Category Archives: World News

‘Catastrophic levels of hunger’ in Gaza mean famine is imminent, says aid coalition

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More than a million people are at risk, according to report, as Oxfam says Israeli authorities are blocking relief deliveries

Famine is imminent in northern Gaza with people suffering “catastrophic levels of hunger”, a coalition of aid groups has warned.

The situation was called “man-made starvation”, as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a group that includes the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization, said that 1.1 million people, half of Gaza’s population, faced famine.

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Putin’s vote share nears outer limits but still the only way is up

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Observers say Russian leader’s election numbers approaching 90% mark final break with western conventions

Vladimir Putin is approaching the electoral outer limits. Claiming a record landslide on Sunday of 87.28% of the vote on a 77.44% turnout, Putin has launched himself into the stratosphere of post-Soviet election results.

It is a mathematical axiom for any president-for-life: support should never go down, only up; turnout should never go down, only up. And as Putin’s one-man rule extends past a quarter of a century, Russian officials retain straight faces even as they post astronomical numbers that would make many convinced autocrats blush.

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At least a dozen dead as gang violence spills into wealthy areas of Haiti capital

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Gunmen looted homes in Laboule and Thomassin, forcing residents to flee previously peaceful neighborhoods

• Haiti: what caused the gang violence and will it end now the PM has quit?

Gunmen have assaulted two upscale neighborhoods in Haiti’s capital in an attack that left at least a dozen people dead in surrounding areas and suggested that a gang insurrection that prompted the prime minister to resign is far from over.

Assailants looted homes in the communities of Laboule and Thomassin before sunrise on Monday, forcing residents to flee as some called radio stations pleading for police. Both neighborhoods had previously remained largely peaceful despite a surge in gang attacks across Port-au-Prince that began on 29 February.

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US foundation cancels RBG awards for Musk and Murdoch after backlash

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Dwight D Opperman Foundation had planned to give award named for late supreme court justice to Tesla chief and News Corp mogul

A foundation which stirred controversy by planning to give awards named for the late US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch said on Monday it had canceled the ceremony.

“While we believe each of the honorees is worthy of our respect for their leadership and their notable contributions, the foundation has decided that the planned ceremony in April 2024 will be canceled,” Julie Opperman, chair of the Dwight D Opperman Foundation, said in a statement.

Musk, 52, the billionaire owner of SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter/X, through which he has taken increasingly rightwing political stances;

Murdoch, 93 and the rightwing media baron owner of Fox News;

Michael Milken, 77, a financier jailed on securities charges, pardoned by Trump and now a philanthropist;

And Sylvester Stallone, 77, the star of films including the Rocky saga and the violent Rambo franchise.

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Israel’s Shifa raid shows its grip is slipping as a ‘forever war’ looms

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Retaking of Shifa complex shows Hamas militants, despite heavy losses, are still operational in northern Gaza

The latest raid on al-Shifa hospital reveals that the Israeli military’s hold on the areas of Gaza supposedly cleared of Hamas militants is considerably more tenuous than the country’s political leaders have claimed – and suggests the region’s military superpower is facing its own “forever war” in the territory with enormous costs for everyone involved, particularly civilians.

The fighting around the Shifa hospital and its eventual seizure was the climactic moment of the first phase of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, launched last year after Hamas killed 1,200 and captured 250 people, mostly civilians, in a surprise raid on 7 October. There was bitter argument over whether the hospital’s buildings and basements had been used by Hamas as a covert command centre, as Israel claimed, but none over the strength of Israel’s control of the site when its soldiers moved in on 15 November.

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Libya coastguard accused of hampering attempt to save more than 170 people

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Médecins Sans Frontières says ‘dangerous manoeuvres’ by coastguard put refugees at even greater risk

An NGO performing search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean has accused the Libyan coastguard of hampering an attempt to save more than 170 people making the perilous journey across the sea to Europe.

In a statement, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said its ship had come to the rescue of two boats in international waters on Saturday: a small fibreglass boat carrying 28 people and a double-deck wooden vessel with 143 people onboard, which appeared to be in distress.

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Star wars: Sri Lanka’s powerful astrologers split over auspicious dates

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Group employed by government divided for first time over best date for new year rituals

Sri Lanka’s government-backed traditional astrologers have failed to unanimously agree on the best date for new year rituals, with squabbling seers warning of “disaster” and accusing rivals of misinterpreting the position of stars.

Astrologers are hugely influential figures consulted by the island’s Buddhist and Hindu communities, and their advice for auspicious dates guides everything from marriages to business deals – and even national elections.

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World’s largest solar manufacturer to cut one-third of workforce

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China’s Longi looks to slash costs as renewable energy sector faces tough headwinds from inflation

The world’s largest solar manufacturer has slashed nearly a third of its workforce after a cost-cutting drive that included telling staff to only print in black and white fell short and as a chill ripples through the renewable energy sector.

China’s Longi is to cut as much as 30% of its workforce, in an acceleration of cost reductions that began late last year, Bloomberg reported.

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Idris Elba reveals ‘dream’ of building eco city on island off Sierra Leone

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Actor and his childhood friend planning development on Sherbro to be a public-private partnership

Idris Elba has shared details of his “dream” to turn an island off the coast of Sierra Leone, the country where his father was born, into an environmentallyfriendly smart city.

The actor is working with his childhood friend to develop Sherbro, which is roughly the size of the Isle of Man, after the island was given enough autonomy by the west African nation’s government to allow the work to go ahead.

