Category Archives: World News

Georgia indictment lays out Trump election plot in all its shocking detail

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Charging document, staggering in its breadth and ambition of its charges, may represent greatest legal peril for ex-president to date

There’s no other way to say it: the 98-page indictment handed down by a Fulton county grand jury on Monday represents the most aggressive effort to hold Donald Trump and allies accountable for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The document is staggering in its breadth and the ambition of its charges. The 41 counts of crimes in it, including 13 against Trump, detail the lies the former president and his co-defendants told the public about fraud to try and keep him in power. It doesn’t back away from charging Trump’s attorneys and inner circle with crimes for coordinating a plan to create slates of fake electors and to stop Congress from counting votes. Some of the state’s 16 fake electors themselves also face charges. And it also casts a wide net, not letting those who breached voting equipment and intimidated poll workers off the hook.

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Fire in south of France rages though campsite and 500 hectares of land

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Blaze in popular tourist area in the Pyrenees forced evacuation of 2,000 people before it was brought under control

A fire in the south of France burned through 500 hectares (1,240 acres) of land and destroyed a campsite, with 2,000 people evacuated before the blaze was brought under control on Tuesday.

The French environment minister said the climate crisis was exacerbating conditions of drought that fed the fire. No one was injured in the fire, authorities said.

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Dominican Republic explosion death toll rises to 10 with another 11 missing

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Four-month-old among victims and over 50 people also injured in explosion at commercial center in San Cristóbal

The death toll from a powerful explosion near the capital of the Dominican Republic has risen to 10 as firefighters searched through smoldering rubble, authorities said.

More than 50 people also were injured in Monday’s explosion at a bustling commercial center in the city of San Cristóbal, said Joel Santos, minister of the presidency. At least 36 of the injured remained hospitalized, Santos said.

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France’s animal shelters reach capacity as holidaymakers dump pets at roadside

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Protection group appeals for funds after accepting 12,000 animals since beginning of summer

French animals rescue centres say they have reached “saturation” with abandoned pets this summer.

More than 100,000 pets are abandoned to fend for themselves in France every year, more than half of them dumped just before or during long summer holidays when they are often found next to routes heading for the coast or countryside. Last summer, 60,000 pets were dumped, and animal rescuers say the figure is expected to be higher this year.

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Pakistan’s outgoing PM denies vendetta against Imran Khan

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Exclusive: Shehbaz Sharif accuses jailed predecessor of ‘shabby treatment’ of political rivals in final interview as leader

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has denied pursuing a personal vendetta against Imran Khan, his political rival and immediate predecessor, who was jailed and barred from politics on corruption charges earlier this month.

Speaking to the Guardian in his last interview before handing over to a caretaker leader, Sharif said that “victimisation is not in [his] dictionary” and accused Khan of “shabby treatment of opposition leaders and putting them behind bars” when he was in power from 2018 to April last year.

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UK basic wage growth hits record high; Russia’s central bank lifts rates to 12% – as it happened

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UK regular pay growth highest since 2001 while unemployment rate rises unexpectedly; rouble recovers afters Bank of Russia raises rates at extraordinary meeting

The statement doesn’t mention the rouble, which dropped to its lowest level in nearly 17 months yesterday. The Russian currency has been boosted by the central bank’s move.

It now takes 95 roubles to buy a dollar, whereas yesterday the exchange rate was at 102 roubles per dollar at one stage.

The decision is aimed at limiting price stability risks.

Inflationary pressure is building up. As of 7 August, the annual rate of inflation rose to 4.4% while current price growth rates continue to increase. Over the last three months current price growth amounted to 7.6% on average in annualised terms on a seasonally adjusted basis. The same core inflation measure went up to 7.1%.

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Russia’s central bank hikes interest rates by 3.5 percentage points as rouble falls

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Emergency decision is intended to halt slide after currency dropped to weakest point in almost 17 months

Russia’s central bank has hiked interest rates by 3.5 percentage points in an emergency move aimed at halting the rouble’s recent slide, after it fell to its weakest point in almost 17 months.

The decision to raise the key rate from 8.5% to 12% was announced after an extraordinary meeting of the bank’s board of directors, called after the rouble plunged past the psychologically key level of 100 to the dollar on Monday morning.

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Moscow claims ‘key’ facilities hit after Kyiv says civilians deliberately targeted – as it happened

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The Ukrainian air force said it destroyed 16 out of the 28 cruise missiles launched by Russia overnight. This blog is now closed

Russia’s central bank has announced it will hold an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday to discuss the level of its key interest rate after the rouble fell to its weakest point in almost 17 months.

The currency has been steadily losing value since the beginning of the year and slid past the psychologically important level of 100 to the dollar on Monday morning.

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Global wealth fall cost 3.5m people ‘dollar millionaire’ status last year

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UBS says assets dipped for first time since financial crisis as high inflation and struggling currencies took toll

More than 3.5 million people lost their “dollar millionaire” status last year during the first fall in global wealth since the 2008 financial crisis.

The number of adults with assets of more than $1m (£790,000) fell from 62.9 million at the end of 2021 to 59.4 million at the end of 2022, according to the UBS annual wealth report, published on Tuesday. The Swiss bank said global wealth was depressed by high inflation and the collapse of many currencies against the dollar.

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Third politician in a month killed in Ecuador

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Citizen Revolution party’s Pedro Briones fatally shot less than a week after assassination of presidential candidate

The unprecedented violence shaking Ecuador has claimed the life of another political leader, bringing the number of politics-related killings in the last four weeks to three, including that of a presidential candidate.

