Category Archives: World News

EU plans to impose sanctions on Iran military leaders over drones

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Measures will also target firm that develops drones believed to have been used in Russia’s attacks on Ukraine

The EU plans to impose sanctions on three senior Iranian military commanders and the company that develops drones believed to have been used in Russia’s attacks on Ukraine.

The draft sanctions list, seen by the Guardian, is expected to be agreed within days, indicating EU ministers do not believe Iran’s denials that it has supplied Russia with the low-flying lethal weapons.

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Bolivian gold miners push into national park despite country’s green rhetoric

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Mining co-ops – with oversize influence in the government – are moving into the Amazon’s Madidi national park

The footage is jerky, perhaps shot covertly. It shows a river running through a jungle: on the far side there is still thick forest, but the near bank is a mess of churned earth and muddy tracks – yet more evidence that gold miners have moved into the Madidi, Bolivia’s most famous national park.

Such mining provides a living for hundreds of thousands of people. But as miners push into the Amazon and other protected areas, the Bolivian government’s support of the industry sits awkwardly with its environmentalist rhetoric.

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Severe drought torments British Columbia, a year after devastating floods

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Lack of rainfall takes toll on Canada’s ‘wet coast’ as experts warn of further extreme weather events fueled by climate change

Nearly a year ago, flood waters inundated swaths of south-western British Columbia. Mudslides destroyed sections of highways and swollen, turbid rivers washed away houses and bridges.

Now, the region has the opposite problem: months of drought have begun to take a toll on what was once dubbed Canada’s “wet coast”.

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Reports of teenager dying in Covid quarantine cause outcry in China

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Video of girl struggling to breathe is circulating online, with claims family’s pleas for help were ignored

Reports that a 16-year-old girl has died in a Covid quarantine centre after pleas from her family for medical help were ignored have caused anger in China, where ongoing tight pandemic controls have started to take their toll on a weary population.

Videos of the girl have spread across Chinese social media in the last 24 hours. The distressing footage, which the Guardian has not been able to independently verify, shows the teenager ill, struggling to breathe and convulsing in a bunk bed at what is purported to be a quarantine centre in Ruzhou, Henan province.

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Conviction overturned for man who sent death threats to Jacinda Ardern

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Michael Cruickshank argued he was so drunk he could not remember sending the threats to New Zealand’s prime minister

A man sent to prison for sending death threats to New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has had his conviction overturned.

Michael Cruickshank was sentenced to 12 months in prison in March, for a series of emails in which he made violent threats against Ardern. He argued that he was so drunk he could not remember sending the threats, had no intention of seeing them through, and didn’t intend the recipients to take them seriously. On Wednesday, the court of appeal judged that there had been a miscarriage of justice in the case.

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Australia news live: Victoria on flood alert; Labor announces biggest energy investment since Snowy Hydro

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Communities in Victoria are on high alert with evacuation warnings in place for towns along the river. Follow the latest news

Dave Sharma, the former Liberal MP for Wentworth and former Australian ambassador to Israel, has followed Bowen on ABC Radio.

Sharma has issued the following statement criticising the government on its reversal of the recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel:

Penny Wong has failed to articulate any national interest reason for this change in policy.

In withdrawing recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, she is not only damaging a relationship with a close and trusted partner, but she is at odds with many of Israel’s Arab neighbours, such as the UAE, who are pursuing closer relations with Israel in order to promote regional peace and stability.

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Swedish government scraps country’s pioneering ‘feminist foreign policy’

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New rightwing government said label could be counter-productive for Sweden’s international agenda

Sweden’s new rightwing government has announced it is ditching the country’s pioneering “feminist foreign policy”, launched by the leftwing administration in 2014, saying the label could be counter-productive.

The foreign minister, Tobias Billström, announced the move just moments after the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, presented his new government, backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats for the first time.

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Netflix reverses subscriber decline with help from Stranger Things and Dahmer

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Streaming service adds 2.4m subscribers in past three months to comfortably beat forecasts after ‘challenging’ first half of year

Netflix added 2.4m new subscribers in the last three months, more than twice what had been expected and reversing back-to-back quarters of decline, the company announced on Tuesday.

The streaming company had been expected to add 1m new subscribers over the latest quarter, which included the release of hit shows including the latest series of Stranger Things, Sandman and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

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Russia’s new Ukraine commander signals civilian evacuation from ‘tense’ Kherson

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Sergei Surovikin says Russia’s defence of occupied southern city ‘not easy’ as Ukraine introduces local news blackout

The new commander of Moscow’s army in Ukraine has announced that civilians were being “resettled” from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, describing the military situation as “tense”.

“The enemy continually attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” Sergei Surovikin said in his first televised interview since being appointed earlier this month, adding that the situation was particularly difficult around the occupied southern city of Kherson.

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Saudi Arabia sentences US citizen to 16 years over tweets critical of regime

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Move is another sign of kingdom’s aggressive crackdown on any whiff of dissent posted on social media

An American citizen has been sentenced to 16 years in prison in Saudi Arabia for tweeting critically about the Saudi regime, in another sign of the kingdom’s aggressive crackdown on any whiff of dissent posted on social media.

Saad Ibrahim Almadi, 72, a dual US-Saudi national, was arrested in November 2021 upon landing in Riyadh for what was supposed to be a two-week stay in his native country for a work and personal trip.

