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EXPLAINER

Braverman was sacked after she criticised the police for being too lenient towards pro-Palestinian protesters.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has sacked Home Secretary Suella Braverman after mounting pressure on him to act against her.

Here’s everything to know about Braverman and why she was sacked on Monday:

Why was she fired?

The government said Braverman left her job as part of a cabinet reshuffle ahead of a general election expected next year.

But the dismissal came after Braverman drew anger from within the Conservative Party and the opposition Labour Party. After pro-Palestinian protests in London, she wrote an opinion piece for The Times of London, which was published on Thursday. In it, she blamed the police for “playing favourites” and for taking a lenient stance towards pro-Palestinian protests. 

She described the protesters as “pro-Palestinian mobs” and “hate marchers”.

Sunak told reporters that Braverman had not run the article by his office, violating the ministerial code. Still, while Sunak was under pressure to sack Braverman, he had initially backed her.

Who is Suella Braverman?

Braverman was appointed as Britain’s secretary of state in the Home Department by former Prime Minister Liz Truss in September 2022. She was ordered to resign weeks into the job for what she said was breaking rules by sending an official document from her personal email account. She was reinstated as head of the Home Department by Sunak after he became prime minister.

A daughter of immigrants from Kenya and Mauritius, she grew up in Wembley. Braverman, a Conservative, was appointed as attorney general by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2020 and has also been a Brexit minister, a post from which she resigned in November 2018.

She has championed tougher immigration rules, such as a plan to “stop the boats”‘ — blocking the entry of refugees crossing the English Channel.

Who is the new home secretary?

In the reshuffle triggered by Braverman being fired, Sunak appointed James Cleverly as the new home secretary.

Until then, Cleverly had been serving as the foreign secretary. To replace him, former Prime Minster David Cameron was appointed. Cameron stepped down as prime minister in July 2016 after his bid to keep Britain in the European Union failed. Three months later, he resigned from the parliament in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the EU.

What’s the UK position in the Israel-Gaza war?

Sunak visited Israel on October 19 to “express solidarity with the Israeli people”.

“I am proud to stand here with you in Israel’s darkest hour,” Sunak said at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We will stand with you in solidarity. We will stand with you and your people. And we also want you to win.”

How have people reacted?

After her dismissal, Braverman said: “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as home secretary.”

“I will have more to say in due course,” she added.

Braverman’s removal and Cameron’s return angered some Conservatives on the right of the party.

Member of Parliament and former Business and Trade Secretary Jacob William Rees-Mogg told GB News that sacking Braverman was a mistake that undermines Conservatives’ chances to win the next election. He added that Cameron’s appointment could shift the Conservative vote to Reform UK, the new Brexit party.

Cameron’s appointment has also been criticised by the opposition. David Lammy of the Labour Party posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Cameron’s appointment was “a last gasp act of desperation”.

David Cameron was a disastrous PM. This is a last gasp act of desperation from a government devoid of talent and ideas.

Amid international crisis, Sunak has chosen an unelected failure from the past who MPs cannot even hold to account.

Only Labour offers the change we need.

— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) November 13, 2023

Newborn babies wrapped in blankets and lined up on a bed after being removed from incubators have become the defining image showing the Israeli siege of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

At least 32 patients, including six premature babies, have died at the al-Shifa Hospital in the last three days, Palestinian Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said Monday, as Gaza’s largest medical facility was forced to shut down due to lack of fuel and medicine.

More than 100 bodies are decomposing inside the hospital, waiting to be buried.

“Regrettably, the hospital is not functioning as a hospital anymore. The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Israel imposed a total siege of the territory – home to 2.3 million people – banning fuel, food, electricity and water after launching its military offensive on October 7. Israeli action came in the wake of a Hamas attack that claimed more than 1,200 lives in Israel.

All hospitals in northern Gaza are now “out of service”, as relentless Israeli air strikes have killed more than 11,000 people, most of them women and children, triggering global calls for a ceasefire.

What is happening at al-Shifa Hospital?

Thousands of people, including 650 patients and 500 health workers, are holed up inside the al-Shifa Hospital premises surrounded by Israeli forces.

The Israeli military is calling on people to leave the hospital.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Khan Younis, said the “Israeli military is calling on patients to step out of the hospital with their hands above their heads.”

“But some of them need wheelchairs while others are disabled, hence cannot walk,” he said. “It’s hard to comprehend these are the demands of the Israeli military, while at the same time [it is] playing nice with the media, telling journalists ‘we are offering a safe corridor.’”

