A UN special committee has said that Israeli policy and practice in Gaza is “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.

The committee, set up in 1968 to monitor the Israeli occupation, also said in its annual report that there were serious concerns that Israel was “using starvation as a weapon of war” in the 13-month-old conflict, and was running an “apartheid system” in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The International court of justice (ICJ) is investigating a claim put forward by South Africa that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is genocidal, and has ordered Israel to take interim measures to prevent genocide taking place.

The new report is by the special committee to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories. The committee, set up in the aftermath of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, is made up of representatives from three member states: Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Senegal.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli government, which has portrayed the UN in general as obsessed with, and biased against, the country. The Israeli mission informed the body earlier this month that the government would stop cooperating with Unrwa, the main relief agency providing welfare services to Palestinians, within the coming three months.

The UN special committee said that its requests to visit Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and Israel received no response, so its staff were not able to visit the areas it was scrutinising. It said its research raised “serious concerns of breaches of international humanitarian and human rights laws in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including starvation as a weapon of war, the possibility of genocide in Gaza and an apartheid system in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem”.

The report went on to say that the developments over the course of the past year had led the committee to conclude “the policies and practices of Israel during the reporting period are consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.

“Civilians have been indiscriminately and disproportionally killed en masse in Gaza,” the report said. It also referred to the “life-threatening conditions imposed on Palestinians in Gaza through warfare and restrictions on humanitarian aid – resulting in physical destruction, increased miscarriages and stillbirths”.

The committee further accused Israel of deliberately using “food as a weapon of warfare”.

“Since the escalation of the conflict, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies depriving civilians of food, water, and fuel, indicating their intent to instrumentalise the provision of basic necessities for political and military objectives,” the report said.

In January the ICJ responded to the genocide case brought by South Africa by ordering South Africa to take interim steps pending the court’s ruling, telling the Israeli government to refrain from acts violating the Genocide Convention, to prevent and punish incitement to genocide, to ensure humanitarian aid reached Gaza citizens and to preserve evidence of genocide.

Israel rejected the court’s ruling, and the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed that his country’s commitment to international law was “unwavering”.

Israel is using evacuation orders to pursue the “deliberate and massive forced displacement” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, which says the policy amounts to crimes against humanity.

The US-based group added it had collected evidence that suggested “the war crime of forcible transfer [of the civilian population]”, describing it as “a grave breach of the Geneva conventions and a crime under the Rome statute of the international criminal court”.

The report was published amid mounting evidence that Israel is accelerating its efforts to cut the Gaza Strip in two with a buffer zone and is building new infrastructure to support a prolonged military presence, with an increased pace of demolitions and destruction.

Residents in northern Gaza said Israeli forces were besieging displaced families and the remaining population, which some estimated at a few thousand, ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp from Gaza City.

Men were held for questioning, while women and children were allowed to continue towards Gaza City, residents and Palestinian medics said.

Calling for Israel’s policy of forced displacement to be investigated by the international criminal court, Human Rights Watch also urged targeted sanctions against Israel including the cessation of arms sales.

The report by the prominent international rights group, titled ‘Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged’: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, takes aim at one of Israel’s most controversial policies: the use of evacuation orders, which have driven mass displacement inside Gaza, with many people being displaced on multiple occasions.

That has led to the displacement of more than 90% of the population – 1.9 million Palestinians – and the widespread destruction of much of Gaza over the last 13 months.

The HRW report is in stark contrast to the assessment by the US state department earlier this week that Israel had not breached American laws on blocking aid supplies after the lapse of a 30-day deadline it gave Israel to boost humanitarian aid access in Gaza or risk having some military assistance cut off.

The fourth Geneva convention stipulates that in territory occupied by a belligerent, displacement of civilians must only occur in exceptional circumstances for “imperative military reasons” or for the population’s security and requires safeguards and proper accommodation to receive displaced civilians. The UN’s guiding principles on internal displacement also state that, in all circumstances parties to conflict must “prevent and avoid conditions that might lead to displacement of persons”.

Despite those conditions, Israel has repeatedly used evacuation orders – in Lebanon as well as Gaza – to forcibly displace civilians even though that the evacuation orders have no legal status.

While Israeli leaders and the Israel Defense Forces have justified the use of the evacuation orders, arguing that their use demonstrates Israel’s adherence to protecting civilians in wartime, the group says that they have instead harmed Palestinians.

“Israel claims that the displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population has been justified for the security of the population and for imperative military reasons, and it has taken the requisite steps to safeguard civilians,” says the report.

“Because Palestinian armed groups are fighting from among the civilian population, Israeli officials claim, the military has evacuated civilians to enable it to target fighters and destroy the groups’ infrastructure, such as tunnels while limiting harm to civilians, such that the mass displacements were lawful.

