标签： Oceania

Amid a sharp escalation of daytime strikes across Ukraine, a Russian drone attack on a crowded covered market in the central Ukrainian city of Nikopol has left five civilians dead and 25 others injured, local officials confirmed Saturday. The assault, which occurred at 9:50 a.m. local time in the Dnipropetrovsk region, marked the latest shift in Russia’s long-running invasion tactics, after years of mostly nighttime bombardments that have given way to increasingly frequent daytime attacks in recent weeks.

Regional governor Oleksandr Ganja announced via Telegram that the fatalities included three women and two men. Among the wounded, a 14-year-old girl was listed in critical condition, adding a devastating new layer of tragedy to the attack on the civilian commercial site. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service published on-the-scene images showing firefighters battling blazes and clearing rubble at the devastated market, illustrating the scale of destruction from the strike.

The Nikopol attack was part of a broad wave of bombardment that stretched across multiple Ukrainian regions over a 24-hour period Saturday. In the northeastern frontline city of Kharkiv, six additional civilians were wounded in ongoing morning strikes. Overnight prior to the attack, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched 286 drones across the country, with 260 successfully intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses. In the northern Sumy region, overnight strikes targeting residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure left 11 people injured, with emergency service images showing upper floors of a residential building fully engulfed in flames. Closer to the frontline in the southeastern city of Kherson, one additional woman was killed and two others wounded in a separate strike.

Cross-border violence extended into Russian territory over the same period, as Russian officials reported multiple fatalities and injuries from incoming attacks. In Taganrog, a city in Russia’s southern Rostov region bordering Ukraine, a combined missile and drone strike killed one civilian and left four others with serious injuries, according to regional governor Yuri Slyussar. Slyussar also added that a foreign-flagged cargo ship anchored in the Sea of Azov caught fire after being struck by falling drone debris. In Russian-occupied Lugansk, the Moscow-backed local administration claimed a nighttime Ukrainian drone strike on railway infrastructure killed a family of three, including an eight-year-old child, in their private home.

The latest wave of violence comes as peace negotiations between the two countries remain deadlocked, with diplomatic efforts hampered by ongoing conflict in the Middle East. On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an unannounced visit to Istanbul for security talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a long-time mediator between Kyiv and Moscow. Earlier this week, Zelensky signaled Ukraine’s openness to a temporary truce during the Orthodox Easter holiday, but the Kremlin rejected the overture, stating it had not received any clearly formulated peace proposals.

Kyiv has repeatedly accused Moscow of dragging out the conflict to seize additional Ukrainian territory, arguing the Kremlin has no genuine interest in a negotiated peace. For its part, Russia has said it prefers a long-term permanent settlement over a short-term ceasefire that would only pause hostilities. Negotiations mediated by the United States have been on hold since the outbreak of war in the Middle East diverted global diplomatic attention.

In comments published Friday, Zelensky told reporters he had invited a U.S. negotiation delegation to travel to Kyiv to restart talks with Moscow, with a plan for the delegation to travel to the Russian capital after holding initial discussions in Ukraine. “If a three-party meeting doesn’t work out, we can proceed this way,” he explained. Amid the Middle East crisis, Ukraine has moved to position itself as a key partner for regional nations facing drone threats similar to those Russia has launched against Ukraine, pointing to shared experience countering Iranian-designed unmanned aerial vehicles. Just last week, Zelensky completed a tour of Gulf nations, signing new defense cooperation agreements with Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He also floated the idea that Ukraine could help re-open the Strait of Hormuz, whose frequent disruptions from Iranian retaliatory actions have shaken global energy markets, drawing on Kyiv’s experience clearing safe passage through the Black Sea after Russia’s initial blockade at the start of the invasion in 2022.

As Australia prepares for the Easter holiday, a national fuel crisis driven by Middle East geopolitical tensions has put the government in a delicate position: urging residents to proceed with planned getaways while calling for strict fuel conservation. The disruption stems from escalating conflict between the United States and Iran linked to Israel, which has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz — the world’s most critical chokepoint for global energy shipments.

