Category Archives: World News

China overtakes US as branded coffee shop capital of the world

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Number rose by almost 60% in a year to 49,691 stores, making China ‘a global coffee industry powerhouse’

The branded coffee chain craze may trace its roots to a single Starbucks in Seattle’s Pike Place market in 1971, but now China has toppled the US as the country with the most branded coffee shops.

The number of branded coffee shops in China increased by 58% over the past 12 months to a record 49,691 outlets, according to research by World Coffee Portal. That was more than 9,000 in excess of the 40,062 in the US, where the market grew by just 4%. The US had held the crown as the world’s biggest coffee shop market for the entire 20-year history of the research.

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‘I no longer feel at home here’: German Muslims frustrated by Israel backing

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Many say Germany’s historical responsibility for Nazi crimes makes it hard for people to criticise Gaza strategy

Lobna Shammout was initially only vaguely aware of the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October, because she had been celebrating her 40th birthday. “The breaking news was crashing my phone, I thought ‘please, not today’,” the Palestinian-German said. “When I finally checked … each newsflash was worse than the one before.”

In the following weeks, as Israel launched an all-out assault on Gaza in retaliation for the attacks, which killed 1,200 people, Shammout has waited anxiously for news of her relatives and friends in Gaza. Some have been killed, among the estimated 15,000 Palestinians who the Hamas-run health ministry says have lost their lives.

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Japan zoo investigates possible mass squirrel poisoning

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Dozens of the animals died after they were treated with anti-parasitic medicine

A Japanese zoo has launched an investigation after apparently killing 31 of its 40 squirrels by mistake with treatments meant to kill parasites, officials said.

Keepers at the Inokashira Park Zoo in Tokyo treated the animals with anti-parasitic medicine on 4 December as part of a sanitary precaution, while also spraying insecticide over their nest boxes.

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Rudy Giuliani’s lawyer tells court awarding millions of dollars in damages would be like ‘death penalty’ for his client – as it happened

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Plaintiff are seeking up to $43m in damages in defamation case and Giuliani’s lawyer tells court it would ‘be the end’ of him if he loses

Here is footage of Giuliani arriving for the defamation trial this morning:

The Department of Justice announced today that a 30-year-old New Hampshire man was arrested after threatening to kill attendees at a campaign event for Vivek Ramaswamy.

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EU agrees tough limits on police use of AI biometric surveillance

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Measure bans use of real-time data without judicial authorisation in nearly all circumstances and covers both public and private spaces

Police and national security bodies in the EU will be banned from using real-time biometric data driven by artificial intelligence in most circumstances without having judicial authorisation, it has emerged.

The measure was part of a historic agreement reached between the European parliament and EU member states on Friday after three days of negotiations. However, officials only revealed the operational details on Monday, as the final text will not be published until “a cleaning-up process” is complete.

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‘Putin must lose’: Zelenskiy arrives in US to try to save $61bn Ukraine aid package

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President to meet Joe Biden and senators, with Congress holding back support, but UK hints it will increase funding

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has flown to Washington DC in an attempt to rescue a critical $61bn military aid package, while the UK separately hinted that it could increase the value of the arms, ammunition and training that it donates to Kyiv.

Zelenskiy is due to meet the US president, Joe Biden, on Tuesday, as well as US senators and the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, at a time when Congress is holding up future American financial support for Kyiv’s war effort.

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Sciences Po director leaves role temporarily after domestic violence allegations

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Boss of elite French university Mathias Vicherat has been interviewed by police and denies claims against him

The director of once of France’s most prestigious higher education colleges, Sciences Po in Paris, is to stand down temporarily after being interviewed by police over accusations of domestic violence.

Mathias Vicherat said he would withdraw from his position for a period, the length of which was to be decided by the establishment’s governing bodies. He made the announcement after students at the college – whose alumni include Emmanuel Macron and several other presidents as well as prominent business leaders and top civil servants – staged a sit-in last week calling for his resignation.

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Donald Tusk vows to ‘chase away the evil’ after parliament backs him as new PM

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Former European Council leader will take power after incumbent Polish premier, Mateusz Morawiecki, lost confidence vote

Donald Tusk has pledged to “chase away the darkness … chase away the evil” of eight divisive years of national-conservative rule, after Poland’s parliament voted to back his nomination as the country’s new prime minister.

“I want to thank Polish women and men,” the former European council president said after Monday’s vote. “Thank you, Poland. This is a wonderful day, not for me, but for all those who have deeply believed over these years that things will get even better.”

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South African court rules government’s recognition of Zulu king was unlawful

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Cyril Ramaphosa ordered to set up inquiry into King Misuzulu Zulu’s accession amid dispute over process

A South African court has ruled that the government’s recognition of the king of the Zulu nation last year was unlawful, potentially setting off a new succession battle.

The Pretoria high court ordered the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, to set up an inquiry to investigate whether the tumultuous accession of King Misuzulu Zulu took place in line with customary laws.

