The bloc’s leaders are hosting a series of meetings in Brussels
While European leaders were meeting yesterday with a strong focus on presenting a united front to the world on foreign policy, Hungary’s foreign minister was hanging out with his Russian and Belarusian counterparts.
Luxembourg’s Xavier Bettel, a big personality in European summits, says goodbye at his last European Council.
Continue reading...White House says Russia is executing soldiers who fail to follow orders; Moscow criticises Ukraine-backed peace talks in Malta
Continue reading...UK refusing to commit to EU pledge to stop cutting tariffs on big producers despite bananas being as cheap today as three decades ago
It is one of the few British supermarket staples to have bucked the trend during the cost of living crisis, with the price of a bunch of bananas today no more expensive today than three decades ago. Every country in the world with cheaper prices than the UK has its own producers of the fruit.
The government has now been accused of pursuing an irresponsible post-Brexit policy that could reduce the price of bananas further in the shops – but at the cost of the livelihoods of thousands of workers on small plantations in some of Africa’s poorest countries.
Continue reading...Despite questions over quality, scale of munition shipments indicates Moscow plans to continue conflict for long time
In pouring rain, a jubilant crowd waving pompoms and flowers greeted the Russian foreign minister as he stepped on to the airport asphalt in Pyongyang.
While the heavily choreographed welcoming scenes were a familiar sight in totalitarian North Korea, Sergei Lavrov’s rare visit to the country came amid mounting evidence that Pyongyang has started to provide artillery rounds to Russia, opening up a supply line that could have profound implications for the war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...International Crisis Group urges all parties including US to re-establish a baseline level of trust
Taiwan’s presidential election in January is a window of opportunity to resume dialogue between Taipei and Beijing, reduce tensions and lower the risk of conflict, an NGO has said.
A war over Taiwan is not inevitable but “the current trajectory is dangerous”, a report by the International Crisis Group says.
Continue reading...Ban on offensive facial markings could come as part of wider crackdown on gangs, National party says
New Zealand’s gangs may have to cover up offensive tattoos with makeup if the incoming government’s crackdown on gang activity goes ahead.
On Thursday, the National party’s police spokesperson, Mark Mitchell, told the national broadcaster RNZ that if its proposed ban on gang patches – large insignia sewn on to jackets, for example – does not work, then it would consider making gang members apply foundation over their facial tattoos, or face arrest.
Continue reading...Li served as China’s number two leader for 10 years before being sidelined by Xi Jinping
China’s former premier, Li Keqiang, has died suddenly at the age of 68, according to Chinese state media. Li had a heart attack and died in Shanghai early on Friday, according to China’s Xinhua news agency.
“Comrade Li Keqiang, while resting in Shanghai in recent days, experienced a sudden heart attack on Oct 26 and after all-out efforts to revive him failed, died in Shanghai at ten minutes past midnight on Oct 27,” the state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Continue reading...Heads of 27 member states will attempt show of unity at Brussels meeting as disagreements continue over approach to Israel and Gaza conflict
Ahead of the leaders’ summit, a group of Irish members of the European parliament from different political families called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The group urged “the Council of the European Union to call for an immediate ceasefire, as well as urgent efforts to meet the humanitarian needs of people in Gaza.”
In a statement signed by Clare Daly, Mick Wallace, Chris MacManus, Ciaran Cuffe, Grace O’Sullivan, Billy Kelleher, Colm Markey and Luke Ming Flanagan, they said:
We stress the universal applicability of international humanitarian law, its binding nature on all parties in all conflicts and remind the Council that indiscriminate warfare resulting in the killing of civilians cannot be justified - in any circumstances. Given the intensity of hostilities, and the enormous loss of life that has already occurred, we consider that calling for anything less than an immediate ceasefire would depart from the European Union’s responsibility to uphold international law, to protect human life, and to secure peace.
We see that the Russian war in Ukraine is raging. We see that the horrible terroristic attacks by Hamas on Israel are now also harming the Palestinian people and risk to destabilise the region. Migrants are pushed to search for a better life by war and conflict and come to our shores in greater numbers. With all these challenges, the European Union needs to react and act united and resolute.
This is the reason why I’ve proposed a revision of the EU budget to be able to fund these very important tasks. This will be discussed in this European Council.
Continue reading...Argentinian Swifties say ‘Milei is Trump’ as devotees of BTS decry ‘hatred and xenophobia’ of Victoria Villarruel’s tweets about group
Weeks before Argentina’s run-off election, far-right populist Javier Milei and his running mate, Victoria Villaruel, have found themselves under pressure from an unexpected quarter: an alliance of Taylor Swift supporters and K-pop fans.
Milei, a radical libertarian who has proposed dollarizing Argentina’s economy and even legalizing the organ trade, topped the polls ahead of Sunday’s first round, but was beaten into second place by the centrist finance minister, Sergio Massa.
Continue reading...Milton Martin, 56, of First Pentecostal Church of Chalmette, accused of abuse of girl, now 28, who was member of congregation
Authorities in Louisiana have charged a Pentecostal pastor with sexually molesting a teenage girl who was a member of his church.
