Global Conflict and Climate Action: A Turbulent Week in News

This week's world news highlights include over 1,000 deaths during the haj pilgrimage due to extreme heat, a call for more ambitious climate goals by the Mission 2025 group, multiple attacks in Russia's North Caucasus, and escalating conflicts in both Gaza and Ukraine. Stay informed on these pressing global issues.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

More than 1,000 die in haj amid scorching temperatures

More than 1,000 people died during haj this year, according to a Reuters tally, as extreme heat hammered the nearly two million who took part in the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Most of dead were Egyptians. Security and medical sources told Reuters on Sunday that the Egyptian death toll had risen to 672 and another 25 were missing.

Mission 2025 group urges governments to set more ambitious climate goals

Some of the world's biggest companies, finance houses, cities and regions have joined forces to urge governments to increase their climate ambition ahead of a February 2025 deadline to deliver their emission-cutting plans to the United Nations. The group has signed up to a coalition named Mission 2025. It is convened by Groundswell - a collaboration between non-profits Global Optimism, Systems Change Lab, and the Bezos Earth Fund.

Gunmen fire on targets in Russia's North Caucasus, at least six dead, officials say

Gunmen opened fire at a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police post in simultaneous attacks across two cities in Russia's North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday, killing at least six policemen and injuring 12, Russian news agencies quoted the interior ministry as saying. The attack comes three months after 145 people were killed in an attack claimed by the Islamic State on a concert hall near Moscow, Russia's worst terrorist attack in years.

IAEA urges halt to attacks on town near Ukrainian nuclear plant

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog called on Sunday for a halt to attacks on Enerhodar, a town near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station after drone strikes this week hit two electricity substations serving the area. The plant's Russian-installed officials accused Ukraine of staging two drone strikes that destroyed one substation, damaged another and cut power to residents for a time.

North Korean official criticises US for expanding support for Ukraine, KCNA reports

A senior North Korean official on Monday criticised the United States over its expanding military support for Ukraine, according to state media KCNA. Pak Jong Chon, one of North Korea's top military officials, said Russia has the "right to opt for any kind of retaliatory strike" in a statement carried by KCNA on Monday.

Israeli airstrike kills eight at Gaza aid centre, witnesses say

Eight Palestinians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on a training college near Gaza City being used to distribute aid, Palestinian witnesses said, as Israeli tanks pushed further into the southern city of Rafah. The strike hit part of a vocational college run by the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA that is now providing aid to displaced families, the witnesses said.

Russia says US is responsible for deadly Ukrainian attack on Crimea

Russia said on Sunday that the United States was responsible for a Ukrainian attack on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula with five U.S.-supplied missiles that killed four people, including two children, and injured 151 more. The Russian Defence Ministry said four of the U.S.-delivered Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, equipped with cluster warheads, were shot down by air defence systems and the ammunition of a fifth had detonated in mid-air.

Netanyahu says intense fighting against Hamas is ending but war to go on

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the phase of intense fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip was coming to an end but that the war would not end until the Islamist group no longer controls the Palestinian enclave. Once the intense fighting is over in Gaza, Netanyahu said, Israel will be able to deploy more forces along the northern border with Lebanon, where fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah has escalated .

Israeli forces strap wounded Palestinian to jeep during raid

Israeli army forces strapped a wounded Palestinian man to the hood of a military jeep during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Saturday. A video circulating on social media and verified by Reuters showed a Palestinian resident of Jenin, Mujahed Azmi, on the jeep that passes through two ambulances.

Russia offers to help Vietnam develop nuclear energy, RIA reports

Russia offered to help Vietnam develop nuclear power plants during President Vladimir Putin's trip to Hanoi, Alexei Likhachev, head of the Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom told RIA agency in remarks published on Monday. Likhachev, who was part of Putin's entourage during his visit to Vietnam last week, said that he had made the offer to Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)