Swedish climate and human rights activist Greta Thunberg departed Israel on a flight to France on Tuesday after being detained by Israeli forces alongside other activists aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza.

“Greta Thunberg just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden (via France),” Israel’s foreign ministry wrote in a post on X alongside two photos of the young activist aboard a plane.

Thunberg, 22, is a well-known climate activist who has long eschewed air travel, famously sailing to a climate conference in New York in 2019.

At least five of her fellow crew members who were also detained on board the Madleen aid ship Monday have refused to agree to depart voluntarily and will be deported, according to France’s Foreign Minister on Tuesday.

“Last night our consul was able to see the six French nationals who were arrested by the Israeli authorities. Their families have been contacted. One of them agreed to a voluntary departure and is expected to return today. The other five will be deported,” Jean-Noël Barrot wrote in a post on X.

One of the French nationals detained by Israel on Monday is Rima Hassan, a Member of the European Parliament.

“Over the last days and hours, the President of the European Parliament has been in constant contact with the Israeli authorities… to ensure the safety and security of the Member of the European Parliament, Rima Hassan, who was one of the people aboard the boat Madleen and all those accompanying her,” Delphine Colard, a spokesperson for the European Parliament said on Monday.

Israel’s foreign ministry had said earlier that anyone who refused to sign deportation documents and leave Israel would be brought before judicial authorities to authorize their deportation.

The detained crew of the Gaza-bound aid ship that was intercepted by Israel on Monday morning docked in the Israeli port of Ashdod Monday evening, according to Israel’s foreign ministry.

The Madleen is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an organization that has campaigned against Israel’s blockade of Gaza and tried to break the siege by boat.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said the Israeli military had “attacked” and “unlawfully boarded” the Madleen, which was attempting to deliver aid to Gaza – where more than 600 days of war, and an 11-week Israeli blockade of all aid, has pushed the enclave’s 2.1 million people deeper into a hunger crisis.

Amnesty International also condemned the detention of the activists.

“The operation of intercepting and blocking the Madleen in the middle of the night and in international waters violates international law and put the safety of those on the boat at risk,” Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said in a statement.

Israel had repeatedly vowed to stop the aid boat from reaching Gaza and described the ship as a “selfie yacht” carrying “celebrities.”

Israel imposed a full humanitarian blockade of Gaza on March 2, cutting off food, medical supplies, and other aid to the more than 2 million Palestinians who live in the territory for 11 weeks.

Faced with growing international pressure, Israel began allowing a trickle of aid in late May. But humanitarian organizations say it is only a fraction of the aid that entered the enclave before the war, and have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis and the growing risk of widespread famine. A UN-backed report warned in late April that one in five people were facing starvation.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed over the past week while on their way to try and obtain aid from a new US-backed group commissioned to deliver aid to Gaza, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The group is intended to replace the UN-led system of distributing aid in Gaza. The United Nations has warned that the new distribution mechanism has become a “death trap” for desperate people seeking food in the strip.

India’s coast guard is fighting a massive blaze aboard a container ship that’s threatening to sink about 15 nautical miles off the coast of Kerala as the search continues for four missing crew members.

Images showed flames and towering plumes of diesel smoke rising from the Singaporean-flagged MV Wan Hai 503 that was tilting “10 to 15 degrees” in the water, according to Indian Coast Guard Commandant Amit Uniyal.

Explosions were still being heard on Tuesday, more than 24 hours after the Indian Coast Guard responded to a distress call. Around 9:30am local time Monday, the ship’s crew reported a fire caused by an explosion, Uniyal said, though it’s not clear what caused the blast.

Eighteen sailors were rescued from the stricken ship with “some injuries,” according to The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. Four crew members remain missing.

The 269-meter (890-foot) vessel left Colombo, Sri Lanka on June 7 and was set to arrive in Mumbai, India on Monday.

Five Indian Coast Guard vessels were fighting the fire Tuesday, reporting that “explosions persist from mid‑ships to the container bay ahead of the accommodation block,” according to an official social media account.

Images posted by the Indian Coast Guard show flames, black smoke and charred containers. An environmental observation vessel is monitoring their efforts, but the scale of the impact is not yet known.

The incident is the second serious shipping incident off Kerala in under a month, after the Liberian-flagged MSC ELSA 3 sank on May 25.

The vessel went down with over 600 containers including 13 containing “hazardous cargo,” according to the government of Kerela which initiated an environmental emergency and instructed fisherman against working in the area.

India’s Director General of Shipping said none of the 61 containers that washed ashore from the MSC Elsa 3 contained hazardous cargo and 51 had been removed from the shoreline as of June 9.

An underwater operation has been launched to cap the sunken ship’s oil tanks and eventually salvage its fuel, the office wrote in a statement.

French 7’3” NBA star Victor Wembanyama may have just unlocked a new position: Shaolin monk.

