Category Archives: World News

Trump revisits most divisive talking points in rambling interview with Musk

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Ex-president attacks migrants and denounces Kamala Harris in discussion delayed by technical glitch

Donald Trump sat down with billionaire Elon Musk on Monday for a rambling and vitriolic interview that revisited many of the former president’s most divisive talking points.

The interview on X, which is owned by Musk, got off to an inauspicious start, with technical issues that initially prevented many users from watching the conversation. Musk blamed the delay on a “massive” cyber-attack, but the cause of the glitch was not entirely clear.

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Hamas says one Israeli hostage killed and two more injured in Gaza

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Shootings take place in ‘two separate incidents’, according to armed wing of group, which did not identify victims

The armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas has said its militants shot and killed an Israeli hostage and wounded two others, both women, “in two separate incidents” in Gaza.

Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages during their 7 October attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war, 111 of whom are still being held in Gaza, although the Israeli military says 39 are dead.

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US to resume sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia

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Arms supply had been halted over role in Yemen war, but move is sign of hope kingdom can help resolve Gaza conflict

The United States has confirmed it will resume sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, as concerns over human rights in the kingdom’s Yemen war give way to US hopes for it to play a role in resolving the conflict in Gaza.

More than three years after imposing limits on human rights grounds over Saudi strikes in Yemen, the state department said it would return to weapons sales “in regular order, with appropriate congressional notification and consultation”.

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Native American author Tommy Orange selected as the next Future Library writer

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The Pulitzer prize-shortlisted novelist behind books including There There and Wandering Stars will pen a manuscript that won’t be published until 2114

The next book by Native American author Tommy Orange will not be read for 90 years.

The author of There There and Wandering Stars has been selected as the 11th writer to contribute to the Future Library project, which each year invites an author to produce a manuscript to be stored under lock and key until 2114.

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Neighbours turn on each other in Portofino air-con crackdown

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Some residents of wealthy Italian village reportedly passing on photos to police who are hunting illegal units

It is baking hot in Portofino, but the atmosphere has turned decidedly chilly among residents of the exclusive Italian coastal village since a crackdown was imposed on air-conditioning units.

With a year-round population of just 379, Portofino has emerged as Italy’s wealthiest municipality and is well known for being a magnet for the rich and famous.

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‘I felt euphoria’: Ukraine’s borderland refugees praise incursion into Russia

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While thousands have had to flee their homes, there is widespread feeling that the attack is a justified defence

Last Tuesday, Oksana and her family could not escape fast enough. Though they did not know it, Ukrainian regular forces had entered Russia for the first time, and Moscow’s military wasted little time in hitting back, bombing their village around seven miles from the border.

“It was 9am and the first glide bomb hit the village,” she said, and its ferocity – “very scary, much bigger” than ordinary shelling – was such that they immediately knew they had to escape. “Our neighbour drove his children first and then came back and picked me and my sister and family,” the mother of two explained.

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Tanzania opposition leaders and supporters arrested in crackdown

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Senior Chadema party figures including vice-chair detained as well as about 400 people heading to youth gathering

Police in Tanzania have arrested leaders of the country’s main opposition party and hundreds of its supporters in a crackdown that started at the weekend.

Police detained Tundu Lissu, the vice-chair of the Chadema party and a former presidential candidate, as well as the party’s secretary general, John Mnyika, before a gathering in the country’s south-west.

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Conviction of Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai ‘unjust’, says Chris Patten

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Former governor speaks out after appeal court upholds convictions of seven activists over 2019 protest

Chris Patten, the former governor of Hong Kong, has decried as “unjust” a decision by the Chinese city’s top court to uphold the conviction of Jimmy Lai and other prominent pro-democracy activists for participating in a peaceful protest in 2019.

On Monday, Hong Kong’s court of final appeal unanimously agreed to uphold the convictions of seven activists who participated in an unauthorised 2019 protest in which 1.7 million people – roughly a quarter of Hong Kong’s population – took to the streets to oppose Beijing’s tightening grip on the city.

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Israel spokesperson accuses BBC’s Mishal Husain of pro-Palestinian bias

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Broadcaster defends Radio 4 presenter’s ‘legitimate’ questions to David Mencer, who claimed she was parroting ‘terrorist organisations’

The BBC has defended Mishal Husain, a presenter on its Radio 4 Today programme, after she was accused by an Israeli government spokesperson live on air of “blindly repeating what terrorist organisations … feed you”.

In a tetchy interview on Monday’s programme, David Mencer, said Husain warranted the “pro-Palestinian reporter of the year award”.

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Children among up to 200 Rohingya killed in Myanmar drone attack

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Witnesses say people killed in artillery and drone attack that targeted civilians fleeing violence

Many dozens of Rohingya people, including children, were killed in an artillery and drone attack that targeted civilians as they tried to flee Myanmar last week.

Civilians were trying to escape violence in Maungdaw town, Rakhine state, by crossing the Naf River into Bangladesh when they were targeted last Monday. Videos shared on social media, which appeared to have been taken in the aftermath of the attack, showed bodies and bags strewn across the ground.

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Israel prepares for likely retaliatory attack by Iran as tensions mount

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US says it has prepared for significant attacks by Iran or proxies as Tehran stresses right to respond to assassinations

Iran has insisted on its right to an “appropriate and deterrent response” against Israel as the White House said it had prepared for what could be significant attacks by Iran or its proxies as soon as this week.

