The first flight carrying Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States landed in Venezuela early Monday, after the two governments reached an agreement to resume repatriation flights.

Nearly 200 deportees were on the plane, which landed at an airport just north of capital Caracas.

Video of the arrival shows some deportees celebrating with their hands in the air as they walked down stairs on to the tarmac, where a heavy presence of security staff was stationed. Others made the sign of the cross as they disembarked.

The US Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said the flight departed from the US and stopped in Honduras, where a change of planes took place.

“Today, deportation flights of Venezuelan illegal aliens to their homeland resumed via Honduras,” the department wrote on X.

“These individuals had no legal basis to remain in the United States. We expect to see a consistent flow of deportation flights to Venezuela going forward. Thank you to Honduran President Castro and her government for partnering to combat illegal immigration.”

Honduras’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs said 199 citizens of Venezuelan origin were on the flight. The transfer took three and a half hours and occurred “in an orderly and safe manner,” Enrique Reina said in a post on X.

Following the transfer the “Venezuelan-flagged vessel departed for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” said Reina.

Repatriations to Venezuela had stalled over the Trump administration’s decision in February to revoke a license allowing American oil company Chevron to carry out some operations in the South American country.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said at the time that the decision “affected” the flights to Venezuela, prompting the Trump administration to threaten further sanctions on the South American country.

The resumption of repatriation flights follows growing outrage in Venezuela over the US deporting 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador, who were then transferred to the notorious Cecot mega-prison.

Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez Gómez announced the agreement to resume repatriations in a statement on Saturday, two weeks after Venezuela had effectively paused repatriation flights from the US.

“Migration is not a crime, and we will not rest until we achieve the return of all those who need it and until we rescue our brothers and sisters kidnapped in El Salvador,” Rodríguez said Saturday.

Venezuela does not have diplomatic relations in the US. Flight tracking data suggests the deportees were transferred Sunday from a Texas charter flight – which landed at an airbase in Honduras that was previously used for migrant transfers – to a Caracas-bound plane.

The White House hasn’t commented on Sunday’s deportation flight.

Maduro on Wednesday ordered his government to increase the number of flights needed to repatriate Venezuelan migrants detained in the US.

Greenland’s prime minister said a planned visit to the island by US officials, including second lady Usha Vance, is “highly aggressive,” plunging relations to a new low after President Donald Trump vowed to annex the autonomous Danish territory.

Vance, the wife of US Vice President JD Vance, will travel to Greenland this week to watch the island’s national dogsled race and “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” according to a statement from the White House. National security adviser Mike Waltz is also expected to visit the territory this week, according to a source familiar with the trip.

Greenland Prime Minister Mute B. Egede called the US delegation’s trip to the island “highly aggressive” in an interview with Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday, and raised particular objection to Waltz’s visit.

“What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us,” Egede said. “His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission — and the pressure will increase.”

Trump’s idea to annex Greenland has thrown an international spotlight on the territory, which holds vast stores of rare earth minerals critical for high-tech industries, and has raised questions about the island’s future security as the US, Russia and China vie for influence in the Arctic. Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in the US taking the island by force or economic coercion, even as Denmark and Greenland have firmly rejected the idea.

“I think we’re going to get it one way or the other,” Trump said during remarks to a joint session of Congress earlier this month.

Egede, who has pushed for Greenland’s independence from Denmark, said Greenlanders’ effort to be diplomatic just “bounces off Donald Trump and his administration in their mission to own and control Greenland.”

Egede’s ruling left-wing party IAInuit Ataqatigiit was defeated in parliamentary elections earlier this month, but he remains prime minister until a new governing coalition is formed.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who is likely to be Greenland’s next leader after his party won the election, said the timing of the American visit shows “a lack of respect.”

“The fact that the Americans know very well that we are still in a negotiating situation and that the municipal elections have not yet concluded, they still capitalize on the moment to come to Greenland, once again, which shows a lack of respect for the Greenlandic population,” Nielsen told Sermitsiaq.

