Category Archives: World News

Dozens killed and thousands displaced in election fighting in Papua New Guinea, UN says

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Warning comes after 18 people allegedly killed in gruesome attack in Highlands region

Dozens of people have been killed in Papua New Guinea during a tense few weeks of voting during the country’s elections, along with reports of sexual abuse, including of children, and 3,000 people displaced due to conflict, the UN has warned.

The warning comes after 18 people were allegedly killed in a gruesome attack on Wednesday by warring tribes in Porgera, Enga Province, in the north of the Highlands region.

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Pope Francis to visit Canada in ‘pilgrimage of penance’ over church-run schools

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Pope will meet Indigenous leaders and residential school survivors, thousands of whom were taken from families

Pope Francis will spend the next week on a “pilgrimage of penance” in Canada, meeting with Indigenous leaders and residential school survivors as he looks to atone for the church’s grim legacy in the country.

For the first papal visit to Canada in two decades, the pontiff plans to visit First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities as he travels from Alberta to Quebec, ending his visit in the Arctic territory of Nunavut.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russia ‘about to run out of steam’ offering Ukraine chance to strike back, head of UK intelligence says – live

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Russian military likely to pause operations in coming weeks, offering Ukraine an opportunity, says British spy chief

The United States estimates that Russian casualties in Ukraine so far have reached around 15,000 killed and perhaps 45,000 wounded, CIA director William Burns said.

“The latest estimates from the US intelligence community would be something in the vicinity of 15,000 (Russian forces) killed and maybe three times that wounded. So a quite significant set of losses,” Burns said while speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

Russia is prioritising the capture of critical national infrastructure, such as power plants.

However, it is probably also attempting to break through at Vuhlehirska, as part of its efforts to regain momentum on the southern pincer of its advance towards the key cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.”

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MPs claim Foreign Office ‘inaction’ on sanctioning Iranians for hostage-taking

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Officials involved in arrest and intimidation of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe named in Commons

The Foreign Office has failed to sanction key Iranians responsible for the arrest and intimidation of the British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe despite being passed their names in September, MPs have claimed.

Chris Bryant, a Labour member of the foreign affairs select committee, named Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour, a state TV journalist, and Hossein Taeb, the former head of intelligence in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as part of a group of 10 Iranians who he said needed to be sanctioned for state hostage-taking. It is the first time the two names have been released.

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Ukraine calls for international tribunal to bring Putin to justice more quickly

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Trying top Russians for act of aggression could bring indictments ‘within three months’, says official

Ukraine has said it wants to establish a one-off international tribunal to try Russia’s top regime members for the act of aggression, which could see it issuing an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin.

Andriy Smyrnov, Ukraine’s deputy head of the presidential administration, said on Thursday that Ukraine believed trying Russia separately for the act of aggression, with international participation, would speed up its quest to hold the Russian president and his inner circle accountable.

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Far right in front for snap Italy election after Draghi goes

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Brothers of Italy party favourites to top ballot in September with 24% of votes based on recent polling

Italy will hold snap elections on 25 September that could see a coalition led by the far-right Brothers of Italy party win a majority, after Mario Draghi’s resignation as prime minister.

Announcing on Thursday that he had signed a decree to dissolve parliament, the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, said: “The period we are going through does not allow for any pause in the [government] action which is needed to counter the economic and social crisis and rising inflation.”

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Irish people adopted abroad as children to get full access to their records

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Campaign launched to reach those sent overseas during years of hostility towards unmarried mothers

Irish people who were sent to Britain, the US and elsewhere for adoption when they were children as a result of decades-long Catholic hostility towards unmarried mothers will be entitled to unrestricted access to their birth certificates and other official records in Ireland for the first time thanks to a new law.

The Adoption Authority of Ireland, which has been charged with managing the scheme, has launched a campaign to reach adults who were adopted, formally or informally, overseas. It believes about 100,000 people will be affected by the new Birth Information and Tracing Act. The new law relates to all those born to parents within Ireland and adopted at home or abroad since the foundation of the state 100 years ago.

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Half of Russian spies in Europe expelled since Ukraine invasion, says MI6 chief

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Richard Moore says 400 intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover have been expelled

Half of all the Russian spies operating under diplomatic cover around Europe have been expelled since the start of the war in Ukraine, the chief of MI6 has told a US security conference.

