Category: Trending

U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, owner of social media platform X, has criticised Australia’s proposed law to ban social media for children under 16 and fine social media platforms of up to A$49.5 million ($32 million) for companies for systemic breaches.
Australia’s centre-left government on Thursday introduced the bill in parliament. It plans to try an age-verification system to enforce a social media age cut-off, some of the toughest controls imposed by any country to date.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius believes Russia poses not just a military but also a hybrid threat, wit the damage to the two cables “a very clear sign that something is afoot”.

The Danish navy is keeping tabs on a Chinese ship in the Strait of Kattegat days after the severing of telecommunications cables running from Finland to Germany – with one analyst claiming it may even have been boarded.

Speaking on Tuesday, Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defence minister said officials were working on the assumption that damage to two data cables under the Baltic Sea, one of which ends in Germany, was caused by sabotage – though he said they have no proof at present.

And just before 1pm, the Marine Traffic website showed the ship, Yi Peng 3, in close proximity to a DNK Naval Patrol 525 in the Strait.

Posting on X, one poster billing themselves as the “Chief Commander” of the North Atlantic Fella Movement (NAFO), a social media collective dedicated to countering Russian propaganda, posted: “The Chinese-flagged ship Yi Peng 3 whose captain is Russian has just been intercepted and boarded by the Danish ship Y311 Soloven.

“This Chinese ship is strongly suspected of being the cause of the rupture of submarine cables in the Baltic Sea.

A post on X by the Danish Armed Forces, said: “Regarding the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3:

“The Danish Defence can confirm that we are present in the area near the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3.

“The Danish Defence currently has no further comments.”

Damage was detected on Monday to the C-Lion1 cable which runs almost 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) from Finland’s capital, Helsinki, to the German port city of Rostock. Another cable between Lithuania and Sweden was also damaged.

Speaking in Brussels, Mr Pistorius said that Russia poses not just a military but also a hybrid threat, and that Europe needs to take a broad approach to defense. He said the damage to the two cables was “a very clear sign that something is afoot.”

He told a regular meeting of European Union defence ministers: “No one believes these cables were severed by mistake, and I also don’t want to believe versions that it was anchors that by chance caused damage to these cables.

“So we have to state – without knowing in concrete terms who it came from – that this is a hybrid action. And we also have to assume – without already knowing it, obviously – that this is sabotage.”

The foreign ministries of Finland and Germany had already said the damage raised suspicion of sabotage.

Source : https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1978509/chinese-ship-suspected-of-cutting

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, held the second India-Australia Annual Summit on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Rio de Janeiro on 19 November 2024

The Prime Ministers expressed satisfaction at the increasing two-way trade, business engagements and market access for goods and services enabled under the landmark India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA). They welcomed further work towards an ambitious, balanced and mutually beneficial Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), to realise the full potential of the bilateral economic relationship

Both leaders welcomed the launch of the Renewable Energy Partnership (REP), as agreed during the 1st India-Australia annual summit.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/india/india-and-australia-launch-renewable-energy-partnership-during-modi-albanese-meeting-article-115462160

VLADIMIR Putin has given the green light to a fresh nuke doctrine – threatening to use nuclear weapons against the West if Ukraine fires long-range missiles on Russian soil.

The deluded tyrant was left raging when US President Joe Biden finally approved use of the far-reaching rockets by Ukraine after 1,000 days of war.

Putin’s snarling propaganda mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov swore on Tuesday that the use of Western non-nuclear missiles by Ukraine’s armies could spark a nuclear response.

Russia has issued countless similar threats in the past – invoking fears of possible nuclear escalation in the West.

But now the stakes have been kicked up a notch – with the Kremlin officially putting a nuclear retaliation on the table in an updated doctrine.

Reports later surfaced that Ukraine had fired at least six ATACMS missiles inside Russia – striking an ammo depot in Bryansk.

Russia was forced to admit to the crushing defeat – claiming to have shot down five of the rockets.

The US on Sunday approved a decision that allows Ukraine to fire some American ATACMS rockets inside Russia.

It followed “one of the largest” air attacks of the Ukraine war so far with 120 missiles and 90 drones fired by Russia.

North Korea also recently sent over ten thousand soldiers to allied Russia to help Putin take back land in Kursk – infiltrated by Ukraine in August.

It puts into play Britain’s Storm Shadow and France’s SCALP missiles – ramping up pressure for Ukraine’s other Western allies to follow the US lead.

Russia is claiming the move has crossed a red line – marking a sign of war from the West as they move to support embattled Ukraine.

Peskov said the new policy “concerns the fact that the Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression with the use of conventional weapons against it”.

When asked if the new policy means Russia views long-range missile firing as an attack by a non-nuclear state (Ukraine) with the support of a nuclear state (US) – and provokes the possibility of Russia using nukes in response – Peskov said “Yes, that is what is being discussed”.

Andrey Gurulev, reservist Russian army general, MP and pro-Putin TV propagandist, warned of a full-scale nuclear strike on Britain.

“There are individual targets that can be hit with….demonstrative warning strikes,” he said.

“The first candidate to get a nuclear bludgeon….is the UK.”

He also declared “if anyone has the urge to launch ATACMS, SCALP, Storm Shadow missiles….there will be essentially nothing left of America trying to pull us into escalation.”

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/12921719/ukraine-russia-war-nuclear-missiles-escalation-ww3/

In a historic attack on one of the largest digital companies in the world, top antitrust regulators from the Justice Department have chosen to urge a judge to order Alphabet Inc.’s Google to sell up its Chrome browser. According to those acquainted with the preparations, the department would request that the court, who declared in August that Google had unlawfully monopolized the search market, impose restrictions on artificial intelligence and the Android operating system.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is intensifying its antitrust action against Google and intends to put up important proposals to undermine the company’s hegemonic position in the search business. The need that Google offer Chrome, the most popular online browser in the world, is at the heart of the government’s ideas.

The action comes after the trial court in Google’s antitrust case recently determined that the internet giant had an unlawful monopoly in the online search market.

DOJ Targets Chrome and Cross-Promotion Practices

Government attorneys contended that competition has been stifled by Chrome’s connection with other Google goods. Google is accused of limiting competition chances and stifling market incentives for innovation by utilizing Chrome to cross-promote its ecosystem.

Other facets of Google’s business strategy are also the focus of the DOJ’s recommendations. Officials did not demand that Google sell Android altogether, but they did recommend that the company split its Android operating system from Search and Google Play.

Broader Restrictions on Google’s Operations

Beyond product separation, the DOJ intends to introduce further constraints on Google’s business practices. These include:

• Sharing more advertising data with marketers.
• Allowing advertisers greater control over ad placements.
• Providing websites the ability to opt out of Google’s AI data usage.
• Banning exclusive contracts that were key to the case against Google.

Additionally, the DOJ wants to require Google Search data to be licensed to rival websites and provide indexed websites with the ability to stop Google’s AI models from using their data.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/technology-science/will-google-sell-chrome-u-s-department-of-justice-plan-to-break-search-monopolyexplained-article-115430792

The Kremlin warned Monday that President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with U.S.-supplied longer-range missiles adds “fuel to the fire” of the war and would escalate international tensions even higher.

Biden’s shift in policy added an uncertain, new factor to the conflict on the eve of the 1,000-day milestone since Russia began its full-scale invasion in 2022.

It also came as a Russian ballistic missile with cluster munitions struck a residential area of Sumy in northern Ukraine, killing 11 people and injuring 84 others. Another missile barrage sparked apartment fires in the southern port of Odesa, killing at least 10 people and injuring 43, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.

Washington is easing limits on what Ukraine can strike with its American-made Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Sunday, after months of ruling out such a move over fears of escalating the conflict and bringing about a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

The Kremlin was swift in its condemnation.

“It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps, and they have been talking about this, to continue adding fuel to the fire and provoking further escalation of tensions around this conflict,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia went further at a U.N. Security Council meeting marking 1,000 days of war, saying Moscow is “astounded” that the leaders of Britain and France “are eager to play into the hands of the exiting administration and are dragging not just their countries but the entire Europe into large-scale escalation with drastic consequences.”

The scope of the new firing guidelines isn’t clear. But the change came after the U.S., South Korea and NATO said North Korean troops are in Russia and apparently are being deployed to help Moscow drive Ukrainian troops from Russia’s Kursk border region.

Biden’s decision almost entirely was triggered by North Korea’s entry into the fight, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, and was made just before he left for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.

Russia also is slowly pushing Ukraine’s outnumbered army backward in the eastern Donetsk region. It has also conducted a devastating aerial campaign against civilian areas in Ukraine.

Peskov referred journalists to a statement from President Vladimir Putin in September in which he said allowing Ukraine to target Russia would significantly raise the stakes.

It would change “the very nature of the conflict dramatically,” Putin said at the time. “This will mean that NATO countries — the United States and European countries — are at war with Russia.”

Peskov claimed that Western countries supplying longer-range weapons also provide targeting services to Kyiv. “This fundamentally changes the modality of their involvement in the conflict,” he said.

Putin warned in June that Moscow could provide longer-range weapons to others to strike Western targets if NATO allowed Ukraine to use its allies’ arms to attack Russian territory. After signing a treaty with North Korea, Putin issued an explicit threat to provide weapons to Pyongyang, noting Moscow could mirror Western arguments that it’s up to Ukraine to decide how to use them.

“The Westerners supply weapons to Ukraine and say: ‘We do not control anything here anymore and it does not matter how they are used,’” Putin has said. “Well, we can also say: ‘We supplied something to someone — and then we do not control anything.’ And let them think about it.”

Putin has also reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness to use nuclear weapons if it sees a threat to its sovereignty.

Biden’s move will “mean the direct involvement of the United States and its satellites in military action against Russia, as well as a radical change in the essence and nature of the conflict,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, has raised uncertainty about whether his administration would continue military support to Ukraine. He has also vowed to end the war quickly.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a muted response Sunday to the approval that he and his government have request for over a year, adding: “The missiles will speak for themselves.”

“The longer Ukraine can strike, the shorter the war will be,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Monday before the U.N. Security Council meeting marking the 1,000th-day milestone.

Asked whether the United Kingdom would follow the United States in authorizing use of its longer-range missiles, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who chaired the meeting, declined to comment. He said doing so would risk “operational security and can only play into the hands of Putin.”

France’s U.N. Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere, whose country has also given Ukraine longer-range missiles, told the Security Council without directly saying what his country will do that “The right of Ukraine to its legitimate defense includes the possibility of striking military targets involved in operations aimed at the territory.”

Ukraine’s Sybiha said a green light from the U.S. to use longer-range missiles against Russia “could be a game changer,” but others are less certain.

ATACMS, which have a range of about 300 kilometers (190 miles), can reach far behind the about 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line in Ukraine, but they have relatively short range compared with other types of ballistic and cruise missiles.

The policy change came “too late to have a major strategic effect,” said Patrick Bury, a senior associate professor in security at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.

“The ultimate kind of impact it will have is to probably slow down the tempo of the Russian offensives which are now happening,” he said, adding that Ukraine could strike targets in Kursk or logistics hubs or command headquarters.

Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, agreed the U.S. move would not alter the war’s course, noting Ukraine “would need large stockpiles of ATACMS, which it doesn’t have and won’t receive because the United States’ own supplies are limited.”

Source: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-missile-attack-sumy-5cd4f9fe2cee1ae8aed67d63c22b0703

Another strain of bird flu (H5N1) has been confirmed at a poultry farm in Cornwall, with a mass cull of the birds ordered by the government.

All birds at the St Ives premises will now be humanely killed, with a 3km protection zone and 10km protection zone put in place.

The last avian flu outbreak in the UK happened in February (described as the country’s largest ever) and involved the H5N1 virus.

It comes less than two weeks after a similar outbreak was reported in Yorkshire, but with a different strain of the disease (H5N5).

The virus is typically spread through birds’ faeces, mucus and saliva.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/another-strain-of-bird-flu-confirmed-in-uk-as-mass-cull-ordered-13255884

On the last night of their lives, Jagdish Patel, his wife and their two young children tried to slip into the U.S. across a near-empty stretch of the Canadian border.

Wind chills reached minus 36 Fahrenheit (minus 38 Celsius) that night in January 2022 as the family from India set out on foot to meet a waiting van. They walked amid vast farm fields and bulky snowdrifts, navigating in the black of an almost-moonless night.

The driver, waiting in northern Minnesota, messaged his boss: “Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions, please.”

Coordinating things in Canada, federal prosecutors say, was Harshkumar Patel, an experienced smuggler nicknamed “Dirty Harry.” On the U.S. side was Steve Shand, the driver recently recruited by Patel at a casino near their Florida homes, prosecutors say.

The two men, whose trial is scheduled to start Monday, are accused of being part of a sophisticated human smuggling operation feeding a fast-growing population of Indians living illegally in the U.S. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Over the five weeks the two worked together, documents filed by prosecutors allege they spoke often about the bitter cold as they smuggled five groups of Indians over that quiet stretch of border.

“16 degrees cold as hell,” Shand messaged during an earlier trip. “They going to be alive when they get here?”

On the last trip, on Jan. 19, 2022, Shand was to pick up 11 more Indian migrants, including the Patels. Only seven survived.

Canadian authorities found the Patels later that morning, dead from the cold.

In Jagdish Patel’s frozen arms was the body of his 3-year-old son, Dharmik, wrapped in a blanket.

Dreams of leaving India

The narrow streets of Dingucha, a quiet village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, are spattered with ads to move overseas.

