The alleged murder of a young Sydney couple by a serving police officer has opened a tragic new chapter in the troubled history between the force and the city’s LGBT+ community and cast a shadow over Mardi Gras, a vibrant annual celebration of their culture.

Senior New South Wales Police Constable Beaumont Lamarre-Condon, 28, was charged last week with the murders of Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, whose bodies were found on a rural property a week later hidden in surf bags.

Police will allege that Lamarre-Condon used his police-issue pistol to kill the two men at Baird’s Paddington home in Sydney’s east on February 19, before hiring a van to move their bodies and keeping the location secret from detectives for days after his arrest.

The alleged killings shocked Sydney’s LGBT+ community, and on Friday night its members held a vigil for Baird and Davies, who had been expected to join revelers at the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the annual parade that serves as a celebration of their identity and a protest against homophobia and victimization.

Nearby, protesters vented their anger with police assigned to control crowds on the eve of the parade, according to video posted to social media.

Police say Lamarre-Condon had a past relationship with Baird, a popular television presenter. Questions are being asked about how the constable passed police recruitment screening, and the procedures that apparently allowed him to check out a police gun and return it after the alleged murders.

The community was also taken aback by comments made by NSW Police Commissioner Kate Webb, who initially called the case a “crime of passion,” for which she apologized.

She was also accused of flippancy when she invoked Taylor Swift in response to criticism about the police response – “Haters gonna hate. Isn’t that what Taylor says?” Webb said, again later apologizing.

Amid strained relations in the days leading to Mardi Gras, many objected to any involvement by NSW police in the event – and the Mardi Gras organizers initially withdrew their invitation for officers to march.

“Our community needs space to grieve the loss of Jesse and Luke who, before this tragedy, would have been here celebrating with us at the festival,” the Mardi Gras board said in a statement.

Adding to that distress was a photo circulated widely of the alleged killer marching in police uniform at the 2020 Mardi Gras.

After days of negotiation, Webb announced police officers would be able to march, but not in uniform.

“I am delighted that our LGBTQIA+ officers, as well as our other police who are allies and supporters, will be allowed to march this year as they have done for the past 20 years,” she said. “I am committed to continuing to strengthen the relationship between my organization and the LGBTQIA+ community.”

But activists say Webb and her force have taken little action to right historic wrongs, and that their participation in the march is performative.

Violent beginnings

For the past two decades, LGBT+ officers and their allies have marched in the Mardi Gras – an image of detente that event organizers say has “developed a constructive relationship that has helped us progress towards a more reconciled future between NSW Police and the LGBTQIA+ community.”

It’s been considered part of the healing process after an era of rampant homophobia and discrimination that created deep mistrust between the gay community and police officers.

Sydney’s Mardi Gras was born of a brutal crackdown on LGBT+ activists by police six years before gay male sexual behavior was decriminalized in NSW in 1984.

That night marchers were “trapped by police and viciously beaten and 53 people were arrested,” says Robert French, who is known as a ‘78er – the honorific held by those involved in the first Mardi Gras in 1978 and the protest movement it immediately spurred.

“So there has always been this fraught relationship,” French said. “I balk when I see police at the parade, but then I laugh and think, well, given that they started it I suppose they have a right to be here.”

In 2016, then NSW Police Superintendent Tony Crandell apologized to the ‘78ers on behalf of the force, stating: “Our relationship these days is healthy, positive and progressive, but that wasn’t the case back then.”

History of ‘gay hate’

In December the NSW state government received the report of its “Special Inquiry into LGBTIQ Hate Crimes,” a task force with powers to investigate unsolved suspected hate crime deaths of 32 people between 1970 and 2010.

Police attitudes toward the LGBT+ community formed a cornerstone of the investigation, which found the force had failed to properly investigate gay hate crimes over the 40-year period.

The police had acted with negligence and hostility toward victims and their families, commissioner of the inquiry Justice John Sackar found.

Last Sunday, police commissioner Webb made another apology on behalf of the force, for “not adequately and fairly investigating those deaths between 1970 and 2010.”

“The mistakes of the past will not define our future,” Webb said.

But despite the apology, police have not yet formally accepted any of the 15 recommendations Sackar made at the closure of the inquiry in December.

