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At least 50 people have been killed and injured in a huge fire at a hypermarket in Kut city in eastern Iraq, the INA state news agency has reported, quoting the province’s governor.
Videos on social media showed flames engulfing a five-storey building in Kut overnight, where firefighters were trying to contain the fire.
The Wasjit province governor Mohammed al-Mayahi said the fire broke out in a hyper market and a restaurant. Families were having dinner, shopping when fire broke out, he said.
Firefighters rescued a number of people and put out fire, the governor added.
Three days of mourning have been announced and an investigation has been launched. Investigation results will be released within 48 hours.
“A tragedy and a calamity have befallen us,” the governor said.
“We have filed lawsuits against the owner of the building and the mall,” INA quoted the governor as saying.
At least three people were killed in the Damascus attacks, the Syrian Ministry of Health said. Other Israeli air attacks on Wednesday hit the southwestern provinces of Suwayda and Deraa.
Suwayda – where the majority of the population are members of the Druze religious group – had been the epicentre of the violence in recent days. Israel had already struck Syrian government forces there earlier this week.
Israeli officials claim their attacks on Syria aim to protect the Druze community in Suwayda, where scores of people have been killed in clashes involving local armed groups, as well as government forces.
However, local activists and analysts say Israel is fueling internal strife in Suwayda by continuing to bomb Syria – as it has done repeatedly since former President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December. And Israel has continued to attack Syrian government forces, despite ceasefire agreements between some Druze leaders and the Syrian authorities.
“Not only is Israel now painting the entire [Druze] community as pro-Israel, but they are painting them as supporting Israel’s bombardment of Damascus,” said Dareen Khalifa, an expert on Syria and a senior adviser with International Crisis Group.
Exploiting strife
The recent violence in Suwayda began after Bedouin armed groups kidnapped a Druze trader on the road to Damascus on July 11, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a United Kingdom-based monitor.
The abduction quickly turned into more widespread violence between the two communities – which have a longstanding rivalry due to land disputes – eventually dragging in Syrian government forces.
Syria’s new government has been attempting to impose its authority after a 14-year civil war and the end of half a century of al-Assad family rule. However, it has found it difficult to do so in Suwayda, partly because of Israel’s repeated threats against the presence of any government forces in the province, which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Suwayda’s Druze initially welcomed the deployment of government forces following the weekend’s violence, but clashes soon began between some Druze fighters and those forces, with reports of the latter carrying out human rights abuses, according to civilians, local monitors and analysts.
The actions committed by members of the security forces – acknowledged as “unlawful criminal acts” by the Syrian presidency – have given Israel a pretext to bombard Syria in an attempt to keep the country weak and divided, as well as to pander to its own Druze citizens who serve in the Israeli army, experts say.
“From the Israeli perspective – and how they view Syria and how Syria should be – they prefer a weak central government and for the country to be governed and divided into sectarian self-governing enclaves,” said Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, an expert on Syria who has extensively researched local dynamics in Suwayda.
Al-Tamimi added that reactions in Suwayda have been mixed regarding Israel’s conduct, which speaks to the lack of trust many in the province have in the new government in Damascus – which is led by members of Syria’s Sunni majority, many of whom, including President Ahmed al-Sharaa, were members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former affiliate of al-Qaeda.
Civilians in Suwayda said that part of the distrust stems from the government’s failure to hold fighters accountable for either allowing or partaking in the killing of hundreds of Alawites on Syria’s coast in March.
Alawites belong to an offshoot of Shia Islam, a sect that al-Assad and his family hailed from. The government has launched an investigation into the fighting, in which more than 200 Syrian government security personnel were also killed after attacks by pro-Assad forces, with the findings expected in October.
Abuses and fear
Government forces have been accused of carrying out human rights abuses in Suwayda, including carrying out “field executions,” according to SOHR and other local monitors.
“I personally wanted the government forces to restore order, but not like this,” said Fareed*, a young man from the Druze community.
The local outlet Suwayda24 reported that fighters believed to be linked to the government executed nine unarmed civilians after raiding a family compound on July 15.
Al Jazeera’s verification unit, Sanad, confirmed the reports.
Written questions were sent to Uday al-Abdullah, an official at Syria’s Ministry of Defence, asking him to respond to accusations that government forces carried out execution-style killings.
He did not respond before publication.
However, on Wednesday, the Syrian Health Ministry said that dozens of bodies had been found in Suwayda’s National Hospital, including security forces and civilians.
Ceasefires have been repeatedly agreed between Druze factions and the Syrian government. The most recent, on Wednesday, included an agreement that Suwayda be fully integrated into the Syrian state, according to Youssef Jarbou, a Druze leader.
What’s more, several Druze religious and armed factions retreated from the Tuesday ceasefire primarily because government forces continued to carry out violations in Suwayda, according to al-Tamimi.
During the civil war, clerics and armed Druze factions were able to negotiate de facto autonomy while repelling attacks by groups such as ISIL (ISIS).
After al-Assad fell in December 2024, one notable Druze religious leader, Hikmat al-Hijri, demanded that the new authorities in Damascus change the constitution to ensure greater regional autonomy for Suwayda and secularisation.
His position had significant backing, but not the majority, said al-Tamimi.
“His specific position – that the government needed to rewrite the constitution – was not the majority position in Suwayda,” he told Al Jazeera, saying there were pragmatists willing to engage with the government to safeguard a degree of autonomy and integrate with the new authorities.
“[But after these government violations], al-Hijir’s positions will likely enjoy more sympathy and support,” al-Tamimi warned.
Calls for intervention
As fighting continues in al-Suwayda, al-Hijri has controversially called on the international community to protect the Druze in Syria.
Critics fear that his call is a veiled request for Israeli intervention, a position that many people in Suwayda disagree with.
Samya,* a local activist who is living in a village several kilometres away from where the clashes are unfolding, said Israel’s attacks make her “uncomfortable” and that she doesn’t support intervention.
At the same time, she said she is increasingly worried that government forces will raid homes, endangering civilians.
“We don’t know what to expect,” she told Al Jazeera.
“We don’t know who may come to our house and who that person will be, and what he might ask us once he enters. We don’t know how that person or soldier might treat us, you know? So, there is fear. Honestly, we are all really terrified,” she added.
