Trudeau’s team defend Bohemian Rhapsody rendition before Queen’s funeral

Clip of Canadian prime minister singing in London hotel two days before funeral has sparked criticism

A spokesperson for Justin Trudeau has defended the Canadian prime minister over a leaked video that showed him singing Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody in a London hotel lobby two days before Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.

The 14-second video clip, viewed more than 1.5m times, shows Trudeau in a T-shirt leaning against a piano at the Corinthia hotel and joining others in a rendition of one of the rock band Queen’s most famous songs.

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Brad Pitt makes surprise debut as a sculptor at Finland art gallery

Actor appears alongside Australian musician Nick Cave and British sculptor Thomas Houseago to reveal his first ever public art exhibition

Most know him for his blockbuster movies, chiselled cheekbones and high-profile relationships, but Brad Pitt can now add creating sculpture to his list of achievements after publicly debuting his first works of art in a lakeside museum in Finland.

The A-list Hollywood star unveiled the sculptures – what he called a “radical inventory of self” – at the Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere, a move that came as a surprise. It is the first time the “largely self taught” artist presented his sculptures to the public, the gallery said.

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Four occupied Ukraine regions plan imminent votes on joining Russia

‘Referendum’ announcements in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson may indicate move to annex territories

Four Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine have said they are planning to hold “referendums” on joining the Russian Federation in a series of coordinated announcements that could indicate the Kremlin has made a decision to formally annex the territories.

Moscow may be betting that a formal annexation would help halt Russian territorial losses, after a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive that has reclaimed large portions of territory in Kharkiv region.

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Venezuela intelligence agencies guilty of crimes against humanity – UN report

United Nations mission says President Nicolás Maduro and others ordered ‘grave crimes’ including torture to stifle opposition

Venezuela’s intelligence agencies are committing crimes against humanity as part of a plan orchestrated at the highest level of government to repress dissent, UN experts have concluded.

A team tasked with investigating alleged violations in Venezuela said it had uncovered how members of intelligence services implemented orders by President Nicolás Maduro and others in a scheme to stifle opposition.

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Israeli archaeologists find traces of opium in 3,500-year-old pottery

Archaeologists say find supports theory that drug was used in burial rituals, possibly to ‘enter ecstatic state’

Israeli archaeologists have discovered opium residue in 3,500-year-old pottery pieces, providing evidence to support the theory that the hallucinogenic drug was used in ancient burial rituals.

The joint investigation by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Weizmann Institute of Science began in 2012 when excavations in the central Israeli town of Yehud revealed a series of late bronze-age graves.

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Hong Kong journalist charged days before leaving for Oxford fellowship

Ronson Chan was due to travel to the UK when he was arrested for ‘obstructing police’

The head of Hong Kong’s journalist union was charged with obstructing police on Monday, 10 days before he was set to leave the city and begin an overseas fellowship at Oxford University.

Ronson Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), was arrested on 7 September over a dispute with two officers who asked to see his identification while he was covering a residents’ meeting at a public housing estate.

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Three people killed in Iran protests over death of Mahsa Amini

Kurdistan governor blames deaths on ‘plot by the enemy’ on fourth day of protests over 22-year-old’s death in custody

Iranian government officials have denounced a fourth day of protests after the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in police custody, claiming the demonstrators have fallen victim to a conspiracy by its enemies.

Mahsa Amini died on Friday after she was arrested by the morality police for not wearing the hijab and her trousers correctly, a tragic episode that has unleashed fury in the streets against the unaccountable and sometimes brutal treatment handed out to women by this branch of the police.

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Brothers of Italy suspends candidate after online post praising Hitler found

Election candidate for the rightwing party had called Hitler a ‘great statesman’ in a 2014 Facebook post

The far-right Brothers of Italy party has suspended an election candidate after it was discovered he had praised Adolf Hitler and described the group’s leader, Giorgia Meloni, as a “modern fascist”.

Calogero Pisano, a coordinator for Brothers of Italy in the Sicilian province of Agrigento, wrote on Facebook in 2014 that the Nazi leader was “a great statesman”.

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Tigrayan forces accuse Eritrea of launching full-scale offensive on border

Tigray People’s Liberation Front says Eritreans are fighting alongside Ethiopian government forces

Forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray region said troops from neighbouring Eritrea launched a “full-scale offensive” on Tuesday and heavy fighting was ongoing in several areas along the border.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the account on Twitter from Getachew Reda, a spokesperson for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

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Madeleine McCann’s parents lose challenge over Portuguese libel case

Couple sought redress from European court of human rights after libel case against detective was overturned

The parents of Madeleine McCann have lost their European court of human rights challenge to the Portuguese supreme court’s decision to throw out their libel case against a former detective who implicated them in their daughter’s disappearance.

Kate and Gerry McCann sued Gonçalo Amaral, who led the botched police search for Madeleine in 2007, over statements he made in a book, documentary and newspaper interview alleging that they were involved in Madeleine’s disappearance.

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‘We have reason to worry’: Italian left’s rising star Elly Schlein on the far-right threat

‘Italy’s AOC’ says the left has to try to regain trust and win over undecided voters before Sunday’s election

A rising star of Italy’s leftwing alliance has said it is working to regain trust as it seeks to tap the 40% of voters who are unsure of who to back in Sunday’s general election, and pledged to “fight until the very last day” to fend off what could be Italy’s first far-right government since the second world war.

