Category Archives: World News

UK joins calls for World Bank reform to focus funding on climate crisis

Posted on by

Alok Sharma’s intervention puts pressure on Trump-appointed Bank chief who faces calls to resign

The UK has joined calls for sweeping reforms to the World Bank, to focus much-needed funding on the climate crisis, saying that its current structures are not working.

The intervention from Alok Sharma, the current president of the UN climate talks, heaps further pressure on beleaguered World Bank chief, David Malpass. He has faced calls to resign over an apparently climate-dismissing stance, and the Bank’s perceived failures to deliver climate finance.

Continue reading...

Anger in Spain at vandalism of memorial to German fighter pilot

Posted on by

Memorial to Nazi airman shot down in Spanish civil war had been looked after by Spanish ace who killed him

A group that celebrates the republican pilots who fought fascism in the skies over Spain has condemned the vandalism of a memorial stone to a German airman that was looked after by an unlikely visitor – the Spanish ace who killed him.

Friedrich Windemuth, a member of the notorious Condor Legion sent by Hitler to aid Franco during the Spanish civil war, died after being shot down over northern Catalonia by the Spanish pilot José Falcó in February 1939.

Continue reading...

Putin says mobilised troops will be ready in two weeks as he warns Nato against ‘global catastrophe’ – as it happened

Posted on by

Russian president says any direct clash with Nato troops would be ‘global catastrophe’ as he says 220,000 will be called up. This live blog is now closed

Here are some of the latest images of the war that have been sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine and beyond.

Today is Defenders Day in Ukraine, and the US ambassador to Kyiv, Bridget A Brink, has issued a video message. In it she says:

We honour the brave men and women who have served in the defence of Ukraine’s freedom. This year, this holiday has a special symbolic meaning. Since 24 February, virtually every citizen of your country has in some way become a defender of your land, your lives, your future.

I know Russia’s war doesn’t stop at the line of contact. And I honour the bravery and resolve of all Ukrainians, men and women, children and the elderly, professional soldiers and volunteers, representatives of every aspect of society from the home front to the frontline. All of you play a vital role in defending Ukraine. We know Ukraine will prevail.

Continue reading...

Iran’s youthful protests stoke uncertainty among political elite

Posted on by

While some insist the unrest will eventually peter out, others warn there is something more fundamental at play

A shaken Iranian political elite is struggling with whether to frame the protests shaking the country as primarily the product of a covert foreign intelligence conspiracy, or instead a dangerous warning that the values of the Islamic Revolution have lost sway over a new generation infected by a western controlled internet, analysts say.

The debate, in which there are many shades of grey, matters since it determines whether the response should be a security crackdown coupled with retribution against the outside forces of disruption or some kind of dialogue with the largely leaderless youth.

Continue reading...

Red Cross frustrated by lack of access to PoWs in Russian-occupied Donetsk

Posted on by

ICRC responds to criticism from Zelenskiy, saying it is being refused entry to Olenivka prison

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has gone public with its frustration at being refused entry to a notorious Russian prisoner of war camp after scathing criticism from Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

In his daily evening address, Ukraine’s president accused the ICRC of a lack of leadership, suggesting that officials were picking up their salaries without doing their jobs.

Continue reading...

FBI was reportedly warned agents were ‘sympathetic’ to Capitol rioters – as it happened

Posted on by

The Oath Keepers were mentioned repeatedly at yesterday’s January 6 hearing, and Politico reports their lawyers have attempted to make that an issue as they stand trial for seditious conspiracy – without success:

Investigators with the January 6 committee are looking into communications between a Secret Service agent and the Oath Keepers militia group, one of the most violent actors during the attack on the Capitol, NBC News reports:

Continue reading...

