World News

SYDNEY, June 20 (Reuters) – Australia has confirmed its first mainland case of H5N1 bird flu in a remote part of the country’s ​southwest, Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said on Saturday.

Collins said testing had confirmed the bird, found on a beach about 700 km (430 miles) southeast of Western Australia state capital Perth, had the virus strain.

Authorities said on Friday that the migratory sea bird, known as a brown ‌skua found in the state’s Cape Le Grand National Park, tested positive for avian influenza and that confirmation was pending.

The country has been preparing for the arrival of the H5N1 bird flu by tightening biosecurity at farms, testing shore birds for disease, vaccinating vulnerable species and war-gaming response plans.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith; Editing by William Mallard)

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June 19 (Reuters) – Diplomatic niceties broke down at the United Nations on Friday when Israel’s ambassador and the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for children and armed conflict became embroiled in a furious shouting match at a public hearing.

At a meeting in New York to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Israeli envoy, Danny Danon, demanded the resignation of Pramila Patten, who produced a report that blacklisted Israel for such alleged abuses for the first time, accusing her of bias.

“You caved to the secretary-general’s obsession with targeting Israel,” Danon said, referring to U.N. chief Antonio Guterres.

Another U.N. official, Vanessa Frazier, Guterres’ representative for children and armed conflict and compiler of a separate report that also blacklists Israel, interjected by shouting a point of order. She demanded that Danon refrain from “personal attacks” and added that she had “verified evidence.”

Danon said Frazier should be quiet.

“We are a member state, and you work for the U.N., and you will be quiet now. You will be quiet … you and your shameful report,” he said.

Frazier, Malta’s former U.N. ambassador, issued her report this week on behalf of Guterres warning that Israeli settler groups could be added to a global blacklist for violations against children as the U.N. chief voiced alarm at what he called a “staggering” rise in violations against Palestinian children.

Israel itself already features in that report’s so-called list of shame annexes for alleged violations.

When Patten’s report was issued last month, Danon called it “a new low” and Israel’s foreign ministry vowed to sever all ties with Guterres, who leaves office after 10 years at the year-end.

Both reports also blacklist Israel’s arch enemy Hamas.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Andrea Ricci )

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TYRE, Lebanon (AP) — Wearing a yellow scarf showing her son killed fighting for Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Iman Dilbani wept during a religious sermon Friday in the battered southern city of Tyre during the Islamic holy month of Muharram.

Tyre, Lebanon’s fourth largest city, has been devastated by the Israel-Hezbollah war that reached a reported ceasefire Friday, with damaged buildings and structures reduced to rubble seen on almost every street following intense Israeli airstrikes.

Muharram is among the holiest months for Shiite Muslims and marks the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, and his 72 companions in the battle of Karbala in the seventh century in present-day Iraq.

Dilbani and hundreds more gathered Friday in a lot in the coastal city for a mourning ceremony, many wearing scarves or holding portraits of relatives killed.

Portraits of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Kassem and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei were placed above the podium, with the lot surrounded by red and black banners with Hussein’s name. A young girl held a portrait of Khamenei as she stood next to her father, who wept while listening to the sermon. The attendees wore black as they would at a funeral.

The devastating war in Lebanon makes the month of Muharram even more meaningful for its Shiite Muslims. Some residents placed banners with Hussein’s name on the ruins of their homes.

The mourning over the deaths of Hussein and his companions reaches to its peak on Ashoura, the 10th day of Muharram, which millions observe worldwide.

After Hezbollah fired rockets toward northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with its ally Iran, Israel launched massive aerial bombardments that regularly struck Beirut and flattened large areas of southern and eastern Lebanon. Over one million Lebanese remain displaced, and Israeli ground forces invaded the country, controlling swaths of southern Lebanon. Almost 4,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Hezbollah meanwhile fired rockets and launched drone attacks into northern Israel.

“Given what has been happening in our world today, and seeing the martyrs and the destruction, no human mind can bear all of that unless they are a believer in the teachings of Imam Hussein,” said Sheikh Abdulkareem al-Rahi, one of the event’s organizers.

Shiite Muslims say Hussein’s values teach steadfastness and the importance of fighting against injustice, no matter how difficult.

“We learned from Imam Hussein’s teachings the struggle and martyrdom, and to stay on his path and to offer our youth,” Dilbani said. “I have three more sons, and I am willing to offer more of them if there is a need.”

Lebanon has been scrambling for a ceasefire, and the United States’ ceasefire agreement with Iran includes ending hostilities in the tiny Mediterranean country, though the fighting has not ended. Hezbollah has maintained that it will continue fighting as long as Israel continues to strike and occupy parts of southern Lebanon.

