Category Archives: World News

Don’t swipe, write: Japanese city encourages daters to send love letters

Posted on by

Matchmaking initiative in Miyazaki has brought together 17 couples, as Japan battles falling birthrate

Japan’s faltering campaign to raise its birthrate has gone analogue, with authorities in a southwestern city encouraging potential suitors to put pen to paper and wait patiently for a reply rather than simply swiping right.

The city of Miyazaki says hundreds of men and women have dabbled in old-fashioned letter writing since the matchmaking scheme was launched two years ago. While there have been no wedding bells, the programme has spawned 32 face-to-face meetings and brought together 17 couples.

Continue reading...

MP whose murder sparked Irish civil war to get Commons plaque

Posted on by

Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson was assassinated by IRA gunmen 100 years ago and then all but forgotten

On 22 June 1922 Sir Henry Wilson, an army field marshal turned MP, unveiled a plaque to railway employees who had died in the first world war before returning to his stately home in Belgravia, central London.

He was a distinctive figure – tall, in uniform, with a facial scar that had earned him a nickname as the “ugliest man in the British army”.

Continue reading...

Visa delays leave UK families with adopted babies stranded in Pakistan

Posted on by

Home Office accused of leaving mothers and traumatised children stranded for months while priority is given to Ukraine refugees

British couples who travelled to Pakistan to adopt children have been left stranded after the Home Office told them to expect months of delays in processing visas because of the Ukraine refugee crisis.

The delays are part of wider failings in visa processing that have left families around the world stuck waiting to return to the UK.

Continue reading...

US ban on cotton from forced Uyghur labour comes into force

Posted on by

Fashion industry told to avoid cotton from Xinjiang, which accounts for 84% of China’s exports of the product

The fashion industry has been told it must wean itself off cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, as a new law comes into force giving US border authorities greater powers to block or seize goods linked to forced labour in China.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which comes into force today, assumes that any product partly or wholly made in Xinjiang, north-west China, is linked to the region’s labour camps. Since 2017, the Chinese authorities have detained as many as one million Uyghurs and subjected them to forced labour.

Continue reading...

UK lawyers gather evidence for action against countries over Yazidi genocide

Posted on by

Yazidi Justice Committee has been working privately for more than two years to show states failed to protect minority group

A group of high-level British lawyers have been working privately on compiling evidence to show that one or more countries failed in their international obligations to prevent genocide against the Yazidis in northern Iraq.

The lawyers, who formally announced their collaboration as the Yazidi Justice Committee (YJC) on Tuesday, have been working over the past two and a half years to investigate the genocide committed from early 2013 by Islamic State.

Continue reading...

‘He’s been betrayed’: sister of Moroccan man captured in Ukraine pleads for help

Posted on by

Brahim Saadoun’s sister Iman says marine sentenced to death by Russian proxies has been abandoned by his own government

The sister of Brahim Saadoun, the Moroccan man who was captured while serving in the Ukrainian military, has said she feared he has been abandoned by his own government and has called on the international community to “claim my brother”.

“I just want any authority, anybody who is willing to help, to come and help,” Iman Saadoun said in an interview with the Guardian, describing being left in limbo while seeking government support for him.

Continue reading...

Shadowy Strava users spy on Israeli military with fake routes in bases

Posted on by

Exclusive: Personnel risk identification by running GPS ‘segments’ around top-secret sites

Unidentified operatives have been using the fitness tracking app Strava to spy on members of the Israeli military, tracking their movements across secret bases around the country and potentially observing them as they travel the world on official business.

By placing fake running “segments” inside military bases, the operation – the affiliation of which has not been uncovered – was able to keep tabs on individuals who were exercising on the bases, even those who have applied the strongest possible account privacy settings.

Continue reading...

Nobel peace prize auctioned by Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov fetches record $103.5m

Posted on by

Muratov, who was awarded the gold medal in October 2021, said proceeds would go to Unicef to help children displaced by Ukraine war

The Nobel Peace Prize that Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov was auctioning off to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees has sold for $103.5m (£84.5m), shattering the record for a Nobel.

“I was hoping that there was going to be an enormous amount of solidarity,” Muratov said after the sale. “But I was not expecting this to be such a huge amount.”

Continue reading...

Father-in-law charged with murder after Australian woman Sajida Tasneem killed in Pakistan

Posted on by

Tasneem was allegedly killed in front of her father after being taken to northern Pakistan from Perth with her three children

An Australian woman has allegedly been bludgeoned to death by her father-in-law with an axe in northern Pakistan after an argument about moving back to Australia with her children.

Sajida Tasneem was allegedly killed in front of her father at a home she shared with her in-laws in the city of Sargodha, 250km south of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, on 11 June.

Continue reading...

Israel set for general election after collapse of weakened government

Posted on by

Country faces fifth vote in three years after Naftali Bennett’s unruly anti-Netanyahu grouping gradually fell apart

Israel’s weakened coalition government has announced that it intends to dissolve the Knesset, setting the stage for the country’s fifth election in three years and a potential return to office for longtime prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A statement released by the office of the prime minister, Naftali Bennett, on Monday night said that “attempts to stabilise the coalition had been exhausted” and his fractious government, made up of eight ideologically disparate parties, will submit a bill next week to dissolve parliament.

