Blog

Nearly 70% of deaths in the Gaza war, which have been verified by the United Nations, were women and children, its Human Rights Office has said.The UN has analysed killings in the first 11 months of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Palestinian territory and managed to verify 8,119 victims, including 2,036 women and 3,588 children. The 8,119 figure is considerably lower than the 43,000 deaths reported over the course of the 13-month-long war by the Hamas-run health ministry, although the UN does see these numbers as reliable.Out of the verified deaths between 7 October 2023 and 2 September 2024, children represented almost half of the victims (44%) while women accounted for 26%.The highest number of deaths was among children aged between five and nine years old, closely followed by those ag...

Chimpanzees carry out tasks better when they are watched by others - just like many people do at work - a new study has suggested.A research team in Japan suggested the great apes are receptive to the audience effect - where a person's behaviour changes when they believe someone else is watching - which was long thought to be unique to humans. Christen Lin, of Kyoto University in Japan, said: "It was very surprising to find that chimpanzees are affected in their task performance by audience members, and by human audience members nonetheless."One might not expect a chimp to particularly care if another species is watching them perform a task, but the fact that they seem to be affected by human audiences even depending on the difficulty of the task suggests that this relationship is more com...

Donald Trump has named Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff in his first major appointment as president-elect.She will be the first female in history to take up the role - one of the most important non-elected posts in Washington. In his victory speech, Mr Trump described her as an "ice maiden" and has credited her with his "best-run" campaign.Here's what we know about her so far.Daughter of American footballer Susie Wiles grew up in New Jersey. Her father was the late American footballer Pat Summerall.Before his death in 2013, he credited her with helping him get sober and checking in to an alcohol rehab programme. "I hadn't been there much for my kids," he wrote in his memoir. "But Susan's letter made it clear that I'd hurt them even in my absence."Ms Wiles's first job in po...

A people smuggler who helped migrants cross the Channel on small boats and posted videos from successful customers has been jailed for 17 years for immigration offences.Amanj Hasan Zada, 34, from Preston, advertised on social media and shared clips of people thanking him for his services. The National Crime Agency (NCA) linked him to three separate crossings from France to the UK in November and December last year involving Kurdish migrants. Image: One clip showed migrants on a boat thanking and clapping Zada. Pic: NCA Image: A group who made it to Macedonia also paid tribute to him. Pic: NCA The groups had travelled through Eastern Europe into Germany, Be...

Ireland's prime minister has set a date for a general election and will ask the president to dissolve parliament ahead of voting.Simon Harris announced the polling date as 29 November, saying the "time is now right" to ask the Irish people for a new mandate. It means a relatively short campaign of just three weeks will be run ahead of polling day, bringing to an end the four-and-a-half-year lifespan of the historic Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Green Party coalition government.After the 2020 general election delivered an inconclusive result, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, two parties forged from opposing sides of Ireland's Civil War of the 1920s, agreed to set aside almost a century of animosity and share power.The Green Party joined the administration as a junior partner. This breaking news stor...