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Hello, I'm Eileen McHugh with the BBC News.
The U.N. Humanitarian Affairs Agency says an Israeli military evacuation order for central Gaza has dealt another devastating blow to efforts to keep people alive in the war-ravaged territory. On Sunday, Israel ordered Palestinians in Deir al-Baha, many of them already displaced, to move south due to military operations. The U.N. has also repeated its warnings that many Gazans are dying from hunger and need an urgent influx of food as Israel continues to strictly limit the flow of aid. This displaced Palestinian woman in Deir al-Baha lamented the situation on the ground. "The Gaza Strip is destroyed. The Gaza Strip is dead. The Gaza Strip has become a massacre and no one is listening. Where are the leaders of the world? Where are our Arab and Muslim brothers? Where are they? We and our children are dying of hunger." The Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, has confirmed he's given an order not to extend the visa of Jonathan Whittle, the U.N. Humanitarian Affairs chief in the occupied Palestinian territory. Mr. Whittle has recently said the conditions near aid distribution sites in Gaza are created to kill. Israel accuses him of biased and hostile conduct which distorted reality. A rights group says clashes have again broken out in the Syrian province of Suwayda, where more than 1,100 people have been killed in a week of sectarian violence. The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights says tribal fighters have attacked outlying villages. Bedouin fighters and their tribal allies have withdrawn from Suwayda city, but they remain at the outskirts. Here is Jon Donnison. This is a city that has been controlled by the Druze, but during these clashes with Bedouin fighters as well as Syrian government forces, there have been allegations of atrocities committed by both sides in that city. And it's also pretty clear with the city pretty much under siege, there's a pretty desperate humanitarian situation on the ground. One of Ecuador's most powerful criminal leaders has been extradited to the United States to face charges of drug and arms trafficking. Adolfo Macías, known as "Fito," was the leader of the Los Choneros gang. Here's Leonardo Rocha. The notorious drug lord was recaptured last month, more than a year after he escaped from a high-security prison. Fito had been living in an underground bunker beneath a luxury house in his home city of Manta. His escape embarrassed the Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboa, who had just taken office promising to fight organized crime. Adolfo Macías is expected to appear at a federal court in New York later on Monday to face charges of trafficking weapons and tons of cocaine into the United States. BBC News. Japan's ruling coalition is certain to lose control of the upper house of parliament after Sunday's election, further weakening Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's leadership. His Liberal-Democratic-led alliance also lost its majority in the more powerful lower house last year. But Mr. Ishiba said he would stay on as prime minister as Tokyo must agree a trade deal with the United States by the 1st of August or face crippling tariffs in its largest export market. The speaker of the French National Assembly has said she won't overturn a new law that allows the use of an agricultural pesticide known to kill bees and other pollinators. Acetamiprid had been banned in France seven years ago. A petition opposing the chemical had gathered more than a million signatures by Sunday. The Bulgarian authorities say they've seized more than 200 kilograms of cocaine being smuggled in a car carrying a Congolese diplomat. They say it's the largest haul of cocaine ever seized at one of its borders and was being taken into Turkey. Here's our Europe regional editor, Danny Eberhardt. Bulgarian officials say the drugs were found in a Land Rover with diplomatic plates that had been driven from Belgium. They stopped it at a border checkpoint just before it left Bulgaria for Turkey. Inside, they discovered suitcases full of packages of cocaine with an estimated street value of $22 million. The authorities have detained the Bulgarian driver and the two passengers, a male diplomat from the Democratic Republic of Congo and a Belgian woman. The current men's world number one golfer, Scottie Scheffler, has won his fourth major title after storming to victory at the Open Championship in Northern Ireland. The 29-year-old American finished the tournament four shots clear of his nearest opponent on 17 under par. His victory secures him the title of Champion Golfer of the Year. BBC News. |