Category Archives: World News

Armed gang storms Ecuador TV station as state of ‘internal armed conflict’ declared

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Gangsters unleashed wave of terror following move by President Daniel Noboa in response to gang leader’s prison escape

Heavily armed gangsters have stormed the studio of a major television station in Ecuador during a live broadcast, prompting the country’s president to declare a state of “internal armed conflict” amid a series of seemingly coordinated attacks across the South American country.

Police special forces later arrested all the masked gunmen who invaded the headquarters of the TC Televisión network in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil, at about 2pm local time on Tuesday.

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Antony Blinken tells Israel: Palestinian rights are key to peace

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US secretary of state rejects calls for immediate ceasefire but urges ally to make ‘hard decisions’ as fighting continues

Anthony Blinken has reaffirmed the United States’ “unique bond” with Israel, and rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but told his hosts in Tel Aviv that other regional powers have made clear that a pathway to the realisation of Palestinian political rights is essential for peace in the region.

Hinting at having held difficult talks with Israeli officials on Tuesday, the US secretary of state said the exceptional friendship between the two countries demanded that the US be “as forthright as possible when the choices matter most” and called for Israel to make “hard decisions”.

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UK government accepts Israel has legal duty to provide basic supplies to Gaza

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David Cameron urges Israeli authorities to clear barriers to aid deliveries amid risk of ‘widespread hunger’

The British government has accepted that Israel as an occupying power had a duty under international humanitarian law to provide basic supplies to the people of Gaza.

The admission came when David Cameron, the foreign secretary, urged Israel to remove barriers on the delivery of humanitarian aid into the territory that were risking “real, widespread hunger”.

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Lula vows to win ‘war’ against illegal miners invading Indigenous lands

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Brazil president hosts summit amid criticism that easing of crackdown had allowed outsiders to return to forest areas

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has insisted his government must not lose the “war” against the environmental criminals devastating Indigenous lands in the Amazon after claims that thousands of illegal miners were resisting eviction from the country’s biggest such territory.

After taking power last January, Lula made expelling an estimated 20,000 gold and tin ore prospectors from the Yanomami Indigenous territory a top priority after four years of Amazon destruction under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. Environmental special forces and federal police teams were sent deep into the region’s remote jungles as part of a supposedly historic crackdown.

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Gabriel Attal becomes youngest French PM as Macron tries to revive popularity

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Attal, 34, rose in opinion polls during his time as education minister and may help ruling party in EU elections

Emmanuel Macron has appointed France’s youngest-ever prime minister, Gabriel Attal, as he seeks to reinvigorate a difficult second term as president and limit any possible gains for the far right in the forthcoming European elections in June.

Attal, 34, who was serving as education minister, has been referred to as a “baby Macron” as he shares similar qualities to the president, such as his ambition, strong media presence and centrist politics. He is considered to be the best-known and most recognisable face of the close circle of young politicians around the president.

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Gabriel Attal’s real challenge will be to break French parliament’s political deadlock

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The new PM was chosen to boost Emmanuel Macron’s agenda but, as his predecessor found out, pushing through legislation won’t be easy

As Gabriel Attal, France’s new prime minister, hastily made his first trip to the northern Pas‐de‐Calais to assess flood damage and reassure struggling residents and local politicians on Tuesday, it symbolised the challenges that await him.

A popular former government spokesperson and master political communicator, Attal was chosen to boost government by the centrist Emmanuel Macron who is approaching the two-year mark of his difficult second term with dipping approval ratings and facing voters’ growing distrust of politics in general.

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Spain makes facemasks mandatory in hospitals as respiratory illnesses

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Rules reintroduced as ‘commonsense measure’ despite opposition from some regional administrations

Face masks will be mandatory in hospitals and health centres in Spain from Wednesday as the country experiences a surge in cases of flu, Covid and other respiratory illnesses.

The government decision, which was made six months after the use of masks ceased to be obligatory in health facilities and pharmacies, has been met with opposition from some regional administrations.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: more than 1,000 Ukrainian towns and villages without electricity

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The blackout comes as temperatures fell to about -15 C in many parts of the country

Russia hit multiple settlements in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region over the past 24 hours, injuring two civilians, the region’s governor, Oleh Syniehubov, has said.

In the village of Dvorichna, a Russian attack at 17:30 injured a 57-year-old man and a 63-year-old woman, the governor wrote on Telegram.

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Médecins Sans Frontières says strike on Gaza shelter killed staffer’s daughter, 5 – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. See all our coverage of the Middle East crisis here

Here is a photograph issued of the meeting between Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in Tel Aviv.

During the public portion of the meeting Herzog said a lawsuit filed in the international court of justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in its Gaza offensive was “atrocious and preposterous”.

Actually our enemies, Hamas, in their charter, call for the destruction of our nation, the state of Israel – the only nation state of the Jewish people.

We will be there at the international court of justice and will present proudly our case of using self-defence under our most inherent right under international humanitarian law.

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Gabriel Attal, 34, becomes youngest ever French prime minister – Europe live

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Former education minister succeeds Élisabeth Borne, who resigned on Monday, as Emmanuel Macron seeks to give fresh impetus to his government

Congratulations are starting to pour in for Gabriel Attal, the youngest prime minister of France’s Fifth Republic.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has appointed the country’s 34-year old education minister, Gabriel Attal, as prime minister, French media outlets reported. He is the youngest French PM in modern history and will succeed Élisabeth Borne, who resigned yesterday.

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Touchscreen out, pen and paper in? Georgia trial could change voting rules

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Plaintiffs in trial six years in the making say state’s computerized voting machines plane votes at unacceptable risk of being altered

A federal trial beginning this week in Atlanta could change the way people vote in next year’s election in a key swing state, and potentially affect voters in other states for years to come.

