Category Archives: World News

Ex-soldiers ‘inspired by psychic to fight in Yemen’ go on trial in Germany

Posted on by

Achim Allweyer, 52, and Arend-Adolf Gräss, 60, allegedly tried to form paramilitary unit to join civil war

Two former German soldiers have gone on trial accused of attempting to form a paramilitary group to fight in Yemen’s civil war after being inspired by a psychic.

Achim Allweyer, 52, and Arend-Adolf Gräss, 60, took steps to set up what prosecutors say amounted to a “terrorist organisation” after receiving “messages from a fortune teller that they understood as binding instructions for action”, according to the indictment read out at Stuttgart’s higher regional court on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Scientists make ‘slightly sweaty’ robot finger with living skin

Posted on by

Japanese innovation thought to have potential to ‘build a new relationship between humans and robots’

Japanese scientists have developed a “slightly sweaty” robotic finger covered in living skin in an advance they say brings truly human-like robots a step closer.

The finger, which was shown to be able to heal itself, is seen as an impressive technical feat that blurs the line between living flesh and machine. But scientists were divided on whether people would warm to its lifelike anatomy or find it creepy.

Continue reading...

Huge mystery spill detected in Baltic off Swedish coast

Posted on by

Coastguard checking ships’ routes and says samples being sent for analysis

A massive spill of an unknown substance has been detected in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Sweden, the country’s coastguard said on Thursday.

Covering a surface area of 30 sq miles (77 sq km) in both Swedish and Finnish waters, the spill was detected on Wednesday in the Bothnian Sea.

Continue reading...

Javari valley: the lawless primal wilderness where Dom Phillips went missing

Posted on by

The largest refuge for Indigenous tribes living in isolation is also a hotspot for poachers and illegal loggers and a major smuggling route for cocaine traffickers

In Brazil’s far west lies an immense swath of rainforest and rugged terrain reachable only by snaking brown rivers. Wedged alongside the border with Peru, the Javari valley is nearly the size of Portugal, and is the largest refuge for Indigenous tribes living in isolation from the outside world.

“The Javari is one of the last true bastions of primal wilderness in the Amazon – and in the world,” said Scott Wallace, author of The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes.

Continue reading...

Berlin crash driver had history of paranoid schizophrenia, authorities say

Posted on by

Mayor says incident where teacher died and 14 children were injured was probably deliberate

A 29-year-old man who killed a teacher and injured 14 children after driving his car into a crowd in Berlin on Wednesday had a history of suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was probably intending to kill or injure, German authorities say.

“There are no clues pointing to a terrorist motivation behind this deed, and we can also rule out that it was an accident”, said the spokesperson for the Berlin public prosecutor’s office, Sebastian Büchner. “It was probably a deliberate act.”

Continue reading...

US Palestinian mission renamed and now reports directly to Washington

Posted on by

Move comes after former president Donald Trump outraged Palestinians by closing consulate in 2018

The US diplomatic mission to the Palestinians in Jerusalem has been redesignated and will report directly to Washington “on substantive matters”, indicating an upgrade in ties before a planned visit by the US president, Joe Biden.

What had been called the Palestinian Affairs Unit (PAU) was renamed the US Office of Palestinian Affairs (OPA) under the move. Before becoming the PAU, it had been the US consulate in Jerusalem and a focus of Palestinian statehood goals in the city.

Continue reading...

Reliance Industries and Apollo Global Management in £5bn bid for Boots

Posted on by

Mukesh Ambani teams up with US private equity fund, with Walgreens expected to retain minority stake

The Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries has teamed up with the US private equity fund Apollo Global Management to make a £5bn bid for the UK’s Boots chain.

The US group Walgreens, which has controlled the pharmacy and beauty retailer since 2012, is expected to keep a minority stake under the deal.

Continue reading...

Rape used ‘systematically’ during Lebanon’s civil war, report finds

Posted on by

Levels of torture and sexual violence used by combatants against women and girls during the 15-year conflict shocked investigators

The full scale of the rape, torture and killing of women and girls during Lebanon’s civil war has been revealed after survivors were interviewed about their experiences for the first time in over 30 years.

Testimonies gathered by the human rights organisation Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), documented in a new report, provide evidence of systematic violence against Lebanese and Palestinian women and girls by government forces and militias during the 15-year war, which began in 1975. The conflict saw more than 100,000 people killed and 1 million displaced.

Continue reading...

Dom Phillips: editors around world urge Bolsonaro to do more to find missing journalist

Posted on by

Media organisations call on Brazil’s president to step up efforts to find Phillips and Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira

Editors and journalists from some of the world’s biggest news organisations have written to the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, to ask that he “urgently step up and fully resource the effort” to find missing British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira.

Led by the Guardian and the Washington Post, two newspapers for whom Phillips worked as a freelance correspondent, editors from at least 20 major media and press freedom organisations signed the open letter that was published on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Shanghai to lock down 2.7 million, a week after easing Covid restrictions

Posted on by

District of Minhang to be closed on Saturday for mass testing, sparking fears the lockdown could be prolonged if cases found

Shanghai will lock down a district of 2.7 million people on Saturday to conduct mass coronavirus testing, city authorities said, as the Chinese metropolis struggles to fully emerge from punishing curbs.