Al-Tamimi warned that Israel’s discourse of “protecting” the Druze of Syria could exacerbate internal strife, leading to collective punishment.
“[What Israel is doing] is inflaming sectarian tension, because it gives fuel to the suggestions that Druze are secretly working with Israel to divide the country,” he said.
Some names have been changed to protect sources from reprisal
At least 21 Palestinians were killed at a US-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution site. GHF blamed armed “agitators” for the crush. Footage shows scores of people being rushed to the hospital, including numerous children.
Prince Harry is in Angola supporting the mine clearing charity the Halo Trust
The Duke of Sussex has followed in the footsteps of his mother, Princess Diana, as he visited a charity clearing landmines in Angola.
“Children should never have to live in fear of playing outside or walking to school,” said Prince Harry, about the continuing threat of mines to the civilian population.
Prince Harry was in Angola supporting the work of the Halo Trust, the charity that had been backed by Princess Diana on her high-profile visit to the Central African country in 1997.
The image of the princess walking through a minefield, in a visor and body armour, had brought worldwide attention to the danger caused by mines left behind after wars had ended.
PA Media
There are still about a thousand minefields in Angola, left over from civil wars
Prince Harry visited a village near to a minefield and met children who are given lessons in how to avoid detonating the explosives.
The Halo Trust has cleared 120,000 landmines in Angola, left over from years of civil war.
An estimated 60,000 people have been killed or injured by mines in the country since 2008 and about a thousand minefields are still to be cleared.
“The remnants of war still threaten lives every day,” said Prince Harry, patron of the Halo Trust.
He also spent time with the British charity during a visit to Angola in 2019 when he walked through a partially-cleared minefield and set off a controlled explosion.
Earlier this week, Prince Harry met Angola’s President Joao Lourenco, where the prince welcomed the government’s renewed support for the charity’s work.
James Cowan, the Halo Trust’s chief executive, said: “We will continue our work in solidarity with the Angolan people until every last mine is cleared.”
PA Media
The pictures of Princess Diana in Angola in 1997 drew worldwide attention
In January 1997, Princess Diana had been photographed in Angola in what became a symbolic image of the efforts to stop the harm to civilians from landmines.
She had walked on a path cleared through a minefield and had given her support to calls for an international ban on the use of landmines.
That had sparked a row, with the princess being criticised by some politicians for her views.
But the minefield where she had walked in 1997 was cleared and the site is now a thriving community, with local children attending the Princess Diana School.
Beverage giant declines to either confirm or deny change to ingredients in its signature soft drink.
United States President Donald Trump has announced that Coca-Cola will start using cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup in its US-made soft drink at his urging.
“I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday.
“I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola.”
Trump said the switch would be a “very good move”, adding: “You’ll see. It’s just better!”
Coca-Cola neither confirmed nor denied Trump’s announcement, but said it appreciated the president’s “enthusiasm for our iconic Coca-Cola brand.”
“More details on new innovative offerings within our Coca-Cola product range will be shared soon,” the Atlanta, Georgia-based company said in a brief statement.
“I have been speaking to @CocaCola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so. I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!” –President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/9L27oxlYUj
Trump, who is known for his love of Diet Coke, did not explain his push to change the soft drink’s ingredients, but his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has harshly criticised the prevalence of high-fructose corn syrup in the American diet.
Kennedy, who has pledged to wage war on ultra-processed foods containing ingredients rarely found in kitchen cabinets, has called the sweetener “just a formula for making you obese and diabetic.”
High-fructose corn syrup, which is derived from corn starch, is favoured by many US manufacturers because it is cheaper than sugar, in part due to government subsidies for corn and tariffs on sugar imports.
Coca-Cola began using high-fructose corn syrup in its US production in the 1980s, but still uses cane sugar in many versions of its signature beverage made overseas, including Mexico, whose version of the drink has developed a cult-like following for its supposedly superior taste.
While Americans’ high sugar intake is a major contributor to nearly three-quarters of the population being overweight or obese, there is currently no scientific consensus to suggest high-fructose corn syrup is less healthy than cane sugar or other sweeteners.
In a 2018 fact sheet, the US Food and Drug Administration said it was “not aware of any evidence” of a “difference in safety” between foods containing high-fructose corn syrup and those with other sweeteners such as sugar and honey.
Israel has launched a series of intense strikes on Damascus, Syria’s capital, intensifying a campaign it says is in support of an Arab minority group.
Syria, on Wednesday, strongly condemned Israeli attacks, denouncing the strikes as a “dangerous escalation.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Israel of pursuing a “deliberate policy” to “inflame tensions, spread chaos and undermine security and stability in Syria”.
The strikes killed three people and injured 34, according to Syrian officials.
Here is what we know:
What happened in Syria on Wednesday?
Israel carried out a series of air strikes on central Damascus, hitting a compound that houses the Ministry of Defence and areas near the presidential palace.
The Israeli military also struck targets in southern Syria, where fighting between Druze groups, Bedouin tribes, and Syrian security forces has continued for more than four days. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 250 people have been killed in Suwayda province during the clashes.
Israel, which already occupies the Syrian Golan Heights, says its operations aim to protect the Druze minority – whom it considers potential allies – and to strike pro-government forces accused of attacking them. Syria rejected this and called the attack a “flagrant assault”.
Where did the attacks happen?
The main attacks focused on central Damascus: the Defence Ministry, military headquarters and areas surrounding the presidential palace. Additional strikes were carried out further south.
Syria’s Defence Ministry headquarters: The compound was struck several times, with two large strikes about 3pm (12:00pmGMT), including its entrance, causing structural damage and smoke rising visibly over the city.
“Israeli warplanes [were] circling the skies over the Syrian capital,” Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said, reporting from Damascus. “There was panic in the city,” she added.
Near the presidential palace (Umayyad Square): Strikes also hit areas immediately around the presidential palace in central Damascus. Another air strike landed near the presidential palace in Damascus.
In a post on social media, Israel said “a military target was struck in the area of the Syrian regime’s Presidential Palace in the Damascus area”.
In the south: Israeli drones also targeted Syria’s city of Suwayda, a mainly Druze city close to the border with Jordan.
(Al Jazeera)
Why did Israel bomb Syria?
