Category Archives: World News

‘We never stopped protesting’: Iran’s youth take freedom fight underground

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Students tell of secret acts of defiance ahead of the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody

Young Iranians have taken their protests against the authoritarian regime underground one year on from the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman detained for allegedly wearing the Islamic headscarf incorrectly.

The death of Mahsa Amini on 16 September last year led to the largest wave of popular unrest for years in Iran and a brutal crackdown by security services in response, with hundreds of men, women and children killed and thousands more injured, according to human rights groups.

At the beginning of the uprising, one of these two women, both 25, was arrested at a protest gathering and spent 16 days in prison. One of her fellow inmates was Yalda Aghafazli, a 19-year-old protester who died under suspicious circumstances after her release

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Taiwan urges China to stop ‘destructive’ military activities as fighter jets cross median line

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Taiwan’s defence ministry said that since Sunday it had spotted 103 Chinese military aircraft over the sea, a number it called a ‘recent high’

Taiwan’s defence ministry has urged China to stop “destructive, unilateral action” after reporting a sharp rise in Chinese military activities near the island, warning such behaviour could lead to an increase in tensions.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has in recent years regularly carried out military drills around the island as it seeks to assert its sovereignty claims and pressure Taipei.

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Ukraine troops have recaptured key village of Klishchiivka near Bakhmut, says Zelenskiy

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Ukrainian president praises soldiers as military says ‘powerful damage’ inflicted on Russian forces

Ukraine says its forces have recaptured the tactically important village of Klishchiivka in the west of the country, in what would mark Kyiv’s second notable counteroffensive victory in three days.

“Today I would like to particularly commend the soldiers who, step by step, are returning to Ukraine what belongs to it, namely in the area of Bakhmut,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Sunday.

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Italian PM warns migration an issue for all of Europe on Lampedusa visit

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Far-right Giorgia Meloni says crisis cannot be ‘just resolved within Italian borders’ on visit to island where 8,500 arrived in days

Italy’s prime minister has said that European countries must work together “to stop departures [from Africa]” and swiftly deport those turned down for asylum, who she said “threaten the future of Europe”, after thousands of people seeking refuge arrived on Lampedusa in the last week.

Giorgia Meloni toured the tiny Sicilian island, which for years has been the first port of call for people making the treacherous journey by sea from north Africa, on Sunday morning alongside Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

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Balmain chief says at least 50 pieces for Paris fashion week have been stolen

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Artistic director Olivier Rousteing posted that a van travelling between a Paris airport and the firm’s main office was hijacked

Balmain artistic director Olivier Rousteing has said robbers have made off with more than 50 pieces of the new collection that his Paris house intended to show at fashion week later this month.

Posting overnight on Sunday on Instagram, Rousteing said a group of people hijacked his delivery driver on the way from an airport to Balmain’s Paris headquarters. He said they made off with the last pieces he had been expecting for the 27 September womenswear show – more than 50 items in all. He did not give a breakdown of the stolen items.

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Nato chief warns nations must prepare ‘for a long war’ – as it happened

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Jens Stoltenberg says ‘we must prepare ourselves for a long war’

There are reports from Russia about two further drone attacks in addition to the ones reported earlier near the capital.

Another drone was downed in Russia’s Voronezh region, local governor Aleksandr Gusev and the ministry of defence said. According to Gusev, there were no casualties or damage.

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Libya floods: warlord using disaster response to exert control, say observers

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Khalifa Haftar and Libyan National Army militia said to be overseeing humanitarian relief arriving in city of Derna

As search and rescue teams continue to hunt for bodies trapped underneath the mud and rubble of their homes in the Libyan coastal city of Derna, observers say the warlord Khalifa Haftar and his sons are using the disaster response as a way to exert control rather than ensure vital humanitarian relief reaches civilians.

At least 11,300 people have died and more than 10,000 are missing, according to the Libyan Red Crescent, after two dams burst during a powerful storm last week.

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Key ‘Bidenomics’ architect calls for spending ‘race to the top’ on green tech

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Biden adviser Heather Boushey urges UK and Europe to increase climate friendly investment to reboot growth

Governments around the world must drastically increase public investment in green technologies to combat global heating and drive sustainable economic growth, a top adviser to President Joe Biden has said.

Heather Boushey, a member of the White House council of economic advisers, said countries including the UK needed to ramp up green investment to reboot economic growth, boost energy security, and protect against future inflation shocks.

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Joe Biden to meet Benjamin Netanyahu at UN in awkward rapprochement

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US president agrees to talks at general assembly despite deep unease over policies of Israeli PM’s hardline coalition

Nine months after returning to office, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is finally getting his long sought-after meeting with Joe Biden – but an awkward rapprochement at the UN general assembly is unlikely to improve the strained relationship between the two leaders.