The fatal shooting of Pedro Briones a organiser for Citizen Revolution, the party of the former president Rafael Correa, was confirmed by Luisa González, the frontrunner in Sunday’s special presidential election and a member of the same party.

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‘Are you kidding, carjacking?’: The problem with facial recognition in policing

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When a pregnant Black woman was falsely arrested, she fought back. Here’s what happened next. Plus, the week in AI

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Porcha Woodruff was eight months pregnant when police in Detroit, Michigan came to arrest her on charges of carjacking and robbery. She was getting her two children ready for school when six police officers knocked on her door and presented her with an arrest warrant. She thought it was a prank.

“Are you kidding, carjacking? Do you see that I am eight months pregnant?” the lawsuit Woodruff filed against Detroit police reads. She sent her children upstairs to tell her fiance that “Mommy’s going to jail”.

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Croatian police looking for 10 handball players from Burundi missing from competition

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Players have not been heard from since leaving their accommodation last Wednesday

Police in Croatia are looking for 10 young handball players from Burundi who have disappeared before a world championship match.

The Primorje-Gorski Kotar county police department said efforts were under way to locate the players and determine the facts of their disappearance.

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US publisher of pro-fascist books revealed as military veteran

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Bailey Ross, reported air force reservist and former Coast Guard service member, linked to Agartha Publishing in South Dakota

The Guardian has identified a trainee nurse and reported US air force reservist called Bailey Ross as the proprietor of a white nationalist publisher in South Dakota.

Ross was also a paid-up member of a white nationalist organization that marched at Charlottesville while enlisted in the United States Coast Guard.

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EU denies reports it has rejected UK deal to return people who cross Channel

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Ursula von der Leyen aide reported to have ruled out ‘returns agreement’ in leaked copy of memo

The EU has rejected reports that it is not open to a new deal with the UK on returning people who have crossed the Channel, after a leak of purported discussions between London and Brussels.

A leaked copy of a memo on discussions with the UK’s national security adviser, Sir Tim Barrow, was reported to have included mention of an aide to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, ruling out a post-Brexit “returns agreement”.

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Fire at Russian petrol station leaves 30 dead and scores injured

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Three children among those killed in blaze that started in vehicle repair shop in Dagestan and spread to petrol station

A fire at a petrol station in the southern Russian region of Dagestan has killed at least 30 people including three children, Russia’s emergency services ministry said on Tuesday.

The fire started at a car repair shop beside a main road in the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala, and caused explosions as it spread to the nearby filling station, officials said. “It’s like a war here,” a witness said.

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Bribes and hiding at home: the Ukrainian men trying to avoid conscription

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Some are spending life savings to stay out of the war, but such actions are seen as treasonous by those already fighting

At the last military checkpoint before he exited Ukraine in April, a 39-year-old man from Odesa handed over papers showing he had a serious spinal injury, thus exempting him from military service and from the ban on adult men leaving the country.

“One of the soldiers said, ‘That hospital really likes this diagnosis, huh?’” recalled the man. “I could see they knew exactly what was going on, and it wasn’t the first time. But they were powerless to do anything, so waved me through,” he said.

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UK should finally acknowledge role in 1953 Iran coup, says David Owen

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Former foreign secretary says doing so would benefit both reform movement in country and Britain’s credibility

The UK should finally acknowledge its leading role in the 1953 coup that toppled Iran’s last democratically elected leader, for the sake of Britain’s credibility and the Iranian reform movement, a former foreign secretary has said.

The US formally admitted its role 10 years ago with the declassification of a large volume of intelligence documents, which made clear that the ousting of the elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosadegh, 70 years ago this week was a joint CIA-MI6 endeavour. The formal UK government position is to refuse to comment on an intelligence matter.

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Vice blocked news stories that could offend Saudi Arabia, insiders say

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Exclusive: Media company recently signed lucrative deal with Saudi government-controlled MBC Group

Vice has repeatedly blocked news stories that could offend the Saudi government, leaving its reporters unsure if they are still able to report freely on the kingdom’s human rights abuses, sources have said.

The media company recently signed a lucrative partnership deal with the MBC Group, a media company controlled by the Saudi government, to establish a joint venture in the Middle Eastern country. Of the 29 jobs currently advertised on Vice’s careers page, 20 are based in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh.

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Trump election investigation: Georgia grand jury witnesses called early as prosecutors ‘moving faster’ than expected – live

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Former Georgia Lt Gov Geoff Duncan and journalist George Chidi to testify on Monday; court publishes then removes docket of charges against Trump

Twice impeached and now arrested and indicted three times. Donald Trump faces serious criminal charges in New York, Florida and Washington over a hush-money scheme during the 2016 election, his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

As Trump prepares for those cases to go to trial, the former president is simultaneously reeling from a verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation toward writer E Jean Carroll. A New York jury awarded Carroll, who accused Trump of assaulting her in 1996, $5m in damages.

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Election-interference charges loom for Trump as docket posted then removed

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Georgia court appears to publish then take down key document, while ex-president lashes out against perceived persecutors

The indictment of Donald Trump over his attempted election subversion in Georgia loomed closer on Monday amid an apparent false alarm about charges being filed and a series of angry statements from the former president punctuating a day of prosecution presentations in court.

At about midday, a two-page docket report posted to the Fulton county court website indicated charges against Trump including racketeering, conspiracy and false statements. The appearance of the report set off a flurry of news media activity, but then the document vanished.

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