Australia’s energy sector is uniquely vulnerable to this disruption, with roughly 90% of the nation’s fuel supply imported from Middle Eastern producers. As of Saturday, Energy Minister Chris Bowen confirmed that 312 of Australia’s approximately 8,000 service stations are currently out of diesel, with shortages concentrated disproportionately in regional and rural areas where supply replenishment takes far longer than in major urban centers. To reassure the public, Bowen released official reserve figures in televised comments: the country holds 39 days of petrol reserves, 29 days of diesel, and 30 days of jet fuel stockpiled for emergency use.

In a rare national address earlier this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned Australian households that the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict will persist for months. “Australia is not an active participant in this war. But all Australians are paying higher prices because of it,” he stated, echoing a message that has been reinforced by government officials across departments. Albanese has urged residents to cut back on non-essential fuel consumption and shift to public transit for daily travel where feasible. In line with this guidance, Bowen encouraged Easter travelers Saturday to stick to necessary fuel purchases, saying “Go take a break — but get no more fuel than you need,” while affirming that Easter, as a time of faith and family gathering, remains an important occasion for communities across the country.

While the blockade has halted nearly all commercial shipping through the strait — which carries roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil and natural gas supplies — limited transits have begun to resume in recent weeks. According to French media reports, a container ship flagged in Malta and owned by leading French shipping firm CMA CGM completed a traversal of the waterway Friday. Shipping analysts confirm this marks the first time a major Western European shipping company has moved a vessel through the strait since hostilities broke out in late February. The company has not yet issued a public comment on how the vessel secured safe passage.

A handful of other vessels have also completed successful transits in recent weeks. Japanese energy infrastructure firm confirmed one of its liquefied natural gas carriers crossed the strait without incident. On Saturday, Turkey’s Minister of Transport Abdulkadir Uraloglu announced that a second Turkish-flagged vessel had completed the crossing, one of 15 Turkish ships that have been anchored waiting for passage since conflict erupted. Uraloglu told CNN Turk that the transits were made possible through Turkish diplomatic initiatives, and that the two vessels were either calling at Iranian ports or carrying cargo originating from or bound for Iran. The first Turkish transit, granted Iranian approval, took place on March 13.

Third-party data from BBC Verify, analyzed in late March, shows that roughly 100 vessels have passed through the strait since the blockade began. Though overall traffic remains down by approximately 95% compared to pre-conflict levels, the limited transits confirm that the waterway has not been completely closed to all shipping. Iran has publicly stated that “non-hostile vessels” are permitted to use the strait, but continued attacks on commercial shipping in the area have deterred most major global carriers from resuming normal operations. The disruption has sent fuel prices soaring in Australia and across global markets, prompting governments worldwide to roll out fuel conservation measures to offset supply shortages.

After seven months of one of the largest and most intensive manhunts in Australian history, the search for Dezi Freeman — the fugitive who killed two police officers in August 2025 — ended on Monday in a fatal standoff at a remote rural campsite, leaving a community grappling with partial closure and lingering unanswered questions.

Weeks earlier, investigators had publicly stated they strongly believed Australia’s most wanted man had died while evading capture in the rugged mountain bushland where he vanished shortly after the double shooting. Freeman, a well-known conspiracy theorist and self-identified “sovereign citizen” who went by the alias Desmond Filby, fled into the dense bush near the small Victorian town of Porepunkah immediately after ambushing two officers who arrived at his property to execute a search warrant over historical child sex abuse allegations.

The operation concluded on a remote farm in Thologolong, a tiny community located near the border of Victoria and New South Wales. According to Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush, officers maintained a 24-hour covert stakeout of Freeman’s ramshackle campsite, set up inside disused shipping containers, before calling on him to surrender. “We gave him every opportunity to come out peacefully and safely. He didn’t take that option,” Bush confirmed to reporters.

Local media reports, citing unnamed police sources, state that after three hours of negotiations, Freeman emerged from one of the containers at approximately 8:30 a.m. local time, armed with a weapon stolen from the two slain officers. Multiple police snipers fired simultaneously, killing him at the scene.

The outcome came as a profound shock to Thologolong’s small local population of just 22 residents. The land where Freeman set up camp is owned by elderly farmer Richard Sutherland, who has been staying in Tasmania for months, according to his brother and neighbor Neil Sutherland. Sutherland confirmed the property owner had no connection to Freeman and did not share his extremist beliefs. In recent weeks, some local road signs were found graffitied with Freeman’s name, which local cattle farmer Janice Newnham told the BBC she had dismissed as a tasteless April Fool’s Day prank. Newnham added she remains skeptical any local resident knew of Freeman’s hiding place, noting that in the tiny tight-knit community, “everyone seems to know what everyone else is doing.”

