Category Archives: World News

Middle East crisis: Israeli forces ‘fired on World Food Programme convoy in Gaza’ – as it happened

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Statement from UN agency ‘strongly condemns horrifying incident’ on Sunday which it says risked lives of staff

Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, has told a news conference that it was “only a matter of time” before Syrian Kurdish fighters - seen by the west as essential in the fight against Islamic State jihadists - will be wiped out.

Speaking in a joint press conference with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi, he told journalists:

Conditions in Syria have changed. We believe it’s only a matter of time before PKK/YPG is eliminated.

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Austria’s far-right Freedom party tasked with forming coalition government

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Austrian president asks anti-migration, pro-Kremlin FPÖ to begin negotiations with conservative ÖVP

Austria’s president has tasked the anti-migration, pro-Kremlin Freedom party (FPÖ) with holding talks to form a ruling coalition, potentially paving the way for the far right to lead the government for the first time since the second world war.

After meeting the FPÖ leader, Herbert Kickl, at the Hofburg palace in Vienna, Alexander van der Bellen said the party, which narrowly won the most votes in September’s general election, could begin negotiations with the conservative Austrian People’s party (ÖVP) on forming a governing alliance.

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UK cut health aid to vulnerable nations while hiring their nurses, research finds

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Royal College of Nursing says Labour has a duty to fix health ‘double whammy’ by raising aid and funding for UK nursing

The UK cut health aid to some of the world’s vulnerable countries at the same time as recruiting thousands of their nurses, in a “double whammy” for fragile health systems, new analysis has found.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which carried out the research, said Labour had a “duty to fix” aid cuts imposed by the previous government, and to work on increasing the UK’s domestic supply of nurses.

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Charlie Hebdo marks 10 years after terror attack with special issue

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Gunmen stormed satirical paper’s Paris offices, killing 11 people, over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad

Ten years on from the Islamist terrorist attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, France will ask: “Are we all still Charlie?”

The #JeSuisCharlie hashtag spread around the world in January 2015 after brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi stormed the paper’s offices killing 11 people in retaliation for it printing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

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South Korea investigators seek extension of arrest warrant for president

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Request comes after attempts to detain Yoon Suk Yeol were thwarted by presidential security service guards last week

South Korea’s investigating authorities have requested an extension of a warrant to arrest the country’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol.

The corruption investigation office for high-ranking officials (CIO) made the application at Seoul western district court on Monday.

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Waitangi Day: record crowds expected amid tensions over Māori policy in New Zealand

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Event in February that commemorates signing of New Zealand’s founding document expected to draw tens of thousands but PM will not attend

Organisers of New Zealand’s national day commemorating the signing of the country’s founding treaty between Māori tribes and the British crown are expecting record attendance in 2025, following a year of rising tensions over the government’s policy direction for Māori.

In February, tens of thousands of people are expected to descend on Waitangi, in New Zealand’s Northland region, to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, which was signed by Māori chiefs and the British Crown in 1840 and is instrumental in upholding Māori rights.

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Biden signs bill to boost social security payments for millions of public workers

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President says Social Security Fairness Act will benefit ‘Americans who have worked hard all their lives’

Joe Biden has signed into law a measure that boosts social security payments for current and former public employees – such as teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public-service workers – in what the White House has described as the first expansion of such benefits in 20 years.

“The bill I’m signing today is about a simple proposition: Americans who have worked hard all their lives … should be able to retire with economic security and dignity,” Biden said. “That’s the entire purpose of the social security system crafted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt nearly 90 years ago.”

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Harlan Coben says ‘quite a bit of tragedy’ in his 20s made him a better writer

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Bestselling author and Netflix producer said extensive early experience of grief was ‘very cruel but effective teacher’

American thriller writer Harlan Coben said experiencing “quite a bit of tragedy” in his 20s made him a better writer.

The bestselling author, who wrote the Myron Bolitar thriller series and novels turned Netflix shows such as Fool Me Once and Missing You, said he was in his 20s when his father died of a heart attack at the age of 59 in 1988.

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Republicans try to exploit New Orleans attack to push through Trump agenda

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Trump loyalists make baseless link between attack and US border and say cabinet nominees must be urgently ratified

Republicans in the US Senate are attempting to exploit the New Year’s Day attack that killed 14 victims in New Orleans, injuring dozens more, to push through Donald Trump’s most controversial cabinet nominations and rocket-charge the incoming president’s anti-immigration agenda – despite the fact that the attacker was a US citizen born and raised in east Texas.

Several Senate Republicans appeared on Sunday’s political shows to call for an urgent approval of the most contentious of Trump’s cabinet selections, who are facing a tough confirmation process. They include Kash Patel, chosen by Trump for FBI director; Pete Hegseth for defense secretary; and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.

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Tributes paid after former Greek PM Costas Simitis dies aged 88

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Four days of mourning declared for death of Pasok party co-founder, the architect of country’s entry into euro

Tributes have been paid to the former socialist prime minister Costas Simitis, who with dogged determination guided Greece into the eurozone and took the vital steps to ensure it was ready to host the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

News of Simitis’s death at the age of 88 was met on Sunday with outpourings from across the political spectrum, with friends and foes alike voicing admiration for a man credited with overseeing some of the country’s most momentous changes.