“Make your dream of going abroad come true,” one poster says, listing three tantalizing destinations: “Canada. Australia. USA.”

This is where the family’s deadly journey began.

Jagdish Patel, 39, grew up in Dingucha. He and his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s, lived with his parents, raising their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and Dharmik. (Patel is a common Indian surname and they are unrelated to Harshkumar Patel.) The couple were schoolteachers, local news reports say.

The family was fairly well off by local standards, living in a well-kept, two-story house with a front patio and a wide veranda.

“It wasn’t a lavish life,” said Vaibhav Jha, a local reporter who spent days in the village. “But there was no urgent need, no desperation.”

Experts say illegal immigration from India is driven by everything from political repression to a dysfunctional American immigration system that can take years, if not decades, to navigate legally.

But much is rooted in economics, and how even low-wage jobs in the West can ignite hopes for a better life.

Those hopes have changed Dingucha.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/immigration-canada-us-india-deaths-smuggling-trial-16946bb01a1d1ca2978f29e902e550fc

Authorities said the 21-year-old student is alleged to have went on a stabbing spree in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi.

Eight people have died after a stabbing attack at a Chinese school, with 17 others injured.

Authorities said in a statement that a 21-year-old student is believed to have carried out the attack in Yixing City, in China’s Jiangsu province.

The incident took place at the Wuxi Vocational College of Arts and Technology at around 6.30pm (10.30am in the UK) on Saturday, the Yixing police said.

Police said the suspect – identified only by his family name of Xu – graduated from the school earlier this year and was angry over not receiving his graduation certificate.

The Yixing Public Security Bureau added the student – who was also said to be unhappy with his internship pay – was apprehended and confessed to the crime.

It added that efforts were underway to treat the injured and investigate the case.

The incident comes days after 35 people were killed in the Chinese city of Zhuhai, when a motorist deliberately drove a car into people exercising at a sports centre.

Officers said a “number of” pedestrians were knocked down in the incident which took place on the eve of a biennial People’s Liberation Army exhibition in the southern Chinese city.

A 62-year-old man, identified only by his family name of Fan, was detained at the centre on Monday.

Police said he was apprehended in the car, which was described as being a small off-road vehicle, as he tried to flee the scene.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/china-eight-dead-and-17-injured-after-student-carries-out-stabbing-attack-13255184

You may have seen the word “Bluesky” popping up on your social media pages recently and wondered what people are talking about.

It is an alternative platform to Elon Musk’s X and in terms of its colour and logo, it looks quite similar.

Bluesky is growing rapidly and is currently picking up around one million new sign-ups a day.

It had 16.7m users at the time of writing, but that figure will likely be outdated by the time you read this.

So what is it – and why are so many people joining?

What is Bluesky?

Bluesky describes itself as “social media as it should be”, although it looks similar to other sites.

Visually, a bar to the left of the page shows everything you might expect – search, notifications, a homepage and so on.

People using the platform can post, comment, repost and like their favourite things.

To put it simply, it looks how X, formerly known as Twitter, used to look.

The main difference is Bluesky is decentralised – a complicated term which basically means users can host their data on servers other than those owned by the company.

This means that rather than being limited to having a specific account named after Bluesky, people can (if they like) sign up using an account they themselves own.

But it is worth stating that the vast majority of people don’t do that and a new joiner will most likely have a “.bsky.social” at the end of their username.

Who owns Bluesky?

If you think it feels a lot like X, you won’t be surprised to learn why. The former head of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, created it.

He even once said he wanted Bluesky to be a decentralised version of Twitter that no single person or entity owns.

But Mr Dorsey is no longer part of the team behind it, having stepped down from the board in May 2024.

He deleted his account altogether in September.

It is now run and predominantly owned by chief executive Jay Graber as a US public benefit corporation.

Why is it gaining in popularity?

Bluesky has been around since 2019, but it was invitation-only until February of this year.

That let the developers deal with all the kinks behind-the-scenes, to try and stabilise it before opening the doors to the wider public.

The plan has worked, somewhat. But the flurry of new users has been so significant in November that there continue to be issues with outages.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8dm0ljg4y6o

The first time Azaan made the jump across the wall, he broke his arm.

Braving the 20ft (6m) drop into a wide trench below is, for many Afghans, the only way to cross into Turkey from Iran – and yet hundreds risk it each day.

“I was in severe pain,” the former Afghan army officer told the BBC.

“Several others had broken limbs. The smuggler left us here and told us to run in the direction of the lights of Van city. Many of us were fading out of hunger. I fainted.”

The wall – which stretches for nearly 300km (185 miles) – was built to prevent illegal crossings, and is patrolled constantly by Turkish border forces.

Jumping off it is among the first of a series of extraordinary risks Afghan migrants take as they cross continents, countries and seas to reach the UK and other countries in Europe.

Over the past year, fleeing their country has become more perilous than ever before for Afghans, because Pakistan, Iran and Turkey have intensified their crackdown on illegal migration from Afghanistan along their borders, and have also carried out mass deportations.

Azaan couldn’t continue. He was in pain, and had barely eaten in days. The migrants were given just one boiled egg every morning and a cup of rice in the evening by smugglers who’d charged them nearly $4,000 (£3,150) for the journey to Europe.

“I had two friends – we had made a promise to not leave each other,” he says. His friends tied scarves around him, hoisted him up the wall, back into Iran. Iranian police deported him to Afghanistan.

It was Azaan’s second failed attempt. The first time he returned from the Afghanistan-Iran border because he’d taken his wife and young children along, and he realised they wouldn’t be able to endure the journey.

Azaan didn’t give up. Roughly a year later, once his arm had healed, he made a third attempt.

“I had sold my house earlier. This time I sold my wife’s jewellery,” he says.

In exchange for the money, migrants like Azaan are promised a route to Europe, handed over from one people smuggler to another along the way.

Back at the wall, the smuggler placed a ladder on the Iranian side, and cut the razor wire at the top to create a path for migrants.

“There were 60 to 70 of us,” Azaan recalls. “We climbed to the top and then the smuggler told us to jump.”

For the law and politics graduate, who served his country and led a dignified, comfortable life until August 2021 when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, it is a humiliating situation to be in.

In its three years in power, the Taliban government has imposed increasing, brutal restrictions on women. According to the UN, a third of the country’s people don’t know where their next meal will come from. And those who worked for the former military fear reprisal.

“The people I fought against for 20 years are now in power,” he explains. “Our lives are in danger. My daughter won’t be able to study once she turns 13. And I have no work. I’ll continue to try to leave even if it costs me my life.

“Here we are dying every moment. It’s better to die once, for good.”

Azaan is now back in Kabul with his family. The third attempt to flee ended with a beating and deportation.

“They beat me with the butt of a gun. One boy was hit on his genitals. He was in a terrible state. An old man’s leg was broken. There was a corpse in the trenches in Turkey. This is what I saw. But Iran is also treating us badly. I know Afghans have been severely beaten in Iran too,” he says.

After weeks of digging through people smuggling networks, the BBC established contact with an Afghan smuggler in Iran, aiming to get an insight into the increased dangers Afghans are facing.

“Iranian police are shooting a lot at the border with Afghanistan. One of my friends was killed recently,” the smuggler says, speaking to us over the phone from Iran.

In October, Iran was accused of firing indiscriminately at Afghans crossing over into Iran’s Sistan province from Balochistan in Pakistan. The UN has raised concerns and called for an investigation. The BBC has seen and verified videos of the dead and injured.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2l9gg4yd75o

Donald Trump, who is set to return to the White House after his victory over Kamala Harris in the November 5 US presidential elections, has appointed former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard as his US Intelligence Chief. The 78-year-old leader has secured all seven swing states, including Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Nevada.

On Wednesday evening (IST), Trump met President Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House where Biden welcomed Trump and congratulated him following his victory, saying that he looks forward to a smooth transition.”Congratulations, looking forward to having a, like we said, smooth transition — do everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated, and what you need. And we’re going to get a chance to talk about some of that today,” Biden said in the meeting with Trump.

Flood-hit towns near the eastern city of Valencia were rushing on Tuesday to clear the sewage system of mud and debris, pile sandbags and cancel school classes as they prepared for another approaching storm.
Two weeks after the worst floods in Spain’s modern history killed more than 200 people, national weather service AEMET issued an orange alert, the second-highest, for strong or torrential rains expected on Wednesday in the same area.
AEMET forecasts as much as 120 mm (4.7 inches) of rain in 12 hours. While the storm is not expected to be as powerful, it could be devastating for the towns that are still recovering.
The impact of the rain could be severe because of the quantities of mud already on the ground and because of the condition of the sewage system, Rosa Tauris, a spokesperson for Valencia’s emergency committee, told reporters.

Thousands of workers are cleaning buildings while removing the mud that accumulated on roads and sidewalks and clogged the sewage pipes and drains in towns and suburbs around Valencia.
The emergency committee issued a special warning requesting that municipalities and organisations take preventive measures, including closing schools.
Tauris recommended citizens work remotely when possible, avoid non-essential travel and follow emergency services’ updates.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/spanish-flood-hit-towns-brace-another-storm-2024-11-12/

Several airlines have cancelled flights between Australia and Bali due to dangerous ash clouds from a volcano near the Indonesian holiday island.

Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia advised passengers of the disruptions on Wednesday, saying the ash from Mount Lewotaobi Laki-laki made it unsafe to fly.

The volcano spewed a 9km (6.2 miles) ash column into the sky over the weekend, one week after a major eruption killed 10 people.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has also warned that the volcanic ash might drift to parts of the country’s north on Wednesday.

Jetstar said all flights to and from Bali until 12:00 Australian Eastern Daylight Time Thursday (04:00 GMT) have been cancelled. Virgin Australia cancelled all its flights to and from Bali on Wednesday.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced9xy368x6o

North Korea has ratified a mutual defence treaty with Russia signed by the two countries’ leaders in June, which calls for each side to come to the other’s aid in case of an armed attack, state media KCNA said on Tuesday.
The report came amid international criticism over increasing military cooperation between the two countries, with North Korea having sent tens of thousands of troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a decree to ratify the pact on Monday, KCNA said, adding it takes effect when both sides exchange the ratification instruments.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also signed the treaty into law, which stipulates that the two countries should “immediately provide military and other assistance using all available means” if either side is in a state of war.
Kim clinched the accord with Putin at a summit in June, touting it as a step to elevate bilateral ties to something akin to an “alliance”.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/north-korea-ratifies-mutual-defence-treaty-with-russia-2024-11-11/

CRAZY plans for the longest skyscraper have been revealed and show an odd-looking U-shaped building that would overcome the “limit of the skies”.

The proposed “Big Bend” in Manhattan, New York, plans to become the longest building in the world at a staggering 4,000ft in one continuous upside down U.

The bizarre shaped building has been designed this way to find a clever cost solution to strict planning laws.

The taller the skyscraper is the more expensive it is, so curving it is provides a unique loophole.

Real-estate companies are capitalising on a planning law that allows them to buy air rights from neighbouring buildings.

By implementing a curve design, the building can occupy more space in the sky without paying more for height.

If the tower wasn’t curved, it would make it much harder to get approved.

This also allows them to build taller and taller towers on small plots, saving money.

This vision would make the audacious building 1,000ft longer than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the current tallest tower in the world.

The dazzling concept would see the building curve mid-air and come back down, revolutionising the world of skyscrapers.

The building design boasts a futuristic-looking grid of windows on both sides.

Even crazier, the lifts can travel in curves, horizontally and in continuous loops.

The building, if completed, would stand 200 feet taller than One World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower, the current tallest building in New York City.

US architectural studio Oiio came up with the bold design for the conceptual skyscraper.

Designer Ioannis Oikonomou said: “There are many different ways that can make a building stand out, but in order to do so the building has to literally stand out.

“If we manage to bend our structure instead of bending the zoning rules of New York we would be able to create one of the most prestigious buildings in Manhattan.

“The Big Bend can become a modest architectural solution to the height limitations of Manhattan.”

Oiio echoed the desire to stand out, stating: “There’s an obsession that resides in Manhattan.

“It is undeniable because it is made to be seen.”

Despite the proposed innovation, the Big Bend has drawn criticism for its size and scope of the project.

According to De Zeen, external, some of New York’s biggest architects have spoken out against the number of super-tall skyscrapers in the city.

The site said: “[Architect] Steven Holl said the buildings symbolise inequality in architectural form, while Liz Diller said that the city is at risk of being “consumed by the dollar”.

Source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/31632864/u-shaped-skyscraper-plan-new-york/

VLADIMIR Putin has amassed 40,000 of his soldiers and 10,000 North Koreans as he plots to attack Kursk in just days, a report claims.

The Kremlin leader is set to try and claw back the area of Russia which Ukraine seized back in August.

Putin could begin the combined assault with Kim Jong-un’s troops sent to fight in just days, Ukrainian officials have told the New York Times.

US and Ukrainian officials say 10,000 of the 50,000 massed troops are North Koreans.

Those soldiers are said to be wearing Russian uniforms and have been equipped by Moscow, but will fight in their own units.

Putin’s army has also been training the North Koreans in infantry tactics, artillery fire, and trench clearing.

Ukraine has built defences in the part of Kursk it occupies and could be able to hold on, officials say.

But Russia has been shelling and sending rocket attacks against the entrenched Ukrainians.

Up to 40 North Korean soldiers have already been killed during their first engagement with Ukrainian troops in Kursk.

