World News

Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a two-day state visit to China this week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, in the latest show of unity between the two authoritarian allies against the U.S.-led Western liberal global order.

Putin will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his visit starting on Thurday, the ministry said, saying the two leaders would discuss "cooperation in various fields of bilateral relations ... as well as international and regional issues of common concern." No details were mentioned.

The Kremlin in a statement confirmed the trip and said Putin was going on Xi’s invitation. It said that this will be Putin’s first foreign trip since he was sworn in as president and began his fifth term in office.

PUTIN SECURES 5TH TERM AS RUSSIAN PRESIDENT IN ELECTION WITH NO REAL OPPOSITION, ADDRESSES NAVALNY DEATH

China has backed Russia politically in the conflict in Ukraine and has continued to export machine tools, electronics and other items seen as contributing to the Russian war effort, without actually exporting weaponry.

China is also a major export market for energy supplies that keep the Kremlin’s coffers full.

China has sought to project itself as a neutral party in the conflict, but has declared a "no limits" relationship with Russia in opposition to the West. The sides have also held a series of joint military drills and China has consistently opposed economic sanctions against Russia in response to its now two-year-old campaign of conquest against Ukraine.

The two continent-sized authoritarian states are increasingly in dispute with democracies and NATO while seeking to gain influence in Africa, the Middle East and South America.

Putin's visit comes just days ahead of Monday's inauguration of William Lai Ching-te as the next president of Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that China claims as its own territory and threatens to annex by force if necessary.

Xi returned last week from a five-day visit to Europe, including stops in Hungary and Serbia, countries viewed as close to Russia. The trip, Xi's first to the continent in five years, was seen as an attempt to increase China's influence and drive a wedge between the EU and NATO on one side, and a yet-to-be-defined bloc of authoritarian nations on the other underpinned by Chinese economic influence that has been wavering amid a housing crisis and dramatically slower domestic economic growth.

Austrian judges have ruled that a man who kept his daughter captive for 24 years, raped her thousands of times and fathered seven children with her, can be moved from psychiatric detention to a regular prison, a court said Tuesday.

The decision on Monday was the latest in a legal back-and-forth on Josef Fritzl's future.

The state court in the town of Krems said in a statement that the 89-year-old can be moved as he no longer poses the kind of danger that requires keeping him in psychiatric detention. The decision was based on an April 30 hearing with Fritzl, as well as reports by forensic and psychiatric experts.

JOSEF FRITZL, WHO RAPED DAUGHTER AND KEPT HER CAPTIVE FOR 24 YEARS, COULD MOVE TO REGULAR PRISON

Because of Fritzl's advancing dementia and physical decline, psychiatric detention is no longer necessary for his "combined personality disorder" as there is no longer a danger of Fritzl committing serious crimes, the court said.

The court said Fritzl can be moved to the prison for a 10-year trial period but that he cannot be released from detention altogether.

Prosecutors appealed an earlier decision in January that Fritzl could be moved to a regular prison, and both sides also are entitled to appeal the latest decision.

His crime came to light in 2008 and he was sentenced in 2009 to life imprisonment for committing incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment and enslavement of his daughter, and negligent homicide of one of his infant sons.

Fritzl became known as the "Monster of Amstetten" after the northern Austrian town where he locked up his then-18-year-old daughter in a sound-proofed basement of his house in 1984.

Over the next 24 years, he repeatedly raped her and fathered seven children with her, one of whom died.

The mother of a U.S. Army soldier who has been detained in Russia after visiting a girlfriend tells Fox News Digital that if she could write a letter to her son, she would say "I love you, I miss you, [and] I hope you get to come home soon." 

Melody Jones is speaking out as it is approaching two weeks since Staff Sgt. Gordon Black was taken into custody by Russian authorities in the far eastern city of Vladivostok. Black, 34, has been charged with criminal misconduct and is accused of stealing from his girlfriend. 

"I think he worries about shaming us, and I would tell him in a letter, no you haven’t," Jones told Fox News Digital. 

She added that this past Mother’s Day without him was "really hard" and that she isn’t aware of his current condition. 

MOTHER OF DETAINED US SOLDIER SAYS RUSSIAN GIRLFRIEND BEGGED FOR MONEY BEFORE HIS ARREST 

"We don’t hear anything, it’s bugging me," Jones said. "What I understand, they have not been able to see him." 

"It would be nice to know that he is OK. You worry about those things, being a momma," she also said. 

A U.S. Army spokesperson, when asked by Fox News Digital this week for further information on Black’s situation, said "there are no new updates at this time." 

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment, but a spokesperson said last week that it is aware of Black’s reported arrest and detention and that the department has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans abroad. 

Black enlisted in the Army as an infantryman in 2008 and has been assigned to the Eighth Army U.S. Forces Korea at Camp Humphreys in South Korea. He traveled to Vladivostok, Russia, "for personal reasons" prior to his arrest on May 2, the Pentagon says.  

MOTHER OF AMERICAN SOLDIER DETAINED IN RUSSIA WHILE VISITING GIRLFRIEND BELIEVES HE WAS ‘SET UP’ 

The Pervomaisky District Court of Vladivostok said "When choosing the preventive measure in the form of detention, the court came to the conclusion that US citizen B. (Black) -- under the weight of the charges -- could hide from the preliminary investigation authorities and the court to avoid responsibility," according to Reuters.  

