Germany’s Baerbock Offers Ukraine No Guarantees as Kyiv Sounds Alarm – Kyiv Post

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  1. Germany's Baerbock Offers Ukraine No Guarantees as Kyiv Sounds Alarm  Kyiv Post
  2. German foreign minister assures Kyiv of support on visit ahead of U.S. vote  Reuters
  3. Ukraine updates: Germany's Baerbock pledges more aid in Kyiv  DW (English)
  4. Germany to provide $217 million in humanitarian winter aid for Ukraine.  Kyiv Independent
  5. Bundeswehr maintains constant contact with AFU via ‘Ukraine’ hub to optimize aid  Ukrinform
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‘It was carnage’: students describe suspected mass food poisoning at New Zealand university

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Reports of vomit streaming down windows as more than 100 University of Canterbury students fall ill, with cause of stomach bug being investigated

A mass outbreak of suspected food poisoning has caused “carnage” across two university halls in New Zealand, with reports of early morning queues for toilets, vomit dripping down building windows and students abandoning exams to dash to the loo.

More than 100 students reported being struck down with vomiting and diarrhoea at two University of Canterbury student residences on Sunday night, the university confirmed on Tuesday.

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Modi’s Top Aide in Spotlight as India-Canada Feud Worsens – Bloomberg

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  1. Modi’s Top Aide in Spotlight as India-Canada Feud Worsens  Bloomberg
  2. Australian foreign minister raises allegations with Indian counterpart of targeting Sikhs in Canada  The Associated Press
  3. India A "Cyber Adversary", Says Trudeau Government, New Delhi Shreds Claim  NDTV
  4. India criticises Canada for linking minister to Sikh plots  Reuters India
  5. India’s Canada Policy Is a Strategic Mistake  The Diplomat
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Full-scale war in Middle East involving Israel and Iran likely, say most Europeans in poll

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Large majorities in seven countries condemn 7 October attacks – but most common view is Israel’s response in Gaza is also unjustified

Full-scale war in the Middle East involving Israel and Iran is now likely, most western Europeans responding in a poll believe, with many criticising Israel’s conduct thus far and saying that if such a war did occur, the US and Europe should not provide it with military aid.

A YouGov Eurotrack survey in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and the UK found that strong majorities in all seven countries, ranging from 65% in France to 82% in Spain, felt the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 were not justified.

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Reformist clerics imply Iran should back two-state solution for Israel and Palestine

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In shift that would mean recognising existence of Israel, assembly calls for ‘formation of an independent Palestinian state’

Reformists in Iran have ignited a debate about whether Tehran should be willing to shift from its deeply held opposition to a two-state solution in the Palestinian territories, which would require it to recognise the existence of an Israeli state.

“Death to Zionism” has been a staple of Iranian revolutionary thinking since 1979, and was the position effectively of the Palestine Liberation Organisation until the Oslo accords in the 1990s.

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North Korea told the UN point-blank that it’s speeding up nuclear weapons development – Business Insider

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  1. North Korea told the UN point-blank that it's speeding up nuclear weapons development  Business Insider
  2. North Korea tells UN it is speeding up nuclear weapons programme  The Guardian
  3. US accuses Russia and China of ‘shamelessly’ shielding North Korea  South China Morning Post
  4. Non-proliferation/Democratic People's Republic of Korea - Security Council, 9775th meeting  Welcome to the United Nations
  5. Additional Remarks at a UN Security Council Briefing on Nonproliferation and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea  United States Mission to the United Nations
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Kiss chaste: number of high school boys in Japan who have had first kiss falls to record lows

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Polls showing downward trend in kissing indicates a move away from ‘real physical sexual activity’ that could affect country’s birthrate, experts say

Just one in five of boys at senior high school in Japan have had their first kiss, according to the Japanese Association for Sex Education – the lowest figure since the organisation conducted its first survey of sexual behaviour among young people in 1974.

In its latest poll, which covers the 2023 academic year, the association found that girls in the same age group were similarly cautious, with 27.5% saying they had experienced their first kiss, compared with 22.8% among boys – down 13.6 percentage points and 11.1 points since 2017.

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‘The momentum is on her side’: Psaki & experts on closing polling for Harris – MSNBC

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  1. ‘The momentum is on her side’: Psaki & experts on closing polling for Harris  MSNBC
  2. The Recap: Trump's running out of steam, while Harris is full speed ahead with hope  Daily Kos
  3. Psaki: ‘Power of women’ in politics is the biggest hope out of the election  MSNBC
  4. The Recap: Harris closes, Trump lies about rally, and Republicans clutch their pearls  Daily Kos
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Russian rocket takes Iranian satellites into orbit as ties grow closer – Al Jazeera English

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  1. Russian rocket takes Iranian satellites into orbit as ties grow closer  Al Jazeera English
  2. Russia launches Soyuz rocket with dozens of satellites, including two from Iran  Reuters
  3. Russian rocket launches Iranian satellites into orbit as Moscow and Tehran expand ties  The Associated Press
  4. Soyuz launches first Ionosfera mission  RussianSpaceWeb.com
  5. Russia to launch 2 Iranian satellites on Nov. 5, Iran's ambassador says  Kyiv Independent
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Australia politics live: Albanese tells caucus Labor will campaign on ‘risk’ of Dutton; Miles returns as Queensland Labor leader

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Follow today’s news headlines live

‘We need to extend the average time people stay in our defence force,’ says Matt Keough

The defence personnel minister, Matt Keough, has also been talking about that retention and renumeration package for defence.

We need to extend the average time people stay in our defence force.

That does mean it had a vulnerability. We’re looking at moving to more of a mesh-type arrangement of satellites, which provides greater resilience, with a more up-to-date technology, and we’ll be able to deliver the technology faster as well.

We are very much confident that we can meet these targets and that’s because we have properly funded them and we have a plan to get there, which is about really improving the terms of service for those who work in our defence forces.

We’re increasing and expanding the bonuses for continuing on in the defence force. We’re continuing the original retention bonus after your initial service obligation for three years and beyond that. There will be another bonus for people who stay in the defence force after that. And that’s really targeting those who are in their seventh, eighth, ninth years of service, which gets to the middle ranks where we’ve got an issue. And we’re also going to grow the active reserves so there are more opportunities for people in the reserve to do full-time or part-time work in the defence force.

This original plan goes back seven or eight years and it was about having two or three satellites above Australia to deliver that capability. Since then, we have seen technologies develop which can shoot satellites out of the sky but we have also seen technologies develop where you have thousands of micro satellites in a more distributed way providing the same effect and we are seeing that with Starlink above Ukraine.

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