Category Archives: World News

UK threatens to expel Israeli diplomats over planned East Jerusalem consulate closure

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Tit-for-tat expulsions expected after relations deteriorate as a result of UK ban on goods from illegal settlements

The UK has threatened to expel one Israeli diplomat for every British diplomat forced to leave Israel as a result of Israel’s decision to close the UK consulate in East Jerusalem later this week.

This could mean as many as 27 Israeli diplomats being expelled from the UK, a step that would arguably mark the lowest point in British-Israeli diplomatic relations since the formation of the state of Israel.

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Flávio Bolsonaro poised to win Brazilian presidency after shock first-round victory

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Progressive voters and supporters of incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva left reeling after far-right surge

Flávio Bolsonaro is in pole position to win Brazil’s presidential election, after a far-right tsunami propelled him to a shock first-round victory over the incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leaving progressive voters reeling.

The 45-year-old rightwing candidate received 56.1m votes to Lula’s 53.8m – 47.03% to 45.16% – meaning the 80-year-old leftwinger has a mountain to climb if he is to bounce back in the second round on 25 October. Never, since the return of democracy to Brazil in 1985, has the first-round runner-up managed to turn the game around and win the second ballot.

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France braces for national day of school protests as boy loses hand

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Thousands expected to join marches of support on Tuesday across the country amid growing concerns over police response

France is bracing for a national day of protests and high-school blockades as a youth protest movement gathers pace amid a growing debate over the scale of the police response.

In one incident, a 15-year-old protesting against what demonstrators said were France’s dilapidated ⁠and understaffed ​schools ‌had his hand ‌blown off outside a high school in the northern town of Lens, said François-Xavier Lauch, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais.

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Air campaign against Houthis under way in Yemen, says Saudi-led coalition

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Operation supported by 100 fighter jets said to have secured ‘air protection’ of Bab al-Mandab strait and destroyed hundreds of targets

Leaders of a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen claimed a broad air campaign involving 100 jet aircraft was under way on Monday against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels along the Red Sea coastline and farther north in the capital, Sana’a.

The Saudi coalition spokesperson, Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, said the 100 fighter jets participating in Operation Dawn of Yemen were providing support to forces of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.

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Supporters of Imran Khan start march on locked-down Islamabad

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Pakistani authorities insist marchers calling for former PM to be released from jail will not reach the capital

Imran Khan’s supporters have begun a march to Islamabad to demand his release from jail after efforts by the government to halt the protest failed.

The march began in the former prime minister’s stronghold province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in north-west Pakistan on Sunday, according to leaders of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

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In both France and Spain, ruling parties must prove they can give young protesters hope

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Demonstrations over housing rights and crumbling schools are a sign the younger generation is withdrawing political consent

In Spain, tens of thousands of people in 50 cities have taken to the streets amid mounting fury over the country’s housing crisis, their feelings made plain on a banner at the burgeoning protest camp in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol plaza: “You can speculate on watches, jewels, crypto-bros and Ferraris. But not on our fucking homes.”

In France, as high school pupils clash with police in often violent protests over long hours, missing teachers, crumbling classrooms and an opaque university admissions system, the angry slogans include: “More hours in class than for sleep”, “Fund study, not repression” and “I’d like to be worrying about my maths exam, not my future”.

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Iran’s oil minister resigns as country’s economic crisis worsens

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Departure comes amid large drop in oil receipts, rampant inflation and shrinking economy

Iran’s oil minister has resigned days after allegations that an intermediary trust selling Iranian oil abroad owed millions of dollars’ worth of export receipts to the state.

Mohsen Paknejad’s departure comes as Iran grapples with a dire economic situation, including inflation running at 85%. An overall drop in oil receipts has led to a massive shortfall in foreign exchange earnings and one of the biggest drops in the value of the rial since the Iranian revolution in 1979.

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Quebec poised to elect separatists to power for first time in more than a decade

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Parti Québécois promises to hold independence referendum in Canada’s French-speaking region by 2028

Voters in Quebec are going to the polls in provincial elections which will probably result in victory for a party that has promised to hold a referendum on independence from Canada within the next two years.

If polls are correct, the Parti Québécois (PQ) will form the government of the province of roughly nine million, the first time that the separatist movement will have gained power in the French-speaking region for more than a decade.

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Skull fractures suggest servants of Egypt’s ancient kings were sacrificed

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Study of remains taken from royal cemetery at Umm el-Qa’ab appears to confirm early Egyptologist’s theory

Court officials and craftspeople serving early Egyptian kings may have been sacrificed when their ruler died, according to research that found fractures in several ancient skulls.

The royal cemetery of Umm el-Qa’ab near Abydos features the tombs and enclosures of the First Dynasty rulers of Egypt, and dates as far back as 3,000BC.

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Brazil’s presidential race goes to second round as Flávio Bolsonaro leads incumbent Lula

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Far-right challenger and son of disgraced ex-president Jair Bolsonaro will now face leftwing president in runoff vote

Brazil’s presidential race will go to a second round after the far-right candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, beat the incumbent leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but failed to secure the outright majority he needed to avoid a runoff.

With more than 99% of votes counted, the 45-year-old son of the disgraced former president, Jair Bolsonaro, had won 47.1%, meaning he will now face a 25 October showdown with his 80-year-old rival. Lula received 45%.