Westerners in no mood for concessions to Russia in Ukraine, poll finds

Posted on by

Exclusive: Survey shows strong support within alliance for tougher sanctions and Nato aid, but more pro-Russia views elsewhere

Nearly eight months into Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, citizens in core western alliance countries show little appetite for the kind of concessions to Russia that might form part of an eventual agreement to end the fighting, according to a major survey.

The YouGov-Cambridge globalism project, which gauged public opinion in 25 of the world’s largest countries, also found strong support for maintaining, and often toughening and expanding, military and economic measures against Moscow.

Continue reading...

Swedish parties agree coalition with backing of far-right

Posted on by

Prospective prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, says three parties will cooperate with the Sweden Democrats

Three centre-right parties in Sweden have reached agreement on a minority coalition that will depend on parliamentary support from the Sweden Democrats, giving the far-right party direct influence over government policy for the first time.

The leader of the Moderates party, Ulf Kristersson, said on Friday it would form a government with the Liberals and the Christian Democrats after the rightwing bloc won the narrowest of majorities in the country’s 11 September elections.

Continue reading...

Woman, 75, held in Germany accused of leading far-right terror plot

Posted on by

Retired teacher suspected of being ‘ideological brains’ behind group planning kidnappings and power station attacks

A pensioner believed to be the ringleader of a terrorist group planning to launch attacks on German politicians and power infrastructure has been remanded in custody.

Identified only as Elizabeth R in accordance with German legal norms, the 75-year-old retired teacher from the eastern state of Saxony is suspected of having been what investigators have called the “ideological brains” behind the far-right group, which had planned kidnappings and attacks on power facilities meant to cause blackouts across Germany.

Continue reading...

Iranian regime’s giant poster of women in hijabs proves to be PR fiasco

Posted on by

Montage in Tehran taken down within 24 hours after prominent women and relatives denounce use of their photos

The Iranian authorities suffered a PR fiasco after being forced to take down a giant billboard in a central square in Tehran when women in the poster, or their relatives, objected to being depicted as supporters of the government and the compulsory-wearing of the hijab.

The billboard controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was a montage of about 50 Iranian women wearing the hijab under the slogan “Women of my Land”. It was taken down within 24 hours after at least three of the women pictured said they objected to their image being misused.

Continue reading...

Elon Musk’s SpaceX says it can no longer fund Starlink internet in Ukraine

Posted on by

Firm reportedly asks US government to pick up bill as relationship between Musk and Kyiv breaks down

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has said it cannot afford to continue to donate satellite internet to Ukraine and has asked the US government to pick up the bill, according to a report, as the relationship between the billionaire and Kyiv breaks down.

“We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time,” SpaceX’s director of government sales wrote, in a letter seen by CNN.

Continue reading...

Migrants targeted in Canadian immigration scam on Facebook

Posted on by

Scammers posing as immigration lawyers targeted Facebook groups with tens of thousands of users, new report reveals

Scammers posing as Canadian immigration lawyers have targeted Facebook groups with tens of thousands of users, a new report reveals.

The posts, documented in a new report by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), the research arm of watchdog group the Campaign for Accountability, have been flagged as potentially fraudulent by Latin American and Canadian authorities but continue to proliferate.

Continue reading...

‘We all saw it’: anti-Xi Jinping protest electrifies Chinese internet

Posted on by

Scramble to censor posts about Sitong bridge incident in Beijing where defiant banners were hung and a fire lit in lead-up to Communist party congress

Chinese authorities have strictly censored discussion of a rare protest in Beijing on Thursday that saw large banners unfurled on a flyover calling for boycotts and the removal of Xi Jinping, just days before China’s most important event of its five-year political cycle.

Photos and videos of the protest on the Sitong bridge emerged on social media on Thursday afternoon, also showing plumes of smoke billowing from the bridge over a major thoroughfare in the Haidian district of the capital.

Continue reading...

