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Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta to close, citing pressure from ‘special services’

Independent outlet, whose former editor won Nobel peace prize, says Russian authorities have forced it to shut

The Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta has announced it is closing, citing pressure from authorities who recently searched the home of its senior editor and earlier this year detained one of its journalists.

“Novaya Gazeta is ceasing to exist,” the editor-in-chief, Sergei Sokolov, said in a video statement published on YouTube on Friday. “The Russian authorities – the Russian special services – have forced the editorial team to end its work.”

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© Photograph: Toms Kalniņš/EPA

© Photograph: Toms Kalniņš/EPA

© Photograph: Toms Kalniņš/EPA

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Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta to close, citing pressure from ‘special services’

Independent outlet, whose former editor won Nobel peace prize, says Russian authorities have forced it to shut

The Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta has announced it is closing, citing pressure from authorities who recently searched the home of its senior editor and earlier this year detained one of its journalists.

“Novaya Gazeta is ceasing to exist,” the editor-in-chief, Sergei Sokolov, said in a video statement published on YouTube on Friday. “The Russian authorities – the Russian special services – have forced the editorial team to end its work.”

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Toms Kalniņš/EPA

© Photograph: Toms Kalniņš/EPA

© Photograph: Toms Kalniņš/EPA

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Indonesia’s wildfire smoke crisis claims over 3,500 lives in September

Pollution from smoke emitted by months of wildfires across Indonesia caused an estimated 3,560 deaths in the vast Southeast Asian archipelago in September, according to a new study. The same month, about 57.8 million people in Indonesia were inhaling unhealthy to hazardous air, said the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Helsinki-based think tank. “Worsening air quality due to forest and land fires in Indonesia pushed the estimated death toll to 3,560 cases in September 2026,...

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France on alert as 70,000 police mobilised for Halloween protests

France’s interior minister has warned of a “very high risk of public disorder” and announced the deployment of around 70,000 police officers for a new wave of protests this weekend. France has been rocked by widespread anger over the rising cost of living and inequality, with nationwide demonstrations on October 17 degenerating into some of the country’s worst rioting in years. The Yellow Vest movement and student unions have called for a new day of protests on Saturday. The demonstrations come...

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Australian mushroom killer Erin Patterson likely to die in jail after failed appeal

Australian mushroom murderer Erin Patterson lost a bid to overturn her convictions and had a harsher sentence imposed on Friday, failing to prove she was wrongfully jailed for killing three people with a poisoned lunch. Patterson was found guilty last year of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt, deliberately lacing their beef Wellington meal with highly toxic death cap mushrooms. The 52-year-old maintained her triple murder convictions were a “miscarriage of justice”, urging the...

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Netanyahu’s bloc falls well short of majority as his party claims Israel election ‘stolen’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s camp finished ahead of the opposition but remained well short of a majority, final results from Israel’s general election showed Friday, setting the stage for tough coalition talks or potentially another vote. Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and far-right parties won 53 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, with his Likud party remaining the largest faction with 27 seats. The opposition bloc, led by centrist Gadi Eisenkot, secured 48 seats. The results from the...

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Brazil’s Flavio Bolsonaro mocked at home after self-exile to US

In a viral wave of mockery, Brazilian pop star Anitta declared herself free of cellulite, one influencer declared himself the “true president” of Twitter, and another social media user proclaimed himself the winner of the next lottery. The target of the taunts was Flavio Bolsonaro, who – after fleeing to the US following his election defeat – proclaimed himself the leader of Brazil on Wednesday in a confusing series of revised statements. The moves by the 45-year-old senator have been met in...

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3 killed in rock spire collapse in Turkey’s touristic Cappadocia

Three people, including a foreign national, were killed on Thursday when a rock spire collapsed in Turkey’s Unesco-listed Cappadocia region after a landslide triggered by heavy rain, officials said. The region, a magnet for tourists from around the world, is home to cone-shaped rock formations known as “fairy chimneys”, created by ancient volcanic activity. “According to initial findings, two people were killed and five others injured in the incident,” Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said on social...

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Thailand revokes naturalised head rabbi’s citizenship over repeated US passport use

Thailand’s government said on Thursday it had revoked the citizenship of a prominent head rabbi who was a naturalised Thai, as the country tightens enforcement of its immigration laws. Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor’s Thai citizenship was stripped over his repeated use of his US passport after naturalisation in 2013, according to an interior ministry statement. The order was signed by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who is also interior minister. Thai law prohibits naturalised citizens from...

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Spain begins 3 days of mourning after high-speed train disaster

Spain began three days of mourning on Thursday after its second high-speed rail collision this year killed 69 people and injured scores, with relatives desperately seeking news about their loved ones. One of Europe’s deadliest train disasters this century has raised fresh questions about safety on Spain’s rail network after the transport minister reported an “error” and “inexplicable circumstances” that led to the crash. The collision happened in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha on...

