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Rwanda-backed M23 rebels clash with Congolese army and other groups as they march on strategic eastern town

About 200,000 people have fled their homes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as Rwanda-backed rebels march on a strategic eastern town just days after Donald Trump hosted the Rwandan and Congolese leaders to proclaim peace.

The UN said at least 74 people had been killed, mostly civilians, and 83 admitted to hospital with wounds from escalating clashes in the area in recent days.

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US treasury accuses Colombian nationals and companies of aiding the RSF, which has committed horrific war crimes

The United States has sanctioned four people and four companies accused of enlisting Colombian mercenaries to fight for and train a Sudanese paramilitary group accused by Washington of committing genocide.

Announcing the sanctions on Tuesday, the US treasury said the network was largely composed of Colombian nationals and companies.

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Unauthorised touchdown comes less than 24 hours after Nigerian forces intervened in attempted coup in Benin

Eleven Nigerian military personnel are being held in Burkina Faso after a Nigerian plane reportedly entered Burkinabé airspace without authorisation on Monday, the latest twist in a region enmeshed in multiple political and security crises.

In a statement on Monday evening, the breakaway Alliance of Sahel States (AES), of which Burkina Faso is a member alongside Mali and Niger, said the C-130 transport aircraft had made an emergency landing in Bobo Dioulasso.

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Cyril Ramaphosa says theories, promoted by Donald Trump, ‘conveniently align with wider notions of white supremacy’

White supremacist ideology and false claims that South Africa’s Afrikaner minority is being racially persecuted pose a threat to the country’s sovereignty and national security, the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has warned.

Since taking office for his second US presidential term in January, Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that South Africa’s government is seizing land and encouraging violence against white farmers.

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First-century luxury vessel matches description by the Greek historian Strabo, who visited city around 29-25BC

An ancient Egyptian pleasure boat that matches a description by the first-century Greek historian Strabo has been discovered off the coast of Alexandria, to the excitement of archaeologists.

With its palaces, temples and the 130 metre-high Pharos lighthouse – one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – Alexandria had been one of the most magnificent cities in antiquity. The pleasure boat, which dates from the first half of the first century AD, was 35 metres long and constructed to hold a central pavilion with a luxuriously decorated cabin.

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In Pennsylvania, US president attacks Ilhan Omar and Jasmine Crockett and makes multiple false claims, including that ‘prices are way down’

A federal judge in New York has granted the justice department’s request to unseal grand jury documents in the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell – the companion and accomplice of the late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein. It comes after the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump signed last month.

The legislation requires the Department of Justice to release the full tranche of records related to disgraced financier, in a searchable format by 19 December.

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Xiomara Castro alleges US manipulation and blackmail as preliminary count shows two rightwing candidates closely tied

Honduras’s president, Xiomara Castro, has alleged that an “electoral coup” is under way in the country’s presidential election, which she says has been marked by “interference from the president of the United States, Donald Trump”.

The leftist president also said that “the Honduran people must never accept elections marked by interference, manipulation and blackmail … Sovereignty is not negotiable, democracy is not surrendered.”

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Press conference was expected to have been Venezuelan opposition leader’s first public appearance in 11 months

A press conference in Oslo with the Nobel peace prize laureate María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader in hiding, has been cancelled, the Norwegian Nobel Institute has said, adding that it was “in the dark” as to her whereabouts.

Machado last appeared in public on 9 January at a demonstration in Caracas protesting against the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro for his third term as president. The press conference, traditionally held by the Nobel laureate on the eve of the award ceremony, had been expected to be the 58-year-old’s first public appearance in 11 months.

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President accuses neighbor of violating treaty governing water-sharing and urges water to be released ‘immediately’

Donald Trump has threatened to impose an additional 5% tariff on Mexico if it does not immediately provide additional water to help US farmers, accusing the country of violating a treaty that outlines water-sharing between the neighbors.

Under the treaty, which dates back to 1944, Mexico must send 1.75m acre-feet of water to the US from the Rio Grande through a network of interconnected dams and reservoirs every five years. The agreement also stipulates that the United States must annually allocate 1.5m acre-feet of water from the Colorado River to Mexico.

