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Border agents have recorded a sharp rise in Indians attempting to illegally enter the US from Canada in a trend immigration attorneys expect could continue until the election. There were 30,010 Indian nationals apprehended at the norther border in 2023 compared to just 2,225 two years earlier during the height of the pandemic, according to figures published by US Customs and Border Protection. A further 16,622 have also arrived this fiscal year, which began on October 1. The data shows a rise in encounters at ports of entry, including airports, but also a surge in migrants arrested while trying to...

Australia’s prime minister has labelled X’s owner, Elon Musk, an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law”as the rift deepens between Australia and the tech platform over the removal of videos of a violent stabbing in a Sydney church. On Monday evening in an urgent last-minute federal court hearing, the court ordered a two-day injunction against X to hide posts globally containing the footage of the alleged stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel on 15 April. The eSafety commissioner had previously directed X to remove the posts, but X had only blocked them from access in Australia pending...

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's Lufthansa said on Wednesday it suspended flights to and from Tehran from April 6 until probably April 11, "due to the current situation in the Middle East". Countries in the region and the United States have been on high alert and preparing for a possible attack by Iran in response to a suspected bombing by Israeli warplanes of the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1. "We are constantly monitoring the situation in the Middle East and are in close contact with the authorities. The safety of our guests and crew members is Lufthansa's top priority," a...

A man was caught Friday in Wasco, California appearing to eat a severed human leg after he allegedly stole it from a train accident scene, video footage shows. Video posted online captured a man, who is believed to be 27-year-old Resendo Tellez, walking around with a severed leg prior to being caught by authorities. The man, who was wearing a large red jacket and baggy black sweatpants, could be seen swinging what appeared to be a human leg before reportedly taking small bites and examining it. As the video continues the man could be seen turning around to look out...

KYIV — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called on Ukrainian lawmakers Monday to quickly pass a mobilization bill that would make more citizens eligible to be drafted into the military, and he sharply questioned exempting men under 27 from the fight. Graham called for the swift legislative action — even as U.S. lawmakers remain unable to reach their own consensus on aid for Ukraine — while visiting Kyiv, his first trip to the Ukrainian capital since he abruptly turned against a $60 billion aid package for the country last month. [snip] Ukraine’s new mobilization law, which has been under debate for...

Vaughan Gething has been elected as the head of Welsh Labour and will become the first black leader of a European country when he is confirmed as first minister next week. Gething, who has worked as the health and the economy minister in the Labour-led government, succeeds Mark Drakeford after beating the education minister, Jeremy Miles. He promised to improve the Welsh NHS, put green jobs at the forefront of the country’s economic future, build more homes and reliable transport systems, drive up education standards and guide Wales to a more prominent position on the world stage.

Laws banning the Nazi salute and the display or sale of symbols associated with terror groups came into effect in Australia on Monday as the government responds to a rise in antisemitic incidents following the Israel-Gaza war. The law makes it an offense punishable by up to 12 months in prison to publicly perform the Nazi salute or display the Nazi swastika or the double-sig rune associated with the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary group. The sale and trade of these symbols is similarly prohibited. Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said in a statement the legislation sent a clear message there was no...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia will send 11 military personnel to support a U.S.-led mission to protect cargo shipping in the Red Sea, but it will not send a warship or plane, the defense minister said Thursday. Defense Minister Richard Marles said Australia’s military needs to keep focused on the Pacific region. The United States announced this week that several nations are creating a force to protect commerecial shipping from attack by drones and ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. Marles said 11 military personnel will be sent in January to Operation Prosperity Guardian’s headquarters in Bahrain, where...

The US Congress has passed legislation allowing the country to sell Virginia class submarines to Australia under the Aukus security pact. Sweeping legislation covering a wide range of military priorities including Aukus passed the US House of Representatives on Thursday Washington time, a day after it cleared the Senate. The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, said Australians could “have a sense of confidence about this multi-decade arrangement actually coming to pass” because of the strong bipartisan votes in the US Congress. “We are on the precipice of historic reform that will transform our ability to effectively deter, innovate, and operate...

Australia’s eSafety commissioner on Sunday fined X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, 610,500 Australian dollars, over $380,000 U.S., for failing to properly disclose information about how it polices child abuse content. “Twitter/X has stated publicly that tackling child sexual exploitation is the number 1 priority for the company, but it can’t just be empty talk, we need to see words backed up with tangible action,” Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement. X has 28 days to respond to or pay the eSafety office’s fine. Australia issued the fine under its Online Safety Act, introduced in...