“[But] rather than ensuring civilians’ security, military “evacuation orders” have caused grave harm,” the report finds. “Demonstrably, Israel has not evacuated Palestinian civilians in Gaza for their security, as they have not been secure during evacuations or on arrival at designated safe zones. Nor has Israel convincingly claimed that it had a military imperative for forcing most Palestinian civilians from their homes.”

Under international law, Israel – as the occupying power in Gaza – is under a legal obligation to facilitate the return of displaced persons to their homes in areas where hostilities have ceased.

Instead, the reports say, Israel has “rendered large areas of Gaza uninhabitable” by carrying out demolitions, intentionally destroying or severely damaging civilian infrastructure, including schools and religious and cultural institutions, including after hostilities had largely ceased in an area.

HRW added that the permanent displacement of civilians to create military buffer zones within the Gaza Strip would also amount to ethnic cleansing.

According to a report in the leftwing Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israeli forces in Gaza are clearing large areas with the apparent intention to remain inside the territory until at least the end of 2025.

The newspaper reported that a “combat graph for 2025” distributed in recent weeks to Israeli soldiers and commanders in Gaza describes “exposing large areas” in the coastal strip: destroying existing buildings and infrastructure in addition to the construction of roads and preparations for building more permanent military facilities.

Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “The Israeli government cannot claim to be keeping Palestinians safe when it kills them along escape routes, bombs so-called safe zones, and cuts off food, water, and sanitation.

“Israel has blatantly violated its obligation to ensure Palestinians can return home, razing virtually everything in large areas.”

The Guardian emailed the Israeli military for comment.

Israel’s campaign in the north of Gaza, and the evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the area, have fuelled claims from Palestinians that it is clearing the area for use as a buffer zone and potentially for a return of Jewish settlers.

“The scenes of the 1948 catastrophe are being repeated. Israel is repeating its massacres, displacement and destruction,” said Saed, 48, a resident of Beit Lahiya, who arrived in Gaza City on Wednesday.

“North Gaza is being turned into a large buffer zone; Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing under the sight and hearing of the impotent world,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

Saed was referring to the 1948 Middle East Arab-Israeli war, which gave birth to the state of Israel and saw the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their home towns and villages.

The Israeli military has denied any such intention, and the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he does not want to reverse the 2005 withdrawal of settlers from Gaza. But hardliners in his government have talked openly about going back.

Israeli airstrikes pounded Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs for a second consecutive day on Wednesday, as Lebanon waited to hear Washington’s latest ceasefire proposals after a US official expressed hope a truce could be reached.

More than seven weeks after Israel went on the offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah, its latest airstrikes levelled half a dozen buildings in the Beirut suburb known as Dahiyeh and killed six people in a village south of the capital.

Israel is using evacuation orders to pursue the “deliberate and massive forced displacement” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, which says the policy amounts to crimes against humanity.

The US-based group added it had collected evidence that suggested “the war crime of forcible transfer [of the civilian population]”, describing it as “a grave breach of the Geneva conventions and a crime under the Rome statute of the international criminal court”.

The report was published amid mounting evidence that Israel is accelerating its efforts to cut the Gaza Strip in two with a buffer zone and is building new infrastructure to support a prolonged military presence, with an increased pace of demolitions and destruction.

Residents in northern Gaza said Israeli forces were besieging displaced families and the remaining population, which some estimated at a few thousand, ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp from Gaza City.

Men were held for questioning, while women and children were allowed to continue towards Gaza City, residents and Palestinian medics said.

Calling for Israel’s policy of forced displacement to be investigated by the international criminal court, Human Rights Watch also urged targeted sanctions against Israel including the cessation of arms sales.

The report by the prominent international rights group, titled ‘Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged’: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, takes aim at one of Israel’s most controversial policies: the use of evacuation orders, which have driven mass displacement inside Gaza, with many people being displaced on multiple occasions.

That has led to the displacement of more than 90% of the population – 1.9 million Palestinians – and the widespread destruction of much of Gaza over the last 13 months.

The HRW report is in stark contrast to the assessment by the US state department earlier this week that Israel had not breached American laws on blocking aid supplies after the lapse of a 30-day deadline it gave Israel to boost humanitarian aid access in Gaza or risk having some military assistance cut off.

The fourth Geneva convention stipulates that in territory occupied by a belligerent, displacement of civilians must only occur in exceptional circumstances for “imperative military reasons” or for the population’s security and requires safeguards and proper accommodation to receive displaced civilians. The UN’s guiding principles on internal displacement also state that, in all circumstances parties to conflict must “prevent and avoid conditions that might lead to displacement of persons”.

Despite those conditions, Israel has repeatedly used evacuation orders – in Lebanon as well as Gaza – to forcibly displace civilians even though that the evacuation orders have no legal status.

