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The Rwandan-backed armed group M23 moved south as it closed in on a key military airport in DR Congo on Friday, a day after pledging to take the capital Kinshasa and as international criticism mounted.

The group's capture of most of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, earlier in the week was a dramatic escalation in a region that has seen decades of conflict involving multiple armed groups.

Rwanda says its primary interest is to eradicate fighters linked to the 1994 genocide but is accused of seeking to profit from the region's reserves of minerals used in global electronics.

The crisis has rattled the continent and international observers, with a southern African regional bloc holding an emergency summit in Zimbabwe's capital Harare on Friday.

M23 fighters are now moving south.

Local sources told AFP on Thursday that fighting was concentrated some 30 kilometres from the city of Kavumu.

The city has a strategic military airfield and is where the Congolese army has laid down its defensive line just 40 km north of South Kivu's provincial capital Bukavu.

The United Nations warned it was concerned by "credible reports that the M23 is moving rapidly towards the city of Bukavu".

The second biggest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after Goma, Bukavu has a population believed to be around two million.

The Congolese army has yet to comment on the latest M23 advances but President Felix Tshisekedi said earlier this week that a "vigorous" military response was under way.

Information about the fast-moving offensive has remained unclear, but so far M23 fighters have met limited resistance from the ill-equipped and poorly paid Congolese forces.

In Goma, residents have emerged to count the dead and search for food, as hospitals struggled to cope with the wounded.

"We do not want to live under the thumb of these people," one person, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

The United Nations, United States, European Union, China, Britain, France and mediator Angola have all called on Rwanda to withdraw its forces.

Britain said Thursday it was considering reviewing aid to Rwanda.

Rwanda has hit back at the criticism, with government spokesperson Yolande Makolo saying the UK did not deliver "a direct warning" about aid.

"The international community has its fair share of the blame in the current situation," she posted on X.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame also strongly rejected accusations that Kigali is supporting the armed group, saying: "M23 are not Rwandans – they are Congolese."

On Friday, the 16-nation Southern African Development Community will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the "worrying situation".

Kagame and Angolan President Joao Lourenco, the African Union-appointed mediator between Kigali and Kinshasa on the conflict, will not attend.

The meeting follows soaring tensions between Kagame and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa after the deaths of 13 South African soldiers in DRC's east.

"We are ready to defend ourselves if we are attacked by a coalition including South African forces," Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe told South African public broadcaster SABC late Thursday.

"We are in Goma and we will not leave," Corneille Nangaa, head of a coalition of groups including the M23, said on Thursday.

"We will continue the march of liberation all the way to Kinshasa," he added.

The offensive has heightened an already dire humanitarian crisis in the region, causing food and water shortages and forcing half a million people from their homes this month, the UN said.

Africa's health agency warned that the "unnecessary war" in eastern DRC – a hotspot for infectious diseases including mpox – raised the risk of pandemic.

The DRC has accused Rwanda of waging an offensive to profit from the region's mineral wealth.

Rwanda has denied the accusations.

Deforestation in Indonesia rose in 2024 for a third year running, a local environmental NGO said Friday, based on satellite image analysis and fieldwork.

A government official disputed the figures, saying they mischaracterised deforestation in the country.

Indonesia has one of the world's highest rates of deforestation, with key drivers including timber plantations, palm oil cultivation and, increasingly, the mining of critical minerals.

Its rainforests are some of the world's most biodiverse, providing crucial habitats for threatened and endangered species, and are key carbon sinks.

The report by NGO Auriga Nusantara said 261,575 hectares (646,366 acres) of primary and secondary forests across Indonesia were lost in 2024, over 4,000 more than the previous year.

The vast majority of the losses took place in areas opened for development by the government, the group added.

"It is worrying, as it shows the increase of legal deforestation," said Auriga Nusantara's chair Timer Manurung.

He called for "urgent" protection of forest in Kalimantan, where the highest losses were recorded as the country's new capital is built, and in Sulawesi.

