United News of Bangladesh

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has defended the UK government’s decision to impose sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying Britain had to act before it became too late to preserve the prospect of a two-state solution. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Miliband said he did not believe British Jews were at greater risk following the sanctions and stressed that combating antisemitism was a responsibility shared by the government and wider society. He said there were differing views within the British Jewish community, with some groups supporting the measures. Miliband said he had consulted representatives of British Jewish organisations as well as Palestinian groups before the decision. Palestinian representatives, he said, expressed concern that the international community was standing by as the prospect of Palestinian statehood was being undermined. He said the government acted out of “deep concern” that further delay could make a two-state solution impossible. In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Miliband described himself as a “proud British Jew” and recalled having close family ties to Israel. He said achieving a two-state solution remained the “North Star” of the government’s policy, but warned that the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank was making that prospect increasingly unviable. Miliband said the UK government agreed with the United Nations that Palestinians were facing ethnic cleansing in parts of the West Bank carried out by settler groups, accusing Israel of failing to prevent it. Under the measures announced by the government, Britain will ban imports of goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and impose sanctions on companies and individuals involved in settlement expansion through construction, infrastructure, financing and real estate services. The UK will also prohibit advertising promoting illegal Israeli settlements and restrict arms sales and other exports that materially contribute to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. Miliband told lawmakers that those facilitating illegal settlement expansion would face UK sanctions. He said Britain wanted strong relations with Israel but maintained that such relations must respect international law and Israel’s recognised borders. Miliband rejected suggestions that the sanctions could encourage Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take a harder line or further undermine the two-state solution. He also warned against holding British Jews responsible for actions of the Israeli government, saying such treatment would itself constitute antisemitism. Miliband said he was proud of his Jewish identity and remained committed to combating antisemitism while supporting the rights, dignity and rule of law for all communities. Source: BBC

