Category Archives: World News

US soldier was reportedly laughing when crossing border into North Korea

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Soldier, identified by US and Korean officials as Travis King, gave ‘out a loud “ha ha ha”’, member of tour group says

A US soldier who crossed into North Korea while on a tour group after escaping military detention was laughing as he fled over the inter-Korean border, according to media reports.

US and Korean officials identified the soldier as Private 2nd Class Travis King, according to CBS News. King, 23, was being held in custody by South Korea at the airport in Incheon, near Seoul, and in the process of being expelled when he fled.

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At least two killed after Kenyan police fire on protesters

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Protests against tax rises and cost of living turn violent with hospitals reporting many wounded by gunshot

At least two people have been killed after anti-government protests in Kenya, as police opened fire on demonstrators protesting against the cost of living and tax increases.

Demonstrators hurled rocks at police and burned tyres in the streets on Wednesday, while the security forces fired teargas in the third round of anti-government demonstrations the opposition called this month.

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Judge rejects Trump bid to move hush money case to federal court as legal challenges gather pace – as it happened

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Former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, who Donald Trump pressured to overturn the 2020 election, has been cooperating with special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection, NBC reported.

A spokesperson for Ducey yesterday confirmed that Smith’s team had contacted the former governor. “Yes, he’s been contacted. He’s been responsive, and just as he’s done since the election, he will do the right thing,” they told CNN.

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Extreme weather: heat strains healthcare systems, says WHO; Nasa to meet climate experts – as it happened

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Here are some more images from the wires of the wildfires that swept through forestland and towns north-west of Athens for a second day. The fires forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 children close to a Greek seaside resort.

Tourists flocked to China’s scenic Flaming Mountains to experience searing high temperatures amid punishing heatwaves that have scorched much of the northern hemisphere.

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Video appears to show Wagner chief for first time since aborted mutiny

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Footage released on Telegram is said to show Yevgeny Prigozhin addressing fighters in Belarus

A video has appeared purporting to show the mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin addressing his fighters in Belarus and calling the Russian war effort in Ukraine a “disgrace”, in the first footage of the Russian warlord to emerge since his mutiny last month.

The video, which was published by two Telegram channels affiliated with the Wagner mercenary company, showed a man who resembled and sounded like Prigozhin telling his fighters: “Welcome to the Belarusian land! We have fought with dignity. We have done very much for Russia!”

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Pita Limjaroenrat: Thai voters’ change candidate, cut down by senators

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Young pro-reform candidate won over many in the electorate – but not military appointees who blocked him from being PM

After almost a decade of rule by the former army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, many voters in the recent Thai election longed for change. More than 14 million turned to pro-reform politician Pita Limjaroenrat and his party Move Forward.

Pita, aged 42, is far younger than most politicians in Thailand, and he and his party were able to use social media to reach new voters.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Moscow warns ships in Black Sea; video appears to show Prigozhin for first time since mutiny – as it happened

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Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, has posted this latest news update from Odesa. It writes:

During the night attack on Odesa region, rockets hit the grain and oil terminal, damaged tanks and equipment for loading, and a fire broke out, said Vladyslav Nazarov, the spokesperson for the “South” command.

In the Odesa region, an industrial facility was hit, where an employee was injured, and two warehouses in different locations were also hit – with tobacco and fireworks.

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Vladimir Putin to miss South Africa summit amid row over possible arrest

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Cyril Ramaphosa faced demands for Russian president to be detained under ICC warrant if he attended Brics summit

Vladimir Putin will not attend a Brics summit in South Africa next month amid speculation that he could be detained under an international criminal court warrant for his arrest for war crimes in Ukraine.

South Africa’s presidential office announced that the Russian president would not be attending the summit after holding a “number of consultations” with the Kremlin.

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Strike threats in Italy and stoppages in Greece as workers struggle with heat

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Parts of Sicily reach almost 47C and Spanish coastal water temperatures hit new high for mid-July

Temperatures reached almost 47C in southern Italy on Wednesday and factory workers threatened to strike over the extreme heat, while wildfires continued to rage in Greece and temperatures in coastal waters around Spain broke records.

In Sicily, where the European record of 48.8C was registered in August 2021, the mercury climbed to almost 47C in the area between Mazara del Vallo, in the province of Trapani, and Sciacca, in Agrigento province, according to data from ilMeteo.it. Temperatures in Sardinia reached 46C while Rome – where there were energy blackouts on Tuesday due to pressure on the grid believed to be from air conditioners – peaked at 38C.

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Canada recruits high-skilled foreigners in US – and gets 10,000 applications

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Government launches work permit for foreign workers with H-1B visa in US and meets target number of applicants in just two days

The Canadian government is recruiting high-skilled foreigners working in the United States to move to Canada instead – and the program has been so successful that it met its target of 10,000 applicants in just two days.

Canada this week launched a special work permit for foreign workers who already have obtained an H-1B visa in the US, who number nearly 600,000 and come mostly from India and China. The program’s 10,000 quota was filled in the first two days of the week, a spokesman for Canada’s immigration minister, Sean Fraser, said on Wednesday.

