Category Archives: World News

Keir Starmer bruised in fight with Labour party he did not want

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Critics say Labour leader missed chance to sound more sympathetic to Palestinian suffering and accept that a Gaza ceasefire call was implied

For the last few weeks, Keir Starmer has been trying to avoid a confrontation with his party over Gaza. With dozens of MPs preparing to rebel and vote for the Scottish National party’s amendment calling for a ceasefire in the region, the Labour leader and his top team held a series of difficult meetings as they tried to thrash out a compromise.

The rebels suggested Labour submitted an amendment of their own, which Starmer agreed to. But they were also desperate for him to use the word “ceasefire”, and on that point he refused to budge.

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Israel says body of hostage recovered near al-Shifa hospital

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Yehudit Weiss, abducted from Be’eri kibbutz by Hamas, found dead in building next to hospital after raid

The Israeli military has recovered the body of an Israeli hostage from a building near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, as soldiers continued to search the hospital complex after Wednesday’s early morning raid.

Yehudit Weiss, a 65-year-old woman, was abducted from the Be’eri kibbutz by Hamas militants during their attack on southern Israel on 7 October, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 taken hostage. She had been undergoing cancer treatment.

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IDF says it has found Hamas tunnel shaft at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza

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Israeli military also claims to have uncovered a vehicle with weapons belonging to the group

The Israeli military said late on Thursday that it uncovered a Hamas tunnel shaft and a vehicle with weapons at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital complex.

“In the Shifa hospital, IDF [Israel Defense Forces] troops found an operational tunnel shaft and a vehicle containing a large number of weapons,” the military said.

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Starmer facing more frontbench resignations if Gaza policy does not change

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Exclusive: Labour leader is target of growing anger in party over how he has handled vote on Israel-Hamas war

Keir Starmer faces more resignations from Labour’s frontbench if he does not shift his policy on Gaza, amid growing anger in the party over how he has handled the vote on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The Labour leader suffered the biggest rebellion of his tenure on Wednesday night as 10 frontbenchers resigned or were sacked from his team after voting for a Scottish National party motion that called for a ceasefire.

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Peers and MPs pledge to block Sunak’s Rwanda plan as Braverman labels it ‘magical thinking’

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Fast-track bill, after supreme court ruling barring deportation flights, would be ‘wildly unpopular legislation’ says Tory peer

Rishi Sunak’s target of flying out asylum seekers to Rwanda by next spring is in doubt, with opposition parties and some Conservative peers having pledged to try to block emergency legislation intended to rescue the plan.

In another blow to the prime minister, Suella Braverman, the home secretary that Sunak sacked on Monday, dismissed his ideas as “magical thinking”, setting out her own rival plan to make sure removals begin swiftly.

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Canadian man convicted of murdering Muslim family in 2021 truck attack

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Nathaniel Veltman found guilty on four counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder over London, Ontario, attack

The Canadian man who killed four members of a Muslim family, has been found guilty on four charges of first degree and one count of attempted murder, in a case that tested how the country’s terror laws might prosecute far-right extremism.

The jury took around six hours to convict Nathaniel Veltman, who faces a life imprisonment sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. Justice Renee Pomerance will determine whether Veltman’s actions meet the threshold for terrorism when she issues her sentencing.

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Protesters urging Gaza ceasefire accuse Washington police of violence

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Ceasefire Now Coalition says 90 activists injured by police using violent tactics to break up protest outside DNC headquarters

Protesters against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza were locked in a battle of words with Washington police on Thursday after accusing officers of violently breaking up a demonstration on Capitol Hill that organisers insist was peaceful.

Leaders of the Ceasefire Now Coalition said 90 of their activists were injured in confrontations that took place after they staged a candlelit vigil outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters on Wednesday evening.

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Georgia judge in Trump case rules to block release of ‘sensitive’ material

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Fulton county’s Scott McAfee issues order after outlets published details of videotaped statements from former Trump lawyers

The Fulton county judge overseeing the 2020 election subversion case against Donald Trump and his top allies in Georgia issued on Thursday a protective order against the release of certain discovery materials, ruling that further leaks of evidence could taint the jury pool before trial.

The order entered by the Fulton county superior court judge Scott McAfee came after media outlets published details of videotaped statements that the former Trump lawyers Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro gave as part of their plea deals.

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Argentinian ex-officer who was charged over 23 murders dies in Berlin

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Luis Kyburg was alleged commander of Argentinian navy unit believed responsible for deaths of at least 150 people

An Argentinian former military officer has died of natural causes in Berlin just weeks before he was charged over the murder of 23 members of leftwing groups during the country’s military dictatorship.

The 75-year-old ex-navy officer was suspected in the abduction, disappearance, torture and murder of 23 young people in 1976 and 1977, Berlin prosecutors said.

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EU foreign affairs chief tells Israel not to be ‘consumed by rage’ in response to Hamas attacks

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Josep Borrell says ‘one horror does not justify another’ and calls for unconditional release of hostages

The EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, has urged Israel not to be “consumed by rage” in its response to the Hamas attacks of 7 October as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, acknowledged splits in Europe on the conflict.

Speaking from Kibbutz Be’eri – where at least 85 of the 1,200 people killed that day died and from where about 30 of the more than 240 were kidnapped – Borrell said “Israel must be defended”, but, “one horror does not justify another: innocent civilians, including thousands of children, have died in recent weeks.

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Sánchez prepares for fraught second term as PM after Catalan amnesty

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Spanish leader’s deal with Catalan separatists has sparked huge protests and outrage from rightwing parties

Pedro Sánchez is preparing for a fraught and turbulent second term as Spain’s prime minister after his socialist party regained power by agreeing to a deeply controversial amnesty for Catalan separatists that has infuriated rightwing parties and led to huge protests across the country.

