Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the UN climate summit that governments have a responsibility to act on climate change and highlighted Australia’s growth in renewable energy. He did not mention fossil fuels, despite Australia’s role as a major coal and liquefied natural gas exporter and calls from UN Secretary-General António Guterres for countries to plan a transition away from them.
Key Facts
Albanese spoke at the COP31 summit in Antalya, Turkey, which Turkey is hosting.
Australia’s climate change minister, Chris Bowen, is presiding over the talks.
Albanese said renewable energy generation in Australia had doubled in six years and supplied half of the country’s electricity.
Australia is the world’s second-largest exporter of coal used in power stations and the largest exporter of coal used in steelmaking.
Guterres said keeping the 1.5C warming goal within reach requires no new coal and a major reduction in coal, oil and gas use.
Guterres urged governments to create national plans to move away from fossil fuels while protecting workers and communities.
Climate campaigners Adam Bandt and Bill Hare criticized Albanese for not addressing fossil fuels in his speech.
Hare said the Albanese government had approved 38 fossil fuel projects since taking office in 2022.
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Millions of people joined Spain’s first general strike in 14 years to protest rising housing costs. Unions reported strong but uneven participation, while disruptions included transport stoppages, roadblocks and arrests; the strike came ahead of a snap election scheduled for 29 November.
Key Facts
The nationwide 24-hour strike was backed by major unions and tenants’ associations.
Unions reported participation rates of 90% in automotive and port sectors and 82% in waste collection.
Union representatives said support was strongest in coastal regions including Catalonia and Andalusia.
Schools and universities in many areas closed or operated with limited capacity.
Roadblocks and a near-standstill in public transport were reported in Barcelona, while picketers and police clashed near Madrid’s main wholesale market.
Government officials said 27 people had been arrested over minor incidents by midday Wednesday.
Tenants’ groups have called for steps including limits on evictions of vulnerable people, rent freezes and restrictions on short-term rentals.
Spain’s snap general election is scheduled for 29 November after rightwing parties blocked emergency housing legislation.
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A Scottish man, understood to be 32-year-old James Thomas Campbell from Prestwick, was among six people killed in a shooting in central Krakow on Saturday. Police Scotland is supporting his family, but formal identification has not yet been completed.
Key Facts
Campbell worked as a DJ in Ayrshire.
The 24-year-old attacker, identified by local media as Michal Oksinski, died in hospital on Monday.
The six people killed in the shooting included four Polish citizens, an Austrian woman and Campbell.
Fifteen people were injured, including two police officers.
Police said the attacker drove into Krakow’s Main Market Square and fired at people from his car.
Armed officers engaged the attacker, who was shot within three minutes of the attack beginning.
Police later found the bodies of the attacker’s parents and sister at his home.
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British authorities arrested a senior U.S. Army officer on suspicion of spying for Russia. The report provides no details about the officer’s identity or the allegations.
Key Facts
The arrested person is described as a senior U.S. Army officer.
British authorities made the arrest.
The officer is suspected of spying for Russia.
The report does not name the officer.
The report gives no further details about the alleged espionage.
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The article describes Nayib Bukele as a prominent global figure in efforts against gangs and organized crime. Its title raises whether his fight in Haiti could bring hope or greater havoc, but the provided text gives no details about his role there or any events in Haiti.
Key Facts
The article identifies Nayib Bukele as a prominent global figure.
It links Bukele with efforts to fight gangs and organized crime.
The title refers to Bukele’s fight in Haiti.
The title poses a question about whether that fight could bring hope or greater havoc.
The provided article text does not describe specific actions by Bukele in Haiti.
The provided text does not report outcomes or responses in Haiti.
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Forensic testing linked a sow and her three cubs to the fatal attack on Jennifer Balcarras, 48, and her daughter, Selah Reed, 20, in Bella Coola, British Columbia. Conservation officers killed all four bears under provincial human-wildlife conflict guidelines, and investigators said the attack likely involved predatory behaviour, which they described as very rare.
