Wednesday 18th March 2026. Afghanistan hospital strike. Israel assassinations. Ukraine exports defence. Kenya ants. Colombia-Ecuador...

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Good morning. This is send 7 world news in 7 minutes. I'm Steven Devinschenzi.

Today is Wednesday, the 18th of March, 2026.

Starting in Asia today, in Afghanistan, over 400 people were killed on Monday night

when Pakistan bombed a hospital treating drug users in Kabul. The Taliban has said

Pakistan has rejected this claim, saying that it only targeted military installations in Kabul

and in the province of Nangahar on Monday. The Taliban said that 250 more people were injured

and said that there was no military facility close to the hospital. The New York Times has reported

that the hospital was located inside an old United States military base.

Israel has assassinated Ali Larajani Iran's security chief. Larajani has sometimes been

described as Iran's de facto ruler and has been blamed for orchestrating the massacre of

tens of thousands of protesters in January. Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said yesterday

that Larajani had been killed in an Israeli air strike and Iran confirmed this last night.

Iran has also confirmed that Gollum Reza Soleimani, the commander of the Basage militia,

was killed in an air strike in Tehran on Monday. The Basage militia is a plain clothes

paramilitary force, which was also largely involved in the killings of protesters in January.

Reuters news agency has said that US President Donald Trump was warned that Iran might start to

attack Gulf countries if the US attacked Iran, despite Trump saying that he was surprised that Iran

had done this. Reuters said that it had spoken to one US official and two other sources with

knowledge of US intelligence reports, and they made it clear that Iran may react in this way.

Qatar, their neighbors, they got along okay. Saudi Arabia, all of a sudden, Kuwait,

Kuwait is getting hit. Bahrain is getting all these countries are getting hit.

There was no expert that would say that was going to happen.

Sri Lanka has introduced a four day working week in order to attempt to preserve fuel and gas

because of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Pakistan, which receives 85% of its energy

through the Strait, has ordered schools to move to online teaching.

In Belgium, a former diplomat has been ordered to stand trial for involvement in the killing of

Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the first Congolese republic 65 years ago.

Etienne Davignon is 93 and was a junior official in the Belgian Congo at the time of independence in

1960 and is accused of being partially responsible for the murder of Lumumba in 1961.

In the United Kingdom, Ukrainian president Valodomir Zelensky spoke to the UK parliament yesterday.

Zelensky said that Europe needs to know how to defend itself from attacks from cheap drones.

Zelensky said that Ukraine has already deployed drone experts across the Middle East

and is helping other countries improve their drone defenses.

Ladies and gentlemen, right now there are 200 and one Ukrainians in the Middle East and

Gulf region and another 34 are ready to deploy. There's a military experts, experts who know how to

help, how to defend against a hit drones. Our teams are already in the Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arab

and on the way to Kuwait.

Africa. In Nigeria, a series of suicide bomb attacks have killed at least 23 people in the

north-eastern city of Maiduguri. No group has claimed responsibility, however,

Islamist jihadist groups operate in northern Nigeria. A Kenyan man has been arrested under

suspicion of supplying live ants for smuggling to a Chinese man who was also arrested a few days ago

after being found with over 2,000 ants at Nairobi International Airport.

Both men have been charged with smuggling.

America's Colombian president Gustavo Petro has accused Ecuador of conducting air strikes inside

Colombian territory. Petro said that the bodies of 27 people were found near the border,

but on the Colombian side, Ecuador's president Daniel Nobua has denied this and said that Ecuador

is only acting inside its own territory. Ecuador has recently increased its use of the military

to fight drug gangs, many of which operate in the border areas between Ecuador and Colombia.

In the United States, three teenage girls are suing billionaire Elon Musk's company XAI,

saying that the chatbot GROC created sexual images of them while they were underage.

Also in the US, a shopping company Amazon has launched one hour shipping for addresses in some

cities and three hour shipping in more than 2,000 cities and towns. Amazon has said that over 90,000

products will be available with these ultra-fast delivery times, including everyday essentials

like hygiene products. People must pay extra for this service.

And in Mexico, thousands of people broke the Guinness World Record for most people participating

in a football training session. 9,500 people practiced their football skills in Mexico City's

Zokalo Square. Mexico will host the FIFA World Cup in June, along with the United States and Canada.

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