Court blocks Kenya from deploying police officers to Haiti to fight gangs

Order comes after UN approved mission to send Kenya-led police officers to help Haiti combat rampant gang violence

A Kenyan court temporarily blocked the government from deploying hundreds of police personnel in Haiti in a UN-approved mission aimed at helping the Caribbean nation tackle rampant gang violence.

The court order issued on Monday is valid until 24 October and followed a petition jointly filed by one of the opposition political parties and two Kenyans who say the decision to deploy the police officers outside the east African country is illegal.

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Goalkeepers perceive the world differently, study suggests

Goalies’ brains appear able to merge signals from different senses more quickly, say researchers

The former Premier League goalkeeper Brad Friedel once said that to be able to work well in the box, you have to be able to think outside the box.

Now scientific data supports the idea that goalies’ brains really do perceive the world differently – their brains appear able to merge signals from the different senses more quickly, possibly underpinning their unique abilities on the football pitch.

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Glitter sales surge in Germany before EU microplastics ban this week

Celebrities reportedly fuelling glitter hysteria with one Big Brother ex-contestant buying 82 packets

German reality TV personalities and influencers are reportedly driving a surge in sales of glitter and everything made with it, from nails to makeup, before an EU ban on loose glitter that is aimed at tackling pollution from microplastics.

Many products containing glitter are to be banned from shops in the bloc from the end of this week, creating an unprecedented demand for them.

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Far-right AfD says it is now ‘major all-German party’ after state elections

Alternative für Deutschland comes second in Hesse and third in Bavaria as support spreads from east of country

The far-right, anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland has declared itself a “major all-German party” after winning its biggest ever vote share in a western German state.

The AfD, once seen as a party most relevant to post-communist eastern states, won 18.4% of the vote on Sunday in the powerhouse state of Hesse, around Frankfurt, and came second only to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In Bavaria it came third, behind the rightwing populist Freie Wähler (Free Voters) party.

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Afghan earthquake survivors sleep amid rubble as death toll nears 3,000

People spend second night in ruined villages where desperate search for loved ones is continuing

Survivors of a series of powerful earthquakes that struck western Afghanistan on Saturday have spent a second night sleeping amid the rubble of demolished villages as they search for loved ones using shovels. The death toll is approaching 3,000, according to senior Taliban officials.

In the regional capital of Herat city people slept in public parks and streets, fearing further tremors. The United States Geological Survey reported quakes on Monday of magnitude 5.9, 4.9 and 4.7 in rural areas.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy to visit Romania on Tuesday in first trip since Russian invasion – as it happened

Ukrainian president’s visit to neighbouring Nato member country will be first visit since Russia invaded Ukraine

Russia has claimed to have thwarted five attacks by Ukrainian armed forces, according to a report from Tass. It writes that the media officer for Russia’s central group of troops, who are positioned in occupied Luhansk, claimed Russia had repelled the attacks near Lyman and Torske, killing 50 members of Ukrainian armed forces in the process. The claims have not been independently verified.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appealed at the Nato parliamentary assembly for the international rule of law to unite and deal with terrorism, comparing the attack by what he called a “terrorist organisation” on Israel with the similar tactics used by Russia, which he said was a “terrorist state”.

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Israel-Hamas war live: Netanyahu says Israel’s siege ‘just getting started’; Hamas threatens hostage executions

Netanyahu says response will ‘change the Middle East’; Hamas warns of executing civilian captives if Israel continues bombing civilian houses in Gaza

The US special antisemitism envoy, Deborah Lipstadt, among the most renowned Holocaust scholars in the world, called the Hamas attacks “the most lethal assault against Jews since the Holocaust”.

Lipstadt said there was “no justification” for the “heinous, barbaric terrorism against Israeli civilians” and mass murder.

“No one has the right to tell Israel how to defend itself and prevent and deter future attacks. As [US president Joe Biden] stated, “The United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back … Israel has the right to defend itself and its people. Full stop.”

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Monday briefing: Death toll rises to more than 1,100 after weekend of conflict in Israel and Gaza

In today’s newsletter: Thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have been wounded and killed since Saturday morning, with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning of a ‘long and difficult war’ after Hamas attack

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Good morning.

At about 6:30am local time on Saturday, Hamas, the Palestinian para-military group, launched an unprecedented, surprise attack by land, air and sea, firing thousands of rockets from Gaza and launching an incursion into southern Israel taking over several Israeli towns. The offensive, which Hamas have called “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”, took place a day after the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur war and caught the Israeli government and military completely off guard. It has been described as an “intelligence failure for the ages”.

