Category Archives: World News

Tulip Siddiq requests meeting with Bangladeshi leader over corruption allegation

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Ex-minister wants to clear up ‘misunderstanding’ over accusation she benefitted from regime of her aunt, ousted Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina

The former City minister Tulip Siddiq has asked to meet Bangladesh’s leader during his London visit to clear up a “misunderstanding” after corruption allegations made by his administration led her to resign from the UK government.

Siddiq, whose aunt Sheikh Hasina was put on trial in absentia last week over crimes against humanity during her 15 years as prime minister, has been accused of benefitting from the former regime by the authorities in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.

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Kenya tells tea factories to cut ties with Rainforest Alliance due to costs

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Government says ethical certification is adding financial strain on smallholders rather than being paid by customers

The Kenyan government has told its tea factories to stop working with the Rainforest Alliance because it says the costs involved in securing the ethical label don’t add up for farmers.

The non-profit organisation is one of the world’s most recognisable certification schemes with its green frog seal on food packaging a sign consumers “can feel confident that these products support a better world”.

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Harvard author Steven Pinker appears on podcast linked to scientific racism

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Psychologist and writer’s appearance on Aporia condemned for helping to normalise ‘dangerous, discredited ideas’

The Harvard psychologist and bestselling author Steven Pinker appeared on the podcast of Aporia, an outlet whose owners advocate for a revival of race science and have spoken of seeking “legitimation by association” by platforming more mainstream figures.

The appearance underlines past incidents in which Pinker has encountered criticism for his association with advocates of so-called “human biodiversity”, which other academics have called a “rebranding” of racial genetic essentialism and scientific racism.

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Kristi Noem: the made-for-TV official executing Trump’s mass deportations

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Noem has played a starring role in the second Trump administration with her goal to ‘Make America Safe Again’ – derided by critics as ‘cosplay’ with cruel consequences

Little more than a year ago, Kristi Noem’s political prospects appeared to be in freefall. The then South Dakota governor was criss-crossing the country on an ill-fated book tour, widely seen, at least initially, as an audition to be Donald Trump’s running mate. Instead, Noem found herself on the defensive – a position Trump never likes to be in – after revealing in her memoir that she had shot the family’s “untrainable” hunting dog, a 14-month old wirehair pointer named Cricket.

Even in Trumpworld, where controversy can be a form of currency, the disclosure shocked. In the weeks that followed, she faded from contention and the breathless veepstakes rumor mill moved on. By the time Trump selected JD Vance as his vice-presidential nominee, Noem’s path forward on the national stage was unclear.

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Body of Thai hostage retrieved from Gaza, says Israeli defence minister

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Nattapong Pinta had been seized in the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack and killed, according to Israeli military

The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage, Nattapong Pinta, who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023, according to defence minister, Israel Katz. .

Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian militant group called the Mujahideen Brigades, and was retrieved from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.

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Conference to recognise Palestinian state to weaken scope of its ambition, diplomats say

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UK, France and other western states will not recognise Palestine at New York meeting, instead focusing on agreeing steps towards it

A planned conference in New York this month that supporters of Palestine had hoped would push western governments to recognise a Palestinian state has weakened its ambition and will instead hope to agree on steps towards recognition, diplomats have said.

The change to the aims of the conference, due to be held between 17 and 20 June, marks a retreat from an earlier vision that it would mark a joint declaration of recognition of Palestine as a state by a large group of countries, including permanent UN security council members France and the UK.

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California leaders condemn Ice raids in LA: ‘We will not stand for this’

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City mayor Karen Bass joins governor Gavin Newsom and others in denouncing arrests of at least 45 people

The Department of Homeland Security conducted raids on multiple locations across Los Angeles on Friday, clashing with the crowds of people who gathered to protest and prompting widespread criticism from California leaders.

Masked agents were recorded pulling several people out of two LA-area Home Depot stores and the clothing manufacturer Ambient Apparel’s headquarters in LA’s Fashion District. Immigration advocates said the raids also included four other locations, including a doughnut shop.

