All posts tagged: Collections: World

Australia Targets Social Media With Parliamentary Probe

Australia Targets Social Media With Parliamentary Probe

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SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia announced on Friday that it would hold a parliamentary inquiry to look into the negative impacts of social media platforms, saying they have significant reach and control over what Australians see online, with almost no scrutiny. The government has criticised social media platforms for not being quick enough to remove violent posts and seeks more oversight over content posted on Meta’s Facebook, ByteDance’s TikTok and Elon Musk-owned X. “Across a range of issues, whether it be the issue of domestic violence, whether it be the radicalisation of our young people, across a range of areas, something that keeps popping up over and over again is the role of social media,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters. “(They) can be very positive but also can have a negative influence which is there.” Albanese’s Labor government is already in a legal fight with Musk’s X over a regulatory order asking the platform to take down videos of the stabbing attack on an Assyrian church bishop in Sydney last month. X said it has …

Zelenskiy Dismisses Head of State Guard After Two Members Accused of Assassination Plot

Zelenskiy Dismisses Head of State Guard After Two Members Accused of Assassination Plot

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(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed the head of the state guards on Thursday, two days after two of its members were accused of plotting to assassinate the president. Zelenskiy issued a decree dismissing Serhiy Rud. No successor was identified. The state security service (SBU) said this week it had caught two men, colonels in the state guard service, accused of plotting the assassination of Zelenskiy and other top officials. The SBU said the assassinations were to have been a “gift” for Vladimir Putin as he was sworn in for a new term in the Kremlin on Tuesday. It said the men were recruited by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) who leaked classified information to Moscow. The men, the SBU said, were tasked with finding someone close to the presidential guard who would take Zelenskiy hostage and later kill him. There was no indication at what point the alleged plot had been foiled. Moscow issued no comment on the SBU’s statement. The president, the very prominent leader of his country’s defence more than two …

Passenger Plane’s Tire Bursts on Landing in Turkey; No Casualties

Passenger Plane’s Tire Bursts on Landing in Turkey; No Casualties

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ANKARA (Reuters) – A Corendon Airlines Boeing 737 plane’s front tire burst upon landing at an airport in southern Turkey on Thursday, the Turkish transport minister said, adding there were no casualties and all 190 passengers and crew were evacuated. The front landing gear strut was damaged on the Corendon Airlines plane, arriving from Cologne, Germany, as it landed at Alanya-Gazipasa airport in Antalya, Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said. “All our relevant units were on the field and were on alert. Thank God, there were no injuries to the 184 passengers and 6 crew,” Uraloglu said on social media platform X, adding initial evaluations showed there was no damage to the runway, which was temporarily closed. On Wednesday, Turkish authorities launched an investigation into a FedEx Airlines Boeing 767 cargo plane landing at Istanbul Airport without its front landing gear. After Thursday’s incident, flights were diverted to the main Antalya airport and other nearby airports, the minister said. Corendon said in a statement the plane halted safely on the runway after the tire burst. Experts say …

Trump Lawyer Grills Stormy Daniels, Says She Sought to Profit off Story of Sex

Trump Lawyer Grills Stormy Daniels, Says She Sought to Profit off Story of Sex

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By Luc Cohen and Jody Godoy NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s lawyer accused porn star Stormy Daniels of profiting off her story they had sex in 2006, part of an effort to undermine her credibility as a witness in the first criminal trial of a sitting or former U.S. president.  Daniels’ unflattering account of a sexual encounter with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite in 2006 riveted jurors on Tuesday, reminding U.S. voters of the more lurid aspects of his 2017-2021 presidency as he campaigns to win back the White House this year. Trump, 77, is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Daniels, 45, for her silence ahead of the 2016 election about the alleged encounter. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies ever having sex with Daniels. His lawyer Susan Necheles showed jurors Daniels’ social media posts advertising merchandise on her online store around the time Trump had been charged last year. The merchandise included a “Stormy Saint of …

The Latest | Floating Pier off Gaza Is Set to Receive First US Aid Shipment

The Latest | Floating Pier off Gaza Is Set to Receive First US Aid Shipment

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The first ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza was on its way Thursday to a floating platform built by the U.S. military. The plan is for cargo to be transferred at the pier to smaller U.S. boats that will deliver it to shore. The Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a main entry point for aid, has been shut down since Israel’s military took control of the Palestinian side early Tuesday. Civilians in Rafah have been thrown into panic and chaos by the possibility of a full-scale Israeli invasion of the overcrowded city. Tens of thousands of displaced and exhausted Palestinians have packed up their tents and other belongings and left for other parts of Gaza. “Where are we supposed to go? Where is the world is that is just watching us?” Ahmad Abed, who has an 8-month-old daughter, said. “It’s like we’re sheep.” The war in Gaza has driven around 80% of the territory’s population of 2.3 million from their homes and caused vast destruction to apartments, hospitals, mosques and schools across several cities. The …

