People fleeing immediate danger due to the climate crisis cannot be forced to return home, the UN has said. The landmark ruling centres on the case of Ioane Teitiota, whose home – the Pacific Island of Kiribati – is threatened by rising sea levels.

Mr Teitiota applied for protection in New Zealand in 2013. The UN rejected his claim, saying he wasn’t in immediate danger, but the wording of its ruling allows others to claim asylum based on climate change. Sending asylum seekers home when their lives are threatened by the climate crisis “may expose individuals to a violation of their rights” – specifically, it said, their right to life.

“Given that the risk of an entire country becoming submerged under water is such an extreme risk, the conditions of life in such a country may become incompatible with the right to life with dignity before the risk is realised,” its decision added.(bbc)…[+]

At least three people have died in Ethiopia after a wooden stand collapsed during a major Orthodox Christian celebration. Dozens more are injured and some reports put the death toll at 10.

The stand was inside the Emperor Fasilides Bath where thousands were commemorating the baptism of Jesus for the Timkat festival in Gondar. The Ethiopian News Agency reported that more than 15,000 foreigners were attending the celebration. A journalist uploaded a photo of the stand just minutes before it collapsed, showing what appeared to be a weak structure.

Samuel Baheru, who travelled to Gondar for Timkat from the capital Addis Ababa, watched bodies being carried out on stretchers. “We heard a loud noise and what we saw coming out on the stretchers wasn’t pleasant. At first I panicked because my wife was inside, but then I found her and we continued with Timkat,” he said.

Tesfa Mekonnen, the Gondar city government’s head of peace and security, denied the tragedy was as a result of poor construction, saying the building work had been done by “professionals”. “Youngsters wanted to participate so they climbed up, so there were too many and it was overloaded,” he said. Ethiopia is famous for its Orthodox Christian festivals, which draw faithful and secular tourists from across the world.(BBC)…[+]

Malaysia is returning 42 shipping containers of illegally imported plastic waste to the UK, its environment minister has announced. Yeo Bee Yin said Malaysia would take “steps to ensure” the country “does not become the garbage dump of the world”.

She added Malaysia had sent back 150 containers to their country of origin. The UK government said it received a request from Malaysian authorities last year to repatriate the waste and some containers had already arrived back. An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We continue to work with the shipping lines and Malaysian authorities to ensure all waste is brought back as soon as possible.” He added the government was also “working hard to stop illegal waste exports from leaving our shores in the first place”.

The South East Asian country has seen a sharp rise in foreign plastic waste since China – once the world’s largest importer – announced a ban in 2017. Malaysia said a total of a total of 3,737 metric tonnes of unwanted waste had been sent back to 13 countries, including 43 containers to France, 42 to the UK, 17 to the United States, and 11 to Canada. The authorities hope to send back another 110 containers by the middle of 2020 – with 60 of those going to the US.(bbc)…[+]