Ade Tri Ajikusumah, a senior official at Indonesia's environment and forestry ministry, said the deforestation figure failed to account for replanting.

He acknowledged that government figures for "gross" deforestation in 2024 are "not significantly different" from Auriga Nusantara's, but that the NGO did not account for reforestation of over 40,000 hectares.

"We are now working to maximise land use," he said, adding that development around Indonesia's new capital involves "land that has already been released from forest status".

"These areas were previously managed by companies under existing permits. So it's not deforestation -- it was already designated for development."

The report comes as Indonesian environmentalists raise alarm over government plans to convert millions of hectares of forests for food and energy use.

President Prabowo Subianto, who assumed office in October, has pledged to boost food and energy self-sufficiency, including by expanding bio-based fuels to lower fuel imports.

Environmental groups warn the plans would spell disaster for the country's forests.

"We ask President Prabowo to issue a presidential regulation to protect all remaining natural forest," Timer told AFP.

The report is based on satellite imagery, which was analysed to confirm deforestation, and followed up with field visits to areas representing tens of thousands of hectares of forest loss, Auriga Nusantara said.

While deforestation occurred in all of Indonesia's provinces except the region around Jakarta, the biggest losses were in Kalimantan.

One driver has been the designation of an area for the new capital, the report said.

Two regional governments in the area have proposed opening up hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest to potential development, the group warned.

Most deforestation however was driven by commodities, including timber, mining and palm oil.

Auriga Nusantara said its count excluded loss in timber plantations and plantation forest, but does cover both primary forests and regenerated "secondary" forest.

The report also sounds the alarm on deforestation for biomass production, which has seen forest levelled to plant quick-growing species that will provide wood biomass.

Indonesia is keen to boost domestic use of biomass energy and export, particularly to Japan and South Korea.

And it highlighted deforestation on islands in Raja Ampat, an area known for its teeming coral reefs, as nickel mining advances.

"This area of such national and international acclaim has been unable to withstand the onslaught," the report said.

Nearly 200 hectares across four islands in the region have been deforested, the group said, with new nickel mining licences already issued for several more islands.

Auriga Nusantara said forest loss was also happening in conservation areas, despite legal protections.

Pour le chef de l’État rwandais Paul Kagame, le président sud-africain Cyril Ramaphosa et des officiels sud-africains « tordent la réalité », « lancent des attaques délibérées » et « mentent ». Le président rwandais a haussé le ton face aux remarques de l’Afrique du Sud au sujet de la crise dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo, où le groupe armé M23 et leurs alliés des forces rwandaises ont pris position dans de nombreux quartiers de la ville de Goma.

Des remarques fortes de Paul Kagame, prononcées mercredi 29 janvier, après un sommet virtuel de la Communauté d'Afrique de l'Est (EAC), organisé par le président kényan William Ruto depuis le Caire. Le président congolais Félix Tshisekedi n'y a pas participé.

Les présidents rwandais Paul Kagame et sud-africain Cyril Ramaphosa ont beau se parler deux fois au téléphone depuis le début de la semaine, les relations diplomatiques entre le Rwanda et l'Afrique du Sud semblent toujours aussi tendues.

Dans un tweet publié mercredi soir, Cyril Ramaphosa est notamment revenu sur la mort de 13 soldats sud-africains membres de la force régional d'Afrique australe (SAMIRDC) en RDC. Il attribue leur mort « à une escalade de la violence entre le groupe rebelle M23 et la milice des forces de défense rwandaises, engagées contre l'armée congolaise (FARDC) ».

La terminologie a exaspéré Paul Kagame : « Les forces de défenses rwandaises ne sont pas une milice, c'est une armée », a-t-il répondu sur X. Et de poursuivre : « Ce n'est pas le M23 qui a tué ces soldats sud-africains, mais les FARDC », nommant les forces.

