Category Archives: World News

Nobel-prize winning gynaecologist announces plans to run for president of DRC

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Denis Mukwege won the Nobel peace prize in 2018 for his campaign against sexual violence

The Nobel peace prize-winning gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, renowned for helping victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has announced plans to run for president in December.

Mukwege, who won the award in 2018 for his nearly two-decade campaign against sexual violence, made the announcement to a jubilant crowd of supporters at a conference centre in DRC’s capital, Kinshasa.

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EU proposes €5bn military aid package for Ukraine after ‘historic’ meeting

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Josep Borrell condemns ‘inhumane’ Russia as bloc offers training for soldiers and fighter jet pilots

Ukraine is set to receive billions of euros more in military aid, as well as training for fighter pilots, the EU’s top diplomat has said, after a “historic” meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, said on Monday the 27-nation bloc remained committed to helping Ukraine defeat a “brutal and inhumane” Russia.

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Slovakia’s pro-Russia former PM Robert Fico invited to form coalition

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Three-time former prime minister, who promised to end military aid to Ukraine, expected to seek deal with two other parties

Slovakia’s president has asked Robert Fico, a populist, pro-Russian three-time former prime minister who campaigned on a promise to end military aid to Ukraine, to try to form a coalition government after his party came top in weekend elections.

President Zuzana Čaputová stressed on Monday that the new government would have to be one “which will serve all citizens”, saying the coming days would be “a time of political negotiation” not just between parties but between her and party leaders.

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‘It’s a ghost town’: UN arrives in Nagorno-Karabakh to find ethnic Armenians have fled

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‘What is left for the UN to monitor?’ asks one refugee who crossed the border to escape

Nearly the entire ethnic Armenian population has left Nagorno-Karabakh, as the first United Nations mission arrived in the largely deserted mountainous region on Sunday.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN secretary general, said the United Nations team on the ground, the first UN mission to the region in 30 years, would “identify the humanitarian needs” both for people remaining and “the people that are on the move”.

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Greenlandic women plan to sue Danish state over historical contraceptive ‘violation’

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Group of 67 claim they were fitted with an IUD between 1966 and 1970 without consent or knowledge

Dozens of Greenlandic women who say they were fitted with the contraceptive coil without their consent or knowledge are planning to sue the Danish state.

The group of 67 women, some of whom were as young as 12 when they say they were fitted with an IUD by Danish doctors in an attempt to reduce Greenland’s population, are among the 4,500 women and girls affected between 1966 and 1970.

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Celebrated Syrian author, poet and screenwriter Khaled Khalifa dies aged 59

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Khalifa was one of Syria’s most acclaimed contemporary novelists, though his six novels were banned in the country

Syrian author, poet and screenwriter Khaled Khalifa, whose novels set in Aleppo memorialised a city ruined by civil war, has died aged 59.

The writer died from cardiac arrest at his home in Damascus, a close friend told the French news agency AFP.

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Who is Robert Fico, the pro-Russian leader poised to head Slovakia’s coalition government?

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Leadership of populist three-time PM could have ramifications for Ukraine, EU and Slovakia’s rule of law

Slovakia’s president, Zuzana Caputova, on Monday handed the country’s former prime minister Robert Fico a mandate to start negotiations to form a coalition government after his Smer-SD party won almost 23% of the vote in weekend elections.

If he succeeds, the populist, pro-Russian leader’s fourth term as prime minister could have significant ramifications for Slovakia’s military support for Ukraine, EU unity and cohesion, and the rule of law in the central European country.

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J-pop agency Johnny & Associates to change name amid sexual abuse scandal

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Japanese talent agency to create new firm to manage artists as it tries to distance itself from disgraced founder

The Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates, whose late founder has been accused of sexually abusing hundreds of boys and young men, will change its name and establish a new firm to manage upcoming artists, as it struggles to repair its battered reputation.

The agency’s president, Noriyuki Higashiyama, told a televised press conference on Monday that the company would be renamed Smile-Up, as part of its attempts to distance itself from its disgraced founder, Johnny Kitagawa.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Ukrainian victory depends on cooperation with Europe, Zelenskiy tells EU foreign ministers in Kyiv – as it happened

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Meeting takes place amid concerns over cracks in US funding and after a pro-Russian populist party won the most votes Slovakia’s election

The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has arrived in Kyiv, a spokesperson for her ministry said.

The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, had said earlier on Monday he was convening a meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Ukrainian capital.

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Kosovo’s troubles may not have come to a head, but the crisis still festers

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Swift western pressure on Serbia to step back from conflict does not resolve the chronic problems of Kosovo’s nationhood

The signs this weekend suggest that the immediate crisis over Kosovo has been defused. Some Serbian troops are pulling back from the border, and the threat of a return to armed conflict has receded for now.

The Biden administration acted decisively on Friday, drawing on some of the lessons from the run-up to the Ukraine invasion, going public with US intelligence on Serbian troops movements, and calling Belgrade to threaten sanctions and ostracism. The Nato peacekeeping force, Kfor, was immediately reinforced by the transfer of command of a battalion of British troops who were in the region for training.

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Paris-Berlin relations slump is holding up key EU decisions, says German MEP

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Exclusive: Defence and trade affected by poor post-Merkel rapport, says chair of foreign affairs committee

Poor relations between France and Germany are slowing down key decisions in the EU including deals on defence in Ukraine and trade, an influential German MEP has claimed.

