vows

US president says Gaza ceasefire ‘working out very well’ despite deadly Israeli attacks and severe aid restrictions.

SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Yonhap) — North Korea on Thursday denounced the latest U.S. sanctions on Pyongyang as a demonstration of Washington’s hostile policy, vowing to take proper measures to counter it with patience.

The North’s reaction came as the U.S. announced Tuesday that it had imposed sanctions on eight North Korean individuals and two entities for their involvement in laundering money stolen through illicit cyber activities.

The sanctions came even as U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed his wish to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to resume stalled diplomacy with Pyongyang.

Kim Un-chol, North Korea’s vice foreign minister in charge of U.S. affairs, said in a statement that by imposing fresh sanctions, the U.S. has showed its “invariable hostile” intents toward North Korea in an “accustomed and traditional way,” according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“Now that the present U.S. administration has clarified its stand to be hostile towards the DPRK to the last, we will also take proper measures to counter it with patience for any length of time,” the statement showed.

Denouncing the U.S. for revealing its “wicked nature,” the North’s official warned Washington should not expect its tactics of pressure, appeasement, threat and blackmail against North Korea will work.

“The U.S. sanctions will have no effect on the DPRK’s thinking and viewpoint on it in the future, too, as in the past,” Kim said, using the acronym of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In regard to North Korea’s statement, South Korea’s unification ministry assessed the North appears to have responded to the imposition of U.S. sanctions in a “restrained” manner.

The U.S. move came as North Korea has not responded to Trump’s proposal to meet with the North’s leader during his latest trip to South Korea on the occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering.

Earlier this week the U.S. State Department also raised the need to seek U.N. sanctions on seven ships accused of illegally exporting North Korean coal and iron ore to China in violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions over the North’s nuclear and missile programs.

South Korea’s spy agency said this week there were signs that North Korea had been preparing for a possible meeting with the U.S. in time for last week’s APEC gathering.

The National Intelligence Service said there is a high possibility that the North and the U.S. would hold a summit some time after an annual joint military exercise between South Korea and the U.S. in March next year.

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NEW YORK — Fresh off winning New York City’s mayoral election, Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday that a team including former city and federal officials — all women — would steer his transition to City Hall, and that he would “work every day to honor the trust that I now hold.”

“I and my team will build a City Hall capable of delivering on the promises of this campaign,” the mayor-elect said at a news conference, vowing that his administration would be both compassionate and capable.

He named political strategist Elana Leopold as executive director of the transition team. She will work with United Way of New York City President Grace Bonilla; former Deputy Mayor Melanie Hartzog, who was also a city budget official; former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan; and former First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer.

With his win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, the 34-year-old democratic socialist will soon become the city’s first Muslim mayor, the first of South Asian heritage, the first born in Africa and the youngest mayor in more than a century.

He now faces the task of following through on his ambitious affordability agenda while navigating the bureaucratic challenges of City Hall and a hostile Trump administration.

“I’m confident in delivering these same policies that we ran on for the last year,” he said in an interview earlier Wednesday on cable news channel NY1.

More than 2 million New Yorkers cast ballots in the contest, the largest turnout in a mayoral race in more than 50 years, according to the city’s Board of Elections. With roughly 90% of the votes counted, Mamdani held an approximately 9 percentage point lead over Cuomo.

Mamdani, who was criticized throughout the campaign for his thin resume, will now have to begin staffing his incoming administration and planning how to accomplish the ambitious but polarizing agenda that drove him to victory.

Among the campaign’s promises are free child care, free city bus service, city-run grocery stores and a new Department of Community Safety that would expand on an existing city initiative that sends mental health care workers, rather than police, to handle certain emergency calls. It is unclear how Mamdani will pay for such initiatives, given Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s steadfast opposition to his calls to raise taxes on wealthy people.

On Wednesday, he touted his support from Hochul and other state leaders as “endorsements of an agenda of affordability.”

His decisions around the leadership of the New York Police Department will also be closely watched. Mamdani was a fierce critic of the department in 2020, calling for “this rogue agency” to be defunded and slamming it as “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.” He has since apologized for those comments and has said he will ask the current NYPD commissioner to stay on the job.

Mamdani has already faced scrutiny from national Republicans, including President Trump, who have eagerly cast him as a threat and the face of a more radical Democratic Party that is out of step with mainstream America. Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut federal funding to the city — and even take it over — if Mamdani won.

”…AND SO IT BEGINS!” the president posted late Tuesday to his Truth Social site.

Mamdani, for his part, said at his news conference that “New Yorkers are facing twin crises in this moment: an authoritarian administration and an affordability crisis,” and that he would tackle both.

While saying he was committed to “Trump-proofing” the city — to protect poor residents against “the man who has the most power in this country,” as he explained — the mayor-elect also reiterated that he was interested in talking to the president about ”ways that we can work together to serve New Yorkers.” That could mean discussing the cost of living or the effect of cuts to the SNAP food aid program amid the federal government shutdown, Mamdani suggested.

“I will not mince my words when it comes to President Trump … and I will also always do so while leaving a door open to have that conversation,” Mamdani added.

Mamdani also said during his news conference and interviews that he had not heard from Cuomo or the city’s outgoing mayor, Eric Adams. He did speak with Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.

A spokesperson for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, said he would “let their respective speeches be the measuring stick for grace and leave it at that.”

In his victory speech to supporters, Mamdani wished Cuomo the best in private life, before adding: “Let tonight be the final time I utter his name, as we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few.”

Asked about the comments Wednesday on NY1, Mamdani said he was “quite disappointed in the nature of the bigotry and the racism we saw in the final weeks.” He noted the millions of dollars in attack ads that were spent against him, some of which played into Islamophobic tropes.

Izaguirre and Colvin write for the Associated Press. AP writers Jake Offenhartz and Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

Oct. 19 (UPI) — Former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., a convicted fraudster and identity thief, has said he will work to reform U.S. prisons, having been released from a penitentiary Friday by President Donald Trump.

Trump commuted Santos’s seven-year sentence for wire fraud and identity theft, the latest in a series of moves by Trump to exonerate associates and Republicans involved in criminal activity.

Santos was expelled from the U.S. House in 2023 after refusing to resign following a scathing ethics investigation uncovered his criminal activity. In an interview with the Washington Post, Santos called his time in federal prison “dehumanizing” and “humbling.”

The former representative admitted to stealing the identities of 11 people, including his own family members. He served 84 days in prison before being exonerated by Trump and released from prison Friday night. He also admitted that he embellished and fabricated his biography during his run for Congress in 2020.

