What The World is FollowingIsrael ramps up strikes in Gaza with attack on police Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Israeli airstrikes have killed about a dozen people in Gaza over the past two days, local health officials said on Wednesday, part of a wider campaign of attacks on the territory by Israel despite a months-old ceasefire with Hamas. Among the dead were a woman and six police officers killed in an airstrike on a police station in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp, in northern Gaza, on Tuesday. In a statement addressing the attack in Jabaliya, the Israeli military claimed that four of the slain police officers were Hamas militants, without providing evidence on how those killed were involved in planning or carrying out attacks. One of the officers, Col. Mohamad Marwan Salem, was a senior police commander and head of the Jabaliya police station, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said. Hamas, which ruled Gaza for years, maintains an armed wing, as well as civilian police and security services that are overseen by its Interior Ministry. Throughout the current war, Israel has targeted local police, including those guarding aid convoys. Israel's military has claimed it considers police stations legitimate targets if they're “being used to advance military activities, or if those present are military operatives involved in advancing terrorist activities.” Congo
Confirmed cases of Ebola in Congo have reached 2,011, including 754 deaths, according to government data released overnight in what authorities say is the fastest-growing outbreak on record. Health workers at the Bunia General Hospital went on strike on Wednesday, the latest group to have walked off their jobs at the epicenter over payment issues. Health professionals and other frontline workers barricaded the entrance of the hospital, lamenting they haven't received any compensation despite working under difficult conditions. A total of 753 patients remain in isolation or in hospitals, while 366 have so far recovered, according to data from Congo’s Ministry of Health. Contact tracing remains a challenge, with coverage of those exposed still at 67%. The Central African nation has been battling the Ebola outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus since May 15. Two months into the outbreak, the outbreak continues to spread faster than health officials can track, despite an expanding response. At least 80% of new cases are emerging from unknown chains of transmission, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. Spain
Five days after a fire ravaged a remote expat community in southern Spain, authorities late Tuesday identified all 13 fatalities using biological samples. Meanwhile, French firefighters brought under control a forest fire in the historic and much-visited Fontainebleau area south of Paris as parts of the continent continued to face extremely hot temperatures. All but one of the deceased in the Spanish wildfire, all of whom were adults, were foreign nationals. They include seven British citizens — including a 93-year-old woman who died in the hospital — three Belgian nationals, a French woman, an American and a Spanish national, judicial authorities said in a statement. Of the 13 victims, eight were women and five were men. The Los Gallardos fire affected some 27 square miles of forest and farmland. It was one of the deadliest blazes in years in one of Spain's fire-prone regions. Spain is experiencing extreme heat, which, combined with wind and little rainfall, is creating the ideal conditions for small wildfires to grow unchecked. Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s. |
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Welcome to my geopolitics blog site. This is a Hawaii Island news site focusing on geopolitical news, analysis, information, and commentary. I will cite a variety of sources, ranging from all sides of the political spectrum.