Hezbollah Engineering Commander Abed Harb Killed in strike, IDF Says  

By The Media Line Staff  

Israel announced the killing of Abed Harb, the commander of Hezbollah’s engineering unit,  on Friday.   

According to the Israeli military, Harb was killed in a strike in Lebanon. The military said he oversaw Hezbollah’s engineering unit and was involved in activities targeting Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops operating in southern Lebanon.  

“Harb commanded the engineering unit that was responsible for assembling and deploying explosives intended to harm IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon,” the military says.  

The military also reported that the Israeli Air Force struck a launcher used by Hezbollah to fire rockets at troops in southern Lebanon. The IDF released footage of the operation and said the strike was carried out overnight.  

The operations came after Israel’s security cabinet met Thursday to discuss a proposal developed during Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington. The framework would establish security zones in Lebanon without a Hezbollah presence and require the group to withdraw from areas south of the Litani River.  

The cabinet did not vote on the proposal after Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected it.  

According to participants in the meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ministers that the proposal would not be brought forward for approval unless Hezbollah formally accepted it.  

“At the moment there is no agreement,” Netanyahu said, according to participants in the meeting. “Hezbollah opposes it, and therefore I am not bringing it for a decision. If it agrees, I will bring it for your approval.”  

Earlier Thursday, Qassem denounced both the proposal and the negotiations that produced it.  

“The result of the direct, humiliating and disgraceful negotiations is rejected by broad parts of the Lebanese people,” Qassem said.  

During the cabinet session, ministers were informed of the death of Capt. Eitan Shmuel Lamberg, an Armored Corps officer killed in southern Lebanon.  

According to Ynet, notification of Lamberg’s death strengthened opposition among some ministers to the ceasefire proposal under discussion.  

The meeting concluded without a vote, while Israeli military operations in Lebanon continued. 

Israeli Security Cabinet Nixes Vote on Lebanon Ceasefire Proposal After Hezbollah Chief Rejects It  

By The Media Line Staff  

Israeli ministers refrained from approving a proposed ceasefire arrangement during a security cabinet meeting on Thursday after Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem publicly rejected the framework, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ministers that “at the moment there is no agreement.”   

The proposal, developed during Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington, would establish security zones in Lebanon without a Hezbollah presence, requiring the group to withdraw from areas south of the Litani River.   

According to participants in the meeting, Netanyahu told ministers that Israel was still waiting for Hezbollah to formally accept the proposal before it could be brought forward for government approval.   

“At the moment there is no agreement,” Netanyahu said, according to participants in the meeting. “Hezbollah opposes it, and therefore I am not bringing it for a decision. If it agrees, I will bring it for your approval.”   

Ministers ultimately did not vote on the proposal after learning of Qassem’s rejection.   

Earlier Thursday, the Hezbollah leader denounced the plan and the negotiations that produced it.   

“The result of the direct, humiliating and disgraceful negotiations is rejected by broad parts of the Lebanese people,” Qassem said.   

He further criticized the proposal, stating, “The Washington declaration conditions the basic principles that America and Israel want, toward the subjugation of Lebanon to the Greater Israel project.”   

The security cabinet meeting took place against the backdrop of continued fighting in southern Lebanon. During the session, ministers were informed of the death of Capt. Eitan Shmuel Lamberg, an Armored Corps officer who was killed in southern Lebanon.   

According to Ynet, news of Lamberg’s death reinforced opposition to the ceasefire proposal among some ministers participating in the discussion.   

At the same time, Ynet reported that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich argued that achieving a ceasefire under the current circumstances would represent a significant accomplishment.   

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir attended only the opening portion of the cabinet meeting and made few remarks, officials familiar with the discussion told Ynet.  

