Romania’s outgoing centrist president, Klaus Iohannis, resigned on Monday as opposition hard-right parliamentary parties planned to have him impeached.

The European Union and NATO member state, which borders Ukraine, was plunged into institutional chaos last year when little-known far-right NATO critic Calin Georgescu won the first round of a presidential election.

After accusations of Russian interference – denied by Moscow – Romania’s top court voided the entire election.

With the two rounds of the election set to be re-run on May 4 and May 18, Romania’s top court had said Iohannis, whose second and last term expired on December 21, would stay on until his successor was elected.

But in January, three far-right opposition parties, which control around 35% of parliament seats, filed a motion to impeach Iohannis.

With the motion up for a vote, and Iohannis deeply unpopular, analysts have said some lawmakers from mainstream pro-European parties could give the hard-right’s impeachment effort the required majority.

“The request will have consequences both domestically and abroad,” Iohannis told reporters. “To spare Romania this pointless and negative crisis… I am resigning from the president’s office.”

Senate speaker Ilie Bolojan, head of the Liberal Party, a member of the ruling coalition, will take over as interim president with limited powers until the election.

The three hard-right groupings, whose support has risen since Georgescu’s surprise win, had used their campaign against Iohannis as a reason to stage protests and seize the political agenda.

Israeli police raided two Palestinian bookstores in occupied east Jerusalem on Sunday, confiscating books and arresting one of the owners and his nephew, according to their family members.

CCTV footage shared by the owners, four brothers from the Muna family, shows police officers putting books in trash bags at one of the branches of the Educational Bookshop, a decades-old respected institution with Arabic- and English-language branches.

Photos shared by Muna of the Arabic-language store show books, notebooks and writing materials scattered on the ground.

Israeli police said in a statement Monday that two people were arrested on suspicion of “selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism.”

“The suspects who allegedly sold the books were taken into custody by police detectives,” the police spokesperson’s unit said.

Israeli police said that “detectives encountered numerous books containing inciteful material with nationalist Palestinian themes” in the stores.

Among them was a children’s coloring book titled “From the River to the Sea.” The expression is politically controversial in Israel. Some Palestinians use the phrase in support of a homeland between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, but many Jews regard it as a call for Israel’s destruction.

The Educational Bookshop was established in 1984 on the central Salah el Dein street in East Jerusalem. The original branch sells Arabic books, while the English-language store opened years later is frequented by Palestinians, Israelis and foreigners alike.

The group “The Time Has Come”, which lobbies for peace between Jews and Palestinians, said the bookstore and its people “are an important part of the shared future we envision for Jerusalem. The arrest and confiscation not only harm the right to free expression and the freedom of information but also place the city’s future on the brink.”

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for Palestinian Territories, said she was “shocked by the raid” on the bookstores, which she called “an intellectual lighthouse and family-run gem resisting Palestinian erasure under apartheid.”

Albanese also urged the international community in Jerusalem to “show up, stand with the Muna family, and protect this vital hub.”

Correction: This article previously referred to “The Time Has Come” group as “Ad Kan.” The two groups are separate entities, and the comments in this article are those of “The Time Has Come.”

A bus veered off a highway bridge into a polluted ravine in Guatemala City early on Monday, killing at least 51 people and trapping survivors, a spokesperson for the city’s fire department said.

The densely packed bus was traveling into the capital from the town of San Agustin Acasaguastlan on a busy route into the city from when it plunged approximately 20 meters (65 feet) from Puente Belice, a highway bridge that crosses over a road and creek.

The spokesman, Carlos Hernandez, said the bodies of 36 men and 15 women had been sent to a provincial morgue set up for the accident.

Images shared by the fire department on social media showed the bus partially submerged in wastewater surrounded by victims’ bodies.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo declared three days of national mourning and deployed the country’s army and disaster agency to assist response efforts.

“I stand in solidarity with the families of the victims who today woke up to heartbreaking news. Their pain is my pain,” Arevalo said on social media.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

Hamas has said the next hostage release scheduled to take place in Gaza on Saturday will be postponed, accusing Israel of breaking the ceasefire deal.

In a post on X, Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, said that the handover of the prisoners “who were scheduled to be released next Saturday … will be postponed until further notice, and until the occupation commits to and compensates for the entitlements of the past weeks retroactively.”

He added: “We affirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation commits to them.”

