Category Archives: World News

Denmark bans drones ahead of European summits amid further sightings at military sites

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The ban on civilian unmanned flights will last until Friday and comes as heads of EU governments gather amid spate of drone incursions

Danish authorities have said drones were seen at several military sites overnight and announced that all civilian use of the unmanned aircraft will be banned this week, as Copenhagen prepares to host two European summits.

The Danish defence ministry said on Sunday it had observed drones at several of its armed forces locations on Saturday night, without giving further details. The transport ministry said all civilian use of drones would be banned to ensure security while Denmark hosts an EU summit on Wednesday and a meeting of the European Political Community, a wider gathering of leaders from across the continent, on Thursday.

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Namibia deploys army to fight wildfire burning third of Etosha game reserve

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Vast tract of park that is home to 114 mammal species, including critically endangered black rhino, affected

Namibia has begun deploying hundreds of soldiers to fight a fire that has burned through a third of the vast Etosha national park, one of Africa’s largest game reserves, officials said.

The park in the north of the largely desert country is home to 114 species of mammals, notably the critically endangered black rhinoceros, and is a major tourist attraction.

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Moldova’s pro-European party on course to retain majority in key election

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PAS leads with 46% of vote in ballot that will decide whether country steers closer to EU or Russia

Moldova’s ruling pro-European party is on course to retain its parliamentary majority after Sunday’s pivotal election, seen as a test of the president’s push to keep the country of 2.4 million on track for EU membership rather than drifting back towards Moscow.

With more than 90% of the ballots counted, Maia Sandu’s pro-western Action and Solidarity party (PAS) led with 46% of the vote, while a Moscow-leaning alliance of Soviet-nostalgic parties headed by former president Igor Dodon had 27%.

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Zelenskyy says Russia launched 500 drones and 40 missiles in ‘vile attack’ on Ukraine – Ukraine war live

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Twelve-year-old girl among those killed in Kyiv as Ukraine president condemns ‘brutal’ Russian strikes

In an address at the UN general assembly in New York on Saturday, Moscow’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned that “any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response” but insisted Russia has no intention of attacking EU or Nato member states.

In a wide-ranging speech, Lavrov said threats against Russia by western countries were becoming “increasingly common”.

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Iran angry as sweeping UN sanctions take effect after failure of nuclear talks

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Foreign ministry attacks ‘unjustifiable’ return of measures expected to have wide effects on troubled economy

Widespread UN sanctions against Iran have come back into force for the first time in a decade, prompting anger from Tehran, after last-ditch nuclear talks with western powers failed to produce a breakthrough.

The sanctions, which came into effect late on Saturday and three months after Israel and the US bombed Iran, bar dealings related to Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programme and are also expected to have wider effects on the country’s troubled economy.

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At least 40 dead and 124 injured in crush at Vijay rally in India

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Victims include nine children at election campaign gathering in Tamil Nadu led by popular actor and politician

Police in India have opened a criminal case against the leaders of a party headed by the actor turned politician Vijay, after a crowd crush at one of his rallies killed 40 people and injured at least 124 others.

Local officials reported that at least nine children had died at the rally, which took place on Saturday night in the Karur district of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. Vijay, one of the most popular and successful actors in Tamil cinema, who entered politics last year, was addressing the crowd for his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) party before state elections early next year.

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Putin preparing to attack another European country, Zelenskyy says

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Ukraine’s president says Kremlin checking Europe’s capacity to protect its skies following new drone sightings

Vladimir Putin will expand his war in Ukraine by attacking another European country, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has predicted, and accused Russia of recent drone incursions that he said were an attempt to test Nato’s defences.

Speaking in Kyiv after his meeting with Donald Trump at the UN in New York, the Ukrainian president said Russia was preparing for a bigger conflict. “Putin will not wait to finish his war in Ukraine. He will open up some other direction. Nobody knows where. He wants that,” he said.

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Polish climber makes history skiing down Everest without bottled oxygen

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Poland’s PM hails Andrzej Bargiel’s completion of the challenge after two previous failed attempts

A Polish adventure skier has made history by becoming the first person to climb up and ski down Mount Everest without the use of additional oxygen.

The ascent was Andrzej Bargiel’s third attempt at climbing Everest – the tallest mountain on earth at 8,849 metres (29,032ft) high – after dangerous conditions forced the 37-year-old to abandon earlier attempts in 2019 and 2022.

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Trump brags of ‘massive’ oil deal in Pakistan – but drilling has not found any

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Announcement of deal baffles experts and former ministers, who say there is no sign of any untapped reserves

The newfound camaraderie between the US and Pakistan was on full display this week as Donald Trump welcomed Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, and the country’s powerful army chief, Asim Munir, into the Oval Office, heralding them both as “great leaders”.

Having been cold-shouldered by successive US presidents, this was the first time a Pakistani prime minister had been invited to Washington in more than six years. It was also the unprecedented second time this year that Munir – who holds no official government role – held an intimate meeting with Trump, which many took as a telling signal of where the power to cut deals really lies in Pakistan.

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US revokes visa for Colombian president Gustavo Petro after ‘reckless’ actions in New York

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At a pro-Palestine protest, Petro urged US soldiers to ‘disobey Trump’s order’ and ‘not point their rifles at humanity’

The US state department said on Friday it would revoke the visa of Colombian leftist president Gustavo Petro for his “incendiary actions” during a pro-Palestinian street protest in New York.

“Earlier today, Colombian president @petrogustavo stood on a NYC street and urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence,” the state department said on X.

