The attempted coup, which targeted the residence of Congolese politician Vital Kamerhe and the country’s presidential palace, was led by opposition leader Christian Malanga, who was killed in a gun battle between the armed putschists and the presidential guards, according to army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge. Ekenge also claimed Malanga was a US citizen, though the State Department said later it had no records of him.

Ekenge named three other Americans, identified as Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, Patrick Ducey, and Taylor Thomson were involved in the foiled coup.

“Patrick Ducey and Taylor Thomson are the same person who have two different identities. We’re going to check his passport,” he added.

US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US is aware of two other individuals “reported to be” US citizens who are in custody after the failed coup attempt. Miller said privacy laws prevented him from confirming whether or not the US had reached out to the Congolese government to be granted consular access to the two individuals.

US ambassador to the DRC, Lucy Tamlyn, said in a post on social media platform X, that she was “shocked” by reports of the attempted coup, adding that her country “will cooperate with the DRC authorities to the fullest extent as they investigate these criminal acts and hold accountable any US citizen involved in criminal acts.”

It is not immediately known whether President Felix Tshisekedi, who secured re-election for a second term after last December’s disputed vote was at the presidential palace during the attack.

“He tried it without success in 2017,” Ekenge said but did not provide further details.

Malanga, 41, who had been exiled in the US, headed the United Congolese Party which describes itself as an “opposition political party-in-exile.”

Flanked by his son and other armed men in military fatigue, Malanga was seen in a live-streamed video posted on his Facebook page railing against Tshisekedi’s government and Kamerhe on the morning of the attack, accusing them of doing “many stupid things in this country,” according to Reuters.

A DRC government statement commended the “prompt reaction” of the DRC’s security forces in foiling the attack, stating that two police officers stationed at politician Kamerhe’s home “were killed on the spot.”

The DRC, Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest nation, is one of the five poorest countries in the world, according to the World Bank, despite its vast mineral wealth.

Parts of the Central African nation are almost overrun by armed militia groups who mastermind deadly attacks against civilians in their battle for territory and control over the country’s natural resources.

Sub-Saharan Africa has grappled with a spate of coups, with the latest happening last August in Gabon, the DRC’s Central African neighbor.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te called on Beijing to cease its intimidation of the democratic island after he was was sworn in as president Monday, marking the start of a historic third consecutive term for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has championed democracy in the face of years of growing threats from authoritarian China.

Lai, 64, a former doctor and vice president, was inaugurated alongside new Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim, who recently served as Taiwan’s top envoy to the United States.

Both leaders and their party are openly loathed by Beijing for championing Taiwan’s sovereignty. China’s ruling Communist Party says the self-ruling democracy is part of its territory, despite never having controlled it, and has vowed to take the island, by force if necessary.

Lai used his 30-minute inaugural speech to broadcast a message of peace and declare that a “glorious era of Taiwan’s democracy has arrived,” describing the island as an “important link” in a “global chain of democracies,” while reiterating a determination to defend its sovereignty.

“The future of the Republic of China Taiwan will be decided by its 23 million people. The future we decide is not just the future of our nation, but the future of the world,” Lai said, using the formal name for Taiwan.

Lai takes up the mantle from his DPP predecessor Tsai Ing-wen, who bolstered the island’s international standing and recognition during her eight years in office. Tsai, Taiwan’s first female president, was unable to stand again because of term limits.

Lai emerged victorious over rivals in the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party and the Taiwan People’s Party in a January election, which was fought over a mixture of livelihood issues as well as the thorny question of how to deal with its giant one-party state neighbor, China, which under leader Xi Jinping has grown more powerful and bellicose.

Then, voters shrugged off warnings from Beijing that the DPP’s re-election would increase the risk of conflict. The DPP holds the view that Taiwan is a de facto sovereign nation that should bolster defenses against China’s threats and deepen relations with democratic countries.

In his inaugural address, Lai called on China “to cease their political and military intimidation against Taiwan, share with Taiwan the global responsibility of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait as well as the greater region, and ensure the world is free from the fear of war.”

A soft-spoken political veteran, Lai hails from a more radical wing of the DPP, and was once an open supporter of Taiwan independence – a red line for Beijing.

Though his views have tempered since then, China never forgave him for his comments from six years ago, in which he described himself as a “practical worker for Taiwan independence.”

Lai has now said he favors the current status quo, proclaiming that “Taiwan is already an independent sovereign country” so there is “no plan or need” to declare independence, in a deliberately nuanced stance that mimics the one held by outgoing Tsai.

When asked about Lai’s inauguration in a regular briefing Monday, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said “Taiwan independence is a dead end. No matter what pretext or banner one uses, promoting Taiwan independence and secession is doomed to fail.”

Lai’s inauguration ceremony was attended by national leaders from a handful of countries with which Taiwan still maintains formal diplomatic ties, several former American officials, and lawmakers from other countries, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In a statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered his congratulations to Lai and “the Taiwan people for once again demonstrating the strength of their robust and resilient democratic system.”

“We look forward to working with President Lai and across Taiwan’s political spectrum to advance our shared interests and values, deepen our longstanding unofficial relationship, and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Blinken said.

