Category Archives: World News

Spain’s deadly train crashes have damaged public confidence in the system

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Pedro Sánchez and his socialist-led coalition government are racing to rebuild trust ahead of a snap election, but the task they face is immense

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A week ago today, for the second time in nine months, I got in my car and drove south from Madrid to cover a deadly train crash.

At 8.53am last Wednesday, a high-speed train operated by Spain’s state-owned rail company, Renfe, smashed into the back of a stationary train run by the private rail company Iryo, on the outskirts of the small town of Urda in Castilla-La Mancha. Sixty-nine people died in the accident, more than 100 were injured, and Spain’s already depleted confidence in its treasured rail network plummeted.

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ANC faces anger over poor services as South Africans vote in local elections

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Party expected to get less than a third of the vote amid frustration over water outages and power cuts

The African National Congress is on course for a bruising result in South Africa’s local elections on Wednesday as voters go to the polls amid deep discontent over water outages, power cuts and crumbling infrastructure.

The former liberation movement, which Nelson Mandela led to power in 1994 at the end of apartheid as South Africa’s first black president, is still likely to be the largest party. However, polls showed it getting less than a third of the vote, down from 45.6% at the last municipal elections in 2021 and 40.2% in 2024’s national elections.

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Iran unveils ‘We will kill Trump’ banner – but US president may now be tempted to resume bombing

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Iran celebrates its claimed role in ‘regime change’ amid pressure on Trump to ‘finish the job’ with attack

Iran this week unveiled a huge billboard and banners over Enqelab Square in central Tehran. The billboard pledged in English: “We will kill Trump” – elevating the degree of personal animus with which Donald Trump is viewed in official Iranian circles.

The poster depicts the US president behind bars with his head bowed. And in a sense, given the US midterm election results on Tuesday, Iran has indeed killed Trump, or at least the second term of his presidency. Trump’s reverse is all the more piquant because it comes on the day Iran’s leadership celebrates the anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, an event that ensnared Jimmy Carter, and a reminder of how Iran has ruined the prospects of more than one US president.

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French blood banks hacked in latest cyber-attack on Europe

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Temperature and defrosting thresholds raised to ‘very high levels’ at three cold stores stocking vital blood products

France’s national blood service has said hackers accessed control systems and boosted temperatures at three cold stores stocking vital blood products, in an apparent escalation of recent cyber-attacks on fridges and freezers across Europe.

The French blood service (EFS) said temperature and defrosting thresholds had been raised to “very high levels” in the attack, adding that its alarm systems had allowed technicians to intervene before the products were compromised.

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Israel’s election commission rejects Netanyahu claims of voting fraud

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Move comes after attorney general blocks Shin Bet call to interrogate politicians from Palestinian-led parties

Israel’s election commission on Wednesday confirmed the final results of last week’s vote that stripped Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition of its governing majority, rejecting claims of mass fraud promoted by the prime minister.

The main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, said Netanyahu had launched a “pogrom against democracy” in attempting to hold on to power by discrediting valid votes and weaponising security forces against parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel.

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More than 900 academics urge UK to reverse decision to bar Andreas Malm

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Blocking Swedish writer’s entry for event with Palestine Action co-founder is attack on free expression, letter says

More than 900 academics have voiced their opposition to the government’s decision to block the climate academic Andreas Malm from entering the UK, warning that the move represents “a grave violation of academic freedom and freedom of expression”.

Malm, the author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline and a leading climate scholar, was prevented from entering the UK last week by the Home Office after being told that his presence in the UK “may not be considered to be conducive to the public good”.

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One dead and another missing in suspected grizzly bear attack in Canada

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The incident took place in the same province where a grizzly attacked a group of schoolchildren last November

A mother is dead and her daughter is missing in western Canada after a suspected grizzly bear attack in the same community where a bear attacked a group of schoolchildren earlier in the year.

On Tuesday, the British Columbia conservation officer service said in a social media post that it had launched a search for the two missing people on the weekend, and that during the search on Sunday an officer found the mother’s body. The search for her 19-year-old daughter is ongoing.

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Spanish transport minister resigns after deadly train crash

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Óscar Puente also announces his withdrawal from upcoming election following disaster that killed 69 people

Spain’s transport minister handed in his resignation on Tuesday after the train crash that killed 69 people last week, one of the worst railway disasters in Europe this century.

Óscar Puente, who had earlier pledged to work “tirelessly” to restore confidence in the world’s second-largest high-speed rail network, also said he was withdrawing from the country’s upcoming general election.

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British lawyer Dapo Akande elected to UN top court in big diplomatic win

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Akande joining the international court of justice comes a decade after previous British judge failed to get re-elected

A British judge has been elected on to the UN’s international court of justice, in a big British diplomatic victory that comes almost 10 years after a previous British judge failed to get re-elected.

Dapo Akande will now serve as one of the ICJ’s 15 judges for a minimum nine-year term.

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Trump claims US will end military aid to Israel by end of this year

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US president makes surprise election day announcement, saying country does not ‘need’ $4bn annual payment

Donald Trump has said that the US will end military aid to Israel at the end of this year in a surprise election day announcement that appeared to be targeted at voters sceptical of US support for Israel and the war in Gaza.

