The Republican nominee is closing out his third consecutive White House bid with a loud, ostentatious campaign that has thrust his conduct to the center of a photo-finish battle.

Donald Trump and allies are increasingly targeting transgender people in the election’s closing days, invoking them as boogeymen and pouring millions into ads

The West should discuss deploying a “conventional deterrence” package in Ukraine to deter Russia, the French Defense Minister says Read Full Article at RT.com

The US has warned Budapest about a violent plot being organized in Hungary, the Telex news outlet has reported Read Full Article at RT.com

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is embarking on his second trip to Russia this year for the 16th annual BRICS Summit in Kazan Read Full Article at RT.com

The Argentine government is planning to liquidate the current tax authority and establish a new one, chopping a third of jobs Read Full Article at RT.com

An Italian mafia boss and alleged drugs kingpin has been detained in Colombia after being located via his pool table, local police have said Read Full Article at RT.com

C'est conformément à l'article 7 des statuts du parti REAGIR qui consigne l'esprit de collégialité et de consensus comme mode de fonctionnement que le Bureau Exécutif de cette formation politique a fait une déclaration pour rappeler le président statutaire, Francois Ndong Obiang à l'ordre. C'était ce lundi 21 octobre 2024 à son siège, quarante huit heures seulement après le renouvellement des organes centraux au sein du parti. Le parti Réappropriation du Gabon, de son Indépendance pour (...) - POLITIQUE / SUJET_ECRIT_MAISON

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel Tuesday to push for a ceasefire in Gaza after his administration called for an end to the war in Lebanon «as soon as possible». It is his 11th trip to the Middle East since Hamas's attack on Israel more than a year ago triggered the Gaza war, and his first since Israel's conflict with Hezbollah escalated late last month. He is due to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials, as Israel weighs its response to Iran's October 1 missile attack. In Lebanon, Israel hit an area of south Beirut housing the country's largest public health facility, killing 13 people, according to the health ministry. The Rafic Hariri Hospital, located outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds, sustained minor damage in the strike which flattened four buildings in its vicinity, said an AFP correspondent in the area. Previous US efforts to end the Gaza war and contain the regional fallout have failed, as did a bid spearheaded by President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to secure a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon. After Israel, Blinken will visit Jordan on Wednesday and discuss humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, an official on the plane with him said. Blinken also plans to speak to Israeli leaders about the expected strike on Iran and discourage any move that could massively escalate regional conflict, the official said. - Night of strikes - On Monday, US envoy to Lebanon Amos Hochstein said his administration was seeking an end to the war «as soon as possible» as he pushed for a ceasefire based on a UN resolution that had ended an earlier Israel-Hezbollah war. Under resolution 1701, Hezbollah should have withdrawn from areas in south Lebanon near the Israeli border, leaving only the country's weak military and UN peacekeepers deployed there. But Hezbollah remained south of Lebanon's Litani River, and in October last year began launching low-intensity cross-border strikes into Israel, in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas. After nearly a year of war in Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to Lebanon, vowing to secure its northern border to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by the cross-border fire to return to their homes. Israel ramped up its air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around the country and on September 30 sent in ground troops, in a war that has killed at least 1,489 people since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures. The strike on Monday night came as Israel targeted Beirut's southern suburbs with heavy fire following evacuation warnings. The densely populated Ouzai neighbourhood a few kilometres (miles) from the city centre was hit for the first time in the conflict, sparking an exodus of residents. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hezbollah's naval unit, and that it had issued an evacuation warning. A Lebanese security official told AFP that the country's national airline had to switch landing strips after Israeli strikes near Beirut's only international airport hit close to the main runway. Hezbollah on Tuesday said it launched rockets targeting two positions in the suburbs of Israel's commercial hub Tel Aviv, including an intelligence base. It also said it targeted Israel's «Stella Maris naval base» near the northern city of Haifa, and that its militants had clashed with Israeli troops near a village at the border. In a war-hit area along the Lebanese border, AFP footage showed huge clouds of smoke rising following Israeli strikes on the village of Khiam, as trails of smoke from Hezbollah rockets fired towards Israel could also be seen. The wars in Gaza and Lebanon have also drawn in other Iran-aligned armed groups, including in Yemen, Syria and Iraq. Iran on Tuesday said it had received assurances from its neighbours that they would not allow the use of their airspace for any attack against it, after Israel pledged to hit back against its October 1 missile attack. - 'We will die of hunger' - In the Gaza Strip, Israel launched a major air and ground assault in northern Gaza earlier this month, vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in the area. Gaza's civil defence agency said four Palestinians were killed in strikes on Monday, while several homes were blown up in the northern area of Jabalia, a focal point of the recent fighting. A displaced resident said Jabalia «is being wiped out». «If we don't die from the bombing and gunfire, we will die of hunger,» said 42-year-old Umm Firas Shamiyah, demanding aid be sent to the north. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have fled the assault on northern Gaza, and according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees around 400,000 people were trapped in the area last week. The UN has warned of the risk of famine in Gaza, its figures showing that 396 aid trucks have entered the territory so far this month -- far below the 3,003 seen in September. The war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 last year, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures. Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed 42,718 people, a majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers reliable. © Agence France-Presse