Santos called the prison system, and the facility where he was housed, FCI Fairton in N.J., as “broken” with “rotting facilities, and administrators who seem incapable or unwilling to correct it.” He said a large hole in the ceiling exposed “thick, black mold,” and claimed broken air-conditioning systems forced inmates to endure sweltering heat.

“The building itself is hardly fit for long-term habitation: sheet metal walls, shoddy construction, the look and feel of a temporary warehouse rather than a permanent facility,” Santos wrote on The South Shore Press website while he was incarcerated.

As part of his plea deal, Santos agreed to pay $600,000 in restitution and forfeiture costs.

Santos pushed back on critics who claim the former congressman is not being held accountable for his crimes, and said that, beyond repentance, he has “dealt a second chance.”

“I understand people want to make this into “he’s getting away with it. I’m not getting away with it,” Santos said following his release. “I was the first person ever to go to federal prison for a civil violation … I don’t want to focus on trying to rehash the past and want to take the experience and do good and move on with the future.

In announcing Santo’s commutation on social media, Trump claimed that the former congressman had been “horribly mistreated,” and that “at least” the former representative had the “Courage, Conviction, and intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”

Santos, 37, served fewer than three months of his seven year sentence. He said he has no plans to re-enter politics and would do his best to repay campaign donors based on “whatever the law requires of me.”

Hamas has handed over the remains of an additional captive it recovered in the ravaged Gaza Strip, as the Palestinian group urges mediators and the international community to pressure Israel to open border crossings and allow aid in.

The armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, said in a statement on Friday that its fighters handed over the remains at 11pm local time (20:00 GMT), without elaborating on where the body was retrieved.

According to the group, the remains were pulled out earlier in the day and were those of an “occupation prisoner”, suggesting they belonged to an Israeli rather than one of the captives of several other nationalities also taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed a short while later that Israel had received the coffin of a captive after it was handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas in Gaza.

The coffin will be transferred to Israel’s Ministry of Health’s National Center for Forensic Medicine, where a formal identification process will be conducted before the family is informed.

The Israeli military requested that “the public act with sensitivity and wait for the official identification”. It also added that “Hamas is required to uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the deceased hostages”.

Hamas has said it’s committed to the terms of the United States-mediated ceasefire deal, including the handover of captive bodies still unaccounted for under Gaza’s ruins. It has repeatedly said it has returned all the bodies it was able to recover, but needs help locating remaining captives trapped under the rubble following Israeli strikes.

“There are still 18 bodies held inside Gaza,” said Al Jazeera’s Hamda Salhut, reporting from Amman on Friday. “Hamas says that they’re waiting for the assistance they need in the help in the form of heavy machinery and teams on the ground.”

Israel is ‘not cooperating’

Former Israeli ambassador Alon Liel said the return of the bodies of the dead captives is being treated very emotionally in the country, creating pressure on the government.

He said many Israelis believed that Hamas was cheating on the ceasefire agreement by not returning all the bodies of the deceased captives. “There is a lot of anger,” Liel said.

In a statement earlier on Friday, Hamas said some captives’ remains were in tunnels or buildings that were later destroyed by Israel, and that heavy machinery was required to dig through rubble to retrieve them. It blamed Israel for the delay, saying it had not allowed any new bulldozers into the Gaza Strip.

Most heavy equipment in Gaza was destroyed during the war, leaving only a limited number as Palestinians try to clear massive amounts of rubble across the bombarded territory.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Amman, said Israel is “not cooperating with countries that are lending help to possibly look for those remains”.

“Turkiye, for example, was ready to send 81 experts in the retrieval of bodies, and Israel has not allowed it to enter. It has also not allowed it to provide equipment that could possibly facilitate that,” Odeh said.

On Friday, two bulldozers ploughed up pits in the earth as Hamas searched for captives’ remains in Hamad City, a complex of apartment towers in Khan Younis. Israeli forces repeatedly bombarded the towers during the war, toppling some, and troops conducted a weeklong raid there in March 2024.

US President Donald Trump has warned Hamas that he would greenlight Israel to resume the war on Gaza if the group does not live up to its end of the deal and return all captives’ bodies, totalling 28. So far in the past days, Hamas handed over the remains of nine captives, along with a 10th body that Israel claims was not that of a captive.

The return of the 10th dead captive on Friday comes as Gaza’s civil defence said more than 10,000 slain Palestinians remain trapped under debris and rubble across the enclave. Only 280 have so far been retrieved.

Hamas has urged mediators to ensure the increased flow of essential aid into Gaza, expedite the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and start reconstruction. Despite the ceasefire deal agreed last week, Israel has yet to allow the entry of aid in scale and is still operating in about half of the Gaza Strip, as attacks continue in some areas.

Former L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner kicked off his campaign for mayor on Monday with a video launch that hits not just Mayor Karen Bass but President Trump and his immigration crackdown.

Beutner, a philanthropist and former investment banker, uses the four-minute campaign video to describe L.A. as a city that is “under attack” — a message punctuated by footage of U.S. Border Patrol agents.

“I’ll never accept the Trump administration’s assault on our values and our neighbors,” says Beutner, a Democrat, as he stands on a tree-lined residential street. “Targeting people solely based on the color of their skin is unacceptable and un-American.”

“I’ll counter these injustices and work to keep every person safe and build a better Los Angeles,” he adds.

The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Times about Beutner’s video.

The video opens by describing a major biking accident that upended Beutner’s life about 17 years ago, leading him to enter public service and “take a different path.” Not long after, he became Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s “jobs czar,” taking on the elevated title of first deputy mayor and striking business deals on the mayor’s behalf.

The video casts Beutner, 65, as a pragmatic problem solver, focusing on his nonprofit Vision to Learn, which provides eye exams and glasses to children in low-income communities. It also highlights his work shepherding L.A. Unified through the COVID-19 pandemic and working to pass Proposition 28, the 2022 measure supporting arts education in California public schools.

Beutner, on his video, also turns his aim at City Hall, high housing costs, rising parking meter rates and a big increase in trash pickup fees for homeowners and smaller apartment buildings. Calling L.A. a city that is “adrift,” Beutner criticized the mayor’s push to reduce homelessness — one of her signature initiatives.

“The city spent billions to solve problems that have just become bigger problems,” Beutner says.

Bass campaign spokesperson Douglas Herman pushed back on the criticism, saying the city needs to “move past divisive attacks.” He said violent crime is down across the city, with homicides falling to their lowest levels in 60 years.

