Category: World

Inside Gaza, BBC sees total devastation after two years of war5 hours agoShareSaveLucy WilliamsonMiddle East correspondent, GazaShareSaveWatch: BBC's Lucy Williamson taken to east of Gaza City in IDF-led visitFrom an embankment overlooking Gaza City, there's no hiding what this war has done.
The Gaza of maps and memories is gone, replaced by a monochrome landscape of rubble stretching flat and still for 180 degrees, from Beit Hanoun on one side to Gaza City on the other.
Beyond the distant shapes of buildings still standing inside Gaza City, there's almost nothing left to orient you here, or identify the neighbourhoods that once held tens of thousands of people.
This was one of the first areas Israeli ground troops entered in the early weeks of the war. Since then they have been back multiple times, as Hamas regrouped around its strongholds in the area.
Israel does not allow news organisations to report independently from Gaza. Today it took a group of journalists, inclu..

Dick Cheney's death a loss to the nation, says George W Bush2 hours agoShareSaveAnthony Zurcher,North America correspondent, George Wright and Alex SmithShareSaveBrooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty ImagesDick Cheney was one of the most powerful US vice-presidents in history under George W BushFormer US President George W Bush has led tributes to Dick Cheney, saying his death is “a loss to the nation and a sorrow to his friends”.
Cheney died from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease on Monday night at the age of 84, his family said in a statement.
He became one of the most powerful US vice-presidents in history under Bush, and leaves behind a controversial legacy as a key architect of the “war on terror”, and an early advocate of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
“History will remember him as among the finest public servants of his generation,” Bush said in a statement.
Cheney was “a patriot who brought integrity, high intelligence, and seriousness of purpose to every..

Israel receives coffin Hamas says contains Gaza hostage's body4 hours agoShareSaveDavid GrittenJerusalemShareSaveReutersHamas's armed wing said it recovered the body of an Israeli soldier in the Shejaiya area on TuesdayIsrael has received via the Red Cross in Gaza a coffin which the Palestinian armed group Hamas says contains the body of a deceased hostage, according to the Israeli prime minister's office.
Israeli forces will now transfer the remains to the National Centre of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for identification.
Earlier, Hamas's military wing said it had recovered the body of an Israeli soldier in the eastern Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Israel had allowed members of the group and Red Cross staff to search for the remains in the area, which is inside territory still controlled by Israeli forces.
The Israeli government has accused Hamas of deliberately delaying the recovery of the dead hostages since a US-brokered ceasefire deal took effect on 10..

China academic intimidation claim referred to counter-terrorism police1 hour agoShareSaveDamian GrammaticasPolitical correspondentShareSaveBBCAn investigation into allegations that Sheffield Hallam University faced sustained pressure from China to shut down human rights research has been referred to counter-terrorism police.
The BBC and the Guardian newspaper has been reporting that documents show that China had waged a two-year campaign of intimidation and harassment, including demands the university stop sensitive research by one of its professors into claims of forced labour in the Xinjiang region of China.
A South Yorkshire Police spokesperson said the force has referred the investigation on because the “allegations fall under Section 3 of the National Security Act”.
Section 3 of the act deals with “assisting a foreign intelligence service”.
An offence is committed if someone behaves in a way that “intends that conduct to materially assist a foreign intelligence service in carrying..

Trump administration will tap emergency fund to pay partial food stamp benefits5 hours agoShareSaveAna FaguyShareSaveGetty ImagesUS President Donald Trump's administration has said it will provide reduced food aid to more than 42 million Americans, as the government shutdown this week heads towards becoming the longest ever with no resolution in sight.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a court filing that Americans who receive food assistance will get half their normal monthly allotment, after the government dipped into emergency funding.
Judges had given the Trump administration until Monday to provide a plan for how it would pay out Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits, also known as food stamps.
Funding for the programme has been in limbo due to the more-than-month-long shutdown.
While individual US states administer the benefits, the programme relies on money from the federal government, which has been unfunded and shut down since 1 October..