Category Archives: World News

Jacinda Ardern learned she was in new Meghan and Harry series the day of trailer release

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New Zealand PM features in the follow up to Netflix’s Harry and Meghan documentary that was released this month

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern says she learned she would feature in Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new documentary series the day the trailer was released.

Ardern featured prominently in the first trailer for 'Live to Lead, a new documentary project, which will feature “leaders committed to making a difference in the world share[ing] their inspiring life stories”. The series is a follow-up to Harry & Meghan, Netflix’s documentary series by and about the pair, released this month.

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China changes definition of Covid deaths as cases surge

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No new fatalities reported this week, despite numerous reports of overloaded hospitals and crematoriums

China has moved to a narrower definition of Covid deaths, which will drastically cut its death statistics as cases increase following the relaxation of zero-Covid rules.

Authorities reported no new fatalities in the latest Covid statistics update on Wednesday, despite widespread reports and images of overloaded hospitals and crematoriums and queues of hearses. The official number of deaths since the pandemic began in Wuhan three years ago even had one struck off on Wednesday and now stands at 5,241 – an extremely low number compared with many less populous countries.

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Zelenskiy to meet congressional leaders in Washington on Wednesday – reports

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Trip would be Ukrainian president’s first foreign visit since Russia invaded in February

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will travel to Washington on Wednesday where he is expected to visit the White House and the US Capitol, according several US media reports.

Zelenskiy is expected to meet congressional leadership and national security committee chiefs from the Republican and Democratic parties, and might address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, news outlets reported..

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Eight teenage girls charged with murder in Toronto stabbing death

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The suspects – ages 13 to 16 – were said to have met via social media before gathering downtown and allegedly ‘swarming’ victim

Eight teenage girls who appear to have met on social media have been charged with second-degree murder over the death of a 59-year-old man who was stabbed in downtown Toronto.

Police allege that the girls assaulted and stabbed the man at a plaza near the main rail station in Canada’s largest city early on Sunday morning. Three of the girls are 13, three are 14 and two are 16, police said on Tuesday.

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Excavations reveal pilgrims’ lamps and inscriptions at ‘tomb of Salome’

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Finds at site west of Jerusalem named after woman said to have assisted at the birth of Jesus Christ

Archaeologists have unveiled pilgrims’ lamps and other finds from the ”tomb of Salome”, a burial site named after a woman said to have assisted at the birth of Christ.

The tomb was discovered by grave robbers in what is now Tel Lachish national park, west of Jerusalem, in the 1980s.

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Taliban ban Afghan women from university education

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Higher education ministry issues indefinite order three months after thousands sat entrance exams

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have ordered an indefinite ban on university education for the country’s women, the ministry of higher education said in a letter issued to all government and private universities.

“You all are informed to implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice,” said the letter signed by the minister for higher education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem.

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Celebrities demand release of Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti

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Open letter signed by Emma Thompson, Mark Rylance and Steve McQueen expresses outrage at Oscar winner’s arrest

Film stars, playwrights, novelists and directors from across the world have rallied to the defence of the Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti, calling for her immediate release from the infamous Evin prison in Tehran.

The Oscar-winning actor was arrested at her home on Saturday and has since told her family she is being detained in Evin. She has been asked to explain Instagram posts in which she denounced the Iranian government for imposing the death penalty on protesters. She had posted a picture of herself in which she was not wearing the hijab and holding a piece of paper reading “women, life, freedom” – the slogan that has come to encapsulate a nationwide protest movement.

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Met to investigate Tory MP Bob Stewart over alleged racial abuse

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Scotland Yard to look into footage in which Beckenham MP tells activist Sayed Alwadaei ‘go back to Bahrain’

Police are to investigate an allegation of racial abuse after the Guardian revealed a confrontation in which the Tory MP Bob Stewart told an activist to “go back to Bahrain”.

Scotland Yard has said it will investigate video footage after a complaint from Sayed Alwadaei, the director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird), who had an angry exchange with Stewart outside a reception hosted by the Bahraini embassy.

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Germany returns 21 Benin bronzes to Nigeria – amid frustration at Britain

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Artefacts looted in 19th century by UK soldiers and sold on, with many more still held by the British Museum

Twenty-one precious artefacts that were looted by British soldiers from the former west African kingdom of Benin 125 years ago have been handed over by Germany to Nigeria amid laughter, tears, and some audible frustration with the ongoing silence of the country that first stole them.

The objects from the haul of treasures known as the Benin bronzes, including a brass head of an oba (king), a ceremonial ada and a throne depicting a coiled-up python, were taken from the sacked city during a British punitive expedition in 1897 and later sold to German museums in Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne.

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China’s screeching U-turn on Covid will not be an instant fix

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If Beijing is expecting an immediate boost from abandoning its tough controls it is mistaken

From zero tolerance to “let it rip”. China has not just changed its mind on how to cope with Covid, it has executed the mother of all U-turns in response to slower growth and mounting civil unrest at the draconian lockdowns.

If Beijing is expecting an immediate economic boost from abandoning its tough controls it is mistaken. There will be a growth dividend from the policy shift but the state of the world’s second biggest economy will get worse before it gets better, and it will be next spring at least before the easing of restrictions starts to pay off.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy visits Bakhmut as Putin admits situation in parts of Ukraine ‘extremely difficult’ – as it happened

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This live blog has now closed, you can find our latest Ukraine coverage here

The Biden administration has crossed a new line in its support for Ukraine, by indicating its willingness to send Patriot air and missile defence systems to aid in the war against Russia.

