World Cup-winning South African rugby player Hannes Strydom dies in car accident | World News
World Cup-winning South African rugby player Hannes Strydom dies in car accident | World News
World Cup-winning South African rugby player Hannes Strydom has died in a car crash aged 58.
Strydom was part of the Springboks team that lifted the World Cup after defeating New Zealand in the final in 1995.
The victory, which came a year after the end of apartheid in South Africa, was immortalised in the 2009 Hollywood movie Invictus.
Strydrom, who played as a second-row, has been described as “one of the great locks of his generation” after he was killed in the crash on Sunday evening.
He is the fifth member of the Springboks team which began that 15-12 victory over the All Blacks at Ellis Park in Johannesburg to have died.
Ruben Kruger died in 2010, Joost van der Westhuizen died in 2017, and James Small and Chester Williams both died in 2019.
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Strydom won 21 Test caps between 1993 and 1997.
His international career included facing the British and Irish Lions in 1997, a series which ended in a 2-1 defeat for the Springboks.
South African Rugby Union president Mark Alexander said in a statement: “Hannes was one of the great locks of his generation and as a member of the Springbok squad from 1995, one of the heroes of our local game.
“To lose yet another member of the iconic Bok squad from 1995 is a heavy blow to the rugby fraternity here in South Africa and our thoughts and condolences are with his wife, Nikolie, their children, Annalie, Hannes and Lucy, family and friends in this very difficult time.”
Image: South African president Nelson Mandela passes Springboks captain Francios Pienaar the World Cup trophy in 1995
The Golden Lions, the rugby union club Strydom played for in South Africa, has also paid tribute to him.
Lions chief executive Rudolf Straeuli, another member of South Africa’s 1995 World Cup squad, said: “We are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Hannes.
“We share a tight bond as members of the 1995 group and to lose yet another one of our brothers is a big blow.”
Ross McDonnell: New York Police find dismembered body on beach believed to be Irish filmmaker | US News
Ross McDonnell: New York Police find dismembered body on beach believed to be Irish filmmaker | US News
The dismembered body of an Emmy-winning filmmaker who disappeared this month was found at a New York beach.
While it has not been officially identified, law enforcement sources told NBC News that the remains appear to be Ross McDonnell’s.
The 44-year-old Irishfilmmaker was last seen on 4 November leaving his apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, on a bicycle.
His bike was later found locked at Fort Tilden Beach in Queens, located on the Rockaway Peninsula next to Breezy Point.
New York Police officers responded to a call on Friday, just before 12.30pm, over reports of a human torso with legs found lying in the sand.
No foul play is suspected and there is no indication McDonnell took his own life, the sources told NBC.
They added that it is possible McDonnell went for a swim, somehow got caught in the current and drowned.
The investigation is ongoing. Authorities are working with the Irish consulate and awaiting DNA testing results.
Read more from Sky News: Ashling Murphy’s murderer ‘should never see the light of day again’ David Cameron enters House of Lords
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According to the Irish Times, McDonnell missed an appointment on the day he is believed to have been last seen.
After failing to turn up for work the following day, friends went to his apartment and broke down the door.
The filmmaker was nominated for his first Emmy for an Outstanding Investigative Documentary with Elián, about “a five-year-old Cuban boy plucked from the Florida coast in 1999”.
He also won Emmys for cinematography for his work on the Showtime series The Trade in 2021, which covered the US’ opioid epidemic and Central American immigration, and for the film The First Wave in 2022, which followed the staff and patients of a New York hospital at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Far-right Dutch politician hit over the head with beer bottle days before election | World News
Far-right Dutch politician hit over the head with beer bottle days before election | World News
The leader of a far-right Dutch populist party was treated in hospital after being whacked on the back of the head with a beer bottle.
The attack on Thierry Baudet, leader of Forum for Democracy, comes two days before the far-right leader will hope to keep his seat in parliament in the country’s general election.
It also comes weeks after a man smacked him over the head with an umbrella in Ghent, Belgium.
Footage of the latest attack shows Mr Baudet in a bar in the northern Dutch city of Groningen on Monday.
