Category Archives: World News

Two Americans freed from Afghanistan in prisoner swap for Taliban figure

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Ryan Corbett and William McKenty swapped for Khan Mohammed, who was held in California for drug trafficking

A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan’s Taliban has freed two Americans in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug-trafficking and terrorism charges.

The Taliban praised the swap as a step toward the “normalization” of ties between the US and Afghanistan, but that probably remains a tall order as most countries in the world still do not recognize their rule and another two Americans are believed held.

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Strike Houthis while Iran is weak, UN-backed Yemeni government urges west

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Tehran ‘massively weakened’ by reverses in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, says vice-president of Aden-based administration

The west should seize the opportunity to target the Tehran-backed Houthi leadership in Yemen while the Iranian government is weakened, the vice-president of the UN-backed government in Aden has said.

Aidarus al-Zoubaidi said that Iran’s reverses in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza had left the country “massively weakened”. “They have one remaining domain and that is Yemen,” Zoubaidi told the Guardian. “Now is the time to counter the Houthis and push them back into their position.”

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Putin and Xi hold video call in show of unity hours after Trump inauguration

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Timing may show two leaders want to coordinate approach in engaging with new US administration over Ukraine

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, held a video call with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in a symbolic display of unity just hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the US.

Speaking from his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Putin highlighted the close ties between the two countries, stating that their relations were based on “shared interests, equality, and mutual benefit“, calling Xi his “dear friend”.

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Israel’s top general resigns, citing ‘terrible’ 7 October security failures

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Lt Gen Herzi Halevi becomes most senior Israeli figure to resign over security breakdown during 2023 Hamas attack

Israel’s top general has resigned, citing the “terrible failure” of security and intelligence related to Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza.

Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is the most senior Israeli figure to resign over the security breakdown when thousands of Hamas-led militants carried out a land, sea and air assault into southern Israel, rampaging through army bases and nearby communities for hours.

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Israeli security forces launch operation in West Bank city of Jenin

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Palestinian health ministry says at least eight killed in operation launched day after Donald Trump lifted sanctions on violent settlers

Israeli security forces have launched an operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, a day after bands of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians, smashing cars and burning property and the new US president, Donald Trump, announced he was lifting sanctions on violent settlers.

At least eight Palestinians were killed and 35 people were injured, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

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Hope and scepticism in Ukraine as Zelenskyy says Trump can bring about ‘just peace’

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Some in Kyiv think deal touted by US president is unrealistic but others have he will help end the war

People in Kyiv expressed a mixture of hope and scepticism on Tuesday that Donald Trump can end the war in Ukraine, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the US president as a “decisive” leader who would bring about a “just peace”.

Trump described himself as a “peacekeeper” who would avoid entangling the US in damaging foreign wars in his inauguration speech, but did not mention Ukraine, or explain how he might persuade Vladimir Putin to engage in negotiations almost three years after his full-scale invasion.

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South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol denies ordering troops to ‘drag out’ lawmakers

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Impeached president appears in constitutional court following last month’s short-lived martial law order

South Korea’s impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol has denied ordering troops to “drag out” lawmakers from the country’s parliament to prevent them from overturning his short-lived declaration of martial law last month.

In his first appearance at the constitutional court, which will decide whether to uphold his impeachment, Yoon replied “no” when asked by a judge whether he had ordered the military to remove lawmakers from the national assembly building.

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Hong Kong chief justice claims overseas judges have left due to ‘orchestrated harassment’

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Andrew Cheung defends city’s legal processes as ‘transparent, fair and independent’ despite mounting concerns from departing legal officers

Hong Kong’s top judge has claimed the exodus of foreign judges from the judiciary’s benches since the introduction of the national security law is due to escalating geopolitical tensions and “orchestrated harassment”.

The city’s chief justice, Andrew Cheung, made the remarks at the ceremonial opening of the city’s legal year on Monday evening in a speech which acknowledged the changing political environment but otherwise stridently defended the judiciary. Hong Kong has a common law system separate from the Chinese mainland’s, but observers say it is under growing political pressure.

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Food poisoning outbreak mars Indonesian president’s flagship free meal program

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Dozens of children fall ill during rollout of program that was a centrepiece of President Prabowo Subianto’s election campaign

Dozens of Indonesian schoolchildren have suffered food poisoning after consuming free meals offered through a new flagship program of President Prabowo Subianto, his office has confirmed.

Rolled out this month, Prabowo’s multi-billion dollar policy was a centrepiece of the former general’s election campaign, with a pledge to reach 82.9 million children and pregnant women out of the country’s population of 280 million by 2029.

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Trump refugee ban ‘strands Afghans endangered by US withdrawal’

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More than 1,600 people eligible to resettle in the United States are waiting to flee Afghanistan and Pakistan, say advocates

More than 1,600 Afghans eligible to enter the US as refugees will see their entry blocked under an executive order signed by Donald Trump on Monday evening that suspends the resettlement of all refugees to the United States for an indefinite period of time.

The decision has led to panic among prospective Afghan refugees, including family members of hundreds of active-duty service personnel and children waiting to be reunited with family members already in the US, according to a leading refugee resettlement activist and a US official who spoke with the Guardian on condition of anonymity.

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Australia’s pro-Palestine movement shifts focus to pressuring Albanese to cut ties with Israel

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Groups call for Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest and urge Australia to pressure Israel on Palestine just as South Africa was over apartheid

Pro-Palestine protests that have been held every week in Sydney and Melbourne since 7 October 2023 will now switch focus to pressuring the federal government into cutting ties with Israel, organisers have said.

