Category Archives: World News

Washington faces showdown over fresh UN resolution for Gaza ceasefire

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US may feel impelled to protect Israel with veto again as UAE prepares security council motion

The Biden administration faces a showdown at the UN security council in the next 48 hours at which it may feel impelled to use its veto to protect Israel by rejecting calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

The United Arab Emirates, the Arab country on the 15-strong security council, said it would table a resolution on Thursday for debate on Friday after the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and most Islamic states called for a humanitarian ceasefire.

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Revealed: how top pop stars are used to ‘launder the reputation’ of Koch family

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Stand Together Music, part of rightwing billionaire Charles Koch’s advocacy network, collaborates with Pitbull, Machine Gun Kelly and others

Last September, the rapper Killer Mike was DJing hip-hop classics like Snoop Dogg’s Ain’t No Fun at a music festival afterparty in Louisville, Kentucky. “The inspiration for the night’s set is freedom of speech, so say what the fuck you want!” he told a crowd of hundreds. Killer Mike, half of the duo Run The Jewels, is known for speaking out against police brutality and racial injustice, as well as campaigning for Bernie Sanders.

But this night’s set was co-sponsored by Stand Together Music, an organization backed by the libertarian billionaire Charles Koch, who made his fortune in fossil fuels. Other sponsors of the party included the free-speech group Fire (which has received millions of dollars in contributions from the Charles G Koch charitable foundation), as well as the music outlet Spin, an official partner of Stand Together Music.

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West Bank settler violence – a photo essay

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A recent Human Rights Watch report says settler violence in the occupied West Bank has doubled since the 7 October attacks. Photographer David Lombeida stayed with Palestinian families facing threats and abuse from settlers encroaching on their land

Violence in the occupied West Bank was already at a more than 15-year high in 2023, with 200 Palestinians and 26 Israelis killed, but since Hamas unleashed the deadliest day in Israel’s history on 7 October it has surged in parallel with the war in Gaza.

Since that date 260 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including in raids by the Israeli military against suspected militants, and by extremist settlers – whose daily attacks against Palestinians have more than doubled in the last two months, UN data shows. The international community has issued strong statements to the Israeli government that it must protect Palestinians from attacks by extremist settlers.

Manel Shahada lives in the small village of Qusra, outside Ramallah in the West Bank. Settlements have surrounded her land over the decades and settlers recently attacked her home with her family inside. Shahada stares out the broken window where settlers shot through the glass. She and her three children have now abandoned the home after the attack.

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Meta platforms are marketplaces for child predators claims lawsuit

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Facebook and Instagram ‘enabled adults to find, message and groom minors’ for sexual exploitation, alleges state of New Mexico legal filing

Meta has allowed its social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, to become marketplaces for child predators, the state of New Mexico alleges in a lawsuit filed against the company and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

The lawsuit claims that Meta “proactively served and directed [children] to egregious, sexually explicit images through recommended users and posts – even where the child has expressed no interest in this content”. It claims Meta “enabled adults to find, message and groom minors, soliciting them to sell pictures or participate in pornographic videos”. The company is also accused of fostering unmoderated user groups devoted to facilitating and selling child sexual exploitation content.

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Russian spies targeting UK MPs and media with ‘cyber interference’

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Foreign Office minister tells MPs that FSB is ‘behind sustained effort to interfere in our democratic processes’

Russian spies have been targeting MPs, journalists and others with cyber hacking as part of a concerted attempt to meddle in British politics, a Foreign Office minister has said.

Leo Docherty, a minister under David Cameron, told the House of Commons that the Russian federal security service was using “cyber interference” to target politically connected people.

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McDonald’s to take on Starbucks with retro-style stores called CosMc’s

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New restaurants – serving more complex, customisable drinks – will be trialled in the US

McDonald’s is launching a new kind of restaurant, CosMc’s, a retro-style store with treats and customisable drinks including “s’mores cold brew”, “churro frappes” and “turmeric latte” that could rival chains such as Starbucks.

