World news

• Slender Man stabber who attacked 12-year-old classmate in 2014 is granted release from psychiatric hospital

  09-01-2025 23:57 via independent.co.uk
  
  Morgan Geyser has been at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute for nearly seven years after being convicted in the 2014 stabbing attack of Payton Leutner
  
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• Paris Hilton evacuates four tiny dogs from Los Angeles home destroyed by wildfires

  09-01-2025 23:57 via independent.co.uk
  
  Paris Hilton packed up her four tiny dogs to evacuate their Los Angeles home as wildfires devastated the region this week.
  
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• Civil rights groups warn Laken Riley bill could open the door to Trump’s mass deportations

  09-01-2025 23:51 via independent.co.uk
  
  Opponents call the bill a ‘slippery slope’ for Trump’s agenda and a ‘backdoor to mass detention’
  
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• Democrats signal openness to Republicans’ Laken Riley Act with key vote

  09-01-2025 23:36 via independent.co.uk
  
  Bill may pass, led by Republicans, without amendments after Democratic resistance vanishes
  
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• Musk, after months of blustering, admits DOGE wont find $2 trillion worth of cuts in federal budget

  09-01-2025 23:35 via independent.co.uk
  
  Musk has been claiming he could make $2 trillion in cuts since October
  
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• Actor returns to pile of ashes where his Los Angeles home of 13 years once stood

  09-01-2025 23:34 via independent.co.uk
  
  Actor Cameron Mathison documented the moment he returned to his Los Angeles home to find the property reduced to ashes and rubble in the wildfires that have swept the area this week.
  
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• Germany’s former finance minister slapped with ‘soap’ cake on campaign trail

  09-01-2025 23:24 via independent.co.uk
  
  Germany's former finance minister Christian Lindner was slapped with a cake that he said was made out of soap during a campaign trail speech in Greifswald on Thursday, 9 January.
  
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• Ex-substitute teacher, 60, accused of showing sexually explicit pics to elementary students

  09-01-2025 23:22 via independent.co.uk
  
  Detectives said the former sub allegedly tried to delete the explicit images from her phone when they found her
  
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• California is in a home-insurance crisis. The Pacific Palisades fire will only make it worse

  09-01-2025 23:22 via independent.co.uk
  
  ‘We need to make it incredibly expensive to build in these kinds of environments,’ one expert told The Independent. ‘If the insurance industry refuses to sell policies, maybe people won’t risk it’
  
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• How a viral post saved a Chinese actor from Myanmar's scam centres

  09-01-2025 23:21 via bbc.com
  
  Many Chinese are now asking: what about their loved ones still trapped in scam centres?
  
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• Violent protests in China after student falls to his death

  09-01-2025 23:17 via bbc.com
  
  Protesters and police clash after a boy is found dead at his school dormitory.
  
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• Jimmy Carter held the highest office in the land. But his faith made him a public servant

  09-01-2025 23:05 via independent.co.uk
  
  Analysis: Carter navigated the barbed wire of the politics of religion, Eric Garcia reports. In doing so, he ran his race and he kept his faith
  
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• Watch live: Biden addresses nation as wildfires tear across Los Angeles

  09-01-2025 22:48 via independent.co.uk
  
  Watch live as Joe Biden addresses the nation as wildfires continue to rip through the Los Angeles County area on Thursday, 9 January.
  
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• Los Angeles wildfires could worsen with wind gusts as 20 looters arrested

  09-01-2025 22:40 via independent.co.uk
  
  Donald Trump blames Democratic governor over California water shortages that have hampered firefighters, as celebrities including Jamie Lee Curtis and Prince Harry offer help to residents who have lost homes
  
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• Danes struggle with response to Trump Greenland threat

  09-01-2025 22:34 via bbc.com
  
  Copenhagen's grey winter skies match the mood among politicians and business leaders in the face of a crisis.
  
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• Judge throws out Biden’s ‘arbitrary’ protections for LGBT+ students

  09-01-2025 22:33 via independent.co.uk
  
  Federal judge blocks Title IX changes intended to protect trans and nonbinary students from discrimination
  
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• Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado ‘kidnapped’, allies say

  09-01-2025 22:29 via theguardian.com
  
  Leader reportedly freed after being ‘violently intercepted’ having left hideout to lead protest against Nicolás MaduroAllies of Venezuela’s most influential opposition leader, María Corina Machado, said she had been “kidnapped” from the streets of Caracas by regime officials after sneaking out of her hideout to lead a major protest against the authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro.About three hours after the announcement, Machado supporters sa
  
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• California wildfires live updates: LA fires cause extensive damage as some communities look ‘like a bomb was dropped’

  09-01-2025 22:28 via independent.co.uk
  
  Death toll continues to climb as more than 7,500 firefighting personnel are deployed across California, with two of the most ferocious fires at zero percent containment
  
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• Families of 9/11 victims have waited more than two decades for closure. It could be hours away.

