Category Archives: World News

Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia says US aid will not change war dynamic; Poland ready to host nuclear weapons, says president

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Kremlin says ‘more Ukrainians will die’ following US agreement of new aid package; Andrzej Duda says country could host nuclear arms

A new US package of military aid to Ukraine will not change the situation on the frontlines, where Russia has the upper hand, the Kremlin said.

“The Russian armed forces are improving their positions at the front … The money allocated and the weapons that will be supplied will not change this dynamic,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

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Israel has yet to provide evidence of Unrwa staff terrorist links, Colonna report says

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Exclusive: review finds government yet to substantiate claims UN relief agency staff have ties to Hamas or Islamic Jihad

Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of its claims that employees of the UN relief agency Unrwa are members of terrorist organisations, an independent review led by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna has said.

The Colonna report, which was commissioned by the UN in the wake of Israeli allegations, found that Unrwa had regularly supplied Israel with lists of its employees for vetting, and that “the Israeli government has not informed Unrwa of any concerns relating to any Unrwa staff based on these staff lists since 2011”.

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Pro-Israel US groups plan $100m effort to unseat progressives over Gaza

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Aipac and other groups targeting candidates critical of Israel’s war in Gaza – but progressives are not going down without a fight

Pro-Israel groups are pumping millions into this year’s heated congressional races, singling out progressives who have voiced criticism of the Israeli government and its relentless campaign in Gaza.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) is betting that $100m will be enough to fight back a wave of progressive dissent over Israel’s war in Gaza this election cycle. After investing heavily in the 2022 midterms, Aipac is now doubling down on its electoral efforts.

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Aipac: the pro-Israel group planning to spend millions in US elections

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The lobby group has been a powerful force in American politics – but has Israel’s war in Gaza changed the equation?

A handful of pro-Israel groups fund political campaigns in support of individual candidates in US elections, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), a powerful force in American politics. Before the 2024 election, Aipac plans to spend tens of millions of dollars against congressional candidates, primarily Democrats, whom it deems insufficiently supportive of Israel.

Aipac and other pro-Israel lobby groups have recruited and supported challengers to a number of lawmakers and candidates – most notably members of the Squad, the group of progressive representatives who are particularly vocal in their criticism of Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

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Gaza doctors save baby from womb of mother killed in Israeli airstrike

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Girl delivered via emergency caesarean section as woman lay dying from head injuries in Rafah

Doctors in Gaza have saved a baby from the womb of her mother as she lay dying from head injuries sustained in an in Israeli airstrike. The girl was delivered via an emergency caesarean section at a hospital in Rafah.

The woman, Sabreen al-Sakani, was 30 weeks pregnant when her family home was hit by an airstrike. Her husband, Shoukri, and their three-year-old daughter, Malak, also died.

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Joy in Taiwan – and praise from the president – as Nymphia Wind wins RuPaul’s Drag Race

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Drag star celebrated with massive support at home after taking top prize in the long-running US reality show

A drag queen has sparked national celebration as the “pride of Taiwan” and won praise and congratulations from the island’s president after winning RuPaul’s Drag Race at the weekend.

On Saturday, the long-running, Emmy award-winning US reality show, in which drag queens compete in challenges including lip-sync performances, revealed the winner of its 16th season as Nymphia Wind, the drag personality creation of Leo Tsao, a 28-year-old Taiwanese designer.

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Israeli military intelligence chief quits over 7 October attack

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Maj Gen Aharon Haliva is first senior figure to step down over role in deadliest assault in country’s history

The head of Israel’s military intelligence has resigned over the failures surrounding Hamas’s unprecedented attack on 7 October becoming the first senior figure to step down over his role in the deadliest assault in Israel’s history.

Maj Gen Aharon Haliva wrote in his resignation letter: “The intelligence directorate under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with.

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Weather tracker: Mexico swelters under season’s first heatwave

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Anticyclonic conditions have allowed temperatures to reach 35-45C across much of the country

Mexico has been undergoing its first heatwave of the season. The heatwave started on Sunday 14 April, when Mexico City recorded a new date record with a high of 32.9C, surpassing the previous record of 32C from 1998.

Anticyclonic conditions over the region have been responsible for this heatwave by inhibiting cloud formation, allowing temperatures to rise significantly. These conditions persisted through much of last week, allowing temperatures to reach 35-45C across much of the country.

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Far right’s rise in Portugal could threaten ambitious climate action

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Environmentalists fear focus on economy may undermine country’s climate transition – one of most radical in Europe

Portugal has been among Europe’s more ambitious countries in terms of climate action, but the rise of the far right in recent elections could threaten the positive steps the country has taken.

At the end of 2023, Portugal broke records as it went for six consecutive days relying solely on renewable energy. But national elections in March this year marked a significant shift in the political landscape, with the far-right party Chega (Enough) making a major breakthrough. Having more than quadrupled its number of MPs from 12 to 50, Chega holds considerable sway in the 230-seat parliament, where it could influence legislation.

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US journalist Terry Anderson, held hostage in Lebanon in 1980s, dies

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Former chief Middle East correspondent was longest-held western hostage of Shia Muslim groups during crisis

Terry Anderson, a US journalist who was held captive by Islamist militants for almost seven years in Lebanon and came to symbolise the plight of western hostages during the country’s 1975-90 civil war, has died aged 76, his daughter said.

