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France’s foreign minister urged Israel on Tuesday to allow international journalists into the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza to “bear witness” to the situation after 21 months of war.The United Nations and human rights groups say Gaza and its population of more than two million people face famine-like conditions, with near-daily deaths of people queueing for food aid.”I ask that the free and independent press be allowed to access Gaza to show what is happening there and to bear witness,” Barrot told France Inter radio.Jean-Noel Barrot spoke after the AFP news agency said it was concerned about “the appalling situation of its staff in the Gaza Strip”, warning that the lives of its freelancers were in danger and urging Israel to allow them and their families to leave the occupied coastal territory.Asked if France would help these journalists leave Gaza, Barrot said that France was “addressing the issue” and hoped to be able to evacuate some freelancers working with French journalists “in the coming weeks”.Israel accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering in the war, which started after the Palestinian militant group carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.Israel’s foreign ministry on Monday accused Hamas of “deliberately acting to increase friction and harm to civilians who come to receive humanitarian aid”.It was responding after Britain, France, Australia, Canada and 21 other countries on Monday said that the war “must end now”, as the “suffering of civilians in Gaza” had “reached new depths”.- ‘No energy left’ -AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip said on Tuesday that chronic food shortages were affecting their ability to work.Palestinian text, photo and video journalists working for the international news agency said that desperate hunger and lack of clean water is making them ill and exhausted.”We have no energy left due to hunger and lack of food,” SAID Omar al-Qattaa, a 35-year-old photographer shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year.AFP contributor Khadr Al-Zanoun, 45, in Gaza City, said that he suffered from constant headaches and dizziness due to lack of food and water, and he had even collapsed because of it.”Since the war began, I’ve lost about 30 kilogrammes (66 pounds) and become skeletal compared to how I looked before the war,” he said.On Monday, a staff association at AFP called the Societe des Journalistes (Society of Journalists) sounded the alarm, urging “immediate intervention” to help reporters working with the agency in Gaza.The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Monday that it was “receiving desperate messages of starvation” from its Gaza staff, as the Palestinian territory experiences surging levels of hunger.With food scarce or unaffordable, doctors, the civil defence agency and medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have reported a spike in malnutrition cases in recent weeks.The head of Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa Medical Complex, on Tuesday said that 21 children had died due to “malnutrition and starvation” in the Palestinian territory in the past three days.The civil defence agency on Sunday reported at least three infant deaths from “severe hunger and malnutrition” in the previous week.Israel on Monday said there was “no ban or restriction on the entry of baby formula or baby food into Gaza”.- ‘No longer any justification’ -AFP evacuated its eight staff members and their families from Gaza between January and April 2024.The agency said the situation of its freelancers had now also become “untenable”.”Since October 7, Israel has blocked access to the Gaza Strip for all international journalists. In this context, the work of our Palestinian freelancers is crucial to informing the world,” it said.”But their lives are in danger, so we urge the Israeli authorities to allow them to evacuate immediate along with their families.”Barrot said there was “no longer any justification for the Israeli army’s military operations in Gaza”.”This is an offensive that will exacerbate an already catastrophic situation and cause new forced displacements of populations, which we condemn in the strongest terms.”EU crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib on Tuesday also urged Israel to allow journalists into Gaza.”Israel must allow the press to do its work and guarantee its access. Journalists and civilians cannot, and must not, be targets,” she said.

