Handful of sick and wounded Palestinians allowed through Rafah crossing on first day

Numbers Israel permitted to enter Egypt after reopening border were far lower than expected following delays
A small number of sick and wounded Palestinians have begun crossing into Egypt to seek medical treatment after Israel permitted a limited reopening of the Palestinian territory’s Rafah border post as fragile diplomatic efforts to stabilise the conflict inch forward.
About 150 people were due to leave the territory on Monday, and 50 to enter it, according to Egyptian officials, more than 20 months after Israeli forces closed the crossing. However, by nightfall, Reuters reported that Israel had permitted 12 Palestinians to re-enter the territory, according to Palestinian and Egyptian sources. A further 38 had not cleared security and would wait on the Egyptian side of the crossing overnight, it said.
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Weather tracker: Cyclone Fytia in Madagascar kills several people and floods homes

Island’s first tropical storm of season may bring 150mm of rain – meanwhile, eastern Europe freezes with possible night-time lows of -30C
At least three people have died and nearly 30,000 people have been affected by flooding after Madagascar’s first tropical storm of the season hit over the weekend.
Tropical Cyclone Fytia formed to the north-west of Madagascar over the northern Mozambique Channel on Thursday.
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International law meant to limit effects of war at breaking point, study finds

Report covering 23 conflicts over last 18 months concludes more than 100,000 civilians have been killed as war crimes rage out of control
An authoritative survey of 23 armed conflicts over the last 18 months has concluded that international law seeking to limit the effects of war is at breaking point, with more than 100,000 civilians killed, while torture and rape are committed with near impunity.
The extensive study by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights describes the deaths of 18,592 children in Gaza, growing civilian casualties in Ukraine and an “epidemic” of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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More than 200 killed in coltan mine collapse in eastern DRC, officials say

Rubaya mine produces about 15% of the world’s coltan, which is processed into tantalum, used in mobile phones
More than 200 people were killed this week in a collapse at the Rubaya coltan mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Lumumba Kambere Muyisa, a spokesperson for the rebel-appointed governor of the province where the mine is located, told Reuters on Friday.
Rubaya produces about 15% of the world’s coltan, which is processed into tantalum – a heat-resistant metal that is in high demand by makers of mobile phones, computers, aerospace components and gas turbines. The site, where local people dig manually for a few dollars a day, has been under the control of the M23 rebel group since 2024.
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Islamic State claims attack on international airport and airbase in Niger

Motorcycle-riding militants launch strikes using heavy weaponry and drones, damaging planes belonging to Ivorian carrier and Togolese airline
Islamic State in the Sahel has claimed responsibility for an audacious assault at the international airport and adjacent air force base in Niamey, the capital of Niger, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist activity and communications worldwide.
The attack, which began shortly after midnight on Thursday, reportedly involved motorcycle-riding militants who launched a “surprise and coordinated” strike using heavy weaponry and drones, according to statements released via IS in the Sahel’s propaganda arm, Amaq news agency.
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Judge blocks Trump administration’s stripping of Haitians’ protected status

Up to 350,000 Haitians legally live and work in the US due to being granted temporary protected status
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from stripping temporary protected status from up to 350,000 Haitians, a status that allows them to legally live and work in the United States amid the turmoil in their homeland.
Judge Ana Reyes issued a temporary stay that prevents Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, from implementing her decision to remove the status known as TPS, which was scheduled to expire on Tuesday.
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Mexico’s president pledges to send aid to Cuba despite US efforts to cut oil access

Move from Claudia Sheinbaum comes after Trump signed an order threatening tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has pledged to send humanitarian aid this week to Cuba and said Mexico was “exploring all diplomatic avenues to be able to send fuel to the Cuban people”, despite efforts from Washington to cut off oil to the Caribbean nation.
Donald Trump last week signed an executive order allowing the US to slap tariffs on countries sending crude oil to Cuba and on Saturday said that Sheinbaum had agreed to halt shipments of oil at his request – a claim the Mexican leader rejected.
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Brazilian influencer who defended US immigration crackdown arrested by ICE

