European parliament defeats centre-right lawmakers’ attempts to weaken climate target
The European parliament has voted to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2035, defeating attempts by centre-right lawmakers to weaken the target.
Lawmakers hailed a major victory for the climate after an intense day of votes on a set of laws that make up the EU green deal, the bloc’s main response to the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Patients tell of screening and surgery they believe they didn’t need, and the effect this has had on their lives
When Jenny* had a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer, she believed the major surgery to remove her breast, although traumatic, had saved her life.
She described feeling “rage” when at a follow-up appointment three years later, she said to her surgeon, “I would probably be dead by now” if she had not received the surgery, to which he replied: “Probably not.”
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Continue reading...Public inquiry hears of police delays and communication failures during attack in Nova Scotia in which 22 people died
Two people died in the time it took Canadian police to get internal approval to tweet a warning to the public about the suspect in the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting, a public inquiry was told on Wednesday.
Lia Scanlan, former director of strategic communications for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Nova Scotia, spoke at length on Wednesday, a day after testimony surfaced in which she said she was “glad” no province-wide alert was sent out during the 13-hour rampage warning the public of a gunman driving a replica police cruiser.
Continue reading...Luhansk governor says most of eastern city now in Russian hands and it is no longer possible to rescue civilians
Ukrainian forces have been pushed back to the outskirts of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk amid heavy fighting in the city and frontline villages to the south as Russia pursues a breakthrough in Donbas, regional leaders have said.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk, said most of the city was now in Russian hands and that it was no longer possible to rescue civilians stranded there.
Continue reading...Suicide bombings threatened after ‘slandering’ comments made by Hindu Bharatiya Janata party
Al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent has said it plans to carry out suicide bombings in revenge for the “insulting and slandering” remarks made by leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party about the prophet Muhammad and his wife, Aisha.
The Indian news agency ANI has reported that in a letter dated 6 June, AQIS – the regional branch of al-Qaida – warned that Hindu nationalist “terrorists should now await their end in Delhi and Bombay and in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat”.
Continue reading...Move at IAEA board meeting may deepen impasse over talks to bring US back into 2015 nuclear deal
Europe and the US will rebuke Iran this week for failing to cooperate with the UN nuclear inspectorate, a move that has angered Iran’s leadership and may deepen the impasse over talks to bring the US back into the 2015 nuclear agreement, and the lifting of sanctions on Tehran.
The rebuke, in the form of a motion to be voted on at a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, will not lead to Iran’s non-compliance being referred to the UN security council, nor to an extension of sanctions on Iran.
Continue reading...About 30 asylum seekers expected to be sent to Rwanda on 14 June
Priti Patel’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as soon as next week is facing a legal challenge under emergency proceedings launched in the high court on Wednesday.
An application for a judicial review claims that the home secretary’s policy is unlawful. Claimants are also seeking an injunction that will attempt to stop the plane from taking off.
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary decided to give territory two years to implement reforms to tackle corruption
Direct rule will not be imposed on the British Virgin Islands (BVI) after the UK foreign secretary decided to give the territory’s emergency administration two years to implement reforms to tackle endemic corruption.
Last month the BVI’s premier, Andrew Fahie, faced charges of money laundering and conspiring to import cocaine after he was arrested in a sting operation by US agents posing as Mexican drug traffickers in Miami. He denies the charges.
Continue reading...Police detain man on drugs and weapons charges but say too early to link arrest directly to disappearance in Amazon of Dom Phillips
Authorities in the Amazon investigating the disappearance of a British journalist and an Indigenous advocate have yet to find any evidence of a crime three days after the men went missing in a remote corner of the rainforest.
Police in the far west of Brazil said on Wednesday their inquiries into the disappearance of Dom Phillips, a longtime Guardian contributor, and Bruno Araújo Pereira, an advocate for Indigenous people, had led to the arrest of one man.
Continue reading...People will be allowed to grow it at home but smoking for recreational purposes is still forbidden
Thailand will soon ease its rules on cannabis and allow people to grow the plant at home – but smoking for recreational purposes is still forbidden, and officials have warned that anyone who creates a smell by doing so in public could be charged.
From Thursday, Thailand will remove cannabis and hemp plants from its narcotics list, part of a drive to tap into the growing interest in infused drinks and medical treatments.
Continue reading...Shadow foreign secretary says UK government ignoring catastrophe as millions of Afghans go hungry
The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has flown to Kabul to see at first-hand the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.
