Category Archives: World News

US attacks another alleged drug boat in Pacific, killing three, as Trump signals possible talks with Maduro

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Strike comes as navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier arrives in Caribbean Sea and president says US may open talks with Venezuelan leader

The United States conducted another attack on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific on Saturday, killing three people aboard, the Pentagon said on Sunday.

“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” the US Southern Command announced in a post on social media.

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Dozens reportedly arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina, amid immigration crackdown

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Trump administration has made Democratic-led city its latest target despite fierce objections from local leaders

A top border patrol commander touted dozens of arrests in North Carolina’s largest city on Sunday as Charlotte residents reported a surge of encounters with federal immigration agents near churches and apartment complexes.

The Trump administration has made the Democratic-led city of about 950,000 people its latest target for an immigration enforcement crackdown it says will combat crime, despite fierce objections from local leaders and the fact that crime rates in the city are steadily declining.

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Roman Abramovich makes claim of ‘conspiracy’ against Jersey government

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Move threatens to throw open parts of secretive legal battle on Channel island about ex-Chelsea owner’s wealth

The former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is making a claim of “conspiracy” against the government of Jersey after the crown dependency launched a criminal investigation into allegations of corruption and money laundering in connection with the original source of the oligarch’s wealth.

The latest move threatens to throw open parts of a secretive legal battle on the Channel island about the tycoon’s rise to become one of the world’s richest people, which emerged in September after a Switzerland federal criminal court ordered the release of a cache of Swiss banking records requested by the Jersey attorney general.

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German auction house cancels sale of Holocaust artefacts after outcry

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Survivors group had called on firm Felzmann to ‘show some basic decency’ and halt ‘cynical and shameless’ event

Poland’s foreign minister said on Sunday that an “offensive” auction of Holocaust artefacts in Germany has been cancelled, relaying information from his German counterpart, after complaints from Holocaust survivors.

Radosław Sikorski made the comments on X, saying he and German foreign minister Johann Wadephul “agreed that such a scandal must be prevented”.

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Iran says it could rejoin US nuclear talks if treated with ‘dignity and respect’

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Iran’s foreign minister says it has had requests to reopen negotiations, which collapsed after nuclear site bombings

Tehran is willing to restart nuclear talks with Washington as long as it is treated with “dignity and respect”, Iran’s foreign minister has told the Guardian.

Abbas Araghchi said only diplomacy worked, and disclosed fresh requests had come from intermediaries to reopen negotiations with the Trump administration. He said Iran did not have any undeclared nuclear sites, and Tehran could not yet allow the UN nuclear inspectorate to visit bombed nuclear sites for security reasons.

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Five people killed and three injured in car crash in County Louth, Ireland

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Gardaí appeal for witnesses and Simon Harris pays tribute to first responders after two-vehicle collision on Saturday

Ireland is in mourning after a road crash killed five people in their early 20s and left three other people injured.

The two-vehicle collision happened at about 9pm on Saturday on a road near Dundalk in County Louth.

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‘She went through hell’: widow of Chornobyl engineer is killed in Russian drone strike on Kyiv

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Zelenskyy says Nataliia Khodemchuk is victim of ‘new tragedy caused by Kremlin’, four decades after disaster

The widow of the first Soviet engineer to die in the Chornobyl nuclear power plant explosion was killed on Friday in Russia’s massive drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Nataliia Khodemchuk as the victim of a “new tragedy caused by the Kremlin”, nearly four decades after her husband, Valerii, was killed inside Chornobyl’s nuclear reactor number four.

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Chile votes for next president in contest dominated by crime and migration fears

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Voters face seemingly extreme choice between communist and rightwing frontrunners, who both promise to fight foreign gangs

Chileans began voting for a new president and parliament on Sunday, in a contest expected to favour the hard right as candidates play on popular fears over organised crime and immigration.

It is the first of an expected two rounds of presidential elections, as polls show none of the candidates clearing the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff scheduled for 14 December.

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At least 120 hurt in gen Z protests over corruption and drug violence in Mexico

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Clashes erupt between protesters and riot police in the capital as rallies take place in cities across the country

At least 120 people were injured as thousands of gen Z protesters took to the streets of Mexico City and across the country to voice their anger at corruption and the drug violence that claims tens of thousands of Mexican lives each year.

​Saturday’s rallies, which took place in dozens of cities from Tijuana in the north to Oaxaca in the south drew large crowds, with some demonstrators carrying the One Piece pirate flag that has become a global symbol of the youth movement.

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Ethiopia confirms outbreak of deadly Marburg virus

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Africa CDC says at least nine cases have been detected of Ebola-like illness, which kills up to 80% of those infected

Ethiopia has confirmed an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in the south of the country, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has said.

The Marburg virus is one of the deadliest known pathogens. Like Ebola, it causes severe bleeding, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea and has a 21-day incubation period.

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Trump pressures Thailand to recommit to Cambodia ceasefire with ‘threat of tariffs’

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Bangkok had earlier said it was suspending ceasefire, accusing Cambodia of laying landmines along the border

The US has put pressure on Thailand to recommit to a ceasefire with Cambodia, warning trade talks could be halted as Washington seeks to keep a Donald Trump-brokered truce agreement from falling apart.

Earlier this week, Thailand said that it was suspending the ceasefire deal, accusing Cambodia of laying fresh landmines along the border, including one it said wounded a Thai soldier on patrol, who lost a foot in the explosion.

