300k at risk of famine in north Gaza – UN

• UNRWA chief says 300,000 at risk of famine in north Gaza as Israel has blocked “half” of aid missions there since beginning of year.
• In the past 24 hours, Israeli forces have killed 130 people and wounded 170, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
• Air strikes on southern Rafah city kill 14 civilians, including five children, and wound dozens of others.
• Israel’s leader Netanyahu orders attack on Rafah – a city sheltering more than 1.2 million people – after shunning Hamas’s requirements for a truce agreement.
• At least 27,840 people have been killed and 67,317 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.

Boris Nadezhdin: Russia bans antiwar candidate from election

 Russia’s Central Election Commission has rejected the presidential candidacy of liberal opposition figure and anti-war activist Boris Nadezhdin.

The 60-year-old Nadezhdin had been seen as the best hope for the opposition.

Why was Nadezhdin banned?

The commission justified its decision on Thursday, citing a large number of incorrect signatures from supporters.

Nadezhdin obtained significantly more signatures than the required 100,000, submitting his bid at the end of January.

However, from a random sample of 60,000 signatures, the commission said 9,147 were declared invalid.

Polls close in Pakistan after millions vote in election marred by violence

Millions of Pakistanis voted Thursday in an election marred by rigging allegations, with authorities suspending mobile phone services throughout the day and the country’s most popular politician in jail.

At least seven officers were killed in two separate attacks targeting election security details, and officials reported a string of minor blasts in southwestern Balochistan province that wounded two people.

Pollsters predicted a low turnout from the country’s 128 million eligible voters following a lacklustre campaign overshadowed by the jailing of former prime minister Imran Khan, and the hobbling of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party by the military-led establishment.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is expected to win the most seats in Thursday’s vote, with analysts saying its 74-year-old founder Nawaz Sharif has won the blessing of the generals.

Wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant leaked radioactive water, TEPCO says

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

Highly radioactive water leaked from a treatment machine at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, but no one was injured and radiation monitoring shows no impact to the outside environment, the utility operator said Thursday.

A plant worker found the leak Wednesday morning during valve checks at a SARRY treatment machine designed to mainly remove cesium and strontium from the contaminated water, the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said. The machine has been idled for maintenance work.

An estimated 6 tons of radioactive water — enough to fill two ordinary backyard swimming pools — leaked out through an air vent, leaving a pool of water on an iron plate outside and seeping into the soil around it, TEPCO said, but no radioactive water escaped the compound.

Nuclear fusion: new record brings dream of clean energy closer

By Esme Stallard

Climate and science reporter, BBC News

Nuclear fusion has produced more energy than ever before in an experiment, bringing the world a step closer to the dream of limitless, clean power.

The new world record has been set at the UK-based JET laboratory.

Nuclear fusion is the process that powers stars. Scientists believe it could produce vast amounts of energy without heating up our atmosphere.

European scientists working at the site said “we have achieved things we’ve never done before”.

The result came from the lab’s final experiment after more than 40 years of fusion research.

Andrew Bowie, UK Minister for Nuclear, called it a “fitting swansong”.