U.S. military

A senior U.S. military official warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing's "dangerous" moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders.

Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of self-ruled Taiwan and China's increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions.

The U.S. military has raised the alert level of several bases in Europe to its second-highest level, multiple American media outlets have reported.

The American bases, located across Europe, were raised to the "Charlie" alert level, ABC News and CNN reported, both citing unnamed officials.

Israel announced its forces rescued four hostages on Saturday from a Gaza refugee camp in an operation which the Hamas-run government media office said left 210 Palestinians dead and hundreds wounded.

The first trucks began supplying aid to war-ravaged Gaza from a temporary pier on Friday, the U.S. military said, as fighting raged in the Palestinian territory.

U.S. Central Command said "trucks carrying humanitarian assistance began moving ashore" via the long-awaited pier, a day after it was anchored to a Gaza beach.

Fighting raged Friday in Gaza after Israel vowed to intensify its ground offensive in Rafah despite international concerns for the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the southern city.

U.S. troops early Thursday anchored a long-awaited temporary pier, meant to boost aid deliveries into war-ravaged Gaza, to a beach in the besieged Palestinian territory, the U.S. military said.

President Joe Biden on Saturday lauded American forces who helped Israel down "nearly all" of the drones and missiles fired by Iran and vowed to coordinate a global response to Tehran's unprecedented attack. And the Pentagon said its forces intercepted "dozens of missiles" and drones launched from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen that were headed toward Israel.

Niger's government announced on Saturday that it was breaking off "with immediate effect" its military cooperation agreement with the United States.

The declaration came just a day after a senior U.S. delegation left Niger, following a three-day visit to renew contact with the military junta that ousted the president and moved closer to Russia.

A missile strike damaged a merchant ship in the Red Sea off Yemen, marine security monitors said Friday, as the country's Iran-backed Huthi rebels threatened to expand their months-long harassment campaign which has disrupted global trade.

With Haiti's capital spiraling deeper into gang violence, members of several diplomatic missions, including staff from the United States and the German ambassador, began leaving Port-au-Prince Sunday.