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Father of student detained at Boston airport on her way to visit family in Austin, says agents showed up at Texas home

Immigration agents appeared on Sunday at the Texas home of the family of Any Lucia López Belloza, the 19-year-old college student who was recently deported to Honduras while on her way to visit them for Thanksgiving, her family reportedly said.

López Belloza, who attended Babson College in Massachusetts, was detained on 20 November at Boston airport while she was on her way to surprise her family in Austin, Texas, for the holiday. Within 48 hours she was deported to Honduras, a country she left at age seven when her family came to the US.

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Commerce department finalising deal to allow H200 chips to be sold to China as strict Biden-era restrictions relaxed

Donald Trump has cleared the way for Nvidia to begin selling its powerful AI computer chips to China, marking a win for the chip maker and its CEO, Jensen Huang, who has spent months lobbying the White House to open up sales in the country.

Before Monday’s announcement, the US had prohibited sales of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China over national security concerns.

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Each side has blamed the other for renewed clashes, which have derailed a ceasefire brokered by Donald Trump

Deadly clashes have escalated along the disputed Thailand-Cambodia border as both sides blamed each other for the fighting and vowed to defend their territories.

Seven civilians have been killed and 20 wounded in Cambodia and three Thai soldiers have been killed in the fiercest fighting since a five-day conflict in July.

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Legal team of man who was part of cohort of non-citizens freed after high court decision argues Nauru’s medical facilities are ‘insufficient’ to treat his severe asthma

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Lawyers for an Iranian refugee Australia wants to deport to Nauru say there is a “real risk he will die” there, setting the stage for a showdown against the federal government’s $2.5bn NZYQ deal.

The case surrounding the Iranian refugee, known as TCXM, who was granted a 30-year visa for Nauru in February and subsequently placed back into immigration detention after being freed by the 2023 high court ruling, was heard in the high court on Tuesday.

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Booming Chinese exports have driven trade surplus past $1tn but also reveal the extent of country’s reliance on foreign markets

A boom in exports that has pushed China’s trade surplus past $1tn for the first time reveals the extent to which its economy is still overwhelmingly reliant on foreign markets – and the difficulty figures like Donald Trump will have in trying to rebalance global trade.

Data released on Monday shows that in the first 11 months of this year, China’s trade surplus in goods was $1.076tn. The record trade surplus comes even as exports to the US have plummeted, a reflection of the bruising US-China trade war that, despite a recent cooling, has dampened the flow of goods between the world’s two largest economies.

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90,000 people advised to take shelter after 7.5-magnitude quake, with 20 injuries reported

A powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake has shaken north-eastern Japan, injuring more than 20 people and triggering a tsunami of up to 70cm in Pacific coast communities.

The earthquake and tsunami warnings prompted orders for about 90,000 residents to evacuate their homes, although the warnings were later downgraded to advisories.

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• Social media ban: some platforms still allowing 14-year-olds as landmark ruling comes into force

• Callout: How is Australia’s social media ban affecting you and your family?

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Inman Grant says getting ‘the most powerful, rich companies’ to comply was always going to be messy

Inman Grant said she expects kids to experience massive changes as the social media ban sticks around. The eSafety commissioner added that some social media companies were more difficult to work with than others during the rollout of the ban, telling ABC News:

To the extent that there are seven stages of grief, we have seen some be very accepting, some in denial, some are quite angry.

I guess that shows the character of the company and how they’re taking this. …

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If Amelia Vanderhorst is found guilty and penalised for allegedly sticking googly eyes on Mount Gambier landmark, it might be the first time such an act has been punished

On Mount Gambier’s Bay Road, the “Blue Blob” stands like a proud but paunchy echidna, its seamless coating restored to perfection after an alleged googly eye stunt that captured the world’s attention.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 20, from Mount Gambier in South Australia, was charged with damaging the town’s $136,000 Cast in Blue sculpture by sticking large novelty eyes on it on 13 September.

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Executives tell Pride in Diversity report Donald Trump’s election ‘opened the floodgates’ to challenge DEI initiatives, including in Australia

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Major Australian employers are toning down their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and a handful have scrapped initiatives altogether amid a US-led “anti-woke” backlash, new research shows.

