Category Archives: World News

Netanyahu told by Israel’s supreme court he must fire key ally from cabinet

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Prime minister’s coalition in jeopardy after Aryeh Deri ruled ineligible for government due to tax offences

Israel’s supreme court has ruled that the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must fire a key ally from the country’s new cabinet, presenting the Israeli leader with a potential coalition crisis and deepening a rift over the power of the courts.

Ten of 11 judges on the high court found that Aryeh Deri, the influential head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party who has served repeatedly in Netanyahu’s previous governments, is disqualified from serving as a minister after he was convicted last year for tax offences and placed on probation as part of a plea deal. Deri has pledged not to quit and met Netanyahu after the ruling.

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White House condemns appointments of far-right Republicans to House oversight panel – as it happened

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Donald Trump remains the most popular man in the GOP, or at least among those running for president, pollster Morning Consult finds in a survey released today:

Deeper in the survey, you’ll find Florida governor Ron DeSantis the leader among second choices for the nominations, distantly followed by former vice-president Mike Pence.

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Usain Bolt lawyers say $12.7m is missing from Olympic champion’s account

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  • Jamaican authorities investigating after alarm is raised
  • Firm says several clients may be missing large sums

A lawyer for Usain Bolt said on Wednesday that more than $12.7m is missing from his account with a private investment firm in Jamaica.

Linton P Gordon, a lawyer for Bolt, provided the Associated Press with a copy of a letter sent to Stocks & Securities Limited demanding that the money be returned. Gordon said the Olympic champion’s account once had $12.8m but now reflects a balance of only $12,000.

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Health Canada recommends limiting alcohol to just 2 drinks per week

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The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) identifies cancer, heart disease and stroke as health risks of drinking alcohol

New alcohol guidelines recommending that Canadians limit themselves to just two drinks a week – and ideally cut alcohol altogether – have prompted intense debate over risk versus enjoyment in a country where the vast majority of adults regularly consume alcohol.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) this week called for a substantial reduction in consumption, warning that seemingly moderate drinking poses a number of serious health risks, including cancer, heart disease and stroke.

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Indian diamond heiress gives up fortune to become child nun

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Eight-year-old daughter of wealthy gem dealer follows family’s Jain faith to enter strict religious order

An eight-year-old girl in India who was due to inherit a multimillion-dollar diamond fortune has instead been admitted as a nun to a strict religious order after renouncing worldly pleasures.

Devanshi Sanghvi was, until this week, an heiress to the Sanghvi and Sons jewellery business in the western city of Surat, known locally as Diamond City for its prominence in the global gem trade.

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Olaf Scholz steers clear of commitment to supply of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine

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Zelenskiy warns against delaying military support after German chancellor’s reticence at Davos summit

Germany’s chancellor avoided committing to the supply of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine at the Davos summit on Wednesday, although he held the door open to a positive decision at a special summit of western defence ministers on Friday.

Olaf Scholz did not mention the Leopard tanks at all when a Ukrainian delegate asked him “why the hesitancy” in signing off their re-export – prompting an apparently frustrated Ukrainian president to warn the same forum against delay.

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Chile rejects $2.5bn iron and copper mine planned near penguin reserve

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Dominga project included insufficient efforts to mitigate impact on reserves for dolphins, whales and penguins, committee says

Chile’s government has rejected a controversial $2.5bn iron and copper mining project proposed in an important area for biodiversity and marine life.

The Dominga project, 70km north of the city of La Serena, would have seen an open-pit mine, processing and desalination plants, as well as a large port, installed just 30km from a famed Humboldt penguin reserve.

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Colombia defends minister who led Guatemala corruption inquiry as row deepens

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Country says accusations against Iván Velásquez attempt by Guatemala to ‘persecute’ those investigating high-level corruption

A growing diplomatic row has broken out after Guatemala’s government accused Colombia’s defence minister of breaking the law during his time as the head of a UN-backed anti-corruption mission in Guatemala.

This week, Guatemala announced that Iván Velásquez was being investigated for “illegal, arbitrary and abusive acts” stemming from his inquiry into corruption allegations involving the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht.

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Hong Kong police arrest six for selling ‘seditious’ book at lunar new year fair

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Six people accused of publishing book relating to 2019 protests in move critics say has spread terror

Police in Hong Kong have raided a lunar new year shopping fair and arrested six people for selling a “seditious” book related to the 2019 anti-government protests in a move critics say has spread “terror” just days before the celebrations.

National security officers accused three men and three women, aged between 18 and 62, of producing and publishing “a seditious book about a series of riots that occurred in Hong Kong from June 2019 to February 2020”, and selling it in a lunar new year stall in a shopping centre in Mong Kok, a bustling shopping district.

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Sea ‘a graveyard’ as number of Rohingya fleeing Bangladesh by boat soars

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UN figures show number of those attempting to escape horrendous conditions in refugee camps increased from 700 in 2021 to over 3,500 in 2022

The number of Rohingya refugees taking dangerous sea journeys in the hope of reaching Malaysia or Indonesia has surged by 360%, the UN has announced after hundreds of refugees were left stranded at the end of last year.