It reportedly added that Black will be detained until July 2 for "secretly stealing the property of citizen T., causing the latter significant damage." Russian officials in Vladivostok said a 32-year-old woman had filed a complaint against Black. 

Reuters cited the officials as saying that the pair met in South Korea before Black came to visit her in Russia, during which they became involved in an argument. She then reportedly filed a police report accusing him of stealing money and Black was taken into custody at a hotel. 

"On April 10, Black out-processed from Eighth Army and signed out on permanent change of station, to leave en route to Texas," Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said last Tuesday. "However, instead of returning to the U.S., Black flew from Korea through China, and then to Vladivostok, Russia, for personal reasons."  

The Army has opened an administrative investigation to determine the facts and circumstances around his travel, Singh noted, and part of the investigation will involve looking into consequences for his actions. 

Jones previously told Fox News that her son's Russian girlfriend asked her for money shortly before her son was arrested on theft charges. 

Fox News’ Bailee Hill, Louis Casiano, Greg Wehner and Pilar Arias contributed to this report. 

Rescuers on Tuesday searched in rivers and the rubble of devastated villages for bodies, and whenever possible survivors, of flash floods that hit Indonesia’s Sumatra Island over the weekend.

Monsoon rains and a landslide of mud and cold lava from Mount Marapi caused rivers to breach their banks. The deluge tore through mountainside villages in four districts in West Sumatra province just before midnight Saturday.

The floods swept away people and 79 homes and submerged hundreds of houses and buildings, forcing more than 3,300 residents to flee to temporary government shelters, National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said.

INDONESIA'S MOUNT IBU VOLCANO ERUPTS, AUTHORITIES PREPARE TO EVACUATE THOUSANDS

The National Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement that 52 bodies had been pulled from mud and rivers by Tuesday, mostly in the worst-hit Agam and Tanah Datar districts, while rescuers are searching for 20 people who are reportedly missing.

Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said that more downpours were forecast for the West Sumatra province in the coming days, and that the danger of extreme rainfall would continue until next week. The agency recommended the application of weather modification to reduce rain.

National Disaster Management Agency chief Suharyanto said that authorities would start seeding clouds in the province in a bid to prevent further rainfall and flash floods.

"We are deploying weather modification technology starting tomorrow so that rain does not fall during this emergency response period," Suharyanto, who goes by a single name like many Indonesians, told reporters while visiting devastated areas in Agam district. He added that the emergency response will be ended on May 25.

Television reports showed rescue personnel using jackhammers, circular saws, farm tools and sometimes their bare hands, digging desperately in Agam district where roads were transformed into murky brown rivers and villages covered by thick mud, rocks, and uprooted trees.

Scores of rescue personnel were searching through a river around the Anai Valley Waterfall area in Tanah Datar district where tons of mud, rocks and trees were left from flash floods.

Rescuers were focused on finding four people from a group of seven that were swept away with their cars. Three other bodies were pulled out on Monday, said Abdul Malik, who heads the Search and Rescue Office in Padang, the provincial capital.

"With many missing and some remote areas still unreachable, the death toll was likely to rise," Malik said.

Heavy rains cause frequent landslides and flash floods in Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near floodplains.

The weekend disaster came just two months after heavy rains triggered flash floods and a landslide in West Sumatra, killing at least 26 people and leaving 11 others missing.

A surprise eruption of Mount Marapi late last year killed 23 climbers. The mountain’s sudden eruptions are difficult to predict because the source is shallow and near the peak, according to Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation.

Marapi has been active since an eruption in January 2024 that caused no casualties. It is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia. The country is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

Two miners were killed and one remains missing after a cave-in at the Myslowice-Wesola coal mine in southern Poland early Tuesday in which 12 other miners were hurt, mining authorities said Tuesday.

The cave-in happened around 3:30 a.m. some 2,800 feet underground in an area where 15 miners were working, said Rajmund Horst, the deputy head of the company that runs the mine.

He said two of the miners located by rescuers and brought to the surface were declared dead, while one was being taken to the hospital. Eleven other miners were earlier brought to the surface with various injuries. Nine of them remain hospitalized.

KENTUCKY HOUSE VOTES TO DECREASE EMERGENCY SAFETY MEASURES IN SMALL COAL MINES

Rescuers were still searching for one missing miner but had no contact with him. Six teams of rescuers were working in the area.

The accident happened near the coal face, an area especially exposed to cave-ins or explosions of methane gas, which is present in the rock in many Polish coal mines.

It is the second cave-in at the Myslowice-Wesola mine this year, following one on April 17 that killed one miner. Two other coal mine workers were killed in accidents inside other mines in Poland this year, while in 2023, 15 miners were killed in on-the job accidents.

An unknown number of orcas rammed a sailing yacht in Moroccan waters in the Strait of Gibraltar on Sunday morning, causing it to later sink, the latest attack in a trend that has been terrifying sailors in the region for the past four years. 

The latest incident took place at around 9 a.m. when crew members aboard the 50-foot-long Alboran Cognac called rescue services for help, saying that their ship had been damaged by the apex predators about 14 miles from Cape Spartel, local outlet El Pais reports, citing Spain's maritime rescue service. Cape Spartel is located at the southern entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar.

A helicopter was mobilized and the oil tanker MT Lascaux which was sailing nearby was also asked to provide assistance.

KILLER WHALES MAY BE ATTACKING BOATS AS REVENGE FOR INJURED MATRIARCH: SCIENTISTS

The tanker eventually rescued the two people onboard and transported them to Gibraltar. The yacht was left adrift and eventually sank.

