BEN-GURION INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Israel — A missile launched by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen on Sunday briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at Israel’s main international airport after an impact left a plume of smoke and caused panic among passengers. The Houthi rebels have been striking Israel throughout the war in Gaza in solidarity with Palestinians. The attack on Ben-Gurion International Airport came hours before top Israeli Cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip. The army meanwhile began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in Gaza, officials said. The missile launch Sunday set off air raid sirens in multiple parts of Israel. A plume of smoke was visible at the airport, according to footage shared by Israeli media. Passengers were heard yelling and scrambling for cover. It was not immediately clear whether the projectile, which landed in a field near an access road leading to airport parking lots, was the missile or its fragments, or an interceptor from Israel’s air defense systems. It left a deep crater in the ground and a nearby road was littered with dirt. Israel vows to respond to the airport attack Police said that air, road and rail traffic were halted following the attack. The traffic resumed after about an hour, Israel Airports Authority said. Israel’s paramedic service Magen David Adom said four people were lightly wounded. Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a video statement that the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport. Houthi rebels have been firing at Israel since the war with Gaza erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, and the missiles have mostly been intercepted, although some have penetrated Israel’s missile defense systems, causing damage. Israel has struck back against the rebels in Yemen and the U.S., Israel’s top ally, also launched a campaign of strikes in March against them. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed retribution for the airport attack: “Whoever harms us, we will harm them sevenfold.” Israeli ministers will vote on expanding the war in Gaza An Israeli official said the influential security Cabinet would meet on Sunday evening to vote on plans to expand the fighting. A military official said the country was calling up thousands of reserves. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, in an interview with Israeli Army Radio, said he wanted to see a “powerful” expansion of the war, but did not disclose details as to what the new plans would entail. “We need to increase the intensity and continue until we achieve total victory. We must win a total victory,” he said. He demanded that Israel bomb “the food and electricity supplies” in Gaza. The plans to escalate fighting in Gaza more than 18 months after the war there erupted come as a humanitarian crisis in the territory deepens. As part of its efforts to pressure the militant group Hamas to negotiate on Israel’s terms for a new ceasefire, Israel in early March halted the entry of goods into Gaza. That has plunged the territory of 2.3 million people into what is believed to be the worst humanitarian crisis since the war began. An eight-week-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that brought a lull in fighting and freed Israeli hostages collapsed in March. Israel resumed its strikes on Gaza on March 18 and has captured swaths of the coastal enclave. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed, according to local health officials. Fighting in Gaza drags on At least seven Palestinians including two parents and their two children, ages 2 and 4, were killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern and central Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said. Asked about the strikes, the Israeli military had no direct comment. The Israeli military said Sunday that two soldiers were killed in combat in Gaza, bringing the number of soldiers killed since fighting resumed in March to six. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. Israel says 59 remain in Gaza, although roughly 35 are said to be dead. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children according to Palestinian health officials, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count. The fighting has displaced more than 90% of Gaza’s population, often multiple times. Hunger has been widespread and the shortage of food has set off looting.

