Putin says Kherson region’s residents must be ‘evacuated’ as round-the-clock curfew imposed on its capital; Letterman travels to Kyiv to interview Zelenskiy
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Amazon tourists and Peruvians held on boat released by Indigenous protesters
Group of more than 100 including British and American travellers were detained in protest over government response to oil spill
Indigenous protesters have released more than 100 tourists and local people who were held on a boat for more than a day in an attempt to force the Peruvian government to act over oil spills in the Amazon region where they live.
The Indigenous Kukama had held a boatload of Peruvians and foreign tourists – including US and European citizens and at least three British nationals – since Thursday in Peru’s largest Amazon region, Loreto.
Continue reading...Driver ‘seriously injured’ after being run over three times by own car
Swiss woman, 45, was run over three times after she got out of her car and left the engine running
A woman in Switzerland was seriously injured after she got out of her car with the engine still on only for it to run her over three times, police said on Friday.
The 45-year-old had stepped out of her car in a residential area in St Gallen in northeastern Switzerland, probably in order to get something out of the boot, regional police said, according to the Swiss news agency ATS.
Continue reading...US accuses Russia and China of protecting North Korea from UN
China and Russia, meanwhile, accuse US of inflaming tensions with large-scale joint military exercises with South Korea
The United States has accused Russia and China of providing “blanket protection” to North Korea from further UN Security Council action and said the pair had “bent over backwards” to justify Pyongyang’s ballistic missile launches.
The US, Britain, France, Albania, Ireland and Norway requested that the Security Council meet on Friday after North Korea, formally known as the DPRK, fired multiple missiles, including a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile.
Continue reading...Russia’s Wagner Group opens defence tech centre in St Petersburg
Opening is latest step by private militia’s owner Yevgeny Prigozhin in taking a more public role in shaping Russia’s defence policy
Russia’s Wagner Group – the once-secretive private militia controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin – has opened a military technology centre in St Petersburg, in the latest move by the Putin ally who has criticised the Kremlin’s defence top brass over the Ukraine conflict.
The opening of the “Wagner Centre” on Friday is seen as another step by Prigozhin to publicise his military credentials and take a more public role in shaping Russia’s defence policy.
Continue reading...Netanyahu begins coalition talks to form Israeli government
Veteran leader and his far-right allies win decisive 64 seats in 120-seat Knesset
The former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun coalition negotiations on forming a government, after winning a decisive majority in Israel’s fifth election in four years with the help of ultra-Orthodox parties and a new alliance with the far right.
After a year in opposition, and years of political chaos triggered by his ongoing corruption trial, the veteran politician engineered a comeback in Tuesday’s vote. His majority means that the period of electoral deadlock is in all probability over for now, and Netanyahu – already the country’s longest serving prime minister – is set to stay in the job for at least the next four years. Back in office, the 73-year-old’s first priority will be seeking to get his trial dropped. He denies all charges.
Continue reading...Imran Khan supporters take to streets as shooting fuels Pakistan tensions
Stakes raised on Friday as clashes erupt between police and protesters in cities across Pakistan
Hundreds of police officers equipped with teargas hurriedly took positions near a junction connecting Islamabad with its twin city of Rawalpindi as a group of protesters burned wood and chanted slogans on Friday.
The two groups edged towards each other, and then the protesters hurled stones at the police, who responded with teargas rounds. Not long afterwards, the protesters dispersed, and police reopened the junction to traffic.
Continue reading...Infosys still operating from Russia eight months after saying it was pulling out
Exclusive: Indian firm from which Rishi Sunak’s wife collects £11.5m in annual dividends retains staffed Moscow office
The Indian IT services company Infosys from which the prime minister’s wife collects £11.5m in annual dividends is still operating from Moscow eight months after the company said it was pulling out.
The company retains a staffed office and is paying subcontractors in the Russian capital to carry out IT services for a global client although a spokesperson said they were looking to end that arrangement.
Continue reading...Dozens arrested as Iranian security forces attack university campuses
Detained students could face death penalty, human rights groups report, with at least 277 people killed as protests enter eighth week
Iran’s security forces have launched a series of attacks on university students at campuses across the country with dozens of students being arrested, according to the Students’ Union of Iran.
According to student organisations and human rights groups, the attacks on universities intensified this week as young people gathered to mark 40 days since Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran’s morality police in September. The death of the 22-year-old woman sparked eight weeks of nationwide protests against the regime. The highly symbolic 40th day traditionally marks the end of mourning.
Continue reading...Over 55,000 Ontario education workers strike in defiance of ‘draconian’ law
Move comes after Canada’s most populous province fast-tracked bill that fines striking workers C$4,000 a day
More than 55,000 education workers in Ontario have walked off the job, pledging to strike for “as long as it takes” in defiance a “draconian” new law amid a bitter fight with the provincial government over pay.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents custodial staff, early childhood education and education support workers, launched the strike on Friday, despite legislation fast-tracked by the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, that bars it from striking and unilaterally imposes a contract on employees.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war: 24-hour curfew imposed in Kherson as Putin calls for people to leave city – as it happened
This live blog has now closed, you can find more of our Ukraine coverage here
Nine Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones were shot down last night, according to the Ukrainian military.
