Category Archives: World News

Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin withdraws from Irish presidential race

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Election becomes unpredictable two-horse contest after political novice quits over debt revelations

One of the three main candidates in Ireland’s presidential election has quit the race in a bombshell announcement that has upended the contest.

Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin withdrew on Sunday night after revelations about an unpaid debt to a former tenant, turning the election into an unpredictable two-horse race between a centre-right former government minister and an independent leftwing member of parliament.

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Eswatini confirms arrival of 10 more people as part of US deportation deal

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African kingdom receives second group of third-country nationals in what NGOs and lawyers say is violation of human rights

Ten people deported by the US have arrived in Eswatini, its government said, the second group of third-country deportees to be sent to the southern African kingdom by the Trump administration in what lawyers and NGOs have described as violations of their human rights.

A statement by the Eswatini government posted on social media before their arrival on Monday said: “The individuals will be kept in a secured area separate from the public, while arrangements are made for their return to their countries of origin.”

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Nobel prize in medicine awarded to scientists for immune system research

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Mary E Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi worked on how the immune system can be prevented from harming the body

The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine 2025 has been awarded to three scientists for their work on how the immune system is kept in check and prevented from attacking our own body.

Mary E Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi have been awarded the prize “for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance”.

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Mount Everest hikers describe ‘extreme’ conditions as huge rescue effort continues

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At least 200 people still stranded after unseasonally heavy snowfall during China’s Golden Week holiday

Trekkers have described facing “extreme” conditions after an unseasonable snowstorm during one of China’s busiest holiday weekends stranded hundreds of people on Mount Everest, prompting a massive rescue effort.

Chinese authorities said about 350 people had made their way down but at least 200 remained stranded at the Everest Scenic Area, to the east of the mountain, on the Tibetan side of the border.

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Nearly a third of bosses report increase in cyber-attacks on their supply chains

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CIPS survey shows cyber threats have risen up the list of concerns for procurement managers

Almost a third of bosses have reported an increase in cyber-attacks on their supply chains over the past six months, as the fallout from devastating hacks on corporate stalwarts including Jaguar Land Rover highlighted a growing threat to businesses.

Cyber threats have risen up the list of concerns for procurement managers at hundreds of companies worldwide across industries including manufacturing, energy and technology, according to a survey conducted in September by industry body the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (Cips).

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Gaza flotilla passengers allege poor conditions in detention as Israel prepares to deport dozens of activists

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Families of some aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla say they are being held without access to clean water or legal representation

Activists from New Zealand detained in Israel after they were removed from vessels carrying aid to Gaza are being held in poor conditions without access to water and legal representation, their families have said, as dozens more passengers from the Global Sumud Flotilla were set to be deported.

Rana Hamida, Youssef Sammour and Samuel Leason were among 437 activists, parliamentarians and lawyers travelling aboard the flotilla, a coalition of more than 40 vessels carrying humanitarian aid whose goal was to breach Israel’s 16-year maritime blockade of Gaza.

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Louis CK defends decision to perform at Riyadh comedy festival as ‘a good opportunity’

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Comedian admits to mixed feelings but says event is a ‘positive thing’ despite human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia

Louis CK has defended his decision to perform at the Riyadh comedy festival in Saudi Arabia after fellow comedians criticised the big names taking part as whitewashing a regime guilty of human rights abuses.

Speaking on Real Time With Bill Maher, CK, who is co-headlining the festival with the British comedian Jimmy Carr on Monday night local time, said other comedians had been “really surprised” by the response from audiences in Riyadh so far.

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US struck another boat illegally carrying drugs off Venezuela coast, Trump says

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President said US would turn attention to drug trafficking happening on land during speech at navy ceremony

US forces on Saturday evening struck another vessel illegally carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela, Donald Trump said on Sunday to thousands of sailors at a ceremony celebrating the US navy’s 250th anniversary. He added that the US would also start looking at drug trafficking happening on land.

Trump made the comment during a speech at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, next to the Harry S Truman aircraft carrier. It was not immediately clear if he was referencing a strike announced on Friday by defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

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Mount Everest rescue under way after snowstorm traps nearly 1,000 people

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Hundreds of trekkers stranded by blizzard on eastern face of mountain in Tibet already guided to safety by rescuers

Rescue efforts are under way on Mount Everest after a snowstorm trapped nearly 1,000 people in campsites on the eastern side of the mountain, according to Chinese state media.

Hundreds of trekkers stranded by a blizzard near the eastern face of the mountain in Tibet were guided to safety by rescuers on Sunday, as unusually heavy precipitation including rain pummelled the Himalayas.

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Syria holds first elections since fall of Bashar al-Assad

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After more than a decade of civil war, committee members will choose transitional parliament

Syria is holding its first parliamentary elections since the fall of its longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, in a tentative step towards democratic polls that have been criticised as biased in favour of the country’s interim leaders.

As the battle-ravaged country moves through its post-Assad political transition after more than a decade of civil war, members of local committees are beginning the significant milestone of selecting a transitional parliament.

