Category Archives: World News

‘It’s party time’: Jair Bolsonaro opens themed online store

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Products include ‘party kits’ with hats, cake decorations and banners bearing Brazilian ex-president’s face

Some politicians go on lucrative speaking tours when their days in power are done. Others start foundations, distill whiskey, raise cattle or buy luxury sheds.

Jair Bolsonaro has chosen a different path and opened a shop where, for the price of a hardback, you can order a Bolsonaro-themed birthday pack complete with party hats, cake decorations and a plastic banner carrying a festive message from Brazil’s former president.

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Russian ex-submarine commander shot dead while running in park

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Russia’s FSB arrests man, 64, on suspicion of killing Stanislav Rzhitsky, who was accused by Ukraine of deadly strikes in war

A senior Russian draft officer and former submarine commander accused by Ukraine of deadly strikes on its territory has been shot dead while jogging in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar.

Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, was killed on Monday by an unidentified gunman during a morning run in a park near the Olimp sports centre, local police said.

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US aid policies undermined success of Afghanistan mission, says watchdog chief

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Poor oversight, lack of understanding and weak collaboration between allies contributed to ease of Taliban takeover, conclude US and UK aid bodies at London conference

America’s huge, badly-coordinated and politically-driven aid programme in Afghanistan engendered the corruption that undermined its entire mission and turned Afghans away from the western coalition, according to the head of a US aid watchdog.

“We did not really understand Afghanistan or how it worked as a country,” John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (Sigar), told a conference at the defence and security thinktank the Royal United Services Institute.

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Life imitates art as El Salvador pressures book fair to bar dissenting writer

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Barbers on Strike, author Michelle Recinos’s collection of short stories, has apparently upset strongman president Nayib Bukele

First the soldiers came for those with mohawks. Then they came for the hairdressers themselves.

“They were good kids,” quips the narrator in one of the latest tales by the Salvadorian author Michelle Recinos, “although I’d never trusted them with my hair.”

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Zelenskiy says he has faith in Nato but not confidence after failure to secure invitation to join – as it happened

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Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg says alliance will issue invitation after ‘conditions are met’. This live blog is now closed

Jen Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, has had some words for the media this morning. Reuters quotes him saying that Ukraine has come much closer to Nato, and that should be reflected in all Nato decision-making.

He said the wording of the final communique from the summit was being worked upon, and he was confident it would send a positive message on Ukraine’s path to membership.

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‘Heaviest rain ever’ causes deadly floods and landslides in Japan

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Mud engulfs houses and cars as island of Kyushu bears brunt of annual rainy season that is worsening with climate change

Six people died and three others were missing after the “heaviest rain ever” triggered floods and landslides in south-west Japan.

The Japan meteorological agency warned residents in Kyushu – one of the country’s four main islands – to stay alert for more landslides, a common hazard in mountainous areas after heavy rainfall.

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‘Pure magic’: snow falls on Johannesburg for first time in 11 years

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Residents of the South African city delight in rare snow day caused by a surge in humidity and cold temperatures

Residents of South Africa’s biggest city, Johannesburg, were stunned by the first snowfall in over a decade on Monday, with some children seeing snow for the first time.

While parts of South Africa regularly receive snow over the southern hemisphere winter months of June to August, Johannesburg last had snow in August 2012.

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Housing asylum seekers on barge may only save £10 a person daily, report says

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NGOs behind report suggest minimal savings for Home Office if Bibby Stockholm barge used in place of £5.6m-a-day hotels

Controversial plans to house asylum seekers on a barge to reduce reliance on expensive hotels will save less than £10 a person a day, according to a report.

The report, Bibby Stockholm – At What Cost? from the NGOs Reclaim The Seas and One Life To Live, provides the first detailed estimated costings of the Bibby Stockholm, the barge the Home Office is planning to use in Dorset to accommodate asylum seekers.

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No clear pathway expected for Ukraine Nato bid amid German and US caution

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Ukraine looks likely to be offered closer integration rather than clear pre-conditions as war with Russia continues

Nato members are not expected to set clear pre-conditions for Ukraine’s eventual membership to the military alliance in the face of caution from the US and Germany while the war with Russia continues.

Ukraine wants clarity on when and how it can join the alliance after the war with Russia ends, believing that western military protection is the only way it can remain unthreatened by its neighbour. However, it looks instead likely to be offered closer integration with Nato and a stronger political declaration in favour of its membership in principle.

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Turkey agrees to support Sweden’s Nato application

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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan agreed to set aside his veto following last-ditch talks on the eve of the Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania

Sweden is to be allowed to join Nato after Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, agreed to set aside his veto and recommend to his parliament that Sweden’s application go ahead.