From the early days of the manhunt, Freeman’s intimate knowledge of the local alpine terrain and off-grid survival skills gave investigators a major disadvantage, explained Dr. Vincent Hurley, a former police hostage negotiator and current policing lecturer at Macquarie University. Unlike urban fugitives, who leave traceable digital footprints from mobile phones, travel and financial transactions that can be tracked via modern tools like facial recognition, Freeman operated in an unpopulated wilderness with no digital footprint. “There was no easy way to actually try and track him down because they literally just had to go searching through the bush, and that’s pretty, pretty rare,” Hurley said.

The only comparable recent case in Australia was that of Malcolm Naden, who evaded capture for nearly seven years in New South Wales before being arrested in 2012. But unlike Naden, who left a clear trail of broken into properties and temporary campsites, Freeman left no trace of his movements for seven months. That complete lack of evidence has led police to conclude the fugitive received outside help to stay off the grid.

“We’re keen to learn who, if any – but we suspect some – assisted him in getting away from Porepunkah… if anyone was complicit, they will be held accountable,” Bush told reporters. While it is physically possible to walk the 150-kilometer route from Porepunkah to Thologolong, investigators consider this extremely unlikely: the trail crosses rugged, heavily forested mountain terrain, with extreme temperatures ranging from sub-freezing in winter to 40 degrees Celsius in summer, conditions that make independent travel and survival nearly impossible. Police sources also indicate Freeman likely only arrived at the Thologolong campsite recently, after severe bushfires swept through the region in January, burning within a kilometer of the property and forcing a full evacuation of the area that saw constant emergency service and air patrol activity.

Physical evidence from the campsite further supports the theory of outside assistance. Photos published by local media show recently installed air ducts fitted to the shipping container Freeman hid in, a modification that would likely require multiple people to complete. Three camping chairs and an open case of beer found at the site also suggest Freeman was not alone at the camp. Police have closely monitored Freeman’s family throughout the manhunt, who have publicly condemned his actions; his wife was reportedly shocked by the news of his discovery, having long believed he was already dead.

Hurley said he believes any accomplices are almost certainly fellow sovereign citizen believers, who reject the authority of government and law enforcement. No ordinary local would support Freeman after the brutal killing of two officers, he argued, adding that Freeman was known to be a loner with few close connections outside his ideological circle. Hurley also believes the tip that led police to Freeman’s hideout did not come from within the sovereign citizen movement, whose members are deeply anti-police and unlikely to cooperate. For Freeman himself, Hurley added, surrender was never a realistic option: “Being captured alive, that would be the ultimate humiliation and betrayal to him as a person. For the duration of the time he was at large, he was symbolically giving the middle finger to the police all over Australia.”

Many key questions about the manhunt and Freeman’s seven months on the run may never be answered, Bush has hinted. The investigation into potential accomplices is still in its early stages, and the police chief confirmed that while investigators received information that led them to the hideout, details of how the tip was obtained will remain confidential. Notably, no one has come forward to claim the AU$1 million reward offered for information leading to Freeman’s capture, and Bush said all details related to the reward and the investigation’s final phase will remain “absolutely confidential.” Adding, “I’m quite sure we’ll never be sharing those details.”

In a sharp escalation of the month-long Middle East conflict that began with coordinated US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, Israel carried out a wide-ranging wave of airstrikes targeting Iran’s capital Tehran early Wednesday, just hours before US President Donald Trump was set to deliver a highly anticipated national address on the future of the war. The conflict, which has already spread across the region, has sent global energy markets into chaotic volatility and placed the entire global economy at serious risk of disruption.