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Austria’s president to meet far-right leader amid coalition speculation

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‘New path’ to power may be opening for FPÖ after collapse of talks between country’s centrist parties

Austria’s president has said he will meet the leader of the country’s far-right Freedom party (FPÖ), amid speculation that the pro-Kremlin, anti-Islam party will be tasked with trying to form a government after centrist parties failed to find agreement.

The Alpine country of 9 million has been plunged into political crisis after the collapse of coalition talks aimed at keeping the far right out of government. On Sunday it appeared the FPÖ – narrowly the most voted-for party in September’s parliamentary elections – would be most likely to benefit from the turmoil.

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Ripe for the picking? Irish wine on the up – but ‘nobody will retire rich’

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Global heating has made conditions more favourable for growing grapes – and finding the right variety is key

Heard the one about Irish wine? Like its English counterpart, it is no longer a joke, with more than a dozen vineyards now producing bottles to emulate those of the terroirs of France, Spain and Italy.

At about €60 (£50) a bottle and produced in small quantities, it is far from a commercial activity, but efforts over the last 10 years have produced what one retailer described as an “arguably very fine” rosé.

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Social order in Gaza will collapse if Israel ends cooperation with UN aid agency, official says

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Unrwa senior officer describes 60,000 people sheltering in school buildings sharing 12 bathrooms, but says without aid things will get worse

Social order in Gaza is likely to collapse further if Israel goes ahead with its threat this month to end all cooperation with the UN refugee agency for Palestinians, Louise Wateridge, its senior emergency officer, has warned.

Wateridge, who has just returned from Gaza, described the territory as increasingly fractured and said the two Knesset bills due to come into force at the end of the month blocking cooperation with the agency would make it impossible for Unrwa to operate or to distribute aid in a war zone.

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Giorgia Meloni meets Donald Trump in flying visit to Mar-a-Lago

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US president-elect praises Italian prime minister at Florida resort for ‘really taking Europe by storm’

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, made a flying visit to Donald Trump’s Florida golf club on Saturday, during which the US president-elect praised the far-right leader for “really taking Europe by storm”.

The pair were photographed in the grand ballroom of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

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Ukraine launches surprise operation in Russia’s Kursk region

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Footage purports to show Ukrainian armoured columns advancing towards village of Bolshoe Soldatskoe

Ukrainian armed forces began a surprise offensive in Russia’s Kursk region on Sunday, in an apparent attempt to regain the initiative on the battlefield before Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House.

Video showed Ukrainian armoured columns advancing across snowy fields towards the village of Bolshoe Soldatskoe, north-east of the Ukrainian-held Russian town of Sudzha. Vehicles could also be seen driving through empty rustic settlements.

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‘Don’t feed the troll’: German chancellor responds to Elon Musk comments

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World’s richest man has been voicing support for Germany’s far-right AfD party while insulting its current leaders

When the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was asked in an interview about the barrage of insults being directed at him and other German leaders by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, his reply was: “Don’t feed the troll.”

Speaking to the German weekly Stern, Scholz described the criticisms as nothing new. “You have to stay cool,” he said in the interview. “As Social Democrats, we have long been used to the fact that there are rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics – and do not hide their opinions.”

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Hamas releases video it says is of Israeli hostage held in Gaza since 2023 attack

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Family of now 19-year-old conscript Liri Albag appeals to PM to ‘take decisions as if it were your own children there’

The armed wing of Hamas has released a video it says is of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza since its October 2023 attack.

Liri Albag, described by local media as a soldier, was 18 when she was captured by Palestinian militants at the Nahal Oz base on the Gaza border along with six other women conscripts, five of whom remain in captivity.

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UK weather: power cuts, traffic chaos and cancelled flights due to heavy snow

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Closed roads, multi-vehicle collisions and train problems reported as Met Office warnings remain in place

Homes were left without power, roads were closed, cars stranded, and flights and train services disrupted on Saturday as heavy snow and freezing rain hit much of the UK.

The National Grid said on Saturday night that power was cut to properties across the Midlands, south-west England and south Wales, including Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff, and that work was under way to get services restored.

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Protesters march in London for release of teenage boy in Dubai jail

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Marcus Fakana from north London was convicted of having sex with British girl, now 18, when they were on holiday

Protesters have marched through central London calling for the release of a teenager in prison in Dubai for having sex with a 17-year-old British girl.

Marcus Fakana, from Tottenham in north London, was jailed last month after being convicted of having sex with the girl, who has now turned 18, when they were on holiday in September.

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Ukraine waits for Trump the dealmaker to broker end of Putin’s war | Shaun Walker in Kyiv

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The US president-elect’s policy on the conflict may prove decisive, but appeasing both sides will be a challenge

A new year in Ukraine began in much the same way as the old one finished: with deadly Russian drone attacks across the country. In Kyiv, one person was killed and at least six others were injured in the first few hours of 2025.

It is Ukraine’s third new year since Russia’s invasion. If 2023 began with hopes high that Ukrainian battlefield gains would push Russia back and lead to an outright victory, by the start of 2024 the Ukrainian army and population were already settled in for the long haul and had few illusions about a quick victory.

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