Dozens of countries sign deal to curb bombing in urban areas

Campaigners hope agreement will change military norms, though it was not endorsed by countries including Russia, Israel and China

Eighty countries led by the US, UK and France have signed a declaration in Dublin pledging to refrain from urban bombing, the first time countries have agreed to curb the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

The international agreement is a product of more than three years of negotiation – predating the war in Ukraine – but was not endorsed by several major military powers, including Russia, China, Israel and India.

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FBI director ‘very concerned’ by reports of secret Chinese police stations in US

Christopher Wray says the FBI is investigating the existence of stations in New York, which could violate sovereignty

The United States is deeply concerned about the Chinese government setting up unauthorised “police stations” in US cities to possibly pursue influence operations, FBI director Christopher Wray has said.

“I’m very concerned about this. We are aware of the existence of these stations,” Wray told a US Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee hearing, acknowledging the FBI’s investigative work on the issue but declining to give details.

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Brittney Griner begins sentence in remote Russian penal colony

Lawyers say US basketball star ‘doing as well as could be expected’ at IK-2 in Mordovia, following visit

Basketball star Brittney Griner has been sent to a remote Russian penal colony to start serving her sentence, her lawyers have said.

“Brittney began serving her sentence at IK-2 in Mordovia,” lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov said in a statement.

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Gaza: at least 21 people die as fire breaks out at party in residential block

Several more were injured as flames burst through top floor of four-storey building in Jabalia refugee camp

At least 21 people have been killed and several others injured after a fire broke out during a party in the northern Gaza Strip, in one of the deadliest recent incidents outside the violence stemming from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It took firefighters more than an hour to gain control of the massive flames that burst through the top floor of a four-storey residential building in the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip.

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Torture van found as suspected Israeli gang leader held in South Africa raid

Police say drugs and gun also found at Johannesburg property where they detained wanted Abergil gang member and seven others

A man reputed to be one of Israel’s most wanted gang leaders has been arrested during a raid on a home in an affluent Johannesburg suburb where South African authorities said they also found guns, drugs and a van equipped for torture.

South African police said on Thursday that the 46-year-old Israeli was a member of the Abergil gang, which deals in drug trafficking and extortion, and that he was wanted in Israel for several attempted murders.

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Charlize Theron sparks anger after claiming Afrikaans facing oblivion

Hollywood actor criticised by South Africans after saying settler language ‘not very helpful’

Charlize Theron has prompted anger in her native South Africa after suggesting that Afrikaans, a language descended from Dutch colonial settlers, is heading for oblivion.

“There’s about 44 people still speaking it … it’s definitely a dying language, it’s not a very helpful language,” the 47-year-old Oscar-winning actor said this week on a US podcast, Smartless.

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Alaa Abd el-Fattah exhausted and weak, family say after visit

The activist’s mother was allowed to visit her son for the first time in nearly a month on Thursday

The family of the British-Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah say his health has visibly deteriorated due to the escalation of his hunger strike, after being allowed to visit him on Thursday.

It was the first time the activist’s mother, Laila Soueif, had been allowed to visit him in nearly a month. Prison authorities repeatedly denied her access last week.

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Quebec man charged with terrorism over alleged Haiti coup plot

Gerald Nicolas, 51, accused of conspiring to overthrow government of Jovenel Moïse, who was later assassinated in separate plot

Canadian police have charged a Quebec man with terrorism over allegations he conspired to overthrow the government of the late Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, who was later assassinated in a separate plot.

Gerald Nicolas, 51, stands accused of leaving Canada to facilitate a terrorist activity, facilitating a terrorist activity and providing property for terrorist purposes, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Thursday.

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Cop27 president bemoans slow negotiations saying some countries failing to address urgency of climate crisis – as it happened

Egypt foreign minister Sameh Shoukry says delegates are shying away from taking ‘difficult political decisions’. This live blog is closed

As global politicians face difficult discussions on the draft over the coming hours, public opinion appears to be supportive of the idea that richer countries should pay loss and damage finances for climate action in poor countries.

Damian Carrington, our environment editor writes: A significant majority of people in the UK think the country has a responsibility to pay for climate action in poorer and vulnerable countries, an opinion poll conducted for the Guardian shows.

No details of a fund on loss and damage financing for poorer countries

“Welcomes” the fact that parties agreed for the first time to include “matters related to funding arrangements responding to loss and damage” on the summit agenda.

No call for a phase down on all fossil fuels

Stresses the importance of exerting all efforts to meet Paris Agreement goal of holding global average temperature to well below 2C and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 C

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Republicans gain narrow majority to control House – live

Last week’s elections produced winners, losers and candidates like Kari Lake.

The Associated Press has already called the Arizona governor’s race for Democrat Katie Hobbs, but her Republican challenger Lake is refusing to concede. She said as much in a video released to supporters today:

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Russia-Ukraine war: Kremlin says ‘difficult to imagine’ public negotiations with Kyiv; new Russian missile strikes across Ukraine – live

Kremlin spokesperson claims ‘Ukrainians do not want any negotiations’; Kyiv and Dnipro air defence systems work to shoot down incoming rockets

Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov has said that the Black Sea grain initiative will be prolonged for 120 days.

Writing in a tweet, he said the deal was agreed between UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres and Ukraine’s president, Volodimir Zelenskiy.

