The two prime ministers have forced immigration onto the agenda at European Political Community summit in Granada
Giorgia Meloni has turned to the UK’s prime minister Rishi Sunak to take her battle against migration beyond the EU, it has emerged.
In what some are dubbing the Spanish framework, the prime ministers have forced migration on to the agenda at a historic meeting of about 50 European leaders in Granada on Thursday.
Continue reading...Influx of injuries may suggest deliberate targeting by Israel’s army, which human rights groups say is unlawful
Medics in the Gaza Strip have reported treating an influx of protesters who appear to have been deliberately targeted in the ankle in recent unrest at the volatile boundary of the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
At least one person has been killed and dozens more wounded since demonstrations by groups of young men, some of them throwing stones and molotov cocktails, began in mid-September.
Continue reading...Statement at UN human rights council voices ‘disappointment’ after host country refuses to change restrictive laws
The UK has asked the United Arab Emirates, one of its closest Gulf allies, to explain how it will guarantee free speech around the UN Cop28 climate summit in Dubai after the country refused to change its restrictive laws.
The refusal came after a four-yearly UN review of the UAE’s human rights record.
Continue reading...Failure to renew ICHREE mandate comes after human rights experts warn that abuses continue in Ethiopia
A United Nations investigation into human rights abuses committed during Ethiopia’s Tigray war has been terminated, despite urgent warnings from its members about the risk of future violations in the east African country.
The mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) will expire later this month, after a deadline passed on Wednesday to table a resolution renewing it to the UN Human Rights Council.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest on the trial below:
Sam Bankman-Fried’s confidants were along for the ride. At his side was Caroline Ellison, Alameda’s CEO and his on-again, off-again lover.
Ellison, too, projected tech bro-like eccentricities, waxing philosophical about free love and drugs. She wrote in a now-notorious tweet.:
Nothing like regular amphetamine use to make you appreciate how dumb a lot of normal, non-medicated human experience is.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak urges allies to arm Ukraine in party conference speech; Victoria Roshchyna has not been heard from since 3 August, says International Women’s Media Foundation
A Russian court has sentenced the former state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who burst into a news broadcast with a placard that read “Stop the war” and “They’re lying to you”, to eight and half years in jail in absentia on Wednesday.
Ovsyannikova was found guilty of “spreading knowingly false information about the Russian armed forces”, according to a statement posted by the court on Telegram.
Continue reading...Second day of trial featured prosecutors’ first witness as defense presented Bankman-Fried as ‘math nerd’ with good intentions who got in over his head
Opening arguments began in Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial on Wednesday, with prosecutors accusing the former cryptocurrency star of building his empire “on lies” and living a lavish lifestyle while defrauding his customers. Defense attorneys countered by presenting Bankman-Fried as a “math nerd” with good intentions who got in over his head.
The second day of the trial began with Judge Lewis Kaplan finalizing a group of 12 jurors who would hear the case, along with six alternates, and later in the afternoon featured prosecutors calling their first witness.
Continue reading...Chief prosecutor Bruno Cherchi says he is proceeding with road multiple homicide investigation after tourist bus crashed off overpass in northern Italy
Massimo Fiorese, the chief executive of the transport company that owned the bus that crashed, said this morning the vehicle appeared to have been leaning on a railing, TGcom24 reported.
His comments add to speculation about the quality of infrastructure on the stretch of road where the accident took place.
Continue reading...Voters elect Wab Kinew, 41-year-old leader of the leftwing New Democratic party and a former rapper and broadcast journalist
The Canadian province of Manitoba has elected the country’s first First Nations premier, handing the progressive leader a legislative majority following a contentious election campaign.
Wab Kinew, the 41-year-old leader of the leftwing New Democratic party, has led the province’s party since 2017. A former rapper, broadcast journalist and university administrator, Kinew said his newly-elected government will focus on re-opening three emergency rooms shuttered in recent years. He also said the province would invest in more social housing.
Continue reading...Police investigating whether driver suffered illness in moments before tourist bus veered off overpass
Three children, including a newborn baby, are among 21 people confirmed to have died after a tourist coach veered off an overpass near Venice before plummeting 15 metres and bursting into flames.
The cause of the crash is not yet clear, although one theory is that the driver, who also died, had suffered a sudden illness. “From the initial findings there are no signs of braking,” Marco Agostini, a Venice police chief, told the Ansa news agency. “The driver’s illness is a hypothesis.”
