Lebanese Ambassador Nada Moawad and her Israeli counterpart Yechiel Leiter signed the trilateral document with the U.S. at the State Department in Washington, providing few details

International News via Reuters:

Israel and Lebanon signed a framework agreement in Washington on Friday following several days of talks to secure an end to fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, though both sides framed the deal as an initial step.

Lebanese Ambassador Nada Moawad and her Israeli counterpart Yechiel Leiter signed the trilateral document with the U.S. at the State Department in Washington, providing few details.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the agreement allows Israeli forces to continue to occupy southern Lebanon if Hezbollah does not disarm.

“Today we’ve taken the first step in what will be a difficult journey, without a doubt, but an important and an essential and a necessary one,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said before the agreement was inked.

In a later statement he said that the U.S. would facilitate the implementation of the deal through a trilateral “Military Coordination Group for Lebanon” and that Washington would commit significant resources, including an immediate $100 million in humanitarian assistance in coordination with the U.N.

Rubio added that the U.S. reaffirmed its intent to improve the capabilities of the Lebanese Armed Forces “to more effectively establish sovereignty throughout Lebanese territory” with more than $30 million in funds under existing U.S. authorities and appropriations.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah broke out when the armed group fired at Israel on March 2, days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. The Hezbollah attacks triggered Israeli air and ground attacks that have killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million.

Lebanon’s Moawad also called it a “first step” on the road to restoring Lebanese sovereignty.

“Iran is out, Hezbollah is out, and the road to peace between Israel and Lebanon is in,” Leiter said.

‘PILOT ZONES’

Netanyahu said in a statement that the deal would also allow the Lebanese army “to begin organizing to take control of territory,” starting with what he described as two “pilot zones” from which Israeli troops would withdraw from land they occupied during the war. 

    Israel describes that territory as a “security zone” or “buffer zone” where its troops can thwart Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the agreement should allow Lebanese to return to “fully liberated” land and rebuilt homes with “no partner” in its sovereignty. 

Israel’s death toll from this round of hostilities with Hezbollah includes at least 32 soldiers and four Israeli civilians. Hezbollah does not release figures on its war dead. Reuters reported on May 4 that several thousand Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the war. 

A State Department official told Reuters on Thursday that Israel had agreed to pull back from some of the territory it has occupied, something Israeli and Lebanese officials denied.

Before the talks resumed this week, Israel and Hezbollah agreed to halt fire even as Israel kept troops in southern Lebanon.

Violence has persisted since the ceasefire, with Israel saying on Friday its troops had struck and killed what the military described as seven Hezbollah members who were operating near the territory it is occupying. Reuters could not confirm this.  

“To the degree that the Lebanese army performs in dismantling and disarming Hezbollah, we will proceed with additional pilot zones and the ultimate determination of an internationally recognized, secure, and agreed upon border,” Leiter told reporters after the signing.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said Lebanese authorities would not be able to enforce the agreement unless, with U.S. support, “they go to civil war,” pro-Iranian broadcaster Al Mayadeen reported.

Hezbollah would confront any measure taken by Lebanese authorities and would hold on to its weapons even more, adding that the group’s opposition was “serious” and would not allow authorities to implement their commitments on the ground, Fadlallah said.

ISRAEL DROPS LEAFLETS ORDERING LEBANESE RESIDENTS TO FLEE

Israeli forces dropped leaflets over the southern Lebanese town of Mansouri on Friday ordering residents to leave, Lebanese state media reported, the first such order issued since the latest ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect.

A senior Lebanese military official said Israel had recently added Mansouri to its occupation zone. The official said Lebanese farmers had continued to enter and leave the town, but had not been living there. 

An Israeli military spokesperson said the military issued what it described as a “reminder” to the civilian population that “the area is within the security zone in which (Israeli) soldiers operate. It’s a reminder not to be in the area so they won’t be harmed.”

