Category Archives: World News

Fukushima nuclear disaster: ex-bosses of owner ordered to pay ¥13tn

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Firm’s president at time of disaster among five defendants found liable for £80bn in damage by Tokyo court

A court in Japan has ordered former executives of Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) to pay ¥13tn (£80bn) in damages for failing to prevent a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011.

The ruling by Tokyo district court centred on whether senior Tepco management could have predicted a serious nuclear accident striking the facility after a powerful tsunami.

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Sudan woman faces death by stoning for adultery in first case for a decade

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Campaigners say sentence amounts to torture amid fears that country’s new regime is rolling back women’s rights

A woman in Sudan has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, the first known case in the country for almost a decade.

Maryam Alsyed Tiyrab, 20, was arrested by police in Sudan’s White Nile state last month.

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Bakhmut bombarded in wake of Ukraine attack on Russian air defences

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Heavy shelling thought to be reprisal for Ukraine attack or preamble to renewed offensive on Donetsk cities

Russian artillery and rockets pounded the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut overnight and into Wednesday morning in what some sources speculated was a reprisal for a Ukrainian attack using a US-supplied Himars missile system on a Russian air defence site in Luhansk.

Others suggested the shelling could signal a renewed Russian offensive aimed at cities in Donetsk province.

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Halt use of biofuels to ease food crisis, says green group

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RePlanet calls on EU to ditch organic targets and for governments to lift bans on genetically modified crops

Governments should put a moratorium on the use of biofuels and lift bans on genetic modification of crops, a green campaigning group has urged, in the face of a growing global food crisis that threatens to engulf developing nations.

Ending the EU’s requirement for biofuels alone would free up about a fifth of the potential wheat exports from Ukraine, and even more of its maize exports, enough to make a noticeable difference to stretched food supplies, according to analysis by the campaign group RePlanet.

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More than 700 aged care Covid outbreaks – as it happened

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Cockroach alert at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane

As the Maroons and Blues prepare to face off in the State of Origin final decider tonight, another showdown is occurring between the SES and the “influx” of cockroaches in the stadium where the final will take place.

To be very clear, my government has not made this decision, this is a decision that was inherited from the former government and state governments.

I’d encourage concession cardholders to go and get the 10 free rapid antigen tests that they’re eligible for by the end of this month. There’s still a lot of time to go and do that. Of course, on top of that, there are free rapid antigen tests available in aged care facilities, across a range of areas as well in addition to that.

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Sri Lanka: PM orders military to do ‘whatever it takes’ to maintain order

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State of emergency declared as protesters reject premier Ranil Wickremesinghe acting as president and demand he and Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign

Protests erupted in Sri Lanka on Wednesday after the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled to the Maldives on a military jet – but neither he nor the prime minster officially resigned, throwing the country into political chaos.

After Gotabaya’s clandestine departure, a Sri Lankan official said that the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, had been appointed by Rajapaksa to be acting president.

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Climate adaptation bill for African countries to dwarf health spending

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Eleven nations least responsible for global heating must spend up to 22% of GDP on dealing with effects of it

African countries that are the least responsible for the climate crisis will have to spend up to five times more on adapting to global heating than they do on healthcare.

Analysis of 11 nations with a total population of more than 350 million lays bare the huge financial toll of taking action to avert the severe environmental consequences of global heating.

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Joe Biden arrives in Middle East at time of rapid change

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Analysis: Israel has transformed itself from regional pariah to ally to many Arab states

Joe Biden has made clear that the Middle East is not a priority for his administration: Ukraine, China and the US midterm elections are all more pressing issues. Still, when Air Force One touches down in Tel Aviv for his first visit to the region as president on Wednesday afternoon, Biden will be faced with a rapidly changing – and still unstable – part of the world.

Biden’s main goal is to convince Saudi Arabia of the need to increase global oil supplies to ease the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the fact that he flies directly to Jeddah after two days in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories speaks to a significant shift: Israel’s transformation from regional pariah to ally for many Arab states.

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Donetsk town of Chasiv Yar reels from deadly Russian rocket strike

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Residents say they have nowhere to go nor the means to leave as frontline encroaches on civilians

In the small town of Chasiv Yar, not far from Ukraine’s eastern frontlines, rescue workers were still searching through the wreckage left by Saturday’s multiple rocket strike. At least 43 people died, one of the biggest losses of life in Ukrainian-controlled Donbas since a single Russian rocket killed at least 52 people at the train station in the nearby town of Kramatorsk in April.

The rescuers had managed to pull nine people out of the rubble but by Tuesday, they told the Guardian, they expected to recover only corpses.

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‘Have you recently had an abortion?’ Australian transiting through US questioned then deported

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Madolline Gourley says she was on her way to Canada for a holiday when US immigration officials intervened

An Australian woman who planned to house-sit in Canada during a holiday has said she was detained, fingerprinted, interrogated about her abortion history and quickly deported during a stopover in the US.