Germany | Germany’s opposition conservatives have held ground in the key states of Hesse and Bavaria in elections that highlighted discontent with Olaf Scholz’s centre-left government amid worries about economic slowdown and migration.

Labour | Rachel Reeves will announce today that a Labour government would create a powerful Covid corruption commissioner to help recoup billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money that has been lost to waste, fraud and flawed contracts during the pandemic.

Health | Mental healthcare in England has become “a national emergency”, with “overwhelmed” services unable to cope with a big post-Covid surge in people needing help, NHS bosses say.

Conservatives | Working-class people who were a key part of the coalition of voters that delivered the Conservatives’ 2019 general election win have been deserting the party in droves under Rishi Sunak’s leadership, polling by YouGov has found. Only 44% of working-class voters who voted for the Tories in 2019 say they will back the party next time.

Spain | Tens of thousands of people have joined conservative and far-right Spanish political leaders in Barcelona to protest against the Socialist party’s decision to consider an amnesty for those involved in the failed, unlawful and unilateral push for Catalan independence six years ago.

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‘My trust is limited’: feminist takes aim at Polish opposition

Jana Shostak was dropped by Donald Tusk’s opposition alliance over support for wider abortion rights

A feminist activist and electoral candidate who was dropped by Donald Tusk’s opposition alliance in Poland after she expressed support for abortion access after 12 weeks of pregnancy has said her trust in the veteran liberal conservative to fight for women’s rights is “limited”.

Jana Shostak, a 30-year-old performance artist, has a strong record of advocacy on behalf of Belarusian democracy, refugees and women’s rights. When she announced she was running for parliament in next month’s election – joining the coalition of the leading opposition party, Civic Platform (PO) – Poland’s progressives were excited.

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Israel military says situation ‘dire’ in south as 260 bodies retrieved from festival

IDF says fighting is ongoing in south, saying it ‘could be a 9/11 and a Pearl Harbour wrapped into one’ as Supernova festival-goers describe attack

About 260 bodies have been recovered from the site of a music festival in southern Israel that was attacked by Hamas militants, as Israel’s military said fighting was ongoing in the region and described the situation as “dire”.

Late on Sunday, Israeli rescue service Zaka said it had retrieved hundreds of bodies from the Supernova festival, near Kibbutz Re’im close to Gaza. Shocking images and video from the site showed festival-goers running for their lives across open fields as Hamas gunmen attacked them and took hostages.

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Luxembourg election delivers likely return to power for conservative CSV party

Coalition talks to begin on Monday after full results show previous Liberal-led coalition no longer has majority

The coalition government of Luxembourg’s Liberal prime minister Xavier Bettel has lost its parliamentary majority in Sunday’s general election, which also saw the Greens routed.

That leaves the way open for the biggest single party, the conservative Christian Social People’s party (CSV). The CSV came out on top, as it did at the last elections in 2018, with 29% of the vote, up 0.9 percentage points, according to the full results published on Sunday evening.

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Inquiry to open into claims British soldiers summarily killed 80 Afghans

Public inquiry into alleged actions of SAS units to begin amid victims’ families pleas for truth to be uncovered

A public inquiry into allegations that 80 Afghans were summarily killed by members of three different British SAS units begins on Monday amid pleas from victims’ families to uncover the truth behind the deaths.

Mansour Aziz, whose brother and sister-in-law were shot and killed while sleeping by British elite forces during a night raid on 6 August 2012, said he hoped the inquiry would establish why his home had been targeted.

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Israel-Hamas war: what has happened and what has caused the conflict?

Offensive launched from Gaza represents large failure of Israeli intelligence and is likely to have long-lasting repercussions

Shocked Israelis woke on the last day of the Jewish high holidays to the wail of sirens as Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired thousands of rockets from Gaza and armed militants broke down the hi-tech barriers surrounding the strip to enter Israel, shooting and taking hostages. Militants in boats also tried to enter Israel by sea.

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German state elections: voters turn to the right in rebuke to Scholz’s coalition

Worries about the economy and migration pushed up share for far-right AfD in Hesse and Bavaria, while coalition parties did worse

German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s fractious centre-left coalition has received a sharp rebuke from voters in the key states of Bavaria and Hesse, with economic woes and immigration fears boosting the opposition conservatives and the far right.

At the elections on Sunday the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party burst out of its post-industrial eastern strongholds to score its best ever result in a western state. Polls showed it on course to be the second largest party in Hesse, home to the financial capital Frankfurt.

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‘Just joy’: Greta Gerwig discusses reaction to Barbie at London film festival

Director recalls enjoyment of making highest-grossing film of the year and says she was ‘so moved’ by response

Greta Gerwig has spoken of her “thrill” at the “incredible reaction” to Barbie, her existential comedy and the runaway hit film of the year.