OTTAWA - The federal government is coping with cyberattacks this week, as a hacker group in India claims it has sowed chaos in Ottawa -- but Canada's signals-intelligence agency says the "nuisance" attacks likely haven't put private information at risk. The attacks seem to have hit institutions controlled by the government, but not the core infrastructure from which federal departments and agencies operate. The Canadian Armed Forces says its website became unavailable to mobile users midday Wednesday, but was fixed within a few hours. [snip]Meanwhile, various pages on the House of Commons website continued to load slowly or incompletely on...

U.S. incentives to boost consumption of more environmentally friendly fuel has created a new market for used Chinese cooking oil, worth almost $390 million in the last 12 months and growing rapidly, China's customs data shows. China has been shipping more waste oil to the U.S. since October 2022, two months after the Biden administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to promote clean energy, which included tax credits for production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and extended incentives for biodiesel. In the first eight months of 2023, Chinese exports of used cooking oil (UCO) to the U.S. totalled almost...

U.S. companies are accelerating efforts to reduce their dependence upon Chinese suppliers, even as officials in Washington and Beijing labor to put a floor under their sour relationship. Through the first five months of this year, U.S. imports from China were down 24 percent from the same period one year ago, according to the Census Bureau. Chinese products account for roughly 1 out of every 6 dollars Americans spend on imports, down from nearly 1 in 4 before the pandemic, according to Oxford data. Japan also is buying less from China. But European countries such as Germany and France are...

Brazil's Supreme Electoral Court has voted 5-2 to bar ex-president Jair Bolsonaro from running for office for eight years. Mr Bolsonaro was found guilty of abusing his power ahead of last year's presidential poll. He had been accused of undermining Brazilian democracy by falsely claiming that the electronic ballots used were vulnerable to hacking and fraud. Mr Bolsonaro's lawyers are expected to appeal against the verdict. They have argued that his statements had no bearing on the election result. The ban is backdated to 2 October 2022, when the presidential election took place. [snip] The case against the ex-president revolved...

Online platforms spreading misinformation could face millions of dollars in penalties under new proposed government legislation that bolsters the power of Australia's media watchdog. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) would be armed with the ability to require digital platforms to keep certain records about matters regarding misinformation and disinformation and turn them over when requested. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said this would "essentially mean that the regulator is able to look under the hood of what the platforms are doing and what measures they are taking to ensure compliance". The ACMA would also be able to request the...

Starting in July, food delivery workers in New York City will make nearly $18 an hour, as New York becomes the nation's first city to mandate a minimum wage for the app-based restaurant employees. Delivery apps would be required to pay their workers a minimum of $17.96 per hour plus tips by July 12, rising to $19.96 per hour by 2025. After that, the pay will be indexed to inflation. It's a significant increase from delivery workers' current pay of about $12 an hour, as calculated by the city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP). "Today marks a historic...

A Jewish middle school teacher in Massachusetts has resigned after facing antisemitic harassment by a 12-year-old student – who allegedly made Nazi jokes and sent him a drawing of Adolf Hitler. Morrison Robblee, 25, who taught social studies at Nessacus Regional Middle School in Dalton, told the Berkshire Eagle that the sixth-grader began making the comments after the teacher let his students know he is Jewish in February. The child is now facing a misdemeanor charge of criminal harassment. When Robblee tried to quiet his students one day, the boy began spewing homophobic slurs, so the teacher removed him from...

Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon who defied a succession of scandals to tower over Italian politics for decades, has died, according to Italian media. He was 86. Berlusconi’s Mediaset television network announced his death on Monday alongside a smiling photo of the man on its homepage. Italy's longest-serving premier, Berlusconi formed the country's largest media company before using his fame and wealth as the launchpad for a political career that saw him lead Italy three times. He had been diagnosed with leukemia in April after years of ill health and was admitted to the hospital for what doctors described as...

In April 2022, Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada decreed that cultivation of the poppy - from which opium, the key ingredient for the drug heroin can be extracted - was strictly prohibited. Anyone violating the ban would have their field destroyed and be penalised according to Sharia law. A Taliban spokesman told the BBC they imposed the ban because of the harmful effects of opium - which is taken from the poppy seed capsules - and because it goes against their religious beliefs. Afghanistan used to produce more than 80% of the world's opium. Heroin made from Afghan opium makes...

TOKYO -- A Japanese court ruled Tuesday that the government's policy against same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, in a closely watched decision that supporters say is a step toward marriage equality. The Nagoya District Court in central Japan, however, rejected a request by a male couple that the government pay them 1 million yen ($7,100) each in compensation for the unequal treatment they face because the current system does not recognize them as legally married. The ruling is the second that found that the government’s denial of same-sex marriage violates the constitution, while two other decisions did not. The rulings can...