“When Karen Bass ran for mayor, homelessness and public safety were the top concerns of Angelenos. And she has delivered in a big way,” he said in a statement. “Today, homelessness has decreased two consecutive years for the first time in Los Angeles. Thousands of people have been moved off our streets and into housing.”

“There’s more work ahead, but this administration has proven it can deliver,” Herman added. “Mayor Bass is committed to building on this historic momentum in her second term.”

Beutner’s video posted two days after he confirmed that he’s planning to run for mayor, leveling blistering criticism at the city’s preparation for, and response to, the Palisades fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and left 12 people dead.

Beutner’s criticism of Trump’s immigration crackdown in many ways echoes the messages delivered by Bass several months ago, when federal agents were seizing street vendors, day laborers and other workers in L.A.

In June, Bass said the Trump administration was waging an “all-out assault on Los Angeles,” with federal agents “randomly grabbing people” off the street, “chasing Angelenos through parking lots” and arresting immigrants who showed up at court for annual check-ins. Her approach to the issue helped her regain her political footing after she had faltered in the wake of the Palisades fire.

In early September, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration, agreeing that immigration agents can stop and detain individuals they suspect may be in the U.S. illegally merely for speaking Spanish or having brown skin.

The high court ruling set aside a Los Angeles judge’s temporary restraining order that barred agents from stopping people based in part on their race or apparent ethnicity.

Oct. 13 (UPI) — China vowed to retaliate if U.S. President Donald Trump makes good on his threat to impose a 100% tariff on goods from the Asian country, further straining fraught trade relations between the world’s largest economies.

“If the U.S. insists on going the wrong way, China will surely take resolute measures to protect its legitimate rights and interests,” a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce said Sunday in a statement.

The back and forth comes after representatives from Washington and Beijing held trade talks in Beijing last month with prospects of further negotiations continuing this month in South Korea.

However, whether those discussions will continue on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Gyeongju remains unclear.

U.S.-China trade relations have deteriorated under the Trump administration, which has repeatedly imposed tariffs on Chinese goods that are being challenged in U.S. courts are at the World Trade Organization.

Late last week, Beijing’s Commerce Ministry announced tighten export restrictions on rare earth items and materials. In response, Trump announced the 100% tariff threat on his Truth Social media platform. China imports are currently subject to a 30% tariff.

The American leader said the import tax would go into effect Nov. 1, along with additional export controls on so-called critical software.

“It is impossible to believe that China would take such an action, but they have, and the rest is History,” Trump said in the statement.

China’s commerce ministry on Sunday accused the United States of hypocrisy, saying Washington in the 20 days since their talks in Madrid has “introduced a string of new restrictive measures,” pointing to Washington putting multiple Chinese firms on the Entity List, expanded the scope of export controls affecting thousands of Chinese companies and other actions.

“The U.S. actions have severely harmed China’s interests and undermined the atmosphere of bilateral economic and trade talks, and China is resolutely opposed to them,” the ministry spokesperson said.

“China’s stance is consistent. We do not want a tariff war but we are not afraid of one.”

The Kremlin has warned of the risk of escalation if Kyiv is provided with the US-built long-range missiles.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country would only use long-range Tomahawk missiles against Russian military targets, as the Kremlin expressed alarm over Washington’s potential plan to offer the weapons to Kyiv.

Zelenskyy’s comment was aired by Fox News on Sunday, the same day he spoke to US President Donald Trump.

Writing on X, the Ukrainian president called his latest conversation with Trump “very productive”, noting that they had discussed strengthening his country’s “air defence, resilience, and long-range capabilities”. It was the second time the pair had spoken in as many days.

On Monday, Trump said he would only agree to provide Kyiv with Tomahawks if he knew what it planned to do with them. He added, without giving further details, that he had “sort of made a decision” over the issue.

Given that their range is 2,500km (1,550 miles), Ukraine could use the weapons to strike deep inside Russia.

In comments published on Sunday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the topic was of “extreme concern” to Russia.

“Now is really a very dramatic moment in terms of the fact that tensions are escalating from all sides,” he told Russian state television reporter Pavel Zarubin.

Peskov said Moscow would have to bear in mind that some versions of the missile are able to carry nuclear warheads.

The Kremlin spokesperson’s remarks came as French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the latest Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

After speaking with Zelenskyy on Sunday, Macron said: “As the agreement reached in Gaza offers a glimmer of hope for peace in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine too must come to an end.”

“If Russia persists in its obstinate warmongering and its refusal to come to the negotiating table, it will have to pay the price,” he said.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said in a Facebook post that he had urged Macron to give Ukraine more missiles and air defence systems, stressing that Russia was increasing its bombardments while the world’s focus was elsewhere.

“Russia is now taking advantage of the moment — the fact that the Middle East and domestic issues in every country are getting maximum attention,” Zelensky said in a readout of his call with Macron.

As it has done before, Russia is targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure in an attempt to cripple the sector before winter.

In the past week alone, Russia has launched “more than 3,100 drones, 92 missiles, and around 1,360 glide bombs” at Ukraine, according to Zelenskyy.

Two employees of Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, were injured at a substation in Kyiv province in overnight attacks on Sunday, according to the regional governor.

On Friday, Russia carried out what Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko described as “one of the largest concentrated strikes” against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leading to blackouts across the country.

A WIDOW is set to sue a utilities station operator after her husband was electrocuted while pruning hedges.

Gardener Blair Campbell, 35, was carrying out work on an ivy-covered bush when he accidentally came into contact with a substation wire in October 2022.

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The dad-of-two was airlifted to hospital following the horror but tragically died shortly after.

An inquest at Cheshire Coroner’s Court found that Blair from electrocution.

The victim’s widow, Tina, says she is yet to receive any apology from SP Energy Networks – part of Scottish Power – who operated the station.

She now says she will sue the company to get damages for her husband’s death.

Tina, who lives in Mobberley with her two children, said she had received no apology or compensation from Scottish Power.

She said: “There was not a lot we could do prior to the inquest. Because of the complexity of the case and involvement by HSE and the police that delayed things and we had to wait two years for the inquest.

“My solicitors have been in touch since the inquest with Scottish Power sending paperwork, but basically there has been silence.

“As a result my solicitors have had to put the matter back into the courts.

“I believe that Scottish Power now has 28 days to respond after they were put on notice of our intentions.

“If that fails we will have to apply for a court date, which is unlikely to be before autumn next year. This would drag it out for another 12 months.

“The inquest was over three days with a jury and the conclusion was that they (the power company) ‘more than likely contributed to the death of Blair’ due to the lack of maintenance.”

The inquest was told Blair ran firm, Blue Kiwi Gardens and Maintenance, after moving to the UK from New Zealand to be with Tina.

