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(LONDON) — Heavy machinery is tearing through what locals are calling “wet wipe island,” an 820-foot shoreline of flushed bathroom debris that has transformed a stretch of London’s Thames River into an environmental nightmare.

The clean-up near Hammersmith Bridge in West London represents the United Kingdom’s first attempt to mechanically remove wet wipes from a river and, over the next month, excavators will extract an estimated 180 tons of congealed waste — equivalent to the weight of 15 double-decker buses spread across an area the size of two tennis courts.

“We’re doing the first mass removal of wet wipes that’s ever taken place in the country,” Emily McLean, senior technical advisor for the Port of London Authority, which is coordinating the operation, told ABC News.

The mechanical intervention comes after nearly a decade of volunteers painstakingly collecting wet wipes by hand. Thames21, an environmental charity, has documented the problem since 2017, with volunteers removing 140,000 individual wipes while mapping the contamination’s spread.

“It’s a validation of eight years of work,” said Ann Willard Sullivan, a Thames21 volunteer who leads cleanup efforts in the area. “It’s a sign that there can be big change, don’t give up.”

The volunteer data proved crucial in convincing authorities to act and, what started as citizen science, became the foundation for both this cleanup and potential broader policy changes down the line.

The Thames’ 23-foot tidal range creates a narrow window for the cleanup work meaning excavators can only operate during a four-hour window around low tide when the debris becomes accessible.

McLean said that engineers are using a “rake and shake” method to separate wet wipes from river sediment, ensuring that essential materials for the Thames ecosystem remain on the riverbed while removing only the contamination.

“We’re removing that contaminated layer while retaining as much of the foreshore as we can,” explained Grace Rawnsley, sustainability director for the Port of London Authority.

The cleanup represents the latest chapter in the clean-up of the Thames after it was declared “biologically dead” by the Natural History Museum in 1957.

“This is a huge moment — after years of campaigning, wet wipe island hopefully is no more!” said Fleur Anderson, the MP for Putney, Southfields, Roehampton and Wandsworth Town. “The ban I’ve introduced will mean 3.8 billion wipes removed from the network every year. A win for our waters, sewers and environment!”

Now, nearly 70 years later, it supports 125 different fish species and serves as a nursery for five types of sharks, according to the Zoological Society of London.

Wet wipes, however, have recently threatened this recovery, with the plastic-laden debris breaking down into microplastics that clog digestive systems of fish and disrupt feeding patterns, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Recent scientific research indicates that an estimated 70% of Thames flounder contain plastic fibers in their stomachs.

“They get stuck in fish stomachs,” McLean said. “So, we really think that by removing them, we’re taking out those contaminants, and that will help the water quality.”

The Hammersmith cleanup coincides with Britain’s groundbreaking approach to wet wipe pollution when, in April 2024, the U.K. government announced plans to ban plastic-containing wet wipes, with implementation expected by 2026.

The legislation followed massive public support, with 95% of respondents to a recent survey backing the ban.

Currently, Britons use approximately 11 billion wet wipes annually, with an estimated 2.5 billion flushed down toilets, according to Thames21.

Thames Water says that it spends £18 million ($24 million) yearly removing 3.8 billion wipes from London’s sewage system alone, costs that are ultimately passed to consumers through higher water bills.

The wet wipe issue extends far beyond the Thames, however, with water companies across the U.K. collectively spend £100 million ($135 million) annually clearing 300,000 sewer blockages, with 93% caused by flushed wipes, according to an October 2021 research report from United Utilities.

“These wet wipes should never be entering into the river,” Felicity Rhodes, Thames program manager at Thames21, told ABC News.

The charity advocates for a “multi-stakeholder approach” involving manufacturers, water companies, government regulation and consumer behavior change.

The Port of London Authority estimates the monthlong operation will cost “hundreds of thousands” of pounds, a fraction of the ongoing costs of wet wipe pollution.

For the rowers gliding past the cleanup site, the mechanical intervention represents both an end and a beginning: the removal of London’s most embarrassing landmark and a step toward the Thames that millions of Londoners want their river to become.

