Israel releases 183 Palestinians after 3 captives freed in Gaza
- A total of 183 Palestinians have been released from Israeli prisons and three Israeli captives have been freed in Gaza, in the fifth swap as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
- Seven Palestinians were transferred to hospital for immediate treatment after their release, as others describe horrific conditions in Israeli jails.
- The United States Department of State has signed off on the sale to Israel of $6.75bn in bombs, guidance kits and fuses, in addition to $660m in Hellfire missiles.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed a confirmed 48,181 people and injured 111,638, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. The Government Media Office has updated the death toll to at least 61,709 people, saying thousands of people who were missing under the rubble are now presumed dead. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Netanyahu ‘already looking to re-litigate’ the ceasefire agreement
Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat, told Al Jazeera that the mood in Israel today is “mixed”. He said that “many people are elated and jubilant, but also fear that the next phase [of the ceasefire agreement] may not happen.”
Pinkas pointed out that many people feel “anger and resentment” towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “choosing to stay at a fancy hotel suite in Washington, DC today”, instead of welcoming the hostages home.
Rwandan and Congolese leaders join summit on eastern DRC conflict
Leaders from across Africa call for immediate ceasefire at cross-party summit in Tanzania
A regional summit has called for an immediate ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, and the president of the DRC, Felix Tshisekedi, joined a summit in Tanzania on Saturday, where African leaders said they were deeply concerned by the crisis.
The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has rapidly seized swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC in an offensive that has left thousands dead and displaced vast numbers.
Baltic states switch off Russian power feed
Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia have disconnected from Russia's power grid, which is a move that leaders say will save them from "geopolitical blackmail."
The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia disconnected their electricity systems from Russia's power grid on Saturday.
They will switch to the European Union's grid on Sunday after operating on their own in the meantime.
"We've reached the goal we for strived for, for so long. We are now in control," Lithuanian Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas said.
Modi’s party wins critical Delhi election for first time in almost 3 decades
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party on Saturday regained power in the nation's capital for the first time in 27 years after beating the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in local elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party won the most seats in the high-stakes state legislature election in India’s federal territory, including New Delhi, according to official data on Saturday, for the first time in over a quarter-century.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party won 40 seats in the 70-member assembly that includes India’s capital of 20 million people, ousting the Aam Aadmi Party, or AAP, that ruled New Delhi since 2015. The AAP won 17. Counting was still ongoing in the 13 other seats.
'We left pieces of our life behind': Indigenous group flees drowning island
Gonzalo Cañada and Agustina Latourrette
"If the island sinks, I will sink with it," Delfino Davies says, his smile not fading for a second.
There is silence, except for the swish of his broom across the floor of the small museum he runs documenting the life of his community in Panama, the Guna.
"Before, you could hear children shouting… music everywhere, neighbours arguing," he says, "but now all the sounds have gone".
Trump cuts aid to South Africa over ‘racial discrimination’ against Afrikaners
US president also offers asylum to Afrikaners and criticises law that allows land seizures without compensation in some circumstances
Sat 8 Feb 2025 15.24 GMT
Trump cuts aid to South Africa over ‘racial discrimination’ against Afrikaners
US president also offers asylum to Afrikaners and criticises law that allows land seizures without compensation in some circumstances
The US president, Donald Trump, has signed an executive order to cut financial assistance to South Africa, accusing the country’s government of “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners and offering them asylum in the US.
The order criticised a law signed by the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, last month that allows for land to be expropriated with “nil compensation” in limited circumstances.
South Africa was ruled by white Afrikaner leaders during apartheid, which violently repressed the country’s black majority, including forcing them to live in segregated townships and rural “homelands”. Afrikaners are descended mainly from the Dutch, who began colonising South Africa in 1652, as well as French Huguenot refugees sponsored by the Dutch.
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