Israel strikes Beirut as it tells more people in south Lebanon to leave their homes
Tehran 'would like to de-escalate', former UK ambassador to Iran says
A former UK ambassador to Iran has told BBC Radio 4's The Today Podcast that he thinks Tehran "would like to de-escalate".
Sir Simon Gass, who also used to be political director at the Foreign Office, said he was "pretty confident that Tehran is a very worried place at the moment" and would "like to draw a line under this".
But he also warned that there was a "risk" that Iran might try to accelerate its development of a nuclear weapon.
Summary
Fresh explosions are heard in Hezbollah's stronghold in southern Beirut, as Israel says it has struck the group's "intelligence headquarters"
Overnight Israeli air strikes on central Beirut killed nine people, officials there say; our correspondent in the Lebanese capital says any feeling of safety is vanishing
Britain to return Chagos Islands to Mauritius ending years of dispute
Agreement to hand back UK’s last African colony follows 13 rounds of negotiations and international pressure
Thu 3 Oct 2024 13.01 BST
The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony.
The UK expelled the Chagossians in the 1960s and 1970s, in what has been described as a crime against humanity, when it retained possession of what it called the British Indian Ocean Territory, or BIOT, after Mauritius gained independence in 1968.
The agreement follows 13 rounds of negotiations that began in 2022 after Mauritian arguments for sovereignty were recognised by the international court of justice (ICJ), the UN general assembly and the international tribunal of the law of the sea (Itlos) in 2019 and 2021.
Rwanda tests Marburg vaccines, therapies amid outbreak
Rwanda is rolling out vaccine and therapeutic trials to treat Marburg disease, as the country battles an outbreak of the deadly and highly viral fever. Two suspected cases in Germany turned out to be negative.
Rwandan Assistant Health Minister Yvan Butera on Thursday said doctors were seeking to break the spread of the Marburg virus disease by isolating and monitoring the contacts of infected individuals.
He also said the ministry was embarking on trials of vaccines and clinical therapies for those already sick with the viral hemorrhagic disease from the same virus family as Ebola.
"About to start vaccine and therapeutic clinical trials to protect high-risk groups," Butera said on X, without giving details of the drug to be tested.
EU sues Hungary for criminalising groups that receive foreign funding, including NGOs
The European Commission said on Thursday it was suing Hungary over a law that imposes jail terms for groups that accept foreign funds for political causes, which rights groups say is aimed at silencing critics of the government by targeting civil society organisations, media outlets and journalists.
The EU said Thursday it was referring Hungary to the European Court of Justice over laws passed by Budapest to curb foreign influence in the country, which critics say aim to silence government opponents.
The European Commission said the legislation passed last year by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's nationalist government violated fundamental rights and other regulations.
"The European Commission decided to refer Hungary to the Court of Justice because it considers its national law on the 'Defence of Sovereignty' to be in breach of EU law," the EU's top executive body said.
Tokyo expands underground 'cathedral' complex to counter climate change rains
By Issei Kato and Tom Bateman
Just after 5 a.m. on August 30, water began flooding a vast underground chamber called the "cathedral" in Saitama Prefecture. The gushing water, captured by security cameras, was the rain that was drenching the capital region as Typhoon Shanshan lashed southwest Japan, 600 km away.
The cathedral and its vast network of tunnels did their job: they prevented a vulnerable river basin in the metropolis from flooding. But as global warming causes more severe weather, authorities are having to give the system a major upgrade.
"As the temperature rises, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere increases, resulting in relatively larger quantities of rainfall," said University of Tokyo professor Seita Emori, who is a member of a climate science group that won a Nobel Prize in 2007.
‘As if we don’t exist’: Under bombs in Lebanon, Americans feel abandoned
Karam, an American citizen stranded in Lebanon, says she feels as if she does not matter to the United States government.
Lebanon has been facing relentless Israeli bombardment — part of a US-backed campaign that has killed hundreds and displaced more than a million people, according to the United Nations.
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