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  • Israeli, Lebanese officials to meet Thursday for 2nd round of talks — Israeli state media

    Israeli, Lebanese officials to meet Thursday for 2nd round of talks — Israeli state media

    Weeks of intense cross-border conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have given way to a fragile truce, and now officials from both nations are set to meet for a second round of direct negotiations aimed at locking in long-term stability along their shared border.

    A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Xinhua News Agency on Monday, confirmed that the talks will take place Thursday in the U.S. capital Washington. While the official declined to share additional details about the negotiating agenda or expected outcomes, multiple sources have already confirmed leadership for both delegations.

    Israeli outlet Reuters, quoting an anonymous Israeli government source, reports that Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States who participated in the first round of talks held earlier this month, will lead the Israeli negotiating team this week. On the Lebanese side, the country’s presidency made an official announcement via social media platform X on Monday morning confirming that former Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Simon Karam will head the Lebanese delegation.

    The presidency emphasized in its statement that Karam is the sole authorized representative for Lebanon in these talks, noting that “No one else will participate on Lebanon’s behalf or take its place in this mission.” The talks are also structured as an independent negotiation track separate from any other ongoing diplomatic efforts between the two sides, the statement added.

    This upcoming meeting marks the first formal negotiation between the two parties since the 10-day ceasefire agreement came into force at 2100 GMT on Thursday, ending weeks of deadly exchanges of fire that displaced tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border. Ahead of the ceasefire, an Israeli strike on a bridge in southern Lebanon’s Qasmiyeh region left two people dead, with rescuers working to recover their bodies just hours before the truce took hold, according to on-the-ground reports from April 20.

    Lebanon has laid out clear core objectives for the negotiations: the permanent end to all hostilities along the border, a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied southern Lebanese territories, and the deployment of the official Lebanese army to the country’s internationally recognized southern border. In its statement, the Lebanese presidency framed the current moment as a stark binary choice for all parties: either continue a prolonged conflict that would carry devastating humanitarian, social, economic, and national sovereignty costs, or work toward a lasting negotiated settlement that can end years of tensions along the border.

  • Hot air balloon makes emergency landing in California backyard

    Hot air balloon makes emergency landing in California backyard

    On a quiet Saturday morning in the Southern California city of Temecula, an ordinary day took a shocking turn for a local couple when a large hot air balloon carrying 13 passengers touched down unexpectedly in the grassy space behind their home.

    The pair, who were still resting when the incident occurred, woke to the startling sight of the aircraft settled in their backyard, with one of them captured on camera uttering an amazed “Look at that, wow!” in reaction to the unplanned intrusion.

    Local emergency response teams did not report any injuries among the passengers or the homeowners following the landing. While the exact cause that forced the pilot to divert from the planned route and land in a residential area has not been fully detailed in initial reports, the incident has drawn attention to the potential risks of recreational hot air ballooning near densely populated suburban zones. Residents of the quiet Temecula neighborhood, known for its wine country scenery and peaceful residential streets, expressed surprise at the rare event, with many noting they had never seen such a large aircraft land in a private residential space before.

