Category Archives: World News

Argentinians urged to reject ‘dictatorial’ Milei by offspring of regime torturers

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Open letter from offspring of officials convicted of crimes against humanity warns that democracy is at risk in presidential election

The offspring of military officials convicted of crimes against humanity and genocide during Argentina’s dictatorship have urged voters not to back the far-right candidate Javier Milei in the imminent election, warning that the country’s very democracy is in danger.

In an open letter published ahead of the 19 November run-off between Milei and his centrist rival, Sergio Massa, the Historias Desobedientes (Disobedient Stories) collective voiced “great concern” that the rightwing radical and his running mate Victoria Villarruel had a chance of winning power.

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‘We are all grieving’: Israel falls silent to mark a month since Hamas attack

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Outpouring of grief, anger and community as vigils held to remember the 1,400 killed and the hostages held in Gaza

Israel fell silent on Tuesday to observe a minute’s silence to mark one month since the Hamas terrorist attacks that killed 1,400, mostly civilians at home and at a festival, and injured many more.

At 11am, people stood silently on the street and at schools, businesses and in cafes in Jerusalem and elsewhere, heads bowed. Some wept, others prayed or held hands.

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‘We saw death’: families flee past tanks as Israel begins to storm Gaza City

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Civilians given four-hour window to leave encircled capital but fears many are still trapped

Waving white flags and holding their hands above their heads, Palestinian families fled past tanks waiting to storm Gaza City in the next stage of the war that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said will give Israel “indefinite” control over the besieged territory.

Israel’s military gave civilians inside the encircled city a four-hour window to leave on Tuesday, as its forces prepared to retake the biggest city in the strip.

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Convoy of five trucks hit by fire – as it happened

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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Japan for a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers expected to be dominated by the Israel-Hamas war.

Blinken made no public comment as he arrived for the two days of discussions in Tokyo after a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, where he pushed for humanitarian “pauses” in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and attempted to contain the conflict.

Calls have been mounting for a ceasefire, including from UN agencies and several countries.

A key ally of Israel, the US has not backed these calls, insisting that Israel has the right to respond – though Washington has called for pauses in the fighting.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Nato allies condemn Russia’s withdrawal from key cold war-era security treaty – as it happened

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Russia withdraws from treaty of conventional armed forces in Europe, which was aimed at preventing cold war rivals from massing forces at borders

A Russian ship was “almost certainly” damaged after being struck in Crimea, says the UK’s Ministry of Defence.

In a defence intelligence update, the MoD said a newly built Russian naval corvette was damaged on 4 November, which was earlier reported by Ukrainian and Russian sources.

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Election day 2023: polls close in Ohio and Virginia where abortion rights are at stake; Mississippi partially extends voting – as it happened

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US supreme court justices on today appeared inclined to uphold the legality of a federal law that makes it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to have guns in the latest major case to test the willingness of its conservative majority to further expand gun rights, Reuters reports.

The justices heard arguments in an appeal by Joe Biden’s administration of a lower court’s ruling striking down the law – intended to protect victims of domestic abuse - as a violation of the US constitution’s second amendment right to “keep and bear arms”.

I mean, not taking your recycling to the curb on Thursdays, if it’s a serious problem it’s irresponsible,” Roberts said.

What seems irresponsible to some people might seem like, well, it’s not a big deal to others.”

And the reason that we use the term ‘not responsible’ is because it is the standard this court has articulated” in its three major gun rights rulings in the past 15 years, Prelogar said.

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Portuguese PM António Costa resigns amid corruption inquiry

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Police search socialist prime minister’s official residence in investigation into alleged corruption

Portugal’s socialist prime minister, António Costa, has resigned hours after prosecutors examining alleged corruption involving lithium and “green” hydrogen deals announced that he was under investigation and police searched dozens of addresses, including his official residence and the environment and infrastructure ministries.

Speaking on Tuesday afternoon after two emergency meetings with Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Costa said he had submitted his resignation, adding he had a “clear conscience” and “complete trust in justice” and how it worked.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

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German chancellor Olaf Scholz agrees ‘historic’ stricter migration policy

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Move comes hours after Italy unveils plan to build asylum reception centres in Albania for those arriving by sea

Stricter measures to deal with a large number of migrants arriving in Germany have been agreed by the chancellor Olaf Scholz and state leaders, as NGOs criticised Italy’s plans to create centres in Albania to accommodate asylum seekers.

After a marathon session of talks in Berlin which went on into the early hours of Tuesday, Scholz said the measures would help speed up asylum procedures, restrict social benefits for migrants, and provide more federal funding for local communities.

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Netanyahu’s vague vision for Gaza after war may open up new chapter of violence

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PM’s once unthinkable assertion Israel will reclaim security in territory would come with responsibilities towards Palestinians

The last time Israeli troops had a permanent security role inside Gaza, Israel’s prime minister was Ariel Sharon. Twenty-one Israeli settlements were scattered across the Gaza Strip, connected to Israel through a bypass road, used by Israeli surfers at the weekend to reach the coast.

Soldiers manned checkpoints and metal-clad towers. At night, Palestinian children would approach the towers under cover of darkness to throw crude pipe bombs that could be bought for pocket money.

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Anything but the fraud: ex-Trump aide focuses on ‘travesty’ courtroom sketch

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Former press chief Kayleigh McEnany, now a Fox News host, upset by sketch of ex-president, found liable in New York case

Amid Donald Trump’s rambling court appearance in his fraud trial on Monday, there was one thing that really piqued Fox News: the former president’s appearance in a courtroom sketch.

“A travesty,” was the verdict of Kayleigh McEnany, who served as Trump’s press secretary during the dying embers of his one-term presidency before she became a Fox News host.

