Category Archives: World News

The Crown promised riches to First Nations in Canada – over 150 years on, they could finally get billions

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In northern Ontario, a dozen First Nations have been left struggling. A court’s attempt at compensation could see them getting up to C$126bn

Only 25 miles of road lie between the northern Ontario town of Terrace Bay and Pays Plat First Nation. But when Raymond Goodchild was growing up, that distance spanned entire worlds.

Terrace Bay in the 1960s was often smothered by a thick smoke billowing from pulp mills. As in much of postwar Canada, industry thrived and jobs were plentiful. Roads and sidewalks were paved, and homes glowed at night with electric lighting.

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Weather tracker: first snow of winter in Beijing causes widespread disruption

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Transport hit in Chinese capital as cold spell expected to continue across north of country through weekend

Heavy snowfall affected China last weekend in regions north of the Yangtze River, with Beijing experiencing its first snow of the season.

As a consequence of the snow and ice, more than 180 bus routes were suspended across the city on Monday, with several trains and flights delayed or cancelled. Henan province, south of Beijing, had big falls over the weekend, with many areas recording depths of 100mm and even, in some places, up to 150mm.

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Beijing rush-hour metro collision leaves more than 100 people with fractures

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The rear-end collision happened in the Chinese capital, which has been hit by snow storms in recent days

An evening rush-hour accident on the Beijing metro left 102 people with fractures after a rear-end collision on an above-ground section of tracks, state media said.

The Chinese capital – where such incidents are rare – has been hit by snowstorms in recent days, affecting operating conditions and resulting in transport delays across the city.

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Cop28 president says his firm will keep investing in oil

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Exclusive: Sultan Al Jaber says Adnoc has to meet demand for fossil fuels, and hails ‘unprecedented’ Cop deal

The president of the Cop28 climate summit will continue with his oil company’s record investment in oil and gas production, despite coordinating a global deal to “transition away” from fossil fuels.

Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil and gas company, Adnoc, told the Guardian the company had to satisfy demand for fossil fuels.

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Biden in a bind as Netanhayu ready to flout any US attempt to rein in Israel

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Israel PM has defied US calls for restraint in Gaza and told domestic audience he will not compromise

US efforts to show it retains significant influence over the Israeli government were dealt a double blow on Thursday when the Israeli defence minister said it would take months to complete the task of rooting out Hamas, and a leaked US intelligence assessment revealed up to 45% of the 29,000 air-to-ground munitions that Israel has dropped on Gaza since 7 October have been unguided “dumb bombs”.

The predictions of a months-long campaign were delivered on camera by Yoav Gallant to a stony-faced Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, who had arrived in Israel to convey a message that its campaign needed to change – and preferably be wrapped up in weeks. They were later reinforced by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Neyanyahu, who said Israel would not stop until complete victory.

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Guyana and Venezuela promise not to use force in bitter dispute over oil rich region

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Joint commission composed of foreign ministers of both countries will address the problem, with a report expected within three months

The leaders of Guyana and Venezuela promised in a tense meeting that neither side would use threats or force against the other, but failed to reach agreement on how to address a bitter dispute over a vast border region rich with oil and minerals that has concerned many in the region.

Instead, a joint commission composed of the foreign ministers of both countries and other officials will address the problem, with a report expected within three months.

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British boy missing since 2017 Spanish holiday found in France

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Alex Batty was 11 when allegedly abducted by mother and grandfather to give him ‘alternative lifestyle’

A British boy who has not been seen by his legal guardian since he went missing on a family holiday to Spain in 2017 has been found in France.

Alex Batty, from Oldham, was 11 and under the guardianship of his grandmother Susan Caruana when he was allegedly abducted by his mother, Melanie Batty, and grandfather, David Batty.

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Israel tells US it needs ‘months’ to defeat Hamas

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Defence minister addresses US national security adviser as Biden administration presses for end to war

Israel will fight on until “absolute victory against Hamas”, the country’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told a senior official from the Biden administration, as another minister said the war could last “more than several months”.

Netanyahu’s comments were made to Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s national security adviser, during a visit to Israel hours after its defence minister, Yoav Gallant, told Sullivan that many more months were needed to defeat Hamas in Gaza.

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EU sidesteps Viktor Orbán to open membership talks with Ukraine

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Decision after hours of tense negotiations in Brussels is critical boost to Volodymyr Zelenskiy

The EU has decided to open membership negotiations with Ukraine, in an unexpected move that will be a critical boost to Volodymyr Zelenskiy and deal a blow to Vladimir Putin.

The announcement, made on Thursday after eight hours of tense negotiations in Brussels, came despite the opposition of Hungary, whose prime minister, Viktor Orbán, had for weeks said it would veto any opening of accession talks.

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Uproar as after-school Satan club forms at Tennessee elementary school

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Satanic clubs, whose members do not worship the devil, usually formed in response to presence of religious groups in schools

Community members in a Tennessee school district want to banish Satan from their children’s halls after the formation of a new club was announced.

The After School Satan Club (ASSC) wants to establish a branch in Chimneyrock elementary school in the Memphis-Shelby county schools (MSCS) district.

