Brazilian Deliveroo worker Caio Benicio used motorbike helmet to hit assailant who was attacking children outside a school
Almost £300,000 has been raised for a delivery driver who intervened in an attack by a man suspected of attacking children outside a school in Dublin.
Caio Benicio was on his motorbike in Dublin city centre when he spotted the attack on Thursday. He said he used his helmet to hit the assailant “with all my power”.
Continue reading...The ex-para who advised Ridley Scott on the new movie’s battle scenes claims historians who attacked it have fallen for Bonaparte’s own hype
Critics of the “damaging” and “inaccurate” portrayal of Napoleon Bonaparte in Ridley Scott’s new cinematic epic Napoleon are just victims of the French emperor’s enduring propaganda, according to the military adviser behind the film’s vast battle scenes.
Paul Biddiss claims that “Old Boney”, as he was known to the Duke of Wellington’s British troops, was promoted largely because he elaborated on his own successes. Bonaparte’s fibs impressed all France and intimidated his enemies – until, that is, he met his Waterloo in 1815.
Continue reading...Video shows Ohad Munder, nine, running into father’s arms as total of 24 people freed by Hamas in prisoner exchange
The moment a Rubik’s-cube-loving boy who spent his ninth birthday as a hostage in Gaza was freed from captivity on the first day of a four-day truce and prisoner exchange has been captured on video.
Footage released by the Schneider children’s medical centre showed Ohad Munder running through a hospital corridor into his father’s arms as the pair were reunited after almost 50 days without any contact.
Continue reading...Pope cancelled Saturday activities due to ‘light flu’ a week before key climate address
Pope Francis has undergone hospital tests after he came down with the flu but the results ruled out any respiratory problems, the Vatican said.
Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, underwent a Cat scan, the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said.
Continue reading...Hamas released 24 hostages on Friday, including 13 Israelis, one Filipino man and 10 Thai citizens
The group of hostages brought out of Gaza on the first day of the ceasefire with Israel included 13 Israelis, 10 Thai citizens and one Filipino man.
The Israeli hostages included four children with female relatives, who were all visiting family at Nir Oz kibbutz when Hamas attacked on 7 October, and five elderly women, four of them residents of Nir Oz and one from a nearby kibbutz.
Continue reading...Ten of the dozen other candidates had refused to campaign and called on voters to shun the ballot
The president of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina, has been re-elected in the first round of a ballot boycotted by nearly all opposition candidates, the national election commission said.
Rajoelina won 58.95% of the votes cast in the 16 November presidential election, according to figures presented by the poll body, although the result needs to be validated by the constitutional court.
Continue reading...Efforts to free 41 workers stuck in tunnel for almost two weeks hit another setback as earth-boring machine breaks down
Indian rescue workers have brought in a new digging machine to open a vertical shaft to free 41 men trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel, after efforts via another route hit a snag metres away from them.
In the latest setback in attempts to rescue the increasingly desperate workers, who have been trapped for almost two weeks, engineers driving a metal pipe through 57 metres (187ft) of rock and concrete ran into metal rods and construction vehicles buried in the earth.
Continue reading...Deadly blaze that began on fourth floor of six-storey building in commercial capital leaves 35 injured
At least 11 people have been killed and 35 injured in a fire at a shopping mall in Pakistan’s commercial capital of Karachi, officials said.
More than 60 people were inside the mall when the fire broke out on the fourth floor of the six-storey building in the southern port city.
Continue reading...Group of nine men and one woman being treated in hospital before returning to Thailand to reunite with families
The 10 Thai hostages released on Friday are now being supervised in an Israeli hospital, the Thai government has said, adding that a further 20 of its nationals are still being held hostage.
In a statement, Thailand’s ministry of foreign affairs said the 10, who were among 24 hostages freed on Friday hours after a ceasefire was implemented, were now being accompanied by embassy officials and were staying at Shamir medical centre, south-east of Tel Aviv.
Continue reading...Concerns echo White House remarks that blocking human rights laws could undermine Northern Ireland peace process
Rishi Sunak risks ripping up the Northern Ireland peace process if he blocks human rights laws so the UK can deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, senior Conservatives have said.
After similar concerns from the White House on Thursday, the MPs said widely reported plans from Downing Street to disregard parts of the Human Rights Act could undermine the Good Friday agreement and damage UK-US relations.
Continue reading...Families await possible reunion with detained women and children as Israel reportedly releases 39 in ceasefire deal
As the sun began to set on Friday, thousands of Palestinians gathered at an Israeli checkpoint north of Jerusalem, next to the notorious Ofer military prison, in the hopes that imprisoned loved ones would return home as part of a ceasefire deal in the seven-week-old war between Israel and Hamas.
Qatari officials said 39 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails were released on Friday night. That came in exchange for the safe return of 13 Israelis held in the Gaza Strip as hostages since Hamas attacked communities in the south of the country last month, sparking the deadliest round of fighting in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict to date.