  • Woman and child jumped off roof to escape deadly Louisiana shooting

    Woman and child jumped off roof to escape deadly Louisiana shooting

    A devastating mass shooting that erupted from a domestic dispute in Shreveport, Louisiana, has left eight children dead, including seven who were the biological children of the gunman, sending shockwaves through the tight-knit local community. Law enforcement officials confirmed the horrific attack unfolded early Sunday morning, with the first emergency alert reaching local dispatch at 5:55 a.m. Central Daylight Time. The first caller, who had trapped herself alongside a child on the home’s rooftop to escape the rampaging gunman inside, reported the ongoing violence to authorities. To escape the threat, the woman and the child jumped from the rooftop, and a ninth child also made the risky jump to flee the shooting. All three survivors were transported to local medical facilities, with the woman and first child listed in stable condition, and the ninth child also receiving care. Two adult women, one of whom is the mother of the slain children, also sustained gunshot wounds during the attack and remain in the hospital recovering, according to police updates. The Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office released details confirming the ages of the eight victims, who ranged between 3 and 11 years old, with five girls and three boys among the dead. Seven of the children were siblings, and the eighth victim was their cousin. Officials publicly released the names of the victims: 3-year-old Jayla Elkins, 5-year-old Shayla Elkins, 6-year-old Kayla Pugh, 7-year-old Layla Pugh, 10-year-old Markaydon Pugh, 11-year-old Sariahh Snow, 6-year-old Khedarrion Snow, and 5-year-old Braylon Snow. Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith walked through the chronological sequence of events in a press briefing on Monday, noting that just minutes after the first 911 call, the rooftop caller updated dispatch to report she and the children with her had moved from the roof to the home’s backyard to avoid detection. The violence did not end at the first residence, however. Shortly after the first update, a second emergency call came in from another nearby home, where a woman reported her boyfriend — identified by authorities as the same suspect Shamar Elkins — had shot her, abducted her three children, and fled the property. Law enforcement then received a report of a carjacking connected to the suspect, leading officers to believe the three abducted children were being held inside the stolen vehicle. Officers located the suspect’s vehicle at approximately 6:29 a.m., and a shootout between Elkins and responding officers followed. Elkins was found dead at the scene of the gunfight, but investigators discovered no children were inside the vehicle at the time of the encounter. Authorities have not yet confirmed whether Elkins died by suicide during the exchange or was fatally shot by responding officers. As of the latest update, investigators have not determined a clear motive for the attack. Chief Smith confirmed that Elkins had a prior criminal record, though he declined to release additional details about that history. All available evidence points to the attack originating from a domestic dispute, Smith said. The weapon used in the shooting was classified as an assault-style firearm, and investigators are still working to trace how Elkins obtained the weapon. Police also confirmed they are aware of reports that Elkins was in the process of a divorce and was scheduled to appear for a court hearing related to the divorce on the Monday following the attack. Local leaders have used the tragedy to highlight the urgent need for broader community action to prevent domestic violence, pointing out that a new domestic violence support center had opened in Shreveport just 10 days before the shooting. Many of the public officials who spoke at the shooting press conference had also attended the center’s opening ceremony. “I don’t believe that any of us could have imagined that only days later our community would be shaken by the most heart-breaking tragedy we have ever witnessed,” said Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn. The investigation into the attack remains ongoing as law enforcement works to piece together a full timeline of events and confirm the motive. This horrific incident adds to the growing national conversation about mass gun violence and domestic violence rooted harm in the United States.

  • What we know about the Iranian ship seized by the US

    What we know about the Iranian ship seized by the US

    In a dramatic escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran in the Persian Gulf, former US President Donald Trump has announced that American naval forces have intercepted and seized an Iranian-flagged ship attempting to enter the strategic waterway as part of a newly implemented naval blockade. The confirmation of the seizure came via a post on Trump’s own social media platform, Truth Social, where he detailed the sequence of events. According to Trump’s account, the vessel ignored multiple radio warnings from the US Navy to halt its progress, prompting US naval personnel to move in and take control of the ship. This incident marks the first seizure of an Iranian ship since the United States formally launched its blockade of Iranian ports in the region, breaking previous weeks of relatively limited confrontation along key maritime trade routes. The Iranian government has swiftly condemned the action, labeling it a clear violation of an existing ceasefire agreement between the two nations. Iranian officials have characterized the seizure as an “act of armed piracy” and have issued a formal warning that Tehran will carry out retaliatory measures in the near future in response to what it calls an unprovoked act of aggression against its sovereign maritime rights. The confrontation has sent immediate ripple effects across global security circles, with observers warning that the incident could reignite broader instability in the already volatile Middle East, a region that remains central to global energy supplies and international maritime trade.

  • Blue Origin rocket grounded after satellite ‘mishap’

    Blue Origin rocket grounded after satellite ‘mishap’

    Blue Origin, the private space exploration firm founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, has been forced to ground its flagship New Glenn rocket following a botched satellite launch that has triggered a formal investigation overseen by U.S. aviation regulators. The incident, which unfolded Sunday during only the third operational flight of the next-generation heavy-lift rocket, saw the vehicle fail to deliver an AST SpaceMobile communications satellite to its targeted low Earth orbit, rendering the $insured payload completely unusable.

    In public comments following the failure, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp confirmed that the root cause of the malfunction traces to insufficient thrust generated by one of the rocket’s engines. “We clearly didn’t deliver the mission our customer wanted, and our team expects,” Limp acknowledged, adding that the company is already working through a root-cause analysis to identify necessary fixes. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which regulates commercial space launch activities in the United States, has formally required Blue Origin to lead a full mishap investigation, with regulators overseeing every stage of the process.

    “The FAA will oversee the Blue Origin-led investigation, be involved in every step of the process and approve Blue Origin’s final report, including any corrective actions,” an agency spokesperson confirmed. No timeline for the completion of the probe has been released, and the FAA noted that it will make a final determination on when New Glenn can return to active launch operations only after reviewing the investigation findings and approving any planned corrective changes. Limp expressed confidence that the company would address the issue quickly, stating that the investigation would allow the team to “learn from the data and implement the improvements needed to quickly return to flight operations.”

