An accident involving a Palestinian rocket is the most likely scenario but exactly what happened is still far from clear. — When an explosion caused mass casualties at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza last week it was scarcely surprising that Palestinians — along with many others — assumed Israel was responsible. Israel had already phoned the hospital more than once to demand its evacuation, and a strike the previous Saturday, reportedly by…

In the early hours of October 8 a mysterious event in the Baltic Sea ruptured an underwater gas pipeline. Coming just a year after saboteurs blew up three of the four Nord Stream pipes under the Baltic it’s not surprising there is speculation about the latest incident. The pipe damaged…

For several days now, one of Elon Musk’s favourite customers on X/Twitter has been posting updates about Israel-Gaza every few minutes. At a time when reliable information is more important than ever it might be hoped that the posts from @MarioNawfal would help bring some clarity but instead they are…

One of the most horrific moments of the Syrian conflict came in August 2013 when rockets laden with the nerve agent sarin hit Ghouta, a rebel-held area on the outskirts of Damascus. Hundreds of people died and thousands more were injured. It was the deadliest chemical attack anywhere in the…

Eleven people appeared in a Zambian court last week following the discovery of $5.7 million in cash, 602 bars of fake gold, five pistols and 126 rounds of ammunition aboard a private jet that landed at Lusaka airport on a flight from Egypt. Oddly, though, there was no mention of…

One of four Zambians arrested last week after police found $5.7m in cash and 127kg of fake gold aboard a private jet at Lusaka airport had been jailed in South Africa in 2017 over a previous gold transaction that went wrong, it has emerged. In this earlier deal the arrested…

More information is gradually emerging about the mysterious private jet impounded at Lusaka airport in Zambia after a flight from Cairo, and enough is now known to suggest a possible explanation of what was going on. It appears that the Egyptians on board the jet had flown to Lusaka to…

Last week Zambian drug enforcement officers searched and impounded a private jet after it landed at Lusaka airport on a flight from Cairo. It turned out there were no drugs on board but what the investigators found instead was startling: $5.7 million in cash and 127kg of what appeared to…

Last September a series of explosions ruptured three of the four Nord Stream pipelines laid under the Baltic Sea to deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany. The explosions released vast quantities of methane, a major contributor to global warming, into the atmosphere. Investigations by three of the affected countries…