Continue reading...Jonathan Freedland talks to survivors, displaced people and senior political and military figures about life in Israel before and after 7 October, and considers the longer-term ramifications
• Israel-Hamas war – latest updates
The war is paused, but it is not over.
There will be relief at the promised four days of quiet between Israel and Hamas, and there will be joy for the families waiting to be reunited with loved ones, thanks to Friday’s exchange of hostages held in Gaza for prisoners held in Israel.
Continue reading...Hundreds waiting in ‘Hostages Square’ sing songs as the names of those being released filter out
In the heart of Tel Aviv, several hundred people waited in the plaza now called Hostages Square. As darkness fell the mood was melancholic but hopeful as people waited for a confirmation that 13 women and children held by Hamas had been freed as planned. Then came a cheer as news of their release was confirmed.
People sang Shabbat or old folklore songs as they waited outside the Museum of Art, where among the most poignant displays was an empty dinner table, surrounded by 240 empty seats, representing each of the missing hostages, not just the handful in the slow process of coming home.
Continue reading...Producers take advantage of new shipping options, including government-owned Trans Mountain pipeline, to boost exports
Oil and gas producers say they will drill 8% more wells in Canada next year as they look to take advantage of new shipping options, including a controversial government-owned pipeline.
Amid forecasts that Canada is not on target to reach its emissions reductions goals, on Friday the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors (CAOEC) predicted nearly 500 more wells next year, to 6,229 projects.
Continue reading...Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas provided protection for sons of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán and allegedly fed rivals to pet Bengal tigers
The US president, Joe Biden, and his top justice department official have welcomed the arrest in Mexico of Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, known as “El Nini”, allegedly the notorious head of security – and assassination – for the Chapitos wing of the Sinaloa cartel.
The security chief is accused of leaving a trail of murder and torture, including feeding rivals to pet Bengal tigers, and running a security operation known as Los Ninis, “a particularly violent group of security personnel for the Chapitos”, according to the US government, whose members “received military-style training in multiple areas of combat, including urban warfare, special weapons and tactics, and sniper proficiency”.
Continue reading...Wilders’ far-right party won the most seats in Dutch election, though many in this diverse city say they can understand why
In this tiny plaza, still plastered with posters urging voters to back the minority rights party Denk, the yawning divide between voters in Rotterdam’s diverse Feijenoord district was on full display.
On one side stood Nas Kosa, a Muslim who fears what might lie ahead after Geert Wilders’ far right, anti-Islam party surged to win more seats than any other party in Wednesday’s election.
Continue reading...Srettha Thavisin confirms release of a dozen of at least 26 nationals being held after weeks of negotiations
A dozen of the 26 Thai nationals taken hostage by Hamas in the 7 October attacks in Israel have been released, Thailand’s prime minister has said.
Srettha Thavisin said on X he had received confirmation of their release, and that Thai embassy officials were going to pick them up.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. See all our Israel-Hamas war coverage here
One woman has been killed and three others wounded after Israeli forces raided the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera is reporting, citing Dr Munir al-Bursh, the director general of the Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza.
Another three people were arrested at the hospital, which has been forced to cease operations. As of Thursday, there were an estimated 550 patients remaining at the hospital, as well as 200 medical workers and at least 1,500 displaced Palestinians sheltering at the hospital, according to Al Jazeera.
Last night, Israeli forces attacked the hospital with tanks and destroyed all of the first floor. The damage was very bad.
Previously, they had attacked the third floor. They arrested at least three people. This is their way of taking over the hospitals before the ceasefire today.
IDPs [internally displaced persons] interviewed by OCHA reported that Israeli forces had established an unstaffed checkpoint where people are directed from a distance to pass through two structures, where a surveillance system is thought to be installed.
IDPs are ordered to show their IDs and undergo what appears to be a facial recognition scan.
Continue reading...Hamas risks losing leverage if all hostages are freed, and Benjamin Netanyahu promised a full victory
Diplomats hope to announce plans to extend the four-day temporary ceasefire in Gaza well before it ends, but have to persuade the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that he is not being lured into a trap that will extend Hamas’s rule in Gaza.
Lists of Hamas-held hostages have been drawn up going beyond the 50 captives expected to be released over the next four days. But those involved in the talks acknowledge the difficulties, including the likelihood that Hamas may seek the release of a proportionally higher number of Palestinians than the one for three ratio agreed for the first tranche of hostages. There are as many as 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including some serving multiple life sentences for murder.
Continue reading...Burials can go ahead of men who never returned from bombing mission over Germany in 1943
Eighty years after they were shot down by the Germans over Dutch waters, British airmen Arthur Smart, Raymond Moore and Charles Sprack can be laid to rest after the Dutch defence ministry confirmed their remains had been identified.
Two silver-plated cigarette cases were found with the initials of the 27-year-old flight engineer Smart and 21-year-old wireless operator Moore.
Continue reading...