In a press conference, Ron DeSantis said food, water and other supplies are being distributed to those who did not evacuate
26 states have provided support to Florida amid the damages that Hurricane Ian has left across the state.
“It’s going to be put to use,” DeSantis said on Thursday morning.
Continue reading...Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg says tech company aims to ‘plan somewhat conservatively’ and will ‘further restructure’
Meta employees have been warned of potential layoffs after the Facebook parent company announced on Thursday it would freeze hiring and “further restructure”, Bloomberg News has reported.
In company communication with employees, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg cited the uncertain macroeconomic environment for the changes. The announcement comes after several tech companies have been forced to slash headcount in recent months, as advertisers trim spending in anticipation of a recession.
Continue reading...Search and rescue effort under way after vessel sank in Stock Island, in the Florida Keys, hours before hurricane made landfall
Eighteen people are missing after a boat carrying Cuban migrants sank off Florida due to Hurricane Ian, further underlining the human cost of the storm.
US border patrol said on Wednesday that it responded to a migrant landing in Stock Island, in the lower Florida Keys, Reuters said.
Continue reading...Russian president expected to make speech to members of State Duma at ceremony on Friday
Vladimir Putin will sign treaties on Friday annexing territories in occupied Ukraine, the Kremlin has said, in a major escalation of Russia’s seven-month-old war.
The Russian president is expected to sign into law the annexations of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where Russia held fake referendums over the last week in order to claim a mandate for the territorial claims.
Continue reading...Deripaska, 54, accused of several crimes including plotting to bring pregnant girlfriend to US so child would be American citizen
Oleg Deripaska, one of Russia’s most powerful oligarchs, who previously had deep links to British establishment figures, has been indicted by the US Department of Justice for criminal sanctions violations.
The indictment detailed a number of alleged crimes by the man who was long considered Vladimir Putin’s favourite industrialist, including an elaborate and failed attempt by Deripaska and his associates to shuttle his pregnant girlfriend to the US so that she could give birth there and secure American citizenship for their second child.
Continue reading...As Norway steps up seabed security, experts say underwater cables carrying world’s internet traffic are also at risk
Nato countries are scrambling to improve security of highly vulnerable undersea pipelines and communications cables after the apparent Nord Stream attack in the Baltic Sea underlines the west’s extreme vulnerability.
Four gas leaks on two Nord Stream pipelines have now been reported after blasts were detected on Monday. According to several reports citing European officials, Russian vessels were seen in the vicinity of the Nord Stream I and II pipelines where they were damaged, but an examination of the damage may not be possible for weeks for safety reasons, and no proof of Moscow’s involvement has been presented.
Continue reading...Finance minister announces €200bn fund to protect citizens from rising gas prices driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine
Germany’s finance minister has vowed that he will not follow the UK “down the path of an expansionary fiscal policy” as his government announced a €200bn (£177bn) fund designed to protect consumers and businesses from rising gas prices driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Europe’s largest economy will reactivate an economic stabilising fund previously used during the global financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, said the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, at a joint press conference with the finance minister, Christian Lindner, and the economic minister, Robert Habeck, on Thursday afternoon.
Continue reading...António Guterres warns Putin against annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia before expected announcement.
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Denmark’s foreign minister, Jeppe Kofod, has said that “intentional” explosions caused the leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines, and that it was an “unprecedented” attack.
He told viewers of Sky News in the UK:
It’s clear we all need to be very aware of our critical infrastructure, when it comes to energy and other infrastructure, so we all take, I think, the right precautionary steps. Because it is unprecedented, as I’ve said, we haven’t seen that type of attack on infrastructure.
It has been clear for us for a long time in Denmark, and also now for the rest of Europe, that we need to get out of any dependence on Russian energy, whether it’s gas, coal or oil, and we’re working very hard to obtain that objective in Europe.
Denmark is doing its part, where we will focus a lot in investing massively in renewable energy, not least the offshore wind and other type of renewables, and also energy efficiency. So that is a course we will not change.”
I think we should be very concerned. Listening to Polish and Danish ministers they do suspect this was an act of Russian terrorism, and that it’s another threat from the Kremlin to Europe’s energy supplies.
But we need to stand bold against Russia supporting Ukraine.
I personally think it’s likely that Nord Stream may never reopen, and therefore the energy policy of Europe, of our country, working with our European colleagues, needs to assume that we need to get off Russian energy as fast as possible.
That will be good for our security.
This post was amended at 2.55pm on 29 September. It initially said that the Liberal Democrats were “the third largest political party in the UK’s parliament”, and then was amended to say that they were “the fourth largest political party in the UK’s parliament”. The Liberal Democrats are the fourth largest party in the House of Commons. They are the third largest political party by representation in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Continue reading...Popular Front of India, which says it fights for rights of minorities, victim of ‘political vendetta’ by Hindu nationalist government
An Islamic organisation that says it fights discrimination against minorities in India has disbanded after the government declared it and its affiliates unlawful, accusing them of involvement in terrorism.