Israel and Hezbollah agreed to halt fighting Friday, although the failure of past ceasefires has left many in Lebanon skeptical.

A cleric speaking through a sound system at the event slammed Hezbollah critics who say they lost the war, despite the heavy losses, comparing their situation to that of the revered imam in Karbala.

Imam Hussein’s teachings “are an institution, in every way, in their values and their pride,” said Sheikh Ibrahim Qassir, the imam of the town of Deir Qanoun En Nahr near Tyre, which was widely damaged during the war.

“And that is why we are still here, and we will be victorious, and victorious, and victorious.”

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FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Asylum seekers deported by the U.S. to Sierra Leone risk being sent back to their home countries where they face persecution, according to one of their lawyers and documents seen by The Associated Press, despite prior U.S. court orders barring their deportation to those countries.

About a dozen people deported from the U.S. arrived in Sierra Leone Thursday, the second deportation flight to the country after nine West African migrants landed there last month, Erica Reilly, an attorney representing one of the migrants, said Friday.

Sierra Leone is one of at least nine other African nations that the U.S. has struck third-country deportation deals with. Authorities have said they are only taking in citizens of West African countries. Several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have also reached similar agreements with the U.S.

A briefing pamphlet that lawyers said was distributed to the migrants upon their arrival in the capital, Freetown, reads that the government and contractors are working to “return you home as quickly and safely as possible.”

The pamphlet, a copy of which was seen by the AP, was distributed by Kenvah Solutions, ⁠a private contractor that the Sierra Leone government said it hired to handle the deportees’ accommodation, food, healthcare and transfer.

The pamphlet describes Sierra Leone as a “temporary transit location,” stating that “no long-term settlement is provided for or permitted.”

Kenvah Solutions and the Sierra Leonean authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Under a series of often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, advocates say, all part of the broad U.S. crackdown on immigration. Immigration lawyers said the Trump administration uses deportations to third countries as a legal loophole to indirectly force asylum seekers back to their home countries.

Sierra Leone’s foreign minister, Timothy Kabba, said last month that the government’s agreement with the Trump administration is supported by a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. government.

The program is capped at 25 deportees per month and 300 per year, according to the ministry. It did not specify the duration of the arrangement.

Reilly, the attorney representing a Nigerian man among those deported Thursday, said the migrants had legal protections from U.S. courts to not be deported to their home countries after judges ruled they faced credible fears of persecution. Now they are left with little ability to prevent being sent there.

“They’re put in a position where they just don’t have a say at all,” Reilly said.

Earlier this month, rights lawyers filed a case against Equatorial Guinea before Africa’s top human rights body, accusing the central African nation of forcing deportees from the United States back to their home countries in violation of their rights.

“The U.S. government knows exactly what’s going to happen in the vast majority of these situations,” Reilly said. “Our government is just saying, ‘What happens to them after they leave the United States is not our problem.’”

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Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.

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ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — African and Caribbean leaders in Ghana on Friday urged former slave-trading nations to issue apologies and reparations over the trafficking of enslaved Africans after a landmark U.N. resolution in March declaring it “the gravest crime against humanity.”

The “Next Steps” conference in the Ghanaian capital of Accra issued a declaration calling on countries involved in the Atlantic slave trade to “offer full, formal and unconditional apologies as a foundational step towards reconciliation, trust-building and reparatory justice.”

The U.N. resolution is non-binding but carries moral authority. Organizers said the Ghana conference was aimed at moving the reparations debate from recognition to concrete measures, including moves to require compensation under international law.

About 12 million Africans were forcefully taken by traders from European nations from the 16th to the 19th century and enslaved on plantations that built wealth at the price of misery.

Ghana President John Dramani Mahama said the U.N. resolution had created a new opportunity for meaningful engagement on reparations. He said the effects of slavery continue to be felt across Africa, the Caribbean, and the wider African diaspora.

“We’re here because recognition creates responsibility, and because the enduring consequences of this history continue to demand thoughtful, coordinated, and sustained international engagement,” Mahama told delegates from more than 80 countries.

At a reparations summit in Ghana in 2023, participants proposed establishing a Global Reparation Fund, though they did not clarify how it would operate.

Positions on reparations are mixed in countries that would contribute.

For example, residents of the United States view the prospect of reparations mostly negatively. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2021 found that only about three in 10 U.S. adults said descendants of people enslaved in the U.S. should be repaid in some way, such as being given land or money.

Some activists say reparations should include direct financial payments, but also developmental aid for countries and the return of colonized resource s.

