Category Archives: World News

Gangs forcing hundreds of thousands of people into cybercrime in south-east Asia, says UN

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Organised criminals use threats, torture and sexual violence to coerce victims to work in international scamming operations

Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked and forced to work for online scamming operations in south-east Asia run by criminal gangs, according to a UN report.

Billions of dollars are being generated each year by gangs who coerce victims into cybercrime, where they are subject to threats, torture and sometimes sexual violence, said the report, published by the UN human rights office on Tuesday.

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US concerned that arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea ‘actively advancing’ – as it happened

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Sergei Shoigu, Russian defence minister, has recently travelled to North Korea to try to convince them to sell ammunition, says White House. This live blog is closed

Russia’s Tass news agency reports, citing Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, that a drone was “destroyed” in the Ruzsky district of the Moscow region.

“Tonight, an attempt was made to mass attack drones in the Central Federal District. One of the UAVs heading for Moscow was destroyed by air defense forces in the Ruzsky district. There were no preliminary casualties and no damage,” Sobyanin wrote in his Telegram channel.

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Ukrainian drones attack six Russian regions and hit military planes

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Kyiv says four cargo planes destroyed in city 500 miles from border with Ukraine

Ukrainian drones have attacked at least six regions deep within Russia, including an airfield where they destroyed military transport planes, in one of the largest-scale attacks on Russia in months.

A drone assault on the city of Pskov in north-western Russia damaged four IL-76 military cargo aircraft, Russian authorities said early on Wednesday, engulfing two of the planes in flames.

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Biden privately admitted feeling ‘tired’ amid concerns about his age, book says

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Franklin Foer, author of The Last Politician, also says experience and calming presence make US president ‘a man for his age’

Amid relentless debate about whether at 80 Joe Biden is too old to be president or to complete an effective second term, an eagerly awaited book on his time in the White House reports that Biden has privately admitted to feeling “tired”, even as it describes his vast political experience as a vital asset.

“His advanced years were a hindrance, depriving him of the energy to cast a robust public presence or the ability to easily conjure a name,” Franklin Foer writes in The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future.

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Trump co-defendant Sidney Powell pleads not guilty in election subversion case – as it happened

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This blog has now closed. Follow more US politics news here

Congress is on recess, but when they return to work on 5 September, House Republicans appear determined to open impeachment proceedings again Joe Biden, CNN reports.

It is sure to be a fraught process for the GOP, and almost certain not to result in the president’s removal from office, since the Democratic majority is unlikely to vote for Biden’s conviction.

But leadership recognizes that the entire House Republican conference is not yet sold on the politically risky idea of impeachment. That’s why one of the biggest lingering questions – and something Republicans have been discussing in recent weeks – is whether they would need to hold a floor vote to formally authorize their inquiry, sources say. There is no constitutional requirement that they do so, and Republicans do not currently have the 218 votes needed to open an impeachment inquiry.

Skipping the formal vote, which would be a tough one for many of the party’s more vulnerable and moderate members, would allow Republicans to get the ball rolling on an inquiry while giving leadership more time to convince the rest of the conference to get on board with impeachment. During former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, House Democrats ended up voting to both formalize their inquiry and set parameters for the process after initially holding off on doing so amid divisions within their ranks.

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FBI agents reportedly search for Uzbeks helped into US by smuggler with IS ties

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Episode reported by CNN required emergency memo to senior officials and suggests agency does not know migrants’ location

Federal agents are reportedly trailing a group of more than a dozen Uzbek nationals who entered the US as asylum seekers aided by a smuggler with ties to Isis.

The extraordinary episode, which multiple US officials confirmed to CNN on Tuesday, was considered so serious that it required an emergency intelligence report to senior Biden administration figures.

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Documents show Putin’s order to move superyacht before Ukraine invasion

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Russian president ordered urgent removal of Graceful from Hamburg shipyard, investigation claims

Vladimir Putin moved his $100m (£75m) superyacht from a German shipyard to Russia just weeks before he ordered the invasion of Ukraine, according to secret documents released in a new investigation.

A Russian anti-corruption organisation set up by the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny claims emails show that the Russian president ordered the urgent moving of the 82-metre superyacht, called Graceful, from a shipyard in Hamburg, where it was undergoing a $32m refit, by 1 February 2022.

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Hurricane Idalia closes in on Florida with warnings of 125mph winds

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Rapidly strengthening hurricane nears Gulf coast as officials warn of significant storm surge and destructive winds

A rapidly intensifying Hurricane Idalia was closing in on Florida’s Gulf coast on Tuesday as residents in more than a dozen counties rushed to evacuate amid warnings of a life-threatening storm surge and destructive 125mph winds.

Landfall of the first major hurricane to strike the US this year was expected early on Wednesday, following Idalia’s north-easterly march through the Gulf of Mexico from Cuba.

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New charges for Canadian accused of selling drugs to people at risk of suicide

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Police say Kenneth Law, 57, linked to 88 deaths in Britain, may have shipped as many as 1,200 packages to 40 countries

The Canadian man accused of selling sodium nitrite to people at risk of suicide is believed to have shipped as many as 1,200 packages to 40 countries, police said as they laid a dozen new charges in a sprawling investigation.

Kenneth Law, 57, previously charged with two counts of counselling or aiding suicide in the province of Ontario, is now facing 12 new charges in connection with deaths across the province, the York regional police inspector Simon James told reporters. The victims range in age from 16 to 36.

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Former Algerian minister of defence indicted in Switzerland on war crime charges

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Khaled Nezzar is to be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity during 1991-2002 Algerian civil war

Victims of the 1991-2002 Algerian civil war have been given hope that they will finally receive justice after the highly unusual announcement by Swiss authorities that a former Algerian minister of defence is to stand trial in Switzerland on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Khaled Nezzar is set to be the highest-ranking military official ever tried for war crimes under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows states to investigate and prosecute people suspected of having committed international crimes regardless of where they were committed, their nationality, or the nationality of the victims.

