British surgeon says witnessed ‘indiscriminate bombing of the entire population' in Gaza
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France 24
25-07-2025
- France 24
Aid groups warn of starving children as European powers discuss Gaza
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that a quarter of the young children and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers it had screened at its clinics last week were malnourished, a day after the United Nations said one in five children in Gaza City were suffering from malnutrition. With fears of mass starvation growing, Britain, France and Germany were set to hold an emergency call to push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and discuss steps towards Palestinian statehood. "I will hold an emergency call with E3 partners tomorrow, where we will discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need while pulling together all the steps necessary to build a lasting peace," British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said. The call comes after hopes of a new ceasefire in Gaza faded on Thursday when Israel and the United States quit indirect negotiations with Hamas in Qatar. US envoy Steve Witkoff accused the Palestinian militant group of not "acting in good faith". President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France would formally recognise a Palestinian state in September, drawing a furious rebuke from Israel. 'Mass starvation' More than 100 aid and human rights groups warned this week that "mass starvation" was spreading in Gaza. Israel has rejected accusations it is responsible for the deepening crisis, which the World Health Organization has called "man-made". Israel placed the Gaza Strip under an aid blockade in March, which it only partially eased two months later. The trickle of aid since then has been controlled by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, replacing the longstanding UN-led distribution system. Aid groups have refused to work with it, accusing it of aiding Israeli military goals. The GHF system, in which Gazans have to travel long distances and join huge queues to reach one of four sites, has often proved deadly, with the UN saying that more than 750 Palestinian aid-seekers have been killed by Israeli forces near GHF centres since late May. An AFP photographer saw bloodied patients, wounded while attempting to get humanitarian aid, being treated on the floor of Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis on Thursday. Israel has refused to return to the UN-led system, saying that it allowed Hamas to hijack aid for its own benefit. Accusing Israel of the "weaponisation of food", MSF said that: "Across screenings of children aged six months to five years old and pregnant and breastfeeding women, at MSF facilities last week, 25 per cent were malnourished." It said malnutrition cases had quadrupled since May 18 at its Gaza City clinic and that the facility was enrolling 25 new patients every day. Aid groups and medics have also warned that a lack of food is preventing the sick and wounded from recovering. 'High risk of dying' On Thursday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said that one in five children in Gaza City were malnourished. Agency chief Philippe Lazzarini said: "Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they don't get the treatment they urgently need." He also warned that "UNRWA frontline health workers, are surviving on one small meal a day, often just lentils, if at all". Lazzarini said that the agency had "the equivalent of 6,000 loaded trucks of food and medical supplies" ready to send into Gaza if Israel allowed "unrestricted and uninterrupted" access to the territory. Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,587 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Hamas's October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Euronews
23-07-2025
- Euronews
Taliban deny British couple held in Afghan prison are being mistreated
The Taliban said on Wednesday that efforts to free a British couple from an Afghan prison are under way and denied that their rights are being violated, despite concerns from their relatives and UN officials. Peter and Barbie Reynolds, who are in their 70s, were arrested in early February after being taken from their home in central Bamiyan province to the capital, Kabul. The couple run an organisation that provides education and training programmes. Family members in the UK have said they are being mistreated and held on undisclosed charges. UN rights experts on Monday called for the pair's release, warning that their health was deteriorating rapidly and that they were at risk of irreparable harm or even death. The Taliban's Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi rejected concerns about rights violations. "They are in constant contact with their families," Muttaqi told reporters at a media briefing in Kabul on Wednesday. "Consular services are available. Efforts are underway to secure their release. These steps have not yet been completed. Their human rights are being respected. They are being given full access to treatment, contact and accommodation," he added. But Muttaqi did not outline what steps were being taken to secure the couple's release. According to the UN experts, the Reynolds' spell in detention included time in a maximum-security facility and later in underground cells before being moved to above-ground cells at the General Directorate of Intelligence in Kabul. Peter needs heart medication and, during his detention, suffered two eye infections as well as intermittent tremors in his head and down his left arm. He recently collapsed, the UN statement said, while Barbie suffers from anaemia and remains weak. "It is inhumane to keep them locked up in such degrading conditions and more worrying when their health is so fragile," said the UN experts, who called for their immediate transfer to a civilian hospital. The couple's adult children said in a statement on Sunday that Peter and Barbie have no bed or furniture and sleep on a mattress on the floor. Peter's face is red, peeling and bleeding, likely due to the return of skin cancer that urgently needs removing, they said. "We, their four adult children, have written privately to the Taliban leadership twice, pleading for them to uphold their beliefs of compassion, mercy, fairness, and human dignity," the children said. Officials from the UK Foreign Office (FCDO) visited the couple last week, the family said. "We are supporting the family of two British nationals who are detained in Afghanistan," an FCDO spokesperson said.
