Category Archives: World News

Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne left in ruins after Russian barrage

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Kyiv says Moscow forces have gained ‘foothold’ in area north of Donetsk city after pounding depleted defenders

The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by the Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyiv’s depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs. Ukraine’s military has acknowledged that Russia has gained a “foothold” in Ocheretyne, which had a population of about 3,000 before the war, but says the fighting there is continuing.

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UK surgeon who described Gaza ‘massacre’ denied entry to France

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Ghassan Abu-Sitta, who was due to speak in French senate, is told Germany has enforced Schengen-wide entry ban

A London surgeon who has provided testimony over the current war in Gaza after operating during the conflict has been denied entry to France, where he was due to speak in the French senate later on Saturday.

After arriving at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris on Saturday morning on a flight from London, Prof Ghassan Abu-Sitta, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, was informed by French authorities that Germany had enforced a Schengen-wide ban on his entry to Europe.

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Hopes of Gaza ceasefire rise as Hamas delegation arrives in Cairo

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Egyptian and US mediators report signs of compromise, but many analysts remain pessimistic

Hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza rose on Saturday as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to continue indirect talks, with what is believed to be a response to a new proposal, reportedly agreed by Israel, to halt fighting for an initial 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Egyptian and US mediators have reported signs of compromise in recent days and Egyptian state news channel Al-Qahera said on Saturday that a consensus had been reached in the indirect talks over many of the disputed points but gave no further details.

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Middle East crisis: Hamas delegation arrives in Cairo for Gaza ceasefire talks – as it happened

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Israeli warplanes have attacked targets in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, after a rocket was launched towards the Ein Hashlosha kibbutz in Israel on Friday, the IDF has said.

The Israeli army said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that the rocket fell in an area near the border fence between Israel and southern Gaza.

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Spain rejects Argentinian claim its PM is causing ‘poverty and death’

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Diplomatic spat began when Spanish minister suggested Javier Milei had taken ‘substances’ while campaigning

Spain has denounced comments by Argentina’s presidency that accused the Spanish government of bringing “poverty and death” to its own people.

The office of the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, had published a statement on X, accusing the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, of damaging Spain’s economy and stability.

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University of Mississippi: ‘abhorrent’ counter-protesters condemned

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Largely white, male group taunts pro-Palestinian protesters on campus and one man makes racist gesture towards Black woman

Dozens of students at the University of Mississippi gathered this week to protest against Israel’s war in Gaza and to call for the state’s flagship university to be transparent in its potential dealings with Israel.

There were hundreds of counter-protesters, in contrast to the few dozen pro-Palestinian protesters. The scene evoked memories of the resistance to the civil rights struggle in the US south six decades earlier.

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India opposition social media chief arrested over doctored video

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Congress party’s Arun Reddy held over fake video of interior minister Amit Shah

Indian police have said they have arrested the social media chief of the country’s main opposition party over a doctored video widely shared during the ongoing national election.

Arun Reddy of the Congress party was detained late on Friday in connection with the edited footage, which falsely shows India’s powerful interior minister, Amit Shah, vowing in a campaign speech to end affirmative action policies for millions of poor and low-caste Indians.

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‘We are disappearing’: chef Fadi Kattan aims to keep Palestinian heritage alive through food

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Palestinian restauranteur speaks from Bethlehem, where food stalls are sparse as farmlands are under attack

Fadi Kattan looked forlornly at the stalls inside the Bethlehem vegetable market bearing small quantities of oranges, watermelons and cauliflowers. “This stall should be heaped with products, he said. “And over there should be piles of aubergines and courgettes.”

The watermelons from Jenin looked too small for the season, while he wasn’t sure where the boxes of oranges were from. They would normally be from Gaza. At Um Nabil’s stall in the West Bank market where Kattan is a regular customer, she told him she could no longer afford to bring in the best small local cucumbers or piles of green cherries from her village of Artas.

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Super-rich spending up to $500,000 on exclusive Paris Olympics packages

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Third-party hospitality packages are outlawed, yet agency part-owned by associates of Rafael Nadal and LeBron James promises access to top events as well as to stars

Members of the global super-rich are spending as much as $500,000 (£400,000) on “ultra-exclusive” packages for the Paris 2024 Olympics that promoters claim include meeting athletes, access to the athletes’ village and “the chance to be part of the opening ceremony”.

GR8 Experience, an “international experience agency” part-owned by the business manager of the basketball star LeBron James and the PR manager of the tennis player Rafael Nadal, is selling Olympic packages that it claims include tickets to 14 events such as the men’s 100m finals and the opening ceremony for $381,600.

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‘Our culture is dying’: vulture shortage threatens Zoroastrian burial rites

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Inadvertent poisoning of scavengers across Indian subcontinent is forcing some communities to give up ancient custom

Traditional Zoroastrian burial rites are becoming increasingly impossible to perform because of the precipitous decline of vultures in India, Iran and Pakistan.

For millennia, Parsi communities have traditionally disposed of their dead in structures called dakhma, or “towers of silence”. These circular, elevated edifices are designed to prevent the soil, and the sacred elements of earth, fire and water, from being contaminated by corpses.

