Donald Tusk expected to become Poland’s prime minister this week

Two months after opposition alliance won an electoral majority, his appointment will end eight years of nationalist rule

Donald Tusk is expected to become Poland’s prime minister this week, almost two months after a parliamentary election handed a majority to an alliance of opposition parties. His appointment will put an end to eight years of rule by the nationalist, populist Law and Justice (PiS) party.

The Tusk-led alliance won a clear majority of seats in the 15 October vote, but the country’s president, Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, gave incumbent prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, the first chance at forming a government, widely seen as a delaying tactic.

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Record low turnout as Hong Kong votes in ‘patriots’-only election

Voters shun district election after pro-democracy candidates were prevented from running

A “patriots only” district election in Hong Kong that barred opposition democrats from the ballot sheet amid a national security crackdown had a record low voter turnout of 27.5% as many voters spurned what was seen as an undemocratic poll.

The sharp slide in turnout since the last such election in 2019 comes after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law that has been used to clamp down on dissent, and overhauled the electoral system to shut out democrats and other liberals.

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Zelenskiy to visit Washington in bid to break Senate deadlock on Ukraine aid

Ukrainian leader invited by Joe Biden, as US president pressures Republican senators to back aid bill

US President Joe Biden has invited his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the White House, days after his administration warned it would run out of money for Ukraine aid in weeks unless feuding US lawmakers act.

The meeting on Tuesday is intended “to underscore the United States’ unshakeable commitment to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Russia’s brutal invasion,” the White House said in a statement Sunday.

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Britain delivers two mine-hunting ships to Ukraine

Move comes as defence secretary prepares to host Norwegian counterpart to discuss plans to help Kyiv

Britain has said it delivered two mine-hunting ships to Ukraine, as Grant Shapps prepares to host a visit from his Norwegian counterpart aimed at bolstering Kyiv’s fragile position in the Black Sea.

The summit in London is aimed at building a “maritime capability coalition” for Ukraine – but it will not be accompanied by an announcement of how much military aid the UK is prepared to provide Ukraine from April 2024.

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Trump says he won’t return to witness stand in $250m New York fraud trial

Former president, who was expected to take the stand, announced on Truth Social on Sunday that he already testified to everything

Donald Trump announced he would not take the witness stand for a second time at his fraud trial in New York on Monday, the former US president’s last chance to make his case as he combats a potential $250m fine that hangs over his family business.

Trump had been expected to take the stand again as the hearings draw to a close. But on Sunday he announced on the Truth Social site that he would no longer be making an appearance.

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Iran accuses Swedish EU diplomat of crime that carries the death penalty

Johan Floderus faces trial for ‘spying for Israel’ and ‘corruption on Earth’, one of Iran’s most serious offences

Iran has accused a Swedish EU diplomat held in a Tehran prison for more than 600 days of spying for Israel and “corruption on Earth”, a crime that carries the death penalty.

“Johan Floderus is accused of extensive measures against the security of the country, extensive intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime and corruption on Earth,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency said on Sunday.

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Javier Milei sworn in as president in ‘tipping point’ for Argentina

Radical libertarian likens his election to fall of Berlin Wall in inauguration speech with strong echoes of Trump’s 2017 address

Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei, has vowed to lead his country out of decades of “decadence and decline” but said its punishing economic crisis would intensify over the coming months, as a “who’s who” of the global far right assembled in Buenos Aires to celebrate the radical libertarian’s inauguration.

Addressing tens of thousands of supporters outside Argentina’s turquoise-domed neoclassical congress, Milei – a mercurial former TV celebrity known as El Loco or the Madman – compared his shock election with the start of the Soviet Union’s collapse.

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Biden under scrutiny after bypassing Congress to supply tank shells to Israel

Administration reportedly not carrying out continual assessments on whether war crimes being committed in Gaza

The Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza has come under intensified scrutiny after it revealed it had bypassed Congress to supply tank shells, and was reported not to be carrying out continual assessments of whether Israel was committing possible war crimes.