Dismay as key cholera vaccine is discontinued

Posted on by

Exclusive: halt to production of Shanchol vaccine alarms WHO amid ‘unprecedented’ global outbreaks

The manufacturer of one of only two cholera vaccines for use in humanitarian emergencies is to halt production at the end of this year, just as the world faces an “unprecedented” series of deadly outbreaks, the Guardian has learned.

Shantha Biotechnics, a wholly owned Indian subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, will stop production of its Shanchol vaccine within months and cease supply by the end of 2023, causing alarm among health officials.

Continue reading...

New Zealand pulls funding for school Shakespeare festival, citing ‘canon of imperialism’

Posted on by

Secondary school competition ‘did not demonstrate the relevance to the contemporary art context of Aotearoa’

New Zealand’s arts council has pulled funding for a Shakespeare festival that has been running in secondary schools for roughly three decades, after questioning its relevance to the country and because it focuses on “a canon of imperialism”.

Every year, the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand runs the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare festival – a secondary school competition where students perform excerpts from Shakespeare’s plays.

Continue reading...

Top senator seeks answers over Qatar link to $1.2bn Kushner property rescue

Posted on by

Senate finance panel chair sends detailed questions to financial firm on deal for property owned by then White House aide’s family

A financial firm that operates billions of dollars in real estate properties around the world is facing new questions from the powerful chairman of the Senate finance committee about whether Qatar was secretly involved in the $1.2bn rescue of a Fifth Avenue property owned by Jared Kushner’s family while Kushner was serving in the White House.

Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who leads the finance committee, has given the chief executive of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management until 24 October to answer a series of detailed questions about a 2018 deal in which Brookfield paid Kushner Companies for a 99-year lease on the family’s marquee 666 Fifth Avenue property.

Continue reading...

Jan 6 hearing updates: panel votes to subpoena Donald Trump – as it happened

Posted on by

The bipartisan group of House lawmakers investigating the January 6 insurrection has started what is expected to be its last public hearing, where lawmakers are set to focus on Donald Trump’s actions during the attack.

Follow this blog for coverage of the hearing as it happens. A live video feed of the session will be embedded above.

The United States and Saudi Arabia are waging a war of words over the Opec+ oil production cut and Washington’s claim Riyadh has aligned itself with Russia.

The New York attorney general has warned Trump and his business are taking steps to undermine her lawsuit against them, and asked a judge to step in.

Social security recipients are getting a big increase in monthly payments – but only because inflation is so high.

Continue reading...

Trump privately admitted he lost 2020 election, top aides testify

Posted on by

Alyssa Farah and Cassidy Hutchinson tell January 6 panel former president acknowledged he had been defeated by Joe Biden

Donald Trump privately admitted to losing the 2020 election even as he worked to undermine and change the results, according to two top aides who testified before the January 6 committee.

During the ninth and possibly final hearing, the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection shared new testimony from Alyssa Farah, a former White House aide, who said that a week after the election was called in favor of Biden, Trump was watching Biden on the television in the Oval Office, and said: “‘Can you believe I lost to this effing guy?’”

Continue reading...

Home Office threatens to send heavily pregnant rape survivor to Rwanda

Posted on by

Eritrean woman, 28, in acute distress having spent most of her life in search of safety

A heavily pregnant rape survivor from Eritrea has been threatened with forced removal to Rwanda by the Home Office.

Human rights campaigners say it is the “most egregious” case they have come across so far in the government’s scheme to outsource the processing of UK asylum claims to the east African country.

Continue reading...

New York attorney general seeks special monitor to oversee Trump firm

Posted on by

Tish James asks court to bar Trump Organization from offloading assets while civil fraud case against ex-president plays out

The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, on Thursday urged a court to appoint an independent monitor to oversee Donald Trump’s family company before a civil fraud case – against the former president, three of his adult children and the family’s real estate firm – goes to trial.

James’s injunction also sought to bar Trump’s company from conducting “significant fraudulent and illegal business” of precisely the kind described in the lawsuit filed by her office against him in September.

Continue reading...