Category Archives: World News

Only two more Republicans needed to force vote on Epstein files release, bill co-sponsor says – live

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Donald Trump calls clamor over Jeffrey Epstein files a ‘Democrat hoax that never ends’ as bipartisan group of lawmakers try to force vote on legislation

As part of the Trump administration’s campaign of mass deportations, the defense department will soon have hundreds of military judges work on immigration cases, the Associated Press reports:

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the federal justice department to serve as temporary immigration judges, according to a memo reviewed by the Associated Press.

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Top Obama-era Latin American expert warns of ‘disastrous’ US intervention in Venezuela

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US military buildup and attack on alleged narco boat spark fears of protracted guerrilla war in South America

The White House’s former top Latin America official has said he fears the US could stumble into a protracted guerrilla war in Venezuela after Donald Trump ordered a military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 alleged drug traffickers.

Tuesday’s controversial strike off the Venezuelan coast – which was reportedly carried out by an attack helicopter or Reaper drone – came after the US president ordered a major naval deployment to the region, ostensibly to combat South American drug traffickers.

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Budget compromise needed if PM ousted, says French finance minister

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Éric Lombard says he hopes François Bayrou will survive vote and dismisses talk of looming debt crisis

The French finance minister, Éric Lombard, has said the government would have to compromise on plans to cut the budget deficit if the prime minister, François Bayrou, is toppled in a confidence vote next week.

Lombard told the Financial Times that fresh negotiations would require the government to make concessions to the left to reduce the size of the fiscal package if the government falls.

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Manneken Pis gets new uniform to honour soldiers who liberated Brussels

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Gift comes 8o years after Welsh guards first left replica uniform for Belgian statue to commemorate end of Nazi occupation

When British forces commemorated the liberation of Brussels for the first time in 1945, they left a unique gift – a replica Welsh guards uniform for the Belgian city’s emblematic “peeing boy” statue, the Manneken Pis.

Now 81 years after the Welsh guards freed Brussels from Nazi occupation, the gift has been renewed: the Manneken Pis has a new regimental uniform, including scarlet jacket embroidered with gold lace, gleaming white belt and authentic bearskin hat.

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Democrats blast state department for lack of ‘basic oversight’ of controversial Gaza food organization

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Letter by senior Democrats asks state department to reveal details behind financing of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

Senior Democratic senators have called on the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to reveal details behind the financing and oversight of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) amid concerns over rising death tolls near aid sites, the group’s apparent coordination with the Israeli army and its reported use of private military contractors linked to intelligence operations.

The letter, co-signed by senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Peter Welch, accuses the state department of an “inability to answer basic questions about GHF in a timely manner” and said that the department’s “overriding of internal protocol and staff warnings is particularly concerning given it is unlikely to be able to conduct basic oversight of the funds it provided to GHF”.

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People banished to Nauru by Australia face hostile reception as $2.5bn cost of deal revealed

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Home affairs department reveals just-signed transfer deal, worth $408m upfront to Nauru, forecast to cost Australia $2.5bn over 30 years

The group of noncitizens set to be banished by Australia to Nauru for 30 years face a potentially hostile reception because they have been described as “violent” and “appalling” by the Australian government.

The forcible transfer of the so-called NZYQ group – and potentially thousands more under legislation currently before parliament – to the tiny island is being quietly resented by Nauruans, sources on the island have told Guardian Australia.

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Trump’s aid cuts in east Africa led to unwanted abortion and babies being born with HIV – report

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Doctors, nurses, patients and other experts describe the loss of decades of progress in beating the virus in 100 days after Pepfar was disrupted

Aid cuts in east Africa have led to cases of babies being born with HIV because mothers could not get medication, a rise in life-threatening infections, and at least one woman having an unwanted abortion, according to interviews with medical staff, patients and experts.

A report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) sets out dozens of examples of the impact of disruption to Pepfar – the president’s emergency plan for aids relief – in Tanzania and Uganda.

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Jamaicans head to polls for election as ruling party faces corruption concerns

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Polls point to ‘very close election’ between the Jamaica Labour party and the opposition People’s National party

Jamaicans head to the polls on Wednesday for a closely fought general election which has been overshadowed by an investigation into potential corruption in the ruling Jamaica Labour party (JLP) which is seeking a third term in office.

The latest local poll put the opposition People’s National party (PNP) 3.1% lead over the JLP, but political analyst Damion Gordon cautioned that the lead was barely larger than the margin of error.

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US appeals court reinstates FTC commissioner fired by Trump

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Win for Rebecca Slaughter as court rules commissioners may not be dismissed by a president without cause

A divided US appeals court on Tuesday allowed US Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat, to resume her role at the agency, as Donald Trump tries to remove her from office.

In a 2-1 decision, the District of Columbia circuit court of appeals allowed a lower court decision in favor of Slaughter to take effect, rejecting the Trump administration’s request to delay the ruling during its appeal.

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More than 7,300 Afghans to be resettled in UK after MoD data leak, says National Audit Office

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Watchdog’s report says government is unable to calculate exact cost of response to data breach, raising doubt over £850m estimate

More than 7,300 Afghans are expected to be resettled in the UK as a result of a major government data breach, according to a National Audit Office report that raises doubts over officials’ claims of a £850m cost.

The accidental leak by an MoD official in 2022 of 18,700 Afghans’ details who had worked with or for the British government led to the opening of a new route by which those endangered could seek relocation to the UK from their home country.

