Sean “Diddy” Combs will be sentenced on 3 October for his conviction on prostitution-related charges, following a split verdict that saw him acquitted for crimes that carried more serious punishment.

Man scales Paris building to save children from fire in daring rescue.

A man is being hailed a hero after risking his life to save six people — including two infants — from a burning apartment in the northern district of Paris last week.

In a video shared by a TikTok user, 39-year-old Fousseynou Cissé was seen standing on a narrow ledge of a sixth-floor window as smoke billowed.

Cissé went to the neighbouring apartment, climbed out of the window and stood 20 metres high on a railing linking the two units.

As panic erupted, Cissé calmly urged two families trapped inside to pass their children out the window.

The footage, reportedly taken July 4, showed him helping two babies to safety through a nearby window before assisting four other people from the smoke-filled apartment.

According to Cissé, the evacuated children were handed over through a window by their mothers and passed to the neighbour in an adjacent apartment. Cissé then helped the two mothers to safety.

“I didn’t ask myself the question. There were lives at stake, I didn’t calculate,” Cissé told French news outlet Le Parisien.

His bravery didn’t go unnoticed, as he received a personal call of praise from French President Emmanuel Macron, who commended him for his heroic actions, according to Le Parisien.

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said on Monday that he would be awarding Cissé a medal “in recognition of his courage and dedication.”

His is also expected to be formally honoured by the city of Paris.

With files from The Associated Press

#Netanyahu says he nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. From there, it’s a secretive process.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been nominated again for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Trump on Monday that he recommended him for the prestigious award, handing the American leader the letter he said he sent the Nobel committee.

Trump has been nominated several times by people within the U.S. as well as politicians abroad — but that’s only one small step in the secretive process.
Trump’s previous nominations

Trump’s nominators have included a group of U.S. House Republicans and two Norwegian lawmakers. The groups separately nominated him in 2018 for his work to ease nuclear tensions with North Korea. One of the Norwegians nominated him again for the 2021 prize for his efforts in the Middle East, as did a Swedish lawmaker.

Not all of the nominations have been valid: The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects the prize winners, said in 2018 that someone using a stolen identity had nominated Trump at least twice.

Nominations can be made by a select group of people and organizations, including heads of state or politicians serving at a national level, university professors, directors of foreign policy institutes, past Nobel Prize recipients and members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee itself.
Secret process

Once all nominations have come in, the committee — made up of five members appointed by the Norwegian parliament — sifts through them and ensures they were made by an eligible nominator.

A person cannot nominate themselves, according to the committee.

The nominations aren’t announced by the committee, and the Nobel statutes prohibit the judges from discussing their deliberations for 50 years. But those doing the nominating may choose to make their recommendations public.

Nominations must be submitted before Feb. 1 each year — meaning any recent Netanyahu nomination would be for the 2026 prize. The winners are announced every October, with award ceremonies taking place on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

The prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were established by the will of Alfred Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite. An economics prize was later established by Sweden’s central bank and is presented at the same time.
How to win the peace prize

According to Nobel’s wishes, the peace prize should go to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

The peace prize committee is the only one that regularly rewards achievements made in the previous year — and the prize is the only one awarded in Oslo, Norway. For the science-related prizes, scientists often have to wait decades to have their work recognized by the Nobel judges, who want to make sure that any breakthrough stands the test of time, in Stockholm.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama won the peace prize in 2009, barely nine months into his first term. It was met with fierce criticism in the U.S., where many argued Obama had not been in office long enough to have an impact worthy of the Nobel.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for work he did after leaving the White House.

Israel is preparing for potential military action if Iran revives its nuclear program, per Axios.

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 6. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Rio de Janeiro for a #BRICS summit, according to a TASS reporter.

The minister will lead the Russian delegation at the event from July 6-7. Russian President Vladimir Putin will participate via video link.

On the sidelines of the summit, Lavrov is scheduled to participate in multilateral meetings, where the heads of delegations will talk about BRICS work in three main areas: politics and security; economy and finance; and cultural and humanitarian issues.

The minister will also hold a series of bilateral meetings.

