Author: Elizabeth Jenrola Oso

Israeli airstrikes and gunfire have killed at least 18 people in and around Gaza City, according to local health officials, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet prepared to discuss plans to seize control of the city. Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of Gaza City’s largest neighbourhoods, said the area had come under heavy tank shelling and airstrikes from Saturday through to Sunday morning, forcing many families to flee. Health authorities reported that 13 of those killed were attempting to collect food near a distribution site in central Gaza, while at least two others died in a house in Gaza…

Human rights lawyers, refugee advocates and the Greens have condemned a new agreement between Australia and Nauru that will see hundreds of former immigration detainees deported at a cost of almost half a billion dollars. The memorandum of understanding, signed on Friday by the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, and Nauru’s president, David Adeang, will allow about 280 non-citizens from the NZYQ cohort to be sent to Nauru. The group are individuals who previously had their visas cancelled on character grounds, but who could not be deported to their countries of origin due to fears of persecution or refusals by…

A federal appeals court in the United States has blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to terminate protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans allowed to live and work in the country. The ninth US circuit court of appeals on Friday upheld an earlier ruling that temporary protected status (TPS) for Venezuelans must remain in place while legal challenges proceed. The three-judge panel said plaintiffs were likely to succeed in their claim that the Trump administration acted unlawfully in seeking to end the programme. The judges found that Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, had no authority to revoke a prior extension…

Jessie J has postponed her forthcoming concert tour after announcing that she must undergo a second operation as part of her breast cancer treatment. The 37-year-old singer, born Jessica Cornish, disclosed her diagnosis earlier this year and has been receiving treatment since June. On Thursday she told fans in a video message posted on Instagram that the additional procedure had become unavoidable and would clash with her scheduled tour dates. “Unfortunately, I have to have a second surgery, nothing too serious, but it has to be done before the end of the year, and unfortunately that falls right in the…

Guards at a Florida immigration detention camp known as “Alligator Alcatraz” allegedly used teargas and batons to quell a disturbance among detainees, according to reports broadcast on Friday. At least three migrants told Miami’s Spanish-language channel Noticias 23 that officers engaged in a mass beating after prisoners began shouting for freedom when one received word of a relative’s death. The men claimed guards rushed in and struck detainees indiscriminately, while also deploying teargas inside the facility. “They’ve beaten everyone here, a lot of people have bled. Brother, teargas. We are immigrants, we are not criminals, we are not murderers,” one…

Donald Trump has revoked Secret Service protection for former vice-president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, according to a memorandum obtained by CNN and confirmed to the Guardian by a senior White House official. The letter, dated Thursday and addressed to the secretary of Homeland Security, instructs the Secret Service to “discontinue any security-related procedures beyond those required by law” from 1 September 2025. Federal law grants former vice-presidents six months of protection after leaving office. For Harris, that period expired on 21 July. However, her security had been extended by a directive signed by then president Joe Biden…

The United Nations Security Council has voted to extend its peacekeeping mission in Lebanon for another 16 months but ordered it to conclude at the end of 2026, following pressure from Israel and the United States. The unanimous decision on Thursday renews the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) ahead of its expiry on Sunday. The resolution stipulates that Unifil’s 10,800 troops will begin an “orderly and safe withdrawal” from December 2026, ending a presence that began in 1978. Unifil was created to oversee Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon and now patrols the border area between the…

The United Kingdom and European Union have summoned Russia’s ambassadors after a wave of missile strikes on Kyiv killed at least 23 people, including four children, and severely damaged the offices of the British Council and the EU delegation. The overnight assault was the deadliest on the Ukrainian capital since the Alaska summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump earlier this month. A further 38 people were injured as missiles and drones struck more than 20 locations across the city. In Kyiv’s eastern Darnytskyi district, a residential building was hit shortly after midnight, while a separate blast in the central…

Artificial intelligence systems have provided detailed instructions on carrying out terrorist attacks and other serious crimes, according to new safety tests conducted this summer. Researchers found that OpenAI’s GPT-4.1 model described weak points at major sports venues, explained how to make explosives and anthrax, and offered advice on covering tracks. The model also produced recipes for illegal drugs. The findings emerged from a rare collaboration between OpenAI, the $500bn Silicon Valley firm led by Sam Altman, and its rival Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI staff. Each company tested the other’s models by attempting to provoke dangerous responses. The behaviour uncovered…

A pornographic website that published doctored images of several high-profile Italian women, including the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the opposition leader, Elly Schlein, has provoked widespread outrage in Italy. The platform, Phica, which has more than 700,000 subscribers, altered images taken from personal social media accounts and public appearances, often accompanied by vulgar and sexist captions. Photographs of women from across the political spectrum were manipulated to suggest sexual poses or focus on body parts, and published in the site’s “VIP section”. Among those targeted were Meloni’s sister, Arianna, senior figures from the Democratic Party (PD), and prominent cultural…