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(UNITED KINGDOM) — Bitcoin soared to a record high of more than $72,000 on Monday after a financial regulator in the United Kingdom gave the green light to a cryptocurrency-backed investment vehicle.

Bitcoin hit $72,166 in early trading on Monday, just days after it surpassed a previous high of nearly $69,000 from November 2021.

After crossing that threshold last week, the price of bitcoin tumbled by 10% before rebounding to its current levels.

The Financial Conduct Authority, the U.K. agency tasked with regulating financial activity, said it will “not object” to exchanges forming a U.K.-listed market segment for crypto asset-backed Exchange Traded Notes, or cETNs.

The soon-to-be available financial instruments allow traders to buy and sell assets that fluctuate in price in concert with a given cryptocurrency.

The publicly listed assets enable traders to essentially invest in cryptocurrency but without the inconvenience and technical challenge of acquiring a crypto coin itself.

Despite approving cETNs, the Financial Conduct Authority said the products will remain unavailable to retail investors and cautioned traders about risks associated with cryptocurrency investments.

“The FCA continues to remind people that cryptoassets are high risk and largely unregulated. Those who invest should be prepared to lose all their money,” the agency said in a statement.

The move follows a similar decision by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January, when the agency approved Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds, or Bitcoin ETFs.

In similar fashion, a Bitcoin ETF allows investors to buy into an asset that tracks the price movement of Bitcoin without pouring funds directly into the cryptocurrency.

After the SEC approved Bitcoin ETFs, the price of bitcoin vaulted upward, drawing fuel from an inflow of fresh investment.

Soon after the SEC approved the new investing option, a slew of bitcoin ETFs became available, including offerings from legacy firms such as Fidelity and Franklin Templeton.

The new crypto alternatives unleashed billions of dollars in investment within weeks, Bryan Armour, the director of passive strategies research at financial firm Morningstar, previously told ABC News. The nine leading bitcoin ETFs received a combined $10 billion over the first seven weeks, Armour said.

Since bitcoin ETFs gained approval on Jan. 10, the price of bitcoin has jumped 54%.

Despite the breakneck pace of gains in recent weeks, bitcoin has a record of significant price volatility.

In the immediate aftermath of the bitcoin ETF approval, for instance, the price of bitcoin dropped 15% before rebounding. Over the past five years, bitcoin has plummeted more than 40% on four separate occasions, Armour previously told ABC News.

An ETF amounts to a bucket of securities that gives investors a way to bet that an underlying asset will increase in price without purchasing that asset.

For instance, an ETF for gold allows individuals and institutions to put money on the price movement of the precious metal rather than buy, lug and store the physical item.

A Bitcoin ETF, in turn, gives investors access to the cryptocurrency market without facing the technical impediments and fees associated with navigating a crypto exchange. 

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(SYDNEY) — A LATAM Airlines Group plane had a “technical problem” during a flight, causing what the airline described as a “a strong movement” after its departure from Sydney, Australia.

At least seven passengers and three crew members were taken to a local hospital for medical checks, but no serious injuries were reported, the airline said.

“The plane landed at Auckland Airport as scheduled,” the airline said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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U.S. military crews have airlifted nonessential U.S. Embassy personnel in Haiti out of harm’s way amid a surge of gang-related violence against the government, according to a statement Sunday from the U.S. Southern Command.

The U.S. military said it carried out the operation in Haiti to get some embassy personnel out of the country and bolstered security at the facility in Port-au-Prince, the capital.

“At the request of the Department of State, the U.S. military conducted an operation to augment the security of the U.S. Embassy at Port-au-Prince, allow our Embassy mission operations to continue, and enable nonessential personnel to depart,” the U.S. Southern Command said in its statement.

A state of emergency remains in effect in Haiti as skirmishes continue between armed gang members and Haitian National Police.

The U.S. military statement Sunday said no Haitians were on board the military aircraft used in the evacuation.

“Our Embassy remains focused on advancing U.S. government efforts to support the Haitian people, including mobilizing support for the Haitian National Police, expediting the deployment of the United Nations-authorized Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, and accelerating a peaceful transition of power via free and fair elections,” the statement read.

“As announced in September 2023, the Department of Defense is postured to provide robust enabling support for the MSS, including planning assistance, information sharing, airlift, communications, and medical support,” the U.S. Southern Command added.