The incident is the latest example of recurring orca rammings around the Gibraltar Strait that separates Europe from Africa and off the Atlantic coast of Portugal and northwestern Spain.

Experts believe them to involve a subpopulation of about 15 individuals given the designation "Gladis."

According to the research group An Atlantic Orca Task Force (GTOA), which tracks populations of the Iberian orca subspecies, there have been nearly 700 interactions since orca attacks on ships in the region were first reported in May 2020.

VIDEO SHOWS KILLER WHALE NEAR SPAIN BITING RUDDERS OFF BOAT

It is unclear why the orcas are targeting boats but some experts believe they may be acts of revenge.

Marine biologist Alfredo Lopez Fernandez told Live Science previously that the lead whale, a female orca scientists have called White Gladis, suffered a "critical moment of agony," likely a collision with a boat or entanglement with a fishing line, that turned her more aggressive. 

Other theories include it being a playful manifestation of the mammals' curiosity, a social fad or the intentional targeting of what they perceive as competitors for their favorite prey, the local bluefin tuna.

All but a handful resulted in only minor injuries or damage. However, the attacks have grown more frequent and a few have led to boats sinking.

For instance, in August last year, Phep Philouceros, 77, was sailing off the coast of Cape Vincent in Portugal, when his boat was attacked by orcas. The sailor, who has 55 years of experience, said the orcas continued for 30 minutes — even following the boat as it was towed to shore. He caught part of the attack on video. 

Fox News’ Peter Aitken and Reuters contributed to this report. 

Authorities in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia announced a two-day curfew and banned gatherings on Tuesday after violent unrest erupted in the capital of Noumea and other areas.

In Paris, the French Interior Ministry announced that police reinforcements were being sent to island.

The territory’s top French official, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, said 46 security forces had been injured in the unrest and 48 people had been arrested. No serious civilian injuries were reported, he said in a statement.

MAGNITUDE 7.5 QUAKE STRIKES IN PACIFIC NEAR NEW CALEDONIA

Le Franc said Noumea was wracked by "high intensity" disturbances overnight Monday to Tuesday that damaged numerous stores and video surveillance equipment. Schools were closed on Tuesday, and most business and shops, some damaged in the unrest, remained shut.

French media reported that the unrest started with protests against voting reforms that French lawmakers are debating in Paris which would increase the number of people who could cast ballots in New Caledonia.

New Caledonia, colonized by Napoleon’s nephew in the 19th century, is a vast archipelago of about 270,000 people east of Australia that is 10 time zones ahead of Paris and hosts a French military base.

Tensions in the archipelago between native Kanaks seeking independence and descendants of European colonizers who want to remain part of France have been simmering for decades.

NEW CALEDONIA IN PACIFIC TO VOTE ON INDEPENDENCE FROM FRANCE

Le Franc said in an interview with French broadcaster BFM that clashes between police forces and pro-independence protesters and opponents of the constitutional reform occurred overnight in Mont-Dore, a town in the southeast near Nouméa. Shots were fired at gendarmes "from high caliber weapons and hunting rifles," he said.

Hundreds of cars were set on fire and dozens of businesses and homes could be seen in flames on videos posted on social media.

"The situation remains extremely tense," Le Franc said. He said internal security troops and civil security forces have been mobilized to intervene.

Gatherings on public roads and in public places have been prohibited in the municipalities of Nouméa, Dumbéa, Mont-Dore and Païta, and all travel on public roads and in public places there was banned from Tuesday afternoon until Wednesday morning, except for health and public emergencies.

Le Franc called for calm and "strict compliance with the measures taken to ensure the safety of the population."

The archipelago’s population incudes native Kanaks, who once suffered from strict segregation policies and widespread discrimination, and descendants of European colonizers.

A peace deal between rival factions was reached in 1988. A decade later, France promised in the Noumea Agreement to grant New Caledonia political power and broad autonomy and hold up to three successive referendums.

The three referendums were organized between 2018 to 2021 and a majority of voters chose to remain part of France instead of backing independence.

New Caledonia became French in 1853 under Emperor Napoleon III — Napoleon’s nephew and heir — and was used for decades as a prison colony. It became an overseas territory after World War II, with French citizenship granted to all Kanaks in 1957.

An Australian judge sentenced a former army lawyer to almost six years in prison on Tuesday for leaking to the media classified information that exposed allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.

David McBride, 60, was sentenced in a court in the capital, Canberra, to five years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to three charges including theft and sharing with members of the press documents classified as secret. He had faced a potential life sentence.

Justice David Mossop ordered McBride to serve 27 months in prison before he can be considered for release on parole.

JUDGE RULES AUSTRALIA'S MOST DECORATED WAR VETERAN UNLAWFULLY KILLED POWS, COMMITTED WAR CRIMES IN AFGHANISTAN

Rights advocates argue that McBride's conviction and sentencing before any alleged war criminal he helped expose reflected a lack of whistleblower protections in Australia.

McBride addressed his supporters as he walked his dog to the front door of the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court to be sentenced.

"I’ve never been so proud to be an Australian as today. I may have broken the law, but I did not break my oath to the people of Australia and the soldiers that keep us safe," McBride told the cheering crowd.

A lawyer for McBride, Mark Davis, said that his legal team would appeal a ruling that prevented McBride from mounting a defense. Mossop ruled in November last year that McBride had no duty as an army officer beyond following orders.