Some businesses have also cancelled their membership to Australia’s major workplace inclusion organisation, Pride in Diversity (PID).

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Former Liberal senator says ‘justice is not cheap’ and ‘if I lose everything, it will have been worth it’

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Former senator Linda Reynolds says she will continue to fight legal battles until “the bitter end” in the Brittany Higgins saga, despite it having already cost her millions of dollars and “broken” her.

In an expansive interview on the ABC on Tuesday night, Reynolds said allegations that she had covered up the rape had been subsequently disproven in multiple court judgments. She said she had never disputed that Higgins had been raped.

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Grant Hutchinson denies allegations made in court by current and former partners prior to his preselection for Victorian seat of Croydon

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The Victorian Liberal candidate for an ultra-marginal seat is in a legal fight with his own law firm, accused by his partners of bullying staff and using business resources to further his political ambitions.

Grant Hutchinson – who has denied the allegations against him – was preselected for the seat of Croydon in Melbourne’s east last month. It is one of the Liberals’ most marginal electorates, with a gap of only 1.2%, and the fate of such outer suburban seats will be vital to the Coalition at the November 2026 election.

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Thinktank says Rachel Reeves’s budget had started to assure bond markets about fiscal approach

• Rachel Reeves’s test from the bond markets starts now

The “premium” that the UK pays to borrow money compared with its international peers may be coming to an end as markets grow more confident about the government’s plans, a thinktank has suggested.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said that the chancellor Rachel Reeves’s announcement in the autumn budget that she would be more than doubling the UK’s financial headroom by 2030 from £9.9bn to £22bn had begun to assure bond markets about Labour’s fiscal approach.

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Zelenskyy says he would hold wartime elections within months given help from allies and Ukraine’s parliament

• Trump lambasts ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’ Europe and hints at walking away from Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to hold a wartime election within the next three months, if Ukraine’s parliament and foreign allies will allow it, after Donald Trump accused him of clinging on to power.

Zelenskyy, clearly irritated by Trump’s intervention, said that “this is a question for the people of Ukraine, not people from other states, with all due respect to our partners”.

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Exclusive: PM calls for members of European convention on human rights to allow tougher action to protect borders

• We must protect our borders to defend our democracies – here’s how

Keir Starmer has called on European leaders to urgently curb joint human rights laws so that member states can take tougher action to protect their borders and see off the rise of the populist right across the continent.

Before a crucial European summit on Wednesday, the prime minister urged fellow members to “go further” in modernising the interpretation of the European convention on human rights (ECHR) to prevent asylum seekers using it to avoid deportation.

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French first lady was filmed calling women who had disrupted Paris theatre show by Ary Abittan ‘sales connes’

French celebrities and politicians on the left have expressed outrage after Brigitte Macron was filmed using a derogatory and sexist slur to describe feminist protesters at a theatre show in Paris.

A video filmed on Sunday showed France’s first lady in discussion backstage at the Folies Bergère theatre in Paris with Ary Abittan, a French actor and comedian previously accused of rape, before a performance he was about to give. The previous night, feminist campaigners had disrupted his show with shouts of: “Abittan, rapist!”

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Ministry says Briton, who has not publicly been named, was injured while observing a test, away from the frontline

A member of the UK armed forces died on Tuesday morning after an accident in Ukraine, believed to be the first time a serving member of the British military has been killed in the country since the full-scale Russian invasion.

The victim was not immediately named, though the Ministry of Defence said their family had been notified, after an incident that appears to have taken place during a weapons test at a site away from the frontlines.

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Aid agencies say Israel is still restricting their aid shipments despite ceasefire announced two months ago

Malnutrition continues to take a toll among Gaza’s young despite a ceasefire declared two months ago, with more than 9,000 children hospitalised for acute malnutrition in October alone, according to the latest UN figures.

While the immediate threat of famine has receded for most of the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza after the ceasefire announcement on 10 October, the UN and other aid agencies report continuing Israeli restrictions on their humanitarian aid shipments, which they say fall well below the needs of a population weakened and traumatised by two years of war, homelessness and living in flimsy shelters.

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Eyal Zamir said Israel would hold on to current positions, giving it control of more than half of the territory

The “yellow line” that divides Gaza under Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan is a “new border” for Israel, the country’s military chief told soldiers deployed in the territory.