Le chef de l'État rwandais estime pour sa part que la force régionale d'Afrique Australe qui a été déployée fin 2023 pour appuyer l'armée congolaise dans l'est de la RDC ne peut pas être considérée comme « une force de maintien de la paix ». Selon lui, sa présence constitue « une menace » pour le Rwanda.

La SAMIDRC « n'est pas une force de maintien de la paix, et n'a pas sa place dans cette situation », a martelé M. Kagame dans un message publié sur X. « Elle a été autorisée par la Sadec en tant que force belligérante engagée dans des opérations de combat offensives pour aider le gouvernement de la RDC à lutter contre son propre peuple, en travaillant aux côtés de groupes armés génocidaires comme les FDLR qui ciblent le Rwanda », a-t-il ajouté.

Paul Kagame a démenti que Pretoria l'ait à cette occasion averti que de nouveaux affrontements dans la région seraient considérés comme une « déclaration de guerre », comme l'ont rapporté plusieurs médias. Mais il a prévenu : « si l'Afrique du Sud préfère la confrontation », le Rwanda peut réagir « à tout moment » en prenant en compte ce « contexte ».

Le président Cyril Ramaphosa avait déjà assuré que « la présence militaire de l'Afrique du Sud dans l'est de la RDC n'est pas une déclaration de guerre contre quelque pays que ce soit ».

La Communauté de développement de l'Afrique australe (Sadec) se réunira vendredi dans la capitale zimbabwéenne Harare pour un sommet extraordinaire sur la situation dans l'est de la République démocratique du Congo, a annoncé jeudi son secrétaire général.

Cette « réunion extraordinaire » vise à « discuter des questions relatives à l'est de la RDC », dont la situation est « préoccupante » après la prise ces derniers jours de Goma, principale ville de la région, par le groupe armé antigouvernemental M23 et les forces rwandaises, a indiqué Elias Magosi.

Peu de détails ont filtré jusque-là sur l'agenda de ce sommet. Le secrétaire exécutif de l'organisation, le Botswanais Elias Magosi est resté évasif, même s'il a admis que l'avenir de la mission de la force d'Afrique Australe (SAMIDRC) ferait l'objet de « délibérations ».

Plusieurs des soldats étrangers, d'Afrique du Sud et du Malawi, tués dans le Nord-Kivu la semaine passée, faisaient partie de la SAMIDRC stationnée près de Goma. Selon la presse sud-africaine, les événements des derniers jours pourraient précipiter un retrait de ces soldats, dont la situation actuelle reste floue.

A Russian drone attack on a residential block killed eight people including three elderly couples in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, prosecutors said on Thursday.

Moscow has pummelled Ukrainian cities with dozens of drones or missiles almost daily since it invaded in early 2022.

Images distributed by the emergency services showed a gaping hole in the side of the building and rescue workers digging through debris for survivors.

"This is a terrible tragedy, a terrible Russian crime. It is very important that the world does not pause in putting pressure on Russia for this terror," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.

Ukrainian prosecutors said the barrage killed eight people, including three couples -- six men and women between the ages of 61 and 74.

Another elderly man and a woman, 37, were also killed.

Her eight-year-old daughter was among 12 wounded in the attack, the Sumy prosecutor's office said.

Sumy lies just over the border from Russia in northeastern Ukraine and has been regularly targeted by Russia. Around 255,000 people lived there before the war.

"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin claims to be ready for negotiations, but this is what he actually does. Only strength works with liars," Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media.

The Ukrainian air force said Moscow had attacked with 81 drones, including the Iranian-designed Shahed type.

Ukraine's air defence units downed 37 of the drones in various regions, including in Sumy and near the capital Kyiv.

In the southern Odesa region on the Black Sea, officials said Russian drones targeted the port town of Izmail, one of several important Ukrainian export hubs.

Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak on Thursday accused Russia of launching Shahed drones charged with shrapnel "to increase the number of civilian casualties".

Separate Russian attacks killed one person and wounded 12 more, including two children, in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin said it annexed in late 2022.

