Geneva (AFP) – A replica of Auguste Rodin's famous sculpture "The Thinker" outside the United Nations headquarters was being slowly submerged in plastic rubbish Monday as countries gathered in a bid to finalise a global treaty on plastic pollution.

The sculpture will slowly disappear under layer upon layer of bottles, toys, fishing nets and other garbage during the 10 days of talks starting Tuesday, aimed at sealing the first international accord to tackle plastic pollution.

Six metres (20 feet) tall, the artwork, entitled "The Thinker's Burden", is being constructed by the Canadian artist and activist Benjamin Von Wong.

He hopes it will strike a chord with diplomats from the UN's 193 members and make them think about "the health impacts of plastic pollution: not just on our generation, but on all future generations", Von Wong told AFP.

Sitting on a representation of Mother Earth, this "Thinker" holds crushed plastic bottles in one hand and looks down at a baby held in the other.

"Over the course of the next 10 days, we're going to be slowly adding more and more plastic to this art installation to show the growing cost that is being passed on to future generations," Von Wong said.

"If you want to protect health, then we need to think about the toxic chemicals that are entering our environment," he said.

"We need to think about limits on plastic production. We need to think about a strong, ambitious plastics treaty."

Well over 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, half of which is for single-use items.

While 15 percent of plastic waste is collected for recycling, only nine percent is actually recycled.

Nearly half, 46 percent, ends up dumped in landfills, while 17 percent is incinerated and 22 percent is mismanaged and becomes litter.

In 2022, countries agreed to find a way to address the crisis by the end of 2024, but a fifth round of talks in December last year in Busan, South Korea, failed to overcome fundamental differences.

Plastics break down into bits so small that not only do they find their way throughout the ecosystem but into human blood and organs, recent studies show, with largely unknown consequences.

Beijing (AFP) – Beijing issued its highest alert for rainstorms on Monday, days after deadly deluges swept parts of the Chinese capital and triggered a rare apology from under-prepared officials.

The municipal weather service announced a red alert -- the highest in a four-tier system -- forecasting heavy rain from noon on Monday until Tuesday morning.

Most parts of the city are expected to see 100 millimetres (four inches) of rain during a six-hour period overnight, but outlying areas could experience between 150mm and 200mm, authorities said.

"There is an extremely high risk of flash floods, mudslides, landslips and other natural disasters in mountain areas," the Beijing government said on an official social media account.

"Citizens are advised not to go outside unless necessary," it said.

Tens of thousands of people in northern China were evacuated as torrential rains wreaked havoc in parts of the north since last month.

Beijing was struck hard last week, when floods in its northern suburbs killed at least 44 people and left nine missing, according to official figures.

Some 31 fatalities occurred at an elderly care centre in Miyun district, prompting a local official to admit "gaps" in disaster readiness.

Residents in flood-hit areas told AFP reporters at the scene that they had been surprised at the speed with which the rushing water inundated homes and devastated villages.

The city water authority on Monday again listed Miyun as highly vulnerable to flooding, alongside Fangshan, Mentougou and Huairou districts, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer, when some regions experience heavy rain while others bake in searing heat.

China is the world's biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change and contribute to making extreme weather more frequent and intense.

But it is also a global renewable energy powerhouse that aims to make its massive economy carbon-neutral by 2060.

Beirut (Lebanon) (AFP) – Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Monday vowed that "justice is coming", five years after a catastrophic explosion at Beirut's port for which nobody has been held to account.

The blast on August 4, 2020 was one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions, devastating swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring over 6,500.

The explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been stored haphazardly for years after arriving by ship, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.

Aoun said that the Lebanese state "is committed to uncovering the whole truth, no matter the obstacles or how high the positions" involved.

"The law applies to all, without exception," Aoun said in a statement.

Monday has been declared a day of national mourning, and rallies demanding justice are planned later in the day, converging on the port.

"The blood of your loved ones will not be in vain," the president told victims' families, adding: "Justice is coming, accountability is coming."

After more than a two-year impasse following political and judicial obstruction, investigating judge Tarek Bitar has finished questioning defendants and suspects, a judicial official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Those questioned include former prime minister Hassan Diab, as well as military and security officials, while several former ministers did not appear for questioning, the official said.

Bitar is waiting for some procedures to be completed and for responses to requests last month to several Arab and European countries for "information on specific incidents", the official added, without elaborating.

