Category Archives: World News

US announces new embassies in major Pacific push as it jostles with China for influence in region

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Vice-president Kamala Harris has announced postings in Kiribati and Tonga as leaders gather in Fiji for the Pacific Islands Forum

The US has announced a major step-up in its engagement with the Pacific region, including the establishment of new embassies in Kiribati and Tonga, in moves that will be seen as attempts to counter China’s growing influence in the region.

The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, made the announcement on Tuesday, as Pacific leaders gathered in Suva, Fiji for the Pacific Islands Forum, the most significant regional meeting.

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Family and friends of Shinzo Abe attend private funeral in Tokyo

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Members of the public pay their respects to former prime minister outside Buddhist temple

Family and friends of Japan’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, have attended his funeral at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo while members of the public paid their respects outside, four days after he was shot dead while making a campaign speech.

Mourners in black suits and dresses gathered at Zojoji temple for the private funeral service, while police officers monitored onlookers, some holding bunches of flowers, who had braved the early afternoon heat.

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US looking at new international body to record rights abuses in Yemen

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Rights activist say move is akin to asking Vladimir Putin to investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine

The Biden administration is exploring the creation of a new international committee to document and report on human rights violations in Yemen, months after a Saudi lobbying campaign quashed an independent United Nations investigation into possible war crimes.

The revelation comes on the eve of a tour of the Middle East by Joe Biden that will include a visit to Israel and – controversially – Saudi Arabia, where the US president has said his aim is to strengthen the “strategic partnership” while also “holding true to fundamental American values”.

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Maria Ressa: Amal Clooney condemns court after Nobel laureate’s conviction upheld

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Human rights lawyer’s team calls on new Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos Jr to ‘stop the rot’ and allow a free press

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has condemned a decision by a court in the Philippines to uphold the conviction of Nobel prize-winner Maria Ressa in a cyber libel case and her legal team has said the world is watching to see if newly elected president Ferdinand Marcos Jr will “stop the rot” or continue attacks on journalists.

Maria Ressa, co-founder of the website Rappler, lost her appeal last week against a conviction for cyber libel – just one of an onslaught of legal cases and investigations the journalist is battling.

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Shireen Abu Aqleh: family of killed journalist demand meeting with Biden

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Letter to president expresses ‘sense of betrayal’ for shielding Israel from accountability for her death ahead of his visit to Jerusalem

The family of Shireen Abu Aqleh, the renowned Palestinian-American journalist killed during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank, is demanding a meeting with President Biden during his visit to Jerusalem this week after accusing his administration of shielding Israel from accountability for her death.

Abu Aqleh’s brother, Anton, wrote to Biden on Friday expressing his family’s “grief, outrage and sense of betrayal” after the US state department concluded that Israeli forces were “likely responsible” for shooting the Al Jazeera reporter in the head in the West Bank city of Jenin in May but “found no reason to believe that this was intentional”.

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Protest in China over frozen bank accounts ends in violence

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Authorities says some customers will start getting their money back after angry crowd in Henan was broken up by heavy-handed security guards

A rare large-scale protest in China’s central Henan province has been violently broken up by unidentified security personnel, amid outcry over a financial scandal that has exposed the fragility of the country’s banking system.

A crowd of more than 1,000 protesters, according to some estimates, had gathered on Sunday in front of the Zhengzhou sub-branch of the People’s Bank of China to attempt to recover frozen savings held in rural banks.

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China influenced Kiribati exit from Pacific Islands Forum, MP claims

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Opposition leader calls withdrawal from PIF an ‘extreme move’ and claims the reasons offered by Kiribati’s president were just excuses

Kiribati’s decision to withdraw from the Pacific Islands Forum on the eve of the event was an extreme move driven by pressure from China, the Micronesian nation’s opposition leader says.

Tessie Lambourne, a former top diplomat who was elected to Kiribati’s parliament in 2020, said she was “shocked and extremely disappointed” by the government’s move to withdraw from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).

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Iran to supply Russia with hundreds of combat drones, US says

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White House says it shows how Russia’s weaponry has been depleted by its relentless bombardment of eastern Ukraine

Iran is planning to supply Russia with hundreds of weapons-capable drones for use in Ukraine, according to a top US official.

Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said the information received by the US supported views that Russia’s heavy bombardments in Ukraine, which have led it to consolidate gains in the country’s east in recent weeks, were “coming at a cost to the sustainment of its own weapons”.

Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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Patience is vital tactic in Ukraine’s hopes of turning tide against Russia

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Analysis: Kyiv says it is raising a million-strong army but it will need to carefully plan its counterattack

Ukraine hopes to assemble a “million strong” army to try to retake territory occupied by Russia, the defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said over the weekend. Its forces, he added, had also demonstrated to the US they could make good use of newly acquired longer-range rocket artillery, opening the door to the supply of more.

But however impressive sounding the claims were, it is hard to believe Ukraine is yet capable of an effective counteroffensive, even if the much-vaunted US Himars and the British M270 rocket artillery, with their range of 70km to 80km, have begun to arrive and are being put to good use. A turning of the military tide, if it happens at all, will most likely take time.

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Calls for crackdown on gangs in South Africa after spate of gun attacks

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Attack on tavern near Johannesburg in which 15 were killed was one of several similar incidents over the weekend

Campaigners in South Africa have called for a crackdown on increasingly powerful organised criminals armed with military-grade weapons, blamed for a string of recent deadly attacks.

