Israel launched a new devastating ground offensive in Gaza over the weekend just as US President Donald Trump departed the region without sealing a ceasefire and hostage deal.

The Israeli military said its forces moved into northern and southern Gaza over the past day as part of the “Gideon’s Chariots” operation, which Israel warned would take place if Hamas doesn’t agree to a new hostage deal on its terms.

The ground operation came after days of heavy airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, which according to health authorities there have wiped out entire families.

Israel says it will allow a “basic amount of food” into the besieged enclave, a move which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted was due to intense pressure from Israel’s allies. Hamas and Israel also began indirect talks in the Qatari capital Doha on Saturday.

Here’s what we know about Israel’s new offensive and what it means for Gazans.

What is Israel’s new operation in Gaza?

On Monday, Netanyahu said that Israel plans to take control of all of Gaza.

The official said earlier in May that the plan would be implemented after Trump’s trip to the Middle East to “provide a window of opportunity” to reach a hostage deal.

The warring parties failed to reach a deal during Trump’s visit last week, and Israel pressed on with its operation over the weekend. This began with a series of intense airstrikes last week and was followed by an expanded ground offensive on Sunday.

The Israeli military said Sunday that over the past week, it struck more than 670 “Hamas targets” in a wave of preliminary airstrikes across the enclave.

Health officials in Gaza said on Sunday that the operation killed over 100 people overnight, and shuttered the last functioning hospital in the enclave’s north. Entire families were killed while sleeping, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

More than 53,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its war on October 7, 2023, according to the ministry, which added that the majority of the dead are women and children.

What’s happening with Gaza aid?

On Sunday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said that due to the “operational need,” Israel will allow a “basic amount of food” to enter Gaza to prevent famine in the enclave, which Israel says would jeopardize its military operation.

Netanyahu has also hinted that his country could lose the support of its closest allies, including the United States, if it doesn’t lift its 11-week blockade on the territory, which has further exacerbated a humanitarian crisis on the ground that aid agencies, including the United Nations, have said could lead to widespread famine.

The UN had warned that Gaza’s entire population of over 2.1 million people is facing a risk of famine following 19 months of conflict and mass displacement.

If “a situation of famine” arose in Gaza, Israel “simply won’t receive international support,” Netanyahu said Monday.

“Even our closest allies in the world – US senators I know personally and who have been staunch, unconditional supporters of Israel for decades – are coming to me and saying: ‘We are giving you all the support to achieve victory – weapons, support for your efforts to eliminate Hamas, protection at the UN Security Council – but there’s one thing we cannot accept: images of mass starvation… If that happens, we won’t be able to support you anymore,’” Netanyahu said in an address posted to Telegram.

“We are approaching a dangerous point we don’t want to reach,” he said, adding that the military would find a “solution to this problem” to achieve its war aims.

Netanyahu’s explanations were largely aimed at mollifying his right-wing supporters who adamantly oppose the entry of any humanitarian aid to Gaza, including to civilians.

Asked when aid will start entering into the enclave, Netanyahu’s office said on Monday that “it will happen in the near future.”

A controversial American-backed organization, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), tasked with delivering aid to the territory, welcomed the Israeli announcement about allowing food aid as a “bridging mechanism” until the group is fully operational.

The foundation is meant to run a new, tightly controlled mechanism for aid deliveries that has been approved by Israel and the US, which both countries say is designed to prevent Hamas from “stealing” aid. The GHF-run mechanism has come under criticism from top humanitarian officials, who warn that it is insufficient, could endanger civilians and even encourage their forced displacement.

Given that the initial sites would only be in southern and central Gaza, the UN warned, this could be seen to be encouraging Israel’s publicly stated goal of forcing “the entire Gazan population” out of northern Gaza, as Defense Minister Israel Katz put it earlier this month.

Jake Wood, the foundation’s executive director, said Israel has also agreed to allow it to establish two sites in northern Gaza, which he believes can be up and running within the first 30 days of its operations.

The UN’s aid chief, Tom Fletcher, said Friday that there’s no need for an alternative Gaza aid plan. “Let’s not waste time: We already have a plan,” he said.

