The head of one of the world’s biggest oil companies has been named to lead the COP28 global climate talks in Dubai, later this year. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is currently the chief executive officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. He is also the minister for industry and advanced technology for the COP28 hosts, the United Arab Emirates. Campaigners say he must stand down from his oil business role while president as it is a clear conflict of interest. They believe someone steeped in the oil industry may not push countries to rapidly reduce their production and use of fossil fuel, which scientists say is critical to avoiding dangerous climate change.(BBC)…[+]

The polar regions and Europe were hit hardest by global warming in 2022, according to a new analysis. The data from Copernicus, the EU’s climate monitoring service, says 2022 was the fifth warmest year globally. Europe experienced its warmest summer, with temperatures increasing by more than twice the global average over the past three decades, faster than any other continent. The last eight years are now also the warmest eight yet recorded. Last year saw a continuation of a pattern of global warming that has become the new normal, say Copernicus scientists. While the La Niña weather event helped to cool the oceans for the third year in a row, global temperatures were still approximately 0.3C higher in 2022 than the 1991-2020 reference period. Researchers say this means that last year was close to 1.2C above the 1850-1900 period, taken as the start of global industrialisation. Europe and the polar regions were at the sharp end of this high heat. Temperature records in many western European countries were broken including the UK, with summer heatwaves and intense droughts hitting many parts.(BBC)…[+]

The US justice department is reviewing documents marked classified found in President Joe Biden’s former office at a think tank, the White House says. About 10 of the files were discovered in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center in Washington in November by Mr Biden’s legal team, said his lawyer. The batch has been handed over to the National Archives. Mr Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, is facing a probe for taking classified files to Florida after his presidency. According to the BBC’s US partner CBS News, the FBI is involved in the inquiry into classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center, and US Attorney General Merrick Garland has been asked to review the papers. Mr Biden’s lawyer said they relate to the period when he was vice-president. But it is unclear what the documents relate to, the level of classification involved or why they were there. A source familiar with the matter told CBS News the batch did not contain nuclear secrets and had been contained in a folder in a box with other unclassified papers.(BBC)…[+]

A group of 24 volunteers have gone on trial on the Greek island of Lesbos more than four years after they were arrested for carrying out migrant rescue missions off Greece. Their case was denounced in a European Parliament report as Europe’s “largest case of criminalisation of solidarity”.  Among the defendants accused of a string of misdemeanours is refugee and swimmer Sarah Mardini. A movie recently told the story of how she escaped with her sister from Syria. The volunteers were initially detained in 2018 for several months on suspicion of human trafficking, but the charges facing the group in Mytilini on Tuesday involved espionage, illegal access to state communications, money laundering and assisting criminal activity. Police said in 2018 that the volunteers had collected information about refugee flows from the Turkish coast to the Greek islands of Lesbos and Samos, and provided direct assistance to organised trafficking groups.(BBC)…[+]

An Iranian journalist who interviewed families of protesters who had been sentenced to death has been arrested, his wife and Iranian media say. Mehdi Beik was detained on Thursday night, reformist newspaper Etemad, which Mr Beik works for, said. The reasons for his arrest are not known, but it comes amid an ongoing crackdown and anti-government protests. Iran has been rocked by months of protests since the death of an Iranian Kurdish woman in police custody. Protests erupted in September following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”. They quickly spread across the country, becoming the most serious challenge to the Islamic Republic since its inception in 1979. In a tweet on Friday, Mr Beik’s wife, Zahra, said he had been “detained by agents of the Ministry of Information and his cell phone, laptop and belongings were seized”. Mr Beik is the head of the politics desk at Etemad.(BBC)…[+]

A unilateral ceasefire called by Russia appears to have had little effect on fighting on the ground, with officials accusing each other of opening fire on several areas. A Ukrainian rescue worker was killed in a Russian strike, while Russian state TV said the city of Donetsk was hit. Russia ordered a 36-hour unilateral ceasefire, to coincide with the Orthodox Christmas. Ukraine rejected it saying Moscow might use it to reinforce troops. Russia’s defence ministry insisted it was observing the truce along the entire “line of contact”, starting at 12:00 Moscow time (09:00 GMT) on Friday. It blamed Kyiv for continuing to shell Russian positions and settlements in occupied Ukraine. Air alerts were reported across Ukraine shortly after the purported truce began, and then the governor of Kherson region said a strike on a fire station left rescuer dead and four other people wounded in the main city, liberated in November by Ukrainian forces.(BBC)…[+]

Police in Kenya are investigating the death of young fashion designer and LGBTQ activist Edwin Chiloba after his body was found dumped in a metal box by the roadside near the town of Eldoret. The motive for the killing is unknown, a police spokesperson is quoted in the Star newspaper as saying. But rights organisations in Kenya, where gay sex is outlawed, are linking it to his sexuality. One group estimates that more than half of LGBTQ Kenyans have been assaulted. “Words cannot even explain how we as a community are feeling right now. Another soul lost due to hate. You will be missed,” rights organisation galck+ posted on Twitter.

“Edwin’s death reminds us that queer bodies continue to be under attack all over the country,” the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission wrote on Instagram. Tributes on social media describe Chiloba, who was in his mid-20s, as “an amazing human” and an “iconic fashion designer”.(BBC)…[+]

Unclaimed bodies found decaying in an outdoor shed have been buried alongside others in a mass grave in Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby. The burial took place after a viral social media video appeared to show excess bodies from the Port Moresby General Hospital morgue in the shed. Of the 92 bodies buried – not all found in the shed – 40 of them were children. The hospital said the government had allocated additional funding to the mortuary for 2023. The viral video showed at least 10 bodies, wrapped in blankets, on bunks and in hospital beds in an outdoor shed. It is currently the wet season in Papua New Guinea, with temperatures hovering around the high 20 to mid-30C. Although the mortuary is based at the hospital, the local government authority, the National Capital District Commission, is responsible for it. The morgue has struggled to keep up with demand for space as the population of Port Moresby has grown.(BBC)…[+]

The Anglican Church and United Kingdom have expressed “dismay” at an attack on a historic cemetery close to Jerusalem’s walled Old City. More than 30 graves at the Protestant Cemetery on Mount Zion were desecrated on Sunday. Crosses were broken and headstones toppled and smashed. Jewish extremists have been blamed for the vandalism. “We have noticed that hatred speech and hatred crimes are on the rise,” Anglican Archbishop Hosam Naoum said. Standing next to the vandalised grave of the second Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, Samuel Gobat, he said there had been a recent increase in spitting at Christians and attacks on their holy sites. “This is only an indication that we are not in a place where people can tolerate each other or accept each other,” Archbishop Naoum added. “We see more exclusion, more segregation and that is what really grieves us in this city of Jerusalem.”(BBC)…[+]

US actor Jeremy Renner has thanked fans for their support after he was seriously injured by his snow plough. Sharing a picture of his bruised face on Instagram, Renner said he was “too messed up now to type”. The Avengers star was airlifted to hospital on Sunday after the accident outside his home in Reno, Nevada. Renner was run over by his own snow plough, which weighs at least 14,330lb (6.5 tonnes) – three times as heavy as a car – the local sheriff said. He suffered blunt chest trauma and orthopaedic injuries, his publicist said on Monday. At that time he was in a stable but critical condition in intensive care. In an Instagram post from his hospital bed on Tuesday evening, Renner, 51, wrote: “Thank you all for your kind words. I’m too messed up now to type. But I send love to you all.”(BBC)…[+]