Britain on Tuesday announced a ban on trade in goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, accusing settler groups of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” against Palestinians. France and Canada also announced similar measures, saying expanding settlements and rising settler violence could undermine prospects for establishing a Palestinian state. Israel condemned the move and said it would close the British consulate in Jerusalem. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the UK would prohibit imports of goods produced in the settlements and prevent companies from providing services there, including financing, construction, infrastructure, real estate and advertising. He said the British government did not want to support the occupation by allowing settlement products to be sold in British shops and supermarkets. In a joint statement, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said settlement expansion and settler violence posed an urgent threat to the two-state solution. The economic impact of the ban is expected to be limited because Israeli settlements produce relatively small quantities of mainly agricultural goods. However, the decision represents a significant political signal from countries that have traditionally maintained close ties with Israel. Miliband said Britain would not accept actions that undermine the possibility of a two-state solution. Settlements and settler violence Settlement construction in the West Bank has expanded significantly under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultranationalist government. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlements there illegal. Miliband said Britain now considered Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, as well as the settlements themselves, illegal. He accused settler groups of displacing Palestinian families, demolishing homes and destroying roads and other infrastructure. The trade ban is expected to take effect within six to nine months. Miliband said Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden had pledged support for further measures. He also said the UK had tightened restrictions on weapons sales to Israel for use in Gaza to include arms that materially contribute to the occupation of Palestinian territories. Britain’s recognition of Palestine The move follows Britain’s recognition of Palestinian statehood last year as part of efforts to revive the two-state solution. The decision is likely to receive support from Labour lawmakers and voters who have called for stronger measures against Israel and greater support for Palestinians. However, some British officials and Jewish leaders warned that the measures could deepen divisions and fuel antisemitism. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned Britain’s decision and said Israel would remove UK representatives from a joint military center monitoring the Gaza ceasefire and end British training for Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank. Israel also barred a number of British lawmakers and other UK citizens from entering the country, accusing them of involvement in antisemitic and anti-Israel activities. Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the British move a serious mistake, while US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee criticized the decision as discrimination against Jews and warned that Washington could respond. Miliband, who is Jewish and has expressed support for Israel, said the British government’s disagreement was with the conduct of the Israeli government, not the Israeli people.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held more than three hours of talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at the Kremlin on Saturday as Washington renewed efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine. The closed-door meeting ended without any immediate announcement of a breakthrough. Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov later described the talks as constructive, frank and useful, but did not disclose specific outcomes. Witkoff and Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, are scheduled to travel to Kyiv on Sunday for talks with Ukrainian officials. It will be their first visit to the Ukrainian capital as part of the current peace process. The meeting took place amid an escalation in Russian and Ukrainian aerial attacks. Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to temporarily suspend strikes on each other's capitals while the US delegation conducted its talks. At the start of the Kremlin meeting, Putin asked the US envoys to convey his greetings and gratitude to Trump, while acknowledging that the situation surrounding Ukraine remained difficult. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had ordered a three-day halt to strikes on Kyiv beginning at midnight Saturday. Zelenskyy separately said Ukraine was prepared to refrain from attacking Moscow through Monday and expected Russia to reciprocate. Ushakov said Moscow provided the US delegation with a detailed assessment of the battlefield situation in Ukraine. He added that the discussions also covered economic issues and possible large-scale projects that could benefit both Russia and the United States. The latest talks come after the US-led peace process lost momentum amid Washington's focus on the war involving Iran over the past six months. Witkoff and Kushner last visited Moscow in January, when they also met Putin. Meanwhile, fighting has continued along the roughly 1,250-kilometre front line, with both sides stepping up long-range attacks. Zelenskyy said Russia carried out overnight strikes on Kyiv and Boryspil international airports, suggesting the attacks were linked to preparations for the US delegation's planned trip to Ukraine. “Clearly, these Russian strikes on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility of the US side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine,” he said in a social media post. The latest Russian attacks also caused civilian casualties in several parts of Ukraine. In the southern Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian strikes killed five workers and wounded others at an industrial facility, according to regional officials. Separate attacks in the region's Nikopol district and around Dnipro also killed one person and injured several others while damaging residential and commercial buildings. In the eastern Kharkiv region, a Russian drone struck a house in Chuhuiv, killing three people, including an 11-year-old boy, and injuring a woman, regional officials said. Two people were also killed and another wounded in a Russian drone attack in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region. Officials said dozens of facilities across five districts were damaged, including homes, warehouses, railway infrastructure and vehicles. In the southern Mykolaiv region, Russian drones repeatedly struck a shopping center, damaging shops and triggering fires. A 72-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl were wounded, according to Ukraine's emergency services. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched ballistic missiles and 167 attack drones overnight, including Shahed-type drones, many of them jet-powered. Ukrainian air defenses said they shot down or otherwise neutralised 128 drones. Ukraine also continued attacks inside Russia. Authorities in Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said two people were killed and three wounded in Ukrainian attacks on Saturday. Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces had intercepted 53 Ukrainian drones overnight. Despite the renewed diplomatic push, the continued attacks underscore the difficulty of securing a lasting ceasefire, with both sides still seeking military and political leverage on the battlefield.

A Greek air force jet crashed at an air show north of Athens on Saturday, killing the two pilots, officials said, as thousands of people were in attendance at the event. The crash of the twin-seat Phantom F4 jet occurred during a low-altitude maneuver. A fire after the crash sent up large plumes of black smoke. There were no injuries among the spectators. “The sense of grief is widespread, and our thoughts are with the families of the two pilots we lost,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said. “It is a reminder of the daily danger faced by Greece’s aviators, who remain on constant standby to protect Greece's skies.” Air force officials in Greece said the bodies of the two pilots were located during a rescue operation, hampered in the early stages by the fire on the grounds of Tanagra air force base, 60 kilometers (about 40 miles) north of Athens. Eleven water-dropping planes and helicopters assisted 85 firefighters to contain the blaze, which remained at some distance from the viewing area at Athens Flying Week, an annual air show. Organizers canceled remaining events planned over the weekend, while the fire prompted an evacuation order in an area near the base. Video footage of the crash showed a plume of smoke rising from the point of the impact followed by a larger, second explosion that occurred nearby as the plane broke apart. Cyprus' Defense Minister Vasilis Palmas said that he had called his Greek counterpart, Nikos Dendias, to express the condolences of his government. “It is with deep sadness that I learned of the death of the two officers of the Hellenic Air Force, who lost their lives in the tragic accident that occurred during the air show at Tanagra Air Base,” Palmas wrote in an online post. The air force declared three days of mourning following the crash.