Recommendations to police included reinvestigating some of the suspected hate crimes murders, but also for officers to take courses in LGBT+ bias and to improve relations with the LGBT+ community.

For ‘78er French, action on those issues is the only path to reconciliation between police and his community.

“They always want control, they do not open to criticism, they do not like criticism, and they are not prepared to put themselves in a situation, as they have been forced to with the inquiry, to answer critics within the [LGBT+] community,” French said.

A massive fire raced through a six-storey building in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka late on Thursday, killing at least 43 people and injuring dozens, the country’s health minister said.

The fire originated in a restaurant and quickly spread to other floors, fire service officials said.

At least 43 people have died and 22 others are being treated at hospitals with burn wounds, Health Minister Samanta Lal Sen told reporters after visiting the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

All 22 people admitted with severe burns are in critical condition, Sen added.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze, which was under control after two hours of frantic efforts by 13 firefighting units, the fire service officials said.

Survivor Mohammad Altaf, speaking to reporters, recounted narrowly escaping the blaze through a broken window. Two of his coworkers perished, he said.

“When the fire started in the front and broke the glass, our cashier and servicemen made got everyone out. But both of them died later. I went to the kitchen, broke a window and jumped to save myself,” Altaf said.

Firefighters used a crane to rescue people from the charred building, the fire service officials said.

Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence Director, Brigadier General Main Uddin, said the fire could have originated from a gas leak or stove.

“It was a dangerous building with gas cylinders on every floor, even on the staircases,” he told reporters.

Intense scrutiny of Bangladesh and the major international clothing retailers that manufacture in the country has helped prevent further disasters in the garment sector since a fire in 2012 and a building collapse in 2013 together killed more than 1,200 workers.

But in other industries, mainly catering to Bangladesh’s booming domestic economy and without an equal emphasis on safety, hundreds have died in fires in recent years.

Fires are common in densely populated Dhaka, which has experienced a boom in new buildings, often constructed without proper safety measures. Fires and explosions have occurred due to faulty gas cylinders, air conditioners and bad electrical wiring.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has died at age 84, according to Canadian media reports citing his daughter’s social media post.

Mulroney died peacefully, surrounded by family, Caroline Mulroney said in a post on X.

“On behalf of my mother and our family, it is with great sadness we announce the passing of my father, The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, Canada’s 18th Prime Minister,” Caroline Mulroney said in the post.

“We will share details of arrangements when they become available,” Mulroney said in another post.

Mulroney served as Canada’s prime minister from 1984 through 1993 – a tenure that notably included the signing of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement with former US President Ronald Reagan in the late ’80s. The agreement was superseded by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he is devastated to learn of Mulroney’s death.

“Brian Mulroney loved Canada,” Trudeau said in a post on X. “I’m devastated to learn of his passing. He never stopped working for Canadians, and he always sought to make this country an even better place to call home.”

“I’ll never forget the insights he shared with me over the years – he was generous, tireless, and incredibly passionate. As we mourn his passing and keep his family and friends in our thoughts, let us also acknowledge – and celebrate – Mr. Mulroney’s role in building the modern, dynamic, and prosperous country we all know today,” Trudeau added.

In a statement released through his office, Trudeau remembered Mulroney’s work on environmental and humanitarian issues.

“He was at the forefront of environmental issues, helping secure an air quality agreement with the United States to reduce acid rain, championing the first Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and creating several new national parks. And he exemplified Canadian values, standing up against apartheid in South Africa,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.

After leaving office, Mulroney served on corporate boards and was chair of Quebecor Inc. and Forbes Global Business and Finance. He was also a senior partner at Montréal-based international law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright Canada, according to the prime minister’s office.

“A globally respected and recognized leader, Mr. Mulroney was also awarded some of the highest recognitions from governments around the world,” the prime minister’s statement said.

Among Mulroney’s awards and honors were the Order of Canada, the Ordre national du Québec and the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service, the statement added.

Global carbon pollution from energy hit a record high last year, driven partly by increased fossil fuel use in countries where droughts restricted hydropower production, according to an International Energy Agency (IEA) report published Thursday.