Wembanyama, who ended last season early due to a rare blood clot in his right shoulder appeared to be looking for some off-season spiritual peace and strength at a Shaolin Temple in central China.

A widely circulated image showed the San Antonio Spurs center with a freshly shaven head, sitting pensively in front of small Budda statues inside a room typically used by abbots to receive guests.

Chinese state media reports confirmed on Monday that he was indeed at the temple.

NBA said on its official Weibo page on Monday that “according to reports” Wembanyama has shaved his head and begun a 10-day retreat in the Shaolin Temple.

In a separate video on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, a bystander spotted the towering basketball player at the temple.

The 1,500-year-old monastery, nestled deep in the forested mountains of central China’s Henan province, is known for Zen Buddhism and the Chinese martial art of kung fu.

Retreats at the temple focus on discipline, meditation and inner harmony and aim to help disconnect from real-world distractions.

The 21-year-old Wembanyama – a 2024-25 NBA All-star and 2023-24 Rookie of the Year, just went through a tough season.

He had been out since February following a rare deep vein thrombosis diagnosis and several weeks later the Spurs were officially eliminated from playoffs.

Wembanyama seemingly wanted to stay low-key on his journey at the monastery.

But a state-owned outlet of Henan province, where the temple is located, reportedly learned from people at the temple that “Wembanyama is indeed currently in the Shaolin Temple, but the relevant matters are not convenient to be disclosed to the public”.

Right before the spiritual tour, the French basketballer spent a couple of fun days in Beijing. Locals spotted him shopping, playing basketball, walking in a park, and even visiting the Greal Wall, as shown in their social media footage.

The San Antonio Spurs on Friday shared a video on Instagram of Wembanyama as he visited the Great Wall of China in Beijing.

“It’s Victor Wembanyama. Life in China on the Great Wall itself, having an amazing time. It’s crazy,” he said.

The Shaolin temple often attracts well known figures. Prominent US YouTuber IShowSpeed visited to the same temple back in March, training with a kung fu master and generating millions of views on his social media accounts.

A shooter opened fire at a high school in the Austrian city of Graz, authorities said Tuesday, killing eight people including teenagers.

Officers first responded to the reports of “several” suspected gunshots at the Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium Dreierschützengasse school in the northwest of the city at around 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET).

Several vehicles and a police helicopter were deployed to the site. The school was evacuated and the area was secured, with no further danger expected, the police said on social media.

Gun violence is rare in Austria, along with most central European countries. The country’s rate of firearm homicides was just 0.1 per 100,000 people in 2021, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, compared to 4.5 per 100,000 people in the United States.

But a small number of high-profile violent incidents have taken place there in recent years. Last October, the mayor of a northern Austrian town was shot dead, along with another victim.

In February, a 23-year-old man stabbed five passersby in southern Austria in what police said was a random attack.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) has said the Israeli military has boarded its Gaza-bound aid ship carrying Greta Thunberg and that communication with the boat has been lost.

The group posted a photo on Telegram early Monday local time, showing members of the crew of the “Madleen” sitting inside the boat wearing lifejackets and with their hands in the air. No Israel Defense Force soldiers can be seen in the image.

In an earlier post, the FFC said the ship had come “under assault in international waters.”

“Quadcopters are surrounding the ship, spraying it with a white paint-like substance. Communications are jammed, and disturbing sounds are being played over the radio,” FFC said on its Telegram channel.

Israel has repeatedly vowed to stop the aid boat from reaching Gaza.

“I have instructed the IDF to ensure that the ‘Madleen’ flotilla does not reach Gaza,” Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said on Sunday.

In a video livestreamed from the boat and posted by the FFC, activist Yasmin Acar showed a white substance on the deck, saying it had been dropped on the vessel. Acar was later heard saying it was affecting her eyes. Before the live stream ended, Acar could be heard saying the Israeli military was communicating with the board

Israel vowed on Sunday to stop the aid boat carrying Thunberg and other activists on board from reaching Gaza.

The “Madleen” is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an organization that has campaigned against Israel’s blockade of Gaza and tried to break the siege by boat.

Climate activist Thunberg, “Game of Thrones” actor Liam Cunningham and Rima Hassan – a French member of the European Parliament – are among those on the Madleen.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry posted video on X showing a Navy staffer issuing what appears to be a radio message to the vessel.

“The maritime zone off the coast of Gaza is closed to maritime traffic,” the unidentified Navy staff member is heard saying. She is later heard saying aid needs to be delivered through “established channels.”

In a statement, the ministry said “unauthorized attempts to breach the blockade are dangerous, unlawful, and undermine ongoing humanitarian efforts.”

“We call on all actors to act responsibly and to channel humanitarian aid through legitimate, coordinated mechanisms, not through provocation,” the ministry added in a statement on Monday local time.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The Israeli military recovered the body of de facto Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar in a tunnel underneath the European Hospital in southern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday.