Rohingya in Bangladesh refugee camps have warned that human smugglers have ramped up operations and are constantly searching for people to fill boats from Myanmar and Bangladesh headed for Malaysia, where people believe they can live more freely.

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Italian police find suspected ‘secret bunker’ of captured mafia boss

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‘Last godfather’ of Sicilian mafia Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested after 30 years on run

Italian military police have found a possible secret bunker suspected of being used by Matteo Messina Denaro, the “last godfather” of the Sicilian mafia who was arrested on Monday after 30 years on the run.

The entrance to the bunker was concealed in a closet full of clothes in a house in Campobello di Mazara, a small town in Sicily where the apartment Denaro, 60, had been living in was discovered on Tuesday.

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Cash for influence inquiry homes in on Brussels meeting days before World Cup

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Ex-MEP allegedly called on friends to ask questions at meeting to lead Qatari minister ‘on a known path’

Belgian police seized nearly €1.5m in cash from homes and hotels in Brussels last month, allegedly paid by Qatar to sway decisions in the European parliament. Now a series of reports have suggested what that money may have been attempting to buy.

Investigators have homed in on a meeting of the European parliament’s subcommittee on human rights on 14 November 2022, where Qatar’s minister for labour, Ali bin Samikh al-Marri, defended his country’s record on workers’ rights.

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TonyBet fined for asking winners for ID leaving other gamblers unchecked

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Regulator fines online betting firm £442,750 for imposing unfair terms and failures in anti-money laundering measures

An online betting firm has been fined £442,750 for demanding ID from winning punters before it would give them the cash, while failing to carry out similar checks on potentially vulnerable people depositing money.

The Gambling Commission punished TonyBet, which is based in Estonia but has a licence to operate in Great Britain, for imposing unfair terms and failures in anti-money laundering and social responsibility measures.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Polish president ‘afraid Moscow is preparing new offensive’ – as it happened

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This live blog has now closed, you can read more of our Russia-Ukraine war coverage here

Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, governor of Sumy region, and Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv region, have both posted their regular morning status updates on Telegram, and both say that their regions passed the night without any shelling or air raid warnings taking effect.

Politico’s chief Brussels correspondent Suzanne Lynch reports from Brussels that the Lithuanian foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, has said he expects Germany will sign off on sending tanks to Ukraine at a key meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group at the Ramstein airbase in Germany on Friday.

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Ukraine’s interior minister killed in helicopter crash

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Denys Monastyrskiy and other key officials among dead after crash near kindergarten in Kyiv suburb

At least 14 people including Ukraine’s interior minister, Denys Monastyrsky, and other senior officials have been killed after a helicopter crashed by a kindergarten in a suburb of Kyiv.

A number of children at the school in Brovary were among the casualties after debris hit the building. The most recent update, on Wednesday afternoon, suggested one child had been killed, after previous reports that the number was at least three.

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UN agency and US labour secretary deny backing UK anti-strike bill

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Remarks at odds with government claims that new minimum service law has ‘international seal of approval’

The UN agency for workers’ rights and the US labour secretary have distanced themselves from the UK government’s claims that its strikes bill has the “international seal of approval”.

The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the business secretary, Grant Shapps, have repeatedly justified rolling out the anti-strike legislation claiming the International Labour Organization (ILO) backs minimum service levels being provided during stoppages by workers, a key plank of the proposed new measures.

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Sint Maarten approves plan to cull entire population of vervet monkeys

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The Caribbean territory plans to exterminate at least 450 of the invasive primates – but critics disagree with the proposal

The government of Sint Maarten in the eastern Caribbean has approved a controversial plan to cull its entire population of vervet monkeys, as the proliferation of the invasive species becomes an increasing nuisance on the Dutch island territory.

Authorities will fund the Nature Foundation St Maarten NGO to capture and euthanise at least 450 monkeys over the next three years in the territory which borders French St Martin.

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Underwater bike garage solves Amsterdam station’s storage headache

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Central station is replacing its messy, overflowing cycle parking facilities with a low-cost area that’s tucked away out of sight

Beneath the clear waters and pleasure boats by Amsterdam central station is a remarkable feat of engineering: an underwater garage for 7,000 bicycles.

The garage, which opens on 26 January, is the result of a four-year, €60m (£53m) project to clear heaps of rusty bikes left by hasty commuters and install rows of clean, safe parking spaces underground, where bikes can be left free for 24 hours and then at a cost of €1.35 per 24 hours.

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Fears mount over safety of two missing Mexican environmental activists

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Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca and Antonio Díaz Valencia’s bullet hole-riddled vehicle was found after an anti-mining meeting

Fears are mounting for the safety of two missing Mexican land rights activists after their vehicle was found ridden with bullet holes.

Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca, a human rights lawyer and environmentalist and Antonio Díaz Valencia, leader of the Aquila Indigenous community in Michoacán, were last seen on Sunday evening travelling toward the neighbouring state of Colima after attending an anti-mining community meeting.

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