Key Facts
Balcarras and Reed died earlier this month after taking an afternoon walk in a trail area near Bella Coola.
The British Columbia Conservation Officer Service used evidence and animal DNA to identify the sow and her three offspring as responsible.
More than a dozen conservation officers took part in the investigation over the past week.
DNA testing showed the four bears were not involved in a 2025 attack on a school group in the Bella Coola area.
That 2025 incident injured 11 people, including two critically; the bear responsible was never found.
The Nuxalk Nation’s elected chief said the fatal attack had deeply affected community members as they continued to recover from the 2025 incident.
An estimated 10,000 to 13,000 grizzly bears live in British Columbia.
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At least 300 schools in Italy were evacuated after receiving similar bomb-threat emails. Italian officials said they saw no sign of a concrete danger and were investigating; schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland also received emails that police treated as hoaxes.
Key Facts
Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said at least 300 schools were affected and that the number could rise.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said there was no indication of a concrete danger to Italian schools.
Italian authorities opened an investigation and convened a meeting of government ministers.
Valditara said the emails suggested a cyberattack rather than a genuine bomb threat.
Schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland also received threatening emails on Wednesday.
Northern Ireland's Education Authority advised schools to stay open because police did not consider the emails credible.
Police Scotland said it was treating the messages as hoaxes and working to identify their source.
The article reports recent bomb-threat disruptions to European flights and cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration systems.
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Russian and Ukrainian officials agreed in Abu Dhabi to arrange a large-scale prisoner exchange after two days of U.S.-mediated talks, but they made no breakthrough toward ending the war. U.S. envoys said they would discuss the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while participants said territorial issues and the format for future talks remain unresolved.
Key Facts
The talks took place in Abu Dhabi over two days and were mediated by the United States.
Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said both sides agreed to a large-scale prisoner exchange and reached mutual understanding on some issues.
Russia's state news agency TASS reported that the exchange could take place in two to three weeks.
U.S. envoy Jared Kushner said the sides would finalize the number of prisoners on Thursday.
Kushner and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff planned to travel to Moscow to brief Putin, then meet Zelenskyy in Dublin.
Kushner said territorial issues would be the hardest to resolve but that the talks made progress on a post-war security framework.
Ukraine's negotiator David Arakhamia said future talks should include more parties and that Europe should be represented.
Medvedenko said the proposed exchange would need to exceed the 1,000-for-1,000 swap in May of the previous year to be the largest.
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Kenya has discharged its final Ebola patient, bringing the total number of recovered patients to seven. The country has reported no new confirmed cases since 20 October and will begin the 42-day period required before it can be declared Ebola-free.
Key Facts
Kenya recorded its first confirmed Ebola cases in early October 2026.
All seven Kenyan cases were linked to a businessman who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and travelled through Uganda.
The businessman and his mother died; the other seven patients recovered.
Health officials reported no evidence of wider community transmission in Kenya.
The 135 identified contacts completed 21 days of isolation and monitoring.
Four of the patients who recovered were healthcare workers.
Kenya plans to maintain heightened surveillance at border crossings, airports, health facilities and communities during the 42-day countdown.
WHO guidelines require 42 days after the last patient tests negative and is discharged before an outbreak can be declared over.
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More than 50 countries, 20 nongovernmental and philanthropic organizations, and multinational companies are pledging to put children’s rights at the center of their policies and actions. The agreement is being made at the Paris Peace Forum, where UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said caring for children is important to a country’s future.
Key Facts
The pledges involve more than 50 countries.
Twenty nongovernmental and philanthropic organizations are participating.
Multinational companies are also joining the pledges.
The agreement is being made at the Paris Peace Forum.
The pledges aim to put children’s rights at the center of policies and actions.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell spoke about the importance of caring for children.
Russell said a country’s future is difficult to imagine if children are not cared for.
