Exclusive: Move highlights ambition to reconnect with Beijing but minister will face pressure over human rights
David Lammy is planning a visit to China in September that would fall within the first 100 days of him taking office.
The foreign secretary is in talks over a trip to Beijing next month that would signal the UK wants to resume high-level engagement with the country.
Continue reading...Patient says pharmacists she went to were suspicious because Vyvanse is a stimulant, causing her the ‘most dehumanising medical experience’ of her life
Emma* says she was made to feel “like a drug addict” for simply trying to access medication for her ADHD.
When she was prescribed Vyvanse in June, she was relieved to realise she had found a treatment that would make it easier to live with the developmental disorder that affects the brain’s executive functioning.
Continue reading...Podcast host calls independent candidate for president a ‘legitimate guy’ but says he is not offering endorsement
Robert F Kennedy Jr’s independent presidential campaign may be seeing poll numbers fall and funds dwindle, amid bizarre tales about brain worms and pranks with dead bears and accusations of dangerous conspiracy mongering, but he has nonetheless secured a sought-after supporter: Joe Rogan.
The popular podcaster appeared to offer his endorsement on Thursday, saying Kennedy was “the only one that makes sense to me”.
Continue reading...Bodies of pilot and co-pilot of Voepass aircraft that plunged to the ground, killing all 62 onboard, identified
Brazilian emergency crews on Saturday recovered the remains of at least 50 victims aboard an airliner that plunged to the ground in the town of Vinhedo, near São Paulo, the day before, killing all 62 onboard.
The bodies of the pilot and co-pilot were identified, said Dario Pacheco, mayor of Vinhedo, who added that he expected all of the remains to have been recovered by the end of the day.
Continue reading...Two countries expel each other’s ambassadors amid growing tensions between Lula and Venezuela’s Maduro
Brazil and Nicaragua have expelled each other’s ambassadors in a tit-for-tat diplomatic row, as Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, appears to recalibrate his approach to authoritarian leftist rulers who were once seen as allies.
The dual expulsions this week came amid growing tensions between Lula and another supposedly progressive leader, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, whose claim of re-election the Brazilian president has yet to acknowledge. Lula and his counterparts in Colombia and Mexico have called on Maduro to release voting tallies from all polling stations to support his win.
Continue reading...Opponents fear proposed bill could allow girls as young as nine to marry, erode women’s rights and give greater powers to clerics
A draft law in Iraq that would allow the marriage of girls as young as nine has provoked protests across the country, with women’s rights activists saying it would “legalise child rape”.
The Shia religious groups that dominate the political system in Iraq have been pushing to erode women’s rights in the country for more than a decade.
Continue reading...Reporters cautiously optimistic as interim government takes over after years of intimidation and censorship
Bangladeshi journalists are hoping the resignation of the prime minister Sheikh Hasina will bring an era of censorship and fear to an end, as they prepare to hold a new interim government to account.
Arrests, abuse and forced disappearances at the hands of Bangladesh’s security forces have loomed over journalists for most of Hasina’s 15-year rule, preventing them from routine reporting for fear of writing anything that could be perceived as embarrassing for the government.
Continue reading...Iraqi man, 18, said to be an associate of main 19-year-old suspect in terror plot that has led to cancellation of shows
A third suspect has been arrested in connection with a foiled terror attack on Taylor Swift’s now-cancelled concerts in Vienna, the Austrian interior minister has said.
The 18-year-old Iraqi man is understood to have been an associate of the main 19-year-old suspect, identified as Beran A, an Austrian with North Macedonian roots.
Continue reading...Surge caused by rebound in market activity very likely to influence payouts for European outposts of banks
Bonuses for Wall Street’s investment bankers are forecast to jump as much as 35% this year – although experts have warned that payouts could be knocked by stock market volatility and an economic slowdown in the US.
Fresh predictions suggest that staff across a range of financial firms – including hedge funds, asset managers and investment banks – will see payouts rise for the first time in two years. It follows a rebound in business confidence and market activity, with companies more willing to take risks amid easing inflation that has started to translate into lower borrowing costs.
Continue reading...Outlet, which was hit with order during Rodrigo Duterte administration, hails ruling after ‘eight years of harassment’
A court in the Philippines has voided a shutdown order that was issued against Rappler, an independent news outlet known for its scrutiny of the former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Rappler, which was co-founded by the Nobel peace prize laureate Maria Ressa, had been issued a shutdown order in 2018, during Duterte’s administration, over claims it had violated restrictions on foreign ownership in media.
Continue reading...Fugitive Catalan separatist has returned to Belgium after flying visit to Barcelona in which police failed to arrest him
Carles Puigdemont is no longer in Spain and will never give himself up, his lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, said after the fugitive former Catalan president’s dramatic flying visit to Barcelona on Thursday.
Lluís Llach, a Catalan singer and fervent nationalist, said that Puigdemont was “safe and sound and above all, free” while Jordi Turull, the secretary-general of Puigdemont’s Together for Catalonia party, said he had returned home to Waterloo in Belgium, adding that before his public appearance on Thursday Puigdemont had arrived in Barcelona on Tuesday evening.
Continue reading...ABC confirms US presidential candidates will face off for the first time on 10 September. Plus: the return of panda diplomacy
Good morning.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will face off for the first time on 10 September in a highly anticipated televised debate on ABC, the network confirmed Thursday, as Harris continues to gain momentum, leaving the Trump campaign scrambling.
What did Trump say at the press conference? Trump attacked Harris and falsely claimed that no one was killed in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. He grew heated over comparing crowd sizes, and claimed he wanted to do three debates. Earlier, Trump had suggested he would back out of the 10 September debate that had previously been set with Joe Biden before Biden stepped down from his re-election campaign.
