Palestine’s ambassador to Brazil told the COP30 climate summit that Israel’s genocide in Gaza and occupation of Palestinian land has added significantly to the climate crisis.
Video: COP30 summit warned Gaza faces catastrophic environmental crisis
Iran dismisses US accusation of plot to kill Israeli ambassador in Mexico
Tehran, Iran – Iran has branded accusations from the United States and Israel that it was hatching a plot to assassinate the latter’s ambassador to Mexico as “ridiculous”.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told reporters on Monday that Tehran believes Israel is trying to damage its “friendly relations” with other countries through an “absurd allegation”.
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Unnamed US and Israeli senior officials told news outlets late last week that the Quds Force, the external operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), plotted to assassinate Israeli envoy Einat Kranz Neiger beginning in late 2024 and remaining active into mid-2025.
The plot was contained and does not pose a current threat, the officials said, without offering any evidence.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs then released a statement thanking the Mexican security and law enforcement services for “thwarting a terrorist network directed by Iran that sought to attack Israel’s ambassador to Mexico”.
“The Israeli security and intelligence community will continue to work tirelessly, in full cooperation with security and intelligence agencies around the world, to thwart terrorist threats from Iran and its proxies against Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide,” a ministry spokesman said.
However, Mexico’s foreign relations and security ministries have since denied knowledge of such an incident.
In a joint statement, they said they have “no report with respect to a supposed attempt against the ambassador of Israel in Mexico”.
The statement emphasised that Mexico has not initiated disruption to diplomatic ties with any country.
Iran’s embassy in Mexico on Monday called the accusation “a media intervention and a great lie” and said it considers “betraying Mexico’s interests to be betraying our own”.
Baghaei said: “Our embassy stated that we found this allegation so absurd and ridiculous that we did not even think it required an official response from the spokesperson.”
Attacks in Australia
Baghaei was quick to point out that Israel has previously made similar accusations against Iran, citing attacks on Jewish synagogues in Australia in late 2024.
That appeared to be a reference to a testimony given by the New South Wales Police Force to the upper house of the Australian parliament in early October, which presented the result of an investigation into suspected Iranian links to 14 incidents of attacks on synagogues, graffiti, firebombings, and attacks on cars and homes.
“The NSW Police Force has nil holdings in relation to foreign agents perpetrating these incidents,” a police representative told lawmakers at the time.
“Despite official statements by Australian police rejecting any connection to Iran, Israel has continued to insist on Tehran’s involvement,” Baghaei said.
However, in late August, Australia accused Iran of directing two “anti-Semitic” arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne and gave Tehran’s ambassador seven days to leave the country, the first such expulsion since World War II.
Canberra also designated the IRGC a “terrorist organisation” and withdrew its diplomats from Tehran.
At the time, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation had gathered credible evidence that Iran “orchestrated” last year’s attacks on a kosher restaurant and a synagogue, but did not release the evidence.
COP30 summit in Brazil: What to know about the UN climate conference?
The 30th annual United Nations climate change conference (COP30) begins on Monday in the Brazilian city of Belem. About 50,000 people from more than 190 countries, including diplomats and climate experts, are expected to attend the 11-day meeting in the Amazon.
Delegates are expected to discuss the climate crisis and its devastating impacts, including the rising frequency of extreme weather.
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The hosts have a packed agenda with 145 meetings planned to discuss the green fuel transition and global warming as well as the failure to implement past promises.
Andre Correa do Lago, president of this year’s conference, emphasised that negotiators engage in “mutirao”, a Brazilian word derived from an Indigenous word that refers to a group uniting to work on a shared task.
“Either we decide to change by choice, together, or we will be imposed change by tragedy,” do Lago wrote in his letter to negotiators on Sunday. “We can change. But we must do it together.”
What is COP?
COP is the abbreviation for the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, which refers to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a treaty adopted in 1992 that formally acknowledged climate change as a global threat.
The treaty also enshrined the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility”, meaning that rich countries responsible for the bulk of carbon dioxide emissions should bear the greatest responsibility for solving the problem.
The UNFCCC formally went into force in 1994 and has become the basis for international deals, such as the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, designed to limit global temperature increases to about 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100 to avoid the most catastrophic effects of global warming.
The first COP summit was held in the German capital, Berlin, in 1995. The rotating presidency, now held by Brazil, sets the agenda and hosts the two-week summit, drawing global attention to climate change while trying to corral member states to agree to new climate measures.
What’s on the agenda this year?
