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Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on Friday killed at least seven people, including five at a school-turned-shelter in the Palestinian territory's north.

"Five martyrs and others injured in an Israeli strike on Halima al-Saadia School, which was sheltering displaced persons in Jabalia al-Nazla, northern Gaza," the agency said in a brief statement.

The civil defence agency also reported two people killed in separate strikes in Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Yunis.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.

A Palestinian speaking to AFP from southern Gaza on condition of anonymity said there were ongoing attacks and widespread devastation, with Israeli tanks seen near Khan Yunis.

"The situation remains extremely difficult in the area -- intense gunfire, intermittent air strikes, artillery shelling and ongoing bulldozing and destruction of displacement camps and agricultural land to the south, west and north of Al-Maslakh," an area to Khan Yunis's south, said the witness.

Nigeria has pushed back on accepting Venezuelans deported from the United States, after US media reported President Donald Trump was urging African countries to take in deportees from around the world.

Deporting people to third countries has been a hallmark of the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented migrants, notably by sending hundreds to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

"The US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prisons," Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said in an interview with Channels Television on Thursday.

"It will be difficult for Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners. We have enough problems of our own," he added.

Tuggar also suggested the US motivation for threatening tariffs against the Brics political bloc – of which Nigeria is a member – was related to the issue of deportations.

Trump has announced a 10 percent tariff on Nigerian goods exported to the US.

Tuggar's comments followed a meeting between President Trump and the leaders of five west African nations – Senegal, Liberia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau and Gabon – in the White House on Wednesday. His administration was pushing them to accept deportees from around the world, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The president of Guinea-Bissau told reporters that Trump had raised the issue of deportations to third-countries but "he didn't ask us to take immigrants back".

In an unprecedented move, Trump has overseen the deportations of hundreds of people to Panama, including some who were sent away before they could have their asylum applications processed.

Hundreds have also been sent to El Salvador, with the US administration invoking an 18th century law to remove people it has accused of being Venezuelan gang members.

Some of the people were sent to El Salvador despite US judges ordering the planes carrying them to turn around.

Earlier this month, the White House deported eight third-country nationals to impoverished South Sudan, which the United Nations warns may be seeing a return to civil war.

Sulaimaniyah (Iraq) (AFP) – PKK fighters were to begin laying down their weapons at a ceremony in Iraqi Kurdistan Friday, two months after the Kurdish rebels ended their decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state.

The disarmament ceremony marks a turning point in the transition of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from armed insurgency to democratic politics, as part of a broader effort to draw a line under one of the region's longest-running conflicts.

Founded in the late 1970s by Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK took up arms in 1984, beginning a string of bloody attacks on Turkish soil that sparked a conflict that cost more than 40,000 lives.

But more than four decades on, the PKK in May announced its dissolution, saying it would pursue a democratic struggle to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority in line with a historic call by Ocalan, who has been serving a life sentence in Turkey since 1999.

Friday's ceremony was to take place during the morning at an undisclosed location in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan -- where most of the PKK's fighters have been holed up for the past decade -- near the northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah.

Although there were limited details about the ceremony, a PKK source told AFP around 30 fighters would destroy their weapons and then return to the mountains.

"As a gesture of goodwill, a number of PKK fighters, who took part in fighting Turkish forces in recent years, will destroy or burn their weapons in a ceremony," a PKK commander told AFP on July 1, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The move is a key step in the months-long indirect negotiations between Ocalan and Ankara that began in October with the blessing of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and have been facilitated by Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM party.

Among those expected to attend the ceremony were several DEM lawmakers, who arrived in Sulaimaniyah on Thursday, and a handful of journalists.

It was not clear whether the ceremony would be broadcast live.

"I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons. And I urge you to put this principle into practice," Ocalan said in a video message released on Wednesday, pledging that the disarmament process would be "implemented swiftly".

Erdogan said peace efforts with the Kurds would gain momentum after the PKK began laying down its weapons.

"The process will gain a little more speed when the terrorist organisation starts to implement its decision to lay down arms," he said at the weekend.

"We hope this auspicious process will end successfully as soon as possible, without mishaps or sabotage attempts," he added on Wednesday.

In recent months, the PKK has taken several historic steps, starting with a ceasefire and culminating in its formal dissolution announced on May 12.