Steep cuts in carbon emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, will be needed in the coming years if targets to limit a global rise in temperatures and prevent runaway climate change are to be met, scientists have said.

“Far from falling rapidly — as is required to meet the global climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement — CO2 emissions reached a new record high,” the IEA said in the report.

Global emissions from energy rose by 410 million metric tons, or 1.1%, in 2023 to 37.4 billion metric tons, the IEA analysis showed.

A global expansion in clean technology such as wind, solar and electric vehicles, helped to reduce the rate of emissions growth, which was 1.3% in 2022. But a reopening of China’s economy, increased fossil fuel use in countries with low hydropower output and a recovery in the aviation sector led to an overall rise, the IEA said in its report.

Moves to replace lost hydropower generation due to extreme droughts accounted for around 40% of the emissions rise, or 170 million tonnes of CO2, it said.

“Without this effect, emissions from the global electricity sector would have fallen in 2023,” the IEA said.

Energy-related emissions in the United States fell by 4.1%, with the bulk of the reduction coming from the electricity sector, according to the report.

In the European Union, emissions from energy fell by almost 9% last year, driven by a surge in renewable power generation and a slump in both coal and gas power generation.

In China, emissions from energy rose by 5.2%, with energy demand growing as the country recovered from COVID-19-related lockdowns, the report said.

China, however, also contributed around 60% of global additions of solar, wind power and electric vehicles in 2023, the IEA said.

Tour operators and a company which owns the New Zealand island where a volcanic eruption killed 22 people and wounded many others have been fined $1.6 million (NZ$2.6 million), and ordered to pay victims and surviving families $6.2 million (NZ$10.2 million) in compensation.

The District Court in Auckland handed down its sentence on Friday, ending a criminal prosecution brought by WorkSafe, New Zealand’s health and safety regulators, to seek justice for 47 tourists who were on Whakaari or White Island on December 9, 2019.

The island, 48 kilometers (30 miles) off New Zealand’s North Island, was once a popular tourist destination for those wanting to trek up the slopes of an active volcano.

The weeks-long trial held last year revisited horrifying testimony of how the island turned into “an oven” for the holidaymakers on that fateful day as the volcano erupted.

Survivors scarred by severe burns testified against various companies – including Whakaari Management Ltd, which owned the island – accusing them of failing to warn them about the risks.

On Friday, Judge Evangelos Thomas found both Whakaari Management Ltd and the tour operators had failed to conduct adequate risk assessment, breaking health and safety laws with devastating consequences.

He said the operators had failed to seek advice from volcanological experts and failed to appreciate the unpredictability of an eruption, leading to an incorrect assessment of risk mitigation. The owner of the island, meanwhile, failed to make sure the operators had examined the risks properly, the judge added.

Whakaari Management Ltd, owned by brothers Andrew, Peter and James Buttle, was convicted after trial, having previously pleaded not guilty to a charge under the country’s Health and Safety at Work Act. They were fined $636,034 (NZ$1,045,000) and ordered to pay reparation of $2.9 million (NZ$4.8 million), in total the most substantial amount of all the defendants in the case.

The four other operators are White Island Tours Ltd, Volcanic Air Safaris Ltd, Aerius Ltd and Kahu (NZ) Ltd.

Thomas noted that all defendants have either stopped trading, have no assets, were in liquidation, or were in a weak financial position.

For Whakaari Management Ltd – which claims to have “no assets” – the judge said the Buttles family appeared to “have profited handsomely” from the tour operation, even though he cannot order shareholders to pay out of their own pockets.

But he warned: “There may be no commercial basis for doing so, but many would argue there is an inescapable moral one.”

“We wait to see what the Buttles will do. The world is watching,” he said.

The 47 people on Whakaari that day included honeymooners and families from countries such as Australia, the United States and Malaysia.

During the trial in July last year, survivors described the extreme conditions and searing pain they found themselves as they fled for their life following the eruption.

Tourist Annie Lu, who suffered from burns to 38% to her body, recalled feeling like “sand and rocks everywhere that were being thrown” at her.

“It was just like someone heated up some needles until it was iron hot and then shoving it all onto you,” she testified from Australia through a video link in July last year.