While Israeli leaders and the Israel Defense Forces have justified the use of the evacuation orders, arguing that their use demonstrates Israel’s adherence to protecting civilians in wartime, the group says that they have instead harmed Palestinians.

“Israel claims that the displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population has been justified for the security of the population and for imperative military reasons, and it has taken the requisite steps to safeguard civilians,” says the report.

“Because Palestinian armed groups are fighting from among the civilian population, Israeli officials claim, the military has evacuated civilians to enable it to target fighters and destroy the groups’ infrastructure, such as tunnels while limiting harm to civilians, such that the mass displacements were lawful.

“[But] rather than ensuring civilians’ security, military “evacuation orders” have caused grave harm,” the report finds. “Demonstrably, Israel has not evacuated Palestinian civilians in Gaza for their security, as they have not been secure during evacuations or on arrival at designated safe zones. Nor has Israel convincingly claimed that it had a military imperative for forcing most Palestinian civilians from their homes.”

Under international law, Israel – as the occupying power in Gaza – is under a legal obligation to facilitate the return of displaced persons to their homes in areas where hostilities have ceased.

Instead, the reports say, Israel has “rendered large areas of Gaza uninhabitable” by carrying out demolitions, intentionally destroying or severely damaging civilian infrastructure, including schools and religious and cultural institutions, including after hostilities had largely ceased in an area.

HRW added that the permanent displacement of civilians to create military buffer zones within the Gaza Strip would also amount to ethnic cleansing.

According to a report in the leftwing Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israeli forces in Gaza are clearing large areas with the apparent intention to remain inside the territory until at least the end of 2025.

The newspaper reported that a “combat graph for 2025” distributed in recent weeks to Israeli soldiers and commanders in Gaza describes “exposing large areas” in the coastal strip: destroying existing buildings and infrastructure in addition to the construction of roads and preparations for building more permanent military facilities.

Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “The Israeli government cannot claim to be keeping Palestinians safe when it kills them along escape routes, bombs so-called safe zones, and cuts off food, water, and sanitation.

“Israel has blatantly violated its obligation to ensure Palestinians can return home, razing virtually everything in large areas.”

The Guardian emailed the Israeli military for comment.

Israel’s campaign in the north of Gaza, and the evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the area, have fuelled claims from Palestinians that it is clearing the area for use as a buffer zone and potentially for a return of Jewish settlers.

“The scenes of the 1948 catastrophe are being repeated. Israel is repeating its massacres, displacement and destruction,” said Saed, 48, a resident of Beit Lahiya, who arrived in Gaza City on Wednesday.

“North Gaza is being turned into a large buffer zone; Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing under the sight and hearing of the impotent world,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

Saed was referring to the 1948 Middle East Arab-Israeli war, which gave birth to the state of Israel and saw the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their home towns and villages.

The Israeli military has denied any such intention, and the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he does not want to reverse the 2005 withdrawal of settlers from Gaza. But hardliners in his government have talked openly about going back.

Israeli airstrikes pounded Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs for a second consecutive day on Wednesday, as Lebanon waited to hear Washington’s latest ceasefire proposals after a US official expressed hope a truce could be reached.

More than seven weeks after Israel went on the offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah, its latest airstrikes levelled half a dozen buildings in the Beirut suburb known as Dahiyeh and killed six people in a village south of the capital.

Donald Trump’s decision to nominate the far-right Republican congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general has sent shockwaves through Washington, including the president-elect’s own party.

Trump on Wednesday announced Gaetz as his pick to be the nation’s chief law enforcement officer in the justice department, a role that directs the government’s legal positions on critical issues, including abortion, civil rights, and first amendment cases.

Republicans were puzzled over this nomination, expressing this move was not on their “bingo card”.

“I don’t think it’s a serious nomination for the attorney general,” Republican senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, told NBC News. “We need to have a serious attorney general. And I’m looking forward to the opportunity to consider somebody that is serious. This one was not on my bingo card.”

A rightwing firebrand, Gaetz was a thorn in the side of his fellow Republican and former House speaker Kevin McCarthy, eventually leading the successful charge to oust McCarthy from his role.

He was investigated by the justice department in a sex-trafficking case, though the department ultimately declined to bring charges. And was under investigation by the House ethics committee amid allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and other alleged ethical breaches.

Gaetz has fiercely denied wrongdoing.

Amid consternation even within his own party, it’s unclear if Gaetz can win Senate approval.

Republican congressman Max Miller of Ohio told Axios that “Gaetz has a better shot at having dinner with Queen Elizabeth II than being confirmed by the Senate”.

Miller also told Politico that Gaetz is “a reckless pick” with “a zero percent shot”.

