Category Archives: World News

US warships patrol South China Sea after two Chinese ships collide

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USS Higgins and USS Cincinnati sailed near Scarborough Shoal after Chinese tried to drive away Philippine vessel

The US has briefly deployed two warships in a disputed South China Sea shoal where two Chinese ships collided earlier in the week while trying to drive away a smaller Philippine ship in a high-seas accident that raised alarms about maritime safety.

Both China and the Philippines claim Scarborough Shoal and other outcroppings in the South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay overlapping claims in the contested waters.

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Trump defense official led thinktank that spread lies about Tren de Aragua

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Under Joseph Humire, the thinktank tracked alleged crimes by the Venezuelan gang in the US. A non-profit found multiple false entries

A senior official appointed to the defense department led a thinktank that promoted fake news about the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang, according to InSight Crime, a non-profit analyzing organized crime.

Joseph Humire was appointed this summer to be the head of policy focusing on the western hemisphere within the office of the under secretary of defense for policy. He was previously the executive director of a conservative thinktank focused on global security. Humire’s appointment comes as the Trump administration is ramping up its aggressive strategy against organized crime in Latin America and the Venezuelan government, which it accuses of working with TdA.

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Air Canada cancels flights during peak season ahead of flight attendant strike

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Canada’s largest airline expects full shutdown as workers protests over claims of ‘poverty wages’ and unpaid labour

Canada’s largest airline has started cancelling flights during the peak summer travel season ahead of a strike by more than 10,000 flight attendants over what they say are “poverty wages” and unpaid labour for work when planes are not in the air.

Air Canada said it would start suspending flights on Thursday ahead of full shutdown on Saturday after the flagship carrier and the union representing the flight attendants failed to resolve a months-long dispute over pay and working conditions.

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Brad Pitt break-in linked to gang targeting celebrities, Los Angeles police say

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Four teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of committing burglaries at the homes of several prominent residents, according to LA police

Los Angeles police have formally linked a break-in at Brad Pitt’s home in the city in June to a string of other burglaries at properties belonging to celebrities.

Los Angeles police chief Jim McDonnell announced the arrest of four suspects, saying they were a a crew that were committing burglaries at the homes of “various high-profile residents” throughout the city, adding that “some of the burglaries included homes of actors and professional athletes”.

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Tighter US border rules are putting European visitors off, says Tui

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Holiday company boss says tourists are opting instead for destinations such as Canada, Africa and Asia

Tighter border rules are putting European tourists off holidaying in the US, according to Europe’s biggest package trip operator.

Tui’s chief executive, Sebastian Ebel, said there had been a “significant decline” in travel to the US, due to a multitude of factors including “the atmosphere, what you hear from border control”.

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First Thing: National guard begins deploying on DC streets after Trump police takeover

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City’s mayor has hardened her stance on Trump’s ‘authoritarian’ actions. Plus, Israel intensifies bombing of Gaza killing 89 Palestinians in 24 hours

Good morning.

The Washington DC national guard began deploying on the city’s streets on Tuesday night, as the city’s mayor toughened her response to Donald Trump taking control of the city’s police force.

What did Washington’s mayor say? Muriel Bowser, the Democratic mayor of Washington, hardened her stance after treading a more diplomatic line earlier in the day. During a live event on social media on Tuesday night, she described the arrival of federalized national guard members as an authoritarian push. Other critics have said the move seeks to distract attention from political problems such as the Jeffrey Epstein files.

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Recognising Palestinian state must not distract from ending Gaza mass deaths, UN expert says

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Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for the occupied territories, calls for practical actions and warns against distracting ‘attention from where it should be: the genocide’

The United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied territories has warned that moves to recognise a Palestinian state should not distract member states from stopping mass death and starvation in Gaza.

“Of course it’s important to recognize the state of Palestine,” Francesca Albanese told the Guardian after several more countries responded to the mounting starvation in Gaza by announcing plans to recognize an independent Palestine. “It’s incoherent that they’ve not done it already.”

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China’s crackdown on lavish civil servant perks will ‘harm’ the economy, experts warn

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Updated regulations ban the country’s 40 million civil servants from lavish banquets, and restrict them from overseas travel for ‘personal leisure’

Adjacent to a municipal government building in Beijing, a normally bustling restaurant is now eerily quiet, at lunchtime most of its seats are empty.

The recent crackdown on civil servants frequenting restaurants – part of a government austerity drive intended to crack down on corruption – has likely affected business and caused liquor sales to plummet, admits one waitress who works in the opulent establishment.

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‘It’s a horrible picture’: Gaza faces new threat from antibiotic-resistant disease

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Fatal infections more likely due to malnutrition, injuries and lack of medical facilities under Israel’s blockade

Gaza is facing a new threat as diseases resistant to antibiotics spread across the devastated territory, research has revealed.

Medical supplies are desperately scarce and tens of thousands of people have been injured in the 22-month war, while many others have been weakened by malnutrition, so the high levels of drug-resistant bacteria will mean longer and more serious illnesses, a more rapid transmission of infectious diseases and more deaths, experts said.

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South Korea’s former first lady arrested after court issues warrant on corruption charges

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Kim Keon Hee in custody on three charges while husband Yoon Suk Yeol detained over attempt to impose martial law

South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon Hee, the wife of the impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol, has been arrested on corruption charges, a special prosecutor leading a wide-reaching probe said.

