Category Archives: World News

Jair Bolsonaro surrenders passport in coup attempt investigation

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Police seize passport as agents carry out 33 searches and four arrests across Brazil, targeting allies of far-right former president

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has surrendered his passport as part of a police investigation into the attempted coup on 8 January 2023, which sought to keep him in power, his lawyers have said.

In operations that also targeted key allies of the former far-right leader, federal police agents carried out 33 searches and four arrests across Brazil on Thursday morning.

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China has seen a fourth month of falling prices, but will it act to curb deflation?

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Plunge in consumer prices has fuelled calls for a stimulus package – yet Beijing may stick to the new normal of lower growth

• China consumer prices plunge at fastest rate for 15 years

China’s economy has gone from bad to worse – and it is only February.

Figures released on Thursday showed consumer prices fell by 0.8% in January compared with a year earlier, outstripping economists’ expectations and marking the biggest contraction in 15 years.

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‘Bring them back’: freed Israeli hostages plead with Netanyahu for deal

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Families fear remaining hostages will pay price for prime minister’s pursuit of ‘absolute victory’ over Hamas

Moments after Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected the terms of a ceasefire in Gaza proposed by Hamas, five Israeli hostages who were freed in November pleaded with him to push for a deal.

“Everything is in your hands,” a tearful Adina Moshe, 72, said in a direct appeal to the Israeli prime minister at an emotional press conference in Tel Aviv. She said she feared the remaining hostages and their families would pay the price for Netanyahu’s pursuit of “absolute victory” over the militant group.

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Pakistan election: phone service suspended as country goes to polls

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Caretaker government says it took decision for security reasons after two bomb blasts targeted election offices

Phone services have been suspended in Pakistan as the country voted in a general election marred by allegations of vote rigging and militant attacks.

The caretaker government said phone services, including mobile internet, had been suspended on Thursday for security reasons, after two two bomb blasts by Islamic State targeted election offices in the restive region of Balochistan on the eve of the polls.

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Iran-backed hackers interrupt UAE TV streaming services with deepfake news

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Microsoft analysts cite reports saying disruption by group known as Cotton Sandstorm also reached audiences in UK and Canada

Iranian state-backed hackers interrupted TV streaming services in the United Arab Emirates to broadcast a deepfake newsreader delivering a report on the war in Gaza, according to analysts at Microsoft.

The tech company said a hacking operation run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, a key branch of the Iranian armed forces, had disrupted streaming platforms in the UAE with an AI-generated news broadcast branded “For Humanity”.

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US funding failure will have serious battlefield consequences, says Ukraine

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Zelenskiy aide says ‘foreign policy has become a hostage of internal politics’ after Republicans torpedo aid bill

The repeated failure of the Biden administration to get a funding package for Ukraine approved by the Senate will have real consequences in terms of lives on the battlefield and Kyiv’s ability to hold off Russian forces on the frontline, say Ukrainian officials.

The latest move by Senate Republicans to torpedo a bipartisan bill that would have combined $60bn (£48bn) in aid for Ukraine with aid to Israel and increased border security measures is a bitter blow for Kyiv. It could signal a very grim year ahead as the US political agenda settles into an election year with Donald Trump all but certain to be the Republican candidate.

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Exxon plan for Guyana oil exploration risks raising tensions with Venezuela

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President of ExxonMobil Guyana confirms plan to drill two new wells off Atlantic coast as territorial dispute simmers

ExxonMobil has insisted it will explore for oil in a region bitterly contested by Guyana and Venezuela, despite the dangers that the move is likely to escalate tensions between the two South American neighbors.

Relations between the two countries have reached an all-time low in recent months following a series of announcements by the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, suggesting that he could take the Essequibo region by force.

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Italian court jails people smuggler over shipwreck that killed at least 94 migrants

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Gun Ufuk, 29, sentenced to 20 years in prison over deadly sinking that occurred metres from shore

An Italian court has sentenced a people smuggler to 20 years in prison for involvement in a shipwreck last year that killed at least 94 migrants.

The court in the southern city of Crotone found Gun Ufuk, a 29-year-old Turkish national, guilty of crimes including causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration. It also ordered him to pay a €3m fine and pay damages to civil plaintiffs.

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China consumer prices plunge at fastest rate for 15 years as deflation fears deepen

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Plummeting food prices feed steep annual drop amid renewed calls to stimulate economy and offset weakening demand

China’s consumer prices fell at their fastest pace in 15 years in January, as the world’s second-largest economy sank deeper into deflation amid weakening demand.

Data released on Thursday showed that China’s consumer price index tumbled last month, falling by 0.8% compared with a year earlier. It marks the fourth consecutive month of declines, as well as the sharpest drop since September 2009, when the global economy was still grappling with aftershocks from the 2008 banking crisis.

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Palestinian groups accuse UN adviser of failing to warn about potential genocide

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Letter sent to UN raises concerns about Alice Wairimu Nderitu’s ability to act with ‘effectiveness and impartiality’

Leading Palestinian human rights groups have accused the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide of failing to fulfil her mandate after she issued only one statement on the war in Gaza – largely supportive of Israel – that has claimed 26,000 Palestinian lives.

