Reuters World News Summary

Venezuela's relationship with China is "foolproof and weatherproof," Maduro Guerra said, adding that Chinese companies are keen to invest in the South American country. Israel due to get billions of dollars more in US weapons despite Biden pause Billions of dollars worth of U.S. weaponry remains in the pipeline for Israel, despite the delay of one shipment of bombs and a review of others by President Joe Biden's administration, concerned their use in an assault could wreak more devastation on Palestinian civilians.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

US warning on arms supplies prompts Israeli defiance, doubts

U.S. President Joe Biden's announcement that he would withhold arms supplies if Israel went through with its assault of Rafah drew a defiant reaction on Wednesday alongside unease at the possible longer term fallout from the open clash with Israel's most vital ally. The warning came after months of increasingly urgent calls for restraint by officials from the administration, which has been paying a heavy political price for its continued support for Israel despite the mounting death toll in Gaza.

Maduro's lawmaker son says Venezuela is open to paying debts to China

Venezuela is open to paying its debt to China - which according to independent data amounts to some $10 billion - lawmaker Nicolas Maduro Guerra, son of President Nicolas Maduro, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. Venezuela's relationship with China is "foolproof and weatherproof," Maduro Guerra said, adding that Chinese companies are keen to invest in the South American country.

Israel due to get billions of dollars more in US weapons despite Biden pause

Billions of dollars worth of U.S. weaponry remains in the pipeline for Israel, despite the delay of one shipment of bombs and a review of others by President Joe Biden's administration, concerned their use in an assault could wreak more devastation on Palestinian civilians. A senior U.S. official said this week that the administration had reviewed the delivery of weapons that Israel might use for a major invasion of Rafah, a southern Gaza city where over 1 million civilians have sought refuge, and as a result paused a shipment of bombs to Israel.

Israel strikes eastern Rafah as ceasefire talks end with no deal

Israeli forces bombarded areas of Rafah on Thursday, Palestinian residents said, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed U.S. President Joe Biden's threat to withhold weapons from Israel if it assaults the southern Gaza city. A senior Israeli official said late on Thursday that the latest round of indirect negotiations in Cairo to halt hostilities in Gaza had ended and Israel would proceed with its operation in Rafah and other parts of the Gaza Strip as planned.

Analysis-Behind Biden's Israel weapons pause: a defiant Netanyahu, a tense phone call

U.S. President Joe Biden spent months urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to protect Gaza civilians, but the U.S. decision to pause some military aid to Israel was linked directly to a pointed phone call they had a month ago, a U.S. official said. In the April 4 call, soon after seven World Central Kitchen aid workers were killed in an Israeli air strike, Biden gave Netanyahu an ultimatum: protect citizens and aid workers, or else U.S. policy would change.

Two Paris police officers wounded after man shot them inside police station

A man shot and wounded two police officers in Paris after he got hold of one of the officer's weapons while he was being held at a police station, said Paris police chief Laurent Nunez on Friday, confirming earlier media reports. The incident occurred on Thursday evening.

Anti-aircraft units intercept drone south of Moscow, no damage or injuries, mayor says

Russian anti-aircraft units intercepted a drone south of Moscow and there were no injuries or damage from falling debris, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said early on Friday. Sobyanin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the drone, headed for Moscow, was downed in Podolsk district, just south of the capital. Emergency crews and specialists were on the scene.

Deaths in Brazil floods rise to 107, horse rescued from rooftop

The death toll from severe flooding in southern Brazil has risen to 107, civil defense said on Thursday, as rescue operations continued and authorities began to see the cost of recovering from the devastation in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. In a dramatic symbol of the disaster, rescuers saved a horsethat had been trapped precariously for two days on a rooftop in a badly flooded town.

Trump lawyer questions Stormy Daniels' account of sex with Trump

Donald Trump's lawyer sought to show inconsistencies in porn star Stormy Daniels' various tellings of a 2006 sexual encounter she has said she had with Trump, part of an effort on Thursday to undermine her credibility as a witness in the first criminal trial of a sitting or former U.S. president. Her unflattering account of a sexual encounter with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite while he was married to his wife Melania riveted jurors on Tuesday and reminded U.S. voters of some of the more lurid aspects of his 2017-2021 presidency as he campaigns to win back the White House this year.

US committee targets Georgia Tech's alleged ties to Chinese military linked research

A U.S. congressional committee on China has asked leading research university Georgia Institute of Technology to detail its collaboration with a Chinese university facing U.S. government restrictions due to its alleged ties to the country's military. Georgia Tech partnered with China's northeastern Tianjin University on cutting edge technologies despite its documented ties to the People's Liberation Army (PLA), John Moolenaar, the new Republican chairman of the House of Representatives' select committee on China, wrote in a letter on Thursday to the U.S. school's president Angel Cabrera.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)