The shift followed an appeal on February 27 by Ocalan, who has spent the past 26 years in solitary confinement on Imrali prison island near Istanbul.

Caracas (AFP) – Hundreds of people protested in Caracas Thursday demanding the return of at least 30 children who remain in the United States after being separated from their Venezuelan parents during deportation.

Mariale Castellano, deported on May 28, was among the protesters, pleading for the return of her nine-year-old daughter who is still in the United States in the care of a foster family.

"I was four to five months waiting for deportation with her, but it didn't happen," the 26-year-old mother said.

At the protest, a woman read out a letter, later handed over to the UN office in Caracas, asking for "urgent action in favor of the return" of children separated from their parents.

Protesters carried white balloons, photos of the young children and signs saying "SOS, USA, release our children."

On June 30, the Venezuelan government denounced the "kidnapping" of 18 children under the age of 12.

But the number of children stranded in the United States has increased since then.

Protesters at the march also called for the return of 252 Venezuelans deported on March 15 to El Salvador by US President Donald Trump, as part of his crackdown on undocumented people alleged to be violent criminals.

"Trump, we ask you from our hearts, return our sons, they are Venezuelans," said Maria Venegas, a relative of one of the Venezuelan deportees being held at El Salvador's maximum security CECOT prison.

Official figures show that between February and the first week of July, some 7,000 people -- about 1,000 of them children -- have been repatriated to Venezuela from the United States and Mexico.

Sydney (AFP) – Bull sharks are lingering off Sydney's beaches for longer periods each year as oceans warm, researchers said Friday, predicting they may one day stay all year.

The predators are migratory, swimming north in winter when Sydney's long-term ocean temperatures dip below 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) to bask in the balmier waters off Queensland.

A team of scientists looked at 15 years of acoustic tracking of 92 tagged migratory sharks in an area including Bondi Beach and Sydney Harbour.

Records show the sharks now spend an average of 15 days longer off Sydney's coast in summer than they did in 2009, said James Cook University researcher Nicolas Lubitz.

"If they're staying longer, it means that people and prey animals have a longer window of overlap with them."

Shark attacks are rare in ocean-loving Australia, and most serious bites are from three species: bull sharks, great whites, and tiger sharks, according to a national database.

There have been more than 1,200 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which over 250 resulted in death.

Researchers found an average warming of 0.57C in Bondi for the October-May period between 2006 and 2024, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of The Total Environment.

Over a longer period, remotely sensed summer sea-surface temperatures in the area rose an average 0.67C between 1982 and 2024, they said.

"If this trend persists, which it likely will, it just means that these animals are going to spend more and more time towards their seasonal distributional limit, which currently is southern and central New South Wales," Lubitz said.

"So it could be that a few decades from now, maybe bull sharks are present year-round in waters off Sydney," he added.

"While the chances of a shark bite, and shark bites in Australia in general, remain low, it just means that people have to be more aware of an increased window of bull shark presence in coastal waters off Sydney."

Climate change could also change breeding patterns, Lubitz said, with early evidence indicating juvenile sharks were appearing in rivers further south.

There was some evidence as well that summer habitats for great whites, which prefer colder waters, were decreasing in northern New South Wales and Queensland, he said.

Tagged sharks trigger an alarm when they swim within range of a network of receivers dotted around parts of the Australian coast, giving people real-time warnings on a mobile app of their presence at key locations.

Srebrenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina) (AFP) – Thousands of people are expected to gather in Srebrenica on Friday to commemorate the genocide committed 30 years ago by Bosnian Serb forces, one of Europe's worst atrocities since World War II.

The remains of seven victims of the massacre will be laid to rest during Friday's commemorations, marking the bloodiest episode of Bosnia's inter-ethnic war in the 1990s.

The war broke out after Bosnia declared independence, a move supported by the country's Muslims and Croats but rejected by Serbs.

On July 11, 1995, after a siege of more than three months, Bosnian Serb forces captured the eastern town -- a UN-protected enclave at the time.

They killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the following days and buried them in mass graves.

Around 100 women were killed in the massacre, 80 of whom remain missing.

So far about 7,000 victims have been identified and buried while about 1,000 are still missing.