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Canada’s PM faces backlash for inviting India’s Narendra Modi for G7 summit

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Mark Carney declined to answer if he believed Indian PM had a role in murder of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has defended his decision to invite India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, to the upcoming G7 summit in Alberta, despite the conclusion of Canada’s federal police’s that the murder of a prominent Sikh activist in British Columbia was orchestrated by the “highest levels” of the Indian government.

Carney declined to answer reporters’ questions over whether he believed Modi had a role in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a killing on Canadian soil that shattered relations between the two countries.

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Trump announces US-China trade talks in London next week

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President, who had Thursday call with China’s Xi Jinping amid tariff dispute, says ‘meeting should go very well’

Senior US administration officials will meet with a Chinese delegation on Monday in London for the next round of trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing, Donald Trump said on Friday.

The meeting comes after a phone call between Trump and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, on Thursday, which the US president described as a “very positive” conversation as the two countries attempt to break an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals.

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Netanyahu defends arming Palestinian clans accused of ties with jihadist groups

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PM says it ‘saves lives of Israeli soldiers’, after accusations government is giving weapons to ‘criminals and felons’

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has admitted arming clans in Gaza that he says are opposed to Hamas, after allegations that members of these criminal gangs looted humanitarian aid and have ties to jihadist groups.

The admission came after Israeli media reports quoted defence sources as saying Netanyahu had authorised giving weapons to a clan reportedly led by a man known as Yasser Abu Shabab, a Rafah resident from a Bedouin family, known locally for his involvement in criminal activity. Israel allegedly provided Abu Shabab’s group, which calls itself the “Anti-Terror Service”, with Kalashnikov assault rifles, including weapons seized from Hamas.

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Group stranded with Ice in Djibouti shipping container after removal from US

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Deportees and officers are ‘ill’ and face risks after flight to South Sudan was stopped by US court in late May

A group of men removed from the US to Djibouti, in east Africa, are stranded in a converted shipping container together with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers sent to supervise them after a deportation flight to South Sudan was stopped by an American court.

The eight deportees and 13 Ice staff have begun to “feel ill”, the US government said.

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Catholics now make up little more than half Brazil’s population

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Census finds just 56.7% in world’s biggest Catholic country follow Roman church as evangelical numbers rise

Home to the world’s largest Catholic population, Brazil has once again witnessed a decline in the faith’s following, according to new figures released by the country’s national statistics institute (IBGE).

Thirty years ago, Catholics made up 82.9% of Brazil’s population but now account for just over half, 56.7%, according to the 2022 census – whose results on religion were only released on Friday.

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Russia bombards Kyiv after Putin vows revenge for Operation Spiderweb

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Three emergency workers killed and 20 people wounded as missiles and drones strike Ukrainian capital

Russia launched an intense missile and drone barrage at Kyiv overnight after Vladimir Putin vowed to respond to Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb attack on some of the Kremlin’s nuclear-capable bombers.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched more than 400 drones and more than 40 missiles at Ukraine, as he urged allies to build pressure on the Kremlin to end its war. Four people were killed, including three emergency workers in Kyiv.

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Trump travel ban comes as little surprise amid barrage of draconian restrictions

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President had cued up ban in January order and, despite exemptions, policy will separate families and harm people fleeing crises

Donald Trump’s first travel ban in 2017 had an immediate, explosive impact – spawning chaos at airports nationwide.

This time around, the panic and chaos was already widespread by the time the president signed his proclamation Wednesday to fully or partially restrict foreign nationals from 19 countries from entering the United States.

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Russia attacks Ukraine with missiles and drones – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

We’re about to wrap up this live coverage for now – thanks for reading. Here’s a recap of what happened this morning.

Russia attacked Ukraine with Russian ballistic missiles and drones during a nighttime attack early on Friday, wounding at least three people, officials said.

Multiple explosions were heard in Kyiv, the capital, and falling debris triggered fires across several districts as air defence systems tried to intercept incoming targets, said the Kyiv city administration’s head, Tymur Tkachenko.

