Prosecution of South Sudan’s vice-president raises fears of return to full-scale civil war

Observers and opposition says prosecution of Riek Machar for crimes in relation to attack by rebel militia puts peace deal at risk

South Sudan’s opposition and observers have warned that the prosecution of the country’s suspended vice-president, Riek Machar, risks jeopardising a peace agreement that ended a devastating civil war and plunging the country into full-scale conflict once again.

On 11 September, Machar was charged with murder, treason, crimes against humanity and other serious crimes in connection with a deadly attack by the White Army rebel group on a government army garrison in Nasir county in the country’s north-east. President Salva Kiir then suspended him from his post.

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Right to protest is under sustained attack in the west, report finds

Counter-terror laws being ‘weaponised’ against pro-Palestine groups in UK, US, France and Germany, says FIDH

The right to protest has come under sustained attack in the west, according to a report highlighting the growing criminalisation of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

The study by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) pays particular attention to the UK, the US, France and Germany, where it says governments have “weaponised” counter-terrorism legislation as well as the fight against antisemitism to suppress dissent and support for Palestinian rights in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

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Tuesday briefing: After the hostage release, five questions that will shape Gaza’s future

In today’s newsletter: Wild celebrations on both sides – but prospects for an enduring peace rest on compromises that appear difficult to reach

Good morning. The last 20 living Israeli hostages in Gaza were freed yesterday, after more than two years in captivity. Meanwhile, huge crowds in Ramallah greeted some of the 2,000 Palestinians – 1,700 of them held without charge – released by Israel in exchange.

Even against the backdrop of the horrors of the 7 October attack, and the Israeli assault that killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and left Gaza a wasteland, the scenes of reunion were overwhelming to watch. This picture gallery of Israeli hostages being reunited with their families captures something of an extraordinary day of catharsis and relief.

Environment | Millions more homes in England, Scotland and Wales face devastating floods, and some towns may have to be abandoned as climate breakdown makes many areas uninsurable, a Guardian investigation has found.

UK news | Tommy Robinson claimed Elon Musk was paying his legal costs as he went on trial for refusing to comply with a request made by counter-terrorism police as he tried to leave Britain last year.

Espionage | The government made “every effort” to support the trial of two men accused of spying for China, security minister Dan Jarvis has said, as he accused the Tories of claiming the case was deliberately abandoned “without a shred of evidence”.

UK politics | The families of the murdered MPs David Amess and Jo Cox have voiced concern about a recent surge in violent political rhetoric in Britain.

Nobel prize | Three experts in the power of technology to drive economic growth have been awarded this year’s Nobel prize in economics.

Peace in Gaza represents an opportunity to forget; to erase from the collective consciousness an era in which some western countries took a bludgeon to international norms and institutions, and indeed their own domestic politics, in order to force through the destruction of Gaza.”

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Guaranteed Māori seats on New Zealand councils to be slashed by more than half

Controversial law change that forced councils to put the fate of Māori wards to a public vote saw 25 vote to disestablish the guaranteed seats

The number of guaranteed seats for Māori representatives on New Zealand councils will be slashed by more than half, following a controversial law change that forced local governments to put the fate of hard-won Māori seats to a public vote.

Māori wards, which may have one or more councillors depending on local population numbers, were established in 2001 to give Indigenous voters the option to vote for a guaranteed Māori representative in local and regional authorities. Initially, councils could only establish a Māori ward by first putting it to a public vote in their area. Communities often spent years generating local support and pushing their councils to create Māori wards.

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‘Your basis to live is checked at each and every step’: India’s ID system divides opinion

Keir Starmer is considering Aadhaar as model for UK, but detractors warn of ‘digital coercion’ and security breaches

It is often difficult for people in India to remember life before Aadhaar. The digital biometric ID, allegedly available for every Indian citizen, was only introduced 15 years ago but its presence in daily life is ubiquitous.

