Category Archives: World News

How Israel-Hamas war disinformation is being spread online

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Case of footage from set of Palestinian film being repurposed to make false claims is far from one-off

The video shows a young boy in a black T-shirt apparently lying in a pool of blood on the ground. Above him is a camera, with a man shouting directions near him. Two men in kippahs, the Jewish skull caps, and men in green military fatigues similar to Israel Defence Forces (IDF) uniforms are gathered around him.

The clip has been viewed about 2m times on X, formerly known as Twitter. It was shared by a verified user with the caption: “Video showing Israel attempting to create fake footage of deaths.”

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Arab ministers urge Israel to resume talks on two-state solution

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Emergency meeting of Arab League calls for ‘serious negotiations between the PLO and Israel’

Arab foreign ministers have urged Israel to meet its international obligations as an occupying power and return to negotiations on a two-state solution that provides a viable state for Palestine.

At an emergency meeting of the Arab League in Cairo on Wednesday, ministers underlined “the importance of resuming the peace process and starting serious negotiations between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel.”

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‘Together we will win’: Israelis fearful but defiant in face of uncertainty

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Overwhelming response to call-up as country prepares for ‘retaliation like never before’ against Hamas

Avi Solomon cannot serve in Israel’s armed forces because he is blind, but he has about 20 close relatives who have been called up to fight. They include four brothers and more than a dozen nephews and cousins, and he accepts that they may not all come back.

“We feel like zombies anyway,” said the 39-year-old, an athlete and supermarket worker. “If we can’t feel safe in our own houses, if we can’t promise a future for our children, if any terrorist can come here and do the same thing to us, there is no point to be some kind of living dead.”

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‘Pacifist at his core’: Britons missing and feared dead in Hamas attacks

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Seventeen British nationals, including children, have died or are missing after atrocities in Israel

Seventeen British nationals, including children, are feared dead or missing in Israel after attacks by Hamas, the Guardian understands. The atrocities have so far claimed at least 2,100 lives.

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Birkenstock shares open below offer price in US stock market debut

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Shoemaker lands on NYSE with $8.3bn valuation but analysts warn public debut comes amid difficult market conditions

Shares in Birkenstock have opened 11% below their offer price on the company’s US stock market debut, valuing the German shoemaker at $8.3bn as investors bet there was less mileage in consumer demand for its cork-soled sandals, which have become an unlikely fashion success story.

On Tuesday evening the footwear firm priced its shares at $46 ahead of the first day of trading in New York, where it is using the symbol “BIRK”. That figure was in the middle of the $44 to $49 guidance provided last week and valued the company at $8.6bn (£7bn).

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King Charles to acknowledge ‘painful’ colonial past on state visit to Kenya

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Monarch’s recognition will come as country prepares to celebrate 60 years of independence from Britain

King Charles will acknowledge the “painful aspects” of Britain’s past actions in Kenya during a state visit later this month.

The visit follows an invitation from the country’s president, William Ruto, whose country will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its independence from Britain on 12 December. The two countries have enjoyed a close relationship in recent years despite the violent colonial legacy of an uprising in the early 1950s, which led to a period known as “the emergency”, which ran from 1952 until 1960.

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FA will announce plans to honour Israel victims before England friendly

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  • Senior Jewish football executives have reached out to the FA
  • Sir Keir Starmer wants Wembley arch in Israeli flag colours

The FA will announce plans on Thursday to mark the recent atrocities in Israel at the friendly match between England and Australia, after leading Jewish figures within the game urged them to act.

As the leader of the opposition, Sir Keir Starmer, said he believed the Wembley arch should be illuminated in the colours of the Israeli flag following attacks by Hamas across the country last weekend, pressure grew on the FA to break the silence that has been consistent across the professional game this week.

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Republicans nominate Steve Scalise to replace McCarthy as House speaker

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Scalise defeats Jim Jordan by 113 votes to 99 but falls short of threshold needed to be elected speaker on House floor

House Republicans nominated Steve Scalise to be the next speaker on Wednesday, a week after the unprecedented ouster of Kevin McCarthy. But a handful of objections to Scalise’s nomination left House Republicans unable to move to a final floor vote, making it unclear when a new speaker might be elected.

By a vote of 113 to 99, Scalise, currently the second-ranking House Republican, defeated a challenge from congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the judiciary committee and a far-right firebrand.

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SAS shot dead two sleeping Afghans in war crime, public inquiry told

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Two children were seriously injured in 2012 incident, inquiry into 80 deaths hears

The SAS shot dead two Afghan adults who were sleeping in an incident in August 2012 in which two children were seriously injured, a public inquiry has heard.

The barrister representing victims’ families in a public inquiry into the killing of 80 civilians by the SAS in Afghanistan said the incident amounted to war crimes committed by British soldiers.

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Nato vows to respond if Finland-Estonia gas pipeline damage is deliberate

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Alliance’s chief says if there is proof of attack it will be met with ‘determined’ response, amid speculation about Russian sabotage

Nato has promised a “determined” response if damage to an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia proves deliberate, as investigators said traces of an “external, mechanical force” had been found on the seabed.

Amid widespread media speculation about the likelihood of Russian sabotage, Risto Lohi of the Finnish national bureau of investigation told a press conference in Helsinki on Wednesday: “There is reason to suspect an external force … caused the damage.” The force, he added, “appears to have been mechanical, not an explosion”.

