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International news rarely gets the coverage it earns in U.S. media. A story that reshapes a country's political direction, redraw an alliance, or move global energy markets often surfaces as a brief on page three.

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A daily international news digest. The global stories that matter, with the context to understand why they matter to you specifically, not just in the abstract. The world is more legible when someone is actually reading it carefully on your behalf.

At least 139 dead including children after migrant boat capsizes off Djibouti

Eighty-four others still missing from vessel heading to Yemen with 305 people onboard, UN migration agency says At least 139 people, including 15 children, have died after a boat carrying 305 migrants capsized off the coast of Djibouti, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Another 84 people are still missing after the incident, which, according to survivors, happened near Guhere, north of the fishing town of Obock, during the night of 8-9 October when the boat was travelling from Djibouti to Yemen.

theguardian.comLeft

Houthi attack on Riyadh airport will force rethink of Donald Trump’s strategy

US president’s plan to park the conflicts in Iran and Yemen, while blaming Ukraine for high diesel prices, has unravelled Middle East crisis live - latest updates The reckless missile attack on King Khalid international airport in Riyadh on Saturday did not just export the death and misery inside Yemen to Saudi Arabia, it also left Donald Trump forced to reconsider his diplomatic and political strategy designed to take him into the midterm elections next month. The US president plan’s had only been unveiled on Saturday. It was to blame what he described as “a world problem” – spiralling diesel prices – on the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying his attacks on Russian oil refineries were the cause. He was going to keep the political temperature down on his war of choice in Iran and its spillover in Yemen until after the midterms.

theguardian.comLeft

Did Trump get one thing right about Greenland?

Threatening an ally is a terrible idea, but there’s no denying the Arctic’s increasing strategic importance One of Donald Trump’s more diabolical talents is his ability to land on the right things in the wrong way. Since his first term, Trump has been obsessed with the Arctic – Greenland in particular – something that has puzzled and enraged many, particularly in Europe. He first brought up the idea of buying the icy landmass from Denmark in 2019. Right after re-election, he began ramping up his rhetoric about acquiring it “one way or another”, threatening the Nato alliance and the foundations of post-second world war security. Trump got his way – thankfully without military force – in September, when the US and Denmark signed an agreement that allowed for many more US troops on the island, albeit without the sort of takeover that the president enjoys “joking” about. “The United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland,” Trump wrote on social media. “We will work with the people of Greenland in its development and construction.”

theguardian.comLeft

‘A life-or-death race’: the volunteers protecting Kyiv’s skies from new jet-powered drones

Russia’s latest weapons have left Ukraine’s civilian air defence teams frantically trying to adapt as winter approaches Several hours into Kyiv’s nightly curfew, much of the capital lay dark and quiet. High above, on the roof of a grey tower block on the city’s outskirts, a small group of men in uniform stood beside two heavy machine guns, scanning the horizon. Soon, a drone appeared. Once, its unmistakable buzz would have sent the men scrambling towards their weapons. Now, the air defence unit will check speed and altitude on a monitor before taking a decision. The Mriya air defence crew on a rooftop in Kyiv.

theguardian.comLeft

Fixated on AI, the world has forgotten what is staring it in the face: nuclear annihilation | Simon Tisdall

This is no scoffing matter. The accelerating proliferation of advanced nuclear weapons is bringing ‘end times’ closer by the day Humankind has fearfully and sometimes joyfully anticipated the end of the world ever since it began. The Bible’s Book of Revelation speaks of “end times”, a period of tribulation, war, famine, plague, floods and environmental catastrophe that may seem a less absurd prospect today than perhaps it once did. Islam, too, posits a fateful day of judgment or day of reckoning. Christian evangelicals believe that, in the final rapture, a chosen few – the righteous or the “elect” – will be saved while sinners burn. It’s a minority view. Matthew’s gospel predicts most people will defy, ignore or ridicule warnings of imminent Armageddon. Peter, another of Jesus’s disciples, agreed: “In the last days, scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.” Yet such worldly scepticism does not mean a universal cataclysm is less likely. It may make it more probable. Donald Trump’s blanket denials of the dangers ostensibly posed by artificial intelligence, whose uncontrolled development is seen by some as the latest harbinger of apocalypse, could be interpreted as fulfilling Peter’s prophecy. This US president, the nearest thing the world has to a one-man doomsday machine, is a great one for scoffing and evil desires. In Robert Harris’s 2019 novel, The Second Sleep, a worried scientist lists half a dozen ways the world might end. They include devastating climate change, pandemic disease, a giant asteroid collision with Earth, or some other overwhelming calamity. Few heed the fictional scientist’s fears. In the event, what destroys him and almost everybody else is a disturbingly plausible cyber crash – a global digital and internet meltdown. Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