The IDF said it made the announcement after the body went through an identification process.

Sinwar is the younger brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by the Israeli military in southern Gaza in October.

His death marks the latest in a string of assassinations that have dealt a serious blow to the group’s top brass but are yet to break its grip on power in the besieged enclave.

The elusive Sinwar was targeted in a massive airstrike on the hospital in Khan Younis on May 13, a day after Hamas released Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander.

At the time, the IDF said it had struck “Hamas terrorists in a command-and-control center” in underground infrastructure at the hospital.

But it took more than two weeks for Israel to say that it had definitively killed Sinwar in the strike.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the announcement on the 600th day of the war two weeks ago.

“We changed the face of the Middle East, we pushed the terrorists from our territories, we entered the Gaza Strip with force, we eliminated tens of thousands of terrorists, we eliminated (Mohammad) Deif, (Ismail) Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar,” Netanyahu said in a speech at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

The attack killed 28 Palestinians and wounded more than 50 others, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said after the strike.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Acclaimed Ukrainian opera singer Vladislav Horay has been killed while on a volunteer mission to the Sumy region, where a frontline battle for territory continues.

Horay was a soloist with the Odesa National Opera, which said in a statement that he was a “world-class tenor” and “Honored Artist of Ukraine,” whose voice was known around the globe.

“Tragic news has shaken the entire artistic community of Ukraine,” the opera house said in a post on Facebook on Sunday. “(Horay) was not only a talented performer — he was an example of strength, dignity, and kindness in life.”

The post did not say how Horay died.

According to a June 5 post on Horay’s Facebook, he was raising money for a Ukrainian naval unit.

Horay joined the Odesa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet in 1993 and performed in the USA, Britain, Canada and many other countries, according to its website. He also toured Britain and performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

His last performance was just a day before he died, according to the Odesa opera house, which uploaded a video of Horay singing the Neapolitan song “O Sole Mio.”

“Today, we share this video with you. It is not just a performance. It is farewell. It is the last concert. It is the last gift from a singer who lived for the stage and left a piece of his soul there.”

The northeast Sumy region where the Opera house said Horay was killed, has been a fierce battleground in the Russia-Ukraine war. The Opera said he was there on a volunteer mission, but did not elaborate.

Russian forces have in recent weeks made incremental progress advancing towards the capital of the region, also called Sumy.

While capturing the region’s capital is likely beyond what Moscow is setting out to do, the move underlines the pressure Kyiv is under, from the northern border to the Black Sea.

Israel’s blockade of Gaza may have been partially lifted – and a new US-backed plan to deliver aid has begun. But there are multiple indications that the plight of Gazans is rapidly worsening.

Restrictions imposed by the Israeli military on aid routes, ongoing airstrikes, a lack of security and the continuous displacement of tens of thousands of people are aggravating an already alarming situation, according to the UN and other aid agencies. The supplies that do get in risk getting looted.

“People in Gaza are starving. This demands the urgent opening of all crossings and allowing unimpeded access for humanitarian organizations to deliver aid at scale, through multiple routes,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest assessment.

The number of children in Gaza with acute malnutrition is rising, the UN reported Saturday, while a lack of fuel threatens to close hospitals that are still operating.

The Israeli agency handling the inspection of aid going into Gaza, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said Saturday that 350 trucks containing humanitarian aid had entered the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the last week – less than 20 per cent of the volume of goods getting into Gaza before the conflict.

And even the aid that gets in frequently does not make it to the most desperate. UN agencies report continuing difficulties with getting distribution routes within Gaza agreed with the Israeli military. OCHA said that out of 16 truckloads ready for distribution last Thursday, five were rejected, including fuel and water, and six failed to reach their destination.

Additionally, the looting of aid convoys in Gaza has risen sharply in recent weeks.

“Operations have faced unprecedented levels of insecurity and a very high risk of looting, with partners reporting that most looting incidents are conducted by desperate civilians,” according to OCHA.

Nahed Shehaibar, head of the Private Transport Association in Gaza, said on Saturday that transport of aid had been suspended “for the third consecutive day due to repeated attacks on trucks, including gunfire that has damaged and put several trucks out of service.”

Last week the association reported that one driver was killed and another injured while trying to deliver aid, but Shehaibar said on Sunday that 11 trucks of commercial goods had reached merchants in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza successfully.

On Sunday, GHF said it operated three distribution sites – two in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza – to hand out more than 17,000 boxes of food. In addition, GHF said in its daily update that it gave more than 10,000 meals to community leaders north of Rafah in what the organization called a pilot test of “direct-to-community distribution.”

But many people who went to the Netzarim site in central Gaza left empty-handed.

Nader Musleh, who had walked from Al-Mawasi several kilometers away, agreed.