UAE Textile Waste Push Tests Whether Circular Fashion Can Move Beyond Good Intentions 

Naseej brings national attention to the UAE’s textile waste problem, but experts say lasting change will depend on collection points, recycling capacity, consumer habits, and the economics of reuse 

By Giorgia Valente / The Media Line 

The UAE’s launch of Naseej, the National Initiative for Textile Circularity, will test whether a country known for malls, fast fashion, and high consumption can turn textile waste from an environmental afterthought into part of a working circular system. 

The initiative, launched under the directives of President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, comes as the UAE is estimated to generate 220,000 metric tons of textile waste each year. It aims to create a more organized national system for collecting, reusing, recycling, and reducing textile waste while linking government agencies, businesses, researchers, recyclers, community organizations, and consumers. 

Circular textile systems aim to keep garments and fibers in use for as long as possible through reuse, repair, resale, upcycling, recycling, and reduced waste. 

That goal is easy to state and difficult to deliver. Across the UAE’s sustainable fashion and textile recovery ecosystem, business owners and advocates broadly welcome Naseej as an important national step. But they also warn that recycling alone will not solve the problem unless the country builds accessible collection systems, supports resale and repair, reduces overconsumption, and develops local capacity to handle materials that currently have few viable end-of-life options. 

Still, public details released so far leave open major questions: whether Naseej will lead to permanent neighborhood collection points, binding targets, brand obligations, long-term funding, enforcement mechanisms, or large-scale recycling facilities. 

Naseej brings together the National Projects Office, the Ministry of Economy and Tourism, Emirates Foundation, Tadweer Group, researchers, businesses, and community partners to work on collection, recycling, consumer behavior, regulation, and circular business models. In practical terms, the initiative is expected to support national programs, improve collection and recycling infrastructure, advance pilot projects, and help create markets for circular textile solutions. 

Work on the initiative began during COP28 and included memorandums of understanding with partners across the textile sector, including fashion brands, manufacturers, recyclers, research institutions, and community organizations. Its first public activation, “The Fabric of Possibility,” is scheduled for June 5 to 7 at Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi before similar events expand to other parts of the country. 

For Jennifer Sault, founder and managing director of Thrift for Good, the urgency is already visible in the volume of unwanted clothing moving through the UAE. 

“An estimated 220,000 [metric] tons of clothing is going into landfill currently in the UAE. This is by a recent report that just came out on Naseej, the National Initiative for Textile Circularity,” Sault told The Media Line. 

Sault said fast fashion has accelerated the problem by encouraging higher production and making clothing easier to treat as disposable. According to the UN Environment Programme, 92 million metric tons of textile waste are produced globally each year. The agency has also cited Ellen MacArthur Foundation findings that clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2015, while the duration of garment use declined by 36%. 

“Clothing sustainability has become a growing concern, not just in the UAE, but globally, as producers and consumers shift more to fast fashion,” Sault said. 

The environmental problem, she said, is not only the quantity of discarded clothing but also what that clothing is made from. Synthetic materials such as polyester are derived from fossil fuels, shed microplastics, and can persist in the environment for decades or longer, depending on conditions. The European Parliament has cited estimates that textile production is responsible for about 20% of global clean water pollution, mainly from dyeing. 

“What’s more disturbing is that clothing is being produced much more cheaply, which means that the resources that go into it are not as good for the environment,” Sault said. 

She voiced concern about microplastics and chemical exposure. 

“Plastics are leaching off into waterways in our systems, into our food chains,” she said. “So it’s not just the environment, but our health as well.” 

The challenge, those working in the sector said, is that collection and recycling infrastructure have not kept pace with consumption. Sault said Thrift for Good has built a model that keeps nearly all of the clothing it receives in circulation through resale, repair, redistribution, stain treatment, redesign, upcycling, or recycling. But the organization’s scale is tiny compared with the national problem. 

“We have figured out how to be 99% circular with our clothing,” she said. 

Still, she said, the country lacks a system for many materials that are not cotton. 

