World News

By Amy Tennery

NEW YORK, June 6 (Reuters) – Road closures, bag bans and a gauntlet of security measures will greet fans at Madison Square Garden on Monday, as U.S. President Donald Trump descends on the heart of Manhattan to watch the New York Knicks play the San Antonio Spurs at home in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

The Knicks have defied the odds to build a 2-0 head start in the best-of-seven series, winning two games on the road as French superstar Victor Wembanyama has failed to meet expectations in the championship series for the Spurs.

With nearby MetLife Stadium set to host its first of eight World Cup matches in a week, the NBA Finals have stolen the spotlight away from the massive global tournament in New York – for now – with even the cheapest tickets available on resale platform StubHub topping $9,000 as of Saturday night.

The Secret Service urged ticket holders to arrive early to the self-styled “World’s Most Famous Arena”, which sits above the busiest transit hub in the United States, Penn Station, and will see the NBA Finals for the first time in more than a quarter-century with Trump in attendance.

“Attendees should anticipate hard street closures in the immediate area surrounding Madison Square Garden,” Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi said in an emailed statement.

“A strict no-bag policy will be enforced, and we want to communicate that early and broadly so fans can plan accordingly. Attendees should also expect Secret Service-level security screening, similar to airport screening procedures.”

Train services on the local subway and Long Island Rail Road commuter line are expected to continue uninterrupted through Penn Station.

The Knicks said in a statement: “Fans should make every effort to limit personal items to an absolute minimum.”

Trump has routinely harnessed sport’s spotlight in his second term, becoming the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl last year before attending other marquee events later in the year, including the Ryder Cup and the championship match for soccer’s Club World Cup.

Thousands of ticket holders missed the start of the U.S. Open men’s final in September, when security checks related to Trump’s attendance caused confusion and slowed entry to the event.

“To ensure timely entry and avoid delays, we strongly encourage fans to arrive at least two hours before tip-off. While final operational details are still being coordinated, this is the planning framework we currently expect and can be reported as such,” Guglielmi said.

The Knicks have not won the title since 1973 and their first trip to the Finals since 1999 has electrified the five boroughs.

Some 6,500 fans flooded the area outside Madison Square Garden for a watch party on Friday night, when the Knicks managed a spine-tingling 105-104 win over the Spurs to take a 2-0 lead in the series. 

New York City police said they arrested 17 individuals at the event, including one who struck a police officer in the face. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged fans to “celebrate responsibly.”

“New Yorkers are rightfully excited about the Knicks’ historic Finals run, and we want fans to celebrate this moment together. There is, however, no place for violence, and no tolerance for attacks on police officers,” Mamdani said in a statement on Saturday. 

A lifelong Knicks fan, Mamdani has made multiple appearances at local sporting events since he won the mayoral election last year and told New York radio station 1010 WINS that he planned to attend the game on Monday.

(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Toby Davis and Edmund Klamann)

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HEBRON, June 6 (Reuters) – A seven-month-old Palestinian was laid to rest in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Saturday, a day after he was shot dead and his parents were injured by the Israeli military near Hebron, according to family members who witnessed the shooting and the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, wrapped in a white shroud and a Palestinian flag, was buried in Hebron after funeral prayers were held at a nearby mosque. The infant was killed on Friday while traveling with his family by car near the city of Hebron.

“What happened to us is not a matter of an apology. What happened is not that shots were fired by mistake and led to this tragedy,” the child’s father, Fahd, said on Saturday.

“To say it happened by mistake, that ‘I didn’t know you were coming here,’ or that the bullet passed through by accident — no. There is no such thing as ‘by mistake’ in this case.”

The Israeli military has said a single shot was fired after soldiers “perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them”. It has acknowledged that “uninvolved civilians” were injured and said that the incident was under review.

According to the child’s grandmother, Firyal, the family had stopped their car after seeing Israeli soldiers in the Tel Rumeida area, south of Hebron. Shots were fired, the grandmother said, with one bullet piercing the car, killing Abu Haikal and wounding his parents.

“Immediately after the presence of the occupation forces, a soldier holding his weapon opened fire on us. The bullets struck the car,” Fahd said.

“The soldier that shot at us was 10 metres away. The bullet penetrated the front windshield, went through my arm, and then struck my son in the head and my wife in the face.”

The military has not identified the soldiers involved nor said if those soldiers were still carrying out their duties while the review into the shooting was underway.

(Reporting by Yosri Aljamal in Hebron, writing by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Aidan Lewis)

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OSLO, Norway (AP) — Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has been placed on a lung transplant list, Norway’s Royal Court said in a statement.

