Category Archives: World News

Hospital damage in Gaza during Israeli offensive – a visual investigation

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Study covering period in late October and early November shows damage to 10 hospitals and health facilities
• Warning: this article contains images and videos some may find distressing.

An investigation has revealed the damage caused to hospitals, health facilities and ambulances in the northern Gaza Strip over 21 days in the course of the Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

The Guardian collected and analysed more than 200 pieces of evidence including videos, photos, news footage and satellite imagery from between approximately 21 October and 11 November, and spoke to international humanitarian organisations, to investigate the damage caused to 10 of Gaza’s hospitals and health facilities. Of the 10, only two are functioning.

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Iceland boss hits out at parent ‘exploitation’ in baby milk market

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Richard Walker calls for price cap on infant formula as competition watchdog finds evidence of greedflation

The boss of Iceland has hit out at “exploitation” of new parents and joined calls for a price cap on baby formula after the competition watchdog found evidence of greedflation by leading manufacturers.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Wednesday revealed manufacturers had increased prices by more than their costs during the inflation crisis, fattening profit margins and imposing an average 25% increase on shoppers in two years. It warned competition could be hampered because the market is dominated by two companies, Danone and Nestlé, which between them account for 85% of sales.

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Spanish police investigate deaths of four migrants forced off speedboat

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Vessel was near Andalucían shore when passengers, believed to be from north Africa, were apparently pushed overboard

Spanish police have opened an inquiry after four people were killed as a result of being forced out of a moving speedboat into the sea just metres from the southern shores of Andalucía.

In a tactic the EU border agency has said is becoming increasingly common, the people who died on Wednesday were among 27 passengers apparently forced off the fast-moving vessel by its drivers near Camposoto beach in the province of Cádiz, officials said. Another eight were left near Sancti Petri beach.

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Nan Goldin named art world’s most influential figure

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Photographer and campaigner against Sackler family tops ArtReview Power 100 list

Nan Goldin, the pioneering photographer and campaigner against the billionaires who fuelled the US opioid epidemic, has topped an annual ranking of the contemporary art world’s most influential people and organisations.

Goldin, 70, took the number one spot on the ArtReview Power 100 list. This year, for the first time, the top 10 is made up entirely of artists who use their work and platforms to intervene in the pressing social and political issues of the current moment.

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Forty years on, can legacy of pioneering anti-racism march help a divided France?

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After recovering from being shot by police in 1983, Toumi Djaïdja led a protest historians say must be written into the nation’s narrative

When Toumi Djaïdja, a 20-year-old youth worker, was shot by police as he helped a teenager who had been bitten by a dog, he did not know it would change the course of French history.

It was 1983, when France was plagued by numerous racist murders of people of north African background, amid anger on housing estates and allegations of police violence. Already, Djaïdja, from an Algerian family on the Minguettes housing estate in Vénissieux outside Lyon, had held a sit-in and a hunger-strike for equal rights and an end to clashes between police and youths.

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Latin America remembers Kissinger’s ‘profound moral wretchedness’

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US statesman’s encouragement of Pinochet’s coup in Chile and his backing for Argentina’s military dictatorship left lasting stain

Henry Kissinger’s death has brought out some bitter epitaphs from Latin America where the legacy of US intervention helped saddle the region with some of the most brutal military regimes of the 20th century.

Nowhere has been the reaction been more damning than in Chile, where Kissinger was instrumental in the 1973 coup that led to the death of a democratically elected socialist president, Salvador Allende and the installation of a dictator, Gen Augusto Pinochet, and his military junta.

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Paraguay official resigns after signing agreement with fictional country

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Arnaldo Chamorro replaced after he signed ‘proclamation’ with representatives of fugitive Indian guru’s fake country

A Paraguayan government official has been replaced after it was revealed that he signed a memorandum of understanding with representatives of a fugitive Indian guru’s fictional country, who also appear to have duped several other officials in the South American country.

Arnaldo Chamorro was replaced as chief of staff for Paraguay’s agriculture ministry on Wednesday shortly after it was revealed that he signed a “proclamation” with representatives of the United States of Kailasa.

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Astronomers spot ‘overweight’ planet that appears too big for tiny host star

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Fact that planet 13 times bigger than Earth is orbiting star nine times smaller than sun shows ‘how little we know about the universe’

Astronomers have spotted an “overweight” planet that appears to be far too massive for its petite host star.

The planet, which is 13 times bigger than Earth, is orbiting a star called LHS 3154, which is nine times smaller than the sun. The planet’s heft is unremarkable in its own right, but its pairing with an ultracool dwarf star, the smallest and coldest stars in the universe, has puzzled scientists.

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French-Israeli woman seen in Hamas hostage video is freed

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Mia Schem was abducted from music festival on 7 October; lawyer Amit Soussana has also been released

Mia Schem, a French-Israeli woman who was abducted from the Supernova music festival in Israel and shown in the first Hamas video of a hostage speaking from captivity, has been released.

She was one of eight hostages released in two tranches on Thursday.

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Nine men to be tried for murder of Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries

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Hearing to start in January in case of journalist shot in the street in 2021 who was adviser to a witness in trial of a Dutch drug baron

Nine men suspected of the murder of prominent Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries will go on trial in January, a Dutch court has announced, with a verdict expected by the summer.

De Vries was gunned down on a busy Amsterdam street on 6 July 2021, shortly after leaving a TV studio where he had appeared as a guest on a programme.

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Israeli assault on southern Gaza could lead to 1m refugees, UNRWA chief warns

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Philippe Lazzarini urges Israel to think of consequences of offensive if truce is not further extended

An Israeli military assault into the south of Gaza may lead to 1 million refugees, the head of the UN’s Palestine relief agency UNRWA has warned.

