Category Archives: World News

At least 50 dead in Pakistan monsoon floods since end of June

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Most of the deaths were in Punjab province and mainly caused by electrocution and building collapses

At least 50 people, including eight children, have been killed by floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains that have lashed Pakistan since last month, officials have said.

The summer monsoon between June and September brings 70-80% of south Asia’s annual rainfall every year. It is vital for the livelihoods of millions of farmers and food security in a region of about 2 billion people – but it also triggers landslides and floods.

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy discusses peace plan, Nato and grain deal with Erdoğan in Turkey – as it happened

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Ukraine president meets with Turkish leader after summits across Europe

In his daily operational briefing, Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, has said that one man was killed by Ukrainian shelling in the last 24 hours. He also recorded damage in a number of settlements caused by falling debris after air defence had been in action.

Belgorod borders Sumy, Kharkiv and the occupied Luhansk region in Ukraine’s north-east. The claims have not been independently verified.

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Brazil: Amazon deforestation drops 34% in first six months under Lula

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Government data shows marked reduction against same period last year, reversing trend of destruction during Bolsonaro reign

After four years of rising destruction in Brazil’s Amazon, deforestation dropped by 33.6% during the first six months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s term, according to new government satellite data.

From January to June the rainforest had alerts covering 2,650 sq km (1,023 sq miles), down from 4,000 sq km –during the same period last year under former president Jair Bolsonaro. This year’s data includes a 41% plunge in alerts for June, which marks the start of the dry season when deforestation tends to jump.

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UN condemns Israel’s use of excessive force in attack on Palestine

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The secretary general, António Guterres, called on Israel to abide by international law after its attack on Jenin in the West Bank

In a rare condemnation of Israel, the UN has denounced the country’s excessive use of force in its largest military operation in two decades targeting a refugee camp in the West Bank.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, clearly angered by the impact of the Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp, said it had left over 100 civilians injured, forced thousands to flee, damaged schools and hospitals and disrupted water and electricity networks.

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Kanye West sued by teacher fired from his California private school

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Former employee Isaiah Meadows of Yeezy Christian Academy says he was fired in retaliation for reporting unsafe conditions

Kanye West is facing legal action after a former employee of his private school in California alleged that he was fired after reporting unsafe conditions in the school.

Ye, as the rapper now goes by, was named as a defendant in a lawsuit by former employee Isaiah Meadows of the Yeezy Christian Academy, a private Christian school started by Ye, according to the lawsuit shared with the Guardian.

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Trump valet Walt Nauta pleads not guilty in Mar-a-Lago documents case – as it happened

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Former US president’s ‘body man’ appears in Miami court on charges relating to classified documents found at resort

Walt Nauta is facing six federal charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a document or record, and making false statements.

That’s fewer than the 37 federal charges Donald Trump is facing, but both men are named in the indictment brought last month by special counsel Jack Smith. You can read it below:

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‘A huge relief’: scientists react to hopes of UK rejoining EU Horizon scheme

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Expected return also greeted with dismay at UK’s decision to avoid being a net contributor to EU’s flagship programme

Scientists including the physicist Brian Cox have reacted with a mixture of caution, anger and relief that the UK appears set to rejoin the EU’s flagship £85bn Horizon science research programme after a protracted Brexit row.

Sources indicate that an announcement could come in days, possibly next week when Rishi Sunak is scheduled to meet the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, at a Nato summit.

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US expected to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine

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Human Rights Watch calls for immediate halt and urges US not to supply bombs amid reports Biden is to include them in aid package

Human Rights Watch has called on Russia and Ukraine to stop using cluster bombs, and urged the US not to supply the munitions to Kyiv, amid reports the Biden administration is poised to include the controversial weapons in a new military aid package.

Russian and Ukraine forces have used cluster bombs, which break apart in the air and release large numbers of smaller bomblets across a wide area.

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Yosemite hiker missing after being swept away by fast-moving creek

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Hayden Klemenok, 24, went missing while backpacking with group at Upper Chilnualna Falls, National Park Service says

A hiker has been missing in Yosemite national park since the holiday weekend after being swept away by a cold and fast-flowing creek as California’s epic winter snowpack melts.

Hayden T Klemenok vanished while backpacking with a group at Upper Chilnualna Falls on Sunday, the National Park Service said in a statement.

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Paddleboarders in close brush with hammerhead shark off Florida coast

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Gabriel Barajas and Malea Tribble thought ‘it was all over for us’ – but marine expert suggests shark was merely being ‘inquisitive’

A pair of paddleboarders raising money for charity had a frightening encounter with a hammerhead shark that circled them near Florida’s coast – and the entire incident was caught on video.