Israel’s air strikes followed days of deadly clashes in Suwayda between Syrian government forces and local Druze fighters. The violence began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes. When government troops intervened to restore order, they ended up clashing with Druze groups – and, in some cases, reportedly targeted civilians.
The Druze, a small but influential minority in both Syria and Israel, are seen in Israel as loyal allies, with many serving in the Israeli military. A ceasefire declared on Tuesday quickly collapsed, and fighting resumed the next day.
Suwayda’s Druze appear divided. One leader, Yasser Jarbou, declared that a ceasefire had been agreed with the Syrian government. Another, Hikmat al-Hijri, rejected any ceasefire. And many Druze in Syria do not want Israel to intervene on their behalf.
Israel has its own considerations and has been attempting to expand its control in southern Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December. Israel has shunned any attempts to come to a security agreement with Syria and has instead repeatedly bombed the country this year. Many analysts believe that Israel would prefer a weak Syria over a country it believes could potentially threaten it should it grow strong.
Intensifying attacks
Israel, citing a commitment to protect the Druze and prevent hostile forces from gaining ground near its borders, warned Wednesday it would escalate its operations unless Syrian troops withdrew from Suwayda. The province sits near both the Israeli and Jordanian borders, making it a key strategic zone.
“This is a significant escalation,” Khodr, Al Jazeera’s correspondent, said. “This is the Israeli leadership giving a very, very direct message to Syria’s new authorities that they will intensify such strikes … if the government does not withdraw its troops from southern Syria.”
As part of its campaign, Israeli forces struck the General Staff compound in Damascus, which it said was being used by senior commanders to direct operations against Druze forces in Suwayda.
Israeli officials said the strikes were also aimed at blocking the buildup of hostile forces near Israel’s frontier.
Shortly after the Damascus attacks, Syria’s Ministry of Interior announced a new ceasefire in Suwayda. According to state media, government troops began withdrawing from the area.
Syrian response
Syria condemned the Israeli strikes as a violation of international law, a stance echoed by several Arab governments.
Syria’s new government has been trying to assert control, but it has struggled to do so in Suwayda, in part due to repeated Israeli threats against any government military presence in the province.
“The Israelis are not going to allow the Syrian government to spread its authority all over the territory,” said Ammar Kahf, executive director of Omran Center for Strategic Studies, who is based in Damascus.
With the fall of al-Assad’s government and the infancy of a new one, Israel is trying to impose its will on the new leadership, he said.
“We are still in the early stages, but this requires all Syrians to come together. For a foreign government to come in and destroy public property and destroy safety and security is something that’s unexplainable,” Kahf told Al Jazeera.
The Syrian government has now announced that army forces will begin withdrawing from the city of Suwayda as part of a ceasefire agreement. It did not mention any pullout of other government security forces.
President Donald Trump says Coca-Cola has agreed to use real cane sugar in its drinks sold in the US.
Coca-Cola uses corn syrup in its American products, but Trump’s Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has voiced concern about the ingredient’s health impacts.
“I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” Trump wrote on social media. “I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola.”
Without explicitly confirming the recipe tweak, a Coca-Cola spokesperson said they “appreciate President Trump’s enthusiasm” and “more details on new innovative offerings within our Coca-Cola product range will be shared soon”.
Trump said in Wednesday’s post on Truth Social: “This will be a very good move by them – You’ll see. It’s just better!”
While Coke sold in the US is typically sweetened with corn syrup, Coke in other countries, such as Mexico and the UK, tends to use cane sugar.
In April, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey told investors that “we continue to make progress on sugar reduction in our beverages”.
Mr Quincey said the company has “done this by changing recipes as well as by using our global marketing resources and distribution network to boost awareness of and interest in our ever-expanding portfolio”.
Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again movement have advocated for American companies to remove ingredients such as corn syrup, seed oils and artificial dyes from their products, linking them to a litany of health problems.
He has been critical of the amount of sugar Americans consume and reportedly plans to update nationwide dietary guidelines this summer.
Trump is a regular drinker of Diet Coke – which uses the artificial sweetener aspartame. He had a button installed in the Oval Office’s Resolute desk so he can be served the soda.
US president has pushed other countries to crack down on manufacturing and exportation of fentanyl.
United States President Donald Trump has said that China may start sentencing people to death for involvement in the manufacture or distribution of fentanyl, whose trafficking Trump has sought harsh measures to counteract.
Speaking as he signed anti-drug legislation on Wednesday, the US president said that the need to combat fentanyl was one of the reasons for his imposition of tariffs on countries across the world.
“I think we’re going to work it out so that China is going to end up going from that to giving the death penalty to the people that create this fentanyl and send it into our country,” Trump said. “I believe that’s going to happen soon.”
China, which has long imposed severe penalties on people involved with drug distribution, including capital punishment, has been at the centre of Trump’s ire over the opioid that helped fuel an overdose epidemic in the US.
The country raised outrage when it executed four Canadian dual citizens earlier this year for drug-related offences, despite pleas for clemency from the Canadian government.
Experts have questioned whether such penalties will help address the distribution of fentanyl, which China has said is driven largely by demand from people in the US.
Trump has previously linked his tariffs on countries such as Mexico and Canada to fentanyl, although trafficking from the latter into the US is close to nonexistent.
Drug overdoses in the US have been a subject of concern and political debate for years, with the country’s opioid epidemic beginning with the aggressive promotion of painkillers by pharmaceutical companies but later being mostly driven by synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
Overdose deaths have started to drop in recent years, giving experts cause for optimism after years of communities being ravaged by opioids. Overdoses over a 12-month period ending in June 2024 dropped by 12 percent compared with the same period the previous year, down from 113,000 to 97,000.
NoName057(16) had carried out thousands of attacks on Ukraine and its supporters.
An international operation spanning North America and Europe has taken down a pro-Russian cybercrime group linked to thousands of attacks on Ukraine and its allies.
In recent days, law enforcement working together in 19 countries jointly dismantled the operations of cybercrime network NoName057(16), according to a statement issued by Europol on Wednesday.
The pro-Russian group, which has been operating since 2022, initially targeted Ukraine but expanded to countries across Europe. They carried out attacks on Swedish authorities and bank websites, more than 250 German companies and institutions, and on the latest NATO meeting in the Netherlands, Europol said.
