Category Archives: World News

Xi Jinping praises Labour’s economic policy as Keir Starmer discusses human rights concerns

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PM questions sanctions against MPs and plight of Jimmy Lai as China’s president says Starmer ‘fixing foundations’

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has heaped praise on Keir Starmer’s economic policy, as the UK prime minister used their first meeting to raise concerns about sanctions on MPs and the treatment of the pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai.

During their conversation at the G20 summit in Rio, the first meeting between the UK and China’s leaders in six years, Starmer said he would be keen to host a full bilateral meeting with Xi and the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, in Beijing or London as soon as possible, aimed at turning the page on frosty UK-China relations.

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Cop29: ‘We’re here for life and death reasons,’ says ex-climate minister of Pakistan

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Sherry Rehman says rich nations should pay ‘internationally determined contributions’ to help poorer and worst-affected countries

Amid the endless politicking and inscrutable arguments at the UN climate negotiations in Baku, Azerbaijan, this month, it can be hard to remember what is at stake. That’s why Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s former climate change minister, is calling on global leaders to “keep an eye on the big picture”.

“We’re here for life and death reasons,” Rehman said.

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Lula launches alliance to combat world hunger as Brazil hosts G20

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Summit’s first day notable for frosty meeting of far-right Argentinian leader Javier Milei and leftwing host

The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has opened the G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro with the launch of an alliance to combat hunger, which he described as the “ultimate symbol of our collective tragedy”.

Brazil holds the rotating presidency of the group and is hosting the meeting this Monday and Tuesday, attended by all but two – Russia and Saudi Arabia – of the 19 member countries.

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Australian goldminer to pay Mali $160m to free detained CEO and executives

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Group were held after a meeting about what mining firm referred to as unsubstantiated claims regarding taxes and levies

An Australian goldmining company has agreed to pay $160m ($A247m, £126m) to Mali’s government after the west African country’s junta detained its chief executive and two other employees.

Resolute Mining’s chief executive, Terence Holohan, and the other two employees were detained on 8 November in Mali’s capital, Bamako, at the end of a meeting with government officials over tax and other state claims that the miner had previously said were “unsubstantiated”.

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Pollution in Delhi hits record high, cloaking city in smog

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Indian capital imposes emergency measures including closing schools and offices and barring heavy vehicles

Pollution levels in India’s capital, Delhi, have soared to their highest levels this year, forcing schools and offices to close and cloaking the city in thick brown smog.

In some parts of the city, a live air quality ranking by IQAir put pollution levels at more than 30 times the maximum level deemed healthy.

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X-rays show shrapnel and bullets buried in children caught in Sudan war

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Images released by MSF doctors highlight impact of conflict in the country, with medical supplies and aid unable to reach people due to fighting

A series of X-rays showing a piece of shrapnel buried deep inside a 20-month-old girl’s head and a bullet embedded in an 18-month-old boy’s chest are among images released by medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) revealing the impact of the war in Sudan on children.

The two babies were treated at Khartoum’s Bashair teaching hospital.

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‘Israel is trying to terrorise people’: Lebanon’s civil defence reels after deadly strike

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After 20 people including 15 first responders killed in Douris, rescuers ask why state service was targeted

All the corpses had been recovered but still the rescuers sifted through the rubble. A paramedic carried a sack with him, filled with the charred remains of his colleagues. Every few feet he stopped and knelt down, assessing. In the twisted mess left behind by the Israeli airstrike, it was hard to distinguish between flesh, earth and the life-saving equipment that had melted in the heat of the blast.

The night before, on Thursday, an Israeli jet had dropped a bomb on the salon of the Douris civil defence centre on the outskirts of the ancient Lebanese town of Baalbek, killing 20 people, including 15 first responders. Five were rendered unrecognisable by the force of the explosion. On Friday afternoon, emergency workers were still collecting bodily remains to be taken for DNA analysis.

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Migrant rights advocate held in Tunisia under anti-terrorist investigation

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Rights group says Abdallah Said’s case is a troubling first for the country amid president’s increasing crackdown

Tunisian anti-terrorist investigators are handling the case of a leading advocate for migrants who has been taken into custody, in what the head of a rights group said was a troubling first for the country.

Abdallah Said, a Tunisian of Chadian origin, was questioned along with the secretary general and treasurer of his association, Enfants de la Lune, said Romdhane Ben Amor, the spokesperson for the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights.

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Nigeria celebrates victory over South African rivals with Miss Universe runner-up

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Chidimma Adetshina crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania after she was stripped of South African identity documents

Beauty queen Chidimma Adetshina’s second place in this year’s Miss Universe competition was not only an occasion for Nigerians to rejoice at their highest ever placing in the global pageant, but an opportunity to celebrate a victory over their continental rivals South Africa.

Adetshina came first runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjær Theilvig and was also crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania in Mexico on Saturday night.

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Bangladesh to seek extradition of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina from India

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Interim leader Muhammad Yunus confirms plans to put former PM on trial accused of crimes against humanity

Bangladesh will seek the extradition of the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to face trial on charges including crimes against humanity, the country’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, has said in a speech.

Hasina, whose autocratic regime governed Bangladesh for 15 years, was toppled in a student-led revolution in August. Since then she has been living in exile in India after fleeing the country in a helicopter as thousands of protesters overran the presidential palace.