One injured soldier, heavily bandaged and lying in what appears to be a makeshift hospital fumed at their Russian leaders.

He claims that he was told that they would be guarding infrastructure, but that the North Koreans were “betrayed” and were “sent on an assault in the Kursk region”.

The soldier added: “The Russians did not provide us with anything.

“They threw us into an assault without prior intelligence, without ammunition, without normal weapons.”

Russia’s major battlefield assault looms as Donald Trump’s election win could also change the shape of peace talks.

Ukraine is waiting with bated breath for the Republican’s next move following his historic election win.

It comes amid speculation Trump may leave the war-torn nation in a precautions position by favouring his pal Putin’s wishes.

Trump has repeatedly vowed to end the Ukraine war – with his plan on how to achieve that now being revealed.

President Zelensky says he has been given reassurance from Trump that he will support Ukraine, Axios reported.

North Korean woes
Alongside the dozens of early deaths of North Korean troops, Kim’s soldiers have also faced a number of other issues on their expedition across to Russia.

The soldiers have reportedly become hooked on porn after being given unrestricted internet access for the first time.

Military troops who joined the front are believed to have something other than fighting on their mind – much to Putin’s dismay.

The North Korean soldiers have been unleashed into an “unfettered” internet access realm – and are taking advantage of it by “gorging” on pornography, a Financial Times commentator claims.

The Financial Times’ Gideon Rachman said in a post on X: “A usually reliable source tells me that the North Korean soldiers who have deployed to Russia have never had unfettered access to the internet before.

“As a result, they are gorging on pornography.”

Kim Jong Un has made numerous crackdowns on internet use under his ruthless communist dictatorship.

Even accessing the web is for the select few who are able to secure the required authorisation.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/12866032/putin-kursk-russia-invasion-korea/

The relations between the two countries came under severe strain following Trudeau’s allegations in September last year of a ‘potential’ involvement of Indian agents in Nijjar’s killing.

Separatist leader Arsh Dalla was arrested by Canadian authorities on Sunday in connection with a recent shooting incident in Milton. He was designated an “individual terrorist” by Indian authorities last year and considered a ‘successor’ to slain Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. New Delhi had previously urged its Canadian counterparts to make a provisional arrest of the fugitive.

According to an India Today report, the Khalistani leader was arrested by the Canadian police over his suspected involvement in the armed confrontation last month. Indian security agencies have also received confirmation about his detention.

The Halton Police began its investigation in late October after a shooting in Milton town. An official release indicates that the police was contacted after two men visited a hospital in the Guelph region.

“One of the males was treated and released for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound apparently suffered in Halton region. The other was not injured. The HRPS Major Crime Bureau is now investigating and both males have been arrested,” the police note added.

The development comes at a time when ties between the two countries have become increasingly strained following allegations of Indian involvement in the murder of Nijjar. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed in September last year that there was ‘credible evidence’ linking Indian government agents to the killing. Ottawa also alleged at the end of last month that senior BJP leader and Indian Home Minister Amit Shah was behind plots to target Sikh separatists on Canadian soil.

Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/world/khalistani-terrorist-arsh-dalla-close-aide-of-hardeep-singh-nijjar-arrested-over-milton-shootout-11731238003909.html

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and advised him not to escalate the Ukraine war, a source familiar with the conversation told Reuters on Sunday, as President Joe Biden plans to urge Trump not to abandon Kyiv.
Trump and Putin spoke in recent days, said the source. Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday. Trump has criticised the scale of U.S. military and financial support for Kyiv, vowing to end the war quickly, without saying how.

Authorities say at least 25 people have been killed after a bomb exploded at a railway station in Pakistan’s south-western Balochistan province.

Dozens of others were injured in the blast, which happened as a popular morning train was about to leave Quetta station in southwestern Pakistan for Peshawar.

A separatist militant group, the Balochistan Liberation Army, said it carried out what police are deeming a suicide attack.

There has been a recent surge in deadly attacks in the province, driven by demands for independence and control over local resources.

The city’s commissioner said that the suicide bomber was among the dead, while about 50 others were injured in the blast.

Senior police official Muhammad Baloch said the explosion was thought to have been caused by a suicide bomber carrying 6-8kg of explosives. The dead and injured included both civilians and military personnel, he told the BBC.

Videos shared on social media appear to show the moment the explosion happened on Saturday morning, with dozens of people visible at the platform.

There is also footage circulating of the aftermath, showing a number of injured people and debris spread across the station.

Abdul Jabbar was among the injured brought to the Civil Hospital. He said that he was entering the station, having purchased a ticket from the booking office, when the explosion happened.

“I can’t describe the horror I faced today, it was like a judgement day has come,” he said.

Muhammad Sohail arrived soon after the explosion had happened to catch his train to Multan, in Punjab province.

“Everything was destroyed at the station, and people were laying down on the ground screaming for help,” he said.

The Baloch Liberation Army, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said in a statement released on social media that it had targeted a Pakistan military unit that was returning from Quetta after completing a training course.

Police later confirmed 14 soldiers were among the dead.

The chief minister of Balochistan called the act deplorable and the perpetrators “worse than animals”. Mir Sarfraz Bugti said the authorities would pursue them and “bring them to their logical end”.

The speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, condemned the blast, saying those responsible were the “enemies of humanity”.

Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province and the richest in terms of natural resources, but it is the least developed.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm27v28r4y0o

Qatar has told Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel it will stall its efforts to mediate a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal until they show “willingness and seriousness” to resume talks, its foreign ministry said on Saturday.
The Gulf country has been working alongside the United States and Egypt for months on fruitless talks between the warring sides in Gaza and any disengagement from that process could further complicate efforts to reach a deal.

The win over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris marks Trump’s second in Arizona since 2016.

Trump won Arizona, returning the state and its 11 electoral votes to the Republican column after Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, reported AP. The win over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris marks Trump’s second in Arizona since 2016.

In 2020, President Joe Biden became the first Democrat to win Arizona since Bill Clinton in 1996. Trump has now flipped it back.

Trump campaigned on border security and the economy, tying Harris to inflation and record illegal border crossings during Biden’s administration.

Trump’s victory dims the hopes of Arizona Democrats, who sought to continue their ascendance, which began with the 2018 flip of a longtime GOP-held Senate seat and continued in 2020 and 2022.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/donald-trump-completes-swing-state-sweep-with-arizona-article-115132760 

Authorities are investigating racist text messages sent to black Americans across the country telling them to report to a plantation “to pick cotton”.

Black Americans, including school and college students, were among the recipients in states including Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania.

“The FBI is aware of the offensive and racist text messages sent to individuals around the country and is in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter,” the agency said.

The messages appear to have started on Wednesday, the day after election day. Some of the messages mentioned the Trump campaign – which strongly denied any connection.

Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman, said: “The campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.”

The source of the anonymous messages and the total number sent are unclear.

A 42-year-old mother in Indiana sent a copy of the texts her high-school-aged daughter received to the BBC.

The messages said that the daughter had “been selected to become a slave at your nearest plantation” and would be “picked up in a white van” and “searched thoroughly once you’ve reached your destination”.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous for her safety, called the messages “extremely, extremely alarming” and made her feel “really vulnerable”.

“It’s because of America’s history, but the timing is specific to the day after the election,” she said. “This had to be a strategised effort.”

Another recipient, Hailey Welch, told a University of Alabama student newspaper that several students on the campus had also received the messages.

“At first I thought it was a joke, but everyone else was getting them. People were texting, posting on their stories, saying they got them,” Ms Welch told The Crimson White. “I was just stressed out, and I was scared because I didn’t know what was happening.”

The wording of the messages varied but generally instructed recipients to report to a “plantation” or wait to be picked up in a van, and referred to “slave” labour.

The texts were sent from numbers with area codes in at least 25 different states, according to CBS News, the BBC’s partner network in the US.

TextNow, a mobile provider that allows people to create phone numbers for free, said it found one or more of its accounts were used to send text messages “in violation of its terms of service”. The company disabled the accounts within an hour of discovering the misuse, it said in a statement.

“We do not condone the use of our service to send harassing or spam messages and will work with the authorities to prevent these individuals from doing so in the future,” it said.

Civil rights group NAACP condemned the messages saying they were a consequence of President-elect Trump’s election.

“These actions are not normal, ” said the group’s chief executive Derrick Johnson. “These messages represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country, who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday’s election results.”

Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, which is also investigating the messages, said: “These messages are unacceptable. We take this type of targeting very seriously.”

In several states, top law enforcement officials said they were aware of the messages and encouraged residents to report them to the authorities if they received them.

The office of Nevada’s attorney general said it was working to “probe into the source of what appear to be robotext messages”.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy93dp4zk3o

The highest number of verified deaths was among children aged between five and nine years old, according to the UN’s Human Rights Office.

Nearly 70% of deaths in the Gaza war, which have been verified by the United Nations, were women and children, its Human Rights Office has said.

The UN has analysed killings in the first 11 months of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Palestinian territory and managed to verify 8,119 victims, including 2,036 women and 3,588 children.

The 8,119 figure is considerably lower than the 43,000 deaths reported over the course of the 13-month-long war by the Hamas-run health ministry, although the UN does see these numbers as reliable.

Out of the verified deaths between 7 October 2023 and 2 September 2024, children represented almost half of the victims (44%) while women accounted for 26%.

The highest number of deaths was among children aged between five and nine years old, closely followed by those aged 10-14, and then babies aged up to and including four years old.

The youngest victim whose death was verified by the UN was a one-day-old boy, while the oldest was a 97-year-old woman.

In 88% of cases, five or more people were killed in the same attack – suggesting weapons were used across a wide area.

However the report added some of the killings may have been the result of errant projectiles from Palestinian armed groups.

The UN’s report rings true with Palestinian claims that women and children represent a large proportion of those killed in the war, and it accuses Israel of “an apparent indifference to the death of civilians and the impact of the means and methods of warfare”.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement: “This unprecedented level of killing and injury of civilians is a direct consequence of the failure to comply with fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.”

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in response that it “works to minimise harm to non-combatants prior to attacks, especially women and children”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/gaza-about-70-of-people-killed-in-the-war-are-women-and-children-un-says-13250711

Donald Trump is set to return to the White House, having promised action on issues including immigration, the economy and the war in Ukraine.

He looks likely to enjoy plenty of support for his political agenda in Congress after his Republican Party regained control of the Senate.

In his victory speech, Trump vowed he would “govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept. We’re going to keep our promises”.

But in some cases, he has given little detail of how he might achieve his aims.

Asked in 2023 by Fox News whether he would abuse his power or target political opponents, he replied he would not, “except for day one”.

“No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”

Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has prompted a major rethink in German political circles and wider society about obligatory military service.

Germany’s government has given the green light to a draft law that paves the way for the return of national service.

The legislation will allow Berlin to gauge the willingness of the country’s 18-year-olds to serve in Germany’s army, the Bundeswehr.

Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has prompted a major rethink in German political circles and wider society about obligatory military service.

The country scrapped national service in 2011, after years of seeming detente with Russia.

Berlin, though, now wants to boost its pool of soldiers in the face of a growing threat from a more aggressive Russia.

The Bundeswehr currently has 180,000 soldiers, which it wants to increase to 203,000 by 2031, as well as 60,000 reservists.

The aim is to reach 200,000 more reservists, which would enable Germany to swiftly expand its troops to around 460,000 in the event of war.

Under the model proposed by the German government, all men turning 18 – which is estimated to be about 300,000 in 2025 – will have to fill out a digital survey on their interest in joining the army.

Young women will also be sent the survey but are not obliged to fill out the form.

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1972969/germany-national-service-draft-law-olaf-scholz

– An initial 899,000 vaccine doses have been allocated for 9 countries across Africa that have been hit hard by the current mpox surge, the WHO and other health organisations said on Wednesday.
The WHO declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years in August after a new variant of the virus, called clade Ib, spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo to neighbouring countries.

In September, after facing criticism on moving too slowly on vaccines, the World Health Organization cleared Bavarian Nordic’s (BAVA.CO), opens new tab vaccine for mpox and said it was considering LC16, made by Japan’s KM Biologics as a potential vaccine option.
The WHO also set up a scheme to help bring mpox vaccines, tests and treatments to the most vulnerable people in the world’s poorest countries, similar to efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.The global health agency said on Wednesday the newly allocated vaccines will go to the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.
The largest number of doses – 85% of the allocated vaccines – will go to the Democratic Republic of Congo as the most affected country, the WHO said.
The allocated vaccines are from European countries, the United States, Canada and Gavi, a public-private alliance that co-funds vaccine purchases for low-income countries.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/vaccine-doses-allocated-9-african-countries-hardest-hit-by-mpox-2024-11-06/

– Donald Trump reshaped the U.S. electorate once again this year, piling up support among Hispanic voters, young people, and Americans without college degrees — and winning more votes in nearly all of the country as he reclaimed the presidency.
Following the Republican’s populist campaign, in which he promised to shield workers from global economic competition and offered a wide range of tax-cut proposals, Trump’s increasing strength among working-class voters and nonwhite Americans helped grow his share of the vote almost everywhere.

The starkest increase may have been the 14-percentage-point swing in Trump’s share of Hispanic voters, according to an exit poll conducted by Edison Research. Some 46% of self-identified Hispanic voters picked Trump, up from 32% in the 2020 election when Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Hispanics have largely favored Democrats for decades, but Trump’s share this year was the highest for a Republican presidential candidate in exit polls going back to the 1970s, and just higher than the 44% share won by Republican George W. Bush in 2004, according to data compiled by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

Eighteen members of a people-smuggling gang accused of arranging thousands of small boat English Channel crossings have been jailed in France.

