Category Archives: World News

Ukraine troops defend vital foothold on Russian-controlled Dnipro River

Posted on by

Beachhead established on occupied side of river could allow Kyiv forces to reclaim more of Kherson region

A handful of Ukrainian troops who have reached the occupied side of the Dnipro River are clinging to a foothold in Russian-controlled territory in the south of the country despite a fierce bombardment.

The marines have secured a beachhead that could allow Ukraine to reclaim more of the Kherson region that lies between Ukrainian territory and Crimea, seized by Russia in 2014, a fillip for a counter-offensive showing few gains elsewhere, but only if they can find a way to bring armoured vehicles and heavy weapons across the wide river separating the two militaries.

Continue reading...

Blinken to urge Israel to show restraint in campaign to destroy Hamas

Posted on by

US secretary of state in Tel Aviv to call for pauses in fighting to allow more aid to enter Gaza

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has arrived in Tel Aviv to meet Israel’s war cabinet and urge it to show greater restraint in its campaign to destroy Hamas, starting by allowing more aid to enter Gaza and implementing humanitarian pauses.

Israel says it has Hamas surrounded in Gaza City and has shown no willingness to back a break in the fighting advocated by the US president, Joe Biden, let alone agree a ceasefire.

Continue reading...

Maersk to cut 10,000 jobs as shipping demand drops

Posted on by

Danish company has axed 6,500 of those roles already, with global economic slowdown taking toll

One of the world’s largest shipping companies, Møller-Maersk, is cutting 10,000 jobs because of a drop in demand triggered by the global economic slowdown.

The Danish company said it had already started cutting staff but was planning on “intensifying” cost-saving measures in order to safeguard its financial performance as price forecasts worsened.

Continue reading...

Dozens killed in blaze at drug rehab centre in Iran

Posted on by

Investigation under way after 32 people reported to have died in fire in Langarud, north of Tehran

Local media in Iran say 32 people have died in a fire at a drug rehabilitation centre in the north of the country, up from an earlier count of 27.

The death toll from the blaze at the centre in Langarud, a city in the northern Gilan province, was reported by the local ISNA news agency, quoting the province’s deputy governor, Mohammad Jalai.

Continue reading...

Delhi air pollution spikes to 100 times WHO health limit

Posted on by

Season of smog begins with air quality index near worst possible level of 500 and little apparent progress in controlling annual poisonous blight on life

Air quality in Delhi hit severe levels on Friday and a thick toxic smog cloaked the city, marking the beginning of a pollution season that has become an annual catastrophe for India’s capital.

Schools were shut and non-essential construction was banned around Delhi as the air quality index in the city hit 500 – the highest the measurement will go and 100 times the limit deemed to be healthy by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Continue reading...

‘Failed to be a critical friend’: UK accused of taking eye off Israel-Palestine crisis

Posted on by

Critics say government shies away from standing up to Netanyahu in tilt to Indo-Pacific and pursuit of Middle East trade deals

Concerns that the UK Foreign Office has neglected the Israel-Palestine conflict in its tilt to the Indo-Pacific and the pursuit of trade deals across the Middle East is to be investigated by the foreign affairs select committee.

Alicia Kearns, the chair of the committee, which will start holding evidence sessions on the issue in November, has been one of the most prominent MPs warning that a crisis was brewing that required greater attention and a more robust approach from the UK towards Israel’s new government.

Continue reading...

Taylor Swift fans have reportedly lined up for five months ahead of Argentina shows

Posted on by

Pitchfork reports that hundreds of fans are sharing tents on a meticulously planned schedule to ensure they get the best spot when doors open next week

After a whirlwind excursion around the US that has generated billions of dollars in income and broken records for crowd size and seismic activity, Taylor Swift is taking her Eras tour to South America – and fans have reportedly been lining up for five months.

In Buenos Aires, a cadre of Swifties has been sleeping in tents outside River Plate Stadium, where Swift is set to open her Latin American leg with three shows from 9-11 November.

Continue reading...

US House passes $14.3bn aid package for Israel despite Democratic opposition

Posted on by

Led by House speaker Mike Johnson, Republican plan passes Thursday 226-196 as Biden threatens veto

The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed a Republican plan to provide $14.3bn in aid to Israel as it fights Hamas, despite Democrats’ insistence it has no future in the Senate and the White House’s promise of a veto.

The measure passed 226-196, largely along party lines, with most Republicans supporting the bill and most Democrats objecting.

Continue reading...

Breonna Taylor neighbor tells of horror as police bullets flew past sleeping son

Posted on by

Chelsey Napper tells court she was ‘scared to death’ on night Taylor, 26, was shot dead by Louisville police in botched raid

Breonna Taylor’s neighbor recalled her horror as police bullets flew into her apartment near her sleeping son as a federal trial for the former Louisville officer who fired those shots began Thursday.

Former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison fired 10 shots during the botched raid in March 2020 that left Taylor dead, though it was another officer who fatally shot the 26-year-old Black woman. Hankison, 47, is charged with two federal civil rights violations for endangering Taylor, her boyfriend and Taylor’s neighbors, who shared a wall with her apartment. None of Hankison’s shots hit anyone.