On October 3, 2022, he had gone to work to prune the hedge when he suffered the fatal shock.

Thick ivy on the bush had covered warning signs about the substation – meaning Blair was unaware of the danger underneath.

The court was told that before Blair’s death, numerous reports had been made about a need to remove the ivy that were not acted on.

SP Energy Networks, which maintains the substation, has now made changes to its health and safety policy.

Kim Jong Un says Pyongyang will counter the buildup of US forces in the Korean Peninsula.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to develop additional military measures and allocate more strategic assets to respond to the buildup of US forces in the south, as the country prepares for a major anniversary parade.

“In direct proportion to the buildup of US forces in [South] Korea, our strategic interest in the region has also increased, and we have accordingly allocated special assets to key targets of interest,” Kim was quoted in a report published by the state media KCNA on Sunday.

Kim’s latest statement comes just days after South Korea reported that Pyongyang has accumulated large quantities of highly-enriched and weapons-grade uranium, signalling a sharp increase in the country’s stockpile of nuclear material.

“I believe our enemies should be concerned about the direction their security environment is evolving,” Kim said at a military exhibition event ahead of the parade.

North Korea “will undoubtedly develop additional military measures” to prepare to respond to the buildup of US forces, he added without elaborating further.

In recent weeks, Kim had directed top officials to strengthen the nation’s “nuclear shield and sword”, saying only a “nuclear counteraction” could safeguard his country’s security.

On Friday, October 10, Kim is set to lead a large-scale military parade to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. At this event, the country is also expected to display its latest weaponry and other military hardware.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted analysts as saying that Pyongyang may showcase the next-generation Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile during the parade.

It added that North Korea could also test-launch the same weaponry around the date leading to the anniversary.

Yonhap quoted South Korea’s military as saying “there are signs” that Pyongyang is preparing to welcome tens of thousands of people at the parade, which will be held on the night of October 10.

South Korea stated that it has also detected movements of vehicles and some military equipment, but did not provide further details.

Kim has maintained a hardline rhetoric towards South Korea and its close ally, the United States, despite signs of diplomatic outreach from US President Donald Trump and Seoul.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung, who took office in June, has also promised a more dovish approach towards Pyongyang compared with his hawkish predecessor, Yoon Suk-yeol.

North Korea has also been tightening military ties with Russia and has been supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine by sending troops and artillery.

Kim has also been deepening alignment with China and recently travelled to Beijing to attend a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, alongside Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Putin.

TORIES will promise to introduce a US-style immigration force to deport up to 150,000 people a year.

Leader Kemi Badenoch will unveil the Conservatives’ toughest border policies yet at her first party conference.

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The plan is part of a policy blitz as the Tories try to stop haemorrhaging support to Reform UK.

Ms Badenoch will pledge to create a £1.6billion removals force like the hardline US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Since President Donald Trump’s second term started in January, it has seen more than two million illegal immigrants either leave the US voluntarily or be removed.

As the party faithful gathered in Manchester, Ms Badenoch — who turned up hand-in-hand with husband Hamish — said: “We must tackle the scourge of illegal immigration to Britain and secure our borders.

“That is why the Conservatives are setting out a serious and comprehensive new plan to end this crisis.

“Labour offer failed gimmicks like ‘one thousand in, one out’.

“Reform have nothing but announcements that fall apart on arrival.”

The plan — if the Conservatives win the next election — would see all new illegal migrants deported within a week of arrival.

The “Removals Force” would be handed sweeping powers like facial recognition to spot them.

Police will have to conduct immigration checks on everyone they stop.

Illegal migrants would be banned from claiming asylum and refugee status will be for only those whose government is trying to kill them.

Immigration tribunals would be abolished and legal aid denied.

Ms Badenoch has committed to taking the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights — used to argue against deportations.

But she has been accused of mimicking Nigel Farage’s Reform policies with tougher stances on borders and net zero.

Insiders claim Tory MPs are holding on to letters calling for Ms Badenoch to quit so they can use them when she can be challenged after a year in office — on November 3.

But others expect a move would be more likely after May’s local elections.

Asked if they will topple Ms Badenoch after another bad performance at the ballot box, Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho told The Sun on Sunday: “Kemi’s had one of the toughest jobs in politics.

“If you’re someone who takes over a party after it’s lost an election, it’s a pretty rough ride.

“We’re now taking on energy and you’ll see even more from us on immigration.

“Those are the things that I think the public care about.”

But on the eve of the Conference, London Assembly member Keith Prince became the latest Tory to jump ship to Reform.

A Labour Party spokesperson insisted: “The Conservatives’ message on immigration is; we got everything wrong, we won’t apologise, now trust us.

“It won’t wash.”

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ED MILIBAND is a “walking, talking cost-of-living crisis”, according to shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho.

The senior MP — who will tomorrow unveil Tory plans for cheaper utilities — vowed to get her Labour arch-rival SACKED as gas and electricity costs rose again this week on his watch.

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Experts have warned that Red Ed, who promised to cut energy bills by up to £300 a year before the 2024 General Election, will only drive prices higher with his Net Zero obsession.

Already, £1billion has been spent this year switching off wind turbines when it got too blowy for the network to cope.

Other sources, such as gas-fired plants, then had to be paid to be used as a replacement. The shutdown has pushed household bills up by £15 a year.

In an interview with the Sun on Sunday, Ms Coutinho fumed: “Ed Miliband is a disaster.

“Every decision (he) has made in government is going to send people’s bills up.

“He promised people £300 off their bills, and so far they’re already £200 up. People are rightly furious.

“I don’t know what he’s on. He is a walking, talking cost-of-living crisis.

“I’m going to make it my mission in this parliament to get him sacked.”

She continues: “I think he can’t add up because if you look at what he’s doing, gas at the moment is about £55 a megawatt-hour.

“He said he’s willing to pay up to £117 for offshore wind this year, and then he talks about cutting people’s bills. You don’t need a calculator to see that is just total madness.”

The top Tory also slated Energy Secretary Mr Miliband for “signing up to 20-year contracts” for offshore wind, adding: “We’re going to be saddled with these incredibly high prices for decades.”

Ms Coutinho is the face of the Conservative Party’s scepticism over a move to Net Zero.

At their annual conference in Manchester tomorrow, she will outline proposals to cut bills by scrapping green levies.

She said: “The most important thing the country needs — and we’re unashamed about this — is lower energy bills.

“Our priority for energy policy going forward will be simple: Make electricity cheaper.

“It will be good for growth, it’s good for cost-of-living — something we know lots of families are still struggling with — and, most importantly, it will be good for the whole of the UK to have much cheaper energy bills.”