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Cold weather payments help eligible households in England, Wales and Northern Ireland with heating costs when local temperatures are recorded or forecast at 0°C or below for seven days in a row. Each qualifying period brings an automatic £25 payment; Scotland has a separate winter heating payment that does not depend on the weather.
Key Facts
People must live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland and receive certain benefits to qualify for cold weather payments.
Eligible benefits include Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit in some cases, and Support for Mortgage Interest.
A qualifying period is seven consecutive days when the local average temperature is recorded or forecast to be 0°C or below.
Each payment is £25, and people can receive more than one payment during winter if additional cold periods qualify.
The scheme runs from 1 November to 31 March.
Payments should arrive automatically in the recipient’s benefits account within two weeks of a qualifying cold period.
More than 1.4 million cold weather payments were made during winter 2025–26.
Scotland’s separate winter heating payment is £62 and is paid automatically between December and February.
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At COP31 in Antalya, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged leaders to act quickly on climate change and phase out coal, oil and gas. He cited record emissions and heat, while Turkey promoted a voluntary plan to expand electrification; a UN report said the world is on course to exceed the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C warming goal.
Key Facts
Guterres said greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high in 2025 and heat records continue to be broken.
He accused fossil fuel interests of slowing climate action and called for fossil fuels to be phased out.
Turkey proposed a voluntary initiative to raise electricity’s share of global energy consumption to 35 percent by 2035.
The European Union said electrification should rely on clean energy, a point that may drive debate over Turkey’s proposal.
The United States did not attend the talks, marking its second consecutive year absent.
A UN report released the previous month said the world was on course to exceed the 1.5°C warming limit countries aim to meet under the Paris Agreement.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he planned to address environmental damage caused by the United States and Israel during the war.
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People across the UK observed two minutes of silence on Wednesday for Armistice Day. The observance marked the end of the fighting in World War One and remembered people who have died in conflicts.
Key Facts
Ceremonies took place at the Cenotaph memorial in London.
A ceremony was held at the Royal British Legion National Remembrance Gardens in Staffordshire.
People observed the silence across the UK.
The Armistice took effect at 11:00 on 11 November 1918.
The agreement ended the fighting in World War One and came before peace negotiations.
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Italian authorities evacuated about 300 schools on Wednesday after receiving bomb threats by email. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said officials had found no indication of a concrete danger and were investigating the threats.
Key Facts
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said 300 schools received email threats, according to LaPresse.
The threats led to evacuations at schools across Italy.
Meloni said the threats appeared intended to cause alarm and concern.
The anonymous email also threatened Meloni, according to copies obtained by Italian media.
Meloni convened a meeting of ministers for later Wednesday.
At Rome’s Mamiani high school, students went outside before learning that a bomb threat had prompted the evacuation.
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Hundreds of schools in Italy, Ireland and the United Kingdom received bomb-threat emails, prompting precautionary evacuations at some locations. Authorities said they did not consider the threats credible, and Italy’s prime minister said there was no indication of a concrete danger to schools.
Key Facts
About 300 schools in Italy had been evacuated by Wednesday morning, and officials expected the number affected to rise.
Some schools in Ireland and Northern Ireland were also emptied as a precaution.
Police in Scotland said schools did not need to evacuate.
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said the threats appeared intended to cause concern and spread fear.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said there was no indication of a concrete danger to Italian schools.
An email reported in Ireland threatened an explosive device with a remote detonator inside a plastic bag.
The threat email in Italy was signed with the name “Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan,” according to Reuters.
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Aneto, the highest peak in Spain’s Pyrenees, is losing its glacier rapidly. The report says the glacier, one of southern Europe’s largest, could disappear within a decade and that its decline offers glaciologists lessons about global warming.
Key Facts
Aneto is the highest peak in the Spanish Pyrenees.
Its glacier is one of the largest in southern Europe.
The report says the glacier could disappear within a decade.
The glacier is melting rapidly.