Reporting by Maya Gebeily, Jana Choukeir, Rami Ayyub, Michael Martina and Daphne Psaliedakis; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Andrew Heavens, Philippa Fletcher, Alistair Bell and Sanjeev Miglani

Foreign rescue teams and aid began arriving nearly two days after magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors struck about 160 km (100 miles) west of Caracas

International News via Reuters:

Desperate Venezuelans and foreign rescuers raced to find survivors trapped under rubble on Friday after twin earthquakes flattened parts of Caracas and surrounding areas, as frustration mounted over a lack of heavy equipment and the death toll neared 1,000.

Foreign rescue teams and aid began arriving nearly two days after magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 tremors struck about 160 km (100 miles) west of Caracas.

The government estimated hundreds of people were still trapped and missing on top of 920 confirmed fatalities and 3,360 injuries. A website set up to take reports of people still unaccounted for had over 50,000 listed as of Friday afternoon. The UN’s aid chief gave a similar tally.

The U.S. Geological Survey has predicted high potential for more than 10,000 deaths, which would place the quakes among the deadliest earthquakes in Latin America in the last century.

La Guaira, a coastal city just outside Caracas, was the worst affected, as at least 100 buildings, including high-rise apartments, crumbled to the ground.

Jennifer Palacios, 25, said the quakes struck when she briefly left her home in the city’s eight-tower Hugo Chavez housing complex, named after Venezuela’s late socialist leader, burying her 6-year-old son and five other relatives.

“It’s the community that has managed to get people out alive,” she said, sitting on a plastic chair in front of the rubble. “We need them to bring cranes to move the slabs. There are still people trapped.”

Reuters witnesses traversed highways cracked by the quakes and passed dozens of buildings reduced to broken concrete and twisted metal. Some ruins were spray-painted with the names of the buildings, in a bid to help rescuers identify locations.

SCATTERED HELP

The government of interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who took power after the United States captured her predecessor in January, has pledged a massive deployment of assistance. State television showed images of her making a visit on Thursday to La Guaira.

Yet help was overall patchy on Friday, with authorities like firefighters, police, civil protection and the military on the streets in some places but absent or minimally present in others.

Lawyer Ricardo Trias, 73, was trying to obtain a death certificate for his godson, whose body was pulled from the rubble of his building in the town of Caraballeda on Thursday night and remains at the site, covered with a green cloth.

“We want them to give us the body…we can’t take it and here it will rot,” said Trias. “No forensic authority has come.”

Trias said his goddaughter, 33, was rescued and taken to a hospital in Caracas.

Residents digging through debris with their hands and improvised tools decried a lack of state help and heavy equipment, while volunteers brought supplies on motorcycles from Caracas and Valencia.

Rodriguez, who said La Guaira state would be “militarized” to facilitate rescue work, thanked the volunteer caravans and said the government had distributed 2,600 tons of food.

A Reuters team observed police and national guard motorcycle patrols on the road to La Guaira’s hard-hit Los Corales community.

The disaster could have political consequences for Rodriguez, who has sought to portray herself as an agent of political change even though she served as vice president to the ousted Nicolas Maduro.

WORLD RALLIES

Foreign rescue teams – including some from countries which have opposed Venezuela during decades of international isolation, political repression and economic deterioration – began arriving late on Thursday, with a small contingent from the Dominican Republic the first to reach La Guaira.

Several countries including India and Switzerland sent in rescue teams and supplies. Mexico, with its own experience in earthquake recovery, sent 250 military rescue personnel, plus five rescue dogs and other equipment.

Over 60 Colombians arrived on Friday, as did over 180 rescue workers of a promised 300-person-strong Salvadoran team and nearly 100 from Spain.

The United States said it was mobilizing $150 million in aid and easing sanctions to facilitate earthquake relief. The U.S. military dispatched two ships and said helicopters and aircraft would support search-and-rescue operations.

In Los Corales, 50 people from El Salvador’s team were assessing the ruins of the three 10-story-tall buildings which made up the Coral Mar complex, using drones, heat scanners and dogs to find out whether living survivors were still inside.

“People have told us they can hear people. They call them on the phone and they answer, and they can hear people screaming and calling,” said Dr. Roberto Gavidia, the head of the team, which has also worked in Haiti and Turkey.

The team had yet to find any survivors.

