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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Friday released a cache of previously classified documents that outline in detail the decisions behind a daring 1976 raid to free more than 100 hostages held captive in Uganda.

The operation saw dozens of Israeli commandos storm the Entebbe Airport where Palestinian and German militants — backed by Ugandan forces — had taken 106 passengers from a hijacked flight from Tel Aviv to Paris. It lasted less than an hour with limited casualties among the commandos and hostages, most of whom were either Israeli or Jewish, making it the stuff of lore given the difficulty and high-risk nature of the mission.

Israel released the files ahead of the raid’s 50th anniversary on July 3, and as the nation still grapples with the aftermath of the hostage crisis that began when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The attack killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage to Gaza.

The files on the Entebbe raid build on earlier disclosures and what was already known about then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s ad hoc crisis team and show how officials weighed negotiating for the hostages’ release against attempting a long‑range operation that would require Israeli commandos to fly thousands of miles (kilometers) over multiple hostile states.

The team initially insisted there should be no negotiations with the hostage‑takers — the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and West Germany’s Revolutionäre Zellen. The groups, which hijacked the Air France flight from Tel Aviv when it stopped over in Athens, demanded the release of prisoners in multiple countries and warned they would start killing hostages if talks hadn’t delivered by their self‑imposed deadline.

But as the crisis dragged on over six days and pressure from the families of the hostages grew, Israeli leaders gradually became more open to talks, according to a summary of the files released by the Israel State Archives.

“The zero hour is approaching … We believe that a supreme effort must be made and break the ultimatum,” Rabin’s crisis team wrote in one memo, authorizing negotiations over some of the conditions.

Israel has historically negotiated with Palestinian militant groups to exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners and detainees even as critics warned the practice could encourage more kidnappings. Entebbe is often viewed as a moment when Israel pivoted — choosing a risky military operation — but Friday’s documents suggest otherwise. Behind the scenes, officials moved to force only once negotiations stalled and confidence in a potential operation grew.

According to the documents, Israel took a two-pronged approach. It pushed forward France-led negotiations with Ugandan President Idi Amin, while mocking up blueprints of the airport and preparing to send transport planes to Kenya and onto Uganda to raid the airport under the dark of night.

The commandos broke into the airport and saved all but three hostages killed in the crossfire. During the gunbattle, Israeli forces killed all of the hijackers and dozens of Ugandan soldiers. Only one commando — Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — was killed.

The operation was criticized by Amin and the Organization of African Unity — the African Union’s predecessor organization — which saw the raid as a violation of Uganda’s sovereignty at a moment when it claimed to be negotiating for the hostages’ release.

For Israel, Entebbe was widely seen as a success just four years after all nine Israeli hostages were killed in a German-led rescue attempt at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Still, its leaders knew that military successes would not end conflict.

“Let us not deceive ourselves,” Rabin wrote in one of the memos released Friday. “It was an extraordinary operation and achievement. However, the problem is not over. Terrorism continues to operate. What other problems terrorism will pose to us and what lessons we must learn from this matter, it is too early to say. We have finished one battle, but the war continues.”

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PARIS, June 26 (Reuters) – An oil tanker suspected of being part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” was taken to waters near Marseille on Friday, a day after it was seized by France’s navy near Sicily, local authorities said.

The vessel, the Deliver, is one of nine ships that have been seized across Europe since the start of 2026, all thought to have been used by Russia to evade Western sanctions on its oil trade.

It was taken to the Gulf of Fos, the Bouches-du-Rhone Prefecture said.

“It will be anchored and held at the disposal of the Marseille public prosecutor as part of the investigation into the alleged offense of sailing under a false flag,” it added.

The Russian embassy in France on Thursday called the seizure “another case of piracy” and “illegal and unacceptable from the point of view of international law”, the TASS news agency reported.

A military source has said its was operating under a Cameroonian flag, despite having been formally struck off Cameroon’s registry weeks earlier, meaning it was navigating without nationality and breaching international maritime law.

This enabled France to board and detain it, the source said.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo said Friday it has filed a case against Rwanda at the International Court of Justice, accusing its neighbor of bearing legal responsibility for more than three decades of violence that has devastated eastern Congo.

Congo accused Rwanda of breaching international conventions on genocide, racial discrimination, discrimination against women and torture. It said civilians in the east have suffered massacres, extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual violence, forced displacement and ethnic and gender-based discrimination since the 1990s.

Mineral-rich eastern Congo has been battered by decades of conflict as government forces and allied militias fight more than 100 armed groups, the most potent of them the Rwandan-backed M23. Its fighters made major advances early last year, seizing Goma and other key cities as they quickly expanded their presence.