The report links its decline to global warming.
Glaciologists are studying the glacier and what its decline can teach them.
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France 24 published an interview with Patrick Bury, a University of Bath academic who specializes in warfare and counterterrorism. The video’s title quotes Bury saying that repairing “the systems” will cost a lot of money, but the provided article text does not specify which systems he means.
Key Facts
The video was issued on November 11, 2026.
The video was modified on November 11, 2026.
Patrick Bury is identified as a senior associate professor in warfare and counterterrorism at the University of Bath.
The title quotes Bury saying that repairing the systems will cost a lot of money.
The article lists Europe, the European Union, and counterterrorism as keywords.
The article is a France 24 video.
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A Cairo court postponed the retrial of Mada Masr editor-in-chief Lina Attalah until 18 November after her lawyers asked for a new judge. The case comes amid UN warnings about pressure on independent journalists in Egypt and follows a separate conviction that ordered Mada Masr to close.
Key Facts
Attalah co-founded Mada Masr, an independent Egyptian news outlet, and serves as its editor-in-chief.
The court adjourned the opening hearing on Wednesday after Attalah’s defence lawyers requested a new judge.
A separate court last month convicted Attalah of operating a website without a licence, fined her 3 million Egyptian pounds and ordered Mada Masr to shut down.
Attalah also faces a retrial over a one-year prison sentence issued in absentia in 2024 for spreading false news and operating a website without a licence.
The UN warned of widening attacks on press freedom by Egyptian authorities, including the targeting and harassment of independent journalists.
Reporters Without Borders ranked Egypt 169th out of 180 countries for press freedom in its 2026 analysis and said at least 26 journalists arrested in recent years remain detained.
Six journalists from the independent fact-checking platform Matsda2sh were arrested in September and later charged with joining the Muslim Brotherhood and financing terrorism; their lawyers say they were beaten and electrocuted in detention.
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About 300 schools across Italy received bomb threats, prompting precautionary evacuations. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said the threats were probably a cyber-attack and that checks had found no sign of a real danger; authorities were investigating.
Key Facts
Threat emails reached schools in Rome, Naples, Vicenza, Florence, Pisa, Trieste and other Italian cities.
Reports said about 280 school head teachers had received threats in recent days.
Some schools were evacuated on Wednesday, but pupils were allowed to return after the alarms were lifted.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called a meeting with senior ministers and intelligence chiefs.
Meloni said checks had not found evidence of a concrete danger.
Bomb-hoax emails also targeted more than 300 schools in Northern Ireland, and police treated messages sent to schools in Scotland as hoaxes.
Authorities had not established whether the threats in Italy, Northern Ireland and Scotland were connected.
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The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights appealed to Niger’s president over reports that the Mahamid Arab community in Diffa faces limits on access to water, education, healthcare and identity documents. Reports that authorities may require the community to leave remain unverified, and the commission’s appeal is not a formal finding that Niger violated their rights.
Key Facts
The commission sent its urgent appeal to President Abdourahamane Tchiani on November 6, and it became public on November 9.
The Mahamid are an Arab community with historical links to Chad and Sudan; many live in Niger’s southeastern Diffa region.
Nigerien officials have accused some Mahamid residents of obtaining nationality documents fraudulently, trafficking arms and links to armed groups; the allegations have not been independently verified.
African Perceptions reported that an Interior Ministry message dated October 7 instructed authorities to restrict services and documents for the Mahamid, but Al Jazeera did not authenticate the message or confirm that the instructions were carried out.
Radio Ndarason Internationale reported that Mahamid representatives were told on November 8 they had two months to leave Niger. La Roue de l’Histoire later reported a December 31, 2026 deadline; neither outlet provided a formal expulsion order.
Al Jazeera said it could not independently confirm an expulsion decision, its legal basis or whether it would apply to the entire community.
In 2006, Niger suspended a plan to expel Arabs from Diffa to Chad after protests and negotiations.
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