Joe Biden’s political career has been fraught with personal tragedy, and becoming president is the culmination of a path full of challenges
Kabul police investigate death of Yama Siawash after explosion
A bomb attached to the vehicle of a former presenter on Afghanistan’s Tolo TV has exploded, killing the journalist and two other civilians, Kabul police have said.
The death of Yama Siawash is being investigated after the explosion on Saturday, said police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz. No one has immediately claimed responsibility.
Continue reading...‘Large differences remain’ after call between Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen
The Brexit negotiations remained stuck after a call between Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen before a decisive week of talks.
The European commission president and the prime minister both highlighted in their post-call statements the contentious issues of EU access to British waters and agreement on future rules to ensure fair competition.
Continue reading...Release follows warnings about her health after six-week hunger strike
Iran has temporarily released Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent lawyer who was jailed two years ago on spying and propaganda charges, the judiciary’s news agency reported.
Sotoudeh’s release followed warnings last month by human rights groups that her health had severely deteriorated after she staged a six-week hunger strike to demand the release of political prisoners and rights activists.
Continue reading...Pascal Affi N’Guessan charged with creating a rival government after President Alassane Ouattara won third term
The Ivorian opposition leader and former prime minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan has been placed under arrest for creating a rival government after President Alassane Ouattara’s election victory, his wife and a spokeswoman have said.
Prosecutors in Ivory Coast are pursuing terrorism charges against more than a dozen opposition leaders who boycotted the 31 October vote in which Ouattara won a third term in office and announced they were creating a transitional council.
Continue reading...Campaigners say visit was ‘media propaganda’ as officials failed to stop at any devastated rainforest areas
Environmentalists have criticised a three-day tour of the Amazon that the Brazilian government staged for foreign ambassadors as a “sham” and “media propaganda” after it failed to stop at any environmentally devastated areas.
The tour ended on Friday and focused on better-protected areas of the northern Amazon. “The government prepared an itinerary that does not show the reality of the Amazon – the abandonment of indigenous peoples, the land grabbing, the illegal mining and the uncontrolled deforestation. It is a sham,” said Marcio Astrini, executive director of the Climate Observatory, an umbrella group of environmental NGOs.
Continue reading...Black people in the north African country suffer hardship and disadvantage, and many still carry the label of ‘liberated’ slaves
Many within Tunisia greeted the news that 81-year-old Hamden Dali had won his two decade-long campaign to have “atig” removed from his name with little more than bemusement.
But for Dali atig – meaning “liberated by” – in his name was a painful reminder of his family’s heritage as former slaves.
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A campaign aide has also tested positive, Bloomberg reports. CNN and NBC have also confirmed the Meadows has contracted Covid-19.
Worth noting that Mark Meadows was at the election night party at the White House Tuesday that hundreds of people attended. Officials said everyone would be tested beforehand.
Mark Meadows has tested positive for coronavirus, according to reporters from Bloomberg news.
BREAKING: Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has the coronavirus. Meadows informed a close circle of advisers after the election.
Story by me, @tylerpager and @MarioDParker out soon.
Rescuers reach remote mountain village in Guatemala where people were buried in their homes
The death toll from the calamitous Storm Eta in Central America soared on Friday after the Guatemalan military reached a remote mountainous village where torrential rains had triggered devastating mudslides, killing about 100 people.
Many of the dead were buried in their homes in the remote village of Quejá in the central region of Alta Verapaz, where about 150 houses had been swallowed by mudslides, said army spokesman Rubén Téllez.
Continue reading...Jim Kenney tells a press conference that Donald Trump should 'put his big boy pants on', acknowledge his defeat and congratulate Joe Biden as the winner of the US presidential election. It could take several days to complete the count in Philadelphia, but Biden has so far won 81% of the votes. Around 40,000 are still to be counted. Trump has continued to tweet baseless allegations of voter fraud
Phonecall with Ursula von der Leyen could be final chance for PM to avert no-deal Brexit
Boris Johnson and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will hold talks on Saturday before a potentially decisive week in the Brexit negotiations, amid growing concern in Brussels at the lack of progress.
UK sources played down expectations of a breakthrough moment but with time short for parliamentary ratification the phonecall may prove to be the final chance for a political intervention in the troubled talks.