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Ugandan man charged with ‘aggravated homosexuality’ under new law

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Twenty-year-old could face death penalty after anti-LGBTQ+ legislation was introduced this year

Ugandan prosecutors have charged a man with “aggravated homosexuality” under anti-LGBTQ+ legislation introduced this year that makes the offence punishable by death.

The law – considered one of the harshest of its kind in the world – also includes penalties for consensual same-sex relations of up to life in prison.

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New Zealand: bill to allow under-18s to vote in local elections passes first hurdle

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Bill that would also allow 16- and 17-year-olds to stand as candidates passed its first reading in parliament

A bill that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote and stand as candidates in New Zealand’s local elections has passed its first reading in parliament, nine months after a landmark ruling by the country’s supreme court that the existing age of 18 was inconsistent with human rights law.

The measure passed its first hurdle on Tuesday by 74 votes to 44, supported by all leftwing lawmakers, with the rightwing opposition parties rejecting it. However, the proposal could face a steep uphill battle to pass its final legislative hurdles, and it would not extend voting rights to under-18s in national elections as urged by the young campaigners who brought the supreme court case.

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‘Farewell ceremony’ for Yevgeny Prigozhin takes place in St Petersburg – as it happened

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Spokesperson says ‘those who wish to bid their farewell’ to the mercenary leader should go to the Porokhovskoye cemetery. This live blog is closed

My colleague Dan Sabbagh has a special dispatch from Kupiansk, a town in the Kharkiv region where some residents have abandoned their homes because of renewed shelling.

In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said military service in the Russian armed forces has become increasingly lucrative since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

On 4 February 2022 Russian president Vladimir Putin noted that a lieutenant received 81,200 rubles per month. By October 2022, he announced that even mobilised private soldiers would receive 195,000 rubles per month.

Many junior ranks serving in Ukraine are now on over 200,000 rubles per month. This is over 2.7 times the Russian national average salary of 72,851 rubles. By way of comparison, 2.7 times the average UK salary would equate to over £90,000 a year.

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UK foreign secretary to challenge China over support for Russia in Ukraine war

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James Cleverly to say during visit to Beijing this week that China has ‘a responsibility on the global stage’

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, will challenge Chinese officials in Beijing on Wednesday over their growing military support for Russia, but is intent that his meetings are seen as the revival of a political dialogue that eventually revives UK trade with China.

Ahead of the meetings, he said that no major international issue could be solved without China but added that the country had to live up to its international commitments and obligations.

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Funeral of Yevgeny Prigozhin held in ‘closed format’ in St Petersburg

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Kremlin earlier said president’s presence ‘not envisaged’ at funeral of Wagner chief who was killed in plane crash last week

The funeral of Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin was held at a private cemetery on the outskirts of his home town of St Petersburg, his press service said on Tuesday hours after the Kremlin announced that Vladimir Putin would not be attending.

“The farewell to Yevgeny Viktorovich took place in a closed format. Those who wish to say goodbye may visit Porokhovskoye cemetery,” the press service said in its first post on Telegram in two months, ending days of speculation over how the warlord would be laid to rest.

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China continues coal spree despite climate goals

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World’s biggest carbon emitter approving equivalent of two new coal plants a week, analysis shows

China is approving new coal power projects at the equivalent of two plants every week, a rate energy watchdogs say is unsustainable if the country hopes to achieve its energy targets.

The government has pledged to peak emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2060, and in 2021 the president, Xi Jinping, promised to stop building coal powered plants.

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Pakistan high court has suspended Imran Khan conviction, says lawyer

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Uncertainty over whether ex-PM will be released from jail due to other court orders allowing for his arrest

A Pakistani court has suspended the former prime minister Imran Khan’s recent conviction on corruption charges, his lawyer has said, though it is unclear whether this will lead to his release from jail.

The 70-year-old former cricketer has been at the centre of political turmoil in the crisis-ridden state since his ouster in a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, and his relations with Pakistan’s powerful generals have deteriorated over the past year.

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Developed countries urged to ‘step up’ contributions to global nature fund

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Canada and UK only donor countries to contribute so far, leaving scheme short of $40m to formally launch

Developed countries have been urged to contribute to a new nature fund after it was left undercapitalised by $40m (£32m), receiving money from just two donors.

At the Cop15 biodiversity summit in December, where countries agreed this decade’s biodiversity targets that included aims to protect 30% of Earth, governments agreed to the creation of a fund to help developing countries meet the deal’s aims, which included a target to provide $200bn for nature a year by 2030.

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Evergrande shares plunge further amid China economy fears

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Property developer’s value fell by more than $2bn as stock resumed trading after 17-month suspension

Shares in Evergrande fell a further 13% on Tuesday after more than $2bn was wiped off the Chinese property developer’s market value when it resumed trading for the first time in almost 18 months on Monday.

Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property firm with liabilities of $328bn (£260bn), has lost more than 99% of its share market value over the past three years.

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Hong Kong: Cantonese language group shuts down after targeting by national security police

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Fears that China’s crackdown on dissidents is expanding into cultural sphere after linguistic group closes over a fictional essay about erosion of liberties

A Cantonese language group has shut down after Hong Kong national security police raided the founder’s home over a fictional essay submitted to the group’s literary competition three years ago.

Andrew Lok Han Chan, who created and convenes the Societas Linguistica Hongkongensis (SLHK) group, said in a Facebook post that the officers from a police division set up to enforce the 2020 national security law, visited a home where some of his family members live last week when he was out of town. The officers, who did not have a search warrant, asked that he remove the essay from his group’s website immediately, he said.

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