Category Archives: World News

Hamburg man charged with murder over US teen’s livestreamed death

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German authorities issue 204 charges against 21-year-old suspect, alleged to be part of wider network of abusers

A man accused of luring children worldwide into a sadistic online abuse network has been charged by German prosecutors with hundreds of crimes, including murder, for the livestreamed death of a 13-year-old American.

Using the pseudonym “White Tiger”, the 21-year-old man from Hamburg is alleged to have victimised more than 30 children with online sexual abuse, manipulation and exploitation as a part of a virtual network of abusers known as “764”.

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Canadian man fined for submitting AI hallucinations as part of legal defense

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Jean Laprade ordered to pay $3,500 in legal saga of ‘hijacked planes’, Interpol red alerts and ‘inappropriate use’ of AI

A Quebec man has been ordered to pay C$5,000 (US$3,562) for submitting artificial intelligence hallucinations as part of his legal defense, a move the judge warned was “highly reprehensible” and threatened to undermine integrity in the legal system.

Justice Luc Morin of Quebec superior court levied the fine on Jean Laprade in a decision released on 1 October, capping a legal saga the judge said “contains several elements worthy of a successful movie script”, including a “hijacked plane passing through several complacent airports”, Interpol red alerts and the “inappropriate use of artificial intelligence” by Laprade.

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Australian tropical rainforest trees switch in world first from carbon sink to emissions source

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Researchers say carbon emissions change in Queensland tropical rainforests may have global climate implications

Australian tropical rainforest trees have become the first in the world to switch from being a carbon sink to an emissions source due to increasingly extreme temperatures and drier conditions.

The change, which applies to the trees’ trunks and branches but not the roots system, began about 25 years ago, according to new research published in Nature.

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Syrian president in first visit to Moscow as former enemies hold talks

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Ahmed al-Sharaa in effort to diversify alliances while Putin seeks to safeguard military interests in Syria

The Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, travelled to Moscow on Wednesday for talks with Vladimir Putin, marking their first meeting since the fall of the Kremlin ally Bashar al-Assad and his subsequent exile in Russia.

The talks underscored Moscow’s efforts to safeguard its military foothold in Syria and forge relations with the new rulers in Damascus, with both sides taking a pragmatic approach despite having been enemies only a year ago.

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Dozens killed in fresh clashes along Afghanistan-Pakistan border

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Two sides declare ceasefire after Islamabad carries out retaliatory strikes on Kabul and Kandahar province

Dozens of soldiers and civilians have been killed after fresh clashes broke out along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and Islamabad carried out retaliatory airstrikes on the Afghan capital, Kabul, and Kandahar province.

The two sides declared a ceasefire by Wednesday night after the latest outbreak of violence, which came after the deadliest cross-border clashes in years over the weekend.

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France’s parliamentary permacrisis is the dawning of a new political reality

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Sébastien Lecornu may have lived to see another day, but this crise de régime could yet prove terminal for the Fifth Republic

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In October 2022, when Rishi Sunak moved into 10 Downing St, he became the fifth British prime minister to take up the office in six years.

Unleashed on the UK by Brexit, this was unprecedented political turmoil. So how might we describe what is happening in France, now on its fifth (or sixth, depending how you count) premier in two years – three of them in the past 10 months?

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German coalition in row over push to bring back conscription

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Parties blame each other after bill halted at last minute, as fears grow over voluntary service and lottery idea is vetoed

Germany’s ruling coalition is locked in a furious row over how to plug severe manpower gaps in the country’s military as it seeks to fulfil Nato obligations and prepare for the looming threat from Russia.

A scheme agreed by the governing parties over the summer under a plan laid out by the popular defence minister, Boris Pistorius of the Social Democrats (SPD), would have relied on voluntary recruitment to draw tens of thousands of young men to military service.

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Raila Odinga, towering Kenyan opposition figure, dies aged 80

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Odinga, who ran five times for presidency and had profound influence on Kenyan politics, has died in India

The veteran Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, who ran five times for the presidency and had a profound influence on the country’s politics, has died aged 80 in India.

Odinga was in the southern city of Kochi for treatment. The Press Trust of India news agency reported that he had a cardiac arrest during a morning walk.

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Shein warns on Trump tariff uncertainty after profits slip

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Fast-fashion retailer records 20% growth in sales and fees to $37bn but big hit is expected from US changes to import tax rules

Shein has reported a 20% rise in global revenues to $37bn (£27.7bn) but profits have fallen as the fast-fashion retailer faced increased costs, even before it felt the impact of recent changes to US tax laws.

The Singaporean parent company of the rapidly growing retailer said pre-tax profits had fallen by 13% to $1.3bn last year from $1.5bn in 2023 after an increase in selling and marketing costs, according to new accounts.

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‘Catholicism is reinventing itself’: Brazilians waking at 4am to stream prayers

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Habit of rising early for live streams growing rapidly, suggesting Brazil is testing ground for religious influencers

Psychologist Cláudia Rodrigues de Oliveira Barbosa, 54, needs to be at work by 7.40am, but she wakes up at 3.40am – not because she has a lengthy commute, but to watch a “dawn prayer” livestream on YouTube.