The judge will then finalise the investigation and refer the file to the public prosecution for its opinion before he issues an indictment, the official said.

President Aoun said that "we are working with all available means to ensure the investigations are completed with transparency and integrity."

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, a former International Court of Justice judge, said on Sunday that knowing the truth and ensuring accountability were national issues, decrying decades of official impunity.

Bitar resumed his inquiry after Aoun took office in January and as Salam formed a government the following month, with both leaders pledging to uphold judicial independence after the balance of power shifted following a devastating war between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.

The probe stalled after the Iran-backed group, long a dominant force in Lebanese politics but weakened by the latest war, had accused Bitar of bias and demanded his removal, and after officials named in the investigation filed a flurry of lawsuits seeking to prevent it from going forward.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint statement on Monday that "despite the resumption of the investigation, the road to justice remains littered with political and legal challenges".

Mariana Fodoulian from the association of victims' families said that "for five years, officials have been trying to evade accountability, always thinking they are above the law."

"We're not asking for anything more than the truth," she told AFP.

"We won't stop until we get comprehensive justice."

United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, on Monday urged authorities to "take all necessary action to expedite progress in judicial proceedings related to the explosion".

The US and British embassies in Lebanon urged accountability in statements on X, while the European Union on Sunday welcomed recent steps "that have enabled progress in the investigation", noting that "ending impunity is essential for Lebanon's recovery."

On Sunday, Culture Minister Ghassan Salame said the port's gutted and partially collapsed wheat silos would be included on a list of historic buildings.

Victims' families have long demanded their preservation as a memorial of the catastrophe.

"The silos are the only witness to what happened on August 4," said Fodoulian.

Singapore (AFP) – A Malaysian hotel tycoon who helped bring Formula One to Singapore pleaded guilty Monday to abetting the obstruction of justice, in a rare corruption case in the city-state that saw a former transport minister jailed last year.

Singapore-based billionaire Ong Beng Seng, 79, was charged in October last year with helping former transport minister S. Iswaran cover up evidence in a graft investigation.

He was also accused of showering Iswaran with lavish gifts, including tickets to the 2017 Singapore Formula One Grand Prix, flights on a private jet, business class travel and a luxury hotel stay.

Ong entered his guilty plea from a glass-encased dock at a district court in downtown Singapore on Monday.

Prosecutors sought a two-month jail term after Ong agreed to plead guilty. He will be sentenced on August 15.

But prosecutors also agreed with defence lawyers that the court could exercise "judicial mercy" in view of Ong's poor health -- which could further reduce any sentence.

Defence lawyers pleaded for clemency, saying their septuagenarian client suffered from a litany of serious ailments, including an incurable form of cancer.

They asked for a "stiff fine" instead of actual jail time.

"The risks to Mr. Ong's life increase dramatically in prison," lawyer Cavinder Bull told the court, saying prison could not give his client sufficient care.

"This man is living on the edge," Bull added.

The Attorney General's Chambers said in a statement that after "considering the medical evidence before the Court", the prosecutors did not object to imposing a fine instead of jail time.

The trial of Malaysia-born Ong had attracted significant media attention due to his links with Iswaran and the affluent city-state's reputation as one of the world's least corrupt nations.

Ong owns Singapore-based Hotel Properties Limited and is the rights holder to the Singapore Grand Prix Formula One race.

He and Iswaran were instrumental in bringing the Formula One night race on a street circuit to Singapore in 2008.

In July 2023, Ong was arrested as part of a graft probe involving Iswaran and was subsequently released on bail.

In October last year, Iswaran was jailed for 12 months after he pleaded guilty to accepting illegal gifts worth more than Sg$400,000 ($310,000).

He was also found guilty of obstructing justice, in the city-state's first political graft trial in nearly half a century.

Iswaran completed his sentence on June 6.

Taipei (AFP) – Storms dumped more than two metres of rain in parts of Taiwan over the past week, killing four people and triggering floods and landslides in central and southern areas, authorities said Monday.

Torrential rain has lashed swathes of the island since July 28, forcing several thousand people to seek shelter, damaging roads, and shuttering offices.

Maolin, a mountainous district in southern Taiwan, recorded 2.8 metres (nine feet) of rain since July 28, Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecaster Li Ming-siang told AFP.