"We know that the Australian military teach a much broader notion of what the duty of an officer is in a battle field than to follow orders," Davis said.

AUSTRALIA'S MOST DECORATED WAR VETERAN APPEALS COURT RULING THAT BLAMED HIM FOR UNLAWFUL KILLING OF AFGHANS

Davis said the severity of the sentence also created grounds for appeal, but their effort would focus on the earlier ruling.

McBride’s documents formed the basis of an Australian Broadcasting Corp. seven-part television series in 2017 that contained war crime allegations including Australian Special Air Service Regiment soldiers killing unarmed Afghan men and children in 2013.

Police raided the ABC’s Sydney headquarters in 2019 in search of evidence of a leak, but decided against charging the two reporters responsible for the investigation.

In sentencing, Mossop said he did not accept McBride’s explanation that he thought a court would vindicate him for acting in the public interest.

McBride’s argument that his suspicions that the higher echelons of the Australian Defense Force were engaged in criminal activity obliged him to disclose classified papers "didn’t reflect reality," Mossop said.

An Australian military report released in 2020 found evidence that Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and civilians. The report recommended 19 current and former soldiers face criminal investigation.

Police are working with the Office of the Special Investigator, an Australian investigation agency established in 2021, to build cases against elite SAS and Commando Regiments troops who served in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.

Former SAS trooper Oliver Schulz last year became the first of these veterans to be charged with a war crime. He is accused of shooting dead a noncombatant man in a wheat field in Uruzgan province in 2012

Also last year, a civil court found Australia’s most decorated living war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith had likely unlawfully killed four Afghans. He has not been criminally charged.

Human Rights Watch’s Australia director Daniela Gavshon said McBride’s sentencing was evidence an Australia’s whistleblowing laws needed exemptions in the public interest.

"It is a stain on Australia’s reputation that some of its soldiers have been accused of war crimes in Afghanistan, and yet the first person convicted in relation to these crimes is a whistleblower not the abusers," Gavshon said in a statement.

"David McBride’s jail sentence reinforces that whistleblowers are not protected by Australian law. It will create a chilling effect on those taking risks to push for transparency and accountability – cornerstones of democracy," she added.

Some lawmakers from minor parties and independents raised McBride's sentencing in Parliament on Tuesday.

Greens lawmaker Elizabeth Watson-Brown told Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that McBride had been imprisoned for the "crime of telling the truth about war crimes."

"Why won’t your government admit that our whistleblower laws are broken and commit to urgent reform to keep whistleblowers like Mr. McBride out of jail?" Watson-Brown asked the prime minister.

Albanese declined to answer, saying it might prejudice McBride's appeal.

"I’m not going to say anything here that interferes with a matter that is quite clearly going to continue to be before the courts," Albanese told Parliament.

Andrew Wilkie, a former government intelligence analyst whistleblower who’s now an independent lawmaker, said Australian governments "hate whistleblowers."

"The government wanted to punish David McBride and to send a signal to other insiders to stay on the inside and to stay silent," Wilkie said.

Wilkie quit his intelligence job in Australia's Office of National Assessments days before Australian troops joined U.S. and British forces in the 2003 Iraq invasion. He publicly argued that Iraq didn’t pose enough of a threat to warrant invasion and that there was no evidence linking Iraq’s government to al-Qaida.

Georgia’s parliament on Tuesday began the third and final reading of a divisive bill that sparked weeks of mass protests, with critics seeing it as a threat to democratic freedoms and the country’s aspirations to join the European Union.

The bill would require media and nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofits to register as "pursuing the interests of a foreign power" if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.

A large crowd of demonstrators gathered on Tuesday morning in front of the parliament, amid a heavy presence of riot police, to protest the bill once again, as lawmakers were discussing it in the lead-up to a vote. Over the weekend, thousands poured into the streets of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, and many stayed in front of the parliament until Monday morning.

GEORGIANS PROTEST PROPOSED LAW RESTRICTING 'FOREIGN INFLUENCE' IN MEDIA AS PARLIAMENT APPROVES FINAL VOTE

The opposition denounces the bill as "the Russian law," because Moscow uses similar legislation to crack down on independent news media, nonprofits and activists critical of the Kremlin.

The bill is nearly identical to one that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw last year after street protests. Renewed demonstrations have rocked Georgia for weeks, with demonstrators scuffling with police, who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds.

The government says the bill is necessary to stem what it deems as harmful foreign influence over the country’s politics and to prevent unspecified foreign actors from trying to destabilize it.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who is increasingly at odds with the governing party, has vowed to veto the law, but Georgian Dream has a majority sufficient to override a presidential veto.

The legislature approved a second reading of the bill earlier this month, after protests that drew tens of thousands of people.

European Council President Charles Michel on Tuesday spoke of Georgia in Copenhagen at a conference on democracy, and said that "if they want to join the EU, they have to respect the fundamental principles of the rule of law and the democratic principles."

Hong Kong's leader on Tuesday urged foreign governments to respect its overseas-based trade offices after a staff member in its London branch was charged in Britain for allegedly working for the Chinese city's intelligence service.

Chief Executive John Lee said his administration had demanded the British government provide an explanation about the prosecution of Bill Yuen, the office manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London. Lee said any attempt to make unwarranted allegations against the city’s government is unacceptable.

