Category Archives: World News

Clearing Gaza rubble could yield 90,000 tonnes of planet-heating emissions

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Processing debris from Israel’s destruction of homes, schools and hospitals could take four decades

Millions of tonnes of rubble left by Israel’s bombardment of Gaza could generate more than 90,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions – and take as long as four decades to remove and process, a study has found.

Israel’s destruction of Palestinian homes, schools and hospitals in Gaza generated at least 39m tonnes of concrete debris between October 2023 and December 2024, which will require at least 2.1m dump trucks driving 18m miles (29.5m km) to transport to disposal sites, researchers said.

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Large rise in abuse claims at mines that may be vital to EU’s energy transition, report says

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Researchers find 270 allegations at mineral projects across 13 countries in Europe and central Asia last year

Mines on the EU’s periphery that could be critical to its energy transition have recorded a large rise in allegations of abuse ranging from workplace deaths to soil pollution, a report has found, with a threefold increase in 2024 from the average of the five previous years.

The nonprofit Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) found 270 allegations of environmental and human rights abuses in transition mineral projects across 13 countries in Europe and central Asia last year, up from 92 the year before.

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Brazil court freezes Bolsonaro son’s assets as Trump’s tariffs appear to backfire

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Eduardo Bolsonaro is suspected of using money to lobby US president on behalf of his father, Jair, who faces arrest for apparent flouting of social media ban

A Brazilian supreme court judge has ordered that the bank accounts and assets of Jair Bolsonaro’s congressman son be frozen, as a political crisis – pitting Brazil’s far-right former president and Donald Trump against the current administration – intensified.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes – who has spearheaded a series of supreme court investigations into Bolsonaro – targeted the finances of Eduardo Bolsonaro, the ex-president’s third son, as a result of police suspicions that money being sent to him by his father was bankrolling his efforts to lobby the Trump administration to help Bolsonaro avoid punishment for an alleged coup attempt after the 2022 election.

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WHO says residence and main warehouse in Gaza hit by Israeli forces

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Staff quarters attacked three times and four people detained, three temporarily, as IDF tanks enter Deir al-Balah

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the Israeli military attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Monday, compromising its operations in Gaza.

The WHO said its staff residence was attacked three times, with airstrikes causing a fire and extensive damage, and endangering staff and their families, including children.

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Ibiza venue cancels music events after deaths of two British men in two weeks

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Ice hockey player Gary Kelly died at Ibiza Rocks Hotel as did fellow Scot Evan Thomson, who fell to his death on 7 July

An Ibiza hotel and music venue has cancelled a number of music events after the deaths of two British men on its premises in the space of two weeks.

Gary Kelly, 19, who was a professional ice hockey player for the Dundee Stars, died at the Ibiza Rocks hotel on Monday. His club paid tribute to the “hugely talented and charismatic individual” who “had a great future ahead of him”.

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Venezuela to investigate alleged torture of its citizens in El Salvador jail

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Attorney general says detainees from Cecot prison returned under deal with US suffered a range of abuses

Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek Saab, said on Monday that his office would investigate El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, and two other officials for the alleged abuse of Venezuelans detained in the country.

More than 250 Venezuelans held in El Salvador’s notorious Cecot prison returned to Venezuela on Friday under the terms of a prisoner exchange agreed with the US.

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Anti-AfD protesters interrupt Alice Weidel interview live on German TV

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Broadcaster to take precautions in future after whistling, shouting and music leave parts of exchange inaudible

A German public broadcaster has said it is reviewing its procedures after a live interview with the leader of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland was interrupted by protesters.

During the television interview with ARD on Sunday, Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD, appeared at times to struggle to hear the questions being asked of her as protesters gathered below the provisional stage for the interview in Berlin.

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At least 20 killed as military plane crashes into Bangladesh school campus

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Injured number almost 200 after training jet had technical problem once airborne, with pilot among the dead

At least 20 people were killed and nearly 200 injured – many of them children – when a Bangladeshi fighter jet on a routine training exercise crashed into a school in Dhaka in the country’s worst aviation disaster in decades.

The jet, a Chinese-made F-7BGI, hit the private Milestone school in the capital as students were ending or had left afternoon classes, witnesses said. It reportedly struck a five-storey academic building before crashing on to a two-storey structure on the campus, triggering a massive explosion and fire.

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Belgian police question two Israelis over war crimes accusations

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Authorities interviewed Israeli pair after they were seen at Tomorrowland music festival near Antwerp

Belgian authorities have said they briefly held and questioned two Israeli citizens who attended an electronic music festival last week, after pro-Palestinian groups accused them of war crimes.

Prosecutors said they had received legal complaints alleging that two Israeli soldiers responsible for “serious violations of international humanitarian law” in Gaza were spotted at the Tomorrowland festival near the northern city of Antwerp.

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Toronto film festival: Angelina Jolie, Saoirse Ronan and Keanu Reeves lead lineup

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The 50th edition of the Canadian film festival will also feature world premieres starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Sydney Sweeney and Matthew McConaughey

World premieres starring Angelina Jolie, Saoirse Ronan and Keanu Reeves lead this year’s lineup for the Toronto film festival.

