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Hello, I'm Moira Alderson with the BBC News.
The U.S. has said it did not support Israeli strikes on Syria this week, and that President Trump viewed the attacks with displeasure. The Israelis have bombed both the capital Damascus and the southern province of Suwayda. Nearly 600 people in Suwayda are reported to have been killed in sectarian violence since Sunday. Tom Bateman reports from Washington. This is a rare rebuke by the U.S., even more so by the Trump administration of its close ally. Washington launched what officials have portrayed as intensive diplomacy, with both countries calling for de-escalation, resulting in a return to apparent calm in the skies, while state media said Syrian government forces were withdrawing from the southwest region of Suwayda. Hundreds of people have been killed there since Sunday in sectarian bloodshed unleashed between Bedouin tribes and the Druze minority. The U.S. State Department declined to say whether President Trump had raised his opposition to the Israeli strikes directly with Prime Minister Netanyahu during a phone call the two men held on Thursday. The Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which oversees the only Roman Catholic Church in Gaza, has condemned the Israeli shelling of the church and called for a complete end to the war. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said stray ammunition hit the church, killing three people, and Israel deeply regretted this. The U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said it was an understatement to say President Trump was not happy, but she acknowledged it was a mistake. "In this case, of course, it was an accident. I think that the response from Netanyahu is an appropriate start. Of course, we share condolences to the civilians' deaths at the Roman Catholic Church. We have asked that Israel instigate the strike still, of course, and ensure that all civilians, including Christian civilians, remain safe." U.S. officials have confirmed that President Trump has been diagnosed with a vein condition, chronic venous insufficiency. The White House quoted his doctor as saying it was common in people over the age of 70 and there was no evidence of more serious conditions such as deep vein thrombosis. Recent pictures of the president with swollen legs and ankles and heavy makeup on his hand prompted speculation about his health. Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has condemned President Trump's threat to impose harsh tariffs on his country as "unacceptable blackmail." Mr. Trump last week threatened Brazil with 50 percent tariffs and called for an end to the trial of his ally, the right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of trying to overturn Brazil's 2022 election. A prominent human rights group in El Salvador says it has been forced into exile by the authorities. The Cristosal group relocated to neighboring Guatemala after its anti-corruption director Ruth López was arrested for alleged financial crimes. The organization says the charges are politically motivated. BBC News. The U.S. Health Department says it will give immigration officials access to the personal data of 79 million people enrolled with Medicaid, the government program that provides health insurance to people with limited resources. The move is the latest escalation in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Official data from Japan suggests rice prices in the country have risen by more than 99 percent year on year. The surging cost of the grain comes just days before elections are due to take place this weekend. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has seen public support for his administration tumble to its lowest levels since he took office last October. Residents have been angered by rice prices. Samples of the world's oldest ice have arrived at a research station in England where scientists hope they'll reveal more about the Earth's environmental history. More details from Rebecca Murrelle. One hundred ninety samples of the ancient ice, each a meter long, is now being stored at minus 23 degrees Celsius in the British Antarctic Survey's walk-in freezer. The oldest could be a million and a half years old, or possibly even older. The only way to study the ice, though, is to melt it. But the findings will help scientists to reconstruct the Earth's environmental history. The ice contains information about variations in temperature, snowfall and even wind patterns. And the tiny bubbles inside it give a snapshot of carbon dioxide levels. The team says understanding our past climate will help them to better predict how it will change in the future. The Austrian extreme sports pioneer Felix Baumgartner, who became the first skydiver to break the sound barrier, has died in a paragliding accident in central Italy. He was 56 years old. Police say he fell to the ground near a hotel swimming pool. Baumgartner made headlines in 2012 when he jumped from a balloon nearly 40 kilometers above Earth. That's the latest BBC News. |