Haiti has been in open rebellion since the middle of last week, with Haiti’s most powerful gangs unifying and launching a series of attacks against government institutions. Haiti’s acting prime minister, Ariel Henry, was out of the country when the attacks began and has been unable to return.

The government has declared a state of emergency.

The State Department is encouraging American citizens to leave Haiti following the violence.

The U.S. Embassy evacuation comes in the wake of Haitian gangs launching a large-scale assault Friday against multiple government buildings in or near downtown Port-au-Prince, a law enforcement source who took part in the fighting told ABC News.

The source said the attack was coordinated and swift, with different groups simultaneously targeting multiple government buildings, including the Presidential Palace, the Interior Ministry and a police headquarters for Haiti’s western district, which includes Port-au-Prince. Several witnesses of the attacks described to ABC News intense gunfire and loud explosions, and hundreds of people fleeing the area as gangs engaged in fierce battles against the police.

The Presidential Palace has not been occupied by any Haitian president since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021. A massive earthquake in 2010 destroyed large parts of the complex, making much of it completely unusable. However, it remains a poignant symbol of Haitian federal governance and is guarded around the clock.

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Kate, the Princess of Wales, issued a statement on Sunday thanking the public for their support in the months since she underwent surgery.

“Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months,” she said in a post on social media.

The statement on Sunday — when the United Kingdom celebrates Mother’s Day — was accompanied by a photo of Kate with her three children.

“Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day,” she said.

She credited her husband, William, the Prince of Wales, as the photographer.

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(ISTANBUL) — Thousands of women took to the streets of Istanbul, Turkey, to mark International Women’s Day Friday despite a ban by the government, demanding equality and change of laws to protect women and help them gain their rights in the country and around the world.

Waving purple flags as a sign of International Women’s Day, they filled the air with slogans and rallying cries despite a ban on rallies by authorities.

“The world would shake if women were free,” “Resist for rebellion, resist for freedom,” and “Woman, Life, Freedom,” they chanted.

While the police had blocked access to the streets leading to the protest location several hours ahead, some women said they figured out their own ways to get there and participate in the protest.

“I have been here in this coffeeshop today at 1 pm to make it here at 7:30 pm,” Irem, 35, told ABC News.

“Women’s rights are basically nonexistent in Turkey right now,” she added.

Turkey was the first country to join the Istanbul Convention in March 2012 which aims at preventing gender-based violence by setting legally binding standards to protect victims and punish perpetrators. However, 9 years later, in 2021, Turkey became the first and only country that left the convention in a decision made by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamic leaning government who believed the treaty eroded their conservative values.

Irem said the Turkish government has been backsliding in terms of women’s rights and mentioned the rising number of femicide cases across Turkey over the past 10 to15 years.

According to We Will Stop Femicide, a prominent activist group in Turkey, 338 women have been murdered since March 2023, and 248 died under suspicious circumstances.

The campaign added that 212 of these women were killed at home, 134 of them by their husbands, 47 by their boyfriends, and 36 by their ex-husbands. Two of the victims did not know their murderers at all, according to the group.

Protestors called for more unity among women and for finding ways to get out of the situation and make things better for women and members of minority groups such as the LGBTOAI community.

Yagmour, a young protestor wearing an all-purple outfit and makeup, said she has attended the 8th of March protests in different cities of Turkey over the years. Despite her disappointment with the government’s policies, she said she keeps up her hopes in women’s power from around the world to pay attention to each other and also to the situation in Turkey.

“As women, it is important that we all stay together, no matter what nationality,” she told ABC News.

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(GAZA) — Five children were allegedly killed in the Gaza Strip by a humanitarian aid airdrop from an unidentified foreign country on Friday, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said.

Several Palestinian civilians were also injured in the airdrop, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza, which called the airdrop “random.”

Bystander footage of Friday’s airdrop showed an aircraft dropping dozens of packages via parachutes, as people ran toward them upon landing.

Israel previously said it has cooperated with several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, France and the U.S., on airdrops into Gaza.

ABC News has reached out to the Israeli government for comment. A U.S. State Department official told ABC News their understanding is this wasn’t a U.S. airdrop.

No one was injured in a U.S. airdrop that was conducted on Friday in Northern Gaza, according to Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

“Press reports that U.S. air drops resulted in civilian casualties on the ground are false, as we’ve confirmed that all of our aid bundles landed safely on the ground,” Ryder said during a press briefing.

