Category Archives: World News

Israel: Netanyahu announces delay to judicial overhaul plan

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Prime minister defers controversial proposals to next parliamentary session after mass protests

Israel’s embattled prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has announced a delay to his far-right government’s proposals to overhaul the judiciary after 12 weeks of escalating political crisis.

Netanyahu said on Monday he would delay his flagship judicial changes to the next parliamentary session, saying he wanted to give time to seek a compromise over the contentious package with his political opponents.

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EU ministers to approve vehicle emissions law after deal with Germany

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Berlin secures concessions over future use of e-fuels after going back on agreement struck last year

EU ministers are expected to approve a draft law on emissions standards for cars on Tuesday, after reaching a deal with Germany over the weekend that ended a damaging row over a key part of Europe’s green deal.

Pascal Canfin, a French centrist MEP who chairs the European parliament’s environment committee, said an EU law that all cars sold from 2035 must produce zero emissions “will be voted unchanged, including by Germany” on Tuesday.

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US army ads featuring Jonathan Majors pulled after arrest

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The Creed III actor’s ads were a key element in the army’s drive to revive struggling recruitment numbers

Ads for the US army featuring Jonathan Majors have been pulled after the actor’s arrest.

Majors, who authorities said was arrested on Saturday in New York on charges of assault and harassment, was the narrator of two ads at the heart of a broader media campaign that kicked off at the start of the NCAA’s March Madness college basketball tournament. Army leaders were hopeful that the popularity of the star of the recently released Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania would help them reach the youth audience.

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Israel’s president calls for halt to judicial overhaul after mass protests

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Thousands took to the streets on Sunday after Benjamin Netanyahu sacked his defence minister for opposing the controversial changes

Israel’s president has urged the government to halt its bitterly contested judicial overhaul, a day after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked his defence minister for opposing the move, sparking mass street protests.

“For the sake of the unity of the people of Israel, for the sake of responsibility, I call on you to stop the legislative process immediately,” Isaac Herzog said on Twitter.

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Hong Kong police keep tight control over first authorised protest in years

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Several dozen demonstrators were required to wear numbered lanyards, as police monitored their march against a proposed land reclamation

Hong Kong police have permitted a small protest march under tight restrictions, in one of the first demonstrations to be approved since the enactment of a sweeping national security law in 2020.

Several dozen demonstrators were required to wear numbered lanyards and were barred from wearing masks, as police monitored their march against a proposed land reclamation and rubbish processing project.

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Israel: mass protests after sacking of minister who opposed judicial overhaul

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Dismissal of Yoav Gallant, a senior figure in the ruling Likud party, brings tens of thousands on to streets of Tel Aviv

Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to protest after Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defence minister over his opposition to a planned judicial overhaul.

Yoav Gallant had called on the prime minister to scrap the proposals which have divided the country, led to mass protests and sparked growing discontent within the military.

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Anti-trans activist Posie Parker leaves New Zealand after chaotic protests

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Gender-critical activist was booed and heckled in Auckland and cancelled event in Wellington

The anti-trans activist known as Posie Parker cancelled a planned event in Wellington and left New Zealand, after chaotic and at times violent protests curtailed an appearance in Auckland before she was able to speak in public.

Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull had been due to speak in Auckland on Saturday morning. The British activist was met by crowds of pro-trans rights counter-protesters estimated to be in the thousands, substantially outnumbering the speaker’s supporters. She left the event after being booed, heckled and doused with tomato juice.

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Italian authorities detain Banksy-funded migrant rescue boat

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Yacht impounded over alleged breach of far-right government’s new rules for rescue vessels

Italian authorities have detained a migrant rescue boat financed by the British street artist Banksy after it responded to a distress call in the central Mediterranean.

The vessel, painted in bright pink and named Louise Michel after a French feminist anarchist, was impounded in the port of Lampedusa on Sunday in relation to an alleged breach of new Italian rules for rescue boats operated by non-governmental organisations.

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Putin’s timeline for storing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus is hard to believe

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Although Alexander Lukashenko has agreed to host nuclear bases little construction work seems to have started

Like a lot of what Vladimir Putin says about nuclear weapons, his suggestion that Russia would start storing its bombs in Belarus may add up to less than it appears.

In February last year, Putin said he was putting Russia’s nuclear arsenal on high alert, but there was no perceptible change in the country’s nuclear posture, or any unusual movements of its weapons.

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Mississippi tornado: Biden declares emergency after storm kills 26 in region

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Search and recovery efforts continue after twister hit hardest in some of the most economically deprived areas of US’s poorest state

Joe Biden declared a federal emergency for swathes of Mississippi hit by a devastating tornado, as rescue workers continued to search for survivors on Sunday morning with a death toll of at least 26 people caused by catastrophic storms in parts of the US’s deep south.

