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Prosecutor Colleen Faherty asked Donald Trump Jr whether it’s a fair statement that he was generally familiar with the overall finances of the Trump Organization between 2011 and the present.
“I would think so, yes,” Trump Jr replied, Law360’s Stewart Bishop reports.
Continue reading...Reanalysis of skeletal remains in Spain suggests conflicts took place about 5,000 years ago in neolithic period, say researchers
The earliest period of warfare in Europe might have occurred more than 1,000 years before what was previously thought to be the first large-scale conflict in the region, researchers have suggested.
Reanalysis of more than 300 sets of skeletal remains uncovered in Spain – radiocarbon dated to between 5,400 and 5,000 years ago – indicates that conflicts took place long before powerful states formed in the region.
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Israel’s conflict with Hamas continues as its troops push deeper into the Gaza Strip.
We have a separate live blog covering it, and you can read it here:
Continue reading...Suella Braverman signs ‘migration and security agreement’ with Austrian counterpart in move to work more closely together
Austria is seeking to adopt a Rwanda-style deal to deport asylum seekers to a third country, having agreed a deal to work with the UK on migration.
Suella Braverman signed a “migration and security agreement” with her Austrian counterpart, Gerhard Karner, in which the two countries agreed to work more closely together.
Continue reading...Even China is part of the UK’s ‘Bletchley declaration’ – but Britain is not the only country ambitious to lead on the issue
Sitting in a purpose-built hut in the grounds of the historic Bletchley Park country estate, British officials believed they had pulled off a diplomatic coup.
On stage in front of them was the UK’s technology secretary, Michelle Donelan, and behind her were high-level representatives from the US and China, together for the first time to discuss the international regulation of artificial intelligence.
Continue reading...The evacuees were able to cross from the Gaza Strip into Egypt, the US president said on Thursday
The United States has been able to get 74 Americans with dual citizenship out of the Gaza Strip, Joe Biden said at the White House on Thursday, one day after evacuees began crossing into Egypt.
“Good news, we got out today 74 American folks, dual citizens,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office at the start of a meeting with the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader.
Continue reading...Hamas armed wing the al-Qassam brigades says it hit border town, while Hezbollah claims attack on 19 Israeli positions
Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam brigades, said its fighters in southern Lebanon were behind the shelling of the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, where four rockets landed in an industrial area, injuring two people and damaging buildings.
In a second barrage, Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militant group, said it had simultaneously attacked 19 positions in Israel on Thursday evening in the latest escalation on Israel’s northern border.
Continue reading...Torrential rain and 200km/h winds force schools to close and airlines and train companies to halt services
At least seven people have been killed and dozens injured as Storm Ciarán battered north-west Europe with torrential rain and winds of up to 200km/h (124mph), damaging homes and forcing schools to close and airlines and train companies to halt services.
A truck driver was killed by a falling tree in the Aisne département of northern France, authorities said on Thursday, while more than 1.2 million people lost their electricity supply, including about half the population of Brittany.
Continue reading...New documentary threatens to tarnish folk singer’s reputation as a cultural icon who fought tirelessly for social justice movements
Allegations in a documentary that the popular American folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie misrepresented her Indigenous roots have rattled First Nations communities in Canada, where she claims to have been born, highlighting the complex legacy of an artist whose decades-long career is defined by advocating for Indigenous rights.
Sainte-Marie describes herself as a “Cree singer-songwriter” has long traced her identity to the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan, where she claims she was born in 1941. Sainte-Marie says she was taken from her biological mother when she was an infant and raised by a white family in the US.
Continue reading...Rights groups repeat calls for apology while President William Ruto says ‘much remains to be done to achieve full reparations’
King Charles’s expression of “greatest sorrow and deepest regret” over colonial atrocities committed by British forces in Kenya has been criticised as a “miss” in the east African country.
Reactions to the king’s statement were mixed, with the president, William Ruto, diplomatically welcoming Charles’s “courage and readiness to shed light on uncomfortable truths that reside in the darker regions of our shared experience”, but calling Britain’s colonial suppression of Kenya’s freedom movement “monstrous in its cruelty”.
Continue reading...Abdel Hammad took 10 hours to get to Egypt and will not receive support from UK Foreign Office to fly home
A British surgeon who was stranded in Gaza has described scenes of “absolute chaos” at the Rafah crossing after becoming one of the first UK nationals to cross into Egypt.
Abdel Hammad, 67, a transplant surgeon from Liverpool working for a charity in Gaza, told his son Salim Hammad that he was stuck on a bus for five hours with 54 others as he waited to be given the go-ahead to cross into Egypt.
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Here is a map of the risks in France.
Météo-France, the French national meteorological service, is warning about very strong winds.
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Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister and army chief, has spoken to Foreign Policy magazine, saying Israel will “probably lose the support of public opinion” over its response to the 7 October Hamas attack.