Thousands of children in Gaza have been admitted to hospitals for malnutrition, but even as they waste away, doctors’ options for treating them have been depleted. Gazans are fighting over the last cans of food, malnourished mothers are struggling to make milk for their thinning babies, and doctors have begun counting down the days before the slow deaths by starvation begin to happen en masse. “Within one week, we will see a severe starvation,” Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra, head of pediatrics and obstetrics at Nasser Hospital, told NBC News. The besieged enclave is under its longest blockade of humanitarian aid since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, as Israel’s total ban on the entry of all goods, including food, fuel and medical supplies, enters its third month. Despite international outrage, Israel has not only kept the gates shut past 63 days, but the security Cabinet is voting Sunday night to expand its offensive in Gaza. For weeks, families were surviving on very little — fewer meals and smaller spoonfuls — and each day has brought a new low of deprivation. Parents are now watching their vulnerable children starve, with warehouses now empty and community kitchens forced shut. In a place where 80% of the population relies on aid, according to the United Nations, those aid agencies no longer have much to supply. What little food is left in the markets is sold at exorbitant prices. Ossama Al-Raqab was lying in the pediatric ward of Nasser Hospital, unable to sit up properly. The 5-year-old suffers from cystic fibrosis and is so starved that he can barely lift his gaunt head. His cheeks have sunk into the hollows of his face, his ribs are protruding, and his scrawny limbs are little more than bone. His facial muscles have wasted away so much, he can no longer close his mouth. “Mommy, Mommy, I want to go back,” he whimpers, unable to speak for long. His mother, Mona Al-Raqab, sits next to him, showing a picture of her once healthy and smiling son, at a time when his diet included eggs, avocados, cashews and almonds. “He needs food and food that contains protein and fat,” she says. “But these things are not available now, and if they are, they are expensive.” Young Ossama is among the thousands of people already being treated for malnutrition, and for months, doctors like Al-Farra have been warning that the hunger will one day turn fatal. That warning is now a reality. “We are talking about 57 deaths from starvation for pediatrics,” Al-Farra told NBC News, adding the cases were not only expected to rise in number, but also severity. “We are talking about increased cases of malnutrition and anemia.” More than 52,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, local health officials say, where less than half of the remaining 59 hostages taken from southern Israel are believed to still be alive in captivity. About 1,200 were killed in Israel and 250 kidnapped during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that sparked this major escalation of a decadeslong conflict. Israel imposed the current blockade on March 2 after it ended a two-month ceasefire and resumed its military operations, justifying the blockade as necessary for pressuring Hamas into releasing the hostages. Israel, which has been accused of violating international humanitarian law by using starvation as a weapon of war, has defended its blockade by saying enough aid entered the strip during the ceasefire and accused Hamas of hijacking its delivery. Those who survive malnutrition in Gaza also have to survive Israel’s ongoing bombardment. But in Gaza’s barely functioning health care system, even the most critical injuries are not being treated and the simplest injuries are turning fatal without blood supply, which is also being depleted by hunger. Even when there is an available donor, Al-Farra said, “unfortunately a lot of them already have anemia,” which disqualifies them from donation. The blockade’s resumption has resulted in a sharp increase in acute malnutrition among children, according to UNICEF, which said the number of such cases doubled in March from the previous month. More than 9,000 children have been admitted or treated for acute malnutrition since the start of the year, it said. With bakeries shut, fishing restricted and farming land destroyed or taken over by Israeli forces, “humanitarian aid has provided the only lifeline for children, and now it is close to running out,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement Friday. Starvation begins with the most vulnerable, and newborns and children already suffering other conditions are especially prone. Siwar Ashour, a 5-month-old child from Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, has lost half of her weight, her mother, Najwa Aram, 23, told NBC News. “I can’t even afford milk. I beg for clothes for her,” Ashour said, crying. Ashour said her daughter first contracted intestinal flu, which worsened with the lack of clean water and food. “Every day his condition worsens,” Al-Raqab says, looking at her son, Ossama, who was so frail he now appeared swallowed by the clothes that once fit him. “I want him to be like a normal child, play with children and go out and finish kindergarten.”

MANILA — On a balmy night outside Manila’s Baclaran church, Gerald Concepcion, 32, and his fellow devotees were decorating a float of the Virgin Mary with fragrant lilies and pink carnations. He added artificial white doves to the arrangement, saying they were in honor of the late Pope Francis, who had led a radical shift in the Catholic Church’s treatment of LGBTQ people. “Pope Francis is a testament that God is alive,” Concepcion, a devout Catholic who works as a street vendor, told NBC News. “He accepted everyone, including us gay people who have long been marginalized.” Francis’ death on April 21 has opened the eternal tension between choosing a successor that represents continuity, or one who will bring change, including a possible return to the church’s recent past of more conservative positions on issues like homosexuality. Luis Antonio Tagle, a Filipino cardinal often dubbed the “Asian Francis” for his emphasis on poor and marginalized people, has emerged as a possible leading contender, or papabile, when the conclave meets on May 7 to elect Francis’ replacement. If chosen