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Bosnian Serb nationalist Dodik declares party victory in Bosnia election

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Staunchly pro-Russia politician has dominated campaign and inflamed divisions despite not appearing on ballot

Bosnian Serb nationalist politician Milorad Dodik has declared victory for his party in an election in Bosnia shaped by economic pressures, the prospect of the Balkan nation joining the European Union and ethnic tensions that have divided the country since its brutal 1992-95 war.

Dodik is a staunchly pro-Russia politician who, despite not appearing on the ballot, has dominated the campaign and inflamed divisions with separatist rhetoric that has sparked fears of renewed instability in Bosnia.

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Russia strikes Kyiv bridge as German chancellor visits Ukraine in show of support

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Attack shortly after Friedrich Merz arrived on unannounced visit intended to underline Germany’s backing

Russia has struck another major bridge in Kyiv as the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, arrived in the capital in a show of support for Ukraine.

A Russian drone hit Kyiv’s key Northern Bridge over the Dnipro River, marking the fourth consecutive day that Russia has targeted bridges used by tens of thousands of residents commuting between the city’s two banks. Video footage showed cars driving across the bridge as the drone plunged into the roadway and exploded in a burst of fire. Two people were injured in the strike, said Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko.

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More than 400 schools in France to be closed on Monday as more protests planned

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Education minister says 24 schools have been burnt or ransacked and 78 staff members injured since student unrest began last month

More than 400 schools in France will be closed or partly closed on Monday as authorities brace for another week of student protests.

Lessons will be totally or partly suspended in 400 to 500 schools because security conditions “have not been fulfilled”, the education minister, Édouard Geffray, said on Sunday.

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US marine arrested in Japan on suspicion of killing woman, police say

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Suspect allegedly killed woman at hotel in Okinawa as prime minister calls crime ‘exceptionally brutal and vicious’

A US marine stationed on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa is accused of murdering a Japanese woman and has been arrested on suspicion of murder, police said on Sunday.

The suspect allegedly “killed [a] 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha and stole her wallet” as well as her backpack, local police told news media outlets.

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Cornell University to take ‘serious look’ at fraternities after rape allegations

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Ivy League school’s president promises action after woman alleged she was drugged ⁠and raped by fraternity members

Cornell University will examine the role of fraternities and sororities on campus after an outcry over the school’s handling ⁠of a student’s rape allegations, the Ivy League school’s president said on Saturday.

A civil lawsuit filed last month by the woman, who ⁠alleges she was drugged ⁠and raped in ​2024 by several members of the Chi Phi fraternity, has sparked outrage and soul-searching at Cornell over its campus culture at the ⁠school in Ithaca, New York.

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Polls close in first round of Brazil’s high-stakes presidential election

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Leftwing incumbent Lula trying to fight off close rival Flávio Bolsonaro, far-right son of jailed ex-president

The polls have closed in the first round of Brazil’s highly polarised and high-stakes presidential election that could change not only the direction of Latin America’s largest country but that of the entire region.

The election pits the leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term, against the far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, an ally of Donald Trump and the son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup after his failed 2022 re-election attempt.

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Polish activists launch abortion pill locker to bypass near-total ban

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‘AbortOmat’ in Warsaw offers novel way to challenge country’s restrictions and allow women swift, anonymous access

They call it the “world’s first parcel locker for abortion pills”. Polish campaigners have launched a new means of distribution as part of their ongoing effort to skirt the country’s near-total ban on abortion.

Painted pink and framed by zebra-striped curtains, the 22-compartment “AbortOmat” in Warsaw allows women to access the pills swiftly and anonymously using a six-digit code. The service was envisaged for those who cannot or do not want to wait days for mail delivery due to a missed miscarriage or health complications, or who worry about receiving the pills at home.

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UK car industry faces ‘difficult trade-off’ between Chinese and EU markets

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Britain under pressure to put tariffs on cheap Chinese vehicle imports ahead of protectionist trade measures

Britain’s car industry is grappling with a “difficult trade-off” between China and Europe, as manufacturers struggle to balance the benefits of both markets ahead of looming trade measures that could restrict UK exports to the EU.

The UK is an outlier in choosing not to put import taxes on Chinese vehicles, even as the US has shut them out almost entirely, and the EU imposes duties of up to 45%.

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Greece returns priceless relics – and suggests UK should follow suit with Parthenon marbles

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Greek PM hopes handover of Tsar Samuel to Bulgaria will persuade Britain that time has come for ‘truth, reason, justice and morality’

In a ceremony replete with the sort of fanfare usually reserved for great events, Greece and Bulgaria have formally exchanged “a treasury” of relics and bones, sealing a cultural deal negotiated over decades.

The handover involved priceless religious objects removed from Greece at the height of the first world war, as well as remains thought to belong to Tsar Samuel, Bulgaria’s revered medieval warrior ruler.

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They embraced the Fiat 500, the Vespa, even tuk-tuks. But will Romans draw the line at the golf cart?

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Authorities crack down on trade they says risks spiralling out of control – but operators say they are being targeted unfairly

On the edge of Piazza Navona, one of the grandest squares in central Rome, Barry and Linda, visitors from Texas in the US, stepped out of a golf cart. They planned to cross the square on foot, perhaps stopping to admire Lorenzo Bernini’s 17th-century Fountain of the Four Rivers, before being picked up by their driver at the opposite end.

The couple had already done a walking tour on day one of their trip, and had been so exasperated by a stifling three-hour shuffle along a corridor towards the Sistine Chapel on day two that by the third day they wanted to give their tired feet a rest.

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