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Beleaguered DeSantis falls further behind Trump in Florida, poll shows

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University of North Florida study shows governor trailing Trump by 39 points, 60% to 21%, among Republican voters in his state

A new poll shows Florida’s hard-right governor, Ron DeSantis, falling even further behind Donald Trump in his own state, one day before the embattled candidate for the Republican presidential nomination takes the debate stage in Miami.

The study by the University of North Florida (UNF) published on Tuesday shows DeSantis trailing Trump by 39 points (60-21) among Republican Florida voters, with the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley a distant third on 6%.

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EU asks for more information on Meloni’s move to send asylum seekers to Albania after ‘practically zero notice’ of deal – as it happened

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EU wants to discuss implications of deal after Italy announces new migration policy

Swedish ministers sent a letter today to EU institutions calling for strengthening security cooperation and implementing an effective migration returns policy.

Gunnar Strömmer, Sweden’s minister for justice, together with minister for migration Maria Malmer Stenergard, said “it is of utmost importance for the over-arching future security of the EU zone that the EU reaches an agreement on the EU pact on migration and asylum.”.

This entails both making more effective work within our own countries and in relation to our cooperation with third countries. More can be done realistically within the legal framework we have today. More discussions on cooperation on returns are necessary.

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Jean-Baptiste Andrea wins Prix Goncourt for novel set in fascist Italy

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Award is usually seen as elitist but former screenwriter’s Veiller sur elle has strong sales and is a ‘popular’ read

Jean-Baptiste Andrea has won France’s most prestigious literary award, the Prix Goncourt, for a bestselling saga of the tumultuous life of a sculptor set against the backdrop of the rise of fascism in Italy.

Andrea, who turned to novel-writing after a long career as a screenwriter, has described Veiller sur elle as an expansive story of love, friendship and revenge. The novel stood out for a literary prize that has often been seen as elitist, as it already had strong sales and had been defined by some critics as a “popular” read.

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Minister robbed and bodyguards’ guns stolen in South Africa

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Tyres of Sindisiwe Chikunga’s car punctured by spikes on highway south of Johannesburg, say police

A South African government minister has been robbed and her bodyguards have had their guns stolen, say police, in what authorities in the country described as an “unprecedented incident”.

The attack took place on Monday as the transport minister, Sindisiwe Chikunga, was travelling on a highway south of Johannesburg, police said.

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Israel’s attempt to destroy Hamas will breed more radicalisation, UN expert says

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Francesca Albanese says crisis is result of failing to heed concerns about Israel’s repression of Palestinian human rights

Israel’s attempt to wipe out Hamas in response to the attacks of 7 October is likely to breed only further radicalisation, besides being unlawful, the UN special rapporteur on theoccupied Palestinian territories has said.

In an interview with the Guardian, Francesca Albanese also said the international community was “reaping the whirlwind” of failing to heed the concerns of those, including herself, who had criticised Israel’s “systematic repression of Palestinian human rights”.

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Kenya makes 13 November nationwide tree planting day a public holiday

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Move announced by interior minister is part of ambitious Kenyan plan to plant 15bn trees by 2032

The Kenyan government has announced a surprise public holiday on 13 November for a nationwide tree planting day, part of its ambitious plan to plant 15bn trees by 2032

The interior minister, Kithure Kindiki, made the announcement via an official notice posted to social media.

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Netanyahu says Israel will have ‘overall security responsibility’ in Gaza after war

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Prime minister rules out general ceasefire as Israel marks a month since Hamas attack

Israel will keep control over Gaza indefinitely after its war against Hamas ends, Benjamin Netanyahu has stated, saying his country will take “overall security responsibility” for the territory.

One month after Hamas’s attack killed 1,400 people, the Israeli prime minister also said he would consider hour-long “tactical little pauses” in fighting to allow the entry of aid or the exit of hostages from the Gaza Strip, but again rejected calls for a ceasefire.

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Kenya manufacturer is first in Africa to get WHO approval for malaria drug

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Pre-qualification seen as significant step towards self-sufficiency in healthcare in continent where more than 70% of drugs are imported

A Kenyan pharmaceutical company, Universal Corporation Limited, has become the first manufacturer in Africa to receive World Health Organization (WHO) approval to produce a lifesaving malaria drug.

The antimalarial drug, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine plus amodiaquine (Spaq), is frequently used to prevent seasonal malaria in children during months of peak transmission periods such as rainy seasons. Previously, demand for drugs such as Spaq in Africa has been met through the importation of generic versions of the medicine from India and China.

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Workers for fast fashion brands fear starvation as they fight for higher wages

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Garment workers in Bangladesh making clothes for UK brands say plans to increase their pay to £92 a month is not enough to survive

Garment workers making clothes in Bangladesh for UK high-street brands say they are facing starvation and are having to steal and scavenge food from fields and bins to feed their children, as protests continue over a new minimum wage for the garment workforce of 4 million people.

Over the past week, tens of thousands of workers have taken to the streets in increasingly violent protests that, according to unions and news reports, have left one young garment worker, Rasel Hawlader, dead.

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A deadly cascade: how secret Hamas attack orders were passed down at last minute

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Plan drawn up by handful of leaders was unknown to men who would carry it out until morning of attacks on Israel a month ago

  • Warning: viewers may find some photos distressing

The first orders went out before 4am: anyone who had been attending the regular training sessions and was not planning to attend dawn prayers at their usual mosques must go to pray.

An hour later, as the sky began to lighten over Gaza and the congregations began to disperse, new instructions were issued. These too were straightforward and passed mainly by word of mouth: bring your weapons and any ammunition you have and assemble at specific landmarks.

The aftermath of a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip in the Sderot area of southern Israel. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters

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