London-listed Evoke, which owns William Hill, apologises for post on Israeli Facebook page linking to job ads
The gambling company that owns the William Hill, 888 and Mr Green brands has apologised after one of its social media accounts appeared to make light of the pager explosions in Lebanon that killed 12 people and injured thousands.
The explosions on Tuesday were followed by walkie-talkies exploding on Wednesday, killing another 20 people.
Continue reading...Attacks in Bamako claimed by al-Qaida affiliate cast doubt on junta’s ability to tackle 12-year insurgency
Scores of people reportedly died in a jihadist attack in the Malian capital on Tuesday, again raising questions about the junta’s capacity to tackle a 12-year insurgency.
Islamic militants attacked a number of locations in Bamako, including an elite police training academy. The violence, which the al-Qaida affiliate Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) claimed to have carried out, led to the closure of the city’s airport for the day.
Continue reading...Lionel R, 44, one of 50 men accused, apologises to his victim and tells the court: ‘I have no choice but to accept the facts’
One of 50 men accused of raping the French woman Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged by her husband accepted the charges on Thursday, saying he was sorry for what he did.
Lionel R, a 44-year-old supermarket worker and father of three, was among dozens of men accused of participating in the mass rape of Pelicot over a decade in a trial that has shocked France.
Continue reading...Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada celebrate idiosyncrasy, while Ian Griffiths foregrounds mathematical tailoring
A Prada show is never a straightforward beauty pageant, so when the co-designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons go out of their way to be contrary and challenging, the result is, frankly, pretty weird.
Thick woollen tights with belt loops. A boob tube with snap pockets on the nipples. Shoes that peel back at the heels like curls of butter. In the cavernous concrete of Prada’s Milanese headquarters, the catwalk was twisted into hairpin bends, so that the audience couldn’t see what was coming next. Each outfit was crazier than the last. A strapless lemon ballgown with sunglasses the size of a gas mask was followed by black jeans tucked into dirty white cowboy boots.
Continue reading...Hassan Nasrallah due to give televised speech, as US warns all sides in Middle East against escalation ‘of any kind’
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, will seek to rally his followers and inspire new defiance of Israel in a much-anticipated televised speech on Thursday afternoon, after the Lebanon-based militant Islamist organisation was thrown into disarray by successive waves of unprecedented attacks that have been blamed on Israel.
On Tuesday, thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah exploded simultaneously, killing 12 people, including two children, and wounding up to 2,800 others across Lebanon. A day later, 25 people were killed and more than 450 wounded when walkie-talkies exploded in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals, stoking fears that a full-blown war between Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, and Israel could be imminent.
Continue reading...Brian Jeffrey Raymond of California was found guilty of drugging and raping women in his government apartments
A former CIA officer who drugged and sexually assaulted dozens of women was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced.
Brian Jeffrey Raymond, 48, of La Mesa, California, drugged more than two dozen women and performed nonconsensual sexual acts or made sexual contact with at least 10 women, the justice department said in a press release.
Continue reading...International Energy Agency says coming winter will be hard as country has lost more than two-thirds of energy production capacity since Russian invasion
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Kyiv on Friday and meet president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as the bloc seeks to help Ukraine weather Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure.
“I will be travelling to Kyiv to discuss these matters in person with president Zelenskiy tomorrow in our efforts to help Ukraine,” von der Leyen told a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Continue reading...Meloni government accused of lacking will to confront climate crisis as floods cause havoc in Emilia-Romagna
Two people are missing and about 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes after devastating floods and landslides hit the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, prompting accusations that Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government lacks the will to confront the climate crisis.
The flooding was brought on by Storm Boris, which had earlier wreaked havoc in central and eastern Europe, killing at least 24 people. Several major cities in central Europe were bracing for swollen rivers to peak on Thursday but defences generally appeared to be holding.
Continue reading...George Papadopoulos and others involved in Intelligencer, increasingly popular source of news in rightwing circles
Amid the recent crackdown on Russian influence in American media, a group of former Trump advisers and operatives have quietly helped build a pro-Russian website that frequently spreads debunked conspiracy theories about the war in Ukraine, election fraud and vaccines.
Working alongside contributors for Kremlin state media, the former Donald Trump policy aide George Papadopoulos, his wife, Simona Mangiante, and others have become editorial board members of the website Intelligencer, which is increasingly becoming a source of news for those in the rightwing ecosystem.
Continue reading...It is unclear if the suspect targeted the boy because he was Japanese, but there is concern that the incident could trigger a further deterioration in ties
Japan’s foreign minister, Yoko Kamikawa, has described as “despicable” the alleged killing in China of a 10-year-old Japanese boy and demanded that Chinese authorities do everything possible to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals living in the country.
