Palestinian officials say at least 30 killed in strike on school in Deir al-Balah where thousands were seeking shelter
A wave of Israeli airstrikes targeting central and southern Gaza have killed at least 50 people and injured an estimated 200, with one strike hitting a school where thousands were seeking shelter.
Palestinian health ministry officials said at least 30 people were killed in an airstrike on the Khadija school in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Continue reading...Three members of group among seven people who died in Wyoming crash on Friday
Three members of the US family gospel group the Nelons have been killed in a plane crash, their management announced.
Jason Clark, Kelly Nelon Clark and their daughter Amber Kistler died on Friday while taking a flight to perform on a cruise ship.
Continue reading...Temperatures reach 45C in parts of the country and 225 people seek treatment for heatstroke
A heatwave blanketing Iran has forced authorities to cut operating hours at various facilities on Saturday and order all government and commercial institutions to close on Sunday, as hospitals received more than 200 people for heatstroke treatment.
Temperatures ranged from 37C (98.6F) to 42C (107F) in the capital, Tehran, according to weather reports.
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Reuters has the following breaking news line: at least 12 Palestinians were killed on Saturday in an Israeli attack on a school housing displaced people west of Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, Gaza’s civil defence service said.
There has been no comment yet from the Israeli military.
By recognising Palestine, we recognise a sovereign people who cannot have their land stolen by illegal settlements or be subjected to the inhumane bombardment that we are seeing right now.
We need two states living side by side … we recognise the spirit of Palestinians and their dream of self-determination, and it will never be broken.”
Continue reading...Most French newspapers praise the Olympics spectacle but far-right commentators reject ‘woke propaganda’
They had waited 100 years for it and the French, mostly, were determined to love their kitsch, crazy, subversive, waterborne and very rain-drenched Olympics opening ceremony. Less happy were far-right figures, who spied “wokeist” propaganda.
A thoroughly unscientific poll on the rue de Rochechouart in Paris – where the far right have never had so much as a look-in – found plenty of enthusiasm.
Continue reading...The rail operator has pulled four of 15 trains from its Saturday schedule, affecting more than 3,000 people
Eurostar passengers hoping to catch the start of the Paris Olympics have continued to face difficulties after an arson attack in France caused train cancellations.
People travelling by Eurostar from London to Paris on Friday were asked to postpone trips if possible after the rail operator cancelled one in four trains over the weekend as a result of arson attacks that lead to widespread disruption to France’s high-speed rail network hours before the start of the Olympics.
Continue reading...Olympic Games organisers said they “deeply apologise” for introducing South Korea’s athletes as North Korean during the opening ceremony in Paris.
As the South Korean athletes waved their nation’s flag on a boat floating down the Seine on Friday evening, they were announced in both French and English as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. South Korea is the Republic of Korea.
Continue reading...Public health adviser says higher temperatures caused by climate crisis pose danger for visitors not used to them
The climate emergency poses a “real risk” to Spain’s traditional mass tourist model as rising temperatures and more frequent heatwaves hit the country’s most popular coastal destinations, a senior public health adviser has warned.
Héctor Tejero, the head of health and climate change at Spain’s health ministry, said the increasingly apparent physical impacts of the climate emergency had already led the ministry to begin talks with the British embassy on how best to educate “vulnerable” tourists about coping with the heat.
Continue reading...Given barely any warning, many people fled with nothing as bombs fell and bullets flew around them
The evacuation order jolted Munadil Abu Younes one morning earlier this week as he scrolled on his phone reading the news. Israeli forces ordered thousands to flee, including from the area where he was sheltering. His eighth displacement was like nothing that had come before.
“Israeli forces told us about the evacuation order as they entered the area,” he said. “We barely had time to collect our things, most people fled without taking anything. During previous evacuation orders they gave us a day or two, but this time we didn’t even have half an hour.”
Continue reading...US president also to seek constitutional amendment to limit immunity for presidents and various officeholders
Joe Biden will announce plans to reform the US supreme court on Monday, Politico reported, citing two people familiar with the matter, adding that the US president was likely to back term limits for justices and an enforceable code of ethics.
Biden said earlier this week during an Oval Office address that he would call for reform of the court.
