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Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has ‘no choice’ but to continue fighting in Gaza

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Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has ‘no choice’ but to continue fighting in Gaza


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 7, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said again Saturday (April 19, 2025) that Israel has “no choice” but to continue fighting in Gaza and will not end the war before destroying Hamas, freeing the hostages and ensuring that the territory won’t present a threat to Israel.

The Prime Minister also repeated his vow to make sure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.

Mr. Netanyahu is under growing pressure at home not only from families of hostages and their supporters but also from reservist and retired Israeli soldiers who question the continuation of the war after Israel shattered a ceasefire last month. In his statement, he claimed that Hamas has rejected Israel’s latest proposal to free half the hostages for a continued ceasefire.

The Prime Minister spoke after Israeli strikes killed more than 90 people in 48 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday. Israeli troops have been increasing their attacks to pressure Hamas to release the hostages and disarm.

Children and women were among the 15 people killed overnight, according to hospital staff. At least 11 dead were in the southern city of Khan Younis, several of them in a tent in the Muwasi area where hundreds of thousands of displaced people stay, hospital workers said. Israel has designated it as a humanitarian zone.

Mourners cradled and kissed the faces of the dead. A man stroked a child’s forehead with his finger before body bags were closed.

“Omar is gone … I wish it was me,” one brother cried out.

Four other people were killed in strikes in Rafah city, including a woman and her daughter, according to the European Hospital, where the bodies were taken.

Later on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike on a group of civilians west of Nuseirat in central Gaza killed one person, according to Al-Awda Hospital.

Israel’s military in a statement said it killed more than 40 militants over the weekend.

Separately, the military said a soldier was killed Saturday in northern Gaza and confirmed it was the first soldier death since Israel resumed the war on March 18. Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said it ambushed Israeli forces operating east of Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighbourhood.

Israel has vowed to intensify attacks across Gaza and occupy indefinitely large “security zones” inside the small coastal strip of over 2 million people. Hamas wants Israeli forces to withdraw from the territory.

Israel also has blockaded Gaza for the past six weeks, again barring the entry of food and other goods.

This week, aid groups raised the alarm, saying thousands of children have become malnourished and most people are barely eating one meal a day as stocks dwindle, according to the United Nations.

The head of the World Health Organization’s eastern Mediterranean office, Dr Hanan Balkhy, on Friday urged the new U.S. ambassador in Israel, Mike Huckabee, to push the country to lift Gaza’s blockade so medicines and other aid can enter.

“I would wish for him to go in and see the situation firsthand,” she said.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Hamas currently holds 59 hostages, 24 of them believed to be alive.

Israel’s offensive has since killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The war has destroyed vast parts of Gaza and most of its food production capabilities. Around 90% of the population is displaced, with hundreds of thousands of people living in tent camps and bombed-out buildings.

Frustration has been growing on both sides, with rare public protests against Hamas in Gaza and continued weekly rallies in Israel pressing the government to reach a deal to bring all hostages home.

Thousands of Israelis joined protests Saturday night pressing for a deal.

“Do what you should have done a long time ago. Bring them all back now! And in one deal. And if this means to stop the war, then stop the war,” former hostage Omer Shem Tov told a rally in Tel Aviv.

Published – April 20, 2025 09:02 am IST



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Did JD Vance’s sister say ‘her brother did not kill the Pope’? Truth behind viral satire video – The Times of India

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April 23, 2025

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Did JD Vance’s sister say ‘her brother did not kill the Pope’? Truth behind viral satire video – The Times of India


JD Vance has become a meme as he was one of the last visitors of Pope Francis on Easter Sunday, hours before the Pope died.

As Vice President JD Vance became a meme after his Sunday meeting with Pope Francis, as he was one of the last visitors of the Pope before he died, a satirical video has been doing the rounds on X claiming that JD Vance’s sister issued a statement that her brother did not kill the Pope. Those who do not know JD Vance’s sister or comedian Blaire Erskine fell prey to the video — though the content of the video was enough to establish that it was a satirical video.
“JD did not kill the Pope. The Pope had pneumonia. Now does JD suck all the air out of a room when he enters. Yes, he does. Our mama used to call him ‘my little queen’ like ‘my little queen vacuum’ because he would suck so much. He would suck the air out of the room. He would suck his thumb. He would s**k. If the Pope had pneumonia and JD came in the room, I bet it was harder for the Pope to breathe because JD was sucking all the air. That way, yes he kill…but he DIDN’T KILL the Pope, directly…” the comedian said many people believe that she was really the sister of the vice president. Some users called the video AI-generated, but it was just a skit by Blaire Erskine who is known for her spoof videos in which she makes fun of right-wing political figures, like after this viral video, she made fun of defense secretary Pete Hegseth.
JD Vance, in real life, has a half-sister, Lindsay Ratliff whom their mother Bev Vance raised as a single mother after her divorce from her first husband.
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel also took a dig at JD Vance for his meeting with the Pope and said it was unfortunate that the Pope had to spend his last day on Earth with JD. “Oh man, what a way to go, huh?” Kimmel said in his Monday monologue. “I mean, ‘Holy Father, do you have any last wishes?’ ‘Not this! Not a meet and greet with Vice President Maybelline. No thank you.'”
Then Kimmel also read out an X post that Vance wrote shortly after the Sunday meeting, where he wrote, “Today I met with the Holy Father Pope Francis. I am grateful for his invitation to meet, and I pray for his good health. Happy Easter!” So, now we know JD Vance is bad at praying, too,” Kimmel joked.





