WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would ask European nations to pay back the United States for military aid and munitions previously sent to Ukraine amid the ongoing war with Russia and appeared to signal a halt in sales to allied nations. In a social media post. “We are taking them for ourselves, the U.S.A., rather than selling them to others, but the sales to Allies will soon again, begin,” Trump wrote.

 

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MADRID (AFP) - More than 80 migrants are feared dead after a boat that had set out from the Gambia with 128 people aboard was found drifting south of Spain’s Canary Islands following nearly four weeks at sea, Spanish news agency EFE reported on Thursday. The boat was spotted by a Spanish Maritime Rescue aircraft on Wednesday afternoon about 120 km south of Gran Canaria. The rescue vessel Guardamar Urania reached the boat around midnight and found 45 survivors and five bodies on board. The survivors were taken to the port of Arguineguin on Gran Canaria. Due to rough sea conditions, rescuers were unable to recover the five bodies and left them on the migrant boat.

 

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MOSCOW (AFP) — The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the German Charge d’Affaires Bernd Finke to protest Berlin’s allegations that a drone found with explosives at the Leipzig airport last month was of Russian origin. Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev was called to the German Foreign Ministry on Tuesday over the same incident. Germany also ordered the closure of the Russian Consulate General in Bonn. Nechayev called the claims of the explosive-laden drone found on Aug 5 completely unfounded. Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on Tuesday that the German actions are linked to the country’s domestic politics. 

 

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KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Rescuers pulled two survivors from a tunnel linked to a hydropower station on Nepal’s Trishuli River on Friday, nine days after a wall of ice, rock and mud tore through its valley, killing more than 1,300 people and leaving over 5,600 missing. Officials and rescue workers say they believe the August 26 collapse of a glacier on the upper reaches of the river trapped at least 900 people in tunnels related to six hydropower projects. The two workers pulled from the tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station are the first to be rescued from the hydropower projects and have been taken to an army hospital in the capital Kathmandu, giving search teams a flicker of hope as the possibility of finding other survivors fades. The army said they had also recovered a body from the site.

 

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LAGOS (Reuters) - At least 37 people died after inhaling fumes as they tried to tap an oil pipeline in southern Nigeria, an environmental group said on Friday, though authorities have not confirmed the toll. The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre said the incident happened at around midnight on Thursday at Okrika in Rivers State. Police said te victims died while attempting to steal crude oil. “Investigation is ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident and ascertain the facts,” said Rivers police spokesperson ASP Blessing Kaborlo Agabe. The incident, the worst known death toll since at least October 2023, highlights the persistent problem of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta, where illegal tapping has caused deaths, pollution and losses to Nigeria’s oil industry.