The White House presented Vance’s visit as a cultural one, and said the second lady “will travel to Greenland with her son and a United States delegation to visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race.”

“Ms. Vance and the delegation are excited to witness this monumental race and celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” the White House statement said.

It is unclear whether the US has ever sent a delegation to the dogsled race, much less a group featuring a second lady.

Denmark ruled Greenland as a colony until 1953, when the island achieved greater powers of self-governance. In 2009, it gained more powers pertaining to minerals, policing and courts of law, but Denmark still controls security, defense, foreign and monetary policy. Greenland also benefits from Denmark’s European Union and NATO memberships.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a written comment to Reuters that the visit of the US delegation is “something we take seriously.” She said Denmark wants to cooperate with the US, but that should be based on “the fundamental rules of sovereignty.”

While Greenlandic politicians have repeatedly signaled they are opposed to annexation, they are open to deals with the United States for rare earth mining, expanding tourism, stronger diplomatic connections and other investments.

A poll in January, commissioned by Danish and Greenlandic newspapers, found that 85% of Greenlanders did not want to become part of the US, with nearly half saying Trump’s interest was a threat, Reuters reported.

The president’s son Donald Trump, Jr. made headlines with a visit to Greenland in January.

“Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our nation. We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside world. Make Greenland Great Again!” Trump Jr. posted on social media at the time.

At a military prison in central Israel, 18-year-old Itamar Greenberg sat in a US Army-issued army uniform as the Hollywood blockbuster “American Sniper” blared from the rec room’s TV.

But Greenberg is not a soldier, and the desert camouflage fatigues are the only military uniform the so-called refusenik – as conscientious objectors are called in Israel – has ever worn.

Greenberg has been in and out of prison for the last year, serving a total of 197 days over five consecutive sentences. Earlier this month, Greenberg was released from the Neve Tzedek prison for the last time.

His crime? Refusing to enlist after being summoned for military service, which is compulsory for most Jewish Israelis – and some minorities – over the age of 18.

Greenberg said his refusal to serve came as the “culmination of a long process of learning and moral reckoning.”

“The more I learned, the more I knew I couldn’t wear a uniform that symbolizes killing and oppression,” he said, explaining that Israel’s war in Gaza – which was launched after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023 – solidified his decision to refuse.

“There is genocide,” he said. “So we don’t need good reasons (to refuse).”

The Israeli government has vehemently denied accusations that the war in Gaza amounts to genocide against the Palestinian people.

The war, which was reignited last week when Israel resumed airstrikes and ground operations in Gaza after a short-lived ceasefire, has killed over 50,000 Palestinians in 17 months, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Over 670 people have been killed and 1,200 others injured in Gaza since Tuesday alone, when Israel’s military campaign restarted, according to the health ministry there.

“I want this change, and I will give my life for it,” Greenberg said of his decision to serve time in prison rather than serving with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

It’s a decision that conscientious objectors like Greenberg don’t take lightly, as refusing the draft is essentially a choice of ostracization.

In Israel, the military is more than just an institution. It’s part of the social fabric, with military service and secular Jewish-Israeli identity deeply intertwined. And it starts early: From elementary school, students are taught they will one day be the soldiers who will protect children just like them, with soldiers visiting classrooms and schools explicitly encouraging students to enlist. At 16, those children receive their first recruitment orders, culminating with conscription at 18. Many see it as an honor, a duty and a rite of passage.

Greenberg has been called a self-hating Jew, antisemitic, a terrorist supporter, and a traitor, he said – even by family and friends.

“People message me on Instagram and say that they will slaughter me, as Hamas did to Israelis on October 7,” he said.

In prison, Greenberg was placed in solitary confinement after receiving threats from fellow inmates – a move that prison officials told him was “for his safety.”

Despite social ostracization, he – and what a network of organizations supporting conscientious objectors say is a growing number of refuseniks – remain dedicated to the cause.