That's more than Taiwan's annual rainfall of 2.1 metres last year, according to the agency's data.

The unusually heavy downpours were caused by a low-pressure system and strong southwesterly winds, Li said.

"The southwesterly winds have brought heavy moisture from the South China Sea to Taiwan," Li said.

Li said southwesterly winds were normally brought by typhoons affecting the island and seasonal rain in May and June.

This time it was caused by Typhoon Co-May pushing southwesterly winds further north as it swept past eastern Taiwan on its way to China, Li said, adding the rain was not linked to climate change.

The average rainfall across the island last month was the highest for the month of July since 1939, the CWA said.

The torrential rain follows Typhoon Danas, which hit Taiwan in early July.

Two people were killed and hundreds injured as the storm dumped more than 500 millimetres (20 inches) of rain across the south over a weekend.

"We rarely encounter a disaster of this scale," Premier Cho Jung-tai said during a visit to a flood-hit area in the southern Tainan City on Monday.

"From Typhoon Danas up to now, we've faced nearly a month of continuous and heavy rainfall."

The week of bad weather left four people dead, three missing, and 77 injured, a disaster official said.

Nearly 6,000 people were forced to leave their homes.

The state weather forecaster expects the rain to ease in the coming days.

Taiwan is accustomed to frequent tropical storms from July to October.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can make destructive floods more likely.

Seoul (AFP) – South Korea said on Monday it has started removing loudspeakers used to blare K-pop and news reports into the North, as a new administration in Seoul tries to ease tensions with its bellicose neighbour.

The nations, still technically at war, had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarised zone, Seoul's military said in June after the election of President Lee Jae Myung.

It said in June that Pyongyang had stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had become a major nuisance for South Korean locals, a day after the South's loudspeakers fell silent.

"Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers," Lee Kyung-ho, spokesman of the South's defence ministry, told reporters on Monday.

"It is a practical measure aimed at helping ease tensions with the North, provided that such actions do not compromise the military's state of readiness."

All loudspeakers set up along the border will be dismantled by the end of the week, he added, but did not disclose the exact number that would be removed.

President Lee, recently elected after his predecessor was impeached over an abortive martial law declaration, had ordered the military to stop the broadcasts in a bid to "restore trust".

Relations between the two Koreas had been at one of their lowest points in years, with Seoul taking a hard line towards Pyongyang, which has drawn ever closer to Moscow in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The previous government started the broadcasts last year in response to a barrage of trash-filled balloons flown southward by Pyongyang.

But Lee vowed to improve relations with the North and reduce tensions on the peninsula.

Despite his diplomatic overtures, the North has rejected pursuing dialogue with its neighbour.

"If the ROK... expected that it could reverse all the results it had made with a few sentimental words, nothing is more serious miscalculation than it," Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said last week using the South's official name.

Lee has said he would seek talks with the North without preconditions, following a deep freeze under his predecessor.

The two countries technically remain at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Washington (AFP) – President Donald Trump confirmed Sunday his special envoy Steve Witkoff will visit Russia in the coming week, ahead of a looming US sanctions deadline and escalating tensions with Moscow.

Speaking to reporters, Trump also said that two nuclear submarines he deployed following an online row with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev were now "in the region."

Trump has not said whether he meant nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines. He also did not elaborate on the exact deployment locations, which are kept secret by the US military.

The nuclear saber-rattling came against the backdrop of a deadline set by Trump at the end of next week for Russia to take steps towards ending the Ukraine war or face unspecified new sanctions.

The Republican leader said Witkoff would visit "I think next week, Wednesday or Thursday."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already met Witkoff multiple times in Moscow, before Trump's efforts to mend ties with the Kremlin came to a grinding halt.

When reporters asked what Witkoff's message would be to Moscow, and if there was anything Russia could do to avoid the sanctions, Trump replied: "Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed."

Manila (AFP) – Indian Navy warships have begun patrolling areas of the disputed South China Sea with their Philippine counterparts for the first time, Manila's military said Monday, as President Ferdinand Marcos departed for a state visit to New Delhi.

The two-day sail includes three Indian vessels and started Sunday, a day before Marcos left on a trip that will include talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Philippines has heightened defence cooperation with a range of allies over the past year after a series of clashes in the South China Sea.

Beijing claims nearly the entirety of the waterway despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

India's naval vessels, including the guided missile destroyer INS Delhi, arrived in Manila for a port visit late last week.

