World in brief November 7 2026

KENYA: The leader of a doomsday cult was sentenced to 200 years in prison yesterday for the murders of 191 people. Pastor Paul Mackenzie relocated his followers to a remote location and ordered them to fast to death, with the lethal process enforced by guards. Over 400 bodies were exhumed from mass graves. He was convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult. NETHERLANDS: Protesters broke into the construction site for a new Microsoft data centre in Amsterdam yesterday. Push Back protest group spokesman Nathan Timmer said: “We don’t want it to be built. Nobody needs it. The only thing this will be used for is AI slop, AI warfare, data surveillance and committing genocides.” They were clashing with police when the Morning Star went to press. ISRAEL: President Isaac Herzog says he will announce who he is asking to form the next government on Sunday. Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot now appears the favourite with endorsements from 67 members of the Knesset compared with 46 for incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu. UNITED STATES: Referendums in Colorado and Washington have endorsed moves to restrict participation in girls’ and women’s sport to female people. The passing of Measure 638 in Washington and Proposition 134 in Colorado show majority support for access to single-sex sporting competitions to be based on sex rather than gender in two Democrat-voting states. Such laws have to date mainly been passed in Republican-voting states.