Earth’s string of 13 straight months with a new average heat record came to an end this past July as the natural El Nino climate pattern ebbed, the European climate agency Copernicus announced Wednesday.

But July 2024’s average heat just missed surpassing the July of a year ago, and scientists said the end of the record-breaking streak changes nothing about the threat posed by climate change.

“The overall context hasn’t changed,” Copernicus deputy director Samantha Burgess said in a statement. “Our climate continues to warm.”

Human-caused climate change drives extreme weather events that are wreaking havoc around the globe, with several examples just in recent weeks. In Cape Town, South Africa, thousands were displaced by torrential rain, gale-force winds, flooding and more. A fatal landslide hit Indonesia’s Sulawesi island. Beryl left a massive path of destruction as it set the record for the earliest Category 4 hurricane. And Japanese authorities said more than 120 people died in record heat in Tokyo.

Those hot temperatures have been especially merciless.

The globe for July 2024 averaged 62.4 degrees Fahrenheit (16.91 degrees Celsius), which is 1.2 degrees (0.68 Celsius) above the 30-year average for the month, according to Copernicus. Temperatures were a small fraction lower than the same period last year.

It is the second-warmest July and second-warmest of any month recorded in the agency’s records, behind only July 2023. The Earth also had its two hottest days on record, on July 22 and July 23, each averaging about 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit (17.16 degrees Celsius).

During July, the world was 1.48 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer, by Copernicus’ measurement, than pre-industrial times. That’s close to the warming limit that nearly all the countries in the world agreed to in the 2015 Paris climate agreement: 1.5 degrees.

El Nino — which naturally warms the Pacific Ocean and changes weather across the globe — spurred the 13 months of record heat, said Copernicus senior climate scientist Julien Nicolas. That has come to a close, hence July’s slight easing of temperatures. La Nina conditions — natural cooling — aren’t expected until later in the year.

But there’s still a general trend of warming.

“The global picture is not that much different from where we were a year ago,” Nicolas said in an interview.

“The fact that the global sea surface temperature is and has been at record or near record levels for the past more than a year now has been an important contributing factor,” he said. “The main driving force, driving actor behind this record temperature is also the long-term warming trend that is directly related to buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”

That includes carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.

July’s temperatures hit certain regions especially hard, including western Canada and the western United States. They baked, with around one-third of the US population under warnings at one point for dangerous and record-breaking heat.

In southern and eastern Europe, the Italian health ministry issued its most severe heat warning for several cities in southern Europe and the Balkans. Greece was forced to close its biggest cultural attraction, the Acropolis, due to excessive temperatures. A majority of France was under heat warnings as the country welcomed the Olympics in late July.

Also affected were most of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and eastern Antarctica, according to Copernicus. Temperatures in Antarctica were well above average, the scientists say.

“Things are going to continue to get worse because we haven’t stopped doing the thing that’s making them worse,” said Gavin Schmidt, climatologist and director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who wasn’t part of the report.

Schmidt noted that different methodologies or calculations could produce slightly different results, including that July may have even continued the streak. The primary takeaway, he said: “Even if the record-breaking streak comes to an end, the forces that are pushing the temperatures higher, they’re not stopping.

“Does it matter that July is a record or not a record? No, because the thing that matters, the thing that is impacting everybody,” Schmidt added, “is the fact that the temperatures this year and last year are still much, much warmer than they were in the 1980s, than they were pre-industrial. And we’re seeing the impacts of that change.”

People across the globe shouldn’t see relief in July’s numbers, the experts say.

“There’s been a lot of attention given to this 13-month streak of global records,” said Copernicus’ Nicolas. “But the consequences of climate change have been seen for many years. This started before June 2023, and they won’t end because this streak of records is ending.”

Young protesters in Kenya returned to the capital’s streets for an eighth week of demonstrations on Thursday as President William Ruto swore in a new cabinet.

Police fired tear gas at protesters in Nairobi city center as many businesses remain closed. Widely shared posters on social media called for the “mother of all protests” dubbed the Nane Nane March after the Swahili translation of the day’s date – August 8.

“We shall march for our rights and tomorrow, we shall liberate this country,” Kasmuel McOure, one of the most prominent young protesters, told reporters on Wednesday.

