Category Archives: World News

Anger over plan to persuade homeless people to leave Paris before Olympics

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Moving people including asylum seekers to temporary regional centres would free up accommodation

Local politicians and charities in France have expressed concerns about a French government plan to encourage thousands of homeless people and asylum seekers to leave the Paris area before next year’s Olympic Games and move to other regions of the country to free up accommodation in the capital.

The news agency Agence France-Presse reported that since mid-March, the government has asked local prefects to create temporary reception centres in every French region except the north and Corsica, which would free up space in hotels normally used as emergency accommodation centres in and around Paris.

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UK funding cuts to east Africa ‘insulting and shortsighted’, say aid organisations

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NGOs dismayed at reduction in Britain’s contribution as crisis-hit region faces challenges from drought, rising prices and conflict

The UK has been accused of taking the “insulting and shortsighted” decision to cut humanitarian aid to east Africa at a time of chronic drought, conflict and rising food prices.

At a United Nations pledging conference in New York on Wednesday, which the UK is co-chairing, Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s international development minister, announced a humanitarian aid package to the region of £143m.

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China overtakes US in contributions to nature and science journals

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Citations of Chinese research have risen because of sequencing of Covid-19 genome

China has overtaken the US to become the biggest contributor to nature-science journals, in a sign of the country’s growing influence in the world of academic research.

The Nature Index, which tracks data on author affiliations in 82 high quality journals, found that authors affiliated with Chinese institutions are more prolific than their US counterparts in physical sciences, chemistry, Earth and environmental sciences. The only category in which the US is still in the lead is life sciences.

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Russia and China deepen economic ties amid surge in trade since Ukraine invasion

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Russian PM holds talks with Xi Jinping and signs bilateral pacts to further investment, exports and sports cooperation

Russia and China have agreed to deepen investment in trade services, promote agricultural exports and boost sports cooperation, as Mikhail Mishustin, Russia’s prime minister, signed a set of bilateral agreements on a visit to Beijing.

Mishustin is the highest-ranking Russian official to visit Beijing since the start of the war in Ukraine. In March, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, visited Vladimir Putin in Moscow in a show of support for his “dear friend”.

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Biden trade curbs on China risk huge damage to US tech sector, says Nvidia chief

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Jensen Huang says Chinese firms will ‘just build it themselves’ if they cannot buy from US

The US risks causing “enormous damage” to its tech industry if it continues restrictions on trade with China, according to the chief executive of the chipmaker Nvidia.

Jensen Huang said curbs introduced by the Biden administration, which include restricting the export to China of advanced chips made with US technology, had left the business with “our hands tied behind our back”.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Huang said: “If [China] can’t buy from … the United States, they’ll just build it themselves. So the US has to be careful. China is a very important market for the technology industry.”

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Plastic waste puts millions of world’s poorest at higher risk from floods

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More than 200 million face more intense and frequent floods due to plastic pollution blocking drainage systems, report finds

A devastating 2005 flood that killed 1,000 people in the Indian city of Mumbai was blamed on a tragically simple problem: plastic bags had blocked storm drains, stopping monsoon flood water from draining out of the city.

Now a new report, attempting to quantify this problem, estimates that 218 million of the world’s poorest people are at risk from more severe and frequent flooding caused by plastic waste.

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Race against time to stop ‘humanitarian disaster’ among Sudan refugees in Chad

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Coming rainy season threatens 80,000 living in ‘heartbreaking’ conditions in vulnerable border region after fleeing war at home

Tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees, many of them children, who have crossed the border into Chad risk a “major humanitarian disaster” when the rainy season begins within weeks, a Red Cross official has warned.

About 80,000 people have sought refuge in the country to the west of Sudan as weeks of fighting between two warring generals forces hundreds of thousands from their homes.

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Hundreds of refugees in Malawi rounded up and sent to camps

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Army brought in to forcibly relocate refugees from the capital, despite pleas from human rights organisations

Hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers in Malawi have been forcibly relocated from the capital, Lilongwe, to an overcrowded government camp.

Over the past week, more than 300 refugees, including 100 children, have been rounded up and sent to Dzaleka camp, about 30 miles away.

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South China Sea shipwrecks give clues about historic Silk Road trade routes

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Archaeologists begin excavation of two 500-year-old vessels filled with porcelain and timber

Two 500-year-old shipwrecks in the South China Sea, filled with Ming-era porcelain and stacked timber, provide significant clues about the maritime Silk Road trade routes, Chinese archaeologists have said.

The two shipwrecks were discovered in October, and cultural and archaeological authorities have now begun a year-long process of deep-sea exploration and excavation, government officials announced.

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Moscow claims attack on Russian soil by Ukraine-aligned units ‘repelled’

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Members of militias, however, insist their operations in Belgorod are ongoing

Moscow has claimed it repelled an attack on Russian soil led by Ukraine-aligned militias, who have insisted their campaign is continuing.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, announced on Tuesday evening that he was cancelling a “counter-terrorism regime” that introduced restrictions tantamount to martial law, while claiming Russia’s defence ministry and security agencies were still engaged in a “mopping up” campaign.

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Malaysia confiscates ‘LGBT’ rainbow Swatch watches

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Officials seize 164 watches from Pride collection, with watchmaker promising to ‘replenish the stock and display them on-shelf’

Swiss watchmaker Swatch has said Malaysian authorities seized 164 rainbow-coloured watches worth a total of US$14,000 from its Pride collection.