British police allege that Yuen, along with Chi Leung (Peter) Wai and Matthew Trickett, agreed to engage in information gathering, surveillance and acts of deception that were likely to materially assist the Hong Kong intelligence service. The trio was charged under a new national security act that gave British police additional powers to tackle foreign espionage.

3 MEN CHARGED IN UK FOR ALLEGEDLY COLLABORATING WITH HONG KONG INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

In his weekly news briefing, Lee said the duties of the trade office in London are to foster ties with various sectors in Britain and promote Hong Kong.

"Any attempt to interfere with the work of the ETO offices in different places will be against free trade and free economy and will harm the economy of the countries that try to do bad things to the operation of the ETO offices," he said.

Monday's prosecution is likely to sour relations between Britain and China. Chinese authorities in both the U.K. and Hong Kong have criticized the charges, saying they were the latest in a series of "groundless and slanderous" accusations that the British government has leveled against China.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that China is gravely concerned about the prosecution of the Chinese national and called on Britain to safeguard the legitimate rights of Chinese in the U.K.

"For some time, the British side has been hyping up the so-called Chinese spying and Chinese cyberattacks," he said. "China firmly opposes such despicable acts of political manipulation in the name of justice and national security."

In April, British prosecutors charged two men, including a former researcher working in the U.K. Parliament, with spying for China. The Chinese Embassy called the allegations fabricated.

On Monday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned the U.K. was facing an increasingly dangerous future due to threats from an "axis of authoritarian states," including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

Hong Kong has always been a specific source of tensions between Britain and Beijing. The former British colony returned to China in 1997 under an agreement that included promises by Beijing to keep for 50 years a degree of self-government and freedoms of assembly, speech and press that are not allowed on the Communist-ruled Chinese mainland. Critics say those freedoms have all but disappeared.

The three men were granted bail in a London court on Monday and their next court appearance is scheduled for May 24.

Hong Kong media reported that Yuen is a former police officer in Hong Kong. The Associated Press found Yuen’s name printed in local police publicity materials online.

In the news conference on Tuesday, Lee also responded to reports of a photo he had taken with Yuen for a news article years ago.

"This photo appears to be a graduation group photo," he said. "My impression of this person is solely based on this photo."

Conflicts and natural disasters left a record nearly 76 million people displaced within their countries last year, with violence in Sudan, Congo and the Middle East driving two-thirds of new movement, a top migration monitoring group said Tuesday.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center report found that the number of internally displaced people, or IDPs, has jumped by 50% over the past five years and roughly doubled in the past decade. It doesn't cover refugees — displaced people who fled to another country.

The report tracks two major sets of information. It counted 46.9 million physical movements of people in 2023 — sometimes more than once. In most of those cases, such as after natural disasters like floods, people eventually return home.

AT LEAST 250,000 DISPLACED AS CONFLICTS RAGE ON IN THE CONGO

It also compiles the cumulative number of people who were living away from their homes in 2023, including those still displaced from previous years. Some 75.9 million people were living in internal displacement at the end of last year, the report said, with half of those in sub-Saharan African countries.

Almost 90% of the total displacement was attributed to conflict and violence, while some 10% stemmed from the impact of natural disasters.

The displacement of more than 9 million people in Sudan at the end of 2023 was a record for a single country since the center started tracking such figures 16 years ago.

That was an increase of nearly 6 million from the end of 2022. Sudan’s conflict erupted in April 2023 as soaring tensions between the leaders of the military and the rival Rapid Support Forces broke out into open fighting across the country.

The group reported a total of 3.4 million movements within Gaza in the last quarter of 2023 amid the Israeli military response to the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. That means that many people moved more than once within the territory of some 2.2 million. At the end of the year, 1.7 million people were displaced in Gaza.

Group director Alexandra Bilak said the millions of people forced to flee in 2023 were the "tip of the iceberg," on top of tens of millions displaced from earlier and continuing conflicts, violence and disasters.

The figures offer a different window into the impact of conflict, climate change and other factors on human movement. The U.N. refugee agency monitors displacement across borders but not within countries, while the U.N. migration agency tracks all movements of people, including for economic or lifestyle reasons.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the holy Hindu city of Varanasi on Tuesday surrounded by his party leaders and supporters as he formally filed paperwork to run in an ongoing election that is essentially a referendum on his decade in power.

The 73-year-old leader hopes to retain his seat in Varanasi, the constituency from where he ran and won, first in 2014 and then again in 2019.

India’s gigantic, six-week-long general election began in April, with voting set to go on until June 1 before votes are counted on June 4. Nearly 970 million people are eligible to vote, making this the world’s largest democratic election.

INDIAN PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI VISITS KASHMIR'S MAIN CITY TO DISCUSS DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Most polls show Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party are leading in the race for seats in the lower house of parliament over their main challenger, a broad opposition alliance led by the Indian National Congress and powerful regional parties. The alliance has not yet announced its candidate for prime minister.

The filing of nomination papers is a procedural step that will allow Modi to contest the election. Candidates register their nominations in phases based on when the constituency votes, with Varanasi set to vote on June 1.

Modi is considered a champion of the country’s Hindu majority, who make up 80% of India's 1.4 billion population. He has overseen rapid economic growth during his 10 years in power and his supporters credit him with improving India's global standing.

But critics say he’s also undermined India’s democracy and its status as a secular nation with attacks by Hindu nationalists against the country’s minorities, and a shrinking space for dissent and free media. And his political opponents have raised questions over his government's economic record, pointing to high unemployment and inflation despite strong growth.

