At least 26 people were killed and 17 others wounded after gunmen opened fire on a group of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the worst assault in years targeting civilians in the restive region that has witnessed an insurgency for more than three decades. The attack took place in the picturesque town of Pahalgam in the Himalayan mountains, popular with Indian visitors. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is soon expected to inaugurate a multibillion-dollar railway line to the Kashmir Valley, which his government says will help tourism and economic development in the region.

Modi decried the "heinous act" and pledged the militants "will be brought to justice." In 2019, Modi's government revoked Kashmir's semi-autonomous status and imposed sweeping security measures. Since then, his government has kept order in the region with a huge security presence and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms. The BJP hardly cared, but now you have the worst attack to hit the region in 30 years, all things considered.

European Union watchdogs fined Apple and Meta hundreds of millions of Euros, as they stepped up enforcement of the 27-nation bloc's digital competition rules. The European Commission imposed a 500 million Euro ($571 million) fine on Apple for preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside its App Store. The commission, which is the EU's executive arm, also fined Meta Platforms 200 million Euros because it forced Facebook and Instagram users to choose between seeing personalised ads or paying to avoid them.

The punishments were smaller than the blockbuster multibillion-Euro fines that the commission has previously slapped on Big Tech companies in antitrust cases. Apple and Meta have to comply with the decisions within 60 days or risk unspecified "periodic penalty payments," the commission said. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly complained about regulations from Brussels affecting American companies. The penalties were the first issued under the EU's Digital Markets Act, also known as the DMA.

A planned meeting between top US, British, French and Ukrainian diplomats to push forward a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine was scrapped at the last minute, with US Vice President JD Vance saying negotiations were reaching a moment of truth. "We've issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it's time for them to either say yes or for the US to walk away," Vance told reporters in India.

He said it was "a very fair proposal" that would "freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today," with both sides having to give up some territory they currently hold. He did not provide further details of the proposal. Vance's comments came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ruled out ceding territory to Russia as part of any potential peace agreement, calling it a nonstarter. Whether or not the deal being proposed allows Russia to hold on to Ukrainian territory it occupies remained unclear.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele made an offer to swap 252 Venezuelan detainees sent to his jails by the Trump administration for the same number of political prisoners incarcerated by Nicolás Maduro's regime. Relatives of the estimated 900 political prisoners who are incarcerated in Venezuela questioned Bukele's controversial offer, which the rightwing populist made on the social network X.

Scores of Venezuelan immigrants have been deported to El Salvador since mid-March without due process, with Donald Trump's officials accusing them of being dangerous terrorists and gang members. In an open letter, the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners in Venezuela said it wanted both political prisoners in Venezuela and innocent immigrants jailed in El Salvador to be freed. But the group said it did not support the "exploitation of the pain of victims for propaganda purposes in an effort to cover up injustices being committed against innocent Venezuelans, either inside or outside of the country".