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Venezuela’s ex-spy chief extradited from Spain to US to face drug charges

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Hugo Carvajal, intelligence leader under Hugo Chávez, accused of providing support to drug trafficking by rebel Farc group

Venezuela’s former intelligence chief has been extradited from Spain to the United States where he is wanted on drug trafficking charges, his lawyer and judicial sources said.

Gen Hugo Armando Carvajal, who served as intelligence chief under the former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, has long been sought by US Treasury officials who suspect him of providing support to drug trafficking by the now disarmed Farc guerrilla group in Colombia.

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Odesa suffers ‘hellish night’ as Russia attacks Ukraine grain facilities

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Port bears brunt of missile and drone onslaught, with grain and oil terminal, market and storage said to have been hit

Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa has endured a second “hellish night” of attacks, with loud explosions audible throughout the city in the early hours of Wednesday and at least one missile landing within the city limits, as Russia targeted grain facilities and port infrastructure.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 63 missiles and drones at various targets across the country, of which 37 had been shot down, suggesting that more of Russia’s missiles got through air defences than has been the case in recent weeks.

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No let-up in Phoenix as extreme temperatures persist

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Emergency-room doctor treating heatstroke victims with large amounts of ice as Arizona city enters ninth day of lows above 90F

With no immediate let-up anticipated for the scorching heat over the American south-west – where temperatures have reached more than 110F (43.3C) in the day and not dropped below 90F (32.2C) at night – a Phoenix emergency room doctor has resorted to using children’s pools and large zip-bags filled with ice to cool heatstroke victims.

Frank LoVecchio, a Phoenix-area emergency room medical toxicologist, told CBS News that he had treated three or four cases of heatstroke over the past three days using the technique, which involves covering the patient with ice until only their eyes and mouth are showing.

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Investigation over fund for French policeman who shot dead teenager

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Prosecutors look into GoFundMe collection set up by far-right commentator for officer whose action sparked nationwide riots

French prosecutors have opened an investigation into an online collection for a policeman who shot a teenager dead in a Paris suburb in late June sparking nationwide riots.

The initiative on GoFundMe.com, launched by far-right media commentator Jean Messiha, received pledges of more than €1.6m (£1.4m) before it was closed in early July.

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Guatemalan boy dies in Mississippi poultry plant accident

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Duvan Perez, 16, dies at Mar-Jac factory in Hattiesburg amid rollback of child labor laws across several US states

A 16-year-old from Guatemala died on Friday after sustaining a workplace injury at a poultry plant in Mississippi, authorities confirm.

The child, identified as Duvan Tomas Perez, died at Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, about two hours outside of Jackson, NBC News reported. He migrated to the US six years ago from the town of Huispache and was a middle school student.

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Indian opposition unites in attempt to oust Narendra Modi

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Leaders put aside personality clashes and ideological differences to form coalition to take on PM

Leaders of 26 opposition political parties in India have united to form an alliance in an attempt to oust the country’s populist prime minister, Narendra Modi, in next year’s general election.

During a conclave of opposition parties held this week, it was decided that the coalition will be called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance: otherwise known as INDIA.

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‘Gut-churning’: anger as Hungarian president addresses major women’s rights conference

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Katalin Novák, an anti-abortionist and promoter of pro-natalist policies, spoke at the opening of the Women Deliver conference in Rwanda

Some leading delegates at a women’s rights conference in Rwanda have expressed shock at the appearance there of the Hungarian president, an anti-abortionist criticised for an anti-equality stance.

Katalin Novák, an important player in the international “anti-gender movement”, was invited by the Rwandan government to speak at the Women Deliver conference in Kigali this week, where reproductive rights is one of the areas under discussion.

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Salvadoran government accused of doctoring true extent of Covid deaths

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A Salvadoran newspaper reported 15,956 people died from the disease, three times more than President Bukele’s official numbers

Nayib Bukele’s administration in El Salvador has come under fire from rights groups for apparently falsifying Covid-19 figures in an attempt to cover up the true cost of the pandemic.

Two-thirds of the country’s Covid-19 fatalities were left out of official figures in order to give the illusion that the authoritarian government had the pandemic under control, the Salvadoran newspaper La Prensa Gráfica reported on Monday.

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West Bank medics given bulletproof vests after ‘rise in attacks by Israeli forces’

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Palestine Red Crescent Society says there were 193 incidents targeting healthcare staff and vehicles in 2023

Medics working in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are being supplied with helmets and bulletproof vests after the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported what it said was a rise in attacks on healthcare workers and ambulances by Israeli forces and settlers.

According to the PRCS, there were 193 incidents targeting staff and vehicles in 2023 – a 310% increase compared with the same period last year. Violence has been increasing steadily in the region since March 2022, when the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) began launching near-nightly raids on the West Bank towns of Nablus and Jenin in response to a spate of deadly terror attacks against Israelis.

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UK must label Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as terror group, says thinktank

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Report from rightwing thinktank calls for tougher sanctions on Iran as October expiry of UN sanctions looms

The October expiry of UN sanctions limiting Iran’s missile programme must become a hard deadline for the UK to adopt a tougher policy that includes proscription of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a rightwing thinktank has warned.

The report from the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) is the second from a right-of-centre thinktank in two days demanding tougher action on Iran, and suggests that the UK ministers’ preferred strategy of introducing an Iran-specific sanctions regime that could lead to sanctions for activities outside Iran has fallen flat with Tory hawks.

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