The Monday night breakthrough came in last-ditch talks on the eve of the Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

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Smoke clouds and lava as volcano erupts near Icelandic capital

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Eruption near Reykjavik follows week of small earthquakes in area, as authorities advise against travel to site

A volcano has erupted about 30km (19 miles) from Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, the country’s meteorological office has said, marking the third time in two years that lava has gushed out in the area.

“The eruption is taking place in a small depression just north of Litli Hrútur, from which smoke is escaping in a north-westerly direction,” the office said.

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Three arrested in Kenya as backlash grows over period strip-search

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Police take action as activists, politicians and the company involved all condemn tactics used by managers investigating who put sanitary towel in wrong bin

Three senior managers from a Kenyan dairy company have been arrested over allegations of indecent assault after they forced a group of female employees to undress in order to find out which of them was on their period.

The incident, which happened last week at Brown’s Food Company’s dairy factory in Limuru, in central Kenya, followed failed attempts by the managers – all three of whom are women – to find out who had put a sanitary towel in the wrong bin.

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Why Asia matters to Nato as it looks to respond to China’s military expansion

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Beijing is source of ‘systemic challenges’ but alliance members are divided on how to engage

Nato leaders and their allies are heading to Vilnius, Lithuania, this week, for two days of meetings starting on Tuesday. Among them is Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s president, who will give one of the opening speeches.

The summit will be dominated by discussions about the alliance’s relationship with Ukraine. But Yoon’s attendance reflects a growing interest among members in stepping up their dialogue with countries in the Asia-Pacific.

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One dead as heavy rain causes flooding in New York’s Hudson valley

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Several people missing as much of rest of north-eastern US braced for potentially punishing rains

Heavy rain washed out roads and forced evacuations in the US north-east on Monday, with more downpours forecast throughout the day. One person in New York drowned as she was trying to leave her home.

The slow-moving storm reached New England. Heavy downpours with possible flash flooding were forecast in parts of Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.

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Tomato crisis hits India as rain ravages crops and prices rise 400%

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Consumers, farmers and even McDonald’s struggle in shortage blamed on irregular weather

Listening to the chatter at Delhi’s vegetable markets, only one question is on everyone’s lips: just how much will a tomato cost today?

Prices of tomatoes, a staple of Indian cooking, have soared by more than 400% in recent weeks as the country has been gripped by a nationwide shortage.

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Italy heatwave could push temperatures close to European record

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High pressure forecast to raise temperatures to 48C as hot weather sweeps Spain, France, Germany and Poland

Temperatures in Italy could get close to breaking a European record this week as a fierce heatwave grips much of the continent.

An anticyclone – an area of high pressure – named Cerberus will cause temperatures to exceed 40C (104F) across much of the country by Wednesday, with the islands of Sicily and Sardinia predicted to bear the brunt at 47-48C.

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Republican fabulist George Santos compares himself to Rosa Parks

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Congressman who has pleaded not guilty to 13 fraud-related counts condemned as ‘disgrace’ by prospective opponent

George Santos, the Republican congressman whose résumé has been shown to be largely fabricated and who has pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds, stoked outrage by comparing himself to the great civil rights campaigner Rosa Parks.

“Rosa Parks didn’t sit in the back, and neither am I gonna sit in the back,” Santos told Mike Crispi Unafraid, a rightwing podcast.

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US could agree to sell Turkey F-16 jets so it will allow Sweden to join Nato

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Erdoğan throws another obstacle in way of agreement by insisting Turkish EU membership be back on table

Joe Biden will try to nail down a four-country deal that would lead to Turkey allowing Sweden into Nato in return for the sale of US F-16 jets to Ankara, on the condition they are not used to threaten Greece.

But Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threw a surprise obstacle in the way of Biden’s plan by announcing he wanted Turkey’s stalled application to join the EU to be included in the package. Speaking at the airport before departing for the Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, the Turkish president said: “First, let’s pave the way for Turkey in the European Union, and then we will pave the way for Sweden just as we did for Finland.”

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Elon Musk goes low against Zuckerberg as Twitter-Threads spat intensifies

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Twitter owner calls Facebook founder a ‘cuck’ as rancour grows over launch of Threads, a competitor to Musk’s network

Twitter owner Elon Musk has suggested he and Mark Zuckerberg should have “a literal dick-measuring contest” in the latest broadside aimed at his rival billionaire.

In a message inspired by the Meta chief executive’s launch last week of Threads, a Twitter competitor, Musk added a ruler emoji.

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