Former Brexit negotiator criticises Irish government’s focus on ‘all-island’ economy
Boris Johnson’s former Brexit negotiator David Frost has said the “weakness” of the UK’s position shaped the negotiations for the Northern Ireland protocol but blamed a lack of pragmatism in the EU’s approach for the current difficulties.
Frost said the deal he negotiated while in Johnson’s government would have run smoothly only if it had never been fully applied by the EU.
Continue reading...Guardian photojournalists share their jubilee experiences – including beach, street and park parties from Glasgow to Cornwall
Driving around Cornwall on Saturday, you’d have thought the Queen’s Jubilee had been cancelled. Bunting was hard to find, fancy dress was nowhere to be seen and, due to the grim weather, only a smattering of people braved the street lunch in Falmouth where free Cornish pasties were being doled out.
Continue reading...More than 50 killed with explosives reportedly detonated in attack during mass at church in Ondo state
Gunmen attacked a Catholic church in Ondo state, Nigeria, during mass on Sunday, leaving dozens dead, in a “satanic attack” local officials said.
The attackers targeted the St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in the town of Owo just as the worshippers gathered on Pentecost Sunday, state legislator Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole said.
Continue reading...Senator Chris Murphy says measures passed in Florida after Parkland shooting could attract Republican support
The Democratic senator leading his party’s push for stronger gun laws said on Sunday he believed measures passed in Florida following the 2018 high school shooting in Parkland could attract Republican support and provide a workable template for action in Congress.
Chris Murphy of Connecticut, speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, said he was optimistic that recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, could finally prompt enough bipartisan support for legislation that has previously proven elusive.
Continue reading...Gunfire erupted Saturday night in Philadelphia’s downtown area and near a Chattanooga nightclub and north-west of Detroit on Sunday morning
Gunfire killed three people and wounded at least 11 in one of downtown Philadelphia’s most popular entertainment districts late on Saturday night, hours before separate shootings in Tennessee and Michigan left six dead and at least 16 wounded, authorities said.
The violence erupted as many, including US president Joe Biden, call on Congress to enact meaningful gun control measures, especially in the wake of deadly mass shootings last month in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
Continue reading...Exhibition to show items the artist experimented with before larger wrapped pieces that defined him
Long before scaling the heights of the Reichstag in Berlin or the Pont Neuf in Paris, the artist known as Christo started on a much smaller scale.
Having fled communist Bulgaria for Paris and working in a maid’s room, the impoverished refugee began creating his first wrapped sculptures using everyday objects such as cans, bottles and – when he found a bigger studio – old oil barrels.
Continue reading...Carl Otto von Eicken, an ear, nose and throat specialist, treated Nazi dictator for 10 years from 1935
The Swiss descendent of one of Adolf Hitler’s doctors has released details of letters that show how he treated the Nazi dictator for voice problems, the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag reported on Sunday.
The letters show Hitler’s fear of serious illness. “If there is something bad, I absolutely have to know,” Hitler told the doctor after their first consultation in May 1935, according to the letters.
Continue reading...Putin warns of more strikes if deliveries continue, as Ukrainian railways chief says ‘no such tanks’ were at targeted plant
Russia launched airstrikes on Kyiv for the first time in five weeks on Sunday, claiming it had targeted western-supplied tanks – while the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, warned more targets would be struck if weapons deliveries continued.
Several explosions were heard around the eastern Kyiv suburbs of Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi early on Sunday morning, wounding one person. The strikes represented a change of tack on the part of the invading forces.
Continue reading...Many more people injured as thunder and hail lead to flooding, power cuts and flight delays
One woman has been killed and 14 people injured in France as thunder and hailstorms hit the country, ravaging vineyards and delaying flights.
Residents of south-west France posted photos online of hail the size of tennis balls, and drivers in the Paris region shared images of flooded roads and daytime skies blackened by thunder clouds.
Continue reading...Increase in violence prompts protests and biggest exodus of Kashmiri Pandit families for two decades
Hundreds of minority Hindus have fled from Indian-administered Kashmir, and many more are preparing to leave, after a fresh spate of targeted killings stoked tensions in the disputed Himalayan region.
Three Hindus have been killed by militants in Kashmir this week alone, including a teacher and migrant workers, prompting mass protests and the largest exodus of Hindu families from the Muslim-majority region in two decades.