Indians now need an Aadhaar number to buy a house, get a job, open a bank account, pay their tax, receive benefits, buy a car, get a sim card, book priority train tickets and admit children into school. Babies can be given Aadhaar numbers almost immediately after they are born. While it is not mandatory, not having Aadhaar de facto means the state does not recognise you exist, digital rights activists say.

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Muddle over semantics or pressure from China? Collapsed spying case remains baffling

Labour says Tory government at time failed to classify China as a threat, but plenty of evidence suggests the contrary

There is a baffling contradiction at the heart of the efforts of Dan Jarvis, the security minister, to explain why the prosecution of two Britons accused of spying for China collapsed last month. The problem, he insisted in front of MPs on Monday, was that “it was not the policy of a Conservative government to classify China as a threat to national security”.

Except there is plenty of evidence to suggest that China was recognised as a threat by the previous governments in documents and public statements by ministers and officials. All this makes the failure of the government witness – Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser – to set this out in three separate witness statements given to the prosecution even more surprising.

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Trump sets sights on peace with Iran as he hails ‘end of Gaza war’

In speech to Israeli Knesset hours after hostages released, US president spoke of ‘historic dawn of new Middle East’

Donald Trump has vowed to use the power of his presidency to ensure that Israel recognises it has achieved “all that it can by force of arms”, and begin an age of cooperation in the Middle East that may ultimately extend as far as peace with Iran.

In a speech to the Israeli Knesset, made hours after the last remaining Israeli hostages were released from Gaza, Trump hailed the “historic dawn of a new Middle East” and an end to the “long and painful nightmare” of the Gaza war.

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Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy ordered to go to jail next week

Sarkozy must go to La Santé prison in Paris after conviction over scheme to obtain election funds from Gaddafi regime

The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been ordered to go to jail in Paris next week after a court last month sentenced him to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain election campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Sarkozy, who was the rightwing president of France between 2007 and 2012, was summoned to meet state prosecutors on Monday. They told him he must present himself at the entrance of La Santé prison in the south of Paris on 21 October to begin his sentence.

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China’s Temu more than doubles EU profits to nearly $120m despite having only eight staff

Online marketplace paid just $18m in corporation tax, leading campaigners to call for government action

The Chinese online marketplace Temu’s EU operations more than doubled pre-tax profits last year to just below $120m (£90m) despite employing just eight people, accounts show.

They rose 171% in the 12 months to December 2024 compared with the $44.1m the year before, as shoppers snapped up its low-cost goods, which are widely promoted on social media.

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Macron accuses rivals of fuelling instability as he dismisses calls to resign

French president says opposition has not ‘risen to the moment’ after reappointment of Sébastien Lecornu as PM

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has accused rival political parties of fuelling instability as he brushed aside calls by the opposition for him to resign amid France’s worst political crisis in decades.

“Many of those who have fuelled division and speculation have not risen to the moment,” Macron said of French opposition parties, as he arrived in Egypt on Monday to attend a summit on Gaza. He said rival “political forces” were “solely responsible for this chaos” after they “instigated the destabilisation” of the prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu.

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Madagascar president says he fled country in fear for his life

Andry Rajoelina does not announce resignation in speech broadcast on social media after military rebellion

Madagascar’s president, Andry Rajoelina, said he had fled the country in fear for his life after a military rebellion but did not announce his resignation in a speech broadcast on social media late on Monday from an undisclosed location.

The 51-year-old has faced weeks of gen Z-led anti-government protests, which reached a pivotal point on Saturday when an elite military unit joined the protests and called for the president and other ministers to step down. That prompted Rajoelina to say that an illegal attempt to seize power was under way in the Indian Ocean island and to leave the country.

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Portugal’s far-right Chega falls well short of expectations in local elections

Party hoped to take 30 municipalities but secured three after share of vote halved from parliamentary elections

Portugal’s far-right Chega party has won its first mayoral seats in local elections, final results showed, but fell well short of expectations as its vote share halved from parliamentary elections in May.

The six-year-old nationalist party, whose name means “Enough”, took control of three city halls: São Vicente on the island of Madeira; the central town of Entroncamento; and Albufeira in the south. It won an 11.86% share of the overall vote.

