Category Archives: World News

Icelandic surfers fear port development will ruin ‘perfect point break’

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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.

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Ukraine reports most extensive Russian shelling of the year

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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.

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Donald Trump Jr tells court ‘I don’t recall’ in response to questions at Trump family fraud trial – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can see our latest full report below:

The state’s expert witness, Michiel McCarty, is still on the stand. Prosecutors pulled up a report McCarty compiled where he calculated banks lost out on $168m because the Trump Organization had inflated the value of four of their properties, including 40 Wall Street, Trump Doral in Miami and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.

Here’s an image of what was shown in the courtroom:

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UN official who denounced Gaza ‘genocide’ had been under review after Israel lobby complaint

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Exclusive: Craig Mokhiber, retiring UN official who criticised the body over its failure to protect civilians in Gaza, had been accused of bias in his social media

A senior UN official who sent a letter denouncing the organisation’s failure to protect civilians in Gaza had been subject to a review into allegedly biased social media posts after a pro-Israel lobby group complained.

Craig Mokhiber, director of the New York office of the UN high commissioner for human rights, wrote on 28 October to the UN high commissioner in Geneva, Volker Türk, accusing Israel of committing genocide and his employer of failing to stop it. “This will be my last communication to you,” he said. He has since stepped down.

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Sam Bankman-Fried built ‘pyramid of deceit’, jurors hear in closing arguments

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Founder of FTX platform, 31, painted by prosecution as scammer and liar who defrauded customers out of billions of dollars

Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto fraud trial neared its end with closing arguments on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court following weeks of testimony that lifted the veil of FTX’s stunning collapse – and a broader murkiness surrounding digital currency markets. The prosecution quickly painted Sam Bankman-Fried as an unabashed scammer rather than the image of the wayward math nerd proffered by the defense throughout the trial, saying he created a “pyramid of deceit” with his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.

Assistant US attorney Nicholas Roos also used Bankman-Fried’s own testimony against him.

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‘Tiredness on all sides’ over war in Ukraine, Italian PM tells prank caller

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Giorgia Meloni ‘misled’ into phone conversation reportedly with Russian comedian posing as African political leader

The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, told a prank caller posing as an African leader there was “a lot of tiredness” over the war in Ukraine and that she had some ideas up her sleeve on how to “find a way out”.

Meloni’s office confirmed that she had been “misled” into the phone call – reportedly by two Russian comedians – that took place on 18 September “by an impostor who passed himself off as the president of the African Union Commission”.

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Emmanuel Macron vows to boost French cooperation with Kazakhstan

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French president compliments leader for refusing to side with Moscow over Ukraine

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has vowed to boost cooperation with Kazakhstan at a time of “multiple crises in the world” as he began a trip to central Asia, a region long regarded as Russia’s back yard, which has drawn fresh western attention since the war in Ukraine began.

At a meeting with Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Macron complimented the country for refusing to side with Moscow on Ukraine and announced business deals, including a declaration of intent for a partnership in the much-sought area of rare earths and rare metals.

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Pakistan starts mass deportation of undocumented Afghans

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Authorities go ‘door to door’ to round up and return thousands – many who fled from the Taliban – on first day of nationwide crackdown

Pakistan has begun arresting and deporting Afghan refugees who missed Wednesday morning’s deadline for them to leave, a government minister has announced. At least 200,000 people have already returned to Afghanistan voluntarily, said Pakistan’s acting interior minister, Sarfraz Bugti.

The crackdown on unregistered foreigners, part of Pakistan’s new anti-immigrant policy, affects some 2 million Afghans thought to be in Pakistan without documentation.

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Fifteen Israeli soldiers killed as fighting intensifies in Gaza

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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vows to press on with ground offensive despite rising death toll

Fifteen Israeli soldiers were killed amid fierce fighting in Gaza in a series of incidents that have underlined the mounting challenges facing the Israel Defence Forces in their attempts to push further into built-up areas of Gaza.

The heaviest loss of life occurred when a “Namer” armoured personnel carrier was hit at about noon on Tuesday by an anti-tank guided missile, killing 11 soldiers and wounding several more.

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Serbia’s president dissolves parliament and calls early election

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Aleksandar Vučić’s party won last vote less than two years ago but has been under pressure over ties with Kosovo and shootings in May

Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, has dissolved parliament and called early parliamentary and municipal elections for 17 December, less than two years after his Serbian Progressive party (SNS) won the last ballot.