David McAllister, chair of the European parliament’s foreign affairs committee and a key figure in the opposition Christian Democrats party, says he is concerned that the lack of contact between the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, is causing delays on key decisions on battle tanks and fighter jets, and a future trade deal with Latin America.

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Biden urges Republicans to approve Ukraine aid, saying support cannot waver

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US president says he is ‘sick and tired’ of domestic political brinkmanship as Volodymyr Zelenskiy vows to fight on in speech released on Defenders Day

Joe Biden has pressed congressional Republicans to back a deal to provide more aid to Ukraine, after provisions for Kyiv were left out of a bill to avoid a US government shutdown.

The US president said on Sunday he was “sick and tired” of the political brinkmanship, and that US support for Ukraine could not be interrupted “under any circumstances”. Republicans had pledged to provide Ukraine aid through a separate vote, he said.

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Republicans attacking Bowman but backing Santos should ‘check values’, AOC says

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defends Democrat who set off fire alarm as key vote loomed, citing charges against New York opponent

Republicans calling for action against the New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman for triggering a fire alarm in a congressional office building as a vote loomed on a deal to avoid a government shutdown should “check their own values”, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, citing the lack of action against a GOP New Yorker, George Santos, after he was indicted for fraud.

“They are protecting someone who has lied to the American people, lied to the United States House of Representatives, lied to congressional investigators,” Ocasio-Cortez, widely known as AOC, told CNN’s State of the Union.

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East Libya postpones Derna reconstruction conference amid calls for unity

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Rival governments urged to work together to best manage donations for city after catastrophic flooding

The government in eastern Libya has been forced to postpone a reconstruction conference for the stricken city of Derna amid concerns about how donations will be spent and a lack of coordination with the west of the country.

A large part of Derna was destroyed on the night of 10 September when severe flooding caused two dams above the town to burst. The death toll has been put at more than 10,000, but no official figure is yet deemed accurate.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: UK’s plan to train service members in Ukraine makes them ‘legal targets’, says Medvedev

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Russia’s former leader responds to statements by UK defence secretary, who said UK is in talks to move training to Ukraine

Vladimir Putin declared that yesterday was “Reunification Day” in commemoration of commemorating Russia’s illegal annexation of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts, Celebrations drew crowds of people to Red Square in Moscow this weekend, but in the occupied regions where residents say they were forced under threats of violence to vote in the sham referendums making their homes part of the Russian Federation?

In the Luhansk oblast, a car rally in honour of the reunification brought in just 11 cars.

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‘Let’s have that fight’: McCarthy and Gaetz go to war over shutdown deal

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Far-right congressman says he will move to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker over deal to avert shutdown to ‘rip the Bandaid off’

Simmering hostility between Republicans over the bipartisan deal that averted a government shutdown descended into open political warfare on Sunday, a rightwing congressman saying he would move to oust Kevin McCarthy and the embattled House speaker insisting he would survive.

“We need to rip off the Bandaid. We need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy,” the Florida representative Matt Gaetz told CNN’s State of the Union, saying he would file a “motion to vacate” in the next few days.

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Kosovan government calls on Serbia to pull all troops from border

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Demand follows part withdrawal after US warning of potential punitive measures against Belgrade

Kosovo has demanded that Serbia pull its troops back from their common border and warned it was ready to protect its territorial integrity, after the US warned of punitive measures against Belgrade and Serbia’s president insisted he “does not want war”.

“We call on … Serbia to immediately withdraw all troops from the border with Kosovo,” the Kosovan government said, demanding that Belgrade “demilitarise” 48 forward military and police bases, “which pose a permanent threat to our country”.

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Bob Menendez’s daughter says MSNBC colleagues will cover story ‘aggressively’

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Alicia Menendez, a weekend anchor on liberal network, says she has been watching father’s case ‘along with all of you as a citizen’

The MSNBC anchor Alicia Menendez said her colleagues at the network would “aggressively” cover the corruption scandal involving her father, the indicted New Jersey senator, Bob Menendez – “as they should”.

Alicia Menendez hosts a weekend show on the liberal-leaning network.

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Autumn heat continues in Europe after record-breaking September

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Countries including France, Germany and Poland all had their hottest Septembers on record

Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland have all experienced their hottest Septembers on record, with unseasonably high temperatures set to continue into October, in a year likely to be the warmest in human history.

As 31C (88F) was forecast in south-west France on Sunday and 28C in Paris, the French weather authority, Météo-France, said September’s average temperature was 21.5C, between 3.5C and 3.6C above the norm for the 1991-2020 reference period.

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Bolivian ex-president to pay damages to victims of military in landmark US case

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Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and former defence minister agree to pay for 2003 violence in which 60 protesters were killed

A former Bolivian president and his defence minister have agreed to pay damages to the families of people killed by the military during their government, in a landmark settlement that sets a precedent by which other foreign leaders could face accountability for human rights abuse in US courts.

The settlement concerns events in 2003, when massive protests broke out over then president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada’s plan to export Bolivia’s natural gas. The army was sent to clear blockades in the largely Indigenous and working-class city of El Alto, killing more than 60 protesters and injuring hundreds.

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