as pope, Tagle could carry with him some lessons from the Philippines. Despite being the biggest Catholic nation in Asia — about 80% of Filipinos are Catholic — and the third-largest in the world, it is also one of the more LGBTQ-friendly countries in the region. Many gay Catholics, like Concepcion, remain active and visible members of the church, and he says Tagle offers the possibility of continuing Francis’ embrace of gay Catholics into the next papacy. “Being gay is not wrong because we were also created by God and all things that God created are beautiful,” Concepcion added. The Philippine Catholic Church has become more open to gay Catholics in recent years, including in a 2024 position paper in which the church acknowledged the LGBTQ community’s “important role in the life of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines.” And while Tagle, who is known for avoiding provocative rhetoric and controversial issues, has rarely spoken publicly about homosexuality in his statements and homilies, he has lamented the church’s “harsh words” in the past about gay and divorced people. Filipino Catholics say they have felt supported by some of his actions and see them as potential signs of his approach to the community if he were to be elected pope. Edwin Valles, former president of Courage Philippines, an LGBTQ organization under the Archdiocese of Manila, says he is certain that Tagle would continue embracing the gay community. In 2014, Valles said he approached Tagle, then head of the Archdiocese of Manila, to request a priest to be assigned to guide their members, a request Tagle granted. “It’s a commitment on his part,” Valles said. “He puts money where his mouth is. So I like to think that he will also do the same if and when he becomes pope.” Valles tells a story from a 2018 event they both attended, when a young faithful asked the cardinal about the status of LGBTQ Catholics. “And his answer was something like: All of us are Catholics, all of us are parishioners, all of us are children of God. So why make that label and distinction? That just serves to separate or put people in boxes,” Valles recalled Tagle saying. A man of the people The Jesuit-educated Tagle, 67, was born to a Filipino father and a Filipino Chinese mother who were both bankers, and Tagle grew up in a well-to-do family. He was ordained as a priest in 1982 at the age of 24, and like Francis, adopted a simple life. From 2001 to 2011, he served as the bishop of the Diocese of Imus, a city south of Manila, and his hometown. There, Tagle took to walking the streets, greeting street vendors and motorcycle taxi drivers. Residents affectionately recalled how Tagle would sit on a wooden bench outside a humble neighborhood barbershop, Bible in hand, his presence so regular that it earned Roland, the shopkeeper, the nickname, “Holy Barber.” Tagle then became Manila’s archbishop in 2011 and was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. In 2015, he was elected president of Caritas Internationalis, the humanitarian and development organization of the Catholic Church, and was re-elected again in 2019. That year, he moved to the Vatican after Francis appointed him head of the Dicastery for Evangelization, the church’s missionary arm. He would fly back to the Philippines, unannounced and without fanfare, to check on his ailing parents, have his hair cut by Roland, and make surprise visits to neighbors and relatives eager to receive a blessing from a cardinal back home from the Vatican. He ‘does not possess a prophetic voice’ Tagle is highly respected in the Philippines, where he is widely perceived as “warm, gentle, approachable, humble and at times funny,” just like Francis, Noel Asiones, an academic researcher from the University of Santo Tomas, a Catholic university in Manila, told NBC News. As a top cleric, Tagle’s pastoral approach “reflects a leader eager to serve and emphasize meeting the needs of his flock,” Asiones said. But the similarities seemed to end there. Unlike Francis, who spoke with forceful, moral authority on worldly issues like exploitative capitalism or the injustices of war, Asiones said, Tagle “lacks or does not possess a prophetic voice.” Tagle has been criticized for his inaction on sexual abuse by priests, and his silence on the extrajudicial killings ordered by the Philippines’ former President Rodrigo Duterte, in a crackdown on drugs that left tens of thousands, including children, dead. Duterte openly attacked and threatened the church, which in the Philippines has historically stood up against political power. In the face of the flagrant human rights abuses, however, Tagle responded with statements Duterte’s opponents criticized as vague and unchallenging. “I don’t think Tagle will be entirely Francis 2.0. For one, he opts for political correctness, often avoiding confrontational language, and seems reticent, if not afraid, to hold truth to power,” Asiones said. A good theologian, but a poor administrator Tagle has had significant experience in the Vatican, but observers say it has been far from stellar. In 2022, Francis dismissed Tagle and the rest of the leadership team of Caritas Internationalis after a Vatican-led audit found “real deficiencies” in management and procedures. What the Roman Curia needs is a pope who is also a good administrator, said Charles Collins, managing editor of Crux, an international publication focusing on the Catholic Church. “Tagle is considered intelligent, a good theologian and a good communicator. But in many ways he has not been a very good administrator in some of the jobs he’s had in the Vatican,” Collins said. “He has not proven himself in that role.” Francis had shaken things up in the Vatican and the cardinals may look to someone who could provide stability to replace him. “I think the conclave is going to look at a European cardinal to become pope,” Collins said. Three issues are expected to hound the next pope: clerical abuse, poor finances of the Vatican and the ongoing cultural war between progressives and conservatives. Tagle might be one of the more popular papabili, but Collins cautioned that in every conclave, “there are always people who are being promoted more in the media than among the cardinals.” “A pope from Asia or Africa is a good news story, but that does not reflect the views of the cardinal electors.”