BRICS plans to hold a summit under Brazil’s presidency from July 6-7 in Rio de Janeiro. The main topics of discussion will include health care, trade, investment, finance, climate change, artificial intelligence management, peace and security.

BRICS was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining it in 2011. On January 1, 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates also became members, and so did Indonesia on January 6, 2025.

A boy with a brain injury fights for his life in Gaza’s decimated health system.

Now the boy is lying in a hospital bed, unable to speak, unable to move, losing weight, while doctors don’t have the supplies to treat his brain damage or help in his rehabilitation after a weekslong blockade and constant bombardment.

Recently out of intensive care, Amr’s frail body twists in visible pain. His wide eyes dart around the room. His aunt is convinced he’s looking for his mother. He can’t speak, but she believes he is trying to say “mom.”

“I am trying as much as I can. It is difficult,” said his aunt Nour al-Hams, his main caregiver, sitting next to him on the bed in Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. “What he is living through is not easy.”

To reassure him, his aunt sometimes says his mother will be back soon. Other times, she tries to distract him, handing him a small ball.
The war has decimated the health system

The war began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people captive. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says women and children make up most of the dead but does not specify how many were fighters or civilians.

Nearly 21 months into the conflict that displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, it is nearly impossible for the critically wounded to get the care they need, doctors and aid workers say.

The health care sector has been decimated: Nearly half of the territory’s 36 hospitals have been put out of service. Daily bombings and strikes overwhelm the remaining facilities, which are operating only partially. They struggle with shortages of anything from fuel, gauze and sutures to respirators or scanners that have broken down and can’t be replaced.

Israeli forces have raided and besieged medical facilities, claiming Hamas militants have used them as command centers. Doctors have been killed or were displaced, unable to reach hospitals because of continued military operations.

For more than 2 1/2 months, Israel blocked all food, medicine and other supplies from entering Gaza, accusing Hamas of siphoning off aid to fund its military activities, though the UN said there was no systematic diversion. The population was pushed toward famine.

Since mid-May, Israel has allowed in a trickle of aid, including medical supplies.

Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates that 33,000 children have been injured during the war, including 5,000 requiring long-term rehabilitation and critical care. Over 1,000 children, like Amr, are suffering from brain or spinal injuries or amputated limbs.

“Gaza will be dealing with future generations of kids living with all sorts of disabilities, not just brain, but limb disabilities that are consequences of amputation that could have been prevented if the health system was not under the pressures it is under, wasn’t systematically targeted and destroyed as it was,” said Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care specialist who has volunteered multiple times in Gaza with international medical organizations.
A fateful journey north

In April, one week before her due date, Amr’s mother, Inas, persuaded her husband to visit her parents in northern Gaza. They trekked from the tent they lived in on Gaza’s southern coast to the tent where her parents live.

They were having an evening meal when the strike hit. Amr’s mother and her unborn baby, his grandfather and his brother and sister were killed.

Amr was rushed to the ICU at Indonesian Hospital, the largest in northern Gaza. A scan confirmed shrapnel in his brain and reduced brain function. A breathing tube was inserted into his throat.

“He is three. Why should he bear the weight of a rocket?” his aunt asked.

His father, Mohammed, was too stunned to even visit the ICU. His wife had been the love of his life since childhood, the aunt said. He barely spoke.

Doctors said Amr needed advanced rehabilitation. But while he was at the hospital, Israeli forces attacked the facility — encircling its premises and causing damage to its communication towers, water supplies and one of its wards. Evacuation orders were issued for the area, and patients were transferred to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Another treacherous journey

But Shifa was overwhelmed with mass casualties, and staff asked the family to take Amr south, even though no ambulances or oxygen tanks could be spared.

The father and aunt had to take Amr, fresh out of ICU with the tube in his throat, in a motorized rickshaw for the 25-kilometre (15-mile) drive to Nasser Hospital.

Amr was in pain, his oxygen levels dropped. He was in and out of consciousness. “We were reading the Quran all along the road,” said his aunt, praying they would survive the bombings and Amr the bumpy trip without medical care.

