Israel has launched renewed strikes on southern Lebanon as it continues to press forward with a ground invasion, while also waging new attacks on Beirut shortly after striking areas around the capital that had been so far removed from the conflict.   

At least four people were killed in a raid that hit a car in the southern town of Kfar Rumman, the Lebanese Civil Defense told Al Jazeera. 

A Russian drone hit a covered market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol on Saturday, April 4, killing five people and wounding 25, officials said, as Moscow pressed on with intensified daytime attacks. Russia has been firing aerial broadsides at Ukraine throughout its more than four-year invasion, mostly at night, but in recent weeks it has stepped up daytime attacks.    

Russian strikes killed at least eight people across Ukraine on Friday, including in a “massive” missile and drone attack near the capital, local authorities reported.   

Ukrainian officials claim the Kremlin is changing its tactics to increase civilian suffering, shifting to daytime barrages and preparing to target more key infrastructure. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signaled Kyiv’s openness to a potential Easter truce. The holiday is celebrated on April 12 in Ukraine and Russia. 

Myanmar's parliament elected junta chief Min Aung Hlaing as president on Friday, April 3, parliament said, with the ex-military commander set to maintain his rule in a civilian guise after snatching power by force five years ago. 

The coup-leading general—who swept aside democracy in 2021, detaining elected figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi and dissolving her party—was anointed by pro-military MPs installed in a recent election overseen by the junta he leads.  

Three United Nations experts have called for an independent and thorough investigation into Israel’s recent killing of three journalists in Lebanon, denouncing the deadly incident as “another egregious attack on press freedom by Israeli forces.” 

UN special rapporteurs Irene Khan, Morris Tidball-Binz, and Ben Saul on Thursday noted that “journalists carrying out their professional duties in armed conflict are civilians and must not be targeted or made the object of attack.” 

Shelling, gunfire, landmines, and other explosive remnants of war have killed or injured nearly 1,200 children in Yemen, Save the Children has found, despite a United Nations-led ceasefire four years ago largely reducing hostilities. 

Since the truce brokered on April 2, 2022, at least 339 children have been killed and 843 injured, some in life-altering ways, the United Kingdom-based humanitarian organization said in an analysis of data from the Civilian Impact Monitoring Project released on Thursday. 

Burkina Faso’s military is committing atrocities, including the ethnic cleansing of Fulani civilians, Human Rights Watch has found, which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity in the West African country. 

 In a report released on Thursday and titled “None Can Run Away,” the New York-based watchdog presented its findings after conducting in-person and phone interviews with more than 450 people in Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Mali about abuses between January 2023 and August 2025. 

Rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group killed at least 43 people in eastern Congo, officials said Thursday. 

Fighters with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed the civilians Wednesday night in Bafwakoa village. The Ugandan Islamist group operates on both sides of the porous border. 

Congo’s military in a statement said 43 had been killed, while local officials said the toll was at least 56, with several people missing and at least two taken hostage. 

The Cuban government said Thursday it would release 2,010 prisoners in a move that comes while the Trump administration puts extreme pressure on the island’s government with a suffocating oil blockade. 

The announcement said the pardons were a “humanitarian gesture” in connection with Holy Week and didn’t mention mounting pressures with the United States. 

Cuba’s government denies holding political prisoners, but the activist group Prisoners Defended registered 1,214 people imprisoned for political reasons in Cuba as of February.