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US blacklists Chinese firms supplying drone parts to Iran

The United States placed five Chinese companies on its sanctions blacklist Thursday for supplying components to Iran drone builders.

The US Treasury indirectly tied the Chinese companies to Russian attacks in Ukraine and Iranian attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf region, in both cases using Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicles made by the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Co (HESA).

The US Defense Department used components found at the scene to identify the drone used in a November 2022 attack on a tanker as an Iranian Shahed-136 as shown in this handout photo from the department

Scientists use TikTok to explain, fight climate change

With his moustache caked in icicles and frozen droplets, glaciologist Peter Neff shows his 220,000 TikTok followers a sample of old ice excavated from Antarctica's Allan Hills.

The drop-shaped fragment encapsulates tiny air bubbles, remnants of 100,000-year-old atmosphere.

The greenhouse gases trapped inside carry precious information on Earth's past climate, explains @icy_pete as he brings the translucid nugget closer to the camera.

A growing number of scientists are leveraging TikTok to boost literacy on climate change

Rise in ocean plastic pollution 'unprecedented' since 2005

Plastic pollution in the world's oceans has reached "unprecedented levels" over the past 15 years, a new study has found, calling for a legally binding international treaty to stop the harmful waste.

Ocean plastic pollution is a persistent problem around the globe -- animals may become entangled in larger pieces of plastic like fishing nets, or ingest microplastics that eventually enter the food chain to be consumed by humans.

There are an estimated 170 trillion pieces of plastic in the world's oceans today

Spain confirms three dead in mine collapse

Three people trapped deep inside a Spanish potash mine when a gallery collapsed earlier on Thursday have died, Catalan leader Pere Aragones said.

"Unfortunately, we can confirm the death of three young people who were working in the mine," Aragones told reporters outside Cabanasses mine in Suria, 75 kilometres (46 miles) northwest of Barcelona.

Rescuers had recovered and identified the bodies of three people who were "around 30 years old", he said, sending his condolences to their families and colleagues.

The three were working at a depth of 900 metres (2,950 feet) when the gallery collapsed inside the Cabanasses mine near Barcelona, killing them

Chaim Topol, Tevye of 'Fiddler on the Roof' fame, dies at 87

Golden Globe winner Chaim Topol, the Israeli actor famed for his depiction of Tevye in the movie "Fiddler on the Roof," died aged 87, Israeli officials said on Thursday.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1935, Topol grew up there before joining a military entertainment troupe where he was a singer and actor.

Following his army service, he moved to a kibbutz with his wife and worked as a mechanic while continuing performing in a theatre group he formed.

Israeli actor Chaim Topol famed for playing Tevye in the film "Fiddler on the roof" has died aged 87. The Golden Globe winner is seen in this 2001 alongside late Israeli premier Ariel Sharon

Taliban governor of Afghan province killed in suicide attack

The Taliban governor of Afghanistan's Balkh province was killed at his office on Thursday in a suicide attack that was later claimed by the Islamic State group.

The killing of Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, the provincial governor, marked one of the highest-level attacks since the Taliban stormed back to power in 2021. A second person also died in the attack, police said.

Men move a wounded man inside a hospital in Mazar-i-Sharif, after a suicide attack at the office of the Taliban governor of Afghanistan's Balkh province

In Israel, Pentagon chief says US 'disturbed' by settler violence

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, on a visit to Israel, expressed concerns on Thursday about Jewish settler violence against Palestinians and warned against acts that could trigger more insecurity.

The US defence secretary held talks in Israel as three suspected Palestinian militants were killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and protesters rallied against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right government.

Late Thursday, a gunman shot and wounded three people on a Tel Aviv street in an attack carried out by a member of the armed wing of Hamas, Israeli police said.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks to the media after holding talks in Israel

Afghanistan coffers swell as Taliban taxman collects

A dusty logjam of trucks inches across a rut in the mountains splitting Pakistan and Afghanistan, teeming with a cargo of fruit and coal -- and paying the Taliban authorities for the privilege of passage.

In downtown Kabul, a patrol of accountants inspects a bazaar, billing shopkeepers for trading honey, hair conditioner and gas hobs under the snapping white flag of the country's new rulers.

Afghanistan is frozen deep in a second winter of humanitarian turmoil since the Taliban seized power in 2021, but cash is changing hands at a dizzying pace.

One truck driver at the Torkham border said that since the Taliban took over, there are no illegal checkpoints where cash is demanded

Saudi exiles fear extradition as kingdom extends crackdown

As he languishes in a cell in Bulgaria, Saudi dissident Abd al-Rahman al-Khalidi dreads one thing more than any other: being flown back to his home country.

"In the event of deportation, I will be subjected to torture and long imprisonment, as I have worked with the opposition for years," Khalidi, a failed asylum-seeker, told AFP by phone from a detention centre in Sofia.

Abd al-Rahman al-Khalidi, 29, and other dissidents who fled Saudi Arabia after criticising the monarchy, dread being flown back to their home country

Split Libya pushes back against UN plan for elections

The new UN envoy to Libya had hoped to usher in long-delayed elections, but his initiative is facing pushback from the eastern-based parliament and a lukewarm reception by its rivals in Tripoli.

Senegalese diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily told the UN Security Council last month he planned to create a panel tasked with delivering presidential and legislative elections in conflict-torn Libya later this year.

Military chief Khalifa Haftar controls Libya's eastern-based administrations