He added that Ukraine had officially appealed to extend the initiative, which was agreed in July and enables Russian and Ukrainian wheat and fertilisers to be exported through the Black Sea, for one year and to include the Mykolaiv port.

His remarks could not immediately be confirmed independently.

The July deal has helped stave off a global food crisis by allowing exports through ports that had been blockaded by Russia.

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Herschel Walker says in rambling speech he wants to be ‘werewolf, not vampire’

Republican Senate candidate for Georgia rehashes plot of late-night movie and considers merits of both creatures

In a campaign speech on Wednesday, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Georgia, Herschel Walker, told supporters: “I don’t want to be a vampire any more. I want to be a werewolf.”

The remark was the latest controversial or outright bizarre intervention from the former football star who like other candidates endorsed by Donald Trump struggled to overcome his Democratic opponent in the midterm elections.

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Iran protests: family of boy, 9, killed in night of violence blame attack on security forces

Kian Pirfalak was one of several people killed on Wednesday as anger over Mahsa Amini transforms into wider protest against the regime

The family of a nine-year-old boy killed on Wednesday evening by assailants on motorbikes during some of the worst violence in Iran in two months of protests have accused security forces of carrying out the attack.

Kian Pirfalak was one of seven people, including a woman and a 13-year-old child, killed by gunmen in the western city of Izeh.

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International troops quit Mali as violence and Moscow’s influence grow

Germany latest to end peacekeeping mission as operations prove unable to stop Islamic extremist insurgency

Thousands of international troops are withdrawing from Mali amid surging violence, growing Russian influence and an acute humanitarian crisis.

On Wednesday Germany became the latest country to end its participation in the UN peacekeeping mission in the unstable west African country. Earlier this week, British officials said that 300 British soldiers sent in 2020 to join the United Nations force would be returning earlier than planned.

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Three men found guilty of murdering 298 people in shooting down of MH17

Court says Russia had overall control of the separatist forces in eastern Ukraine at the time when the plane was shot down

A Dutch court has found three men guilty of the murder of 298 people onboard flight MH17, which was shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile when it was flying over eastern Ukraine in 2014.

The court handed down sentences of life imprisonment to the Russian nationals Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy and a Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko, after finding them guilty of bringing down the plane and the murder of everyone onboard. They were ordered to pay “more than €16m” in compensation to the victims. The three men remain at large and it remains unclear if they will ever serve their sentences.

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Two hunters accused of manslaughter go on trial in south-west France

Culture and safety of hunting widely seen to be on trial too after Morgan Keane, 25, died while cutting wood on his land

Two hunters accused of the manslaughter of a young man mistaken for a boar have gone on trial in the French town of Cahors in a case that also puts the wider culture and safety of French hunting in the dock.

Morgan Keane, 25, died after he was hit in the chest while cutting wood on his own land near Calvignac in the Lot, south-west France, in December 2020. The hunter who fired the fatal shot, Julien Féral, 35, said he mistook Keane for a wild boar.

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Firefighter arrested in Germany over refugee shelter arson attack

Authorities believe the fire was part of a series of 19 arson attempts, and was not politically motivated

A fire that tore through a shelter for Ukrainian refugees in north-east Germany last month was started by one of the firefighters who later helped to extinguish it, according to prosecutors in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, who have arrested the 32-year-old man.

A swastika daubed on a Red Cross sign outside the repurposed thatched-roof hotel in the town of Groß Strömkendorf two days before the fire had led some to speculate about a political motive behind the arson attack, which caused millions of euros worth of damage. None of the shelter’s 17 inhabitants were harmed.

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French hunter who killed man after ‘mistaking him for boar’ goes on trial

Calls for crackdown on hunt safety during trial of Julien Féral, who shot dead man outside home near Toulouse

A hunter who shot dead an Anglo-French man after allegedly mistaking him for a wild boar has gone on trial accused of manslaughter.

Morgan Keane, 25, was hit in the chest as he was cutting wood outside his home in a village north of Toulouse, in south-west France, two years ago.

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Myanmar frees former UK ambassador amid mass prisoner release

State media says foreign nationals and 712 ‘political prisoners’ among 5,774 to be freed in so-called amnesty

Almost 6,000 people will be released from prison in Myanmar, including the Australian academic Prof Sean Turnell, Britain’s former ambassador Vicky Bowman and the Japanese film-maker Toru Kubota, junta-controlled media has said.

On Thursday, Myanmar’s state-run MRTV said that the foreign nationals, as well as a Burmese-American citizen, had been released and deported in a so-called amnesty timed to coincide with Myanmar National Day.

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Russia launches another wave of missile strikes across Ukraine

Attack is the sixth since early October and authorities in Kyiv said energy infrastructure was again being targeted

Russia has unleashed another wave of rocket, drone and missile strikes across Ukraine in its sixth mass attack since early October.

Ukraine’s authorities said the attack, like the previous five, was aimed at destroying the country’s energy system.

Strikes on critical infrastructure in Odesa and Dnipro were confirmed by the presidential administration and the regional heads on Thursday morning. Three people were reportedly injured in Odesa region its authorities said, while a another 14 people were injured, including a teenager, in the strike on Dnipro city, according to its mayor, Borys Filatov. The Dnipro regional administration reported that five people were injured.

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