The city eased many restrictions last week, after confining most of its 25 million residents to their homes since March as China battled its worst Covid outbreak in two years.

Continue reading...

Mexican megachurch leader jailed in US for more than 16 years for child sexual abuse

Posted on by

La Luz del Mundo ‘apostle’ Naasón Joaquín García sentenced after admitting three abuse charges in Californian court

The leader of the Mexican megachurch La Luz del Mundo was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young female followers.

Naasón Joaquín García, 53, pleaded guilty last week in Los Angeles superior court to three felonies on the eve of a long-awaited trial.

Continue reading...

Twitter set to comply with Elon Musk demand for data on fake accounts

Posted on by

Network ready to provide stream of daily data after world’s richest man threatened to pull out of $44bn purchase if Twitter refused

Twitter is preparing to comply with Elon Musk’s demand for data on fake accounts, after the Tesla chief executive threatened to walk away from buying the business if it refused.

The social media company will provide the world’s richest man with access to a stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted every day, according to the Washington Post.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: Russian bombardment of Sievierodonetsk ‘pushes Ukrainian troops back to city’s outskirts’ – live

Posted on by

Luhansk governor says Ukraine now only controls the outer parts of the eastern city

With neither side prevailing on the battlefield, there seems little prospect of negotiations.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he “simply cannot see the preconditions for ending the war” in an interview with the Financial Times.

China has always played a constructive role in the assistance to peaceful talks.

It is necessary under the present-day situation to be aware of third parties’ attempts to drag countries of the region into the conflict of world powers and to avoid their threats to take a certain side.

Continue reading...

Uvalde survivor, 11, tells House hearing she smeared herself with friend’s blood

Posted on by

Miah Cerrillo recounts at gun violence hearing how she watched as her teacher and friends were shot and acted quickly to save herself

An 11-year-old survivor of the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas testified before the House oversight committee on Wednesday, as lawmakers continued to try to reach a compromise on gun control legislation after a series of devastating mass shootings.

The House hearing came two weeks after an 18-year-old opened fire at Robb elementary school, killing 19 children and two teachers, and three weeks after 10 people were killed at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

Continue reading...

FBI seizes retired US general’s electronic data over alleged illegal Qatar lobbying

Posted on by

Gen John Allen gave a ‘false version of events’ about his work for Gulf state in 2020 interview, court documents allege

The FBI has seized electronic data from John Allen, a retired four-star marine general and former leader of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan who authorities say made false statements and withheld “incriminating” documents about his role in an illegal foreign lobbying campaign on behalf of Qatar.

Allen is now president of the Brookings Institution, a prominent Washington thinktank, which said on Wednesday it had placed him on administrative leave.

Continue reading...

Ukraine: Captured Britons ‘face 20 years in jail’

Posted on by

Russian state media shows Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, appearing in court in Donetsk

Russia-Ukraine war: latest developments

Two British men captured by Russian forces while fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers face 20 years in prison, according to a video shared by Russian state media.

Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who were serving in the Ukrainian military, were detained in April while fighting in Mariupol.

Continue reading...

Man arrested near Brett Kavanaugh’s home charged with attempted murder

Posted on by

FBI affidavit says suspect Nicholas Roske traveled from California ‘to kill a specific United States supreme court justice’

A man has been charged with attempted murder after he was arrested near the home of Brett Kavanaugh, the US supreme court justice, on Wednesday.

Nicholas Roske, 26, was armed with a tactical knife, a Glock 17 pistol, pepper spray, zip ties and a hammer, the FBI said.

Continue reading...

Thieves stole Banksy Bataclan door mural with crowbar, French court told

Posted on by

Seven Frenchmen and Italian on trial for theft of work thought to be a tribute to victims of Paris attacks

Thieves who stole a mural by the street artist Banksy on an emergency exit door of the Bataclan concert hall in Paris used a crowbar and angle grinder to prise it free, in a crime that lasted just minutes, a French court heard.

The work depicting a veiled and mournful figure is thought to have been a tribute to victims of the Islamist militant attacks against the Bataclan and other entertainment venues in Paris in 2015.

Continue reading...

Man detained after driving car into Berlin crowd, killing teacher

Posted on by

Police say 14 children on school trip injured on road adjacent to 2016 fatal attack

A man has been detained after driving his car into a crowd of people in western Berlin, killing a teacher and injuring 14 children who were on a school trip, police have said.

The man drove into people on a street corner before getting the car back on the road and crashing into a shop window further on.

Continue reading...

Pelé joins calls for Brazil to step up search for pair missing in Amazon

Posted on by

Three-time World Cup winner joined sports, culture and media figures in calling for action over Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

A host of Brazilian celebrities, led by the three-time World Cup winner Pelé, have joined calls for authorities to intensify their search for a British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous advocate missing in the Amazon rainforest.

Pelé, now 81 and considered one of the greatest players of all time, retweeted a video made by Phillips’s wife appealing for more urgency in the search for her husband and Bruno Pereira.

Continue reading...