Category Archives: World News

Police bust gang using luxury cars to smuggle Chinese migrants into Italy

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Victims were made to pose as well off but once in Europe they were confined to workplaces and severely exploited

Italian police have busted a trafficking network that used luxury cars to smuggle Chinese migrants into Italy before confiscating their passports and treating them like enslaved people.

The smugglers had the migrants pose as “unsuspecting Asian citizens, well-dressed, with little luggage, travelling in powerful and expensive cars driven by Chinese citizens who had lived in Italy for years and spoke Italian”, police said in a statement.

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Giorgia Meloni rails against pro-Europe parties’ deal on top commission jobs

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Italian PM says deal that cut out her Eurosceptic block ignores EU’s rightward shift

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has condemned a deal to divide the EU’s top jobs between mainstream pro-European parties, saying it ignored the bloc’s rightward shift.

In an angry speech to the Italian parliament, Meloni said the top jobs deal reflected a view that “citizens are not mature enough to make certain decisions” and had been taken by those who believe “that oligarchy is basically the only acceptable form of democracy”.

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Toronto residents flood city lotteries amid ‘impossibly unaffordable’ housing

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Demand far outstripped supply for six lotteries amid rising rents in city with scarcity of affordable options

Toronto inhabitants fed up with rising rents are flooding city-run lotteries for affordable housing in new developments, but the chance of being selected for a subsidized unit is often less than 1%.

One new development in the city’s West End recently offered a random public draw to allocate 135 units with rents pegged to income ceilings that would cost hundreds of dollars less than market rates. Nearly 12,500 people entered the draw for the homes aimed at middle-income earners in the Galleria on the Park development.

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Kenyan president scraps bill to raise taxes after violent protests leave 23 dead

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William Ruto says he has listened to the people of Kenya, who gathered across the country to oppose the law

The Kenyan president, William Ruto, has withdrawn a bill to raise taxes a day after violent protests erupted around the country following its approval by parliament.

Ruto’s surprise decision not to sign the finance bill came after violent clashes between police and protesters at the Kenyan assembly and across the country left at least 23 people dead and scores wounded, according to medics.

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Human rights group urges UK financial regulator to block Shein’s LSE flotation

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Campaigners allege Uyghur people used as forced labour at some of fast-fashion retailer’s cotton suppliers in China

A human rights group has urged Britain’s financial regulator to block the Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein’s planned blockbuster flotation on the London Stock Exchange.

Stop Uyghur Genocide, a UK-based human rights charity that alleges minority Uyghur people are being used as forced labour at some of Shein’s cotton suppliers in China’s north-western Xinjiang region, has begun a legal campaign against the planned stock market listing.

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Labor group praises Fatima Payman for upholding party ‘principles and policy’ to cross floor

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Exclusive: Labor Friends of Palestine hit out at federal government’s stance as ‘weakening’ commitment to Palestinian statehood

Labor Friends of Palestine have praised Fatima Payman’s decision to cross the floor to support Palestinian statehood as “entirely consistent with Labor principles and policy” and rejected federal Labor’s stance as a “weakening” of its commitment on the issue.

After Anthony Albanese temporarily suspended the senator from caucus, the group wrote to Payman declaring that she had “the support of thousands of rank-and-file ALP members”.

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Julian Assange: Stella Assange says WikiLeaks founder needs time to ‘let our family be a family’ before speaking publicly – as it happened

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Stella Assange says husband needs time to recuperate after arriving in Australia following plea deal with US

Here is a video of the moment Julian Assange arrived at court in Saipan alongside Australia’s ambassador to the US and former prime minister, Kevin Rudd:

On former US vice-president Mike Pence’s views that Julian Assange should be “prosecuted to the full extent of the law”, Australian deputy prime minister Richard Marles said:

I don’t think it serves to go over Mr Assange’s actions many, many years ago, other than to observe that since then, Mr Assange has been incarcerated for many, many years.

And that’s really the point that we are making here.

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Warnings over lethal and contagious strain of mpox as children in DRC die

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Alarm over high mortality and miscarriage rates as mutated virus spreads in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

A dangerous strain of mpox that is killing children and causing miscarriages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most transmissible yet and could spread internationally, scientists have warned.

The virus appears to be spreading from person to person via both sexual and non-sexual contact, in places ranging from brothels to schools.

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EU braces for the nightmare scenario- a eurosceptic France

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National Rally win may hamper bloc’s ability to get things done and pose existential question over French role

On the night her party swept to a crushing victory in European elections and France’s president triggered a political earthquake by dissolving parliament, Marine Le Pen, the longtime leader of the National Rally (RN), could not have been much clearer.

“Tonight’s message – including the dissolution – is also addressed to the leaders in Brussels,” she said. “This great victory for patriotic movements is in alignment with the direction of history … We are ready to take power if the people so wish.”

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Jay Slater family fear online ‘noise’ may impede Tenerife search mission

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Attempt to find British teenager now in its second week as groundless theories circulate about his disappearance

As the search for Jay Slater, the British teenager who went missing while on holiday in Tenerife, enters its second week Spanish rescuers continue to comb the rugged mountain terrain where he was last seen for clues.

Staff and volunteers from the local police, fire brigade and civil defence force have been using dogs, drones and helicopters to hunt for the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire.

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Progressive Jamaal Bowman loses New York House Democratic primary

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Congressman Bowman defeated by George Latimer, backed by pro-Israel groups in most expensive House primary ever

Jamaal Bowman, the progressive Democratic congressman whose criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza made him a target for pro-Israel lobbying groups, lost his primary race on Tuesday night.