  09-01-2025 22:11 via independent.co.uk
  
  The highly-contested plea deal has taken its toll of the families of victims
  
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• Cat stuck in middle of busy Florida interstate highway rescued by police officers

  09-01-2025 21:53 via independent.co.uk
  
  Police officers rescued a cat in distress in the middle of a busy interstate highway in Jacksonville, Florida, in early January.
  
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• Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni caught-off guard by bizarre question about ants

  09-01-2025 21:41 via independent.co.uk
  
  Meloni was question on Trump, Musk and stepping on ants
  
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• Swiss national accused of spying takes own life in prison, Iran judge says

  09-01-2025 20:51 via independent.co.uk
  
  The Swiss Foreign Affairs Department confirmed the death
  
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• Here is why California can’t use ocean water to help fight the wildfires

  09-01-2025 20:47 via independent.co.uk
  
  Salt water can wreck a fire, but it can also wreck equipment and vegetation as well
  
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• Trump’s conversation with Obama draws speculation at Jimmy Carter’s funeral: Live updates

  09-01-2025 20:37 via independent.co.uk
  
  Incoming commander-in-chief lashes out at long-standing Democratic foe over natural disaster engulfing Hollywood as his expansionist ambitions met with mockery
  
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• Wildfires continue to destroy Los Angeles. Its now up to hundreds of prison inmates to help slow the spread

  09-01-2025 20:22 via independent.co.uk
  
  Inmate firefighters make around $27 for a 24-hour shift
  
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• Drone footage shows desolate landscape of wildfire devastation in Los Angeles

  09-01-2025 20:10 via independent.co.uk
  
  Drone footage has revealed the extent of the horrific devastation Los Angeles has suffered this week due to wildfires burning in California.
  
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• Israel rallies global support to win release of a woman believed kidnapped in Iraq

  09-01-2025 20:04 via independent.co.uk
  
  A senior Israeli official says the government is working with allies in a renewed push to win the freedom of an Israeli-Russian researcher who is believed to have been kidnapped in Iraq nearly two years ago
  
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• Uruguay’s popular former president José Mujica reveals he is dying of cancer

  09-01-2025 19:57 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘My cycle is over,’ says leftwinger, 89, who lives humbly and oversaw one of healthiest and most liberal democraciesJosé Mujica, the former guerrilla who became Uruguay’s president and a global progressive icon, has announced that the cancer in his oesophagus has spread to his liver, and that he has chosen to forgo further treatment.In what Mujica said would be his last interview, he told Búsqueda, a weekly news magazine in Uruguay, that he was “doomed&rdquo
  
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• Why was LA Mayor Karen Bass in Ghana as devastating wildfires broke out?

  09-01-2025 19:56 via independent.co.uk
  
  Los Angeles mayor set off for African nation on Saturday despite reports of possible fire weather the day prior
  
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• New norovirus strain is stoking the stomach flu surge

  09-01-2025 19:45 via independent.co.uk
  
  This winter’s dominant norovirus strain is a newer variant called the G11.17 [P17]
  
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• Handshakes, chit chats and steely looks: All the awkward interactions between presidents at Jimmy Carter’s funeral

  09-01-2025 19:36 via independent.co.uk
  
  Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, not known for being best buddies, engaged in some friendly chit-chat and shared a few laughs
  
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• Woman who lost hand fighting off a shark is raising money for a new prosthetic - after insurance refused to pay

  09-01-2025 19:25 via independent.co.uk
  
  ‘Without this hand, Elisabeth faces a future marked by limited skills, stunted mobility, and a diminished quality of life’
  
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• Swiss citizen dies in Iran prison after spying arrest

  09-01-2025 19:24 via bbc.com
  
  The man was being held with another inmate at a prison in the eastern city of Semnan, according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
  
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• Jimmy Carter funeral live updates: 39th president’s remains head to Georgia for burial next to wife Rosalynn

  09-01-2025 19:20 via independent.co.uk
  
  President Biden honored Carter’s ‘character’ during his eulogy as Trump, Obama and other former presidents attended the service at the Washington National Cathedral
  
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• ‘Actively dangerous’: 15,000 doctors sign letter begging Senate to reject RFK Jr for health secretary