The demonstrations started nearly two months ago, with mostly Gen Z Kenyans organizing on social media against a now withdrawn Finance Bill. They persisted as more citizens joined a largely leaderless movement against corruption, the high cost of living, and police brutality.

Violent police crackdown

At least 61 people have been killed in the protests nationwide, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said, accusing police of using excessive force and live rounds on mostly peaceful protesters.

Another prominent protester, Shad Khali, called Thursday the third liberation of the country, saying it was the “climax of one and a half months of Kenyans demanding for accountability and governance by the rule of law” on his X account. Many young people have criticized the label of “anti-government protests” used by the media, insisting that they are marching for their rights as guaranteed in the constitution.

Police warned that criminals planned to infiltrate Thursday’s protests to commit crimes, promising to deploy adequate security personnel. Acting police chief Gilbert Masengeli advised members of the public “to take extra caution while in crowded areas that are likely to turn riotous.”

President Ruto dismissed his cabinet last month after public pressure but reappointed about half of the ministers, drawing fresh outrage. Lawmakers rejected only one of the 20 names the Kenyan leader submitted to parliament for vetting, including several opposition politicians.

“I am convinced that this moment to build a strong team of rivals. With the formation of this broad-based government that brings together former political rivals into one selfless patriotic team, we will unlock the potential of our country that has long been denied us by factional and sectarian competition,” he said at State House Nairobi.

The protests in Kenya have inspired similar demonstrations in Uganda and Nigeria.

Police in Austria have questioned three teenagers suspected of plotting a suicide attack at a Taylor Swift show, sparking renewed concerns over the indoctrination of young people online.

Investigators unearthed a stockpile of chemicals, explosive devices and detonators at the home of the main suspect, a 19-year-old ISIS sympathizer who had been radicalized online, according to authorities.

The young man – who was arrested Wednesday morning in the eastern town of Ternitz – planned to kill himself and “a large number of people,” according to the head of the domestic intelligence agency, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.

“He said he intended to carry out an attack using explosives and knives,” Haijawi-Pirchner told reporters in Vienna on Thursday. “His aim was to kill himself and a large number of people during the concert, either today or tomorrow.”

Two other suspects were detained, aged 17 and 15. The 17-year-old worked for a facilities company that would have provided services at the concert venue. He was near the stadium when he was arrested and had recently broken up with his girlfriend, according to Haijwai-Pirchner.

Little has been revealed about the 15-year-old. Prosecutors will decide later if he was a witness or directly involved in the alleged plot.

The three are all Austrian citizens with either Turkish, North Macedonian or Croatian backgrounds.

The trio were in contact with other individuals who knew about the plan, said the country’s director general for public security, Franz Ruf. No-one else is being sought in direct connection with the plot, Ruf added.

The cancellations of the Swift concert triggered an outpouring of heartbreak, grief and relief among Swifties hoping to attend the record-breaking Eras Tour in Vienna. Hailed as a cultural phenomenon, the scale, influence and intricacy of Swift’s musical voyage have made headlines for boosting the economies of the cities she visits.

Russia claims to have halted a Ukrainian incursion into its territory on Thursday, although latest evidence from the ground suggests fighting continues in the Kursk region.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said units of the “North” group of its forces, together with the Russian Federal Security Service, the FSB, “continue to destroy Ukrainian armed forces formations in the Sudzhensky and Korenevsky districts of the Kursk region, which are directly adjacent to the Russian-Ukrainian border.”

Ukraine has not officially confirmed its forces conducted a ground operation inside Russia.

Neither the Ukrainian military nor the government in Kyiv has commented on the operation.

Russia accused Ukrainian troops of crossing the border into its Kursk region on Tuesday, claiming that Ukrainian forces launched a “massive attack” and attempted to break through the Russian defenses.

The extent of the attack, including whether Ukrainian troops took over any settlements or caused damage to any strategic targets, remains unclear.

The Russian state news agency TASS on Thursday quoted the Russian Health Ministry as saying 34 people were injured in the shelling of the Kursk region were “undergoing inpatient treatment,” with nine evacuated to Moscow for treatment.

The Russian Defense Ministry said “attempts by individual [Ukrainian] units to break through deep into the territory in the Kursk direction are being thwarted.”