Talking to Succession and Peep Show co-creator Jesse Armstrong at an audience during the London film festival at the BFI Southbank, Gerwig, 40, recalled standing covertly at the back of cinemas in New York during the film’s opening weekend, asking the projectors to “turn up the volume” and being “so moved” by the warmth of audience response.

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Egypt: police officer shoots dead two Israeli tourists and Egyptian guide

Israel’s national security council says its citizens should avoid going abroad and those in Egypt should leave

An Egyptian police officer shot dead two Israeli tourists and their Egyptian guide on Sunday, as war raged for a second day between Israel and Palestinian militants.

Israel’s national security council later said its citizens should consider not travelling abroad particularly in the Middle East “on the backdrop of the attack in Egypt”. It said visitors already in Egypt should leave “as soon as possible”.

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Mass protest in Barcelona against possible amnesty for Catalan separatists

Tens of thousands demonstrate in Spanish region’s capital as Pedro Sánchez weighs move in attempt to form government

Tens of thousands of people have joined conservative and far-right Spanish political leaders in Barcelona to protest against the Socialist party’s decision to consider an amnesty for those involved in the failed, unlawful and unilateral push for Catalan independence six years ago.

Sunday’s demonstration, organised by the anti-independence group Societat Civil Catalana, was called after Catalan separatist parties said they would only consider supporting a new, socialist-led government following July’s inconclusive general election if they were offered an amnesty in return.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukraine expects ‘record number’ of Russian drone attacks this winter

Spokesman for air force says country has already seen more than 500 Iranian-designed Shahed drones in September alone

Four people including a nine-year-old girl have been injured in a rocket strike on Konstantinivka on Sunday morning, according to the acting governor of Donetsk.

A 27-year-old woman and her nine-month-old baby are among those wounded in a Russian attack on the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, according to its governor, Oleksandr Prokudin. The woman and the infant were hospitalised with moderate wounds, he said, adding that a 33-year-old Red Cross medic was also wounded. Several houses and gas pipelines were damaged in the attack.

UN and local investigators are searching for answers in the village of Hroza in Kharkiv following one of the deadliest air strikes of the war. The strike on Thursday turned the sole cafe and store in the village to rubble and killed nearly 52 people gathered for a dead soldier’s wake, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other top officials in Kyiv. Only six people in the cafe survived.

Ukraine’s armed forces report that about 580 Russian troops have been killed during fighting over the last day. Posting its latest overnight summary of casualties, the Ukrainian military claims Russia has suffered 282,280 losses since the start of the war on 24 February last year.The figures have not been independently verified and are still being updated.

Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, says that current violence between Hamas and Israel is useful for Russia in diverting the world’s attention and works in their favour. Duda argued in an interview with private broadcaster Polsat News on Sunday that conflict in the Middle East distracts international scrutiny away from Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and may result in new migration pressures on Europe.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken about the situation in Israel, drawing parallels with the war in Ukraine by stating that “Israel’s right to self-defence is unquestionable”. He said his government had set up an operational headquarters to aid any Ukrainians in Israel. Officials have estimated that about 15,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to Israel. While having sent tons of humanitarian aid, Netanyahu has consistently refused to supply weapons to Kyiv.

A United Russia party official in the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson oblast was killed in a car explosion on Saturday, the Russian-installed regional governor said. Vladimir Malov, executive secretary of the town branch of Russia’s governing United Russia party, died in hospital, Vladimir Saldo said in a post on his Telegram channel. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former leader, has called for a civil war in the US, as he said a civil war would be the only thing that could stop “America’s manic passion for sparking conflicts everywhere on the planet”.

Train traffic between North Korea and Russia has dramatically increased after the recent summit between leaders Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, indicating a “likely” transfer of arms, according to a new report by Washington-based analysts. High-resolution satellite imagery reveals at least 70 freight cars at North Korea’s border Tumangang rail facility, the Beyond Parallel group said on Friday, a number described as “unprecedented”.

Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, says that current violence between Hamas and Israel is useful for Russia in diverting the world’s attention and works in their favour, Reuters reports.

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‘People are fearful of what’s to come’: Gaza civilians flee waves of Israeli strikes

Palestinians seek refuge but electricity and gas have been cut off and medical infrastructure is on its knees

Palestinians across the besieged Gaza Strip have described their terror and confusion, as thousands fled a wave of Israeli airstrikes after Hamas’s unprecedented cross-border incursion.

“When we began asking about the situation inside the hospitals we work with, one person described it as a slaughterhouse,” said Mahmoud Shalabi of Medical Aid for Palestinians, who is overseeing support to hospitals across the Gaza Strip.

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