Category Archives: World News

More EU leaders expected to back calls for offshore asylum centres

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Migration to dominate summit as four people including two toddlers die after falling from crowded speedboat off Kos

A growing number of European leaders are expected to back calls for offshore immigration centres, as the EU casts around for tougher measures to stop asylum seekers reaching the bloc.

EU officials were preparing for intensive talks on migration at a leaders’ summit on Thursday, as it emerged that four people, including two toddlers, had died after falling overboard from an overcrowded speedboat off the Greek island of Kos.

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Explosion kills scores of Nigerians collecting fuel from crashed tanker

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People were collecting fuel from tanker that had crashed when it blew up, according to local police

More than 140 people have died in an explosion while rushing to scoop up fuel from a crashed tanker in north-west Nigeria, in one of the country’s worst such incidents in recent times.

Local authorities said the vehicle crashed late on Tuesday night after the driver lost control on the Kano-Hadejia expressway near the town of Majiya in Jigawa state. It then exploded while onlookers were scooping spilt fuel with cups and buckets.

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Louis Vuitton owner LVMH reports surprise sales drop amid China slowdown

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Shares in LVMH, which also owns Dior, Tiffany and Moët & Chandon, fell by as much as 7%, briefly hitting two-year low

Shares in luxury goods brands slumped after Louis Vuitton’s LVMH reported an unexpected fall in third-quarter sales amid China’s economic slowdown.

Shares in LVMH, which also owns Dior, Tiffany and Moët & Chandon, fell by as much as 7% in early trading, briefly hitting a two-year low, before regaining slightly, after it warned of an “uncertain economic and geopolitical environment”,with falling sales in Asia.

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Fungi could be given same status as flora and fauna under conservation plan

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Exclusive: proposal to Cop16 could see ‘funga’ get global legal consideration distinct from flora and fauna

A new era of mycelial conservation could begin this month when the UK and Chile propose that fungi should be placed alongside animals and plants as a separate realm for environmental protection.

Mushrooms, mould, mildew, yeast and lichen would all receive elevated status under the plan, which will be submitted to the UN convention on biological diversity (CBD) during the Cop16 meeting in Cali, Colombia, which opens on 21 October.

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UN peacekeepers in Lebanon criticise ‘apparently deliberate’ attack by Israeli forces – as it happened

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This blog has now closed. You can read our latest report on the conflict here and all our coverage from the region here.

Aid has arrived in northern Gaza for the first time in two weeks, according to an update by Cogat, the Israeli body that oversees the Palestinian territories and coordinates with aid groups.

In a social media post shared on Wednesday morning, Cogat said that 145 humanitarian aid trucks, containing food, hygiene products, baby formula, and shelter equipment, had entered Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Erez crossings.

A convoy of 28 trucks entered Gaza directly through Gate 96. The rotation coordination of humanitarian personnel has been successfully completed. 12 bakeries are operational in Gaza, 4 bakeries in northern Gaza, and 8 bakeries southern Gaza.”

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Trump stands by false claims about immigrants – as it happened

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US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Washington was looking into reports that North Korea was sending troops to fight for Russia against Ukraine.

Western countries have long accused North Korea of sending weapons to help Russia fight in Ukraine. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the North was also sending personnel, becoming effectively a participant in the war.

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Lula and Petro have the chance of a lifetime to save the Amazon. Can they unite idealism and realpolitik to pull it off?

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The South American leaders are in the spotlight as they prepare to host this week’s Cop16 biodiversity summit, November’s G20 meeting and next year’s Cop30 climate summit

The rainforest nations of Brazil and Colombia have the best opportunity in a generation to drag the Amazon back from the abyss as they host three of the world’s most important environmental negotiations in the space of little more than a year.

In the process, their leaders – pacesetting Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, and the more cautious and contradictory Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – will offer up overlapping visions for the future of the Amazon, and the world’s path to net zero.

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Elon Musk gave $75m to his pro-Trump group in three months

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America Pac said to be doing bulk of Trump’s voter turnout work in battleground states, which may give Musk leverage

Elon Musk has donated roughly $75m over the last three months to his pro-Donald Trump spending group, underscoring how the billionaire has become crucial to the Republican candidate’s efforts to win the US presidential election.

Filings submitted by America Pac on Tuesday to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) showed Musk donated $15m (£12m) in July, $30m in August and another $30m in September. Musk remains the political action committee’s only donor.

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Six Russian soldiers granted French temporary entry permits after fleeing Ukraine

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Organisations assisting deserters hope France’s decision will lead to more soldiers fleeing war

Six Russian soldiers who fled the war in Ukraine have been granted temporary entry permits as they apply for political asylum in France, in what human rights activists describe as the first major case of a group of deserters being admitted to a EU country.

The men arrived in Paris on separate flights over the last few months after initially fleeing Russia to Kazakhstan in 2022 and 2023, according to an organisation that assists soldiers in fleeing, and to accounts from the deserters.

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David Lammy urged to raise human rights concerns on China trip

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Exclusive: Group of UK MPs says foreign secretary must ‘engage with China as it really is’ amid rapprochement drive

David Lammy must “engage with China as it really is under the leadership of Xi Jinping” and raise human rights concerns during his trip to the country, UK parliamentarians who have been hit with sanctions by Beijing have said.

