Category Archives: World News

Netanyahu avoids political rebellion over Hamas hostage deal but ally calls it ‘immoral’

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Israel’s prime minister facing pressure from all sides as some say ceasefire agreement does not go far enough

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has managed to avert a wider rebellion over the Gaza deal with Hamas among his far-right coalition partners even as Itamar Ben-Gvir, the firebrand national security minister, called it immoral.

Three ministers, all from Ben-Gvir’s far-right Jewish Power party, oppose the deal but members of the equally hardline Religious Zionist party were persuaded to support the deal after heated exchanges in an Israeli cabinet meeting late on Tuesday night.

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Over 100 Palestinians reported killed in Gaza as attack continues despite ceasefire deal

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Houses in centre of strip said to have been targeted, killing 81, with 60 more believed dead in north

More than 100 Palestinians in Gaza were reported killed on Wednesday as Israeli forces continued attacking across the strip from land, sea and air hours after the agreement for a ceasefire to begin on Thursday.

Wafa, a Palestinian news agency, said 81 people had been killed since midnight as houses were targeted in the centre of the strip. A further 60 were believed to be dead after bombing in and around the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north.

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Eurozone banks starting to show ‘stress’ as loan defaults rise, ECB warns

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Rising interest rates have boosted profitability but are likely to limit demand and increase risk of bad debts, says central bank

The balance sheets of eurozone banks are showing “early signs of stress” after a rise in loan defaults and late payments by customers, the European Central Bank has warned.

Higher interest rates have boosted banks’ income and profits for the time being, the ECB said, but lenders are facing pressures from higher funding costs, worsening asset quality and lower lending volumes.

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West risks being complicit in Israeli war crimes, warn Arab and Muslim foreign ministers

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Delegation says west is allowing collective punishment of people of Gaza unless it demands Israel allow more aid into territory

The western powers on the UN security council face a choice of either demanding Israel lift its stranglehold on humanitarian aid into Gaza or being complicit in Israeli war crimes and collective punishment, foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim countries said on a visit to London on Wednesday.

The ministers are lobbying the five permanent members of the security council – China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US – to back a humanitarian resolution instructing Israel to allow UN agencies, and not the Israel Defense Forces, to check aid going through the Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza. They say the proposal is in line with practice in Syria, and reflects their concern that Israel is determined to depopulate Gaza slowly by making it uninhabitable.

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Sikh activist accuses India of ‘transnational terrorism’ after US foils plot to kill him

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Gurpatwant Singh Pannun makes comments after Washington raised concerns Indian government may known of plot

A prominent Sikh activist who was reportedly the target of a foiled assassination attempt on US soil has accused India of “transnational terrorism” after Washington raised concerns the Indian government may have had knowledge of the plot.

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that the US had thwarted the plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American and Canadian citizen, after the June murder of another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a Vancouver suburb.

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Xi critic who fled on jetski to South Korea will die if sent back to China, says father

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Fears South Korean court will impose harsh penalty on Kwon Pyong to appease Beijing

The father of a Chinese dissident detained in South Korea said his son will die if he is sent back to China, a country he escaped from on a jetski in a life-threatening journey in August.

A court in South Korea will decide on Thursday the fate of Kwon Pyong, who is charged with violating the immigration control act. Kwon, 35, pleaded guilty and appealed for leniency as prosecutors requested a sentence of two and a half years, which experts say is unusually harsh.

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Gaza ceasefire deal brings relief but little hope of durable peace

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Israeli military and intelligence services reported to have backed deal but are clearly committed to continuing efforts to ‘crush’ Hamas

Very many people – in Israel, the occupied territories, the Middle East and well beyond – will feel immense relief at the news of a ceasefire and hostage deal.

But the provisional nature of the pause in the Israeli offensive into Gaza combined with the number of captives remaining with Hamas mean any hopes of a definitive end to hostilities remain tragically slender.

