Category Archives: World News

California fast-food workers close to winning historic protections

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New fast-food council would have power to set standards for wages and working conditions for half a million employees

California lawmakers approved a nation-leading measure that would give more than half a million fast-food workers more power and protections, over the objections of restaurant owners who warn it would drive up consumers’ costs.

The bill will create a new 10-member Fast Food Council with equal numbers of workers’ delegates and employers’ representatives, along with two state officials, empowered to set minimum standards for wages, hours and working conditions in California.

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Canada’s deputy prime minister called traitor in ‘disgusting display of abuse’

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Incident in which Chrystia Freeland is subjected to foul-mouthed tirade at city hall meeting in Alberta is being investigated

Canadian police are investigating after the deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, was subjected to a foul-mouthed tirade at city hall meeting.

A video posted on Twitter shows a large man approach Freeland during the session in Grande Prairie, Alberta, swearing at her and calling her a “traitor″.

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Priti Patel meets Albanian police over fast-track removal plan

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Home Office aims to crack down on people from ‘safe and prosperous country’ arriving via Channel

Plans to fast-track the removal of Albanian nationals entering the UK via small boat crossings have moved closer after Priti Patel met Albanian police.

Monday’s meeting was part of two days of talks on the sharing of forensics and biometrics to clamp down on anyone entering who has a criminal record in Albania, the Home Office said.

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US navy intervenes after Iran seizes American sea drone

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Iran’s Revolutionary Guard tried to tow away an unmanned vessel in the Persian Gulf but the fifth fleet secured its release

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized an American sea drone in the Persian Gulf and tried to tow it away, only releasing the unmanned vessel when a US navy warship and helicopter approached, according to US officials.

The incident on Tuesday marks the first time the navy’s Middle East-based fifth fleet’s new drone taskforce has been targeted by Iran.

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Wholesale gas prices tumble as Europe prepares to intervene in energy markets

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European Commission says it is working ‘flat out’ on emergency intervention and on longer-term structural reform

The wholesale price of gas has dropped sharply in a rare respite from recent highs on signs that Europe is preparing to intervene directly in energy markets.

The European Commission said it was working “flat out” on an emergency package, and on a longer-term “structural reform of the electricity market” to combat soaring prices while efforts to fill gas storage facilities appear to be ahead of schedule.

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Bolsonaro under fire over claims family paid for 51 properties in cash

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Brazilian president must ‘explain the origins of this money’, says reporter behind seven-month investigation

Jair Bolsonaro’s murky family finances have come under renewed scrutiny after claims the Brazilian president and close relatives used cash to pay for more than 50 properties worth millions of dollars.

The allegations – the result of a seven-month investigation by the Brazilian news group UOL – suggest that between 1990 and 2022, members of the Bolsonaro clan repeatedly used large sums of cash to pay for flats, houses and plots of land in cities including Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

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Historic monuments resurface as severe drought shrinks Spain’s reservoirs

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Prehistoric stone circle and 11th-century church uncovered as country’s reservoirs hit 36% of normal capacity

A huge megalithic complex and a centuries-old church are among the underwater monuments to have resurfaced in Spain as a severe drought causes water levels to plunge.

After a prolonged dry spell, Spain’s reservoirs – which supply water for cities and farms – are at just under 36% capacity, according to environment ministry figures for August.

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Canada invokes treaty with US in push to keep cross-border pipeline open

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Canada warns of ‘significant’ economic damage in the event of a shutdown of Line 5, which travels through Michigan

Canada has once again invoked a longstanding treaty with the US as it seeks to keep a controversial cross-border pipeline open, warning of “significant” economic damage to both countries in the event of a shutdown.

Canada’s foreign minister said Line 5, a pipeline operated by Calgary-based Enbridge, was a critical source of energy security.

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Taiwan fires warning shots at Chinese drone

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Island country’s president says Taiwan could take ‘strong countermeasures’ if necessary

Taiwan fired warning shots at a Chinese drone that buzzed an offshore islet shortly after President Tsai Ing-wen said she had ordered Taiwan’s military to take “strong countermeasures” against what she termed Chinese provocations.

It was the first time warning shots have been fired in such an incident amid a period of heightened tension between China and Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory. Taiwan strongly disputes China’s sovereignty claims.

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Israeli court sentences director of Gaza charity to 12 years in prison

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World Vision International worker accused of funnelling aid money to Hamas in trial largely held in secret

An Israeli court has sentenced the Gaza director of an international charity to 12 years in prison on allegations of funnelling aid money to Hamas, the end of a high-profile case mired in controversy and largely held in secret.

Disregarding UN concerns over a lack of evidence in the six-year case, the district court in the southern city of Beersheba said Mohammad el Halabi, who had been Gaza’s director for World Vision International, would have to serve six years in prison taking into account the deduction of the amount he was held during the trial.