Levies funding environmental and social projects add around £140 to annual electricity bills and £50 to gas bills, says innovation agency Nesta.

It comes as the UK energy price cap rose again this week by two per cent, meaning the average household paying for gas and electricity by direct debit will see costs increase from £1,720 to £1,755 per year.

Ms Coutinho’s stance marks a much harder line on eco-policies as the Tories try to stave off Nigel Farage’s party.

Reform UK promised to scrap the Net Zero target and told wind and solar developers they will end green energy subsidies if they win power.

It has prompted Mr Miliband to liken the Tories to a “Reform tribute act”.

But Ms Coutinho said: “That’s absolute rubbish, If you look at Reform, they’ve got the economics of Jeremy Corbyn.”

She claimed there was a huge black hole in Reform’s spending plans, adding: “That simply isn’t going to work for a country where you’ve got interest rates high, inflation is high. We need to be bringing those things down. So we need to live within our means.”

Tories have pledged to scrap the restrictive Climate Change Act 2008 brought in by the last Labour government, and the target of Net Zero emissions by 2050 enshrined by Tory PM Theresa May in 2019.

Ms Coutinho said: “We’ve got new leadership now and both Kemi and I strongly feel that the biggest problem that this country faces is that we’ve got the highest industrial electricity prices in the world and the second highest domestic prices. Now that’s just not going to work for Britain.”

Tories would also abolish quango the Climate Change Committee, which advises the Government on Net Zero.

Ms Coutinho said: “For too long, energy policy has been in the hands of people who are unelected and unaccountable — and that’s just not right.”

And she has left the door open to fracking.

A ban was lifted by Liz Truss during her short tenure in Downing Street – but this was abandoned by her successor Rishi Sunak.

Ms Coutinho added: “We’re a small dense island and it can be very disruptive. So it shouldn’t be done to communities without their say so.”

The shadow cabinet member admitted people are frustrated the Tories have taken their time to come up with policies after their disastrous loss at last year’s General Election.

But she insisted: “At conference, you’ll see a lot more from us. This is the moment where we’ll start telling people all the results of our work, and be able to explain what our plan is.

“The difference between us and Labour and Reform is our plans are real, they’re fully funded, they can be delivered tomorrow.”

She promised the Tories will bring forward plans the public can trust, adding: “People have really lost faith in government to be able to do the things that they want it to do. So we need to rebuild that trust.”

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Sept. 30 (UPI) — A senior North Korean diplomat vowed that Pyongyang would “never give up” its nuclear weapons in a rare address to the United Nations General Assembly on Monday.

Speaking during the General Debate, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong said that imposing denuclearization on the North is “tantamount to demanding it to surrender sovereignty and right to existence.”

His appearance before the General Assembly marked the first time Pyongyang has sent a senior diplomat since 2018.

“We will never give up nuclear, which is our state law, national policy and sovereign power as well as the right to existence,” Kim said. “Under any circumstances, we will never walk away from this position.”

The North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear-armed state in 2022. Leader Kim Jong Un called the decision “irreversible” and later amended the country’s constitution to enshrine the permanent growth of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.

The vice minister told the attendees that the North’s nuclear arsenal was a necessary “war deterrent” against mounting threats by the United States and its allies.

“In order to permanently maintain this state of balance and ensure everlasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, we have stipulated nuclear in our constitution as a sacred and absolute thing that can never be touched upon and tampered with,” he said.

Kim added that the North was open to engagement with “countries that respect and take friendly approaches towards it.”

His speech comes as both Washington and Seoul have expressed hope to engage with North Korea.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who held a pair of high-profile summits with Kim Jong Un during his first term in office, has suggested on several occasions that he would meet with the North Korean leader again.

Kim Jong Un appeared to open the door to restarting diplomacy with the United States last week, saying he has “fond memories” of Trump but warning that denuclearization was off the table.

“If the United States abandons its vain obsession with denuclearization, acknowledges reality and desires genuine peaceful coexistence with us, there is no reason why we should not sit down with the United States,” Kim said.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, meanwhile, has made efforts to reduce tensions between the two Koreas since he took office in June, with conciliatory gestures such as removing propaganda loudspeakers from border areas.

In his debut address to the General Assembly last week, Lee unveiled a peace initiative that sought engagement and normalization with the North while offering a “phased solution” to nuclear disarmament that would start with a weapons development freeze.

After Vice Minister Kim’s U.N. address, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday reaffirmed its ultimate goal of denuclearization.

“Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is a consistent goal of the international community, including South Korea and the United States,” a ministry spokesperson said at a press briefing.

The Home Secretary has vowed to do whatever it takes to secure the UK’s borders as she unveils a Farage-style crackdown on migrants.

The government will slap tough new conditions on migrants requiring them to prove they are valuable to society or face the boot, Shabana Mahmood MP said during a speech at Labour conference on Monday.

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The plans are Labour’s latest attempt to wrestle ownership of the immigration issue off Reform, which has led the debate and gained huge popularity.

In order to earn indefinite leave to remain (ILR), migrants will have to learn to speak a “high standard” of English, Mahmood said on Monday.

Most migrants can currently apply for ILR after five years of living in Britain – handing them the right to live here forever.

But that may soon double to ten years and be limited to those who pay National Insurance, Mahmood revealed in her first Labour Party conference speech.

Migrants will also be required to have a clean criminal record, not claimed benefits and prove a record of volunteering in local communities.

The Home Secretary promised to “do whatever it takes to secure our borders”.

She said: “Time spent in this country alone is not enough. You must earn the right to live in this country.”

Meanwhile, Mahmood slammed Mr Farage as “worse than racist… it’s immoral”.

Officials say the new “earn it” system will allow migrants to “earn down” the ten-year wait through positive contributions – or “earn up” if they fail to pull their weight.

But the crackdown does not apply retrospectively, meaning the so-called “Boriswave” of approximately 1.3million who arrived between 2021 and 2024 can still qualify for ILR after just five years.

It is understood Ms Mahmood is weighing a separate emergency fix just for them, though it may not be the same model.

One source close to the Home Secretary said: “For anybody who is in the country now, the new conditions don’t apply.

“But she is looking closely at what to do about the Boris wave, because she is concerned about what happens when that group passes beyond the five-year mark and automatically receives ILR.”

Lawyers have warned any retrospective move would spark fierce legal challenges.

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Ashley Stothard, Immigration Lawyer at Freeths, said on applying the ten-year rule retrospectively: “I think that change would be challenged by judicial review on the basis that it’s unfair.

