Plus: Delhi forecasts artificial rain, and not just another Northern Lights video
| | | | | | | Hello. Concerns for civilian lives at Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital were at the forefront of US President Joe Biden's mind yesterday when he urged restraint from Israel, a call echoed by UK leader Rishi Sunak in London. In Iceland, Jessica Parker speaks to evacuees briefly allowed to return to their homes to collect their belongings as the threat of a volcanic eruption persists. As toxic air plagues Delhi, Cherylann Mollan surveys experts on the potential of a government plan to create rain from cloud seeding. Scroll to the end for a spectacular view of the Northern Lights from a plane's cockpit. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | Western leaders call for Gaza hospital to be protected | | | | The WHO said about 600 people remained in the hospital, with others sheltering in hallways. Credit: Getty Images |
| | The tone of Western leaders who have pledged support for Israel since Hamas's deadly attack on 7 October has begun to shift in recent days, as conditions at Al-Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital, deteriorated. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the hospital is "nearly a cemetery". The hospital says it’s burying 179 people in a mass grave, as fighting rages nearby. Last night, US President Joe Biden declared: "The hospital must be protected." UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak echoed him in what diplomatic correspondent James Landale called "a sign that international support is increasingly being tempered by calls for restraint". Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals as an "instrument of war". The military released a video describing what it called a covert “terror tunnel” underneath the Rantisi children's hospital. These claims have not been independently verified. Hamas and the Al-Shifa hospital both deny the presence of a Hamas command centre beneath the facility. Follow our live page for the latest updates. | | • | How incubators save neonatal lives: Global health correspondent Tulip Mazumdar explains why incubators are a lifeline for premature babies and why evacuating them is fraught with danger. | | • | 'It's just relentless': Tom Potokar, a chief surgeon in Gaza with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), describes in a video message a "totally exhausting" day trying to see as many patients as possible. | | • | Meanwhile, in the West Bank: Correspondent Joel Gunter reports on deadly clashes in the West Bank’s Tulkarem refugee camp. |
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| | | | | | | | AT THE SCENE | Reykjavik, Iceland | | Iceland shaken by volcanic tremors | | Thousands of people have been evacuated from the Icelandic town of Grindavik, under which most of the tremors have taken place. A volcanic eruption is still expected, scientists say, despite the quakes being weaker in recent days. | | | | Pedrag, a native Serb who has lived in Iceland for many years, was one of those who fled the town with his wife on Friday - the day a state of emergency was declared. "If you talk to Icelandic people who have lived there all their lives, they say they have never felt something like that," he told the BBC, referring to the large quakes that rocked the fishing port for several hours. Other locals said they were particularly upset as eruptions in Iceland normally happened in unpopulated areas. "This is one of the biggest evacuations we've ever had. It's a huge incident. It has a great effect on all Icelanders," said Aslaug Yngvadottir Tulinius of the Icelandic Red Cross. |
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| | | | Beyond the headlines | | Make it rain, one way or another | | | | Scientists say it's not clear how helpful artificial rain will be. Credit: Getty Images |
| | Pollution is a year-round problem in Delhi due to factors including high vehicular and industrial emissions, and dust. The Delhi government hopes the Supreme Court will give it the go-ahead to try cloud seeding, a technique that speeds up the condensation of moisture in clouds to create rain. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | Bear in mind | | How polar bears on melting ice caps lost favour as poster images of climate change. | | |
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| | | | | | | | | | Future Earth Newsletter | | Essential climate news and hopeful developments, in your inbox every Tuesday. | | |
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