“We live in times that are difficult for the whole world, in times of global challenges, wars and conflicts when it is necessary that we are all united in preserving vital national and state interests of Republic of Serbia,” Vučić said on Wednesday.

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Malaysia issues ‘kill switch’ order to cut controversial concerts

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Measure to ensure foreign artists ‘adhere to the local culture’ follows incident at gig by the 1975 in Kuala Lumpur

Concert organisers in Malaysia must now have a “kill switch” to cut short performances that break official guidelines, a minister has said.

The measure follows the controversy surrounding a performance in Kuala Lumpur by the 1975, whose frontman Matty Healy criticised Malaysia’s homophobic laws in a profanity-laden speech and kissed a male bandmate on stage. The incident in July led to the cancellation of the weekend festival at which the band was performing.

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Hamas says 195 killed in two days of strikes on Jabalia camp – as it happened

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Hamas says hundreds injured after refugee camp strikes; the US president responded to an anti-war protestor saying he supports a humanitarian ‘pause’

Iranian leaders have warned the world is closer to a regional war in the Middle East and that Israel has crossed red lines, which, in the words of President Ebrahim Raisi, “may force everyone to take action”.

But Iran is walking a tightrope, keen to avoid a direct confrontation and therefore blurring its red lines to avoid walking into a trap. Instead, it leans on proxy militias around the region from its “axis of resistance” to launch limited strikes aimed at Israel and US military bases in Iraq and Syria.

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Serbia’s president dissolves parliament and sets date for early legislative vote – as it happened

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This live blog has now closed, you can read more on this story here

Gert Jan Koopman, the head of the European Commission’s directorate-general for neighbourhood and enlargement negotiations, has said Bosnia and Herzegovina’s progress “must continue” and “in particular” on rule of law.

The country “should seize the momentum around enlargement & focus its efforts on the outstanding reforms”, he added.

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‘Disturbing’: US infant mortality rises at highest rate in 20 years

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CDC data shows rate rose 3% last year but experts say they are not sure why statistic that has been falling should have risen sharply

The US infant mortality rate rose 3% last year – the largest increase in two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

White and Native American infants, infant boys and babies born at 37 weeks or earlier had significant death rate increases. The CDC’s report, published Wednesday, also noted larger increases for two of the leading causes of infant deaths – maternal complications and bacterial meningitis.

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‘A titan of the climate movement’: tributes pour in for Saleemul Huq

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Huq, ‘a visionary and climate champion’, who was named one of the top 10 scientists in the world by Nature last year, has died at 71

Tributes have poured in from around for world for the renowned Bangladeshi scientist Prof Saleemul Huq, who died on 28 October.

Huq, 71, was an acclaimed academic, a relentless climate activist and the director of the International Centre for Climate Change & Development (ICCCAD), a research and capacity-building organisation in Bangladesh.

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‘There is no ban’: Republicans test-drive new abortion messaging

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Ad released in Virginia part of well-funded effort to portray Democrats as abortion extremists and Republicans as reasonable compromisers

The ad opens with the sound of a fetal heartbeat.

“Most people believe that abortion at the moment of birth is wrong, far beyond any reasonable limit. Not Virginia Democrats,” a female narrator says, just before the sound of a baby cooing and crying. “They fought to make late-term abortions the rule, not the exception.”

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Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt opens for limited evacuation

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Crossing open for first time in weeks to allow evacuation of foreign passport holders and injured Palestinians

The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has opened for the first time in more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders.

Witnesses at the border on the Gaza side saw scores of people and cars hurrying to get through the gates towards the Egyptian side through the damaged terminal area, some carrying their belongings. Ambulances whisked away the wounded to Egyptian field hospitals, including one young boy with heavy bandaging around his stomach.

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Hungary anti-LGBT law sees under-18s barred from World Press Photo exhibition

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Prestigious show contains one set of images with LGBTQ+ theme, prompting a far-right lawmaker to file a complaint with the cultural ministry

People younger than 18 have been barred from visiting this year’s World Press Photo exhibition in Budapest after Hungary’s rightwing populist government decided that some of its photos violate a contentious law restricting LGBTQ+ content.

The prestigious exhibition, being shown at Hungary’s National Museum in Budapest, receives more than four million visitors from around the world every year. Showcasing outstanding photojournalism, its mission is to bring visual coverage of a range of important events to a global audience.

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