Category Archives: World News

Trump signs memo targeting ‘domestic terrorism’ amid fears of leftwing crackdown

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US president criticizes ‘anarchists and agitators’ as he unveils memo expected to meet fierce legal pushback

Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum on Thursday aimed at reining in what he has called a radical leftwing domestic “terror network” but which seemed likely to meet fierce legal pushback from critics depicting it as a licence for a broad crackdown on his political opponents.

At a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, the memorandum was presented as aimed at “establishing a comprehensive strategy to investigate, disrupt and dismantle all stages of organized political violence and domestic terrorism”.

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White House tells agencies to prepare for firings if government shuts down

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Democrats accuse Trump of intimidation tactics after memo outlines much more aggressive step than previous shutdowns

The White House is telling federal agencies to prepare large-scale firings of workers if the government shuts down next week in a partisan fight over spending plans – prompting the Democrats to accuse Donald Trump of intimidation tactics.

In a memo released on Wednesday night, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said agencies should consider a reduction in force for federal programs whose funding would lapse next week, is not otherwise funded and is “not consistent with the president’s priorities”.

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Big trees in Amazon more climate-resistant than previously believed

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Forest is ‘remarkably resilient to climate change’, but remains under threat from fires and deforestation

The biggest trees in the Amazon are growing larger and more numerous, according to a new study that shows how an intact rainforest can help draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and sequester it in bark, trunk, branch and root.

Scientists said the paper, published in Nature Plants on Thursday, was welcome confirmation that big trees are proving more climate resilient than previously believed, and undisturbed tropical vegetation continues to act as an effective carbon sink despite rising temperatures and strong droughts.

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Washington backing plan for Tony Blair to head transitional Gaza authority

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Reported proposal for international body to oversee Gaza for up to five years counters UN-backed plan for faster transition to Palestinian rule

The White House is backing a plan that would see Tony Blair head a temporary administration of the Gaza Strip – initially without the direct involvement of the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to Israeli media reports.

Under the proposal, Blair would lead a body called the Gaza International Transitional Authority (Gita) that would have a mandate to be Gaza’s “supreme political and legal authority” for as long as five years.

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Doug Ford to ban speed cameras in Ontario in populist appeal to suburban voters

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Canada premier’s move prompts criticism from road safety activists and is likely to cue new showdown with Toronto

Doug Ford has announced plans to ban speed cameras in Ontario, describing the devices as an out-of-control “tax grab” in his latest populist appeal to suburban voters.

The move prompted criticism from road safety activists and is likely to cue another showdown with Toronto, after the mayor of Canada’s largest city urged councillors to keep the cameras in place, warning that “speed kills”.

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Israel’s future in Uefa could come to a head before World Cup qualifiers

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  • National team and club sides may face suspension

  • Next Uefa international break begins on 6 October

Uefa could decide as early as next week whether to suspend Israel from its competitions, with the governing body facing growing pressure from inside and outside the game.

Reports on Thursday, initially in the Times, suggested a vote that would determine Israel’s participation in World Cup qualifying and that of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League could be held by Uefa’s executive committee before the international break begins on 6 October.

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Sarkozy’s spectacular downfall marks turning point in France’s struggle against graft

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Experts say political legacy of former president convicted of criminal conspiracy now appears impossible to rebuild

When a Paris court handed Nicolas Sarkozy a five-year prison sentence on Thursday – for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to get election campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi – it was a historic moment for modern France.

The rightwing Sarkozy, who served as president between 2007 and 2012, was known in office not just for his hard line on immigration and national identity but for championing harsher sentencing for delinquents. He is now expected to enter jail within a matter of months.

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Sarkozy says he will ‘sleep in jail but with head held high’ after conviction

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Former French president receives five-year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy over pact with Gaddafi regime

The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy said he would “sleep in jail but with my head held high” after receiving a five-year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy – the first time a former head of state has been sent to prison in modern French history.

The verdict and sentencing followed a trial in which he and his aides were accused of making a corruption pact with the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to receive funding for the 2007 French presidential election campaign.

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Activists outraged after Rio lawmakers approve ‘wild west bonus’ for police who kill ‘criminals’

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Similar legislation introduced in Rio in mid-1990s caused an explosion of extrajudicial killings in the city’s favelas

Human rights activists have voiced outrage after Rio de Janeiro’s parliament approved plans to pay police officers a “wild west bonus” for “neutralizing criminals” during operations.

The move is a throwback to the mid-1990s when Rio’s then governor, Marcello Alencar, introduced similar legislation that caused an explosion of extrajudicial killings in the city’s favelas.

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Israel carrying out crime against humanity in Gaza, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas tells UN – as it happened

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Speech by Palestinian Authority president also says Hamas should have no role in governing Palestine and must disarm

Alimi says the policy of containment has given the Houthis time to expand its arsenal.

“It has become clear the peace we seek cannot be asked for but must be imposed by force,” he says.

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Why are Moldova’s parliamentary elections on Sunday so important?

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The background, key players and likely outcome of a contest of crucial interest to both Europe and Russia

Moldova will vote this Sunday in parliamentary elections that its president has described as the most important in the history of the small country. The results will confirm if Moldova, a former Soviet republic that gained independence in 1991, continues on its path of western integration, or moves back into Russia’s orbit.

