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I'm VOA's Joe Ramsey with this worldwide news update.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians streamed into Gaza's most heavily damaged area on Monday after Israel opened the north for the first time since the early weeks of the war with Hamas. AP correspondent Joe Fetterman has more from Jerusalem. This is the first time people have been able to return to their homes in over a year, so we are seeing very dramatic scenes of tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people streaming back on foot, walking along the coast toward their former homes in northern Gaza. We also see some movement of private vehicles moving through checkpoints that are manned by private American security firms. Now this does not mean that the war is over. This is not an end to the war, but it is an end to the war as we have known it in these past few months. As part of this pullback, Israeli troops are now confined largely to a buffer zone along the border with Gaza. This is allowing the first free movement of Palestinian civilians in over a year. AP correspondent Joe Fetterman. Thousands fled the city of Goma on Monday as fighting raged between Congolese forces and rebels backed by neighboring Rwanda, who claimed to have captured eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's largest regional hub. AP correspondent Haya Panjwani reports. Fighting has escalated in recent days despite calls from the U.N. Security Council for the insurgents to withdraw. Gunshots rang across the city overnight before dozens of rebels in military uniform early in the morning marched into a city on the border with Rwanda. The U.N. Security Council called on M23 rebels to immediately reverse advances. Other countries, including the United States and France, have also condemned the rebel push. I'm Haya Panjwani. This is VOA News. Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust on Monday marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp. Reuters correspondent Zachary Goelman reports. Those attending the commemoration included German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Britain's King Charles, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish President Andrzej Duda, and many other leaders. They did not make speeches, but rather listened, for perhaps the last time, to those who suffered and witnessed firsthand one of humanity's greatest atrocities. The survivors warned against a global rise in anti-Semitism and against intolerance. Retired physician Leon Weintraub is 99 years old. "It grieves me deeply to see in many European countries, but also in Poland, Nazi-style uniforms and slogans openly paraded at marches." The ceremony was held at the site established in Poland by occupying German forces, first as a forced labor camp and then as a key part of the Nazi machinery devoted to exterminating European Jews. More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, perished here in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease. Reuters correspondent Zachary Goelman. U.S. public health officials have been told to immediately stop working with the World Health Organization. AP correspondent Sagar Meghani reports. A memo from a top CDC official tells senior agency leaders to immediately end any collaboration with the WHO. President Trump issued an order last week to start pulling the U.S. out of the WHO, but that requires congressional approval and one year's notice, among other things. Experts say the sudden stoppage in working with the WHO is a surprise and would hurt work on dealing with brewing health threats around the world. Sagar Meghani, Washington. The Trump Justice Department said Monday that it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal investigations into President Donald Trump. The actions target career prosecutors who worked on Special Counsel Jack Smith's team. It reflects the administration's determination to purge the government of workers it perceives as disloyal to the president. The move, which follows the reassignment of multiple senior career officials across divisions, was made even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain in their positions across presidential administrations and usually are not punished because of their involvement in sensitive investigations. That wraps up this update, but the world and news never stop. For additional updates, visit our website, voanews.com. I'm Joe Ramsey VOA News. |