She is one of the millions of Brazilians who tune in to the 4am sermons of Catholic friar Gilson da Silva Pupo Azevedo, 38, known as Frei Gilson, who has recently averaged an impressive 2m daily views for each video.

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Thousands trapped in El Fasher siege on ‘edge of survival’, says report

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The city – the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in the west of the country – has withstood more than 500 days of attacks by paramilitary RSF

The besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher has been declared “uninhabitable” with new data indicating most homes are destroyed and critical levels of malnourishment among people trapped there.

The stark assessment comes as the city endures constant artillery and drone attacks, shoehorning its 250,000 starving people into a shrinking urban enclave.

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Exiled Hong Hong dissidents say UK plan to restart extraditions puts them in danger

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Legislative change comes five years after treaty suspended in response to city’s crackdown on pro-democracy activists

Exiled Hong Kong dissidents say they fear UK government plans to restart some extraditions with the city could put them in greater danger, saying Hong Kong authorities will use any pretext to pursue them.

An amendment to UK extradition laws was passed on Tuesday. It came more than five years after the UK and several other countries suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong in response to the government crackdown on the pro-democracy movement, and its imposition of a Beijing-designed national security law.

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Plantwatch: An extraordinary orchid that lives and flowers underground

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Botanist trying to conserve highly vulnerable rhizanthella that survives by feeding on nutrients from a fungus

Rhizanthella is an extraordinary orchid that lives its entire life underground. It flowers below ground, has no leaves and survives by feeding on nutrients from a fungus that gets its food from the soil and by connecting with roots of the broom bush, Melaleuca uncinata.

Rhizanthella was an international sensation when it was first discovered by a farmer ploughing a field in Western Australia in 1928. It still remains incredibly difficult to find, usually by searching areas with the right habitat and carefully scraping away soil searching for the blooms buried underneath – tiny reddish flowers wrapped in creamy-pink bracts. The blooms also have a heady scent of vanilla, and may be pollinated by termites or tiny flies.

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Border failings in Europe are eroding trust in nation states, warns Mahmood

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Home secretary to tell meeting of interior ministers that international cooperation is way to curb irregular migration

The failure to bring order to European borders is eroding trust in politicians and the concept of nation states, Shabana Mahmood will warn.

As she hosts a meeting of fellow interior ministers to discuss migration routes through the western Balkans on Tuesday, the home secretary will say that international cooperation is the way to curb irregular migration.

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Trump says six were killed in US strike on another boat allegedly carrying drugs near Venezuela

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UN has condemned US strikes on small boats it believes to be trafficking drugs as extrajudicial executions

Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States has struck another small boat that he accuses of carrying drugs in waters off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people aboard.

“The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social social media platform. “No U.S. Forces were harmed.”

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Trump says Hamas will be forced to disarm or ‘we will disarm them’

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US president says it should take place in a ‘reasonable period of time’ amid questions over group’s status

Donald Trump has said that Hamas will be forced to disarm after questions swirled around the group’s status following the signing of a peace deal meant to bring an end to the war in Gaza.

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Trump said: “If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them and it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.

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Cameroon opposition leader declares victory in presidential election

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Issa Tchiroma Bakary calls on 92-year-old president to accept end of reign, although results have yet to be released

The Cameroonian opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary has declared himself the winner of the 12 October presidential election and called on the incumbent, Paul Biya, to accept the end of his 43-year rule.

“Our victory is clear, it must be respected,” Tchiroma said in a video statement on Facebook with the national flag in the background, before directly addressing 92-year-old Biya: “We call on the regime in power to show greatness and to honour the truth of the ballot box with a long-awaited gesture: that phone call of congratulations, which will demonstrate the political maturity of our nation and the future strength of our democracy.”

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US revokes visas of at least 50 Mexican officials in Trump’s drug cartel crackdown

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The administration’s sweeping visa cancellations extend to Mexico’s political elite, alarming allies and rivals alike

The US government has revoked the visas of at least 50 politicians and government officials in Mexico amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug cartels and their suspected political allies, according to two Mexican officials.

The move has sent quiet shock waves through Mexico’s political elite, who regularly travel to the US. It also marks a significant broadening of US anti-narcotics action, with the Trump administration targeting active politicians usually seen as too diplomatically sensitive.

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China says it will ‘fight to end’ after US said it was trying to hurt world economy

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Commerce ministry says US is ‘threatening to intimidate’ with plans for new Trump tariffs on exports

China has hit back at accusations from the US that it is trying to hurt the world economy, as the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies appeared to re-escalate, amped up by aggressive rhetoric on both sides.

China’s commerce ministry said on Tuesday that the US was “threatening to intimidate” with the prospect of new tariffs on Chinese exports, “which is not the right way to get along with China”. Its spokesperson said that China would “fight to the end” in trade talks.

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Three police officers killed in Italy after explosion at house during eviction

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Two men and one woman arrested after explosion in Castel d’Azzano, which police believe to have been intentional

An explosion at a farmhouse near Verona killed three police officers and injured at least 13 others, officials said on Tuesday.

Police were attempting to conduct an eviction when the house blew up overnight in Castel d’Azzano, in northern Italy, in what is suspected to be an intentional act of violence.

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