Among the hostages are an 83-year-old Israeli journalist who was taken from his home in kibbutz Nir Oz
The Israeli military has confirmed 155 people who are being held as hostages by Hamas following its deadly attack on 7 October.
Among the hostages are an 83-year-old Israeli journalist who was taken from his home in kibbutz Nir Oz with his 85-year-old partner, who had worked for decades for peace and the recognition of Palestinian rights.
Continue reading...Memo by military police chief said there was ‘no shortage of detractors’ in Whitehall of elite unit’s conduct
Senior figures in Downing Street were calling in 2016 for the SAS to have its “wings clipped” as it emerged that a growing number of suspected murders of Afghan civilians were being investigated by military police.
Critics of the elite unit’s behaviour were led by Jeremy Heywood, who at the time was cabinet secretary to the then prime minister, Theresa May, according to a memo cited last week during a public inquiry into allegations of unlawful SAS killings in Afghanistan.
Continue reading...Rightwing speakership contender says he thinks he has 217 votes needed to win despite group who say they will not support him
The rightwing congressman Jim Jordan is seeking to shore up support for his bid to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, with plans to appear on the House floor early this week to try to sway Republican members of Congress who signaled in a secret ballot vote they will not support his bid.
Jordan, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, claimed in a brief interview with Politico he believes he will get the 217 votes required to secure the speakership in a vote he wants to happen on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Evil Does Not Exist, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, is about community’s fight against ‘glamping’ development
A Japanese eco-drama about a lakeside community’s resistance to a corporate “glamping” development in their beautiful unspoilt village has won the top prize at the London film festival.
Evil Does Not Exist, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, tells the story of a community fighting to preserve its principles and the integrity of the natural world. They are up against a Tokyo company that has bought up swathes of nearby land, intending to turn it into a destination for well-off city tourists.
Continue reading...Cairo says any move by Israel to push refugees over frontier would breach international law and be a security risk for the country
Egypt is stepping up its military presence at its Rafah border crossing with Gaza, with fears that Israel intends to push hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees over the frontier into the Sinai desert.
Cairo has said the expulsion of so many Palestinians from their homes would be in breach of international law, and a national security risk for Egypt that is liable to bankrupt the country’s ailing economy. Palestinians themselves, and other Arab states, fear refugees would never be allowed back to their homes.
Continue reading...Major assault in Donetsk launched on Tuesday said to have resulted in serious losses for Moscow’s forces
A top Ukrainian commander has claimed that Russia’s biggest offensive in months – involving tanks, thousands of soldiers and armoured vehicles in an attack on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka – is failing, as he admitted Kyiv’s own attempts to advance in the south were proving “difficult”.
Russian forces have pummelled the town over the past week, a key bulge surrounded by Russian-held territory on the eastern Donbas front. It is one of the largest assaults by Moscow since last year’s full-scale invasion and comes at a time when Ukraine’s counteroffensive is moving slowly, and the world is focused on the imminent Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
Continue reading...Juan de Pareja’s story sheds light on the role of slavery in creating the great works of Spain’s golden age
The portrait, showing a man of African descent gazing frankly towards the artist, set the art world abuzz when it was revealed by Diego Velázquez in 1650.
The painting cemented the artist’s stratospheric rise, but the spotlight has been recently cast on the extraordinary trajectory of the man who is the subject of the portrait, Juan de Pareja, who went from being enslaved in Velázquez’s studio for more than two decades to becoming a successful artist in his own right.
Continue reading...Rightwing attorney general holds off crowded field and will replace Democrat John Bel Edwards, who has served two terms
Attorney General Jeff Landry, a rightwing Republican backed by Donald Trump, has won the Louisiana governor’s race, holding off a crowded field of candidates.
The win is a major victory for the Republican party as they reclaim the governor’s mansion for the first time in eight years. Landry will replace current governor John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek re-election due to consecutive term limits.
Continue reading...Another 6.3-magnitude quake strikes outside Herat in western area where thousands were killed last week
A powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake has struck western Afghanistan, just over a week after strong quakes and aftershocks killed thousands of people and flattened entire villages in the same region.
The US Geological Survey said the latest quake’s epicentre was about 21 miles (34km) outside Herat, the provincial capital, and the focus was 5 miles below the surface.
Continue reading...Ecological calamity on the Caribbean island demonstrates how quickly wildlife can be destroyed, scientists say
They were once so numerous they were cooked as the national dish of Dominica. Every year, thousands of mountain chicken frogs, roasted with garlic and pepper, were eaten by islanders and tourists.
Two decades later, the animal – one of the world’s largest species of frog – has in effect disappeared from the Caribbean island. A series of ecological disasters has reduced its former healthy, stable population of hundreds of thousands of animals to a total of 21 frogs, according to scientists’ most recent survey.
Continue reading...No agreement by Saturday night on how to bring aid to trapped Palestinians before Israel’s expected ground assault
Aid flights have been arriving in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula with relief supplies for Gaza, amid diplomatic efforts to open humanitarian corridors into the besieged Palestinian enclave.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said during a tour of the region that the US was seeking agreement on establishing aid routes and safe zones. But by Saturday night, there was still no agreement on how to bring aid to the 2 million Palestinians under bombardment, as Israel laid the ground for an invasion of Gaza a week after a Hamas attack in which 1,300 Israelis and foreign nationals, mostly civilians, were murdered.