John Bolton, a former national security adviser, said Gaetz “must be the worst nomination for a cabinet position in American history”.

“Gaetz is not only totally incompetent for this job, he doesn’t have the character. He is a person of moral turpitude,” Bolton said in an interview with NBC News.

One anonymous House GOP member told Axios: “We wanted him out of the House … this isn’t what we were thinking.” Another remarked they were “stunned and disgusted”.

Democrats, too, were left astonished by the announcement. Vice-President Kamala Harris’s team said in a statement that Trump and Gaetz “will weaponize the DoJ to protect themselves and their allies”.

Congressman Ro Khanna of California argued that voters were not necessarily voting for these cabinet picks when they decided to elect Trump.

“People voted for Trump to have lower prices and a secure border. I don’t think they voted for the appointments that they’re getting,” Khanna told CBS News. “He is not moving to the center. He’s going to his Maga base, and we’ll see if he’s overreaching on the mandate he had from the American people.”

Kate Maeder, a California-based political strategist, said the announcement should not come as a surprise, but wondered whether Trump trusts Gaetz will make it through the confirmation process. “It’s not a surprise that Trump is rewarding his political loyalists,” Maeder told the Guardian. “It’s a shock to many that he’s considering Matt Gaetz for attorney general. But is this a serious pick? I don’t think so.”

“In this political climate, it’s definitely possible for Matt Gaetz to be confirmed,” she said. “But I think it’ll be difficult. Some of the more moderate Republican senators are already on record questioning this choice.”

Police in Paris are braced for potential violence before Thursday’s France-Israel football match, with police deploying one officer for every five ticket holders at the Stade de France.

The match has been designated “high risk” after the hooliganism and antisemitism in Amsterdam last week when the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv played Ajax.

Concerns over Thursday’s game were further raised after riot police clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters on Wednesday night outside a gala event in Paris where funds were being raised for the Israeli military.

Israel’s controversial far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, had been due to speak but subsequently cancelled.

Police pushed against dozens of protesters waving Palestinian flags and lighting flares near Saint-Lazare station, with reports suggesting that teargas had been deployed as officers struggled to contain the crowds.

The Uefa Nations League tie between France and Israel, which is due to start at 8.45pm local time (7.45pm UK), is not expected to attract a large crowd, with fewer than 20,000 tickets sold for the 80,000 capacity stadium. Only about 150 Israeli fans are expected.

Despite the low attendance, about 4,000 police officers are expected on the streets along with 1,600 security personnel.

A pro-Palestinian demonstration has been organised in Saint-Denis at 6pm local time to protest against the staging of the match at a time of war in the Middle East.

The French police chief Laurent Nuñez said on Thursday that the match was “high risk” but that his officers would learn from the scenes in the Netherlands.

“What we learned is that we need to be present in the public space including far away from the stadium,” he said.

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and his interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, are due to be in the Stade de France along with former presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.

Official sales ended at 11am on Thursday and ticket holders were wanted that they would not be allowed to bring any bags into the stadium.

France’s team coach, Didier Deschamps, said his players were aware of the tensions.

He said: “Obviously none of us within the team can be insensitive to such a heavy context. It impacts the amount of supporters present tomorrow and everything that goes with it.”

Amid international condemnation over the violence in Amsterdam last week, a report published by the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, suggested the cause had been a “toxic cocktail of antisemitism, football hooliganism and anger over the war in Palestine and Israel and other parts of the Middle East”.

Dutch authorities have said they are investigating reports of police violence against pro-Palestinian protesters after a banned rally on Wednesday evening had been broken up.

Amsterdam police said on X that they were aware of online footage, which seemed to show police officers beating protesters who had already been released after being taken away from the site of the protest.

A total of 281 protesters were detained as they rallied in central Amsterdam on Wednesday in defiance of a ban imposed after violence stemming from a football match between Ajax and the Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv last week.

Detained protesters were put on buses and driven to a location on the outskirts of the city, where they were released.

A video circulating online, seen by Reuters, showed people being hit with batons by police in riot gear, seemingly while walking away after they had been released in the port area west of Amsterdam. The images could not be verified by Reuters.

“Images of police acting with force are always disturbing to see and will be weighed and judged. Also in this case,” Amsterdam police said in a post on X.

Police with expanded stop-and-search powers in the Dutch capital have detained or removed hundreds of protesters since last week’s clashes, under emergency measures imposed until Thursday.

Authorities in France have also stepped up security before a France-Israel football match on Thursday after last week’s violence in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam’s police department has said Maccabi fans last week attacked a taxi and burned a Palestinian flag, and were chased down and beaten by anti-Israeli gangs on scooters after an online appeal to taxi drivers. Five people were treated for injuries and discharged from hospitals. Police escorted hundreds of Maccabi fans to their hotels.