LGBT people are discriminated against in Malaysia where homosexuality is forbidden and sodomy can be punished with imprisonment and corporal punishment, although enforcement is rare.

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Australian tourist who was missing for three days found dead in Kazakhstan

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Body of Melbourne lawyer Jake Herd found at high altitude in poor weather near Big Almaty Lake

An Australian tourist who was missing for three days in mountains in Kazakhstan has been found dead, authorities in the central Asian country said on Tuesday.

Police said they had found the body of Melbourne lawyer Jake Michael Herd, born in 1995, near Big Almaty Lake in the Tian Shan mountains at an altitude of about 2,500m.

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Canadian police solve 48-year-old case of teenager’s rape and murder using DNA

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Police say West Virginian who died 40 years ago raped and killed 16-year-old Sharron Prior in a Montreal suburb in 1975

Canadian police say they have solved one of the highest-profile cold cases in Quebec history, linking the 1975 rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl to a West Virginia man who died more than 40 years ago.

Police in Longueuil, Quebec, said that DNA evidence allows them to be 100% certain that Franklin Maywood Romine murdered teenager Sharron Prior in the Montreal suburb.

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Justin Welby proposes amendments to ‘morally unacceptable’ illegal migration bill

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Archbishop of Canterbury calls on ministers to implement strategies on human trafficking and the refugee crisis

The archbishop of Canterbury has proposed two amendments to the government’s flagship illegal migration bill that he had earlier deemed “morally unacceptable”.

With the controversial plans to enter the committee stage in the House of Lords on Wednesday, Justin Welby called on ministers to implement 10-year strategies for tackling human trafficking and for an international collaboration to solving the refugee crises.

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Canadian special rapporteur rules out inquiry into Chinese interference claims

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David Johnston warns that subversive efforts represent ‘increasing threat’ to democracy but public inquiry would be the wrong choice


An official named to investigate allegations that China attempted to subvert Canadian elections has announced he will not launch a public inquiry, prompting frustration from critics who say the decision only furthers Beijing’s interests.

Special rapporteur David Johnston on Tuesday released a 55-page report on foreign interference in Canadian institutions, warning that subversive efforts represented an “increasing threat” to democracy.

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EU discusses earmarking €1bn for Ukraine

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Josep Borrell says 1,300 missiles given to Ukraine as EU discuss raising Europe’s military budget

EU countries have provided 220,000 artillery shells and 1,300 missiles to Ukraine since March, its foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said, as member states discuss raising Europe’s military budget by another €3.5bn.

Following a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels, Borrell said “the overwhelming majority of member states” had said they were in favour of increasing the European Peace Facility budget, €1bn of which would be earmarked for Ukraine. The fund is used to reimburse EU member states that supply military aid to Kyiv.

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Russian court extends detention of Evan Gershkovich to August

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Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested on espionage charges is being held in Moscow prison with no date set for trial

A Moscow court has extended the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested on espionage charges at the end of March.

During a brief hearing on Tuesday, the court ordered that Gershkovich should remain in jail until 30 August, Russian news agencies reported. His pre-trial detention had initially been scheduled to expire next week. He is being held in the notorious Lefortovo prison in Moscow, and could face a sentence of up to 20 years if found guilty.

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Heavy rains in Canada offer relief from wildfires but could lead to flooding

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Crews hope wet weather could be ‘turning point’ after worst start to fire season on record in which area the size of Wales has burned

Heavy rains have brought relief to western Canada, in what crews hope could be a “turning point” in a protracted fight against wildfires, but officials also warned the much-needed downpour could lead to catastrophic flooding – and fresh blazes from lightning strikes.

Officials in Alberta said that cool, wet weather over the weekend – and more forecast for the coming days – promised a respite after the worst start to a fire season on record, in which 512 wildfires have already consumed more than 945,000 hectares – surpassing the previous record 615,00 hectares for the same period in 2019.

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Madeleine McCann: Portuguese and German police begin searching reservoir site

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Operation at site about 30 miles from where three-year-old went missing in 2007 is expected to last two days

Portuguese and German police launched a search of the banks of a reservoir in the Algarve for Madeleine McCann after photographs and video of the site were said to have been found in the possession of a man suspected of involvement in the child’s disappearance 16 years ago.

Officers with pickaxes, chainsaws and rakes started to examine the barren spot and surrounding woods by the Barragem do Arade reservoir in Portugal on Tuesday morning, fanning out across a piece of land roughly 500 sq metres in size.

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US debt ceiling crisis live: Treasury secretary Janet Yellen confirms 1 June deadline as deal remains elusive

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Yellen tells Congress there is unlikely to be any wiggle room if catastrophic default is to be avoided

Fresh off of winning an expensive civil judgment against Donald Trump, advice columnist E Jean Carroll is once again suing the former president over statements he made about her on CNN:

The author and columnist E Jean Carroll will go back to court to demand “very substantial” additional damages from Donald Trump for the disparaging remarks he made about her during a televised CNN town hall just a day after he was found liable in a civil case for sexually assaulting her.

Judge Juan Manuel Merchan agreed to the extra step of personally instructing Trump on the restrictions after listing them May 8 in what’s known as a protective order.

Trump is allowed to speak publicly about the case, but he risks being held in contempt if he uses evidence turned over by prosecutors in the pretrial discovery process to target witnesses or others involved in the case.

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