“The cottons we can do here in the UAE, Landmark Recycling Center, does a great job and has a fair amount of capacity to take this,” Sault said. “But there’s still no system in the UAE for anything that’s not cotton. So polyester blends, other materials, those that are greatly soiled, shoes, bags, accessories, etc.” 

That limitation reflects a wider global problem. Textile recycling is technically difficult because many garments are made from blended fabrics, which must be sorted and separated before their fibers can be reused. A cotton shirt, a polyester dress, and a mixed-fiber garment may all require different sorting, processing, and end markets. Recycling mills also often require strict fiber quality standards, and collection systems are fragmented even in countries with advanced waste infrastructure. 

Sault said Thrift for Good processes about 12 tons of clothing each month. About one ton goes into recycling, and roughly 400 kilograms are likely to end up in landfills. 

“We’re quite small in terms of the scale of what’s needed in the UAE,” she said. “We’re just a scratch on the tip of an iceberg.” 

Circular fashion systems cost money before they reduce waste. Collection, sorting, transport, storage, repair, quality control, fiber separation, recycling technology, and markets for recovered materials all require investment. If resale margins are thin and recycling does not pay for itself, circularity can become dependent on subsidies, philanthropy, or policy intervention. 

Muhammad Virji, director of Universal Clothing and founder of Fashion Rerun and Efaar, welcomed Naseej as a step toward a more organized circular textile industry. 

“It is an important step toward building a stronger circular textile industry and encouraging more sustainable use of clothing and textiles across the country,” Virji told The Media Line. 

Virji’s work focuses on the value that remains in clothing after its first use. He said discarded garments should not be treated automatically as waste when they can still be reused, resold, upcycled, recycled, or sorted for another purpose. 

“Many clothes and textiles still have value after their first use,” he said. 

The practical barriers, he said, are awareness, convenience, and collection. Many consumers may want to make better choices but do not know where to take unwanted clothing or what happens after they dispose of it. 

“Making collection and recycling easier can help increase participation,” he said. 

Virji said responsibility must be shared among consumers, retailers, brands, policymakers, recyclers, and reuse businesses. Consumers can care for garments and use resale or recycling options. Retailers and brands can educate customers and support circular initiatives. Government can connect partners and help build the systems that allow those efforts to scale. 

The UAE already has companies and community groups working in resale, upcycling, recycling, sorting, and textile recovery, he said. The next step is linking them into a larger chain. 

“The opportunity now is to continue connecting these efforts so more textiles stay in use for longer,” Virji said. 

His companies operate across different stages of that chain. Universal Clothing sorts and grades textiles so they can be directed to appropriate uses. Fashion Rerun focuses on resale. Efaar transforms existing textiles into new products through rework and upcycling. 

Araceli Gallego, founder of GoShopia.com and Fashion Revolution UAE country coordinator, said Naseej is a positive step because it recognizes textile waste as a national issue. But she said the success of circular fashion will depend on whether the initiative moves beyond recycling and supports the community-level work that changes behavior. 

“The launch of Naseej is a very positive step for the UAE and an important recognition of the need to address textile waste at a national level,” Gallego told The Media Line. “At Fashion Revolution UAE, we believe circularity goes far beyond recycling.” 

Gallego said Fashion Revolution UAE works through clothes swaps, repair and mending sessions, styling masterclasses, workshops, and community events. The goal, she said, is to extend the life of garments and keep textiles out of landfills while giving consumers practical alternatives to buying new. 

“We also work closely with sustainable fashion designers, upcyclers, thrift shops, and stylists to promote more conscious ways of producing and consuming fashion,” she said. 

Community initiatives are still small, but Gallego said they are helping create a culture around repair, reuse, and sustainable design. Each April, Fashion Revolution UAE holds Fashion Revolution Week. In May, the group took part in Rooted at Alserkal Avenue, a community-led cultural program that brought together art, creativity, and sustainable fashion through exhibitions, talks, and workshops. 

“The UAE has a small but growing ecosystem of people and organizations contributing to textile circularity,” she said. 