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Gaza ceasefire negotiations unlikely to restart for weeks, diplomats say

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Second pause may rely upon Israel proving it has captured or killed some of Hamas’s senior operatives

Diplomats at the annual Doha Forum conference in Qatar have said they are not expecting any reopening of Gaza ceasefire talks for some weeks and say their resumption may turn on Israel being able to point to the killing or capture of some of Hamas’s key leaders as a sign that its military operation has achieved its purpose.

The US believes this can be achieved as early as Christmas, but different timeframes are circulating.

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MPs throw out French government’s immigration bill

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Unlikely alliance of opposition MPs deal humiliating defeat to Emmanuel Macron and Gérald Darmanin

Opposition MPs have succeeded in scuppering the French government’s highly controversial immigration bill by having it thrown out before any debate began.

In a humiliating defeat for Emmanuel Macron, a motion to reject the law – known as the Darmanin law after the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin – was passed on Monday by five votes.

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Elements of new Cop28 text are ‘fully unacceptable’, say EU climate chiefs – as it happened

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EU’s climate commissioner says there must be ‘deeper discussions with many other partners’. This live blog is closed

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has been speaking to reporters at Cop28, underlining the significance of the next few hours of negotiations.

“We are in a race against time. As I said at the opening of Cop28, our planet is minutes to midnight for the 1.5C limit. And the clock keeps ticking. Cop28 is scheduled to wrap up tomorrow, but there are still large gaps that need to be bridged. Now is the time for maximum ambition and maximum flexibility,” he said.

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Drug lords hunt corrupt police officers who stole shipment in Tijuana

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Two officers suspected of theft have been killed, prosecutors say, along with at least three others

A recent killing spree in the Mexican border city of Tijuana could have been lifted from a TV script: enraged drug lords hunting down corrupt police officers who stole a drug shipment.

Two of the officers suspected of the theft have been killed, prosecutors say. But so have at least three other officers, according to the city’s former police chief, suggesting the cartel believed to have owned the drugs may have launched a generalized retribution.

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Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘final’ film The Boy and the Heron hits No 1 at North American box office

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The Japanese director’s animation beats The Hunger Games prequel and Godzilla Minus One on its opening weekend in the US and Canada

The Boy and the Heron, reportedly the final film from Japanese master animator Hayao Miyazaki, has taken the number one spot at the box office on its North American release, as well as achieving record figures for the director.

Preliminary box office returns report that The Boy and the Heron took $12.8m in the US and Canada on its opening weekend, putting it a significant distance ahead of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which managed $9.4m. In third place was another Japanese film, the monster movie Godzilla Minus One, on $8.3m.

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Sweden demands immediate release of EU diplomat from Iran jail

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Johan Floderus has been held for more than 600 days and is facing trial on charges of spying for Israel

Sweden has demanded the immediate release of an EU diplomat who has been held in an Iranian jail for more than 600 days and is facing trial on charges of spying for Israel.

Ulf Kristersson, the Swedish prime minister, said on Monday that intensive work was under way to try to free Johan Floderus from Tehran’s Evin prison after Iran said on Sunday that a trial of the Swedish national had begun.

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Activists in Uganda finalise appeal to overturn draconian anti-gay law

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The legislation, blamed for a rise in violence, has prompted the US to impose visa restrictions on hundreds of Ugandans involved in enacting it

Civil society groups in Uganda will meet constitutional court judges this week as they attempt to overturn the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ+ law.

The law, which received overwhelming support from MPs when it was passed in March, imposes the death sentence and life imprisonment for certain homosexual acts.

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India’s supreme court upholds decision to strip Kashmir of special status

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Chief justice says government did not overreach its powers when it revoked autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019

India’s supreme court has ruled that the government acted lawfully when it revoked the autonomy of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and brought it directly under control of the centre.

Article 370, which for almost 70 years had enshrined special rights for Jammu and Kashmir outside the Indian constitution, was revoked by the government of Narendra Modi in August 2019 through a presidential order, with no consultation with the Kashmiri people.

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US will ‘lose face before world’ if it abandons Kyiv, says ex-Ukraine president

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Exclusive: Leonid Kuchma describes history behind Putin’s attack as new edition of his 2003 book Ukraine Is Not Russia is published

Ukraine’s former president Leonid Kuchma has warned that the US “will lose face before the entire world” if it abandons Kyiv, and said mistakes by the west contributed to Vladimir Putin’s all-out invasion last year.

In his first interview with a western publication since 2015, Kuchma described Putin as a career KGB operative. “It’s his profession, with everything that implies,” he said, adding: “People say his obsession with Ukraine is a kind of mania or mental disorder. Maybe it’s true.”

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Israel rejects claims it is trying to force Palestinians out of Gaza

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WHO chief says Gaza’s health system is ‘on its knees and collapsing’ amid intensifying ground offensive

Israel has rejected suggestions it is trying to force Palestinians out of Gaza as Arab leaders and aid officials warn its intensifying ground offensive could leave civilians with few other options.

Some of the heaviest close-quarters fighting in more than two months of conflict took place over the weekend, as the Israel Defense Forces tried to consolidate control of urban centres in northern Gaza and pursued Hamas leaders in the heart of the biggest city in the south, Khan Younis.

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