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New Karate Kid movie with Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan in the works

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A global casting call from the two actors – looking for a new teenage star – suggests the separate strands of the series will be brought together

Following the success of the TV series Cobra Kai, a new Karate Kid movie featuring Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan has been announced, along with a global casting call to find a teenage star for the film.

Macchio, who starred in the first three Karate Kid movies between 1984 and 1989 before returning to anchor Cobra Kai which first aired in 2018, and Chan, who appeared in the 2010 reboot starring Jaden Smith, appeared together in a short video to make the announcement. The casting notice suggested the film will also feature a new character called Li Fong, who is “Chinese or mixed-race Chinese [aged] between 15-17 years old [and] speaks fluent English”. The website added: “Conversational Mandarin is a strong plus. He’s smart, scrappy and a skilled martial artist.”

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Hunger crisis threatens Chad as funding for food aid falters

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World Food Programme warns it will stop helping to feed 1.4 million people including refugees from Darfur as global demand for assistance increases

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that food aid for 1.4 million people in Chad faces a “looming halt” because there is no money, even as the country is experiencing an influx of refugees from the fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Funding shortfalls and increasing humanitarian needs mean WFP will have to pause food for millions of displaced people and refugees in Nigeria, Central African Republic and Cameroon from December, the agency said.

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Myanmar fighting at its worst since 2021 coup, says UN

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Widespread escalation in violence across number of states poses greatest challenge yet to military rule

Myanmar is gripped by the worst escalation in violence since the military seized power in a coup almost three years ago, the UN has said, with intense clashes taking place across a number of states and regions.

The UN said an escalation in the fighting that began late in October was “the largest in scale and most extensive geographically” since the military coup, and has affected swathes of the country.

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Coldplay concert to go ahead in Malaysia amid opposition from conservative Muslims

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‘Kill switch’ to cut power in case of an ‘unwanted incident’ was discussed, but the band’s support of Palestine has endeared them to prime minister

A Coldplay concert is going ahead in Malaysia on Wednesday despite opposition from conservative Muslims in the country, but the band could face a “kill switch” that cuts off the show if they seriously offend cultural sensibilities.

Following outcry over a same-sex kiss between members of the 1975 at a Kuala Lumpur concert in July, earlier this month deputy communications and digital minister Teo Nie Ching introduced a ruling that concert organisers must have “a kill switch that will cut off electricity during any performance if there is any unwanted incident”.

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Fiji may partner with China to upgrade ports and shipyards, PM Rabuka says

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Fijian leader ‘anticipates collaboration’ with Beijing on projects amid rising concern over China’s ambitions in Pacific

China may help Fiji develop its ports and shipyards, the Pacific island country’s prime minister said, raising the prospect of stronger ties with Beijing in a key area of its economy.

Prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka, who has been cautious about China’s expanding security footprint in the Pacific, praised Beijing’s record of aid to Fiji in fighting Covid-19, developing agriculture and revamping infrastructure.

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Pakistan under fire for ‘shocking’ $830 exit fee for refugees who fled Taliban

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Afghans waiting to be resettled in the UK and other western countries face steep charge in ‘unprecedented’ move

Pakistan’s decision to impose hundreds of dollars in exit fees for every Afghan refugee who fled the persecution by the Taliban has been condemned as “shocking and frustrating” by western diplomats and the UN.

The “unprecedented” move targets refugees who are waiting to leave Pakistan for western countries under resettlement schemes, and charges about $830 (£660) for each person.

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Hong Kong land sales wobble, exposing cracks in city’s finances

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Despite historical high demand for homes due to the territory’s size, the economic downturn has resulted in a glut of unsold flats

Hong Kong’s once-lucrative land market looks to be in trouble after a series of unsuccessful tenders for government plots cast a shadow over the city’s finances.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong’s largest public transport company, the MTR Corporation, revealed that it had received no proposals for a joint development project in Tung Chung, a residential town next to Hong Kong airport.