Israeli and Dutch politicians have denounced the attacks as antisemitic and recalled the persecution of Jews during the second world war. Pro-Palestinians countered that they responded to an attack by the Maccabi supporters and provocative anti-Arab chants.

Four out of 62 suspects detained during the violence, which included 10 Israelis, remain in custody. Police are still looking for suspects.

One of China’s biggest cities is still officially in summer, despite it being mid-November, as temperatures have failed to drop below the threshold considered necessary to mark the change in season.

This week, Guangzhou, a hot and humid city of nearly 19 million people in southern China’s Guangdong province, broke a three-decade heat record, according to the local meteorological service. As of Wednesday the city had experienced 235 summer days, beating 1994’s 234-day season.

Guangdong’s meteorological service pegs the change of seasons to the temperature, not the calendar date. Autumn is considered to start when the five-day average temperature is lower than 22C. The season generally begins around 9 November, but temperatures are forecast to stay at summer levels until at least 18 November, according to a statement published on the provincial government’s WeChat account. This year, summer began on 23 March.

Ai Hui, a senior engineer at the Guangzhou Climate and Agricultural Meteorological Centre, was quoted in Chinese state media as saying the reason for the long summer was that pressure from the Siberian high, a massive collection of cold dry air that affects weather patterns in the northern hemisphere, was unusually weak this year. That meant less cold wind had been blowing through Guangzhou. The city’s average temperature is currently 24.9C, 1.2C higher than historical averages.

In April, Guangzhou was hit by a tornado that killed at least five people and injured dozens. The province has also experienced severe flooding.

Extreme weather events have become more common across China in recent years, with droughts, floods and heatwaves putting strain on the infrastructure, especially electricity grids.

Analysis has found that human-caused climate breakdown is supercharging extreme weather across the world, driving more frequent and more deadly disasters, from heatwaves to floods to wildfires. At least a dozen of the most serious events of the last decade would have been all but impossible without human-caused global heating.

In 2022, a long-running heatwave pushed electricity use to record levels in cities across China, including Guangzhou, as people and businesses used their air conditioning units at maximum levels in an effort to stay cool. This triggered major power outages.

China’s leaders have since become extremely concerned about energy security, which analysts worry is slowing down the country’s process of weaning itself off coal. China’s record-breaking installation of renewable energy has been regarded as one of the more optimistic developments in relation to global action on climate change.

The world’s largest known coral, visible from space, has been discovered in the waters of the Solomon Islands.

With a circumference of 183 metres, the gigantic multicoloured organism is an intricate network of individual coral polyps that have grown for between 300 and 500 years.

The sprawling coral was discovered in the region of the western Pacific known as the “coral triangle” by scientists belonging to the National Geographic Pristine Seas team during an expedition to the Solomon Islands.

Mostly brown, with highlights of vivid yellows, blues and reds, the Pavona clavus coral is a haven for a panoply of marine species including fish, crabs and shrimps.

“Just when we think there is nothing left to discover on planet Earth, we find a massive coral made of nearly 1bn little polyps, pulsing with life and colour,” said marine ecologist Enric Sala, explorer in residence for National Geographic and founder of Pristine Seas. “This is a significant scientific discovery, like finding the world’s tallest tree. But there is cause for alarm. Despite its remote location, this coral is not safe from global warming and other human threats.”

Unlike a coral reef, which is a network of many coral colonies, this is a standalone coral that has grown uninterrupted from polyps derived from larvae that settled on the seabed and multiplied into millions of other genetically identical polyps over the centuries.

When the team initially spotted the living organism, which is 34 metres wide, 32 metres long and more than 5 metres high, they thought it might be a shipwreck. The expedition’s underwater cinematographer dived more than 12 metres down to the coral and discovered it was a Pavona clavus. Despite its size, this individual coral had never been documented, with local fishers possibly having mistaken it for a boulder over the years.

Ronnie Posala, fisheries officer for the Solomon Islands fisheries ministry, said: “For the people of the Solomon Islands, this mega coral discovery is monumental. It reinforces the importance of our ocean, which sustains our communities, traditions and future. Such discoveries remind us of our duty to safeguard these natural wonders, not only for their ecological value but for the livelihoods and cultural identity they provide.”

Eric Brown, coral scientist for the Pristine Seas expedition, identified and measured the previous record-holding coral, located in American Samoa. “While the nearby shallow reefs were degraded due to warmer seas, witnessing this large healthy coral oasis in slightly deeper waters is a beacon of hope,” he said.

The world’s largest known coral, visible from space, has been discovered in the waters of the Solomon Islands.

With a circumference of 183 metres, the gigantic multicoloured organism is an intricate network of individual coral polyps that have grown for between 300 and 500 years.