About halfway, an ambulance arrived. Amr made it to Nasser Hospital with oxygen blood levels so low he was again admitted to ICU.
Unable to get the care he needs

Still, Nasser Hospital could not provide Amr with everything he needed. Intravenous nutrients are not available, Nasser’s head of pediatrics, Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, said. The fortified milk Amr needed disappeared from the market and the hospital after weeks of Israel’s blockade. He has lost about half his weight.

When he came out of the ICU, Nour shared his bed with him at night and administered his medication. She grinds rice or lentils into a paste to feed him through a syringe connected to his stomach.

“We have starvation in Gaza. There is nothing to eat,” said his aunt, who is a trained nurse. “There is nothing left.”

The care Amr has missed is likely to have long-term effects. Immediate care for brain injuries is critical, Haj-Hassan said, as is follow-up physical and speech therapy.

Since the Israeli blockade on Gaza began in March, 317 patients, including 216 children, have left the territory for medical treatment alongside nearly 500 of their companions, according to the World Health Organization.

Over 10,000 people, including 2,500 children, await evacuation.

Amr is one of them.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in Gaza, coordinates medical evacuations after receiving requests from countries that will take the patients and security screenings. In recent weeks, over 2,000 patients and their companions have left for treatment, COGAT said, without specifying the time period.

Tess Ingram, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency, said the only hope for many critically injured who remain in Gaza is to get out. Countries need to “open their hearts, open their doors and open their hospitals to children who survived the unimaginable and are now languishing in pain,” she said.

Amr’s aunt reads his every move. He is unhappy with his diapers, she said. He outgrew them long ago. He was a smart kid, now he cries “feeling sorry for himself,” said Nour. He gets seizures and needs tranquilizers to sleep.

“His brain is still developing. What can they do for him? Will he be able to walk again?” Nour asked. “So long as he is in Gaza, there is no recovery for him.”

Sarah El Deeb, The Associated Press

#Israeli airstrikes kill 38 Palestinians in Gaza.

— Israeli airstrikes killed at least 38 Palestinians in Gaza, hospital officials said on Sunday, as Israel was sending a ceasefire negotiating team to Qatar ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘s White House visit for talks toward a deal.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who will meet with Netanyahu on Monday, has floated a plan for an initial 60-day ceasefire that would include a partial release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for an increase in humanitarian supplies allowed into Gaza. The proposed truce calls for talks on ending the 21-month war altogether.

Separately, an Israeli official said the security Cabinet late Saturday approved sending aid into northern Gaza, where civilians suffer from acute food shortages. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the decision with the media, declined to give more details.

Northern Gaza has seen just a trickle of aid enter since Israel ended the latest ceasefire in March. The Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation ‘s closest aid distribution site is near the Netzarim corridor south of Gaza City that separates the territory’s north and south.

In Yemen, a spokesperson for the Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced in a prerecorded message that the group had launched ballistic missiles targeting Israel’s Ben Gurion airport overnight. Israel’s military said they were intercepted.
Israel hits 130 targets across Gaza

Israeli strikes hit two houses in Gaza City, killing 20 Palestinians and wounding 25 others, according to Mohammed Abu Selmia, director of Shifa Hospital, which serves the area.

In southern Gaza, Israeli strikes killed 18 Palestinians in Muwasi, an area on the Mediterranean coast where thousands of displaced people live in tents, officials at Nasser Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis told The Associated Press. It said two families were among the dead.

“My brother, his wife, his four children, my cousin’s son and his daughter. ... Eight people are gone,” said Saqer Abu Al-Kheir as people gathered on the sand for prayers and burials.

Israel’s military had no immediate comment on the individual strikes but said it struck 130 targets across Gaza in the past 24 hours. It claimed its strikes targeted Hamas command and control structures, storage facilities, weapons and launchers, and that they killed a number of militants in northern Gaza.
Rift over ending the war

Ahead of the indirect talks with Hamas in Qatar, Netanyahu’s office asserted that the militant group was seeking “unacceptable” changes to the ceasefire proposal.

Hamas, which gave a “positive” response late Friday to the latest U.S. proposal, has sought guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Previous negotiations have stalled over Hamas demands of guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war’s end, while Netanyahu has insisted Israel would resume fighting to ensure the group’s destruction.

The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas government, does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press reporter Tia Goldenberg contributed from Tel Aviv.

