Category Archives: World News

Key allies seek to rein in Israel without letting Hamas off the hook

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Diplomatic search for ceasefire in Gaza gathers pace as threatened ground offensive in Rafah draws near

In New York at the UN, in Brussels at the EU, in The Hague, in Cairo, in Rio and even at Westminster, a set of subtle and interrelated diplomatic dances are under way.

Israel’s foremost supporters are attempting to apply the squeeze on their ally while avoiding making undiluted calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza they fear would leave a battered Hamas in charge, its leadership at large.

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Julian Assange: key dates in the WikiLeaks founder’s case

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How Assange went from being questioned in Sweden to living for years in Ecuador’s embassy in London

Julian Assange is to make his final bid for an appeal against a UK judge’s ruling over his extradition to the US.

The WikiLeaks founder is wanted in the US over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information after the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

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New trial in Rome of four Egyptians accused over Giulio Regeni killing

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Defendants are being tried in absentia over kidnapping and murder of Italian student in 2016

Four Egyptian security officials have gone back on trial in absentia in Rome on charges related to the kidnap and murder of an Italian student in Cairo.

Giulio Regeni, 28, had been conducting research when he was abducted in January 2016. His body was found nine days later, dumped on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, bearing extensive signs of torture.

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Ex-Honduran leader praised by Trump faces trial in US for running ‘narco-state’

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Juan Orlando Hernández stands trial in a New York courtroom on Monday accused of taking millions in bribes from drug traffickers

Five years after he was lavished with praise by Donald Trump for “stopping drugs at a level that has never happened” – and two years after he was extradited in shackles to the US – the former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández is to stand trial in New York on Monday, accused of overseeing a “narco-state” and accepting millions in bribes from drug traffickers, including the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Hernández is the first former head of state to face drug trafficking charges in the United States since another former US ally, the Panamanian strongman Gen Manuel Noriega, over 30 years ago.

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Assassinated Haitian president’s widow among dozens indicted over his death

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Martine Moïse alleged to have conspired with former PM to kill president and replace him herself

A Haitian judge in charge of the investigation into the assassination in 2021 of the country’s last president, Jovenel Moïse, has charged 50 people including his widow and a former prime minister, according to a document leaked to local media.

According to the 122-page document from Judge Walther Wesser Voltaire, made public by AyiboPost, the president’s widow, Martine Moïse, conspired with the former prime minister Claude Joseph to kill the president in order to replace him herself.

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Russian pilot who defected found dead in Spain, says Ukraine security agency

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Maksim Kuzminov, who changed sides in secret operation, killed after allegedly moving to Alicante, reports suggest

A Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine last year in a secret operation has been found dead in Spain, according to the main military intelligence agency in Kyiv.

Reports in Russian and Spanish media on Monday said Maksim Kuzminov was found dead after allegedly moving to the town of Villajoyosa in Alicante on the Mediterranean coast, in an area popular with holidaymakers. His body was discovered last Tuesday, it was said, on the car park ramp underneath an apartment block.

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Yulia Navalnaya vows to continue husband Alexei’s fight and says Putin killed him

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Widow of Alexei Navalny says she wants to ‘build a free Russia’ and says she will reveal why ‘Putin killed him’

Yulia Navalnaya has published a video address in which she vowed to continue her late husband’s political work and called on Russians to rally around her as Alexei Navalny’s family were told they would not get access to his body for another two weeks.

“I will continue Alexei Navalny’s work … I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia,” Navalnaya said in a powerful nine-minute video published on social media.

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UK minister rules out swap for Briton Vladimir Kara-Murza jailed in Russia

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Foreign Office says it will not trade Putin opponent for spies in jail in Britain, despite fears for his life after Navalny’s death

A Foreign Office minister has ruled out a prisoner swap for the imprisoned Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British citizen, who MPs have expressed concern about after the death of Alexei Navalny.

Kara-Murza’s wife was now adamant that she wanted everything to be done to get her her husband out of Russia, said the Conservative backbencher Bob Seely, who urged the government to countenance swapping imprisoned spies for the pro-democracy activist who was now the most high-profile Russian political prisoner.

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Palestinian minister accuses Israel of ‘colonialism and apartheid’ at ICJ

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Riyad al-Maliki presents Palestinian case at start of week of hearings called by UN general assembly vote

The Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, has accused Israel of “colonialism and apartheid” at a world court hearing on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands since 1967.

“For over a century, the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination has been denied and violated,” Maliki told a bench of judges at the international court of justice (ICJ), the UN’s highest court, in The Hague. “Palestine was not a land without people. It was not, as Israeli leaders have described it, a wasteland. There was life on this land.”

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EU opens investigation into TikTok over online content and child safeguarding

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Video platform under scrutiny over potential breach of Digital Services Act in areas such as age verification

The EU has launched a formal investigation into whether TikTok has broken online content rules including the safeguarding of children.

The European Commission said it had opened official proceedings against the Chinese-owned short video platform over potential breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA).

