Category Archives: World News

Why Iran’s female-led revolt fills me with hope

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The bravery of the women’s rights fight in Tehran and beyond is a cause for hope – and a call to action

It was in the strange days between the Queen’s death and her funeral that the bad news from Iran broke through the blanket coverage of the state mourning rituals. The news that pierced this was the report that a young woman had died in the custody of Iran’s morality police.

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, had been taken into custody because of “bad hijab”. She was visiting relatives in Tehran with her brother when the morality police challenged her about a few strands of hair that were showing from her standard hijab. According to her brother, she was in custody for just two hours before collapsing and being taken to hospital, where she lay in a coma before dying on 16 September. The authorities claimed that she had a heart attack from a pre-existing condition. Her family deny this, and state that her head and body were covered in bruises and signs of being beaten.

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Child among 10 killed in Donegal petrol station blast as search for survivors ends

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Search through debris called off after blast at Applegreen service station outside village of Creeslough

Ireland is in mourning after the death toll from the explosion at a petrol station in County Donegal rose to 10, including a young child and two teenagers.

Emergency services called off a search on Saturday evening after sifting through rubble all day, and did not expect to find more survivors or bodies.

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Russia appoints notorious general to lead Ukraine offensive

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Sergei Surovikin appointed on same day as explosion on Kerch bridge that has dealt blow to Vladimir Putin

Russia has appointed a notorious general who opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in the 1990s as its first overall commander for the war in Ukraine, as the Kremlin struggles to halt a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has left its forces in disarray.

The appointment of Gen Sergei Surovikin came on the same day as Vladimir Putin was dealt a humiliating blow after an explosion on the Kerch bridge sank a section of the motorway into the Kerch Strait and caused a major fire on the railway.

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Behind Moscow’s bluster, sanctions are making Russia suffer

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High oil and gas revenues notwithstanding, Putin’s ability to fight is being eaten away as the months go by

Fears that Russia is navigating its way around sanctions are unfounded, according to experts who say Moscow is suffering a bigger hit than institutions such as the World Bank have been predicting.

Some analysts have interpreted the strength of the rouble, the size of the warchest of cash available to Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin’s ability to redirect exports destined for Europe to willing southern neighbours as a signal that the arsenal of sanctions deployed against Moscow is failing to bite.

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Welby voices concern over potential move of British embassy to Jerusalem

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Archbishop of Canterbury joins others worried about impact Tel Aviv switch could have on Palestinian peace talks

The archbishop of Canterbury has expressed concern about the potential for the British embassy to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The UK prime minister, Liz Truss, told her Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid at the United Nations summit in New York last month that she was considering the relocation.

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Key bridge linking Crimea to Russia hit by huge explosion

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Section of Kerch bridge collapses after blast, seen as major blow to Russian military prestige

A huge explosion has destroyed part of the Kerch bridge from Russia to Crimea, a hated symbol of the Kremlin’s occupation of the southern Ukrainian peninsula, one of Vladimir Putin’s prestige projects and a vital logistical link for the Russian military.

A section of the Ukraine-bound road bridge collapsed into the Kerch strait after the blast, and a fierce fire engulfed a train on the parallel railway connection, creating a vast column of black smoke. The parallel road towards Russia still appeared passable in images from the blast site.

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Are hijab protests ‘the beginning of the end’ for Iran’s regime?

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The uprising over the death of Masha Amini is like no other, but whether it leads to revolution remains to be seen

The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, was holding court to a small group of journalists at the Millennium Hilton in New York on his first visit to the United States since his election in June 2021. At home, protests over the death in police custody of Masha Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, were entering their sixth day.

At the start of the meeting, a 10-minute film was shown, part patriotic travel brochure and part paen to how the Iranian people “live peacefully together in a new model of democracy”. Given the events in Iran, it seemed like the kind of absurd propaganda only a severely self-deluded regime would screen.

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Convicted con artist Anna Sorokin released from jail, attorney says

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Subject of Netflix drama known as the ‘SoHo grifter’ must refrain from posting on social media

Anna Sorokin, the convicted con artist who masqueraded as a German heiress and swindled wealthy New Yorkers, has been released from jail but must steer clear of social media, her attorney has confirmed.

The 31-year-old, who also went by the name Anna Delvey and is the subject of Netflix’s Inventing Anna, has been held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since March 2021.

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Three dead in explosion at Irish petrol station

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Up to 30 people hurt, with some airlifted from scene in Creeslough in Donegal, while search for survivors continues

Irish police have confirmed there have been three fatalities in an explosion at a petrol station in County Donegal, as the emergency search operation continues at the site of the blast.

Rescuers using sniffer dogs were digging for people trapped in debris on Friday night after a large explosion destroyed the petrol station and damaged apartments, causing multiple injuries.

