More than 30 children have been reunited with their families in Ukraine this weekend after an operation to rescue them from Russian-occupied Crimea, where they allegedly had been taken from areas occupied by Russian forces during the war. Kyiv says nearly 19,500 children have been taken to Russia since Moscow’s invasion.

Kyiv

Russian forces have invaded Ukraine from land, air and sea with strikes causing widespread damage. Global leaders have condemned the move and imposed sanctions.

Ukraine Invasion

The Russian economy has been impacted by a raft of global sanctions as world leaders try to pressure Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

Russian Sanctions

Ukrainian children rescued from Russia

The return and reunion of 31 children with their families is a victory for careful and complicated negotiations to secure their release. In many cases held against their will for months, child protection workers believe their stories will help prove the International Criminal Court's case against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Rolova-Belova. How were they deported? What happened in their camps? How were they relocated? Because it's kidnapping. All of this is destroying their Ukrainian identity. It is a war crime and genocide. Sixteen-year-old Vitaly was sent, with his parents' consent, to a Russian health camp in October last year. It was meant to be a two-week break from the hardships of occupied Kherson. It turned into a six-month ordeal before Vitaly finally saw his family again in March. The first two weeks were normal, but after three weeks I started to look for every possibility to go home. Vitaly says he was among more than 800 Ukrainian children at just one camp, homesick, often scared and at times, he says, placed in a detention cell for days as punishment for transgressions. They fed us porridge, without salt and sugar, three times a day. Every evening they spoke to us about politics. They would say Russia is a powerful country and Ukraine is a terrorist one. The International Criminal Court says it's identified hundreds of cases of children allegedly forcibly taken from care homes and orphanages in Ukraine, deported, it says, with the intention of permanently removing them from their country of birth. That's a violation of the Geneva Convention, it says, and a war crime. Ukraine insists the practice is much wider, saying it's identified more than 19,500 cases of forced deportations, including many like Vitaly, taken with parental permission under false pretenses, instead enduring months of indoctrination and propaganda. Narya Kazyanova has helped reunite 84 children with their families by providing the Russians with proof of legal guardianship. I put to her a video that Russia's Children's Commissioner recently showed to UN Security Council members. It purports to show happy Ukrainian children, some receiving medical care, others placed in foster care. This is part of an information war, these pictures of children living in safety. It's such a manipulation, using children as objects, not subject to rights, trying to construct a different reality. Russia admits to the removal of 2,000 Ukrainian children from occupied areas in the conflict zone but presents it as a humanitarian effort. The ICC calls it a war crime, and one Ukraine says is taking place on a far bigger scale in plain sight. Jonah Hull, Al Jazeera, Kyiv.

A jury has been selected for the largest fraud trial in American history. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Manhattan

Bankman-Fried Trial

Trial begins in Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX fraud case

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New York

Trump Arrest

Judge places gag order on Donald Trump

At least 21 people died on Tuesday and 18 were injured after a bus carrying tourists to a campground crashed off an overpass near Venice in northern Italy and caught fire, city officials said.

Venice

Tourist bus crash near Venice kills at least 21

Pope Francis has suggested in a letter to five conservative cardinals that there could be ways to bless same-sex unions within Catholicism and suggests that such blessings could be studied if they are not confused with sacramental marriage.

Città del Vaticano

Pope says Catholic Church could bless same-sex marriages

Republican Kevin McCarthy has been ousted as the Speaker of the House of Representatives in an extraordinary showdown. Those who voted him out include Democrats and members of his own party.

Washington

McCarthy ousted as U.S House Speaker

Thai police arrested a teenage gunman suspected of killing two foreigners and wounding five people on Tuesday in a shooting spree at a luxury Bangkok mall, the latest high-profile gun violence to rock the country in recent years.

Bangkok

Tourists killed in Thailand mall shooting, teen arrested

Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial got underway with jury selection on Tuesday (October 3), nearly a year after his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange's collapse shocked markets and tattered his reputation. 

Bankman-Fried's fraud trial begins in New York

The United Nations Security Council has authorized the deployment of a multi-national security force to Haiti. It's designed to help the Haitian police battle heavily armed gangs that have become increasingly powerful there. It's not clear when the force will arrive, or who, other than Kenya, will contribute to it.

UN approves international force to aid Haiti

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Three killed in Bangkok mall shooting

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Manchester

UK Tories rule out pre-election tax cuts

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Crypto on trial, as Sam Bankman-Fried faces fraud charges

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Trump 'combative' during first day of fraud NYC trial

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Philadelphia

Nobel prize to scientists who laid groundwork for COVID vaccines

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Beachport

Woman seriously injured in SA shark attack

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Adelaide

House prices continue to rise, hit record highs

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Speaker McCarthy risked his job to avoid shutdown

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Biden calls on Republicans to back Ukraine spending bill

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Canberra

Voice to Parliament

Voice referendum pre-polling underway

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Murcia

Nightclub fire in Murcia kills at least 13 people, more missing

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Ukraine mandates military service for female medical personnel

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Islamabad

Pakistan: Taliban crackdown after terror blast

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Baku

More than 100,000 flee Nagorno-Karabakh region

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Ukraine Invasion

Russian Sanctions