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U.S. will ‘walk away’ unless Russia and Ukraine agree deal: Vance

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April 23, 2025

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U.S. will ‘walk away’ unless Russia and Ukraine agree deal: Vance


U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance warned Wednesday (April 23, 2025) that the United States would “walk away” unless Russia and Ukraine agree a peace deal, as envoys from Washington, Kyiv and European nations gathered for downgraded talks in Britain.

“We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say ‘yes’, or for the United States to walk away from this process,” Mr. Vance told reporters in India.

U.S. media reported that President Donald Trump was ready to accept recognition of annexed land in Crimea as Russian territory, and Mr. Vance said land swaps would be fundamental to any deal.

“That means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own,” he added.

The reports said the proposal was first raised at a meeting with European nations in Paris last week.

The latest round of diplomacy comes amid a fresh wave of Russian air strikes that shattered a brief Easter truce.

A Russian drone strike on a bus transporting workers in the southeastern city of Marganets killed nine people and wounded at least 30 more, the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor said Wednesday (April 23, 2025).

Ukrainian authorities also reported strikes in the regions of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava and Odesa.

In Russia, one person was reported wounded by shelling in the Belgorod region.

‘Work for peace’

U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy had been due to lead a meeting of Foreign Ministers in London on Wednesday (April 23, 2025), but his Ministry said the talks had been downgraded, a sign of the difficulties surrounding the negotiations.

“The Ukraine Peace Talks meeting with Foreign Ministers today is being postponed. Official-level talks will continue,” the Foreign Office said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “as far as we understand, it has not yet been possible to reconcile positions on any issues, which is why this meeting did not take place”.

U.S. Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg is still expected to attend, along with Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he had arrived in London with Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, who is “likely” to meet Mr. Lammy.

“Despite everything, we will work for peace,” Mr. Yermak wrote on Telegram.

A Ukraine presidency source later told AFP that the delegation would meet with Mr. Kellogg, and that “there will be more meetings with Europeans, different meetings”.

U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff is to visit Moscow this week.

According to The Financial Times, President Vladimir Putin told Mr. Witkoff he was prepared to halt the invasion and freeze the current front line if Russia’s sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula, annexed in 2014, was recognised.

Mr. Peskov responded by saying that “a lot of fakes are being published at the moment”, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

Mr. Zelenskyy said Tuesday (April 22, 2025) that his country would be ready for direct talks with Russia only after a ceasefire, though the Kremlin has said it cannot rush into a ceasefire deal.

Mr. Trump promised on the campaign trail to strike a deal between Moscow and Kyiv in 24 hours but has since failed to secure concessions from Putin to halt his troops in Ukraine.

He said at the weekend he hoped an agreement could be struck “this week”.

Trump ‘frustrated’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had presented a U.S. plan to end the war and discussed it with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during a phone conversation after the Paris meeting last week.

Both Mr. Rubio and Mr. Trump have warned since that the United States could walk away from peace talks unless it saw quick progress.

Mr. Trump “wants to see this war end… and he has grown frustrated with both sides of this war, and he’s made that very known”, his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday (April 22, 2025).

Mr. Rubio had said in Paris he would go to London if he thought his attendance could be useful.

But Mr. Lammy wrote on X late Tuesday (April 22, 2025) that he had instead had a “productive call” with Mr. Rubio.

Mr. Trump proposed an unconditional ceasefire in March, the principle of which was accepted by Kyiv but rejected by Mr. Putin.

The White House welcomed a separate agreement by both sides to halt attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days, but the Kremlin has said it considers that moratorium to have expired.

Published – April 23, 2025 05:30 pm IST



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Gunmen kill two policemen guarding polio team in Pakistan’s Balochistan province – The Times of India

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April 23, 2025

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Gunmen kill two policemen guarding polio team in Pakistan’s Balochistan province – The Times of India


Two Pakistani police officers were shot dead on Wednesday while protecting a polio vaccination team in the Teeri area of Mastung district in Balochistan, officials confirmed, marking the second fatal attack on such teams since the nationwide inoculation drive began earlier this week.
According to local administrator Manan Tareen, the attack occurred when two unidentified gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on the officers as they stood guard outside a house where the health workers were administering polio drops to children.
“One of the policemen died on the spot while the other was critically injured and later died at the hospital,” Tareen told AFP. “The team of health workers remained unharmed, as they were inside a house conducting vaccinations.”
The identity of the attackers remains unknown, and no group has claimed responsibility for the assault. However, such attacks have been routinely carried out by militant outfits who view the vaccination campaigns with suspicion, often accusing them of being cover operations for espionage.
Shahid Rind, a spokesperson for the provincial government, confirmed the death toll and said security agencies are investigating the attack. He added that despite the assault, vaccination efforts would continue and security around teams would be reviewed and strengthened.
This incident follows a similar attack earlier this week in the restive province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where a police officer was gunned down while accompanying a vaccination team.
Polio remains endemic in only two countries—Pakistan and Afghanistan—and efforts to eradicate the virus have been severely hampered by repeated attacks on health workers and their security escorts. Since 2012, more than 100 health workers and police personnel have been killed in such targeted assaults in Pakistan.
The Pakistani government has continued its fight against polio with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international partners. The current nationwide campaign aims to immunize millions of children under the age of five, especially in high-risk areas like Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.





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