Lawyers for the US have told the High Court the judge who blocked Julian Assange’s extradition was misled by his psychiatrist. The United States government is starting a legal appeal to try to get the Wikileaks founder extradited. In January, a court ruled Mr Assange could not be extradited to the US due to concerns over his mental health. Mr Assange is wanted over the publication of thousands of classified documents in 2010 and 2011. The US says the leaks broke the law and endangered lives but Mr Assange says the case is politically motivated.In the appeal against the January decision, barristers for the US said it had given four clear assurances that he would be treated humanely. The district judge overseeing the USA’s extradition appeal at the start of the year, Vanessa Baraitser, said that while publishing on Wikileaks the classified military and government documents that Mr Assange released arguably amounted to a crime – including the disclosure of the identities of Iraqis and Afghan citizens who had helped coalition forces – he could not be transferred to the US because he was unwell and could take his own life. However, the US team, launching its appeal, said the evidence was wrong and the Wikileaks founder could even serve a prison sentence back home in Australia.(BBC)…[+]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has overhauled his cabinet with significant changes across multiple ministries. It comes after Mr Trudeau’s Liberals won a minority government in last month’s snap federal election. Of the 38 cabinet members sworn-in on Tuesday, fewer than 10 remain in their prior roles. As part of the shuffle, Canada will see a new defence minister as the military faces a sexual misconduct crisis. Former defence minister Harjit Sajjan is out of the role after six years, following calls for his removal over the ongoing military scandal. Since last February, multiple current and past senior military leaders have been investigated over claims of inappropriate behaviour. Some remain on leave.(BBC)…[+]

A Senate committee in Brazil is meeting to vote on whether to approve a damning report into the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic. The report, which was presented in the Senate last week, recommends that President Jair Bolsonaro face charges, including crimes against humanity. It is the culmination of a six-month inquiry which has revealed scandals and corruption inside government. President Bolsonaro has said that he is “guilty of absolutely nothing”. The report also accuses the president of misusing public funds and peddling fake news. In total, he could face nine criminal charges.But Mr Bolsonaro has insisted that his government “did the right thing from the first moment”.(BBC)…[+]

The assistant director of Rust, Dave Halls, had been sacked from a previous production over gun safety violations. Actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot dead Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western last week.

The producers of Freedom’s Path confirmed to press agency AFP on Monday that Halls had been dismissed in 2019. It came after a crew member “incurred a minor and temporary injury when a gun was unexpectedly discharged”, the statement said. Rocket Soul Studios said Halls could not be reached for a comment. There is no suggestion that Halls was at fault for the Rust incident. The studio’s producers said in a statement sent to the BBC: “First of all, our condolences go out to everyone affected by the recent tragic event in New Mexico. “Halls was removed from set immediately after the prop gun discharged. Production did not resume filming until Dave was off-site. An incident report was taken and filed at that time.”(BBC)…[+]

Actor Alec Baldwin was drawing a revolver across his body and pointing it at a camera during a rehearsal on a US film set when it fired with tragic results, legal documents have revealed. Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was injured while filming Rust on Thursday. Affidavits containing statements from Souza and camera operator Reid Russell have shed more light on what happened. Baldwin was handed a prop gun and told it was unloaded, court documents said. Souza was standing behind Hutchins when they were both hit, according to the affidavit. “Joel stated that they had Alec sitting in a pew in a church building setting, and he was practicing a cross draw,” it said. “Joel said he was looking over the shoulder of [Hutchins], when he heard what sounded like a whip and then loud pop.“(BBC)…[+]

Millions of Afghans will face starvation this winter unless urgent action is taken, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. More than half the population – about 22.8 million people – face acute food insecurity, while 3.2 million children under five could suffer acute malnutrition, the WFP said. “Afghanistan is now among the world’s worst humanitarian crises, if not the worst,” said David Beasley, the executive director of the WFP. “We are on a countdown to catastrophe.” Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in August after the US pulled out the last of its remaining troops and the militants swept across the country retaking ground. The takeover weakened an already fragile economy that was heavily dependent on foreign aid. Western powers suspended aid and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund also halted payments.(BBC)…[+]

A German Muslim convert who joined the Islamic State group in Iraq has been jailed for 10 years in Munich over the killing of a Yazidi girl she and her husband had bought as a slave. Jennifer Wenisch was judged to have been an accomplice to a war crime, having stood by when her husband left the five-year-old to die of thirst, chained outside in the blazing sun. Wenisch’s husband, an Iraqi jihadist, is on trial in Frankfurt. The girl died in Fallujah in 2015. Wenisch, 30, denied the charge. Her lawyers said the child’s mother Nora was an unreliable witness, and they alleged there was no evidence the girl had actually died. Nora and the girl had been enslaved by IS, along with many other Yazidi. The verdict on the husband, Taha al-Jumailly, is expected next month. It is one of the first cases of an IS crime against the Yazidi community going to trial. The Yazidi, a Kurdish group from northern Iraq, were a particular target of IS brutality. (BBC)…[+]

The French government has announced a one-off payment of €100 (£84; $116) for each citizen whose monthly net income is €2,000 or less, to help counter the surge in fuel and energy prices. The “inflation allowance” will go to about 38 million French people automatically, including those who do not drive a car or ride a motorbike. The first payments will go to business employees in late December. Civil servants, students and pensioners will get theirs in early 2022. The €100 payment will be tax-free and Prime Minister Jean Castex said it would cost the government €3.8bn (£3.2bn; $4.4bn). That would be far less than the cost of cutting fuel duty, he said. Europe is facing widespread discontent after world energy prices spiked, largely a result of huge demand from businesses recovering from the long Covid paralysis. The energy market turmoil has had a knock-on effect, disrupting supply chains and causing some shortages of fuel and other consumer goods.(BBC)…[+]

Human remains found in a Florida park on Wednesday are those of Brian Laundrie, the fiancé of murdered blogger Gabby Petito, the FBI says. The body of Mr Laundrie, who had been missing for over a month, was identified using dental records. Mr Laundrie, who was a person of interest in Gabby Petito’s death, returned to Florida last month from a joint road trip without his partner. Her body was later found in Wyoming, where the couple had been travelling. “On October 21, 2021, a comparison of dental records confirmed that the human remains found at the T Mabry Carlton Jr Memorial Reserve and Myakkahatchee Creed Environmental Park are those of Brian Laundrie,” the FBI said in a statement on Thursday. A lawyer representing Mr Laundrie’s parents released a statement, saying: “Chris and Roberta Laundrie have been informed that the remains found yesterday in the reserve are indeed Brian’s.(BBC)…[+]

Nurses in Eswatini are refusing to treat police officers as they accuse them of shooting colleagues during a pro-democracy rally on Wednesday. Pro-democracy protests in Africa’s last absolute monarchy, formerly known as Swaziland, have swept the country since June. The government, which denies that security forces used live ammunition, has now banned all demonstrations. But on Friday nurses were protesting at three hospitals, reports say. The Swazi News Twitter account has shared a video which it says shows nurses demonstrating at the Nhlangano Health Centre in the south of the country.Earlier this week, health workers and other public sector employees, who went to deliver a petition to parliament demanding better living conditions, were met with an “unprecedented show of force”, the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SDNU) said. Thirty nurses were injured as the police and army opened fire, the union added.(BBC)…[+]