In a bid to cover up the crime, the Bosnian Serb authorities had the remains removed to secondary mass graves, causing many of the bodies to be shredded by heavy machinery, according to experts.

"For 30 years we have carried the pain in our souls," said Munira Subasic, president of the association Mothers of Srebrenica.

Her husband Hilmo and 17-year-old son Nermin were killed in the massacre.

"Our children were killed, innocent, in the UN protected zone. Europe and the world watched in silence as our children were killed."

The seven victims to be buried on Friday at the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Centre include a 19-year-old man and a 67-year-old woman.

"Unfortunately, the remains of most of these victims are incomplete. In some cases there are only one or two bones," said Emza Fazlic, spokeswoman for Bosnia's Institute for Missing People.

The families waited for years to bury their loved ones, hoping that more remains would be found.

But Mevlida Omerovic decided not to wait any longer to bury her husband Hasib.

He was killed at the age of 33, probably in Petkovci, around 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Srebrenica.

Around a thousand people were transported there and locked up in a school before being executed.

It is one of five mass execution sites of the massacre, the only atrocity of Bosnia's 1992-1995 war that was qualified as genocide by international justice institutions.

"Thirty years have passed and I have nothing to wait for anymore," said Omerovic, 55.

She wants to be able to visit the grave of her husband, even though only his jawbone will be in the coffin.

Bosnian Serb wartime political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic were sentenced to life imprisonment by an international tribunal, notably for the Srebrenica genocide.

But Serbia and Bosnian Serb leaders continue to deny that the massacre was a genocide.

Last year, an international day of remembrance was established by the United Nations to mark the Srebrenica genocide, despite protests from Belgrade and Bosnian Serbs.

"July 11 is a day of great sadness and pain," Ramiza Gurdic, whose husband Junuz and sons Mehrudin and Mustafa were killed in the massacre, told AFP.

"But for me, every day is July 11, every night, every morning, when I get up and realise that they are not here."

Buenos Aires (Argentina) (AFP) – An Argentine judge on Thursday ordered ex-president Alberto Fernandez to stand trial for alleged corruption relating to insurance policies taken out by government departments during his 2019-2023 term.

Fernandez will be prosecuted for "negotiations incompatible with the exercise of public office," according to Judge Sebastian Casanello's decision, published in Argentine media and confirmed by defense lawyer Mariana Barbitta.

Barbitta called it "an arbitrary, unfounded decision" that her team would appeal.

The 66-year-old stands accused of fraudulent administration over his government's use of brokers -- one of whom allegedly had ties to his office -- to contract insurance policies that could have been negotiated directly.

The main broker was allegedly the husband of Fernandez's personal secretary. The former president was aware of the arrangement, the judge's brief said.

Questioned by Casanello last Friday, Fernandez denied any wrongdoing.

But the judge found the former president had "created and enabled a permissive environment" that allowed his close circle to profit, Argentine daily newspaper The Nation reported the ruling as saying.

The former secretary, her husband and some 30 others will also face trial in the case.

Fernandez did not seek reelection after serving a single term, handing the keys of the presidential palace to self-described "anarcho-capitalist" President Javier Milei in December 2023.

The corruption allegations emerged when a court ordered an examination of his secretary's phone while investigating assault claims made against Fernandez by his ex-partner Fabiola Yanez.

Yanez filed a complaint accusing Fernandez of having beaten her during their relationship, which ended after he left office.

He faces a separate trial on charges of domestic abuse.

The graft case involves policies taken out with Nacion Seguros, the insurance arm of state-owned Banco Nacion, which Fernandez chose to cover government departments against various types of risks.

Casanello ordered a freeze on about $11 million of Fernandez's assets, according to Thursday's ruling.

Fernandez's leftist Peronist movement, which dominated Argentine politics for most of the country's post-war history, has been dogged by allegations of corruption.

Ex-president Cristina Kirchner, another senior Peronist, is serving a six-year sentence under house arrest after being convicted of fraud involving public works contracts awarded during her two terms.

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Gaza's civil defence agency said eight children -- killed as they queued for nutritional supplements outside a health clinic -- were among 66 people who died in Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory Thursday.

The agency said the children were among 17 victims in a strike on Deir el-Balah.