The group – which prosecutors described as “merchants of death” – comprised mostly of Iraqi Kurds and were prosecuted after a Europe-wide operation in 2022 which led to arrests in Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Mirkhan Rasoul, the gang’s ringleader, was jailed for 15 years – the longest sentence among those convicted at a court in Lille on Tuesday.

The other defendants included one woman, and an Iranian man who was arrested in the UK and subsequently extradited to France.

For several years, the gang controlled most of the small boat crossings from northern France.

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said the gang – thought to be behind as many as 10,000 Channel crossings – was “among the most prolific” they had come across.

More than 100 boats, 1,000 life jackets, engines and cash were seized as part of the international operation.

Rasoul, 26, had already been convicted on prior smuggling charges and was serving a separate eight-year sentence for attempted murder

He was accused of running the “tentacle-like” criminal smuggling operation from his French prison cell.

The court followed the prosecutor’s recommendation, imposing the longest sentence on Rasoul, French media reported.

He was also handed a fine of €200,000 (£167,745), according to local reports.

Lille’s public prosecutor, Carole Etienne, wrote on X that a total of €1.445m (£1.2m) in fines had been imposed by the court.

The court heard how the gang overloaded the small boats, sometimes cramming up to 15 times more people on board than they were designed to carry.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yrg1kqzl2o

After months of ads, social media brawls, unsolicited campaign phone calls, and polling models showing near statistical ties, almost one in three Americans (28%) don’t care who wins the election anymore, they just want it to be over.

This was especially true for millennials, as 35% said they just want to put the historic event behind them.

This is according to a survey by Talker Research of 1,000 U.S. adults split by political party, which looked at how the election is impacting Americans’ lives even as votes are being cast and counted.

Results revealed many even admit that their social circles are feeling those effects, as 25% are avoiding certain friends and family members more in the weeks leading up to the election than in previous months.

Once again millennials lead the charge and are twice as likely as baby boomers to dodge their loved ones during this time (34% vs 17%).

One in 10 Americans took things a step further and called out of work on Election Day itself, while others toyed with the idea of taking off the day before (5%) or the day after (4%).

Many are just trying to avoid the chaos altogether (29%) by not seeing their colleagues; though a quarter are trying to cut down on disagreements.

Men are more concerned than women about how the results of the election will be received overall (34% vs 13%), while women don’t want to discuss it with others (20% vs 14%).

Source: https://talker.news/2024/11/05/nearly-1-in-3-americans-just-want-the-election-to-be-over/

Nearly 20,000 people were forcibly displaced in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics from tent camps or shelters in the Paris region, a coalition of more than 100 community groups said Monday.

In its report, the group Le Revers de la Médaille, which translates as “the other side of the medal”, claimed that 19,526 people were displaced from informal housing between April 2023 and September 2024 as part of what it calls “social cleansing” by authorities. The report notes that some people were evicted multiple times and, as a result, may be counted more than once.

As the city prepared to host millions of spectators for the Games, facilities and infrastructure underwent significant renovation, which the report alleges included the eviction of migrants and squatters from visible locations near event venues.

Paul Alauzy, spokesperson for Le Revers de la Médaille, claimed that there is direct evidence linking these displacements to Olympic preparations.

“There are images, internal government documents, and eviction orders explicitly referencing the Olympics as justification,” Alauzy said on Monday.

The group’s data highlights a surge in eviction operations — 260 between April 2023 and Sept. 2024— up 41% from the same period in 2021-2022. The report also notes that over 4,500 minors were among those displaced.

French officials did not immediately respond to the group’s estimate. The city imposed exceptionally strict security measures for the Games and notably the unprecedented opening ceremony all along the Seine River, which required a double-checked process and a QR code to attend.

In August, Marc Guillaume, the prefect for the Île-de-France region, which encompasses Paris, stated in a radio interview that eviction rates had not increased due to the Olympics and that every displaced individual was offered alternative housing.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/paris-2024-summer-olympics-expulsions-bec056da16aa71722e4ce1c32ceac1de

Most Orthodox Jews vote Republican, but the rabbis cited grave concerns over Trump’s moral character

A group of American rabbis, all identifying as Orthodox, published a letter of support for Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday. The organizers described the move as a “rabbi rebellion” given that Orthodox Jews have reliably voted for Republicans and turned out en masse for former President Donald Trump in 2020. (Jews in general, however, overwhelmingly vote for Democrats.)

“While one can certainly engage in debate regarding certain policies, the risks posed by former President Trump’s character make clear to us as Torah-abiding Jews that we should support VP Kamala Harris,” the endorsement read. It also praised her as “a person of upstanding character, offers stability in her leadership, and supports Israel and the Jewish people.”

Out of the 33 rabbis on the letter, at least nine were women. In traditional orthodoxy, women are not ordained or accepted as rabbis.

A recent Nishma Research survey showed that 77% of Orthodox Jews — ranking antisemitism and Israel as critically important issues — back the former president. However, the poll of 1,296 voters, conducted via the web between Aug. 28 and Sept. 18, found that 55% of Modern Orthodox intended to vote for Harris.

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, an activist rabbi from Arizona who spearheaded the letter, said he worries about a possible Trump win: “His character is not suited to be the leader of the free world, and his values are not aligned with those of our holy Torah,” Yanklowitz said.

Rabbi Avraham Bronstein of New York’s Hampton Synagogue, who also signed the endorsement, said that the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, a leading Haredi authority on Jewish law and ethics, said Jews should participate in elections out of gratitude to the United States as a nation founded on loving-kindness. However, Bronstein argued, Trump “embodies the opposite of this, pitting different elements and groups of American society” against each other.

The letter quickly prompted another from Orthodox rabbis, blasting Harris for her calls for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and endorsing Trump as a protector of Israel. It is unclear how many signatures the second letter has garnered.

Source: https://forward.com/fast-forward/670534/33-orthodox-rabbis-endorse-harris-trump/

“What’s coming up for me is deep heartbreak,” says Ama Francis, climate director at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). “There’s been this push towards more xenophobic immigration policies across both sides of the aisle. That has significant implications for who the United States considers itself to be — but also for how people can seek safety as we live in these times where our climate is changing and borders are becoming even more violent places.”

Climate migration is happening now
Under current national climate policies, “the best we could expect to achieve is catastrophic global warming,” the United Nations recently warned. Already, disasters push some 25 million people from their homes each year — typically more than the number displaced by conflicts or violence annually, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. In 2023, only one-quarter of those disasters were related to earthquakes. The rest were wildfires, droughts, storms, floods, or weather-related events. Climate change is making each of those problems worse, strengthening hurricanes, raising sea levels, and setting the stage for explosive blazes with hotter, more arid conditions in many parts of the world.

While the majority of people move to another part of the same country afterward, worsening environmental disasters can compound other factors that might eventually lead to international migration. A storm that wipes out crops or knocks down someone’s home could be the final straw that makes it untenable for someone to stay. Other disasters might be more drawn out and could exacerbate other crises. Struggles over dwindling resources can spark larger conflicts, one reason why climate change is often described as a “threat multiplier.”

Over the past year, IRAP and several other organizations that provide legal assistance to US-bound migrants surveyed more than 3,600 people of the individuals they’ve helped. The survey found that 43 percent of the people said they’d experienced some sort of climate-related disaster in the country of origin they left. The most common challenges people faced were severe rainfall and flooding, hurricanes, and extreme heat.

“Hurricane Otis blew off the entire roof of our houses, and with everything exposed to the elements, everything was damaged and spoiled, including the loss of crops,” said a 39-year-old man from Guerrero, Mexico, in the report. The devastation added to other personal losses; the man says his brother was murdered amid ongoing violence in the region where organized crime has had a deadly foothold.

A 24-year-old woman from Guerrero, meanwhile, talked about drought affecting her home. “Due to lack of water, we did not have good harvests, which is what we rely on in Guerrero,” she said in the report.

While climate change might not be the only or even main reason why someone has to leave their home, its footprint is clear in these kinds of stories. Hurricane Otis intensified more rapidly than nearly any other tropical storm on record before making landfall as a Category 5 hurricane in October 2023, becoming one of the costliest disasters of its kind to hit Mexico. Research conducted after the storm determined that heavy rainfall from Otis was “mostly strengthened by human-driven climate change.” Separate research also suggests that climate change will “significantly increase the risks that already vulnerable subsistence farmers’ face in the present” across regions of Mexico where many people grow their own food, including Guerrero.

Biden turns his back on climate migrants
These kinds of experiences are becoming more common, but climate change remains largely unacknowledged in US immigration policy. In the US, the only policy that carves out protections based on environmental catastrophes is called Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. The Secretary of Homeland Security can designate a country for TPS if there are “conditions in the country that temporarily prevent the country’s nationals from returning safely, or in certain circumstances, where the country is unable to handle the return of its nationals adequately.” That includes environmental calamities like hurricanes and earthquakes.

TPS safeguards people from those countries from deportation and allows them to legally work in the US. But as the name suggests, it’s temporary and doesn’t give someone a path to permanent residency or citizenship. Moreover, only people already in the US prior to TPS designation are eligible — it doesn’t extend to new arrivals. The policy is also vulnerable to the whims of each presidency; Trump tried to roll back TPS designations during his first term in office as part of his broader crackdown on anyone seeking refuge in the US. (A similar policy, called Deferred Enforced Departure, gives individuals from certain countries temporary reprieve from deportation if their country of origin has been affected by civic conflict or environmental disasters.)

Biden seemed to reverse course upon stepping into office, issuing executive orders saying he’d undo restrictive Trump-era immigration and asylum policies. An executive order in February 2021 directed the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs to produce a report that would include recommendations for how to recognize, protect, and resettle people “directly or indirectly” displaced by climate change.

“We were so excited,” Francis says. “There was a sense that this administration was really engaged on this issue, and there was this opening to really push the needle forward.”

But Biden’s attempts at undoing Trump’s most harmful immigration policies quickly gave way to a harsher stance on the border. In the end, Biden’s rightward pivot on immigration did little to appease his right-wing critics and only disappointed the migrant advocates who helped get him elected in 2020.

During his first two years in office, Biden kept one of Trump’s most stringent border policies in place: a pandemic-related asylum shutdown called Title 42. Under Title 42, migrants who arrived at the US-Mexico border could quickly be “expelled” to Mexico without a hearing. Customs and Border Protection continued its expulsion policy under Biden but also began granting exemptions to asylum-seekers who met certain criteria. When the Biden administration attempted to end the expulsion policy in 2022, a federal judge blocked it from doing so.

By the time Title 42 expulsions ended in the late spring of 2023, the public sentiment had largely shifted on immigration — and so had that of Biden’s administration. Title 42’s end was coupled with a new policy punishing migrants for attempting to enter the US without authorization. Under the administration’s “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule, most migrants could be denied asylum for crossing the border between ports of entry, even if they would have otherwise been granted protection in the US.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24285366/migration-climate-change-biden-election-trump-harris

Residents had been attending a prayer service in a metallic structure when the lightning struck.

Fourteen people have been killed in a lightning strike on a makeshift church at a refugee camp in northern Uganda, police have said.

A further 34 people were injured, police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke said.

The victims have not yet been identified.

The incident happened at the Palabek refugee settlement camp in the remote district of Lamwo on Saturday.

Residents had been attending a prayer service in a metallic structure when it was struck.

There were no reports of a fire breaking out following the strike, Mr Rusoke added.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/lightning-strike-kills-14-in-refugee-camp-in-uganda-13247523

The sanctions announced by the US State Department target 19 Indian companies and two individuals accused of allegedly supplying materials and technology to Russia to support its military amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Saturday reacted to the recent US sanctions imposed on several Indian firms and nationals, with a spokesperson stating that Indian companies have not violated any national laws.

The sanctions announced by the US State Department target 19 Indian companies and two individuals accused of allegedly supplying materials and technology to Russia to support its military amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Randhir Jaiswal, MEA spokesperson, stated, “We have seen reports on U.S. sanctions. India has a robust legal and regulatory framework on strategic trade and nonproliferation controls. We are also a member of three key multilateral non-proliferation export control regimes-the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Australia Group, and the Missile Technology Control Regime-and have been effectively implementing relevant UNSC sanctions and UNSC resolution 1540 on non-proliferation.”

“Our understanding is that the sanctioned transactions and companies are not in violation of Indian laws. Nevertheless, in keeping with India’s established non-proliferation credentials, we are working with all the relevant Indian departments and agencies to sensitise Indian companies on applicable export control provisions, as also inform them on new measures being implemented that could impact Indian companies in certain circumstances,” he added.

“Regular strategic trade/export control outreach events for Indian industries and stakeholders are being carried out by agencies of the Government of India. We are also in touch with the US authorities to clarify issues.” Mr Jaiswal further said.

Indian Firms Sanctioned By US Not In Violation Of National Laws: CentreThe sanctions announced by the US State Department target 19 Indian companies and two individuals accused of allegedly supplying materials and technology to Russia to support its military amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Asian News International
World News
Nov 02, 2024 22:16 pm IST
Published On
Nov 02, 2024 22:16 pm IST
Last Updated On
Nov 02, 2024 22:16 pm IST
Read Time:
4 mins
Share
TwitterWhatsAppFacebookRedditEmail

Indian Firms Sanctioned By US Not In Violation Of National Laws: Centre
The US Says these sanctions are part of its commitment to hold entities accountable.New Delhi:
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Saturday reacted to the recent US sanctions imposed on several Indian firms and nationals, with a spokesperson stating that Indian companies have not violated any national laws.