“Our air defence forces shot down 3 ‘Shahed-136’ UAVs,” the latest report from Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces reads.
We have invited the IAEA to check, we have given them full freedom of action at the relevant facilities, and we have clear and irrefutable evidence that no one in Ukraine has created or is creating any dirty bombs,” he said.
The only thing that is dirty in our region now is the heads of those in Moscow who, unfortunately, seized control of the Russian state and are terrorising Ukraine and the whole world.”
Rumours of zero-Covid easing spread in China amid anger at restrictions
Despite relatively low case numbers, there are reportedly about 200 lockdowns across the country
Waves of outrage and frustration over China’s lockdown measures this week have demonstrated widening cracks in the general compliance with the government’s zero-Covid policy.
Rising anger has been driven by the tragic death of a toddler, and highly public problematic lockdowns in the Henan capital, Zhengzhou. Officials were left scrambling to control the narrative, amid swirling rumours of imminent policy shifts and a former government health expert saying on Friday that “substantive changes will happen soon”.
Continue reading...Spanish airspace partially closed as Chinese rocket debris falls to Earth
Huge chunk of Long March 5B rocket launched four days previously re-enters atmosphere
A hefty chunk of the massive rocket used to deliver the third module of China’s Tiangong space station has fallen back to Earth uncontrolled, triggering the closure of some of Spain’s airspace and leading to hundreds of flight delays.
Four days after blasting off from southern China, a large part of the Long March 5B (CZ-5B) rocket broke up as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the south-central Pacific ocean at 10.01 UTC, according to European and US space authorities.
Continue reading...Cop27 host accuses countries of making empty public pledges
Egypt has expressed frustration at leaders making positive statements that are abandoned in negotiations
Governments meeting for vital climate talks have been accused of making positive commitments in public but denying them later in the privacy of the negotiating rooms by the Egyptian hosts of the summit.
Wael Aboulmagd, the Egyptian diplomat in charge of running the negotiations at the Cop27 UN climate summit, said: “Political statements and pledges are made in front of the cameras, but in the negotiating rooms it’s back to the adversarial approach. These [publicly positive positions] will not be of value until translated into the negotiating rooms, and that has not been the case so far.”
Continue reading...Indigenous people in Peruvian Amazon detain tourists in oil spill protest
About 70 people seized in protest at environmental damage from crude oil spillage into Cuninico River
Indigenous people in the Amazon in Peru have detained a group of Peruvian and foreign tourists, including UK and US citizens, in protest at a lack of government aid following an oil spill in the area.
“[We want] to call the government’s attention with this action, There are foreigners and Peruvians, there are about 70 people,” Watson Trujillo, the leader of the Cuninico community, told RPP radio.
Continue reading...Finnish PM Sanna Marin cleared of misconduct over partying footage
Official inquiry finds 'no reason to suspect PM of unlawful conduct or of neglect of her official duties’
An official inquiry has cleared Sanna Marin of misconduct after a leaked video showing the 36-year-old Finnish prime minister dancing exuberantly and drinking with friends and celebrities made headlines around the world.
Multiple complaints to the parliamentary ombudsman alleged that excessive alcohol consumption at the party in August would have made Marin, the world’s youngest head of government when she was elected in 2019, unable to carry out her official duties.
Continue reading...US adds 261,000 jobs in October as unemployment rate rises slightly
Final jobs report before midterms shows unemployment rate at 3.7%, a day after Federal Reserve announced further raise hike
The US economy added 261,000 jobs in October, the labor department announced on Friday in its last snapshot of the health of the employment market before next week’s midterm elections.
The latest report confirmed the remarkable strength of the US jobs market. The unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, still close to a 50-year low. The news comes after the Federal Reserve once again raised interest rates in a bid to slow investment and bring down inflation, a move that economists and the Fed predict will eventually cost jobs.
Continue reading...Ukraine issues Crimean Bridge strike stamp on Russia’s Unity Day
Postal service follows up April’s limited edition stamp celebrating attack on Russian flagship Moskva
Ukraine’s state postal service has issued a commemorative wartime stamp dedicated to the strike on the Crimean Bridge last month, which sparked celebrations across the country.
Its release has been timed to coincide with Russia’s Unity Day on 4 November.
Continue reading...Stop Eritrea’s ‘war-funding diaspora tax’, say MPs and lords
UK parliamentarians call for inquiry into 2% levy on Eritreans abroad, amid fears that it fuels Tigray war
A group of UK parliamentarians is calling for an urgent investigation into the collection of a “diaspora tax” by the Eritrean authorities, which they say could have helped fund war in neighbouring Ethiopia.
MPs and members of the House of Lords want the government to launch a “full, formal, and fully funded” public inquiry into the collection of the 2% tax in the UK, and take “robust action to stop the practice”.
Continue reading...Japan makes squid farming breakthrough as wild catches plummet
Scientists have long sought to farm the scarce seafood staple, but critics say animals are not suited to intensive methods
Scientists in Japan say they have developed a groundbreaking method of farming squid that could solve shortages of the seafood staple, amid warnings from environmental groups that aquaculture is incompatible with the animal’s welfare.
Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) say their system produced a reliable supply of squid and has the potential to be commercialised.
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