That challenge is sharpened by the UAE’s retail model. The country’s malls make fast fashion highly visible, convenient, and accessible, while sustainable labels often lack comparable reach. High retail rents can favor large brands, leaving smaller sustainable businesses outside prime shopping locations. 

“The UAE is home to some of the world’s most impressive malls, making fast fashion incredibly convenient and accessible,” Gallego said. “However, high retail rents often mean that only large brands can secure space, leaving many sustainable labels without a presence in these prime locations.” 

Repair, resale, rental, and upcycling are expanding, she said, but they still lack the scale and convenience of buying something new. 

The fast-fashion question, the interviewees said, is not whether people should stop enjoying clothing, but whether the system can make better choices easier. Price, convenience, variety, climate, children outgrowing clothing, and limited access to affordable, sustainable alternatives all help explain why consumers continue to buy fast fashion even when they know the environmental costs. 

That market reality is not unique to the UAE. Fast fashion remains dominant not simply because consumers ignore sustainability concerns, but because it offers price, access, variety, and convenience. Kristen Classi-Zummo, an apparel industry analyst at Circana, made a similar point in comments to The Washington Post about fast fashion and sustainability. Consumers often care about environmental benefits when other factors are equal, she said, but a large price gap or lack of convenience can quickly change the decision. 

“If they’re then seeing a big price difference or it is not convenient, then they won’t buy,” Classi-Zummo told the newspaper. 

Gallego said consumers should be encouraged to buy fewer but better-quality items, extend garment life, support responsible brands, and make resale and repair part of ordinary shopping behavior. 

“The solution is not necessarily to stop people from enjoying fashion, but to encourage more conscious consumption,” she said. 

Virji framed the same idea as product life extension. 

“The focus should be on extending the life of clothing,” he said. “Supporting collection, resale, reuse, upcycling, and recycling helps ensure garments stay in use for longer and reduces unnecessary waste.” 

Sault said consumers have power through everyday purchasing decisions, but she also said companies and policymakers must act where market incentives fall short. 

“I truly believe that our dollar is our vote for the world we want to live in,” she said. “The companies we support are the legacies that we fuel and build.” 

Government has a role, Sault said, because recycling often does not pay for itself and cheaper products can crowd out more ethical alternatives. 

“Companies, of course, should be responsible. They should offer fair, equitable products,” Sault said. “And policymakers, I think, have the responsibility to protect against consumers just going for the cheapest prices, and protect that there has to be a bare minimum of ethics in the products that we have available.” 

Sault said fabric recycling is technically possible but needs public support, financing, and systems that make economic sense. 

“But recycling, it doesn’t really pay,” she said. “So I think there’s also a lot of space for governments to foster innovation, to fund recycling, to set up systems that make sense, to curb clothing from landfill long-term.” 

Naseej appears designed to answer some of these gaps by putting policy, research, collection, public outreach, and business innovation inside one national framework. The harder test will be whether that framework becomes visible in daily life: collection points in neighborhoods, repair and resale options that can compete with malls, sorting facilities that can handle mixed textiles, and recycling capacity that goes beyond cotton. 

Taken together, the interviewees said progress will depend less on slogans than on infrastructure: neighborhood collection points, sorting facilities, non-cotton recycling capacity, repair and resale options, and markets for recovered materials. Sault pointed to the need for recycling centers for non-cotton fabrics, shoes, and bags. Virji said success should be measured by how many textiles remain in circulation. Gallego said the first goal should be preventing waste before it is created. 

Gallego also warned against relying on exports as a convenient outlet for unwanted clothing. 

“Shipping waste elsewhere simply shifts the problem rather than addressing it,” Gallego said. “Instead, we should focus on building local capacity to manage, recover, and reduce the waste we generate within the UAE.” 

Gallego said no single organization can solve a waste problem of this size. 