In response to Hamas’ announcement, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he has instructed the country’s military to “prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza.”

The defense minister described Hamas’ move as a “complete violation of the ceasefire agreement and the deal to release the hostages.”

Israel’s far-right former minister of national security, Itamar Ben Gvir, said Israel should respond with a “massive attack on Gaza.”

“Hamas’ announcement must have one real-life response: a massive attack on Gaza, from the air and land, alongside a complete halt to humanitarian aid to the Strip, including electricity, fuel and water, and including the bombing of aid packages that have already been brought in and are in Hamas’ hands in Gaza,” Ben Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power party, said in a Monday statement.

Hamas and Israel have each accused the other of violating the agreement throughout the first phase of the deal, raising questions about whether the ceasefire that took more than 15 months to reach would hold.

Hamas released three hostages on Saturday in the latest exchange since a ceasefire went into effect on January 19.

In exchange, Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners, of whom 18 were serving life sentences. The majority had been detained in Gaza since October 7 and had no public charges against them.

Hamas has now released a total of 16 Israeli hostages as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, of a total of 33 promised at staggered intervals during this stage. Eight of those 33 are dead, according to the Israeli government.

Following the release of the three hostages on Saturday, Hamas and its allies still hold a total of 73 people taken from Israel on October 7, 2023, of 251 initially taken. Three additional hostages, held captive since 2014, are still in Gaza.

Under an agreement signed in Qatar last month, negotiations to begin a second phase were supposed to begin on Monday.

Earlier Monday, the Hamas-run Gaza Government Media Office said Israel had refused to allow the entry of shelter supplies specified in the ceasefire agreement

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Scores of unexploded bombs dating from World War II have been recovered from a children’s playground in northern England after a chance discovery.

Two bombs were initially removed by the British Army, the UK Ministry of Defense said in a statement. The parish council was then advised that a full survey of the area was required, according to a council spokesperson.

Bomb disposal company Brimstone Site Investigation then uncovered 65 10-pound practice bombs and smoke cartridges on the first day of works, with a further 90 practice bombs recovered on the second day.

According to the parish council, all of the bombs need to be found and removed before the park can be reopened. It said 174 devices had been found so far.

“Whilst this ordnance is described as practice bombs, they do still carry a charge and given the numbers involved, need to be recovered by professionals to satisfy all concerned that the playpark area is once again safe for contractors and ultimately users of the equipment,” the council said in its statement.

Local politician Mark Mather told the BBC that the area was reportedly used to train the Home Guard volunteer army during World War II, and it appeared that after the war the ordnance was buried.

Further excavations will be carried out to make sure the playground is completely free from unexploded ordnance before new equipment is installed, the parish council added.

In February 2024, thousands of residents were evacuated in Plymouth, southwest England, as authorities worked to remove an unexploded 500-kilogram (1,102-pound) bomb discovered in a garden in the city.

This is not the only time that unexploded ordnance has been discovered in England recently.

The bomb was moved before being disposed of at sea, after it was decided that detonating it in situ would have risked significant damage to nearby properties.

US President Donald Trump has suggested Ukraine may fall under Russian control “someday,” as he called for the war-torn country to share its natural resources in exchange for US assistance.

Trump, whose return to power has thrown doubt over billions of dollars in future US aid to Ukraine, told Fox News in an interview on Monday that he had told Kyiv he wanted “$500 billion worth of rare earth.”

Ukrainian officials had “essentially agreed” to the proposal, he claimed.

Ukraine has “tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things,” Trump said. “I want to have our money secured, because we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars.”

He added: “They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. But we are going to have all this money in there and I say I want it back.”

Trump, who has been vocal about the need for a quick end to the conflict but short of public ideas, had earlier floated the idea of meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week.

His envoy to Ukraine and Russia, ret. Gen. Keith Kellogg, announced he would discuss their vision for peace in Ukraine with allies at the Munich Security Conference, on February 14-16. Kellogg is then expected to visit Kyiv four days later, for his first, long-anticipated trip there, according to Ukrainian state media.

North Korea has treated hundreds of Russian soldiers injured in Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Pyongyang told state media, as he revealed new details of the reclusive state’s backing for the Kremlin’s war effort.

Wounded Russian troops have been recovering in North Korean medical facilities, Ambassador Alexander Matsegora told state-run outlet Rossiyskaya Gazeta in an extensive interview published Sunday.