Mette-Marit, 52, was diagnosed in 2018 with pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive disease that damages and scars lung tissue. It can cause serious breathing problems, and there is no known cure.

She will suspend her official duties and a new medical update will only be provided after the lung transplant has taken place, the statement said Friday. After discharge from the hospital, “there will be a longer period of rehabilitation and training” during which “there will initially be no updates.”

“The Crown Princess has had a significant worsening of her pulmonary fibrosis over the past six months. We see in the pictures that much more scar tissue has developed over the past year,” lung specialist Are Holm at Oslo’s University Hospital is quoted by Norway’s public broadcaster NRK as saying.

“The rule of thumb for who should be put on the list for lung transplantation is that the patient should be so sick with lung disease that we have reason to believe that the patient only has one year left to live,” he added.

Holm explained that the hospital has guidelines for prioritizing people on the waiting list and said it wasn’t possible to predict when she would be able to undergo the transplant, depending on when a “suitable organ becomes available.” He also said there were currently short waiting times and that they “follow protocol exactly in this case.”

Mette-Marit apologized in February for the situation she put the royal family in as she faced scrutiny over her contact with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, part of a broader apology for all those she has “disappointed.”

Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s communications and contacts with Epstein have put her in the spotlight, adding to the embarrassment of the royals just as her son, Marius Borg Høiby, went on trial in Oslo in February for multiple offenses, including charges of rape.

Høiby, 29, is the eldest son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit from a previous relationship and has no royal title or official duties.

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MOSCOW, June 6 (Reuters) – The Russian-installed management of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said on Saturday that it had restored the Ferrosplavnaya-1 power line, which supplies electricity to the plant.

“All systems and equipment at the ZNPP are operating normally,” the management said via its Telegram channel.

A temporary local ceasefire, brokered by the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was declared on Friday to allow repairs to the power line.

A few hours after the incident was reported, the Russian state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom accused Ukraine of deliberately violating the ceasefire through a drone attack that left at least three people injured.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors, was seized by Russian troops in the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Each side has since accused the other of undertaking military actions to compromise nuclear safety.

The plant generates no electricity, but needs external power to ensure ​that nuclear fuel at the site does not overheat.

The latest ​ceasefire was the ⁠sixth negotiated since late last year to carry out repairs to the power lines.

(Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova, Editing by Louise Heavens)

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PARIS (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a D-Day anniversary speech on Saturday to appear to link immigration by sea to the wartime liberation of Europe, warning that the freedom won by Allied troops could prove temporary if leaders failed to defend it.

Hegseth, speaking at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer in northwestern France during commemorations for the 82nd anniversary of the June 6, 1944, landings, said that today, “different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies.”

“Beaches in Spain and Italy and Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive,” he said.

“When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late?” he added. “I pray not, and I believe not.”

Hegseth did not use the word immigration, but his remarks echoed broader Trump administration criticism of Europe over migration, borders and what U.S. officials have described as censorship of nationalist and far-right voices.

On Saturday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office condemned U.S. Vice President JD Vance for blaming immigration for the killing of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old British student stabbed to death in Southampton, even though both Nowak and his killer were British.

In December, the Trump administration’s national security strategy warned that Europe faced the “prospect of civilizational erasure” and could become “unrecognizable” within 20 years.

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LONDON (AP) — British police said Saturday that six more people have been charged with violent disorder at a protest over the stabbing death of a university student who was handcuffed by officers as he lay dying.

Police were pelted with chairs, cans, rocks and flares on Tuesday by some of the hundreds of people attending a protest in the English southern coastal city of Southampton, where 18-year-old Henry Nowak was killed in December.

Many in Britain and beyond were angered by police body-worn video showing Nowak being handcuffed moments before he became unconscious and subsequently died.

Nowak’s death has spurred heated debates about policing, race and knife crime in the U.K. Nowak’s killer, Vickrum Digwa, who is Sikh, falsely claimed to police that he was the victim of a racist assault by Nowak, who was white. When police officers arrived, they initially treated the wounded man as a suspect before noticing his injury and trying to resuscitate him.

Digwa, 23, was convicted of murder for stabbing Nowak with a Sikh dagger and sentenced this week to life in prison with a minimum 21-year term. But the case has been seized on by anti-immigration activists and politicians, who claim there is bias against white people in the justice system.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called the street violence in reaction to the case “disgraceful and completely unacceptable. Authorities have urged the public to heed a call by Nowak’s family not to use his death to stir up violence and disorder.