In one of the strongest condemnations of Israel’s war by a high-ranking UN official, Fletcher said the international community must prevent “genocide” in the enclave.

“Will you act – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law? Or will you say instead, ‘we did all we could?’” he told the UN Security Council.

What is Trump saying?

Trump visited Gulf Arab states last week, including Qatar, where his negotiating team was engaged in ceasefire and hostage talks.

The president said this month that he wanted an end to the “brutal war” in Gaza and did not visit Israel during his tour of the region, which he had already twice bypassed this month in reaching bilateral deals with regional militant groups.

On Wednesday, Trump denied that Israel had been sidelined. “This is good for Israel,” he said. But on Thursday, he said he wanted the US to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone.”

He also told Fox News on Saturday that he is not frustrated with Netanyahu, as the Israeli prime minister has got “a tough situation.” While in the Gulf, Trump also acknowledged that people are starving in Gaza and said the US would have the situation “taken care of.”

“We’re looking at Gaza. And we’re going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving,” he told reporters in UAE capital Abu Dhabi.

On Sunday, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff told ABC News that the issue with getting aid into Gaza is primarily logistical.

“It is logistically complicated and the conditions on the ground are dangerous,” he said. “That said, we do not want to see a humanitarian crisis and we will not allow it to occur on President Trump’s watch.”

Where does this leave talks?

Israeli Defense Minister Katz said Saturday that the new military operation in Gaza is what pressured Hamas to return to negotiations in Qatar last week. But analysts and officials say it’s more likely that the militant group agreed to restart the talks following Trump’s Middle East visit.

Senior Hamas official Taher Al-Nunu confirmed Saturday that “negotiations without preconditions” had started in Doha, according to Hamas-run al Aqsa TV.

It is unclear how well the discussions are progressing in Doha. Israel on Sunday indicated its openness to ending the war in Gaza if Hamas surrenders, a proposition the group is unlikely to accept as long as Israel continues to insist on Hamas disarming.

Meanwhile, Hamas officials have given conflicting comments about the talks.

Hours later, another senior Hamas leader, Sami Abu Zuhri, denied and contradicted that proposal, posting a statement on Al-Aqsa TV’s Telegram: “There is no truth to the rumors regarding the movement’s agreement to release nine Israeli prisoners in exchange for a two-month ceasefire.”

Zuhri went on to say: “We are ready to release the prisoners all at once, provided the occupation commits to a cessation of hostilities under international guarantees, and we will not hand over the occupation’s prisoners as long as it insists on continuing its aggression against Gaza indefinitely.”

France is planning to build a brand new high-security prison in the Amazon rainforest, near the site of the notorious Devil’s Island penal colony that inspired the 1973 movie “Papillon,” starring Steve McQueen.

Speaking on Sunday during a visit to French Guiana, a French territory that borders Suriname and Brazil, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said the facility would house drug kingpins and radical Islamists.

The prison will be built in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, on French Guiana’s border with Suriname, with space for 500 inmates, including 60 maximum-security prisoners.

Speaking to journalists, Darmanin said the new jail would help to ease prison overcrowding in French Guiana, as well as responding to the growing threat of drug trafficking in the territory.

French Guiana is a major transit point for South American cocaine on its way to markets in Europe, he said.

“Citizens in overseas territories must be able to have the same level of security as those in mainland France,” Darmanin said.

According to the minister, high-ranking criminals are able to use their illicit earnings to corrupt officials, and some are able to continue to run their operations from inside prison..

There are already 49 high-level drug traffickers in custody in French Guiana and other French overseas territories, Darmanin said, adding that these “extremely dangerous” prisoners are not being kept in adequately secure conditions.

The complex, which will also house a court, will cost a total 400 million euros ($451 million), Darmanin said in a post on Facebook on Sunday.

For some, the announcement of the planned facility brought back chilling memories of the penal colony of Cayenne, commonly known as Devil’s Island, which housed French prisoners until 1953.

