Category Archives: World News

Trump falsely claims at Michigan rally ‘our doctors get more money if someone dies of Covid’ – live

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In several of his rallies this week, Donald Trump has accused the media of focusing on the coronavirus crisis only for political purposes, in order to damage him.

Barack Obama has trolled him for it in rallies in Florida, where the former president warned that America could not afford four more years of Trump and needed to put Joe Biden into the White House next week.

A federal judge this afternoon ordered the US Postal Service (USPS) to adopt “extraordinary measures” at some processing locations to ensure the timely delivery of millions of ballots before Tuesday’s presidential election.

US district judge Emmet Sullivan said he was ordering the measures in places where election mail processing scores for completed ballots returned by voters were below 90% for at least two days from October 26-28.

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Turkey earthquake: drone shows buildings reduced to rubble in İzmir – video

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Drone footage captured buildings reduced to piles of rubble in the Turkish city of İzmir on Friday after a strong earthquake struck the Aegean Sea, setting off tidal waves which slammed into coastal areas and islands. Search and rescue operations continued at 17 collapsed or damaged buildings, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said.

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Tanzania’s president wins re-election amid claims of fraud

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Opposition dismisses John Magufuli’s landslide victory as a ‘travesty’

Tanzania’s president John Magufuli has won re-election, the national electoral commission said on Friday, after a contest that has been dismissed by the opposition as a “travesty” due to widespread irregularities.

Magufuli received 12.5m votes in Wednesday’s presidential ballot, while his main challenger, Tundu Lissu of the Chadema party, received 1.9m votes, the commission said.

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Russia loses UN vote over women’s rights in conflict zones

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Security council resolution that many feared would weaken human rights is rejected by UK, US and other states

Attempts by Russia to introduce a UN security council resolution, which activists said would have unravelled the rights of women in conflict have failed as 10 countries abstained on a crucial vote on Friday.

The UK, US, Germany and France were among the abstaining member states, which meant the resolution did not gain the nine votes required to pass.

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The US election that doesn’t count: Guam goes to the polls but votes won’t matter

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‘Now that I live in Guam, I cannot vote’. The first Americans to ‘vote’ on polling day have no say in who will be president

Politics is a favourite sport on the streets of Hagatna, where voters are preparing for the US elections.

Billboards adorn every street corner and conversations are dominated by candidates and their policies. But when Guamanians go to the polls on 3 November and mark down their preference for president, their “votes” won’t count.

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Polish hospitals begin turning away women seeking abortions

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Institutions appear to enforce controversial ban despite legislation not yet taking effect

Hospitals in Poland have been turning away women seeking abortions even though a court ruling that has instituted a near-total ban on terminations has not yet taken effect.

The ban, which outlaws one of the three narrow exceptions under which abortion is still permitted – that of severe foetal defects – has sparked huge protests in Poland.

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Brazil names Nice knife attack victim as Simone Barreto Silva

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Silva, 44, had lived in France for three decades and worked as carer for elderly people

The 44-year old victim of the Nice knife attack who told paramedics “tell my children I love them” as she died of stab wounds has been named Simone Barreto Silva, who worked as a carer for elderly people.

Silva, who was born in the Brazilian state of Bahia, was a citizen of France, where she had reportedly lived for about 30 years.

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Anti-France protests draw tens of thousands across Muslim world

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Demonstrations held in Pakistan, Lebanon, Palestinian territories and Afghanistan

Tens of thousands of Muslims in Pakistan, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and elsewhere joined protests on Friday over the French president Emmanuel Macron’s vow to protect the right to caricature the prophet Muhammad.

Demonstrations in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, turned violent as 2,000 people who tried to march towards the French embassy were pushed back by police firing teargas and using batons. Crowds of Islamist activists hanged an effigy of Macron from an overpass after pounding it with their shoes.

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US shatters daily coronavirus record with nearly 90,000 new infections Thursday

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Country approaches world-topping 9m cases as experts warn death rates could more than double by mid-January

The US has shattered the daily coronavirus record, with almost 90,000 new infections reported on Thursday and close to 1,000 deaths, as the US approached a world-topping 9m cases and experts warned of death rates more than doubling by mid-January.