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Hong Kong puts arrest bounties on five overseas activists including US citizen

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US and UK criticise move while one of the five decries ‘transnational repression harassment tactics’

Hong Kong police have offered million-dollar bounties for information leading to the arrest of five overseas-based activists, as part of a crackdown on dissent under a China-imposed national security law.

The move, which adds to a list of eight overseas activists deemed fugitives by authorities in July, triggered criticism from the US and UK governments.

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IDF censures its soldiers filmed mocking call to prayer in Jenin mosque

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Israeli military says soldiers have been removed from duties after incident in West Bank city

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have condemned the behaviour of several of their soldiers who were filmed singing and mocking the Islamic call to prayer over the loudspeaker of a mosque in the city of Jenin.

The incident came during three days of raids in the occupied West Bank, during which Israeli troops have killed 12 Palestinians, including one youth shot dead at a hospital, according to Palestinian officials and international health charities.

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Four arrested in Europe over alleged cross-border Hamas terrorism plot

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Three held in Germany and one in Netherlands over plans for possible attacks on Jewish institutions, prosecutor says

Four people have been arrested in Germany and the Netherlands on suspicion of being part of a cross-border Hamas terror plot that German prosecutors said aimed to obtain weapons to target Jewish institutions in Europe.

Three others were arrested in Denmark on separate terrorism offences, and the country’s politicians indicated they were also Hamas related, while the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said the threat was “as serious as it gets”.

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Parthenon marbles should return to Athens, says Lord Frost

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Architect of Brexit calls for closer Anglo-Greek cultural ties, with sections held elsewhere in Europe also sent back

Britain should be part of a pan-European effort to bring the Parthenon marbles back to Greece, according to an architect of Brexit, who said the UK should make a grand gesture to create closer diplomatic and cultural relations between the two countries.

David Frost, a chief Brexit negotiator, called for a deal between Britain and Greece that would put the long-running dispute to bed, with the sculptures returned to Greece for the first time since the early 1800s when they were taken by Lord Elgin. At present they are in the British Museum’s collection.

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Finland reopens Russia border but shuts it again amid asylum row

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Helsinki accuses Moscow of orchestrated ‘hybrid operation’ that Kremlin denies after 36 people cross from east

Finland has reopened its border with Russia only to shut it again within hours, in the latest stage of a row over asylum seekers in which Helsinki accused Moscow of staging a “hybrid operation” on the EU’s most easterly edge.

After a two-week period of total closure of the border, two of the eight crossings on the 830-mile land frontier were reopened briefly.

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Guyana warns Venezuela’s Maduro he risks becoming pariah ahead of talks

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High-level negotiations in St Vincent will discuss Venezuelan president’s claim for two-thirds of neighbour’s oil-rich territory

Venezuela risks becoming an international pariah if President Nicolás Maduro does not de-escalate growing tensions with Guyana, the neighbouring nation’s foreign minister told the Guardian ahead of a high-level meeting between the two countries.

“We’ve seen throughout history what happens to nation states who decide to go it alone … it usually sets the country back decades,” Hugh Todd said ahead of the summit in St Vincent on Thursday.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin says Russian goals in Ukraine are unchanged and there will only be peace when it achieves them

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Russian leader conducts first end of year press conference since start of invasion

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia on espionage charges, lost an appeal on Thursday to be released from jail and will remain in custody at least until 30 January.

Gershkovich was arrested on 29 March in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on charges of espionage that carry up to 20 years in prison.

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Deal reached to open EU accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova – Europe live

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Bloc’s leaders decide to open negotiations after hours of talks as Viktor Orbán says Hungary does not want to take part in ‘bad decision’

The Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, told reporters at the summit this morning that the European Commission unfroze part of Hungary’s EU funding yesterday because “the rules are the rules”.

Addressing today’s summit, he said:

I’ve been attending European Council meetings for six or seven years now.

This is probably one of the most important ones that I’ve attended, precisely because of the big decisions we have to make in relation to Ukraine: a financial decision and also a decision on whether to begin negotiations.

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Israeli ministers block Mossad head’s effort to restart Gaza hostage talks

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Relatives of the abductees say they are shocked, as reports say David Barnea was stopped from visiting Qatar

Israel’s war cabinet has blocked a planned visit to Qatar by the head of the country’s foreign intelligence service that was aimed at kickstarting negotiations over a new hostage release deal.

According to several reports, David Barnea, the head of Mossad, had wanted to travel to Qatar but was blocked by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other cabinet ministers.

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Japan’s ruling party engulfed by political fundraising scandal

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Four ministers resign amid reports that prosecutors were poised to raid offices of dozens of ruling party MPs

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, is battling to contain the fallout from a political fundraising scandal that forced the resignations of four of his ministers, amid reports that prosecutors were poised to raid the offices of dozens of ruling party MPs.

The chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, confirmed that he was stepping down, while the economy and industry minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura, the internal affairs minister, Junji Suzuki, and the agriculture minister, Ichiro Miyashita, have also resigned.

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