The system – which includes powerful missile interceptors and radar – is likely to prove highly effective for Ukraine, and marks a significant step forward in the scope and complexity of the US’s support. But the gift of such prestige systems will present longer-term challenges for Nato.

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Spanish PM vows to end ‘unjustifiable’ block on court changes

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Conservative judges froze passage of measures meant to overhaul appointments to their court

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has vowed to use “whatever measures are needed” to end to a long-running judicial deadlock after conservative judges at the country’s constitutional court took the unprecedented step of suspending the passage of legislation that would overhaul the way appointments to their court are made.

Last week, Sánchez’s Socialist-led coalition government managed to get its changes to the penal code through congress, the lower house of Spain’s parliament.

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Former Nazi camp secretary found guilty of complicity in 10,500 murders

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Irmgard Furchner, 97, who worked at Stutthof concentration camp during the second world war, is given a two-year suspended sentence

A 97-year-old former secretary at a Nazi concentration camp has been found guilty of complicity in the murder of more than 10,500 people imprisoned there, and handed a two-year suspended sentence.

Irmgard Furchner, who has been on trial in the northern German town of Itzehoe for more than a year, spoke to the court on one occasion earlier this month to say she was sorry for what had happened, but stopped short of admitting her guilt.

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British Airways apologises after flights delayed in US and Caribbean

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Airline blames technical issue for disruption at airports including Denver, New York and Miami

British Airways has apologised after a technical issue triggered a wave of flight delays across the US and the Caribbean.

The airline said problems with its third-party flight planning supplier were behind the delays, as customers reported disruption in departing cities including Denver, New York and Miami.

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Sitiveni Rabuka to be Fiji’s new PM as Frank Bainimarama’s 16-year reign ends

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The People’s Alliance leader will take over after he secured the backing of the Social Liberal Democratic party to oust longstanding rival

Frank Bainimarama’s reign as leader of Fiji has ended almost 16 years after he instigated a coup in 2006 and installed himself as prime minister the next year.

Cheering, singing and car horns filled the streets on Tuesday outside the office of the man who will be crowned Fiji’s new prime minister.

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried agrees to US extradition

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Crypto mogul’s lawyer in Bahamas says he wanted to see indictment before consenting to travel to face fraud charges

Fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried has now decided to agree to be extradited to the United States to face fraud charges, two of his lawyers said on Monday, just hours after one of them told a Bahamas judge the FTX founder wanted to see the US indictment against him before consenting.

On Monday afternoon, Jerone Roberts, Bankman-Fried’s criminal defense lawyer in the Bahamas, told media outlets including the New York Times that his client had agreed to be voluntarily extradited and that he hoped Bankman-Fried would be back in court later this week.

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Africa’s biggest photography library opens in Ghana

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Ghanaian photographer’s crowdfunded project won support of Humans of New York author and boasts more than 30,000 books

The largest photography library in Africa has opened in Ghana’s capital, Accra, showcasing the work of the continent and diaspora’s forgotten, established and emerging talent.

Founded by Ghanaian photographer and film-maker Paul Ninson, the Dikan Center houses more than 30,000 books he has collected. The first of its kind in Ghana, a photo studio and classrooms provide space for workshops while a fellowship programme is aimed at African documentarians and visual artists. An exhibition space will host regular shows, the first of which is Ahennie, a series by the late Ghanaian documentary photographer Emmanuel Bobbie (also known as Bob Pixel), who died in 2021.

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Kosovo PM says Russia is inflaming Serbia tensions as Ukraine war falters

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Albin Kurti warns rising tensions only benefit Putin as ethnic Serbs set up road blocks in north of country

Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti, has warned of Russia inflaming tensions between his country and Serbia due to the war in Ukraine faltering, as Belgrade took its first step in deploying troops to the region.

Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo, where they are in the majority, have had barricades set up for more than a week, preventing the free movement of the Kosovan authorities, despite US and EU calls for the illegal road blocks to be dismantled.

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Positive signals from Iran over nuclear deal put west in a tricky position

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Revival of pact could mean lifting sanctions on a country that is viciously suppressing protests and arming Russia

Wary western powers face an unlikely potential dilemma after a sudden push by Tehran to suggest that progress is being made to remove the last outstanding obstacles to a revived agreement to oversee Iran’s nuclear programme.

The unlikely prospect of Joe Biden reviving the dormant 2015 nuclear deal, potentially lifting sanctions and opening the way for Iran to make billions of dollars in oil exports, would be seen as a gross betrayal by supporters of three-month-long street protests, as well as a controversial signal to send to Ukraine about Washington’s priorities.

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Gunman in Toronto slayings claimed condo building was making him sick

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Francesco Velli, 73, had history of harassing neighbours before killing three members of the condo board and two others

The man who shot and killed five people at a suburban Toronto condominium on Sunday evening had spent years harassing his neighbours and threatening the building’s condo board over a belief that the building’s electrical room was making him sick.

At a news conference on Monday, York region police chief James MacSween identified the gunman in Sunday night’s attack in the city of Vaughn as Francesco Velli.

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