The government of Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) accused the Popular Front of India (PFI) group of having been involved in “terrorism” and “anti-national activities”.
Continue reading...Family of Nnamdi Kanu granted judicial review over failure of Britain to intervene after arrest last year
The family of a British citizen who was allegedly taken to Nigeria in an act of extraordinary rendition has been granted a court hearing to challenge the UK government for not intervening in his case.
Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a prominent separatist movement proscribed in Nigeria, was arrested in Kenya in June last year before being transported against his will to Nigeria, where he has been held ever since.
Continue reading...Pyongyang fired ballistic missiles into the sea just hours before US vice-president arrived in Seoul
The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, has condemned North Korea’s “provocative nuclear rhetoric” during a trip to South Korea that included a visit to the heavily armed border dividing the peninsula.
Harris arrived in Seoul on Thursday, hours after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, in a move that underlines Washington’s struggle to rein in the regime’s weapons programme.
Continue reading...Myanmar junta’s sentencing of ousted leader and economic adviser Sean Turnell described as ‘cruel injustice’
Aung San Suu Kyi and the Australian academic Sean Turnell, who served as her adviser, have been sentenced to three years in prison after a closed trial in Myanmar, according to reports.
Turnell, an economist at Sydney’s Macquarie University, was first detained on 6 February last year, a few days after the military ousted Myanmar’s elected government, plunging the country into chaos.
Continue reading...Animal welfare law passes two years after sinking of Gulf Livestock 1 in a typhoon killed crew and 6,000 cattle
New Zealand will ban live animal exports from next April, two years after storms sank a livestock ship, killing 41 crew members and 6,000 cattle.
The death of two New Zealanders among the crew of the Gulf Livestock 1, which sank in a September 2020 typhoon, helped galvanise the movement to ban exports of live sheep and cattle.
Continue reading...Mayor Libby Schaaf calls for gun restrictions after shooting at Rudsdale Newcome high school for recently immigrated students
California authorities are searching for at least two people in connection with a shooting on a school campus in Oakland that left six people injured.
Wednesday’s shooting occurred at Rudsdale Newcomer high school, which serves students who are at risk of not graduating and have recently immigrated to the US after fleeing their home countries “because of violence and instability”. The school is one of four adjacent schools that serve middle and high school students on Fontaine Street just outside East Oakland.
This story was amended on 28 September 2022 to clarify that the shooting happened at a grade school, not a high school
Continue reading...Figures likely to be an underestimate, says Global Witness, as land defenders are killed by hitmen, crime groups and governments
More than 1,700 murders of environmental activists were recorded over the past decade, an average of a killing nearly every two days, according to a new report.
Killed by hitmen, organised crime groups and their own governments, at least 1,733 land and environmental defenders were murdered between 2012 and 2021, figures from Global Witness show, with Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines, Mexico and Honduras the deadliest countries.
Continue reading...King’s College London finds 65% believe campuses places of ‘robust debate’ – but growing number disagrees
Most UK students say their universities are places of free speech and debate – although a growing number are aware of free speech being restricted on campus, a study published by King’s College London has found.
The analysis, by KCL’s Policy Institute, found that 65% of students agreed that “free speech and robust debate are well protected in my university”, a higher proportion than the 63% who felt that way in a survey three years ago.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Zelenskiy’s chief of staff says sanctions should go further as international group concludes Russia’s actions pass terrorism threshold
The head of the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency has called for sweeping American and European sanctions targeting Moscow after an official report drawn up by an international working group concluded Russia should now be declared a “state sponsor of terrorism”.
The call from Andriy Yermak, the second most powerful Ukrainian government official after president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, came after Ukraine accused Russia of sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, an accusation that adds to its claim that Russia has shown all the characteristics of a terrorist state under US and international law.
Continue reading...Government says country ‘moving ahead’ with ceasefire as new leftist president Gustavo Petro promises ‘total peace’
At least 10 armed groups in Colombia, including the Gulf Clan crime gang and dissident members of the Farc rebels who rejected a peace deal have agreed to participate in unilateral ceasefires, according to the government.
President Gustavo Petro, who took office in August, has promised to seek “total peace” with armed groups, fully implementing a 2016 peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) and meeting with dissidents and gangs.
Continue reading...Severe storm that killed two and flattened homes in Atlantic Canada highlights need for longterm strategy against climate change
Brian “Smokey” Osmond was cooking at his home in Newfoundland’s coastal Port aux Basques when he spotted flood waters creeping into his garage on Saturday morning.
Osmond moved his truck up a hill to safety. But as he returned, a powerful storm surge struck.
Continue reading...Organisers call on nations to carry on crucial climate negotiations despite differences on geopolitical issues
The Egyptian hosts of the next UN climate summit have issued a plea for countries to set aside tensions and animosity over the Ukraine war for the sake of focusing on the climate crisis.
Egypt will host the Cop27 conference in Sharm El-Sheikh in November, intended as a forum for companies to fulfil the promises they made at the landmark Cop26 summit in Glasgow last year.
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