The comments come as the US announced it had ordered the deployment of the USS Georgia, a nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine, to the Middle East, amid mounting concern over the determination by Iran and its proxies to retaliate for Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, made the comments to his Chinese counterpart on Monday, according to state media.

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Greek officials evacuate residents as wildfire moves ‘like lightning’

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More than 670 firefighters working to control blaze that has formed 12-mile front on outskirts of Athens

• Europe live – latest updates

Firefighters are battling to contain a massive blaze moving “like lightning” on the outskirts of Athens, with authorities evacuating people from towns, villages and hospitals as flames rip through trees, homes and cars.

Propelled by gale-force winds, the wildfire had formed a 12-mile (20km) front by Monday despite “superhuman” efforts by forest commandos and volunteers overnight.

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Doctors strike in India after rape and murder of trainee medic at hospital

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Call for better safety measures as ‘civic volunteer’ arrested after attack on female trainee doctor in Kolkata

Doctors at government hospitals in several Indian states have gone on strike in a protest after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata on Friday.

The 31-year-old woman was attacked at the state-run RG Kar medical college, where she was a resident doctor, after she went to rest in a seminar room following dinner with colleagues. Her brutalised body was found with multiple injuries and an autopsy confirmed sexual assault and homicide.

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Pro-foxhunting group says UK hunters should be protected ethnic minority

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Chair of Hunting Kind says he has built legal case to obtain same protection as Roma and LGBTQ+ people

A pro-foxhunting group says it has prepared a legal case to try to prove that hunters are an ethnic minority whose hunts should be protected under equality laws.

Ed Swales, the chair of Hunting Kind, claims he has been advised by a leading human rights lawyer that hunters unequivocally qualify for legal protection under the UK Equality Act 2010.

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Australia indemnifies US and UK ‘against any liability’ from nuclear submarine risks

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New text reveals any party can terminate their collaboration on nuclear-powered boats with just one year’s notice

The United States, the United Kingdom or Australia could terminate their collaboration on nuclear-powered submarines with just one year’s notice, according to the terms of a new treaty designed to make the Aukus security pact a reality.

The Australian government published the text of the new agreement on Monday as it sought to dispel claims it was failing to tell the public about potentially significant political commitments to the US and the UK.

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Family of Isaac Hayes threaten Donald Trump with lawsuit over use of song in rallies

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Family call for $3m in licensing fees stemming from Trump’s frequent use of the Hayes-penned Sam & Dave track Hold On, I’m Comin’

The family of late soul and funk singer Isaac Hayes has ordered Donald Trump to stop using the Hayes-penned song Hold On, I’m Comin’ at campaign rallies.

A letter sent to Trump and his campaign team, shared by Hayes’s son Isaac Hayes III, threatens Trump with legal action if he continues to use the 1966 Sam & Dave song, written by Hayes and David Porter. It alleges copyright infringement, and also demands $3m in licensing fees incurred from the use of the song between 2022 and 2024.

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Weather tracker: Storm Debby leaves power cuts and flooding in its wake

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Meanwhile, a tropical disturbance in the Atlantic is likely to develop into a named storm within days

Storm Debby, which initially struck Florida as a hurricane, caused widespread destruction as it moved up the east coast, leaving many without power and dealing with severe flooding.

The storm brought significant damage across Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont, with power outages affecting large areas days after the storm’s passage. In Steuben County in New York, heavy rain triggered flash flooding, leading to road closures and evacuations. In Pennsylvania, numerous water rescues were necessary as flood waters rose rapidly.

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Greek officials advise staying in with windows shut due to fires near Athens

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Whole neighbourhoods are being evacuated from around capital as firefighters mount huge effort to put out blazes

Greek authorities have warned people to stay indoors with their “windows closed” as hundreds of firefighters battled to contain blazes on the outskirts of Athens that were forcing the evacuation of entire communities.

Huge clouds of billowing smoke had by mid-afternoon on Sunday darkened the skies above the capital as 10 groups of “forest commandos” backed by water-bombing aircraft, helicopters and fire engines tried to douse flames fanned by gale-force winds. Volunteers had also joined the fight near the village of Varnava about 35km (21 miles) north of the city.

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Ukraine aims to destabilise Russia with Kursk attack, official says

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Troop numbers sent into Russia are in thousands, source says; cooling tower at Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility reportedly damaged by fire

Ukrainian sources have indicated that thousands of troops have been committed to its incursion into Russia’s Kursk province, as Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations about a fire at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant 250 miles to the south.

A Ukrainian security official told the Agence France-Presse that the aim of the incursion was to destabilise Russia and string out Russian forces with light, fast-moving attacks. It remains unclear how sustainable the operation will be in the medium term amid Kremlin threats that it will be snuffed out using Russian reserves.

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Thousands flee Khan Younis after Israel warns of new offensive

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Displaced residents uncertain where to flee to as IDF prepares to fight Hamas in city in southern Gaza Strip

Thousands of people have fled the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis after the Israeli military warned of a new operation to flush out Hamas militants that it says have regrouped there.

In al-Jala, a neighbourhood in the south of the city that the Israel Defense Forces had previously designated a humanitarian zone, residents on Sunday packed their belongings, uncertain where to seek refuge. Israel said rockets had been fired from the area.

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