Brazil wants to gather pledges of $25bn and attract a further $100bn from the global financial markets for a Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), which would provide financing for biodiversity conservation, including reducing deforestation.
Brazil has also asked countries to work on realising past promises, such as COP28’s pledge to phase out fossil fuel use. Indeed, the Brazilian government’s overarching goal for this COP is “implementation” rather than setting new goals.
“Our role at COP30 is to create a roadmap for the next decade to accelerate implementation,” Ana Tonix, the chief executive of COP30, was quoted as saying in The Guardian newspaper.
At a summit last week before COP30, Brazilian President Lula Inacio Lula da Silva said: “I am convinced that despite our difficulties and contradictions, we need roadmaps to reverse deforestation, overcome dependence on fossil fuels and mobilise the resources necessary for these objectives.”
In a letter to negotiators released late on Sunday, Simon Stiell, the UN climate chief, said the 10-year-old Paris Agreement is working to a degree “but we must accelerate in the Amazon. Devastating climate damages are happening already – from Hurricane Melissa hitting the Caribbean, super typhoons smashing Vietnam and the Philippines to a tornado ripping through southern Brazil.”
Not only must nations do more faster but they “must connect climate action to people’s real lives”, Stiell wrote.
COP30 is also the first to acknowledge the failure to so far prevent global warming.
Who will participate?
More than 50,000 people have registered to attend this year’s COP in Belem, including journalists, climate scientists, Indigenous leaders and representatives from 195 countries.
Some of the more prominent official group voices will include the Alliance of Small Island States, the G77 bloc of developing countries and the BASIC Group, consisting of Brazil, South Africa, India and China.
In September, United States President Donald Trump told the UN General Assembly that climate change was “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”, based on “predictions … made by stupid people”.
Trump’s aggressive approach to deny the climate crisis has further complicated the agenda at the conference, which will have no representation from Washington. Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement twice – once during his first term, which was overturned by former President Joe Biden, and a second time on January 20, 2025, the day his second term began. He cited the economic burden of climate initiatives on the US. Trump has called climate change a “hoax”.
The US historically has put more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas than any other country. On an annual basis, however, the biggest carbon polluter now is China.
COP30 organisers have been criticised for the exorbitant prices of hotel rooms in Belem, which has just 18,000 hotel beds. Brazil’s government has stepped in, offering free cabins on cruise ships to poorer nations in a last-minute bid to ensure they can attend.
As of November 1, only 149 countries had confirmed lodging. The Brazilian government said 37 were still negotiating. Meanwhile, business leaders have decamped to host their own events in the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil has also been slammed for clearing forest to build a new road to reach the conference venue.
What progress has been made since last year’s summit?
Renewables, led by solar and wind, accounted for more than 90 percent of new power capacity added worldwide last year, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Solar energy has now become the cheapest form of electricity in history.
Meanwhile, one in five of new cars sold around the world last year was electric, and there are now more jobs in clean energy than in fossil fuels, according to the UN.
Elsewhere, the International Energy Agency has estimated that global clean-energy investment will reach $2.2 trillion this year, which would be about twice as much as on fossil fuel spending.
At the same time, global temperatures are not just rising, they are climbing faster than ever with new records logged for 2023 and 2024. That finding was part of a study done every few years by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The new research shows the average global temperature rising at a rate of 0.27C (0.49F) each decade, almost 50 percent faster than in the 1990s and 2000s when the warming rate was around 0.2C (0.36F) per decade.
The world is now on track to cross the 1.5C threshold by 2030, after which scientists warn that humanity will trigger irreversible climate impacts. Already, the planet has warmed by 1.3C (2.34F) since the pre-industrial era, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
At the same time, governments around the world spend about $1 trillion each year subsidising fossil fuels.
At a preparatory summit with dozens of heads of state and government, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “The hard truth is that we have failed to ensure we remain below 1.5 degrees.”
“Science now tells us that a temporary overshoot beyond the 1.5 limit – starting at the latest in the early 2030s – is inevitable. We need a paradigm shift to limit this overshoot’s magnitude and duration and quickly drive it down,” he said on Thursday.
“Even a temporary overshoot will have dramatic consequences. It could push ecosystems past irreversible tipping points, expose billions to unliveable conditions and amplify threats to peace and security.”
How did climate change affect the world in 2025?
The India-Pakistan heatwave began unusually early, in April this year. By June, temperatures had reached a peak of about 48C (118.4F) in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Hundreds of lives were lost, and crops were decimated.