Ahead of filing his nomination, Modi led a roadshow in the city on Monday, drawing thousands of supporters.

They cheered "Hail Modi!" as his car made its way through the streets, where BJP supporters wearing saffron caps and waving party flags greeted him. Rose petals rained down on the prime minister as he smiled at the crowds. Some onlookers were perched atop buildings to catch a glimpse of the procession.

The constituency of Varanasi has around 1.7 million voters. Modi, who is expected to hold on to his seat, is up against Ajai Rai, who is representing the regional Samajwadi Party, which is in alliance with the opposition Congress party in the state. Also in the fray is Athar Jamal Lari from the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The holy city is located on the banks of the revered Ganges River and is part of Uttar Pradesh state, India's most populous, with around 200 million people.

It is an especially crucial state in Indian elections as it sends the largest number of MPs to Parliament, and has voted for Modi's BJP in the last two elections.

JERUSALEM – As Israelis mark the rebirth of their nation 76 years after the country’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared the modern founding of Israel in 1948, opponents of the Jewish state (anti-Zionists) seek its destruction.

Fanatic anti-Israel activists and antisemites, particularly on American college campuses, have launched a campaign to strip Jews of their national homeland, the state of Israel, and turn the Mideast’s only democracy into a pariah state, often using anti-Zionist tropes in their chants and on their banners. 

To many watching today's protests against Israel, Zionism might have developed a negative connotation, but both biblically and politically, some say it's a philosophy of action. Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, famously wrote over 100 years ago about the creation of a new Jewish state: "If you will it, it is no dream."

Fox News Digital spoke to experts about the mixture of biblical passages and modern philosophy – Zionism – that laid the religious and intellectual foundation for the re-establishment of Israel. 

CAMPUS CHAOS AND ANTI-ISRAEL RHETORIC REVEAL STARK FAILURES OF TODAY'S HIGHER EDUCATION

Herzl, an Austrian-Hungarian Jewish journalist, wrote about the First Zionist Congress, in Switzerland in 1897, "At Basel I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years, and certainly in 50, everyone will know it."

Herzl’s prescient vision about the Jewish state became a concrete reality.

Ze'ev Orenstein, the director of international affairs for the City of David Foundation in Jerusalem, explained its religious importance. "Zionism not only represents the return of the Jewish people as sovereign to their ancestral homeland – the Land of Israel – where we have had a continuous presence dating back some 3,500 years to the time of the Biblical Joshua until today."

SURVIVOR OF HAMAS TERROR ATTACK ON ISRAEL RECOUNTS PAIN, GRIEF OF LOSING ‘ANGEL’ BOYFRIEND ON OCT. 7 

"A land where the Jewish people are worshiping the same God, practicing the same faith, walking upon the very same hills and valleys, speaking the same language and keeping the same traditions and festivals as our ancestors did millennia ago," he said.

Orenstein cited a biblical passage from Amos 9: 14-15 that grounds the creation of the Jewish state in the Holy land: "I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God."

Orenstein noted the transition from the Bible to the modern solidification of Israel as a state "also represents the return of the Jewish people to being masters of our own fate and destiny – only fully possible as sovereign in our homeland – striving to build a society which will serve as a source of light, inspiration and blessing – not only to Israel and the Jewish people, but to all the peoples of the region and to the entire world."

MOTHER OF AMERICAN-ISRAELI HOSTAGE TAKEN ON OCT. 7 SAYS HER FAITH HELPS HER THROUGH HER DARKEST DEPTHS OF PAIN

He added, "The return of the Jewish people to Israel as sovereign after 2,000 years of exile, serves as an eternal reminder to individuals and nations alike that what was need not be. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, and with equal measures of unwavering determination and unbreakable faith, good will ultimately triumph." 

Anti-Zionists continue to denigrate both Herzl’s founding philosophy of the modern Jewish state, Zionism, and the Biblical foundation of the state of Israel. The U.N. also played a key role in stoking antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred, argue its critics. 

In 1975, a majority of U.N. member states, spearheaded by the Soviets and Arab dictatorships, passed a resolution equating Zionism with racism. After the collapse of the communist Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe, member states overturned the antisemitic resolution in 1991. 

Eugene Kontorovich, an Israeli legal scholar, told Fox News Digital, "Opposition to Zionism means that Jews, having achieved national independence, are not entitled to keep it. There is no similar global opposition to any other people’s statehood, which makes it hard to separate ‘anti-Zionism’ from the millennia of antisemitism that faced Jews before they had a state. Indeed, with the plurality of the world’s Jews living in Israel and almost all of the rest strongly attached to it, ‘anti-Zionism’ is a transparent rebranding of antisemitism."

'DEATH TO AMERICA' RAPIDLY EMERGING AS KEY SLOGAN OF ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS IN US

Kontorovich noted, "Zionism is the national independence movement of the Jewish people. For 2,000 cruel years, the Jewish people did not have a home, and was at the mercy of the nations and empires they found themselves in – a minority everywhere."

He added, "Supporting Zionism means that just as the Irish have Ireland, the Ukrainians have Ukraine, and Japanese have Japan, Jews should have an independent state in their ancestral homeland. Many ethnic groups are majorities in numerous states, like Arabs, which have over 20 countries that identify themselves as Arab. Zionism does not insist that Jews, have two states – say one for Azshkenazi Jews, and one for Sephardim. Just one. "

Azshkenazi Jews have their modern roots in Eastern and Central Europe, while Sephardic Jews have their origins in Portugal and Spain and later fled to North Africa and Turkey.