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How Flavio Bolsonaro pulled off a clandestine escape to the US

Flavio Bolsonaro’s clandestine escape to the United States bewildered Brazil and triggered a frantic search for his whereabouts. The Supreme Court had ordered the son of jailed ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro to forfeit his passports after his electoral loss on Sunday, amid fears he would leave the country due to ongoing investigations against him. But the defeated right-wing presidential candidate failed to hand them in, choosing instead to flee to the US via Argentina and Ecuador. Here’s a look at...

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North Korea fires missile barrage days after rejecting South’s border talks

North Korea fired “around a dozen” short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Thursday, Seoul’s defence ministry said, less than a week after South Korea proposed talks over a growing border row. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said its military detected “around a dozen short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Wonsan area of North Korea towards the East Sea”, the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan. “Our military has stepped up surveillance and vigilance against...

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Thailand moves to seize US$1 billion in scam assets from money laundering group

Thai authorities have vowed to seize more than US$1 billion in assets from a group accused of laundering proceeds from Southeast Asia-based scam syndicates. A criminal court issued arrest warrants on Tuesday for the alleged ringleader, South African Benjamin Mauerberger, his Thai wife Cattaliya Beevor, Cambodian businessman Yim Leak and four others, police said. Media reports have previously linked Mauerberger, also known as Ben Smith, to transnational scam operations in Cambodia, part of a...

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Dolores Huerta, US labour leader and civil rights icon, dies at 96

Dolores Huerta, the US labour leader and civil rights icon whose union work changed the lives of migrant workers, has died, her family said Wednesday. She was 96. For nearly four decades Huerta was vice-president of the United Farm Workers, the union she founded with Cesar Chavez, organising strikes and walkouts that won improvements in working conditions for the millions of men and women who labour in US fields. “We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved mother, Dolores Huerta, has...

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Microsoft posts $92.3bn quarterly revenue after offering buyouts to 60,000 employees

Software giant reports $36.6bn in profit, beating Wall Street expectations, as Azure cloud computing division grows 48%

Microsoft gained billions of dollars in stock market value Wednesday afternoon after it reported better than expected revenue and profit, just days after it offered voluntary buyouts to some 60,000 employees.

The office software giant’s growth was fueled by its Azure cloud computing division, which grew by 48% in the September quarter.

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© Photograph: David Ryder/Reuters

© Photograph: David Ryder/Reuters

© Photograph: David Ryder/Reuters

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US Fed holds interest rates steady despite surging inflation

The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday held interest rates steady, in line with market expectations, days ahead of crucial midterm elections where surging inflation has been a key issue. The 12-member Federal Open Market Committee voted 10-2 to hold rates at a target range between 3.75 to 4.00 per cent, citing the need for more data in the fight against inflation, after having hiked for the first time in three years at its previous meeting in September. “The accumulation of more information will...

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92-year-old US judge handling Maduro case dies

Alvin Hellerstein, the US judge overseeing the case against deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, has died aged 92, an official confirmed on Wednesday. As one of the oldest US federal judges, questions had been raised about whether he was the right justice to preside over what could be a prolonged trial for Maduro on drug trafficking charges. Hellerstein’s lengthy career included overseeing the civil cases arising from al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and...

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Philippines’ Alexandra Eala recovers to move into Pan Pacific Open quarter-finals in Tokyo

Philippine sensation Alexandra Eala came from behind to beat Talia Gibson 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 in Tokyo on Wednesday and said “it took a lot to turn that match around”. The world No 19’s recent run of early tournament exits looked in danger of continuing when Australia’s Gibson, ranked 38, took the first set at the Pan Pacific Open. But Eala dug in and evened the match before hitting top gear in a dominating third set. The 21-year-old said the turnaround had been “a gradual increase of level”. “Maybe...

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Stop using Bluey, Australian broadcaster tells Pauline Hanson’s far-right party

Australia’s national broadcaster ABC called on the far-right One Nation party on Wednesday to stop using children’s TV character Bluey in its political cartoons. Bluey is the popular star of an Australian cartoon series featuring canines navigating childhood and parenting in the suburbs. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party has come under fire for a 2024 political cartoon depicting Bluey driving a car over an Australian politician. That cartoon in particular has come into the spotlight since a man...

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As vote count keeps Israel in suspense, what happens next?

Israelis voted on Tuesday in their highest turnout for decades, with exit polls showing the camp of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that of his rival are neck and neck. Exit polls from the three mainstream Israeli television networks gave the two blocs around 51 seats each in the 120-member Knesset - well below the 61 needed to govern - after initially giving an edge to the opposition led by ex-army chief Gadi Eisenkot. Israeli Arab lists made strong gains, with exit polls showing them...

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