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US conducts ‘kinetic strike’ against drug boat from Venezuela, killing 11, Trump says

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Trump says ‘we took it out’ referring to the operation in international waters, amid US-Caracas tensions

The US military has killed 11 drug traffickers from Venezuela during a “a kinetic strike” in the Caribbean Sea, the US president, Donald Trump, has claimed amid growing tensions between Washington and Caracas.

Trump trailed the announcement during an address at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters the US had “just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out … a drug-carrying boat”.

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Argentina couple under house arrest amid search for painting stolen by Nazis

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Daughter of former Nazi official and her husband to be questioned after raid on home failed to find masterpiece

A federal court in Argentina has ordered house arrest for the daughter of a former Nazi official and her husband after a raid failed to locate a painting stolen from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam.

Authorities raided a home in the coastal city of Mar del Plata last week after a Dutch newspaper identified a painting seen in a real estate photo as an Italian masterpiece registered on a database of lost wartime art.

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Putin hails ties with China as Kim Jong-un arrives in Beijing on eve of parade

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Russian president says relations at ‘unprecedentedly high level’ as dozens of leaders gather for Victory Day events

Vladimir Putin has hailed Russia’s “unprecedentedly” high level of ties with China, as dozens of leaders including the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, arrived in Beijing on the eve of a massive military parade intended to showcase a Chinese-led global order.

Putin called China’s leader, Xi Jinping, a “dear friend” after the two held talks at the Great Hall of the People and then at Xi’s personal residence. “Our close communication reflects the strategic nature of Russia-China relations, which are at an unprecedentedly high level,” Putin told Xi, according to a video on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel. “We were always together then, and we remain together now.”

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Outcry as Swedish ‘cultural canon’ snubs Abba and anything since 1975

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Critics argue ‘shared map’ of Swedish culture is ‘very exclusionary’ and a ‘nationalist education project’

The Gustav Vasa 1541 bible, Pippi Longstocking, Ikea, the right to roam, paternity leave, Sámi joiks, the Nobel prize and works by Ingmar Bergman and August Strindberg all made it into Sweden’s long-awaited, much-criticised proposal for a “cultural canon”.

However, notable omissions from the list of 100 works and references that have formed Sweden’s culture and history – intended, its creators said in Uppsala on Tuesday, to establish a “shared map and compass” for Swedish citizens and new arrivals to Sweden – included Abba and anything from after 1975, a period that has seen Sweden transform into an international, multicultural society.

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Margaret Atwood releases short story critiquing book bans in Canada

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Author quipped she wrote ‘suitable’ piece after Alberta school ban included her novel The Handmaid’s Tale

Margaret Atwood has released a new short story critiquing elected officials for a wide-ranging book ban in the Canadian province of Alberta. The controversial decision to remove books purportedly containing “explicit sexual content” has seen numerous works of literature swept up in the dragnet, including Atwood’s dystopian work The Handmaid’s Tale.

In a social media post, Atwood wrote that since her famed work was no longer permissible in Alberta schools, she had written a “suitable” short work for teens, adding the work was necessary because the province’s minister of education thought students were “stupid babies”.

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Modi’s warm meeting with Xi shows impact of Trump’s ‘tariff tantrum’

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China seizes on opportunity for geopolitical realignment after India was hit with one of US’s harshest trade penalties

They stood together like old friends, heads thrown back in jovial laughter, clutching one another’s hands affectionately. Except this was no ordinary gathering of three men, but a meeting of three of the most powerful non-western leaders: Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi.

The overt displays of intimacy were widely regarded by observers as a telling message of defiance aimed at their western counterparts, in particular Donald Trump, who just a few days earlier had slapped India with 50% import tariffs, among the harshest of the US president’s trade penalties.

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Five children in Gaza among those killed by Israeli strike while fetching water

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Latest attack comes as Israel’s military urges people to leave Gaza City with 60,000 more reservists to be called up

At least nine people, including five children, have been killed in an Israeli strike while fetching water in al-Mawasi, an area of southern Gaza which Israel has designated as a safe zone, health officials said.

A doctor from al-Nasser hospital shared a picture of the children’s bodies in the hospital, as well as a picture of water jugs left in a pool of blood at the site of the attack on Tuesday.

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Belgium to recognise Palestinian state at UN and sanction Israel – as it happened

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Foreign minister says move is not aimed at Israeli people but ‘ensuring their government respects international and humanitarian law’. This live blog is closed

At least 63,633 Palestinian people have been killed and 160,914 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

At least 76 Palestinian people, including 12 aid seekers, were killed in the last 24 hours alone, the ministry said.

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Italy considers hiding state flight paths after jamming of von der Leyen plane

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EU member states debate how to make leaders’ flights more secure as Russia blamed for GPS loss

Italy is considering keeping state flights secret after the satellite signal of the aircraft carrying the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, was allegedly jammed by Russia, Italian defence ministry sources said.

Von der Leyen, a fierce critic of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Moscow’s war in Ukraine, was flying to Bulgaria on Sunday when her charter plane lost satellite navigation aids, delaying its arrival in Plovdiv, and reportedly forcing it to circle an airport for an hour.

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Sudan landslide kills at least 1,000 people, rebel group says

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Landslide destroyed a village in the Marra mountains area of western Sudan and left only one survivor

More than 1,000 people were killed in a landslide in western Sudan on Sunday, according to a rebel group that controls the area.

The landslide, which followed heavy rain, destroyed the village of Tarasin in the Marra mountains area of western Sudan and left only one survivor, said the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM).

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