Category Archives: World News

‘Don’t ignore us’: Afghans awaiting UK relocation fear time is running out

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Some have waited years in Pakistan for Britain to fulfil its promises – and are now at risk of deportation

For a year after the fall of Kabul and the swift withdrawal of international allies from Afghanistan, Jawed* and his family were in hiding, evading the ruling Taliban as they counted the days waiting for relocation promises from the British government to be realised.

“But that didn’t happen. To this day, two years and two months [later], we’re still living in limbo,” Jawed, a former English teacher for the British Council, said from a hotel in Islamabad.

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Baltic Sea faces ‘critical challenges’ on climate and biodiversity, report warns

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Audit finds ‘little to no improvement’ in health of sea between 2016 and 2021, as Swedish coastguard battles oil spill

The Baltic Sea faces “critical challenges” due to the climate crisis and degradation of biodiversity, a report has said, as Sweden’s coastguard battled to contain the impact of an oil spill off the country’s southern shore.

In the most comprehensive audit of its kind to date, experts at the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (Helcom) said on Tuesday there had been “little to no improvement” in the health of the body of water between 2016 and 2021.

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Love bikes, hate ‘wild parking’ – Dutch city puts rule-breakers on the rack

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Maastricht clamps down on cyclists who illegally secure their two-wheelers to lamp-posts or railings

Officials in the Netherlands, a country with more bicycles than people, are tackling a plague of “wild parking” by confiscating illegally stationed bikes and increasing the penalties to get them back.

This year the southern city of Maastricht – beloved of international students – banned people from “orphaning” their bikes by deserting them on the street. Now it is doubling the fines it charges people who want to reclaim impounded bicycles.

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‘Nightmare is over’: Polish election result brings relief for LGBTQ+ people

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Community looks tentatively to future as party that sought to demonise them is unlikely to retain power

For the past eight years, fear and anxiety has threaded through much of Bart Staszewski’s daily life. As a gay man living in Poland, he found himself increasingly under attack by a government that had sought to depict the LGBTQ+ community as a threat to the nation and its children, fuelling prejudices and hate crimes across the country.

But since last month’s election pointed to a possible route to power for opposition parties, Staszewski has been gripped by a wave of relief. “It’s like I’m breathing fresh air for the first time in eight years,” he said. “After years of hate against people like me, the nightmare is over.”

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South American countries recall ambassadors and cut ties with Israel over war with Hamas

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Bolivia’s leftwing government cuts diplomatic ties with Israel, alleging crimes and human rights abuses in Gaza, as Chile and Colombia recall ambassadors

A number of South American countries have registered diplomatic protests against Israel, in response to its latest conflict with Hamas, with Bolivia’s leftwing government cutting ties entirely and attributing its decision to alleged war crimes and human rights abuses being committed in the Gaza Strip.

The decision by Bolivia was announced at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon by María Nela Prada, a minister in President Luis Arce’s administration. “We demand an end to the attacks on the Gaza Strip which have so far claimed thousands of civilian lives and caused the forced displacement of Palestinians,” the minister told reporters in her country’s de facto capital, La Paz.

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Hong Kong: over-the-top punishment for 2019 democracy protesters, report finds

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More than 10,000 arrests and nearly 3,000 prosecutions, with 82% given jail including ‘extraordinary high’ proportion of children

Protesters involved in the 2019-2020 pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong have been treated extraordinarily harshly by the criminal justice system compared with local and international norms, a report has found.

The surge in arrests, detentions and charges in the wake of the anti-extradition bill protests that saw millions of Hongkongers taking to the streets to oppose closer ties with mainland China meant that the criminal justice system was put under “extreme stress”, according to Jun Chan, Eric Yan-ho Lai and Thomas E Kellogg at the Center for Asian Law of Georgetown University.

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King Charles stops short of apology for ‘abhorrent’ colonial violence in Kenya

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Visiting monarch speaks of sorrow and deepest regret for past ‘wrongdoings’ under British rule

King Charles has spoken of Britain’s “abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence” committed against Kenyans during their fight for independence, but stopped short of an apology despite human rights groups demanding one.

The monarch made the comments in a speech, delivered during a banquet in Kenya held in his honour, in which he referred to the “greatest sorrow” and “deepest regret” for the “wrongdoings” of the past.

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Biden expected to meet with Xi Jinping next month for ‘constructive’ talks

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White House comments come after China’s foreign minister made rare visit to Washington to pave way for Xi to meet Biden

Joe Biden is expected to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in San Francisco in November for “constructive” talks, the White House said on Tuesday.

The comments came days after China’s foreign minister made a rare visit to Washington to pave the way for Xi to meet Biden at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.

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Dozens killed after Israeli airstrikes on Gaza refugee camp

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Israeli military says it bombed Jabalia camp to target a key Hamas commander, Ibrahim Biari

Israeli airstrikes have destroyed apartment blocks and killed dozens of people at a refugee camp in northern Gaza on the 25th day of a conflict that the United Nations said has become a “graveyard” for children.

At least six airstrikes hit residential areas in the Jabalia refugee camp on Gaza City’s outskirts on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people and injuring about 150 people, Hamas officials said.

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What are Israel’s aims in launching Gaza ground invasion?

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Limited information suggests IDF seeking to encircle Gaza City – but urban warfare can confer significant advantages to defenders

Israel’s ground invasion of the northern Gaza Strip began on Friday evening, an urban warfare operation that is likely to be lengthy, fraught with danger for its military and Palestinian civilians and whose ultimate goals remain uncertain.

