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Russia Calls for International Monitoring Mission in Gaza

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov waits before a meeting of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan October 12, 2023. (Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov/Kremlin via Reuters)
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov waits before a meeting of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan October 12, 2023. (Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov/Kremlin via Reuters)
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Russia Calls for International Monitoring Mission in Gaza

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov waits before a meeting of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan October 12, 2023. (Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov/Kremlin via Reuters)
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov waits before a meeting of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan October 12, 2023. (Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov/Kremlin via Reuters)

Russia on Sunday called for an international monitoring mission to go to Gaza to assess the humanitarian situation, and said it was unacceptable for Israel to use Hamas' Oct. 7 attack as justification for punishing the Palestinian people.

Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation for Hamas attack that Israel says killed 1,200 people. Israel's assault on Gaza has killed at least 17,000 people, Gaza health authorities say.

The United States on Friday vetoed a proposed UN Security Council demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

"We strongly condemned the terrorist attack against Israel on Oct. 7," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Al Jazeera in an interview aired on Sunday at the Doha Forum conference.

"At the same time, we do not believe it is acceptable to use this event for the collective punishment of the millions of Palestinian people with indiscriminate shelling."

Lavrov said that for there to be "humanitarian pauses" in Gaza "some kind of monitoring on the ground" was needed.

"We addressed the Secretary General [Antonio Guterres] suggesting that he use his authority to consider some kind of monitoring - but so far to no avail," Lavrov said.

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly accused the United States and the West of ignoring the need for an independent Palestinian state within 1967 borders. Putin on Sunday spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Gaza.

"This happened not in a vacuum," Lavrov said, pointing to decades of blockade and unfulfilled promises about a Palestinian state.

The UN's Guterres has previously said that the Hamas attack did not happen in a vacuum. Israel said Guterres had justified the Hamas attacks with such words. Guterres rejected the Israeli accusations.

Ukraine

Asked in the Al Jazeera interview if Russia was being hypocritical with its criticism about that fate of the Palestinians while Russia fights a war in Ukraine, Lavrov said neither he nor Russia were hypocritical.

Lavrov said that the West was trying to exhaust Russia in Ukraine by supplying weapons and that if peace talks were to take place then Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy would have to annul his own presidential decree.

"It is up to the Ukrainians to recognize how deep they are in the hole where the Americans put them," Lavrov said when asked if the war was at a stalemate.

When asked by Al Jazeera what the chances were of diplomacy to bring about a ceasefire or peace in Ukraine, he said: "You'll have to call Mr. Zelenskiy because a year and half ago he signed a decree prohibiting any negotiations with Putin."

Lavrov said that a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia was almost reached in Istanbul in March and April 2022 based on the idea of Ukrainian neutrality.

"This deal was aborted - it was cancelled because the Americans and the Brits decided that if Putin is ready to sign it then let's exhaust him more. That's what they are doing now. Stalemate or no stalemate - that is the fact," Lavrov said.

Asked in the interview about the August plane crash which killed Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, Lavrov said investigators had probed the crash.

"As regards the soldiers from Wagner group... quite a number of them went to Belarus and started to serve there," Lavrov said "Others joined the regular structures of the Russian army - and they continue to serve." 

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World

Venezuela's Machado Says Ally 'Kidnapped' after His Release

Venezuelan political leader Juan Pablo Guanipa gestures after their release outside Zona 7 prison in Caracas on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP)
Venezuelan political leader Juan Pablo Guanipa gestures after their release outside Zona 7 prison in Caracas on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP)
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Venezuela's Machado Says Ally 'Kidnapped' after His Release

Venezuelan political leader Juan Pablo Guanipa gestures after their release outside Zona 7 prison in Caracas on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP)
Venezuelan political leader Juan Pablo Guanipa gestures after their release outside Zona 7 prison in Caracas on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP)

Venezuela's Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado said on Monday that armed men "kidnapped" a close ally shortly after his release by authorities, following ex-leader Nicolas Maduro's capture.

The country's Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed later that same day that former National Assembly vice president Juan Pablo Guanipa, 61, was again taken into custody and to be put under house arrest, arguing that he violated the conditions of his release.

Guanipa would be placed under house arrest "in order to safeguard the criminal process," the office said in a statement on Monday. The conditions of Guanipa's release have yet to be made public.

Machado claimed that her close ally had been "kidnapped" in the capital Caracas by armed men "dressed in civilian clothes" who took him away by force.

"We demand his immediate release," she wrote on social media platform X.

The arrest came after his release from prison on Sunday along with two other opposition figures, and as lawmakers prepared to vote Tuesday on a historic amnesty law covering charges used to lock up dissidents in almost three decades of socialist rule, reported AFP.

Shortly after his release, Guanipa visited several detention centers in Caracas, where he met with relatives of political prisoners and spoke to the press.

Guanipa had appeared earlier Sunday in a video posted on his X account, showing what looked like his release papers.

"Here we are, being released," Guanipa said in the video, adding that he had spent "10 months in hiding, almost nine months detained here" in Caracas.

- 'Let's go to an electoral process' -

Speaking to AFP later on Sunday, he had called on the government to respect the 2024 presidential election, which opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was widely considered to have won. Maduro claimed victory and remained in power till January.