 Joyce Lakela runs a nursery in Tembisa, a Johannesburg township, but these days she spends most of her time trying to find water. «It's been going on for five days,» she said, lamenting shortages affecting South Africa's largest city where temperatures are rising with the beginning of summer. «This is a big challenge,» the elderly woman said, after filling up a large bin with water from a tanker. «The kids have to wash their hands, we have to flush the toilets, and we also have to wash the kids.» The crisis is the result of daily restrictions imposed by the city to stop what they say is over-consumption and to allow maintenance work. While there is enough water in the country's reserves, for individuals like Lakela, who already faced months of electricity shortages last year, the reality is that taps are going dry for hours and sometimes days. Last week, residents of Westbury and Westdene, suburbs to the west of the central business district, blocked the streets in protest against water outages. They burned tyres and blocked a road with rocks and debris. Businesses and services have also been affected, including at least one hospital in northern Gauteng, the province of 16 million people which includes Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria. - Delays, leaks - This comes after Rand Water, the water supplier for Gauteng, this month warned over high water consumption and instructed municipalities to impose daily limits. «Water storage could soon be depleted if municipalities do not implement our recommendations. It is essential to act now to prevent the impending disaster,» Rand Water said in a statement on October 12. The water company is not just worried about consumers leaving taps on. There are also leaks and «illegal connections», or theft by individuals who divert pipelines and do not pay bills. «We are losing an average of over 40 percent (of our water) if you look at it in Gauteng,» Makenosi Marooa a spokeswoman for the utility told AFP. Leaks are often cited by the municipalities as a reason for maintenance-related outages. «We're not replacing anywhere near as much infrastructure as we should be,» said Craig Sheridan, director of the Centre in Water Research and Development at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. For Chris Herold, another water expert, «one of the main problems is that they (the municipalities) are incompetently run, and there's also a lot of corruption which is hindering the efficient running of water systems.» Municipalities insist that they are doing what they can with the resources they have. According to at least one city in the province, Ekurhuleni, it is the utility that is not providing enough water and leaving the reservoirs empty. But Rand Water is only licensed to withdraw a fixed amount approved by the Department of Water and Sanitation. Already back in 2009, it was clear that more was needed as Gauteng's population was rapidly expanding. The government made a deal with neighbouring Lesotho to expand the bulk water supply to Rand Water. The project initially meant for 2018 has been delayed until 2028 and as a result, sporadic restrictions to reduce demand are likely to continue. - Climate change - The rules could become more severe if South Africans do not change their habits, authorities have warned, adding that there could also be «financial implications». The country is already considered water scarce, with an average annual precipitation of 450mm per year compared to the global annual average of 786mm per year, and a warming planet will exacerbate the issue. Under a moderate climate change scenario, in which global emissions peak around 2040 and then decline, the amount of precipitation could fall by as much as 25 percent in South Africa by the end of the century. The estimates were released in a report published this month by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. «There's definitely a sense of urgency,» said Sheridan, who is particularly concerned by the health risks linked to turning water systems on and off, which has been South Africa's short term solution. «When a pipe is full of water, the water leaks out of it. If the pipe is empty, then a leaking sewer next to it can potentially contaminate the supply.» © Agence France-Presse

Since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into force in 2018, the European Commission has published two reports on its application. The second report stresses the need for consistent interpretation and enforcement of the GDPR, highlighting ongoing challenges such as divergent national interpretations, difficulties in cooperation among regulatory bodies, and obstacles faced by organisations in achieving compliance. Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

While many people, including Ontario's Premier Doug Ford, say that bike lanes increase traffic congestion, research from around the world shows that's not the case.