According to the UN children's agency, the dead included a one-year-old boy whose mother said he had spoken his first words just hours earlier. The mother was critically injured, UNICEF added.

"No parent should have to face such tragedy," UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

"The killing of families trying to access life-saving aid is unconscionable," she added.

US-based charity Project Hope, which runs the facility, said the victims were waiting for the clinic to open to receive treatment for malnutrition, infections and illness. The charity gave a toll of 15 dead, including 10 children and two women.

Its president and chief executive Rabih Torbay called the strike "a blatant violation of international humanitarian law."

Yousef Al-Aydi, 30, was among dozens of people -- most of them women and children -- in the queue.

"Suddenly, we heard the sound of a drone approaching, and then the explosion happened," he told AFP by phone.

"The ground shook beneath our feet, and everything around us turned into blood and deafening screams."

Mohammed Abu Ouda, 35, was also in the queue at Project Hope. "What was our fault? What was the fault of the children?" he asked.

"I saw a mother hugging her child on the ground, both motionless -- they were killed instantly."

AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details due to media restrictions in Gaza.

Four people were killed and several injured in a separate pre-dawn air strike on a home in Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza, civil defence agency official Mohammed al-Mughair added.

AFP footage from Al-Bureij showed a family including three young children sitting among rubble outside their tattered tent after an air strike hit a house next door.

Elsewhere, three people, including a woman, were killed by Israeli gunfire on civilians near an aid centre in the southern city of Rafah, the civil defence agency said.

More than 600 people have been killed around aid distributions and convoys in Gaza since late May, when Israel began allowing a trickle of supplies, the United Nations said in early July.

The European Union on Thursday said it had struck a deal with Israel to open more crossings for aid, as well as to repair infrastructure and protect aid workers.

"We count on Israel to implement every measure agreed," EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X.

Paris (AFP) – E-commerce giant Shein faces a possible 150-million-euro ($175-million) fine in France for failing to properly get consent to track users on the internet.

The regulator, the CNIL, faulted the fast-fashion retailer for using trackers called cookies that enable for targeted advertising to users without their approval as required in Europe, or for using a confusing method to get consent.

It also found during a 2023 inspection that when users refused the tracking cookies Shein continued to read information from them.

Given the firm has the technical and staff resources necessary to comply with the regulations its behaviour was negligent, said CNIL.

Shein had recently complied with the regulations, it added.

A final decision on fining the fast-fashion giant should come within weeks.

Shein called the proposed amount of the fine "disproportionate", in a statement sent to AFP.

"Since August 2023 we have actively worked with the CNIL to ensure our compliance and respond to their queries," the China-founded firm said.

This additional possible fine from the CNIL follows a record 40 million-euro penalty it received last week from France's competition and anti-fraud office over "deceptive commercial practices" by misleading customers on price deals and on its environmental impact.

Afghanistan (AFP) – Broken air conditioning? Afghan taxi drivers have cobbled together a creative solution to spare them and their passengers from the sweltering heat.

In Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan where temperatures easily exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), blue taxis can be spotted with an air conditioning unit strapped to the roof with an exhaust hose delivering the cool air through the passenger window.

"It started getting extremely hot three or four years ago. These cars' AC systems didn't work, and repairs were too expensive. So I went to a technician, (and) had a custom cooler made," said driver Gul Mohammad.

The 32-year-old spent 3,000 Afghanis ($43) for the system, which he connects to his taxi's battery and regularly refills with water.

"This works better than (built-in) AC. ACs only cool the front — this cooler spreads air throughout," said fellow driver Abdul Bari.

Other devices are connected to solar panels, also mounted on the taxi's roof.

Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world, is also one of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

It is particularly affected by heat waves and is suffering from increased drought.

Murtaza, a 21-year-old technician, said that demand from taxi drivers has been growing over the past two or three years.

Afghan cities are often saturated with ageing vehicles, which are enjoying a last-ditch life after being transferred from neighbouring countries.

"When there's no cooler, it becomes very difficult," said Norullah, a 19-year-old passenger who did not provide a last name, his face inches from the blast of cold air.

"These drivers are helping solve the problem, and that's great."

Strasbourg (France) (AFP) – EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday comfortably saw off a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament -- but the rare challenge has exposed frictions between her backers and complaints about her leadership style.

