'Dodgy' greenhouse gas data threatens Paris accord
Potent, climate-warming gases are being emitted into the atmosphere but are not being recorded in official inventories, a BBC investigation has found.
Air monitors in Switzerland have detected large quantities of one gas coming from a location in Italy.
However, the Italian submission to the UN records just a tiny amount of the substance being emitted.
Levels of some emissions from India and China are so uncertain that experts say their records are plus or minus 100%.
These flaws posed a bigger threat to the Paris climate agreement than US President Donald Trump's intention to withdraw, researchers told BBC Radio 4's Counting Carbon programme.
Flag-waving Chinese blockbuster smashes cinema records
Wolf Warriors 2 has ridden a wave of patriotic fervour with its stunts, soldiers and western baddies
A flag-waving Chinese action film depicting the country’s soldiers saving war-ravaged Africans from western baddies has become China’s all-time top box-office earner, headlining a summer of patriotic cinematic fare.
The wildly popular Wolf Warriors 2 boasts the ominous tagline “whoever offends China will be hunted down no matter how far away they are”, and millions of Chinese cinemagoers have lapped it up since the movie’s release less than two weeks ago.
The blockbuster has raked in more than 3.4bn yuan (£383m) since debuting on 27 July, according to unofficial China box office trackers Maoyan and other industry tallies.
Israel slammed over Al-Jazeera 'repressive clampdown'
Human rights groups have denounced attempts by the Israeli government to shutter Al-Jazeera's operations in the country. Israeli officials have accused the Qatari-owned broadcaster of "supporting terrorism."
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has criticized the Israeli government for attempting to shut down the Al-Jazeera bureau in Jerusalem.
"This is a brazen attack on media freedom in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The move sends a chilling message that the Israeli authorities will not tolerate critical coverage," Amnesty said in a statement on Monday.
On Sunday, Israeli Communications Minister Ayoob Kara announced the government's intention to shutter the Qatari-owned broadcaster's operations in Israel.
Fears of violent aftermath as Kenya goes to the polls
Kenyans began voting Tuesday in a tightly fought presidential election as President Uhuru Kenyatta faces veteran opposition challenger Raila Odinga amid fears of violence.
Opinion polls before Tuesday’s vote put opposition leader Odinga, 72, who lost elections in 2007 and 2013, and President Kenyatta, 55, neck-and-neck.
Voter turnout will be key in an election that many fear could descend into violence.
Polls opened with varying delays after the official start at 6am (0300 GMT) in strongholds of both candidates around the country, according to AFP reporters.
A 15-minute delay led to shouts of anger in Nairobi's largest slum, Kibera, an opposition stronghold, where thousands waited outside a primary school to cast their ballots, many draped in a red Maasai blanket to ward off the chilly morning air.
Turkey's Erdogan accuses Germany of 'abetting terrorists'
Updated 0706 GMT (1506 HKT) August 8, 2017
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Germany of "abetting terrorists" amid a widening spat between Ankara and Berlin.
Speaking at a conference in the Black Sea province of Rize, Erdogan said Turkey had given German Chancellor Angela Merkel "4,500 dossiers but have not received an answer on a single one of them."
"When there is a terrorist, they can tell us to give that person back. You won't send the ones you have to us, but can ask us for yours. So you have a judiciary, but we don't in Turkey?" he said, according to Reuters.
Relations between Germany and Turkey have deteriorated in recent months after Merkel questioned Turkey's commitment to democracy and the rule of law, while Erdogan suggested Germany's Nazi past might not be entirely behind it.
THESE ARE THE TECHNOLOGY FIRMS LINING UP TO BUILD TRUMP’S “EXTREME VETTING” PROGRAM
BACK WHEN HE was a presidential candidate, in August 2016, Donald Trump promised his followers and the world that he would screen would-be immigrants using “extreme vetting,” a policy that has remained as ambiguous as it is threatening (his haphazard and arbitrary “Muslim ban” was the apparent result of that pledge). Today, Homeland Security documents show the American private sector is eager to help build an advanced computer system to make Trump’s “extreme vetting” a reality.
On July 18 and 19, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations division hosted an “industry day” for technology companies interested in building a new tool for the Homeland Security apparatus. The event was only supposed to take one day at the Crystal City Marriott in Arlington, Virginia, but was expanded to two after what ICE called an “overwhelming response” from interested companies. According to an ICE document titled “Extreme Vetting Initiative” provided to potential contractors, the agency’s current ability to evaluate an immigrant’s potential for criminality or terrorism is inadequate, “fragmented across mission areas and are both time-consuming and manually labor-intensive due to complexities in the current U.S immigration system.” ICE is simply digging around so much, at such a fever pitch under Trump, that they’ve created a hopeless backlog.
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