The House of Lords debated a bill on 11 April, and if wise amendments are not made before it receives royal assent it is regarded as the gravest threat to our wildlife in decades by a number of wildlife and conservation charities. A new bill, officially called the Retained EU Law Bill, threatens to wipe out thousands of crucial laws which protect wildlife by the end of the year. This will lead to even more pollution poisoning rivers, more wild places at risk of being damaged - and potentially destroyed - and more wildlife threatened with extinction. It is an attack on nature, and environmentalists are urging the Government to bin it before it’s too late. The Government wants to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2030. If this bill is passed without change, it will undermine any possibility of achieving that goal. A Rocha believes the bill should be abandoned in its current state.

Ukraine’s president Zelensky has urged world leaders to act after the emergence of footage showing Russian soldiers beheading a Ukrainian prisoner of war. A second video shows the beheaded corpses of two Ukrainian soldiers next to a destroyed military vehicle. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, it has committed widespread abuses. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin’s alleged war crimes. Ukraine’s foreign minister tweeted, ‘A horrific video of Russian troops decapitating a Ukrainian prisoner of war is circulating online. It’s absurd that Russia, which is worse than Isis, is presiding over the UNSC’ - referring to the UN Security Council, where Russia took up the rotating presidency this month. ‘The terror group Isis released a number of videos showing beheadings when it controlled swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria. Russian terrorists must be kicked out of Ukraine and the UN and be held accountable for their crimes, and the International Criminal Court must ‘immediately investigate yet another atrocity of the Russian military.’

Norway’s foreign ministry has said it has decided to expel fifteen Russian embassy officials in Oslo, claiming that they were intelligence officers operating under the cover of diplomatic positions. In a statement, the ministry said: ‘The government’s decision is in response to the changed security situation in Europe, which has led to an increased intelligence threat from Russia. The officers must leave Norway shortly.’. Norway’s foreign minister, Anniken Huitfeldt, said: ‘This is an important step in countering, and reducing the level of, Russian intelligence activity in Norway, and thus in safeguarding our national interests.’ Russia’s foreign ministry said it would respond to Norway’s expulsion of its diplomats, according to state media.

Following two nights of violence between police and ‘agitators’ at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, 34 rockets were launched into Israel’s civilian population from southern Lebanon terrorists. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said 25 of the projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system. See Israel’s military then carried out air strikes on Hamas targets in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Gaza retaliated with dozens more rockets. IDF warplanes struck Hamas’ infrastructures in Lebanon and Gaza, including an underground shaft to construct weapons, three weapons workshops and an underground terrorist tunnel. Another 44 rockets from Gaza towards southern Israel were intercepted. See On Good Friday, two British-Israeli sisters were killed and their mother later died after being shot in the West Bank. The next day, an Italian tourist was killed and seven others injured in a Tel Aviv car-ramming. Benjamin Netanyahu has called up army and police reservists.