Frictions with Beijing

Lai takes office during a particularly contentious period between Taiwan and China, which in recent years has ramped up diplomatic, economic and military pressure on the self-governing democracy as Taiwan’s leaders tightened informal ties with Washington.

In his inaugural address, Lai said he hoped China would “face the reality of the Republic of China’s existence, respect the choices of the people of Taiwan,” and “engage in cooperation with the legal government chosen by Taiwan’s people.”

He called for the resumption of tourism on a reciprocal basis and enrollment of degree students in Taiwanese institutions as steps to “pursue peace and mutual prosperity.”

But the new president also warned against harboring delusions, even as Taiwan pursues “the ideals of peace.”

“So long as China refuses to renounce the use of force against Taiwan, all of us in Taiwan ought to understand, that even if we accept the entirety of China’s position and give up our sovereignty, China’s ambition to annex Taiwan will not simply disappear,” Lai said.

Beijing has sought to portray Lai as inciting conflict, repeatedly framing the elections earlier this year as a choice between “peace and war.”

On Monday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office reiterated that rhetoric, slamming “the leader of the Taiwan region” as “sending dangerous signals of seeking independence, provocations and undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

Xi has placed “reunification” with Taiwan as a key part of his goal to achieve China’s “natural rejuvenation.” But under the strongarm tactics of his more than one decade in power, Taiwan’s public has shifted determinedly away from China. Less than 10% now support an immediate or eventual unification, and less than 3% identify primarily as Chinese.

The majority of Taiwanese want to maintain the current status quo and show no desire to be ruled by Beijing.

Beijing has cut official contact with Taipei since Tsai took office. Unlike the opposition KMT, Tsai and the DPP refused to endorse the so-called “1992 consensus” that both Taiwan and the mainland belong to “one China,” but with different interpretations of what that means. Beijing, which deems the tacit agreement a precondition for dialogue.

Official communication between Beijing and Taipei is unlikely to resume as Lai takes office – with China repeatedly rebuking his offer for talks and denouncing him as a dangerous separatist.

Lai is also set to face challenges – and scrutiny – in pushing through his agenda for Taiwan in parliament during his term.

Unlike his predecessor, Lai will not have a parliamentary majority in the next four years. In January’s election, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party only won 51 out of 113 seats.

Those challenges were on show last Friday, when Taiwanese lawmakers’ disagreements over new, controversial reform bills erupted in a brawl on the parliamentary floor – a chaotic display that saw some lawmakers leaping over tables and pulling colleagues to the floor, with a few members taken to hospital.

In his address, Lai said that “a lack of absolute majority means that the ruling and opposition parties are now all able to share their ideas, and that we will be undertaking the nation’s challenges as one.”

But he also called for cooperation so Taiwan could “continue down a stable path.”

Rescuers are searching in the dark for a helicopter that crashed while carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in northern Iran on Sunday, according to Iranian officials. Raisi’s condition and that of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who was also on board, remain unknown as overnight temperatures drop in the mountainous area.

The aircraft came down in the early afternoon in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, sparking a massive search effort, including military drones and dozens of rescue teams, state media reported.

Officials have said they were able to make contact with some of the passengers aboard the helicopter. But despite hours of searching, emergency crews have not been able to reach the crash site amid reported fog and extreme cold.

A regional commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced late on Sunday night that they had detected the exact location of the crash after receiving a signal from the helicopter and the mobile phone of one of the crew, IRNA reported.

“Military forces are heading to the location and hope to have some good news,” the commander reportedly said.

Raisi’s official Instagram account and state television have urged Iranians to pray for the president and his entourage.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei echoed in the call in a video statement, saying, “Everyone should pray for the health of this group of servants. … People of Iran, do not worry. There will be no disruption in the work of the country.”

Poor weather complicates search for helicopter

The accident occurred as Raisi and Amir Abdollahian were returning from a ceremony for an opening of a dam on Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, IRNA reported. Two other helicopters in the same convoy of dignitaries arrived at their destinations safely, officials said.

Iranian authorities have identified a 2-kilometer radius for the crash site and believe the accident was “not severe” after speaking with two people who were traveling on the downed helicopter, Iranian Vice President for Executive Affairs Mohsen Mansouri told Iranian semi-official FARS news.

“Three helicopters were on this route, but the helicopter carrying the President lost contact with the other two. They began searching and established contact with one of the helicopter’s occupants and the flight crew, indicating the incident was not severe. The Red Crescent, FRAJA, Army, and IRGC rescue teams have arrived and divided tasks,” he said.

The crash site is believed to be somewhere in the Dizmar Forest area between the villages of Ozi and Pir Davood, according to IRNA, which reported that residents in the northern Varzeqan region said they heard noises from the area.

Poor weather and low visibility are complicating rescue efforts in the rural area. Iranian Minister of Health, Bahram Eynollahi, has warned that the crash site is very foggy, making it difficult for rescuers to search. “We have set up treatment facilities. We are now in the area and all rescue forces are busy searching,” Eynollahi said on state TV Sunday. “We have deployed all medical facilities, including emergency medicine, surgery and ambulance.”