The sanctions announced by the US State Department target 19 Indian companies and two individuals accused of allegedly supplying materials and technology to Russia to support its military amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Randhir Jaiswal, MEA spokesperson, stated, “We have seen reports on U.S. sanctions. India has a robust legal and regulatory framework on strategic trade and nonproliferation controls. We are also a member of three key multilateral non-proliferation export control regimes-the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Australia Group, and the Missile Technology Control Regime-and have been effectively implementing relevant UNSC sanctions and UNSC resolution 1540 on non-proliferation.”

“Our understanding is that the sanctioned transactions and companies are not in violation of Indian laws. Nevertheless, in keeping with India’s established non-proliferation credentials, we are working with all the relevant Indian departments and agencies to sensitise Indian companies on applicable export control provisions, as also inform them on new measures being implemented that could impact Indian companies in certain circumstances,” he added.

“Regular strategic trade/export control outreach events for Indian industries and stakeholders are being carried out by agencies of the Government of India. We are also in touch with the US authorities to clarify issues.” Mr Jaiswal further said.

Indian companies named in the sanctions, such as Shreegee Impex Private Limited maintain they operate within Indian law and claim the sanctions will not impact their business.

Praveen Tyagi, director of Meerut-based Shreegee Impex Private Limited, expressed confusion over the measures, stating, “I don’t know why these measures have been imposed on us. But it will not have any impact on us, because we neither import from the US nor export to US.”

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/firms-sanctioned-by-us-not-in-violation-of-indian-laws-centre-6930054

The deadliest flash floods in Spain’s modern history have killed at least 214 people and dozens were still unaccounted for, four days after torrential rains swept the eastern region of Valencia, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday.

In a televised statement, Sanchez said the government was sending 5,000 more army troops to help with the searches and clean-up in addition to 2,500 soldiers already deployed.

“It is the biggest operation by the Armed Forces in Spain in peacetime,” Sanchez said. “The government is going to mobilize all the resources necessary as long as they are needed.”

Valencian regional authorities said on Saturday night the total number of fatalities in the region was 211, plus two from Castilla La Mancha and one in Andalusia.

The tragedy is already Europe’s worst flood-related disaster since 1967 when at least 500 people died in Portugal.

Hopes of finding survivors were raised when rescuers found a woman alive after three days trapped in a car park in Montcada, Valencia. Residents burst into applause when civil protection chief Martin Perez announced the news.

Volunteers flocked to Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences centre on Saturday for the first coordinated clean-up organised by regional authorities. The venue has been turned into the nerve centre for the operation.

In Valencia’s Picanya suburb, shop-owner Emilia, 74, told Reuters on Saturday: “We feel abandoned, there are many people who need help. It is not only my house, it’s all the houses and we are throwing away furniture, we are throwing away everything.

“When is the help going to come to have fridges and washing machines? Because we can’t even wash our clothes and we can’t even have a shower.”

Nurse Maria Jose Gilabert, 52, who also lives in Picanya, said: “We are devastated because there is not much light to be seen here at the moment, not because they are not coming to help, they are coming from all over Spain, but because it will be a long time before this becomes a habitable area again.”

The storm triggered a new weather alert in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia, where rains are expected to continue during the weekend.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/thousands-join-effort-clean-up-catastrophic-spanish-floods-2024-11-02

Prospects of a ceasefire between Israel and its foes Hamas and Hezbollah ran aground on Friday as Israeli airstrikes killed at least 68 people in the Gaza Strip, according to medics in the Palestinian enclave, and bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The Israeli military said it killed senior Hamas official Izz al-Din Kassab in an airstrike in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis and described him as one of the last surviving high-ranking members of Hamas responsible for coordinating with other groups in Gaza.

U.S. envoys had been working to secure ceasefires on both fronts ahead of the U.S. presidential election next Tuesday.

But Hamas does not favour a temporary truce, its Al-Aqsa Hamas television reported on Friday. The ceasefire proposals failed to meet its conditions that any deal must end the year-long war in Gaza and include a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the devastated Palestinian enclave, it said.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his priority was to enforce security “despite any pressure or constraints”.

His office said he relayed this message to U.S. envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk in Israel on Thursday. Israel meanwhile pressed on with its military offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon on Friday.

Medics in Gaza said about 68 people were killed and dozens injured overnight and into Friday morning in Israeli strikes on the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda, all in Gaza’s central area, as well as in its south.

Fourteen people were killed by an Israeli strike at the gate of a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Nuseirat, according to medics at the camp’s Al-Awda Hospital. Another 10 were killed in a car in Khan Younis, medics said.

Hours later, residents said Israeli tanks advanced on the northern and eastern sides of Nuseirat, and medics said an Israeli airstrike killed four people, including three children.

The Israeli military said its troops killed what it called armed terrorists in central Gaza and the northern Jabalia area. It had no immediate comment on the reported school strike, although it habitually denies deliberately attacking civilians.

The heads of U.N. humanitarian agencies said on Friday the situation in north Gaza was “apocalyptic” with the entire Palestinian population there at “imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence” as Israel pursues its offensive against regrouping Hamas militants in the area.

Israel also pummelled Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday morning with at least 10 strikes, Reuters journalists said. It was the first bombardment of the area – once a densely packed district and Hezbollah stronghold – in nearly a week.

The strikes came after Israel issued evacuation orders for 10 separate neighbourhoods of the Lebanese capital.

Hassan Saad, speaking on a Beirut street, told Reuters: “This is a brutal war and Israel does not have the right to do this…There must be a limit put for Israel because it does not abide by any of the laws or human morality.”

Another Beirut man, Ali Ramadan, said he believed the Israeli airstrikes were a way to put pressure on Lebanon in the ceasefire negotiations.

The hostilities have undermined hope a truce could be reached before the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday.
Hamas television, quoting a leading source in the group, said the ceasefire proposals did not meet its conditions for a permanent end to hostilities, withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the return of displaced people.

Nor did they address Palestinians’ need for security, relief and reconstruction and the full reopening of border crossings, the source said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer on Friday discussed a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Lebanon as well as ending the war and addressing dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, the State Department said in a statement.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-pounds-lebanon-gaza-after-us-truce-push-2024-11-01

Rescue teams are searching for survivors and bodies after flash flooding swept through large areas of Spain, following a year’s worth of rain in one day. At least 205 people have died, mostly in the Valencia region, according to local authorities.

Hundreds of volunteers stream in as police fear more bodies hidden
Hundreds of people in cars and on foot have been streaming in to the hardest hit areas to help.

There are so many people making their way to Chiva, Valencia, that authorities have asked them not to drive or walk because they are blocking the roads needed by the emergency services.

Early this morning there was still no running water there, and police kept searching the gorge, smashed homes and underground garages, concerned that the mud could be hiding more bodies.

“Entire houses have disappeared. We don’t know if there were people inside or not,” Mayor Amparo Fort told RNE radio.

Elsewhere in the suburbs, emergency services working to clear cars piled up at the entrance of a flooded underpass also feared finding more trapped bodies.

“We’re trying to remove vehicles bit by bit to see if there are victims,” one rescue worker told state television.

“We don’t know.”

Back in Chiva, residents and volunteers have been shovelling and sweeping out the layers of mud that coat the floors of the ruined shops and homes.

The storm unleashed more rain on the area in eight hours than the town had experienced in the preceding 20 months.

Elsewhere in the suburbs, emergency services working to clear cars piled up at the entrance of a flooded underpass also feared finding more trapped bodies.

“We’re trying to remove vehicles bit by bit to see if there are victims,” one rescue worker told state television.

“We don’t know.”

Back in Chiva, residents and volunteers have been shovelling and sweeping out the layers of mud that coat the floors of the ruined shops and homes.

The storm unleashed more rain on the area in eight hours than the town had experienced in the preceding 20 months.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/spain-floods-latest-valencia-rain-weather-live-13244547

Rocket barrages from Lebanon into northern Israel killed four foreign workers and three Israelis on Thursday, Israeli medics said, the deadliest cross-border strikes in Israel since it invaded Lebanon. Israel kept up airstrikes it says targeted Hezbollah militants across Lebanon, where health authorities on Thursday reported 24 people killed.

U.S. diplomats were in the region pushing for cease-fires in both Lebanon and Gaza, hoping to wind down the wars in the Middle East as the Biden administration enters its final months. Pressure has been building ahead of the U.S. election next week.

In northern Gaza, Israeli forces struck one of the last functioning hospitals, destroying much-needed supplies that the World Heath Organization had delivered to the facility, the U.N. agency said. The strikes set off a fire that affected the dialysis unit, destroyed water tanks, damaged the surgery building and injured four medics trying to extinguish the blaze, said the hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment about a strike on the hospital, which it stormed last week after alleging it was harboring Hamas militants. Gaza’s Health Ministry on Thursday condemned Israeli attacks on the hospital and called on the international community to safeguard medical facilities in Gaza.

Back-to-back deadly rocket attacks hit Israel
Projectiles from Lebanon crashed into an agricultural area in Metula, Israel’s northernmost town, killing four Thai workers and an Israeli farmer, officials said.

Hours later, the Israeli military reported another volley of some 25 rockets from Lebanon, striking an olive grove in a suburb of the northern Israeli port city of Haifa. That strike killed a 30-year-old man and 60-year-old woman while wounding two others, said Magen David Adom, Israel’s main emergency medical organization.

Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran, Israel’s regional adversary. Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for Thursday’s rocket fire. Israel’s military said 90 projectiles were fired from Lebanon on Thursday.

Hezbollah has been firing thousands of rockets, drones and missiles into Israel — and drawing fierce Israeli retaliatory strikes — since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip triggered Israel’s devastating war in the Palestinian enclave.

The residents of Metula evacuated in October 2023, and only security officials and agricultural workers remain.

In addition to the four Thais killed, another Thai agricultural worker was injured by the rocket fire, Thailand’s Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa said in social media posts Friday. Maris urged all parties to return to the path of peace in the name of the civilians harmed by the continuing conflict.

The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an Israeli organization that advocates for foreign workers, said authorities had put them in danger by allowing them to work along the border without proper protection.

Agricultural areas near Israel’s border are closed military zones that can only be entered with official permission. For the few remaining residents, the thump of interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and wailing air raid sirens punctuate daily life.

Nonetheless, local officials largely support continuing a ground operation in southern Lebanon.

“If the Israeli government accedes to an agreement brought by (the Biden administration) … we will not have it because for us this is rehabilitating Hezbollah again on our borders,” said Eitan Davidi, the mayor of the northern town of Margaliot.

Israeli bombs across Lebanon after evacuation warnings
Israeli strikes killed 24 people in Lebanon on Thursday, among them 13 people in the country’s eastern Bekaa Valley, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News agency, a day after the Israel’s military warned residents there to evacuate.

The warnings sent thousands of people fleeing and spread panic across the city known for its colossal Roman ruins.

The Lebanese Health Ministry reported that over the last 24 hours, Israeli bombardments killed 45 people and wounded 110 in various parts of the country.

Jean Fakhry, a local official in the Deir al-Ahmar region in the Bekaa Valley, said Israeli airstrikes pummeling the area turned the main highway “a parking lot” of fleeing cars stuck in traffic.

Around 12,000 displaced people are staying in the area, he said, with most taking refuge in private homes. At one of the shelters in Deir al-Ahmar, families with luggage were still arriving Thursday.

“Our homes were destroyed,” said Zahraa Younis, from the village near Baalbek. “We came with nothing — no clothes or anything else.”

US officials are in the region seeking a cease-fire
Senior White House aides Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein were in Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior officials about the conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah.

The meetings focused on efforts to secure a cease-fire deal in Lebanon and to assess new proposals floated by mediators to free Israeli hostages being held in Gaza, according to a U.S. official familiar with planning for the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. The meetings were attended by Netanyahu as well as Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister; David Barnea, the director of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency; and other officials.

But with the U.S. election on Tuesday, hopes for immediate progress appeared remote — particularly in Gaza where Israel has come under criticism for not letting more humanitarian aid into the besieged north.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-lebanon-hezbollah-iran-news-10-31-2024-5554f469d1ac348c8da19b7faa3e5fbc

The United States has received information that indicates that “right now” there are 8,000 North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region, deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood told the Security Council on Thursday.
“I have a very respectful question for my Russian colleague: Does Russia still maintain that there are no DPRK troops in Russia?” Wood said, referring to North Korea’s formal name: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The Russian representative in the 15-member Security Council at the time did not respond to Wood. Moscow has neither denied nor directly confirmed the presence of North Korean troops. After an initial denial, North Korea has since defended the idea of deploying troops as being in line with international law.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. In August this year Ukrainian forces fought their way into the Russian border area of Kursk, where they continue to hold territory.

The U.S., Britain, South Korea, Ukraine and others accuse Russia of violating U.N. resolutions and the founding U.N. Charter with the deployment of troops from North Korea, which has long been under U.N. sanctions aimed at halting Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Ukraine on Wednesday named three North Korean generals it says are accompanying the Asian nation’s troops in Russia.