ABC News’ Maggie Rulli and Charlotte Gardiner contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — The last remaining churches in Gaza will not evacuate amid Israel’s ramped-up military action and threats to destroy Gaza City, saying the clergy and nuns have decided they will “remain and continue to care for all those who will be in the compounds,” the churches said in a joint statement to the Israel Defense Forces.

Hundreds of civilians — including women, children and elderly — have been seeking refuge in the Greek Orthodox compound of Saint Porphyrius and the Holy Family compound since the outbreak of the war and the Latin compound has been hosting people with disabilities who have been under the care of the Sisters Missionaries of Charity for many years, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement Tuesday.

“Like other residents of Gaza City, the refugees living in the facilities will have to decide according to their conscience what they will do. Among those who have sought shelter within the walls of the compounds, many are weakened and malnourished due to the hardships of the last months. Leaving Gaza City and trying to flee to the south would be nothing less than a death sentence. For this reason, the clergy and nuns have decided to remain and continue to care for all those who will be in the compounds,” the churches said.

Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Gaza City could “turn into Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” areas that were destroyed earlier in the war, unless Hamas agrees to Israel’s terms for a ceasefire.

This came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would approve the IDF’s plan to seize Gaza City.

The churches criticized Israel’s plans surrounding its decision to take control of Gaza City, saying, “There can be no future based on captivity, displacement of Palestinians or revenge.”

“We echo what Pope Leo XIV said a few days ago: ‘All peoples, even the smallest and weakest, must be respected by the powerful in their identity and rights, especially the right to live in their own lands; and no one can force them into exile,'” the churches said.

The churches called for an end to the war and the “spiral of violence.”

“There has been enough devastation, in the territories and in people’s lives. There is no reason to justify keeping civilians as prisoners and hostages in dramatic conditions. It is now time for the healing of the long-suffering families on all sides,” the churches said.

Israel began the first stages of its attack on Gaza City last week, calling up 50,000 to 60,000 reservists for the operation to occupy the city, according to IDF spokesman Eddie Defrin and an Israeli military official.

Mass protests against the military action on Gaza were seen across Israel on Tuesday, with protesters demanding the Israeli government get a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would secure the release of the remaining hostage held there.

Israel is also facing criticism for Monday’s attack on a hospital in Khan Younis that killed five journalists and 15 medical workers, according to their media organizations and the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

Netanyahu called the attack a “tragic mishap.”

The IDF released an initial report on Tuesday, which concludes that “six of the individuals killed were terrorists, one of whom took part in the infiltration into Israeli territory on October 7th.”

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(LONDON) — An 18th-century portrait stolen by the Nazis during WWII is believed to have resurfaced in the most unexpected place: hanging above a sofa in a coastal Argentinian home and discovered not by law enforcement or a museum, but spotted in a photo on a real estate website.

The painting, “Portrait of a Lady” by Italian baroque artist Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi, belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Dutch-Jewish art dealer whose collection of more than 1,100 works was seized after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. Senior Nazi officials, including Hermann Göring, acquired hundreds of pieces, according to the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE).

The potential discovery is the result of years of work by Dutch daily newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD) investigative journalists Cyril Rosman, Paul Post and Peter Schouten, who have been pursuing the case for nearly a decade.

Rosman said the team began tracing Friedrich Kadgien, Göring’s financial adviser and close confidant, several years ago.

“Kadgien escaped to South America at the end of the war,” Rosman told ABC News. “We knew from archival documents that he brought diamonds, jewelry, and two stolen paintings with him. We’ve spent years trying to piece together his life here and where those paintings ended up.”

Kadgien died in Buenos Aires in 1978. His two daughters inherited properties in Mar del Plata, where the investigation eventually led the AD journalists.

After years of dead ends, the AD team resolved to make one final attempt. They sent Peter Schouten, AD’s correspondent in Argentina, to visit the property.

“I rang the bell. Nobody answered but we saw movement inside,” Schouten recalled. “Then we noticed a ‘For Sale’ sign in the garden.”

