BIG Wrap

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Eight underage rebel recruits were killed last week after the Colombian government launched a fresh military offensive against a prominent armed group, according to President Gustavo Petro. The news comes amid soaring child recruitment by Colombia’s armed groups in recent years and has ignited a debate over whether forced recruits can be protected on the battlefield. In a Monday post on social media platform X, Petro confirmed that seven adolescents were killed in a government...

(BBC News) A Russian spy ship has used lasers for the first time to disrupt Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots tracking its activity near UK waters, the defence secretary has said. John Healey told reporters the "deeply dangerous" move from the Yantar was being taken "extremely seriously" by the government. He added that the vessel was north of Scotland and had entered UK waters for the second time this year during the last few weeks. The UK...

(BBC News) Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has said that he is willing to hold face-to-face talks with representatives of the Trump administration as US pressure on him grows. Maduro made the comment hours after US President Donald Trump said he had not ruled out deploying ground forces to the South American country. The Trump administration has accused Maduro – whose re-election last year was dismissed as rigged by many countries – of being the leader of...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says two Ukrainian citizens allegedly working for Russia are suspected of blowing up part of a railway line near Warsaw over the weekend. The two Ukrainians are accused of working on behalf of Russian intelligence to damage a railway line that was travelling to the border of Ukraine, Poland’s close ally, Tusk said on Tuesday. While Polish authorities are aware of the suspects’ identities, they would not...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Israel is engaged in a last-ditch bid to change the wording of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution on the next phase of United States President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan that was recently amended to mention a “credible pathway” to Palestinian statehood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that his opposition to a Palestinian state had “not changed one bit”, one day before the UNSC votes...

(BBC News) South Korea's government has announced that it has finalized an agreement to build nuclear-powered submarines in partnership with the United States. The US has approved the "attack submarines" and agreed to co-operate in sourcing fuel, according to a fact sheet released by the White House on Thursday. The agreement marks a significant step in South Korea's relations with the US and comes amid a period of growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula: with the...

(BBC News) At least 120 people - 100 of them police officers - have been injured in clashes during anti-government protests in Mexico City, police said. Thousands of demonstrators marched in the Mexican capital on Saturday to protest against violent crime and President Claudia Sheinbaum's government. Sheinbaum said the marches, which also took place in other cities, had been funded by right-wing politicians who oppose her government. The rally was organised by Gen Z youth groups, drawing support...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Venezuela on Tuesday announced what it called a major nationwide military deployment in response to the presence of growing United States naval forces off its coast. On Thursday, the US also unveiled an operation, called Southern Spear, which it said was intended to target “narco-terrorists” in the Western Hemisphere. The escalation has raised alarm in Caracas, where officials worry the US may be using these operations as a pretext to force President...

(BBC News) China has summoned the Japanese ambassador in Beijing over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's comments on Taiwan. China and Japan have been locked in an escalating war of words this week, set off by Takaichi's suggestion that Japan could respond with its own self-defence force if China attacked Taiwan. Both countries' foreign ministries have lodged serious protests with each other. A Chinese diplomat also made a comment which some interpreted as a threat to behead...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Less than two hours after a suicide blast at the entrance of the district court in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Tuesday, Khawaja Asif, the country’s defence minister, called the attack a “wake-up call” and “a war for all of Pakistan”. “The rulers of Kabul can stop terrorism in Pakistan, but bringing this war all the way to Islamabad is a message from Kabul, to which, praise be to God, Pakistan has the full...