“We need collaboration between government entities, brands, retailers, recyclers, charities, educational institutions, communities, cultural organizations, and consumers,” she said. “In my humble opinion, the most successful solutions will be those that combine infrastructure, education, innovation, and community engagement.” 

Virji described the same challenge as a value-chain problem. 

“Strong partnerships are essential across the textile value chain,” he said. “Government provides leadership, private companies contribute expertise and infrastructure, community organizations support collection and awareness, and consumers participate.” 

The UAE’s textile waste problem reflects a broader global contradiction. Fashion remains a major cultural and economic force, but its current consumption model produces waste that is increasingly difficult to ignore. Naseej gives the UAE a national platform to address that contradiction. The work of local actors such as Thrift for Good, Universal Clothing, Fashion Rerun, Efaar, GoShopia.com, and Fashion Revolution UAE shows that pieces of the circular model already exist. 

The question now is whether those pieces can be connected, scaled, and made convenient enough to move circular fashion beyond committed consumers and into the habits of ordinary residents. 

The next stage will show whether Naseej can turn awareness into infrastructure. Without that, Naseej risks becoming another sustainability campaign. With it, the country could move closer to a textile system in which clothing is not simply bought, worn, and forgotten, but kept in use long enough to retain its value. 

SEOUL, June 6 (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the naval destroyer Kang Kon to supervise the vessel’s navigation test, stressing the need to enhance naval capabilities to deter a nuclear war, the country’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported on Saturday.

During the trip on Thursday, Kim praised navy sailors for their ship operational capabilities and expressed satisfaction with the vessel’s cruising and high-speed maneuvering systems, the newspaper said.

He ordered the navy to deploy the destroyer and a 5,000-ton warship called Choe Hyon as soon as possible after the tests, it added.

Kim’s daughter, known as Ju Ae, was also on board, a photo published by the newspaper showed.

Kim said powerful military capabilities across land, sea and air were needed to deter a war and secure peace, stressing the need to enhance the navy’s capability to deter a nuclear war, according to the newspaper. 

(Reporting by Heejin Kim; Editing by Mark Porter and Sanjeev Miglani)

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, June 5 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin held a one-on-one meeting with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, which was “good and friendly,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov was quoted as saying on Friday by Russian news agencies.

“The discussion was friendly. It was in the form of a tete-a-tete, one on one,” the agencies quoted Ushakov as saying. “I honestly don’t know any of the details. It took place in Moscow, in the Kremlin.”

In his comments to journalists, Ushakov said Russian officials were engaged in numerous informal contacts.

“I can well imagine that there are a lot of informal contacts and we simply don’t know about them,” the agencies quoted him as saying.

Schroeder was German Chancellor from 1998 to 2005, when his Social Democratic Party was voted out of office.

He subsequently worked for Russian state companies and cultivated a close relationship with Putin.

Putin last month suggested that he would be willing to negotiate new security arrangements for Europe, with Schroeder as his preferred partner.

But European Union foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels rejected any role for Schroeder, with the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas saying that would allow the former chancellor to “be sitting on both sides of the table”.

Ushakov said he made no public statements about his own informal contacts, including with the special U.S. envoys dealing with the conflict in Ukraine – Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

He noted that U.S. diplomacy was focused on events in Iran, but said a forthcoming visit by Witkoff and Kushner to Moscow was “being prepared, but the dates have not been agreed.”

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Ron Popeski and Sanjeev Miglani)

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ‘s office on Friday condemned comments by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who blamed immigration for the death of a university student who was handcuffed as he lay dying from a stab wound.

Henry Nowak, 18, died after being stabbed by Vickrum Digwa in the English city of Southampton in December. Digwa, who is Sikh, falsely claimed to police he was the victim of a racist assault by Nowak, who was white. When police officers arrived, they initially treated the wounded man as a suspect before noticing his injury and trying to resuscitate him.

Digwa, 23, was convicted of murder for stabbing Nowak with an 8-inch (21 centimeter) Sikh dagger and sentenced this week to life in prison with a minimum 21-year term.

