The Israeli military is expanding its operations in the occupied West Bank and will remain in some refugee camps for the “coming year,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday.

Israel has been carrying out “Operation Iron Wall” – a military campaign focused on the northern West Bank which launched last month, just two days after the Gaza ceasefire began. At least 27 people have died in the offensive, the Palestinian health ministry says.

“I have instructed the IDF to prepare for a prolonged presence in the cleared camps for the coming year and to prevent the return of residents and the resurgence of terrorism,” Katz said in a statement.

The Israeli military meanwhile said Sunday that it was operating in “additional towns” in the Jenin area.

“Simultaneously, a tank platoon will begin operating in Jenin as part of the operational activity,” it added, the first time Israeli tanks have operated in the Palestinian territory since the end of the second intifada, or uprising, in 2005.

The Israeli military has launched regular incursions into Jenin and its refugee camps in recent years but has not established a permanent presence in the immediate area. Jenin came under Israeli occupation in 1967 but was put under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority in 1995 as a result of the Oslo Accords.

Since Hamas’ October 7 attack, Israel has engaged in an increasingly militarized campaign that it says targets West Bank militants, employing tactics like airstrikes that were once nearly unheard of there.

Katz said Sunday that the Israeli military is “conducting offensive operations to eliminate terrorist strongholds, neutralizing militants, and destroying terror infrastructure, buildings, and weapons caches on a large scale.”

He vowed to “continue clearing refugee camps and other terror hubs to dismantle the battalions and terror infrastructure of radical Islam.”

“We will not return to the previous reality,” he said.

The Palestinian foreign ministry has dismissed such justifications as “pretexts” to bring the territory under Israeli control.

The long-delayed funeral for Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah is taking place Sunday, nearly five months after he was killed in a massive Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Hezbollah has been left badly depleted by Israeli attacks and the mass event is intended as a show of strength for the militant and political group.

Tens of thousands of mourners flooded Beirut’s largest stadium, where the ceremony begins, and packed the surrounding streets. A large procession will trail a vehicle carrying the late militant leader’s coffin to a shrine in southern Beirut, erected as his final resting place.

Sunday’s ceremony also commemorates Nasrallah’s successor, Hashem Safieddine, who led the militant group for just days before an Israeli strike killed him in early October.

Nasrallah was secretly buried in a private ceremony shortly after his death, according to Hezbollah officials. That he is only being buried now underscores the militant group’s weakened state, after an Israeli military campaign in Lebanon last autumn nearly wiped out the group’s top military brass and killed thousands of its fighters, in addition to hundreds of civilians.

A ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel was signed last November, ending a months-long war, but drove the militant group deeper underground with Israel continuing to strike what it describes as Hezbollah targets. Israel struck several locations in Lebanon hours before the start of the mass funeral, according to local and state media.

Nasrallah’s death marks the end of an era for a militant group that grew from a rag-tag group of guerrilla fighters in 1982 to a regional force whose influence spanned at least four countries.

He was elected leader of the armed group in 1992 as a 32-year-old cleric. He went on to preside over a guerrilla campaign in southern Lebanon that ultimately drove Israeli forces out of the country in 2000, ending a 22-year occupation. In 2006, he led Hezbollah militants in an all-out war against Israel, which devastated large parts of Lebanon but foiled Israel’s stated goal of dismantling the group.

When wars raged in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, Nasrallah’s forces intervened on behalf of groups backed by Iran, shoring up Tehran’s support.

But Hezbollah’s fortunes changed after the Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel which killed around 1,200 people on October 7, 2023. The militant group launched daily rocket attacks on Israel’s northernmost territory, in support of Hamas, displacing some 60,000 Israelis. Around 100,000 Lebanese residents of the south were also displaced in Israeli attacks as part of a tit-for-tat that spanned nearly a year before it spiralled into an all-out war last September.

Nasrallah called it a “supportive front” that he said aimed to pressure Israel into ceasing its retaliatory offensive in Gaza, which has laid waste to large parts of the besieged territory and killed over 48,000 people.

In mid-September, Israel detonated explosives implanted in thousands of pagers and walkie talkies carried by Hezbollah members and assassinated several of the group’s leaders, laying bare Israel’s thorough infiltration of the armed group.

