By Scott Murdoch SYDNEY Asian share markets were mostly weaker while the U.S. dollar higher on Tuesday as

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Spanish state prosecutors have filed a lawsuit against Luis Rubiales for sexual assault and coercion for kissing a player on the lips without her consent after the Women’s World Cup final, the country’s prosecutors’ office said Friday. Rubiales, the now-suspended president of the Spanish soccer federation, kissed Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the awards ceremony after Spain beat England to win the title on Aug. 20 in Sydney, Australia. ___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Firefighters and civilians battling the nine-day wildfires ravaging Rhodes are contending with continuous flare-ups fuelled by unpredictable winds, as temperatures neared a scorching 40C. Greece’s civil protection agency extended the state of emergency across the entirety of Rhodes on Wednesday, which will remain in place for six months, “to deal with emergencies and manage the consequences of catastrophic forestry fire”. In the town of Malonas, which was evacuated on Saturday, The Independent watched on alongside exhausted volunteers as a section of the charred forest nearby reignited. The handful of volunteers gathered outside St George’s Church stood up to watch as a firefighting plane flew overhead, dousing the flames in water – as smoke continued to rise skywards. They expected to venture out again alongside hundreds, if not thousands, of other civilians on Wednesday night to do what they could to keep the fires at bay – having fought back the flames as they encroached on the sleepy inland town just the night before. “We have no energy, we have no power – not enough to stop this ... We are waiting for the wind to calm down to try again tonight to finish the job, but it is very difficult because after 10 days everyone is very tired,” a volunteer named Panos said, adding: “I’m going to sleep now for one hour.” He spoke as firefighters were mobilised to the nearby village of Apollona, while fires also burned further south in Vati and Gennadi. “The fires have started again,” a fire service official told The Independent. “A little wind and the fire returns … That’s the problem.” Having been told to evacuate both Malonas and nearby Kalathos at the weekend, Miles and Tristan, both in their 50s and originally from England, returned to Tristan’s house in Malonas on Wednesday to bring his four cats home. After receiving the “stressful” emergency alert telling them to leave Kalathos for either Kallithea – which they felt at the time was unsafe – or Lindos, where locals had already been told it was safe to return and where they knew a hotel manager who could put them up for the night. “Even if we’re just camping down on sofas in the hotel reception, it’s shelter, whereas if we went to Kallithea we would literally be on the street,” said Tristan. Speaking in the entrance to Tristan’s home as a firefighting plane flew overhead, dropping water a short distance away, the pair said they now planned to stay put. “We’re fed up with it now,” said Miles, an artist who has lived in Rhodes for 17 years. Tristan added: “Also, now [the authorities] are willing to allow everyone to help [keep flare-ups at bay], whereas before they just didn’t want the complications of it – non-Greek speakers being where they are [with] no skills, no car. I haven’t even got boots. They said ‘what are you going to do: walk over the ground in trainers? They’re just going to melt.” Describing a “pattern” of flare-ups each afternoon, Tristan said: “It’s been almost identical for three days, it’s really weird.” Miles added: “Clear in the morning. By the afternoon, the sky’s gone dark ... there’s smoke everywhere, and you can see it for miles.” However, the skies remained clear as they spoke – prior to the individual flare-up witnessed by The Independent some 15 minutes later. “That’s why the helicopters are flying over now, they’re damping down near the edges to try and make sure it doesn’t come back,” said Miles. Read More Infernos, black skies and fleeing tourists: Greece wildfires in pictures as blazes ravage Corfu and Rhodes Summer holidays to fire-hit Rhodes on sale for just £295 – half the usual price Tragic 'last words' of hero pilots who died in plane crash fighting Greek wildfires Tourists flying into Greece inferno reveal why they refuse to cancel holiday