“We saw a similar situation back in 2008 when the Government attempted to retrospectively change the criteria for the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme.

“That challenge was successful, and the new criteria were not applied to those already in the UK.

“The case upheld the principle that immigration policy should be fair and transparent. Migrants in the UK have a legitimate expectation that they can qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain under the rules in place when they entered.”

Ms Mahmood yesterday warned Labour members they might not like her migrant crackdown.

She said: “In solving this crisis, you may not always like what I do. We will have to question some of the assumptions and legal constraints that have lasted for a generation and more.

“But unless we have control of our borders and until we can decide who comes in and who must leave, we will never be the open, tolerant and generous country that I know we all believe in.”

Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK, which is leading in opinion polls, said last week it was considering scrapping “indefinite leave to remain”, and replacing it with a five-year renewable work visa.

Starmer accused Reform on Sunday of planning a “racist policy” of mass deportations, although he clarified he did not think Reform supporters were racist.

Tensions over border disputes had sharply escalated in July during a five-day conflict between the neighbouring countries.

Thailand’s new prime minister has said his government will propose a referendum to address an ongoing dispute with its neighbour, Cambodia, over a demarcation agreement.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters on Monday that “in order to avoid further conflict”, the government will push for a vote on whether Thailand should revoke the existing memorandum of understanding on border issues with Cambodia.

Thailand and Cambodia have long argued over undemarcated points along their 817km (508-mile) land border, but tensions sharply escalated in July during a five-day conflict. The fighting ended after a ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia on July 28.

In the worst fighting between the two countries in a decade, at least 48 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were temporarily displaced.

But for years, the two countries have relied on an agreement, signed in 2000, which sets out the framework for joint survey and demarcation of the land boundary.

In another agreement in 2001, it provided a framework for cooperation and potential resource sharing in maritime areas claimed by both countries.

However, in Thailand, the agreements have come under public scrutiny over the past decade, especially following the latest clashes.

According to Charnvirakul, the new referendum would provide a clear mandate on the matter of the agreements.

Panitan Wattanayagorn, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, cautioned against the revocation of the agreements as solving the issue.

“Their revocation may not be a direct solution to the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, because it could create a vacuum,” he told the Reuters news agency.

“The government must make clear what will replace them, and this has to be agreed by Cambodia as well,” he said.

At the same time, Charnvirakul also pledged in his inaugural speech in Parliament to address the country’s economy and push for a new and more democratic constitution as he faces a self-imposed deadline to call for elections in four months.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned NATO and the EU at the UN General Assembly that any aggression against Russia would be met with a ‘decisive response’. While asserting that Moscow has no intention of attacking the West, he emphasised that Russia is prepared to respond if provoked.

Melbourne, Australia – Lee Little recalls the phone call with her daughter in December 2017; it was just minutes before Alicia was killed.

“I spoke to her 15 minutes before she died,” Little told Al Jazeera.

“I asked her, was she OK? Did you want us to come up to pick you up? And she said, ‘No, I’ve got my car. I’m right, Mum, everything’s packed.’”

Alicia Little was on the verge of finally leaving an abusive four-and-a-half-year relationship.

Not only had Alicia rung her mother, but she had also called the police emergency hotline for assistance, as her fiance Charles Evans fell into a drunken rage.

Alicia knew what to expect from her partner: extreme violence.

Evans had a history of abuse towards Alicia, with her mother recounting to Al Jazeera the first time it occurred.

“The first time he actually bashed her, she was on the phone to me. And the next minute, I heard him come across and try to grab her phone,” Little said.

“I heard her say, ‘Get your hands off my throat. I can’t breathe.’ And the next minute, you hear him say, ‘You’re better off dead.’”

Little told how she had taken photos of her daughter’s terrible injuries.

“She had broken ribs. She had a broken cheekbone, broken jaw, black eyes, and where he’d had her around the throat, you could see his finger marks. It was a bruise, and where he’d give her a kick, and right down the side, you could see his foot marks.”

Like many abusive relationships, a pattern would emerge, whereby Alicia would leave temporarily, only to return after Evans promised to change his behaviour.

“This went on and off for the four and a half years,” Little said.

“He’d bash her, she’d come home, and then she’d say to me, ‘Mum, he’s told me that he’s gone and got help.’”

Yet the violence only escalated.

On the night Alicia decided to leave for good, Evans drove his four-wheel-drive at her, pinning her between the front of the vehicle and a water tank.

Alicia Little, aged 41 and a mother of two boys, died within minutes before the police she had called could arrive.

As she lay drawing her final breaths, security camera footage would later show her killer drinking beer at the local pub, where he drove to after running Alicia down.

Evans was arrested, and after initially being charged with murder, had his charges downgraded to dangerous driving causing death and failing to render assistance after a motor vehicle accident.

He would walk free from jail after only two years and eight months.

The statistics

Alicia Little is just one of the many women in Australia killed every year, in what activists such as The Red Heart Campaign’s Sherele Moody are saying is so prevalent that it amounts to a “femicide”: the targeted killing of women by men.

According to government data, one woman was killed in Australia every eight days on average between 2023-2024.

Moody, who documents the killings, contests those statistics, telling Al Jazeera they do not represent the true scale of deadly attacks on women in the country.

Government data records “domestic homicide”; women killed resulting in a conviction of murder or manslaughter.

As in the case of Alicia Little, the lesser charges her killer was convicted on related to motoring offences and do not amount to a domestic homicide under government reporting and are not reflected in the statistics.

“One of the key weapons that perpetrators use against women in Australia is vehicles,” Moody told Al Jazeera.

“They almost always get charged with dangerous driving, causing death. That is not a homicide charge. It doesn’t get counted despite it being a domestic violence act, an act of domestic violence perpetrated by a partner,” Moody said.

“The government underrepresents the epidemic of violence. And in the end, the numbers that they’re using influence their policy. It influences their funding decisions. It influences how they speak to us as a community about violence against women,” she said.

Moody said that between January 2024 and June this year, she had documented 136 killings of women; many – like Alicia Little – by their partners. “Ninety-six percent of the deaths I record are perpetrated by men.”

“Around 60 percent of the deaths are the result of domestic and family violence,” she said.

While much focus is on women’s safety in public spaces – for example, walking home alone at night – Moody said the least safe place for a woman is actually in her own home.

“The reality is that if you’re going to be killed, whether you’re a man or woman or a child, you’re going to be killed by someone you know,” she said.

Data shows that only about 10 percent of female victims are killed by strangers, deaths often sensationally covered by the media and prompting public debate about women’s safety.