The foreign secretary is expected to hold high-level meetings in China this week. The visit forms part of an effort by Labour to improve relations with China after they deteriorated under successive Conservative governments. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, plans to travel to the country next year and restart high-level economic dialogue.

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Israel says it will ‘address concerns’ from US after threat to withhold arms funding over Gaza – as it happened

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Israeli military strikes killed at least 40 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces tightened their squeeze around Jabalia in the north of the enclave on Tuesday, amid fierce battles with Hamas-led fighters.

Palestinian health officials said at least 11 people were killed by Israeli fire near Al-Falouja in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, while 10 others were killed in Bani Suhaila in eastern Khan Younis in the south when an Israeli missile struck a house.

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Von der Leyen to ask EU leaders to explore using ‘return hubs’ for migrants

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European Commission president cites Italy-Albania deal as possible model for reducing irregular arrivals to Europe

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has called for an exploration of “return hubs” outside the EU in a letter to the bloc’s national leaders on irregular migration, citing a deal between Italy and Albania as a possible model.

EU leaders are to meet on Thursday and Friday for a summit on migration as the commission has said it will propose new measures.

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Grand Egyptian Museum to open main galleries for trial run to 4,000 visitors

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Date for official opening still not announced for $1bn-plus mega-project more than a decade in the making

Egypt’s vast and much-delayed antiquities museum will partly open its main galleries on Wednesday, including 12 halls that exhibit aspects of ancient Egypt.

The Grand Egyptian Museum, a mega-project near the famed Giza pyramids that has cost considerably more than $1bn (£765m) so far, will open its halls to 4,000 visitors as a trial run until the official opening date, which is yet to be announced, according to Al-Tayeb Abbas, assistant to the minister of antiquities.

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Any retaliation against Iran will be based on national interest, says Israel

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Comments from PM’s office come amid continued attacks on Lebanon and Gaza and after reports of assurances to US

Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said that Israel will decide alone on the form of any retaliation to Iran’s barrage of 180 missiles fired at the country earlier this month, although it would listen to advice from Washington.

The comments came after US media reported that the Israeli prime minister had given an assurance to the US president, Joe Biden, that Israel would not attack sites associated with Iran’s nuclear programme or oilfields before the US presidential election.

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‘It’s a kind of miracle’: Russian man survives 66 days adrift on inflatable boat

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Mikhail Pichugin survived but the ordeal claimed the lives of his brother and teenage nephew

A Russian man survived more than two months drifting in icy seas on an inflatable boat in an ordeal that claimed the lives of his brother and teenage nephew, officials and reports said.

Mikhail Pichugin may have survived because of his 100kg (220lb) build, according to his wife. Media reports said he weighed just 50kg when found on Monday.

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Air India plane makes emergency landing in Canada after bomb threat

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Abrupt landing comes a day after flight from Mumbai to New York was diverted to Delhi after a false bomb threat

An Air India plane bound for Chicago has made an abrupt landing in the Arctic city of Iqaluit, after a false bomb threat. The emergency stop before sunrise on Tuesday, came less than a day after Canada and India expelled senior diplomats in a widening feud between the two countries.

The flight’s 211 crew and passengers disembarked at the Iqaluit airport some 300km (186 miles) north of the Arctic circle, the Royal Canadian Mounted police said in a news release. According to local media in Iqaluit, an “unspecified bomb threat from a person in India to Air India” was relayed to the flight’s captain.

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Roberto Saviano to appear at Frankfurt book fair despite Italy delegation’s snub

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Gomorrah author and Meloni critic’s non-inclusion in Italy’s lineup angers writers amid claims of censorship

The Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano will appear at the Frankfurt book fair this week despite being snubbed by the organisers of the official Italian delegation, setting the scene for a clash between the country’s far-right government and its most prominent writers.

Saviano, one of Italy’s bestselling living writers and an ardent critic of the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, was absent from the initial lineup of 100 authors representing Italy, this year’s guest of honour, when it was announced in May.

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UK imposes sanctions on seven groups that support West Bank settlers

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Foreign Office declines to penalise two Israeli ministers as ex-foreign secretary David Cameron had planned

The UK Foreign Office has announced sanctions against seven organisations that support illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank, but held back from penalising two extremist members of the Israeli government as the former foreign secretary David Cameron had been planning.

Cameron told the BBC on Tuesday that he had intended to impose sanctions on Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and said he was concerned that the Labour government had not adopted his proposal. He said he had only held back from taking the step in the spring because he had been advised that it would be too political during the general election.

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Canadian police accuse India of working with criminal network to kill dissidents

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Modi government agents alleged to have collaborated with syndicate run by mob boss Lawrence Bishnoi

Canadian police have accused the Indian government of working with a criminal network run by one of India’s most notorious gangsters, Lawrence Bishnoi, to carry out targeted killings of dissidents in Canada.

A diplomatic row broke out between India and Canada on Monday after Canadian police accused Indian diplomats of “criminal” activities in the country, including extortion, intimidation, coercion and harassment, and involvement in targeted killings of Canadian citizens.

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