Civilians flee to southern Gaza after Israel warning

Summary

1. Civilians are fleeing northern Gaza by car, on the back of trucks and on foot after an Israeli warning that civilians should move south
2. About 1.1 million people living in northern areas have been told to leave in the next day
3. The Israeli military said it knew it would take longer than that to move everyone but blamed Hamas for telling people to ignore the call
4. The UN urged Israel to withdraw its order, warning of “devastating humanitarian consequences”
5. Israel has massed soldiers near Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive into the densely populated enclave
6. Hamas fighters kidnapped at least 150 people and took them into Gaza during brutal attacks on Israel at the weekend that killed 1,300 people
7. More than 1,500 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched retaliatory air strikes, which continue
8. A total blockade is being enforced with fuel, food and water running out. Israel says it won’t lift the restrictions unless Hamas frees all hostages

 

IMF should give poor countries $300bn a year to fight climate crisis, says Joseph Stiglitz

Developing nations need equivalent of US Inflation Reduction Act, says Nobel prize-winning economist

Poor countries should be provided with $300bn (£246bn) a year from the International Monetary Fund to finance their fight against the climate crisis, the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said.

Speaking to the Guardian at the IMF’s annual meeting in Marrakech, Stiglitz said developing nations needed their equivalent of the US Inflation Reduction Act – a package of grants and subsidies designed to promote green growth and jobs.

Stiglitz said the battle against global heating would only be won if poor countries were onboard but there was no hope of them coming up with their equivalent of the act, which he said was expensive and flawed but working.

EU warns X, Meta and TikTok over Israel-Hamas disinformation

The European Union has voiced concerns over disinformation related to the Israel-Hamas conflict spreading in Europe. The EU Commission has put social media platforms X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok on notice.

In the beginning, it nearly seemed like a feud between two men. On the one side Thierry Breton, an EU commissioner in charge of the internal market and self-declared “digital enforcer.” On the other side, Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X and self-declared free speech “absolutist.” The stage and bone of contention: X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Following attacks carried out on Israel by the Islamist terror group Hamas, Breton wrote a letter to Musk. In Tuesday’s letter, also published on X, Breton spoke of indications that the platform was being “used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU.”

One dead, two severely wounded in knife attack at French school

A man of Chechen origin who was under surveillance by the French security services over suspected radicalization stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school and critically wounded two other people in northern France on Friday, authorities said.

The attack was being investigated as potential terrorism amid soaring global tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas. It also happened almost three years after another teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded by a radicalised Chechen near a Paris area school.

French anti-terror prosecutors were leading the investigation into the stabbings at the Gambetta-Carnot school, which enrolls students ages 11-18 and is located in the city of Arras, some 115 miles (185 kilometers) north of Paris.

A colleague and a fellow teacher identified the dead educator as Dominique Bernard, a French language teacher at the school.

Gov’t asks court to revoke legal religious status of Unification Church

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

Japan’s government asked a court Friday to revoke the legal status of the Unification Church after an Education Ministry investigation concluded the group for decades has systematically manipulated its followers into donating money, sowing fear and harming their families.

The request submitted to the Tokyo District Court asks for it to issue a dissolution order revoking the church’s status as a religious organization. Education Ministry officials submitted 5,000 pieces of documents and evidence in cardboard boxes to the court to support its request.

The process involves hearings and appeals from both sides and would take a while. If the order is approved and its legal status is stripped, the church could still operate but would lose its tax exemption privilege as a religious organization and would face financial setbacks.