Continue reading...

Eric Trump testifies ‘I don’t recall’ when asked about involvement in Trump Organization valuation – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is now closed. For more on this trial, read our latest report:

Prosecutor Colleen Faherty asked Donald Trump Jr whether it’s a fair statement that he was generally familiar with the overall finances of the Trump Organization between 2011 and the present.

“I would think so, yes,” Trump Jr replied, Law360’s Stewart Bishop reports.

Continue reading...

Large-scale warfare occurred in Europe ‘1,000 years earlier than previously thought’

Posted on by

Reanalysis of skeletal remains in Spain suggests conflicts took place about 5,000 years ago in neolithic period, say researchers

The earliest period of warfare in Europe might have occurred more than 1,000 years before what was previously thought to be the first large-scale conflict in the region, researchers have suggested.

Reanalysis of more than 300 sets of skeletal remains uncovered in Spain – radiocarbon dated to between 5,400 and 5,000 years ago – indicates that conflicts took place long before powerful states formed in the region.

Continue reading...

Austria to work with UK on Rwanda-style plan for asylum seekers

Posted on by

Suella Braverman signs ‘migration and security agreement’ with Austrian counterpart in move to work more closely together

Austria is seeking to adopt a Rwanda-style deal to deport asylum seekers to a third country, having agreed a deal to work with the UK on migration.

Suella Braverman signed a “migration and security agreement” with her Austrian counterpart, Gerhard Karner, in which the two countries agreed to work more closely together.

Continue reading...

The great powers signed up to Sunak’s AI summit – while jostling for position

Posted on by

Even China is part of the UK’s ‘Bletchley declaration’ – but Britain is not the only country ambitious to lead on the issue

Sitting in a purpose-built hut in the grounds of the historic Bletchley Park country estate, British officials believed they had pulled off a diplomatic coup.

On stage in front of them was the UK’s technology secretary, Michelle Donelan, and behind her were high-level representatives from the US and China, together for the first time to discuss the international regulation of artificial intelligence.

Continue reading...

Biden says 74 Americans with dual citizenship evacuated from Gaza

Posted on by

The evacuees were able to cross from the Gaza Strip into Egypt, the US president said on Thursday

The United States has been able to get 74 Americans with dual citizenship out of the Gaza Strip, Joe Biden said at the White House on Thursday, one day after evacuees began crossing into Egypt.

“Good news, we got out today 74 American folks, dual citizens,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office at the start of a meeting with the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader.

Continue reading...

Tension escalates on Lebanese frontier amid Hamas and Hezbollah barrages

Posted on by

Hamas armed wing the al-Qassam brigades says it hit border town, while Hezbollah claims attack on 19 Israeli positions

Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam brigades, said its fighters in southern Lebanon were behind the shelling of the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, where four rockets landed in an industrial area, injuring two people and damaging buildings.

In a second barrage, Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militant group, said it had simultaneously attacked 19 positions in Israel on Thursday evening in the latest escalation on Israel’s northern border.

Continue reading...

Storm Ciarán: Seven people killed and dozens injured in Europe

Posted on by

Torrential rain and 200km/h winds force schools to close and airlines and train companies to halt services

At least seven people have been killed and dozens injured as Storm Ciarán battered north-west Europe with torrential rain and winds of up to 200km/h (124mph), damaging homes and forcing schools to close and airlines and train companies to halt services.

A truck driver was killed by a falling tree in the Aisne département of northern France, authorities said on Thursday, while more than 1.2 million people lost their electricity supply, including about half the population of Brittany.

Continue reading...

Buffy Sainte-Marie Indigenous roots controversy rocks Canada First Nations

Posted on by

New documentary threatens to tarnish folk singer’s reputation as a cultural icon who fought tirelessly for social justice movements

Allegations in a documentary that the popular American folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie misrepresented her Indigenous roots have rattled First Nations communities in Canada, where she claims to have been born, highlighting the complex legacy of an artist whose decades-long career is defined by advocating for Indigenous rights.

Sainte-Marie describes herself as a “Cree singer-songwriter” has long traced her identity to the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan, where she claims she was born in 1941. Sainte-Marie says she was taken from her biological mother when she was an infant and raised by a white family in the US.

Continue reading...

King Charles’s ‘deep regret’ for colonial atrocities was a ‘miss’, Kenyans say

Posted on by

Rights groups repeat calls for apology while President William Ruto says ‘much remains to be done to achieve full reparations’

King Charles’s expression of “greatest sorrow and deepest regret” over colonial atrocities committed by British forces in Kenya has been criticised as a “miss” in the east African country.

Reactions to the king’s statement were mixed, with the president, William Ruto, diplomatically welcoming Charles’s “courage and readiness to shed light on uncomfortable truths that reside in the darker regions of our shared experience”, but calling Britain’s colonial suppression of Kenya’s freedom movement “monstrous in its cruelty”.

Continue reading...