Devil’s Island became infamous for its inhumane conditions, to the extent that it lent its name to a 1939 film starring Boris Karloff, as well as inspiring the novel “Papillon,” which was subsequently made into two movies.

“The root causes of the conflict.”

These were startling words from a man purportedly on the path to peace.

But it is the nub of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position of what must be solved for peace, after two weeks, or three months, depending on how you count, of mounting pressure for an immediate unconditional 30-day ceasefire. Unbothered, taking this most consequential of calls at a music school on the Sochi coast, the Kremlin head has returned to the start – to his false narrative about this war of choice being sparked by NATO expanding too fast.

Five other, different words emerged hours before, that may have echoed in Putin’s ears while he spoke to US President Donald Trump for two hours.

“It is not our war,” said Vice President JD Vance earlier. Reprising his role as the harbinger of very bad news for European security, Vance held out again this remarkable non-threat: that the United States might pull out of the war – presumably from both diplomacy and aid to Ukraine – unless Russia takes steps toward a peace deal it adamantly does not want. Washington backing off is exactly what Russia yearns for, and to earn this dream outcome, it seems Putin has to do absolutely nothing, bar continue to wage a brutal war.

Moments after the call, Trump already sounded like a man stepping back from the fray. Five days earlier he had been the febrile intermediary, the peacemaker willing to bridge the enmity between Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky for a meeting in Turkey. But after his Monday call with Putin, he simply said Ukraine and Russia must talk directly, “as only they can.” He even passed the task to the home of the new American Pope, the Vatican, as a possible venue. The United States may not be out of the process entirely, but it talks like it wants someone else to lead it.

The last 10 days have been a vivid reminder of how little Putin really needs POTUS or his approval. And the logic is simple.

For the best part of three years of war, Russia’s state media has been lecturing its audience they are not only in conflict with Ukraine, but also with all of NATO, including the United States. The presidency of Trump has created a small window in which the Kremlin might talk its way into a better position, or even alleviate the pain of some Western sanctions. But it does not change the central calculation or message of the Kremlin: this is an existential war, about re-establishing their pre-eminence in their near abroad. So much pain and loss has been inflicted on the Russian people through staggering war casualties that delivering middling to poor results might significantly limit the longevity of Russia’s leadership. This isn’t a war they can be seen to have lost.

The limits of what the United States can offer Russia at the moment, in terms of leverage, are visible from space. Yes, the US could escalate sanctions, even, as Trump mulled last week, adding “secondary sanctions” against Russia’s financiers, the oil purchasers of India and China. But that would cause another trade-like rift with world powers that Washington has just made good with. The US could alternatively ease sanctions to coax Russia into concessions. But those kid gloves would irk their European allies, and likely falter without Europe’s practical support.

Any further steps to cause Moscow pain would likely mean Trump had gone further to punish Russia than his predecessor Joe Biden did. That is not the MAGA geopolitical gameplan. It would deepen US involvement in a war where there is, frankly, no end in sight, until one side falters, or sees drastic change in political leadership.

Ukraine in 2025 is a bleak prospect. But the central tenet of European policy was the best choice in a world of ghastly options: Moscow could only be forced into reducing its goals if it saw an infinitely united NATO before it. Its economy, reserve wealth, manpower, or hardware might falter – only one needs to for the war machine to stutter. It is bleak, but Europe is left with little choice. Ukraine has no choice at all.

Trump felt he has a choice. His business acumen sees no merit in a long-term investment in a conflict with an enemy you’d prefer to get along with, the best outcome from which is to return Europe to the peace it knew before. There is no deal to be made here. Putin is not buying anything; he seeks to conquer and take. Trump has nothing to sell, bar the United States’ backing for its traditional allies. There is no way Putin and Trump can both win and retain their stature.

American leadership has for decades been built around something other than good, small deals. Its benevolence toward allies, vast soft power, and military hegemony, has left it the biggest economy on earth, with an undefeatable currency – itself a very good and huge deal.

But Trump sees America’s role as smaller. This may be the moment Trump finally understood Putin as someone who really doesn’t seek his approval or allegiance, and stepped back. If it is, the United States too has stepped back from decades of calling the shots, admitted the limits of its focus and power, and left the most important peace deal since the 1940s to a Hail Mary pass at the Vatican.