DR Congo's President Félix Tshisekedi said on Thursday that his troops were mounting a military response as Rwanda-backed M23 fighters advanced in the east of the country.

In his first remarks since vast swathes of the eastern DRC fell to the militants, Tshisekedi said: "A vigorous and coordinated response against these terrorists and their sponsors is underway."

He also criticised the international community for failing to act. "Your silence and inaction ... are an affront to the DRC," he said in a televised address on Wednesday night.

Tshisekedi warned that the advance of the fighters could lead to an escalation across the broader Great Lakes region. He denounced the presence of thousands of Rwandan soldiers on Congolese soil and described the M23 as a "puppet".

The M23 armed group, backed by some 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, according to the UN, has been fighting the Congolese army in the region for more than three years.

On Sunday night, its forces entered Goma. By Wednesday, after sporadic exchanges of fire in the morning, fighting ceased as the M23 and the Rwandan army took up positions in most of the city's neighbourhoods.

At least 100 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded, according to several hospitals. Goma's medical facilities are overwhelmed, and bodies litter the city's streets, the UN said at a press briefing on Tuesday, citing its staff on the ground.

Despite international pressure to end the crisis, Tshisekedi refused to attend crisis talks with his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame on Wednesday.

At a videoconference summit of the East African Community, regional heads of state called for a peaceful settlement. "The summit strongly urged the government of the DRC to directly engage with all stakeholders, including the M23 and other armed groups that have grievances," they said in a post-summit communiqué.

Angola, which mediated a failed attempt at talks last month before the M23 launched its offensive, called for the Congolese and Rwandan leaders to meet urgently in Luanda. Tshisekedi arrived there on Wednesday for talks about next steps, a statement from the Angolan presidency said.

The latest fighting has worsened an already dire humanitarian situation, causing food and water shortages and forcing half a million people from their homes this month, the UN said.

The UN, US, China and European Union have all called on Rwanda to withdraw its forces from the region.

DRC is rich in gold and other minerals such as cobalt, coltan, tantalum and tin used in batteries and electronics worldwide.

Kinshasa has accused Rwanda of waging the offensive to profit from the region's mineral wealth. Rwanda has denied the accusations.

Kagame has never admitted military involvement, saying Rwanda's aim is to destroy a DRC-based armed group, the FDLR, created by former Hutu leaders who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

A passenger jet carrying 64 people crashed into Washington's Potomac River Wednesday after colliding midair with a military helicopter, with US media reporting multiple bodies pulled from the dark, near-freezing water.

The plane was approaching Reagan National Airport at around 9:00 pm (0200 GMT) after flying from Wichita, Kansas, when the collision happened.

American Airlines subsidiary PSA Airlines, which operated the Bombardier regional jet, said "there were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the aircraft."

US media, citing local sources, reported multiple bodies had been recovered, with CBS News saying at least 18, and NBC more than a dozen.

The Washington Post, citing a statement from US Figure Skating, said several athletes, coaches and officials were aboard the flight.

A US Army official said the helicopter involved was a Black Hawk carrying three soldiers, with their status currently unknown. They had been on a "training flight," a separate military spokesperson said in a statement.

A massive search and rescue operation was in progress, with divers visible in the glare of powerful lights as they plunged into the snow-lined Potomac to scour the wreckage of both aircraft.

"We're going to be out there as long as it takes, and we're obviously trying to get to people as soon as possible, but we are going to recover our fellow citizens," Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters.

Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly said at a press briefing that emergency crews, totaling about 300 people, were working in "extremely rough" conditions and gave little indication they expected to find anyone alive.

"We will re-evaluate where we are with the rescue operation in the morning, when we get a better sense of it," Donnelly said.

"But we are still out there working, and we're going to continue that throughout the night."

Witness Ari Schulman was driving home when he saw what he described as "a stream of sparks" overhead.

"Initially I saw the plane and it looked fine, normal. It was right about to head over land," he told CNN.

"Three seconds later, and at that point it was banked all the way to the right... I could see the underside of it, it was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it," Schulman added.