The 50th edition of the festival will again feature a string of films hoping to gain awards traction, taking place after the Venice film festival.

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China starts building world’s biggest hydropower dam

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1.2tn yuan project has broken ground in Tibet, premier says, despite fears of downstream nations India and Bangladesh

Construction of the world’s biggest hydropower megadam has begun, China’s premier has said, calling it the “project of the century”.

The huge structure is being built on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, in Tibetan territory.

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Meta allows ads crowdfunding for IDF drones, consumer watchdog finds

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Paid ads hosted on Facebook, Instagram and Threads seem to violate Meta’s stated policies yet remain active

Meta is hosting ads on Facebook, Instagram and Threads from pro-Israel entities that are raising money for military equipment including drones and tactical gear for Israeli Defense Force battalions, seemingly a violation of the company’s stated advertising policies, new research shows.

“We are the sniper team of Unit Shaked, stationed in Gaza, and we urgently need shooting tripods to complete our mission in Jabalia,” one ad on Facebook read, first published on 11 June and still active on 17 July.

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Harvard to ask court to declare Trump’s $2bn funding freeze unlawful – US politics live

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Top US university returns to court to fight against funding freeze that halted major research efforts

Ever since Donald Trump began his second presidency, he has used an “invented” national energy emergency to help justify expanding oil, gas and coal while slashing green energy – despite years of scientific evidence that burning fossil fuels has contributed significantly to climate change, say scholars and watchdogs.

It’s an agenda that in only its first six months, has put back environmental progress by decades, they say.

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‘It’s really theft’: the Republican plan to redraw Texas maps – and grab more power

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Democrats are livid over the governor’s plan to redraw districts at a time when Texas officials are supposed to be focused on recovery from the floods

A plan for Texas to redraw its congressional districts and gain five additional Republican seats barrels through flimsy legal arguments and political norms like a rough-stock rodeo bronco through a broken chute.

But the fiddly process of drawing the maps to Republicans’ advantage for 2026 may require more finesse than cowboy politics can produce.

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Israel launches air and ground offensive on Deir al-Balah in central Gaza

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Military targets key humanitarian hub that was relatively unscathed by war after ordering Palestinians to leave

Israel has launched substantial air raids and a ground operation in Gaza, targeting Deir al-Balah, the main hub for humanitarian efforts in the devastated Palestinian territory, amid urgent warnings of widening starvation in the coastal strip.

The latest assault comes a day after the highest death toll in 21 months inflicted by the Israeli military on desperate Palestinians seeking food aid, with at least 85 killed on Sunday in what has become an almost daily slaughter.

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‘It’s a madhouse’: US state department workers reeling after Trump’s firings

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About 3,000 workers have left the agency through firings and buyouts in a move Democrats and staff call ‘unlawful’

Workers at the US state department say firings, resignation buyouts, a proposed budget cut of 48%, and reorganization under the Trump administration has left staff with low morale and will likely have long-term impacts.

Foreign programs and services aimed towards LGBTQ+ communities, maternal and reproductive health, and minority groups have been removed or cut in place of far-right ideological policies being pursued by a 26-year-old senior adviser and Trump appointee at the agency.

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Norfolk woman hands over 16th-century painting identified as stolen 50 years ago

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Exclusive: Barbara de Dozsa had argued ownership because work by Italian artist Solario had been bought in good faith

A 16th-century Madonna and Child painting that ended up with a woman in Norfolk after it was stolen from a museum in Italy half a century ago is to be returned to its rightful owner.

After years of soul-searching, and persuading by an art lawyer who was acting pro bono, Barbara de Dozsa decided to hand it over to the Civic Museum of Belluno, which last saw the painting in 1973.

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Senior Labour MP urges UK to recognise Palestinian state ahead of UN conference

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Emily Thornberry says recognition is vital step towards peace and without long-term solution war in Gaza will continue

A senior Labour MP has said it is time for the UK to recognise a Palestinian state as some western countries are due to press ahead with their own recognition plans at an international conference this month.

Emily Thornberry, who heads the influential House of Commons foreign affairs select committee, said that without a ceasefire and a long-term political solution Israel’s war on Gaza – which has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians since 7 October 2023 – will continue.

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Zelenskyy accuses Russia of ‘assault on humanity’ after latest drone barrage

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Germany vows to expedite delivery of Patriot systems as drone strikes Kyiv metro station sheltering civilians

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of “an assault on humanity” after a barrage of drones and missiles hit Ukraine, as Germany promised to supply five Patriot air-defence systems to help an under-pressure Kyiv.

Ukraine’s president said Moscow had launched more than 420 drones and more than 20 missiles in its latest overnight attack, killing at least two people and targeting a metro station in the capital where people were sheltering.

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Pakistan authorities arrest 13 suspects over ‘honour’ killing video

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Arrests made in Balochistan after video showing man and woman being fatally shot went viral

Thirteen suspects have been arrested in Pakistan’s south-western Balochistan province after a video emerged of a woman and a man being shot dead for marrying against the wishes of their families in an “honour” killing.

The footage caused uproar in the country, with activists demanding swift justice and a stop to the crime, which targets women who do not follow local traditions and culture or decide to marry someone of their choosing.

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