Category Archives: World News

Blinken says Russia has received new ballistic missiles from Iran

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US and Europe impose new sanctions on Iran in response to supply of weapons that US says Russia could use in Ukraine

Russia has received new deadly ballistic missiles from Iran for use in Ukraine and is likely to use them, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, announced on Tuesday in London as he prepared to travel with the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, to Kyiv.

The news, confirmed by the US for the first time and seen as of huge significance to the battlefield balance ahead of Ukraine’s difficult winter, led the US and Europe to impose new sanctions on Iran, so apparently slamming the door on the prospect of a rapprochement between the new reformist Iranian government and the west.

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Israel says ‘highly likely’ its troops killed Turkish-American activist

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IDF expresses ‘regret’ over death of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi on West Bank while US calls it ‘unprovoked and unjustified’

Israel’s military has said it was highly likely its troops fired the shot that killed Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the American-Turkish woman killed at a protest in the occupied West Bank.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said her death was unintentional and expressed deep regret.

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Crocodiles and snakes ‘washed into communities’ as flood hits Nigerian zoo

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Park in Borno state says more than 80% of its animals have been killed and urges residents to take precautions

Floods in northern Nigeria have killed more than 80% of the animals in a large zoo housing wildlife from lions and crocodiles to buffalo and ostriches, the facility has said.

“Some deadly animals have been washed away into our communities, like crocodiles and snakes,” the Sanda Kyarimi Park zoo added in a statement on the floods in the northern Borno state, urging residents to take precautions.

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South African farmer accused of killing two women and feeding them to pigs

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Farm owner and two employees allegedly shot dead Locadia Ndlovu and Maria Makgatho after they trespassed

A South African farmer and two of his employees have been accused of killing two women and feeding their bodies to his pigs.

The killings of Maria Makgatho and Locadia Ndlovu, also named in local media as Kudzai Ndlovu, allegedly took place when the two women trespassed on a farm in the northern province of Limpopo in August. They were scavenging for expired dairy products, which local media reported had been left there to feed the pigs.

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South Korea reveals new evidence of ‘violent and systemic’ forced adoption abroad

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Hospitals and adoption agencies appear to have colluded to force single mothers to give up children, commission finds

South Korea has found new evidence that mothers were forced to give up their children for adoption in countries including Australia, Denmark and the United States.

At least 200,000 South Korean children had been adopted abroad since the 1950s, but allegations have emerged that hospitals, maternity wards and adoption agencies systematically colluded to force parents – primarily single mothers – to give up their children.

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US and China hold high-level military talks in effort to stabilise ties

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Washington and Beijing hoping to open new regular communication channels to avoid misunderstandings

The United States and China have held high-level commander talks for the first time, Chinese authorities said, amid efforts to stabilise military ties and avoid misunderstandings, especially in regional hotspots such as the South China Sea.

Washington hopes to open new channels of regular military communication with Beijing after ties sank to a historic low when the United States downed a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon last year.

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Egypt and Turkey’s nascent alliance tested by new crisis in Libya

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Fallout from Libyan central bank governor’s dismissal presents immediate challenge for Sisi and Erdoğan

A new alliance between Egypt and Turkey designed to end a long-running dispute over events in the Middle East faces it first major test in the shape of a worsening political crisis in Libya linked to control of its oil wealth.

Egypt and Turkey fell out in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab spring, primarily because of the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s coup against his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi, an ally of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

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Former partner accused of killing Rebecca Cheptegei dies from burns

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  • Hospital confirms Dickson Ndiema Marangach’s death
  • Cheptegei died four days after being set on fire

Dickson Ndiema Marangach, the former partner of the Uganda runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who had been accused of killing her by dousing her in petrol and setting her on fire, died on Monday from burns sustained during the attack.

Cheptegei, who competed in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, suffered burns to more than 75% of her body in the 1 September attack and died four days later. Her former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, died at 7.50pm local time on Monday, said Daniel Lang’at, a spokesperson at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret in western Kenya, where Cheptegei was also treated and died. “He died from his injuries, the burns he sustained,” Lang’at told Reuters.

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Sex ed Paraguay-style: condoms are unsafe, silence on LGBTQ+ people

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Country awash with teenage pregnancies to launch new school curriculum on sex – but is it worse than none at all?

Paraguay, which has the second highest rate of teenage pregnancy in South America, is about to approve its first national sex education curriculum.

But activists, students and parents have expressed concern about the new guidelines, which warn that condoms cannot be trusted, masturbation leads to loneliness and make no mention of LGBTQ+ people.

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‘We are all Jenin together’: West Bank city seeks normality after IDF’s deadly raids

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Palestinians go back to work but struggle to see positive future after destruction of Israel’s 10-day raid that killed 21 in city

In the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, residents are struggling to return to normality after the longest – and deadliest – Israeli military operation in the area for 20 years. On Sunday, the start of the working week, traffic choked the city centre for the first time in nearly two weeks after roads were repaired; street vendors sold peaches and the first of the season’s pomegranates as the city slowly came back to life.