It claimed that the Ukrainians had “lost up to 400 servicemen and 32 armoured vehicles, including a tank, four armoured personnel carriers, three infantry fighting vehicles and 24 Kozak armoured fighting vehicles.” The ministry’s claims cannot be verified.

Russian military bloggers have described the situation as difficult, with communications jammed.  One prominent blogger was seriously injured Wednesday when his vehicle was struck.

Mick Ryan, author of the Futura Doctrina blog and an analyst of the war in Ukraine, said Thursday that the Ukrainian military had deployed “quality formations. It appears that unlike in the 2023 southern counteroffensive where fresh brigades were employed, the Ukrainians have allocated experienced formations to this attack. This already appears to be paying dividends with the depth of the Ukrainian penetration so far.”

The US-based conflict monitoring group the Institute for the Study of War said in its assessment on Thursday that “Ukrainian forces have made confirmed advances up to 10 kilometers” into the Kursk region on Wednesday.

Kyiv remains silent on incursion claims

Ukraine’s allies have not commented on the situation beyond saying the country has the right to defend itself. The EU’s foreign affairs and security policy spokesperson Peter Stano told the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne News that according to the international law, Kyiv “has the legal right to defend itself, including striking an aggressor on its territory.”

It remains unclear why Ukrainian forces would launch an attack of the scale described by Russian authorities.

Ukrainian troops have found themselves under increased pressure along the 600-mile frontline as Moscow continues its slow, grinding offensive.

Kyiv has started receiving new tranches of the long-delayed US military assistance in May, but is still facing troop shortages because many of its newly recruited soldiers are still in training.

An incursion into Russia could be an attempt by Kyiv to divert Russian resources elsewhere. Given the spate of more negative developments from the frontline, the news of a successful incursion help Kyiv boost the morale of its troops and civilian population.

It could also be a message to Russia’s civilian population – a demonstration that Moscow’s war on Ukraine makes Russia vulnerable to attacks.

The European Union has imposed wide-ranging economic sanctions on Russia – with the exception of key natural gas imports. The EU was dependent on Russian gas and while it has slashed imports from Russia from 45% of all gas imports in 2021, to 15% of EU gas imports in 2023, some Russian gas still continues to flow to Europe through Ukraine, despite the war.

Former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont defied an arrest warrant to appear at a rally in the Spanish city of Barcelona on Thursday after seven years of self-imposed exile, and then vanished before police could arrest him.

Amid a heavy police presence, Puigdemont spoke to a crowd of thousands of followers in the Catalan capital from a platform near the Catalan parliament before disappearing backstage.

He told the crowd he aimed to revive the independence drive that plunged Spain into political crisis seven years ago.

“Today, many thought they’d be celebrating my arrest, and thought that this punishment would dissuade us – and you,” he said.

“Today I came to remind them that we are still here! We are still here because we have no right to quit.”

Senior officials of his Junts party, including parliament speaker Josep Rull, and members of the moderate separatist Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya which currently runs the regional government led a march to the Catalan parliament after the rally as journalists tried to spot whether Puigdemont was among them.

A debate to swear in Socialist Salvador Illa as Catalonia’s new president, ending a decade of separatist rule, began amid confusion and speculation about Puigdemont’s whereabouts and how he could have vanished in plain sight.

“We had to see how the state allowed this criminal to hold a rally,” said Ignacio Garriga, secretary general of the far-right Vox party, told reporters outside the Catalan parliament. “We don’t understand why he hasn’t been arrested yet.”

A Catalan Interior Ministry spokesperson confirmed Puigdemont had evaded capture. “I can confirm Puigdemont has not been detained yet,” she said. “I can confirm roadblocks have been set up to find him.”

Puigdemont, 61, fled to Belgium seven years ago after a failed secession bid and has been living in exile ever since. He is now likely to be detained over an outstanding arrest warrant for alleged embezzlement, which he denies.

US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel will sit out Nagasaki’s peace ceremony over Israel’s exclusion from the annual commemoration of the 1945 atomic bombing of the city, the embassy said.

This year’s ceremony will take place at Nagasaki Peace Park on Friday, where diplomats from more than 100 countries will observe a minute of silence to mark the moment the US dropped the second atomic bomb in Japan during World War II.

Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki told reporters last week that Israel would be excluded due to security concerns, despite warnings from Western nations that there could be implications for the attendance of their own ambassadors.