For many Jews, the yearning of a return to their Biblical homeland is also captured by the famous Psalm 126:

"A song of ascents. When the Lord restored the captives of Zion, we were like dreamers. Then our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with shouts of joy. Then it was said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy."

A large billboard collapsed onto a group of pedestrians in India late Monday evening, killing at least 14 people and injuring 74 others, officials said.

According to city officials, a 100-foot-tall billboard fell onto a gas station in the suburb of Ghatkopar in the western city of Mumbai on Monday evening. At least 47 people were rescued late into the night.

The collapse took place during a thunderstorm which included heavy rain and high winds.

City officials blamed the turbulent weather for the deadly collapse: "Yesterday (13 May) evening, in the Chheda Nagar area of Ghatkopar, a tragic incident occurred due to speedy winds, resulting in the collapse of a hoarding."

BUS CARRYING EASTER WORSHIPPERS VEERS OFF BRIDGE AND PLUNGES NEARLY 200 FEET, KILLING AT LEAST 45

A rescue operation continued into Tuesday morning for those people who may still be trapped.

GIANT EXTINCT SNAKE DISCOVERED IN INDIA WAS 50 FEET LONG, SAID RESEARCHERS

"Medical treatment is currently being provided to 44 injured individuals, with 31 already discharged after receiving treatment. Unfortunately, 14 people succumbed to death in this mishap," officials said.

Police are investigating the collapse and say the billboard may have been illegally installed, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. 

India often experiences heavy rain and severe floods, especially during its monsoon season that typically stretches from June to September.

This season brings most of India’s annual rainfall. The rain is crucial for agriculture but often causes extensive damage.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ukraine on Tuesday on an unannounced diplomatic mission to reassure the country amid its war with Russia.

After arriving in Kyiv, Blinken is expected to meet with senior Ukrainian officials and "highlight the United States’ enduring support for Ukraine," the U.S. State Department said. In the Ukrainian capital, he will also underscore the Biden administration’s commitment to Ukraine’s defense and assure Ukraine that it has America’s support against increasingly intense Russian attacks.

In a statement released after Blinken's arrival, the State Department said he would meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to "discuss battlefield updates, the impact of new U.S. security and economic assistance, long-term security and other commitments, and ongoing work to bolster Ukraine’s economic recovery."

"He will emphasize America’s commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and democracy in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression," the statement added.

BLINKEN DELIVERS STRONGEST PUBLIC REBUKE OF ISRAEL YET: 'GET OUT OF GAZA'

Blinken’s visit comes less than a month after Congress approved a long-delayed foreign assistance package that sets aside $60 billion in aid for Ukraine. Most of the aid will go toward replenishing badly depleted artillery and air defense systems.

Tuesday marks Blinken’s fourth trip to Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Despite his frequency to the region, Kyiv and Moscow are no closer to ending their fighting.

REPUBLICAN SAYS BIDEN HAS 'STRENGTHENED' HAMAS BY WITHHOLDING AID FROM ISRAEL: 'COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT'

LIZ CHENEY JOINS OLD FOE TRUMP IN PUBLIC SLAM OF BIDEN'S LATEST MOVE IN ISRAEL: 'WRONG AND DANGEROUS'

The unannounced visit comes after a White House briefing Monday, where national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the new aid package was "trying to really accelerate the tempo" of U.S. weapon shipments to Ukraine.

"What I am going to suggest is that the level of intensity being exhibited right now in terms of moving stuff is at a 10 out of 10," Sullivan told reporters.

President Biden signed the aid package late last month and the administration has already announced $1.4 billion in short-term military assistance and $6 billion in longer-term support.

Blinken’s last trip to Kyiv was in September.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

One of Europe's most notorious human smugglers was arrested Monday in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, security officials said.

The regional government's security agency said it had arrested Barzan Majeed, known as "the Scorpion," in the area of Sulaymaniyah, upon a request from Interpol and "after the exchange of intelligence information."

TURKEY CARRIES OUT NEW AIRSTRIKES IN NORTHERN IRAQ, KILLING 16 KURDISH MILITANTS

He was handed over to the regional justice department, it said.

The U.K.'s National Crime Agency announced Majeed's arrest on the X social media platform.

The crime agency had issued an appeal for assistance in tracking Majeed down in 2022, after he was convicted in absentia in Belgium of people smuggling crimes, following a joint U.K.-Belgian investigation. The agency said he had attempted to smuggle 100 migrants to the U.K. in small boats and trucks.

The number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats has soared in recent years as individuals fleeing war, the effects of climate change, and economic uncertainty have sought a better life in Britain.

They pay smugglers thousands of dollars for the crossing, hoping to reunite with family members or find work in a country where immigration enforcement is seen as weak and where migrant groups from all over the world can easily blend into society.

Last month, the U.K. Parliament approved controversial legislation allowing the government to deport to Rwanda those who enter the country illegally. Hours later, five people, including a 7-year-old girl, died while crossing the English Channel in an overloaded inflatable boat.

Many of the would-be migrants hail from Iraqi's northern Kurdish region.

While the region is relatively more prosperous and stable than other parts of the country, increasing unemployment and corruption issues are driving many young Kurds to undertake the dangerous journey.

In November 2021, 16 Iraqi Kurds were among a group of 27 people who died while attempting to cross the channel.