Authorities in El Salvador have arrested a prominent attorney critical of President Nayib Bukele, in a move criticized by rights groups who say it reflects an increasing trend of “authoritarianism” in the country.

Ruth Eleonora López, the head of the Anti-Corruption and Justice Unit of the rights organization Cristosal, is accused of collaborating in the “theft of funds from state coffers,” the Attorney General’s Office of El Salvador said.

“According to the investigations and information gathered during the raids carried out … her active participation in the acts of which she is accused has been identified,” the Attorney General’s Office said.

Speaking at a press conference alongside the leaders of Cristosal on Monday, López’s mother and husband said the arrest was part of a recurring pattern in which activists are detained, denied contact with their families, and their whereabouts concealed.

They alleged that authorities appeared at her home “under false pretenses,” claiming there had been a traffic accident to lure her outside. She was then detained and not allowed to see a warrant, they said. They added they still do not know the formal charges beyond what the Attorney General’s Office posted on X.

“This sends a message that the government is willing to repress, to violate human rights – and at this point, it’s barely trying to hide it. It’s practically admitting it,” said Abraham Ábrego, director of Strategic Litigation at Cristosal.

The organization labeled the move as a “short-term forced disappearance,” as it does not know where López, a lawyer and university professor, is being held. It has asked authorities to allow López’s lawyer to meet with her.

López has led criticism of the Bukele government’s lack of transparency, denouncing abuses allegedly committed by the state during an ongoing state of emergency to crack down on crime, as well as the increase in public debt without detailing its investment or the use of public funds to purchase Bitcoin. She has also criticized the government’s decision to endorse mining, among other things.

López, who in 2024 was recognized by the BBC on a list of 100 influential and inspiring women, was previously an adviser to the former president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Eugenio Chicas, between 2009 and 2014.

Chicas faces criminal proceedings after being arrested last February for alleged illicit enrichment to the detriment of public administration, a crime to which he has pleaded not guilty.

Since taking office in 2019, Bukele has enacted controversial measures to stem the crime and gang violence that has plagued the country for years.

In 2022, with the support of lawmakers, he declared a state of emergency which allowed the government to temporarily suspend constitutional rights, including the right to legal defense provided by the state. The measure was intended to last 30 days but has been extended dozens of times and continues to this day.

In the three years since it was declared, security forces have arrested nearly 87,000 people nationwide, or more than 1% of the Salvadoran population, according to authorities.

The government insists the crackdown has made the country safer, but critics say it has violated people’s rights and resulted in countless wrongful detentions.

International groups including Amnesty International condemned López’s arrest in a joint statement on Monday, saying that the state of emergency in El Salvador “has not only been used to address gang-related violence but also as a tool to silence critical voices.”

The first flight carrying migrants who chose to self-deport from the United States as part of a new Department of Homeland Security initiative offering free flights and $1,000 stipends has landed in Honduras.

A group of 38 Hondurans arrived at Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport on Monday afternoon after applying through a mobile app provided by US Customs and Border Protection, Honduran Deputy Foreign Minister Antonio García said.

“There was a bit of everything. There were mothers with children. Each one was given $1,000, including the children,” García told reporters at the airport, saying that up to 19 children had arrived.

At least four of the children were born in the US and one was born in Mexico. They left the US with their Honduran relatives to avoid family separation, according to Honduran Migration Director Wilson Paz Reyes.

“In this case, the US makes the decision, along with their families, that they return to the country so that family disintegration does not occur,” he said.

One of those deported, Wilson Sáenz, said that after he requested to be removed, authorities flew him to a hotel in Houston, Texas, and from there, he was dropped off at an airport and provided food before his flight home.

Another, Kevin Posadas, said that after applying for self-deportation, officials messaged migrants telling them when to present themselves, and “depending on what state they’re in, they move them to a place that’s closer to send them to Honduras.”

The flight carried 64 people, according to a Homeland Security official. It is expected to continue to Colombia to drop off the remaining migrants who opted for self-deportation, García said.

