Hamas says it has informed Qatari and Egyptian mediators that it has accepted their proposal for a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Israel. "The ball is now in Israel's court," an official in the Palestinian group said. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the proposal accepted by Hamas was "far from Israel's basic requirements" but negotiations would continue. Earlier Israel carried out air strikes on Rafah after warning Palestinians to evacuate parts of the city. It...

The latest twists and turns in negotiations to end the war in Gaza appear labyrinthine and confusing. But it’s really not that complicated. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, must compromise on the outstanding details of the proposed ceasefire deal and Hamas’s weekend counter-offer – and immediately halt Israel’s criminal bombing of Gaza and reckless military incursions into refugee-populated areas around Rafah. For its part, Hamas must honour previous understandings about the...

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Tuesday the arrest of an American soldier, identified by multiple news agencies as Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, in Vladivostok, stating that he faces charges of “household crime” and is not suspected of being a spy. “The case has no relation to politics or espionage,” the Foreign Ministry office in Vladivostok told the Russian news agency Tass. The office stated that the Foreign Ministry had little interest in the case because it did not seem to...

A U.S. soldier has been detained in Russia on charges of criminal misconduct, the U.S. Army said on Monday, that country's latest high-profile detention of an American. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the soldier had been based in South Korea. Another U.S. official said the soldier was accused of stealing from a woman. The Army did not offer details on the charges, citing the sensitivity of the matter. It said Moscow notified the U.S. State Department of the...

The U.S. Army soldier arrested in Russia last week is being held in a pretrial detention facility waiting for a hearing, the Army said Tuesday. Staff Sgt. Gordon Black flew to Russia to see his girlfriend, according to U.S. officials, and the Army confirmed Tuesday that he had not sought clearance for the international travel and it was not authorized by the Defense Department. Under Pentagon policy, service members must get clearance for any international travel from a security manager...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential running mate Nicole Shanahan hit out at “cowardly” Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly censoring a new documentary about the independent candidate. “Mark Zuckerberg, are you kidding me?! No amount of MMA fighting will make you look strong if you continue to behave so cowardly,” Shanahan, the Bay Area lawyer and ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, wrote on her X account on Sunday. Zuckerberg is CEO of Meta, the parent...

The judge at Donald Trump’s hush money trial scolded prosecutors about the “degree of detail” Stormy Daniels went into as she delivered racy, animated testimony in Manhattan court Tuesday. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan sustained an objection by Trump’s lawyers to the graphic testimony from Daniels — born Stephanie Clifford — noting “the degree of detail” was “unnecessary.” Jurors struggled to keep a straight face as Daniels described once spanking the former...

American Values 2024, a super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential bid, will file a lawsuit against Meta after a 30-minute campaign ad was taken down on Facebook and Instagram over the weekend—a move Meta said was a “mistake.” AV2024 says the video was shared thousands of times and viewed over 12 million times on X, formerly known as Twitter, but its reach on Instagram and Facebook has been “minimal,” which they said could be a sign of “shadow banning.” According to the...

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels took the witness stand at former President Donald Trump's New York criminal trial on Tuesday, testifying under oath about the sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006 and the $130,000 deal for her silence that was struck during the closing days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels described parts of the 2006 encounter in detail and said at one point she thinks she "blacked out" and that Trump did not use a condom. That led...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made censorship — specifically, claims that the government, news media and tech platforms have tried to stifle his message — a cornerstone of his independent presidential campaign. This weekend, Mr. Kennedy got more fodder for his argument when Facebook and Instagram blocked a link to a new, sleekly produced 30-minute ad supporting his candidacy. The link appeared to have been blocked from Friday late afternoon until Saturday around midday. Meta, which...