Continue reading...Trump administration moves against Gibran Bassil for alleged corruption
The Trump administration has imposed Treasury sanctions on one of Lebanon’s most influential politicians as it intensifies attempts to defang the militia and political powerhouse Hezbollah.
The move against Gibran Bassil for alleged corruption was announced on Friday as Trump’s chances of re-election continued to dip, and marks a sharp escalation of efforts to limit Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanese affairs. Crucially, it is a direct challenge to the country’s president and Bassil’s father in law, Michel Aoun, who Washington has considered an ally.
Continue reading...DoJ is suing for formal forfeiture of funds after tracking down the person holding them
The US government has seized more than $1bn worth of bitcoins connected to the shuttered darknet marketplace Silk Road and is suing for formal forfeiture of the funds.
The case is the biggest cryptocurrency seizure in history, and explains why the bitcoins changed hands this week. Analysts had noticed the transfer on the public blockchain and speculated that it was either due to an unknown Silk Road co-conspirator attempting to cash out, or because the funds had been stolen by hackers.
Continue reading...Children among those reported drowned as Islamist insurgency drives thousands of families from homes in Cabo Delgado
More than 40 people fleeing violence in Mozambique’s conflict-torn north are believed to have drowned after the boat carrying them to safety sank, according to reports.
At least 70 people were on board the vessel when it sank on 29 October in the Indian Ocean just north of the provincial capital of Pemba, where tens of thousands of people have sought refuge from a three-year Islamist insurgency, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Reuters reported.
Continue reading...Storm Eta has unleashed torrential rain, causing catastrophic landslides and flooding in Central America. Dozens of people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced after raging torrents tore through cities.
Eta, one of the fiercest storms to hit Central America in years, struck Nicaragua as a category 4 hurricane on Tuesday with 150mph (241kph) winds, before weakening as it moved inland and into neighbouring Honduras
Continue reading...One of Danish mink strains prompts country to cull all its mink; Sweden registers 4,697 new infections, highest since pandemic began
The Kremlin has said it is early to judge how effective Russia’s coronavirus restrictions are without lockdowns, as the country reported a record daily number of new Covid-19 infections.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the increase in coronavirus cases to a daily high of 20,582 was alarming and that authorities would take action depending on how the situation developed.
New coronavirus restrictions came into force in Italy on Friday but from pavements dotted with coffee drinkers to lines of striking taxi drivers, the picture on the streets was different from the ghostly scenes of the first lockdown, Reuters reports.
The restrictions, which divide the country into three zones according to the severity of the latest outbreak, are less severe than the blanket measures imposed when the pandemic first took hold in March.
Continue reading...France’s new infections more than 2,000 higher than previous record; Italy registers 37,809 new cases; Russia says Covid was main cause in 5,199 cases. This blog is now closed
NSW has reported one new case of locally transmitted Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
Four cases were also reported in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine, bringing the total number of cases in NSW to 4,270.
Dr Michael Douglas provides a #COVID19 update for Saturday 7 November 2020. pic.twitter.com/T2q5LFhLy1
Continue reading...From Iran to Venezuela to Russia, once-chided national leaders enjoy the sight of US democracy in action
Rivals and enemies of the US have come together to revel in the messiest US election in a generation, mocking the delay in vote processing and Donald Trump’s claims of electoral fraud in barely veiled criticisms of Washington’s political activism abroad.
“What a spectacle!” crowed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “One says this is the most fraudulent election in US history. Who says that? The president who is currently in office.”
Continue reading...Citizens urged to report suspected breaches of controversial security law
Hong Kong police have received more than 2,500 tip-offs since the launch of a hotline for people to report suspected breaches of the city’s sweeping national security law.
The multi-platform hotline, which opened on Thursday, allows Hong Kongers to report information directly to national security police via text message, email, or WeChat.
Continue reading...Fears of civil conflict escalate as Abiy Ahmed says operation will continue until ‘junta made accountable by law’
Ethiopia’s air force has carried out strikes in the restive Tigray region, the country’s prime minister has said, in another escalation of a crisis that observers fear could plunge the country into a bitter and bloody civil conflict.
The prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, said the strikes in multiple locations “completely destroyed rockets and other heavy weapons” belonging to the well-armed regional government and made it impossible for a retaliatory attack.
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