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Israel tells civilians to evacuate after taking control of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City

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Casualties reported after raids on complex, where hundreds are reportedly sheltering and IDF claims is being used by Hamas

Israeli forces are in control of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, after an overnight raid on the medical complex, and have told thousands living nearby to evacuate towards the south of the Palestinian territory.

Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesperson, said early on Monday that troops were “conducting a high-precision operation in limited areas of Shifa hospital based on … intelligence information indicating the use of the hospital by senior Hamas terrorists to command attacks”.

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South Sudan closes schools in preparation for 45C heatwave

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Authorities advise parents to keep children indoors during extreme heatwave, expected to last two weeks

South Sudan is closing all schools from Monday in preparation for an extreme heatwave expected to last two weeks.

The health and education ministries have advised parents to keep all children indoors as temperatures are expected to soar to 45C (113F).

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Vladimir Putin claims landslide Russian election victory

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Russian president uses victory speech to say war in Ukraine and strengthening military will be his main tasks

Vladimir Putin has claimed a landslide victory in Russia’s presidential vote, as thousands in the country and around the world protested against his deepening dictatorship, the war in Ukraine and a stage-managed election that could have only one winner.

In a vote denounced by the United States as “obviously not free nor fair”, Putin won 87% of the vote, according to exit polling published by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center and the Public Opinion Foundation.

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Putin claims he agreed to prisoner swap involving Navalny before his death

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Re-elected Russian president makes first public comment on death of opposition leader, which he calls ‘sad event’

Vladimir Putin has claimed he had agreed to a prisoner swap involving Alexei Navalny before the opposition leader’s sudden death in an Arctic prison last month.

Speaking in central Moscow after early results indicated he had won Russia’s presidential election in a landslide, Putin said unnamed people made an offer to release Navalny in a swap deal with the west a few days before he died.

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‘A farce, not an election’: Russians abroad join ‘Noon against Putin’ protest

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Voters turn out at midday from the UK to Latvia and Turkey to Thailand in action Alexei Navalny endorsed before his death

The queue to vote at the Russian embassy stretched for more than half a mile along Kensington Gardens on Sunday as hundreds of Russians arrived at midday as part of a worldwide act of protest to show their opposition to Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.

It took a quarter of an hour to walk to the end of the queue past people bearing signs that read: “These ‘elections’ are fake”, “My president is Alexei Navalny” and “Vladimir Putin, go fuck yourself”.

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Ukraine hits oil and electricity facilities with drone attacks across Russia

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No direct casualties in attack that Moscow says was a Ukrainian attempt to sabotage the Russian presidential election

Ukraine launched 35 drones at targets across Russia including in the capital region, sparking a fire at an oil refinery and disrupting electricity supplies in several border areas but causing no direct casualties, the defence ministry in Moscow has said.

As Russians cast their ballots in the final day of voting for the country’s presidential election, the ministry accused Kyiv of seeking to sabotage the vote after one of the biggest air operations on Russian territory since the invasion two years ago.

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Netanyahu vows to press ahead with assault on Rafah

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PM acknowledges international pressure is increasing but says it will not stop Israel achieving its goals

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with sending Israeli troops into Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, rejecting deep international concerns over the risks to more than a million Palestinians who have sought shelter there.

The prime minister said no amount of international pressure would stop Israel from realising all of its war aims.

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Middle East crisis: Palestinian foreign ministry accuses Israeli government of ‘blind revenge’ – as it happened

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Comments come after Benjamin Netanyahu insisted Israeli military would go ahead with plans for operations in Rafah

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Israeli forces released Tamer Fouad Salim Al-Qarm, a PRCS volunteer, yesterday after a “36-day detention during the occupation’s raid on al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis”.

The PRCS added in its post on X that Israeli troops continue to detain 13 PRCS members and volunteers, “whose fate remains unknown to this moment”.

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Exit polls show Putin winning huge majority in Russian presidential election with only one possible result – as it happened

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US says vote was ‘obviously not free, nor fair’ with exit poll suggesting 88% of Russians voted for the incumbent

Investment demand and agricultural exports are two of “several factors” which have driven an increase in Ukraine’s GDP seen during the first two months of this year.

According to Reuters, economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Sunday that Ukraine’s GDP rose 3.6% during this period.

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Haiti healthcare system on verge of collapse as gang warfare rages on

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Only a single hospital in Port-au-Prince remains open, with others devoid of staff as patients look for care and the dead pile up

Haiti’s healthcare system has all but collapsed amid the ferocious gang insurrection which forced the resignation of the country’s prime minister, leaving victims of the violence with little hope of medical attention, according to aid workers in the stricken Caribbean country.

In the past two weeks hospitals have been set ablaze, doctors murdered and the most basic medical supplies have now dried up. Only a single public hospital in Haiti’s capital now remains operational – and that too is expected to shut its doors soon.

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EU seals €7.4bn deal with Egypt in effort to avert another migration crisis

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Six of bloc’s leaders sign agreement in Cairo aimed at boosting economy and bringing stability to region

EU leaders have sealed a €7.4bn (£6.3bn) deal with Egypt to help boost the country’s faltering economy, in an attempt to bring stability to the “troubled” region and avert another migration crisis in Europe.

The three-year EU-Egypt strategic partnership involves €5bn in soft loans to support economic changes, €1.8bn to support investments from the private sector and €600m in grants including €200m for migration management.

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