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Russia has joined its ally China in suspending seafood trade with Japan after Tokyo began releasing treated radioactive water from its Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean. Russia’s agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said it is "joining China’s provisional restrictive measures on the import of fish and seafood products from Japan as of 16 October 2023”. It said the decision has been taken as a "precautionary measure” and restrictions will remain in place until more information was received to confirm the safety of Japanese seafood, which it said was still pending. Japan said the ban was “unjust” and regrettable. Japan began releasing the first batch of treated radioactive water from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean on 24 August and the second on 5 October amid opposition from fishing groups and neighbouring countries, including major trade partners like South Korea, China and Taiwan. The release of tons of water has generated international concerns with countries expressing doubts about the potential health and environmental risks posed by the release, leading to diplomatic and trade tensions with neighbours. This is despite Japan’s assurances that the released water is safe and will be diluted to well below internationally approved levels of tritium (an isotope of hydrogen hard to separate from water) before being released into the Pacific. Analysts have said that the restrictions on the import of fish from Japan appear unreasonable and could be motivated by political and financial interests rather than safety fears. Mark Foreman, an associate professor of nuclear chemistry in Sweden, told The Independent that the levels of radioactivity in the water discharged from the Fukushima site will not pose any danger to the general public and that these bans could not be defended from a scientific viewpoint. “I do not think it will even endanger a fish glutton who eats nothing but fish,” he said. “There is the problem that many politicians and countries wish to be seen to be more strict or protective of the public than another.” Reacting to Russia’s restrictions, Japan‘s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said on Monday that Moscow’s ban had "no scientific basis, is unjust and regrettable”, calling for it to be revoked, the Kyodo news agency reported. Japan‘s foreign ministry said that it had provided Russia with additional information before 15 October following an online dialogue between the relevant state bodies last week, it said in a statement released on Monday before Russia announced its ban. "Japan will continue to provide explanations based on scientific evidence to Russia in a highly transparent manner and in good faith, while undergoing the review by the IAEA," it added. Russia’s move comes after China – Japan’s biggest buyer of seafood – implemented its own ban on all seafood imports from Japan. Tokyo called on China and its territories Hong Kong and Macau to remove the ban and prime minister Fumio Kishida criticised Beijing for spreading "scientifically unfounded claims". Mr Foreman and other analysts suggested the bans could be explained partly by Tokyo’s closer alignment to the US and South Korea in recent years and the Fumio Kishida government’s policy of speaking out against the Ukraine war. “I see the bans as being made for political advantage and also in an attempt to obtain an economic advantage for the fishing fleets of the countries which are imposing the bans. I believe that no good scientific arguments can be made for these bans,” Mr Foreman said. International trade law expert Henry Gao told BBC News: “The main reason is not really the safety concerns. It is mainly due to Japan’s moves against China.” Vladimir Putin is due to visit Beijing this week for the Belt and Road Initiative Forum, only his second foreign visit since an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant was issued against him. Russia and China have forged closer ties and hailed their “no limits” partnership as Western countries have tried to isolate Mr Putin following his invasion of Ukraine. Moscow had criticised Tokyo for its stance on the war and for joining the Group of Seven (G7) nations in imposing sanctions after the invasion in February last year. Russia is also a direct competitor with Japan when it comes to catching fish and seafood in the waters off its far eastern regions, and is already one of the largest suppliers of marine products to China. Not a big market for Japanese seafood itself, Russia imported 118 metric tonnes of fish and seafood from January to September this year, according to Rosselkhoznadzor. Beyond China and Russia, the South Korean government is under pressure to put a blanket ban on imports from Tokyo. Seoul has maintained an import ban on fisheries products from Fukushima and some surrounding prefectures since 2013 but has so far refused to extend this to the rest of Japan. Read More Japan starts discharge of second treated batch of Fukushima water US ambassador to Japan calls Chinese ban on Japanese seafood 'economic coercion' Japan hits out at China’s ‘unacceptable’ seafood ban as it rolls out emergency fund The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

The father of 14-year-old Molly Russell – who took her own life after viewing suicide content online – has called on Ofcom to be “bold and act fast” once the Online Safety Bill becomes law. Ian Russell said he believed the Bill, which has been years in the drafting and imposes new legal duties on big tech companies and service providers, would “make the online world safer”. He said the regulator would need to take action immediately to ensure the Bill, which is expected to be made law soon by Parliament, was enforced. I hope Molly would be proud and we hope that this step, the new Online Safety Bill, will mean there are fewer of those families with stories like Molly's in the future Ian Russell Speaking on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, he said: “It’s not perfect but it’s an important step, and it’s a step that has been needed for years to to counter this new technology, to counter these changes that are happening so fast that society doesn’t quite know what to do with.” Last September, a coroner ruled schoolgirl Molly, from Harrow, north-west London, died from “an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content” in November 2017. Calling on Ofcom to take immediate action once the Bill is passed, Mr Russell said: “There are many other families, too many tragic stories to tell, some like Molly’s and some quite different, but if the Bill fails to stop online harms that all our children saw, then it will have failed. “Once this becomes law, we’re in a new phase where Ofcom as the regulator appointed by the Government to police the internet, to regulate the tech industry, has to get out of the blocks really fast. “It can’t waste time, it has to move fast and be bold and enact the clauses set out in the Bill in order to make the online world safer for children.” Mr Russell said he was “confident” the Bill would be effective as it was designed to be “future-proof” by not being “technology specific”. He said: “Ofcom have got a really tough job. They’re going up against some of the biggest, most well-funded corporations on the planet. “But they have already been staffing up, they’ve got hundreds of people working on online safety already, I’m sure they will be recruiting more people.” Mr Russell said he believed possible sanctions including jail terms for those in charge of technology firms would be an important part of the new law. He said: “Jail terms for tech bosses are important, not because I think tech bosses will ever end up going to jail, but I think it focuses their minds. “What is really needed is a change of corporate culture at these big institutions. In two decades of social media, nothing’s really changed.” Describing his personal motivation for campaigning on the issue, he said: “I hope Molly would be proud and we hope that this step, the new Online Safety Bill, will mean there are fewer of those families with stories like Molly’s in the future.” An Ofcom spokesman said: “We’re ready to start and very soon after the Bill receives royal assent we’ll set out the first set of standards that we’ll expect tech firms to meet in tackling illegal online harms.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Warning over criminals using digital switchover to scam vulnerable people Stadiums and tourism hotspots to test new 5G networks in £88 million scheme Chatbots ‘able to outperform most humans at creative thinking task’

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U.S. House Republicans on Friday choose Congressman Jim Jordan as their nominee for speaker, Rep. Elise Stefanik said