Continue reading...Jim Jordan confirms his run while Steve Scalise, House majority leader, reportedly sounds out support
Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio emerged as leading contenders to succeed Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the US House of Representatives, after the Californian was brutally removed by his own Republican party on Tuesday.
Scalise is House majority leader, Jordan chair of the powerful judiciary committee. In the aftermath of McCarthy’s defeat, both were widely reported to be making calls and sounding out support. On Wednesday morning, speaking to reporters, Jordan confirmed his run.
Continue reading...In event of war, natural disaster or climate emergency, rules will allow frontline states to move people swiftly to other EU countries
The EU has reached a historic agreement on how member states will deal with a sudden increase in the number of people seeking asylum in the event of war, natural disaster or climate emergency.
The new rules will allow frontline states to fast-track asylum applications and move people swiftly to other countries in Europe, avoiding a repeat of 2015 when 1 million refugees came to the EU from Syria and beyond, and some countries accepted far more than others.
The pact was sealed early on Wednesday morning, ending three years of arguments between member states on the eve of 27 EU leaders gathering in the Spanish city of Granada on Friday.
The Spanish government, which now holds the rotating EU presidency, had confidently predicted it had majority backing for the deal at an interior ministers’ meeting in Brussels last Thursday.
But at the last minute, Italy said it would not support the deal after two clauses were drafted to satisfy German concerns about human rights.
While it is thought the EU had the numbers to push through the deal on a majority basis, ministers decided it would not be worth the paper it was written on unless Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s rightwing prime minister, was on board.
Italy has received about half the 250,000 people who have arrived in the EU this year. EU leaders, including the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, and the European Commissioner, Ursula von der Leyen, have gone out of their way to ensure the rest of the bloc shows solidarity.
“EU ambassadors have reached an agreement on the regulation addressing situations of crisis and force majeure in the field of migration and asylum,” the Spanish presidency announced on X, the company formerly known as Twitter.
The clash between Italy and Germany encapsulated the differing approaches of European governments. Italy wanted a clause allowing for minimum standards in detention centres to be breached in the event of a crisis spike in arrivals, which Germany had objected to. Italy also attacked Germany over its support for NGOs in search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
The EU has already agreed new rules on dealing with irregular arrivals at current levels with “solidarity” relocation of migrants away from frontline countries. Under the new agreement, that will be replicated in the event of a rise in numbers.
Continue reading...Cost of ‘certificate of entitlement’, introduced in 1990 to control number of cars, now equivalent to four Toyota Camry Hybrids in US
To own a car in Singapore, a buyer must bid for a certificate that now costs $106,000, equivalent to four Toyota Camry Hybrids in the US, as a post-pandemic recovery has driven up the cost of the country’s vehicle quota system to all-time highs.
Singapore has a 10-year “certificate of entitlement” (COE) system, introduced in 1990, to control the number of vehicles in the small city-state, which is home to 5.9 million people and can be driven across in less than an hour.
Continue reading...Ukrainian drones attack three Russian regions overnight, Moscow says; UK PM calls on west to help Ukraine ‘finish the job’
Dozens of Ukrainian drones attacked three Russian regions overnight, according to the Russian ministry of defence, which claimed to have shot down 31 unmanned aircrafts. However, there are reports that a drone struck a Russian air defence system in the Belgorod oblast.
The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, urged western allies to continue supporting and arming Ukraine so it can “finish the job” against Russia. His comments come as US aid to Ukraine remains uncertain after the ousting of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker. Before yesterday’s vote, McCarthy had avoided government shutdown by pushing to pass a US government funding bill that excluded support for Kyiv, leaving Joe Biden to rely on the Republican speaker for a separate deal. Yesterday, Admiral Rob Bauer, Nato’s most senior military official, warned that western military powers are running out of ammunition to give to Ukraine. “The bottom of the barrel is now visible,” Bauer said.
Ukraine’s navy said on Wednesday that 12 more vessels were ready to enter a Black Sea shipping corridor on their way towards Ukrainian ports, and that 10 other vessels were ready to depart from the country’s ports. Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk made his remarks as Ukraine tries to defy a de facto Russian blockade on Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea after Moscow pulled out of a deal in July that had allowed Kyiv to safely export grain.