The U.N. has called the conflict in eastern Congo “one of the most protracted, complex, serious humanitarian crises on Earth.”

The violence goes back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when Hutu fighters responsible for the killings fled across the border into eastern Congo. Rwanda has repeatedly sent troops or backed armed groups there in the years since, saying it was acting to neutralize Hutu fighters and protect its security. Congo and the U.S. government have accused Rwanda of using the rebels as a pretext to gain access to the region’s mineral wealth.

Congo named a string of Rwandan-backed rebel groups it blames for the violence over the years, including M23.

It asked the ICJ to declare Rwanda internationally responsible for the conflict, order it to halt its activities in Congo, demand guarantees they won’t be repeated, and award reparations to Congo and civilian victims.

The court said in a statement that Congo had filed an application instituting proceedings. It did not say whether it had determined if it has jurisdiction to hear the case.

Rwanda’s government did not immediately respond publicly to the filing of the case. It has consistently denied backing armed groups in Congo, though U.N. experts have said they found evidence that Rwandan troops have fought alongside and directed M23.

This is Congo’s third attempt to bring Rwanda before the ICJ, the United Nations’ highest court for disputes between states. Congolese authorities withdrew an earlier case in 2001, and the court dismissed a second in 2006 for lack of jurisdiction, finding Rwanda had not signed or had entered reservations to some of the treaties Congo cited, or that other conditions for a case weren’t met.

The new filing comes as separate, U.S.- and Qatar-mediated peace talks between Congo and Rwanda have struggled to produce a lasting deal.

On Thursday, the U.S. imposed sanctions on a Rwanda -based gold refinery, describing it as being part of “a network working in coordination” with M23 in eastern Congo. It said the sanctions against Gasabo Gold Refinery were in support of the U.S. and Qatari peace efforts.

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Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda contributed to this report.

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By Jonathan Saul

LONDON, June 26 (Reuters) – The United Nations is working with countries to resume the evacuation of hundreds of ships and thousands of stranded seafarers from the Strait of Hormuz after the effort was halted earlier this week, a top U.N. agency official said on Friday. 

The U.N.’s International Maritime Organization said on Thursday it had “temporarily paused” its evacuation initiative after a container ship operated by Taiwan’s Evergreen was attacked.

Some 115 vessels and around 2,500 seafarers were able to sail through the strait before evacuations were paused, IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told a virtual news conference.

Dominguez said he was working “vigilantly” with several parties and was having conversations with countries — particularly Oman, the United States, and Iran — “in order to find these guarantees that were provided at the beginning, that vessels will not be targeted”.

“As soon as I get further confirmations of that, we’re ready to re-initiate the process of evacuation,” he said, though he added he could not provide a timeframe for a resumption. 

EVACUATIONS WILL TAKE WEEKS TO COMPLETE, IMO CHIEF SAYS

Tehran on Friday reasserted its right to control shipping in the critical waterway and warned its Gulf neighbours against siding with Washington.

Dominguez said his main point of contact in Iran was with its maritime authority and foreign ministry.   

“I need to actually maintain the positive approach that progress is being made in the whole conflict and at least vessels are also safely sailing through,” he said.

He added that the IMO was investigating “the reasons and motivation” for the ship attack.

The evacuation plan provided two channels for sailing out through the strait, either via Iranian waters in the north or Omani waters in the south.

The so-called Traffic Separation Scheme, ​adopted by the IMO in 1968, established routing lanes through Iranian and Omani waters in the strait. This central section, however, is currently not usable due to the presence of what Dominguez estimated were around 80 explosive mines. 

“It will take a few weeks before we can evacuate the still just over 500 vessels that need to be evacuated,” he said. 

“The quicker we can resume operations, of course, the quicker we can start increasing the numbers until we get that evacuation completed.”

(Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Joe Bavier)

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June 26 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a framework agreement on Friday between Israel and Lebanon after talks in Washington.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Writing by Christian Martinez; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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By Andrew Hay

June 26 (Reuters) – A Utah judge on Friday found a prosecutor violated court rules with comments he made to a media outlet about the presumed guilt of Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

District Court Judge Tony Graf ordered measures to prevent the comments by Utah County prosecutor Christopher Ballard from tainting potential jurors should the case go to trial.

But Graf rejected a request by defense lawyers that he penalize the prosecution for Ballard’s comments by blocking them from seeking the death penalty for Robinson.

Ballard spoke to media outlets regarding speculation that test results of a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body could exonerate Robinson. The test of the fragment gave “inconclusive” results that the bullet was fired from a rifle that Robinson’s DNA was allegedly found on.        