Richard Moore, who heads British foreign intelligence, said the expulsions of about 400 Russian diplomats from countries in continental Europe, including France and Germany, had dramatically reduced the Kremlin’s espionage capabilities.

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Ten UK sex offenders travelled to Poland after Ukraine invasion, says NCA

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Ten said they were providing aid, did not inform police of their intent to travel and were asked to leave

Ten British sex offenders travelled to Poland after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, under the guise of humanitarian aid, according to British police.

In the six weeks after the outbreak of war, the individuals, all of whom had convictions for sex offences, travelled to Poland. The offenders were supposed to inform British police of their intent to travel, a spokesperson for the National Crime Agency said, and declare any convictions upon arrival.

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Ex-Minneapolis officer given two and a half years over George Floyd killing

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Thomas Lane convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights as Derek Chauvin, convicted of murder, pinned Floyd’s neck with his knee

A federal judge has sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane to two and a half years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, calling Lane’s role in the restraint that killed Floyd “a very serious offense in which a life was lost” but handing down a sentence well below what prosecutors and Floyd’s family sought.

Judge Paul Magnuson’s sentence was just slightly more than the 27 months that Lane’s attorney had requested, while prosecutors had asked for more than five years in prison – the low end of federal guidelines for the charge Lane was convicted on earlier this year. He said Lane, who faces sentencing in September on state charges in Floyd’s killing, will remain free on bond until he must turn himself in on October 4.

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Iraq accuses Turkey of deadly attack on tourists near Kurdish city

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Turkey blames PKK after nine people killed at water park in area where there have been frequent clashes

The bodies of nine tourists killed in a shelling attack in northern Iraq have been flown to Baghdad, as up to 23 survivors were treated in hospital and a political row intensified over who was responsible.

The Iraqi government has accused Turkish forces of an attack on its citizens in a resort near the Kurdish city of Zakho, in the country’s far north. Turkey denied it had launched strikes against civilians and instead claimed that its arch-foe, the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), was responsible.

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Biden’s $37bn crime prevention plan delayed by Covid diagnosis

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President had hoped to announce plans for 100,000 extra US police officers but speech in Pennsylvania cancelled

Joe Biden had been poised Thursday to unveil a $37bn proposal for fighting crime including funding to help US police departments hire and train an additional 100,000 officers over a five-year period, according to reports, though after contracting Covid he cancelled the speech where he planned to announce it.

The US president’s Safer America Plan would form part of his proposed 2023 budget and would require a green light from Congress, CNN reports. As well as the additional officers, it would reportedly include the launch of a $15bn grant initiative for states and localities to assist them in preventing violent offenses, and to “ease the burden on police officers by identifying non-violent situations that may merit a public health response or other response.”

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Leading figures urge drugs firm to lower price of ‘game-changing’ HIV prevention drug

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Signatories including Olly Alexander, Stephen Fry and Joseph Stiglitz issue a letter asking ViiV to make cabotegravir affordable to low- and middle-income countries

Nobel laureates, business leaders, former premiers and celebrities have urged a UK pharmaceutical company to lower the price of its groundbreaking HIV prevention drug and ensure it is not kept “out of reach” of the world’s poor.

In a letter signed by dozens of high-profile figures, including Sir Richard Branson, the singer Olly Alexander, the economist Joseph Stiglitz and Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand, the pharmaceutical company ViiV Healthcare is praised for having developed the first of a new kind of HIV prevention drug.

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Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan trip ‘not a good idea right now’, says Biden

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US military advises against House speaker’s reported trip as president is due to talk to Xi Jinping for first time in four months

Joe Biden has cautioned against the reported trip to Taiwan next month by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, saying the US military had assessed “it is not a good idea right now”.

The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Pelosi would lead a delegation to Taiwan in August to show support for the democratically ruled island, which Beijing claims is a breakaway province. The trip was initially scheduled for April but was postponed due to Pelosi testing positive for Covid at the time.

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Wild cheetahs to return to India for first time since 1952

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Officials announce eight cats will be brought from Namibia in effort to reintroduce animal to its former habitat

Cheetahs are to return to India’s forests this August for the first time in more than 70 years, officials have announced.