The arrest, which came after a Seoul central district court ruling, creates an unprecedented situation in which both members of a former presidential couple are simultaneously in custody.

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Israel intensifies bombing of Gaza, killing 89 Palestinians in 24 hours

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At least 15 people queueing for food among the deaths, and five people reported to have died from starvation

Israel has stepped up bombing Gaza, killing at least 89 Palestinians in 24 hours, including at least 15 people queueing for food, despite global outcry over the deaths of six journalists in the territory the previous day.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City had intensified in the three days after Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet approved plans to expand the war in the territory.

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Mould, vermin and ceiling leaks: German police say they work in ‘embarrassing’ conditions

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Union calls for increased spending to revamp vehicles and station houses that it says are an insult to officers’ dignity

Germany’s biggest police union has complained about the dilapidated state of hundreds of police stations across the country and a fleet of aged vehicles, saying conditions are a threat to officers’ health and an insult to their dignity.

“Decades-old toilet bowls, mould in the offices, vermin, broken heating units and holes in the ceiling that let the rain in,” said Hagen Husgen of the GdP union, citing just a few of the complaints his organisation had received from members.

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Myanmar army detaining two-year-olds as proxies for parents, witnesses tell UN

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Investigators warn in a report that ‘frequency and brutality’ of atrocities in the country are continuing to escalate

Children as young as two years old have been detained by Myanmar’s military, often as proxies for their parents, and held in prison facilities where there is systematic torture, UN investigators have warned.

The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which was set up to document and share evidence of abuse with national, regional and international courts, said in a report that the “frequency and brutality” of atrocities inside the country had continued to escalate, more than four years after the military seized power in a coup in February 2021.

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EU leaders defend Ukraine’s freedom to decide future ahead of Trump-Putin summit

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Statement on Ukrainian sovereignty signed by all EU leaders except for Viktor Orbán before call with Trump

European Union leaders made a rallying call to defend Ukraine’s freedom to decide its own future in advance of their virtual summit with Donald Trump – convened to discuss US strategy before the president’s talks with Vladimir Putin on Friday.

With the exception of Hungary, all EU leaders signed a joint statement, with Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief, also calling for the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to attend the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska on Friday.

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Chinese warship crashes into own coastguard vessel while chasing Philippine boat in South China Sea

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Footage shows Chinese coastguard vessel with its entire bow caved in after colliding with warship near contested Scarborough Shoal

The Philippines has released dramatic footage of a Chinese warship colliding with a vessel from its own coastguard while chasing a Philippine patrol boat in the South China Sea.

The incident occurred near the contested Scarborough Shoal on Monday as the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) escorted vessels distributing aid to fishers in the area, Philippine authorities said.

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Migrants swim from Morocco to Ceuta as officials say enclave ‘overwhelmed’

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Seven children reach shore as dozens of people intercepted on risky route, which authorities say is now used more often

About 100 people, including several children, risked their lives by trying to swim from Morocco into Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta early on Saturday morning, as the territory’s authorities warned that its overwhelmed reception system was close to collapse.

Recent weeks have seen a rise in the number of people trying to reach Ceuta, with more than 50 children swimming across from Morocco on 26 July alone.

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Rise in dengue fever outbreaks across the Pacific driven by the climate crisis, experts say

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Samoa, Fiji and Tonga among the worst affected amid warning the disease and others will become ‘more common and more serious’ as the planet warms

The climate crisis is driving a sharp rise in dengue fever cases across the Pacific islands, experts say, as infections hit their highest level in a decade and several countries declare emergencies.

Pacific Island countries and territories have reported 16,502 confirmed cases and 17 deaths since the start of 2025, according to the Pacific Syndromic Surveillance System (PSSS), which collaborates with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies. Infections across the region are at the highest level since 2016, the WHO said. Fiji, Samoa and Tonga are among the worst affected.

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Trump spreads false narratives about DC crime – just as he did with LA

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As mayor calls US president ‘hyperbolic’, experts say portrayal of crime rooted in false and misleading claims

Donald Trump is deploying the national guard in Washington DC and seizing control of its police force, claiming that the nation’s capital has become “lawless” and is “one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world”.

The president portrayed himself as DC’s savior, vowing to rid it of “crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor and worse”.

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Palestinian reporters killed, international reporters banned – Israel’s other Gaza war is over narrative

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Members of press and influencers covering devastation are being silenced despite protection under international law

Israel is running two Gaza campaigns: one for military control of the strip; another for narrative control of how the world understands what happens there.

In theory, Palestinian journalists and social media influencers documenting starvation, mass killing and other Israeli war crimes in Gaza are protected civilians under international law.

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Canada wildfire season already second worst on record as experts warn of ‘new reality’

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More than 470 Canadian fires classified as ‘out of control’ as scientists say climate change exacerbating the burning

With hundreds of wildfires burning out of control, Canada’s 2025 fire season is already the second-worst on record, as scientists report climate change is prolonging and exacerbating the burning, leading to more destruction, evacuations and smoke-filled skies.

More than 470 fires across the country are currently classified as “out of control”, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).

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