“Think of, if you open an oven and the heat just rushes at you. It’s kind of like that but 1,000 times worse,” she added.

American tourist Matthew Urey said he struggled to breathe as they were enveloped by waves of heat that prosecutors estimate reached 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit), or more.

“I don’t know whether it was steam or hot ash, but it was all over us,” he testified during the trial.

Video replayed during the trial showed huge plumes of ash dwarfing the group of tourists, who had been escorted by tour guides from the jetty, where their boat had docked, to the crater.

In the judgment Friday, the judge acknowledged the “harm,” noting the “excruciating and traumatic injuries” from which many victims still suffer and the grief “felt by those who lost loved ones.”

“Even if it is difficult for someone who has not endured it to possibly imagine it, we admire and respect those who are so courageously learning to rebuild themselves, their lives, their families,” he said.

Britain’s opposition Labour Party, widely expected to win a general election due to be held within months, has lost one of its safest parliamentary seats to a pro-Palestinian former party member in a chaotic by-election.

Veteran left-winger George Galloway was elected to represent the constituency of Rochdale by a majority of nearly 6,000 votes, pledging to be a thorn in the side for Labour over the Gaza war.

The by-election, a special election held outside of the general election cycle, had attracted particular attention because Labour was forced to withdraw support from its candidate, Azhar Ali, after videos emerged of him claiming that Israel was complicit in the October 7 Hamas attacks.

The comments turned the campaign, sparked by the death of the local MP, on its head. Labour initially stood by Ali, only to withdraw their support but too close to the by-election to put forward another candidate.

This created an opportunity for Galloway, who has a long history of campaigning in areas that have a large Muslim population and appealing, critics say distastefully, for their votes.

In the days running up to the byelection, the political editor of the Sun, a popular British tabloid, discovered campaign material from Galloway that had been sent specifically to Muslim voters, saying: “The political class has failed Rochdale, failed Britain and failed Gaza … the Labour Party under Keir Starmer have betrayed Muslims, choosing instead to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza … I, George Galloway, have fought for Muslims at home and abroad all of my life. And paid a price for it.”

The Labour Party has been walking a difficult tightrope since the start of the Israel-Hamas war of calling for a pause in violence without wanting to criticize Israel. The issue of Israel is particularly sensitive, because Labour was until very recently embroiled in an anti-Semitism scandal under previous leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Galloway was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 after he opposed then Prime Minister and Labour leader Tony Blair’s support for the war in Iraq.

He made a memorable and defiant appearance at a US Senate panel to answer accusations he had profited from Iraqi oil sales, accusing the panel’s Republican chairman of making a “schoolboy howler.”

While Galloway can claim to have always been a supporter of Muslim causes and Palestinians, he has been accused of using anti-Semitic tropes. He was sacked by the radio station TalkSport after he tweeted: “No #Israël flags on the Cup!” after English soccer team Tottenham Hotspur, who have strong links to the North London Jewish community, were defeated in the Champion’s League final in 2019. Galloway has previously denied allegations of anti-Semitism.

He has also worked for state-funded media, RT and Press TV, owned by Russia and Iran respectively. Both channels have had their broadcast licences banned in the UK and been accused of peddling propaganda.

Galloway’s victory is noteworthy for the context in which it took place, but doesn’t necessarily tell us much about the general election that will take place at some point this year. Had Labour not had to abandon its candidate, it is likely the seat would have held.

It does send a warning, however, to Starmer and the Labour Party about the need to properly screen candidates, as it could be badly hurt by similar stories emerging in the run up to the general election.

Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable opponent, died aged 47 in an Arctic prison on February 16, sparking condemnation from world leaders and accusations from his aides that he had been murdered. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in his death.

Navalny’s team encountered difficulty in retrieving his body from Russian authorities and hiring a venue for his funeral, which began at 2 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) Friday at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in Moscow’s Maryino district, where the Kremlin critic lived. He will then be buried at Borisov Cemetery.

Crowd control barriers were erected along the route to the cemetery ahead of the service, flanked by dozens of police vans. Police officers have been deployed on rooftops overlooking the growing line of mourners, video from the scene showed.

