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 “It is our duty to protect civilians and human rights, and it is high time to act on it,” he added. The U.N.’s Türk said on Friday that the Gaza war’s “darkest moment” was unfolding in the north of the territory, where Israel is carrying out a massive ground offensive to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping. As refugees continue to flee Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, the U.N. has warned that the “forcible transfer of a large part of the population of North Gaza would amount to a war crime.” Türk said that more than 150,000 people were…

With such high stakes, voting kicked off in a tense environment. Election observers, such as ISFED, have reported three alleged cases of vote-buying, and local media outlets have reported an incident involving a physical confrontation at one of the polling stations. According to local publication Publika, an opposition activist was beaten. A video circulating online shows a man, identified as a ruling party representative, stuffing a ballot box with dozens of ballots at one of the polling stations in Marneuli in southern Georgia. The country’s Central Election Commission reported voter turnout at 9.27 percent as of 10 a.m. Tbilisi time.…

The strikes came as a response to to an Oct. 1 Iranian attack on Israel that struck military bases and civilian infrastructure. The U.S. urged “Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation,” National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said. “The United States was not a participant in this operation. It is our aim to accelerate diplomacy and de-escalate tensions in the Middle East region. We urge Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation,” he added in a statement.…

While saying “I understand the strength of feeling,” the prime minister continued to insist he wanted to be “looking forward, not back.” He added that he wanted to “move forward together on climate resilience, on education, on trade and on growth to better enable us to address the inequalities of today.” Several nations raised the subject of reparatory justice in the Friday sessions, at which Starmer was present, a person with knowledge of the talks told POLITICO. Starmer’s press conference ran more than an hour late as deliberations continued over the wording of the summit communiqué. However Starmer told journalists:…

The superstar warned the Democratic nominee’s biggest crowd ever that Donald Trump was dead set on further eroding women’s rights. Kamala Harris and Beyoncé ignited a Houston rally with a double-barrelled argument against Donald Trump on Friday, with the superstar telling the Democratic nominee’s biggest crowd ever that it was “time to sing a new song” as Harris warned that her GOP opponent was dead set on further eroding women’s rights.The rally was set in reliably Republican Texas, to highlight the growing medical fallout from the state’s strict abortion ban, but the message was intended to register in the political…

It’s now easier to get to Tartu, Estonia’s second city and the European Capital of Culture Massive medieval towers, dense forests and daily saunas were what I’d come to Estonia for. What I hadn’t expected was to find a trendy food scene, tasting menus and Michelin stars. The Baltic country has found new fame in 2024 with the awarding of the European capital of culture to Tartu, its second city located in the southeast. Along with the capital Tallinn, the cities have attracted increasing numbers of tourists thanks to their progressive fusion of medieval and ultra-modern culture – something that also flavours…

The ratings agency affirmed France’s credit rating at Aa2, noting that this was supported by its “large, wealthy and diversified economy.” But it lowered the country’s outlook to negative from stable. “The fiscal deterioration that we have already seen is beyond our expectations and stands in contrast with governments in similarly rated countries that are tending to consolidate their public finances in the current environment,” Moody’s said. “The risks to France’s credit profile are heightened by a political and institutional environment that is not conducive to coalescing on policy measures that will deliver sustained improvements in the budget balance,” it…

In this edition, we shed light on Italy’s Albanian model for processing asylum seekers, and hear how the victory plan of Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy went down in Brussels. We are joined this week by Liza Bezvershenko from civil society organisation Promote Ukraine, Helena Hahn, migration analyst with the European Policy Centre and Vassilis Ntousas, senior manager for Europe at the German Marshall Fund.Panellists discussed the idea of return hubs, which would see the EU outsource parts of its migration policy to countries outside the bloc — one of the main outcomes of a European summit held in Brussels last week.…

The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was appalled by the killing of the three journalists and called for an independent investigation. An Israeli airstrike hit guesthouses where journalists were staying in southeast Lebanon on Friday, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency. It was a rare airstrike on an area that has been used by the media as a base for covering the war. The airstrike turned buildings used by media outlets covering the war into rubble with cars marked “PRESS” being overturned and covered in dust and debris. The Israeli army did…

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said a teenage girl was killed in the late-night Russian attack. At least one person was reportedly killed and five injured after a Russian drone hit a 25-story residential building in Kyiv on Friday night. Emergency responders were dispatched to the site of the attack to fight a fire which broke out on the upper floor of the building due to the strike. The fire was extinguished but a search and rescue operation continued, according to Kyiv’s major Vitali Klitschko. Klitschko said one of the five injured was sent to hospital and that a first aid tent was set…