    Market reaction to the launch failure was immediate: AST SpaceMobile, the company that owned the lost satellite, saw its share price drop more than 6% in trading on Monday. While AST confirmed that the financial loss from the destroyed payload would be covered by insurance, the firm declined to disclose the exact value of the lost asset. The satellite was intended to expand global mobile phone connectivity, a fast-growing segment of the satellite industry that has drawn investment from some of the world’s largest technology firms.

    The failed launch comes at a critical moment for Blue Origin, which had already lined up a dozen New Glenn launches for the remainder of 2025, including its own upcoming TerraWave project that plans to deploy thousands of connectivity satellites to low Earth orbit. Blue Origin is not the only Amazon-linked firm expanding into this space: Amazon itself recently closed an $11 billion acquisition of a satellite manufacturer and operator to advance its competing Project Leo, which aims to build out a large low Earth orbit connectivity constellation.

    Both Blue Origin and Amazon currently find themselves playing catch-up to SpaceX’s Starlink network, founded by billionaire Elon Musk. Starlink already operates thousands of functional connectivity satellites in orbit, providing global internet access to consumers and businesses even in remote, hard-to-reach regions of the world. Starlink has become one of SpaceX’s most profitable business segments, and the company is widely expected to hold its initial public offering later this year in what market analysts predict could become one of the largest public listings in history.

  • US singer D4vd charged with murder stemming from death of missing teenage girl

    US singer D4vd charged with murder stemming from death of missing teenage girl

    Rising American indie-pop musician D4vd, legally known as David Anthony Burke, 21, is facing three counts of first-degree murder over the 2025 killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, Los Angeles County prosecutors announced in a public press conference.

    According to District Attorney Nathan Hochman, Rivas Hernandez visited Burke’s Hollywood Hills residence on April 23, 2025, and was never seen or heard from again after that meeting. Five months later, on September 8, 2025, investigators recovered the teen’s dismembered, decomposed remains from the trunk of a Tesla vehicle registered to Burke’s Texas address. The remains were discovered at a Hollywood tow yard, where the vehicle had been impounded.

    Prosecutors have outlined three aggravated special circumstances attached to the murder charges. First, they allege Burke lay in wait to carry out the killing. Second, they claim the murder was committed for financial gain: Hochman stated Rivas Hernandez was threatening to expose Burke that night, which would have endangered his fast-growing, lucrative music career. Third, prosecutors say Burke killed Rivas Hernandez to eliminate her as a witness to prior sexual offenses he is alleged to have committed. Additional charges against Burke also include multiple counts of sexual assault of a minor and corpse mutilation. Hochman confirmed that prosecutors could pursue the death penalty in the case if Burke is convicted.

    Burke was arrested last week and remains in custody without bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday at a downtown Los Angeles court. His legal team has issued a forceful denial of the allegations following his arrest, stating that factual evidence in the case will prove Burke did not kill Rivas Hernandez and is not responsible for her death. The BBC has reached out to his attorneys for additional comment ahead of the arraignment, but has not received a further response.

    Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell addressed widespread public criticism over the seven-month gap between the discovery of Rivas Hernandez’ remains and the filing of charges. He defended the investigation’s pace, emphasizing that the priority was to build a solid case that would not be jeopardized by premature disclosure of details.

    “ My duty is not to fuel speculation. It’s to deliver justice, and that requires patience and discipline on everybody’s part,” McDonnell said. He noted that the degraded condition of the remains, which had been left undiscovered for months, delayed efforts to determine an official cause of death and degraded key evidence. Hochman echoed that explanation, adding that investigators had to interview dozens of witnesses, some of whom were uncooperative, and thoroughly process all available evidence before moving forward with charges. He urged any member of the public with additional information about the case to contact authorities.

    Before his arrest, D4vd had become one of the fastest rising young stars in indie pop. A Houston native, he first gained an online following as a teenager posting Fortnite gameplay content before teaching himself music production. He broke into the mainstream in 2023 with the viral hit singles *Here With Me* and *Romantic Homicide*, and released his debut EP *Petals To Thorns* that same year. He earned a spot on *Variety*’s 2023 Young Hollywood list and opened for Grammy-winning artist SZA on her SOS world tour. He released his first full-length studio album in April 2025, and at the time of his arrest he had 22 million monthly listeners on Spotify and nearly four million followers on TikTok. When remains were first discovered in the singer’s vehicle in September 2025, Burke was mid-world tour. He immediately canceled all upcoming tour dates and withdrew from public view. He was publicly named as a target of a grand jury investigation into Rivas Hernandez’ death in court documents released in February 2025. It remains unclear how the grand jury process will move forward following the filing of formal charges. Rivas Hernandez’ family has not issued any public statement about the case to date.

