Category Archives: World News

UK solar could be ‘dumping ground’ for products of Chinese forced labour, ministers warned

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Energy bill amendment requires large solar energy projects to prove supply chain free of slave labour

The UK risks becoming a dumping ground for the products of forced labour from Xinjiang province in China if it rejects reforms proposed by members of the foreign affairs select committee with cross-party support, ministers have been warned.

An amendment to the energy bill, due to be debated on Tuesday, would require solar energy companies to prove that their supply chains are free of slave labour. The Xinjiang region is the source of 35%-40% of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon, the key raw material in the solar photovoltaic supply chain.

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Florida judge strikes down DeSantis-backed voting map as unconstitutional

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Circuit court judge rules proposal ‘results in the diminishment of Black voters’ ability to elect their candidate of choice’

A judge in Florida has ruled in favor of voting rights groups that filed a lawsuit against a congressional redistricting map approved by Ron DeSantis in 2022. Voting rights groups had criticized the map for diluting political power in Black communities.

In the ruling, Leon county circuit judge J Lee Marsh sent the map back to the Florida legislature to be redrawn in a way that complies with the state’s constitution.

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France planning to ban disposable vapes in effort to combat smoking

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Ban follows similar measures in Germany, Australia and New Zealand amid concern over health effects

Disposable vapes will be banned in France as part of a national plan to combat smoking, the prime minister said on Sunday.

Élisabeth Borne told the broadcaster RTL that the government would “soon present a new national plan to fight against smoking with, in particular, the prohibition of disposable electronic cigarettes, the famous ‘puffs’ which give bad habits to young people”.

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Sudan: at least 25 civilians killed in weekend attacks on Khartoum

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Airstrikes and artillery and rocket fire reported as clashes between armed forces and paramilitaries shows no sign of abating

Twenty-five civilians were killed in attacks in Khartoum over the weekend, as the violence showed no signs of abating after nearly five months of war.

Five civilians died on Sunday when bombs that “fell on their homes” in the Sudanese capital, a medical source said, a day after an airstrike in the south of the city killed at least 20.

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Netanyahu says Eritreans involved in Tel Aviv clashes should be deported

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Israeli PM also orders plan to remove all African asylum seekers after protests by rival groups of Eritreans

The Israeli prime minister has said he wants Eritreans involved in a violent clash in Tel Aviv to be deported immediately and has ordered a plan to remove all of the country’s African asylum seekers.

The remarks on Sunday followed bloody protests by rival groups of Eritreans in south Tel Aviv the day before that left dozens of people injured. Eritreans, supporters and opponents of Eritrea’s government, faced off with construction lumber, pieces of metal and rocks, smashing shop windows and police cars. Israeli police in riot gear fired teargas, stun grenades and live rounds while officers on horseback tried to control the protesters.

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Iran jails two female journalists over ‘conspiracy and collusion’

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Negin Bagheri and Elnaz Mohammadi receive three-year sentences but will spend about a month in prison

Two female Iranian journalists will spend about a month in prison as part of a three-year partly suspended sentence for “conspiracy” and “collusion”, local media reported on Sunday.

Negin Bagheri and Elnaz Mohammadi will serve one-fortieth of the term, or less than a month, in prison, their lawyer, Amir Raisian, told the reformist Ham Mihan daily newspaper, where Mohammadi works.

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Sent home: how Kenyan’s dream of life as a UK care worker turned sour

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Anthony Mbare found his tied visa put him at mercy of his bosses. He is one of thousands who have come to plug shortages in adult social care

It is a bitter November night and Anthony Mbare is shivering in a car in rural Wiltshire, south-west England, waiting to see his next client.

It’s 3C and he has been here for almost two hours but he cannot turn on the heater because the car battery might die. A petrol-station coffee to warm him up is £3 he cannot afford. He blows on his hands, wriggles his toes and huddles under a blanket.

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Can Mark Thompson revive CNN’s struggling fortunes?

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The former BBC and New York Times chief has been tasked with revitalizing a news network that seems to have lost its way

In late summer, CNN found itself in crisis. Under the disastrous tenure of chief executive Chris Licht, the news channel had seen top anchors leave and ratings plunge.

Behind the scenes, CNN staff were grumbling about an apparent attempt to move the network’s political coverage to a rapidly disappearing center – an effort typified by the widely criticized decision to host a town hall with Donald Trump in May.

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‘We can’t take any of this for granted’: Gaza’s fight to keep its treasures safe at home

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Local archaeologists dedicate their lives to protect priceless artefacts from smugglers, Hamas and Israeli attacks in a land at history’s crossroads

There is considerable debate over the origin of the name Gaza. Some etymologists trace it back to azaz, which means “strong” in Semitic languages; other accounts believe it derives from the Persian word ganj, which means “treasure”.

It’s true that you almost can’t move for ancient treasures in the tiny blockaded strip. Fishers, farmers and construction workers regularly uncover elements of Gaza’s 5,000-year-old past in the course of a day’s work.