The U.S. and China also clashed at the Security Council on Thursday over Washington’s accusations that Beijing is providing large-scale support for Russia’s defense industrial base.
“China cannot credibly claim to be a voice for peace when it enables Russia to wage the largest war in Europe in decades. China’s support to Russia is decisive. China’s support is prolonging the war,” Wood said.
China’s deputy U.N. Ambassador Geng Shuang said China has not provided weapons to any party to the conflict in Ukraine and has strictly managed dual-use items – products capable of being used for military as well as civilian purposes – according to global rules. He accused Washington of “peddling anxiety, fabricating enemies and stoking confrontation.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-says-8000-north-korean-troops-russias-kursk-2024-10-31/

The US firm can reportedly only return to the Russian market if it complies with the court decision.

Google has reportedly racked up a fine of more than two undecillion rubles – two followed by 36 zeros – after it removed state-run and pro-government accounts from YouTube.

Put another way, an undecillion is a trillion times a trillion times a trillion.

The fine is far greater than the world’s total GDP, estimated at $110 trillion by the International Monetary Fund.

Google – which owns YouTube – has a current stock market value of $2.16 trillion, so probably won’t be stumping up the cash any time soon.

The fine is also still growing due to non-payment and, if not paid within nine months, will start to double every day, reported state news agency Tass.

The mind-boggling amount has grown because Google hasn’t restored YouTube accounts belonging to 17 Russian TV channels, according to Russia’s RBC News.

It claims a judge in the case said at a hearing on 28 October that he was considering “a case in which there are many, many zeros”.

Google can reportedly only return to the Russian market if it complies with the court decision.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/russia-fines-google-more-than-worlds-entire-gdp-for-blocking-youtube-accounts-13245208

Canada’s deepening dispute with India over its alleged campaign of violence against Sikhs in Canada could intensify Indian-based cyber espionage and hold back immigration, but analysts and experts see no immediate impact on trade.

Concern about a widening rift between the two countries comes after a senior Canadian official told a parliamentary national security committee on Tuesday that Indian Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was the mastermind behind the alleged plots.

While Indian officials dismissed the official’s statement, the disclosure might worsen a dispute that started a year ago when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited credible evidence linking Indian agents to the June 2023 shooting of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.

In response, Canada expelled six Indian diplomats earlier this month, accusing them of involvement. Four men have been charged with his murder.

The Canadian signals intelligence agency that monitors foreign-based cyber threats said New Delhi was most likely already conducting threatening cyber activity against Canadian networks for spying purposes.

“As Canada and India potentially may have some tensions, it is possible that we may see India want to flex those cyber threat actions against Canadians,” Caroline Xavier, head of the agency, known as Communications Security Establishment Canada, told a Wednesday press conference. The agency has previously described India as an emerging threat.

On the diplomatic front, Ottawa is unlikely to take more punitive steps until more details of the Nijjar case emerge, said Vina Nadjibulla, vice president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada think tank.

Cabinet ministers are due to testify about the matter to the national security committee and the murder trial of the four men has yet to start, she noted.

“If there are charges laid in the process on individuals that are living in India at whatever level, then it would trigger an extradition process which could take years. And of course, India is unlikely to cooperate,” she said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/canada-india-tensions-could-escalate-cyber-threats-hinder-immigration-2024-10-30

In an aircraft hangar at Joint Base Andrews, just outside of Washington, DC, one of the government’s most secretive groups gathered recently to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Though there were drinks, cake and speeches, right from the start, it was clear this was not an ordinary birthday party.

“Please note that this is an unclassified event, so please understand that there is a lot that our people are not going to be able to discuss,” Rick Christensen, the director of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s office of nuclear incident response told the small crowd sitting in folding chairs.

The group is known as the Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST). It’s made primarily of people who work elsewhere in the government—scientists, federal law enforcement personnel, and regulators—who all take time out of their day jobs to prepare for a nuclear incident. Think of it as a volunteer fire department – except the volunteers have high-level security clearances and they respond to nuclear threats.

NEST has always kept a low profile because almost everything it does related to nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism is classified, and because it doesn’t want to alarm people.

But in an era when the Pentagon says the world is facing new nuclear threats and challenges, the group is trying to be slightly more open about its mission.

“We are always ready, 24-7, and always prepared to deploy,” says Wendin Smith, the Deputy Under Secretary for Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation at the Department of Energy, which runs NEST. She hopes talking more openly about the mission might help people feel more assured, as well as deter adversaries who may be out to cause nuclear mayhem.

Cold War origin story
The history of the team sounds like it belongs in a spy thriller.

It all began in 1974, when a person going by the name “Captain Midnight” threatened to set off a nuclear bomb somewhere in Boston unless they were paid $200,000.

Government scientists from the nation’s nuclear weapons laboratories rushed to an airbase near Boston, but missed flights and problems with their equipment meant they never actually entered the city. The crisis ended when the FBI left a bag containing phony bills at the ransom spot, but nobody came. The incident was deemed a hoax, according to the 2009 book Defusing Armageddon, which details the history of the NEST group.

Then-president Gerald Ford was appalled, and six months later the government created NEST to aid in the response to, “lost or stolen nuclear weapons and special nuclear materials, nuclear bomb threats, and radiation dispersal threats,” according to the secret memorandum that set up the team.

It quickly found work. In 1978, NEST deployed in Canada’s remote Northwest Territories to recover debris from a crashed Soviet reconnaissance satellite that was powered by uranium. A year later, NEST helicopters circled over the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, after one of the plant’s reactors partially melted down. At the time, little was known about how much radiation had leaked from the plant, and it was NEST who helped collect the necessary data to guide evacuation orders.

In 2011, NEST experts and equipment flew to Fukushima, Japan, after a nuclear power plant there melted down and spewed a plume of radioactivity across the countryside.

The mission was “to help the Japanese government understand what is being released from the damaged reactors, and where is that plume going, where is it deposited on the ground,” says Jay Tilden, the DOE’s head of intelligence and counterintelligence who until recently ran NEST.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2024/10/28/nx-s1-5119933/meet-americas-secret-team-of-nuclear-first-responders

With only a week to go until the election, Kamala Harris has delivered her “closing argument” to voters, warning that Donald Trump will have an “enemies list” if he is elected. Meanwhile, a Grammy-winning rapper has said he rejected $3m by the Trump campaign to join him on stage.

The U.S. will not impose new limits on Ukraine’s use of American weapons if North Korea joins Russia’s war, the Pentagon said on Monday, as NATO said North Korean military units had been deployed to the Kursk region in Russia.
The North Korea deployment is fanning Western concerns that the 2-1/2-year conflict in Ukraine could widen, even as attention shifts to the Middle East.
It could signal how Russia hopes to offset mounting battlefield losses and continue making slow, steady gains in eastern Ukraine.

“The deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters after talks with a South Korean delegation about the North Korean deployments.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the development was “very dangerous.”
The Pentagon estimated 10,000 North Korean troops had been deployed to eastern Russia for training, up from an estimate of 3,000 troops last Wednesday.

“A portion of those soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine, and we are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk Oblast near the border with Ukraine,” said Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh, using a term for a Russian region.
The Kremlin had initially dismissed reports about a North Korean deployment as “fake news”. But Putin on Thursday did not deny North Korean troops were in Russia and said it was Moscow’s business how to implement a partnership treaty with Pyongyang.

The Russian leader also said over the weekend that Moscow will respond accordingly if the U.S. and its allies help Ukraine to strike deep into Russia, with Moscow seeing the West’s potential approval as “direct involvement of NATO” into the war.
The United States, however, has given no indication that it will approve Ukraine’s deep strike request.
A North Korean foreign ministry official did not confirm media reports about a troop deployment to Russia but said if Pyongyang had taken such action, he believed it would be in line with international norms.

Iran has executed German-Iranian dissident Jamshid Sharmahd, following his conviction for “leading terror operations”, state media is reporting.

Sharmahd was sentenced to death last year for “corruption on Earth”, having been accused of leading a US-based pro-monarchist group.

He had denied the charges, with his family maintaining he was only a spokesman.

Germany’s foreign minister said Berlin had repeatedly warned Tehran the execution of a German citizen would “have serious consequences”.

“The killing of Jamshid Sharmahd shows what kind of inhumane regime rules (in Iran),” Annalena Baerbock posted on X.

Human rights organisations have condemned the execution of Sharmahd, who lived in the US.

“The entire process, including his arrest, conviction, and execution, constitutes a serious violation of international law,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group.

Jamaica Bay is quietly earning a reputation as the Big Apple’s version of the Bermuda Triangle — with at least eight dead bodies discovered in and around the area over the past year, some under mysterious circumstances.

Investigations into five of the eight “floaters” who washed ashore or turned up in either Jamaica Bay or the nearby Atlantic Ocean side of The Rockaways have been closed, authorities said.

However, many questions still remain.

The “manner of death” on four of the bodies was deemed “undetermined” by the city Medical Examiner’s office, including Emmy-award winning cinematographer and photographer Ross McDonnell, who authorities have said loved to “wild swim” in the ocean and other waterways.

The 44-year-old Irishman’s headless, armless torso washed up on a Breezy Point beach Nov. 17, two weeks after leaving his Brooklyn home.

Police initially said they believed McDonnell likely drowned taking a late-night dip, but the ME said it declared the cause of death “undetermined” based on the lack of evidence off the predominantly sparse skeletal remains found.

Three other deaths remain under investigation by authorities, including Marco Ramirez, 48, of Brooklyn, who was found dead Oct. 15 along the Cross Bay Boulevard shoreline of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Broad Channel, and an unidentified female who washed ashore in Breezy Point on Oct. 5.

City coroners have so far only been able to determine both the cause and manner of death for one of the eight deceased — a headless man whose unidentified remains were found in April by a fisherman near 165th Avenue and Cross Bay Boulevard in Queens.

About a 1,000 feet away, authorities found a rope hanging from the Joseph P. Addabbo Memorial Bridge.

That case was declared a hanging suicide, according to the Medical Examiner’s office.

Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens), who represents much of The Rockaways, said she expressed concerns to authorities over the summer after the body count reached five — only to be told by law enforcement they didn’t believe the deaths were connected.

However, the latest dead “bodies mysteriously washing up” have her even more “concerned.”

“Growing up, you’d hear about bodies in the East River, the Hudson River, but not in Jamaica Bay,” said Ariola, who was raised in nearby Howard Beach.

“Maybe you would hear about one or two here and there; a fisherman who fell in, or some other tragedy. But to have so many in less than a year? This is really unprecedented.”

Residents throughout the Rockaway Peninsula, “are definitely concerned,” said Dan Mundy Jr, president of the Broad Channel Civic Association and the Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers.

“I’ve been living on the water all my life, and I don’t ever remember having this much happen all in a year,” Mundy said.

“If there were eight bodies popping up in [another] neighborhood in a year, it would be a big deal. The police should be treating this the same way and should let us know what’s going on here.”

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/10/27/us-news/unprecedented-8-dead-bodies-wash-up-in-jamaica-bay-area-in-past-year/

China will take “countermeasures” to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the government said, lambasting a $2 billion arms sale package by the United States to Taiwan.
The United States is bound by law to provide Chinese-claimed Taiwan with the means to defend itself despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, to the constant anger of Beijing.
On Friday, the Pentagon said the United States had approved a potential $2 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, including the delivery for the first time to the island of an advanced air defence missile system battle-tested in Ukraine.

Israel’s opposition leader has criticised the decision to avoid “strategic and economic targets”, saying on X that “we could and should have exacted a much heavier price from Iran”.

Iran’s president has warned against further attacks on his country after Israel targeted military sites in pre-dawn airstrikes on Saturday.

In a statement on X, Masoud Pezeshkian gave his condolences to the families of the four people killed in the attacks and said Iran would continue to defend itself.

“Enemies of Iran should know these brave people are standing fearlessly in defence of their land and will respond to any stupidity with tact and intelligence,” he wrote.

The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted facilities Iran used to make the missiles fired at Israel, as well as surface-to-air missile sites.

Iran insisted the strikes caused only “limited damage” with state-run media downplaying their impact.

Iran’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying it “considers itself entitled and obligated to defend against foreign acts of aggression”.

However, late on Saturday, Iran’s military issued a carefully worded statement suggesting any ceasefire in Israel’s ground offensives in Gaza and Lebanon would trump any possible retaliatory strike.

The country’s military said the strikes targeted military bases in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces.

US President Joe Biden told reporters Israel had informed him before the strikes and said it looked like “they didn’t hit anything but military targets”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/irans-president-warns-against-further-attacks-after-israel-airstrikes-hit-military-targets-13242423

Lyle Menendez and his brother Erik are currently serving life in prison without parole for the shotgun murders of their father and mother – Jose and Kitty Menendez – in 1989.

Two brothers who were convicted of killing their parents and featured in Netflix shows could be freed early after 34 years behind bars.

Lyle Menendez, 56, and his 53-year-old brother Erik are serving life in prison without parole for the shotgun murders of their father and mother – Jose and Kitty Menendez – in 1989.

They were jailed after a trial in 1996 when Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18.

On Thursday, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon recommended that the pair be resentenced – replacing their life sentence with a sentence of 50 years to life.

This would mean the brothers would be eligible for parole immediately because they were under 26 years old at the time of the murders, Mr Gascon said.

“Under the law, resentencing is appropriate. I’m going to recommend that to a court tomorrow,” the district attorney told a news conference.

“I believe they have paid their debt to society.”

Prosecutors must now seek court approval on the case, with the final decision falling to the judge.

It comes after Mr Gascon said his office would be reviewing new evidence that allegedly corroborates claims that Erik was sexually abused by his father, who was a music executive.