A group of temporary foreign workers quit an Etobicoke Canadian Tire before their work permits expired. Now two are sharing their stories, saying the owner paid them less than the agreed-upon wage in their contracts.

More than 100 people are out tens of thousands of dollars each, after Sunrise Homes, the developer of a pre-construction home project in Ontario, entered receivership. The builder admitted to CBC Toronto that he's been selling homes without getting legal approvals to do so for years.

Blaine Higgs defined himself as an anti-politician willing to depart from old, predictable patterns of governing. It worked for him at first, but it caught up with him Monday.

A section of Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers deployed in Somalia under the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) has returned to Kenya.

Djibouti (HOL) – Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh has reiterated his country's support for the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), the new AU mission set to replace ATMIS in January 2024.

Ankara (HOL) — Turkish Deputy Justice Minister Ramazan Can met with the Somali Ambassador to Turkey, Fathudin Ali Ospite, in Ankara on Monday to discuss bilateral cooperation on justice systems in both countries.

The Singapore government has said that British media outlet The Guardian's proposition that Lee Hsien Yang and his family are victims of baseless and unfounded persecution is itself «without basis».  In a Facebook post on Tuesday (Oct 22), Lee revealed that he sought asylum in the (UK) in 2022 and is now a political refugee.  «The Singapore government's attacks against me are in the public record. They prosecuted my son, brought disciplinary proceedings against my wife, and launched a bogus police investigation that has dragged on for years,» he wrote. «On the basis of these facts, the UK has determined that I face a well-founded risk of persecution, and cannot safely return to Singapore.» He then added that he sought asylum protection as a last resort. «I remain a Singapore citizen and hope that some day it will become safe to return home,» he said.

A woman was filling in a Malaysia Digital Arrival Card for her maid when she was apparently led to a fake link and that took her to a site asking for her credit card details. She lost more than $123 to the scam. Yang, a 52-year-old retiree, told Shin Min Daily News that she had gone to Malaysia with her maid at about 4pm on Oct 18. She was told that her maid needed to complete the Malaysian Digital Arrival Card in advance. «I used the maid's phone to find the website and clicked on the first link after searching. After filling in the information, I saw that I was also asked to fill in my credit card information.» Yang then used her own mobile phone to search for the website. «I went to the same website and saw that I was still asked to fill in my credit card details, which I thought was a security measure, so I filled it in.» She then received a text message from the bank within 10 minutes saying that US$94 (S$123) had been charged to her card. Yang immediately called the bank hotline and was told that the bank could not stop the transfer because she had filled in the information herself.