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Xi Jinping to visit France, Hungary and Serbia amid EU trade tariff row

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China’s president arrives as EU anti-subsidy investigations and tensions over espionage, Ukraine and Taiwan continue

China’s president, Xi Jinping, is to visit Europe next week for the first time in five years, in a tour that will take in the unlikely trifecta of France, Hungary and Serbia.

The visit comes as China pushes to avoid a trade war with the EU, while attitudes towards Beijing in the bloc are hardening after multiple spying scandals and China’s ongoing support for Russia in the war in Ukraine.

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Bomb attacks in Congo kill at least 12 people including children

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The UN says two camps for displaced people were hit near the city of Goma where thousands are seeking refuge from fighting in surrounding areas

Bomb attacks on two camps for displaced people in eastern Congo have killed at least 12 people, including children, according to the UN.

The bombs hit the camps in Lac Vert and Mugunga, near the city of Goma, the UN said in a statement, calling the attacks a “flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law and may constitute a war crime”.

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Canadian police charge three over killing of Sikh activist

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Prime minister said there were ‘credible allegations’ that India was behind killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar

Canadian police have charged three members of an alleged hit team for their role in the assassination of the Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the first arrests in a high-profile killing which officials believe was masterminded by India.

The arrests comes nearly a year after the prominent activist was killed in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh gurdwara on the evening of 18 June in the city of Surrey, British Columbia. In what investigators previously described as a carefully orchestrated operation, two assailants fired about 50 bullets at Nijjar and escaped the area in a grey car.

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Hope Hicks: Trump was worried about WSJ article’s effect on Melania – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For the latest on Donald Trump’s hush-money trial, read our coverage here.

Judge Juan Merchan was referring to a claim Donald Trump made while addressing the media yesterday outside of court.

Speaking to reporters after court adjourned for the day on Thursday, the former president said:

I’m not allowed to testify. I’m under a gag order. I guess, right?

I’m not allowed to testify, because this judge, who’s totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order.

I want to stress Mr Trump that you have an absolute right to testify at trial.

That is a constitutional right that will not be denied or abnegated in any way ... It is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon ... the order prohibiting extra-judicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way.

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Brazil: 37 killed and dozens missing in worst floods in 80 years

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More than 23,000 people forced to leave homes after heavy rains in southern Rio Grande do Sul prompt record-breaking floods

Heavy rains in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul have killed 37 people, with another 74 still missing, as record-breaking floods devastated cities and forced thousands to leave their homes.

It was the fourth such environmental disaster in a year, following floods in July, September and November that killed 75 people in total.

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Video of sun’s surface shows solar rain, eruptions and coronal moss

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Ethereal scenes of flowing super-heated material may help explain why atmosphere is hotter than surface

The sun’s otherworldly landscape, including coronal moss, solar rain and 6,000-mile-tall spires of gas, is revealed in footage from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft.

The observations, beamed back by the European Space Agency probe, reveal feathery, hair-like structures made of plasma and also capture eruptions and showers of relatively cooler material falling to the surface.

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Detained asylum seekers given Home Office booklet saying Rwanda is ‘generally safe’

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Glossy promotional leaflet handed out to asylum seekers detained under Rishi Sunak’s deportation policy

Asylum seekers who have been detained under Rishi Sunak’s deportation policy are being handed a colourful promotional document entitled: “I’m being relocated to Rwanda. What does it mean to me?”

The news came as the government faced a second legal challenge over the prime minister’s £500m policy and it emerged that dozens of asylum seekers were being forcibly taken to detention centres.

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Israelis voice sadness and defiance over Gaza protests on US campuses

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People in Jerusalem express little sympathy with anti-war demonstrators, with some accusing them of hatred for Israel

At the Jerusalem theatre on Thursday night, concertgoers and staff expressed a mixture of anger, sadness and defiance as weeks of pro-Palestinian protests across dozens of US college campuses reached a tumultuous climax 6,000 miles away.

The noisy demonstrations have been closely followed in Israel, reported by major media and discussed by prominent public figures.

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Quebec premier says police should dismantle pro-Palestinian student camp

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François Legault advocates removal of week-long demonstration at Montreal’s McGill University: ‘The encampment is illegal’

Quebec’s premier has said police should begin dismantling an “illegal” week-long pro-Palestinian encampment at Montreal’s McGill University, as students at Canada’s largest universities ramp up demands that the schools sever relationships with groups linked to Israel.

“The encampment is illegal,” François Legault told reporters. “The law must be respected, so I expect the police to dismantle these illegal campsites, which is what McGill has requested.”

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Germany summons Russian envoy over 2023 cyber-attacks

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Investigation finds hacker group linked to Russian intelligence responsible for attacks targeting politicians and defence sector

Germany has summoned a top Russian envoy over a series of cyber-attacks targeting members of the governing Social Democrats and its defence and technology sector.

The 2023 attacks, in which several websites were knocked offline in apparent response to Berlin’s decision to send tanks to Ukraine, have been blamed on a hacker group linked to Russian military intelligence.

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