Severely weakened, Hezbollah’s future as a militant group is being called into question. Israel has vowed to continue to strike the group’s positions until the group disarms and has maintained five strategic positions inside Lebanon’s southern-most territory, breaching the November ceasefire agreement.

Domestically, the group has come under increasing pressure to lay down its arms. That culminated with the newly elected President Joseph Aoun’s inaugural speech in January when he called on weapons to be monopolized under the authority of the state.

Hezbollah has long resisted calls to give up their arms, which it argues have prevented Israel’s reoccupation of the country. Its detractors say their militancy makes a viable Lebanese state impossible.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that he was “ready” to resign as leader if it meant peace in his country, suggesting he could swap it for NATO membership.

Asked at a press conference if he was ready to quit if it ensures peace for Ukraine, Zelensky said: “If [it guarantees] peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to resign, I am ready. I can exchange it for NATO.”

The Ukrainian president previously said his country’s army will need to double in size if NATO denies it membership to the alliance. Earlier this month, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that Kyiv joining NATO was unrealistic.

Zelensky’s comments follow an escalating spat between Zelensky and Donald Trump after the US president falsely accused Ukraine of starting the conflict.

When Zelensky hit back – accusing the US president of being in a “disinformation space” – Trump called Zelensky a “dictator,” straining ties at a pivotal moment in the conflict.

Pope Francis remains in critical condition, according to the Vatican, with blood tests showing mild signs of kidney failure “which is currently under control,” the Vatican said Sunday, as the 88-year-old pontiff battles pneumonia in both his lungs.

It added that Francis, who was hospitalized over a week ago, has not shown further respiratory crises since yesterday evening.

Some of his blood tests indicate “an initial, mild, renal failure, which is currently under control,” the Vatican said, adding that the Pope continues to be “vigilant and well oriented.”

Francis, who continues to receive oxygen, took part in the Holy Mass from the apartment set up on the 10th floor of Gemelli hospital on Sunday morning, according to the statement. Those taking care of him during his hospitalization also took part.

“The complexity of the clinical picture, and the necessary wait for pharmacological therapies to provide some feedback, require that the prognosis remain reserved,” the Vatican said.

Earlier on Sunday, the Vatican said Francis had received high flows of oxygen after suffering a respiratory crisis but had a peaceful night in hospital. The Vatican said Francis will remain in hospital following his pneumonia diagnosis in both lungs and did not deliver the weekly Angelus prayer Sunday – for only the third time in his almost 12-year papacy.

The Pope said his treatment continues and thanked medical staff for their dedication in the text of Sunday’s sermon, which was sent to the press in advance.

The pope’s condition had seemed better earlier in the week, with the Vatican describing him as responding “positively” to medical treatment for pneumonia on Thursday.

The pontiff was admitted to a clinic in Rome on February 14, and initially underwent tests for a respiratory tract infection. He was subsequently diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs after a later CT scan.

History of respiratory infections

Francis, who is from Argentina, has a vulnerability to respiratory infections. As a young man, he suffered a severe bout of pneumonia that led to the removal of part of one lung.

In 2021, doctors also surgically removed part of his colon in relation to diverticulitis, which can cause inflammation or infection of the colon. He was hospitalized with bronchitis in 2023, and in recent months has had two falls where he bruised his chin and hurt his arm, which was put into a sling.

This is the second-longest time Francis has spent in hospital since his election as pope and on Monday will break the record.

His doctors have advised “complete rest.” Even so, he has continued to do some work, including on the first two days of hospitalization, holding his daily phone call to Rev. Gabriel Romanelli and his assistant, Father Yusuf Asad, in Gaza City, northern Gaza. They have been in frequent contact since Israel launched its bombing campaign and siege on the enclave, following the October 7 Hamas-led attacks.

“We joked as always. He hasn’t lost his proverbial sense of humor,” the Italian prime minister said in a statement.

This is story has been updated with new reporting.

Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is set to return to power with the far-right Alternative for Germany as second-largest party, exit polls show, after snap elections dominated by concerns over immigration, the economy and the return of Donald Trump.

The CDU’s party headquarters were filled with cheers and applause on Sunday evening as the exit polls were revealed and it became clear that the opposition party was set to become the largest group after Sunday’s election. Outside the building, a small group of protesters had gathered to demonstrate against what they perceive as party leader Friedrich Merz’s hard line on immigration.

