Amsterdam (AFP) – Orange-clad crowds fill the streets of Amsterdam as part of the Dutch monarch Willem-Alexander’s birthday celebrations. “It’s a funny celebration because it’s weird that you celebrate the king’s birthday,” says student Florence Matter, adding, “but it’s so fun because everyone goes out.”
Washington (United States) (AFP) – Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche says security “did not fail” during a shooting at a media gala dinner attended by US President Donald Trump. “I want to make this clear: This man was a floor above the ballroom, with hundreds of federal agents between him and the president of the United States,” Blanche says during a news conference.
Bekasi (Indonesia) (AFP) – Indonesia’s president has ordered an investigation after a long-distance train smashed into a stationary commuter train overnight, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens. Officials have ended a nearly 12-hour rescue effort near Bekasi Timur station, east of the capital Jakarta, which saw crews prying open mangled carriages following the collision.
Washington (United States) (AFP) – Moments of panic and confusion at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel following an attempted attack. US Secret Service agents bundled Donald Trump from the stage as shots rang out at the media gala. Authorities later announced that the presumed shooter, 31-year-old Cole Tomas, had been arrested and would appear in court on Monday.
Washington (United States) (AFP) – “They seem to think he was a lone wolf, and I feel that too,” says US President Donald Trump during a statement after shots were fired at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington DC. The US president added that the suspected gunman has been captured and investigators are heading to his apartment, where “you’re going to find everything about him.”
Slavutych (Ukraine) (AFP) – Nikolay Solovyov was on shift the night of April 26, 1986 when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. He remembers the disaster as a war. By dawn, he and his colleagues were already counting down what they believed were their final days. “We’ll last two weeks,” he recalls someone saying. Four decades later, a second war, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has claimed his son. “I’d rather not remember anything, so as not to get upset,” the 67-year-old tells AFP.
Radonvilliers (France) (AFP) – Belgian, Italian, Greek, and Spanish troops join French forces in France’s Aube region for river-crossing exercises as part of the Orion 2026 military training.
Geneva (AFP) – War-torn Gaza is heavily contaminated by unexploded ordnance, which frequently kill and maim people and could threaten recovery efforts far into the future, the UN says. “There’s about explosive ordinance every 600 meters” in Gaza, explains UNMAS chief in the occupied Palestinian Territory, Julius Van der Walt. “Our own data suggests that, since the conflict started more than a thousand people were killed due to indirect conflict” he says, while acknowledging that this figure is severely underreported.
Lome (AFP) – French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot says during a trip to Togo that France abstained from voting for the UN resolution recognising the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity” because the country “refuses to create a hierarchy among crimes against humanity”.
Caracas (AFP) – Colombian President Gustavo Petro sits down with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who took over after the toppling of her former boss Nicolas Maduro in January. Petro is the first foreign leader to visit Venezuela since Maduro’s ouster. IMAGES
La Guaira (Venezuela) (AFP) – Colombian President Gustavo Petro arrives in Venezuela and is greeted by Foreign Minister Yvan Gil at Simon Bolivar International Airport, prior to his visit to the Miraflores Palace, where he will hold a bilateral meeting with Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodriguez. IMAGES
Cali (Colombia) (AFP) – Scene after an attack on a Colombian military base that left one person injured, one month before the first round of the presidential election. A bus was burned just a few meters from the military post in Cali. IMAGES