Wafaa Shurafa And Kareem Chehayeb, The Associated Press

US President Donald Trump believes that the situation around Ukraine is very complicated.

"We talked about different things. We had a very good call, I think a very strategic one," the US leader told reporters, commenting on his July 4 telephone conversation with Vladimir Zelensky. "It's a pretty tough situation," he told the White House press pool.

Trump also noted that he was "very unhappy" with his July 3 telephone conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. "He wants to go all the way," the US leader head of state said, expressing doubt about Moscow's willingness to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. "[That’s] not good," he emphasized.

On July 2, The New York Times reported, citing sources, that Washington would suspend the supply of several weapons to Kiev, including Patriot air defense missiles, GMLRS precision-guided munitions, Hellfire guided missiles, and Stinger portable anti-aircraft missile systems. At the same time, Trump said on July 3 that Washington continues to provide military assistance to Kiev, but at the same time assumes that Washington itself needs weapons.

In a telephone conversation with Trump on July 3, Putin said that Moscow continues to await the dates for a new round of negotiations with the Kiev regime. According to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, the issue of Washington's cessation of arms supplies to Kiev was not raised in the conversation between the leaders of Russia and the US.

American entrepreneur Elon Musk announced the creation of a new political party America, following the results of the vote held on his page in the social network X.

"By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!" he said in a post on X. He noted that when the country is being bankrupted by [excessive] spending and bribery, its citizens live in a one-party system, not a democracy.

"Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom," he wrote on X.

More than 1.2 million users of the social network took part in the vote. 65.4% voted for the creation of the new party.

A #Gaza ceasefire is the closest it has been in months. Here’s what we know.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he’s “optimistic” a ceasefire deal in Gaza could be agreed next week after Hamas announced that it had “submitted a positive response” to a proposal for a 60-day truce with Israel.

“We have to get it over with,” Trump said Friday. “We have to do something about Gaza.”

Israel and Hamas have long had conflicting demands that negotiators have been unable to bridge, but with both now agreeing the revised proposal, for the first time in months an agreement seems within reach.

The renewed efforts gathered steam following a truce between Iran and Israel but also reflect U.S. pressure and a shift in Israel’s war goals. Here’s what to know.
Why now?

Since the Israel-Iran ceasefire on June 24, mediators Qatar and Egypt – as well as the United States – have redoubled their calls for a new Gaza truce. A Qatari foreign ministry spokesman told CNN the Israel-Iran agreement had created “momentum” for the latest talks between Israel and Hamas.

Netanyahu’s government has faced mounting international criticism for the suffering its war is inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian deliveries to the enclave in March. It somewhat eased the blockade in May, after a chorus of global experts warned that hundreds of thousands of people could soon starve.

Hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli strikes in recent days. And aid distribution has been marred by violence, with hundreds killed on their way to try to obtain food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial U.S.-backed aid initiative that began operating at the end of May.

Pressure is also growing on Netanyahu from within Israel.

His government is propped up by far-right figures who want to escalate the fighting in Gaza, but opposition leader Yair Lapid said Wednesday that he would join the coalition government to make a hostage deal possible. Polls have repeatedly shown that a majority of the country wants a deal to bring the hostages home, even if it means an end to the war.
What are Israel’s demands?

In addition to the aim of bringing the hostages home, Netanyahu has not wavered from his more maximalist aims: disarmament of Gaza and the destruction of Hamas’ military capabilities and governance abilities.

But last weekend, the prime minister made a rhetorical shift in laying out Israel’s goals – for the first time prioritizing the return of hostages ahead of what he once called the “supreme objective” of defeating Hamas.

Netanyahu said “many opportunities have opened up” following Israel’s military operations in Iran, including the possibility of bringing home everyone still held captive by Hamas. “Firstly, to rescue the hostages,” he said. “Of course, we will also need to solve the Gaza issue, defeat Hamas, but I believe we will accomplish both missions.”

The comments were welcomed by families of hostages held in Gaza, who have criticized him for not clearly placing releasing their Ioved ones as Israel’s primary goal. Only a small number of hostages have been rescued in military operations rather than freed under truces.

The Israeli military this week recommended pursuing a diplomatic path in Gaza after nearly two years of fighting and the elimination of much of Hamas’ senior leadership.