Graf ruled that Ballard was in “civil contempt” of court rules regarding communication with media when he told news site TMZ that, irrespective of the test results, prosecutors had ample evidence to prove Robinson was guilty.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Robinson should he be convicted of Kirk’s murder on September 10, 2025.

Robinson, 23, was studying to be an electrician at the time of ​the shooting. He is accused of firing a single round from a rooftop, striking ​Kirk as he debated with students at Utah Valley University in Orem.    

Kirk was credited with mobilizing young voters who helped President Donald Trump win the 2024 election. ​His assassination on stage ​in front of ⁠thousands of people was a shocking display of rising political violence in the U.S.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Editing by David Gregorio)

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By Kyu-seok Shim and Heejin Kim

SEOUL, June 26 (Reuters) – South Korea will rapidly expand its drone and counter-drone capabilities to counter North Korea, including by training 500,000 “drone warriors” and distributing tens of thousands of unmanned systems across frontline units, the Defence Ministry said on Friday.

The military also plans to produce 110,000 drones by 2029 for deployment across the army, navy, air force and marines, aiming to make drones a standard item for individual soldiers.

“Drones should no longer be equipment used by a limited number of units, but a universal combat tool,” Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back said in a briefing, adding they should be used by troops like a “second personal weapon.”

Ahn said Seoul would rely on 100% domestically produced components rather than Chinese parts in building the systems, in response to security concerns.

The announcement comes as both Koreas accelerate efforts to build drone capabilities, shaped by lessons from conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, where unmanned systems have emerged as game changers on the battlefield.

“Low-cost drones operated in large numbers are fundamentally changing the nature of warfare,” Ahn said, warning North Korea was also advancing unmanned systems, increasing threats to military and civilian facilities in the South.

South Korea’s plan includes expanding counter-drone systems such as laser and high-power microwave weapons, and shifting operations so each service can conduct surveillance and strike missions using drones rather than relying on a centralised command.

A senior defence official said the military would also move quickly to acquire more than 20,000 low-cost, expendable drones and introduce AI-based swarm systems and loitering munitions.

The ministry said it would revamp procurement rules to speed up adoption of civilian technology and position the military as a major buyer to help build a domestic drone ecosystem.

The expansion comes amid political sensitivity over drone operations under the previous administration. A South Korean court this month sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison over a military drone incursion into North Korea that prosecutors said was aimed at justifying his 2024 martial law bid.

Current President Lee Jae Myung’s government dismantled the drone operations command in the fallout from those allegations, with the plans on Friday aiming to replace it with a new organisation focused on policy, capability development and support while leaving operations to individual military units.

South Korea also faces pressures from demographic decline, pushing the military to rely more on automation and unmanned systems to sustain combat capabilities.

(Reporting by Kyu-seok Shim and Heejin KimEditing by Ed Davies)

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed major weapons tests and called for the military’s “deadly and destructive offensive posture” to be bolstered, state media reported Friday, as South Korea announced it would drastically boost its drone warfare capabilities.

The development comes as tensions remain high on the Korean Peninsula, with Kim pushing to strengthen both nuclear and conventional military capabilities while refusing to return to talks with South Korea and the United States.

The tests watched by Kim on Thursday were meant to evaluate the power of a “special mission” warhead for a tactical ballistic missile, an upgraded multiple rocket launch system and the hit accuracy of shells with an extended firing range of a self-propelled gun-howitzer, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

KCNA cited Kim as saying results of the tests proved the technological progress achieved in a push to bring about a change in the fire posture on southern border areas, implying the tested weapons systems target sites in South Korea including U.S. military bases there.

Kim said North Korea’s self-defense policy includes an objective to strengthen “the deadly and destructive offensive posture to make no enemy dare to confront,” KCNA said. “To make the enemies feel constant uneasiness and fear is just an important aspect of the exercise of war deterrent.”

KCNA said the special mission warhead tested is aimed at “inflicting fatal damage on major targets including airfields, ports and power facilities of the enemy.”

Later Friday, South Korea’s Defense Ministry announced plans to beef up its drone forces, citing growing military threats by North Korea which allegedly received technology assistance from Russia. The plans include developing long-range exploding drones, acquiring more than 20,000 low-cost reconnaissance and attack drones and training the country’s entire 500,000 troops as “drone warriors.”

“North Korea is also currently receiving technology transfers from Russia, so there’s an urgent need for us to respond proactively to the changing nature of warfare and the evolving operational environment,” Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back told reporters.

Ahn said the plans reflect how low-cost loitering munitions like drones are becoming crucial in modern warfare, including in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that also involved thousands of North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian troops. Ahn said the South Korean military plans to have 500,000 “drone warriors” across the army, navy, air force and marines who operate drones “easily like personal firearms.”

