Category Archives: World News

Cramped ship carrying more than 800 Haitians lands in Cuba

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Group includes children and pregnant women as exodus from crisis-hit Haiti grows

A ship carrying more than 800 Haitians who were apparently trying to reach the US has landed instead in central Cuba, in what is thought to be the largest group yet in a swelling exodus of people from the crisis-stricken Caribbean countr.

The Communist party newspaper Granma quoted Red Cross officials in the province of Villa Clara as saying the 842 people crammed on to the vessel had been given medical attention and were being housed at a tourist campground.

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Kyiv denounces Putin’s ‘illegal’ plan for issuing Russian passports in Ukraine

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Putin signs decree to make it easier for residents of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions to get passports

Moscow’s plan to make it easier for Ukrainians living in Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine to receive Russian citizenship violates international law, Kyiv has said, accusing the Kremlin of “criminal” behaviour.

“The illegal issuing of passports ... is a flagrant violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as norms and principles of international humanitarian law,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

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‘America is killing itself’: world reacts with horror and incomprehension to Texas shooting

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The international press responds scathingly to the tolerance for gun violence in the US: ‘nothing fundamentally changes’

Politicians and media around the world have reacted with horror, incomprehension and weary resignation to news that an 18-year-old gunman had murdered 19 children and two teachers in America’s 27th school shooting so far this year.

The politicians mostly observed formalities; commentators, not so much.

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Refugee children handed anti-illegal migration playing cards, Australian charity says

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Cards branded with Australian government’s ‘Zero Chance’ logo and QR code to border force website distributed in Indonesia

Playing cards adorned with the Australian government’s “Zero Chance” campaign against “illegal migration” were distributed to refugee children in Indonesia by people trespassing on school grounds, the charity running the school alleges.

The playing cards were allegedly given to children during break time at the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre in west Java.

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New era for Philippines as Ferdinand Marcos Jr proclaimed president

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Dictator’s son will take office on 30 June, marking the dynasty’s return to the seat of power

Ferdinand Marcos Jr was flanked by his family, including matriarch Imelda Marcos, as he stood at the rostrum in the Philippines Congress to be proclaimed president-elect, marking the dynasty’s return to the seat of power.

Marcos Jr won almost 59% of votes in an election earlier this month, more than double that of his closest rival. His landslide victory followed a highly divisive campaign that was dominated by disinformation that sought to glorify the regime of his dictator father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr, who plundered as much as $10bn while in office, and presided over rife human rights abuses.

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Republicans offer thoughts and prayers – but not gun control to stop the killings

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Response in Congress to Texas school shooting that left 21 people dead comes from all-too-familiar Republican playbook

As the cycle of American gun violence took its latest turn on Tuesday, with at least 19 children and two teachers brutally murdered at an elementary school in the small town of Uvalde, Texas, the response from the Republican right came from an all too familiar playbook.

Thoughts and prayers, obfuscation and inaction.

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Cow you see me, cow you don’t: Spanish town’s Osborne bull turns sky blue

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Anonymous artist behind billboard’s makeover says it was ‘just a poetic endeavour’

In the 65 years since their unmistakeable silhouettes first appeared on Spanish hillsides, the bulls created to advertise Osborne brandy have hosted cinematic trysts, been given a Guernica paintjob, and even borne a phone-checking, coffee-drinking Batman.

Until a fortnight ago, however, no bull had ever vanished, almost completely, into the blue depths of the Spanish spring sky. Today, thanks to an overnight sortie and some very long brushes, the Osborne bull on the outskirts of the small Galician town of Xinzo de Limia is a fetching shade of azure – and a reflection on the impossibility of doing justice to the ever-changing heavens.

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Kate Moss testifies that Johnny Depp did not push her down stairs

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Supermodel, 48, says in three-minute appearance that she and Depp had been in romantic relationship between 1994 and 1998

Kate Moss testified by video for just three minutes on Wednesday in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, dispelling a rumor that Depp had pushed her down a flight of steps when he was her boyfriend in the 1990s.

The 48-year-old supermodel, speaking from her English home in Gloucestershire, told the court in Virginia that she and Depp had been in a romantic relationship from 1994 to 1998.

Depp’s attorney Benjamin Chew asked Moss if anything had happened while they were on holiday at the GoldenEye resort in Jamaica.

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Quebec moves to protect French language and restrict use of English

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Premier says ‘we are proud to be a francophone nation in North America’ but English-speaking critics threaten legal action

Quebec’s government has successfully passed sweeping French language protections that critics warn will reshape all aspects of public life.

Bill 96, which passed on Tuesday afternoon in the province’s national assembly, will require new immigrants and refugees to communicate with provincial officials exclusively in French six months after arriving or face a loss of services. The bill also limits the use of English in the legal system and caps enrolment at the province’s English-language schools.

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Fears Biden’s Taiwan comments may raise tensions despite rowback

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President said US would ‘get involved ’ if China attacked Taiwan, which some saw as policy shift

Comments by Joe Biden suggesting major US policy changes in regard to defending Taiwan before Washington quickly rowed back have sparked concern that the confusion could escalate tensions.

On Monday, in answer to a reporter’s question at a meeting of the informal Quad alliance, the US president said the US would “get involved militarily” to defend Taiwan if it came under attack from China. The answer was interpreted by some as an indication of a major policy shift. However, within minutes the state department began walking back the comments, and Biden himself clarified on Tuesday that there was no change to US policy.

