Category Archives: World News

‘We must slow the pace’: CEO of Anthropic calls for an AI slowdown

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In a social media post, Dario Amodei proposed a plan including third-party evaluations of AI systems

The CEO of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic issued a new appeal on Saturday for the AI industry to “slow down” and offered a three-part plan for doing so, saying that his company would “unilaterally” commit to the first of the steps.

In a post on social media, Dario Amodei shared a link to an essay titled We Must Pace the Frontier in which he laid out how Anthropic would provide “third-party evaluators with permanent, employee-level access to our systems, so that they can verify adherence to our safety measures, report on incidents, and assess models’ alignment during training”.

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Six Nigerians extradited to US over $6m online romance scam

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Alleged members of Black Axe criminal network that swindled US women out of $6m flown from South Africa

Six Nigerian nationals linked to an organized criminal network that allegedly swindled American women out of more than $6m through online romance scams were extradited to the United States on Friday.

South African police confirmed they were to be extradited earlier on Friday, while local news in Africa confirmed that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks, facilitated their handover to officials from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Secret Service at Cape Town international airport, in collaboration with Interpol South Africa.

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IDF soldier filmed shooting Palestinian in leg amid West Bank settler standoff

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Incident is latest to raise questions over Israel’s ability or willingness to stop violent settlers in occupied territory

An Israeli soldier has shot a Palestinian man, wounding him in the leg, as settlers confronted villagers by grazing livestock on Palestinian-owned land in the town of Faqqua in the occupied West Bank.

Witnesses said a group of settlers had entered the area with their livestock, prompting residents to try to stop them. Israeli forces then intervened and, according to men at the scene, opened fire at residents. One of them shot Qassem Hussam, a Palestinian man in his mid-30s, wounding him in the leg.

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Xi Jinping gets red carpet at Brics summit amid thaw in India-China relations

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Chinese president’s arrival in Delhi seen as step towards reconciliation after deadly 2020 military clash

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has received a red-carpet welcome in India for a summit of Brics developing nations, as regional rivals Beijing and Delhi make a public display of thawing relations while quietly competing to lead at a time of shaky US global dominance.

As Xi stepped off the plane, he was walked past an honour guard of Indian soldiers and traditional dancers in colourful dresses. Later on Saturday, he was due to attend a gala dinner for the two-day summit.

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Sweden’s extremely close election could see far right enter government

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Latest poll shows 0.3-point gap between left and right blocs, with country’s reputation as global champion of human rights said to be at stake

Sweden goes to the polls on Sunday in an extremely close election that could see the far right enter government for the first time if the country’s rightwing parties can form a majority.

Opinion polls show the centre-left opposition alliance ahead, with Magdalena ⁠Andersson of the Social Democrats the favourite to become prime minister again after four years in opposition, but her bloc’s lead has narrowed considerably in the final days of the campaign.

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Nearly 50,000 Yemeni civilians flee as Houthis advance along Red Sea coast

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Global struggle for control of Bab al-Mandab strait threatens to turn Yemen’s on-off conflict into a forever war

Nearly 50,000 people have fled a sudden advance by Houthi forces in western Yemen, with entire villages emptied and families trapped near frontline fighting with depleting food supplies, according to aid workers.

Civilians in the Middle East’s poorest country have found themselves victims of a global struggle for control over one of the most important shipping routes in the world, which threatens to turn Yemen’s on-off conflict into a forever war.

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Firewall compromised: has Friedrich Merz blown ‘democracy’s last shot’?

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Many fear chancellor is wrong man for the job at a time when Germany’s defences against far right are crumbling

A cataclysm. A 9.0 earthquake. A five-alarm fire. A bitter rejection of Germany’s joyous reunification three decades ago, and a threat to the democratic postwar order.

Sizing up the repercussions of last weekend’s win for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party in the former communist state of Saxony-Anhalt, German commentators expressed a sense of doom, panic and helplessness in the political establishment.

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CIA releases dozens of presidential daily briefs on Bin Laden and al-Qaida from before 9/11

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The presidential briefing documents were declassified on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks

Several dozen presidential briefing documents declassified on Friday, the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, detail intelligence that government officials had gathered about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida leading up to the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people and upended American national security.

The documents illustrate security analysts’ tracking of Bin Laden’s movements and support system, as well as concerns about possible threats to US targets. They also detail officials’ understanding of his network in the United States and other countries, including how his operations were financed.

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Iran’s Houthi allies capture strategic island on vital oil shipping route

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Rampant Yemeni fighters take control of island in narrow point of Bab al-Mandab strait, which Saudi is relying on for oil exports

Yemen’s rampant Houthi forces have captured the strategic island of Perim in the Bab al-Mandab strait, expanding their control of the narrow waterway, one of the ​world’s vital shipping routes.

The Iran-aligned Houthis took control of the volcanic island after forces allied to the UN-backed, Aden-based government left in the latest of a dramatic series of reverses along Yemen’s west coast in recent days, including the loss of the port city of Mocha on Thursday.

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Céline Dion sparks mass karaoke and power-ballad fever with return to stage in Paris

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Fans from around the world gather for star’s long-awaited performances after break because of neurological condition

More than 30,000 Céline Dion fans have gathered in Paris for the Canadian singer’s long-awaited return to performing on Saturday night, four years after she revealed her diagnosis of stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological condition.

Thousands more people without tickets have flocked to a series of giant karaoke events across France to belt out Dion’s famous power ballads, in celebration of the star’s health stabilising enough for her to return to the stage.