Police are looking for suspected gang members who killed 15 people in a tavern near Johannesburg, the country’s commercial capital, using an assault rifle and 9mm pistols on Saturday night.

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EU seeks clarification from former EC vice-president over Uber revelations

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EU executive responds following claims Neelie Kroes lobbied Dutch PM and others

The EU executive has announced it will write to its former vice-president Neelie Kroes “for clarification” following revelations that she secretly helped Uber lobby the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, and a string of other national politicians.

The European Commission has been facing calls to open an immediate inquiry and “defend the EU’s integrity” in the wake of the reports, which showed that Kroes called Dutch government authorities about Uber less than six months after leaving her post as the EU’s top official on internet policy.

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Dior v Valentino: row breaks out after Rome show allegedly blocks boutique

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Dior reportedly demands €100,000 compensation from Valentino after Spanish Steps show ‘hampered’ access to store

A row has broken out in the world of high fashion after the French house Dior demanded compensation from Italian rival Valentino for allegedly blocking access to a Dior boutique during a show on the Spanish Steps in Rome, according to a claim by fashion website Women’s Wear Daily.

Valentino positioned its audience of fashion editors, photographers and celebrities – among them Naomi Campbell, Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway – at the foot of the 18th-century travertine staircase in Piazza di Spagna. The Dior shop on Via Condotti looks on to the piazza.

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Sunlight may trigger hormone that makes men hungrier, study suggests

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Scientists find ghrelin levels rose in men’s blood after sun exposure, but oestrogen appears to block increase in women

Summer sunshine can leave us feeling hot, sweaty and a bit burnt – but it may also make men hungrier, by triggering the release of an appetite-boosting hormone from fat stores in their skin, data suggests.

The study, which was published in the journal Nature Metabolism, adds to growing evidence that the effects of sun exposure may be more complex than first thought.

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Gang caught running fake Indian cricket league to dupe Russian gamblers

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Indian police say gang went to great lengths in betting scam reminiscent of the 1973 film The Sting

A gang set up a fake “Indian Premier League” tournament with farm labourers acting as players to dupe Russian punters in a betting scam reminiscent of the 1973 film The Sting.

The so-called “Indian Premier Cricket League” reached the quarter-final stage before the racket was busted by police in India.

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EU recommends second Covid booster for vulnerable and over-60s

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Almost all European countries have reported surge in infections, driven mainly by Omicron variant BA.5

European regulators have recommended a second Covid-19 booster jab for everyone over 60 as well as all medically vulnerable people across Europe amid mounting infections and hospitalisations.

The EU’s health and medicine agencies had previously recommended a second booster for people over the age of 80 in April. But with concerns growing over the rise in cases in Europe, driven mainly by the Omicron variant BA.5, the advice has been widened effective immediately.

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US tourist injured falling into Mount Vesuvius crater after taking selfie

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Man, 23, was trying to retrieve mobile phone and he and his family now face charges for entering forbidden area

An American tourist sustained minor injuries after he fell into the crater of Mount Vesuvius as he scrambled to retrieve his phone.

The 23-year-old and his family reached the 1,281m-high (4,202ft) summit of the volcano towering over the southern Italian city of Naples after bypassing a visitor turnstile and proceeding along an out-of-bounds path.

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Top Gun: Maverick: ‘Conversations’ under way for sequel

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Miles Teller, who stars alongside Tom Cruise in the hit action blockbuster, says he is keen, but ‘it’s all up to Tom’

Top Gun: Maverick actor Miles Teller has said he is “having conversations” with the film’s producer-star Tom Cruise about a sequel to the hit action blockbuster.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight at a charity golf event, Teller was responding to a question about the likelihood of a third Top Gun film. “That would be great, but that’s all up to [Tom Cruise]. It’s all up to Tom. I’ve been having some conversations with him about it. We’ll see.”

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Jafar Panahi is third film-maker in a week to be arrested in Iran

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Berlin winner in 2015 detained while querying arrest of another director after protests over building collapse

The award-winning director Jafar Panahi has become the third Iranian film-maker to be arrested in less than a week, the Mehr news agency has said, as he visited prosecutors over the detentions last week of Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad.

Panahi, 62, has won a slew of awards at international festivals for films that have critiqued modern Iran, including the top prize in Berlin for Taxi in 2015, and best screenplay at Cannes for 3 Faces in 2018.

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Weather tracker: heatwave to sweep northwards across Europe

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Parts of France and Germany likely to experience temperatures above 40C this week, while highs in Iberia could touch 47C

Europe is once again entering a period of significant heatwave conditions this week, with the possibility of some record-breaking temperatures.

Sweltering heat has already been affecting Iberia over the past few days, with temperatures 4-5C above the seasonal norm, leading to highs above 40C (104F). Through the rest of this week, the heat is likely to build even more intensely to about 7C above average, with maximum temperatures touching 46-47C in Seville, for instance.

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Florence Pugh hits back at ‘vulgar’ criticism of her body on social media

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Black Widow actor rails at ‘how easy it is for men to totally destroy a woman’s body, publicly, proudly, for everyone to see’

Florence Pugh has hit back at “vulgar” social media users who criticised her body, after she posted photographs of herself wearing a sheer dress at a fashion show.

“What happened to you to be so content on being so loudly upset by the size of my boobs and body?” said Pugh in an Instagram post on Sunday to her 7.4 million followers.

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