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Liev Schreiber and Debra Messing among names rejecting pledge to boycott Israeli films

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More than 1,200 industry figures claim the pledge is ‘a document of misinformation’ and that much of the Israeli film and TV industry are ‘often the loudest critics of government policy’

More than 1,200 entertainment industry figures have signed a new open letter rejecting the recent high-profile pledge by thousands of their peers to boycott Israeli films over the war in Gaza.

Stars including Liev Schreiber, Mayim Bialik, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Debra Messing are among those who have lent their names to the letter, which says the previous pledge “advocates” for “the erasure of art”.

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Taiwan convicts four former ruling party officials of spying for China

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Huang Chu-jung, previously an assistant to a New Taipei city councillor, receives longest sentence of 10 years

Four former employees of Taiwan’s ruling political party have been convicted of spying for China and handed prison sentences of up to 10 years.

The four include a former aide to Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, when he was vice-president and for a time during his current presidency, and a senior staffer to Joseph Wu, then foreign minister and now the national security chief.

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Weakened Super Typhoon Ragasa heads towards Vietnam after battering China and Hong Kong

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Huge clear-up efforts start after storm leaves trail of destruction, with 25 reported dead in Taiwan and the Philippines

Huge clear-up operations were under way in southern China and Hong Kong on Thursday, after Super Typhoon Ragasa battered the region, causing widespread flooding and damaged roads.

Ragasa, the most powerful tropical cyclone so far this year, left a trail of damage across Hong Kong, which resumed international flights on Thursday but kept kindergartens and some schools closed. In the economic hub of Guangdong province in mainland China, where more than 2 million people were evacuated ahead of the super typhoon, crews used excavators to clear thousands of toppled trees and unblock roads.

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‘Tunnel vision’: how Israel is using archaeology for political ends

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Scientists say Netanyahu government and its US backers are trying to construct a history shorn of all complexity

When the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, visited Jerusalem this month, the itinerary his Israeli hosts laid on involved more archaeology than anything else. On his first day, Benjamin Netanyahu took Rubio underground to excavations near the Western Wall. On the second day, Israel’s prime minister gave his American visitor the honour of inaugurating a tunnel burrowed under a Palestinian district, along a Roman-era street nicknamed the Pilgrimage Road, in a “City of David” archaeological park established by an Israeli settler organisation.

Both events were intended to emphasise Jerusalem’s Jewish roots and its status, Netanyahu stressed, as “our eternal and undivided capital”.

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Yemen needs two-state solution as no prospect of ousting Houthis, says southern leader

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Aidarous al-Zubaidi says Houthis will not be dislodged by bombing and path to political settlement is blocked

Yemen needs its own two-state solution, the president of its Southern Transitional Council (STC) has said, warning that there is currently no prospect of dislodging the Iran-backed Houthis from power in the north.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Aidarous al-Zubaidi told the Guardian: “The best solution for Yemen and the best path to stability is the two-state solution, whether by referendum or agreement. The reality on the ground is that there are two states militarily and economically.”

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‘Raring to go:’ the German remote-driving firm that hopes to make private car ownership redundant

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Europe has been slow to embrace robotaxis but Germany will allow remote-controlled rental cars from December

Having been summoned by a few clicks in an app, the electric car slows to a halt outside the former cargo hall of Berlin’s now defunct Tegel airport. No one is at the wheel, but upon a passenger stepping inside, a voice announces: “This is Bartek, I am your driver today. Please buckle up and we can be on our way.”

The car emits a friendly jingle, then makes its way to the former runway, where it performs a fault-free manoeuvre around a route marked by traffic cones.

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Former president Peter Mutharika defeats incumbent in Malawi presidential election

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Lazarus Chakwera, who presided over a multi-year economic crisis, concedes election after 85-year-old Mutharika wins 56.8% of vote

Malawians have voted in an 85-year-old former leader over an incumbent who presided over a multi-year economic crisis, high inflation, essential goods shortages, climate disasters and international aid cuts.

Peter Mutharika got 56.8% of the vote compared with 33% for Lazarus Chakwera, according to official results of the 16 September presidential election announced on Wednesday.

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‘Science demands action’: world leaders and UN push climate agenda forward despite Trump’s attacks

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Leaders unveil new targets to cut planet-heating pollution after Trump called climate crisis a ‘con job’

World leaders have unveiled new targets to cut planet-heating pollution at the United Nations, in a bid to spur fresh impetus to the beleaguered climate effort a day after Donald Trump called the crisis “the greatest con job ever perpetrated upon the world”.

A total of 120 countries and the European Union announced new goals to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in New York on Wednesday. The pledges most notably include one from China, the world’s leading emitter, which said it would cut emissions by 7-10% from its peak level by 2035.

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At least 20 people reported injured after drone strike on Israeli city of Eilat

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Two people seriously injured, says national ambulance service as military says drone was launched from Yemen

At least 20 people have been injured, two seriously, after a drone launched from Yemen hit Israel’s Red Sea resort city of Eilat on the border with Jordan and Egypt.

Police said the drone fell in Eilat’s city centre, causing damage in the area frequented by tourists.

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