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Weather tracker: Tropical Storm Sara and Super Typhoon Man-yi wreak havoc

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Powerful storm systems bring heavy rainfall, widespread flooding and landslides to Central America and Asia

Tropical Storm Sara has caused significant disruption across Central America in recent days after forming in the Caribbean Sea on Thursday afternoon. It is the 18th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season and the third this month. The large number of tropical storm and hurricane formations this season can be attributed to the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico being warmer than average, thus providing more energy for the development and intensification of these systems.

Since its formation, Sara has affected Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala, bringing heavy rainfall, widespread flooding and landslides. The slow-moving nature of the storm has exacerbated the damage, prolonging the duration of its impact. However, Sara is losing strength; initially it had sustained winds of 45mph on Thursday but weakened slightly after moving inland, with winds dropping to 40mph by Sunday. According to the National Hurricane Centre, Sara is expected to dissipate into an area of low pressure as it moves north-west toward the southern region of the Yucatan peninsula on Monday.

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Narendra Modi to make ‘historic’ Guyana visit for energy talks

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Indian PM’s trip expected to focus on trade and investment as oil-rich Caribbean country’s economic boom continues

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, will make a “historic” state visit to the oil-rich Caribbean nation of Guyana this week when the two countries are expected to sign energy and defence agreements.

Modi’s visit to the country, from Tuesday to Thursday, will be the first from an Indian prime minister since Indira Gandhi’s in 1968, two years after Guyana gained independence from Britain.

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Women’s rights groups fear FGM is rife among Sudanese refugees in Chad

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Practice banned in both countries but widespread among those displaced by Sudan’s civil war, say aid workers

Women’s rights campaigners have spoken of their concern over the spread of female genital mutilation among Sudanese refugees in camps across the border in Chad.

Both countries have outlawed the practice but it continues in secret. The UN children’s agency, Unicef, says that about 87% of Sudanese women aged 14-49 have been cut – one of the highest rates in the world. In Chad, the figure is 34.1%, though rates are higher in the south and east, which is where the camps for Sudanese people have been set up.

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Vladimir Shklyarov, Russian ballet star, dies aged 39 after falling from building

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St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre says dancer was taking painkillers for an injury and fell from fifth floor

The acclaimed Russian ballet dancer Vladimir Shklyarov has died aged 39.

Shklyarov died after falling from the fifth floor of a building on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Mariinsky Theatre told the news outlet Fontanka at the weekend.

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Starmer aims to build ‘pragmatic and serious relationship’ in meeting with Xi

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Prime minister wants bilateral at G20 to lead to closer ties with China, which he sees as key to faster growth

Keir Starmer will become the first UK prime minister in six years to meet the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, promising to turn the page on UK-China relations by building “a pragmatic and serious relationship”.

Starmer and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, have been pursuing a thawing of relations with the world’s second-largest economy on pragmatic grounds, suggesting that the UK cannot achieve its growth ambitions without better terms with China.

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Russia’s latest attack on Ukraine shows maximalist war aims remain unchanged

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As President-Elect Trump talks up negotiations, Putin has made clear his position hasn’t changed since launching invasion in 2022

Millions of Ukrainians woke up early on Sunday morning to a massive Russian missile and drone attack on their country’s infrastructure, the biggest assault from Moscow since the end of August and the first large-scale attack since the US election.

Donald Trump once promised to settle the Ukraine war in “24 hours” but the 120 missiles and 90 drones aimed at the nation’s utilities is a reminder that Moscow’s maximalist aspirations to cow and subjugate its neighbour remains unchanged.

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Keir Starmer promises Ukraine will be ‘top of the agenda’ at G20

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UK prime minister to meet world leaders at summit in Brazil that Vladimir Putin has declined to attend

Ukraine will be “top of the agenda” this week at a meeting of leaders from the world’s most powerful economies, Keir Starmer has pledged, though he said he had “no plans” to follow the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and speak directly to Vladimir Putin.

Starmer will meet world leaders on Monday at the G20 summit in Brazil, which the Russian president has declined to attend, sending his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in his place.

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Middle East crisis live: Israeli strike kills Hezbollah lead spokesperson in Beirut

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This blog is now closed. Read today’s full report here

A Lebanese soldier has been killed, with three wounded after Israel attacked an army post in a Lebanese town.

The Lebanese Army posted on X that one of those injured was in a critical condition after the attack on Sunday.

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Experts sound alarm as Trump mulls pardons for January 6 attackers

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Attorneys and lawmakers who oppose pardons for Capitol rioters would not be able to stop him, legal analysts warn

lf Donald Trump follows through on his promise to pardon people who participated in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, attorneys and lawmakers who oppose such moves would not be able to stop him, according to legal experts.

If Trump does issue the pardons, it could indicate to many of his supporters that there was nothing illegal about the riot to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, and would undermine the US constitution, the experts said.

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Free Democrats reportedly planned German coalition exit weeks before final split

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Pro-business party internally referred to its plans as ‘D-day’

Germany’s pro-business Free Democrats, who collapsed Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition earlier this month in a dispute over the budget, reportedly plotted their exit weeks before the final split, referring to their plans internally as “D-day”.

Newspapers Die Zeit and Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that the FDP had intended from at least September to force a situation that would provoke the German chancellor into pulling the plug on his tripartite coalition.

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