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Numbers Israel permitted to enter Egypt after reopening border were far lower than expected following delays

A small number of sick and wounded Palestinians have begun crossing into Egypt to seek medical treatment after Israel permitted a limited reopening of the Palestinian territory’s Rafah border post as fragile diplomatic efforts to stabilise the conflict inch forward.

About 150 people were due to leave the territory on Monday, and 50 to enter it, according to Egyptian officials, more than 20 months after Israeli forces closed the crossing. However, by nightfall, Reuters reported that Israel had permitted 12 Palestinians to re-enter the territory, according to Palestinian and Egyptian sources. A further 38 had not cleared security and would wait on the Egyptian side of the crossing overnight, it said.

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Island’s first tropical storm of season may bring 150mm of rain – meanwhile, eastern Europe freezes with possible night-time lows of -30C

At least three people have died and nearly 30,000 people have been affected by flooding after Madagascar’s first tropical storm of the season hit over the weekend.

Tropical Cyclone Fytia formed to the north-west of Madagascar over the northern Mozambique Channel on Thursday.

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Report covering 23 conflicts over last 18 months concludes more than 100,000 civilians have been killed as war crimes rage out of control

An authoritative survey of 23 armed conflicts over the last 18 months has concluded that international law seeking to limit the effects of war is at breaking point, with more than 100,000 civilians killed, while torture and rape are committed with near impunity.

The extensive study by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights describes the deaths of 18,592 children in Gaza, growing civilian casualties in Ukraine and an “epidemic” of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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Rubaya mine produces about 15% of the world’s coltan, which is processed into tantalum, used in mobile phones

More than 200 people were killed this week in a collapse at the Rubaya coltan mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Lumumba Kambere Muyisa, a spokesperson for the rebel-appointed governor of the province where the mine is located, told Reuters on Friday.

Rubaya produces about 15% of the world’s coltan, which is processed into tantalum – a heat-resistant metal that is in high demand by makers of mobile phones, computers, aerospace components and gas turbines. The site, where local people dig manually for a few dollars a day, has been under the control of the M23 rebel group since 2024.

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Motorcycle-riding militants launch strikes using heavy weaponry and drones, damaging planes belonging to Ivorian carrier and Togolese airline

Islamic State in the Sahel has claimed responsibility for an audacious assault at the international airport and adjacent air force base in Niamey, the capital of Niger, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist activity and communications worldwide.

The attack, which began shortly after midnight on Thursday, reportedly involved motorcycle-riding militants who launched a “surprise and coordinated” strike using heavy weaponry and drones, according to statements released via IS in the Sahel’s propaganda arm, Amaq news agency.

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Move from Claudia Sheinbaum comes after Trump signed an order threatening tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba

Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has pledged to send humanitarian aid this week to Cuba and said Mexico was “exploring all diplomatic avenues to be able to send fuel to the Cuban people,” despite efforts from Washington to cut off oil to the Caribbean nation.

Donald Trump last week signed an executive order allowing the US to slap tariffs on countries sending crude oil to Cuba and on Saturday said that Sheinbaum had agreed to halt shipments of oil at his request – a claim the Mexican leader rejected.

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Trump supporter Júnior Pena falsely claimed migrants being rounded up, including Brazilians, were ‘all crooks’

A rightwing Brazilian influencer who claimed Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown targeted only “crooks” has been arrested by ICE agents in New Jersey.

Júnior Pena, whose full name is Eustáquio da Silva Pena Júnior, declared his support for the US president in a recent video message to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers.

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Demand by US that it take control of Arctic island is for many a reminder of troubling imperial past

On a bitterly cold recent morning in the Canadian Arctic, about 70 people took to the streets. Braving the bone-chilling winds, they marched through the Inuit-governed territory of Nunavut, waving signs that read: “We stand with Greenland” and “Greenland is a partner, not a purchase.”

It was a glimpse of how, for Indigenous peoples across the Arctic, the battle over Greenland has become a wider reckoning, seemingly pitting the long-fought battle to assert their rights against a global push for power.

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Rightwing populist elected in landslide after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to cocaine trade

The rightwing populist Laura Fernández has won Costa Rica’s presidential election in a landslide after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade.

Fernández’s nearest rival, centre-right economist Álvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40% needed to avoid a runoff.

