Category Archives: World News

Qatar World Cup imposes ‘chilling’ restrictions on media

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Rules ban BBC, ITV and other broadcasters from filming near government buildings and migrant workers’ accommodation

International television crews in Qatar for the Fifa World Cup will be banned from interviewing people in their own homes as part of sweeping reporting restrictions that could have a “severe chilling effect” on media coverage.

Broadcasters, such as the BBC and ITV, will also be forbidden from filming at accommodation sites, like those housing migrant workers, under the terms of filming permits issued by the Qatari government.

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Iran police investigate video of officer’s alleged sexual assault of protester

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Footage appears to show member of riot police grabbing detained woman from behind

Iranian police have said they are investigating footage allegedly showing a member of their riot squad sexually assaulting a female protester in Tehran after widespread outrage over the video.

The footage, recorded during a protest in the capital’s Argentina Square on Wednesday, shows a woman being violently detained and taken towards a motorbike in a street crowded with protesters and riot police. She is surrounded by four armed members of the riot force, and one of them appears to grab her inappropriately from behind. She then slumps to the ground.

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Idaho man dies while fighting as volunteer soldier in Ukraine

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Dane Partridge, 34, died from injuries sustained during a Russian attack in Luhansk

Dane Partridge, a 34-year-old man from Idaho who fought as a volunteer soldier in Ukraine, died on Tuesday from injuries sustained during a Russian attack in Luhansk.

The Ukrainian government has recruited people with military experience to join the International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine. At least four other US citizens have been killed fighting in Ukraine, based on reports from families and the state department.

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Netanyahu used golf metaphor to turn Trump against Palestinians, book says

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In new memoir, former Israeli PM describes efforts to turn US president against Palestinian leader Abbas

Benjamin Netanyahu used maps of Hezbollah missile sites and intelligence gained from a Mossad raid in Tehran to make sure Donald Trump backed Israel in Middle East peace talks and pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, the former Israeli prime minister writes in a new memoir.

But in unconventional scenes similar to those in countless books of reportage and Trump tell-alls, Netanyahu also says that to sway Trump from his desire to pursue peace between Israel and the Palestinians and to scotch his positive first impression of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, the Israelis deployed golfing metaphors and maps of New York City.

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‘They tried to wipe us out’: Kurds shelled as Iran seeks scapegoats for unrest

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Exiled Kurdish forces in Iraq feel abandoned by west and say they need weapons like in Ukraine

Picking through a pile of twisted metal, Rebaz, a Kurdish Iranian fighter, stooped to cradle a jagged chrome piece that was dug from the ruins of his base. “This was part of a Fateh missile,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest that the Iranians have in their arsenal. It’s from the day they tried to wipe us out.”

The heap included other wreckage – of rockets and kamikaze drones that had devastated this small outpost, just east of Erbil in northern Iraq, a fortnight ago. Since then, jittery guards had looked from the ruins towards the east, from where more than two dozen ballistic missiles and another dozen kamikaze drones blazed from a blue sky a fortnight ago.

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Justice department asks court to reject appointment of Trump special master

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Independent arbiter was tasked to inspect thousands of documents taken from Mar-a-Lago in August search by FBI

The US justice department has asked the 11th circuit court of appeals to void the appointment of the special master examining materials seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for privilege protections, arguing it impedes the criminal investigation into mishandling of sensitive documents.

In a 53-page brief filed on Friday, the justice department argues that the Trump-appointed US district court judge who oversees the case, Aileen Cannon, should never have granted the former president’s request to have a special master because he failed to demonstrate the need for such a process.

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Democrats suggest shifting weapons from Saudi Arabia to Ukraine

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Democrats call for suspension of transfer of Patriot missiles in wake of ‘turning point’ in relationship with Saudis

Democrats on Capitol Hill have suggested transferring US weapons systems in Saudi Arabia to Ukraine and suspending a planned transfer of Patriot missiles to Riyadh in the wake of what they call a “turning point” in Washington’s relationship with the kingdom.

Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman from California who is a leading supporter of a weapons freeze, said he believed that “at the very least” Congress would move to halt the transfer of Patriot missiles to the kingdom, and probably pause other defense initiatives.

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Two brothers jailed after admitting murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia

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George and Alfred Degiorgio both given 40-year sentences for killing of Maltese journalist in 2017 car bombing

Two brothers charged with the car-bomb assassination of the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia have both been sentenced to 40 years in prison, after dramatically pleading guilty to her murder on the first day of their trial.

Caruana Galizia, who had investigated political corruption in the European Union’s smallest member state, died in an explosion that destroyed her car as she drove away from home on 16 October 2017.

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West makes plans to avoid panic if Russia uses nuclear bomb in Ukraine

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Crisis is considered unlikely but officials re-examine plans to provide support for fearful populations

Western officials are engaged in “prudent planning” behind the scenes to prevent chaos and panic in their home countries in the event Russia was to detonate a nuclear bomb in or near Ukraine.

Although a nuclear crisis is considered highly unlikely, the insider said officials internationally were re-examining plans to provide emergency support and reassurance to populations fearful of nuclear escalation.

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Anger as DeSantis eases voting rules in Republican areas hit by hurricane

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Executive order makes voting easier in Florida’s Lee, Charlotte and Sarasota counties but not in Democratic Orange county

Governor Ron DeSantis has made voting easier in certain Florida counties battered by Hurricane Ian – but only Republican-leaning ones.