Continue reading...James Wilburn, father of Black woman shot dead by Illinois police, says vice-president ‘let us know she is with us 100%’
Vice-President Kamala Harris on Friday called the family of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman who was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy in her Illinois home, according to Massey’s family members, who spoke to NBC News.
Massey was killed on 6 July after she called the Sangamon county sheriff’s office because she was afraid there might be a prowler outside, according to an attorney for her family and Illinois state police.
Continue reading...Arsonists used crude methods but disruption to opening of the Olympic Games in Paris was severe
It was about 1.15am when the SNCF maintenance workers, carrying out repairs by moonlight, spotted the group of people a little further down the railway line near a signal box outside the sleepy village of Vergigny, in the northern French department of Yonne.
They were concerned enough by the unlikely sight at such an hour to approach the intruders, and then to make a call to the local police as those they had interrupted ran off into the dark.
Continue reading...US announces arrest of two leaders of organised crime group as Mexican authorities say they were in the dark
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has called for “transparency” after the sudden and secretive arrests by US authorities of two top leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful organised crime groups.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, 76, founded the Sinaloa cartel with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, and has been a top target of US law enforcement for decades, with a $15m bounty on his head.
Continue reading...Police searched houses across country on eve of Olympic opening ceremony in neighbouring France
Three suspected members of Islamic State’s Afghan branch, Islamic State Khorasan, have been charged in Belgium with planning a terrorist attack.
Police released four other people who had also been detained during searches of houses across the country on Thursday, three of them after being questioned by an investigative judge, the state prosecutor’s office said.
Continue reading...Labour government announces its biggest step yet in overhauling the UK’s approach to the Middle East
Labour has announced its biggest step yet in overhauling the UK’s approach to the Middle East, dropping its opposition to an international arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu despite pressure from Washington not to do so.
Downing Street announced on Friday that the government would not submit a challenge to the jurisdiction of the international criminal court, whose chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, is seeking a warrant against the Israeli prime minister.
Continue reading...Märtha Louise is not allowed to use her title commercially after renouncing her royal duties two years ago
A letter has claimed that the Norwegian princess Märtha Louise was more deeply involved with a gin launched to mark her forthcoming wedding than previously stated, amid growing questions over the use of her name on the bottle.
The royal, who will marry the American businessman Durek Verrett in a four-day fjord-side wedding in Geiranger, Norway, next month, is not permitted to use her princess title in commercial contexts.
Continue reading...Strength of PM’s crackdown shows her nervousness and that climate of fear is breaking down, say critics
Hasan still has the metal pellets Bangladesh police fired at him lodged deep in his bones. Fearful he will join the growing ranks of those thrown behind bars by the state for participating in protests that have swept Bangladesh this month, Hasan has been in hiding for a week and described his state as one of “constant panic and trauma”.
“Whenever I hear the sound of a car or a motorbike, I think it might be the police coming for me,” he said.
Continue reading...Amid anger at US vice-president’s call to end Gaza war, many families of hostages held by Hamas agree with her
Members of Israel’s rightwing government have hit back at Kamala Harris over her demands for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza after she met Benjamin Netanyahu during his US visit.
After a brief meeting with the Israeli prime minister, which Harris described as “frank and constructive”, the US vice-president and presidential candidate said it was “time for this war to end, and end in a way where Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination”.
Continue reading...High-speed rail services have been disrupted, hours before Olympics opening ceremony, by ‘acts of malice’
Eurostar passengers travelling from London to Paris on Friday were asked to postpone trips if possible, with trains delayed and cancelled after arson attacks took place on high-speed rail lines hours before the start of the Olympics.
Most services were leaving St Pancras International station on time but journeys were expected to be prolonged by at least an hour in France. Two afternoon departures have been cancelled.
Continue reading...Unnamed official says comments should not be interpreted by Hamas that there is a gap between the US and its ally
A spokeswoman for No 10 added – regarding Labour dropping the Tories’ plan to challenge the ICC – that the Government believes very strongly in the separation of powers and the rule of law domestically and internationally.
“I think you would note that the courts have already received a number of submissions on either side, so they are well seized of the arguments to make their independent determinations,” she said.
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