Osinachi Nwachukwu’s family and friends allege that she was a victim of domestic abuse
On most Sunday mornings, the searing voice of Osinachi Nwachukwu, one of Nigeria’s best-known gospel singers, filled the vast 100,000-seat auditorium of her church in Abuja.
Footage from one of the last times she led the choir at the Dunamis International Gospel Centre showed her singing the 2017 gospel hit Ekwueme, her eyes pressed closed and hand outstretched in prayer.
Continue reading...Land to be repurposed for military use in one of the biggest expulsion decisions since 1967 occupation
After a two-decade legal battle, Israel’s high court has ruled that about 1,000 Palestinians can be evicted from an area of the West Bank and the land repurposed for Israeli military use, in one of the single biggest expulsion decisions since the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories began in 1967.
About 3,000 hectares of Masafer Yatta, a rural area of the south Hebron hills under full Israeli control and home to several small Palestinian villages, was designated as a “firing zone” by the Israeli state in the 1980s. Firing zones are used for military exercises, and the presence of civilians is prohibited.
Continue reading...Women’s movements have fought hard to reverse anti-abortion laws in their countries and say it’s not the end for the US
Reproductive rights activists across Latin America have vowed to protect hard-fought gains in their own territories as they brace for potential ripple effects if the US supreme court overturns Roe vs Wade – the 1973 ruling which guarantees the right to abortion.
Latin America has some of the most draconian anti-abortion laws in the world. But feminist movements have fought for decades to chip away at the prohibitions, and in recent years a younger, diverse generation of activists has mobilized in massive numbers to help clinch a string of victories in traditionally conservative countries.
Continue reading...Covid pandemic and invasion of Ukraine have brought sudden halt to years of flourishing business in Calabrian town of Scalea
The services listed on the billboard outside Rotondaro Costruzioni, an estate agency and builder, are written in Italian and Russian, as are the details of the properties advertised for sale in the window display.
Inside, about a dozen thick red folders, filled with plastic envelopes containing details of customers dating back to 2010, spill out of a cabinet. The majority of those property buyers were Russian. A short distance away is a stretch of Italy’s southern Calabrian coastline lapped by clear-blue sea. This is not the glitzy Costa Smeralda in Sardinia or Tuscany’s Forte dei Marmi, where lavish villas and yachts belonging to Russian oligarchs have been seized over the last two months, but Scalea, a low-profile holiday resort with a medieval hilltop village whose economy has flourished over the past decade, partly thanks to the ordinary Russians who flocked here for the cheap property and sunshine.
Continue reading...Leader of Ukrainian forces says they are engaged in ‘difficult bloody battles’ against Russian troops, as another 344 civilians are evacuated
Fierce fighting has continued inside Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks, the commander of Ukrainian forces in the plant said, as more civilians fled the city on evacuation buses following weeks of brutal bombardment that have reduced much of it to rubble.
Ukrainian forces were fighting “difficult bloody battles” against Russian troops for a second day, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov regiment, said in a brief video released on Telegram late on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Ferdinand Marcos Jr, known as Bongbong Marcos, frontrunner in race to replace populist president Rodrigo Duterte
On 9 May about 67.5 million Filipinos will go to the polls to decide who should replace the populist president Rodrigo Duterte. He has reached the end of his six-year term and is constitutionally barred from running again.
Continue reading...Nanaia Mahuta confirms ‘unwelcome and unnecessary’ deal came as a surprise to New Zealand and Australia, saying the Solomons must provide transparency
The shock over China’s security deal with Solomon Islands is evidence of “a relationship failure” , New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister has said, confirming that the pact took New Zealand, Australia and other Pacific nations completely by surprise.
The deal marks Beijing’s first known bilateral security agreement in the Pacific. The text of the final deal is secret, but a draft leaked on social media in March granted Chinese military and police significant access to the country, allowing China to “make ship visits to, carry out logistical replenishment in, and have stopover and transition in Solomon Islands”.
Continue reading...Foreign minister Ann Linde spoke after meeting with US secretary of state Anthony Blinken
Sweden has received assurances from the US that it would receive support during the period a potential application to join Nato is processed by the 30 nations in the alliance, foreign minister Ann Linde said in Washington on Wednesday.
Sweden and neighbour Finland stayed out of Nato during the cold war, but Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its invasion of Ukraine have led the countries to rethink their security policies, with Nato membership looking increasingly likely.
Continue reading...Judge rejects prosecutors’ claim that Andrew Fahie, arrested in DEA drug sting, could flee US if freed from prison
The premier of the British Virgin Islands, whom US prosecutors described in court as “corrupt to the core”, has been given a $500,000 bond that would allow him to be released from prison as he awaits trial on charges tied to a US narcotics sting.
Federal court judge Alicia Otazo-Reyes rejected prosecutors’ argument that Andrew Fahie would flee the US and possibly engage in criminal activity if he is freed.
Continue reading...Actor takes witness stand in Virginia court and tells jurors trial ‘has been one of the most painful things I’ve ever gone through’
Amber Heard took the witness stand in a Virginia court on Wednesday afternoon during Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit against her – a make-or-break moment for the actors in a four-week trial that had so far largely focused on Depp’s version of events during their turbulent 15-month marriage.