“Should Israel be excluded, it would become difficult for us to have high-level participation in this event,” said a July 19 letter to the mayor signed by ambassadors from France, Germany, Italy and the US, as well as the chargé d’affaires from Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

The bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later led to Japan’s unconditional surrender and brought an end to World War II. But it also killed tens of thousands of people, both instantly and in the months and years to come due to radiation sickness.

Each year the two cities hold memorials attended by diplomats to promote global peace and the idea that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

The move by Nagasaki contrasts with that of Hiroshima, which hosted its ceremony on Tuesday and invited Israeli ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen, whose presence was met with protests from pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Both cities had been under pressure from activists and bomb survivor groups to exclude Israel due to its bombardment of Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed since Israel began targeting militant group Hamas following the October 7 attack.

Russia and Belarus were both disinvited from the ceremonies over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and campaigners had hoped Nagasaki and Hiroshima would similarly exclude Israel.

“He will attend a peace ceremony at Zojoji Temple in Tokyo in addition to holding a moment of silence at the embassy,” the spokesperson said. The temple holds a memorial service on Friday.

The ambassador had directed other US consulates in Japan to do the same, according to the embassy.

“The US government will be represented at Nagasaki by the Principal Officer of Consulate Fukuoka,” the spokesperson said.

On Thursday, Mayor Suzuki reiterated that the decision was unrelated to politics, and said he was “sorry to hear” the US ambassador was unable to attend.

“The reason for this is to avoid unforeseen circumstances and to ensure that the ceremony will be conducted smoothly and in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere,” he told reporters.

“If it was for political reasons, I personally believe that countries in a dispute should be invited, but unfortunately we cannot invite such countries considering the impact it would have on the ceremony.”

He said the authorities would “continue to seek their understanding by persistently explaining the situation.”

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the foreign affairs ministry had been in touch with Nagasaki to explain international affairs, but local authorities make ultimate decisions on events they organize.

This article has been updated.

The details emerging of the alleged terror plot aimed at Taylor Swift’s three Vienna concerts are scant, but already adhere to a chilling pattern familiar to European counterterrorism officials.

Austrian police said Wednesday that a 19-year-old man was arrested in Ternitz, about an hour’s drive from where Swift was scheduled to perform Thursday, Friday and Saturday for an expected 65,000 fans each night at the Ernst Happel Stadium.

“Chemical substances” possibly linked to bomb-making were discovered in a search of the Austrian citizen’s home, police said, declaring that “specific preparatory measures have been undertaken” to target Swift’s concerts.

The search of the area around the home led to 60 households being evacuated, local media reported, with police adding it continued into the evening.

A second suspect was arrested in Vienna that afternoon. Police did not give their age or gender, citing an ongoing investigation that appeared to be widening in scope. “Further detentions have also been carried out,” police said.

Both suspects had been radicalized online, police said, adding the 19-year-old had sworn allegiance to ISIS’ new leader last month.

Police also alluded to the role of social media in both the radicalization of the suspects and alleged planning of the attacks.

“Communication of the perpetrators is undertaken usually in an encrypted form,” often masking their conversations from routine counter-terror surveillance, General Director for Public Security Franz Ruf told reporters.

Online chatter to action

Neumann noted the latest Europol data showed “the number of attacks and planned attacks has more than quadrupled” since 2022.

Among the cases Neumann referenced was another in Austria, in which a 14-year-old girl from Montenegro was arrested in May in the southern city of Graz after buying a knife and axe for an attack she was allegedly plotting. ISIS material was also found on her computer.

Teenagers were also arrested during France’s security sweep ahead of the Paris Olympics.

In late May, an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin was indicted for “terrorist criminal association,” for alleged plans to target spectators in the city of Saint-Étienne during the Games, according to a statement from French anti-terror prosecutors.

About a fortnight earlier, two teenagers were arrested in northeast and southern France for plotting a terror attack, the target unclear, the statement said.

And in April, a 16-year-old from the Haute-Savoie department in southeastern France was arrested for allegedly researching how to make an explosives belt and die as an ISIS martyr, possibly targeting the Olympics, the statement added.

German police have also publicized two alleged terror plots involving teenagers in recent months.

In April, officials in the western city of Dusseldorf said they arrested two girls, aged 15 and 16, and a 15-year-old boy accused of planning a terror attack.

