A broadcast on Israel’s right-wing Channel 14 openly celebrated a severe winter storm that’s hitting Gaza, with participants expressing hope that flooding would ‘drown’ the territory and even voicing indifference to whether ‘any people’ survive.
More than 400 civilians have been killed following the recent surge in fighting as the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group continues its offensive in South Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to regional officials.
The M23 consolidated control over the strategic town of Uvira in South Kivu on Thursday, residents said.
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M23’s latest offensive, which has displaced some 200,000 civilians, comes despite a United States-mediated peace agreement signed last week by the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in Washington, DC, which is now under severe threat of unravelling.
The accord did not include M23, which is negotiating separately with the DRC after agreeing earlier this year to a ceasefire that both sides accuse the other of violating.
However, it obliges Rwanda to halt support for armed groups and work to end hostilities.
“More than 413 civilians [have been] killed by bullets, grenades, and bombs, including many women, children, and young people” in localities between Uvira and Bukavu, the regional capital, the South Kivu government spokesperson said in a statement late on Wednesday.
“According to the information gathered, the forces present in the city are composed of Rwandan special forces and some of their foreign mercenaries, operating in clear violation of the ceasefire as well as the Washington and Doha agreements, in total disregard of the commitments made,” the statement added.
M23 said it had taken control of the strategic city of Uvira on Wednesday afternoon, following a rapid offensive since the start of the month.
Sporadic gunfire echoed on Uvira’s outskirts on Thursday morning, according to the Reuters news agency. For months, the town had served as the base of the Kinshasa-appointed provincial government after rebels captured Bukavu in February.
Despite the tension, residents ventured out in search of food after spending the previous day taking cover at home or fleeing to the countryside to avoid hostilities.
“The government told us that Uvira would never fall and that the situation was under their control,” Godefroid Shengezi, a local teacher, told Reuters. “The reality today is quite the opposite.”
Uvira is an important port city on the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika and is directly across from neighbouring Burundi’s largest city, Bujumbura.
Not only the DRC, but the US and United Nations experts also accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which had hundreds of members in 2021.
Now, according to the UN, the group has about 6,500 fighters.
While Rwanda denies the allegation, it acknowledged last year that it has troops and missile systems in the eastern DRC, allegedly to safeguard its security.
UN experts estimate up to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers are present in the DRC.
Earlier in the week, the US Department of State said it was “deeply concerned by the ongoing violence” in the eastern DRC, with a spokesperson saying: “Rwanda, which continues to provide support to M23, must prevent further escalation.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the US Embassy in Kinshasa urged M23 and Rwandan troops to cease all offensive operations and for the Rwandan forces to withdraw.
On Wednesday morning, the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs blamed the Congolese forces for the recent ceasefire violations in a statement on X.
“The DRC has openly stated that it would not observe any ceasefire, and was fighting to recapture territories lost to AFC/M23, even as the peace process unfolded,” it said.
More than 100 armed groups are vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich east near the border with Rwanda, most prominently M23.
More than 110 Palestinian prisoners have died from torture and mistreatment since Itamar Ben-Gvir became Israel’s security minister. Now he wants the power to hang them.
An air attack by Myanmar’s military government has hit a hospital in Rakhine state, killing at least 30 people. Many of those killed were patients and care workers. Dozens more were injured in the attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is holding urgent talks with leaders and officials from approximately 30 countries backing Kyiv’s efforts to secure more favourable terms in negotiations to end the war with Russia, deep into its fourth year.
Ukraine is facing mounting pressure from Russia on the battlefield in its eastern Donetsk region and on the diplomatic front from the United States.
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The meeting on Thursday comes a day after US President Donald Trump held discussions with Zelenskyy, along with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The group of Ukraine’s allies, known as the “coalition of the willing”, is scrambling to help steer peace negotiations as European governments warn their own security is at stake and to dilute Russian maximalist demands that the US has been leaning towards.
Trump has been pressing for a rapid settlement to the conflict he once boasted he would solve within 24 hours of retaking office, which has raged across a long front line in eastern Ukraine, with frequent attacks by Russia on the rest of the country. Ukraine has also carried out regular attacks in Russian territory.