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Berlusconi said he received vodka from Putin for birthday, reports say

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La Presse agency publishes audio suggesting 20 bottles arrived for 86th birthday after pair ‘re-establish’ ties

Silvio Berlusconi has allegedly said Vladimir Putin gave him 20 bottles of vodka for his birthday after he “re-established” relations with the Russian president.

Berlusconi turned 86 on 29 September, four days after a coalition including his Forza Italia party won the general election.

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French cement firm admits paying IS nearly $6m to keep Syrian plant open

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Lafarge agrees to $778m fine after pleaded guilty in US trial to conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organisation

The French cement company Lafarge pleaded guilty on Tuesday to paying millions of dollars to the Islamic State group in exchange for permission to keep open a plant in Syria, in a case the US justice department called the first of its kind. The company also agreed to penalties totalling about $778m (£688m).

Prosecutors accused Lafarge of turning a blind eye to the conduct of the militant group, making payments to it in 2013 and 2014 as IS occupied a broad swath of Syria and as some of its members were involved in torturing or beheading kidnapped westerners. The company’s actions occurred before it merged with a Swiss company Holcim, to form the world’s largest cement-making business.

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Coffins left hanging in air after second Naples cemetery collapse this year

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Critics blame poor management of cemeteries in Italian city as collapse at Poggioreale cemetery exposes at least a dozen coffins

At least a dozen coffins have been left dangling in the air after the collapse of a four-storey building containing burial niches at the oldest cemetery in Naples.

It is the second such incident at the site this year, with critics blaming the poor management of cemeteries in the southern Italian city.

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Iran agrees to supply missiles as well as drones to Russia

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Defence secretary Ben Wallace flies to Washington to discuss dangerous new phase in invasion of Ukraine

Iran has deepened its commitment to supplying arms for Russia’s assault on Ukraine by agreeing to provide a batch of medium-range missiles, as well as large numbers of cheap but effective drones, according to US and Iranian security officials.

The surface-to-surface missiles are designed to supplement the severely run-down stock of Russian missiles, as part of a bid to systematically destroy Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure ahead of a brutal winter.

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Haiti on verge of collapse, NGOs warn as UN talks on restoring order continue

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Haitians currently facing series of crises that are becoming deadlier by the day with gangs, hunger and cholera outbreak

NGOs operating in Haiti warn that the chaos engulfing the country has become so total and the social fabric so torn that the country is on the verge of collapse, as discussions continue at the UN security council on how to restore order.

Haitians are currently facing a series of overlapping crises that are becoming deadlier by the day as heavily armed gangs continue to blockade the country’s principal port and fuel terminal.

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Iran protesters need same western support as Ukraine, say exiles

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Iranian opposition sign open letter calling for tougher measures over regime’s actions against protesters

A prominent group of Iranians in exile, human rights activists and families of dual-national political prisoners has called on the west to do more to help Iranians’ demands for freedom.

The EU, US and UK have imposed largely symbolic travel bans and asset freezes on a dozen security officials linked to a crackdown on people protesting in Iran after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in mid-September. The west has not broken off talks with the Iranian regime over the 2015 nuclear deal or downgraded diplomatic relations.

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Tamil refugees on Chagos Islands fear deportation under Rwanda-type plan

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UK government lawyers tell asylum seekers they can return to Sri Lanka or be removed to undisclosed country

Tamil refugees seeking asylum from the British-claimed Chagos Islands face being forcibly removed to a third country under Rwanda-style plans drawn up by the UK government.

Government lawyers have told the asylum seekers that if they cannot be returned to Sri Lanka they will instead be removed to another undisclosed country.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia evacuating citizens from Kherson as commander describes ‘tense’ situation

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Sergei Surovikin says Ukraine forces ‘continually’ trying to take positions of Russian troops, particularly in Kupiansk, Lyman and Mykolaiv

A Russian missile struck an apartment building in the southern Ukrainian port city Mykolaiv, in one of three explosions heard there in the early hours of Tuesday, a Reuters witness said.

The missile completely destroyed one wing of the building in the downtown area, leaving a massive crater. A fire crew pulled the dead body of a man from the rubble, the witness said.

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There’s lithium in them thar hills – but fears grow over US ‘white gold’ boom

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The treasured mineral is critical for electric vehicles and could help slow global heating, but locals worry about the harmful extraction near tribal land

Deep in the parched landscapes of Nevada, there is a stirring boom. The mining of lithium holds the promise of a treasured resource that can help slow disastrous global heating.

Spurred by a growing demand for battery parts essential for electric vehicles, the US’s only major lithium mine, in Silver Peak, a remote outpost situated in desert scrub and nascent Joshua trees a three-hour drive north of Las Vegas, is doubling its production.

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Missing Iranian climber dropped headscarf by mistake, Instagram post claims

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Friends of Elnaz Rekabi have been unable to contact athlete since Sunday, while embassy says she returned home with rest of team

A female Iranian climber who competed in an international tournament without a hijab did so because her headscarf had dropped by mistake, a post on her Instagram account has claimed.

Footage of Elnaz Rekabi, 33, scaling a wall without her head covered during an international tournament went viral, coming amid big female-led demonstrations against Iran’s clerical rulers sparked by strict Islamic rules on women’s clothing.

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