The police agency said the international operation “led to the disruption of an attack-infrastructure consisting of over one hundred computer systems worldwide, while a major part of the group’s central server infrastructure was taken offline”.
Law enforcement and judicial authorities from France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the United States took simultaneous actions against offenders and infrastructure belonging to the pro-Russian cybercrime network, it said.
The group had used the Telegram messaging app to enlist more than 4,000 volunteers, who made their systems available for swamping critical institutions’ servers with so-called distributed denial of service attacks, German prosecutors said.
The premises searched included those linked to volunteers in the Telegram group, they said.
Judicial authorities in Germany issued six arrest warrants for suspects in Russia, two of them accused of being the main leaders of the group, Europol said. Five of them were identified on Europol’s Europe’s Most Wanted website.
One suspect was placed under preliminary arrest in France and another detained in Spain, Europol said. The Paris prosecutor’s office said one person is in custody in France and communications equipment has been seized. No charges have yet been filed. In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in the operation.
The attorney general’s office in Switzerland, which is not an EU member country, said in a statement on Wednesday that joint investigations between Europol and Swiss federal police helped identify three leading members of the group, which is alleged to have targeted more than 200 Swiss websites.
Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal case over the incidents in June 2023, and since then, identified several other denial-of-service attacks attributed to the activist group. The attacks included a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Swiss parliament and the popular Eurovision Song Contest, held in Basel earlier this year.
In recent years, the collective, known for promoting Russian interests, has allegedly carried out successful cyberattacks in Ukraine and on government, infrastructure, banking, health services and telecom websites in European countries that have opposed Russia’s invasion.
European authorities are increasingly concerned at the scale of the hybrid threats they say emanate from Russia, which is in the third year of its invasion of Western ally Ukraine.
Those threats, which have included killings and alleged bomb plots against institutions and cargo aircraft, have largely been attributed to state actors. Russia has denied the accusation.
Europol said that people recruited by the group were paid in cryptocurrency and motivated using online-gaming dynamics like leader boards and badges.
“This gamified manipulation, often targeted at younger offenders, was emotionally reinforced by a narrative of defending Russia or avenging political events,” Europol said.
Interim leader Yunus says Awami League members committed ‘heinous act’ in attempt to disrupt rally of student-led NCP.
Bangladeshi security forces clashed with supporters of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leaving at least three people dead and many injured.
Violence broke out Wednesday in the southern town of Gopalganj when members of Hasina’s Awami League tried to disrupt a rally by the National Citizens Party (NCP), which is made up of students who spearheaded the unrest that toppled the leader last year.
TV footage showed pro-Hasina activists armed with sticks attacking police and setting vehicles on fire as NCP leaders arrived at the new party’s “March to Rebuild the Nation” programme commemorating the uprising.
Monoj Baral, a nurse at the Gopalganj District Hospital, told the news agency AFP that three people were killed. Local media, including the English-language Daily Star, said that four had died.
One of the dead was identified by Baral as Ramjan Sikdar. The other two were taken away from the hospital by their families, said Baral.
Authorities imposed an overnight curfew in the district.
Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus, who replaced Hasina three days after her overthrow last year, said that the attempt by the former leader’s supporters to foil the NCP rally was “a shameful violation of their fundamental rights”.
“This heinous act … will not go unpunished,” said a statement from the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s office.
Hasnat Abdullah, an NCP coordinator, said rally attendees took refuge at a police station after being attacked. “We don’t feel safe at all. They threatened to burn us alive,” he told AFP.
New political force
Bangladesh has been in political turmoil since Hasina was toppled nearly a year ago.
Hasina, who fled to India following a student-led uprising last August, faces several charges. This month, she was sentenced in absentia to six months in prison for contempt of court by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).
Gopalganj is a politically sensitive district because the mausoleum of Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is located there.
Rahman, the country’s founding president, was buried there after he was assassinated along with most of his family members in a military coup in 1971.
Hasina would go on to contest elections from the constituency.
The NCP march was launched on July 1 across all districts in Bangladesh as part of its drive to position itself as a new force in Bangladeshi politics.
The country’s political landscape has been largely dominated by two dynastic families: Hasina’s Awami League party and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.
Yunus has said an election will be held in April next year.
Israel has bombed Syria, saying it is acting to ‘protect’ Syria’s Druze minority after fighting broke out between Syrian government forces and Druze fighters. But who are the Druze and what do they have to do with Israel? Osama Bin Javaid explains from Damascus.
A roundup of key international reactions after Israeli air strikes near the defence ministry and presidential palace in Syria’s capital.
Israel has launched several air strikes in the heart of the Syrian capital, Damascus, as clashes continued in the southwestern city of Suwayda after a truce between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces struck near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defence on Wednesday, hours after he had demanded Syrian government forces withdraw from Suwayda.
Another strike hit near the presidential palace, on the outskirts of the city.
At least one person was killed and 18 others were wounded in the attacks, Syrian state media reported, citing the Ministry of Health.
The attacks on Syria’s capital come amid continuing unrest in the city of Suwayda, where local Sunni Bedouin tribes have been engaged in fierce clashes in recent days with fighters from Syria’s Druze minority, whom Israel views as a potential ally in Syria and claims to be intervening to protect.
Damascus deployed its forces to the city on Tuesday and declared a ceasefire, but the fighting quickly resumed.
Here is how the world is reacting to Israel’s attacks on Damascus:
United States
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was “very concerned” about the escalation in violence.
“We’re going to be working on that issue … I just got off the phone with the relevant parties. We’re very concerned about it, and hopefully, we’ll have some updates later today. But we’re very concerned about it,” Rubio said
Turkiye
Turkiye’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attacks and said they were an attempt to sabotage Syria’s efforts to achieve peace, stability and security.
“The Syrian people have a historic opportunity to live in peace and integrate with the world,” the ministry said.
“All stakeholders who support this opportunity should contribute to the Syrian government’s efforts to restore peace.”
Omer Celik, spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s governing AK Party, also condemned the attacks.
“Israel’s attacks pose a security threat to the entire region and the world,” Celik wrote on X.
GCC
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – condemned the attacks in the “strongest terms”.
In a statement, GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi said the Israeli attacks were a “flagrant violation” of Syria’s sovereignty, “a breach of international laws and norms, and a serious threat to regional security and stability”.