Iranian state media first confirmed the assault, reporting loud explosions across northern, eastern, and central districts of the capital. Shortly after the strikes, the Israeli military officially confirmed the operation and later announced it was intercepting a new missile launch launched from Iran — the first retaliatory missile attack from Iran in roughly 20 hours. Beyond the capital, the violence spilled across multiple regional fronts on Wednesday, underscoring the conflict’s rapid expansion.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which joined the conflict over the weekend, fired a missile toward Israel. Israeli air defense systems intercepted the projectile, and no casualties were reported. However, the Houthi’s ongoing threats to disrupt Red Sea shipping have added new strain to global trade, already disrupted after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints. In Lebanon, the Israeli military confirmed it carried out strikes that killed a senior Hezbollah commander, with Lebanon’s health ministry reporting seven civilian fatalities in strikes on southern Beirut and surrounding areas. Since Israel launched its campaign against the Iran-backed militant group, more than 1,200 people in Lebanon have been killed and over a million have been displaced from their homes. To the east across the Gulf, Iran launched retaliatory drone strikes against US-aligned regional nations that Tehran accuses of serving as launching pads for American attacks. Kuwait’s civil aviation authority reported a major fire at fuel storage tanks at Kuwait International Airport following a drone attack, while Bahrain recorded a fire at a commercial facility tied to Iranian aggression, and Saudi air defenses intercepted and destroyed multiple incoming drones. A British maritime security firm also reported that a commercial tanker was hit by a projectile off the coast of Doha, Qatar’s capital, causing structural damage but no reported injuries or deaths.

On the diplomatic front, the status of any negotiations to end the conflict remains murky. Trump, whose public comments on the war have shifted repeatedly between combative rhetoric and hints of diplomacy, has publicly predicted the conflict will end within two to three weeks. “But we’re finishing the job,” he insisted, ahead of his scheduled 9:00 pm Wednesday address (0100 GMT Thursday), which the White House described as an “important update on Iran.” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian responded by confirming his country has the political will to end the war, but only if hostile powers provide guarantees that the conflict will not reignite in the future. In a stark warning to the United States, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened major damage to 18 leading American technology firms — including industry giants Intel, Tesla, and Palantir — accusing the companies of complicity in previous targeted assassinations of Iranian leaders. The IRGC warned that any further killings of senior Iranian figures would lead to “destruction” for the firms.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remained unyielding, saying the Israeli campaign will continue despite his claims that the conflict has already “changed the face of the Middle East” and eliminated Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear program threats. “We had to act, and we acted,” he said in a televised address on the eve of the Passover holiday. “We will continue to crush the terror regime.” The Israeli military reported Wednesday that it has struck approximately 7,000 targets across the region since the war began, including 4,000 targets inside Iran, and claims to have eliminated more than 2,000 Iranian soldiers and senior commanders.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who recently visited American troops deployed in the Middle East, told reporters Tuesday that the coming days will be the most decisive of the conflict to date. “Iran knows that, and there’s almost nothing they can militarily do about it,” he said. US Central Command also released video Tuesday showing American forces using precision munitions to strike underground military targets deep inside Iranian territory. Trump ramped up pressure on Iran Monday, threatening to “obliterate” Iran’s critical oil infrastructure including its main Kharg Island export terminal, and even civilian water desalination plants, if Tehran refuses to accept a US-brokered deal.

The Iranian government has repeatedly denied it is engaged in formal negotiations with the United States, though Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that he still receives direct communications from US envoy Steve Witkoff. “This does not mean that we are in negotiations,” Araghchi told Al Jazeera.

Global financial markets have reacted sharply to conflicting signals around the conflict. Crude oil prices have jumped amid persistent concerns over the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil supplies pass daily. However, Asian stock markets rallied Wednesday following Trump’s comments hinting the war could end soon: Japan’s Nikkei 225 index opened more than 3 percent higher, while South Korea’s Kospi gained nearly 5 percent. Trump has drawn criticism for his comments saying that France, China, and other nations dependent on passage through the Strait of Hormuz will have to “fend for themselves” if they refuse to assist the US in securing the waterway during the conflict.

Domestically, surging fuel prices driven by the regional standoff have emerged as a political liability for Trump. During a stop at a suburban Washington gas station Wednesday, 83-year-old Jeanne Williams expressed widespread public frustration with the rising costs and the conflict itself. “That is horrible,” she said. “I’m just bewildered, confused, unhappy. Because we didn’t ask for this war.” Trump has brushed off concerns about rising prices hurting American consumers, telling reporters that prices will fall rapidly once the US withdraws from the conflict. “All I have to do is leave Iran,” he said. “And we’ll be doing that very soon, and they’ll come tumbling down.”