Category Archives: World News

Bolivia’s perennial student leader clung to post for decades without graduating

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Max Mendoza has been arrested after a judge said his 32-year enrollment at university on a government salary may be a crime

Max Mendoza has been a remarkably persistent student – and a profitable one: he has been enrolled at a public university in Bolivia for 32 years but never graduated, much of it while being paid a government salary to serve as a student leader.

On Monday, though, he was detained and sent to jail after a judge ordered a six-month investigation into allegations his tenure as a state-paid student leader constituted a crime.

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Deadly Indian heatwave made 30 times more likely by climate crisis

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Soaring temperatures in subcontinent, which have caused widespread suffering, would be extraordinarily rare without global heating

The heatwave scorching India and Pakistan has been made 30 times more likely by the climate crisis, according to scientists. Extreme temperatures and low rainfall since mid-March have caused widespread suffering, including deaths, crop losses, forest fires, and cuts to power and water supplies.

The study is the latest to show the already severe impacts of global heating on millions of people, even though the global average temperature has risen only 1.2C above pre-industrial levels to date. If it rises to 2C, heatwaves as intense as the current one would be expected as often as every five years in India and Pakistan, the scientists estimated.

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Why are monkeypox cases suddenly emerging across the world and could the virus have mutated?

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Data prior to current outbreaks suggested resurgence of the disease, with waning immunity from smallpox vaccination contributing to spread

The sudden emergence of monkeypox in several countries has raised questions about how the virus, which is most common in central and west Africa, has managed to spread.

Many health experts have said the monkeypox cases in 12 countries are not cause for panic, given the virus is much less infectious than illnesses like Covid and rarely fatal, but it is highly unusual.

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Iran vows to avenge killing as it buries Revolutionary Guard colonel

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Finger of blame pointed at Israel after Hassan Sayad Khodayari shot dead in Tehran

An Iranian colonel shot dead in Tehran by assailants on motorcycles has been buried as officials vowed to avenge an assassination that they continue to lay at the feet of Israel.

The murder of Col Hassan Sayad Khodayari is the highest-profile killing of an Iranian official since the violent death of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November 2020 and appears to fit a pattern of assassinations that began more than a decade ago.

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Sole survivor of 2009 Comoros plane crash recalls terrifying ordeal

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Bahia Bakari, who was 12 at the time, tells French court of the moments leading up to crash in which 152 died

A woman who was 12 when she became the sole survivor of the 2009 Yemenia Airways crash in the Comoros islands that killed all 152 others on board has described the terrifying moments leading up to her plunge into the ocean and subsequent rescue as part of the French trial against the airline.

Bahia Bakari, 25, has sat through several hearings with her father but had not testified or spoken to journalists attending the trial, which opened this month.

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Zelenskiy says Putin is the only Russian official he is willing to meet with to discuss how to end the war – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here

The RIA news agency reports that Russia’s defence ministry says its forces destroyed a Ukrainian unit of US-produced M777 howitzers, a type of artillery weapon.

The claim has not been independently verified.

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Up to 100 Ukraine troops could be dying in Donbas each day, says Zelenskiy

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President gives insight into country’s casualties, as Luhansk governor says Russia using ‘scorched-earth’ tactics

Ukraine’s president has given an insight into the level of losses being suffered by Ukrainian forces in the Donbas, saying between 50 to 100 Ukrainians could be dying every day.

While Ukraine and its allies have made much of Russian losses since the war began, the issue of Ukrainian casualties has been something of a black hole.

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Germany to relax visa rules for Russian workers despite spy warning

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Process to be eased to exempt applicants with special expertise from case-by-case assessment

Germany is to relax visa requirements for skilled workers from Russia, just as the country’s domestic intelligence agency warned of a heightened risk that Russian nationals working for German firms could be recruited for industrial espionage.

The chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is streamlining the visa application process by exempting Russian workers with specialised expertise in areas such as IT and communication technology from case-by-case assessments through the federal employment department.

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Man shot and killed on New York subway in latest ‘unprovoked’ attack

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Police investigate death of Daniel Enriquez on busy train on Sunday morning

An unidentified man shot and killed a passenger on a subway train in New York in what police officials said appeared to be an unprovoked attack.

The incident happened on a Q train travelling over the Manhattan Bridge at about 11.40am on Sunday, a time when the subway is often filled with families, tourists and people heading to brunch.

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Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was about liberalism, not totalitarianism, claims Moscow diplomat

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Maria Zakharova says idea book is about totalitarianism is ‘one of the biggest global fakes’, in claim disputed by Russian translator

George Orwell’s dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four was written to describe the dangers of western liberalism – not totalitarianism - a top Moscow diplomat has claimed.

“For many years we believed that Orwell described the horrors of totalitarianism. This is one of the biggest global fakes … Orwell wrote about the end of liberalism. He depicted how liberalism would lead humanity to a dead end,” Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, said during a public talk in Ekaterinburg on Saturday.