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‘Then the black rain fell’: survivor’s recollections of Hiroshima inspire new film

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The 230-page unpublished memoir will reflect the horrors suffered by ordinary Japanese citizens in a feature-length drama

A major feature film on Hiroshima is going into production, inspired in part by an unpublished memoir of a Japanese man who witnessed the devastation of the city after the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945.

Scriptwriter Elisabeth Bentley was taken aback by the personal recollections of Kiyoshi Tanimoto in a 230-page memoir that she unearthed in a US archive.

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More than 40 people injured as Typhoon Haikui sweeps across Taiwan

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Tens of thousands of homes left without power and more than 7,000 people evacuated after storm makes landfall

Typhoon Haikui moved across Taiwan on Sunday, unleashing torrential downpours, accelerating winds and plunging thousands of households into darkness after the first big storm to hit the island directly in four years made landfall.

More than 7,000 people were evacuated from high-risk areas, while hundreds of flights were cancelled and businesses closed in preparation for the storm.

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‘Everything is ahead of us’: Ukraine breaks Russian stronghold’s first line of defence

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In an exclusive interview, a leading Ukrainian general says his forces have made a vital breakthrough near Zaporizhzhia

Ukrainian forces have decisively breached Russia’s first defensive line near Zaporizhzhia after weeks of painstaking mine clearance, and expect faster gains as they press the weaker second line, the general leading the southern counteroffensive has said.

Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskiy estimated Russia had devoted 60% of its time and resources into building the first defensive line and only 20% each into the second and third lines because Moscow had not expected Ukrainian forces to get through.

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Thousands rally in Niger seeking withdrawal of French troops

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Demonstrators gather near base housing French soldiers as military junta accuses Paris of interference

Thousands of protesters rallied in Niger’s capital Niamey to call for the withdrawal of French troops, as demanded by a junta that seized power in June.

The demonstrators gathered near a base housing French soldiers on Saturday, after a call by several civic organisations hostile to the French military presence in the west African country.

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Moroccan jetski tourist describes being shot at by Algerian coastguard

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Mohamed Kissi says forces approached and began fatal shooting after group strayed into Algerian waters

A Moroccan man has described how Algerian coastguard forces drew level with him and a group of holidaymakers who had accidentally strayed into the nation’s waters on jetskis before opening fire.

Mohamed Kissi said the incident took place at sunset on Tuesday when the four men travelling on two jetskis got lost after taking a wrong turn off the beach resort of Saïdia on Morocco’s north-east tip. The group was almost out of fuel when they unknowingly crossed the border into Algeria.

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Makeup artist who created prosthetic nose for Bradley Cooper film apologises

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Kazu Hiro says he was surprised by ‘Jewface’ criticism over actor’s portrayal of composer Leonard Bernstein in biopic Maestro

The makeup artist who worked on Bradley Cooper’s movie Maestro has apologised to anyone who felt hurt by the use of a prosthetic nose, which has been criticised by some as an example of “Jewface”.

Speaking at a press conference at the Venice film festival – where Maestro, a biopic of composer Leonard Bernstein, will premiere – Kazu Hiro said he was surprised by the backlash.

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Guards and police released after being held hostage in Ecuadorian prisons

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Fifty-seven law enforcement officers held in six prisons amid sharp rise in gang violence ahead of election

Fifty guards and seven police officers have been released, Ecuadorian authorities said, after being held hostage in several prisons for more than a day.

The country’s corrections system, the National Service for Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty, said in a statement that the 57 law enforcement officers, who were held in six different prisons, were safe, but did not offer details about how they were released.

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Gabon reopens borders three days after military coup

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Officers seized power on Wednesday, placing the president, Ali Bongo, under house arrest

Gabon has reopened its borders, an army spokesperson said, three days after closing them during a military coup in which the president, Ali Bongo, was ousted.

Military officers led by General Brice Oligui Nguema seized power on Wednesday, placed Bongo under house arrest and installed Nguema as head of state, ending the Bongo family’s 56-year hold on power.

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Nobel Foundation reverses decision to invite Russian ambassador to awards

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Foundation backtracks on earlier announcement that representatives from Russia, Belarus and Iran would be invited

The Nobel Foundation has reversed its decision to invite ambassadors from Russia and Belarus to this year’s Nobel awards ceremony in Stockholm after the invitation sparked anger.

In 2022, the Nobel Foundation, which organises the annual Nobel prize ceremony and banquet in Stockholm, decided not to invite the Russian and Belarusian ambassadors to the awards event because of the war in Ukraine.

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Moscow risks dividing its forces to stop Ukrainian breakthrough, says UK – as it happened

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Update from UK Ministry of Defence comes as Kyiv claims some small gains in the south

Russian bloggers have been cashing in on their social media coverage of the Ukraine war with paid ads in their feeds worth more than a month’s average wage.

The BBC reports that pro-war influencers known in Russia as “Z-bloggers” share ads, mostly on Telegram – the platform du jour in Russia after the banning of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook – on everything from cryptocurrency to fashion.

The Ministry of Defence often listens to us, and we have a direct channel to privately communicate information to them. It’s all behind the scenes, and I do that.

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