The US president is scheduled to meet Netanyahu in New York on Wednesday, the White House said on Friday. The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the two leaders would “discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues focused on the shared democratic values between the United States and Israel and a vision for a more stable and prosperous and integrated region, as well as to compare notes on effectively countering and deterring Iran”.

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Fourteen people killed in plane crash in Brazil’s Amazonas state

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Regional governor says 12 passengers and two crew were onboard the Embraer aircraft when it crashed in Barcelos province

Fourteen people on a small plane died when it crashed in Brazil’s northern Amazonas state on Saturday, the regional governor said.

The crash took place in Barcelos province, about 250 miles (400km) from the state capital, Manaus.

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Labour wants new EU links in a reset of British foreign policy

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Ties with Europe are a top priority, says shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, as he calls for Britain to play a lead role in world affairs

The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has proposed regular meetings between UK and European Union ministers, as part of a major reset of British foreign policy under a Labour government.

Lammy, who was attending a gathering of centre-left leaders in Montreal, Canada, with the Labour leader Keir Starmer, told the Observer it was high time the UK took up its place again, after Brexit, as a lead player in world affairs. “A UK that is isolated and missing is felt across the world. It is definitely the case that the international community want Britain back,” he said.

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South Africa holds state funeral for divisive Zulu politician Mangosuthu Buthelezi

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Mourners pay tribute to controversial former leader of Inkatha Freedom Party who died last week aged 95

Thousands of mourners gathered in South Africa’s eastern town of Ulundi on Saturday for the state funeral of veteran politician and Zulu prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

Buthelezi, a controversial figure during the apartheid liberation struggle because of his bitter rivalry with the African National Congress (ANC), died last week aged 95.

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‘Towns were erased’: Libyan reporters on the ‘horrifying, harrowing’ aftermath of floods

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Journalists who reported on last week’s catastrophic storm say the country’s bloody political tussle has contributed to the collapse of services

Early last week, Mohamed Eljabo travelled to the eastern provinces of Libya, passing through Derna, Al Bayda and Sousa, and what he saw he describes as “shock beyond comprehension”.

“I have visited these cities before and I know them well,” he says. “I expected to find these cities when I made the journey from Tripoli. I expected to see the neighbourhoods and towns. But these were gone. Erased. It was horrifying.”

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Daniel Burke: body found in Ukraine in search for missing British man

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Relatives of Manchester man, 36, receive support as UK and Ukraine officials work on identification

A body has been found in Ukraine in the search for a British man who was reported missing a month ago.

Relatives of Daniel Burke lost contact with him in mid-August while he was on his most recent visit to Ukraine.

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Leading critic of Egyptian state jailed for six months

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Free speech advocate Hisham Kassem sentenced for defaming former minister Kamal Abu Eita

A court in Cairo has sentenced a former newspaper publisher, free speech advocate and rights activist to six months in prison, in a trial observers say constitutes an attack on a leading critic of the Egyptian state.

Hisham Kassem, the former publisher of Al Masry Al Youm newspaper, received six months in detention and a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (approximately £523) for slandering and defaming Kamal Abu Eita. Abu Eita is a former minister and current member of Egypt’s presidential pardon committee, tasked with granting clemency towards some of the tens of thousands of detainees in the Egyptian prison system.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Moscow disputes Kyiv’s claim about captured territory in Donetsk – as it happened

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Ukraine claimed to have recaptured the devastated eastern village of Andriivka, near Bakhmut.

Here are some of the latest images coming through from photographers in Ukraine:

In case you missed it, Alexander Lukashenko has expressed interest in creating a trilateral partnership with Russia and North Korea amid rumours that Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un were negotiating an arms deal to sustain Russia’s war in Ukraine.

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Kim Jong-un inspects nuclear-capable aircraft on Russia visit

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Moscow’s defence minister shows North Korean leader weapons including hypersonic missiles at airfield near Vladivostok

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, inspected Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers, hypersonic missiles and warships on Saturday, accompanied by Vladimir Putin’s defence minister.

Sergei Shoigu greeted Kim at Russia’s Knevichi airfield, about 50km (30 miles) from the Pacific port city of Vladivostok. The North Korean leader then inspected a guard of honour.

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Mahsa Amini’s father detained on anniversary of death, rights group says

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Iranian security forces briefly hold Amjad Amini amid crackdown on commemorative protests

The father of Mahsa Amini was temporarily detained by Iranian security forces on the anniversary of her death in an attempt to stop people gathering at her grave amid strikes and protests across the country.

The Kurdistan Human Rights Network said the security forces released Amjad Amini after briefly detaining him and warning him against marking the anniversary of his daughter’s death.

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