The deaths come days after food and supplies started being airdropped along Gaza’s coastline in response to the humanitarian crisis amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The Government Media Office in Gaza criticized airdrops as “useless” while calling for the immediate opening of land crossings into Gaza.

“We call for the opening of land crossings to bring in thousands of tons of aid immediately and urgently to prevent the deepening of famine in the Gaza Strip, especially in Gaza City and Northern Gaza,” the Government Media Office in Gaza said in a statement Friday. “Approximately 2,400,000 people in the Gaza Strip suffer greatly from severe shortages of food, water, medicine and shelter, and the famine deepens further as a result of this acute shortage.”

At least 20 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration amid the war, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Adam Bouloukos, a senior official at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees-West Bank, told ABC News that airdrops of aid are “dangerous.”

“You see the airdrops which look very dramatic, like, oh, this is a solution,” he said. “[They are] immensely expensive, completely inefficient [and] dangerous. You’re dropping these huge sacks of whatever it is on the beach with people running toward them.”

He said the aid is a “drop in the bucket” based on the needs. He said a cease-fire is needed in Gaza to ensure aid reaches the areas that are most in need by road, stating that “you can’t deliver humanitarian aid if you’re being shot at.”

The State Department official said these are “complex and tough missions.”

“We take every reasonable precaution to avoid injuries, including limiting the weight of the pallets, identifying drop-zones in less-populated areas, and the sending of safety messages to the population prior to the airdrop,” the official said.
The UNRWA previously said Israel doesn’t provide enough authorization to deliver sufficient aid and, even when it does give authorization, the fighting makes it difficult to deliver that aid.

Israel has denied accusations that it isn’t letting enough aid into Gaza, with officials saying the U.N., its partners and other aid agencies have created logistical challenges, resulting in a bottleneck. The U.N. disputes these claims.

A U.S. official told reporters this week the U.S. continues to push Israel to allow more aid into Gaza by land, saying it’s the “most-efficient, cost-effective” option.

During his State of the Union speech on Thursday night, President Joe Biden announced an “emergency” military mission to construct a port in the Mediterranean Sea on Gaza’s coast to get humanitarian aid in.

The World Central Kitchen said on Friday that a plan that has been in the works for weeks is in the “final stages” to bring food to people in Gaza. The organization said it plans to set up 200 pallets on the beaches of Gaza to bring people food.

Since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, more than 30,700 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 72,100 others have been injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

More than 1,200 people have been killed in Israel since Oct. 7, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Israeli officials say 576 IDF soldiers have been killed, including 237 since the ground operations in Gaza began.

ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford and Matt Seyler contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The European Union announced on Friday the launch of the Cyprus Maritime Corridor, a naval route facilitated by Europe’s most southeastern island, Cyprus, to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the corridor is a direct response to the dire conditions of civilians in Gaza, where the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children declared a severe humanitarian emergency that is worsening by the day as the siege and military attacks from Israel continue.

An initial pilot operation launched on Friday in partnership with the World Central Kitchen and the corridor should officially begin to operate on Sunday, according to von der Leyen.

The World Central Kitchen, led by Chef Jose Andres, has served more than 33 million meals since October, and operates over 60 community kitchens in Gaza with the help of 400 Palestinians on the ground. A spokesperson for WCK told ABC News it equipped the boat departing Cyprus with 200 tons of rice, flour and proteins, and prepared another 500 tons of aid ready to follow.

The initiative was made possible by the United Arab Emirates and the United States support to the EU, with Cyprus proving, once again, its historical role as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East after the Amalthea initiative — which outlines a mechanism for securely shipping aid from Cyprus to Gaza via sea.

“The Middle East is a crucial neighbor where Europe’s role and leadership are required,” said Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides at a presser Friday morning, who added that the war is a direct concern for Europeans and that a spillover would be “catastrophic.”

“We are at the point where we simply have to unlock all the possible routes,” President Christodoulides explained, adding that he hopes that the CMC will be “a sustained, long-term maritime lifeline for the civilians in Gaza.”

“This maritime Corridor can — and must — be part of a sustained effort to increase the flow of humanitarian aid and commercial commodities into Gaza through all possible routes,” the White House said in a statement about the initiative.

“The Maritime corridor can make a real difference in the plight of Palestinian people,” von der Leyen said at the announcement of the Corridor. “But in parallel, our efforts to provide assistance to Palestinians in all possible routes of course will continue.”

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the initiative with a statement shared on X, “The Cypriot initiative will allow the increase of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, after security checks are carried out in accordance with Israeli standards.”

