A senior US energy official on Friday underscored South Korea's growing significance in the Donald Trump administration's push to expand American energy exports and diversify global supply chains.

Speaking via video remarks at an energy forum hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM) held in Seoul, Tommy Joyce, acting assistant secretary for international affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), said Seoul remains a critical ally in Washington's energy agenda, reports news agency.

"South Korea and each of you in Seoul are absolutely essential allies in this pursuit," Joyce said in his remarks addressed to business representatives at a Seoul hotel. "South Korea plays an important role in unleashing American energy and supporting President Trump's vision of building supply chains independent of China."

Israel said on Thursday it carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, targeting what it described as Hamas and Hezbollah infrastructure.

The Israeli military said it struck sites belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

"The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will operate against any attempts by Hezbollah to rebuild or establish a military presence under the guise of civilian cover," it said in a statement, without providing further details.

Separately, the Israeli military and the Shin Bet domestic security agency said they conducted a strike on Jabalia in northern Gaza, targeting what they described as a Hamas command and control centre. The military said the site had been used to "plan and execute terror attacks against Israeli civilians and troops."

Sudan's healthcare system is collapsing two years into a devastating conflict between the army and paramilitary forces, with most hospitals shut in conflict zones and disease outbreaks spreading, government and international aid groups warned this week.

Marking two years since war erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the country faces worsening health risks and rising malnutrition, officials and aid workers said.

"The healthcare system, in all its facets, has become a victim of the war," Sudan's Health Ministry said in a report issued this week, citing immense challenges and devastating public health consequences.

The ministry reported that nearly 70 per cent of hospitals in conflict-hit states like Khartoum, Darfur, and Kordofan are out of service. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) gave a starker estimate, stating 70 to 80 per cent of health facilities in conflict-affected areas are non-functional, leaving two out of three civilians without medical care.

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Tam has unleashed severe weather across New Zealand's Northland and Auckland, leaving thousands without power and causing widespread damage as it tracks southward.

Heavy rain and strong winds have downed powerlines, felled trees, closed roads, and disrupted transport.

As of Thursday afternoon, around 5,000 properties in Northland remained without power, with Northpower, the electric power distribution company, warning repairs could take up to three days.

At the storm's peak, over 8,700 Northland homes were affected, news agency reported quoting Radio New Zealand (RNZ).

Telecommunications were also impacted, with power outages affecting cellphone towers, RNZ reported on Thursday.

A destructive hailstorm ripped through parts of Pakistan's capital Islamabad and provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), claiming lives of at least five people and damaging properties and standing crops worth millions.

Several vehicles were damaged in Islamabad as hailstones as big as the size of a golf ball battered the region. The capital's famous Faisal Mosque also suffered damage with windows broken due to the hailstorm. Strong winds uprooted trees and power pylons in the Tornal area, which remained the worst affected in the capital.

Locals said they had never witnessed such a hailstorm in the capital before.

"The hailstones were the size of golf balls and started falling like rain. It felt scary. We saw it smashing the windscreens of several vehicles and also damaging other structures," said one of the locals in Islamabad.

Continuing with its humanitarian assistance to earthquake-hit Myanmar under Operation Brahma, India has sent an additional consignment of relief material that was handed over by Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Abhay Thakur to Mandalay Chief Minister Myo Aung in the presence of diaspora leaders of Mandalay and Sagaing.

The relief aid included RO water plant, genset, rice, noodles, cooking oil, atta, sugar, dal, salt, MREs, blankets and medicines for the needy, the Embassy of India in Yangon stated.

India had launched Operation Brahma to provide necessary support, including Search and Rescue (SAR), humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and medical assistance, following the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28.

Earlier, components of 20 prefabricated offices, weighing approximately 50 tonnes, were despatched by IAF C-17 on April 15 to Myanmar. The structures will be used as temporary offices for various ministries in Naypyidaw. Two IAF C-17 were also deployed to bring back doctors and personnel of 60-para field hospital post de-induction. The 200-bedded field hospital successfully provided treatment of 2519 patients over the past two weeks.

South Korean stocks rose nearly 1 percent on Thursday as investors became optimistic about the ongoing trade talks between the United States and Japan. The local currency rose to a more than four-month high against the US dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 22.98 points, or 0.94 percent, to close at 2,470.41, rebounding from a 1.21 percent drop the previous day, reports news agency.

Trade volume was moderate at 589.6 million shares worth 6.5 trillion won ($4.58 billion), with winners beating losers 638 to 225.

Institutions purchased a net 346.2 billion won worth of stocks, while foreign and retail investors sold a net 351.9 billion won and 87.4 billion won, respectively.

The number of days each year that the world's oceans experience extreme surface heat has tripled over the past 80 years due to global warming, a new study has found.

Researchers found that, on average, the global sea surface saw about 15 days of extreme heat annually in the 1940s, news agency reported.

Today that figure has soared to nearly 50 days per year, revealed the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Global warming is responsible for almost half of the occurrence of marine heatwaves -- periods when sea surface temperatures rise well above normal for an extended time.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that the United States' 245 per cent tariff on certain products from China no longer makes economic sense.

It the US continues to play the "tariff numbers game", it will pay no attention to it, according to the spokesperson, news agency reported.

The statement came in the wake of White House's statement that China faces tariffs of up to 245 per cent due to its retaliatory action.

China now faces up to 245 per cent tariffs on imports to the US as a result of its retaliatory tariffs, according to the White House Fact sheet.

This came after Beijing ordered its airlines not to take any further deliveries of Boeing jets in response to the earlier US decision to impose 145 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods.

South Korea's Presidential front-runner Lee Jae-myung has ranked among US magazine Time's 100 most influential people of 2025, its website showed Wednesday.

The magazine chose Lee, former chief of the Democratic Party, in the category of leaders, offering a brief story of challenges he encountered during his early life and rise up the political ladder, and casting him as the "clear favourite" to win the June 3 Presidential poll.

Charlie Campbell, its Editor at Large, introduced his tough early life, noting that, born the fifth of seven children to a farming family, he walked 10 miles round trip to elementary school daily and later had his wrist crushed in a pressing machine while working underage in a factory.

The editor also stressed that "nothing" about Lee's political rise has been easy.