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McMakin contributed from Dakar, Senegal

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ROME (AP) — The Italian government on Friday slammed U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that Premier Giorgia Meloni had “begged” for a photo with him during the recent G7 summit, a pushback that suggested the longtime U.S. ally had had enough of Trump’s boasting.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani abruptly cancelled a planned trip to the United States this weekend, calling Trump’s claims “serious and offensive” toward Meloni and all of Italy.

For her part, Meloni posted a video calling Trump’s claims “completely fabricated,” which she concluded with: “Italy and I do not beg.”

Trump had made the comments in an interview broadcast Friday morning on the La7 network. The La7 correspondent had asked Trump about Ukraine, but Trump raised Meloni and the conversation turned to their meeting, caught on video, during the just-concluded G7 meeting in Evian-les-Bains, France. Meloni and Trump were filmed speaking at several points, including alone on a small sofa.

According to La7, Trump said Meloni had “begged” him for a photo-op. Trump said he wasn’t obliged to do it but that he felt sorry for her and agreed, La7 said. The broadcaster has a dubbed version of the conversation online, not the original English audio.

In her video, Meloni said she was responding to Trump’s claims because “certain things deserve an immediate response.”

“Donald Trump’s statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly stunned,” she said. “I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his own allies. After all, this isn’t the first time this has happened.”

It was an apparent reference to an interview Trump gave to Italian daily Corriere della Sera in April in which he criticized Meloni’s refusal to back the U.S.-Israel war in Iran. Meloni didn’t respond publicly at the time.

By Friday, it appeared she had had enough of his boasts and broadsides.

“I can only say that it’s a shame he doesn’t show the same resolve toward the enemies of the West, toward the enemies of the United States — toward leaders with whom he, on the other hand, is much more accommodating,” Meloni said Friday. “But there’s one thing he must remember: Italy and I do not beg.”

Meloni had initially sought to build on longstanding strong U.S.-Italian ties when Trump began his second mandate, and had positioned herself as a “bridge” between Washington and the European Union. She was the lone EU head of state to attend his inauguration.

But relations have frayed over the U.S. war in Iran, which Meloni has said was illegal, and Trump’s position on Ukraine, which Italy strongly supports. Trump’s tariffs and strong U.S. support of Israel over its war in Gaza have been other points of contention.

In addition to Meloni and Tajani, Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto also rebuked Trump’s claims, saying he didn’t believe Meloni would ever beg someone for a photo, “not even under threat.”

“I can, however, imagine how much it cost her to set aside what Trump had said weeks ago, to serve the interests of Italy, of Europe, and of the West,” Crosetto posted on X. “Jokes of this kind do no good to anyone: neither to the USA, nor to Italy, nor to the alliance.”

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By Dmitry Antonov

MOSCOW, June 19 (Reuters) – Russia said on Friday it was open to dialogue with European countries but would not accept ultimatums, as signs increase that the EU may seek talks with Moscow after largely shunning contacts since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said common sense dictated the need for such contacts because of the “enormous number” of complex issues on the agenda, but he said the Europeans needed to change their approach to Russia.

“The Europeans have a very serious misconception: They assume that negotiations with Russia must be conducted from a position of strength and based on Russia’s weakness. This is the biggest mistake… Such talk will lead nowhere,” he told reporters.

“Does this stem from European incompetence, misinformation, or stupidity? We don’t know for sure, but it’s a fact.”

Putin has said that he is open to talks with European governments but that they should make the first move because they were the ones to cut off ties. The EU has imposed 20 rounds of sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

SHIFT IN EUROPEAN STANCE

After standing aside for well over a year and leaving it to U.S. President Donald Trump to try to broker an end to the conflict, the EU has started to reach out cautiously to Russia.

The office of European Council President Antonio Costa has made “brief contacts at diplomatic level” with the Kremlin in recent weeks “to open communication channels”, an EU official said on Wednesday.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker told the Financial Times in an interview published on Thursday that the EU should take advantage of “momentum” around peace talks in Ukraine to push ahead with efforts to reopen negotiations with Putin.

Peskov said Russia was willing to talk if there was openness on the other side to engage in real dialogue, “not to engage in moralising or, especially, to issue ultimatums”.

Costa’s initiative exposed divisions at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, however, with some saying it had not been coordinated with them and that the EU should focus on putting more pressure on Russia.

UKRAINE HITS MOSCOW WITH DRONE STRIKES

Ukraine says it is turning the tide of the war thanks to an intensified campaign of drone strikes deep inside Russia that has targeted ports, refineries and other key infrastructure. Moscow disputes that, insisting it will keep fighting to achieve its objectives if no diplomatic settlement can be reached.

The governor of the Moscow region said on Friday that an eight-year-old girl had been killed in a massive Ukrainian attack that hit the capital and surrounding area a day earlier. The attack, using hundreds of drones, set fire for the second time in three days to a big oil refinery in southeast Moscow.