DeSantis signed an executive order on Thursday that eases voting rules for about 1 million voters in Lee, Charlotte and Sarasota counties, all areas that Hurricane Ian hit hard and that all reliably vote Republican.

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Barges stranded as Mississippi River water levels reach critical low

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Major shipping delays and backlog of vessels after region experiences lack of rainfall in recent weeks

The water in the Mississippi River has dropped so low that barges are getting stuck, leading to expensive dredging and at least one recent traffic jam of more than 2,000 vessels backed up.

The Mississippi River Basin produces nearly all – 92% – of US agricultural exports, and 78% of the global exports of feed grains and soybeans. The recent drought has dropped water levels to alarmingly low levels that are causing shipping delays, and seeing the costs of alternative transport, such as rail, rise.

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Iran bans director Mani Haghighi from attending London film festival

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The Subtraction director had his passport confiscated by Iranian authorities and was prevented from boarding his flight to the UK, allegedly with no reason given

Iranian film-maker Mani Haghighi has been banned from leaving the country and had his passport confiscated after attempting to travel to London, where his latest film Subtraction is screening at the London film festival.

In a video statement, Haghighi said: “I was prevented by the Iranian authorities from boarding my flight to London on Friday. They gave me no reasonable explanation for this utterly rude behaviour.”

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Donald Trump considers testifying before January 6 panel

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Sources tell Guardian ex-president may choose to appear before Capitol attack committee after Thursday vote to subpoena him

Donald Trump is considering testifying in front of the House January 6 committee, which this week concluded a dramatic hearing establishing what it says is his culpability for the deadly Capitol attack by voting to subpoena the former president.

On Friday, sources close to Trump confirmed to the Guardian that he may choose to appear before the congressional panel. Such an appearance would set up an unprecedented, high-stakes political event.

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UK joins calls for World Bank reform to focus funding on climate crisis

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Alok Sharma’s intervention puts pressure on Trump-appointed Bank chief who faces calls to resign

The UK has joined calls for sweeping reforms to the World Bank, to focus much-needed funding on the climate crisis, saying that its current structures are not working.

The intervention from Alok Sharma, the current president of the UN climate talks, heaps further pressure on beleaguered World Bank chief, David Malpass. He has faced calls to resign over an apparently climate-dismissing stance, and the Bank’s perceived failures to deliver climate finance.

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Anger in Spain at vandalism of memorial to German fighter pilot

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Memorial to Nazi airman shot down in Spanish civil war had been looked after by Spanish ace who killed him

A group that celebrates the republican pilots who fought fascism in the skies over Spain has condemned the vandalism of a memorial stone to a German airman that was looked after by an unlikely visitor – the Spanish ace who killed him.

Friedrich Windemuth, a member of the notorious Condor Legion sent by Hitler to aid Franco during the Spanish civil war, died after being shot down over northern Catalonia by the Spanish pilot José Falcó in February 1939.

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Putin says mobilised troops will be ready in two weeks as he warns Nato against ‘global catastrophe’ – as it happened

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Russian president says any direct clash with Nato troops would be ‘global catastrophe’ as he says 220,000 will be called up. This live blog is now closed

Here are some of the latest images of the war that have been sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine and beyond.

Today is Defenders Day in Ukraine, and the US ambassador to Kyiv, Bridget A Brink, has issued a video message. In it she says:

We honour the brave men and women who have served in the defence of Ukraine’s freedom. This year, this holiday has a special symbolic meaning. Since 24 February, virtually every citizen of your country has in some way become a defender of your land, your lives, your future.

I know Russia’s war doesn’t stop at the line of contact. And I honour the bravery and resolve of all Ukrainians, men and women, children and the elderly, professional soldiers and volunteers, representatives of every aspect of society from the home front to the frontline. All of you play a vital role in defending Ukraine. We know Ukraine will prevail.

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Iran’s youthful protests stoke uncertainty among political elite

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While some insist the unrest will eventually peter out, others warn there is something more fundamental at play

A shaken Iranian political elite is struggling with whether to frame the protests shaking the country as primarily the product of a covert foreign intelligence conspiracy, or instead a dangerous warning that the values of the Islamic Revolution have lost sway over a new generation infected by a western controlled internet, analysts say.

The debate, in which there are many shades of grey, matters since it determines whether the response should be a security crackdown coupled with retribution against the outside forces of disruption or some kind of dialogue with the largely leaderless youth.

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Red Cross frustrated by lack of access to PoWs in Russian-occupied Donetsk

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ICRC responds to criticism from Zelenskiy, saying it is being refused entry to Olenivka prison

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has gone public with its frustration at being refused entry to a notorious Russian prisoner of war camp after scathing criticism from Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

In his daily evening address, Ukraine’s president accused the ICRC of a lack of leadership, suggesting that officials were picking up their salaries without doing their jobs.

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FBI was reportedly warned agents were ‘sympathetic’ to Capitol rioters – as it happened

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The Oath Keepers were mentioned repeatedly at yesterday’s January 6 hearing, and Politico reports their lawyers have attempted to make that an issue as they stand trial for seditious conspiracy – without success:

Investigators with the January 6 committee are looking into communications between a Secret Service agent and the Oath Keepers militia group, one of the most violent actors during the attack on the Capitol, NBC News reports:

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