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Russia Threatens Israel with Legal Action to Regain Ownership of 3 Churches in Jerusalem

This picture taken on December 20, 2021 shows a view of an Israeli flag flying near the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene atop the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. (AFP via Getty Images)
This picture taken on December 20, 2021 shows a view of an Israeli flag flying near the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene atop the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. (AFP via Getty Images)
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Russia Threatens Israel with Legal Action to Regain Ownership of 3 Churches in Jerusalem

This picture taken on December 20, 2021 shows a view of an Israeli flag flying near the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene atop the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. (AFP via Getty Images)
This picture taken on December 20, 2021 shows a view of an Israeli flag flying near the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene atop the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. (AFP via Getty Images)

The Russian government has demanded its Israeli counterpart to transfer ownership of three historic churches to Moscow, political sources in Tel Aviv revealed.

Russia wants state ownership of the Maria Magdalena Monastery, the Ascension Monastery, and the Viri Galilaei Church (People of the Galilee) all situated on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

The sources quoted former Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, who is responsible on behalf of Russia to regain assets in Israel, as saying that he intends to file a lawsuit at an Israeli court to force the Tel Aviv to return ownership of the churches to Russia if refuses to do so through diplomatic means.

According to Israel’s Yediot Aharonot daily, the new lawsuit is intended for internal propaganda in Russia in light of President Valdimir Putin’s declining popularity due to the war in Ukraine.

The newspaper said Russians are concerned about church issues and would like to see their president also interested in them.

“In Russia, they feel that the Israeli Prime Minister-designate, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing difficulties in forming a government, and therefore, Russian officials believe this is the appropriate timing to put pressure on him to fulfill previous promises he had made to Putin three years ago,” according to a former political activist working in the file of the expulsion of Jews from Russia to Israel.

In 2019, Netanyahu promised Putin that Israel would transfer ownership of the Alexander Nevsky Church and Alexander Square in Jerusalem to Russia.

He said Israel must respond to the Russian claims, because its silence would harm Tel Aviv, especially in light of the war in Ukraine and the West’s united front against Moscow.

Meanwhile, a source close to the Russian Consulate in Haifa said these churches are Russia, and that the Church of Maria Magdalene houses the remains of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia, who was killed during the 1918 coup by the Russian secret police.

The Church also houses the remains of Princess Alice, great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Britain.

Ottoman and British documents show that the two churches and the monastery are Russian, said the source.

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Varieties

Spain Records More Than 1,000 Heat-Related June Deaths

A person drinks from a fountain rest during a spring heatwave in Madrid, Spain, May 27, 2026. (Reuters)
A person drinks from a fountain rest during a spring heatwave in Madrid, Spain, May 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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Spain Records More Than 1,000 Heat-Related June Deaths

A person drinks from a fountain rest during a spring heatwave in Madrid, Spain, May 27, 2026. (Reuters)
A person drinks from a fountain rest during a spring heatwave in Madrid, Spain, May 27, 2026. (Reuters)

More than 1,000 deaths in Spain were attributed to the recent heatwave that roasted Europe, as the country posted the hottest first six months ever recorded, officials said on Wednesday.

At least 1,028 people died of heat-related issues during the heatwave, the public Carlos III Health Institute said.

The figure was more than double the 407 deaths that were attributed to heat in June 2025, Spain's hottest June since records started being kept, according to the national weather agency Aemet.

The first six months of 2026 were the hottest in Spain since the start of records, with temperatures 1.6C above normal levels on average, Aemet said in a post on X on Wednesday.

"The seven warmest first semesters... have occurred over the past 10 years", the Aemet agency said in a post on X.

June 2026 came in as the second-hottest June, "with temperatures on average 3.2C above the norm," Aemet said.

The heatwave that scorched Europe from late June was the most severe ever recorded in Europe, and would have been "virtually impossible" in June without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said.

All-time temperature records have been broken in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, as well as for the month of June in the UK and in Switzerland.

France faced record breaking average temperatures, with the country experiencing its highest-ever nighttime temperatures.

Varieties

A Rare Dinosaur Fossil from Antarctica Is Found Tucked Away in a Drawer

This image provided by the Natural History Museum shows a fossil found in Antarctica that belongs to a group of dinosaurs called titanosaurs. (Natural History Museum via AP)
This image provided by the Natural History Museum shows a fossil found in Antarctica that belongs to a group of dinosaurs called titanosaurs. (Natural History Museum via AP)
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A Rare Dinosaur Fossil from Antarctica Is Found Tucked Away in a Drawer

This image provided by the Natural History Museum shows a fossil found in Antarctica that belongs to a group of dinosaurs called titanosaurs. (Natural History Museum via AP)
This image provided by the Natural History Museum shows a fossil found in Antarctica that belongs to a group of dinosaurs called titanosaurs. (Natural History Museum via AP)

Scientists have stumbled on a rare dinosaur fossil from Antarctica, tucked away for decades in a drawer.

The bone comes from the tail of a long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur called a titanosaur. Scientists haven't yet identified the species it belongs to.