A Russian court has sentenced in absentia the former state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who burst into a news broadcast with a placard that read “Stop the war” and “They’re lying to you” to eight and half years in jail on Wednesday. Ovsyannikova was found guilty of “spreading knowingly false information about the Russian armed forces”, according to a statement posted by the court on Telegram. Ovsyannikova, 45, fled Russia with her daughter for an unspecified European country a year ago after escaping from house arrest, according to her lawyer, saying she had no case to answer.
Ukrainian police recorded 15 Russian war crimes in relation to strikes on several locations in Kherson oblast. One strike in a residential quarter of Antonivka killed a 54-year-old man and injured seven other local residents, aged from 27 to 77, were injured. Russian forces then shelled Antonivka again in the evening, wounding a 61-year-old man.
Ukraine increased its road shipments of agricultural goods in September, according to Spike Brokers, a commercial agent broker on the grain and oil market of Ukraine. In September, 514,000 metric tons of agricultural goods were exported by lorries, while in August, 506,000 tons were exported. The increase is still down from the year before, which saw 639,000 tons in September 2022.
A fire broke out at the Rusal-owned Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Smelter early on Wednesday, Russia’s Tass state news agency reports, citing local emergency ministry officials. “At 08.57am (1.57am GMT) a fire was reported on the territory of the KrAZ (Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Smelter),” the agency cited the officials as saying. “A transformer caught fire on an area of 50 sq metres (538 sq ft).” It was not immediately known what caused the fire. Rusal is the largest aluminium producer outside China.
Continue reading...Former Americans file lawsuit against US government, alleging ‘renunciation fee’ of $2,350 is ‘arbitrary, capricious and illegal’
Former Americans who have renounced their citizenship have launched a class-action lawsuit suing the US government for what they argue are exorbitant and unconstitutional costs of relinquishing their passports.
The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday by four renounced US citizens in a federal court in Washington DC, accuses the US of wrongfully profiting from the “astronomical” fee it charges those who voluntarily cease to be Americans. Since 2014, Americans abroad who no longer wish to remain citizens, or who can no longer afford to meet the notoriously onerous US tax demands, have been forced to pay a “renunciation fee” of $2,350.
Continue reading...Wooden vessel is thought to have held largest number of arrivals to Spanish archipelago in one crossing
A wooden boat crammed with 280 people that arrived at the Canary island of El Hierro on Tuesday is thought to be the most crowded migrant vessel to have reached the Spanish archipelago after traversing the perilous Atlantic route from west Africa.
More than 500 people reached El Hierro on Tuesday alone, as smugglers took advantage of the calmer autumn weather to ferry people to the Canaries. Emergency services reported another boat arriving with 79 people, while 127 others were rescued from the sea.
Continue reading...Boss of rising singer’s former music label has denied any involvement in unexplained death
Police in Nigeria have detained the Afrobeats star and record label boss Naira Marley for questioning over the death of the fast-rising singer MohBad last month.
MohBad death’s in unexplained circumstances on 12 September at the age of 27 led to an outpouring of grief among his fans and sent ripples through the multibillion-dollar Afrobeats music genre.
Continue reading...Rate tops level last seen after Liz Truss mini-budget as fears of global inflation and US political instability spook markets
Britain’s long-term cost of borrowing has hit its highest level since 1998, as political instability in the US and fears of sustained high levels of inflation triggered a sell-off in global bond markets.
The yield, or interest rate, on 30-year UK government bonds hit 5.115% early on Wednesday, according to the financial data provider Refinitiv.
Continue reading...Unesco analysis shows that sub-Saharan Africa accounts for a third of the shortfall, but that Europe and North America are lacking too
The world needs 44 million more teachers if education is to be provided to every child, according to new figures from Unesco.
The education and culture agency said 9% of primary school teachers quit the profession in 2022, almost double the rate of 4.6% in 2015.
Continue reading...Now-former speaker confirms he will not run again as Republicans plan to hold a vote for a new speaker next Wednesday
After leading a successful, bipartisan effort to avoid a government shutdown over the weekend, Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday was abruptly removed from his role as US House speaker, ousted by hard-right members of his own Republican party less than a year after his election.
The ousting of McCarthy represented the first time in US history that a speaker of the House has been removed from office, marking an ignominious end to a short and fraught tenure for the California Republican. It comes as Americans’ approval ratings of Congress and the federal government remain near historic lows, with a majority saying they have little or no confidence in the future of the US political system.
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