On Mark Carney's final day of a gruelling race to be elected PM of vast and sparsely populated Canada I was with him. It was his last push, not just to win, but also to get the majority he said he needed to stand up to the chaotic territorial and trade ambitions of his "neighbour to the south". For someone who had got to see Carney as a cerebral technocrat, a crisis-managing central bank governor a decade ago, the transformation into public orator was quite something. I recall endless interviews trying to get the then governor to say something newsworthy, or something that would make a good headline. While this was a very different Mark Carney, the lineage in crisis economics was also part of his sell. Carney told his audience in Edmonton, Alberta, sporting the local Oilers hockey shirt: "President Trump has ruptured the global economy... America's leadership of the global economy is over. It's still in play, but it is a tragedy, and our new reality… in this trade war, just like in hockey, we will win". His supporters shouted "Elbows Up" and put them up, a reference to a stand up and fight back posture in the occasionally rough game of ice hockey. "What we are seeing around the country is Canadians acting on behalf of other Canadians, standing up for each other, buying from each other, travelling here..." At his very final stop in the far West, in the isolation of Victoria, Vancouver Island, with only half an hour of campaigning allowed, Carney went "unplugged" among supporters. "As the assembled media will tell you, I campaigned in prose," Carney joked. "So I'm going to govern in econometrics," he said of the nerdy mathematical strain of economics. In normal circumstances, some of this might be interesting to the wider world. In current circumstances, the origins of his election win, his approach to policy making, and the nature of his mandate, could assume critical importance. When I caught up with him for the BBC exclusive interview, just as the polls were closing on Monday, he appeared confident but was taking nothing for granted. Fighting threats to sovereignty Mr Carney's central argument remained consistent. He said he was the leader to take on Donald Trump's "betrayal" and threats to Canada's economy and sovereignty. It was exemplified by his final large rally on the US-Canada border, with the Ambassador Bridge and a skyline of iconic Detroit motoring firms behind him. This bridge is the main artery of Canadian-US trade. A lot of effort went into this backdrop of the two-way trade of the most integrated economies in the world, now tariffed at unimaginable levels. An unsubtle message from the Liberal Party leader, about a changed continent. The election result was staggering. Entering 2025, the Liberal Party was as low as 16%, versus 45% for the opposition Conservatives, in opinion polls. Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives were not just heading for victory, but for a total landslide. But then following President Trump's imposition of national security tariffs on Canada, using the pretext of an alleged role in fentanyl traffic, and then his undiplomatic suggestion that Canada should join the USA, the polls tightened. Then after Mark Carney was elected Liberal leader, just eight weeks ago, the Liberals achieved a consistent poll lead, which they rode to victory last week. The election became a presidential-style verdict on who could cope with Trump. Poilievre was fundamentally weakened by previous overtures to the US president and his style of government. Carney incorporated voters on the left who were scared of a Conservative government amplified by Trump. And incredibly, in Quebec, the Liberals won back support from separatists, who were more concerned about Canada's independence from the US, than their own constitutional status within Canada. There is nothing more unifying than a credible external threat. Carney's strategy Carney gave some clues to his strategy during his interview with me. He talked of a "win win" partnership with the US, and reminded the president that Canada was the "biggest client" of 40 of the 50 US states, and a key energy and fertiliser supplier. He also told me he "potentially could supply them with critical minerals". This struck me as a negotiation tactic very targeted at what Trump has become fixated on elsewhere. Canada has ample resources of critical minerals, and would be a much more dependable supplier across the West than many other nations. Carney is implicitly suggesting, however, that his country