“A clear example of such a brotherly attitude (between Russian and North Korea) is the rehabilitation of hundreds of wounded soldiers … in Korean sanatoriums and hospitals,” he said.

The Russian envoy’s comments are the latest sign of deepening ties between the two countries, which have recently reached heights unseen since the Cold War.

North Korea has sent about 12,000 soldiers to Russia, according to Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence reports, following Moscow and Pyongyang’s pledge to help each other if either nation is attacked in a landmark defense pact signed last June.

About 4,000 North Korean troops have reportedly been killed or injured in combat after being deployed to Kursk since at least November to repel Ukraine’s incursion in the southern Russian border region, Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence said.

Meanwhile, Russia has also received thousands of shipping containers of munitions or munitions-related material from North Korea, and Moscow’s forces have launched North Korea-made missiles on Ukraine, according to US officials.

In his interview with state media, Matsegora claimed that North Korea had treated wounded Russian soldiers for free.

“When we offered to compensate our (North Korean) friends for at least part of their expenses, they were sincerely offended and asked us never to do it again,” he said.

Matsegora also said that children of Russian troops killed in Ukraine had vacationed in North Korea last summer, and Russia and North Korea are developing student exchanges.

Moscow supplies Pyongyang with coal, food, and medicine, he added.

South Korea’s intelligence service declined to comment on Matsegora’s remarks.

The extent of care potentially available to wounded Russian troops within North Korea’s dilapidated health infrastructure remains unclear.

Doctors who have defected in recent years often speak of poor working conditions and shortages of everything from medicine to basic health care supplies.

Some analysts also cast doubt on Matsegora’s troop recuperation remarks, pointing to Russia’s brutal military tactics as the war in Ukraine grinds toward its third anniversary.

Russia “has reportedly been sending wounded personnel back into assault groups without treatment, demonstrating a general disregard for soldiers’ health,” The Institute for the Study of War said in a news release Monday, “calling into question official Russian claims to be sending Russian soldiers abroad for treatment, particularly to North Korea.”

However, any arrival of experienced Russian troops, particularly officers, in North Korea “may allow the Russian military to work with North Korean forces and disseminate lessons from the war in Ukraine while ostensibly recuperating,” the US-based conflict monitor added.

India’s religious minorities have faced a “staggering” rise in hate speech over the past year, including from top leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to a report released Monday.

The number of hate speech incidents targeting Muslim and Christian minorities rose to 1,165 in 2024 from 668 the year prior, a 74% increase, according to a report from the Washington-based research group, India Hate Lab. The majority of these, around 98%, targeted Muslims, either explicitly or alongside Christians.

“Hate speech in India in 2024 followed an alarming trajectory, deeply intertwined with the ideological ambitions of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the broader Hindu nationalist movement,” the report said.

Modi, who won a third term in last year’s elections, has long been accused by critics of fueling religious tensions and inciting violence against Muslims and other minorities since assuming power more than a decade ago.

His Hindu nationalist party has sought to turn India – a nation constitutionally bound to secularism – into a Hindu rashtra, or homeland for the Hindu majority, critics say, at the expense of the millions who profess minority faiths.

Modi and his BJP have repeatedly said they do not discriminate against minority groups.

The BJP’s national spokesperson, Jaiveer Shergill, condemned the report on Monday, saying it was published to malign India’s image.

According to the report, hate speech last year reinforced “longstanding Hindu nationalist tropes” such as the portrayal of Muslims and Christians as “outsiders,” “foreigners” and “invaders” who lack a legitimate claim to belonging in India, the report said.

It found that the BJP organized around 30% of last year’s hate speech events, a nearly six-fold increase from the year prior, with its party leaders delivering 452 hate speeches, a 350% rise from the previous year. The majority were recorded during the general election campaign.

Modi has in the past been accused of making Islamophobic remarks in speeches on the campaign trail.

“These high-profile hate speeches (by Modi and powerful regional leaders) were further amplified and reinforced by an arsenal of local BJP leaders, Hindu far-right organizations, and religious figures, who spread similar rhetoric at community and grassroots levels,” the report found.

Muslims make up roughly 200 million of India’s 1.4 billion population, with the population of Christians at roughly 27 million.