The sprawling coral was discovered in the region of the western Pacific known as the “coral triangle” by scientists belonging to the National Geographic Pristine Seas team during an expedition to the Solomon Islands.

Mostly brown, with highlights of vivid yellows, blues and reds, the Pavona clavus coral is a haven for a panoply of marine species including fish, crabs and shrimps.

“Just when we think there is nothing left to discover on planet Earth, we find a massive coral made of nearly 1bn little polyps, pulsing with life and colour,” said marine ecologist Enric Sala, explorer in residence for National Geographic and founder of Pristine Seas. “This is a significant scientific discovery, like finding the world’s tallest tree. But there is cause for alarm. Despite its remote location, this coral is not safe from global warming and other human threats.”

Unlike a coral reef, which is a network of many coral colonies, this is a standalone coral that has grown uninterrupted from polyps derived from larvae that settled on the seabed and multiplied into millions of other genetically identical polyps over the centuries.

When the team initially spotted the living organism, which is 34 metres wide, 32 metres long and more than 5 metres high, they thought it might be a shipwreck. The expedition’s underwater cinematographer dived more than 12 metres down to the coral and discovered it was a Pavona clavus. Despite its size, this individual coral had never been documented, with local fishers possibly having mistaken it for a boulder over the years.

Ronnie Posala, fisheries officer for the Solomon Islands fisheries ministry, said: “For the people of the Solomon Islands, this mega coral discovery is monumental. It reinforces the importance of our ocean, which sustains our communities, traditions and future. Such discoveries remind us of our duty to safeguard these natural wonders, not only for their ecological value but for the livelihoods and cultural identity they provide.”

Eric Brown, coral scientist for the Pristine Seas expedition, identified and measured the previous record-holding coral, located in American Samoa. “While the nearby shallow reefs were degraded due to warmer seas, witnessing this large healthy coral oasis in slightly deeper waters is a beacon of hope,” he said.

The Iranian state has said that it plans to open a treatment clinic for women who defy the mandatory hijab laws that require women to cover their heads in public.

The opening of a “hijab removal treatment clinic” was announced by Mehri Talebi Darestani, the head of the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. She said the clinic will offer “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal”.

Iranian women and human rights groups have expressed outrage at the announcement.

Sima Sabet, a UK-based Iranian journalist who was a target of an Iranian assassination attempt last year, said the move is “shameful”, adding that: “The idea of establishing clinics to ‘cure’ unveiled women is chilling, where people are separated from society simply for not conforming to the ruling ideology.”

Iranian human rights lawyer Hossein Raeesi said that the idea of a clinic to treat women who did not comply with hijab laws is “neither Islamic and nor is it aligned with Iranian law”. He also said it was alarming that the statement came from the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which falls under the direct authority of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

The news has since spread among the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest groups and female students, sparking fear and defiance.

One young woman from Iran, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “It won’t be a clinic, it will be a prison. We are struggling to make ends meet and have power outages, but a piece of cloth is what this state is worried about. If there was a time for all of us to come back to the streets, it’s now or they’ll lock us all up.”

The announcement about the opening of the clinic comes after state media reported that a university student who was arrested after stripping down to her underwear on a in Tehran, reportedly in protest at being assaulted by campus security guards for breaches of the hijab law, had been transferred to a psychiatric hospital. Human rights groups including Amnesty International say there is evidence of torture, violence and forced medication being used on protesters and political dissidents deemed mentally unstable by the authorities and placed in state-run psychiatric services.

Human rights groups have also expressed alarm at the crackdown on women who are considered to be in breach of Iran’s mandatory dress code, saying there has been a recent spate of arrests, forced disappearances and the shuttering of businesses linked to perceived breaches of the hijab laws.

Last week, the Center for Human Rights in Iran highlighted the case of Roshanak Molaei Alishah, a 25-year-old woman who it said was arrested after confronting a man who harassed her on the street over her hijab. The NGO said her current whereabouts is unknown.

Researchers have found “troubling” evidence for the first time that a lifesaving malaria drug is becoming less effective in young African children with serious infections.

A study of children being treated in hospital for malaria in Uganda, presented at a major conference on Thursday, found signs of resistance to artemisinin in one patient in 10.

Antimicrobial resistance, where pathogens such as parasites, bacteria and fungi develop ways to evade the drugs used to fight them, is a growing global concern. It is forecast to kill more than 39 million people by 2050.

Children are the most vulnerable to malaria, with about 450,000 under-5s dying from the disease in sub-Saharan Africa each year. Of the 100 children studied, 11 showed partial resistance to the treatment. All were infected by malaria parasites carrying genetic mutations that have been linked to artemisinin resistance.

Dr Chandy John, of Indiana University, who co-wrote the study with international colleagues, said: “This is the first study from Africa showing that children with malaria and clear signs of severe disease are experiencing at least partial resistance to artemisinin.”