In total, police said, 11 people have been charged with disorder at the Southampton protest this week.

On Friday, Starmer’s office condemned comments by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who blamed immigration for Nowak’s death. Vance said in a post on social platform X that there should be “righteous anger” in response to the murder, which he blamed in part on “the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it.”

In a statement issued in response to Vance’s comments, Starmer’s office criticized people “trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets.”

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U.S. Central Command said on social media Friday night that Iran fired seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain, with U.S. forces intercepting six of the missiles and a seventh failing to reach its target. The military said there were no reports of harm to U.S. personnel.

The ballistic missiles were fired after the U.S. earlier in the day shot down four Iranian drones that were launched toward Strait of Hormuz.

“The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic,” U.S. Central Command said on social media.

Kuwaiti’s military said forces were intercepting missiles and drones attacking the country, while Bahrain activated air raid sirens and told residents to move to the nearest safe location and follow official instructions.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it targeted the Ali Al Salem airbase, which hosts U.S. forces in Kuwait, and the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in the tiny Gulf island nation of Bahrain, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

U.S. Central Command said it hit the radar sites, including an island in the strait, “to defend against further attacks.”

Despite the attacks raising new concerns that the ceasefire could collapse, Trump told reporters Friday that “the situation with Iran seems to be going quite well.”

“We’re going to come out of Iran very quickly and it’s going to be very strong one way or the other, whether it’s a piece of paper or the very tough way,” Trump said at an event with farmers in Wisconsin. “The very tough way is maybe the easier way, but we’re going to come out, and your fertilizer prices are going to go way down, just like they were four months ago.”

Asked on Friday why it was taking so long, Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” it was because “it’s a very hard thing for them,” citing their “great independence” and the fact that “they’re strong, they’re proud.”

“There are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do. They’ve got no choice, and it takes a little while,” he said in the interview.

Trump said the Iranians still have 21% to 22% of their missiles.

The Israeli military said two soldiers were wounded, one severely, in an encounter Friday with militants in southern Lebanon.

The fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths of the south, also threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz because Iran has demanded that any lasting truce extend to Lebanon.

Besides the drone interception in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military said earlier Friday that its forces boarded a sanctioned oil tanker linked to Iran in the Indian Ocean as the United States seeks to prevent Iran from profiting off its oil and other goods.

The U.S. also targeted Iran’s energy sector with new sanctions on a group of people, firms and tankers.

PHOTO- AP

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By Ahmed Elimam, Jana Choukeir and Phil Stewart

DUBAI/WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) – U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites on Saturday after shooting down drones launched by Iran toward the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military said, in the latest escalation complicating efforts to end the war between the two countries.

The U.S. military believes the four Iranian drones were targeting regional maritime traffic, a U.S. official told Reuters. U.S. Central Command said on X that the U.S. then struck Iran’s surveillance sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, which are both on the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. and Iran have been engaged in largely indirect negotiations to secure an interim deal to halt the three-month-old war that would leave issues including Iran’s nuclear programme to further negotiations.

As part of any agreement, Tehran wants access to billions of dollars in oil revenue, waivers on sanctions on crude exports, the lifting of a U.S. blockade on its ports and leverage over the strait. Iran has effectively blocked the strait, where about a fifth of the world’s oil transited before the war.

U.S. President Donald Trump is facing mounting domestic political pressure due to rising gas prices to bring the unpopular war to an end. He told NBC that while most of Iran’s drone and missile manufacturing facilities had been destroyed, the Iranians still have access to about a fifth of their missiles.

“They have some missiles, they have some drones. I would say percentage wise, maybe 21%-22% of their missiles. It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked,” Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” program, according to excerpts released by the network on Friday.

When asked why Iran’s leaders — if as desperate as he has portrayedthem — were not more inclined to strike a deal, Trump said: 

“Because they are strong. They’re proud. There are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do, they’ve got no choice, and it takes a little while.”

Israel and the U.S. launched the war with strikes on Iran in late February.

FIGHTING FLARES ACROSS REGION DESPITE CEASEFIRES

In a parallel conflict in Lebanon, Iran-aligned armed group Hezbollah said on Friday it had carried out two attacks on Israeli troops in south Lebanon, including near the recently captured Beaufort Castle, while Lebanese security services said Israeli airstrikes hit towns across southern Lebanon.   

Iran has reaffirmed support for Hezbollah while demanding that Israel withdraw from southern Lebanon. Tehran has made a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah a condition for any peace deal with Washington to resolve the regional war, now in its fourth month, and restart shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The latest round of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel erupted at the start of March, two days after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran. Hezbollah said its actions were in support of Tehran.  