"It looked like a Roman candle."

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of all planes at Reagan National and the airport was not due to reopen until 11:00 am (1600 GMT) Thursday.

American Airlines' chief executive issued a video statement in which he expressed "deep sorrow", while US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas called the collision "nothing short of a nightmare."

Questions were expected to focus on how a passenger plane with modern collision-avoidance technology and nearby traffic controllers could collide with a military aircraft over the nation's capital.

The airspace around Washington is often crowded, with planes coming in low over the city to land at Reagan Airport and helicopters -- military, civilian and carrying senior politicians or officials -- buzzing about both day and night.

The same airport was the scene of a deadly crash in January 1982 when Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737, took off but quickly plummeted, hitting the 14th Street bridge and crashing through the ice into the Potomac River. Seventy-eight people died.

Investigators concluded the pilot had failed to activate sufficient de-icing procedures.

The last major fatal US air accident was in 2009, when Continental Flight 3407 from New Jersey to Buffalo, New York crashed and killed all 49 people aboard.

Japanese authorities have asked 1.2 million people to cut back on showers and laundry to prevent leaking sewage aggravating an operation to rescue a truck driver in a sinkhole.

The hole suddenly opened up in Yashio during the morning rush hour on Tuesday, swallowing the lorry.

Rescue efforts have been severely hampered by unstable ground around the hole and a second, larger hole appearing. Water has also been seeping in.

"Putting our first priority on saving the person's life, we are asking residents to refrain from non-essential use of water such as taking a bath or doing laundry," a Saitama prefecture official told AFP on Thursday.

"Using toilets is difficult to refrain from, but we are asking to use less water as much as possible."

In a statement sent to the roughly 1.2 million residents, the prefecture asked them to "please continue to refrain from sewage as polluted water may overflow".

"As the rescue work is facing difficulties, it will likely take time to restore" the sewage system, it said.

Some sewage water in the area was collected and released to a nearby river Wednesday.

No contact has been had with the 74-year-old truck driver since around 1:00 pm (0400 GMT) Tuesday and rescuers have been working around the clock to reach him.

The initial sinkhole, estimated at about 10 metres wide and six metres deep (33 feet by 20 feet), has since merged with another.

"At around 2:30 am (on Thursday), the two holes became one, and with risk of another landslide or collapse of roads, we've been unable to use heavy machinery," a fire department official told AFP.

Pristine samples of the asteroid Bennu transported to Earth contain the "basic building blocks" for life, shedding new light on the perennial question of how life began on our planet.

The revelation, in two studies published Wednesday, is the result of work on just 120 grams of material -- about the weight of a banana -- collected from Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2020.

The samples from Bennu, then around 300 million kilometres (186 million miles) from Earth, were returned in a capsule that OSIRIS-REx dropped off during a pass-by in 2023.

Initial analysis had already revealed evidence of high-carbon content and water.

But the new research found that evaporated water on Bennu's parent asteroid left behind "the raw ingredients of life", said Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and co-lead author of one of the studies.

"We have discovered that next step on a pathway to life," he said in a press release issued by the museum.

Bennu appears to have formed around 65 million years ago from the debris of a parent asteroid dating back some 4.5 billion years.

The findings suggest Bennu's parent was once home to pockets of liquid water. When these evaporated, they left behind a "briny broth" of salts and minerals.

Some of the minerals include compounds that have never been seen in samples from outer space, the museum said.

And analysis of the samples strongly suggests a "non-terrestrial origin", adds one of the studies.

That could lend support to the theory that life on Earth was seeded from outer space.

The samples "give unprecedented insight into the processes that drove the formation of the Solar System," according to Yasuhito Sekine, a professor at the Institute of Science Tokyo.

"This discovery was only possible by analysing samples that were collected directly from the asteroid then carefully preserved back on Earth," he added.

"The salts would otherwise have rapidly absorbed moisture in the Earth's humid atmosphere."