  • FBI Director Kash Patel files $250m lawsuit against The Atlantic

    FBI Director Kash Patel files $250m lawsuit against The Atlantic

    A high-stakes legal battle has erupted in U.S. political and law enforcement circles, as Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel has launched a $250 million defamation lawsuit against the major American magazine The Atlantic. The suit centers on what Patel calls deliberately false, reputation-ruining claims published by the outlet about his professional conduct in office.

    In the formal court filing, Patel alleges the magazine printed a series of fabricated and harmful assertions, including unproven accusations of habitual excessive drinking and repeated unexcused absences from his official duties. The lawsuit argues that the entire piece was constructed with intentionally false, manufactured allegations crafted explicitly to destroy Patel’s professional standing and force him out of his leading role at the FBI. Beyond disputing the story’s core claims, the suit accuses The Atlantic of failing to provide Patel with sufficient time to respond to the detailed list of allegations before publication, and of disregarding a pre-publication warning letter sent by his legal team. According to the filing, the outlet only granted Patel’s side a mere two hours to prepare a response to the claims. “They were on notice that the claims were categorically false and defamatory. They published anyway,” Jesse Binnell, Patel’s lead attorney, shared in a post on social platform X, alongside the full text of the pre-publication letter his team sent to the magazine.

    The original article, published by The Atlantic, drew on anonymous sources to claim that Patel’s on-the-job conduct posed a tangible risk to U.S. public safety and national security. The outlet has stood firmly behind its reporting, noting the piece was rooted in interviews with more than two dozen sources familiar with the situation. In an official statement released after the lawsuit was filed, the magazine said: “We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit.”

    The story’s reporter, Sarah Fitzpatrick, pushed back against Patel’s claim that the outlet failed to properly seek comment for the piece, pushing back on that allegation in an interview with MSNBC. “We reached out for comment to The White House, and to the Justice Department, neither of which disputed anything,” Fitzpatrick said. “We gave multiple opportunities, including 19 detailed, detailed questions. So we stand by every word.” Notably, the published article even included a direct response attributed to Patel himself, in which he dismissed all claims outright: “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court—bring your checkbook.”

    Under longstanding U.S. defamation law, established by the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in *New York Times Co. v. Sullivan*, public officials like Patel are required to meet a high legal bar to win a defamation suit: they must prove that the publishing outlet acted with “actual malice” — meaning the organization either knew the published information was false, or deliberately ignored critical fact-checking steps that would have revealed the falsity before going to print.

    The White House has publicly thrown its support behind Patel in the dispute. When reached for comment by the BBC following the lawsuit’s filing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt highlighted the Trump administration’s law enforcement record under Patel’s leadership at the FBI. “Under President Trump and Director Patel’s leadership at the FBI, crime across the country has plummeted to the lowest level in more than 100 years and many high-profile criminals have been put behind bars,” Leavitt said, adding, “Director Patel remains a critical player on the Administration’s law and order team.”

    Patel first publicly addressed the allegations during a Fox News interview this past Sunday, where he first confirmed he would pursue legal action against the magazine. As of press time, the FBI has not issued an immediate response to the BBC’s request for comment on the ongoing lawsuit.

  • Victory slips away as marathon runner celebrates too soon

    Victory slips away as marathon runner celebrates too soon

    The Delaware Marathon delivered one of the most dramatic and heartbreaking final moments in recent road racing history on Sunday, when a premature celebration turned a sure victory into a stunning upset. With only a few hundred meters remaining in the 42.195-kilometer race, the front-running runner had built a comfortable gap over his closest competitor, appearing poised to cross the finish line first and claim the top prize. In a moment that will be replayed in running highlight reels for years to come, the leader began slowing down early, raising his arms in celebration to acknowledge the cheering crowds lining the race course before he had actually crossed the official finish mat. Seizing the unexpected opportunity, the trailing runner, who had never given up the chase, dug deep for a final, all-out sprint. Closing the gap in mere seconds, the chaser surged past the stunned leader right at the finish line, crossing the tape first to steal the victory in a shocking turnaround. The shocking upset has already sparked widespread discussion among running communities about the importance of staying focused until the final step, serving as a cautionary tale for competitors at all levels of endurance sports.