It began more than three weeks after Hamas’s surprising and brutal cross-border attack of 7 October, in which 1,400 Israelis were killed, and comes amid what the monitoring group Airwars says is an aerial bombardment that “far outpaces” the number of bombs dropped in “the deadliest months” of the US-led war against Islamic State.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia will succeed in Ukraine unless American support continues, warns US defence secretary

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Lloyd Austin ‘guarantees Putin will be successful’ if US support for Kyiv ends during Senate hearing on Joe Biden’s request for funding

Russian president Vladimir Putin and top government and security officials on Monday discussed strengthening measures to counter external interference after a weekend riot in Dagestan that targeted airline passengers from Israel, the Kremlin said.

In a statement at the start of Monday’s meeting of members of his Security Council, the government and the heads of law enforcement agencies, Putin accused the west and Ukraine of stirring up unrest inside Russia after rioters in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region stormed an airport to “catch” Jewish passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv.

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Colombia recalls ambassador to Israel – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

The United Nations has said “there is already clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed” by Hamas and the Israeli military since 7 October and that it is gathering evidence for potential prosecutions.

All parties involved in the conflict are governed by a body of law drawn from a system of conventions, treaties and war crimes tribunal rulings known as “international humanitarian law” or the “law of armed conflict”.

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Saudi Arabia confirmed as sole bidder for 2034 men’s football World Cup

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  • Fifa urged to pull plug if human rights commitments not met
  • Second World Cup in the Gulf in 12 years all but a formality

Saudi Arabia was confirmed on Tuesday as the sole bidder to host the 2034 men’s World Cup, raising concerns over Fifa’s ability to deliver on its human rights commitments.

After Australia decided against a bid, having been given a 25-day deadline by Fifa to express interest after the deadline was unexpectedly brought forward to 4pm GMT on Tuesday, the prospect of a second World Cup in the Gulf within 12 years is all but a formality. The lack of a competitive tender and the alacrity with which the process has been conducted, however, have prompted alarm among human rights groups. Amnesty International called on Fifa to pull the plug if human rights commitments were not fulfilled.

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Keir Starmer cautions Israel but refuses to back calls for ceasefire

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Labour leader criticises Israeli bombardment but says ceasefire is not ‘the correct position now’

Keir Starmer has urged Israel to obey international law but refused to back calls for a ceasefire, as he seeks to heal increasingly bitter divisions within his own party over the conflict in Gaza.

The Labour leader spelled out his position on the crisis in detail on Tuesday after days of criticism from many of his own members and MPs that he appeared oblivious to the suffering of Palestinians.

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Russian soldiers accused of killing family of nine in Ukraine

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Russia makes first known arrests of its own soldiers after 2022 invasion on suspicion of killing Ukrainian civilians

Two Russian soldiers have been arrested on suspicion of killing a family of nine, including two young children, in their home in the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian town of Volnovakha.

Russian media reported that the killings took place last Friday night and the suspects had used machine guns with silencers to kill the family at night in their sleep.

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Michelangelo’s secret sketches under church in Florence open to public

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Artist spent months in a chamber below the Medici Chapels to evade Pope Clement VII’s death sentence

Michelangelo Buonarroti left behind a trail of artistic marvels, including his statue of David and the sublime frescoes that adorn the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Now a “secret” room in Florence whose walls are sketched with doodles that the Italian Renaissance master is believed to have created while evading a death sentence ordered by Pope Clement VII amid his falling out with the powerful Medici family is to officially open to the public for the first time.

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Arab American backing for Biden sinks over ‘rock-solid’ Israel support

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Poll from AAI shows increase in discrimination against Arab Americans and increase in support for Donald Trump

Arab American support for Joe Biden has fallen in the wake of his response to the latest bout of violence between Israel and Hamas, a new poll from the Arab American Institute (AAI) shows. The same poll showed a sharp increase in reports of discrimination against members of the community.

Following Hamas’s deadly 7 October attacks, which killed 1,400 Israelis, Biden has repeatedly proclaimed the US’s “rock-solid and unwavering support” for Israel, which has responded by tightening its blockade and bombarding the Gaza Strip. More than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health officials in the coastal territory.

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Police arrest suspected gunman and free hostage at Japanese post office

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Man detained after eight-hour standoff at building in Warabi and earlier shooting at nearby hospital

Japanese police have captured a suspected gunman who holed up at a post office and have rescued a member of staff who was held hostage, NHK television reported on Tuesday.

The arrest ended a more than eight-hour standoff with the man, reportedly in his 80s, who entered the post office with a gun in Warabi, north of Tokyo, an hour after a hospital shooting in which two people were wounded in the nearby city of Toda.

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French couple take dealer to court for share of African mask’s €4.2m sale price

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Pensioners sold rare object found in attic for €150 – but campaigners say it must be returned to Gabon

A retired French couple who sold an African mask to a secondhand goods dealer for €150 (£130) have gone to court for a share of the proceeds after the mask fetched €4.2m (£3.7m) at auction.

But campaigners insist that the rare artefact instead should be returned to Gabon, in a case that has raised questions over Africa’s cultural heritage looted by colonial France.

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‘From the river to the sea’: where does the slogan come from and what does it mean?

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Andy McDonald was suspended from the Labour party for using the phrase, which some say advocates the eradication of Israel

“We won’t rest until we have justice, until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea can live in peaceful liberty,” said Andy McDonald, a Labour MP, at a protest in London organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign at the weekend.

Three days later, McDonald was suspended from the party pending an investigation, leaving the former shadow cabinet minister sitting as an independent for now.

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