On Sunday, the hospital’s cardiac wing was bombed by Israel.

“Patients are dying by the minute – even babies in the incubators,” al-Shifa Hospital Director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera on November 11.

Staff have been forced to line up premature babies on ordinary beds, using the little power available to run the air conditioning to keep them warm. “We are expecting to lose more of them day by day,” Dr Ahmed El Mokhallalati, a doctor working at the hospital, told reporters.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported three nurses were killed at the hospital on Friday.

Israel’s military said on Sunday that it offered to evacuate newborn babies and had placed 300 litres (80 gallons) of fuel at the entrance of the hospital, releasing video of its soldiers carrying containers and putting them on the ground. It said that Hamas had blocked its efforts.

Hamas denied that it refused the fuel and said the hospital was under the authority of Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

Why has Israel been attacking hospitals?

Hospitals in Gaza have repeatedly come under fire as Israeli forces have accused Hamas fighters of using them for military purposes.

The al-Ahli Arab Hospital, located in Gaza City, was hit by an explosion last month. Nearly 500 people were killed in the attack, whose origin remains unclear until now. Palestinian officials said an Israeli missile was responsible, while Israel claimed the explosion was caused by the misfiring of rockets by Palestinian armed groups.

Israel claims Hamas operates a command centre from under al-Shifa hospital. But Hamas and hospital officials have denied that assertion.

Independent doctors including British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu-Sitta, who is at al-Shifa, and Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert, who has worked at the hospital previously, have said that they have not seen any evidence of military activity at the hospital during the war.

Palestinian officials and people inside the hospital have reported Israeli forces directly targeting the medical complex with munitions and snipers.

Health Ministry Undersecretary Munir al-Boursh said snipers were firing at any movement inside the compound.

At least 21 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals have stopped functioning, either because of Israel’s siege on them, or because of a lack of fuel and medicines as a consequence of the total blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza since October 7.

What happened at al-Quds Hospital?

Fighting has been ongoing near al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) as attempts were under way to evacuate patients from the second-largest hospital in the enclave.

Al-Quds has been struggling to care for patients, with access to limited medicine, food and water. It closed its doors to new patients on Sunday.

“The hospital has been left to fend for itself under ongoing Israeli bombardment, posing severe risks to the medical staff, patients and displaced civilians,” the PRCS said in a statement on Sunday.

PRCS, which has been running the al-Quds Hospital since 2001, said it held the international community and signatories of the Fourth Geneva Convention accountable for the complete breakdown of Gaza’s healthcare system and the resulting dire humanitarian crisis.

What about other hospitals in northern Gaza?

They have now all stopped functioning. The al-Nasr Children’s Hospital and al-Rantisi Specialised Hospital for Children can no longer function without access to medical aid. They are also under Israeli fire.

Mustafa al-Kahlout, head of both hospitals said: “We are completely surrounded, there are tanks outside the hospital, and we cannot leave.”

On Friday, more than a dozen children and their parents or guardians were evacuated from the al-Rantisi Hospital to hospitals in neighbouring Egypt and Jordan, according to the UN. It remains unclear what has happened to the 30 children who remain at al-Nasr Hospital.

Another children’s hospital, the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, also suspended operations on Monday after its main generator ran out of fuel, hospital director Ahmed al-Kahlout told Al Jazeera.

The Indonesian Hospital located in north Gaza’s Beit Lahiya neighbourhood has also come under attack. Its director, Atef al-Kahlot, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that the 110-bed hospital is only operating at 30-40 percent of its capacity. He appealed to the international community for help.

“We call on the honourable people of the world, if any of them are left, to put pressure on the occupation forces to supply the Indonesian Hospital and the rest of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Meanwhile, the al-Awda Hospital has run out of fuel and the Turkish-Palestine Friendship Hospital, run by the Islamic University of Gaza, stopped operating on October 30 after air strikes and as it ran out of fuel and medicines. Israel has denied attacking the hospital, Gaza’s only cancer treatment facility.

Further air strikes reportedly hit and destroyed the Swedish clinic in al Shati camp, west of Gaza City, where some 500 internally displaced people were sheltering. The casualty toll remains unclear. Another strike overnight hit al-Mahdi Hospital in Gaza City, reportedly killing two doctors and injuring others.

Where can the sick and injured go?