“Yes, stranger killings do happen, and when they do, they get a lot of focus and a lot of attention, and it lulls people into a false sense of security about who is perpetrating the violence,” Moody said.

Male violence in Australia

Patty Kinnersly, CEO of Our Watch, a national task force to prevent violence against women, said attacks on women are the “most extreme outcome of broader patterns of gendered violence and inequality”.

“When we refer to the gendered drivers of violence, we are talking about the social conditions and power imbalances that create the environment where this violence occurs,” Kinnersly said.

“These include condoning or excusing violence against women, men’s control of decision-making, rigid gender stereotypes and dominant forms of masculinity, and male peer relations that promote aggression and disrespect towards women,” she said.

“Addressing the gendered drivers is vital because violence against women is not random; it reflects deeply entrenched inequalities and norms in society. If we do not address these root causes, we cannot achieve long-term prevention,” she added.

Patterns of male violence are deeply rooted in Australia’s colonial history, in which men are told they need to be physically and mentally tough, normalising male aggression, write authors Alana Piper and Ana Stevenson.

“For much of the 19th century, men far outnumbered women within the European population of the Australian colonies. This produced a culture that prized hyper-masculinity as a national ideal,” they write.

Colonial male aggression also resulted in extreme violence perpetrated on Indigenous women during the frontier times, through rape and massacres.

Misogyny and racism were also promoted in Australia’s parliament during the 20th century, as legislators crafted assimilationist laws aimed at controlling the lives of Indigenous women and removing their children as part of what has become known as the “Stolen Generations”.

Up to a third of Indigenous children were removed from their families as part of a suite of government policies between 1910 and 1970, resulting in widespread cultural genocide and intergenerational social, economic and health disparities.

This legacy of colonial racism and discrimination continues to play out in vast socioeconomic inequalities experienced by Indigenous people in the present day, including violence against women, activists say.

Recent government data shows that Indigenous women are 34 times more likely to be hospitalised due to violence than non-Indigenous women in Australia and six times more likely to die as a result of family violence.

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are among the most at-risk groups for family violence and intimate partner homicide in Australia,” First Nations Advocates Against Family Violence (FNAAFV) Chief Executive Officer Kerry Staines told Al Jazeera.

“These disproportionately high rates are the result of historical injustice and ongoing systemic failure,” Staines said, including forced displacement of Indigenous communities, child removals and the breakdown of family structures.

“Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have been affected by multigenerational trauma caused by institutional abuse, incarceration and marginalisation. When trauma is left unaddressed, and support services are inadequate or culturally unsafe, the risk of violence, including within relationships, increases,” she said.

Indigenous women are also the fastest-growing prison cohort in Australia.

On any given night, four out of 10 women in prison are Indigenous women, despite making up only 2.5 per cent of the adult female population.

Staines said there is a nexus between domestic violence and incarceration.

“There is a clear and well-documented relationship between the hyper-incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the high rates of family violence experienced in our communities,” she said.

“The removal of parents and caregivers from families due to imprisonment increases the likelihood of child protection involvement, housing instability and intergenerational trauma, all of which are risk factors for both perpetration and victimisation of family violence.”

‘Toxic culture’

While Australia was one of the first Western countries to grant women voting rights, deeply rooted inequalities persisted through much of the 20th century, with women being excluded from much of public and civic life, including employment in the government sector and the ability to sit on juries, until the 1970s.

This exclusion from positions of authority – including the judicial system – allowed a culture of “victim blaming” to develop, particularly in instances of domestic abuse and sexual assault, activists say.

Rather than holding male perpetrators to account and addressing violence, focus remained on the actions of female victims: what they may have been wearing, where they had been, and prior sexual histories as a basis for apportioning blame to those who had suffered the consequences of gender-based violence.

Such was the case with Isla Bell, a 19-year-old woman from Melbourne, who police allege was beaten to death in October 2024.

Media reporting on Isla’s death focused largely on her personal life and provided graphic details about her death, while little attention was given to the two men who were charged with Isla’s alleged murder.

Isla’s mother, Justine Spokes, said the reporting “felt really abusive”.

“The way in which my daughter’s murder was reported on just highlights the pervasive toxic culture that is systemic in Australia,” said Spokes, describing a “victim-blaming narrative” around the killing of her daughter.

“It was written in a really biased way that felt really disrespectful, devaluing and dehumanising,” she said, adding that society had become desensitised to male violence against women in Australia.

“It’s just become so normalised, which I think is actually a sign of trauma, that we’re numb to it. It’s been pervasive for that long. If that’s the mainstream psyche in Australia, it’s just so dangerous,” she said.

“I really think that this pervasive, toxic, misogynistic culture, it’s definitely written into our law. It’s very colonial,” she added.

The Australian government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has committed to the ambitious task of tackling violence against women within a generation.

A spokesperson from the Department of Social Services told Al Jazeera the government has invested 4 billion Australian dollars ($2.59bn) to deliver on the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-2032.

“The Australian Government acknowledges the significant levels of violence against women and children including intimate partner homicides,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“Ending gender-based violence remains a national priority for the Australian Government. Our efforts to end gender based violence in one generation are not set-and-forget – we are rigorously tracking, measuring and assessing our efforts, and making change where we must,” the spokesperson added.

Yet for Lee Little, mother of Alicia Little who was killed in 2017, not enough is being done, and she does not feel justice was served in the case of her daughter, describing the killer’s light sentence as “gut-wrenching”.

Little is now petitioning for a national domestic violence database in a bid to hold perpetrators accountable and allow women to gain access to information regarding prior convictions.

“Our family would love a national database, because perpetrators, at this moment, anywhere in Australia, can do a crime in one state and move to another, and they’re not recognised” as offenders in their new location, she said.

Little said public transparency around prior convictions would protect women from entering into potentially abusive relationships in the first place.

Yet the Australian federal government has yet to implement such a database, in part due to the complexities of state jurisdictions.

The federal attorney-general’s office told Al Jazeera that “primary responsibility for family violence and criminal matters rests with the states and territories, with each managing their own law enforcement and justice systems”.

“Creation of a publicly accessible national register of perpetrators of family violence could only be implemented with the support of state and territory governments, who manage the requisite data and legislation.”

Despite the apparent intransigence in law, Little remains committed to calling out violence against women wherever she sees it.

“I’ve been to supermarkets where there’s been abuse in front of me, and I’ve stepped in,” she said.

“I will be a voice for Alicia and for a national database till my last breath,” she added.

Tehran rejects Australia’s accusations, calling the move unjustified and influenced by internal political developments.