Merz declared victory at the event in central Berlin, as he told supporters “Let’s get the party started,” an apparent nod to wanting to get coalition negotiations underway quickly.

If the exit poll stands, the CDU will claim 28.8% of the vote in Sunday’s election, meaning Merz – an old-school conservative who has never held a government role previously – will become the new chancellor of Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and most populous state.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) came in second, according to the exit poll, with an unprecedented 20.2%, meaning the party – once on the fringes as officially suspected of extremism now a major political force. However it faces exclusion from government by other parties, due to what a “firewall” arrangement.

The mood at the AfD election party was ecstatic as it emerged that the party had almost doubled its support, with people cheering and waving Germany flags. Party co-leader Alice Weidel took to the stage to tell cheering crowds that the AfD had “never been stronger.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) looked set to come in third with 16.2% – signaling a dramatic turnaround in the party’s fortunes since the 2021 election, when it took 25.7% of the vote.

Also notable in the exit polls was a successful outcome for the socialist Die Linke party, which won 8.5% – comfortably pushing it over the 5% threshold needed to enter parliament.

The “traffic light” coalition, led by Scholz, brought together an uneasy alliance of three ideologically different parties and its collapse triggered Sunday’s snap vote, a relative rarity in a country which has long had one of the most stable political systems in Europe.

Nearly 60 million Germans were eligible to vote on Sunday, according to data from the country’s Federal Statistics Office.

Sunday evening’s preliminary results cap off an eventful election period that drew extraordinary involvement from White House officials and has once again seen debate rage around Germany’s immigration policies.

Trump sent shockwaves across Europe after he pushed ahead with peace talks on Ukraine with Russia, excluding both Kyiv and European leaders.

Germany’s rebuilding after the Nazi era came under the US-led NATO security alliance and its later prosperity was powered by cheap Russian energy and trade with China.

What was once certain has unraveled and if Merz – who has pledged to tack right and promised to provide leadership in Europe – does become chancellor he has an enormous task ahead.

Two recent deadly attacks, one in Magdeburg before Christmas and another in Munich last week – both carried out by migrants with differing motives – fanned the flames of division in the run up to Sunday’s vote.

The AfD, which has been accused of using immigrants has a scapegoat, capitalized on these attacks for its own political gain, and has even called for “remigration” – the mass expulsion of immigrants, regardless of their citizenship status in Germany.

Both the CDU and the SPD also ramped up pledges around irregular migration and protecting internal security in the wake of recent attacks, meaning that even if the AfD do not take office they have already shaped the debate.

Under Germany’s system it is difficult for any party to gain enough votes to govern alone and it remains to be seen what form coalition-building talks will take.

Some aspects, however, are already clear-cut; other main parties made clear that the AfD will not be part of any negotiations, meaning it is shut out of power for now.

It seems likely that Merz will call on Scholz’s Social Democrats – the other major centrist party in Germany – to build a government. Another potential coalition partner is the environmental Greens, which served in Scholz’s so-called “traffic light coalition” government.

It remains unclear at this stage whether Merz will need one or two partners to form a majority. Three-way coalition governments in Germany are rare.

Overall, it could take weeks of haggling to form a new government, meaning more political paralysis for Berlin at a time of wider uncertainty.

A British couple in their 70s who run education programs in Afghanistan have lost contact with their family after being detained by the Taliban early this month, their children say.

The family urged the Taliban authorities to release Peter and Barbie Reynolds. Their four adult children said the couple have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years, remaining after the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in 2021.

The couple runs Rebuild, an organization that provides education and training programs for businesses, government agencies, educational organizations and nongovernmental groups. The Sunday Times, which first reported the story, said one project was for mothers and children. The Taliban has severely restricted women’s education and activities.

“They have always been open about their presence and their work, diligently respecting and obeying the laws as they change,” the children said in a letter to the Taliban, shared Sunday with The Associated Press. “They have chosen Afghanistan as their home, rather than with family in England, and they wish to spend the rest of their lives in Afghanistan.

“We kindly ask for the release of our father and mother so they can return to their work in teaching, training, and serving Afghanistan, which you have previously supported.”

The children said their parents had asked the British government not to get involved with their case. Britain’s Foreign Office declined to comment.

Rebuild said the husband and wife were taken from their home in the Nayak area of central Bamiyan province, along with another foreigner and an Afghan.