Israeli tanks were reported to have reached the centre of Khan Younis on Sunday, after battling through stiff resistance in the southern city which is overcrowded by civilians who have fled fighting in the north. Israeli airstrikes pounded the city blocks west of the frontline.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds call with Emmanuel Macron while he visits Argentina

Ukrainian president updates French president on military progress as he visits Argentina’s far-right populist as he is sworn in

The leader of the democratic opposition in Belarus, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, has said she is on her way to Brussels to address foreign ministers and take part in the EU-Belarus consultative group meeting.

“We will discuss legalisation issues, Lukashenko’s sham 2024 elections, stronger sanctions to help free political prisoners and strategies to counter Russia,” she wrote on X.

With the Kremlin in full control of state media and able to decide who can and cannot run, the Navalny camp says this is not a real election.

But it sees the 100-day campaign window as a rare opportunity to draw Russians into a political conversation and convince them that the Ukraine war and the economic strains it has brought are problems of Putin’s making.

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Cop28: ‘failure is not an option,’ says summit president – as it happened

Sultan Al Jaber calls for countries to come together amid disagreements over the future of climate action

China ‘would like to see agreement to substitute renewables for fossil fuels’

There is some more food-related news from the conference today, writes Fiona Harvey.

The Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation (ACF) launched on Sunday, a group that’s being called the “high ambition coalition for food”. It has Brazil, Sierra Leone and Norway as co-chairs, and other prominent members include Rwanda and Cambodia.

Strengthen national visions and food systems transformation pathways, inclusive of 10 priority action areas and consistent with science-based targets.

Update Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS),​​ and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) in line with these updated National Food System Transformation Pathways and/or Implementation Plans, by 2025 at the latest.

Report annually on targets and priority intervention areas

“Peasant family farmers, Indigenous and local communities, forest collectors, pastoralists, fisherfolk, and agricultural workers, are among the populations most harshly affected by climate change worldwide. Yet they are also the central actors who can sustainably transform food systems. Supporting their livelihoods through specifically tailored public policies is essential to achieve an agroecological transition towards healthy, resilient and sustainable food systems.”

Let’s face it: climate summits are broken. The delegates talk and talk, while Earth systems slide towards deadly tipping points. Since the climate negotiations began in 1992 more carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels has been released worldwide than in all preceding human history. This year is likely to set a new emissions record. They are talking us to oblivion.

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Qatar says ‘narrowing window’ for freeing more hostages held in Gaza – as it happened

This blog is now closed.

Mediation efforts are continuing to secure a new Gaza ceasefire and free more hostages held by Hamas despite the ongoing Israeli bombardment that is “narrowing the window” for a successful outcome, Qatar’s prime minister said Sunday.

“Our efforts as the state of Qatar along with our partners are continuing. We are not going to give up,” sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told the Doha Forum, adding that “the continuation of the bombardment is just narrowing this window for us”.

If Israel is above international law, sanctions should be put on it. Israel should not be allowed to continue violating international humanitarian law and international law.

Our main concern is not the day after. It is today. We want the stop of atrocities and genocide that is happening today.

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‘Come with solutions’: Cop28 president calls for compromise in final meetings

Sultan Al Jaber urges nations to be flexible as talks reach impasse over whether to phase out or phase down fossil fuels

Ministers and negotiators must come to the vital final meetings of Cop28 without prepared statements, without rigid red lines, and be prepared to compromise, the president of the UN climate summit has said.

Sultan Al Jaber, whose position is now pivotal to the talks as they enter their final days, on Sunday convened a majlis of all countries, a meeting in the traditional form of an elders’ conference in the United Arab Emirates.

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Revealed: the oldest black hole ever observed, dating to dawn of universe

Exclusive: astronomers surprised at size of 13bn-year-old object, which raises new questions about where black holes came from

Astronomers have detected the oldest black hole ever observed, dating back more than 13bn years to the dawn of the universe.