A further 10 of the children studied, who were thought to have been cured of infection, suffered a repeat attack from the same strain of malaria within a month. The results suggest that the “gold-standard” treatment they had received, combining artemisinin with a second malaria drug called lumefantrine, was not working as well as it should.

John said the study was started after researchers noticed a slow response to treatment in some children who were already being monitored for a project on severe malaria in young patients.

“The fact that we started seeing evidence of drug resistance before we even started specifically looking for it is a troubling sign,” John said.

“We were further surprised that, after we turned our focus to resistance, we also ended up finding patients who had recurrence after we thought they had been cured.”

The study is being presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene in New Orleans, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

John said it was too early to determine how widespread resistance to artemisinin was in Africa, although there was evidence it was spreading, pointing to studies showing partial resistance in children with uncomplicated malaria – a milder form that does not affect organs – in countries such as Rwanda and Uganda.

However, he said: “I think our study is the ‘canary in the coalmine’ for children with severe malaria.”

Resistance to artemisinin therapies emerged earlier in south-east Asia, where the first signs were identified in similar studies. Treatment failure rates in that region increased when resistance also emerged to drugs used in combination with artemisinin. Dr Richard Pearson, of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, who was not involved in this study, said the situation in east Africa was reminiscent of the situation in south-east Asia 15 years ago.

Artemisinin is used in a variety of forms to treat the disease. For children with severe malaria, this consists of an intravenous infusion of artesunate, one derivative of artemisinin, followed by an oral drug combining a second derivative with another antimalarial medicine.

Artesunate replaced quinine as the recommended treatment for children with severe malaria more than a decade ago, after a trial showed fewer deaths with the newer drug. “Returning to quinine would be a step backward,” John said.

Dr Alena Pance, a senior lecturer in genetics at the University of Hertfordshire, said any indication of resistance to the “critical drug” was extremely worrying and that high transmission rates in Africa “imposes a dangerous risk of quick spreading of resistance within the continent, making these findings even more alarming”.

A suspected major supplier of small boats used by people smugglers to transport asylum seekers across the Channel has been arrested in Amsterdam, officials said.

A 44-year-old Turkish national was arrested on Wednesday after arriving at Schiphol airport, the European agency Eurojust said on Tuesday, adding that the suspect was due to be extradited to Belgium to face charges of being involved in human trafficking as part of a criminal organisation.

The man is suspected of supplying engines and boats to cross-Channel smugglers, shipping the boats from Turkey and storing them in Germany until they were transported to northern France.

The arrest follows a joint investigation by the National Crime Agency and investigators in the Netherlands and Belgium. Rob Jones, the NCA’s director general, said: “This arrest marks an important milestone in one of the NCA’s most significant investigations into organised immigration crime.

“We suspect that this individual is a major supplier of boats and engines to the smugglers operating in Belgium and northern France.”

He said the vessels and engines used in Channel crossing were “highly dangerous and completely unfit for open water”.

Keir Starmer hailed the development as “good news”.

The British prime minister said: “Criminal gangs have been getting away with this for far too long. I want to thank the UK National Crime Agency, along with their Dutch and Belgian counterparts, for all their hard work and their crucial role in this investigation.

“It’s exactly what we want to see and it shows that our approach of working with international partners to smash the people-smuggling gangs is bearing fruit.”

According to Eurojust, the suspect supplied small boats and engines to people smugglers in Belgium and northern France.

So far at least 58 people are known to have died making the dangerous journey.

The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “We will relentlessly pursue the criminal smuggling gangs making millions out of small boat crossings that undermine our border security and put lives at risk.

“This major investigation shows how important it is for our crime fighting agencies to be working hand in glove with our international partners to get results.”

Starmer dismissed claims that arresting an alleged smuggler might be futile because he would soon be replaced by others.

He said: “I don’t accept the proposition that none of this is worth doing because somebody else pops up. It is a step, it is an important step. Of course there are going to be other steps that will be necessary but it is a significant arrest.

“If the boats and the engines aren’t available it obviously makes it much more difficult for these crossings to be made.”

Starmer has ditched Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation plan and the previous slogan of “stop the boats” and is instead targeting the smugglers using the slogan “smash the gangs”.

Some Home Office insiders have privately said he may struggle in the long run to dent the numbers of people crossing in small boats without finding a deterrent. Others have called for the government to instead open new and safe routes for people fleeing war and oppression.

The NCA is leading about 70 investigations into networks and individuals involved in “top tier” trafficking and immigration crime.

The operation to arrest the Turkish national was jointly coordinated by a Europol operational taskforce with the assistance of Eurojust, through the formation of a joint investigation team.