The patrol "started yesterday afternoon, then it's ongoing up to this moment... the activity at the moment is replenishment at sea," Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Salgado told AFP.

While in India, Marcos is expected to sign pacts in such fields as law, culture and technology, according to Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Evangeline Ong Jimenez-Ducrocq, but all eyes will be on any potential defence agreements.

Before departing Monday, Marcos praised the two countries' "steadfastness in upholding international maritime law, including the UNCLOS", the UN treaty granting an exclusive economic zone within 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) of a country's shores.

The Philippines has previously purchased BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles from India, a weapon which has a top speed of 3,450 kilometres (2,140 miles) per hour.

India, which has engaged in border clashes with China in the Himalayas, is a member of the so-called Quad, a group that includes fellow democracies the United States, Japan and Australia.

Beijing has repeatedly alleged that the four-way partnership, first conceived by late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, was created as a way of containing China.

Wellington (AFP) – New Zealand's former deputy police commissioner lost the right to anonymity Monday after he was charged with possessing child sexual exploitation and bestiality material.

Jevon McSkimming was arrested in June and charged with eight counts of possessing objectionable material, but the courts had prevented media from reporting his name or other details of the case.

Appearing in Wellington District Court on Monday, McSkimming opted not to seek an extension of the suppression order.

His lawyer, Letizea Ord, told Judge Tim Black "there is not a further application in respect of name suppression. It's accepted that it can lapse today".

He is yet to enter a plea.

Asked as he left court if he had a message for the public, McSkimming said: "No".

The 52-year-old is alleged to have possessed child exploitation and bestiality material between specific dates.

One of the charges states the offenses happened between July 2020 and December 2024.

McSkimming was suspended from his job on full pay in December 2024, when an investigation into his conduct was launched.

Details of those allegations cannot be reported.

He was on leave for six months before his resignation in May.

Judge Black remanded McSkimming on bail, and he will reappear before the court in November.

New Zealand's police commissioner, Richard Chambers, has refused to speak to the media, other than a statement in May acknowledging McSkimming's resignation.

Chambers beat McSkimming to win the police commissioner role in November 2024. A month later, McSkimming was put on leave.

In an email last month to police staff, reported by Radio New Zealand, Chambers said he was aware people felt "angry and feel let down".

"I feel the same," Chambers said.

Minister of Police Mark Mitchell has also declined to comment on the case, but has expressed concern about the reputational damage it could cause.

"I hope that the public see through and realise that we have got an outstanding police force, we've got incredible police officers," Mitchell said last month.

"In this case, even though it involves one of our most senior police officers, you've seen that action was taken very quickly to make sure that that public confidence can be maintained."

London (AFP) – British finance firms behind high interest car loans could have to pay out more than nine billion pounds ($12 billion) in compensation despite the country's highest court ruling that most of the controversial deals were lawful, a financial watchdog said Sunday.

The Supreme Court on Friday partially overturned judgments that the loans were unlawful, giving relief to banks which had been bracing for compensation claims from millions of car-buyers.

It did, however, uphold one of the three cases, which allows the claimant to seek compensation.

And in a similar but separate probe, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that the cost of any redress scheme relating to discretionary commission arrangements for car loans would likely be higher than £9 billion.

"While there are plausible scenarios which underpin estimates of a total cost as high as £18 billion, we do not consider those scenarios to be the most likely and analyst estimates in the midpoint of this range are more plausible," the FCA said in a statement.

The FCA estimates that most individuals will probably receive less than £950 in compensation.

The court ruling had given the FCA "clarity... because we have been looking at what is unfair and, prior to this judgment, there were different interpretations of the law coming from different courts," it said.

"It is clear that some firms have broken the law and our rules. It's fair for their customers to be compensated," said Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA.

The Supreme Court decision mostly overturned Court of Appeal rulings last year that it was unlawful for car dealers to receive a commission on loans without sufficiently informing borrowers.

In some cases, the loans -- available from 2007 -- allowed car dealers to offer higher interest rates in return for a bigger commission from banks.

The ruling means that dealers have some leeway when arranging loans, without requiring explicit consent from borrowers for terms that may benefit lenders.

The case that was upheld involved Marcus Johnson, who in 2017 bought a Suzuki Swift from a car dealer in Cardiff for £6,500 including loan costs -- unaware that interest on the loan amount would fund a commission of more than £1,600.

