Category Archives: World News

Intoxication can be violent crime defense, Canada supreme court rules

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People accused of violent crimes such as homicide and sexual assault can use self-induced extreme intoxication as a defense

Canada’s supreme court has ruled that defendants accused of violent crimes such as homicide and sexual assault can use self-induced extreme intoxication as a defense, striking down a federal law supported by women’s advocacy groups.

The supreme court said on Friday a law passed by parliament in 1995 that prohibits the defense was unconstitutional and violates the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

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Ariana Grande and other stars support Roe v Wade in New York Times ad

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Billie Eilish and Megan Thee Stallion denounce likely overturning of abortion rights: ‘We will not go back – and we will not back down’

Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion, Olivia Rodrigo and Selena Gomez joined a slew of fellow music stars and other celebrities to take out a full-page advertisement in Friday’s New York Times decrying the looming fall of nationwide abortion rights.

“The supreme court is planning to overturn Roe v Wade,” read the ad, referring to the landmark 1973 ruling that in effect legalized abortion across the US. “Our power to plan our own futures and control our own bodies depends on our ability to access sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion.”

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Ukraine has repelled Russia’s attempt to cross Donbas river, UK confirms

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Russia incurred heavy losses during Siverskyi Donets River attempt, according to defence intelligence

Ukrainians have repelled multiple attempts by the Russians to cross a strategically significant river in the Donbas, inflicting heavy losses in the process, according to local officials and British intelligence.

Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said Russian forces had been repulsed three times as they tried to cross the Siverskyi Donets River, 12 miles (20km) west of Severodonetsk, losing armour and bridging equipment.

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Trial by fire: Ukraine war becomes gruelling artillery duel

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As troops in mazes of trenches pound each other with shells, the terror of war draws closer to the city of Sloviansk

The call came at about midday on Wednesday. There had been “chemical poisoning” after a blast and patients needed collecting.

Fears of a Russian chemical weapons attack have haunted Ukraine almost since the war began, and as the volunteer medics in Sloviansk pulled on the ageing gas masks and plastic overalls that were their only protection, they wondered if this was it.

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‘Lost’ Picasso spotted in Imelda Marcos’s home after son’s election win

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Artwork’s appearance fuels fears family will use return to power to further stifle efforts to recover ill-gotten wealth

The glimpse of a possible Picasso in the home of Imelda Marcos seen during a visit by her son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, after his election win has set off a flurry of speculation in the Philippines, where the family that once plundered billions is set to return to power.

Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the late dictator, won a landslide victory in Monday’s presidential election, an outcome that has appalled those who survived his father’s regime.

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Israeli police ​attack funeral procession for shot journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh

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TV images show Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Aqleh’s coffin falling as police grab Palestinian flags from crowd

Israeli forces have attacked a funeral procession for a Palestinian American journalist shot dead this week, kicking and hitting people with batons and causing mourners carrying her coffin to lose balance and drop it to the ground.

Palestinian flags – which are rarely seen – were openly waved by many of the thousands of people who circumvented roadblocks in occupied East Jerusalem to join the funeral procession on Friday for Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Aqleh. Mourners sang the Palestinian national anthem and chanted “Palestine! Palestine!”.

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Global hit Pasoori opens doors for Pakistani pop

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Song has more than 111m views on YouTube and has been heralded for transcending boundaries

From radio stations in Islamabad to the nightclubs of Delhi and house parties in Kathmandu, it is a song that in recent months has been impossible to avoid. As soon as the distinctive opening claps of Pasoori, by the Pakistani singer Ali Sethi and his collaborator Shae Gill, are heard, it is often greeted with a roar of approval.

And it is not just in south Asia: since it was released in February, the song, which draws on traditional and modern musical influences, has gone on to become a global phenomenon and one of Pakistan’s most popular musical exports for years. It has more than 111m views on YouTube, it was the first Pakistani song to top Spotify’s global viral charts, and the first Pakistani song to enter its official global songs chart.

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UAE ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan dies aged 73

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Ministry of presidential affairs announces 40-day mourning period for ruler who succeeded father in 2004

The United Arab Emirates’ long-ailing ruler, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has died aged 73, the government’s state-run news agency has announced

Khalifa, the president of the UAE, oversaw much of the country’s blistering economic growth and his name was immortalised on the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, after bailing out debt-crippled Dubai during its financial crisis more than a decade ago.

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South Africa’s April floods made twice as likely by climate crisis, scientists say

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Brutal heatwave in India and Pakistan also certain to have been exacerbated by global heating, scientists say

The massive and deadly floods that struck South Africa in April were made twice as likely and more intense by global heating, scientists have calculated. The research demonstrates that the climate emergency is resulting in devastation.

Catastrophic floods and landslides hit the South African provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape on 11 April following exceptionally heavy rainfall.

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‘Incredible cruelty’: gang battles leave 150 dead in Haitian capital

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Scores wounded as violence paralyses Port-au-Prince forcing thousands to flee their homes

Nearly 150 people have been killed and scores wounded during gunfights between warring gangs in Haiti, as the latest surge of violence has paralysed much of the sprawling capital, Port-au-Prince.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Thursday that it had treated more than 96 people with gunshot wounds in its medical facilities in Port-au-Prince since 24 April.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Ukrainian forces continue Kharkiv pushback; Moscow to cut electricity supply to Finland after Nato decision – live

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US think tank says Ukrainian forces have ‘likely won the battle of Kharkiv’; electricity supplier RAO Nordic says decision to suspend Finnish supply is ‘exceptional’

Here are some of the latest images we have been sent over the newswires showing the impact of the conflict in Ukraine and beyond.