France’s Culture Minister Rachida Dati is to go on trial accused of corruption and abuse of power while she was a member of European Parliament, a judicial source told AFP Tuesday.Dati, a 59-year-old who holds ambitions to become Paris mayor next year, was charged in 2019 on suspicions she lobbied for the Renault-Nissan carmaking group while at the European Union institution. She denies the allegations.Dati is accused of accepting 900,000 euros ($1.06 million at current rates) in lawyer’s fees between 2010 and 2012 from a Netherlands-based subsidiary of Renault-Nissan, but not really working for them, while she was an MEP from 2009 to 2019.Investigations have sought to determine whether she was in fact lobbying in the European Parliament for the carmaker, an activity that is forbidden.French investigating magistrates also ordered that Carlos Ghosn, the ex-tycoon of Renault-Nissan, be tried, the judicial source said.The 71-year-old, who has been living in Lebanon for years after escaping arrest in Japan, has also rejected the charges against him.A hearing on September 29 will decide on the date of the trial, the source said.According to another source following the case, the trial could be held after the Paris municipal elections, which will be held in March next year.Dati, a daughter of working-class North African immigrants, has repeatedly sought without success to have the charges against her quashed.Ghosn, the former chairman and chief executive of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on suspicion of financial misconduct, before being sacked by Nissan’s board in a unanimous decision.He jumped bail late the following year and made a dramatic escape from Japan hidden in an audio-equipment box, landing in Beirut, where he remains as an international fugitive.Both Japan and France have sought his arrest.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that he would meet his Chinese counterparts in Stockholm next week for tariff talks, eyeing an extension to a mid-August deadline for levies to snap back to steeper levels.Bessent told Fox Business that he will be speaking with Chinese officials on Monday and Tuesday for a third round …

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A severe heatwave sweeping Iran has disrupted water and electricity supplies in much of the country, with reservoir levels falling to their lowest in a century, state media said Tuesday.Extreme temperatures, which began on Friday, are expected to ease gradually by Thursday, according to meteorological authorities cited by state television. Government offices in at least 15 of Iran’s 31 provinces, including the capital Tehran, have been ordered to close on Wednesday in a bid to conserve water and electricity.The measure come as temperatures in parts of southern and southwestern Iran topped 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said authorities would extend office closures “if it deems necessary”, while warning of the “critical situation” in Tehran regarding water supplies.At least 10 provincial capitals recorded temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius on Monday, including Tehran, the meteorological agency said.The heatwave has been accompanied by drought, with the capital experiencing its lowest rainfall in 60 year, according to the Tehran Provincial Water Supply Company.Water levels in the reservoirs which supply Tehran have fallen to “their lowest level in a century”, the company said, advising people to use a tank and pump to cope with mains disruption.Tehran provincial governor, Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian said the dams are only filled to 14 percent, adding that the capital is going through its fifth year of drought.- ‘Crisis’ -Many residents reported water supply cuts lasting several hours in the past few days.”It’s not just the heat — there’s also no electricity and no water,” said Ms. Moini, a 52-year-old housewife from Tehran, who only gave her family name.”Our whole lives have basically fallen apart.”President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Sunday that “the water crisis is more serious than people are saying”.Many Iranian newspapers carried photographs of the low reservoir levels on their front pages on Tuesday. In Iran’s hottest provincial capital, Ahvaz in Khuzestan in the southwest, residents complained that scheduled power cuts had continued despite temperatures nearing 50°C on Monday.In Tehran, drivers were forced to stop to prevent their radiators overheating in temperatures exceeding 40°C.According to the Fars news agency, the Tehran Provincial Water Supply Company plans to distribute drinking water in plastic bags if the mains supply cuts continue.While heatwaves are not uncommon in Iran, last July the government ordered banks and public institutions to close amid soaring temperatures.At the time, officials said electricity consumption had reached a record high of over 79,000 megawatts.