A statement from the public prosecutor’s office of West-Flanders said: “International cooperation is crucial in the fight against human smuggling, and the arrest of this suspect through close cooperation with our UK and Dutch partners demonstrates our ongoing commitment to partnership working.

“Human-smuggling criminals do not respect national borders, and we will relentlessly pursue these criminals through working internationally.”

This year alone, more than 50 people have died attempting to cross the Channel. More than 1,300 people have arrived on small boats over the past seven days, according to government figures.

Ben & Jerry’s has launched legal action against Unilever, accusing its parent company of trying to block the ice-cream brand from making public statements supporting Palestinian refugees in the conflict in Gaza.

The lawsuit also claims that Unilever has threatened to dismantle its board and sue directors over the issue.

Ben & Jerry’s, which has previously clashed with its parent company when it said it would stop selling its products in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said Unilever has breached the terms of a confidential settlement agreed in 2022.

Unilever subsequently sold Ben & Jerry’s Israel division to a local operation, prompting the ice-cream maker to sue its parent company before reaching the settlement two years ago.

The new lawsuit claims that Unilever breached the agreement to “respect and acknowledge the Ben & Jerry’s independent board’s primary responsibility over Ben & Jerry’s social mission”, adding: “Ben & Jerry’s has on four occasions attempted to publicly speak out in support of peace and human rights.”

Ben & Jerry’s said in the lawsuit that it has tried to call for a ceasefire, support the safe passage of Palestinian refugees to Britain, back students protesting at US colleges against civilian deaths in Gaza and advocate a halt to US military aid to Israel.

“Unilever has silenced each of these efforts,” Ben & Jerry’s said.

A Unilever spokesperson said: “Our heart goes out to all victims of the tragic events in the Middle East. We reject the claims made by B&J’s social mission board, and we will defend our case very strongly. We would not comment further on this legal matter.”

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield founded the ice-cream company in Vermont in the US in 1978 with a mission to “advance human rights and dignity”.

Unilever acquired the business in 2000 but it is run autonomously by an independent board of directors, allowing it to campaign on social issues.

In March, Unilever said it intended to sell off its ice-cream division, which also includes Wall’s and Magnum, by the end of next year.

In April, bosses at Unilever said Ben & Jerry’s campaigning was a “strength not a weakness”.

The satirical news outlet the Onion has purchased Infowars, the rightwing media platform run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, at a court-ordered auction.

The news was confirmed on Thursday morning in a video by Jones himself, as well as the head of the Onion’s parent company.

“I just got word 15 minutes ago that my lawyers and folks met with the US trustee over our bankruptcy this morning, and they said they are shutting us down even without a court order this morning,” Jones said in a video shared on X. “The Connecticut Democrats with the Onion newspaper bought us.”

The Onion plans to rebuild the website and feature well-known internet humor writers and content creators.

CEO Ben Collins confirmed this in a post on Bluesky on Thursday, writing: “The Onion, with the help of the Sandy Hook families, has purchased InfoWars. We are planning on making it a very funny, very stupid website. We have retained the services of some Onion and Clickhole Hall of Famers to pull this off.”

“I can’t wait to show you what we have cooked up,” Collins added.

In another post on Bluesky, Collins said that “part of the reason we did bought InfoWars is because people on Bluesky told us it would be funny to buy InfoWars” adding that “those people were right” this “is the funniest thing that has ever happened”.

The purchase includes the acquisition of Jones’s company’s intellectual property, such as its website, customer lists, inventory and certain social media accounts, and the production equipment, according to CNN. The amount of the bid has not been disclosed.

In the immediate aftermath of the news breaking publicly, Jones started streaming live on X, lambasting the sale of his site. Railing against the Onion, among others, Jones told viewers that it’s “a distinct honor to be here in defiance of the tyrants”. He emphasized that no one told him he couldn’t go live.

Jones also began to ramble about the upcoming Donald Trump administration, telling viewers things like: “This is the fight. If you think the deep state has given up, think again … America is awake now.”

The sale follows a judge’s order earlier this year for Jones to liquidate his personal assets, to help him to pay off the $1.4bn he was ordered to pay the families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six educators when they took him to court for defamation after he falsely claimed that the shooting was a hoax, and that they were actors who staged the shooting as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns.

Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022.

In order to make the bid work, a lawyer representing the families told CNN that the families “agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of the Onion’s bid, enabling its success”.

“After surviving unimaginable loss with courage and integrity, they rejected Jones’s hollow offers for allegedly more money if they would only let him stay on the air because doing so would have put other families in harm’s way,” said Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families.

In a post on social media earlier this week, Mattei added that “the breakup of Infowars this week is just the start of Alex Jones’s lesson in accountability” and that the families “will go after his future income and any new Infowars owner acting as a vehicle for Jones’s continued control of the business”.