“Indeed, drone attacks continue. Appropriate measures are being taken to mitigate the consequences,” Peskov said.

Asked if Putin had seen footage of the burning refinery, Peskov told reporters they should check out images from Ukrainian cities that Russian forces had struck.

“These strikes will continue,” he said.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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Vance Cancels Trip To Geneva for Official MoU Singing  

The White House announced late Thursday that Vice President JD Vance had canceled his planned trip to Switzerland for the official signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) intended to end the conflict with Iran.  

The cancellation came hours after Vance indicated at a White House press conference that his travel plans remained uncertain, despite earlier announcements that a ceremony had been scheduled for Friday in Geneva.  

Earlier in the week, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that Pakistan would host a ceremony in Switzerland to mark the agreement and launch technical-level negotiations.  

Speaking Thursday, Vance said, “My plan is to go to Switzerland,” but added that he did not know “exactly when.”  

“We think these technical negotiations are going to start sometime this weekend — that’s still the plan — but that could change,” he said.  

It remains unclear whether or when the vice president will reschedule the trip.  

President Donald Trump digitally signed the MoU on Wednesday in Versailles. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also signed the document. Friday’s event was intended to serve as a ceremonial signing and the formal start of negotiations.  

The White House announcement came as fighting continued in Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces said four soldiers, including a battalion commander, were killed by a Hezbollah drone in southern Lebanon. The military said it subsequently carried out strikes against Hezbollah targets.  

During Thursday’s press conference, Vance criticized Israel’s military approach and resistance to the MoU, which would, among other provisions, limit Israel’s ability to target Hezbollah and respond to attacks.  

“It’s clear that large segments of the Israeli political system and population are very sensitive about this deal,” he said. “But I also think they’re picking up on some misinformation about the deal and running with it and sort of panicking about it.”  

Addressing Israeli opponents of the agreement, Vance added: “I guess my response to them would be: What is your exact proposal? You’re a country of nine million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.” (Vance incorrectly stated the population of Israel at nine million, when the correct number is 10 million.)  

President Donald Trump also criticized Israel’s military operations in Lebanon during the G7 conference.  

“We have a little dispute over Lebanon,” he told reporters. “I say, ‘You can do a little softer touch, Bibi. You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah.’”  

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By Uditha Jayasinghe

COLOMBO, June 19 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka is battling the worst outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue fever in years, with more than 44,000 cases and 28 deaths recorded since January, an official said on Friday, putting public hospitals under strain.

Dengue is common during Sri Lanka’s monsoon season, but unplanned urbanisation coupled with damage caused by Cyclone Ditwah, which hit the island nation in late November, has worsened the outbreak this year, authorities said.

The number of dengue cases nearly doubled from 5,651 in April to 10,638 in the first two weeks of June, data from the National Dengue Control Unit (NDCU) showed.

“We noticed this increase after the cyclone,” Dr. Prashila Samaraweera, consultant community physician and NDCU spokesperson, told Reuters.

“A lot of debris was in our environment, so we noticed a lot of mosquito breeding places, and our entomological indices were high from that time.”

With 51,000 cases recorded in the whole of last year, the rate of infections has risen sharply, Dr. Samaraweera said. Infections are likely to increase for at least two more weeks before tapering off, she added.

SURGE COULD PUT HEALTH FACILITIES UNDER SEVERE STRAIN

A further uptick in patient numbers could put public hospitals under severe strain, Sri Lanka’s health minister Nalinda Jayatissa warned on Thursday.

More than half the cases are from the western region of the country, including 9,429 cases from commercial capital Colombo. Eight other districts have reported more than 2,000 patients since the start of the year.

The 28 deaths include five children.

Patient numbers for this year could end up matching the last major outbreak in 2019, authorities have warned, when Sri Lanka recorded over 105,000 dengue patients.

Schools, homes, construction sites, and public buildings are being cleaned up during a special program launched by Sri Lanka’s health authorities and other public officials till next Monday.

(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; Editing by Jan Harvey)

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LONDON (AP) — A British court sent two men to prison Friday for setting fire to property linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a plot orchestrated by a mysterious Russian-speaking figure.

Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Stanislav Carpiuc, a 27-year-old Romanian citizen, were jailed for 7 years and 2 years, respectively, after being found guilty of conspiracy to damage property by fire.

The men targeted a car and two properties linked to Starmer over three nights in May 2025 on the orders of a Russian-speaking figure going by the name of “El Money,” according to prosecutors. El Money communicated on the messaging app Telegram with Lavrynovych. Their identity was never revealed and they were not charged.

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