"Let's respect it. That's the basic thing, that's the logical thing. Oh, you don't want to respect it? Then let's go to an electoral process," Guanipa said.

The opposition ally of Machado was arrested in May 2025, in connection with an alleged conspiracy to undermine legislative and regional elections that were boycotted by the opposition.

He was charged with terrorism, money laundering and incitement to violence and hatred.

Guanipa had been in hiding prior to his arrest. He was last seen in public in January 2025, when he accompanied Machado to an anti-Maduro rally.

Following Maduro's capture by US special forces on January 3, authorities have started to slowly release political prisoners. Rights groups estimate that around 700 people are still waiting to be freed.

A former Machado legal advisor, Perkins Rocha, was also freed on Sunday. So was Freddy Superlano, who once won a gubernatorial election in Barinas, a city that is the home turf of the iconic late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

"We hugged at home," Rocha's wife Maria Constanza Cipriani wrote on X, with a photo of them.

Machado, who was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to advance democracy in Venezuela, had initially celebrated Guanipa's release.

"My dear Juan Pablo, counting down the minutes until I can hug you! You are a hero, and history will ALWAYS recognize it. Freedom for ALL political prisoners!!" she wrote on X on Sunday.

NGO Foro Penal said it had confirmed the release of 35 prisoners on Sunday. It said that since January 8 nearly 400 people arrested for political reasons have been freed thus far.

Lawmakers gave their initial backing to a draft amnesty last week which covered the types of crimes used to lock up dissidents during 27 years of socialist rule.

But Venezuela's largest opposition coalition denounced "serious omissions" in the proposed amnesty measures on Friday.

Meanwhile, relatives of prisoners are growing increasingly impatient for their loved ones to be freed.

Acting president Delcy Rodriguez, who was Maduro's vice president, is pushing the amnesty bill as a milestone on the path to reconciliation.

Rodriguez took power in Venezuela with the blessing of US President Donald Trump, who is eyeing American access to what are the world's largest proven oil reserves.

As part of its reforms, Rodriguez's government has taken steps towards opening up the oil industry and restoring diplomatic ties with Washington, which were severed by Maduro in 2019.

World

SKorea Grounds Aging Attack Choppers after Fatal Training Crash

South Korean military officials secure the site where an AH-1S Cobra attack helicopter crashed in Gapyeong, South Korea, February 9, 2026. Yonhap via REUTERS
South Korean military officials secure the site where an AH-1S Cobra attack helicopter crashed in Gapyeong, South Korea, February 9, 2026. Yonhap via REUTERS
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SKorea Grounds Aging Attack Choppers after Fatal Training Crash

South Korean military officials secure the site where an AH-1S Cobra attack helicopter crashed in Gapyeong, South Korea, February 9, 2026. Yonhap via REUTERS
South Korean military officials secure the site where an AH-1S Cobra attack helicopter crashed in Gapyeong, South Korea, February 9, 2026. Yonhap via REUTERS

South Korea grounded an aging fleet of military helicopters on Monday after a chopper crashed during a training exercise and killed two people on board.

The AH-1S Cobra was training for emergency landings when it "crashed due to an unidentified cause" in Gapyeong county west of Seoul, the army said in a statement.

Two service members were taken to hospital and later pronounced dead, AFP reported.

Photos in local media showed the helicopter's crumpled fuselage lying on a rocky river bank.

"Following the accident, the Army has suspended operations of all aircraft of the same model" and is investigating the cause, the forces said.

The AH-1S Cobra is a US-made, single-engine anti-tank attack helicopter.

Some of those used by South Korea's military are more than 30 years old. It is not clear how many are currently in service.

The country's defense acquisition agency said in 2022 that the Army's Cobra helicopters were "scheduled to be retired" as domestically developed light-armed choppers started flying.

World

Japan Restarts World's Biggest Nuclear Plant Again

Participants demonstrate in front of Tokyo Electric Power Company's headquarters against the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, in Tokyo on February 9, 2026. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
Participants demonstrate in front of Tokyo Electric Power Company's headquarters against the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, in Tokyo on February 9, 2026. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
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Japan Restarts World's Biggest Nuclear Plant Again

Participants demonstrate in front of Tokyo Electric Power Company's headquarters against the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, in Tokyo on February 9, 2026. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
Participants demonstrate in front of Tokyo Electric Power Company's headquarters against the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, in Tokyo on February 9, 2026. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)

Japan switched on the world's biggest nuclear power plant again on Monday, its operator said, after an earlier attempt was quickly suspended due to a minor glitch.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in the Niigata region restarted at 2:00 pm (0500 GMT), AFP quoted the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) as saying in a statement.

A glitch with an alarm in January forced the suspension of its first restart since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

The facility had been offline since Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power after a colossal earthquake and tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima atomic plant into meltdown.

But now Japan is turning to atomic energy to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and meet growing energy needs from artificial intelligence.

Conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who pulled off a thumping election victory on Sunday, has promoted nuclear power to energize the Asian economic giant.

TEPCO initially moved to start one of seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant on January 21 but shut it off the following day after an alarm from the monitoring system sounded.

The alarm had picked up slight changes to the electrical current in one cable even though these were still within a range considered safe, TEPCO officials told a press conference last week.

The firm has changed the alarm's settings as the reactor is safe to operate.
The commercial operation will commence on or after March 18 after another comprehensive inspection, according to TEPCO officials.