When the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Johnson, ordering FirstRand Bank, a South African based lender, to refund the commission plus interest, it sparked panic across the finance sector.

That ruling was upheld by the top court due to the high level of commission Johnson was charged and the complexity of the contract setting out the fee, which limits the scope of other compensation claims.

HSBC bank analysts had suggested before the trial that the total cost to the banking sector could have reached £44 billion.

Moscow (AFP) – A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at an oil depot in Sochi, the Russian resort that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympic which is 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the Ukrainian border, authorities said Sunday.

Ukraine has regularly hit Russian oil and gas infrastructure in response to attacks on its own territory since Russia began its offensive in February 2022.

"Sochi suffered a drone attack by the Kyiv regime last night," the governor of Russia's Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratiev, said on Telegram.

He said drone wreckage hit an "oil tank, which caused a fire" during the nighttime attack.

Sochi's mayor, Andrei Proshunin, said there were no victims and that the fire was put out several hours later.

Images, broadcast by Russian media but whose authenticity AFP could not verify, showed flames and thick plumes of black smoke rising from the site.

Air traffic was briefly suspended at Sochi airport, Russia's air transport regulator Rosaviatsia said.

Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the fire.

Air strikes on Sochi are relatively rare compared to some other Russian cities.

However, Ukrainian drone attacks killed two people there late last month, according to local authorities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that the two sides were preparing a prisoner exchange that would see 1,200 Ukrainian troops return home, following talks with Russia in Istanbul in July.

Kyiv has said it will intensify its air strikes against Russia in response to an increase in Russian attacks on its territory in recent weeks, which have killed dozens of civilians.

The Russian defence ministry said meanwhile that three Ukrainian drones had been intercepted in the Leningrad region, which includes the Baltic port of Saint Petersburg.

Overnight strikes by Russia inside Ukraine also left several people injured, authorities said.

One missile wounded seven people in a residential district of Mykolaiv, a city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.

Three other people were injured in the northeastern Kharkiv region, she added, while authorities also reported injuries in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in the south.

"The Russians continue to wage war not against Ukrainian forces, but against Ukrainian civilians," Svyrydenko said.

Last week, US President Donald Trump gave his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a 10-day ultimatum, until next Friday, to end the conflict in Ukraine.

The air strikes and fighting have not abated, however, and the Kremlin has rejected the idea of a lasting ceasefire in Ukraine, which it sees as a gift to Kyiv's troops.

Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Thousands of Palestinians protested in the occupied West Bank's major cities Sunday against the war in Gaza and in support of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

One of the largest marches took place in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority located just north of Jerusalem, with hundreds gathering at the main square, waving Palestinian flags.

Many protesters carried photos of Palestinians killed or imprisoned by Israel, as well as photos depicting the hunger crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where UN-backed experts have warned that a "famine is unfolding".

"My son is in (Israel's) Megido prison and he suffers from many things, such as the lack of medicine the lack of food," Rula Ghanem, a Palestinian academic and writer who took part in the march, told AFP.

She told AFP that her son had lost 10 kilograms and suffered from scabies in jail.

The number of Palestinians jailed by Israel skyrocketed after the start of the war in Gaza, some for violent acts, but some also for posting political statements on social media, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees' and Ex-Detainees' Affairs says.

The commission's spokesman Thaer Shriteh told AFP: "The international community is a partner in all this suffering, as long as it does not intervene quickly to save the Palestinian people and save the prisoners inside the prisons and detention centre."

A group of protesters dressed as skeletons and carried dolls around to symbolise the Gaza war's dire effect on children, who are most at risk of malnutrition.

Israel has heavily restricted the entry of aid into Gaza, which was already under blockade for 15 years before the war began.

UN agencies, humanitarian groups and analysts say that much of the trickle of food aid that Israel allows in is looted or diverted in chaotic circumstances.

"We hope that our stand today will have an impact in supporting our people in Gaza and the hungry children in Gaza," said 39-year-old Tagreed Ziada, one of the protesters at the Ramallah march.

Protests were held Sunday in other major Palestinian cities such as Nablus in the north and Hebron in the south, with many government employees receiving a day off to attend the demonstrations.

While there have been somewhat regular demonstrations against the war in Gaza, they are rarely coordinated across various cities in the West Bank.