Amal Naser, from the Palestine Action Group (PAG), called the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel a “step forward” for the pro-Palestine movement in Australia, and said the group would now pivot from weekly protests to targeted protests that call for specific policy change in government.

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Trump returns to White House and unleashes barrage of executive orders

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President pledges immigration crackdown, rolls back climate rules and pardons 1,500 January 6 rioters

Donald Trump launched his second term as US president with a barrage of executive orders reaching into broad swathes of American life, from pardoning hundreds of supporters who attacked Congress on January 6, including rightwing extremists convicted of seditious conspiracy, to rolling back LGBTQ+ rights and environmental rules while declaring an immigration emergency on the southern border.

Trump and his allies had long promised a “shock and awe” approach. They did not hold back.

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Work-life balance more important than pay for employees worldwide

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Annual survey finds workers have ‘multifaceted expectations’ after changes cause by Covid pandemic

Work-life balance has soared in importance for workers around the world, becoming their top motivator and pushing pay into second place, according to an annual international survey of thousands of employees.

It is the first time that finding or keeping a job that fits in with the rest of their lives has outranked salary in the 22-year history of the international recruitment company Randstad’s annual review of the world of work, highlighting the corporate revolution caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Trump claims to be ‘peacemaker’ as he vows to ‘take back’ Panama canal

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Desire to be ‘unifier’ rubs up against 47th US president’s ambitions for territorial expansion

Donald Trump offered a bombastic and contradictory vision for US foreign policy at his inauguration on Monday, declaring that he would be a “peacemaker and unifier” even as he repeated his vow to “take back” the Panama canal.

In his speech, Trump said that the Panama canal, which was built by the US in the early 1900s but ultimately given to Panama in 1977 under a treaty that guaranteed its neutrality, was a “foolish gift that should never have been made”.

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‘My arrest was unjustified’: released Palestinians decry their imprisonment

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Palestinian prisoners describe being held in poor conditions after their release as part of ceasefire deal

In the dead of night on Sunday, after hours of waiting, a white bus carrying dozens of Palestinian prisoners, released in exchange for three Israeli hostages handed over by Hamas to Israel, arrived at Fawakeh square in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A group of young men had climbed on to the vehicle, waving Palestinian and Hamas flags. Disembarking from the coach were mostly women and many minors, the majority of whom were detained after 7 October 2023.

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Pope dissolves Peru-based Catholic movement after ‘sadistic abuses’

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Sodalitium of Christian Life ended after investigation found sexual and spiritual abuses and financial mismanagement

Pope Francis has taken the remarkable step of dissolving a Peruvian-based Catholic movement, the Sodalitium of Christian Life (SCV), after years of attempts at reform and a Vatican investigation. The investigation uncovered sexual abuses by its founder, financial mismanagement by its leaders and spiritual abuses by its top members.

The Sodalitium on Monday confirmed the dissolution, which was conveyed to an assembly of its members in Aparecida, Brazil at the weekend by the pope’s top legal adviser, Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda. In revealing the dissolution in a statement, the group lamented that news of Francis’s decision had been leaked by two members attending the assembly, who were “definitively expelled”.

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Palestinians begin search for Gaza’s missing as they return to ruined homes

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Ceasefire celebrations replaced by shock and sorrow as people begin to assess the scale of devastation

After the first night in Gaza for more than a year without the sound of drones or bombing overhead following the successful implementation of a ceasefire, people in the besieged Palestinian territory have begun returning to destroyed homes and searching for missing loved ones.

The truce that took effect on Sunday with the release of the first three hostages held by Hamas in exchange for 90 Palestinians from Israeli jails was greeted with euphoria as a large influx of desperately needed aid supplies entered the strip.

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ICC braces for swift Trump sanctions over Israeli arrest warrants

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Leadership at international criminal court fears new US administration will move quickly to shut it down

The international criminal court is bracing itself for Donald Trump to launch aggressive economic sanctions against it this week, amid fears such a move could paralyse its work and pose an existential threat.

ICC officials are preparing for Trump’s new US administration to act quickly once in office to impose draconian financial and travel restrictions against the court and senior staff, including its chief prosecutor and judges.

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Slim Hamas parades show hollowness of either side’s claims to victory in Gaza

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Proof of group’s survival demonstrates stalemate that gave rise to ceasefire and is likely to fuel more conflict

Hours after the ceasefire was declared on Sunday, Hamas fighters were back on Gaza’s streets. Not many, it was true, and those who appeared were armed only with Kalashnikov rifles and some rudimentary body armour, but they were there.

In Khan Younis, a handful of pickup trucks with gunmen onboard drove through cheering crowds of young men. Dozens of uniformed fighters with Hamas headbands were visible when the three Israeli hostages were handed over in Gaza City. Elsewhere, there were reports that Hamas policemen, dressed in blue police uniform, deployed in some areas after months in hiding to avoid Israeli strikes.

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Freed British-Israeli hostage is ‘happiest person in the world’

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Emily Damari, released with two other hostages after 471 days in captivity, overjoyed after being reunited with family

A British-Israeli hostage freed from Hamas captivity in Gaza on Sunday has said she has “returned to life” and is the “happiest person in the world” after being reunited with her family.

In her first comments since being freed, Emily Damari, 28, thanked her family and friends who campaigned for her release. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m the happiest in the world,” she said in Hebrew on Instagram.

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