NATION UNDER STRAIN

The quake hit a nation already weakened by decades of economic and political turmoil that has impoverished residents, driven millions abroad and eroded basic infrastructure and services.

“My building is uninhabitable and now I have nothing. It’s just me and my son, and I have no family in the country,” said Suhayl Sarquiz, 50, who lost her job a few months ago.

Nearly 7 million people could be affected, said the U.N.’s migration body, which was supplying emergency shelter and other relief supplies.

Foreign energy companies said Venezuela’s vital oil sector had escaped major disruption, while the Caracas Stock Exchange remained closed after being turned into an aid collection center.

Until now, the deadliest quake in Venezuela’s modern history had been in 1967, killing 240 people.

Reporting by Vivian Sequera in La Guaira and Mayela Armas in Caracas, Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago in Caracas, Tibisay Romero in Moron, Reuters TV in La Guaira, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez in Barcelona, Fabiola Arambulo in Mexico City and Reuters bureaux around the world; Writing by David Latona, Andrew Cawthorne, Julia Symmes Cobb, and Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Jon Boyle and Deepa Babington

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is examining deaths of people in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody from October 2021 through March 2026

International News via Reuters:

The United Nations human rights chief on Friday called for independent investigations into deaths of people in U.S. immigration custody, saying that 19 people have died in detention so far this year. 

“Those responsible for violations of the law must be held to account, and the rights of the victims’ families to truth, justice and reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence must be upheld,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is examining deaths of people in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody from October 2021 through March 2026.

Nineteen people died in ICE detention this year so far, the U.N. human rights office said, citing U.S. government data. Five of those deaths were classified as suicides. Last year 33 deaths were recorded, the office said after U.S. President Donald Trump launched his mass deportation campaign in January 2025.

The Department of Homeland Security, which has federal oversight of immigration, said it has maintained a higher standard of care than most prisons.

“There has been NO spike in deaths. Consistent with data over the last decade, death rates in custody under the Trump administration are 0.009% of the detained population,” a spokesperson said.

A Reuters analysis of ICE data found that the death rate among immigration detainees has more than doubled since Trump returned to office in 2025. The number of people detained has grown by 50% since early 2025 to 60,000 people, the U.N. human rights office said, citing U.S. official data. 

ICE, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, has been at the center of Trump’s immigration crackdown that rights groups have said violates free speech and due process rights and created an unsafe environment, particularly for ethnic minorities.

Trump and Republican advocates of the crackdown say it aims to curb illegal immigration and improve domestic security.

Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva and Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Cynthia Osterman

The European Commission said on Friday the EU and its member states have the sovereign right to regulate economic activity, responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats over digital taxes

International News via Reuters:

The European Commission said on Friday the EU and its member states have the sovereign right to regulate economic activity, responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats over digital taxes.

“Any taxes are non-discriminatory by design and apply equally to all large companies, regardless of their origin”, a spokesperson said, adding that the bloc would respond swiftly to unjustified unilateral measures, but remained open to a global solution in line with G7 agreements.

Reporting by Andrew Gray, Writing by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama

Documents seen by Reuters showed that the decision by the executive bureau of the oversight body found that the prosecutor had an inappropriate ​sexual relationship with a junior staff member

International News via Reuters:

British barrister Karim Khan on Friday told Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya TV that the decision to suspend him from his role as chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) violated court procedures and was unjustified. 

“Unfortunately, the court’s bureau violated procedures, and what happened was astonishing, unjustified and unlawful,” Khan said through an interpreter in his first public comments since his suspension following a decision by diplomats running the ICC’s oversight body. 

Documents seen by Reuters showed that the decision by the executive bureau of the oversight body found that the prosecutor had an inappropriate ​sexual relationship with a junior staff member.

Khan also reiterated previous comments made by his lawyers that a review by external judges found there was insufficient evidence to prove the allegations “beyond a reasonable doubt”, which the bureau chose to set aside.

The decision by the executive bureau of the ICC’s governing body will inform a vote on Khan’s fate by the ICC’s 125-member Assembly of ​States Parties in New York on July 24. 

Reporting by Enas Alashray in Cairo, writing by Stephanie van den Berg, Editing by Franklin Paul