A deployment of helicopters in the area has already failed due to the weather, Iranian military officials said.

“The helicopters of the 6th combat base of Tabriz Air Force arrived in the Varzeqan area according to the order to carry out relief operations,” the Commander of Iran’s 6th Air Force Base said. “These helicopters, along with the rescue team, were sent to the helicopter accident area of the president’s convoy from the early hours. Unfortunately, the operation failed due to unfavorable weather conditions.”

Iraq and Azerbaijan have offered assistance to Iran in the ongoing search operation, and the European Union is activating its satellite mapping service.

“Upon Iranian request for assistance we are activating the EU’s Copernicus EMS rapid response satellite mapping service in view of to the helicopter accident reportedly carrying the President of Iran and its foreign minister,” European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič said in a post on X on Sunday.

Turkey will also send a night-vision search and rescue helicopter, 32 mountaineer search and rescue personnel, and six vehicles, the Turkish Ministry of Interior Disaster and Emergency Management said on Sunday.

US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the incident, according to the White House.

Who is President Raisi?

Raisi’s powers as President are dwarfed by those of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who is the final arbiter of domestic and foreign affairs in the Islamic Republic.

But Raisi is widely seen as a figure in which the Iranian clerical establishment has heavily invested – and even as a potential successor to the 85-year-old Khamenei.

Raisi’s election in 2021 was heavily engineered by the Islamic Republic’s political elite so that he would run virtually uncontested. He seemed to be made in the image of the 1979 Islamic Revolution’s ideals, a guarantor of its continuation even as many chafed under its ultraconservative rules. A year into his tenure, he brutally quashed a youth-led uprising over repressive laws, such as the compulsory hijab, and continued to stamp out dissent in its aftermath.

Unlike his predecessor, the moderate former President Hassan Rouhani, there has been no daylight between Raisi and Khamenei. This left no doubt in many Iranians’ minds that he has been groomed to be elevated to the Supreme Leadership.

Any disruption to this vision of succession could sow further chaos in a country already buckling under significant economic and political strain.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct that the reported incident took place in East Azerbaijan Province of Iran.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A 36-year-old man was airlifted to a hospital after sustaining multiple injuries in a grizzly bear attack in British Columbia, Canada, authorities said.

The attack happened on a steep mountainside Thursday afternoon south of Elkford, British Columbia, which is in the Rocky Mountain range, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The man and his father were tracking a bear with dogs when an adult grizzly bear suddenly attacked him, police said in a news release Friday.

The hunter suffered “significant injuries,” according to the British Columbia Conservation Officer Service, whose team of officers were among several agencies who responded to the attack. His injuries included broken bones and lacerations, police said.

The victim was able to defend himself with his firearm, and the bear ran away while the father called for help, according to police.

Rescue teams moved the victim around 650 feet down the mountainside, where he was taken via a helicopter long line to a hospital in Calgary, Alberta, according to the news release. The hunter was in stable condition as he left the scene, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

Conservation officers then searched for the wounded grizzly bear, and shortly after 9 p.m., found the animal dead near where the attack occurred, the Conservation Officer Service said.

“Officers are confident that they located the bear involved in the attack. The bear succumbed to its wounds,” the service said.

Ultraconservative Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed Sunday, along with his foreign minister, in a helicopter crash in Iran’s remote northwest, injecting fresh uncertainty as the country’s hardline clerical establishment navigates rising regional tensions and domestic discontent.

The loss of two of Iran’s most influential political figures comes as the country buckles under significant economic and political strain, with tensions with nearby Israel at a dangerous high.

Drone footage of the helicopter wreckage taken by the Red Crescent and carried on Iranian state media showed the crash site on a steep, wooded hillside, with little remaining of the helicopter beyond a blue and white tail.

Sunday’s crash occurred as Raisi, 63, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were returning from a ceremony for an opening of a dam on Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, state media reported.

Among those onboard were three crew members, the governor of Eastern Azerbaijan province, an imam, Raisi’s head of security chief and a bodyguard, according to IRGC-run media outlet Sepah.

The crash prompted an hours-long search-and-rescue operation with assistance from the European Union and Turkey among others, but emergency crews were hampered by the thick fog and plummeting temperatures.

The death of Raisi comes at a sensitive time domestically for Tehran and seven months into Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza that has sent tensions soaring throughout the Middle East — and brought a decades long shadow war between Israel and Iran out into the open.

Last month, Iran launched an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel — its first ever direct attack on the country — in response to a deadly apparent Israeli airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus.

Under Raisi, Iran’s hardline leadership has faced significant challenges in recent years, convulsed by youth-led demonstrations against clerical rule and grim economic conditions. Iranian authorities have launched a widening crackdown on dissent since nationwide protests broke out over the 2022 death of a young woman in the custody of the country’s notorious morality police.

Following the official announcement of Raisi’s death Monday, Iran’s government convened an “urgent meeting” as the clerical establishment, headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, prepare to appoint a new president they can throw their support behind.

Next in the line of presidential succession is Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, who must be approved by Khamenei, the final arbiter of domestic and foreign affairs in the Islamic Republic.