Continue reading...Taipei takes on the role of commemoration from Hong Kong as the only Chinese-speaking country to hold vigils
On a steamy summer’s night several hundred people gathered at the foot of Taipei’s grand Chiang Kai-shek memorial for one of dozens of vigils being held around the world to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
A man walked on to the stage, with the eyes of the crowd upon him, and voiced a timid welcome: “Hello everyone.” Then he began to scream.
Continue reading...Ahead of Jakarta trip, PM flagged push for deeper ties with neighbours while ‘recognising the challenges’ of China’s involvement in region
Anthony Albanese had what officials characterised as a “warm and positive” conversation with the Timor-Leste prime minister, Taur Matan Ruak, en route to Jakarta on Sunday.
Ruak congratulated Albanese on his recent election victory, and the Australian prime minister pledged closer cooperation on the climate transition and development support for Timor-Leste.
Continue reading...Huge blaze breaks out at container storage facility 40km from country’s main sea port, Chittagong, with toll expected to rise further
At least 49 people died and hundreds have been injured after a fire tore through a shipping container depot in Bangladesh, sparking a huge chemical explosion that engulfed many of those who had rushed to the scene to help. The death toll is expected to rise.
More than 300 people were injured in the incident, many of whom sustained life-threatening burns, and many bodies remain unrecovered as the fire continued to blaze for a second night in Sitakunda, near the busy southern port of Chittagong.
Continue reading...The Washington conference, a high-level council of war, will be headlined by Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general
Bilderberg is back with a vengeance. After a pandemic gap of two years, the elite global summit is being rebooted in a security-drenched hotel in Washington DC, with a high-powered guest list that includes the heads of NATO, the CIA, GCHQ, the US national security council, two European prime ministers, a healthy sprinkle of tech billionaires, and Henry Kissinger.
What a difference those two years have made. The western world order, which the Bilderberg group has been quietly nudging into shape for the best part of 70 years, is in all kinds of flux.
Continue reading...As elections loom, public turns against interior minister Gérald Darmanin after he blames Liverpool fans for Paris fiasco
When Paris stepped in to host the Champions League final, the biggest match in international football after the World Cup final, the French authorities saw a chance to show that the nation was the ideal place to hold global sporting events.
This weekend, those hopes appear to be dashed as French opinion polls show widespread disapproval of the chaos that ensued, amid growing criticism of politicians and the police.
Continue reading...Ayatollah Ali Khamenei uses televised speech to condemn ‘psychological war’ waged on country
Iran’s supreme leader, ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has blamed recent protests in Iran on foreign “enemies” seeking to overthrow the government in the Islamic republic.
He said enemies were waging a “psychological war” against Iran by accusing it of piracy for seizing two Greek ships after the US confiscated Iranian oil from a tanker.
Continue reading...French president says door must be left open to allow for improvement in diplomatic relations after war
Russia must not be humiliated in Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron has said, to allow an improvement in diplomatic relations between the west and Moscow whenever the war comes to an end.
The French president said his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had made a “historic and fundamental” error in invading Ukraine, but that nevertheless a wider escalation in hostilities had to be avoided.
Continue reading...Activists erect new version of commemorative statue that Hong Kong university removed last year
Hundreds of people have gathered in Taipei to commemorate China’s crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square 33 years ago.
A heavy security presence in Hong Kong prevents any sign of protest in the territory.
Continue reading...Mark Collins took his four grandsons to his ranch but within hours they fell victim to an escaped prisoner on a murderous rampage
Mark Collins had brought his four grandsons Waylon, Karson, Hudson and Bryson up to his ranch north-west of Houston on Thursday for what sounded like a southern boy’s dream: shooting guns, taking boats on big ponds and fishing.
While Collins knew authorities had been looking in the general area for a convicted murderer with ties to a Mexican drug cartel who had broken free from a prison bus three weeks earlier, he may not have known that the fugitive had apparently burglarized a home next door to the ranch, according to family friend David Crain.
Continue reading...Dmitry Kovtun was one of two Russian men accused over poisoning death of ex-spy in London in 2006
Dmitry Kovtun, one of the two Russian men accused of assassinating the former spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London, died of Covid in a Moscow hospital on Saturday.
Litvinenko died in 2006, weeks after drinking tea laced with the radioactive isotope polonium 210 at a London hotel, where he met Kovtun and the other suspect, Andrei Lugovoi. The case has since weighed on relations between Britain and Russia.
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