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Pfizer to offer all its drugs not-for-profit to 45 lower-income countries

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Company launches ‘healthier world’ accord in Davos and speaks to other pharma firms about similar steps

Pfizer has announced it is to supply all its current and future patent-protected medicines and vaccines on a not-for-profit basis to 45 lower-income countries and is talking to other big drugmakers about similar steps.

Announcing an “accord for a healthier world” at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, the New York-based pharma firm pledged to provide all its products that are available in the US and Europe on a cost basis to 1.2 billion people in all 27 low-income countries such as Afghanistan and Ethiopia, plus 18 lower-middle-income countries including Ghana.

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Ukraine war weighs heavy as apocalyptic mood shrouds Davos

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From a warning of third world war to global stagflation or depression, gathering is unsurprisingly sombre

The impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominated a delayed and slimmed-down World Economic Forum this year but it took George Soros to articulate what many of those making the trip to the Swiss Alps had been thinking.

Davos would not be Davos without a broadside from the 91-year-old philanthropist and former speculator, but the conflict in eastern Europe prompted his most apocalyptic warning yet.

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Alleged Wagner Group fighters accused of murdering civilians in Ukraine

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Belarusian pair are first international mercenaries to face war crimes charges since invasion began

Two alleged Wagner Group fighters from Belarus have been accused of murdering civilians near Kyiv, making them the first international mercenaries to face war crimes charges in Ukraine.

Ukrainian prosecutors late on Tuesday released the names and photographs of eight men wanted for alleged war crimes – including murder and torture – in the village of Motyzhyn. Several are believed to have fought in Syria.

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‘It seems this heat will take our lives’: Pakistan city fearful after hitting 51C

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Residents of Jacobabad say loss of trees and water facilities makes record-breaking temperatures unbearable

Muhammad Akbar, 40, sells dried chickpeas on a wheelbarrow in Jacobabad, and has suffered heatstroke three times in his life.

But now, he says, the heat is getting worse. “In those days there were many trees in the whole city and there was no shortage of water and we had other facilities so we could easily beat the heat. But now there are no trees or other facilities including water, due to which the heat is becoming unbearable. I’m scared that this heat will take our lives in the coming years.”

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Russian assault on eastern Ukraine threatens to encircle Sievierodonetsk

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Zelenskiy calls situation in Donbas ‘extremely difficult’ as Russia tries to carve up Ukrainian-held territory

Russian forces have launched fresh assaults on towns in eastern Ukraine, with the city of Sievierodonetsk increasingly in danger of being totally encircled.

The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said delays in arrival of western arms to the frontline had left Kyiv “catastrophically short of heavy weapons”.

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Xi Jinping defends China’s human rights record to visiting UN commissioner

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Leader warns against using issue as ‘excuse to interfere in internal affairs of other countries’ as Michelle Bachelet goes to Xinjiang

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has spoken with the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, as she visited the Xinjiang region, warning against the politicisation of human rights as an “excuse to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries” and defending his government’s record.

It comes amid renewed defensiveness in Beijing after the publication of a significant data leak from Xinjiang’s security apparatus, including mugshots of thousands of detained Uyghurs and internal documents outlining shoot-to-kill policies for those who try to escape.

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Egypt says climate finance must be top of agenda at Cop27 talks

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Host of November’s summit wants focus to be on ‘moving from pledges to implementation’

Financial assistance for developing countries must be at the top of the agenda for UN climate talks this year, the host country, Egypt, has made clear, as governments will be required to follow through on promises made at the Cop26 summit last year.

Egypt will host Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in November. The talks will take place in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, as well as rising energy and food prices around the world, leaving rich countries grappling with a cost-of-living crisis and poor countries struggling with debt mountains.

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Médecins Sans Frontières condemned for ‘profiting from exploitative images’

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Medical charity criticised for using images that ‘endanger and exploit children’ amid row over photos from DRC identifying child rape survivor

Doctors, photographers, human rights activists and academics have written to Médecins Sans Frontières to raise concerns that the medical charity is exploiting the trauma of vulnerable patients to promote its work.

In an open letter to the international president and MSF board, almost 50 signatories, who include current and former staff, allege that the aid organisation has commissioned, published and allowed the sale of photographs that endanger and exploit vulnerable black people, including children.

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New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern responds to Texas school shooting

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Prime minister says after 2019 Christchurch massacre, country made a ‘pragmatic’ decision to get guns off streets: ‘We saw something that wasn’t right and we acted’

New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern says her country’s swift change to gun laws after the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch was a “pragmatic” response, where “we saw something that wasn’t right and we acted on it”.

The prime minister was speaking as her visit to the United States coincided with the mass killing of 19 children at a school in Uvalde, Texas.

Ardern appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was filmed shortly after the Uvalde shooting. “When I watch from afar and see events such as this today, it’s not as a politician. I see them just as a mother,” an emotional Ardern said. “I’m so sorry for what has happened here.”

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North Korea fires suspected ICBM amid signs of preparation for nuclear test

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South Korea calls launches ‘grave provocation’ and detects experiment that suggests forthcoming nuclear test

North Korea has fired three ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast, including one believed to have long-range capabilities, the South Korean military has said, a day after Joe Biden ended his first presidential visit to Asia.

Hours after the missile tests, South Korea said it had detected signs North Korea had conducted an experiment with a detonation device in preparation for a possible nuclear test, according to Yonhap news agency.

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