Milton O Martin III, 56, faces one charge each of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile – colloquially referred to as statutory rape – and of indecent behavior with a minor, records obtained by the Guardian show.
Continue reading...US warned over ‘genocide in Palestine’, as foreign ministers challenge targeting of civilians and international law breaches
Arab nations have linked hands with the Global South to challenge Israel and its western backers to end the bombing in a Gaza at the start of a rare two-day emergency debate at the UN general assembly.
In a fierce warning on Thursday the Iranian foreign minister said that if what he described as the genocide did not stop the US would “not be spared from this fire”.
Continue reading...Israel and Joe Biden have shown scepticism about accuracy of rising death toll but others point to historical reliability of data
In this time of war, the health ministry in Gaza has been given its own health warning. Joe Biden has questioned the reliability of its reporting of the number of people killed and wounded during the Israeli assault on Gaza – because the health ministry is run by Hamas.
“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” the US president said. “But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”
Continue reading...Significant incursion comes as EU leaders finalise text calling for ‘humanitarian corridors and pauses’
Israeli forces entered a new phase of their war against Hamas in Gaza on Thursday, launching a substantial but limited raid into the coastal strip, in what was described as a probing action in preparation for a more sustained ground offensive.
Infantry backed by tanks and armoured bulldozers moved in under cover of night and attacked Hamas targets in an hours-long raid into the north of the territory, as officials raised the number of hostages confirmed to be held by the militant Islamist group to 224.
Continue reading...Sharone Lifschitz says she is ‘immensely proud’ of her mother, who shook hands with a Hamas captor
It was an extraordinary moment when an 85-year-old hostage shook the hand of her Hamas captor and said one word: “Shalom”.
Yocheved Lifshitz, who was released by Hamas after 16 days in captivity, is now focused on trying to secure the release of other hostages. And her daughter, Sharone Lifschitz, has revealed that the captor was reportedly a paramedic with whom her mother had discussed peace.
Continue reading...Justin Trudeau appoints Mary Moreau to bench of Canada’s top court, which will be made up of five women and four men
Justin Trudeau has nominated the Alberta judge Mary Moreau to Canada’s top court, setting up the first majority-female bench in the supreme court’s 148-year history.
The naming of Moreau will give Canada’s top court five female judges and four male judges. Moreau was most recently the chief justice of Alberta’s superior court, and has worked in that court for 29 years. She will fill a vacancy on the supreme court created by the resignation of Russell Brown in June.
Continue reading...Secrecy and lax oversight mean illegal loggers and miners in Amazon can park billions in real estate and other assets
Secrecy and lax oversight have made the US a hiding place for dirty money accrued by environmental criminals in the Amazon rainforest, a report says.
Illegal loggers and miners are parking sums ranging from millions to billions of dollars in US real estate and other assets, says the report, which calls on Congress and the White House to close loopholes in financial regulations that it says are contributing to the destruction of the world’s biggest tropical forest.
Continue reading...The resort city of Acapulco was devastated by the category 5 hurricane, with hundreds of windows blown out and electricity cut
At least 27 people died due to Hurricane Otis and four others were still missing, Mexico’s government said after one of the most powerful storms to hit the country smashed into the Pacific resort city of Acapulco a day before.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the government was working to re-establish power and clean up the devastation wrought by the category 5 hurricane that tore through the southern state of Guerrero, and left Acapulco incommunicado.
Continue reading...The bamboccioni (big babies) refused to fly nest and ‘did not contribute’ – in country where most under-35s still live with parents
The proportion of Italian adults still living with their parents has long been high but one mother was forced to take drastic action after her two sons – both in their 40s – refused to abandon the comforts of the family home.
The woman, 75, from the northern city of Pavia, had grown weary of having to maintain her sons, 40 and 42, and on several occasions tried to convince them to find a more autonomous living arrangement, especially as each had a job. “But neither of them wanted to know,” she said, according to a report in the local newspaper La Provincia Pavese.
Continue reading...Claim by Rapid Support Forces to have taken the trade hub of Nyala could mark a turning point in the war
The paramilitaries fighting Sudan’s army say they have seized control of Nyala, the country’s second-largest city outside the Khartoum area, in a potential turning point in the six-month war.
The Rapid Support Forces said in a statement they had taken over the army’s main headquarters in the city, which is the capital of South Darfur state, and seized all of its equipment. The RSF published video, which Reuters could not verify, of their soldiers celebrating with gunfire, claiming to have overrun the base.
Continue reading...Nobel prize-winning Peruvian author still plans to write an essay on Sartre that ‘will be the last thing I write’
Peru’s best-known living writer, the Nobel prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, has announced that his seven-decade literary career is coming to an end and that his latest novel will be his last.
In a postscript to the new book, Le dedico mi silencio (I Give You My Silence), the 87-year-old novelist writes: “I think I’ve finished this book. I’d now like to write an essay on [Jean-Paul] Sartre, who was my teacher as a young man. It will be the last thing I write.”
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