Welcome to Mazzaltov World News, your daily source for comprehensive, timely, accurate, and engaging content, keeping you informed about the world around you. We have the latest global news headlines and insights into all the latest Current Affairs, Sports, Health, Weather, Entertainment, Business and Travel News from around the world.
Drones hit ‘Freedom Flotilla’ Gaza aid ship in international waters
A ship carrying aid to Gaza in a bid to break Israel’s blockade has been hit by drones in international waters off Malta, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the group that organised the mission.
The FFC said in a statement on Friday that the vessel, now located 14 nautical miles (25km) from Malta, was the target of two drone strikes while on its way to Gaza. The ship had been seeking to deliver aid to the besieged enclave, where aid groups warn people are struggling to survive following a two-month total blockade by Israel.
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Trump ousts Waltz as national security adviser and nominates him for UN post
US President Donald Trump has removed Mike Waltz from his post as national security adviser, and will nominate him as ambassador to the United Nations.
In a post on social media, Trump thanked Waltz for his work and said he would be temporarily replaced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will continue as America’s top diplomat.
Waltz had faced criticism for mistakenly adding a journalist to a chat group where sensitive military plans were discussed – a political embarrassment likely to feature during confirmation hearings for the UN post.
The former Florida congressman is the first senior member of the administration to leave the White House in Trump’s second term.
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Gaza community kitchens warn food is running out after two months of Israeli blockade
A hot meal is hard to come by in the Gaza Strip, but a lunch for needy families in the south is about to be delivered by donkey and cart.
Today’s dish is koshari – made with lentils, rice and a zesty tomato sauce – in a set of huge cooking pots in one of two community kitchens run by American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera), a US-based humanitarian organisation.
“People rely on our meals; they have no source of income to buy what’s left in the local markets and many foods are not available,” says Sami Matar, who leads the Anera team.
“In the past we used to cook rice with meat – with protein. Now, because of the closure, there’s no type of meat, no fresh vegetables.”
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Donald Trump is looming over Australia’s election
In Western Sydney, an audience of Stetson-wearing Australians are sitting in their fold-up camping chairs, swigging beers and eating a spiralled fried potato on a skewer known as a ‘chip on a stick’.
People here are enjoying bull rides, barrel racing and bucking broncos. It feels like a slice of Americana in New South Wales perhaps – but that would miss the point that here, rodeo has become very much an outback Australian tradition in its own right.
In recent months, politics here in Australia could be compared to watching a rodeo. Between conflict in Europe, the Middle East and more recently US President Donald Trump and his threat of global trade wars, every day has brought with it a sharp jolt that changes the dynamics of the campaign trail. Politicians, like these cowboys, have been thrown off course despite their best efforts.
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Talks or no talks: who blinks first in US-China trade war?
On Friday morning, a spokesperson for China’s ministry of commerce announced that Beijing was assessing the possibility of tariff negotiations with the United States.
It was news the rest of the world had been waiting to hear as astonishingly high tariffs – up to 245% on some Chinese exports to the US – throttle trade between the world’s two biggest economies, raising the spectre of a recession.
“US officials have repeatedly expressed their willingness to negotiate with China on tariffs,” the spokesperson told reporters.
“China’s position is consistent. If we fight, we will fight to the end; if we talk, the door is open… If the US wants to talk, it should show its sincerity and be prepared to correct its wrong practices and cancel unilateral tariffs.”
The statement comes a day after a Weibo account linked to Chinese state media said the US had been seeking to initiate discussions, and a week after Trump claimed discussions were already underway – a suggestion Beijing denied.
“China has no need to talk to the United States,” Yuyuantantian, a Weibo account affiliated with China Central Television (CCTV), said in Thursday’s post. “From the perspective of negotiations, the United States must be the more anxious party at present.”
Such comments follow a cycle of assertions and denials from both the US and China, as each side refuses to publicly initiate discussions.
The question is not whether those discussions will take place, but rather when, under what circumstances and at whose behest.
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War in Ukraine not ending ‘any time soon’, Vance says
US Vice-President JD Vance has said the war in Ukraine is “not going to end any time soon”, in an interview with Fox News.
Vance said the question facing the US administration now was how it could help Russia and Ukraine “find middle ground” to end the conflict that has been raging for more than three years.
But, Vance added, “it’s going to be up to [Russia and Ukraine] to come to an agreement and stop this brutal, brutal conflict”.
His comments came shortly after Washington signed a deal with Kyiv to share the profits of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in return for future US security assistance.
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Why Australia’s opposition is vying for votes on Chinese social media
With days left to the election, Australian opposition candidates have been wooing a crucial group that turned its back on the conservative Liberal-National coalition in the last election: Chinese Australian voters.