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem this week rejected a U.S.-brokered pact between Israel and the Lebanese government to halt the fighting in Lebanon. The deal did not provide for an Israeli withdrawal and Hezbollah had not been party to the negotiations.

Israel has kept up strikes in southern Lebanon, and it has said its forces would not withdraw or halt operations in the country amid increasing friction with the U.S.

Lebanon’s parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri said on Friday he would agree to the withdrawal of the group from southern Lebanon if Israeli troops simultaneously left territory they occupy in the country. 

Along with Lebanon, residents of Gaza, northern Israel and Kuwait have all been under fire this week, despite U.S.-arranged ceasefires that Trump said involved “shooting in a more moderate manner”, rather than a total halt to fighting.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Aidan Lewis and Nathan Layne; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Israeli Security Cabinet Nixes Vote on Lebanon Ceasefire Proposal After Hezbollah Chief Rejects It  

Israeli ministers refrained from approving a proposed ceasefire arrangement during a security cabinet meeting on Thursday after Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem publicly rejected the framework, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ministers that “at the moment there is no agreement.”   

The proposal, developed during Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington, would establish security zones in Lebanon without a Hezbollah presence, requiring the group to withdraw from areas south of the Litani River.   

According to participants in the meeting, Netanyahu told ministers that Israel was still waiting for Hezbollah to formally accept the proposal before it could be brought forward for government approval.   

“At the moment there is no agreement,” Netanyahu said, according to participants in the meeting. “Hezbollah opposes it, and therefore I am not bringing it for a decision. If it agrees, I will bring it for your approval.”   

Ministers ultimately did not vote on the proposal after learning of Qassem’s rejection.   

Earlier Thursday, the Hezbollah leader denounced the plan and the negotiations that produced it.   

“The result of the direct, humiliating and disgraceful negotiations is rejected by broad parts of the Lebanese people,” Qassem said.   

He further criticized the proposal, stating, “The Washington declaration conditions the basic principles that America and Israel want, toward the subjugation of Lebanon to the Greater Israel project.”   

The security cabinet meeting took place against the backdrop of continued fighting in southern Lebanon. During the session, ministers were informed of the death of Capt. Eitan Shmuel Lamberg, an Armored Corps officer who was killed in southern Lebanon.   

According to Ynet, news of Lamberg’s death reinforced opposition to the ceasefire proposal among some ministers participating in the discussion.   

At the same time, Ynet reported that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich argued that achieving a ceasefire under the current circumstances would represent a significant accomplishment.   

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir attended only the opening portion of the cabinet meeting and made few remarks, officials familiar with the discussion told Ynet.  

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Hezbollah Engineering Commander Abed Harb Killed in strike, IDF Says  

Israel announced the killing of Abed Harb, the commander of Hezbollah’s engineering unit,  on Friday.   

According to the Israeli military, Harb was killed in a strike in Lebanon. The military said he oversaw Hezbollah’s engineering unit and was involved in activities targeting Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops operating in southern Lebanon.  

“Harb commanded the engineering unit that was responsible for assembling and deploying explosives intended to harm IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon,” the military says.  

The military also reported that the Israeli Air Force struck a launcher used by Hezbollah to fire rockets at troops in southern Lebanon. The IDF released footage of the operation and said the strike was carried out overnight.  

The operations came after Israel’s security cabinet met Thursday to discuss a proposal developed during Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington. The framework would establish security zones in Lebanon without a Hezbollah presence and require the group to withdraw from areas south of the Litani River.  

The cabinet did not vote on the proposal after Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected it.  

According to participants in the meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ministers that the proposal would not be brought forward for approval unless Hezbollah formally accepted it.  

“At the moment there is no agreement,” Netanyahu said, according to participants in the meeting. “Hezbollah opposes it, and therefore I am not bringing it for a decision. If it agrees, I will bring it for your approval.”  

Earlier Thursday, Qassem denounced both the proposal and the negotiations that produced it.  

“The result of the direct, humiliating and disgraceful negotiations is rejected by broad parts of the Lebanese people,” Qassem said.  

During the cabinet session, ministers were informed of the death of Capt. Eitan Shmuel Lamberg, an Armored Corps officer killed in southern Lebanon.  

According to Ynet, notification of Lamberg’s death strengthened opposition among some ministers to the ceasefire proposal under discussion.  

The meeting concluded without a vote, while Israeli military operations in Lebanon continued. 

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