Category Archives: World News

Migos’s record label rails at ‘senseless violence’ that killed rapper Takeoff

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Atlanta-based Quality Control issues statement speaking of ‘monumental loss’, as Houston police appeal for any of 40 people at scene to come forward

Migos’s Atlanta-based record label Quality Control has shared a statement on the fatal shooting of their rapper Takeoff. “It is with broken hearts and deep sadness that we mourn the loss of our beloved brother Kirshnik Khari Ball, known to the world as Takeoff,” the label wrote on Instagram. “Senseless violence and a stray bullet has taken another life from this world and we are devastated. Please respect his family and friends as we all continue to process this monumental loss.”

At a press conference, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner and police chief Troy Finner responded to the shooting, asking any of the supposedly 40 people who were present on the scene to come forward with details.

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Headless bodies and deadly bombs: cartel violence escalates in Ecuador

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On Tuesday, President Guillermo Lasso announced a curfew under a new state of emergency in Guayas and Esmeraldas regions

The week began with the discovery of two headless bodies, left dangling from a pedestrian bridge. Then prison guards were taken hostage by inmates, nine car bombs detonated in two coastal cities and five police officers were shot dead.

The string of horrifying attacks across Ecuador this week would once have been unthinkable, but this kind of bloodletting is now becoming almost routine in the Andean country, as gang violence escalates to levels never seen before.

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Denmark election result keeps Social Democrats at the helm

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Mette Frederiksen, the incumbent PM, can form government though may face dilemma over picking leftwingers or moderates as partners

Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has won a nail-biting election that gave her left-leaning bloc a one-seat majority in parliament – but her pledge to build a broad left-right coalition may mean she struggles to form a stable government.

Exit polls on Tuesday night had suggested Frederiksen’s five-party “red” bloc would lose its majority in the 179-seat parliament, but as the last votes were counted early on Wednesday it became clear that it had secured 87 seats in mainland Denmark.

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British-Egyptian hunger striker may die in prison, Nobel laureates warn world leaders attending Cop27

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Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been on hunger strike for six months and will refuse water from 6 November, the first day of the climate summit

The majority of living Nobel prize for literature laureates have called on world leaders attending the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt this week to help free thousands of political prisoners in the country, including the writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah who is six months into a hunger strike and “at risk of death”.

The letter, organised by Abd El-Fattah’s UK publishers Fitzcarraldo Editions and Seven Stories Press, has been signed by 13 Nobel prize for literature winners: Svetlana Alexievich, JM Coetzee, Annie Ernaux, Louise Glück, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Kazuo Ishiguro, Elfriede Jelinek, Mario Vargas Llosa, Patrick Modiano, Herta Müller, Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka and Olga Tokarczuk.

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Australia delivers police vehicles and rifles to Solomon Islands in ‘game-changer’ donation

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Handover ceremony comes after turbulent year when Pacific country signed controversial security agreement with China

Australia has announced the donation of police vehicles and 60 MK18 rifles to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) in a move described as a “game changer” for Australia’s relationship with Solomon Islands police.

The announcement comes after a turbulent year in the relationship between Australia and Solomon Islands, particularly on the question of security, after the Pacific country signed a controversial and secretive security agreement with China.

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Netanyahu thanks voters as rightwing bloc extends Israeli election lead

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Prime minister Yair Lapid says nothing final until ‘last envelope is counted’ as Likud’s rightwing coalition partners see support surge

Benjamin Netanyahu has thanked voters for a “huge vote of confidence” as his rightwing religious bloc extended its lead with about 87% of all votes counted in the country’s fifth election in four years.

The former prime minister’s Likud party appears to have added one seat to the 30 it held in the last Knesset. But a surge in support for his new far-right allies, the Religious Zionists, and what appears to be a poor showing for two pro-Arab rights parties and the leftwing Meretz party, means the scandal-plagued former leader is at present the most likely candidate to be able to form a coalition government in the aftermath of Tuesday’s election.

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Germany calls for ‘precautionary pause’ before deep-sea mining industry starts

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Berlin urges International Seabed Authority to prioritise nature as it debates rules and warns seabed mining may ‘destroy ecosystems’

Germany has called for a pause in the controversial deep-sea mining industry, saying not enough is known about the likely impacts of digging up the ocean floor for metals.

While other nations, including Spain and New Zealand, have previously called for a temporary halt to any exploitation of deep-sea metals, Germany, the world’s fourth biggest economy, is the most significant nation to voice its opposition to date. The country holds two of the 22 licences for exploration of the seabed.

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Filep Karma: West Papuan independence campaigner found dead on beach

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Friends of twice jailed human rights activist call for independent inquiry after body found in damaged wetsuit at Base G beach, Jayapura

The human rights campaigner Filep Karma – one of West Papua’s most famous former political prisoners – has been found dead on a beach in Jayapura, sparking calls for a full and independent inquiry into his death.

Twice jailed for raising the West Papuan Morning Star flag banned by Indonesia, 63-year-old Karma was one of the most prominent and influential campaigners for West Papuan independence.

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Girl, 4, forced to sail from Tunisia to Sicily on migrant boat without parents

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Girl became separated from parents and disembarked on island of Lampedusa after 26 hours at sea

A four-year-old girl who was separated from her parents as they tried to board a migrant boat from Tunisia to Italy was forced to make the journey across the Mediterranean without them.

The girl, referred to as Linda by Italian authorities, disembarked on the island of Lampedusa on 17 October after 26 hours at sea on a crowded wooden boat carrying a further 70 asylum seekers from Tunisia.

