Category Archives: World News

US anti-vax stance to blame for continent-wide surge in measles, say experts

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The disease was eliminated across the Americas in 2024, but urgent vaccination drives are now under way as cases rise from Mexico to Bolivia after outbreaks farther north

Governments across Latin America are stepping up efforts to vaccinate their populations against measles, as outbreaks in North America drive a 34-fold increase in the number of cases reported in the region this year.

Measles cases have surged worldwide to a 25-year high, due to low vaccine coverage and the spread of misinformation about vaccine safety. However, there is added concern in parts of Latin America over unequal access to healthcare and the worrying situation in the US, which is facing its worst measles outbreak in decades following a reversal of vaccine policy led by Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

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Hamas’s aim to retain authority in Gaza involves keeping the guns

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With no law, order or any alternative administration under the ceasefire, the group is using violence to deter rivals

Throughout Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, aid officials working in the territory avoided naming Hamas in conversations they suspected might be intercepted, instead referring to the militant Islamist group as the “de facto authority”.

This careful euphemism for Hamas, which violently seized power in 2007, captured an important truth. Though the group was a less obvious presence in the last months of the conflict, in the absence of any alternative, it remained the closest the increasingly devastated territory had to a ruler.

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Survivors reported after latest US attack on alleged drug boat in Caribbean

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It is unknown whether US military rendered aid to survivors after attack on suspected ‘narcoterrorist’ vessel

The US military carried out a new strike on Thursday against a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean, and in what is believed to be the first such case, there were survivors among the crew, a US official told Reuters.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not offer additional details about the incident, which has not been previously reported. But it raises new questions, including whether the US military rendered aid to the survivors and whether they are now in US military custody.

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Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton indicted on charges of mishandling classified information

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Eighteen-count indictment handed down by federal grand jury in Maryland as US president calls former ally a ‘bad guy’

The justice department filed federal charges against John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump who turned into one of his biggest critics, accusing him of transmitting and retaining highly classified information under the Espionage Act.

The 18-count indictment was handed up by a grand jury in federal district court in Maryland on Thursday. Bolton has been charged with sending diary entries to two unnamed individuals about his day-to-day activities when he was national security adviser, many of which contained highly classified information.

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Trump moves to push employers on IVF coverage and lower fertility drug costs

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President says plans will lead to ‘many more beautiful American children’ but unclear if companies will sign up

The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it is urging US employers to create new fertility benefit options to cover in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other infertility treatments.

In an announcement from the Oval Office, Donald Trump also said his administration had cut a deal with the drug manufacturer EMD Serono to lower the cost of one of its fertility drugs and list the drug on the government website TrumpRx.

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Zelenskyy to make missiles case in US as Trump plans to meet Putin in Budapest

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US president has repeatedly hinted at supplying Kyiv with Tomahawks but some in Moscow say Kremlin sees it as negotiating gambit

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to head to the White House on Friday for a crucial meeting with Donald Trump, hours after the US president said he planned to soon meet with Vladimir Putin in Budapest after a “very productive” call.

The possible supply of US Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine is expected to top the agenda during the Ukrainian president’s visit. Trump has repeatedly hinted in recent weeks that he may deliver Tomahawks, which would give Kyiv its longest-range weapon yet that would be capable of striking Moscow with accurate, destructive munitions.

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Woman alleged to have tortured and killed 12-year-old to stand trial in France

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Killing of Lola Daviet three years ago led to outcry after far right was accused of exploiting her death for political gain

A woman who allegedly abused and tortured a 12-year-old girl before leaving her to suffocate will go on trial for murder on Friday in a case that has shocked France and caused political waves.

Lola Daviet’s body was found stuffed into a plastic trunk that had been dumped on the street near her home.

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Catalonia’s Socialist president: tackling inequality can blunt separatist and far-right voices

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In an interview, Salvador Illa tells of ‘pragmatic approach’ as he seeks to persuade voters about benefits of coexistence with Madrid

Catalonia’s Socialist president has said his party’s focus on tackling inequality can win over voters who are tempted by pro-independence and far-right voices as he seeks to persuade Catalans of the benefits of coexistence with the central government in Madrid after years of turmoil.

Salvador Illa, a close ally of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been in the post since August 2024 and leads the first Catalan parliament in 44 years without a pro-independence majority.

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Four dead as Kenyan security forces fire on crowds mourning Raila Odinga

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Thousands gather in Nairobi to pay respects to veteran opposition leader, prompting chaotic scenes at stadium

Four people have been killed in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, after security forces fired shots and teargas to disperse huge crowds at a stadium where the body of the opposition leader Raila Odinga was lying in state.

Odinga, a major figure in Kenyan politics for decades who was once a political prisoner and ran unsuccessfully for president five times, died on Wednesday aged 80 in India, where he had been receiving medical treatment.

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India casts doubt on Trump’s claims that it has agreed to stop buying Russian oil

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The US president claimed Modi had assured him of deal, but Indian officials insist no such conversation took place

India has cast doubt on claims by Donald Trump that its prime minister, Narendra Modi, had agreed to stop buying Russian oil.