Under Modi’s leadership, Hindu nationalists have been appointed to top positions in key government institutions, giving them the power to make sweeping changes to legislation that rights groups say unfairly target Muslims. Textbooks have been rewritten to downplay the history of India’s former Islamic rulers, cities and streets with Mughal-era names renamed and Muslim properties have been demolished by authorities for illegal encroachment on government land and as punishment for alleged rioting.

In 2019, Modi removed the special autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir – India’s only Muslim-majority state – bringing it under the direct control of New Delhi. That same year, his administration passed a controversial citizenship law that excluded Muslim migrants, sparking deadly riots.

India prohibits hate speech under several sections of its penal code, including a section that criminalizes “deliberate and malicious acts” intended to insult religious beliefs.

However, some experts say hate speech has proliferated in India as a result of the judiciary’s reluctance to recognize hate speech offenses.

Anas Tanwir, a lawyer and founder of the Indian Civil Liberties Union, said the judiciary has failed to take concrete action against hate speech “despite clear prohibitions under various laws in India.”

The India Hate Lab, a project under the Washington, DC-based think tank Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), releases annual data on hate speech in the world’s largest democracy. They define hate speech by the United Nations framework which looks at any kind of communication in speech, writing or behavior that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language based on a person’s religion.

China has unveiled sweeping new regulations to tighten the release of information about its military online, a move that could obscure key sources for monitoring the world’s largest armed forces.

The rules, announced over the weekend and taking effect on March 1, come as China is rapidly building up and modernizing its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to match the military might of the United States.

It also marks the latest effort in leader Xi Jinping’s far-reaching campaign to bolster national security and guard state secrets in the face of heightened geopolitical tensions.

The all-encompassing rules could have a big impact on Chinese military bloggers and commentators, who are often quick to share images or information about new weapons systems, personnel appointments and troop movements.

Such publicly available information posted by Chinese military enthusiasts has also been an important source for PLA watchers to track the development and movement of the Chinese military.

The regulations are aimed at addressing issues including “the spread of false military information” and “the leakage of military secrets” on the internet, according to a Q&A released by the government.

They lay out strict rules for online content about military affairs, banning the “producing, copying, publishing and disseminating” of military secrets, national defense technology and industry secrets or other undisclosed information.

The banned list covers everything from the development and testing of weapons systems to military drills and deployment, as well as the organizational structures, tasks and combat capabilities of military units that have not been officially disclosed.

The regulations target individual users and “online military information service providers,” which include dedicated military affairs websites, military columns and social media accounts focused on the military.

In a sign of their sweeping scope, the regulations were issued jointly by 10 government and ruling Communist Party departments, from the top internet regulator and top military commanding body to the ministries of public security, state security and culture and tourism.

Open source information has provided key clues about China’s military progress in the past. Last December, online footage and images of what many believed to be China’s next-generation stealth fighter jet caused a huge stir in both China and the overseas PLA watching community, after the mysterious aircraft were seen flying in broad daylight over two Chinese cities.

It’s unclear how the new rules will affect foreign media reporting on the Chinese military.

Analysts said the new regulations could portend a tightening of control over military-themed content on the Chinese internet.

“Military and defense-related content enjoys significant popularity among Chinese internet users, but the leadership is clearly keen to ensure that sensitive information — a concept broadly applied in China — and speculation do not undermine the official narrative around the country’s military development and capabilities,” wrote David Bandurski, executive director of the China Media Project.

James Char, a PLA expert and assistant professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said information related to the PLA and other military matters have long been placed under strict supervision by Chinese authorities.

Some of the content banned by the new rules had already been outlawed in previous legislations, such as anything that harms national sovereignty and security or denigrate the military and its “heroes and martyrs.”

Others are routinely censored on Chinese social media, such as comments criticizing China’s national defense policy and military strategy, or those spreading false information about the military.

“I regard the announcement of these regulations as nothing more than the institutionalization of existing rules,” Char said.

But he noted that the new rules banning the sharing of information on military deployments and troop movements do serve to outlaw such practices by internet users without PLA approval, such as military bloggers or the man on the street in China.

“This may have an effect on these individuals’ readiness to post such material online the next time they come across troop movements or a military exercise in their localities,” Char said.

“This will also work in Beijing’s interest in preventing its troop deployments within the mainland from being exposed in advance of another major military exercise or troop build-up in China’s coastal regions off the Taiwan Strait.”