Albudaiwi reiterated the GCC’s support for Syria’s territorial integrity, adding that the continuation of Israeli attacks constituted an “irresponsible escalation” and disregarded international efforts to achieve stability in Syria and the region.
Norway
The Norwegian foreign minister said that Israel’s recent strikes could undermine efforts towards a peaceful transition of power in Syria.
“Deeply concerned about recent Israeli airstrikes and rising domestic tensions. The escalation risks undermining efforts towards a peaceful, Syrian-owned transition,” Espen Barth Eide wrote on X.
He said he was “alarmed” by the “escalating violence” in Syria and urged all actors to exercise “maximum restraint”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has suspended three Labour MPs over breaching party discipline.
The BBC understands Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff have had the party whip removed, meaning the MPs will sit as independents in the House of Commons.
Senior Labour sources have not ruled out further MPs, including from earlier parliamentary intakes, being suspended later today.
Duncan-Jordan, Leishman and Hinchliff were all elected as Labour MPs for the first time last year. The BBC has asked the three suspended MPs for comment.
The move comes after 47 Labour MPs rebelled against the government’s proposed cuts to welfare and forced ministers to water down their plans.
All three of the suspended MPs voted against the government’s welfare reform bill earlier this month.
The rebellion undermined Sir Keir’s authority, which was weakened after a series of policy reversals, such as restoring the winter fuel allowance to millions of pensioners.
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No one recalls the road to Wawa. New detainees are blindfolded several kilometres ahead. Inmates are also blindfolded and driven out before release.
It was July 27, 2021. Eleven people returning to South East Nigeria after the trial of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), at the Federal High Court, Abuja, were intercepted by the Department of State Services (DSS) along Lokoja. (IPOB has been fighting to secede the southeastern region to the independent nation of Biafra.) Labelled members of IPOB’s armed wing, known as Eastern Security Network, the travellers were taken into a dark, underground DSS cell in Abuja. A few weeks later, they were paired out before daybreak and chained ahead of a “military investigation.”
Nonso and Pius Awoke landed in the Wawa prison, a military detention facility in North Central Nigeria.
Nonso, in his final year, was studying computer science at the Ebonyi State University, and Pius practised law in Akwa Ibom State. On the night they arrived in prison, they said they were first stripped by soldiers and beaten with cables. Nonso got the registration number 3220, and Pius, 3218.
Located in Niger State, the Wawa prison complex is shrouded in mystery. Except for an October 22 attack by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), almost nothing is public about it. Even the specific location of its housing facility, the Wawa Cantonment, is a subject of disagreement. Some reports trace it to Wawa town, others say it’s in Kainji or New Bussa, which, though geographically related, are different communities in the state.
HumAngle combined Open-Source Intelligence and satellite imagery to locate it. It is situated along the Kainji-Wawa highway, roughly 3 – 4 km east of Wawa town and another 3 –4 km west of the Nigerian Air Force Base in New Bussa. It is accessible from both towns within 4 to 6 minutes by vehicle, depending on road conditions.
Far left into the sizable military installation on Wawa-Wakwa Road, between Wawa town and Tamanai village in the Borgu Local Government Area (LGA), is a collection of buildings that closely match the description of two sources. The nine two-storey blocks separated by double walls are the prison complex, designated ‘A’ to ‘I’.
“Each floor contains 10 cells,” Pius said. “In every cell, there are 15 inmates, making approximately 450 per block.”
Yellow arrow points to the Wawa military prison. Photo: Google Earth, captured by Damilola Ayeni/HumAngle.
The military prison primarily holds suspected members of Boko Haram, which has terrorised Northern Nigeria for 16 years and killed at least 20,000 people. In 2017, a court set up in the cantonment tried 1669 suspects behind closed doors, convicted some and awarded prison terms ranging from three to 60 years. ISWAP’s attack on the facility later was to liberate their incarcerated members, but they lost eight more men instead, including a commander, to a joint force of local vigilantes and soldiers.
United by fate
The largest groups in Wawa are tied to terrorism in the north, militancy in the middle belt, and secession threats in the South East. Most of the Igbo inmates were picked up after the nationwide #EndSARS protests of October 2020, sources said. During the protest, which started as a peaceful demonstration against police brutality, there were reports of IPOB-sponsored attacks on security personnel in Obigbo, Rivers State, which led to the declaration of a curfew and the invitation of the military by the then-governor Nyesom Wike. The soldiers, however, embarked ondoor-to-door raids, torture, rape, executions, arbitrary arrests, and disappearances of locals, especially men.
“Thirty-four of them were taken to Wawa,” said Nonso. “Some of them were conductors and drivers going about their businesses. One of them was arrested for having a tattoo. They said he was an unknown gunman. One was even arrested for having a beard. One of my brothers from Rivers State, his offence was that he greeted a soldier.”
The rest came from Anambra and other southeastern states. Emeka Umeagbasi, whose organisation, Intersociety, sent an undercover agent to Wawa while compiling a report in 2024, confirmed this.
“In our recent report, there’s a declassified document showing a request by the Nigerian Army for the transfer of so-called Boko Haram and IPOB terrorist suspects from the police headquarters to Wawa Military Cantonment,” he told HumAngle. “What else is more evidential?”
The events that culminated in the incarceration of a large number of Tivs in Wawa began with a peace meeting in the Katsina-Ala LGA of Benue State on July 29, 2020. Politicians, chiefs, and religious leaders gathered in Tor-Donga, the Tiv people’s capital, to settle years of “armed robbery, kidnapping, murder, rape, and other criminal acts” connected to Terwase Akwaza, also known as Gana, a notorious militia leader who had been in hiding. The team requested amnesty for Gana and his gang members and offered an apology to Samuel Ortom, the governor at the time.
Though a known criminal, Gana was also a messiah in Sankera, the senatorial district covering Katsina-Ala, Logo, and Ukum LGAs. When the federal government appeared to be ignoring deadly armed herder incursions, it was Gana and his men who protected the people and their vibrant agricultural economy. Sankera, the location of Zaki Biam, the world’s biggest yam market, accounts for 70 per cent of Nigeria’s annual yam production.
“Gana was employed by community leaders to defend the people against herders,” Jeremiah John*, a Sankera native, told HumAngle.