Local France
22-07-2025
- Local France
Why has the UK banned imports of French and Italian cheeses?
Bad news for UK residents who like iconic French cheeses such as artisan-produced brie, roquefort and reblochon or Italian classics such as pecorino ... these will no longer be available after the UK banned their imports from France or Italy. However if you are in those countries - or any other EU country - you can enjoy them to your heart's content. So what's going on? The UK's agriculture ministry Defra says that all imports of cheeses made in France or Italy with unpasturised milk are now banned. This affects any cheese made with raw milk or unpasturised milk - including some of France's most famous cheeses such as Vacherin, Roquefort, Mimolette and Tomme. Brie made by small artisan producers is likely to be unpasturised, although factory-produced brie can be made with pasturised milk. Advertisement It affects fewer Italian cheeses as the big names such as Parmesan are made with pasturised milk, but artisan-produced mozzarella is often made with raw milk, as is pecorino. You can find a full list of the affected cheeses here . Any cheeses produced before May 23rd are exempt, if the importer can produce the necessary paperwork - meaning that shortages will become apparent gradually, as some aged cheeses will continue to be imported over the next few months. The rules mostly affect commercial imports, but theoretically also apply to holidaymakers wanting to bring back a wheel of lovely, stinky European cheese. All of the above cheeses remain on sale throughout the EU. So why the UK ban? It's due to an outbreak of a cattle disease with the imaginative name of Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) which, you will be surprised to hear, causes lumps on the skin of affected cattle. In France the disease is known as dermatose nodulaire contagieuse (DNC). It is spread by the bites of flies and mosquitoes. Italy confirmed its first case in Sardinia on June 21st, 2025, leading the UK to revoke Italy's LSD-free status and suspend unpasturised imports. France reported its first LSD case near Chambéry on June 29th. Quarantine zones are in place in the affected areas with a vaccination programme for the cattle, but cheese sales have not been suspended. The UK's import ban also affects the import of live cattle. Can Lumpy Skin Disease be spread by eating cheese? No, there is no risk to humans from eating cheese that has been produced by a cow suffering from LSD, and in fact humans cannot get LSD under any circumstances. The UK government says that it is acting to prevent the spread of the virus among British cattle - hence the ban on live cattle imports. It says that the virus can survive in raw milk, including cheese made with raw milk. So if a British cow ate a brie sandwich then it could get Lumpy Skin Disease. That sounds like a small risk? Frustrated cheese sellers in the UK say that the ban is disproportionate. Cheese-mongers told The Grocer magazine that the ban is "costly, illogical and deeply frustrating", saying there is no risk to people from these cheeses. Advertisement Shane Holland, a cheese retailer based in London, told UK newspaper The Independent : "The bigger question is, what is the ban for? "We completely understand restricting the movement of live cattle. LSD is an infectious disease from cattle to cattle. But if we're talking about from cattle to milk, there's no cattle-to-human transmission at all. Even if there was the tiniest risk, it's not being consumed by cattle anyway." A Defra spokesperson stood by the ban, saying: 'This government will do whatever it takes to protect British farmers and their herds from disease,' adding that most Italian cheeses, such as Parmesan, Mozzarella and Gorgonzola, should be unaffected as they are largely pasteurised. However the UK is not the only country to impose a ban - Canada has also banned imports of unpasturised cheese from France, Italy and Switzerland. Advertisement Is this why Eurostar is telling me I can't take a ham sandwich on my journey from Paris to London? No, that's a different issue, it's because of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in continental Europe. Germany detected an outbreak in January but has since been declared FMD-free, however subsequent outbreaks in Hungary and Slovakia have persisted. In response, the UK recently announced that it has banned imports of meat or dairy products from European countries where the virus has been detected, as well as Austria due to the outbreak in neighbouring Hungary. However travellers are being advised that meat and dairy products from all EU countries are banned, which is why you may have received an email from Eurostar or ferry companies if you have recently travelled from France to the UK. Foot and mouth disease does not affect humans but is highly contagious among cattle. A major outbreak in the UK in 2001 led to the culling of more than six million animals and cost the economy billions, devastating the livestock industry and tourism.