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UK asylum seeker deal leaves Rwanda hostel residents homeless

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Survivors of Rwandan genocide were told to vacate hostel two days after Priti Patel signed £120m deal

Former residents of a hostel in Rwanda who were forced to leave under a controversial deal to house asylum seekers flown from the UK say they have been left homeless and destitute while the property remains unused.

The men, all of whom are survivors of the Rwandan genocide, had lived in Hope Hostel in Kigali for up to eight years. But they were told to vacate two days after Priti Patel, the British home secretary, signed a £120m agreement to send refugees arriving in the UK by small boats to the east African country.

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First ship carrying grain from Ukraine docks on Horn of Africa

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Food experts say shipment is drop in bucket for drought-hit Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia but hope supplies pick up

The first ship carrying grain from Ukraine for people in the hungriest parts of the world has docked at Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, as areas of east Africa are badly affected by deadly drought and conflict.

Food security experts say it is a drop in the bucket for the vast needs in the worst-hit countries of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, the country to which the shipment is going. But the flow of Ukrainian grain to other hungry parts of the world is expected to continue, with another ship leaving on Tuesday for Yemen. The UN World Food Programme has said it was working on multiple ships.

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China’s Communist party to hold congress set to cement Xi’s rule

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Xi Jinping expected to be given third term and be anointed as country’s most powerful leader in decades

China’s ruling Communist party will begin its 20th congress on 16 October, state media has reported, a meeting at which President Xi Jinping is expected to be anointed as the country’s most powerful leader in decades.

The congress in Beijing comes as Xi faces significant political headwinds, including an ailing economy, deteriorating relations with the US and a strict zero-Covid policy that has accelerated China’s inward turn from the world.

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Gypsies and Travellers fear missing out on energy bills support

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Government urged to ensure thousands living in park homes in Great Britain receive £400 payments

Gypsy and Traveller groups are calling on the government to ensure thousands of households living in park homes are not excluded from its energy bills support scheme this winter as bills soar.

The scheme will pay out a total of £400 to all households in Great Britain with a domestic electricity connection between October and March, with monthly payments administered by their energy supplier.

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Top Secret Service official at heart of January 6 Trump row steps down

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Tony Ornato, who reportedly told aide Trump lunged for steering wheel as Capitol attack was starting, was key figure to committee

Top US Secret Service official Tony Ornato, who has become a figure of intense interest to the congressional committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack, has retired from the agency.

Ornato was thrust into the center of the January 6 furor as an eyewitness to some of the most critical incidents involving Donald Trump in the hours leading up to the deadly assault on the US Capitol.

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Death at California senior home after dishwasher soap served instead of juice

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Officials investigating after three residents at San Mateo facility reportedly ingested liquid given mistakenly by staff

One resident of a California home for senior citizens died and two others were hospitalized after the complex’s staff mistakenly served them dishwashing liquid thinking it was drinking juice over the weekend, according to officials.

Three people living at Atria Park senior living facility in San Mateo, California, just south of San Francisco, had to be taken to a hospital after ingesting the liquid in question on Saturday morning. One of them later died, and the local police, the state department of social services and the facility itself are investigating, Atria Park officials said in a statement provided to media outlets on Monday.

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Pakistan not to blame for climate crisis-fuelled flooding, says PM Shehbaz Sharif

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Sharif’s climate change minister called the flooding a ‘climate catastrophe’ and said the south Asian nation was ‘paying the price’ for western use of fossil fuels

Pakistan is not to blame for a climate crisis-fuelled disaster that has flooded much of the country, the prime minister has said, as he made a desperate plea for international help in what he said was the “toughest moment” in the nation’s history.

“We are suffering from it but it is not our fault at all,” Shehbaz Sharif told journalists on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference where his climate change minister referred to the flooding as a “climate catastrophe”.

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Spanish region urges ‘respect for bulls’ after seven deaths at fiestas

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More than 300 festival goers also injured during 2022’s Bous al Carrer festivities

Authorities in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia are calling on festival goers not to “lose respect for bulls” after seven people were killed by the animals during this year’s Bous al Carrer bull-running fiestas.

The summer festivities – which translate as “bulls on the street”, and which are held in towns and villages across Valencia – have also resulted in more than 300 injuries in the past two months.

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Eurostar to axe direct trains from London to Disneyland Paris over Brexit

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High-speed rail firm blames departure from EU and Covid for decision to halt service next summer

Eurostar has decided to stop direct services from London to Disneyland Paris from next summer, citing the fallout from Brexit and Covid.

The high-speed train operator said on Tuesday it was scrapping trains running from the British capital to the Disneyland site in Marne-la-Vallée, in the eastern Paris suburbs.

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