Ahead of the funeral, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned Russians against unauthorized memorials for Navalny, saying those attending would be “in violation of the law.”

Despite the risks, mourners clapped and chanted Navalny’s name as his coffin arrived at the church. Another video showed people shouting: “You were not afraid and we are not afraid.”

Maria Pevchikh, a close aide to Navalny, said the chants for Navalny will continue. “People are chanting ‘Navalny! Navalny!’ in loud voices. This chanting we will hear in months’ time, in a year’s time,” she said.

“He was a true hero … I want to say to him ‘farewell,’” she said, adding that she was not surprised that the Kremlin had denied any involvement in Navalny’s death. “They demonstrate to the whole world we do what we want to do,” she said. “We can repress you.”

Another woman, Tatiana, 82, said she had attended several of Navalny’s meetings and was a longstanding supporter.

“I always supported their [Navalny’s] policy, their ideas. I share these ideas,” Tatiana said.

Neither woman said they were deterred by the potential risk of coming to the funeral.

But Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, had said ahead of the funeral that she is concerned police will crack down mourners.

“I’m not sure yet whether it will be peaceful or whether police will arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband,” she told the European Parliament on Wednesday.

Navalny’s death was met with grief and anger across the world as well as inside Russia, where the smallest acts of political dissent carry huge risks. More than 400 people were detained at makeshift memorials for Navalny across 32 Russian cities, according to human rights monitoring group OVD-Info.

He was immediately arrested upon his arrival and spent the rest of his life behind bars on charges he dismissed as politically motivated.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Pixelated in the thermal drone imagery, the quad bike races down a dirt track, its destination unclear. It swerves and is hit by a grenade, dropped from a Ukrainian drone. Russian soldiers appear to stagger away from it, one rolling.

The use of drones by both Ukrainian and Russian forces has become so widespread across the front line now, the soldiers said, that most maneuvers – from troop rotations to assaults – occur in darkness when the cheap, single-use weapons, which fly explosives into their targets, are less effective.

Kokos, a former children’s entertainer turned drone pilot in the 15th National Guard unit, said quad bikes were “more maneuverable than tracked vehicles. It’s hard for artillery to hit them, so we have to use drones.”

He said some of the captured Russians had seemed intoxicated. “We heard from prisoners of war how they are given pills before assaults. After capture, they won’t eat or sleep for a day.” He added of the assaults at night: “They just keep coming.”

Bohdan, the driver of a Belgian-donated armored vehicle, said Russian drones had limited the use of his protected “box” to evacuate casualties from the front line. “Our job got harder because of numerous drones flying around. The guys have to carry the injured to the extraction point between 2 and 8 kilometers (1.2 and 5 miles) away. It depends on the shelling.”

Ukrainian forces along the Robotyne front line are facing a painful Russian resurgence aimed at taking the tiny village that became one of the main gains on the southwestern front of the summer counteroffensive.

Weeks of intense fighting preceded the Ukrainian flag being hoisted inside the village, and periodic battles continued around its rubble over the winter.

Like many Ukrainian soldiers along the Robotyne front line, he said the lack of ammunition caused by a delay in US financial and military aid was “forcing them to underperform.” He said there is a “dramatic lack of ammo. It affects how many rounds we can spend on a target.”

His commander, Anton, said the unit used to fire 80 rounds a day, during the NATO-financed and aided counteroffensive, but now fired about 10.

He has spent more time thinking about Republican procedural dysfunctionality than you might expect for a man cheating death by shellfire in an underground bunker.

“I hardly understand the Republican policy on aiding Ukraine,” he said.

“The biggest problem is lack of ammo. We are waiting, we wait for it very much. We urgently need it. More ammunition equals saving more lives of our soldiers and civilians.”

On the drone monitors flickering near him, another grenade drops into a trench. Two Russian soldiers can be seen clambering inside the ruins of a dugout, one manhandling a shovel.

Ukrainian drone pilots now face Russian counterparts who have replaced their units but at a much larger scale, they said. “We don’t have their numbers, they mass produce everything. The quality is lower but they have lots of them. They send one, it gets suppressed by our jammers, and they instantly send another one.”