Eight wild cats from Namibia will roam freely at Kuno-Palpur national park in the state of Madhya Pradesh in efforts to reintroduce the animal to their natural habitat.

Despite being a vital part of India’s ecosystem, the cheetah was declared extinct from the country in 1952 because of habitat loss and poaching. Cheetahs can reach speeds of up to 70mph (113km/h), making them the world’s fastest land animal.

Only about 7,000 cheetahs remain in the wild worldwide and the animals are classified as a vulnerable species under the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list of threatened species. Namibia has the world’s largest population of cheetahs.

Officials have been working to relocate the animals since 2020, after India’s supreme court announced that African cheetahs could be brought back in a “carefully chosen location”.

The move coincides with the nation’s 75th Independence Day, celebrating cheetahs as an important part of India’s cultural heritage.

India’s environment minister, Bhupender Yadav, tweeted: “Completing 75 glorious years of Independence with restoring the fastest terrestrial flagship species, the cheetah, in India, will rekindle the ecological dynamics of the landscape.”

He added: “Cheetah reintroduction in India has a larger goal of re-establishing ecological function in Indian grasslands that was lost due to extinction of Asiatic cheetah. This is in conformity with IUCN guidelines on conservation translocations.”

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Wickremesinghe’s election as Sri Lankan PM could have severe consequences

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Analysis: Political turmoil could hinder any chance of tackling the ongoing economic crisis

On Thursday morning, 45 years to the day since he was first elected to parliament, Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the eighth president of Sri Lanka, replacing the ousted and exiled Gotabaya Rajapaksa. His path to executive power – the office Wickremesinghe has clamoured after for so many years – was extraordinary. As a searing editorial in Sri Lanka’s Daily FT newspaper put it on Thursday morning: “Wickremesinghe has no popular mandate and he has won the presidency by proxy.”

Many believe Wickremesinghe’s election, far from stabilising Sri Lanka after the toppling of Rajapaksa, will instead create ongoing turmoil and unrest. For a country grappling with the worst economic crisis since the great depression, the consequences could be severe.

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An An, world’s oldest captive male giant panda, dies in Hong Kong zoo aged 35

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Thousands send condolences after zoo staff euthanise panda, who was in poor health and had stopped eating

The world’s oldest male giant panda in captivity has died in a Hong Kong zoo on Thursday.

The panda, named An An, was euthanised at the age of 35, the equivalent of 105 years for humans. He was born in the wild in the south-western Chinese province of Sichuan in 1986.

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Taliban presiding over extensive rights abuses in Afghanistan, says UN

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Allegations include 160 killings of ex-government officials and security forces, torture and punishments

Taliban authorities have presided over widespread human rights abuses since they took control of Afghanistan last August, the UN said, including 160 killings of former government officials and members of the security forces, and dozens of cases of torture, arbitrary arrests and inhumane punishments.

A UN report, released on the day an Australian journalist said she had been detained in Kabul and forced to tweet a retraction of her reporting, also detailed a broad assault on the press. In total 173 media workers were affected by abuses including detention, threats, ill-treatment and assault.

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‘Dominated by old men’: Tokyo ward’s first female mayor takes on status quo

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Satoko Kishimoto sets sights on ‘radical change’ in Japan, where only 2% of local government leaders are women

The first female mayor of a district in Tokyo has vowed to challenge Japan’s male-dominated politics, weeks after she became one of only two women leading municipalities in the Japanese capital.

Satoko Kishimoto was elected mayor of Suginami ward last month to become the district’s first female leader in its 90-year history. The progressive candidate beat the conservative incumbent – by just 187 votes – despite having recently returned to Japan after a decade living in Belgium.

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A third of Wellington’s kākā parrot chicks found to have lead in their blood

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Toxic metal present in both blood and eggshell samples, but the New Zealand birds appear to have formed a tolerance for it

Lead has been detected in nesting native kākā chicks in Wellington, but unusually, the birds look to have developed a tolerance to the toxin, a study has found.

Kākā are a noisy, smart parrot, with bright green plumage and blood red patches under their wings and chest. They are particularly animated at dawn and dusk, and some Wellingtonians are known to curse their raucous squawking, while others delight in their cheekiness.

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