At least 20 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration at the north’s Kamal Adwan and Shifa hospitals, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, including children and a 72-year-old man.

They are among the more than 30,000 killed by the wide-scale attacks carried out by Israel in response to the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas that left over 1,200 dead and 130 victims kidnapped and held hostage.

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(LONDON) — Armed bandits in Nigeria have kidnapped over 100 school children in Kuriga, north-western Nigeria, oaccording to officials.

The bandits are reported to have stormed into the LEA Primary School in Kuriga town, Kaduna state, on Thursday seizing scores of pupils before marching them into the forest.

The incident is reported to have happened at around 8 a.m. on Thursday shortly after the morning assembly. The headmaster of the school along with some other members of staff are reportedly among the victims.

“With pain in my heart, I visited Kuriga, Chikun Local Government, where bandits kidnapped primary and secondary school pupils and students,” wrote Senator Uba Sani, Governor of Kaduna State, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Proactive measures need to be taken to safeguard our schools against terrorists.”

Residents told ABC News that most of the pupils ran out of their classes when they sighted the bandits on the school premises. The armed gunmen are reported to have driven into the school grounds on motorcycles.

The mass abduction is the latest in a string of abductions in schools in northern Nigeria, the incidents becoming an increasing point of concern in the country.

As of Friday no group has yet claimed responsibility for the mass abduction.

In 2014, the infamous kidnapping of over 200 schoolgirls in Borno State’s Chibok village by Boko Haram militants.

“Hope is risen that we can have some of them back again,” a parent of one of the kidnapped Chibok school girls told ABC News in 2021 anxiously awaiting the girls’ arrival, dozens of whom still remain in captivity.

According to the International Centre for Counterterrorism, women and children are increasingly the victims of kidnappings and forced abductions.

Sani, on Friday, pledged to get back all the abducted students as government officials worked with the school’s management to confirm the headcount of those missing.

In a statement, Sani said the incident has emphasized the need for state police.

“Proactive measures need to be taken to safeguard our schools against terrorists,” said Sani. “With State Police, there will be a standing Police Force in Kuriga drawn from members of the community who understand the terrain, the people and the issues at play. They can gather intelligence with ease. They will also be constitutionally empowered to bear arms, including sophisticated ones. This is important because vigilante groups are not allowed to carry arms.”

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(NEW YORK) — Sweden’s arduous path to joining the NATO alliance came to a successful close Thursday, as the Swedish prime minister and foreign minister deposited the country’s “instrument of accession” at the State Department in Washington.

In a lighthearted ceremony, Secretary of State Antony Blinken posed for photos with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, with the two holding a blue folder containing the document. Blinken quipped, “Well, good things come to those who wait.”

“With receipt of this instrument of accession, let me be the very first to welcome Sweden as a party to the Washington Treaty and the 32nd member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” Blinken continued.

Blinken remarked on Sweden’s longstanding military neutrality, and how the country was moved to end its tradition after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. Sweden was called to defend democracy and recognized the existential threat Russia’s aggression presented to European nations, he said.

“None of this was easy, none of this was obvious,” Blinken said, adding it had taken “nearly two years of tireless diplomacy” to add Sweden to the alliance.

“Sweden is now a NATO member,” Kristersson said on X earlier. “Thank you all Allies for welcoming us as the 32nd member. We will strive for unity, solidarity and burden-sharing, and will fully adhere to the Washington Treaty values: freedom, democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. Stronger together.”

Sweden’s membership had been slowed by objections from Turkey and Hungary. The U.S. was able to eventually incentivize Turkey by approving the sale of fighter jets to the country, and Hungary signed off on Sweden’s addition this week.

“This is a historic day,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement. “Sweden will now take its rightful place at NATO’s table, with an equal say in shaping NATO policies and decisions. After over 200 years of non-alignment Sweden now enjoys the protection granted under Article 5, the ultimate guarantee of Allies’ freedom and security. Sweden brings with it capable armed forces and a first-class defense industry.”

Sweden’s flag will be raised alongside those of the other 31 Allies in a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Brussels on March 11 and simultaneously at NATO commands across Europe and North America, NATO said.

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(LONDON) — A senior Egyptian official has told ABC News that the Hamas delegation has left Cairo, thereby ending cease-fire talks and making it unlikely that there will be a break in the violence before the start of Ramadan on Monday.

Story developing…

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