Europe also faced extreme heat this year. Over the summer, the region endured a heatwave that pushed cities like Lisbon past 46C (114.8F). In London, a prolonged period of elevated temperatures in late June caused an estimated excess 260 deaths.
At the same time, Mediterranean wildfires ravaged large tracts of Southern Europe with more than 100,000 people evacuated and dozens of deaths.
Typhoon Fung-wong kills at least 4 as it devastates the Philippines
Typhoon Fung-wong has swept through the northwestern Philippines, killing at least four people, displacing more than 1.4 million, and knocking out power across entire provinces.
The storm, which triggered floods and landslides, struck while the country was still reeling from Typhoon Kalmaegi, which killed at least 224 people last week.
Fung-wong made landfall in northeastern Aurora province on Sunday night as a super typhoon, with sustained winds reaching 185 kilometres per hour (115 miles per hour) and gusts up to 230 km/h (143mph).
The huge 1,800km- (1,100-mile)-wide storm weakened as it traversed mountainous northern provinces and agricultural plains overnight before exiting into the South China Sea from La Union province, according to state forecasters.
More than 1.4 million people were evacuated to emergency shelters or relatives’ homes before the typhoon’s arrival, with approximately 318,000 still in evacuation centres on Monday.
The powerful wind and rain flooded at least 132 villages, including one where residents became trapped on rooftops as waters rapidly rose.
About 1,000 houses sustained damage, according to Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV of the Office of Civil Defence, who added that landslide-blocked roads would be cleared as the weather improved on Monday.
“While the typhoon has passed, its rains still pose a danger in certain areas in northern Luzon, including in metropolitan Manila,” Alejandro said. “We’ll undertake today rescue, relief and disaster-response operations.”
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr had declared a state of emergency on Thursday due to Kalmaegi’s extensive devastation and Fung-wong’s anticipated damage. The latter storm is also known as Uwan in the Philippines.
Authorities closed schools and most government offices on Monday and Tuesday. More than 325 domestic and 61 international flights were cancelled from the weekend into Monday, while more than 6,600 commuters and cargo workers remained stranded in ports after the coastguard prohibited ships from venturing into rough seas.
German court opens trial of Saudi doctor for Christmas market attack
A court in southeastern Germany is set to open the trial of a Saudi Arabian doctor who is suspected of carrying out a ramming attack last year.
Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 51-year-old psychiatrist, will appear in court on Monday in the town of Magdeburg, accused of killing six people and wounding more than 300 when he drove a van into a busy Christmas market last December.
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The defendant has been charged with six murders, the attempted murder of another 338 people, and committing a “treacherous attack”. The victims killed included a nine-year-old boy and five women aged 45 to 75.
Because of the large number of victims, a hall has been prepared as a special court that will be able to seat all participants, who are believed to include more than 140 co-plaintiffs and 400 witnesses.
The suspect, who has expressed antipathy towards Islam and sympathy with far-right politics, will be seated in a bullet-proof booth amid a heavy presence by German security forces.
Al-Abdulmohsen, who arrived to live in Germany in 2006, has been in custody since the day of the crime on December 20, 2024, faces life imprisonment for murder if found guilty.
According to prosecutors, al-Abdulmohsen was not under the influence of alcohol or other substances and “acted out of dissatisfaction and frustration over the course and outcome of a civil dispute and the failure of various criminal complaints”.
He has described himself as a “Saudi atheist” and an activist who is critical of Islam.
Abdulmohsen’s online activities also included criticism of Germany for accepting too many Muslim refugees and backing for conspiracy theories about the “Islamisation” of Europe. He has expressed support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Despite that, the AfD held a “memorial” rally at the scene of the attack, stating that the “terror” arriving in Magdeburg must be halted.
Co-leader Alice Weidel also referred to Abdulmohsen as an “Islamist” as she spoke at the rally. Such rhetoric has helped the far-right party gain prominence in Germany.
Is the fall of Pokrovsk, Ukraine’s key eastern stronghold, inevitable?
But in recent weeks, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have been storming the town around the clock, taking over the streets where buildings are mostly reduced to bombed-out, deserted ruins.
They use reconnaissance drones and satellite images to identify gaps in Ukrainian defences and use tiny groups of soldiers who are attacked and killed in droves by Ukrainian drones.
But the surviving soldiers grind forward, targeting drone operators and engaging them in close combat, blazing the trail for larger groups of servicemen.
They are backed by Russian artillery, drones and glide bombs that destroy even the deepest and most fortified bunkers.