Madolline Gourley, a Brisbane resident, says she was treated like a criminal during her transit through Los Angeles on 30 June, where she was detained at the border due to suspicions about her intention to house- and cat-sit in exchange for accommodation while holidaying in Canada.

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Russia ‘doesn’t have the courage’ to admit defeat, says Zelenskiy – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here

Russia’s Tass news agency is reporting that “dozens of people were injured as a result of the strike of the armed forces of Ukraine at Novaya Kakhovka”.

Novaya Kakhovka is on the Dnieper river in an area of Kherson occupied by pro-Russian forces in the south of Ukraine.

Unfortunately, there are casualties, a large number of injured, dozens of people were left homeless. The victims were admitted to both the city hospital and the military hospital. We still have to assess the damage, because the situation is still ongoing.

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Lego to end all operations in Russia after earlier halt to deliveries

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Most of toymaker’s staff in Moscow to lose jobs and partnership with retailer to be wound up due to invasion of Ukraine

Lego is to cease all operations in Russia “indefinitely” after pausing deliveries to its 81 stores in the country in March.

The world’s largest toymaker said it was ending the employment of most of its staff in Moscow and terminating a partnership with Inventive Retail Group, the company that runs stores on its behalf in the country.

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Ukrainian strike on Russian-held town attributed to US-supplied missile

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Several people reportedly killed in strike – possibly from Himars system – on ammunition store in Nova Kakhovka

At least seven people were reportedly killed by a Ukrainian missile strike on a large ammunition store in the town of Nova Kakhovka, in Russia-occupied Kherson, in a strike attributed to recently acquired US weapons.

The claims of fatalities were made by the Russian-installed administration in the town and could not be immediately verified, though footage on social media showed a large explosion lighting up the night, burning ammunition and towering smoke.

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Why is the euro doing so badly against the dollar?

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Analysis: Investors often turn to US currency in times of uncertainty and there are plenty of reasons for them to be jittery

It is two decades since the euro was last trading below $1.00 (£0.84) against the US dollar. Now the single currency is once again teetering on the brink of parity.

There are a host of reasons why, although the prompt for the most recent slide in the currency has been the fear Europe faces an energy crunch this winter.

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Origin site of oldest Martian meteorite ‘Black Beauty’ named after WA mining town

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Researchers used AI to pinpoint the meteorite’s crater on Mars’ southern hemisphere, naming it Karratha, a city close to the Pilbara region

Artificial intelligence has helped pinpoint the exact origin site of the oldest Martian meteorite, in a discovery researchers say provides clues about the planet’s early history.

The meteorite, commonly known as “Black Beauty” and officially called Northwest Africa 7034, contains the oldest known Martian igneous material, which is approximately 4.5bn years old. It was found in the Sahara Desert in 2011.

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Dangerous heatwaves engulf parts of China, US and Europe

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At least 86 Chinese cities issue alerts, while temperatures soar in south-west and central US and Iberian peninsula

Dangerous heatwaves are engulfing parts of China, Europe, south-west and central US this week, as dozens of cities have found themselves dealing with soaring summer temperatures.

By Tuesday afternoon, at least 86 Chinese cities in eastern and southern parts of the country had issued heat alerts. Chinese meteorologists forecast temperatures in some cities would top 40C (104F) in the next 24 hours.

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Charcuterie’s link to colon cancer confirmed by French authorities

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Blow for industry as government backs WHO data and vows to cut additives in ham and cured sausages

French health authorities say they have confirmed a link between nitrates added to processed meat and colon cancer, dealing a blow to the country’s prized ham and cured sausage industry.

The national food safety body Anses said its study of data published on the subject supported similar conclusions in 2015 from the World Health Organization (WHO).

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Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa flees the country

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Rajapaksa, 73, and his wife boarded a special air force flight bound for the Maldives, local officials said

Sri Lanka’s embattled president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has flown out of the country, heading to the neighbouring Maldives, according to local officials.

The 73-year-old leader, his wife and a bodyguard were among four passengers on board an Antonov-32 Sri Lankan military aircraft which took off from Colombo’s international airport on Tuesday, immigration officials told Agence France-Presse.

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West must force private lenders to ease Africa’s crippling debt, say campaigners

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Banks and traders have been ‘let off the hook’ by G7 despite being more to blame for the looming crisis than China

Western governments should “compel” private lenders to ease loan repayments from low-income countries to tackle a debt crisis, according to campaigners.

Debt Justice, formerly the Jubilee Debt Campaign, said African governments owe three times more debt to western banks, asset managers and oil traders than they do to China, and are charged double the interest. China has been “mistakenly” blamed by western leaders for the failure to make progress on debt restructuring.

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Philippines mayor orders government workers to smile – or else

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Head of Mulanay municipality in Quezon threatens disciplinary action for failing to follow ‘smile policy’

A mayor in the Philippines has ordered all local government workers and officials to smile while serving the public – and threatened disciplinary action against those who fail to comply.

Aristotle “Aris” L Aguirre, the mayor of Mulanay municipality in Quezon, has sought to tackle an apparent problem of low spirits among staff by signing an executive order adopting a “smile policy”.

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