has deep strategic choices to make here, on for example, developing them with Europe rather than the US. In any event, the PM will use the impetus of external threat to try to transform the Canadian economy. Even in the granting of an interview to BBC News, it was clear that he sees a critical need to diversify trade and strategic alliances. Defence partnerships are now on the cards. He seemed to acknowledge that a stalled Canada-UK trade deal could be expedited. On Friday he pulled off the historic announcement that King Charles would reopen the Canadian parliament in person at the end of the month. This has not happened since 1977. It is entirely in keeping with Canada's constitution, but it is also a stunning assertion of enduring independence from the White House. All roads now lead to the G7 Summit hosted by Carney in the middle of June in Alberta, bringing together the world's seven largest economies, which dominate global trade and the international financial system. Assuming that Trump comes, it will occur within days of the expiry of the pause in massive so-called "reciprocal tariffs" on most of the world. It is often forgotten that if Canada and Mexico free themselves from the fentanyl tariffs, they will then, according to White House advisers, find themselves subject to this system, with a minimum of 10% tariffs. All of this occurs within days of some growing frustration from America's traditional allies with the entire "trade deal" process. Japan is increasingly frustrated, with its finance minister now openly pointing to Japan's unbeaten holding of US government debt as a "card" in negotiations. The EU has not got very far. Even the UK has hinted that a deal with Europe may be a more effective way of boosting the economy. It comes as tariffs are starting to have a visible and tangible negative impact on US businesses and consumers. There is no great incentive to offer much up, while the US itself starts to feel the inevitable inflationary consequences of its actions. The flotilla of empty Chinese cargo ships and empty docks on the US West Coast will soon be seen in the economic data of an already shrinking US economy. As a veteran of economic crises arising from the uncertain experiments of governments, Carney might be uniquely placed on how these situations pan out. Many in the markets have been thoroughly unimpressed with the White House advisers sent out to reassure investors in recent weeks. But Carney too has his own challenges. He just missed out on a majority in parliament, but has chosen to try to project this as a virtue. He will reach across the aisle for a "Team Canada" approach to talks with the US. The Premier of the oil-rich Alberta province, who is a regular visitor to Mar-a-Lago, immediately announced moves to make separation referendums easier. This is a very complicated, domestic, continental and global environment economically and politically. Few would predict exactly where it goes. Carney may have a very large part in it, and not just for his own country.

Authorities in India are investigating reports that a dead snake in a public school lunch caused dozens of children to fall ill. More than 100 students became sick in the northeastern town of Mokama last week, the country’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said in a statement Thursday. A school cook reportedly served the food to about 500 children after removing a dead snake from it, the commission said, citing reports from local media. The NHRC has demanded that local police provide a “detailed” report of the incident within two weeks, which is expected to include the health status of the affected children, the statement added. If the reports are true, the case would be a serious "violation of the human rights of the students,” the commission said, adding that villagers, angered by the reports, had blocked a road in protest. In a bid to combat hunger, India rolled out a cooked Mid Day Meal Scheme in 2001 that provided a free lunch for children in public schools for at least 200 days a year, according to the country’s Ministry of Education. The school food program is the world’s largest, covering over 113 million children ages 6 to 10, according to some estimates. Food safety complaints related to school meals are not uncommon in India. In 2013, at least 23 children were killed by a free school lunch contaminated with concentrated pesticide. The students fell ill within minutes of eating rice and potato curry, vomiting and convulsing with stomach cramps.