In a phone interview with Fox News as voting began on Tuesday morning, the US president said the US would cut nearly $4bn (£2.96bn) in military aid to Israel because “they don’t need it”.

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True crime novel about 1949 murder of Paris life model wins France’s biggest literary prize

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Philippe Jaenada wins Prix Goncourt with novel that seeks to solve 77-year-old case and rehabilitates reputation of its victim

A literary true-crime investigation that tries to solve a 77-year-old cold case and ends up rehabilitating the reputation of its life model victim has won France’s most prestigious literary prize.

The author Philippe Jaenada was announced on Tuesday afternoon as the winner of the Prix Goncourt, for his book L’Inconnue du quai de Javel (The Unknown Woman of the Quai de Javel), a recreation of the murder of a 29-year-old Breton woman named Louise Cansot.

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Trump’s troubles with Iran could open the door to China

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Beijing launches diplomatic salvo to woo Gulf leaders and bolster its influence in the region

China has held a flurry of meetings with Gulf leaders in a sign that Beijing is stepping up its diplomatic efforts in the Middle East.

The diplomatic salvo comes before a highly anticipated meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping when the US president is expected to attend the Apec conference in Shenzhen, China, on 18 and 19 November.

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Brazil publishes first global ‘roadmap’ for phasing out fossil fuels

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Cop30 host sets out steps to break link with coal, oil and gas as it aims to move focus from negotiating to implementing

All countries can start to break their dependence on fossil fuels now without needing to wait for new technologies or economic changes, Brazil’s government has said ahead of a global climate summit.

Brazil, the host of last year’s UN climate conference, set out the world’s first global “roadmap” for phasing out fossil fuels on Tuesday, showing that countries could boost their economies and pull people out of poverty while breaking the link with coal, oil and gas.

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Tennessee national guard trained guns on dying man after guard member shot him, video shows

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Footage from prosecutors shows aftermath of shooting of Tyrin Johnson, 20, shot and killed by national guard in July

Tennessee national guard troops in Memphis last summer trained their handguns on a man as he lay dying on a sidewalk after a guard member shot him in the back, video released Monday by county prosecutors shows.

A Memphis police officer can be heard in the footage from an officer’s body camera calling for an ambulance and then asking the troops: “Hey, you guys got a medical kit or anything?”

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Russian bombing of Ukrainian aid centre kills at least 26, Kyiv says

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Ukrainian president Zelenskyy says attack on aid hub was ‘vile’ and shows Russia does not want to de-escalate

Russia on Monday bombed an aid distribution centre and neighbouring shelter in southern Ukraine, killing at least 26 ​people, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the country’s emergency services said.

Emergency services said two members of a rescue crew and four police officers were among the dead in the village ⁠of Komyshuvakha, in south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region. Five people were being treated in hospital, including two rescue workers.

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Supreme court rules against Trump over bid to force California to set aside ballots

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Justice department had ordered state to segregate and not count 20,000 ballots from people it claims are non-citizens

The supreme court on Monday ruled against the Trump administration and its attempts to force California election officials to segregate and not count ballots from people that the justice department claims are non-citizens. The ruling follows several lower courts siding with California officials, who argued the federal government was seeking to interfere in state elections.

The court did not issue an explanation for its ruling, which is customary in cases that come to it on an emergency basis. There were no noted dissents from the justices.

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PM to ask countries affected by UK’s role in slavery to help shape formal apology

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Andy Burnham to launch ‘structured dialogue’ on issue at Commonwealth summit in Antigua and Barbuda

Andy Burnham will ask countries affected by Britain’s role in slavery to help shape an expected formal apology, Downing Street has indicated, arguing that their input is indispensable in crafting an enduring message.

The prime minister was en route to the Commonwealth heads of government summit (Chogm) in Antigua and Barbuda, which begins on Tuesday. No 10 said he would use the event to launch a “structured dialogue” into what form an apology might take.

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Fossilised red blood cells found in 115m-year-old dinosaur’s bone, say scientists

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Chemical tests on Aratasaurus bone identify presence of heme, the organic compound that allows haemoglobin in blood to carry oxygen around body

It could be the opening of a Jurassic Park rip-off: scientists examining ancient dinosaur bones find what appear to be fossilised red blood cells, and traces of the molecule that gives the beast’s blood its distinctive crimson hue.

But that is what researchers are claiming to have discovered after analysing the hind leg bones of a small, meat-eating dinosaur called an Aratasaurus that lived and died in what is now north-eastern Brazil 115m years ago.

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French pupils resume school blockades as country braces for more protests

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Minister warns weeks without lessons are putting exams at risk as unions plan nationwide strike on Thursday

Dozens of high schools across France were blockaded again on Monday as the government braced for another tense week of protests over school conditions and the high cost of living.

The protests come amid warnings that weeks without lessons are putting some pupils’ school year and final exams at risk.

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Oil price falls amid hope of a breakthrough to end Iran war

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Brent crude drops by more than 6% to $105.55 a barrel, the lowest level in more than two weeks

The oil price has fallen to its lowest level in more two weeks amid new hopes of a breakthrough to end the Iran war.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, dropped by more than 6.5% to as low as $105.55 a barrel on Monday, the lowest since 16 October, sending shares in airline companies higher and pushing down government borrowing costs.

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