The fast food company said it would open its first pilot site in a Chicago suburb near its headquarters this month, as part of efforts to “solve the 3pm slump”, when it gets fewer customers between the lunch and dinner rush.

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Visualised: how all of G20 is missing climate goals — but some nations are closer than others

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As world leaders gather at Cop28, these charts show how far away the major economies are from their targets

Not a single G20 country has policies in place that are consistent with the Paris agreement’s goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C and meeting their “fair share” of emissions reduction.

The assessment, based on data up to 5 December provided by the Climate Action Tracker, comes as leaders gather in Dubai for the Cop28 conference.

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‘We have no choice’: illness in Gaza as clean water becomes a luxury

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Safe drinking water is becoming ever harder to come by, with disastrous consequences for those who can’t afford it

In a house in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, some of the women in a building housing 60 people decided to cut their hair short to save on water when washing.

Others in southern Gaza say they’re stretching out the time between showers, or flushes of the toilet. Everyone knows exactly how much water they have, and how much they can store. Above all they know that water, especially water that is both safe to drink and doesn’t taste bad, has become precious.

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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan plans ‘win-win’ approach in Athens after past feud

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Analysts believe better ties with Greece are key to repairing Turkey’s strained relationship with Europe

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will be arriving in Athens on Thursday for the first time in six years, determined to move on with a “win-win approach” from the disputes and tensions left by his previous trip to the city.

The last time the Turkish leader visited the Greek capital – exactly six years ago to the day – what had been billed a historic tour descended into a verbal theatre of war as Erdoğan, dispensing with diplomatic niceties, went on the offensive.

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Beach? Shopping? Sleep? How Cop28 is spending its rest day

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The 80,000 delegates are thinking of how best to unwind from the climate summit ‘whirlwind’ in Dubai on their only day off

From the world’s largest waterpark to an indoor ski resort in a shopping centre, Cop28 delegates will have plenty of options to choose from on their only day off at the climate summit.

After an exhausting week of negotiations, events and protests, the 80,000 delegates in the United Arab Emirates will have a chance to enjoy Dubai ahead of the final push.

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Oppenheimer to finally be released in Japan after ‘Barbenheimer’ backlash

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Internet references conflating the two films drew anger in Japan, which was twice attacked by nuclear weapons during the second world war

Audiences in Japan will finally get to see Oppenheimer – Christopher Nolan’s hit biopic about the creator of the nuclear bomb – following criticism that it was marketed in a way that trivialised the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The movie’s distributor in Japan, Bitters End, said on Thursday that the film, which examines L. Robert Oppenheimer’s moral quandary over his key role in the world’s first nuclear attack on 6 August 1945, would be released in 2024.

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International court urges Peru not to release ex-president Fujimori from jail

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Country’s highest court orders freeing of Alberto Fujimori as Inter-American court points to conviction of human rights crimes

Peru risks being ranked alongside authoritarian states like Venezuela and Nicaragua, lawyers have warned, if it flouts international law by freeing former president Alberto Fujimori from jail after its highest court ordered his “immediate release”.

In the latest chapter of a drawn-out legal saga, Peru’s constitutional court ruled on Tuesday to free the former authoritarian leader who, since 2009, has been serving a 25-year sentence for corruption and ordering massacres committed by an army death squad in the early 1990s.

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French restaurant boss charged over woman’s botulism death

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Greek woman, 32, was one of 16 diners who fell ill after eating at the restaurant in central Bordeaux

A French restaurant boss has been charged over the death of a woman after an outbreak of botulism at the establishment, linked to improperly preserved sardines.

A 32-year-old Greek woman died in September after eating at the Tchin Tchin Wine Bar in central Bordeaux. She was one of 16 mostly foreign diners who fell ill in the space of a week while the southwestern city was hosting Rugby World Cup matches.

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Guyana appeals to US and UN as Maduro advances annexation of territory

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Request for help came after Venezuelan president announced series of measures to formalize a referendum Sunday evening

Guyana has appealed for help from the United Nations and the United States as the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, announced a series of measures intended to advance its annexation of two-thirds of the tiny South American nation’s territory.