  09-01-2025 19:19 via independent.co.uk
  
  Kennedy, among other controversies, has spread misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine
  
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• Trump will finish the Ayatollahs in Iran, says Mike Pompeo

  09-01-2025 19:18 via independent.co.uk
  
  Exclusive: Trump’s former secretary of state and foreign policy chief told an Iranian pro-democracy conference in Paris that the change of administration in Washington will mark an end to the current regime in Tehran
  
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• From Carter's funeral, an American snapshot: A singular image, 5 presidents, 379 years of history

  09-01-2025 19:15 via independent.co.uk
  
  Inside Washington National Cathedral, the five men who've occupied the Oval Office since 1993 convened for a rare moment together at Jimmy Carter’s state funeral
  
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• Founder of website used by Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband charged

  09-01-2025 19:09 via independent.co.uk
  
  French prosecutors have connected Coco.fr to more than 23,000 criminal cases, includin ‘paedophilia, pimping, prostitution, rape, sale of narcotics, ambushes, and even homicides’
  
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• Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers pay tribute to LA amid fire crisis

  09-01-2025 19:08 via independent.co.uk
  
  Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers all took a moment at the beginning of their shows on Wednesday night to share a serious message
  
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• LA officials condemn looters ‘preying’ on residents as wildfires devastate California

  09-01-2025 19:01 via independent.co.uk
  
  Los Angeles officials condemned looters targeting vulnerable communities affected by the devastating wildfires raging in California.
  
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• Newsmax host hysterically rages that California wildfires are ‘death by DEI’

  09-01-2025 18:59 via independent.co.uk
  
  The right-wing media ecosystem has become inundated with talking points that diversity hiring initiatives are to blame for the devastating fire engulfing the Los Angeles region
  
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• Drunk firefighter causes chaos in first class — forcing pilot to make emergency landing, police say

  09-01-2025 18:50 via independent.co.uk
  
  Exclusive: Robert Solesky admitted to ‘aggressively’ grabbing a flight attendant by the lapels, but insisted that “it was a kind gesture to say, ‘Thanks, man,’” according to court filings reported first by The Independent
  
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• Biden hails Jimmy Carter’s ‘strength of character’ in eulogy for 39th president

  09-01-2025 18:49 via independent.co.uk
  
  ‘Throughout his life, he showed us what it means to be a practitioner of good works and a good and faithful servant of God and of the people,’ Biden said Thursday at a service attended by all living presidents
  
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• Jimmy Carter funeral live updates: Garth Brooks performs 39th president’s favorite song as Trump, Obama share a laugh ahead of service

  09-01-2025 18:28 via independent.co.uk
  
  Shortly after President Biden honored Carter’s ‘character’ during a eulogy, the ceremony came to a close, meaning Carter’s remains will head to Georgia, where he’ll buried next to Rosalynn
  
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• Mark Zuckerberg’s alliance with Donald Trump proves just how low he’ll go

  09-01-2025 18:27 via independent.co.uk
  
  The Facebook and Instagram boss has shown just how deep he’s willing to stoop for the benefit of his commercial empire — and just how little his last eight years of promises really meant, writes Io Dodds
  
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• Donald Trump and Barack Obama share laugh as presidents unite for Jimmy Carter’s funeral

  09-01-2025 18:27 via independent.co.uk
  
  Barack Obama and Donald Trump shared a laugh at Jimmy Carter’s funeral at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, 9 January.
  
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• Los Angeles wildfires live: City braces for more destruction as blazes continue to burn in neighborhoods

  09-01-2025 18:08 via independent.co.uk
  
  Death toll continues to climb as more than 7,500 firefighting personnel are deployed across California, with three of the most ferocious fires at zero percent containment
  
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• Biden hails Carter’s ‘strength of character’ in eulogy for 39th president

  09-01-2025 18:05 via independent.co.uk
  
  46th president eulogizes 39th at a state funeral attended by all living American presidents
  
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• Army chief elected Lebanon's president after years of deadlock

  09-01-2025 17:53 via bbc.com
  
  The crisis-plagued country's divided parliament ends a power vacuum that lasted more than two years.
  
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• Lebanon elects Joseph Aoun as president after two-year vacancy

  09-01-2025 17:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Army commander’s election increases confidence that ceasefire with Israel will holdLebanon’s parliament has elected the army commander Joseph Aoun as the country’s new president, ending a more than two-year vacancy and increasing confidence that a ceasefire with Israel will hold.Aoun received 99 out of 128 votes in the 13th attempt by a deeply divided parliament to elect a new head of state after the departure of the former president Michel Aoun, who is no relation, in October
  
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