“I struggle to find the words to describe how painful this is … this is horrible for me to sit here for weeks and relive everything, to hear people that I knew, some well, some not, my ex-husband with whom I shared a life, speak about our lives in the way they have,” she said.
Continue reading...Ferdinand Marcos Jr leads polls despite father’s dictatorship and energetic opposition campaign
The colour they are clad in is an unmissable shade of fuchsia pink. They walk the streets across the Philippines, waving banners along the way and stopping anyone who will listen.
Many are young or first-time voters, and some travel for hours to join campaign teams. For them, next week’s election is a make-or-break moment for their country.
Continue reading...Cities to mark occasion without usual displays out of consideration for former soldiers with PTSD
For the first time, cities across Israel have scrapped fireworks displays that normally mark the country’s Independence Day out of consideration for military veterans and others with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Parties and celebrations that begin on Wednesday evening in more than a dozen cities, including Tel Aviv, will not be accompanied by the cracks and bangs of fireworks. Israeli authorities in Jerusalem have opted instead for a silent pyrotechnic show.
Continue reading...Exclusive: exercises are to prepare China for the possibility of similar embargos from the US and its allies
Concerned about sweeping Russia-style sanctions from the west, Beijing has ordered a comprehensive “stress test” to study the implications of a similar scenario for its economy, the Guardian has learned.
According to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, an extensive exercise began around late February and early March when western allies imposed unprecedented sanctions against Moscow. Several key Chinese government agencies – from banking regulation to international trade – have been asked to come up with responses if the west imposed the same embargos on to China.
Continue reading...German prosecutor says investigators are sure Christian Brückner killed three-year-old and have ‘new facts’
Fresh evidence has been found against the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a German prosecutor has revealed.
Hans Christian Wolters said in an interview on Portuguese television that investigators believed they had found “some facts, some new evidence, not forensic evidence.”
Continue reading...Yevgeny Prigozhin accused of financing Wagner mercenary group responds to accusations of massacres in Mali
A Russian businessman and close ally of Vladimir Putin accused by the US, EU and others of financing the private military company Wagner group has said that “a dying-out western civilisation” will be defeated by Russia.
The Guardian had approached Yevgeny Prigozhin seeking his reaction to evidence implicating Wagner fighters in massacres in Mali. In response he said he had “repeatedly said that the Wagner group does not exist” and that he had “nothing to do with it”.
Continue reading...Analysis: Wagner group ‘like a bull in a china shop’ in unstable parts of Africa, say experts
Western officials told the Guardian earlier this year that the Wagner mercenary group was the “thin end of the wedge” and a “Trojan horse” for a Russian effort to extend its influence covertly in resource-rich and unstable parts of Africa.
In Mali, the group is filling a vacuum left by departing French troops who led international efforts to counter a decade-long insurgency. That effort, which included one of the largest UN peacekeeping missions in the world, failed, and the violence has spilled across the volatile Sahel region, displacing tens of millions and destabilising fragile countries such as Niger and Burkina Faso.
Continue reading...Exclusive: internal Malian army documents show Wagner operatives took part in ‘mixed missions’
Russian mercenaries in Africa have been linked to massacres in which several hundred civilians have died, raising new fears about the impact of Moscow’s intensifying interventions on the stability and security of countries across the continent.
Western officials have so far largely steered clear of naming the perpetrators of killings but witnesses, local community leaders, diplomats and local analysts blamed many of the deaths on fighters deployed by the Wagner group, a network of private companies run by a close ally of Vladimir Putin.
Continue reading...Ukraine MP says Russian troops are ‘already on the territory of Azovstal’; Russia announces daytime ceasefires on Thursday, Friday and Saturday
Daniel Boffey reports for us from Brussels on the contents of Ursula von der Leyen’s speech to the European parliament:
The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has been detailing her proposal to the member states on the sixth package of sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, which includes a total ban on oil imports.
She has listed the main themes of the proposal.
This will be a complete import ban on all Russian oil, seaborne and pipeline, crude and refined. We will make sure that we phase out Russian oil in an orderly fashion, in a way that allows us and our partners to secure alternative supply routes and minimises the impact on global markets. This is why we will phase out Russian supply of crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year.
Continue reading...Fogo Island will lose its only full-time physician in June, leaving the community to journey six hours away to find care
For more than two centuries, residents of a remote Canadian island in the north Atlantic knew they could count on a nearby doctor for relief of most ailments.
But this June, Fogo Island will lose the community’s only full-time physician, a trend mirrored in many of Newfoundland’s towns and villages as the region battles economic decline and a looming demographic crisis. The closest doctor will be a six-hour ferry ride away, subject to the vagaries of powerful maritime storms.
Continue reading...Exclusive: ‘Inner green deal’ courses are part of new wave of mindfulness that applies practice to hard politics
Brussels bureaucrats are being trained to meditate to help them tackle the climate crisis as part of a new wave of “applied mindfulness” that seeks to take the Buddhism-inspired practice “off the cushion” and into hard politics.
EU officials working on the 27-country bloc’s green deal climate policy are attending “inner green deal” courses intended to foster a deeper connection among decision-makers and negotiators tasked with tackling the crisis. The courses incorporate woodland walks near Brussels and meditation sessions, including one that invites participants to feel empathy for trees and animals to boost “environmental compassion”.
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