The town is “a layer cake of passages, spots under fire, our and enemy positions”, Kirill Sazonov, a Ukrainian political scientist-turned-serviceman, wrote on Telegram on Thursday.
“Somebody is sitting on a third floor, someone’s in a house next door, someone’s in the basement,” he wrote. “There’s no front line, sectors under [Russian or Ukrainian] control or logic.”
He’s confident that Ukrainian forces won’t leave Pokrovsk because Kyiv wants to defend it by any means necessary – and the open fields outside it are “less comfortable than the town’s basements”.
Moscow wants to spur Pokrovsk’s takeover because of worsening weather, muddy roads and a lack of tree foliage that makes troop movements more detectable.
But any predictions about Pokrovsk’s future can only be made “by an idiot, a cynic or a tarot cards reader”, Sazonov wrote.
Is the takeover imminent?
Other analysts disagreed with Sazonov’s assessment that Ukraine will hold its position.
Ukrainian forces “have so few soldiers on the front line that it was possible to contain Russia’s advance only while the Russians were in the fields” around Pokrovsk, Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s Bremen University, told Al Jazeera.
As soon as Russian soldiers infiltrated the town, they met next to no resistance because Ukrainians are so few and their drones are less effective among buildings, he said.
“The town’s takeover is a matter of time,” Mitrokhin, who has written hundreds of authoritative analyses of the hostilities since Russia began its full-scale invasion in 2022, told Al Jazeera.
Kyiv may have to make the uneasy decision to pull the remaining forces out of Pokrovsk or risk having them encircled, he said.
Why does Russia want Pokrovsk so badly?
Moscow wants to use the town as a springboard for the takeover of the Kyiv-controlled part of Donbas, a key rustbelt region whose annexation Russia declared unilaterally in September 2022.
Kyiv still controls one-third of Donbas, and Pokrovsk’s fall will pave the way for the takeover of other parts of Ukraine’s “belt of strongholds” that have been fortified since 2014.
The town’s commanding heights will also let Russian forces use swarms of drones to back their advance westwards to the Dnipro region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the town in late October to encourage the troops, but even his staunchest supporters lambasted him and his top brass for allowing Russian forces to infiltrate Pokrovsk and smaller towns nearby.
“The president takes the risk by coming to support the troops, but systemic problems of managing the troops are not being solved, and we keep losing town after town,” lawmaker Mariana Bazuhla wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
Pokrovsk’s fall would be a major propaganda triumph for Moscow even though the victory will have cost tens of thousands of lives.
How will peace talks be affected?
For Russia, the takeover of Pokrovsk would mean that the front-line is “unstable” and Moscow would try to persuade Washington, where United States President Donald Trump has been pushing for peace talks for months, that this insistence on a ceasefire makes no sense, according to Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kyiv-based Penta think tank.
Washington and Kyiv want to suspend hostilities along the current front line, which stretches more than 1,000km (620 miles), and begin negotiations on who will hold what territory after that.
The Kremlin’s rationale is that “Russian forces are expanding the zone of their control and that Ukraine will have to unilaterally cede land”, Fesenko told Al Jazeera.
“The peace settlement will be paused for several weeks or even months,” he said.
The Washington-brokered peace talks have been stalled for months and are not likely to be resumed after Trump cancelled his summit with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, which had been expected to be held in Budapest.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin keeps coming up with new demands, such as Ukraine maintaining a neutral status, limitations of its military and recognition of Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
Putin also wants the West to lift all sanctions slapped on Russia since it annexed Crimea in 2014 and the recognition of Russian as the second official language in Ukraine.
However, the possible loss of Pokrovsk won’t affect the fighting spirit of Ukrainian troops.
“This isn’t the first town in Donbas Ukrainian forces have to leave. I don’t think it will cardinally affect the morale,” Fesenko said.
What are the economic consequences if Pokrovsk falls to Russia?
Pokrovsk is a major centre for Ukraine’s coal mining industry, and large metallurgical plants in central Ukraine depend on the coking coal it produces.
It is also home to almost a dozen Soviet-era plants although these have suspended work because of the hostilities.
The town’s takeover could boost the Kremlin’s recent efforts to modify the plants of Donbas for production of weaponry and military-related items, according to Pavel Lisyansky, head of the Strategic Research and Security Institute, a Kyiv-based think tank
“They militarise the economy,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that Moscow aims to turn the region into “a huge military base to frighten Europe”.
Pokrovsk also sits at the intersection of several strategic highways and railroads.
After Pokrovsk, Moscow will push to retake Sloviansk, the first Ukrainian town seized by Moscow-backed separatists in 2014.