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Gaza ceasefire live: Israeli hostages due to be released as Trump says ‘war is over’ and flies to Middle East

US president is due to arrive in Israel shortly after the expected release of 20 living Israeli hostages by Hamas. Follow the latest developments

The mediating countries for the ceasefire deal in Gaza are to sign a document guaranteeing the agreement at Monday’s summit in Egypt, a diplomatic source has told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

“The signatories will be the guarantors – [the] US, Egypt, Qatar and likely Turkey,” the diplomat briefed on the signing ceremony said on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive arrangements.

While favoring diplomatic engagement, neither President Pezeshkian nor I can engage with counterparts who have attacked the Iranian People and continue to threaten and sanction us.

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Trump says ‘war is over’ in Gaza as Israel awaits release of hostages

US president says Middle East will ‘normalize’ before he boarded flight to Israel for world leaders’ peace summit

The war in Gaza has ended and the Middle East is going to “normalize”, Donald Trump said on Sunday as he flew to Israel, which was waiting for Hamas to release Israeli hostages as world leaders were gathering to discuss the next steps toward peace.

“The war is over, you understand that,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One as he began a flight from Washington DC to Israel.

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Tony Blair wins nod from Palestinian Authority for role in postwar Gaza

Senior PA leader confirms readiness to work with former UK PM on post-ceasefire recovery

The former UK prime minister Tony Blair appears to have won the endorsement of the Palestinian Authority to be involved in the reconstruction of Gaza, after an exploratory meeting in Jordan.

Blair met Hussein al-Sheikh, the deputy president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee, in Amman, Jordan, on Sunday. It was the first such meeting since Donald Trump announced Blair’s role in his 20-point plan.

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Trump ‘looking at all options’ amid threats to invoke Insurrection Act, Vance says

Vice-president calls crime ‘out of control’ in US cities as Trump faces legal battles for use of federal forces

The White House is talking about invoking the Insurrection Act that would allow the deployment of military troops on US soil to quell domestic unrest amid legal challenges over the moves, JD Vance confirmed on Sunday.

Vance was asked on NBC News’s Meet the Press whether Donald Trump was seriously considering invoking the emergency power to deploy national guard forces and even the US military in domestic settings.

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In Venezuela’s ‘darkest hours’, will peace prize boost opposition or backfire?

María Corina Machado’s Nobel award puts focus on country but analysts doubt it will produce democratic change

In March 2019 as a nationwide blackout plunged Venezuela into darkness, hundreds of citizens huddled on a basketball court in the city of Maracaibo to hear their leader promise to guide them out of the gloom.

“We are, quite literally, living through our darkest hour. But these are also the brightest of times,” María Corina Machado told supporters as they used mobile phones to illuminate the night.

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China warns US of retaliation over Trump’s 100% tariffs threat

Beijing says it will act if US president doesn’t stand down, while investors brace for trade war turmoil

Beijing has told the US it will retaliate if Donald Trump fails to back down on his threat to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese imports as investors brace for another bout of trade war turmoil.

China’s commerce ministry blamed Washington for raising trade tensions between the two countries after Trump announced on Friday that he would impose the additional tariffs on China’s exports to the US, along with new controls on critical software, by 1 November.

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Cameroon’s 92-year-old president set for another term as country goes to polls

Paul Biya, in power since 1982, has brushed off calls to retire but is rarely seen in public

Cameroon goes to the polls on Sunday for a presidential election with Paul Biya, already the world’s oldest head of state at the age of 92, the favourite to win an eighth term in power in the central African country.

A fractured opposition of 11 candidates is standing against Biya, who, despite his advanced age and declining health, has dismissed calls for him to retire.

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Heavy clashes erupt along Pakistan-Afghanistan border

Escalation comes after Pakistani airstrike in Kabul, with Taliban launching reprisals against military posts

Intense clashes erupted along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Saturday night after an attack by the Taliban on Pakistani military posts.

This escalation comes after a Pakistani airstrike in Kabul this week, as reported by security officials from both nations.

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