Amnesty International on Tuesday called for a war crimes investigation into Israel’s deadly air attack on Tehran’s Evin prison during last month’s 12-day war.The strike, confirmed by Israel, killed 79 people, according to a provisional tally by Iranian authorities.It also destroyed part of the administrative building in Evin, a large, heavily fortified complex in the north of Tehran, which rights groups say holds political prisoners and foreign nationals.Amnesty International, an international non-governmental organisation that campaigns to protect human rights, called the Israeli attack “deliberate” and “a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.The air strikes should therefore be “criminally investigated as war crimes”, it said.”The Israeli military carried out multiple air strikes on Evin prison, killing and injuring scores of civilians and causing extensive damage and destruction in at least six locations across the prison complex,” Amnesty said, basing its assessment on what it said were verified video footage, satellite images and witness statements.There was nothing to suggest that Evin prison could justifiably be seen as a “legal military objective”, it said.The strike on Evin was part of a bombardment campaign Israel launched on Iranian targets on June 13 with the stated aim of stopping the Islamic republic from acquiring nuclear weapon capabilities.The victims of the June 23 attack included administrative staff, guards, prisoners and visiting relatives, as well as people living nearby. Between 1,500 and 2,000 prisoners were being held at the time in the prison.Among them were Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French nationals arrested three years ago accused of espionage.They were not injured in the attack, their families said, and have since been transferred to a different location.France, and other western governments, consider them and others to be “hostages” taken by the Iranian authorities for leverage in negotiations.

Swapping his monk’s habit for overalls and a sun hat, Father Christian-Marie knelt alongside volunteers in the freshly dug earth, planting grape vines to replace those damaged by wildfires that swept through central Israel earlier this year.Wine production at Latrun monastery dates back 135 years, when the French monks first arrived. Cultivating fruit is central to both their spiritual practice and livelihood.The monks say the wildfires that broke out in late April damaged about five hectares (12 acres) of vineyard — roughly a third of their crop.Undeterred, the monks called for help, drawing dozens of volunteers who busied themselves digging holes and planting stakes under the blazing sun.Father Christian-Marie, who has spent almost 28 years at the monastery, said planting fresh vines symbolised optimism for the future.”For me, it’s quite important when I live here in this monastery to pray for peace,” he told AFP.”To plant a vineyard is a sign of hope, because if we thought that tomorrow the land will be bombed and will not exist, we wouldn’t do this work,” he added.Working in a pensive hush, volunteers carried trays of sapling vines to be planted in long rows in a patch of the monastery’s land untouched by the flames.Robed monks handed out stakes and delicately pressed the plants into the earth.”Planting is something exciting, you plant and it will grow. It will give fruit, and the fruit will give wine. And wine will make the heart of the human happy,” said Noga Eshed, 74, a volunteer from Tel Aviv.For her, the exercise signified a reconnection with nature.”I see people touching the ground, the earth. And it’s not very common. We are very disconnected these days,” she added, trowel in hand.Eshed, who has volunteered at the monastery on previous occasions, said the brothers there were “good friends”.Latrun’s monks are Trappists, a Roman Catholic order centred on contemplation and simplicity.- ‘In God’s hands’ -Fanned by high temperatures and strong winds, wildfires spread rapidly through wooded areas along the main Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway on April 30.The flames travelled right up to the edge of Latrun monastery, prompting the evacuation of the 20 or so brothers who live there.”It was very hard because we are not used to getting out of our monastery and we have some very old brothers,” Brother Athanase told AFP.The monks initially feared it had burned down, he added, but the monastery was spared although swathes of its agricultural land were destroyed.As well as vineyards, Latrun has around 5,000 olive trees, of which roughly 1,000 were entirely burnt down to the root in the blaze.Brother Athanase estimated that around 70 percent of the olive trees were in some way damaged and would take around four years to recover.Last year the monastery produced three tonnes of olive oil, but “there’ll be no production this year”, he said.”It’s difficult for us because we are living off our production… but we are not afraid because life is always growing up,” he added with a slight smile, surrounded by scorched earth.He was grateful for the assistance provided by the volunteers and said it was important “to know that people like monks in the Holy Land”.Climate change is driving up temperatures, decreasing precipitation and increasing the frequency of extreme weather events in Israel.Standing in the newly planted vineyard, Father Alois said he hoped the monastery would not face a blaze as devastating in the future but that the monks were now better prepared after installing a new water system.Ultimately, he said, “we are in God’s hands”.