The Iranian constitution also mandates that the three heads of the branches of government, including the Vice President, speaker of the parliament, and head of the judiciary, must arrange for an election and elect a new leader within 50 days of assuming the role of acting President.

In a statement Monday, the president’s cabinet praised Raisi as a “hard-working and tireless” president who served the people of Iran to help advance and progress the country. “[He] stood by his promise and sacrificed his life for the nation,” the statement said.

The cabinet also reaffirmed that there “will not be the slightest disturbance” in the administration of Iran in the wake of the deadly crash.

On Monday, Iranian state broadcasters took to airing Islamic prayers in between news broadcasts, while a photo shared by IRNA showed that the chair that Raisi usually sits in was vacant and draped with a black sash in memory of the president.

A president groomed for real power

Raisi came to Iran’s presidency from the judiciary, where he drew attention from both the Iranian clerical elite and Western critics for his hardline approach to dissent and human rights in the country.

In 2019 — the same year that Raisi became Iran’s chief justice — he was sanctioned by the US, citing his participation in the 1988 “death commission” as a prosecutor and a United Nations report on the judicial execution of at least nine children between 2018 and 2019.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has accused him of crimes against humanity for being part of the committee that oversaw the execution of up to 5,000 political prisoners in 1988. Raisi has never commented on these allegations.

For Iran’s ruling establishment, though, Raisi seemed to be made in the image of the 1979 Islamic Revolution’s ideals, a guarantor of its continuation even as many chafed under its ultraconservative rules.

In 2021, he was elected to the presidency in a contest heavily engineered by the Islamic Republic’s political elite so that he would run virtually unchallenged. Raisi’s inauguration was seen to signal the start of a new harder-line era in Iran.

Many activists accused Iran’s clerical establishment of “selecting” rather than electing the next president in a poll designed to further entrench the power of the country’s hardline clerical rulers, despite the public’s calls for reforms. Overall voter turnout was 48.8% – the lowest since the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

He took the presidency as negotiations with the United States over how to revive the 2015 nuclear deal stalled, and as the country was in the throes of an economic crisis and under mounting pressure to reform.

As President, Raisi is widely seen as a figure in which the Iranian clerical establishment has heavily invested – and even as a potential successor to the 85-year-old Khamenei. Many believe he has been groomed to be elevated to the Supreme Leadership.

A year into his presidency, he brutally quashed a youth-led uprising over repressive laws, such as the compulsory hijab, and continued to stamp out dissent in its aftermath. As recently as this month, a dissident rapper was handed a death sentence in releation to the 2022 protests.

A United Nations report found that Iran’s “repression of peaceful protests” and “institutional discrimination against women and girls” has led to human rights violations, some of which amount to “crimes against humanity.”

In foreign policy, Raisi notably presided over the strongest Iran-backed show of force against Israel in nearly two decades. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, Tehran-supported armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen have continuously attacked Israel and its allies in the region.

He also spurned negotiations with the US over Iran’s nuclear program, dealing a devastating blow to stalled talks with the Biden administration that aimed to revive the Obama-era deal of sanctions relief in exchange for curbs to the country’s uranium enrichment program. That deal was upended by Trump in 2018, when the former president unleashed waves of sanctions on Iran despite Tehran ostensibly sticking to its end of the bargain.

Shortly after, the country announced its intention to enrich uranium up to 60% purity, pushing the country closer to reaching the 90% enrichment level that is considered weapons-grade. In March 2023, uranium particles enriched to near bomb-grade levels were found at an Iranian nuclear facility, according to the UN’s nuclear watchdog, as the US warned that Tehran’s ability to build a nuclear bomb was accelerating.

As he turned his back to Washington, Raisi sought to end his country’s economic isolation by looking elsewhere, strengthening Tehran’s relationship with China, and repairing diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Gulf Arab powerhouses which were long considered Tehran’s arch-foes.

Iran’s economy has begun to rebound over the past two years, according to the World Bank. But the nation remains shackled by sanctions, its social movements brutally repressed, and its political structure now shaken by Raisi’s sudden death.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Correction: This article has been updated to remove a reference to former President Hassan Rouhani running in the 2021 election.

Divisions and disagreements within the Israeli cabinet on the conduct and priorities of the war against Hamas have simmered since the onset of the crisis.

Now they’ve boiled over, revealing a new level of public vitriol – as well as an ultimatum from one of three members of the war cabinet – as the seven-month long conflict potentially enters a new phase.

On Saturday Benny Gantz, the leader of the National Unity Party, who joined the war cabinet after Hamas’ attack in October, demanded by June 8 the adoption of a six-point plan. That plan would secure the return of Israeli hostages, the demobilization of Hamas and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.

It would also lead to the creation of an alternative government for Gaza, “an American-European-Arab-Palestinian administration” that would “lay the foundation for a future alternative that is not Hamas or [Mahmoud] Abbas,” the President of the Palestinian Authority.

The Gantz plan would also ensure the return of residents displaced by attacks from Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia in Lebanon, and measures to ensure ultra-orthodox Jews can be drafted into the military just like any other citizen. That has been a red line for the religious right in the Israeli cabinet.