The observations, by the James Webb space telescope (JWST), reveal it to be at the heart of a galaxy 440m years after the big bang. At around a million times the mass of the sun, it is surprisingly big for a baby black hole, raising the question of how it grew so big so quickly.

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Iran stops Mahsa Amini’s family from travelling to receive human rights prize

Ban comes as jailed Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi begins new hunger strike before award ceremony

Iran has banned Mahsa Amini’s family from travelling to France to receive the EU’s top human rights prize on her behalf, as the family of the imprisoned Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi said she had begun a new hunger strike before Sunday’s award ceremony in Oslo.

In Mohammadi’s absence, her 17-year-old twin children, Ali and Kiana, will instead collect the award on her behalf, reading out a speech their mother smuggled out of her cell.

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Republicans to meet allies of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán on ending Ukraine aid

Hungarian appearance at two-day event part of Orbán’s transatlantic attempt to bolster Russia’s war

Allies of Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán will hold a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Washington to push for an end to US military support for Ukraine, the Guardian has learned.

Márton Ugrósdy, the deputy state secretary for the prime minister’s political director’s office, and Attila Demkó, a leading pro-Orbán academic, along with members of the Hungarian embassy in Washington, will on Monday begin a two-day event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank.

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Bank of England, Fed and ECB poised to leave interest rates on hold

Stubbornly high inflation forces central banks to avoid cuts, but markets expect falls next year

The western world’s largest central banks are poised to keep interest rates on hold this week amid concerns over stubbornly high inflation, despite growing expectations for sharp cuts in borrowing costs next year.

In a crunch week for the global economy, the US Federal Reserve, Bank of England (BoE) and European Central Bank are expected to keep interest rates at their current restrictively high levels to ensure inflation continues to fall back from the highest levels in decades.

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‘As a parent, I lost hope for justice’: family seeking answers over death of man on Del Monte farm

Kenyan parents of Peter Mutuku Mutisya claim his neck had marks like he had been strangled. No injuries were recorded on the official report

When Peter Mutuku Mutisya’s body was found floating in a dam on Del Monte’s farm in Kenya last month his family and friends had already been searching for days.

Mutisya, 25, worked as a chemical sprayer at the neighbouring farm and was relied on by his relatives, to whom he would offer lifts on his prized motorbike.

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Groundbreaking graphic novel on Gaza rushed back into print 20 years on

When Joe Sacco created Palestine no one knew what ‘comics journalism’ was. Now his pioneering book has eager new readers

An acclaimed nonfiction graphic novel about Gaza, which pioneered the medium of “comics journalism”, has been rushed back into print after surging demand since the fresh outbreak of the conflict two months ago.

Palestine, by Joe Sacco, was originally released in comic book form by the American publisher Fantagraphics 30 years ago, then published as a single volume by the company, and by Jonathan Cape in the UK in 2003.

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Human rights groups investigate death at Kenyan Del Monte pineapple farm

Exclusive: Inquiry comes after discovery of body of Peter Mutuku Mutisya, 25, in a dam on the plantation

Human rights groups are investigating a death at a Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya after a man’s body was found in a dam there last month.

The body of Peter Mutuku Mutisya, 25, was discovered floating in the dam on Del Monte’s plantation near Thika on 17 November, four days after friends said he had gone there to steal pineapples.

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UN chief vows to go on seeking ceasefire in Gaza despite US veto

António Guterres says UN has no clear route map to stop conflict and world institutions are ‘caught in a time warp’

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has vowed he will not give up seeking a ceasefire in Gaza after the US wielded its veto to block the move at the security council on Friday, leaving the UN without a clear route map to stop the conflict lasting many months.

Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar, Guterres did not directly criticise the US in his address but said the security council was “paralysed by geostrategic divisions”. He added world institutions “are weak and outdated, caught in a time warp reflecting a reality of 80 years ago”.

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