European Union candidate North Macedonia sought Monday to calm disputes with EU neighbors Greece and Bulgaria that flared up following the landslide election victory of a conservative-backed coalition and president.

North Macedonia changed its name from Macedonia after a 2018 landmark agreement with Greece that ended a years-long quarrel over the name, which had been claimed by Greece for one of its regions. At a swearing in ceremony Sunday, President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova referred to her country as "Macedonia," prompting a heated response from Athens.

NORTH MACEDONIA VOTES IN PRESIDENTIAL RUNOFF, PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the remarks "illegal and unacceptable," in an online post Monday, adding: "We declare categorically that we will not accept any further missteps of this nature."

Siljanovska-Davkova’s comments also drew criticism from the European Commission and a warning from Bulgaria that North Macedonia would be held to the terms of international agreements it had signed up to.

The president’s office said Monday that Siljanovska-Davkova would respect the country’s international obligations but added that she retains "the right to use the name Macedonia as a personal right of self-identification."

The geographical region of Macedonia is divided by the national borders of Greece, Bulgaria and North Macedonia. The name dispute delayed the former Yugoslav republic’s long-standing efforts to join the European Union and NATO.

The country joined the military alliance in 2020.

North Macedonia’s conservative VMRO-DPMNE won a landslide twin presidential and parliamentary election last week and is set to lead the next government after emerging from years in opposition.

Four men from the Dominican Republic were indicted in Puerto Rico on charges of smuggling wildlife in a case involving more than 100 dead birds, officials said Monday.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC GETS FUNDING TO SAVE RARE BIRD

The men were detained after the U.S. Coast Guard spotted them earlier this month aboard a flagless boat north of Puerto Rico and saw them throw overboard wooden cages holding tropical birds as authorities approached, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Some 113 birds were retrieved from the ocean, officials said, adding that the men had traveled to the U.S. territory to smuggle back exotic birds to the neighboring Dominican Republic.

The suspects appeared in court Monday. A judge ordered three of them held in prison and a fourth under house arrest pending an upcoming trial.

Arthur L. Irving, one of Canada's richest people and the son of Canadian industrialist K.C. Irving, has died at the age of 93 after a life spent growing the oil business his father founded.

Irving Oil announced his death in a statement, saying he died Monday surrounded by his wife, Sandra, and daughter, Sarah.

BILLIONAIRE FAMILY BANKROLLING BOTH ANTI-ISRAEL GROUPS AND THESE BATTLEGROUND DEMOCRATS

Forbes Magazine listed Arthur Irving as being among the top 10 richest Canadians in 2023. At the time of his death, he had an estimated net worth of US$6.4 billion, which includes a refinery in New Brunswick that is Canada’s largest, along with the Whitegate refinery in Ireland.

Born in 1930, Irving attended Nova Scotia’s Acadia University before leaving to join Irving Oil in 1951, where he worked with his father and his two brothers.

"I had the choice to go on at Acadia or learn about business from the best teacher available anywhere — my father," he told author Donald Savoie in his 2020 book about Irving Oil. "I went with the best teacher."

He became president of the company in 1972 and was chairman emeritus when he died.

His death comes as the company’s Saint John refinery is undergoing a "strategic review" to determine its future, as climate change is prompting a shift away from fossil fuels in some nations.

While his biographers have credited Irving with success in expanding the company, he also had a life marked by family difficulties, including a contentious 1980 divorce with his first wife and — more recently — his estrangement from his eldest son.

In his book, "Irving vs. Irving," published in 2014, journalist Jacques Poitras described a poignant scene from August 2013, when Irving stood at a Saint John news conference announcing that his company was officially launching a bid — which ultimately didn’t succeed — to build a pipeline to carry crude oil from Alberta to the family’s refinery.

Poitras noted that Kenneth, "his son and heir," was notably absent after a falling out led to his departure from the company in 2010. "Arthur, in his eighties, was surrounded by admirers, yet alone. His refinery loomed in the background ... but his family was torn asunder," Poitras wrote.

In the 1980s and ’90s, Arthur Irving’s business life and interests were tightly tied to his two brothers, J.K. and Jack, as they took primary responsibility for different segments of the business empire their father had created. The trucking firms ran on the companies’ refined gasoline, the forestry and shipping interests used the Irvings’ construction subsidiaries, and a chain of newspapers purchased the newsprint from a nearby factory.

In late 2009, the three Irving brothers separated their business interests, with Arthur assuming control of the energy business.

In its statement, the company described Irving as "a steadfast champion of Atlantic Canada and its people" and one of a kind.

"In this immense loss, we know there will never be another like him," it said.

Pakistani and U.S. officials have held their latest talks in Washington on how to expand cooperation in tackling the threat posed to regional security by an affiliate of the Islamic State group and the Pakistani Taliban, Pakistan's foreign ministry said Monday.

TALIBAN-RUN TOURISM INSTITUTE AIMS TO ATTRACT MORE TRAVELERS TO AFGHANISTAN

A joint statement said Pakistani diplomat Haider Shah and the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, Ambassador Elizabeth Richard, chaired the weekend talks.

The talks occurred amid a surge in militants attacks by the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, and an Afghan branch of the Islamic State group. The TTP is an ally of the Afghan Taliban that seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

Pakistan's military recently said a suicide bombing that killed five Chinese engineers and a Pakistani driver in March was planned in Afghanistan and that the bomber was an Afghan citizen. Kabul has denied the charge.