In an unveiled swipe at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gantz, who is widely seen to be a leading contender to be the next Israeli leader, added that “personal and political considerations have begun to penetrate into the holy of holies of Israel’s security.”

“If you choose to lead the nation into the abyss, we will withdraw from the government, turn to the people, and form a government that can bring about a real victory.”

“Unity cannot be a fig leaf for stagnation in the management of the campaign,” Gantz added.

Within hours the accusations were flying, laying bare the fissures in Israeli politics and the personal animosities that pervade the government.

The prime minister’s office shot back. “The conditions set by Benny Gantz are washed-up words whose meaning is clear: the end of the war and a defeat for Israel, the abandonment of most of the hostages, leaving Hamas intact and the establishment of a Palestinian state,” it said in a statement.

One far-right member of the cabinet, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, said Gantz was “a small leader and big trickster, who, from the first moment of joining the government has chiefly been trying to dismantle it.”

He added: “Whoever offered the ultra-Orthodox agreements on a conscription law in exchange for the dissolution of the government and now chants slogans about responsibility, is a hypocrite and a liar.”

From a very different point of view, opposition leader Yair Lapid said Gantz should act now.

“Enough with the press conferences, enough with the empty ultimatums, get out! If you weren’t sitting in the government, we would already be in the post Netanyahu and Ben Gvir era,” he said.

Gantz’s broadside did not come in isolation. Last week, the third member of the war cabinet, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, spoke of decisions that he said should have been made at the start of the war. He also said: “I will not agree to the establishment of Israeli military rule in Gaza. Israel must not establish civilian rule in Gaza.”

Illusion of unity shattered

It’s against this background of internecine warfare that Israeli troops continue to fight in Gaza, unsure of how their mission will end and of any plan for the day after the guns fall silent.

Gantz himself made reference to this Saturday, saying that “while the Israeli soldiers show supreme bravery on the front – some of the people who sent them into battle behave with cowardice and irresponsibility.”

Israeli commentators Sunday said the illusion of unity within the cabinet that had been fostered in the early phase of the conflict had been shattered.

The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday that the comments were remarkable in that for the first time, “Gantz publicly accused the prime minister of prioritizing his political survival over the nation’s interests. For the first time, he set a clear deadline for remaining in the government.”

Writing in Haaretz, Anshel Pfeffer said that whoever had written Gantz’s speech “did nothing more than recycle the dozens of leaks on the divisions within the war cabinet over the past few months.”

Pfeffer, author of the unauthorized biography “Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu,” says the bottom line, at the end of a week of political turmoil, is that “of the three war cabinet members…two have now publicly accused the third member, Netanyahu, of not having a strategy for a war that has been ongoing for seven and a half months.”

Despite all this, Pfeffer and other analysts contend that the status quo may persist, because for Netanyahu, the presence of Gantz and Gallant in the three-man war cabinet provides protection from right-wing members of the larger cabinet.

Some of them want Israel to rebuild settlements in Gaza and a much more aggressive approach in the north. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who wants the Israeli military to take control of Gaza after Hamas is liquidated, on Sunday also called for Israeli forces to enter and establish a security zone in southern Lebanon should Hezbollah rocket attacks continue.

On Saturday night, Gantz told Netanyahu: “I look into your eyes tonight and I tell you – the choice is in your hands.”

He said the moment of truth had arrived.

Has it? Over the next three weeks, compromise may yet keep the war cabinet intact. And Gantz is not part of the broader coalition government, which means his potential withdrawal from the war cabinet would not automatically trigger a collapse of Netanyahu’s government.

It would, however, leave the prime minister more exposed to the demands of far-right- members of his cabinet.

All this comes at a time of daily protests in Israel, from those calling for immediate elections to those demanding that securing the hostages’ release should be the absolute priority, and those wanting an end to further humanitarian aid being allowed into Gaza. And at a time when the Israeli military is fighting in north, central and southern Gaza, and preparing for what may be the toughest phase of the campaign to date.

Blue Origin’s tourism rocket has launched passengers to the edge of space for the first time in nearly two years, ending a hiatus prompted by a failed uncrewed test flight.

The New Shepard rocket and capsule lifted off at 9:36 a.m. CT (10:36 a.m. ET) from Blue Origin’s facilities on a private ranch in West Texas.

NS-25, Blue Origin’s seventh crewed flight to date, carried six customers aboard the capsule: venture capitalist Mason Angel; Sylvain Chiron, founder of the French craft brewery Brasserie Mont-Blanc; software engineer and entrepreneur Kenneth L. Hess; retired accountant Carol Schaller; aviator Gopi Thotakura; and Ed Dwight, a retired US Air Force captain selected by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to be the nation’s first Black astronaut candidate.

Despite completing training at the Aerospace Research Pilot School and receiving an Air Force recommendation, Dwight ultimately didn’t make the NASA Astronaut Corps. He went on to become an entrepreneur and a sculptor; a new National Geographic documentary on Black astronauts, “The Space Race,” highlights Dwight’s pioneering story.

