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Hello, I'm Chris Barrow with the BBC News.
President Trump has urged everyone involved in efforts to end the war in Gaza to move fast, warning that massive bloodshed will follow if they fail. His comment came ahead of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Egypt due to begin on Monday. Earlier, the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Israel to stop bombing Gaza, saying hostages could not be released in the middle of strikes. He also said changes inside Gaza would take time. "Let's be realistic here. You can't just set up a sort of new governance structure inside of Gaza in 72 hours. It's gonna take some time to do it. The important thing is that there's a plan, it's being executed, it has the money, it has the support, it has the expertise and that it's moving forward and everyone has agreed to the parameters of it." A Hamas delegation has arrived in Egypt. The talks will focus on a ceasefire and the release of the remaining Israeli hostages, a key demand by Mr. Trump. President Trump says his policy of attacking alleged drug cartel boats off the Venezuelan coast has been so effective that U.S. forces could now target cartel operations on land. Speaking at Naval Station Norfolk in the state of Virginia to commemorate the U.S. Navy's 250th birthday, he praised its work. "With your help we will fight, fight, fight. We will win, win, win. Because of you our Navy and our country will always be proud and righteous and mighty and free. Congratulations once again on 250 years of total dominance. Sail fast, stay strong, thank you. God bless our sailors and God bless the United States of America. Thank you very much everybody." Chinese state media say 350 adventurers stranded by blizzard conditions near Mt. Everest have been rescued but hundreds more remain trapped. The remaining hikers and climbers are to be evacuated in stages. Laura Bicker in Beijing has more details. Heavy snow trapped hundreds of tourists trekking in the Tibetan valley leading to Mt. Everest's eastern face over the weekend. Social media posts showed tents buried in what one guide described as unusually high snowfall for this time of year. This is an area popular with visitors, especially during the eight-day national Chinese holiday. Over the border in Nepal, heavy rain triggered landslides and flash floods that have swept away bridges and killed at least 47 people since Friday. Mexico's President Claudia Schoenbaum says she's confident of reaching a favorable trade agreement with the United States and other partners. Marking her first year in office at a rally in Mexico City, she also announced plans to revamp industrial policy to reflect the changing trade environment. With approval ratings above 70 percent, Ms. Schoenbaum has won praise for standing up to President Trump's trade and migration policies. World news from the BBC. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said he suspects Russia was behind recent drone flights over Germany including those that disrupted Munich Airport. Mr. Merz said the drone operations were aimed at spying and unsettling the population. He added that none of those detected had been armed. Moscow has denied any involvement. President Emmanuel Macron has named a new cabinet under Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, appointed nearly a month ago to tackle France's latest political crisis. The reshuffle brings in several new appointments but, like its predecessors, faces cross-party hostility in a deeply divided parliament. Last week, President Macron made some policy concessions but they've done little to calm opposition. The authorities in Egypt say a rare limestone tablet has been stolen from a 4,500-year-old tomb in the Saqqara region south-west of Cairo. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said the Fifth Dynasty tomb had been closed to the public since 2019 and that the theft was discovered on Sunday. The tablet, measuring 60 by 40 centimeters, depicts scenes of daily life in ancient Egypt. Scottish scientists say new discoveries about an insect's cutting mechanism could have profound implications for human surgery. A team at Heriot-Watt University studied how female sawflies use a saw-like organ, the ovipositor, to lay eggs in plant material. Rebecca Drought reports. A study found the ovipositor automatically avoided cutting internal structures carrying water and nutrients. The researchers discovered that small serrations on the insect's teeth worked with larger protrusions to create the selective cutting action, using the stress threshold of each structure to know where to cut. They scaled up the mechanism and tested it on material mimicking human tissue. Although more work is needed, the team think there's potential for a surgical instrument based on this natural mechanism. BBC News. |