As a clear Liberal win was emerging on election night, Conservative candidates and their supporters had one question: What the heck just happened? The party had lost a remarkable 27-point lead in opinion polls and failed to win an election for the fourth time in a row. And while it gained seats and earned almost 42% of the popular vote - its highest share since the party was founded in 2003 - its leader Poilievre was voted out of the seat he had held for the past 20 years. "Nobody's happy about that," Shakir Chambers, a Conservative strategist and vice-president of Ontario-based consultancy firm the Oyster Group, told the BBC. The party is now trying to work out how it will move forward. At the top of the agenda will be finding a way for the Conservatives to perform their duties as the Official Opposition - the second-place party in Canada's parliament whose job is to hold the sitting government to account - without their leader in the House. Ahead of a caucus meeting next Tuesday to discuss this, Poilievre announced on Friday his plan to run in an Alberta constituency special election to win back a seat. That special election will be triggered by the resignation of Conservative MP-elect Damien Kurek, who said he will voluntarily step down to let Poilievre back in after what he called "a remarkable national campaign". "An unstoppable movement has grown under his leadership, and I know we need Pierre fighting in the House of Commons," Kurek said in a statement. Unlike the US, federal politicians in Canada do not have to live in the city or province they run in. Poilievre grew up in Alberta, however, and will likely win handily as the constituency he is running in is a Conservative stronghold. A big question is whether Poilievre still has the backing of his own party to stay on as leader. Mr Chambers said the answer, so far, is a resounding yes. "Pierre has a lot of support in the caucus," he said. "I don't think there's anybody that wants him removed, or that has super high ambitions that wants to replace him as leader." A number of high-profile Conservatives have already rallied behind him. One of them is Andrew Scheer, a current MP and former leader of the party, who said Poilievre should stay on to "ensure we finish the job next time". Others are casting blame on where they went wrong. Jamil Jivani, who won his own constituency in a suburb of Toronto handily, felt that Ontario leader Doug Ford had betrayed the conservative movement and cost the party the election. The federal and provincial Conservative parties are legally different entities, though they belong to the same ideological tent, and Ford is leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party. He frequently made headlines during the election campaign for his get-tough attitude with Donald Trump and the US president's trade war. "He couldn't stay out of our business," Jivani told a CBC reporter. Jivani, who in a past life attended Yale University with US Vice-President JD Vance, where the two became good friends, accused Ford of distracting from the federal Conservatives' campaign and of "positioning himself as some political genius that we need to be taking cues from". But Mr Chambers, the Conservative strategist, said that Poilievre will also need to confront where the party fell short. Poilievre, who is known for his combative political style, has struggled with being unlikeable among the general Canadian public. He has also failed to shore up the support of popular Conservative leaders in some provinces, like Ontario's Ford, who did not campaign for Poilievre despite his recent landslide victory in a provincial election earlier this year. Ford did, however, post a photo of him and Liberal leader Mark Carney having a coffee. "Last time I checked, Pierre Poilievre never came out in our election," Ford told reporters earlier this week. "Matter of fact, he or one of his lieutenants told every one of his members, 'don't you dare go out and help'". "Isn't that ironic?" Another Conservative premier, Tim Houston of Nova Scotia - who also did not campaign for Poilievre - said the federal party needs to do some "soul-searching" after its loss. "I think the Conservative Party of Canada was very good at pushing people away, not so good at pulling people in," Houston said. Not every premier stood on the sidelines. Poilievre was endorsed by Alberta's Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan's Scott Moe, both western Conservatives. Kory Teneycke, Ford's campaign manager, who publicly criticised Poilievre's campaign during the election, angering federal Conservatives, rejected the notion that Ford's failure to endorse Poilievre had cost him the election. He told the BBC that, to him, the bigger problem was Poilievre's failure to unite Conservative voters in Canada. "What constitutes a Conservative in different parts of the country can look quite different," he said, adding that Poilievre's populist rhetoric and aggressive style appealed to Conservatives in the west, but alienated those in the east. "There was a lot of Trump mimicry in terms of how they presented the campaign," Mr Teneycke said. "Donald Trump is public enemy number one to most in Canada, and I don't think it was coming across very well." He added he believes some of the "soul-searching" by Poilievre's Conservatives will need to include a plan of how to build a coalition of the right in a country "as big and diverse as Canada". Asked by reporters what it would take to heal the rift, Ford answered: "All they have to do is make a phone call."