British foreign secretary Liz Truss said it was vital to keep up the pressure on Russia by supplying more weapons to Ukraine and imposing further sanctions.

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First Russian soldier goes on trial in Ukraine for war crimes

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Vadim Shysimarin accused of killing civilian on 28 February while fighting in Sumy region in north-east Ukraine

The first war crime trial since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine has opened in Kyiv in a watershed moment.

Vadim Shysimarin, a 21-year-old Russian commander of the Kantemirovskaya tank division, allegedly killed a civilian on 28 February in the village of Chupakhivka while fighting in the Sumy region in north-east Ukraine.

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Suspect held in Netherlands over 1994 Rwandan genocide

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Dutch prosecutors say 64-year-old man accused of role in massacres arrested after extradition request

A Rwandan man has been arrested in the Netherlands based on an extradition request from Rwanda on suspicion that he was involved in the central African country’s 1994 genocide, Dutch prosecutors have said.

The 65-year-old man, who was not identified, has been living in the Netherlands since he was granted asylum there in 1999. He was arrested on Wednesday in the town of Ermelo, 44 miles east of Amsterdam.

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UK should not fear EU trade war, says Frost as he backs ripping up protocol

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Former Brexit minister says UK ‘cannot be defeated’ by Brussels in provocative Telegraph column

The former Brexit minister David Frost has said the UK should not fear a trade war with the EU.

In a provocative newspaper column, he said the UK “cannot be defeated” by Brussels and needed to “make sure it is ready” for the consequences of a unilateral move to scrap parts of the Northern Ireland protocol.

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French mayor reignites burkini row with pool rule proposal

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Grenoble mayor wants swimmers to dress ‘how they like’, including topless or in full-body suits

The burkini, or full-body swimsuit, is once again at the centre of a political row in France as Grenoble’s town council prepares to debate loosening rules on swimwear at open-air pools.

Rules on swimwear are strict at most French public pools, with men, for example, having to wear tight-fitting racing trunks and not longer board-shorts. Currently, in Grenoble municipal pools, UV-protective tops are banned, except short-sleeved tops for children under 10, or for adults who present a medical note from their doctor.

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Weather tracker: deadly floods follow week of torrential rain in Australia

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Analysis: Queensland flash floods have cut off communities and killed one woman, swept away in her car

Torrential rain has been hitting eastern Australia since Monday, with rainfall totals on the north-east coast widely achieving in excess of 100mm. In Yabulu, north of Townsville, there was major flooding on Tuesday as 196mm of rain fell within 24 hours. This was not the highest total recorded, however, with 244mm of rain falling on Tuesday at Mourilyan, near Innisfail on the Cassowary Coast.

The threat of heavy rain sank south across Queensland to the south-east, reaching Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast on Wednesday; stations in the south-east recorded up to 100mm, with a station in Dayboro recording 161mm. A further 100-150mm of rain fell on Friday across the south-east.

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Russian émigrés fleeing Putin’s war find freedom in the cafes of Armenia

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Hundreds of thousands of Russians opposed to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and alienated by pro-war sentiment are establishing a new life abroad

In the days after Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in late February, Vladimir Shurupov, a cardiologist from the Siberian city of Tomsk, felt he could not breathe properly. “I was having panic attacks, I could not eat or sleep. I just knew I had to remove myself from this place, from this atmosphere,” he said.

Shurupov, 40, had been a quiet critic of Putin’s government for years, but he had never attended a protest of any kind, fearful of unwanted attention or arrest. When the war began, disgust with the regime combined with a fear he would be sent to the front. “If there was mobilisation, I would have been called up as a military doctor, and this is not a war I would be willing to fight in,” he said.

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North Korea says six dead after admitting Covid outbreak for first time

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Regime has said it is imposing ‘maximum emergency measures’ and 187,800 people are being ‘isolated and treated’ after showing signs of fever

North Korea has announced its first Covid-19 death amid an “explosive” outbreak of fever, state media said on Friday, one day after the regime admitted for the first time that it was tackling a coronavirus outbreak.

The official KCNA news agency said six people had died, adding that one of them had tested positive for the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

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Boat capsizes near Puerto Rico, killing 11 as a ‘mass rescue effort’ is under way

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The total number of those aboard remains unclear although 31 have been rescued; the incident is the latest in a string across the region

Eleven people were killed and dozens were rescued after a boat capsized near Puerto Rico on Thursday, authorities said.

It was not immediately clear how many people were onboard the boat when it turned over, said a US coast guard spokesman, Ricardo Castrodad. He said a “mass rescue effort” was still under way.

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US secretly issued subpoena to access Guardian reporter’s phone records

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Newspaper decries ‘egregious’ move by DoJ to obtain details of Stephanie Kirchgaessner as part of investigation into media leaks

The US justice department secretly issued a subpoena to gain access to details of the phone account of a Guardian reporter as part of an aggressive leak investigation into media stories about an official inquiry into the Trump administration’s child separation policy at the southern border.

Leak investigators issued the subpoena to obtain the phone number of Stephanie Kirchgaessner, the Guardian’s investigations correspondent in Washington. The move was carried out without notifying the newspaper or its reporter, as part of an attempt to ferret out the source of media articles about a review into family separation conducted by the Department of Justice’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz.

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