In a message to AP, Rebuild said the detained couple had been living in the area for more than two years and had Afghan identity cards. It said Taliban officials had previously searched their home and taken the couple to Kabul, before returning them to Bamiyan.

“Then a delegation came from Kabul, along with Bamiyan provincial officials, and took them again to Kabul,” the organization said. “It is now around 17 days and there is still no information about them.”

No one from the Taliban government was available for comment.

In a war dominated by the unexpected, few imagined Ukraine’s fourth year at war would so firmly question the security of all of Europe.

The most basic tenets have crumbled in this war​. Russia’s military superpower status has weakened, and the Kremlin’s inner circle overcame an uprising. Drones have altered warfare permanently, and rendered warehouses of tanks near-useless.

The United States has flipped from a moralistic benefactor to a transactional predator of Kyiv’s resources. The president of Ukraine has survived physically yet now must deal with a revisionist version of events purveyed by a White House that just over a month ago was his steadfast backer.

Flippant or spontaneous as it may have been, US Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth’s remark in Brussels that the US was no longer the guarantor of European security has overturned eighty years of norms on the continent. Perhaps it was a bluff to boost European security spending, but you cannot bluff in nuclear security.

The Kremlin will have heard about the weakness in the transatlantic alliance and will be plotting accordingly. In one sentence, Hegseth turned a conflict, in which Moscow had been roundly diminished and humiliated for three years, into the chaotic re-ordering of continental security, in which Moscow may somehow dominate to its west.

With Moscow tied up in Ukraine, the security of wider Europe is for now an ethereal policy debate – an unwelcome distraction when contrasted with the relentless daily horror of the actual fight. After a week of social media tirades and tense microphone diplomacy, the gruesome battle has somehow faded into the background. Yet the acute horror is real.

A Ukrainian company commander serving inside Russia’s Kursk region said his men had to regularly dig new positions in the frozen ground as they were so accurately targeted by waves of Russian drones. “I don’t really believe in a quick end to the war or in peace in general”, he said after three years of fighting. “I am very exhausted, so is everyone here. Nothing changes for us here because of political statements.”

Oleksandr Nastenko, a battalion commander in the 475th assault brigade, said talk of peace had impacted recruitment as potential soldiers were saying “maybe it will all be over in a month or two, I’ll wait.” He said talk of Ukraine collapsing after six months without American aid was premature. “We will somehow figure it out, there is no smell of capitulation.”

Yet a form of capitulation has haunted the opening salvos of the Trump administration’s negotiating plan – Hegseth gifting Moscow with the prospect of Ukraine not joining NATO or recovering territory, before talks had apparently begun. The White House’s revisionism has become an ugly extension of their apparent race to purse a détente with the Kremlin almost at all costs.

Russia’s parallel narrative – that it was forced into action to prevent NATO expansion, and Ukraine must be de-nazified – had been overwhelmed by the sheer weight of its frailty on the frontlines and isolation. It had begun to sound silly – the wobbly excuses of the loser. Yet it has suddenly gained a new lease of life, parroted in part by the world’s most powerful man and his inner circle. It is a potent sign of how the war continues to turn basic norms upside down, that a pressing question on its third anniversary is: “Who is feeding Trump these Kremlin talking points?” Russian state television seems to think it is Russian President Vladimir Putin himself in his conversations with Trump.

Western unity has been an outlier during the war: European nations often differed in how suspicious of Russia they instinctively were, but they spoke as one since Moscow’s full invasion. Yet we now face the world’s pre-eminent power somehow convinced Russia might be a potential ally, and it is their European democratic allies who are the tyrannical problem. It is naïve for anyone in Washington to imagine a future in which Moscow drops its main financier and neighbor, China, in favor of an alliance with the US. Instead, they project frailty at a time when Beijing is actively weighing its next moves on Taiwan, and at times seems the most stable, serious power globally.

On Sunday, Zelensky said he would step aside if it meant peace for Ukraine. The distressing fact is his fraught relationship with Trump risks becoming an obstacle to almost everything. Yet the alternative is worse still. An election in wartime or handover to an anointed successor would simply increase false claims of Zelensky’s illegitimacy.

The dichotomy of the White House’s position is evident again in the inflated casualty numbers they claim is the reason the war must end (millions have not died, as Trump suggests, but possibly hundreds of thousands). This onus on preserving life is not compatible with a peace deal that weakens Ukraine’s defense and risks Russia refitting and coming back for more ground next year. More will die if peace fails or is weak.