He said a new threat was so-called FPV (first-person view) attack drones, controlled from a gaming headset and equipped with night vision. In the background of the small farming cottage in which the unit was based whirred a 3D printer, churning out components for drones. Kokos estimated they could “print” parts for about 10 drones a day, but were crowdfunding as supplies were limited.

Saint, another drone pilot, 22, from Lviv, held up a captured Russian FPV drone, which he said was “manufactured much better than ours. Ours are made from carbon. Theirs are aluminium. That means extra shrapnel and a bigger payload.”

When observing a hoard of golden-backed frogs at a roadside pond in Karnataka, India, a group of naturalists noticed something odd about one of the amphibians — the animal had a tiny mushroom sprouting out of its side.

How the seemingly healthy frog came to grow its fungi companion — an occurrence that’s never been documented before — has left scientists baffled, according to a note published in January in the journal Reptiles and Amphibians.

“When I first observed the frog with the mushroom, I was amazed and intrigued by the sight,” said Lohit Y T, a rivers and wetlands specialist with World Wildlife Fund-India in Bengaluru, via email. Y T was a part of the group that discovered the frog. “My thought was to document it, as this phenomenon is something we have never heard of. We just wanted this to be a rare incident and not a dangerous phenomenon for the frog.”

The species — known as Rao’s intermediate golden-backed frog, or the scientific name Hylarana intermedia — is found in abundance in the southwestern Indian states of Karnataka and Kerala. The frogs are small, growing to be only up to 2.9 inches (7.4 centimeters) in length.

As the naturalists watched the frog with the fungal growth, the animal moved from the center of the twig it sat upon to the very tip, turning around and changing positions, but the mushroom remained perfectly in place, Y T said. The group did not touch the frog.

The authors discovered the amphibian in June 2023 and did not collect it, so neither the cause of the phenomenon nor the fate of the frog is known.

But through pictures, mycologists later identified the mushroom growing out of the frog’s flank as a common bonnet, part of the Mycena genus, a type of fungi that mostly grows on rotting wood from dead trees, the authors wrote in the published paper. The fungus is a saprotrophic decomposer, a mushroom that typically gets its nutrients from dead or decaying organic matter — but a 2023 study found the mushroom could evolve to thrive on living plants as well.

The 2023 study further suggested that the Mycena fungus could develop to have a symbiotic relationship with living plants or trees, meaning that both the plant and the fungus growing on it would benefit from the arrangement — the fungi would both take nutrients from and transfer them to the plant host. In trees, Mycena could be helpful by pruning dead branches, the authors added.

The prognosis of the frog with the mushroom hitchhiker is unknown, but there are a handful of theories as to the cause of its condition.

Fate of the mushroom frog

Upon first seeing the report of the frog with a mushroom attached to its flank, Alyssa Wetterau Kaganer, a postdoctoral associate in the department of public and ecosystem health at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, found the discovery fascinating.

“Fungi are dynamic organisms that adapt to changes in their environment, and with exposure to new potential hosts in different environments or climates they may grow in places we hadn’t previously expected,” she said in an email.

While it is difficult to predict the fate of the frog without further study of its condition, it is possible that “an otherwise healthy frog may be able to withstand mild colonization of its skin by this fungus without any adverse health effects,” Kaganer said. Fungal infections in frogs are very common, however, and if the mushroom were to “grow extensively on the skin or burrow within the animal’s body, the animal may develop signs of a fungal disease,” she added. Kaganer was not involved with the discovery.

There are many types of fungi that can infect frogs, and it is possible there are fungus-frog interactions yet to be discovered. A frog with signs of fungal disease, such as “altered behavior of the frog” or “skin damage including ulceration or tumor-like nodules,” has an infection that can often result in death for at least some of the infected animals, Kaganer said.

Anything out of the ordinary, including a fungal growth like this, is of concern for frog species, said Karthikeyan Vasudevan, chief scientist for the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Telangana, India. Vasudevan was not involved with the discovery and was also surprised by the find.

“Sick animals in the wild have very little chance of survival. To notice a sick animal is difficult, as they die or get eaten up quickly. Therefore, something like this is interesting and should be followed up with observations and screening of frogs,” Vasudevan said in an email.