  • Watch: Skydiver crashes into jumbotron at US football game

    Watch: Skydiver crashes into jumbotron at US football game

    A planned pre-game skydiving demonstration at a Virginia Tech University football event took an unexpected turn on Saturday, when one airborne performer veered off course and collided directly with the stadium’s massive overhead jumbotron.

    Witnesses captured the dramatic moment on camera, showing the skydiver becoming tangled in his parachute lines after the impact, leaving him suspended dozens of feet above the stadium playing field. Emergency first responders were already on standby for the event, and they immediately launched a coordinated rescue operation to extract the stranded skydiver from the scoreboard structure.

    In a statement released after the incident, local emergency management officials confirmed that the skydiver escaped the frightening collision without any reported injuries. The accident prompted a brief delay to the start of the scheduled football contest while the rescue was completed, and the event resumed as planned once the area was cleared. Organizers have not yet announced whether they will revisit safety protocols for future aerial demonstration events held at the venue.

  • Trump tariff refunds begin but consumers likely to miss out

    Trump tariff refunds begin but consumers likely to miss out

    More than two months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a sweeping set of Trump-era tariffs, the current Trump administration has kicked off what historians and trade analysts describe as the largest tariff repayment initiative in U.S. history. Eligible importing companies can now submit claims online to recover the billions in duties they paid, plus accumulated interest, under the administration’s controversial “Liberation Day” tariffs.

    The legal path for refunds cleared in March, when the U.S. Court of International Trade ordered U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to return the full $160 billion (around £121 billion) collected from importers under the tariffs, which were imposed using the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The court’s ruling puts roughly 330,000 registered importers in line to potentially claw back at least a portion of the funds they paid.

    In a March ruling, Judge Richard Eaton emphasized that “All importers of record whose entries were subject to IEEPA duties are entitled to the benefit” from the Supreme Court’s February decision. When the official online claims portal, branded the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (Cape), went live earlier this month, more than 56,000 importers had already completed their applications within the first week, submitting claims totaling $127 billion, according to early CBP data.

    CBP officials designed the Cape platform to streamline the refund process, allowing importers to submit a single bulk claim for all eligible duties rather than filing separate requests for each individual imported shipment. Approved claimants can expect to receive their full refund plus applicable interest within 60 to 90 days of approval, a CBP spokesperson confirmed.

    But the structure of the program has sparked widespread frustration, as ordinary consumers who bore the indirect cost of the tariffs through higher retail prices are excluded from direct compensation. The tariffs pushed up prices on a huge range of imported goods, from raw materials used by small businesses to finished consumer products, but only registered importing companies are eligible to file claims. While consumers could theoretically see indirect benefits if companies choose to pass recovered funds back to shoppers through lower prices, few firms have announced plans to do so, leaving millions of affected Americans with no path to relief.

    In response to the exclusion, hundreds of consumers have launched class-action lawsuits against major retailers and brands, arguing that any refunds businesses receive should be passed through to the customers that ultimately paid the tariff costs. Federal suits have already been filed against EssilorLuxottica, the parent company of Ray-Ban, global delivery firm FedEx, and wholesale retail giant Costco in multiple U.S. district courts. Costco is an outlier among major companies: chief executive Ron Vachris has confirmed the retailer plans to pass any tariff refunds back to consumers “through lower prices and better values.”

    For small business owners who absorbed higher supply costs, the exclusion is a particularly bitter blow. Sue Johnson, a small-batch lamp designer based in the Midwest, told the BBC that her key material supplier doubled prices immediately after the tariffs went into effect, cutting her profit margins dramatically. “Maybe [the importers] will get repaid, but I have no hope they’re going to refund me,” Johnson said, adding that she expects no relief from the current refund program.

    The issue of consumer compensation is further complicated by the uneven impact of tariffs on business pricing. Many importers only partially passed tariff costs through to consumers to stay competitive, meaning they absorbed a portion of the cost themselves. Tariffs also triggered secondary, hard-to-quantify costs for businesses, from higher debt loads taken on to cover upfront duty payments to lost sales from reduced consumer demand at higher price points.

    Top Trump administration officials have openly acknowledged that consumers are not expected to see direct benefits from the program. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer encouraged successful claimants last month to allocate any unexpected “windfall” refunds to worker bonuses rather than passing the money to consumers. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent echoed that framing in February, saying “I got a feeling the American people won’t see it.”