theguardian.comLeft

Britain stands behind Zelenskyy, says Streeting after Trump’s call for new leader in Ukraine

Defence secretary backs Ukrainian president and says priority is to maintain western unity over Russia conflict Britain stands behind Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the defence secretary has said, after Donald Trump called for the Ukrainian president to be replaced and the US announced a controversial agreement to buy Russian diesel. Wes Streeting said Ukrainians alone should be able to decide who leads their country as he indicated Trump was facing domestic political pressure over fuel prices before next month’s midterm elections.

theguardian.comLeft

Surgeon faces deportation as Home Office revokes refugee status for Syrians

UK classifies Syria as safe to return to despite UN refugee body’s advice A Syrian plastic surgeon is facing deportation from the UK after the Home Office revoked his refugee status, declaring it is now safe for him and his family to return to their home country. Despite Foreign Office guidance advising against all travel to Syria because of the “volatile” security situation, the government has classified it as a safe place for refugees to return to.

theguardian.comLeft

After RAF Fairford incident, how big a threat to the UK is Iran?

Although there is scepticism about Tehran’s capabilities, it has become clear it wants Britain to feel it poses a risk Britain may have been only peripherally involved in the bombing of Iran that Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu started, but in the past fortnight it has become clear that Tehran wants to pose a threat inside the UK in response. In the aftermath of the confused incident near RAF Fairford, western officials are weighing up whether to warn publicly that Iran now has US military targets in Europe on its mind, such as the air force base in Gloucestershire.

theguardian.comLeft

Ben Roberts-Smith attends Canberra event honouring Australian troops who served in Afghanistan

Anthony Albanese speaks at Australian War Memorial event commemorating 25th anniversary of country’s involvement in the conflict Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Anthony Albanese has honoured Australian troops who served in Afghanistan, using the 25th anniversary of the country’s involvement in the conflict to describe their heroism as a fight for “who we are as a people”. The prime minister joined hundreds of veterans, family members and dignitaries at a commemoration of the start of the campaign in Canberra on Sunday, with nation’s most decorated living soldier and accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith among the crowd at the Australian War Memorial.

theguardian.comLeft

‘It was a terrible thing’: Panama declares state of emergency as quake aftershocks rattle communities

More than 100 aftershocks as high as magnitude-5.8 recorded after two quakes toppled buildings and prompted evacuations Panama’s government has declared a state of emergency on Saturday as the aftershocks of two powerful earthquakes that roiled the country shook communities for hours. Officials did not attribute any deaths to Friday’s 7.7- and 6.6-magnitude earthquakes, but reported damages in all 10 of Panama’s provinces and two Indigenous territories.

theguardian.comLeft

‘Under tremendous strain’: CIA analyst turned spy novelist on a fraying US-UK alliance

David McCloskey’s new book depicts a calamitous collapse of the ‘special relationship’ – could things get darker still? The “special relationship”, the time-honored emotional bond between the US and Britain that has sustained through war and peace, is in trouble. The ties of history, culture and language that have bridged an ocean and bound the two countries politically for generations are fraying as perhaps never before – strained relentlessly by Donald Trump, who has gleefully sacrificed traditional alliances and diplomatic niceties on the altar of his “America first” agenda.

theguardian.comLeft

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