Transitional Council in Haiti Embraces New Changes Following Turmoil as Gang Violence Grips Country

Transitional Council in Haiti Embraces New Changes Following Turmoil as Gang Violence Grips Country

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A transitional council tasked with choosing new leaders for Haiti is changing the way it operates in a move that surprised many as gang violence consumes the country. Instead of having a single council president, four longtime politicians will take turns leading the council every five months, according to two members who were not authorized to publicly share the changes because they had not yet been announced. The members told The Associated Press late Wednesday that the council also will now consider five members a majority, instead of four. The council is composed of nine members, seven of which have voting powers. “That’s a real switch,” Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, said of the changes. “I think it’s a good thing that they’re really going to share power now. … It is something that is very rare in Haitian politics.” The four members who will share power are original council president Edgard Leblanc Fils, ex-senator Louis Gérald Gilles, former presidential candidate Leslie Voltaire and ex-ambassador …

China’s Xi Arrives in Hungary for Talks on Expanding Chinese Investments

China’s Xi Arrives in Hungary for Talks on Expanding Chinese Investments

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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Hungary late Wednesday, the final stop on his five-day European tour, where he’s expected to finalize a number of agreements with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that will deepen China’s economic footprint in the region. Xi is set to spend two nights in the Hungarian capital Budapest where he will meet with Orbán and Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok. Talks will center on future Chinese investments in the Central European country, which has courted deep economic ties with Beijing even as mainstream European leaders have pursued more protectionist policies to limit its reach on the continent. Orbán, a nationalist populist whose illiberal policies have pushed him to the fringes of the European Union, made his country the first in the 27-member bloc to participate in Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative. Hungary has straddled a middle ground between its membership in the EU and NATO and a willingness to establish diplomatic and trade relationships with autocratic governments outside those groupings. Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, told a …

Second UK Conservative Lawmaker in Two Weeks Defects to Opposition Labour

Second UK Conservative Lawmaker in Two Weeks Defects to Opposition Labour

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LONDON (Reuters) -Another lawmaker from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party defected to the opposition Labour Party on Wednesday, the second to do so in less than two weeks, criticising what she called broken promises of a “tired and chaotic government”. Sunak’s Conservatives trail Labour by about 20 points in opinion polls ahead of a national election expected this year, and the party suffered heavy losses in local elections last week. Natalie Elphicke, who represents the Dover constituency on the south coast of England, defected just before Sunak made his weekly appearance at prime minister’s questions in parliament. “Under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives have become a byword for incompetence and division,” Elphicke said in a statement. Elphicke is the third Conservative lawmaker to defect to Labour since the last election in 2019. Photos You Should See – April 2024 Dan Poulter, a former health minister, defected last month saying the government’s record on the state-run National Health Service (NHS) – one of Sunak’s five priorities for the country – meant he could no longer represent …

Dozens Still Missing After Monday’s South Africa Building Collapse. 7 Confirmed Dead

Dozens Still Missing After Monday’s South Africa Building Collapse. 7 Confirmed Dead

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GEORGE, South Africa (AP) — Nearly 40 construction workers were still missing Wednesday in the rubble of a building that collapsed in South Africa on Monday as rescue teams continued to search for survivors for a third day in the wreckage of the unfinished five-story apartment complex. Seven workers have been confirmed dead, while authorities in the city of George on South Africa’s south coast released new information on the injuries, saying 16 of the 29 people rescued from the debris were in a critical condition in hospitals and another six had life-threatening injuries. They said 39 workers were still unaccounted for and buried in the rubble of concrete and mangled metal scaffolding. The collapse of the building that was still under construction sparked a desperate rescue effort that has seen specialist disaster response teams brought in from other towns and cities to help. A total of 75 construction workers were at the building site when it came down, the George municipality said. More than 200 rescue personnel continued to search for survivors using sniffer …

Russia Hits Ukraine’s Power Grid With a ‘Massive’ Attack on a Day Marking the WWII Defeat of Nazism

Russia Hits Ukraine’s Power Grid With a ‘Massive’ Attack on a Day Marking the WWII Defeat of Nazism

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces unleashed a nighttime barrage of more than 50 cruise missiles and explosive drones at Ukraine’s power grid Wednesday, targeting a wide area in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a “massive” attack on the day the country celebrates the defeat of Nazism in World War II. The bombardment blasted targets in seven Ukrainian regions, including the Kyiv area and parts of the south and west, damaging homes and the country’s rail network, authorities said. Three people, including an 8-year-old girl, were injured, according to officials. Russia has repeatedly pounded Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the war that is stretching into its third year and has claimed thousands of lives. By taking out the power, the Kremlin’s forces aim to rob Ukrainian manufacturing of its energy supply, especially military plants, and crush public morale. Russian attacks have damaged nearly half of Ukraine’s power infrastructure since the start of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, officials say. The damage is estimated at $12.5 billion, with $1 billion inflicted during the past two …