Following Wednesday’s call, the US president said the group discussed proposals in “pretty strong terms”, adding that Zelenskyy “has to be realistic” about ceding Ukrainian territory to Russia.
Zelenskyy has said in recent days that Ukraine will not give up territory. The nation’s constitution also forbids it.
Merz described it as a “crucial moment” for Ukraine, saying “intensive work on the peace plan is to continue in the coming days”.
After meeting NATO chief Mark Rutte on Thursday, the German chancellor dismissed reports of tensions during the call with Trump, characterising it as “constructive” and noting discussions about “what territorial concessions Ukraine is prepared to make”.
Merz said territorial questions were matters “the Ukrainian president and the Ukrainian people must answer”.
The negotiations have exposed sharp divisions over how much land Ukraine should surrender. Russia has already seized control of all of Luhansk province and occupies large portions of Donetsk, the two regions make up the Donbas, as well as Zaporizhia and Kherson, forming a stretch along Ukraine’s Black Sea coast.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based monitoring group, Russia has gained just 0.77 percent of Ukraine’s territory so far in 2025, suggesting front lines have largely stabilised despite recent Russian momentum.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday that Russia has relayed “additional proposals” to the US regarding collective security guarantees, though he offered no details on what the Kremlin had suggested.
The diplomatic push comes as Russian forces mount intense pressure on the strategic eastern city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk, where Moscow has amassed approximately 156,000 soldiers.
Ukraine reported an unusually large mechanised assault on Wednesday involving a 30-vehicle convoy attempting to breach the city’s defences, the largest such attack inside Pokrovsk to date, which Russian forces have been trying to seize for months.
Capturing the former logistics hub would represent Russia’s most significant territorial gain in nearly two years, adding urgency to Kyiv’s efforts to improve the terms of a peace proposal many view as tilted towards Moscow.
Russia has paid heavily for its Pokrovsk offensive, losing more than 1,000 armoured vehicles and over 500 tanks in the area since October 2023, according to Ukraine’s army.
Meanwhile, Ukraine demonstrated its strike capabilities overnight with one of the war’s largest drone attacks, forcing Moscow’s four airports to halt flights for seven hours.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said air defences intercepted 287 Ukrainian drones across multiple regions.
Trump’s peace drive has created tensions with the US Congress, which passed a sweeping defence bill this week that bolsters European security and restricts the president’s authority to reduce troop levels or withdraw equipment from the continent.
The bipartisan legislation sets aside $400m in security assistance for Ukraine and prevents US forces in Europe from dropping below 76,000 personnel.
The United States has approved the sale of advanced technology and upgrades for Pakistan’s F-16 fighter planes worth approximately $686m.
The deal was struck amid simmering tensions between Pakistan and its neighbour, India, which engaged in a five-day war following a rebel attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in May this year. The US recently pressured Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to buy more weapons from it.
We take a closer look at the US-Pakistan F-16 upgrade deal and why this is significant now.
Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst at the Brussels-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that the latest approval is part of a 2022 maintenance deal the US agreed in 2022 to sustain Pakistan’s fleet of F-16s.
“The F-16 deal remains a key part of the broader US-Pakistan bilateral relationship, which is why there has been continuity from President Biden to President Trump, despite some delays. Both sides emphasise the fleet’s utility in joint counterterrorism operations in the region.”
The latest US deal is for the sale of technology, which will support and upgrade Pakistan’s existing F-16 fleet. It was confirmed in a report sent to the US Congress by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on December 4.
Pakistan is believed to have 70 to 80 working F-16s. Some of these are older, but upgraded, Block 15 models, some are former Jordanian F-16s, and some are newer Block 52+ models.
The US offering comprises hardware and software updates for enhanced flight operations and aircraft electronic systems; the Advanced Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system, which allows pilots to identify friendly aircraft from enemy ones; navigation upgrades; spare parts and repairs.
Alongside $649m-worth of support and upgrades for the F-16s, the US sale also includes major defence equipment (MDE), which are items of significant military equipment on the US munitions list, worth $37m. This includes 92 Link-16 systems.
The Link-16 is a secure military tactical data link network which allows real-time communication between military aircraft, ships and ground forces. It allows communication through text messages and images.