Another alleged plot involving a possible knife attack on a Heidelberg synagogue, which was disrupted in May, involved an 18-year-old man, a German prosecutor’s statement said.

Meanwhile in Switzerland, police in March arrested a 15-year-old Swiss boy and a 16-year-old Italian boy for alleged ISIS support and plotting bomb attacks, according to a police statement.

Neumann, the terrorism expert, said teenagers were often recruited online, where ISIS and its Central Asian affiliate ISIS-K only needed to see success in a handful from hundreds of potential recruits.

“Groups like (ISIS-K are) specifically targeting young teenagers,” Neumann said. “They may not be very useful. They may mess up. They may change their mind,” he said, but they are “not least less suspicious. Who would think of a 13-year-old as a terrorist? One is enough.”

Teenagers were being recruited through social media platforms like TikTok, dragged through algorithms into “bubbles” online where jihadist recruiters can reach them, Neumann said.

ISIS-K was “by far the most ambitious and aggressive part of ISIS right now,” plotting complex attacks and recruiting online, he added.

While details of the alleged plans to attack Swift’s concerts remain unclear, European security sources have been increasingly concerned that terror plots are becoming more “directed” – or organized by a more experienced or resourced recruiter from afar.

European counter-terror officials are also struggling with a fast-morphing terror threat emerging from parts of the former Soviet Union, including Russia’s North Caucasus region and Central Asian states like Tajikistan.

Last month, Austrian counter-terror police said they had detained eight men and a woman for fundraising for ISIS. Laptops, cash, fake passports and a vehicle were confiscated, and authorities said the suspects, originally from Chechnya in the Russian Federation, might have their Austrian residence permits revoked.

Tiffany Kidd, a 41-year-old nurse from Arizona, had never left the United States – but Taylor Swift was worth it.

She bought her ticket last summer, and since then has gotten her first passport, sewn several Swift-inspired outfits and spent $5,000 to fly to Vienna to watch the superstar perform live in concert.

But her dreams ended in disappointment on Wednesday after organizers canceled all three shows scheduled for the Austrian capital following authorities’ discovery of an alleged terror plot to attack the venue.

With shows scheduled for Thursday through Saturday, Vienna’s Ernst-Happel Stadium was supposed to be the penultimate venue on the European leg of Swift’s mammoth global Eras Tour, which has passed through Asia, Australia and the Americas since March last year.

Fans have flocked to see Swift from all corners of the world, with many saving up for the occasion and going the extra mile to show their love and support for the star.

Kidd, for instance, traveled 13 hours to Austria from Arizona after planning her trip for an entire year. But her homemade costumes, including a dazzling bodysuit, sequined jacket and lace dress emblazoned with Swift’s lyrics and motifs, will now go unworn.

Barracuda Music, the promoter for Swift’s concerts in Austria, announced the cancelations on Wednesday, saying they had “confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack.” Swift’s official website also listed the concerts as canceled.

Kardelen Kocakcigil, 30, said she was “heartbroken” after traveling from Toronto to Vienna via Istanbul – a journey of more than 24 hours.

She paid about $2,100 for the trip, including extra baggage charges for her Swift-themed costume, she said.

“My travel was planned around the concert, dressing up, meeting with my Swiftie friends around the world and going to Taylor Swift-themed attractions around the city,” she said.

“Now I don’t have any itinerary and my friends are not coming due to safety concerns. This trip turned from something I was looking forward to for over a year to aimless, expensive travel.”

Kocakcigil was glad everybody was safe, and believed that cancelation was the right decision, she added. But, exhausted from all the travel and stunned by the abrupt turn of events, she said she felt “very heartbroken and purposeless.”

Most fans had similar mixed feelings – thankful that the alleged planned terror plot had been foiled, yet extremely disappointed to see their Swift concert dreams evaporate.

Vanessa Szombathelyi, 24, traveled from Ireland to Hungary, where she planned to drive across the border to Austria for what would have been her first Swift concert.

“(I’m) feeling mixed emotions, everything from tears to being angry, mad and grateful,” that the alleged plot was thwarted, she said.

Another Swift fan, Denis Savić, 23, traveled to Vienna for the show from the Czech capital Prague. He initially thought reports of a terror threat were a prank by his friends – but felt “pretty scared” when he realized they were real, he said.