Elly Schlein, a former MEP, first came to prominence in early 2020 after her small party, Coraggiosa (Courageous), played a pivotal role in stopping the far right from seizing power in the traditionally leftwing Emilia-Romagna region.

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Major earthquake shakes Mexico on anniversary of two previous tremors | First Thing

Quake registered at 7.5 magnitude on anniversary of earlier tremors. Plus, the rise and fall of Peloton

Good morning.

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake has struck western Mexico on the anniversary of two earlier devastating tremors, killing at least one person and causing flooding on the Pacific coast.

Was anyone killed? President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Twitter that the secretary of the navy told him one person was killed in the port city of Manzanillo, Colima, when a wall at a mall collapsed.

Did the quake cause a lot of damage? Michoacán authorities said there were no immediate reports of significant damage in that state beyond some cracks in buildings in the town of Coalcomán.

What was wrong with the original trial? An assistant state attorney Becky Feldman described details that undermined the conviction including unreliable witness testimony and a potentially biased detective. Feldman said: “I understand how difficult this is, but we need to make sure we hold the correct person accountable.”

What have Lee’s family said? They haven’t responded yet, but in 2016 they said: “It remains hard to see so many run to defend someone who committed a horrible crime, who destroyed our family, who refuses to accept responsibility, when so few are willing to speak up for Hae.”

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Met handcuff peaceful anti-Bolsonaro protester to delight of Brazil’s far right

Police accused of unnecessary force as president’s son shares video of detention to show Britons ‘don’t like communists either’

The Metropolitan police have been accused of using unnecessary force and handing a propaganda coup to Brazil’s far right after a peaceful demonstrator was detained and handcuffed during a protest outside the Brazilian ambassador’s London residence.

Ali Rocha, a 50-year-old Brazilian and British citizen, and her flatmate were intercepted by officers on Sunday lunchtime as they joined a protest against Brazil’s radical rightwing president, Jair Bolsonaro, who was in the UK for the Queen’s funeral.

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Warnings over floods and landslides in Japan in wake of Typhoon Nanmadol

Two dead and thousands without power as storm dumps heavy rain and authorities warn six million to evacuate

Two people have died and more than 100 were injured after Typhoon Nanmadol slammed into Japan on Monday, dumping heavy rain, paralysing traffic and leaving tens of thousands of homes without power.

The worst of the rainfall was seen in the southernmost island of Kyushu, where two people died, according to the fire and disaster management agency, before the typhoon was downgraded to a tropical storm as it made its way to the Pacific Ocean.

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Ukraine war to take centre stage at UN as west and Russia vie for support

The general assembly is expected to see fresh tussles over future of Ukraine, as well as the threats of famine and the climate crisis in the global south

The UN general assembly summit this week will be dominated by a struggle – between the US and its allies on one side and Russia on the other – for global support over the fate of Ukraine, as the global south fights to stop the conflict from overshadowing the existential threats of famine and the climate crisis.

With a return to fully in-person general debate, presidents and prime ministers will be converging on New York, many of them direct from London, where the diplomacy got underway on the sidelines of the Queen’s funeral.

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Israel risks crossing Hezbollah ‘red line’ as it prepares to connect to disputed gas field

The Karish maritime reservoir, part of which is claimed by Lebanon, is estimated to hold 2-3tn cubic feet of natural gas

Israel is preparing to connect a disputed Mediterranean gas field to its national gas network, a development helping the country cement its new role as a supplier to Europe at the risk of inflaming tensions with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The Israeli energy ministry said last week that it would conduct tests on the rig and natural transmission system in the Karish maritime reservoir, part of which is claimed by neighbouring Lebanon. The work is expected to begin on Tuesday, and London-listed company Energean, which has licensed the field, has said that it is “on track to deliver [the] first gas from the Karish development project within weeks.”

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Equatorial Guinea abolishes death penalty, state television reports

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo signs new penal code for central African country

Equatorial Guinea, one of the world’s most authoritarian countries, has abolished the death penalty, according to state television, which cited a new law signed by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

Capital punishment was “totally abolished” in the oil-rich central African country after the president signed a new penal code, the vice-president tweeted on Monday.

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Greens urge Labor to redirect fossil fuel subsidies to renewables in budget – as it happened

Victorian government commits $1bn to emergency departments in Melbourne’s north

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has vowed to expand two of the state’s busiest emergency departments in Melbourne’s north, in a pre-election $1bn health pledge.

We know there is pressure in the system.

This means more emergency department space, more emergency department patients being treated and a stronger and better health system for millions more.

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Major earthquake shakes Mexico on anniversary of two previous tremors

Quake registered at 7.5 magnitude and struck off the coast of La Placita de Morelos on the anniversary of two devastating tremors

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake has struck western Mexico on the anniversary of two earlier devastating tremors, killing at least one person and causing flooding on the Pacific coast.

The quake hit at 1.05pm local time, striking near the town of La Placita de Morelos in the state of Michoacán at a depth of 15km.

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