Gabriel Barajas and Malea Tribble were paddling from Florida to the Bahamas, an 80-mile journey, to raise money for cystic fibrosis awareness, WJZY reported.

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Canadian judge rules thumbs-up emoji can represent contract agreement

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A Saskatchewan court rules emoji is just as valid as a signature and orders a farmer to pay $61,442 for unfulfilled contract

A Canadian judge has ruled that the “thumbs-up” emoji is just as valid as a signature, arguing that courts need to adapt to the “new reality” of how people communicate as he ordered a farmer to pay C$82,000 ($61,442) for an unfulfilled contract.

In a recent case the Court of King’s Bench in the province of Saskatchewan heard that a grain buyer with South West Terminal sent a mass text message to clients in March 2021, advertising that the company was looking to buy 86 tonnes of flax at a price of C$17 ($12.73) per bushel.

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Russian cruise missile attack on Ukraine city of Lviv kills five

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Night-time onslaught believed to be heaviest attack on civilian areas of city since start of invasion

Russia has fired cruise missiles at a western Ukraine city far from the frontline of the war, killing at least five people in a block of flats, in what officials said was the heaviest attack on civilian areas of Lviv since the Kremlin’s forces invaded Ukraine last year.

The night-time attack destroyed the roof and top two floors of a residential building, injuring nine people as emergency crews with search dogs went through the rubble.

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‘Safe and effective’: first malaria vaccine to be rolled out in 12 African countries

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An initial 18m doses will be delivered over the next two years to combat a disease that kills nearly half a million children annually

A long-awaited vaccine for malaria has been announced for rollout across 12 African countries over the next two years, potentially saving tens of thousands of lives.

An initial 18m doses of the world’s first malaria vaccine have been assigned to the countries where the risk of children falling ill and dying from malaria is highest, according to a statement from the global vaccine alliance Gavi, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef.

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Israeli court acquits officer over killing of autistic Palestinian man

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Shooting of Iyad Halak in Jerusalem in 2020 drew comparisons to police killings in US

An Israeli court has acquitted a police officer of recklessly killing an unarmed autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Iyad Halak, 32, was shot dead in May 2020 after an encounter with police in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.

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Silvio Berlusconi leaves €100m to partner Marta Fascina in his will

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Three-time Italian prime minister leaves overall control of family holding company to two eldest children

The late Silvio Berlusconi left €100m (£85.4m) to his partner, Marta Fascina, in his will and control of the family holding company, Fininvest, to his two eldest children, a source has confirmed.

The three-time Italian prime minister, who died last month and whose empire is estimated to be worth more than €6bn, also left €100m to his brother, Paolo, and €30m to Marcello Dell’Utri, a former senator with his Forza Italia party who served jail time for association with the mafia.

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Grey whales seen seeking human help to remove parasites

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Captain of tourist boat from Baja California, Mexico, says grey whales return repeatedly for ‘grooming’

Grey whales have learned to approach whale-watching boats to have parasites removed by human beings, it has been claimed.

Video footage documenting the behaviour in the Ojo de Liebre lagoon, off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, shows a grey whale having whale lice picked off its head by the captain of a small boat. “I have done it repeatedly with the same whale and others,” Paco Jimenez Franco told a US news site. “It is very exciting for me.”

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‘It is like a virus that spreads’: business as usual for Wagner group’s extensive Africa network

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Despite Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion against the Kremlin, his military contracts are proving too profitable to lose

Four days after Wagner group mercenaries marched on Moscow, a Russian envoy flew into Benghazi to meet a worried warlord. The message from the Kremlin to Khalifa Haftar, the self-styled general who runs much of eastern Libya, was reassuring: the more than 2,000 Wagner fighters, technicians, political operatives and administrators in the country would be staying.

“There will be no problem here. There may be some changes at the top but the mechanism will stay the same: the people on the ground, the money men in Dubai, the contacts, and the resources committed to Libya,” the envoy told Haftar in his fortified palatial residence. “Don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere.”

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US treasury secretary lands in Beijing in visit aimed at calming tensions

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Janet Yellen expected to emphasise need for cooperation between two superpowers to tackle global threats

The US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has arrived in Beijing on a four-day trip that aims to tame spiralling tensions between the world’s two largest economies, particularly over trade and the hi-tech chip industry.

She will meet senior Chinese officials including the premier, Li Qiang, and former vice-premier and economics tsar Liu He, who is seen as close to China’s president, Xi Jinping, in her first day of talks on Friday.

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