Trump supporter Júnior Pena falsely claimed migrants being rounded up, including Brazilians, were ‘all crooks’
A rightwing Brazilian influencer who claimed Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown targeted only “crooks” has been arrested by ICE agents in New Jersey.
Júnior Pena, whose full name is Eustáquio da Silva Pena Júnior, declared his support for the US president in a recent video message to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers.
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Trump’s Greenland threats open old wounds for Inuit across Arctic

Demand by US that it take control of Arctic island is for many a reminder of troubling imperial past
On a bitterly cold recent morning in the Canadian Arctic, about 70 people took to the streets. Braving the bone-chilling winds, they marched through the Inuit territory of Nunavut, waving signs that read: “We stand with Greenland” and “Greenland is a partner, not a purchase.”
It was a glimpse of how, for Indigenous peoples across the Arctic, the battle over Greenland has become a wider reckoning, seemingly pitting the long-fought battle to assert their rights against a global push for power.
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Fernández wins Costa Rican presidency, steering Latin America further right

Rightwing populist elected in landslide after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to cocaine trade
The rightwing populist Laura Fernández has won Costa Rica’s presidential election in a landslide after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade.
Fernández’s nearest rival, centre-right economist Álvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40% needed to avoid a runoff.
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China to ban hidden car door handles on all EVs over crash safety concerns

Sleek car doors reduce vehicle drag but are prone to losing operability in the event of a crash, officials say
China will soon ban concealed door handles on electric vehicles (EVs), becoming the first country to do so after several deadly incidents triggered global scrutiny of the controversial design first popularised by Tesla.
According to regulations announced on Monday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, cars sold in China will now be required to have a mechanical release on both the inside and outside of every door except the boot.
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Trump unveils $12bn critical minerals stockpile scheme in apparent move to counter China’s dominance

Other countries are expected to join Project Vault, which US president said would ensure that US businesses are ‘never harmed by any shortage’
Donald Trump has announced the creation of a critical mineral reserve worth nearly $12bn, a stockpile that could counter China’s ability to use its dominance of the hard-to-process metals as leverage in trade talks.
“Today we’re launching what will be known as Project Vault to ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.
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US, UK, EU, Australia and more to meet to discuss critical minerals alliance

About 20 countries including G7 states in talks on rare earths including calls for US to guarantee minimum price
Ministers from the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will meet in Washington this week to discuss a strategic alliance over critical minerals.
The summit is being seen as a step to repair transatlantic ties fractured by a year of conflict with Donald Trump and pave the way for other alliances to help countries de-risk from China, including one centred on steel.
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Living hell of North Korea’s ‘paradise on Earth’ scheme back in spotlight in Japan

Plaintiffs in case say they were lured from Japan, exploited for labour and cut off from families for generations
It has been more than six decades since Eiko Kawasaki left Japan to begin a new life in North Korea. Then 17, she was among tens of thousands of people with Korean heritage who had been lured to the communist state by the promise of a “paradise on Earth”.
Instead, they encountered something closer to a living hell. They were denied basic human rights and forced to endure extreme hardship. Official promises of free education and healthcare plus guaranteed jobs and housing had been a cruel mirage. And to their horror, they were prevented from travelling to Japan to visit the families they had left behind.
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Starmer hopes his China trip will begin the thaw after recent ice age

PM flies out after courting world’s second biggest economy aware of difficult balance of risks and potential rewards
The last British prime minister to visit China was Theresa May in 2018. Before the visit, she and her team were advised to get dressed under the covers because of the risk of hidden cameras having been placed in their hotel rooms to record compromising material.
Keir Starmer, in Beijing this week, was more sanguine about his privacy, even though the security risks have, if anything, increased since the former Tory prime minister was in town.
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Australian news live: Joyce claims he’s added to ‘acceptability’ of One Nation; economists warn rates hike likely ‘not one and done’

New England MP says he has added to the surge in support for the fringe party since he defected in December. Follow today’s news live

