Category: World news

(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces issued evacuation warnings for three ports in Houthi-controlled Yemen after intercepting two of three ballistic missiles fired by the Iran-backed group in the past 24 hours. The IDF said one Houthi missile misfired on Tuesday.

The IDF said in a post to X that the third missile launched toward Israel on Wednesday was intercepted just before 8 a.m. local time. Air raid sirens rang out from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, sending several million Israelis rushing for cover. About two hours later, IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee ordered those present at the Red Sea ports of Ras Isa, al-Hudaydah and al-Salif to evacuate the area.

“Due to the terrorist Houthi regime’s use of seaports for its terrorist activities, we urge all those present at these ports to evacuate and stay away from them for your own safety until further notice,” Adraee wrote in a post to X.

The IDF routinely issues such evacuation orders ahead of planned airstrikes. The IDF’s first such warning for Yemen was issued on May 6, before Israeli strikes on the Sanaa International Airport in the Yemeni capital.

The spate of Houthi missile attacks came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces would enter Gaza with “full force” in the coming days. Last week, Netanyahu’s security cabinet approved plans to expand the IDF’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Netanyahu said Wednesday that intensified military action is required “to accomplish all of Israel’s war goals, including the release of all our hostages, destroy Hamas’s military and governance capabilities and ensure that Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel.”

The Houthis have been attacking U.S. military and global commercial shipping and launching drones and missiles toward Israel since Hamas’ deadly surprise attack on Israel in October 2023. The Houthis say their attacks are a protest of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Last week, the Houthis agreed to end attacks on American commercial shipping in the region in exchange for an end to the intense U.S. airstrikes against them, a campaign President Donald Trump began in March. The Houthis have clarified that this agreement struck with the U.S. does not include stopping its attacks on Israel.

Trump announced the agreement on May 6. Over the next two days, the Houthis launched an attack drone and a ballistic missile toward Israel, both of which the IDF said were intercepted.

While traveling to Saudi Arabia to begin a tour of Gulf nations on Monday, Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity of the Houthis, “You know, they’re tough fighters. They can take a lot of punishment.” Asked if the ceasefire would hold, he responded, “With respect to America, they say it’s true. We’ll see.”

The Houthis have vowed to continue attacks on Israel until it ends its operation in Gaza and the blockade of humanitarian aid into the strip. The Israeli war on Hamas began after the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.

The attack killed nearly 1,200 people in Israel with 253 others abducted as hostages, the Israeli government said. Fifty-seven hostages remain in Gaza, including 20 who are believed to be alive.

IDF soldier Edan Alexander — the last living U.S. citizen being held hostage in Gaza — was freed on Monday after direct talks between Hamas and the Trump administration. U.S. officials told ABC News that Alexander’s release was viewed as a goodwill gesture toward the Trump administration and a potential opening to jumpstart talks on a Gaza ceasefire.

After Netanyahu met top U.S. officials in Israel Monday ahead of Alexander’s release, the Israeli leader announced he would send an Israeli negotiating team to Doha, Qatar, for ceasefire talks. Indirect talks with Hamas entered their second day on Wednesday.

But Netanyahu said Tuesday that any new ceasefire deal reached — for example to facilitate the release of more living hostages — would be temporary. “There will be no way we will stop the war,” Netanyahu said. “We can make a ceasefire for a certain period of time, but we’re going to the end.” Netanyahu has repeatedly said that Hamas cannot remain in power in the Mediterranean exclave.

Also on Tuesday, a series of airstrikes targeted the European Hospital near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Mohammad Sinwar — the leader of Hamas in Gaza and the brother of former leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by the IDF in October — was the target, an Israeli source familiar with the matter told ABC News.

The IDF has not confirmed Mohammed Sinwar was the target and it is not yet clear whether he was killed in the attack. Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health said that at least six people were killed and 40 others were wounded in the strike.

The IDF claimed its “precise strike” targeted “Hamas terrorists in a command and control center located in an underground terrorist infrastructure site beneath the European hospital.”

The IDF routinely alleges that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, for military activities — allegations Hamas denies.

The Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza said Wednesday that at least 70 people were killed and dozens injured in overnight Israelis strikes on various targets across the strip.

At least 50 people — including 22 children — were killed by Israeli attacks on houses in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern part of the strip, the ministry said, citing local hospital officials.

The total death toll in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, now stands at 52,928 people, according to the Ministry of Health, with another 119,846 people injured. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant dead.

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(LONDON) — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reacted to President Donald Trump’s remarks about Iran, calling them “pure deception.”

Trump described Tehran as the “most destructive force” in the region during a speech on Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and accused Iranian leaders of being “focused on stealing their people’s wealth” to fund regional proxies.

