Dutch military provides aid to Sint Maarten after Hurricane Irma

German Defense Ministry announced a new military aid package for Ukraine, which will include 20 additional Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 30 Leopard 1 tanks and four IRIS-T-SLM air defense systems.

The revised response plan is up from around $1.75 billion a few months ago as the United Nations estimates more than 1 million people will flee Sudan this year.

Since seizing power in a 2021 coup, the junta has used the imported weapons "to commit atrocities" against civilians, a United Nations expert said in a report.

Despite some fighting, Khartoum residents say the situation in the capital is relatively calm after a new truce took effect. Meanwhile, the US announced a new humanitarian aid package as the conflict lingers on.

With a tenuous ceasefire and millions of people trapped in a war zone, humanitarian groups struggle to send aid to Sudan. Fighting eased in Sudan on Wednesday, the second full day of a ceasefire that has allowed beleaguered civilians to venture out, even as they await safe aid corridors and escape routes.

The twin island state of Trinidad and Tobago lies between the South American coast of Venezuela and the West Indies. Home to roughly 1.5 million inhabitants of African and Indian descent, the tiny Caribbean nation has one of the world’s highest volunteer rates for the Islamic State (IS) group. Between 2013 and 2016, more than 130 Trinidadians left to join the IS group, making the island country one of the world’s biggest recruiting grounds, per capita, for would-be jihadists.

The United Nations said Russia denied its request for humanitarian access to the flood-affected areas of Ukraine that it occupies. Meanwhile, Ukraine has reported incremental gains near the front line.

At their meeting in Luxembourg, the bloc's foreign ministers agreed to boost the military aid fund for Ukraine by €3.5 billion.

Talking Europe interviews Jutta Urpilainen, the EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, who is in charge of overseeing official development assistance. She announces exclusively on FRANCE 24 a fresh €66 million package for Niger, to be spent on education. Urpilainen stresses that development aid is part of geopolitical competition, and that it would be a "huge mistake" for Europe and the West to turn their back on the Global South.

The situation arose when Russia vetoed a nine-month extension and failed to gain support for an alternative six-month plan. The UN-brokered lifeline expired Monday.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borell said foreign ministers would discuss a €20 billion military aid deal for Ukraine. The global food supply and Turkey's ties to the bloc will also be on the agenda.

The refusal comes days after the ICC said it would relaunch its probe into an anti-drug crackdown that killed thousands. Manila and the ICC are at loggerheads over the question of jurisdiction.