The remaining hospitals in southern Gaza are at full capacity, and the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which can accommodate 350 inpatients, is overfull. It too remains in desperate need of fuel, electricity and medical supplies like anaesthesia and saline solution to continue functioning.

The status of the PRCS-run al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis and the European Gaza Hospital in the same area remain unclear.

Two more hospitals in Rafah – Al-Helal Emirati Hospital and the Mohammed Yousef El-Najar Hospital – are also operating under limited capacity.

Jordan set up a field hospital on November 6 and claims to have treated 817 patients, while the United Arab Emirates and Turkey are planning to set up similar hospitals close to the Rafah border with Egypt.

A “courageous” teenager in the US was beaten to death when he confronted a mob over a friend who was being bullied, his family has said.

Jonathan Lewis, 17, was attacked by up to 15 people near a school in Las Vegas, according to reports.

The teenager had confronted the group after “one of his smaller friends” had something stolen from him and was thrown in a bin, a statement on a GoFundMe page said.

Writing on a website set up in his son’s name, Jonathan’s father – who is also called Jonathan Lewis – said he was “shocked by the immensity and horror of my beloved boy just being beaten to death”.

He told how he held the hand of his “beloved boy” in hospital during life support – and watched his son’s “life leave his body”.

“Jonathan was a hero who tried to help a smaller child who was being bullied and 15 people attacked him in cowardly violence and our beloved son was beaten to death,” a statement on the website said.

“Jonathan was an aspiring artist, a kind, loving, caring, and generous young man who had his whole life ahead of him and he will be forever loved and cherished every day every moment.”

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Mr Lewis said his mission was “to bring endless focus to solving the problems that were the root cause of why our children have become lost in violence and hate”.

The family said a foundation, called Team Jonathan, would be set up following his death.

Sky News has approached police in Las Vegas for comment.

Iceland is bracing for a volcanic eruption in the coming days after a series of earthquakes and evidence of hot magma flowing quickly underground.

The fishing town of Grindavik, home to 3,000 people, has been ordered to evacuate amid concerns it could be destroyed by lava flows.

Sky News takes a look at some of the key questions about the volcano and what could happen if there is an eruption.

Where is the volcano?

The Icelandic Meteorological Office has said there is a “considerable” risk of an eruption on or just off the Reykjanes peninsula.

Located southwest of the capital Reykjavik, the peninsula is a volcanic and seismic hotspot.

The town of Grindavik is very close to a new 15km (9 miles) fracture that has opened up, prompting the evacuation.

Will there be an eruption?

Even though earthquake activity died down a little overnight into Monday, an eruption in the next few days is still “highly likely”, according to Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London.

Modelling suggests that magma is rising along the fracture and is now as close to the surface as 800m or even less.

What is also uncertain is where exactly along the fracture the eruption will start.

Professor McGuire said: “If it is on land, which is most likely, it will be dominated by spectacular lava ‘fountaining’ and the production of lava flows.

“If magma breaks the surface at the southern end of the fracture, however, it could erupt beneath the sea. This would be a more explosive event that would build a cone of fragmental material.”

Professor McGuire said there was no reason, currently, to think that the eruption will be especially large, but added that it is notoriously difficult to forecast how big eruptions will be.

What happens if the volcano erupts under the sea?

If the eruption occurs in the stretch of fracture that is under the sea, it could become “explosive”, says Dr Michele Paulatto, an expert in volcanic and tectonic processes from Imperial College London.

“If it erupts undersea it could cause a Surtseyan eruption similar to the one that happened in 1963, also in Iceland, and created the island of Surtsey.

“That particular eruption lasted several years, so this is a possibility,” he said.

Will there be another ash cloud like in 2010?

The Eyjafjallajokull eruption back in 2010 produced a huge ash cloud that caused chaos to global air travel.

Dr Dave McGarvie, a volcanologist with the University of Lancaster, says a potential eruption will not lead to disruption like that of Eyjafjallajokull.

He said that event was “unusually disruptive” because of a rare “if not unique” combination of factors.

He added: “The volcanoes on the Reykjanes Peninsula do not have the ability to produce the disruptive ash clouds that characterised the Eyjafjallajokull 2010 eruption.”

What’s more, he says, lessons have been learned since the 2010 incident and even if a future event produced a similar ash cloud there would only be about one-third of the flight cancellations compared to what occurred in 2010.

Activists have been sharing a red triangle emoji to indicate their support for Palestinians in Gaza. What does it mean and where did it come from?