But in some places, sewage still flowed through streets dug up by military bulldozers. Many burnt-out buildings showed signs of fierce fighting, the upper floors now peppered with bullet holes and broken windows. Water and electricity infrastructure was severely damaged, and it is not clear when these services will be restored.

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White Stripes sue Trump over ‘flagrant misappropriation’ of hit song

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Band accuse campaign of unauthorised use of Seven Nation Army and seek ‘significant monetary damages’

The White Stripes’ Jack White and Meg White have filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump for what they allege is the “flagrant misappropriation” of a recording of their hit song Seven Nation Army in a campaign video.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Jack White shared the first page of the lawsuit, filed in court in New York, with the caption: “This machine sues fascists.”

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Almost 200 people killed last year trying to defend the environment, report finds

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Latin America was the most deadly region in which to defend ecosystems from mining and deforestation, with Indigenous people among half the dead

At least 196 people were killed last year for defending the environment, with more than a third of killings taking place in Colombia, new figures show.

From campaigners who spoke out against mining projects to Indigenous communities targeted by organised crime groups, an environmental defender was killed every other day in 2023, according to a new report by the NGO Global Witness.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features.

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Anti-Maduro campaign ‘stronger than ever’ after Venezuelan election, says Machado

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Opposition leader María Corina Machado said exile of key figure Edmundo González ‘changes absolutely nothing’

The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has insisted the campaign to end Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian rule is “stronger than ever”, but the banishing of one of its key figures to Spain has thrown many supporters off balance.

Edmundo González, who the US and other countries have recognised as the winner of Venezuela’s 28 July presidential election, flew into exile on Sunday after several weeks holed up in the Dutch ambassador’s residence in Caracas. An arrest warrant, seemingly designed to force the retired diplomat to flee, had been issued a week earlier.

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Pathogenic microbes blown vast distances by winds, scientists discover

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Living microbes that cause disease in humans and host antibiotic-resistance genes carried 1,200 miles

Microbes that cause disease in humans can travel thousands of miles on high-level winds, scientists have revealed for the first time.

The winds studied carried a surprising diversity of bacteria and fungi, including known pathogens and, some with genes for resistance to multiple antibiotics. Some of the microbes were shown to be alive – in other words, they had survived the long journey and were able to replicate.

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Funeral procession held for US-Turkish peace activist killed in West Bank

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Palestinian Authority holds ceremony for Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi who was allegedly shot by Israeli troops during protest

The Palestinian Authority has held a funeral procession for an American-Turkish activist who a witness says was shot and killed by Israeli forces last week during a demonstration against settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Dozens of mourners – including several leading officials of the western-backed authority – attended the procession in Nablus for Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old from Seattle who also held Turkish citizenship.

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Briton among five prisoners on the run after Portuguese jail breakout

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Public warned not to approach men believed to have escaped high-security facility with help from outside

A British inmate is among five prisoners on the run after breaking out of a high-security prison in Portugal, local authorities have said.

The man, named locally as Mark Roscaleer, and his fellow fugitives were said to have escaped from the Vale de Judeus facility on Saturday with help from people on the outside. He is serving a nine-year prison sentence for kidnap and robbery, according to Portuguese media.

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French husband was ‘self-centred’ manipulator, mass rape trial told

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Dominique Pélicot, 71, accused of raping, and recruiting strangers to rape, sedated wife for a decade

A French man on trial for recruiting dozens of strangers to rape his drugged wife without her knowledge was a “self-centred” manipulator with a split personality, experts have told a court.

Dominique Pélicot, 71, is on trial in the southern city of Avignon for repeatedly raping, and enlisting dozens of strangers to rape, his heavily sedated wife in her own bed over a decade.

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Dutch broadcaster launches news bulletin in easy-to-understand language

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Programme uses simpler sentences and explains topics slowly for people who struggle with Dutch language

The Dutch public broadcaster NOS has launched an evening news programme using “easy language” aimed at 2.5 million people in the Netherlands who struggle with the language.

English speakers may joke about “double Dutch”, but foreigners are not the only ones who sometimes fail to comprehend the west Germanic language of long words, convoluted sentences and guttural sounds.

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Golden eagle killed in Norway after attack on toddler in farmyard

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Young bird was believed to have attacked and injured at least four people in a week across wide area

A young golden eagle has been killed after reportedly attacking and wounding at least four people, including a 20-month-old toddler, in a large area of central and southern Norway.

The public broadcaster NRK said that in the most recent attack on Saturday the bird swooped on the girl, who was was playing in her family’s farmyard in the central Trøndelag region, despite being beaten away by her mother and a neighbour.

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Japanese eels can escape predators’ stomach through their gills, finds study

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Eels use tail-first technique to back up digestive tract of fish towards oesophagus before coming out of gills

It sounds like the plot of a horror movie – a predator swallows its prey only for the creature to burst out of its captor’s body. But it seems Japanese eels do just that.

Scientists in Japan have discovered that when swallowed by a dark sleeper fish, the eels can escape.

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