On Tuesday, a military official told CNN that Israel has not fully achieved all of its war goals, but as Hamas’ forces have shrunk and gone into hiding, it has become more difficult to effectively target what remains of the militant group. “It’s harder now to achieve tactical goals,” the official said.
What about Hamas?

Hamas announced on Friday that it “submitted a positive response to the mediators, and the movement is fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework.”

The militant group has three main demands: a permanent end to the fighting, for humanitarian assistance to be carried out by the United Nations, and for Israel to retreat to the positions it held on March 2 this year, before it renewed its offensive and occupied the northern part of the Strip.

A senior Hamas official told CNN in late May that the group is “ready to return the hostages in one day – just we want a guarantee that war will not come again after that.” The hostages are Hamas’ key leverage in negotiations, and the militant group has refused to agree to a release without a path to end the conflict.

In response to the earlier Trump administration-backed ceasefire proposal in May, Hamas requested U.S. assurances that permanent ceasefire negotiations will continue and that fighting will not resume after the 60-day pause.

Whether the ceasefire will be temporary or a pathway to a permanent truce is the biggest sticking point between the warring parties.

While Israel wants to eradicate Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks, the group has shown little willingness to relinquish its political and military power in Gaza.

Officials in the group have given contradictory statements as to Hamas’ role in a post-war Gaza. The group’s spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, has said that the group is not “clinging to power” and does not have to be part of arrangements “in the next phase.”
What’s in the proposed deal?

While the fine detail of the proposal is yet to be released it is clear that the revised plan is an attempt to bridge some of the differences between Israel and Hamas.

A source familiar with the negotiations said that the timeline of the latest proposal calls for the release of 10 living Israeli hostages and 18 deceased hostages spread out over the full 60-day period.

Of the 50 hostages still in Gaza, at least 20 of them are believed to be alive, according to the Israeli government.

Similiar to previous ceasefires, on the first day of the truce, Hamas would release eight living hostages. In exchange, Israel would release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and withdraw its forces from pre-agreed locations in northern Gaza.

Israel and Hamas would also immediately enter into negotiations for a permanent ceasefire once the initial truce goes into effect, the source said.

Under the deal, hostages will be released without ceremonies or fanfare at Israel’s request – unlike during the last truce, when Hamas staged public propaganda events around hostage transfers that sparked outrage in Israel.

Humanitarian aid will immediately begin to flow into Gaza at the start of the ceasefire, including from the United Nations and from other aid organizations, similar to the previous ceasefire which began on January 19.

This leaves the fate of the U.S.-backed GHF and its role in Gaza unclear.

The U.S. and the mediators have provided stronger assurances about reaching a settlement to end the war in Gaza as part of the updated proposal, an Israeli official told CNN, something that in principle should address one of Hamas’ key concerns. The official did not provide the specific language in the document, but said the wording is stronger than previous assurances.

Although both sides have accepted the proposal more talks must take place before a ceasefire begins.

In these proximity talks, likely to take place in Doha or Cairo, negotiators shuttle back and forth between the two sides to hammer out the final details of the agreement.

One of the key issues to resolve during proximity talks will be the timeline and location of the withdrawal of Israeli forces in Gaza during the 60-day ceasefire, according to the source.
When were the previous ceasefires?

In the 21 months of war between Israel and Hamas, ceasefires have been in place for a total of only nine weeks.

More than 57,000 people, of which more than 17,000 are children, have been killed in Gaza during the fighting, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The first ceasefire came into effect in November 2023, but lasted only a week. In that time, 105 hostages were released from Gaza, in exchange for scores of Palestinian prisoners.

A second ceasefire was not struck until January 2025, shortly before Trump’s return to the White House. In just over eight weeks – the first “phase” of the ceasefire – Hamas freed 33 hostages, with Israel releasing around 50 Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli freed.

Under the planned second stage, Israel was supposed to agree to a permanent ceasefire. But Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, shattering the ceasefire and derailing the talks, saying it did so to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Kristen Holmes, Kylie Atwood, Dana Karni, Michael Schwartz and Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.

Christian Edwards and Lauren Kent, CNN