Both the brothers claim they killed their parents in self-defence after enduring a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse from them.

Their lawyers argue that because of society’s changing views on sexual abuse, if tried today the brothers may not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.

But prosecutors contended at the time there was no evidence of any molestation and said the brothers were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/menendez-brothers-set-to-be-resentenced-for-murder-of-parents-after-case-featured-by-netflix-13240437

Israel’s military said on Thursday it killed a Hamas commander who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel and also worked for the U.N. aid agency in the Gaza Strip.

The agency, UNRWA, has been accused by Israel of having many employees who double as members of Hamas and other armed groups. The U.N., after an investigation, said in August that nine UNRWA staff were possibly involved in the Oct. 7 attacks and fired them.

Two attackers killed five people and wounded 22 others on Wednesday in what Ankara called a terrorist attack at the Turkish Aerospace Industries headquarters, where witnesses said they heard gunfire and an explosion.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said both attackers were killed after the attack, adding two of the injured are in critical condition. TV broadcasters showed footage of armed assailants entering the TUSAS building near Ankara.

Turkish air forces conducted airstrikes in northern Iraq and northern Syria and destroyed 32 PKK targets, the defence ministry said late on Wednesday, adding that many PKK members were killed.

Prosecutors have launched an investigation, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, alongside Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a BRICS conference in the Russian city of Kazan, condemned the attack and accepted Putin’s condolences. NATO, the United States and the European Union also condemned the attack.

Witnesses told Reuters that employees inside the building had been taken to shelters by the authorities and no one had been permitted to leave for a few hours. They said the blasts they heard may have taken place at different exits as employees were leaving work for the day.

Witnesses later said evacuation of personnel from the TUSAS campus had started and buses were allowed to leave as the operation had ended.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/blast-turkish-aviation-company-tusas-hq-gunfire-heard-media-2024-10-23/

The United States said for the first time on Wednesday that it had seen evidence that North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine, a move that could mark a significant escalation in Russia’s war against its neighbor.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking in Rome, said it would be “very, very serious” if the North Koreans were preparing to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine, as Kyiv has alleged. But he said it remained to be seen what they would be doing there.

“There is evidence that there are DPRK troops in Russia,” Austin told reporters, using North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Speaking to reporters later on Wednesday White House spokesperson John Kirby said the United States believes at least 3,000 North Korean troops are undergoing training at three military bases in eastern Russia.
The U.S. determined the North Korean soldiers were transported by ship in early-to-mid October from North Korea’s Wonsan region to the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok before being taken to three military training sites in eastern Russia, said Kirby.

“Signs of troops being trained inside North Korea were detected in September and October,” Park Sun-won, a member of a parliamentary intelligence committee, said after the briefing.
The Ukraine conflict broke out when Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022 and has since developed into a war of attrition largely fought along front lines in eastern Ukraine, with huge numbers of casualties on both sides.
The United States said the alleged North Korean deployment could be further evidence that the Russian military was having problems with manpower.
The Kremlin has previously dismissed Seoul’s claims about the North’s troop deployment as “fake news” and a North Korean representative to the United Nations in New York called it “groundless rumors” at a meeting on Monday.
Both Moscow and Pyongyang have also denied weapons transfers, but they have pledged to boost military ties and signed a mutual defense treaty at a summit in June.
The latest numbers came after Seoul’s National Intelligence Service said on Friday the North had sent some 1,500 special forces personnel to Russia by ship and they were likely to be deployed for combat in the war in Ukraine after training and acclimatization.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has also accused Pyongyang of preparing to send 10,000 soldiers to Russia. On Tuesday he called on his allies to respond to evidence of North Korean involvement in Russia’s war.

NATO allies are consulting on the North Korean deployment to Russia, a NATO spokesperson said.

A Biden administration official said Moscow might send the North Koreans to eastern Ukraine or to its own Kursk region, where Russian troops have been fighting to dislodge Ukrainian forces holding a chunk of territory that they seized in an incursion that began in August.

Mike Turner, the chair of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee, said in a statement that U.S. President Joe Biden should allow Kyiv to respond with U.S.-supplied arms if North Korean troops “attack Ukraine from Russian territory.”

“If North Korean troops were to invade Ukraine’s sovereign territory, the United States needs to seriously consider taking direct military action against the North Korean troops,” Turner added.

FAMILIES ISOLATED

Lee Seong-kweun, a lawmaker on the South Korean committee, said Pyongyang authorities had tried to keep news of the deployment from spreading.

“There are also signs of North Korean authorities relocating and isolating those families (of the troops) in a certain place in order to effectively control them and thoroughly crack down on the rumours,” Lee said, citing the spy agency.

Lee also said the agency confirmed that Russia had recruited a large number of interpreters for the North Korean soldiers, while training them in the use of military equipment such as drones.

“Russian instructors are assessing that the North Korean military has excellent physical attributes and morale but lacks understanding of modern warfare such as drone attacks,” he said.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-korea-has-sent-3000-troops-russia-ukraine-war-south-korean-lawmakers-say-2024-10-23/

A TERROR drone attack launched by Hezbollah directly hit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s seaside residence inside Israel.

Declassified images shared by Israeli authorities show the extent of damage caused by one of the drones that managed to elude the Israeli air defences.

The pictures, previously censored by the Israeli military, reveal a massive crack in the leader’s bedroom window along with scorch marks on the wall.

It is understood that the flying projectile narrowly missed entering the home because of reinforced glass and other protective measures.

Huge shards of glass were found floating on the water in the swimming pool while other damaged bits from the building were seen scattered around Netaunyahu’s backyard.

It is understood that three drones launched by Hezbollah entered Israeli airspace on Saturday after eluding the air defences.

Two of them were shot down after the breach.

But one managed to hit his vacation home in Caesarea – an affluent resort town in the centre of the country.

Footage posted on social media appeared to show an Israeli chopper hunting down what is believed to be one of the drones that was part of the wider attack.

Netanyahu, 74 and his wife Sara, 65, were unharmed.

The IDF said: “One additional UAV hit a structure in the area of Caesarea. No injuries were reported.”

A local resident told Israeli Channel 12: “Suddenly a large explosion was heard and it was not clear to us if it was from an interception or a drone impact.

“It was very worrying; luckily, there are no casualties.”

Another resident added: “It was not clear what was happening, then there was a huge explosion, very strong.”

In a rare video statement posted on social media, a defiant Netanyahu reacted to the attack and said: “Nothing will deter us.”

Filmed wearing a black polo shirt and sunglasses, The Israeli leader added: “We’re in an existential war, and we’re continuing to the end.”

Military commanders believe he was targeted by a revenge strike after his forces killed both Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, followed by Hamas kingpin Yahya Sinwar last week.

Netanyahu alleged that the drone strike was part of an assassination attempt plotted by Iran.

He said: “The agents of Iran who tried to assassinate me and my wife today made a bitter mistake.”

He said the attack would not deter him from continuing the war and that anyone who harmed Israelis would pay “a heavy price”.

An Israeli investigation today confirmed Iranian involvement in the attack.

Sources told The Saudi Al-Hadath TV channel: “Officials at the Iranian embassy in Beirut are involved in the assassination attempt on Netanyahu.”

Iranian officials meanwhile tried to downplay the situation but confirmed the drones were indeed launched by Hezbollah.

Although Tehran denied any involvement in the drone strike that appeared to “eliminate Netanyahu”.

Iran has also vowed to respond to any Israeli attack – saying it has “no red lines”.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/12728216/hezbollah-drone-bedroom-window-netanyahus-house/

At the BRICS meeting in Kazan, which was attended by leaders from 32 countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted Russia’s strategic partnerships with China and India. Despite international concerns, both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized strengthening relations with Russia. Putin used the occasion to reaffirm his position on the global stage and highlight the growing BRICS alliance.

Putin took use of this opportunity to emphasize the expanding BRICS alliance and solidify his place on the international scene. Russia’s determination to change the world order and thwart Western attempts to isolate the Kremlin over the conflict is evident in the summit, which was attended by leaders from 32 nations, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Russia’s Expanding Ties with China and India

Both Xi and Modi stressed bolstering ties with Russia during bilateral discussions. Xi reiterated the “deep friendship” between China and Russia during their talks, stressing that it is unaffected by the “chaos” in the world. Similar remarks were made by Modi, who said that his recent trips to Russia highlight the “close and deepening” ties. Despite growing geopolitical tensions, these declarations show the countries’ growing collaboration.

In response, Putin emphasized the strategic alliance with India and referred to his connection with Xi as that of “dear friends.” Both presidents hailed Moscow’s expanding collaboration with their countries, with Modi emphasizing the role of Russia in India’s diplomatic and economic plans and Xi describing it as “wide-ranging.”

Strategic Alliances Amid Ukraine War

Since the two nations announced a “no-limits friendship” just weeks prior to the invasion of Ukraine, China and Russia’s relationship has changed. Since Xi took office in 2012, they have met more than 40 times, including this year in Beijing and Kazakhstan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit. These regular interactions show how committed both nations are to thwarting American influence, especially in light of the turmoil in Ukraine.

Beijing’s position on the conflict is still nuanced, though. Although China portrays itself as an impartial party that can mediate disputes, the United States and its European allies accuse Beijing of providing financial support to Russia throughout the crisis. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that Xi and Putin discussed Ukraine extensively during their meeting.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/india/prime-minister-narendra-modi-joins-russias-vladimir-putin-and-chinas-xi-jinping-at-brics-dinnerinkazan-watch-article-114484081

India and China have agreed on patrolling arrangements to de-escalate tensions along a disputed Himalayan border which has seen deadly hand-to-hand clashes in recent years, India’s top diplomat has said.

Vikram Misri said on Monday the two sides have agreed on “disengagement and resolution of issues in these [border] areas that had arisen in 2020”.

He was referring to the Galwan Valley clashes – the first fatal confrontation between the two sides since 1975, in which both sides suffered casualties.

Relations between the neighbours have been strained since then.

“An agreement has been arrived at on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the India-China border areas, leading to disengagement and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020,” Mr Misri said.

Mr Misri, however, did not give any details about the disengagement process and whether it would cover all points of conflict along the disputed border.

The Indian foreign secretary’s statement comes just a day before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels to Russia for a meeting of Brics nations which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Mr Misri didn’t confirm if a bilateral meeting between Mr Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping was on the agenda.

His remarks on Monday mark a major development between the two nuclear-armed nations since the Galwan clashes.

Troops in the Galwan Valley fought with clubs and sticks because of 1996 agreement between the two countries that prohibited the use of guns and explosives near the border.

Several rounds of talks between their diplomats and military leaders in the last four years had not resulted in a major breakthrough.

• India-China clash: An extraordinary escalation ‘with rocks and clubs’
• China says Indian troops fired ‘provocative’ shots in border dispute

Troops from the two sides clashed in the northern Sikkim area in 2021 and again in the Tawang sector of the border in 2022.

Border tensions have cast a long shadow on India-China relations for decades. The two countries fought a war in 1962 in which India suffered a heavy defeat.

Business relations between the two Asian giants have also suffered due to the tensions.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg0gwy0nlyo

Russia wants the BRICS summit to showcase the rising clout of the non-Western world, but Moscow’s partners from China, India, Brazil and the Arab world are urging President Vladimir Putin to find a way to end the war in Ukraine.
The BRICS group now accounts for 45% of the world’s population and 35% of its economy, based on purchasing power parity, though China accounts for over half of its economic might.

Police, prosecutors and forensic examiners in the northern Mexico state of Sinaloa all conspired to cover up the killing of an opponent of the ruling-party state governor, using a blood-stained truck found at the crime scene, federal prosecutors said Sunday.

The bombshell statement by federal prosecutors backs up the version of imprisoned drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Zambada claims he was forced aboard an airplane on July 25 by another drug capo who flew them both to the United States and turned them in to U.S. authorities.

Zambada said in a letter in August that Héctor Cuén, an opponent of ruling-party Gov. Ruben Rocha, was murdered on July 25 at the same time and the same ranch where Zambada was kidnapped. Federal prosecutors revealed Sunday that Cuén’s blood was indeed found at the ranch.

Gov. Rocha has not responded publicly to Sunday’s statement by prosecutors, but he has said in the past that Cuén was killed by gunmen in a random botched robbery at a gasoline station miles away later that day, and Sinaloa state prosecutors showed security camera footage of the alleged attack.

But federal prosecutors quickly noted something was wrong with that video: post-mortem records showed Cuén’s body had four gunshot wounds, while only one gunshot can be heard on the security camera footage, and gas station employees said they didn’t hear any.

Cuén’s bullet-ridden body could not help solve the riddle, because Sinaloa officials violated all murder investigation rules by allowing the body to be cremated almost immediately.

The gasoline station footage was later proved to be a falsification, but something about the white pickup truck seen in the footage was real: it had the blood of one of Zambada’s trusted bodyguards in the cargo bed.

That implied that Sinaloa state police, crime scene investigators and prosecutors either found the bodyguard’s corpse in the truck and got rid of the body, or at very least took the blood-stained vehicle from a crime scene to fake a gunpoint robbery at the gas station.

“All of the above confirms the police and prosecution investigation that has confirmed the presumed administrative and criminal responsibilities of Sinaloa police, detectives, forensic examiners and state prosecutors who have been exhaustively investigated regarding their participation in the death of Héctor (Cuén)” the federal Attorney General’s Office said in a statement Sunday.