What do the polls say? While Biden had been trailing Trump in key swing states, Harris has made gains, particularly after announcing the Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate. An Ipsos poll published on Thursday found Harris ahead of Trump by 42% to 37%, compared to a 22-23 July Reuters/Ipsos survey, which showed her up 37% to 34% over Trump.
How has the Trump campaign been reacting to the rise of Harris? Concerns have created fractures inside Trumpworld, with some Maga allies criticizing Trump’s political advisers who are working to paint Harris as more progressive than she is and launch “Willie Horton” attacks from the old Republican playbook that suggest she is directly responsible for crimes some migrants committed.
How many people have died from Tropical Storm Debby? At least seven people have died from the storm, which made first landfall early Monday on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Debby made a second landfall in South Carolina early on Thursday, and more flooding is expected in North and South Carolina before the storm clears those states.
Continue reading...Joint statement says framework agreement is ‘on the table’ and there are no excuses ‘from any party for further delay’
The leaders of the US, Egypt and Qatar have called on Israel and Hamas to resume urgent negotiations to finalise a ceasefire and hostage release deal, saying there were no excuses “from any party for further delay”.
The three countries, which have been trying to mediate a deal, said in a joint statement the talks could take place in either Doha or Cairo on 15 August, adding that it was “time to bring immediate relief both to the longsuffering people of Gaza as well as the longsuffering hostages and their families”.
Continue reading...President accuses social network’s owner of using it to ‘incite hatred’ after country’s disputed election
President Nicolás Maduro said he had ordered a 10-day block on access to X in Venezuela, accusing the owner, Elon Musk, of using the social network to promote hatred after the country’s disputed presidential election.
Associated Press (AP) journalists in Caracas found that by Thursday night posts had stopped loading on X on two private telephone services and the state-owned Movilnet.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: As the opposition accuse President Nicolás Maduro of rigging the vote, we examine the background to this and where it leaves a country already in crisis
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Good morning. It is 12 days since elections took place in Venezuela, but there is still no consensus on the winner. The incumbent president, Nicolás Maduro of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, claimed he won with 51% of the vote, ahead of rival Edmundo González Urrutia with 44%.
However, the results were immediately met with suspicion. The president, who was running for a third term to lead a country that has been in a near-constant state of economic crisis during his tenure, made his position clear last month when he said there would be a “bloodbath” in Venezuela if he lost.
Far-right riots | Laws designed to counter misinformation are “not fit for purpose” and must be revisited after the spread of online falsehoods contributed to this month’s far-right riots, the mayor of London has said. Sadiq Khan said ministers should act “very, very quickly” to review the Online Safety Act.
Ukraine | Ukraine has publicly justified its attack into Russian territory for the first time, amid reports that its forces are advancing towards a village 13 miles inside the Kursk region.
NHS | The NHS in England has had its busiest summer ever in A&E with 4.6m attendances over the past two months, while 1.5m hospital appointments were rescheduled because of the junior doctors’ strikes, according to the latest figures.
Economy | Wall Street enjoyed its best day of trading in nearly two years, recovering most of the losses it suffered during a sell-off sparked by US economic fears earlier this week. The S&P 500 rose 2.3% to 5,319.32, its biggest single-day jump since November 2022.
Austria | The 19-year-old prime suspect in an alleged plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert that led to the cancellation of the singer’s three-night run in Vienna had collected chemicals with the intention of building a bomb, senior Austrian security officials have said.
Continue reading...The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued its first-ever warning of the risk of a huge earthquake along the Pacific coast
Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has cancelled a visit to central Asia this weekend after experts warned that the risk of a “megaquake” occurring off the country’s Pacific coast had increased following Thursday’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake in the south-west.
Kishida, who is battling low approval ratings and faces challenges to his leadership in a ruling party presidential election next month, announced his decision at a press conference on Friday.
Continue reading...Beijing website asks for information about supposed ‘crimes’ of ‘secessionist’ current and past Taiwan officials
China’s government has called for people to denounce “diehard secessionists” and give information about their “criminal activities” as it intensifies its legal and rhetorical intimidation of Taiwan.
The Taiwan affairs office and ministry of public security this week launched new webpages with lists of 10 current and former officials in Taiwan who have been named as “diehard” separatists.
Continue reading...African disease control centre urges ‘collective and collaborative approach’ after cases rise by 160% in a year
The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said the agency is likely to declare a continental public health emergency over the growing mpox outbreak.
The Africa CDC’s director general, Dr Jean Kaseya, said on Thursday that because of the increase in mpox cases and its continued spread across borders, he had resolved to start “active engagement” with African Union member states to prevent the outbreak from becoming “another pandemic”.
Continue reading...Other Islamic countries are not openly backing military response by Tehran and more targeted action appears likely
Iran may be rethinking the scale and format of its planned reprisal against Israel after the assassination of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, but is not likely to be put off by the absence of explicit support from Muslim states for an Iranian military response, officials have suggested.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials have reportedly concluded that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is determined to carry out an attack in the next few days in response to Israel’s killing of senior commander Fuad Shukr, but the degree to which it will coordinate with Iran is unclear.
Continue reading...Nobel laureate hopes to restore calm and rebuild country after uprising that ended Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule
Muhammad Yunus has been sworn in as head of a new caretaker government in Bangladesh in a ceremony that began with a minute’s silence to remember those who were killed in the recent protests.
The swearing-in, led by President Mohammed Shahabuddin, was attended by more than 1,500 guests including politicians, students, protest coordinators and representatives from the military and civil society. Other members of the interim government also took their oaths. Among them Adilur Rahman Khan, a prominent human rights activist who was imprisoned by the ousted regime, and two student leaders.
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