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Amnesty accuses Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza

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Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war, which Israel strongly denies.
The UK-based human rights group said its conclusion was based on “dehumanising and genocidal statements” by Israeli officials, digital images and witness testimony and must serve as “a wake-up call” to the international community.
Israel’s foreign ministry described the 295-page report as “entirely false and based on lies”, while the Israeli military said the claims were “entirely baseless and fail to account for the operational realities” it faces.
In the past day, meanwhile, local medics say at least 50 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza.
The biggest number of people were killed in the al-Mawasi tent camp for displaced people, where Israel says it was targeting Hamas operatives.
Amnesty says that its research over months “has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed – and is continuing to commit – genocide against Palestinians”.
The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted following the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general, said Israeli actions “include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction”.
“Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” she continued.
The report by the global campaign group comes as the UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice at The Hague, continues to examine allegations by South Africa that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel has called the case “wholly unfounded” and based on “biased and false claims”.
Responding to the allegations by Amnesty, Israel’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oren Marmorstein, described the human rights group as a “deplorable and fanatical organisation”.
“The genocidal massacre on 7 October 2023, was carried out by the Hamas terrorist organisation against Israeli citizens,” he stated, adding that Israel as acting in self-defence and “fully in accordance with international law”.
The Israeli military said it was “actively working to dismantle Hamas’ military infrastructure” in Gaza and that it “takes all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians during operations”.
About 1,200 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, were killed during the Hamas-led attacks 15 months ago, which triggered the Gaza war.
Since then, at least 44,532 people have been killed in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen as reliable by the UN.

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International

Clampdown on fake Google reviews announced

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Google has agreed to make “significant changes to its processes” to help tackle fake reviews of UK businesses, the regulator has announced.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says the firm – which accounts for 90% of search in the UK – will attach warnings to companies found to have artificially boosted their star rating.
The worst offenders will have their review function deactivated, meaning they cannot receive any new reviews.
Individuals who repeatedly post fake or misleading reviews will be banned from posting – regardless of where they are in the world.
Consumer group Which? called the changes “a step in the right direction” but said they would need to be backed up with strong enforcement action, potentially including “heavy fines” if Google failed to stick to them.

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Entertainment

How an epic series on Asia’s wildlife was filmed

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Filming the BBC’s landmark series Asia took its crew on a four-year-long odyssey from the open ocean to the “roof of the world”.

From frozen mountains to parched deserts, and lush tropical rainforest to vast grassland steppes – Asia is Earth’s largest continent and home to an incredible array of environments.
Perhaps because of that sheer size and variety, until last year the BBC had never devoted a wildlife series entirely to it. The vastness, the crowded megacities and the extreme diversity of environments makes it harder to encapsule in a handful of episodes.
The Natural History Unit’s landmark series Asia took four years to make. “Many parts of Asia are extremely remote, largely unknown, or frequently off-limits,” producer Matthew Wright says. “Its wildlife is less well-studied than that of Africa and the Americas, so we had fewer leads to go on when we started our research.”
“We started by scouring scientific papers, books, websites and social media looking for stories. We spoke to colleagues, conservationists and tour guides too. Once running orders were drawn up, we spent two years and over 2,500 days filming,” said Wright.

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Entertainment

The far-reaching impacts of wildfire smoke – and how to protect yourself

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The air we breathe can have profound effects on our physical and mental health. Is there any way of protecting yourself from this pervasive problem?

All but 1% of the world’s population is exposed to unhealthy air that exceeds World Health Organization (WHO) limits for pollutants. In parts of the world, air quality has rapidly improved through policies that aim to limit pollution. But elsewhere, gains in air quality are at risk of being lost.
More than 25% of the US population is exposed to air considered “unhealthy” by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to a report by the climate non-profit First Street Foundation. By 2050, the number of people exposed to “unhealthy” days is set to increase by more than half. The worst days of air pollution (“hazardous” or maroon, under the EPA’s system) are expected to rise by 27%.
Wildfire smoke is one of the factors driving this trend. One study of PM2.5 (see fact box: What is PM2.5?) from wildfire smoke found that levels had increased by up to five micrograms per cubic metre in the western US in the past decade – enough to reverse “decades of policy-driven improvements in overall air quality”, the authors concluded.

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