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Egyptian regime criticized as climate activist arrested in run-up to Cop27

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Concern over country’s human rights record after Indian Ajit Rajagopal arrested on walk to raise awareness about climate crisis

The arrest of an Indian climate activist by Egyptian security forces has renewed alarm about the regime’s dire human rights record as it prepares to host the Cop27 UN climate summit.

Ajit Rajagopal, an architect and activist from Kerala in south India, was arrested on Sunday afternoon shortly after setting off on an eight-day walk from Cairo to Sharm el-Sheikh as part of a global campaign to raise awareness about the climate crisis.

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North Korea missile crosses maritime border with South for first time

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One missile landed close to South Korean territorial waters, south of the Northern Limit Line, military chiefs in Seoul say

North Korea fired at least 10 missiles off its eastern and western coasts on Wednesday morning, with one landing in waters further south than ever before, according to the South Korean military, which shortly after responded by firing missiles over a maritime border.

The unprecedented number of launches was confirmed after earlier reports of three short-range ballistic missiles fired off North Korea’s eastern coast, leading to a rare air raid warning being issued on a remote South Korean island.

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Bolsonaro breaks election silence but refuses to recognise Lula’s victory

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Former president’s chief of staff indicates his administration is ready to begin transition process

Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has broken his almost two-day silence over his defeat in Sunday’s presidential election – but refused to congratulate or recognize the victory of his rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

After Bolsonaro had delivered his message, however, his chief of staff indicated that his administration would not contest the election result.

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American woman who led Islamic State battalion in Syria sentenced to 20 years

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Allison Fluke-Ekren’s children told the court that their mother had a ‘lust for control and power’ and deserved the maximum sentence

A Kansas woman who led an all-female Islamic State battalion when she lived in Syria has been sentenced to 20 years in prison – the maximum possible sentence – after her own children denounced her in court and detailed the horrific circumstances and abuse she heaped on them.

Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, admitted that she led the Khatiba Nusaybah, a battalion in which roughly 100 women and girls – some as young as 10 years old – learned how to use automatic weapons and detonate grenades and suicide belts.

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Denmark election: Social Democrats lead but no majority, exit poll suggests

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Mette Frederiksen’s party predicted to have about 23% of vote, which could make former PM Løkke Rasmussen kingmaker

Prime minister Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats have finished first in Denmark’s election, exit polls have suggested, but neither the ruling left or rival right bloc are heading for a majority, setting up her predecessor and his new centrist party as kingmakers.

An exit poll by public broadcaster DR on Tuesday predicted that Frederiksen, who was forced to call the vote when an allied party withdrew support, had led the Social Democrats to a score of about 23%, nearly twice that of the second-placed Liberals.

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Russian mercenaries accused of civilian massacre in Mali

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Wagner Group fighters linked to attack that killed at least 13 following major military operation

Russian mercenaries in Mali have been accused of a new massacre of civilians following a major military operation in the centre of the unstable country.

At least 13 civilians were killed on Sunday in the region of Mopti by Malian troops supported by “white soldiers”, local elected officials and an official of a community association told the Agence France-Presse.

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Gujarat bridge collapse: anger grows in India over cover-up claims

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Questions asked after 135 people killed as to why repair contract was given to local firm better know for making clocks

Anger is growing in India over allegations that corruption was responsible for the collapse of a bridge in Morbi in Gujarat leaving 135 people dead, amid claims that a cover-up is under way to shield those responsible.

The bridge snapped in two on Sunday evening when families were out enjoying the evening air over the river. Many of those standing in the middle of the bridge when it collapsed plunged into the river and drowned, while others at both ends of the bridge, closer to the banks, died from the impact of falling on to the stones and boulders below.

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Iran plans to send more combat drones to Russian troops, says Ukraine – as it happened

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Discovery of Iranian kamikaze drones last month stirred huge outcry over Iran’s involvement in the conflict

Every day, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) issues an operational briefing. Today, it claims that one person was killed and six people were injured on the Ukrainian territory that it occupies. It also claims that “three civilian infrastructure facilities” were damaged in shelling that affected eight areas it occupies. The claims have not been independently verified. The so-called DPR is one of the areas that the Russian Federation claims to have annexed. Russia, Syria and North Korea were the only UN member states to recognise the DPR as any sort of legitimate authority.

This is Martin Belam taking over the blog in London. I will be with you for the next few hours.

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Brazil judge orders police to clear roadblocks by pro-Bolsonaro truckers

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Far-right president remains silent as supporters protest against his election defeat by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Brazilian police have begun breaking up hundreds of demonstrations by far-right supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, freeing up highways and roads that were blocked across the country in protest at the president’s defeat in a landmark general election.

Bolsonaro lost a tightly fought ballot to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva but has yet to concede defeat or make any statements about the loss or transition.

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Finland and Sweden call on Hungary and Turkey to ratify Nato applications

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Erdoğan demands action against ‘terrorist’ Kurdish militants as Nordic pair maintain united front

The prime ministers of Finland and Sweden have urged Hungary and Turkey to approve their countries’ applications to join Nato, but Ankara insisted it would not lift its objections without further extraditions of suspects it considers terrorists.

The two Nordic nations applied to join the US-led defence alliance in May, jettisoning decades of military non-alignment in a historic policy shift triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Chinese city accused of ‘performative lockdown lifting’

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Residents claim Zhengzhou authorities are trying to avoid scrutiny of Covid lockdown’s severity

Authorities in Zhengzhou have been accused of “performative lockdown lifting” after they partially lifted restrictions amid growing pressure from residents and the reported arrival of state media.

An almost month-long lockdown in the Chinese city of about 12 million people had prompted complaints of arduous conditions, sometimes violent enforcement, inadequate medical care, and worsening mental health. But a sudden decision to ease restrictions on Tuesday was greeted by some residents with scepticism and anger.

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