After a second overnight visit to Gaza where he met overwhelmed Palestinians, Philippe Lazzarini urged Israel to think through the consequences of an offensive in the south if the temporary truce in the fighting is not extended.

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Praise and criticism as world reacts to death of Henry Kissinger

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Vladimir Putin among those offering condolences and praising former US secretary of state, amid division over legacy

World leaders have offered condolences and praise for Henry Kissinger, a former US secretary of state, who died on Wednesday at the age of 100, as his death elicited sharply divided responses over his legacy.

Kissinger shared the 1973 Nobel peace prize for his role in negotiating an end to the Vietnam war but his foreign policy efforts in support of US interests were controversial, and his involvement in foreign conflicts and in overthrowing democratically elected governments around the world saw him branded by opponents as a war criminal.

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European officials ‘deeply concerned’ for Muslims amid surge in attacks

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Representatives from 10 countries sign statement warning of rising hate crimes against Muslims and Jews

Anti-racism officials across Europe have called on law enforcement agencies to remain alert for hate crimes against Muslims and “spare no effort” to protect them, in one of the first statements aimed at addressing a rise in Islamophobia amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The statement, signed by representatives from 10 European countries as well as EU officials, notes the rising number of hate crimes, hate speech and threats to civil liberties that have targeted Muslim and Jewish communities across Europe in recent months. Both “have become targets of physical and verbal attacks”, with people feeling “more and more unsafe and threatened, online and offline”, it read.

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Younger Britons are more pro-EU but ‘fixing’ Brexit not their priority

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Ursula von der Leyen hopes young people can drive a rapprochement but polls show they have other things on their minds

“We goofed it up, you have to fix it,” the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Tuesday in a message to the younger generation about Brexit.

Fixing it would be “the direction of travel” with regard to the UK rejoining the EU, she told an audience in Brussels. But as the fourth anniversary of Brexit approaches, is it likely that Britain’s millennials and generation Z will demand a rapprochement?

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Pharrell Williams takes Louis Vuitton to Hong Kong for his second men’s show

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Creative director targets east Asia’s luxury market as his preppy streetwear is given a tropical twist

For his first show as men’s creative director of Louis Vuitton in June, Pharrell Williams closed down the Pont Neuf in Paris, and counted mega-celebrities including Beyoncé and Jay-Z, and Rihanna and A$AP Rocky as guests.

His second effort took place in Hong Kong and focused on local stars in the front row. The actors Zhu Yilong and Chow Yun-fat were joined by three members of the Cantopop band Mirror and the rapper Tyson Yoshi. There was also a take on celestial stars, with a light show at the end rendering the Louis Vuitton monogram in twinkling lights across the city’s harbour.

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‘Contrary to government policy’: India responds to US assassination plot claims

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US justice department alleges Indian agent directed plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun

The Indian government has responded to allegations by the US Department of Justice that an Indian agent attempted to assassinate a Sikh separatist on US soil, stating that such a crime would be “contrary to government policy”.

The DoJ indictment, which was made public on Wednesday, included damning details regarding the alleged attempted assassination of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US citizen, by an Indian intelligence officer referred to only as CC-1.

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LGBTQ+ couple in Nepal are first in south Asia to be legally married

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Rights activists say marriage of Maya Gurung, a transgender woman, and Surendra Pandey is ‘historic day’

An LGBTQ+ couple in Nepal have said they want to “scream to the world that we are husband and wife at last” after becoming the first in south Asia to have their marriage legally recognised.

Maya Gurung, 38, a transgender woman, and Surendra Pandey, 27, were given a legal certificate in Nepal’s Lamjung district on Wednesday.

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‘We haven’t slept a wink’: families welcome freed Thai hostages home

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Tears and joy as 17 Thai nationals who were seized in Hamas attacks on Israel land in Bangkok

Pornsawan Pinakalo’s three great aunts would not have missed his return for the world. Kularb Pinakalo’s knees couldn’t quite get her up to the room in Bangkok airport where her nephew was meeting other family members for the first time since being taken hostage in Gaza. But after travelling for four hours by van to the Thai capital, the 63-year-old was ready and waiting for him to emerge in the arrivals hall, alongside 84-year-old Nangnoi Pattataysan and Noi Prakobkan, 82.

“I just want to give him a hug,” Kularb said. She was so overwhelmed that she could hardly think of what to say to him, she added.

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Russia outlaws ‘international LGBT public movement’ as extremist

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Human rights activists say supreme court’s vague wording provides wide scope for persecution

Russia’s supreme court has outlawed what it called an “international LGBT public movement” as extremist, in a landmark ruling that representatives of gay and transgender people warn will lead to arrests and prosecutions of the already repressed LGBTQ+ community.

The ruling in effect outlaws LGBTQ+ activism in a country growing increasingly conservative since the start of the war in Ukraine. The “extremist” label could mean that gay, lesbian, transgender or queer people living in Russia could receive lengthy prison sentences if deemed by the authorities to be part of the so called “international LGBT public movement”.

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Climate crisis a ‘substantial risk’ to fight against malaria, says WHO

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New report says disease-carrying mosquitoes thrive in rising temperatures, leading to transmission in hitherto unaffected areas

The climate crisis poses a major threat to the fight against malaria, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with evidence suggesting extreme weather events and rising temperatures have already led to spikes in cases.

Mosquitoes, the carriers of the disease, thrive in warm, damp and humid conditions, which are increasing with global heating.

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