The chief of the general staff, Eyal Zamir, said Israel would hold on to its current military positions. These give Israel control of more than half of Gaza, including most agricultural land and the border crossing with Egypt.

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Former UK leader loses out on key role in transitional authority after objections from Arab and Muslim nations

Tony Blair will not occupy a key position on Donald Trump’s Gaza “peace council” after Arab and Muslim nations were reported to have objected to the involvement of the former UK prime minister.

According to the Financial Times (FT), Blair has been quietly dropped from consideration for Trump’s “board of peace”, which Trump has said he would chair himself.

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Sanctions, instability and external meddling are still problems for Ahmed al-Sharaa, one year after Assad’s fall

• Ddivided Syria struggles to escape cycle of violence

• The fall of the house of Assad – in pictures

If ubiquity and handshakes were the only measures of success, Ahmed al-Sharaa would be diplomat of the year.

Since he formally became president of Syria on 29 January 2025, the former leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – a jihadist group with an al-Qaida lineage – has made a total of 21 public international trips to 13 countries. These include a visit to the UN general assembly, the climate change conference in Brazil, and numerous Arab summits.

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While country’s return to global stage has filled many Syrians with pride, domestically old grievances threaten efforts to rebuild the state

• Anniversary of the fall of house of Assad in Syria – in pictures

Lying in bed recovering after his latest surgery, Ayman Ali retells the story of Syria’s revolution through his wounds. His right eye, lost in an attack on a rebel observation post he was manning in 2012, is covered by yellow medical tape. Propped against the wall is a cane he uses to walk, after a rocket attack in 2014 left him with a limp.

For 14 years, Ali dreamed of freedom and of justice. A year after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad, he has his freedom but not his justice. The man he was dreaming of holding accountable – a member of his extended family who was a part of an Assad militia – had already fled the country by the time Ali returned to his home in Damascus.

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Officials say the Birch nightclub had contravened multiple safety regulations and that the basement had no fire safety exit

Four members of the same family on their first holiday to Goa were among the 25 killed in a deadly fire at a nightclub in the popular Indian tourist state on Saturday night.

The massive blaze broke out at just before midnight at Birch by Romeo Lane, a buzzing bar, restaurant and nightclub in north Goa’s Aporna district.

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Fire broke out at midnight in Arpora with victims mostly kitchen workers, according to state’s chief minister

At least 25 people have been killed in a fire at a nightclub in Goa, an Indian state popular for its nightlife and tourism.

Several tourists were among the 25 dead in the fire, which broke out at about midnight at Birch by Romeo Lane, a popular restaurant, cocktail bar and club in Arpora, a district of north Goa.

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Russia and India will reshape their defence ties to take account of New Delhi’s push for self-reliance, the two countries said in a joint statement after a summit between president Putin and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

“In response to India’s aspirations for self-reliance, the partnership is currently being reoriented toward joint research and development, as well as the production of advanced defence platforms,” the statement said.

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Narendra Modi says energy security is ‘pillar of the India-Russia partnership’ as two leaders meet in Delhi

Vladimir Putin has told the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, that Russia is ready to continue “uninterrupted” shipments of oil to India, signalling a defiant stance to the US as the two leaders met in Delhi and affirmed that their ties were “resilient to external pressure”.

The statement, made on Friday after the annual India-Russia summit, appeared to be directed at western countries – particularly the US – that have attempted to pressure New Delhi into scaling back its ties to Moscow.

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Delhi visit gives Russian leader a chance to reduce Moscow’s isolation but both countries need each other to negotiate Trump’s US and a powerful China

When Vladimir Putin last set foot in India almost exactly four years ago, the world order looked materially different. At that visit – lasting just five hours due to the Covid pandemic – Putin and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, discussed economic and military cooperation and reaffirmed their special relationship.

Three months later, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine would turn him into a global pariah, isolating the Kremlin from the world and restricting Putin’s international travel.

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National Audit Office says Shabana Mahmood’s plans may have ‘unintended consequences’ on stretched system

Shabana Mahmood’s radical plans to overhaul the asylum system could cause “unintended consequences” such as increased homelessness among people seeking refuge and growing case backlogs, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has concluded.