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Trump fires US attorney who told border agents to follow law on immigration raids

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New York Times reports Michele Beckwith’s firing came after she reminded Border Patrol to comply with courts

Donald Trump fired a top federal prosecutor in Sacramento just hours after she warned immigration agents they could not indiscriminately detain people in her district, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times.

Michele Beckwith, who became the acting US attorney in Sacramento in January, received an email at 4.31pm on 15 July notifying her that the president had ordered her termination.

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Trump jokingly asked Rolex executives if tariffs prompted US Open invite, CEO says

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Rolex CEO stressed US president’s remarks were made ‘in jest’ in letter to Elizabeth Warren, who had raised concerns

Donald Trump asked Rolex executives if he would have been invited to watch this month’s US Open final from the luxury watchmaker’s VIP box had he imposed steep tariffs on Swiss exports weeks earlier.

The US president’s remarks were made “in jest”, stressed Jean-Frederic Dufour, the Rolex CEO, in a letter to Elizabeth Warren, the US senator who had raised questions about the decision to invite Trump – including whether the conglomerate was seeking to “curry favor” with the administration.

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Assata Shakur, an icon of Black liberation who was exiled to Cuba, dies aged 78

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Shakur spent decades exiled after she was convicted of killing a state trooper in 1977 and escaped from prison

On 25 September, Assata Shakur, a former member of the Black Liberation Army, died aged 78 in Havana, Cuba, according to Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Cuban officials cited the reason for her death as old age and health conditions. Shakur, a longstanding symbol of resistance and Black liberation, spent several decades exiled in Cuba after she was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1977 and escaped from prison.

“At approximately 1:15pm on September 25th, my mother, Assata Shakur, took her last earthly breath,” her daughter Kakuya Shakur wrote on Facebook. “Words cannot describe the depth of loss that I’m feeling at this time.”

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World must deny Israel ‘tools of genocide’, says growing alliance of activist states

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New York meeting of Hague Group warns of shared responsibility to prevent genocide and proposes steps to isolate Israel

The international community has a legal and moral duty to deny Israel “the tools of genocide”, the Malaysian foreign minister, Mohamad Hasan, said at a meeting in New York of the Hague Group, the growing alliance of countries dedicated to coordinating practical economic and legal steps to isolate Israel over the war in Gaza.

The group, co-chaired by South Africa and Columbia, has become a central exchange for practical steps to try to pressure Israel, including stepping up collective action at ports and airports to prevent the transfer of weapons and goods to Israel, including dual-use heavy machinery.

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EU to move forward with plans for drone wall amid Russian incursions

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Ministers aim to bolster defences after spate of airspace violations, amid rising momentum for €140bn loan to Ukraine

The EU has agreed to move forward with plans for a drone wall at the heart of its eastern defences as momentum grows for a €140bn loan to Ukraine based on Russian frozen assets.

After a meeting with ministers from 10 mostly central and eastern European member states plus Ukraine, the EU’s defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, said a drone wall to protect against incursions from the skies was an immediate priority and core element of the bloc’s eastern flank defences.

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Canada postal workers strike after government orders end to door-to-door delivery

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Union says it’s ‘outraged and appalled’ by government’s order of sweeping changes to the national service

Postal workers in Canada have gone on strike after the government warned of an “existential crisis” and ordered sweeping changes to the national service – including an end to door-to-door delivery within the decade.

The union representing Canada Post employees described the proposed changes as “an attack” on its workers who have struggled to compete with a surge in private courier services.

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Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyers will try to ensure time in prison is ‘as short as possible’

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Former French president sentenced to five years for criminal conspiracy over election campaign funds scheme with Gaddafi regime

Lawyers for the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy have said they will try to ensure he serves as little time in prison as possible, after he was sentenced to five years for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to get election campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

“We’re going to make sure that his incarceration will be as short as possible,” Sarkozy’s lawyer, Jean-Michel Darrois, told the BFMTV news channel on Friday after he became the first French president to go to jail.

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Israeli loudspeakers broadcast Netanyahu’s speech to UN into Gaza

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Operation prompts outrage as Israeli PM criticises western countries for recognising Palestine as a state and pledges to continue war

Israeli military loudspeaker systems have broadcast Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the UN into Gaza in an unprecedented operation that immediately prompted controversy and outrage.

In a statement on Friday, an Israeli government spokesperson said: “As part of the public diplomacy effort, the prime minister’s office has directed civilian elements, in cooperation with the [Israel Defense Forces], to place loudspeakers on the backs of trucks on the Israeli side of the Gaza border so that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s historic UN general assembly speech will be heard in the Gaza Strip.”

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Ladakh statehood activist arrested days after violent crackdown by Modi

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Sonam Wangchuk, who has been agitating against the government, was on his way to speak at a press briefing

A renowned environmentalist at the forefront of a protest movement in the Indian region of Ladakh has been arrested amid a wider crackdown on dissent under the prime minister, Narendra Modi.

Sonam Wangchuk, an activist, engineer and inventor, has been leading a lengthy agitation against the Modi government, calling for statehood and greater protections to be granted to his home region of Ladakh. He was arrested on Friday afternoon, on his way to address a press conference.

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Drug traffickers livestream torture and killing of young Argentinian women and girl

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Brenda del Castillo, Morena Verdi and Lara Gutiérrez were lured with a promise of a $300 payment for a ‘sex party’

The murder of two young Argentinian women and a girl whose torture by suspected drug traffickers was livestreamed on a private Instagram group has sent shock waves through a country unused to such extreme levels of narco violence.

Brenda del Castillo, 20, Morena Verdi, 20, and Lara Gutiérrez, 15, went missing on Friday, after they were lured to a house in the outskirts of Buenos Aires by a promise that they would be paid US $300 for taking part in a “sex party”.

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