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Ohio court blocks six-week abortion ban indefinitely

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As litigation continues, abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy remain legal in state

The American Civil Liberties Union and other abortion rights groups have won a ruling from a lower court in Ohio that has indefinitely blocked the state’s ban on terminating pregnancies after six weeks.

In a statement released on Friday, the ACLU announced that Judge Christian Jenkins of the Hamilton county court of common pleas said that it would grant abortion providers’ and advocates’ request for a preliminary injunction against Ohio’s senate bill 23 (SB 23), a law that prohibits abortions starting at roughly a month and a half of pregnancy.

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Haiti government prepares to ask for ‘specialized armed force’ from abroad

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Prime minister authorized to ask international community to help end blockade of main fuel port that has led to crippling shortages

Haiti’s government has authorized the prime minister, Ariel Henry, to ask the international community for a “specialized armed force” to address a crisis caused by a blockade of the country’s main fuel port that has led to crippling shortages, according to a decree circulating on Friday.

Haiti has ground to a halt since a coalition of gangs blocked the Varreux fuel terminal last month. The lack of gas and diesel has crippled transportation and forced businesses and hospitals to halt operations.

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Biden’s ‘Armageddon’ warning wasn’t based on new intelligence, US says

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US president made most outspoken remark on threat of wartime nuclear weapons when speaking at a fundraiser on Thursday

The White House has said that Joe Biden’s warning of “Armageddon” if Russia uses a nuclear weapon in Ukraine was not based on any new intelligence suggesting such nuclear use is imminent.

The US president issued his warning at a private fundraising event in New York on Thursday evening, in his most outspoken remarks yet on the threat of wartime nuclear weapons being used for the first time since 1945.

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UN body reaches long-term aviation climate goal of net zero by 2050

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Decision described as a compromise by several European countries who wanted a more ambitious target

A United Nations body has agreed to a long-term aspirational goal for aviation of net-zero emissions by 2050, despite challenges from China and Russia, as countries aligned overwhelmingly with airlines amid pressure to curb pollution from flights.

Nevertheless, environmentalists criticised the non-binding nature of the agreement as toothless.

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Rare ‘fancy vivid pink’ diamond sells for £52m in Hong Kong auction

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Williamson Pink Star sets world record highest price per carat for a diamond sold at auction

An extremely rare “fancy vivid pink” diamond has sold for 453m Hong Kong dollars (£52m) – more than double its estimated price – and set a world record for the highest price per carat for a diamond sold at auction.

The 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star diamond, which is named after another pink diamond given to Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding gift, was sold to an undisclosed buyer at auction by Sotheby’s Hong Kong on Friday.

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Thailand in mourning after children killed in mass stabbing and shooting

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Nation in shock after 37 people, mostly children, killed by former police officer who was due in court on drug charge

Thailand was in a state of mourning on Friday after a gun and knife attack at a nursery left dozens dead and prompted calls for gun control and a crackdown on illicit drugs.

Thirty-seven people were killed when a former police officer opened fire and stabbed children as they slept at the preschool in Uthai Sawan, a town 310 miles north-east of Bangkok on Thursday.

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‘I saw my grandson’s name and I fainted’: grief engulfs town after Thailand nursery attack

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Families tell of the moment they heard about gun and knife attack that killed 37 people, most of them children

On Friday morning, in the baking sun, grieving parents filed in a line to leave flowers outside the Uthai Sawan nursery school in northern Thailand. Women dressed in black and with heads bowed each placed a white rose on the entrance steps.

A mother, standing at the side, clutched her son’s red blanket and his milk bottle, still half-full.

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Another teenage girl dead at hands of Iran’s security forces, reports claim

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Allegations that 16-year-old Sarina Esmailzadeh was beaten to death at a protest follow news of the similar death of 17-year-old Nika Shakarami

Reports are emerging of the death of another teenage girl at the hands of security forces in Iran, as protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini looked set to enter their third week.

Sarina Esmailzadeh, a 16-year-old who posted popular vlogs on YouTube, was killed when the security forces beat her with batons at a protest in Gohardasht in Alborz province on 23 September, according to Amnesty International.

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Amazon loses London-sized area of rainforest in a month with Bolsonaro’s reign under threat

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Large area destroyed in September, as environmental criminals raced to wreck the region before possible change of president

Amazon deforestation has soared ahead of Brazil’s environmentally vital presidential election, with an area almost the size of Greater London lost last month alone.

Government satellites show a 1,455-sq km area of rainforest was destroyed in September, as environmental criminals raced to wreck the region before a possible change of president could bring Jair Bolsonaro’s era of destruction to an end.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russians being prepared for nuclear war, warns Zelenskiy; White House says no indication of immediate Russian plans – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can find our latest Ukraine stories below:

Reuters has a quick snap that a team of four specialists from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IEAE) is expected be arrive at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant later today.

At least five people were killed and as many injured after Ukrainian forces struck a bus while shelling a strategically important bridge in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, Russia’s Tass news agency has reported.

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