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UN rights chief’s visit to China will be held in ‘closed loop’, Beijing says

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Michelle Bachelet begins trip amid fears that authorities will use Covid restrictions as cover to limit her access

China has said the UN rights chief’s visit to the country this week will be conducted in a “closed loop” as previously agreed with the UN, referring to the Chinese model of isolating people inside a “bubble” in order to contain the spread of Covid-19.

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, embarked on a six-day trip to China on Monday. She will be visiting the southern city of Guangzhou and two locations in the Xinjiang region, where Chinese authorities have been accused of human rights abuses against Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic group.

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Lithuania wants naval coalition to lift Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s grain

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Countries affected by loss of crop from Ukraine could help escort ships, says Gabrielius Landsbergis

Lithuania has called for a naval coalition “of the willing” to lift the Russian Black Sea blockade on Ukrainian grain exports.

The Lithuanian foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, proposed the plan during talks with the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, on Monday in London.

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Zelenskiy urges ‘maximum sanctions’ against Russia in Davos speech

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Ukrainian president tells business leaders they need to decide whether ‘brute force’ should rule the world

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has urged the west to intensify its economic sanctions against Russia as he said business leaders in Davos needed to decide whether “brute force” should rule the world.

In a keynote video address to the World Economic Forum (WEF), Zelenskiy called for a full oil embargo, the severing of Russian banks from the global financial system, the complete isolation of the Russian IT sector and a ban on trade with Russia.

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US would defend Taiwan if attacked by China, says Joe Biden

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President says US’s responsibility to protect island is ‘even stronger’ after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Joe Biden has said the US would intervene militarily to defend Taiwan if it came under attack from China, in an unusually forceful presidential statement in support of self-governing that drew a defiant response from Beijing.

Speaking in Tokyo on the second day of his visit to Japan, and against the backdrop of growing concern over Chinese military activity in the region, Biden said the US’s responsibility to protect the self-ruled island – which China considers a renegade province – was “even stronger” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Iran will ‘avenge’ killing of Revolutionary Guards colonel, says president

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Guards say arrests linked to Israel made after shooting of Hassan Sayad Khodayari outside his home

Iran will avenge the killing of a Revolutionary Guards colonel who was shot dead in Tehran, President Ebrahim Raisi has said.

Col Hassan Sayad Khodayari was killed on Sunday outside his home by assailants on motorcycles. Iran blamed “elements linked to the global arrogance”, its term for the US and its allies including Israel.

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Tiny Texas community shaken by arrest of official over cattle rustling

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Loving county judge and top official, Skeet Lee Jones, 71, is alleged to have taken stray cattle and sold them

A senior county official in west Texas has been arrested over cattle rustling in a case that has stirred up anger in the tiny community of Loving.

Skeet Lee Jones, 71, a judge and chief elected official in the county, faces three counts of theft of livestock worth less than $150,000 and one of engaging in organised criminal activity after his arrest on Friday, the sheriff of neighbouring Winkler county, Darin Mitchell, said on Sunday.

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Pakistan town blames deadly cholera outbreak on government neglect

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Residents of Pir Koh say poor water provision and a dirty water tank led to 26 deaths, the majority among children under seven

Two weeks ago, Ruqiyya Bibi fell sick. The two-year-old was vomiting constantly; her father, Mohammed Iqbal, took her to a basic health unit in Pir Koh, a impoverished town with a population of 40,000 in the mountains of Balochistan, south-western Pakistan.

Iqbal was told at first that his daughter had malaria but when treatment did not help, he took her to another doctor who said she had a blood condition.

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Médecins Sans Frontières pulls images of teenage rape survivor after outcry

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NGO takes down photos of girl, 16, from DRC from website after critics call them unethical and racist

Médecins Sans Frontières has removed photographs of a teenage rape survivor from its website after criticism that the images were unethical and racist.

MSF took down two photos of a 16-year-old girl from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who was gang-raped by three armed men afterphotographers, activists and human rights lawyers condemned the images on Twitter.

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New Zealand will push Anthony Albanese on ‘501’ deportation policy, Jacinda Ardern says

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Prime minister said it was helpful that new Australian leader had already acknowledged issues causing friction

New Zealand will continue to push the conversation on Australia’s “problematic” deportation policy with the incoming government under Labor leader Anthony Albanese, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said.

“There is obviously a really strong relationship, regardless of leader, regardless of party,” Ardern said at a post-cabinet briefing on Monday. “The very nature of New Zealand and Australia’s relationship is strong and enduring.”

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UN denounces ‘homophobic and racist’ reporting on monkeypox spread

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Some media portrayals of cases among African and LGBTI people fueling blame, agency says, as infections reported in Europe, US and Australia

The United Nations’ Aids agency has called some reporting on the monkeypox virus racist and homophobic, warning of exacerbating stigma and undermining the response to the growing outbreak.

UNAIDS said “a significant proportion” of recent monkeypox cases have been identified among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.

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