BIG Wrap

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Russia this week rejected the latest United States peace proposal for Ukraine and declared victory in battles over key Ukrainian cities – claims Ukraine has dismissed as propaganda. Russia’s Ministry of Defence on Monday night said it had seized the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk it has been besieging for a year. Defence Minister Andrei Belousov later repeated the claim personally. Russia also said it had pushed Ukrainian defenders out of Vovchansk and Kupiansk, cities...

(BBC News) Netflix has agreed to buy the film and streaming businesses of Warner Bros Discovery for $72 billion in a major Hollywood deal. The streaming giant emerged as the successful bidder for Warner Bros ahead of rivals Comcast and Paramount Skydance after a drawn-out battle. Warner Bros owns franchises including Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, and the streaming service HBO Max. The deal will still have to be approved by competition authorities. Netflix co-chief executive Ted...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Russian President Vladimir Putin is visiting India today (Thursday) for the first time since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, even as a renewed push by the United States to end the conflict appears to have stalled. Putin’s 30-hour speed trip coincides with a tense turn in relations between Washington and New Delhi, with the US also punishing India with tariffs and a sanctions threat for...

(BBC News) Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said she will recommend a travel ban on several countries which she claims are "flooding" the US with criminal activity. Writing on social media on Monday, Noem said she had met President Donald Trump and decided to suggest "a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.'' Trump and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) then shared Noem's...

(BBC News) One of the four sons of notorious Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in a US court. Joaquín Guzmán López's guilty plea on Monday comes after US prosecutors pledged last May to not pursue the death penalty against him. Lopez, 39, is a member of Los Chapitos, a cell made up of El Chapo's children, including his brother Ovidio, who pleaded guilty in July to drug...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Flooding and landslides have killed more than 1,140 people across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia following tropical storms in recent days, with efforts under way to help thousands affected by the extreme weather. Arriving in North Sumatra on Monday, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said the government’s priority was “how to immediately send the necessary aid.” “There are several isolated villages that, God willing, we can reach,” Prabowo said, adding that the...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) United States President Donald Trump has said the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela is to be closed “in its entirety”, as tensions between the countries escalate. There was no immediate response by Venezuela to Trump’s social media post on Saturday. “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. Trump’s post comes amid...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem says the group has the right to respond to Israel’s assassination of its top military chief in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs last week. In a televised speech on Friday, Qassem called the killing of Haytham Ali Tabtabai “a blatant aggression and a heinous crime”, adding that the Lebanese armed group has “the right to respond, and we will determine the timing for that.” “Do you expect a war...

Andriy Yermak, right, has for years been Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky's closest aide and has played a key role in peace talks. (BBC News) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has resigned following an anti-corruption raid on his home. Yermak, a towering figure with enormous political influence, has been Zelensky's closest adviser throughout Russia's full-scale war, but has come under increasing pressure over an escalating scandal – even though he...

(BBC News) President Vladimir Putin has doubled down on his core demands for ending the war in Ukraine, saying Russia will lay down arms only if Kyiv's troops withdraw from territory claimed by Moscow. Putin has long pushed for legal recognition of the Ukrainian territories Russia has seized by force. They include the southern Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014, and the eastern Donbas region, which Moscow now occupies for the most part. For Kyiv, which has...