The boy, who has not been named by Japanese media, died on Thursday, a day after he was allegedly stabbed about 200 metres from his school in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
Continue reading...Compulsory preschool year for six-year-olds to be replaced with extra year in primary school from 2028
Children in Sweden are to start school at six years old from 2028, a year earlier than at present, in an overhaul of the country’s education system that signals a switch from play-based teaching for younger children.
The government has announced plans to replace a compulsory preschool year for six-year-olds known as förskoleklass with an additional year in grundskola (primary school).
Continue reading...The row over ‘frockgate’ continues to trouble the prime minister this week, while his decision to visit his far-right Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, has upset many in his party. The Guardian’s John Harris talks to the political correspondent Aletha Adu, who was travelling with Keir Starmer. Also, the Guardian’s Europe correspondent, Jon Henley, joins John Harris to look at the rise of the far-right on the continent
Continue reading...Second judge refuses bail to music mogul, 54, citing possibility that he could tamper with witnesses
Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs will have to await trial on sex-trafficking and racketeering charges in a Brooklyn jail instead of his luxurious Miami Beach mansion after a second judge refused to grant a $50m bail package offered by his lawyers.
On Wednesday, US district judge Andrew L Carter Jr denied Combs’s request to be released to home detention with GPS monitoring, pointing to the possibility that Combs may tamper with witnesses.
Continue reading...Social media platform routes internet traffic outside of Brazil using a communications network update
Social media platform Twitter/X became accessible to many users in Brazil on Wednesday as an update to its communications network circumvented a block order by the country’s supreme court.
The X update used cloud services offered by third parties, allowing some Brazilian users to take a route outside of the country to reach X, even without a virtual private network, according to Abrint, the Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications Providers.
Continue reading...Edmundo González says he signed election letter under duress as condition for allowing him to flee to Spain
Venezuela’s opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, has said he was coerced into signing a letter recognizing Nicolás Maduro as the winner of the country’s disputed election as a condition for letting him flee to Spain.
The revelation of the letter is the latest strain to the country’s political crisis, which was exacerbated by the disputed election results and González’s recent departure for exile in Spain.
Continue reading...Tactical daring keeps Netanyahu on the front foot but risks lurch into full-blown war
The detonation of walkie-talkies around Lebanon a day after scores of pagers used by Hezbollah officials blew up is a one-two punch that drives home the extent of Israel’s penetration of its Shia foe’s defences across its northern border.
It represents utter humiliation for Hezbollah that its security can be so effortlessly breached twice, and be shown incapable of protecting its own people.
Continue reading...Israel is widely believed to be behind the operations – but who made the devices, and how did they explode?
It may be years before the full story is told of how the coordinated explosions of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah were orchestrated. But, even without Israel publicly admitting responsibility, it is clear that the attack must have been carefully planned – however uncertain its consequences.
Experts generally believe a small mount of stable explosive was carefully implanted into each sabotaged device. Alan Woodward, a professor of cybersecurity at Surrey University, said: “There wouldn’t need to be much explosive, as proximity to a human body means it would cause injury even if it was a few grams.”
Continue reading...Twenty killed and at least 450 injured in cities across Lebanon a day after exploding pagers killed 12
A new series of extraordinary explosions aimed at Hezbollah – this time targeting walkie-talkies – has killed at least 20 and wounded more than 450 in cities across Lebanon, as international observers warned that the simultaneous detonation of thousands of booby-trapped communications devices may constitute a war crime.
The targeted detonations of the walkie-talkies came one day after more than 2,800 were injured and 12 killed by exploding pagers in an attack blamed on Israel that world leaders and diplomats have warned could lead to an all-out conflict between Israel and the powerful militant group despite efforts by the US and UN to avert an escalation with Hezbollah.
Continue reading...What sources are saying about the techniques behind the simultaneous explosion of thousands of devices across Lebanon
In an unprecedented security breach, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkie radios belonging to members of Hezbollah detonated across Lebanon in simultaneous explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 26 people and wounding thousands of others.
Hospitals across Lebanon were overwhelmed with an influx of patients after the pager attack on Tuesday, and a field hospital was set up in the southern city of Tyre to accommodate the wounded.
Continue reading...General assembly votes overwhelmingly in favour of Palestinian resolution after ICJ ruling in July
In a symbolic step exposing Israel’s continued international isolation, the UN general assembly has voted overwhelmingly to direct Israel to leave the occupied Palestinian territories within a year.
The non-binding vote follows a historic advisory ruling in July by the international court of justice (ICJ) urging Israel to cease “its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as soon as possible and stop all settlement activity there immediately”.
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