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Ahead of a major exhibition in London documenting the South American wetland as it faces unprecedented threat, Lalo de Almeida recounts the stories behind his award-winning images

Lalo de Almeida is a documentary photographer based in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2021 his photo essay Pantanal Ablaze was awarded first place in the environment stories category at the World Press Photo contest. In 2022, he won the Eugene Smith grant in humanistic photography and World Press Photo’s long-term project award for his work Amazonian Dystopia, which documents the exploitation of the world’s largest tropical forest.

I have been photographing socio-environmental issues for more than 30 years, especially in the Amazon. 2020 was no different. News of the uncontrolled fires devastating the Pantanal began to catch my attention. So, together with a fellow journalist, I decided to go and see what was happening for myself.

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Sleek car doors reduce vehicle drag but are prone to losing operability in the event of a crash, officials say

China will soon ban concealed door handles on electric vehicles (EVs), becoming the first country to do so after several deadly incidents triggered global scrutiny of the controversial design first popularised by Tesla.

According to regulations announced on Monday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, cars sold in China will now be required to have a mechanical release on both the inside and outside of every door except the boot.

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Other countries are expected to join Project Vault, which US president said would ensure that US businesses are ‘never harmed by any shortage’

Donald Trump has announced the creation of a critical mineral reserve worth nearly $12bn, a stockpile that could counter China’s ability to use its dominance of the hard-to-process metals as leverage in trade talks.

“Today we’re launching what will be known as Project Vault to ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.

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About 20 countries including G7 states in talks on rare earths including calls for US to guarantee minimum price

Ministers from the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will meet in Washington this week to discuss a strategic alliance over critical minerals.

The summit is being seen as a step to repair transatlantic ties fractured by a year of conflict with Donald Trump and pave the way for other alliances to help countries de-risk from China, including one centred on steel.

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Plaintiffs in case say they were lured from Japan, exploited for labour and cut off from families for generations

It has been more than six decades since Eiko Kawasaki left Japan to begin a new life in North Korea. Then 17, she was among tens of thousands of people with Korean heritage who had been lured to the communist state by the promise of a “paradise on Earth”.

Instead, they encountered something closer to a living hell. They were denied basic human rights and forced to endure extreme hardship. Official promises of free education and healthcare plus guaranteed jobs and housing had been a cruel mirage. And to their horror, they were prevented from travelling to Japan to visit the families they had left behind.

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PM flies out after courting world’s second biggest economy aware of difficult balance of risks and potential rewards

The last British prime minister to visit China was Theresa May in 2018. Before the visit, she and her team were advised to get dressed under the covers because of the risk of hidden cameras having been placed in their hotel rooms to record compromising material.

Keir Starmer, in Beijing this week, was more sanguine about his privacy, even though the security risks have, if anything, increased since the former Tory prime minister was in town.

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Online streamer Dinah promoted Rainbet to her 820,000 followers, despite the regulator warning ‘significant penalties’ were at stake

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Meta failed to act on nearly a dozen reports against an Australian influencer with more than 800,000 followers on Instagram promoting illegal offshore crypto-gambling, despite the regulator warning influencers they could face fines of up to $2.4m.

The account of online streamer Dinah has 820,000 followers on Instagram, and has promoted Rainbet, a self-described online crypto casino, in posts on Instagram. On her profile she describes herself as “ur Chinese gf in Australia”

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The RBA’s widely anticipated decision marks the end of the shortest rate-cutting cycle in the reserve’s modern history, hitting mortgagees hard

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As the RBA lifted the official interest rate on Tuesday, one regional New South Wales couple said the dream of building a home has turned into a financial “hustle” they no longer want to maintain.

After the pair, 25 and 26, settled on land in September 2022, rising rates and cost of building materials decimated their initial budget.

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Australians for Prosperity received most of its funding last financial year from Coal Australia, according to disclosures made to the Australian Electoral Commission

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A campaign group that attacked Labor, the Greens and teal independent candidates at the last federal election was almost entirely funded by a coal industry lobby group, analysis of political disclosures reveals.

Australians for Prosperity received $3.89m in total political receipts in the last financial year, according to disclosures made to the Australian Electoral Commission, of which $3.68m came from Coal Australia.