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Sweden must join Nato soon to ward off Russian threat, says defence minister

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Exclusive: Pål Jonson unable to give timeline for completion of membership process but confident it will happen

Sweden must become a full member of the Nato military alliance “as fast as possible” to ward off the threat from Russia, the country’s defence minister has said, as impatience builds in Stockholm over its slow path to accession.

Pål Jonson said that he was unable to put a timeline on the completion of Sweden’s Nato approval process buthe was confident that Turkey and Hungary, the two remaining members left to ratify the country’s membership, would do so eventually.

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Netherlands set for first new prime minister in 13 years as voters head to polls

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Polls open for general election in the Netherlands, with four parties – ranging from left to far right – vying to take most votes

Dutch voters are voting in a knife-edge general election that will usher in the country’s first new prime minister in 13 years, with four parties from left to far right vying to become the largest in parliament.

From the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam to the islands of the Dutch Caribbean, more than 13 million voters will cast their ballot between 7.30am and 9pm in elections that could set the country on a different course after Mark Rutte’s four consecutive governments.

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When is a car not a car? When it’s a Swedish A-traktor

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Vehicles modified to not go above 19mph became a teenage rite of passage, but amid a rise in accidents, there are calls for a ban

It began as an agricultural necessity and grew into a beloved rite of passage for teenagers in rural Sweden. Invented in the early 1900s by farmers who were short on equipment, the A-traktor lives on as the vehicle of choice for motorists as young as 15.

But the cars, which are supposed to have been modified to have a maximum speed of 30km/h (19mph), are increasingly causing concern. Guidance introduced in 2020 made it easier to convert almost any car into an A-traktor and the change appears to have led to a sharp rise in related injuries and deaths.

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North Korea’s spy satellite is a big deal, regardless of how advanced its technology is

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Rocket launch underlines Kim Jong-un’s ability to sidestep UN sanctions and suggests ballistic missile building abilities have reached a higher level

North Korea is already believed to be capable of striking the US mainland with a nuclear weapon; now it claims that it can spy on enemy troops, after state media reported the regime’s first successful launch of a surveillance satellite, drawing an immediate response from South Korea.

While Japan, South Korea and the US could not immediately confirm if the satellite’s payload had entered orbit late on Tuesday, a North Korean presence in space would add to military tensions on the peninsula and highlight the ineffectiveness of international sanctions.

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Israel-Hamas war: son of senior Hezbollah lawmaker killed in strike on Lebanon border – as it happened

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This blog has now closed. You can read our full report on the latest news here

Here is everything we know about the deal to release hostages from Gaza, pause fighting for four days and release Palestinian prisoners:

US President Joe Biden has released a statement welcoming the deal for a pause in fighting and the release of hostages and prisoners. Biden thanks, “Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar and President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt for their critical leadership and partnership in reaching this deal”.

I welcome the deal to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist group Hamas during its brutal assault against Israel on October 7th.

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I thank Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar and President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt for their critical leadership and partnership in reaching this deal. And I appreciate the commitment that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government have made in supporting an extended pause to ensure this deal can be fully carried out and to ensure the provision of additional humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering of innocent Palestinian families in Gaza. […] It is important that all aspects of this deal be fully implemented.

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Today’s deal should bring home additional American hostages, and I will not stop until they are all released.

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Israel and Hamas agree deal for release of some hostages and four-day ceasefire

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Fifty Israeli hostages held in Gaza will be freed over four days in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners and a lull in Israeli military operations

Israel and Hamas have agreed a deal for the release of 50 women and children hostages held in Gaza in return for 150 Palestinian women and children to be freed from Israeli jails during a four-day ceasefire, both sides announced on Wednesday morning.

The deal was confirmed by a senior US official, who told reporters that the freed hostages would include three Americans, one of them a three year-old girl. The official said that the first hostage release is expected on Thursday morning, and the total number of hostages freed could rise.

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