Israel will not allow any humanitarian aid to enter Gaza to pressure Hamas, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday as negotiations around an Israeli proposal for a Gaza ceasefire continued. Israel has said it will keep blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, as it vowed to force Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages from the 7 October attacks. Aid supplies, including food, fuel, water and medicine, have been…

An ocean world teeming with alien life may exist 124 light years away from Earth, a study by Cambridge University has hinted. The exoplanet K2-18b, which exists in the constellation Leo, appears to have an atmosphere containing huge quantities of dimethyl sulfide, a chemical only produced by living organisms such as marine phytoplankton. Quantities of the chemical are so great that they represent 20 times the biological activity of Earth.…

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Harvard University will lose its ability to enrol foreign students if it does not meet demands from the Trump administration to share information on some visa holders, marking the government’s latest escalation against the educational institution. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also announced on Wednesday the termination of two DHS grants totalling more than $2.7 million to Harvard. Noem said she…

Berlin, Germany — Germany’s plans to send long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine are in limbo, with political divisions inside the country’s incoming coalition government and the lack of a clear endorsement from Britain threatening to derail the controversial weapons transfer. Senior Christian Democrat MP Roderich Kiesewetter has warned that unless the United Kingdom signals firm support soon, Germany may have to shelve the idea altogether. His remarks underscore the growing…

U.K. Supreme Court Rules Trans Women Not Legally Women Under Equality Act: A Landmark Decision Reverberates Across Gender Rights Debate. In a landmark decision that’s already rippling across both sides of the gender rights debate, the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the term “woman” under the country’s Equality Act of 2010 refers exclusively to biological sex, not gender identity. The ruling delivers a substantial blow to transgender rights…

The United States of America President Donald Trump has threatened to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status on Tuesday. He said the university should apologize, a day after it rejected what it called unlawful demands to overhaul academic programs or lose federal grants. Beginning with Columbia University, the Trump administration has rebuked universities across the country over their handling of the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled campuses last year…

Australian politicians received about a$245,000 ($147,000) in match tickets from major sporting leagues over two years by the country’s most popular sporting leagues as part of a lobbying campaign against a proposed ban on advertising of online gambling, according to Reuters calculations based on government documents. Lobbying by the gambling industry against the ban has been reported previously in the media but the calculation of the total value of tickets…

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid to transform India into a global factory floor has produced billions of dollars of low-cost iPhones and pharmaceuticals. Now he hopes to add missiles, helicopters and battleships to the shopping carts of foreign governments. The world’s largest importer of weapons after Ukraine is expanding the ability of the state-owned Export-Import Bank (EXIM) to offer long-term, low-cost loans to clients, including those whose political or credit…

Britain’s Financial Reporting Council has opened an investigation into EY over its audit of Post Office Limited, it said on Wednesday, amid the lingering fallout from one of the country’s worst miscarriages of justice. The FRC said in a statement it will focus on the audit firm’s role in approving the Post Office’s financial statements from 2015 to 2018, particularly the Horizon IT system which was at the heart of…

Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has launched a scathing critique of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, describing it as the “worst and most corrupt” government in Nigeria’s history. Speaking in Katsina on Monday night during an interview with journalists, el-Rufai did not mince words, branding the current federal administration as the most deceitful and intolerant since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999. “This is the worst federal government in Nigerian…

Despite Western intelligence agencies’ fears about the authoritarian regime amassing health data, researchers from China are to be allowed access to half a million United Kingdom General Practitioners (GP) records. Preparations are under way to transfer the records to UK Biobank, a research hub that holds detailed medical information donated by 500,000 volunteers. One of the world’s largest troves of health data, the facility makes its information available to universities,…

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the latest wave of killings in Plateau State. Atiku, in a statement signed by his media aide, Paul Ibe, stated that the security policy and infrastructure under President Bola Tinubu have failed woefully. Atiku’s statement followed the deadly attack on Sunday in the Zike community, Kimakpa area of Kwali district in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State, where no fewer than 47…