Twenty-five people were killed and dozens injured in Mississippi, throughout the state’s low-lying Delta region and around its north-east portion, with another man dying in the neighboring state of Alabama.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russian plans for nuclear weapons in Belarus ‘dangerous and irresponsible’ – as it happened

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Senior US administration official says there are no signs Moscow intends to use its nuclear weapons

Ukrainian refugees are increasingly being targeted for sexual exploitation with an increase in interest in pornography claiming to feature refugees from the war-torn country, according to research.

Thomson Reuters has conducted the research, which has found that Ukrainian refugees may be victims of both traffickers on the ground and cyber-voyeurs.

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US indicts alleged Russian spy who tried to infiltrate ICC in The Hague

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Sergey Cherkasov studied in US under false identity and is accused of working for Russian intelligence

US authorities have released new details about an alleged Russian spy who attempted to penetrate the international criminal court in The Hague, using a false identity developed over a decade.

An indictment made public on Saturday accuses Sergey Cherkasov, who US intelligence believes is an elite “illegal” operative of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency. Cherkasov posed as Brazilian citizen Victor Muller Ferreira over many years.

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Elon Musk memo suggests Twitter worth less than half of what he paid for it

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Calculation based on leaked offer to staff that implies firm valued at $20bn compared with $44bn he bought it for

Twitter is worth less than half of what Elon Musk paid for it six months ago having lost more than $20bn (£16.4bn) in value, according to calculations based on a leaked memo from the billionaire.

Musk suggested in memo to the social media company’s staff that it is now valued at less than $20bn. This compares with the $44bn he paid for it in October 2022.

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Rwanda scheme would ‘completely erode’ UK’s standing on world stage

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New Human Rights Watch head Tirana Hassan says UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers is ‘cheap politics’

The UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda would “completely erode” Britain’s standing on the world stage, the new head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

Tirana Hassan, who takes over as HRW’s executive director on Monday, also said other conservative governments in Europe were considering following Britain’s lead and looking at African states as an offshore dumping ground for asylum seekers, potentially dealing further blows to established refugee protections.

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Refugees trying to reach Italy die after boats sink off coast of Tunisia

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Latest tragedy comes as authorities in north African country crack down on undocumented people

At least 29 people from sub-Saharan Africa have died while trying to reach Italy after two boats carrying them across the Mediterranean sank off the coast of Tunisia.

The deaths, which occurred early on Sunday, are the latest tragedies involving people departing from the north African country, where the authorities have launched a crackdown on undocumented people from sub-Saharan Africa.

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Russia accused of taking Belarus ‘nuclear hostage’ with deal to station missiles there

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Ukraine says Putin’s deal to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus destabilises neighbour

Ukraine has accused Russia of destabilising Belarus and making its smaller neighbour into “a nuclear hostage”, after Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Moscow has made a deal to station tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory.

The country’s opposition leader in exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said the move “grossly contradicts the will of the Belarusian people” and reflected the further subjugation of Belarus under Russian control.

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Investors force HSBC shareholder vote on structural overhaul

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Minority shareholder Ken Lui leads campaign seeking to split bank’s Asian and western businesses

Hong Kong investors have forced HSBC into a shareholder vote on its structure and strategy, including a potential spin-off of its Asian arm.

An investor group, led by the minority shareholder Ken Lui, said the bank’s Asian activities were “effectively subsidising the western businesses, to the detriment of HSBC’s global shareholders” in a way that undermines efforts to increase the bank’s value and growth.

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Lebanon split into two time zones in row over daylight saving

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Government’s last-minute decision to delay clocks going forward caused confusion and deepened religious division

The Lebanese government’s last-minute decision to delay the start of daylight savings time by a month until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has resulted in mass confusion.

With some institutions implementing the change while others refused, many Lebanese have found themselves in the position of juggling work and school schedules in different time zones – in the same small country.

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New allegations and a resignation strain already fraught China-Canada relations

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Han Dong’s departure escalates row over allegations that Beijing meddled in Canada’s elections as friction between countries grows

The abrupt resignation of a Canadian lawmaker over allegations he secretly met with a Chinese diplomat has escalated a row over allegations that Beijing meddled in Canadian elections – and highlighted the complex and often fraught relationship between the two countries.

Han Dong, a member of the governing Liberal party, was reported to have met with Han Tao, China’s consul general in February 2021, to suggest that Chinese authorities delay freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadians who were detained in China at the time.

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Israel defence minister urges pause in judicial overhaul as thousands rally in Tel Aviv

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Netanyahu’s changes are causing a ‘growing social rift’ that present an immediate security threat, says Likud party member Yoav Galant

Tens of thousands of Israelis have rallied in Tel Aviv against a controversial judicial overhaul, as defence minister Yoav Galant broke ranks to call for a pause in the process.

The latest demonstration to hit Israel’s commercial hub came days after the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed to press on with the changes despite mounting international alarm.

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