The ugliest truth of this moment also needs saying out loud so Europe can be ready. The evidence of our eyes and ears is, as the biggest war in Europe since the forties drags into its fourth year, that Trump favors Putin.

New Zealand raised fresh concerns Monday over nearby live-fire drills conducted by Chinese warships armed with “extremely capable” weapons, an unprecedented show of firepower last week that analysts say are part of Beijing’s ongoing plan to build a blue-water navy with global reach.

A Chinese Navy formation held two live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand on Friday and Saturday, prompting passenger planes to change course mid-flight and rattling officials in both countries.

Judith Collins, the defense minister of New Zealand, said the drills were unprecedented.

“We’ve certainly never seen a task force or task group of this capability undertaking that sort of work. So it is certainly a change,” Collins told public broadcaster Radio New Zealand (RNZ) on Monday.

“The weapons they have are extremely capable. One has 112 vertical launch cells and has reported anti-ship ballistic missile range of 540 nautical miles,” she said.

Chinese state media have suggested that Western countries should get used to such military exercises in their nearby waters.

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military affairs expert, told nationalist tabloid the Global Times that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy will increasingly conduct exercises not only near China’s shores but also in international waters.

As drills like these will become more frequent, some countries should adjust to this trend, Song told the newspaper.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday that while China’s drills complied with international law, Beijing “could have given more notice.”

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she sought an explanation from her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi when the two met in Johannesburg on Saturday on the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers gathering.

China’s Defense Ministry slammed Australia on Sunday for “hyping up” the drills and making “unreasonable accusations.”

Wu Qian, a spokesperson for the ministry, said China had issued safety notices in advance and that the exercises conducted in international waters complied with international law and did not affect aviation safety.

But Collins said China’s warning was given at too short notice.

“There was a warning to civil aviation flights, that was basically a very short amount of notice, a couple of hours, as opposed to what we would consider best practice, which is 12-24 hours’ notice, so that aircraft are not having to be diverted when they’re on the wing,” she told RNZ.

Collins added that the ships were currently about 280 nautical miles east of Tasmania and had slightly changed their formations, while being closely monitored by a New Zealand navy frigate.

New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is scheduled to visit China on Tuesday at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday hailed Ukraine’s “absolute heroism” as he marked the third anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, and as European leaders began arriving in the capital Kyiv in a show of support for the embattled country.

“Three years of resistance. Three years of gratitude. Three years of absolute heroism of Ukrainians. I am proud of Ukraine!” Zelensky wrote on X alongside a video showing scenes from the frontline and Ukrainian civilians supporting war efforts during the grinding conflict.

“I thank everyone who defends and supports it. Everyone who works for Ukraine. And may the memory of all those who gave their lives for our state and people be eternal.”

The anniversary comes with Ukraine facing great uncertainty about its future after US President Donald Trump pivoted toward Russia and US officials insist that Europe can no longer rely on Washington for its defense.

European leaders arrived in Ukraine on Monday, according to social media posts and images posted by Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne.

Some roads in the center of Kyiv were blocked and police officers were deployed.

“On the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion, Europe is in Kyiv,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a post on X, alongside a video that showed her meeting officials at a railway station with European Council President Antonio Costa.

“We are in Kyiv today, because Ukraine is Europe,” she said. “In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake.”

Images posted by Suspilne on its Telegram channel showed Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also disembarking from a train and greeting officials.

Meanwhile, Russia launched another barrage of attack drones across Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine’s Air Force.

Moscow launched 185 attack drones on Ukraine, of which 113 had been downed and another 71 disappeared from radar after being jammed, Ukraine’s Air Force said Monday.

The attack had “affected” Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Kyiv and Khmelnytsky regions, it said on Telegram, without saying whether it had caused damage or casualties.

The attack comes a day after Ukraine faced its largest drone assault since Russia’s invasion, with 267 drones launched, out of which 138 were intercepted, according to Ukrainian authorities on Sunday.

Ukraine’s armed forces commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi also hailed his troops on the anniversary of the invasion.

“The world did not believe that we would survive, but the Ukrainian people withstood the enemy’s attacks with dignity,” he wrote on Telegram.