Belgium recorded nearly 3,000 excess deaths during three summer heatwaves, according to data released Thursday by the national public health institute, Sciensano.  Sciensano's Belgian Mortality Monitoring (Be-MOMO) system, which tracks all-cause mortality against statistical expectations, showed the first heatwave from June 18 to July 3 was the most severe. It caused 2,035 deaths (a 48.8 percent increase), disproportionately affecting those aged 15 to 64 and marking Belgium's highest excess mortality in absolute numbers and percentages since 2000.  The second heatwave (July 4–17) saw 535 excess deaths (14.8 percent increase), and the third (July 28 to Aug. 16) recorded 365 deaths (7 percent spike).  Sciensano attributed the severity to duration, heat intensity and ozone concentrations. Temperatures hovered around 30 degrees Celsius for 10 consecutive days from June 18, including three days near 35, while ozone levels remained above 100 micrograms per cubic meter for 10 consecutive days. The figures may be revised as mortality data is further consolidated. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said negotiations on ending the Ukraine conflict have stalled, while rejecting reports that Moscow plans to launch a new military mobilization following the upcoming State Duma election. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday night in Bishkek after attending a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, Putin said Russia remains open to negotiations based on concrete proposals and welcomes initiatives that could contribute to ending the conflict. He said Moscow seeks a lasting and comprehensive peace in Ukraine and Europe and is ready to engage with any party willing to take part in negotiations. On the battlefield, Putin said drones continue to pose a major challenge to Russian forces. He claimed Russian troops were advancing according to plan in Donetsk, where they captured 15 settlements in August. Putin expressed confidence in achieving victory but declined to predict when the conflict would end, saying war is inherently difficult to forecast. He also said Russian forces consider Ukrainian military facilities, including those associated with the United Kingdom, legitimate targets. Putin dismissed reports of plans to mobilize civilians for military service after the State Duma election later this month as false, describing them as part of an information campaign against Russia.

Britain experienced its hottest summer on record after a series of heat waves swept across the country, the national weather service said Tuesday. The summer, which brought extreme temperatures, limited rainfall, damaging wildfires and water restrictions, surpassed the previous record set just a year ago, according to provisional data collected by the Met Office since 1884. The mean average temperature for the summer reached 16.5 degrees Celsius (61.7 Fahrenheit), exceeding the previous record of 16.1 C (61 F) set in 2025. Last year's record had surpassed the 15.7 C (60.2 F) recorded in 2018. "These records are now breaking with increasing frequency, reflecting the influence of human-induced climate change," said Amy Doherty, head of the National Climate Information Center. "Particularly notable is how much we've exceeded the previous summer mean temperature record, set just last year," she said. The five hottest summers on record have all occurred since 2003. The Met Office estimated that human-caused climate change had made a summer this hot 130 times more likely. Without greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans, such a summer would be expected only once in 1,000 years, whereas it is now likely to occur about once every nine years. "Our hottest summer ever is a brutal reminder that we're not waiting for climate change to arrive in Britain; we're living in the middle of it," Minister of Climate Transition Katie White said. "With kids too hot to sleep, families worrying about older relatives, farmers watching fields dry out, and firefighters and our armed forces battling wildfires, we've all woken up to a reality none of us wants for the people and places we love," she said. The heat waves started in late May and returned during each month of the summer, including two in July. The U.K. Health Security Agency estimated that 2,877 deaths in England were associated with heat waves in May and June. Temperatures reached a monthly record of 38 C (100.4 F) in Norfolk on June 26. The year's highest temperature was recorded in London on Aug. 13, when the mercury rose to 38.1 C (100.6 F). England, Wales and Northern Ireland all recorded their highest-ever mean summer temperatures. Scotland, which experienced cooler and less dry conditions, tied for its sixth-warmest summer. All of Wales and most of England remain under drought conditions.

Former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Tuesday he is to stand down as Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras. "Now is the right time to step down as MP for Holborn and St Pancras and hand the baton over to a successor," said Starmer in a statement on Tuesday. He added he will focus on "international affairs including defense, security, trade and technology in a fast changing world". Starmer's move will trigger a by-election in the London seat. "Whoever is lucky enough to become the Labour candidate here will have my full support and backing," said Starmer. Starmer announced his resignation as leader of the governing Labour Party in June. In July, Andy Burnham was confirmed as the leader of Labour Party and took office as British prime minister.