After looking forward to the shows for a year, he said he felt “crushed” when they were canceled. “I felt like something heavy was sitting on my chest,” he said.

Still, he understood the decision, adding: “I would rather not go to a show than potentially get hurt and have my mom hurt, because she was supposed to go to the show with me.”

His close friends and brother were also supposed to be in Vienna, so he was glad for their safety, too. With no show to attend, they were now scrambling to change their plans, he said.

Some fans came from as far away as China – with one Swiftie who had arrived in Belgium en route to Vienna venting their frustration on Chinese social media.

“I get that safety comes first,” the fan said. “But after years of waiting, I was just three days away from meeting Taylor, and now it’s all canceled. I’m absolutely devastated.”

Thousands of anti-racist protesters have taken to the streets across the United Kingdom to counter a spate of far-right rallies planned to target immigration centers, seeming to thwart what looked set to be another day of rioting.

After days of violence spurred by disinformation around a deadly stabbing attack, police had braced for another night of unrest on Wednesday. Far-right groups on social media had called for protests to target visa processing centers and immigration lawyers’ offices at more than 100 sites around the country at 8 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET).

But by the early evening, thousands of counter-protesters had gathered at more than a dozen cities to guard the immigration centers and prevent them being targeted by the far right.

“There are many, many more of us than you,” crowds chanted at anti-racist demonstrations across the country, bolstered by a markedly stronger police presence than over the weekend, and with virtually no sign of any far-right supporters.

Whether Wednesday’s counter-protests represent a turning point is not yet clear, but fears of another night of unrest have abated for now. The fizzling out of the planned protests will come as a major relief for the new Labour government, and for communities that had prepared for the worst.

It may also be a sign that many have been deterred from taking to the streets, after previous far-right protests turned violent and hundreds of rioters were arrested over the weekend, with some already receiving prison sentences.

In Walthamstow, east London, the immigration center was entirely boarded up, protected by a heavy police presence and surrounded by around three or four thousand counter-protesters.

“We today have got such brilliant numbers in our community,” an organizer shouted through a megaphone to a hastily organized crowd. “We have shown them whose streets these really are. These are our streets.”

Ahmed Hussain, 31, said he had come out to support the counter-protesters because “when you don’t, the fascists feel emboldened.”

The worst of the past week’s violence was concentrated in the north of England. In Rotherham on Sunday, far-right rioters set fire to a hotel used to house asylum seekers as more than 200 people cowered inside. Large crowds of people shouting “enough is enough” and “get ’em out” were also seen clashing with police in several other cities.

“I normally walk through this city center all the time,” said Nadeem Akhtar, 18, who has lived in Sheffield his whole life. “But now, recently, even my mum’s been saying to me, don’t be going out so much, because you never know what could happen.”

Akhtar had gathered with friends midday Wednesday in the city center to demonstrate against a planned far-right protest. Unlike last week, where protests across the country were allowed to boil over into racist violence, the Sheffield demonstration was overseen by a huge police presence separating the protesters and counter-protesters.

At least three right-wing demonstrators were arrested during altercations between the two groups. As one man was escorted away by police, he called out: “I ain’t done nothing. Double standards.”

Anti-immigration protesters have often accused police of double standards in responding to their demonstrations, claiming that they are not treated fairly and giving Keir Starmer, the prime minister, the nickname “two-tier Keir.”

At the counter-protest in Sheffield later Wednesday evening, one of the speakers criticized Musk’s comments. “The richest man in the world is stirring the pot for a race war,” he said.

The US State Department called allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees by Israeli soldiers “horrific” and said Israel must investigate “swiftly” and “fully,” according to a State Department spokesperson.

“There ought to be zero tolerance of any sexual abuse, rape, of any detainees, period,” said State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller at a press briefing.

Israeli media obtained leaked surveillance video that allegedly showed Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee.

“When there are alleged violations, the government of Israel needs to take steps to investigate those who are alleged to have committed abuses and, if appropriate, hold them accountable,” said Miller, who called the IDF announcement of arrests of those alleged to have involved and an investigation “appropriate.”

A report released by the UN Human Rights Office last week said Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have faced torture, mistreatment and sexual abuse since October 7 and that least 53 have died in detention.

This is a developing story and will be updated.