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Premier says code of conduct is ‘not an attack on freedom of speech … or concern about Palestinians and innocent civilians in Gaza’

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New “hate speech” guidelines under which school staff could be more easily sacked for comments in and outside the classroom could silence discussion of the killing in Gaza in New South Wales schools, teachers and legal experts say.

The NSW government has moved to amend codes of conduct to explicitly prohibit hate speech across the state’s more than 3,000 government, independent and Catholic schools, effective immediately from Tuesday.

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Economists and the central bank might see a roaring economy but workers and mortgage holders still feel like they’re doing it tough

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The Reserve Bank thinks the economy is running too hot and needed a rate hike to slow it down.

It sure doesn’t feel that way.

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Ukrainian president says strikes in recent days shows that attitudes in Moscow have not changed and they do not ‘take diplomacy seriously’

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kajas Kallas, has been speaking as part of a panel on Arctic security. Kallas was asked if the EU was “too cautious” in taking action because of its dependence on the US for security, which has been exposed amid Russia’s war on Ukraine and the Trump administration’s threats on Greenland and erratic behaviour towards its longstanding western allies. Kallas, who has said Nato must “become more European” to maintain its strength, responded:

Of course, we are cautions because there is a lot at stake. There is a full-scale war going on the European continent and there are threats coming from economic coercion, big challenges from China that is influencing our economies.

If it is influencing our economies, it is influencing jobs and people’s salaries and then it is creating polarisation within our societies and more instability, so it is all very much interlinked.

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Prosecutors summon tech billionaire and ex-CEO for questioning and add Grok AI tool to investigation

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Prosecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk’s social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company’s former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime.

“A search is under way by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, the national police cyber unit and Europol,” the Paris prosecutors’ office said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it would no longer be publishing on the network.

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Zelenskyy says Putin ‘taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorise people’, as Kyiv hits lows of -20C

More than 1,000 residential buildings in Kyiv were without heating on Tuesday after a massive Russian air attack during one of the coldest nights of the winter, with temperatures in the capital falling to -20C.

Overnight, the Kremlin fired 450 attack drones and more than 70 missiles across the country. The strikes caused damage in five Kyiv districts and injured at least nine people. Flames consumed an apartment on the upper floors of a Kyiv building.

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Marius Borg Høiby, 29, pleads not guilty to most serious charges in trial that has embarrassed the royal family

The son of Norway’s crown princess has pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape on the first day of his trial for multiple offences, a legal saga that has embarrassed the royal family and raised questions over domestic abuse in Norway.

Appearing in front of a packed courtroom at Oslo district court on Tuesday morning, Marius Borg Høiby also denied charges including abuse in close relationships and filming women’s genitals without their knowledge.

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Valdis Dombrovskis says bloc is ‘ready to engage’ amid meetings with ministers including Rachel Reeves

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The European Commission would be “open-minded” to discussing closer trade ties with the UK, including a customs union, a senior EU official has said.

The EU economy commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, told the BBC that the European bloc was “ready to engage with an open mind” when asked about a customs union.

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Masoud Pezeshkian instructs foreign minister to seek negotiations with US as Trump warns ‘bad things would happen’ if no solution agreed

Iran’s president said on Tuesday that he had instructed his foreign minister to “pursue fair and equitable negotiations” with the US, as the two countries reportedly prepared to send top envoys to Istanbul for high-stakes talks on the Iranian nuclear programme later this week.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post on X: “I have instructed my minister of foreign affairs, provided that a suitable environment exists – one free from threats and unreasonable expectations – to pursue fair and equitable negotiations, guided by the principles of dignity, prudence, and expediency.”

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Euphoric scenes are a snub to theocracy’s culture of piety, say analysts, and carry message of rebellion

Iranians killed in recent protests that rocked the country have been laid to rest in boisterous funerals featuring loud pop music and dancing, apparently intended to convey defiance to the ruling Islamic regime.

Instead of holding sombre traditional mourning ceremonies presided over by a Shia cleric, bereaved relatives are turning the burials into exultant celebrations of the lives of their loved ones in what analysts say is an intentional snub to the culture of piety demanded by Iran’s theocracy.

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• Sick and wounded Palestinians enter Egypt after Israel reopens Rafah crossing

More than 400 European former top diplomats and officials have urged the EU to increase pressure on Israel to end “excesses and unremitting violations of international law” over Gaza and the West Bank.