Their numbers are still exceedingly small. Only a dozen Israeli teens have publicly refused to enlist on conscientious grounds since the start of the war, according to Mesarvot, an organization that supports objectors. But that number is higher than in years prior to the war.

Other groups have been far more vocal than the refuseniks in refusing to take part in Israel’s military tradition. Before the October 7 attacks, thousands of reservists protesting the government’s desire to weaken the judiciary said that they would not show up for service. And for months, the country has been roiled over the conscription of ultra-orthodox men who refuse to enter the military because they are studying in religious schools.

Greenberg’s views are extreme even for the increasingly marginalized Israeli left. The mass protests that have become commonplace since October 7 are not so much against the military or war writ large, but in favor of a ceasefire deal to bring home hostages held in Gaza. But Greenberg and other refuseniks hope that their movement might create space for a more mainstream dialogue on the pitfalls of a militarized society.

“If I join the army, I just will be part of the problem. I personally prefer to be part of the solution,” Greenberg said, noting that he may not live to see it.

On Saturday, around a dozen of those refuseniks met at the headquarters of the left-wing political coalition Hadash to prepare for their weekly demonstration in central Tel Aviv.

Smoking a roll-up cigarette on the balcony of the building with a handful of other conscientious objectors, Lior Fogel, a 19-year-old from Tel Aviv, said she had always had “issues with the army as an institution, based on violence and force,” and managed to get a psychiatrist to sign her off with a mental health condition to get out of service.

Multiple human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have said that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians constitutes apartheid. Israel has denounced that characterization as antisemitic.

“The system of apartheid and the maintenance of this rule that actively oppresses another group cannot be upheld. Not only is it immoral and generally horrible, but it will end up blowing up in your face,” Fogel said.

As Fogel and the others marched to Begin Street to join thousands of people from all walks of society who were demonstrating under an umbrella of pro-democracy and anti-war, she too, acknowledged that the views of the refuseniks remain fringe.

Still, the activists might be meeting their moment.

Rage against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached a fever pitch this week among tens of thousands of protesters who believe he is employing increasingly anti-democratic means to stay in power, and who question what he hopes to achieve with a renewed military campaign that nearly a year and a half of relentless war has not.

Many blame Netanyahu for prioritizing his political survival over the security of his country and say the renewed military campaign grossly endangers the lives of the estimated 24 living hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas and its allies.

The sentiment marks a significant turn in the conflict, and one that refuseniks hope will give Israelis that are considering refusing to serve in protest of the renewed military campaign the power to act – regardless of political persuasion.

“When Israel restarted the fight, a lot of people, not radical or left, but people that support the ceasefire and the hostages can now say, we will refuse – even if they don’t care about the Palestinians,” Greenberg said.

“The refusal is now less taboo. So, they can use this tool that we developed – even though they think that we are crazy and traitors – when they think it’s right,” he added.

Elam said he was hoping his protest would help fellow Israelis to understand that “the pain of Palestinians is the same as Israelis.”

When another attendee of the wider protest heard Elam talking, he interrupted to insist that the teenager’s viewpoint isn’t representative of Israeli society, and said: “That’s not true. He is a minority, and his views don’t represent what everybody else here thinks.”

But others stood by in support of dozens of objectors who chanted “peace, equality, social justice,” and held signs that read “refuse the war, mobilize for peace.”

Rakefet Lapid, whose two children also refused service years before the war, and whose family lives in one of the kibbutz that was attacked by Hamas on October 7 said: “I’m glad they are still some young people willing to say that.”

“But I’m sorry they are a small minority,” she added.

Greenberg said he chose to go public because he “didn’t want to lie.”

While the teen has secured papers from a psychiatrist that say he has mental issues that won’t allow him to serve, he said his reason is not due to his mental health – but his political perspective.