Iran has promised reciprocal action following Australia’s decision to expel its ambassador in Canberra over accusations that Tehran was behind anti-Jewish attacks in the country.

On Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei “absolutely rejected” Australia’s accusations, saying “any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction”.

Baghaei also said the measures appeared to be “influenced by internal developments” in Australia, including weekend protests across the country against Israel’s war on Gaza, which organisers said were the largest pro-Palestine demonstrations in Australia’s history.

“It seems that this action is taken in order to compensate for the limited criticism the Australian side has directed at the Zionist regime [Israel],” he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Iran was behind the torching of a kosher cafe in Sydney last October and directed a major arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne in December.

There were no casualties in either of the attacks where assailants set fire to the properties, causing extensive damage.

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said Iran sees Australia’s actions “as a continuation of hostile actions by the Australian side over the past years”.

“Australia has imposed several sanctions [on Iran], for example, in 2024 after Iran’s retaliatory action to attack the Israeli territory”, he said, adding that Tehran sees these latest moves “as another sign of Australia siding with the Israelis”.

Expelled ambassador ‘vocal in his support for the Palestinian cause’

Australia declared the Iranian ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, “persona non grata” and ordered him and three other officials to leave the country within seven days. Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the move marked the first time Australia has expelled an ambassador since World War II.

Australia also withdrew its ambassador to Iran and suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran, which opened in 1968.

Wong added that the government will continue to maintain some diplomatic lines with Iran to advance Canberra’s interests.

Sadeghi was “vocal in his support for the Palestinian cause”, Foad Izadi, a world studies professor at the University of Tehran, told Al Jazeera.

“That is the main reason for Australia’s decision to expel him. Just a few days ago, we saw the largest pro-Palestine demonstrations in many Australian cities.

“Expelling a country’s ambassador is rarely done, and the fact that the Australian government has done this is an indication that … they’re afraid of their own population and they’re afraid of the demands this population [makes] when it comes to the issue of genocide in Palestine.”

PM Albanese also said, “… the government will legislate to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, as a terrorist organisation.”

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is investigating possible IRGC involvement in other anti-Jewish attacks since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Izadi rejected those claims, saying it “has not provided any evidence”. He believes the Australian government has taken these decisions as it “is worried about the fact that the Australian people are seriously questioning Australia’s support for Israel” and “demanding that the government be more active in opposing the genocide in Palestine”.

Australia’s moves against Iran come as the country’s ties with Israel plummet over its criticism of Israeli-imposed famine and the war on Gaza, as well as its decision to join France, the United Kingdom and Canada in recognising a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Last week, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Albanese a “weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”.

The Australian government has hit back at Netanyahu, with Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke saying that strength was not measured “by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry”.

EX-England footie ace Andy Carroll has revealed he is back with girlfriend Lou Teasdale after a stormy split — and vowed to cut down on booze to save their relationship.

Opening up about his feelings for stylist Lou in an exclusive interview with the Sun on Sunday, Andy said: “I love Lou and I love her family. We row like any couple.”

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The pair have been dating since his split last summer from ex-wife and former Towie star Billi Mucklow, 37. They are currently divorcing.

The 36-year-old former Premier League star said: “Things have been difficult for me and I’m going through a divorce.

“Some of our rows have been about alcohol, as Lou has been teetotal for 14 years and I have a beer or wine at dinner and a drink after the game, but it’s not a problem in my life.

“I’m a professional footballer and that’s not the case. I play sport every single day so my level of fitness is really good. I play football every day so I’m fit.”

The Sun revealed on Wednesday the couple had split, with Andy unfollowing celebrity make-up artist Lou, 41, on social media.

But now he has told The Sun on Sunday that after a misunderstanding in Spain, he and Lou have patched things up.

Former Liverpool and Newcastle striker Andy, who now plays for non-league Dagenham & Redbridge FC, said: “We’re better off together and we’re trying to work through our difficulties.”

In June, we reported Carroll was twice quizzed by police over bust-ups with Lou during a break on Greek party island Mykonos.

He was questioned about rows with her at a packed beachside restaurant and then at their hotel.

He was taken to the police station after the second incident.

Speaking about the restaurant incident now, Andy — pictured with Lou, above, as he signed for his new club last month — insisted: “There was no alcohol involved. We argued about me having three coffees in the morning. She was worried I was addicted to coffee and it went from there.”

A joint statement from them at the time said: “Whilst having a private dinner in a restaurant on a quiet holiday in Mykonos, we had a heated discussion of the sort that most couples have had on occasion.

“It quickly became apparent to the police that there was no reason for them to be there.”

It added: “As far as we are concerned, the situation has been blown out of all proportion by an interested member of the public.

“No one was arrested and no one was charged with anything.

“We are very happy, in love and looking forward to our future together and we are disappointed that a private disagreement has become a public matter.”

I don’t want to be with Lou anymore… she gives me ultimatums about everything

What Andy told us last week

Andy returned to England last month, having left French fourth-tier side Bordeaux to play for Dagenham & Redbridge and to be close to his children, who live in Essex.

He said: “I just want to focus on my kids. They’re more important than anything. I’m loving life back in England.

“Obviously when I was working in France, I was there alone, and I was out with the lads a lot. Now I’m back home with the kids and it’s just a different way of life.”

Last September, the Sun on Sunday reported Andy and Billi, who have three children, were divorcing after two years of marriage.

The couple started dating in 2013, soon after he joined West Ham.
And he popped the question during a romantic holiday in Rome in 2014.

That year Billi said: “He is one of the most genuine and caring people I have ever met.”

Gateshead-born Carroll, who has two children from a previous relationship, has often been in the news over his romps, brawls and court cases.

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He said meeting Billi turned his life around.

Carroll’s boyhood dreams came true when he began his professional football career with Newcastle United in 2006.

The big centre-forward was soon a hit with Toon fans, following in the footsteps of another local idol Alan Shearer.

In 2009-10, Carroll scored 17 goals in 39 games, and 11 in nine games the following season.

In 2011, he earned a £35million transfer to Liverpool, a then record fee for a British player.

At his peak he was picked for England in nine games between 2010-2012, including scoring against Sweden at Euro 2012.

I love Lou and I love her family, we row like any couple

What he told us this week

He was sold by Liverpool to West Ham but struggled with a series of injuries.

His career saw him moving on to a succession of clubs including back to Newcastle, later to Reading and then West Brom.

Carroll’s career, although full of ups and downs, has brought him enormous sums of money.

In May 2019, he was listed as the 14th wealthiest sports person aged 30 or under in The Sunday Times Rich List.

His fortune at the time was said to have increased to £19million.