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From ice swims to knitting: Europeans seek ways to ride out Covid winter

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People across the continent are embracing a range of pursuits in an effort to stay healthy and in good spirits

For Alice Weiss there is no alternative to what the Germans call Flucht nach vorne, or knuckling down, to cope with the challenge of surviving winter during a pandemic. Others are determined to stay warm as the temperature drops, but Weiss has embraced winter swimming, plunging into the chilly lakes on the western edge of Berlin.

“It is invigorating, it takes me out of myself. It makes me stronger, healthier,” she said. “I’ve yet to have the legendary endorphin release that some swimmers talk of, but I expect that to come in winter.”

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Nice terror suspect phoned his family hours before attack

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Tunisian Brahim Aouissaoui, 21, gave no indication he was contemplating violence

The 21-year-old Tunisian man who is accused of using a kitchen knife to kill three people in a church in Nice spoke to his family 12 hours before the attack, giving no indication he was contemplating violence.

Brahim Aouissaoui grew up among eight sisters and two brothers in a modest home on a potholed road in Thina, a working-class neighbourhood in an industrial zone close to Sfax, a major port on Tunisia’s eastern coast.

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Japan’s ‘love hotels’ accused of anti-gay discrimination

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Same-sex couples say hotels make excuses to turn them away despite 2018 law change

In May this year, at the height of the coronavirus’s first wave, two gay men living together in Amagasaki, western Japan, thought they would ease the boredom of the country’s soft lockdown with a visit to a love hotel, where couples pay for short stays to have sex.

But rather than the carefree time they had anticipated, the couple, in their mid-30s, did not even get as far as the door to their room.

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Turkey: gamer’s livestream captures moment earthquake hits İzmir – video

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Footage from a Turkish gamer's livestream has gone viral after it captured the moment a powerful earthquake hit the coastal city of Izmir on Friday. In the footage, 22-year-old Arda Can Özel can be seen sprinting out of the room as he feels the ground beginning to shake. He later posted on his Instagram account to say he and his family survived the quake unharmed

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Rescue teams search rubble after earthquake rocks Turkish coast and Greek islands

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At least 27 reported dead and 800 injured in quake that hit İzmir in Turkey and Greek island of Samos

Rescue teams searched through concrete blocks and rubble on Saturday after at least 27 people were killed and hundreds injured when a powerful earthquake in the Aegean Sea toppled buildings in the Turkish city of İzmir and created sea surges on at least two Greek islands.

Turkey’s disaster and emergency authority (Afad) said the quake on Friday, measuring about 7.0 in magnitude, struck at 2.51pm local time (11.51am GMT). with 407 aftershocks recorded overnight. Around 800 people were reported injured.

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Chameleon last seen a century ago rediscovered in Madagascar

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Scientists find several living specimens of Voeltzkow’s chameleon during expedition

Scientists have found an elusive chameleon species that was last spotted in Madagascar 100 years ago.

Researchers from Madagascar and Germany said on Friday they had discovered several living specimens of Voeltzkow’s chameleon during an expedition to the north-west of the African island nation.

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Turkey: sea water floods İzmir after powerful earthquake – video

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An earthquake of approximately magnitude 7.0 in the Aegean Sea has caused sea water to rise and flood parts of the coastal city of Izmir, carrying furniture and other items with it. The quake struck at 2.51pm local time on Friday, according to the country's disaster agency

Powerful earthquake rocks Turkish coast and Greek islands

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Irish surfer Conor Maguire catches ‘Ireland’s biggest wave’

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Surfer tackles huge swell off Co Sligo – after checking lockdown rules allowed it

It’s been compared to the monstrous big waves of the Pacific. But for Conor Maguire, an Irish surfer, who has claimed what may be his country’s largest ever swell, it was almost on his doorstep at Mullaghmore in County Sligo.

The biggest question for Maguire was not whether he wanted to try it, but whether it was socially acceptable to go out in the midst of a national lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Man arrested over deaths of Iranian Kurd family in Channel sinking

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Iranian man held on suspicion of manslaughter following deaths of at least four people

An Iranian man has been held on suspicion of manslaughter following the deaths of four people, and the disappearance of a further three who are believed to have died, as they attempted to cross the Channel.

Iranian Kurds Rasul Iran Nezhad and his wife, Shiva Mohammad Panahi, both 35, and two of their children, Anita, nine, and Armin, six, drowned on Tuesday as they tried to reach Britain by boat after departing from near Dunkirk.

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