On Wednesday, Trump claimed that Modi had assured him “today” that India would put an end to its purchase of Russian oil.

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Ministers plan high-level visits to China despite espionage trial outcry

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National security adviser, education secretary and science minister to visit before end of year as part of policy to reset relations

Ministers are pushing ahead with their reset of relations with China, including several planned high-level visits before the end of the year, despite the furore triggered by the collapse of a high-profile espionage trial.

Plans have been drawn up for Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, to travel to Beijing in November for talks before an anticipated trip by Keir Starmer next year.

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Last surviving member of first team to conquer Everest dies aged 92

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Kanchha Sherpa was part of expedition that put Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary atop world’s highest peak in 1953

Kanchha Sherpa, the last surviving member of the mountaineering expedition team that first conquered Mount Everest, has died at the age of 92, according to the Nepal Mountaineering Association.

Kanchha died early on Thursday at his home in Kapan, Kathmandu district, said Phur Gelje Sherpa, the association’s president.

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Indigenous and environmental leaders in Ecuador say they are facing state intimidation

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Critics say referendum on rewriting country’s eco-friendly constitution is president’s latest pro-extractivist move

Indigenous and environmental leaders in Ecuador say they are facing a wave of state intimidation ahead of a national referendum next month on whether to rewrite the world’s only constitution that recognises the rights of nature.

The pressure is being applied by the rightwing president, Daniel Noboa, who has begun his second term with a Trumpian agenda of consolidating power and sweeping away legal and social barriers to extractivist businesses, such as mining.

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Former Bush adviser charged with amassing top secret files

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Indian-American Ashley Tellis allegedly obtained US military data and passed envelopes to Chinese officials

A prominent Indian-American academic and former US government adviser has been arrested and charged with the unlawful detention of national security information, including thousands of pages of top secret documents that were found at his home in Virginia.

Ashley Tellis, 64, who served on the national security council of the former US president George W Bush and is credited for helping to negotiate the US-India nuclear deal, was arrested and charged over the weekend.

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‘Inherently cruel’: Canadian parents say citizenship bill erodes rights of children adopted abroad

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Rule would require adopted children born abroad to prove ‘substantial connection’ to Canada to pass on citizenship

Canadian parents of children adopted abroad say a proposed citizenship bill represents a “shocking and unconscionable” erosion of their children’s rights by the governing Liberals.

The federal government is in the midst of overhauling the Citizenship Act so Canadians born abroad can pass citizenship to further generations born abroad. The bill would also restore or grant citizenship descendants who were excluded under older citizenship laws.

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Ex-Catholic priest exploited family deaths to abuse disabled boy, police allege

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Mark Ford, extradited from Indiana to New Orleans jail, faces life in prison if convicted of sexual abuse charges

A man working as a Roman Catholic priest in New Orleans positioned himself as a mentor to a young disabled boy grieving two family deaths – and then exploited the proximity to abuse him for years, police allege.

Those details are contained in criminal court records generated by the arrest of Mark Francis Ford in Indiana in September as well as his subsequent transfer to New Orleans’s jail, a process which was completed late on Tuesday.

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Nestlé to axe 16,000 jobs as new chief targets sales growth

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Almost 6% of global workforce will be cut over next two years, including 12,000 white-collar professionals

Nestlé has said it will cut 16,000 jobs over the next two years as the owner of KitKat and Nescafé attempts to reduce costs and increase sales.

The Swiss-headquartered multinational said the cuts would include 12,000 white-collar professionals and 4,000 in its manufacturing and supply chain, close to 6% of Nestlé’s global workforce.

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‘I need to do everything now’: the Ukrainian combat medic-turned playwright

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Since Alina Sarnatska’s first play premiered a year ago, she has documented wartime Ukraine with unflinching frankness

Eighteen months ago, Alina Sarnatska was serving as a combat medic on Ukraine’s frontline – including in the hellish battle for Bakhmut – and had barely been to the theatre.

Six months later, she was preparing to watch the premiere of her first play in Kyiv. Now Sarnatska, 38, has several dramas under her belt and is emerging as one of Ukraine’s most powerful voices in the theatre.

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Agnes Wanjiru’s niece urges Labour to extradite ex-soldier while still in power

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Esther Njoki says family has seen ‘big change’ under Labour, after long fight for justice over aunt’s 2012 death in Kenya

The niece of Agnes Wanjiru, who was killed in Kenya, said she hopes the former British soldier charged with her aunt’s murder will be extradited while the Labour government is still in power.

On her first trip outside Kenya, Esther Njoki travelled to London, where she was invited to parliament to meet the defence secretary, John Healey, whom she urged not to delay the potentially years-long extradition process.

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Trump says he authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela as Maduro decries the move as ‘coups d’etat’

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Move marks escalation in Maduro pressure campaign as president says US mulling strikes on Venezuelan territory

Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela, marking a sharp escalation in his administration’s pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro’s government.

Trump further suggested he was considering strikes on Venezuelan territory, a dramatic step that would go beyond a series of recent lethal attacks on boats in the Caribbean, which Democrats and United Nations experts have forcefully condemned as unlawful.

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