Category Archives: World News

ICJ to deliver interim ruling on genocide case against Israel on Friday

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South Africa’s foreign minister will fly to The Hague for the ruling in a possible sign of Pretoria’s confidence in its case

South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, is flying to The Hague to be present on Friday when the international court of justice (ICJ) delivers its highly anticipated verdict on South Africa’s request for an interim ruling in its genocide case against Israel.

The ruling, if granted, would probably take the form of an order to Israel to announce a ceasefire in Gaza and allow more UN humanitarian aid into the country.

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Argentinians stage nationwide strike against Javier Milei’s far-right agenda

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Tens of thousands of marchers take to streets as schools and businesses close in protest at president’s extreme legislation

Argentine demonstrators have staged their biggest-yet show of opposition to Javier Milei’s radical attempt to reshape the South American country with a nationwide strike that shuttered schools and businesses, grounded hundreds of flights, and saw tens of thousands of marchers hit the streets.

Milei, a boisterous celebrity economist nicknamed “El Loco” (the Madman), became president in December vowing to free Argentina from decades of “decadence and decline” with his libertarian ideas. Since then, the far-right politician has moved speedily to implement what the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage recently called “Thatcherism on steroids” – first with a far-reaching emergency decree; then with a mega-reform bill known as the “omnibus law”.

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Canadian firm under fire for supplying equipment for Alabama execution

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Private equity firm Onex Corp partly owns company that makes mask for use in untested nitrogen hypoxia execution method

A Canadian company is facing criticism for allegedly supplying the equipment for a state execution in the United States, in a case that has drawn outrage for the reliance on a seemingly untested method of execution.

On Thursday, Alabama plans to kill inmate Kenneth Smith by suffocating him with nitrogen gas, a method never before used in the country.

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France debates plan to enshrine abortion as constitutional right

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Impetus for change was US supreme court overturning Roe v Wade, while Germany passes law banning harassment of women at abortion clinics

The French parliament has begun debating moves for France to become the first country in the world to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right, guaranteeing women access to the means to end a pregnancy voluntarily.

The justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, told the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, on Wednesday that abortion rights were not simply a liberty like any other, “because they allow women to decide their future”.

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Orbán reaffirms backing for Swedish Nato bid as allies’ patience runs low

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Hungarian parliament yet to sign off on application despite repeated promises not to hold up process alone

Viktor Orbán has said he will urge the Hungarian parliament to sign off on Sweden’s Nato bid “at the first possible opportunity”, as diplomats said Hungary’s allies were “exasperated” by the country’s foot-dragging.

Sweden applied to join Nato in May 2022, but its accession was delayed as Turkey and Hungary strung out the ratification process.

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Germany considers entry ban on Austrian behind mass deportation plan

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Interior ministry considering options against Martin Sellner after days of protests against AfD

German authorities are closely examining the possibility of an entry ban for the far-right Austrian whose master plan for the deportation of immigrants is at the heart of a storm gripping Germany over the rightwing populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.

Martin Sellner, the founder of the so-called Identitarian Movement, which preaches the superiority of European ethnic groups, could be banned from entering Germany if he is deemed to pose a threat to German democratic stability, according to members of the interior affairs committee of the Bundestag.

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China announces 0.5% cut in banks’ minimum reserves

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Biggest reduction since December 2021 will allow 1tn more yuan to be released in form of new loans

China’s central bank has announced a surprise cut to the amount of cash that banks must hold in reserve, hoping to boost the lending available to households and businesses as policymakers try to steer the economy through a fragile recovery.

Pan Gongsheng, the governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), said on Wednesday that the reserve requirement ratio would be cut by 0.5% from 5 February, the deepest cut to the rate since December 2021. The move will allow about 1tn yuan (£110.8bn) to be released in the form of new loans.

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Just two northern white rhinos remain. An IVF breakthrough could save them from extinction

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The first successful embryo transfer in a southern white rhino paves the way for the technique to save their rarer northern cousins

The critically endangered northern white rhino could be saved from the brink of extinction after scientists performed the first successful embryo transfer in white rhinos.

After the last male northern white rhino, Sudan, died in 2018, the disappearance of the species looked imminent. Just two infertile female northern white rhinos – Fatu and Najin – remain, and are under 24-hour armed protection at a conservation reservation in Kenya. But a new scientific advancement means the mother and daughter may not be the last of their kind.

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Home Office U-turns on policy to restrict help for trafficking victims

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Rights groups hail change to Braverman policy that denied support to people with criminal convictions

The Home Office has performed a U-turn on a policy to deprive some modern slavery victims of protection from traffickers.

Human rights campaigners and lawyers representing trafficking victims have welcomed the government’s change of heart, which they say reinstates vital protections to vulnerable people.

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Russia accuses Kyiv of downing plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war

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Moscow says aircraft that went down in border region of Belgorod was carrying prisoners who were to be swapped

Russia has accused Kyiv of downing a large military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war to an exchange on Wednesday, after a crash in the Belgorod region that killed everyone onboard.

Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied that it hit the plane but said Moscow had created a “deliberate threat to the life and safety” of its PoWs by failing to warn Kyiv to deconflict the airspace before the swap.

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Thai court rejects claim opposition MP violated election law

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Pita Limjaroenrat’s party was blocked from taking power last year after complaints led to his suspension

Thailand’s constitutional court has ruled that an anti-establishment opposition figure whose party was blocked from taking power last year did not violate election law and can be reinstated as an MP.

The court rejected a complaint brought against Pita Limjaroenrat by conservative politicians that he had violated election law by owning shares in a media company.

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Iraq accuses US of ‘reckless escalation’ of regional violence after latest strikes

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Pentagon calls overnight attacks ‘necessary and proportionate’, after US personnel were injured in a weekend attack in Iraq

US strikes against militias in Iraq have prompted the most scathing criticism yet from Baghdad, with the prime minister’s office accusing Washington of contributing to a “reckless escalation” of regional violence.

The Pentagon announced earlier on Wednesday that it had carried out overnight retaliatory strikes against three facilities linked to Iran-backed militias in response to its own forces coming under attack at an Iraqi airbase at the weekend.

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‘Anti-European’ populists on track for big gains in EU elections, says report

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France, Poland and Austria among nine countries where radical rightwing parties predicted to finish first

Populist “anti-European” parties are heading for big gains in June’s European elections that could shift the parliament’s balance sharply to the right and jeopardise key pillars of the EU’s agenda including climate action, polling suggests.

Polling in all 27 EU member states, combined with modelling of how national parties performed in past European parliament elections, shows radical right parties are on course to finish first in nine countries including Austria, France and Poland.

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Courts reprimand Spain, Greece and Hungary over treatment of child asylum seekers

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Rights of lone minors were not protected, with some deported and others left homeless for months

Spain, Greece and Hungary have been rebuked by courts for failing to protect the rights of children.

It adds to a string of recent rulings that have reprimanded countries across Europe over the treatment of lone minors who are seeking asylum.

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North Korea demolishes symbol of hope for reunification with South – report

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The Arch of Reunification – built in 2000 after a landmark inter-Korean summit – has disappeared from satellite imagery

North Korea has demolished a monument that symbolised hope for reconciliation with the South, days after the regime’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said the peaceful reunification of the two Koreas was no longer possible.

In the latest sign of rising tensions on the peninsula, the Arch of Reunification – built in 2000 after a landmark inter-Korean summit – has disappeared from satellite imagery, according to the NK News website. It was not immediately clear when or how it had been taken down, NK News said.

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18 dead after Russian missiles strike cities across Ukraine, says Zelenskiy

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At least 130 people also injured, says president, with Kharkiv apartment block and Kyiv sports club among buildings hit

Russia has carried out a wave of attacks on Ukraine, killing 18 people and injuring more than 130, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, with a sports club in central Kyiv one of several civilian buildings damaged.

Making his nightly video address on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president said more than 200 sites were struck, including 139 dwellings.

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UN secretary general says Israel’s rejection of two-state solution is ‘unacceptable’

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António Guterres says denial of Palestinian state will embolden extremists at highly charged security council debate

Israel’s “clear and repeated rejection of the two-state solution” is unacceptable, and could only prolong the conflict in Gaza, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said, at the launch of a highly charged security council debate focusing on aid shipments to Gaza.

Gutteres told the meeting in New York on Monday that the denial of a Palestinian state will only embolden extremists everywhere and indefinitely extend the conflict.

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South African man confesses starting fire which killed 76 to conceal murder

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Police arrest 29-year-old after he tells tower block fire inquiry he was trying to dispose of body of man he had strangled

Police in South Africa have arrested a man who claimed responsibility for starting a fire that killed 76 people last year, after he said he ignited the blaze while trying to dispose of the body of a man he had strangled.

The shocking and unexpected confession came when the man was testifying at an inquiry into the causes of the fire in August at an apartment building in downtown Johannesburg, which was one of South Africa’s worst disasters.

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French farming protests: mother and daughter die after car hits road blockade

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Three people questioned on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter after collision in Pamiers, south of Toulouse

A woman and her teenage daughter have died in southern France after a car hit a roadblock where they were standing. The blockade had been set up by farmers taking part in growing anti-government protests.

The 35-year-old woman and her 14-year-old daughter were killed at 5.45am when a car went through a warning barrage and collided at speed with bales of straw piled up to stop traffic in Pamiers, Ariège, to the south of Toulouse.

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Judge rebukes Trudeau for ‘not justified’ use of Emergencies Act to break convoy

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Canadian court rules government was ‘unreasonable’ when it used sweeping powers to block truckers protesting against Covid rules

A Canadian court has ruled that Justin Trudeau’s government was not justified when it used sweeping powers to break up what the prime minister called “illegal and dangerous” protest blockades across the country two years ago.

A federal court found on Tuesday the government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the so-called freedom convoy protests “was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration”.

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