A man then emerges from his left-hand side and repeatedly hits him with the bottle.
One of the blows is said to have struck Mr Baudet near his eye.
A man standing with Mr Baudet then throws a punch at the attacker before the Dutch politician is moved away from the scene.
Another man can be seen pushing the attacker in the opposite direction.
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Forum for Democracy has said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Mr Baudet was treated in hospital by a trauma surgeon.
The post adds that the politician was “alright” and that a security guard was also injured.
Police spokesman Thijs de Jong said a person was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack. He said the motive was under investigation.
Mr De Jong said he could not comment on Mr Baudet’s condition.
However, he added: “What we can say at the moment is that Mr Baudet was hit on the head, possibly with an object.”
Forum for Democracy has said it is not clear if a later event in another Dutch city would go ahead on Monday.
Read more world news Footage released of Houthi rebels seizing cargo ship Premature babies evacuated from Gaza Over 200 gangs members sentenced to 2,200 years in jail
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0:42
From October: Dutch far-right leader hit with umbrella
Last month Mr Baudet had arrived at Ghent University to give a lecture when he was struck over the head with an umbrella.
The attacker was heard shouting “no to fascism, no to Putinism”.
Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a message on X that it was “totally unacceptable that Mr Baudet has been attacked again.
Mr Rutte said he had contacted Mr Baudet to wish him good health.
Planet racing toward ‘dead-end 3C temperature rise’, UN chief warns | Climate News
Planet racing toward ‘dead-end 3C temperature rise’, UN chief warns | Climate News
Plans to stop emitting greenhouse gases in order to limit global warming are nowhere near enough to avert dangerous climate change, a United Nations body has warned.
In its annual Emissions Gap report, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says the climate action plans of governments around the world will fail to limit the global temperature to under 1.5-2C this century.
That limit was the goal of the landmark Paris Agreement, struck in 2015, when almost 200 countries agreed limiting global warming was necessary to avoid extremely destructive impacts.
Current pledges put the world on track for a 2.5-2.9C of global warming, UNEP said.
Its executive director Inger Andersen told Sky News: “None of these scenarios are acceptable to many, many people who live in low-lying areas, in coastal communities in fire hazard areas or in drought prone areas or flood prone areas.
“So we really do need to step up.”
Image: Inger Andersen said she was still hopeful the world could make the changes needed. Pic: AP
At 3C of warming, scientists predict the world could pass several catastrophic points of no return, from the runaway melting of ice sheets to the Amazon rainforest drying out.
“Present trends are racing our planet down a dead-end 3C temperature rise,” said UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.
“The emissions gap is more like an emissions canyon.”
In order to keep warming to 1.5C or 2C, emissions must fall by 28-42% by 2030, the UNEP report said, in a year expected to be the hottest in more than 100,000 years.
It added that “relentless” efforts to stop emissions – which primarily come from burning fossil fuels – are “essential” to narrow that emissions gap.
The report takes aim at G20 economies, saying not one is reducing emissions at a pace consistent with their targets to balance out pollution – known as net zero.
If all countries’ climate action plans – known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – and net zero pledges were met, limiting the temperature rise 2C would be possible, the analysis said.
But the report added: “Net-zero pledges are not currently considered credible.”
Ms Andersen said: “Clearly we need to see those that have the most ability, but also with the highest emission load to reduce, not increase.”
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3:05
Net Zero: Sunak lowers ambitions
The UK government recently delayed some key environment measures, which its climate advisers said would jeopardise Britain’s ability to meet its net zero climate target.
It comes hot off the heels of two recent, similarly damning, reports about governments’ insufficient action to tackle climate change.
On Tuesday, a report from the UN’s climate body, the UNFCCC, found plans to limit climate change to internationally agreed safer levels would not actually do so.
And on Wednesday, the World Meteorological Organisation said levels of climate-heating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere had reached a new record high.
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23:04
Why China’s emissions may fall
Read more: Richest 1% ’emit as much carbon-dioxide as poorest two-thirds of planet’ Two things that are terrible for the environment and could power city Ex-Sky News boss says he ‘failed’ on climate change coverage
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Click to subscribe to ClimateCast with Tom Heap wherever you get your podcasts
The recent warnings come ahead of talks at the annual United Nations COP climate summit, with this year’s COP28 kicking off in Dubai next week.