“If I’m going out on my ‘mental issues,’ then it’s like saying to the army: ‘I am the problem, not you,’” he said.

South Korea is struggling to contain wildfires ravaging the country’s southeast after more than two dozen blazes broke out over the weekend, killing four people and forcing thousands to evacuate.

As of Sunday night, nearly 9,000 firefighters, police and civil servants and 120 helicopters had been dispatched to five areas to fight the fires. By Monday morning, firefighters facing the additional challenge of dry and windy conditions had quashed all but four of the blazes.

A spark from a lawn mower started the first wildfire, which ignited Friday afternoon in Sancheong, South Gyeongsang province, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of the capital Seoul, according to an Interior Safety Ministry situation report.

Four civil servants dispatched to fight the wildfire were killed, Yonhap news agency reported. As of Monday morning, the fire was not contained and had burned through more than 1,464 hectares (more than 3,600 acres), the Interior Safety Ministry reported.

Wildfires that broke out on Saturday in Euiseong, North Gyeongsang province; the Ulju area of Ulsan city; and Gimhae, South Gyeongsang remained active on Monday.

The fire in Euiseong was started by people paying tribute at a grave, and had torched 6,861 hectares (nearly 17,000 acres) as of Monday morning, according to the report.

More than 2,740 people were forced to evacuate due to the fires, the majority of whom were in shelters as of Monday morning. About 162 buildings have been damaged by the wildfires, including a temple in Euiseong.

On Saturday, then-acting prime minister Choi Sang-mok ordered the forest service “to do everything possible” to evacuate residents and secure the safety of workers fighting fires, according to his office.

The government declared a state of emergency for Ulsan city, South and North Gyeongsang provinces on Saturday.

Wildfires are not unusual in South Korea, particularly in February, March and April when conditions are driest.

A United States delegation led by real estate tycoon-turned-diplomat Steve Witkoff has begun a high-stakes meeting with Kremlin negotiators in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where the Trump administration is pushing for a ceasefire in separate talks with Russia and Ukraine.

Russia’s TASS news agency reported that talks were underway on Monday morning, citing an unnamed source.

The meeting comes one day after talks between a US team led by President Donald Trump’s Kyiv envoy, Keith Kellogg, and Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, which was described by the latter as “productive and focused.”

While many watching from Washington, and across Europe, will hope some initial positivity can be translated into a 30-day ceasefire and longer-term negotiations, a wide gulf in expectations exists between Russia, Ukraine and their US interlocutors.

A barrage of Russian drone attacks killed at least six in Ukraine over the weekend, including young families. Moscow accuses Ukraine of recent hits on gas and oil facilities in Kursk and Krasnodar despite its offer to halt attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

The Russian delegation at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh includes seasoned Kremlin diplomat Grigory Karasin and former spy chief Sergey Beseda, according to Russian state media. Beseda is viewed by many in Ukraine as a hard-nosed nationalist and early supporter of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The trust deficit on the Ukrainian side has not been helped by Witkoff’s recent rhetorical support for many of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s maximalist positions ahead of talks. Speaking to podcast host Tucker Carlson on Sunday, Witkoff appeared to show some sympathy toward Russia’s territorial ambitions in Ukraine, describing the four regions Russia wants to formally annex — Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk — as “Russian speaking.”

“There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule,” he said.

Russia held the referendums in occupied areas of the four territories in September 2022. The votes were widely viewed as a sham and heavily criticized by the US at the time as well as by allies in Europe.

“The Russians are de facto in control of these territories. The question is: Will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories?” Witkoff asked Sunday. “Can (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky survive politically if he acknowledges this? This is the central issue in the conflict.”

Moscow says a ceasefire will not be possible unless Kyiv agrees not to use it to resupply or reorganize its troops. It has also publicly voiced key demands such as Ukraine never being allowed to join NATO.

Speaking Sunday night, Zelensky put the responsibility on Putin to end the war.

“The one who brought this war must take it away,” he said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.