“I have spoken to the secretary general of the United Nations and several leaders, alerting them of these dangerous developments and the desperate actions of President Maduro,” Irfaan Ali, president of Guyana, said in a television broadcast late on Tuesday, as he informed the nation of 800,000 of Maduro’s latest steps intended to create a new Venezuelan state in Guyana.

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Israel and Hamas fight house-to-house battles across Gaza

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Hamas increasingly relying on improvised bombs to inflict casualties and slow down Israeli assault

Israeli forces and Hamas are fighting house-to-house battles along the length of the Gaza Strip, with devastating consequences for the civilian population amid a complete collapse in humanitarian relief.

As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been fighting their way through badly bomb-damaged urban areas in northern and southern Gaza, Hamas has increasingly relied on improvised bombs to inflict casualties and slow down the assault.

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Kevin McCarthy, ousted House speaker, says he will leave Congress at end of the year – US politics live

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McCarthy, who was ousted from the House weeks ago, said in his announcement, ‘I’m leaving the House but not the fight’

Former speaker Kevin McCarthy has announced that he will resign from the House at the end of the year.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published on Wednesday and titled “I’m leaving the House but not the fight,” McCarthy said that he had decided to depart the House at the end of this year and “serve America in new ways”.

I know my work is only getting started. I will continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office. The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders.”

“I never could have imagined the journey when I first threw my hat into the ring. I go knowing I left it all on the field—as always, with a smile on my face. And looking back, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Only in America.”

“Common sense should dictate that we need to secure our own border in addition to helping Ukraine and Israel secure theirs. In the greatest country on Earth, we do not have to choose between protecting our homeland and defending our allies.

My support for Israel and Ukraine is unwavering but it does not supersede my commitment to my own country. We need major, structural reforms to limit the number of illegal crossings at our southern border and regain operational control.

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Israeli forces and Hamas fighting house-to-house battles in Gaza – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Countries supporting Israel with arms have a “permanent stain on their reputation”, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a major aid agency, has said in a statement.

While condemning the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas and demanding the release of hostages held by the militant group, Jan Egeland said Israel’s military campaign “can in no way be described as ‘self-defence.” He said:

The pulverising of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age. Each day we see more dead children and new depths of suffering for the innocent people enduring this hell …

Countries supporting Israel with arms must understand that these civilian deaths will be a permanent stain on their reputation.

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Italy to withdraw from China’s belt and road initiative, say sources

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Decision of only G7 nation to join project reportedly communicated to Beijing three days ago

Italy has formally notified China of its withdrawal from Beijing’s ambitious belt and road infrastructure initiative (BRI), a significant trade and infrastructure project, according to two government sources.

The decision, which had been expected for some time, was reportedly communicated to Beijing three days ago, although no official communication has been released by either side.

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Nuclear Leaks: what is the UK nuclear site Sellafield and why is it so important?

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A Guardian investigation has revealed hacking, radioactive leaks and toxic workplace culture at Europe’s most hazardous nuclear site

Nuclear Leaks, a year-long Guardian investigation, has uncovered problems with cyber hacking, radioactive leaks and toxic workplace culture at Sellafield, the UK’s most hazardous nuclear site.

It has also revealed how a small corner of the UK has an outsized influence on its special relationship with the US, with the countries bound by the shared history of nuclear weapons development. Britain’s neighbours in Europe, particularly Norway and Ireland, also keep a sharp eye on the site, from where previous pollution incidents and radioactivity as a result of a fire have made it to their shores.

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UN condemnation of sexual violence by Hamas ‘too little, too late’, says Israel

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Israel says comments by Unicef chief were insufficient and came only as a result of international pressure

Israel has criticised the head of the United Nations children’s agency after she condemned acts of sexual violence committed against women during Hamas’s deadly assault on Israel on 7 October, as attention has focused on rapes and other atrocities in recent days.

Israel said the comments by Catherine Russell, the executive director of Unicef, were insufficient and were issued only as a result of international pressure.

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