Category Archives: World News

Japan’s rice stocks drop to lowest level in decades amid tourist boom and poor crop yields

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Japan’s agriculture ministry blames shortage on tourists’ vast demand for rice and low crop yields last year

Japan’s rice stockpile has fallen to the lowest level this century, with a tourism boom part of the cause, government officials say.

Private-sector inventories of rice fell to 1.56m tons in June, down 20% from a year earlier and the lowest since 1999, when comparable data was first gathered, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. It attributed the decrease to the high temperatures that hit crops in 2023 as well as demand from inbound visitors. Last year Japan recorded its hottest September since records began 125 years ago.

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Trump favorite Kari Lake wins Arizona’s Republican Senate primary

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Far-right firebrand to face off against Democrat Ruben Gallego for US Senate seat vacated by Kyrsten Sinema

Kari Lake, the far-right firebrand and favorite of Donald Trump, has won Arizona’s Republican Senate primary.

The Associated Press projected the race at 8.44pm Arizona time on Tuesday night. Lake rose to prominence as a gubernatorial candidate in 2022, when she refused to concede the race to her Democratic challenger Katie Hobbs.

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Somalia arrests another journalist as press clampdown intensifies

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Detention of reporters for covering sensitive news is having a ‘chilling’ effect on free media in Somalia, say rights groups

The arrest of a journalist for reporting on drug use in the Somali military is the latest incident in an apparent clampdown on critical reporting in the country, which is having a “chilling” effect on Somalia’s media, rights campaigners said.

AliNur Salaad was detained last week and accused of “immorality, false reporting and insulting the armed forces”, after publishing a now-deleted video suggesting that soldiers were vulnerable to attacks by al-Shabaab militants because of widespread use of the traditional narcotic khat.

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‘Cat ladies’ come together to show support for Kamala Harris

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Zoom call – with pets included – organized as riposte to comments made by JD Vance about ‘childless cat ladies’

A group of pet lovers and self-described “cat ladies” came together for the latest in a series of Zoom calls in support of Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. The Tuesday evening call was hosted by Christine Pelosi, a political consultant and the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, and Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic party.

The call was not organized around racial and ethnic identity, but as a rebuff to comments made in 2021 by JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, who told the then Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the US was being run by Democrats, corporate oligarchs and “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too”.

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Venezuela protesters target Hugo Chávez statues amid disputed election

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Opposition supporters shout government ‘is going to fall’ while tearing down monuments of Maduro’s mentor

As protests over Venezuela’s disputed presidential election spread across the country, opposition supporters have focused their fury on president Nicolás Maduro’s predecessor and political mentor, Hugo Chávez.

At least seven statues of the former leader have been attacked, some beheaded with sledgehammers, and some completely torn down.

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Israel claims it killed Hezbollah top commander in south Beirut airstrike

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Lebanon foreign minister says attack came as shock after assurances of ‘limited response’ from Israel

Israel has claimed it killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukur, in an airstrike on a south Beirut suburb launched in retaliation for a rocket attack that killed 12 children at the weekend.

Shukur, also known as Hajj Mohsin, served as right hand man to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Israel’s military spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari said in a late night briefing.

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IDF charges reservist with aggravated abuse of Palestinian prisoners

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Indictment comes as nine other soldiers appear in Israeli military court over allegations of sexual abuse of detainee

Israel’s military has charged a reservist with aggravated abuse of Palestinian prisoners, a spokesperson said on Tuesday, as nine other soldiers appeared in military court for an initial hearing over allegations they had sexually abused a detainee from Gaza.

The new indictment alleges that the unnamed soldier, assigned to escort handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinians, used a baton and his assault rifle to attack prisoners on multiple occasions.

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Maduro vows crackdown on Venezuela election protests after victory claim

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Authoritarian leader vows to squash what he calls ‘violent counter-revolution’ as more than 700 arrests are made

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters have returned to Venezuela’s streets to decry Nicolás Maduro’s alleged attempt to steal Sunday’s election, as the country’s authoritarian leader vowed to squash what he called “a violent counter-revolution” and more than 700 arrests were made.

Maduro’s disputed claim to have won the vote has plunged the South American country into another chapter of unrest and uncertainty which has spooked regional governments.

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‘Deep moral deterioration’ being normalised in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

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Ministers and mobs protesting at arrests for torture of Palestinians shows diminishing respect for rule of law and human dignity

The far-right mob attack on two Israel Defense Forces bases in support of soldiers accused of sexually torturing a detainee did not come out of the blue – the parallels to a 2016 incident were immediately obvious.

In March that year, Elor Azaria, an IDF soldier serving in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, calmly walked over to Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, an injured Palestinian knife attacker lying on the ground, and shot him in the head. A video of the killing released by a human rights group led to political uproar.

Both the political and military establishments in Israel have been willing to deny or turn a blind eye to the repeated allegations of torture at Sde Teiman

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German man sentenced to death in Belarus pardoned by president

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Rico Krieger, found guilty on terrorism charges in case held behind closed doors, to be freed on orders of Alexander Lukashenko

A German man sentenced to death in Belarus has been pardoned by the country’s president, just a few days after news of the case became public. Rico Krieger, 30, was found guilty on terrorism charges in a case that was held behind closed doors and only became public last week.

