BIG Wrap

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Opposition leader Cheng Li-wun and Chinese President Xi Jinping have met in Beijing, where both leaders stated their opposition to Taiwan independence and expressed a desire for a “peaceful” resolution to the long-running dispute over the island’s future. They posed for photos at the Great Hall of the People and exchanged public remarks, in addition to holding their closed-door meeting. Cheng is the highest-ranking Taiwanese leader to meet Xi since President Ma Ying-jeou...

(BBC News) Sixteen Cameroonians have been killed fighting for Russia in Ukraine, the BBC has confirmed after a foreign ministry source verified that a recently leaked diplomatic note circulating on social media about the deaths was authentic. The government has faced criticism over its prolonged silence on the issue – and this marks the first recognition of the involvement of its nationals in the conflict. A recent report by All Eyes on Wagner, a group that investigates...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Iran and the United States have both claimed victory in their conflict as they both accepted a two-week ceasefire just before US President Donald Trump’s apocalyptic deadline to obliterate Iranian “civilisation” if Tehran did not agree to a deal. At least 2,076 people have died in US-Israel strikes on Iran that began on February 28, and thousands of others have been killed across the region. The war has disrupted global energy supplies, stranding...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) United States President Donald Trump has agreed to suspend his planned bombing of Iran for two weeks, following his threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran did not comply with his demands. On Tuesday evening, within hours of the planned attack, Trump took to his platform Truth Social to announce he had reversed course. He credited Pakistan for mediating the settlement but warned it came with conditions — namely...

(BBC News) US special forces launched a high-stakes raid into Iran on Sunday to rescue an injured airman left stranded in a remote mountainous region after his aircraft was shot down two days earlier. While many details remain confidential, some information has begun to emerge about how the US raced against the clock and advancing Iranian operatives to find the officer deep inside hostile territory. The airman's ordeal began on Friday when an F-15E Strike Eagle...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) One person has been killed by projectile fragments after United States-Israeli strikes targeted a location close to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The agency, citing confirmation from Iranian authorities, said in a statement on X that there was “no increase in radiation levels” after Saturday’s attack. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed the Bushehr facility had been “bombed” four times since the war erupted on February...

(BBC News) The Australian government has encouraged people to go ahead with their Easter travel plans, despite fuel shortages at hundreds of petrol stations across the country. "Easter is a very special time of faith and family," energy minister Chris Bowen said on Saturday, adding: "Go take a break – but get no more fuel than you need." Fuel prices in Australia have soared since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran and the effective...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Iranian forces have said they struck down two fighter jets belonging to the United States military, one over the southwest part of the country and another around the Strait of Hormuz. A spokesperson for the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said on Friday that air defences completely destroyed one F-15 jet. Later in the day, the Iranian military said it targeted an A-10 US aircraft that crashed into the Gulf. The...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) NASA has successfully launched the Artemis II mission, marking the first crewed mission to the moon’s vicinity since the Apollo program ended in 1972. The 322-foot Space Launch System (SLS) rocket lifted off at 6:35 pm ET (22:35 GMT) on Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, sending the Orion crew capsule on a 10-day journey. While Artemis II will not land on the moon, it will fly a “free-return” trajectory that swings around it to prove the...

(BBC News) A mass robotaxi outage in the Chinese city of Wuhan caused at least 100 self-driving cars to stop mid-traffic, sparking renewed debate around the safety of driverless vehicles. Local police said initial findings suggested a "system malfunction" caused multiple vehicles to stop in the middle of the road on Tuesday. Videos on social media have documented the outage, with one appearing to show it resulting in a highway collision, although police said no injuries had been reported...