The statement, due to be sent to EU leaders on Monday, calls on the bloc and its member states to take action in line with its support for a UN resolution for a two-state solution and a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

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US naval battle group gathers off Iran’s shores as supreme leader in Tehran warns attack would spark regional war

Donald Trump has said Iran is talking to the US, hinting at a deal that would avoid the use of military strikes, as Iran’s supreme leader warned that any attack by the US would spark a regional war.

The US president’s comments came as Washington deployed a naval battle group led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off Iran’s shores, after Trump’s threats to intervene in Iran’s deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.

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Officials say Gaza residents travelling on foot only will be allowed through border point, which was shut in May 2024

Gaza’s main border crossing in Rafah will reopen for Palestinians on Monday, Israel has said, with preparations under way at the war-ravaged territory’s gateway, which has been mostly closed for almost two years.

Before the war, the Rafah crossing with Egypt was the only direct exit point for most Palestinians in Gaza to reach the outside world as well as a key entry point for aid. It has been largely shut since May 2024.

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Officials say calm restored to province day after dozens killed in suicide and gun attacks in at least 10 cities

Pakistan’s security forces have intensified their operations against separatist militants in Balochistan province who launched a large-scale assault on Saturday in which at least 31 civilians and 17 security personnel were killed.

A day after the militants carried out suicide attacks in the heart of the province’s capital, Quetta, the chief minister of the south-western region, Sarfraz Bugti, said 145 people he described as militants had been killed in 40 hours and that their bodies were in the custody of the authorities.

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Five years after the junta’s coup, the civil war devastating Myanmar has reached a turning point. The military is carrying out large-scale counter-offensives across the country to reclaim territory seized by pro-democracy rebels of various ethnic and religious backgrounds

In Tanintharyi, the southernmost region of Myanmar, the local resistance has managed to contain the military. After five years of guerrilla warfare, the revolutionary youth there remain determined to restore democracy through armed struggle.

A long, narrow stretch of land at the southern tip of Myanmar, between the Andaman Sea to the west and Thailand to the east, Tanintharyi region is one of the areas where the resistance challenges the military’s authority. For decades, the region has been home to an armed rebellion led by the Karen ethnic minority, which operated mainly in the peripheral mountains.

Soldiers from the Karen National Union (KNU) inspect the ruins of a Buddhist monastery destroyed by a junta airstrike in Myeik district, Tanintharyi region

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• Concern raised over politicisation of sport

• Bangladesh pulled out of men’s World T20 after row

Bangladesh’s withdrawal from the men’s T20 World Cup could have implications for India’s 2036 Olympic bid amid concern at the International Olympic Committee over the potential politicisation of sport.

Bangladesh pulled out of next month’s tournament last weekend after the International Cricket Council declined a request to move their group matches from India to the co-hosts Sri Lanka, after a long-running political row triggered by Kolkata Knight Riders’ decision to remove the Bangladeshi bowler Mustafizur Rahman from their Indian Premier League squad.

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Human rights groups and some western countries have denounced the election, the first held since the 2021 coup, describing it as neither free nor fair

Myanmar’s military-backed party has completed a sweeping victory in the country’s three-phase general election, state media said, cementing an outcome long expected after a tightly controlled political process held during civil war and widespread repression.

The Union and Solidarity Party (USDP) dominated all phases of the vote, winning an overwhelming majority in the two legislative chambers in Myanmar. It secured 232 of the 263 seats up for grabs in the lower Pyithu Hluttaw house and 109 of the 157 seats announced so far in the Amyotha Hluttaw upper chamber, according to results released on Thursday and Friday.

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Voting ends in month-long poll derided internationally as sham designed to cement army’s grip on power

Voting in Myanmar has ended with the military-backed party expected to win a landslide victory after a month-long election that has been widely derided as a sham designed to cement the army’s grip on power.

The junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, has rejected criticism of the vote, saying it has the support of the public and presenting it as a return to democracy and stability.

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Information Commissioner’s Office to investigate whether Elon Musk’s companies have complied with data protection law

Elon Musk’s X and xAI companies are under formal investigation by the UK’s data protection watchdog after the Grok AI tool produced indecent deepfakes without people’s consent.

The Information Commissioner’s Office is investigating whether the social media platform and its parent broke GDPR, the data protection law.