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Israel says it will launch Rafah assault if hostages not freed by Ramadan

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Minister says fighting will reach southern border city if remaining hostages not released in next few weeks

A member of Israel’s war cabinet has said the country will launch its threatened ground offensive against Rafah, the last place of relative safety in Gaza, if Hamas does not release its remaining Israeli hostages by the beginning of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in just under three weeks.

“The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know – if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,” Benny Gantz, a retired Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday.

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American man admits rape and murder of woman near German castle

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Defendant, 31, met two US women on path in Marienbrücke and pushed them down ravine, prosecutors say

An American man has admitted to charges of murder and rape after he allegedly pushed two US women down a ravine, fatally injuring one of them, near Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany last year.

The 31-year-old defendant admitted to the charges during the start of his trial, the German news agency dpa reported. Defendants in the German legal system do not formally enter pleas to charges.

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UK special forces blocked resettlement applications from elite Afghan troops

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MoD conducts review but stands accused of conflict of interest while public inquiry investigates conduct of SAS in Afghanistan

Elite Afghan commandos who fought alongside the British military have had their applications to relocate blocked by UK special forces despite evidence that they had served alongside them in dangerous missions against the Taliban.

Documents leaked and shared with BBC Panorama show that Britain’s secretive special forces were given a veto power over resettlement, prompting claims that hundreds of Afghan veterans have been left in limbo or danger in their native country.

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‘Dust is everywhere’: rare glimpse of how Michelangelo’s David is kept clean

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Florence museum boss compares process to cleaning a bathroom as media are granted privileged access

Michelangelo’s David is recognised as one of the most sublime works in the history of sculpture, but according to the director of Florence’s Accademia Gallery, dusting it is much like cleaning a bathroom.

“You know when you clean a bathroom, you clean and clean and think you’ve done a great job but then you spot some dust and wonder ‘where did that come from?’,” Cecilie Hollberg said on Monday. “This is what it’s like. Dust is everywhere.”

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Westminster Abbey agrees ‘in principle’ to return sacred tablet to Ethiopia

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Carved wooden tabot has been at Abbey since British forces looted it at Battle of Maqdala in 1868

Westminster Abbey has agreed “in principle” to returning a sacred tablet to the Ethiopian Orthodox church, igniting a debate around restitution claims made by the East African nation.

The tabot – a blackened flat piece of wood featuring a carved inscription that symbolically represents the Ark of the Covenant and the Ten Commandments – has been at the Abbey since British forces returned with it from the Battle of Maqdala, where it was looted in 1868.

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Anglo American’s platinum arm to cut 3,700 jobs as metal’s price dives

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Johannesburg-based Amplats says one in five jobs will be lost in South Africa amid plunge in profits

The platinum arm of Anglo American is to cut 3,700 jobs in South Africa as the British mining company attempts to improve performance in the troubled division.

Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) said on Monday it aimed to cut jobs after a sharp drop in platinum metal prices, which had led to a collapse in profits last year.

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Houthis claim cargo ship is at risk of sinking after Red Sea attack

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Two projectiles hit Belize-flagged vessel in strike that if confirmed would be a propaganda victory

The Houthis have claimed one of their most significant strikes since they started launching missiles at ships in the Red Sea, after two projectiles hit a Belize-flagged cargo ship.

The Yemeni rebels claimed the ship was at risk of sinking, a significant propaganda victory for the Houthis if confirmed.

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Singapore sought exclusivity deal over Taylor Swift concerts in south-east Asia, Thai PM alleges

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Srettha Thavisin claims promoter told him Singaporean government offered ‘subsidies’ of $2m-$3m a show

Thailand’s prime minister has claimed that Singapore sought a deal with Taylor Swift to prevent her from playing elsewhere in south-east Asia on her Eras tour.

Srettha Thavisin said the concert promoter AEG had informed him that the Singaporean government offered subsidies of US $2m-$3m (£1.6m-£24m) a show as part of an exclusivity agreement.

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China offers to deepen security ties with Hungary

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Beijing’s move comes at a time when Budapest’s relationship with its EU and Nato allies is at a low point

China has offered to deepen security cooperation with Hungary, underscoring Budapest’s warming ties with Beijing just as Hungarian officials snubbed a visiting delegation from Washington.

Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, met China’s minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong, on Friday.

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‘Europe must defend itself’: shadow of war in Ukraine looms over security conference

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With ongoing US support far from guaranteed, Ukraine urges Europe to back fight against Russia, for its own sake

On the top floor of Literaturhaus in Munich, the Ukrainian veteran Yuliia Paievska was asked to speak to the elite of the transatlantic security and political establishment, including Hillary Clinton and the Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, as they lunched on a three-course meal, served with military precision.

“We are the dogs of war,” Paievska said as she introduced herself, explaining how she had started out as a volunteer and then worked as the chief medic at a hospital on the frontline during the siege of Mariupol. “I had children die in my hands, civilians, elderly. I do not know how you can forgive that. Thousands of soldiers have gone through my hands, thousands of civilians, streams of blood, rivers of suffering.”

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