It was discovered in 1985 during an expedition to Antarctica's James Ross Island and collected by geologist Mike Thomson. Working with the British Antarctic Survey, Thomson was mapping the area's rock layers and collected marine reptile fossils to help with future dating efforts. He recorded the find as a large reptile.

Decades later, paleontologist Mark Evans spotted the bone in the British Antarctic Survey's collections and wondered whether it might be a dinosaur. He and other researchers analyzed the shape of the bone and compared it to other more complete dinosaur remains, confirming their discovery. The findings were published on Monday in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

Dinosaur fossils are rare to find in Antarctica because of the unforgiving ice caps. But millions of years ago, when this dinosaur lived, the region was populated by lush forests — a “rather different and much more hospitable place than we think of today,” said study co-author Paul Barrett with the Natural History Museum in London.

At about 23 feet (7 meters) long, the dinosaur was small for its group and may have been young when it died. Scientists don't know how the creature met its end, but they think its body floated away from the coast and sank to the sea floor, becoming fossilized in marine rock.

Technology has come a long way since the dinosaur tail bone was first found, allowing researchers to peer inside bones and gain even more detailed information about ancient creatures. Thomson died in 2020 before the fossil was identified as belonging to a dinosaur.

“If he were still with us, he would be delighted to know what this was,” Evans, a study co-author, said.

Varieties

World’s Oceans Break June Heat Record, Says EU Monitor

The sun sets over the Pacific Ocean, as seen from Huntington Beach, California, US, June 29, 2026. (Reuters)
The sun sets over the Pacific Ocean, as seen from Huntington Beach, California, US, June 29, 2026. (Reuters)
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World’s Oceans Break June Heat Record, Says EU Monitor

The sun sets over the Pacific Ocean, as seen from Huntington Beach, California, US, June 29, 2026. (Reuters)
The sun sets over the Pacific Ocean, as seen from Huntington Beach, California, US, June 29, 2026. (Reuters)

The world's oceans just experienced their hottest June on record and could set fresh highs in the months ahead as El Nino and climate change drive temperatures even higher, scientists said Wednesday.

Global average sea surface temperatures in June were 20.98C, beating the previous records of 2023 and 2024, according to the European Union's Copernicus Marine Service.

The record capped six months of near unprecedented ocean warmth in 2026, with prolonged marine heatwaves, the service said. Average sea temperatures in the first half of the year were 20.04C, slightly below the high set in the same period in 2024.

And scientists said the onset of a potentially powerful El Nino weather pattern could boost global heat in the oceans and atmosphere even further in 2026 and into next year.

"Current conditions could indicate the beginning of a new phase, leading, once more, to uncharted territory," said Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus Climate Change Service, the EU's climate monitor.

"With ocean temperatures at these levels and El Nino on the horizon, we are likely to see more temperature records fall in the coming months," Buontempo said in a statement.

El Nino is marked by unusually warm waters in parts of the Pacific Ocean, releasing more heat into the atmosphere and influencing wind, cloud and weather patterns around the globe.

This can raise the risk of weather extremes ranging from floods in Peru to droughts in parts of Africa and wildfires in Australia.

But it can also cause a temporary spike in global temperatures, compounding the long-term warming caused by humanity's burning of fossil fuels.

Land and sea temperatures reached an all-time high in 2024 at the tail end of the last El Nino.

"With the arrival and the onset of an El Nino year ... we can expect that 2026 will be amongst the warmest (ever) recorded," Simon Van Gennip, lead Oceanographer for the Copernicus Marine Service, said in a news briefing.

"This is due to El Nino ... but also from the warming due to the greenhouse gas emissions we continue to provide for the atmosphere," Van Gennip said.

- 'Deepening crisis' -

The report follows a warning issued in a major UN scientific assessment last month which declared that the world's oceans were in a "deepening crisis" as seas were warming and rising faster.

Oceans are a key regulator of Earth's climate because they absorb some 90 percent of the excess heat caused by humanity's release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

Warmer oceans increase moisture in the atmosphere, providing fuel for tropical cyclones and destructive rainfall.

Hotter seas also directly contribute to sea level rise -- water expands when it warms up -- and create unbearable conditions for tropical reefs, whose corals can bleach and die during prolonged marine heatwaves.

The first six months of the year were marked by widespread marine heatwaves that affected around 82 percent of the world's oceans, the second-largest extent after 2024, according to Copernicus Marine Service.

Marine heatwaves -- prolonged periods of unusually high sea temperatures -- can affect weather, trigger coral bleaching and prove fatal for marine wildlife.

- Global heat -

Global sea surface temperatures varied in the first half of the year, according to the service, which is run by Mercator Ocean International, an EU-backed non-profit organization.

The Mediterranean broke its June record at 24.3C, surpassing the previous highs set in 2023 and 2025. Marine heatwaves hit 98 percent of the basin during the first six months of the year.

A marine heatwave affecting the northwestern Mediterranean broke a record intensity measurement on Monday after a week that saw temperature records tumble in Europe, a Spanish climate institute said.

The tropical Pacific also had its hottest June ever at 27.26C.

The region matched its 2016 record for the January-to-June period, with the strongest and most persistent warming in the western equatorial Pacific and off the coasts of Peru and California.