The news appears to complicate further the position of Gov. Rocha, who belongs to President Claudia Sheinbaum’s ruling Morena Party. Sheinbaum has strongly backed Rocha so far. But Rocha has done little or nothing to quell the bloody fighting that broke out between the rival factions of the two Sinaloa drug cartel capos that broke out after July 25.

Instead, Rocha has sought to downplay the gunbattles, killings, kidnappings and cartel roadblocks that have sprung around the state capital, Culiacan. On Thursday, hours before gunmen opened fire on the offices of a local newspaper, Gov. Rocha said “there is nothing to worry about” and “everything is under control.”

Rocha — a close associate of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who left office Sept. 30 — has been implicated in the events of July 25 from the start, though he denies it.

Zambada has said that Joaquín Guzmán López — a leader of a rival cartel faction who he nonetheless trusted — had invited him to the meeting to help iron out the fierce political rivalry between Gov. Rocha and Cuén, who were feuding.

Zambada was famous for eluding capture for decades because of his incredibly tight, loyal and sophisticated personal security apparatus. But he said that on July 25, he left most of his security team behind and entered with only two bodyguards because he expected both Cuén and Gov. Rocha to be present.

The two bodyguards have not been heard from since.

The fact that Zambada would knowingly leave all his security behind to meet with the politicians suggests he viewed such a meeting as credible and feasible. The same goes for the idea that Zambada, as the leader of the oldest wing of the Sinaloa cartel, could act as an arbiter in the state’s political disputes.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/mexico-sinaloa-cartel-fighting-governor-scandal-223247f9cc2f2a1de9991ce6a959298f

A top election law expert says Elon Musk is breaking the law by giving away $1 million to a number of registered voters in Pennsylvania and other swing states who sign his PAC’s petition.

At a rally in Harrisburg, PA Saturday, Musk announced plans to give out $1 million per day up until the election to signers of a petition from his America PAC pledging to uphold the right to free speech and the right to bear arms. However, per the terms set out at the petition link, the giveaway is only open to registered voters in the seven swing states.

“To be eligible, both the referrer and the petition signer must be registered voters of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin,” the fine print of the petition states.

UCLA law professor Rick Hasen, in a post on his Election Law Blog site Saturday night, argued that because registering to vote is a required provision for eligibility, Musk is breaking the law with his gambit.

“Though maybe some of the other things Musk was doing were of murky legality, this one is clearly illegal,” Hasen wrote.

The professor cited 52 U.S.C. 10307(c), which says that anyone who “pay[s] or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote” is breaking the law. He also quoted from the DOJ election crimes manual, which defines a bribe as “anything having monetary value, including cash, liquor, lottery chances, and welfare benefits such as food stamps.” The manual added, “For an offer or a payment to violate Section 10307(c), it must have been intended to induce or reward the voter for engaging in one or more acts necessary to cast a ballot.”

Source: https://www.mediaite.com/news/clearly-illegal-top-election-attorney-accuses-elon-musk-of-breaking-law-with-1-million-lotto-style-giveaway-to-pa-voters/

Billionaire Elon Musk promised on Saturday to give away $1 million each day until November’s election to someone who signs his online petition supporting the U.S. Constitution.
And he wasted no time, awarding a $1 million check to an attendee of his event in Pennsylvania aimed at rallying supporters behind Republican Donald Trump. The winner was a man named John Dreher, according to event staff.
“By the way, John had no idea. So anyway, you’re welcome,” the Tesla founder said as he handed Dreher the check.

The money is the latest example of Musk using his extraordinary wealth to influence the tightly-contested presidential race between Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris.
Musk started America PAC, a political action organization he founded in support of Trump’s presidential campaign. The group is helping mobilize and register voters in battleground states, but there are signs it is having trouble meeting its goals.

The Harrisburg event is the third in as many days in Pennsylvania, where Musk is painting November’s election in stark terms and encouraging supporters to vote early and get others to do the same.
He said on Saturday that if Harris wins, it will be “the last election,” suggesting the U.S. will no longer exist.
He also said the two assassination attempts against Trump prove he is ruffling feathers and upending the status quo in ways Harris won’t. He said that’s why no one is trying to kill Harris.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/elon-musk-promises-award-1-mln-each-day-signer-his-petition-2024-10-20/

Boeing has offered striking machinists a 35% pay rise over four years in a new contract proposal they hope will end a month-long strike.

About 33,000 unionised workers, mostly in Seattle, will vote on Wednesday whether to accept the offer from the aviation giant.

They have been on strike since 14 September, halting production of the firm’s 737 MAX and its 767 and 777 planes.

The company’s bottom line has been so hurt that it announced earlier this week it was seeking an addition $35bn in funding. It also said it would need to lay off 17,000 workers – about 10% of its work force – in November.

“The future of this contract is in your hands,” the union told workers on Saturday.

Union membership had previously rejected an offer that included a 30% salary bonus, saying it was not enough to cover cost-of-living increases.

The union was seeking a 40% salary bump and the reinstatement of a defined-benefits pension, which guarantees an income in retirement.

Although the latest offer is closer to the desired salary increase than the previous offer, it does not include a defined-benefits pension, which would guarantee specific monthly benefits upon retirement.

It does include a $7,000 (£5,365) bonus if they accept the deal, reinstated incentive plan and enhanced contributions to workers’ retirement plans, including a one-time $5,000 contribution plus up to 12% in employer contributions, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 751 said.

The strike has dismayed the Biden administration.

Acting US Labour Secretary Julie Su met union representatives and Boeing executives in Seattle this week to encourage a resolution. The company plays an important role in the US economy.

It has also been under scrutiny since an incident in January when a defect caused a panel to blow out on a new Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-MAX jet shortly after takeoff.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn8j07jp0y9o

Cuba is experiencing a nationwide blackout after its main energy plant failed, knocking out power to its 10 million people.

Its power grid collapsed at around 11:00 (15:00 GMT) on Friday, the energy ministry announced on social media.

Grid officials said they did not know how long it would take to restore power.

The island has suffered months of lengthy blackouts, prompting the prime minister to declare an “energy emergency” on Thursday.

Friday’s total blackout came after the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas – the largest on the island – went offline.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said the situation was his “absolute priority”.

“There will be no rest until power is restored,” he wrote on X.

The head of electricity supply at the energy ministry, Lazara Guerra, was later quoted by AFP news agency as saying the process of restoring power was in its early stages.

There was, she added, “some level of electricity generation” that would be used to start up power plants in several regions of the country.

Earlier on Friday, officials announced that all schools and non-essential activities, including nightclubs, were to close until Monday.

Non-essential workers were urged to stay home to safeguard electricity supply, and non-vital government services were suspended.

Cubans have also been urged to switch off high-consumption appliances such as fridges and ovens during peak hours, according to local media.

“This is crazy,” Eloy Fon, an 80-year-old pensioner living in central Havana, told AFP.

“It shows the fragility of our electricity system… We have no reserves, there is nothing to sustain the country, we are living day to day.”

Bárbara López, 47, a digital content creator, said she had already “barely been able to work for two days”.

“It’s the worst I’ve seen in 47 years,” she said. “They’ve really messed up now… We have no power or mobile data.”

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero addressed the public in a televised message on Thursday, blaming deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand for the electricity failures.

“The fuel shortage is the biggest factor,” he said.

The head of the National Electric Union (UNE) Alfredo López Valdés also acknowledged the island had been facing a challenging energy situation, with shortages chiefly to blame.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8elzx8dg7zo

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday (October 18, 2024) said it is difficult to specify a timeline for ending the prolonged war in Ukraine but asserted that his country will win, as he appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s concern over the situation.

Days ahead of the 16th BRICS Summit to be hosted by him, Mr. Putin also endorsed Mr. Modi’s description of the grouping, saying the Indian leader had “aptly” noted that it is “not an anti-western one but a non-western one”.

He also made it clear the grouping, which has since been expanded from five initial members to include five more countries, should not be seen as a “bloc style organisation”.

Mr. Modi is due to visit Kazan to attend the summit on October 22-23.

At an interaction with senior Editors from BRICS countries at his official residence Novo-Ogaryovo, about 50 km from Moscow, the Russian leader also indicated he could discuss giving Indian movies another boost when he meets Modi.

Asked by PTI whether he saw a role for India in negotiating peace between Russia and Ukraine, he referred to the concern expressed by Modi, whom he described as a “friend”. He said Russia was “grateful” for this.

Mr. Modi had told Putin on phone on August 27 that he backed an early, peaceful resolution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, days after he held talks with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. He had also visited Moscow in July.

In his remarks on September 5, Mr. Putin had identified India, China and Brazil as the countries with which Russia was in touch to resolve the Ukraine conflict.

Mr. Putin on Friday said setting a timeline on ending the war will be “counterproductive.” The Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted in February 2022.

He blamed the U.S. and NATO for pushing Russia into the war, and said his country will prevail.

He added that the Ukraine army, on its own cannot handle precision weapon delivery systems.

“It is all done by NATO professionals. But you know what the difference is? NATO is waging a war against us….” He said the Russian army has become one of the most combat effective and high-tech armies in the world, and NATO will get tired of “waging this war against us”.

“We will have the upper hand. We’ll win. We’ll prevail,” he said through an interpreter at the media interaction.

The Russian leader expressed his willingness to negotiate peace and accused Ukraine of backing out from earlier efforts.

Besides India and Russia, the BRICS also has China, South Africa and Brazil. The grouping represents 24 per cent of the global GDP and 41 per cent of the world’s population and positions itself as an economic counterweight to the West.

The latest five entrants to the grouping are Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Mr. Putin said the doors of BRICS were not closed to new members, and as the grouping develops even the non-member countries will benefit economically.

The Russian leader said what sets this group apart from others is that BRICS was never meant to be against anyone.

On other issues, Mr. Putin accused the U.S. of trying to stem development in China. “It’s like telling the sun not to rise,” he said.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/no-timeline-on-ukraine-war-says-putin-appreciates-pm-modis-concern-endorses-description-of-brics/article68771679.ece

China’s economy grew at the slowest pace since early 2023 in the third quarter, and though consumption and industrial output figures for last month beat forecasts a tumbling property sector remains a big challenge for Beijing as it tries to boost growth.
The world’s second-largest economy grew 4.6% in July-September, official data showed, a touch above a 4.5% forecast in a Reuters poll but below the 4.7% pace in the second quarter.

Policymakers could find cause for optimism in forecast-topping industrial output and retail sales data for September, but the property sector continued to show sharp weakness and backs markets’ calls for more support steps.
“China’s Q3 2024 data is not a turn-up for the books,” said Bruce Pang, Chief Economist at JLL. “The performance aligns with market expectations, given the weak domestic demand, a still struggling housing market, and slowing export growth.”

“The stimulus package announced at the end of September will take time and patience to boost growth over the next several quarters,” he added.
The latest figures come as authorities have started to sharply increase stimulus measures in an effort to ensure the economy meets the government’s 2024 growth target of around 5%.
A Reuters poll showed China’s economy is likely to expand 4.8% in 2024, undershooting Beijing’s target, and growth could cool further to 4.5% in 2025.

The economy has stuttered through uneven growth this year, with industrial production outstripping domestic consumption, fanning deflationary risks amid the property downturn and mounting local government debt.
Policymakers, who have traditionally leaned on infrastructure and manufacturing investment to drive growth, have pledged to shift focus towards stimulating consumption, but markets are awaiting further details of a planned fiscal stimulus package.

On a quarterly basis, the economy expanded 0.9% in the third quarter, compared with 0.7% growth in April-June, and below forecast of 1.0%.
“While (the Q3 figure) is a marginal decline from the second quarter, it makes the official growth target of 5% difficult to achieve if this trend continues to year-end,” said Zhiwei Zhang, Chief Economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.
“We are waiting for more clarity on the fiscal stimulus,” he added.
Recent data raised the risk of China sliding into an entrenched phase of deflationary pressures as prospects for exports, the economy’s lone bright spot this year, look to be dimming amid foreign trade curbs.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-economy-likely-have-slowed-q3-beijings-2024-target-risk-2024-10-17/

An Israeli drone captured Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar’s last minutes alive — as the Oct. 7 mastermind swung a piece of wood in a futile attempt to take out the device before he was killed, officials said.

Shocking footage shows the moment a drone is deployed to check a building in Rafah that a group of IDF soldiers hit on Thursday.

An injured Sinwar, who had his face covered and appeared be missing his right hand, could be seen sitting alone on a coach in the destroyed building, with the IDF soldiers unaware that they were seeing the very man they had been hunting for since he ordered the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack on the Jewish state.

When Sinwar finally notices the drone hovering just a few feet from him, he struggles, using his left hand, to fling an object at the UAV in a last ditch effort to keep his whereabouts hidden.

The soldiers then ordered a second strike on the building, killing Sinwar and two other Hamas terrorists who were traveling with him.

After recovering the body and comparing it to the DNA samples the Israeli military retrieved from Sinwar during his time as a prisoner, officials confirmed the man killed in the strike was the terror chief.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters that Sinwar had likely been shot in his hand and taking refuge in the building when it was hit by the Israeli troops.

Hagari said Sinwar was likely on the move trying to escape north amid the Israeli military’s advancement in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had fled to earlier this year.

Sinwar’s death has been hailed by US and Israeli officials as a major blow to Hamas with the potential of ending the war in Gaza and freeing the remaining 97 hostages who were abducted on Oct. 7.

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/10/17/world-news/israeli-drone-captures-yahya-sinwars-last-moments-alive/