Israel attacks Gaza’s European Hospital

Gaza rescuers said Israeli attacks close to the European Hospital killed at least 28 people, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the military would enter Gaza “with full force” in the coming days.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 28 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Tuesday around the hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The rescue organisation said in a short statement that the bodies of some of the victims could not be recovered because they were “scattered around the hospital area” from the intensity of the Israeli bombardment.

After reports indicated a second round of Israeli missiles hit the area to deter rescue operations, the agency confirmed the Israeli army “deliberately targeted anyone who tried to reach” the wounded.

The Israeli military said it struck a “Hamas command centre” beneath the hospital, without providing any evidence.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military said it carried out “a targeted attack” on the Nasser Medical Complex, also in Khan Younis, killing two people, including Palestinian journalist Hassan Eslaih.

Gaza’s Government Media Office confirmed the killing of Eslaih, who was receiving treatment at the hospital’s burn unit for severe injuries sustained during an April 7 Israeli strike on a media tent located next to the hospital.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 52,908 Palestinians and wounded 119,721, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Government Media Office updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.

Makhachev vacates title; Topuria-Oliveira lightweight clash at UFC 317

Ilia Topuria will look to add a second Ultimate Fighting Championship belt to his collection when he headlines UFC 317 on June 28 – it just won’t be against Islam Makhachev.

After weeks of heightened anticipation for a potential blockbuster face-off between the superstar pair, Topuria, a former undisputed featherweight champ, will now fight former champion Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight title, UFC CEO Dana White announced on Tuesday.

Makhachev, a four-time defending champion, will vacate the lightweight belt to move up to welterweight to face newly crowned Jack Della Maddalena, who defeated Belal Muhammad last Saturday at UFC 315 to become the new title holder in the weight class. The date for that fight has yet to be announced.

Topuria has a perfect UFC record of 16-0. The Spaniard relinquished his 145-pound (66kg) featherweight title earlier this year in anticipation of a lightweight title showdown against Makhachev and took to social media to voice his displeasure at the Russian vacating his title belt.

“On June 29, another dream will come true,” Topuria wrote. “I’ll be the champion of the lightweight division. Charles [Oliveira], my apologies in advance… I’m just fighting for my dreams. It’s unfortunate that Makhachev ran away.”

Makhachev, who sports a 27-1 UFC record, is ranked by ESPN as the best pound-for-pound UFC fighter in the world; Topuria is ranked number two.

UFC 317 is scheduled to take place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Islam Makhachev’s next fight will be against Jack Della Maddalena in the welterweight class, rather than IIia Topuria in the lightweight class, after the Russian vacated his lightweight title to move up a weight class [File: Kamran Jebreili/AP]

Peter Sullivan weeps as UK court overturns murder conviction after 38 years

A man who spent nearly four decades in a British prison for the killing of a barmaid said he was not angry or bitter as his murder conviction was overturned and he was released after being exonerated by DNA evidence.

Peter Sullivan, 68, was freed after the court in London determined on Tuesday that new evidence found on the victim’s body showed that he “was not the defendant” of the murder.

“This is an unprecedented and historic moment. Our client Peter Sullivan is the longest-serving victim of a miscarriage of justice in the UK,” his lawyer told reporters outside the court on Tuesday following the decision issued by an appeals court.

Sullivan, who wept as the judges dismissed his conviction, said, in a statement read outside the court by his lawyer, that despite spending years in jail he was “not angry” or “bitter”.

“I lost my liberty four decades ago over a crime I did not commit,” he said.

Sullivan was arrested in 1986, a month after Diane Sindall, 21, was found dead in Bebington, near Liverpool in northwest England.

Sindall had been on the way home from work when she was attacked, sexually assaulted and beaten to death in a killing which shocked the area.

Sullivan was just 30 when he was convicted in 1987, and his two past attempts to appeal against his sentence failed.

In 2021, he applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission – an independent body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice, raising concerns about his police interviews, bite-mark evidence presented in his trial, and what was said to be the murder weapon, the commission said in a statement.

The commission then obtained DNA information from samples taken at the time of the offence and found that the profile did not match that of Sullivan. His case was then sent to London’s Court of Appeal.

Lawyers for the Crown Prosecution Service, which brought the case against Sullivan, said the new evidence meant there was “no credible basis on which the appeal can be opposed”.

It was “sufficient fundamentally to cast doubt on the safety of the conviction”, they added.

Wisconsin judge indicted on allegations she helped man evade ICE agents

A judge in the United States has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of proceedings after she was accused of helping an undocumented migrant evade authorities.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, 66, was arrested last month after prosecutors said she hindered the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who showed up to arrest the man without a judicial warrant outside her courtroom.

Prosecutors alleged she tried to help Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer leave the courtroom from the back jury door before his arrest outside the building.

Dugan faces up to six years in prison if she’s convicted on both counts. Craig Mastantuono, one of Dugan’s lawyers, said in a statement that Dugan “asserts her innocence and looks forward to being vindicated in court”.

Dugan, who was elected in 2016, is expected to plead not guilty at the next hearing scheduled for Thursday.

Demonstrators protest in front of the federal court where Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan appeared after being arrested by the FBI as she arrived for work at the Milwaukee County Courthouse on April 25, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin [File: Scott Olson/Getty Images via AFP]

According to court documents, ​​Flores-Ruiz had illegally re-entered the US after being deported in 2013.

According to online state court records, he was charged with three counts of misdemeanour domestic abuse in Milwaukee County in March, to which he was in court in April for a hearing.

Court documents suggest Dugan was alerted that the immigration agents appeared in the court’s hallway by her clerk.

In an affidavit, Dugan was described as visibly angry over their arrival and called the situation “absurd” before leaving the bench and returning to her chambers.

She and another judge later approached the ICE agents in the court with what witnesses described as a “confrontational, angry demeanour”.

After a back-and-forth over the warrant for Flores-Ruiz, Dugan demanded they speak with the chief judge and led them away from the courtroom, according to the affidavit.

When she returned to the courtroom, she was heard telling Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to come with her, and they were ushered out through a back jury door.

Flores-Ruiz was later captured by federal agents outside the court after a foot chase.

The indictment is the latest incident in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration and local authorities.

Brazil’s Lula urges Russia’s Putin to ‘go to Istanbul and negotiate’

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to press his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to attend negotiations with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Turkiye, adding to calls on Moscow to enter talks and end its three-year war.

Lula is expected to stop in the Russian capital on the way back from attending a regional forum in China.

“I’ll try to talk to Putin,” Lula said at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday before his departure.

“It costs me nothing to say, ‘hey, comrade Putin, go to Istanbul and negotiate, dammit,’” he said.

The negotiations, expected to take place on Thursday in Turkiye’s commercial hub, Istanbul, would be the first direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow since 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

Lula’s comments come after the Ukrainian foreign minister urged Brazil to use its influence with Russia to secure a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy.

Brazil and China issued a joint statement on Tuesday calling for direct negotiations as the “only way to end the conflict”.

Zelenskyy earlier dared Putin to meet him in Turkiye, saying if he does not show up, it would show that Moscow is not interested in peace.

He also urged United States President Donald Trump, currently on a tour of Middle Eastern countries, to also visit Turkiye and participate in the talks.

Trump had announced that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio would participate in the talks in Istanbul.

A State Department official said Rubio was expected to be in Istanbul on Friday.

The Kremlin has not yet specified whether Putin will attend in person, stating only that the “Russian delegation will be present”.