The researchers believe similar salty brines may exist on other extraterrestrial bodies, including the dwarf planet Ceres and Saturn's moon Enceladus, as well as other asteroids.

They plan to reexamine specimens already on Earth for traces of compounds that previous research might have missed.

"Even though asteroid Bennu has no life, the question is could other icy bodies harbour life?" said Nick Timms, an associate professor at Curtin University's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences also involved in the research.

Much about life's origin remains unclear despite the secrets revealed from Bennu, McCoy cautioned.

"We now know we have the basic building blocks to move along this pathway towards life, but we don't know how far along that pathway this environment could allow things to progress," he said.

Still, Sara Russell, co-lead author with McCoy and a cosmic mineralogist at the museum, said the research had made "huge progress in understanding how asteroids like Bennu evolved, and how they may have helped make the Earth habitable".

OSIRIS-REx wasn't the first probe to rendezvous with an asteroid and bring back samples for study -- Japan succeeded in the feat twice, returning celestial dust in 2010 and 2020.

In addition to scientific insights, better understanding of Bennu's composition could prove useful if humanity ever needs to steer it away.

Space agencies are constantly monitoring asteroids over potential impact risks.

A recently discovered asteroid dubbed 2024 YR4, estimated to be between 40 and 100 metres (130 and 330 feet) wide, has a 1.2 percent chance of impacting Earth on December 22, 2032, the European Space Agency said Wednesday.

That is only considered a level-3 risk on the 10-level Torino Impact Hazard Scale, the ESA said, adding that an asteroid's chances of impact often drop after additional observations.

After years of feeling "invisible" as she managed her daughter's cancer, Antonietta Moccia said she hopes a European court on Thursday will recognise the Italian government's failures to protect her from toxic waste.

The European Court of Human Rights will on Thursday morning deliver its verdict on allegations Italy was aware of the illegal dumping, burying and burning of hazardous waste by the mafia in Campania, near Naples, but failed to act.

Cancer rates are higher than normal in the region, known as the "Land of Fires" and home to almost three million people -- among them Moccia's daughter Miriam, diagnosed aged five with a brain tumour.

The medulloblastoma that struck Miriam occurs in around 1.5 people in a million in Europe.

But "in the hospital there were three other cases from Acerra", their Campania town of 60,000, Moccia told AFP.

But "we are invisible, nobody listens to us", she said.

Today, she is waiting for the territory to be cleaned up and for compensation "to help other families", saying that she herself received no help except from family and friends.

Fortunately Miriam, now 18, has her cancer "under control" and she "is moving forward and wants to turn the page", her mother said.

The European court has heard a case brought by 41 residents from Caserta or Naples provinces and five local organisations.

For decades, industrial waste -- often from northern Italy -- was burned in the open air in this vast area, which is also known as the "Triangle of Death".

Instead of paying exorbitant sums to have it disposed of legally, companies paid the Camorra mafia a fraction of the cost to dump it in fields, wells and lakes.

Everything from broken sheets of asbestos to car tyres and containers of industrial-strength glue was burned or left to rot, polluting the air, soil and water.

Years after the issue was made public, mounds of rubbish still lie near waterways, along roads, and in fields where sheep and goats graze.

Alessandro Cannavacciuolo, one of those bringing the case, first knew something was wrong when his sheep in the early 2000s birthed "deformed lambs, with two heads, two tongues, tails on the side".

"We no longer had lambs, but real monsters," the former farmer told AFP.

As his friends and relatives also fell sick, Cannavacciuolo took it upon himself to find and report illegal dump sites -- at great personal risk.

"We are at war. Anyone who raises their voice, anyone who points out these criminal activities, is threatened," he said.

"Our cars have been shot at, our animals have been killed, we have received threatening letters", he added.

In 1997, a mafia turncoat revealed that hazardous waste had been buried in the area since at least 1988, and parliament was informed.

But it was not until 2013 that the government adopted a decree-law officially defining the "Land of Fires".