Lawmakers in Strasbourg rejected the censure motion -- launched by the far-right over the European Commission president's handling of Covid vaccine contracts -- by 360 to 175 in a widely expected result.

"In a moment of global volatility and unpredictability, the EU needs strength, vision, and the capacity to act," von der Leyen, who wasn't at the parliament for the vote, wrote on X afterwards.

"As external forces seek to destabilize and divide us, it is our duty to respond in line with our values. Thank you, and long live Europe."

Addressing parliament earlier this week, von der Leyen had dismissed the initiative as a conspiracy theory-laden attempt to divide Europe, slamming its supporters as "anti-vaxxers" and "apologists" for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

She had urged lawmakers to renew confidence in her commission arguing it was critical for Europe to show unity in the face of an array of challenges, from US trade talks to Russia's war in Ukraine.

The no-confidence motion was initiated by Romanian far-right lawmaker Gheorghe Piperea.

He accused von der Leyen of a lack of transparency over text messages she sent to the head of the Pfizer pharmaceutical giant when negotiating Covid vaccines.

The commission's failure to release the messages -- the focus of multiple court cases -- has given weight to critics who accuse its boss of centralised and opaque decision-making.

That has also been a growing refrain from the commission chief's traditional allies on the left and centre, who largely backed von der Leyen, but used the vote to air their grievances.

One major complaint from her critics is that von der Leyen's centre-right camp has increasingly teamed up with the far-right to further its agenda -- most notably to roll back environmental rules.

Iratxe Garcia Perez, the head of the centre-left Socialists and Democrats, said the group's support did not "mean that we are not critical of the European Commission".

Its shift towards the far-right was "a major cause for alarm", she added.

"The motion of censure against the European Commission has been overwhelmingly rejected," centrist leader Valerie Hayer wrote on X. "But our support for von der Leyen is not unconditional."

"Pfizergate" aside, Romania's Piperea accused the commission of interfering in his country's recent presidential election, in which pro-European Nicusor Dan narrowly beat EU critic and nationalist George Simion.

That vote came after Romania's constitutional court scrapped an initial ballot over allegations of Russian interference and massive social media promotion of the far-right frontrunner, who was barred from standing again.

Piperea's challenge was supported by some groups on the left and part of the far right -- including the party of Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

But Piperea's own group, the ECR, was split on the question.

Its largest faction, the party of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni that did not back the motion.

Manila (AFP) – Search teams arrived Thursday at a lake south of the Philippine capital Manila to look for dozens of cockfighters allegedly murdered by rogue police, the Department of Justice said.

Fifteen police officers are under investigation over a spate of mysterious disappearances in 2022 in the country's huge cockfighting industry.

The case erupted back into the public consciousness last month with the televised appearance of a witness claiming to know where bodies had been submerged in Lake Taal, located about two hours south of the capital.

Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla has since said he has "multiple witnesses" who can identify the location of the missing in the lake, which spans more than 230 square kilometres (89 square miles).

"The purpose of (Thursday's mission) is to ... identify the area covered by the search, see initial water conditions and to measure the depth of covered area," the justice department said in a statement.

The Philippine Coast Guard will participate in the preliminary assessment alongside police.

National Police Chief Nicolas Torre this week said authorities needed to act swiftly.

"The typhoon season is coming in," he told journalists on Tuesday.

"We are moving fast to at least try to locate the bodies. We know that it is very, very challenging."

Remulla on Friday said he had requested technical assistance from Japan including help with mapping the lake bed, parts of which are as deep as 172 metres (564 feet).

The Japanese embassy in Manila told AFP it had received the request without providing further details.

But Torre believes the Philippines had the necessary equipment on hand to begin the search.

"We have a very, very robust shipping industry here and in other parts of the Philippines, so we can do it."

Filipinos from all walks of life wager millions of dollars on matches every week between roosters who fight to the death with razor-sharp metal spurs tied to their legs.

The sport, banned in many other countries, survived coronavirus pandemic restrictions by going online, drawing many more gamblers who use their mobile phones to place wagers.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte banned the livestreaming of cockfights shortly before leaving office in 2022, but it has continued due to lax enforcement.