Continue reading...

Ocado aims to raise £575m from investors to fund tech arm expansion

Posted on by

Firm wants to ‘invest in innovation at faster pace’ and help clients as online grocery market grows

Ocado is aiming to raise £575m from investors to fund the expansion of its technology arm, which enables overseas retailers to sell groceries online. It has also agreed a new £300m credit facility with a syndicate of international banks.

Ocado said it wanted the cash to “invest in innovation at a faster pace” and help its clients, which include the US supermarket chain Kroger and the French grocer Casino, to accelerate the shift to online shopping.

Continue reading...

Ukrainian missiles hit Black Sea gas platforms, say Russian officials

Posted on by

Reports of strikes come as Russian forces said to be gathering for final assault on Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

Russian officials have said Ukraine launched missile strikes against three gas rigs in the Black Sea south of Odesa, in an apparent escalation of Kyiv’s attempts to weaken Russia’s maritime dominance.

Seven people were missing and three injured after the strikes, according to the head of occupied Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, who said a “rescue operation with the participation of patrol ships and aviation” was under way.

Continue reading...

Climate impact of food miles three times greater than previously believed, study finds

Posted on by

Researchers estimate that carbon emissions from transporting food are about 6% of the global total, with fruit and vegetables the largest contributor

Transporting food from where it is produced to our dinner plates creates at least triple the amount of greenhouse gas emissions as previously estimated, a new study suggests.

So called “food miles” are likely responsible for about 6% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, the authors of the study found after calculating that 3bn tonnes of CO2-equivalent was produced in transporting food for human consumption each year.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Russia threatens retaliation as Lithuania bans goods transit to Kaliningrad

Posted on by

EU concerned over Moscow’s comments as people panic-buy in Baltic Sea exclave

Russia has provoked concern in Brussels after threatening to retaliate over Lithuania’s ban on the transit of some goods across its territory to Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.

The move by the government in Vilnius was described as “unprecedented” in Moscow, where the Russian foreign office said they reserved the right to respond to protect their national interest.

Continue reading...

Canada lays out rules banning single-use plastics

Posted on by

Ban on manufacture and import of six popular types of items will begin in December 2022, and sales a year later

Canada laid out its final regulations on Monday spelling out how it intends to apply a ban on plastic bags, straws, takeout containers and other single-use plastics.

“Only 8% of the plastic we throw away gets recycled,” said federal health minister Jean-Yves Duclos in French, adding that 43,000 tonnes of single-use plastics a year find their way into the environment, most notably in waterways.

Continue reading...

Largest freshwater fish ever recorded caught in Cambodia

Posted on by

Giant stingray snagged by local fisher in Mekong River weighs nearly 300kg

The world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, a giant stingray, has been caught in the Mekong River in Cambodia, according to scientists.

The stingray, captured on 13 June, measured almost four metres from snout to tail and weighed just under 300kg, according to a statement on Monday by Wonders of the Mekong, a joint Cambodian-US research project.

Continue reading...

East African leaders propose deploying regional force to help DRC

Posted on by

EAC meeting convened to discuss sending personnel to eastern DRC where military has been fighting rebels

East African heads of state have gathered for a closed-doors meeting in Kenya to discuss the deteriorating security situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the DRC military has been fighting a resurgence of M23 rebels.

The rebels are a group of mainly Tutsi fighters that were defeated in 2013 by the Congolese army and UN peacekeepers. DRC accused Rwanda of backing the rebels – which Rwanda denies – sparking a diplomatic row between the neighbouring countries.

Continue reading...

Floating Hong Kong restaurant capsizes in South China Sea

Posted on by

Jumbo Floating Restaurant encountered ‘adverse weather’ after being towed away from territory’s harbour

One of Hong Kong’s most distinctive restaurants – the Jumbo Floating Restaurant – has capsized in the South China Sea, days after it was towed away from its home of 46 years in the territory’s Aberdeen harbour.

Its owners said in a statement on Monday that the restaurant had encountered adverse weather conditions when passing the Paracel Islands – also known as the Xisha Islands – on its way to an undisclosed location.

Continue reading...

As many as 320 dead in Ethiopia gun attack, witnesses suggest

Posted on by

Witnesses say victims of massacre in country’s western Oromia region were ethnic Amharas – a minority in the area

The suspected death toll in an attack by gunmen in Ethiopia’s western Oromia region has risen, with new witness testimony suggesting that between 260 and 320 civilians were killed on Saturday.

Reports of the massacre surfaced on Sunday, as survivors described one of the deadliest such incidents for several years in Ethiopia.

Continue reading...

Mallorca restaurants bring in dress code to curb antisocial tourism

Posted on by

Move by 11 establishments prompted by problem of groups ‘only looking to get drunk in the streets’

Eleven seaside restaurants on the Spanish island of Mallorca have introduced a dress code for patrons in an attempt to crack down on what they described as a recent wave of antisocial behaviour among drunk tourists.

In these restaurants, most of which are in the Playa de Palma, shirtless, costumed or football-jersey-clad punters will no longer be allowed, said Juan Miguel Ferrer of Palma Beach, a seal of quality created by local businesses to which the restaurants belong.

Continue reading...