Authorities reported damage in several districts and rescue workers were responding at multiple locations. Officials urged residents to seek shelter.

The attacks came after Russia accused Kyiv of state terrorism over its drone operation striking Russian heavy bomber planes at air bases in Siberia and the far north at the weekend and said it would respond as and when its military saw fit.

In Friday’s Russian attacks a fire broke out in a 16-story residential building in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district and emergency services evacuated three people from the apartment. Rescue operations were continuing. Another fire broke out in a metal warehouse.

A Shahed drone exploded near an apartment building in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, shattering windows and doors, the regional military administration chief said. Explosions from ballistic missiles were also recorded on the city’s outskirts, Dmytro Bryzhynskyi added.

US president Donald Trump said that during a call with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday he urged the Russian president to refrain from retaliating but fully expected Moscow to strike back over Ukraine’s assault on Russian heavy bomber planes.

The UN nuclear safety watchdog’s team at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine heard repeated rounds of gunfire that appeared to be aimed at drones reportedly attacking the site’s training centre, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday. There were no immediate reports of damage to the centre, it said.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Trump in an Oval Office meeting to increase pressure on Russia to end the war.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to “unconditionally support” Russia in the war at a meeting with top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu, Pyongyang state media reported.
With agencies

How and when our military deems it appropriate.

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Butter madness: New Zealanders turn to churning as price of dairy staple soars

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Dairy is the country’s largest export industry, but recent figures from Stats NZ show domestic butter prices have surged 65% and people are getting desperate

New Zealanders are driving cross-country for hours in pursuit of cheap butter while some are ordering it from Australia or even churning their own cream, as the country battles sky-high dairy prices.

Despite dairy being the country’s largest export industry, recent figures from Stats NZ show domestic butter prices surged 65% in the year to March, pushing the average price for 500g to $7.42 (£3.30) – that’s up about $3 from this time last year.

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‘Total discrimination’: Chinese students facing US visa ban say their lives are in limbo

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Across the US, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students are now uncertain about their academic future and some are considering moving away

Chinese students in the United States are questioning their future in the country after the state department announced last week that it would “aggressively” revoke visas for Chinese students and enhance scrutiny of future applications from China and Hong Kong.

Chinese students hoping to study at Harvard, the US’s oldest and wealthiest university, are under particular pressure after the Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it was banning the school from enrolling new foreign students. The presidential proclamation cited Harvard’s links with China as a particular cause for concern.

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Canada: premature baby with measles dies amid outbreak in Ontario

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Infant had ‘contracted the virus before birth from their mother’, while the country has recorded 2,755 measles cases

A Canadian infant who was born prematurely and had measles has died, officials said on Thursday without confirming a cause of death, raising heightened concern about the virus’s resurgence.

Canada has recorded 2,755 measles cases – including 2,429 confirmed and 326 probable – according to federal health data updated on 2 June.

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Second attempt by Japanese company to land on moon likely ends in failure

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Resilience would have made history as the first non-US commercial lander to make a successful touchdown

An attempt to land a commercially built spacecraft on the surface of the moon looked to have ended in failure on Thursday, two years after its predecessor, launched by the same Japanese company, crashed following an uncontrolled descent.

Resilience, an un-crewed vehicle from the Tokyo company ispace, would have made history as the first non-US commercial lander to make a successful touchdown, scheduled for 3.17pm ET Thursday (4.17am JST Friday) at Mare Frigoris (the Sea of Cold) in the far north of the moon.

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Israel accused of arming Palestinian gang who allegedly looted aid in Gaza

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Gang ‘of about 100 armed men’ operate in eastern Rafah with tacit approval of IDF in apparent attempt to counter Hamas

Israel’s government has been accused of arming a Palestinian criminal gang whose members have allegedly looted humanitarian aid, in an apparent attempt to counter Hamas in Gaza.

Satellite images and videos verified by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz showed on Thursday that a new Palestinian militia has expanded its presence in southern Gaza, and is operating inside an area under the direct control of the Israel Defense Forces.

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