“Today, DHS conducted its first Project Homecoming charter flight of 64 individuals who voluntarily chose to self-deport to their home counties of Honduras and Colombia,” Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said. “If you are here illegally, use the CBP Home App to take control of your departure and receive financial support to return home.”

The US Department of Homeland Security announced on May 5 that it would offer undocumented immigrants financial and travel assistance to facilitate their return home through the CBP Home app, through which people can notify the government that they intend to leave the US voluntarily.

Any undocumented immigrant who uses the app to self-deport will receive a stipend of $1,000, to be paid after they confirm their return home through the app, according to the DHS.

The DHS says the initiative will cut deportation costs, which it says currently average more than $17,000 per case.

Those who sign up for self-deportation through CBP Home will also be deprioritized for detention and removal, “as long as they demonstrate they are making meaningful strides in completing that departure,” according to the DHS, which portrays the procedure as a “dignified” and safe way to leave.

“If you are here illegally, use the CBP Home App to take control of your departure and receive financial support to return home. If you don’t, you will be subjected to fines, arrest, deportation and will never be allowed to return,” Noem said.

The app was previously called CBP One and was used by Customs and Border Protection to schedule arrivals for people seeking asylum during the Biden administration.

The self-deportation initiative is part of a $200 million DHS ad campaign pressuring undocumented migrants to leave the US and “stay out.”

British police arrested a third man in an investigation into a series of arson attacks in north London, including a fire at a house belonging to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

A 34-year-old man was arrested on Monday morning in Chelsea, southwest London, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

Two other men — 21-year-old Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych and a 26-year-old man who has not been named — have also been arrested.

Lavrynovych was charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life over the three fires, which took place last week.

British police were called last week to the blaze at Starmer’s property in Kentish Town, north London — the constituency he represents. No one was injured, but the entrance to the home was damaged.

Starmer lived at the Kentish Town address with his wife and two children before moving into his official 10 Downing Street residence when he became prime minister last July.

Police are also investigating two other incidents — a fire at the entrance to an apartment block in nearby Islington and a fire involving a car, a Toyota RAV4, in Kentish Town, each taking place on separate days.

The car and both the properties were linked to Starmer, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard on Friday when Lavrynovych appeared in court.

Counter-terrorism police have led the investigation into the fires given the prime minister’s involvement.

Starmer has called the incidents “an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for.”

Salvage crews have recovered the boom from the $40 million Bayesian luxury yacht, which sank off the coast of Sicily in August 2024, killing seven people, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.

The boom, which was connected to the 72-meter (236-foot) mast — one of the tallest on any sailboat—is the first known piece of debris to be lifted from the water.

The 55.9 meter (184-foot) yacht, which still has 18,000 liters of fuel onboard, went down in a sudden storm on August 19 while moored near Porticello, Sicily near Palermo.

Fifteen people, including nine crew members, survived.

British investigators, who were on the scene days after the accident, published a “desktop” report last week in which they concluded that the ship sank due to structural problems with the vessel.

Italian investigators have publicly dismissed the findings and have told local reporters that until the vessel can be examined once out of the water, no conclusion into the cause of the sinking can be determined. The ship is lying on its starboard side on the seabed, meaning no images have been taken of that part of the vessel to determine its condition.

No one has been charged with any criminal culpability in the accident, but the ship’s captain James Cutfield and two other crew members are under investigation for their role in the deaths of the passengers, which included one crew member.

The timetable to lift the yacht from the 50-meter deep seabed originally stated that the mast and boom would be left on the seabed until after the hull of the luxury yacht is lifted. The boom was instead brought out first to aid in the investigation into the diver’s death. It is unclear when the mast, which is being cut from the vessel, will be pulled from the water.

The hull of the yacht is scheduled to be brought up between May 26 and May 28, weather permitting. Once emptied of water, the wreckage will be lifted by crane to the port of Termini Imerese where it will be sequestered and examined by officials. A full report is expected by the end of the summer.

Think of Japan’s famed yakuza gangs and you might think of heavily tattooed men getting into bloody fights – the stuff of action films and video games.