The Democratic primary in New York’s 16th district became the most expensive House primary in history after Bowman was challenged by George Latimer, a pro-Israel centrist.

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Haitians wary as Kenyan police arrive on latest US-backed mission

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First contingent of multinational team lands in operation to end chaos in gang-controlled country

Hundreds of Kenyan police officers have arrived in Haiti as part of a US-backed security intervention aiming to rescue the Caribbean country from a criminal insurrection that toppled the prime minister and brought death and chaos to the streets.

About 400 members of the Kenya-led multinational police operation stepped off a Kenyan Airways plane at Port-au-Prince’s international airport on Tuesday. The US president, Joe Biden, hailed their arrival as the start of “an effort that will bring much-needed relief to Haitians”.

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From a plea deal to a 2am prison call: how Julian Assange finally gained freedom

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A lawyer’s offer, a judgment that foretold years of legal wrangling, and diplomatic pressure all played a part in the release of the WikiLeaks founder

• Julian Assange released from prison – live updates

It was, as his friends described it, the “last kick of the British establishment”. At 2am on Monday, Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, was woken in his small cell in the high-security Belmarsh prison, south-east London, and ordered to dress before being put in handcuffs.

It was the beginning of the end of Assange’s incarceration in Britain but it was going to be on his jailers’ terms.

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Julian Assange en route to US Pacific island after accepting US plea deal – live

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Julian Assange to be sentenced at a hearing on the US territory island of Saipan Wednesday; WikiLeaks founder’s wife says he will seek a US pardon

The plea agreement comes months after the US president, Joe Biden, said he was considering a request from Australia to drop the US push to prosecute Assange.

Assange was indicted during the former president Donald Trump’s administration over WikiLeaks’ mass release of secret US documents, which were leaked by Chelsea Manning, a former US military intelligence analyst who was also prosecuted under the Espionage Act.

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EU centrists’ deal paves way for von der Leyen to return as commission president

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Agreement between three pro-European blocks would make Estonian PM top diplomat and former Portuguese PM council president

Ursula von der Leyen looks likely to clinch the nomination for a second term as European Commission president under a deal by EU leaders from the three pro-European political groups that sews up the bloc’s top jobs.

According to the agreement made by the centre-right European People’s party (EPP), the Socialists and the Liberals, von der Leyen will be nominated for a second five-year mandate at the head of the EU executive at a Brussels summit on Thursday.

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Stonehenge likely to be put on world heritage danger list over tunnel plan

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Unesco officials recommend adding Wiltshire stone circle amid fears road scheme would compromise its integrity

Stonehenge is likely to be put on a list of world heritage sites that are in danger because of the plan to build a tunnel under the precious landscape.

Unesco officials have recommended adding the Wiltshire stone circle and the area around it to the list because of concerns that the tunnel would “compromise the integrity” of one of the Earth’s great prehistoric sites.

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Reactions to Julian Assange plea deal differ across the US political divide

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Leftist film-maker Michael Moore applauds deal while Mike Pence says it ‘dishonors’ US military members

Reaction to the news that Julian Assange had agreed to plead guilty to a single charge under the Espionage Act in order to go free came from various parts of the US political spectrum on Tuesday.

James Clapper, director of US national intelligence in 2010 when Assange and his WikiLeaks organization published secret US intelligence documents with a consortium of newspapers including the Guardian, told CNN: “I actually think this came out pretty well … Critical to this was his plea of one count of espionage.

“He’s paid his dues,” Clapper added. “There was a damage assessment done at the time – there was concern but I don’t recall direct proof that assets in Afghanistan and Iraq supporting or helping the US were exposed.”

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Far-right National Rally promises to bar dual nationals from some state jobs in France

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Pledge by Jordan Bardella, who aims to become prime minister in the election on 7 July, draws sharp criticism

The far-right National Rally’s pledge to bar dual nationals from certain state jobs in France has been criticised by the left and centrists who say it is a taste of broader discrimination that could be implemented if the party comes to power in snap elections.

Jordan Bardella, who aims to become prime minister if the party wins an absolute majority in parliament on 7 July, announced this week that people with dual nationality would be excluded from “the most strategic posts of state”, which would be reserved for French citizens. In a proposal that rang alarm bells, he said it would apply to strategic security and defence positions.

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ICC issues arrest warrants for Russian officials over alleged Ukraine war crimes

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Army chief and ex-minister of defence accused over missile attacks on civilian targets including power plants

The international criminal court (ICC) at The Hague has issued arrest warrants for Russia’s ex-minister of defence and current army chief of staff for alleged war crimes in Ukraine after a missile campaign targeting Ukrainian power plants and other civilian infrastructure during the full-scale invasion.

Ex-minister of defence Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, Valery Gerasimov, are accused of the war crimes of directing attacks at civilian objects and of causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects. They are also accused of crimes against humanity.

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Kenyan police open fire on protesters as crowd tries to storm parliament

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At least five people reportedly shot dead at rally against legislation to raise taxes during cost of living crisis

Police have opened fire on protesters outside the Kenyan parliament as they attempted to storm the building in Nairobi while MPs inside passed legislation to raise taxes.

At least five people were shot dead, according to Reuters, amid chaotic scenes in which police started shooting after teargas and water cannon failed to disperse a crowd of thousands who had overwhelmed officers. Flames could be seen coming from inside the building.

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