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$15m fund launched to create ‘unstoppable momentum’ to end FGM worldwide

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Her Horizon Fund seeks $100m to stop practice harming 230m women and girls globally

Frontline activists and leaders in the fight against female genital mutilation, which has affected more than 230 million women and girls worldwide, have welcomed an unprecedented $15.5m (£11.4m) fund aimed at creating “unstoppable momentum” to finally end the practice.

The launch of the fund comes as women’s rights are increasingly under attack and donor funding is in sharp decline, particularly for work led by FGM survivors in local communities. It is thought to be the largest single philanthropic contribution to ending the practice of FGM.

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Canada offers air defense support for Ukraine as Zelenskyy visits

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Canadian PM Mark Carney hosts president in Calgary, where he grew up alongside large Ukrainian community

Canada offered support on Thursday to boost Ukraine’s air defenses and help replenish its drone stocks, as the countries pledged to deepen their alliance during a visit by Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Mark Carney hosted the president of Ukraine in Calgary in the western province of Alberta, where the Canadian prime minister grew up among a large community of people with Ukrainian heritage.

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Orthodox church sends medieval prince’s remains to Russian troops in Ukraine

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Part of Dmitry Donskoy’s right hand sent to ‘spiritually strengthen’ soldiers

The Russian Orthodox church has sent a fragment of a medieval warrior prince’s remains to troops fighting in Ukraine, saying the relic would “spiritually strengthen” soldiers and help them achieve victory.

A reliquary containing part of the right hand of Dmitry Donskoy, the 14th-century prince revered in Russia for his victory over the Mongolian Golden Horde in 1380, has been taken to Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine and is now being transported along the frontline.

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Much of Europe already levies a tourist tax – a nice little earner for Italian hotspots

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While England makes its first foray into unfamiliar territory, it’s proved a boon for Italy’s cash-strapped municipalities

A nightly tourist tax may be unfamiliar territory in the UK, but countries in continental Europe have been cashing in on these kinds of levies for decades.

Tourists usually need to pay the tax on the day they check out of a hotel or holiday let, and are often surprised by an extra fee on top of their accommodation costs.

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Japan seeks change to new UN world map over Russia ‘misconception’

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The new ‘true-scale’ map shrinks Europe and North America while enlarging Africa – and depicts the disputed Kuril islands as ruled by Moscow

Japan has asked for the revision of a new world map adopted by the UN because it said it made the disputed Kuril islands appear to belong to Russia.

The UN general assembly voted on Friday to adopt the new map, which makes the African continent larger while also shrinking North America and Europe, drawing condemnation from the US.

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Houthis seize key Yemeni port of Mocha in drive to take control of Red Sea coast

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Iran and its proxies move closer to full control of two shipping chokepoints as regional conflict widens

Houthi forces in Yemen are making a concerted drive to take over the country’s Red Sea coast fully, claiming control of the key port of Mocha in the most serious wave of fighting with the Saudi-backed government in years, bringing the Iran-aligned group closer to full control of a key shipping route.

Seizure of the coast and some of the islands in the sea would be a strategic disaster for Saudi Arabia and the US, taking Iran and its proxies closer to full control of two choke points for western shipping on opposite sides of the Arabian peninsula: the Bab al-Mandab at the southern end of the Red Sea and the strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.

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Tens of millions of people fail to get humanitarian aid as global system crumbles

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Funding cuts in 2025 left women, children, older and displaced people hard hit, with 64m fewer people receiving aid

The humanitarian aid system is crumbling as funding shrinks, pressures increase and governments not only fail to protect civilians but are increasingly responsible for endangering them, a new report warned on Thursday as figures revealed 64 million fewer people received aid last year.

With aid contributions cut by 30% between 2022 and 2025 and thousands of aid workers losing their jobs, the humanitarian system has suffered one of its biggest contractions since being formed in the post-second world war era, according to the State of the Humanitarian System 2026 report.

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Rubio says US will work with allies to stop drug-trafficking as three killed in latest boat strike

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Rubio visits Ecuador and welcomes cooperation after campaign of unilateral strikes on alleged ‘narco-terrorists’

US secretary of state Marco Rubio gave new clarity on the approach toward combating drug trafficking in Latin American waters, saying the Trump administration was focused on working with allied countries and aligning with their laws but insisting the military will “still blow up ships if need be.”

The public acknowledgment of a shift in US strategy comes a year after Washington began a campaign of unilateral deadly strikes against those it calls “narco-terrorists” operating boats in international waters.

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Notorious Ecuadorian crime gang designated a terrorist group by US

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Trump administration to seek extra funding from Congress to ‘dismantle’ Los Tiguerones over narcotics trafficking

The US has designated Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones gang, which stormed a television station during a live broadcast in 2024, as a terrorist organisation as the Trump administration expands its campaign against narcotics traffickers it says are destabilising Latin America.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made the announcement in Quito, where he met Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa, one of several rightwing allies of Donald Trump whom Rubio is courting as a security partner during a three-nation tour through Latin America that began on Tuesday.

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Uganda to withdraw from Invictus Games ‘out of respect for King Charles’, says military chief

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Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba announces decision to pull out in post on X, citing tensions over ‘Harry-Meghan nonsense’

Uganda is withdrawing from the Duke of Sussex’s Invictus Games, the country’s military chief has said, out of respect for King Charles amid division over the “Harry-Meghan nonsense”.

Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of the Ugandan president, made the surprise announcement in a post on X on Wednesday.

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