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Court finds police in France often use racial profiling in identity checks

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Practice ruled to be discriminatory, but Conseil d’État says it does not have power to force change in policy

France’s highest administrative court has recognised discriminatory police identity checks based on racial profiling exist in France and are not isolated cases, but said it could not change political policy on the issue.

In a class action against the French state, six French and international organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Justice Initiative had asked for French authorities to be found at fault for failing to prevent the widespread use of racial profiling.

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Demonstration in Oslo seeks removal of windfarms in Indigenous region

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Campaigners use traditional Sámi tents to block roads in Norwegian capital in protest against turbines on reindeer pastures

Hundreds of Indigenous and environmental campaigners have blocked a main thoroughfare in Oslo to demand the demolition of two windfarms that have been described by the Norwegian government as a “violation of human rights”.

The Wednesday protest traces its roots to a landmark 2021 decision by Norway’s supreme court that found 151 wind turbines in the western region of Fosen had trampled on the rights of Sámi reindeer herders by encroaching on their pastures.

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Zelenskiy fears Middle East conflict could hit military aid to Ukraine

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President warns of ‘dangerous situation’ for his country as western attention shifts to Israel after Hamas attack

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said he fears that the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on Israel and US politics could threaten military support for his country, as he made a surprise visit to Brussels where Nato defence ministers are meeting.

“I want to be honest with you, of course it is a dangerous situation for people in Ukraine,” he said on his first visit to Nato headquarters since Russia’s 2022 invasion, making an in-person plea for continued assistance at a time when turbulence in the US Congress threatens to disrupt aid for Kyiv and the world’s attention is drawn to the crisis unfolding in the Middle East.

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Lula urges end to ‘insanity of war’ as Latin Americans killed in Hamas attack

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Brazil president calls for humanitarian aid to protect Israeli and Palestinian citizens, while Latin Americans also taken hostage

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has called for an end to “the insanity of war” as it emerged that more than a dozen Latin Americans were killed during Hamas’s assault, with citizens of Brazil and Argentina taken captive in the Gaza Strip.

By Wednesday morning, Latin American government and media reports had confirmed the deaths of seven Argentinians, two Brazilians, two Peruvians, one Colombian and one Paraguayan. At least 15 Argentinians, three Peruvians, two Mexicans and one Brazilian remain missing.

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Top Mexican court to give new life to controversial Trump-era border policy

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‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, which forces people seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while US claims are processed, set to be revived

The Mexican supreme court is poised to give new life to a controversial US-Mexico border policy at a time when both countries are looking for ways to slow the flow of migrants heading north.

The “Remain in Mexico” policy, officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols, is a Trump-era policy that forced people seeking asylum in the US to wait out their legal proceedings in Mexico for months or even years. The government of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador accepted the arrangement and allowed thousands of asylum seekers to be sent back to the country from the US.

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Fears of more casualties as further earthquakes hit Afghanistan

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Hospitals are at capacity since the quakes occurred around the city of Herat, and the Taliban are ill-equipped to respond effectively

Another powerful earthquake struck western Afghanistan on Wednesday morning, days after a series of quakes in the same region killed thousands of people.

The 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit an area 28km (17 miles) south of Herat’s regional capital at 5.11am local time, killing one person and injuring at least 150 people.

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Politicians, not public, drive U-turns on green agenda, says UN biodiversity chief

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People are ahead of governments, says David Cooper, who blames backtracking on parties seeking ‘wedge issues’ for electoral gain

Government backtracking on environmental promises is being driven by politicians and vested interests, not the public, the acting UN biodiversity chief has said, as he called for greater support for those experiencing short-term costs from green policies.

David Cooper, acting executive secretary for the UN convention on biological diversity (CBD), told the Guardian he believed the public mood was not moving against greater environmental protections, and that vested interests opposed to action on the climate crisis and nature loss were trying to frustrate progress.

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Israel-Hamas war live: UN chief urges Israel to allow ‘life-saving’ supplies into Gaza after only power station runs out of fuel

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UN secretary general called for essential supplies of fuel, food and water to be allowed in Gaza and called for immediate release of Israeli hostages

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was reluctant to be specific when asked on Tuesday whether the government had evacuation plans in place to assist Australian citizens and residents in the coming days. “We are working on a range of contingency arrangements that I won’t detail publicly for obvious reasons, but we do work on these contingencies,” he told ABC TV.

“It is a priority to keep Australians safe. And the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are working on a 24-hour basis to ensure that whatever support can be given is there. Australia believes in looking after our citizens and that is just what we do.”

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Hamas gunmen ‘killed families in their beds’ at Kfar Aza kibbutz, say Israeli forces

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Grim scene of ‘massacre’ at one of the first Israeli settlements reached by militants during assault

In Kfar Aza, no one was too old, too young or too weak for slaughter. It took the Israeli army half a day to reach the kibbutz of 750 people in southern Israel and fighting continued there for three days. In that time Hamas gunmen killed and mutilated dozens of civilian residents.

“Mothers, fathers, babies, young families killed in their beds, in the protection room, in the dining room, in their garden,” Maj Gen Itai Veruv of the Israel Defence Forces told the BBC, as his troops searched homes for bodies of victims. “It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. It’s a massacre.”

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Luton airport closed and flights suspended after huge fire in car park

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Authorities say car park suffered ‘significant structural collapse’ after blaze

Luton airport has been closed after a huge fire ripped through a multi-storey car park, causing it to collapse and forcing all flights to be suspended.

In an update on Wednesday morning, the airport advised people not to travel to the airport and said all flights would be suspended until 3pm. Passengers were also advised to contact their airline for information about flights.

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