And they are trying to reach them on platforms that their party once talked of banning over national security concerns: Chinese social media apps like WeChat and RedNote.
Nearly six in 10 Chinese Australians use WeChat at least once a day, according to a poll by Lowy Institute in 2022.
Grange Chung, who is contesting the New South Wales’ seat of Reid, held by the left-leaning Labor party with a 3.2% margin, said in a video on WeChat that he chose to start his career in the navy “to give back to the country that embraced my family when we arrived with very little”.
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Australia’s last vote was all about Indigenous people – now they say it’s ‘silence’
On the journey into Yarrabah, there is nothing to suggest a national election is just days away.
Posters for candidates, inescapable in other parts of Australia, are conspicuously absent as you drive past fields of sugar cane and down a gently winding coastal road.
After entering this small Indigenous community near Cairns in far north Queensland, with fishing nets sitting on palm-lined shores, the only thing fighting for attention is a truck selling ice cream – urgently dinging a bell as it avoids the wild horses and dogs that wander the streets.
“It’s weird,” says Suzanne Andrews, chief executive of the town’s Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services. “We don’t see any placards. No-one’s visiting us.”
Watching the leaders of Australia’s two major parties debate each other on television, the Jaru Bunuba Bardi woman was dismayed that “they didn’t talk about any Aboriginal issues or concerns”.
“So,” she asks “what the hell’s going on?”
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Deadly clashes in Syria’s Druze areas raise fears of widening unrest
Deadly clashes between Islamist armed factions, security forces and fighters from the Druze religious minority near Damascus are another sign of the continuing fragility of the security situation in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
Outside players have once again been involved, with Israel saying it carried out air strikes to protect Druze civilians.
It marks another fault-line in Syria, which has been left fractured and divided in the wake of 13 years of devastating civil war and decades of authoritarian rule by the Assad dynasty.
The new Syrian authorities have said they are determined to bring unity and stability, but many inside and outside the country still point to their roots in jihadism and remain suspicious of their agenda.
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Apple says most US-bound iPhones no longer made in China
Apple says it is shifting production of most iPhones and other devices to be sold in the US away from China, which has been the focus of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The majority of the iPhones bound for the US market in the coming months will be made in India, while Vietnam will be a major production hub for items like iPads and Apple Watches, chief executive Tim Cook says.
It comes as the technology giant estimated that US import taxes could add about $900m (£677.5m) to its costs in the current quarter, despite Trump’s decision to spare key electronics from the new tariffs.
The Trump administration has repeatedly said it wants Apple to move production to America.
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Children fall ill in India ‘after dead snake found in school meal’
India’s human rights body is investigating reports that more than 100 children fell ill from eating a school lunch after a dead snake was found in the food.
The cook reportedly still served the lunch despite removing the dead animal from it, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said in a statement.
The commission said about 500 children are believed to have been served the meal in the city of Mokama in Bihar state, eastern India.
After children started falling sick, locals blocked a road in protest, the NHRC said.
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Two Gazan girls first to arrive in UK for medical treatment
Two Palestinian girls with serious health conditions have been brought to the UK for private medical treatment.
The Gazan children are the first to be granted temporary UK visas since the war between Hamas and Israel broke out in October 2023.
Ghena, five, and Rama, 12 arrived in the UK from Egypt on Saturday to be treated for conditions which cannot be dealt with in war torn Gaza, Project Pure Hope (PPH) said.
Ghena’s mother said she hoped other children “would get the chance” to benefit from the chance to receive medical care overseas.
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US judge blocks use of Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans
A Trump-appointed federal judge has ruled that the US president cannot use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants.
US District Judge Fernando Rodriguez said Donald Trump’s use of the wartime power was “unlawful” and had been improperly invoked.
The law was written in 1798 to allow the removal of non-citizens in times of war or invasion. It has been used by Trump to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador on the basis they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang and “conducting irregular warfare”.
The judge said the act only applied when the US was facing an “armed organised attack”, which it is not. The administration has not commented.
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Ten dead, dozens injured in Philippines bus crash
Ten people have been killed and more than 30 injured after a bus hit several vehicles at a toll gate on one of the busiest highways in northern Philippines, authorities say.
The bus driver, who has been detained, said he had fallen asleep at the wheel, police told AFP, adding that four children were among the dead.
Buses on the nearly 100km (62mi) Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway often ferry workers between Manila and surrounding provinces. The accident on Thursday happened while families were travelling for labour day.
The Department of Transportation ordered the suspension of Solid North Bus, a major bus operator in the region and the company that owned the vehicle involved in the crash.