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PM’s spokesperson says information should not have been available ‘to anyone who could potentially benefit from it financially’

The Department for Work and Pensions has named 12 disability experts with “lived experience of disability or long-term health conditions” who will sit on the steering group of the review looking at the future of the personal independence payment (Pip), a disability benefit. Stephen Timms, the minister leading the review, says:

Disabled people deserve a system that truly supports them to live with independence and dignity, and that fairly reflects the reality of their lives today.

That’s why we’re putting disabled people at the heart of this review – ensuring their voices shape the changes that will help them achieve better health, greater independence, and access to the right support when they need it.

* Could we see a crunch point as soon as tomorrow over Mandelson?

* Tories have an opposition day debate - could they force a vote on Mandelson vetting disclosure. Shadow cabinet sources tell me they’re thinking about it

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For Women Scotland objects to use of individual risk assessments, saying it is contrary to supreme court ruling

Female prisoners are paying the price for an “Orwellian” Scottish government policy that allows some transgender inmates to be housed in female prisons, Scotland’s highest civil court has heard.

The campaign group For Women Scotland is challenging guidance that says trans prisoners should be housed according to individual risk assessment, which the group argues is contrary to the supreme court’s ruling on women-only spaces.

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Party accused of breaking election promise – but officials in Warwickshire say George Finch’s 3.89% rise still not enough to balance budget

The 19-year-old leader of a Reform-led council has defended proposals for a 3.89% council tax rise, despite senior officers saying anything less than 5% would put the financial viability of the local authority at risk.

Financial executives at Warwickshire county council said in December that the proposed increase was a “riskier financial strategy” that would threaten the medium-term sustainability of the local authority.

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Researchers say sediment changes due to waste dumping and coastal erosion intensified by climate breakdown

As much as half of some British beaches’ coarse sediments consist of human-made materials such as brick, concrete, glass and industrial waste, a study has found.

Climate breakdown, which has caused more frequent and destructive coastal storms, has led to an increase in these substances on beaches. Six sites on the Firth of Forth, an estuary on Scotland’s east coast joining the River Forth to the North Sea, were surveyed to better understand the makeup of “urban beaches”.

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D’Amaro will take over next month from Bob Iger, who returned to lead the media company after a bungled succession

Disney has unveiled Josh D’Amaro as its next CEO, drawing a line under a bungled succession at the top of the global entertainment conglomerate.

Bob Iger, who led the media giant for 15 years, stepped down in 2020 – only to abruptly return in 2022 when his handpicked successor, Bob Chapek, was fired as the company came under pressure.

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US president, who is also due to meet Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro weeks after threatening military action in the country, makes comment on elections

• Trump-Petro meeting could end in detente or discord with Colombia leader

Donald Trump has continued to sow doubt in the election system. While appearing on former deputy FBI director Dan Bongino’s podcast on Monday, the present called on Republicans to “nationalize the voting,” in at least “15 places”, although he did not clarify which ones.

“The Republicans should say, ‘we want to take over’,” Trump said in the interview.

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Authorities say Savannah Guthrie’s mother was taken from her home, where signs of forced entry and blood were found

A search continued Tuesday in Arizona for the missing mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, with police saying they believe the 84-year-old woman was abducted in a weekend intrusion at her home near Tucson.

According to the Los Angeles Times, citing two law enforcement sources, there were signs of forced entry and blood found at the residence in the Catalina Foothills area where Nancy Guthrie was last seen at about 9.30pm Saturday.

Associated Press contributed reporting

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Former CNN anchor faces charges over coverage of an anti-ICE protest that disrupted a Minnesota church service.

Don Lemon says about a dozen federal agents came to his Los Angeles hotel to arrest him overnight on 30 January, even though the former CNN anchor’s attorney had told authorities he would turn himself in to face federal civil rights charges over his coverage of an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a Minnesota church service.

Lemon on Monday told ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that sending the agents was a waste of resources because law enforcement wouldn’t have had to dispatch agents to follow him if he had been allowed to surrender to authorities.

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Ending of New Start treaty will remove mutual limits on the world’s two biggest nuclear arsenals

The New Start treaty between the US and Russia will expire on Thursday, removing the last remaining mutual limits on the world’s two biggest nuclear arsenals.

The milestone will be a death knell for more than five decades of arms control at a time of surging global instability, contributing to a general collapse of the rules-based international order established after the second world war.

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