The case has been seized on by anti-immigration activists and politicians, despite the fact that both Nowak and his killer were British. On Tuesday, police in Southampton were pelted with chairs, cans, rocks and flares after a demonstration over Nowak’s death attended by far-right figures and others.

Vance said in a post on social platform X on Friday that there should be “righteous anger” in response to the murder, which he blamed in part on “the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it.”

In a statement issued in response to Vance’s comments, Starmer’s office criticized people “trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets.”

“The Nowak family are grieving after Henry’s horrific murder. They have said they do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We should be respecting their wishes,” Downing Street said in a statement. “Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances. That is who we are as a country.”

Ed Davey, leader of the centrist opposition Liberal Democrats, said “we all need to resist attempts like this to politicize Henry Nowak’s death and divide our country — whether they come from MAGA politicians like Vance or their cronies here in the U.K..”

Politicians including Nigel Farage, leader of the hard-right party Reform UK, have claimed that the police response is evidence of “two-tier” policing, with a bias against white people in the British justice system.

The U.S. State Department echoed the “two-tier” policing claim in a post on X Thursday, expressing condolences to Nowak’s family and saying that “Ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of civilizational decline.”

The British government rejected the “two-tier” allegation, which is not backed by statistical evidence.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which investigates allegations of police wrongdoing, is probing the actions of police officers responding to Nowak’s stabbing.

The victim’s father, Mark Nowak, has said the case was not about racism or religion, and that he wanted his son’s death to lead to safer streets and not to be used to create “further division, hatred or tension.”

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Teachers, families of Mexico’s 130,000 missing people, animal rights groups and a range of other social movements in Mexico are capitalizing on impending FIFA World Cup celebrations next week to put pressure on authorities and make demands.

Protesters from the country’s teachers’ union, CNTE, blocked main throughways in Mexico City, bringing central parts of the city to a standstill this week to demand better working conditions. Demonstrators knocked down figures of World Cup soccer players, broke into a government building and on Friday played a soccer match on a blockaded street. At the same time visitors from across the world began flooding in to the Mexican capital ahead of the competition that starts June 11.

“The proximity of the World Cup places a lot more pressure on the government,” said Abel Escalante, a 52-year-old special education psychologist who traveled from the southern state of Chiapas to protest, who was blocking the street around the city’s iconic Angel de la Independencia monument on Friday.

The protests come just days before Mexico City hosts the tournament’s opening ceremony, co-hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada. In addition to kicking off the competition, the Mexican capital, Guadalajara and Monterrey will also host a number of matches.

They are joined by a range of other social movements that have jumped on the World Cup to increasingly place pressure on the government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at a time when authorities seek to present a friendly face to the world.

“This isn’t an event for the Mexican people. Tons of people are going to come, but they’re going to be people with all this disposable income. It’s for the elites. The few average people who do go will have to scrape together all the money they have to live off of,” Escalante added.

Sheinbaum responded to mounting protests on Friday morning, saying that “the door is open” for teachers to negotiate with the government over their demands for better retirement packages.

But she added groups of protesters, who broke in to a government building the day before, were trying to provoke a violent reaction from authorities, which she said was not going to happen. She promised that Mexico’s main square known as the Zocalo, which the teachers tried to take over at the end of May to stage a sit-in, would remain open for World Cup events.

Sheinbaum’s government has come under criticism by activist groups for prioritizing World Cup celebrations over pressing social needs, like addressing the soaring cost-of-living fueled in part by foreign tourism or the country’s forced disappearance crisis.

More groups planned protests in the coming weeks as celebrations were slated to kick off. Building on top of all that is a robust protest culture in the Mexican capital, with unions and activist groups that regularly take over public spaces in demonstrations.

Protests of families searching for their disappeared and rural teachers pushing for better working conditions have mounted as the local government has made a push to beautify the city.