The militia leader bowed to pressure from traditional authority after the Tor-Donga summit. On September 8, 2020, he and his gang members publicly gave up their weapons and joined a convoy heading to Makurdi, the state capital, to conclude a peace deal with the governor. The military, however, intercepted the convoy, which included clergymen and community leaders, and took Gana and his gang members. News of his death would spread a few hours later.
In a picture of his dead body later circulated on social media and seen by HumAngle, his body was bullet-ridden, and his right arm had been severed from his body.
On Facebook, HumAngle saw a petition addressed to the National Human Rights Commission in November 2020, seeking the release of 76 surrendered militants arrested with Gana. Tor Gowon Yaro, the Benue State native who signed the petition, told HumAngle that the men were still in military detention.
“None of them has been released,” he said. “None that I’m aware of.”
Suspected terrorists are the largest single group in Wawa. About a decade ago, Boko Haram took over communities in the Banki axis of Borno State and held residents hostage. Upon a counter-operation by the military, the terrorists fled. However, soldiers claimed that the villagers were complicit and drove hundreds of them to the Bama IDP Camp, where they separated the men and took them to military detention. This happened in several other villages, and residents who also tried to escape their terrorised villages to Maiduguri, the capital city, were often intercepted and detained.
Illustration by Akila Jibrin/HumAngle.
“Half of Borno youths, especially the Kanuris, are in detention,” Pius cried.
Other demographics in the facility are Fulani men detained over kidnapping, underage boys, and even some mentally-challenged people arrested in Maiduguri and accused of being Boko Haram members, sources said.
HumAngle has extensively documented this arbitrary detention problem in Borno, involving thousands of men who have been detained for about a decade now, prompting their female relatives to form the Knifar Movement to advocate for their release. Though they are periodically released in batches, many are still in detention. HumAngle has confirmed the release of at least 1009 men from the Wawa prison and the infamous Giwa barracks in Maiduguri.
Details of some of the inmates held in the Wawa military prison (source: ex-inmates)
Behind the prison walls
“Once you’re inside, you’re inside,” said Onyibe Nonso, an undergraduate who spent nearly three years in the facility. The cell door quickly shuts after letting in food, and the special day when inmates step out for sunning may not come in a whole year. To survive, you must first accept every cellmate, no matter their tendency or ideology, including terrorists and mentally ill people.
Every day is a routine, Pius said – wake up, pray, sit down. Sometimes, you gist with fellow inmates. Other times, cellmates play the Ludo board game among themselves. Some cells have Hausa literature supplied by the Red Cross, where one could read. Since no single meal in the facility can satisfy an adult, many have formed the habit of fasting every day until evening, when they combine the meals and drink the little water available.
“If they gave us beans, you would not see a single seed, only water,” said Pius. He also recalled having no water to bathe for a whole month.
The toilet and bathroom carved out of each cell, the same cell that is smaller than the average bedroom and still accommodates belongings like jerricans, has no door.
“We shared the rest of the space,” said Nonso. “To sleep, each person would place their blanket on top of their mat and leave a small space in-between.”
You stand and sit in your small portion. On the evenings when inmates squabble over space, they quickly resolve before soldiers return in the morning. It must not escalate lest they all suffer the following day.
Conditions generally improve when the Red Cross visits, but soldiers assure inmates of a return to the old ways.
“And truly, things would return,” said Pius. “For over a year before I was released, the Red Cross did not come. We heard that it was because the military authorities mismanaged the things they brought.”
An information blackout tops Wawa’s many woes, according to Pius.
“I didn’t know they changed money,” he said, referring to the time when Nigeria redesigned the naira note. “I didn’t know whether a relative was dead or not. We didn’t know Tinubu was running. We didn’t know who was going to be sworn in – just like I was completely excommunicated.”
Back home, families were struggling to move on. When Nonso’s mother heard his voice for the first time in three years, she called back to make sure it wasn’t just another fantasy. It was on June 21, 2024, the day he was released. After two months in the hospital, 20 bags of drips and a lot of prayer, she was already making peace with her only son’s death.
And death is truly cheap in the military prison. From beatings, starvation, and complications arising from inadequate healthcare, inmates die randomly. When the undercover agent from Intersociety arrived at the facility in September 2024, at least 10 inmates had just died within the week.
“A Muslim lieutenant colonel from the north, who provided us with 10 names of people who had just died in the detention that week, told our undercover, ‘Look at how your people are dying here,’” Umeagbasi told HumAngle.
Nonso saw at least two dead bodies himself. Despite being rarely allowed to speak with inmates from other cells, Pius knew of at least 10 deaths. Earnest, one of those brought in from Port Harcourt shortly after the #EndSARS protests, died of complications related to diabetes.
“I know him in person,” Pius told me. “We met one day.”
The more inmates die, the more new ones arrive. The total number, which Pius said matched his registration number on arrival, had climbed to over 5000 by his release in June 2024. As the number grows, so does the intensity of abuse.
“Some of those who got there before us said there was no such thing as beatings when they were brought in. We met it during our own time, and those who came after us had even tougher experiences. They sustained serious injuries and weren’t given adequate treatment,” Nonso said. An inmate who was released from the prison last year after 11 years in detention had an account similar to this. She told HumAngle that though the physical abuse was intense at the beginning of her stay there, it stopped at some point. Shortly before she was released, however, it resumed.
Many of the Tiv inmates arrested alongside Gana couldn’t survive the abuse they were subjected to, Pius revealed. “They beat them in a way that when they got to that detention [Wawa], most of them died.”
Until their release over media pressure and advocacy efforts by the Nigerian Bar Association, neither Nonso nor Pius set foot in court, raising questions about why they were arrested in the first place.
The Red Cross and the Nigerian Army have not responded to inquiries sent to them.
*Jeremiah John is a pseudonym we have used to protect the source’s identity.
United States President Donald Trump threatened to impose “very severe tariffs” on Russia on Monday if a peace agreement to end the Ukraine war is not reached in the next 50 days.
Trump has also unveiled a new agreement to supply Ukraine with more weapons.
On the campaign trail ahead of last year’s presidential election, Trump boasted that he would end the war in Ukraine within his first 24 hours in office.
However, after at least six phone conversations between Trump and his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, as well as several meetings between US officials and officials from Russia and Ukraine, no ceasefire deal has been reached.
