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Representatives of dozens of climate vulnerable islands and African nations have stormed out of high-stakes negotiations over a climate funding goal.The more than 200 countries gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, are trying to agree a new financial settlement to channel money to developing countries to both curb and adapt to climate change. The least developed countries like Mozambique and low-lying island nations like Samoa say a portion of the fund should be allocated to them, given they are bearing the brunt of climate impacts like rising seas and drought.Samoa's minister of natural resources and environment Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster is one of the representatives who walked out."We have just walked out, we came here to this COP for a fair deal and we feel we haven't been heard," he said....

Facing the threat of an attack from Russia, Sir Keir Starmer has finally revealed he will "set out the path" to raise defence spending to 2.5% of national income in the spring.But merely offering a timeframe to reveal an even-further-off-in-the-future date for when expenditure will increase to a level most analysts agree is still woefully short of what is required is hardly the most convincing display of deterrence and overwhelming strength. What the prime minister should perhaps instead be doing is making very clear to Vladimir Putin - with new NATO-wide military exercises and the immediate hardening of UK defences - that his government is prepared for any Russian strike and the devastating cost to Moscow would be so astronomical as to make even the thought of hitting a UK target utter ma...

At least 11 people have been killed and 23 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the attack "completely destroyed" an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.Footage broadcast by Lebanon's Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it. Image: The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack - the fourth targeting the centre this week.At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sou...