The head of the National Audit Office said that the home secretary’s policies, which are meant to accelerate case decisions and reduce appeals, would require “effective action on the bottlenecks” if they were to succeed.

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Seven brainteasers feature in intelligence agency’s 2025 Christmas card, with covers designed by UK school pupils

A warning from the spies at GCHQ: a robber is on the loose, intent on stealing Christmas presents. Luckily, he won’t find it easy.

The robber’s target, according to the British intelligence and security agency, is a house with a large number of rooms, each of which has a letter, which are linked to each other by coloured doors and arrows. He can’t go through the same-coloured door twice in a row, and can’t move against any arrows. Eventually, the robber is caught by the police. How was he acting?

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One in five patients treated in hallways, offices and cupboards at almost every A&E, according to research

Corridor care is “endemic” in the UK, doctors have said, as a major study found one in five patients were treated in hallways, offices and cupboards.

Millions of patients are enduring undignified and unsafe care, with almost every A&E department in the country deploying the approach routinely, contravening national guidance, research reveals.

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Study cites case of otherwise fit and healthy man in his 50s who had a stroke after eight-drink-a-day habit

Heavy consumption of energy drinks may raise the risk of heart disease and pose a serious risk of stroke, doctors have warned.

Millions of people worldwide regularly drink the products, which are non-alcoholic and typically contain more than 150mg of caffeine per litre, very high glucose-based sugar content and varying quantities of other chemicals.

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UK gilt yields may have dropped a bit relative to other major countries, but it’s not at all clear that the fall with continue

• UK’s higher borrowing costs compared with major countries ‘may be coming to an end’

Good news for Rachel Reeves: the cost of government borrowing has fallen a bit relative to the US and eurozone countries. Better news: the chancellor may have something to do with it. Better still: some economists think there’s more to come.

Let’s not get carried away, though. The UK is still paying a painful premium on its borrowing costs, as the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank illustrates. Since last year’s general election the yield on 10-year government gilts is up almost 70 basis points – or seven-tenths of 1% – compared with US Treasury bonds, and the increase versus the eurozone is almost 25 basis points. The gaps are wider for 30-year bonds and the consequences are real. IPPR calculates that if the premium could be reduced to zero, the Treasury would save as much as £7bn a year until 2029-30.

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Trump had further said Nicolás Maduro’s ‘days are numbered’ as military has targeted alleged drug boats

Two US fighter jets circled the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday, in what appeared to be an escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing hostilities toward the South American country and its leftist leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuelans and South American media followed the flights in real time using websites like FlightRadar24, which showed a pair of F/A-18 Super Hornets flying together into the narrow Gulf of Venezuela for about 40 minutes. The jets flew just north of Maracaibo, Venezuela’s most populous city.

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In stunning upset victory, Higgins also becomes first woman in post and first non-Hispanic candidate since 90s

Democrat Eileen Higgins was elected mayor of Miami on Tuesday night in a stunning upset victory that reversed a run of recent Republican successes in Florida.

The election of Higgins, 61, a former county commissioner, also added to a string of Democratic wins across the country that have served to highlight the growing level of resistance to Donald Trump in his second presidential term.

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Additional student critically wounded on Tuesday, after 17 August shooting left two people with gunshot wounds

At least one student was killed and another was critically wounded in a shooting at a residence hall at Kentucky State University on Tuesday, and a suspect who is not a student at the school was in custody, officials said.

The shooting was the second in four months in the same area of the university.

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The 71-year-old performer’s son Micah has been arrested on suspicion of murder, Santa Monica police said

Jubilant Sykes, the Grammy-nominated opera and gospel singer, has died aged 71 after being stabbed to death at his home in California.

His 31-year-old son, Micah Sykes, was arrested on suspicion of murder, authorities said on Tuesday.

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In state’s 18th execution this year, Mark Geralds, 58, given three-drug injection for 1989 stabbing of Tressa Pettibone

A man convicted of fatally stabbing a woman during a home invasion decades ago was executed on Tuesday evening in Florida.

Mark Allen Geralds, 58, was pronounced dead at 6.15pm following a three-drug injection at Florida state prison for the February 1989 murder of Tressa Pettibone.

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