Initially, Vasudevan had thought the mushroom was stuck on the frog’s skin rather than a growth, but photos of the critter convinced him otherwise. “It is indeed the case of a live mushroom on a live frog,” Vasudevan said. “But one of the possibilities is that there is a small piece of woody debris under the skin of the frog after it got lodged in the skin and it has sprouted a mushroom from it.”

Chytrid disease caused by fungus

India is currently facing an epidemic of a frog-killing disease known as chytridiomycosis, a fungal infection that affects more than 700 species of amphibians worldwide. The disease has been observed in low levels in all the frog hotspots across India, the authors of the new note wrote.

Chytrid disease is an example of a common amphibian and fungi interaction. But the authors do not know whether it is related to this discovery, Y T said.

“This specific type of mushroom is not closely related to the species of fungus that cause chytridiomycosis, so I am not concerned that this mushroom is a direct sign of chytridiomycosis,” said Kaganer, who studies the disease. “However, it is possible that a frog with Mycena might have altered susceptibility to a chytrid infection.”

The frog with the mushroom in its side could either have an increase in susceptibility to chytridiomycosis from being compromised by the Mycena, or it could be more immune “because the Mycena has kicked the frog’s immune system into high gear,” she added.

“We don’t have any hope of pursuing the frog, as this is not a common phenomenon,” Y T said. The authors will visit the spot again during the next monsoon season, when the weather is warm and rainy and the frogs are most abundant, he added.

“If we manage to find it, it’ll be great,” Y T said. “The spot has been frequented by many enthusiasts and experts alike. It would be great if some researcher gets their hands on it and can further the investigation, but again, it’s all highly unlikely to happen.”

One of the worst single tragedies to occur during Israel’s war with Hamas took place Thursday, when scores of Palestinians were killed trying to access food aid in Gaza City.

The incident took place amid a backdrop of vast hunger and dire poverty in the besieged enclave, where food aid has been so rare as to frequently elicit panic when it arrives.

But there are competing narratives surrounding the devastation that have been put forward by Israel and by eyewitnesses on the ground.

Here’s what we know.

What happened?

The deaths occurred amid scenes of chaos on Haroun Al Rasheed Street in western Gaza City, where crowds of hungry Palestinians had gathered for food aid.

A convoy of at least 18 food trucks arrived at around 4.30 a.m. on Thursday morning, sent by countries in the region including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to eyewitnesses.

Civilians swarmed around the newly arrived aid trucks in the hope of getting food, and Israeli forces soon started shooting, witnesses said.

The majority of the casualties occurred as a result of people being rammed by aid trucks trying to escape Israeli fire, according to a local journalist in Gaza, Khader Al Za’anoun.

Al Za’anoun, who was at the scene and witnessed the incident, said that while there were large crowds waiting for food to be distributed from aid trucks, the chaos and confusion that led to people being hit by the trucks only started once Israeli soldiers opened fire.

“Most of the people that were killed were rammed by the aid trucks during the chaos and while trying to escape the Israeli gunfire,” Al Za’anoun said.

What is Israel saying?

Israel offered an evolving account of the incident as the day progressed.

Later on Thursday, an Israeli military spokesperson claimed in a briefing that there were two separate incidents involving aid trucks in Gaza Thursday.

First, he said trucks entered northern Gaza and were rushed by crowds, with trucks running over people. Subsequently, he said, a group of Palestinians approached Israeli forces, who then opened fire on the Palestinians.

“The truckloads went into the north, then there was the stampede, and then afterwards, there was the event against our forces. That’s how things transpired this morning,” the spokesman said.

That timeline directly contradicts the eyewitness accounts, which suggested that the Israeli military opened fire on people near the trucks, causing drivers to pull away in panic.

In a briefing Thursday, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hargari denied there had been a strike on the convoy. He said that Israeli tanks had fired warning shots to disperse a crowd around an aid convoy in Gaza, after seeing that people were being trampled.

He insisted that the tanks were there “to secure the humanitarian corridor” so the aid convoy could reach its destination.

The IDF released a short video, which appears to show a tank driving parallel to the crowd, several meters away.