In May, Putin refused to travel to Istanbul to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for peace talks. The two countries sent delegations instead, resulting in prisoner exchange agreements, only.
So, will Trump’s latest threat convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to change his stance on Ukraine?
What did Trump say about Russia and Ukraine this week?
Weapons for Ukraine
At a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he was “disappointed” in Putin and that Ukraine would receive billions of dollars’ worth of US weapons.
“We’re going to make top-of-the-line weapons, and they’ll be sent to NATO,” Trump said, adding that NATO would pay for them. He added that this would include the Patriot air defence missiles that Ukraine has sought urgently.
“We have one country that has 17 Patriots getting ready to be shipped … We’re going to work a deal where the 17 will go, or a big portion of the 17 will go to the war site,” Trump said.
New tariffs for Russian goods
Trump said if Putin fails to sign a peace deal with Ukraine within 50 days of Monday this week, he will impose “very severe” trade tariffs on Russia, as well as secondary tariffs on other countries.
“We’re going to be doing secondary tariffs,” Trump said. “If we don’t have a deal in 50 days, it’s very simple, and they’ll be at 100 percent.”
Since the start of the Ukraine war, the US and its allies have imposed at least 21,692 separate sanctions on Russian individuals, media organisations and institutions, targeting sectors including the military, energy, aviation, shipbuilding and telecommunications.
While the trade relationship between US and Russia might be relatively marginal, “secondary tariffs” – first threatened by Trump in March but not implemented – would affect countries such as India and China purchasing Russian oil.
In 2024, Russian oil made up 35 percent of India’s total crude imports and 19 percent of China’s oil imports. Turkiye also relies heavily on Russian oil, sourcing up to 58 percent of its refined petroleum imports from Russia in 2023.
Some Western countries could also be hit by secondary tariffs. In 2024, European countries spent more than $700m on Russian uranium products, according to an analysis by the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, which used data from the European Union’s statistical office, Eurostat.
How has Russia responded to Trump’s latest threats?
Putin has not responded personally.
However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday: “The US president’s statements are very serious. Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin. We certainly need time to analyse what was said in Washington.”
Peskov stated, however, that decisions made in Washington and other NATO countries were “perceived by the Ukrainian side not as a signal for peace, but as a signal to continue the war”.
Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and current deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, wrote in an X post on Tuesday that Russia did not care about Trump’s “theatrical ultimatum”.
Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care.
Sergei Ryabkov, a senior Russian diplomat, said on Tuesday: “We first and foremost note that any attempts to make demands – especially ultimatums – are unacceptable for us,” Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
The Russian stock market appeared untroubled by Trump’s threat, rising 2.7 percent on Monday, according to the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian rouble initially lost value against the US dollar but then recovered after Trump threatened new tariffs on Russia. According to data from financial analysis group LSEG, the rouble was just 0.2 percent weaker at the end of the day, trading at 78.10 to the US dollar after weakening to 78.75 earlier in the day.
The rouble gained 0.9 percent to 10.87 against the Chinese yuan, the most traded foreign currency in Russia. This was after it had weakened by more than 1 percent on Friday.
Will US weapons help Ukraine significantly?
Marina Miron, a postdoctoral researcher at the defence studies department at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera that the Patriot missile systems that Trump has pledged to sell to Ukraine are long-range air defences best suited for shooting down ballistic missiles such as Russia’s Iskander M.
“But Ukraine will need short- to medium-range systems as well as multiple rocket launchers in order to defend itself. So it’s more of a political move for Trump rather than anything else,” Miron said.
She added that the significance of these weapons depends on several factors, including whether Ukraine will get 17 systems as allegedly promised, and where the systems would be placed.
How has Trump changed his stance on aiding Ukraine?
A month into his presidential term, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, blaming Zelenskyy for continuing the war with Russia and saying the Ukrainian president “talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start”.
The US has sent Ukraine about $134bn in aid so far – not $350bn – according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) base has also been critical of US funding for Ukraine.
In early July, the Trump administration announced a decision to “pause” arms deliveries to Kyiv, but reversed this a week later. When Trump announced the reversal on July 8, his supporters voiced criticism.
Derrick Evans, one of Trump’s supporters who was among the throng which stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and who was later arrested but then pardoned by Trump in January this year, wrote on X: “I did not vote for this.” Conservative social media duo Keith and Kevin Hodge posted on X: “Who in the hell is telling Trump that we need to send more weapons to Ukraine?”
Trump appears to be attempting to address these criticisms by saying that instead of supplying weapons to Ukraine, he will sell them to NATO.
Furthermore, Miron said, the US is not losing anything by selling weapons, since NATO will be paying for them. “There are not enough systems being provided to make a substantial difference,” she said.
Could Trump’s latest threats force Putin to change his policy?
While Putin has repeatedly voiced his determination to achieve his war aims, he has not specifically stated what they are. Broadly, he has sought territorial gains within Ukraine and has opposed Ukraine’s membership in NATO – these have not changed and are unlikely to do so, according to observers.
“If you were to describe Russia’s approach, it’s ‘keep calm and carry on,’” Miron said, referring to the fact that most Russian officials have not responded to Trump’s threat.
“So they are not going for this informational trap,” she said.
Has Putin changed his stance at all since Russia invaded Ukraine?
Miron said Putin has expanded his goals since Ukraine’s major cross-border incursion to the Kursk region in August last year. Ukraine’s push into Kursk, which took the Kremlin by surprise, marked the most significant Ukrainian attack inside Russian territory since the war began.
In May this year, Russian troops were tasked with establishing a buffer zone stretching up to 10km (6 miles) into Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, in an interview with Bloomberg published on July 11.
“I have already said that a decision was made to create the necessary security buffer zone along the border. Our armed forces are currently solving this problem. Enemy firing points are being actively suppressed, the work is under way,” Putin said back then.
While Putin did not provide much detail about what the buffer zones would entail, Russian General Viktor Sobolev said they would allow Russia to push Ukraine’s long-range missiles out of striking range, Ukrainian media reported.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says tear gas was fired on Wednesday at crowds of Palestinians at aid facility in Khan Younis.
At least 21 Palestinians have been killed in the latest carnage at the GHF aid distribution centre in southern Gaza, with most of the victims reported to have died in a stampede.