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Two-thirds of homeless youth unable to access housing services: report
Approximately 40,000 15- to 24-year-olds have nowhere to live in Australia each year, with only 3.1% accessing long-term housing, according to a new report from the Home Time Youth coalition.
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New hate speech rules for NSW schools could stifle classroom discussions about Gaza, teachers warn

Premier says code of conduct is ‘not an attack on freedom of speech … or concern about Palestinians and innocent civilians in Gaza’

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New hate speech guidelines under which school staff could be more easily sacked for comments in and outside the classroom could silence discussion of Gaza in New South Wales schools, teachers and legal experts say.
The NSW government has moved to amend codes of conduct to explicitly prohibit hate speech across the state’s more than 3,000 government, independent and Catholic schools, effective immediately from Tuesday.
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Australian influencer’s illegal crypto gambling ads permitted by Meta despite Acma warning of $2.4m fine

Online streamer Dinah promoted Rainbet to her 820,000 followers, despite the regulator warning ‘significant penalties’ were at stake

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Meta failed to act on nearly a dozen reports against an Australian influencer with more than 800,000 followers on Instagram promoting illegal offshore crypto-gambling, despite the regulator warning influencers they could face fines of up to $2.4m.
The account of online streamer Dinah has 820,000 followers on Instagram, and has promoted Rainbet, a self-described online crypto casino, in posts on Instagram. On her profile she describes herself as “ur Chinese gf in Australia”.
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‘We never would have bought’: Australian mortgage holders feel the pain as interest rates rise again

The RBA’s widely anticipated decision marks the end of the shortest rate-cutting cycle in the reserve’s modern history, hitting mortgagees hard

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As the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted the official interest rate on Tuesday, one regional New South Wales couple said the dream of building a home has turned into a financial “hustle” they no longer want to maintain.
After the pair, 25 and 26, settled on land in September 2022, rising rates and cost of building materials decimated their initial budget.
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Campaign group behind attack ads on Labor, Greens and teal candidates was funded by coal industry lobby

Australians for Prosperity received most of its funding last financial year from Coal Australia, according to disclosures made to the Australian Electoral Commission

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A campaign group that attacked Labor, the Greens and teal independent candidates at the last federal election was almost entirely funded by a coal industry lobby group, analysis of political disclosures reveals.
Australians for Prosperity received $3.89m in total political receipts in the last financial year, according to disclosures made to the Australian Electoral Commission, of which $3.68m came from Coal Australia.
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French prosecutors ask appeal court to keep ban on Marine Le Pen running for office

Far-right leader was barred for five years after being found guilty of extensive fake jobs scam at European parliament
French state prosecutors have asked appeal court judges to maintain a five-year election ban on the far-right leader Marine Le Pen for embezzlement of European parliament funds in a fake jobs scandal.
If the judges decide to grant the request, Le Pen would probably not be able to run in France’s 2027 presidential election.
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French headquarters of Elon Musk’s X raided by Paris cybercrime unit

Prosecutors’ announcement comes amid a hardening of European attitudes to social media firms
Prosecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk’s social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company’s former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime.
“A search is under way by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, the national police cyber unit and Europol,” the Paris prosecutors’ office said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it would no longer be publishing on the network.
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Zelenskyy accuses Russia of violating Trump-brokered truce amid cold snap

Moscow launched ‘terrorising’ attack on energy grid as temperatures reached -20C, Ukrainian president says
Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Tuesday of violating an agreement with Donald Trump to hold off from attacking Ukraine’s energy systems in the depths of a freezing winter, as its forces carried out large-scale airstrikes on Kyiv on the eve of three-way talks in Abu Dhabi.
Ukraine’s president said Moscow carried out a massive and “deliberate” attack overnight as temperatures in Kyiv plunged to -20C. It involved a record number of 71 ballistic missiles as well as 450 drones, he said, sent to destroy energy infrastructure.
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Ukraine ‘ready to play ball’ on peace deal but Russia ‘creating chaos’ with its attacks, says Nato chief – as it happened