Peace with Nature is the overarching theme chosen for the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16) being held in Cali, Colombia of which plenary discussions and working groups began on Monday. Around 23,000 pre-registered delegates representing almost every country on Earth are attending. The COP16 follows the COP15's historic adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) in 2022. The two-week meeting in Cali is expected to be a defining event in the implementation of the framework's ambitious goals and 23 targets for 2030. This includes the protection of 30 percent of the world's land and seas by 2030, reducing harmful subsidies and restoring degraded ecosystems. Seychelles is also represented in Colombia with the local CBD focal point Indira Gamatis.  Gamatis told SNA, «So far there has not been much consensus on quite a few of the main important topics such as mobilistion of resources, digital sequence information (DSI), capacity building or means of implementation for the KMGBF. The negotiations will be intense over the next few days.» Gamatis added that apart from the main plenary, the Seychelles' delegation will be taking part in side events as well as engaging with international partners. The delegates at the event have significant work ahead of them as countries are expected to demonstrate progress in the implementation of the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). They will negotiate to operationalise the multilateral mechanism established by COP15. This is for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of Digital Sequence Information on genetic resources (DSI), including a global fund.  Negotiators are also expected to find common ground on how to mobilise additional resources for biodiversity protection and ensure they are delivered in a timely fashion where they are most needed. The focus will also be on recognising and leveraging the contributions of indigenous peoples and local communities as custodians of biodiversity and key partners in its conservation, restoration, and sustainable use. The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, stated: «For humanity to thrive, nature must flourish. Destroying nature inflames conflict, hunger and disease; fuels poverty, inequality, and the climate crisis; and damages sustainable development, green jobs, cultural heritage, and GDP. The Global Biodiversity Framework promises to reset relations with Earth and its ecosystems. But we are not on track. Your task at this COP is to convert words into action.» The Colombian Environment Minister, Susana Muhamad, and current COP President said, «Under the legacy of the Kunming-Montreal Framework, we must therefore take a step further. It is not just about implementation mechanisms, it is about fundamentally recomposing the way we live, recomposing the development model, recomposing, rethinking, and rediscovering how we live together in diversity, in a system that does not permanently make nature a victim of development, but rather our own reproduction as a society reproduces life.» This story was produced as part of the 2024 CBD COP16 Fellowship organised by Internews' Earth Journalism Network.

The Russian Federation's Arctic Zone presently has 237 business residents, where investments will make 140.5 billion rubles ($1.5 billion), and 7,456 jobs will be created

A multi-tiered embankment is ready near Lake Molodezhnoye, and works continue at an amphitheater and a stage

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Monday that Tehran has submitted official complaints to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN Security Council about Israeli threats to its nuclear facilities

The Ukrainian army attempted to regain control of the strategic positions but was unsuccessful

On Tuesday, the Russian president begins a series of bilateral meetings with participants of the BRICS Summit in Kazan

As the Malawi National Women’s Football Team, the Scorchers, gears up for the Cosafa Women’s Championship, their title defense faces a daunting challenge due to the absence of two of their star players, Temwa and Tabitha Chawinga. This situation raises critical questions about the team’s depth, strategy, and overall prospects in the tournament. Temwa and […] The post Scorchers’ title defense at risk: Will they manage without Temwa and Tabitha Chawinga? appeared first on Malawi Nyasa Times - News from Malawi about Malawi.

As the High Court of Malawi prepares to deliver its ruling this Friday on the contentious National Registration Bureau (NRB) and Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) case, the stakes are high for the upcoming 2025 Tripartite Elections. The case centers on section 12 of the Presidential, Parliamentary, and Local Government Elections (PPLGE) Act, 2023, which mandates […] The post Friday’s ruling on controversial voter registration ID requirement has serious implication on democracy appeared first on Malawi Nyasa Times - News from Malawi about Malawi.

Renowned Governance and Human Rights Advocate Undule Mwakasungula and the National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Public Trust have pleaded with eligible Malawians to register with the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) so that they can participate in the next year’s General Elections. MEC rolled out the first phase of the voter registration for the 2025 General Elections […] The post Undule, NICE plead with Malawians to register for 2025 General Elections appeared first on Malawi Nyasa Times - News from Malawi about Malawi.

The High Court in Lilongwe is set to hear a significant case involving allegations of financial misconduct against Leston Mulli of Mulli Brothers Limited (MBL), former Secretary to the Office of the President and Cabinet Lloyd Muhara, and former Secretary to the Treasury Cliff Chiunda. The trial, scheduled from October 22 to October 24, 2024, […] The post High Court to hear K30bn financial crimes case involving Mulli Brothers, Muhara, Chiunda appeared first on Malawi Nyasa Times - News from Malawi about Malawi.

A shocking scandal involving fraudulent injury claims has erupted around Conforzi Plantations, one of Malawi’s leading tea producers. An investigation has revealed how two law firms, including one previously hired to defend the company, appeared behind all the claims, and some of the alleged employees had never even worked for the company. Background of the […] The post More Judiciary rot! Lawyers under investigation for exploiting Conforzi Plantations through fraudulent injury claims appeared first on Malawi Nyasa Times - News from Malawi about Malawi.