But last week four men were arrested in Tokyo for a more mundane crime – operating a yakuza office too close to a library.

The suspects, ages 55 to 77, “conspired” to operate an office from June 2024 to February 2025, “despite the fact that the area was within a 200 meter radius around a library,” said police in a statement. The city has strict rules on where yakuza offices can operate, as part of their campaign to eliminate organized crime.

The oldest man, 77, was a “member of an organization affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai organized crime syndicate,” one of Japan’s biggest yakuza groups, the statement added.

Known for their strict hierarchies and honor codes, the yakuza – also known as the boryokudan – engage in everything from extortion and money laundering to drugs and sex trafficking.

Far from being underground organizations, many are registered with the police and have an established presence across the country.

The National Police Agency (NPA) even lists the business addresses of some yakuza organizations on their website; for instance, the Sumiyoshi-kai’s main office is located in Tokyo’s upscale Akasaka district, not far from the parliament building.

During their heyday in the 1960s, the yakuza operated internationally and had more than 184,000 members, according to the NPA. But their numbers have declined steadily over recent decades after police crackdowns to curb their activities.

Though they are legally still allowed to exist, regulations made it harder for gangsters to survive as it became illegal to recruit yakuza, pay them off, or share profits with them. Even securing mobile phone contracts and renting out apartments became more difficult.

In 2024, the number of members of organized crime syndicates fell below 20,000 for the first time to a record low of 18,800, according to police data.

In Tokyo, yakuza offices cannot operate within 200 meters of schools, child welfare centers, community halls, museums, probation offices and family courts – as well as libraries.

Businesses cannot hire yakuza members as bouncers, offer them payoffs for services, or sign any contracts with yakuza that “encourage” their activities.

The result is shrinking yakuza groups that nowadays largely make headlines for disbanding, pursuing new law-abiding lives, or promising to behave.

Ukraine and Russia accused each other of launching attack drones on one another overnight, hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with his US counterpart Donald Trump – and again refused an immediate ceasefire.

Russia launched 108 Shahed drones and “various types of decoy drones,” Ukraine’s Air Force said on its Telegram channel Tuesday, adding air defenses had destroyed 93 of them in the east, center and north of the country.

The strikes come after Trump and Putin spoke for nearly two hours on Monday – Trump from the Oval Office and Putin phoning in from a visit to a music school in the city of Sochi.

Following the call Trump said Kyiv and Moscow would begin ceasefire negotiations ‘immediately.’

But Putin said the Kremlin was ready to work with Ukraine on a “possible ceasefire for a certain period of time, provided the corresponding agreements are reached.”

Neither Putin nor Trump discussed a timeframe for a possible truce, said Kremlin presidential aide Yury Ushakov.

Putin has previously ignored a proposal from Washington and Kyiv for a 30-day ceasefire and last week snubbed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s call to meet face-to-face for talks in Istanbul.

As the Turkey talks sputtered, Trump said he didn’t think there would be a significant breakthrough on peace talks until he spoke directly with Putin.

“Unfortunately, following the Trump–Putin phone call, the status quo has not changed,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, Adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky

European leaders decided to increase pressure on Russia through sanctions after Trump briefed them on the call with Putin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in an X post late on Monday.

Trump said he would not join in any new sanctions on Russia “because there’s a chance” of progress.

“I think there’s a chance of getting something done, and if you do that, you could also make it much worse. But there could be a time where that’s going to happen,” Trump said.

Following the call Zelensky said discussions would take place about the future location of a further round of talks – which would be aimed first at achieving a ceasefire.

Russian state news agency TASS cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling reporters that “so far, no specific decisions have been made regarding the location for the continuation of possible future contacts” with Ukrainian officials.

“We are primarily interested in a prompt settlement by eliminating the root causes of this conflict,” Peskov said.

“He wants Ukraine to capitulate. He wants Ukraine to disarm… to be in a position where… the Ukrainians cannot defend themselves,” said Taylor.

“That’s what Putin means when he says ‘the root causes.’”