Algeria's military announced on Tuesday that it had shot down an armed drone near the country's southern border with Mali, marking a rare and potentially significant military escalation in tensions between the two neighbours.

The aircraft, identified as a Turkish-made Akinci combat drone, was intercepted on Tuesday, 1 April, as it entered Algerian airspace near Tin Zaouatine, a remote town that has become a stronghold for Tuareg separatists opposing Mali's military government.

Algeria has been increasingly vocal in its criticism of the Malian leadership and its military operations in northern regions long plagued by instability.

Among Algeria's primary concerns is the presence of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, now operating under the Africa Corps, who have been assisting Mali's armed forces.

Moscow's growing influence in the Sahel has strained its ties with Algiers, one of its last allies in North Africa.

The annual exercise, Iniochos 2025, involved F-15s, air combat simulations, and operational coordination. A total of 11 countries took part.

Israel’s participation included intelligence aircraft, a Hercules transport plane, and dozens of ground crews.

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are among countries whose air forces trained alongside Israel.

France, India, Italy, Poland, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Spain also participated.

The annual exercise also comes after Israel violated the ceasefire agreement with Gaza, killing over 1,000 Palestinians since 18 March.

April 2 (Reuters) - Wall Street is bracing for Tesla (TSLA.O) to report a drop in first-quarter vehicle deliveries on Wednesday, but analysts and investors cannot agree on how bad the decline would be.

An average of 15 analysts who lowered their forecasts in the past 30 days expect deliveries to drop 3.7%, according to Visible Alpha, but some analysts and investors termed it conservative and predicted as much as 12% slide.

JERUSALEM, April 2 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins a four-day visit to Hungary on Thursday, defying an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza as Israel has expanded its military operation in the enclave.

As a founding member of the ICC, Hungary is theoretically obliged to arrest and hand over anyone subject to a warrant from the court but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made clear when he issued the invitation that Hungary would not respect the ruling.

Muslim marriage app Salams has come under fire after users highlighted that it was acquired by the Match Group, with many accusing its CEO, Spencer Rascoff, of being ‘pro-Israel’.

Dozens of people on social media sites such as X and Reddit have called for Muslims to boycott the app, after a post from Rascoff’s LinkedIn page appeared to show support for Israeli soldiers.

Rascoff, who has worked for Match Group since March 2024, wrote a post on LinkedIn stating: "Proud to support Ohana co-founders Jacob Ian Halbert and Ezra Gershanok’s campaign to help cover rent bills for Israeli soldiers fighting overseas."

Members of Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) reportedly gained access to a payroll system over the weekend that processes salaries for about 276,000 federal employees across various government agencies, despite warnings from senior staff about the potential risks.

According to two people familiar with the situation who spoke with the New York Times, Doge employees had spent about two weeks trying to obtain administrative access to the program, known as the Federal Personnel and Payroll System.

Then, toward the end of last week, senior career officials at the interior department reportedly issued a memo highlighting the unusual nature of the request and the associated risks with granting it.

The al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, said on Monday that it has resumed direct attacks on Israeli forces, in what appears to be the first such action since Israel resumed its war on Gaza on 18 March.

“We detonated a Zionist tank with a pre-prepared explosive device while it was operating near the dividing line and bombarded the area with several mortar shells east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, on March 29, 2025," the statement on the Qassam Brigades Telegram account said.

US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce dodged a question at Monday's briefing about whether naturalised US citizens of Middle Eastern descent might have their citizenships revoked over pro-Palestine speech.

"I'm not going to discuss the nature of the diplomatic or strategic conversations that any department in the government's having," she told reporters.

Asked later about whether she can confirm if pro-Israeli advocacy group Betar has provided the US government with lists of names recommended for deportation, Bruce only said, "Whether it exists or not, I won't confirm," and that the State Department has "broad authority".

Israeli forces have been accused of executing handcuffed Palestinian medics before burying them in a mass grave underneath their crushed ambulances in southern Gaza's Rafah.

Fifteen humanitarian workers went missing last week after responding to a distress call from civilians being attacked by Israeli forces.

The workers include eight paramedics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), six members of the Palestinian Civil Defence search-and-rescue teams, and one UN staff member.

They were found over the weekend in a mass grave with at least around 20 multiple gunshots in each one of them, according to Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza.

At least one of them had their legs bound, another was decapitated and a third topless, he added.

The International Court of Justice will hold public hearings on April 10 in Sudan’s case against the United Arab Emirates, the court announced Friday.

The hearings, at the Peace Palace in The Hague, will address Sudan’s request for provisional measures over alleged violations of the Genocide Convention.

Sudan filed the case on March 5, accusing the UAE of violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, particularly in relation to actions involving the Masalit group in West Darfur.

France has long tried to balance two contradictory roles with Algeria: a fair-weather friend and a former coloniser that never truly let go. However, as the right wing reshapes the political mainstream in Paris, Algerians in France say they are being scapegoated in the name of 'national security.'

On 8 March, Michel Onfray, a prominent French essayist, declared on CNEWS—a far-right-leaning channel often compared to America’s Fox News—that "the danger in France now is Algerian."

Once confined to the fringes, this rhetoric is now seeping into Matignon (France's 10 Downing Street), with supposedly centrist ministers inching ever closer to the right.

On 24 February, Prime Minister François Bayrou lashed out at Algerian authorities for their "unacceptable" refusal—ten times over—to issue a consular pass for the return of a 37-year-old Algerian national ordered to leave French territory.

Algeria has also refused to accept the return of two of its nationals arrested in France for inciting violence online.

In response, Bayrou, backed by his cabinet, is now threatening to scrap the 1968 Franco-Algerian agreement, which grants Algerians special immigration privileges, as retaliation for Algiers' reluctance to take back its nationals.

At the South Louisiana Ice processing centre, an all-female facility that is also operated by the Geo Group and where Ozturk is now being held, the ACLU of Louisiana recently filed a complaint to the DHS’s civil rights division alleging an array of rights violations. These included inadequate access to medical care, with the complaint stating: “Guards left detained people suffering from severe conditions like external bleeding, tremors, and sprained limbs unattended to, refusing them access to diagnostic care”.

The complaint was filed in December 2024, before the Trump administration moved to gut the DHS’s civil rights division earlier this month.