Six Mk-82 inert 500-pound (226.8kg) general-purpose bomb bodies are another type of MDE authorised to be sold to Pakistan. These are empty metal casings of an Mk-82 bomb, which are used for training or testing.
Instead of an explosive such as tritonal – a mixture of trinitrotoluene (TNT) and aluminium powder used in munitions – the casing is filled with a heavy material such as concrete or sand. The Mk-82 is an unguided bomb developed by the US. It can also be used as a warhead for precision-guided munitions.
The F-16, also called the F-16 Fighting Falcon or the Viper, is a single-engine aircraft used for air-to-air combat and air-to-surface attack by the US and its allies.
The jets are currently manufactured by US defence and aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin, which took over production in 1995. It was originally developed by General Dynamics, a US industrial and technology company.
The jet was developed towards the end of the war in Vietnam, during which the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) overwhelmed heavier and slower US fighter planes. It first flew in 1974.
The F-16 is now one of the world’s most widely used fighters. F-16s are operating in 29 countries, according to the Lockheed Martin website.
Besides Pakistan, some other countries which have F-16s are Ukraine, Turkiye, Israel, Egypt, Poland, Greece, Taiwan, Chile, Singapore, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway.
On April 22, armed attackers killed 26 people in Pahalgam, a popular tourist spot in Indian-administered Kashmir. The attack was claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF), a separatist group designated a terrorist organisation by India and the US, and which New Delhi alleges is linked to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) – a claim Islamabad denies.
Following the Pahalgam attack, New Delhi scaled back diplomatic ties with Islamabad and suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, which ensures the appropriate sharing of the Indus River water between India and Pakistan.
On May 7, India struck nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir with missiles, which Islamabad said killed dozens of civilians. Over the following three days, the countries engaged in a heated aerial war, using drones and missiles to target each other’s military bases.
During the aerial war, Pakistan deployed 42 “hi-tech aircraft”, including the F-16s, and Chinese-made JF-17s and J-10s, according to Pakistan’s Air Vice Marshal Aurangzeb Ahmed.
A ceasefire – for which US President Donald Trump took credit – was eventually brokered on May 10.
Yes, for a couple of reasons.
The US approval for Pakistan’s F-16 upgrade comes as the Trump administration presses India to buy more weapons from it.
In August, New Delhi put its plans to buy US weapons and aircraft on hold, the Reuters news agency reported, quoting three unnamed Indian officials familiar with the matter.
This came just weeks before Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had been scheduled to visit Washington to announce some weapon purchases. That visit was cancelled.
India-US relations have also been tense in recent months.
On August 6, Trump imposed an additional 25 percent tariff on imports from India as a punishment for buying cheap Russian crude oil. This was on top of the existing 25 percent tariff already levied on Indian goods, bringing the total levy on Indian imports to 50 percent.
Trump announced the tariff in an executive order, in which he wrote that Russia’s continued military actions in Ukraine constituted a “national emergency” and it was therefore “necessary and appropriate” to place heightened tariffs on India, a top consumer of its crude oil.
“I find that the Government of India is currently directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil.”
While pressure from the US has resulted in India slightly scaling back purchases of Russian oil, New Delhi plans to continue to buy from Moscow. It remains the second-largest consumer of Russian oil after China.
President Vladimir Putin met Prime Minister Modi for the annual Russia-India bilateral summit in New Delhi last week, during which he said: “Russia is ready for uninterrupted shipments of fuel to India.”
The announcement of the latest US deal to provide maintenance and upgrades for Pakistan’s F-16s is likely to be poorly received by India.
Donthi said New Delhi has previously opposed the defence cooperation between Pakistan and the US under which the two countries collaborate to maintain Pakistan’s F-16 fleet. India has claimed the F-16s are used against it.
“Washington pre-empted it this time by stating that the sale ‘will not alter the basic military balance in the region’,” Donthi said.
Donthi said that while the latest package from the US will help Pakistan maintain its fleet until 2040, it is China which has supplied more than 80 per cent of Pakistan’s weapons since 2020.
This statistic is also backed by Swedish think tank SIPRI in a report this year.