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Israel breaching international law by limiting Gaza aid, says Unrwa official

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Natalie Boucly says supplies are ready but only about half of what is needed is getting into territory

Israel is breaching international law by continuing to impose restrictions on aid flows into Gaza, where the population remains critically short of food and life-saving goods as winter sets in, a senior official at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said.

In an interview during a recent visit to Brussels, Natalie Boucly, an Unrwa deputy commissioner general, said the whole world – including the EU and US – needed to increase the pressure on Israel’s government to ensure the unrestricted flow of aid into Gaza.

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Icelandic is in danger of dying out because of AI and English-language media, says former PM

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Katrín Jakobsdóttir and her co-author want the 350,000 people who speak the language to fight for its future

Iceland’s former prime minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, has said that the Icelandic language could be wiped out in as little as a generation due to the sweeping rise of AI and encroaching English language dominance.

Katrín, who stood down as prime minister last year to run for president after seven years in office, said Iceland was undergoing “radical” change when it came to language use. More people are reading and speaking English, and fewer are reading in Icelandic, a trend she says is being exacerbated by the way language models are trained.

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UK warned that 15% cut to health fund will force ‘impossible choices’ on Africa

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Advocates fear that other donors will follow Britain’s reduction to the Global Fund for Aids, TB and malaria

The UK is undermining its legacy in fighting infectious diseases including Aids and malaria by cutting money pledged to a leading global health fund, campaigners claim.

The 15% reduction in the contribution to the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced this week – in a year when the UK, alongside South Africa, is co-host of the fund’s replenishment drive – risks encouraging other countries to cut back commitments as well, advocates fear.

The Gates Foundation is a major private contributor to the Global Fund. The foundation also contributes to theguardian.org, which funds independent journalism at the Guardian

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Trump ends support for Marjorie Taylor Greene amid growing Epstein feud

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President turns on ‘Wacky Marjorie’ after congresswoman criticizes effort to block release of key Epstein documents

Donald Trump announced Friday that he is withdrawing his support and endorsement of Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene, a longtime ally and previously fierce defender of the president and the Maga movement.

Trump’s move away from Greene came just hours after she said in an interview she thought the president’s attempts to stop the release of the files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein is “insanely the wrong direction to go”.

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Kashmir is focus of arrests after Delhi car blast linked to ‘terror module’

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Investigators believe an explosion that killed 13 people may be linked to group operating in the disputed region

Police have carried out raids and made several arrests across the Indian region of Kashmir in the aftermath of a car explosion in Delhi that left 13 people dead.

On Wednesday, the Indian government confirmed it was treating the blast as a “terror incident” perpetrated by “anti-national forces”. The explosion took place outside one of India’s most significant monuments during rush hour on Monday evening.

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Trump accused of caving to big business after deal to cut Swiss tariffs to 15%

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Rolex denies ‘any negotiation’ with US although luxury watchmaker entertained Trump and gave him gold clock

Donald Trump agreed to cut US tariffs on Switzerland from 39% to 15% as part of a new trade pact, lowering duties that strained economic ties and hit Swiss exporters.

The two countries have signed a “non-binding memorandum of understanding”, the Swiss government announced, following bilateral talks in Washington and intense lobbying by Swiss firms.

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US military planning for divided Gaza with ‘green zone’ secured by international and Israeli troops

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Exclusive: Almost all Palestinians have been displaced to ‘red zone’ where no reconstruction is planned

The US is planning for the long-term division of Gaza into a “green zone” under Israeli and international military control, where reconstruction would start, and a “red zone” to be left in ruins.

Foreign forces will initially deploy alongside Israeli soldiers in the east of Gaza, leaving the devastated strip divided by the current Israeli-controlled “yellow line”, according to US military planning documents seen by the Guardian and sources briefed on American plans.

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First Thing: Jeffrey Epstein advised Steve Bannon during 2018 pro-Trump media campaign

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Text messages released by US House show convicted sex offender coaching Maga influencer on political messaging. Plus, readers’ favourite photo booth moments 100 years after its invention

Good morning.

The convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein apparently served as a behind-the-scenes adviser to the former Trump official and Maga influencer Steve Bannon during an August 2018 media campaign to defend Trump and his agenda, and to promote Bannon’s media ventures.

What else has been released in the flood of recent Epstein emails? Among many, many other things, one email shows an exchange between him and an associate in which they discuss “girls” and travel. The justice department continues to downplay the possibility that other men were involved in Epstein’s abuse of teen girls.

What’s happening with rest of the Epstein files? Trump is facing the prospect of a politically damaging congressional vote to release the files, after attempts to press two members of Congress to withdraw their backing for it appeared to have failed.

What exactly is climate finance? Who pays it? And who gets it? Sixteen years ago, at the climate summit in Copenhagen, rich and polluting countries pledged to provide $100bn (£76bn) each year by 2020 so that poorer countries could cut their emissions and adapt to a hotter world. Last year, they set a new target of $300bn (£227bn) a year by 2035.

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Satisfaction with democracy below 50% in eight out of nine western countries, poll finds

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Ipsos survey reveals fake news, lack of accountability, extremism and corruption seen as biggest threats

Satisfaction with democracy is below 50% in eight out of nine western countries surveyed in a poll, and majorities in all but one fear for its future, with fake news, lack of political accountability, extremism and corruption seen as the biggest threats.

An Ipsos survey of almost 10,000 people in Croatia, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US found satisfaction with democracy low in all except Sweden, with deep concerns about the future state of electoral politics.

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