“I had no intention of being an astronaut. That was the last thing on my bucket list,” Dwight said in the documentary. “But once I was given the challenge, then everything changes.”

Dwight completed that challenge and reached the edge of space at the age of 90, making him the oldest person to venture to such heights, according to a spokesperson from Blue Origin.

“I thought I didn’t need it in my life,” Dwight said of the experience on Blue Origin’s livestream after the capsule touched down at 9:46 a.m. CT (10:46 a.m. ET). “But I lied. I really, really did need it.”

“It’s a life-changing experience,” he said. “Everybody needs to do this.”

The rocket booster landed safely a couple minutes prior to the capsule.

During the mission, the crew soared to more than three times the speed of sound, or more than 2,000 miles per hour. The rocket vaulted the capsule past the Kármán line, an area 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth’s surface that is widely recognized as the altitude at which outer space begins — but there’s a lot of gray area.

And at the peak of the flight, passengers experienced a few minutes of weightlessness and striking views of Earth through the cabin windows.

The launch followed the success of an uncrewed science mission in December — the New Shepard program’s first flight since the mishap more than a year earlier.

New Shepard’s 2022 failure

A New Shepard rocket and spacecraft were set to launch a batch of science instruments on September 12, 2022. But one minute into flight, the rocket endured Max Q — an aerospace term that refers to a moment of maximum stress on a vehicle. It occurs when the rocket is at a relatively low altitude — where the atmosphere is still fairly thick — but the spacecraft is moving at high speeds, creating a moment of intense pressure on the vehicle.

Around that time, the rocket appeared to emit a massive burst of flames. The New Shepard capsule, which rides atop the rocket, then initiated its launch abort system — firing up a small engine to blast itself safely away from the malfunctioning rocket. That system worked as intended, parachuting the capsule to a safe landing.

Blue Origin later revealed that the cause of the failure was a problem with the engine nozzle, a large cone that directs the flaming exhaust at the rocket’s bottom. Onboard computers accurately detected the failure and shut the engine down, according to the company.

No injuries were reported on the ground, and Blue Origin said the science payloads and the capsule could be flown again.

But the rocket, left without a functioning engine, smashed back into the ground and was destroyed. Typically after New Shepard launches, the rocket booster guides itself back to a safe upright landing so it can be flown again.

During a December interview with podcaster Lex Fridman, Bezos said the escape system that jettisoned the capsule to safety is the most difficult piece of engineering in the entire rocket — but “it is the reason that I am comfortable letting anyone go on New Shepard.”

“The (rocket) booster is as safe and reliable as we can make it,” Bezos added. “The power density is so enormous that it is impossible to ever be sure that nothing will go wrong. … So the only way to improve safety is to have an escape system.

“A tourism vehicle has to be designed in my view … to be as safe as one can make it,” he said. “You can’t make it perfectly safe. It’s impossible.”

Rocket fix and return to service

The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches and is charged with ensuring public safety, oversaw an investigation into the failure. The probe revealed that the engine nozzle failed because it experienced higher temperatures than what the company had anticipated.

To fix the issue, Blue Origin said it implemented “design changes to the combustion chamber” — the area of the engine where fuel explosively mixes with oxidizer — and adjusted “operating parameters,” or the data that the company uses to model safe flights.

“Additional design changes to the nozzle have improved structural performance under thermal and dynamic loads,” the company said in a March 2023 statement.

The FAA formally concluded the mishap investigation on September 27, 2023, outlining 21 “corrective actions” Blue Origin needed to implement before returning to flight. The agency did not reveal details on what those actions were, noting the report “contains proprietary data and U.S  Export Control information and is not available for public release.”

The changes and New Shephard’s successful December flight teed up the company to restart its trips to space for thrill seekers.

Before the September 2022 failure, New Shepard rockets had flown 22 consecutive successful missions — including six with passengers on board. Bezos flew aboard the rocket in 2021. Other notable space tourists previously carried by the vehicle include “Star Trek” actor William Shatner and “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan.

Karine Pitana had just paid off the last installment on her new couch when floods tore through her hometown of Canoas in southern Brazil nearly two weeks ago. It was just a piece of furniture, but for the 42-year-old nurse, there’s a pride in having worked hard for everything she owns.

The picture is a little different in Porto Alegre, the state capital of Rio Grande do Sul. It oozes a rich colonial history in its grand architecture and a sense of luxury in its large marinas. Landing pads for private helicopters are not an uncommon site.

Weeks of floods triggered by record-smashing rainfall have left parts of southern Brazil in disaster, also laying bare some of the country’s persistent social problems: inequality in the emerging economy is still rife; crime rates remain high; and local governance is often dogged by mismanagement and, sometimes, corruption.

There is stark inequality between the country’s north and its more affluent south. But even in Rio Grande do Sul, one of the wealthiest of Brazil’s states, affluent parts of Porto Alegre stand in sharp contrast with the rundown towns on its periphery, like Canoas.

Nearly three weeks after the first rains hit southern Brazil, water levels are still too high for Pitana to return home.

With the waters receding very slowly, Pitana is now stuck with her brother and his family in a neighborhood on higher ground. She’s also unable to commute to work, despite hospitals desperately needing nurses like her.