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Andrej Babiš to hold talks with other Czech parties on forming government

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Billionaire faces tricky task trying to secure enough support to become PM after ANO wins elections without majority

Andrej Babiš has met the Czech president, Petr Pavel, and is to hold talks with other party leaders as the billionaire populist begins the tricky job of trying to form a stable government after his ANO (Yes) party won parliamentary elections, but failed to secure a majority.

Final results showed ANO won 34.5% of the vote, held on Friday and Saturday, translating to a provisional 80 seats in the 200-member parliament. The centre-right Spolu coalition of the outgoing prime minister, Petr Fiala, came second on 23.4%.

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Marco Rubio says Gaza war not yet over as Israel and Hamas prepare for talks

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Secretary of state says ‘we’ll know very quickly whether Hamas is serious or not’ about release of hostages from Gaza

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Sunday that the war in Gaza has not ended, despite Israel and Hamas both agreeing to aspects of Donald Trump’s plan for an end to the almost two-year conflict in Gaza.

“We will know very quickly whether Hamas is serious or not by how these technical talks go in terms of the logistics,” Rubio told NBC News’ Meet the Press about the release of hostages from Gaza.

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Georgia’s prime minister announces crackdown on dissent after Tbilisi protests

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Irakli Kobakhidze accused EU ambassador of supporting ‘attempt to overthrow constitutional order’

Georgia’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, has announced a sweeping crackdown on dissent, accusing demonstrators who tried to storm the presidential palace of aiming to topple his government and blaming the European Union for interference in his country.

Kobakhidze levelled his allegations a day after protesters attempted to breach the presidential palace as local elections were being held. They were stopped by riot police using pepper spray and water cannon.

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René Magritte’s ‘superstar of surrealism’ to go on sale in Paris

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La Magie Noire, bought by family of wartime resistance heroine 90 years ago, expected to fetch more than €7m

A painting by the surrealist artist René Magritte that has been held in a private collection for more than 90 years will go on sale later this month.

La Magie Noire was bought by the family of the second world war resistance heroine Suzanne Spaak, who were Magritte’s benefactors at a time when he was struggling financially and had failed to sell a single work for two years.

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Populist billionaire Andrej Babiš wins Czech parliamentary election

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With Babiš’s victory the Czech Republic looks set to join Hungary and Slovakia in refusing support for Ukraine

Populist billionaire Andrej Babiš has won the Czech parliamentary election in a political comeback that puts the country on a course away from supporting Ukraine and towards Hungary and Slovakia, which have taken a pro-Russian path.

With the votes from almost 98% of polling stations counted by the statistics office, Babiš’s ANO (YES) movement captured 35% of the vote followed by the pro-western coalition of the prime minister, Petr Fiala, with 23.0%. The coalition defeated Babiš in the 2021 election.

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US treasury considers special $1 Trump coin reading ‘fight, fight, fight’

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US treasurer says officials looking at drafts for country’s 250th anniversary featuring president with raised fist

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the US’s independence, the treasury department is mulling production of a $1 coin displaying Donald Trump with a clenched first under an American flag and the words “fight, fight, fight”.

The words overtly reference what Trump said immediately after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt four months before he won a second presidency.

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Storm Amy: man dies in Ireland as fresh weather warning issued for UK

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Man dies in ‘weather-related incident’ in Co Donegal, while Met Office issues yellow wind warning for whole of UK

A man has died and a fresh weather warning covers the whole of the UK as Storm Amy continues to bring widespread disruption.

Irish police said the man died in a “weather-related” incident in the Letterkenny area of County Donegal, Ireland, shortly after 4.15pm on Friday.

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Person killed in drone attack as Ukraine accuses Russia of targeting passenger trains

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Two trains were hit in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, killing one and injuring about 30 others, officials say

Two Russian drones struck trains at a station in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, killing one person and injuring about 30 others, officials said on Saturday, with Ukraine’s foreign minister accusing Moscow of deliberately hitting passenger trains.

“A brutal Russian drone strike on the railway station in Shostka, Sumy region,” wrote the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Telegram, posting a video of a wrecked, burning passenger carriage and others with their windows blown out.

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Hegseth says four killed in US strike on alleged drug boat off Venezuelan coast

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Pentagon chief says strike – fourth by US military in recent weeks – targeted boat with ‘substantial amounts’ of drugs

The United States carried out a strike against an alleged drug-trafficking boat on Friday that killed four people, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said, a day after the Trump administration told Congress it was entering a new “non-international armed conflict” with cartels.

The strike, which Hegseth said he directed on Donald Trump’s orders, appears to be at least the fourth in recent weeks. Hegseth gave few details about the boat or the evidence that it was carrying narcotics, other than saying the US had confirmed it was carrying drugs.

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Journalist Mario Guevara deported to El Salvador after 100 days in Ice custody

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Removal comes after Emmy-winning Salvadorian reporter was arrested while covering ‘No Kings Day’ protest

Journalist Mario Guevara’s imprisonment by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) ended with deportation to El Salvador on Friday, his family announced on social media.

Guevara has been a media mainstay in the Atlanta area for about 20 years, after fleeing El Salvador to escape leftwing militias in 2004. Though he has a work permit and two of his children are American citizens, he has operated under the “administrative closure” of deportation orders for much of that time.

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