“It is America that has prevented the progress of the Iranian nation through its sanctions over the past forty-odd years, with its own pressures and military and civilian threats; the one responsible for the economic problems is America,” Araghchi said to the press on the sidelines of the government board meeting, as the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

Trump’s criticisms of the Islamic Republic came a few days after the fourth round of Iran-U.S. nuclear talks in Muscat, which Tehran described as “difficult but useful.” Washington said was “encouraged” by its outcome.

“The fact that Trump is applying maximum pressure in this very meeting and then addressing Iran’s economic problems is not entirely correct,” the Iranian foreign minister said.

Addressing Trump’s comments on Iran’s regional presence, Araghchi reiterated Tehran’s position that Israel is the source of threat in the region with the strikes and killing in the Gaza Strip, where the Israel Defense Forces say that they are fighting Hamas militants.

America presenting “Iran as a threat is pure deception and a substitution of threats,” Araghchi said.

Iranian foreign minister said that Iran is waiting for Omani authorities to announce the time and place of the next round of negotiations, saying Tehran’s approach is to pursue dialogue.

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(NEW YORK) — Carbon dioxide may be a naturally occurring substance on Earth, but too much of its presence has contributed to global warming, climate scientists say.

Carbon dioxide, known by the chemical formula CO2, is a gas produced by various natural processes, including respiration in animals and plants, volcanic eruptions, wildfires and the decay of organic matter.

But human activity since the 1800s, namely the use of fossil fuels for energy, is overwhelming the planet’s natural carbon sinks, such as oceans and forests. Therefore, the heat-trapping gas causes global temperatures to rise as more of it accumulates in the Earth’s atmosphere.

“CO2 is rising right now because of the emissions that we’re putting into the atmosphere, and it’s rising very rapidly,” Bärbel Hönisch, professor of earth and environmental sciences at the Columbia Climate School’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told ABC News. “And carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and so it heats the atmosphere.”

But the invisible gas is also critical for life on Earth. Plants breathe it in, and humans breathe it out.

The goal of climate mitigation isn’t to remove CO2 from the atmosphere completely, but to even out the unnatural surplus instead, said ABC News Chief Meteorologist and Chief Climate Correspondent Ginger Zee.

“We want to get back to the natural amount of CO2,” Zee said.

The consequences of extra CO2 in the atmosphere extends beyond the climate itself. As excess greenhouse gases heat the planet, the ocean becomes more acidic, impacting marine life, Hönisch said. In addition, climate change is fueling rapid growth of certain types of algae, further collapsing ecosystems, Hönisch added.

“Climate is a combination of different components that must be just right for life to exist on our planet,” she said.

Humans have injected more than 1.5 trillion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, when the use of fossils fuels began to skyrocket, according to the Global Carbon Budget.

Historical levels of climate change are determined by a number of processes. Samples of ice, lake and seafloor cores indicate how much carbon dioxide existed at different periods on the planet. In addition, more than six decades of CO2 measurements have been taken at the Mau Loa Observatory on Hawaii’s Big Island, home to the largest active volcano in the world.

The Keeling Curve, a graph that plots concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere over time, uses measurements taken at Mau Loa Observatory, starting in 1958.

In 2024, CO2 levels in Earth’s atmosphere reached the highest ever recorded, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Curbing the emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use is key for limiting the impacts of a warming world, such as more frequent and intense extreme weather events and rising sea levels, climate scientists say.

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(FRY, GREECE) — A 6.1 magnitude earthquake was reported near Greece early Wednesday local time, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Greek Emergency Management warned of a possible tsunami risk following the quake, which the agency reported as occurring nearly 30 miles southeast of Kasos as a 5.9 magnitude earthquake.

“Move away from the coast immediately,” Greek Emergency Management said.

The USGS said the epicenter is located over 9 miles south of Fry, Greece.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(LONDON) — Moscow on Wednesday said it would send a delegation to Istanbul to meet with Ukrainian officials, potentially bringing diplomats from the two at-war countries together for the first known in-person direct talks in more than three years.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Wednesday that Russian diplomats would travel to Turkey, but didn’t detail which officials would be present.

The confirmation followed an act of one-upmanship from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, who on Wednesday said he would be willing to meet personally with Russian President Vladimir Putin, should the latter decide to travel to Turkey.

“We are ready for such direct diplomacy to put an end to killings and advance real peace,” Zelenskyy said on social media “And this must certainly be discussed with the person who makes decisions in Russia.”

Peskov, who spoke in Moscow on Wednesday, wouldn’t confirm which Russian officials would be present. Putin had on Sunday proposed the direct talks.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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