Krieger, who formerly worked for the German Red Cross, was accused of placing explosives on a rail track in the country on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence.

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Turkey approves ‘massacre law’ to remove millions of stray dogs

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Animal lovers fear legislation will lead to many of the dogs being killed or ending up in overcrowded shelters

Turkish legislators have approved a law aimed at removing millions of stray dogs from the country’s streets that animal lovers fear will lead to many of the dogs being killed or ending up in neglected, overcrowded shelters.

Some critics also say the law will be used to target the opposition, which made huge gains in the latest local elections. The legislation includes penalties for mayors who fail to carry out its provisions and the main opposition party has promised not to implement it.

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Spanish PM files lawsuit against judge investigating his wife

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Pedro Sánchez taking legal action to prevent judiciary being used for ‘political motives’, spokesperson says

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has begun proceedings against the judge who is investigating his wife for alleged corruption and influence-peddling, accusing him of misusing his judicial office.

News of the proceedings emerged on Tuesday afternoon, just hours after Sánchez invoked his legal right not to testify in a case concerning the business activities of his wife, Begoña Gómez.

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Trade row won’t hurt US and China’s emissions talks, says US climate chief

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John Podesta says negotiations ‘to find a path forward’ continue with urgent discussions planned for Cop29

Trade frictions and increasing tension between the US and China won’t affect climate negotiations between the two superpowers if he can help it, the US climate chief has pledged.

John Podesta, a senior adviser to Joe Biden on international climate policy, said the relationship between the world’s two biggest emitters and largest economies was critical to climate action, despite what appears to be a deepening gulf over trade policy.

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French audit cautions Élysée over €475k cost of King Charles dinner

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Versailles banquet among lavish spending in 2023 that has plunged president’s office €8m into red

The French president’s office spent nearly €475,000 (£400,100) on a dinner for King Charles last year, the country’s top audit court said in a report cautioning about high spending.

In September 2023, King Charles attended a lavish state banquet at the Palace of Versailles attended by more than 150 people, part of a “soft power” visit aimed at improving ties between London and Paris.

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Middle East crisis: Israeli military said 10 rockets had been fired from Lebanon and that one of them hit kibbutz HaGoshrim – as it happened

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An Israeli civilian has been killed by rocket fired from Lebanon, Israel’s N12 news channel is reporting.

David Lammy has reiterated a warning to British citizens in Lebanon.

“My message to British nationals in Lebanon is clear – leave,” he said.

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Rockets fired from Lebanon kill one Israeli citizen amid retaliation fears

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US diplomatic efforts to constrain Israel’s reaction continue as Benjamin Netanyahu vows a ‘harsh’ response

Two barrages of rockets fired from Lebanon have killed one Israeli civilian in a kibbutz and injured another person, in attacks likely to add to political pressure inside Israel for a strong strike against Hezbollah and complicate a US-led push to de-escalate regional tensions.

America has been leading a global diplomatic effort to deter Israel from hitting Beirut or Lebanese infrastructure in retaliation for a weekend rocket attack on the occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 children as they played football.

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India landslides: death toll passes 100 with dozens feared missing

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Heavy rainfall, difficult terrain, destroyed roads and collapsed bridge have hampered rescue efforts in Kerala

At least 108 people have died and dozens more are missing after heavy rain led to a series of landslides in the Indian state of Kerala, with rescue operations hampered by poor weather conditions and the destruction of roads and bridges.

The Kerala chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, confirmed the bodies of 108 people had been uncovered so far and dozens more were missing, feared dead after three massive landslides surged down the hills of the Western Ghats in Wayanad in southern India. About 128 people were injured in the disaster and thousands were moved to camps for safety.

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Standard Chartered plays down fears of US-China trade war under Trump

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Chief executive says tensions ‘not impacting’ business as bank reports pre-tax profits of $1.6bn for second quarter

Fears of a China trade war erupting under a second Trump presidential term are overblown, according to bosses at Standard Chartered bank, as they suggested that the country’s real estate woes were “largely in the rearview mirror”.

While the London-headquartered bank makes most of its money in Asia, particularly in Hong Kong and Singapore, its chief executive, Bill Winters, played down the impact that increasingly strained relations between Washington and Beijing might have on the business.

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France’s GDP gets €1bn lift from giant cruise ship as German economy shrinks

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Analyst says eurozone could have turned a corner as it avoids recession with 0.3% growth

The delivery of the world’s second-largest cruise ship lifted France’s economy in the second quarter, according to official data that also showed Germany heading into a recession.

Built in Saint-Nazaire for the cruise ship operator Royal Caribbean, the Utopia of the Seas added €1bn (£840m) to French economic output, helping to increase trade growth to 0.6% in the three months to the end of June and gross domestic product to 0.3%.

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Maduro’s exit ‘irreversible’, says Venezuela opposition leader, as election protests grow

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María Corina Machado says president should understand he lost vote, amid international doubts over victory claim

The opposition leader battling to bring the curtain down on Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian regime has urged the Venezuelan strongman to accept that his exit from power is inevitable. The call came as thousands of protesters hit the streets to repudiate Maduro’s disputed claim to have won a third term in power.

Venezuela’s incumbent president was officially proclaimed the victor of Sunday’s election by the government-controlled electoral authority on Monday morning.

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