Continue reading...US urges restraint amid bombing of civilian evacuation convoy that left a reported 70 people dead, including women and children
Desperate Gaza City residents fled south in cars and lorries, carts and on foot on Saturday, risking death by airstrikes on the road to escape the even greater threat of an imminent Israeli ground attack on the north of the besieged enclave.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told troops massed in southern Israel that “the next stage is coming”, in a video shared by his office. The Israeli military announced on Saturday evening that it was preparing “significant ground operations”.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer also backs Israel but issues call for all parties to act in line with international law
Rishi Sunak has voiced “unequivocal” UK support for Israel “not just today, not just tomorrow, but always” in a lengthy statement to mark one week since Hamas militants murdered 1,300 Israeli civilians and soldiers, and took more than 150 people hostage. The prime minister’s remarks – in which he makes no mention of the plight of innocent Palestinians now trapped in Gaza, or the need for their safe evacuation – come amid growing political tensions in the UK over how to respond to Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza, and its orders to more than 1 million Palestinians to flee their homes for their own safety.
Senior Labour figures believe the Conservatives are deliberately trying to paint them as less supportive of Israel, and to suggest that some on the left of the party are somehow sympathetic to Hamas and antisemitic, because they are pro-Palestinian.
Continue reading...‘Ring of fire’ solar eclipse to be visible in California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico
The sun’s “ring of fire” is becoming visible to hundreds of thousands of more Americans as the annular eclipse sweeps across the mainland US in a south-eastern direction towards Texas.
The eclipse has passed Oregon and a sliver of northern California, and sky watchers in New Mexico are the next to experience the full effects of the moon passing in front of the sun.
Continue reading...Fifteen arrested at march in London, while demonstrations also take place in Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen
Tens of thousands of people have marched through cities across the UK calling for a free Palestine as tensions grew over an impending Israeli ground offensive in Gaza.
Protesters gathered in Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and London, carrying flags and flares and calling for world leaders to condemn the actions of the Israeli army.
Continue reading...Closure comes after decision to put France on high alert following fatal school stabbing by suspected extremist
Thousands of visitors have been evacuated from the Louvre in Paris after museum staff received a written threat.
The warning on Saturday came as France is on its highest alert for terrorist attacks after the killing of a teacher by a suspected radical Islamist in the north of the country on Friday.
Continue reading...Palestine Action says it was behind incident in London, accusing BBC of ‘manufacturing consent for Israel’s war crimes’
A pro-Palestinian protest group has claimed responsibility for throwing red paint over the BBC’s headquarters, accusing the broadcaster of having “blood on its hands” over its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
The organisation Palestine Action identified itself as being behind the incident, which took place early on Saturday morning at Broadcasting House. It alleged that the broadcaster was “manufacturing consent for Israel’s war crimes”.
Continue reading...Oleksandr Syrskyi said Russian forces had regrouped after suffering losses
Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day so far:
Fighting in Avdiivka on the eastern frontline enters a fifth day, as Russia continues to deploy new forces in an attempt to surround the city, according to Vitaliy Barabash, the head of its military administration.
Russia’s defence ministry says its forces shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea near the southern resort city of Sochi on Saturday morning. The city’s mayor, Alexei Kopaigorodskyi, said there had been no casualties or damage and that the situation was under control.
A top Ukraine general said fighting in the north-east had “significantly worsened” as daily Russian attacks continued.
Russia has detained three lawyers of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and raided their homes, aides said, a step that comes as pressure on the Kremlin’s critics increases. The move was an attempt to “completely isolate Navalny”, his ally Ivan Zhdanov said on social media.
The US has claimed North Korea delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia for the war in Ukraine. The White House national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said the US believed Kim Jong-un was seeking sophisticated Russian weapon technologies in return for munitions to boost North Korea’s nuclear programme.
Vladimir Putin dismissed the idea that Russia damaged a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia and suggested such claims were made up to divert attention from what he said was a western attack on Nord Stream.
EU leaders meeting later in October will demand “decisive progress” on using Russian assets frozen by sanctions to help Ukraine, according to their draft statement.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, while visiting the Black Sea port of Odesa on Friday, vowed to improve Ukraine’s air defences and to increase the security of a “humanitarian corridor” for grain exports.
Continue reading...Military has might on its side but Hamas is prepared and the humanitarian fallout could prove costly
Israel is poised to launch a ground offensive into the northern half of Gaza, an attack that, for all the country’s military superiority, is fraught with uncertainty and whose potential humanitarian consequences are grim.
The military called up 300,000 reservists on Monday to add to its 170,000-strong standing army and has been massing them near the Gaza border. Hamas, it is estimated, can count on 30,000 fighters, perhaps a tenth of the likely invasion force, and it has neither the tanks nor the air power available to the attackers.
Continue reading...London-based Noam Sagi and Sharone Lifschitz hope against hope for safety of their parents, missing after kibbutz massacre
As Noam Sagi watched footage of journalists reporting from the Nir Oz kibbutz near the border with Gaza last Saturday, his heart sank when he saw his 75-year-old mother’s burnt-out car in the background.
His family had not heard from Ada since she called in distress earlier that morning to say Hamas gunmen had stormed the kibbutz and she was sheltering in a safe room.
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