“Some people took five or 10 boxes, and there’s no organization at all,” he said.

Mohammad Abu Akouz was one of several civilians who alleged that some people were injured after coming under Israeli tank fire as they made their way to the site.

GHF said it had been unable to open its sites on Saturday, accusing Hamas of making threats against its operations, including against drivers and Palestinian workers. It said the threats had made it impossible to proceed without putting innocent lives at risk.

The drivers had been scheduled to move 180 employees to the three distribution sites, he added.

GHF said on Friday that it had distributed more than 140,000 boxes of food, with each box intended to feed a family for half a week. The boxes contain pasta, lentils and cooking oil, among other products. GHF says its goal is to distribute boxes containing enough food for 4.5 million meals each day.

After last week’s shootings, GHF appealed to people not to arrive at distribution points “before the official opening time or gather near the gates ahead of schedule. This is for your safety and the safety of others.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Saturday in a post on X that gathering outside distribution centers outside of announced hours was “strictly prohibited,” and warned that the areas around the aid hubs were closed military zones between 6 p.m. (11 a.m. ET) and 6 a.m. (11 p.m. ET).

The UN says that the use of the Israeli and American-backed GHF has militarized aid distribution and is inadequate for the huge task of feeding families in Gaza. GHF has no presence in northern Gaza.

In its latest assessment, OCHA said that 90 per cent of families in Gaza lack the cash needed to buy what little food remains available in markets. “Meat, dairy, vegetables and fruit are nearly absent from people’s diets,” it said.

Half of the community kitchens in Gaza have been forced to stop cooking due to lack of supplies or displacement orders, according to OCHA.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – the main agency for supplying aid in Gaza – said Saturday that a nutrition study had found that the percentage of children under 5 suffering from acute malnutrition had risen from 4.7% in the first half of May to 5.8% in the second half of the month.

UNRWA said the number of children forced to fend for themselves had pushed an increasing number into “dangerous survival strategies. Children are reported working on the streets, participating in looting or gathering within large crowds in search of food supplies at insecure distribution points.”

It’s not just food that is running chronically short.

He added that “a large number of the wounded cannot be treated due to the lack of blood supplies and medical equipment,” and medical staff faced difficult choices about which patients to save.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Sunday that Al-Shifa Hospital and the Baptist Ahli Hospital, both in northern Gaza, were at risk of shutting down service within 24 hours. It said that would mean the collapse of what remains of the healthcare system in Gaza City.

In the south, the Health Ministry said the Nasser Medical Complex was operating on a limited fuel supply that will last no more than two days.

North Korea has moved a new warship damaged in a botched launch to a port near the Russian border, a move analysts say could point to a role for Moscow in repairing the vessel.

Satellite images taken Sunday by Maxar Technologies show the 5,000-ton destroyer, as yet unnamed, in a drydock in the port of Rajin, part of North Korea’s Rason special economic zone, which abuts its short border with Russia.

While not a major shipbuilding facility like the shipyard in the northeastern city of Chongjin where the launching accident occurred, Rajin has facilities for modest repairs and maintenance, said Yu Jihoon, director of external cooperation and an associate research fellow at Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

And its proximity to Russia “makes it a key node for North Korea’s efforts to deepen economic and potentially military ties with Moscow,” Yu said.

A 2024 report from the Modern War Institute at West Point, the United States Military Academy, calls the Rason economic zone “a significant point of North Korea–Russia cooperation, recently implicated in North Korean arms shipments to Russia for use in Ukraine.”

The warship was damaged on May 21, when during its launch the stern went into the water but the bow stayed stuck on land. The ship turned on its side in the botched maneuver.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who attended the launching ceremony, ordered the destroyer to be repaired by the late-June plenary session of the ruling Workers’ Party, calling it a matter of national honor.

State media reported last week repairs at the Rajin drydock would take seven to 10 days, meeting Kim’s timeline.

Kim said it’s possible the ship’s sonar and depth finders, located on the bow section, were damaged during the botched launch.

Such damage would likely require foreign help to repair, he said.

“North Korea is believed to lack the technology for sonar systems, so they likely imported them from China or Russia,” Kim said.

“The vessel’s external damage doesn’t seem significant, and the main issue seems to be the water flooding into the warship” was the assessment of the South Korean military, Yu said.

Internal spaces of the ship, as well as machinery and electronics, will have to be purged of sea water and dried salt in the repair process, analysts said.

Yu said Russian assistance in the repair process was a possibility, but it would be difficult to verify if it only involved engineers and not the movement of major pieces of equipment.

North Korea is believed to have sent millions of munitions, including missiles and rockets, to Russia over the past year, according to watchdog the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team.

In return, Russia has provided North Korea with valuable weapons technologies, including air defense equipment, anti-aircraft missiles and electronic warfare systems as well as refined oil, the watchdog said last month.