North Korea has been focusing on enlarging its nuclear and missile arsenals since Kim’s high-stakes diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. He’s later underscored the need to build sophisticated conventional weapons as well.

On Tuesday, North Korea commissioned the 5,000-ton destroyer that Kim touted as a symbol of the country’s growing naval and nuclear capabilities. The Choe Hyon is North Korea’s most advanced warship.

In response to Trump’s repeated outreach to restart diplomacy, Kim has suggested that talks can resume if the U.S. drops its demand for denuclearization of North Korea as a precondition of diplomacy. Kim has taken a harsher posture on South Korea, calling it his country’s “principal enemy” and building more military structures along the rivals’ heavily fortified border.

Kim has boosted his diplomatic footprint in past years by expanding ties with Russia with his support of its war against Ukraine. Earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited North Korea for the first time in seven years for a meeting with Kim.

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JAKARTA, June 26 (Reuters) – Indonesia has charged 24 foreign nationals as criminal suspects in an illegal gold mining operation in the country’s Maluku region, its energy ministry said.

Here are the details:

• The suspects were allegedly building infrastructure for the illegal mines, including roads and processing facilities around the Gunung Botak area of Maluku, said energy ministry official Jeffri Huwae in a statement released late on Thursday.

• Violations of the law could carry maximum prison sentences of five years, the ministry added.

• The ministry did not give the nationalities of the suspects or the amount of gold produced. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• State news agency Antara reported last month that 24 Chinese nationals in Gunung Botak working under the sponsorship of local company PT Harmoni Alam Manise had been detained for questioning.

• The ministry said 12 of the foreign nationals are still at large and outside of Indonesia’s jurisdiction, with the other 12 already detained.

• Two other Indonesians were named as criminal suspects along with the foreign nationals, the ministry added.

• There have been illegal mining operations involving foreign nationals previously.

• Police in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua arrested four Chinese nationals in the Senggi district last year, Antara reported.

(Reporting by Stanley Widianto and Bernadette Christina; Editing by David Stanway)

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TAIPEI/TOKYO, June 26 (Reuters) – Japan evacuated more than 2 million people and issued flood and landslide warnings as Typhoon Mekkhala approached on Friday, while torrential rain from the storm as it passed neighbouring Taiwan shut down parts of the island, leaving around 6 million people off work or school.

Mekkhala, currently a tropical storm, is nearing southern Japan’s Ryukyu Islands after skirting Taiwan where it brought heavy rain to parts of the island, especially the southern regions of Kaohsiung, Tainan and Pingtung.

Heavy rain and strong winds also lashed areas of southern and western Japan, where authorities warned of landslides, flooding and swollen rivers, and ordered 2.2 million people to evacuate.

Japan has already cancelled more than 200 flights with dozens of train services suspended and many expressways closed, the land ministry said, as the country’s meteorological agency warned a stationary seasonal rain front, being fed with warm, moist air, was causing intense rainfall, particularly in western regions.

Toyota stopped operations at a factory in the southern region of Kyushu from Thursday afternoon into Friday’s first shift, with a decision for the second shift due later.

The governments of all three Taiwanese regions, meanwhile, ordered offices and schools closed on Friday. Severe flooding in Tainan shut down a section of the island’s main north-south railway line.

In the northern Taiwanese city of Hsinchu, home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC,  offices and schools closed from noon (0400 GMT).

TSMC said in a statement that it had taken measures across its Taiwan facilities to prepare for the rain, and its factories were operating normally.

Some 6 million people live in the four affected areas of Taiwan. In parts of largely rural Pingtung, almost a metre (3.2 ft) of rain has fallen since Thursday.

BARRIER LAKE RISK

In Taiwan, no casualties have been reported but authorities in Hualien county were evacuating nearly 200 residents from two townships downstream of a rapidly filling barrier lake in the mountains.

Barrier lakes are formed when rocks, landslides or other natural blockages create a dam across a river, normally in a valley, blocking and holding back water, and hindering or even preventing natural drainage.

Last year, 19 people died in a different part of Hualien when another barrier lake breached its banks during Super Typhoon Ragasa, unleashing a wall of water and mud into homes.

Rain is forecast to continue over Taiwan for at least the next week, though it will gradually ease.

Precipitation is not all bad news for Taiwan, which relies on the traditional summer and autumn typhoon season to fill its reservoirs after what are typically dry winters.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee in Taipei, Chang-Ran Kim and Kantaro Komiya in Tokyo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Christopher Cushing and Kate Mayberry)

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