In a statement issued in October, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, a Kenyan, omitted any criticism of Israel.

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‘The destruction is massive … It’s a disaster area’: Israeli soldiers speak about fighting in Gaza

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Exclusive: IDF troops shed light on their experience of fighting in the territory, where Palestinian casualties have passed 27,700

Demobilised Israeli reservists have described how they deployed massive fire power in a brutal, complex and often one-sided war of sporadic but intense clashes that has reduced much of Gaza to ruins.

They spoke, too, of the challenge of fighting on unfamiliar ground that is well-known to Hamas and which offered easy opportunities for surprise attacks, despite Israel’s conventional military superiority and air power.

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EU leaders unveil €210m Mauritania deal in bid to curb people-smuggling

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Plan includes energy and infrastructure projects with aim of strengthening stability in Sahel

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, have unveiled plans for a €210m partnership with Mauritania in an attempt to curb people-smuggling to the Canary islands and launch new energy and infrastructure projects benefiting both sides.

Figures soon to be published by Frontex, the EU’s border agency, are expected to show that the number of people risking their lives by making the perilous journey from west African shores to the Spanish islands has risen dramatically in the past year.

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Del Monte Kenya representatives accused of seeking to cover up circumstances of men’s deaths

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Exclusive: Investigation uncovers claims Del Monte representatives offered bribes in attempt to persuade men to back company’s version of events

Representatives of Del Monte Kenya have been accused of offering bribes in an attempt to cover up the circumstances in which four men died after going to steal pineapples from its farm in December.

The men’s bodies were recovered from a river on the vast plantation near Thika on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day last year. The four were part of a group of men who it is claimed were chased by the farm’s security guards after going to steal pineapples on 21 December.

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Iraq labels US ‘factor of instability’ after three killed in drone attack

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Military says ‘blatant assassination’ of three members of Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia in Baghdad risks widening conflict

The US military presence in Iraq has become a “factor for instability” and must be ended, the Iraqi military has said, as it responded angrily to a US drone strike on a car in Baghdad that killed three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia.

Yehia Rasool, the spokesperson for the commander of the military forces, accused the US of conducting “a blatant assassination through an airstrike in the heart of a residential neighbourhood in the capital, Baghdad, showing no regard for civilian lives or international laws.

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Council of Europe calls on UK not to process asylum claims in Rwanda

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People may be exposed to abuses such as torture and degrading treatment in Rwanda, says watchdog

Europe’s leading anti-torture watchdog has called on the government to process asylum claims in the UK rather than sending people to Rwanda because of the risk they may be exposed to human rights abuses there.

In a report published on Thursday, the Council of Europe’s committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment raises a litany of concerns after an 11-day visit to the UK in March and April last year.

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Minister ‘pissed off’ as Canadians’ family members blocked from leaving Gaza

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Immigration minister Marc Miller frustrated by impasse over list of about 1,000 people trapped in Palestinian territory

Canada’s immigration minister, Marc Miller, has said he is “pissed off” that extended family members of Canadians are being blocked from leaving war-torn Gaza.

Ottawa last month provided a list of about 1,000 people approved to come to Canada to Israeli and Egyptian authorities, who jointly control the only border crossing out of the Palestinian territory, at Rafah.

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Former Brazil footballer Dani Alves denies rape as Spain trial wraps

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Ex-Barcelona defender is accused of raping a woman in a nightclub in December 2022

The former Brazil international footballer Dani Alves has denied raping a young woman at a Barcelona nightclub as he took the stand on the last day of his trial in Spain.

“If she wanted to leave, she could have left, she was not obligated to be there,” the 40-year-old told the court in Barcelona on Wednesday, adding that the woman “at no time” asked to leave.

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Rape inquiry opened after Judith Godrèche files complaint against director

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French actor alleges arthouse film-maker Benoît Jacquot groomed her when she was 14 and he was 39

French prosecutors have opened a rape inquiry after the actor Judith Godrèche filed a complaint against the arthouse film director Benoît Jacquot, who she says groomed her when she was 14 and he was 39.

A formal complaint was filed against Jacquot, 77, for the alleged rape of a minor by a person in a position of authority. The French police’s specialist juvenile protection unit is handling the inquiry, which will investigate several allegations, including rape of a minor by a person in a position of authority, rape, domestic violence and sexual assault.

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Netanyahu rejects Gaza ceasefire deal and says victory is ‘within reach’

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Israeli PM rebuffs US-led mediation efforts as order is given to commence ground assault in southern city of Rafah

Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the terms of a ceasefire in Gaza proposed by Hamas and rebuffed US pressure to move more quickly towards a mediated settlement to the war, saying there could be no solution to Israel’s security issues except “absolute victory” over the militant group.

The Israeli prime minister also confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces had been instructed to commence operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where the population has been swelled by hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

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