Mark Rutte and Volodymyr Zelenskyy hold joint press conference as air alert sirens blare across Kyiv
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kajas Kallas, has been speaking as part of a panel on Arctic security. Kallas was asked if the EU was “too cautious” in taking action because of its dependence on the US for security, which has been exposed amid Russia’s war on Ukraine and the Trump administration’s threats on Greenland and erratic behaviour towards its longstanding western allies. Kallas, who has said Nato must “become more European” to maintain its strength, responded:
Of course, we are cautions because there is a lot at stake. There is a full-scale war going on the European continent and there are threats coming from economic coercion, big challenges from China that is influencing our economies.
If it is influencing our economies, it is influencing jobs and people’s salaries and then it is creating polarisation within our societies and more instability, so it is all very much interlinked.
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French magistrate reportedly summons two French-Israelis over ‘complicity in genocide’

Nili Kupfer-Naouri and Rachel Touitou said to be accused of trying to block delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza
A French investigating magistrate has issued summonses to two French-Israeli nationals in relation to “complicity in genocide” over allegations they tried to block the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, French media have reported.
The summonses, which reportedly mark the first time a country has considered the blocking of aid “complicity in genocide”, were issued for Nili Kupfer-Naouri and Rachel Touitou in July, Le Monde and Agence France-Presse reported.
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US shoots down Iranian drone flying towards aircraft carrier, navy says

Shahed-139 said to have approached USS Abraham Lincoln ‘with unclear intent’ as US warships head towards Iran
The US military says it shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively” approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea.
The Iranian Shahed-139 drone was flying toward the carrier “with unclear intent” when an F-35 fighter jet shot it down, US Central Command said on Tuesday.
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Human Rights Watch researchers resign after report on Palestinian right of return blocked

The organization claims the report, which finds Israel’s denial of the right of return is a crime against humanity, is ‘paused pending further analysis and research’

Two Human Rights Watch (HRW) employees who make up the organization’s entire Israel and Palestine team are stepping down from their positions after leadership blocked a report that deems Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees the right of return a “crime against humanity”.
In separate resignation letters obtained by Jewish Currents and the Guardian, Omar Shakir, who has headed the team for nearly the last decade, and Milena Ansari, the team’s assistant researcher, said leadership’s decision to pull the report broke from HRW’s customary approval processes and was evidence that the organization was putting fear of political backlash over a commitment to international law.
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Marwan Barghouti, ‘Palestine’s Mandela’, to publish book from prison

Unbroken: In Pursuit of Freedom for Palestine is a collection of writings by the Palestinian political leader, who has been held in Israeli prisons since 2002
A collection of writings by the imprisoned Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti will be published in November, bringing together prison letters, interviews, personal material and documents from the last three decades of Barghouti’s political life and incarceration.
As deadly attacks on Gaza continue despite a nominal ceasefire, the 66-year-old is seen by many as the best hope for a leader of any future Palestinian state.
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Iran’s president says Tehran ready to pursue ‘fair’ talks with US

Masoud Pezeshkian instructs foreign minister to seek negotiations with US as Trump warns ‘bad things would happen’ if no solution agreed
Iran’s president said on Tuesday that he had instructed his foreign minister to “pursue fair and equitable negotiations” with the US, as the two countries reportedly prepared to send top envoys to Istanbul for high-stakes talks on the Iranian nuclear programme later this week.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post on X: “I have instructed my minister of foreign affairs, provided that a suitable environment exists – one free from threats and unreasonable expectations – to pursue fair and equitable negotiations, guided by the principles of dignity, prudence, and expediency.”
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Music and dancing signify defiance at celebratory funerals of Iran’s protesters

Euphoric scenes are a snub to theocracy’s culture of piety, say analysts, and carry message of rebellion
Iranians killed in recent protests that rocked the country have been laid to rest in boisterous funerals featuring loud pop music and dancing, apparently intended to convey defiance to the ruling Islamic regime.
Instead of holding sombre traditional mourning ceremonies presided over by a Shia cleric, bereaved relatives are turning the burials into exultant celebrations of the lives of their loved ones in what analysts say is an intentional snub to the culture of piety demanded by Iran’s theocracy.
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