A shooting at a rave in Switzerland’s northern canton of Aargau left one person dead and five others injured early Sunday, local police and media reported. Police were searching for potentially more than one suspect. Aargau cantonal police said a 22-year-old woman died from her injuries at the scene. Four men and one woman, aged between 24 and 27, were taken to hospital with injuries ranging from minor to serious. Police said all six victims were residents of Switzerland and withheld their names in accordance with the country’s privacy laws. However, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni identified the woman who died as an Italian citizen, along with two other victims. In a post on X, she expressed condolences over the death of Maria Spinelli, whom she described as a young Italian woman killed in the shooting in Aarau. Meloni also expressed concern for the other injured victims, including the two Italian citizens, and said she trusted Swiss authorities to determine what happened and identify those responsible. At a press briefing Sunday, Aargau police said virtually all available forces were involved in the search for the suspect or suspects. “The manhunt is continuing nonstop at full speed,” police spokesperson Bernhard Graser told reporters. He said police had yet to establish a possible motive. Asked whether terrorism could be a possibility, Graser said the fact that the rave was already coming to an end made that scenario unlikely, while a fight could also have triggered the shooting. Public shootings are uncommon in Switzerland despite relatively widespread gun ownership. “In terms of its nature, this incident is certainly unique in recent years,” Graser said, describing the incident as extraordinary and explaining the large police presence at the scene. Police were alerted to the shooting around 2:30 a.m. local time in Aarau, the capital of Aargau, about 46 kilometers (29 miles) west of Zurich, police spokesperson Pascal Wenzel told Swiss public broadcaster SRF. The “Aarau Rave VOL. 7” was being held at a horse racing track in the Schachen district of Aarau when the shooting occurred, SRF reported. Firefighters cordoned off a large area around the site. A major police operation continued Sunday afternoon, with residents urged to stay away from the area as investigators searched for evidence and possible links to the crime. Large numbers of police officers, firefighters and ambulance crews were deployed. Police from Freiburg in neighboring Germany also joined the search for the suspect, German news agency dpa reported. “Right now, virtually the entire Aargau police force is out on the streets,” Graser said, adding that authorities had no information about the whereabouts of the suspect or suspects. He said, however, that police had ruled out the possibility of an immediate further threat. Swiss daily Blick reported that people attending the rave initially mistook the gunshots for fireworks before someone shouted for everyone to get down. The shooting occurred shortly after the event ended, the newspaper reported. Police later took remaining attendees to a nearby gym, where many were questioned, Graser said. Authorities appealed to witnesses who had photos or videos of the incident to provide them to investigators. The Aargau Racing Club, which operates the horse racing track, said it was shocked by the shooting. “We extend our deepest sympathy to all those affected and their families, who are facing this difficult and trying situation,” it said on its website, while thanking emergency responders and others involved in the operation. Swiss DJ Tekibo, who performed at the rave, wrote on Instagram that the incident was “absolutely heartbreaking.” “Techno and raves are supposed to be a place for freedom and safety, never a place where something like this happens,” he said. Aarau has a population of about 22,300 and lies around 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the German border.

A ferry carrying nearly 270 passengers and crew capsized off the coast of northern Cyprus on Sunday, according to Turkish media reports. The catamaran-style ferry was en route from Kyrenia, also known as Girne, in the Turkish-controlled northern part of ethnically divided Cyprus, to the Turkish port of Tasucu in Mersin province. Turkish Ambassador to Nicosia Ali Murat Basceri said there were casualties in the incident but did not provide a specific number while speaking to Turkey’s state-run TRT television. Basceri said many of the 259 passengers and eight crew members had been rescued, with some taken to hospitals for treatment. Kyrenia Mayor Murat Senkul said the ferry, operated by Filo Denizcilik, sank off Diana beach along the northern coast of Cyprus. According to TRT, the vessel began taking on water about 7.5 kilometers (4 nautical miles) off the coast. Video footage from the scene showed people wearing life jackets floating in the water around the capsized ferry.