Since then, a host of parliamentary inquiries have found the authorities negligent and in some cases complicit.

They have also highlighted the health fallout, including an increase in cases of cancer and foetal and neonatal malformations.

In 2018, the Senate's Hygiene and Health Committee said mobster criminality and political inaction had caused an ecological disaster, while in 2021, Italy's National Health Institute officially recognised the correlation between the pollution and cancer.

Neither the government nor the Campania region responded to an AFP request for comment.

Armando Corsini, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he was not surprised by their silence, saying they have yet to admit responsibility.

The state "has done nothing to protect these victims and ensure that other cases do not occur", he said.

The Strasbourg court is "the last resort, and the ultimate place to have the importance of the responsibility of the Italian State" recognised.

Australia's reliance on coal-fired power stations has dropped to a record low, accounting for less than 50 percent of its electricity for the first time, the market operator said Thursday.

Overall electricity demand hit a record high in the final quarter of 2024 as temperatures rose and people shifted away from gas, the Australian Energy Market Operator said.

At the same time, roof-top solar output surged 18 percent and grid-scale solar climbed nine percent -- both reaching record levels, it said in an update on the National Electricity Market (NEM).

"The rise in rooftop solar output, coupled with record low coal-generation availability, resulted in coal-fired generation contributing less than 50 percent of the NEM's total generation for the first time," said Violette Mouchaileh, a senior official at the market operator.

Renewable energy sources supplied a record 46 percent of electricity in the quarter, she said, peaking at 75.6 percent on November 6.

That drove greenhouse gas emissions in the period to record lows, the market operator said.

Australia's government last week announced an extra US$1.2 billion in clean energy financing to speed a transition from coal and other fossil fuels to renewables.

The country -- one of the world's leading coal exporters -- has vowed to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

But energy authorities say quick action is needed to fill the gap left by shuttered coal-fired power stations.

Wholesale electricity prices surged 83 percent during 2024, the report noted, mostly due to high demand, the decline of available coal-fired power, and transmission constraints.

"The data confirms what we know -- unreliable coal is having a negative impact on energy prices, more renewables in the system bring wholesale prices down, and new transmission infrastructure is critical to keeping prices lower," said Chris Bowen, the minister for climate change and energy.

"We are building an energy grid so everyone, everywhere has access to the cheapest form of energy at any given time," he said in a statement to Australian media.

Over the past decade, an ideological brawl dubbed the "climate wars" has dominated Australian politics, repeatedly undermining attempts to reduce carbon emissions.

In the run-up to general elections that must be held by May 17, Australia's conservative opposition Liberal Party has announced plans to launch nuclear power so as to rely less on solar and wind.

The national science agency CSIRO said in a report last month that nuclear power would be 50 percent more expensive than renewables and would take at least 15 years to build.

Australia sits on bulging deposits of coal, gas, metals and minerals, with mining and fossil fuels stoking decades of near-unbroken economic growth.

But it has also begun to suffer from more intense bushfires and increasingly severe droughts, which scientists have linked to climate change.

Après près de 14 mois de guerre, l’enclave palestinienne est ensevelie sous plus de 42 millions de tonnes de gravats. Avant de reconstruire les habitations, il va falloir renouveler la grande majorité des infrastructures alors que la question du financement n’est pas encore résolue. L'analyse de Xavier Guignard, chercheur associé à Noria Research.

RFI: Quelle va être la première étape de la reconstruction ?

Xavier Guignard: Avant même de reconstruire le bâti, il va falloir rendre possible l’accès au matériel de construction par les routes, elles aussi détruites. De plus, tout le matériel de BTP (Bâtiment et Travaux Publics) qui était disponible à Gaza a été aussi la cible des attaques israéliennes durant les 14 derniers mois. Les camions de déblaiement, les pelleteuses, les tractopelles sont pour la plupart détruits ou endommagés. Il va donc falloir les faire venir par voie terrestre et cela nécessite de pouvoir reconstruire et déblayer les routes. Un travail extrêmement long et essentiel avant d’entamer à proprement parler la reconstruction. Ensuite, cette dernière ne pourra pas être limitée seulement au bâti, car les infrastructures vitales aussi ont été complétement dévastées. Ce sont les deux jambes de la reconstruction, et elles doivent avancer en même temps. Il faut par exemple reconstruire une centrale électrique, des usines de désalinisation pour avoir de l'eau à disposition et tout ça doit être mené de front pour pouvoir avoir un habitat fonctionnel.