“I try to move around, my brother and my sister-in-law take me to the shelters, me and my daughter, and we end up helping some of the people there,” she said. “There’s no point in me staying at home, with my hands tied. … It also keeps our minds busy, when we’re helping others.”

Ironically, the name Canoas comes from the Portuguese word for “canoes,” but that didn’t spare the city from the worst of the floods — it was, in fact, one of the hardest hit.

Pitana is considered lucky to have relatives to turn to. Around a quarter of Brazilians housed in temporary shelters come from Canoas, according to state government data.

Porto Alegre’s population is four times larger than Canoas’, but fewer than a fifth of those in temporary accommodations are from the capital. Many ‘gaúchos’ — as the people of Rio Grande do Sul are known — can fall back on second homes away from the city.

These inequalities remain in Brazil, despite economic growth that, over the first two decades of this century, lifted millions of people out of poverty. The number of people living in extreme deprivation has been reduced from around 15% in 2001 to under 6% of the population in 2022. And just before the Covid-19 pandemic, it had fallen to its lowest level since 1980.

Yet income inequality has remained stubbornly high. Since the early 1990s, the gap between the richest and poorest Brazilians has narrowed, but not by much, and Brazil remains the world’s eighth-most unequal country, World Bank data shows. It ranks second-last for equality of all Latin American nations, ahead only of Suriname.

That problem also feeds Brazil’s issues with crime. As the floods came into the glitzy state capital, so too did criminals ready to loot.

Reports of sexual abuse inside some of the shelters also led to at least six arrests, according to authorities, forcing the local government to set up women- and- children- only shelters. Police and military officers were also given special training to provide adequate security inside the shelters.

In Rio Grande do Sul, crime rates are below the national average and violent crime has been on a downward trajectory, reaching a historical low in 2023, although drug trafficking and theft are still problems.

Brazil as a whole, however, is still one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Even though homicide rates have fallen, it still has the most in the world, with more than 45,000 cases, UN data shows.

Lula’s Hurricane Katrina moment

Rio Grande do Sul was hit with so much rain over so long, authorities are saying it could be weeks until the floodwaters recede, especially if more rain falls.

More than 30 inches of rain (750 mm) fell on parts of the state in two and a half weeks from the end of April. That’s just a few inches shy of what a city like Chicago or Dallas typically records in an entire year.

It’s the kind of extreme weather event that’s only going to become more frequent in the region as the climate crisis bears down, science shows.

A massive operation to get the state back on its feet is underway, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva disbursing an eye-watering $10 billion for the region to help it rebuild.

But anger is growing over how slowly the help came initially, as residents complain of inadequate spending on infrastructure that could have made this disaster less destructive. They are bracing for weeks of more disruption as floodwaters just won’t go away.

The outdated dikes built decades ago to keep rivers and lakes from overflowing, are now, ironically, trapping the water in, keeping much of the state, including Canoas, inundated.

“The water came into this side of the barriers, now it’ll take a long time, maybe 45, 60 days to take it to the other side,” Canoas Mayor Jairo Jorge da Silva said in an interview with Brazilian broadcaster Globo last week. “We’ve got ourselves a big pool.”

“The barriers, they end up preventing water flow in the opposite direction, the draining of the city,” said Pedro Cortês, an Environmental Science professor at the University of São Paulo.

It may not be quite the same scale, but some observers are saying the floods are Lula’s Hurricane Katrina moment.

Cortês says the combination of a lack of funding, planning and the unprecedented situation meant authorities were caught off guard.

“Unfortunately, investment in mitigation of the impacts of climate change and in tackling emergencies have been well below what is needed,” Cortês said.

“The state of Rio Grande do Sul wasn’t prepared for this kind of tragedy — it was obviously an exceptional volume of water, but the state didn’t have an adequate strategy to deal with it.”

And the government has had plenty of time to prepare. Research by Brazilian fact-checking website Lupa showed that 90% of all the areas affected by the devastating rain had experienced at least one flood or heavy rain-related emergency situation in the past decade.

Despite the warning signs, investment in flood prevention systems by Porto Alegre actually went down from 2021 to 2022, and did not even feature in the yearly budget in 2023. At the state level, funding for disaster response represents only 0.2% of the budget for 2024, despite numerous emergencies the previous year.

“Floods, not with this volume but with considerable volumes of water, have taken place in Porto Alegre in the last few years,” Cortês explains. “This was a completely unusual situation, a record situation, but unfortunately, because of what we know about climate change, it could repeat itself in the next few years unfortunately.”

Left to swim for survival

In the absence of professional help at the onset of the floods, volunteers had to take matters in their own hands.

One volunteer was Fabiano Saldanha, a 48-year-old businessman from Porto Alegre, who used his jet ski to rescue people trapped in their homes.

“It was mostly the population, us volunteers, that were rescuing people,” Saldanha says. “It was the people helping the people.”

He banded with other volunteers and coordinated teams on jet skis and small boats, navigating through narrow and debris-cluttered lanes to reach some of those trapped. Saldanha says he spent 10 days without seeing his family.