The investiture vote on Thursday came almost four months after an inconclusive snap election in July in which Sánchez’s governing Spanish Socialist Workers party (PSOE), was narrowly defeated by its conservative rivals in the People’s party (PP).

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David Cameron in Ukraine on first mission as UK foreign secretary

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Zelenskiy hails surprise visit after Cameron pledges to continue UK military support

David Cameron has travelled to Kyiv for his first trip as UK foreign secretary in an unannounced visit just days after his surprise appointment, but did not make any significant announcement about fresh military aid.

As he met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Thursday, Cameron pledged that long-term British support for Ukraine would continue.

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Russian artist jailed for seven years over Ukraine war price tag protest

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Aleksandra Skochilenko replaced five supermarket price tags with pieces of paper urging shoppers to stop the war

A Russian court has sentenced a St Petersburg artist to seven years in prison in a closely watched trial that has highlighted the severe punishments meted out to ordinary Russians for even small acts of civil protest against the invasion of Ukraine.

Aleksandra “Sasha” Skochilenko, an artist, musician and activist, was found guilty on Thursday of “knowingly spreading false information about the Russian army” in March 2022. The artist replaced five price tags in a local supermarket with pieces of paper urging shoppers to stop the war and resist propaganda on television.

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Tensions build behind the scenes between US and Israel over Gaza

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Western officials continue to ask searching questions about future strategy as diplomatic pressure mounts

• US wasn’t always Israel’s strongest ally – what changed and why?

On the surface, Joe Biden gave Israel a clear green light to continue its military campaign in Gaza on Wednesday night, and endorsed its claim that Hamas has been using the al-Shifa hospital as a command and control headquarters.

His remarks in San Francisco after a meeting with Xi Jinping will delight Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

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Israel drops leaflets warning people to flee southern Gaza towns

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Flyer campaign raises fears war could spread to areas IDF previously said were safe

Israel has dropped leaflets into southern Gaza telling Palestinian civilians to leave four towns on the eastern edge of Khan Younis, raising fears that its war against Hamas could spread to areas it previously said were safe.

The flyers told civilians in Bani Shuhaila, Khuza’a, Abassan and al-Qarara that anyone in the vicinity of militants or their positions was “putting his life in danger”, local people told Reuters.

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Mexican president’s popularity soars even as country faces persistent turmoil

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Amlo’s pension program helped boost his approval rating, but critics point to his various shortcomings as his term nears its end

Life isn’t easy for Teodila Faustino, who shares a cinder-block home with her husband, five children and several grandchildren on the outskirts of Mexico City. At 69, she has retired from the restaurant where she made about $50 (£46) a week, and her employer left her no pension.

Other than selling tacos occasionally on the street, Faustino’s only lifeline is a state pension through which she receives about $280 (£224) every two months. This, in part, explains her undying gratitude to the man who launched the program: Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

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China praises ‘warm’ Xi-Biden meeting in change of rhetoric

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Foreign ministry says US and China have ‘most important bilateral relationship in the world’ after leaders’ talks

China has praised the “warm” meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in California, in a marked shift of rhetoric after months of negotiations aimed at restabilising what has been a testy relationship.

A readout from China’s foreign ministry said the US-China relationship was “the most important bilateral relationship in the world” and that “a stable and growing China is good for the United States and the whole world”.

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Cleverly ‘determined’ to get removal flight to Rwanda before general election

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Home secretary says legally binding treaty will be drafted ‘within days’ despite policy being ruled unlawful

Ministers are “absolutely determined” to get a removal flight to Rwanda off before the next election, and will finish drafting a legally binding treaty with the country “within days”, the home secretary, James Cleverly, has said, after the policy was ruled unlawful.

Cleverly, who was made home secretary in the reshuffle earlier this week, said the controversial policy was already having “a deterrent effect” on people smugglers.

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Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez wins new term as Spanish PM following election gamble – as it happened

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MPs vote Sánchez in for second term by 179 votes to 171 but People’s Party says result comes after ‘huge assault on the rule of law’

The conservative People’s party (PP) is continuing its criticism of Pedro Sánchez inside and outside congress, hammering him for his deals with Junts and the ERC.

This is what the PP’s secretary general, Cuca Gamarra, just told the COPE radio station:

The problem our country has is called Pedro Sánchez. Pedro Sánchez is the problem because we’re talking about a politician who is capable of doing anything in his own interest and in order to remain in government in Spain. To get the seven votes he needed after losing the [general] election, he’s gone as far as signing and saying he’s going to deliver an impunity law in return for his investiture. There’s no doubt whatsoever that the danger Spain and our coexistence is facing is called Pedro Sánchez. That’s what we’re talking about.

The investiture isn’t happening today or yesterday – it’s already a done deal that was agreed outside Spain, in Waterloo.

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Israel-Hamas war live: UN agency says no aid deliveries into Gaza from tomorrow; Gaza hospital completely shut down, announces director

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All communications are down in Gaza because of lack of fuel, UNRWA says; Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza has been completely shut down

Thai Muslim politicians said they had received assurances from Hamas that all of the Thai hostages being held would be among those released if mediators succeed in brokering a truce in Gaza, Reuters reports.

The Islamist militants took an estimated 240 people hostage on 7 October, and Thailand’s foreign ministry says 25 Thais were among those abducted, and 39 were among those killed that day.

Any ceasefire either three days or five days … Hamas will release hostages, including all Thais being held, which they promised.

This could be in less than 10 days or in the next two to three days.

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