International from Wednesday, August 6th, 2025

Ghana's Defence Minister Edward Omane Boamah died in a military helicopter crash on Wednesday along with four other officials and three airforce crew, the government said.

Israel's military chief has pushed back against Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to seize areas of Gaza it doesn't already control, three Israeli officials said, as the prime minister faces increasing pressure over the war both at home and abroad.

Hezbollah said on Wednesday the Lebanese government was committing a "grave sin" by tasking the army with establishing a state monopoly on arms, sharpening a national divide over calls for the Shi'ite Muslim group to disarm.

The United Nations has called reports about a possible decision to expand Israel's military operations throughout the Gaza Strip "deeply alarming" if true.

US envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Wednesday, two days before the expiry of a deadline set by President Donald Trump for Russia to agree to peace in Ukraine or face new sanctions.

Rescue crews raced on Wednesday to clear debris and flooded roads as southern China braced for more extreme rainfall and spreading infection after some of the worst downpours this century, as East Asian monsoon rains peak.

Firefighters in southern France were battling on Wednesday to control the country's biggest wildfire so far this year, local authorities said.

Rescuers battled heavy rain and blocked roads in India's Himalayan state of Uttarakhand on Wednesday, after four deaths in sudden flooding and landslides the previous day left dozens missing and an entire village submerged under sludge.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met senior security officials to finalise a new strategy for the nearly two-year war on Gaza, with media reporting he favoured a complete military takeover of the Palestinian territory.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein who was convicted in 2021 of helping him abuse teenage girls, said she opposed the US government's bid to release transcripts of proceedings before the grand jury that indicted her.

At least four people were killed after a civil protection surveillance plane crashed at Jijel Ferhat Abbas airport in the north Algerian town of Taher, Algerian media reported, citing civil protection authorities.