“As you can see in this video, the tanks that were there to secure the convoy sees the Gazans being trampled and cautiously tries to disperse the mob with a few warning shots,” Hagari said.

When the crowd started to grow and “things got out of hand,” the tank retreated to avoid harming Gazans, he added.

“I think, as a military man, they were backing up securely, risking their own lives, not shooting at the mob,” he said.

What is the humanitarian situation in Gaza?

More than a half a million people in Gaza are on the brink of famine, United Nations agencies warned on Tuesday, as the war in the enclave stretches towards the five-month mark.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said at least 576,000 people across Gaza are “facing catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation.” Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned “of a real prospect of famine by May, with 500,000 people at risk if the threat is allowed to materialize.”

“Today, food aid is required by almost the entire population of 2.2 million people. Gaza is seeing the worst level of child malnutrition anywhere in the world,” Carl Skau, WFP Deputy Executive Director, told the Security Council during its Tuesday session. “One child in every six under the age of 2 is acutely malnourished.”

“The chaos, yes, around the aid line is becoming worse and worse because there’s so little aid coming in,” he said.

“Today, I’m pretty shaken actually from what I saw,” he went on. “The minute we crossed the border … you see the aid trucks going full speed down the road, being chased by gangs of youth who jumped the trucks and before our eyes, loot mattresses, blankets, food, et cetera, to the desperate people outside who want to get some aid.”

What have the international community said?

The US State Department expressed condolences for those killed and injured and said the US was pressing Israel for answers.

“Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed over the course of this conflict, not just today, but over the past nearly five months,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing.

“We have been in touch with the Israeli government since early this morning and understand that an investigation is underway,” he said.

Miller said the US is aware of “conflicting reports” about what happened and would only say the US knows that a commercial convoy not associated with the UN was delivering the aid.

“If there’s anything that the aerial footage of today’s incident makes clear, it is just how desperate the situation on the ground is,” said Miller, calling for Israel to “allow the entry of more assistance into Gaza, through as many points of access as possible, and to enable safe and secure distribution of that aid throughout Gaza.”

The UN has condemned the incident and said it must be investigated. UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was “appalled” by the growing death toll in Gaza and reiterated calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages in Gaza.

His spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement: “The desperate civilians in Gaza need urgent help, including those in the besieged north where the United Nations has not been able to deliver aid in more than a week,”

Saudi Arabia also condemned the incident, calling on the international community “to take a firm stance by obliging Israel to respect international humanitarian law,” while the United Arab Emirates called for an “independent and transparent investigation.”

Colombia announced it would suspend the purchase of weapons from Israel following the deaths. “This is called genocide and is reminiscent of the Holocaust even if the world powers do not like to recognize it,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said in a post.

French UN Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere described the incident as “an unprecedented disaster,” and said France would continue to work towards an immediate ceasefire.

What this means for the war

Thursday’s tragedy represented one of the deadliest single incidents in Gaza since Israel’s war against Hamas began.

And it came at a critical time for the conflict, with negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a deal to pause fighting and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza reaching a potentially pivotal moment.

Hamas senior member Izzat Al-Risheq warned that the killing of people collecting aid from trucks in Gaza could lead to the failure of ongoing talks.

“Negotiations are not an open process,” he said in a statement published by the Hamas on Telegram.

“We will not allow for the pathway of the negotiations…[to become] a cover for the enemy’s continued crimes against our people in the Gaza Strip,” Al-Risheq said.

At the State Department briefing, Miller also said the incident indicated how necessary it was to reach “a potential temporary ceasefire as part of a hostage deal” to allow more aid in.

“We continue to work day and night to achieve that outcome, including through calls (President Joe Biden) held this morning with President Al Sisi of Egypt and the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim, as well as one Secretary Blinken held earlier today with Qatari Prime Minister Al Thani,” Miller said.

“Every leader on those calls agreed that this terrible event underscores the urgency in bringing the hostage talks to a close.”

President Biden said Monday during an appearance at an ice cream shop in New York City that he hoped there would be a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict by “next Monday,” though officials from Israel, Hamas and Qatar – which is helping mediate negotiations – distanced themselves from that timeline.