Negotiators will be wrangling over measures to get the world back on track for lower levels of global warming.
But Ms Andersen said she was hopeful because the COP28 offered a chance to change – and she was buoyed by the recent promise of China and the US – the world’s largest emitters – to resume cooperation on climate change.
Israel-Gaza war: What latest IDF videos tell us about alleged Hamas tunnels at al Shifa hospital | World News
Israel-Gaza war: What latest IDF videos tell us about alleged Hamas tunnels at al Shifa hospital | World News
The Israeli army claims it has found a Hamas tunnel inside Gaza’s biggest hospital, al Shifa.
The latest footage posted by the IDF shows the view inside an underground tunnel in the eastern edge of the hospital.
A professor specialising in underground warfare says she believes the tunnel seen in the video is “consistent with Hamas tunnels”.
Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli claims that it’s used the medical facility for its operations, while Israel claims it is home to the group’s headquarters.
The “operational tunnel shaft” in the IDF video posted on Sunday is located just over 40 metres away from the Surgery Building. It was located using the distinctive white and grey stripes seen in the background of the video.
It’s also around 50 metres from the chest and dialysis department and close to the eastern perimeter of the hospital grounds.
Image: The surgery building is seen on the left and the tunnel is next to the tree. Pic: IDF
The hole was underneath a white temporary building spotted in a previous video posted by the Israeli army last week shown in the screenshot below.
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Image: Screenshot of an IDF video here posted on 16 November shows the white building where the tunnel is located
The footage which the IDF says was taken on Friday and released on Sunday is an edit of two separate videos posted on the army’s Telegram channel. The alleged Hamas tunnel is approximately 1.5m wide.
Based on historical satellite imagery on Google Earth, we found the white building was there in May 2022 but not there before March 2021.
We don’t know what the building was used for.
Read more: Humza Yousaf’s mother-in-law describes escape from Gaza Israel-Hamas hostage deal could take place ‘in coming days’
Image: Satellite images on Google Earth show that the white building was not constructed before April 2021. Pic: Google Earth
While we are unable to verify who built the structure shown and what it was used for, there are some identifiable features inside the tunnel.
At the surface of the alleged tunnel shaft, a long vertical concrete column is seen. As the camera descends you also see a long metal pole and spiral metal staircase.
As it reaches the bottom the camera is taken through to a narrow concrete corridor with an arched top at the end of which the IDF says there is a metal door.
Image: Screenshots taken from the IDF video show a spiral staircase on the left and a dark corridor with an arched ceiling
Videos ‘consistent’ with Hamas tunnels
Dr Daphne Richemond-Barak, an expert on underground warfare who teaches at Reichman University in Israel, said the IDF videos are “consistent” with Hamas tunnels.
She told Sky News: “What we saw in those pictures were very typical, very classic of the Hamas tunnels… I’ve also compared the IDF-released images to Hamas’s own pictures and videos previously filmed in tunnels.
“From what I saw was this big cylinder hole with a very elaborate cemented contour then it goes into something much more narrow and tight then it goes into a dark alley…. the images we’ve seen so far are very consistent with what we know for years has been the work from Hamas.”
The Israeli military claims the tunnel is 55 metres long and 10 metres deep using a three-metre ladder and spiral staircase for another seven metres. It says it believes the tunnel connects inside the hospital to the outside. Sky News is unable to verify this claim.
Same tunnel different video
Israeli forces seized the hospital last week to search for what they said was a Hamas tunnel network built underneath.
Hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced people left al Shifa at the weekend, with doctors saying they were ejected by troops and Israel saying the departures were voluntary.
Image: A view of the tunnel posted by the IDF on 16 November
But the video posted on Sunday was not the first piece of footage of the alleged tunnel – the IDF released-video and an image of the same tunnel last Friday. However, that footage offered a limited view at the surface of the tunnel – which was littered with concrete, wood and sand.
Sky News is unable to independently verify claims made by the IDF about what the tunnel was used for and who built it.