In his first news conference since the federal election, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney laid out his priorities, including how he will approach upcoming talks with US President Donald Trump. His election campaign focused on standing up to Trump's tariff plans and threats to make Canada the 51st US state, which Carney has said will "never ever" happen. The Liberals won 168 seats out of 343 in Canada's House of Commons in Monday's election, enough to form a minority government but falling short of the 172 necessary for a majority. Carney's new cabinet will be sworn in the week of 12 May. Here are three things we learned from Carney's comments: 1. A strategic visit by the King Off the top, Carney announced an upcoming visit from King Charles III and Queen Camilla, who will visit Canada later this month. "This is a historic honour that matches the weight of our times," he told reporters gathered in Ottawa. Carney says he had invited the King to formally open Canada's 45th Parliament on 27 May. That request is certainly strategic. Carney said the King's visit "clearly underscores the sovereignty of our country" - a nod to Trump's 51st state remarks. Trump also has a well-known admiration for the Royal family. In February, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer used his trip to the White House to present Trump with a letter from King Charles offering to host a second state visit. The King is Canada's head of state and is represented in Canada by Governor General Mary Simon. After an election, the new parliamentary session is usually opened by the governor general, who reads the Speech from the Throne on behalf of the prime minister. The speech, read in Canada's Senate, sets out the government's agenda. While it is not unprecedented for the Throne speech to be read by the head of state, the last time this happened was in October 1977 when Queen Elizabeth II read the speech for the second time. The first was in 1957. 2. A Tuesday showdown with Trump Carney will visit the White House on Tuesday, barely a week after the federal election. His first official visit to the White House as prime minister comes amid frayed ties between the close allies in the wake of Trump's threatened and imposed tariffs, as well as the president's repeated comments about making Canada the 51st US state. Carney said there are two sets of issues to discuss: the immediate tariffs and the broader relationship. "My government will fight to get the best deal for Canada," Carney said, making it clear there would be no rush to secure an agreement. He added that the high-level dialogue indicates seriousness of the conversation between the leaders. He said he expects "difficult but constructive" discussions with the president. He also said he would strengthen relationship with "reliable" trading partners, pointing to recent conversations he has had with world leaders in Europe and Asia. 3. An olive branch offered to rivals Canada's election highlighted divisions within Canada, along regional, demographic and political lines. On Friday, Carney said Canada must be united in this "once in a lifetime crisis". "It's time to come together put on our Team Canada sweaters and win big," he said. He offered olive branches both to Canadians who did not vote for his Liberal Party and to his political rivals. While Canadians voted for a robust response to Trump, they also sent "a clear message that their cost of living must come down and their communities need to be safe", Carney said. "As prime minister I've heard these messages loud and clear and I will act on them with focus and determination." He said he is committed to working with others, including those across the aisle. Under leader Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative campaign focused heavily on cost of living issues and crime. The Conservatives came in second, forming Official Opposition but Poilievre lost his own Ottawa-area seat. Carney said he is open to calling a special election that would allow Poilievre to seek another seat if that is the path the Conservatives wanted to take. "No games," he said. On Friday, an MP-elect in Alberta announced he would resign his safe Conservative seat to allow Poilievre to run. Poilievre later confirmed he will run in that constituency "to hold the Liberal minority government to account".

It was Israel’s second strike on Syria in as many days, fulfilling a promise to protect the Druze minority group involved in recent sectarian violence against Sunni gunmen. Israel attacked a target near the presidential palace in the Syrian capital, Damascus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early Friday, reiterating his vow to protect members of the Druze community. It marks the second time Israel has struck Syria in as many days, following through on a promise to defend the minority group, which was involved in sectarian violence against Sunni gunmen earlier this week. The Druze adhere to a faith that is an offshoot of Islam and have followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. The strikes reflect Israel’s deep mistrust of the Sunni Islamists who toppled Bashar al-Assad in December, posing a further challenge to interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s efforts to establish control over the fractured nation. “Israel struck last night near the presidential palace in Damascus,” Netanyahu said in a joint statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz. “This is a clear message to the Syrian regime: We will not allow (Syrian) forces to deploy south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community.” The Israeli military said in a statement that it struck “adjacent to the area of the Palace of Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa in Damascus,” without specifying the target. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities. Since Assad was ousted in December, Israel has seized ground in the southwest, vowed to protect the Druze, lobbied Washington to keep the neighboring state weak, and has blown up much of the Syrian army’s heavy weapons in the days after he was toppled. Sharaa, who was an Al Qaeda commander before renouncing ties to the group in 2016, has repeatedly vowed to govern Syria in an inclusive way. But incidents of sectarian violence, including the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, have hardened fears among minority groups about the now dominant Islamists. This week’s sectarian violence began on Tuesday with clashes between Druze and Sunni gunmen in the predominantly Druze area of Jaramana, set off by a voice recording cursing the Prophet Mohammad and which the Sunni militants suspected was made by a Druze. More than a dozen people were reported killed on Tuesday, before the violence spread to the mainly Druze town of Sahnaya on the outskirts of Damascus on Wednesday.

Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the aid group running the mission, blamed Israel for the attack but did not provide evidence for its claims. Israel has yet to respond. A ship carrying aid and volunteers heading for Gaza was attacked by drones in international waters off Malta early Friday, the group organizing the mission said. Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the aid group running the mission, blamed Israel for the attack but did not provide evidence for that allegation. NBC News' reached out to the Israel Defense Forces and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but did not immediately receive any response. The attack came exactly two months after Israel, on March 2, imposed a full blockade on the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza including food, medicine, and other critical supplies. Freedom Flotilla Coalition posted video footage on X early Friday showing a fire on the Conscience — the name of the vessel hit by the alleged drone attack — with volunteers from more than 21 countries having boarded in Malta for the mission to Gaza. “On the morning of their scheduled departure, the vessel was attacked,” the organizers said in a statement Friday, adding that the ship issued an SOS distress signal shortly after armed drones caused a fire and a substantial breach in the hull. “Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade (of Gaza) and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters,” the group added. The Maltese government said everyone involved in the aid mission was “confirmed safe” after it carried out a rescue operation. “The vessel had 12 crew members on board and four civilian passengers; no casualties were reported,” it said in a statement Friday. Images released by the Maltese government showed a tug vessel putting out a fire on the vessel following the alleged drone attack. The Conscience was “17 kilometers [around 10.5 miles] from the shore of Malta, [when it] was attacked by two drones,” Yasemin Acar, one of the organizers of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, told NBC News from Malta shortly before the group posted the video online and a rescue operation was carried out on the vessel. Acar said the struck vessel had initially been sailing with a flag registered to the Pacific island nation of Palau, but that the country’s government had removed permission for its flag’s use. Before the rescue of those on board was successfully executed, Acar said “there is panic... Of course, everyone is in shock. Everyone is scared.” Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a post on X on Friday that she “received a distressed call from the people of the Freedom Flotilla that is carrying essential food and medicine to the starving Gaza population.” “I call on concerned state authorities, including maritime authorities, to support the ship and its crew as needed,” she added. Senior Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti accused the Israeli government of “behaving like a pirate” and “violating all international law with impunity” in a post on X on Friday. While Freedom Flotilla Coalition did not cite evidence for its allegations against Israel and the country's government did not respond to the accusations, there have been previous instances of Israeli forces preventing activists and humanitarian groups from shipping aid to Gaza. In 2010, a flotilla on a similar mission was stopped and boarded by Israeli troops near the coast of Gaza. Israeli forces' use of force resulted in the deaths of nine people on board and multiple others were wounded, a panel established by the U.N. secretary general said. Since Israel launched its offensive in the enclave following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attacks, more than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, whose numbers are described as reliable by the World Health Organization. Some 1,200 people were killed during the militant group's attacks in southern Israel, with around 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli counts, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict. International aid groups and nongovernmental organizations have said that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached its worst level in 18 months and that aid systems are on the verge of collapse. While Israel is obligated to meet the basic needs of the civilian population in Gaza under its control under international humanitarian law, the U.N.-run World Food Programme last week said it had run out of food in its warehouses in Gaza and warned of mass starvation in the besieged enclave that is home to more than 2 million Palestinians. In video footage by NBC News’ crew on the ground in the Mawasi neighborhood in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis, children stood in a narrow alley holding empty pots at the Rafah Charitable Kitchen — the only soup kitchen serving the displaced in the area. “We sleep hungry and wake up hungry. We eat nothing, only water to fill our stomachs,” 10-year-old Asmaa Al-Kurd told NBC News. “I spend all my time waiting in line just to bring food for my family,” she added.

SEOUL, South Korea — A U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea on Sunday in a show of force, days after North Korea test-launched cruise missiles to demonstrate its counterattack capabilities. The arrival of the USS Carl Vinson and its strike group at the South Korean port of Busan was meant to display a solid U.S-South Korean military alliance in the face of persistent North Korean threats, and boost interoperability of the allies’ combined assets, the South Korean navy said in a statement. It said it was the first U.S. aircraft carrier to travel to South Korea since June. The deployment of the carrier is expected to infuriate North Korea, which views temporary deployments of such powerful U.S. military assets as major security threats. North Korea has responded to some of the past deployments of U.S. aircraft carriers, long-range bombers and nuclear-powered submarines with missile tests. Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will reach out to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again to revive diplomacy. North Korea hasn’t directly responded to Trump’s overture but alleged U.S.-led hostilities against North Korea have intensified since Trump’s inauguration.