In an earlier statement, the GHF had said 19 victims were trampled and another was stabbed “amid a chaotic and dangerous surge”.
Without providing any evidence, it said the stampede had been provoked by “elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas”.
The statement also claimed that GHF staff saw multiple weapons in the crowd and that one of its US contractors was threatened with a gun.
However, Palestinian authorities and witnesses have vehemently contested the GHF’s version of events.
Gaza’s Health Ministry released a statement saying 21 Palestinians had been killed at the GHF site on Wednesday. It noted that 15 of the victims died as a result of a stampede and suffocation after tear gas was fired at crowds of aid seekers.
“️For the first time, deaths have been recorded due to suffocation and the intense stampede of citizens at aid distribution centres,” the ministry added.
Speaking from Gaza City on Wednesday, Al Jazeera’s correspondent Hani Mahmoud said a witness had confirmed that tear gas was fired on the crowd, “causing mayhem and chaos”, which led to a stampede.
Palestinians carry aid supplies received from the US-backed GHF in the central Gaza Strip [File: Ramadan Abed/Reuters]
Meanwhile, a medical source at Nasser Hospital told the AFP news agency that the desperate and starving victims had been trying to receive food, but the main gate to the distribution centre had been closed.
“The Israeli occupation forces and the centre’s private security personnel opened fire on them, resulting in a large number of deaths and injuries,” they said.
Since the GHF started operating in the enclave in late May, at least 875 people have been killed trying to get food, according to the United Nations, which said on Tuesday that 674 of these deaths had occurred “in the vicinity of GHF sites”.
Speaking last week, UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said most of the casualties had suffered “gunshot injuries”.
Both the Israeli army and GHF contractors have been accused of carrying out the killings.
Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, said on Wednesday that the GHF was guilty of gross mismanagement.
“People who flock in their thousands (to GHF sites) are hungry and exhausted, and they get squeezed into narrow places, amid shortages of aid and the absence of organisation and discipline by the GHF,” he said.
The latest deaths near aid distribution centres came as an Israeli attack on a camp of displaced people in al-Mawasi killed nine people.
In total, at least 43 Palestinians, including 21 people who were seeking aid, have been killed since dawn on Wednesday, according to medical sources.
Heatwaves in Europe have arrived unexpectedly early this year with two major spikes in temperatures already affecting millions of people and a third gripping parts of the continent.
From late June to mid-July, temperatures soared as high as 46 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit) with some locations in Western Europe experiencing record-breaking heat.
Wildfires in Greece have triggered evacuations while in France, emergency measures have closed schools and even the Eiffel Tower. In Italy, bans on outdoor labour have affected many workers.
Spain’s environment ministry said high temperatures have caused 1,180 deaths in the past two months, a sharp increase from the same period last year.
According to a study, about 2,300 heat-related deaths were recorded in 12 European cities from June 23 to July 2. About 1,500 of those deaths were linked to climate change, according to the researchers at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“Climate change has made it significantly hotter than it would have been, which in turn makes it a lot more dangerous,” Dr Ben Clarke, a researcher at Imperial College London, said.
Where have heatwaves occurred?
The first heatwave Europe experienced peaked between June 17 and 22 and affected Western and Southern Europe.
During the second heatwave, peaking between June 30 and July 2, temperatures exceeded 40C (104F) in several countries with some cities in Spain and Portugal reaching 46C (118F).
What is causing the heatwaves?
The persistent heat is being driven by a high-pressure system over Western Europe known as a heat dome.
It acts like a lid that traps hot air under it. The pressure from the weather system pushes air down into a hot, dome-shaped mass and prevents milder weather systems from moving through.
As a result, it creates prolonged periods of excessively high temperatures.
The heat in turn prevents clouds from building up, reducing the chances of rain.
This June was the warmest on record for Western Europe
Due to the weather phenomenon, Western Europe saw its warmest June on record with an average temperature of 20.49C (68.88F), surpassing the previous record for the month from 2003 by 0.06C (0.11F), according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
On June 30, temperatures averaged 24.9C (76.8F) over Western Europe, setting a new daily temperature record for June. The same average temperature was recorded on July 1.
That was one of the highest daily temperatures ever observed in Europe during this time of year. It was exceeded only during the heatwaves of 2003, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023.
Europe is the fastest warming continent and has warmed by 0.53C (0.95F) per decade since the mid-1990s, according to the ERA5 dataset from the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Several factors are causing this effect in Europe, including shifts in atmospheric circulation, leading to more frequent and intense heatwaves. Additionally, reduced air pollution means that more solar radiation is reaching the Earth’s surface and reducing cloud cover. Certain areas of Europe also extend into the Arctic, which is the fastest warming region on the planet.
Countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal saw the hottest temperatures recorded since 1979 from the start of the first heatwave to the end of the second heatwave – June 17 to July 2.
Heatwaves have been deadly for Europe.
A report by Imperial’s Grantham Institute published last week studied 12 European cities to measure changes in the intensity of heatwaves.
From June 23 to July 2 it estimated there were 2,300 heat-related deaths, including 1,500 linked to climate change, which made the heatwaves more severe.
Climate change was behind:
317 of the estimated excess heat deaths in Milan
286 in Barcelona
235 in Paris
171 in London
164 in Rome
108 in Madrid
96 in Athens
47 in Budapest
31 in Zagreb
21 in Frankfurt
21 in Lisbon
six in Sassari, Italy
(Al Jazeera)
The study found that the heatwaves were more deadly due to the early arrival of higher temperatures, which usually occur in late July and in August.
People in Europe are not acclimatised to such high temperatures, especially the older population. More than 80 percent of the estimated excess deaths are expected in people older than 65.
The world is getting hotter
Last month was the third warmest June globally since 1850, according to average temperatures. June’s average surface air temperature was 16.46C (61.62F) to 0.47C (0.84F) and higher than the 1991-2020 average for June, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Global temperatures remain unusually high, closely tracking 2024 – the hottest year on record, having averaged a surface air temperature of 15.1C (59.18F), which was more than 1.5C (2.7F) higher than pre-industrial levels, a threshold seen as crucial to avoid dangerous global warming.
An article published last month in the Earth System Science Data journal also noted that human-induced warming has been increasing at a rate of 0.27C per decade from 2015 to 2024, which is the highest rate observed in the instrumental record.