The former chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, who was the longest-held hostage of the scores of westerners abducted in Lebanon, died on Sunday at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, said Sulome Anderson, who was born three months after her father was seized. No cause of death was given.

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‘Horizontally’ recycled nappies go on sale in Japan in world first

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Product made from used nappies will go on sale in shopping centres after sterilisation, bleaching, and deodorising

A company in Japan has started selling the world’s first “horizontally” recycled nappies, as the country’s ageing society undergoes a shift in demand for children’s diapers to those for older adults.

Unicharm, based in the south-western prefecture of Kagoshima, put the adult and baby nappies on sale this month in shopping centres in Kyushu – one of Japan’s four main islands – in collaboration with local governments, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported.

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Refugee who left UK for holiday in 2008 stranded in east Africa for 16 years

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Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, had indefinite leave to remain in UK, but Home Office failed to keep a record

A refugee who left the UK on holiday as a teenager in 2008 has been stranded in east Africa for the last 16 years in a case that senior judges have described as “extraordinary”.

Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, arrived in the UK at the age of nine in April 2000 with his mother and two younger siblings from Somalia. They came to join Ali’s father, who had been granted refugee status by the UK government. The family were also recognised as refugees by the Home Office and Ali was given a travel document in 2004 under the refugee convention, which was valid for 10 years.

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Europe baked in ‘extreme heat stress’ pushing temperatures to record highs

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Europeans are dying from hot weather 30% more than they did two decades ago, report finds

Scorching weather has baked Europe in more days of “extreme heat stress” than its scientists have ever seen.

Heat-trapping pollutants that clog the atmosphere helped push temperatures in Europe last year to the highest or second-highest levels ever recorded, according to the EU’s Earth-watching service Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

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Global defence budget jumps to record high of $2440bn

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For the first time, government military spending increased in all five geographical regions, Sipri thinktank finds

Global military expenditure has reached a record high of $2440bn (£1970bn) after the largest annual rise in government spending on arms in over a decade, according to a report.

The 6.8% increase between 2022 and 2023 was the steepest since 2009, pushing spending to the highest recorded by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) in its 60-year history.

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Approval of $61bn aid from US shows Ukraine will not be abandoned, says Zelenskiy

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Ukrainian president urges Senate to ratify aid package so that country can strengthen frontline with Russia

Ukraine’s president has said the vote by the US House of Representatives to pass a long-delayed $61bn (£49bn) military aid package demonstrated that his country would not be abandoned by the west in its effort to fight the Russian invasion.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with US television that Saturday’s vote showed Ukraine would not be “a second Afghanistan”, whose pro-western government collapsed during an US-led pullout in the summer of 2021.

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Peter Hain calls for inquiry into MoD’s alleged role in Saudi bribes scandal

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Government auditors must look into claims of complicity in corruption on arms deals with UK, says Labour peer

Alleged Ministry of Defence complicity in the “national scandal” of bribery on arms deals in Saudi Arabia must be investigated by government auditors, a senior Labour politician has said.

Peter Hain, the antiapartheid campaigner and peer, said in a letter to the National Audit Office (NAO) that a “timely, targeted” investigation was now necessary after the conclusion of a major criminal trial.

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Italian author accuses state broadcaster of censorship of antifascist monologue

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Outcry over cancellation of Antonio Scurati’s Rai talkshow appearance as note says move was taken ‘for editorial reasons’

A high-profile Italian author has accused Rai of censorship after his antifascist monologue was abruptly stopped from being aired, in what he called the “definitive demonstration” of alleged attempts by Giorgia Meloni’s government to wield its power over the state broadcaster.

Antonio Scurati was due to read the monologue marking the 25 April national holiday, which celebrates Italy’s liberation from fascism, on the Rai 3 talkshow Chesarà on Saturday night.

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US poised to impose sanctions on IDF unit accused of violations in West Bank

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Israeli leaders vow to oppose expected measures under Leahy law against the Netzah Yehuda battalion

A unit of the Israel Defense Forces is facing US sanctions over its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, even as Congress voted for $26bn in new emergency aid to Israel.

According to reports in the Israeli media, US state department officials have confirmed they are preparing to impose sanctions on the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion, which has been accused of serious human rights violations against Palestinians.

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Middle East crisis: Netanyahu vows to fight any sanctions on Israeli military units ‘with all my strength’ – as it happened

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Israel PM’s comments follow reports that the US was planning measures against an IDF battalion

At least 34,097 Palestinian people have been killed and 76,980 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

An estimated 48 Palestinians were killed and 79 others injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

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Does mysterious painting prove blue denim was around 200 years before Levi’s?

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Woman Begging With Two Children, by an unknown artist, shows what appears to be a denim skirt in 17th-century Italy

The origin of the world’s most enduringly popular fabric is in ­dispute, as a new exhibition spotlights a claim that firmly links denim with 17th-­century Italy and takes its history back 200 years.

Blue denim, that all-American ­symbol of informality and a life lived on the open range, is already also contentiously attributed to ­southern France, while modern jeans ­mythology still has it that Levi Strauss, a German immigrant, first came up with the idea of making workwear out of this sturdy cotton in San Francisco 150 years ago.

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