Russian reserves - around $300 billion globally - and hand them to Ukraine, while EU leaders favour ringfencing profits from the assets, estimating they will total 15-20 billion euros by 2027. read more

Residents of northern Israel brace for possible all-out war with Hezbollah Eli Harel was an Israeli soldier in his early thirties when he was sent into Lebanon in 2006 to battle fighters from the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah in a bloody, largely inconclusive month-long war. Now 50, Harel is ready to rejoin the army to fight the same group if shelling along Israel's northern border turns into a full-blown war with Iran's most powerful regional proxy. This time Israeli forces would face some of the most challenging fighting conditions imaginable, he said. read more

China set to launch high-stakes mission to moon's 'hidden' side China will send a robotic spacecraft in coming days on a round trip to the moon's far side in the first of three technically demanding missions that will pave the way for an inaugural Chinese crewed landing and a base on the lunar south pole. Since the first Chang'e mission in 2007, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, China has made leaps forward in its lunar exploration, narrowing the technological chasm with the United States and Russia. read more