“One thing I kept repeating was, ‘No-one will be left behind,’” he recalled. He also said he believed authorities struggled to deal with the disaster in the first few days.

Even when authorities were organized and ordered evacuations, some people chose not to listen, believing the water wouldn’t reach them.

“One of those people was me,” Pitana admitted. “My mother, my father and my daughter evacuated beforehand, and they asked me to go with them, but I told them I was going to stay.”

Overnight, her home began to flood, first through the bathroom drains. Within an hour, the water was up to her knees. Then up to her waist.

“That’s when we started to panic, it was very fast,” she said, referring to herself and her husband. “We strapped some of the furniture, closed some doors and then we left — outside the water was higher, already up to our chest.”

Pitana was rescued by two young men who helped her and an elderly neighbour onto their rowboat — but it was too small to fit her husband as well.

“They had a vest in the boat and gave it to him, he put it on so he could swim along,” she said. “[The current] was very strong and the water was very deep already, maybe more than 2 meters I think.”

Pitana says she cried for help, but emergency services were nowhere to be found.

Thousands of people in the area have stories like Pitana’s. As Lula touched down in Canoas on Wednesday, for his third visit to the flood-hit areas, he tried to quell the discontent, telling reporters, “Everyone who lost their house, will have their home.”

He later announced a support package to help around 200,000 of those impacted by the floods totalling just over $200 million.

In addition to the $10 billion pledged to rebuild the state, Brazil is seeking more support from international institutions, like the IMF and World Bank.

Cortês says that both state and federal governments need to resist the urge to build quick and fast, and, rather, plan more thoughtfully for the future and its changing climate.

“The tendency is to try and rebuild what you lost. If you do that, cities will only be as resilient as they were before, and that is not enough,” he explained, calling for a deep risk analysis. “Any attempt to rebuild will need to think about preparing cities to be able to withstand these extreme weather events.”

Pitana can’t quite think about life in the future, she’s just focusing on the present, finding her new reality all-consuming. But she hopes authorities will do what they can to prevent this kind of disaster happening again.

“I think given the severity of this situation, they will do something — they have to,” she said. “We don’t want to think about it, but this will happen again.”

Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili has vetoed a controversial “foreign agents” bill that sparked weeks of widespread protests across the country.

Zourabichvili had previously vowed to torpedo the bill, but her veto could still be overruled by a simple majority in parliament, which approved the bill on Tuesday with 84 lawmakers voting in favor and 30 against.

The divisive legislation would require organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence” or face a fine. Opponents say the bill was modeled after similar laws in Russia that the Kremlin has used to snuff out opposition and civil society.

“This law, in its essence and spirit, is fundamentally Russian, contradicting our constitution and all European standards,” President Zourabichvili said after vetoing the bill on Saturday.

She said the bill must be repealed, suggesting it could prevent the country from joining the European Union. The EU had given similar warnings.

Georgia applied for EU membership in 2022 and was granted candidate status in December, a move seen as an effort to reverse the former Soviet republic’s drift toward Russia.

Georgia has long been caught between Russia and the West. Despite gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and polls showing that an estimated 80% of Georgians want to join the EU, its history with Moscow is hobbling its relationship with Europe.

Georgia’s stance towards Russia is decidedly mixed. The two countries have had no formal diplomatic relations since Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 – but Russians living and working there enjoy lax visa requirements, making it an easy choice for those who fled from Russia’s conscription into the war in Ukraine.

Majd Kamalmaz, an American man detained in Syria more than seven years ago, has died, according to a statement from the Bring Our Families Home Campaign (BoFH).

“Tragically, he did not survive the brutal conditions of the prisons, enduring seven long years without a case, trial or any form of communication with his family,” read a statement from Jonathan Franks, spokesperson for BoFH, a group that campaigns on behalf of Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained overseas.

“He was a kindhearted, loving and caring person who embodied these qualities as a son, husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle.”

Kamalmaz, a Texas psychotherapist, was detained in 2017 at a checkpoint in Damascus, Syria, while on a trip to visit family.

But Kamalmaz did not return home — and the silence since his 2017 detainment persisted.

“We do feel invisible,” said Maryam Kamalmaz, speaking on the first-ever Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day about her father’s disappearance earlier this year.

“For the last seven years, we have been struggling to come to grips with my father’s absence,” Maryam Kamalmaz said in the statement announcing her father’s death.

“The anguish and emotional turmoil that our family has been through has taken a heavy toll on our lives. He will be missed tremendously, yet we hope that his legacy of helping others in need lives on and is carried out by many.”

The FBI did not confirm Kamalmaz’s death but reaffirmed the trauma psychologist had not been heard from since he first went missing.

“In 2017, Majd Kamalmaz, a trauma psychologist who worked with individuals affected by war and natural disasters, traveled to Syria to visit a family member,” a statement from the FBI’s Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell read. “Kamalmaz has not been seen or heard from since his disappearance in Syria in February 2017. No matter how much time has passed, the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell works on behalf of the victims and their families to recover all U.S. hostages and support the families whose loved ones are held captive or missing.”

This story has been updated with additional information.