Est-ce que les pays qui financent l’aide humanitaire vont aussi payer la reconstruction ?

Au-delà de la question de l'aide humanitaire, il y a bien sûr celle de la reconstruction, qui est chiffrée aujourd'hui entre 100 et 200 milliards de dollars. Aujourd’hui, des pays comme la Jordanie, l’Arabie saoudite ou le Qatar -qui aident Gaza au quotidien- ne se sont pas encore engagés fermement concernant leur participation à la reconstruction. Idem pour les pays occidentaux. Il s’agit de la troisième phase de l’accord de cessez-le-feu, lorsque tous les otages auront été échangés.

À quelles conditions ces pays pourraient-ils conditionner leur aide pour reconstruire Gaza ?

Pour l'instant, on ne connaît pas les détails pratiques qui feront l’objet de négociations. Il y a actuellement une tournée diplomatique américaine dans la région pour aborder le sujet et une poursuite des efforts égyptiens et qataris pour essayer de rendre concret cette question de la reconstruction. Les deux points importants sont à la fois le financement, mais aussi les modalités très concrètes de l’amorce de la reconstruction, à savoir, par exemple : qui vient déblayer, reconstruire, qui finance et avec quelle garantie que ces nouvelles infrastructures restent pérennes ? Pour cela, la première volonté des pays potentiellement bailleurs, qu’ils soient dans la région ou occidentaux, c'est d'inscrire la reconstruction dans un processus politique, c'est-à-dire vers l'avancée d'une solution à deux États.

Dozens of Romanian security contractors in the eastern DR Congo crossed the border into neighbouring Rwanda on Wednesday to surrender to authorities following days of deadly fighting, according to Kigali.

Rwanda-backed fighters controlled almost all of the DR Congo city of Goma, a key mineral trading hub, Wednesday after a lightening offensive.

A long line of men, many wearing jeans and T-shirts, flanked by armed Rwandan soldiers calmly entered Rwandan territory on foot via the Gisenyi border post, according to images filmed by AFP.

With the help of sniffer dogs, the Rwandan soldiers inspected their backpacks and other belongings, opened on the ground, before the men underwent body searches and registered.

"We weren't on a battlefield, we were here to train and help with artillery," one of the Romanians told AFP, only giving the name Emil.

More than 280 Romanian "mercenaries" fighting alongside Congolese forces have surrendered to M23 in the Rwandan border town of Gisenyi, Rwanda's army said on X.

They are being evacuated in buses to Kigali, according to the Rwandan Ministry of Defence.

In Romania, the foreign ministry said an evacuation of its citizens was "under way".

The ministry on Tuesday convened a crisis unit to address "the acute deterioration of the security situation" in the eastern DRC, where "Romanian citizens, private employees of the DRC government, are present on an army training mission".

Four of them were injured in the fighting, their leader Constantin Timofte told Romanian public television.

"The national army gave up fighting and we had to withdraw," he said.

Since late 2022, nearly 1,000 Western soldiers, working for two private military companies, have been in Goma.

One of the military contractors, Congo Protection, is managed in Goma by Horatiu Potra, a Romanian ex-member of the French Foreign Legion.

Congo Protection's mostly Eastern European soldiers are involved in training Congolese army units and protecting Goma. They have also joined in combat against the rebels.

Agemira, the other company, is run by French nationals and includes retired French military personnel.

It initially provided maintenance services to the Congolese Air Force but is now part of the military's operational command and has taken part in bombing raids on M23 positions.