Back at his hotel, Schouten looked up the property listing together with his husband, a producer for international media who often assists in his investigations.

“We were scrolling through the photos when my husband suddenly said, ‘Look, isn’t that the painting?’” Schouten said. “I told him, ‘No, that can’t be true. The Dutch government has been looking for this painting for 80 years … it can’t just be hanging above a sofa in Mar del Plata.’ But there it was.”

Rosman, reviewing the same images from the Netherlands, had the same reaction.

“I was scrolling through the listing, looking for photos of the father or maybe some old documents,” Rosman said. “I didn’t expect to find one of the paintings we’d been searching for just sitting there in the living room. It was surreal.”

AD immediately sent the images to the RCE, which maintains official records of Nazi-looted art. Annalies Kool, a provenance researcher at RCE, told ABC News that the agency is “almost certain” the painting is the missing “Portrait of a Lady” but cannot 100% confirm it without examining the work in person.

“According to post-war declaration forms, we know that Kadgien possessed this painting,” Kool said. “Given that he fled to Argentina after the war and we now see it hanging in the living room of his daughters, we assume it has remained within the family for the past 80 years.”

Kool explained that the RCE cross-referenced the photo with the original wartime records. “The measurements match, the composition matches, and visually it aligns with the archival images,” she said. “But we would need to examine the back of the painting to confirm. There could be labels or marks proving it came from the Goudstikker collection.”

However, AD didn’t rely solely on the real estate listing photos to identify the painting. “We obtained additional images from inside the house from a separate source,” Schouten confirmed. “That gave us the second verification we needed before publishing.”

AD said they repeatedly attempted to speak with Kadgien’s daughters via email, Instagram, and WhatsApp. “After weeks, one of them finally responded,” Schouten said. “She asked what we wanted, said she was busy, and then blocked us.”

Shortly afterward, the listing real estate agency, Robles Casas y Campos, removed the photos showing the painting, as well as the entire listing itself.

Goudstikker’s heirs are represented by U.S. attorneys Yael Friedman and Amelia Cuneo of Friedman, Norman & Friedland, LLP. Friedman confirmed to ABC News that their client, Marei von Saher, Goudstikker’s 81-year-old daughter-in-law and sole heir, intends to pursue a formal restitution claim for “Portrait of a Lady.”

“Our client does intend to make a claim,” Friedman said. “She is the sole heir of Jacques Goudstikker’s estate and her goal is to recover the artworks that were looted by the Nazis from her father-in-law.”

Kool also said that a second missing painting – a 17th-century floral still life by Dutch artist Abraham Mignon – was listed in Kadgien’s possession in post-war declarations. Investigators believe it appears in a 2012 Facebook photo posted by one of Kadgien’s daughters, though its ownership and provenance remain unclear.

Friedman clarified that their claim will only target the Ghislandi portrait, not the second Mignon painting, because that work was not part of the Goudstikker collection.

“I have been on this quest since the late 1990s. My family’s goal is to locate and recover each and every artwork looted from Jacques Goudstikker’s collection and restore his legacy, von Saher told ABC News in a statement provided through her lawyers.

“This is the kind of case you dream of,” said Arthur Brand, the Dutch art detective often called “the Indiana Jones of the art world.” “A painting stolen in WWII, thought lost for decades, suddenly pops up on a real estate website in Argentina, hanging above a sofa,” Brand said. “You can’t write a better script.”

Brand added that the discovery highlights the unpredictable nature of recovering looted art: “You can find them anywhere – auction catalogues, archives, attics, even real estate listings.”

Rosman believes this case is only the beginning. “Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Nazi fugitives fled to Argentina after the war,” he said. “Who knows how many more looted artworks ended up here, quietly passed down through families?”

Brand agreed: “This case shows something important,” he said. “Thousands of Nazi-looted works are still out there, hanging in living rooms, passed down quietly through families. Argentina was a haven for many who fled Europe after the war – who knows how many masterpieces are still hidden here?”

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