Lammy is the first senior British politician to visit the country since the west’s chaotic pullout last August. He is being accompanied on his visit by Preet Gill, the shadow minister for international development.
Continue reading...Gesture announced at Copenhagen sustainability summit earns praise – and some cries of ‘greenwashing’
Chinese fashion behemoth Shein might be the organisation least expected to win applause at an international conference on fashion sustainability, but that’s what happened at this week’s global fashion summit in Copenhagen.
The industry’s largest forum for sustainable progress saw the ultra-fast fashion brand praised for making a donation of $15m (£12m) over three years to a charity working at Kantamanto in Accra, the world’s largest secondhand clothing market.
Liz Ricketts, director of the Or Foundation, a Ghana- and US-based not-for-profit working with Accra’s textile waste workers, announced the fund, tearfully telling the audience that the workers are doing “backbreaking” work.
Visitors from select countries will be allowed to return to Japan from Friday but will only be allowed to travel under strict conditions
Foreign tourists visiting Japan will be required to wear masks and spend their entire stay chaperoned by local guides, as the country prepares to open up to international travellers after two years of Covid-19 border restrictions.
People who have waited patiently for the chance to visit Japan, which imposed some of the toughest travel restrictions during the pandemic, will also have to take out private medical insurance in case they contract the virus, the government said this week.
Continue reading...State security ministry trying to motivate the public, says state media, as it claims foreign threats have risen
Chinese citizens can get cash rewards of more than 100,000 yuan (£12,000) and special certificates for providing tipoffs about suspected foreign spies and breaches of national security, under measures introduced by the country’s ministry of state security this week.
Rewards for exposing foreign espionage activities or other security violations have existed for years in China. The new measures, according to a state media outlet, are aimed at standardising rewards and motivating the public at a time of intensifying “threats” from foreign intelligence agencies and other quarters.
Continue reading...Jean Claude Sangwa took up arms in Luhansk – and his pro-Moscow views are mainstream in much of Africa
Fighting alongside pro-Russia separatists as part of Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine wasn’t mentioned in the brochures of Luhansk University when Jean Claude Sangwa, a 27-year-old student from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, moved to the breakaway region last year to study economics.
But when the head of the Kremlin-controlled, self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic announced a full military mobilisation of the region on 19 February, Sangwa, together with two friends and fellow students from DRC and Central African Republic, decided to join the local militia and take up arms against Ukraine.
Continue reading...Ukrainian forces fight to stave off Russian attacks in Sievierodonestk as 800 civilians reportedly take refuge in a chemical factory in the city
Continue reading...Cambodia says facilities at Ream naval base will not be for exclusive use of Chinese military, while Beijing denounces ‘malicious conjecture’
Chinese and Cambodian officials attended a ceremony for a controversial naval port expansion on Wednesday, dismissing reports that the base will provide a crucial strategic foothold for Beijing.
Officials broke ground at the Ream naval base, turning over shovels of dirt as work commenced on a China-funded renovation of Ream, Cambodia’s biggest naval base.
Continue reading...Injectable, biodegradable technology developed by UK team works as a scaffold to help new tissue grow
British researchers have developed a biodegradable gel to repair damage caused by a heart attack in a breakthrough that could improve the health of millions of survivors worldwide.
There are more than 100,000 hospital admissions every year due to heart attacks in the UK alone – one every five minutes. Medical advances mean more people than ever before survive, with 1.4 million Britons alive today after experiencing a heart attack. But hearts have a very limited ability to regenerate, meaning survivors are left at risk of heart failure and other health problems.
Continue reading...Lawyers for ex-Trump adviser request details of Capitol attack panel’s decision-making process that led to contempt ruling
Top House Democrats, including speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the members of the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack, have been subpoenaed to testify in court in connection with the criminal contempt case against Donald Trump’s one-time chief strategist Steve Bannon.
The subpoenas – which were accepted by the House counsel, Doug Letter, last Friday, according to a source familiar with the matter – compel the handover of documents and testimony about internal decision-making that led to Bannon’s contempt case.
Continue reading...Former German chancellor claims her opposition to Ukraine’s Nato membership helped country
Angela Merkel has said she feels no regrets for her handling of Vladimir Putin during her time in power, arguing that Russia’s president would have perceived a 2008 Nato membership plan for Ukraine that was blocked by her government as a “declaration of war”.
The former German chancellor also claimed that an oligarch-run and democratically immature Ukraine would have been less prepared for an invasion then than it is now.
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