In a transcript of the interview published on the publication’s website, the former prime minister said, “our objective is to limit the military and government capabilities of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This could not be accomplished by airstrikes alone. We have to deploy probably many thousands of boots on the ground.”
Even if it develops into a full-scale regional conflict with Hezbollah, which has 10 times more rockets and missiles, or if the West Bank or Golan Heights are involved, Israel is still stronger. It’s not an existential threat, but it will take more time, more losses, and more friction with our supporters in the world.”
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, see all our Ukraine coverage here
In response to the evacuations of Ukrainian civilians from Kupiansk were announced, Igor Bodnia, the Internation Rescue Committee’s field manager in Kharkiv, said:
“The situation in Kupiansk is dire, and the impact on children is particularly devastating. Many of them have seen violence and displacement more than once, and they are in urgent need of protection and support. The IRC is working in a reception hub and dormitories in Kharkiv, focusing on providing primary health care to evacuated families, as well as psychological first aid to children to help them cope with the trauma they have experienced.”
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Gen Valery Zaluzhny, has said that the war in Ukraine in “at a stalemate”, warning that there is likely to be “no deep and beautiful breakthrough” soon in the counteroffensive against Russia.
Ukraine’s army should have been able to push back at a pace of 18 miles a day as it breached Russian defensive lines, the general said.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) has issued its latest defence intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine as of today, that Russian air defence has suffered significant loses.
Russia is preparing to attack Ukraine’s critical infrastructure once the temperatures drop, according to Ukraine’s national security and defence council secretary, Oleksiy Danilov.
Continue reading...Police line road amid strictly controlled public tributes to premier once seen as antidote to authoritarian Xi Jinping
Hundreds of people have gathered near a state funeral home in China as former premier Li Keqiang was being laid to rest.
Plainclothes and uniformed police lined the road leading to the funeral home, blocking traffic and telling people to move along while watching for the presence of unofficial or foreign media.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: More than 30 councillors have resigned from the party in protest against Starmer’s position – here’s why, in their own words
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Good morning. Today, we’re going to Bradford to meet city councillor and bus driver Taj Salam. He is one more than 30 Labour councillors who have resigned from the party in anger at Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
They are part of a growing rebellion within the party over Starmer’s refusal to publicly advocate for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Instead, he has called for “humanitarian pauses” to allow the “urgent alleviation of Palestinian suffering”.
Israel-Hamas war | Joe Biden has said there should be a “pause” in the fighting in Gaza to enable the release of hostages, as Hamas said nearly 200 people had been killed in two days of Israeli airstrikes on the enclave’s Jabalia refugee camp.
AI | The UK, US, EU and China have all agreed that artificial intelligence poses a potentially catastrophic risk to humanity, in the first international declaration to deal with the fast-emerging technology.
UK news | Northumbria police have said that two more people have been arrested over the deliberate felling of the Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland.
Media | Noel Clarke’s legal action against the Guardian has suffered a setback after a high court judge rejected his lawyers’ arguments on the meaning of eight articles that he says unfairly defamed him.
Covid-19 | The pandemic has caused sustained harm to the brain health of people aged 50 or over, rapidly speeding up cognitive decline regardless of whether or not they caught Covid, researchers have discovered.
Continue reading...Mahsa Yazdani convicted of blasphemy and ‘insulting supreme leader’ as Iran regime targets families of those killed in protests
A mother in Iran, whose son was reportedly killed after being shot repeatedly at close range by security forces, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison by an Iranian court after she demanded justice for her child on social media.
Mahsa Yazdani, whose 20-year-old son Mohammad Javad Zahedi was killed at an anti-regime protest in September 2022, was convicted on charges of blasphemy, incitement, insulting the supreme leader, and spreading anti-regime propaganda, according to human rights groups and family members. They say she will serve the first five years with no chance of parole.
Continue reading...Volcanoes, northern lights and midnight sun are all on offer at this haven, which locals want to preserve
“Look at this wave,” says Mathis Blache, pointing to the sea from the shore’s black rocks as a swell rolls in. “It’s just perfect.” Despite air and water temperatures in the single digits, the 27-year-old student and surfer points out two other surfers – and a couple of seals – delighting in the conditions at Þorlákshöfn in south-west Iceland.
This spot, where surfers can enjoy either the midnight sun or the northern lights depending on the time of year, has in recent years become the heart of Iceland’s rapidly growing surfing community.
Continue reading...Russia bombards 100 settlements within 24 hours as top Ukrainian commander warns war has become deadlocked
• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates
Russia has carried out its biggest artillery attack so far this year, Ukraine has said, as Kyiv’s top general admitted the war had reached a deadlock, with little prospect that his troops would make “a deep and beautiful breakthrough”.
Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s commander in chief, gave a bleak assessment of the situation on the battlefield, 20 months after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.
Continue reading...War moving into new attritional stage that will benefit Russia, says Ukraine commander-in-chief; Russia shells highest number of cities and settlements this year
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