The trial, six years in the making, pits a non-profit organization and a handful of Georgia voters against the state, claiming that vulnerabilities in the state’s computerized voting machines place a voter’s choices at an unacceptable risk of being altered, infringing on their constitutional rights.

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Media now in Bill Ackman’s sights after wife embroiled in plagiarism row

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Billionaire vows to tackle ‘problems with how our media operates’ after Neri Oxman accused of plagiarism in PhD thesis

After the resignation of Harvard president Claudine Gay, amid accusations of plagiarism, some might have expected Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager, to step back from what became a rightwing push against academia.

Instead, Ackman, who became embroiled in university politics after students protested against Israel’s actions in Palestine, appears to have expanded his scattergun attack against other perceived liberal institutions, with news organizations and the media now in his sights.

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Israel’s war in Gaza has ‘immense’ effect on climate catastrophe | First Thing

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First months of conflict produced more planet-warming gases than 20 climate-vulnerable countries do in a year, study shows. Plus, the Greenland startup shipping glacier ice to UAE

Good morning.

The planet-warming emissions generated during the first two months of the war in Gaza were greater than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, research reveals.

Lebanon tensions The militant group Hezbollah launched a drone attack against an Israeli command base on Tuesday morning in response to recent high-level Israeli assassinations in Lebanon. Israel said there were no casualties.

What’s happening with the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin? The White House has said that he will stay in his job but noted his “lack of transparency” and called for a review of procedures after he spent three days in hospital without informing the president.

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Labour to table vote calling for release of Rwanda deportation plan documents

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Party to ask for details of individual relocation costs and any payments to the Rwandan government

Labour will table a vote in parliament on Tuesday calling for the release of documents relating to the UK government’s Rwanda deportation policy amid claims from Conservative centrists that Rishi Sunak has promised to uphold international treaties.

The vote, which will be part of a humble address on the opposition day debate in the Commons, will ask for any documents that show the cost of relocating each individual asylum seeker to Rwanda as well as a list of all payments made or scheduled to be made to Rwanda’s government.

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Canada reverses course after blocking Russian anti-war activist’s citizenship

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Maria Kartasheva’s in-absentia conviction over blogposts about Ukraine war threatened application for Canadian citizenship

Canada has reversed course after initially blocking a Russian anti-war activist from receiving citizenship because she had run afoul of Moscow’s harsh laws criminalizing dissent over the invasion of Ukraine.

Maria Kartasheva’s plight had baffled immigration lawyers and exposed the confusing reality of Canada’s immigration bureaucracy. Last year, the 30-year-old was charged and convicted by Russian prosecutors of violating a law barring criticism of the military. And even though her opinions mirrored Canada’s foreign policy, the conviction threatened to derail her application for Canadian citizenship.

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Police officers go on trial over assault of black footballer that shocked France

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Three accused of violence against Théodore Luhaka in 2017 that left him with permanent disabilities

Three police officers have gone on trial north of Paris accused of assaulting a 22-year-old footballer in 2017, in one of the most significant cases of alleged police violence against a black man in France in the past decade.

Théodore Luhaka, who had been talking to friends on his housing estate in Aulnay-sous-Bois at the end of the afternoon of February 2017, was stopped as part of a police identity check. He was teargassed, beaten on the face and body, and left with permanent disabilities and incontinence after an extendable police baton perforated his anus.

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Second Russian performer detained for sock-on-penis stunt

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Incident involving Shchenki singer Maxim Tesli follows imprisonment of rapper Vacio for doing same at Moscow party

A Russian singer has been detained for appearing before a concert audience wearing nothing but a sock on his penis, weeks after a rapper was jailed for doing the same at a Moscow party that caused a national scandal.

Maxim Tesli, the frontman of a band called Shchenki (The Puppies), was detained at a St Petersburg airport, the state news agency Tass reported. The local news outlet Fontanka said he had been charged with petty hooliganism.

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Will hard-right Republicans derail the fragile US spending deal?

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Mike Johnson and Chuck Schumer say they have a deal to avert a shutdown – but a divided Congress could yet stall its progress

Congressional leaders reached an agreement on overall spending levels to fund the federal government in 2024, a significant step toward averting a shutdown later this month. But political divisions on immigration and other domestic priorities could stall its progress.

The deal is separate from bipartisan Senate negotiations that would pair new border security measures with additional funding for Israel and Ukraine. That proposal is expected to be released sometime this week.

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Chinese satellite launch triggers emergency alert across Taiwan

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Mistranslation of ‘satellite’ to ‘missile’ in message causes alarm and confusion days before presidential election

A Chinese satellite launch has triggered a nationwide emergency alert in Taiwan days before its presidential election, prompting alarm and confusion as the English portion of the message erroneously translated satellite to “missile”.

The bilingual air raid alert blasted over loudspeakers and was sent to every mobile phone in Taiwan shortly after 3pm local time (0700 GMT), warning people to “be aware”. The message said in Chinese that China had launched a satellite at 3.04pm and it had flown over the southern part of Taiwan. The English portion said “[air raid alert] missile flyover Taiwan airspace”.

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Israel and Hezbollah edge closer to war as drone hits key Israeli command base

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IDF says no damage or casualties caused after Lebanese militant group launches explosives at Safed base

Israel and Hezbollah edged closer towards full scale war on Tuesday, as the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group launched explosive drones at a key Israeli command base, declaring the attack part of its response to recent high-level Israeli assassinations in Lebanon.

Hezbollah announced it had launched “a number of explosive attack drones” at the Israeli northern military command base in Safed, the first time it has targeted the site.

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