Local workers have painted bridges bright purple, planted orange Mexican marigolds across the city and plastered streets with cartoon axolotls, an endangered species that has become the sort of mascot of Mexico City.

Last weekend, families searching for their loved ones plastered the faces of the disappeared people across the city and sprayed graffiti next to one of those bright purple bridges now lining the city’s streets.

“Mexico, champion of disappearance,” it read.

___

Follow AP’s Latin America coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

June 5 (Reuters) – Iran has launched multiple drones towards the Strait of Hormuz, CNN reported on Friday, citing a U.S. official who also said at least four drones were shot down by U.S. aircraft.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas, Editing by Bhargav Acharya)

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY, June 6 (Reuters) – Pope Leo leaves on Saturday for a week-long visit to Spain, his first to an EU country outside Italy, where he will inaugurate a new tower in Barcelona’s famed Sagrada Familia basilica and meet migrants who braved dangerous Atlantic waters to reach Europe.

The first American head of the Catholic Church is expected to draw large crowds on the June 6-12 trip, which also includes stops in Madrid, Montserrat Monastery and the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the west coast of Africa.

Leo, who angered U.S. President Donald Trump by criticising his anti-immigration policies, will meet on the last stop with migrants and organisations ​dedicated to helping them.

The situation faced by migrants is profoundly close to the pope’s heart, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican’s press office. “These are people, and their stories must touch us.”

POPE LEO EXPECTED TO DECRY WARS AND POLARIZATION

Leo, who has adopted a more forceful tone against the direction of global leadership in recent months, is scheduled to give more than 20 speeches, becoming the first pope to address the Spanish parliament.

He is likely to decry the wars raging around the world and urge dialogue to overcome growing political and social polarisation while in Spain, Bruni said.

Leo spent decades as a missionary and bishop in Peru before becoming pope last May, and will speak Spanish throughout most of the trip.

But when he meets migrants on the island of Tenerife, he expects to speak French as many have come from Francophone Africa.

In sharp contrast to many leading Western powers, not least Trump’s United States, Socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez’s government has opened a mass amnesty programme, allowing an estimated 500,000 immigrants to apply for legal status.

More than 3,000 people died in 2025 trying to reach the Canary Islands, often in makeshift dinghies, according to the NGO ​Caminando Fronteras.

Sanchez has been lauded abroad by some for criticising Trump, but at home is under heavy pressure from a string of corruption allegations against his party.

After landing in Madrid on Saturday morning, Leo will meet King Felipe and Queen Letizia at the Royal Palace, and address diplomats and civil leaders.

The same day, he will meet young people in the square outside the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, home to the Real Madrid soccer club, and visit a Catholic charity for homeless people.

(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

June 5 (Reuters) – A seven-month-old Palestinian baby was killed and his parents were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the Tel Rumeida area south of the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday evening, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The ministry identified the infant as Sam Fahd Abu Haikal and said he was killed at the scene, while his parents were wounded in the shooting and were in moderate condition.

The baby’s grandmother said the family was driving near Checkpoint 17 when they saw Israeli military vehicles and soldiers in the distance and stopped the car. She said shots were then fired toward them, which they initially believed were warning shots.

“One bullet struck my grandson, traversed his face and crossed his head, striking his mother’s cheek where it lodged,” she said, adding that the bullet had also grazed the father’s finger, and that the mother was in hospital.

The Israeli military said that during operational activity in the Hebron area on Friday, soldiers perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them and one soldier fired single shots at the vehicle. It said three Palestinians were wounded and evacuated for medical treatment.

An initial military inquiry found that those injured were “uninvolved civilians”, the military said, adding that the incident was under review and that the findings would be submitted to the relevant authorities.

Tel Rumeida, an area of Hebron where Israeli settlers live under heavy military protection among Palestinian residents, has long been a flashpoint for violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Over 700,000 settlers live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank among more than 3 million Palestinians, according to a European Union report ​in 2024.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta; Additional reporting by Enas Alashray; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)